28 sept 2017
The Hebrew channel Kan said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has initiated a plan with U.S. President Donald Trump along with other members in the Congress to pressure Palestinians in order to halt their unilateral steps at the international arena.
The Hebrew channel revealed on Thursday that Israel has been working with the cooperation of American Congress members on coming up with a plan to put an end to the Palestinians' activities at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as to close the the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington.
“Israel will not let continuous Palestinian diplomatic steps against Israel go without a response”, Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening in reaction to Interpol’s decision earlier in the day to admit the Palestinians as a member state.
Netanyahu’s comment came at a meeting in his office with US envoy Jason Greenblatt, US Ambassador David Friedman, and Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer.
Netanyahu said at the meeting, "The actions of the Palestinian leadership are in violation of previous agreements with Israel and severely damage the chances of achieving peace".
The Hebrew channel revealed on Thursday that Israel has been working with the cooperation of American Congress members on coming up with a plan to put an end to the Palestinians' activities at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as to close the the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington.
“Israel will not let continuous Palestinian diplomatic steps against Israel go without a response”, Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening in reaction to Interpol’s decision earlier in the day to admit the Palestinians as a member state.
Netanyahu’s comment came at a meeting in his office with US envoy Jason Greenblatt, US Ambassador David Friedman, and Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer.
Netanyahu said at the meeting, "The actions of the Palestinian leadership are in violation of previous agreements with Israel and severely damage the chances of achieving peace".
Israeli occupation soldiers on Wednesday intercepted a Palestinian Authority (PA) police vehicle in al-Khalil city and confiscated all the weapons in their possession.
An informed source told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the Israeli raid on the Palestinian patrol car took place near the junction of Martyr Maysara Abu Hamdiya to the south of al-Khalil, which is under the supposed security and administrative control of the PA.
According to the source, the soldiers forced the Palestinian police officers to leave the car they were aboard and seized two Kalashnikov rifles and three pistols.
The Palestinian officers were also warned not to enter or patrol the same area once again.
An informed source told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the Israeli raid on the Palestinian patrol car took place near the junction of Martyr Maysara Abu Hamdiya to the south of al-Khalil, which is under the supposed security and administrative control of the PA.
According to the source, the soldiers forced the Palestinian police officers to leave the car they were aboard and seized two Kalashnikov rifles and three pistols.
The Palestinian officers were also warned not to enter or patrol the same area once again.
27 sept 2017
Palestine joined Interpol as a member state on Wednesday, a move opposed by Israel, in a vote at the international police organization’s general assembly in Beijing.
“The State of Palestine and the Solomon Islands are now INTERPOL member countries,” a tweet by Interpol read.
At Interpol’s annual General Assembly in Beijing, the Palestinians’ membership bid was accepted with 75 counties voting yes, 24 voting no, and 34 abstaining.
Observers said the move represents a stinging diplomatic defeat for Israel. Israel fiercely objected to the Palestinians joining Interpol, arguing that they could hinder rather than aid Interpol’s efforts. The US administration, too, objected to Ramallah’s membership bid and helped Israel lobby against it.
Minutes after the vote, Minister of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs, Riyad al-Malki, celebrated the move, saying the overwhelming vote in support of Palestine's membership is "a vote of confidence in Palestine's law enforcement capabilities and commitment to the core values of the organization. Palestine's admission to INTERPOL is a victory for law enforcement and global cooperation.”
According to al-Malki, the victory was made possible “because of the principled position of the majority of INTERPOL members. Palestine's membership is the outcome of members defending this organization's raison d'etre and advancing its core values, and a clear rejection of attempts at cynical manipulation and political bullying.”
“Today, facts and merits overcame all other considerations. That is a cause of our collective celebration. On behalf of the Palestinian people, I extend our thanks and sincere gratitude to all members who made this happen,” he added.
On this occasion, the Foreign Minister reiterated the commitment of the State of Palestine to upholding its obligations and contributing to fighting crime and furthering the rule of law. He said, “Palestine will work with all members to advance the standing and role of INTERPOL. We will be a constructive and cooperative partner in this global endeavor that affects the lives and future of all our citizens.”
Interpol, the world’s biggest international organization after the United Nations, enables member states to exchange intelligence and to work together to find ways to cope with international crime, from terrorism to human trafficking.
“The State of Palestine and the Solomon Islands are now INTERPOL member countries,” a tweet by Interpol read.
At Interpol’s annual General Assembly in Beijing, the Palestinians’ membership bid was accepted with 75 counties voting yes, 24 voting no, and 34 abstaining.
Observers said the move represents a stinging diplomatic defeat for Israel. Israel fiercely objected to the Palestinians joining Interpol, arguing that they could hinder rather than aid Interpol’s efforts. The US administration, too, objected to Ramallah’s membership bid and helped Israel lobby against it.
Minutes after the vote, Minister of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs, Riyad al-Malki, celebrated the move, saying the overwhelming vote in support of Palestine's membership is "a vote of confidence in Palestine's law enforcement capabilities and commitment to the core values of the organization. Palestine's admission to INTERPOL is a victory for law enforcement and global cooperation.”
According to al-Malki, the victory was made possible “because of the principled position of the majority of INTERPOL members. Palestine's membership is the outcome of members defending this organization's raison d'etre and advancing its core values, and a clear rejection of attempts at cynical manipulation and political bullying.”
“Today, facts and merits overcame all other considerations. That is a cause of our collective celebration. On behalf of the Palestinian people, I extend our thanks and sincere gratitude to all members who made this happen,” he added.
On this occasion, the Foreign Minister reiterated the commitment of the State of Palestine to upholding its obligations and contributing to fighting crime and furthering the rule of law. He said, “Palestine will work with all members to advance the standing and role of INTERPOL. We will be a constructive and cooperative partner in this global endeavor that affects the lives and future of all our citizens.”
Interpol, the world’s biggest international organization after the United Nations, enables member states to exchange intelligence and to work together to find ways to cope with international crime, from terrorism to human trafficking.
A senior Israeli officer and a soldier were killed Tuesday evening after their self-propelled artillery vehicle overturned during a military drill in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Four other soldiers were also injured.
Consequently, the Israeli army halted all exercises until next Sunday and launched an investigation into the incident.
According to a preliminary probe, the armored vehicle fell over into a ditch on the side of a road, which was between six and eight meters deep, killing the two soldiers.
Consequently, the Israeli army halted all exercises until next Sunday and launched an investigation into the incident.
According to a preliminary probe, the armored vehicle fell over into a ditch on the side of a road, which was between six and eight meters deep, killing the two soldiers.
24 sept 2017
Israel has launched diplomatic efforts to obstruct the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) renewed attempt to join the International Police Organization, Interpol.
An Israeli diplomatic campaign has been underway for weeks to convince member states to vote against a Palestinian request to join the Interpol during its upcoming meeting in Beijing.
According to the Jerusalem Post, a Palestinian bid to join the organization, which represents police forces from some 190 countries, failed last year at the annual meeting in Indonesia, along with bids by Kosovo and Solomon Islands.
At the time, all the three bids were considered on the same ballot, with 62 countries voting to suspend the bid until this year, 56 voting to deal with the issue and 37 abstaining.
Israel is adamantly opposed to Palestinian admission to all international organizations, arguing that a state of Palestine does not exist, but regarding the Interpol, it has fears that if the PA becomes a member, it will push for arrest warrants against Israeli officials and citizens, who committed violations and war crimes against Palestinians.
Israel also fears that the PA could have access to sensitive security information it shares with the organization.
An Israeli diplomatic campaign has been underway for weeks to convince member states to vote against a Palestinian request to join the Interpol during its upcoming meeting in Beijing.
According to the Jerusalem Post, a Palestinian bid to join the organization, which represents police forces from some 190 countries, failed last year at the annual meeting in Indonesia, along with bids by Kosovo and Solomon Islands.
At the time, all the three bids were considered on the same ballot, with 62 countries voting to suspend the bid until this year, 56 voting to deal with the issue and 37 abstaining.
Israel is adamantly opposed to Palestinian admission to all international organizations, arguing that a state of Palestine does not exist, but regarding the Interpol, it has fears that if the PA becomes a member, it will push for arrest warrants against Israeli officials and citizens, who committed violations and war crimes against Palestinians.
Israel also fears that the PA could have access to sensitive security information it shares with the organization.
21 sept 2017
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) added on Wednesday evening Israel to a list of states which have been committing human rights abuses against activists.
The blacklist comprises 29 states which the UNHRC deemed as the world’s most abusive authorities.
People communicating with the UN rights body had been abducted, detained, held incommunicado, or had disappeared, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour said.
Nine of the states named in Gilmour’s report are current members of the 47-country U.N. Human Rights Council.
Report highlights rising reprisals against human rights defenders cooperating with the UN
A major new UN report warns that a growing number of human rights defenders around the world are facing reprisals for cooperating with the UN on human rights.
The report by the UN Secretary-General says individuals and groups have suffered reprisals and intimidation ranging from travel bans and asset-freezing to detention and torture.
“It is frankly nothing short of abhorrent that, year after year, we are compelled to present cases of intimidation and reprisals carried out against people whose crime – in the eyes of their Governments – was to cooperate with UN institutions and mechanisms,” said UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour, the senior UN official designated by the Secretary General to address the issue.
“We should see these individuals as the canary in the coalmine, bravely singing until they are silenced by this toxic backlash against people, rights and dignity – as a dark warning to us all,” Gilmour said, as he presented the report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“We are aware of cases where individuals we are communicating with have been abducted, detained, held incommunicado, or disappeared,” he added.
“There are also many cases involving prolonged arbitrary detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment, with some victims threatened, blindfolded and beaten. One case involved forcible psychiatric treatment; others have involved solitary confinement, sexual assault and rape in detention, against both men and women,” Gilmour said.
The report, the eighth of its kind, names 29 countries* where cases of reprisal and intimidation have been documented – significantly up on the previous highest number of 20. Eleven of the States are current members of the Human Rights Council. Some have featured in the annual report on reprisals nearly every year since it was instituted in 2010.
The cases are of “grave concern”, the report says, highlighting that many are perpetrated or condoned by State officials. Many other incidents go unreported due to fears of further repercussions, while details of some known cases have been withheld so as not to place victims at further risk.
“People engaging with the United Nations experienced intimidation, harassment, threats online and offline, derogatory media campaigns, travel bans, arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, disbarment, and dismissal from their posts, amongst other measures,” the report says.
“Beyond the grave impact on the life of persons concerned and their relatives, intimidation and reprisals also systematically undermine United Nations action on human rights and shake partners’ trust in the organization,” it adds.
All the cases highlighted in the report occurred from June 2016 to May 2017 and involved individuals and groups which have cooperated with UN human rights mechanisms, used UN procedures, submitted communications under procedures established by human rights instruments, or provided legal or other assistance to other people. It also covers families or supporters of victims.
Gilmour told the Human Rights Council that the report was by no means exhaustive and the problem was much more widespread.
“Since this report is limited to reprisals against people cooperating with the UN, the cases covered in it represent only a small portion of a far more generalized backlash against civil society and others challenging State authorities, especially human rights defenders,” Gilmour said.
He highlighted a number of recent cases which took place after the finalisation of the report, including that of Egyptian lawyer Ebrahim Metwally, detained at Cairo airport on 10 September en route to meet the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances in Geneva, who was reportedly tortured and is still being detained. Allegedly a letter from the Working Group was itself included in the case filed against him.
Gilmour also noted that since June 2016 members of Bahraini civil society attempting to cooperate with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms have been interrogated, intimidated, subjected to travel bans, and even arrested or detained, causing an atmosphere of fear. Civil society representatives coming directly from Bahrain have significantly decreased over the last year, which is noted in the current session of the Council.
Gilmour also expressed deep concern over the ongoing situation of a Bahraini human rights defender, Ms. Ebtesam Abdulhusain Ali Alsaegh, who “has reportedly been beaten and sexually assaulted, and remains in detention”.
The report urges all States to stop reprisals, investigate existing allegations, provide effective remedies and adopt and implement measures to prevent recurrence. It says governments which have been challenged about the cases either did not reply or failed to address the concerns in the responses they provided.
The patterns of cases suggest some States have a strategy to prevent people cooperating with the United Nations on human rights, the report adds.
Assistant Secretary-General Gilmour was assigned to his role in October 2016 by the Secretary-General after the UN noted an alarming increase in the number of cases of intimidation and reprisals and decided a more comprehensive approach was needed to tackle the problem.
* Countries named in the report (in alphabetical order) are: Algeria, Bahrain, Burundi, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Honduras, India, Iran, Israel, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.
ENDS
The blacklist comprises 29 states which the UNHRC deemed as the world’s most abusive authorities.
People communicating with the UN rights body had been abducted, detained, held incommunicado, or had disappeared, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour said.
Nine of the states named in Gilmour’s report are current members of the 47-country U.N. Human Rights Council.
Report highlights rising reprisals against human rights defenders cooperating with the UN
A major new UN report warns that a growing number of human rights defenders around the world are facing reprisals for cooperating with the UN on human rights.
The report by the UN Secretary-General says individuals and groups have suffered reprisals and intimidation ranging from travel bans and asset-freezing to detention and torture.
“It is frankly nothing short of abhorrent that, year after year, we are compelled to present cases of intimidation and reprisals carried out against people whose crime – in the eyes of their Governments – was to cooperate with UN institutions and mechanisms,” said UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour, the senior UN official designated by the Secretary General to address the issue.
“We should see these individuals as the canary in the coalmine, bravely singing until they are silenced by this toxic backlash against people, rights and dignity – as a dark warning to us all,” Gilmour said, as he presented the report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“We are aware of cases where individuals we are communicating with have been abducted, detained, held incommunicado, or disappeared,” he added.
“There are also many cases involving prolonged arbitrary detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment, with some victims threatened, blindfolded and beaten. One case involved forcible psychiatric treatment; others have involved solitary confinement, sexual assault and rape in detention, against both men and women,” Gilmour said.
The report, the eighth of its kind, names 29 countries* where cases of reprisal and intimidation have been documented – significantly up on the previous highest number of 20. Eleven of the States are current members of the Human Rights Council. Some have featured in the annual report on reprisals nearly every year since it was instituted in 2010.
The cases are of “grave concern”, the report says, highlighting that many are perpetrated or condoned by State officials. Many other incidents go unreported due to fears of further repercussions, while details of some known cases have been withheld so as not to place victims at further risk.
“People engaging with the United Nations experienced intimidation, harassment, threats online and offline, derogatory media campaigns, travel bans, arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, disbarment, and dismissal from their posts, amongst other measures,” the report says.
“Beyond the grave impact on the life of persons concerned and their relatives, intimidation and reprisals also systematically undermine United Nations action on human rights and shake partners’ trust in the organization,” it adds.
All the cases highlighted in the report occurred from June 2016 to May 2017 and involved individuals and groups which have cooperated with UN human rights mechanisms, used UN procedures, submitted communications under procedures established by human rights instruments, or provided legal or other assistance to other people. It also covers families or supporters of victims.
Gilmour told the Human Rights Council that the report was by no means exhaustive and the problem was much more widespread.
“Since this report is limited to reprisals against people cooperating with the UN, the cases covered in it represent only a small portion of a far more generalized backlash against civil society and others challenging State authorities, especially human rights defenders,” Gilmour said.
He highlighted a number of recent cases which took place after the finalisation of the report, including that of Egyptian lawyer Ebrahim Metwally, detained at Cairo airport on 10 September en route to meet the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances in Geneva, who was reportedly tortured and is still being detained. Allegedly a letter from the Working Group was itself included in the case filed against him.
Gilmour also noted that since June 2016 members of Bahraini civil society attempting to cooperate with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms have been interrogated, intimidated, subjected to travel bans, and even arrested or detained, causing an atmosphere of fear. Civil society representatives coming directly from Bahrain have significantly decreased over the last year, which is noted in the current session of the Council.
Gilmour also expressed deep concern over the ongoing situation of a Bahraini human rights defender, Ms. Ebtesam Abdulhusain Ali Alsaegh, who “has reportedly been beaten and sexually assaulted, and remains in detention”.
The report urges all States to stop reprisals, investigate existing allegations, provide effective remedies and adopt and implement measures to prevent recurrence. It says governments which have been challenged about the cases either did not reply or failed to address the concerns in the responses they provided.
The patterns of cases suggest some States have a strategy to prevent people cooperating with the United Nations on human rights, the report adds.
Assistant Secretary-General Gilmour was assigned to his role in October 2016 by the Secretary-General after the UN noted an alarming increase in the number of cases of intimidation and reprisals and decided a more comprehensive approach was needed to tackle the problem.
* Countries named in the report (in alphabetical order) are: Algeria, Bahrain, Burundi, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Honduras, India, Iran, Israel, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.
ENDS
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Journalist and documentarian Lia Tarachansky discusses the decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to overturn a law exempting ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service.
Lia Tarachansky is an Israeli-Russian journalist and documentary filmmaker who previously reported for The Real News Network on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Born in the Soviet Union, Tarachansky grew up in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. She is the director of On the Side of the Road, a documentary on Israel’s biggest taboo – the events of 1948 when the state was created. Tarachansky previously worked as a Newsroom Producer in The Real News’ Washington D.C. and Toronto Headquarters, and her work appeared on BBC, Al Jazeera, USA Today, Canadian Dimension Magazine and others. |
TRNN transcript:
AARON MATÉ: It’s The Real News. I’m Aaron Maté. A major rift has opened up inside Israel over ending the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service. Joining me to discuss is Lia Tarachansky, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Lia, hello.
LIA TARACHANSKY: Thanks for having me, Aaron.
AARON MATÉ: So let’s talk about what’s going on. On Sunday, you had this protest in Jerusalem of hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews protesting a recent Supreme Court decision that would end their decades-long exemption from serving in the Israeli military. Can you talk about what’s …
LIA TARACHANSKY: Sure. I think if you put this in its proper context, what’s actually happening right now are the end throes of a gap that opened up back in 2012. What happened was that in July 2011, the biggest demonstrations in Israel’s history started happening around big gaps between the rich and the poor in Israel. And the socioeconomic situation that most Israelis live through is actually quite difficult considering that the middle class has more or less been destroyed. And so we saw in July 2011 the rise of a tent-city protest that led to demonstrations that were the biggest demonstrations in the country’s history at a time when there was demonstrations happening in much of the region, including Europe, of course the Arab Spring was happening.Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister then and also now, saw that there was a big threat coming to his power, because this was not Palestinians demonstrating against decades of occupation, this was not a minority group demonstrating, this was the young, the middle class. And so what he did was actually quite brilliant in retrospect, was that he appeased them. And he basically created a committee that was going to review their complaints about the stagnant wages, the mushrooming real estate market and the cost of living. And he basically said whatever the committee comes up with, I will accept.
Of course the committee was staffed by inside people. It led to conclusions that were never followed through, and a year later when the same movement saw that nothing was happening, they had another uprise in protests, this one much quieter. And so what happened in the next elections was that there was a new party that was born somewhat out of this protest, but more or less by an elite group that tried to co-opt this protest movement, and what they basically said was, the problem with the economy in Israel is not the fact that we are an economy based on the arms industry, it’s not the fact that we have huge exemptions for settlers in the West Bank, it’s not all of these conflict-related problems. The real issue for economy in Israel is the Jewish Orthodox, who are already a marginalized group.
So, basically the Orthodox religious groups in Israel were scapegoated for Israel’s economic woes and this movement called Equality in the Burden was born.What you’re seeing today with this Supreme Court decision is basically the last stages of that movement. So, the first stage was that an Israeli news anchor known as Yair Lapid rose to power basically agitating the secular Israelis against the religious Israelis, and he was basically blaming the religious Israelis, who are currently exempt from the army and also get government subsidies because they pray all day long, at least the men do, and therefore do not work, most of them. He was basically saying we’re going to end this special exemption that was created back in the early days of the state.
And of course, this garnered a lot of support from Israel’s secular population, which is the majority, and so the weak, the poor were once again basically scapegoated.Now, what followed immediately after him actually rising to power and promising to put into force what he was campaigning on was that the Orthodox said “Hell, no,” and went out onto the streets. We actually saw bigger protests than even the socioeconomic protests on the streets of Jerusalem with what is historically fractured religious groups uniting and basically saying, “We do not believe in this army. We are not going to send our children to fight in this army. Our children are religious Yeshiva students and they are going to continue being Yeshiva students. We’re not going to send anybody into the army.” So that was basically the response of the Orthodox.
This was a few years ago, but what we’re seeing now is actually that the antagonization of the Orthodox religious community backfired, as usually these scapegoating measures do. And what was already a rising trend in the Orthodox and the religious joining the ranks in the army, their main contention was not so much the oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli army, but that the Israeli army did not offer accommodations for religious Jews. And so the Israeli army over the years, starting all the way back in 2000 started accommodating religious Jews, and as a result there was a rise in the enlistment of religious and Orthodox Yeshiva students. However, when they were antagonized with this new party, they basically, the numbers plummeted. They started lobbying. They started protesting. And what you’re seeing now is the end tail of that historic moment.
AARON MATÉ: Okay. Lia, that’s really interesting. I just want to clarify for anyone who doesn’t understand the different types of Jews inside Israel. You have secular Jews, you have religious Jews, Orthodox Jews and then the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who we’re talking about, who as you said study in Yeshivas, in religious schools all day. And for decades, for decades, they’ve been exempted from military service. Now, that means tens of thousands of them don’t serve in the military. So, for someone who doesn’t know about all these distinctions, can you just explain why that is? Why this group gets an exemption and how that’s played out for the last, more than fifty years?
LIA TARACHANSKY: Shortly after the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the majority of Palestinians and the creation of the state of Israel by a movement that was secular and socialist. There was a historic meeting between the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion and one of the chief rabbis of the Orthodox community which at the time numbered less than 1,000 individuals. And in that meeting the rabbi basically said, “Look, you guys are secular. You don’t even believe in God, most of you. We are Orthodox and in the long tradition of Judaism, which spans 4,000 years, we believe that we must pray for the redemption of our collective soul. Therefore, why don’t you give us an exemption? We are not going to serve in your secular army. We are going to dedicate ourselves to praying on everybody’s behalf.”
At the time, like I said, the number of the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox in Israel was less than a 1,000, and Ben-Gurion basically agreed.Today, we’re looking at a percentage of basically a quarter of children in Israeli schools are ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox. We’re looking at of the larger population they are about 16% percent of the population. So now fast forward almost 70 years, and we’re looking at a population which is growing much faster than the secular population. The average Orthodox home has seven children. This community is still exempt. The men don’t work in the majority of cases and they don’t serve in the Israeli army, which means that in their families either the women work or the family is dependent on their community, on donations, or on the state for welfare. Naturally, this has created a rift between the secular and the religious in the sense that secular feel that they are subsidizing the religious practices of the Orthodox. Now, this could be reformed if it was properly analyzed and if the government came up with a series of plans. But what instead happens is that various political forces use this rift in order to basically propel themselves into power.
AARON MATÉ: Lia, you mentioned earlier that the ultra-Orthodox were scapegoated to serve political ends. I’m wondering now if there is a similar sort of utility on the other side when it comes to Netanyahu. He’s facing a major corruption investigation. Could he turn to the ultra-Orthodox for support and meet their demands, try to negate this Supreme Court order through whatever means he can in exchange for their help in keeping him in power?
LIA TARACHANSKY: Yeah, well, we’ve seen from Netanyahu’s previous record that he uses various groups in the parliament for various purposes, and over his four elections, he’s actually manipulated the Orthodox groups one way or another. At one point he included them and used their parties for his advantage and other times he excluded them. So, you’re exactly right. The Orthodox here being largely unrepresented in Israeli politics. The parties that do represent them tend to be small and have very little access to power. We’re not talking about the national religious who are the settlers; we’re talking about the Orthodox and the ultra-Orthodox. And so they’re basically being used as an addendum to one coalition or another: first the opposition, then the ruling coalition, then the opposition again. So, I have no doubt that this, once again, flare-up of this decades-long conflict is going to be manipulated by both sides.
AARON MATÉ: Finally, Lia, I’m wondering if you could talk about this in the context of the difficulties and the internal contradictions of having a Jewish state, a state based around the supremacy of a certain religion. The main issue with Israel in this regard that most people recognize, is that establishing a Jewish state has meant suppressing the indigenous population, expelling them from their homes, giving them second-class status inside Israel and then ruling over them in the occupied territories.But in the early Zionist movement, there were people who were considered Zionists who didn’t want to have a expressly Jewish state for this reason because when you have a Jewish state, then the question, well, one of the question that comes up is how do you define a Jew? And even inside the Jewish state you have different categories of Jews and that leads to a separation and hierarchy of rights. I wanna get your thoughts on that.
LIA TARACHANSKY: Yeah, and to add to that ambiguity, Judaism, unlike Christianity or other religions, is not strictly a religion. Unlike other religions, we as Jews do not hold one’s belief in God as the central tenet of being a member of our community. It’s an ethnicity. It’s a civilization. Many different people define Jewishness in different ways. And the majority of Jews in Israel are actually secular, so what does that mean?Israel was created as what the Israeli political scientist, Oren Yiftachel calls an ethnocracy.
Ethnocracy by definition means that it’s one ethnic group controlling other ethnic groups usually with a veneer of democracy. And he uses other kinds of states, which are also ethnocracies, the most powerful of them of course is Japan to demonstrate what are the issues with that kind of system of power. What you have inevitably in Israel dozens of laws that in their very language distinguish between Jewish citizenship and non-Jewish citizenship and many, many more that in practice distinguish between Jewish citizens and non-Jewish citizens. And I’m not even talking about the residents of East Jerusalem who are not citizens and of course, the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who have no state that they belong to because they are under military occupation, and the millions of Palestinian refugees around the world who are still tied to this land and have zero status.
This is the kind of effect that is created when you have an ethnocracy. Now, the reason I make the point that Judaism is not only a religion is because Israel, as you said, was created by secular Jews. However, a portion of the Jewish community, which is religious, has always seen Zionism as a stepping stone towards something more important, which is theocracy. And what we’re seeing in Israel today unfolding is basically the rise of a theocratic movement, which used to be just a small number of individuals following a Kahanist, meaning the ideology of Rabbi Meir Kahane, an idea that Israel should be a Jewish-only state and that that state should be a theocracy based on the biblical Halakhah laws, which are very similar to Sharia law.
Today, this kind of idea of a theocracy in Israel is actually on the rise to the point where it’s becoming a majority amongst the religious Jews. And we’re now seeing a strong coalition in parliament that believes in a theocratic movement for the state of Israel, which of course would mean the end of a secular state there.These kinds of dangerous trends are possible because Israel was created on exactly this ambiguity. Its Declaration of Independence calls itself a Jewish and democratic state. But of course, Israel does not define anywhere what it means to be Jewish, what it’s going to mean when it says democratic or how it’s going to rule everyone who lives from the river to the sea, meaning the state portion.
AARON MATÉ: Lia Tarachansky, journalist, documentary filmmaker, thanks very much.
LIA TARACHANSKY: Thank you for having me.
AARON MATÉ: And thank you for joining us on The Real News.
Also from TRNN: 09/11/17 Racial Profiling Policies Israeli Style
AARON MATÉ: It’s The Real News. I’m Aaron Maté. A major rift has opened up inside Israel over ending the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service. Joining me to discuss is Lia Tarachansky, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Lia, hello.
LIA TARACHANSKY: Thanks for having me, Aaron.
AARON MATÉ: So let’s talk about what’s going on. On Sunday, you had this protest in Jerusalem of hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews protesting a recent Supreme Court decision that would end their decades-long exemption from serving in the Israeli military. Can you talk about what’s …
LIA TARACHANSKY: Sure. I think if you put this in its proper context, what’s actually happening right now are the end throes of a gap that opened up back in 2012. What happened was that in July 2011, the biggest demonstrations in Israel’s history started happening around big gaps between the rich and the poor in Israel. And the socioeconomic situation that most Israelis live through is actually quite difficult considering that the middle class has more or less been destroyed. And so we saw in July 2011 the rise of a tent-city protest that led to demonstrations that were the biggest demonstrations in the country’s history at a time when there was demonstrations happening in much of the region, including Europe, of course the Arab Spring was happening.Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister then and also now, saw that there was a big threat coming to his power, because this was not Palestinians demonstrating against decades of occupation, this was not a minority group demonstrating, this was the young, the middle class. And so what he did was actually quite brilliant in retrospect, was that he appeased them. And he basically created a committee that was going to review their complaints about the stagnant wages, the mushrooming real estate market and the cost of living. And he basically said whatever the committee comes up with, I will accept.
Of course the committee was staffed by inside people. It led to conclusions that were never followed through, and a year later when the same movement saw that nothing was happening, they had another uprise in protests, this one much quieter. And so what happened in the next elections was that there was a new party that was born somewhat out of this protest, but more or less by an elite group that tried to co-opt this protest movement, and what they basically said was, the problem with the economy in Israel is not the fact that we are an economy based on the arms industry, it’s not the fact that we have huge exemptions for settlers in the West Bank, it’s not all of these conflict-related problems. The real issue for economy in Israel is the Jewish Orthodox, who are already a marginalized group.
So, basically the Orthodox religious groups in Israel were scapegoated for Israel’s economic woes and this movement called Equality in the Burden was born.What you’re seeing today with this Supreme Court decision is basically the last stages of that movement. So, the first stage was that an Israeli news anchor known as Yair Lapid rose to power basically agitating the secular Israelis against the religious Israelis, and he was basically blaming the religious Israelis, who are currently exempt from the army and also get government subsidies because they pray all day long, at least the men do, and therefore do not work, most of them. He was basically saying we’re going to end this special exemption that was created back in the early days of the state.
And of course, this garnered a lot of support from Israel’s secular population, which is the majority, and so the weak, the poor were once again basically scapegoated.Now, what followed immediately after him actually rising to power and promising to put into force what he was campaigning on was that the Orthodox said “Hell, no,” and went out onto the streets. We actually saw bigger protests than even the socioeconomic protests on the streets of Jerusalem with what is historically fractured religious groups uniting and basically saying, “We do not believe in this army. We are not going to send our children to fight in this army. Our children are religious Yeshiva students and they are going to continue being Yeshiva students. We’re not going to send anybody into the army.” So that was basically the response of the Orthodox.
This was a few years ago, but what we’re seeing now is actually that the antagonization of the Orthodox religious community backfired, as usually these scapegoating measures do. And what was already a rising trend in the Orthodox and the religious joining the ranks in the army, their main contention was not so much the oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli army, but that the Israeli army did not offer accommodations for religious Jews. And so the Israeli army over the years, starting all the way back in 2000 started accommodating religious Jews, and as a result there was a rise in the enlistment of religious and Orthodox Yeshiva students. However, when they were antagonized with this new party, they basically, the numbers plummeted. They started lobbying. They started protesting. And what you’re seeing now is the end tail of that historic moment.
AARON MATÉ: Okay. Lia, that’s really interesting. I just want to clarify for anyone who doesn’t understand the different types of Jews inside Israel. You have secular Jews, you have religious Jews, Orthodox Jews and then the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who we’re talking about, who as you said study in Yeshivas, in religious schools all day. And for decades, for decades, they’ve been exempted from military service. Now, that means tens of thousands of them don’t serve in the military. So, for someone who doesn’t know about all these distinctions, can you just explain why that is? Why this group gets an exemption and how that’s played out for the last, more than fifty years?
LIA TARACHANSKY: Shortly after the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the majority of Palestinians and the creation of the state of Israel by a movement that was secular and socialist. There was a historic meeting between the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion and one of the chief rabbis of the Orthodox community which at the time numbered less than 1,000 individuals. And in that meeting the rabbi basically said, “Look, you guys are secular. You don’t even believe in God, most of you. We are Orthodox and in the long tradition of Judaism, which spans 4,000 years, we believe that we must pray for the redemption of our collective soul. Therefore, why don’t you give us an exemption? We are not going to serve in your secular army. We are going to dedicate ourselves to praying on everybody’s behalf.”
At the time, like I said, the number of the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox in Israel was less than a 1,000, and Ben-Gurion basically agreed.Today, we’re looking at a percentage of basically a quarter of children in Israeli schools are ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox. We’re looking at of the larger population they are about 16% percent of the population. So now fast forward almost 70 years, and we’re looking at a population which is growing much faster than the secular population. The average Orthodox home has seven children. This community is still exempt. The men don’t work in the majority of cases and they don’t serve in the Israeli army, which means that in their families either the women work or the family is dependent on their community, on donations, or on the state for welfare. Naturally, this has created a rift between the secular and the religious in the sense that secular feel that they are subsidizing the religious practices of the Orthodox. Now, this could be reformed if it was properly analyzed and if the government came up with a series of plans. But what instead happens is that various political forces use this rift in order to basically propel themselves into power.
AARON MATÉ: Lia, you mentioned earlier that the ultra-Orthodox were scapegoated to serve political ends. I’m wondering now if there is a similar sort of utility on the other side when it comes to Netanyahu. He’s facing a major corruption investigation. Could he turn to the ultra-Orthodox for support and meet their demands, try to negate this Supreme Court order through whatever means he can in exchange for their help in keeping him in power?
LIA TARACHANSKY: Yeah, well, we’ve seen from Netanyahu’s previous record that he uses various groups in the parliament for various purposes, and over his four elections, he’s actually manipulated the Orthodox groups one way or another. At one point he included them and used their parties for his advantage and other times he excluded them. So, you’re exactly right. The Orthodox here being largely unrepresented in Israeli politics. The parties that do represent them tend to be small and have very little access to power. We’re not talking about the national religious who are the settlers; we’re talking about the Orthodox and the ultra-Orthodox. And so they’re basically being used as an addendum to one coalition or another: first the opposition, then the ruling coalition, then the opposition again. So, I have no doubt that this, once again, flare-up of this decades-long conflict is going to be manipulated by both sides.
AARON MATÉ: Finally, Lia, I’m wondering if you could talk about this in the context of the difficulties and the internal contradictions of having a Jewish state, a state based around the supremacy of a certain religion. The main issue with Israel in this regard that most people recognize, is that establishing a Jewish state has meant suppressing the indigenous population, expelling them from their homes, giving them second-class status inside Israel and then ruling over them in the occupied territories.But in the early Zionist movement, there were people who were considered Zionists who didn’t want to have a expressly Jewish state for this reason because when you have a Jewish state, then the question, well, one of the question that comes up is how do you define a Jew? And even inside the Jewish state you have different categories of Jews and that leads to a separation and hierarchy of rights. I wanna get your thoughts on that.
LIA TARACHANSKY: Yeah, and to add to that ambiguity, Judaism, unlike Christianity or other religions, is not strictly a religion. Unlike other religions, we as Jews do not hold one’s belief in God as the central tenet of being a member of our community. It’s an ethnicity. It’s a civilization. Many different people define Jewishness in different ways. And the majority of Jews in Israel are actually secular, so what does that mean?Israel was created as what the Israeli political scientist, Oren Yiftachel calls an ethnocracy.
Ethnocracy by definition means that it’s one ethnic group controlling other ethnic groups usually with a veneer of democracy. And he uses other kinds of states, which are also ethnocracies, the most powerful of them of course is Japan to demonstrate what are the issues with that kind of system of power. What you have inevitably in Israel dozens of laws that in their very language distinguish between Jewish citizenship and non-Jewish citizenship and many, many more that in practice distinguish between Jewish citizens and non-Jewish citizens. And I’m not even talking about the residents of East Jerusalem who are not citizens and of course, the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who have no state that they belong to because they are under military occupation, and the millions of Palestinian refugees around the world who are still tied to this land and have zero status.
This is the kind of effect that is created when you have an ethnocracy. Now, the reason I make the point that Judaism is not only a religion is because Israel, as you said, was created by secular Jews. However, a portion of the Jewish community, which is religious, has always seen Zionism as a stepping stone towards something more important, which is theocracy. And what we’re seeing in Israel today unfolding is basically the rise of a theocratic movement, which used to be just a small number of individuals following a Kahanist, meaning the ideology of Rabbi Meir Kahane, an idea that Israel should be a Jewish-only state and that that state should be a theocracy based on the biblical Halakhah laws, which are very similar to Sharia law.
Today, this kind of idea of a theocracy in Israel is actually on the rise to the point where it’s becoming a majority amongst the religious Jews. And we’re now seeing a strong coalition in parliament that believes in a theocratic movement for the state of Israel, which of course would mean the end of a secular state there.These kinds of dangerous trends are possible because Israel was created on exactly this ambiguity. Its Declaration of Independence calls itself a Jewish and democratic state. But of course, Israel does not define anywhere what it means to be Jewish, what it’s going to mean when it says democratic or how it’s going to rule everyone who lives from the river to the sea, meaning the state portion.
AARON MATÉ: Lia Tarachansky, journalist, documentary filmmaker, thanks very much.
LIA TARACHANSKY: Thank you for having me.
AARON MATÉ: And thank you for joining us on The Real News.
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20 sept 2017
Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on Wednesday strongly condemned a decision by Israel's minister of public security, Gilad Erdan, to expand the system granting Israelis firearm licenses, which would allow them to kill more Palestinians under the pretext of attempting attacks.
The Ministry said in a press statement that this dangerous decision stems from a large-scale campaign of incitement and hatred launched by Israel's extremist right-wing movement against Palestinians.
The Ministry held Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, fully responsible for the consequences of this decision, calling on the various human rights organizations to work to stop this decision and expose the Israeli criminal policies pursued against Palestinians.
Hebrew media sources on Tuesday revealed that Erdan has decided to allow more Israelis to have firearms possession licenses, claiming that this decision would contribute to confronting Palestinian resistance attacks.
Israel Hayom newspaper reported that the decision will even include the graduates of combat units who have finished their military service.
According to the paper, before Erdan's decision was issued, only Israeli officers of high ranks were allowed to possess and carry weapons outside the military barracks.
The Ministry said in a press statement that this dangerous decision stems from a large-scale campaign of incitement and hatred launched by Israel's extremist right-wing movement against Palestinians.
The Ministry held Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, fully responsible for the consequences of this decision, calling on the various human rights organizations to work to stop this decision and expose the Israeli criminal policies pursued against Palestinians.
Hebrew media sources on Tuesday revealed that Erdan has decided to allow more Israelis to have firearms possession licenses, claiming that this decision would contribute to confronting Palestinian resistance attacks.
Israel Hayom newspaper reported that the decision will even include the graduates of combat units who have finished their military service.
According to the paper, before Erdan's decision was issued, only Israeli officers of high ranks were allowed to possess and carry weapons outside the military barracks.
Israeli minister of public security Gilad Erdan has decided to expand the system that allows Israeli individuals to possess firearms licenses, claiming this measure would contribute to confronting Palestinian lone-wolf attacks in the occupied territories.
According to Israel Hayom newspaper, the decision targets, in particular, the graduates of combat units, although they finished their military service.
Israeli officers of high ranks, like lieutenants and sergeants, are already allowed to possess and carry weapons outside the army’s establishments.
Such step would allow Jewish settlers, who served in the army and received shooting training, to kill Palestinian citizens at the pretext they were intending to carry out attacks.
According to Israel Hayom newspaper, the decision targets, in particular, the graduates of combat units, although they finished their military service.
Israeli officers of high ranks, like lieutenants and sergeants, are already allowed to possess and carry weapons outside the army’s establishments.
Such step would allow Jewish settlers, who served in the army and received shooting training, to kill Palestinian citizens at the pretext they were intending to carry out attacks.