Israeli government sets up checkpoints in East Jerusalem

Ajidica

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Because the Middle East doesn't have enough problems.
BBC said:
Israeli forces have begun a major security operation in Arab areas of occupied East Jerusalem, after a surge in attacks by Palestinians.

On Wednesday morning police blocked entrances to Jabal Mukaber, a district that is home to three men accused of killing three Israelis on Tuesday.

The Israeli military also deployed hundreds of soldiers to assist.

Later, police said they shot dead a Palestinian who stabbed an Israeli woman at Jerusalem's main bus station.

A Palestinian also attempted to stab a policeman at the Damascus Gate of the walled Old City, but was shot dead by police, they added.

Since the beginning of October, seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in shooting and stabbing attacks, the Israeli authorities say.

At least 30 Palestinians have also been killed, including assailants, and hundreds have been injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Speaking for the first time since the upsurge in violence began, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israeli actions were "threatening to spark a religious conflict that would burn everything".

He also accused Israel of carrying out "executions of our children in cold blood", highlighting the case of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by Israeli police after he and a 15-year-old stabbed an Israeli on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the Palestinian leader's comments as "lies and incitement", adding that the boy was alive in hospital, the Jerusalem Post reports.

He said on Tuesday the new security measures were aimed at "those who try murder and with all those who assist them".

'Recipe for harassment'

On Tuesday night, Israel's security cabinet authorised police to close or surround "centres of friction and incitement" in Jerusalem.

It also announced that the homes of Palestinians who attacked Israelis would be demolished within days and never rebuilt, and that their families' right to live in Jerusalem would be taken away.

On Wednesday morning, a police spokeswoman told the AFP news agency that checkpoints were being set up at "the exits of Palestinian villages and neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem".

Israeli newspapers later reported that several entrances to Jabal Mukaber had been blocked by police, with neither people nor vehicles allowed in or out.


Across some roads leading into Arab neighbourhoods, a police vehicle blocks access; at other points, heavily armed police keep guard; at one access point, what was a lightly-staffed police checkpoint has been beefed up.

For years, Israel has tightly controlled access in and out of the West Bank and Gaza, where the vast majority of Palestinians live. East Jerusalem's checkpoints are not like the ones around the West Bank and Gaza; they are much more informal affairs. But they are, for the first time since 1967, restricting access to and from largely Arab East Jerusalem.

How long they will last is difficult to call. East Jerusalem's residents have the right to move freely through the city and Israel. It doesn't seem feasible to cut off whole neighbourhoods for long. And the roadblocks and checkpoints strike at the idea promulgated by the Israeli right that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of the Israeli state.

The checkpoints have the feel of short-term solution to an acute security problem. But with Israelis mourning their dead, and in fear of their lives, there is extraordinary pressure on the government to act.


Human Rights Watch warned on Tuesday night that locking down parts of East Jerusalem would "infringe upon the freedom of movement of all Palestinian residents rather than being a narrowly tailored response to a specific concern".

"The checkpoints are a recipe for harassment and abuse," said Sari Bashi, the group's Israel/Palestine country director, in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it was preparing to deploy six companies to assist police. Three hundred soldiers are already providing additional security under police command.

The security cabinet's decisions were made after the bloodiest day in Jerusalem since the latest wave of unrest began in early October.

In Tuesday's first attack, two Palestinian men boarded a bus and began shooting and stabbing passengers, killing two Israelis, police said. Police shot dead one of the assailants and wounded the other.

Just a few minutes later, another Palestinian rammed his car into a bus stop before getting out and stabbing people. The attacker was fatally shot by a security guard.

There were also two separate knife attacks in Raanana, a town in central Israel. Police identified the assailants as Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.

Tuesday was the bloodiest day in Jerusalem since the latest wave of unrest began

Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers meanwhile continued in the West Bank after Palestinian activists called for a "day of rage".

Palestinian medics said one Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in Bethlehem.

The BBC's Yolande Knell in Jerusalem says the violence, coming at a time when peace prospects seem dim, has fuelled a sense of panic in Israel and raised fears of a new Palestinian uprising, or intifada.


What is happening between Israelis and Palestinians?

There has been a spate of stabbings of Israelis - several of them fatal - by Palestinians since early October, and one apparent revenge stabbing by an Israeli. The attackers have struck in Jerusalem and central and northern Israel, and in the occupied West Bank. Israel has tightened security and its security forces have clashed with rioting Palestinians, leading to deaths on the Palestinian side. The violence has also spread to the border with Gaza.

What's behind the latest unrest?

After a period of relative quiet, violence between the two communities has spiralled since clashes erupted at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site in mid-September. It was fuelled by rumours among Palestinians that Israel was attempting to alter a long-standing religious arrangement governing the site. Israel repeatedly dismissed the rumours as incitement. Soon afterwards, two Israelis were shot dead by Palestinians in the West Bank and the stabbing attacks began. Both Israel and the Palestinian authorities have accused one another of doing nothing to protect each other's communities.

Is this a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising?

There have been two organised uprisings by Palestinians against Israeli occupation, in the 1980s and early 2000s. With peace talks moribund, some observers have questioned whether we are now seeing a third. The stabbing attacks seem to be opportunistic and although they have been praised by militant groups, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said Palestinians are not interested in a further escalation.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34527369

Outside of the "Peace Process" increasingly appearing quite dead, but occasionally shows signs on movement when poked, the biggest takeaway from the article for me was this:
[Israel's security cabinet] also announced that the homes of Palestinians who attacked Israelis would be demolished within days and never rebuilt, and that their families' right to live in Jerusalem would be taken away.
As far as I can tell, residents of East Jerusalem are not automatically Israeli citizens, but are rather classified as "permanent residents", which is the same legal status non-citizen foreigners living in Israel have.
Collective punishment like this strikes me as quite illegal, regardless of whether one considers East Jerusalem sovereign Israeli territory or not. Various international treaties and laws makes it pretty clear that punishment for criminal acts is to be limited to the individual.
https://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule102
 
Outside of the "Peace Process" increasingly appearing quite dead

A more humble attitude towards the Israelis would be a good start. If I were the Palestinian premier, I wouldn't beg for recognition since I cannot give back anything for it anyway which would hurt the credibility of Palestine in the long run. I'd first ask Israel to abondon most of the security checkpoints in exchange for protecting the settlers, also reminding the Israeli PM it's good for the Israeli economy. I would treat the settlers as apart from Israel and see if I can enlist their support for Palestine, perhaps in exchange for citizenship: Their support will be instrumental, much more so than that of a majority of the world's nations recognising us.

Screaming doesn't help: At best it creates some weird faces towards Israel which aren't useful. At worst, it'll convince Israel to destroy it.

As far as I can tell, residents of East Jerusalem are not automatically Israeli citizens, but are rather classified as "permanent residents", which is the same legal status non-citizen foreigners living in Israel have.

They have the right to Israeli citizenship, they just don't claim it. Pride is useful, though only up to a point. Something they are now learning the hard way.
 
A more humble attitude towards the Israelis would be a good start. If I were the Palestinian premier, I wouldn't beg for recognition since I cannot give back anything for it anyway which would hurt the credibility of Palestine in the long run. I'd first ask Israel to abondon most of the security checkpoints in exchange for protecting the settlers, also reminding the Israeli PM it's good for the Israeli economy. I would treat the settlers as apart from Israel and see if I can enlist their support for Palestine, perhaps in exchange for citizenship: Their support will be instrumental, much more so than that of a majority of the world's nations recognising us.

Screaming doesn't help: At best it creates some weird faces towards Israel which aren't useful. At worst, it'll convince Israel to destroy it.

It only works if people listen. For me, it seems like the Israeli government and settlers likes to ignore these sorts of things and keep the unsustainable status quo going.

The screaming comes from a lack of other options to pursue, and the fact that it seems to be going a lot farther than the previous strategy of wait-on-Israel.
 
Did they run out of Palestinians to shoot in Gaza, or is this just a change of scenery type thing?
 
It only works if people listen. For me, it seems like the Israeli government and settlers likes to ignore these sorts of things and keep the unsustainable status quo going.

The screaming comes from a lack of other options to pursue, and the fact that it seems to be going a lot farther than the previous strategy of wait-on-Israel.

Well, first, Palestine lumps up the settlers with Israel and that way Palestine never gets to accede to statehood. The presence of a Jewish minority in West Bank is fait accompli. They have to get settler support.

International recognition is a facade. One that can fall on their heads if they don't look out.
 
It seems to me that I heard the Israelis were blocking access to various points in Jerusalem prior to any attacks.

Yep.

State Department Criticizes Israel for Restricting Access to Holy Sites

The State Department found Israel frequently engaged in "governmental and legal discrimination" against religious minorities last year in its annual report on international religious freedom, a conclusion that comes as Israel struggles to stem a series of religiously motivated violent attacks.

In stronger language than its prior report last year, U.S. officials said the Israeli government regularly restricted Palestinian access to holy sites in Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories more frequently in 2014. This comes as Israel is currently taking similar measures to crack down on waves of violence that have rocked Jerusalem in particular in recent weeks and left seven Jews dead.

The report also criticized the lack of prosecution for so-called "price tag attacks," which are revenge attacks frequently – but not always – perpetrated by Jewish settlers against Palestinians or religious sites. Two nongovernmental organizations found that there were 25 such attacks in 2014 but that arrests rarely led to prosecutions due to "lack of sufficient evidence."

As a whole, the report found that 2014 included "some of the world's most egregious abuses of religious freedom and other human rights" perpetrated by non-state actors. Members of religious minorities were particularly affected by these efforts "to destroy religious diversity."
The Israeli government intentionally incites Palestinians to violence, then they use that violence as an excuse to perpetuate the cycle.

They have the right to Israeli citizenship, they just don't claim it. Pride is useful, though only up to a point. Something they are now learning the hard way.
What sort of utter nonsense is this?

Following the 1967 war, Israel conducted a census in East Jerusalem and granted permanent Israeli residency to those Arab Jerusalemites present at the time of the census. Those not present lost the right to reside in Jerusalem. Jerusalem Palestinians are permitted to apply for Israeli citizenship, provided they meet the requirements for naturalization—such as swearing allegiance to Israel and renouncing all other citizenships—which most of them refuse to do. At the end of 2005, 93% of the Arab population of East Jerusalem had permanent residency and 5% had Israeli citizenship.[64]

Between 2008 and 2010, approximately 4,500 Palestinians resident in East Jerusalem applied for Israeli citizenship, of which one third were accepted, one third rejected, and one third had the decision postponed.[65]

As residents, East Jerusalemites without Israeli citizenship have the right to vote in municipal elections and play a role in the administration of the city. Residents pay taxes, and following a 1988 Israeli Supreme Court ruling, East Jerusalem residents are guaranteed the right to social security benefits and state health care. Until 1995, those who lived abroad for more than seven years or obtained residency or citizenship in another country were deemed liable to lose their residency status. In 1995, Israel began revoking permanent residency status from former Arab residents of Jerusalem who could not prove that their "center of life" was still in Jerusalem. This policy was rescinded four years later. In March 2000, the Minister of the Interior, Natan Sharansky, stated that the "quiet deportation" policy would cease, the prior policy would be restored, and Arab natives to Jerusalem would be able to regain residency[66] if they could prove that they have visited Israel at least once every three years. Since December 1995, permanent residency of more than 3,000 individuals "expired", leaving them with neither citizenship nor residency.[66] Despite changes in policy under Sharansky, in 2006 the number of former Arab Jerusalemites to lose their residency status was 1,363, a sixfold increase on the year before.[67]
These are the very sort of absurd games which continue to erode Israeli credibility with the international audience.
 
Considering this, no wonder why they are setting up such road blocks.

The video is very disturbing.
As probably the most vocal supporter of the current Israeli government on this forum, I am curious as to your opinion on the Israeli government saying it will destroy the homes and strip residency from the families of the attackers; an action which basically flies in the face of established norms for criminal law of limiting the punishment to the ones that committed the criminal act.
 
Israel flying in the face of established norms of law? And you are asking for an opinion as if this is something new or unusual? C'mon man!
 
The Israeli government has no intention of treating the Palestinians justly, and every "peace" talk it joins, it conducts in bad faith. The Israeli government knows it's winning enormously and that nobody will ever stop it from clearing the West Bank of Palestinians, so the negotiations are mainly to keep up appearances.
 
This won't work, as it hasn't in the past, and no one expects it to either, yet the Israeli state again gets away with acting like a fascist apparatus. Doubtlessly this happens because it manages to harness the fear it helps spread on jewish citizens as well, although by now it seems to be willing to just cater to the ultra-orthodox and other such groups...

This isn't sustainable. What other country has been trying and failing to be a stable country for half a century now? How can one logically expect more of the same to succeed when it hasn't for decades?
And given a full genocide of palestinians isn't quite an option for the israeli politicians, in the end more chaos will reign in Israel anyway.

Which is very sad for the logical/decent israelis, but it actually spells continuous misery for vastly larger numbers of palestinians- and often physical death as well.
 
Wow, this must be the most distortive thread this whole year. How about an appropriate title, something that actually reflects the situation. Like

October bloodbath in Israel by Palestinian terrorists

or

Insane spree of violence by Palestinians against Jews

In case your memory is rusty, let us have a look back at the month of October so far.

On October 1, Hamas members killed a mother and father who were driving their four children home in their car.
On October 3, a Palestinian killed two people and wounded two more in Jerusalem.
A day later, a 15-year old teenager was stabbed by a Palestinian.
On October 7, there were three separate stabbing incidents. Luckily nobody was killed, apart from the perpetrator in one of the cases, but all three victims were injured.
On October 8, there were four more knife attacks by Palestinians, leaving eight people wounded.
Two new Palestinian attacks occured a day later, again wounding their victims.
On October 10, five more Israelis were injured in two separate Palestinian knife attacks.
October 13 was witness to four additional Palestinian attacks on Jews, killing five people and leaving 28 injured.
And yesterday, a Palestinian stabbed a 50-year-old woman, causing severe wounds.

So in 14 days we have had 19 attacks by Palestinians, killing several innocent civilians and wounding many more. Not only has that not been mentioned here, let alone condemned. Most of the posters actually had the gall to criticize Israel's reaction to this relentless series of attacks, which consists of setting up checkpoints in order to protect their citizens from this abhorrent wave of assaults.

Once again we have witnessed an example of regressive insanity. And you have been called out for it. By now you must be drowning in shame. But don't worry, there is a way for you to repent. So listen carefully. Get up now and take the next plane to Jerusalem. There you shall have a personal meeting with Mr Netanyahu, and you will apologize to him. It could go something like this:

"Dear Mr Netanyahu, in the name of the Civfanatics forum we wish to apologize for our appalling hypocrisy and ridiculous double standard. We shamefully admit that we engaged in infantile Israel-bashing, while not even mentioning the poor civilians who lost their lives to Palestinian savages. We completely acknowledge Israel's right to defend itself and its people from the barbarism and violence we have witnessed by Palestinians yet again. Oh and by the way, Jews are awesome."

If you do that, then maybe, just maybe, you will be taken seriously again by me, by the Israelis, and by the sane population of this world.
 
Here comes Funky trying to capture the title of "the most vocal supporter of the current Israeli government on this forum" on the usual basis of "Muslims bad, Christians and Jews good."
 
Here comes Funky trying to capture the title of "the most vocal supporter of the current Israeli government on this forum" on the usual basis of "Muslims bad, Christians and Jews good."

AFAIK, Funky is an atheist. He certainly gives Islam a harder time, though I remember him being critical at every (Abrahamic) religion including Christianity and Islam.

Doubtlessly this happens because it manages to harness the fear it helps spread on jewish citizens as well, although by now it seems to be willing to just cater to the ultra-orthodox and other such groups...

Uh no, Israel strongly prefers secular Jews over Orthodox Jews. The Netanyahu government even relaxed restrictions on the sale of pork. Cameron stuck his nob in a pig's mouth.
 
AFAIK, Funky is an atheist. He certainly gives Islam a harder time, though I remember him being critical at every (Abrahamic) religion including Christianity and Islam.
I just can't wait to hear him supposedly complain about Christians and Jews the way he incessantly does about Muslims.

And the post above gives exactly the opposite impression. You don't usually hear unmitigated nonsense like that except from those who see this in those very religious terms.

Uh no, Israel strongly prefers secular Jews over Orthodox Jews. The Netanyahu government even relaxed restrictions on the sale of pork. Cameron stuck his nob in a pig's mouth.
That is highly debatable given how non-secular Israel actually is. How Orthodox Jews openly attack both Christians and Palestinians with near impunity. How the country panders to their religious beliefs while so many of them don't even work.
 
As probably the most vocal supporter of the current Israeli government on this forum, I am curious as to your opinion on the Israeli government saying it will destroy the homes and strip residency from the families of the attackers; an action which basically flies in the face of established norms for criminal law of limiting the punishment to the ones that committed the criminal act.

Its not individual act but long-term practice to prevent terrorist attacks, especcialy these motivated financially.
Potential terrorist then cant count how much will his crime help his family. Hamas maybe should donate money, IDF will maybe not demolish building....but he never cant be sure.
 
I just can't wait to hear him supposedly complain about Christians and Jews the way he incessantly does about Muslims.

And the post above gives exactly the opposite impression. You don't usually hear unmitigated nonsense like that except from those who see this in those very religious terms.

Well, to be fair, most Catholics are cafetaria Catholics.

That is highly debatable given how non-secular Israel actually is. How Orthodox Jews openly attack both Christians and Palestinians with near impunity. How the country panders to their religious beliefs while so many of them don't even work.

Israel is a typical case of non-complete secularism, roughly comparable to Germany and the Netherlands where schools and hospitals are arranged on religious lines and the United Kingdom which continues to have the Church of England as state church. In practice however, it is even more secular than the US: Atheists and other non-religious people have occupied Israeli cabinet positions including that of prime minister, who would be politically dead meat in the US.

It is true that pragmatic compromises are made with Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Christians. However, while Orthodox Jewish attacks against Christians and Muslims are occassionally tolerated, similar attacks against gays and secular Jews aren't and prompted increased scrutiny. It is worth noting most Orthodox Jews were originally Anti-Zionist, seeing Zionism as an attempt to secularise the Jewish identity. Only after Israel's victory in the 1948 war did they start to accomodate the new state.

The ruling Likud party operates on a secular nationalist ideology, comparable to the Syrian Ba'ath party of Assad.
 
Well, to be fair, most Catholics are cafetaria Catholics.
To be fair, how could they not be in this day and age? But I'm not sure what that statement in context with what I posted.

Israel is a typical case of non-complete secularism, roughly comparable to Germany and the Netherlands where schools and hospitals are arranged on religious lines and the United Kingdom which continues to have the Church of England as state church. In practice however, it is even more secular than the US: Atheists and other non-religious people have occupied Israeli cabinet positions including that of prime minister, who would be politically dead meat in the US.
And the US isn't? I bet we have far more Christian sharia laws on the books in the various states than any European country you have mentioned, and likely more than any of them.

But Israel goes far beyond that. They insist that the "Jewishness" of their country be maintained no matter what. It is even quite likely they would resort to a dictatorship instead of losing control through a lack of a majority of the voters someday.

Israel: Ultra-Orthodox minister questions 'Jewishness' of co-religionists and labels Reform Jews 'a disaster to the nation'



A key figure in Israel’s government has dismayed tens of thousands of fellow citizens and risked offending millions of the country’s supporters worldwide by calling into question whether they are properly Jewish.

Comments by the country’s ultra-Orthodox Minister of Religious Affairs about followers of Judaism’s most liberal stream, the Reform Movement, inflamed a bitter dispute, with reverberations in Britain and the US.

The minister, David Azoulay, told Army Radio that his view on a Reform Jew was that “from the moment he stops following Jewish law, I cannot allow myself to say he is a Jew”. He added: “These are Jews who have lost their way and we must ensure that every Jew returns to the fold of Judaism, and accept everyone with love and joy.”

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, of which Mr Azoulay is a member, joined the right-wing, Likud-led coalition in May after Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, won this year’s election. It was not his first attack on Reform Judaism, which is seen by many in Israel, including those who are not religiously observant, as a departure from authentic Judaism. In June, he termed Reform Jews a “disaster to the nation of Israel”.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. They won't even allow a Palestinian who marries an Israeli to live in the country! Marriage of any kind had to go through a religious ceremony until last year. There are numerous similar religious-based human rights violations written into Israeli law.

It is true that pragmatic compromises are made with Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Christians. However, while Orthodox Jewish attacks against Christians and Muslims are occassionally tolerated, similar attacks against gays and secular Jews aren't and prompted increased scrutiny. It is worth noting most Orthodox Jews were originally Anti-Zionist, seeing Zionism as an attempt to secularise the Jewish identity. Only after Israel's victory in the 1948 war did they start to accomodate the new state.
Oh, well. That's entirely different then. That guy who stabbed the girl to death will be punished for it. Great.

Meanwhile, even Christians are openly attacked on the streets. And nobody is trying to stone them to death, at least not yet.

I'd also love to see a reputable source which claims that most Orthodox Jews were opposed to the creation of Israel, even though it really has nothing to do with what is being discussed here.

The ruling Likud party operates on a secular nationalist ideology, comparable to the Syrian Ba'ath party of Assad.
That is very modern of them while continuing to persecute the Palestinians every opportunity they get, while even aligning with the most vehement far-right elements of the Israeli political system (including the Orthodox Jews as mentioned above) to even be able to maintain power.

The only real hope for Israel and Palestine, as well as for any sort of lasting peace in the entire region, is if the reformists and the truly secular people in the country band together and throw the religious nuts and far-right authoritarians out of power once and for all.
 
But Israel goes far beyond that. They insist that the "Jewishness" of their country be maintained no matter what. It is even quite likely they would resort to a dictatorship instead of losing control through a lack of a majority of the voters someday.

Most likely, "Jewishness" in the ethnic sense as opposed to a religious sense. Israel's political culture closely resembles that European countries, more precisely Early 20th century European states and in particular Imperial Germany, which isn't a surprise, considering the first Zionists were German Jews. It's quite possible that (German-)Jewish ethnocentrism was an inheritance from Imperial German political thought, as Imperial Germany conducted policies, particularly against Poles, that were rather similar to modern day Israeli policies including building settlements.

There is a strong emphasis on Westphalian nationalism, which distrusts international institutions as well as transnational institutions like multinational corporations but also universalist religions like Christianity and Islam. This is even more emphasised by the fact most Israelis are either non-religious or member of the Jewish faith, which is particularistic.
 
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