From Occupied Palestine

Building peace: Demolished home rebuilt in Anata village
AM JOHAL
FromOccupiedPalestine.org, 24 August 2004

Near the Anata checkpoint in the northeast edges of Jerusalem not far from the Shu'fat refugee camp, girls from the Bedouin village are debka dancing on the makeshift wooden platform an hour or so before sundown. The admiring crowd, exhausted from two weeks of home building is enjoying the ceremony. Somebody's found a proper stereo to replace the one from the white hatchback that's being used for music. In the backdrop, just above the valley below are the fresh tracks laid down where the Separation Wall will run through the village. On the hillside above where the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumin runs is a new prison currently serving as an interrogation center. In the distance, you can see the Mount of Olives and Hebrew University on top of Mt. Scopus.

Israel and the Empire
JEFF HALPER and JON ELMER
FromOccupiedPalestine.org, 20 September 2003

[an excerpt of this interview appears in "Documents and Source Material", Journal of Palestine Studies vol XXXIII no. 2 (Winter 2004), p. 102-108.]

Jon Elmer, FromOccupiedPalestine.org: You use the term 'matrix of control' to describe the Israeli occupation. Can you explain exactly what that is and how it functions?

Jeff Halper: The Israel-Palestine conflict is often framed in terms of territory: ending the occupation, a viable Palestinian state, and what that means in terms of territory. But two states and a complete end of the occupation, even in the best scenario, is not really the best solution. The whole Palestinian state would be on only 22% of the country, divided between the West Bank and Gaza. The State of Israel today, within the 1967 borders, represents 78% percent of the country. So even in the ideal situation, if the entire occupation ended and Israel pushed back to 1967 borders, the Palestinian state would be in only 22% of the country. Israel can't compromise on any more than that - even that is a question mark.

A test of the Road Map
JEFF HALPER
ICAHD, 29 July 2003

Even as I write this Israeli Prime Minister Sharon is meeting with representatives of AIPAC, Israel's powerful lobby in Washington, in preparation for his meeting with President Bush tomorrow (Tuesday). According to news reports, the American Administration is looking to Sharon to "give a boost" to the Road Map by offering some "humanitarian gesture." Freeing 100 more Palestinian prisoners, perhaps, or dismantling a couple of its hundreds of checkpoints, or altering slightly the route of the Separation Wall. What it is not looking for, apparently, is Israeli compliance with one of the most crucial elements of Phase I of the Road Map: ending the wholesale demolition of Palestinian homes. The language of the Road Map is clear -- and deliberately broad so as to avoid Israeli attempts to trip it up on technicalities:

A Middle Eastern Confederation: A regional 'two-stage' approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
JEFF HALPER
ICAHD, 31 December 2002

The time has come to begin "imagining" a truly New Middle East. Bereft of a peace process (if there ever was one), faced with an Occupation spewing violence and suffering in all directions, the inhabitants of both Palestine and Israel have sunk into a fatalistic hopelessness.

The message of the bulldozer
JEFF HALPER
Counterpunch, 13-19 August 2002

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) deplores this week's decision by the Israeli High Court of Justice against permitting judicial review for families of Palestinians whose homes are targeted for demolition because a family member has been involved in (or even suspected of) terror attacks. True to the pattern of many years, the Court has accepted the argument of the army that such demolitions take place as integral parts of military operations.

Israeli violations of human rights & international humanitarian law in the Occupied Territories
JEFF HALPER
Presentation, 20 June 2002

Hearing on "EU-Israel Bilateral Relations in the Framework of International and European Law" at the European Parliament:

I would like to begin my presentation by talking about "sides." There is a perception -- indeed, an expectation -- that Israelis and Palestinians will be on separate, conflicting and irreconcilable "sides" of what is called the "Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." There is a committee of the European Parliament that liasons with the Palestinian "side," and another that liasons with the Israeli "side." I would like to declare at the outset that I do not locate myself on either of those "sides." For me, as an Israeli Jew, "sides" mean something different altogether. I am on the "side" of Israelis and Palestinians who seek a just peace that addresses Palestinian rights of self-determination as well as Israeli concerns of security and regional integration. I am on the "side" that stands for equality, human rights, democracy, peaceful co-existence and regional economic development. To be sure, there is another "side," those Israelis and Palestinians that advocate exclusivity, conflict, a win-lose mentality and continued injustice and suffering. That is the way the "sides" divide, not Palestinian-Israeli.

Incarceration or transfer: The post-incursion plan
JEFF HALPER
ICAHD, 26 May 2002

Like Sharon’s 1982 war in Lebanon, which was also minimized as simply an "operation" (Operation Peace for the Galilee), Operation Defensive Shield had political goals far beyond that indicated by its modest "defensive" name.

After defeat, autonomy
JEFF HALPER
ICAHD, 15 May 2002

Despite protestations by Sharon, the vote by acclamation of the Likud Central Committee against the establishment of any Palestinian state flowed logically and smoothly from "Operation Defensive Shield." In that ferocious incursion into Palestinian areas, the Sharon government believes it has defeated the Palestinians once and for all, and can thus drop the pretense of even a Palestinian mini-state. It has three good reasons for thinking so:

Now what?
JEFF HALPER
ICAHD, 11 April 2002

With the fall of the Jenin refugee camp and the crushing of resistance in the casbah of Nablus, April 9 -- the twelfth day of the Israel's final push to defeat the Palestinians - marks the end of yet another stage of the Palestinian's struggle for self-determination. April 10th, when Powell meets the Spanish presidency of the European Union, it will become clear whether the "political process" that must now emerge will lead to a viable and truly sovereign Palestinian state or to the dependent mini-state Israel has had in mind since the start of the Oslo process in 1993.

End the occupation now!
JEFF HALPER
ICAHD
6 March 2002

This is the moment of decision. The Israeli army today opened its widest campaign against Palestinian "targets" ever: non-stop bombardment from the air, sea and land, invasion of large Palestinian areas (especially in Gaza), house demolitions, killings, arrests and the declaring of a virtual halt to Palestinian traffic on all the roads of the Occupied Territories. This is the time when all of us -- NGOs, faith-based organizations and citizens, Palestinians, Israelis and members of the international community -- must arise and focus our efforts on one goal, and one goal only: To bring an end to the brutal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza NOW.