World

West Bank Settlers Vote Although Outside of Sovereign Israel

Published

9 years ago

February 26, 2015

In this Jan. 22, 2013, file photo, an Israeli Jewish settler votes in the settlement of Elon Moreh in the West Bank, during legislative elections. With few exceptions, Israel does not allow absentee voting. But when the country goes to the polls next month, hundreds of thousands of West Bank settlers will be casting votes, even though they do not reside in sovereign Israeli territory. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

TIA GOLDENBERG, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — When Israelis go to the polls next month, tens of thousands of Jewish settlers in the West Bank will also be casting votes, even though they do not live on what is sovereign Israeli territory.

This exception in a country that doesn’t allow absentee voting for citizens living abroad is a telling reflection of Israel’s somewhat ambiguous and highly contentious claim to the territory, which has been under military occupation for almost a half century.

Over the years, Israel has cultivated a separate legal system there. The Palestinians are ultimately governed by Israeli military rule — while Israel’s own criminal and civilian laws apply to more than 350,000 Jewish settlers in a way they cannot apply to Israeli expats.

The settlers’ voting rights stem from Israel’s 1969 election law that stipulates “there will only be voting on Israeli land,” with exceptions made for diplomats and soldiers serving on naval vessels. The law was amended the following year — when the settlement movement was in its infancy — to allow voting by Israelis “whose address is listed in the population registry located in territory held by the Israel Defense Forces.”

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and began settling the territory soon after — first halfheartedly, then in greater waves, especially after the nationalist Likud first came to power in 1977. The Palestinians, backed by most of the international community, claim the area as part of a future independent state, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem.

Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza, a tiny coastal strip with 2 million Palestinians now ruled by Hamas militants. The West Bank is a more complex issue, full of Biblical history and strategic significance.

Israel never annexed the West Bank, both due to intense international opposition and the demographic complications of incorporating its more than 2 million Palestinians into Israel. Annexation would have meant giving the Palestinians in the West Bank citizenship and the right to vote in Israeli elections, threatening Israel’s Jewish majority. Israel proper today has some six million Jews and almost two million Israeli Arab citizens.

However, Israeli leaders have said they want to keep at least parts of the territory under a final peace deal with the Palestinians. And they have filled much of the area with Jewish communities — which does not normally occur in an area that is merely militarily occupied.

The settlers’ right to vote is considered a given by most Israelis, including many who oppose the settlement project. They also enlist for compulsory military service and pay taxes and even speeding tickets to Israeli authorities. Settlers can also serve in Israel’s parliament and hold office: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Parliament Speaker Yuli Edelstein, and Housing Minister Uri Ariel are examples.

The settlers are an organized and formidable electoral force. The hard-line Jewish Home party, aligned with the Jewish settler movement, is expected to emerge as one of the largest parties in parliament. Settlers are also a major factor in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

“The moment settlements were established in the West Bank, the Interior Ministry set up ballot boxes almost automatically. There was no real question of whether they live in disputed territories or not,” said Maoz Rosenthal, a professor of government and public policy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a college north of Tel Aviv.

The settlers are often seen as patriotic for their efforts in settling the biblical Land of Israel.

When Israel cannot depend on parliament to enforce laws on the settlers, it relies on military decrees. And when loopholes emerge, the Supreme Court steps in.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, are subject to Israeli military laws. They can only vote in elections held by the Palestinian Authority, which has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank. Challenged by the Islamic Hamas movement, the Palestinian Authority has kept postponing elections for years. Few Palestinians in annexed east Jerusalem have accepted Israeli citizenship, meaning that most do not vote.

Critics say the arrangement, having gone on so long, contradicts Israel’s view of itself as a democracy.

The Palestinians “have no way of voting and electing those people who are making decisions about their future,” said Sarit Michaeli, from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

The Palestinians and practically the entire international community view the settlements as illegal. Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, said “anything” settlers do in the territory is illegal, including voting, and their right to vote “proves the whole process is illegitimate.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Paul Hirschson, said that since Israel is the “legal authority” in the West Bank, it cannot subject its citizens living there to any other laws but its own.

Alan Baker, a former legal adviser at the Foreign Ministry, argued that since West Bank settlers “live there legitimately,” they can vote even though the territory has not been annexed.

The Israeli situation appears to be unique, though other military occupations have forged their own particular arrangements.

In northern Cyprus, which Turkey occupied in 1974, only dual nationals — mainland Turks who settled there and hold both citizenships — can vote in Turkish elections, whereas Turkish Cypriots cannot.

In the disputed territories of the Western Sahara, annexed by Morocco in 1975, all residents, whether original inhabitants or the hundreds of thousands of settlers brought in by the government, have the right to vote In Moroccan elections.

Dani Dayan, a leader of the Yesha settlers’ council, offered a view that critics of the occupation might agree with: that the Jewish settlers’ voting rights indicate that fundamentally, Israel has no intention of relinquishing the West Bank.

“Israel doesn’t see Judea and Samaria as occupied territories,” said Dayan, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Issues Statement on Deaths of Humanitarian Aid Volunteers in Gaza 

On April 2, a day after an Israeli airstrike erroneously killed seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a humanitarian organization delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, a statement was release by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12). “This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

Published

1 week ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

By California Black Media

“This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

The same day, it was confirmed by the organization that the humanitarian aid volunteers were killed in a strike carried out by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Prior to the incident, members of the team had been travelling in two armored vehicles marked with the WCF logo and they had been coordinating their movements with the IDF. The group had successfully delivered 10 tons of humanitarian food in a deconflicted zone when its convoy was struck.

“This is not only an attack against WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the direst situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, chief executive officer of World Central Kitchen.

The seven victims included a U.S. citizen as well as others from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Palestine.

Lee has been a vocal advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza and has supported actions by President Joe Biden to airdrop humanitarian aid in the area.

“Far too many civilians have lost their lives as a result of Benjamin Netanyahu’s reprehensible military offensive. The U.S. must join with our allies and demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire – it’s long overdue,” Lee said.

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Bay Area

Nigerian Bank Chief Killed in Helicopter Crash on Way to Superbowl XVIII

According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept., the crash occurred near Nipton, on the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve. The poor weather conditions — rain, wind and snow showers—may have contributed to the accident, although the investigation is not complete. All six aboard were killed. Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Herbert Wigwe with his wife, Chizoba Wigwe, left, and Abimbola Ogunbanjo, right. ENigeria Newspaper image.

By Post Staff

The co-founder of one of Nigeria’s largest banks died with his wife, son and three others when the helicopter transporting them from Palm Springs, Ca., to Boulder City, Nev. to attend the fifty-eighth SuperBowl at the stadium outside Las Vegas crashed on Feb. 9.

Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.

More recently, Wigwe was planning to open a banking service in Asia this year after making successful expansions to other parts of Africa, including South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu described Wigwe’s death as an ‘overwhelming tragedy.”

Oakland resident and Nigerian immigrant Kayode Gbadebo agrees with Tinubu. He met Wigwe in Nigeria but crossed paths with him in London in 2006. Wigwe, he said, “took risks.”

He was young and people thought he couldn’t do what he intended, which was not so much about money but community.

“He was more like Jesus in washing the feet of the poor– Wigwe was culturizing community,” Gbadebo said.

“There will never be another like him. This is a deep, deep loss” and he hopes everyone will eventually “be comforted.”

He was also disappointed that a replacement has already been named even before Wigwe is buried. “It is not reasonable. You don’t want a vacuum, but it’s” not fair to the family, Gbadebo observed.

Wigwe had also been working to solve the migration issues from African countries, believing that “investing in higher education was key to controlling mass migration, which “is destabilising countries across the world,” BBC News reported.

“We need to take a holistic approach to address global migration, starting with our traditional framework for international development,” Wigwe wrote.

To that end, according to BBC News, Wigwe was preparing to open Wigwe University in Niger, where he was from.

“The best place to limit migration is not in the middle of the Mediterranean or the English Channel or the Rio Grande. It is in the home countries that so many migrants are so desperate to leave,” he wrote, saying his university was an opportunity for him “to give back to society.”

Besides Wigwe and his wife, Chizoba Nwuba Wigwe, and one son, two crew members and Bimbo Ogunbanjo, former group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, were also killed in the crash.

According to Wikipedia, three other children survive Wigwe.

In his statement reported in People magazine, Tinubu described Wigwe as “a distinguished banker, humanitarian, and entrepreneur.”

“I pray for the peaceful repose of the departed and ask God Almighty to comfort the multitude of Nigerians who are grieving and the families of the deceased at this deeply agonizing moment,” the president said.

He added, “Their passing is an overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension.”

Besides feeling the tremendous loss, Gbadebo fears the disorder and greed that will follow. “It’s a mess,” he said.

People magazine, BBC News and Wikipedia were the sources for this report.

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Activism

No Valid Reason for Failing to Condemn Hamas’ Act of Terrorism

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes. They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.

Published

6 months ago

November 3, 2023

Oakland Post

iStock image.

By Joe W. Bowers Jr.

California Black Media

OPINION

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes.

They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.

The horrific surprise attack deserves universal and unequivocal condemnation. President Joe Biden called what Hamas did “an act of sheer evil” and pledged to defend the lives of Israelis and Jewish Americans.

He said, “Let there be no doubt. The United States has Israel’s back. We’ll make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have.”

Hamas killed approximately 1,400 people including 32 Americans. Citizens from 40 different countries including the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, and Thailand were killed or reported missing.

Hamas fighters breached Israel’s border defenses on the final day of Sukkot while soldiers were away due to the holiday and launched attacks on 22 towns outside the Gaza Strip. This security lapse has been described as a catastrophic failure of Israel’s intelligence agencies..

Hamas is an extremist Islamist militant organization that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007. It is recognized as an Iranian-backed terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union and has a long history of violence against Jews and Palestinians, the latter of whom they often use as human shields.

While there have been plenty of groups who have unequivocally condemned the massacres, there are a number who haven’t, including organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Black Alliance for Peace, Red Nation, and independent Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapters (excluding the national Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation).

The DSA San Francisco chapter put out a statement on Oct. 9 that said, “Socialists support the Palestinian people’s, and all people’s, right to resist and fight for their own liberation. This weekend’s events are no different.”

Student organizations at a number of universities and colleges in California signed a solidarity statement titled “Resistance Uprising in Gaza” from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The statement attributes the violence of the Hamas attack to what it refers to as Israeli apartheid and occupation.

The SJP statement written by Bears for Palestine at UC Berkeley says, “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, and we indisputably support the Uprising.” Essentially, these students are indirectly associating themselves with Hamas’ barbaric acts under the guise of “resistance.”

Signing the statement were 51 student organizations including those from Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego, CSU Sacramento, and USC.

A statement signed by 34 Harvard student organizations said, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

Many university leaders, where these students are enrolled, have been guilty of failing to unequivocally condemn Hamas and for inadequately addressing their students’ expressed support for Hamas.

Several Stanford faculty members, including three Nobel laureates, condemned Stanford’s administrators’ weak response to acts of terrorism and the expression of pro-Hamas sentiments by students on campus.

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It dismantled 21 Israeli settlements in the territory and handed them over to the Palestinian Authority.

The assault by Hamas on Oct. 7 was not an ordinary clash with Israel. Hamas’ actions resulted in the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.

While there are valid reasons for protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and a real reckoning with the Israeli government on its policies is long overdue, nothing justifies Hamas’ attack.

Israelis who were killed largely had nothing to do with the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza. Some of the victims weren’t even Israeli — they were just tourists.

The students blaming Israel for the atrocities committed by Hamas have faced criticism. Some groups have withdrawn their endorsements because of the backlash aimed at them. Others have doubled down on their activism. SJP held a “National Day of Resistance” on several campuses.

Several CEOs have asked Harvard to disclose a list of members from the organizations assigning responsibility to Israel to insure they do not hire any of their members. A Berkeley law professor has also urged firms not to hire his students who have publicly blamed Israel for the war.

This California Black Media report was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.