Tel-Aviv, Jan. 24, 2003
[x] With drowsy elections ahead bad news streaming in
[1] B'Tselem Newspaper - January 23, 2002
[2] "Goal of the settlements-to undermine compromise" Peace Now announcement re weekly vigil
[3] Demo against the budget cuts of "the day after"
[4] Daniel Barenboim on UK and Israeli TV The famous Israeli pianist/conductor/peace activist
[5] Vanunu's parole hearing - decision on Feb. 16, 2003
[6] 'They kick the workers in the head until they bleed' Ruth Sinai in Ha'aretz
[x] With drowsy elections ahead bad news streaming in
While many in the peace movement reserve these days for the most drowsy elections ever, bad news is streaming in, the news which you probably know about - of the mass demolition of Palestinian buildings, among them 63 shops - feared, announced and protested, but destroyed they are.
And also news which finds its way only to few. Just to mention the latest:
* A friend in the Hebron area phoned today to tell us about Ahmed Zaraqat. Yesterday, after the shooting match in which three soldiers had been shot dead, the 27-year old Zaraqat was reported to be beaten to death by soldiers and border guards. Our source said that he saw it published on the Yediot internet site. We looked for it ourselves, but didn't find it on the Hebrew Y-net. Probably it appeared only in the Arabic version.
* From the same source: five houses destroyed in two days in the Hebron district, all of them as "punishment for the families of Palestinians who are in Israeli prison". Also destroyed: barns, chicken coops and waterholes. Furthermore: inhabitants of Farwar Refugee Camp were forbidden to go out; those who tried to get to Hebron Center for the Friday prayers via the fields were - when caught - dunked into a deep puddle left by the overwhelming recent rains.
* From Amer Abdelhadi, our Nablus contact, we received the following by email:
This morning, a group of students trying to leave the city of Nablus were held at Zawata army check point near Nablus.
Since the curfew was reinforced, many students found themselves stuck in their residence, usually without enough food and life necessities. Of course, they could not attend their lectures at Al Najah University.
After being held for over twelve hours in the cold and rain, the group of students, averaging 100, were taken to Shavey Shomron settlement by army jeeps and trucks. No one knows why they are held or for how long.
Amer Abdelhadi
Radio Tariq Al Mahabbeh
Nablus Under Siege
amerhadi@tmfm.net
[1] B'Tselem Newspaper - January 23, 2002
Dear Friends,
B'Tselem has just released another issue of its one-page newspaper, which presents individual stories and human rights analysis of recent events in
the Occupied Territories. Click on an article's headline for more details at B'Tselem Website.
In the previous issue we reported about the death by beating of 'Imran Abu Hamdiya in Hebron. This week's issue is dedicated to cases of beatings by
settlers, IDF soldiers and Border Police officers in the city.
The English version of the newspaper is available at:
The newspaper can be read with Acrobat Reader which
is available free of charge at:
Comments and suggestions on the newspaper are welcome at mail@btselem.org
[2] "Goal of the settlements-to undermine compromise" Peace Now announcement re weekly vigil
Leave the occupied territories - Make future for two
peoples
Hello, Friends of Peace Now in Jerusalem
The Jewish settlement in Hebron and other settlements in the occupied territories bring us back sights that we want to forget
Every day we witness plunder, destruction, sabotage, arson and murder carried out by Settlers of Hebron against the Palestinians
Last month many racist inscriptions were sprayed on house walls in Hebron like "Arabs - An inferior race" and "Arabs to the Incinerators "
The Government and the settlers of Hebron do everything possible to fuel hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, carrying out horrible acts in our name.
And this week we approached new records of evil.
Now, more than ever, it is clear that the only goal of the settlements is to undermine any compromise between the two peoples - to undermine any chance of stopping war.
Come to protest with us this Saturday, 25.1.02, at 20:00, in Paris Square as we demand:
Many speeches from our Saturday rallies have been
published in our website:
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Demos are continuing throughout the country - in Beersheva, Kfar Sava and Haifa. Friday and Saturday "Junctions" are also taking place. Updated details can be found on our internet site under the "activities" section:
www.peacenow.org.il
[3] Demo against the budget cuts of "the day after"
The day after
What will the day after the elections be like, the day after the cut-backs? Women from Nilhaz (women for a just society), Bat Shalom, Kol Haisha, and the Women Consultation Center have decided to demonstrate wearing sack clothes as a symbol of mourning on the cut backs and on the growing socio-economic gap.
We will not allow the capitalists to bankrupt us and our sisters. The demonstration will take place at 16:00, on Sunday, January 26, at the Pat Junction, Jerusalem.
[4] Daniel Barenboim on UK and Israeli TV The famous Israeli pianist/conductor/peace activist
With less than a week to go to the elections, it's well worth listening to Daniel Barenboim being interviewed by Fergal Keane on the BBC's Radio 4 programme 'Taking a Stand'.
The link's below - but if it doesn't work - look up the 21
January edition of Taking a Stand.
If only Barenboim was conductor of the peace process .... If only more of us, like Barenboim, would take a stand. ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/takingastand.shtml
[NB: Daniel Barenboim was also interviewed this week, in Hebrew, on Israeli TV Channel-3 where he pleaded for the obvious compromise between Israel and
Palestine.]
[5] Vanunu's parole hearing - decision on Feb. 16, 2003
Mordechai Vanunu appeared before the Parole Committee at Beersheba District Court on January 21, 2003. This hearing was in the framework of Vanunu's
appeal against the previous decision of the committee, to deny him early release for good behavior. The hearing was held in camera, with only Vanunu, his lawyer, the panel and representatives of security agencies present.
In the present hearing, Vanunu's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, cross-examined a representative of the Shin-Bet, whose testimony was initially deemed too secret for the lawyer to examine. From her statements and those of other representatives of the security establishment it appears, that despite previous hints that were made to Vanunu, the security establishment
still opposes his release.
Adv. Feldman spoke about Vanunu 11 1/2 years in solitary confinement, as a major reason to grant Vanunu his freedom now. Vanunu also spoke on his
own behalf.
After hearing these final testimonies, the Parole Committee concluded the hearing and stated, that it would announce its decision on February 16, 2003,
almost three weeks after Israel's general elections. Furthermore, the Committee stipulated, that if its decision was positive, Vanunu would not be released immediately, but would remain in prison for one week thereafter, to enable the State to appeal the decision.
[6] 'They kick the workers in the head until they bleed' Ruth Sinai in Ha'aretz
[Barbarism and ethnocentrism not only when it is about "the war against terrorism"]
Thursday, January 23, 2003 Shvat 20, 5763 Israel Time:
14:25 (GMT+2)
'They kick the workers in the head until they bleed'
Hundreds of Tsarfati's workers are housed in caravans in the Lod industrial zone. The workday begins at 6 A.M., and ends at 6 P.M. or later.
"Approximately one thousand Bulgarian men are living under inhumane conditions on construction sites in Israel. They are beaten, prevented from seeking medical help, and in the past year, have been shot at along the Israel-Palestinian border while they worked. Their passports are collected
as they step off the plane, and are returned to them two years later, when their contract expires."
These are the opening lines of an article appearing this week on the cover of "24 Hours" a widely distributed newspaper in Bulgaria. The article is based
on the first-person account of a Bulgarian construction worker who worked in Israel until the fall of 2002. The worker, who spoke anonymously,
had been recruited for work in Israel by Bacheisky, a company whose manager told the newspaper that he has sent over 2000 workers to Israel, and had never heard any complaints.
Bacheisky is a local agent for Yitzhak Tsarfati of Rishon Letzion, who owns a company that supplies construction and manpower services in Israel. Despite
his claim of never having heard complaints from workers sent to Israel, numerous complaints have been heard, although it seems as if everyone
who has heard them prefers to remain silent: the workers are usually too scared to go to the police or to the support organizations; the contractors are satisfied with the disciplined workers, whose diligence and professionalism has gained the Bulgarians a sterling reputation; and the Israeli and Bulgarian diplomats prefer to know as little as possible,
for their own reasons.
Serious charges of kidnapping, imprisonment and beating of four workers were submitted to the police over two-and-a-half years ago, but the file has
been gathering dust in the prosecutor's office.
"Our workers don't run away," assures the headline in a brochure put out by Tsarfati, in which he also offers contractors $5,000 in compensation for
every runaway. Tsarfati's workers have made a name for themselves. They do not run away from their employers, unlike Romanian and Chinese workers, who have broken their contracts.
Denia Sibos, an Israeli contracting firm, has had to contend with over 700 runaways, says Gideon Shavlovich, a project manager who is intimately familiar with the trade. Shavlovich is cited as a reference in the promotional brochure published by Tsarfati. He praises Tsarfati's workers, who not only show up for work every day, but, he says, also seem to be content with their lot. Shavlovich also wasted no time in telling Tsarfati about the Ha'aretz reporter who had been asking questions about him.
Ambushed by tough guys
The question is what methods does Tsarfati use to guarantee that his crews won't run away. "I have recently received disturbing reports about a manpower
contractor, Yitzhak Tsarfati of Rishon Letzion, who treats the workers that he brings from Bulgaria with severe violence. It has been alleged that he imposes a reign of terror that is intended to prevent them from running away from him..." wrote MK Yuri Stern (National Union-Yisrael Beitenu) this week to Police Major General Yaakov Ganot, who oversees immigration cases.
"The workers are too frightened to complain, partly because Mr. Tsarfati threatens to hurt their families in Bulgaria, where he has widespread
businesses and connections," writes Stern, a former chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Workers Committee. "According to the reports, there is severe
abuse - Bulgarian toughs beat workers with fists and blunt instruments, kicking their heads until they bleed, breaking ribs and arms and legs - and not only for attempting to run away. Workers that dared to complain about money missing from their salaries have also been beaten, as were workers
who refused to work on Saturday, or who were injured in work accidents and who sought to remain in Israel for medical treatment. It was alleged that the
homes of three workers in Bulgaria were burned down, and that the workers are required to present Mr. Tsarfati's agents in Bulgaria with a copy of the deeds to their homes, so that he can confiscate their property should they violate their contract with him."
Among the complaints that served as the basis for Stern's letter:
One worker said he had run away because his wages were lower than what he had been promised - $3 an hour instead of $4. He hid with an acquaintance in
Jaffa, but one evening four or five tough guys were waiting for him as he left a restaurant, and took him to the company's office in Rishon. "They
pushed me in and then started to hit me. My whole shirt was full of blood. My nose was bleeding. I didn't put up a fight. I was afraid they would dump me in a ditch, without any documents, and then how would anyone know who I was? What would they tell my friends in Bulgaria?"
One of the workers cried as he described the beatings he'd absorbed from a man named Christo. "He and another guy threw me into a caravan. Both of them
punched and kicked me for 10 minutes or so. I asked them to stop, I promised I wouldn't run away any more, but they wouldn't stop. Finally they left me alone. I rested for one day and then went back to work," the worker related. The black-and-blue marks from the beating the week before were still clearly visible on the upper half of his body.
One of the men spoke about some friends who had run away, acquired transit documents from the Bulgarian Embassy in place of the passports that had
been taken from them, but who were caught at the airport and beaten. "They waited a few days until the disfiguring marks faded, and then they put them on a plane," he said. "One of these fellows was hauled from site to site so that everyone would see the marks."
In May 2000, despite the promises, four workers ran away, claiming their actions were prompted by the violence against them. According to one man
involved in the affair, the four found refuge on a moshav where they stayed for three months, until Tsarfati's men discovered them, having put
pressure on their families in Bulgaria to divulge their whereabouts. In a complaint submitted to the Bat Yam police, it was alleged that the four were
brought to Tsarfati's office, where they were handcuffed to pipes in a shelter for several hours, and beaten. The Bat Yam police refuse to reveal
what their investigation turned up, saying only that the file had been transferred to the prosecutor.
All of the workers interviewed for this article stipulated that they would only talk on condition that their names would not be revealed. One consented
to have the physical signs of his beating photographed. In order to avoid his identification, Ha'aretz omitted descriptions of many of the instances. Two of the men asked that the car that transported them to the interview site wait outside their residence with its lights off. One worker said that he was beaten in public, on the grounds of his dormitory, in order that his friends would see, and be frightened. Others said they were beaten in the shower room of their dormitory.
"They're really poor wretches. The most terrifying methods are used against them. Their families are under threat," says a building supervisor in a large
construction firm.
The executive director of the Contractor's Association, Major General (res.) Yehuda Segev, says that after hearing rumors about the ostensible "terror"
used against the workers, he called in Tsarfati for a conversation, partly to ask him how it is that his workers do not run away. Tsarfati explained that it is worthwhile for them to work for him, as he builds apartments for the men in Bulgaria - he is the developer, and they are the builders. With the funds that they save from their work in Israel, they buy the apartments.
Yair Yitzhaki, a past commander in the Jerusalem police who now runs a Solel Boneh subsidiary that brings in construction workers from abroad, has also
heard rumors about Tsarfati. He says he decided not to work with Tsarfati in the future, although even in the past Solel Boneh has employed very few of Tsarfati's workers.
However, one man who had worked as a sales manager for Tsarfati had a slightly different explanation as to why nobody runs away from Tsarfati.
"The workers are ours. We supervise them. It's not worth it for them to run away, That is why I can issue a pledge to give a contractor $5,000 if they run away. We don't have any runaways," said the man.
A town enclosed by a wall
Hundreds of Tsarfati's 800 workers are housed in caravans in the Lod industrial zone, living in conditions that to the visitor from the outside seem dismal and crowded. The site is encompassed by a high concrete wall, with guards posted around the encampment in the evening hours. Workers on the
site report that 40 men share a single shower. In other sites in Israel, his workers say that they have no heating or air-conditioning, and anyone who
wants a television or satellite antenna must buy it himself. Workers report "penalties" of up to $150 that are imposed on anyone who refuses to
go to work because he doesn't feel well, or is late coming back from shopping or going out with friends. The workday begins at 6 A.M., and ends at 6
P.M. or later, with half an hour off for lunch. On days that they work until 9 P.M., the workers receive another quarter-hour break for dinner. On Fridays, they work only six hours.
The worker who was interviewed for the Bulgarian newspaper reported: "There were mice bigger than cats in the caravans, and lots of cockroaches. There
might have been 14 caravans on a single circuit breaker. They would use crowbars to smash any electric appliances that we plugged in. We would come back wet, and wouldn't be able to dry the clothes."
Yehuda Segev, of the Contractors' Association, dispatched a supervisory team to the dormitory site in Lod. He says the team found that the wages the
workers were receiving was fair, and that the living conditions in the camp in Lod were above average, with four or five men in a room, instead
of the more typical seven or eight.
A no less disturbing aspect of the affair is Tsarfati's connections with Emanuel Zisman, the man who served as Israeli ambassador to Bulgaria until
November 2002, as well as with his predecessor, David Cohen. Zisman and Cohen's names appear as character references in Tsarfati's brochure, along
with their cell phone numbers. Asked several months ago about Tsarfati, Zisman said, "We work with his company on a continuous and ongoing basis."
Nine months ago, Victor Shem-Tov, the former MK and chairman of the Association of Bulgarian Emigres in Israel, approached his friend Emanuel
Zisman, at the time Israeli's ambassador to Sofia. Shem- Tov had a few days earlier received a letter in which Chana Zohar, the director of Kav L'Oved, (the Worker's Hotline), stated that, "For a long time, we have been receiving reports of serious cases of harm done to Bulgarian workers" by employees of a Bulgarian company that works with the Tsarfati company. Shem-Tov enclosed her
letter in his letter to Zisman, and expressed his hope that the ambassador would relate to the allegations "with the proper attention."
Zisman, it seems, was not surprised by the request. "Tsarfati always denied the allegations against him, arguing that he was a good - and enlightened -
employer," Zisman said this week. He added that the allegations might have something to do with competition between the manpower companies that
import Bulgarian workers to Israel. Incidentally, this is the very argument offered by Tsarfati himself. In any case, Zisman told Shem-Tov that he
was unable to take any action in the matter because the man in question was an Israeli businessman, and that the legal authorities in Israel
would be a more suitable address.
Zisman and Tsarfati met when both were members of the Labor Party; both men subsequently joined the Third Way movement, which gave Zisman a seat in the
Knesset. Tsarfati says that he is now a member of the Likud, although he contributes to various Knesset members - Eli Ben-Menachem of Labor, and
Tzachi Hanegbi of Likud. Zisman says he has never received a contribution from Tsarfati.
After Zisman's appointment as ambassador to Sofia by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Tsarfati used to visit him often. He even boasted to associates that it was through his connections that Zisman received the posting. "He would sit in [Zisman's] office for hours, and run his business affairs from there," recalls an embassy staffer. Zisman says that Tsarfati did not sit in his room any more than in any other room of the building.
Tsarfati, the leading importer of Bulgarian manpower to Israel, was a popular guest at the embassy even before Zisman's arrival. Zisman's predecessor,
David Cohen, who allegedly enjoyed good relations with Tsarfati, is now a department head in the Foreign Ministry's MASHAV Center for International Cooperation. Cohen vehemently denies the claim, said the ministry's spokeswoman this week. A few months ago, when Cohen was asked about his supposed contacts with Tsarfati, he refused to respond. Based on a past request for information from Tsarfati, it became clear that Cohen had
informed him of the questions posed by Ha'aretz. Tsarfati said it was he who had advised Cohen not to respond.
Yesterday, Ha'aretz received a letter from Cohen's attorney, Aharon Assa, who asserted that the Cohen's name was used in Tsarfati's brochure without
his consent. He stated that his client "knows nothing about the Tsarfati's letter, and if this letter was sent, it was without his knowledge or
consent."
Zisman was asked this week about the rumors that Tsarfati had charged exorbitant sums from workers applying to work in Israel, who are required to have medical examinations, and that he shared the profits with Israeli officials. He replied that the matter had been investigated prior to his
arrival in Sofia by Foreign Ministry investigators. The ministry has refused to comment on the matter. Tsarfati said he won a Health Ministry tender to
provide the examinations through a private clinic in Sofia with which he was associated, and that the price, $75, was lower than that charged
in other countries.
Tsarfati: Violence was not used
Businessman Yitzhak Tsarfati denied the allegations that violence was employed against his workers. The loyalty of the workers, he claimed, did not stem from fear but from the good treatment they receive, fair wages - on time - and the comfortable living conditions he furnishes. He attributes
complaints of violence to libels propagated by his competitors, who aim to destroy his business. "It's a black mafia," he says, referring to a conspiracy ostensibly woven against him by party stalwarts from Shas, who are trying to gain control of the market for imported foreign workers.
According to Tsarfati, the police complaint against him concerned only one person who was beaten, and that the man was incited by a competing company
to lodge the complaint. Tsarfati confirms that he was arrested, along with some of his employees, and interrogated. He says that he was asked mainly about his business affairs abroad. He says that he was placed under arrest in the Tel Aviv Hilton, where he was held from Friday afternoon to
Sunday morning, at which time he was released. In a conversation held with a Ha'aretz reporter several months ago, however, Tsarfati said that he was held in the Abu Kabir lockup for 48 hours. According to a source highly familiar with the affair, Tsarfati was released on bail of NIS 1 million.
"It things are so bad for them, how do you explain that a lot of them come back to us for a second and a third time to work in Israel?" asks Tsarfati. One worker does in fact relate that this was his second time working for Tsarfati, but that on his last contract, in the mid-1990s, the situation was different. Although at the time he heard of a worker who was beaten, he never related any importance to it. "Back then, I had dignity," he says. "Now I have nothing."
Tsarfati feels that the plot against him has to do with jealousy over his success, which stems from the low rates he charges contractors for his workers - $4.85 an hour, instead of the $6 that his competitors charge - as well as the fact that he does not charge a fee from Bulgarians who want to
come to Israel, making it worthwhile for them to work for him. The Bulgarians "only" pay $520-$700 - about six average monthly salaries in Bulgaria - for
insurance, license fees, work clothes, airplane ticket, medical exams and other ancillary costs of the importer. This sum is indeed lower than that paid by Romanians and Chinese to come to Israel.
Solel Boneh, explains Tsarfati, was not happy with the low hourly rates he charges and demanded that he raise it to the market standard. "Why should I? I suffice with a profit of 30 cents an hour per worker. Why should I earn a dollar? This way, everyone is happy. The workers buy apartments in Bulgaria for $8,000 and are left with thousands of dollars in hand. I said the same thing to Solel Boneh when they asked me what my secret was, that
the workers did not run away from me."
-----
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You can protest against repeated imprisonment - with no end in sight - of draft resisters by signing at
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President Bush has agreed that war should be the very last resort. Let's hold him and his administration to those words, by signing: http://www.moveon.org/winwithoutwar/
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The Other Israel peace movement magazine pob 2542, Holon 58125, Israel; ph/fx: +972-3-5565804; for free sample hardcopy mailto: otherisr@actcom.co.il
From: B'Tselem
http://www.btselem.org/English/Newspaper/Latest.pdf
The Hebrew version is available at:
http://www.btselem.org/Hebrew/Newspaper/Latest.pdf
www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "Sylvia Piterman"
Stop occupation!
www.peacenow.org.il/Default.asp?Redirect==4&CategoryID=8
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From: Bat Shalom
-------forwarded message follows---------
From: "Jenny Levin"
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: rayna moss
By Ruth Sinai
https://www.angelfire.com/co3/alaqsaintifada/TOIarchive/ind
ex.html
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