Bi-Weekly Brief for March 14, 2022
A digest of Israel’s ongoing dispossession of Palestinian land and livelihoods, and Palestinian resistance.
Israel as mediator tries to blunt criticism from US but both Biden and Ukraine hope for more
Having angered the US by refusing to name Russia in its tepid initial criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, Israel voted in favor of the March 2 UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia, but sent its lower level deputy UN ambassador to cast the vote. Hours later, Prime Minister Bennett held calls with both Putin offering to mediate, and Zelensky offering humanitarian aid but not the military equipment which the Ukrainian leader had requested. Early on March 3, after international insurance companies said they would no longer cover El Al’s flights between Israel and Russia, the Israeli government stepped in to insure the airline, allowing the flights to continue. On the same day, Zelensky, who had withdrawn Ukraine from the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People shortly after taking office, had ‘caustic words’ for Bennett and urged Israel to take a moral stand. Two days later, Bennett, with Biden’s support, flew to Moscow to meet Putin. In subsequent days different Ukrainian officials expressed gratitudefor Israel’s mediating role, blasted it for allowing El Al to take “money soaked in blood” from Russia’s banking system, and asserted that Bennett was “using mediation as an excuse” to justify not sending military aid and not sanctioning Russia. US Secretary of State Blinken expressed appreciation for Israel’s role in a meeting in Latvia with Israeli Foreign Minister Lapid on March 7, just as Israel - presumably with Russia’s assent - resumed its missile strikes on Iran-backed groups in Syria, killing two people and complicating US efforts to reinstate the nuclear treaty with Iran. With Ukraine increasingly irked by Israel’s neutral stance, US Secretary of State Nuland on March 11 criticized Israel’s refusal to leave its ‘comfort zone’ and send Ukraine military aid.
UN crisis magnifies US hypocrisy and double standards in application of international law
The cognitive dissonance has been jarring: what is amplified by the US government and media in the case of Ukraine (international law, praise of resistance including the making of Molotov cocktails, horror at targeting of high rise buildings and civilians, use of boycotts) has been either minimized or criminalized in the case of Palestine. US Senators are meanwhile urging the State Department to “defend Israel from discriminatory treatment at the Human Rights Council and throughout the UN system.” House members on March 3 re-introduced federal legislation to fight boycotts of Israel and 35 states have already passed their own anti BDS laws. On March 10, the Congress voted Israel an additional $1 billion to replenish the Iron Dome system on top of its annual $3.8 billion gift.
Who has the right to live in Israel?
Not Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza who are married to Israeli citizens, 20 percent of whom are Palestinian. In July 2021, a 2003 law passed as a ‘security measure’ banning their living together within Israel expired. On March 10, it was reinstated by Israel’s coalition government and made permanent. After turning away over 100 non Jewish refugees from Ukraine, Israel has decided to allow 25,000 Ukrainian refugees who are not Jewish – 20,000 of whom were in the country before the Russian invasion – to stay until the war with Ukraine ends. Meanwhile, flights carrying what is anticipated to be 100,000 Jews from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia have been arriving at Ben Gurion airport under the ‘Law of Return.’ Among those expected to make Israel their home are Jewish Russian oligarchs close to Putin, some of whom already have citizenship. Israeli groups have asked the US not to impose sanctions on Roman Abramovich, who has reportedly donated half a billion dollars to Israeli causes, including $102 million to a settler organization that is pushing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem. Britain has added him to its sanctions list but so far the US has declined to do so.
With all eyes on Ukraine, Israel ratchets up repression and settlers flaunt impunity
On March 5, a settler shot and seriously wounded a 13-year-old boy in Hebron and injured 3 other Palestinians, and the following week a settler fired his rifle at terrified elementary school children in Tuqu, near Bethlehem. On March 10, settlers and soldiers destroyed water tanks and the irrigation network on Palestinian land in Birin, near Hebron, and 2 days later, settlers installed mobile homes on the site. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have wounded hundreds of demonstrators around the West Bank, repeatedly fired on farmers in the Gaza Strip, and continued to harvest the lives of young Palestinians. The month began when an undercover unit of soldiers sneaked into Jenin refugee camp and killed two people in an exchange of gunfire. The next day, 19-year-old Amar Abu Afifia from al Aroub refugee camp was shot in the head near Bethlehem as he was fleeing soldiers who claimed he had thrown stones. A friend who was with him at the time said they had been hiking in the forest for relaxation when soldiers chased them and began shooting. On March 6, in Abu Dis near East Jerusalem, 15-year-old Yamen Khanafseh was shot after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail, and bled to death as soldiers fired gas bombs at a Palestinian ambulance that tried to approach him. On the same day, 19-year-old Karim Jamal al-Qawasmi was shot to death during an alleged knife attack on a police office in Jerusalem’s Old City. Ahmad Seif, a 23-year-old injured when the army fired on a rally in support of Palestinian prisoners near Nablus, died of his wounds on March 9. With new procedures issued by the Defense Ministry screening foreigners who hope to teach and study at Palestinian universities and restricting long-term residency permits, Palestinian minds as well as bodies are in Israel’s crosshairs.
Water Fact
Israel has continued to fire on Palestinian fishing boats to keep them close to Gaza’s shore on nearly a daily basis. The Amnesty International report Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians states that in 1995 Israel agreed to allow boats within a 20 nautical mile zone from the Gaza coastline, but “ever since the discovery of natural oil and gas in 1999, Israel has repeatedly changed the demarcation of Gaza’s maritime space, sometimes reducing it to a mere 3 nautical miles, causing deliberate harm to a sector that is struggling to survive.” It then quotes an Israeli senior naval official: “These fields have strategic significance and could be easily a target for our neighbors... Usually to protect an area, we just make a sterile zone around it” (p. 185). According to UNCTAD, the Palestinian economy has lost at least $2.57 billion since drilling began in 2000 in the gas fields 22 miles from Gaza’s coast (p. 190).
Compiled by The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine and 1for3.org are organizing a webinar as a lead up to World Water Day. PARCHED IN PALESTINE: RESISTING WATER APARTHEID will take place on Saturday, March 19, from 1:00 – 2:30 PM Eastern Daylight time. It will feature speakers from Palestine and visual material highlighting Palestinian struggles to stay on the land. Register: https://bit.ly/3M69wOo
Banner design by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press.