[GushShalom] NASA deal with Ariel settlement // Bidu
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Wed Apr 14 22:02:12 IDT 2004
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/
[] While the diplomats talk, NASA dealing with West Bank settlement.
N.B.: Call for protest
[] Bidu - Dorothy Naor reports & reflects on antiWall struggle
\\// //\\ \\// //\\ \\//
[] While the diplomats talk, NASA dealing with West Bank settlement.
N.B.: Call for protest
On the eve of the Bush-Sharon summit in which the future of the West Bank
settlements is at stake it turns out that a major agency of the United
States Government - the National Space and Aeronautics Agency, NASA - is
already on the way to granting both recognition and financial sustenance
to the settlement-city of Ariel, which constitutes a major focus of
Sharon's land-grabbing and and annexation program.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), at Pasadena, California has
expressed its interest in a new robotics program developed by researchers
at the "College of Judea and Samaria" in the Ariel settlement, for
incorporation into the planned 2009 robotic mission to Mars. In addition
to space exploration, these new robotic techniques are expected to have
terrestrial applications such as "Autonomous mobile robots performing
security and defence tasks, patrolling roads and hostile areas" (sic!).
As a matter of fact, in the settlers' own boastful press release on the
Ariel/NASA deal there is mention also of an unspecified role for two
other respectable institutions: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and the Tohoku University of Japan.
Gush Shalom sees settlements as the main obstacle on the way to peace
with the Palestinians.
We have many years campaigned for boycotting the products of settlements -
with a significant follow-up of tens of thousands of Israeli households.
We are very concerned at international institutions lending support and
legitimacy to settlements such as Ariel.
We call upon you to express your concern to these institutes, using
either the sample letter appearing below or your own text.
For further info you can look up the Ariel college's own announcement
http://www.yosh.ac.il/news/press.asp#43
as well as the Ma'ariv Online article in Hebrew
http://images.maariv.co.il/cache/cachearchive/08032004/ART663191.htmls
and in English
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=4215
and also in the "Marsnews" website
http://www.marsnews.com/newswire/technology/
-------------protests to be sent to:--------------
President George W. Bush <president at whitehouse.gov>
Fax: +1-202-456-2461
Secretary of State Colin Powell <secretaryofstate at USA.gov>
Fax: +1-202-261-8577
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
greicius at jpl.nasa.gov
feedback at photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov
Phone:+1-818- 354-9314
Fax: +1-818-393-4641
-------
NASA Headquarters Information Centre
(Washington, D.C).
Phone +1-202- 358-0000
Fax +1-202-358-3251
info-center at hq.nasa.gov
comments at hq.nasa.gov
"Elaine Bowman" <ebowman at hq.nasa.gov>
-------
More NASA addresses:
http://www.nasa.gov/about/speakers/index.html
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/ic/offices.html
Marsnews <feedback at marsnews.com>
copies to:
Gush Shalom <info at gush-shalom.org>
[for your convenience] here follow the collected emails:
To:
president at whitehouse.gov, secretaryofstate at USA.gov,
greicius at jpl.nasa.gov, feedback at photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov,
info-center at hq.nasa.gov, comments at hq.nasa.gov, ebowman at hq.nasa.gov,
feedback at marsnews.com
CC to: info at gush-shalom.org
-------
sample letter:
Dear Sir or Madam
The "College of Judea & Samaria", located in the Israeli settlement of
Ariel on the West Bank, recently announced the The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory which is part of NASA is interested in a "robotic self-
navigating vehicle" being developed by Prof. Zvi Shiller and Dr. Shraga
Shoval of that college. Reportedly, NASA is considering the purchase of
that system and its incorporation in future Mars missions launched by
NASA.
I am deeply concerned at these news. I would like to point out that this
"College of Judea & Samaria" is not an innocuous academic institution.
Rather, it is a political body, deliberately and specifically established
at a settlement which was created on confiscated Palestinian land in
flagrant violation of International Law, with the aim of "creating
accomplished facts" and preventing the establishment of a viable
Palestinian state. The "separation fence" which the government of Israel
plans to build around the Ariel settlement is at the centre of a hot
controversy, both inside Israel and internationally, and its legality is
presently under scrutiny at the International court in the Hague. The
creation and maintenance of the "College of Judea & Samaria" at Ariel is
aimed at lending legitimacy to this illegal settlement and making it
seem as "a university town". Any dealing with this college, and in
particular the large scale support of a research project carried out
there, is highly detrimental to the chances of peace in the Middle East.
Further, this specific robotic system has military applications as well
as scientific ones, including ones having directly to do with Israel's
rule over and oppression of the occupied Palestinian population
("patrolling of hostile areas"). It is certainly not in in the interest
of NASA or of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be implicated in
legitimizing and financing such a questionable project, and to have
future missions to Mars linked up with it.
Yours, ......
****
[] Bidu - Dorothy Naor reports & reflects on antiWall struggle
---------forwarded message follows--------
From: Dorothy Naor <dor_naor at netvision.net.il>
Date sent: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 18:47:11 +0200
“. . . some of the left-wing demonstrators, such as the brothers Yonatan
and Shai Polak, behave in a far more militant and provocative fashion
than what has been in display recently in the Anarchists Against the Wall
protests in Biddu. Yonatan Polak taunts the soldiers, telling them to
refuse orders related to the fence. The demonstrators mock and jeer the
soldiers, chanting out sexual innuendo and relying on other forms of
verbal provocation that has not been witnessed before in political
protests in the territories.” Arnon Regular, below
---------------------------------------------------
Dear All, After reading the piece below this morning, I hoped to get
Yonathan Pollak’s reaction to the report. But when I phoned him at about
11:30 AM, he hurriedly replied, “Dorothy, can’t talk they’re shooting
rubber bullets at us,” and hung up. The noon news reported that at Bidu,
rubber bullets hit a young Palestinian in the head and a demonstrator
(apparently either Israeli or international) in the leg. The newscaster
also stated that work on the site was continuing. This means that the
protest is also continuing, which in all likelihood means that the rubber
bullets are still flying. I just spoke to the Arnon Regular, the
reporter. He returned my call, after I left a message on his phone
requesting him to do so, since I had some questions I’d like to ask.
Having spoken to him, I have to rewrite some of the following. I’d
originally written, “Please, when you read the report below, remember
that the reporter, Arnon Regular, seldom (if ever) relates events that he
has witnessed first hand. He receives his reports primarily from the IOF
spokesperson. He might also speak by cell phone with demonstrators while
they are at an event, but is not himself at the place, and it is
important to know also the source of the videos he mentions. They are
likely to show one thing if photoed by an IOF photographer, another thing
if photoed by an activist.” But Regular by contrast insists that I was
wrong, that he has been to at least 4 (maybe more) of these
demonstrations. He also states that he has heard the Anarchists
“taunting” the soldiers. The question in my mind is what “taunting”
consists of to him. Regular claims (and I believe he means it) that he
sides with the demonstrators, but thinks that they should not provoke the
soldiers. On the other hand, he understands why they call to the
soldiers to put down their weapons, and accepts this. Most of our ½ hour
discussion was about the write-up below.
But I did make one request about reports in general regarding the
protests. I have been following these closely in all the Israeli
newspapers for the past month, and have found that almost always these
describe the demonstrations as being against the wall/fence. By so
doing, the media misleads readers (mainly Israelis), giving them the
wrong impression. Had construction of the wall/fence been on the 1948
Armistice line (the so-called green line, or pre June 1967 line) most
Palestinians would have accepted it without murmur, whatever they thought
of it. The demonstrations are not per se against the fence/wall, but
against the stealing of their lands, the uprooting of their trees, the
demolishing of their homes, etc etc etc. Regular acknowledged this, but
explained that he has also to get published, and that the focus therefore
has to be on the fence/wall. But he also promised to try to add a bit
more of the human element into his reports. If he does, it’s only a
small gain, but still, might be meaningful towards influencing public
opinion. We’ll see.
Till now, reports (including Regular’s) treat the protests as if they are
soccer games or sports contest between innocent soldiers and bands of
rebels were. But in reality the stakes are much higher: agricultural
lands and olive groves and water sources—the lands and trees, that is, of
the people trying to stop the destruction of their sources of income, and
of the sources of income of future generations. Palestinians, Israelis,
and Internationals, strive together in the name of right against the
might of bulldozers, IOF tear gas, tanks, rubber bullets, stun grenades,
and other arms. Would you not try to defend your home and property if
bulldozers came to destroy either the one or the other or both? Would
you not be passionate? If Yonathan and friends call to soldiers to lay
down their arms, to stop fighting innocent people and to stop destroying
their land, this is not wrong. The contrary is true. It is not wrong to
tell soldiers to side with right. They should not allow contractors to
destroy Bidu’s, Mas’ha’s, and all the other village’s lands???? On the
other hand, some of the protestors to get media attention might
intentionally ‘provoke,’ as Regular suggests. But if the media would
publish reports about nonviolent protest, that would not be a necessary.
Unfortunately, this does not normally ocur. Were there no violence on the
part of the military, Palestinian lands and trees would be lost without
anyone ever knowing about it. I have been writing this since 11:00, and
it is now 3:00. The 1:00 PM radio news reports that the Palestinian hit
by a rubber bullet in Bidu this AM was a 12 year old boy, hit in the head
by a rubber bullet, which fractured his skull. According to the same
report, 3 Israelis were lightly wounded, and, still the same report,
Israeli protestors relate that soldiers fired from less than 30 meters
away from their targets. The Hebrew Ha’aretz update relates that a
total of 12 demonstrators were injured today
Ha’aretz update:
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/415361.html
Hebrew:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/415353.html
--
Ongoing struggle
#Vanunu to be released April 21
[ links to the latest re the Donate Now "Instead of Flowers"
campaign / worldwide vigils etc. ]
New: Contact re activities in Israel <legalese at netvision.net.il >
#Against the Wall (contact addresses)
#Refusniks (prisoner addresses & links to constantly updated sites)
#Vanunu to be released April 21
Instead of sending flowers
Wordlwide campaign WELCOME VANUNU by donating a few dollars
(N.B.: online but ALSO otherwise) as a welcome gesture:
<http://www.vanunu.org/>
List of international vigils on day of Vanunu release (April 21):
http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/
http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk/
Online petition for the unconditional release of Vanunu
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/freemordechaivanunu/
For details about Free Vanunu vigils and activities in Israel,
Call: 02-6254530 or 051-368236
or email: legalese at netvision.net.il
#Against the Wall
ðåëçåú éåîéåîéú áëôøéí îàéîéí ò"é äçåîä ìúàí òí
àééáé 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il
àøé÷ 050-607034 info at rhr.israel.net
Day to day presence at villages threatened by route of wall.
Contact: Ivy Sichel 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il who set's up a
list for people who can come at short notice, or: Arik Asherman 050-
607034 info at rhr.israel.net
#Refusniks
Constantly-updated list of all presently jailed refusniks:
English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/
For the latest news about the five:
http://www.refuz.org.il/News.html
NB:
Letters of support to
Noam Bahat / Haggai Mattar / Matan Kaminer
AGAF BET
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P.O.B 13
Ramla
Israel
Adam Maor / Shimri Tzameret:
Hermon Prison
P.O.B 4011
KFAR M’RAR
Israel
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