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I reported here and at Mint Press News about a sleazy settler conspiracy against the entire Israeli human rights NGO community. This isn’t a garden variety hit job, this is a Reichstag fire type production by a militant settler propaganda outfit attempting to destroy the credibility Israeli activists.
Nasser Nawaj’aah (l.) with former PA prime minister Salam Fayyad
After a shady astroturf outfit, Ad Kan, infiltrated two spies into Ta’ayush, a South Hebron Hills support group for local Palestinian farmers, they created a hoax land deal which claimed (falsely) to sell the family land of a B’Tselem Palestinian activist, Nasser Nawaja’ah (here is a 972 article and NY Times op-ed he wrote). They lured Ezra Nawi, another Israeli activist into the net by urging him to report the illegal sale to the Palestinian Authority. They managed to capture him on tape claiming the land dealer would be arrested, tortured and executed by the Palestine Authority (this, despite the fact that the PA hasn’t executed anyone in a decade, let alone for selling land to settlers).
The spies were Yulia Tarantarova and Itzik Goldway. An Israeli reader of this blog knows something of the latter’s personal history and tells me that he is mentally unstable and has been in and out of institutions. The reader also reports that Uvdah knew this when it accepted him as its partner in this lurid project.
Imprisoned filmmaker-activist, Guy Butavia, held under gag
Ad Kan’s Aviram Zeevi, who appears to be the mastermind behind this project, was a senior official in the Internal Security Ministry until at least 2011. This ministry oversees the national police. It is no accident then, that Zeevi, using his police connections, has parlayed the Uvdah story into a series of criminal charges against first, Ezra Nawi, and now Guy Butavia and Nawaja’ah. Here is B’Tselem’s tweet supporting the latter:
This morning Israeli military forces came to South Hebron and arrested B’Tselem’s field worker, Nasser Nawaj’a. pic.twitter.com/HvnJCkqPTK
— B’Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) January 20, 2016
Haaretz reported today (though it couldn’t name him) that Butavia, a B’Tselem activist and filmmaker featured in the newsmagazine report, was arrested and charged as an “accomplice to manslaughter, conspiracy to commit murder, passing on information to a foreign agent, transporting a person without a legal entry permit into Israel, and use of drugs.” Butavia was also arrested by the same local West Bank police as he attempted to leave Israel from Ben Gurion Airport.
Think of the absurdity of this: two activists persecuted based on trumped-up charges. They attempt to leave Israel with no charges of any kind levelled against them. As they sit on the plane police run on board and grab them up. After apprehending the dangerous criminals, they attempt to devise charges to justify the arrest. And the judicial system, which always cooperates with its pals in the police, permit this farce by extending the detention of the suspects. Despite there being no crime, nor evidence of a crime.
Butavia’s case, along with Nawi’s and Nawaj’aah’s are under a security gag order and neither of their names may not be reported by Israeli media. Please sign this Jewish Voice for Peace petition demanding Nawi’s freedom. Below is Butavia’s short video documenting the grassroots activism of Ta’ayush:
The notion that someone can be arrested for murder which is based on a hoax is preposterous. The land dealer allegedly selling the land was not a land dealer. He would never have been arrested by anyone, except if police could arrest someone for impersonating a land dealer. That means there was no crime. Not only was the original conspiracy a hoax, the claims of the police are entirely fraudulent.
My Israeli security source tells me: “Nawi is being interrogated not by Shabak but by [local West Bank Israeli] police, and this means that Shabak itself doesn’t take too seriously the ‘security charges’ against him.”
My source also described the local West Bank Israeli police as “incompetent.”
So it appears what’s happening is that a cabal of settlers and their enablers within the police have concocted a conspiracy to bring down human rights NGOs. Though this is a freelance operation by Ad Kan and its settler network, surely Israel’s leadership, including the prime minister, are relishing this with glee. Bibi will permit the charade to go along as far as he can. The only thing that may stop the proceedings is outside parties calling a stop to it.
This case represents Israel’s collapse into not just farce, but totalitarian farce. The country isn’t run by leaders but by a bunch of Keystone Kops in kippot and peot (“sidecurls”). How can such a nation long endure? The stench of ridicule is almost unbearable.
Episodes like this only strengthen the case against Israel being made throughout the world. Now, when the EU tightens sanctions against Israel, it only has to point to pathology like this to support its reasoning. When pro-Palestine activists file suit against the U.S. Treasury to recapture the billions donated tax-free by American Jews to illegal settlements, they only have to point out this insanity to bolster their case.
Though I yearn for Israel’s transformation into a truly democratic state of all its citizens, and nuttiness like this draws this day closer; it’s still painful to watch as courageous activists like Nawi, Butavia and Nawaj’aah have to pay the price.
All I can say for Israel is the ultimate insult: Busha v’cherpah (“Shame”).
Silverstein has published Tikun Olam since 2003, It exposes the secrets of the Israeli national security state. He lives in Seattle, but his heart is in the east. He publishes regularly at Middle East Eye, the New Arab, and Jacobin Magazine. His work has also appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Truthout and other outlets.
The gag order in this case is particularly ridiculous. Each of the 3 arrests (for some reason spaced over a week and not on the same day), was publicized, and despite not mentioning the names stating that these were the “Uvda stars” made the matter quite obvious.
Nawi, it should be mentioned, did admit on tape to informing on other land sellers that were supposedly killed by the PA apparatus – he explicitly stated this (Zubur & Gazanga). Of course he may have been boasting, but this was said.
All 3 admitted on tape (Uvda) to reaching out to the PA security apparatus (as opposed to the PA police – which is actually a distinction which is relevant here).
As Israel (or to be precise the military commander (aluf merkaz) and the military “civilian affairs”) is the sovereign in area-C, any contact between Israelis and “palestinians” with PA security appartus (esp. when regarding activities in area C, and residents of area C be they Israeli or “palestinian”) is indeed contact with a foreign agent. Same as if an American would report on activities in America to the Mexican secret police or the Navajo Nation foreign espionage service.
Of course one can debate the morality of such an arrest, and the morality of other issues regarding the Muslim residents of area C, but the actual contact with a known PA security apparatus by a civilian is quite a serious offense. Same as an American talking to the KGB knowingly.
“Same as an American talking to the KGB knowingly.” Surely not quite the same – I thought that area C was part of Palestine, but was placed under Israeli military control temporarily, pending full implementation of the Oslo Accords. Your remark is merely an assertion (no doubt correct) that Palestinians have no “Partner for Peace”
The agreement by Mahmoud Abbas, acting as the agent for Yasser Arafat, to legitimize Israel’s presence in the West Bank (Area C), a violation of international law that prohibits such “giveaways” to an occupier, was an incomparable act of betrayal by the Palestinian “leadership.” One of its stipulations was that the Palestinian Authority, established under the agreement, would suppress further resistance to Israeli occupation and under Abbas it has faithfully done so.
Israel, in turn, promised the Palestinians nothing but control over their garbage pickups and other services that Israel had heretofore been responsible for and transferred the larger economic responsibilities for maintaining the occupation to the US and the EU. It was a brilliant slight of hand from Rabin but one that he could obviously not boast about.
In the end,Oslo was a second Nakba for the Palestinians. Not only did it put an end to the first Intifada it led to the situation that we see day, as bad as anything since 1948.
“Same as if an American would report on activities in America to the Mexican secret police or the Navajo Nation foreign espionage service. ”
Except that Mexico isn’t occupied territory and the U.S. doesn’t hold all 120 million Mexicans in makeshift ghettos and concentration camps. If you want a better analogy, righteous gentiles who helped Jews during WW2 is a better one (though not perfect). Nawi is by no means a saint but he is part of a group that does righteous service to help the Palestinians against Israeli-settler atrocities, and this is why he and others in this group are being targeted.
Obviously you can claim that the occupation of the west bank (or more broadly just about any territory) is unjust and evil.
[Area-C is still under Israeli sovereignty (Some of it was supposedly supposed to go over to the PA in the final status of the defunct Oslo accords (defunct in the sense that the accords have been breached all over the place by all parties, and were in any event supposed to reach final status by 4th May 1999)). Just or unjust, this is still the case.]
However given that a state occupies some stretch of territory, prevention of activities and contacts with foreign agents, within that territory is a practice that just about every state does in defense of it’s hold of the territory.
I fail to see how Nawi is a righteous jew/gentile in regards to turning in land sellers to be tortured and executed (something he at least boasted about on tape) – preventing them from realizing financial gain from their property. In terms of other activities he may be righteous, of course.
Robert Durst (who was taped whispering to himself in a bathroom – “There it is, you’re caught. What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”) was arrested for much less –
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31897350
The occupation is illegal under international law, including area C (until the Palestinians relinquish parts of it as part of a broad deal, which they haven’t). Therefore, Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the West Bank are illegal, including coercion of Palestinians to “sell” their homes to settlers, which is illegal under Palestinian law (and punishable by death, though there are no recent reports of any Palestinian being executed by Palestinian forces).
Nawi is analogous to a righteous gentile in that he helps Palestinians to resist the illegal occupation of their land. Furthermore, many righteous gentiles paid with their life or freedom for their actions, which strengthens the analogy to Nawi. His boasting on tape of handing land sellers to the PA seems to be more joking than anything. At any rate, you can’t convict anyone based on hearsay.
Or can you? I guess in today’s Israel anything is possible…
Yeah, but “lepxii” probably doesn’t give a damn about international law, he/she puts Palestinians in quotation marks, which is a clear sign that we’re dealing with a fascist denier.
@ Since the alleged lepxii is engaging in Palestine denial, I’m going to refer to him in the same manner. Did you know that “lepxii” doesn’t actually exist, but is an invention of Zionism? BTW if he puts Palestine in quotes or uses a small “p” to spell it this constitutes Palestine denail, a major comment rule violation. He will be banned if that happens.
I missed the quotation marks on the word Palestinian. Had I seen that before I wouldn’t have bothered even replying to this racist.
@ lepxii:
First, the vast majority of Palestinian land “sold” to settlers is not the land dealers to sell. Either they or the settler purchasers create fraudulent deeds and bills of sale and the Palestinian middle man serves as a convenient front. He doesn’t own the land. He pretends to.
Second, there was no land dealer in this case, Palestinian or otherwise. It was a fraud. There was someone claiming to be a land seller. He didn’t own land, didn’t have a deed. NOthing. How many times do you have to tell these idiots that the entire thing was a fraud from beginning to end?
Israelis and “palestinians”
Hmm, a telling choice of terminology…
You call the PA security appartus a ‘foreign agent’, but it has been pointed out by many already that this security apparatus works closely with the Israeli security appartus in preventing attacks on Israeli’s. How about that? Should the entire Israeli security appartus be arrested?
Government agents (in Israel and elsewhere) are allowed to contact foreign agents if sanctioned by their superiors.
CIA and KGB agents met in various (officially sanctioned) contexts even in the height of the cold war. US civilians who were in contact with the KGB (or other services) were prosecuted.
The same is true in relation to friendly countries (e.g. US and Israel, or US and Germany) Whose foreign agents often cooperate and meet (in an officially sanctioned manner). Yet citizens are typically strictly forbidden from maintaining contacts with foreign espionage agents even if they are friendly…. As friends often spy on one another.
@ lepxii: Are you arguing that Cold War enemies Russia and the U.S. are equivalent to Israel and the PA? Where is the Cold War between Israel and the PA? Where are the nukes the PA is stockpiling as Russia did for a possible war with the U.S. Not to mention the only reason U.S. citizens were prosecuted was for stealing and selling military secrets to the Soviets.
Nawi did none of this. He was actually alerting the PA to a violation of a Palestinian law.
The PA’s relation to Israel is not that of a “foreign espionage agents.” Shabak & Aman agents talk to the same PA agents as Nawi did.
You are done in this thread. Comment elsewhere if you wish. But not here.
“Butavia was also arrested by the same local West Bank police as he attempted to leave Israel from Ben Gurion Airport.”?? Not sure what this sentence even means? If there is a special secret polive unit called “local West Bank police” it deserves a new article. Otherwise, what on earth will they do in Ben-Gurion.
Do you have a source that supports “As they sit on the plane police run on board and grab them up.”??? You made the same claim about Nawi, that he was already on the plane, but no one else wrote anything of that sort.
You keep repeating the land dealer wanted to sell Nawaja’ah’s family land. It isn’t in the original recordings or Uvda episode. What is your source?
@ Arik: I refuse to call the local police unit by its official name. Instead I call them West Bank or “settler police.” You know perfectly well what the sentence meant. Don’t be disingenuous. It only annoys me.
That is a lie. Nawi had already passed through Border Control and was sitting on the plane. This was in an Israeli article I read. If you believe this claim is false disprove it.
Apparently, I have many more and better sources than you. I am in touch with scores of activists and press officers for NGOs. I am in touch with defense lawyers as well who have first hand knowledge that they offer me. This is how I learned of Nasser’s connection to the supposed land deal.
“An Israeli reader of this blog knows something of the latter’ personal history and tells me that he is mentally unstable and has been in and out of institutions”
Sounds like hearsay. Did you verify these claims with any of the aforementioned institutions?
Wow you were able to spin things around in a very talented way
no one lured Nawi to nothing
Nawi, as everyone can see in Ilana Dayan’s “Uvda” ( Israel’s 60 min) bragged about reveling the identity of Palestinians land traders who trade with Israeli Jews (an act punished by death in the Palestinian Authority) knowing those land traders are killed at the end of the process.
You either don’t speak Hebrew, or chose no to tell the truth
@Jor: No Palestinian has been executed since 2005 & none for selling land to settlers even farther back. No land trader was killed, despite the fake narrative you invented.
First i didn’t invent any narrative, i simply stated that your description of the events is wrong.
Second, Since Nawi (a convicted pedophile mind you) confessed to leading people to their death, and you claim that no one died, what you are saying is that Nawi lied ?
Besides you are worng. There is a list of people vanished by the Palestinian Authority, among the, land traders. You can listen to this radio interview with Omri Esenhaim from Uvda at time mark 12:45 he tells the story of Abu-Halil, a Palestinian land dealer Nawi was very proud he leaked his name to the PA. Abu-Halil according to Essenhaim is dead.
https://soundcloud.com/telavivradio/15-2016a-3
@ Jor: Everyone welcome our new hasbara arrival from Ben Gurion’s arrival terminal. Jor comes to us from Hasbara Central. Everyone say, “Hi Jor.” How long will he last? Maybe he even already has his departure date & plane ticket?
Nawi’s past sexual history is irrelevant to this matter. Don’t bring it up again.
I don’t know whether Nawi lied. I’m not his interrogator, his psychologist, nor his rabbi-confessor. I don’t know what was going through his head when he spoke. I only know what the indisputable facts are: Nawi never reported anyone, no one was ever tortured, let alone killed. Was Nawi idly boasting? Possibly. But it doesn’t matter whether he lied. All that matters is what really happened (or didn’t happen in this case). BTW, you can’t charge someone with lying on an undercover video. Especially when their lie concerns confessing to a crime they didn’t commit. But of course in Israel’s Brave New World of settler fascism, anything is possible.
I’ve heard the story you claim. First, the alleged land dealer was a PA security agent. He wasn’t executed formally. He was allegedly thrown from a building a killed. No one knows whether he was killed because of his role as a spy/agent or because of other offenses he committed. There was never a sentence of death against him. Nor did Nawi’s alleged leaking of his name (if that ever happened) have any role in his death.
You are done in this thread. Move on to another. But do not comment further here.
No Problem. I’m done on this thread.
Just one question, your comment rules prohibit story telling without any links to prove the claim. Yet i see no link to the Abu-Halil fairy tail you brought up.
In short you get about 5 Pinocchio for the story (though 10 for creativity), Not as good as Hilary “I didn’t have any technical relationship with that server” but not too far behind.
as for your Hasbrah Central soliloquy, care to explain ?.
@ Jor: I wasn’t referring to Abu-Khalil. I was referring to another hasbara commenter here who noted a PA security agent also accused of brokering land deals was apparently thrown from a building in which he was detained. That too was offered as proof Nawi “killed” Palestinians. Which is patently false unless Nawi somehow snuck into the building and pushed him to his death.
Ezra Nawi’s attorney, who is an ex Shabak agent btw, notes that Abu Khalil was not “killed” or “executed” by anyone. Rather he died in bed of an illness. It even says so on his death certificate. I’m sure your pals at Hasbara Central can dig it up if they wished. But they don’t wish because they can still milk poison from this fake story.
Oh & btw, Abu Khalil was trying to sell land that belonged to another member of his family and to which he had no title. He was reported to the PA by the cousin who did own the land. A classic settler scam. Recruit a mysterious Palestinian middle-man, or a Jew pretending to be Palestinian, get him to sign documents saying he’s selling land that belongs to him. The buyer is a settler or agent for settlers. He pays at or below market value because the Palestinian is selling something that doesn’t even belong to him. Then settlers move in claiming they are the new owners. This, or variations of this ruse have been tried many times before.
BTW, this settler scam only reinforces anti-Semitic tropes portraying Jews as cheats, thieves and tricksters. In this particular case, the stereotype is true.
Mr. Silverstein
It seems that you flip from one story to the next, faster then Hillary Clinton flips between a democrat to a progressive.
Now it’s not Abu-Khalil it’s someone else ? and where is the link to prove your claim ?
Nawi’s attorney is Leah Tsemel, who never worked for the Shabak.
http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/law/1.2827083
@ Jor: Which only proves that I read Israeli press more widely than you do.
No, Nawi has more than one attorney. Eytan Peleg is also his attorney. You should be able to turn to Hasbara Central to confirm his former employment.
The other story isn’t important compared to your false claim that Nawi got Abu Khalil killed. I note you haven’t disputed that.
BTW, Hillary Clinton is not a progressive. Don’t try to bloviate about U.S. politics.
It’s wrong to attack these leftist groups. But, is may be too soon to call these attacks a well orchestrated witch hunt.
But if the charges against these guys were merely trumped up by rightists nudnikim, then why flee the country?
Flight is often a strong indicia of guilt.
It is just as often an indication of healthy self preservation when faced with persecution by an authoritarian police state.
By the way; You are pretty quick to believe in their quilt, and cast doubt on them yourself.
Are you going to ask your donation to B’Tselem back now? (Hahaha!! That little bit you posted still cracks me up! You really overdid it there. A persona has to stay believable for it to work, you know.)
For an avid supporter of “these leftist groups”, you speak with a delicious distance about them.
What if I had been claiming to be a great supporter of Geert Wilders party, Front National, Pegida etc. Would I then, at the first opportunity, cast doubt on members of these organizations and refer to them as “these rightist groups”?
Give it up. Time for (yet) a new identity?
Elisabeth
Love your sarcastic comments.
@ Barbar:
Tell that to the gazelle fleeing the jaws of the lion on the hunt!
As for why they left the country, the last I checked it was the right of any citizen to travel from their country as long as they were not charged with a crime or wanted for other legal purpose. These two individuals were no different than you or I. Should I ask you to check with settler police every time you go on vacation? Further, as to why they might have wished to leave–perhaps the thought of spending the next 2 yrs fighting bogus charges & racking up tens or hundreds of thousands in legal fees didn’t appeal to them. Would it appeal to you?
I do so love how flippant the hasbarati are with other people’s bank accounts and freedom. You have an opinion for every occasion having nothing to do with anything you really know anything about. Don’t you?
‘The lion on the hunt’.
Aviram Zeevi, is a lion?
I never heard of the guy until you brought him up.
@ Barbar: Aviram Zeevi along with the settler police and state prosecutor. Have you ever faced criminal charges? Do you understand how serious this is? No you don’t. Stop being an a** for just a second, would you?!
These guys were arrested at the airport. They bought tickets. They knew that the police would be looking for them.
And yes, I have faced criminal charges, and I didn’t flee.
@ Barbar: You’re a liar. Since legal proceedings are publicly accessible, you should be able to provide the link to your case. If you don’t, I’ll know you’re a liar. You no more faced criminal charges than you make an annual donation to B’Tselem.
But if you did face criminal charges, it’s remarkable that someone accused of criminal conduct is condemning innocent men like Nawi, Butavia & Nawaj’ah. The idea of taking the word of an accused criminal seriously under such circumstances is laughable.
There is no reason an ordinary citizen may not buy airline tickets. Or should every Israeli citizen who buys them have to get special permission to leave the country? Is buying an airline ticket an admission of guilt? In which legal system? North Korea’s?
In this scenario Israel would become precisely the sort of police state people like you claim to decry.
@Richard
@ Barbar: You’re a liar. You no more faced criminal charges than you make an annual donation to B’Tselem.
No. I am not a liar.
(I feel like we’re having a schoolyard fight)
I was arrested in Fairlawn, New Jersey and charged with Criminal Trespass. This criminal charge was reduced to a violation. The matter was adjudicated and I paid a fine.
I didn’t say I donate annually. I said that I donated last month and I can prove, which is more than you can prove that you donated this year.
@ Barbar: If you can prove you made a donation to B’Tselem, then do so. If you don’t, then you’re not to be believed.
BTW, no American would write “Fairlawn, New Jersey” as you have. So I’m not making any judgment about your claim of facing a criminal charge. But you’re certainly not from NJ or possibly even American.
@Richard
Dec 26 2015
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Richard. Who are you to me that I should lie to you? Really.
Now that’s out of the way, please show us how much you donated to B’Tselem last year.
@ Elisabeth: Did Barbar really claim to have donated to B’Tselem?? If so, I’d love to see a receipt for his donation.
@Richard
Care to wager that I donated more than you did?
@ Barbar: Yup, I’ll wager that I’ve donated far more to Israeli human rights NGOs than you have.
Care to tell me where you came from all of a sudden?
Posting here daily on each and every article Richard writes ? Don’t tell me you just ‘discovered Richard’s site recently’. Come up with something convincing please.
I have been here since december 2008, when I could not sleep one night out of desperation over Operation Cast Lead, and stumbled upon Richard’s site. I have read comments here for years, and both your comments and your comment pattern are those of a hasbarist.
You are not a supporter of Israeli Human Rights’ NGO’s. Quit your pretenses, and just post as what you really are. Isn’t that enough?
Yup, and was a ‘yearly donation’ too, no less! (And he called upon everyone to do the same.)
I find it remarkable that Barbar appeared out of nothing with daily comments, right after Granny Flemstein and her daily comments disappeared. (When no-one believed she was a woman anymore, let alone an ‘old lady’.) I joked that Granny would return as a ‘progressive’, or in some other creative disguise, and there comes Barbar, who “supports B’Tselem, Machsom Watch, Adalah and Breaking the Silence”, but whose comments proclaim something quite different…
@ Elisabeth: Barbar is like all those earlier hasbara commenters whose comments began: “As an Israeli leftist…” It must be part of the hasbara handbook to claim to be a leftist. Actually, its a riff on Frank Luntz’s hasbara handbook.
And here are the details of one of my latest donations to a good cause :-).
Dec 25 2015
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