European Jewish Congress concern over Swiss referendum on minarets

The European Jewish Congress defends equal treatment of Swiss Muslims:

Following the referendum in Switzerland concerning the construction of minarets, the European Jewish Congress reiterates the position of its Swiss affiliate SIG in “speaking out firmly in favour of equal treatment and justice and against laws of any type which are intended to apply specifically to certain religious communities.”

The European Jewish Congress defends freedom of religion and religious practice as a fundamental human right, including the right to build places of worship.

BRICUP dreams of apartheid while the Abraham Fund works for co-existence

BRICUP is touring some boycott celebrity speakers round the country to talk about ‘Israel, the Palestinians and apartheid: the case for sanctions and boycott’. Perhaps somebody could ask Omar Barghouti to kindly explain about Tel Aviv again, for those of us who still don’t understand how he could demand boycott of a really good university, and then go and privilege himself by enrolling there.

Or perhaps we could just give our attention to something better, because meanwhile in the real world Israel has once again brought new meaning to the word ‘apartheid’. A delegation of senior Israeli police officers is visiting Belfast to find out  how to provide a respectful service for minorities:

“The mission, which includes nine brigadier generals from various police departments, is part of an educational program that aims to introduce the officers to practical tools for providing egalitarian and respectful policing services to Israel’s Arab citizens.

The program was developed by the Training and Education Department of the Human Resources Division and the Abraham Fund Initiatives.

This program is part of a joint venture between the Israel Police and the Abraham Fund Initiatives aiming to improve relations between the police and the Arab community. The venture was initiated following the October 2000 events and the publication of the Or Commission recommendations.”

That this has gone ahead under the current Israeli government is a tribute to the Abraham Fund and their friends in the Knesset. As well as advocating for Arab citizens with the Israeli right, the Abraham Fund has to make arguments to Arab citizens who want to turn their backs on Jewish ones. One example is a recent move to boycott “Jewish organisations” by Arab citizens of Sakhnin, to which the Abrahan Fund responded:

“Many of Israel’s supporters understand that just as in the past they contributed toward immigration, absorption, infrastructure development, and project renewal, today the issue of integration of Israel’s Arab citizens is an important and urgent national necessity which needs to be advanced to the top of the agenda.”

To precisely this end, the Abraham Fund is having a global online benefit on December the 9th 2009 during which they will present their work and how it is helping Israeli society. Register to join them real time, free.

Bonus link: The Abraham Fund’s Mohammad Darawshe, speaking in London earlier this year.

In Israel today, what does co-existence actually mean?

I always try to go and hear Mohammad Darawshe of The Abraham Fund Initiatives (TAFI) when he comes to town. His work for minority rights in Israel will inspire you, not only because what he says renders the boycott campaign’s selective narratives nearly unrecognisable, but because of the way he comports himself as a proud member of a minority group, engaging with the authorities their behalf. He also talks about progress in the areas of government, civil service, education, and policing, which, because good news is no news, you won’t learn about in the mainstream media.

Below, Mohammad Darawshe discusses policing protests against Gaza, Yisrael Beteinu, racist Knesset bills and Israel’s response, and what engagement involves.

Like the others I have heard, this is no feel-good presentation. There is a great deal that remains to be done to bring the circumstances of Israel’s Arabs citizens level with those of its Jewish citizens. However, the direction of progress is unmistakeable. Read on.

***

“Israel has institutionally and consciously discriminated against its Arab citizens and this has to end”.

It’s highly unusual for leaders to have this kind of awakening until after they have left office – but here was Olmert, at that time the Prime Minister of Israel, making this remarkable statement at the first conference on Arab Israelis convened by the Israeli government on July 10th 2008. Prior to this moment, the issue of discrimination had been an Arab claim against Israel. But for Mohammad Darawshe, who believes that half of the battle is identifying that you have a problem, Olmert’s admission seemed like half the battle had been won.

Mohammad Darawshe has spent over half his life working for co-existence between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel, the sine qua non of which is civic equality, the guarantee of proper representation at all political levels. The reality is that Israel is the state of the Jewish people inside and outside Israel, but there is a third share-holder – Israel’s Arab citizens. Israel allocates budget for its Arab citizens, makes policy for them, appoints ministers from among them. De facto, Israel is the state for its citizens. However this is not yet a political reality. TAFI is working towards co-existence by bringing about policy changes at local and national government level in the areas of language learning, policing and civic and ministerial representation.

The years since the clashes and deep schism of the 2nd Intifada were highly formative for co-existence in Israel, and a number of recent tests have signalled to the Abraham Fund that its initiatives are bearing fruit. One test was Gaza. An anti-war demonstration in Sachnin, an Arab town, mobilised 150,000 Arab citizens, an unprecedented 13% of Israel’s Arab population, to demonstrate against government policy. It was a very loud, big, angry, sometimes nasty statement. It is very important to note – although we in Britain hardly noted it – that it passed without a stone being thrown and without casualties, despite provocation from Yisrael Beteinu.

One difference between the heavy casualties and fatalities of nine years ago and the events at Sakhnin, was that the municipality and the Israeli police cooperated. Formerly cooperation with the Israeli police would have earned an Arab leader the brand of ‘collaborator’, but at Sakhnin the agenda of protecting Arab-Israeli relations was a well-understood priority. This meant that although Israeli society was badly split by Gaza with the split running neatly down Jewish and Arab lines, the Arab leadership in Israel set limits, advised on policing and the anger did not boil over into violence. During the war, moreover, Jews and Arabs were not boycotting each other as they had done after the events of October 2000, a state of affairs which lasted for nearly 2 years.

“As with every time there is a clash between our people and our country”, says Mohammad Darawshe, “Gaza left a bitter taste in our mouths and a sense that power is the only political language understood in the region”. And during campaigning for the elections, the far right did not use the non-violent demonstration in Sakhnin in their campaign literature; they used the fraught images of October 2000. Radicalisation and incitement became part of the political agenda in Israel in a way which they would not have been permitted to previously.

Israeli Arabs valued Ehud Olmert’s term in power, which saw him turn words into deeds with the allocation of $40m to develop the Arab Israeli economy, currently on the verge of bankruptcy. The new right-wing government is a worry. The former Minister of Education Yuli Tamir had appointed Mohammad to a commission to draft co-existence policy for the mainstream education system, which was presented back in February; the new Minister of Education put on the brakes. A meeting is planned imminently, but currently progress can only happen through cracks.

But, says Mohammad, “there were worse governments than this one, more right wing, and the sky didn’t fall”. And there are friends in power too. The US Agency for International Development funded a TAFI policing project proposal to the tune of $1.2m, conditional on a no-objection letter from Israel’s Foreign Ministry. When no letter was forthcoming, a very senior member of the police force drafted a letter to Israel’s Head of Security, who is from Yisrael Beteinu, to request that the no-objection letter was sent. The Minister of Minority Affairs in Israel is another friend who sticks his neck out. He told Mohammad, “consider me your lobbyist in government”.

Notoriously, in recent weeks Yisrael Beteinu introduced bills to the Knesset to outlaw Nakba Day and to demand, from all citizens, allegiance to a Jewish state. The Arab community did not dignify the stunts with protests. If they were to become law, Nakba Day would become an annual day of mass civil disobedience enacted by those who already commemorated it, and new recruits who wanted to keep faith with Israel’s Basic Laws guaranteeing freedoms of belief and expression, and the Declaration of Independence itself. “We don’t go to court”, says Mohammad, “It’s not the way we do business. But we marked these bills as a red line – if they were passed, we were going to take the government to court”. He was sure that the Israeli Supreme Court would throw out laws like these. The bills go against the direction of development; just a few months ago the Israeli Minister of Education legislated to permit teaching about the Nakba in Israeli Jewish schools. In the event, the Ministerial Committee decided to vote against government endorsement of these bills – they would be a free vote of conscience, and Yisrael Beteinu would almost certainly be isolated in supporting them as private bills. When asked by Al Jazeera what he thought was the likelihood of the bills passing, Mohammad Darawshe replied “Israelis are smarter than that”.

So The Abraham Fund Initiatives continues to view the government, right wing or left wing, as the main partner with which to effect change, by engaging in a constructive manner by showing policy-makers what’s in it for them. He is confident that if those who are pushing for change approach their work in a strategic way, significant changes can be made despite the existing government. After all, as he says, “Equality is not a favour”.

And regarding the changes achieved to date, many are systemic, bureaucratically embedded, and consequently nearly impossible to roll back. It’s practically impossible to repeal the law which will bring the number of Arab civil servants to 10%, for example. The direction is obvious and positive. Changes in the wrong direction cannot be embedded because of established Israeli law, while changes in the right direction endure because they are germane – quite simply, they are just fulfilling the law. “In Israeli law, it’s the discrimination that’s out of place, not the equality.”

***

Mohammad Darawshe was speaking at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, Bishopsgate, London, 2 June 2009, hosted by the UK Friends of The Abraham Fund. Follow their (unofficial) blog, donate, join the Facebook group, and contact them about getting involved.

Mohammad Darawshe is speaking in London, Tues 2nd June

Via  the unofficial blog of the UK Friend of The Abraham Fund:

POST GAZA & ISRAEL’S ELECTIONS – CAN THERE BE COEXISTENCE IN ISRAEL?

Speaker: Mohammad Darawshe, Co-Executive Director of The Abraham Fund Initiatives.

Date: Tuesday 2nd June, 7.45pm (doors open 7.30pm)

Entry: Free, but we suggest a donation to cover our costs: £5 / £4 concessions

Hosted by the UK Friends of The Abraham Fund Initiatives and St Ethelburga’s, at 78 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AG.

Download flyer [PDF]

Bonus link: my notes on his March 07 talk.

Student protester arrested on Israeli Campus

This piece, by Mel Bezalel, is from Jpost.com.

A student distributing leaflets expressing opposition to the new anti-Nakba Day Knesset bill outside the Ben-Gurion University campus in Beersheba on Sunday was arrested by police.

The arrest resulted in a student protest later that night that took place alongside a ceremony attended by the school’s board of governors and VIPs being awarded honorary doctorates.

Noah Slor, 27, a master’s student in Middle Eastern studies and a teaching assistant, was handing out fliers along with four Arab student activists on Sunday afternoon. After being asked to stand at least a meter away from the school’s gate and taking up the issue with a university security guard, she was arrested by police for trespassing and humiliating a public official – the security guard – and questioned at the Beersheba police station for three hours.

The incident is the latest to occur as part of a broader dispute sparked by the university’s plans to constrain student demonstrations with bureaucracy and fees.

“Arabs in Israel are a bit afraid to go against such orders, because they always have something to lose,” Slor told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “For me as a Jew, it’s easy, so I tried to make a couple of phone calls… and I was told I was standing in a private area in which we’re not allowed to distribute fliers, which is nonsense.”

Slor was then informed by security that if the group did not move, the police would be called. The activists remained and within 15 minutes, the officers arrived and arrested Slor.

Slor said she believed the university realized its actions were “getting out of hand” but couldn’t stop the chain of events once they had begun: “They realized they made a mistake, but it was a matter of ego and they had to do something, and charging Arabs would be perceived as racist, so I think I was the right person at the right time.”

After two-and-a-half hours of questioning by police, the university’s security team called the station to drop the charges, on the direct orders of university president Rivka Carmi. Slor thinks that Carmi’s action was a direct result of pressure from professors who voiced outrage at her arrest.

Despite the charges being dropped, she was informed that a criminal file was still outstanding. Slor must now begin an extensive, bureaucratic process to have the file closed. She also intends to file a complaint against the security guard and is lobbying for his dismissal.

Sixty students incensed by the arrest held a demonstration in the evening, outside the university ceremony.

They stood for an hour, with tape covering their mouths to signify being gagged by the university, and holding placards reading: “Security department = secret police.”

University president Carmi told students she would meet with them, but failed to appear.

Some of the university’s governors conversed with demonstrators, along with artist Dani Karavan and actress Gila Almagor, who both reportedly shook hands with students.

University spokesman Amir Rosenblitt commented on Monday: “Yesterday afternoon, political activists distributed fliers against the government decision about the Nakba. University regulations permit the distribution of fliers on the condition that it’s done off campus. The activists, who were distributing fliers in an area considered part of the campus, paid no attention to security guards who tried to get them to stop. The police were called and detained one female activist and one security guard to give testimony, and afterward both were released.”

As a result of recent university security clashes with students, an open panel discussion on the topic is to be held next week, spearheaded by Prof. Neve Gordon, head of Ben-Gurion University’s department of politics and government.

This piece, by Mel Bezalel, is from Jpost.com.

There must be another way

This piece, by Rachel Shabi, is from Cif.

The timing was doomed. Just as the Israel-inflicted death toll in Gaza reached 900, a third of those children, Israel’s entry to the Eurovision song contest was announced. It was the third week of Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, in January, and an Arab-Israeli was going to sing to Europe with a Jewish-Israeli, a song about finding “another way”. Condemnation rained down on the duo. They were slammed as willing fig leaves for Israel’s deadly assault in Gaza, not to mention its stifling occupation of the Palestinian territories, not to mention its discriminatory treatment of non-Jewish citizens.

The objection was easy to follow: how could a Palestinian citizen of Israel, the actress-singer Mira Awad, choose to duet with the Jewish-Israeli singer Achinoam Nini (known as “Noa”), and thereby represent the very same state that crushes, maims and kills other Palestinians? The “radical” left wing both within and beyond Israel was unequivocal: Awad should refuse to sing on such a blood-soaked stage.

She didn’t refuse, and the two will appear at Eurovision this week. And while it might be easy to deride her decision, it is harder to dismiss her – or her creative partner, Noa. The Euro-entry song smacks of the sort of bogus peace PR at which Israel excels, but there doesn’t seem to be a lack of authenticity to the two singers. Of course they have polished the patter for the press. But I also saw them banter together once the TV cameras had gone, jokily flicking stereotypes at each other in the sort of dark, absurdist comedy that usually requires much more than a tokenistic understanding of co-existence.

I saw the duo – long-term friends and creative collaborators – sing something completely different, written and led by Awad, at an alternative ceremony for Israeli Remembrance Day. The event was staged by Combatants for Peace, an organisation of former fighters from both sides who are now battling together for an end to the occupation. Interviewing the two, I was struck by Mira Awad talking about staying friends and maintaining discussion with Noa despite their deep disagreements over aspects of the Gaza war. Sticking around for such conversations, when every part of you wants to walk away in disgust, is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of genuine peace work – and it deserves respect.

Those that slam the duo quite often hold that Israeli society is woefully incapable of changing from within; that the only way to improve the lives of the Palestinians trapped under Israel’s brutal rule is through exerting external pressure. That is a legitimate point and a tactic worth pursuing. But is it so bad to have another view – one embodied by the Euro duo – running in tandem to it? These two singers seem to be saying that, whatever the international community does or doesn’t do about this conflict, Palestinians and Israelis are still going to have to find a way to live together. That’s the draining, demoralising and largely invisible day-to-day work of conflict resolution. That’s what they seem to want to use the Euro stage to state. And you could say it’s a bit hippie and way too understated – but is it nonetheless worth broadcasting?

This piece, by Rachel Shabi, is from Cif.

Peace and reconciliation or victory over the other?

Benjamin Pogrund

Benjamin Pogrund advocates peace – a two state solution – on Comment is Free.

The idea of two states – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace is endorsed by most of the world. The one-state solution that some support is a non-starter. Yet the chance of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict is diminishing. It is imperilled by unceasing growth in the number of Jewish settlers on the West Bank, known officially in Israel by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria. In 1972, 1,500 Jews lived there; now, it is more than 289,000. The more settlers and the bigger their settlements, the less possibility of creating an independent and viable Palestinian state. The Gaza Strip is out of the equation at this stage because of failure by Fatah and Hamas to agree on a joint government.

Israel has repeatedly promised to halt expansion on the West Bank. It has done so through its leaders and by going along with the road map of 2003, the Wye Plantation agreement before that, the Annapolis accord and so on. Despite this, last year the number of settlers increased by 4.9%, and the year before by 5.5%.

The ongoing process will be challenged on 18 May when the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be in Washington DC for his first meeting with US president Barack Obama. The extent to which Obama insists that Israel keep its promises – and more importantly, how far he will go for fulfilment – will determine the future of the Middle East.

Obama has already declared his aim: the two-state solution. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton agrees. It’s also the policy of the Palestinian Authority. The European Union wants it. So does Russia. The Arab League has offered acceptance, with qualifications, through its Saudi peace initiative.

Former president George W Bush also wanted two states. Israel told him it would curb settlement growth. It did not. Every now and again secretary of state Condoleeza Rice visited Israel and gave a press conference to announce that she was telling the government to curb settlements. She was ignored.

The three years up to January this year tell the story. Ehud Olmert was prime minister. He began as a rightwinger, believing in Israel’s continued settlement of the West Bank, which it has occupied since the 1967 war. But he changed: during his last two years in office he increasingly supported a Palestinian state; by his last cabinet meeting he was saying passionately that Israel had to end its occupation. He warned that Israel was doomed if it stayed: its Jewish majority was threatened by Arab numbers and an apartheid situation would arise if it remained.

However, his government’s actions consistently contradicted his words. Statistics provided by the Peace Now movement, using census and UN details show that 5,111 new “housing units” (meaning anything from one to 20 apartments) were built from January 2006 to January 2009, and tenders were issued for more than 1,500 housing units.

The same pattern occurred in the “illegal outposts” set up without formal government permission. Israel has promised to evacuate them. But not one was evacuated during the three years; instead, the outposts acquired 560 new structures – mainly caravans but also permanent buildings. At the start of Olmert’s tenure, 475 roadblocks and checkpoints existed in the West Bank. Their purpose was and is security. With less tension and suicide bombings ended, the number was supposed to be reduced. Instead, according to the UN, by January this year there were more than 600.

East Jerusalem also features. It is intended to be divided and be a shared capital for Israel and Palestine. But the 250,000 Palestinians who live there have vast difficulty in getting permits to build houses and when they build illegally they are targets for demolition orders. At the same time, housing for Jews is fostered: during the three years, tenders were issued for 2,437 new housing units. These will add to the existing Jewish residential areas in East Jerusalem, which occupy 35% of the area and house 190,000 people. As far as is known, Olmert – who resigned as prime minister to face corruption charges – has never explained the discrepancy between his words and official deeds.

The fact is that the settlers do pretty much as they want. Many are driven by religious messianic belief that God gave Judea and Samaria to Jews and it is their right and duty to keep it so forevermore. Although the settlers are a tiny minority of the Israeli population they have become the tail that wags the dog. Successive governments have backed away from reining them in out of fear of violent resistance.

The settlers and their supporters – who include those who believe in possession of the West Bank for security purposes – permeate the government. That has enabled the illegal siphoning off of millions upon millions of shekels from departmental budgets to provide houses, build roads and lay on electricity and water to settlements and outposts – and to guarantee permanent protection by the army.

A government lawyer, Talia Sasson, appointed to investigate the illegal outposts, reported four years ago that the state was undermining its own rule of law. She has been ignored. None of it could be possible without the army’s active connivance. No Israeli can do anything on the West Bank unless the army agrees and helps. That is also a cause for government apprehension: the officer corps has changed in character and the proportion who are religious has increased to about one-fifth. They live in settlements, or have family or friends there. Will they accept orders to evacuate, if necessary by force?

The settlers and others who support them are deliberately creating facts on the ground to undermine the chance of a Palestinian state; and even if one comes into being to ensure that it is so divided and weak as not to present any security threat. The intention is also to establish a ring of Jewish settlements around Jerusalem to cut off the city from the West Bank so that it cannot serve as a Palestinian capital. Meanwhile, the new rightwing government’s policy on dealing with Palestinians is still being prepared and its statements are confused. Netanyahu, for example, says he wants to resume peace negotiations without conditions with Palestinians; in the next breath he says Palestinians must first accept Israel as a Jewish state.

Washington is sending strong signals: on Tuesday, Joe Biden and John Kerry told the pro-Israel Aipac lobby annual conference that Israel must freeze all West Bank building and make further concessions to the Palestinian Authority. It’s also reported that two weeks ago Obama proposed a new deal on Palestinian refugees to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.

But will Obama wield a stick if Israel does not embrace a two-state solution and work with Palestinians to get swift agreement on the core issues of ending the occupation, borders, Jerusalem, the Holy Basin and refugees? How big a stick is available as he contends with the economic catastrophe, domestic problems and Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan? How can he drive an Israeli government to do what it doesn’t want to do?

Benjamin Pogrund advocates peace – a two state solution – on Comment is Free.

Jewish outreach in Bahrain

For Jews, Bahrain is perhaps the most welcoming state in the Middle East outside Israel. There is an active project to build the community. As a New York Times piece tells, this means different things to different Bahrainis. For cynical conspiracy theorists, it’s a simple ploy to appease the Zionists who run the US. For others, it means forgetting your neighbour is a Jew. For the king it  means preserving the Jewish cemetery and unused synagogue and ensuring that Bahrain’s 36 Jews feel safe, while sending out envoys to persuade his Jewish emigres to return. In practice it also involves aggrieving the Shi’ite community for whom there is systematic discrimination and no corresponding outreach. You sense there’s a chilly reception for Jews who support the existence of Israel, or who prefer not to identify as Arab.

Good things

On Harry’s Place, Gene. An orchestra from Jenin performs for Holocaust survivors. A new project initiated by prominent figures in Europe and the Muslim world will combat Holocaust denial and emphasise good Muslim-Jewish relations.

UPDATE: Commenters below link to news items reporting that the orchestra from Jenin has been disbanded by the Palestinian Authority as a direct consequence of the performance. More from Ben Cohen.

“Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a “political issue” and accused conductor Wafa Younis of unknowingly dragging the children into a political dispute.”

The lines are being drawn -  it’s peace-makers like Wafa Younis against war-makers like Adnan Hindi. And the Holocaust is used as a bargaining chip again.

Reconciliation and understanding, not boycotts and exclusions

In the NY Times.