Thirty ministers include Prez, PM

Wijeyadasa on 19-A

By Shamindra Ferdinando-December 31, 2018, 12:15 pm 

UNP lawmaker Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, yesterday said that in terms of the 19th  Amendment to the Constitution the number of ministers, including the President and Prime Minister couldn’t exceed 30.

In accordance with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, a larger Cabinet was possible only under a properly constituted national government, the Colombo District MP said.

Parliament enacted 19th  Amendment in late April 2015.

Rajapakse stressed that there was absolutely no ambiguity as regards the relevant section that dealt with the number of cabinet ministers and non-cabinet ministers in case a national government couldn’t be formed.

The President’s Counsel said so when The Island sought his assertion as regards recent declarations that 30 MPs could be appointed to the cabinet in addition to the President and the Prime Minister.

Responding to a query, the former justice minister who played a key role in ensuring the passage of the 19th Amendment said that the claim that the UNP could form a national government with a single SLMC member was a joke. Of the seven SLMC MPs six were elected and appointed on the UNP list whereas only one entered parliament on the SLMC ticket.

Rajapakse recalled how UPFA MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara had, at the Committee Stage, ruled out their support unless the government interpreted national government. Rajapakse said that of the 144 amendments moved by the Opposition only two were accepted. In addition to those amendments, MP Nanayakkara sought an interpretation of national government, Rajapakse said, adding that Parliament had been told national government meant formation of an administration by the party securing the largest block of seats and the party with the second highest number of seats.

However, what had been put to the Speaker for approval was very much different from what had been said in parliament, Rajapakse said. The MP pointed out that the difference was instead of the union of party with the highest number of seats and the second highest being the national government, the gazette referred to the party with the highest number of seats and other parties in parliament as the national government.

The section in question is 46 of the 19th Amendment.

Parliament website posted the one with the original clause given below: "If at the conclusion of the General

Election held immediately after the coming into force of this Article, the recognised political party or the independent group obtaining the highest and the recognised political party or the independent group obtaining the second highest number of seats in Parliament agree to form a Government of national unity, then, notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (1), the number of Ministers of the Cabinet of Ministers and the number of Ministers outside of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Deputy Ministers, may be increased up to forty-five and fifty-five, respectively, if Parliament agrees to such increase, within two weeks of the first sitting of such Parliament."

MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara, too, recollected the then Minister Rajapakse’s reference to the party that secured the highest number of seats and the party with the second highest in response to his call for an interpretation of national government. However, the party with the highest number of seats was more likely to join hands with another with a fewer number of seats, Nanayakkara pointed out.

Rajapakse said that ongoing efforts to circumvent the limit on the number of ministers had caused an unnecessary problem. Instead of addressing vital issues at hand, particularly the state of the national economy, ways and means to enlarge the cabinet were being discussed. The former minister said that now that the 19th Amendment was in place, the Cabinet couldn’t be expanded according to the whims and fancies of political party leaders.

Responding to another query, Rajapakse said that the parliament recognised six registered political parties. In addition to the UNP and the UPFA, there were the TNA (16 members), JVP (6 members), EPDP (one member) and SLMC (one member), Rajapakse said, adding that the 19th Amendment had caused quite a problem for the government.

Rajapakse said that he opted out of the Cabinet. Rajapakse is among those left out of the Cabinet.

Sri Lanka cricket rated most corrupt by ICC: Minister


The crisis-ridden Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is to hold delayed elections in February, which were due last May when the term of president Thilanga Sumathipala ended. (Photo: AFP/Ishara S Kodikara)

31 Dec 2018


COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has been rated as the most corrupt cricket nation by the world governing body, the country's sports minister said on Monday (Dec 31).

The International Cricket Council feels "Sri Lanka's cricket administration is corrupt from top to bottom", Harin Fernando said, adding that he had been shown a confidential report on the matter at a Dubai meeting.

 A host of scandals have rocked Sri Lankan cricket in recent years including a match-fixing controversy revealed in a sting operation carried out for a TV documentary.

The ICC anti-corruption unit has regularly investigated cases in the island nation.

The crisis-ridden Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is to hold delayed elections in February, which were due last May when the term of president Thilanga Sumathipala ended.

Sumathipala has been accused of violating ICC rules by holding office despite alleged links to gambling. He denies the charges.

"Unfortunately Sri Lanka is being ranked as one of the worst or the top worst country for cricket corruption," Fernando told reporters after returning from the meeting with ICC anti-corruption chief Alex Marshall.

"They told me that the problem was not limited to bookies, but even the local game's links with the underworld," he said, adding that the corruption was more to do with cricket administration than players.

Last month former Sri Lankan fast bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige was suspended for corruption during a limited over league in 2017.

Lokuhettige was the third Sri Lankan player charged for violating the anti-corruption code following cases against former captain and ex-chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya and former paceman Nuwan Zoysa.

Jayasuriya was charged for failing to cooperate with a match-fixing probe and concealing information. Zoysa was suspended over match-fixing accusations.

The minister said the ICC would grant an amnesty to Sri Lankan players who disclose details of wrongdoing in the game.

He added that the government wanted to prepare anti-match fixing legislation.

Source: AFP/ec

Deterrent Punishment to Vandalism is a Categorical Imperative

by Zulkifli Nazim -Dec 31, 2018

Dec 30, 2018

We read the dismal, heart-breaking and saddening news that several Buddha statues had been damaged in Mawanella over the past few days.

We all stand witness to the mindless devastation of human values and principles of Buddhism – the sacred teachings of Siddhartha Gautama the Most Revered Buddha, by a group of idiosyncratic elements and scum of the earth, where political power is used to mobilizereligious sensibilities of people in order to get their support to capture power; and use it to fulfill their aims.

They use intrigue, engineer a crafty plot and orchestrate such immoral, malicious and deviant ways to achieve their sinister ends in order to attempt to win public opinion.

Before proceeding any further, I would like to first lay emphasis on the fact that all those who are involved, irrespective of who they are, what ethnicity they belong to, what political affiliations they may have – they have to be taken to task and very severe and punitive punishments meted out.  The punishments must be so severe, it should serve as a deterrent to others, who are even contemplating an ethnic disturbance or riot.

The cry of the people of Sri Lanka was that when the recent appointment of Cabinet ministers were sent for approval to the President Maithripala Sirisena, he wilfully and wantonly, without any just foundation or provocation, struck off the name of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka from the position of Law and Order.

If this position has been awarded to him this type of vandalism, hooliganism and deliberate destruction of the revered  Buddha Statues, defacement and damage of public as well as other people’s property could certainly have been arrested.

We all know how Five Podujana Peramuna Pradeshiya Sabha members and leader of Mahason Balakaya Amith Weerasinghe were among others arrested in connection with the violence orchestrated and perpetrated mainly in Digana and Ampara. And no sooner Mahinda Rajapaksa  was appointed  as Prime Minister by the Presidednt Maithripala Sirisena, unconstitutionally and illegally , the first thing they did – was to manipulate the release of the Three suspects, including Mahason Balakaya leader Amith Weerasinghe, held in remand custody in connection with the disturbances created in Digana, Rangala, Udispattuwa and Moragahamula on March 4 and 5, by Teldeniya District Judge as well as the the Kandy High Court Judge.

It is also worthy of note that News First carried a headline on 01st December 2018 –

Quote : Protest in Digana calling for election 

“Colombo (News1st): A protest was held in the Manikhinna, Digana with several members of the UPFA and the SLPP along with Parliamentarian Keheliya Rambukwella.

The protestors called for an immediate election to be held.” Unquote

Which is more than enough evidence that the whole thing has been orchestrated by these wily and cunning, deceitful and unreliable scoundrels to exacerbate an ethnic conflict.

If such disasters have to occur after the denial of appointing Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka to that most important position of Law & Order, then it can be irrefutably concluded that political power has had a vicious hand in it.

Perhaps more than at any time in our history, our beloved country has been forced to engage in senseless conflict, when the country is facing natural disasters as well as the disaster created by the country by our President himself by not even placing his signature on the government gazette, to mobilize the appointed cabinet of ministers to do their allotted work for the security and benefit of the country.

He, The President, Maithripala Sirisena, left for Thailand, totally unconcerned, leaving behind a more dangerous, a country more divided, and more toxic.

Sirisena Bans CBK And Her Supporters From Entering SLFP Headquarters

DECEMBER 31, 2018

President Maithripala Sirisena has informed all caretakers of the SLFP headquarters at Darley Road that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her supporters should not be allowed to enter the premises under any circumstances.

Chandrika

Sirisena has made the order upon his return to the country from a private holiday in Thailand, Colombo Telegraph reliably learns.

The decision has been made due to fears that Kumaratunga will engineer an internal revolt in the party challenging Sirisena’s party leadership.

A section of SLFP members have expressed strong opinions against Sirisena’s decision to enter into an alliance with the Rajapaksa group who caused irreparable damage to the party by forming the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP).

Colombo Telegraph exclusively reported that Sirisena ordered to close down the Darley Road headquarters until his return from Thailand.

The decision to close down the main party office follows a heated meeting between senior party officials and electorate organizers, on Saturday, over the current political situation.
At the meeting chaired by SLFP General Secretary Prof. Rohana Lakshman Piyadasa, a group of SLFP organizers severely criticized President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to form an alliance with the SLPP. Senior party officials including S.B. Dissanayake, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Dayasiri Jayasekera and Duminda Dissanayake also attended the meeting.

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Binod Chaudhary’s wisdom: You can make it big if driven by an undiminished passion for achievement

Binod Chaudhary

---

An autobiography to inspire everyone

Monday, 31 December 2018

I recommend Binod Chaudhary’s autobiography – ‘Making It Big’ – to all readers. As the title says, the message is that if it is small now, make it big. By implication, it also advises us to make it bigger if it is big and the biggest if it is bigger. In other words, he wants us not to be complacent with what we have. Improve it continuously so that it will be for the benefit of all of us eventually. This is not pampering to greed. It is changing conditions for the better to create a better society for all. The list of the readers to whom the book is recommended is long. But it essentially includes students in management, business starters, industry veterans, politicians, bankers and civil servants. Each one of them can learn an important life lesson from Chaudhary.

Students can learn that strategy being used by pragmatic entrepreneurs is different from what they learn from textbooks. Business starters would be relieved to note that overcoming the initial fear of trying out new ideas is the gateway for success in enterprise. Industry veterans would realise that harbouring ill-feelings about fellow businessmen would harm them more than their rivals. The politicians will learn of the bitter truth that it is the entrepreneurs, and not they, who will deliver prosperity to people. Hence, they had better concentrate on framing policies for macro goals rather than making micro interventions in the markets. The bankers will realise that they could increase profits by facilitating businessmen rather than placing spanners in their path. Civil servants will learn that their red-tape tactics could keep the entrepreneurial spirit of hard-willed businessmen under suppression only for a short period. Eventually, the businessmen will win the battle-making civil servants irrelevant.

Chaudhary has taught us these good lessons in the form of stories in ‘Making It Big’.


We need stories to live by

Thus, Chaudhary’s autobiography is a collection of stories, arranged in chronological order, enchanting readers with inspirational spirit. It is a story of an ordinary man who has been cushioned to take both successes and failures with the same equanimous mind-frame. In that sense, he is a hero. Stories of such heroes are to motivate the young to become achievers later in life, according to American psychologist David McClelland of ‘The Achieving Society’ fame. More recently, the Oxford historian now based in Israel, Yuval Noah Harari, has put it more cogently in his Homo Deus, ‘A Brief History of Tomorrow’. Harari says that we Homo sapiens need stories to live by and there are enough creative story-tellers around us to keep us filled with a continuous flow of stories.


Don’t be restricted to national boundaries

I was inspired by Chaudhary’s autobiography not because he became the first billionaire in Nepal, a country rampant with poverty. Nor was I inspired by the success he made by transforming himself from nobody to somebody. I was inspired by the central message he has conveyed in the book. That message says that if we want to make it big, we got to move to the wide world out there, breaking the limitations imposed on us by national boundaries. Anyone who restricts himself to the boundary of the nation to which he is born – known as a neonational – has to remain forever ‘small’. It is a ‘give and take’ business. Neonationals want to take as much as possible without giving anything to outsiders. Chaudhary has been a modern-day entrepreneur who would do both giving and taking simultaneously.

Contrary to what neonationals proclaim, competent people like Chaudhary would step out of the boundary for better prospects. This was emphatically put by the 4th century BCE Indian Guru, Chanakya – also known as Kautilya – in his ‘Ethics of Chanakya’ when he said that ‘no place is far away for a trader’. Hence, even in ancient times, if someone was interested in becoming wealthy, he should have necessarily broken away from the national boundaries to reach the wide world out there.

A migrant family in a foreign land 

Chaudhary belongs to the third generation of a family that had migrated to Nepal from India’s Rajasthan State during the British rule in the early 20th century. His grandfather had been an assistant to a trading family that had trodden to Nepal from Rajasthan on the invitation of its Prime Minister, Bir Shumsher, a powerful figure in the country at that time.

Being very young in age, his grandfather had to learn the tactics of trading in an alien country from A to Z by working in the field. Through a determined will and unwavering perseverance as his guiding angel, he had learned the art and the science of trading pretty fast becoming a master of trade between India and Nepal. This has compelled him to start his own business as a trader in textiles imported from India.

He did not have a textile shop. Instead, he visited his customers, including the royal family, with a bale of clothes and textiles as a mobile trader. That business was neither comfortable nor pleasurable. Yet, Chaudhary’s grandfather managed to make a living engaging Chaudhary’s father, still a pre-teenage boy, as his most trustworthy trading assistant. The apprenticeship training which Chaudhary’s father had got from his father had been invaluable.

He learned the marketing tactic of selling new design sarees brought from India to queens and princesses in the royal palace. Only Chaudhary’s father, a boy at that time, was allowed to enter the private chambers of royal ladies who had not been permitted to mingle with males outside the royal family. He used that concession and his outwit as a marketer to the maximum to unload all the new design sarees to them despite they were unsolicited sales.

But, if a son just follows father’s business without change or improvement, there is no progress. This rule has applied to Chaudhary as well as to his father equally. Hence, armed with his business knowledge and the skills he had developed during the apprenticeship with father, Chaudhary’s father decided that he should now go on in his own separate way.  He decided to open a textile retail shop in Kathmandu. That small shop soon became a departmental store catering specifically to tourists from India. With success in trading, Chaudhary’s father entered other areas of business such as construction, hospitality and manufacturing. That was the beginning of the Chaudhary Empire which Binod Chaudhary carried forward by taking his business outside the country and into new areas.

Similarities in South Asia

Chaudhary’s autobiography is a social, political, economic and cultural history of Nepal from around 1950s, looked at from the point of view of an outside observer. Though he has been a part of that system, he has read of its main features independently, allowing readers to make their own judgments. Thus, it is like an impartial historian writing the history of a nation relevant to a particular era. A historian collects facts, analyses them using accepted scientific methods and presents them without taking a side. What Chaudhary has followed when he wrote his autobiography has been the same method. As such, given the similarities which Nepal shares with other South Asian countries, one can safely conclude that what is observed in Nepal by him is exactly relevant to any country in this regional bloc.

The list of the readers to whom the book is recommended is long. But it essentially includes students in management, business starters, industry veterans, politicians, bankers and civil servants. Each one of them can learn an important life lesson from Chaudhary. Students can learn that strategy being used by pragmatic entrepreneurs is different from what they learn from textbooks. Business starters would be relieved to note that overcoming the initial fear of trying out new ideas is the gateway for success in enterprise. Industry veterans would realise that harbouring ill-feelings about fellow businessmen would harm them more than their rivals. The politicians will learn of the bitter truth that it is the entrepreneurs, and not they, who will deliver prosperity to people. Hence, they had better concentrate on framing policies for macro goals rather than making micro interventions in the markets. The bankers will realise that they could increase profits by facilitating businessmen rather than placing spanners in their path. Civil servants will learn that their red-tape tactics could keep the entrepreneurial spirit of hard-willed businessmen under suppression only for a short period. Eventually, the businessmen will win the battle-making civil servants irrelevant

Extracting institutions
It is a common practice among many academics in this region to advocate for an expanded government sector. They frown upon the private sector and uphold the state sector without examining the pitfalls which such a society would bring forth. Whatever the system of government that prevails, whether it is a monarchy, dictatorship or a democracy, the expanded state sector means giving extraordinary powers to those in power. Many people will rally round the power centre in society to appropriate for themselves an overwhelmingly larger share of the wealth of the nation.

As presented by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in their 2012 book under the title ‘Why Nations Fail,’ monarchs, dictators and unchecked democrats will establish an economic system that would extract wealth for their own use rather than making it available for the general welfare of people. The continuation of such a system without controls and checks is the surest way for a nation to fail.


Nepalese monarchy, a worst type of an extractive institution 

Chaudhary presents a number of examples in his book to support Acemoglu-Robinson thesis. The monarchy in Nepal which had enjoyed uncontrolled absolute powers for centuries had been an extractive institution in that country.

The business opportunities have been doled out to private entrepreneurs in Nepal by the monarchy only on one condition: 51% of the equity of such a business enterprise should be given to a member of the royal family free of charge. It is the approval and protection fee which a businessman should pay to a higher authority in power. It is thus a system where private entrepreneurs have to contribute 100% of the capital, allow a compulsory majority ownership to an outsider, run the business with his own money and eventually share the fruits with such parties in bigger doses.

To the extent that the output is sold to Nepalese, the prices have to be jacked up in order to cover these losses. Hence, ultimately, it is the citizens who pay as an unavoidable tax by buying the goods and services involved. Since there is no record of these payments and the royal family members are not subject to income taxation, there is no a reflow these extracted moneys back to society. Thus, it is a one way payment unlike the taxes which the citizens pay to the government where the government gives back the tax money to society by way of government services. The extractive institutions in poor countries use their ill-gotten wealth in luxurious consumption locally or in extravagant expenses incurred abroad.


From simple ideas to big empires

A creative businessman would always make use of simple ideas observed in the environment to build big empires.

The founder of Nike, Phil Knight, observed that every human being possesses two feet and visualised in mind that if they are persuaded to run, he could sell billions of pairs of running shoes. Steve Jobs of Apple fame had got the idea for inventing the iPod from an April fool joke of Sir Richard Branson. Branson had played a joke with the magazine Rolling Stone that he had come up with a new digital technology to store thousands of songs in a single device replacing the existing long playing record or LPR system. Jack Welch of General Electric noted that if a company concentrates on technologies that cannot be easily copied, it could successfully out-beat its competitors.

Chaudhary’s successful introduction of Wai Wai noodles first to the Nepalese market and later to the large market out there was conceived when he observed that Nepalese had developed a crazed appetite for noodles. He in fact revolutionised the noodle market by introducing for the first time a precooked noodle that could be eaten as a snack.

When a master in the noodles market had warned him that he would not be able to sell even 30,000 packets a day, he still pursued the idea and eventually built a market that was as large as 1.5 million packets a day. What is necessary for the success of a businessman is the flexibility and perseverance, as found by the market researcher, Sarah Stanley Fallaw who produced her thesis in a book published this year under the title ‘Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth’. Chaudhary has a lot of both and it has been the key to his success.


India, an opportunity

Many business people in South Asia tend to view India as an exploiter. Its mere big size with a population of 1.2 billion people and an economy of $ 2.1 trillion would naturally frighten them away. What they forget is that people do not conduct trade with countries but with individuals. Hence, the size is immaterial for productive trade to take place.

Chaudhary did not believe that India was an exploiter. Instead, it was viewed as a one big opportunity provider for trade. Guided by this wisdom, he opened factories in India and captured that large market available for business opportunities. From India, he expanded his empire to South East Asia and now to Africa. Had he confined himself only to Nepal with a population of just 29 million people and economy of $ 27 billion, he would not have come thus far. The lesson he has left for all of us is that, if any entrepreneur wants to enjoy economies of scale, he needs to look for a market bigger than the market prevailing in his country.


10 Mantras for success

Chaudhary has identified 10 Mantras or disciplines that have contributed to his success. The examination of these Mantras shows that they are useful to all of us if we want to attain success in life. They are not expensive or difficult to be adopted. By following these mantras, Chaudhary was ambitious, given to organisational building, adept at persistence, competent in market astuteness, inclined to conservatism, patient, driven for success, cost conscious, disciplined and continuously updated. These 10 mantras will come in handy for anyone seeking success.

There is a saying that behind the success of everyman, there is a woman; in Chaudhary’s case, that woman was Lily, his wife. She is not a woman with business acumen. Yet, she knew how to drive her man to success.

(W.A. Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com.) 

Ecstasy pills worth Rs.3.5 mn meant for NYE party seized

2018-12-31

A stock of psychedelic drugs also known as Ecstasy pills worth more than Rs.3.5 million meant for a New Year’s Eve party in Colombo was seized by Colombo Excise Station officials in Thotalanga on Friday.

On information obtained from a private informant, Excise officials contacted a person living at Bopitiya in Pamunugama and seized the narcotics when he was lured into a fake deal.

Nearly 988 Ecstasy pills weighing around 457 grams which were in the suspect's possession were seized. An official said a tablet is usually sold at Rs.3,500 to consumers.

Colombo Excise Station OIC Chief Inspector Chanaka Nanayakkara told Daily Mirror the 24-year-old suspect was acting as a caretaker of a Negombo house belonging to a 40-year-old Sri Lankan identified as Dominic now living in France.

He said they believe that Dominic might have smuggled the pills on his half-yearly visits to Sri Lanka.

The suspect has told Excise officers that his employer gave instructions about distributing the pills to selected buyers and to collect the money. He had also been told to hand over a stock of pills to a certain recipient in Colombo meant for a party, which was to be held on New Year’s Eve.

Excises sources said the house owner paid the youth lavishly for all for the services rendered apart from looking after the house.

The Ecstasy, which is a psychedelic drug consisted of chemical substance 3,4-Methyl enedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA) and usually consumed by young party goers.

Chief Inspector Nanayakkara is conducting investigations with Excise Inspector Indralal Mahawatte, Excise Sergeant Duhulkumbura, Excise Guards Mohan, Lahiru, Manawadu and Dias on the instructions of Assistant Excise Commissioner B A Dayaratne and Excise Superintendent Vijitha Gamanayake.

The suspect was produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate and ordered to be remanded till today. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)

The benevolent bureaucrats of military occupation

Maureen Clare Murphy - 26 December 2018

Israeli occupation bureaucrats shamelessly exploit Palestinian patients from Gaza to present their military rule over a besieged people as benign or even benevolent.

One recent video published on Facebook by COGAT – which stands for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories – presents the “incredible story” of Ahmad, a Palestinian child from Gaza who was flown to India for a lung transplant.

The video states that the 15-year-old boy “was always treated respectfully in Israel,” where he has been hospitalized multiple times since his condition was diagnosed 10 years ago.

Ahmad, whose access to life-saving treatment is dependent on the approval of COGAT – which, despite its anodyne name, is an Israeli military body that controls the movement of millions of people – appears in the video alongside his father, testifying to the good care he received in Israel.

“There was no problem in that respect,” the father says.

Denied access to treatment

Close observers of Israel’s control over Gaza – and the Palestinians who have been subjected to it – would be forgiven for reading between the lines and suspecting that the boy and his family have had problems in other respects regarding the child’s treatment.

Last year, 54 patients were known to have died while awaiting Israeli permits to leave Gaza for medical treatment.

This year, some 800 Palestinians in Gaza were barred from traveling under a directive that denied patients access to medical treatment in the West Bank and Israel over alleged ties to Hamas members.

The Israeli government directive was issued in early 2017 to put pressure on Hamas to release two Israeli civilians believed to be held by the group and to return the bodies of two soldiers killed in Gaza during the 51-day military offensive in the territory in 2014.

The family of one of the slain soldiers had demanded that the government reduce the number of exit permits for Palestinians seeking to leave Gaza for humanitarian reasons.

That directive was canceled by Israel’s high court after being challenged by human rights groups.

Now human rights groups are petitioning the court over another form of collective punishment being used against medical patients in Gaza.

A girl the same age as Ahmad, the boy in the COGAT video, is among hundreds of patients in Gaza who have been denied access to treatment on the basis that they have a relative staying in Israel or the West Bank without a permit.

Israel is conditioning their permits on the return of those relatives to Gaza.

According to the rights groups challenging the policy, Israel is claiming in some cases that patients “would illegally move their residence to the West Bank” if they were granted permits.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the groups petitioning Israel’s high court, note “a significant increase in the number of refusals on this ground in 2018 compared to 2017.”

More than 400 medical patients were denied permission to travel on these grounds between the beginning of the year and late October.

Those patients include a 61-year-old father of 11 with an eye condition who was denied a permit because one of his nephews has been living in the West Bank.

Asma Majdalawi, a 15-year-old with a dangerous blood clot, was refused a permit to travel to a Tel Aviv hospital because she has two brothers residing in the West Bank.

“Making the permit contingent on the return of another – as close to the patient as he or she may be – represents illegitimate pressure and an illegal and immoral tactic,” Al Mezan and Physicians for Human Rights stated.

Cruel reality

The cruel reality endured by patients in Gaza bears little resemblance to the feel-good propaganda put out by COGAT.

It is unlikely that COGAT will be producing any videos about how Israeli authorities barred the transfer of vaccines for children to the West Bank and Gaza.

Sharona Weiss  هيذر شارونا@sharona_weiss

It's insane this was ever an issue - 3 different Palestinian friends I know went to vaccinate babies or toddlers recently only to be told vaccines were out as Israel was barring entry into occupied territory for arbitrary reasons. Vaccines. For children. http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=1d6tKQa107863119243a1d6tKQ …

30

2:47 PM - Dec 22, 2018

But that too is the real story of healthcare for Palestinian children growing up under Israeli occupation.

As are frequent attacks on medical workers and infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza:

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The five defining moments of the Israeli occupation in 2018

Middle East Eye takes a look at the five biggest political developments of 2018 in Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories

Israeli settlement in the West Bank considered illegal according to UN resolutions (AFP)

Zena Tahhan

Sunday 30 December 2018 

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank – In the volatile reality of Israel’s ongoing occupation and campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, the news cycle never stops. The nightly military raids, arrests of young men, killing of civilians and home demolitions have continued – as they have for the past 70 years.

But 2018 also saw substantial political changes that will keep this year etched in the memory of many Palestinians.

Many believe that while Israel has merely continued to enact policies consistent with its Zionist ideology, this year saw such practices become even more flagrant.

“What stood out the most in 2018 is that Israeli policies have become completely overt,” Nisreen Elayyan, a Palestinian lawyer based in Jerusalem, told Middle East Eye. “It no longer tries to disguise its policies and goals, particularly with violating basic human rights.”

Here are the five biggest political events in the occupied Palestinian territory to have taken place this year.

Great March of Return in the Gaza Strip

Palestinians have been demonstrating for nine months near the fence separating Gaza from Israel (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)

In the ongoing Palestinian struggle for freedom, the Great March of Return protests in the besieged Gaza Strip have been one of the biggest developments of the year.

On 30 March, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza gathered on the boundary with Israel in a mass demonstration movement known as the Great March of Return.

The demonstrations were organised to coincide with Land Day, which marks the events of 30 March 1976 when Israeli police killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel who were protesting against land theft.

The Great March of Return, which continues until today, has called for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes, from which they were expelled during the Nakba - or catastrophe - amid the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The protests also called for an end to the 11-year siege of Gaza and Palestinians’ right to dignity and freedom.

READ MORE►

Gaza's Great Return March: How Palestinians are reclaiming their land

Some two-thirds of Gaza’s two million inhabitants are refugees from towns and cities in present-day Israel such as Jaffa and Asqalan - since renamed Yafo and Ashkelon.  The small Palestinian territory is highly impoverished, with more than 80 percent of its population relying on humanitarian aid.

Since the beginning of the protests, Israeli forces have killed at least 230 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave - at least 190 of whom were killed during the March of Return demonstrations - and wounded more than 25,000 people.

“In 2018, we saw Israel continue its unlawful killing of demonstrators in Gaza. Officers repeatedly fired on protesters who posed no imminent threat to life, pursuant to expansive open-fire orders from senior officials that contravene international human rights law standards,” Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, told MEE.

Israel passes Nation-State law

Demonstrators attend a rally to protest against the nation-state bill in Tel Aviv on 14 July 2018 (AFP)

On 19 July, the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, passed the nation-state bill into its Basic Law - Israel’s equivalent to a constitution - affirming that the right to national self-determination in the state of Israel was “unique to the Jewish people”, a move decried by rights groups and Palestinians alike as an apartheid policy.

The nation-state law also states that Israel “views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value, and shall act to encourage and promote its establishment and strengthening” - despite settlements being deemed illegal under international law.

For Jamal Zahalqa, a Palestinian-Israeli member of the Knesset, the law’s passing was the most important development of 2018 for Palestinians, especially Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up some 20 percent of the country’s population.

“What Israel did is transfer the concept of the nation-state law from the state to the cities,” Zahalqa told MEE. “The law indicates that settlements are not a choice for the state, but it is the state’s obligation. Today, the law forces the state to encourage and financially support settlements.”

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Israel’s ‘Jewish nation-state’ law a prelude to annexation

Zahalqa pointed to the Israeli town of Afula, whose municipality has openly pushed to “preserve the Jewish character” of the city following the passage of the nation-state law, “meaning that they would prevent Palestinians from living there and from entering the public parks there”.

“This law gives legality to the occupation, to the Judaisation of Jerusalem. It opens the door for much more. We must monitor the implementation of this dangerous law in 2019.”

Shakir agreed with the MK: “In 2018, we saw the further entrenchment of the two-tiered discriminatory system that treats Palestinians unequally - not only in the West Bank but also inside Israel proper.

“The nation-state law enshrined as a constitutional mandate Jewish supremacy over non-Jews, which has effectively guided Israeli policy for years.”

Trump moves US embassy to Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the US embassy opening on 14 May (Reuters)

On 6 December 2017, US President Donald Trump broke with decades of American policy towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel - announcing that his country would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.

On 14 May, which marked the 70th anniversary of the Nakba - and Israel’s Independence Day - the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem, infuriating the diplomatic community.

Due to Jerusalem's importance to followers of the three Abrahamic religions, the city's status has long been the main sticking point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel occupied the eastern half of the city, which houses the Old City and religious landmarks such as the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall, in 1967. It then proceeded to annex Jerusalem in contravention of international law, and in 1980 proclaimed it as its "eternal, undivided capital".

Until Trump’s move, Israel's control and sovereignty over the city had not been recognised by any country in the international community, and all embassies were based in Tel Aviv.

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'Burn them, shoot them, kill them': Israelis cheer in Jerusalem as Palestinians shot in Gaza

In the wake of the US decision Guatemala and Paraguay also moved their embassies to Jerusalem - although Paraguay later rescinded the move. A number of politicians in other countries have also since called for their states to follow suit.

Palestinian leadership, which has long called for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital as part of a two-state solution, saw Trump's declaration and embassy move as a fatal blow to the already stalled peace process.

Elayyan said the transfer of the embassy ”implicitly translated into an encouragement for Israel to continue and intensify its racist policies against Palestinians in the city”.

“The state has employed more violence, became bolder and was encouraged to transfer more Israelis into Palestinian neighbourhoods in Jerusalem,” she explained.  

In the long term the embassy move, Elayyan said, will have “many adverse political dimensions on the Palestinian people - both inside and outside Palestine”.

She added that the move would make it much more difficult in the future to establish a Palestinian state, especially if other countries followed suit.

Israel attempts to demolish Khan al-Ahmar village

Israeli policemen detain a Palestinian girl in Khan al-Ahmar, West Bank on 4 July 2018 (Reuters)

In 2018, the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, came under threat of demolition by Israeli authorities - and saw solidarity pour in from local and international activists and diplomats.

The village, home to some 200 residents and an eco-friendly school that serves children from surrounding communities, stands in the way of Israel’s plans to create a contiguous bloc of illegal settlements in the central West Bank just east of Jerusalem.

Due to Khan al-Ahmar’s strategic location in the last corridor between the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Israel’s demolition would mean the division of the West Bank in half - and the final nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.

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Khan al-Ahmar: We are defending the dream of Palestine from demolition

When Israeli bulldozers have approached the village, activists and residents stood their ground and blocked soldiers from razing the community to the ground; many were beaten and arrested.

Israel’s security cabinet eventually put the demolition on hold, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed his government would still go ahead with the plans, without saying when the move would take place.

Several European governments and human rights organisations said the demolition of the village would constitute a war crime though the forcible displacement of an occupied civilian population.

“The problem of Khan al-Ahmar is bigger than the village itself. It is about the establishment of a Palestinian state. The so-called peace efforts depend on this village. If this village is demolished, then the Palestinian dream crumbles,” Eid Khamis, the community spokesperson and leader, wrote for MEE earlier this year.

It remains unclear whether the demolition will take place in 2019, but activists have kept a close eye on the situation, monitoring any developments.

Rights groups have warned that if Israel succeeds in destroying Khan al-Ahmar, at least 8,000 other Palestinians in similar communities may face the same fate.

Airbnb announces it will remove listings from Israeli settlements

A road sign points towards an Airbnb apartment, located in the Esh Kodesh outpost, near the Jewish settlement of Shilo and the Palestinian village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank on 20 November 2018 (AFP)

In November, the global online rental marketplace Airbnb announced it would begin a process to remove listings from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"We concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians," Airbnb said in a statement.

"US law permits companies like Airbnb to engage in business in these territories. At the same time, many in the global community have stated that companies should not do business here because they believe companies should not profit on lands where people have been displaced," the statement read.

"We know that people will disagree with this decision and appreciate their perspective. This is a controversial issue."

Airbnb has since been pressured by Israel to rescind its decision.

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Airbnb and Israel: U-turn on settlements listings would be worse than staying silent

Human rights groups have long shamed Airbnb and other companies for doing business in the occupied Palestinian territories, exposing how it contributes to a two-tiered system of discrimination.

“Airbnb took the only course of action that it could to comply with its responsibilities under the UN guiding principles on business and human rights - not to directly facilitate and profit from rights abuse,” said Shakir of Human Rights Watch.

“I think its an important message - not only to other businesses that continue to do business in and with settlements, but also to the Israeli government - that the international community will not be a party to the abuses associated with its ongoing ugly occupation of the West Bank.”