Notices by Raphael Mimoun רפאל מימון (raph@social.coop), page 5

First, the type of arbitrary restriction experienced by Burin farmers is present in all areas of life. For example, Burin is surrounded by roadblocks. The army regularly closes some of these roadblocks without prior announcement or rationale. The army also regularly interrupts football matches by village youth, with no other reason than intimidation. Most normal activities of daily life are impacted by Israeli restrictions and violence.

12/16

Second, the greenhouse episode shows that the occupation doesn’t just infringe Palestinians’ basic freedoms—of movement, of assembly—but it also impacts their very livelihood. Farmers across the West Bank face similar restrictions to access their fields (not least of all because of the separation barrier). In the southern West Bank, where many bedouin communities rely on shepherding for their survival, settler and army violence takes place almost daily.

13/16

Finally, Burin's struggle shows how powerless and lonely Palestinians often feel in the face of Israeli violence. As non-citizens, they do not have access to Israeli civilian courts, and Israel's military administration is fully invested in the settlement project. Palestinian lives are seen by the Israeli army and settlers as disposable; Palestinian deaths are of little concern and consequence.

14/16

That's why isolated communities ask for the support of solidarity activists: the mere presence of Israeli or international activists by their side can shift (in a small but non-negligible way) the balance of power.

This presence can be enough to force settlers and the army to show *some* restraint. *Some* restraint isn’t much, but it can mean avoiding olive trees getting burnt, homes being demolished, and Palestinians getting killed.

15/16

From abroad, we are often only exposed to big explosions of violence or dramatic political developments. But for Palestinians living under military occupation, violence and intimidation is a daily reality.

Colonization, in this case, is not a broad theoretical debate, but a matter of being unable to work on your farm, visit family in a nearby town, or know that the land you live on will still be yours in a year from now.

16/16

"The two of us are humanitarian surgeons. Together, in our combined 57 years of volunteering, we’ve worked on more than 40 surgical missions in developing countries on four continents. We’re used to working in disaster and war zones, of being on intimate terms with death and carnage and despair.

None of that prepared us for what we saw in Gaza this spring."

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/19/gaza-hospitals-surgeons-00167697

I'm now in the village of Burin, which has faced violence and harassment from some the most extremist settlements and outposts in the West Bank (including the infamous settlement of Yitzhar). I show here how Burin is completely surrounded by settlements and military bases.

#Israel #Palestine #WestBank

Noam Chomsky is dead. He was 95 years old.

Few people had more influence on me. He was the one who introduced me to anarchism (the superior political theory), but he also modeled what a life committed to justice could look like, and what rigorous research and writing in service of liberation could be. He wasn't perfect (who is?) and I didn't agree with everything he said or wrote. But he was a giant and will be remembered as such.

Rest In Power Noam.

I double-checked the subtitles with a native Hebrew speaker. They are accurate.

I'm coming to occupy Gaza
And beat Hezbollah
I stick by one mitzvah [good deed]
To wipe out the seed of Amalek [biblical enemy]
I left home behind me
Won't come back until victory
We know our slogan
There are no uninvolved civilians
There are no uninvolved civilians

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza

Huge victory for the solidarity movement: France bans Israeli companies from a defense trade show.

This is very little, very late, but it is still very significant and hopefully the beginning of larger sanctions against Israeli industry.

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza

During the civil war that led to the establishment of the state of Israel and 700,000 Palestinians refugees (Nakba), ethnic cleansing was ordered directly by Ben Gurion, Israel's founding father and a leader of the left-wing Mapai party.

2/14

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/23/archives/israel-bars-rabin-from-relating-48-eviction-of-arabs-sympathy-for.html

It was also Ben Gurion who ordered the IDF to poison water wells and spread typhoid bacteria in Arab villages and cities—in a clear act of biological warfare.

Still not a far-right extremist: just the left-wing founding father of Israel.

3/14

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-14/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/documents-confirm-israelis-poisoned-arab-wells-in-1948/00000183-d2b2-d8cc-afc7-fefed64d0000

For half a century, Israel has expanded settlements in the West Bank at a steady pace, no matter who was in power.

On this graph, we literally cannot see any drop in the speed of expansion during left-wing (84-86, 92-96, 99-01) or centrist (06-09) prime ministers.

4/14

It's worth repeating: since Israel started building settlements in the West Bank, every single Israeli government—no matter its political inclination—expanded settlements.

Netanyahu and the Israeli far-right are merely following in the footsteps of their predecessors.

5/14

A poll by Tel Aviv University between Oct 23-28 asked Israelis whether the IDF was using too much or too little firepower in Gaza.

Only 2% of Jews said the IDF used too much firepower. 58% said Israel used too little firepower in Gaza.

https://social-sciences.tau.ac.il/sites/socsci.tau.ac.il/files/media_server/social/2023/Findings-November-2023-EN.pdf

2/9

A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute between Dec 11–13 found that 81% of Israeli Jews thought that Israel should only consider the suffering of Gaza civilians to a fairly small or to a vert small extent.
https://en.idi.org.il/articles/51872
3/9

In Jan, Israel's Channel 12 found that 72% of Israelis said “the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip must be stopped until the Israeli prisoners are released”. Collective punishment and using hunger as a weapon of war is fully normalized.
4/9
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240131-72-of-israelis-say-aid-deliveries-to-gaza-must-be-stopped-survey-finds/

After 5 months of devastation, an overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews continue to support the war.
In a Feb 28th-Mar 4th poll, the Israel Democracy Institute found that 74% were in favor of a military operation in Rafah.
https://en.idi.org.il/articles/53305
5/9

The Israel Democracy Institute asked two more times, in December 2023 and March 2024, if Israel should consider the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza.
The results continued to be appalling: 80% of Israeli Jews think to a fairly small extent or not at all.
6/9

Most Israeli Jews hate the messianic right & the settlers but still oppose sanctions against them for the extreme violence against Palestinians in the West Bank (which amount to actual pogroms). From a May 1-6 poll by the Israel Democracy Institute:
7/9
https://en.idi.org.il/articles/54052