ICAHD UK April 2020 Newsletter

Photo: Lance Larson

The ongoing lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic means that our rebuilding plans for 2020 in the South Hebron Hills remain on hold, nevertheless, our work has continued and is taking new forms. We initiated our new Actions You Can Take Bulletins which go out mid-month. In the Dates for Your Diary there is news about the launch of our webinar series and included will be ICAHD UK’s patron Clare Short, former Labour MP, in conversation with Jeff Halper and Awad Abdelfattah. See our interview with Diana Buttu in the second of our series about Palestinian voices who call for one-state. ICAHD’s Jeff Halper comments on the unity government’s plan for annexation and find our statement that provides guidance for writing to your MP. View the film of one family’s experience of when Israeli bulldozers arrived to demolish their home which follows our monthly Demolitions and Displacements report. For this and more, please read on and feel free to forward this newsletter to others in your network.

ICAHD's Jeff Halper responds to the agreement between Netanyahu and Ganz and the annexation plans

With the signing of an agreement with Benny Gantz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally got a government that gives him the two things he most coveted: immunity from prosecution in his three corruption cases, and a mandate to annex large swathes of the West Bank, Israel's "settlement blocs", finally expanding Israel's borders from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, foreclosing forever any Palestinian state, and imposing an apartheid regime of Jews over Palestinians -- with the approval of the US and the complicity of the international community, from China and India to the Arab states.

The maps above contrast the two-state solution, in which a Palestinian state would arise on only 22% of historic Palestine, to the Netanyahu/Trump plan, the Deal of the Century where they would be "given" a non-viable, non-sovereign, truncated Bantustan on around 15% of their country.

And let's be clear: Palestinians living in the annexed territory will not be given Israeli citizenship. At best they will have the status of "permanent residents," like the Palestinians of annexed East Jerusalem. That makes their situation even worse. Today Palestinians can move between the OPT and Jordan and the wider world (subject, of course, to arbitrary security" measures like forbidding them to travel or, conversely, deporting them). As permanent residents, Israel can simply revoke their residency if they travel, go abroad to study, etc., by claiming they have "moved the centre of their lives from where they had lived," and therefore lose their residency and their right to return. That has happened to some 14,000 East Jerusalemites in recent years.Read more... Please Take Action

New Israeli coalition Government Proposals to annex West Bank settlement blocs

On 20^th April 2020, a new coalition government was formed in Israel, between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the leader of the opposition.

This is disturbing for many reasons, but the most important from ICAHD’s point of view is that both Netanyahu and Gantz support the annexation of the main illegal settlement blocks in the West Bank. It is likely they will introduce an annexation law in July, with Trump’s approval and support.

Annexation would be a flagrant breach of international law, in particular the fourth Geneva Convention which governs the behaviour of an occupying power such as Israel. Annexation would perpetuate and entrench the violation of Palestinian rights.

The UK government expresses disapproval of the proposed annexation because “it would be damaging to efforts to restart peace negotiations and would be contrary to international law”.

Based on previous experience, this statement is probably the limit of the UK government’s actions: there will be no stronger denunciation of Israel for flouting international law, and no proposals for action which might influence Israel’s behaviour, like sanctions such as banning illegal settlement goods being sold in the UK.

You may have written to your MP many times about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and multiple breaches of international law. But we urge you to write again about the call for justice for Palestinians (a sample letter is available here ). Annexation will make it absolutely clear that Israel has created and rules a single apartheid state between the river and the sea. Israel’s goal has always been to annex as much land as possible with as few Palestinian residents as possible, which is a settler-colonial policy. Once these areas are annexed, Israel could claim that members of these communities are illegal aliens in its territory and expel them without difficulty. Therefore, this means that Palestinian individuals and communities are at risk of yet more demolitions and displacement and many other devastating discriminatory policies. Ask your MP to explain to you, if they don’t already support Palestinian rights, how he/she can justify Israel’s creation of an apartheid state and not heed the Palestinian call to live in a democratic society where all will be able to live in freedom and to enjoy equal rights. March Demolition and Displacement Report Photo credit: Iyad Hadad/B'tselem

During March, Israeli authorities demolished at least 44 Palestinian structures in the Occupied Palestine Territory, and within the state of Israel additional demolitions occurred, including the 175^th demolition of Al-Araqib. At least 31 people were displaced with another 265 people’s livelihoods affected because of the demolitions. The Negev Coexistence Forum reported that from mid-March, Israeli authorities have destroyed more than 1,000 dunam of crops (250 acres), cultivated by farmers from unrecognised Bedouin villages in the Naqab (Negev) desert in southern Israel. The systematic destruction of crops has left people living in these poor communities in a dire situation, enhanced only by the Covid-19 pandemic that has left many of the villagers unemployed and now, with no crops to depend on for their livelihoods. Read the full report here To see what it is like when the Israeli authorities arrive and to understand the fear and anxiety felt by Palestinians, watch this six-minute film clip about one family’s story . ICAHD UK's Interview with Diana Buttu, one of the founding members of the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC)

Diana, you were born in Canada. What identity did you grow up with?

As the daughter of immigrant parents, I knew - and was made acutely aware - that I was not white; that I was from a different place, but that I was born in Canada. In Canada, there is a lot of veiled racism with people often asking questions to such as “where is ‘back home’?” or “where are you REALLY from?” It becomes both difficult and easy to adopt a “Canadian” identity: easy because it becomes the way of trying to fit in but difficult because you never do. As I say this, however, I think it is important to highlight that, during my education in Canada, Indigenous peoples were rarely, if ever, discussed. Canada was created on top of Indigenous land. Indigenous peoples’ place in the national narrative of the “birth” of Canada has been minimized and viewed as peripheral to the dominant culture’s stories and identity.

What values were instilled in you during your formative years and who were your role models?

My role models then are the same as they are today: my parents. My parents made certain that I understood the evils of oppression; that I stand up against racism and that I support organized labour, supporting communities and helping whenever possible.

My parents - both blue collar workers - left apartheid Israel for Canada in the late 1960s. My father was 9 when he became a victim of the Nakba and my mother was a year old. When I think back to their childhoods - filled with fear, war, discrimination, institutionalized racism and poverty - I am in awe of their compassion, generosity and resilience.

Notice: Greenbelt Festival, 28 – 31 August 2020, has been cancelled

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