“You Son of a Bitch, what are you doing on the Beach?”  (June 2, 2009)

It is March 2008.  The Bedouins Sabri and Ismail decided to have a swim at the nearby beach in Ashkelon; they live in one of the seven colonies reserved for them by Israel in the Negev Desert with no running water or electricity.  Two civilian Jewish guards confront them: “What you dirty Arabs are doing here? You have no rights being here. Get out instantly”   Ismail is shackled and detained for two days without charges. Sabri will die at the hospital with double hemorrhages of the brain and the lungs; Sabri’s suffered bones fracture in the head, chest, legs, and face.  The Israeli police refused to divulge the autopsy and the cold murderers were not apprehended.

The Bedouins of Al Nakab were 70,000 as of 1948; they are 11,000 by 2009.  The Bedouins enjoyed over one million hectares of land to cultivate in 1948; they shrank to barely 24,000 hectares in 2009.  Frequently, the Israeli authorities demolish entire villages of makeshift homes because the Israeli authorities refuse building permit in non recognized communities of Bedouins and they ruin their agricultural lands with poisonous chemicals.

The Palestinians with Israeli passports (PIP) are not fairing better than the “Arab Bedouins” After Israel was recognized a State by a majority of a single vote in the UN in 1948 only 160,000 Palestinians out of one million remained in their villages.  The government of Ben Gurion unleashed military detachments to massacre entire villages which spread fear among the Palestinians who took refuge in Jordan and Lebanon, supposedly for temporary stay because the UN resolution 194 demanded the return of the Palestinians.  The salary of a Palestinian worker is half the Israeli “Jew”; his average yearly revenue is $7,700 compared to $19,000 for the Israeli “Jew”; 18% of the Palestinian (PIP) find jobs compared to 58% of the Israeli women “Jews”. 

The Palestinians with Israeli passport (PIP) retained only 3.5% of their entire lands and they constitute 5.5% of governmental posts.  The PIP represents 20% of Israel’s population and receives only 3% in government budget.  Since the establishment of Israel not a single locality was created for the PIP compared to new 600 villages and colonies for the Israeli “Jews”. Over 52% of the PIP lives under the threshold of poverty.

Over 75% of the Israeli Jews oppose the formation of PIP political parties, and would not live in the same building with the PIP.  The current minister of Israel Foreign Affairs (the Russian Avigdor Liberman) prosecuted for criminal activities wants to transfer the remaining PIP to other Arab States.  The former minister Tsivi Livney expressed the same wishes.

The plans for transferring the PIP “somewhere” are already at the execution phase.  A new law declared Israel “Jewish” and another law is forcing the PIP for military circumscription.  For example, 40 PIP working on maintaining a railroad track were fired because they did do their military obligation even though the law was not in effect at the time of the licensing. 

The City of Jaffa (Yafa), annexed to Tel Aviv, is 40% PIP and the municipality refuses building permit to them; thus, you see on one side of the main road new establishments for the Jews and on the left side shantytowns.  The municipality of Jaffa hired a private enterprise to evacuate the PIP who failed to pay rents; more than 500 of denied building permit are pressuring many PIPS into precarious living because they can no longer afford skyrocketing renting expenses.  The city of Akka is 53,000 strong with 17,000 PIP.  The municipality is turning its downtown into a Jewish quarter and closed down the Mosque Al Lababidi.  Armed Jewish guards escort school children: this city suffered fascist upheaval by Jewish right-wingers who ransacked 30 homes and destroyed 80 shops.  The city of Lod (Lydda) has 11,000 PIP and the municipality is doing its best to chase out the PIP and replace them with Russian Jews.

The PIPs are reacting accordingly: 52% of eligible PIP voted and most of them for the communist party Hadash. Only 12% (out of the regular 30% three years ago) opted to vote for one of the Zionist political parties.  The PIPs participated heavy in the demonstrations during the “Land Day” in order to counter attack this “rampant wave of apartheid” of the Zionists.

Note: theme extracted from the monthly “Le Monde Diplomatic”