Just a hello to everyone. I have not posted here in quite a while but the history contained here is still relevent. Hope it is helpful to all who read this simple compilation.
Dr.Mary

This is being included to show Israeli thought and what is often said publicly. There are innaccuracies but it is worth knowing what is said any way. ... Dr. Mary

from: Arutz....IsraeliNationalNews.com
Lieberman: Complete Disengagement, Declare Gaza Enemy State
Politicians and public figures have weighed in over the past days with suggestions for how to bring an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza.

Lieberman: Complete Disengagement, Declare Gaza Enemy State
Rocket Report: Electricity Knocked Out in Sderot
Russians Bidding for Control in Downtown Jerusalem
Public Figures Express Regret For Disengagement
Background: History of PA Shelling Against Israel
Poll: Israelis Finished With Withdrawals
Inventor of Pal-Kal Sentenced to Four Years
Audio: Bush Declined to Meet Chief Rabbi Metzger Over Pollard

1. Lieberman: Complete Disengagement, Declare Gaza Enemy State
by Ezra HaLevi

Politicians and public figures have weighed in over the past days with suggestions for how to bring an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman announced a plan Thursday that calls for a “completion of the Disengagement.” Lieberman explained to Army Radio: “We expelled all the Jews from Gaza and left there completely, but still provide it with economic support, water and electricity. We must sever all connections with Gaza and declare it an independent enemy entity,” he said. “There is no reason Egypt cannot supply the electricity and water for Gaza and let the European Union build infrastructure and provide security if they care about the poor Palestinians so much,” he added. “Membership in the axis of evil has a heavy price—financially, politically, and militarily.”

Lieberman said his plan includes a complete closure of all crossings between Gaza and Israel through which PA Arab workers currently cross into Israel and through which aid passes to Gaza. His plan also calls for bombing Gaza neighborhood in response to rocket-fire, ending visitation rights for PA terrorists until kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is released, severing Gaza from Judea and Samaria and stopping diplomatic contacts with any and all PA officials, including Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.

NATO troops would be called upon to provide security and the European Union would be invited to provide infrastructure and jobs for PA Arabs.

Lieberman said the plan would come into effect in 2008 and be modeled after how Israel related to the Sinai after withdrawal. "Just as Israel did not continue to provide anything to Sinai after it withdrew, there is no reason why it should act any differently toward Gaza, especially in the current situation," he said. The Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) chairman said he would present his plan to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the rest of the government Thursday.

Other Proposals
Ministers Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) and Rafi Eitan (Pensioners) proposed a concept similar to Lieberman's, in terms of the IDF’s response to Kassam rockets, at Wednesday’s Security Cabinet meeting. They suggested that Israel produce its own version of the Kassam rocket and fire it at targets in Gaza each time Kassams are fired toward Israel.

They said such a rocket would cost very little but recreate the psychological pressure felt by residents of Sderot among Gaza’s civilian population.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishai (Shas) suggested that Israel launch air strikes to destroy entire PA villages in response to rocket fire, after warning the Arab residents to vacate their homes. Fellow Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen suggested Israel cut off electricity, water and gas to Gaza – an idea backed by Shabak (General Security Service) chief Yuval Diskin and rehashed in Lierbman’s proposal.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly rejected those proposals, but ordered the IDF to continue to apply pressure via targeted killings and air strikes on Hamas targets.

Left-wing MKs Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) and Zahava Gal-On (Meretz), meanwhile, have been enthusiastically promoting a plan to invite the Arab league to take responsibility for Gaza and coordinate a multi-national force together with the European Union to deploy there. The two say they have presented the idea to European and PA officials and plan to present it to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has expressed interest in the deployment of foreign troops along Israel’s Gaza border.

Minister Rafi Eitan (Pensioners) recently suggested a similar idea, involving bringing Egyptian troops into Gaza and Jordanians into Judea and Samaria. "The same thing [as happened following the Second Lebanon War – the deployment of international troops –ed.] sooner or later, will happen in the Gaza Strip, with the senior partner in such a force being Egypt because it has no choice," Eitan told government radio.

“When the Egyptians are there, when 500 or 600 (Palestinian) civilians are killed, no one will say anything. That is what will eventually happen. We are getting there, gradually.” Eitan added that he also sees a future deployment of Jordanians in Judea and Samaria.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, speaking at a Tel Aviv University conference Wednesday evening, said that Israel has no plans to enter Gaza, because "restraint is power.” Peretz added later on in the speech that “if there is no choice, the IDF will operate in Gaza.”

2. Rocket Report: Electricity Knocked Out in Sderot
by Hillel Fendel

Of two Kassam rockets fired from Gaza at Israel Thursday morning, one landed at the entrance to a kibbutz in the western Negev. No one was hurt, but a wheat field was set on fire.

Just two days ago, Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon announced that the farming communities around Gaza would be eligible for a total of 800,000 shekels ($200,000) for the purpose of quickly harvesting their fields. Many wheat fields have been burnt in the past two weeks by Kassam rockets, just as they were about to be harvested.

Wednesday's five rockets to Sderot caused heavy damage to two houses and knocked out electricity in parts of the city.

The "Color Red" warning siren did not go off before some of the rockets hit - a situation that residents say is particularly frightening. In last night's direct hit, however, the warning system was activated, and the family was able to hide in its protected room and thus save their lives. Parts of the city were left in darkness around the same time when another rocket hit an electric pole. Electricity was restored only at 5 AM around the area of the explosion, and by midnight for the rest.

Earlier Wednesday, just minutes after noon, another home in Sderot was hit directly by a Kassam rocket; no one was home at the time. Six people were evacuated to the Shock Treatment Center in Sderot, however.

Meanwhile, the father of a boy who died last week is saying his son was a Kassam rocket victim - yet he has not been recognized as such. Israel Radio's southern region correspondent Nissim Keinan reported Thursday morning that a 13-year-old boy, Chai Shalom, died last week in Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva after being wounded in a Kassam attack. Deaf, mute, and suffering from cerebral palsy, he and three other children were wounded when a rocket exploded near their bus; the woman bus driver was able only to open the door and cry out for help before fainting. Though the boy has not, as of yet, been governmentally recognized as a terror victim, Welfare Minister Yitzchak Herzog said that now that he has been informed of the matter, he would look into it.

Ten people are listed as having died as a result of Kassam rocket attacks - the last two being Shir'el Friedman of Sderot and Oshri Oz of Hod HaSharon over the past ten days. Chai Shalom's death brings the total to eleven.

In the midst of yesterday's rockets, the Quartet - the US, UN, EU and Russia, convening in Berlin - condemned the Arabs' rocket fire at Israel, while also warning Israel not to "over-react." The Quartet representatives said Israel must not respond by harming civilians or damaging civilian infrastructures.

In other PA violence, two Arabs were killed Wednesday night in Shechem when a car exploded near them. The car was apparently being prepared by Fatah terrorists as a car bomb to be used against IDF forces.

3. Russians Bidding for Control in Downtown Jerusalem
by Hillel Fendel

If current negotiations with the Russians succeed, a large complex in central Jerusalem will be handed over to control of the Russian government.

The area in question is part or all of what is known as the Russian Compound, so named because it was built and once owned by the Russian government. It was originally constructed as one of the first complexes outside the Old City of Jerusalem, for the purpose of housing the thousands of Christian Russian pilgrims who wished to visit the holy city.

Though the 17-acre area in the heart of Jerusalem, between Jaffa, HaNeviim, and Shivtei Yisrael Streets, was once a bustling center with impressively-built structures, it now is used largely as a courthouse and detention center. The Russian government has of late informed various Israeli Prime Ministers that it would like to reclaim the area - at a price of $100 million.

Secret Talks
Negotiations have been underway during the regimes of Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert - very secretly, so as not to arouse the expected storm of public protest.

Despite the secret nature of the talks, Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen reports that Foreign Ministry sources say the talks "regarding the Russian property are proceeding to the satisfaction of both sides... though a final agreement has not yet been reached." The Foreign Ministry wishes to emphasize that the area is not being sold, but rather being "returned" to its former owners.

It is assumed that the deal will only be finalized after the Jerusalem Magistrates Court is able to be relocated to a new building currently being constructed.

A Historic Spot
Legend says that the current-day location of the Russian Compound was the jump-off point for the armies of both Sennacherib and Titus in their respective military campaigns, centuries apart, against the Jewish city. (Sennacherib lost, Titus succeeded.)

4. Public Figures Express Regret For Disengagement
by Ezra HaLevi

The Yesha Council of Judea, Samaria and Gaza communities has published a collection of statements by public figures who supported or helped implement the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria and have since expressed regret. The following are some of the statements:

Maj.-Gen (ret.) Yiftah Ron-Tal, IDF ground forces commander at the time of the Disengagement: In the year preceding the Disengagement, the army trained mostly for dismantling communities, and that prevented it from preparedness for the war in Lebanon. The training for the Disengagement not only prevented preparedness for such a war, but dragged it away from the consensus as a people’s army. It is nearly certain that the excitement of those who led the decision and implementation of this is directly tied to the big failure in Lebanon…I still cannot understand how Israel gave up parts of its land willingly and with abandon, and how the residents connected to that land were turned into criminals, instead of raising their dedication as a banner of preserving the Jewish identity of the state of Israel.
- Kfar Chabad weekly, October 6, 2006

Ilana Dayan, Journalist, Host of Popular ‘Uvda’(Fact) Program on Channel 2: How come nobody is standing up and asking where this rain of Kassams is coming from? Why didn’t we ask the deep questions? Why didn’t we wonder whether this was the right way – even for those of us who wanted to divide the land? Why did we only examine the Disengagement when ‘orange’ youth burned tires in the street? Why did [Sharon confidant and Disengagement architect] Dov Weisglas not tell us there would be a rain of Kassams on Sderot? Because this wasn’t popular and because there was a strong prime minister [Ariel Sharon] with a firm hold on the central hubs of the media.
- address at B’nai Brith journalism prize ceremony, June 22, 2006

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, Chairman of the National Security Council and one of the Disengagement’s chief architects: There was no forward contemplation. The Disengagement contributed nothing to a solution to the conflict…There was no discussion of its merits. When I was tasked with planning it, all that existed was the word ‘Disengagement’ used by Sharon at the Herzliya Conference…I was given four months to plan, but Dov Weisglas was already committing to the Americans and leaking details of the withdrawal plans to the press…The paradigm of two states for two nations is not implementable. Perhaps the whole world agrees to it, but on the ground, it simply cannot be done.
- Haaretz, June 1, 2006

Avri Gilad, broadcaster and TV personality who supported Disengagement: I supported the Disengagement. I was mistaken. The way it was carried out was a crime.
-Maariv, January 23, 2007

From a practical perspective, pragmatic and seeing the situation for what it is – the orange public was right…Large segments of the public supported the plan out of general ideological reasons.
-Army Radio, HaMilah Acharona, June 26, 2006

Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff at the time the government decided to carry out the Disengagement: “There is no escaping the fact that the background leading to the decision was a political crisis – the decline in support for the prime minister, and added to that was a personal crisis – the investigations into corruption…Examining the Disengagement in hindsight opposite Israel’s interests, it was the worst possible…Israel withdrew from every millimeter, including evacuating settlements, received nothing in return, and thus created a very problematic precedent.”
- Maariv, February 24, 2006

Ron Ben Yishai, senior journalist for military affairs: The fact that they mixed the IDF up with the Disengagement, that the army was forced to do the job of the police, was a heavy blow to motivation. Not to mention that the IDF didn’t train for an entire year, during which it dealt only with evacuations. We have to put the IDF back in uniform.
- Army Radio, Ma Boer, February 14, 2007

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a major backer of the Disengagement: The more we take the army out of the territories, the more terror nests develop.
- Address to the Center For Local Government, January 4, 2007

Professor Aaron Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel Prize Laureate for Chemistry, vocal Disengagement advocate: I supported the idea of Disengagement last year, which seemed to me an act of unilateral volunteerism toward the Palestinians. I hoped our kindness would be returned, but I was mistaken. After our unilateral withdrawal we received only terrorism and more terrorism. The unilateral idea is bankrupt and along with it the party soap bubble of a party that was established on its basis.
- Yediot Acharonot, October 27, 2006

Yoel Marcus, left-wing commentator for Haaretz and ardent Disengagement supporter: To my great sorrow, it now seems that the extremist and pessimistic settlers were those who were right. The Palestinians do not wish to recognize Israel and have not accepted its existence. And now, with the election of Hamas, they again are not missing any opportunity to miss an opportunity…They turned the communities of Gush Katif into launch sites against residents of the Negev and particularly the town of Sderot. The warnings of Ariel Sharon and Dan Halutz that ‘If they will fire Kassams after Gaza is evacuated, Israel’s response will be harsh’ has not really frightened them.
-Haaretz, November 21, 2006

Hillel Halkin, Author and political commentator: Indeed, splitting the Likud was a bad thing. But so, it is necessary to say two years later, was disengagement. Those who were for it, like myself, were wrong. Those who were against it, like Mr. Netanyahu, were right...At great economic cost and at the price of a deep inner rift in Israeli society that still has not healed, 8,000 Jewish settlers were uprooted from their homes in return for supposed benefits, none of which has materialized. Gaza has become more, not less, of a military menace to Israel; Palestinian politics and the Palestinian street have become more, not less, radicalized; Israel's public image as an occupying country has not significantly improved in the world; and further unilateral disengagement in the West Bank as a possible way of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has turned out to be a chimera, in large measure because of the failure of what was supposed to be its Gazan first stage.
-New York Sun, May 29, 2007

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the first to float Ariel Sharon's Disengagement plan to the media: It must be said that that the experience we had in Lebanon and Gaza are not encouraging. We completely withdrew from Gaza, and every day they fire Kassam rockets on Israelis.
- Interview with Chinese media, January 8, 2007

Yaron London, Ynet commentator and host of Channel 10 London & Kirshenbaum Show, supported Disengagement: Nothing was built on the rubble except for terrorist training camps…The wall does not guarantee quiet: Kassams fly over it and terrorists dig under it.
- Ynet, June 26, 2006

Meirav Michaeli, TV anchor and radio personality identified with left-wing and feminist activism: The Disengagement left thousands of families without a home, escalated the situation in Gaza and did not advance the security situation at all.
- Ynet, February 19, 2007

Vice-Premier Shimon Peres, Oslo Accords architect and withdrawal proponent: The Disengagement idea is over. There will not be a repeat in Judea and Samaria of the Gaza withdrawal. There will not be a massive evacuation of settlements…Public opinion is against the idea of another unilateral Disengagement. Therefore, this won’t occur, at least in the next five year, or even the next decade.
- Yediot Acharonot, September 8, 2006

Yehoshua Sobol, author and prominent left-wing spokesperson and proponent of left-wing refusal to serve in the IDF: Nothing is being built there [in Gaza] these days. Nothing – nothing but destructive activities. This assumption, that it is enough or us to leave territory in order for the other side to stop its attacks has proven false…I do not want to see a situation where we once again fold, in Judea and Samaria, and the next day Kassam rockets begin to be fired on Kfar Saba, Raanana and Herzliya.
- Reshet Bet, July 27, 2006

Shabak (General Security Service) chief Yuval Diskin: The Disengagement was first and foremost a process of uprooting. There is in Israel a Laundromat of words. They call it an evacuation or all sorts of other things, but there was an uprooting here.
- Lecture at the pre-army academy in Eli, February 6, 2007

IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh: I claimed from the beginning that there was not [a single] security consideration in the Disengagement. This was a purely political decision whose motivations will perhaps someday be investigated.
- Maariv, April 19, 2007

Yair Lapid, popular TV personality and commentator: The Disengagement was not carried out despite the settlers but because of them. It never had anything to do with the Palestinians, with demographics, with a peace agreement, with the IDF or with any of the other explanations given and reviewed over and over. The drive was one thing: to teach the settlers a lesson in modesty. The Disengagement is now examined with other tools – political, strategic and demographic – and it doesn’t stand up to the test, especially while Kassams are falling on Sderot and Ashkelon.
- Yediot Acharonot, October 13, 2006

We left Lebanon and the Hizbullah attack us from Lebanon. We left Gaza and the terror groups attack us from Gaza. The region that is most quiet right now is Judea and Samaria. Even the biggest leftists are faced with the creeping heretical though: perhaps it wasn’t the occupation?
-Yediot Acharonot, column

MK Amira Dotan (Kadima), head of the Knesset committee for Gush Katif evacuees, supported the Disengagement: In hi-tech, when you do something, you examine it fully before you say it is OK. Here, we did something without examining what would happen afterward. There was no working model created beforehand.
- HaTzofeh, August 6, 2006

Absorption Minister Ze’ev Boim, who supported the Disengagement as Deputy Defense Minister in the Sharon government and left the Likud to join Kadima: From the beginning, the plan had some question marks which, after the fact, became clear were serious defects in the plan. We lost the Philadelphi Corridor [between Gaza and Egypt, though which weapons and explosives are smuggled –ed.]. It was a mistake to give up control of Philadelphi.
-Jerusalem Conference address, March 20, 2007

Senior TV newsanchor Dan Margalit, a strong supporter of Disengagement: Ehud Olmert has lost the mandate for a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria that he received when elected on the platform of such a withdrawal. When such a withdrawal is once again presented, I will think again before choosing it at the ballot box.
- Maariv, July 28, 2006

Maj.-Gen. Gershon HaCohen, who commanded the Disengagement and expressed his public agreement with it prior to implementation: What happened last year was a crime, and I was part of this crime against the Jewish nation. What is happening now – the Second Lebanon War – is the punishment for what happened last year.
- on visit to bereaved family, August 24, 2006

5. Background: History of PA Shelling Against Israel
by Hillel Fendel

On Jan 31, 2001, for the first time in the Oslo War, Arabs shot a mortar shell into Netzarim, a Jewish town in central Gaza. The rocket hit and damaged a house, but no one was hurt. Two more mortar shells were fired at Netzarim over the next two weeks.

On March 18, Gaza Arabs fired three mortar shells at an IDF base near Kibbutz Nachal Oz in the Negev - the first such attack from Gaza at pre-1967 Israel. A reserve duty soldier on the base was lightly wounded by shrapnel. Minister of Defense Ben-Eliezer stated that Israel "will not accept the current situation and will deploy the necessary forces to protect its citizens." IDF commanders stated that the attack signals the crossing of yet another red line by terrorist forces.

On April 3, in only the 5th or 6th mortar attack on Gush Katif, toddler Ariel Yered was critically wounded by shrapnel to his head. Israel retaliated, the terrorists increased their fire, and mortar shells quickly became a commonplace occurrence and lost their shock value - but not their lethal punch. On Nov. 24, reserve soldier Barak Madmon, 26, was killed outside Kfar Darom when a mortar shell hit his IDF outpost.

In early Feb. 2002, ten months after the first shells were fired, the first Kassam-2 home-made rockets were fired at an Israeli target. They landed near Kibbutz Saad and Moshav Shuva in the Negev, both just south of Sderot.

Within a few days, on Feb. 17 of that year, Arutz-7 reported, "The firing of Kassam rockets, which Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and other officials warned would be greeted with a severe Israeli response, appears to have become a matter of course. Palestinian terrorists fired a Kassam-1 last night at an IDF command post in northern Gaza's Nisanit, while the much more far-reaching and powerful Kassam-2 was fired towards Kibbutz Kfar Aza, well within pre-1967 Israel. No one was hurt."

Two weeks later, on Mar. 5, 2002, Sderot was first targeted: Two Kassam rockets hit a home in the Negev city, wounding three children.

Mortar shells and Kassams continued to be fired at Gush Katif, and more sporadically at the Negev. On Yom Kippur eve of 2004, Tiferet Tratner, 24, became the first civilian casualty of a mortar shell attack in Gush Katif when she was killed in her home in N'vei Dekalim. A total of close to 20 soldiers, civilians and foreign workers have been killed by mortar and rocket attacks in and around Gaza and Sderot.

Ultimately, 5,905 rockets and shells were counted as having been fired at Gush Katif during its last four and a half years of existence.

On Dec. 18, 2003, less than three years after the first shell was fired, PM Ariel Sharon gave up. "If in a few months," he announced, "the Palestinians still continue to disregard their part in implementing the Roadmap – Israel will initiate the unilateral security step of disengagement from the Palestinians." A month and a half later, Sharon said, "I have given an order to plan for the evacuation of 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip. It is my intention to carry out an evacuation - excuse me, a relocation - of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, such as the Gaza settlements."

Though there have been isolated reports of Kassams in Judea and Samaria, the full power of Kassam rockets has clearly not been brought to bear in those areas. Between the time the first shell hit Gush Katif and the time Sharon made his initial Disengagement announcement, almost three years passed. If it took less than three years of mortar attacks against Jewish Gaza for Israel's government to come up with the idea of running away, how long will it take for the "Convergence Plan" in Judea and Samaria to be taken out of its deep freeze?

6. Poll: Israelis Finished With Withdrawals
by Ezra HaLevi

A poll carried out by the Knesset channel found a majority of Israelis want no more withdrawals from parts of the Land of Israel – not even for "real peace."

The poll, conducted by the Dahaf Institute for the Knesset Channel – found that even in the case of a what was termed a “real peace deal,” 68 percent of Israelis would not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights, 53 percent from Judea and Samaria and 86 percent from the Western Wall.

Just two weeks ago, former coalition chairman MK Avigdor Yitzchaki (Kadima) brought a bill requiring a referendum prior to any withdrawals from Jerusalem or the Golan Heights through its first reading, despite the opposition of the government, Meretz and Arab parties.

The poll sought to examine how Israelis would vote in such a referendum. A minority of 46 percent favored surrendering most of Judea and Samaria for a "real peace." 65 percent oppose any unilateral withdrawals from Judea and Samaria. 28 percent said they would support it.

Only eight percent believe that the government is able to reach a peace agreement with Syria, opposed to 86 percent against.

Asked whether the lands conquered in the 1967 Six Day War improved Israel’s security situation, 51 percent said it did and 29 percent said it worsened it.

A representative sample of five hundred Israeli adults took part in the survey.
Comment on This Story

7. Inventor of Pal-Kal Sentenced to Four Years
by Hillel Fendel

The inventor of the construction method used in Jerusalem's Versailles Hall, which collapsed in mid-wedding six years ago, killing 23, has been sent to jail for four years.

The sentencing judge wrote that Eli Ron is the "father of the original sin who is still convinced that his method is safe."

Engineers who helped build the building, Dan Sheffer and Shimon Kaufman, were sentenced to 22 months each, while an employee of the Pal-Kal company was sentenced to six months of public service works.

The Tragic Wedding
The Versailles Hall collapsed exactly six years ago, in May 2001, killing 23 wedding guests and injuring close to 350. It was termed the worst civilian disaster in Israel's history, occurring just as Israel was suffering a wave of Oslo War terrorist attacks. In the week before the collapse, a suicide terrorist murdered five people in Netanya, two Israelis were killed in separate terrorist shooting attacks, and a Rishon LeTzion man was murdered in Tul Karem after making an appointment to meet an Arab. Eleven other people were murdered in eight other Palestinian terrorist attacks that month.

Owners Sentenced Last Year
In November 2005, the owners of the Versailles Hall were sentenced to 30 months in prison for causing death by negligence. Though they saw a depression in the floor shortly before the collapse, the judge ruled that they chose to cover it up with a drinks bar rather than consult with an engineer. In addition, during renovations on the building some time before it collapsed, support beams were removed from the building.

However, most of the criticism surrounding the tragedy has always related to the Pal-Kal method with which the structure was built. The Israeli-patented method was ruled unacceptable by the Interior Ministry in 1996. However, many existing buildings were built with Pal-Kal beforehand, and some were built afterwards.

Ron was found guilty last December of causing death by negligence in having disseminated his invention. The ruling deemed his Pal-Kal method as "dangerous," saying it did not meet Israeli or other standards. "It is true that many buildings constructed in this way did not collapse," the judge wrote, "but the quality and danger of a construction method are judged in extreme situations - and in this case, extreme changes were made that led to the failure brought about by the Pal-Kal method."

The Pal-Kal method is a money-saver in that in place of reinforced steel installed between concrete layers, it uses corrugated boxes as the stress support system. However, the boxes can end up "floating" between the concrete layers if something goes wrong with the concrete or they way it is poured.

As a result of the Versailles collapse, the government established a national commission of inquiry, the City of Jerusalem waged its own internal investigation of the tragedy, and the Local Government Center instructed all municipalities to carry out a comprehensive check of the thousands of buildings using the Pal-Kal construction method. In 2005, all construction using the Pal-Kal method was outlawed.

Versailles and Sbarros
The tragic collapse indirectly saved up to 50 other lives three months later. City inspectors making the rounds of public buildings after the Versailles tragedy informed Noam Amar, the owner of the Sbarro's restaurant in downtown Jerusalem, that his building technically met all the requirements, but that it might be advisable for him to install extra supporting pillars. Even after he learned that the cost of the extra columns would be $110,000, Amar decided to go ahead with it. Shortly afterwards, in August 2001, 15 people were killed in a terrorist blast in his restaurant; engineers later told him that his extra precautions had prevented the building from collapsing further, thus saving the lives of possibly 50 other people in the restaurant at the time.

8. Audio: Bush Declined to Meet Chief Rabbi Metzger Over Pollard

A7 Radio's "Alex Traiman Show"

Chief Rabbi of Israel Yonah Metzger is one of few Israeli public officials to speak out on behalf of Jonathan Pollard. Alex speaks with the Chief Rabbi and Rabbi Pesach Lerner, who has visited Pollard on several occassions. Plus, Karen Hochberg organized a 5K Walk to raise funds for Israel in Great Neck.

http://www.alnakba.org/
The Palestinian site commemorating the Nakba, the Catastrophy, when Israeli's rid their soon to be nation of the residents of 550 towns and villages, leaving just 1/4 of the Palestinian/Bedouin population in modern Israel when it announced its' nationhood in may of 1948.

http://www.imemc.org/article/47748 (copy and paste into your browser to go to the article and see the photo there)
Remember Deir Yassin
Monday April 09, 2007 23:06 by Palestine News Network

Monday commemorates the massacre in Deir Yassin Village, one of numerous conducted in the ethnic cleansing campaign to establish the state of Israel. Thirty-three massacres are officially registered, but hundreds were reported. The Deir Yassin Remembered campaign quotes the Zionists at the time as using the term “systematic cleansing.”

Dier Yassin - 1948
(photo onsite)

They wrote, “Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin, and the Stern Gang, attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents.""The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover.“In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of [Jerusalem's] Old City. They were found there by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi [House of Arab Children] orphanage.

http://www.qumsiyeh.org/chapter7/
Chapter 7

Is Israel a Democracy?
From Sharing the Land of Canaan by Mazin Qumsiyeh, copyright Pluto Press 2004

"The Jewish State cannot exist without a special ideological content. We cannot exist for long like any other state whose main interests is to insure the welfare of its citizens." Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, New York Times, 14 July 1992

"Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance." Micah 2:1-2

Examining the nature of individual and state relation is crucial to peace. Regardless of the solution advocated, any state or states in the region have to relate to their internal minorities. Since we should all agree that human rights are a cornerstone, it is important to think through the nature of state government. There are now great pressures on the Palestinians to ensure that any future governing body is democratic and transparent. As we will show later, the prospect of a separate and truly sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza are rather remote. That leaves, the other governing body now with great power and sovereignty over the areas: Israel. Many Israelis describe Israel the only democracy in the area. Many Palestinians describe Israel as an ethnocentric racist state built on their destruction as a society. To arrive at a mutually agreed to solution, it seems logical that such varied interpretations need to be reconciled by a serious examination of Israeli basic laws and what they are intended to accomplish. If some laws are discriminatory and/or racist, then perhaps addressing those would be key to a durable peace.

Basic Analysis of the "Basic Laws"

Amnesty International in a report on "Racism and the Administration of Justice" reported:

In Israel for example, several laws are explicitly discriminatory. These can be traced back to Israel's foundation in 1948 which, driven primarily by the racist genocide suffered by Jews in Europe during the Second World War, was based on the notion of a Jewish state for Jewish people. Some of Israel's laws reflect this principle and as a result discriminate against non-Jews, particularly Palestinians who had lived on the lands for generations. Various areas of Israeli law discriminate against Palestinians. The Law of Return for instance provides automatic Israeli citizenship for Jewish immigrants, whereas Palestinian refugees who were born and raised in what is now Israel are denied even the right to return home. Other statutes explicitly grant preferential treatment to Jewish citizens in areas such as education, public housing, health, and employment (ref 1)

My analysis in this chapter is not intended to be comprehensive because in addition to such human rights resources, there are many books and other resources available on this issue (ref 2). Israeli law is a vast subject well beyond the scope of this work but we need to at least address some key concepts and basic laws in order to articulate what would need to happen for a durable solution based on equality. Let us start at the beginning of Israel's ambition and genesis of Israel's laws with an excerpt from Israel's declaration of Independence (May 15, 1948):

We declare that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar , 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called Israel.

Needless to say, the constitution was never written. Reasons given for not promulgating a constitution have ranged from instability and war to the issue of religion and Halachic law. The Knesset's own web site states the following:

Since the Constituent Assembly and the first Knesset were unable to put a constitution together, the Knesset started to legislate basic laws on various subjects. After all the basic laws will be enacted, they will constitute together, with an appropriate introduction and several general rulings, the constitution of the State of Israel (ref 3)

Basic Laws of the state of Israel can be found at the website of the Israel Ministry of Foreign affairs in both Hebrew and English 4. Although they are mistranslated in English to obfuscate the separation in the Hebrew text between "Ezrahut" (Citizenship) and being a member of 'Am Yisrael' (the people of Israel, referring to all Jews anywhere). Gentiles cannot be part of the nation of Israel or Am Yisrael even if citizens of the state. This is an important point to emphasize. By Israeli law, every Jew regardless of cultural, genetics, or citizenship is considered a national of Israel, a member of "Am Yisrael" (the people of Israel) and is entitled to automatic benefits of residency and life in the self-declared Jewish state. According to the so called "law of return":

Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh … An Oleh's visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel, unless the Minister of Immigration is satisfied that the applicant (1) is engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people; or (2) is likely to endanger public health or the security of the State.

Under this law, no Jew can immigrate to Israel; Jews (including converts) "return" (hence the name of the law). You actually have to reject this "Oleh" (this alludes to going to higher level when "returning" to Israel) if you are Jewish and happen to have any form of residency in Israel but do not wish to become a citizen. The law is thus not an immigration law per se, because all non-Jews who wish to live in Israel on a permanent basis go through an entirely different set of laws which are analogous to immigration laws in other countries. Also, only Jews are given financial and logistical support once they "return"/make "aliyah".

In the Hebrew version of what English version of the law call "Nationality Law", the actual word used is "Ezrahut" meaning Citizenship. In the English version of the law, this is intentionally mistranslated on the Israeli government sites as "nationality". There is no "nationality" status apart from "Jewish nationality" in Israeli law (all Jews are considered Jewish nationals and part of Am Yisrael, the people of Israel). In Hebrew that word is "Le'om" not Ezrahut. The Ezrahut law states:

The Ezrahut Law relates to persons born in Israel or resident therein, as well as to those wishing to settle in the country, regardless of race, religion, creed, sex or political belief. Citizenship (again Ezrahut not Le'ot status) may be acquired by:

Birth
The Law of Return
Residence
Naturalization

Acquisition of Ezrahut by birth is granted to:
1. Persons who were born in Israel to a mother or a father who are Israeli citizens.
2. Persons born outside Israel, if their father or mother holds Israeli citizenship, acquired either by birth in Israel, according to the Law of Return, by residence, or by naturalization.
3. Persons born after the death of one of their parents, if the late parent was an Israeli citizen by virtue of the conditions enumerated in 1. and 2. above at the time of death.
4. Persons born in Israel, who have never had any nationality and subject to limitations specified in the law, if they: Apply for it in the period between their 18th and 25th birthday and have been residents of Israel for five consecutive years, immediately preceding the day of the filing of their application.

According to this basic law, you acquire Israeli citizenship by: Birth, the (Jewish) "Law of Return," Residence, or Naturalization. For each of these categories, a Palestinian born in a village in the Galilee and expelled in 1948 does not qualify because of the language used in the law. Thus, while specifically not stating so, this law is directed against native Palestinians. Its language sophistry cannot hide its intentions. Further being a citizen means you are either a citizen national or a citizen non-national. Those who are citizens but not nationals (such as the Palestinians who remained after the expulsions of 1947-1949) cannot benefit from any of the institutions or privileges reserved to nationals. These include services of the supra-state groups that basically wield significant portion of power on Israel lands and resources such as the Jewish National Fund, World Zionist Organization, Jewish Agency. JNF controls 1/3rd of the water resources for example. The Israel Lands Administration controls 90 percent of the land in Israel.

"Absentee" Laws

The Palestinians who could not become citizens had their property allocated to Jews based on the "Absentee laws" enacted in 1950. This law stated, "all absentees' property is under the care of a custodian." Under this law, absentees were defined as anyone who had been away from his home, either within the borders of Israel or in a neighboring state, on or after November 29, 1947. This new legislation gave rise to a new and paradoxical category: "Present Absentees," i.e., those Palestinians who had remained inside the borders of the state after November 29, 1947, but who were outside of their village. These citizens, also known as "internal refugees," account for at least one fourth of all Palestinian citizens in Israel. In 1958, the Knesset passed the Israel Lands law, a basic law that prohibits transfer of land ownership: "The ownership of Israel lands, being the lands in Israel of the State, the Development Authority or the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel, shall not be transferred either by sale or in any other manner." In 1960, a new state body, the Israel Lands Authority, was established as a governmental office responsible for the administration of all Israeli Lands including the lands of the "absentees" and the law became applicable to this body. Thus, the land is administered for Jewish development but can never be transferred or owned by others.

In 1958, the Law of Return was amended so as not to apply to those born as Jews who converted to other religious faiths. The law was upheld despite a 1962 challenge by Oswald Rufeisen. Rufeisen belonged to a Zionist youth movement in Poland. He was a holocaust survivor who saved other Jews but later converted to Chrsitianity and became a priest. In the 1950s, he moved to Israel. The state denied his petition for citizenship under the Law of Return. The High Court of Justice rejected his claim even though the Chief Rabbinate ruled in his favor because he was "Jewish" based on Halacha rules. In 1970, the guidelines of immigration eligibility were more clearly defined and it now states that anyone who is the child or grandchild of a Jew can immigrate and also bring their families with them. But the1958 law barring converted Jews is still in force.

Until recently, the Israel interior ministry issued ID cards to citizens that list their "nationality" (Jewish, Arab, Druze, Assyrian). The full list was kept confidential but the ministry refused requests by a group calling itself "I am Israeli" to list their nationality as "Israeli." The ministry instead chose to drop the designation on the cards all together. Legally, the category of "Israeli nationality" simply does not exist. Israel's supreme court decision of 1970 in George Tamarin v The State of Israel simply ruled that there is no Israeli Nationality apart from Jewish Nationality (Le'om, Am Yisrael). President of the High Court Justice Shimon explained that recognizing an Israeli nationality “would negate the very foundation upon which the State of Israel was formed" (ref 5).

The minority of Palestinians who managed to remain in the newly formed state of Israel (1/4th of the original Palestinian population) are the most directly impacted by Israeli law. Absentee laws allowed the Israeli government to declare that non-Jews who left (refugees) or had remained and become "equal" Israeli citizens to be declared absent in order that their property could be confiscated as "abandoned" property. The property is turned over to the Jewish Agency for the exclusive use of Jews. In the law it does not use the word "Jews" but the words "those who benefit from the law of return", which is equivalent to Jews. In fact, there have been Palestinians, who are nominally Israeli citizens, who tried to lease their own land and were not allowed to because they were not Jews (see below).

Here is some of what Tom Segev wrote on "Absentee law" in his book:

The definition in the law was changed to embrace all who had abandoned their 'usual place of residence', even if they were still living in (and "equal" residents of) Israel ... the law defined them as absentees, even if they had only left their homes for a few days and stayed with relatives in a nearby village or town, waiting for the fighting to end. Later they came to be referred to as 'present absentees' (in Hebrew, nochihim nifkadim). The majority of them were not allowed to return to their homes. Those refugees who were permitted to return to Israel after the war were also formally absentees and their property was not restored to them and quoting M. Porath in a secret report to the Minister of Finance:

".. the fact that we are holding the property of legal residents of the country, who otherwise enjoy all the normal rights of citizenship, is a source of great bitterness and constant agitation among the Arabs who are affected by it. Most of the complaints made by Arabs against our department are made by 'absentees' who see their property in the hands of others and can't bear it. These absentees try by every means to get their lands back, and offer to lease them even at exorbitant rents. In accordance with the general rule originally established, our office does not lease the lands expropriated by the government to the present absentees (i.e. non-Jews), so as not to weaken our control over the properties ... The number of 'present absentees' runs into the thousands, most of them owners of real estate. There are already new people (Jews) living on some of these properties ... Any attempt to return the properties to these absentees would, therefore, adversely affect thousands, or tens of thousands, of settlers ..." (ref 6)

Thus, inside the green line (Israel's borders before 1967), legislation forms the basis for justifying government land acquisition and transfer from native people (gentiles) to Jewish settlers. After adapting British Mandate property laws to absorb the lands and properties already claimed as public, Israel's Knesset enacted its own laws. The first in a tactical series of Basic Laws, the Absentee Property Law, authorized the state to confiscate any property if between the end of November 1947 and May 19, 1948 the legal owner or owners were absent from the property for even one day. The law, passed in 1950, was retroactive and had a sweeping effect on the Arab population. This new law created a basic premise for future land confiscation.

A basic law passed in 1985 by the Knesset, represents an official exclusion from political participation of any party that does not assent to the primacy of Israel's Jewish identity and raison d'être. The law's enactment came as a response to two tendencies: racism towards non-Jewish citizens, as expressed in Rabbi Kahane's "Kach" party; and a challenge, posed by the Progressive List for Peace, a joint Arab-Jewish party, to the state's identification as "Jewish." the law states that:

A list of candidates shall not participate in the elections for the Knesset if its aims or actions, expressly or by implication, point to one of the following:
1.) Denial of the existence of Israel as a state of the Jewish people.
2.) Denial of the democratic nature of the state.
3.) Incitement to racism.

Clearly it becomes illegal under this law to call for changes in the law challenging the concept of a state for a religious community around the world, a state "of the Jewish people", or to make Israel a state of its citizens.

Institutionalized Discrimination

Israel's treatment of the Palestinians who remained within its borders following the ethnic cleansing of 1947-1949 (detailed in Chapter 4) is particularly telling. Palestinians were placed under Martial law from 1948-1966 while Jewish immigrants consolidated their control, built settlements on confiscated Palestinian lands, built an infrastructure and a working country from the infrastructure of Palestine. In 1966, the Martial law was lifted and Palestinians were supposed to be "equal citizens." The reality was far from equal, as the discussion of Israeli laws above illustrate. While Palestinians were now a minority with voting rights, they were also excluded from all aspects of the society that defined itself as a Jewish culture and state. Details of these issues can be found on web pages of Israeli Palestinians and the human rights organizations in Israel that are trying to preserve some semblance of human rights.

According to the Arab Association for Human Rights there are about 100 Palestinian Arab villages in Israel that the government does not recognize officially:

Over 70,000 Palestinian Arab citizens live in villages that are threatened with destruction, prevented from development and are not shown on any map. Despite the fact that most of the 'unrecognized villages' existed before the establishment of Israel, state policy considers their inhabitants as lawbreakers. It prevents them from repairing existing homes or building new ones; withholds basic rights, such as drinking water and health clinics; and in certain cases even fences off whole villages. These measures coincide with a wider policy of concentrating Palestinian Arabs and “redeeming” their lands for new Jewish mitzpim (The mitzpim “lookout” settlements were established as part of the Judaisation of the Galilee program to change the demographic balance of Arab areas.) settlements. Many of these settlements are built next to their unrecognized neighbors, often illegally, yet with a complete provision of services.

The villages were delegalized by the enactment of the (1965) Planning and Construction Law. This law set down a framework of regulations and a national outline plan for the country’s future development. It zoned land for residential, agricultural and industrial use, and forbade any form of unlicensed construction or construction on agricultural lands. The unrecognized villages were not incorporated into the planning schemes, and their lands were reclassified as agricultural. Villagers were not consulted on either the law or its plans (ref 7)

The living conditions in these areas became horrific. The areas had no schools, no sewage, no water, no electricity, and no medical services. The poor in these villages are not even counted in the statistics that determine poverty levels in the country. Many live in conditions analogous to refugee camps in Gaza or Lebanon when they are supposedly Israeli citizens. While occasional civil rights groups tried to affect a change in the law, these have been largely ineffective or have resulted in superficial, cosmetic changes only.

Over 130,000 Bedouins (Palestinian tribes with usually fixed territory but movable dwellings) are descendents from the few thousand who remained after the ethnic cleansing of 1947-1949. They are considered Israeli citizens and many even served in the Israeli army. The Bedouins and the Druz are the only non-Jewish communities who regularly serve in the Israeli army. Moshe Shohat, the Israeli government official in charge of Bedouin affairs Shohat spoke about “blood-thirsty Bedouins who commit polygamy, have 30 children and continue to expand their illegal settlements, taking over state land.” As for providing schools with indoor plumbing, he added “in their culture they take care of their needs outdoors … They don’t even know how to flush a toilet” (ref 8).

On August 17, 2001, the Jewish Week wrote that the government's inquiry into these remarks via a committee headed by Doron Mor is questioned. Mor did not even want to look at Shohat's book that contained racist slurs against Bedouins. The Jewish Week candidly put this at the end of their article titled "Bedouin Probe Seen As ‘Farce’":

While being questioned by Mor as part of his probe, a reporter was told no less than three times that 'if you are truly an Orthodox Jewish Zionist you will write another article talking about how much the government and Mr. Shohat have done for the Bedouin' (ref 8).

As of that writing Shohat was still in Charge of Bedouin affairs. Bedouins and Palestinians in general who are Israeli citizens ask rightly why their interests in the government are represented not by their own members but by Jews and worse yet by Jews who are racist and bigoted Zionists. Shohat is not the first and perhaps won't be the last of Israeli officials who adhere to the classic Zionist philosophy that concerned itself only with the fate of the Zionist Jews at the expense of the native Palestinians.

The contradiction between democracy and the Jewish character of the state is best illustrated by these comments from Haaretz:

Our right to Eretz Israel and our right to establish a sovereign national entity on it does not depend on our numbers, and on whether we are a majority or a minority. This land was our country when we were a small, isolated minority.

Five hundred or a thousand years ago, a few thousand Jews lived in the country. In 1919, the League of Nations recognized the Jewish people's right to the land, without any connection to their number in it (tens of thousands). In 1948, 600,000 Jews lived in the country. The numerical issue was never brought up as an element determining the Jewish people's connection to or belonging in the country.

Hence, for us it doesn't matter whether there are more Jews or Arabs here. Of course, we would prefer it if there are a majority of Jews here. But no matter, the Jewish people will retain their right to the country.

By definition the state of Israel was founded as a Jewish state. The regime constituted in it is democratic in character, but its essence is Jewish. And if there is a contradiction between this essence and the character of the government, it is clear that the essence takes precedence, and that steps are to be taken to prevent damage or changes to this Jewish essence. Democracy cannot to be exploited to destroy the Jewish state.

Legislators should settle this point in clear, categorical terms, without any qualms of conscience or moral compunction. Absolute justice holds that the state of Israel is, and has always been, the only Jewish state, and this country has been solely that of the Jewish people. That's how things have been defined, and that's how they will remain. Whoever wants a different state should look for it somewhere else (ref 9).

The Jewish Agency, a supra-national entity, states about the "law of Return":

In 1950, Israel’s Knesset passed a remarkable law, beginning with a few simple words that defined Israel’s central purpose: 'Every Jew has the right to immigrate to this country...' Two thousand years of wandering were officially over. Since then, Jews have been entitled to simply show up and declare themselves to be Israeli citizens, assuming they posed no imminent danger to public health, state security, or the Jewish people as a whole. Essentially, all Jews everywhere are Israeli citizens by right
(ref 10).

Zionist philosophy is thus built upon the concept that Eretz Yisrael, is a "birthright" that was conferred upon all Jews (defined to include anyone who has not acquired another religion even though he/she might not be a practicing Jew). It is no accident that the latest Zionist venture in America providing free trips to Israel for Jewish American kids is called "Birthright Israel". The land belongs to the Jewish people and not the citizens of the state or the native people displaced. The justification for this Jewish "right", is that God (Yahweh) made "the promise" of giving the land to Abraham's descendents as an "everlasting covenant." Many religious Jews argue that only if they keep God's commands they were to keep the land and the fact of their dispersion is testament to God's will. Christianity is based on the concept that the arrival of the Messiah extended God's promise to all humanity and fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament. A tiny minority of Christians justify Zionism on religious grounds (these are called "Christian Zionists"). But in either case, this religious "justification" no matter how flawed theologically would have to be reconciled with the evidence that most of the Zionist Jews trace ancestry to European Khazars and not Semitic people (see Chapter 3). Further, the basic laws do not give a right to a Christian family to "return" even if their ancestors were original Hebrews. They do give a right to converts to Judaism to "return."

The "law of return" clearly applies to members of a particular religion and gives them an automatic right of citizenship in a country where they have never physically been. Non-Jews are not eligible for this a "right" regardless of birth, ancestry or other factors. Jews who do not identify with Zionist ideologies can also be excluded at the discretion of the interior ministry under the section that talks about a threat to the Jewish nation. Thus, Palestinian refugees maybe excluded even if they convert to Judaism. Israel is the only country that nationalizes any person regardless of where they live only by virtue of a religious identification (being Jewish).

All citizens of Israel can vote for the Knesset, the Prime Minister, parties, union, and municipal elections. In this sense they have citizenship rights. However, Israel is the only country in which there are also a set of rights reserved for "nationals" which are denied to non-Jewish citizens. The nationals are defined as 'Am Yisrael' (the people of Israel or the Jewish People). Other privileges enshrined in law for those who serve in the Israeli army but they are granted to "nationals" who do not serve in the army (orthodox Jews). Again, Palestinians are denied these benefits or basic rights. Nationals have benefits beyond automatic citizenship, which include land rights, and economic, cultural and political benefits. These rights are all denied to non-Jews.

Without clearly addressing Israeli laws, prospects for lasting peace remain dim. Israel defines itself and shapes its laws based on the premise that it is not a country of its citizens but a state for and by Jews throughout the world. The land of Israel (Erez Yisrael) is held "in trust" for Am Yisrael ("the Jewish people", the people of Israel). Land leasing and other laws are intended to ensure transfer of land ownership from Palestinians Christians and Muslims to Jews. This has resulted in the wholesale ethnic cleansing, discrimination, and racism against non-Jewish natives of the land. This Zionist discourse could not be achieved without mass violence, a topic that will be addressed in the next chapter.

Notes to Chapter 7:

1. A report on "Racism and the Administration of Justice", Amnesty International (2001), also found at http://www.amnestyusa.org/stoptorture/racismreport.pdf.
2. For example, see Arye Rattner and Gideon Fishman, Justice for all? Jews and Arabs in the Israeli Criminal Justice System (Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., 1998). See also http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/i-law.htm http://www.kesher.org.il/legal/main.html and http://www.adalah.org
3. The Knesset's website http://www.knesset.gov.il/knesset
4. http://www.israel.org/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00mz0
5. New York Times, 21 January 1972, p. 14; cited in Oscar Kraines, The Impossible Dilemma: Who is a Jew in the State of Israel (New York: Bloch Publishing, 1976).
6. Segev, 1949: The First Israelis, Translated by Arlen N. Weinstein (New York, Henry Holt, 1998), p. 80 and 82.
7. Arab Association for Human Rights background report posted at http://www.arabhra.org
8. Bedouin Probe Seen As ‘Farce’ The Jewish Week, New York, July 20, 2001
9. Noam Arnon, Haaretz, August 28, 2002.
10. View the website of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Their description of the Law of Return is at http://www.jafi.org.il/aliyah/aliyah/law.html

Recommended Readings
Marwan Bishara, Palestine/ Israel Peace or Apartheid: Peace or Apartheid: Occupation, Terrorism, and the Future (London: Zed Books, 2003)