Le Contrôleur de l’Etat israélien publie un nouveau rapport sur les échecs du gouvernement en matière de sécurité sociale, gaspillage alimentaire, exemption de service militaire pour les orthodoxes, éducation, environnement, protection des mineurs, construction..
State comptroller releases report on gov’t failures - Israel News, Ynetnews
▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4654142,00.html
Small pro-ISIS faction trying to challenge Hamas rule in Gaza -
“Ils n’ont pas voulu négocier avec l’OLP, ils ont eu le Hamas; ils ne veulent pas négocier avec le Hamas, ils auront l’Etat islamique” (un ami journaliste israélien)
Palestinian, Israeli officials say group isn’t nearly strong enough to take over.
By Jack Khoury | May 5, 2015 | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.655123
The Salafi organization in Gaza identified with ISIS (Islamic State) demanded on Monday that Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, release detainees from the organization within 72 hours and threatened to “open all the fronts” against Hamas if it failed to do so. The Israeli defense establishment is following events in order to see if the internal conflict is liable to lead to rocket fire at Israel.
The announcement by the Organization of Supporters of the Islamic State in the Holy Land was published shortly after a big explosion at Hamas security headquarters in Gaza that caused damage but no casualties. The Salafis, however, didn’t take responsibility for it.
Hamas security forces recently arrested 30-40 Salafists, claiming that they are identified with ISIS and laid explosive devices in public buildings, including UNRWA facilities and the Gaza home of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Dozens of activists have gone underground and Hamas is searching for them.
Two weeks ago Hamas also destroyed a mosque serving as headquarters for pro-ISIS Salafis. The group accused Hamas of behaving like the United States and Israel, destroying houses of worship of Muslim believers. The Salafis also expressed support for ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
La Cour suprême israélienne autorise la démolition des habitations bédouines de Oum al-Hiran pour reconstruire une nouvelle ville juive.
Supreme Court allows state to replace Bedouin village with Jewish one - Israel - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.655145
Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by residents of the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran against their removal and the demolition of the community – in order to construct a new town for Jewish residents in its place. The court ruled the land belongs to the state and the Bedouins have no legal rights to it.
“The state is the owner of the lands in dispute, which were registered in its name in the framework of the arrangement process; the residents have acquired no rights to the land but have settled them [without any authorization], which the state cancelled legally. In such a situation, there is no justification for intervention in the rulings of the previous courts,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein in the majority opinion.
Rubinstein ruled that the appeal should be rejected for two reasons: First, because the petition was an indirect attack against the decisions of the government’s establishment of the new community of Hiran, to be built on the state-owned land – a challenge that should have been raised in other forums. Second, the judges ruled the government’s actions did not in any way violate the petitioners’ legal rights – and even if such rights were harmed, it was a “proportionate harm.”
The Supreme Court decision concerns only the evacuation orders. The Kiryat Gat Magistrate’s Court is scheduled to hold a hearing at the end of this month about the demolition orders for the houses in Umm al-Hiran.
Residents fought cabinet decision
In November 2013, a number of families from the Abu Alkiyan clan, who live in the unrecognized community of Umm al-Hiran, filed a petition with the aid of Adalah – Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, to prevent the demolition of their homes and the evacuation of the residents – after the cabinet approved the creation of Hiran and the demolition of their unrecognized village.
The petitioners claimed they did not squat on the land, but were transferred to the area in the Yattir Forest in 1956 by direct order of the military administration of the time. But now, their lands lie within the master plan of the Be’er Sheva metropolitan area. The government has never denied that the residents were moved to Umm al-Hiran by state authorities. Umm al-Hiran is now home to about 700 people, say residents, but like other Bedouin villages that lack official recognition as local municipal communities, it lacks infrastructure and electricity.
The Abu Alkiyan clan now resides in two villages, Atir and Umm al-Hiran, located near Wadi Atir, close to Route 316 and east of the village of Houra. Until 1948, the clan lived on the land now used by Kibbutz Shoval. After the War of Independence, they traveled across the Negev looking for new land, but did not find any, because most of it was already claimed by other tribes. In 1956, it approached the military administration and was transferred to the Wadi Atir area. A classified military administration document dating from 1957 says the clan received 7,000 dunams of land near the wadi. It then split into two hamlets that shared the land. Unlike in many Bedouin communities, the houses in Atir and Umm al-Hiran are built of stone.
Decade of house demolitions
Over the past decade houses in the village were demolished a number of times, and residents were offered a compromise of moving to the nearby town of Hura, where they would be compensated with an 800-square meter plot of land. But the families who petitioned the court refused the offer, saying they will not be removed from their land a third time.
Rubinstein wrote about this claim: “This is not expulsion and not expropriation, but the proposed evacuation involves various proposals of moving, construction, compensation and the possibility of homes, whether in the town of Hura where most of the residents of the illegal villages involved will be moved, or in the community of Hiran, which is to be built.”
In conclusion, Rubinstein said the issue of the Bedouin lands is one of the most difficult and challenging the court has dealt with, and is filled with sensitive emotions and political disputes.
Justice Daphne Barak-Erez, who disagreed with parts of Rubinstein’s opinion, criticized the government’s actions: “The petitioners cannot receive the full support they asked for, but it is also not possible to reconcile oneself with the flaws in the authorities’ actions concerning the decision on the evacuation and compensation involved.” She said the authorities should reconsider the compensation offered, since the residents had lived there for 20 years and were not trespassing. In addition the state should consider offering them a plot to live in the new town to be built on the land, in addition to the previous proposals, she suggested.
In 2012, the National Planning and Building Council approved the master plan for Hiran, the latest in a series of decisions on the matter by the state. Despite being approved, work on the town was delayed following the appeal by the Bedouin residents. Hiran is slated for 2,400 housing units, and the Bedouin can also choose to live there if they want, attorney Moshe Golan, representing the government, told the court in one of the hearings. But he noted the Bedouin residents would not receive the same 800-square meter plot in Hiran they would receive elsewhere, since the plots in Hiran were much smaller. The core group of families slated to move to Hiran are national religious Jews, who are to be joined by secular residents moving to the site from the nearby community of Meitar, along with others.
Salim Abu Alkian of Umm al-Hiran, who led the residents in the court petition, told Haaretz he was disappointed by the decision. “The decision was very disappointing, but we knew beforehand that is what would happen.” He accused the entire Israeli establishment, government and courts of racism.
Residents plan to stay put
Abu Alkian said the residents will go on refusing to be moved to nearby Hura: “I will continue to fight since I am not a criminal, and this is my home.” He said they were considering turning to an international court to protest.
Adalah said that even though the Supreme Court noted in its decision that the residents are living in the area with permission of the state and at its instruction, the “court makes do with the technical authority of the state to act as it pleases with the land on which Umm al-Hiran and Atir sit. In doing so, the court gave legitimacy to the erasing of an entire village off the face of the earth and the expulsion of its residents, while ignoring the entire human, political, social and historical perspective.”
Adalah said that together with the residents, human rights organizations and Arab community representatives, it would in the coming days examine legal and public tactics to protect the village from demolition
France : « Il y a un trop grand nombre d’immigrés » affirme Ménard interrogé sur les fichiers d’enfants « musulmans » - Libé ▻http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2015/05/05/fichage-des-enfants-musulmans-le-parquet-ouvre-une-enquete_1291250?xtor=r -
Une enquête est ouverte pour « tenue illégale de fichiers en raison de l’origine ethnique ».
« Dans ma ville il y a 64,6% des enfants qui sont musulmans dans les écoles primaires et maternelles. » C’est ce qu’a déclaré le maire de Béziers Robert Ménard (élu avec le soutien du Front national) lundi soir dans Mots Croisés sur France 2, consacrée à la guerre ouverte au Front national. Mais d’où sortent ces chiffres ? « Ce sont les chiffres de ma mairie. Pardon de vous dire que le maire a, classe par classe, les noms des enfants. Je sais que je n’ai pas le droit de le faire », répond tout naturellement Robert Ménard à la question posée en toute fin d’émission par la journaliste Anne-Sophie Lapix, relayant une question posée par plusieurs internautes. Et Robert Ménard de s’enfoncer un peu plus en ajoutant : « Les prénoms disent les confessions. Dire l’inverse, c’est nier une évidence ». (à écouter à 1’23)
Problème : les statistiques ethniques ne sont pas autorisées en France. C’est inscrit dans la Constitution : toute « distinction de race, de religion ou de croyance » entre citoyens est bannie. Un principe décliné dans la loi « informatique et libertés » du 6 janvier 1978, qui interdit la collecte et le traitement de « données à caractère personnel qui font apparaître, directement ou indirectement, les origines raciales ou ethniques, les opinions politiques, philosophiques ou religieuses ». La loi prévoit seulement quelques dérogations, notamment pour les travaux de recherches étudiées au cas par cas par la Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (Cnil). Une enquête pour « tenue illégale de fichiers en raison de l’origine ethnique » a donc été ouverte ce mardi et une perquisition a été menée par la SRPJ de Montpellier à la mairie de Béziers.
Mais l’édile se défend et récuse l’idée de fichage. Il n’y a « aucun fichier, aucune fiche informatique ou manuscrite en mairie de Béziers » s’est justifié Robert Ménard lors d’une conférence de presse ce mardi. Mais lorsque les journalistes lui demandent d’expliquer comment il peut avancer un pourcentage aussi précis sur le nombre d’enfants « musulmans » dans les écoles de sa ville, le maire répond « Je réserve cette réponse au juge d’instruction. Vous croyez que j’ai là la liste des enfants ? […] J’ai de la mémoire. » Robert Ménard affirme, sans sourciller, vouloir des statistiques ethniques en France pour le bien des enfants : « Ce n’est pas pour montrer du doigt les gens. J’ai juste envie de les aider ». Quelques minutes plus tard, il finit par admettre qu’il y a selon lui « un trop grand nombre d’immigrés » et que l’intégration est « impossible » en France.
Midi Libre rapporte que le maire n’a fait que confirmer des propos qu’il avait déjà tenus dans les pages du quotidien régional le 3 janvier dernier. Dans cet article, le maire de Béziers parle d’un changement de population dans sa ville, s’appuyant là aussi sur un pourcentage sorti de nulle part : « Dans le vieux Béziers, avec 80% de femmes voilées, tu ne vois que ça » affirme alors le maire.
Ces révélations ont provoqué de vives réactions, dont celle de François Hollande. Pour le chef de l’Etat, le fichage d’élèves est « contraire à toutes les valeurs de la République ». Le Premier ministre Manuel Valls a également réagi sur Twitter ce mardi :
« Ficher des enfants selon leur religion, c’est renvoyer aux heures les plus sombres de notre histoire », a déclaré le ministre de l’Intérieur Bernard Cazeneuve. La ministre de la justice Christiane Taubira fait le même parallèle.
La ministre de l’Éducation Najat Valaud Belkacem a elle aussi rappelé que le fichage des élèves « musulmans » sur la base de leur nom est « illégal » et « profondément anti-républicain ». Deux membres du Conseil national du PS, Mehdi Ouraoui et Naïma Charaï, ont annoncé de leur côté avoir saisi la Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (Cnil) et le Défenseur des droits Jacques Toubon. L’ancienne secrétaire nationale d’Europe Écologie-Les Verts Cécile Duflot a elle appelé à la suspension du maire de Béziers lors des questions au gouvernement à l’Assemblée.
Face à ces accusations, Robert Ménard dénonce « l’hypocrisie monstrueuse » de la gauche en rappelant que Manuel Valls, alors député PS, avait annoncé en 2009 vouloir déposer une proposition de loi préconisant le recours aux statistiques ethniques.
Si le fichage d’enfants est avéré, le maire de Béziers peut être sanctionné par la CNIL et être poursuivi en justice. Le profilage communautaire est passible d’une peine de cinq ans de prison et de 300 000 euros d’amende.
DÉJÀ ÇA DE PRIS
Lieberman quits Foreign Ministry; won’t join Netanyahu government - Israel - Israel News | Haaretz
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.654896
A lire absolument, quatre témoignages de la ségrégation raciale en Israël. Les mythes tombent les uns après les autres
Personal testimony: Why we came to protest - Israel News, Ynetnews
▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4653352,00.html
Personal testimony: Why we came to protest
Sahlo was humiliated by officers and arrested; Zerviv claims Education Ministry only lets her work with youths of Ethiopian descent; and Adla, first arrested at 13, had a German Shepherd unleashed on him.’
2,026 settlement homes built on private Palestinian land, right-wing study finds - Israel - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.654698
Some 2,026 structures in the West Bank were built on privately owned Palestinian land, according to a study conducted by the right-wing organization Regavim and submitted to Knesset members ahead of deliberations on legislation aimed at expropriating land from Palestinian owners.
Regavim claims that its mission is to “preserve national lands.” Until the recent election, it was run by Bezalel Smotrich, who has since joined Knesset on the Habayit Hayehudi roster. One of Smotrich’s primary goals in the Knesset will be passing legislation to expropriate land from Palestinian owners in exchange for reparations.
Smotrich will seek to pass such legislation before December 2015, the date on which the Supreme Court has ordered the government to evacuate the Amona outpost, and demolish nine houses in the settlement Ofra. Smotrich has even stated that demolishing the Amona outpost could likely cause a governing coalition to collapse. When similar legislation was passed in 2012, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thwarted it out of fear that it would lead to prosecution in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Regavim supports the proposed legislation, claiming that demolishing a house or two would not solve the problem, which it says is much larger. The organization conducted a study, examining aerial photographs of private Palestinian land, which it then submitted to Habayit Hayehudi chairman Naftali Bennett and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud). According to the report, the 2,026 structures located on private Palestinian land include 1,232 permanent homes and 794 mobile homes. Roughly 1,500 families live in these structures. The study was first reported by Arutz Sheva.
The settlements mentioned in the report include Ofra with 530 houses, Beit El with 289, Eli with 166, Mechmesh with 133, Elon Moreh with 128, Psagot with 98, Kochav Ya’akov with 83, Kedumim with 71, Kokhav Hashahar with 65, Neve Tzuf with 52, Otniel with 47, Shavei Shomron with 45, Mitzpeh Yeriho with 45, Yitzhar with 43, Maon with 34, Tapuah with 27, Adam with 25, Beit Hagai with 25, Susya with 23, Neve Daniel with 19, Tekoa with 17, Har Bracha with 15, Nokdim with 15, Pnei Haver with 13, Ma’ale Amos with five houses, and Kedar with seven.
Lors d’une conférence de presse à Ramallah, l’ancien président américain Jimmy Carter a rappelé que pas une seule maison n’a été reconstruite à Gaza depuis la guerre de l’été dernier
Ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter says situation in Gaza is ’intolerable’ - Diplomacy and Defense - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.654622
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says that eight months after the 50-day hostilities between Israel and Hamas, the situation in the Gaza Strip is “intolerable.”
Carter’s delegation called off a planned visit to Gaza earlier this week, giving no explanation. Speaking Saturday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, however, Carter said he is still determined to work for a Palestinian state. But he lamented that “not one destroyed house has been rebuilt” in Gaza since the war.
At a press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Carter, 90, also urged the Palestinians to hold elections. “We hope that sometime we’ll see elections all over the Palestinian area and east Jerusalem and Gaza and also in the West Bank,” AFP reported.
Carter said that elections were “very important” for “full implementation of the agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah,” referring to a reconciliation deal the two sides agreed on last year. There been no election in Gaza or the West Bank for nearly a decade. Though Abbas was meant to leave office in 2009, he has stayed put because there has yet to be an election. The last time the Palestinian parliament met was in 2007, and the last legislative elections were held in 2006.
Though Carter visited Abbas, he was shunned by Israeli leaders who long have considered him hostile to Israel.
Although he brokered the first Israeli-Arab peace treaty during his presidency, Carter outraged many Israelis with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” He’s also repeatedly reached out to Gaza’s Islamic Hamas leaders, considered terrorists by much of the West.
Carter was also accompanied by former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Carter is a member of The Elders Group, an independent group of global leaders who describe themselves as working together for peace and human rights. The Group said ahead of Carter and Brundtland’s trip that they were visiting “in a renewed push to promote the two-state solution and to address the root causes of the conflict” in the Mideast.
Why we took to the streets: Ethiopian Israelis who refuse to stay silent - Israel - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.654786
Protesting what they say is police brutality toward Israeli Ethiopians, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday afternoon, blocking traffic on major arteries and junctions.
Following a standoff with police outside a major intersection in the city, the protestors succeeded in circumventing security blocks and accessing the main Tel Aviv–Jerusalem highway, bringing traffic to a complete half in both directions at the height of rush hour.
Sunday’s demonstration followed a protest in Jerusalem on Thursday, which culminated in violent clashes between police and the Ethiopian demonstrators.
Both protests were prompted by an incident early last week, in which police were caught on video assaulting an Ethiopian soldier who did not move immediately upon their request. (The police were trying to clear the area around him because of a suspicious object.)
Joining the Israeli Ethiopians at today’s protest were hundreds of supporters, including social activists, youth movement participants, and Knesset members from various parties on the center and left.
Many of the protestors said they had come to demonstrate not only against police brutality but also against what they say is pervasive racism in Israeli society. Last week’s incident, they said, was the trigger.
Several of the demonstrators explained to Haaretz what brought them out into the streets of Tel Aviv.
Dana Sibaho, a 29-year-old bookkeeper from the southern town of Netivot, who immigrated to Israel in 1991.
“We have long been the punching bag and scapegoat for everything in this country. People say that they’re with us, that they brought us here. They didn’t bring us here. We came because of Zionism, not like others who came for economic benefits. When you’re a Zionist, you believe with a full heart that this is your country.
"Our forefathers lived here, and we also have the right to live here. But what is going on now is simply a catastrophe. It is racism for the sake of racism. You look for a job today, and even if you’re the best around, there’s a price. Your color carries a price.
"But we will not stay silent any longer. We are not our parents’ generation, who kept quiet, kept their heads down and said ‘amen’ to everything. That period is over. We are a new generation fighting for our rights.
"We are the first to volunteer for the elite units in the military. I personally know many in the community who’ve already fought in three wars. And the state – what it does it tell them to do? Pardon the expression, but it tells them to go stick it you know where. “
Dana Sibaho.Yoav Gared, a 26-year-old former member of the Givati brigade from Beit Shemesh.
“We’ve come not only because of police violence, but also because of the racism in society here. We feel it in the workplace and in the neighborhood.
"The important thing is getting the following message out to the entire nation of Israel: We will not stay silent any longer. We will not accept violence any longer – not from the police and not from anyone else. I personally have never been a victim of police violence, but I’ve witnessed other members of the community who have been.”
Yoav Gared.Getenet (last name withheld), a 40-year-old from the West Bank town of Ariel, who immigrated to Israel in 1984.
“I’m here today out of solidarity with that soldier who was beaten up. A soldier in uniform doesn’t deserve to get what he got. A soldier in uniform deserves to be respected and appreciated. But it’s not just that. That was the spark that triggered it all, but there are many young Ethiopians who are sitting in jail today for nothing. No reason at all. It’s painful. I took a day off work for this because it’s so important for me to make my voice heard.”
Getenet.
Maya Tzagay, a 19-year-old soldier, from Netanya, who was born in Israel.
“There are too many instances of racism against our community. We kept quiet and kept quiet, and because of that, people who were victims of police violence ended up killing themselves. The boy who was beat up last week, you can see on the video that he didn’t do anything. He was beaten up for nothing, and it’s really enraging.
"What we’re doing now has nothing to do with what’s going on in Baltimore. They have their issues. We have ours. But we understand them – we both suffer from racism. There, it’s more extreme. People were murdered by police. Here they just got beaten up. Who knows? Maybe somebody was killed by police here, and we don’t even know about it.
"In any event, we will not be silent any longer. It can’t be that our blood is only good for fighting wars.”
Maya Tzagay.Itay Kefale, a 29 year old from Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, who immigrated to Israel in 2005.
“I’m here because I want to bring about change, God willing, to the new generation. What happened last week with the Ethiopian soldier, we don’t deserve that. So I came here so that my voice would also be heard and so that in the future, what happened to our brother doesn’t happen to my son and to your son. Enough already.”
Itay Kefale.Zemene Melesse, a 46-year-old singer from the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak, who immigrated to Israel in 1991.
“I’m here because of the racism against the Ethiopian community. For years, we’ve suffered from this racism, at work, when we go out, everywhere. When I get on stage at clubs, the police immediately interfere. They ask to see our identification cards. They try to get us to stop playing. What’s happening here today has nothing to do with what’s happening in Baltimore, but as a black man, I identify with them.”
Zemene Melesse.
Eli Malasa, a 33-year-old from Netivot, who immigrated to Israel in 1999.
“Why am I here? Because of the police who beat us and open files on us. They get promoted on our backs. Whenever they see us hanging out together, having a good time, drinking a little, laughing, they have to break it up and beat us up. They don’t ask questions. They don’t tell us to be quiet. They just beat us up.
"My whole life, wherever I’ve been, that’s been the story. I’m a truck driver, but they took away my license from me, and now I have no work. My brother was beaten to a pulp by them. We don’t even know why, but he’s not willing to do anything now. Not even leave the house. They ruined his life.”
Eli Malasa.
Quatrième journée de troubles, de Jérusalem à Tel Aviv
Des Israéliens d’origine éthiopienne manifestent contre le racisme des forces de l’ordre après l’agression contre l’un des leurs la semaine dernière.
41 injured in Ethiopian Israeli protest against police brutality in Tel Aviv - Israel - Israel News | Haaretz
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Police take harsh action against protesters hurling rocks and bottles; 41 people injured; earlier, thousands blocked roads in rally against police violence and racism.
Clashes erupted in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Sunday as thousands of people gathered to protest police brutality toward Israeli Jews of Ethiopian descent.
At least 41 people were injured - at least 23 of them police officers. Police made 15 arrests.
Police fired stun grenades and tear gas while some protesters tried to break into the Tel Aviv City Hall, located at the square. Other protesters hurled rocks, planks and plastic and glass bottles at police.
The protest began near the Kaplan Interchange, where protesters blocked major arteries and junctions, including the Ayalon South freeway and Hashalom Interchange, as well as surrounding streets. Protesters also marched along Derech Begin towards the train station but were blocked by police.
Later on, the protest moved to Rabin Square as police gradually opened the blocked roads.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for calm on Sunday evening, saying that all complaints must be investigated “but there is no place for such violence and lawlessness.”
Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino said on Sunday evening that the police will bring to justice anyone who hurt civilians and policemen, adding that the rally “was not a legitimate protest in a democratic state” and blaming a handful of agitators for harming the Israeli Ethiopians’ struggle. He added that “most of the claims made by Ethiopian Israelis are not police-related at all. There is a deeper problem here of their assimilation. I do take responsibility and I think we have a problem with some of the cases mentioned, and we will handle it.”
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitz said that “some of the complaints against the police were justified. There were events that need to be examined, and the police also has to check itself. All government and municipal offices need to provide a comprehensive solution.”
On Monday, Netanyahu will host a meeting attended by Ethiopian Israeli community leaders as well as Demas Fekadeh, the soldier who was filmed being beaten by police officers. The meeting will also include representatives from the Public Security Ministry, the Welfare Ministry, the Absorption Ministry, the Interior Ministry, municipal offices and police command.
’We’re not Baltimore’
Speaking ahead of the demonstration, organizers rejected comparisons with recent events in Baltimore but said the protests will continue until their messages sink in and the government takes action to foster equality. “The fact that we’re black doesn’t mean that we’re Baltimore,” one of the organizers, Inbal Bogale, told Haaretz. “In Jerusalem we didn’t ‘do a Baltimore’ as people are saying, that’s not what it was about,” she said, referring to protests in the capital on Thursday night that turned violent. “The police documented every moment of the demonstration and I want to see the documentation, whether we really started the violence as the police claim. We marched in the streets and they fired stun grenades at us.”
Bogale said Sunday’s protest was expected to be loud but nonviolent. “We cannot use violence when we’re demonstrating against it.” Another organizer, who did not want his name used, said that over the weekend a disagreement arose among the organizers after several human-rights organizations expressed an interest in joining the protest. He said there was a fear of diluting the message and losing focus on the main objectives of the protest.
Around 20 young members of Israel’s Ethiopian community initiated the protests, but refused to take the credit and saying that they don’t want to be labeled as leaders. “There are no politicians here and no distinguished members of the community, as they like to say,” said Misganaw Fanta, one of the organizers. “We’re part of a community that has experienced and is experiencing these things, that’s hurting and wants to cry out, to go out to the streets together and to protest against the way we are treated."
“There’s no single leader behind the demonstration, it’s an entire community that is coming out to demonstrate,” added Bogale. She and Fanta say the trigger for the protest was the video that was made public last week, showing police officers beating an Ethiopian-Israeli man, a young man serving in the Israel Defense Forces and in uniform, but it was preceded by years of frustration. “It’s a pressure cooker that exploded. There are hundreds of young Ethiopians the police open case files against for no reason, and that ruins their lives. They’re good guys who want to get ahead, to study, to contribute to the state, but they can’t be combat soldiers, they don’t study, they’re called criminals,” explained Fanta.
Bogale said the promise by national police commissioner Yohanan Danino to reexamine such case files exposes the community’s lack of trust in the police. “From our perspective, the video with the soldier was the last straw” and Danino’s statement after Thursday’s demonstration in Jerusalem “shows that he has no confidence in his officers,” Bogale said, adding that the measure was insufficient.
Fanta said that removing the police officer who beat up the soldier in the video would not satisfy the community. “You have to recognize that they committed a crime and should be punished, not only dismissed.”
Some of the organizers have known each other for a long time and tried to help the family of a young Ethiopian Israeli man, Yosef Salamseh, in their quest for answers surrounding his death. Officers used a stun gun on Salamseh while arresting him on suspicion of breaking and entering. He committed suicide a few months later. “We saw what happened to the Salamseh family, they went to half the country and nobody gave them answers. We insist that the family receive answers, we’re going out to battle so that cases like Yosef’s are not repeated.”
“In general I have nothing against policemen, but there’s the handful that has to be taken care of, and that’s our goal,” explained Fanta, and Bogale added that the goal is “to reach a situation where they won’t discriminate based on skin color, where racism doesn’t become routine. The policemen have to undergo training so that they won’t judge a person by his color.”
A large majority of those attending the demonstration last week in Jerusalem were young people, many of whom were born in Israel but continue to suffer from discrimination. “As opposed to Baltimore,” said Fanta, “we’re focusing on the goal of bringing equality and justice, and preventing them from embittering the youth. The youth are our future and when the police open files for no reason, in effect the government pushes them into crime, where they’ll find their place.”
A wider struggle
In addition to the struggle against police violence, the organizers want to air a variety of issues that contribute to the community’s absorption and integration difficulties, such as the poverty-stricken neighborhoods, for example.
@Manifestations-Juifs_Ethiopiens
U.K. funding of Palestinian play angers local Jewish community - Jewish World - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/1.654750
The funding of a Palestinian play by the United Kingdom’s Arts Council England, a taxpayer-funded body, has aroused the ire of the British Jewish community the Mail Online reported.
“The Siege,” which recounts the story of how armed Hamas fighters hid out in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity for 39 days in 2002, is due to begin touring the U.K. in mid-May.
Arts Council England has donated $22,700 (88,000 shekels) to the staging of the play in the U.K. Defending its decision to fund the play, the council said in a statement that it was not the body’s role “to censor the artists’ message”.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the representative body of British Jewry, expressed concerns over the funding in a statement on Saturday. “We would be extremely concerned if British taxpayers were funding a play that promoted terrorism as positive and legitimate,” the board said.
The play’s British co-director Zoe Lafferty responded to the criticism by saying that the production “is pro-human rights, pro-justice and pro-equality. Our work is trying to talk about the truth of what’s happening on the ground and counter the propaganda that’s constantly being directed at the Palestinians.”
Eight people were killed during the course of the 39-day siege of the church, which ended with the fighters agreeing to be exiled in Europe without first seeing their families. One man was killed by a sniper while tolling the church bell, and seven others died inside the church from sniper fire.
Put on by the Jenin-based Freedom Theatre, the production has already received cash from the British Council and the EU for performances in the West Bank.
HBO buys rights to film about Holocaust documentary maker Claude Lanzmann - Jewish World News - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.654381
HBO Documentary Films has bought the American television rights to “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film is a portrait of the French director who is best known for his monumental nine and a half hour 1985 Holocaust documentary “Shoah.”
The new movie portrait of Lanzmann, which was produced, directed and written by Toronto-based director Adam Benzine, is to air on HBO next year, possibly on Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Reporter said. It traces what the Reporter described as Lanzmann’s “harrowing artistic journey” between 1973 and 1985 in making “Shoah.”
Beaucoup d’Israéliens font appel à des mères porteuses au Népal.
Au lendemain du séisme, ces femmes seraient autorisées à venir en Israël
It takes an earthquake in Nepal to talk about surrogacy in Israel - World - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/.premium-1.653963
In the wake of Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein’s approval of a plan permitting surrogate mothers in Nepal who are carrying the fetuses of Israeli parents to enter Israel is a reflection of the ethical and legal complications involved in international surrogacy.
The surrogate mothers in Nepal carrying Israeli fetuses, who are Indian citizens, will be required to appear before the local Israeli consular official, and to state that they are seeking to come to Israel of their own free will. The consul will advise the women of the risks involved in flying while pregnant, and will verify that no undue influence has been exerted on the women to get them to travel to Israel in advance of delivering the babies that they are carrying.
Analysis / Secret talks hold hope for lengthy Hamas-Israel truce - Diplomacy and Defense - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.654429
Far from the public’s eye, negotiations are happening that could, under certain conditions, effect an important change on the Palestinian front. The indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a long-term cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which have been reported primarily in the Arab media, are ultimately likely to produce an agreement. Such a deal, if achieved, would significantly affect the balance of power among Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and could also affect the close ties between Israel and Egypt.
The talks have been conducted intermittently for months. Media reports say numerous intermediaries are involved, including officials from the United Nations, Europe and Qatar. Thus the talks are happening via several different channels, with only partial coordination among them.
The goal is to extract a commitment to a humanitarian cease-fire from Hamas, perhaps accompanied by third-party guarantees. Hamas would promise to refrain from any hostilities against Israel for a given period, possibly three to five years. In exchange, Israel would significantly ease its partial blockade on Gaza and take other steps to help Gaza’s economy. Later – though this seems unlikely – Israel might even reconsider ideas it has rejected in the past, like letting a seaport be built in Gaza under external supervision.
Such a deal could appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because it would enable him to portray last summer’s war in Gaza as a long-term achievement instead of a highly controversial, unfinished job. Just as former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert retroactively defended a much worse war, the Second Lebanon War of 2006, by boasting of the quiet on the northern border since then, Netanyahu could retroactively justify the Gaza war on similar grounds and say Hamas’ agreement to a long-term cease-fire proved that Israel won.
An indirect deal wouldn’t require Netanyahu to make any major concessions like recognizing Hamas or ceding territory. Moreover, it would enable him to outflank PA President Mahmoud Abbas and rebut some of the international criticism of his lack of movement on the Palestinian front. And if Netanyahu thinks tensions with Hezbollah might lead to war in the coming years, a long-term cease-fire in Gaza would temporarily relieve the army of a headache and let it focus on the far more dangerous enemy to the north.
Hamas’ political leadership in Gaza apparently favors a deal. After three military conflicts against Israel in less than six years, each of which wreaked devastation in Gaza, it seems unlikely that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his colleagues would want another round anytime soon. Khaled Meshal, the Qatar-based head of Hamas’ political wing, also seems to have moderated the hardline positions he took during the war a bit; this might be connected to the rapprochement between Hamas’ political wing and Saudi Arabia.
At the moment, Hamas seems readier to accept a deal than Israel is. Some Israeli defense officials think it’s better to continue the status quo, with minor changes, than to tie Israel’s hands with rigid obligations.
But in any case, numerous obstacles remain. The PA objects vehemently, fearing a deal would bolster Hamas at its expense and perpetuate the freeze in its own talks with Israel; this has been reflected in the West Bank’s negative press coverage of the emerging deal. Ramallah accuses Hamas of abandoning the demand for a solution to the Palestinian problem and of acquiescing in the separation of Gaza from the West Bank.
Egypt, which recently deferred legal proceedings for declaring Hamas an illegal terrorist organization, also remains skeptical of Hamas’ intentions.
But the principle obstacle is Hamas’ military wing. On Wednesday, the Israeli media reported that military wing leader Mohammed Deif, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt during last summer’s war, had resumed full-time activity. Deif dragged Israel and Hamas into the last conflict by planning a tunnel attack near Kerem Shalom in early July, then escalating after the army thwarted the attack.
Since the military wing is currently at loggerheads with the political leadership and has also renewed its ties to Iran, one can confidently assume it isn’t enthusiastic about the idea of a long-term truce. Thus, as the negotiations progress, the chances of the military wing launching attacks on Israel in an effort to thwart it increase.
The military wing is working hard to restore its operational capabilities, which suffered substantial damage during the war and have also been harmed by Egypt’s clampdown on arms smuggling to Gaza. Though Hamas is now churning out its own rockets in Gaza, they don’t match the capabilities of the arms it used to smuggle from Iran. But rebuilding its network of attack tunnels has proved easier, and it’s reasonable to assume Hamas will try to use them if another war breaks out.
Hezbollah’s fear
Over the past week, defense officials’ attention has been focused less on Gaza than on the northern front. A series of incidents near the Syrian border – an airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel, another for which Israel has denied responsibility, an attempt by Syrian Druze to lay bombs along the border that ended with Israel killing them, stray mortar fire into Israel from the Syrian civil war – have reignited sleeping fears of the impact of the four-year-old civil war on Israel.
In reality, it doesn’t seem like anything substantive has changed from Israel’s perspective. So far, Hezbollah and Syria have refrained from responding directly to the airstrike on arms warehouses near the Syria-Lebanon border, which was attributed to Israel. The Druze bombers came from territory controlled by the Syrian regime, but it’s doubtful this was a direct response by Hezbollah to the airstrike. Nor has Hezbollah made any public comment on the recent incidents.
Nevertheless, Israel has other good reasons for keeping an especially close eye on the north right now. Hezbollah has recently renewed its efforts to smuggle high-tech weaponry from Syria, especially more precise missiles and rockets.
This decision is apparently tied to the Assad regime’s shifting fortunes in Syria. The regime has suffered numerous setbacks in the past two months. It has lost important towns in northern Syria and is also absorbing attacks from rebel groups near Damascus. All this is making Hezbollah nervous.
If Assad’s situation continues to worsen – and some Western experts say it’s already the worst it has been in about three years – Hezbollah will have a double incentive to expand its arms smuggling. First, if critical areas are in danger of falling to the rebels (major arms warehouses near the Damascus airport, or territory along the Lebanese border, where the smuggling takes place), the organization will fear it’s liable to permanently lose access to Syrian supplies. Second, though the Assad regime currently seems unlikely to collapse, if it did, Shi’ite Hezbollah would feel more threatened than ever by Sunni organizations in Lebanon, as well as by Israel.
Thus it seems as if Hezbollah wants more sophisticated weaponry less to alter the balance of power with Israel, as Israeli defense officials say, than to maintain its existing level of deterrence against both Israel and other regional enemies. After all, the relative quiet on the Israel-Lebanon border of the past nine years is primarily due to mutual deterrence: the understanding that another war would cause major damage to both sides.
Norbert Elias et l’Utopie
►http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Norbert-Elias-et-l-Utopie.html
Connu pour ses travaux sur l’État et le processus de civilisation, Norbert Elias a également écrit sur les utopies littéraires et philosophiques, et notamment sur la célèbre œuvre de Thomas More. Une traduction de ces textes permet de s’interroger sur la place de l’utopie dans la pensée du sociologue.
Livres & études
/ #utopie, #sociologie, #Renaissance
#Le_Corbusier fut-il fasciste ou démiurge ?
Le cinquantième anniversaire de la mort de l’architecte Le Corbusier (1887-1965), auquel le Centre Pompidou consacre une rétrospective qui ouvre ses portes le 29 avril, provoque un regain de publications, d’expositions et de colloques qui célèbrent ou vont célébrer la mémoire du grand homme.
►http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2015/04/29/le-corbusier-fut-il-fasciste-ou-demiurge_4625047_3232.html
#fascisme #architecture #urbanisme
Le Corbusier, fasciste ou séducteur ?▻http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2015/06/03/le-corbusier-fasciste-ou-seducteur_4646539_3232.html
Selon Jean-Louis Cohen, professeur d’histoire de l’architecture, les méandres politiques du Corbusier s’expliquent par une nécessité séductrice plutôt que par de véritables convictions (...)
Ses méandres politiques révèlent sa vision #élitiste de la politique. Il partage celle-ci avec beaucoup de #réformateurs leurrés un temps par la rhétorique révolutionnaire de Vichy, ou tentant de jouer à l’intérieur du système, et dont certains entreront dans la Résistance. Cette posture ne trahit pas un simple #opportunisme, trait caractéristique d’un métier qui ne s’accomplit qu’avec des moyens matériels supposant de fortes décisions publiques. Elle relève de la séduction, car c’est bien là le registre dans lequel opère Le Corbusier. Face aux dirigeants auxquels il entend arracher des #commandes, il en intériorise le discours, qu’il reprend à son compte en tentant de les convaincre. Il reprocha ainsi à Staline de ne pas être assez révolutionnaire et donna à Bata des leçons sur la vente des souliers. En dépit des son amitiés pour des idéologues réellement engagés dans les politiques pétainistes, c’est dans l’ordre de la séduction qu’il restera à Vichy, sans passage à l’acte politique.
MK says advocating for two-state solution is treason | +972 Magazine
▻http://972mag.com/mk-says-advocating-for-a-two-state-solution-is-treason/106052/?can_id=c04bd6c1866a7591ea05420e1dd77aec&source=email-what-were-reading-cong
Freshman Jewish Home MK Yinon Magal accuses a former Israeli Foreign Ministry director of committing a capital offense: advocating for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Israël : heurts lors d’une manifestation de Juifs éthiopiens ; 13 blessés |
30 Avril 2015 22:14
▻http://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/israel/societe/69567-150430-jerusalem-des-milliers-de-juifs-ethiopiens-manifestent-contre-l
Des affrontements ont opposé jeudi soir dans le centre de Jérusalem les policiers israéliens à deux mille Juifs d’origine éthiopienne qui manifestaient contre le « racisme de la police », faisant 13 blessés dont 3 policiers.
Trois manifestants ont par ailleurs été arrêtés, selon une porte-parole de la police.
Les manifestants se sont rapprochés de la résidence du Premier ministre Benyamin Netanyahou, après avoir bloqué une route devant le quartier général de la police. La police déployée en masse a bloqué les manifestants à l’aide d’un canon à eau.
Israeli artist Shira Geffen takes the heat for criticizing the war in Gaza - Movies & Television - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/life/movies-television/.premium-1.653671
In the last few months writer and filmmaker Shira Geffen found herself in the eye of two media storms sparked by the explosive friction between artists who dare to express an opinion about their surrounding reality — and that painful, forlorn reality, which displays ever decreasing tolerance of criticism.
It first happened last summer during Operation Protective Edge at the Jerusalem Film Festival, when Geffen asked the audience at a screening of her film to stand for a minute of silence in memory of four Palestinian children killed that day by Israel Defense Forces fire. The second time was a few weeks ago when her father, the songwriter Yehonatan Geffen, was assaulted at home for comments he made about the left’s less of the election.
In an interview two weeks after the incident, Shira Geffen demonstrated steadfastness and determination by not retracting previous statements. Instead of panicking over the venomous criticism directed at her, she explains her position. Instead of caving into pressure she insists she will keep expressing her views the way she was taught to do. Instead of apologizing for politics penetrating her work, she expresses hope it will engender change.
Amid the storms, Gefen’s creative projects still remain at the core, and as usual she skips with surprising ease between different, varied fields. Last December her sixth children’s book, “Sea of Tears,” was published. She is now promoting her second film, “Self Made,” while writing her first television drama series with her partner writer Etgar Keret. She is also busy writing her next feature film, “Accompanying Parent,” about a girl’s coming of age. Her other interests — theater, dance, acting and songwriting — have to patiently wait their turn. Even Geffen has her limits.
Being multidisciplinary does not make her work shallower, Geffen says. She certainly isn’t sorry her multiplicity of tasks prevents her from specializing in one profession.
“I’m not a linear person at all. I’m all about breadth, being associative,” she says. “That’s how I write and think. That’s how I think I develop.”
Geffen, born in 1971, never studied film, but this fact didn’t stop “Jellyfish” — the film based on her script and co–directed with Keret (who also has no film education) — from debuting at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It even won the Camera d’Or, the prize for best first feature film. Seven years later, when she finished the first film she had written and directed on her own, she was invited back to the prestigious French film festival. The critics praised “Self Made,” and the film made the long festival circuit around the globe. Along the way, Geffen won AFI’s New Auteurs Critics’ Award and picked up two awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
The heroine of “Self Made,” which will debut next weekend (translated into English) in Israel, is Michal (Sarah Adler), a successful Jerusalem artist. One morning, just before going abroad for an important event, her bed breaks. She hits her head and loses her memory. One army roadblock away lives Nadine (Samira Saraya), a young Palestinian woman whose internal reality is also a bit shaken. By coincidence, the two women exchange identities at the roadblock. Nadine is sent off to live the life of the Jerusalem artist, and Michal is sent to live Nadine’s life in her Palestinian village.
Shopping instead of exploding
Geffen conceived the film’s original idea a decade ago, when she read a Haaretz interview with Arin Ahmad, a Bethlehem student whose fiance was killed by soldiers.
“They contacted her when she was in pain and sadness, and recruited her for a suicide operation, to be a shahida ("women martyrs"). They dressed her as an Israeli woman, put an explosive belt on her and sent her to the Rishon Lezion pedestrian mall,” recalls Geffen. In the interview she said she reached the mall, saw people shopping, and what she wanted to do was go into the stores and shop. That moment aroused in me the question when and where does the will to live awaken? Suddenly, I imagined the continuation. What would have happened if she had entered the stores and because of the explosive belt looked like a pregnant woman, and would start trying on maternity dresses and buying things for the expected baby. My imagination suddenly went there. In reality, Arin Ahmad suddenly had regrets and decided not to blow herself up, but this moment basically drove me to write the script.”
Geffen consequently researched the subject of shahidas. She visited Ramallah six years ago to see the home of the first female suicide bomber, Wafa Idris.
“I was scared. It was my first time in Ramallah, and before I entered her home, I was really afraid of what I would say, how I would speak with her mother. I had a lot of fears,” she says. “And then, when I went in, I saw an elderly, tired woman, and the first thing she did when she saw me was hug me. I saw behind her a huge poster of her dead daughter, and during this hug I suddenly felt her daughter, the one she didn’t have. It was all mixed in my head. I was suddenly her daughter, who wanted to kill me, and this confusion — the understanding that all is one, and suffering is suffering, and that a woman who loses her daughter is a woman who loses her daughter no matter where, and that I can be anyone’s daughter — is basically one of the things that brought me to writing the script.”
Geffen recalls that she then said to herself that if she chose to live in this complex, volatile place, she had to say something about it, so she decided that would be the next thing she’d do.
Neither shock nor dismay
Last summer, “Self Made” was screened in Jerusalem’s International Film Festival just as Operation Protective Edge was beginning. The directors whose films were competing in the Israeli festival got together and decided to use this stage to protest the war. They convened a press conference and called on the government to agree to a ceasefire. They protested the tendency of the local press not to investigate what was transpiring in Gaza and read the names of 30 Palestinian children killed in IDF bombings there.
Culture Minister Limor Livnat called the protest a “disgrace” on her Facebook page, but Geffen and her colleagues kept protesting throughout the festival. Geffen took the most flak after calling for a moment of silence. Some in the audience jeered her. Some left the hall in protest. Social media went wild. The curses and invectives spread across the Internet, and the news broadcasts and newspapers reported it widely.
Looking back, Geffen explains that she had read the headline about the children’s deaths that morning and was filled with pain and sorrow. She felt she couldn’t remain quiet.
“I felt the need to present the names of the children, who in another moment would be forgotten. So I did what I did. I didn’t think at that moment about how it would reverberate, and I was surprised to discover how much rage people have,” she recalls. “When I mentioned the minute of silence, a minute when people are used to standing and remembering the soldiers, it was suddenly perceived as treason. But for me it was instinctive, and I’m not sorry about it. I am not sorry that I am humane. I think I acted from a place of connectedness, and all the harsh criticism about me was very sad and also very scary.”
The threats she endured for expressing her opinion are nothing new to the Geffen family. Eight months later, a man showed up at her father’s front door, and attacked and beat him, calling him a murderer and traitor, a few days after comments he made at a concern. The elder Geffen had said that Election Day, March 17, would be declared “the peace camp’s Nakba Day,” referring to what Palestinians call their catastrophe, the day Israel was established. Gefen also called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “racist,” and charged that Netanyahu’s regime was based on “scaring the people.”
Ynet wrote the Geffen family was in shock and dismay [over the election results], but Shira Geffen says the family was neither in shock nor dismay.
“All these years, which have encouraged polarization, have led to this. All the walls and barriers between the Palestinians and us, and among us, this racism, what Netanyahu said (on Election Day) about Arab droves — these things don’t come out of nowhere,” she says, referring to the prime minister’s warning that the Arabs are “coming out to vote in droves.”
“My father said it most precisely: It’s not a matter of right and left. There is no more right and left. There’s humanism and fascism. And in this place they’ve already forgotten what it is to be humanistic, what it is to be a human being,” she says. “My father was attacked because he spoke against the [last] war and the next war. And people, like Michal Kayam, the character from my film, have a very short memory. Repressing wars is something this place is expert at. No one here talks anymore about Protective Edge and the people who died and the soldiers who died, except for Michal Kasten Keidar (widow of Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar, who fell in the operation), who broke the automatic circle of mourning and expressed pain, and even then they came down hard on her,” she says referring to the widow who spoke out against the Gaza war in a recent interview in Haaretz. "Why was my father attacked? Because he spoke about this taboo, about the war that was and the children who will die in the next superfluous war.”
Avant la fille, Yonathan Geffen, son père, avait été attaqué à son domicile
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.648048
Writer Yehonatan Geffen was attacked at his home near Netanya on Friday afternoon, when an intruder burst into his house, tried to hit him, branded him a leftist traitor and then fled.
Geffen has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection last week.
Israel Police combed the area around Moshav Beit Yitzhak but could not find the assailant. The police said they assumed the incident was premeditated.
The author and journalist’s manager, Boaz Ben Zion, said he hoped the incident was a one-off, adding, “We don’t know yet why Yehonatan was attacked, and we hope the police catch the assailant.”
#Yonathan-Geffen
Que sont devenus les descendants de Theodor Herzl : une succession de suicides, de morts d’overdose et de maladies mentales
Unveiling the tragedy of Theodor Herzl’s family - Features - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.654036
Herzl has no direct descendants left today. His wife Julie died in 1907, three years after Herzl, after being hospitalized a number of times for mental illness and drug addiction. Their son Hans, who converted to a series of Christian denominations, shot himself in 1930, on the day of his sister Paulina’s funeral. Paulina also suffered from mental illness and drug abuse from a young age, and died at 40 of a heroin overdose.
Herzl’s youngest daughter, Margarethe (Trude), who had little contact with her siblings and also suffered from mental illness, died in the Thereseinstadt concentration camp in 1943. Her son, Stephan Theodor Neumann (who later Anglicized his name during World War II to Stephen Norman) – Herzl’s only grandchild – committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in Washington D.C. in 1946, after he learned of his parents’ death during the Holocaust. He was the only Zionist of Herzl’s descendants, and even made a quick visit to Palestine in 1945, a year before he killed himself.
A four-part television series that started this week on Channel 1, “The Herzls,” reveals that various relatives – some closer and some less so – of Herzl live among us in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Givatayim, Ramat Gan, Arad, Matat, Nazareth and Kibbutz Beit Hashita. Others were located in Vienna – living not far from Herzl’s home – Serbia, Croatia and Belgium. Some have hidden their relationship to Herzl from their children.
The work on the series was spread over five years, with breaks. The investigation discovered that the tragedy and drama continued to haunt the family even many years after Herzl’s death. One of the episodes focuses on the tragic figure of Frederika (Pnina) Herzl, a first cousin once removed of Herzl. Frederika was born in 1933 in Vienna to Max Herzl. In 1938, when she was 5, her parents felt it was dangerous for a Jewish girl bearing the name Herzl to live under the Nazi regime and sent her to her mother’s aunt and uncle in Czechoslovakia. In 1939, with the Nazi invasion of Prague, her parents signed a fictitious adoption order so Frederika could immigrate to Israel with her aunt and uncle. Her parents managed to escape the Nazis and survived the Holocaust, and in 1948 they too arrived in Israel – with a court order canceling the adoption. But when they asked to have their daughter back, they were told no.
In early 1948, before the founding of the State of Israel, an ugly and painful legal fight broke out over the girl, which further damaged the reputation of the Herzl family. The family’s legal battle received a great deal of local press coverage: Haaretz reported on February 24, 1948 on the court case, and other newspapers talked about the “tragedy of the Herzl family.”
The adoptive parents said they were worried her biological parents would return to Vienna with her, but the court ordered them to allow her parents to meet with her from time to time. Maariv reported that instead of bringing them closer, these meetings increased the suffering of her biological parents and she was very apathetic toward them, introducing her mother to her friends as her aunt.
In 1949 the Tel Aviv District Court ruled that Frederika would spend the holidays with her biological parents, “but even these meetings turned into a tragedy and the parents could not bear them. The two fell ill from their great sorrow,” reported the paper.
When she turned 18 in 1951, Frederika – who was called Pnina in Haaretz – asked to renew relations with her parents and met them. But even though her parents were very happy, the joy did not last for long and this was the last time they saw each other, reported the newspaper.
Max Herzl died in 1952, “broken and filled with suffering.” A relative said he committed suicide and later Frederika also attempted to kill herself, and was hospitalized under her adoptive parents’ name. After that people lost track of her, but the research for the television series found that she returned to Vienna and worked as a librarian, and was known in the local Jewish community. She died in 2009 – today only a cardboard sign marks her grave – and none of her relatives in Israel knew about her death.
“I read a lot of books written about Herzl,” Kipper Zaretzky told Haaretz. The book that influenced her the most was “Neguhot Min Ha’avar (Illuminations from the Past)” (in Hebrew) published in 1961 by historian Joseph Nedava, who also went on a search for Herzl’s relatives.
“He shows the difficult psychological journey Herzl’s children made,” she said. “Today, when you ask people on the street, they tell you: ‘Yes, they were all crazy.’ But it’s not so simple. In the series I try to show the long-suffering journey they traveled until the end,” said Kipper Zaretzky.
In 1949, Herzl’s remains were brought to Israel from Vienna for reinternment on the Jerusalem hill that bears his name. “Not a mourning parade was the funeral for Herzl’s bones in Jerusalem, but a victory march, victory of the vision that became reality,” Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion eulogized Herzl. In 2006, 56 years later, two of his children, Paulina and Hans, were reburied near him. A year later, his grandson’s remains were brought to Israel and in 2013 a memorial plaque was erected for Julia Herzl, who was cremated at her request and her ashes were lost over the years.
“The circle has been closed. All of the Herzl family have returned to be together, even if only symbolically,” Prof. Ariel Feldstein told Haaretz at the time. Feldstein was behind bringing Herzl’s children’s remains to Israel, as well as the plaque for Julia.
N’oublions pas qu’Apple avait en son temps supprimé de son App Store l’application ThirdIntifada sur demande des autorités israéliennes
Apple to hire hundreds of new Israeli employees - Business - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.654110
The tech giant will add up to 250 employees at its Herzliya R&D center. Israel is its biggest R&D center outside Cupertino, California.
On va vers une restriction de la liberté d’expression en Israël, comme l’explique si bien l’article de S. Cypel sur Orientxxi
Israel’s nuclear whistleblower detained over ’long conversation’ with foreigners - National - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.654095
Almost 30 years after Mordechai Vanunu exposed Israel’s alleged nuclear secrets, it seems he remains a hot target for the police and intelligence services. Vanunu disappeared last Thursday, on Israel’s Independence Day. A small group of his friends and acquaintances searched for him, but he did not answer his cell phone or respond to messages.
The mystery was only solved the next morning. Michael Sfard, a lawyer and human rights activist, revealed Wednesday that Vanunu spent many hours that evening at the police station in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. In a post on his Facebook page, Sfard said Vanunu was arrested by a group of seven Border Police officers and a female police officer, on suspicions he had violated the conditions governing his release from prison - when by chance he held a conversation in public with foreigners for more than half an hour.
Vanunu was sentenced in 1986 to 18 years in prison for treason and espionage, and was released in 2004 with harsh restrictions on his rights, including the requirement to report on his movements, a ban on his leaving Israel or approaching its borders, as well as a ban on speaking to foreigners.
Five years ago, Vanunu was imprisoned for three months for violating these restrictions. Last December, after Vanunu filed a petition, the head of the Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg, signed an order that somewhat eased these conditions. Under the new conditions, Vanunu is still not allowed to speak with foreigners, but he is allowed to “hold a chance conversation in person with foreign citizens or foreign residents, as long as it is a one-time conversation that is held face-to-face, not planned in advance, takes place in a public space open to the general public and which lasts for a period of no more than 30 minutes.”
Sfard said that on Independence Day, Vanunu sat in the international book store at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. While he was there, he spoke with two tourists who happened to enter the store. At some point the police entered the bookstore and arrested Vanunu and one of the people involved in the conversation. During his questioning at the Russian Compound police station, there was a long discussion over the question of how long the conversation in the bookstore went on, whether it lasted more than 30 minutes and how the calculation should be made because Vanunu spoke to two people at the same time.
Vanunu was released that evening after hours of questioning. Sfard included in his post two responses Vanunu sent from his Facebook account, which include photographs of the arrest. Vanunu can be seen being lead by two police officers, and he added captions to the pictures. Since his release, Vanunu has avoided contact with the Israeli media, and says he will continue to do so until he is allowed to speak to the foreign press too.
Saudi King Salman purging monarchy of Abdullah’s inner circle - Middle East - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.654210
After the first purge carried out by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in January, a few days after the death of his predecessor King Abdullah, comes the second round. It is not likely to be the last.
The first to be ousted was Abdullah’s inner orbit of loyalists, including his bureau chief, Khaled al-Tuwaijri, his two sons, Mashal (governor of Mecca) and Turki (governor of Riyyad), his intelligence chief Khalid bin Bandar and the latter’s father, Bandar bin Sultan, who headed the National Security Council.
The current round aims to ensure the line of succession. Among others, Salman ousted the crown prince, Muqrin bin Abdulaziz – Abdullah’s favorite – replacing him with the powerful Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef. The king appointed his son, Mohammed bin Salman, as deputy crown prince – that is, the man who will inherit the kingdom if Mohammed bin Nayef departs.
These moves are not surprising. From the beginning of Salman’s rule, it was clear that Prince Muqrin, once the failed intelligence chief, would not remain crown prince for long. Even Mohammed bin Salman’s appointment as deputy crown prince was expected, and not only because of his diplomatic skills and expertise on terrorism, which he acquired in numerous courses he took at the FBI Academy.
The distancing of Abdullah’s loyalists and strengthening of the Sudairi branch of the ruling family, of which Mohammed bin Nayef is a member, is part of a settling of scores with King Abdullah, whose reign saw a waning of the influence of the Sudairi princes – the sons of Hassa al-Sudairi, one of the 10 wives of Saudi Arabia’s first king, Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud).
If there is a surprise appointment, it is that of Adel al-Jubeir as foreign minister, replacing Saud al-Faisal, who designed and implemented Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy for four decades. Al-Faisal, 75, has Parkinson’s disease and it seems his request to leave office was authentic. Jubeir is the first Saudi foreign minister who is not a member of the royal family.
No change in foreign policy due
These appointments are part of internal housekeeping; they do not change the kingdom’s foreign policy. King Salman, despite his own health issues – he apparently suffers from Alzheimer’s – immediately made his mark when he intensified official public discourse against Iran, supported the establishment of an Arab intervention force and initiated the attack on the Houthis in Yemen to root out Iran’s influence in that country.
The strong man in the kingdom is no doubt Nayef, who will continue to serve both as interior minister and head of the National Security Council. He is the man who will implement foreign policy, one of whose principles is the effort to establish a “Sunni axis” against Iran.
As part of this effort, Saudi Arabia has changed its policy toward Turkey, and despite the rift between Egypt and Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was invited to visit the king. Nayef, who met with Erdogan in Turkey before that visit, set its agenda.
It seems that as part of the efforts toward a “Sunni axis,” Saudi Arabia will encourage Hamas to cut itself off entirely from Iran and return to the “Arab fold,” despite the ongoing enmity between Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s ally, and Hamas.
Salman’s son Mohammed, who is defense minister, is in his 30s, too young to be seen as successor to the throne, but that could change.
The main challenge before the new regime is to absorb the strategic changes expected to accompany the emerging nuclear agreement with Tehran, and the rapprochement between Iran and the United States. If and when sanctions on Iran are lifted, new oil will flow that is expected to grab an important share of the Saudi market. Saudi Arabia will also have to build up its influence in Syria and Iraq as a bulwark against Iranian power in those countries, especially if Iran proposes its own solution to the crisis in Syria.
La SNCF part en quête de solutions de transport connecté en Israël, Chutier
▻http://www.lesechos.fr/journal20150428/lec1_une/02134573145-la-sncf-part-en-quete-de-solutions-de-transport-connecte-en-isr
Le groupe a signé un « partenariat stratégique » avec Smart Transportation, dans la Silicon Wadi israélienne.
Toujours le racisme ordinaire et ses nombreux avatars… Cette fois la police cible un soldat de l’armée israélienne, d’origine éthiopienne. Oui, mais nous explique l’auteur de l’article, lui-même éthiopien, la police est elle-même constituée de juifs orientaux, qui ont eux-mêmes souffert du racisme...
Does anyone care about Israel’s institutionalized racism ? - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews
Danny Adeno Abebe
▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4651555,00.html
Op-ed: The attack on an Israeli Ethiopian by a police officer left everyone shocked because demeaning the IDF uniform was more painful than demeaning a young man.
Incidents like the recent brutal assault on an IDF soldier by police officers no longer shock Israel’s Ethiopian community; they’ve become a matter of routine for citizens who feel like the Israel Police’s punch bag.
Yes, that’s the reality in the neighborhoods in which the community resides. Police brutality is a daily occurrence. Not a day goes by without me getting a call from a mother whose son has been beaten for no reason, from a youth who is facing criminal charges, from a pedestrian who was stopped by police and slapped around a little. It’s become the way of life – and it’s all down to the color of our skin.
Something here just doesn’t make any sense. Why is it that a significant number of Ethiopian youths are walking around with criminal records? What makes an Ethiopian youth cross to the other side of the street when he sees a policeman on the sidewalk? How come those who, as Mizrahim, once cried discrimination are now the ones who are racist and violent?
Yes, it needs to be said loud and clear: The police force – from the commissioner and down to the very last officer – is comprised primarily of members of the Mizrahi ethnic groups.
The latest incident left everyone shocked because the victim of the police brutality was a soldier. The demeaning of the uniform was more painful than the demeaning of the young man. So how come racism directed against Ethiopian immigrants no longer moves anyone? Why do we no longer get excited when police officers beat Ethiopian youths and the case against them is closed? How come no one speaks up? How can it be that no one cares about racism?
Now is the time to issue a warning: Failure on the part of the police leadership to put a stop to the unrestrained brutality against immigrants of Ethiopian descent will lead to a black intifada, with harsh acts of violence – and you, too, will pay the price. Many members of the Ethiopian community feel they have been paying the price for three decades now – and the despair is mounting.
The prime minister condemned the attack on the Israel Defense Forces officer in Mea She’arim – and rightly so. But he chose not to condemn an attack on a soldier by a policeman. Perhaps because the victim isn’t an officer. Perhaps because he’s black. Or perhaps Benjamin Netanyahu, like many Israeli citizens, tends to turn a blind eye to the rising violence against Ethiopians.
Beware; a battered woman can be pushed too far too. One day, she will fight back or walk out to save her life. And we, members of the Ethiopian community, like that battered woman, are at that point in time.