Mousa Maria lives in Occupied Palestine, in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar, a town now surrounded by six illegal Israeli settlements.
The farmers go out to work their land with difficulty. They are beaten and shot by settlers and Israeli soldiers. Their olive trees are cut down, the land flooded with sewage from the illegal settlements. An apartheid wall is planned which will cut the farmers off from their land.
If land is left unused, the Israelis declare it abandoned and seize it. One project is to ask people in the West to finance the planting of trees, in order that the Israelis cannot claim land is abandoned.
The entrance to Beit Ummar is guarded by an Israeli watch tower. Periodically the town is sealed off by the Israelis. If the townsfolk attempt to leave, they will be gunned down by the Israelis.
Mousa Maria became an activist at the age of seventeen, when his college was occupied by Israelis and turned into a prison, an Israeli flag flown over the building. Mousa Maria and his friends, wanted their college back, wanted to continue their education. They decided on direct action, for which they paid a very heavy price. They decided to rip down the Israeli flag and replace it with a Palestinian flag. Two of his friends were gunned down and killed. He was arrested and thrown into prison for five years.
In prison began his education as an activist. He realised violence would not work. It would simply provoke even greater violence from the Israelis and it was what the Israelis wanted, as then the Palestinians could be portrayed as the violent aggressors, and the Israelis seekers of peace. No matter what the provocation, Palestinians have to learn to respond with non-violent direct action.
A second spell in prison, Administrative Detention (held without trial).
Children are arrested by Israelis and thrown in prison.
Training is being given for people to record what they see and upload to the net.
Western observers are needed to bear witness to Israeli atrocities.
The Palestinian Authority has no authority, the only authority is Israel.
Lawrence of Arabia and the Arabs were betrayed by the British and the French, who carved up the Middle East, replacing the Turks as the new colonial master. The Balfour Declaration granted the Jews the right to occupy part of Palestine, classic divide and rule. Israel is a terrorist state founded on terrorism. In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Jewish terrorists landed in Palestine, massacred Palestinians and British, drove the Palestinians out of their villages, invited other Jews to join them to occupy the land they had seized. T E Lawrence drew up his own map. Following his betrayal, we suffer the consequences today. Kurdistan would have been a state, as would Palestine. There would have been no Israel. There would have been no Palestinian problem. The countries we now see in the Middle East are artificial countries drawn up by the British and the French.
The Balfour Declaration (dated 2 November 1917) was a letter from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland:
His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
The weapons used by the Israelis are supplied by the British and Americans.
There is no hope of action by the United Nations, the Arab countries or the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians are a non-people the rest of the world wish would go away.
It is for ordinary people to act, to boycott Israeli goods, to pressure their governments to introduce an arms embargo on Israel, an economic embargo, Israeli war criminals to be arrested and charged, their bank accounts frozen.
No country would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. — Barack Obama
Why 200 flights and only 15 dead? We want 15 flights and 2000 dead. — Michael Ben Ari addressing a rally
In war parents bury their kids. In peace kids bury their parents. In Gaza, Israel buries whole families under the rubble. — Dr Norman Finkelstein
There is no middle path here – either the Gazans and their infrastructure are made to pay the price, or we reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip. — Glad Sharon, son of Ariel Sharon
We need to flatten entire neighbourhoods …flatten all Gaza. — Glad Sharon, son of Ariel Sharon
This is chilling and very upsetting, more upsetting than seeing the dead bodies of children.
The first day of the attack by Israel on defenceless Gaza, the missiles rain down and the kids show their defiance.
Israel took out the military head of Hamas, knowing this would lead to a response from Hamas, which in turn gave them the excuse to bombard Gaza.
Why? Because peace talks were taking place. Israel does not like peace talks. Peace talks make the Palestinians look reasonable. Therefore whenever peace talks are taking place, Israel provokes the Palestinians into taking some form of military or terrorist action, to justify an iron fist response.
When peace talks are taking place, attention focusses on the theft of land not suicide bombers.
US and UK talk of the right to self-defence, of Israel not Gaza, then give the green light to Israel to go ahead.
Hypocrite Obama talks of missiles raining down. Drone strikes in Pakistan?
Sharon Udasin of the Jerusalem Post asks Israelis: “Does anyone have pets who are freaking out because of the rocket sirens? If so, please contact me today for a story. Thanks!” Jeez these Israelis are all heart.
At the weekend, Israel targeted journalists reporting from Gaza.
The true face of Israel can be found in the Israeli media.
We shall overcome, we shall overcome
We shall overcome someday
Deep in my heart, I do believe
That we shall overcome someday
And we’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand
We’ll walk hand in hand one day
Deep in my heart, I do believe
That we’ll walk hand in hand one day
And we’ll break down the prison walls, we will tear down those prison walls
Together we will tear it down, the prison walls, on that day
Deep in my heart, I do believe
Yeah we will tear down all those prison walls on that day
Deep in my heart, I do believe
We will tear down all those prison walls on that day
And the truth will set us free, the truth will set us free
The truth will set us all free on that day
And deep in my heart, I do believe
That the truth will set us all free on that day
And we shall overcome on that day
A new Ha’aretz poll indicates a majority of Jewish Israelis favour apartheid – but that’s nothing new.
Israel arpatheid state
A poll of Jewish Israelis published last week in Ha’aretz newspaper created headlines round the world with its findings of support among the public for discriminatory policies. Some greeted the survey’s results as vindication of claims made by critics of the Jewish state; others pointed to what they said were flaws in the methodology and how the statistics were being presented.
There is, however, no need for such a poll in order to reach the conclusion that Israel is guilty of apartheid: The facts speak for themselves.
Firstly, a clarification about terminology. To talk about Israeli apartheid is not to suggest a precise equivalence with the policies of the historic regime in South Africa. Rather, apartheid is a crime under international law independent of any comparison (see here, here, here, and here). As former UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard put it in the foreword to my first book: “It is Israel’s own version of a system that has been universally condemned.”
It is impossible to understand this “system” without remembering that its foundations were laid by the ethnic cleansing that took place in the Nakba. With the establishment of Israel in 1948, up to 90 per cent of the Palestinians who would have been inside the new state were expelled, their properties confiscated, and their return prevented. As these refugees were denied citizenship and their right to return ignored, Israel passed legislation to open up the new borders to Jews everywhere.
Thus the only reason why Israel, a so-called “liberal democracy”, has a Jewish majority at all is because of the forced – and ongoing – physical exclusion of Palestinians from their homes. From 1948 to 1953, 95 per cent of new Jewish communities were established on expelled Palestinians’ property. The amount of land belonging to Palestinian refugees expropriated by Israel’s “Absentee Property Law” amounts to around 20 per cent of the country’s total pre-1967 territory.
Rearranging demographics
Today, around one in four Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are “present absentees”, their homes and land confiscated. By the mid-1970s, the average Arab community inside Israel had lost around 65 to 75 per cent of its land. Since 1948, over 700 Jewish communities have been established inside Israel’s pre-67 borders – but only seven for Palestinian citizens (and those in order to concentrate the Bedouin population in the Negev).
Over the decades, the Israeli state has sought to “Judaise” areas of the country deemed to have “too high” a number of Palestinian citizens compared to Jews, particularly the Negev and Galilee regions. One strategy in the Galilee was to establish mitzpim (Hebrew: “look out”) communities whose goal, according to a Jewish Agency planner, was to “keep Arab villages from attaining territorial continuity and attract a ‘strong’ population to the Galilee’.”
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens live in dozens of “unrecognised villages”, mainly in the Negev (though “non recognition” is not restricted to the south). They suffer from home demolitions and a lack of basic infrastructure. A serious new threat is the Prawer Plan, with planned mass evictions threatening up to 70,000 with forced relocation and the destruction of their villages.
This planned ethnic cleansing is driven by the sort of anxiety Shimon Peres expressed to US officials in 2005, when he worried that Israel had “lost” land in the Negev “to the Bedouin” and would need to take steps to “relieve” the “demographic threat”. A senior official in the Jewish Agency in 2003 explained a new Judaisation initiative on the grounds that “the birthrate of the Bedouins and Arabs in the Galilee is much faster than the Jewish” and thus “we are quickly losing our majority there”.
Another element in this regime of ethnic privilege is admissions committees, which operate in around 70 per cent of Israeli towns and permit (or deny) residency on the basis of social “suitability”. By “rejecting applications” from Palestinian citizens, the committees “have notoriously been used to exclude Arabs from living in rural Jewish communities” (Human Rights Watch).
Their role is now legislated for in around 42 per cent of communities, and those supporting the law were not shy to express their motivations. MK Israel Hasson (from the “centrist” Kadima party) said the law’s purpose is to “preserve the ability to realise the Zionist dream in practice”, while MK David Rotem (from FM Lieberman’s party Yisrael Beiteinu), said Jews and Palestinians should be “separate but equal”, affirming that “Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, not a state of all its citizens”.
Separate but separate
Israel’s institutionalised racism has serious consequences even for Palestinians’ choices about who to marry. In January, the High Court – a forum praised by “liberal” defenders of Israeli apartheid – upheld a law severely restricting Israeli citizens’ ability to live with spouses from the West Bank and Gaza. In the majority opinion, Justice Asher Grunis wrote that “human rights are not a prescription for national suicide” – referring to the “demographic” spectre that haunts apartheid regimes.
Kadima MK Otniel Schneller praised the decision for “articulat[ing] the rationale of separation between the peoples and the need to maintain a Jewish majority and the [Jewish] character of the state”, linking this to the formulation “two states for two peoples”. Ironically, this slogan of Zionist “moderates” (yes, it’s all relative) echoes the rhetoric of Apartheid South Africa’s politicians, who warned that “either we must follow the course of equality, which must eventually mean national suicide for the white race, or we must take the course of separation”.
The room for dissent is limited. In 2007, Israel’s internal security agency the Shin Bet stated it would “thwart the activity of any group or individual seeking to harm the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel, even if such activity is sanctioned by the law”. In 2008, the agency’s then-chief told US officials that many of the “Arab-Israeli population” are taking their rights “too far”. Israeli law provides for the banning of electoral candidates who deny “the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people”, and proposed bills can be rejected on the grounds that they undermine “Israel’s existence as the state of the Jewish people”.
While the Ha’aretz survey shocked some, it should not come as a surprise: Such views often emerge in similar polls. Examples in recent years include over half of Jewish Israelis saying marriage to an Arab is “equal to national treason”, 78 per cent of Jewish Israelis opposing Arabs joining the government, 62 per cent of Jewish Israelis encouraging the emigration of Palestinian citizens, and 36 per cent of Jewish Israelis being in favour of revoking the voting rights of non-Jews.
Such results are entirely expected when you look at the discourse propagated by Israel’s leaders. PM Netanyahu, as finance minister in 2003, described Palestinian citizens as a “demographic problem”, while in 2009, the current Housing Minister declared it a “national duty” to “prevent the spread” of Palestinian citizens. In 2010, the chair of the Knesset’s “Lobby for Housing Solutions for Young Couples” stated that “it is a national interest to encourage Jews to move to” places where “the Arab population is on the rise”. When Ehud Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem, he considered it “a matter of concern when the non-Jewish population rises a lot faster than the Jewish population”.
The same racist logic is behind the kinds of warnings issued by PM Netanyahu that “illegal infiltrators” – non-Jewish African refugees and migrants – could threaten the country’s existence “as a Jewish and democratic state”. In other countries, this is the language of the fringe far-Right; In Israel, to discuss the “threat” posted by Palestinian citizens and other non-Jews is routine.
Race-based policies
And what of Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories, under military rule for 45 years? In Jerusalem, constantly touted by Israel’s leaders as the country’s “eternal” capital, Palestinian residents in the illegally annexed East face planning restrictions, home demolitions, discrimination in municipal services, and the community-shattering Apartheid Wall. Speaking to BBC’s Hardtalk in July 2011, Mayor Barkat openly confirmed that he seeks to maintain a Jewish majority in the city – imagine if the mayors of London, New York or Paris stated that Jewish residents must not rise above a certain proportion.
There are over 300,000 Israeli citizens living in West Bank settlements (plus 200,000 in East Jerusalem), a network of colonies among a Palestinian population without citizenship. Palestinians’ freedom of movement is controlled by a bureaucratic “permit” system, enforced by some 500 checkpoints and obstacles. The vast majority of the Apartheid Wall, 700km in length and 70 per cent completed or under construction, lies inside the occupied West Bank. The illegality of this de facto annexation was confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in their 2004 advisory opinion.
In 60 per cent of the West Bank (“Area C”), Palestinians must apply for building permits from Israeli occupation forces; yet according to a 2008 UN report, 94 per cent of applications are denied. Building illegally means demolition. In 2011, Israel demolished 620 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, part of what the EU has called a “forced transfer of the native population”. Meanwhile, cranes and diggers are put to work in thriving, illegal, Israeli settlements.
Israel also exploits the West Bank’s natural resources, such as its “discriminatory” control of water access and usage: Palestinians, over 80 per cent of the population in the West Bank, are restricted to 20 per cent of the water from the main underground aquifer. Human Rights Watch have called Israel’s regime in the West Bank a “two-tier system” where Palestinians face “systematic discrimination” (the same terminology they have used to describe policies inside the pre-67 borders as well).
The Gaza Strip, home to some 1.7 million Palestinians a majority of whom are refugees, is blockaded by the Israeli military behind perimeter fences and “buffer zones” (including at sea). Restrictions on movement began in the early 1990s, with an intensified siege being implemented in 2006-’07. Until today, Israel blocks almost all exports from the territory, and pursues what it calls a “separation” policy for the purpose of cutting off Gaza from the West Bank.
In March, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) described Israel’s violations of the right to equality in unprecedented terms. Noting “segregation between Jewish and non-Jewish communities” and a lack of “equal access to land and property” inside Israel’s pre-67 borders, CERD found a regime of “de facto segregation” in the West Bank severe enough to prompt a reminder of the “prohibition” of “apartheid”.
Across the whole of historic Palestine – Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip – the State of Israel rules over around 12 million people whose rights and privileges are determined on a discriminatory basis. Millions more are excluded from the country all together (because they are Palestinian). It is a regime intended to maintain the domination of one group at the expense of another. It is apartheid.
Why have I kept silent, silent for too long
over what is openly played out
in war games at the end of which we
the survivors are at best footnotes.
It’s that claim of a right to first strike
against those who under a loudmouth’s thumb
are pushed into organized cheering—
a strike to snuff out the Iranian people
on suspicion that under his influence
an atom bomb’s being built.
But why do I forbid myself
to name that other land in which
for years—although kept secret—
a usable nuclear capability has grown
beyond all control, because
no scrutiny is allowed.
The universal silence around this fact,
under which my own silence lay,
I feel now as a heavy lie,
a strong constraint, which to dismiss
courts forceful punishment:
the verdict of “Antisemitism” is well known.
But now, when my own country,
guilty of primal and unequalled crimes
for which time and again it must be tasked—
once again, in pure commerce,
though with quick lips we declare it
reparations, wants to send
Israel yet another submarine—
one whose speciality is to deliver
warheads capable of ending all life
where the existence of even one
nuclear weapon remains unproven,
but where suspicion serves for proof—
now I say what must be said.
But why was I silent for so long?
Because I thought my origin,
marked with an ineradicable stain,
forbade mention of this fact
as definite truth about Israel, a country
to which I am and will remain attached.
Why is it only now I say,
in old age, with my last drop of ink,
that Israel’s nuclear power endangers
an already fragile world peace?
Because what by tomorrow might be
too late, must be spoken now,
and because we—as Germans, already
burdened enough—could become
enablers of a crime, foreseeable and therefore
not to be eradicated
with any of the usual excuses.
And admittedly: I’m silent no more
because I’ve had it with the West’s hypocrisy
—and one can hope that many others too
may free themselves from silence,
challenge the instigator of known danger
to abstain from violence,
and at the same time demand
a permanent and unrestrained control
of Israel’s atomic power
and Iranian nuclear plants
by an international authority
accepted by both governments.
Only thus can one give help
to Israelis and Palestinians—still more,
all the peoples, neighbour-enemies
living in this region occupied by madness
—and finally, to ourselves as well.
– Günter Grass
Originally published as Was gesagt werden muss in Süddeutschen Zeitung (4 April 2012). This translation by Michael Keefer and Nica Mintz, published by Pulse.
The truth will always out, but oh my, what a fuss when it does.
According to Israeli interior minister Eli Yishai, Günter Grass is now a persona non grata in Israel.
Günter Wilhelm Grass (1927- ) is a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, best known for his novel The Tin Drum (1959).
People under colonial and alien domination are recognised as being entitled to the right of self-determination and to restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal. — UN Resolution 2649
When the United Nations, in 1977, proclaimed 29 November of each year as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, it was a clear admission of guilt towards this people. It was recognition that the Palestinian people deserve international solidarity and support, in the name of justice and rights. This was merely one small event in a long story.
The story of Palestine and its people is one that will go down in history. In fact it has already started to do just that. One might say that the victor is the one that writes history. The victor in this case will inevitably be justice, and justice is at the core of the Palestinian struggle against apartheid, colonialism and oppression. And as in every episode in history, everyone will be mentioned according to their positions, and more importantly their deeds with respect to each story.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu knows apartheid when he sees it.
I have visited the occupied Palestinian territories and have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints: the inhumanity that won’t let ambulances reach the injured, farmers tend their land or children attend school.
This treatment is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and harassed by the security forces of the apartheid government.
In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom without the help of people around the world, and musicians were central to our struggle. Through music and art we speak to a common humanity, one which transcends political and economic interests.
For this I am proud to support Freedom for Palestine by OneWorld. I urge everyone to buy the single and spread its message.
Archbishop Tutu endorses ‘Freedom for Palestine’ single by OneWorld! Have you got your copy yet?
Please support occupied Palestine by buying Zaytoun fairtrade fairtrade olive oil.
Jesus did not actively try to remove the Roman occupiers from Palestine, but neither did he aid and abet them.
Synchronicity: I took refuge in St Mark’s Church a couple of days ago. They were preparing for their Flower Festival which takes place this weekend, including a choral perfomance on Sunday afternoon. Talking to a lady I mentioned a sermon I had received from Desmond Tutu a few years ago. The following day he sent me an e-mail on Palestine!
As part of the Global BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Day of Action commemorating Land Day, Adalah-NY: the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel surprised commuters in New York’s Grand Central Station with a song and dance. They performed to the tune of “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, but with a little twist to remind people to boycott Israel.
Brilliant performance! What is even more brilliant is that it took place in the heart of New York, the heart of hard-line Zionism.
Dear President Mubarak your dignity is no longer important, the blood of Egyptians is. Please leave the country NOW. — Wael Ghonim
Dear Western Governments, You’ve been silent for 30 years supporting the regime that was oppressing us. Please don’t get involved now. — Wael Ghonim
!! He’s gone! Scenes of jubilations in Tahrir. I will never forget this moment. — Sharif Kouddous
“Lift your head up, you’re Egyptian!” – the chant of victory in Tahrir. — Sharif Kouddous
Every street is filled with people cheering, celebrating, honking, dancing. Indescribable. — Sharif Kouddous
Thanks to everyone for the congrats. A big battle has been won but the war is far from over. We celebrate tonight, tomorrow we struggle on. — Sharif Kouddous
The world only gets better because people risk something to make it better. Congrats Egypt! — Paulo Coelho
Yesterday, we were all Tunisians. Today we are all Egyptians. Tomorrow we will all b: Syrians? Yemenis? Jordanians? Algerians? Palestinians? — Rawya Rageh
It was 1600 GMT and on Egyptian TV was Omar Suleiman looking like death warmed up. He made a very brief statement, less than a minute announcing that Hosni Mubarak had resigned and control had been passed to the army.
The crowds on the streets went wild. It was what they had been waiting for.
What a contrast to the previous evening when Hosni Mubarak had appeared on TV to announce he was staying, to be followed by Omar Suleiman telling people to get off the streets, to go back to work, to stop listening to foreign satellite channels.
All very confusing. Thursday everyone was expecting Hosni Mubarak to go, but he dug in his heels and said he was staying. Following midday Friday prayers, people took to the streets. Tahrir Square was filled to overflowing, people overspilled and started to surround the Presidential Palace and State TV building. In other parts of the country there were reports of peope seizing government buildings.
We were told Egypt was or would descend into chaos, that the Islamists wwre poised to take over, that Egypt would be another Iran.
The reality was peacefull unarmed people took on a repressive regime backed by US-UK and won.
The reality was the people were more than capable of running their own affairs. Look at the number of people in Tahrir Square, there was no police and yet apart from when they were attacked by state security and Mubarak Rent-a-Thugs, there was no violence. People worked together, they looked after each other and out for each other, no one was telling then what to do or organising them.
What we have seen was participatory democracy in action. This is the Big Society, not what David Cameron and Nick Clegg are trying to implement as an excuse to cut public services.
Egypt has ushered in a New World Order. The dominoes will fall one by one. We were told Egypt would not fall. It took three weeks but it fell. Scum bags and others who are brutalising their own people have a very simple choice, go now or be kicked out.
How long will it be before the rotten house of cards that is the corrupt House of Saud falls? Before the evil ayatollahs and mullahs go from Iran? Before the corrupt Palestinian Authority is overthrown?
The evil ayatollahs and mullahs are jittery. Iran is jamming the BBC Persian service. Books by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho have been banned, though these are now available for free download in Persian.
In Jordan the King is moving in the right direction, but far too slowly. Stop attacking journalists.
Israel will be forced to enter into dialogue with its neighbours.
In Egypt the Constitution has to be rewritten. The Presidential term restricted to two four-year terms. The security apparatus dismantled. The ruling NDP dismantled. Senior officials including Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman put on trial. Parliament has to be dissolved. Free and fair elections held with outside observers.
An interim government has to be appointed drawn from all sectors of society who took to the streets. To retain the cabinet appointed by Mubarak would be to insult the Egyptian people. No way can Omar Suleiman play a part.
How Egypt moves forward is for the people on the street to decide.
Democracy comes from the bottom, it is not imposed from above.
There is a lot more to be done but tonight we celebrate! Tonight we are all Egyptians!
