Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Israelis saving the world, again

Sepsis, a blood infection, causes more than 200,000 deaths in US hospitals every year. A non-invasive monitoring device from Israel is changing that.

“Sepsis is a huge issue — one of the top killers, often as a complication of pneumonia or urinary tract infection and at times due to an infection acquired in the hospital,” says Dr. Yoav Avidor, CEO of Tel Aviv-based Cheetah Medical. “It progresses rapidly and is difficult to treat. In advanced sepsis, all the body’s organs start to fail. Septic shock sets in and the mortality rate is about 40 percent.”

Doctors can reduce mortality up to 40 percent by treating each case of sepsis right away with exactly the amount of intravenous fluids needed to correct imbalances of oxygen and other nutrients being delivered to the organs through the bloodstream.

“The physician must stabilize the hemodynamic system so that all the organs get exactly what they need — not too much and not too little,” explains Avidor, a urologist by training.

But until Cheetah’s NICOM device came along, the only way to determine the right amount was through an expensive and invasive procedure that can itself cause infection. Since doctors prefer not to do this, a better way was clearly needed.

As soon as NICOM’s uniquely non-invasive system received FDA and CE Mark approval four years ago, it was bought by hundreds of hospitals in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea, Israel and France for ICU and anesthesia units. Just by sticking four sensors to the skin on the patient’s chest or back, the staff can continuously collect all the data needed to determine how much fluid to administer.

Now, trials at a dozen US hospital emergency departments are testing the assumption that using NICOM earlier would keep more patients from the ICU. This would save both lives and money, since one in four hospital deaths is caused by sepsis, and it’s the reason for about half of the admissions to medical ICUs.

...The COMMIT (Cardiac Output Monitoring Managing Intravenous Therapy) study begun in February could significantly enhance Cheetah’s marketing position.

“NICOM provides an effective method of optimizing fluid treatment in the emergency department, a vital step in the management of sepsis,” says Avidor.

In 12 leading US hospital emergency departments for the next year or two, half of the sepsis patients will randomly get the standard of care (no hemodynamic monitoring), while the other half get the protocol based on NICOM. The Israeli system will help determine whether the patient can handle the large amounts of fluids that can prevent progression of sepsis. If not, extra fluids would dangerously overwhelm the heart the way a car engine gets flooded.

Avidor expects that COMMIT will show a reduction in deterioration of sepsis; the number of admissions to the ICU; intubations; and kidney and liver failure that are common complications of sepsis.

“In general, I hope to see significant reductions in the cost of treatment for these patients, as well as mortality and complications,” he says.

Cheetah is based in Tel Aviv, but I wonder, if some of these companies making life-saving medical equipment o rmedicines happened to be headquartered on the other side of the Green line, whether they would be boycotted....

English translation of the legal arguments in the Levy Report (updated)

Since the Levy Report was released, there has been a lot of heat but little light about its legal reasonings, which were in Hebrew. The only part that was released in English were its conclusions and recommendations.

Here, for the first time, is an English translation of its legal arguments. Those who try to downplay the report must find reasons why these arguments are invalid, rather than the proof by assertion that they usually resort to.

[...]

Having considered the approaches presented before us [from the Left and from the Right], we think a reasonable interpretation of the standard term of "occupation", with all the obligations arising from it, in the provisions of international law is intended to apply for short periods of occupation of a territory of a sovereign state until the end of the conflict between the parties and the return of the land or any other negotiated agreement regarding it.

But the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria is significantly different: the possession of the territory continues for many decades, and no one can predict its end, if at all; the territory was conquered from a state (the Kingdom of Jordan) whose sovereignty over the territory has never been firmly legalized, and in the meantime it even renounced its claim of sovereignty; the State of Israel claims sovereign rights to the territory.

As for Article 49 of the Geneva Convention, many have interpreted it, but it seems the dominant view is that the article indeed was meant to resolve the harsh reality imposed by some states during the Second World War, when they expelled and forcibly transferred some of their inhabitants to the territories they had occupied, a process which was accompanied by a substantial worsening of the condition of the occupied population (see this HCJ ruling and this article by Alan Baker).

This interpretation is supported by a number of sources: the authoritative interpretation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), responsible for implementing the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states regarding the purpose of article 49 of the Convention:

It is intended to prevent a practice adopted during the Second World War by certain Powers, which transferred portions of their own population to occupied territory for political and racial reasons or in order, as they claimed, to colonize those territories. Such transfers worsened the economic situation of the native population and endangered their separate existence as a race.

Lawyers Prof. Eugene Rostow, Dean of Yale Law School in the US, and Prof. Julius Stone confirmed that Article 49 is intended to prohibit the same inhuman acts committed by the Nazis, i.e. a massive transfer of people into the occupied territories for the purpose of extermination, slavery or colonization:

[T]he Convention prohibits many of the inhumane practices of the Nazis and the Soviet Union during and before the Second World War - the mass transfer of people into and out of occupied territories for purposes of extermination, slave labor or colonization, for example....The Jewish settlers in the West Bank are most emphatically volunteers. They have not been "deported" or "transferred" to the area by the Government of Israel, and their movement involves none of the atrocious purposes or harmful effects on the existing population it is the goal of the Geneva Convention to prevent. (Rostow)

Irony would...be pushed to the absurdity of claiming that Article 49(6), designed to prevent repetition of Nazi-type genocidal policies of rendering Nazi metropolitan territories judenrein, has now come to mean that...the West Bank...must be made judenrein and must be so maintained, if necessary by the use of force by the government of Israel against its own inhabitants. Common sense as well as correct historical and functional context excludes so tyrannical a reading of Article 49(6.) (Julius Stone)

We do not believe that one can draw an analogy between this legal provision and those who sought to settle in Judea and Samaria not as a result of them being "deported" or "transferred" but because of their world view - to settle the Land of Israel.

We did not ignore the view of those who think that one should interpret the Fourth Geneva Convention as also prohibiting the occupying state to encourage or support the transfer of parts of its population to the occupied territory, even if it did not initiate it (on this issue see note 13 here).

But even if this interpretation is correct, we would not change our conclusion that no analogy should be drawn between Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, in light of the status of the territory under international law, and for that matter a brief history is required.

On 2 November 1917 Lord James Balfour, the British foreign minister, issued a declaration that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", the document which was addressed to Lord Rothschild read:

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

This declaration appeared, in a different version, in the declaration of the San Remo peace conference in Italy which laid the grounds for the Mandate for Palestine which acknowledged the Jewish people's historic connection to Palestine (see Preamble):

The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country...

Recognition had thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.

It should be emphasized here that in the Mandate (as well as in the Balfour Declaration) only the "civil and religious" rights of the inhabitants of Palestine are mentioned as rendering protection, but there is no mention of the national rights of the Arab people. And concerning the actual implementation of this declaration article 2 of the Mandate says:

The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self -governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.

And in article 6 of the Mandate it says:

The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency. referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews, on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.

In August 1922 the League of Nations approved the Mandate which was given to Britain, and thus the Jewish people's right to settle in the Land of Israel, their historic homeland, and to establish their state there, was recognized in international law.

To complete the picture, we'll add that with the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the principle of recognizing the validity of existing rights of states acquired under various mandates, including of course the rights of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel by virtue of the above documents, was determined in article 80 of its charter:

Except as may be agreed upon in individual trusteeship agreements...nothing in this Chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.

In November 1947 the General Assembly adopted the United Nations committee's recommendation to divide the Land of Israel west of the Jordan river into two states: one Arab and one Jewish.

But the plan was never implemented, and therefore was not binding under international law, since the Arab states rejected it and started a war to prevent its implementation and the establishment of a Jewish state.

The outcome of the war set the political reality from now on: the Jewish state was established within the lines drawn after the war.

However, the Arab state was not established, and Egypt and Jordan controlled the territories they occupied (the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria).

Later, the Arab states, which did not recognize the consequences of the war, demanded the armistice agreement include a statement [*] saying that the cease-fire line should not be construed in any way as a political or territorial border.

Nevertheless, in April 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank, unlike Egypt, which has never claimed sovereignty over the Gaza Strip.

However, Jordan's annexation was not accepted on any legal basis, and most Arab countries opposed it, until 1988 when Jordan renounced its claim to the territory (on this issue see chief justice M. Landau's comments in this HCJ ruling; and this HCJ ruling).

Thus the original legal status of the territory was restored, namely, a territory designated as a national home for the Jewish people, who had a "right of possession" to it during Jordanian rule while they were absent from the territory for several years due to a war imposed on them, and have now returned to it.

Together with the international commitment to govern the territory and ensure the rights of the local population and public order, Israel also had the full right to claim sovereignty over these territories, and all Israeli governments believed so, but they chose not to annex them and take a pragmatic approach in order to allow for peace negotiations with representatives of the Palestinian people and the Arab states.

Israel therefore did not see itself as an occupying power in the classical sense of the word, and so never saw itself committed to the Forth Geneva Convention in relation to Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

It should be added here, that the Israeli government did indeed ratify the Convention in 1951, but since it was not adopted by the Knesset (on this issue see this and this HCJ rulings) it merely issued a statement saying it will voluntarily implement the humanitarian provisions of the Convention (here, here, here and here).

As a result, Israel implemented a policy that allows the Israelis to live voluntarily in the territory in accordance with laws prescribed by the Israeli government and supervised by the Israeli legal system, while their continued presence is subject to the outcome of the negotiation process.

In light of the aforesaid, we have no doubt that from the perspective of international law, the establishment of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria is legal, and therefore we can proceed to discussing this question from the perspective of domestic law.

[...]

NOTE:

[*] According to article II (2) of the Armistice Agreement with Jordan:

...no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims and positions of either Party hereto in the ultimate peaceful settlement of the Palestine question, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations.

According to article VI (9) of the agreement:

The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto.

Many, many thanks to Yoel who provided this translation. (He made some minor corrections 7/15.)

I received a somewhat revised translation with paragraph numbers from Hadar, via Emet from CiFWatch. Her comments:

I've tidied up the translation of the part of the Levy Report which was posted on EoZ.
I've made some slight adjustments to the translation of the text itself which I deemed necessary in order to clarify the points made.
I've reinstated the paragraph numbers - makes it easier to refer back to the original.
I've reinstated the footnotes with their original numbers appearing as they do in the text.
Where footnotes relate to websites, I've provided a link.
In the text, I've provided some links which do not appear in the original report - eg links to HCJ court cases referred to in the text by name/number as examples.

So here it is:

Translation Levy Report

http://www.pmo.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/E155A1D6-96A7-4143-8233-F126AC9288BF/0/doch090712.pdf

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/english-translation-of-legal-arguments.html

(starting page 6, section 5, para 2)

Having considered the approaches presented before us, we think a reasonable interpretation of the standard term of "occupation", with all the obligations arising from it, in the provisions of international law is intended to apply for short periods of occupation of a territory of a sovereign state until the end of the conflict between the parties and the return of the land or any other negotiated agreement regarding it. But the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria is significantly different: the possession of the territory continues for many decades, and no one can predict its end, if at all; the territory was conquered from a state (the Kingdom of Jordan) whose sovereignty over the territory has never been firmly legalized, and in the meantime it even renounced its claim of sovereignty; the State of Israel claims sovereign rights to the territory.

This interpretation is supported by a number of sources: the authoritative interpretation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), responsible for implementing the Fourth Geneva Convention[2], which states regarding the purpose of article 49 of the Convention:

"It is intended to prevent a practice adopted during the Second World War by certain Powers, which transferred portions of their own population to occupied territory for political and racial reasons or in order, as they claimed, to colonize those territories. Such transfers worsened the economic situation of the native population and endangered their separate existence as a race."

"[T]he Convention prohibits many of the inhumane practices of the Nazis and the Soviet Union during and before the Second World War - the mass transfer of people into and out of occupied territories for purposes of extermination, slave labor or colonization, for example....The Jewish settlers in the West Bank are most emphatically volunteers. They have not been "deported" or "transferred" to the area by the Government of Israel, and their movement involves none of the atrocious purposes or harmful effects on the existing population it is the goal of the Geneva Convention to prevent. "(Rostow)

"Irony would...be pushed to the absurdity of claiming that Article 49(6), designed to prevent repetition of Nazi-type genocidal policies of rendering Nazi metropolitan territories judenrein, has now come to mean that...the West Bank...must be made judenrein and must be so maintained, if necessary by the use of force by the government of Israel against its own inhabitants. Common sense as well as correct historical and functional context excludes so tyrannical a reading of Article 49(6.)" (Julius Stone)

6. We do not believe that one can draw an analogy between this legal provision and those who sought to settle in Judea and Samaria not as a result of them being "deported" or "transferred" but because of their world view - to settle the Land of Israel. We did not ignore the view of those who think that one should interpret the Fourth Geneva Convention as also prohibiting the occupying state to encourage or support the transfer of parts of its population to the occupied territory, even if it did not initiate it[5]. But even if this interpretation is correct, we would not change our conclusion that no analogy should be drawn between Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, in light of the status of the territory under international law, and on that matter we will open with a brief historical overview.

7. On 2 November 1917 Lord James Balfour, the British foreign minister, issued a declaration that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", the document which was addressed to Lord Rothschild read:

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."[6]

In this declaration Britain recognized the Jewish people's right to the Land of Israel, and even expressed its willingness to advance a process that will eventually lead to the establishment of a national home for them in this part of the world. This declaration appeared, in a different version, in the declaration of the San Remo peace conference in Italy which laid the grounds for the Mandate for Palestine which acknowledged the Jewish people's historic connection to Palestine (see Preamble):

"The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country...

Recognition had thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country."[7]

It should be emphasized here that in the Mandate (as well as in the Balfour Declaration) only the "civil and religious" rights of the inhabitants of Palestine are mentioned as subject to protection, but there is no mention of the national rights of the Arab people. And concerning the practical implementation of this declaration, article 2 of the Mandate says[8]:

"The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self -governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion."

And in article 6 of the Mandate it says:

"The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews, on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes."

In August 1922 the League of Nations approved the Mandate which was given to Britain, and thus was decided, as a norm anchored in international law, the Jewish people's right to settle in the Land of Israel, their historic homeland, and to establish their state there.

To complete the picture, we will add that with the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, established in article 80 of its charter [is] the principle of recognizing the validity of existing rights of states acquired under various mandates, including of course the rights of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel by virtue of the above documents.

"Except as may be agreed upon in individual trusteeship agreements...nothing in this Chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties." (Article 80, paragraph 1, UN Charter)

8. In November 1947 the UN General Assembly adopted the recommendation of the committee it had established to divide the Land of Israel west of the Jordan river into two states: one Arab and one Jewish[9]. But the plan was never implemented, and therefore was not binding under international law, since the Arab states rejected it and started a war to prevent its implementation and the establishment of a Jewish state. The outcome of the war set the political reality from now on: the Jewish state was established within the lines drawn after the war. However, an Arab state was not established, and the territories which had been conquered by Egypt and Jordan (the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria) were ruled by those countries. Later, the Arab states, which did not recognize the consequences of the war, demanded the armistice agreement include a statement saying that the cease-fire line should not be construed in any way as a political or territorial border[10]. Despite that, in April 1950, Jordan annexed the area of Judea & Samaria[11], unlike Egypt, which has never claimed sovereignty over the Gaza Strip. However, Jordan's annexation was not accepted on any legal basis, and most Arab countries opposed it, until 1988 when Jordan renounced its claim to the territory (on this issue see chief justice M. Landau's comments in HCJ ruling 61/80 Haetzni against the State of Israel; and HCJ ruling 69/81, 493 Abu Aita against Commander of Judea & Samaria and others).

9. Alongside the international commitment to govern the territory and ensure the rights of the local population and public order, Israel therefore also had the full right to claim sovereignty over these territories, and all Israeli governments believed so, but they chose not to annex them and take a pragmatic approach in order to allow for peace negotiations with representatives of the Palestinian people and the Arab states. Israel therefore did not see itself as an occupying power in the classical sense of the word, and so never saw itself committed to the Fourth Geneva Convention in relation to Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It should be added here, that the Israeli government did indeed ratify the Convention in 1951, but since it was not adopted by the Knesset (on this issue see ruling 131/76 Kamiar against the State of Israel; and HCJ ruling 393/82 Jamat Iscaan against the Commander of IDF forces in Judea & Samaria) it merely issued a statement saying it will voluntarily implement the humanitarian provisions of the Convention (HCJ rulings 337/71 The Christian Association for Holy Places against the Minister of Defence; 256/72 The Jerusalem District Electricity Company Ltd against the Minister of Defence & others; 698/80 Qawasma & others against the Minister of Defence & others; 1661/05 Hof Azza Regional Council & others against Knesset Israel & others) . As a result, Israel implemented a policy that allows Israelis to live voluntarily in the territory in accordance with rules set by the Israeli government and supervised by the Israeli legal system, while their continued presence is subject to the outcome of the negotiation process.

[1] http://jcpa.org/article/the-settlements-issue-distorting-the-geneva-convention-and-the-oslo-accords/

[2] ICRC Commentary to the Fourth Geneva Convention, edited by Jean S. Pictet, [1958], p.3-9 http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/COM/380-600056?OpenDocument

[3] American Journal of International Law, Vol 84, 1990, p. 719

[4] Phillips, "The Illegal Settlements Myth", Commentary, 2010 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-illegal-settlements-myth/

[5] On this issue see [note 13 in] Alan Baker's article mentioned above in note 5, [article here] on the subject of the addition of the words "directly or indirectly" in clause 8 of the constitution of the International Criminal Court.

[6] http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/The%20Balfour%20Declaration

[7] http://www.cfr.org/israel/san-remo-resolution/p15248

[8] http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/The%20Mandate%20for%20Palestine

[9] http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/UN+General+Assembly+Resolution+181.htm

[10] According to article II (2) of the armistice agreement with Jordan: "no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims and positions of either Party hereto in the ultimate peaceful settlement of the Palestine question, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations."

According to article VI (9) of the agreement: "The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto."

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign+Relations/Israels+Foreign+Relations+since+1947/1947-1974/Israel-Jordan+Armistice+Agreement.htm

[11] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/jordanresolution.html

Here is the text of the conclusions, taken from UNISPAL:

Conclusions and Recommendations

(Translation from the original and authoritative Hebrew text)

After having considered the terms of reference set out in the Commission's mandate, and in light of what we have heard, as well as the considerable amount of material that has been presented to us by a wide range of bodies, our conclusions and recommendations are as follows:

Our basic conclusion is that from the point of view of international law, the classical laws of "occupation" as set out in the relevant international conventions cannot be considered applicable to the unique and sui generis historic and legal circumstances of Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria spanning over decades.

In addition, the provisions of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, regarding transfer of populations, cannot be considered to be applicable and were never intended to apply to the type of settlement activity carried out by Israel in Judea and Samaria.

Therefore, according to International law, Israelis have the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria and the establishment of settlements cannot, in and of itself, be considered to be illegal.

With regard to the other issues considered, our recommendations are as follows:

1. The Government is advised to clarify its policy regarding settlement by Israelis in Judea and Samaria, with a view to preventing future interpretation of its decisions in a mistaken or overly "creative" manner. We propose that such government decision include the following principles:

a. Any new settlement in Judea and Samaria will be established only following a decision by the government or by a duly empowered ministerial committee.

b. Construction within the bounds of an existing or future settlement will not require government or ministerial decision, but such construction must be approved by the planning and zoning authorities after they have ascertained that the proposed construction is not contrary to the approved town/area plan applicable to the land in question.

c. Extension of an existing settlement beyond the area of its jurisdiction or beyond the area set out in the existing town plan, will require a decision by the Minister of Defense with the knowledge of the Prime Minister, prior to any of the following stages: commencement of planning and actual commencement of construction.

2. With regard to settlements established in Judea and Samaria on state lands or on land purchased by Israelis with the assistance of official authorities such as the World Zionist Organization Settlements Division and the Ministry of Housing, and which have been defined as "unauthorized" or "illegal" due to the fact that they were established without any formal government decision, our conclusion is that the establishment of such settlements was carried out with the knowledge, encouragement and tacit agreement of the most senior political level —government ministers and the Prime Minister, and therefore such conduct is to be seen as implied agreement.

Regarding these settlements, as well as those established pursuant to a government decision but lacking definition of their municipal jurisdiction, or without having completed the planning and zoning procedures, and as a result, have been described as "unauthorized" or "illegal", the remaining outstanding procedures should be completed as follows:

a. The area of municipal jurisdiction of each settlement, if not yet determined, must be determined by order, taking into due consideration future natural growth.

b. The administrative blockages imposed on the planning and zoning authorities must be removed immediately, so that they may fulfill

their function of examining plans that have been submitted to them by each settlement, without any further need for additional approval by the political level.

c. Pending completion of those proceedings and examination of the possibility of granting valid building permits, the state is advised to avoid carrying out demolition orders, since it brought about the present situation by itself.

d. With a view to avoiding doubt, it is stressed that all the settlements, including those approved pursuant to this proposed framework, may in the future, extend their boundaries in order to respond to their needs, including natural growth, without the need for additional government or ministerial decision, as long as the proposed extension is located within the jurisdiction of the settlement, within its boundaries as set out in the approved town plan, and has received due approval from the planning and zoning authorities.

e. Settlements established wholly or partially on land that is subject to examination as to whether it is public or private land ("seker"), are to be considered settlements whose legal status is pending. Most of these were established years ago, and it is thus necessary to accelerate the slow examination process ("seker") in all areas of Judea and Samaria, and to complete it within a fixed time period, and to this end, even consider, utilizing assistance by external bodies. Upon completion, the processing of each settlement will continue according to the results of the land examination ("seker") and determination of the type of land, in accordance with the framework proposed by us.

f. In the event of conflicting claimants to land, it would be appropriate to adopt a policy whereby prior to any determination by the state regarding petitions for eviction or demolition, a thorough examination of the conflicting claims be conducted by a judicial tribunal dealing with land issues. This is all the more necessary with respect to claims of prior purchase or prescription, or where the possessor acted in a bona fide manner. Pending such determination, state authorities should be instructed to avoid taking any position in land conflicts and carrying out irreversible measures, such as eviction or demolition of buildings on the property.

g. To this end and with a view to facilitate accessibility by local residents to judicial tribunals, we suggest the establishment of courts for the adjudication of land disputes in Judea and Samaria, or alternatively, extending the jurisdiction of district court judges in order to enable them to handle in their courts, land disputes in Judea and Samaria.

h. It is necessary to draft into the security legislation a right for the public to review data banks administered by the various official bodies, including the Civil Administration, concerning land rights in the area of Judea and Samaria.

i. With regard to the "Order concerning Interfering Use in Private Land" — we are of the view that this order must be cancelled. In the event that it is decided to keep it in force, we propose that it be amended such that any decision by an Appeals Committee will not be recommendatory but will obligate the Head of the Civil Administration to act pursuant to such decision. The Head of the Civil Administration and other interested parties may appeal the decision of the Appeals Committee before a Court for Administrative Issues, whose decision will be final. We propose that this arrangement be applied also to other decisions of the Appeals Committee, including concerning questions of "Primary Registration" of land in Judea and Samaria.

j. The composition of the Appeals Committee should be changed. It is presently manned by uniformed reserve officers, jurists, who are, of necessity, perceived at the least to be subordinate to, and even under the command of the Head of the Civil Administration. We feel that this situation is not proper, and therefore recommend that the Appeals Committee be composed of non-uniformed jurists, a factor which would contribute to the general perception of the Appeals Committee as an independent body, acting according to its own discretion.

k) The "Procedure for Dealing with Private Land Disputes" must be revoked. Such disputes must only be considered and adjudicated by a judicial body.

I) Security legislation must be amended to enable Israelis to purchase land in Judea and Samaria directly, and not only through a corporation registered in the area. We also recommend that the procedures for "Primary Registration" of land rights be accelerated and completed within a reasonable and fixed time period.

m) The Civil Administration should be instructed that there is no prohibition whatsoever on additional construction within the bounds of a settlement built on land initially seized by military order,

and such requests should be considered at the planning stage only.

n) We also recommend advancing the planning and declaration procedures regarding nature preserves and parks in all those areas of Judea and Samaria under Israeli responsibility.

Finally, we wish to stress that the picture that has been displayed before us regarding Israeli settlement activity in Judea and Samaria does not befit the behavior of a state that prides itself on, and is committed to the rule of law.

If as a result of this report, the message is conveyed that we are no longer in the formative stages of the creation of our state when things were done in an informal and arbitrary manner, we will be satisfied.

The proponents of settlements, including at the most senior political levels, should internalize and acknowledge the fact that all actions on this matter can only be in accordance with the law. Similarly, official governmental bodies should act with alacrity and decisiveness in fulfilling their functions to ensure that the law is duly observed.

Moroccan liberals really making a splash

From Albawaba:

Moroccan Justice Minister Mustafa al-Ramid lashed out at a request submitted by a group of activists asking for the legalizing of sexual relations outside marriage and called the initiative a promotion of debauchery.

“Revoking the law that criminalizes sex outside marriage is a propagation of corruption that will deal a fatal blow to Moroccan values,” Ramid said Monday in parliament, answering a question about his response to the sexual freedom initiative.

A group of Moroccan activists called a few days ago for crossing out Article 490 of the Penal Code which punishes every man and woman caught having sex outside marriage even if the couple is consenting adults. According to those activists, adults should have the freedom to engage in sexual relations as long as there is mutual consent.

The harsh criticism directed at this demand was not confined to the parliament, but extended to clerics who saw the call for sexual freedom as a grave threat to the moral and spiritual wellbeing of Moroccans.

The Union for Quranic Houses, affiliated to the Salafi school of thought, issued a statement slamming the sexual freedom initiative which, it said, “came at a time when reformers and wise men are trying to rebuild the country and fight corruption.”

Al Arabiya obtained a statement by Moroccan Salafi Front in which it accused the activists behind the initiative of violating an indisputable law in the Quran.

...The reactions of Islamists, in turn, infuriated liberals. Secular activist Abdul Hamid Amin accused Islamists of ultra-conservatism and narrow-mindedness.

“They just attack anyone who has a different opinion; they want to impose their inflexible ideologies on society,” he said.

Of course, one of the people behind the sexual freedom initiative has gotten death threats:

Abdellah Nhari, an imam in the northeastern Oujda region, who is well known for his controversial pronouncements, declared in a recent sermon that Elmokhtar Laghzioui was a "dayoute," or cuckold in colloquial Arabic, and that in Islam "the 'dayoute' should be killed."

Nhari was reacting to Laghzioui's remarks, on a satellite television channel, indicating that he supported personal, and in particular sexual freedom, even in the case of one's "mother or sister."

And if having people in a Muslim country openly calling to legalize adultery isn't amazing enough...check this out:

A group of Moroccan activists launched a campaign calling for the right to break the fast publicly during the mornings of the holy month of Ramadan, as part of a larger initiative that aims at widening the range of personal freedoms in the country.

‘Mouvement Masayminch’ or ‘We Won’t Fast in Ramadan’ Movement, launched by a group that calls itself Moroccan Free Thinkers, demanded that citizens should have the right not to fast during the holy month, which falls on July 20 this year, and to eat and drink in public.

The anti-fast initiative -- which has been repeatedly launched in different forms for several years since 2008 -- calls for the cancellation of a law that criminalizes the public fast-breaking during daytime in Ramadan.

The movement made social networks as its main podium. “Eat and drink any time, place, or way you choose. Greetings to all irreligionists across the globe,” said the introduction to the movement’s Facebook page.

According to the organizers of the campaign, the main purpose of creating a Facebook page is not discussing religious matters but rather allowing people who adopt the same line of thought and call for the same sort of personal freedoms to get to know each other regardless of what their ideological views are.

This is worth watching.

Latest things that offend Islam: Playstation and Ikea

Kermalkom.com reports that a Saudi citizen was outraged at seeing a Playstation game -apparently Resident Evil 5 - where on one of the levels, the heroes are supposed to shoot a Koran.

The man was outraged that such a game was available for sale in the Kingdom, where chldren could easily buy it.

Maybe the Saudis should institute a ratings system.

In other news, Ikea is selling a wine carrier with one of those interesting Scandinavian names they like to use for their products.

The Omar wine shelf is being sold in the Ikea store in the UAE, causing a lot of consternation.

Omar was the name of a major caliph, and to associate him with forbidden wine is insulting.

The article about this lamented at other insults to Islam that happened in the UAE recently, like Madonna's concert .

(h/t Jihad Watch via Ian)

Today's linkdump

From Ian:

Latma summer series: The social protest's pure motives

President Jihad: Jailed terrorist leads Palestinian presidential race, poll shows

“In a three-way race between Barghouti, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, and Mahmoud Abbas (the current president), the vote would be split 37, 33, and 25 respectively. In a direct matchup between Barghouti and Haniya, the former would win overwhelmingly, 60-34.”

In apparent flip-flop, Palestinian official now says no final decision yet on Arafat autopsy

A sign of the times: Iron Dome battery stationed near Eilat

"Defensive weapon system, which has reduced the threat of Kassam rockets to communities bordering the Gaza Strip, is set up near Israel’s southern resort city"

Anti-Semitic photo wins Iranian 'Occupy' competition

Heart-rending face of protest: Woman scarred by acid attack joins protest march after Afghan woman was executed by Taliban for 'adultery'

Shocking a BBC (sports) journalist calls terrorist, terrorists!
Barry Davies' Olympic Moments: Black September, Munich 1972

Who Will Speak for the Ahmadi Muslims? by Arsen Ostrovsky

Man charged with 'planning to car bomb London's Olympic Park during Games'

And more!

Why Abbas Will Never Make Peace With Israel by Khaled Abu Toameh

"Arafat had been telling his people that anyone who makes concessions to Israel is a traitor. Like Arafat, Abbas does not want to go down in history as the first Palestinian leader to make concessions, especially on sensitive issues such as refugees and Jerusalem."

France Penalizes Boycott of Israeli Products by Peter Martino

"Calling for a boycott of Israeli products is treated in the same manner as would be a call for the boycott of Islamic products. Publicly calling for the boycott of Israeli products is a case ofincitement to discrimination on the basis of nationality."

The failures of the Israel boycotters

"The various campaigns by British BDS groups have been noisy and sometimes messy,but in practical terms, they have been a complete failure"

Israelis working in Jordan to assist Syrian refugees

Deputy Minister Ayoob Kara reveals for first time that Israeli government representatives are working in Jordan on aiding injured Syrians who escaped the Assad regime.

Dershowitz: J Street’s position on Iran takes it out of the pro-Israel camp

"Lobby group undercuts Obama, misrepresents top Israelis, and misleads its supporters in its stance against last-resort US military option, says top law professor; J Street rejects critique"

More:
A Palestinian refugee story: myths vs. facts, at Warped Mirror

That same writer is now saying that "non-violent resistance" is a stupid Western concept that Palestinian Arabs should reject. (ht @ArsenOstrovsky)

Europe's new anti-semitism (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)

From HuffPo:

In May 2007 a small group of religious leaders met in the E.U. headquarters in Brussels with the three most significant leaders of Europe: Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and at the time president of the European Council; Jose-Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; and Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament.

...Sitting directly opposite the three leaders, I said this: "Jews and Europe go back a long way. The experience of Jews in Europe has added several words to the human vocabulary -- words like expulsion, public disputation, forced conversion, inquisition, auto-da-fe, blood libel, ghetto and pogrom, without even mentioning the word Holocaust. That is the past. My concern is with the future. Today the Jews of Europe are asking whether there is a future for Jews in Europe, and that should concern you, the leaders of Europe."

It took less than a minute, and after it there was a shocked silence. We adjourned for lunch, and over it Angela Merkel asked, "What would you like me to do, Chief Rabbi?" I did not have an easy answer for her then. I do now. It is: reverse immediately the decision of the Cologne court that renders Jewish parents who give their son a brit milah [circumcision], even if performed in hospital by a qualified doctor, liable to prosecution.

He then makes a brilliant observation about the nature of European anti-semitism through the centuries:

I have argued for some years that an assault on Jewish life always needs justification by the highest source of authority in the culture at any given age. Throughout the Middle Ages the highest authority in Europe was the Church. Hence anti-Semitism took the form of Christian anti-Judaism.

In the post-enlightenment Europe of the 19th century the highest authority was no longer the Church. Instead it was science. Thus was born racial anti-Semitism, based on two disciplines regarded as science in their day: the "scientific study of race" and the Social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel. Today we know that both of these were pseudo-sciences, but in their day they were endorsed by some of the leading figures of the age.

Since Hiroshima and the Holocaust, science no longer holds its pristine place as the highest moral authority. Instead, that role is taken by human rights. It follows that any assault on Jewish life -- on Jews or Judaism or the Jewish state -- must be cast in the language of human rights. Hence the by-now routine accusation that Israel has committed the five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, attempted genocide and crimes against humanity. This is not because the people making these accusations seriously believe them -- some do, some don't. It is because this is the only form in which an assault on Jews can be stated today.

That is what the court in Cologne has done. It has declared that circumcision is an assault on the rights of the child since it is performed without his consent. It ignored the fact that if this is true, teaching children to speak German, sending them to school and vaccinating them against illness are all assaults against the rights of the child since they are done without consent. The court's judgment was tendentious, foolish and has set a dangerous precedent.

In historical context, however, it is far worse. By ruling that religious Jews performing their most ancient sacred ritual are abusing the rights of the child, a German court has just invented a new form of Blood Libel perfectly designed for the 21st century. Chancellor Merkel, the answer to your question, "What would you like me to do?" is simple. Ensure that this ruling is overturned, for the sake of religious freedom and the moral reputation of Germany.

This article is worth bookmarking.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Nice shooting

From YNet:

The Israeli Air Force attacked an armed terror cell in Zeitoun, east of Gaza City, killing one person and wounding others, Palestinian sources reported Thursday.

The IDF confirmed that the IAF struck a target there.

Earlier the army said Armored Corps forces, accompanied by military aircraft, opened fire at a Hamas terror cell that was preparing to launch an antitank missile at Israeli soldiers patrolling the Israel-Gaza border.

Palestinian sources reported that an IDF tank fired at the terrorists' vehicle as it was travelling in the Sajaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City. The sources said three terrorists were injured - one of them seriously.

On Monday bullets that were fired from Gaza hit two vehicles and the wall of a restaurant at a commercial plaza near the Yad Mordechai Junction in south Israel. No one was injured in the incident. IDF forces returned fire.

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades are celebrating the martyr Mahmoud Alhiqi, who "went to Allah after a great and honorable jihadist career, after hard work and sacrifice and Jihad."

UNESCO decides to fund anti-semitic, terror supporting Gaza university

From Ha'aretz:

Relations between Israel and UNESCO have reached a new low following the organization's inauguration of a Chair in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the Islamic University of Gaza, which Israel identifies with Hamas.

The inauguration, by UNESCO's Secretary-General Irina Bokova, was made possible after the organization accepted Palestine as its 195th member, several months ago.

Palestine's acceptance caused the United States to cut off its funding to the agency.

After holding heated discussions with UNESCO officials on Wednesday, the Israeli ambassador to the agency, Nimrod Barkan, will submit a formal letter of protest on Thursday.

A senior Foreign Ministry source said the Israeli Embassy to UNESCO received a press release from the organization a few days ago saying UNESCO was sponsoring a chair at the Islamic University of Gaza. The chair is seen as a stamp of approval from the international body, implying recognition in the university's importance as an academic institution.

The move angered Jerusalem, especially because the university has served for years as a political hub for Hamas support. Israeli officials said numerous Hamas engineers have been trained at the university to manufacture explosive charges and rockets.

During Operation Cast Lead, in the winter of 2008-2009, the Israel Air Force bombed one of the university's wings, in which Israel said laboratories for rocket and bomb production were located.

Israel was especially furious that the first Palestinian university UNESCO chose to cooperate with was the IUG, rather than other universities in the Palestinian Authority, such as Al-Quds or Birzeit.

Barkan spoke to officials responsible for the Middle East in UNESCO's secretariat on Wednesday. "This is an institution that assists terror and has been involved in terror in the past," he said. "We don't think it was proper to give a chair with such lack of caution, without even checking the institution first."

A quick perusal of the IUG website shows that it is essentially an arm of Hamas. There are dozens of documents praising Hamas - and none criticizing it. (MOst of them are Word documents, but here's an auto-translated page from a faculty member.)

Moreover, the IUG has numerous papers that espouse pure anti-semitism. I found this (poorly translated) English abstract in an Arabic paper put out by the university:

Quran highlighted the many characteristics of the Jews in order‬‬ ‫‪to warn the world of them and especially the Arab world and Muslim peoples‬‬ ‫‪and leaders, and the research will be remembered most important of these‬‬ ‫‪qualities that have had a negative impact on the formation of ideology and‬‬ ‫‪mentality, the thought of the Jews perverted, it is these qualities disbelief in‬‬ ‫‪Allah and His signs, deception, and hardening of the heart, cunning, and‬‬ ‫‪cunning, treachery, betrayal and bloodshed love of this world and hatred of‬‬ ‫‪death and eating people's wealth unlawfully, those qualities that are reflected‬‬ ‫‪on the behavior of individuals and groups, making them commit the crime of‬‬ ‫‪crimes, what on earth who has not committed, because these people do not‬‬ ‫‪know the meaning of humanity, so this research to reveal those qualities and‬‬
‫‪those evil intentions and reveal their risk the entire world and especially the‬‬ ‫.‪Islamic world and the Arab world and to take heed of these and reconsider‬‬

But don't take my word for it that IUG is a terror front. Listen to what the PA said about it in 2007:

Kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit spent most of his time in captivity imprisoned on the campus of the Islamic University in Gaza, said senior Palestinian sources on Monday.

The Islamic University is under complete Hamas control, with faculty members and students alike all loyal to the organization.

Palestinian officials have labeled the university a "sanctuary for wanted men" and they note that Hamas mastermind Yahya Ayyash fled from the West Bank to Gaza in 1995 and hid in the Islamic University for several months during the time he was being pursued by Israeli forces for his role in numerous suicide bombings in the 90's.

Ayyash and other wanted Hamas members took advantage of the fact that none but Hamas loyalists set foot in the university.

That changed last Thursday when troops from Fatah's Force 17 raided the university campus, confiscating some 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles, hundreds of RPG launchers and massive amounts of ammunition.

Fatah troops also uncovered a tunnel opening leading all the way to the Palestinian Police headquarters in Gaza City. Estimates suggest Hamas had intended to fill the tunnel with explosives and destroy the police building.

Hamas also recruited suicide bombers on the IUG campus.

For UNESCO to specifically choose a Hamas-affiliated, terrorist-hub, anti-semitism spouting university as the first one to be honored after admitting "Palestine" as a member shows exactly how UNESCO has no interest in culture or science, and how much it is now in bed with terrorists and their supporters.

Summer re-runs: EoZ's most offensive video, from 2008

From August 2008, here is "Rachel Corrie", the EoZ song spoof video, that was banned on YouTube:

Here's the background behind the song as well as the lyrics, based on the Simon and Garfunkel classic "Richard Cory."

For those who don't get it, it is written from the perspective of a jihadist who uses clueless Westerners like Corrie to achieve his violent aims.

And, yes, that is me singing, badly, with a lot of purposeful audio distortion. I was trying to make it sound like I had two voices without singing it twice. But I could not hit those high notes.

UPDATE: If you follow my link above a couple of generations, you can see that I was inspired to do this from a "peace activist" named Anis Hamadeh who threatened to sue me for mocking one of his songs.

I wondered what ever happened to Anis, and came upon this unintentionally hilarious video he made for a 90-minute cabaret show he created for "Palestine." It is so bad, it is brilliant.

Good old Anis, always good for a laugh!

Central Park open thread

Taken with my Google Nexus Galaxy phone this morning; three images stitched with Hugin:

Midweek links

From Ian:

The horrific legacy of Munich '72: I was there the day Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and killed 11 Israeli athletes

"The Munich Games in 1972 were overshadowed when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were taken hostage and later killed by Palestinian terrorists. Gerald Seymour, ITN reporter turned novelist, recalls the horror and its legacy for the 2012 Games"

Missouri Politician Claims No Jews Died on 9-11

"MD Alam is running for Secretary of State in Missouri and heads the National Democratic Party Asian American Caucus, a group sponsored by the Democratic National Committee. Alam also believes no Jews died during the attacks of 9/11 and has made statements that infer Jews were involved in the attack itself."
He has since apologized, essentially saying - I believed everything I saw on a YouTube video:

IDFBLOG - IDF Elite Counter Terrorism Unit Practices Rescuing Hostages

It’s clearer than ever: Israel is not the problem

“Roots of tension in the Arab world are far deeper than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”
“Yet, incredibly, 18 months into the Arab Spring, we’re still being fed the myth that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root cause of all instability in the Middle East. Its resolution, we are told, would alleviate all tensions and solve the most pressing problems in the region.”

Israel’s Plight Ignored
Counterterrorism forum excludes Israel despite state’s record of suffering terrorist attacks

'Chavez selling Assad diesel fuel for tanks'