Zitat:Europeans divided on Israel

A poll conducted in Europe reveals growing disconnect between governments and people over the policy on Israel.
Daud Abdullah Last Modified: 13 Mar 2011 05:04 GMT
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While European governments individually and collectively pay regular homage to Israeli democracy - they say it is the only democracy in the Middle East - their public is reluctant to do so. Thirty-four per cent of the 7,045 people polled believe Israel is not a democracy, while less than half, or 45 per cent, believe it is.

In Italy and Spain, a staggering 41 per cent believe Israel is not a democracy. By expressing the views they did, the European public appears to be saying to their governments; our loyalties are to the principles of democracy and not to career politicians who profess allegiance but act differently.

One striking reason for this indictment of Israeli democracy has been its "illegal" actions and gross disregard for international standards of conduct. Half of Europeans, 53 per cent view the siege of the Gaza Strip as illegal, 60 per cent said the 2008-09 ground invasion of the territory was illegal; while 64 per cent said Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla in May 2010 was illegal. The message emerging from the survey, it seems, is that future European support has to be earned and it would not be given gratis on the basis of pretence or partial adherence to international norms.

In a related matter, more than one-third of those polled (34 per cent) said that Jews with citizenship of a European country should not be allowed to serve in the Israeli army; this compares to only 17 per cent who said they should.

Israel as 'occupying power'

The shift taking place today is a rejection of the "war on terror" paradigm, which was cynically used as cover to deny Palestinians fundamental right to freedom. Europeans have, therefore, returned to the basic formula of occupied and occupier. The poll uncovered a better understanding of the nature of the Israeli occupation.

It showed that 49 per cent of respondents recognised Israel as the occupying power; 22 per cent said they did not know if it was. When the University of Glasgow conducted its study in Britain in 2001 it found that 71 per cent did not know that it was the Israelis who were occupying the territories.
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Zitat:Thirty-four per cent of the 7,045 people polled believe Israel is not a democracy

Zitat:Israel seizes Egypt-bound ship 'with weapons for Gaza'

Israeli commandos have intercepted an Egypt-bound ship Israel says was carrying arms for militant groups in the Gaza Strip. The German-owned vessel - the Victoria - was on its way from Turkey to the Egyptian port of Alexandria, it said. [...]

"On the boat we discovered many weapons destined for terror groups in the heart of Gaza," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The source of the weapons was Iran which is trying to arm the Strip." [...]

The Liberian-flagged vessel was chartered by a French company, the military said. It departed from Lattakia port in Syria to Mersin port in Turkey, from where it set off bound for Alexandria, it said.

Zitat:Israels Ex-Präsident Katsav muss ins Gefängnis

Schuldig gesprochen war er schon, jetzt steht das Strafmaß: Ein Gericht in Tel Aviv hat Israels ehemaligen Präsidenten Mosche Katsav zu sieben Jahren Haft und zwei Jahren Bewährung verurteilt. Der 65-Jährige war wegen Vergewaltigung angeklagt worden.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,752377,00.html


Israelische Luftwaffe attackiert Militante im Gaza-Streifen

Die israelischen Streitkräfte haben auf den Raketenbeschuss aus dem Gaza-Streifen mit Luftangriffen reagiert. Sie bombardierten Tunnel und Waffenlager militanter Palästinenser. Nach palästinensischen Angaben wurden 17 dabei Menschen verletzt, auch Kinder.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,752412,00.html

Zitat:Gaza-Streifen

Jugendliche sterben bei israelischen Angriffen

Im Grenzgebiet zwischen Israel und dem Gaza-Streifen eskaliert die Gewalt: Sieben Palästinenser kamen durch israelische Angriffe ums Leben - darunter offenbar drei Jugendliche. Die Regierung in Jerusalem bedauert den Vorfall, der militärische Flügel der Hamas kündigte Vergeltung an.

Gaza - Bei mehreren Luft-, Panzer- und Artillerieangriffen der israelischen Armee im Gaza-Streifen sind am Dienstag nach Angaben von Augenzeugen und Rettungskräften mindestens sieben Palästinenser getötet und zahlreiche weitere zum Teil schwer verletzt worden. [...]

Die israelische Armee bestätigte den Angriff, bei dem die Jugendlichen getötet wurden. Ein Armeesprecher begründete die Angriffe mit dem fortwährenden Granaten- und Raketenbeschuss aus dem Gaza-Streifen. Soldaten hätten in die Richtung geschossen, aus der unmittelbar zuvor militante Palästinenser vier Mörsergranaten auf das israelische Grenzgebiet abgefeuert hätten. Nach Angaben der israelischen Armee sind seit Jahresbeginn bereits mehr als 130 Granaten und Raketen aus dem Gaza-Streifen auf israelischem Gebiet eingeschlagen, allein über 60 in der zurückliegenden Woche.

Zitat:25 hurt in Jerusalem bombing

Terror in capital: Explosive device explodes at phone booth near Jerusalem bus stop Wednesday afternoon; at least three people sustain serious wounds in blast. Police searching for more bombs in area

Zitat:Israeli attacks kill eight in Gaza

Victims include children and armed fighters, as raids continue in the Gaza Strip.
Last Modified: 22 Mar 2011 17:30

At least eight Palestinians, including children, have been killed in mortar attacks and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.

The deaths occurred in two separate attacks on the eastern part of Gaza City on Tuesday, witnesses said.

Two of the dead were aged 11 and 16, and four of them were from the al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, a spokesman for the group said.
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The latest incident also comes after at least 19 people were wounded in a series of raids on Monday, in the northern town of Beit Lahiya and Gaza City.

Witnesses said a security compound for Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, a training camp north of the city and a brickworks and metal foundry in northern Gaza were among the targets.
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Zitat: Two Grad rockets from Gaza reach deep into Israel

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired two Grad rockets at southern Israel on Thursday, as cross-border tensions continued to escalate. One of the rockets struck north of the city of Ashdod and the other exploded near Yavneh, some 25 kilometers south of Tel Aviv.

A Grad rocket hit Ashdod and another two struck Be'er Sheva on Wednesday, as well, prompting the Israel Air Force to launch a series of attacks against militant groups and smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

Zitat: 26.03.2011

Nahost-Konflikt
Spiel mit dem Feuer

Von Ulrike Putz, Beirut

Israel droht mit Vergeltung, die Hamas verordnet ihren Anhängern Ruhe. Dabei hat die radikalislamische Organisation die Gewalt selbst angezettelt - um davon abzulenken, dass ihre Macht schwindet.
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Zitat:Boycotting Israel ... from within
Israelis explain why they joined the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement.

It was Egypt that got me thinking about the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement in a serious way. I was already conducting a quiet targeted boycott of settlement goods - silently reading labels at the grocery store to make sure I was not buying anything that came from over the Green Line.

I had been doing this for a long time. But, at some point, I realised that my private targeted boycott was a bit naïve. And I understood that it was not enough.

It is not just the settlements and the occupation, two sides of the same coin, which pose a serious obstacle to peace and infringe on the Palestinians' human rights. It is everything that supports them - the government and its institutions. It is the bubble that many Israelis live in, the illusion of normality. It is the Israeli feeling that the status quo is sustainable.
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'Israel's mask of democracy'

Leehee Rothschild, 26, is one of the scores of Israelis who have answered the 2005 Palestinian call for BDS. Recently her Tel Aviv apartment was raided. While the police did this under the pretense of searching for drugs, she was taken to the station for a brief interrogation that focused entirely on politics.

"The person who came to release me [from interrogation] was an intelligence officer who said that he is in charge of monitoring political activity in the Tel Aviv area," Rothschild says. It was this officer who had requested the search warrant.

Since Operation Cast Lead, Israeli activists have reported increasing pressure from the police as well as General Security Services - known by their Hebrew acronym, Shabak.
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Zitat:Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes
by Richard Goldstone

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.

Nightwatch schrieb:....
Wird aber natürlich ignoriert werden, passt nicht in das Weltbild der Journalie.

Zitat:Gut zwei Jahre nach dem Gaza-Krieg
Goldstone relativiert eigenen UN-Bericht

Nach einem einschränkenden Artikel des südafrikanischen Richters Richard Goldstone hat Israel eine Aufhebung seines Berichts zu dem Gaza-Krieg vor gut zwei Jahren gefordert. Goldstone hatte in der "Washington Post" geschrieben, es gebe inzwischen erheblich mehr Informationen zu dem Krieg. "Wenn ich gewusst hätte, was ich heute weiß, wäre der Goldstone-Bericht ein anderes Dokument", schrieb der Vorsitzende der UN-Kommission, die Israel und der im Gazastreifen herrschenden Hamas Kriegsverbrechen vorgeworfen hatte.
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Stand: 03.04.2011 11:27 Uhr

Zitat:Israel: Bericht zum Gaza-Krieg
Goldstone nimmt Vorwürfe gegen Israel zurück

03.04.2011, 18:04
Von Peter Münch

575 Seiten dick war sein Untersuchungsbericht, und das Urteil war vernichtend: Israel habe absichtlich Zivilisten unter Beschuss genommen, hatte Richard Goldstone, Autor des Berichtes zum Gaza-Krieg 2008/2009, im vergangenen Jahr geschrieben. Jetzt revidiert der renommierte Richter seine Einschätzung.
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