Month: July 2010

Trapped in Gaza

by adminin Politics, Writing

gaza1Al Jazeera English, July 31, 2010

Fatma Sharif is a lawyer at Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, a non-partisan, Gaza-based NGO that has voiced sharp criticism of both Hamas and Israel. A women’s rights activist, Sharif planned to study at the West Bank’s Birzeit University for a Master’s in human rights and democracy, a degree unavailable in Gaza.

But whether or not she could travel from Gaza to the West Bank rested in Israel’s hands.

As Sharif, 29, applied for an exit permit, there was reason for hope. In 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court urged the state to let Gazans attend West Bank universities in “cases that would have positive human consequences.” Sharif’s work and intended course of study seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

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Lawyer guilty of document scam must refund ill-gotten gains

by adminin Migrant workers, Writing

dsc02443The Jerusalem Post, July 23, 2010

Muhammad Fokra, a local attorney accused of cheating scores of migrant workers and Palestinians out of thousands of dollars, has been ordered by a Tel Aviv court to refund his clients. The civil suit against Fokra was filed by attorney David Ben-Haim, who represented 25 migrant laborers from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Romania and Turkey. They are thought to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of other migrant workers are believed to have fallen victim to the scam.

Almost all tell a similar story. Most had either lost or overstayed their work visas. And Fokra, who keeps an office in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station – a popular meeting place for foreign workers – promised to protect them from deportation.

After they’d paid between $3,000 and $4,000, Fokra provided his clients, most of whom don’t read or write Hebrew, with court documents. According to his clients, Fokra claimed the paperwork meant they could stay in Israel and continue to work for up to five years.

Some say Fokra referred to it as a “protection visa” – a category that does not exist.

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Children are just Israel’s latest victims

by adminin Israel, Writing

dsc08886The Guardian, July 20, 2010

Michelle is the 14-year-old daughter of undocumented migrant laborers from the Philippines. In fluent Hebrew, she sums up the inhumanity of Israel’s plans to deport children of foreign workers. “It’s like they’re taking sheep and packing them,” she says, comparing the expulsion to herding animals.

While Michelle will probably be naturalized, Israel is set to expel scores of minors, along with their families, to their parents’ country of origin. The criteria that determine who will get residency are rigid and arbitrary. Because of tight age restrictions and an even smaller window to get one’s paperwork turned in—parents will have just three weeks to submit documents that might be impossible to obtain—many children will be left out in the cold.

Hundreds of protestors gathered in Tel Aviv Saturday night to rally against the deportation. The scene was heart-rending. Little girls sat on a ledge, swinging their feet, holding a poster that read, “Don’t deport us.” A young boy gripped a sign with the message, “We are all Israeli children.”

Noa Kaufman, an activist with Israeli Children, a grassroots movement founded specifically to advocate for the kids facing deportation, said that all must be allowed to stay. She remarked that the expulsion would not only damage the families of migrant workers, it would be harmful to Israel, as well, making the country “so white and so ugly.”

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Israel’s ‘illegal’ children

by adminin Writing

dsc09577Al Jazeera English, July 17, 2010

For most children summer is a carefree time. But for the children of Israel’s undocumented migrant workers, deportation looms on the horizon.

It has been a hotly contested issue since last July, when the Oz Unit, a strong arm of the interior ministry’s population and immigration authority, first hit the streets.

As the state took aim at Israel’s 250,000 illegal labourers, 1,200 children were marked for expulsion along with their parents.

The move, a sudden reversal of Israel’s long-standing policy against deporting minors, sparked public outrage. Protests and media scrutiny delayed the deportations but only temporarily.

In October, Eli Yishai, the interior minister, indicated that the families would indeed be expelled. The following month, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced that the children would be allowed to finish the school year.

Roei Lachmanovich, a spokesman for Yishai, commented: “The government’s decision is that Israel should minimise the number of foreign workers in Israel. It is nothing against those 1,200 children – the decision is against the illegal workers who think getting pregnant gives them permission to stay here.”

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Israel’s ‘street apartheid’

by adminin Writing

dsc09430

Al Jazeera English, July 10, 2010

Mahmoud Alami, a Jerusalem taxi driver, knows the city like the back of his hand. He knows the neighborhoods, the streets. And he knows the stop lights.

There’s one in particular that troubles him not professionally but personally. It stands between Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood, and Pisgaat Zeev, a Jewish settlement. “It stays green for [settlers] for five minutes. But to go in and out of Beit Hanina? Only two or three cars can pass,” Alami says. “It’s too short. It causes a lot of traffic jams.”

Al-Jazeera English found that stoplights that lead to Jewish settlements and neighborhoods stay green for an average of a minute and a half. In Palestinian areas, it’s 20 seconds. One light in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem is green for less than 10.

“[Palestinians] are stuck,” says Amir Daud, another taxi driver. “It reflects a very bad situation for the people.”

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Israeli victimhood a threat to the Jewish state

by adminin Writing

The Huffington Post, July 10, 2010

The headline excited me.

“Analysis: Trying one soldier for Gaza war crime doesn’t solve root of problem,” it read. Finally, a discussion of the Israeli army’s culture of impunity, I thought. Or perhaps some reflections on a state that behaves as though neither the international community nor its own Supreme Court exist.

Imagine my disappointment when I read the article.

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Israel continues to ignore human toll of siege on Gaza

by adminin Writing


The Huffington Post, July 1, 2010
Maan News Agency, July 2, 2010

Fidaa Talal Hijjy, a resident of the Gaza Strip, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in 2007–the same year Israel’s blockade of Gaza began. As her health deteriorated, so did Gaza’s medical system. Drugs are in short supply. Hospitals lack necessary equipment. And because the siege on Gaza also impedes the movement of people, medical staff cannot leave to get the training they need.

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