In Gaza, even the walls go underground

A wall is going down at the Egypt-Gaza border - but by ‘down’, I do not mean it is falling: it is going underground. 20 to 30 meters deep, to be exact.

After unconfirmed rumours first reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz and promptly denied by the Egyptian government, images - attributed to media-friendly smugglers - surfaced in the Egyptian press and confirmed that Egypt was indeed building an iron wall along its border with Gaza strip, aimed at blocking the multitude of tunnels that link Egyptian town Rafah with its Palestinian eponymous counterpart.

The wall will stretch for 11 kilometres long, from the Mediterranean to Israeli-controlled border point Kerem Abu Salem. It will be exclusively underground.

At a press conference Saturday, Hamas spokesperson Fawzy Barhoum was understandably very critical of the wall's construction. The construction, says Barhoum, is "American-funded and supervised. It comes in tail of the US plan that began under Bush to suffocate the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, after the Zionist enemy has failed to break their will".

With US and Israeli encouragement, a nervous Egypt has been silently yet steadily contributing to the Israeli-imposed blockade by tightening its own border with Gaza. After Gazans blew up a segment of the wall in January 2008 and entered Egypt for a massive shopping spree, a new 3-meters concrete wall was built along the border. Egyptian authorities now claim that the new underground wall tightening the border is a matter of national security, to prevent weapons being smuggled into the Gaza strip. It is also actively searching for, and destroying tunnels.

“A network of several hundred tunnels”, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), brings into Gaza “a range of materials, including foodstuffs, beverages, livestock, medicines, fuel, cement, paper, spare parts and other goods”. Even zoo animals have been smuggled through the tunnels, whose owners provide a lifeline for the 1.5 million Gazans stranded in the small territory for several years now under a seemingly interminable blockade. Goods allowed entry into Gaza are in drastically short supply and tightly controlled by Israel, whose lists of goods inexplicably forbidden entry include such items as jam, toilet paper, and chickpeas.

Tunnelers are not only moved by compassion and humanitarian concerns, though - tunnels are a lucrative business. Digging a tunnel can cost several tens, maybe hundreds thousand of dollars, but it seemingly recoups its costs rapidly. At the reported going rate of $1500 to move a person, $250 per cattle head and the same per sack of goods, the tunnel covers its fixed cost, as well as the running costs - which include electricity, even telephone lines, occasionally ventilators, and a tax levied by the government authorities per shipment.

Despite the announcement of the underground barrier, tunnelers remain upbeat, vowing to dig through, or bypass the barrier altogether. "Let the Americans and the Israelis pay for the wall," said one to the Egyptian press. And if the barrier is indeed impossible to cut through, wel, "the tunnels are minimum 20 meters underground. We can make it 40 meters."

But in that event, the cost of digging will necessary increase - and consequently so will the price of smuggled goods.

A few days shy of the first anniversary of last year’s three weeks-long Israeli assault on Gaza, which killed upwards of 1400 persons including several hundred children, the Strip remains in a pitiful state. Barely any reconstruction has taken place - the tunnels offer drastically insufficient supplies of construction materials, that international organisations are not allowed to make use of by their own internal guidelines.

But the cat-and-mouse game can only go this far, and the pressure on Gaza’s Palestinians, already unsustainable, cannot be allowed to increase any further. Easing, ending the blockade is inevitable.

"Islam Conquers Jerusalem", says Haaretz

I was reading an article on Haaretz when an advert on the page - a paid one, in all likelihood - displayed the delightful images below:


If it's not too clear, allow me to describe it:
In white bleeding caps, the caption says "ISLAM CONQUERS JERUSALEM", above a view of the Old City. Second later, the daytime scene darkens - night - and then suddenly becomes that of a Jerusalem in flames.
The message couldn't be clearer, obviously.

Clicking on it leads you to an Arab-hating, Jewish supremacist website. More precisely, it takes you to a post that advocates the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and stating that Israeli statehood should be crafted "in the blood of our enemies". Delightful, isn't it?

(interestingly, this post does recognise that Arabs are the indigenous population of Palestine, and that Jews are the 'colonizers'. Perhaps we agree on something after all).

There is is plenty of such hate speech on internet. Racists with a computer are a dime a dozen. However, I find appalling that the advert would show this bluntly on Haaretz, supposedly the only newspaper with a brain (and journalistic ethics) in Israel.
(Just so we're clear: Yediot is a populist newspaper, Maariv copies Yediot, and Israel Hayom is a Likud mouthpiece).

Especially that the website in question proudly states that it's been banned Google AdSense for "unacceptable content" and "advocating against a group", Adbrite shut their account, and Amazon deleted their reviews.

Why is Haaretz allowing this hateful message on their website? do they need screen for the content they advertise? Are they so desperate for the cash? Or do their commercial and editorial departments find it alright to encourage ethnic cleansing?

Shame on you, Haaretz.

So your action is needed! Contact Haaretz and ask them to remove hateful adverts from their website:

Haaretz.com editorial department: (972) 3 512 1798
[email protected]

Haaretz.com commercial section: (972) 3 513 1410
[email protected]

Haaretz English Edition, editorial department: (972) 3 512 1751
[email protected]

The battle for the Israeli army's soul

The secular identity and image of the Israeli Army (IDF) is undergoing radical changes in favour of a religion-infused ideology that could threaten not only its relation with the Israeli establishment, but even undermine the outcome of a potential peace process. Yet the State seems severely unprepared to meet the challenge.

Consider, for example, the following few events which occurred over the course of the past month:

The IDF army chief Rabbi quoted a near-millennial religious commentary to conclude that soldiers who show mercy to the enemy will be ‘damned’; orthodox soldiers in active duty displayed banners calling for disobeying orders, during a military oath taking ceremony and encouraged by right-wing rabbis who praised insubordination as a ‘virtue’; and a secret meeting between extremist settler rabbis took place in Jerusalem to discuss means of undermining, via religious arguments, potential military orders to evacuate settlements.

Add to it offers of financial support to soldiers advocating refusal to carry orders, and it becomes clear that the Israeli army, bastion of secularism and defender of the Hebrew state, is at the heart of a powerful struggle between the State’s institutions and the religious-nationalist/settler establishment, which threatens its core foundations and its ability to perform its duties.


Military service is originally compulsory for all Jewish adolescent men and women. Everyone has a child, a niece, a cousin or a friend in active duty. Furthermore, adults remain in active reserve often for decades after they’ve accomplished their service, maintaining their link to the uniform and their army buddies. In effect, the army serves as the national melting pot for Israel. Relationships cast among brothers in arms last a lifetime, and translate into networking opportunities that shape careers.

But in addition to being fully intertwined in the fabric of the society, the IDF is perhaps the final rampart of secularism is a country increasingly coloured by the secular-liberal vs. the religious-nationalist social conflict.

The sources of the conflict between secular and religious in the Israel army are to be found within the foundations of the State. In 1948, (secular) first president of David Ben Gurion granted the small 400-strong ultra-orthodox community exemption from the military service, in favour of religious studies. (The relevance of this regulation today is heavily debated.)

But a conflict was only partially avoided. Young religious scholars who nevertheless wanted to serve in the army found refuge in Hesder yeshivas, special religious schools which cooperate with the army to integrate military service with their Torah curriculum. Yet the number, and influence of hesder yeshivas has steadily grown, to the point of explicitly instructing soldiers to disobey orders pertaining to the interests of the national-religious movement, primarily the evacuation of settlements, exposing themselves to severe accusations of racism and "undermining Israeli sovereignty" by liberal observers.


Worse, the threat to the ‘secularism of arms’ is not just to be found in extremist schools, but from within the army's powerful rabbinate, whose role has evolved in the past few years far beyond catering to the spiritual needs of religious soldiers and ensuring food served is kosher.

Army chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Avichai Rontzki - who’s responsible for the above-mentioned quote on ‘damning’ the troops that will show mercy - is an outspoken advocate for a militant faith-based version of military morality: he has been recruiting hundreds of Rabbis to the rank of officers to be integrated to combat units, disseminating religious propaganda under the guise of "using motivations and understandings gleaned from the Bible and the heritage of Israel to enhance the army's ability to achieve victory”, openly hinting at ‘a holy war’ to soldiers via the distribution of booklets and articles among soldiers.

So much that a senior IDF officer accused him of "of religious brainwashing and, indirectly, also political [brainwashing]".

A resident of an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank, his 2006 appointment was described by the Peace Now movement as “a stinging insult to the rule of law”. He is the head of a Hesder yeshiva in Itamar - one of the West Bank's most extremist settlements.


It is increasingly apparent that the State has little to no idea how to respond to this threat - and time is not on its side. Soldiers are warning that "if we fail to clearly draw the line right now, in a few years we shall find ourselves shifting... to holy wars".
While army chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi stressed that "soldiers answer to one authority only, and that is their commanding officers", the insubordination incidents are nevertheless viewed by analysts as precursors to a mutiny, and described as "just a small taste of what the army and the state can expect if anyone dares to evacuate settlements in a serious fashion."

So far, only half-hearted threats have been made by the Israeli government against those advocating insubordination, with Minister of Defense Ehud Barak shelving threats in favour of reaching “an understanding that would make such steps unnecessary”.

If the army is not to become a toy in the hands of religious-nationalist Rabbis and the pro-settler movement, prompt and more aggressive action will be demanded from the part of the Israeli government, to avoid tipping over into a situation where its authority over its armed forces is challenged by a nucleic religious authority whose long-term goals may not match those of the State or the primarily secular majority.

(note: photos not mine. Caricature is from Haaretz).

Ajami - عجمي - עג'מי - It's the Arab Review of Israeli Cinema!

Make your linguistic pick! :)







“It’s called Ajami. No, not the Ajami in Alexandria - it’s a neigbourhood in Yafa.. ever heard of Yafa? It’s a city, on the Mediterranean. They used to plant oranges there... oranges and lemons”. This is what I answered my younger brother who asked what I was watching.

On the screen, an Israeli Arab guy was telling the other: “Crystal meth. 200 grams. That’s worth 150,000 shekels”.

Yes, Yafa has changed much.



“Ajami” is a brilliant and deservedly much lauded film, which straightforwardly follows the lives of the people who live there. A neighbourhood of Jaffa - Yafa in Arabic - it has become a hotbed for crime, lawlessness, and poverty. Supposedly part of the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, an Arab character asserts - in Hebrew- that “here in Jaffa, there’s no municipality. The municipality ends there, at your Tel Aviv”.

Those who follow current events will recognize it as the neighbourhood whose poorer Arab inhabitants are being expelled by Israeli developers, with the complicity of the State, to build beachfront properties for Jews.

The backbone of the film is Omar’s story - a 19-year old whose uncle inadvertently causes a major vendetta. عطوة, they call it. Omar is poised to become the next murdered, and his panicked family - himself, his mother, and two younger siblings - seek mediation with the family that wants him dead.

Other storylines, handily split in chapters, add layers of complexity to the film, and deepness to the characters.

Those include Malek, a 16-year old from Nablus who works illegally in a restaurant in Jaffa, trying to earn the money needed for his mother’s surgery.
Dando, the Jewish policeman working the hot zones of Ajami, father of two who struggles to keep his sanity and his family’s, struck by the murder of their younger son.
Then there’s Binge; the Christian Arab, the hip dopehead with a big heart, who wants to move in with his Jewish girlfriend in neighbouring Neve Tsedek.
There’s Omar and Hadeer’s complex love affair - he’s Muslim, she’s Christian, and the boss’ daughter.

The multiplicity of the stories, along with the film’s non-linear timeline, makes it riveting. The actors - who are not professional actors but Ajami natives who got some acting coaching are amazing. (well, all but one. Hadeer sucks.) Scandar Copti, co-director of the film (alongside Yaron Shani) actually plays Binge.

Most of the film is in Arabic - an Arabic sometimes peppered with Hebrew, the way Palestinian Israelis sometimes speak. Segments in Hebrew are more difficult to understand so I had to rely on the ‘pause-check-dictionary-play-pause-check-dictionary’ technique...

There’s also the insights into the lives of Israeli Arabs. The poverty, the relationships, the solidarity proper to a persecuted minority group. The generational gap, the attraction of a western/Israeli lifestyle as opposed to the traditional family structure (for instance, Omar and Hadeer have to go to Tel Aviv to meet freely).

And I did laugh whenever Arabs use profanity in Hebrew. “Shou, dafouk enta?”



Previous installments of ‘The Arab Review of...”: Kalat Hayam, and Srugim.

"And the gathering of the Tweeps he called Tweetup. And God saw that it was cool."

In the memorable (and high-pitched) words of Mr. Barney Stinson, it was.. "Awesome".

Was great to see many of the Tweetup 1.0 people, along with ever more new faces!!
The location was nice - and the room was big enough to allow for movement fluidity. A seated roundtable with 30 people would've simply inconvenient!

So props to the instigator-in-chief, @Sandmonkey, who chose the location and invited the people - I'd have loved to take all the organisational credit for myself but he knows where I live, so, there. :)

Anyways. I had an amazing time and I hope you did too! Looking forward to the next one - let's say end of January / Early February 2010 - free your schedules!
(on a sidenote, yes, it's almost 2010, and no, you're not getting any younger.)


So without further ado, below are some photos. The rest is (or is it 'are'? I never know) HERE.