May 31st will mark the third anniversary of the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla when Israeli commandoes killed nine Turkish peace activists. A criminal trial is taking place in Istanbul today and tomorrow (20-21st May) in which eye witnesses to the attack will give evidence to the court.

Ismail Patel, Chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa, who was on board the MV Marmara will give evidence to the hearing on 21st May. Passengers from 20 countries around the world who were on board the aid ship will also give evidence.

The trial is civilian led, and is being held in memory of the 9 activists who were killed. One further activist who was severely injured, Ugur Suleyman Soylemez, remains in a coma nearly three years later.

“I felt compelled to attend the hearing to give evidence because the world must not be allowed to forget how Israel attacked a civilian ship outside of its jurisdiction, killing and injuring without reason or remorse. It has taken almost three years for an apology, which has now only been made for political reasons. This apology is not acceptable unless Israel lifts the siege in Gaza,” stated Ismail Patel.

Read Ismail Patel’s article on his experiences here.

The post On 3rd Anniversary of Gaza Flotilla Attack appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Visit the URL above to see still photos of Palestinian youths practice their parkour skills in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip September 12, 2012.

The post Parkour in war-torn Palestine appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

On the 14th May, the ICC prosecutor announced that she would pursue the complaint filed by Cormoros Island.
http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1415-icc-prosecutor-receives-referral-from-comoros-regarding-mavi-marmara.html

And Gaza’s Ark announced they had purchased the boat to sail OUT of Gaza.  On this day of mourning for the losses in Palestine,
these two pieces of news are heartening.
http://www.gazaark.org/

The post ICC prosecutor pursuing complaint regarding Marvi Marmara appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The Ahrar Center for Detainees Studies and Human Rights published its monthly report on Israeli violations against the Palestinian in April, revealing that the soldiers killed four Palestinians and kidnapped 259.

The center said that the arrests were mainly made during dozens of invasions carried out by the army against Palestinian communities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Most of the arrests in April have been carried out in the Hebron district, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, as the army kidnapped 94 Palestinians, followed by Jerusalem where the army kidnapped 42 Palestinians.

Ahrar added that 25 Palestinians have been kidnapped in Jenin, 24 in Bethlehem, Nablus 22, Ramallah 20, Qalqilia 18, Tulkarem 6, Salfit 6, and Tubas 4 residents. One of the kidnapped, identified as Dia’ Nassar, from Tulkarem, was shot and injured before the army kidnapped him.

One Palestinian, identified as Mohammad Khaled Abu Oweily, 22, from Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, was kidnapped while trying to cross the border.

Furthermore, the army kidnapped two Palestinians at the Al-Karama Crossing with Jordan. The two have been identified as Yahia Ayyash, 61, who lives in Jordan, and Ahmad Khaled, the brother of, Waleed Khaled, an author and intellectual who has been imprisoned by Israel since March 10, 2013.

Furthermore, detainee Maisara Abu Hamdiyya, 64, from Hebron, died at an Israeli prison due to an advanced stage of cancer resulting from the lack of medical treatment in Israeli prisons.

Also, the army kidnapped two Palestinian teenagers identified as Naji Al-Balbeesy, 19, and Amer Nassar, 17, after shooting and wounding them during a protest at the Ennab military roadblock, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.

They were injured during clashes the swept across the West Bank following the death of Abu Hamdiyya.

On April 30, the army assassinated Haitham Al-Mis-hal, 29, after firing a missile at him while driving his motorcycle in Gaza; two Palestinians were injured in the attack.

Head of the Ahrar Center, Fuad Al-Khoffash, stated that the army also kidnapped in April several Palestinian political leaders, social figures and university professors.
Al-Khoffash added that 10 Palestinians were kidnapped on military roadblocks in the occupied West Bank.

Source: IMEMC

The post Four Killed, 259 Kidnapped In April appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Anti-racism campaign group Red Card Israeli Racism (RCIR) will be protesting against Israel hosting this summer’s UEFA Under-21 Finals outside the UEFA Congress in London on 24 May.

The demonstration will see protestors asking permission for visiting Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak to address the Congress. Sarsak became famous when his prolonged hunger strike during his third year of detention without charge by Israel drew support from leading figures including FIFA president Sepp Blatter, Manchester United legend Eric Cantona and led to his eventual release last July.

RCIR coordinator Geoffrey Lee said: “If we criticise racist chanting against black players in Europe, why do we not criticise a whole system of racism against Palestinians, created and enforced by the Israeli state?”

The group, which is calling for the relocation of the Under-21 Finals to another country and for the suspension of Israel from UEFA until it abides by international law, models itself on the campaign for a sporting boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era.

The campaign draws attention to last November’s unprecedented public statement in support of Palestine by Frédéric Kanouté and 51 fellow professional footballers. Prompted by an eight-day bombardment of Gaza whose casualties had included a number of teenage boys attacked while playing football – plus sports facilities including the national stadium – the players wrote that holding the Under-21 Finals in Israel “[would] be seen as a reward for actions contrary to sporting values”.

RCIR has also raised concerns that England Under-21s are scheduled to play at the Teddy Stadium, home of Beitar Jerusalem FC whose notorious supporters recently made news for their hostile reaction to the signing of the team’s first ever Muslim players, during the tournament.

“Chants of ‘Death to Arabs’, monkey chants and throwing of bananas are routine at the Teddy Stadium,” says Lee.

Last summer, Palestine FA president Jibril Rajoub urged UEFA to relocate the Under-21 Finals to another country, accusing Israel of violating FIFA regulations and the International Olympic Charter by mistreating Palestinian athletes.

More recently Mahmoud Sarsak spoke out against the continued detention of fellow footballers Omar Abu Rouis and Mohammed Nimr by Israel, and claimed that the recent death from cancer of top 90s player Zakaria Daoud Issa was caused by lack of care by Israeli prison authorities. “Israel… does not stop at the destruction of homes and trees, but it also wants to break human beings, including athletes,” Rajoub declared to protesters outside the Paris headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

UEFA President Michel Platini has predicted June tournament “will be a beautiful celebration of football that, once again, will bring people together”, and has promised campaigners he will “see what he [can] do” about the detention of Rouis and Nimr.

Meanwhile, in the run-up to the UEFA Congress, human rights group Friends of Al Aqsa will be holding a Goal 4 Peace 6-a-side tournament in Hackney on 19 May to raise support for Red Card Israeli Racism.

Entering a team into Goal 4 Peace costs £25. If you are interested in competing, please email london@foa.org.uk or phone 07850 448 756.
Written by Kenny Fryde

The post Anti-racism campaign shifts up a gear appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

It is fully confirmed that Professor Stephen Hawking pulled out of a conference in Israel later this month in solidarity with the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

The post Stephen Hawking confirms he pulled out of Israel conference due to boycott, not “health” reasons. appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

This Ramadan, Don’t Break your Fast with an Israeli Date

Ramadan is a time of year when we remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves.  It  would be an affront if at such a time we helped support oppression

Every year, Israel exports millions of pounds worth of dates to the world, which many people unknowingly buy and use to break their fasts. These dates are grown in illegal settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, on land that has been stolen from Palestinians. By buying these dates, we are in fact helping Israel to continue its occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.

For this reason, Friends of Al Aqsa will again be launching the ‘Check the Label’ Campaign.
Check The Label

Most of the major supermarkets will stock dates produced in Israel, West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Dates produced in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley are from Illegal Israeli Settlements and should also be boycotted.
Making Money from the Occupation

- Dates were Israel’s leading fruit export, most of which come to Europe

- The total income for Israel from dates in a year is approximately €80 million.
The Palestinian Call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions

Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,

We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian peoples inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;     2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and     3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

Click here for the full text and endorsements

Palestinian Workers

Israelis will claim that Palestinians are allowed to work on the land of these settlers and therefore they are provided with jobs and a boycott will harm them. In actual fact, these Palestinians are employed for paltry wages, and they are required to do the back-breaking work that the Israeli settlers will not do themselves. This means the Israeli settlers reap the rewards for the harvests while doing very little of the work themselves.

Palestinian children are employed by these settlers, and they are forced to work long hours under a hot baking sun for small sums of money. This exploitation means that these children miss out on an education.

Alternatives to Israeli Dates

There are plenty of varieties of dates from various other countries to break your fast. However if you would like  Medjoul dates from Palestine and  help the Palestinian farmers they are available from  YAFFA. YAFFA source there dates from Palestine and FOA are helping YAFFA distribute dates this Ramadhan.

Another provider is Zaytoun, www.zaytoun.org

Get Involved

Volunteer to be an ambassador for the Check the Label Campaign. This will mean you will help promote the campaign in your area and take responsibility of distributing leaflets, speaking to shop owners and uploading photographs of shops where dates from Israel, West Bank and Jordan Valley can be purchased.

To volunteer email info@checkthelabel.org.uk

Join our campaign FaceBook page to keep up to date with the campaign.

We are promoting Palestinian Medjoul Dates as an alternative.

There are two stages to this campaign:

Stage 1 – Contact and inform the wholesalers and shops.

Stage 2 – Contact and inform consumers.

Stage One

FOA have sent letters to over 1000 wholesalers and shops but we need your help to add the personal touch as that is the best method to encourage people to join the campaign.

There are 6 steps to this stage. We would like you to:

Preparation:

1.      If you can try and involve family and friends in the campaign.

2.      Print letters for Wholesalers and Shop Owners: Click here for the letter.

3.      Order Check the Label posters and postcards from info@checkthelabel.org.uk so you can put poster up on shop windows and leave postcards on the counter (with permission)

Method:

1.      Identify the wholesalers, importers and shops in your area hand deliver the wholesaler/shop letters supplied by FOA.  Inform them about Israeli human rights abuses (you can give them of FOA leaflets).

2.      Tell wholesalers and shop owners about the concept of boycotting and how it has worked e.g. South Africa. Ask them to boycott dates from Israel, West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Explain West Bank and Jordan Valley are illegally occupied and buying dates from there would mean they are supporting the occupation of Palestine.

3.      Let them know that they can buy dates from many other countries, but if they want to buy medjoul dates from Palestine they can contact info@checkthelabel.org.uk, 0116 2125 441 or Zaytoun on 0207 609 5699 or Yaffa on 0844 3814988.

4.      Keep in touch with the shops that you have approached and continue to encourage and support them to join the campaign.

5.      Write down addresses of shops which agree to support the campaign so we can write a letter to them to thank them for their support.

6.      Take pictures of the campaign and keep head office updated on your work in your locality.

Stage Two

Most of the people we have approached during the Check the Label campaign did not know dates are from Israel and also did not know that dates labelled West Bank or the Jordan Valley should also be Boycotted.   Once they were told, the overwhelming majority of people were happy to join the boycott.

Boycott is about people power.  We need your help to inform people they should ‘Check the Label’ and boycott dates from Israel, West Bank and Jordan Valley.

Preparation:

1.      If you can try and involve family and friends in the campaign.

2.      Print letters for mosques and organisations : Click here for the letter

3.      Order Check the Label posters and postcards from here so you can put poster up on shop windows and leave postcards on the counter (with permission).

Method:

1.      Identify Mosques and Community Centres in your area and hand deliver the Mosque/organisation letter supplied by FOA.  Inform them about Israeli human rights abuses (you can give them of FOA leaflets).

2.      Tell the mosque/ community centre contact about the concept of boycotting and how it has worked e.g. South Africa. Ask them to boycott dates from Israel, West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Explain West Bank and Jordan Valley are illegally occupied and buying dates from there would mean they are supporting the occupation of Palestine.

3.      Ask them if you can leave leaflets at the entrance and put up a poster

4.      Organise a time with friends and family to distribute outside the mosque after prayers, especially after Friday prayers.

5.      Let FOA know when you are planning to distribute outside mosques so we can try and co-ordinate with other volunteers.

6.      Contact your local newspaper and your local radio Ramadhan to let them know what is happening. Take photos when it is appropriate  and send updates to info@checkthelabel.org.uk

The post Check The Label – Boycott Israeli Dates – Get involved! appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a six US city concert tour of internationally-acclaimed Palestinian Oud musicians Le Trio Joubran. Accompanied by virtuoso percussionist Yousef Hbeisch, Le Trio Joubran will be performing May 10 to May 19, 2013 in Florida, Orlando Tampa and Miami Fort Lauderdale areas, Cleveland Ohio, and in San Diego, Anaheim, and San Francisco in California.

Le Trio Joubran are unique. They are the world’s only professional oud trio. The three young Palestinian brothers – Samir, Wissam and Adnan, are the sons of a master oud craftsman from the Palestinian city of Nazareth. Samir, the eldest of the three at 38, is a stunning virtuoso with a tremendous international reputation. He was inspired to form the oud trio after listening to contemporary flamenco and jazz fusion guitarists. He is joined by Wissam, aged 29, who was apprenticed to his father and became the first stringed instrument maker from the Arab World to graduate from the Antonio Stradivari Institute in Italy. Wissam hand-crafted the three brother instruments played by the trio in the Joubran family’s tradition. Adnan, the youngest at 26, is considered a prodigy by his brothers and his full musical talent has started to emerge.

The oud, or Arab lute, is the voice of Palestinian tradition and classical Arab music. Its ancient origins date back as far as Mesopotamia and Pharonic Egypt; it is a distant cousin of Russia’s balalaika and Japan’s biwa, and the forefather of the European lute, brought to Western Europe by the Troubadours via Moorish Spain. Considered the king of instruments in the Arab world, the Oud remains popular today throughout North Africa and the Near and Middle East.

The Joubran brothers proudly bring an awareness of their Palestinian culture and identity to the stage. However, once they start to play, the Oud’s transcendent quality acts to bring people together, so that any divisions of culture, race and language cease to matter. The trio’s music can remind the listener that beyond the horrifying headlines coming out of occupied Palestine, is a beautiful country with a rich cultural heritage – and hope. Between musical ecstasy and sumptuous silence, Le Trio Joubran carry their audience from elation to melancholy. Their overwhelming stage performances are both precise and overflowing with emotions that will take your breath away – Don’t miss it!

Join us! Watch, listen and enjoy as they perform AsFar their widely-acclaimed recent album.

For venue details, ticket pricing, and advance reservations please see  http://links.causes.com/s/clJRRJ?r=56Ne

For reservations by phone using your credit card, please call 760-918-9441 (9 AM – 11:59 AM PST) or 760-685-3243 (12 PM – 5 PM PST) Monday to Friday.

“This is contemporary oud playing at its finest —inventive, quixotic and arresting” Songlines

“The trio of intensely inspired and passionate musicians manages to triumph with a music that both moves the soul and makes the heart race with its fearless brilliance and command.” John Adams, Composer in Residence at Carnegie Hall

https://www.facebook.com/events/541664092522753/

The post Le Trio Joubran Six US City Tour appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

British-Danish security firm G4S this weekend reacted to a wave of protest by rehashing claims that it will eventually quit its Israeli contracts in the occupied West Bank. But in fact G4S staff will “continue to service security systems in commercial and government sites inside Israel, including jails housing Palestinian inmates” and continue to protect businesses in the settlements.

On Palestinian Prisoners Day, which was marked last Wednesday, human rights groups staged protests worldwide against the G4S role in securing Israeli prisons. G4S provides security services to Israeli detention and interrogation centers where Palestinian political prisoners (including teenagers) are held.

G4S campaign reaches mainstream media

On Sunday, British daily the Financial Times reported on its website that G4S would quit “key contracts in Israel amid protests against its involvement in settlements within occupied Palestinian territories.”

The newspaper mentioned ongoing protests against G4S in London and other countries, a call by non-governmental organizations in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine on Arab nations and the European Union to stop dealing with G4S, and the Scottish Trades Union Congress’ vote in favor of Palestinian calls for a boycott of the company.

G4S told the Financial Times it would quit a number of contracts which involve the servicing of security equipment at the barrier checkpoints, prisons and police stations in the West Bank by 2015. G4S said it wants “to ensure that our business practices remain in line with our own Business Ethics Policy.”

But in March 2011, after fierce criticism in the Danish press, G4S made a very similar announcement (PDF).

Reputational risk

Successful campaigns against companies who are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law can be a threat. Last February, Norwegian financial expert Hege Sjo mentioned Veolia as an example of a company that has experienced “reputational damage as a result of publicity and pending litigation” due to “operations in troubled regions,” in this case: “Involvement in infrastructure project in the occupied territories.”

Citing financial analyst Kean Marden, the Financial Times writes, “the Israel/Palestine conflict has created reputational issues” for G4S.

Last year, also G4S lost credibility after failing to deliver on its contract to provide security for the 2012 London Olympics. Nick Buckles admitted that G4S’s reputation was in tatters. So the company has since given higher priority to “reputational risk” by establishing a risk committee to conduct reviews of the operational and reputational dangers of contracts worth more than £20 million (approximately $30 million US).

Business ethics

G4S is the result of a merger between the Danish security company Group4Falck and the British Securicor company.

In 2002, Group4Falck bought Hashmira – one of the largest Israeli security companies. Immediately, former Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller criticized Group4Falck for its activities in the West Bank, prompting the company to leave the West Bank.

Eight years later, Danish financial watchdog DanWatch and Who Profits? (a project of Coalition of Women for Peace in Tel Aviv) revealed that G4S had resumed its activities in the occupied West Bank contrary to the will of the Danish government. The decision is difficult to reconcile with G4S’s claim today that it wants to keep its business practices “in line with its own Business Ethics Policy.”

If G4S is serious about business ethics, it should never had entered into contracts which contribute to the oppression of Palestinians.

If G4S really considers its contracts in the West Bank unethical, is should exit these contracts today. Every day that the company continues to be involved in Israel’s violations of international law will have an impact on G4S’s reputation.

Pressure effective

Last week, activists in the Netherlands called on the Technical University (TU) in Delft to end its contract with G4S. Liesbeth Zegveld, human rights attorney and professor in international law at Leiden University, told TU’s magazine that she would applaud a decision to end the relationship with G4S by the TU.

The idea to not do business with companies which are complicit in violations of international law is gaining ground. “You can simply say: we don’t want to be part in this. This way, you can actually make an impact,” according to Zegveld. “If citizens no longer accept that Israel violates human rights and international law and foreign companies will withdraw from Israel, the country has to change.”

That is why the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement needs to keep campaigning against G4S as long as it remains involved in securing prisons in Israel and the West Bank, in securing a police station in the West Bank and checkpoints in the wall, and in protecting businesses in settlements.

The post G4S feels the heat of international boycott campaign appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Through intensive research, MA’AN Development Center has discovered that many hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinian children work in Jordan Valley agricultural settlements. MA’AN interviewed child laborers as young as 12 years old. These children, like the adults who also work in the settlements, are paid a pittance with no social safety nets if they are injured in these dangerous working conditions. Most of the children working in these settlements originate from communities in the Jordan Valley, but many come from elsewhere in the West Bank, such as the South Hebron Hills, and have experienced forced transfer carried out by the Israeli army in recent years. This along with the exposure of children to tough manual labor are clear violations of international law.

There are a number of factors driving Palestinian children to work in Israeli agricultural settlements. Some come from families that lack a primary breadwinner and so they view this as a duty to their families.  Others have siblings in university and their parents do not make enough money to sustain the family. In some cases, children see their fathers working in settlements and, given the neglected nature of their schools and lack of alternative options, resign themselves to a life working in a settlement.  Whatever the reason, urgent attention is required to stop this trend that denies young Palestinians their right to a childhood and to a future free of exploitation.

8 minute video … very sad story of Child exploitation, harsh conditions and no trade unionism.
http://www.causes.com/actions/1746552-a-childhood-denied?reposter=1752   <— CLICK URL for video
50 NIS is approximately £9 (GBP) and that’s only because the exchange rate is at an all time high, 12 months ago it’d be nearer £8.

The post A Childhood Denied appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

By Robert Tait, Jerusalem 17 Apr 2013

Athletes from Gaza are to miss the chance to run in the West Bank’s first ever marathon because Israel has denied them permits to travel between the two Palestinian territories, human rights campaigners say.

Israeli military authorities have not issued travel documents to 21 men and one woman who had hoped to compete in this Sunday’s race in Bethlehem, despite an official request from the head of the Palestine Olympic Committee, Jabril Rajoub.

It means the athletes will have missed the chance to run in two marathons within weeks after the United Nations’s relief agency, UNWRA, last month cancelled its race in Gaza – scheduled for April 11 – in protest at a decision by the territory’s Hamas rulers banning women runners.

The controversy has opened the military to accusations of hypocrisy from critics who point out that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) posted a blog on its website criticising Hamas’ decision as a denial of human freedom.

Gisha, an Israeli legal rights group that monitors movement in and out of Gaza, has written to COGAT, a defence ministry body in charge of activities in the Palestinian territories, urging a change of mind.

It said Al-Masri has been given permission to travel abroad via Israel in the past while several thousand Palestinians are allowed to enter from Gaza each month subject to security clearance.

“Our clients, who trained intensively for the race which was to have taken place in Gaza, were deeply disappointed by its cancellation,” Noma Heger, Gisha’s legal director, wrote. “They would be honoured to participate in the first all-Palestinian marathon.” Several Israeli athletes have also sent faxes to COGAT protesting the decision.

Among the would-be Gaza runners are Sanaa Abu-Bahit, 29, a woman who has entered the 5km part of the race, and Nader Al-Masri, who represented Palestine in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Around 250 athletes have registered to take part in the race, which will start and end at the Church of the Nativity – Jesus’ presumed birthplace – and follow a route through refugee camps.

In a written statement, a COGAT spokesman said the Gaza athletes’ request to travel to Bethlehem had been denied because “it does not meet the criteria set in order to transfer from Gaza to the West Bank”.

The statement added: “Gaza [is ruled by] a terror organisation, which wages war against the state of Israel and its civilians. Consequently, in accordance with the Israeli government decision, which was approved by the Supreme Court, the entrance of the Gaza Strip residents to Israeli territory, and their passage to the West Bank, is possible only in exceptional humanitarian cases, mainly urgent medical cases. The request in question didn’t apply as one of those cases.”

The post Gaza athletes banned from Bethlehem marathon appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

April 17 marked Palestinian Prisoners Day, an international day of struggle and solidarity demanding the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners. The day commemorates the liberation of Mahmoud Hijazi in 1974, the first Palestinian prisoner freed in a prisoner exchange. Today, Palestinian prisoners are engaged as ever in struggle, inspiring and leading the struggle for a free Palestine. Samer Issawi’s legendary hunger strike has inspired millions around the world, and millions mourn for Arafat Jaradat and Maysara Abuhamdieh.

The post JOIN Addamer’s Stop Administrative Detention Campaign appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Thursday, 18th April, 2013

Zionist fanatics once again violated the sanctity of the al-Aqsa sanctuary on Monday and Tuesday by desecrating the al-Buraq wall.

Almost 3,000 settlers spearheaded by right-wing rabbis and Knesset members rallied overnight on Tuesday. They participated in congregational rituals and celebrations to mark the nakba of Palestine.

Moreover, on Tuesday around 60 right-wing Israelis raided the Al-Aqsa sanctuary through the Moroccan Gate, escorted by Israeli security officers.

These latest attacks come after a state of extreme caution and attention has prevailed in occupied East Jerusalem and at the al-Aqsa sanctuary since extremist Jewish groups declared their intention to stage a massive march on Tuesday to the al-Aqsa sanctuary to demand their government take full control of the sanctuary.

The latest developments concerning al-Aqsa sanctuary are becoming critical, as they reflect a worrying trend of an increase in attacks on the al-Aqsa sanctuary and the Palestinians who worship within it.

Israeli MPs, politicians, illegal settlers and tourists now violate the sanctity of the al-Aqsa sanctuary on a daily basis, safe in the knowledge that their actions will not be contested and that they will enjoy the security of occupying Israeli forces. It is no exaggeration to say that the al-Aqsa sanctuary faces the very real prospect of destruction by the Israelis, who are making their threats against the sanctuary with alarming alacrity and regularity.

Such trespasses on the holy site cannot be allowed to continue and the international community must begin to take appropriate action to pressure Israel into respecting the Palestinian heritage within the Holy al-Aqsa sanctuary.

The post Al-Aqsa sanctuary attacks continue appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

FoA

A new report released by the human rights organisation Al-Haq has highlighted how Israel operates a system of water apartheid to dominate the Palestinians. This is done through unlawful exploitation and appropriation of water resources, confiscation and destruction of water infrastructure and restriction of water supply.

Amongst the key findings of the report are:

- Israel’s water apartheid policies are based on three pillars:

i) The first pillar concerns the distinction between two racial groups, the Palestinians and the Israelis.

ii) The second pillar consists of the policies and practices that facilitate the segregation of the population into different geographical areas so that one group has greater access to water than the other.

iii) The third pillar rests upon the use of “security” laws to “justify” inhuman acts against Palestinians.

- The consumption of over 500,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank is about six times higher than that of 2.6 million Palestinians in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem.)

- The Palestinian average water consumption of 73 litres per capita per day does not reach the minimum consumption level of 100 litres recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Israelis living inside Israel use about 300 litres and Israeli settlers in the West Bank use 369 litres each per day.

- By September 2011, around 313,000 Palestinians were not connected to a water network. And about 50,000 Palestinians from 151 communities had to live on less than 20 litres each per day, an amount WHO recommends for “short-term survival” in emergency and disaster situations.

- In occupied East Jerusalem, more than 50 percent of the Palestinians living there —  around 160,000 people — do not have legal water connections because Israeli law does not allow it, mainly because the required housing permits are not issued. Furthermore, some Palestinian areas on the eastern side of the Israel’s wall in East Jerusalem have been excluded from the boundaries of the city. This has left the residents of Beit Iksa, Kufr Aqab, and Shuafat refugee camp with no access to municipal services, including water and sanitation.

- Israeli control of the water supply in Gaza, where Israel has over-extracted and polluted the Coastal Aquifer, has meant that 90 to 95 percent of the water supplied in Gaza is unfit for human consumption for the 1.6 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. It is estimated that the quality of water in the Coastal Aquifer will continue to deteriorate and may become unusable by 2016, when, in the absence of any alternatives, the Gaza Strip could become unfit for human habitation.

- Israel has caused extensive damage to Palestinian water infrastructure during military attacks on the Gaza strip. For example, during Operation Cast Lead in late 2008 and early 2009, about 919 water wells, 229 irrigation pools and 243 water pumps were destroyed. Since 2005, more than 300 water wells have been destroyed in the so-called buffer zone.

- In 2011, Israel demolished over 20 water wells, around 35 cisterns, and around 10 water tanks and springs in the West Bank(excluding East Jerusalem). At the same time, Israel confiscated 45 water, sanitation and hygiene structures in the same area. The water infrastructure was indispensable Palestinian rural and herder communities. In 2012, Israeli forces demolished at least 32 water structures took place between January and October.

FOA believes that the water situation created by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal, intolerable and unacceptable. What we are witnessing is an appalling state of affairs where Israelis living in illegal settlements enjoy an uninterrupted, abundant supply of water. By contrast, the indigenous Palestinian society is denied most of its basic rights, including sovereignty over its own water resources.

Palestinians are forcibly confined to land-locked enclaves with minimum water resources available. As a result, Palestinian communities are strangled and cannot fully develop as a group; denying such development is considered an inhuman act under the UN’s 1973 Apartheid Convention. The commission of inhuman acts against the subordinate group is the second core element of the definition of apartheid.

The international community must now act decisively to ensure that Israel reverses its water apartheid policies which are part of an institutionalised system of domination and oppression.

The post Apartheid Israel uses water to strangle Palestinians appeared first on Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

This week writer Iain Banks announced he has cancer and may have just months to live. Here he explains why, in 2010, he decided his novels would no longer be published in Israel

Since the 2010 attack on the Turkish-led ­convoy to Gaza (pictured) in international waters, Iain Banks has ­instructed his agent not to sell the rights to his novels to ­Israeli publishers.

I support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign because, especially in our instantly connected world, an injustice committed against one, or against one group of people, is an injustice against all, against every one of us; a collective injury.

My particular reason for participating in the cultural boycott of Israel is that, first of all, I can; I’m a writer, a novelist, and I produce works that are, as a rule, presented to the international market. This gives me a small extra degree of power over that which I possess as a (UK) citizen and a consumer. Secondly, where possible when trying to make a point, one ought to be precise, and hit where it hurts. The sports boycott of South Africa when it was still run by the racist apartheid regime helped to bring the country to its senses because the ruling Afrikaaner minority put so much store in their sporting prowess. Rugby and cricket in particular mattered to them profoundly, and their teams’ generally elevated position in the international league tables was a matter of considerable pride. When they were eventually isolated by the sporting boycott – as part of the wider cultural and trade boycott – they were forced that much more persuasively to confront their own outlaw status in the world.

A sporting boycott of Israel would make relatively little difference to the self-esteem of Israelis in comparison to South Africa; an intellectual and cultural one might help make all the difference, especially now that the events of the Arab spring and the continuing repercussions of the attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla peace convoy have threatened both Israel’s ability to rely on Egypt’s collusion in the containment of Gaza, and Turkey’s willingness to engage sympathetically with the Israeli regime at all. Feeling increasingly isolated, Israel is all the more vulnerable to further evidence that it, in turn, like the racist South African regime it once supported and collaborated with, is increasingly regarded as an outlaw state.

I was able to play a tiny part in South Africa’s cultural boycott, ensuring that – once it thundered through to me that I could do so – my novels weren’t sold there (while subject to an earlier contract, under whose terms the books were sold in South Africa, I did a rough calculation of royalties earned each year and sent that amount to the ANC). Since the 2010 attack on the Turkish-led convoy to Gaza in international waters, I’ve instructed my agent not to sell the rights to my novels to Israeli publishers. I don’t buy Israeli-sourced products or food, and my partner and I try to support Palestinian-sourced products wherever possible.

It doesn’t feel like much, and I’m not completely happy doing even this; it can sometimes feel like taking part in collective punishment (although BDS is, by definition, aimed directly at the state and not the people), and that’s one of the most damning charges that can be levelled at Israel itself: that it engages in the collective punishment of the Palestinian people within Israel, and the occupied territories, that is, the West Bank and – especially – the vast prison camp that is Gaza. The problem is that constructive engagement and reasoned argument demonstrably have not worked, and the relatively crude weapon of boycott is pretty much all that’s left. (To the question, “What about boycotting Saudi Arabia?” – all I can claim is that cutting back on my consumption of its most lucrative export was a peripheral reason for giving up the powerful cars I used to drive, and for stopping flying, some years ago. I certainly wouldn’t let a book of mine be published there either, although – unsurprisingly, given some of the things I’ve said about that barbaric excuse for a country, not to mention the contents of the books themselves – the issue has never arisen, and never will with anything remotely resembling the current regime in power.)

As someone who has always respected and admired the achievements of the Jewish people – they’ve probably contributed even more to world civilisation than the Scots, and we Caledonians are hardly shy about promoting our own wee-but-influential record and status – and has felt sympathy for the suffering they experienced, especially in the years leading up to and then during the second world war and the Holocaust, I’ll always feel uncomfortable taking part in any action that – even if only thanks to the efforts of the Israeli propaganda machine – may be claimed by some to target them, despite the fact that the state of Israel and the Jewish people are not synonymous. Israel and its apologists can’t have it both ways, though: if they’re going to make the rather hysterical claim that any and every criticism of Israeli domestic or foreign policy amounts to antisemitism, they have to accept that this claimed, if specious, indivisibility provides an opportunity for what they claim to be the censure of one to function as the condemnation of the other.

The particular tragedy of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people is that nobody seems to have learned anything. Israel itself was brought into being partly as a belated and guilty attempt by the world community to help compensate for its complicity in, or at least its inability to prevent, the catastrophic crime of the Holocaust. Of all people, the Jewish people ought to know how it feels to be persecuted en masse, to be punished collectively and to be treated as less than human. For the Israeli state and the collective of often unlikely bedfellows who support it so unquestioningly throughout the world to pursue and support the inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people – forced so brutally off their land in 1948 and still under attack today – to be so blind to the idea that injustice is injustice, regardless not just on whom it is visited, but by whom as well, is one of the defining iniquities of our age, and powerfully implies a shamingly low upper limit on the extent of our species’ moral intelligence.

The solution to the dispossession and persecution of one people can never be to dispossess and persecute another. When we do this, or participate in this, or even just allow this to happen without criticism or resistance, we only help ensure further injustice, oppression, intolerance, cruelty and violence in the future.

We may see ourselves as many tribes, but we are one species, and in failing to speak out against injustices inflicted on some of our number and doing what we can to combat those without piling further wrongs on earlier ones, we are effectively collectively punishing ourselves.

The BDS campaign for justice for the Palestinian people is one I would hope any decent, open-minded person would support. Gentile or Jew, conservative or leftist, no matter who you are or how you see yourself, these people are our people, and collectively we have turned our backs on their suffering for far too long.

Extracted from Our People by Iain Banks, from Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, edited by Rich Wiles, published by Pluto Press. To order a copy for £11.99 with free UK p&p go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846

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Palestine Solidarity Campaign factsheets.  Click on the text to open them in pdf format.

Basic facts – Palestine and Israel BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Gaza Today Jerusalem – Colonisation and Ethnic Cleansing Illegal Israeli Settlements Israel’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Israel, Palestine and the Environment Palestine – the new Apartheid Palestine, Israel and the Trade Union Movement Palestine’s Catastrophe – The Nakba, Israel’s ‘War of Independence’ Palestinian Political Prisoners Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return Jordan Valley Palestine – Britain’s Legacy

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4 April 2013

The death of a Palestinian prisoner

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is concerned about the deteriorating situation in occupied Palestine following the death of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli prison.

On Tuesday, 2 April, Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh died three days after being transferred to hospital by the IPS. Abu Hamdiyeh suffered from throat cancer and had previously reported medical neglect on the part of the IPS. He had been imprisoned several times since 1969, was in exile in Jordan for 20 years, and was re-arrested in the West Bank in May 2002. In 2005 he was sentenced to 25 years, which was later extended to a life sentence.

Palestinian human rights organisations report that despite suffering from a number of illnesses since 2007, Abu Hamdiyeh was not provided with necessary treatment and that he was not given a medical exam until the beginning of 2013, which showed an outbreak of cancer in his glands and throat that had spread as a result of late diagnosis. Israel refused a request from the Palestinian Authority to immediately release Abu Hamdiya from prison for treatment and he was not transferred from Eshel Prison to Soroka Hospital until 30 March, just 48 hours before his death‪.

207 Palestinian prisoners have now died in Israeli custody‪, 52 of whom are reported to have died as a result of medical neglect. Approximately 4,700 prisoners from occupied Palestine, including 230 children and 10 women, are currently imprisoned in Israel for acts, or suspicion of acts, committed in connection to Israel’s occupation. According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club, 25 inmates serving time in Israeli jails are currently suffering from cancer.

Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including the death in February of Arafat Jadarat, who is believed to have died after having been tortured, has resulted in scores of demonstrations throughout the West Bank over recent months. Israeli forces injured 746 protesters in February alone, most during prisoner solidarity protests. 300 of those injured were shot with rubber coated steel bullets, which killed one protester.

News of Abu Hamdiyeh’s death has reignited outrage across occupied Palestine. In Hebron, his hometown, around 300 demonstrators gathered in protest and stones were thrown at Israeli soldiers near the entrance to the Old City, with troops again reported to have fired teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Amer Nassar, 17, and Naji Belbisi, 18, who were involved in a demonstration in Tulkarem protesting Abu Hamdiyeh’s death.

A number of mortar shells and rockets have also been fired from Gaza since the announcement of Abu Hamdiyeh’s death, while Israeli forces have launched air strikes on Gaza – the first airstrikes since the ceasefire agreement in November 2012.

Five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement and 110 Palestinians have been injured. Fishermen in Gaza have also come under attack and harassment by Israeli forces, with the Israeli navy firing on fishermen in 41 incidents.

The violations of the ceasefire are of deep concern and MAP calls for an immediate end to the violence. Medical Aid for Palestinians also calls on Israel to comply with its obligation to provide adequate medical care to Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli custody, as mandated by the Fourth Geneva Convention, the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the UN Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, and the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment.

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March 15, 2013
By BEN EHRENREICH

On the evening of Feb. 10, the living room of Bassem Tamimi’s house in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh was filled with friends and relatives smoking and sipping coffee, waiting for Bassem to return from prison.

His oldest son, Waed, 16, was curled on the couch with his 6-year-old brother, Salam, playing video games on the iPhone that the prime minister of Turkey had given their sister, Ahed.  She had been flown to Istanbul to receive an award after photos of her shaking her fist at an armed Israeli soldier won her, at 11, a brief but startling international celebrity.

Their brother Abu Yazan, who is 9, was on a tear in the yard, wrestling with an Israeli activist friend of Bassem’s. Nariman, the children’s mother, crouched in a side room, making the final preparations for her husband’s homecoming meal, laughing at the two photographers competing for shots from the narrow doorway as she spread onions onto oiled flatbreads.

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Submitted by Adri Nieuwhof on Mon, 03/25/2013 – 10:33

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March 22, 2013

Responding to the news that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu apologised to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan today (22 March), Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who was on the Mavi Marmara, said:

‘Israel is not known for apologising for its crimes. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was forced to apologise for its attack on the Mavi Marmara, when Israeli commandos killed nine humanitarian activists, and wounded more than 80*. That is a significant admission of guilt, even if it is couched in terms of apologising for ‘operational errors’ when we were attacked in international waters, with live fire used against civilians, subjected to torture and illegal detention.

‘There are currently legal actions taking place in a number of countries against those responsible for the wanton massacre on the Mavi Marmara. As with any crime, if the defendant apologises, admission of guilt may be taken into account in sentencing. But an apology doesn’t erase the crime, or end the struggle for justice. And an apology from Netanyahu doesn’t end the fundamental injustice that motivated us to sail on the Mavi Marmara. Israel continues to lay siege to Gaza. 1.7 million Palestinians live in one of the most crowded areas on earth. Building materials to reconstruct homes and infrastructure destroyed during Israel’s attacks on Gaza are denied entry by Israel.

‘No state should be beyond the arm of the law and it is essential that legal processes continue, so justice for the victims can be achieved, regardless of an apology by the head of the responsible state. Judicial systems are independent, and Bulent Yildirim, President of the Turkish organisation IHH, made clear in a press release that the ongoing cases will not be affected. And the campaign for Palestinian rights will continue until Israel ends its crimes and violations of international law, and until Palestine is free.’

* The Mavi Marmara was sailing to Gaza as part of the First Freedom Flotilla when it was attacked by Israel on 31 May 2013. The UN Human Rights Council Report ruled that Israel’s attack had violated human rights and international law. The report stated that “The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence,” and “It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds. It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.”
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36086&Cr=flotilla&Cr1

—-
ALSO  *related article*

‘Obama Unleashes Dogs of War in Syria’
Information Clearing House

By Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR

March 26, 2013 “Information Clearing House” -  The smoke screen given to the United States President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel has lifted. But then, no one really bought the thesis that it was a mere kiss-and-make-up visit aimed at improving Obama’s personal chemistry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that prompted the US president to jet down to the Middle East in a rare overseas trip.

The expose came dramatically at the fag end of the visit just as Obama was about to get into the presidential jet at Tel Aviv airport on Friday. Right on the tarmac, from a makeshift trailer, he dialed up Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and after a brief exchange of pleasantries, he handed the phone to Netanyahu who thereupon went on to do what he had adamantly refused to do for the past two years – render a formal apology to Turkey over the killing of nine of its nationals in 2010 who were travelling in a flotilla on a humanitarian mission to help the beleaguered Palestinians in the Gaza enclave.

The Gaza incident had ripped apart Turkish-Israeli relations and things deteriorated sharply when Tel Aviv point blank refused to render an apology and pay compensation, as Ankara demanded. This is probably the first time in its entire diplomatic history that Israel, which pays much attention to its «macho» image, went down on its knees to render a national apology to a foreign country for sins committed. But then, the breakdown in ties with Israel left Israel stranded and helpless in the region, reduced to the role of a mere spectator at a historic juncture when the region is going through an upheaval.

The alliance with Turkey is vital to Israel to safeguard its core interests. In his statement welcoming the Turkish-Israeli reconciliation, US secretary of state pointedly said that the development “will help Israel meet the many challenges it faces in the region” and a full normalization between the two counties will enable them to “work together to advance their common interests”.

The telephone conversation at Tel Aviv airport didn’t happen all of a sudden. In a background story, senior Turkish editor Murat Yetkin who is a well-informed commentator in Ankara disclosed that according to “high-ranking sources”, Washington had approached Ankara a few weeks ago with the demarche that Obama wished to work on a rapprochement between Erdogan and Netanyahu and hoped to utilize his Israeli visit as a mediatory mission. Yetkin wrote:

As Ankara said they could accept the good offices of the U.S. to have an agreement with Israel, based on an apology, the diplomacy started. Before the start of Obama’s visit on March 20, diplomatic drafts about the terms of a possible agreement started to go back and forth between Ankara and Jerusalem under the auspices of U.S. diplomacy.

Tell tale signs

The big question is why has Turkish-Israeli normalization become so terribly important for Obama who has his hands full with so many problem areas – and, equally, for Erdogan and Netanyahu as well? The answer is to be found in the testimony given by the head of US European Command and NATO’s top military commander Adm. James Stavridis before the US Senate Armed Services Committee last Monday on the eve of Obama’s departure from Washington for Israel.

Stavridis advised the US lawmakers that a more aggressive posture by the US and its allies could help break the stalemate in Syria. As he put it, “My personal opinion is that would be helpful in breaking the deadlock and bringing down the [Syrian] regime.” The influential US senator John McCain pointedly queried Stavridis about the possible role of NATO in an intervention in Syria. Stavridis replied that the NATO is preparing for a range of contingencies. “We [NATO] are looking at a wide range of operations and we are prepared if called upon to be engaged we were in Libya,” he said.

Stavridis went on to explain that the NATO Patriot missiles now deployed in Turkey ostensibly for the sake of defending Turkish airspace has the capability also to attack Syrian air force in that country’s air space and that any such a NATO operation would be a “powerful disincentive” for the Syrian regime.

Equally significant is that the NATO warships of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 [SNMGI], which arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean in late February, visited the Turkish naval base of Aksaz (where Turkey’s Southern Task Group maintains special units such as «underwater attack») recently, en route to joining last week the US Strike Group consisting of the Aircraft Carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and escorts. The SNMGI forms part of the NATO Response Force, which is permanently activated and is held at high readiness in order to respond to security challenges.

Thus, the picture that emerges – alongside other tell tale signs lately – is that a western military intervention in Syria could be in the making. A major consideration could be the timing. Iran is preparing for a crucial presidential election in June and will be heavily preoccupied with its domestic politics for the coming several months thereafter.

Obama is moving carefully factoring in that any commitment of US troops on the ground in Syria is out of the question. The US public opinion will militate against another war. But the US and NATO (and Israel) can give valuable air cover and can launch devastating missile attacks on the Syrian government’s command centres.

The western powers would focus on eliminating President Bashar al-Assad rather than display shock and awe and physically occupy the country, as George W. Bush unwisely did in the Iraq war. However, after degrading the regime comprehensively, if ground forces need to be deployed inside Syria, Turkey can always undertake such a mission. In fact, Turkey is uniquely placed undertake that mission, being a Muslim country belonging to NATO.

However, the crucial operational aspect will be that in order for the US-NATO-Turkish operation to be optimal, Israel also needs to be brought in. A close cooperation between Turkey and Israel at the operational level can be expected to swiftly pulverize the Syrian regime from the north and south simultaneously. Hence the diligence with which Obama moved to heal the Turkish-Israeli rift.

Turkey of course has strong motivations – historical, political, military and economic – to invade Syria with which it has ancient scores to settle. The Baa’thist regime in Damascus never accepted Turkish hegemony in the Levant and a strong and assertive Syria has been a thorn in the Turkish flesh. Besides, there are simmering territorial claims.

For Israel too, the comprehensive destruction of Syria as a major military power in the Middle East means that all three major Arab powers which could offer defiance to Israel in the past and have been the repositories of “Arabism” at one time or another – Iraq, Egypt and Syria – have been dispatched to the Stone Age.

But the revival of Turkish-Israeli strategic axis has other major implications as well for regional security. From Erdogan’s point of view, he has thoroughly milked the last ounce, politically speaking, by his grandstanding against Israel and Zionism to bolster his image in the «Arab Street» as a true Muslim leader who never lacked courage to stand up for the Arab cause.

He probably senses that Netanyahu’s «apology» will boost his standing even further as a Muslim leader who made Israel blink in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. But, having said that, as an astute politician, Erdogan also would size up that henceforth the law of diminishing returns is at work and he might as well now think of seeking some help from Israel.

The point is, Erdogan is currently pushing for a negotiated deal with the Kurdish militants belonging to the PKK. Last week, it appeared that his efforts may have met with some success. The PKK leader who is incarcerated in Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan, has called for the vacation of the Kurdish militia from Turkish soil, which brings an end to the heavy bloodletting in Turkey’s eastern provinces for the past year and more.

No more pretensions

A curious detail that cannot be lost sight of is that Ocalan always kept contacts with the US operatives, while Israeli intelligence always kept a strong presence in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Quite obviously, there could be a back-to-back arrangement on the PKK problem between Washington, Ankara and Tel Aviv, which would work well for all three protagonists.

It could buy peace for Turkish armed forces from the Kurdish fighters and in turn enable them to concentrate on the forthcoming Syrian operation. Turkey has traditionally depended on Israel to provide it with actionable intelligence on the Kurdish militant groups.

At a broader level, Turkish-Israeli reconciliation will help NATO’s future role in the Middle East. The US hopes to introduce NATO on a long-term basis as the peacekeeper in the Levant – massive energy reserves have been discovered in the Levant Basin in recent years – and a prerequisite for this would be close coordination with Israel.

The NATO’s efforts in the past four to five years to bring Israel into full play in Eastern Mediterranean as a virtual member country of the alliance were proceeding well until they hit the bump of the Turkish-Israeli rift in 2010. During the past two years, Turkey has doggedly blocked NATO’s plans to integrate Israel into its partnership program. Ankara even prevented the NATO from extending invitation to Israel to attend the alliance’s sixtieth anniversary summit in Chicago in 2010.

Suffice to say, in terms of the overall strategic balance in the Middle East, NATO’s projection as a global organization capable of acting as a net provider of security for the region – with or without UN mandate – will be optimal only with Israel’s participation.

Equally, Turkish-Israeli collaboration at the security and military level has profound implications for the Iran question. Turkey sees Iran as a rival in the Middle East while Israel regards Iran as an existential threat. Both Turkey and Israel estimate that Iran’s surge as regional power poses challenge to their own long-term regional ambitions. Thus, there is a Turkish-Israeli congruence of interests at work with regard to containing Iran in the region.

The Turkish-Israeli axis can be expected to play a crucial role in the coming months if the US ever decides to attack Iran.

In sum, Obama’s mediatory mission to Israel and his stunning success in healing the Turkish-Israeli rift resets the compass of Middle Eastern politics. In a way, American regional policies are returning to their pristine moorings of perpetuating the western hegemony in the Middle East in the 21st century, no matter how.

In the process, the Palestinian problem has been relegated to the backburner; Obama didn’t even bother to hide that he feels no particular sense of urgency about the Middle East peace process. The resuscitation of the Turkish-Israeli strategic axis gives the unmistakable signal that the Obama administration is shifting gear for an outright intervention in Syria to force «regime change». Thereupon, the strong likelihood is that Iran will come in the US-Israeli-Turkish crosshairs…

Turbulent times indeed lie ahead for the Middle East and Obama’s Israel visit will be looked upon in retrospect as a defining moment in his presidency when he cast aside conclusively and openly even his residual pretensions of being a pacifist. Indeed, he can be sure of a rare consensus in the Congress applauding his mission to Israel, which could have interesting fallouts for his domestic agenda as well. Netanyahu can help ensure that.

Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR, Former career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. Devoted much of his 3-decade long career to the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran desks in the Ministry of External Affairs and in assignments on the territory of the former Soviet Union.  After leaving the diplomatic service, took to writing and contribute to The Asia Times, The Hindu and Deccan Herald. Lives in New Delhi.

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