An article by Gili Cohen in the Israeli daily paper, Haaretz, reveals how more and more nasty incursions are made on Palestinians AND even on the Israeli Defense Force by wayward Jewish settlers in the West Bank.  Unchecked  hooliganism has become the order of the day, it seems, and forces a re-definition of ‘terrorism’. 

IDF soldiers: Problem in West Bank isn't Palestinians, it's Jews

'Our purpose there is to protect the Jews, but they generate many of the problems. It's very confusing,' says combat soldier discharged last year.

By Gili Cohen    Published 16.12.11

Recent attacks by right-wing extremists on Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the West Bank are just one manifestation of the violence to which many have been subjected during their service in recent years. Both regular and reserve soldiers, including junior officers, spoke about the complicated situation they find themselves in: having to protect the settlers while at the same time being attacked by them.
"Our purpose there is to protect the Jews, but they generate many of the problems. It's very confusing," said Nadav Bigelman, a combat soldier who was discharged last year…….

The situation in the West Bank has turned upside down, he said. "We used to have a code for Palestinians throwing stones. Today it's been reversed to indicate Jews are throwing stones at Palestinians."
Bigelman, today a researcher for the Breaking the Silence organization, served in Hebron in 2008. At the time he kept a "Hebron diary" documenting settlers' violent activities, from stone throwing to cursing Palestinians, tourists and left-wing activists. One day a settler attacked his battalion commander during an argument and tore his epaulets off............

 Read more at:  http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-soldiers-problem-in-west-bank-isn-t-palestinains-it-s-jews-1.401683

Kairos Palestine speaks out.....from Bethlehem....

I quote from the EAPPI December 2011 Newsletter (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel) about the continuing and shocking demolitions which more Palestinians are facing:

“The UN reported that the army demolished over 199 homes this year to 12 December, along with 340 structures such as rainwater cisterns and animal shelters - the very basis of farming livelihoods in Area C. The occupation has displaced over 1,051 Palestinians this year, some due to violence by Israeli settlers but mostly due to demolitions. This compares to 606 for the whole of 2010.”

As we all enter the Holy Season for Christians (Christmas) and Jews (Hannakah), could we please reflect on the call of Palestinian Christians  (http://globalministries.org/news/mee/pdfs/Kairos-Palestine-The-Bethlehem-call-Dec-2011.pdf)   for a better way…….  More than 60 participants from 15 countries (including South Africa) heeded an urgent call by Kairos Palestine by joining Palestinians between 4-10 December 2011 in the Kairos for Global Justice Encounter/Conference in Bethlehem.

Anger is upon us, folks. Anger plus terrible frustrations, as the Israeli military Occupation literally destroys peoples’ existence.  Homes and shelters are the soul of one’s society…..  Surely, there must be some sort of compassion out there to stop this nightmare facing ordinary people and their families!

And also note a Franciscan prayer at the end of this call……..

Klezmer music.....and jazz, anyone?

I peeked into the Center for the Book’s concert last night – of the Cape Town’s Shpiel band celebrating its album launch of klezmer music. And how energizing they were!  I actually popped in to buy their CD “Playing with Fire” and heard fun renditions of African songs put to klezmer umpah umpah. Proceeds of the CD go to the Cape Jewish Seniors Association.

With tuba sounds on my brain, I raced off to Swingers for the Monday night jazz jam! Oh boy!  I just missed a 10+ - strong St. Joseph’s jazz band frontline the evening, led by their teacher and able drummer Adam Coolsat. Rats!  But it’s good to see youth having a performance platform at Swingers. Thanks, Swingers!  The evening continued to be filled with the usually good local talents of UCT music graduates and other older professionals, led by Alvin Dyer. A highlight was to hear graduate members of the youth Delft Big Band playing on their own steam, and wow, what talent!  Swingers is great between 10pm – midnight, if you’re a sound sleeper for early morning rises!

Folk 'n Acoustic, anyone??

What a week it’s been !  Last Saturday’s (10 Dec) “Cape Town Folk ‘n Acoustic Music Festival“  at the Cape Town International Convention Center was the first such gathering of some 22+ musicians from different parts of South Africa, plus a few from overseas.  The theme was folk stuff from the 1970’s, but I certainly heard more contemporary forms of ‘folk’ bordering admirably on funk, rock, and jazz – a “musical universalism”!  My only worry about such music offerings was that it was ALL GUITAR and voice!  The occasional percussion and accordion thrown in. (Not to mention 99% White attendance.)  Perhaps, this was because so many artists performed, singly or in duos, without their usual bands, to keep the price ‘affordable’.  But I think more just to hear the musical mastery of these individual artists. So for R180, the evening resonated with a good 4 hours of splendid, eclectic, and impressive acoustics.  I’d say, good value for money.

On the bill was:

Janie Bay and her brother, ‘Beard’, in a guitar duo;   Jullie Blundell and Christina Weir in dual guitar and singing;  Gavin Minter (who put this whole festival together!) singing on guitar with Mark Fransman on his rarely heard small accordion;  Louise Day played an interesting rendition of “You are my sunshine”;  Brian Finch showed off his 40 years of experience;  Tombstone Pete proudly took us through a rocking song commemorating his 8 months out of rehab!!   Using his guiitar as percussion.

After a much needed break to revive and breathe a bit, the next set included:

Guy Buttery did a ufo-styled piece, which was more electro-centric than acoustic, I thought, but certainly eiry – a “Martian folk” experiment. Playing his guitar flat on his lap allowed for percussion sounds to resonate. What a performer!  Then there was the young “Machineri” who has cut her first album; Rory Eliot presented a powerful and emotional piece. He was my favorite of the night!

Another break.  Then the firey Jack Mantis with an accordion duo. He’s off to USA for 3 months shortly. Young Natasha Meister from Canada blew us all away with cheers as she belted out a bluesy one with an impressive raspy voice punctuated with full-blown confidence. She announced that she was the first woman musician to be endorsed by Fender.  Then came Steve Newman with his always entertaining round banjo guitar.  Farryl Purkiss performed his adept guitar/harmonica pieces. Ard Matthews Just Jinger rounded out this splendid evening .  I think I’ll go again next year!  I think I’ll buy some CDs, too!

Sunday Argus on Palestine......

My Reply published in Sunday Argus, December 4, 2011. See Powell's article below.

Powell’s “’Freedom riders” put Israeli policies on spot” (Sunday Argus, 20 November 2011) refers:

A multitude of books written, and 60 plus years of analysis, have punctuated the gloomy growth of Israel’s controls over its ‘territories’. But one thing seems to be certain, as Powell’s article suggests: Israel’s defensive tactics, repeated over and over again, only bring disjointed dialogue, if any at all. Peace with justice is simply not in the equation.

A friend of mine criticized the recent Russell Tribunal on Palestine (held Dec 5-6 at District Six Museum) as being ‘dreadfully biased and political’.  Indeed.  Pity that more pro-Israeli factions did not attend as they could have – this was a people’s Tribunal where evidence (good and bad) is brought forward. 

Aren’t these abstaining tactics obscuring the value of rightful and legitimate dialogue? Did not the overwhelming evidence brought forth by witnesses at the Tribunal – from Palestinians and Israeli Jews and Arabs– provide the attendees and critics with countless examples of human rights violations?

Is this ‘dreadfully biased’? It’s pathetically biased until the Israeli State stops its psychological warfare and starts to confer transformative and peace-seeking actions upon its increasingly repressive policies towards its Palestinian neighbors.

And this has nothing to do with the call that “Israel has the right to exist”.

It’s about attending to the prescripts of international humanitarian law and stopping the military occupation.

Carol Martin, Cape Town

Former Ecumenical Accompanier for Palestine and Israel (EAPPI)

In West Bank

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sunday Argus, 20 November 2011  WORLD page

‘Freedom riders’ put Israeli policies on spot.

Protesters thrown off bus reserved for West Bank settlers.

BY  Ivor Powell

Picture:   DEMO RIDE: An Israeli border police officer detains a Palestinian activist after removing him from a bus at Hizme checkpoint on the edge of Jerusalem this week. Calling themselves ‘freedom riders’, six Palestinians boarded the bus used by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. They were taken off the bus and detained.    PICTURE: REUTERS

THE VEXED question addressed by the Russell Tribunal in Cape Town this month – Is the government of Israel guilty of apartheid practices in its treatment of Palestinians? – was spotlighted in the occupied West Bank this week when a group of so-called “freedom riders” attempted to board a bus reserved for the exclusive use of Israeli settlers. Accompanied by the press, the Palestinian activists staged a carefully orchestrated piece of political guerrilla theatre when they got on board the bus that links Israel’s controversial West Bank settlers with Jerusalem, claiming the right to travel freely in their own country.  

Styling themselves after civil rights activists in the southern states of the US who deliberately flouted laws enforcing bus segregation in the 1960s, the Palestinian freedom riders were seeking

to highlight discriminatory legislation imposed by the Israeli authorities. Their claimed right was,

predictably enough, denied them. The six freedom riders were forcibly removed from the bus and arrested. But they had made their point. Even before the activists boarded the bus, spokesperson Hurriyah Ziada read out a statement demanding “the ability to travel freely on our roads, on our own land, including the right to travel to Jerusalem”.

In the wake of a series of suicide bombings in the Intifada that erupted in 2000, Israel placed severe travel restrictions on Palestinian nationals. The permit system has been compared with the

apartheid-era “dompas”. As one of the freedom riders put it, as quoted in the Washington Post: “Those are racist laws. Tell me isn’t this racist discrimination between me and the settlers?”

But other events in occupied Palestine in recent weeks have – in the perception of Palestinian activists at least – shadowed the days of apartheid in South Africa in more sinister ways. These alleged apartheid tactics included the firebombing of dissidents and activists. Funding and material aid were cut off from extraparliamentary opposition groups, whether through legislation or by force of arms.

One such event took place in the West Bank village of Jayyus, where a Christian worker, Zodwa Nsibande, awoke in the early hours of Wednesday last week to find the house was on fire.  “I was woken by a whoosh of a semi-explosion in the porch area and woke up the others,” Nsibande recalled. “Together the team managed to put the fire out before Palestinian police and firemen arrived on the scene.”  Along with three other South Africans and a contingent of international humanitarian aid workers under the auspices of the World Council of Churches, Nsibande is attached to the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine, an agency that operates inside the occupied territories and, while monitoring alleged abuses, seeks to promote dialogue.

Ecumenical accompanier Ian Bell told Independent Newspapers the residents had found clear indications of deliberate arson in the fire that was started at a side door to the house – including the remains of a petrol canister. While it remains unclear just who set the fire, the ecumenical accompaniers –dousing the blaze before it got out of control – said they believed the incident was connected to a pattern of latenight incursions into the territory by groups connected to the Israeli Defence Force.

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme is an integral part of the international campaign to

“Stop the Wall” – the giant security wall built by the Israeli government to cut off Palestinian territories from Israel proper. The agency was also outspoken in drawing attention to the closure of a group of human rights organisations earlier this month.

In another incident this month, the Israeli navy intercepted two aid ships, one under an Irish flag and the other Canadian, sailing under the auspices of the human rights coalition Freedom Waves and seeking to defy an Israeli blockade to deliver medical supplies to Gaza.  The Freedom Waves flotilla followed the earlier and highly publicised voyage of the Turkish-registered Mavi Marmara in May 2010. Its boarding by Israeli commandos left nine dead.   Boarded about 80km from shore – in international waters – on November 4, the latest aid ships were again commandeered by the Israeli military. The 27 passengers, including parliamentarians, journalists and human rights activists, were arrested.   They are apparently charged with illegal entry into Israel. Six have subsequently been deported after signing voluntary deportation orders.  The other 21 refused to sign.

● With the Russell Tribunal on Palestine’s verdict – rejected by the Israeli authorities – still hanging in the air, news reached Independent Newspapers on Friday that the order had been given to destroy a cluster of Bedouin encampments in the north of the Jordan Valley.  The “forced removals” are justified in terms of a policy whereby Israel asserts military control over nearly 30 percent of the total territory in the occupied West Bank. The evacuation will affect about 72 people, many of them women and children.

According to the Stop the Wall campaign, this will be the fifth time that some of the nomads have been uprooted since 2001. In a statement calling for an immediate response from the diplomatic community, Stop the Wall said: “The families continue to endure human rights abuses carried out by the Israeli police and the Israeli military.”