25.08.22
Editorial Note
Mahmoud Abbas’s visit to Germany and his accusation of 50 Holocausts that Israel causes the Palestinians are in line with the long-standing efforts of pro-Palestinians in Germany against Israel that have been taking place for years.
For example, the German emeritus Professor Norman Paech is the founder of the Alliance for Justice between Israelis and Palestinians (BIP – Bündnis für Gerechtigkeit zwischen Israelis und Palästinensern). According to journalist Jan-Philipp Hein, Paech frequently puts Israel near state terrorism and racism, while regarding anti-Israeli terrorism as mere resistance.(“Linkspartei: Ein Problem namens Israel.” Stern, 28 May 2016). Paech, however, denied the article’s claims of him belittling Palestinian violence. (“Warum meine Kritik an der israelischen Politik nicht zur Denunziation taugt”) [Why my criticism of Israeli politics does not indicate denunciation] (in German). Worth noting that Paech was on board the infamous Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010 that Israel prevented its arrival.
In May, BIP held a three-day conference titled “Israelis and Palestinians – living under discrimination and lawlessness?” The conference was a pro-Palestinian assault against Israel. In his opening remarks, Prof. Paech (BIP): “Justice between Israelis and Palestinians” Paech remembered how in 1975, he was against dropping the UN accusation of “Zionism is Racism.” He also suggested that during the conference, “At the end of every discussion, every speech has to ask itself what we can do to close the wound that has been open to the occupation for more than 50 years and to create justice. No one is obligated to join or support the Palestinian BDS movement. Even those who decide to do so must ask themselves whether that is enough and what alternatives there are. This is not a question of resignation. There are many ways of showing solidarity with the resistance and this conference should be a sign of that. The lectures over these three days will prove that.”
Other speakers at the conference included Omar Shakir (Human Rights Watch): “The threshold to apartheid has been crossed.” Michael Sfard: “Human rights against occupation and annexation.” Orly Noy (B’tselem): “Jewish supremacy from the Jordan to the Mediterranean?” Dr. Shir Hever:” Apartheid? Ambivalence in Israeli Politics.” Rania Muhareb and Wesam Ahmad (Irish Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq): “Self-determination, freedom, justice and equality.” Among others.
Several Israeli academics are involved with BIP. Dr. Shir Hever, according to his website, “studies the economic aspects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory. He is a correspondent for the Real News Network. He published two books and gives talks on various topics related to his research.”
Hever holds a Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin. His most recent book, based on his Ph.D. dissertation, is titled The Privatization of Israeli Security (Pluto Press, 2017). “Affiliations: Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost (board member) – a Jewish German organization promoting just peace in Israel/Palestine. The organization is a member of the EJJP: European Jews for Just Peace. Alternative Information Center, a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization active in Jerusalem and Beit Sahour.”
The Real News Network published an interview with Hever on Apr 2, 2014, who promoted BDS and discussed the “BDS movement including large scale divestment by big corporations and approaching the level of government sanctions.”
Dr. Tamar Amar-Dahl, whom IAM mentioned before in connection to Moshe Zuckermann, was born in Nahariya, Israel, in 1968. She is an Israeli-German historian. Amar-Dahl studied history, philosophy, and general studies in humanities at Tel Aviv University. In a Hebrew article published by Haaretz in 2011, titled “Zionism or Peace,” Amar-Dahl wrote that “Jewish national existence in Israel was largely achieved by the sword. The Israeli leadership for generations has held to the principle that the Zionist project was built on the basis of the Jewish people’s historical possession of the Land of Israel. Israel was established with a tremendous military effort, and since then it has conducted a war policy whose main goal is to preserve its territorial gains. The occupation of the land and Jewish colonization while suppressing the Palestinian residents of Zion are one of the main policies of Zionist Israel since its foundation. The Zionist left actually led this policy.” She continues, “The possibility of a Palestinian state scares the Israeli leadership, and not just the Zionist right. So the fear and helplessness of the order imposed by the international community sharpen the historical impasse into which Zionism has fallen as a solution to the “Jewish problem”: On the one hand, Jewish nationalism is still perceived as the only option for a secure Jewish existence. On the other hand, there is a growing recognition that a Jewish national existence in the Land of Israel does not provide security, and certainly does not go hand in hand with peace. Dr. Tamar Amar-Dahl teaches history at the University of Berlin.”
BIP has been pushing for divestment from the settlements. Last month, BIP announced that “More than 100 civil society organizations are launching a campaign to collect 1 million signatures from EU citizens to stop the European trade in illegal settlements in occupied territories to end. The European Citizens’ Initiative is an official tool to amplify the voices of EU citizens and improve their democratic participation. If the initiative collects one million signatures from citizens in all EU member states within a year of its launch, the European Commission will be legally obliged to examine the proposal, discuss it with the signatories and take legislative action. The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is subject to EU regulations.”
The people of Germany need to know that Palestinians have recruited many Germans, Jews, and non-Jews, to help them in their war against Israel. The aim is to whitewash Palestinian terrorism against Israelis and deflect accusations of antisemitism.
References
GDP Conference
Israelis and Palestinians – living under discrimination and lawlessness?
27.5.-29.5. 2022, Nuremberg
Meistersinger Hall, Munich Street 21
Room 5/6
with public Transport bus 36 and 55; tram 8
Friday
Moderator: Gisela Siebourg
17.00 Prof. Norman Paech (BIP): Justice between Israelis and Palestinians
17.30 Omar Shakir (Human Rights Watch): The threshold to apartheid has been crossed
18.30 Dinner
19.30 Michael Sfard: Human rights against occupation and annexation
20.15 Discussion
Saturday
Moderator: Dr. Daniel Alexander Schacht
9.30 Orly Noy (B’tselem): Jewish supremacy from the Jordan to the Mediterranean?
10.15 Dr. Shir Hever: Apartheid? Ambivalence in Israeli Politics
11.00 Discussion
11.30 am Coffee break
12.00 Rania Muhareb and Wesam Ahmad (Irish Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq): Self-determination, freedom, justice and equality
12.45 Discussion
13.15 lunch break
2.15 pm Prof. Helga Baumgarten: Resistance in the Apartheid System: Options and Scenarios. A personal view from Jerusalem
15.00 Discussion
Moderator: Dr. Martin Breidert
15.30 coffee break
16.00 Dr. Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff (EU delegation for Palestine): What can the international community do?
16.45 Dr. Muriel Asseburg (Foundation for Science and Politics): What can German politics do?
17.30 Discussion.
Moderator:
18.30 Dinner
20.00 Play : I will not hate (Mohammad-Ali Behboudi)
Sunday
9.30 a.m. Closing panel: Moderation Dr. Daniel Alexander Schacht
Perspectives for a future Middle East policy
Christine Buchholz (former MP)
dr Bettina Marx
Jean Asselborn (Luxembourg Foreign Minister)
Margrete Auken (MEP)
Nirit Sommerfeld
11.00 coffee break
11.30 Discussion
12. 30 Closing words: Dr. Martin Breidert
*
Translation into German for all English lectures
The conference pass costs €125 in its entirety, reduced €80 for pupils, students, Hartz IV recipients and pensioners with basic security
Please note the Corona protection regulations valid in May
Please register by April 30, 2022 by email or in writing to:
dr Goetz Schindler
Breite Wiese 23, 85617 Assling
Account number: BIP Alliance for Justice DE43 2545 1345 0051 0579 58
Venue: Meistersinger Hall,
Room 5/6
Munich Street 21
Nuremberg
who we are
The Alliance for Justice between Israelis and Palestinians eV was founded in 2016 to influence German politics and the media
– for the unlimited validity of human rights in Israel and Palestine
– for the implementation of international law also in this conflict
– for a peaceful coexistence of the Israeli and Palestinian
Nationality based on justice.
Unfortunately, Israel’s policy has met with a response from right-wing nationalists worldwide in recent years, and unfortunately a wind of change is blowing in parts of the German public
Repression of opposition to Israel’s nationalist course. Therefore, our mission has also become a fight for freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and democracy in Germany. One means to that end is this conference.
BIP eV organizes lectures, seminars, trips to Palestine and Israel and other educational events.
We are looking forward to your participation!
All further information about the conference:
http://www.bip-jetzt.de/bip-konferenz.html
- bip admin
- March 29, 2022
- 11:29 am
=====================================================
BIP-Aktuell #220: Contributions to the BIP conference in Nuremberg
Israelis and Palestinians – living under discrimination and lawlessness?
This week we publish the contributions of the speakers at the BIP conference in Nuremberg, which took place on May 27th and 27th. The text below is the presentation by BIP member and co-founder Prof. Dr. Norman Paech entitled: Justice between Israelis and Palestinians.
************************************************** *******************
More than 100 civil society organizations are launching a campaign to collect 1 million signatures from EU citizens to stop the European trade in illegal settlements in occupied territories to end.
The European Citizens’ Initiative is an official tool to amplify the voices of EU citizens and improve their democratic participation. If the initiative collects one million signatures from citizens in all EU member states within a year of its launch, the European Commission will be legally obliged to examine the proposal, discuss it with the signatories and take legislative action.
The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is subject to EU regulations: https://www.cidse.org/de/2022/04/07/take-action-to-end-european-trade-with-illegal-settlements/
Here you can participate .
************************************************** *******************
Dear friends, dear guests,
I would like to extend a warm welcome to you on behalf of the “Alliance for Justice between Israelis and Palestinians”. When we were planning this conference, it went without saying that Rolf Verleger should welcome you and give this presentation. Now he is no longer with us, he died on November 8th last year. So incredibly early and sad for all who knew him. He was the spiritus rector of our association, the authentic voice of a Judaism of reconciliation and of the great humanistic Jewish tradition. He was such a friendly and at the same time ironic conversationalist, it was always a particularly stimulating and pleasant encounter to be with him. We should commemorate him here for a short minute before our lectures and discussions, which are influenced by his contributions…… Thank you.
Protests in London. Source: Alisdare Hickson, 2021, Flickr .
Our association had a different name when it was founded: “Alliance to End the Israeli Occupation” . However, after two years, in 2018, we changed it to “ Covenant for Justice between Israelis and Palestinians“. This is not a retreat from calling for an end to the occupation, it just says something about what we consider to be justice and what I am talking about here. For us, justice does not derive from the order of creation, as in the Greek Stoa and later in Christianity, in which the higher law is the standard of justice for the subordinate law. This means that the justice of human law is derived from natural law and ultimately from divine law – and accordingly embodies a claim to absoluteness and eternity. We – which is particularly true for me as a lawyer – orientate ourselves more towards the materialism of the Epicureans, which, in Marx and Engels, freed justice from all transcendence and predetermination. For him there is no justice per se, but only as a contract between people living together. The basic principle of such a contract, which the Epicurean/Materialist defines as inherently just, is the requirement “not to harm one another and not to be harmed”. In this way, the concept of justice is materialized, relativized and historicized, because it can be changed over time and geographically. This frees us from some of the dogmatic burdens that weigh on the justice debate between Israelis and Palestinians. because it is temporally and geographically changeable. This frees us from some of the dogmatic burdens that weigh on the justice debate between Israelis and Palestinians. because it is temporally and geographically changeable. This frees us from some of the dogmatic burdens that weigh on the justice debate between Israelis and Palestinians.
I was leafing through my early work and came across a topic that has been largely taboo and scandalized since its formulation. In 1975, under the title “Zionism – State Ideology and Racism”, I wrote a commentary on the then notorious Resolution 3379, with which the General Assembly by a majority vote (72:35:32) “proclaimed Zionism (as) a form of racism and racial discrimination “ condemned. I wrote at the time: “The National Socialist-anti-Semitic legacy may still be too fresh to expect the Federal Government to recognize the Zionist ideology in the same way as the majority of UN members. But the federal government simultaneously voted against two other resolutions in which, among other things, the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and state-building and the equal rights of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLO) to participate in all UN Middle East negotiations. A month later, 101 UNO states condemned the collaboration, in particular by Great Britain, the USA, France, the FRG, Japan and Italy, with the Republic of South Africa and called on them to stop working with the “racist regime”. The federal government also voted against this: they will continue to condemn apartheid while at the same time giving it strong support through trade and scientific and technical cooperation. In its Resolution 3151 of December 14, 1974, the UN already stated that there is a close relationship between Zionism, apartheid and colonialism. Resolution 3379 was repealed in December 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the racism of Israeli politics was not. And we have to admit that since then all federal governments have slid further and further down this precipitous path of moral decay towards the wrong side of history in their Middle East policy, as Ilan Pappe recently accused German politicians of doing. Because it’s not about justice, but – according to Ilan Pappe – probably still about absolving oneself of the Holocaust. as Ilan Pappe recently accused of German politics. Because it’s not about justice, but – according to Ilan Pappe – probably still about absolving oneself of the Holocaust. as Ilan Pappe recently accused of German politics. Because it’s not about justice, but – according to Ilan Pappe – probably still about absolving oneself of the Holocaust.
I could now answer my question about justice about the evictions and destruction in Silwan/East Jerusalem or the current eviction of 2400 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta and the ruling of the Israeli High Court to report. I must point out the murder of Shirin Abu Akleh in cold blood while she was observing a military raid on the Jenin refugee camp. This cowardly act has rightly created horror and sadness around the world. Will there ever be a trial by which the shooter and his superiors will be held accountable? The answer is no. Foreign Minister Baerbock is dismayed, but the Foreign Office only issues a press statement condemning a deadly Palestinian attack in Eilat five days earlier as a despicable act. These perpetrators will no doubt be brought to justice. But who names the 79 dead since Naftali Bennett took office in June 2021? In March of this year 12 dead, in April 22, more dead than not since 2008 – and 18 dead,
But that’s not the point now. All illusions associated with the names of Oslo, Camp David and Taba are gone. The dispute over a one-state or two-state solution is purely speculative and academic. And let’s face it, even arguing about whether apartheid and settler-colonialism are just hateful defamations or accurate socio-economic notions of Israeli reality doesn’t change that reality. We shall be presented with a wealth of depressing examples in the course of our lectures and discussions. I am concerned here with the question of why politicians and the media are so unconditionally behind the crimes – because settlement policy, displacement and the regular death toll are crimes – and how can this consensus be broken in order to end the miserable occupation, in order to achieve justice gain?
When our advisory board member Alfred Grosser spoke in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche on November 9, 2010 on the 72nd anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass, he was heavily criticized by the Central Council of Jews beforehand. And Rafael Seligman accused him from Tel Aviv that it was improper on such a day to criticize the Israeli government for its dealings with the Palestinians. Grosser replied: “Yes, you have to do it. I even go so far as to say that young Germans are only allowed to commemorate Auschwitz if they also stand up for the equality of people everywhere in the world, including the Palestinians. That is the compelling consequence of Auschwitz, and a commemoration of it demands that it be said openly.” That is the interpretation of Auschwitz as given by Felicia Langer, Lea Tsemel, Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, Avraham Burg, Moshe Zuckermann and many other Jews are represented – but it is still a minority opinion, especially in Germany. But this argument about the correct interpretation of Auschwitz is obviously at the core not only of the strong accusations of anti-Semitism, but also of the paralysis of German politics in the question of justice and their siding with the Israeli side.
Achille Mbembe, Farid Esack, Kamila Shamsie, Source: Wikipedia , 2015, Wikipedia 2015, Wikipedia 2017
Anyone who remembers the past campaigns against Achille Mbembe from Cameroon because of a planned speech at the Bochum Ruhr Triennial, against Farid Esack from South Africa because of a speech in Hamburg City Hall or Kamila Shamsie from Great Britain because of the Nelly Sachs Prize from the city of Dortmund in reminders and has followed the fight for venues up to the highest courts, has to realize that with the intensification of land grabbing and displacement, i.e. apartheid in Israel and the occupied territories, the defense against any criticism of these conditions has intensified to the same extent . The statement that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic and therefore cannot be a means of resistance has even received parliamentary consecration. While this is strange for a state that is imposing increasingly severe sanctions on Iran, Syria and Russia even go to their own pain threshold, but this becomes understandable when we take into account the overwhelming power of Holocaust remembrance. This decision by the Bundestag is the current high point of “political orthodoxy”, as the historian Wolfgang Reinhard has called it, and a low point in parliamentary judgment.
The uniqueness of the Holocaust and the ongoing responsibility of the Germans for the Nazi crimes have long been understood as the foundation of German raison d’état. With the decision, however, the Bundestag is reaching beyond its sphere of influence by making a resistance movement in Palestine illegal with this taboo, so to speak.
Memory no longer remains in the open field of culture, but becomes a power factor with executive powers. This dictate of remembrance not only superimposes all decisions about the future of the coexistence or coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians, but also places all discussions about the conflict under the commandment of mourning.
This is related, for example, to the refusal to classify the Holocaust as a crime of colonialism. The canonization of Holocaust memory prohibits comparison with other genocides. Like an irremovable mortgage, it weighs on all attempts to overcome the past and redesign the future. With the sharp sword of the accusation of anti-Semitism, it can not only block criticism and censor freedom of expression, but also prevent discussions and declare those who are themselves fighting anti-Semitism, whether Palestinians or non-Zionist Jews, to be anti-Semites themselves. Suffice it to say the far-fetched rumor of an obscure anti-fascist one-man group from the anti-German milieu to set in motion the media scandal machine against the organizers of the Documenta exhibition. The attempt of ruangrupa to clarify the allegations with the suddenly numerous critics in an open forum is blocked. It is clear that this smear campaign has racist traits and uses anti-Semitism to devalue the Global South perspective in the exhibition makers’ concept. The occasion is the invitation of the Palestinian artist collective “ The Question of Funding“. It also shows that there is more at stake than just questioning the exhibition concept. It is about the stigmatization of the Palestinians as anti-Semitic and thus about their exclusion from the cultural circle. The myth of uniqueness demands not only total commitment to the Israeli state, but at the same time the exclusion of the Palestinians with their legitimate claims against colonial oppression. Because anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. And just as the Holocaust does not tolerate any other genocides, the culture of remembrance as the moral foundation of German politics does not tolerate equal treatment of the Palestinians. It is fixated on unconditional support for Israeli policy as a matter of state, which excludes support for the Palestinian side.
This prevents non-material aid deliveries and development projects to alleviate the miserable situation. It makes them more bearable, but without changing them. A justice treaty between Israelis and Palestinians is impossible on this basis and is not on the agenda of German politics. With this claim to singularity, the Holocaust is completely unhistorical. He downplays his place in a history of genocide and cements his exclusivity against any relaxation of violence and apartheid.
We know that the Holocaust remembrance culture, with all its rituals, memorials, obligations and reparations, helped the Federal Republic to achieve its geopolitical legitimacy. To this day, neither the unification of the two German states nor the fall of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp have changed anything in this ideological foundation of Germany. But we also have to recognize that it puts itself like a straitjacket around everything that would be necessary for a justice treaty with the Palestinians: self-determination, independence, non-violence and human dignity. To avoid misunderstanding, I am not denying the uniqueness of the Nazi genocide, the Holocaust, but I oppose its instrumentalization to prevent criticism and to justify the occupation. We cannot accept that its claim to totality extends to demanding impunity for flagrant crimes by the settlers and the Israeli army, which the federal government, despite all its professed values, supports. She joined Israel in opposing the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to investigate possible settlement crimes and possible war crimes in the 2014 war against Gaza and during the 2018 Gaza Memorial March. unimpressed, the federal government made itself available to defend Israel before the court. The preliminary investigations have been going on for a year. It is not known whether an investigator from the International Criminal Court has turned up in Israel or Gaza or whether an indictment is being prepared. This will not happen in the foreseeable future either, because the new chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, began investigating Russia for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity immediately after Russian troops invaded Ukraine. He has now sent 42 experts to Ukraine to secure evidence. The limited resources of the criminal court obviously do not allow further investigations in other theaters of war. Khan had already dropped investigations into alleged atrocities committed by US soldiers in Bagram, Afghanistan, due to a lack of personnel.
But let’s get back to the culture of remembrance, which, like a claim to civilization, does not tolerate any relief. As long as this claim exists, it serves to legitimize a policy that, in lockstep with the respective Israeli governments, supports all crimes – albeit with expressions of regret, sometimes even dismay. The implication is clear. Only when this claim to totality no longer superimposes all of the Palestinians’ claims to justice and suffocates them from the start will there be a balance between the two peoples that deserves the term justice. This will require the separation from an expansive and militant Zionism in the tradition of Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky and the acceptance of a liberal Zionism, say, in the tradition of Uri Avneri. It would require Israeli society to agree to a bootless peace of a colonized people. German politics should also free itself from the shackles of its dogma of remembrance and recognize the Palestinians’ claim to justice free from the burden of the Holocaust. Of course, this does not mean that I dispute the legitimacy of remembering the crimes of the Nazi era. However, remembrance should be separated from a Palestine policy to the extent that it allows for an independent handling of the legitimate interests of Palestinian society. Palestinian demands do not have to go through the Holocaust filter before they can be considered legitimate and fulfilled.
Zeev Jabotinsky, Source: 1930s, Wikipedia .
At the moment, however, both Israeli and German politics are far from it. It is amazing that when it comes to Israel, German politicians belie their own values, which they constantly invoke with the greatest emphasis. Nothing, neither the countless UN resolutions nor the horrendous sacrifices of the Palestinians, have led to a correction of the policy. It is therefore also highly unlikely that the Palestinian BDS movement will lead to a rapid change in policy. However, it is the only remaining means of resistance left for the Palestinians to appeal to the international public for justice. The overwhelming majority of votes which regularly comes together in the UN General Assembly for resolutions condemning the Israeli occupation policy, has so far not been able to move Israeli politics. No country is currently willing to impose sanctions that are otherwise unhesitatingly imposed on Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela or Cuba. Decades later, they led to the fall of the white racist regime in South Africa. Many reasons can be given against sanctions, but no one has the right to discredit the BDS movement, the last resort of peaceful resistance to decades of violence and oppression, as anti-Semitic. This is in ours Venezuela or Cuba will be imposed. Decades later, they led to the fall of the white racist regime in South Africa. Many reasons can be given against sanctions, but no one has the right to discredit the BDS movement, the last resort of peaceful resistance to decades of violence and oppression, as anti-Semitic. This is in ours Venezuela or Cuba will be imposed. Decades later, they led to the fall of the white racist regime in South Africa. Many reasons can be given against sanctions, but no one has the right to discredit the BDS movement, the last resort of peaceful resistance to decades of violence and oppression, as anti-Semitic. This is in ours Alliance for Justice between Israelis and Palestinians e. V. (BIP) undisputed.
At the end of every discussion, every speech has to ask itself what we can do to close the wound that has been open to the occupation for more than 50 years and to create justice. No one is obligated to join or support the Palestinian BDS movement. Even those who decide to do so must ask themselves whether that is enough and what alternatives there are. This is not a question of resignation. There are many ways of showing solidarity with the resistance and this conference should be a sign of that. The lectures over these three days will prove that.
In 1934 Bertolt Brecht wrote his “In Praise of Dialectics” in Berlin. Imagine if he had written it yesterday in Jerusalem:
Injustice today goes hand in hand with a sure step.
The oppressors prepare themselves for ten thousand years.
Violence assures: It stays the way it is.
No voice is heard except that of the rulers.
And on the markets, exploitation says loudly:
Now I’m just beginning.
But many of the oppressed now say:
What we want will never work.
If you’re still alive, don’t say never!
The safe is not safe.
It won’t stay the way it is.
When the rulers have spoken
Will the ruled speak
Who dares say never?
Who is responsible if the oppression remains?
To us.
Who cares if it breaks?
Also to us.
Let those who are crushed rise!
Who is lost, fight!
Whoever has recognized his situation, how can he be stopped?
Because today’s vanquished are tomorrow’s winners
And it will never be: today.
Thank you for listening to me.
Norman Paech, Nuremberg, May 27, 2022
Further presentations from the conference:
The lecture can also be seen and heard on video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FBo7CkOvbk&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=Segror2
************************************************** *******************
A new episode of the BIP Talk is out. This week we speak to BIP member Dieter Kaltenhäuser.
************************************************** *******************
On July 13th, BIP invites you to an event with Dr. Tamar Amar-Dahl on “Israel in the new millennium: occupation, civil militarism, neo-Zionism”. Here ‘s the invitation.
BIP Aktuell reports here regularly on human rights violations in occupied Palestine, which are mostly not mentioned in our media.
Another Palestinian journalist killed by the Israeli military
“JUST 21 DAYS after the killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), another journalist has been killed. The latest victim is 31-year-old Ghufran Harun Warasneh, who was shot dead by IDF soldiers on June 1 while being interrogated at an Israeli checkpoint at the entrance to al-‘Arroub refugee camp near Hebron.
The camp, set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after the Nakba in 1949, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 and is now home to more than 10,000 displaced Palestinians.
Warasneh was murdered while she was with a friend on her way to her new job as a radio host at Dream, a local news agency in Hebron. Middle East Eye reports that their first assignment was a report on Shireen Abu Akleh.
According to Israeli media reports, the shooting happened when Varasneh tried to stab a soldier, after which the soldiers opened fire to repel a “terrorist threat”. However, eyewitnesses dispute this statement, saying that the journalist did nothing wrong. Her brother Mohammad said she was shot “twice in the left side, in the armpit and in the chest” and had to lie in her blood for 20 minutes because a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance was stopped at the checkpoint.
Middle East Eye reported: “After her body was prepared for burial, her family and neighbors carried Warasneh to her final resting place, passing by the spot where she was killed. A group of Israeli soldiers were waiting for them there. The funeral ceremony was attacked when the soldiers tried to prevent it by firing flashbangs and tear gas and beating the pallbearers. Her brother Mohammad was quoted in the same article as saying: “Abu Akleh was a journalist. My sister was a journalist. Abu Akleh was killed at her work. My sister was killed at her job.”
In January of this year, after covering a pro-Palestinian march, Warasneh was detained for three months and her camera equipment was confiscated and destroyed. This is an indication that she was targeted by the Israeli authorities long before she was killed.
Without international pressure to conduct an unbiased, impartial, comprehensive and transparent investigation into her death, it is highly unlikely that the Israeli authorities will find fault with the IDF. Following the usual Israeli pattern, a narrative will be created accusing Warasneh of complicity in her own death.
The targeted killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and now the wanton killing of Ghufran Harun Warasneh amounts to an open season killing of journalists by IDF forces. This latest killing brings the number of (mostly Palestinian) journalists killed by the IDF since 2000 to 45.”
Phil Pasquini, Published June 15, 2022 at https://www.wrmea.org/web-exclusives/ another-palestinian-journalist-killed-by-the-idf.html
Also among others: https://www.womeninjournalism.org/threats-all/israel-ghufran-harun-warasneh-second-palestinian-woman-journalist-killed -in-west-bank-in-a-month
The editorial team of BIP-Aktuell consists of the board and the managing director Dr. Shir Hever. V. i. s.d. Fr Dr Götz Schindler, BIP board member.
BIP-Aktuell #220: Contributions to the BIP conference in Nuremberg
July 9, 2022
BIP talk #30: Dieter Kaltenhäuser
July 6, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #219: Who is responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh?
July 2, 2022
BIP Update #218: Shireen Abu Akleh
May 21, 2022
BIP Talk #29: Sarah el-Bulbeisi
May 18, 2022
BIP News #217: Ethnic cleansing in Masafer Yatta
May 14, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #216: Israel tightens rules for foreign visitors to the West Bank
May 7, 2022
BIP Talk #28: Michael Kellner
May 6, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #215: Raids on the Haram al-Sharif during Ramadan
April 30, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #214: Seven new settlements for Jews only
April 23, 2022
BIP Talk #27: Dr. Michael Lüders
April 20, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #213: Revenge
April 9, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #212: Germany buys weapons from the occupying power Israel
April 2, 2022
BIP Talk #26: Ahmed Tubail
March 31, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #211: National service in illegal outposts
March 26, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #210: The state of all its citizens?
March 19, 2022
BIP talk #25: Claus Walischewski
March 16, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #209: Is Israel living up to its responsibility for Ukraine?
March 12, 2022
BIP-Aktuell #208: 28 years after the massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron
March 5, 2022
BIP talk #24: Eberhard Hirschler
March 2, 2022