By Ulla Hadar

SHA’AR HANEGEV, Israel–Many ecologically-motivated students from the Sha’ar Hanegev High School demonstrated last week against plans to build an additional coal power station in Ashkelon. The demonstration took place at Sapir College where a conference was going on to examine social relationships in the neighboring city of Sderot.

Attending the conference and symphatizing with the demonstraters were several delegates from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  These delegates were: Nitzan Horowitz, Arie Bibi, Eitan Chevel and Shai Hermesh (former mayor of Shaar Hanegev municipality).

Racheli Feinstein, director of environmental studies at the Shaar Hanegev High School, said “As part of our environmental studies at the High School, it is extremely important that our students are exposed to the planning going on in our area, plans that will have an impact on their  future as well as ours.We want our students to become motivated, active, caring and responsible citizens in their future lives.”

The coal power stations are the major pollution factors in Israel today. The addition of the coal power station in Ashkelon will raise the level of pollution for another quarter of a million citizens situated in the Northern Negev, the area surrounding Gaza and Ashkelon.
 
Joint studies executed by the Brazilai hospital and the Ministry of Health have shown a significant increase in citizens arriving at the ER with breathing difficulties.

The decision to build the coal power station was taken by the government in 2002 as an attempt to cover the future demand for electricity.

Although technology has advanced and more ecological and clean solutions exist to create electricity, the government has taken no steps in reevaluating its decision to build the power station.

*
Hadar is Sha’ar Hanegev bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World

Zuerst möchte ich mich entschuldigen dass dieser Bericht so lange auf sich warten ließ, doch möchte ich dies damit begründen, dass es jetzt mehr Arbeit als zuvor gibt. Nun möchte ich wie die letzten Berichte einfach mal drauf los erzählen, was sich im Heiligen Land so zugetragen hat seit dem letzten Bericht.

Das Havat Hanoar Hazioni organisierte eine Fahrt in den Norden. Es war geplant, nahe der Golanhöhen in einem Pinienwald auf einer Anhöhe zu zelten, um von dort aus den See Genezareth und die Golanhöhen zu besichtigen. Doch entschied sich der Himmel seine Pforten über dem nach Wasser lechzenden Israel zu öffnen und dem innigsten Wunsch der Bevölkerung statt zu geben: Regen. Nur muss das genau da sein, wo ich Reisen möchte? Frechheit. Jedenfalls setzten wir, das heißt über 300 Schüler und Madrichim des Internats, uns am 22. Oktober mit Bussen in Bewegung, die Schulleitung hatte unterdessen für eine alternative Übernachtungsmöglichkeit gesorgt. Nahe einer jüdischen Siedlung befand sich eine Polizeischule, ebenfalls in Form eines Dorfes angelegt. In den verschiedenen Schulgebäuden sollten wir nun unterkommen. Anfangs machte sich deshalb sehr schlechte Laune breit, denn wir wurden in den kleinen Räumen zusammengepfercht und sollten auf dünnen Matratzen auf dem Boden schlafen. Nach dem Abendessen und einem kleinen Spaziergang der durch einen neuerlichen Schauer beendet wurde, lockerte sich die Stimmung ein wenig und wir spielten das Gesellschaftsspiel „Mafia“, wo ich jedoch darauf verzichten möchte dies jetzt zu erklären. Uns blieb überhaupt nichts anderes übrig als dieses Spiel und Unterhaltungen, da dieses Dorf mitten in der Pampa lag, das heißt wirklich nichts weit und breit wo man etwas hätte trinken können. Die Nacht war ein Graus. Glückerweise nämlich war ich nämlich der einzige der nicht schnarcht. In dieser Nacht, die einem regelrechten Konzert von Kreissägen glich, schlief ich exakt eine Stunde, bevor wir um 6 Uhr morgens zum Frühstück gehen mussten. Zum Glück viel die geplante Wanderung durch die Golanhöhen aus, das heißt, wir wurden in die Busse verfrachtet und fuhren einfach um den See Genezareth, durch Tiberias, vorbei an Nazareth und anschließend in den Golan. Unterwegs bot sich wieder einmal ein wunderschöner Anblick. Palmen über Palmen, Gärten, Genossenschaften und die riesige Wasserfläche des Sees. Dahinter die Berge, die in den Himmel ragen und in diesem Moment nichts anderes als Erhabenheit ausstrahlen. Ich war so ziemlich der Einzige, der in dem Bus aus dem Fenster schaute, der Rest der Schüler schlief. Regelrecht aufregend war es, als der Bus begann, auf dünnen Straßen sich auf die Berge zu schrauben. Zwischendurch hielten wir an um ein paar Fotos zu machen und die wunderbare Aussicht zu genießen. Bei Regen war sie schon umwerfend, wie muss sie dann bei schönem Wetter sein. Anschließend fuhren wir zurück zum See. Dort besichtigten wir ein Museum, wo uns ein Film über die Geschichte der ersten Moschawe gezeigt wurde. Zurück im Dorf schlief ich erst mal 5 Stunden und bekam auch den Lärm in unserem Zimmer nicht mehr mit, was eigentlich sehr verwunderlich ist. Ausgerechnet bei uns befanden sich nämlich die einzigen Duschen, das heißt, die ganze Schule kam nach und nach zu uns. Mein Schlafplatz war selbstverständlich direkt neben der Tür. Dies hielt mich in diesen Momenten aber nicht vom Schlaf ab, glücklicherweise. Anschließend entwickelten sich wirklich sehr interessante Gespräche und ich lief durch das Dorf um ein paar Fotos zu machen. Und plötzlich, natürlich nachdem die Zeit der eigentlich geplanten Ausflüge vorbei war, stoppte der Regen abrupt und die Sonne kam wieder zum Vorschein. Am Abend war Shabat angesagt, die Köche des Hava hatten ein wunderbares Mahl gezaubert und die Schüler begannen traditionelle Lieder zu singen und hatten sichtlich ihren Spaß dabei. Jugendliche die die eigene Tradition „uncool“ finden gibt es in Israel nicht. Anschließend organisierten ein paar Bier und Wein um den Abend ausklingen zu lassen. Wie es der Zufall so wollte sah es ein Lehrer und vorbei war es mit dem Zechen. Wieder hatten wir interessante Gespräche und ein religiöser Schüler in meinem Alter bot mir an mit in die Synagoge zu kommen. Was ich selbst nie von mir erwartet hätte, denn ich war nie religiös, ich ging mit. Und so lasen wir die Bibel auf Althebräisch, wo man wirklich fast nichts versteht und Lior mir alles übersetzen musste. Dieses Wochenende verlief also komplett anders als geplant. Machte aber nichts, denn andernfalls hätte ich sicherlich nicht die Zeit gefunden Leute kennen zu lernen, die ich vorher gar nicht oder nur wenig kannte.

In der nächsten Woche ging mein Alltag weiter. Morgens um 7:00 Uhr aufstehen, Hebräisch-Kurs, was ich täglich besser beherrsche. Anschließend Vorbereitung der eigenen Unterrichtsstunden in Deutsch und Geschichte. Die Mädels drangsaliere ich im Literaturunterricht im Moment mit Stilmitteln. Der gute Nebeneffekt ist, dass ich sie selbst wiederholen muss. In Geschichte bin ich im Moment bei der Geschichte des Zionismus. Mein Privatschüler macht sich ganz gut und findet Gefallen am Stoff, anders als in seinen regulären Fächern.

Am 12. November luden uns die israelischen Volontärinnen des Havat Hanoar Hazioni ein. Gemeinsam gingen wir in diverse Bars Jerusalems, hatten viel Spaß, unterhielten uns, lachten viel. Es ist immer wieder schön zu sehen, wie viel die Menschen außerhalb der deutschen Grenzen vertragen. Nach einem äußerst turbulenten Heimweg verabschiedeten sie sich von uns mit den Worten zu Deutsch in etwa „das war heftig“. Ich konnte mir ein Schmunzeln nur kaum verkneifen. Bei uns nennt man sowas nämlich „Vorglühen“.
Am nächsten Tag, dem 13. November wollten wir eigentlich schon um 10 Uhr in Rehovot, einer Stadt etwa 30 Kilometer von Jerusalem entfernt, sein. Nur wie es so ist, wenn man bis 4 Uhr weg war, man muss erst mal schlafen. Um 13: 00 Uhr wachten wir also auf und machten uns nach 4 Stunden Verspätung schließlich doch auf. Unterwegs kam ich aus dem Staunen nicht mehr heraus und ich stellte mir wieder einmal die Frage, die ich mir immer stelle, wenn ich die Landschaft Israels sehe: „Wie haben diese Menschen mit den eigenen Händen das geschafft?“ Denn in ganz Israel stand zu Beginn der Rückkehr der Juden fast kein Baum mehr und die Gegend um Rehovot war Wüste. Heute sieht man dort Grünflächen, Äcker, Orangenhaine und Wälder. Eine wunderschöne Landschaft. Was alles durch harte Arbeit durch den Menschen schaffbar ist… Angekommen trafen wir uns mit einem Mitglied der örtlichen Couchsurfing-Community namens Yovav. Er ist Physiker am Weizman-Institut in Rehovot und nach einem herrlichen Humus mit Hühnerfleisch und Pita zeigte er uns erst einmal den Campus. Dort herrsche eine eigentümliche Atmosphäre, was an den ruhigen Gärten mit Orangenbäumen und beleuchteten Gebäuden lag. Wir pflückten uns unterwegs ein paar Mandarinen und Orangen und was ich wirklich sagen kann ist, dass wir, trotz der guten Jaffa-Orangen die Israel nach Europa liefert, nicht wissen, wie sie wirklich schmecken. Wenn man das erste Mal in ein frisch gepflückte Apfelsine beißt denkt man nur noch: „himmlisch“. Er erklärte uns viel über die Geschichte des Campus und der Naturwissenschaften in Israel und schließlich kamen wir zu einem Platz mit einer Inschrift, wo uns auffiel, was Juden und Deutsche denn alles verbindet. Die Juden, die man währen des Römischen Reiches am Rhein ansiedelte waren nämlich die ersten, die die deutsche Sprache niederschrieben. Sie nahmen die Sprache nach einiger Zeit selbst an, dessen Dialekt wir heute als Jiddisch kennen. Nur wurde das Jiddische anders als es sonst üblich war in der hebräischen Schrift und von rechts nach links geschrieben. Yovav also las den jiddischen Text auf einer Steinplatte vor. Wir Deutsche konnten die Schrift nicht lesen, verstanden aber den Text, Yovav konnte den Text lesen ihn aber nicht verstehen. Eine äußerst lustige Situation. Wir ließen den Abend dann in der nahe gelegenen Herzl-Bar ausklingen, bevor uns ein anderer Couchsurfer abholte und uns mit zum Kibbuz Renner nahm, wo er wohnte. Er hatte uns und Freunde von ihm zu einem Pokerabend eingeladen. Ein wirklich äußerst lustiger und erfolgreicher Abend, denn zum ersten Mal räumte ich die Chips ab und gewann Geld. Wuhuuu . Am nächsten Morgen schauten wir uns den Kibbuz an, stiegen auf einen Hübel von wo wir die ganze Landschaft bis hin zu den Bergen von Judäa überblicken konnten. Danach lud uns die Familie unseres Couchsurfers zum traditionellen Shabat-Essen ein. Es schmeckte hervorragend und wie immer entwickelten sich interessante Gespräche. Anschließend wanderten wir durch die Landschaft rund um den Kibbuz. Wieder durch Orangen-, Pampelmusen-, Mandarinen- und Avokadohainen. Wir wanderten den gesamten Tag, kamen bei Einbruch der Dunkelheit zurück und ich fuhr direkt zurück nach Jerusalem.
Die Woche danach war relativ stressig. Nicht wegen dem Unterricht, sondern wegen unserem Visum. Anders als ich gedacht hatte war meine Einladung die ich von meiner Organisation bekommen hatte wertlos, das heißt ich musste mir beim Ministerium eine andere holen. Inzwischen haben wir einen Termin, so dass wir uns nicht illegal im Heiligen Land aufhalten müssen^^

Am 18. November wurden wir von einem Couchsurfer aus Betlehem auf ein Essen in Jerusalem eingeladen. Unser Aufenthaltsort war direkt neben dem Ölberg. Auf diesem Berg befindet sich ein riesiger Kirchturm, auf dem man bis zur Hauptstadt Jordaniens, Amman, blicken kann. Leider sagen wir nur die Lichter, da es bereits nachts war, aber wir werden bei Tag noch einmal Bilder machen. Unterwegs im Auto sahen wir einige arabische Geschäfte und ich muss sagen, die arabische Sprache gefällt mir von Tag zu Tag besser. Ich kann mich aber leider nur auf eine Sprache konzentrieren, Arabisch ist es aber durchaus wert gelernt zu werden. Jedenfalls befanden wir uns in einem christlichen Teil Jerusalems. Das Areal auf dem wir zu Gast waren wurde Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts von unserem Kaiser Wilhelm erbaut. Wie gesagt, Bilder davon werden in naher Zukunft folgen.

Am 19. November entschieden wir uns, dem wöchentlichen Lärm der einquartierten Soldaten im Hava zu entfliehen und zu einer Geburtstagsparty nach Tel Aviv zu fahren. Unterwegs trafen wir zufällig Yovav, den Couchsurfer von der Vorwoche, der zufällig zur selben Party wollte. Angekommen im zentralen Busbahnhof von Tel Aviv liefen wir etwa eine halbe Stunde Richtung Jaffa. In der einst arabischen Altstadt, direkt neben einer Kirche und eine Moschee befand sich das Haus, auf dessen Dach zur Feier geladen wurde. Das Motto war „Sushi and Arak“. Arak ist das israelische Nationalgetränk und schmeckt in etwa so wie Ouzo. Oben wurde gegrillt, Balkan Beat Box aufgelegt und getrunken. Wieder folgten diverse Unterhaltungen. Zwischendurch liefen wir in die Stadt um weitere Getränke und frisches Pita beim Araber zu kaufen.
Wir hatten uns eine Übernachtungsmöglichkeit in Aschdod, wieder einmal über couchsurfing, besorgt. Ginav, etwa 23 Jahre alt, wollte nach dieser Party aber noch mit uns und zwei anderen Mädels in einen der berühmten Clubs von Tel Aviv absteigen. Nur klein Bubi Fabian ist eben noch zu jung für so einen Nobelschuppen, da muss man nämlich 21 sein. Tandera tandera dei. Also ab in eine normale Disco, wo wir so ziemlich die einzigen Weißen waren. Ziemlich lustig, denn die äthiopische Juden haben eine irgendwie ganz eigene Welt. Um 3 Uhr früh fuhren wir dann los nach Aschdod. Ginav wohnte in einer Siedlung namens Gan Yavne. Ich bin zum wirklichen Fan des Südens von Israel geworden. Hier sind die Städte, das heißt die Anlagen und die Häuser am schönsten! In Tel Aviv und anderen Städten sieht man häufig heruntergekommene Häuser. Hier nicht. Alles sauber mit duftenden Gärten. Hier könnte ich leben! Am nächsten Morgen frühstückten wir auf der Terrasse und entschied sich mit uns zu seiner alten Moschawe Sde Nizan unweit des Gaza-Streifens zu fahren. Nach etwa einer Stunde über Aschkelon und Kfar Silver waren wir angelangt. Unterwegs konnten wir von der Straße aus die Palästinenserstädte Beit Hanun und Gaza-Stadt erkennen. Angekommen wanderten wir wieder durch Orangenhainen und diesmal aß ich eine frische Mango vom Baum. Einfach zu geil. Ich liebe Orangen, Wassermelone und Mango. Und davon kann ich hier wirklich nicht genug kriegen. Dafür ist Israel genau das richtige Land! Anschließend besichtigten wir etwa zweitausend Jahre alte Überreste einer Synagoge bei Nir Oz, bevor wir in einem Restaurant Hühnerfleisch mit Humus, Gemüse und Pita aßen. Immer wieder unterhielten wir uns über Politik und damit auch den Nahost-Konflikt. Nahe der Moschaw befindet sich der Grenzposten Kerem Schalom. Vor über zwei Jahren grub ein Kommando von verschiedenen islamistischen Gruppen unter Führung der Hamas einen Tunnel unter die Militärbasis, sprengte ein großes Loch und kidnappte den Soldaten Gilad Shalit, der bis heute an unbekanntem Ort im Gazastreifen festgehalten wird. Dadurch wird noch einmal zusätzlich Benzin ins Feuer gegossen. Auch besuchten wir den Ort Sderot, der seit Jahren von Raketenangriffen heimgesucht wird. Nachdem bis zum Ende des Jahres 2008 über 7000 Raketen explodierten eröffnete Israel die Offensive „Gegossenes Blei“. Damals sah ich auf Youtube diverse Videos über den Alltag in Sderot und war schockiert. Wir fuhren also durch diese Stadt und plötzlich befanden wir uns vor einer Tankstelle. Ich erkannte sie aus einem dieser Videos wieder, sie entging nur um Haaresbreite einer Kassamrakete. Ich konnte noch genau die Spuren des Einschlages erkennen. Es ist schon wirklich ein komisches Gefühl, am Anfang des Jahres sah ich dieses Video und heute steh ich direkt an diesem Ort. Anschließend begann ein Vorgeschmack auf mein Interview, dass ich in etwa einem Monat veröffentlichen möchte. Wir sprachen mit Passanten über die Angriffe. Sie berichteten uns von dem Alarm „Zeva Adom“ (Farbe Rot), den 15 Sekunden die sie bis zum Einschlag irgendwo in der Stadt haben. Überall in Sderot sieht man daher Bunker. Die Regierung finanziert derzeit ein Projekt, wonach in jedem Haus ein Bunkerraum eingerichtet wird. Unglaubliche Geldmengen in einem sinnlosen Krieg. 12 Stunden vor unserer Visite schlug die letzte Rakete in Sderot ein.

Danach fuhren wir nach Ashdod, wo Ginavs Vater ein paar Apartments besitzt. Direkt am Meer. Hier sind die Preise alles andere als teuer, nur wollen dort nicht so viele Menschen hinziehen, da es auch dort immer wieder zu Kassam-Angriffen gekommen ist. Ginav erzählte uns „hier testet die Hamas die Reichweite ihrer Raketen“. In welcher Blase von Frieden wir doch in Europa leben!
Am Abend setzten wir uns wieder in die Herzl-Bar in Rehovot, unterhielten uns noch ein paar Stunden und tranken Bier, bis ich mich wieder in den Bus nach Jerusalem setzte und Moritz mit Zimmergenosse zu seiner Freundin nach Kadima Zo’an fuhr. Um halb 1 konnte ich mich dann wieder schlafen legen. Ein sehr schönes und spannendes Wochenende, das mich wirklich nachdenklich machte, vor allem wegen Sderot. Diese Stadt ist, finde ich, die schönste in ganz Israel. Es wäre das reinste Paradies dort zu leben. Durch wegen der Kassam-Raketen liegt Himmel und Hölle direkt neben einander…
Unterdessen fand ich sehr gute Musik aus Israel. Zum einen die Jewish Monkeys, die aktuelle politische Themen aufgreifen und parodieren und Balkan Beat Box, die in hebräische und arabischer Sprache singen.
Jetzt muss ich zum Abendessen. Anschließend wartet noch mein Hebräischbuch auf mich^^ Ich muss natürlich jeden Tag lernen.

Also dann, lehitra’ot, bis zum nächsten Bericht.

Hier noch ein paar Musikvideos:

Anav Silverman est la correspondante internationale du Sdérot Media Center. Elle a organisé et effectué des visites à Sdérot pour les diplomates étrangers, des fonctionnaires de l’ONU et plus récemment pour l’ambassadeur britannique en Israël. Mme Silverman a donné des conférences sur la vie à Sdérot à travers l’Angleterre, au Canada et Amérique du Nord. Elle écrit également sur Sderot et d’Israël pour les questions liées à de nombreux journaux et sites Web de nouvelles en Israël et aux États-Unis. Elle a acceptée de répondre aux questions de JSSNews et invite les lecteurs à la contacter pour tout renseignements supplémentaires.

JSSNews: Anav Silverman, vous qui êtes à Sdérot, comment se passe la vie actuellement ? Est-ce que l’opération Plomb Durci à changé quelque chose pour les habitants de la région ?
Anav Silverman (A.S.): La vie à Sdérot est plus calme à présent et le nombre d’attaques à la roquette sur la région a largement diminué depuis l’opération en question. Cette dernière a donné aux habitants la chance de se détendre un peu et de tenter de reconstruire une vie normale, une vie de routine qui ne se concentre plus seulement sur les sirènes et les explosions. Toutefois, la vie n’a pas repris son cours normal ici. Depuis la fin de l’opération, il y a eu plus de 270 roquettes de tirées sur Sdérot et sur le Néguev occidental, dont personne ne parle dans les médias. Le dernier Tzeva Adom (nom hébreu pour “alerte rouge”) en date était le lundi 2 novembre, en pleine nuit. La roquette a frappé le Néguev mais une fois de plus, cela montre l’instabilité imposée par les terroristes.

la suite : jssnews

Perusing the internet you can practically hear the wailing lament of those labeling Israel as terrorist. This is called turnspeak. You take a negative characteristic of something you advocate or hold dear and copy and paste it
on the to something you want to denigrate. You are so familar with the subject you knoe how to falsely glue these negative attributes on to an innocent party. You see this when white supremacists call Jews, Jewish supremacists. It works so well with Nazis labels pasted on Israel despite the obvious inaccuracies. Varieties of Jew haters from the left and right react with such enthusiasm and glee in this.The list continues; so you see there is a strategy here. Gaza suddenly becomes a concentration camp when it has no similarities in suffering or size or environment with Auschwitz, Dachau or others. Arab riots against Jews are transformed into a Invasion of Jews in the post Holocaust years.A recurrent tactic is to minimize the Holocaust of 6 million Jews by proclaiming the very same Jews are enacting a Holocaust against the Palestinian people.  They describe the military opeartion against Hamas deep within crowded urban settings as similar to the executions in the death camps. The ratio of survivors to the entire population in both concentration camps and Gaza is so different as laughable. Few survived the death camps almost all  survived Gaza. Even Colonel Kemp, a British officer, remarked considering the total population to the casualties inflicted by the operation the Gaza  Operation was the most humane in military history!!! To this add the Hamas strategy of using the Gaza population in a variety of Human Shields. I often point out that the Palestinian Holocaust is the only one where the victims tripled in population. That ridiculous their tactic and takes the air of of their balloon until they can parrot it later in their typical robotic fashion.  If you know history you ether laugh or cry.
But here I deal with those who call Israel a terroristic state.You ask what is terror. Terror is uncertainty. Never knowing whether the man next to you is a suicide bomber is terror. Palestinians generally know once they commit an act they expect a reaction fron Israel, this has been going on since the 1920s. But Hamas first in its suicide bombing phase 1995-2006 and later the missile stage (2000-9) attacks unannounced and unprovoked. Of course they always use anything as an excuse from insult to hoax for launching an attack. My cartoons here compare this strategy to where Arabs spiritually inherited this from; Nazi Germany. The Nazis were aided by Arabs such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. And the later his or even employed Nazi War Criminals. They adopted many philosophies from the Nazis that can be seen in heil salutes by Hamas and Hezbullah.
So the conclusion in a rationally, is that Israeli operations  are not random therefire not teroristic while Hamas whether by suicide bomber or by random Qassam rocket is the defintion of terror.

Il sud d’Israele viene bombardato ogni giorno dai qassam. Ma all’Onu c’è un rapporto che equipara vittime e terroristi

L’incubo di Sderot iniziò sugli schermi della rete televisiva americana Cbs. Il 24 gennaio 2002 la celebre rubrica “60 Minutes” trasmise l’intervista a un leader di Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzook, che minacciava di usare missili Qassam per colpire le città israeliane. Il nome, Qassam, deriva da un imam fondamentalista che negli anni Venti incitò ai pogrom contro gli ebrei. Nel giugno 2004 un razzo colpì una scuola materna e uccise un uomo e un bambino. Le prime di una lunga serie di vittime israeliane a Sderot. Dodicimila razzi palestinesi sono caduti sulle città di Sderot e Ashkelon. Ogni giorno, per nove anni. Dalla fine dell’operazione israeliana a Gaza sono caduti quasi trecento missili. Uno al giorno. A Sderot in auto si deve tenere sempre il finestrino abbassato, la cintura slacciata e la radio spenta. Altrimenti non si sente la sirena. “C’è un solo esempio nella storia in cui migliaia di razzi vennero sparati su una popolazione civile”, ha detto il premier israeliano Netanyahu alle Nazioni Unite.

“Fu quando i nazisti lanciarono razzi sulle città inglesi durante la Seconda Guerra mondiale. In quella guerra gli Alleati rasero al suolo le città tedesche, facendo centinaia di migliaia di morti. Israele decise di comportarsi diversamente”.
Oggi un nuovo rapporto delle Nazioni Unite redatto dal giudice Richard Goldstone accusa Israele e Hamas di “crimini di guerra”. L’azione dell’esercito israeliano a Gaza fu lanciata proprio per fermare i razzi su Sderot. Il rapporto arriverà all’Assemblea Generale il 4 novembre. “Il rapporto Goldstone ha il mio sostegno”, ha detto ieri il segretario generale dell’Onu Ban ki-Moon. Per la prima volta una grande democrazia potrebbe essere accusata formalmente di “crimini di guerra”, alla stregua dei Genocidaires Hutu in Ruanda e delle milizie serbo-bosniache di Karadzic.
Già a due settimane dalla fine delle operazioni israeliane a Gaza, Hamas aveva ripreso a sparare su Sderot. In città si hanno venti secondi per mettersi al riparo non appena suona l’allarme: “Tzeva Adom”, colore rosso. Sderot è una città malata. Inchieste mediche indipendenti rilevano che un abitante su due soffre di danni psichici. Tra il 74 e il 95 per cento dei bambini ha disabilità psichica. Sderot è decisiva per capire il rapporto Goldstone. Abbiamo intervistato gli israeliani che sono andati a Ginevra per testimoniare di fronte alla commissione dell’Onu. Abbiamo parlato con i medici che curano i feriti nel “triangolo della paura” Ashkelon-Sderot-Netivot.

Ogni giorno a decine bussano alla porta del Trauma Center di Sderot, dove si offre sostegno psicologico a chi soffre del trauma dei bombardamenti. La direttrice è la dottoressa Adriana Katz, impegnata a lenire le sofferenze psichiche di Sderot. “Questo è un paese di morti viventi”, ci dice Adriana mentre si fa la conta degli ultimi attacchi missilistici di Hamas. La gente a Sderot non è afflitta dalla sindrome “Ptsd”: disordine da stress post traumatico. I sintomi sono gli stessi (insonnia, ansia, apatia, dolori psicosomatici), solo che a Sderot il post non arriva mai. Per questo si parla di “generazione Sderot”. Una cittadina nata nei primi anni Sessanta come centro di transito per i nuovi immigrati provenienti da Marocco, Kurdistan e Iran.
Gli abitanti di Sderot hanno presentato al segretario generale dell’Onu una lettera di denuncia dei crimini di Hamas. La lettera è stata firmata da 90mila persone di cinquanta diversi paesi, su iniziativa dell’organizzazione Take A Pen. “Il 79 per cento della popolazione di Sderot è psicologicamente invalida”, ci dice Batya Katar, leader dell’Associazione dei genitori di Sderot e promotrice della lettera all’Onu. “Ogni giorno, per nove anni, abbiamo ricevuto attacchi da Hamas. Il giudice Goldstone avrebbe dovuto vivere qui per una settimana con i suoi figli. Ogni minuto e ogni secondo, giusto per una settimana. Un qassam è caduto vicinissimo alla mia abitazione. Mio figlio dorme con me da cinque anni per la paura di attacchi missilistici. Abbiamo venti secondi per metterci al riparo. Possiamo morire in ogni istante, è con questo pensiero che vive la gente di Sderot. Qui bambini e genitori dormono assieme, quando si va al bagno ci si sveglia tutti perché i bambini hanno paura di andare da soli”.

“Sderot è l’unica città al mondo dove il terrorismo colpisce la popolazione civile nel XXI secolo giorno dopo giorno, senza tregua”, ci dice Noam Bedein, direttore dello Sderot Media Center e fra i testimoni della commissione Goldstone. “E’ inaccettabile per qualsiasi paese. Il novanta per cento dei qassam è stato lanciato da zone palestinesi civili, perché Hamas sapeva che Israele avrebbe avuto le mani legate. Quale altro paese avrebbe accettato una simile condizione? Ci sono stati venti attacchi con i qassam in due mesi, da settembre a ottobre. Duecentosessanta missili sono stati lanciati da Gaza sul Negev da quando è finita l’operazione dello scorso gennaio da parte d’Israele. Dopo il rapporto Goldstone, ci aspettiamo un’escalation terroristica. Secondo quel rapporto, Israele non ha il diritto di difendere i propri cittadini. Un milione di israeliani saranno a breve sotto la minaccia del lancio dei missili palestinesi. L’equipaggiamento arriva tutto dall’Iran”.

Noam è andato a Ginevra per parlare alla commissione dell’Onu. “Fu penoso venire a sapere che fra i giudici sedeva l’inglese Christine Chinkin, la stessa che in un articolo pubblicato sul Sunday Times aveva già sostenuto la tesi secondo cui ‘il bombardamento israeliano di Gaza non è autodifesa, è un crimine di guerra’. In mezz’ora ho dovuto esporre otto anni di missili e attacchi terroristici. Durante la mia presentazione, Goldstone si addormentava spesso o si distraeva. Non bastano le dita delle mani per contare quante volte i razzi sono esplosi a pochi metri da un asilo d’infanzia. Quale altra democrazia tollererebbe anche un solo razzo sparato contro i civili del suo territorio? Dobbiamo aspettare che venga colpito un asilo affinché Israele ottenga l’appoggio internazionale per fare quello che è necessario per proteggere la propria gente?”.

“Quello che odio di più è l’impossibilità di trasmettere l’invalidità dell’anima e della mente, perché questo lo si conosce ma non si può fotografare, né trasmettere in televisione”, ci dice la dottoressa Adriana Katz, 59 anni, direttrice della clinica per la salute mentale di Sderot e il Trauma Center per il trattamento immediato delle vittime da shock. Di origini romene, Adriana è giunta in Israele con il marito dopo aver trascorso sedici anni in Italia.
Nel caso di attacco, Adriana si mette in moto, anche di notte. E’ sempre reperibile. “E’ il mio guaio non poter trasmettere quel che accade qui”, dice Katz fra una sigaretta e l’altra. Si dice che Sderot sia il posto peggiore al mondo per chi vuole smettere di fumare. “Durante la guerra a Gaza, il ministero degli Affari esteri d’Israele ha voluto mandarmi al Parlamento europeo per parlare di Sderot. Ho rifiutato, perché non avevo possibilità di trasmettere la gravità e la tragedia della popolazione di Sderot. Chi non lo vive non lo può capire. Io abito ad Ashkelon, da nove anni sto curando seimila persone, vittime del lancio dei missili. Sono direttrice di clinica psichiatrica e del centro di emergenza. Non siamo riusciti a guarire tutte queste anime martoriate, che continuano in gran parte a non funzionare come prima. Famiglie distrutte, bambini con tutti gli effetti del post trauma, perché quasi ogni giorno c’è ancora l’allarme dei missili. Questi missili sembrano giocattoli, rispetto ai Katyusha. Ma quando abbiamo capito che questo ‘giocattolo’ uccide, quando un giorno è stato ucciso un bambino, poi un nonno, poi una donna è rimasta senza gambe, allora abbiamo incominciato a capire. Non hanno smesso un solo giorno di sparare Qassam, nonostante il cessate il fuoco. Voi europei dovreste vivere qui una settimana. Abbiamo avuto morti, invalidi, case distrutte, è una roulette russa, non si sa mai a chi tocca. La vita normale è finita. La vita è stata spezzata. Esci di casa e non sai mai se arrivi, in qualsiasi momento suona l’allarme, devi stenderti per strada, è umiliante. E’ un trauma tremendo, la gente guarda la televisione o sta mangiando quando di colpo arriva il ‘colore rosso’. Da psichiatra so che la paura non ha gusto né colore né odore, ma qui a Sderot la paura è di ‘colore rosso’”.

Adriana Katz è fiera di appartenere al campo del compromesso con i palestinesi. “Sono contro le guerre, vengo dall’Europa, ma quando vivi qui capisci le cose in maniera diversa. Ci sono bambini invalidi a Sderot, senza gambe, anche adulti, ma più di tutto è una intera popolazione esposta alla paura, sradicata dalla propria vita normale, tanta gente che ha smesso di andare a lavorare, che non esce di casa, bambini che fanno pipì a letto ad età avanzate. Niente somiglia più a quello che era. Attacchi di panico per un rumore più forte diventa fonte di terrore. E’ una società invalida. Mi domando se è meno grave delle bombe su Gaza. Il trauma non diminuisce, non è passeggero, è una malattia cronica, secondo me è una specie di silenzio, un falso silenzio, tutti qui si aspettano di nuovo al lancio di missili, tutto è cambiato. Non programmiamo nulla, è una vita scialba, senza entusiasmi. Anche se si fanno figli, li si fa con paura. Non è più una popolazione sana. Ci fa tornare in mente quello che i sopravvissuti all’Olocausto hanno vissuto. I bambini appartengono già a una ‘generazione del qassam’, i bambini di Sderot sono come gli anziani sopravvissuti alla Shoah, non giocano fuori, hanno paura, i parchi giochi sono rifugi, è una sensazione orribile. I bambini sono nati e vissuti con il terrore, hanno paura di uscire alla luce del sole, hanno paura di dormire soli in casa, alcuni sono in totale regressione, non riescono a separarsi dai genitori. C’è nell’aria la sensazione che tutto stia per scoppiare, ogni giorno arriva un missile su Sderot. Non ho alcuna speranza. La grande tristezza è che il mondo non capisce quel che sta accadendo qui”.

La dottoressa Katz ha scritto una lettera al giudice Goldstone contestando i risultati delle indagini. “Amo il mio lavoro, ho studiato medicina per diventare psichiatra, però negli ultimi anni è diventato sempre più difficile. Che cosa sa il giudice Goldstone delle migliaia di israeliani vittime da trauma e le cui vite sono diventate un inferno in terra? Chi aiuterà i quattromila bambini a tornare alla vita quotidiana? Anni e anni di riabilitazione attendono la popolazione che vive qui. Non è più un lavoro da psichiatra, quanta forza d’animo bisogna avere per poter continare a curare le persone senza pensare a casa tua, non sapere se è ancora in piedi?”.

Dalia Yosef ha diretto lo Sderot Resilience Center, specializzato nella cura dei bambini. “I bambini di ogni età, da uno a diciotto anni, a Sderot presentano traumi gravissimi”, ci spiega la dottoressa. “E’ una invalidità invisibile. In ogni comportamento mostrano regressioni. Gran parte di loro ha incubi, non mangia bene, non va fuori da sola, non vuole che le madri vadano al lavoro, non gioca, a scuola ha numerosi problemi. Moltissimi di questi bambini sono nati sotto i qassam. Non hanno conosciuto altra condizione. Non è come perdere un familiare in un incidente stradale, a Sderot c’è un trauma collettivo. Due settimane dopo la fine delle operazioni a Gaza, hanno iniziato a sparare di nuovo. A Sderot i bambini reagiscono a ogni rumore forte come a un allarme qassam. Il settanta per cento di bambini nel Negev mostra sintomi da trauma e queste statistiche sono frutto di ricerche indipendenti. Migliaia di bambini hanno anche disabilità fisiche a seguito delle bombe palestinesi. Ho visto a lungo gli effetti del terrorismo sui bambini di Sderot e il rapporto Goldstone elimina il diritto dei nostri bambini di crescere in un ambiente non traumatizzato. Ci sono bambini che vogliono restare dentro ai bunker o nelle stanze-sicure nelle proprie case. Ci sono bambini che non sono più scesi dal proprio letto. Non sappiamo cosa sarà di questa generazione nata e cresciuta sotto i qassam”.

Mirela Siderer è il simbolo di quanto è successo alle città israeliane sotto bombardamento di Hamas. “Ho sentito come una palla di fuoco turbinare dentro di me, tutti i miei denti sono volati via. Ancora oggi ho un pezzo di scheggia di quattro centimetri impiantata sul lato sinistro della schiena, troppo vicina al midollo spinale per potere essere rimossa”. Siderer è stata ferita da un razzo palestinese che ha centrato il suo ambulatorio ad Ashkelon, dove le fermate dei bus sono scudi di cemento e i parchi giochi hanno la campana d’emergenza. E’ volata a Ginevra per parlare davanti alla commissione dell’Onu. Con lei c’era Noam Shalit, il padre del soldato rapito tre anni fa da Hamas a Gaza. “Tutta la mia pacifica vita è stata stravolta in un secondo, quando, senza alcun preavviso, un razzo si è abbattuto sul mio ambulatorio”, dice Siderer. “In una frazione di secondo il posto è stato completamente distrutto. Mi sono ritrovata sotto le macerie, ma ho continuato a parlare alla mia paziente, anch’ella gravemente ferita: il suo addome era squarciato, con i visceri all’esterno. Qual era la mia colpa? Che sono un’ebrea che vive ad Ashkelon? Ho studiato medicina per aiutare la gente in tutto il mondo, e ho aiutato anche tante donne di Gaza. Sono un semplice civile che non ha mai avuto a che fare con alcun atto di guerra. E mi rincresce per tutte le vittime, anche per le vittime innocenti dell’altra parte. Basta sangue e sofferenze, è ora di finirla”.
“Per capire meglio la guerra d’Israele contro il terrorismo,vorrei prima spiegare la nozione di terrorismo”, dice sempre al Foglio Mirela Siderer. “Il terrorismo è il regime di violenza da parte di un gruppo organizzato di appartenenza varia, che ha vari scopi, politici, religiosi, e che rivolge la violenza alla popolazione civile che non ha alcuna possibilità di difendersi. C’è una grande differenza tra le guerre che si svolgono fra due paesi e gli attacchi terroristici. Sono stata ferita durante un attacco simile, mentre svolgevo il mio lavoro di medico. Nel 2005 Israele si è ritirato dalla striscia di Gaza, quindi non si parla di territori occupati, ma questo conflitto è diventato oltre che geopolitico anche religioso. Con grande dispiacere mi rendo conto che si tratta di fondamentalisti islamici che non fanno altro che istigare contro lo stato d’Israele e il popolo ebraico”.

Infine una parola sul rapporto delle Nazioni Unite. “Come medico e cittadino non posso accettare questo terrorismo e tanto meno la unilateralità del rapporto Goldstone. Ho testimoniato di fronte alla commissione Goldstone, ma le mie parole non sono state prese in considerazione. Nel sud d’Israele siamo nel terrore da nove anni. Immaginate di vivere in una qualsiasi città italiana bombardata ogni giorno. Voi potreste andare avanti così?”. Eppure Sderot non è una “città fantasma”, come viene spesso descritta. Il numero di abitanti non è mai sceso. C’è chi dorme ancora con i vestiti addosso, si vive con le finestre socchiuse e si parla sottovoce, nel timore che il segnale di emergenza sfugga all’attenzione. Ma gli israeliani non sono mai fuggiti.

© 2009 – FOGLIO QUOTIDIANO

di Giulio Meotti

Il Foglio

'Människorättsrådets' Navi Pillay och utredaren Richard Goldstone

Richard Goldstone, som på Libyens, Pakistans och Egyptens uppdrag i FN:s “Människorättsråd” samlat information om kriget i Gaza, fördömer nu sin uppdragsgivare för att ha antagit en resolution, baserad på hans rapport, som endast fördömer Israel och inte ens nämner Hamas en enda gång. Alla som kritiserat Goldstone för att naivt ha tagit på sig det förutbestämda beställningsjobbet från det Libyen-ledda rådet har därmed fått rätt:

– Det här resolutionsutkastet [som nu har antagits] gör mig sorgsen eftersom det endast innehåller anklagelser mot Israel. Det finns inte en enda mening som fördömer Hamas, vilket vi gjorde i vår rapport, sade Goldstone till den schweiziska tidningen Le Temps.

Inte en enda demokrati röstade för resolutionen, som ändå gick igenom pga den automatiska majoritet som rådets arabiska och islamiska regimer uppnår tillsammans med den diktatoriska “alliansfria” rörelsen. Det är samma “Människorättsråd” som i maj “gratulerade” Sri Lanka till segern i kriget mot den tamilska gerillan, i vilket minst 7000 civila tros ha dödats. Enligt Israels ID-listor var den absoluta merparten, 75 procent, av de döda i Gaza stridande terrorister, trots Hamas försök att involvera civilbefolkningen. Hamas och palestinierna hävdar tvärtom att merparten var “civila”, men Amnesty säger i sin rapport på s. 6 (pdf) att man inte kan bekräfta palestiniernas påståenden. 

GOLDSTONE: ANKLAGELSERNA I RAPPORTEN SKULLE ALDRIG HÅLLA I DOMSTOL

Hamas och mänskliga sköldar (Arkivfoto AP)

Goldstone har kritiserats hårt av jurister för att han i rapporten kommer med vad som låter som juridiska anklagelser om att Fjärde Genèvekonventionen och andra krigslagar ska ha brutits, samtidigt som han i intervjuer erkänt att hans rapport inte bevisar någonting alls, och att den aldrig skulle godtas i en domstol.

Under de senaste månaderna har det talats mycket om att Goldstone “inofficiellt” kommit överens med “Människorättsrådets” libyska ordförande att granska både Israel och Hamas. Men som väntat ignorerades detta fullständigt av rådets diktatoriska majoritet när resolutionen skulle röstas igenom. Tvärtom utnyttjades Goldstones etniska bakgrund som ett cyniskt alibi mot anklagelser om att rådet är fientligt fixerat vid den judiska staten. Anklagelser som både FN:s generalsekreterare Ban Ki-Moon och hans företrädare Kofi Annan själva riktat mot “Människorättsrådet” vid upprepade tillfällen.

GOLDSTONE GICK MED PÅ ATT FRÅNGÅ ELEMENTÄRA KRAV PÅ OPARTISKHET

Richard Goldstone förtjänar själv en stor del av skulden för detta haveri. Han valde att ta på sig beställningsjobbet trots att det uppdrag han fick av “Människorättsrådet” specifikt begränsar uppgiften till att endast dokumentera Israels påstådda “förbrytelser”, och helt ignorera Hamas. Hans rapport behandlar Hamas krigsförbrytelser på åtta sidor medan Israel granskas på resten av de nästan 600 sidorna. Han valde också att behålla den kvinna i utredningen, Christine Chinkin, som innan utredningen startade deklarerade att Israel var “skyldig” till krigsförbrytelser. Goldstones rapport, och uppdraget från “Människorättsrådet” fokuserar dessutom enbart på de “22 dagar” då Israel besvarade Hamaselden, och utelämnar de föregående åtta åren under vilka Hamas nästan dagligen bombarderat israeler med över 10 000 missiler. FN har aldrig lyft ett finger för att fördöma de attackerna trots ständiga israeliska anmälningar till FN. Utredningen bygger nästan uteslutande på påståenden från intervjuade palestinier, och Goldstone erkände till nyhetsbyrån AP att Hamas följde utredningsteamets varje steg i Gaza, vilket kan ha förhindrat palestinier från att kritisera terroristernas metoder att gömma sig bland civila.

BRITTISK ÖVERSTE VITTNADE: ’ISRAELS ARMÉ ÄR DEN MEST SKONSAMMA I VÄRLDEN’

Den vanligtvis israelkritiska brittiska tidningen The Economist kallade Goldstones rapport för “djupt förfelad” eftersom den blundar för Hamas krigsförbrytelser och struntar i Israels ansträngningar att med telefonsamtal, flygblad och andra varningar försöka skydda den palestinska civilbefolkningen. Dessa kombinerades med dagliga humanitära pauser i striderna för att låta civila ta del av hjälpleveranser och kunna ta skydd. Tidningen noterar också den hycklande fixeringen vid Israel:

Men om bara faktumet att Israel gått till attack är tillräckligt för att fördöma landet så var Goldstones rapport onödig från början. Och det finns en fara för dubbelmoral här. Amerikanska och europeiska styrkor i Irak, Afghanistan och Kosovo har också orsakat tusentals av civila dödsoffer utan att det har lockat till sig en Goldstone-utredning.

Diktaturerna i “Människorättsrådet”, av vilka några själva finansierar eller stödjer Hamas, antog den ensidiga resolutionen trots vittnesmålet från den brittiske översten Richard Kemp. Han var högste befälhavare för de brittiska styrkorna i Afghanistan, Irak, Makedonien och Bosnien, och har även tjänstgjort med FN-trupper. Han vittnade inför rådet och sade att Israels armé gjorde mer än någon annan armé i krigshistorien för att skydda civilbefolkningen, under striderna i Gaza:

ISRAEL HAR REDAN BÖRJAT UPPFYLLA RESOLUTIONEN – MEN HAMAS DÅ?

Rapporten och resolutionen uppmanar både Israel och Hamas att själva utreda vad som hänt under kriget. Israel har redan startat 23 brottsutredningar och undersökt ett hundratal anklagelser, och tycks därmed vara på god väg att uppfylla den arabiska resolutionens krav. Ingen kan ifrågasätta trovärdigheten i rättsstaten Israels utredningar, som i historien lett till att en försvarsminister avsatts efter Libanonkriget på 80-talet, att militärbefäl åtalats, att landets president avsatts och åtalats samt att en premiärminister ställts inför skranket.

Men vad kommer konsekvensen att bli för palestinska Hamas? Ingen förväntar sig på allvar att Hamas på ett trovärdigt sätt ska utreda sina egna terroristledare, som startade hela kriget. En terrorgrupp terroriserar. Ingen i världssamfundet kommer att kunna bestraffa den. Som den partiska resolutionen visar så syftar allt detta i själva verket till att specifikt förbjuda Israel från att försvara sig mot palestinsk terrorism, som finansieras och stöds av flera av “Människorättsrådets” medlemsregimer.

Det är tragiskt att det har tagit så här lång tid för Richard Goldstone att förstå att han grundlurats och utnyttjats.

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Läs också:
- Reportage i Sydsvenskan: Gazabor diskuterar områdets problem
- Andrea Levin i Wall Street Journal demolerar Aftonbladets extrema redaktionsledning
- FN-rapport: “Iran sannolikt redo bygga atombomb”
- Hamas erkände redan före kriget att de använder mänskliga sköldar (video)
- Australisk fd. generalmajor sågar Goldstonerapporten och FN-rådet
- Dagens skämt: FN:s diktatoriska ‘Människorättsråd’ ska ‘utreda’ Gazakriget
- Människorättsrådet stänger av mikrofon för torterad palestinier (video)
- Palestinier ger Israel rätt om vit fosfor: ‘Vi struntade i att evakuera’
- Dick Erixon: Turkiet radikaliseras och närmar sig Syrien
- Erik Svansbo: Mia Farrow försvarar palestinsk terrorism
- Gudmundson: Svensk islamistpredikant om att spotta på judar (video)
- Johan Ingerö: ‘Anti-rasistorganisation’ anlitade antisemit
- Jonathan Leman: SKMA:s nyhetsbrev om Aftonbladet antisemitismen och islamisterna

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Richard, Goldstone, FN, Människorättsrådet, Genève, Hamas, Gaza, terrorister, palestinier, Palestina, Mellanöstern, Israel, IDF, Ehud Barak, Benyamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, mänskliga sköldar, Iran, Goldstonerapporten, Goldstone-rapporten, Säkerhetsrådet, ögonvittnen, Amnesty, civila, dödsoffer, vittnesmål, Richard Kemp, självförsvar, Gazaremsan, raketer, qassam, kassam, missiler, Sderot, tätbebyggt område, antisemitism, judar

The Obama Administration’s intentions to relocate plans for “missile defense systems” from along the Russian border in Eastern Europe in order to aid Israel’s systems in intimidating Iran comes as an influential “bipartisan report” from Likudniks recommends an aggressive U.S.-Israel strike on Iran and secret U.S. intelligence reports to the White House say there are ‘no nukes in Iran’.

Mark Hosenball at Newsweek reports of “two counterproliferation officials” confirming that “Iran has not restarted its nuclear-weapons development program” that “U.S. agencies had previously said that Tehran halted… in 2003″ when it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (N.P.T.):

The officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said that U.S. intelligence agencies have informed policymakers at the White House and other agencies that the status of Iranian work on development and production of a nuclear bomb has not changed since the formal National Intelligence Estimate (N.I.E.) on Iran’s “Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities” in November 2007. Public portions of that report stated that U.S. intelligence agencies had “high confidence” that, as of early 2003, Iranian military units were pursuing development of a nuclear bomb, but that in the fall of that year Iran “halted its nuclear weapons program.” The document said that while U.S. agencies believed the Iranian government “at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons,” U.S. intelligence as of mid-2007 still had “moderate confidence” that it had not restarted weapons-development efforts….

According to the two officials, the latest update to policymakers has been that as of now—two years after the period covered by the 2007 N.I.E—U.S. intelligence agencies still believe Iran has not resumed nuclear-weapons development work. “That’s the conclusion, but it’s one that—like every other—-is constantly checked and reassessed, both to take account of new information and to test old assumptions,” one of the officials told Newsweek….

Officials of Israel’s conservative-led government have been delivering increasingly dire assessments of Iran’s nuclear progress and have leaked shrill threats about a possible Israeli military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities….

An Obama administration official says that top policymakers are being told that there is no significant disagreement among U.S. intelligence agencies and experts about the latest assessments regarding Iran’s nuclear effort.

“Iran insists that its nuclear energy research program is for the purpose of producing fuel for the Bushehr reactors when their construction is complete—i.e. they are seeking an ‘exotic way of boiling water’ (the ironic definition of nuclear power for electricity generation),” Middle East scholar Professor Juan Cole writes at his blog, Informed Comment, adding:

As far as U.S. intelligence can tell, the Iranian claim is correct. The Israelis and Germans are wild men on this issue, but a) the U.S. has better intelligence on the nuclear issue than do they; b) the Israeli and German intelligence agencies got Iraq badly wrong; c) Israel in particular wants to strike Iran for political reasons, to take it down a notch, and may be seeing the raw intelligence through that lens….

As for the Western press leaks that Iran now has enough nuclear material to make a bomb or now has the technical ability to make a bomb, both are nonsense. You need to enrich uranium to 90% to make a bomb. Iran claims to be able to enrich to 4% and a lot of observers think that is an exaggeration. So ipso facto Iran cannot possibly have produced enough fissile material for a bomb. Moreover, you need to have a weapons program trying to enrich to 90% to produce a bomb, which Iran does not have, from everything US intelligence can discover. Either the journalists are being fed fraudulent documents or they are just orally being misled.

Many American Jewish organizations are dismayed by the right-wing Likud Party’s beating of war drums against Iran.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is putting pressure on Iran about its nuclear research.

I talked with MSNBC’s Alex Witt on Saturday about Iran’s nuclear research program (3:42):

“Of course, the Likudniks and their enablers don’t care what the Iranians are doing or are not doing. They regularly announce their intention to attack and destroy—in violation of the U.N. Charter and of the ‘restraining order’ placed upon them by U.N. Security Council Resolution 487—Iran’s I.A.E.A. [International Atomic Energy Agency] Safeguarded guaranteed-to-be-peaceful nuclear facilities,” Nuclear physicist Dr. Gordon Prather wrote at AntiWar.com—after “several of our Likudnik enablers issued a ‘report‘… warning President Obama that: ‘If biting sanctions do not persuade the Islamic Republic to demonstrate sincerity in negotiations and give up its [I.A.E.A.-Safeguarded] enrichment activities, the White House will have to begin serious consideration of the option of a U.S.-led military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.’… Understand that all these Likudniks and their enablers are advocating a military strike on I.A.E.A.-Safeguarded facilities!”

Russian President Dmitry Medveded told Fareed Zakaria on CNN that, when Israel President Shimo Peres visited Russia, “he said something very important for all of us: ‘Israel does not plan any strikes on Iran, we are a peaceful country and we will not do this’ “. Pres. Medvedev described a potential Israeli strike on Iran as, “the worst thing that can be imagined,” adding: “What would happen after that? Humanitarian disaster, a vast number of refugees, Iran’s wish to take revenge—and not only upon Israel, to be honest, but upon other countries as well.” Pres. Medvedev “trusts them”—Israel—to be confident in this same assessment of reality as reason that it is “not planning to” strike Iran, adding that Iran’s continued cooperation with the I.A.E.A. since 2003 “is a duty and not a matter of choice”—a duty that is “absolutely obvious, if it wishes to develop its nuclear dimension, its nuclear energy programme.”

“Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, sees Iran’s program as an imminent danger. It ‘is something that threatens Israel and threatens the region and threatens the peace of the world,’ he said during a recent visit to Germany. ‘There is not much time.’,” Howard Schneider reports at The Washington Post—contrasting to Pres. Medvedev’s relay to CNN—on a “recent unannounced trip by Netanyahu to Russia”, confirmed by Pres. Medvedev, though, “Defense Minister Ehud Barak said this week that he did not consider Iran’s nuclear program an ‘existential issue’ because ‘Israel is strong’. Part of that strength lies in its nuclear capabilities—never acknowledged but widely presumed to exist—and part in the assumption that the United States would stand behind Israel if it came under attack.”

Mr. Schneider’s report is from an article on Israel “steadily assembling one of the world’s most advanced missile defense systems” to be stationed near—and in—the Gaza Strip, extending Israel’s occupation and enhancing Sderot civilians as a target for Palestinian resistance, “designed with that country”—Iran—”in mind.”:

The effort, partly financed by the United States and incorporating advanced American radar and other technology, has been progressing quietly for two decades. But Israeli defense and other analysts say it has now reached a level of maturity that could begin changing the nature of strategic decisions in the region…

Uzi Rubin, a private defense consultant who ran Israel’s missile shield program in the 1990s. Iran, he said, now cannot be assured of a successful first strike against Israel…

The Obama administration decided this week to scrap a Bush-era plan to deploy a longer-range-missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, and said it would move toward a more intermediate system that better matches its assessment of Iran’s capabilities….

Iran “is radical, but radical does not mean irrational,” Rubin, the defense consultant, said. “They want to change the world, not commit suicide.”…

The Arrow was deployed in 2000, and Israel and the United States have since conducted a joint, biennial missile defense exercise, called Juniper Cobra, to work on integrating the weapons, radars and other systems of the two countries. Israel, for example, has the advanced U.S. X-Band radar stationed in the Negev desert. Israeli defense industry officials say the country also has almost real-time access to some U.S. satellite data, an important part of its early-warning system.

The next joint exercise is scheduled for October….

Beginning next year, Israeli officials say, the Iron Dome system should provide some relief. The mobile launchers initially will be placed around towns and facilities near the Gaza Strip, but they ultimately may be deployed in locations nationwide.

The system has sparked some controversy. It has not, for example, proved effective against mortar shells and could leave the towns closest to the border areas vulnerable, including chief targets such as Sderot. Critics have pushed for other systems, including a chemical-laser one that Israel was jointly developing with the United States, or the rapid-fire Phalanx guns that can be used to protect key facilities such as power plants.

There is also concern that militant groups could try to overwhelm the system by firing large barrages of comparatively cheap, homemade Qassams—perhaps not expecting to do damage so much as forcing Israel to spend tens of thousands of dollars a shot to knock them down.

But Israeli officials say systems such as Iron Dome are crucial to the country’s military planning—in terms of preventing damage and diminishing the need to retaliate.

Measures such as these increase and encourage—as opposed to deterring—that “Hamas fighters at times mixed and mingled with civilians” during the Gaza Massacre—a “reality did not lift Israel’s obligation to take all feasible measures to minimize harm to civilians”— Judge Richard Goldstone wrote in his The New York Times op-ed that coincided with the release of his 575-page report on the U.N. fact-finding mission he led on the Gaza Massacre. Surrounding civilians in Israel and Palestinian territories creates the hybrid civilian-military zones to manufacture cases where: “Repeatedly, the Israel Defense Forces failed to adequately distinguish between combatants and civilians, as the laws of war strictly require.”

Former Ha’aretz editor David Landau wrote—in a separate NYT op-ed—that the Goldstone Report “stunned even seasoned Israeli diplomats” because they “they never imagined that the report would accuse the Jewish state of intentionally aiming at civilians”, adding:

Israelis believe that their army did not deliberately kill the hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including children, who died during “Operation Cast Lead.” They believe, therefore, that Israel is not culpable, morally or criminally, for these civilian deaths, which were collateral to the true aim of the operation — killing Hamas gunmen.

It is, some would argue, a form of self-deception.

When does negligence become recklessness, and when does recklessness slip into wanton callousness, and then into deliberate disregard for innocent human life?

But that is the point — and it should have been the focus of the investigation. Judge Goldstone’s real mandate was, or should have been, to bring Israel to confront this fundamental question, a question inherent in the waging of war by all civilized societies against irregular armed groups. Are widespread civilian casualties inevitable when a modern army pounds terrorist targets in a heavily populated area with purportedly smart ordnance? Are they acceptable? Does the enemy’s deployment in the heart of the civilian area shift the line between right and wrong, in morality and in law?…

It is possible, and certainly arguable, that the Israeli policymakers, or individual Israeli field commanders in isolated instances, pushed the line out too far….

Judge Goldstone could have contended that just as Israeli leaders themselves have frequently called off pinpoint assassinations of terrorists because civilians were in the line of fire, so too they should have refrained from bombing and shelling Hamas targets in Gaza when that bombing and shelling was bound to exact a large civilian toll.

The question: Is Israel deliberately setting up civilian targets for those it chooses to isolate and intimidate?

Why not, when it systematically transforms the writings of obscene apologists like Professor Alan Dershowitz and American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris into self-fulfilling prophesies?

Después de haber prolongado su estadía en la región, el enviado especial estadounidense volvió a reunirse éste Miércoles en Jerusalén con el Primer Ministro Benyamin Netanyahu y las partes informaron acerca de moderados avances en el diálogo, aunque sin hacerse un anuncio conjunto y tampoco se determinó una fecha para un encuentro tripartito entre los líderes de Israel y la Autonomía Palestina, conjuntamente con el Presidente Obama.
Fuentes en Ramallah dijeron al término de las reuniones mantenidas allí con Mitchell en la víspera, que había quedado claro que la administración estadounidense apoya la idéa de la creación de un estado palestino independiente en el plazo de dos años.
Según las fuentes, Estados Unidos adoptó la idéa del “estado de facto”, enunciada pocas semanas atrás por el Primer Ministro del Gobierno Autónomo Palestino, Salam Fayad.
Fuentes diplomáticas dijeron que durante los últimos días, los palestinos endurecieron sus posiciones, ante la negativa israelí de congelar por un año la construcción en los asentamientos judíos en la Ribera Occidental.
En Israel y en Gaza se oyeron furiosas protestas por el informe de la Comisión de las Naciones Unidas por los Derechos Humanos y que acusa a Israel y a Hamas de crímenes de guerra.
El Vice Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores israelí, Danny Ayalon, dice que el informe es totalmente parcial y justifica al terrorismo y una corte macial contra Israel. “El informe fué escrito sin tener en cuenta la realidad en el terreno, el terrorismo de Hamas previo al operativo militar de nuestro ejército y hay que ver que países lo impulsaron”.
El Presidente Shimon Peres dijo que el Informe del Juez Goldstone “se ríe de la historia”. “El autor del informe no lo hubiera escrito si sus hijos vivieran en Sderot y sufrieran diariamente del terrorismo de los cohtes de Hamas”, dijo Peres.
También Hamas protesta contra el informe Goldstone. El portavoz de Hamas dijo que se trata de un informe político, “falto de valor y sinceridad que compara entre el verdugo y su víctima”. El Primer Ministro de Hamas en Gaza, Ismail Haniya dijo que no es posible comparar, ya que los palestinos se están defendiendo de la agresión.

Gaza

Sderot

Excerpts from my journal during a three month journey of photographic discovery in the Land of Troubles

Photos

August 27 & 28, 2009, Thursday & Friday, Sderot, Israel, in the home of Nomika Zion & Jaffa, Israel, on the roof of the Old Jaffa Hostel:

Yes, arrived in Israel. With much to show and tell. But first a dream, particularly powerful last night:

In one I was watching a movie in which a young man had tragically died, his family in grief. They either extracted him from the grave or were bringing him home for burial. I knew it was a film and I became very critical of the veracity of it when I saw the dead man, naked, scratch himself. What a cheap shot, I thought. And then he moved again so it became clear the intent was to show he was not dead at all. The family was amazed. Either a resurrection or a case of mistaken death.

The course of yesterday’s events unfolded in mysterious and heavenly ways. First the leave taking at the Quaker Palestine Youth Program office, a gift of my girl in hospital photo to the staff, clearing up the pay question at Al Aqsa (if I send them my bank info they promise a bank transfer of $300, this after I thought Mohammed had said no money available), waiting for Islam to finish the DVD writing of the Popular Achievement movie and my backed up photos, waiting for the taxi which I thought would be driven by the crazy and irrepressible Awni (it wasn’t, damn, someone new, without the chutzpah of Awni), final packing, bye to Hassen the building owner, then ride with Mosab, a quiet Mosab, to Erez. Rolling my black hard plastic luggage over all the gravel, rejecting an offer from one of the porters, this time unwisely, I ruined one wheel. I’ll probably have to replace the luggage or find a way to repair it or live with it till home.

Erez was fairly easy this time, the staff more polite than I recall from before. The same body X-ray device with the whirling doors, the same thorough scanning of all luggage, the same opening of most of my luggage to hand inspect—I watched them, they seemed nonchalant, didn’t look thru everything, didn’t seem to care, no one asked any questions, I probably could have brought the video tapes Raghda had asked me to bring to her brother in Ramallah—, the same series of gates and pens, and the same final stamp in my passport, “Erez.” And I’m in another world.

Gaza—on the way to Erez crossing point to Israel

Sderot, Israel

Eric Yellin, the founder of Other Voice, from Sderot, met me; we drove the 3 km or so to Sderot and there the fantastical experience began. The distance is so small, the situation so different that I gasped. Luckily I could process this with Eric who delighted in showing me around the town. He took me to several hills overlooking Gaza where we could see Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, Jabalia, and Gaza City itself, places I’ve visited and photographed and heard stories about, places where I’ve met people affected by policies of Israel and supported by many in Sderot. Not supported by Eric however, or his colleague in Other Voice, Nomika Zion, in whose home I slept last night, where I’m writing now.

On the 2nd of two hill visits the sun was setting. As I photographed, using my long lens, we heard the muezzin call everyone to prayer; everyone in Gaza was at this moment sitting down to break the fast, the Iftar, just as I’d done with the Popeye crew on the previous 2 evenings, and with Mohammed and family in Jabalia camp on the first night of Ramadan. Behind us was a reservoir of about 100 meters across, round and lined, with the water level down by about 10 meters. Eric explained that this had an illustrious history, attacked by Arabs during the early days of Israel, another case of historic hydropolitics.

Gaza from Sderot

Jabalia from Sderot

Jabalia, The Gaza Strip, in the distance, water reservoir in the foreground

Comparing Gaza with Sderot (some features are a result of the occupation, some are cultural and religious differences): Sderot residents are free to go anywhere in the world, if they have the necessary means (many are impoverished, recent immigrants themselves, and those holding Israeli passports, including Israeli Palestinians, cannot enter many Arab countries). Building materials are plentiful (if they can be afforded) so the damage from rocket attacks can be swiftly repaired (I saw no damage, did see ongoing construction of safe rooms.) The Internet is faster than anywhere else in this trip’s experience, and twice I’ve found free neighborhood networks to use. I can wear shorts outside during the day and drink beer and other alcoholic beverages. Malls. Larger cars. Elegant homes. Grassy expanses, trees, well tended palms. Fairly equal women’s rights. Good educational system. Drinkable water out of the tap. On and on. But, I wonder, how do people deal with cognitive dissonance, if any—the gap between the fiction of much of the conventional Israeli narrative and the truth of the suffering of the Palestinians, largely at the design of the Israeli government, voted into power by its citizens, in the “only true democracy in the Middle East.”

Fear is similar (and could unite the two populations). Gazans obviously live in constant dread of more attacks, and suffer from their loss of freedom and the continuation of the siege—these are defining elements in Gazan experience. For Sderotians they also fear: the renewal of rocket attacks, bigger and more accurate rockets. Altho the city of 22,000 has provided much shelter—this could be an entire story in itself: safe rooms added on to older houses, the requirement of a safe room beginning in 1990 during the first Iraq war, sealable against gas attacks, concrete walls some 1 meter thick in all new construction, the varieties of street shelters, protective roofs over existing buildings like schools, complete rebuilding of some structures like some schools to be rocket proof, for some instances—and at large cost (many donations came in from people around the world), no one can predict whether attacks will resume and if they do what will be fired next.

One style of rocket shelter

Protected high school

This might be compared to a more universal fear of nuclear holocaust—or catastrophic climate change, or a total and uncorrectable economic collapse—but it is more immediate. The rockets have affected everyone. Eric was at an intersection about 50 meters from a rocket that struck a car instantaneously killing its female passenger. Nomika told me about a rocket hitting a home near her, demolishing a major portion of it. I forget the exact figures but something like 8 people have died in the last 8 or so years, with many injuries. Wikipedia claims: [Rockets] have killed 13 residents, wounded hundreds, caused millions of dollars in damage, and disrupted daily life as well as the local economy. No rockets since May 19, 2009. But the degree and type of fear these attacks induce can’t be quantified. It is significant.

Nomika described for me two cases of women, both with children, whose fear piled up so high that suddenly both decided, separately, to flee. Eric estimates about 5,000 residents left during the recent assault, some now returning. That’s 20% of the population. Furthermore, those leaving, Nomika told me, were the “stronger” elements of the population, meaning those with stronger economic means. So poor people tended to be trapped here, they and the elderly. Had I been a resident, I too might have been unable to leave, suffering greatly from not only the entrapment but my feebleness. If I lived in an older building without safe areas, without nearby large shelters, I’d have only the basement for refuge. If I lived more than a few floors up, the warning (if it occurred at all, the rocket that killed the woman in the car arrived with no alert, alerts provide about 15 seconds warning) probably would not give me enough time in my weakened aged condition to reach the basement. What would I do? Tremble and pray.

Home of Nomika Zion

As might be expected during war conditions, many supported powerful retaliation. And some, Nomika told me, tended to become more extreme. She outlined the case of a man in the neighborhood, the kibbutz—more about this tantalizing aspect of life in Sderot later—who when in his 20s, in the army, refused deployment to the territories. And was imprisoned, if I remember the story correctly. And now: wipe them out, yes all of them, including the children, if they fire one more rocket at us.

And he’s not alone. Which makes Other Voice, the organization that Eric founded and Nomika participates in even more impressive. They speak as Sderotians who deplore the use of violence to bring peace, who attempt to bridge the differences between themselves as Israelis and their Gazan neighbors across the road, the fence, the wall, the gulf created by more than 20 years of violence. Eric believes the consistent Israeli policy of violent retaliation lacks an end game, a purpose. It is based primarily on fear, not so much hatred. A fear that he says, is in the DNA of Jews everywhere, having experienced 2 millennia of persecution, climaxed by the holocaust. His wife lost many in her family. He did not.

Nomika is well known internationally, having written an article during the assault that was widely circulated (linked below). Hundreds of journalists interviewed her, she won a prize, visited NYC and DC when she received it recently (her first trip to the USA), and now is scorned by many in her town. What motivates her? I might ask her again to try to explain that most vexing of all questions to anyone daring to speak out.

Nomika Zion

Eric recently took a group of Gazan children to the West Bank, with permission of the Israeli government. He seemed thrilled when I put him on the phone yesterday to Belal in Gaza. I’d called Belal to say goodbye more personally than by chat. I know Belal loves and misses me. Since Eric was standing nearby, on an impulse hard to explain, I told Belal where I was, who I was with, and then suddenly burst out with, and would you like to talk with this guy? Of course, he said. And Belal is one of the best of my friends to do this: articulate, impassioned, obviously and publicly suffering.

Eric Yellin on the phone with Belal Badwan in Gaza

Belal Badwan, 2006

I was impressed with Eric’s response, listening respectfully, apologizing for what Israelis had done to Belal and his people, and promising to stay in touch. This might be a connection, because of Belal’s position as teacher, that could flourish in bridge building. Yet to be seen.

Eric was born in Israel, lived here to the age of 5, raised by his father I think he said, parents divorced, mother living in Green Gulch Buddhist community near San Francisco (maybe Y knows her) for decades, father in Vermont (he formerly a photographer, helping make a book about Johns sea coast island in South Carolina, a book Eric proudly showed me, also founded a blue grass band), then back to the States till he was 17 when he chose to return to Israel, serve in the Israeli army (after first being posted as a prison guard, his elder son told me, himself imprisoned for refusal to continue that assignment, and then requesting a position as military investigator in Gaza, just as the first intifada began, many stories here), marry a 2nd generation Israeli, raise boys (twins 13, another 15 who wishes to become a combat soldier despite saying he shares his father’s politics), and enter his life as activist.

He said, I’ve considered leaving the country, I might someday, but I love the intensity of living here. I couldn’t remain here without the work I’m doing as an activist. On this we seem to agree (on much we agree, I found him very compatible with my views. I also would not wish to continue living in the States, or perhaps living anywhere, if I weren’t doing the work I do thru photography and writing. That is, we are both courting despair by examining so closely the suffering of others, by living in lands of cognitive dissonance. And we might succumb if we didn’t have an action channel.)

Eric agrees that Israel is self-corrosive, and might be doomed. Yet he is hopeful. He has recently taken a part time position with an organization that does peace activism. I should get the name again, and I assume he’s active with Other Voice. Also he is part of a start up software or computer company based in the kibbutz. He is responsible for the network at the kibbutz.

Eric told me he hates the word normalization, because it is inaccurate, almost a slur on the idea of pairing. Opposing normalization, a view taken by most Palestinians I know, means that there should be no partnerships between Palestinians and Israelis, unless the Israelis agree with the call to end the occupation and act on it. He believes strongly, as I think Nomika does and I certainly do, in the value of personal exchanges, interactions, human to human. How else develop trust? This is part of a long-range strategy and I believe has been part of all justice movements. Gandhi for instance, as far as I know, never hesitated to meet with adversaries. I wonder what he’d say about normalization. Or Martin Luther King Jr? In South Africa the kononia (kononia means communion by intimate participation) movement played a role in ending apartheid—families dining together from across the political and social divisions. Also in the United States the Kononia Farm brought European and African Americans together in shared living, demonstrating (at some cost to the residents) that coexistence was possible.

Migvan kibbutz

To embody this principle of sharing experiences, both Nomika and Eric live in a kibbutz, and work to foster relations between widely divided adversaries, namely Gazans and Israelis. They suffer for this, ostracized from some neighbors who might not share their values. All buildings are duplexes, and, judging from the homes of Nomika and Eric, vary in size and quality, also how they’re furnished. Nomika’s is elegant and appealing, filled with art, plants, fine kitchenware, kept clean, a model of simple yet luxurious living. I found Eric’s to be messy, perhaps more from the presence of their 3 boys than anything native to the adults. How would my home look if I lived there, I pondered?

And so, the kibbutz: the Hebrew word means come together. This one, Migvan, is unusual in its being relatively young and in an urban environment. Founded by Nomika, Migvan moved from an apartment complex with tiny units to its present, spacious, tree lined site in 2000. (She’s lived in Sderot since 1988.)

And I’m afraid I now don’t have time to write about Nomika, maybe another time. She can speak for herself thru her powerful article “War Diary from Sderot.”

Inside Eric Yellin’s home

I just learned that Ted Kennedy, my senator from Massachusetts, died at age 77, from his brain cancer—and accolades are pouring in, rightly. Like his 2 brothers he is a great man. Too bad he wasn’t more astute and courageous about Israel-Palestine. In fact, a friend just emailed a quote from the website of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Action Committee:

Senator Edward Kennedy, A Great Friend of Israel

Sen. Kennedy was a longstanding supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

AIPAC joins all Americans in mourning the loss of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship and a true and longstanding friend of America’s pro-Israel community.

During his more than four decades in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Kennedy consistently supported American assistance to Israel, particularly during the Jewish state’s most trying times, in the wake of the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. He led the fight against U.S. arms sales to Israel’s enemies, spoke out forcefully against the Arab League boycott of Israel and was a fierce critic of the United Nations’ isolation of the Jewish state; he urged his colleagues to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, and warned of the dangers of global terrorism.

Sen. Kennedy became the leading champion for persecuted Soviet Jewry, advocating on behalf of refuseniks and those Jews wishing to leave the Soviet Union, personally raising their issues with Soviet leaders at every possible opportunity, and demanding that the United States provide loan guarantees to Israel to absorb Jewish refugees.

Senator Kennedy’s legacy of leadership on these issues and his lifelong support for one of America’s closest allies are hallmarks of his historic career devoted to serving the best interests of the American people and our values. He will be sorely missed.

LINKS:

Israel’s ‘other voices’ go unheard
By Rachel Shabi in Israel

Kibbut Nir Am and Sderot – the human side of towns under fire
By Donna Zeff

Other Voice

Sderot

Photos by Jessica Griffin
Generally good photography, might be working in Gaza