Nedanstående brev skickade jag till Israels regering för en tid sedan. Tilläggas kan, att om Israel, USA och Europa ännu skulle känna sig osäkra på hur man skall hantera icke-önskvärda islamistiska valsegrar, borde de ta sig tid att jämföra utfallet av de olika strategier man använt sig av i fallen Algeriet och Turkiet.
"Gevurotaj verabotaj!
I am a Jew living in Sweden, currently writing my Ph.D.-dissertation, dealing with the history of the Jews in Russia during the 19th century. I cannot help but being very disturbed and upset by the discriminatory practices against the Palestinian population under Israeli occupation that Your government exercises. It is difficult not to see the obvious parallells with the repressive measures of the tsarist (and later the Soviet) regime against Jews, e.g. restriction of movement, "locking in" within particular zones (cf. the "Pale of settlement"), turning a blind eye on harassment and violence - even regular pogroms against Palestinians (villagers, schoolkids and others) from settlers, and not pursuing justice against the perpetrators. (Tzedek, tzedek tirdof!). When Palestinians exercise their democratic right of voting, your government immediately decides to punish them, since you do not like the outcome of the election (which you yourselves did very much to promote, by the way, with your "targeted killings", the building of the wall and your expansion of settlements on occupied land during all the so-called "peace-process" ). This is unworthy of Israel, which boasts about being the only democracy in the Middle-East.
On top of all that we now learn that since the start of 2006 over 230 Palestinian children have been arrested, with the Israeli army appearing to target in particular youths from the Bethlehem Nablus and Jenin areas of the West Bank, bringing the number of Palestinian children in Israeli custody to almost 400. This represents a significant increase on the already-inexcusably high numbers of recent years and marks a further indication of the scant regard your government pays to Palestinian children's rights and to international law.
Children are handcuffed and blindfolded before being bundled into military vehicles for interrogation in nearby settlements or military camps. Still dazed and confused from the arrest, and often having been beaten by soldiers inside the jeep, the children are taken immediately for interrogation in which police and soldiers hurl abuse, threats and sometimes kicks and punches to extract some form of admission from the terrified child. Confessions obtained from this brutalising procedure, which contravenes every legal and moral guideline regarding the questioning of suspects, are deemed sufficient evidence by the Israeli military authorities not only to charge the child, but to charge others implicated in the confession.
Following interrogation, child detainees are incarcerated in cramped and squalid conditions in detention centres across the West Bank to await trial – only a handful of cases are granted bail despite clear and universally-accepted international laws stating that the detention of juveniles should “be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”. Increasingly children sentenced to six months are serving the entire prison term in these temporary detention centres, lacking even the most basic needs such as access to adequate food and washing facilities, and deprived of contact with family and healthcare professionals.
I urge you, as human beings and fellow-Jews, to show some moral integrity and immediately stop this policy of targeting, arresting, abusing and imprisoning Palestinian children. Please release without delay all Palestinian children held illegally in Israeli prisons and detention centres!
I also call on you to stop destroying Palestinian houses and olive-trees. Destruction of fruit-bearing trees is halakhically forbidden - even in times of war, you should know that!
When that is said and done (it should only take you max one day), but only then, I wish you all Shabbat shalom!"
Joakim Philipson
Ph.D. candidate
Baltic and East European Graduate School / Södertörns högskola
Huddinge, Sweden
"Gevurotaj verabotaj!
I am a Jew living in Sweden, currently writing my Ph.D.-dissertation, dealing with the history of the Jews in Russia during the 19th century. I cannot help but being very disturbed and upset by the discriminatory practices against the Palestinian population under Israeli occupation that Your government exercises. It is difficult not to see the obvious parallells with the repressive measures of the tsarist (and later the Soviet) regime against Jews, e.g. restriction of movement, "locking in" within particular zones (cf. the "Pale of settlement"), turning a blind eye on harassment and violence - even regular pogroms against Palestinians (villagers, schoolkids and others) from settlers, and not pursuing justice against the perpetrators. (Tzedek, tzedek tirdof!). When Palestinians exercise their democratic right of voting, your government immediately decides to punish them, since you do not like the outcome of the election (which you yourselves did very much to promote, by the way, with your "targeted killings", the building of the wall and your expansion of settlements on occupied land during all the so-called "peace-process" ). This is unworthy of Israel, which boasts about being the only democracy in the Middle-East.
On top of all that we now learn that since the start of 2006 over 230 Palestinian children have been arrested, with the Israeli army appearing to target in particular youths from the Bethlehem Nablus and Jenin areas of the West Bank, bringing the number of Palestinian children in Israeli custody to almost 400. This represents a significant increase on the already-inexcusably high numbers of recent years and marks a further indication of the scant regard your government pays to Palestinian children's rights and to international law.
Children are handcuffed and blindfolded before being bundled into military vehicles for interrogation in nearby settlements or military camps. Still dazed and confused from the arrest, and often having been beaten by soldiers inside the jeep, the children are taken immediately for interrogation in which police and soldiers hurl abuse, threats and sometimes kicks and punches to extract some form of admission from the terrified child. Confessions obtained from this brutalising procedure, which contravenes every legal and moral guideline regarding the questioning of suspects, are deemed sufficient evidence by the Israeli military authorities not only to charge the child, but to charge others implicated in the confession.
Following interrogation, child detainees are incarcerated in cramped and squalid conditions in detention centres across the West Bank to await trial – only a handful of cases are granted bail despite clear and universally-accepted international laws stating that the detention of juveniles should “be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”. Increasingly children sentenced to six months are serving the entire prison term in these temporary detention centres, lacking even the most basic needs such as access to adequate food and washing facilities, and deprived of contact with family and healthcare professionals.
I urge you, as human beings and fellow-Jews, to show some moral integrity and immediately stop this policy of targeting, arresting, abusing and imprisoning Palestinian children. Please release without delay all Palestinian children held illegally in Israeli prisons and detention centres!
I also call on you to stop destroying Palestinian houses and olive-trees. Destruction of fruit-bearing trees is halakhically forbidden - even in times of war, you should know that!
When that is said and done (it should only take you max one day), but only then, I wish you all Shabbat shalom!"
Joakim Philipson
Ph.D. candidate
Baltic and East European Graduate School / Södertörns högskola
Huddinge, Sweden
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