Monday, April 26, 2010

Cole: Colonizing East Jerusalem, Thailand - The crisis escalates

http://www.juancole.com/

Netanyahu Commits to Colonizing East Jerusalem; First Palestinian Expelled
under new Policy

by Juan Cole:
Informed Comment: April 23, 2010

The new Israeli policy of deporting Palestinians from the West Bank on
arbitrary grounds has kicked in with Ahmad Sabah, who has just been deported
to Gaza and separated from his family in the West Bank. The measure
contravenes the Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied
populations, and it also goes contrary to the undertakings Israel made
toward the Palestine Authority in the course of the Oslo peace negotiations.

The episode underlines the ways in which their forced statelessness leaves
Palestinians (almost uniquely among major world nationalities) completely
vulnerable to loss of the most basic human rights. That he was forcibly
moved to Gaza by the Israelis suggests that many of those singled out for
potential deportation from the West Bank may be moved to the small slum
along the Mediterranean, which the Israelis have cut off from its
traditional markets and which they keep under a blockade of the civilian
population (a war crime). The Israeli establishment has decided not to try
to colonize Gaza, and its isolation and hopelessness make it an attractive
place for them to begin exiling West Bank residents, thus making more room
for Israeli colonists.

The new policy, which is illegal six ways to Sunday in international law, is
the brainchild of the government of far rightwing Likud leader Binyamin
Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, an Israeli hawk and expansionist, slapped President Barack Obama
in the face again Thursday when he confirmed that he refused to halt
construction of new homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem, which is militarily
occupied by Israel.

Netanyahu's announcement is probably the nail in the coffin of any two-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (in which the Israelis have
thrown most Palestinians now living beyond the Green Line off their land and
deprived them of citizenship in a state and all the rights that go with such
citizenship). Palestinians are so despairing that only 57 percent even
believe in having an independent Palestinian state any more. The rest are
resigned to becoming Israelis in the distant future, when demographic
realities and perhaps world-wide boycotts of Israel for its Apartheid-style
policies toward the occupied Palestinian will force Israel to accept them.

At the same time, Netanyahu tried to throw sand in peoples' eyes by talking
about recognizing an 'interim' Palestinian state with "temporary" borders.

Palestinian leaders reject this formulation, which is intended to allow the
Israelis to continue aggressively to colonize Palestinian territory while
pretending that they are engaged in a 'peace process.' The Palestine
Authority, established in the 1990s, was already a sort of interim state
then, and Palestine's borders were then 'temporary.' So temporary that
Israel has made deep inroads into them through massive colonies and building
a wall on the Palestinian side of the border, cutting residents off from
their own farms and sequestering entire towns and cities.

Netanyahu's various moves this week, from illegally expelling a Palestinian
from the West Bank to Gaza- to blowing off the president of the United
States and hitching his wagon to massive increased colonization of
Palestinian land- all of these steps are guaranteed to mire Israel in
violent disputes for years and perhaps decades. And the US, which has
already suffered tremendously in Iraq and elsewhere from its knee-jerk
support of illegal and inhumane Israeli policies toward the Palestinians,
will suffer further.

Meanwhile, in the wake of a vicious attack on Barack Obama by New York
senator Chuck Schumer, Steve Clemons of the Washington Note frankly wonders
whether Schumer understands he is in the US Senate or whether he is under
the impression he is serving in the Israeli Knesset.

***

From: "Steven Robinson" <srobin21@comcast.net>

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/thai-crisis-escalates-as-deadly-explosions-yield-more-clashes/article1543635/

Thai crisis escalates as deadly explosions yield more clashes

Mark MacKinnon, Bangkok
Globe and Mail: Thursday, Apr. 22, 2010

Thailand's escalating political crisis has taken a dangerous new turn after
a series of mysterious explosions killed at least three people and wounded
dozens more, sparking several hours of violent clashes between pro- and
anti-government protesters.

The question that looms large is what the government of Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva will do now, after an evening that saw police and soldiers
looking helplessly on from the sidelines - seemingly without orders - as
Thailand's warring political factions hurled bottles, rocks and firecrackers
at each other.

The explosions that provoked the fighting occurred just after nightfall,
targeting the Silom Road commercial district, where pro-government
demonstrators were gathering to show their opposition to Red Shirt protests
that have occupied parts of the capital for six weeks, as well as a nearby
Skytrain station.

The government said the five blasts were caused by M79 grenades that were
fired from shoulder-carried launchers somewhere within the sprawling Red
Shirt encampment in the city's shuttered commercial centre. Deputy Prime
Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said that three people were killed. Seventy-five
others, including several foreign tourists, were injured in the attacks, and
blood was still splattered on the sidewalk of Silom Road hours later.

Red Shirt leaders hotly denied responsibility for the attack. They said
their protest was peaceful and had nothing to gain from attacking civilians
riding a commuter train, They also accused the government of staging a
provocation in hopes of forcing the military to act. The government,
however, was quick to note that M79 grenade launchers were also used by Red
Shirt demonstrators during a failed military crackdown on the protests
earlier this month that left 25 people dead, including five soldiers. It was
the worst political violence Thailand had seen in nearly two decades.

Mr. Abhisit's government and, more significantly, the Thai military have
been reticent to launch a second effort to disperse the Red Shirts, fearing
that large-scale loss of life would result. Mr. Abhisit called an emergency
meeting of his cabinet Thursday after the grenade attacks.

"To take people in Bangkok hostage is not right," army spokesman Colonel
Sansern Kaewkamnerd warned the Red Shirts before Thursday's clashes began.
He said the protesters should disperse immediately for their own safety.
"Your time to leave the area is running out," he said. The protests are in
violation of a state of emergency that Mr. Abhisit declared on April 7.

The Red Shirts have in recent days been bracing for a government assault
they believe is imminent, building a wall of sharpened bamboo poles and car
tires around the perimeter of their nearly three-square-kilometre tent city.
After the grenade blasts, hundreds of young Red Shirts gathered just north
of the Silom intersection, clutching crude weapons in preparation for a
military move that never came.

Instead, they were pelted with rocks and bottles hurled over the bamboo wall
by pro-government youths who seemed to act with impunity for several hours,
with hundreds of riot police moving out of the way rather than moving in to
arrest the handful of provocateurs. The police took shelter in building
entrances and under highway overpasses as the Reds responded with fireworks
and rocks, and only moved in to stop the fighting after it had raged for
more than four hours.

The 1,500 soldiers who have been stationed along Silom Road since earlier
this week also took no action as the two mobs clashed. The only thing
preventing greater casualty figures was the Red barricade.

The Red Shirts, many of whom are supporters of fugitive former prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have been protesting since March 12 to demand
the resignation of Mr. Abhisit and fresh elections. Many of the protesters
are rural poor from the north of the country who say they feel discriminated
against by a Bangkok elite that orchestrated the ouster of three successive
pro-Thaksin governments.

The Red Shirts also showed their strength outside of Bangkok when protesters
blocked the passage of a train carrying military vehicles and supplies for
several hours. They eventually released the train - with 10 Red Shirts
aboard to supervise it - after they were convinced that it was headed to the
restive south of the country, where the government is battling an Islamic
insurgency, and not Bangkok.

Recent days have seen the re-emergence of pro-government Yellow Shirt
protesters who took part in 2008 demonstrations that helped force Mr.
Thaksin's allies from office. Yellow Shirt leaders - who say they will rally
50,000 of their own supporters in the Thai capital Friday - have given the
government until the weekend to end the rolling Red Shirt demonstrations
before they say they will take unspecified action of their own.

Some of the Yellow Shirts are supporters of Mr. Abhisit, while others say
they are taking to the streets to protect Thailand's widely revered
monarchy, which they see the Red Shirts as attempting to overthrow.

With the Red Shirts insisting they will not negotiate with Mr. Abhisit's
government, the odds of a peaceful resolution to the crisis appear slim.
Most Thais are waiting to see what army chief General Anupong Paochinda will
do now: order a crackdown on the protests or stage another coup.

The Thai military has launched 11 military takeovers since 1932. The most
recent was a bloodless takeover that deposed Mr. Thaksin in 2006. He was
later convicted in absentia on abuse of power charges.

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