On November 3, 2016, al-Hammeh was rebuilt. In the northern end of the Jordan Valley, Abu Rasmi Ayyub, a shepherd whose family has been on the land since at least the mid-nineteenth century, lives with three generations of his extended family in a tiny hamlet – “actually only a confabulation of tents and sheep pens,” writes professor David Shulman – called al-Hammeh. Now the Ayyubs’ historic grazing grounds, next door to al-Hammeh, are rapidly becoming inaccessible to them because of the expansion of the Israeli settlement of Givat Sal’it. al-Hammeh is just a few miles from the Israeli border crossing to the city of Beit Shean.
al-Hammeh, in September 2016, consisted of a few tents and no amenities like running water. On November 3, 2016, al-Hammeh was rebuilt.
On September 27, David Shulman writes, the Civil Administration, a unit of the army that is the Israeli occupation authority (Civil Administration is part of COGAT, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which is a unit in the Defense Ministry.) destroyed al-Hammeh.
After all, al-Hammeh is a shepherding hamlet, and the beginning of autumn is when the lambs are born. It’s always good to destroy an enemies livelihood – any occupying force can tell you that. al-Hammeh, being in Area C as designated in the Oslo Accords, is “under direct and exclusive Israeli military, legal, and political control.” Shulman adds that large parts of Area C “are taken up by Israeli settlements or by lands that have been reserved for future Israeli settlement.” The Jordan valley, mainly under Area C, is also home to a Palestinian population of some 15,000 Bedouins who are settled in the valley and therefore tacitly targeted for expulsion.
On November 3 al-Hammeh was rebuilt. “Four days later the army returned to demolish everything once again, and this time they also confiscated the tents and anything of use or value that remained,” writes Shulman. At the same time, the Israeli neighbors in Givat Sal’it established a new outpost—illegal even under Israeli law—carefully situated to block the Bedouins’ only viable route to their grazing grounds, he added.
Shulman’s personal observations are disheartening to any person not invested in creating injustice:
Volunteers from Ta’ayush, Arab-Jewish Partnership—the activist peace group I’ve been part of it for the last sixteen years—saw the outpost at its bare beginnings, just bits and pieces of a wooden frame and a small shack for a single family. We alerted the police and the Civil Administration, who sent officers to see what was happening. These officers arrived, took pictures with their iPads, and were even prepared to acknowledge that the outpost was illegal. Meanwhile, Givat Sal’it II continued to grow. Within less than a month, it had four permanent buildings, several residents, and a link to the Israeli water system and to the electric power grid, all this with the silent collusion of the authorities. Soon it will also have soldiers guarding it.
His description, as he says, is how the occupation works throughout the West Bank. “On November 17, the Ayyub Bedouins, their homes and sheep pens now destroyed for the second time, decided to set up a protest tent not far from the new outpost. The fate of a Palestinian tent, old or new, is unlike the fate of an illegal Israeli outpost. Within a few hours soldiers arrived and quickly went through their standard repertoire—tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and pepper spray .”
As we should all know ,
Israeli security forces regularly allow settlers to assault Palestinians and damage their property. In fact, soldiers sometimes safeguard the settlers in such situations, providing them support and at times even taking part in the assault. All this is compounded by an ineffectual law enforcement system that takes no action against the offenders and does not achieve justice for the victims. According to figures collected by Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, some 85 percent of all investigations into incidents of harm caused to Palestinians (physical assault, arson, damage to property, vandalizing trees, and taking over land) are closed due to flaws in police procedure. There is only a 1.9 percent chance of a police complaint filed by a Palestinian leading to the conviction of an Israeli citizen.
Shulman adds several more thoughts. But as he says, perhaps is most devastating observation is “in the long run, is the denial of water. It is very hot in the Jordan Valley for much of the year. In summer, daytime temperatures rise well above 100 degrees. If Palestinians living in tiny hamlets like al-Hammeh have the temerity to attempt to link themselves to the Palestinian Authority’s pipelines running down from the city of Tubbas in Area A, the army comes and breaks the pipes.”
Shulman says he’s seen this happen at al-Hadidiya in late summer. “Life in the valley is insupportable without water, and Palestinians have to buy and import water in tankers at vastly inflated prices. Remember that these are subsistence shepherds for whom the cost of a single water tanker is a huge sum—easily half the monthly expenses of a family in the summer. Simply stated, the idea is to dry the Bedouins out until thirst forces them to disappear, perhaps by migration to somewhere in Area A or even outside Israel-Palestine.”
On November 3, 2016, al-Hammeh was rebuilt. How many times will al-Hammeh need to be rebuilt?
What can we do? You could encourage your legislator to support a bill like H. Res 221: Reaffirming the importance of upholding democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in United States foreign policy. Or H.Res. 527: Recognizing the goal of United States foreign policy should be to promote human rights and equal rights for all. Or even better yet H.R. 2407: Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act
“Let’s be realistic. Sometimes you have to build hellish devices and generate foul orc-spawn to get things done. That’s just how politics works.” – David Howard in his timely article “We Need a Wizard Who Can Appeal to the Moderate Orc Voter“
Last night’s dinner conversation was, by the standards around here, completely normal. For interest, posterity, and history, I’m sharing it with you. … Although not verbatim, we talked about these things.
I must interject.
I was having dinner with the parents. I don’t know how this conversation started; I walked into it. I walked into a discussion, or perhaps a reminiscence of what remembers from the books.
Now, political discourse tells us that politicians are supposed to be interested in conversations around the dinner table (and frankly, that we are inclined to vote for a candidate we’d have a beer with). So I hope that politicians and policy-makers are ready for this normal conversation (no liqueur included).
As I said, I entered a conversation where my dad was describing the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. My parents are trying to remember exactly when the Moroccans took over what is Spain, and how long they were there.
My dad couldn’t remember the name of the battle that stopped the Muslim conquest. We could remember that this was in the 700 hundreds, CE. Or maybe the 900 hundreds.
And, being that we remember that the Muslims took over the Iberian peninsula, the battle must have been somewhere in the Pyrenees between what is now and Spain. I was sure there was a battle in Carcasoone, or perhaps somewhere in the Languedoc. Of course, I was thinking of – and knowing it wasn’t what the same – the Albigensian Crusade that happened five hundred years later.
So out come the phone that searches for something like “Muslim invasion of iberian peninsula.”.
It tells us that there was a Battle of Tours (10 October 732). This didn’t seem right. Tours, and another search to refresh our memory, tells us, is west of Paris. But there is it is.
So now we must remember who was in the battle. Being Western-centered, we were not think of Abd al-Rahman. Was it Odo, I asked? It turns out that it was Odo – a faint ringing of a name that was delved up from somewhere in K-12 education. And also some famous guy names Charles Martel.
Charles Martel, I am reminded, was the founder of the Carolingian Empire and the grandfather of Charlemagne. He was also an ancestor to William I of England.
I was led down the rabbit-hole of Wikipedia searches thanks to the conquest of the Iberian peninsula, which led me to Odo and Charles Martel.
Many people consider Friday the Thirteenth an unlucky date. I don’t even need a citation for that. You know it’s true. But you do know why many people consider Friday the Thirteenth to be unlucky? An internet search could tell you the same thing that I will summarize for you. My source is Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Whether the book got some historical guesses wrong, which they now claim, the history of Friday the Thirteenth is very real and not guess work.
Many of you have heard of The Knights Templar, thanks to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and other recent readings.
The Knights Templar came into existence in the 12th Century, at best guess. Certainly they existed by the early 12th Century, because they were being written about between 1175 and 1185, and had already been around for a guess of fifty years. According to Guillaume de Tyre…
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H.R.2407 – Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act
The purpose of the bill reads: “To promote human rights for Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation and require that United States funds do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children, and for other purposes.”
Currently, the U.S. government does fund the abuse of children living under occupation. Several, sometimes hundreds, of Palestinian minors are arrested every month by Israel. The interrogation process is unfair (it often consists of coercion or threats), and the courts have a 97% prosecution rate.
It should be a no-brainer to not fund human rights abuses. But up to now, only 21 Representatives have co-sponsored the bill.
Contact your Representative.
H.R.3396 – Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders Research Enhancement Act of 2019
I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t want a functional stomach.
But guess what, there are people who have paralyzed stomachs who can’t process food in the good old fashioned way.
Our government, even with its faults and its current buffoonery, is there to promote our health and wellbeing.
There’s even a bill in Congress to help research how a non-functioning stomach could be improved to normalcy.
I’ve written to my Congressman to support this non-controversial bill. Since he hasn’t signed on he still needs more cajoling.
Maybe your Congressman has more sense. Write to your Congressman. It’s not hard.
The news once again fails to ask the right question. It asks, regarding the data breach of Capital One why it’s the company that pays for the breach and not the poor, unemployed, person who took the credit card data.
The question should be, why does Capital One have personal information? Why are their credit cards, and why is a an employed person forced to take other people’s data to try to have money? Indeed, why do have value employment as a necessity for survival?
Why does Capital One exist as a credit card company, and why does does it collect personal information? Ignore the fact that in our current system, in order to have credit, some personal information is required. But why are their credit cards? The only rational reason is to drive people into poverty (that again begets the question of why money is a requirement for existence.).
That’s not rational at all. It’s irrational that people are required to spend more than they have in order to have things required to exist in the modern world.
It’s irrational that we have to give a company our personal information in order to survive.
Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a 13 year old US citizen died in 2016 while sleeping during a stabbing attack. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict reaches far beyond the borders of mandate Palestine and affect people across the globe.
The administration of Trump has gone extremely vile. As the meme says “2016: Come on, you’re talking like Trump’s going to put people in concentration camps” // “2018: First of all, I think it’s offensive that you refer to them as ‘concentration camps'”.
The administration – it’s not just Trump, he just happens to approve and encourage – is now putting refugees in overcrowded “holding facilities” (concentration camps where work doesn’t set you free). A good number of these held refugees are children (two months to 17 years, 11 months, 29 days).
Here’s where we get to the daily news. This detention / separation camp is not unique to the United States. With U.S. support this also happens in Israel. On June 21, 2018 a tweet read: “But for decades Israel’s been kidnapping innumerable Palestinian children, separating them from families, mentally and physically torturing them, & yes, even locking them in outdoor cages during the winter. All funded, at least in part, by consecutive US regimes.” (This comes from an article titled: Before Trump, Israel put Palestinian Children in Cages).
Several hundred Palestinians – and a couple Israelis – are held in administration detention in Israel. They are jailed indefinitely without being charged with a crime. Several are political prisoners – some are members of the Knesset.
In other treatment-of-Palestinian news from June 21 there are articles about house demolitions, raids on refugee camps, “mistaken” killing of teenage Palestinians, “mistaken” killing of a Palestinian man who had a heart attack while driving, and an article about the harassment of U.S. Jewish activists who stand up for Palestinian rights (in this case while staffing a J Street table) by other American Jews.
While all of these are interesting and deserve a look, at the present time I think it’s most relevant to note the parallels between U.S. treatment of refugees – and other groups it wants to oppress – and the Israeli treatment of the oppressed Palestinians.
Article II, Section 4. of the U.S. Constitution: The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Article IV, Section 3: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
Article I, Section 3: (in part) The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.
Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.
When is enough treason enough? When it is treason enough to cry “treason” and to act on it? Is there honor enough left to the Chief Justice and sitting members of the Senate that they will act on oath an affirmation?
America must now contemplate such questions (or bury their heads down rabbit holes). We have an person leading the executive office of the United States Government that is difficult to address as Mr. President, a title that should both be earned through votes and respect.
One could argue that Donald Trump successfully received the electoral votes – perhaps because most electors are were dissuaded to vote against a person already under federal investigation by the hefty fines states levy against electors who vote against the recipient of the most votes in that state.
It seems that the Trump has set out to destroy governmental agencies. Not fix, modify, reform, or improve them. Destroy them. Education, Environment, Financial, even the State Department. It seems he tries to destroy international institutions, at least though lack of funding, and foreign governments through threats, bombastic statements, or decrease in funding.
This alone is not treason. Treason is conspiring with a foreign government against your own, and Trump has been under investigation for this since before he was elected president.
I’ve seen many liberals and progressives online pushing Article II Section 4 of the Constitution – “The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” – and have seen none pushing the other relevant Aritcles and Sections quoted above – “No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court,” AND “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.”
To date one person has stated in open court that the president ordered him to break the law (some time just shortly before he was elected president), but the order was to cover up a financial payment (a high crime or misdemeanor perhaps) but not treason.
There’s undoubtedly more out wrongdoings out there, and many have already surfaced. Leading de facto the Grand Old Party, Trump has pulled the party – if it wasn’t already there – into a Russian fetishism ranging from usurpation in Ukraine to love of a Russian infiltrator. During his candidacy for high office several of Trump’s team met with a Russian lawyer at one of Trump’s glorious hotels. The list goes on.
We know what the facts are if we have rejected all reality.
It comes down to this. House Representatives must file an article of impeachment for an officer – yes, the president is merely an officer of the executive branch of a democratic government that answers to the people – to be removed from office. At first glance, and at second glance and all the glances thereafter, it seems that these Congressional Representatives are weenies more interested in their temporary careers than in carrying out their oath of office to serve the Constitution of the United States.
That is to say, my Congressman, and many others, simply hem and haw at the idea of filing an article of impeachment. Such an act should not be taken lightly – cries of treason and impeachment are common, and acting on such cries is thankfully uncommon – but attempts to join with a foreign country to destroy our own (that is what Trump is doing) must be addressed as such.
The Dole Blog 