1. Palestinian voices in Scotland
a> Yusuf El Helou
Yusuf worked as a journalist for Al Jazeera and Press TV throughout the 22 days of Israel’s attacks and massacres in Gaza in January.
Some of his family were murdered by the Israeli Army. He will be speaking at meetings in Scotland. Also participating will be members of the SPSC Delegation to the Palestine due back in Scotland shortly.
Tuesday 18th August 5.30pm
The Undercroft, 13 George St, under St Andrews & St Georges Church
Wednesday 19th August 7.30pm Islamic Centre, 31 Arlington St
Come and hear what the British Government is supporting in Gaza!
b> Ghada Karmi
Saturday 22nd August at 5.30pm in Wordpower Bookshop, W. Nicholson St.
Palestinian author of In Search of Fatima, in conversation with SPSC Chair, Mick Napier, on her latest book, Married to Another Man: Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine, the centrality of the boycott strategy and much else.
2. Israeli Antiquities Authority banned by World Archeological Congress
a> see also articles below
1. Corrupt Israeli archaeology in the service of ethnic cleansing
2. Another Israeli archeological atrocity – artefacts inconvenient to rabid Zionists were ‘disappeared’
3. Why Israel should be expelled from the World Archeological Congress
4. Why Israel should be expelled from the World Archeological Congress (2)
5. “Soldiers emptied all the money, in dinars, shekels and dollars, in plastic bags and left”
6. Challenges mounting to Zionist archaeology that ethnically cleanses the past
7. Israeli Army Drives 37 Families off ‘archeological site’ (UN Report)
(apologies if any links do not work – email secretary@scottishpsc.org.uk for full list of citations
1. Corrupt Israeli archaeology in the service of ethnic cleansing
Sunday, 28 September 2008 19:03
King David Recruited to Expel Palestinians When Archaeology Becomes a Curse
Jonathan Cook
When news emerged in June that…dozens of skeletons from the early Islamic period unearthed in Silwan close to the al Aqsa mosque had been discarded without inspection, no archaeologist would speak on the record. From just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, the simple stone and cinder-block homes of Silwan cascade southwards into a valley known as the Holy Basin.
The Palestinian residents are used to living in the shadow of history and religion, given dramatic physical form as the great silver dome of the al Aqsa mosque and the looming presence of the Mount of Olives. But of late, history has become a curse for most of Silwan’s residents.
“We have cameras everywhere watching us night and day,” said Jawad Siyam, 39. “Armed Israeli guards wander through our alleys. Our open areas, the places where I played as a child, have become no-go zones.”
…
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook09262008.html
2. Another Israeli archeological atrocity – artefacts inconvenient to rabid Zionists were ‘disappeared’
Monday, 02 June 2008 18:41
Islamic-era skeletons ‘disappeared’ from Elad-sponsored dig
01/06/2008 Meron Rapoport in Haaretz
Dozens of skeletons from the early Islamic period were discovered during excavations near the Temple Mount, on a site slated for construction by a right-wing Jewish organization. Contrary to regulations, the skeletons were removed, and were not reported to the Ministry of Religious Services.
The Israel Antiquities Authority termed the incident “a serious mishap.”
Full report in Haaretz
3. Why Israel should be expelled from the World Archeological Congress
Settlers, Archaeologists and Dispossession in Silwan
Archaeologists for Hire
By Yigal Bronner
In the early 1990s, a settler organization by the name of Elad (a Hebrew acronym for: To the City of David) began to plot its takeover of Silwan, a densely populated Palestinian neighborhood located a stone’s throw away from the Temple Mount and the Al Aqsa Mosque. Silwan is also home to one of the world’s most important archeological sites – the original Jerusalem where, according to the Biblical story, King David established his capital some 3000 years ago.
Today, ten years later, Elad fully controls Silwan. The Palestinian neighborhood is now dotted with a dozen settler outposts, clearly visible with their watchtowers, flags, and armed guards. Elad also runs the National park and visitors’ center, providing tourists with an extremely one-sided version of history.
Yigal Bronner’s full article is in Counterpunch
4. Why Israel should be expelled from the World Archeological Congress (2)
Israeli army steals historical artifact from northern part of the West Bank
May 27, 2008 by Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC News
Whilst in Palestine 2003 to 2005, I volunteered with a local group, Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange (PACE). Its director Dr. Adel Yahya told me how the Israeli authorities had lifted by helicopters Roman columns from a Palestinian village and taken them to the nearby Israeli settlement of Bet El. To tell the truth I was sceptical about this. It just seemed too far fetched. I admired Dr. Yahya and his work but I doubted the possibility that the Israeli authorities would do such a thing as I am sure many of you would. Reading the article below made me feel terrible to have doubted our friend.
(Personal note from Miriam)
Palestinian sources reported on Tuesday that the Israeli antiquities department under the protection of the Israeli army stole a stone coffin from the village of Sabastya, located near the city of Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank.
Full report in IMEMC
5. “Soldiers emptied all the money, in dinars, shekels and dollars, in plastic bags and left”
Monday, 18 February 2008 06:11
“they can do to us anything they want, they kill…they destroy…they bulldoze…and they steal our money”
by Khalid Amayreh, E. Jerusalem
On Monday, 11 February, and in broad day light, Israeli occupation soldiers raided dozens of homes, money changers and businesses throughout the West Bank after ordering “forces” answerable to Palestinian “Authority” Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to stay indoor until a further notice.
“They stormed my shop, trained their guns at me, and ordered me to give them the money, or else,” said one of the victims who implored this writer not to mention his name lest he be further savaged by the “most benevolent” occupying army.
His neighbor, a grocery store keeper, said the soldiers simply emptied all the money, in Jordanian Dinars, Israeli Shekels and US dollars, in plastic sacs, and left.
“They behaved like cowboys in the wide wild west in classical American movies,” he said.
I asked him to describe his feelings, having watched Israeli soldiers ganging up on his neighbor and robbing him of all his money and life-savings at one fell swoop…
“You see, they can do to us anything they want, they kill our children, they destroy our homes, they bulldoze our property, and they steal our money. And when we cry out for justice, they call us terrorists and dump us into detention camps like a piece of luggage.
“In brief, I’m talking about a criminal state that views us as creatures unworthy of living, very much like the Nazis viewed their victims more than 60 years ago.”
Raiding homes and businesses and stealing money is not the only gangsterly behavior of the Israeli state.
This week, the Israeli Minister of Interior instructed the police to arrest several Palestinians in East Jerusalem for daring to appeal to the Israeli High Court to order a halt to the bulldozing of ancient Muslim archeological sites adjacent to the Aqsa Mosque.
Full article from Palestine Information Centre
For other Israeli bank robberies see, for example Israeli Organised Crime
6. Challenges mounting to Zionist archaeology that ethnically cleanses the past
Sunday, 13 January 2008 11:14
Israel digs in over past
…in Israel, archaeology is politics…the past here belongs primarily to King David and other biblical figures, so present dominance in the area should also belong to Jews: this is irrespective of the fact that some 40,000 people live in the lower-income Palestinian Silwan area, where the digging is going on.
7. Israeli Army Drives 37 Families off ‘archeological site’ (UN Report)
Tuesday, 25 December 2007 07:47
“The best thing about Khirbet Qassa was the grazing land. We had open spaces. Now we’ve become dependent on other people and their land,” said Abdel Halim Nattah, a shepherd in the southern West Bank.
Several weeks earlier he and all his fellow villagers, 37 families numbering 272 people, were evacuated by the Israeli military from Qassa and told to find a new home somewhere else.
The Israel Civil Administration said the land the Palestinians were living on was an archaeological site under state auspices, and the villagers had been given warnings about the impending evacuation.
“They came at 7:30 in the morning,” one villager told IRIN. “We sent away the women, children and sheep. An old man pleaded with the soldiers saying ‘we will move ourselves’. They gave us until the next afternoon, and said anyone remaining would be arrested and anything left confiscated.”
When the villagers told the soldiers they had nowhere to go, the response was: “That’s not our problem. This is state land.”
Some villagers noted that Qassa sits between Israel’s separation barrier and the pre-1967 Green Line border, and felt this was a factor in the eviction.
For most of Khirbet Qassa’s inhabitants, this was not the first time their families had been forcibly moved, as 29 of the 37 families are registered refugees with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The older members of these families came to Qassa from Beit Jubrin, in what is now Israel, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
“Starting all over again in the winter of 2007 is not easy,” said Abdel Halim, aged 63.
Lost fodder
“We had food for a year for our sheep, but all of a sudden it’s gone. It’s a shock,” Khaled al Aghberiya, a 37-year-old father of five, told IRIN. When the Israeli military came in late October to remove the villagers, many of their belongings, including 240 tonnes of fodder, 180 feeding devices and several water tanks were destroyed.
“The fodder is the main issue. We bought so much and we lost it. We will have to sell some of our sheep to replace it,” Khaled said. With the increasing cost of fodder, the economic burden will be extensive.
They also miss the water well in their old village. For now, aid agencies like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Action Against Hunger have provided water and tanks, but eventually they will have to buy water, something they rarely did in the past.
“The community has been on that land since 1948 and they are totally dependent on the land and water resources there,” said Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories. “Having been moved, they will be in increased poverty and hardship as they don’t have any alternative sources to make a living except herding.”
After their evictions, most of the villagers went to nearby Idhna village where they have friends and family.
“This is my home for now. All of us, 29 people, sleep here at night,” said Abdel Halim, standing inside a half built building he accesses using a wooden plank which goes through what will one day be a window frame. All the other gaping holes are covered by plastic, and the only source of heat is a coal grill.
The impact of the forced move has affected many children. “My daughter, she is nine, all of sudden now she wakes up in the middle of the night. My other children started to wet their bed,” said a concerned father. His wife, three months pregnant at the time of the eviction, miscarried the next day, he said.
For the proud shepherds, having to ask for help is not easy. “Since 1948 we never asked for anything from the [UN and aid] agencies. Now we need help,” said Khaled.
“But we don’t want any charity. Give us job creation programs. If we have to we’ll sell our sheep and contribute to funding for education programs. If they train us, we will make sure it becomes a sustainable source of income,” he said, worried that he and his fellow herders will never find another suitable grazing area to call home.
This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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(Submitted by Ingrid B. Mork)