Author: admin

When did the Israeli blockade of Gaza begin?

by adminin Writing

dsc06773The Huffington Post, July 26, 2011
Maan News Agency, July 28, 2011

The flotilla was intended to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, a closure that has been decried as a violation of international law. While Israel prevented the boats from reaching the Gaza Strip, the initiative was successful in bringing media attention to the closure.

But Israel remains victorious on one crucial front. A tremendous majority of those talking about the blockade — from the mainstream media to critics and activists — use 2007 as the start-date, unintentionally lending legitimacy to Israel’s cause and effect explanation, an argument that pegs the closure to political events.

According to the Israeli government, the blockade was a response to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The stated goals of the closure are to weaken Hamas, to stop rocket fire and to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held in Gaza since 2006.

But the blockade — which the Israeli government has openly called “economic warfare” — did not begin in 2007. Nor did it start in 2006, with Israel’s economic sanctions against Gaza. The hermetic closure of Gaza is the culmination of a process that began 20 years ago.

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The housing struggle you haven’t heard about: Kfar Shalem

by adminin Miscellaneous, Writing

dsc03696+972 Magazine, July 28, 2011

It was news when tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in protest over housing prices. So where was the media in February when dozens of Israelis—facing not unaffordable apartments but eviction and homelessness at the state’s hands—managed to shut down several busy roads using nothing more than their bodies?

Both the tent camps and the winter demonstration are the result of the state favoring the interests of an elite oligarchy and settlements over those of citizens who live inside the Green Line. But the latter, smaller protest took place in Kfar Shalem, where housing issues have deep historical roots.

Now an economically depressed neighborhood of South Tel Aviv, Kfar Shalem was once a Palestinian village, Salame. Jewish forces ran the Arab residents out in early 1948, months before Israel was established and (what some refer to as) the War of Independence began.

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What Israeli democracy?

by adminin Politics, Writing

dsc00160The Huffington Post, July 18, 2011
Counter Punch, July 19, 2011

The anti-boycott law, which the Israeli Knesset passed this week, has sparked a storm of controversy both inside Israel and within Jewish communities abroad.

The legislation effectively criminalizes Israelis who answer the Palestinian civil society call to join the BDS movement — boycott, divestment, and sanctions — intended to bring Israel in line with international law and to pressure the state into recognizing full human and civil rights for Palestinians. While many Israelis are uncomfortable with the BDS movement — mistakenly seeing it as an attack on the state itself — there are numerous Israeli peace groups and individual activists who have taken part in a targeted boycott of settlement products for years, refusing to buy anything that is manufactured over the Green Line. There are also a small number of Israelis who support the broader BDS movement.

Under the new law, both groups will be vulnerable to lawsuits. The complainant will not have to prove that his or her business was harmed by the boycott in order to sue someone. The law is retroactive and, if one is found guilty of participating in the boycott, he or she will be subject to steep fines.

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Confessions of a so-called leftist

by adminin Writing

dsc00423+972 Magazine, July 15, 2011

I have to admit that, at first, I resented the Palestinian workers next door.

Not because they were Palestinian but because I no longer had any privacy. A writer and freelance journalist, I work at home. Most of the time, I wear my pajamas to work. Sometimes I wear a Santa Claus hat, a reminder to relax and not take myself—or my writing—too seriously. Sometimes my characters make me laugh out loud; sometimes they make me cry. And so I do that, openly, at my computer.

When I’m not at my desk, I’m watering and talking to my plants. I’m waving to my neighbors’ tabby cat. I’m doing jumping jacks. I’m dancing. I’m singing badly in English and worse in Hebrew. I’m eating with my hands.

But the shiputz, or renovation, next door brought all that to an end.

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“Welcome to Palestine” deportee ready to try again

by adminin Writing

dsc05630Maan News Agency, July 21, 2011

Laura Durkay spent 100 hours in an Israeli prison simply for declaring her intention to visit Bethlehem and its neighboring Aida refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

But the 29-year-old activist and filmmaker says, if she had the money, she’d gladly do it again. And she’s quick to add that her ordeal is “nowhere close to what happens to Palestinians” who resist the Israeli occupation.

Durkay participated in the July 8 fly-in, a protest organized to call attention to freedom of movement restrictions that affect both West Bank Palestinians and those who dare to sympathize with them. As Durkay did, participants were to openly declare their intention to visit Palestine at Israeli passport control — a small, peaceful action that could lead to deportation.

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Second flotilla ends as Israel seizes boat

by adminin Writing

dsc06758Maan News Agency, July 21, 2011

Early Tuesday morning, the Israeli navy overtook the Dignite Al Karame. A French-flagged boat, it was the only vessel of the flotilla that managed to reach international waters.

The Dignite Al Karame’s attempt to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip came a month after the largest ship, the Mavi Marmara, withdrew from the flotilla.

The organizers cited “technical problems which were caused by Israeli attacks last year,” referring to the 2010 raid, during which Israeli soldiers killed nine activists.

Eight of the dead were Turkish nationals. One was a Turkish-American.

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Out of step

by adminin Politics, Writing

dsc06703Souciant, July 13, 2011

The twelve days I spent in Athens, covering the Gaza flotilla as an embedded journalist, were stressful and confusing. I was still trying to wrap my head around things as I left Tel Aviv for a visit to the United States.

Hearing others’ thoughts and feelings is one way we can process our own, especially when we’re struggling to sort things out. So, I decided I would spend the 24 hours of transit time asking Americans what they think about the flotilla, the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and US foreign policy vis a vis the Middle East.

Yes, I’m one of those annoying plane-talkers. No, I don’t sleep. (I can’t sleep sitting up. And as a broke writer—excuse me, freelance journalist—I can’t afford first class. I can only look, with great envy, at those seats-turned-single beds as I shuffle off the plane, bleary-eyed and exhausted.)

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Organizers: Gaza flotilla era may be over

by adminin Lead Story, Writing

dsc06724Maan News Agency, July 2, 2011

A Greek decision to block ships from sailing to the Gaza Strip has prompted some organizers to rethink the flotilla movement that for years challenged Israel’s blockade of the coastal enclave.

But US activists remained upbeat Friday as they discussed alternative ways to get to Gaza.

The activists said they felt that they had accomplished their goal of bringing attention to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has been in full effect for five years after previous restrictions under a policy of closure.

Passengers said the bureaucratic delays, physical blockages and threat of violence were “just a little taste” of the restrictions on freedom of movement faced by the 1.6 million Palestinians who live in Gaza.

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Greece halts flotilla bound for Gaza

by adminin Lead Story, Writing

dsc06807Maan News Agency, July 1, 2011

The US Boat to Gaza left the Athens Port at 4:50 p.m. on Friday, expecting to be stopped by Greek authorities in the country’s coastal waters on its way to meet a French ship that had already left port.

Shortly after it sailed the US boat was intercepted by Greek officials, at the same time organizers of the Canadian boat to Gaza said the coastguard surrounded their vessel and prevented it from leaving.

At sea, the US ship attempted to secure passage through coastguard ships – one with armed soldiers aboard – which demanded it return, following the passage of a decision by the Greek Cabinet that afternoon, which according to organizers mandated that “no boat will sail for the Gaza Strip from Greece.”

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The blockade on Gaza began long before Hamas came to power

by adminin Writing

MIDEAST ISRAEL PALESTINIANS+972 Magazine, June 29, 2011

The second Freedom Flotilla is slated to set sail by the end of the month in an attempt to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The act will call attention to the closure that the United Nations and human rights organizations have decried as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the collective punishment of civilians.

According to the Israeli government—and most of the mainstream media—the blockade began in 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The aim of this “economic warfare” was to weaken Hamas, a group that the Israeli government had once supported. Israel also sought to stop rocket fire and to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held in Gaza since 2006.

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