Turkey, Israel Swap Guns for Water
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Turkey and Israel today signed an arms deal by which Israel will import water from Turkey, and Turkey will acquire tanks and air force technology from Israel. The Guardian reports that the deal is expected to strengthen ties between the two countries, and have long-lasting effects on the geo-politics of the Middle East.
According to the terms of the agreement, which was finalized yesterday in Jerusalem, Israel will transport 50 million cubic meters of water annually from Turkey for the next 20 years. As part of the exchange, Turkey will buy an unspecified number of heavy weapons and military technology from Israel.
According to the Guardian, the water Israel plans to import from Turkey will account for approximately 3 percent of the country’s water consumption.
As the state that consumes the most water in the Middle East, water security has long been a political issue for Israel. The country currently gets much of its water from aquifers in the Palestinian Territories, which Israel occupies against United Nations resolutions, as well as from the Jordan river, which has caused the river to all but dry up. Israel’s pumped consumption of 90 percent of upstream water from the Jordan River has been a source of contention between Israel and its closest neighbors.
Turkey, which spent the 1990s building one of the most formidable militaries in the region and has long relied on US funding and armaments, emerges from the deal with a significant connection with one of the world’s fastest growing arms dealing nations. Turkey’s primary focus of military activity has been fighting a counter-insurgency war against Kurdish separatists. Human rights groups estimate Turkish forces killed upwards of 30,000 Kurdish civilians and rebels during the campaign.
Turkey presently stands in violation of a long list of UN Security Council violations, second only to Israel, the country with the most recorded ongoing violations.
Videotape Contradicts IDF Version of Protest Shootings
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz Daily reported today that important evidence has been presented in the case against Israeli soldiers who shot at nonviolent demonstrators, wounding Gill Na’amati, an Israeli anarchist. Israeli Army representatives and demonstrators have given widely divergent accounts of the shooting, which happened during a protest against the controversial separation barrier Israel is building inside the West Bank.
Today, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Anarchists Against the Wall presented video and eyewitness documentation of the events. Shortly thereafter, the Israeli army gave its report to IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon.
According to Ha’aretz, the army has maintained that its soldiers were unaware they were shooting at Israelis, but instead thought they were shooting at violent Palestinian demonstrators they feared would break through the separation barrier and enter a nearby settlement. Another claim by Army spokespeople has been that soldiers opened fire because they felt personally threatened by the protesters.
However, videotape evidence presented by demonstrators contradicts many of the army’s claims. The tapes, reports Ha’aretz, show demonstrators on one side of the fence facing off with Israeli soldiers on the other. According to Ha’aretz, the videos show that demonstrators had no realistic way to get through the fence to the settlement behind the soldiers.
The tapes also show an Israeli soldier throwing rocks at protesters, Isreali settlers cheering and dancing near the soldiers, and an Israeli soldier telling a cameraman that he was shooting in the air "to scare the journalists away."
The difference between the army’s version and the evidence on the video tape is so great, Gil Na’amati’s father told Ha’aretz, "you'd have to be drunk to believe the IDF's version of events." Even so, Ha’aretz reports that Chief of Staff Ya’alon has accepted the Israeli army’s assertions that the soldiers did not know they were shooting at Israelis and has decided to wait for a Military Police report before making a decision about taking legal action against the perpetrators.
Some Israeli commentators were quick to point out what they considered the absurdity of a debate about whether the soldiers who fired on the protesters knew the race or nationality of their targets.
Sharon Takes Flak for Limited Moves Against Settlement Outposts
Saying he wants to remove a half dozen settlement outposts from West Bank territory, Israel’s prime minister came under fire from both directions, the Israeli press reported today. Fellow hardliners in his own Likud Party and extremist settlers criticized PM Ariel Sharon for betraying the settlement movement, among which he has long been considered a leading figure.
At the same time, settlement critics point out Sharon’s proposed actions against unauthorized outposts are a far cry from the more thorough evacuation he promised Washington last year. Palestinians note that activity in officially sanctioned settlements has expanded dramatically in recent months -- including the recently nnounced expansion of Golan Heights settlements -- while Sharon has been hesitant to implement even minor pull backs of barely-populated or vacant outposts.
Stepping into the fray, Israel’s High Court of Justice responded today to an injunction against the ordered settlement closings. Israeli media reported that the judge issued a delay to allow the plaintiffs - a group of settlers who say they are threatened by the closures - to either move away from the outposts in question, or to continue fighting the removals in court.
Settlers claim Arabs who have been displaced from their homes and farmland by settlements were living on soil that is the divine right of Jews to settle. The Guardian Unlimited reports the Settlers’ Council is calling the outpost debate "a struggle for the future of Zionism," and that one leader accused Sharon of giving in to American "terrorism" for moving against even six banned outposts. Likudists have reportedly stated that giving up seized land would amount to a "victory for terrorism."
Palestinians and Israelis opposed to Jewish settlement activity in the Occupied Territories cite numerous United Nations resolutions as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention to bolster their claims that all Israeli settlement activity in the Territories is illegal, not just that which the Israeli government does not rubber stamp.
In talks with Ariel Sharon in 2003, US President George Bush asked his Israeli counterpart to make gestures against settlement outposts to appease criticisms, mostly emanating from the Arab world.
Approximately 400,000 Jews live in hundreds of settlements strategically placed throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The disputed settlement outposts are mostly uninhabited and typically consist of one or two trailers and an Israeli flag.
Israeli Politician Resurrects Ethnic Cleansing Proposal
Speaking to Israeli public radio, Likud Central Committee member Uzi Cohen suggested the "voluntary transfer" of Arab Palestinians to a hypothetical Palestinian state in the northern territory of Jordan. Cohen is set to present his case for ethnically cleansing the Palestinian Territories of their Palestinian inhabitants at the presently ongoing Likud convention.
The proposal made by Cohen, according to Arab news site Al Bawaba, includes 20 more years of encouraging Palestinians to leave Palestine, followed by a campaign to "expel them by force." Palestinians generally fear that "encouragement" will take the form of an escalation of occupation-related violence.
Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), referred to Cohen’s aspirations as "Jewish fascism," reports Al Bawaba.
The idea of enforcing gradual or sudden exile of Arabs by threat of eventual force, especially from the West Bank, is not new to Israeli politics. A 2002 poll claimed to show 46% of Israelis support the concept of enforced "transfer." Jewish proponents of the plan say they are concerned that demographic changes will render Jews a minority in Israel unless Arabs are driven from much of the entire area historically known as Palestine.
Jordan strenuously opposes the idea, which Israel has from time to time reassured its neighbor is not a real option. Ariel Sharon’s government has thus far refused to rule out the possibility that it may someday choose to "cleanse" the West Bank.
‘Refusenik’ Youths Go to Jail While Retired IDF Officer Goes ‘Refusenik’
Five Israeli teenagers who rejected conscription into the Israeli military were sentenced to a year each on Sunday, Israel’s Ha’aretz Daily reports. Three presiding judges ruled that because the recent high school graduates intended to affect Israeli policy with their actions, their collective refusal to serve constitutes civil disobedience, as opposed to mere conscientious objection. The young men have each issued statements condemning Israeli policy in Palestine.
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Meanwhile, the AP reports that Eiton Ronel, a 51 year-old retired Lt. Colonel in the IDF, made a symbolic statement by turning in his badge of rank. Ronel cited last week’s shooting of a Jewish Israeli protesting the separation barrier as the catalyst for his decision.
