Daily Hummus

2021-05-11 18:26:36 I gave an interview on the situation in Israel. In German.

"Naher Osten: Politologin erklärt, warum in Jerusalem die Gewalt eskaliert ist - watson" https://www.watson.de/international/analyse/400954123-naher-osten-politologin-erklaert-warum-in-jerusalem-die-gewalt-eskaliert-ist Open / Comment

2021-05-11 13:51:12 What is there to say about the case of Sheikh Jarrah?

Well, this is an example of the Israeli legal system privileging Jewish Israelis and discriminating Palestinians in Israel.

The ruling of the Jerusalem Regional Court is based on the Legal and Administrative Matters Law, which was passed in 1970 shortly after the annexation of East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. On the basis of this law, Jewish owners of houses from East Jerusalem, which they left in the course of the 1948 war, can reclaim them.
The Jerusalem Regional Court ruling stipulated that several Palestinian families must now vacate their homes. This ruling is only the latest in a series of rulings that have forced many East Jerusalemites to leave their homes since the annexation of East Jerusalem.

Why is it flawed?

1. According to international law, East Jerusalem is not part of Israel. Consequently, Israeli jurisdiction does not extend to it.

2. The 1970 law explicitly covers housing units that are not inhabited.

3. Jewish refugees from 1948 were financially compensated by the state for the loss of their homes. In many cases, they were able to move into houses abandoned by Palestinians from West Jerusalem.

4. The plaintiffs have no direct connection to former homeowners. Rather, former owners often do not express claims for the return of their property. In one famous case from Hebron, the descendant of the former owner even explicitly demanded that his house be excluded from the lawsuit led by settler organizations. He could not succeed.

5. The law can be invoked only by Jewish israelis and Jewish organizations claiming to sue on their behalf. On the one hand, the wording makes no distinction between Jewish and Palestinian refugees of 1948. On the other hand, a different law exists with regard to the lost property of Palestinian refugees. The Absentee Property Law of 1950 stipulates that abandoned Palestinian homes fall under the administration of the State of Israel. Open / Comment

2021-05-11 12:29:48 What is happening in Israel right now?

Brief history:
Prior to the current escalation, there have been foregoing events over the course of the last few weeks.

2. Elections in Palestine, which were to be held for the first time since 2005, are canceled.The official explanation of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas is that the reason is that elections in East Jerusalem are not allowed by Israel. But the obvious reason is the fear of having to hand over political power to Hamas. The political powerlessness remains.

3. The Jerusalem District Court rules that several houses in Sheikh Jarrah - East Jerusalem - are to be vacated by Palestinian families for the benefit of Jewish settlers.

4. Several individual terrorist attacks take place. Clashes between radical Jewish youth and Arabs from East Jerusalem accompany the last days. In addition, there are ideologically charged holidays - Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967 - and Ramadan, at which time security presence in the city is always high due to the potential for escalation and huge crowds. The already risky initial situation is fueled by numerous rockets from the Gaza Strip. Open / Comment

2021-04-30 13:08:24 Oktoberfest goes Dubai

For the second year in a row the Munich Oktoberfest is to be canceled due to the pandemic. But the organizers did not give up and decided to transfer the Bavarian beer festival to the desert.

The muslim ban on alcohol will be probably modified. The handling of Schweinshaxn (ham hock) and Dirndl (female folk costume) still needs to be clarified.

Good news for Israelis for whom Dubai has become the number one destination since the Peace Accords with UAE last Summer.

"Oktoberfest Dubai - Offizielle Webseite" https://oktoberfest-dubai.com Open / Comment

2021-04-29 17:25:05 Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Israel of having become an Apartheid regime.
I have looked at the report and factually everything it says is correct. The incidents have taken place as described and the numbers are right. Nevertheless, I do not fully agree. Two thoughts on this:

1. Context
According to HRW's own definition of apartheid, taken from the Rome Statute, apartheid means the oppression of a population group on racial grounds.
It may be true that anti-Muslim and anti-Arab prejudices play a role in Israel's oppression of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. However, the context of this oppression should not be ignored. After all, Palestinians are the opponents within a conflict that has been fought militarily for decades - the Middle East conflict. This means that the systemic oppression of Palestinians is primarily the oppression of "enemies" and opponents in a warlike conflict. It is not pretty. But its not racial exclusion for its own sake like in South Africa.
The oppression of Palestinians derives from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not racial differentiation. HRW ignores this context.

2) Methodology
The report says that Palestinians in Israel are also subject to an apartheid regime. Their oppression is not as strong as in the Occupied Territories but falls within the scope of Apartheid, it says.
The examples given in the report are exclusive land ownership by the state, citizenship rights that are privileging Jewish Israelis and disproportional allocation of state budget. These issues result in discrimination of Palestinians in Israel.

However, as I see it, there is an enormous gap between discrimination in Israel and violent oppression in the Occupied Territories. But the authors do not properly differentiate. HRW lumps together different political and legal systems. A position, that oversimplifies reality and weakens the entire argument.

Their assessment in regard to Israeli Palestinians is all the more surprising in light of the current societal transformation in which Palestinians in Israel increasingly play an important role in politics and society.

Conclusion: HRW has presented an activist paper. The goal of reaching an all-encompassing final judgment was placed above a thorough analysis.
At the same time, it is precisely the task of NGOs that specialize in human rights to generate attention for the disadvantaged. They don't have to conform to a scientific standart and objectivity.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution Open / Comment