Israel

Stop decorating the “wall of shame”

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:01:19 +0200

Graffiti by Suleiman Mansour. Photo by William J.Schleich, posted here.

Better to employ an enormous grey wall for artistic purposes than leave it a towering eyesore? Palestinians and foreigners alike have been painting the Israeli government's separation wall since construction began. But on both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides of what has been dubbed "the wall of shame", there are those who don't want it to be coloured in, and for very different reasons.

Israel began building the snaking wall which separates the West Bank from neighbouring Jewish settlements in 2002. Its alleged purpose is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from accessing Israeli territory and then blowing themselves up. But despite the outright condemnation of the project from the UN in October 2003, since then, the wall has only got longer.

When slogans and stencils began to appear on the wall, the initial reaction from Israeli soldiers was to arrest the offending artists. Their excuse? Security measures. Barbed wire, sensors and CCTV were put in place to deter them. But to no avail. Much of the graffiti is found on the sections which cross Bethlehem, Qalqilya, and Qalandiya (a village 11km south of Ramallah), but also on parts opposite the University of Jerusalem, which managed, after negotiations, to save a piece of its campus from being built upon by this controversial structure.

Thinking through the Iranian nuclear crisis

Team Observers — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:52:51 +0200

Photo:"azrainman" on Flickr.

One of our Israeli Observers, Joel Schalit, sent us his analysis of the recent developments of the tough Iran-Israel negotiations.

React to this view — in a constructive, argumentative way.

Confronted by renewed talk of weapons of mass destruction, of aggressive United Nations inspections and the threat of crippling sanctions, even the most casual of observers of Mideast politics began to feel a sense of déjà vu.

The rhetoric sounded eerily reminiscent of that which led to 2003 invasion of Iraq, and over a dozen years’ worth of violence prior to it, when the Persian Gulf state was forced to trade oil for food, American fighters patrolled its skies, UN investigators turned the country upside down looking for chemical weaponry, and more than 1.5 million Iraqis are reported to have died.

History repeating itself?

Yet, on September 25, two weeks after the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the “war on terror”, US President Barack Obama, flanked by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Premier Gordon Brown, delivered a severe warning to Tehran that just as well could have been given to Iran's next door neighbour a decade before: Desist from producing nuclear weapons and allow UN officials to inspect your nuclear facilities or face the consequences. Though the American leader failed to mention Iraq, of course, the parallel was obvious. History, it seemed, was repeating itself. Again.

Delivered a week before a hotly anticipated meeting between Iran and the P5+1 – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany – to discuss the Islamic state's nuclear program, President Obama's speech was clearly strategic.

Reassuring the Jews

Following the disclosure of the existence of a second Iranian nuclear plant, purportedly designed for military purposes, two days before Iran demonstrated new ballistic missiles on Yom Kippur, the US leader's uncharacteristically threatening language was meant to be as comforting as it was intended to sow fear. If Jews wanted reassurance that Barack “Hussein” Obama was indeed pro-Israeli, they need look no further.

So prominent in the headlines has been Israel's concerns about Iran's nuclear program that it is impossible to mistake to whom the American president is signalling.

No US leader has been subject to such intense and prolonged attempts to discredit his standing amongst world Jewry than Barack Obama. Reviled by the Israeli right for demanding a freeze to Jewish settlement building in the Occupied Territories, incited against by their Republican counterparts in the United States, derided for being a secret Muslim, Obama has been the target of fervent efforts to turn him into public enemy number one of the Jews.

Obama’s taking such a strong stand, his sounding exactly like Bush at his “pro-Israel” best, make it impossible to imagine that the American leader won't repair some of the damage he has sustained at the hands of critics who charge that he favours Arabs.

Unintended consequences

The problem, unfortunately, with emphasizing positions such as this is that they have the ironic consequence of reinforcing the false notion that it is US Jews and Israelis who drive American foreign policy, not the interests of the American people as a whole, when in fact US posturing towards Iran (and Iraq before that) has always been an expression of a plurality of domestic and foreign influences, of which Israel is only a part.

Unfortunately for those who fear the worst, who expect a repetition of the Iraqi tragedy in Iran under liberal auspices, the linkage between Jewish concerns and the direction of American policy are their own eternal indictment.

As long as the so-called Israel lobby is in charge, the results will be the same. Never mind the fact that Israeli interests might correspond with those of other US allies. Ignore the possibility that, for example, even though Saudi Arabia and Israel are technically at war, the two countries feel equally threatened by Iran and are equally proactive in trying to contain it. The only difference is that Israel's efforts have a much larger and more dramatic media footprint, whereas Saudi Arabia's are more subtle, attempting to buy out, for example, Iran's Russian arms suppliers, as well as quietly working with the US on its diplomatic and military initiatives.

As has been repeatedly disclosed in recent years, the entire Middle East is anxious about Iran. Whether that fear is explained in terms of Tehran's growing military clout or its supposed ambition to become the leader of the Islamic world, nearly all of Iran's neighbours have chosen to align themselves with Europe and the United States.

The United States, in turn, has attempted to return the favour, offering its own defence guarantees in tandem with those offered to Israel. While one may question the staying power of whatever alliances emerge from this, not to mention America's own motivations in cultivating them, we are left with a far more complex portrait of the forces helping determine Washington's Middle East policy than we are normally accustomed to hearing.

Is Iran reasonable?

Would it be any wonder, then, that the Iranians would choose to arm themselves so heavily and consider adopting nuclear weaponry? Would it seem unreasonable to assume that Iran would then single Israel as its primary foe (at least rhetorically) rather than the United States? If you want to point out the alien character of America's presence in the Mideast, the best way is by scapegoating the Jewish state.

Indeed, Israel has always been the best road to Washington. All Tehran has to do is push the right button: Deny the validity of the Holocaust, show off new missiles on important Jewish holidays, transfer increasingly sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah and Hamas. Like the threat of sanctions, Iran's theatrics are familiar and well rehearsed.

This is why the breakthroughs announced this morning in Geneva are well worth paying attention to: sitting down for in-depth talks with the United States for the first time since 1979, agreeing to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect Iran's newly disclosed nuclear facility in Qom and to have a substantial percentage of its uranium enriched by Russia and France. America and Iran broke enormous new ground.

Even if all of the relevant parties fail to deliver, the precedent is still truly surprising, especially considering how routine and moribund their relations have become. As much as we legitimately fear a return to the past, it indicates that it still might be possible to escape it.

A floating 'separation wall' in Tel Aviv

Team Observers — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:41:50 +0200

Israeli artist Shelly Federman created this curious structure that resembles the West Bank separation wall... Except that it's made of Styrofoam and can be used as a floating mattress.

Federman's "Floating Wall" exhibit was filmed on the beach at Tel Aviv and set up as a video exhibit at the Art TLV biennial, a three-week-long happening that took place in Tel Aviv in September. The controversial piece, intended to draw attention to the "complex realities of life in Israel", was a centerpiece for the city's art show. Federman told FRANCE 24 what inspired her to create the wall, and how her fellow Israelis reacted to the exhibit.

Photos by Shelly Federman

Hummus, another cause for war in the Middle East

Team Observers — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:19:03 +0200

Published on Flickr on January 29, 2008 by hazy jenius.

Lebanon is accusing Israel of usurping its most precious culinary specialties. It intends to create a geographical label to identify ‘authentic’ Lebanese cuisine. To further stress its point, Lebanon also intends to beat the largest hummus dish world record, currently held by Israel…

Lebanon and Israel have officially been at war for 60 years. Over the past few months the neighbouring countries seem to have found a new subject to bicker about: food.

It all started on a local TV show last October when Lebanese industrialists complained about the commercialisation of star Lebanese dishes such as hummus under the label “Israeli cuisine” in western stores. The president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, Fadi Abboud, filed a registration request for the creation of an EU label for authentic ‘Lebanese’ dishes.

Authentic hummus is a chickpea purée with sesame cream (tahini) seasoned with garlic, lemon and olive oil. It is one of the best-known and -loved Lebanese “mezze” (appetizers). Its popularity has spread to Israel, where the best hummus makers of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem reach movie-star fame.

Top hummus makers in Israel. Published on YouTube by elahnz , on April 8, 2009.

But hummus is also big business. Lebanese industrialists are mainly concerned about the loss of market share in the face of foreign produce, which they estimate at around one billion dollars a year.

In an increasingly competitive market, Israelis are coming up with ever-more-creative solutions. Paprika, onions, olives, basil and sun-dried tomatoes are among the new flavours which are added to the original recipe, much to the horror of hummus purists.

In 2007 Israeli scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem even published a study proving that hummus boosts physical growth, diminishes aggressiveness and is a good anti-depressant.

Israelis made the world’s largest plate of hummus in 2008: a 400 kg plate, four metres wide, at the Mahaneh Yehudat market in Jerusalem. Lebanese hummus makers intend to break that record on October 24 in Beirut’s Saifi marketplace. Originally published on The Hummus Blog.

Is Farouk Hosni worthy of leading UNESCO?

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:43:00 +0200

Posted on the Facebook group "Farouk Hosni NO for UNESCO"

UNESCO will choose its new general director this evening. It's Farouk Hosni, Egyptian Culture Minister since 1986, who looks set to succeed Koïchiro Matsuura at the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. But will the man who pledged to "burn" Israeli books really fit the bill?

Hosni's anti-Semitic accusations weigh heavily on his chances for the appointment. Last year for example, he responded to a query about Israeli books appearing in an Alexandria library by saying "Burn these books; if there are any there, I will burn them myself in front of you".

They are declarations which Hosni now regrets saying. Writing in French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday, he expressed "solemn regret" but asked his critics to "focus on the 27 years of public service devoted to culture, (...) mankind, creation, The Book and books in general".

We asked our respective Egyptian and Israeli Observers if UNESCO should have looked elsewhere.

Israel calls for "Lost Jews" to come home

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:09:53 +0200

The Israeli authorities have launched a video campaign calling for people to report on Jews in danger of marrying non-Jews.

Launched on Wednesday September 2, the campaign has already received over 200 calls. People have left names, phone numbers, Twitter and Facebook names of "lost" Jews, most of them living in France, the US and New Zealand.

IDF fails to contain rumour of kidnapped soldier

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:56:42 +0200

Screen grab from The Jerusalem Post.

On Thursday evening we were alerted to a story about an Israeli soldier having been kidnapped near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. Details of the incident were published online in an article by the Jerusalem Post. But a few minutes after it was published, the story was removed from the website.

The Israeli army dismissed the rumour shortly after the story broke, but only after it had put the secret services on high alert.

Gay community reeling after homophobic shooting

Ségolène Team Observers — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:36:54 +0200

Gathering in Haifa August 2. Published by "ayalanetzer".

Two people were killed and 13 injured on Saturday night when a masked man opened fire in a refuge for gay people in Tel Aviv. The attack has stunned the gay community there, leading to a mass movement both in the city and on the Net.

A 17-year-old girl and a 26-year-old counsellor were killed when the gunman opened fire. He then fled on foot and has yet to be identified by police. If he targeted the gay community specifically as is thought, the incident will be Israel's worst ever homophobic attack.

If you should really kick a ball over the separation wall…

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:30:00 +0200

In response to the controversial ad from Israeli telecoms company Cellcom, in which Israelis and Palestinians strike up a game of footy across the separation wall, residents from the Palestinian side have come up with their own version. Unlike the original however, there are no actors; only real citizens. So what would really happen if Palestinians kicked a ball across the wall?

The scene takes place in Bil'in, where weekly demonstrations are held to protest the wall. The author of the clip, an Israeli citizen, explains the scenario to us.

Haredim, the ultra Ultra-Orthodox Jews fighting the state

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:54:59 +0200

Extremist Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been rioting for three days after social services took a woman's child away from her for alleged starvation.

Known as the Haredi community, the majority of Israel's extremist Ultra Orthodox Jews live in the Mea Shearim neighbourhood. It was here that a three-year-old, weighing seven kilos, was removed from his mother on Tuesday after social services were warned that she was starving him. The mother was detained.

Extremists from the community took to the streets in defence of the mother, burning litter bins, vandalising state property, and attacking civil servants, from policeman to cleaners. They initially claimed that the boy was not sick, and then insisted that he was ill because he suffered from cancer. The hospital he is being treated in, however, deny the claims, saying that his ill-health is a result of malnutrition, and that his mother has a psychiatric disorder called Munchausen-by-proxy - which entails abusing someone in order to generate sympathy.

On Friday (July 17) the mother was bailed, following concerns that protestors would become even more dangerous if she remained in custody during the Shabbat, which begins at sundown on Fridays in the Jewish calendar. She is to be tried later.