Leaked
Israeli Document Gives Frightening Glimpse Of Apartheid
By Ali Abunimah
27 January, 2007
The
Electronic Intifada
President
Jimmy Carter angered Israel and its friends by describing "the
abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories,
with a rigid system of required passes and strict segregation between
Palestine's citizens and Jewish settlers in the West Bank."
Now, The Electronic Intifada
has obtained an Israeli Ministry of Defense Powerpoint presentation
which provides a frightening glimpse into the mindset of the bureaucracy
of apartheid.
The first page of the document
bears the name "Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories"
as well as the acronym "COGAT" at the bottom of each page.
These appear to refer to the unit of the Israeli army that enforces
the occupation against the Palestinian civilian population.
The top of the first slide
also bears the names and insignia of the "State of Israel"
and the "Ministry of Defense." Dated January 12, the presentation
is titled "Key Measures for easing the daily lives of the Palestinian
Population."
Far from that, the document
provides detail of the regime of severe movement restrictions, bureaucratic
ethnic cleansing and political manipulation and fostering of collaborators
that Israel operates in the the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The document, in English,
appears to be genuine. While its exact purpose or audience is not known,
it may have been designed to impress foreign diplomats with Israel's
generosity to the Palestinians.
Among the policies the document
outlines are:
Efforts to "empower
Abu-Mazen" (Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas) by facilitating
entry of "security equipment for the Presidential Guard" donated
by foreign countries. (The United States recently announced that it
would provide millions of dollars of weapons and equipment to this unit
which serves as a personal militia for Abbas and his Fatah faction who
seek to overthrow the democratically-elected Hamas government).
Providing special privileges for "the movement of VIPs and senior
Palestinians" and others allies of Abbas, including "facilitating
movement without security checks." These special privileges, not
available to millions of Palestinians are intended for "Strengthening
Abu-Mazen," presumably at the expense of the democratically-elected
Hamas-led cabinet and legislative council dozens of whose members, far
from enjoying VIP treatment, have been kidnapped and are being held
without charge or trial by Israeli occupation forces.
Special permits for 505 Palestinian "businessmen," allowing
them to be exempt from the pass laws that forbid overnight stays by
Palestinians in Israel. They will also be subject to fewer security
checks. This privileged class may also benefit from the "Possible
return of $60 Million from the frozen tax money to the private sector,
subject to identification of the businessman, and the formation of a
working mechanism." This could possibly indicate that Israel, in
collusion with Abbas, seeks to misappropriate Palestinian public assets
it has illegally seized, bypassing the Palestinian Authority Finance
Ministry and redistributing them to Abbas cronies.
With frightening precision, allowing "42,899" Palestinian
laborers to work "in Israel and the settlements" and exempting
2,000 Palestinian agricultural laborers from the pass laws so that "overnight
stay in Israel" is "permitted." Of these workers, a mere
1,600 would be permitted to enter occupied East Jerusalem, the largest
Palestinian city in the West Bank.
Millions of Palestinians
around the world are forbidden from visiting or living in their country
due to Israeli restrictions and laws that discriminate against non-Jews.
A privileged few Palestinians have been able to do so, however, by virtue
of their citizenship in the United States or European countries, whose
citizens are generally allowed to enter Israel without visas as tourists.
Even this precarious existence has recently been threatened by the new
Israeli practice of denying them re-entry if they leave the country
for any reason. While the document claims these restrictions will be
eased, it also confirms the policy of prohibiting ordinary family life
for Palestinians. Palestinians (always referred to as "foreign
nationals") with foreign passports, even those with spouses and
families Israel does recognize as residents, will be limited to a total
cumulative stay not exceeding 27 months in their country. No other country
calling itself a democracy systematically treats indigenous people as
foreigners and deports them in this manner breaking apart families in
the process.
Finally, the document lists
a number of catergories of "humanitarian" workers who will
be given some leeway from the strict pass laws. These include 1,450
religious personnel, 1,300 hospital employees, 300 hotel workers, and
lawyers, teachers and residents of an enclave in occupied East Jerusalem
that has been besieged by settlers and the apartheid wall.
Amidst a system of ruthless
and obsessive control such as the one Israel operates against Palestinians,
not even this token 'easing' designed purely for public relations can
be taken for granted; Israel routinely lies about what it does. For
example, during a summit meeting with Mahmoud Abbas in December, Israeli
prime minister Ehud Olmert promised to remove dozens of checkpoints
and obstacles impeding the movement of Palestinians inside the occupied
West Bank. The Israeli occupation forces later claimed to have removed
44 of the hundreds of obstacles in fulfillment of Olmert's pledge. In
fact, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on January 22, the Israeli
army "admitted on Sunday that the 44 dirt obstacles it said had
been removed from around West Bank villages did not actually exist."
What does exist, and is plain
for all the world to see, is a horrifying regime of totalitarian control
of millions of Palestinians who remain prisoners of Israel's racist
system and the army and settler militias that enforce it.
Download
the presentation [PDF, 4.4 MB]
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