Staten Israel

"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a
South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the
Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the
State of Israel is finished,"

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

fredag 18 december 2009

Lieberman: Settlement activity to restart full force in 10 months - Haaretz - Israel News

Lieberman: Settlement activity to restart full force in 10 months - Haaretz - Israel News

rädda världen. Hur svårt kan det vara?

Klimatförhandlingar pågår tydligen i Köpenhamn. Vårt s.k. hopp står till våra ledare om att de ska komma överens om ett avtal. Är det bara jag som tycker att det hela påminner om en stor cirkus? Vi kan inte förhindra klimatförändringar, men vi kan förhindra miljöförändringar. Så enkelt är det. Vad kan vi göra för att förhindra det? Som konsument skulle ett enda beslut räcka. Sluta ät kött. Eller sluta inte att äta kött men ät det en gång i veckan istället. Frågan är hur många är beredda att sluta äta kött? Kanske 10 % av befolkningen. Det är också svaret på frågan. Vi är inte beredda att rädda vare sig miljön eller klimatet för vi kommer att aldrig kunna sluta äta hamburgare. Tragiskt, eller hur? När våra efterföljare på jorden skriver vår historia kommer det sammanfattas med att människorna gick under för de kunde inte sluta äta entrecote.

onsdag 9 december 2009

Israel has made settlers of all its citizens

Israel has made settlers of all its citizens - Haaretz - Israel News

"The freeze orders will not change what exists now: an elite state for Jews and a sub-space for Palestinians - truncated, cut up, asphyxiated.

The distinction in the mind nowadays between the state of Israel and the settlers is artificial".

Israel has made settlers of all its citizens

Israel has made settlers of all its citizens - Haaretz - Israel News

"The freeze orders will not change what exists now: an elite state for Jews and a sub-space for Palestinians - truncated, cut up, asphyxiated.

The distinction in the mind nowadays between the state of Israel and the settlers is artificial".

tisdag 6 oktober 2009

Israel 'in new settlement drive'

"All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law because they are erected on occupied lands that the Palestinians claim for a future state".

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel 'in new settlement drive'

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onsdag 30 september 2009

Länkar relaterade till Israel-Palestinakonflikten på DN.se:

Svensk utvisas från Israel

2009-09-26

En representant för Palestinagrupperna i Sverige (PGS) avvisades från Israel när han ankom till Ben Gurionflygplatsen under lördagsmorgonen.

Niklas Berg arbetar i Stockholm som projektsamordnare/administratör av PGS biståndsprojekt. Han skulle vid sitt besök i Jerusalem och på Väbanken bland annat följa upp projekt och möta representanter för de organisationer som via PGS får stöd av Sida och Forum Syd.

Niklas blev vid ankomsten till Tel Avivs flygplats satt i förvar och fråntogs sitt pass och sin telefon och fick endast besked om att han skulle kontrolleras.

Vid 10-tiden på lördag morgon fick han tillstånd att ringa ett kort samtal och ringde då till PGS representant i Jerusalem som direkt kontaktade svenska konsulatet i Jerusalem som i sin tur ringde ambassaden i Tel Aviv.

Ambassaden kontaktade flygplatsen och fick beskedet att Niklas inte kommer att släppas in på grund av att han ses som en säkerhetsrisk och att de inte kan gö något för att förhindra utvisningen.

Att Israel avvisar personer som arbetar med svensk bistånd är helt oacceptabelt och PGS uppmanar nu utrikesminister Carl Bildt att ingripa och kraftigt protestera mot Israels agerande.
Pressmeddelande fr�n Palestinagrupperna i Sverige | Palestinagrupperna i Sverige

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torsdag 24 september 2009

Swedish-Israeli relations continue to deteriorate

Relations between Sweden, the EU presidency-in-office, and Israel have gone from bad to worse after Israel accused Sweden of breaking an EU ban on contact with Hamas.

EUobserver / Swedish-Israeli relations continue to deteriorate

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tisdag 15 september 2009

US envoy meets Israeli PM

"They (Americans) asked us for a complete freeze and we told them that we will not do this," Netanyahu was quoted as saying by a parliamentary official.

"I told the Americans we would consider reducing the scope of construction".<

a href="http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2009/09/200991534047416666.html">Al Jazeera English - Middle East - US envoy meets Israeli PM

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torsdag 10 september 2009

Carter: Palestinians mull one state

"By renouncing the dream of an independent Palestine, they would become fellow citizens with their Jewish neighbours and then demand equal rights within a democracy". Jimmy Carter
Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Carter: Palestinians mull one state

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onsdag 9 september 2009

onsdag 2 september 2009

torsdag 20 augusti 2009

Democrazy Now 19 augusti

"Obama “Encouraged” on Mideast Peace

President Obama hosted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the White House Tuesday. Much of the meeting focused on Israel and the Occupied Territories. Obama praised Israel for moving “in the right direction” on freezing settlement activity.

President Obama: “If all sides are willing to move off of the rut that we’re in currently, then I think there is an extraordinary opportunity to make real progress. But we’re not there yet. I’m encouraged by some of the things that I’m seeing on the ground.”

The Israeli government claims it hasn’t issued any new settlement housing tenders since March. But the Israeli group Peace Now says Israel is still building around 1,000 new homes in the occupied West Bank.

Israel Imposes New Curbs on West Bank Entry

The Israeli government meanwhile is coming under criticism for a new set of restrictions on movement in the West Bank. Israel has quietly introduced a regulation barring movement between Israel and the West Bank for those holding a foreign passport. Israel has already banned most Palestinians from entering Israel except a small number holding special permits. But the new restrictions now affect thousands of additional people, including humanitarian workers and Palestinians with passports from foreign countries.

Israel Declares Shooting of Unarmed American Activist an “Act of War”

In other Mideast news, the Israeli military has declared the shooting of an unarmed American peace activist “an act of war.” The activist, Tristan Anderson, was critically injured when Israeli soldiers fired a tear gas canister directly at his head in March. Anderson was taking part in a weekly nonviolent protest against Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin. The Israeli military says Anderson was involved in a hostile act, which would absolve the military of any liability for his injuries. Michael Sfard, an attorney for Anderson’s family, said, “If [an] unarmed civilian demonstration is classified by Israel as an ‘act of war,’ then clearly Israel admits that it is at war with civilians.” The Anderson family has filed a criminal complaint with the Israeli government and also plans a civil suit."


Från Democrazynow.org

"Öka trycket på Israel"

(Från Dagensarena.se 12 augusti 2009)

"Det är snart sju månader sedan den ömsesidiga vapenvilan mellan Israel och Hamas åtminstone tillfälligt satte stopp för slakten av civila på Gazaremsan. Men den israeliska arrogansen gentemot såväl civila palestinier som det internationella samfundet har på intet vis upphört.


Bild: Wikimedia commons

Gaza har förblivit världens största fängelse där en och en halv miljon - djupt traumatiserade - människor hålls inspärrade bakom israelisk betong och tungt beväpnade dito soldater. Och fortfarande vägrar de israeliska myndigheterna att samarbeta med den av FN tillsatta och oberoende utredning som har till uppgift att klargöra vad som hände under kriget.

På Västbanken tvingas palestinier dagligen till i bästa fall förnedrande och i värsta fall våldsamma kontroller och köer i israeliska checkpoints på ockuperad mark i sina försök att ta sig till arbetsplatser, skolor och sjukhus - och hela tiden utvidgas de ockuperade områdena genom illegala bosättningar. I söndags lovade Benjamin Netanyahu, som leder den israeliska högerregeringen, att inga bosättningar kommer att dras tillbaka från ockuperad mark.

Uttalandet kom bara dagar efter att 53 personer vräktes från sina hem av beväpnad polis i Sheikh Jarrah i hjärtat av östra Jerusalem, hem där de har bott i mer än 50 år. En timme efter att de båda familjerna och deras tillhörigheter hade kastats ut på gatan var judiska bosättare på plats i lägenheterna.

Vräkningarna är inte bara ännu ett flagrant brott mot folkrätten från Israels sida, utan ett väl genomtänkt slag mot den palestinska förhoppningen om - som utlovat - östra Jerusalem som huvudstad i de tvåstatslösningar som hittills diskuterats. Vräkningen av familjerna i Sheikh Jarrah ingår i en större plan att skära av östra Jerusalem från resten av Västbanken - på platsen planeras redan stora bostadsområden för bosättare.

Reaktionerna på vräkningen har varit överraskande hårda. EU, med Sverige i spetsen, uppmanar de israeliska myndigheterna att lämna tillbaka bostäderna till de vräkta familjerna och ordföranden för det tyska utrikesutskottet påpekar att bosättarpolitiken kan innebära att Israel "gradvis begår självmord som demokratisk stat". Även Barack Obama kräver ett stopp för bosättarpolitiken i de samtal som USA för med regeringen Netanyahu.

Frågan är bara om EU och USA, till skillnad från alla andra gånger, är beredda att öka trycket mot Israel bortom verbala fördömanden och krav. Om inte kommer allt att bli som det brukar - ogenerad ockupation och bosättningar som i sin tur föder ännu mer våld, förnedring och apartheidpolitik.

Det är en väg som leder rakt ner i avgrunden."

Anna Hellgren

Dagensarena.se

måndag 3 augusti 2009

På Västbanken spirar hoppet igen

http://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/pa-vastbanken-spirar-hoppet-igen-1.921980

söndag 26 juli 2009

Israel Bans “Nakba” References in School Textbooks

In Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government has announced the removal of the Palestinian term “nakba” from textbooks in Israeli schools. Palestinians refer to Israel’s 1948 war of independence as the “nakba,” or “catastrophe,” since it caused the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and left them without a state. References to the “nakba” in Israeli textbooks were first allowed only two years ago.


Från DemocracyNow.org

lördag 4 juli 2009

Gaza – ett sanitärt katastrofområde

I dagarna har det gått sex månader sedan Israel inledde sitt urskillningslösa angreppskrig mot Gaza. Det militära ursinnet varade under 22 intensiva dygn. Men på vilket sätt kan man påstå att kriget är över? Tre månader har förflutit sedan de givarländer som vant sig vid att plocka upp notan för Israels väpnade politik mot Palestina utfäste sig att betala återuppbyggnaden. Ändå har ingenting skett.

Läs Mattias Gardells hela krönika här: Fria Tidningen.

Israelminister vill ha segregation

Israels bostadsminister Ariel Atias varnar för att israeler med arabiskt ursprung sprider sig till olika delar av Israel.

Han anser även att ultraortodoxa och sekulära judar inte ska leva tillsammans, skriver tidningen Haaretz.

-Jag ser det som en nationell plikt att förhindra spridningen av en befolkning som, minst sagt, inte älskar staten Israel, sade Atias på en konferens anordnad av Israels advokatsamfund där reformering av markplaneringsfrågor i Israel diskuterades.

Tog även upp Galiléen
Ministern från det religiösa Shaspartiet hänvisade till Harish, ett bostadsprojekt för ultraortodoxa judar (Haredi) i norra Israel, och sade att den arabiska befolkningen från närbelägna Wadi Ara sprider sig in i Harish-området.

Atias tog också upp Galiléen:

-Om vi fortsätter som vi har gjort fram till nu, kommer vi att förlora Galiléen. Befolkningar som inte ska blandas sprider sig där. Jag anser inte att det är lämpligt (för dem) att leva tillsammans, sade han enligt Haaretz.

Atias argumenterade också för att land ska avsättas för olika grupper, för att skapa segregation, inte bara mellan judar och araber utan också mellan ultra-ortodoxa och sekulära judar.

-Det är en svår bostadskris bland unga ultra-ortodoxa par och i befolkningen i övrigt. Jag, som ultra-ortodox jude, anser att religiösa judar inte ska behöva leva i samma område som sekulära par, för att undvika onödig friktion. Och eftersom 5.000 till 6.000 religiösa par gifter sig varje år ökar problemet. De behöver ett särskilt samhällsliv som passar med deras livsstil.

Palestinska araber med israeliskt medborgarskap utgör ungefär 20 procent av den israeliska befolkningen. De är ättlingar till de palestinier som stannade kvar vid den judiska statens grundande 1948.

TT


Från svt.se

Israel permits new settlement homes

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel permits new settlement homes

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Hamas rejects 'Jewish state' demand

"The call by the Israeli leader for a Jewish state is nothing but a racist call, no different from Nazis and other calls denounced by the international community."

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Hamas rejects 'Jewish state' demand

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onsdag 17 juni 2009

”Det finns ingen anledning för mig att inte resa dit”

Nyligen hemkommen från Palestina tar Anders Dejke i dag emot Antigone-priset för ”visat civilkurage” av Ljungskile Folkhögskola. 67 år gammal, och utan att kunna någon arabiska eller hebreiska, bestämde han sig efter pensionen för att bli följeslagare på den ockuperade Västbanken. Det har hunnit bli två vändor, och ett kortare inhopp på en vecka, sedan dess.

Läs hela artikeln av John Pettersson på www.fria.nu

Palestinians reject Israeli terms

"The peace process has been moving at the speed of a turtle. Tonight, Netanyahu has flipped it over on its back", said Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' senior negotiator.

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Palestinians reject Israeli terms

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onsdag 10 juni 2009

"EU should be talking to Hamas, says former EU adviser"

ANDREW RETTMAN

EUobserver.com

09.06.2009 @ 11:18 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The EU's refusal to talk to Hamas is based on simplistic assumptions and is damaging the peace process, according to an expert on political Islam and a former adviser to the EU.

"It's a huge mistake. I think one of the strategic mistakes for the European position in this area and a mistake which directly undermines European security both in this region and in Europe itself," Alastair Crooke, the head of the Beirut-based NGO, Conflicts Forum, told EUobserver.

A pro-Hamas rally in the West Bank (Photo: Hoheit)

EU diplomats in the Palestinian territories still have "administrative level" contacts with the militant group on issues such as managing election monitoring missions or in special cases, such as trying to secure the release of kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in 2007.

But EU states in 2006 made a political decision to halt high-level discussions until Hamas renounces violence and accepts the right of Israel to exist. The group is also listed on the EU's register of terrorist entities, putting a legal block on financial assistance.

Mr Crooke said that Hamas is a "moderate" organisation seen by many Muslims as a legitimate national liberation movement, but "demonised" together with genuine religious extremists by Europe.

"If you talk with any Hamas leader, they say 'Look, I don't get messages from God. I don't get instructions about who should be the Hamas candidate. We believe the Koran sets out principles by which a human being should live and we try to find a practical way in which to conduct our policies based on these principles.' That's not dogmatism. That's not irrationalism. It's not in any sense extremism."

The former British secret service agent first forged links with Islamist fighters while working in Soviet-era Afghanistan in the 1980s. The UK later "lent" Mr Crooke to Brussels to act as a Middle East security adviser to the office of EU top diplomat Javier Solana, before he branched out on his own in 2004.

The spy-turned-scholar said the EU today still works on the Cold War-era assumption that by imposing sanctions on Hamas it will weaken Syria and Iran's influence in the region.

But instead, the sanctions are making it harder for Hamas and other "moderates" to hold the centre ground in Islamist ideology in the Middle East and beyond, contributing to the proliferation of fanatical splinter groups.

"What they have as a result of following these models is an Islamism which is dispersed to the periphery, which has been hollowed out in the centre, at times becoming more dangerous and more violent," Mr Crooke said.

"This whole discourse of carrots and sticks is as if policy is simply a process of making a few laboratory rats run around a track and get electric shocks if they go in the wrong direction or a nut if they go in the right direction. It's got little to do with real politics."

No rapprochement in sight

The idea of engagement with Hamas on existing terms gets short shrift from Israeli diplomats.

"How can you talk to someone if they want to talk about your extinction?" Israel's ambassador to the EU, Ran Curiel, said. Mr Curiel recalled that an EU foreign minister once neatly summed up the situation with the words: "Hamas may not be Al-Qaeda, but in the same way you don't talk to Al-Qaeda, you don't talk to Hamas."

The EU last week welcomed US President Barack Obama's landmark speech in Cairo, offering a rapprochement between the West and Islamic states stretching in an arc from Morocco to Pakistan.

But the EU's special representative for the Middle East peace process, Marc Otte, reiterated Europe's tough stance on Hamas.

"Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It is not a partner for peace with Israel because it does not recognise the right of existence of Israel," he told this website. "Hamas has also become a mercenary for Iran and is no longer functioning in the Palestinian national interest."

Mr Otte noted that Hamas was put on the terrorist register because it advocated the killing of Israeli civilians. He added the group continues to make anti-Semitic statements and carries out extra-judicial executions of its political opponents in Gaza.

"They are hiding very well their 'moderation'," Mr Otte said.

'A decision they have to make'

The EU diplomat explained that the ball is in Hamas' court if it wants to get off the EU's terrorist register and come back to the negotiating table. "They know very well how to get off the list – to renounce violence and to cease violent acts ... it's a decision they have to make."

Asked if Israel's actions in Gaza in December and January, when troops killed over 900 Palestinian civilians, could be described as a form of terrorism, Mr Otte ceded judgement to an ongoing UN investigation into alleged war crimes on both sides.

"If we say Israel's strike of a UN building in Gaza is a terrorist act, what do we say about a Nato strike of a civilian building in Afghanistan?" he asked. "We have to be very careful if we try to set ourselves up as a judge."

http://euobserver.com/24/28260#

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - US: support for Israel 'unshakable'

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - US: support for Israel 'unshakable'

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tisdag 2 juni 2009

"Fortsatt stopp för nödhjälp till Gaza"

Medan den humanitära situationen i Gaza stadigt förvärras till följd av Israels blockad fortsätter även Egypten att stoppa nödsändningar. Förra veckan inledde en grupp läkare en hungerstrejk vid gränsövergången i Rafah efter att ha väntat i veckor på tillstånd från egypiska myndigheter att korsa gränsen.
http://www.fria.nu/artikel/79758

"Senators urge Obama to mind risks in two-state solution"

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/call-girls-urge-pimp-to-mind-risks-of-aids/

"Settlers 'rampage' in West Bank"

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009611419166931.html

onsdag 20 maj 2009

Israel 'deaf' to two-state solution

"

US calls for a two-state solution "fell on deaf ears", the Palestinians' chief negotiator with Israel has said.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, the day after the first official meeting between Barack Obama, the US president, and Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, Saeb Erekat indicated that Palestinians had low expectations of the outcome.

In their talks in Washington, Obama told Netanyahu to stop expanding Jewish settlements and grasp the "historic opportunity" to make peace with the Palestinians.

"We appreciate very much what Mr Obama said ... [But] I'm sure this fell on deaf ears. Mr Netanyahu will continue to be in a state of denial," Erekat told Al Jazeera.

"He will not accept the two-state solution, he will not accept agreements signed. He will continue with settlement activities and he thinks he can beat about the bush by more vagueness and linguistics and public relations campaigns."

In four hours of talks with Obama, Netanyahu refused to publicly commit to an independent Palestinian state.

In depth


Netanyahu faces diplomatic test in US
US and Israel at odds
Video: US signals shift in ties with Israel

He told Obama that Israel was "ready" to resume negotiations with the Palestinians, which stalled during Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, but avoided endorsing the two-state solution.

"If we resume negotiations then I think the Palestinians will have to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and also enable Israel to have the means to defend itself," Netanyahu said.

Following the meeting, Netanyahu said: "I did not say two states for two peoples."

He also said that Israel did not want to govern the Palestinians.

"We want them to govern themselves [minus] a handful of powers that could endanger the state of Israel," Netanyau said.

But Erekat rejected this as rhetoric.

"Really, when he [Netanyahu] says that he wants Palestinians to govern themselves by themselves - Mr Netanyahu I have a question for you: How can I govern myself by myself under your wall, settlements, incursions, assasinations, roadblocks?" he told Al Jazeera.

'Nothing but wishes'

Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip, was sceptical of the meeting, saying it offered nothing new.

"The statements by Obama are nothing but wishes on which we do not much count," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said in a statement.

He said that statements by Obama that "are not accompanied by pressure on the Zionist occupation and concrete measures do not reflect a radical change of American policy toward our people".

Sherine Tadross, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Jerusalem, said that Israel officially remained up beat about the meeting but that the press saw the two leaders as finding little common ground.

"The official line is that it was a very good meeting, that there was a lot of chemistry between the two leaders and there were a lot of common interests expressed ... now that is a world apart from how the Israeli press has read the situation," she said.

"Certainly, it seems, the line that is often given to US presidents by Israeli leaders - 'listen I need more time because domestically I'm not in a situation where I can press my fragile coalition government to dismantle settlements and establish a two state solution' - was not bought by Obama."

Settlement concerns

Despite Obama's call for a halt to settlement building, there were reports that Israel was moving ahead with construction of a new settlement on the east side of the West Bank, where Israeli officials have already issued tenders for housing units in the area.

David Elhaiini, a local Israeli government official, said the timing of the construction was not intended to make a political point as it was initially approved in 2008 by Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The Palestinians say settlements, which the World Court has deemed illegal, could deny them a viable state.

Netanyahu and Obama also discussed the issue of Iran's nuclear programme, which the West and Israel believe is a disguised weapons drive but which Iran says is for purely civilian purposes.

Obama warned that the US was "not going to have talks forever" on the issue, but reinforced his earlier position that he offered an "outstretched hand" to Tehran.

Netanyahu, speaking separately to reporters, insisted that Israel "reserves its right to defend itself"."


From Al Jazeera English 2009.05.20 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/05/200951973745705990.html

onsdag 22 april 2009

palestinians figting an evection order

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/200942113442574340.html