RickyB's Open Salon Blog

The New Home of the Weekend Holyland Update

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:06:38 -0400

Remember the Weekend Holyland Update? Miss it? Well, it's been resumed, at its own home. Check out the latest installation (there's one before that as well) and come visit me there. Thanks!

Israeli Justice Between Darkness and Light

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:12:44 -0500

Israel's justice system recorded two extreme points this week, one of praise and acclaim and another of dishonor and shame. Let's begin with the good news:

Moshe Katzav, Israel's 8th President, was convicted of two counts of rape, one of forcible sexual assault, one of sexual harassment and one of obstruction of justice. Unless something totally insane happens, he will be going to prison. There is no way the court can reject all the defendant's arguments one by one, convict him of every single count, call him a liar in those very words after doing so by implication throughout an hour-long verdict, and not sentence him to quite a few years in prison. To do so would be even more ludicrous than the conduct of the prosecution, which prepared a draft indictment against Kazav for rape, then offered him a vastly reduced plea bargain, going to court to defend this decision and trashing the plaintiffs in the process, only to be saved from infamy when the idiot defendant rejected the dream deal he was offered.

Someone on Facebook told me today that it would have taken more courage for the judges not to convict. Maybe there's something to that, although given the mountains of evidence against Katzav perhaps "temerity" would be a better word. But the conviction also took courage - courage to convict not only Katzav, but everyone in the system who let him reach such an exalted position, as well as the state's prosecutor's office, which as mentioned above almost let the sleazy hack get away with his crimes.

This conviction marks a happy day for the State of Israel, both because of the verdict and because it fell to an Arab judge to convict an ex-president - and not a sad day like some have said. The sad day was when a sitting minister, then President, chose to habitually abuse his power in such a vile manner, but that didn't happen today, did it?

Power, by its nature, attracts sociopaths and all manner of scum. Like the poor, they shall always be with us, at least pending a significant evolution in human nature. The only challenge left is to catch them when they cross the line and punish them. That's all you can ask for. Well, of course you can ask for more, but it ain't gonna do you no good.

So that was the light. The darkness came two days prior, when another court, of a lower instance thankfully, decided to turn an administrative-bureaucratic matter into a political one - one of oppression and hatred. Nuri al-Uqbi, a resident of Lod and a prominent Bedouin rights activist, has been running an auto repair shop in Lod - where his family relocated to after they were evicted from their ancestral home in the Negev upon Israel's founding - for the past forty-plus years. He has certificates from the police, the fire department, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior that everything at his shop is on the up and up. What he doesn't have is a chummy relationship with Lod's city hall. Maybe that's because Lod's city hall is in the habit of demolishing the homes of Arab's in the city (a sort of continuation of the mass expulsion of Arabs from the city after its conquest in 1948) and Nuri, who as mentioned above was already expelled once from his birthplace in Israel's south, is a tad sensitive to such incidents and has an unfortunate tendency to speak up about that. So the city plays the paperwork game with him, alternately granting and denying business permits on whim. And so Nuri al-Uqbi arrived in the docket for the heinous crime of continuing to run his business despite the city's decision to suddenly yank his permit.

Nuri wasn't terribly stressed, and had already agreed to do six months of work-release at a soup kitchen in the neighboring town of Ramle. But his dishonor Judge Zechariah Yemini didn't like it. So he rejected the plea bargain and sentenced al-Uqbi to seven months in prison - one more than the maximum that can be served in work release. In addition his dishonor imposed a fine of NIS 40K, or 400 days in prison in their stead. Since his dishonor knows Nuri doesn't have 40 thousand shekels to pay, he effectively sentenced him to 20 months in prison - on account of an offense which nobody could find an instance of anyone going to prison for. And to remove any and all doubts as to his motives, his dishonor admitted them freely, noting in his sentencing comments that he is doing so "to send a message to the Bedouin Diaspora". Nuri wasn't even released pending appeal, because he didn't have the exorbitant amount of 30 thousand shekels the fudge demanded he deposit as bail.

The use of criminal and civilian law to terrorize political opponents used to be the hallmark of darker regimes. In Belarus it's practically a national sport. In Russia, just the other day, it was used once again against Mikhail Khoderkovsky. There is suspicion that the same thing happened even in Sweden, under US pressure, against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. But even in such cases, the system at least pretends to care about the trumped up offense. Saying that a harsher sentence is being imposed in a criminal or civilian case in order to deter the defendant and those sharing his views from engaging in political opposition is, at least in Israel, a new record for gall and a new phase in the war against democracy and human rights in this country.

Like someone told me on Twitter, maybe the rag in a robe needs to be thanked for being so honest about his motives, because if the higher court that sits in Nuri's appeal will be as brave about admitting the misdeeds of a member of the judicial guild as it was about exposing the misdeeds of a former President, then the rag in a robe handed al-Uqbi a sure-fire win on appeal. The question is how long the system will manage to keep brave Nuri behind bars until that happens.

So as we see, despite the obvious joy over today's conviction of a serial rapist in high places, we are forced to find it equivalent to Sick Boy's comments about "Name of the Rose" in the movie "Trainspotting", and view it as "but a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory."

The Mayor Who Stole Christmas

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:12:15 -0500

There's this town in Israel called Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth). It was built high up in the Nazareth mountains to maximum topographical advantage over the neighboring Arab city of Nazareth - you know, where my homey J-Dawg grew up. (Happy B-day, J!).

Now, since the State of Israel, from the day of its founding, has not built a single new settlement or even new suburb for Arabs (as compared to hundreds for Jews), and since the government makes no zoning plans for Arab towns and villages, which makes virtually all construction in them illegal, Arabs are forced to either crowd with the folks, build illegally, or try to find housing in Jewish-majority towns. This is how it came to be that 15-20% of the residents of UPPER Nazareth are, ya know... Arabs.

So, the Arabs wanted the city to give them permission to out up a Christmas tree in the square in their neighborhood. The mayor, a Mr. Shimon Gapso, decided to audition for the role of the Grinch and refused, saying "This is a Jewish city! Let them go to Nazareth and do whatever they want there!"

I'm sure there will be those here who justify his actions, but for those of you who would be up in arms (or at least quietly disgusted) if the Jews of Boro Park were denied the right to put up a Hanukkah menorah, keep your fellow believers in mind this holiday season. No, their plight isn't nearly as grim as that of Christians in Iraq (who had to cancel all Christmas celebrations altogether for fear of al-Qaeda attacks, thanks Cheney!), but are nonetheless being treated as undesirables in the land where they can claim a longer ancestral presence then about 90% of the population.

Merry Christmas.

Shooting Breaks Out Between Israel and Lebanon (+other news)

Tue, 3 Aug 2010 08:08:42 -0400

Update (15:30 EST) OK, still quiet on the northern front. Israel's claim is that it has an enclave beyond the fence, and that UNIFIL recognizes this enclave even if Lebanon doesn't. This enclave is between Israel's border fence and the international Blue Line border. To me this once again reflects Israel's slightly warped ideas about borders... "This is the fence - but we claim the right to do stuff on both sides of it".

Also, Israel's claim that it was merely pruning trees sounds odd. If so, what were a Lt. Colonel and a Captain, Battalion and Company commander respectively, doing there?

UNIFIL, which as mentioned above recognizes Israel's right to the enclave beyond the fence where the soldier on the crane was, reportedly confirms that Israel informed it of its plans but that it, UNIFIL, requested Israel not to do it that day as their commander was abroad. Israel went ahead anyway. And for final context, a week ago Haaretz ran an article quoting a Dan Kertzer memo at the State Department, predicting that "Israel will lie in wait for an opportunity to strike in Lebanon".

So both sides have reasons of their own for this little episode and perhaps for more. This does not bode well. More regular roundup in a bit. No more Lebanon updates in this installation unless things go ape.

Update (11:00) Israel confirms one casualty, a colonel. One severely injured still being fought for by doctors. The shooting has not resumed but tensions are very high.

Now, this incident has some deeper background than Israel's apparent violations. Hizballah is in urgent need of a story-changer, as it is about to be officially blamed for the 2005 murder of Lebanese PM Rafiq al-Hariri. In addition, having based its raison d'etre as a unique force in Lebanon on its prowess in resisting Israeli aggression, the huge Israeli spy ring that was recently caught didn't really help its image. More in a bit.

Update: (10:50 EST) OK, story getting strange. IDF spokesman claims that everything they did in the area was coordinated with UNIFIL, the UN force which is supposed to keep S. Lebanon militia (i.e. Hizballah) free and keep the peace. Sounds bizarre that UNIFIL, deployed under UN SC Resolution 1701 which states that the Lebanese army will control ALL of Lebanon, would OK an Israeli violation of same. However, no official denial has been forthcoming yet. Shooting is over. Israel apparently has 1-2 dead. Reuters reported an officer dead and the IDF North. Command General told reporters that Israel has two casualties, severely injured. Since "serious injury" is a common Israeli media euphemism for "dead" used before military censorship allows media to actually report the truth, that score might change.

(09:09 EST) Update: Guess what? Israel started. This pic clearly shows Israeli soldiers using a crane to uproot a tree inside the Lebanese side of the border, in order to plany surveillance cameras. With Lebanon rocking for weeks following the discovery of an Israeli spy ring, that shit don't fly too well.

(08:30 EST) Shooting broke out on Israel's northern border today after Lebanese army forces shot at Israeli forced whom they accused of crossing the "blue line" border. Israeli forces fired back and so far there are reports of 3 Lebanese dead and several Israeli injured, one seriously.

The interesting part is that reports have Hizballah staying out of this little skirmish. This is the Lebanese army trying to prove that Hizballah ain't the only one standing up to Israel.

This will be a live blog updating the situation throughout the evening, with the hope that it turns out to be disappointing as a dramatic offering. And now to your regularly scheduled, late as usual Holyland Update:

Someday I'll have the time and clarity of mind and taskload to actually get these done while it's still the motherfuckign weekend. Until then - here's the Week~~end~~day Holyland Update, flight 080310. We've got an exceptionally heavy load this time, so we'll dispense of the customary cryptic previews and get straight to the madness, trying our hardest to address each issue as briefly as circumstances allow. This message provided to you by Graphomaniacs Anonymous, who remind us all that we are powerless over verbiage addiction:

Israel, for the first time outside a time of actual war or immediately thereafter, destroyed an entire minority village, this one inhabited by Bedouin families. The unrecognized village of al-Arakib, 3 miles north of Beer Sheba, population 300, was razed to the ground by 1500 police, special police forces, and apparently a couple busloads of teenage Civil Guard police auxiliary volunteers. Someone thought this would be a good experience for teenagers - a healthy cleansing of the heathen from the promised land. According to reports, the tender youth responded positively to this character-building experience and had a grand time. Can't help but wonder which of the little kids who saw their parents humiliated by sneering thugs will grow up with enough hate to blow my kids up.

Quick background: Before 1948, Bedouins roamed the entire Negev. Their rights to their grazing and dwelling lands, and even pursuant property rights, were recognized by the Ottoman Turks, the British and even the Jewish National Fund. After Israel's independence war, and after most of the Negev's Bedouin (some 60 out of 75 thousand) were chased off/"ran away", the remaining Bedouin were forbidden from returning to their ancestral lands and were herded together in a small triangle in the northern Negev. Little by little they began to inch back and also wage legal battle to get their lands back. In the 70's, seven towns were established for Bedouins in an attempt to un-nomadize them. Currently half the Negev's Bedouins live in these shantytowns, while the other half lives in "unrecognized villages" - assortment of hovels and tin-sheet huts, unconnected to power or water. Recently Israel has recognized some of these villages as part of a new initiative. With this place, they decided to play hardball. And unlike in the case of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, nobody gave these guys fancy "villa trailers" or compensation, or treated them gently and put their stuff on trucks first. No, hovels were razed on top of their meager contents.

To a different item in the same ballpark: Israel's government has decided to deport 400 children of foreign workers who are either under the age of 5 or haven't been here and enrolled in an educational institute for 5 years. This a compromise compared to Interior Minister salivating intention of deporting 1200 kids, regardless of how long they've been here or whether they know any other home. According to Mr Yishai, these 1200 kids are a grave threat to the "Jewish Character" of Israel - a country of over 6 million Jews. Yeah. One in 5000. Me, I'd rather call these kids my co-nationals than Yishai or his kids, but that's just more proof of what a bad Jew I am... Little ray of light: A facebook page has already been opened for people willing to hide the kids slated to be chased away.

Your humble narrator needs to run an errand and get his kid from KG. More when I'm back. Do check in from time to time.

The big story this past week or so was the CH-53 (Hercules) chopper of orus that crashed in Romania, killing six Israeli Air Force troops and a Romanian air crew man. This happened during joint drills with the mighty Romanian military. The drill was sold as focused on "Low-altitude flight, search and rescue". But when a search and rescue mission was needed, following the crash, Israel flew in its 669 air rescue commando unit from home. Weren't they supposed to be already there, at a drill focused on their very field of expertise?

Israeli media went into full disaster mode, preempting the TV schedule and whatnot, with the papers (the tabloids, at least) giving it cover and page 2-3-4-5 treatment for 2-3 days following. On the night it happened (it happened in the afternoon, Israel time, but they were allowed to talk about it only at 22:30. I ran with it 3 hours earlier at YouPost, cause the censorship doesn't bother to email us its gag orders.

The free newspaper Israel HaYom, funded by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and devoted entirely to defending PM Bibi Netanyahu (aka the Baron von Bibhausen), has been pronounced the newspaper with the highest exposure in Israel, dethroning Yediot Aharonot for the first time in about 4 decades. This ties in to the above paragraph to explain why Yediot and especially the other tabloid, the shilly nationalist and leftist-hunting Maariv, went berserk trying to prove that Bibi was derelict in the aftermath of the chopper crash. He was hosting a birthday party for his son (modest get-together, it was called... 100 guests, DJ, caterer... Yeah, modest). Anyway, it wasn't the extravagance the papers harped about. They tried to make this Bibi's "My Pet Goat" moment, saying he did nothing but continued to cavort with the guests. This is of course nonsense, he excused himself frequently to talk on the phone throughout the event and really it was an isolated event he could do nothing more about.
Addendum: Just today, a week later, two more Israeli CH-53 choppers were forced to make emergency landings in Romania (no one hurt this time), even though the joint drills (search and rescue, sure) were called off after the first one crashed.

The other big military story was the elite commando trainee who snapped during the infamous "captivity series", in which commandos-to-be are snatched in the middle of a drill or trek, held in POW-like conditions for 3-4 days, have the living crap beat out of them, etc, etc. So this guy, in the middle of this, (or rather right before he's supposed to be mock-kidnapped, the details are fuzzy) manages to elude everyone, run away, and not be found till the evening, when he shows up safe and sound at his folks' house in the north of Israel. During the intervening time an entire country of course quietly lost its mind, with rumors he really was kidnapped by the terrorists swirling and whatnot. He's been kicked off the unit. Actually that's splendid performance when faced with the specter of captivity, no?

That's it for now. I'll add a part 2 to this installation when I wake up (which means while y'all are sound asleep). So check back in tomorrow. Same batshit time, same...you get the idea. WHU airlines is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your luggage and check your comments and thumbs. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.

Israel Divests of Democracy as Right Wing Sees the Light

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:07:33 -0400

Welcome to another excursion to the edge of the volcano. This is the Weekend Holyland Update, flight number 071810, touching down at mask-shed peak, arbitrary valley and de river nial. Please fasten your seatbelts, the captain has turned on the no shame sign.

Israel's Knesset has passed a law (preliminary call) levying a 30K shekel (about $8K) fine on anyone calling for a boycott of Israel or any business in it - including in the occupied territories. Anyone potentially hurt by the advocated boycott can bring a suit and won't even have to prove damages. This still has to get through committees and withstand court challenges, but this gives you an idea of where the sad state of Israel is headed.

Another idea can be gleaned from the decision to deprive Arab nationalist MK Hanin Zouabi of her parliamentary privileges because of her participation in the Turkish-sponsored Gaza-aid flotilla - this despite the finding by the Attorney General that she broke no laws by doing so. So basically they revoked her privileges for "pissing us off", which is of course what democratic legislators do all the time. What, no? Oh well.

The big news in Lebanon is the Israeli electronic surveillance operation that was uncovered and apparently encompassed the country's entire communications grid, land-lines as wel as mobile phone networks. People keep getting arrested daily and others keep fleeing the country. Hizballah chairman Hassan Nasrallah admitted that the country has been completely exposed to Israeli intelligence and is demanding the death penalty for anyone convicted in the affair. One of his lieutenants sarcastically suggested that Israel be appointed in charge of communications in the country, as that way it would be conducting its espionage in the open. In Israel barely a word is spoken of the entire issue, a testament to the still extant power of military censorship.

Back in Israel, the hot political issue is the wrangling over the budget. Racist FM Yvette Lieberman is miffed that his party's pork got short shrift in the proposed budget and is threatening to break up the coalition (update: Now he's saying he won't quit, but also won't give up his demands. So what if they're not met? Stay with us...).

Mixed into the whole business is the proposed conversion law, which states that only orthodox conversions will be recognized by the state. Why is this important? Because a recognized conversion confers citizenship. Now the proposed law includes a clause severing conversion from automatic citizenship, but in Israel, where religious affiliation defines the nationality written in your ID card, it remains to be seen how that disconnect will work. In any event, the proposed law is threatening to create a rift between Israel and Jews around the world, most of whom are not, in fact, orthodox. PM Bibi Netanyahu is opposed to the law, and curiously Lieberman is in favor of it, in fact his party is the one that proposed it, despite the fact that it would discriminate against many of his voters. Only thisweek he threw a tantrum when he discovered that his home settlement of Nokdim issued a regulation against accepting residents who aren't Jews according to orthodox halacha.

More Lieberman: he's floating a proposal to radically change Israel's Gaza policy, abandoning the blockade and so on, in hopes of the world finally giving Israel the stamp of approval on ending the occupation of the strip. No, Lieberman hasn't suddenly seen the light - he just wants to lighten the pressure and focus on the occupation of the West Bank. Not surprisingly, nobody else is buying it.

Speaking of Jews and non-Jews, Israel's justice department sponsored a seminar on the biblical commandment of "Lo Ta-chanam". This is a three-pronged injunction against mixing with gentiles:

1. lo ta-cha-nam - "thou shalt not give them a hold on the land" - a  prohibition on selling or renting the land of Eretz Yisraetl to nonJews.
2. lo teh-chi-nam - "thou shalt not give them free gifts" - a  prohibition against giving gifts to non-Jews.
3. lo teh-cha-nem - "thou shall not give them grace" - a prohibition on  praising non-Jews.

This is not terribly surprising, seeing as Yaacov Neeman, the Minister of Justice, was recently seen speaking at a halachic law conference calling for the "piece by piece" implementation of religious law in Israel. This is apparently the first piece.

The Israeli secret police, aka Shin Bet, arrested a settler on suspicion of murdering several Palestinians back in the late 90's. Problem is the guy had recorded a Shin Bet agent trying to entrap him by suggesting that he kill Islamic leader Raed Salah. Many people smelled the scent of the Rabin murder, which was also facilitated by a Shin Bet provacateur. The guy is being held without counsel, as is another guy who was arrested on charges of aiding and abetting him. This "no lawyer" crap is getting very prevalent around here. See: divesting of democracy.

Another big story is the growing number of right-wingers, including some pretty radical ones, who are voicing support for the one state model - sort of. The settlers are beginning to realize that their epic land grab is facing a fed-up world, so they start talking of annexing the West Bank (but not Gaza), and giving the Palestinians Israeli citizenship - but only provided they swear allegiance to a "Jewish State". These people think they can change the way simple demographics work, and also pretend that they would be willing to have Arabs living in their precious settlements and going to school with their kids, to say nothing of having a say in how their lands are used, but at least they are waking up to the fact that the current state of affairs is untenable. Uri Elitzur, one of the founders of settler group "Gush Emunim", correctly points out that Israel's rapidly diminished international standing is due to the world being sick and tured with the occupation, which was supposed to be a temporary thing. His solution, however, is eerily reminiscent of the attempt to keep Lebanon under Christian domination, regardless of actual numbers. It won't work. However, this is clear proof that BDS is working. More reading on the subject.

Another story was the video, from 2001, showing Bibi at a meeting with settlers boasting about how he gutted the Oslo process, saying among other things that "I know the America - America is a thing that is very easily moved."

(Read transcript)

Israel dodged a bullet when a Lybian ship headed for Gaza with aid backed off and agreed to dock at the Egyptian port of Al-Arish, thereby preventing a reprise of the Marmara fiasco - or even worse, since this ship agreed to be boarded for inspection, or even towed to Ashdod port for inspection, provided it be allowed afterwards to proceed to Gaza. The aid it carried entered Gaza by land yesterday.

Remember the colonel who ordered a grunt to shoot a handcuffed Palestinian, and how they were charged with "conduct unbecoming", and how that was decreed to be too light a charge? Well, that's all fixed now - the colonel has now been found guilty of an "attempted threat" in addition to the unbecoming conduct. Attempted. This ludicrous saga just keeps on giving.

An Arab guy who told a gal he was Jewish and got her to have sex with him on a rooftop was convicted of rape and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. The judges said that the "rapist" mislead the woman, who was looking for a serious relationship. By screwing a guy she had just met on a rooftop.

In flotilla blowback, tens of thousands of Israelis had their facebook and email accounts hijacked by Turkish hackers, who in some cases posted mocking messages on their pages, offering to return control of the accounts if they asked nicely, or some such.

And in Congo, Israeli physicians who arrived to participate in an aid mission encountered hostility due to their government's policies.

A couple of videos for you:

And this one too.

Well, this is getting long and has been delayed for thee days now, so lets end on a positive note:

The plan to ruin the last beach with real sand dunes, at Palmahim, by way of a "hotel development" plan that was really a cover for a plan to build condos for the rich, has been defeated following a long activist battle. Concurrently, the plan to destroy the unrecognized village of Dahamsh, five minutes from the Ben Gurion airport, has been put on hold. Dahamsh is a village that has existed since before the establishment of Israel, but Israel has decided to designate the village as "agricultural land" which means that all the buildings there are illegal. The village is not connected to power or water, and the only playground there was destroyed by the state in 1997. Agricultural land all around the village has been thawed for construction in the past decade, but this one village is apparently sacrosanct - at least until the residents can be evicted, at which point a highway interchange is planned to be built there. Last week a judge issued an injunction staying the destruction until November, also following a long, joint Jewish-Arab activist struggle. Also in successful activism, the village of A-Thwana, in "area C" of the occupied West Bank (full Israeli control under the defunct Oslo accords) will finally be connected to electricity.

And on that Power to the People _{(which, as you may recall, does not come with a standard plug)} note, the pilot will bring her in for landing. returning you to your local brands of crazy and stupid, which should be looking immensely preferable in comparison or you should seriously consider relocation (or revolution). WHU airlines is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your luggage and check your comments and thumbs. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.