25 dec 2016
The 2,000 acres that will be expropriated if the Regulation Bill is approved include the Mitzpe Kramim outpost, which was built on land that Hazem Hassim Ajaj says belongs to his family. ‘When I heard that a settlement had been built on my land, I felt as if my hand had been cut off,’ he says, vowing not to give up. Meanwhile, PA teams are monitoring the bill’s progress and collecting data ahead of an International Criminal Court lawsuit.
Our initial plan was to take Hazem Hassim Ajaj from the village Deir Jarir to the hill overlooking the settlement of Mitzpe Kramim. High Court Case 953/11 deals with his claim to regain control of section 13 in parcel 19, on which part of the settlement was built. This land, he says, had been cultivated by his family for decades, until the settlement Kochav Hashachar was built nearby, denying the family access to the land. The plot remained abandoned for years, until the establishment of Mitzpe Kramim, first as a neighborhood at the outskirts of Kochav Hashachar and later as an illegal outpost that became bigger and bigger and currently numbers 43 families.
But the evening began to fall and photographer Shaul Golan begged us to take advantage of whatever daylight was left. So we found ourselves stopping at the side of the road, not far from Ajaj’s house, in the open area directly overlooking the Amona outpost. Ajaj tightened his coat, arranged his collar and looked down at the outpost slated for evacuation following a High Court ruling. But he’s not interested in Amona. He’s interested in the Regulation Bill being devised around the Amona saga.
His petition to the High Court of Justice contains seven dossiers of protocols, documents, the sides’ responses, depositions and aerial photographs. The advocate of the Regulation Bill believe that if it passes in the Knesset, these seven dossiers could then be tossed away and burned, Ajaj's land expropriated, and Mitzpe Kramim would be made legal by the power of the new law. But Ajaj declares that no Israeli law will keep him away from his land.
“I will never give up,” he says. “My lawyer will continue the battle on my behalf and I will do everything he instructs me to do. If it means having to go to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, we’ll go there.”
The threat of turning to the ICC has been hovering over the Regulation Bill from day one. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that its approval could lead him to The Hague, and not just him - but also a long list of officials in the political and military echelons.
Is this just an empty threat? Apparently not. Ajaj may not be able to go to The Hague on his own with his lawyer, Hossam Younes, as only a political entity can file a claim with the ICC - like the Palestinian Authority.
A senior PA official we spoke to last week says that the Palestinians have already begun the legal work regarding the Regulation Bill and its implications over a month ago. That work went into high gear after the bill’s approval process began at the Knesset.
“We have a legal team operating in the West Bank and a legal team of experts operating abroad and studying the issue,” he says. “We are collecting data and looking into the possibility of submitting these documents to the ICC in The Hague. If we have too, we’ll definitely go there.”
Peace Now’s recently published Settlement Watch report is all about the numbers behind the Regulation Bill and what these numbers mean. According to Peace Now’s count, which is based on the analysis of aerial shots and master plans of the West Bank settlements, the law will regulate 3,921 housing units by expropriating about 8,183 dunams (2,000 acres) of private Palestinian lands in the settlements and outpost. Fifty-five outposts that have been built illegally on private lands deep within the territories will be able to receive permits and become official settlements.
Looking at what the West Bank map would look like if the law is adopted leaves no room for doubt: The outposts’ regulation will create a sequence of Jewish settlements that will make it very difficult to implement the two-state solution which Prime Minister Netanyahu himself supports in his statements, most recently in an interview with American newsmagazine television program 60 Minutes.
The law—if it passes all Knesset readings—will not apply to cases that the High Court has already ruled on. The court is currently discussing dozens of petitions filed by Palestinians claiming ownership of lands on which outposts and settlements home have been built. The legal proceedings regarding these cases have not been completed yet, and the new law will basically shelve those petitions.
High Court Case 953/11 is one of those petitions whose fate has yet to be decided. The petition was filed by attorney Hossam Younes in November 2011 on behalf of Daud Ahmed Ali Rabia, who claims ownership of section 23 in parcel 19, and on behalf of Ajaj, who claims ownership of section 13 in the same plot. Without getting into the petition, which is laden with details and injunction numbers and different orders, let us just note that Rabia argues that he inherited the section from his grandmother and Ajaj says he bought it from his uncle before he died in Amman, Jordan. All the documents presented by these two men have been added to the petition.
An error became reality
We met on a Tuesday afternoon in a café in Ramallah, not far from Ajaj’s workplace. Rabia was supposed to come too, but a few hours before the meeting he had a heart attack and was rushed to hospital.
“There are maybe 8 kilometers (5 miles) between Deir Jarir and the land under discussion,” Ajaj said, “and the entire area there, not just my section, belonged to people from my village. Kochav Hashachar was built on the lands of Deir Jarir. My section belonged to my grandfather. He had lands which he left for his children. Each one got a piece. I bought this section from one of my grandfather’s heirs, my late uncle Qassem Amer Elshayeb. I grew up on this land. We planted wheat there and there was a well where we would take the sheep to drink.
“As soon as Kochav Hashachar was established, the problems began. The settlers removed us from there, stopped us from coming there with the flock and from growing wheat, and only later said that it was a closed military training area. We lived on that land. All our flock drank from the well that was there. The moment we were banished, my father sold the herd, because we didn’t have another source of water, and became unemployed.”
One can only envy the view Mitzpe Kramim’s residents have. The community is located east of Allon Road and above the Jordan Valley, and the residents see in front of them the whole the valley and the Moab mountains on its eastern side. There are two playgrounds there, mobile homes and a row of permanent houses. Vineyards and fruit trees have been planted alongside the road leading to the community from Kochav Hashachar.
The petition was filed by Ajaj and Rabia against the state and the community’s residents. The residents argued in response that it was the state that built the outpost, and that the state must reach an agreement with the petitioners—if they really do own the land—and compensate them with money or alternative land.
The state confirmed in its response that sections 13 and 23 in parcel 19 are regulated private property beyond the jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. The land remained empty until Independence Day 1999, when Mitzpe Kramim was established south of Kochav Hashachar. Eight months later, the residents were evacuated from the place as part of the outpost agreement signed between then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the Yesha Council heads. The agreement stated that the outpost’s buildings would be moved into Kochav Hashachar. Instead, the caravans were moved to their current location.
Aviad Caspi, head of infrastructure at Israel's Civil Administration, referred to the caravans’ move to the current place as “an error.” Error or not, Mitzpe Kramim has developed since then, and today the two sections that Rabia and Ajaj have claimed ownership of include 35 caravans and four permanent buildings, with a total of 150 residents. The entire outpost, which is defined as illegal, has 43 families with some 150 children.
In November 2013, the outpost’s residents filed a civil claim with the Jerusalem District Court against the state and the two Palestinian petitioners, demanding that the two sides reach a settlement that would allow the residents to remain in their homes. Attorney Younes, representing the two men, said that the claim’s goal was to delay the High Court proceedings. A year later, in November 2014, the High Court issued a conditional order against the state and Mitzpe Kramim’s residents, essentially accepting Rabia and Ajaj’s claims. No new developments have been recorded since then.
In November 2015, the state turned to the High Court and asked to wait for the completion of the District Court proceedings. The High Court gave the state 18 months. In the time that has passed since then, there has been hardly any progress.
“There is half a year left till the end of the extension granted by the High Court,” attorney Younes sighs, “and I’m telling you that there is no chance the District Court proceedings will be completed by then. The state’s interest is to delay the decision as much as it can. That’s the last thing they need, a new Amona in half a year’s time.”
The Regulation Bill will basically cancel the petition.
“Not just that one. I am running a number of High Court petitions regarding private lands with outposts on them. I have a High Court petitions over plots on one of the hills in Eli, in Beit El, in Givat Asaf, and even in Amona. If the law legitimizing land theft passes, the Palestinian petitioners will no longer have any place in the Israeli legal system. The only option they will be left with is international. To sue not only the responsible people in the Civil Administration, in the army and in the political echelon, but also the settlers themselves whose names and details we already have.”
Ajaj claims that for many years he didn’t even know that he could turn to the Israeli court. “I didn’t know that the Israeli law could come to my aid,” he says. “As soon as I was told that I could petition the court in Jerusalem, I did it immediately.”
We explained to him that the new law states he is entitled to pecuniary compensation for his land, if it indeed turns out that he is the owner. Ajaj was unmoved. “I’m firmly against any compensation. Money comes and goes, but the land stays. I’ll say more than that: The settlers say that they invested money in the place, that they built infrastructures and homes at a value exceeding the value of the land. I’m willing to pay back everything they invested, as long as they leave the homes and go away, despite the fact that they forced me out of the land, that they forcibly took it away from me. When I heard that a settlement had been built on it, I felt as if my hand had been cut off.”
Do you have that kind of money?
“I don’t, but I assume that any bank in Ramallah will give me a loan for this purpose.”
Fear of arrest warrants
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is preparing files on each and every one of the petitions and collecting data. A file is also being prepared on the Regulation Bill itself ahead of a possible lawsuit at the International Criminal Court.
The Defense Ministry’s legal advisor, Ahaz Ben-Ari, and Deputy Attorney General Roy Schöndorf were at the Knesset recently to speak at a meeting of the committee appointed to handle the Regulation Bill as part of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Channel 10 reporter Akiva Novick published some of their comments.
According to the report, Ben-Ari said: “The defense establishment opposes this law, clear and simple. I find it difficult to believe that such a law would pass in Israel. Netanyahu said it was a recipe for reaching The Hague. Is there a public servant who will dare sign an expropriation order?”
According to the same report, Schöndorf added that “an investigation in The Hague has many implications on the individual level. An authority to prosecute, personal arrest warrants.”
The senior PA official’s comments emphasize the legal advisors’ stand: “Our work on the ICC file is daily and routine. The data being collected there includes anything new that occurs in regards to the settlement enterprise. The teams are collecting findings and information, which are handed over to jurists who examine them.”
The source notes that there is also a Palestinian team which is closely monitoring the progress of the Regulation Bill. He clarifies, however, that at this stage the PA is inclined to raise the issue at the UN by proposing a Security Council resolution. If the Palestinians don’t get what they want there, the next stop will be The Hague.
Our initial plan was to take Hazem Hassim Ajaj from the village Deir Jarir to the hill overlooking the settlement of Mitzpe Kramim. High Court Case 953/11 deals with his claim to regain control of section 13 in parcel 19, on which part of the settlement was built. This land, he says, had been cultivated by his family for decades, until the settlement Kochav Hashachar was built nearby, denying the family access to the land. The plot remained abandoned for years, until the establishment of Mitzpe Kramim, first as a neighborhood at the outskirts of Kochav Hashachar and later as an illegal outpost that became bigger and bigger and currently numbers 43 families.
But the evening began to fall and photographer Shaul Golan begged us to take advantage of whatever daylight was left. So we found ourselves stopping at the side of the road, not far from Ajaj’s house, in the open area directly overlooking the Amona outpost. Ajaj tightened his coat, arranged his collar and looked down at the outpost slated for evacuation following a High Court ruling. But he’s not interested in Amona. He’s interested in the Regulation Bill being devised around the Amona saga.
His petition to the High Court of Justice contains seven dossiers of protocols, documents, the sides’ responses, depositions and aerial photographs. The advocate of the Regulation Bill believe that if it passes in the Knesset, these seven dossiers could then be tossed away and burned, Ajaj's land expropriated, and Mitzpe Kramim would be made legal by the power of the new law. But Ajaj declares that no Israeli law will keep him away from his land.
“I will never give up,” he says. “My lawyer will continue the battle on my behalf and I will do everything he instructs me to do. If it means having to go to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, we’ll go there.”
The threat of turning to the ICC has been hovering over the Regulation Bill from day one. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that its approval could lead him to The Hague, and not just him - but also a long list of officials in the political and military echelons.
Is this just an empty threat? Apparently not. Ajaj may not be able to go to The Hague on his own with his lawyer, Hossam Younes, as only a political entity can file a claim with the ICC - like the Palestinian Authority.
A senior PA official we spoke to last week says that the Palestinians have already begun the legal work regarding the Regulation Bill and its implications over a month ago. That work went into high gear after the bill’s approval process began at the Knesset.
“We have a legal team operating in the West Bank and a legal team of experts operating abroad and studying the issue,” he says. “We are collecting data and looking into the possibility of submitting these documents to the ICC in The Hague. If we have too, we’ll definitely go there.”
Peace Now’s recently published Settlement Watch report is all about the numbers behind the Regulation Bill and what these numbers mean. According to Peace Now’s count, which is based on the analysis of aerial shots and master plans of the West Bank settlements, the law will regulate 3,921 housing units by expropriating about 8,183 dunams (2,000 acres) of private Palestinian lands in the settlements and outpost. Fifty-five outposts that have been built illegally on private lands deep within the territories will be able to receive permits and become official settlements.
Looking at what the West Bank map would look like if the law is adopted leaves no room for doubt: The outposts’ regulation will create a sequence of Jewish settlements that will make it very difficult to implement the two-state solution which Prime Minister Netanyahu himself supports in his statements, most recently in an interview with American newsmagazine television program 60 Minutes.
The law—if it passes all Knesset readings—will not apply to cases that the High Court has already ruled on. The court is currently discussing dozens of petitions filed by Palestinians claiming ownership of lands on which outposts and settlements home have been built. The legal proceedings regarding these cases have not been completed yet, and the new law will basically shelve those petitions.
High Court Case 953/11 is one of those petitions whose fate has yet to be decided. The petition was filed by attorney Hossam Younes in November 2011 on behalf of Daud Ahmed Ali Rabia, who claims ownership of section 23 in parcel 19, and on behalf of Ajaj, who claims ownership of section 13 in the same plot. Without getting into the petition, which is laden with details and injunction numbers and different orders, let us just note that Rabia argues that he inherited the section from his grandmother and Ajaj says he bought it from his uncle before he died in Amman, Jordan. All the documents presented by these two men have been added to the petition.
An error became reality
We met on a Tuesday afternoon in a café in Ramallah, not far from Ajaj’s workplace. Rabia was supposed to come too, but a few hours before the meeting he had a heart attack and was rushed to hospital.
“There are maybe 8 kilometers (5 miles) between Deir Jarir and the land under discussion,” Ajaj said, “and the entire area there, not just my section, belonged to people from my village. Kochav Hashachar was built on the lands of Deir Jarir. My section belonged to my grandfather. He had lands which he left for his children. Each one got a piece. I bought this section from one of my grandfather’s heirs, my late uncle Qassem Amer Elshayeb. I grew up on this land. We planted wheat there and there was a well where we would take the sheep to drink.
“As soon as Kochav Hashachar was established, the problems began. The settlers removed us from there, stopped us from coming there with the flock and from growing wheat, and only later said that it was a closed military training area. We lived on that land. All our flock drank from the well that was there. The moment we were banished, my father sold the herd, because we didn’t have another source of water, and became unemployed.”
One can only envy the view Mitzpe Kramim’s residents have. The community is located east of Allon Road and above the Jordan Valley, and the residents see in front of them the whole the valley and the Moab mountains on its eastern side. There are two playgrounds there, mobile homes and a row of permanent houses. Vineyards and fruit trees have been planted alongside the road leading to the community from Kochav Hashachar.
The petition was filed by Ajaj and Rabia against the state and the community’s residents. The residents argued in response that it was the state that built the outpost, and that the state must reach an agreement with the petitioners—if they really do own the land—and compensate them with money or alternative land.
The state confirmed in its response that sections 13 and 23 in parcel 19 are regulated private property beyond the jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. The land remained empty until Independence Day 1999, when Mitzpe Kramim was established south of Kochav Hashachar. Eight months later, the residents were evacuated from the place as part of the outpost agreement signed between then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the Yesha Council heads. The agreement stated that the outpost’s buildings would be moved into Kochav Hashachar. Instead, the caravans were moved to their current location.
Aviad Caspi, head of infrastructure at Israel's Civil Administration, referred to the caravans’ move to the current place as “an error.” Error or not, Mitzpe Kramim has developed since then, and today the two sections that Rabia and Ajaj have claimed ownership of include 35 caravans and four permanent buildings, with a total of 150 residents. The entire outpost, which is defined as illegal, has 43 families with some 150 children.
In November 2013, the outpost’s residents filed a civil claim with the Jerusalem District Court against the state and the two Palestinian petitioners, demanding that the two sides reach a settlement that would allow the residents to remain in their homes. Attorney Younes, representing the two men, said that the claim’s goal was to delay the High Court proceedings. A year later, in November 2014, the High Court issued a conditional order against the state and Mitzpe Kramim’s residents, essentially accepting Rabia and Ajaj’s claims. No new developments have been recorded since then.
In November 2015, the state turned to the High Court and asked to wait for the completion of the District Court proceedings. The High Court gave the state 18 months. In the time that has passed since then, there has been hardly any progress.
“There is half a year left till the end of the extension granted by the High Court,” attorney Younes sighs, “and I’m telling you that there is no chance the District Court proceedings will be completed by then. The state’s interest is to delay the decision as much as it can. That’s the last thing they need, a new Amona in half a year’s time.”
The Regulation Bill will basically cancel the petition.
“Not just that one. I am running a number of High Court petitions regarding private lands with outposts on them. I have a High Court petitions over plots on one of the hills in Eli, in Beit El, in Givat Asaf, and even in Amona. If the law legitimizing land theft passes, the Palestinian petitioners will no longer have any place in the Israeli legal system. The only option they will be left with is international. To sue not only the responsible people in the Civil Administration, in the army and in the political echelon, but also the settlers themselves whose names and details we already have.”
Ajaj claims that for many years he didn’t even know that he could turn to the Israeli court. “I didn’t know that the Israeli law could come to my aid,” he says. “As soon as I was told that I could petition the court in Jerusalem, I did it immediately.”
We explained to him that the new law states he is entitled to pecuniary compensation for his land, if it indeed turns out that he is the owner. Ajaj was unmoved. “I’m firmly against any compensation. Money comes and goes, but the land stays. I’ll say more than that: The settlers say that they invested money in the place, that they built infrastructures and homes at a value exceeding the value of the land. I’m willing to pay back everything they invested, as long as they leave the homes and go away, despite the fact that they forced me out of the land, that they forcibly took it away from me. When I heard that a settlement had been built on it, I felt as if my hand had been cut off.”
Do you have that kind of money?
“I don’t, but I assume that any bank in Ramallah will give me a loan for this purpose.”
Fear of arrest warrants
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is preparing files on each and every one of the petitions and collecting data. A file is also being prepared on the Regulation Bill itself ahead of a possible lawsuit at the International Criminal Court.
The Defense Ministry’s legal advisor, Ahaz Ben-Ari, and Deputy Attorney General Roy Schöndorf were at the Knesset recently to speak at a meeting of the committee appointed to handle the Regulation Bill as part of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Channel 10 reporter Akiva Novick published some of their comments.
According to the report, Ben-Ari said: “The defense establishment opposes this law, clear and simple. I find it difficult to believe that such a law would pass in Israel. Netanyahu said it was a recipe for reaching The Hague. Is there a public servant who will dare sign an expropriation order?”
According to the same report, Schöndorf added that “an investigation in The Hague has many implications on the individual level. An authority to prosecute, personal arrest warrants.”
The senior PA official’s comments emphasize the legal advisors’ stand: “Our work on the ICC file is daily and routine. The data being collected there includes anything new that occurs in regards to the settlement enterprise. The teams are collecting findings and information, which are handed over to jurists who examine them.”
The source notes that there is also a Palestinian team which is closely monitoring the progress of the Regulation Bill. He clarifies, however, that at this stage the PA is inclined to raise the issue at the UN by proposing a Security Council resolution. If the Palestinians don’t get what they want there, the next stop will be The Hague.
Jonathan Cook/Days of Palestine
‘Israeli leaders expect the US to be religiously inclusive, but then they refuse to practise the same at home,’ Hanna Swaid told Al Jazeera.
As tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims converge on the Holy Land, this week, to celebrate the birth of Jesus, senior Israeli rabbis have announced a war on the Christmas tree.
In Jerusalem, the rabbinate has issued a letter warning dozens of hotels in the city that it is “forbidden” by Jewish religious law to erect a tree or stage new year’s parties.
Many hotel owners have taken the warning to heart, fearful that the rabbis may carry out previous threats to damage their businesses by denying them certificates declaring their premises to be “kosher.”
In the coastal city of Haifa, in northern Israel, the rabbi of Israel’s premier technology university has taken a similarly strict line.
Elad Dokow, the Technion’s rabbi, ordered that Jewish students boycott their students’ union, after it installed for the first time a modest Christmas tree.
He called the tree “idolatry,” warning that it was a “pagan” symbol that violated the kosher status of the building, including its food hall.
About a fifth of the Technion’s students belong to Israel’s large Palestinian minority.
While most of Israel’s Palestinian citizens are Muslim, there are some 130,000 Christians, most of them living in Galilee. More Palestinian Christians live under occupation in East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed in violation of international law.
“This is not about freedom of worship,” Dokow told the Technion’s students. “This is the world’s only Jewish state. And it has a role to be a ‘light unto the nations’ and not to uncritically embrace every idea.”
‘Pagan Symbol’
Rabea Mahajni, a 24-year-old electrical engineering student, said that placing the tree in the union was backed by Palestinian students but had strongly divided opinion among Jewish students and staff. The majority, he said, were against the decision.
“One professor upset [Palestinian] students by taking to Facebook to say that the tree made him uncomfortable, and that those who wanted it should either put one up in their own home or go to Europe,” he told Al Jazeera.
Mahajni added: “This is not really about a Christmas tree. It is about who the tree represents. It is a test of whether Jewish society is willing to accept an Arab minority and our symbols.”
He pointed out that Palestinian students had not objected to the students’ union also marking Hanukkah, referring to the Jewish winter “festival of lights” that this year coincides with Christmas.
For most of Israel’s history, the festive fir tree was rarely seen outside a handful of communities in Israel with significant Christian populations. But in recent years, the appeal of Christmas celebrations has spread among secular Israeli Jews.
Russians brought it to Israel
Interest took off two decades ago, after one million Russian-speaking Jews immigrated following the fall of the Soviet Union, said David Bogomolny, a spokesman for Hiddush, which lobbies for religious freedom in Israel.
Many, he told Al Jazeera, had little connection to Jewish religious practice in their countries of origin, and had adopted local customs instead.
“The tree [in the former Soviet Union] was very popular but it had nothing to do with Christmas,” he said. “Each home had one as a way to welcome in the new year.”
Nazareth, which claims to host the tallest Christmas tree in the Middle East, has recently become a magnet for many domestic tourists, including Jews, Christians and Muslims. They come to visit the Christmas market, hear carols and buy a Santa hat.
Haifa and Jaffa, which became almost Jewish cities with significant Palestinian Christian populations after the occupation of Palestine in 1948, have recently started competing. Jaffa, next to Tel Aviv, staged its first Christmas market last year.
Meanwhile, hotels are keen to erect a tree in their lobbies as a way to boost tourism revenue from Christian pilgrims, who comprise the bulk of overseas visitors.
Upsetting Rabbis
But the growing popularity of Christmas has upset many Orthodox rabbis, who have significant powers over public space. Bogomolny said that some rabbis were driven by a desire to make the state “as Jewish as possible” to avert it losing its identity.
Others may fear that the proliferation of Christmas trees could lure Israeli Jews towards Christianity.
Wadie Abu Nassar, a spokesman for the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, said that he had noticed an increasing interest from Israeli Jews in Christian festivals, including in some cases requests to attend Christmas mass.
He told Al Jazeera this was not a threat to Judaism, but healthy curiosity. “If we want to live together in peace, we have to understand each other and learn to trust,” he said.
The controversial status of Christmas in Israel was underscored four years ago, when Yair Netanyahu, the 21-year-old son of Israel’s prime minister, caused a minor scandal by being photographed wearing a Santa hat next to a Christmas tree.
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu hurriedly issued a statement saying that Yair had posed as a joke while attending a party hosted by “Christian Zionists, who love Israel, and whose children served in the [Israeli army].”
Christmas tree harms Jews
Two years earlier, Shimon Gapso, the mayor of Upper Nazareth, originally founded for Jews on Nazareth’s land, banned all signs of Christmas in the city’s public places. He has been a vociferous opponent of an influx of Christians from overcrowded Nazareth.
The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has also been declared a Christmas tree-free zone.
In 2013, its speaker rejected a request from Hanna Swaid, then a Palestinian Christian legislator, to erect a tree in the building. Yuli Edelstein said it would evoke “painful memories” of Jewish persecution in Europe and chip away at the state’s Jewish character.
Swaid pointed to the prominence of Jewish symbols in public spaces in the United States, including an annual Hanukkah party at the White House, during which the president lights menorah candles.
“Israeli leaders expect the US to be religiously inclusive, but then they refuse to practise the same at home,” he told Al Jazeera.
He also noted that the religious freedoms of the Palestinian minority were under ever greater attack, most notably with the recent drafting of a so-called “muezzin bill,” which would crack down on mosques’ use of loudspeakers for the call to prayer.
“Given this hostile political climate, the battle to gain legitimacy for our religious symbols becomes all the more important,” he said. “Otherwise, we face a dark future.”
Nonetheless, there has been a backlash, especially from secular Jews, against the rigid control exercised by Orthodox rabbis.
Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav, overruled the city’s rabbi in 2012 when he tried to ban Christmas trees and new year’s parties. The Jewish new year occurs several months before the Christian one.
And, last year, in the face of a legal challenge from Hiddush, the chief rabbinate backed down on threats to revoke the kosher certificates of businesses that celebrate Christmas.
But while the ban on Christmas trees has been formally lifted, in practice it is still widely enforced, according to Bogomolny.
“The problem is that the chief rabbinate actually has no authority over city rabbis, who can disregard its rulings, as we have seen with the letter issued by the Jerusalem rabbis,” he said.
Most hotels wanted to ignore the prohibition on Christmas trees because it was bad for business, but feared being punished.
“It is a problem throughout the country,” he said. “The hotels are afraid to take a stand. If they try to fight it through the courts, it will be costly and could take years to get a ruling.”
One hotel manager in West Jerusalem to whom Al Jazeera spoke on condition of anonymity said he feared “retaliation” from the rabbis.
“The letter was clearly intended to intimidate us,” he said. “The Christian tourists are here to celebrate Christmas and we want to help them do it, but not if it costs us our certificate.”
‘Israeli leaders expect the US to be religiously inclusive, but then they refuse to practise the same at home,’ Hanna Swaid told Al Jazeera.
As tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims converge on the Holy Land, this week, to celebrate the birth of Jesus, senior Israeli rabbis have announced a war on the Christmas tree.
In Jerusalem, the rabbinate has issued a letter warning dozens of hotels in the city that it is “forbidden” by Jewish religious law to erect a tree or stage new year’s parties.
Many hotel owners have taken the warning to heart, fearful that the rabbis may carry out previous threats to damage their businesses by denying them certificates declaring their premises to be “kosher.”
In the coastal city of Haifa, in northern Israel, the rabbi of Israel’s premier technology university has taken a similarly strict line.
Elad Dokow, the Technion’s rabbi, ordered that Jewish students boycott their students’ union, after it installed for the first time a modest Christmas tree.
He called the tree “idolatry,” warning that it was a “pagan” symbol that violated the kosher status of the building, including its food hall.
About a fifth of the Technion’s students belong to Israel’s large Palestinian minority.
While most of Israel’s Palestinian citizens are Muslim, there are some 130,000 Christians, most of them living in Galilee. More Palestinian Christians live under occupation in East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed in violation of international law.
“This is not about freedom of worship,” Dokow told the Technion’s students. “This is the world’s only Jewish state. And it has a role to be a ‘light unto the nations’ and not to uncritically embrace every idea.”
‘Pagan Symbol’
Rabea Mahajni, a 24-year-old electrical engineering student, said that placing the tree in the union was backed by Palestinian students but had strongly divided opinion among Jewish students and staff. The majority, he said, were against the decision.
“One professor upset [Palestinian] students by taking to Facebook to say that the tree made him uncomfortable, and that those who wanted it should either put one up in their own home or go to Europe,” he told Al Jazeera.
Mahajni added: “This is not really about a Christmas tree. It is about who the tree represents. It is a test of whether Jewish society is willing to accept an Arab minority and our symbols.”
He pointed out that Palestinian students had not objected to the students’ union also marking Hanukkah, referring to the Jewish winter “festival of lights” that this year coincides with Christmas.
For most of Israel’s history, the festive fir tree was rarely seen outside a handful of communities in Israel with significant Christian populations. But in recent years, the appeal of Christmas celebrations has spread among secular Israeli Jews.
Russians brought it to Israel
Interest took off two decades ago, after one million Russian-speaking Jews immigrated following the fall of the Soviet Union, said David Bogomolny, a spokesman for Hiddush, which lobbies for religious freedom in Israel.
Many, he told Al Jazeera, had little connection to Jewish religious practice in their countries of origin, and had adopted local customs instead.
“The tree [in the former Soviet Union] was very popular but it had nothing to do with Christmas,” he said. “Each home had one as a way to welcome in the new year.”
Nazareth, which claims to host the tallest Christmas tree in the Middle East, has recently become a magnet for many domestic tourists, including Jews, Christians and Muslims. They come to visit the Christmas market, hear carols and buy a Santa hat.
Haifa and Jaffa, which became almost Jewish cities with significant Palestinian Christian populations after the occupation of Palestine in 1948, have recently started competing. Jaffa, next to Tel Aviv, staged its first Christmas market last year.
Meanwhile, hotels are keen to erect a tree in their lobbies as a way to boost tourism revenue from Christian pilgrims, who comprise the bulk of overseas visitors.
Upsetting Rabbis
But the growing popularity of Christmas has upset many Orthodox rabbis, who have significant powers over public space. Bogomolny said that some rabbis were driven by a desire to make the state “as Jewish as possible” to avert it losing its identity.
Others may fear that the proliferation of Christmas trees could lure Israeli Jews towards Christianity.
Wadie Abu Nassar, a spokesman for the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, said that he had noticed an increasing interest from Israeli Jews in Christian festivals, including in some cases requests to attend Christmas mass.
He told Al Jazeera this was not a threat to Judaism, but healthy curiosity. “If we want to live together in peace, we have to understand each other and learn to trust,” he said.
The controversial status of Christmas in Israel was underscored four years ago, when Yair Netanyahu, the 21-year-old son of Israel’s prime minister, caused a minor scandal by being photographed wearing a Santa hat next to a Christmas tree.
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu hurriedly issued a statement saying that Yair had posed as a joke while attending a party hosted by “Christian Zionists, who love Israel, and whose children served in the [Israeli army].”
Christmas tree harms Jews
Two years earlier, Shimon Gapso, the mayor of Upper Nazareth, originally founded for Jews on Nazareth’s land, banned all signs of Christmas in the city’s public places. He has been a vociferous opponent of an influx of Christians from overcrowded Nazareth.
The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has also been declared a Christmas tree-free zone.
In 2013, its speaker rejected a request from Hanna Swaid, then a Palestinian Christian legislator, to erect a tree in the building. Yuli Edelstein said it would evoke “painful memories” of Jewish persecution in Europe and chip away at the state’s Jewish character.
Swaid pointed to the prominence of Jewish symbols in public spaces in the United States, including an annual Hanukkah party at the White House, during which the president lights menorah candles.
“Israeli leaders expect the US to be religiously inclusive, but then they refuse to practise the same at home,” he told Al Jazeera.
He also noted that the religious freedoms of the Palestinian minority were under ever greater attack, most notably with the recent drafting of a so-called “muezzin bill,” which would crack down on mosques’ use of loudspeakers for the call to prayer.
“Given this hostile political climate, the battle to gain legitimacy for our religious symbols becomes all the more important,” he said. “Otherwise, we face a dark future.”
Nonetheless, there has been a backlash, especially from secular Jews, against the rigid control exercised by Orthodox rabbis.
Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav, overruled the city’s rabbi in 2012 when he tried to ban Christmas trees and new year’s parties. The Jewish new year occurs several months before the Christian one.
And, last year, in the face of a legal challenge from Hiddush, the chief rabbinate backed down on threats to revoke the kosher certificates of businesses that celebrate Christmas.
But while the ban on Christmas trees has been formally lifted, in practice it is still widely enforced, according to Bogomolny.
“The problem is that the chief rabbinate actually has no authority over city rabbis, who can disregard its rulings, as we have seen with the letter issued by the Jerusalem rabbis,” he said.
Most hotels wanted to ignore the prohibition on Christmas trees because it was bad for business, but feared being punished.
“It is a problem throughout the country,” he said. “The hotels are afraid to take a stand. If they try to fight it through the courts, it will be costly and could take years to get a ruling.”
One hotel manager in West Jerusalem to whom Al Jazeera spoke on condition of anonymity said he feared “retaliation” from the rabbis.
“The letter was clearly intended to intimidate us,” he said. “The Christian tourists are here to celebrate Christmas and we want to help them do it, but not if it costs us our certificate.”
22 dec 2016
An Israeli settler attempted to run over two Palestinian children in his vehicle on Thursday while they were on their way to school in the Beita Zaata area of Beit Ummar in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, according to local reports.
Local activist Muhammad Awad told Ma’an that the Israeli settler, identified as Eliahu, was on his way home from his work as a security guard in the illegal Karmei Tzur settlement in the southern part of Beit Ummar, when he saw Ahmad Saber Zamel Abu Maria, 11, and his sister Ritaj, 17.
He then proceeded to drift his car towards the two children, attempting to run them over while pointing a gun at them, according to Awad.
The children quickly fled to a nearby house.
Awad added that the children’s father was informed and immediately arrived to the area, while an Israeli army vehicle also arrived at the scene of the incident.
The settler then attempted to assault the father and threaten him. The Israeli soldiers did not attempt to protect him, Awad said.
Rights groups estimate the settler population in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be between 500,000 to 600,000, all of whom reside in 196 illegal Israeli settlements in direct violation of international law.
There are a further 232 settler outposts scattered across the Palestinian territory considered illegal both by international law and Israeli domestic law -- despite Israeli authorities commonly retroactively legalizing the outposts, according to the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ).
The Palestinian government has no jurisdiction over Israelis in the West Bank, and violent acts carried out by Israeli settlers often occur in the presence of Israeli military forces, who rarely act to protect Palestinian residents.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, along with Israeli rights group B’Tselem, have previously condemned Israeli authorities for failing to protect Palestinians from settler violence or investigate attacks that occur on a frequent basis.
According to UN documentation, at least 101 settler-related attacks have been reported by Palestinians since the start of 2016. However, given the frequency of settler violence in the Palestinian territory, it is likely many incidents go unreported.
Local activist Muhammad Awad told Ma’an that the Israeli settler, identified as Eliahu, was on his way home from his work as a security guard in the illegal Karmei Tzur settlement in the southern part of Beit Ummar, when he saw Ahmad Saber Zamel Abu Maria, 11, and his sister Ritaj, 17.
He then proceeded to drift his car towards the two children, attempting to run them over while pointing a gun at them, according to Awad.
The children quickly fled to a nearby house.
Awad added that the children’s father was informed and immediately arrived to the area, while an Israeli army vehicle also arrived at the scene of the incident.
The settler then attempted to assault the father and threaten him. The Israeli soldiers did not attempt to protect him, Awad said.
Rights groups estimate the settler population in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be between 500,000 to 600,000, all of whom reside in 196 illegal Israeli settlements in direct violation of international law.
There are a further 232 settler outposts scattered across the Palestinian territory considered illegal both by international law and Israeli domestic law -- despite Israeli authorities commonly retroactively legalizing the outposts, according to the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ).
The Palestinian government has no jurisdiction over Israelis in the West Bank, and violent acts carried out by Israeli settlers often occur in the presence of Israeli military forces, who rarely act to protect Palestinian residents.
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, along with Israeli rights group B’Tselem, have previously condemned Israeli authorities for failing to protect Palestinians from settler violence or investigate attacks that occur on a frequent basis.
According to UN documentation, at least 101 settler-related attacks have been reported by Palestinians since the start of 2016. However, given the frequency of settler violence in the Palestinian territory, it is likely many incidents go unreported.
New settler groups stormed Thursday morning al-Aqsa Mosque via the Israeli-controlled al-Magharibeh gate amid heavy police protection.
Israeli forces were deployed in large numbers in and around the Mosque to pave the way for the settlers’ break-in.
On the other hand, Israeli police continued to prevent a number of Jerusalemite women from having access to al-Aqsa for allegedly being involved in protests against settlers’ presence in the holy shrine.
Tension remained high in and around al-Aqsa Mosque since early October 2015 after Israeli police repeatedly stormed the site and restricted Palestinians’ access into it, while allowing large numbers of settlers to access the holy site under heavy protection.
Israeli forces were deployed in large numbers in and around the Mosque to pave the way for the settlers’ break-in.
On the other hand, Israeli police continued to prevent a number of Jerusalemite women from having access to al-Aqsa for allegedly being involved in protests against settlers’ presence in the holy shrine.
Tension remained high in and around al-Aqsa Mosque since early October 2015 after Israeli police repeatedly stormed the site and restricted Palestinians’ access into it, while allowing large numbers of settlers to access the holy site under heavy protection.
21 dec 2016
171 Israeli settlers on Wednesday morning stormed the plazas of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque—Muslims’ third holiest site.
A PIC news correspondent said 160 Israeli settlers, three intelligence officers, and eight journalists, escorted by heavily-armed cops, forced their entry into the al-Aqsa Mosque via the al-Maghareba and al-Silsila gates.
The break-in lasted from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
At least 300 Israeli settlers, including 33 intelligence officers, broke into the holy site for the period from December 9 to December 15, down from 3,000 in October. 2017 is expected to see a hike in such Israeli break-ins.
A PIC news correspondent said 160 Israeli settlers, three intelligence officers, and eight journalists, escorted by heavily-armed cops, forced their entry into the al-Aqsa Mosque via the al-Maghareba and al-Silsila gates.
The break-in lasted from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
At least 300 Israeli settlers, including 33 intelligence officers, broke into the holy site for the period from December 9 to December 15, down from 3,000 in October. 2017 is expected to see a hike in such Israeli break-ins.
The Israeli High Court released, late on Tuesday, its decision regarding the Ghaith-Sub Laban eviction, in which the court partially accepted the family’s appeal and stopped their eviction.
The decision keeps the family’s protected tenant status for 10 more years, after which the family would be evicted and the house would be handed to the Israeli settler organization that requested the eviction.
The decision, however, limits the right to live in the house to Mrs. Nora Ghaith and her husband, Mustafa Sub Laban, without their children. The court also excluded, from its decision, a small storage room for the family under the house which Israeli settlers can proceed in taking over.
The decision comes one day after a hearing held in front of the Israeli High Court, yesterday, in which the court heard the family’s appeal against the eviction and the settler’s claims that the family “abandoned” their house years ago. During the hearing, the court proposed a compromise to both parties, under which the protected tenancy status would be limited to Nora and her husband, and the family would only be allowed to stay in the house as long as Nora and her husband are alive.
The settlers rejected the court’s suggestion and, instead, proposed evicting the family and moving them to the small storage unit under the house, which is no more than 20 square meters in size.
The court disregarded the settlers’ suggestion and ended the hearing, only to come back with this decision the following day.
According to the PNN, Nora Ghaith’s family rented the house, which is located in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, in 1953, from the Jordanian Custodian of Public Property. She continued to live in the house after 1967, and currently lives in the house with her husband, her two sons Ahmad and Rafat, her daughter Lama and her daughter-in-law Ruba and two grandchildren, Mustafa and Kenan, aged 9 and 4.
Nora Ghaith-Sub Laban commented by saying that the court simply acknowledged the settler’s claims that the house is abandoned, and ruled to separate her family. As per the High Court’s decision, Nora will have to be separated from her grandchildren as well as her unmarried son and daughter.
In case the family refuses to comply with the court’s decision, the settlers can file a new request to evict the family before the 10 years have passed.
Journalist and human rights activist Ahmad Sub Laban further added that the decision, in fact, evicts part of the family and keeps another temporarily.
Israeli judiciary, once again, sustains the regular discrimination which Palestinians face, where Israeli settlers are allowed to reclaim property they allegedly owned pre-1948, whereas Palestinians are prohibited from the same.
Today, the public also witnessed how the court ruled to separate a family by deciding who can live in the house and who cannot.
The Israeli High Court, as with all similar eviction or house demolition cases, seems to be proving itself a partner to settlement expansion, and to settler ambition to take over as many houses as possible, in occupied East Jerusalem. Such “justice”, it is said, only legitimizes occupation policies that are in violation of international law, and serves to further augment the annexation of East Jerusalem, after 1967.
The decision keeps the family’s protected tenant status for 10 more years, after which the family would be evicted and the house would be handed to the Israeli settler organization that requested the eviction.
The decision, however, limits the right to live in the house to Mrs. Nora Ghaith and her husband, Mustafa Sub Laban, without their children. The court also excluded, from its decision, a small storage room for the family under the house which Israeli settlers can proceed in taking over.
The decision comes one day after a hearing held in front of the Israeli High Court, yesterday, in which the court heard the family’s appeal against the eviction and the settler’s claims that the family “abandoned” their house years ago. During the hearing, the court proposed a compromise to both parties, under which the protected tenancy status would be limited to Nora and her husband, and the family would only be allowed to stay in the house as long as Nora and her husband are alive.
The settlers rejected the court’s suggestion and, instead, proposed evicting the family and moving them to the small storage unit under the house, which is no more than 20 square meters in size.
The court disregarded the settlers’ suggestion and ended the hearing, only to come back with this decision the following day.
According to the PNN, Nora Ghaith’s family rented the house, which is located in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, in 1953, from the Jordanian Custodian of Public Property. She continued to live in the house after 1967, and currently lives in the house with her husband, her two sons Ahmad and Rafat, her daughter Lama and her daughter-in-law Ruba and two grandchildren, Mustafa and Kenan, aged 9 and 4.
Nora Ghaith-Sub Laban commented by saying that the court simply acknowledged the settler’s claims that the house is abandoned, and ruled to separate her family. As per the High Court’s decision, Nora will have to be separated from her grandchildren as well as her unmarried son and daughter.
In case the family refuses to comply with the court’s decision, the settlers can file a new request to evict the family before the 10 years have passed.
Journalist and human rights activist Ahmad Sub Laban further added that the decision, in fact, evicts part of the family and keeps another temporarily.
Israeli judiciary, once again, sustains the regular discrimination which Palestinians face, where Israeli settlers are allowed to reclaim property they allegedly owned pre-1948, whereas Palestinians are prohibited from the same.
Today, the public also witnessed how the court ruled to separate a family by deciding who can live in the house and who cannot.
The Israeli High Court, as with all similar eviction or house demolition cases, seems to be proving itself a partner to settlement expansion, and to settler ambition to take over as many houses as possible, in occupied East Jerusalem. Such “justice”, it is said, only legitimizes occupation policies that are in violation of international law, and serves to further augment the annexation of East Jerusalem, after 1967.
