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 ICAHD Newsletter April 2015

Before sharing our news, three important announcements for your attention “up front”:

 

ICAHD’S 2015 REBUILDING CAMP

 

ICAHD’s 13th annual rebuilding camp is coming up in a couple months, July 19-August 3. We hope you will join us in rebuilding our 188th home – our 188th joint Palestinian-Israeli-international action of political resistance to the Occupation. When you arrive at the camp in the West Bank, you will see the ruins of the family’s home; in fact, this year we will be building a home housing ten children of two related families, which the Israeli authorities forced the owner to demolish with his own hands. When you leave two weeks later, you will have handed the key over to the families and helped them move their meager belongings into a new home. There are few moments as emotional and touching as that.

 

 

ICAHD’s camp is more than physical construction, however (though to get your hands dirty and, at the end of the day, survey a wall you just built, carries great satisfaction of its own). We organize fieldtrips throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem and into Israel so that you understand the wider political context and get to know the country and its people. Evenings at the camp after a home-made Palestinian meal are spent in discussions with local activists, viewing films on various aspects of the conflict and strategizing. By the end you will be prepared to return home and effectively advocate for a just peace.

 

The fee for participating in the 2015 camp is $1700 or £1116 or 1425 per person. About half that fee goes toward building materials, the other half covers basic accommodation at the work site, three full meals a day (plus snacks), all the field trips and educational programs, and study materials. It does not cover airfare and personal expenses separate from camp activities.

 

The number of participants is limited to 30 in order not to make the building and travel unwieldy. Places are still available, so if you’re looking for a meaningful form of political engagement this summer, consider joining us. If you can’t, consider providing a “scholarship” for a young person who would want to join us but lacks the resources.

 

With the funds we received from our crowd-funding appeal, we will either build an additional home this summer or will be able to provide more ample accommodations for the large family to whom we have committed.

 

For further information contact:

Eran in the US and Canada <eran@icahdusa.org>

Bruno in Finland <brunojantti@yahoo.com>

Silje in Norway <silje@icahd.no>

Doris in Germany <doris@icahd.de>

ICAHD UK for the rest of Europe <summercamp@icahduk.org>

Scott in Australia/New Zealand/Asia <icahdaus@gmail.com>

or

Jeff <jeff@icahd.org> or Ruth <ruth.icahd@gmail.com> for the rest of the world

 

 

ICAHD UK’S SPRING CONFERENCE

 

For those of you in the UK, in May, ICAHD UK’s Annual Spring Conference will focus on Judaizing Palestine. Guest speakers on the topic will feature Khalil Al-Amour from the Bedouin village of Al-Sira in the Negev, Adalah’s Field Researcher and a board member of the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality; Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, a legal consultant for Al-Haq and Co-Chair of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights; and ICAHD Director Jeff Halper, with contributions from Tony Lerman of Independent Jewish Voices, Deborah Burton of Tipping Point North South and ICAHD UK Director Linda Ramsden.

 

The conference will be held at the Amnesty International UK Human Rights Action Centre, New Inn Yard, London. If you are interested in attending booking is available at: <info@icahduk.org>.

 

ICAHD’S “JUDAIZING PALESTINE” TOUR NEXT NOVEMBER

 

ICAHD is once again hosting an extended 11-day study tour of Palestine/Israel, in mid-November. Witness the ever-changing reality on the ground, meet local people and benefit from ICAHD’s expert analysis. Learn about Israel’s control of all nearly all of historic Palestine and why ICAHD describes Israel’s strategy as ‘Judaizing Palestine’. Time is also set aside for discussion on effective campaign strategies and advocacy back home.

 

Our tours are highly acclaimed and have proved life-changing for many. The cost per person is £975. This includes the full tour programme, staying in good three star hotels at half board (bed, breakfast and evening meal), and sharing twin-bedded rooms with ensuite facilities. (Not included are flights, travel insurance and lunches). For more information please contact <tours@icahduk.org>.

 

Now for our news….

 

ICAHD INTO 2015

 

Jeff Halper, ICAHD’s Director

 

Well, we started last year’s January newsletter on an encouraging note. “Let’s begin with the good news,” I wrote, “2014 will likely mark the beginning of the end of the Israeli Occupation.” I wrote that in the wake of the likely – and finally definite – end of Kerry’s ill-fated attempt to broker yet another round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The subsequent attacks throughout the West Bank following the kidnap and killing of the three settlement youths – Operation Brothers’ Keeper – were but a prelude to the all-out assault on Gaza that saw 2200 Palestinians killed, the majority civilians, and $4 billion in infrastructural damage, including the destruction of 18,000 homes. Hardly an “end to the Occupation.”

 

If my time-frame may have been a little off, I nevertheless stand by conclusions that were are nearing the beginning of the end. An article I wrote about the attacks focused on the naked and permanent repression to which Israel has finally acknowledged is all the Palestinians can look forward to – not even a pretense of negotiations, but three stark choices: submit, leave or die. This is not a sustainable political position, nor is the Palestinian Authority’s continued willingness to serve as Israel’s policeman. The lack of any political horizon, coupled with the intolerable repression applied to the Palestinian population by both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities, have given rise to a highly unstable situation. And while the Palestinian Authority certainly cannot be blamed for the Occupation and all its sins, it is the prime agency holding this whole ramshackle structure together. Or, to change the metaphor, it is keeping the lid on.

 

What I thought last year I also think today: that we’re headed for a collapse – and sooner rather than later (though apparently not in 2014). By “collapse” I mean the Palestinian Authority leaving the scene, and there are many scenarios for this. Israel and the US could withhold millions in funds needed for salaries and administration – they have done so in the past, and American law requires Congress to cut $500 million in aid if the PA’s case is actually taken up by the International Criminal Court – all of which would lead to financial collapse. Abbas, who is 80, could reign or pass on, and if he had a successor, that person would be an out-and-out collaborator with no legitimacy to rule, and no elections possible. Israel could unilaterally annex Area C, which would cause the downfall of the PA. And more, such as an Israeli attack on Iran which would destabilize the region. Collapse, however, could be a good thing, in fact the only thing that breaks the logjam we have today and opens up new possibilities for a just peace – like a one-state solution – which simply do not exist today. Collapse would be followed by the chaos of Israel physically reoccupying the Palestinian cities and Gaza while annexing Area C (62% of the West Bank where the settlements are located), but it would create an intolerable situation that would force the hand of the international community.

 

Given the fundamental unsustainability of Israel’s Occupation, if even for the fact that is can never be normalized or accepted by the Palestinians or international civil society, the scenario of collapse giving birth to new political possibilities seems almost likely. As a political organization endeavoring to achieve a just peace, we find it unacceptable to be facing a possible game-changer in the near future without even having formulated a just solution – for if the collapse comes and the progressive forces are not ready, others will impose their own solutions which could be worse than Occupation itself. While the reasons our Palestinian partners cannot come together to formulate and put forth such a solution are manifold and daunting, not doing so is simply a luxury we cannot afford. Only the Palestinians can liberate Palestine, only they can formulate a just and inclusive solution, only they can give leadership and direction to the global movement that supports them. Israeli progressives can provide crucial support and must eventually be part of formulating the way out of the conflict, but we – including ICAHD – cannot advocate for any solution in the absence of our Palestinian partners.

 

In the meantime such strategizing is not happening. Neither among themselves or together with Israeli partners are Palestinians conducting such strategic discussions. A few activists have floated the beginnings of such a formulation, especially in the form of a one-state solution – Ghada Karmi, Ali Abunimah, the One Democratic State Movement, Leila Farsakh and me, among others – but we are far from having an end-game of our own. We are far from being pro-active actors in this drama.

 

ICAHD is gently trying to further the discussion, sensitive to and respectful of the fact that the eventual resolution is essentially the Palestinians’ call but nonetheless trying to advance the discussion. On the way to a one-state solution, however, realizing we are not there yet but wanting to pave the way, we are initiating an educational campaign around Israel’s policy of “judaization.”

 

 

A CAMPAIGN FOCUSING ATTENTION

ON ISRAEL’S POLICY OF JUDAIZATION

 

The essence of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is displacement. For the past century Zionism has worked diligently and systematically to turn Palestine into the Land of Israel. On the way it has aspired to appropriate all the country’s land and resources and, ultimately, to drive the remaining Palestinians out, or at least to confine them to tiny enclaves. This project, officially called “judaization,” is today entering its final phase, and nothing demonstrates it more graphically than Israel’s policy of house demolitions.

 

ICAHD’s “Judaizing Palestine” Campaign makes the point that the Zionist dream of conquering the entire Land of Israel has been accomplished. Whether official Israeli policy supports a two-state solution, aspires to perpetuate its present control of the entire country in a kind of de facto apartheid or is in fact working towards expulsion of the Palestinian middle classes and the warehousing of the rest, one reality prevails: Israel has turned the entire country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River into one state. On the way to formulating a one-state solution that will turn the present reality into a single state of equality where all the inhabitants’ collective and individual rights are respected, the “Judaization” Campaign will document the current one-state reality and begin the process of viewing the country as it is and will be: a single polity. It will also serve another important function: to make the crucial point that it was Israel that eliminated the two-state solution. Since apartheid/warehousing is unacceptable, a bi-national, democratic state is the only option Israel has left us with.

 

One graphic way to present this reality is by providing a comprehensive picture of house demolitions since 1948. According to figures we and others have compiled, Israel has demolished, since 1948, well over 120,000 Palestinian homes – at least 50,000 in 1948 and the years immediately following, thousands more within Israel since that time (we have no exact figures as yet) and some 60,000 in the Occupied Territory from 1967 until today. And not only individual homes; entire villages, towns, urban neighborhoods and cities have been uprooted and destroyed, the very fabric of Palestinian society. This ongoing process of ethnic cleansing continues today on both sides of the “Green Line.” The effect of Israel’s judaization policy and process will be the subject of an exhibit mounted by ICAHD and its partners entitled “We Never Finished 1948.” It will be developed as an interactive online “exhibit,” whose materials can be downloaded and transformed into a physical exhibit which groups could mount in their own communities. It will be accompanied by new maps showing the emergence of a single state, informational materials and a short film. 

 

GLOBALIZING THE OCCUPATION

 

Jeff has just finished a new book, War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification, to be published by Pluto Press in London in September. In it he investigates just how Israel exports the Occupation – the weaponry and techniques of “counterinsurgency,” control and ultimately pacification developed in the laboratory that is the Occupied Palestinian Territory – to militaries, security agencies and police forces throughout the world. His intention is not only to explore yet another dimension of Israel’s permanent suppression of the Palestinians, but through the case study of Israel to throw light on modern warfare and securitization, thus raising the issue of pacification higher into the public consciousness.

 

ICAHD AT THE ISRAELI SUPREME COURT

 

A case brought to the Israeli Supreme Court by ICAHD, Rabbis For Human Rights, JLAC, St. Yves and the Palestinian village of Ad-Dirat-Al-Rfai’ya requesting that planning authority be returned to Palestinians living in Area C as agreed in the Oslo Accords – a bureaucratic move that would effectively end house demolitions – has still not been finally ruled upon. In 1971 the Military Commander of the West Bank issued Order 418 summarily dismissing the local and regional planning committees operating under Palestinian jurisdiction and bringing “planning” under the control of the IDF. This is the first time that Palestinians in the West Bank have demanded the restoration of their planning rights and institutions rather than simply complaining to the Israeli Civil Administration (as Israel calls its military government).

 

The appeal also raises the issue of forced transfer of Palestinians due to discriminatory planning and the policy of house demolition – all in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the forced transfer of Protected Persons living under occupation. Moreover, it points to the blatant inequity of planning procedures between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. Less than 1% of Area C – the 62% of the West Bank fully controlled by Israel and where the settlements are located – is designated for Palestinian development; 70% for Jews. Thus, simultaneous with the termination of the local and district Palestinian planning committees under Order 418, “special” local councils were established for the settlements.

 

Justices Rubinstein, Hendel, and Sohlberg (who lives in a West Bank settlement) represent the most conservative wing of the Supreme Court on matters related to demolitions, planning and settlements. Nevertheless they expressed dissatisfaction with the current planning situation and ordered the State to propose ways in which participation of local Palestinians in the planning processes could be facilitated. We are still waiting to see what the State comes up with, but we fully expect that ways will be found to leave the entire planning system intact, with house demolitions and forced displacement proceeding apace.

 

Amnesty International issued a press release in support of our case.

 

 

ICAHD SPEAKERS ABROAD

 

 

International advocacy has always been a key part of ICAHD’s political work. In January/February Jeff undertook a month-long tour of Canada, which took him to 15 cities in 30 days, from Newfoundland and Halifax in the east to Vancouver and Vancouver Island in the West (and cold Winnipeg and Edmonton in the middle).

 

 

The tour was sponsored nationally by the United Church of Canada’s United Network for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI) and Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and ably coordinated by Kathy Bergen and Tyler Levitan; some 40 local organizations joined in. Besides a general introduction to the Occupation and Israel’s policies of house demolitions for audiences new to the issue, in which he “walks” the audience through demolitions via a PowerPoint and film presentation, Jeff has begun to share his vision for a just solution to the interminable conflict: a bi-national, democratic state. Although ICAHD has long supported the BDS movement, it argues that our inability to link our campaigns to an end-game weakens our cause. What, in the end, are we BDS-ing for? Realizing, as we said earlier, that a fleshed-out proposal is still some way off, he nevertheless is suggesting a slogan that links BDS to an end game: BDS4BDS – i.e., BDS for a Bi-national, Democratic State. We’re not quite there yet, but the slogan seems too good not to use.

 

Jeff also met with activist groups across Canada, including many university groups exploring and protesting the complicity if their universities in the Israeli Occupation. Many Canadian universities, among others in many other countries, have entered into joint research and development projects with the Technion, Israel’s major polytechnic university but also the IDF’s largest lab. It is here that everything from drones to nanoweaponry is developed. He also presented his military research at Beit Zaitun in Toronto, Carleton University in Ottawa, and the Memorial University of Newfoundland. He also made slight inroads into the Jewish community. Here Jeff is being interviewed by the owner of the Winnipeg-based Jewish Post and News.

 

At the end of the tour he stopped in Phoenix where Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sponsored his talk as Arizona State, and he went on to speak at the Anti-Apartheid Week in Harvard and at Northeastern University, besides addressing a JVP group in Boston. In March he embarked on a two-week tour of Germany – 12 cities in 15 days – where he spoke of “Where Are We Headed in Israel-Palestine?” In Stuttgart he was hosted by the One Democratic State Movement.

 

ICAHD’s Administrator and Advocacy Officer also embarked on her second speaking tour of the UK, sponsored by ICAHD UK. During February and March she spoke at public meetings in ten cities across the north of England and in Scotland, and while in London she also provided briefings at smaller meetings for people within the Jewish community. There was enthusiastic response to Ruth’s presentations as people felt that they are not hearing the voices of young Israelis who oppose Israel’s Occupation.

 

 

MABROUK!

ERAN EFRATI NAMED ICAHD USA’S NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

 

In the name of the entire ICAHD family, we welcome Eran Efrati as the new Executive Director of ICAHD USA. Since ICAHD USA moved its operations to New York City and elected a new Board (headed by Ken Boas, a professor and activist from Pittsburgh), its administrative duties have been ably filled by Mary Winter, to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude for seeing ICAHD USA through this strategic transition. After Mary announced she was moving on in life, the Board turned to Eran, who agreed to take on the duties of Executive Director.

 

 

The choice of Eran is a natural for several reasons. Since a key role of ICAHD USA is to insert a critical Israeli voice into the public discussion in the US and to tighten the relationship between Israeli and American peace and human rights groups, having an Israel at its head makes sense. Eran is uniquely qualified for that role. A former member of Breaking the Silence, he has done ground-breaking work on IDF war crimes and, with his partner, Maya Wind, also an Israeli activist of note who serves on ICAHD USA’s Board while she is completing her graduate studies at NYU, speaks out and writes critically on Israeli militarism – including its penetration to police forces abroad. Eran is precisely that critical Israeli voice that ICAHD USA needs; here you can watch his testimony before the Russell Tribunal on Palestine regarding IDF war crimes in Gaza. We all look forward to working closely with him. Together with Maya, Ruth and Ruby Kvalheim, ICAHD UK’s Administrator, we look forward as a new generation takes its place.

 

 

ICAHD GERMANY

 

Doris Flack and Claus Walischewski continue to grow ICAHD Germany from their base in Bremen. They have established contact with many of the groups and activists working on the Palestine issue in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and through their website they translate and disseminate ICAHD materials, news of events in Israel/Palestine (particularly related to house demolitions) and participate in joint lobbying and protests. ICAHD Germany was very involved in hosting a Nakba exhibit in Bremen, to which Ilan Pappe inaugurated and Jeff concluded, as well as organizing his two-week speaking tour in March.

 

 

ICAHD FINLAND

 

ICAHD Finland continues to produce analysis and commentary, both articles and public events, on the political situation in the OPT. It recently organized a public presentation and Q&A on the BDS campaign, delivered by ICAHD Finland Chair Bruno Jäntti, and ICAHD members are frequently in the Finnish media and active among Finish politicians. Our congratulations to Li Andersson, a participant in ICAHD’s 2011 Rebuilding Camp, who was just elected to Parliament from the Left Alliance Party.

 

ICAHD Finland is also actively recruiting participants for ICAHD Summer Rebuilding Camp 2015.

 

MORE ICAHD UK NEWS

 

Core funding was raised for ICAHD UK by supporters who joined a “Radical Jewish East End Walk,” led by David Rosenberg, author of Rebel Footprints: A Guide to Uncovering London’s Radical History. David explained the Jewish roots of London’s pre-World War I East End, where 150,000 Jewish immigrants disembarked from Tsarist Russia, the challenges they faced as well as the impact that had on the area.

 

This year ICAHD UK Director, Linda Ramsden, joined the advisory team for Kairos Britain, a network of organizations and faith communities formed in response to the Kairos Palestine document, ‘A Moment of Truth’. Its primary focus is educating the Christian community about the reality of life for Palestinians and the urgent need for the end of oppression and injustice. It calls for BDS and provides theological and prayer material for ‘Kairos communities’ in the UK. Kairos Palestine calls for the state be a state for all its citizens, with a vision constructed on respect for religion but also equality, justice, liberty and respect for pluralism and not on domination by a religion or a numerical majority. For more information see <http://www.kairosbritain.org.uk>.

 

ICAHD UK and ICAHD Finland continue their involvement with the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), a network of 52 organizations from 22 European countries that meet in Brussels every few months. Their participation has enabled ICAHD to learn more about the campaigns that are happening right across Europe concerning Palestine and through joint lobbying there is the attempt to pressurize the EU to take action such as in banning settlement products and stopping funds to Israeli military companies and EU research projects with universities.

 

And….check out the new ICAHD UK website that has just gone live: <www.icahduk.org>.

 

 

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