A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press.
1.) In a recent interview, Jimmy Carter outlined what will be discussed in his upcoming meeting with the exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal. He said that of primary importance would be the issue of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Additionally, the former president said that he would talk with Meshaal about the group’s commitment to peace, particularly their willingness to adopt the 2002 Arab League peace initiative, which calls for recognition and the restoration of diplomatic ties with Israel in exchange for a comprehensive peace settlement. Meanwhile, Noam Shalit, the father of the captured Israeli soldier, is welcoming Carter’s decision to talk with Khaled Meshaal. After meeting with the former president on Sunday, Shalit said that the fact that Carter is skeptical of Israeli policies could be very beneficial to the negotiations.
2.) Prominent Israeli commentator Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz that Israel has “no moral right to fight the Chinese occupation of Tibet.”
No small number of other good Israelis have recently joined the wave of global protest that broke out over the Olympics, set to take place in Beijing this summer. It is easy; it engenders no controversy – who would not be in favor of liberating Tibet? But that is not the fight that Israeli human rights supporters should be waging. To fight for Tibet, Israel needs no courage, because there is no price to pay. On the contrary, this is part of a fashionable global trend, almost as much as the fight against global warming or the poaching of sea lions. These fights are just, and must be undertaken. But in Israel they are deluxe fights, which are unthinkable. When one comes to the fight with hands that are collectively, and sometimes individually, so unclean, it is impossible to protest a Chinese occupation.
Citizens of a country that maintains a military subjugation in its backyard that is no less cruel than that of the Chinese, and by some parameters even more so, and against which there is practically no more protest here, have no justification in denouncing another occupation. Citizens of a country that is entirely tainted by the occupation – a national, ongoing project that involves all sectors of the population to some extent, directly or indirectly – cannot wash their hands and fight another occupation, when a half-hour from their homes, horrors no less terrible are taking place for which they have much greater responsibility.
3.) The Israeli human rights group MachsomWatch has filed a complaint against the Israeli Defense Forces for holding 46 Palestinians at a checkpoint for 16 hours straight. Haaretz reports:
According to a MachsomWatch report, IDF troops at the checkpoint, located along Highway 5, stopped the Palestinian job-seekers, males aged between 14 and 50, on suspicion of trying to enter Israel along with five drivers suspected of ferrying illegals. The Palestinians were detained early in the morning, and kept standing for hours, on the grounds that “when they sit down they make trouble.” They were barred from using the restrooms adjacent to the checkpoint, compelling them to use the thorny field, in plain view of those passing through the checkpoint. They were not permitted to eat and were given only water. Requests to take medication, sit down, or lean back were met with contempt or disregard by the soldiers. In addition, the detainees’ car tires were punctured in the parking lot, and some cars had speakers broken and pedals severely damaged, the report said.
4.) A new poll has found that “seventy-one percent of Israelis oppose a peace deal that would entail handing over Jerusalem’s Old City and Temple Mount to the Palestinians.” The poll was conducted by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
5.) Gaza’s four universities are being stifled due to fuel shortages caused by the Israeli embargo. As Ynet News reports, “university students have been unable to travel from the north and south of the Strip to Gaza City in order to attend classes. The university buses have also been unable to function due to the lack of fuel.” The Palestinian news website, Electronic Intifada, notes similarly that lack of fuel is causing a major crisis in Gaza:
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is extremely worried about the continued Israeli ban on fuel supplies required for civilian life in the Gaza Strip. The stoppage in fuel supplies has paralyzed 50 percent of the educational sector as half the students in all educational levels are unable to reach their schools and universities. In addition, educational sector employees have been unable to reach their work. Furthermore, the transportation sector has nearly stopped functioning throughout the Gaza Strip. As a result, all basic functions of civilian life have come to a near standstill, including drinking water delivery, sewage water disposal, and garbage collection. In addition, healthcare facilities registered a 25 percent drop in clients due to the transportation crisis. Furthermore, hundreds of healthcare professionals are unable to reach their work places.
On 9 April 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stopped the flow of the heavily reduced fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip. As a result, the humanitarian situation hit hard by continuous collective punishment since 15 June 2006, deteriorated even further. PCHR’s monitoring indicates that the Gaza Strip has become a ghost town, especially in the morning and in the afternoon. Approximately 145 fuel stations have shut down and all suppliers of fuel and gas shut down due to the total lack of supplies. Local sources indicate that the transportation sector is operating at 15 percent capacity, including public and private transportation. The civilian population is finding it extremely difficult to reach places of work, study, and even healthcare facilities.