News Nosh 01.20.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday January 20, 2016
 
Quote of the day:
"Whoever thinks it's possible to heal the hatred by using force alone is raising with his own hands the next monster: a boy without hope can be 50,000 times more dangerous than adults who have come to accept the reality."
--Yedioth commentator Merav Betito goes past the politics in examining what makes Palestinian youth murder Jews.**

You Must Be Kidding:  
A carwash in Petah Tikva was set on fire on Monday, with the police suspecting that it was an arson attack provoked by the fact that the company employs Arabs.*
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News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:

This morning the Army Radio reported that Minister of Defense Ya'alon authorized the declaration of 1,545 dunams south of Jericho as state land. This land has been overtaken by settlers years ago for the purpose of agricultural cultivations. According to the Army Radio the declaration will be published in the coming weeks. This is the largest declaration since August 2014, when 4,000 dunams in the Etzion Bloc area were declared as state lands, resulting in an international storm of criticism. 

This approval comes after several declarations and confiscations in the last few weeks as two orders were signed on 23 December 2015, intended to take over new lands in the Qalqilya region and Qusra region southeast of Nablus (see details below).

Peace Now: Continued land confiscation by the Netanyahu government is a diplomatic catastrophe. The government's decision is another step on the way to destroy the possibility for a two state solution. Netanyahu is being dragged by Naftali Bennett and begins a silent annexation of area C.

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They Say/We Say: "There are two sets of laws in the West Bank – one for settlers and one for Palestinians"

They Say We Say We know that pro-Israel does not mean blindly supporting policies that are irrational, reckless, and counter-productive. Pro-Israel means supporting policies that are consistent with Israel's interests and promote its survival as a Jewish, democratic state.

You've heard the arguments of the religious and political right-wing, and so have we. They've had their say. Now, we'll have ours.

Go HERE for all installments of APN's "They Say, We Say"

They Say, We Say: Why should we be worried about Israeli democracy?

They Say:

The US Ambassador to Israel (speaking in January 2016) was wrong to suggest that Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, has two sets of laws in the West Bank – one for settlers and one for Palestinians.

We Say:The criticism by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized Ambassador Shapiro’s statement, like Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s demand he retract it, is about politics, not about truth. The dual legal system in the West Bank is a matter of uncontestable fact, not one of allegations or perspective.

Since 1967, Palestinians in the West Bank have lived under the rule of the Israeli military. The legal system that governs their lives is a combination of Israeli regular and emergency military orders, Jordanian law adopted by Israel, and even old Ottoman law (used, for example, as the basis for seizing Palestinian land). This means that Palestinians who are accused of crimes are tried in military courts, where they enjoy few rights and protections.

In contrast, Israelis living in West Bank settlements, while technically also falling under military rule, in reality, enjoy extra-territorial application of Israeli law in most matters by virtue of Knesset legislation,. This means that settlers who are accused of crimes in the West Bank are tried in Israeli courts, in which they enjoy the far-reaching rights and protections offered by a democratic nation to its citizens. Israel’s preeminent human rights watchdog, B’tselem, describes the situation as follows:

…Being subject to the Israeli judicial system, settlers enjoy liberties and legal guarantees that are denied Palestinian defendants in the Occupied Territories charged with the same offense. The authority to arrest an individual, the maximum period of detention before being brought before a judge, the right to meet with an attorney, the protections available to defendants at trial, the maximum punishment allowed by law, and the release of prisoners before completion of their sentence – all of these differ greatly in the two systems of law, with the Israeli system providing the suspect and defendant with many more protections. Thus, different legal systems are applied to two populations residing in the same area, and the nationality of the individual determines the system and court in which he or she is tried. This situation violates the principle of equality before the law, especially given the disparity between the two systems…

As a result of these different legal systems, Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank have very different rights under law and very different outcomes when they run afoul of the law, even for the same violations. Most glaringly, Israelis are tried in Israeli courts, where they are presumed innocent until proven guilty and enjoy far-reaching protections as citizens. Palestinians are tried in military courts, where procedures are much less stringent, and where they are almost always convicted.

They Say/We Say: "US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro should apologize to Israel for saying Israel has a double standard in law enforcement"

They Say We Say We know that pro-Israel does not mean blindly supporting policies that are irrational, reckless, and counter-productive. Pro-Israel means supporting policies that are consistent with Israel's interests and promote its survival as a Jewish, democratic state.

You've heard the arguments of the religious and political right-wing, and so have we. They've had their say. Now, we'll have ours.

Go HERE for all installments of APN's "They Say, We Say"

They Say, We Say: Why should we be worried about Israeli democracy?

They Say:

The US Ambassador to Israel (speaking in January 2016) was wrong to say that Israel has a double standard in law enforcement against Jews versus against Palestinians.

We Say:Regrettably, Israel has a well-documented record of showing a double standard when it comes to law enforcement in the West Bank. This double standard is on clear display with the Israeli response to settler violence, especially the more than a decade-long campaign of “Price Tag” attacks. Notwithstanding the recent arrest of a suspect in the horrific July 2015 arson-murders of a Palestinian father, mother, and baby, these attacks have almost universally met a weak, ineffectual response from Israeli authorities, as has been well-documented by the Israeli media. For years, Israeli authorities have turned a blind eye to settler violence. As Amos Harel wrote in April 2014, “Neither the police nor other authorities have treated attacks by settlers against the IDF or Palestinians the way they treat Palestinian terror…”

Facts about prosecutions and convictions of Palestinians versus those of Israelis are illustrative of this problem. Palestinians prosecuted for crimes by Israel (including stone throwing, terrorist acts, etc.) are tried in military courts. Such Palestinians are, in effect, presumed guilty upon arrest, and face trial before courts that have a conviction rate of nearly 100%.

The situation is much different for crimes committed by settlers. The Israel organization, Yesh Din, which closely tracks Israeli law enforcement in the West Bank, reports that for the period of 2005-2015, 91.6% of investigations into ideologically motivated crimes perpetrated by Israeli citizens against Palestinians in the West Bank were closed without any indictment. Most of these were closed on the grounds of “offender unknown.” Yesh Din explains that this indicates: 

…the failure of the police to locate and identify suspected offenders, though there is evidence that a criminal offense had been committed. To illustrate, these were the grounds cited by the Hebron Investigation Unit for closing the investigation into vandalism of farmland belonging to a resident of the village of a-Tuwani, in the South Hebron Hills by residents of the settlement of Ma’on Farm. The file was closed without the police attempting to locate suspects who were clearly visible in video footage, and without the police demanding alibis from additional suspects, who were questioned only a year and a half after the offence was committed.

At various times in the past, the IDF and Israeli intelligence services have vowed to get serious about settler violence, especially after attacks targeting the IDF or particularly heinous attacks like July 2015 murders. Thus far, such promises have proven to be little more than lip service.

This double standard is likewise evidenced by the Israeli government’s response to the more than a decade-long campaign of construction by settlers, particularly settlement “outposts,” in violation of Israeli law. This campaign has been richly rewarded with the post-facto legalization by Israeli authorities of much of the illegal construction, sometimes in direct response to settler violence (proving that not only is settler violence tolerated, but it works). This legalization of illegal settler construction (which is in addition to ongoing “legal” settlement construction, authorized by the Israeli government), exists side-by-side with a situation in which Israel prevents Palestinians residing in so-called “Area C” – an area that spans over half of the West Bank, in which Israel retains control over Palestinians’ building and planning -- from building on their own privately-owned land, and demolishes structures built without Israeli approval.

In a speech delivered in at a conference in Tel Aviv on January 18th, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro spoke the truths about Israeli policies and about U.S. concerns for Israel’s future.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has criticized Ambassador Shapiro for his comments. Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has demanded that he recant them and apologize. A former aide to Netanyahu went so far as to use an offensive anti-Jewish slur against the Ambassador.

Did Ambassador Shapiro get the facts wrong?

Read our two new They Say, We Say questions to find out!

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PAST ACTION - Thank Ambassador Shapiro for Speaking the Truth

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Update: this action, now closed, ran in January 2016. 

In a speech delivered in at a conference in Tel Aviv on January 18th, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro spoke the truths about Israeli policies and about U.S. concerns for Israel’s future.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has criticized Ambassador Shapiro for his comments. Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has demanded that he recant them and apologize. A former aide to Netanyahu went so far as to use an offensive anti-Jewish slur against the Ambassador.

Click here to thank Ambassador Shapiro for speaking hard truths to the Israeli government and the Israeli people (via Facebook here; via Twitter here).

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Press Release: APN Condemns Israeli Government Confiscation of West Bank Land

Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the Israeli government's decision to confiscate some 380 acres in the West Bank. The expropriated land, according to Israeli media reports, is intended for Israeli settlers' use.

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News Nosh 01.21.16

APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday January 21, 2016
 
Quote of the day:
"And in general, we always need to keep the threat in the air and be on guard that the eternal candle of national anxiety isn't blown out."
--Maariv columnist Ran Adelist writes that the Netanyahu government is looking for reasons to keep the Israeli people scared.**

You Must Be Kidding: 
"But recently we learned that Shufersal supplies a delivery service almost everywhere in Israel, on condition that it is not an Arab community."
--Two Arab Israelis file a class-action suit against the country's biggest supermarket chain, saying it discriminates against Israeli Arabs by not allowing them to buy from its online store.

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Peace Now Settlement Watch: Settlers Take Over Two Houses in Hebron

News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:

Today, (January 21st, 2016), settlers took over two houses in Hebron near the Cave of the Patriarchs. The settlers broke into the houses claiming to have purchased them from the Palestinian owners. It was reported that the owners deny having sold their houses and plan to take legal measures to force the settlers out and maintain ownership on their property.

Even if the houses were truly bought by the settlers, it is still in the hands of the Israeli government to decide whether to allow them to settle in the houses. The authority to establish a settlement in the West Bank rests exclusively in the hands of the Government of Israel, irrespective of any ownership claim. Every purchase of property in the West Bank by Israelis must be approved by the Minister of Defense, and such an approval have yet to be granted.

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APN Legislative Round-Up: Jan. 22, 2016 (published early due to blizzard)

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