East Jerusalem under 'collective punishment'

[Jefferson23]

Jerusalem's most disenfranchised residents are being targeted in a 'draconian' crackdown, rights groups say.

Gregg Carlstrom Last updated: 17 Nov 2014

Jerusalem - After months of unrest, municipal officials in Jerusalem have begun a widespread crackdown on the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, enforcing the finest points of the law in what rights groups have dubbed an act of "collective punishment".

Small businesses have been shuttered for unpaid bills, or for lacking the proper licenses. Livestock have been confiscated. One resident of the Old City, Sa’eed Shaloudi, was even ordered to remove his home’s water heater because it was installed without permission.

Akram Jadallah, a resident of Beit Hanina in northeast Jerusalem, was two payments behind on his arnona, a bimonthly municipal tax levied on property owners here. Late payments are not uncommon in Israel; cities have the right to seize the property of delinquent landowners, but punishments are typically light - a small monthly fine for all but the worst offenders.

In East Jerusalem, though, residents say back taxes and insurance payments have been used as a pretext to seize dozens of cars. "They towed my car, and I couldn’t get it back until I paid the taxes and the towing fine," Jadallah said. "I don’t think they do this in Talpiot," a Jewish neighbourhood in the west.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/east-jerusalem-under-collective-punishment-2014111682924491709.html

[oberliner]

1. Gregg Carlstrom

[Jefferson23]

2. Thanks for the kick. n/t

[oberliner]

6. You are welcome

I hope Gregg's article gets read widely.

[Jefferson23]

3. Bahrain FM: Palestinian people will be collectively punished for J'lem attack

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed condemned the murderous attack at a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, saying, "Those who will pay for the murder of innocent people at a Jewish synagogue and the consequences of the crime is only the Palestinian people, who will be collectively punished and suffer more injustice and aggression."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4593489,00.html

[Igel]

4. He should understand this.

It's precisely the mindset that led to the killing of the Jews in the synagogue.

They were killed not for what they did; they were killed for what the killer perceived their "kind", their "collective," to have done.

I prefer "communal" punishment in this sense: It's the punishment by a community for crimes alleged to have been done by that community. It gets around the more common sense of "collective punishment" as punishment imposed upon the collective, not necessarily borne by individuals or a small subset of the collective.

It's an idea deeply rooted in tribal cultures, in which punishment is to even the scores between tribes or clans. That's justice, but not with a deeper, moral or karmic sense.

It's odd, however, that he rejects the idea of collective or communal punishment. More of the "the only reason this thing that happened is to be judged bad is that the consequences don't serve our interests" kind of thinking.

[Jefferson23]

5. Nah. He's aware of the history of the occupation..lots of lessons these last 50 some odd years. n/t