Haaretz Last update - 20:53 31/10/2007
By Shahar Ilan and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents
Israeli Arab lawmakers responded angrily Wednesday to proposed legislation that would prevent anyone who travels to a country classified as an enemy state from serving as a Knesset member. The Knesset plenum approved proposals for two bills on this issue in preliminary readings on Wednesday. The bills were drafted by right-wing MKs Zevulun Orlev of National Union-National Religious Party and Esterina Tartman of Yisrael Beiteinu.
MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) said that "the Knesset is steeped in racism. Corrupt members of Knesset want a Knesset without Arabs. The face of the Knesset is the face of Esterina: Knesseterina. If I am invited [to enemy states] I will go regardless of the law. I am sure that a person who violates an unjustified law, or whose conscience is not completely clear, and is willing to pay the price and be imprisoned in order to raise public awareness regarding the injustice in the law, then that person is showing his respect to the most supreme values." Talab A-Sana (Ra`am-Ta`al) said that "the bill is opposed to peace, the Arab public, and its representatives that are visiting Arab states. This is a dark bill that constitutes political persecution, and shows what a substandard level the Knesset has reached."
The bills were approved by a majority of 52 in favor and 19 who opposed. MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) maintained that the bill was racist. Hadash Chairman MK Mohammed Barakeh said that "If we have to choose between loyalty to our people, or serving in the Knesset, then good luck to the Knesset. We don't want you." During the hearing, Barakeh called out to other MKs, "choke along with the Knesset." MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) slammed Arab MKs in return, saying, "you believe in Syrian democracy."
mercredi 31 octobre 2007
jeudi 25 octobre 2007
Protesters block Highway 443 to protest ban on Palestinian traffic
Haaretz Last update - 15:58 25/10/2007
By Haaretz Service
Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators blocked Highway 443 early Thursday morning to protest the ban on Palestinian vehicles from the road, which is a major artery connecting Jerusalem to Lod, Army Radio reported. The protesters, a coalition of Jewish and Arab members of leftist organizations, carried signs which read, among other slogans, "Caution Apartheid Road" and "Paved Road on Pilfered Land," Army Radio said. "Highway 443 is an example of what is taking place in the territories," one of the demonstrators told Army Radio. "[The authorities] are expropriating land from the Palestinians in order to build a highway which is then declared off limits to Palestinian traffic."
"There is a policy here of apartheid," Hadar Grievsky, another protester, told Army Radio. "Highways are built on roads that were seized from Palestinians and is only permitted to Jewish drivers." Organizers of the protest said that 70 demonstrators participated, most of them Palestinian residents of nearby towns. Israel Defense Forces soldiers and police arrived at the scene to disperse the crowd approximately 10 minutes after the road was blocked. Seven people were taken into custody for questioning, according to Army Radio. The commander of the Binyamin police station, Chief Superintendent Benny Har-Nes, told Army Radio that law enforcement received information on the demonstrators' plans to block the highway, enabling authorities to deploy the necessary amount of force. "We knew of the plan to [block the road] and we prepared accordingly," Har-Nes said. "We arrived at the scene within five minutes from the start of the event, and after trying to persuade them to evacuate willingly, we declared the matter an unlawful gathering and we cleared them out.
By Haaretz Service
Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators blocked Highway 443 early Thursday morning to protest the ban on Palestinian vehicles from the road, which is a major artery connecting Jerusalem to Lod, Army Radio reported. The protesters, a coalition of Jewish and Arab members of leftist organizations, carried signs which read, among other slogans, "Caution Apartheid Road" and "Paved Road on Pilfered Land," Army Radio said. "Highway 443 is an example of what is taking place in the territories," one of the demonstrators told Army Radio. "[The authorities] are expropriating land from the Palestinians in order to build a highway which is then declared off limits to Palestinian traffic."
"There is a policy here of apartheid," Hadar Grievsky, another protester, told Army Radio. "Highways are built on roads that were seized from Palestinians and is only permitted to Jewish drivers." Organizers of the protest said that 70 demonstrators participated, most of them Palestinian residents of nearby towns. Israel Defense Forces soldiers and police arrived at the scene to disperse the crowd approximately 10 minutes after the road was blocked. Seven people were taken into custody for questioning, according to Army Radio. The commander of the Binyamin police station, Chief Superintendent Benny Har-Nes, told Army Radio that law enforcement received information on the demonstrators' plans to block the highway, enabling authorities to deploy the necessary amount of force. "We knew of the plan to [block the road] and we prepared accordingly," Har-Nes said. "We arrived at the scene within five minutes from the start of the event, and after trying to persuade them to evacuate willingly, we declared the matter an unlawful gathering and we cleared them out.
mardi 23 octobre 2007
Arab MK leads campaign against bill allocating state land to Jews only
Haaretz 21:24 23/10/2007
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Hadash MK Hanna Swaid has been promoting action to foil a Jewish National Fund bill, which calls for all JNF lands to be allocated to Jews only. The bill is geared to bypass a 2004 court ruling that annulled an Israel Lands Administration (ILA) policy preventing Israeli Arabs from participating in bids to purchase JNF-owned land. Hadash MKs have started collecting documents and ownership certificates from Arab citizens, whose lands have been expropriated and assigned to the JNF. They seek to prove that a majority of JNF lands, which constitute 13 percent of the State of Israel's land, were expropriated from Arabs for Jewish communities during the 1950s.
Numerous former landowners have submitted their papers to Hadash offices nationwide, following an appeal in Arabic that the party issued on its Web site. Hadash is vigorously opposed to the bill, which was submitted to the Knesset by right-wing MKs Uri Ariel, Zeev Elkin and Moshe Kahlon. The bill passed preliminary reading and is now being debated by the Knesset Finance Committee before it is brought back to the Knesset plenum for first reading. Swaid told Haaretz on Tuesday that "at the moral basis of this bill stands the assumption that the lands in question were bought by Jews for Jews, but we intend to prove that a majority of JNF lands were expropriated from their Arab owners." He added that "the act of expropriating land from Arabs and then preventing them from buying it is unethical." He said that he and his faction members are trying to persuade the Jewish members of the Finance Committee to oppose the bill, and call it off. If this lobbying campaign fails, they will consider appealing to courts in Israel and abroad.
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Hadash MK Hanna Swaid has been promoting action to foil a Jewish National Fund bill, which calls for all JNF lands to be allocated to Jews only. The bill is geared to bypass a 2004 court ruling that annulled an Israel Lands Administration (ILA) policy preventing Israeli Arabs from participating in bids to purchase JNF-owned land. Hadash MKs have started collecting documents and ownership certificates from Arab citizens, whose lands have been expropriated and assigned to the JNF. They seek to prove that a majority of JNF lands, which constitute 13 percent of the State of Israel's land, were expropriated from Arabs for Jewish communities during the 1950s.
Numerous former landowners have submitted their papers to Hadash offices nationwide, following an appeal in Arabic that the party issued on its Web site. Hadash is vigorously opposed to the bill, which was submitted to the Knesset by right-wing MKs Uri Ariel, Zeev Elkin and Moshe Kahlon. The bill passed preliminary reading and is now being debated by the Knesset Finance Committee before it is brought back to the Knesset plenum for first reading. Swaid told Haaretz on Tuesday that "at the moral basis of this bill stands the assumption that the lands in question were bought by Jews for Jews, but we intend to prove that a majority of JNF lands were expropriated from their Arab owners." He added that "the act of expropriating land from Arabs and then preventing them from buying it is unethical." He said that he and his faction members are trying to persuade the Jewish members of the Finance Committee to oppose the bill, and call it off. If this lobbying campaign fails, they will consider appealing to courts in Israel and abroad.
dimanche 14 octobre 2007
Israel refuses entry to 6 Gazans in urgent need of medical care
Haaretz 14:51 14/10/2007
By Haaretz Staff
The defense establishment is preventing the entry into Israel of six Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in urgent need of medical attention, Army Radio reported on Sunday. The six, all sick with cancer or heart conditions, twice requested permission to enter, and were denied both times due to security considerations, according to the report. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has taken up the cause of the six to gain access to medical car in Israel. The defense establishment refuses to explain the security concerns on which its bases its refusal, and PHR Chairman Danny Filk fears that it represents a wider intention to punish Gaza Strip residents for Hamas' violent takeover of the coastal territory in June.
Inas al-Najar, a 20-year-old cancer patient from Gaza, is seeking to enter Israel for urgent treatment in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where she has been treated in the past. Her father, Mohammad al-Najar, said that the defense establishment conditioned its permission for Inas to leave Gaza on her agreement to become a collaborator for Israel. "An oncology patient, or a 16-year-old girl with a congenital heart defect - these are cases in need of urgent care," says Filk. "The medical conditions of those patients can degenerate from day to day, and weeks of delays - that's a lot of time. Maybe it's not a matter of months, but it doesn't take months for a condition to become irreversible," he continued. Defense officials said in response that the "requests are being examined in an expedited fashion. These are complex cases demanding close examination, with the objective of ruling out possible security risks."
By Haaretz Staff
The defense establishment is preventing the entry into Israel of six Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in urgent need of medical attention, Army Radio reported on Sunday. The six, all sick with cancer or heart conditions, twice requested permission to enter, and were denied both times due to security considerations, according to the report. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has taken up the cause of the six to gain access to medical car in Israel. The defense establishment refuses to explain the security concerns on which its bases its refusal, and PHR Chairman Danny Filk fears that it represents a wider intention to punish Gaza Strip residents for Hamas' violent takeover of the coastal territory in June.
Inas al-Najar, a 20-year-old cancer patient from Gaza, is seeking to enter Israel for urgent treatment in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where she has been treated in the past. Her father, Mohammad al-Najar, said that the defense establishment conditioned its permission for Inas to leave Gaza on her agreement to become a collaborator for Israel. "An oncology patient, or a 16-year-old girl with a congenital heart defect - these are cases in need of urgent care," says Filk. "The medical conditions of those patients can degenerate from day to day, and weeks of delays - that's a lot of time. Maybe it's not a matter of months, but it doesn't take months for a condition to become irreversible," he continued. Defense officials said in response that the "requests are being examined in an expedited fashion. These are complex cases demanding close examination, with the objective of ruling out possible security risks."
samedi 6 octobre 2007
Physicians for Human Rights: Only most severely wounded Palestinians allowed into Israel
Haaretz 14:05 06/10/2007
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel is allowing only the most severely wounded Palestinians to enter for medical treatment, and not to those at risk of losing limbs or suffering other debilitating handicaps, according to Physicians for Human Rights. Hundreds of people were injured during the June clashes in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Fatah. However, only those whose lives were in danger were allowed into Israel for treatment. Others, whose injuries endangered "only" their quality of life, remained in the Gaza Strip for treatment, PHR wrote to the defense minister and the health minister. Out of 44 requests to transfer injured individuals for treatment in Israel, 16 were refused by authorities in Israel, PHR said. In some cases, this meant physicians in Gaza had to amputate limbs because treatment was delayed too long.
A senior defense official responded, "No medical prioritization was carried out. From the moment Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, we lost all communication with the Palestinians on the other side of the Erez Crossing. The only coordinating body is the Red Cross, which indicated to us the status of the injured, and later became a coordinating body. In cases of serious injuries, we brought them for treatment in Israel. There were cancer patients who continued to come to Israel to receive chemotherapy." Alaa Oudeh, 25, from Gaza, is wheelchair-bound. Both his legs were amputated. Oudeh, 25, was marked as a Fatah member, and in the bloody clashes three months ago, that was a good enough reason for Hamas to shoot 14 bullets into his legs. Speaking by phone from Gaza, Oudeh said Hamas activists came to his building and killed a senior Palestinian Police officer. "Right after they took the officer and killed him, they came into my house and forced me outside," he recalled. Oudeh was taken by jeep to a remote place. There, two masked men shot him at close range, he said. "They said they would teach me and everyone else that it was forbidden to cooperate with Fatah. After they shot me, they kicked me in the legs where I had been shot. Then they left me there." Oudeh says an ambulance brought him to Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which was crowded with people bleeding and screaming for help. The blood vessels in Oudeh's legs were seriously damaged, and his leg and thigh bones were smashed. He was rushed to surgery, but four days later his condition was still deteriorating. The Palestinian Health Ministry requested he be moved to Israel for further treatment by experts. His medical file was faxed to the deputy director of Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer, Professor Rafi Waldan, a worldwide vascular expert. Walden, who happens to be President Shimon Peres' son-in-law, determined that Oudeh should be brought to Israel within 24 hours to receive optimum treatment; otherwise his legs would have to be amputated. However, the Erez Crossing was closed due to the riots. PHR sent Israeli security officials a request to have Oudeh transferred to Sheba or to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, but they prohibited Oudeh from entering Israel due to security reasons. PHR then petitioned the High Court of Justice in the name of Oudeh and 25 other Gazan patients blocked from entering Israel. Following a closed-door hearing, the justices ordered the security officials to "reexamine the required balance" between the urgency of medical treatment and the security risk presented by the patients. Meanwhile, Oudeh's situation grew worse. Gaza doctors were forced to amputate his left leg, and PHR petitioned the High Court again. Security officials persuaded the court that Oudeh was a security risk. A week later, his other leg was amputated. "A person is sitting in a wheelchair. How can he be a security risk to the state? To be so dangerous in that condition, he'd have to be a super-terrorist," said Ran Yaron, the PHR coordinator for Oudeh's case. "We asked the security establishment to transfer him to Jordan under guard, but they refused this, too. We feel like this is a matter of principle not to let him out," Yaron added. "I don't understand why they won't let me in. I never did anything bad," Oudeh said. The Shin Bet security service responded that Oudeh's request posed a danger to state security, and that they told this to the High Court. "Those in need of chemotherapy or high-level orthopedic treatment come to Israel," a security official said. "Israel is in permanent contact with the Palestinian health coordinator, Ahmad Abu-Reza. If he approves the transfer, it is a pledge by the Palestinian Authority to fund the treatment. If not, the patient pays. If the Shin Bet objects for security reasons, the whole process is called off. But the Shin Bet often grants requests for the transfer of injured individuals."
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel is allowing only the most severely wounded Palestinians to enter for medical treatment, and not to those at risk of losing limbs or suffering other debilitating handicaps, according to Physicians for Human Rights. Hundreds of people were injured during the June clashes in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Fatah. However, only those whose lives were in danger were allowed into Israel for treatment. Others, whose injuries endangered "only" their quality of life, remained in the Gaza Strip for treatment, PHR wrote to the defense minister and the health minister. Out of 44 requests to transfer injured individuals for treatment in Israel, 16 were refused by authorities in Israel, PHR said. In some cases, this meant physicians in Gaza had to amputate limbs because treatment was delayed too long.
A senior defense official responded, "No medical prioritization was carried out. From the moment Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, we lost all communication with the Palestinians on the other side of the Erez Crossing. The only coordinating body is the Red Cross, which indicated to us the status of the injured, and later became a coordinating body. In cases of serious injuries, we brought them for treatment in Israel. There were cancer patients who continued to come to Israel to receive chemotherapy." Alaa Oudeh, 25, from Gaza, is wheelchair-bound. Both his legs were amputated. Oudeh, 25, was marked as a Fatah member, and in the bloody clashes three months ago, that was a good enough reason for Hamas to shoot 14 bullets into his legs. Speaking by phone from Gaza, Oudeh said Hamas activists came to his building and killed a senior Palestinian Police officer. "Right after they took the officer and killed him, they came into my house and forced me outside," he recalled. Oudeh was taken by jeep to a remote place. There, two masked men shot him at close range, he said. "They said they would teach me and everyone else that it was forbidden to cooperate with Fatah. After they shot me, they kicked me in the legs where I had been shot. Then they left me there." Oudeh says an ambulance brought him to Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which was crowded with people bleeding and screaming for help. The blood vessels in Oudeh's legs were seriously damaged, and his leg and thigh bones were smashed. He was rushed to surgery, but four days later his condition was still deteriorating. The Palestinian Health Ministry requested he be moved to Israel for further treatment by experts. His medical file was faxed to the deputy director of Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer, Professor Rafi Waldan, a worldwide vascular expert. Walden, who happens to be President Shimon Peres' son-in-law, determined that Oudeh should be brought to Israel within 24 hours to receive optimum treatment; otherwise his legs would have to be amputated. However, the Erez Crossing was closed due to the riots. PHR sent Israeli security officials a request to have Oudeh transferred to Sheba or to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, but they prohibited Oudeh from entering Israel due to security reasons. PHR then petitioned the High Court of Justice in the name of Oudeh and 25 other Gazan patients blocked from entering Israel. Following a closed-door hearing, the justices ordered the security officials to "reexamine the required balance" between the urgency of medical treatment and the security risk presented by the patients. Meanwhile, Oudeh's situation grew worse. Gaza doctors were forced to amputate his left leg, and PHR petitioned the High Court again. Security officials persuaded the court that Oudeh was a security risk. A week later, his other leg was amputated. "A person is sitting in a wheelchair. How can he be a security risk to the state? To be so dangerous in that condition, he'd have to be a super-terrorist," said Ran Yaron, the PHR coordinator for Oudeh's case. "We asked the security establishment to transfer him to Jordan under guard, but they refused this, too. We feel like this is a matter of principle not to let him out," Yaron added. "I don't understand why they won't let me in. I never did anything bad," Oudeh said. The Shin Bet security service responded that Oudeh's request posed a danger to state security, and that they told this to the High Court. "Those in need of chemotherapy or high-level orthopedic treatment come to Israel," a security official said. "Israel is in permanent contact with the Palestinian health coordinator, Ahmad Abu-Reza. If he approves the transfer, it is a pledge by the Palestinian Authority to fund the treatment. If not, the patient pays. If the Shin Bet objects for security reasons, the whole process is called off. But the Shin Bet often grants requests for the transfer of injured individuals."
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