This week’s postings@JfJfP.com


July 23, 2017
Sarah Benton

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This week, Monday July 17th to July 23rd 2017, one issue dominated the media and public attention and another issue of profound importance got a brief mention then disappeared. The latter was the UN’s report on the situation in Gaza 10 years after Israel imposed the blockade. The report is thorough, looks at almost every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza – though makes little of the growing crisis of mental illness – and concludes that international humanitarian law is being broken constantly; that neither Israel nor, to a limited extent, Hamas will protect or provide for the people living in the coastal strip which is now on a trajectory of de-development. Everything is getting worse:
No stop to de-development of Gaza

The problem of the high rates of mental illness in Gaza, as well as of physical illness and disability, is a crucial part of Sarah Helm’s article in the Observer. She talks to people in Gaza city. It is a common belief that the world expects and hopes that they will all just die or self-destruct:
‘The world outside doesn’t want to know. Everyone wants us to die’

One Arab state was providing material benefits to the people of Gaza such as housing and fuel. That was Qatar. Al Shabaka analysts explore the consequences of Qatar’s virtual shut-down for Palestinians:
After Qatar in Gaza

But Palestinians in Jerusalem will fight to the end against any moves by the Israeli state to lay claim to or exercise control over the Noble Sanctuary/ Temple Mount compound in which the Al Aqsa mosque is situated. Many fellow Muslims would have been aghast that Palestinian gunmen sheltered in the compound before emerging to kill two Israeli police officers.
Displays of defiance at Al Aqsa

A judicious assessment would have recognised this. A judicious assessment would have ruled out punishing all Palestinians who worship in Haram al-Sharif.

The centre of the fight-back against Israeli control is the Palestinians of Jerusalem. They have been protesting without using violence – unlike the Israeli state. Nir Hasson argues that this has created an effective resistance:
The real bosses are the Palestinians of Jerusalem’

Barak Ravid says that PM Netanyahu, who has been here before, did at first act judiciously as Shin Bet advised – but quickly swapped to intemperate measures when his hard-right rivals began demanding a policy of retribution and ‘security first’:
Shin Bet warns, Cabinet ignores

The action is attributed to Netanyahu but in fact it was the decision of the Security Cabinet to treat all Palestinians as would-be killers and impose security controls over the compound. In this item, three commentators say why this is such a terrible idea:
Security cabinet – just smash the protest

There is no reason why Palestinians should be subject to the Israeli hegemony of ‘security above all’. Suspicions about the Israeli closure of Al Aqsa complex speak of the belief that the purpose of Israeli government actions is to crush Palestinians:
Closing Al Aqsa a ‘collective punishment’

The new security measures around the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount compound are seen by most Israeli Jews as necessary for their safety and by Palestinians as another means of denying their religious freedom:
Displays of defiance at Al Aqsa

The three Palestinian gunmen came from Umm al-Fahm. This, says Shlomo Eldar, is an unhappy place. It is the base of Sheikh Raed al-Salah – whose mission has long been the protection of Haram al-Sharif – and also a target for the IDF. Neither al-Salah nor the IDF promotes freedom of speech or thought for the beleaguered residents:
Fear stifles Umm al-Fahm

As for the man who successfully dominates Israel politics, this latest crisis in the country may be just what suits PM Netanyahu. Charges of corruption have been prepared – but whether the Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, dares bring them is in doubt. Another round of being ‘Mr. Security’ may save him though Akiva Eldar thinks not:
Netanyahu is part of the problem, not the solution

The al-Aqsa crisis has interrupted Netanyahu’s strategy of cultivating the leaders of the east European Visegrad Four (V4). He hopes that these post-Soviet right-wing governments will oppose the EU’s (limited) strictures against the Occupation. His argument is that Israel is ‘one of us’, viz. of Europe, and the EU needs Israel for its role in maintaining European values in the MidEast:
Europe will die unless it embraces Israel

Gilad Erdan, Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information has been diverted from his usual job by the conflict at Al Aqsa. His job is to ratchet the BDS campaign up to being THE national-existential threat. As such the Hama’aracha (the battle) unit is primed and funded for war. First shot – to define the movement as ‘terrorism’:
‘Consciousness terrorism’ – the BDS movement

There is a founding event for Jewish rule over Arabs. That is the Deir Yassin massacre in 1948. There is no exact count of how many Palestinians were killed by the thuggish Jewish gangs. Estimates range from 107 to 245. The significance is that Jews were ready to kill resisting Arabs and unarmed Palestinians were then driven out of their villages in fear of another massacre. A new documentary by Neta Shoshanio suggests the killing spree was not planned:
The massacre at Deir Yassin, never forgotten
 

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