LEAKED ISRAELI DOCUMENT GIVES FRIGHTENING GLIMPSE OF APARTHEID
By Ali Abunimah,
The Electronic Intifada, 25 January 2007
electronicintifada.net
ISRAELI MINISTRY OF DEFENSE DOCUMENT PROVIDES GLIMPSE INTO
THE MINDSET OF APARTHEID'S BUREAUCRACY, OUTLINES MOVEMENT
RESTRICTIONS, BUREAUCRATIC ETHNIC CLEANSING, POLITICAL
MANIPULATION AND ATTEMPT TO FOSTER COLLABORATORS. READ
EI'S SUMMMARY AND ANALYSIS BELOW. FOR IMAGES AND TO
DOWNLOAD THE FULL DOCUMENT VISIT THE LINK ABOVE.
President Jimmy Carter angered Israel and its friends by
describing "the abominable oppression and persecution in
the occupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system
of required passes and strict segregation between
Palestine's citizens and Jewish settlers in the West
Bank."
Now, The Electronic Intifada has obtained an Israeli
Ministry of Defense Powerpoint presentation which provides
a frightening glimpse into the mindset of the bureaucracy
of apartheid.
The first page of the document bears the name
"Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories"
as well as the acronym "COGAT" at the bottom of each page.
These appear to refer to the unit of the Israeli army that
enforces the occupation against the Palestinian civilian
population.
The top of the first slide also bears the names and
insignia of the "State of Israel" and the "Ministry of
Defense." Dated January 12, the presentation is titled
"Key Measures for easing the daily lives of the
Palestinian Population."
Far from that, the document provides detail of the regime
of severe movement restrictions, bureaucratic ethnic
cleansing and political manipulation and fostering of
collaborators that Israel operates in the the occupied
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The document, in English, appears to be genuine. While its
exact purpose or audience is not known, it may have been
designed to impress foreign diplomats with Israel's
generosity to the Palestinians.
Among the policies the document outlines are:
-Efforts to "empower Abu-Mazen" (Palestinian Authority
chairman Mahmoud Abbas) by facilitating entry of "security
equipment for the Presidential Guard" donated by foreign
countries. (The United States recently announced that it
would provide millions of dollars of weapons and equipment
to this unit which serves as a personal militia for Abbas
and his Fatah faction who seek to overthrow the
democratically-elected Hamas government).
-Providing special privileges for "the movement of VIPs
and senior Palestinians" and others allies of Abbas,
including "facilitating movement without security checks."
These special privileges, not available to millions of
Palestinians are intended for "Strengthening Abu-Mazen,"
presumably at the expense of the democratically-elected
Hamas-led cabinet and legislative council dozens of whose
members, far from enjoying VIP treatment, have been
kidnapped and are being held without charge or trial by
Israeli occupation forces.
-Special permits for 505 Palestinian "businessmen,"
allowing them to be exempt from the pass laws that forbid
overnight stays by Palestinians in Israel. They will also
be subject to fewer security checks. This privileged class
may also benefit from the "Possible return of $60 Million
from the frozen tax money to the private sector, subject
to identification of the businessman, and the formation of
a working mechanism." This could possibly indicate that
Israel, in collusion with Abbas, seeks to misappropriate
Palestinian public assets it has illegally seized,
bypassing the Palestinian Authority Finance Ministry and
redistributing them to Abbas cronies.
-With frightening precision, allowing "42,899" Palestinian
laborers to work "in Israel and the settlements" and
exempting 2,000 Palestinian agricultural laborers from the
pass laws so that "overnight stay in Israel" is
"permitted." Of these workers, a mere 1,600 would be
permitted to enter occupied East Jerusalem, the largest
Palestinian city in the West Bank.
Millions of Palestinians around the world are forbidden
from visiting or living in their country due to Israeli
restrictions and laws that discriminate against non-Jews.
A privileged few Palestinians have been able to do so,
however, by virtue of their citizenship in the United
States or European countries, whose citizens are generally
allowed to enter Israel without visas as tourists. Even
this precarious existence has recently been threatened by
the new Israeli practice of denying them re-entry if they
leave the country for any reason. While the document
claims these restrictions will be eased, it also confirms
the policy of prohibiting ordinary family life for
Palestinians. Palestinians (always referred to as "foreign
nationals") with foreign passports, even those with
spouses and families Israel does recognize as residents,
will be limited to a total cumulative stay not exceeding
27 months in their country. No other country calling
itself a democracy systematically treats indigenous people
as foreigners and deports them in this manner breaking
apart families in the process.
Finally, the document lists a number of catergories of
"humanitarian" workers who will be given some leeway from
the strict pass laws. These include 1,450 religious
personnel, 1,300 hospital employees, 300 hotel workers,
and lawyers, teachers and residents of an enclave in
occupied East Jerusalem that has been besieged by settlers
and the apartheid wall.
Amidst a system of ruthless and obsessive control such as
the one Israel operates against Palestinians, not even
this token 'easing' designed purely for public relations
can be taken for granted; Israel routinely lies about what
it does. For example, during a summit meeting with Mahmoud
Abbas in December, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert
promised to remove dozens of checkpoints and obstacles
impeding the movement of Palestinians inside the occupied
West Bank. The Israeli occupation forces later claimed to
have removed 44 of the hundreds of obstacles in
fulfillment of Olmert's pledge. In fact, the Israeli
newspaper Ha'aretz reported on January 22, the Israeli
army "admitted on Sunday that the 44 dirt obstacles it
said had been removed from around West Bank villages did
not actually exist."
What does exist, and is plain for all the world to see, is
a horrifying regime of totalitarian control of millions of
Palestinians who remain prisoners of Israel's racist
system and the army and settler militias that enforce it. |
