Europe must not back down from labeling West Bank settlement products

[Israeli]

The time may soon come when the EU must decide whether financing the Palestinian Authority effectively enables Israel's diplomatic rejectionism.

Haaretz Editorial | Jun. 9, 2015

The most important statement about the European Union’s potential decision to label settlement products was actually made by Dani Dayan, a former leader of the Yesha Council of settlements who still works to promote the settlement enterprise in the occupied territories. In a conversation with Nir Baram, Dayan related that a U.S. State Department official once told him, “For years we perceived you as agents of Israeli government policy, but suddenly we realized that you are the autonomous one and the Israeli government is the agent of your policy.”

Indeed, the settlement enterprise has succeeded in taking over Israeli politics. Dayan also explained why he isn’t worried about an EU boycott on settlement products: It “won’t make much difference – because the settlement enterprise is not based on industrial zones, but on the number of inhabitants. And that number is rising all the time. Bear in mind: when all is said and done, that is the only consistent trend.”

Anyone who thinks the settlement enterprise is illegitimate and causing Israel to lose its own legitimacy must be pleased that Israel was compelled to accept a committee under the auspices of FIFA (the world soccer federation), which, among other things, will discuss the question of whether soccer teams from the settlements can legitimately play in Israeli leagues.

The EU’s plan to publish guidelines for labeling settlement products should also be viewed favorably. Any international move that makes it clear to Israel that this “consistent trend” of growth in the number of settlers is destructive to Israel itself bolsters the chance that, someday, Israel will also have a government that understands this.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.660321

NB: No paywall .

[Israeli]

1. Avoiding West Bank settlement goods isn't boycott - it’s the law

According to int’l law - by which the State of Israel was established and recognized - the settlements are stolen lands, which is a war crime, and abetting war criminals, such as by financing them, is a crime, too.

By B. Michael

The boycott issue is once again in the headlines, and I wish to make a confession: I don’t buy products made in the settlements. This isn’t, heaven forbid, a boycott, and it obviously isn’t a call to others to boycott. It’s forbidden to boycott. There’s a law. And I’m a law-abiding citizen. Always. Even when I don’t like the laws.

And that’s precisely why I don’t buy products made over the Green Line: the law. Because in my view, international law is also law. And it, too, deserves to be obeyed, even if only because international law is the law by dint of which Israel was established and recognized as a state.

And according to international law – how very unfortunate – all settlements, from the first to the last, are a war crime. This is so according to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and also according to Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Admittedly, the State of Israel has displayed an impressive ability to create legal nuances out of nothing to prove that international law doesn’t apply to the occupied territories, or that the territories aren’t occupied at all, or that the world is flat. But there’s not a single country in the entire world, or a single organization of all those responsible for upholding international law, that buys Israel’s legalistic sophistries.

Take, for instance, Israel’s claim that this isn’t “occupied territory.” Why? Because the territories “had no sovereign” when we conquered them. But Israel only invites ridicule with this hollow claim. The authorized agencies have declared again and again that this is an occupation in every respect, and that the question of who was previously sovereign in the occupied territory, or whether it had a sovereign at all, is completely irrelevant. “Occupied territory” is defined by law as follows: territory that was seized by military force and is held under military rule. Period.

And not only is transferring an occupying population into occupied territory (“the settlements”) a war crime, but expropriating occupied lands without an acceptable justification – for instance, expropriation for settlement purposes – is also defined as a war crime. Such lands, which were taken from their owners in violation of the law, are simply stolen property.

Consequently, it’s self-evident that anything produced on them by the thieves, whether industrial or agricultural produce, is presumed to be stolen goods. And a law-abiding person doesn’t buy stolen goods. It’s forbidden. A well-known aphorism admittedly holds that “one who steals from a thief isn’t liable,” but there’s no doubt that “one who buys from a thief is liable.”

Moreover, the money paid for stolen goods encourages and finances the criminals. And this, too, is forbidden. Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute assigns criminal liability to anyone who abets war criminals in any way, including by encouraging or financing them.

What can you do? I don’t want to run afoul of international law. Don’t I have enough troubles? So I don’t buy.

All of the above, it’s important to stress once again, has nothing to do with boycotting! Only with obeying the law. And in order to help people obey this law, it’s also necessary to demand that all products of the settlements sold in Israel be immediately labeled, very clearly, so as not to put a stumbling block before the blind and not to embroil them, heaven forbid, in abetting war crimes.

In closing, one small clarification: As many will doubtless recall, in upholding the so-called “Boycott Law,” Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein relied on a phrase from the Passover Haggadah, “In every generation they rise up to destroy us.” I wonder what the honored judge would permit if he continued reading the Haggadah and came to the words, “Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not acknowledge You ... Pursue them with anger and destroy them from beneath the heavens of the Lord.”

If the honored judge indeed permits what I fear he would permit I’d like to make it clear right now: On this issue, don’t count on me. Because even when it comes to obeying the law, there are limits.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.660424

[Little Tich]

2. The pro-Israeli angle on what BDS means has changed somewhat:

Opinion: Beating BDS
Source: Jerusalem Post, 06/08/2015

(15th par, snip)
Though ostensibly about encouraging Israel to “do the right thing,” in reality the BDS movement is a disingenuous campaign seeking to coerce Israel – by isolating it politically, undermining it economically, and stigmatizing and delegitimizing it – to take steps that endanger the lives of Israelis by compromising Israel’s security.
(end snip)

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Beating-BDS-405419

The article mentions several examples of BDS, and they're all connected to the settlements and the occupation, which the article seems to admit. The idea that BDS somehow is about "the Jews" is unworkable, simply because it's untrue. Perhaps the security angle is more successful, and we will see arguments how fences and a permanent security presence save lives.

The argument will fail of course, as the settlements are not only illegal, they're also immoral.

[Israeli]

3. The article also mentions .....

On one level that means making sure the facts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are known. But it also means going on the offensive. Governments that provide funding for activities and NGOs that actively seek to delegitimize Israel should be publicly criticized. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely did precisely that when she demanded that the Swiss government stop using its country’s taxpayers’ money to fund organizations like Breaking the Silence.

"" Governments that provide funding for activities and NGOs that actively seek to delegitimize Israel should be publicly criticized. ""

Thats Right wing code for ......time to shut down those Left wing traitors who are telling the world the truth about the occupation ......

Thus : ....

New legislation targets Israeli NGOs

Justice Minister Shaked is promoting a bill seeking to tax or eliminate foreign funds to NGOs focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which she says are 'eroding the legitimacy of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state'.
Reuters
Published: 06.10.15,

Legislation being proposed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked threatens to severely limit the work of scores of Israeli NGOs that receive millions of dollars each year in donations from foreign governments and foundations.

While the legislation is in draft form, Bayit Yehudi's Shaked says she is determined to crack down on those who take foreign money and then criticize Israel, accusing the NGOs of "eroding the legitimacy of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state".

An earlier legislative draft she submitted before rising to cabinet rank after a March election proposed a tax of up to 45 percent on foreign donations unless otherwise approved by a committee of defense and foreign ministry officials.

From the point of view of advocacy groups, the proposals are a dangerous step that would put Israel in a category with the likes of Russia, Turkey and neighboring Egypt, which often struggle to accept internal criticism and have banned some NGOs.

"A super-enormous battle is being waged for the future of our society," said Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for B'Tselem and a veteran activist who has spent years gathering evidence of alleged transgressions in the West Bank.

"What we have here are many years of intense efforts to discredit Israel's human rights community, primarily related to our work exposing human rights violations."

'Attack on sovereignty'

Showing the government is determined to penalize those it believes are tarnishing Israel, Culture Minister Miri Regev said on Wednesday she will cut state funds for artists who are deemed to be overtly sympathetic to the Palestinian struggle.

"Whoever delegitimizes the State of Israel will not get budgets from the state," Regev told Army Radio, promising to withdraw funds from an Israeli Arab actor who had refused to perform in a Jewish settlement in the Jordan Valley.

Amongst the projects to be hit are a mixed-race children's theatre that the actor, Norman Issa, runs near Tel Aviv. Issa said he felt he was being "extorted" over his political views.

There are more than 30,000 NGOs registered in Israel, about half of them active. But the focus of frustration for Shaked and her supporters are around 70 whose work focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and which receive funds either from the European Union as a whole, or individual governments, including Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and Norway.

NGO Monitor, an Israeli group set up to track the sector, and in its words make it more accountable, maintains a database of foreign funding to NGOs, using figures the organizations themselves are obliged to provide under Israeli law.

The figures show that just over 100 million shekels ($26 million) was donated to 24 of the most active NGOs during 2012-2014, including Breaking the Silence, which collects anonymous testimony from Israeli soldiers; and Adalah, a legal rights organization focused on the Palestinians.

B'Tselem, one of the main recipients, says it was given 13.3 million shekels from US and European donors in that period, accounting for about two thirds of its entire funding.

If Shaked's bill were to pass, Michaeli reckons B'Tselem could keep operating, albeit with a much reduced budget. Other, smaller NGOs might be forced to shut down.

But it is not so much the potential loss of funding that has NGO advocates alarmed, as the message that such legislation sends, even if it doesn't secure parliamentary backing.

In a country that has traditionally taken dissent on the chin, the move to clamp down reveals a new, thinner skin, one less accepting of opposing opinion, especially from those regarded as having a left-wing agenda.

"There's a sense on the Israeli right that progressive or liberal viewpoints are a danger and that something has to be done about it," said Matt Duss, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace in Washington, DC.

"It creates a hostile environment for those who express legitimate criticism and would put Israel in some very bad company."

It remains unclear how much backing Shaked will get for her bill, but she looks determined to test the waters.

NGO Monitor, which has questioned the accuracy of data gathered by groups like B'Tselem, says it does not support any legislation that would punish the NGO community.

But its head, Gerald Steinberg, accuses B'Tselem and others of waging "a very dangerous form of warfare" against Israel and says legislation is needed to combat "the destructive European policy of funding political NGOs".

Others see a different objective.

"Members of the government are out to settle scores," said Duss, mentioning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's election-day criticism of unspecified left-wing groups that he accused of helping to take Israeli-Arab voters to the polls.

"It's part of a broader effort to limit the political space, to constrict the freedom of opposing views," said Duss.

Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4667051,00.html

[Little Tich]

4. I think that a strategy of sorts can be discerned.

For example, I didn't react the first time it was pointed out that an NGO had foreign funding,but when it came up again and again, i realized that it was important to some. That horrible Arutz Sheva interview you posted in another thread is a good example.

But I think the main thrust is towards creating an enemy by drawing a red line for which opinions are right and which are wrong, and going after the wrong ones with great vigor.

Basically, I find myself completely agreeing with your post.

[Israeli]

5. Its more policy than strategy....

" But I think the main thrust is towards creating an enemy by drawing a red line for which opinions are right and which are wrong, and going after the wrong ones with great vigor. "

They are going after the Left with great vigor Little Tich.....and not just the Jewish Left .

With regard to my post #3 ....the part I bolded thus :

Amongst the projects to be hit are a mixed-race children's theatre that the actor, Norman Issa, runs near Tel Aviv. Issa said he felt he was being "extorted" over his political views.

Now read this : ....



The Jewish state has no more room for 'good Arabs'

There were once so-called good Arabs, and they are no more. Israel finished off the genre. Norman Issa, a man of the theater who dared boycott settlers, is finding out.

By Gideon Levy

Norman Issa did almost everything possible to be a good Arab. He was born a Christian (not a Muslim, like all the terrorists; Israelis love Christian Arabs); studied at the Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts; married Gidona, a Jew; cooked a dumpling and added pomegranates for the refreshment on “Master Chef VIP;” acted on stage in Hebrew; played Amjad, a good Arab, of course, on the TV series “Arab Labor,” which was written by another good Arab, Sayed Kashua, whom Israelis so love to love.

If only we had a few more such Normans and Sayeds, then we certainly would already have had peace. That is how we like them, the Arabs, when they make us laugh in Hebrew. Hummus, chips, salad and comedy series on Channel 2.

There were once good Arabs, and they are no more. Israel finished off the genre. If there is an Israeli patriot, then Issa is the man. If there was an Arab who could serve as a model for living in coexistence, then he is the character. Trying to preserve his honor and identity, balancing on a thin line. In interviews he told me how he loves the land and also its residents; what more could we ask for?

“There is nothing worth going to war over as far as I’m concerned,” said this charming man in an interview with Haaretz Magazine two years ago. He may vote for Hadash, but he has never been Mohammad Bakri. Not Lucy Aharish either, of course. He once said he feels “not here and not there.” When soldiers hugged him at the checkpoints and wanted to take their pictures with him, he felt uncomfortable.

The seventh contestant eliminated from “Master Chef” did not hesitate to say this. Issa was born with the occupation, in June 1967, and tried to close one eye facing it. His father was expelled from the Galilee village Biram and not allowed to return despite all the promises – and Issa tried to forgive the country for that too.

Now it is over. Norman’s path has been blocked. The end of the good Arabs who are not total collaborators. Issa dared to follow his conscience and asked the theater where he performs to be excused from appearing before settlers in the Jordan Valley in a play with the symbolic name “Boomerang.” And his request came flying right back at him, that’s for sure: Nationalistic Israel knocked him down. In the dying spasms of the good Arab, he pleaded on Tuesday: “You cannot expect that I, as an Israeli Arab, will go against my conscience and appear in places that are subject to dispute.”

“Places that are subject to dispute,” Issa called the clearest province of apartheid and ethnic cleansing in the territories – the Jordan Valley, with its exploitative and abusive settlers dressed up as members of innocent kibbutzim and moshavim. In the Jordan Valley they expel shepherds and destroy their villages, deny them electricity and water, and imprison them behind hills of dirt. There in the Jordan Valley stand facing each another the green settlements and the arid villages. There the apartheid is pure, visible to everyone. That is where Issa did not want to perform. These people, who live in this reality and are to a great extent responsible for its creation, he is not able to entertain.

Issa is worthy of praise for that. It is not his right, it is his obligation. In a country that was confident of the justice of its cause, the prime minister would have invited him and lauded him for his civic and moral awareness.

Now the Cossacks of culture are threatening the apple of Issa’s eye: The Elmina Theater in Jaffa. A multicultural theater for children and young people, which he runs with his wife. The minister is already “examining” the allocation; such is life in the mafia. The rest is clear: Issa is finished. The man who said there is no war worth fighting will be forced to wage a losing battle.

No more “Master Chef,” no more Channel 2 series, no more performances in the Arab theater. The regime and its collaborators have already shown him what it means to boycott settlers.

This is the end of the story that’s known in advance: We are a Jewish state, there is no room here, not for Issa and not for Kashua. They should have known it from the start.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.660585