IN BRIEF: The Israeli Electoral Process

A 2009 election poster of Benjamin Netanyahu

The upcoming elections for Israel’s House of Representatives, the Knesset, will be taking place this year on 17 March, 2015. Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party is currently vying for his fourth term as Prime Minister, which would prolong his involvement in Israeli politics to nearly two decades.¹ But before we lay out the specific parties and their candidates, it is important to understand the process of these elections and how it marginalizes Palestinian parties and the right to vote for Palestinians citizens of Israel. In Israel, there is a parliamentary system that exists which is very different from the electoral system in the United States. Israel uses a system of proportional representation where voters elect the nationally registered political parties instead of local candidates.² It is also important to understand how this system dates back to the original political system of the Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine, before Israel’s establishment as a state in 1948.

History of the Yishuv

In the early 1920s, during the time when the British Mandate of Palestine was the legal commission for the administration of the territory, a newly formed Yishuv had become the national liberation movement to establish an independent Jewish state in Palestine.³ At this point in time, less than one percent of Jews inhabited Palestine, but waves of immigration largely increased before and after World War II. 

The Yishuv, or organized Jewish community, functioned as a parliamentary democracy with three formal branches of government comprised of the parliament Asefat ha-Nivharim (the National Assembly), the executive branch ha‑Va'ad ha-Le'umi (the National Council) and the judicial system Beit Mishpat ha-Shalom ha-Ivri (the Hebrew Court of Peace).⁴ The first elections to the National Assembly were held in 1920, establishing a protocol that elections be held every four years. The Yishuv were very politically oriented and eventually formed different parties. Therefore, after 1935, there were actually three main groups of Jews in Palestine, which consisted of the "Organized Yishuv" (the labor Zionists, the General Zionists and the religious Zionists), the "Porshim" (the Revisionists) and the Ultra-Orthodox.⁵ In the summer of 1947, when the United Nations’ Special Committee on Palestine arrived in the region, they had seen the internal organization of the Yishuv, with elected political leadership, as sustainable, and the international committee was convinced that British supervision was no longer needed. In 1948, the official transformation of the Yishuv into a sovereign independent state of Israel was completed.

How Do the Elections Work?

Elections are held every four years. Every citizen of Israel above the age of eighteen is eligible to vote.⁶ The members of the Knesset are elected by party vote - the voters cast one ballot for a specific party (who list their candidates in preferential order) to represent them.

            In these elections, voters also vote by direct vote. There is no “body of electors,”⁷ but rather, the entire country counts as one district so all votes are counted together, contrasting the American Electoral College system where Americans do not cast a direct vote for the President. In contrast to the American winner-take-all voting system, the Knesset follows proportional representation. Of the 120 seats in the Knesset, each party has a chance to hold a seat provided they receive two percent of the total votes proportional to the percentage of votes they received, providing an opportunity for every party to represent their voters’ interest.

            Once elections are held, results are published eight days later. The first session of the Knesset is held two weeks later and elected members declare their allegiance to Israel.⁸ The President is elected by the Knesset by majority vote, and the President appoints the Prime Minister.

            This information is defined in Article 4 of the Basic Law of Israel which states, “The Knesset shall be elected by general, national, direct, equal, secret and proportional elections, in accordance with the Knesset Elections Law.”⁹

What About Palestinians Living in Israel?

            According to the Basic Law, the Central Elections Committee (those who oversee and make rules regarding elections) are able to prevent a party from participating in the elections if “its objective or actions, expressly or by implication” include “1) negation of the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people; 2) negation of the democratic character of the State; and 3) incitement to racism.”¹⁰ This is able to be interpreted in any way the Central Elections Committee deems fit. 

             
           A large issue surrounding the elections is the question of “citizenship.” While a minority of Palestinians are citizens of Israel, the systematic discrimination enacted by Israeli policy keep the majority as residents of Israel which prohibits them from voting in elections, affecting a vast majority of Palestinians living in Jerusalem. The Knesset Members (MK’s) must swear allegiance to the State of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, which can act as a deterrent to Palestinians as the Knesset “emphasizes the exclusive connection of the state to the Jewish people.”¹¹

 

            Amendment 39 of 7A (Candidate who Visited a Hostile State Illegally) states a candidate or party can be denied an election campaign if that party/candidate visited an Arab or Muslim country defined as an “enemy state” – this includes Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.¹²

            Overall, a poll conducted by the Abraham Fund Initiatives reflects that Arabs are “frustrated with pervasive inequality in Israeli society and feel that voting in the past has not translated into influence over government policy.”¹³ This is most apparent given that the Arab turnout for voting barely averages around 50 percent.¹⁴

Implications and Predictions

This year’s elections are particularly important given that they have been pushed early as a result of a fractured Israeli government. In an attempt to gain unity on key agenda setting issues, Netanyahu decided to fire top officials within his government. This led parliament to vote on dissolving the coalition and moving the elections earlier than they would have normally been.¹⁵ The results of this election are predicted to be close, with a center-left alliance threatening to unseat Netanyahu's government.¹⁶  

Numbers Breakdown

            All numbers are taken from +972 Magazine translated from Hebrew to English from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics of December 2012:

• 255,000 Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem have no voting rights for the Knesset.

• 1,855,115 Palestinians living in the West Bank (Areas A, B & C) have no voting rights.

• 1,710,257 Palestinians living in Gaza have no voting rights.

 “2,128,115 people have no voting rights. Altogether, one in every 4.5 people is denied political representation; this one person is almost always Palestinian. If the people of Gaza are included, the number of the unrepresented climbs to 3,820,372, or roughly one in every three people.”¹⁷

External Links

Basic Law: The Knesset http://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/basic2_eng.htm

The Central Bureau of Statistics http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/cw_usr_view_Folder?ID=141

The Knesset Website http://www.knesset.gov.il/main/eng/home.asp

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^[1] JStreet. "Candidates." Election 2015. Accessed January 29, 2015.

^[2] "The Electoral System in Israel." The Knesset in the Governing System. Accessed January 28, 2015.

^[3] Halamish, Aviva. "Israel Studies An Anthology: The Yishuv: The Jewish Community in Mandatory Palestine." Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed January 28, 2015.

^[4] Ibid

^[5] Ibid

^[6] "Legal Voting Age around the World." ChartsBin. Accessed February 6, 2015. http://chartsbin.com/view/re6.

^[7] “Israel Elections: Overview and Explanations”. Jewish Virtual Library. 2015. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/elections.html

^[8] Hellman, Ziv. "Israeli Electoral System." My Jewish Learning. http://www.myjewishlearning.com/israel/Contemporary_Life/Politics/Electoral_System.shtml

^[9] Basic Law: The Knesset - 1958 http://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/basic2_eng.htm

^[10] Garofalo, Elise. "Israeli Election Primer – What You Should Know." PBS. 21 Jan. 2013. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/israel-election-primer/

^[11] Lowrance, Sherry. “Being Palestinian in Israel” Project Muse: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Vol. 25, No. 2. 2005. (pg. 490)

^[12]  Law of Political Parties - Adalah. 2015.http://www.adalah.org/en/law/view/512

^[13] Thrope, Samuel. “How Israel’s Arab Citizens Vote.”The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 27 Dec. 2012.. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/27/how-israel-s-arab-citizens-vote.html

^[14] Garofalo, Elise. "Israeli Election Primer – What You Should Know." PBS. 21 Jan. 2013. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/israel-election-primer

^[15] Kershner, Isabel. “Netanyahu Fires Ministers and Calls for Elections”. The New York Times, 2 December, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-cabinet-elections.html?_r=0

^[16] Heller, Aron. “Israeli Center-Left Alliance Looks to Unseat Netanyahu” Associated Press, 29 January, 2015. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_ALTERNATIVE_ALLIANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

^[17] Sheizaf, Noam. "Who Gets to Vote in Israel's Democracy?" +972 Magazine, 30 Oct. 2012. http://972mag.com/who-gets-to-vote-in-israels-democracy/58756/

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The Jab'a Accident and the Infrastructure of Occupation

When I heard the tragic news this morning about an accident involving a school bus near Jab’a that left several young Palestinian school children dead I was devastated by the details and began to think about how scared those children must have been and how difficult life will be for the families of those involved going forward. It is sad and horrifying any time innocent people, especially children, die or get injured.

I remembered taking the school bus on a daily basis here in the States from elementary school all the way through high school. Our buses always stopped at railroad tracks, even when there was no trains in sight or approaching. It was a policy to stop and have the bus driver open the door and look both ways. At the time, it seemed like an over-cautious waste of time to me but I know it reflects the utmost need to protect society's most valuable assets; it's children.

So as I continued to listen to the details I went from being sad, to confused and finally, to angry. Something didn’t make much sense to me. Here are some of the details reported from Haaretz:

The bus was carrying children from a kindergarten in the Shuafat refugee camp on their way to a field trip to a park near Ramallah.

According Shuafat residents, the kindergarten children travelled in two buses, each holding about 80 passengers, including teaching staff and crew.

Here is more from the Jerusalem Post:

The bus had set out from a Palestinian school in Shuafat in east Jerusalem to the Ramallah area for a day trip, carrying some 60 children. It turned around and headed back because of treacherous weather conditions. It was struck by the truck en route to east Jerusalem....

The accident occurred just after 9 a.m. at Kikar Adam, a major intersection north of Jerusalem between highway 60 and highway 437.

The children on the school buses were from the Shufaat refugee camp. Shufaat is inside the municipality of Jerusalem. Their destination was toward Ramallah which would mean they’d have to pass through Kufr Aqab, another Palestinian locality inside the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem.

I know this gets complicated, so maps help to simplify things. In the map on the right, you can see where Shufaat is and where Kfur Aqab is. Kufr Aqab is essentially the gateway to Ramallah from the Jerusalem municipality. The green route, in my estimation, signifies the most logical, shortest, straightforward and safest route to get from Shufaat to Kufr Aqab. However, the bus didn't go that way.

The buses filled with Palestinian school children instead followed, again in my estimation, the red route, which is longer, far more rural, more dangerous, out of the way, narrower, more curvy and hillier than the green route. The yellow circle is an estimation of where, based on the Jerusalem Post's account, the accident happened. So why on earth would a bus filled with Palestinian children take the red route instead of the green route?

Because even though both Shufaat and Kufr Aqab are part of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, the infrastructure of apartheid, in this case the wall, makes the safest and most convenient route unavailable to these residents of Jerusalem because they were born in the wrong neighborhood- a Palestinian one - on the other side of the wall.

Have a look at this next map to the right where the green and red lines are my estimations of the different routes as in the map above, but this version includes a thick black line indicating where the wall exists preventing Palestinians from taking the safer, more direct route in green.

I want to be clear, the children that died today died in an accident. This accident was most likely a direct cause of poor weather conditions and I'm not placing blame on Israel or Israelis as the direct cause of this accident. Rather, what is important to note here is that the infrastructure of occupation regularly forces Palestinians into inconvenient and, in many cases, unsafe conditions where the likelihood of dangerous events increases. Accidents can happen anywhere, especially when weather conditions are bad, but there is little doubt in my mind that the chances of such a thing happening decrease when you are spending less time on the road in a safer more direct route.

As a Palestinian, you can not travel from Ramallah to Bethlehem, for example, without taking a long and often dangerous drive circumventing Jerusalem and going nearly as far as Jericho to do it. For many locals, this is just something they have gotten used to. Sure the road is more dangerous, but it is something they do regularly so they may forget how much safer one can be taking other routes if they were available.

As someone who spends most of my time in the United States but visits the region often I have taken both the red and green routes on different occasions and it is easy to notice that the green route is much, much safer.

This is life in Palestine. This is occupation. No one should have to get used to it. If we can learn anything from this tragedy today it is that even when there are no soldiers, incursions, weapons or settlers involved, the very infrastructure of occupation increases the risks and challenges facing Palestinians on a daily basis.

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Gaza, Déjà vu: Context Matters

Over the past 24 hours I couldn't help but feel I have lived these moments before. I suppose that is because recent events are so similar to events which lead to the beginning of Israel's 23-day campaign in Gaza which left over 1,400 dead, most of whom where civilians.

The Arab world has been on fire now for months with one revolution after the other. Regimes that haven't fallen are cracking down on protesters, and the space allotted in one's mind for news is being dominated by Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and of course, armed intervention in a bloody conflict in Libya. On Nov. 4th, 2008, the world was similarly distracted by another historic event: the election of the United State's first African-American president.

It was during that precise moment that

Israel shattered a truce that was brokered by the now fallen Mubarak regime months prior. The day after the attack that left several Palestinians dead, I knew this would lead to increased hostilities and create a pretext for a war that Israel had long planned. So I wrote pieces which I offered to various papers trying to highlight this moment, but no opinion pages had space for a piece on a few dead Palestinians with thousands of pieces on Obama's election coming in. Few news outlets even covered the attack on Gaza at the time; they were busy with the election.

So when the war on Gaza inevitably started at the end of December in 2008, it permitted many editors to create this simple, context free story line:

Israel must defend itself. And Hamas must bear responsibility for ending a six-month cease-fire this month with a barrage of rocket attacks into Israeli territory.

In fact, that is precisely how the NY Times began their lead editorial on Dec. 30th, addressing the bombing of Gaza that started the war. The Times had completely dismissed the fact that it was the Israelis which escalated the situation on Nov. 4th when the entire world was busy paying attention to the election. But you'd think before writing an editorial, particularly one in a major paper that will set the tone for public discourse, some research would be done. Maybe, just maybe, there was some publication out there that actually reported on the Nov. 4th Israeli attacks which broke the cease-fire and properly placed blame on Israel for restarting hostilities. It turned out there was one:

That's right. Buried on page A10, the NY Times actually reported on the strike on Gaza which broke the cease-fire. You can see pretty clearly that their headline above contradicts their editorial once the war started. I contacted the editors about this clear contradiction, and needless to say they were not interested in talking to me. I suppose they figured, "Hell, no one else was paying attention to what happened in Gaza on Nov. 4th, 2008. Why should we?" It seems they believed that if Palestinians were killed in Gaza and no one noticed, they could ignore the events altogether and no one would be the wiser. It worked. Most American's swallowed the info fed to them about the war - hook, line and sinker.

And so, here we are again. Yesterday, one Israeli artillery shell killed 4 times more unarmed Palestinian civilians in Gaza than hundreds of Qassam rockets have managed to kill in well over 2 years. Four members of the same family were killed while playing soccer outside: 11 year-old Muhammad Jihad Al-Hilu 16 year-old Yasser Ahed Al-Hilu 20 year-old Muhammad Saber Harara and 50 year-old Yasser Hamer Al-Hilu. And the coverage of this event?

The New York Times leads off with this, justifying Israeli rationale for what had to be a mistake:

An Israeli attempt to hit Palestinian militants who had fired rockets at Israel went horribly wrong on Tuesday, with mortar shells killing three youths playing soccer and a 60-year-old grandfather leaving his house.

Then there was this LA Times story:

Several Israeli tank shells landed Tuesday at a playground in Gaza City, killing three children and their grandfather and injuring 12 other children and women, hospital sources and witnesses said.

Eyewitnesses said that seven tank shells slammed a playground where children were playing soccer, adding two other shells crashed through the ceiling of a nearby house, injuring six women.

Relatives of those killed said they prevented a group of Palestinian militants from firing mortars into Israel from an area that is adjacent to their houses just half an hour before Israeli tanks fired the shells.

Notice how the LA Times talks about the act in the passive voice to introduce the story. "Several Israeli tank shells landed" Did they fall out of the clear blue sky? Of course not! They were fired by Israeli soldiers. But as far as this lead is concerned, the tank shells just landed. It is not until the third paragraph that any agency is assigned to any of the actions in this story, and it only comes AFTER mentioning Palestinian agency behind mortar attacks. What you see here is editors linguistically bending over backwards to convince the reader the Israelis took no action before Palestinians did, even though the story is supposed to be about Palestinian civilians who were killed when Israeli soldiers in an Israeli tank pushed a button to fire an Israeli artillery shell.

Another common feature of these stories is how shallow the context is. We are told Palestinians were killed by Israelis yesterday after Palestinians fired rockets over the weekend. 3 days, that's it. That's all the context we get. What happened before that? Don't we need to know? As far as editors are concerned, we don't.

This should give you an idea of some of the missing context, prior to the last three days, which usually doesn't make the cut. Take the last three months in Gaza, for example:

Palestinians Killed in Gaza in January:

65 year-old farmer Shaban Qarmut shot dead by Israeli forces.

25 year-old Mohamad Jamil Najjar killed in Israeli air strike.

20 year-old Amjad Sami Azzazeen killed in Israeli raid, 2 others injured.

13 year-old Basel Adwan killed by unexploded Israeli ordinance.

Palestinians Killed in Gaza in February:

Three fishermen, 20 year-old Jihad Fathi Khalaf, 25 year-old Tal'at Ar-Ruwagh, 29 year-old Ashraf Eqtefan, were killed by Israeli fire and two others wounded.

A Palestinian is killed and two others wounded in Israeli air strikes.

A Palestinian worker is shot and killed by Israeli forces.

Palestinians Killed in Gaza in March(thus far):

Adnan Shteiwi and Ghassan Abu Amr are killed in an Israeli air strike.

Five Palestinians are injured in Israeli airstrikes.

17 year-old Isam Farajallah and 17 year-old Qasim Iteiwa are killed by Israeli fire.

These are partial lists, and many others have been injured. Many more fall prey to Israel's siege and restrictions on Gaza, like those who die when tunnels collapse on them while they try to secure goods not permitted by the Israeli blockade. Then there are cases like Mohmoud Najjar, the 15 year-old cancer-stricken child who was denied exit from Gaza for an entire month to seek urgent treatment for his disease. He ultimately died, having received care far too late.

But despite the regular Israeli strikes on Gaza, whether they kill unarmed civilians, non-combatants, or combatants, we almost never hear about it. Then, when Israelis are attacked, reporting on these attacks completely deprives the reader of the necessary context to understand the ongoing conflict, the asymmetry of force and casualties and the underlying cause of all of it: the continued occupation of Palestinian territory and siege of the Gaza Strip.

The casualties above do not include victims of Israeli settler violence. But journalists find a way to write-off victims of Israeli strikes in Gaza and Israeli settlers in the West Bank by calling the periods during which these attacks occur "relative calm".

One can only hope that the Israelis are not planning another assault on Gaza, but the events of the past twenty-four hours bring back a disturbing feeling. If there is an escalation to full on war against Gaza, let's try to remember the context from which that escalation grew.

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Don't Call it East Jerusalem II

In an earlier post, I tried to explain why the language we use is important, and why using the terminology "East Jerusalem" to refer to places like Jabal Abu Ghneim, which became the Israeli colony Har Homa in the last 15 years, is extremely problematic and an uncritical acceptance of the Israeli narrative. On the right you can see an image of what Jabal Abu Ghneim looked like in 1997, during the Oslo Peace Process, and how it looked in 2005.


Today's announcement of 1300 more units came as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was in the United States. A number of different outlets reported or are reporting on this issue today, and it's important to take note of the language they use. This gives us a fresh and timely opportunity to witness how the media has accepted the Israeli narrative about "East Jerusalem."

Here is AFP's lead:

Israel has approved more than 1,300 new housing units in occupied east Jerusalem, settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Monday, in what a spokeswoman described as "a big provocation."

Reuters:

Israel is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, the Interior Ministry said Monday, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.

JTA:

A Jerusalem municipal committee has approved the construction of more than 1,000 Jewish homes in eastern Jerusalem.

BBC:

Israel has revealed plans to build nearly 1,300 housing units for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.

AP:

The Israeli government is moving ahead with plans to build nearly 1,300 new apartments in disputed east Jerusalem, an official said Monday, a step that could complicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meetings with American officials in the United States.

CNN:

The Israeli government said Monday it is proceeding with plans for about 1,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem, a move that the chief Palestinian negotiator said would derail already suspended peace talks.

NYT:

The construction of Jewish housing in East Jerusalem has been a source of acute tension between Israel and the United States this year. In March, when Mr. Biden was visiting Jerusalem, Israel announced plans for 1,600 Jewish units in another contested area of the city, embarrassing Mr. Biden and infuriating President Obama.

CSM:

Israel has published plans to build about 1,300 new housing units in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, a move that highlights US-Israeli differences just as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the United States to huddle with Obama administration officials.

The image to the right shows the location of Har Homa, which Israel, and only Israel, considers part of "East Jerusalem." Click the image to watch a video showing when and where Har Homa and other settlements were built around Jerusalem.

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Don't Call It East Jerusalem!

'East Jerusalem.' You've heard it time and again. But what does it mean?

You'll often hear analysts speak of the West Bank and 'East Jerusalem' suggesting that these two geographies are separate and unique. You may see statistics about settlers disaggregated by these geographies as well. Here in Tom Friedman's recent piece, even when he is attempting to show Israel some 'tough love,' he still toes the Israeli line:

It is a measure of how spoiled Israel has become that after billions and billions of dollars in U.S. aid and 300,000 settlers already ensconced in the West Bank, Israel feels no compunction about spurning an American request for a longer settlement freeze — the only purpose of which is to help the United States help Israel reach a secure peace with the Palestinians.

300,000? The number of settlers that live in occupied territory is well over 500,000, so how did a couple hundred thousand disappear? It's because Friedman, and many others who do this, intentionally or subconsciously have accepted the Israeli narrative that 'East Jerusalem' is somehow different from the remainder of the occupied West Bank simply because the Israelis say it is. This creates the misconception that the status of settlers in 'East Jerusalem' is somehow different, that 'East Jerusalem' is less of a problem, or that those settlements in 'East Jerusalem' are not as contentious.

This is the same Israeli narrative which responds to international demands to stop expanding settlements like Pisgat Ze'ev or Ramot Shlomo by saying "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It is not a settlement."Rep. Gary Ackerman, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, regurgitated that AIPAC talking point in a recent statement.

One needs to look at a map to really understand what is happening here. We put together a video on settlements and restrictions facing Palestinians in Jerusalem which helps explain this.

The territory occupied by Israel in 1967 included what was east of the 1949 armistice line, or the 'Green Line' which constitutes the entirety of the West Bank. Israel, unilaterally, decided to annex a chunk of that territory and this annexation is not recognized by the United States, the United Nations or any other party. So regardless of what Israel calls the territory, whether they want to call it 'East Jerusalem,' Zaire or Mars, international law and in the international community call it occupied territory over which Israel has no legal jurisdiction to transfer its civilian population.

It's actually a quite simple principle. So simple in fact, we teach it in kindergarten. It's called "coloring inside the lines." The Israelis, and those who have adopted or support their narrative, refuse to color inside the lines. Of course the implications of these policies are far more grave than creating sloppy artwork. That is why the United States should stop acting like Israel's unconditionally loving parents, who proudly hang the indiscernible artwork on the fridge, and call it what is is: a monstrosity of occupation.

Sometimes its difficult to discuss this issue and the geography without using the term 'East Jerusalem' to convey what area is being referred to. It becomes dangerous, however, when 'East Jerusalem' is used to create the idea that its simply the symmetrical opposite of West Jerusalem which is west of the 'Green Line.' 'East Jerusalem' is not like Northwest DC or the Lower East Side. This isn't just another neighborhood in a sovereign city; it is in fact beyond an internationally recognized demarcation. The average American however, unfamiliar with the geography or occupation, who reads Friedman or hears Ackerman, is not likely to make the distinction.

The language we use - the choice of words - is vital. For Palestinians, using 'East Jerusalem' without putting it in the proper context of occupation when speaking to Western audiences, is simply self-colonization and the internalization of a colonial narrative. For others, this is an similarly dangerous trap which must be avoided, and more often than not it hasn't been.

Lines are drawn to demarcate positions, both moral and geographic, and by ignoring the fact that the occupied territory which Israel calls 'East Jerusalem' is as much occupied as any other part of the West Bank including Nablus, Jericho and Hebron, is the same as justifying that occupation.

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VIDEO: Settlements and Jerusalem

Israel announced today that 240 more illegal settlement homes would be built in the occupied West Bank in the area of East Jerusalem. This area is of course particularly sensitive because East Jerusalem must serve as a Palestinian capital in any two-state solution. Everything Israel has done around Jerusalem since occupying the West Bank in 1967 has been aimed at making sure that never happens.

If you haven't seen our 5 minute video explaining the evolution of settlements around Jerusalem and its effect, it appears below. I guarantee you will learn more in those 5 minutes than in any amount of time you spend reading the NYT on this issue.

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If Hypocrisy Were a Mountain....

...this man would be standing a the very top.

A battle has been going on for months over the building of a so-called 'Museum of Tolerance' in Jerusalem sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center . The planned Museum would be built over an ancient Muslim cemetery in what was once the Palestinian village of Mamilla. So you'd think that the leadership of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is arguing it has the right to build its museum of tolerance literally on top of a graveyard in Jerusalem despite the sensitivities of the Muslim community, would come out in support of the Muslim community center that is a number of blocks away from ground zero.

Unfortunately, the stance of Wiesenthal Center's Executive Director Rabbi Meyer May has little to do with principle and everything to do with enraging Muslims and furthering a divide between Islam and the West.

The message they are sending is crystal clear, Muslim sensitivities do not matter.

Just earlier this week 15 graves were demolished in the Mamilla cemetery. More on the campaign against the desecration of this cemetery here.

Tolerance shmolerence.

*UPDATE: Watch video of another Rabbi affiliated with the Wiesenthal Center on Fox News talking about the Cordoba Mosque saying, of all things, that they picked the wrong location...

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The Centrality of Jerusalem

Palestine Center Brief No. 194 (2 April 2010)
By Yousef Munayyer

If international law matters to any American president, it ought to be President Obama who has taught constitutional law.

Israel's supporters are wrong to downplay the significance of illegal settlement activity as innocuous building in "Jewish neighborhoods" of Jerusalem. Contrary to Prime Minister Netanyahu's claim that "building in Jerusalem is the same as building in Tel Aviv," according to international law and longstanding U.S. policy, building in East Jerusalem is the same as building in Jenin - or any other city in the occupied West Bank.

Despite all its remonstrating, Israel stands isolated from the entire international community over occupied East Jerusalem. Israel has no legitimate sovereignty on any inch of land beyond the Green Line, regardless of what they call it. As one European foreign minister recently stated: "I think I can say very clearly that Jerusalem is not Tel Aviv." Legally speaking, this rebuke to Netanyahu's bluster is correct, and the U.S. knows it.

Those who watch this conflict closely know that Israeli settlement expansion in Jerusalem has the potential to destroy the two-state solution and precipitate a third intifada. It is no minor matter. Nor was the timing of the announcements of 1600 new Jewish homes in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo during the visit of Vice President Biden, or of 20 more units for a site owned by an American funder of Netanyahu just hours before the prime minister was to meet with Obama.

Netanyahu rejected U.S. calls to halt settlement expansion and his Interior Minister, Eli Yishai -- the same man who started the fracas when Biden visited -- also seems determined to continue flouting the Obama administration.

Undeterred, unrepentant, and still in his job, Yishai declared more than two weeks after the initial incident: "I thank God I have been given the opportunity to be the minister who approves the construction of thousands of housing units in Jerusalem."

And when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced the concern of the Obama administration, MK Danny Danon of Netanyahu's Likud party said her "meddling in internal Israeli decisions regarding the development of our capital, Jerusalem, is uninvited and unhelpful." American organizations such as AIPAC and the ADL then urged the Obama administration to hush while expressing no public dismay at Danon's tongue-lashing of the American secretary of state.

Could you imagine what would happen today if the United States annexed Mexico down to Mexico City, claimed it as part of Texas, then began building US cities there and preventing Mexicans from entering?

Obviously, the rest of the world would not accept the annexation of land through conquest for the United States or any state -- even Israel.

But Jerusalem is not only a flash point because of Israel's ongoing colonization through settlement expansion; this transcends the territorial dimension. Jerusalem is a symbolic city dear to Muslims, Christians and Jews. And as the economic and cultural center of Palestinian life for centuries, it is the only city that could be the capital of a Palestinian state. Likewise, no viable Palestinian state could emerge without East Jerusalem as its capital.

That's why other Israeli provocations in Jerusalem are equally damaging to the diplomatic process and stability in the region. The ongoing de-Arabization of Jerusalem which has accelerated in recent years, demands the immediate attention of all those interested in a just solution to this conflict. From eviction and demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, to the revocation of residencies and a complex matrix of walls and checkpoints, Israeli policies are slowly sapping Jerusalem of its Palestinian population.

In the Arab and Muslim world, this process playing out daily on the television screens of onlookers is interpreted as nothing short of a colonialist enterprise. (To see a video that explains Israels increasing grip on Jerusalem click here for a flash version and here for a YouTube version.)

While some Israeli spokespersons may claim that there is no need to fuss over building a few houses, the reality is that the Palestinians and others in the Middle East have been watching an ongoing and alarming trend in Jerusalem for decades. Major settlements like Har Homa, Gilo, Ramat Shlomo, Ma'ale Addumim and others, which were developed under the Israeli guise of building in Jerusalem "just like Tel Aviv," have created insurmountable obstacles to sharing Jerusalem between both peoples. The policies of removing or forcing out Palestinians from Jerusalem reinforce the notion that Israel has no intention of returning the land it occupies.

Without Jerusalem on the table, Palestinians not only lack incentive to negotiate, they lack any incentive to maintain the two-state framework.

Jerusalem tumult has the potential to send shockwaves through the Middle East and the broader Muslim world where the United States has far more important interests than the troublemaking state of Israel.

Yousef Munayyer is Executive Director of the Palestine Center. This policy brief may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center.

Views expressed on this post or on linked web pages do not represent the Palestine Center, the educational program of the Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development. All content is for educational purposes only.

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Understanding Israel's Increasing Grip on Jerusalem through Maps

A video briefing explaining Israel's continued and expanding grip on Jerusalem since the occupation began in 1967.

Download [right click the link and select 'save link as']

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Israel's East Jerusalem Colonizing on Eggshells Now?

Despite the wide perception in the United States that Israeli leader Benyamin Netanyahu has not budged on his government's position on the colonization of East Jerusalem, the leader is trying to spin it positively.

"We are trying to find the golden path between our will to advance the peace process along with the United States, and between maintaining the standard policy of all Israeli governments," said Netanyahu just before boarding a plane back to Israel early Thursday.

Although the PM is sticking to the official position, that Israel has full sovereignty over occupied Jerusalem, the municipal authorities have been told to be more careful as they continue their colonizing activities, according to a report by Haaretz. They have been given

informal, oral instructions to act "with caution and sensitivity" when approving plans that might set off diplomatic rows. Officially, however, they were asked to continue working normally, as the government did not commit to a construction freeze in East Jerusalem.

City planners are blaming their gaffe of announcing new settlement construction during American Vice-President Joe Biden's trip to Israel last week on uncertainty about policy. "There's a general feeling of confusion among the city workers," one source said.

It does not help that zionist construction groups are trying to circumvent city officials' reservations by submitting plans through Arab front-men. They hope to get around the political sensitivity of the issue.

Reportedly, the city's mayor Nir Barkat is overseeing the building and planning committee's work to avoid controversial approvals. The city however denied this.

While the naive city official narrative is an interesting one, it is hard to believe they stumbled into controversy accidentally during a high-level political visit. Firming up Israel's control over East Jerusalem has been a national project since it occupied it in 1967. The ideological impulse is overt. However, that does not mean city officials are not going to be more careful about where they approve Jewish settlement housing and how many Palestinians homes they demolish. They will be so long as there is international scrutiny. However, once this attention passes, it will be business as usual. Until then, they will continue towards the goal of changing facts on the ground, but in smaller steps.

Just because there is a tift with the United States, it does not mean Israel's main ally is joining the international consensus. The United States was the only country that voted against a UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel's East Jerusalem colonization. One reason the relationship with the United States is so important is that its support largely shields Israel from global public opinion. How sincere this disagreement is will be gauged by how the United States responds to Israeli colonization, no matter how piecemeal.

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Can the Israeli Public Like Obama More than Bibi and Back Settlement-Building?

One of the three polls of Israeli public opinion released today suggest that Israelis are overall favorable towards U.S. President Barack Obama, despite the apparent tensions between the U.S. government and Israel over the issue of settlement construction in east Jerusalem.

The three polls released Friday suggest that Israelis have mixed feelings towards their leader, while they tend to support settlement construction.

According to ABC News:

Thirty-six percent of those questioned for one poll thought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was best suited to lead Israel, versus 26 percent for his closest challenger, opposition leader Tzipi Livni. But another poll showed Livni's Kadima Party would overtake Netanyahu's Likud by a wider margin if elections were held today.

Despite the apparent edge President Obama seems to have in the polls, they also found that a majority of Israelis supported continued construction in Jerusalem, the issue at the heart of the U.S.-Israeli disagreement. Support ranged from 48 percent in one poll to 70 percent in another.

If this is in fact true, one explanation is that Israelis who support settlement-building do not care so strongly that they evaluate leaders based solely on their positions towards it. Another explanation could be that they simply do not think President Obama is really so opposed to settlement construction; perhaps they just rationalize it as him giving a nod to the Palestinians and do not think he will actually do much to stop them.

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Do Occupied Peoples Have the Right to Protest?

Israeli stun grenades during a demonstration
in the West Bank village of Beit Jala (photo: AP).

While Israeli analysts and government officials for years referred to the threat of terrorism as a justification for imposing a security regime on the Palestinian people, recent events show this line of thinking was not intended to encourage non-violent resistance.

Israel has been hitting unarmed Palestinian protesters with excessive force, arresting them, and is now closing down Palestinian villages that have been sites for weekly demonstrations.

Just after the fifth year anniversary of the commencement of weekly protests in the Palestinian West Bank villages of Bil'in and Na'alin against the apartheid wall and occupation, the Israeli military is declaring the villages "closed military zones on Fridays for the next six months."

This video was made to celebrate the 4th anniversary in 2009. It shows the nature of the protests and the repressive response:



The decision comes after the growing prominence of these weekly protests, which have attracted international figures and media. In December, The Elders members Desmond Tutu, Ela Bhatt, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson visited Bil’in.

Evidence of Israel's use of harsh force against protesters is in the numbers. In the two villages, Israeli forces killed 23 demonstrators, half of them minors; no Israeli soldiers have been killed. Several had been severely injured and killed by high velocity tear gas canisters.

Not all Israelis agree with the measures against the West Bank villages. Haaretz opined today that these measures are "a serious anti-democratic move. The order issued by the GOC Central Command implementing this restriction is an act against the freedom to demonstrate."

Riots have flared in Jerusalem's protests over Israel's colonization efforts and anti-Palestinian dispossession there. While arrests are made on the pretense of rioting, the protesters report that state forces, as with Bil'in and Na'alin, initiate the use of violence.

On Tuesday's "day of rage" in east Jerusalem, more than 100 people were injured and 70 others were arrested. One Israeli officer was injured after being shot in the hand. Palestinians in Jaffa also protested in solidarity.

Now there are unconfirmed reports from Jerusalem that a Police Special Patrol Unit began rounding up the organizers of the protests in Jerusalem last night at 3:30 AM. According to one account,

masked Israeli forces entered the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud and kidnapped 3 residents. The forces then told the families that 'they (the forces) will take all the men involved in the protests.'

If more information follows, we will update this post.

Given the inability of the powers of the world to bring any sense to Israeli policy, it can only be hoped that people power have such effects.

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BBC Panorama: Life in East Jerusalem

Despite some problematic framing of the issues from the onset, this video is informative and interesting.

Part 1/3



Part 2/3



part 3/3

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Israel is Still Displacing Palestinians

The al-Rayan refugee camp in northern Gaza [Electronic Intifada]

Israel's displacement of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians in 1947-48 was a foundational step in the formation of the state. The millions of Palestinian refugees who descend from those originally displaced persons have remained in limbo and pose a challenge for peacemakers given Israel's staunch opposition to granting them basic refugee rights.

A Scandinavian NGO now warns that Palestinian displacement is not merely a historical fact but is an on-going process. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre of the Norwegian Refugee Council issued a short paper (pdf) on current Israeli dispossessions, something the international community must attend to.

The focus on two main areas:

The three-week Israeli offensive in Gaza launched in December 2008 cost the lives of over 1,000 Palestini-ans and led to the displacement of over 100,000 people. In Gaza, the continued Israeli blockade has stalled reconstruction and limited the access to assistance of the tens of thou-sands of people still displaced. In the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) demolitions of houses by the Israeli authorities has continued to cause displacement, displacing close to 600 Palestinians in 2009.

Sadly, the vast majority of Gaza's currently displaced persons descend from 1948 refugees.

Israel's policies of continuing the usurpation of Palestinians only makes more difficult a peaceful settlement. Rather than causing it to slow, Israel has only accelerated these measures in the face of an American renewal of peace talks.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, established in 1998 by the Norwegian Refugee Council, is the leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide. Hopefully, they can move this issue up in the international agenda.

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