Scarlett Johansson is apparently the new poster girl for Israel – or more accurately, for those who blindly cheer for it and have no criticism of the myriad human rights violations that come with its occupation. The over-exuberantly American “pro-Israel” advocacy group, The Israel Project, has appropriated the actress in its effort to advocate for Israel and combat any kind of boycott, BDS or not.

As everyone must know by now, Johansson is no longer the global ambassador of Oxfam, choosing instead to stick with her new contract as the face of SodaStream, an Israeli company with a factory in a West Bank settlement. As a result, she is now the darling of the “pro-Israel” movement, and as Noam Sheizaf pointed out, even those who oppose the settlements somehow found themselves aligning with the actress and with SodaStream.

And so The Israel Project, a U.S. non-profit known for its aggressive promotion of Israel, had a twitter campaign going Sunday, asking people to literally “Thank Scarlett” and linking to a page where you can sign a letter that reads: ”Dear Scarlett — Thank you for standing up for Israel, for peace, and for the truth. You told the anti-Israel bullies they were wrong. Your courage in the face of anti-Israel hate is inspiring. Thank you!”

Here are two of the tweets with well-orchestrated and invested photoshopped photos. The tattoo is really over the top. Is it even legal to put a fake tattoo on someone and campaign it around?

This is probably one of the most glaring examples of why “pro-Israel” has come to mean “pro-settlements” and “pro-occupation.”

Related:
5 things I learned from the Scarlett Johansson/SodaStream affair
Scarlett Johansson chooses SodaStream over Oxfam

Scarlett Johansson announced Wednesday that she is stepping down as “global ambassador” of Oxfam due to the backlash against her role as the new face of SodaStream, an Israeli company that operates a large factory in a West Bank settlement, the Associated Press has reported.

“Scarlett Johansson has respectfully decided to end her ambassador role with Oxfam after eight years,” read the statement by her publicist quoted in AP. “She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She is very proud of her accomplishments and fundraising efforts during her tenure with Oxfam.”

Oxfam, which issued a statement last week questioning and criticizing her SodaStream deal – but without making a decision regarding her position – issued a statement Thursday that it accepted the actress’ decision to step down and is grateful for her contributions. It added that her “role promoting the company SodaStream is incompatible with her role as an Oxfam Global Ambassador (emphasis mine),” and reiterated its opposition to any form of trade from Israeli settlements “which are illegal under international law.” According to Oxfam, businesses like SodaStream that operate in the settlements “further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support.”

Johansson’s statement is a bit muddled and misleading. She cites differences regarding BDS, despite the fact that Oxfam has never come out in support of it, nor has it taken specific position on the movement as a whole as far as I am aware. Rather, Oxfam is against doing business with settlements, which is equivalent to the positions of many Israelis and American Jews. For example, American Jewish columnist Peter Beinart supports a settlement boycott but is not an advocate of an academic boycott, nor a proponent of the BDS movement as a whole.

Johansson’s statement implies that she is choosing SodaStream over Oxfam because she is not an advocate of BDS. But this is an inaccurate and problematic statement, in which she seems to be trying get  off the hook under false pretenses. And because she fails to take a clear and specific stand on Israel’s nearly half-century-long military occupation and settlement project (considered illegal by the world), the message she send is that she is pro-occupation, or in the very least, that she is not anti-occupation. That’s a copout, especially considering  she has already shown through her political...

American actress Scarlett Johansson has become the center of controversy following the announcement that she is the new face of SodaStream, an Israeli company with a large factory in the West Bank.

Scarlett Johansson. (photo: Gabbot/FlickrCC)

SodaStream produces domestic carbonation machines for making sodas at home, and has a large factory in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, located inside Ma’ale Adumim, the third largest settlement in the occupied West Bank. (This fact is conspicuously absent from its Wikipedia page). The company has both Palestinian and Israeli employees working in its West Bank factory, branding itself as an environmentally friendly, ethical alternative for soda lovers who want to do away with bottles –  and that is what Scarlett Johansson claims she loves so much about SodaStream and why she is now its first-ever “brand ambassador.”

Johansson has been under severe scrutiny and media attention from anti-occupation activists and advocates of the BDS movement. Both the The New Yorker and NY Magazine covered the controversy, the latter with the funny, if forced headline: “Guilt-Free Seltzer or Blood Bubbles?”  Robert Mackey who writes The New York Times’ Lede Blog has an excellent, detailed report, if you want to read more details.

I reckon the enormous media attention has partly to do with that fact that she is major eye candy and websites love to put her face on their home pages, no less than SodaStream does. Here is a hilarious meme I saw going around that I cannot resist but share.

Johansson did not respond to the criticism until Friday, after Oxfam- the international aid and development NGO for which she also happens to be an ambassador since 2007 – came out with a statement challenging her involvement with SodaStream (but stopped short of calling on her to step down). According to their statement:

In her response, published on the Huffington Post and titled “Clearing the Air,” Johansson does not redeem herself nor indicate any plan to reconsider her contract with SodaStream. Instead, she reiterates the political line pushed by company CEO Daniel Birnbaum that SodaStream is a “fantastic sanctuary of coexistence and an example of peace in a region that is so troubled and so needs hope.”

Johansson writes that she supports “economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine.” Palestine? What Palestine is she talking about? “SodaStream is a company that...

After more than a month of continuous protests and actions, the African asylum seeker community in Israel declared Wednesday an ‘International day of solidarity with the African asylum seeker community in Israel.’

Marches and protests have been planned in Tel Aviv, as well as outside Israeli consulates and embassies and UN offices in major cities throughout North America and Europe. Letters will be delivered to Israeli ambassadors and UNHCR officials demanding Israel ceases its policy of imprisonment and recognize the community as refugees, and calling on the UN refugee agency to take immediate responsibility.

Read +972′s full coverage of African asylum seekers in Israel

The asylum seeker community, which numbers around 53,000 in Israel, is now in its fifth week of mass, popular protests to call attention to its plight as refugees, which began with marches from the Holot detention center and culminated in an unprecedented rally in Rabin Square. Although initially the community declared a general strike, they were forced to end it due to financial hardship. They also suspended protests for several days after former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died on January 11.

More than 30,000 thousands African asylum seekers participate in a protest calling to free all African refugees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and detention centers and calling for the recognition of all refugees rights, Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 5, 2014. The protest was the first event in a 3-day general strike of African asylum seekers in Israel, and is the biggest African refugees protest in Israel’s history. (photo: Activestills.org)

The following video compilation shows highlights from the last months’ activities:

According to a report in Haaretz, Israel has not granted refugee status to a single Eritrean or Sudanese national, as opposed to European countries, which have granted it to over 70 percent of asylum seekers from those two countries. The report also noted that out of 1,800...

The message couldn’t be any clearer. Not only is the political echelon of Israel’s military establishment squarely opposed to the U.S. peace initiative, it actually feels such efforts are wickedly detrimental to Jewish citizens.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is welcomed by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in Jerusalem on May 23, 2013. (State Dept Photo)

Moshe Ya’alon, the man charged with defending the State of Israel, was quoted by a major Israeli newspaper calling U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “obsessive and messianic” on Tuesday.

He followed that statement up by telling a group of high schoolers: “they say time is working against us. We should not be alarmed by all kinds of fear mongering,” the “they” apparently referring to Washington and the “fear mongering” to “the peace process” that Kerry is so damn obsessed with.

Read +972 Magazine’s full coverage of the diplomatic process

Ya’alon put the cherry on top: “The only thing that can ‘save us’ is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.”

This of course created a mini diplomatic and media storm, with U.S. State Department spokesperson reprimanding Ya’alon, calling his comments, “offensive and inappropriate, especially given all that the U.S. is doing to support Israel’s security needs.”

Netanyahu was obligated to do something to fix the disaster that one of his top ministers and closest party members caused. But his statement did not actually include any kind of apology, condemnation or really any remorse at all: “the US is our largest partner and the partnership is founded on shared values and interests,” Netanyahu said.

“Even when there are disagreements between us, they are always substantive and not personal. We work in full co-operation with Vice President [Joe] Biden and Secretary of State Kerry to advance peace and security in the region. We stand firm regarding our own interests, while promoting the important connection between our two countries.”

The prime minister basically chalked it up to “a disagreement” and one that is “not personal.”

The defense minister then issued an apology, except it didn’t come from him personally, but from his ministry: “The defense...

IDF soldiers do not use any crowd dispersal means to stop settlers throwing stones toward Palestinians in the West Bank village of Burin; several reportedly injured.

IDF stands by masked settlers in Burin (Photo: Munir Kadus, Yesh Din)

Over 20 masked settlers armed with slingshots invaded the West Bank village of Burin on Tuesday afternoon, a field worker from human rights organization Yesh Din reported.

The settlers, some of whom appear to be minors, hurled a large amount of rocks at Palestinian residents who were working on a house on the edge of the village. This area has been attacked by settlers many times in the past.

In the photo above, Israeli  soldiers can be seen standing with the masked settlers.

Masked Israeli settlers hurl stones toward Palestinians in the West Bank village of Burin, January 14, 2014. (Photo: Munir Kadus, Yesh Din)

In the first video, the soldiers appear to chase after the settlers throwing stones but make no attempt to arrest or detain them. They do not use of tear gas or other crowd control means to disperse the settlers, which is almost always the case when dealing with Palestinian stone throwers.

It took over an hour for army and Border Police forces to take control of the situation, according to Yesh Din. The Israeli authorities ordered the Palestinians to stop working at the site, which is inside the village and under Palestinian civil control (Area B). A number of Palestinians, including the cameraman, were lightly injured in the attack.

Just last week, in the nearby village of Qusra, a large group of violent settlers were caught by Palestinians, some of whom saved them by calling the IDF to come evacuate them.

It became clear after the event, as reported here by Yossi Gurvitz for Yesh Din, that the IDF actually identified the group as it descended toward the village to attack it, but did nothing to stop the...

African asylum seekers held a press conference Tuesday in south Tel Aviv, where they announced that they will continue their “Strike For Freedom” until further notice. Representatives of the community from Sudan, Eritrea and Central African Republic spoke in both Hebrew and English about why they have been on strike and holding protests, and outlined their demands.

African asylum seekers hold press conference in south Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Park, where they announce that they will continue striking. (photo: Activestills.org)

The speakers at the press conference all repeated several messages: that the African refugee community is made up of human beings fleeing slavery, danger and war; they are not scary, as the government likes to portray them; the protests are non-violent; there are no leaders or organizers, the entire community has decided together not to suffer any more, and has officially announced plans to continue the strike and protests until further notice.

Emanuel Yamane from Eritrea said the government, specifically Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, is lying. “No African refugee has received status or had their requests considered. Netanyahu says we are criminals, that we are illegal.” Mutasam Ali from Sudan emphasized that the protests are nonviolent and called on the government to directly speak with the community. “Israel is giving us a horrible choice: go to jail or face death. If we are part of the problem, we must be part of the solution.”

It should be noted that while the asylum claims of Eritrean and Sudanese nationals are not processed, others are, although the rate at which they are accepted is almost zero.

Click here for +972 Magazine’s complete coverage of asylum seekers in Israel

The speakers thanked the Israeli police for their help and cooperation over the last few days, adding that they are aware of the balagan (Hebrew for mess) they have caused in the various restaurants and hotels, whose workforce has been depleted as a result of the strike. They said they are aware that they constitute an integral part of the Israeli economy, have respect for their employers and appreciate those who have shown support for their struggle.

Mulgeta Tumuzgi from Eritrea, who had a message for the people of...

An Israeli Border Policeman was videotaped shooting Palestinian activist Manal Tamimi in the leg with a rubber-coated bullet from very close range in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh on Friday.

According to Manal’s husband Bilal Tamimi, who shot the video, and a report from the Palestine News Network, the border policeman was no more than a few meters from Manal when he shot her in her knee region, reportedly causing a fracture to her bone from the impact. Tamimi told +972 they also tried to break his camera.

In the video below you can see the unarmed Manal walking up to the armed Israeli forces when one of them shoots her from what appears to be a frighteningly close distance. It is unclear what threat she was posing that would warrant the use of firearms.

Israeli forces shot large amounts of tear gas, sound bombs, skunk water and rubber-coated bullets at protesters in the village, according to several reports. In addition to Manal, two journalists were lightly injured and a girl was taken to the hospital after being hit with skunk water. Several homes and other property were damaged as a result.

Earlier this month, the IDF closed an investigation into the killing of Mustafa Tamimi, who was shot in the face with a tear gas canister from only a few meters in 2011. In its decision to close the investigation into that deadly shooting, the army claimed that no regulations were breached during the incident and accepted the soldier’s testimony that he didn’t see the victim when shooting from the military jeep.

Ex-general overseeing implementation of bill says he has not received any instructions to halt legislation process.

The Prawer Plan may not be shelved after all. Just four days after the co-author of the proposed law, Benny Begin, announced the halting of the bill that would see the internal displacement of some 40,000 Bedouin in the Negev, the former IDF general who heads the unit which is to implement the “relocation” told Haaretz Monday that he has not received any instructions to shelve the plan and is continuing efforts towards its implementation. Major General (res.) Doron Almog added that Begin can claim whatever he wants, but that bill is still in the legislative process.

Also, according to Israel Radio, Minister of Agriculture Yair Shamir (son of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir) and a member of right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party is taking over responsibility for overseeing the Prawer plan from Benny Begin.

Read +972′s full coverage of the Prawer Plan

According to the Israeli NGO Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee indeed convened Monday to discuss how to proceed with the bill, despite the fact that schools and many public buildings were still closed in Jerusalem due to the snowstorm. MK Miri Regev, who heads the committee, corroborated what Almog said, insisting the government has not requested the bill be pulled.

Bimkom, who cooperated with Bedouin community leaders on developing an alternative plan to that of the government’s, maintains that the current plan is discriminatory and that the logical solution is recognition of Bedouin rights to the lands they currently live on, in accordance with Israel’s standard zoning regulations.

It is worth noting that when Benny Begin, who co-authored the bill, announced its shelving Thursday, he didn’t do so informally. Begin’s announcement was part of an official press conference held at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, where he stood at a podium with the insignia of the Prime Minister’s Office. This begs the question: where exactly is the Prime Minister’s Office in all this? Why has Netanyahu himself not weighed in on the issue? Is this some kind of game?

UPDATE, 6:05 P.M.: Haaretz reports that although the Prime Minister’s Office has remained mum since Begin announced the shelving of the plan – officials in the PMO confirmed Monday a statement attributed to Netanyahu, expressing the need to proceed with finding a solution...

Since the Middle East is normally a hot and dry place without much more than heat waves for meteorologists to report, it can be quite a big story when the weather turns stormy as it did this past weekend. The magnitude of snow, which spread across the region from Jerusalem to Cairo, Homs, Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Istanbul, Bethlehem and Hebron, was a rare sight to see.

Times of extreme weather like this remind me that Israel is – at least geographically – an integral part of the Middle East. That there were once open roads and railways that connected Damascus to Jerusalem, and buses (not even too long ago) that ran from Cairo to Tel Aviv.

When the weather is harsh, it is harsh for everyone in the region. The heavy rains and snow are not discriminatory; they don’t pick and choose where to fall. When it comes to relief efforts, of course, it’s another story. Not everyone has armored IDF vehicles assisting in rescue efforts, or even roofs over their heads.

Palestinians in the Jordan Valley whose homes were recently razed, Gazans whose homes and streets were flooded and who and weathered the storm without heating and cooking gas and the millions of Syrian refugees across the region living in tents – all felt the storm much worse.

But, for at least for a couple of days, the snow gave an illusion of equality in some places: in the West Bank, for example, on the segregated Shuhada Street in occupied Hebron.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian anti-occupation activist and coordinator of the Youth Against Settlements movement, posted on his Facebook page the following photos of Shuhada Street with this caption:

Shuhada Street in Hebron under snow, Dec 14, 2013 (Photo: Issa Amro)

Here’s what Shuhada looks like on a normal day:

Segrageted Shuhada street in Hebron, February 2012 (photo: Hithabrut-Tarabut)

The Bill for Arranging Bedouin Settlement in the Negev, more commonly known as the Prawer Plan, has been scrapped, former minister and drafter of the plan Benny Begin announced at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday (Haaretz report).

Palestinians and Bedouins from the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert in a mass solidarity demonstration in Rahat against the “Prawer Plan”, June 28, 2013. (Photo: Shiraz Grinbaum/Activestills.org)

The bill, first introduced in 2011, is a government plan to forcibly relocate some 40,000 Bedouin citizens living in dozens of “unrecognized” villages in Israel’s Negev desert, which the government has never agreed to recognize or provide services to. The plan has drawn heavy criticism from both Bedouin citizens and human rights groups. In recent months it has also been the source of wide-scale protests across Israel and Palestine. The police suppression and violence that took place at those protests grabbed the attention of mainstream Israeli media.

Read +972′s full coverage of the Prawer Plan

At a press conference held at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, Begin said: “Right and Left, Jews and Arabs, joined together – at the expense of many Bedouin who are in crisis – to rile things up to a boiling point for their own political gain.”

Begin condemned all those who opposed the bill, adding, “we did the best we could, but sometimes you must face reality.”

Begin said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted his recommendation to permanently terminate the current version of the bill, after citing the undeniable opposition from across the political spectrum.

While today’s news will at the very least delay the State’s plan to implement the largest displacement a Palestinian population since 1967, there is little reason for celebration. It it will only be the end of the current version, which  was in jeopardy mostly due to concerns from right-wing MKs that it was “too generous” to the Bedouin.  It is probable a revised bill will be drafted that will in all likelihood not be any better as far as Bedouin claims. There were many flaws to both the content and form of the bill, but by far the most blatant was the fact that no one from...

Israeli coalition leader Yariv Levin predicted that the cabinet will likely throw out the current version of the Prawer Plan, hours after former minister and co-architect of the plan Benny Begin clarified that he never said Bedouin supported the plan, as some Knesset members originally perceived.

“I wish to again make clear that contrary to what has been claimed in recent weeks, I didn’t tell anyone that the Bedouin agreed to my plan,” Begin was quoted as saying in Israeli media. “I couldn’t say that because I didn’t show them the plan. I didn’t present the bill that I revised to any segment of the public, including the Bedouin.”

Read +972′s full coverage of the Prawer Plan

Levin thus concluded that the bill would not stand a chance of passing second and third readings in the Knesset since the majority’s support for it rested on an assumption that the Bedouin themselves had largely agreed to the terms of the bill – which Begin revealed as totally false.

Just like that.

The bill has drawn criticism from Bedouin citizens and human rights groups since it was first introduced in 2011. In recent months it has been the source of wide-scale protests across Israel and Palestine that saw heavy police suppression, which grabbed the attention of mainstream Israeli media just recently.

And just like that, all of a sudden, the current version of the bill might be scrapped.

All because one Likudnik said what others, first and foremost the Bedouin, have been saying all along: the Bedouin do not support this plan – not least because they were never consulted or involved in its formulation, and never even privy to any of its content or details, as Begin has now confirmed.

Levin made it seem as if he was concerned with what they Bedouin actually think about the government plan (that has been hidden from members of Knesset, the Bedouin themselves and the public at large). If that were the case, he could have simply asked them long ago.

When Arab MKs expressed opposition to Prawer the name of their constituents, the Right dismissed them by saying they don’t represent the majority of Bedouin. When Israeli human rights groups and international bodies criticized the plan and offered alternative plans, they were ignored or shot down. When Bedouin themselves protested, the Right cast them aside as...

Two years later, Israel’s Military Advocate General rules no regulations were breached when a soldier fatally shot Mustafa Tamimi with tear gas from close range. This decision sends Israeli soldiers and officers the unequivocal message that, should they kill unarmed civilians, they will not be held accountable.

Mustafa Tamimi, a second before he was shot.  The weapon and tear gas canister are circled in red (Photo: Haim Scwarczenberg)

The Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG) announced Thursday that it has closed the investigation into the killing of Mustafa Tamimi, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Tamimi died almost exactly two years ago, on December 10, 2011, after being hit by a tear gas canister shot by IDF soldiers at close range during a demonstration in the village. He was critically injured at the protest, and died the next day at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.

According to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, the MAG claims the canister that killed Tamimi was fired “according to the relevant rules and regulations and did not involve any illegality.” It accepted the soldier’s claim that he didn’t see Tamimi when shooting from the military jeep and further relied on expert opinion that determined the soldier could not have seen Tamimi while shooting.

How could it possibly be in line with regulations for a soldier to fire any weapon without having a clear line of sight, especially during a protest?

According to B’Tselem, Israeli military orders officially forbid shooting tear gas canisters directly at people. While military officials regularly cite this position in response to B’Tselem’s queries, in practice such shooting continues unabated.

This decision follows another similarly infuriating decision in September to close the investigation into the April 2009 killing of Bassem Abu Rahme in Bil’in, who was also hit by tear gas canister. In that case, the MAG cited lack of evidence despite clear video footage of the shooting (which appears in the award-winning documentary “5 Broken Cameras“).

Just last week, a volunteer B’Tselem videographer had his camera rolling when an IDF officer shot him in the chest with a tear gas canister in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar. In...