Israeli delegates get passionate response

Residents question Israeli government’s human rights record, policies | Visit sponsored by State Department, international leadership program

BY TAMMY GRUBB AND NATALIE RITCHIE, tgrubb@newsobserver.com, nritchie@newsobserver.com

Israeli delegates get passionate response — The News & Observer, April 2016 — The News & Observer · Raleigh, NC · April 2016

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

CHAPEL HILL An Israeli delegation that attended a Chapel Hill Town Council meeting Monday night to learn about local government in the U.S. got an earful on Israeli-Palestinian relations. Four members of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, stopped in Chapel Hill as part of an International Visitor Leadership Program tour sponsored by the U.S.

State Department that also includes stops in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The national program and the State Department chose Chapel Hill, said Leila Bekri, director of International Visitor Leadership Programs at Raleigh-based International Focus.

The Israeli group first visited the UNC School of Media and Journalism, before joining a three-hour meeting with the Town Council and about a dozen area residents. The delegation – Amir Ohana, Sharren Haskel, Meirav Ben-Ari and Itzik Shmuli – initially focused on municipal governance.

Passions flared, however, as residents challenged the visitors on Israeli government policies toward Palestinians.

Local groups Abrahamic Initiative on the Middle East and Jewish Voices for Peace initially opposed the meeting “because we see it is a normalization and legitimization of policies in the Israeli government that are oppressive and violate human rights,” said John Heinemeier, a retired Durham pastor.

The delegation included members of three political parties, including Likud, which has historically opposed statehood for Palestinians and supported settlements in areas seized by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. But the delegation’s party affiliations are irrelevant, said Miriam Thompson of the Abrahamic Initiative. “Are they working in the Knesset to end occupation?”

Thompson asked. “If they don’t come out in opposition they might as well be part of Likud.” Israel’s government has offered “very generous proposals” for peace, said Ohana, a Likud member. The two-state solution is “no solution,” he said. “In order to achieve peace we need to know that the other side both wants peace and has the political stability to maintain it,” he said.

“When I look at the other side, I’m sorry to say I don’t see it.” Israelis and Palestinians co-exist in settlements, finding “good friendship” and “true peace,” said Haskel, also a Likud member. “Everywhere there’s Israeli construction, you see development of Palestinian lives as well,” Haskel said.

The delegates stood united against the Boycott, Divest, Sanction movement and allegations of apartheid. “When you see people from abroad using the word ‘apartheid’ or calling for a boycott, you have the feeling that they don’t understand the complexity of the conflict,” said Shmuli, a member of the Zionist Union, a center-left political alliance.

How this transcription was made

Published at reduced precision. The slide label gave 2016-04-13; the page does not support a day, so the record carries only what can be shown. Adjudicated against the printed page: No masthead or folio, but the paper names itself twice in printed standing type. Under the byline "BY TAMMY GRUBB AND NATALIE RITCHIE" the page prints the reporters' addresses "tgrubb@newsobserver.com" and "nritchie@newsobserver.com", and at the foot of the la TWO THINGS HERE. First, the slide-54 pairing: the printed domain proves this image is the News & Observer clipping, which is Maria's SECOND slide-54 label on the FIRST image — the labels are reversed and the staged records already reflect it. Second, and this is the change: the staged string "The News and Observer" is

Context added by this archive

Local staff reporting, not wire, and it shows: the Israeli members are quoted and so are five Americans who disagree with them, by name, including a council member who walked out. Still no Palestinian voice — everyone arguing on behalf of Palestinians here is an American clergyman, activist, resident or councillor.

Worth pairing with the Californian/USA Today piece on the same slide, where a Palestinian does speak but the frame is her loyalty.

Cite this clipping

"Israeli delegates get passionate response," The News & Observer, April 2016. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2016-026. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2016-026