Mission & Justice

Uri Blau; 15/8/08

Police, soldiers and military officers prefer to “turn a blind eye” instead of handling incidents in which settlers attack Palestinians in the West Bank. In a meeting held by West Bank precinct operations officer Ronen Yefet last week, participants - including a Shin Bet security service representative and a senior police and army officers - reported a recent increase in the number of violent incidents involving settlers. The Shin Bet representative stated in the discussion that settler violence has been “intentional and planned,” adding that any Israel Defense Forces operations against settlers (eviction or demolitions) now comes with a violent “price tag.” Police officers at the meeting criticized the IDF for reportedly saying they do not want to act against settlers, and purported comments like “Leave me alone, don’t get me mixed up with those guys.”

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Editorial; 15/8/08

There has been worldwide condemnation by journalists of yet another decision by an Israeli military tribunal to clear Israel troops of killing journalists. The death in April of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana while filming an Israeli tank during an incursion into Gaza roused media protests that Israeli soldiers were deliberately targeting members of news organizations sent to cover their activities. Shana and his team were about a mile away from the tank that he was filming. He was wearing a fluorescent vest announcing that he was a journalist and the vehicle in which the Reuters party was traveling was also marked prominently “TV”. The tank crew told the military board of inquiry that they saw neither sign. What they thought they saw was a fighter wearing body armor with a tripod-mounted rocket he was about to fire. They, therefore, shot first, killing Shana instantly and destroying the Reuters TV vehicle. The tribunal bought this.

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Yuval Azoulay;14/8/08, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011862.html

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem on Thursday relayed that since the start of 2007, it had asked the Israel Defense Forces to investigate 99 incidents in which 189 Palestinians were killed - but the army only actually launched probes in four of the instances. B’Tselem also Thursday harshly criticized the Military Advocate General, Brig. Gen. Avihai Mandelblit, over his decision to close the investigation into the death of a Reuters cameraman in the Gaza Strip last April. The army cleared the IDF tank crew that killed the journalist of any wrongdoing and said the soldiers will not face any disciplinary action. B’Tselem branded this decision as extremely unreasonable. The army found that troops acted properly when they opened fire on Fadel Shana, suspecting he was a militant preparing to fire a missile after he set up a tripod in a Gaza battle zone in which three IDF soldiers were killed.

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Shlomo Shamir; 14/8/08

The United Nations said on Thursday that it has managed to clear wide swaths of south Lebanon of half of all cluster bombs fired by Israel during the Second Lebanon War two years ago. In a report released on Thursday, the world body warned that the remaining ordnances still pose a threat to the local population, particulary in the southern Lebanon village of Kafer Sir. “We’ve managed to clean up about half of the known cluster munition strike sites in this village. We hope to have the whole village completely cleared by the end of the year,” the UN Mine Action Coordination Center of South Lebanon said on Thursday. “This whole village was covered with unexploded cluster munitions. They were on people’s rooftops, hanging from trees, even in playgrounds.”

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Ben White; 14/8/08

On Tuesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published what seemed like a significant development in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, reporting that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had presented Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president “with a detailed proposal for an agreement in principle on borders, refugees and security arrangements between Israel and a future Palestinian state.” The “offer” is nothing too different to what we’ve seen before: Israel keeps the main settlement blocs, including around Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, Maaleh Adumim, and, the Haaretz article suggests, Efrat and Ariel too. There is no mention of arrangements for the Jordan Valley, crucial territory that Olmert has previously declared his intention to annex. While Israel apparently keeps seven percent of the West Bank, the Palestinians are “compensated” with land from the Negev Desert and a road connecting the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, the overall borders are by and large determined by the separation wall, which the report rightly notes has created a “new physical reality”.

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Hillel Weiss; 13/8/08

Outspoken Bar-Ilan University Professor Hillel Weiss was indicted on Wednesday for incitement to violence, and for threatening and insulting a civil servant. Two weeks before the 2005 Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, Weiss said in an interview that “this abomination should be expelled from the Holy City by any means necessary.” Violent protests then erupted at the site the parade, during which one marcher was stabbed. In another incident, Weiss was last year filmed verbally abusing Israel Defense Forces Hebron Division commander Colonel Yehuda Fuchs during the forced evacuation of settlers in the local market.

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Aluf Benn; 13/8/08

The American administration has rejected an Israeli request for military equipment and support that would improve Israel’s ability to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. A report published last week by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) states that military strikes are unlikely to destroy Iran’s centrifuge program for enriching uranium. The Americans viewed the request, which was transmitted (and rejected) at the highest level, as a sign that Israel is in the advanced stages of preparations to attack Iran. They therefore warned Israel against attacking, saying such a strike would undermine American interests. They also demanded that Israel give them prior notice if it nevertheless decided to strike Iran. As compensation for the requests it rejected, Washington offered to improve Israel’s defenses against surface-to-surface missiles.

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Eli Ashkenazi; 13/8/08

A severely disabled man died of a heart attack Saturday night, two days after his long-term Chinese girlfriend was arrested by the Immigration Police. Uri Lezovsky’s friends say that the 63-year-old died of a broken heart after Mei Chianshu was detained. “It breaks your heart,” said one. “Despite his disability, this man just gave and gave all his life. But when he finally gained a woman’s love, he died. Perhaps a little more sensitivity would have prevented this.” Chianshu, who had been living here illegally for eight years, was arrested while she, Lezovsky and a lawyer were en route from his home in Metula to the Interior Ministry office in Safed to try to arrange legal residency for her.

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Hisham Abu Taha; 13/8/08

Israel has offered a peace deal to the Palestinians under which it would annex 7.3 percent of the West Bank and keep the largest settlements. In compensation, the Palestinians would be given land equivalent to 5.4 percent of the West Bank in the Negev Desert but it is not specified where. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has presented Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with the proposal for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, to take place after Abbas’ forces have retaken Gaza, as part of an agreement in principle on borders, refugees and security arrangements between Israel and a future Palestinian state, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

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13/8/08

An Israeli tank crew who killed a Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters news agency in Gaza will not face legal action over his death, Israel’s senior military lawyer has said. Brigadier General Avihai Mendelblit sent a letter on Wednesday saying the troops could not tell whether Fadel Shana was operating a camera or a weapon, a Reuters spokesman said. However, it said the soldiers were justified in firing the tank shell that killed Shana and at least two other Palestinians on August 16, he said. Alastair Macdonald, Reuters bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that the agency was “extremely disappointed” by the report.

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