Israel Apartheid state

IDF looting

Israel Apartheid state, Israel/Palestine
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So when the IDF went searching the West Bank for the three Israeli teenages it already knew were dead, it managed to steal at least $3 million from the homes and businesses it searched:

Ramallah- During the course of Israel’s three-week campaign of mass arrests in the West Bank, ostensibly to search for the killers of three settlers, the Israeli military and police conducted an average of 18 raids per day into Palestinian homes, charities and businesses, stealing cash and property worth an estimated $3 million, documents a new report from the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights.

The full report (PDF).

Why a two state solution will fail

Israel Apartheid state, Israel/Palestine
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A map of the West Bank Palestinian territories re-imagined as an archipelo

What would the Palestinian controlled territories on the West Bank look like if completely isolated from the rest of the West Bank? That’s what Julien Bousac wanted to show with the above map, of the Palestinian territories as a group of islands:

Mr Boussac took advantage of the resulting archipelago effect “to use typical tourist maps codes (mainly icons) to sharpen the contrast between the fantasies raised by seemingly paradise-like islands and the Palestinian Territories grim reality.” The map does have a strong vacationy vibe to it – but whether that is because of the archipelago-shaped subject matter, or due to the cheerful colour scheme is a matter for debate.

It shows how much the reality differs from what politicians imagine when they blithly talk about a Palestinian controlled West Bank. It also shows how unrealistic the idea of a two state solution is. The only really coherent piece of land that the Palestinians possess is Gaza and that can be turned into a huge open air prison by the IDF at will. Instead, what needs to happen is to recreate Israel and Palestina as a true democratic state no longer based on Apartheid ideals.

(Via Vuijlsteke.)

What lies behind the Israeli attack?

Gaza, Israel Apartheid state, Israel/Palestine
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The core problem in resolving the Israeli Apartheid is that this is the liberal option:

I’m not asking Israel to be Utopian. I’m not asking it to allow Palestinians who were forced out (or fled) in 1948 to return to their homes. I’m not even asking it to allow full, equal citizenship to Arab Israelis, since that would require Israel no longer being a Jewish state. I’m actually pretty willing to compromise my liberalism for Israel’s security and for its status as a Jewish state.”

There may be Israeli’s who genuinely want to end Apartheid, just like there were White South Africans who wanted to end theirs, but they’re too few and too powerless to count, unless Israel starts to suffer for its policies the way South Africa suffered. Hence the importance of the boycott and disinvestment campaign as well as the aid offered to the Palestinian population.

Which is part of the reason why the relief flottila was attacked the way it was, as Jim Henley explains:

Simply, the Jewish people have historically been weak. The Israeli state is currently strong. It’s the only military power of significance in its region and it has the apparently unswerving support of the only global military power that matters. Israel attacked the relief convoy because Israel did not want the relief convoy reaching Gaza, and the convoy offered an opportunity to demonstrate that it meant what it said. In particular that it wasn’t going to stand on ceremony about technicalities like “international waters” or “attacking civilians.” It’s not more complcated than that.

As I said before, Israel wanted to make it clear that they and only they would decide when the population of Gaza had suffered enough and was allowed help.

Meanwhile, here’s what happens if you attempt to protest this attack in the Occupied Westbank:

A 21-year old American student at Cooper Union lost an eye after getting hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration at a crowded checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank yesterday. Emily Henochowicz (here’s her blog) was part of a group protesting the deaths of at least nine pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. According to her fellow activists, Henochowicz is undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, and one protester, Sören Johanssen, says Israeli soldiers intentionally fired at her face:

“They clearly saw us,” says Johanssen. “They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.” Israeli soldiers have previously killed and injured demonstrators with tear gas canisters.

QotD: how is Israel like North Korea

Comment of the Day, Gaza, Israel Apartheid state, Israel/Palestine
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From Jamie:

Is it extreme to raise parallels between Israel and North Korea? I don’t think so. Both countries are highly militarized and intensely nationalistic, quite a lot of the time to the point of messianism . Both regard themselves as lights unto the nations, as the saying goes. Neither consider themselves bound by treaty arrangements, and are indeed generally suspicious of them. Both believe themselves to be under existential threat and neither acknowledges that their own behaviour may have anything to do with whatever hostility they face. Both pursue a strategy of active deterrence, based on a philosophy of applying disproportionate force. Both countries enjoy active, committed support from within a diaspora population. Both have nuclear weapons and neither subscribe to the anti-proliferation regime. Both economies depend heavily on arms sales abroad. While both countries consider themselves to be friendless, and use this perception to mobilise support among their respective populations, each enjoys close relations with a major sponsor.