[Peace-discuss] Informed Comment - EU Boycotts of Israel could mean loss of $5b/year

Sun Aug 3 18:27:03 EDT 2014

Scan the whole post or scroll down to info referenced in subject line. This is the kind of writing on the wall(s) that may have the most impact yet.

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Informed Comment 

Informed Comment   
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	* Do you Think your Smartphone Location Data is Private?  The Police Don’t 
	* “Mr. Netanyahu is Engaged in the Liquidation of an Entire Nation” – Powerful Palestinian Statement from West Bank 
	* UN on Gaza:  Health System Collapse, 25% Displaced, 5% w/ Clean Water, Epidemic Threat, Generally Mad Max 
	* “Dead Children Names Too Threatening For Israel” – Something being Covered Up (Young Turks) 
	* Boycott of Israel Spreads in European Civil Society over Gaza War, Could Cost $5 bn/ yr 
Do you Think your Smartphone Location Data is Private?  The Police Don’t 
Posted: 03 Aug 2014 12:44 AM PDT
By Hanni Fakhoury via EFF
The Fourth Amendment protects us from “unreasonable” government searches of our persons, houses, papers and effects. How courts should determine what is and isn’t reasonable in our increasingly digital world is the subject of a new amicus brief we filed today in San Francisco federal court. 
At issue is historical cell site data—the records of the cell towers a customer’s cell phone connects to. The government has long maintained that it’s unreasonable for customers to expect those records to remain private. As a result, the government argues it does not need a search warrant to obtain historical cell site records from cell phone providers. 
Federal appeals courts are divided on the issue. In 2013, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, ruled there was no expectation of privacy in historical cell site data. But last month, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia, reached the opposite conclusion, ruling people did have an expectation of privacy in this information. 
Federal magistrate judge Nathanael Cousins in San Francisco, who is not required to follow either the Fifth or Eleventh Circuit–he’s bound to follow the Ninth Circuit which hasn’t ruled on the issue yet–recently requested the local U.S. Attorney’s office to explain why the government believed it did not need a search warrant to obtain cell site records. He invited the San Francisco Federal Defender to file a response as well, and we filed an amicus brief supporting a warrant requirement. The ACLU of Northern California and University of San Francisco law professor Susan Freiwald and EFF special counsel Marcia Hofmann also submitted amicus briefs.
A Fourth Amendment “search” is an intrusion upon something in which a person has a subjective expectation of privacy that society considers reasonable. By definition, determining whether a search is “reasonable” requires looking at what society considers to be deserving of privacy protection. So our amicus brief explains why many Americans actually expect this detailed and sensitive location information to remain private, even when it’s stored by phone companies. 
It’s clear that people consider location information—which can reveal who we associate with, our patterns of movement, and things like religion, sexual practices, and political affiliations—to remain private. If someone followed you everywhere you went for long stretches of time, you’d probably call the police. While some people may choose to broadcast their location publicly, by posting a picture or “checking in” on social media, for example, historical cell site information is very different. It may show you traveling to or from a doctor or somewhere else you’d like to keep private. 
But this isn’t just mere conjecture; the fact that a growing number of states are extending location privacy protection to their citizens is a gauge of societal understandings that it is reasonable to expect this information remain private. While the Fourth Amendment does not depend on state law or statutory guarantees, they are nonetheless compelling evidence of societal understandings of privacy. 
Many states protect location information. Police in Hawaii, New York, Oregon and Washington require police to use a search warrant to track a person’s movement with a GPS or other electronic tracking device. In 2012, five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recognized in concurring opinions in United States v. Jones that people can expect information about their movements over an extended period of time, even on public streets, remain private. 
After Jones, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Utah passed statutes requiring law enforcement use a search warrant to obtain historical cell site information. Indiana, Virginia and Wisconsin passed laws requiring police to use a warrant if they want to track a cell phone in real time. The state high courts in Massachusetts and New Jersey ruled their respective state constitutions require police use a search warrant to obtain historical cell site records. All of this is compelling proof of Americans expectation their location information is private.
Our amicus brief also explains that the 35-year-old Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Maryland, which found a phone customer had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the phone numbers he dialed over three days, does not mean law enforcement can skirt the warrant requirement here. Our brief notes many states have rejected Smith, including California, who ruled just a few months after Smith was decided that because dialed phone numbers provide a “virtual current biography” about a person, there is an expectation of privacy in them under the state constitution. For the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco, tasked with investigating crimes occurring in Northern California and likely involving suspects throughout the Golden State, to argue that there is no expectation of privacy in historical cell site records ignores the explicit promise California has made to its citizens that certain phone records are private. 
Last month, the Supreme Court in Riley v. California extended privacy protections to the contents of cell phones, settling a judicial split by prohibiting police from searching a cell phone incident to arrest. Although the court long ago ruled police could search items like a pack of cigarettes and other things that may be found on a person after they’d been arrested, the court noted that a cell phone was different, a technology that was “nearly inconceivable just a few decades ago.” One of the reasons the court believed a warrant was necessary was the ubiquity of the modern cell phone. In the past, police came across scraps of papers or diaries only sporadically. But today, 90 percent of Americans carry cell phones, the majority of which are Internet connected smartphones that contain text messages, pictures, videos, emails and other sensitive information. The court’s decision to ban searches of cell phone data incident to arrest was a response
 the privacy implications of technology changing the societal reality. 
Judge Cousins and other federal and state courts have an opportunity to follow the Supreme Court’s lead in Riley and ensure that the Fourth Amendment keeps up with accepted expectations of privacy in California and nationwide. As more courts and state legislatures across the country identify and establish privacy guarantees for this data, it has become clear that society recognizes that an expectation of privacy in cell site records is “reasonable.” The only thing that should now be considered unreasonable is the government’s attempt to get historical cell site data without a warrant.
Mirrored from The Electronic Frontier Foundation 
———
ACLU: “Meet Jack. Or, What The Government Could Do With That Location Data”  
“Mr. Netanyahu is Engaged in the Liquidation of an Entire Nation” – Powerful Palestinian Statement from West Bank 
Posted: 03 Aug 2014 12:21 AM PDT
BBC:  Spokesman for Fatah, Dr Husam Zomlot tells the BBC News that Israeli PM Netanyahu is guilty of ‘ liquidation of an entire nation’.
‘We haven’t got any rockets in West Bank yet Israel kills everyday’ – BBC News  
UN on Gaza:  Health System Collapse, 25% Displaced, 5% w/ Clean Water, Epidemic Threat, Generally Mad Max 
Posted: 03 Aug 2014 12:00 AM PDT
By United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Occupied Palestinian Territory: Gaza Emergency Situation Report 
Highlights 
• The Rafah area was subject to the heaviest shelling and fighting recorded since the start of the emergency, resulting in dozens of fatalities; many of the bodies could not yet be recovered or identified. 
• The public health system is on the verge of collapse : while the number of casualties continues to grow, five hospitals and 34 clinics have shut down due to damage and insecurity. 
• Up to 25 per cent of Gaza’s population may now be forcibly displaced, of whom 259,000 are hosted in UNRWA shelters alone . 
• Lack of electricity and fuel shortages disrupt the functioning of hospitals and affect access to water for the entire population . The current lack of adequate water chlorination may have serious public health consequences. 
1,525 Palestinians killed, including at least 1,033 civilians, of whom 329 are children and 187 are women 
66 Israelis killed, including 63 soldiers , two civilians and one foreign national 
5 Hospitals have shut down due to insecurity 
1.8 million People have reduced or no access to regular water and sanitation. 
475 ,000 P eople may be displaced, staying in emergency shelters or with host families 
Situation Overview 
Following yesterday’s collapse of a 72 – hour humanitarian cease-fire brokered by the UN and the USA, hostilities intensified . The Rafah area in southern Gaza was subject to the heaviest shelling and fighting recorded since the start of the emergency, as well as the advancement of Israeli forces westwards into the most densely populated areas. According to Israeli media reports, these developments took place in the context of the Israeli army’s attempts to locate a soldier missing in action and reported to have been captured.
Amid a massive increase in casualties, the single government hospital serving Rafah had to be evacuated and closed after it was hit by a projectile and unable to operate due to the hostilities. Prior to that, the hospital received anonymous calls warning of imminent attacks, causing major panic and chaos among patients and staff. 
Similar calls were received at Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital. The insecurity and lack of access affecting ambulance s and rescue teams remains a major concern. Yesterday, a n ambulance evacuating patients in Rafah was hit by tank fire, killing three paramedics. Despite coordination with the Israeli forces, Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) teams have been largely unable to operate in the Khuza’a town, east of Khan Younis, to retrieve bodies and potentially injured people from under the rubble , due to the fighting and access restrictions. 
Hostilities and casualties 
Since the last situation update, at least 86 persons have reportedly been killed and identified , the majority during bombardments in the Rafah area. However, some reports indicate that the total number of fatalities in Rafah alone may include as many as 136 people, many of whom could not yet be retrieved from under the rubble or their identity established . Many of these casualties ocurred yesterday in the morning hours, during the initial fighting and shelling, while they were in the streets, believing a ceasefire was in force. Other casualties fell during the targeting of homes: – Yesterday at approximately 23:00, an Israeli airstrike attacked the house of the Zoroub family, in a UNDP housing project in Rafah, killing at least 13 family members, including seven children and three women. 
- Today at around 11:30, another airstrike targeted a two storey residential building located in Al Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza city , belonging to the Al Nyrab family, who lived there together with another four families . While members of the latter managed to escape, the owner of the building, along with his wife and three of their children, 8, 10 and 14 years old, were killed. Since the launch of the Israeli military operation, hundreds of homes have reportedly been directly targeted by Israeli airstrikes, and it is estimated that nearly 900 houses have been totally destroyed or severely damaged, causing civilian casualties, including multiple members of the same families. 
Up to 30 July, at least 76 families have lost three or more family members in the same incident, for a total of 407 fatalities. 
Such cases raise concerns about the targeting of civilians and civilian objects and the launching of indiscriminate attacks. This brings the cumulative death toll among Palestinians to at least 1,525 , according to preliminary data collected by the Protection Cluster from various sources, which includes 301 persons ( 20 per cent), who could not be identified or their status established . Of the fatalities whose identity and status could be verified (1,196 ), nearly 84 per cent ( 1,033 people) are believed to be civilians, including 329 children and 187 women, and 16 percent ( 191 ) members of armed groups. 
Indiscriminate firing by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza into southern and central Israel continued, with most falling in open areas or intercepted by the Iron Dome system , resulting in no additional fatalities . Since 8 July, three civilians in Israel have been killed, including one foreign national, and dozen s directly injured by rockets or shrapnel. 
The number of Israeli military fatalities remains at 63. 
Displacement 
Thousands of residents from the eastern part of Rafah governorate fled westwards towards Rafah City and the coast, with many seeking refuge in UNRWA shelters. As of this afternoon, UNRWA was providing shelter to 259,321 in 90 schools throughout the Gaza Strip, 6,000 more than yesterday. This represents an average of over 2,800 IDPs per shelter, which normally have the capacity to accommodate only 500 people. Another 15,700 IDPs are residing in 19 government schools and other institutions and some 7,000 are reportedly seeking refuge in public building or informal shelters. The Ministry of Social Affairs ( MoSA ) estimates that the number of persons staying with host families throughout the Gaza Strip could be as many as 200,000. The total number of IDPs in Gaza is estimated at approximately 475,000 , which represent one quarter of the Gaza population. 
Overcrowding at shelters is challenging the already stretched capacity to provide IDPs with basic necessities, maintain hygiene conditions, and prevent the outbreak of epidemics. While showers in shelters have improve d personal hygiene and decrease d the risk of spread of disease, an accelerated level of diarrhea has been reported among children. WHO and UNRWA are monitoring health in shelters in order to pre vent and control any outbreak of communicable disease. A strong mobilization of resources is required to meet the most urgent needs, particularly those stemming from the massive number of displaced persons and those arising from wide – scale damage to infrastructure. 
But resources will mean little if the blockade on Gaza and the denial of Palestinian rights continue. 
While the number of people injured over the course of hostilities continues growing rapidly , the public health system is nearing collapse. At least 12 hospitals have been damaged since the start of the Gaza emergency, of which five have had to shut down. Fourteen (14) primary health clinics also sustained damage and nearly half of all clinics in Gaza (34 out of 75) have closed, primarily due to insecurity, including all those located within the three kilometer buffer zone declared by Israel. Hospital are increasingly forced to discharge patients prematurely , to accommodate newer and most urgent cases, even though these patients often do not have a ny place to go to , let alone an adequate one. 
Following the drastic reduction in electricity supply since 29 July, hospitals are now dependent, almost exclusively, on unreliable back – up generators as their main power source. Constant fluctuations in power supply have resulted in the malfunctioning of sensitive medical equipment, including ultrasound, X – ray, laboratory machines, cardiac monitors, sterilizing machines and infants’ incubators. The operation of hospitals is being further disrupted due to the constant inflow of IDPs into their facilities, who are seeking refuge, us ing the bathrooms, washing their clothes and other necessities. The functioning of, and access to obstetric services is of increasing concern. Nursing attendance in the maternity department of Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, was reduced in the past days to 40 per cent. At the same time, the closure of Harazeen Maternity Hospital in the As Shuja’iyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, increased the number of
 women seeking delivery assistance at Shifa by around 25 per cent. It is feared that the recent closure of Shifa’s antenatal services for high – risk pregnancies may have an impact on fetal and maternal morbidity and mortality. 
We are now looking at a health and humanitarian disaster, the fighting must stop immediately The Humanitarian Coordinator, James W. Rawley, 2 August 
Key humanitarian priorities Protection of civilians: 
ensuring respect for the IHL principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution in attack. 
Humanitarian space: increased access for humanitarian workers to carry out life – saving activities , for example , through regular and meaningful humanitarian pauses or corridors for the evacuation of the injured . This is needed among other reasons, to complete search and rescue operations in several areas, and repair critical water and electricity infrastructure. 
Additional fuel supply : needed to operate backup generators at essential facilities, including water, sanitation and health, for longer hours. Scale up response to IDPs : additional shelters are needed to reduce overcrowding and accommodate new IDPs, alongside the replenishment of food, water and hygiene materials, and NFI stocks. 
Assistance for IDPs living with host families also needs to be increased, particularly the provision of NFIs and water and hygiene kits. 
Humanitarian needs and response Protection Needs 
• At least 326,000 children require direct and specialized psychosocial support (PSS). Children are showing symptoms of increasing distress, including bed wetting, clinging to parents and nightmares. 
• Child protection and psychosocial support is urgently required to address issues of child abuse, exploitation and violence inside shelters and refuges. 
• Thousands of explosive remnants of war are left in civilian areas affected by conflict, causing a major threat to children.
(as of 2 august 201 4 , 1500 h r s ) 
This report is produced by OCHA oPt in collaboration with humanitarian partners. It covers the period from 1 August (15 00 h r s) to 2 August (1500 h r s). The next report will be issued on 3 August . 
Mirrored from The United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Response 
Original text here (pdf) 
Donate to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Gaza Emergency  by credit card
or donate To the Friends of UNRWA by Paypal  for a US tax deduction at Ebay without making a purchase (see the “Donate” button on the right).
——
Related video added by Juan Cole:
The Telegraph: “Gaza crisis: 60 second guide to the strip’s humanitarian situation”  
“Dead Children Names Too Threatening For Israel” – Something being Covered Up (Young Turks) 
Posted: 02 Aug 2014 11:10 PM PDT
The Young Turks:
“”The Israeli Broadcasting Authority has banned a radio advertisement from a human rights organisation which listed the names of some of the scores of children killed in Gaza since the conflict began 17 days ago.
>B’Tselem’s appeal against the decision was rejected on Wednesday. It intends to petition Israel’s supreme court on Sunday in an effort to get the ban overturned.
>The IBA said the ad’s content was “politically controversial”. The broadcast refers to child deaths in Gaza and reads out some of the victims’ names.”* The Young Turks hosts Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola (TYT University) break it down.”  –  Published on Aug 2, 2014 but from a few days ago.
>The Young Turks:  “Dead Children Names Too Threatening For Israel”  
Boycott of Israel Spreads in European Civil Society over Gaza War, Could Cost $5 bn/ yr 
Posted: 02 Aug 2014 09:10 PM PDT
By Juan Cole
The ill-considered and remarkably brutal Gaza war likely will give further impetus to the Boycott, Sanction and Divestment movement by Western civil society to pressure Israel on its illegal actions toward the Palestinians.  A thoroughgoing such European set of sanctions could cost Israel as much as $5 bn a year and more.  Roughly a third of Israeli trade is with Europe, and the EU is Israel’s largest single trading partner.
Unite, the largest British trade union, has now resolved to campaign for adoption of BDS against Israel.
The Sinn Fein mayor of Newry in Northern Ireland is also calling on retailers in the town to boycott Israel.
Although the Irish government has declined to slap sanctions on Israel over the latest Gaza War, Irish civil society is generally disgusted with actions like the Gaza campaign, with its ruthless disregard for the well-being of noncombatants:
“Many businesses, notably The Exchequer bar in Dublin, and the whole town of Kinvara have pledged to boycott Israeli products. The trade union of retail workers, Mandate, has called on shops not to sell Israeli goods and last night Irish rugby legend Gordon D’Arcy tweeted his support for the boycott campaign.”
>Exchequer won’t carry  Israeli alcohol products.  Some Israeli wines are produced on the Occupied Golan Heights and so are illegal enterprises.
>Note that these Irish businesses, towns and activists are going beyond boycotting squatter firms on the Occupied West Bank to boycotting Israel per se. 
>The idea of entire towns and cities boycotting Israeli goods is growing.  Kinvara in Ireland is one.  But several Spanish cities, especially those that lean left, are considering a similar policy.  Many in the Spanish Left also want to pressure the European Union as a whole to take more forceful action to sanction Israel for Apartheid policies and war crimes.
>BDS applied to Israelis in the West Bank is more common, still, in Europe.
>After the Israelis deep-sixed John Kerry’s peace negotiations last April, 17 European governments cautioned their businesses against doing business with Israeli squatter firms based in the Occupied West Bank, according to the Economist.  Under European Union law, these companies could be sued by Palestinians in European courts, claiming a tort over theft of their resources by the squatters and their European partners.
>The Economist adds of the growing movement to boycott the West Bank squatters:
>” “Tesco: We’ve axed fruit from Israel,” ran a headline about the British supermarket chain . . . referring only to harvests from the occupied Jordan Valley. Others have disinvested from Israeli firms or institutions with settlement-related assets. A Dutch pension-fund manager, PGGM, and Denmark’s largest bank, Danske Bank, have sold stakes in Israeli banks that finance settlement construction. The Netherlands’ largest public water-supplier, Vitens, cut ties to Israel’s water company, Mekorot, which takes water from the West Bank and then sells it back to Palestinians.” 
>The Soros Fund has sold off its shares in Sodastream,  which has a factory in the West Bank (that no longer employs any Palestinians).  So too has Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also seems to be divesting from West Bank squatter companies.
>Also in Norway, “the leader of Norway’s largest trade union confederation LO call[ed] for a boycott of products from Israeli-occupied land and clearer marking of Israeli goods”
>BDS in Europe is clearly growing as a movement.  It could have a severe impact on the squatter settlements on the West Bank.  But insofar as Israel proper is increasingly intertwined with the squatter enterprises, it seems inevitable that the boycott will spread to Israel itself.  This is more especially likely if Israel goes on brutalizing the occupied Palestinians.
>——
>Related video:
>Middle East Eye: “Ronnie Kasrils on BDS, Apartheid and the war on Gaza”
> 
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