‘Worse than apartheid’

Wederom te gast: Gideon Levy

‘Worse than apartheid’

I thought they would feel right at home in the alleys of Balata refugee camp, the Casbah and the Hawara checkpoint. But they said there is no comparison: for them the Israeli occupation regime is worse than anything they knew under apartheid. This week, 21 human rights activists from South Africa visited Israel. Among them were members of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress; at least one of them took part in the armed struggle and at least two were jailed. There were two South African Supreme Court judges, a former deputy minister, members of Parliament, attorneys, writers and journalists. Blacks and whites, about half of them Jews who today are in conflict with attitudes of the conservative Jewish community in their country. Some of them have been here before; for others it was their first visit.
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Zomerschema

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(Strand van Gaza, vorige week)

De vaste bezoekers weten het: ik stel er eer in om elke dag met minstens één bericht te komen. En toch minstens twee keer, meestal meer, mijn weblog bij te werken en naar de reacties te kijken – even de hond uitlaten zeg ik tegen vrienden als ik naar de PC trek om mijn werkje te doen.
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348 executies sinds 2000

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HUMAN RIGHTS
Report: 348 Palestinians extra-judicially executed since Sept. 2000
Report, PCHR, 4 July 2008

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published a new report entitled “Extra-judicial executions … Official, Declared Israeli Policy” covering Israeli extra-judicial executions against Palestinians during the period from 1 August 2006 till 30 June 2008. The report is the ninth of its kind in a special series on extra-judicial executions by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against Palestinian activists during the al-Aqsa (second) intifada.
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Living forever by bombardment

Te gast: Gideon Levy
Haaretz

So what is the “great plan”? As things look now, this is the way Israel is planning its future: Every time some Middle Eastern country tries to obtain nuclear weapons, Israel will bomb it. Bomb – and bombard. Beyond the problematic assumption that we are allowed to do what others are not allowed, and what is secure in our hands is dangerous in the hands of others, this kind of conduct will lead to disaster. We tried twice, in Iraq and in Syria, and it worked; it is doubtful it was essential.
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Martelen als ambacht

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(Update 13.15)

Vandaag zullen er Kamervragen worden gesteld, vanwege de mishandeling van Mohammed Omer bij de grensovergang, toen hij terug ging naar Gaza. Het was hem met steun van Nederlandse kamerleden, Hans van Baalen van de VVD, gelukt om permissie te krijgen Gaza te verlaten. Nederland voelt zich (in dit geval) dus enigszins verantwoordelijk.
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Het andere Israël

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Het nieuwe nummer van De Brug is uit. Nummer 69 ondertussen, 18de jaargang. De Brug is het blad van SIVMO, Steuncomité Israelische Vredes- en Mensenrechten Organisaties. Steun aan het andere Israel, zeg maar. De Brug staat nu onder redactie van Max Arian, eens werkzaam voor de Groene Amsterdammer, en is sinds kort in een nieuw jasje gestoken. Voor de mensen die hier regelmatig het nieuws en de analyses komen lezen over Israel en Palestina eigenlijk een must, niet alleen om de artikelen, maar ook omdat SIVMO de groepen ondersteunt in Israel die blijven strijden, tegen de klippen op, tegen onrecht, tegen de bezetting, en proberen het Israelische publiek bewust te maken van hun verantwoordelijkheid.
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Antwoorden op de I-P IQ test

THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE QUIZ ANSWERS:

1. Who wrote the following in 1891? “We abroad are used to believing Eretz Yisrael is now almost totally desolate, a desert that is not sowed, and anyone who wishes to purchase land there may come and purchase as much as he desires. But in truth this is not the case. Throughout the country, it is difficult to find fields that are not sowed. Only sand dunes and stony mountains that are not fit to grow anything but fruit trees – and this only after hard labor and great expense …”

Ahad Ha’Am: Liberal Russian Jewish thinker and a leading Eastern European Jewish essayist.
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