[GushShalom] Olive harvest and occupation & the EU draws the Green Line

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Tel-Aviv, October 15 2002

[] Olive harvesting and the routine of occupation - a Gush Shalom assessment
[] EU no longer to confer free-trade benefits to settlement products

announcements
-- Saturday, 19 October, Harvesting Olives for Peace: An Invitation
-- a P.S.: ongoing harvesting on the coming weekdays
-- Buy Olive Oil - Break The Siege
                                  ---
 
[] Olive harvesting and the routine of occupation - a Gush Shalom assessment

More and more Israeli peace-seekers are these days in the business of harvesting 
Palestinian olives - which are nowadays threatened with daylight robbery by settlers -  
or with trying to market Palestinian grapes and Palestinian olive oil among 
sympathetic Israelis. That is at least visibly and immediately useful. 

Meanwhile, there are a lot of terrible things going on about which we don't do much. 
The ongoing closure, the frequently re-appearing curfews, the nightly rounding up of  
men who are overfilling the prison camps, the steady encroachment of settlers on the 
land of their Palestinian neighbours, the ongoing building of the "border fence" between 
Israel and the West Bank which is being used as an excuse to grab even more parcels 
of Palestinian land... 
Even against the daily killings of Palestinians there is very little one can do. 
We continue to say what we have already said so often: the army / the Sharon 
government has no interest in Palestinian efforts to reach an end to violence. They 
want to do the "ending of violence" alone, and create during its course new facts in the 
occupied territories.

So, when there has been a terrorist attack the army takes revenge, and when there 
has been no terrorist attack, the army also takes revenge - they have a never-ending 
list of whoever was once upon a time directly or indirectly involved in militant acts - all 
of them are of course "wanted terrorists".

"Chisulim" (liquidations) the targeted assassinations are called in the Israeli media; 
sometimes they get retrocactively the name "mistaken liquidation". Furthermore, there 
are the innocent civilians shot dead because they happened to be in the same 
bed/house/car/ as a "wanted terrorist"; they are always "regretted". In some cases 
somebody is killed for nothing, just like that (for example when the security services 
set off a booby-trapped telephone booth in Beit Sahour, when the wrong person was in -
 they wanted to kill his cousin, today's papers write shamelessly). Some cases are 
"under investigation"; of other cases  the army denies altogether to have anything to do 
with it. And, indeed, the possibility that some of the killings were done by a settler 
reservist who took his rifle and put on his uniform, cannot be rejected out of hand...

With the looming American Iraq war and a mega-explosion in Indonesia, all this does 
not create much of a stir in the media - neither in Israel nor anywhere else. Meanwhile, 
Sharon has been summoned to the White House. From media reports and 
commentaries,  his expected role during the coming cataclysm is to keep quiet and 
"not to rock the boat". In Bush-talk, this means not to do anything so bog and blatant 
as to get into the international media. Besieging Arafat, or killing 14 Palestinians at 
once were so conspicious that the US had to take official notice. So long as he avoids 
such things, the daily routine of occupation can go on...
[BZ]

[] EU no longer to confer free-trade benefits to settlement products

[The following news reports the European recognition that the products of settlements 
aren't products 'made in Israel' - and acting accordingly. 
For information on the Gush Shalom boycott of settlement products see under boycott 
documents http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives.html ]

EU duties on Green Line goods days away 
Ha'aretz - Tuesday, October 15, 2002

By Ora Coren and Amiram Cohen
 
The European Union is finally beginning to implement a decision to impose customs 
duties on Israeli goods produced over the Green Line, a senior EU official in Brussels 
told Israeli sources recently.

The process of imposing the duties "is now on automatic pilot, and it will be very hard 
to stop it," the Israelis quoted the official as saying.

The duties are slated to be imposed on all goods made or grown in the West Bank, 
Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

When the EU originally decided to impose the duties last year, it gave Israel a ten-
month grace period to clarify the status of various goods that the Europeans 
suspected of being produced in the territories. Once this period expires in the coming 
days, European countries are expected to begin imposing the duties, the EU official 
said.

Another sign of the impending change was the recent demand by French customs 
officials that Israeli farmers label dates grown in the Jordan Valley as "Produce of 
Palestine" if they wish to avoid being charged customs duties. This demand was 
transmitted to officials of Agrexco, Israel's agricultural marketing company. Israeli 
sources predicted that France's customs agency would soon begin making similar 
demands on other products grown or made over the Green Line, and that the practice 
also would soon spread from France to other EU countries.

However, the sources noted, the EU has granted each member state discretion with 
regard to the new customs policy, so some states could theoretically choose not to 
impose the duties.

Israel and the EU have been negotiating the issue for months, but have yet to reach an 
agreement. The EU claims that the free-trade benefits conferred by Israel's Association 
Agreement with the group of states do not extend to goods made in the territories; 
Israel argues that such goods should be covered by the agreement, since Israel and 
the Palestinians have formed a customs union that includes both Israel and all the 
territories, except the Golan Heights.

The next meeting on the subject is due to take place Monday in Brussels where 
Israel's delegation will be headed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

In a letter sent two weeks ago to Chris Patten, the EU's commissioner for external 
affairs, Peres proposed that the issue be shelved until 2005, since that is the date 
when, according to the diplomatic proposal recently unveiled by the Quartet, Israel and 
the Palestinians are supposed to conclude an agreement on permanent borders. But 
the consensus in Jerusalem is that the EU is unlikely to accept this proposal.

-- Saturday, 19 October, Harvesting Olives for Peace: An Invitation

Since early October, the olive harvest has been underway in the West Bank.
Work is progressing very slowly, however, due to the closures and siege, while
in some places, soldiers are keeping Palestinian farmers away from their own
orchards.  To add to this, groups of Israeli settlers have been attacking the
villagers as they attempt to harvest.  Numerous shooting incidents were
reported, with many injured and one dead, in addition to beatings with rifle
butts and rocks.

Tens of thousands of olive-planted dunam are in jeopardy, as they lie near
Israeli settlements.  If the harvest is not complete by mid-November,
thousands of families will have lost their meager livelihood, and a critical
food commodity for all West Bank residents will perish.

Several groups of Israelis have joined the olive harvest in recent days,
serving as human shields against attacks by settlers and soldiers.  These
effective actions enabled some farmers to harvest their produce.

We invite you to join a large group of peace activists this Saturday,
October 19th, to help harvest olives in several villages in the West Bank. We
want to make it possible for Palestinians to harvest their olives in safety,
and also to stir public opinion to push the government and army into allowing
this harvest to take place unimpeded.

This action is the initiative of Israelis from many peace movements in
cooperation with Palestinian friends.  We have been endorsed by several
peace organizations, and we expect the blessing of the entire movement.

This is a non-violent action.  Participation is from age 18.

Bring with you:
ID card, work clothes, hat, comfortable shoes, food and drink, camera,
cell phone.

To confirm participation:
Hava (03) 522-7124;  Yaakov (09) 767-0801 or (050) 733-276;  
Amos (09) 952-3261; or write to odsh7 at zahav.net.il

Transportation:
08:00 Jerusalem: Gan HaPa'amon.
09:00 Tel-Aviv:  El-Al Terminal at the Arlozoroff Train Station.
>From the Sharon Region:
08:30 Egged in Herzliya
08:45 Ra'anana, Ahuza, Yad Labanim
08:45 Tzomet Ra'ayana, near the stations
09:00  Kfar Saba, Egged, Weizmann St.
>From the north and south - to be announced, pending sufficient
participation.

Meet (for those not coming by bus):
09:30, Sonol gas station at the entrance to Kfar Kassim.
You can drive directly to this meeting point.  Parking lot adjacent.

Donations to cover expenses:
Checks to "Mateh HaKo-alitzia", P.O. Box 1335, Kfar Saba 44113 or deposit
directly into Account #119442, Bank HaPoalim, Branch 679, Tschernichovsky,
Kfar Saba.

-- P.S. Ongoing harvesting on the coming weekdays are coordinated by 
Rabbi Arik Asherman, Tel. 972 2 563-7731 - info at rhr.israel.net


-- Buy Olive Oil - Break The Siege

It is now the season of olive picking in the West Bank. Thousands of villagers
all over Palestine make their living from selling olive oil.

The continuing siege and curfew prevent them from picking the oilves, selling
the oil, earn their living and live with dignity. This violation of basic
rights, as well as the settlers sabotaging the trees of the villagers and the
trees uprooting by the army, has nothing to do with security- just with
brutality and humiliation, that create bitterness and hatred for generations.

We invite you to take an action against the occupation and buy olive oil from
villagers in Deer-Istia, Ya+IBk-abed and Beta in the West Bank.

Jerican (about 17 liters) - 350 Nis.
Liter- 25 Nis.

For details contact Keren Assaf - 03-6911748 , 064-465650
mali_assaf at usa.net



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