De Israelische Terreur 977

Why Palestinians have lost faith in Obama, By Donald Macintyre,
The Independent


For a man who is sometimes seen as the Palestinian politician
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-why-palestinians-have-lost-faith-in-obama-1802831.html> that the Israelis and
the Americans like best, Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad was in a
strikingly robust mood during a two-hour press conference in Ramallah
yesterday. While too polite to criticise the Obama administration, he
nevertheless had a clear message in the wake of the failure by the US to
persuade the Israeli government
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-why-palestinians-have-lost-faith-in-obama-1802831.html> of Benjamin Netanyahu
to grant a freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank as
a precursor to serious negotiations.

He suggested that the Palestinian leadership no longer had much interest
in a "process for the sake of a process" and he questioned what Mr
Netanyahu's "equivocal" endorsement of a Palestinian state really meant.


Mr Fayyad had been much struck by a report from the Jerusalem Centre for
Public Affairs, arguing that the 60 per cent of the West Bank controlled
by Israel and designated as Area C under the Oslo accords, including the
Jordan Valley, should not be handed over in any peace deal. If the
Israeli establishment was envisaging a "Mickey Mouse state" along these
lines, he said, then "it looks like it would not come close to what we
have in mind."

As a former senior official in the World Bank, Mr Fayyad does not speak
loosely. And it was hard to infer from what he said anything other than
that the moderate Palestinian leadership will not - at least if he has
his way - simply yield to US pressure for talks when Israel has
successfully rejected such pressure for a settlement freeze.

There are probably several reasons for the somewhat sharper line that is
emerging from Ramallah
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-why-palestinians-have-lost-faith-in-obama-1802831.html> . The mishandling of
the Goldstone report on the Gaza war - over which Palestinian diplomats
agreed, again under US pressure, to defer a vote at the UN Human Rights
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-why-palestinians-have-lost-faith-in-obama-1802831.html> Council - has provoked
harsh internal criticism.

Mr Fayyad was almost certainly not involved in the decision - diplomacy
is not his job - and indeed most of the criticism was directed at the
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-why-palestinians-have-lost-faith-in-obama-1802831.html> . But that decision -
now reversed - has marked a growing realisation within the West Bank
leadership that there may not be too much point in serially yielding to
US demands if the Palestinian Authority's own internal standing is
compromised as a result.

In the case of Mr Fayyad, there is another factor. He has a plan: a
blueprint, to be enacted over the next two years, for a Palestinian
state. He intends to go ahead with those preparations whether or not
negotiations progress.

His plan has credibility, if only because he has done a good deal -
praised by the World Bank - to improve the authority's financial
management, security forces, and provision of services to West Bank
residents.

Mr Fayyad is too intelligent to think that a mere blueprint can end the
occupation. But he would like to see the UN Security Council endorse it
- with US backing - as the basis of a resolution designed to bring the
end of conflict nearer. Whether the US would be prepared to back that is
open to question given its actions - or critics would say lack of them -
over the past few months.





Volvo providing armored buses for Israeli settlements
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 ,Adri Nieuwhof
http://www.therebel.org/business/middle_east/volvo_providing_armored_buses_for_israeli_settlements_2009100766529/

Merkavim's promotional video shows Israeli soldiers boarding an armored
bus.

Following reports published by The Electronic Intifada on the use of
Volvo equipment in the demolition of Palestinian houses in 2007, the
Volvo Group stated that it did not condone the use of its equipment for
such purposes. Claiming to have no control over the use of its products,
Volvo affirmed that its Code of Conduct decries unethical behavior. In
spite of these claims, The Electronic Intifada has found that through
its Volvo Buses branch, the Volvo Group is providing armored buses to
transport Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
(OPT).

Volvo Buses is co-owner of Merkavim Ltd., an Israeli transport
technology company. Another shareholder in the company is Mayer's Cars
and Trucks, the exclusive Israeli representative of companies from the
Volvo Group. According to Merkavim's website, the company was chosen by
Volvo as "its major body builder in the Middle East." However, the Who
Profits from the Occupation? project recently reported that Merkavim
manufactures an armored version of Volvo's Mars Defender bus for the
Israeli public transport company Egged. Egged uses the Mars Defender to
provide bus services for illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Merkavim proudly announced on its website that the Mars Defender offers
protection and ultimate comfort when traveling through war zones or
routes susceptible to terrorist attacks. In a promotional video the
armored bus is shown driving along Israel's wall in the West Bank and
crossing checkpoints

(http://www.merkavim.co.il/upload/defender.wmv, accessed 6 October). In
another video on Merkavim's homepage, Volvo's Senior Vice-President of
Business Region Europe, Lars Blom, declares that "Three core values that
are very important to us are quality, environmental care and safety. ...
[T]he products we are developing with Merkavim also deliver these three
core values plus reliability" (
http://www.merkavim.co.il/movies_library/merkavim.wmv, accessed 7
October 2009)

According to Merkavim, in the video promoting the bus, the Mars Defender
"looks like any other modern bus," but it is "the world's most armored
bus." Indeed, the company calls it "the bus that saves lives!" As the
narrator explains that the bus is "designed to safeguard the most
precious cargo," the camera pans over Israeli soldiers lining up to
board the bus and on patrol with their machine guns at the ready. The
video explains that Israel has "adapted its world renowned expertise in
military and defense technologies to deal with" the "growing threat" of
"terrorists and hostile forces." It adds that Merkavim "blends this
state of the art know-how with its own expertise" to produce the Mars
Defender. Built on a Volvo chassis, the Mars Defender's sides, front,
roof and floor are shielded with steel armored panels and it is fitted
with bullet- and explosion-proof armored glass windows as well as
"run-flat" tires. According to the company, these safety measures allow
the bus to withstand "grenades, car bombs, roadside charges and 7.62
caliber armor-piercing bullets." Merkavim claims that these features are
needed because "people trust this bus with their lives."

The 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on
Israel's wall in the West Bank confirmed that settlements violate
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 49 explicitly states
that the Occupying Power is not allowed to deport or transfer parts of
its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Bus services
with Volvo subsidiary's Mars Defender armored buses facilitate the
maintaining of illegal settlements in the OPT.

In its Code of Conduct, the Volvo Group commits itself to support and
respect the protection of human rights and to ensure that it is not
complicit in human rights abuses. However, by providing construction and
transportation equipment that facilitates Israel's occupation, the
company violates this Code of Conduct on a daily basis. With increasing
calls for boycott of and divestment from companies that support Israel's
occupation, Volvo Group can expect activists around the world to put
pressure on responsible investors to divest from the company and to call
on public bus companies not to buy Volvo buses.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in
Switzerland.