Ta'ayush and Internationals at Um Al Kher

Ta'ayush and Internationals at Um Al Kher:

"The Bedouin village of Um Al Kher is one of the most vulnerable inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The villagers were originally forced from their homes in 1948 from the Dead Sea town of Arad. They are officially registered refugees with UNRWA, and have official ownership papers for their lands.

The Israeli army have demolition orders on everything in Um Al Kher, including the tents. Everything that was built after 1984. 1984 was the year the overlooking Israeli settlement of Karmel was established. Karmel is a strategic settlement, and for this reason, there is huge pressure on the villagers to leave.

Settler outposts and roads means villagers are blocked from accessing their traditional grazings lands. If they go further, they are at risk of attack from the settlement of Ma'on.

Across the road, is a huge industrial air conditioned chicken production unit. Um Al Kher has not electricity. The Israeli army has tried to discourage involvement and assistance by international groups. Recently, the IDF sent a stern letter to Oxfam, to warn them that their assistance to this village inside militarized area C was a criminal activity. The villagers are also critical of the Palestinian Authority, which it feels has forgotten them: 'we've had an immense support of words, but nothing practical.'

This short video shows a group of Israeli and international activists trying to break the construction ban, and build a road. The IDF and the police intervene to stop the action."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Israel's New Land Reform Law Legitimizes Segregation

Israel's New Land Reform Law - Adalah:

"On 3.8.09 the Knesset passed the new land reform law, which violates the property rights of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and the Palestinian refugees."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Durban II and Race in America

Durban II and Race in America:

"Recent polls reveal that since Obama?s election more Americans think race relations in the United States are good. But those who attended the international summit on racism in Geneva last week?a conference that the US boycotted?see things differently. We speak to Ramona Ortega, the Founder and Executive Director of Global Citizen and Glen Ford, Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

"A highly organized campaign of disinformation" (Navi Pillay, UNHCHR)

"A highly organized campaign of disinformation" (Navi Pillay, UNHCHR):

"United Nations, Geneva, 24 April 2009 - At the end of the UN conference on racism, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has deplored what she called a widespread and highly organised campaign of disinformation which had led to some countries boycotting the conference.

She told journalists in Geneva that it was 'extraordinary' that countries that had already agreed the outcome text decided to boycott the conference. She said she hoped that they would implement the findings and return to the process.

The conference is a follow up to the Durban conference on racism held in 2001.

Without naming countries, the High Commissioner said many ministers she had spoken to had described the whole Durban process as a hate fest and anti-Semitic, but she pointed out that the outcome document deplored anti-Semitism as well as Islamaphobia.

The High Commissioner said she had been called dangerous and ludicrous but despite these personal attacks on her, she judged that the conference had been a success.

Durban Review Conference website:
http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/"



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Palestinians in Hebron complain of racism - 24 Apr 09

Palestinians in Hebron complain of racism - 24 Apr 09:

"In a controversial address at a recent UN conference on racism, Mahmoud Ahmadinajad, Iran's president, denounced Israel as a 'cruel and repressive racist regime'.

Al Jazeera's Clayton Swisher visits the West Bank city of Hebron and a nearby Jewish settlement, where Palestinians say racism is a daily reality."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Zionism and Racism + Racism in Europe

The ugly face of racism:

*Zionism and Racism - Syria TV, Syria

*Racism in Europe - Al Jazeera TV, Qatar

[LinkTV/Mosaic]




Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Diplomats of Ex-Colonialist countries Walk Out - Is the truth that painful to hear?

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com:

European Diplomats walk out on a speech by Iran's president as he accuses Israel of Dispossession of the Palestinian Nation.

"Following World War Two they resorted to military aggressions to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering" Ahmadinejad stated to the Conference.
Diplomats from Ex-Colonialist countries got up and started walking out of the conference.

I want to remind those diplomats that revisionist zionist-historian Benny Morris admits that 700,000 Palestinians (three-quarters of the nation) fled their homes in 1947 mostly due to Israeli military attacks. So, it seems the Europeans don't want to hear it, they want to continue to believe that it was a land without people for a people without land, contrary to history and facts.




Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:20:10 GMT
The following is the speech of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Durban Review Conference on racism in Geneva on April 20.
Source: PressTV

"Mr. Chairman, honorable secretary general of the United Nations, honorable United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Ladies and gentleman:

We have gathered in the follow-up to the Durban conference against racism and racial discrimination to work out practical mechanisms for our holy and humanitarian campaigns.

Over the last centuries, humanity has gone through great sufferings and pains. In the Medieval Ages, thinkers and scientists were sentenced to death. It was then followed by a period of slavery and slave trade. Innocent people were taken captive in their millions and separated from their families and loved ones to be taken to Europe and America under the worst conditions. A dark period that also experienced occupation, lootings and massacres of innocent people.

Many years passed by before nations rose up and fought for their liberty and freedom and they paid a high price for it. They lost millions of lives to expel the occupiers and establish independent and national governments. However, it did not take long before power grabbers imposed two wars in Europe which also plagued a part of Asia and Africa. Those horrific wars claimed about a hundred million lives and left behind massive devastation. Had lessons been learnt from the occupations, horrors and crimes of those wars, there would have been a ray of hope for the future.

The victorious powers called themselves the conquerors of the world while ignoring or down treading upon rights of other nations by the imposition of oppressive laws and international arrangements.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us take a look at the UN Security Council which is one of the legacies of World War I and World War II. What was the logic behind their granting themselves the veto right? How can such logic comply with humanitarian or spiritual values? Would it not be inconformity with the recognized principles of justice, equality before the law, love and human dignity? Would it not be discrimination, injustice, violations of human rights or humiliation of the majority of nations and countries?

The council is the highest decision-making world body for safeguarding international peace and security. How can we expect the realization of justice and peace when discrimination is legalized and the origin of the law is dominated by coercion and force rather than by justice and the rights?

Coercion and arrogance is the origin of oppression and wars. Although today many proponents of racism condemn racial discrimination in their words and their slogans, a number of powerful countries have been authorized to decide for other nations based on their own interests and at their own discretion and they can easily violate all laws and humanitarian values as they have done so.

Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering and they sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine. And, in fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.

The Security Council helped stabilize the occupying regime and supported it in the past 60 years giving them a free hand to commit all sorts of atrocities. It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defending those racist perpetrators of genocide while the awakened-conscience and free-minded people of the world condemn aggression, brutalities and the bombardment of civilians in Gaza. The supporters of Israel have always been either supportive or silent against the crimes.

Dear friends, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. What are the root causes of the US attacks against Iraq or the invasion of Afghanistan?

Was the motive behind the invasion of Iraq anything other than the arrogance of the then US administration and the mounting pressures on the part of the possessors of wealth and power to expand their sphere of influence seeking the interests of giant arms manufacturing companies affecting a noble culture with thousands of years of historical background, eliminating the potential and practical threats of Muslim countries against the Zionist regime or to control and plunder the energy resources of the Iraqi people?

Why, indeed, almost a million people were killed and injured and a few more millions were displaced? Why, indeed, the Iraqi people have suffered enormous losses amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars? And why was billions of dollars imposed on the American people as the result of these military actions? Was not the military action against Iraq planned by the Zionists and their allies in the then US administration in complicity with the arms manufacturing countries and the possessors of wealth? Did the invasion of Afghanistan restore peace, security and economic wellbeing in the country?

The United States and its allies not only have failed to contain the production of drugs in Afghanistan, but the cultivation of narcotics has multiplied in the course of their presence. The basic question is that what was the responsibility and the job of the then US administration and its allies?

Did they represent the countries of the world? Have they been mandated by them? Have they been authorized by the people of the world to interfere in all parts of the globe, of course mostly in our region? Are not these measures a clear example of egocentrism, racism, discrimination or infringement upon the dignity and independence of nations?

Ladies and gentlemen, who is responsible for the current global economic crisis? Where did the crisis start from? From Africa, Asia or from the United States in the first place then spreading across Europe and their allies?

For a long time, they imposed inequitable economic regulations by their political power on the international economy. They imposed a financial and monetary system without a proper international oversight mechanism on nations and governments that played no role in repressive trends or policies. They have not even allowed their people to oversea or monitor their financial policies. They introduced all laws and regulations in defiance of all moral values only to protect the interests of the possessors of wealth and power.

They further presented a definition for market economy and competition that denied many of the economic opportunities that could be available to other countries of the world. They even transferred their problems to others while the waves of crisis lashed back plaguing their economies with thousands of billions of dollars in budget deficit. And today, they are injecting hundreds of billions of dollars of cash from the pockets of their own people and other nations into the failing banks, companies and financial institutions making the situation more and more complicated for their economy and their people. They are simply thinking about maintaining power and wealth. They could not care any less about the people of the world and even their own people.

Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen, Racism is rooted in the lack of knowledge concerning the root of human existence as the selected creature of God. It is also the product of his deviation from the true path of human life and the obligations of mankind in the world of creation, failing to consciously worship God, not being able to think about the philosophy of life or the path to perfection that are the main ingredients of divine and humanitarian values which have restricted the horizon of human outlook making transient and limited interests, the yardstick for his action. That is why evil's power took shape and expanded its realm of power while depriving others from enjoying equitable and just opportunities of development.

The result has been the making of an unbridled racism that is posing the most serious threats against international peace and has hindered the way for building peaceful coexistence in the entire world. Undoubtedly, racism is the symbol of ignorance which has deep roots in history and it is, indeed, the sign of frustration in the development of human society.

It is, therefore, crucially important to trace the manifestations of racism in situations or in societies where ignorance or lack of knowledge prevails. This increasing general awareness and understanding towards the philosophy of human existence is the principle struggle against such manifestations, and reveals the truth that human kind centers on the creation of the universe and the key to solving the problem of racism is a return to spiritual and moral values and finally the inclination to worship God Almighty.

The international community must initiate collective moves to raise awareness in afflicted societies where ignorance of racism still prevails so as to bring to a halt the spread of these malicious manifestations.

Dear Friends, today, the human community is facing a kind of racism which has tarnished the image of humanity in the beginning of the third millennium.

World Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religions and abuses religious sentiments to hide its hatred and ugly face. However, it is of great importance to bring into focus the political goals of some of the world powers and those who control huge economic resources and interests in the world. They mobilize all the resources including their economic and political influence and world media to render support in vain to the Zionist regime and to maliciously diminish the indignity and disgrace of this regime.

This is not simply a question of ignorance and one cannot conclude these ugly phenomena through consular campaigns. Efforts must be made to put an end to the abuse by Zionists and their political and international supporters and in respect with the will and aspirations of nations. Governments must be encouraged and supported in their fights aimed at eradicating this barbaric racism and to move towards reform in current international mechanisms.

There is no doubt that you are all aware of the conspiracies of some powers and Zionist circles against the goals and objectives of this conference. Unfortunately, there have been literatures and statements in support of Zionists and their crimes. And it is the responsibility of honorable representatives of nations to disclose these campaigns which run counter to humanitarian values and principles.

It should be recognized that boycotting such a session as an outstanding international capacity is a true indication of supporting the blatant example of racism. In defending human rights, it is primarily important to defend the rights of all nations to participate equally in all important international decision making processes without the influence of certain world powers.

And secondly, it is necessary to restructure the existing international organizations and their respective arrangements. Therefore this conference is a testing ground and the world public opinion today and tomorrow will judge our decisions and our actions.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, the world is going through rapid fundamental changes. Power relations have become weak and fragile. The sound of cracks in the pillars of world systems can now be heard. Major political and economic structures are on the brink of collapse. Political and security crises are on the rise. The worsening crisis in the world economy for which there can be seen no bright prospect, demonstrates the rising tide of far-reaching global changes. I have repeatedly emphasized the need to change the wrong direction through which the world is being managed today and I have also warned of the dire consequences of any delay in this crucial responsibility.

Now in this valuable event, I would like to announce to all leaders, thinkers and to all nations of the world present in this meeting and those who have a hunger for peace and economic well-being that the unjust economic management of the world is now at the end of the road. This deadlock was inevitable since the logic of this imposed management was oppressive.

The logic of collective management of world affairs is based on noble aspirations which centers on human beings and the supremacy of the almighty God. Therefore it defies any policy or plan which goes against the influence of nations. The victory of right over wrong and the establishment of a just world system has been promised by the Almighty God and his messengers and it has been a shared goal of all human beings from different societies and generations in the course of history. Realization of such a future depends on the knowledge of creation and the belief of the faithful.

The making of a global society is in fact the accomplishment of a noble goal held in the establishment of a common global system that will be run with the participation of all nations of the world in all major decision making processes and the definite root to this sublime goal.

Scientific and technical capacities as well as communication technology have created a common and widespread understanding of the world society and has provided the necessary ground for a common system. Now it is upon all intellectuals, thinkers and policy makers in the world to carry out their historical responsibility with a firm belief in this definite root.

I also want to lay emphasis on the fact that Western liberalism and capitalism has reached its end since it has failed to perceive the truth of the world and humans as they are.

It has imposed its own goals and directions on human beings. There is no regard for human and divine values, justice, freedom, love and brotherhood and it has based living on intense competition, securing individual and cooperative material interest.

Now we must learn from the past by initiating collective efforts in dealing with present challenges and in this connection, and as a closing remark, I wish to draw your kind attention to two important issues:

Firstly, it is absolutely possible to improve the existing situation in the world. However it must be noted that this could be only achieved through the cooperation of all countries in order to get the best out of the existing capacities and resources in the world. My participation in this conference is because of my conviction to these important issues as well as to our common responsibility of defending the rights of nations vis-à-vis the sinister phenomena of racism and being with you, the thinkers of the world.

Secondly, mindful of the inefficiency of the current international political, economic and security systems, it is necessary to focus on divine and humanitarian values by referring to the true definition of human beings based upon justice and respect for the rights of all people in all parts of the world and by acknowledging the past wrong doings in the past dominant management of the world, and to undertake collective measures to reform the existing structures.

In this respect, it is crucially important to rapidly reform the structure of the Security Council, including the elimination of the discriminatory veto right and to change the current world financial and monetary systems.

It is evident that lack of understanding of the urgency for change is equivalent to the much heavier costs of delay.

Dear Friends, beware that to move in the direction of justice and human dignity is like a rapid flow in the current of a river. Let us not forget the essence of love and affection. The promised future of human beings is a great asset that may serve our purposes in keeping together to build a new world.

In order to make the world a better place full of love and blessings, a world devoid of poverty and hatred, merging the increasing blessings of God Almighty and the righteous managing of the perfect human being, let us all join hands in friendship in the fulfillment of such a new world.

I thank you Mr. President, Secretary General and all distinguished participants for having the patience to listen to me. Thank you very much."

**********

This was reported April 20 on Democracynow

Democracy Now! | More Countries Join US, Israel Boycott of UN Racism Conference:

"A growing number of Western countries are joining the United States and Israel in boycotting the United Nations World Conference on Racism, which opened today in Geneva, Switzerland. Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand all announced they would boycott the conference soon after the US announced its formal decision not to attend Saturday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening session he was “profoundly disappointed” at the boycotts. We go to Geneva to get the latest."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Palestinian Arabs in Israel complain of discrimination - 20 Apr 09

Arabs in Israel complain of discrimination - 20 Apr 09:

"Israel's treatment of its Arab citizens has raised accusations of racism.

Most Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are not Israeli citizens, instead Israel issues identity cards permitting them to live there.

But now authorities are threatening to retrieve dozens of IDs.

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from East Jerusalem."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

More From Um Al Fahem counter demonstration

Umm al-Fahm clashes: "Al-Jazeera 090324
[LinkTV/Mosaic]"



Israel cracks down on Palestinian counter-rally - 24 Mar 09:

"Israeli riot police have fired tear gas and water cannon in clashes with hundreds of Arab youths in the northern town of Umm El-Fehm.

The youths were angry at a high court decision to allow a Jewish far-right group to march through the mainly Arab town.

Police deemed their counter-demonstration illegal. Ayman Mohyeldin was there."



www.pls48.net

Um Al Fahem Counter Demonstration to zionist ethnic cleansing gangs who want native Palestinians to swear an oath of allegiance to a Jewish State or be stripped of their citizenship and removed from their homeland. Sort of like asking a black man to swear an oath of allegiance to a self declared white State that excludes him as equal.
The residents came out to protest the racist ideology of Lieberman's supporters.




Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Israeli police attack Um Al Fahem, injuring eight, one critically

Israeli police attack an Arab town in Israel, injuring eight, one critically. International Middle East Media Center:

"The Israeli police attacked residents and local community leaders in the Arab town of Um Al Fahem , northern Israeli, on Tuesday injuring eight civilians including one critically.

The police attack came after local residents tried to stop Israeli right wing groups from conducting a march into the Arab town, a move that is seen by the local community as provocative.

Witnesses said that thousands of police officers were deployed since early morning on Tuesday; they added that police officers fired tear gas at homes knowing that there are children inside.

Medical sources said that eight were injured including one critically; among those injured was Shikh Ra�ed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel.

The residents of Um Al Fahem closed their shops and business since Tuesday morning as an act of protest to the right-wingers march that was allowed after a court rolling last month."

Reuters Video:



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Report Confirms Discrimination Against Native Palestinian Arabs in Israel

Racism in Israel - ct'd:

"Al-Jazeera 090310
[LinkTV/Mosaic]
- Report published on living conditions of Arab Israelis."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Separation of Families - Israel's Citizenship Law

The Citizenship Law, Adalah:

"The Citizenship and Entry in Israel Law (Temporary Order), enacted in 2003, is a racist law that bans family unification between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as any citizen from the following states defined by Israel as 'enemy' states: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Riham Barghouti (Adalah) On Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - Westside Green Party Forum

Rahim Barghouti On Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (Part 1) by Thomas Good:

"NEW YORK -- March 7, 2009. (Part 1) Riham Barghouti, an organizer with Adalah NY, talks about organizing 'BDS' in an effort to bring about an end to Israeli style Apartheid. She compares South African Apartheid with Israeli foreign and domestic policies and discusses how the BDS campaign is progressing.

Barghouti was speaking at a Green Party Forum On Gaza held at Judson Memorial Church in the Village."

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

U.S. Boycotts UN Racism Conference - (2 Parts)

Inside Story - Boycotts mar UN racism conference - March 2 - Part 1:

"The upcoming UN World Conference Against Racism, known as Durban II, has been boycotted by the US, Canada and Israel because of a resolution which links zionism to racism. Inside Story asks: Has the conference been politically hijacked and what does this mean for the fight against racism?"

Part 1


Part 2



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Palestinians in Israel mull election choices - 7 Feb 09

Palestinians in Israel mull election choices - 7 Feb 09:

"Surveys suggest a narrowing race between Likud and Kadima for the February 10 vote. But the election has failed to garner support from Palestinians living in Israel.

Their participation in elections has dropped significantly in recent years. Many are even calling for a boycott of the entire process.

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna reports."



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Attempt to disqualify Arab MKs

disqualify Arab MKs:

"Adalah's General Director Attorney Hassan Jabareen discusses the attempt to disqualify Arab MKs from running in Knesset elections on 10 February 2009"



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Livni calls for separate national identities for Arabs and Jews

Livni calls for separate national identities for Arabs and Jews
Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:09:22
Shireen Yassin, Press TV, Al-Quds


This Land is Ours Say "Israeli-Arabs"
from Palestine Chronicle - Headlines

By Saleh Al-Naemi – Occupied Jerusalem

Israeli-Arabs are reacting with outrage with Foreign Minister and frontrunner for premiership Tzipi Livni's call for Arab citizens to leave Israel and move into the new Palestinian state.

"Israeli-Arabs will not leave their land," Arab member of Knesset Abbas Zakour told IslamOnline.net on Friday, December 12.

"We are the owners of this land. We have been born here and will be buried in this land."

Livni, the leader of the centrist Kadima party who hopes to become prime minister after the February 10 polls, said Thursday that Israeli-Arabs should move to the new Palestinian state when it is created.

"My solution for maintaining a Jewish and democratic state of Israel is to have two distinct national entities," she told a group of secondary school students in Tel Aviv.

"And among other things I will also be able to approach the Palestinian residents of Israel, those whom we call Arab Israelis, and tell them: 'your national aspirations lie elsewhere.'"

Livni on Friday ruled out the expulsion of Israeli-Arabs after the Palestinian state is established.

"The national aspirations (of the Arabs) should be realized elsewhere, but there is no question of carrying out a transfer or forcing them to leave."

Arabs in Israel are estimated at 1,413,500 or 19.8% of the Israeli 6.5 million populace, according to statistics released by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics in 2006.

'Pure' Israel

Zakour, of the United Arab List, said Livni's statements reflect the anti-Arab racism in Israel.

"Livni's remarks show that there is a Zionist consensus among the right-wing and leftist parties that the Jewish state should be "pure" of Arabs," he said.

"Pitifully, some Arab and Palestinian parties as well as the Americans and Europeans show understanding to the idea of establishing a 'pure' Jewish state.

"We have to get ready before it is too late," stressed Zakour.

MK Ahmed Tibi agrees.

"These (things) have been said before, but this time it is more severe because they are said by a candidate for the premiership," he said.

Tibi said that the Kadima leader is copying right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

"[Livni] must be straightforward and open [as is appropriate] for someone running for prime minister.

"She must decide whether she means to leave a million Arabs without political rights or a national identity, or what she really intends, is to transfer a million Arab citizens to the Palestinian state that will be established, [and in this case] she must honestly say so. [Likud candidate Moshe] Feiglin, says this harshly, but at least honestly."

Livni's anti-Arabs statement also drew flak from the Palestinian Authority.

"[The remarks] put obstacles on the way of the peace process and will not lead to a peace agreement and a just and comprehensive solution," spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinha told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"These statements don't serve the cause of peace or efforts being made to reach a comprehensive peace in the region. They show that Israel is not serious about a solution or the negotiations with the Palestinians.

"The way to peace is by respecting international legislation. The Israeli election campaign should not be exploited to create tensions."

(Published in IslamOnline.net)

(Windows Media or Real PLayer)

Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Israel pushes on with "tolerance museum" on Muslim site - 1 Nov 08

Israel pushes on with 'tolerance museum' on Muslim site - 1 Nov 08:

"Israel's supreme court has given the go-ahead for a Jewish Museum of Tolerance to be built on the site of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem.

The decision has outraged many people who see the move as yet another attempt to erase ancient Arab heritage in the city.

The cemetery is said to contain bones dating back to the earliest decades of Islam in the 7th century.

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports."


See Article Below and a Second Video at the bottom of this page

Jonathan Cook

The National

November 05 2008

JERUSALEM // Israel seems to have little time for the irony that a modern Jewish shrine to “coexistence and tolerance” is being built on the graves of the city’s Muslim forefathers.

The Israeli Supreme Court’s approval last week of the building of a Jewish Museum of Tolerance over an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem is the latest in a series of legal and physical assaults on Islamic holy places since Israel’s founding in 1948.

The verdict ended a four-year struggle by Islamic authorities inside Israel to stop development at the Mamilla cemetery, which lies in the shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City walls, close to Jaffa Gate.

After the judgment, Jerusalem’s mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, called the museum’s building “an act of aggression” against the Muslim public.

The furore from both religious and secular Palestinians has apparently bemused most Israeli observers.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, initiator of the project, dismissed objections last week as cover for “a land grab by Islamic fundamentalists, who are in co-operation with Hamas”. His view that Muslim concerns are really an attack on the Jewish state’s sovereignty is shared by many.

Such sentiments have confirmed to most Palestinians the degree to which Israeli authorities make decisions while oblivious of Palestinian religious and national rights.

Although Muslim leaders angrily warned from the outset that the Museum of Tolerance would require the disinterring of graves, they were ignored until spring 2006, when it was reported that dozens of skeletons had been unearthed during the early excavations.

The local media also revealed at the time that state archaeologists had been secretly trying to move the skeletons without alerting the local Muslim authorities, as they should have done, and that many of the skeletons had been damaged in the process.

When several months of arbitration between the developers and Muslim leaders proved fruitless, the courts stepped in.

Ostensibly, the driving force behind the museum, which is to cost US$250 million (Dh918m), is the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a private Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights organisation. But the venture is being pushed through with equal vigour by Israeli officials from the government, Jerusalem municipality and Lands Administration.

For many years it has been their priority to obscure all indications of the Muslim presence in the western part of Jerusalem – as well as in many areas of Israel – that predate the Jewish state’s founding in 1948.

The treatment of the Mamilla cemetery, which is said to include the burial sites of the Prophet Mohammed’s companions, stands in stark contrast to another ancient cemetery, nearby on the Mount of Olives.

Since East Jerusalem was illegally occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, the Jewish cemetery on the Mount has been carefully renovated and expanded as a “heritage site”.

In contrast, the Mamilla cemetery, which lies just inside West Jerusalem and was captured by the Israeli army in the 1948 war, was immediately removed from Muslim control. Classified as refugee property, it was passed on to a new Israeli official called the custodian of absentee property.

This was far from an isolated incident. Before the creation of Israel, as much as one-tenth of all territory in the Holy Land was managed as part of an Islamic endowment known as the waqf, bequeathed by Muslims for religious and charitable purposes.

After 1948, however, Israel seized all waqf property – in addition to private land belonging to refugees – and transferred it to the custodian.

Under pressure from the government in the 1950s, the custodian passed most of the undeveloped land, particularly farmland, on to a state-run body known as the Development Authority, which was charged with using it for the “public interest”. That usually meant using the profit from the land for the benefit of the Jewish public.

Other waqf property – mostly land on which holy places, including mosques and cemeteries, were located – was managed by special Islamic trusts established by the state.

This has provided the main defence adopted today by Israeli officials in justifying the siting of the museum. They say that an Islamic trust deconsecrated the Mamilla cemetery in 1964, thereby freeing up the land for development.

What they fail to point out, however, is that the Islamic trusts have no legitimacy among Palestinian Muslims in Israel, nearly one-fifth of the country’s total population, let alone among Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The Islamic officials on the trusts are widely seen as corrupt, appointed by the state because of their willingness to do the government’s bidding rather than because of their public standing or Islamic credentials.

They earned that reputation by rubber-stamping many land transactions of waqf property desired by the state. One of the most notorious occurred in the early 1960s when Muslim officials approved the sale of the large Abdul Nabi cemetery in today’s Tel Aviv for the building of a hotel and several Jewish housing developments.

This abuse of waqf land has provoked a simmering resentment among Israel’s Palestinian minority.

Last year Palestinians in the historic city of Jaffa, now little more than a suburb of Tel Aviv, tried to challenge the role of the Islamic trusts by petitioning the courts to turn control of waqf property over to genuine representatives of the Muslim public.

The government, however, refused to divulge what waqf property existed in Jaffa, claiming “the requested information would seriously harm Israel’s foreign relations”. This was presumed to refer to the damage that might be done to Israel’s image abroad should it be revealed to what uses the waqf property had been put.

Actual holy places have fared little better, with most now inaccessible even to Israel’s Palestinian citizens.

Some, such as the 900-year-old Hittin mosque built by Saladin in the Galilee region, have been fenced off and left to crumble. Others are used by rural Jewish communities as animal sheds. And yet more have been converted into discos, bars or nightclubs, including the Dahir al Umar mosque – now the Dona Rosa restaurant – in the former Palestinian village of Ayn Hawd.

Similar dubious practices occurred with the Mamilla cemetery. From the 1950s, during a period of military government that imposed severe restrictions on all Palestinians living inside Israel, the graves and tombs belonging to Jerusalem’s most notable families began to decay. Part of the land was turned into a car park.

After the 1967 war, as Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, has noted, the Muslim authorities lobbied to be allowed to rehabilitate and maintain the graves, but were refused permission.

Instead, in 1992 the custodian transferred the site to the Jerusalem municipality, which used the land to establish an Independence Park, named for Israel’s victory in the 1948 war. Then a few years later the municipality transferred a parcel of the land to the Wiesenthal Center for its Museum of Tolerance.

As Mr Benvenisti points out, over the years many Islamic sites in Jerusalem have been “turned into garbage dumps, parking lots, roads and construction sites”.

What makes the latest fight over the Mamilla cemetery different is that in the past decade a new breed of Muslim leader has emerged in Israel to overshadow the Islamic trusts. In particular the struggle over the fate of the holy places has been taken up by the leader of the Islamic Movement inside Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah.

Last week he warned: “We will mobilise in the Arab and Muslim world so that it puts pressure to halt the project.”

Tolerance, after all, has its limits.

Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Israeli court rules in favor of destroying Muslim cemetery

Israeli court rules in favor of destroying Muslim cemetery
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:32:16
Shireen Yassin, Press TV, Al-Quds


(Requires Windows Media or Real Player)

Mosaic News - International Activists' Boat Arrives in Gaza - Jewish Extremists Can Demonstrate in Arab Villages - Um Jaber Wishah Message 10/29/08

Mosaic News - 10/29/08: World News from the Middle East:

International Activists' Boat Arrives in Gaza /Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
Jewish Extremists Can Demonstrate in Arab Villages /IBA TV, Israel
Um Jaber Wishah - A Message to Nasrallah /Syria TV, Syria
Iraqis Divided Over Security Agreement /Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
160 Killed in Earthquake in Pakistan /Dubai TV, UAE
Talking to the Taliban /Saudi TV, Saudi Arabia
Kuwaiti Parliament in Crisis /Al Arabiya TV, UAE
Pakistan Faces Bankruptcy /Dubai TV, UAE
Women Taxi Drivers in Tehran /Al-Alam TV, Iran
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani."