Dear All, <\/p>\n
B. Michael writes below of a new ordinance which is to go into effect on Friday, January 19, 2007. This ordinance decrees that Israelis or others driving cars with Israeli license plates are not allowed to transport Palestinians in their cars in the West Bank. Eight Human Rights organizations have appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to declare the rule illegal. I have doubts that the SC will do so. May I be proven wrong. If there will be no injunction to stop the decree, then non-violent Israelis and internationals who believe in justice will drive into the OPT load their cars with Palestinians, who likewise believe in justice, but do not have it. They will then drive off together?Palestinians and Israelis and internationals to challenge the prohibition by their act. <\/p>\n
The title of Michael?s piece, ?A Flag Blacker than Black,? is taken from the custom in Israel with respect to swimming. A red flag hung at the life-guard?s tower indicates that it is dangerous to go into the water. A black flag indicates that swimming is so dangerous that it is absolutely prohibited. The symbol of the ?black flag? is applied in the military to an order that is contrary to ethical principles. To this type of order, a soldier theoretically has the right (even the obligation, some will say) to refuse to carry out. This sounds fine, but is highly theoretical, since whenever an individual has applied it, he\/she has been punished rather than praised. <\/p>\n
– Dorothy<\/a><\/p>\n Kingdom of Evil Next Friday, January 19, 2007, if the High Court of Justice does not save us from the shame in time?the most disgraceful regulation that the military dictatorship in the territories wishes to inflict on its subjects, and on all the citizens of Israel, will go into effect. On this day, so orders OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, Israelis will be forbidden to drive Palestinians in their cars, throughout the West Bank. Anyone who wishes to transport a Palestinian will be forced to ask for a permission slip from the clerks of the occupation. <\/p>\n The feeble, time-worn, false excuse is, as usual, security. <\/p>\n Nonsense. There is no connection between this abomination and security. This new decree of the kingdom of evil in Judea and Samaria is nothing more than further proof that there is no limit to the depths of bestiality to which the occupation bureaucracy can sink, when there is no one to put a stop to it. And this racist regulation is no more than another bolt, a particularly repulsive one, in the machine that is engaged diligently and efficiently in stripping the Palestinians of their human dignity, isolating them, separating them, trampling them and grinding the remnants of their rights into dust. There are, of course, exceptions: The feudal lords from the settlements will be able to continue to drive their native slaves to their places of employment. After all, it is unthinkable that the comfortable routine of the masters should be disturbed. Certainly not by a general who permits these dregs of humanity to do as they please in any case (see the performance of the despicable character from the ?Jewish settlement in Hebron,? who starred on the television screens this week).<\/p>\n The State of Israel has an abundance of laws, temporary rules and military administration orders from which a foul odor arises. But such a blatant trampling of basic democratic norms, of all the rules of war and all the values of human dignity and freedoms, has not yet been here.<\/p>\n To tell the truth, even the word ?apartheid? is too moderate to describe this abomination. There is no choice but to search for historical precedents in other places as well. Places where the Jews themselves suffered from such unjust laws. Not the blacks in South Africa, the Indians in America, the Arabs in Algeria or the untouchables in India. We can also learn from our own experience. We can also be alarmed by our history and the history of our forefathers, learn from it and draw conclusions and morals.<\/p>\n After all, the laws that were scorched into our flesh were frequently grounded in excuses of ?the people?s security,? and defense against the Jewish enemy that is scheming to sabotage the state and contaminate its demographic purity with its seed.<\/p>\n My forefathers were also forbidden to travel with the members of the ruling nation in the same car. My forefathers were also barred from using means of transportation, save for the purpose of reaching their job with the rulers. My forefathers were also barred from moving around, working, studying, healing, vacationing or worshipping their God, unless the ruling masters had granted them permission.<\/p>\n And now I hold the order of OC Central Command, stare at it with helpless eyes and a contracted stomach, and read:<\/p>\n Palestinians are forbidden to travel in cars with Israelis.<\/p>\n Palestinians are permitted to drive in an Israeli car only for the sake of reaching their job.<\/p>\n Woe is the shame. Woe is the disgrace. Woe is the short memory. Woe is the Judaism that thus tramples itself to the ground.<\/p>\n A flag blacker than black marks this order. And every civilized person and every law-abiding person must beware of obeying it. For it is not only patently illegal, it is also malignant.<\/p>\n Update 17.01.2007:<\/strong><\/p>\n Last update – 06:23 17\/01\/2007<\/p>\n IDF freezes ban on Israelis carrying West Bank residents in their cars The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday froze any application of an order prohibiting Israeli citizens from giving rides in their cars to Palestinian residents of the West Bank without special permission. <\/p>\n The planned order has been severely criticized by lawyers and human rights organizations, and petitions against it have been filed in the High Court of Justice. <\/p>\n GOC Central Command Yair Naveh, who issued the order, said the decision to freeze its application reflected both operational and unsettled legal issues. The order was said to help stop the smuggling of Palestinians into Israel in cars that belong to Israelis (for the most part, Israeli Arabs). The order was made public November 19, and was set to go into effect Friday. <\/p>\n Shin Bet security service and IDF probes of suicide bombings in recent years show that in a not-insignificant number of the bombings, terrorists received transport help from Israeli Arabs who had the right license plates to pass through West Bank checkpoints without thorough inspection. <\/p>\n Human rights organizations call the order racist, saying it would disrupt even minimal social contacts between Israelis and Palestinians. They also expressed concern the order would hamper the work of international organizations, and would even further restrict Palestinian movement throughout the West Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (from my e-mail) Dear All, B. Michael writes below of a new ordinance which is to go into effect on Friday, January 19, 2007. This ordinance decrees that Israelis or others driving cars with Israeli license plates are not allowed … Continue reading
\nA Flag Blacker than Black
\nby B. Michael, Yedioth Ahronoth<\/em>, 12 January 2007<\/strong> <\/p>\n
\n
\nThe details of the Naveh regulation should be presented accurately: It does not deal with the prohibition to transport Palestinians into the State of Israel. The entry of Palestinians into Israel has been forbidden for a long time, in any way, shape or form. It also does not seek to prevent attempts to ?smuggle? Palestinians into a settlement, heaven forefend. After all, they are forbidden to enter there too. Maj. Gen. Naveh simply wishes to forbid any joint travel. Including a social gathering inside the West Bank. Or helping a friend transport a load of goods to his home. Or just a trip. Even a 200-meter drive to a coffee shop in order to sit together and talk. And needless to say, a joint ride to a demonstration against the occupation, or to any other threatening event of rapport and reconciliation, will be forbidden from now on. <\/p>\n
\nBy Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n