Just for the fun of it: 'Palestinians' and 'internationals' block road in Gush Etzion
The picture isn't from today.
On Monday morning, 'Palestinians' and 'internationals' blocked the exit road from Moshav Elazar in Gush Etzion.
A resident of Elazar told Arutz Sheva that she was trying to
drive out of the community when she saw a group of Arabs accompanied by
some foreign journalists. The Arabs were chanting various slogans and
lying down on the road.
"They simply blocked the exit, and brought some journalists in order to make a big deal out of it,” she added.
The local security forces, including the community's security
officer, were on the scene and the background for the action was not
immediately clear.
Maariv-NRG reported that the protesters are about 35 Arabs
and foreign leftist volunteers. The protest is directed against Israel's
"settlement policy" and the activists tried to plant several olive
trees. There have been clashes with police, who arrested three of the
demonstrators.
So is this going to become their new fun activity?
Israel confining international activitists' to Judea and Samaria
Israel has been stamping the passports of international 'activists' who are living and working with 'Palestinians' in Judea and Samaria with special stamps that bar them from all of Jerusalem and other areas within the 1949 armistice lines.
Israel recently renewed restrictions on the freedom of movement of
foreigners nationals who live and work in the West Bank that prohibit
them from entering East Jerusalem or Israel. The changes were discovered
when foreigners learned, after renewing their tourist visas, that the
words "Judea and Samaria only" had been stamped inside. Citizens from
these countries who come to live in Israel or Jewish settlements in the
West Bank are not subjected to these restrictions.
Neither the Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Authority
nor the coordinator of government activities in the territories
responded to questions from Haaretz concerning the number of long-term
foreign residents of the West Bank.
Some of these individuals are Palestinians who were born in the West
Bank and whose residency status was rescinded by Israel prior to 1994
due to their prolonged residence abroad. Others are married to
Palestinians, while still others work in the West Bank, often as
university teachers.
The American Consulate in Jerusalem has expressed its displeasure with
the restrictions. They contravene prior understandings to lift similar
restrictions that the Interior Ministry imposed suddenly in the summer
of 2009, when "PA only" was stamped in Western nationals' passports.
The Israeli government insists that there is no change in policy, but Haaretz is insisting otherwise. From reading the full article (which is behind Haaretz's paywall), it appears that most of the people in question are 'Palestinians' who hold citizenship in western countries, mostly the US. It sounds like they could avoid the problem by going directly to Israeli government offices to renew their visas rather than submitting them through the 'Palestinian Authority' (although that might not work for those whose visas have been stamped already).
Israel has a real concern with foreign 'activists' participating in terror activities against it. Recall this.
Every country has the right to control who enters that country and whether and how long they are allowed to stay. So long as these people are not Israeli citizens, Israel is within its rights to bar them or restrict their movements.
I'm sure you will all recall that around this time last year, CBS News reporter Lara Logan was sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Some of you may even recall that in the past, I have raised the possibility that Rachel Corrie and other foreign pro-'Palestinian' activists who have come here to demonstrate have been sexually assaulted, and that sexual harassment claims by female activists are being silenced for the sake of the cause. The ad above - for the Hebrew-impaired it's a crude takeoff on porno flick Deep Throat which was issued as a protest against the deal made last week to move the revenants of Migron elsewhere in Samaria - has ticked off enough of the female activists that they're emerging from the shadows and making their complaints public (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News).
This correspondence, along with other testimonies obtained by Haaretz, tells of a wider phenomenon of sexual harassment and assault of Israeli and foreign protesters in the West Bank. In the past two years, at least six incidents were recorded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: two in Sheikh Jarrah, four more in the Mount Hebron area, in Masra, in Kfar a-Dik, and an alleged case of attempted rape in Umm Salmona, near Bethlehem, that was revealed in Haaretz.
Recently, a special forum was started by a group of women from leftist groups for the purpose of dealing and monitoring such incidents. “The objective is to learn the subject,” says one of the group’s members. “We want to develop tools and guidelines for creating an environment with fewer cases of harassment.”
...
One activist, who in the past used to frequent the protests in the West Bank but no longer participates, told Haaretz, “Two years ago we had a meeting of women who took part in the struggle against the occupation. It took place in an apartment in Jerusalem, and disturbing things were brought up. Nearly all the women that attended told of cases of harassment or discrimination. One of the women recounted how one night, in a tent set up to help Sheikh Jarrah families, someone tried to grab her. She shouted for help and Palestinians came and asked who it was so that they could ‘take care of him.’”
“A female foreign activist of the international solidarity movement that was sleeping in one of the Palestinian villages, where protests against the fence take place, said that one night someone entered her room and tried to grab her, she began to shout and one of her friends rushed to help her. Since then I don’t go to places I ‘shouldn’t’ go to alone, as a women,” she said.
...
The heated debate intensified lately after the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movement posted a poster on its Facebook page. The poster, protesting the deal legitimizing the outpost Migron, features a jar of Vaseline with the caption reading ‘Deep Migron,’ a pun playing on the title of the pornographic film Deep Throat (‘garon’ is Hebrew for throat). The poster angered activists, almost as much as the incidents of sexual harassment.
One activist commented on the poster in her blog: “There will be more noise, they will take down the campaign, apologize again without understanding what they did wrong. As long as we continue coming on Fridays. Damn it, solidarity isn’t just with the Arabs. I can find places where no one cares what I think or feel even without going to East Jerusalem.”
“Honestly, I don’t care what you are doing to fight the occupation and how fast you bring about peace. I just don’t care.” The poster was removed following the criticism.
The first, submitted by MK Ofir Akunis (Likud), is an amendment to the NGO Law that would limit donations a “political NGO” can receive from foreign entities to NIS 20,000 a year.
The bill defines a political NGO as one for who changing the national and security agenda of the State of Israel is an objective, or an organization that undertakes diplomatic-like activities.
The bill would prohibit NGOs from receiving funding from states or international bodies like the UN or the EU.
According to its explanatory notes, groups that call themselves “human rights groups” are really operating to “influence the internal political discourse and the character and policies of the State of Israel.”
The second bill, by MK Faina Kirschenbaum (Israel Beiteinu), tackles the same matter from the taxation side. Rather than limiting the amount of funds allowed and having to define a political NGO, it aims to revoke the tax-free status of donations from foreign entities.
If passed, all funds from foreign countries, or international agencies, will be subject to a 45 percent tax.
In order not to harm all the NGOs, the bill provides an exemption to organizations that are also funded by the government.
Kirshenbaum's bill is really just leveling the playing field because - if I'm not mistaken - Israeli donations to NGO's are taxed at the NGO level (i.e. the NGO's have to pay taxes on them). But there's no reason Akunis' bill shouldn't pass as well. In the US, foreigners are barred from contributing to political campaigns (although it's quite likely the Obama 2008 campaign violated that rule). Why should it be any different in Israel? Why should our domestic political discourse be shaped by the Euroweenies?
Once again, anarchists from Israel and abroad have set fire to fields near Bat Ayin in the Etzion bloc (Hat Tip: David H).
Twelve anarchists – five Israelis and seven foreign nationals – were arrested by security forces Thursday morning on suspicion that they had set fire to a field owned by Jewish settlers.
The fire consumed some 50 dunams (about 12 acres) of land near the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin.
The incident began at around 8 am when a group of 30 anarchists, accompanied by a number of photographers from the Al-Jazeera television network, arrived at the site. The anarchists set the field on fire and planted olive trees in the torched soil.
According to the settlers, the method is commonly used to take over land. "When the olive trees grow the Civil Administration has a difficult time determining who the land belongs to," one of them said.
The grove has been set on fire three times over the past few weeks by anarchists.
The disputed land is located some 100 meters (330 feet) from Bat Ayin. "These lands have been under Jewish ownership since 1934," said Yaki Morag, the head of security at the settlement. "However, we have no claims to these fields and we do not plan on cultivating them or settling on them. So we don’t understand what the frenzy is about or why they repeatedly target us.
"This has been going on for a year and a half now, on an almost weekly basis," he said. "Yesterday and the day before anarchists burned 90-year-old trees on land that belongs to the Jewish National Fund near Kfar Etzion."
The foreigners should be expelled and the Israelis should be locked up (notice - no 'Palestinians' involved in this), but that's not likely to happen.
By the way, this is quite typical of what's really going on when you hear stories about olive groves being burnt.
Foreigners, Leftists filmed setting forest on fire
A group including foreigners and Israeli Leftists was filmed setting a forest on fire near Bat Ayin in the Etzion bloc on Sunday.
Let's go to the videotape.
And why would these 'Palestinians' and their supporters bother to set a forest on fire?
Dov Mark, land supervisor for the Gush Etzion Council, said such acts have taken place a number of times. "This is a known Palestinian method to take over state land," he said. "With the support of anarchists, who usually come from abroad, they come to an area of natural woodland which has never been cultivated, burn it on purpose and at the same time plant trees. It's all supposed to alter the reality on the ground."
Mark warned that "in this way, it's hard for the Israel Land Administration to work from the moment they plant trees on the land or cultivate it for agricultural crops. In today's case, some 80 dunams (20 acres) of natural woodland were burned by a group of 25 Palestinians and anarchists."
This type of activity is a symbol for the 'Palestinians' wishes generally: They don't want to build a state of their own. They want to destroy the Jewish state.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
