Israel: High Court gives green light for army to block release of Palestinian bodies; first time any court in the World has taken this stance
September 10, 2019, Middle East Monitor,
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190910-israel-high-court-gives-green-light-for-army-to-block-release-of-palestinian-bodies/
The Israeli High Court gave the Israeli army the green light on Monday to block the release of the bodies of Palestinians killed by occupation forces, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC) has revealed. The corpses will be used as bargaining chips in any future negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
JLAC said that an expanded High Court hearing of seven judges ruled 4 to 3 in favor of giving the Israeli army the power to withhold the bodies of dead Palestinians in order to use them for such purposes.
According to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the court said that Israeli emergency regulations permit the army to order the interim burial of bodies designated as deceased enemies. “This burial is based on considerations that take into account state security, civil order and the need to negotiate for the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers,” it pointed out.
The new ruling overturns an earlier decision by a regular High Court which said that the military regime which basically governs the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank does not have the power to keep the bodies of the dead Palestinians.
“This is the first time in history that a court – anywhere in the world – has authorized state authorities to hold the bodies of subjects under its control, to which international laws governing occupation apply, and to use them as bargaining chips,” noted Adalah. “This is one of the most extreme Supreme Court rulings since 1948, as it undermines the most basic principles of universal humanity. The court ruling violates Israeli and international laws, most notably the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
Israel is withholding bodies of 304 Palestinians and Arabs killed since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in what is known as the “numbers cemetery”. It is also holding the bodies of 52 Palestinians killed by its security forces since 2015.
Israeli forces kill, injure, abduct Palestinians, destroy homes & farmland
IFAMERICANSKNEW.ORG, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019, https://israelpalestinenews.org/weekly-wrap-up-trump-wall/
During the first week of September 2019, Israeli forces in the Palestinian Occupied Territories killed Palestinian children, destroyed Palestinian property, stormed a Palestinian village, stole Palestinian land, and assaulted, detained, and abducted Palestinians… In other words: it was pretty much like every other week.
Sheffield becomes first UK city to recognize Palestine
Sheffield City Council unanimously passed a motion to formally recognize the sovereign state of Palestine
September 6, 2019 , Middle East Monitor, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190906-sheffield-becomes-first-uk-city-to-recognise-palestine/
Sheffield has become the first UK city to recognise the State of Palestine, a move it hopes will pressure other cities and ultimately the UK government to follow suit.
Sheffield City Council on Wednesday unanimously passed a motion to formally recognize the sovereign state of Palestine, making it the first city in the UK to do so. The motion “noted that the current UK Government appears to have no intention of recognizing Palestine,” a stance which “is in contrast to the Labour Party’s commitment to recognize Palestine as a full state as part of the United Nations and under UK law.”
Sheffield City Council, like most city councils in the north of the UK, consists predominantly of Labour Party Councillors. It now hopes its action will increase pressure on the Conservative-held UK government to follow in its footsteps.
The passing of the motion was preceded by a ceremony during which the Palestinian flag was raised outside the city’s Town Hall by Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot.
Zomlot described the recognition as a “great act” of historic significance, while Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) “welcome[d] the Council drawing attention to the continuing denial of self-determination to the Palestinian people”.
“We know from our campaigning activities that most people in the city will welcome the Council’s position,” Sheffield PSC’s statement continued. “We hope that this initiative will be followed by measures aimed at ending British military and economic collusion with Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestinian land.”
The move will be given added poignancy in light of the ad hoc visit to the UK by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, during which he met with recently-instated British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
In what was largely interpreted as part of Netanyahu’s re-election campaign ahead of Israel’s do-over election on 17 September, the Israeli prime minister discussed the two-state solution and regional foe Iran with his British counterpart.
“Both prime ministers agreed on the need to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon and stop wider destabilizing Iranian behavior,” a UK Downing Street spokeswoman said.
For his part, Netanyahu thanked Johnson for his continued support of Israel, saying: “I want to say that you’ve been a great friend of the Jewish people and Israel. I applaud your staunch stance against anti-Semitism and your support for Israel’s security. Our relations are at an all-time high: economically, trade, technology, defense cooperation. These are all great things.”
Meanwhile demonstrators lined the streets of UK capital London to protest against the visit, holding placards reading “Netanyahu, war criminal, terrorist” and “Judaism condemns Zionist terrorism in Gaza”.
One demonstrator explained: “I came from Liverpool to stand with the innocent people of Palestine here against Israeli government and Netanyahu, because he is killing innocent women, children and the elderly without any reason.”
“I think there’s this surprise visit because Netanyahu is scared of the public. He can’t face the public because he is a criminal, he is a butcher.”
Who Is Avi Berkowitz, the newest Middle East Peace team member?
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019, JTA AND Ron Kampeas, Ha’aretz, https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/who-is-avi-berkowitz-the-kushner-adviser-stepping-in-to-work-on-mideast-peace-1.7807963
The new addition to the Middle East Peace team, Avi Berkowitz, joins an exclusive club: all-male, Orthodox-raised, Israel-benefactors from New York. He was raised in a Greater Israel environment, and has the seal of approval of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The sentence came at the end of a list of White House talking points regarding the surprising departure of Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s former top Middle East peace negotiator: “Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook will take on an increased role on the team.”
For Middle East tea-leaf readers, Hook was the more immediately interesting story. He’s the lead State Department official on Iran, and his joining the peace-brokering team suggests that the Trump administration sees containing Iran and forging peace between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arab states as of a piece.
But Berkowitz’s elevation tells an even more Trumpian story: one of elevating those who are close to the family, as opposed to Washington insiders, and of a Middle East peace team that has made Israel’s interests paramount in its strategies.
There isn’t a ton of public knowledge about Berkowitz, a 30-year-old assistant to Jared Kushner who graduated from law school in 2016, and the critical quick-take headlines were harsh. “Trump’s New Mideast Point Man Is Jared Kushner’s Former Coffee Boy Avi Berkowitz,” Vanity Fair wrote. And from New York magazine: “Trump Somehow Replaces Unqualified Mideast Envoy With Even Less Qualified One.”
Trump, who has posed with Berkowitz on multiple occasions for social media posts, promoted Berkowitz a year ago from special assistant to the president and assistant to the senior advisor (Kushner) to deputy assistant to the president and advisor to the senior advisor (yes, advisor to the advisor is correct). In the arcana of federal government lingo, the leap from “assistant” to “advisor” is significant” — a transition from answering phones to shaping policy.
He’s cut from the same religious and ideological cloth as Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman.
Berkowitz studied at Yeshiva Kol Torah in Jerusalem for two years. His classmate there, Rabbi Johnny Ouzzan, told Business Insider that Berkowitz would have come away understanding that the West Bank is part of “lands that religious Jews believe were part of the whole of Israel that was given to the Jewish people, starting with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob going back to the times of the Bible.” Berkowitz also was given the seal of approval of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.