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Contents:
Why does the Israeli consulate
in San Francisco promote Yossi Beilin? Dr. Yossi Beilin currently holds no public office in Israel. He holds no seat in the Israeli Knesset. Indeed, Beilin handily lost his bid for re-election in the Labor Party primaries last year, and wasn't placed high enough in a small left wing party to be re-elected to the Knesset. Beilin's previous record of government service over the past twenty years had been impressive. He had served as Israel's cabinet secretary, director general of the foreign ministry, deputy foreign minister, the minister of economic planning, and minister of Justice. Yet Yossi Beilin today conducts negotiations with the PLO, on his own, with a few back benchers of the Israeli Knesset participating. On Thursday, an Israeli Physician filed a criminal complaint against Beilin at the Jerusalem Police Headquarters. Beilin, as a private Israeli citizen, acts in violation of Israel Penal Code Section 97 B, which clearly states that an Israeli citizen who negotiates with a foreign power to hand over sovereignty of any portion of the land of Israel to a foreign entity is liable for indictment and prosecution on the grounds of treason. By law, all criminal complaints filed by one citizen against another in Israel must be followed by a police investigation. What will be the nature of the police investigation against Beilin? Time will tell. Elyakim Rubenstein, Israel's Attorney General, has indicated that he is reluctant to prosecute those who are now engaging in these independent negotiations with the PLO. Beilin has gone a step further, however, to establish his credentials with the mainstream of public opinion. Although current Israeli government condemns Beilin, the government acts as if he has sanction to do what he is doing. The President of Israel received Beilin and his delegation in his office on Thursday morning. Although the Israeli President also indicated his disagreement with Beilin's independent negotiations with the PLO, he invited Beilin to make a presentation at the office of the President of Israel , following the Israeli Prime Minister's refusal to host any such presentation. The Israeli president therefore gave witting or unwitting sanction for Beilin before his forthcoming trip to the US. Indeed, what our news agency has uncovered is that Beilin's trip to the US has been planned in coordinated with the US representatives of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Indeed, Beilin's own spokesman, Uri Zakkai, indicated that Beilin's itinerary in Northern California was being arranged through the Israeli consulate in San Francisco. Lee Kaplan, head of an Israel advocacy group known as Dafka in Northern California, contacted the Israeli consulate in San Francisco, after he learned that Beilin was going to be speaking for the Saudi-funded Center for Middle East Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. What the spokeswoman at the Israeli consulate told Kaplan was that the Israeli consulate was helping with all of the arrangements for Beilin's itinerary in Northern California, and that the Israeli consulate had arranged for Beilin to give a major address to the Jewish community on November 2nd, for the JCRC in San Francisco, at Stanford on the same day and at the Center for Middle East Studies at UC - Berkeley on November 3rd. The spokeswoman at Israeli Consulate in San Francisco followed up her conversation with Kaplan with by sending him the memo which the Israeli consulate is now distributing towards Beilin's visit, which describes Beilin as "a leading proponent of the peace process with Israel's neighbors and especially the Palestinians, identifying Israel's national interest as being best served by achieving a fair, just, and comprehensive peace in the region". Moreover, the c.v that the Israeli consulate in San Francisco is circulating about Beilin is the old c.v. for an "M.K. Yossi Beilin" from when he was in the Israeli government, more than 30 months ago. Anyone who receives the Israeli consulate's Beilin memo would assume that Beilin's peace initiative was indeed endorsed by the Israeli government and that Beilin was still a part of the Israeli government. The spokesman of the Israeli Foreign Minister told me, however, that the Israeli consul in San Francisco had assured the Israeli Foreign Minster that the Israeli consulate had nothing to do with making arrangements for Beilin's trip and that the Israeli consulate had extended an invitation to Dr. Yuval Steinitz, the Likud MK who chairs of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, to "balance" Beilin after his address to the Jewish community in San Francisco. Steinitz says that he never got any invitation from the Israeli consulate in San Francisco to "balance Beilin". Meanwhile, the Israeli consulate in San Francisco continues to circulate the invitation for Beilin to speak on behalf of the government of Israel on November 8th, 2003. The question remains: Will the Israeli government remove its sanction from Beilin's speech? This will be the test of whether the Israeli government really wants to distance itself from Beilin's independent initiative with the PLO.
An Israeli Call for Arab
Rebellion
Jews! Stand up and be counted! I write as an individual citizen of the State of Israel; Chair of AL-BEIT: Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Israel [www.ittijah.org/member/albeit.html]; and expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Durham and the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. Witnessing on TV news bulletins the Israeli armour roll into Ramallah and other cities in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip; and shocked by the intensifying war crimes and state terrorism perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army against the Palestinian people allegedly in response to Palestinian individual and/or militia acts of terrorism; and dismayed by the invasion of the Israeli tanks into the Headquarters of President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah - I am motivated to write and urge fellow members of my tribe, men and women, people of Jewish background committed to the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to intensify their action to stop the atrocities caused by the Israeli occupation and perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army. As an individual human person I have the humanitarian duty, like all other human persons worldwide, to raise my voice and mobilize to the best of my ability against injustice and against the perpetration of war crimes wherever they may be committed. As a citizen of the State of Israel, let alone a citizen of the State of Israel classified as a Jew, I have an additional responsibility to shout in protest louder and mobilize more urgently against injustice and war crimes perpetrated by my Government, since, as a citizen of the State of Israel, and as a Jew, these atrocities are, alas, committed in my name. I therefore raise my voice as loud as I am able to and shout: not in my name!
Not in my name as an individual person. As an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I am acutely aware that the Palestinian people, expelled and ethnically cleansed from their homeland under the cover of the 1948 war, resisting for nearly forty years the Israeli occupation of 1967, and struggling for their survival in the ugly shadow of the Sharon Government, are now threatened with the horrific dangers of additional massacres and renewed ethnic cleansing. The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is fully committed to the maintenance and expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement project in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Unless the Government of the State of Israel is firmly made to understand that its failure to end the Israeli occupation and illegal Israeli settlement projects, it will meet with US, European and international sanctions - it will, I am afraid, not be deterred. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and a good many of his Ministers, seem to believe that, if necessary, they would be justified to advance their illegal designs for the occupied West Bank (including Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip also, through the perpetration of war crimes on a massive scale, attempting to repeat the mass ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Israeli army under the cover of the 1948 war, and expel the Palestinian people resident in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - this time under the cover of "war against terrorism". I appeal to my fellow Jews in this critical circumstance, those of us committed to the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, please urgently intensify your action in defence of the Palestinian people victimized by the Israeli occupation and threatened with renewed mass massacres and ethnic cleansing. Do not allow the fact that Israel will not mass annihilate Palestinians in gas chambers and burn their bodies in crematoria blind you to the cruel inhumanity of the Israeli occupation and the real danger hanging over the Palestinian people of massacres and mass expulsion from their home villages and towns. At this time Israeli troops are sealing off Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. I get e-mail reports to the effect that people are not allowed to go out nor allowed in. Those travelling, desperately searching for alternative ways and traveling in groups, have Israeli troops firing upon them. Women with infants and toddlers in their arms, who were trying desperately to flee from Ramallah, together with their young children, are reduced to running along in the rain through the fields, slipping and falling on the rocks, trying to reach safety, while Israeli jeeps speeding across the terrain pulling up from every direction shoot at them, chasing down people, hunting them in the fields. With Ramallah and other Palestinian localities under total and extended curfew, Israeli troops are reported to systematically break into homes, tear families asunder, take away every man 15-60 years of age and herd them into detention camps and/or dump them in the Gaza Strip. Many families are not able to trace their relatives and fear for their lives. People of Jewish background, committed to the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in concert with all persons similarly committed to universal values must act, mobilize and lobby without delay and apply whatever leverage they have vis-à-vis the State of Israel demanding SANCTIONS against the State of Israel NOW with the view to effect an end of Israeli violations of UN Security Council resolutions, notably the recent UN Security Council Resolution 1402, and not wait until we hear that hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians have been annihilated in mass massacres similar to Sabra and Shatila twenty years ago and Deir Yasin, Duwayma and Tantura fifty odd years ago. I regret to say that unless the Government of Israel is faced with withdrawal of Jewish contributions, suspension of US aid to Israel, suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and UN sanctions - the Government of the State of Israel, a rogue state, is likely not to heed the voice of humanity as reflected in the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nothing short of sanctions will do. Jews! Stand up and be counted! Shout so that the entire world hears: Not in our name! Dr Uri Davis is an anthropologist, ordinarily resident in Sakhnin, an Arab city in Central Galilee, and Chair of AL-BEIT: Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Israel; a critical researcher of Israel and author of a number of titles on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most recently Israel: An Apartheid State, Zed Books, London, 1987 & 1990 and Media Review Network (Abridged Edition), Pretoria, 2001; Observer-Member of the Palestine National Council. Dr. Uri Davis is also a founding member of Mosaic Communities - Multi-National Housing Co-ops in Israel groups.yahoo.com/group/MosaicCoops. He is also listed as a "Righteous Jew" in www.righteousjews.org/initial-list.html.
Uri Davis (Dr.)
Cell: +972 54 523 838
Sixteen Reservations Concerning
the Geneva "Understandings" The following is based on the text of Yossi Beilin's Geneva Accord as obtained by Haaretz.[With thanks to Gershon Baskin] A key feature of Beilin's "Geneva Accord" is its anarchic rush to drop supervision (supervision to prevent the smuggling of weapons can last as little as 5 years), or even a semblance of a remnant of Israeli security (a 5.5 years limit for even a small Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley) combined with a cavalier attitude towards the removal of the current terror infrastructure (no time set for disbanding the terror groups and not even a reference the collection and removal of illegal weapons). To make matters worse, the "Accord" allows for the Palestinians to arm themselves with whatever they and a third party decide to allow - regardless of Israel's position. These and other problems with the "Geneva Accord" cited below are of such great significance that one can only wonder if Beilin and the other withdrawal supporters involved in this project operated on the assumption that no Israeli would have the attention span required to read the text. #1 While there will be a schedule for Israeli withdrawals, with the first withdrawal "immediately upon entry into force of this Agreement (Article 5, Paragraph 7(b] no time element is associated with the disbanding of "irregular forces or armed bands" (Article 5, Paragraph 1(b)iv). #2 While the "Accord" does talk about disbanding of "irregular forces or armed bands" (Article 5, Paragraph 1(b)iv), there is no provision for clearing out weapons present in the area of the Palestinian state that are not allowed by the "Accord". #3 While the "Accord" would detail the weapons the "non-militarized" Palestinian state's Palestinian Security Force could posses is the yet to be written Appendix X, this list can be changed at any time without Israel's consent. ["Any proposed changes to Annex X shall be considered by a trilateral committee composed of the two Parties and the MF (AL: Multinational Force) If no agreement is reached in the trilateral committee, the IVG (AL: Implementation and Verification Group composed of the US, Russian Federation, EU, UN and others) may make its own recommendations." (Article 5 Paragraph 3(b] #4 Israel is limited to a "small military presence in the Jordan Valley under the authority of the Multinational Force and that presence is only guaranteed for 5.5 years (Article 5, Paragraph 7(f]. #5 The two Early Warning Stations provided for Israel under the "Accord" are guaranteed for only a period of ten years. (Article 5, Paragraph 8(f]. #6 Monitoring of international entry points into the Palestinian state can be terminated by the Implementation and Verification Group composed of the US, Russian Federation, EU, UN and others after 5 years. #7 During the monitoring period, there is an "unseen" Israeli presence that also monitors what transpires via "appropriate technology". If the Israelis demand an inspection and are not satisfied with the inspection a Multinational Force inspector makes a final and binding decision. #8 The West Bank is carved out of Israel's air defense envelope. The IAF is barred from patrolling the airspace. "The Parties recognize and respect each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence, as well as the inviolability of each others territory, including territorial waters, and airspace."(Article 4, Paragraph 1(a). The IAF is limited to "use the Palestinian sovereign airspace for training purposes in accordance with Annex X [AL not yet written], which shall be based on rules pertaining to IAF use of Israeli airspace (Article 5, Paragraph 9(b)i.) #9 While "The Parties recognize the right of states that have hosted Palestinian refugees to remuneration"(Article 7 Paragraph 3(b], there is no reference to the possibility of offsetting the value of Palestinian property "at the time of displacement" against the value of lost Jewish property in Arab countries. And since "No further claims related to events prior to this Agreement may be raised by either Party." (Article 1, Paragraph 2), it appears that the "Accord" would forfeit that right. #10 Israel is to pay a "lump sum" covering the aggregate value of "Palestinians' property at the time of displacement". This property was not identified as "Palestinian refugee" property but as "Palestinians' property", opening the possibility that land that Israeli Arabs may also claim would be included in the calculation. A third party will determine the size of the "lump sum". (Article 7 Paragraph 9). #11 There is a permanently open corridor linking the West Bank and Gaza Strip that while under Israeli sovereignty is under "Palestinian administration in accordance with [AL unwritten] Annex X of this Agreement". Israel cannot unilaterally shut down the corridor if the Palestinians abuse it. Disputes over the operation of the corridor are subject to third party arbitration (Article 4, Paragraph 6). #12 Israel effectively forfeits its sovereign right to carry out defensive operations within the territory of the Palestinian state if the "Accord" falls apart since the Palestinians enjoy the protection of the Multinational Force (Article 5, Paragraph 6(d)ii). #13 The Waqf may bar Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount on the grounds that it disrupts religious worship or decorum on the site (Article 6 Paragraph 5(b)iii.) #14 While the Oslo Interim Agreement refers to respecting "the ways of worship" and "religious rights of Jews . . . " at religious sites (Annex III, Appendix 1, Article 32) the "Accord" only refers to "access". (Article 10). It should be noted that it is the position of the PA appointed Mufti of Jerusalem as well as the other Palestinian religious officials that while Jews may have "access" to such holy sites as the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem that it is blasphemy for Jews and other infidels to pray at these sites as they are also considered mosques. #15 All disputes between Israel and the Palestinian state are ultimately subject to imposed third party arbitration (Article 17 Paragraph 4). #16 Israel is not guaranteed the use of various roads passing inside the Palestinian state such as the roads from Jerusalem to Tiberias via the Jordan Valley and from Jerusalem to Ein Gedi. Instead "Israelis may be granted permits for use of designated roads." (Article 9 Paragraph 4). Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA Independent Media Review & Analysis.
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