community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Action Alert! Defend Rachel Corrie's Good Name!
by ISM
Monday, Dec. 04, 2006 at 9:43 PM
1. Action Alert - New Republic Defamation of Rachel Corrie 2. Nonviolent Resistance is not Illegal: HRW Should Retract Statement 3. Protesters get a mauling in Bil’in 4. The olive doesn’t fall far from the tree 5. Humanity lost 6. Newbury News: “Peace worker’s tales of war”
1. Action Alert - New Republic Defamation of Rachel Corrie
2. Nonviolent Resistance is not Illegal: HRW Should Retract Statement
3. Protesters get a mauling in Bil’in
4. The olive doesn’t fall far from the tree
5. Humanity lost
6. Newbury News: “Peace worker’s tales of war”
1. Action Alert - New Republic Defamation of Rachel Corrie
Please write letters to the New Republic:
Yesterday, the New Republic ran a review of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie by
James Kirchick and an opinion piece by Cynthia Ozick, both of which defame the
memory of Rachel Corrie and the organization she conducted her human rights work
with, the International Solidarity Movement. Please let the New Republic know that
you do not agree with Kirchick’s and Ozick’s characterization of both Rachel and the
ISM. Send letters to: online [at] tnr.com.
• ISM is on the side of international law and numerous UN resolutions blatantly
violated by decades of Israeli Occupation.
• ISM is strictly involved in non-violent resistance.
• The FBI does not consider the ISM to be a terrorist organization nor does any
other government agency in the US or abroad.
• The Israeli government has not declared ISM an illegal organization and has
failed to prove any connection between terrorist activity and ISM’s work.
• ISM works with several groups who advocate for a just peace in Palestine:
Rabbis for Human Rights, The Christian Peacemakers Team, International Women’s Peace
Service and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
• One of ISM’s founders, Dr. Ghassan Andoni was recently nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize along with Jeff Halper, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against
House Demolition.
• The Israeli government has failed to prove that there were any weapons tunnels
under the home Rachel Corrie died defending.
• The Israeli government has never accused Samir or Khaled Nasrallah, the owners
of the home Rachel died defending, or their wives or children of links to terrorism.
• Rachel’s accounts of destruction in Rafah generally correspond with the
descriptions and conclusions of respected third party organizations like Human
Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
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2. Nonviolent Resistance is not Illegal: HRW Should Retract Statement
On Sunday, Nov. 19, hundreds of Palestinian civilians crowded into the building
where the family of Mohammed Baroud and a number of other families live in Jabalya
refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Israeli military forces had warned that the building
would be attacked. The planned Israeli attack was deterred by this action. Two hours
later, the scene was replicated at the family home of Mohammed Nawajeh, with the
same results.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) applauds the people of Jabalya for their
courageous and effective use of nonviolent resistance, and we express our full
solidarity with their actions, which are positive initiatives in the struggle to
defend Palestinian rights. We encourage international volunteers to participate in
these actions, as did Father Peter Dougherty and Sister Mary Ellen Gundeck of the
Michigan Peace Team.
We note with disappointment that Human Rights Watch (HRW) chose to condemn these
actions, suggesting that they could constitute a “war crime.” In a November 22, 2006
press release entitled, “OPT: Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against
Military Attacks” HRW Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said, “There is no
excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack. Whether or not the
home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm’s
way is unlawful.”
HRW’s press release is factually, legally, and morally flawed.
HRW based its statement on contested factual information. HRW claimed that
“Palestinian armed groups” and Mohammed Baroud encouraged civilians to gather around
the homes. However, while some press accounts mention Baroud’s role, numerous other
press and participant accounts from Gaza suggest that the mobilizations resulted
from calls by civilian leaders and a groundswell of popular anger against Israeli
home demolitions.
As just one example, Eyad Bayary, a head nurse at Jabalya Hospital who went to
Baroud’s home with another twenty of his neighbors, told ISM that he did not hear a
call from Baroud asking people to protect his home. He and his neighbors went to
support Baroud and his family and to protest the shelling out of their own volition.
“I live next to Mr. Baroud’s family home. If his home is shelled at best my home
would be damaged. My wife is in the six month of her pregnancy. God forbid, a
shelling of the house next door could endanger her and the child she is carrying.
All our children would be affected. We went to the Baroud family house because we
were scared and angry. No one asked us to come.”
In addition to this factual weakness, we believe that HRW’s position reflects
serious errors in the interpretation and application of international humanitarian
law (IHL), in two fundamental respects: (1) HRW’s position explicitly rejects
considering the legitimacy of the target as relevant to the legal analysis; and (2)
HRW’s position erroneously places the burden of protecting civilian lives on the
population being attacked instead of on the belligerents carrying out the attack.
According to HRW, “In the case where the object of attack is not a legitimate
military target, calling civilians to the scene would still contravene the
international humanitarian law imperative for parties to the conflict to take all
feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of attack.” IHL clearly
makes target legitimacy central to the determination of lawful vs. unlawful conduct.
Protocol I of the Geneva Convention, Article 51(7) provides that “Parties to the
conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual
civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to
shield military operations.” Article 52 of the same Protocol makes clear that a
civilian home is a civilian object and not a military objective. Even if Mohammed
Baroud and Mohammed Nawajeh are military commanders, their families, their family
homes and the homes of other families in the same buildings are not military
objectives.
Therefore, the Geneva Convention’s prohibition on the use of civilians to shield
military objectives does not apply to the voluntary gathering of Palestinian
civilians to protect civilian objects like the homes of Baroud and Nawajeh from a
pending Israeli attack. Rather, Israel’s targeting of these homes constitutes a
violation of numerous provisions of IHL that proscribe attacks on civilian property,
and of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, strictly prohibiting the
destruction of property for the purpose of collective punishment.
While IHL places obligations on all parties to a conflict to take “all feasible
precautions” to protect civilians from the effects of attack, HRW does not cite
support for its claim that encouraging civilians to defend their homes from military
strikes constitutes a violation of this imperative. In fact, Protocol I, Article 57
relating to precautions in attack, specifically places the obligation to protect
civilians on “those who plan or decide upon an attack.” (Protocol I, Art. 57(2)(a)).
Furthermore, providing warning does not absolve Israel of its responsibility not to
attack civilian objects, nor does it make the civilian objects legitimate military
targets.
The error of HRW’s interpretation of IHL is even more obvious when we consider that
HRW statements like “Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military
Attacks” and “knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm’s way is unlawful” would
proscribe many completely legitimate forms of nonviolent resistance in occupied
peoples’ struggles. The Fourth Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocols were
never intended to permit an aggressor to choose his targets at will, while putting
the onus on the civilian victims to get out of the way. Nor were these laws created
to prevent civilians from exercising their right to defend their property.
The condemnation of nonviolent efforts by civilians to prevent the destruction of
civilian homes also represents a failure of moral judgment on the part of HRW. To
condemn nonviolent actions in this way is to confuse civil resistance with the
forcible use of “human shields” by military combatants, such as those documented by
the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem in its November, 2002 report “Human
Shield”. The report describes Israeli military seizures of Palestinian civilians,
forcing them to walk in front of soldiers and sometimes placing them on the hoods of
their vehicles to deter attacks against their military personnel. These Israeli
military actions are clearly war crimes (though HRW failed to label them as such in
its April, 2002 report, “In a Dark Hour: The Use of Civilians during IDF Arrest
Operations”). It is a mistake to extend this principle to the courageous voluntary
participation of unarmed individuals in mass nonviolent actions in defe!
nse of their human rights.
By condemning nonviolent civilian resistance in this way, HRW endangers those
practicing it, and undermines the work of other human rights groups and the
credibility of HRW itself. ISM calls upon HRW to retract its November 22 press
release and to recognize the courage and the legitimacy of the actions of the
Palestinian community in Jabalya.
***********************************
3. Protesters get a mauling in Bil’in
At today’s peaceful protest against the apartheid wall in Bil’in the IOF lashed out
at activists with fists and batons, and arrested one Israeli activist. One activist
had blood streaming down his face from the assault and had to have his head bandaged
by medics on the scene.
Soon after the start of the smaller than average march the intentions of the IOF
were clear. Soldiers had positioned themselves on the roof of a house at a junction
inside the village, and were visible in large numbers lining the route of the march.
When the villagers reached the gate in the wall with their tractor, they demanded
access to their land on the other side. Being denied access, the protesters set
about dismantling the razor wire in front of the gate. Despite a barrage of sound
bombs and some tear gas much of the wire was removed. Unable to disperse the small
but determined crowd, the soldiers called in reinforcements and escalated their
military violence. They climbed over the gate to target one protester, whilst
ruthlessly dealing with anyone in their way.
Several people suffered cuts and torn clothes, as well as the head injuries suffered
by a villager and an Israeli activist. The arrested Israeli was badly beaten and had
his shirt torn off. He is still in detention.
Back in the village soldiers were shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at the
village children. Two children were shot, one in the head and the other in the back
and legs. The brutality shown by the IOF and their large presence inside Bilin
today, marks another escalation in their efforts to quash the village’s non-violent
resistance that has captured the imagination of peace activists from all over the
world.
For photos see: http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/01/bilin-1-12-06/
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4. The olive doesn’t fall far from the tree
by Joey Weinberg
Today (Thursday, Nov 16) is definitely a good day to pick some olives; in fact, with
the heavy rain from yesterday, it is even better that we are doing this as soon as
possible. Too much rain makes problems for the harvest and for the olives harvested
(I’m not sure why but too much water is no good), so it is good that we’re
harvesting today. Full of early morning coffee and tea, we are going to pick olives
with a couple of Faroun villagers in their olive groves, which lie across the street
from the village (just south of Tulkarem). So, if you live in Faroun and have land
that you want to get to, all you have to do is cross a street.
I rarely think of crossing a street as difficult, but our friend Yusef has to go
through a lot of trouble to cross this street. Immediately on either side of the
street is a tall fence loaded with electronic sensors; on either side of this fence
is a wide pathway, then another fence, then a bunch of razor wire, and then a
trench.
You see, like so many Palestinian villages, Jawad’s village, Faroun, is cut off from
its agricultural land by Israel’s annexation wall. Just like Bil’in, Jayyus and many
other rural communities, the main road through the village comes to a dead end at
the annexation fence. Unlike the two other villages I named though, at the place
where the main road through Faroun meets the annexation fence there is no gate
through which to pass, so access is a bit trickier. So, early this morning, like we
did yesterday morning, I, a few foreigners and our friend Yusef start our trek
through the village of Faroun to Faroun’s agricultural land by walking around the
village — yes, around the village.
The nearest point of access between Faroun the village and Faroun the agricultural
land is off a road that goes around the village. This road around the village has a
turnoff which comes to an end at an Israeli checkpoint. On the other side of this
checkpoint is a road which goes directly to Jawad’s land, but the road is a
restricted access road open only to Israelis and the few native Palestinians who
hold Israeli work permits. To access the 4500 dunums (roughly 900 acres) of Faroun
land which lie between the Green Line and Israel’s annexation fence, the Faroun
residents must first get a permit from Israel, and those with permits must travel an
additional 7-9km to the Jubara checkpoint to present their permit to the soldiers.
Even with the permit, access ultimately depends on the discretion of the Israeli
soldiers stationed at the checkpoint.
For the first time in two years, Israel has granted Yusef access to his land, and he
now carries a permit good for one month. Even with this permit, there are some
additional barriers: the nearest point of access to his land, where the village road
meets the Israeli road, is at this checkpoint through which, technically, he is not
allowed to pass.
You see, Yusef’s land access permit is meaningless at the nearest checkpoint, as it
only allows him access to his land, not to the State of Israel, and the road to his
land is officially claimed as part of the State of Israel. However, this morning we
decide that, since Yusef has four foreigners with him, we’d try to pass through this
checkpoint, hoping that, in the presence of foreigners, the Israeli soldiers would
let everyone through. We successfully passed through with Jawad yesterday, so why
not try again?
This early in the morning there is no line. As we reach the checkpoint, the casual
interrogation begins. “Why are you here?”, “Where are you from, etc.” Yusef hands
over his permit, and, after another soldier arrives to debate the status of this
permit, the first soldier turns to me and says, “You can pass here, but he cannot
pass.” To which we ask, “Why? He lives here — his olive grove is just 100 meters up
this road. Why can foreigners pass and this man can’t? We think it’s ridiculous that
we can go to his land and he can’t. What is the problem?”
To this the second soldier replied, “It is complicated, but…” and explained that, as
mentioned earlier, only Israelis or those who have a permit to work in Israel can
pass. After about thirty minutes trying to get the soldier to change his mind –”this
is silly, we’re only going 100 meters down the road, can you call your superiors,
etc.”– a commander offers Yusef a compromise. “You can escort them to the land, then
you must return here and go around to pass through the proper checkpoint.” This is
just too stupid to be real. Yusef heads back to catch a ride to the Jubara
checkpoint, and the four of us walk up the restricted road to his land.
We arrive in the grove to find Yusef’s cousin and his mother pouring the tea, so we
have some tea and get started right away. First, we lay plastic tarp on the ground,
then some of us start stripping the tree of olives ether by hand or with a small,
hand-held rake, letting olives fall to the tarp beneath the tree. Cousin Raed –who
has a 3-month permit– and a family friend get in the trees to show us foreigners how
real work gets done.
Some of these trees are so loaded with olives that it takes a group of five people
one hour to finish one tree, but some of them are underdeveloped and don’t have much
fruit. For the small or underdeveloped trees, we don’t bother laying a tarp, instead
plucking the olives by hand and catching them with buckets or aprons. We get a
pretty good rhythm going: as some of us finish one tree, others get started on
another. We clear away two years of undergrowth and scrub brush to prepare the area
to lay a tarp down, then start plucking, yanking, raking, and picking olives. We
spend the rest of the morning repeating the process.
Occasionally one or two of us collect olives from the ground, and occasionally we
pass around a bottle of water. Occasionally one or two of us gets a bit winded from
the work or squints a bit too much from all the sunshine, and occasionally one of us
will make the others laugh by making monkey noises from up in an olive tree. My role
is not only to harvest but also to periodically munch on partially-dried olives.
Only once did I almost fall from a tree.
We stop for lunch at around 11:30AM; I don’t know where it came from; Um Yusef must
have carried it with her, because one minute she’s putting olives in buckets and the
next she’s telling us to sit and eat, which is probably my favorite thing to do
here. Maybe harvesting olives is a close second, but eating ranks pretty high.
People here like their guests to eat, and in this I fancy myself an overachiever. If
only my appetite matched my enthusiasm, I would be a Palestinian children’s story or
some sort of Saint for food-eaters. But it’s not only the food but the sharing — the
culture of collectivism I’m slowly getting accustomed to. Cooking Arabic coffee over
a campfire, sipping tea under an olive tree, and keeping such great company make it
quite easy to forget the utter stupidity, casual inhumanity and naked brutality of
the circumstances which have brought us here. At the moment I see no soldiers, no
police, no weapons, no racism and hate… and I am truly happy to be here. Should I
feel ashamed for having such a good time with Jawad, Ahmed, and the rest of our
hosts? It really doesn’t feel like work.
As the Palestinian olive harvest nears its end, I consider the persistence of these
farmers who continue to defy the theft and expropriation of their land: these
farmers are the last line of defense for Palestine’s very survival. In fact, the
olive harvest itself may be the biggest roadblock to a seemingly impending erasure
of a culture.
Of course you can discuss perhaps the economics of the olive, the olive tree, olive
oil and the region, but this resistance act is not an economic act. The travel
restrictions which make import/export unavailable to Palesinians renders any such
discussion almost pointless. The economics? There are none. Israel has pretty much
managed to sever the economic ties between the Palestinians and their most famous
domestic product –the olive– through travel restrictions. Under this occupation,
farming your olives is much less a profit venture than a necessary way to be what
you are. It is no longer profitable to maintain your groves, pick your olives, and
simply be what you are — an olive farmer. Hell, in some circumstances it is not even
possible.
So why continue? Why do these people bang their heads against the wall? Why spend
all available time jumping through Israel’s hoops to get permits, then walking one
or two hours out of the way just to work as an olive farmer and not make a living?
You could say that many of these farmers have nothing to gain and everything to
lose. The very fact that these farmers continue to work in their fields and on their
lands may be the biggest act of defiance and complete noncooperation I have seen:
they simply refuse to disappear. These people are as solid and as strong as the
hundreds-year-old trees they care for, as persistent as the thousands-year-old
traditions they keep. As they refuse to let the occupation kill their traditions and
their lands, they refuse to let the occupation kill their spirits.
You could say that the olive doesn’t fall far from the tree.
For photos visit http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/02/joey-journal/
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5. Humanity lost
by Laila El-Haddad, November 29th
http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/
We stood and we waited and we cried and we returned back to Egypt yesterday, and
again today. Us and thousands of others.
It was anguish. Anguish and misery and desperation personfied in every woman, man
and child.
One hour turned into two, then three, then five, as we stood shielding our eyes from
the piercing midday sun on Wednesday, when we were told the Crossing would be
opening for a few hours.
Some wailed in exhaustion, others fainted, still others cracked dry humor, trying to
pass the time. We stood, thousands of us, packed together elbow to elbow like
cattle, penned in between steel barriers on one end, and riot-geared Egyptian
security guards on the perimeter, who were given orders not to allow anyone through
until they hear otherwise from the Israelis-and to respond with force if anyone
dared.
Many of the people had been waiting for more than two weeks to cross back into Gaza,
sometimes making the trip to the crossing several times a day upon receiving word of
its imminent opening.
“We have been waiting for 15 days now. Only god knows when it will open-today,
tomorrow, the day after?” said 57-year-old Abu Yousuf Barghut, his shrapnel-riddled
arm trembling by his side.
His tearful wife, Aisha, added: “God knows we only went to seek treatment for him
and to come right back. And now we are stuck and waiting us in Gaza are my four
children. This is the most basic of rights-to be able to return to our homes, and we
are even denied that.”
“The only way anyone will actually pay attention to our plight is if one of us dies
here, and even then, I’m not sure the world will care,” stammered one young man,
Isam Shaksu, his eye heavily bandaged after having received an corneal implantation
in Jordan.
In July, seven Palestinians waiting to be let into Gaza from Egypt died waiting to
cross Rafah.
After the hours and the sun, one would have thought the black steel gates ahead of
us were the gates to Heaven, but in fact they only led to more masses, more waiting,
more hell.
There is something you feel as you stand there, and sometimes squatted, for hours at
a time, waiting to be let through the Egyptian side of Rafah Crossing. It is
something of your humanity slowing drifting away. It is gradual, but unmistakable.
And you are never quite the same again.
There were mixed Israeli orders-first to open the crossing for three days, starting
Wedneday, yesterday; then breaking news at 11pm retracted that order, and by
Wednesday morning, another about-face saying that the border would in fact be
opened. By the time we arrived, it was 11am, and already somewhere around 2000 has
amassed in front of the gates. And no one was budging.
Yousuf waited along with us, asking incessantly “When would the crossing open??”,
and begging me to pose the same quetion to the Egyptian officers manning it.
Everytime he’d see the gate budge open he would get excited and yell “Its open!! Its
open!!”. And everyone would heave a heavy sigh.
When we finally did make it inside the “Second sector” of the Egyptian side, the
relief was overwhelming-we had moved 50 metres!! And we could wait another four
hours if it meant we’d finally be allowed through. But instead we faced yet another
uncertain wait; it was like some sadistic game with no certain ending.
As we waited, we saw members of the Palestinian athletic teams heading to the Asian
games after a two week delay.
We also saw Ismail Haniya on his way out to his Arab tour. He stopped to mingle with
the desperate crowds, some hailing him, some complaining about how long they had
waited.
We finally learned that the crossing had been closed this entire time, and the
Egyptians were only allowing people through to give them some hope to cling on
to-and to prevent the masses from rioting, which has happened before.
We thought once he’d passed, we’d be allowed through. But it is then we learned that
Mahmud Zahar had crossed earlier that morning-carrying suitcases full of $20
million.
The European Monitors were not pleased. How could he not declare the money, and how
could he have the audacity to try and bring in money to feed his peole in the first
place??
They filed a “complaint” with the Israelis, who immediately told them to shut down
the crossing, without giving a reason, leaving thousands-including Yousuf, my
parents and I, stranded.
My mother and Yousuf had gone ahead of my father and I-and our bags-into the
terminal, and Yousuf fell asleep in the mosque. It was then that the officers had
informed us the crossing was no longer operational-and everyone who was inside, even
those who had already made it as far as the Palestinian side, would have to go back.
We pleaded with an Egyptian Officer: “It took us 6 hours to get as far the inside of
the terminal, please let us through”.
“Big deal-it took me ten hours to get here from Cairo,” he retorted, as I reminded
myself they get paid a measly 180 Egyptian pounds a month and couldn’t care less.
Another officer was more sympathetic.
“What you lot have to understand is that no one gives a damn what happens to you-you
could sit here and suffocate for all they care. You are simply not human enough for
them to care.”
When is it that we lost our humanity, I wondered? And when is it that the humanity
and desperation of a people, waiting desperately to be let through to their homes,
was less important than the call of duty? And that a government was made to choose
between feeding their own people, or giving them passage to their homes?
Inside the terminal, the scenes were dizzying. Already disoriented form lack of
sleep and little food, I looked around in awe. It was nothing short of an interment
camp, and I lost myself somewhere between the silent anguish of old men, aching,
teary eyed-women on the verge of collapse, and children, some strewn across the
floor in exhaustion, others who were sick, in wheelchairs, wailing…
We returned to Arish, exhausted and sleep deprived, only to find that all of the
apartments were occupied by returning passengers. The only flat we found was one
without hot water and leaky ceiling pipes, but we couldn’t care less. By 9pm we were
all out.
The next morning, we left again to the border-where we had left our
suitcases-despite word from taxi drivers that the crossing would not open. We waited
again, this time for only 5 hours, until we decided it was an exercise in futility.
Everyone was looking for answers-some answers, any answers. When would the crossing
open? Was there hope it would open today? If so, what time? Should we wait, should
we return to Arish? Nobody knew.
Every now and then someone would make a call to some secondary source they knew in
Gaza or on the border, and rumors would spread like wildfire across the masses. “At
noon-they say at noon there is a possibility it will open! Patience, patience!”.
And then we wait some more.
One man, frustrated, took his bags and began to push them back on a trolley and out
through the throngs of exhausted passengers.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going??” bellowed one of the Egyptian officers.
“To Jerusalem! Where do you think??” he snapped.
It was nearing the end of our long day, and overcome by exhaustion, we didn’t know
whether to laugh or cry.
A friend in the UN told me the Europeans had left their posts after yesterday’s
“incidents” and thus the Palestinian side of the crossing has shut down indefinitely
now.
And so now, we return to square one. Back in Arish, waiting, as ever, for the border
to open.
**************************************
6. Newbury News: “Peace worker’s tales of war”
by Neil Welch, December 1st
http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=3394
Human rights worker teams up with Newbury shop owner to raise funds for the woman
who saved her life
A HUMAN rights worker who spent last Christmas in an Israeli jail has visited
Newbury to help raise money for the woman who saved her life.
Sharon, 33, won’t give out her surname as she fears Israeli authorities will use the
information to ban her from the country or lock her up again.
She gave a talk and showed a video at Friends Meeting House in Newbury on Wednesday
to highlight the plight of Palestinians in Israel.
Sharon was put in prison after being banned from a peace conference in Bethlehem on
December 21 last year, spending 11 days behind bars.
“It was ironic that I was trying to get to Bethlehem and they wouldn’t let me,” she
said.
Although her time in prison was hard, she wasn’t subjected to the same abuse as some
of her fellow peace workers.
“My colleague Vic was beaten by seven guards to try and convince him to get on the
plane back. They just shouted at the girls,” she said.
“Another peace worker arrived on Christmas Day and bought decorations and chocolate
coins – those were our presents.”
But this wasn’t the most difficult time in Sharon’s travails. On April 1, 2002,
Israeli soldiers opened fire on her and nine other peace workers at a protest. She
was left with near-fatal wounds.
“We had our hands in the air and were walking backwards,” she said.
“I was shot in the stomach.
“It was April Fools Day – and the first time the Israeli army had used live
ammunition on human rights workers.”
Sharon said that despite the bloodshed, the hospital was nearly empty because the
army wouldn’t let Palestinians out of their houses, even for medical attention.
“Children were spending the night in their homes with their dead parents,” she said.
It was in hospital that she met Abla, the nurse whose care helped save her life.
“Her dream was to study public health, and she couldn’t achieve that without outside
help,” Sharon said.
Jacqui’s Convenience Store, on the corner of Berkeley Road and Blenheim Road in
Newbury, is helping raise money for Abla, 29, with a collection tin.
The shop has raised around £170 so far, which has helped to put Abla through her
first two semesters at Al Quds University in Jerusalem.
Jacqui Finch, who owns the store, said she was glad to aid the cause.
“It’s great to help Abla achieve what she has done so far,” she said.
“People are happy to contribute when they hear her story – even school children are
putting their pennies in.”
Sharon, who is trained as a medic, works for the International Solidarity Movement,
a group made up of Israeli, Palestinian and Western human rights workers.
She visits the Middle East around three times a year, and spends her time in the UK
raising awareness of civilians’ plight.
And after spending last Christmas behind bars, she has no intention of relaxing with
some turkey and a glass of wine this year.
“I’ll probably go and work in Lebanon for Christmas,” she said.
*************************************
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PLEASE FORWARD THIS UPDATE WIDELY
Zionism is Racism
by Zionism is Racism
Monday, Dec. 04, 2006 at 9:45 PM
Zionism is supremist ideology. Throw the racists out.
supremist ideology
by Hadith
Monday, Dec. 04, 2006 at 10:06 PM
“The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until you make war on the Jews, until a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree, and the rock or tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, here is a Jew behind me, kill him!’”
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land
by Israel's crimes
Tuesday, Dec. 05, 2006 at 8:52 AM
israelscrimes.blogspot.com/2006/11/peace-propaganda-promised-land.html
Muslim propaganda
by not on the terrorist payroll
Tuesday, Dec. 05, 2006 at 6:13 PM
How about in the interest of balance we hear from those documented Muslims who preach genocide from the pulpit?
http://www.pmw.org.il/tv%20part6.html
propaganda picture
by propaganda picture
Tuesday, Dec. 05, 2006 at 8:56 PM
That guy has needlessly been pointed out as the bad guy, when common sense will tell you that the ISM, which is nothing but terrorists and sympathizers, pushed Corrie in front of that dozer for publicity.
Go ahead, make me a liar. Tell me the ISM terrorists are upstanding and moral.
K
by C.
Tuesday, Dec. 05, 2006 at 9:02 PM
Ok.
The ISM are upstanding and moral.
Happy?
not yet
by Sunshine Band
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 3:39 PM
*Convince* me, then. :)
They oppose Zionism
by death to the settler state
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 4:27 PM
It's the only upstanding and moral response to ethnic nationalism.
ethnic nationalism
by enlighten me
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 5:18 PM
Which ethnic nationalism are you talking about? The rights of a Jewish state or a Palestinian state?
And will someone please not evade this question?
Why doesn't the rest of the Arab world want the Palestinians? Why are they outcasts even among their own?
begging the question
by bunk logic
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 6:00 PM
>Which ethnic nationalism are you talking about?
Zionism. It's like Nazism, except that the favored ethnic group is Jews, not Aryans. Everything else about the ideology is essentially the same.
>The rights of a Jewish state
States do not exist by right, but by force of arms.
>or a Palestinian state?
A Palestinian state would include *all* Palestinians, of *all* the ethnic groups who live in Palestine, and as such are Palestinians by definition, including Arabs, Jews, Druze, Armenians, Circassians, etc.
>Why doesn't the rest of the Arab world want the Palestinians?
To absorb the al Nakba refugees would abet Zionist ethnic cleansing.
>Why are they outcasts even among their own?
They aren't. Au contrair, they are widely considered to be heroes of the resistance to neo-colonialism.
let me fix that for you, Nazi boy
by helpful person
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 6:24 PM
Allow me to fix something by an indymedia editor on the terrorist payroll:
except that the favored ethnic group is Muslims
"the favored ethnic group is Muslims"
by back to school
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 7:29 PM
Muslims are not an ethnic group. They are a religious group drawn from many ethnic groups.
>the favored ethnic group is Muslims
An ad hominem is not a rebuttal. It's a way to change the subject.
"xeroxed"
by logical fallacy
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 7:32 PM
http://onegoodmove.org/fallacy/style.htm
Style Over Substance
Definition:
The manner in which an argument (or arguer) is presented is taken to affect the likelihood that the conclusion is true.
Examples:
1. Nixon lost the presidential debate because of the sweat on his forehead.
2. Trudeau knows how to move a crowd. He must be right.
3. Why don't you take the advice of that nicely dressed young man?
Proof:
While it is true that the manner in which an argument is presented will affect whether people believe that its conclusion is true, nonetheless, the truth of the conclusion does not depend on the manner in which the argument is presented. In order to show that this fallacy is being committed, show that the style in this case does not affect the truth or falsity of the conclusion.
Zionism is Racism
by Zionism is Racism
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 8:33 PM
Keep up the good work! It's good to see the Zionazi getting humiliated, yet again. They hate having no power over indymedia. They get a bit too comfortable in their cozy relationshipp with western, right wing, pro-war, pro-israel media that listens everytime they cry...
"Zionism is Racism"
by you got that right
Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 10:44 PM
It's a message they can't rebut, so instead, they attack the messengers.
Throw the filth out
by Jizrael is a Racist Apartheid state
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 1:26 AM
I notice that, too. Why are the right wing bigoted sicko defenders of the terror state of israel so predictable?
"ow does NAMBLA’s materials get to the book fair to begin with?"
by begging the question
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 12:57 PM
They don't.
Better questions:
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/25282_comment.php#25494
"They don't."
by another lie documented
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 1:59 PM
There are others in the know who say otherwise.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/02/01/17192461.php?show_comments=1
"There are others in the know who say otherwise."
by they lie
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 3:08 PM
If there were NAMBLA materials at the book fair, Zombietown would have posted pics of it.
Political expediency
by vs. compassion
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 3:27 PM
>Why doesn't the rest of the Arab world want the Palestinians?
To absorb the al Nakba refugees would abet Zionist ethnic cleansing.
No. 850,000 Jews were forcibly expelled from Arab countries in the last few generations. Did these people languish in refugee camps? The ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands was facilitated by the taking in of this refugees, not as an act of political expediency, but as an act of compassion. Perhaps if they had been left to suffer- perhaps if they had been used as pawns by their own people, then we could point to them today and talk about the suffering Jewish refugees. Is that what you would have recommended? Let them suffer, as long as its politically useful?
The Jews of Iraq
by repost
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 4:00 PM
http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/ameu_iraqjews.html
(snip)
I write this article for the same reason I wrote my book: to tell the American people, and especially American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called "cruel Zionism." I write about it because I was part of it.
(snip)
* * * * *
Continued at:
www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/ameu_iraqjews.html
‘Jews Are Our Dogs'
by JOSEPH WAHED
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 4:12 PM
A man brazenly shoots his way into the Jewish Federation of Seattle, kills a woman, and wounds four others, three critically. As he opens fire, the alleged assailant shouts, "I am a Muslim and I'm angry at Israel," as if to indicate that his religious affiliation gives him permission to kill Jews.
In a second incident, Mel Gibson, a Hollywood director and actor, is arrested in Malibu on suspicion of drunk driving. He allegedly screams at the officer, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," not realizing that nearly all today's wars are Islamic wars. He also asks his arresting officer, "Are you Jewish?"
While Jew hating is not a new phenomena, it has recently become the insult de riguer in many parts of our society. And it isn't just gun-toting rampagers or drunk celebrities — the hatred is evident in the streets. Nowhere is that clearer than in a third recent incident, in which Palestinian Arabs in the streets of San Francisco chant proudly in Arabic and without fear of being castigated, "The Jews are our dogs."
It happened at an anti- Israel demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on Thursday, July 12, organized by a Palestinian group called Al Awda. The demonstration was loud, boisterous, and passionate. Suddenly, demonstrators began chanting in Arabic " Al Yahud Kelabna," "the Jews are our dogs."
As troubling as it is to hear such sentiment voiced on a street in America, it was even more distressing for me since it conjured up terrible memories of when I was a young boy growing up in Egypt. These memories included Egyptian mobs descending upon the Jewish quarter of Cairo chanting " Al Yahud Kelabna," followed by violence that left some Jews dead and injured and the community dazed.
Egyptian Muslim mobs no longer do this, but only because there is no longer an Egyptian Jewish community to speak of. We once were over 80,000. Today there are fewer than 50 Jews remaining in Egypt, according to one official tally. Indeed, once thriving Jewish communities in 10 Arab countries were likewise cleansed. Today, only about 5,000 Jews remain in the Arab Muslim world, mostly in Morocco and Tunisia. Arab sympathizers blame the creation of Israel, but in reality Middle Eastern Jewry began to deteriorate years before Israel was established.
Nazi and Zionist: hand in hand
by history buff
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 6:26 PM
Hajj Amin Al Husseini wasn't Hitler's only stooge in British occupied Palestine. Consider the case of Fieval Polkes:
"Von Bolschwing was deeply involved in intelligence work--and in the persecution of innocent people -- for most of his adult life. He had joined the Nazi party at the age of twenty-three, in 1932, and had become an SD (party security service) informer almost immediately. In the years leading up to 1939, von Bolschwing became a leading Nazi intelligence agent in the Middle East, where he worked under cover as an importer in Jerusalem. One of his first brushes with Nazi espionage work, according to captured SS records, was a role in creating a covert agreement between the Nazis and Fieval Polkes, a commander of the militant Zionist organization Haganah, whom von Bolschwing had met through business associates in the Mideast. Under the arrangement the Haganah was permitted to run recruiting and training camps for Jewish youth inside Germany. These young people, as well as certain other Jews driven out of Germany by the Nazis, were encouraged to emigrate to Palestine. Polkes and the Haganah, in return, agreed to provide the SS with intelligence about British affairs in Palestine. Captured German records claim that Polkes believed the increasingly brutal Nazi persecution of the Jews could be turned to Zionist advantage -- at least temporarily -- by compelling Jewish immigration to Palestine, and that the Haganah commander's sole source of income, moreover, was secret funds from the SS.
It was in the course of these negotiations that the young Baron von Bolschwing gained the trust of Adolf Eichmann, who was at the time an obscure SS functionary specializing in intelligence on Freemasonry and Jewish affairs for the Nazi party. The acquaintance was more than a casual one, for von Bolschwing went on to play a central role in arranging conferences between Eichmann and Polkes in Vienna and Cairo, contacts that established Eichmann as the SS's Jewish affairs expert and laid the foundation for his later career as the architect of the extermination of European Jewry.”
-- Blowback : America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War by Christopher Simpson, ISBN: 1555841066, p 253
Simpson’s source on this is:
Sicherheitsdienst des RFSS SD-Hauptamt, Palastinareise Bericht (U.S. designation no. 173-b-16-14/61), now at Frames 2936012-2936068, microfilm roll 411, T-175, RG 242, NA, Washington, D.C.
* * * * *
After the war, von Bolschwing settled in California. He became a Republican Party activist and a personal friend of Richard Nixon. Among his other accomplishments, he perpetrated the single largest stock fraud in California’s history. He squirmed out of the charges when a patsy took the fall for him. Later he was partners in a defense electronics company called TCI with Iran-contra figures Richard Secord and (Iranian Jew) Albert Hakim.
What a guy, huh? For details, see:
http://www.newsmakingnews.com/mbtape11,22,81,520.htm
* * * * *
Then there was Menachem Begin, terrorist extrordinaire, who later was elected to the highest office in the land.
Before that, he waged war against Hitler enemies.
See:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/irgun.html
Irgun Zeva'i Le'umi
“The National Military Organization” (Etzel, I.Z.L.)
(snip)
From 1943 Etzel was headed by Menachem Begin. In February 1944, Etzel declared war against the British administration. It attacked and blew up government offices, military installations and police stations.
(snip)
* * * * *
Begin was not just a founding father of Israel, but also the butcher of Deir Yassin, Palestine’s very own Lidice:
See:
http://www.deiryassin.org/mas.html
(snip)
Early in the morning of Friday, April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin, and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. It was several weeks before the end of the British Mandate. The village lay outside of the area that the United Nations recommended be included in a future Jewish State. Deir Yassin had a peaceful reputation and was even said by a Jewish newspaper to have driven out some Arab militants. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and one plan, kept secret until years afterwards, called for it to be destroyed and the residents evacuated to make way for a small airfield that would supply the beleaguered Jewish residents of Jerusalem.
By noon over 100 people, half of them women and children, had been systematically murdered. Four commandos died at the hands of resisting Palestinians using old Mausers and muskets. Twenty-five male villagers were loaded into trucks, paraded through the Zakhron Yosef quarter in Jerusalem, and then taken to a stone quarry along the road between Givat Shaul and Deir Yassin and shot to death. The remaining residents were driven to Arab East Jerusalem.
That evening the Irgunists and the Sternists escorted a party of foreign correspondents to a house at Givat Shaul, a nearby Jewish settlement founded in 1906. Over tea and cookies they amplified the details of the operation and justified it, saying Deir Yassin had become a concentration point for Arabs, including Syrians and Iraqis, planning to attack the western suburbs of Jerusalem. They said that 25 members of the Haganah militia had reinforced the attack and claimed that an Arabic-speaking Jew had warned the villagers over a loudspeaker from an armored car. This was duly reported in The New York Times on April 10.
A final body count of 254 was reported by The New York Times on April 13, a day after they were finally buried. By then the leaders of the Haganah had distanced themselves from having participated in the attack and issued a statement denouncing the dissidents of Irgun and the Stern Gang, just as they had after the attack on the King David Hotel in July 1946. A 1987 study undertaken by Birzeit University's Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society found "the numbers of those killed does not exceed 120".
The Haganah leaders admitted that the massacre "disgraced the cause of Jewish fighters and dishonored Jewish arms and the Jewish flag." They played down the fact that their militia had reinforced the terrorists' attack, even though they did not participate in the barbarism and looting during the subsequent "mopping up" operations.
They also played down the fact that, in Begin's words, "Deir Yassin was captured with the knowledge of the Haganah and with the approval of its commander" as a part of its "plan for establishing an airfield."
Ben Gurion even sent an apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But this horrific act served the future State of Israel well. According to Begin, “Arabs throughout the country, induced to believe wild tales of ‘Irgun butchery,’ were seized with limitless panic and started to flee for their lives. This mass flight soon developed into a maddened, uncontrollable stampede. The political and economic significance of this development can hardly be overestimated.”
(snip)
Of about 144 houses, 10 were dynamited. The cemetery was later bulldozed and, like hundreds of other Palestinian villages to follow, Deir Yassin was wiped off the map. By September, Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Poland, Rumania, and Slovakia were settled there over the objections of Martin Buber, Cecil Roth and other Jewish leaders, who believed that the site of the massacre should be left uninhabited. The center of the village was renamed Givat Shaul Bet. As Jerusalem expanded, the land of Deir Yassin became part of the city and is now known simply as the area between Givat Shaul and the settlement of Har Nof on the western slopes of the mountain.
The massacre of Palestinians at Deir Yassin is one of the most significant events in 20th-century Palestinian and Israeli history. This is not because of its size or its brutality, but because it stands as the starkest early warning of a calculated depopulation of over 400 Arab villages and cities and the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian inhabitants to make room for survivors of the Holocaust and other Jews from the rest of the world.
(snip)
* * * * *
Then there was Yitzhak Shamir . . .
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/ironwall/15-shamir.htm
(snip)
Shamir’s Background
(snip)
. . . was born Yitzhak Yzernitzky, in Rozeny, in what is now Byelorussia, in 1915.
(snip)
Little is known of his Irgun career, but one incident stands out. In 1938 Yzernitzky and a 15-year-old recruit, Eliyahu Bet Zouri, tried to blow up a WZO defence fund collection booth which levied a toll on Jewish travellers leaving Tel Aviv. They planted a crude gunpowder bomb which went off prematurely, severely burning Bet Zouri’s legs and scorching the face of Israel’s future Prime Minister. But this bizarre incident was a mere nothing compared to his career as a leading figure in the “Stern Gang”.
(snip)
* * * * *
>a 15-year-old recruit,
Just in case you were wondering who first armed children in Palestine.
Liars have short memories
by truth speaker
Friday, Dec. 08, 2006 at 2:14 AM
And Nessie, everytime you spam this ridiculous statement:
"The cemetery was later bulldozed and, like hundreds of other Palestinian villages to follow, Deir Yassin was wiped off the map. "
I will point out that the various Palestinian websites STILL haven't gotten around to coordinating their lies: According to that bastion of truth, "Palestine Remembered" " Deir Yassin mostly survived destruction " Bulldozed? Apparently not. And they go on to describe the Deir Yassin cemetery- which is still there, even today.
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jerusalem/Dayr-Yasin/
Many of the village houses on the hill are still standing and have been incorporated into an Israeli hospital for the mentally ill that was established on the site. Some houses outside the fence of the hospital grounds are used for residential and commercial purposes, or as warehouses. Outside the fence, there are carob and almond trees and the stumps of olive trees. Several wells are located at the southwestern edge of the site. The old village cemetery , southeast of the site, is unkempt and threatened by debris from aring road that has been constructed around the village hill. One tall cypress tree still stands at the center of the cemetery
Didn't your blessed mother ever tell you that liars have short memories, Nessie?
If these websites lies about Deir Yassin, it makes you wonder just what else they are lying about. And Nessie, "History buff" if every time you post this tripe, I point out its historical inaccuracy, and you continue to post it, that makes you complicit in spreading the lies.
Spreading lies. It seems to be what you do best
To: Ignorance is Bliss
by But willful stupidity is a disgrace
Friday, Dec. 08, 2006 at 12:25 PM
Explanation: Nessie is the dictator who runs SFindymedia. Because he has effectively killed off his own site, (Does any other IMC not allow comments?) he finds it necessary to troll elsewhere. Apparently he is "vacationing" in PA this week.
He's an old dude...losing his capacity for creative thought, and he tends to repeat the same few things over and over.
I don't get the snip part either.
An ad hominem is not a rebuttal
by its a way to change the subject
Friday, Dec. 08, 2006 at 1:28 PM
An ad hominem is not a rebuttal. It is a way to change the topic. Why is he trying to change the topic- is it because truth and history are not on his side? Or is it because he's been caught in this bold faced lie a half dozen times, and he still insists on spreading it?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Zionism is Racism
by Zionism is Racist Terror
Friday, Dec. 08, 2006 at 3:02 PM
We stand opposed to state sponsored terror: U.S. and Israeli terror alike
It would save more lives if the terror state of israel stopped murdering babies.
idiocy
by not on the terrorist payroll
Friday, Dec. 08, 2006 at 4:19 PM
We stand opposed to state sponsored terror: U.S. and Israeli terror alike, but we'll just ignore the Palistinians who blow up school buses and restaurants, okay?
It would save more lives if the terror state of israel stopped murdering babies by straaping bombs to them. Oh, and I'm for abortion too.
Palestinian state sponsored terror is A-ok
by doncha know that?
Friday, Dec. 08, 2006 at 5:00 PM
victims_of_terror_kids3-4.jpg, image/jpeg, 814x454
Don't you realize that state sponsored terror by Hamas and Hizbollah is ok because its "resistence"? And all Israelis, including women, children, the elderly are legitimate targets because they are colonial occupiers? And that all Israeli insitutions- public transportation, shopping malls, and pizza places included are complicit directly or indirectly and are therefore legitimate targets as well?
Get with the program. This is political correctness in America, 2006. Ka-boom.
Palestinian State sponsored Terror
by more victims of Palestinian terror
Monday, Dec. 11, 2006 at 1:42 AM
What did this children do?
Each Palestinian suicide bomber made a conscious decision where to detonate- each of these children's deaths was a deliberate act. There is nothing heroic about suicide bombing.
Zionism is racism
by Zionism is Racism
Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006 at 11:29 AM
The Bush Administration’s insistence that the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel’s existence may seek to achieve a moderate Palestinian leadership to enable a peaceful political process between the sides, but what about Israeli leadership and moderation?
For five months Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip have been subjected to an incessant Israeli military campaign that has left over 500 Palestinians dead. While the provocation of Palestinian crude rocket attacks from Gaza into Israeli towns is well cited in US media, much less emphasized is the fact that most residents of Gaza are refugees from inside what is now Israel. These refugees, along with their brethren in other parts of the region, have been denied their basic human rights solely on the grounds of their ethnicity since their displacement nearly 60 years ago. If American officials really want to advance the peace process, they should apply equal pressure to Israel to recognize Palestinian rights, starting with the refugees.
The Palestinian refugees symbolize the long-standing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The refugee problem has its roots in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which ended in the mass displacement of over 750,000 Palestinian Arabs (approximately half of the Arab population). According to historical accounts of the War, including from recent Israeli historians, Jewish Zionist forces precipitated the flight of the Palestinian Arabs as part of a campaign of population transfer. The nascent State of Israel subsequently enacted laws to expropriate the refugees’ property and bar their return. The refugees were left homeless and destitute, mostly dependent on foreign aid for survival. The subsequent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip resulted in the further displacement of around 200,000 Palestinians.
Today there are over 5.5 million Palestinian refugees and displaced persons who have never been allowed the choice to return to their homes or given redress for their losses. The continued denial of their rights encapsulates the decades-long strife, disenfranchisement and dispossession the Palestinians have suffered.
With the advent of the peace process in the early 1990s, hopes were ignited that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip would end and the plight of the refugees would be resolved. These hopes were dashed as the negotiations reached an eventual deadlock, leading to a stalemate and Israeli military onslaught on Palestinian areas that continues to plague the region.
Following the breakdown of the talks there was much debate about who was to blame for the failure. But this debate obscures the larger problem stoking the flames of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians: Israel’s unwillingness to comply with the rules of international law, including the rights of the Palestinian refugees, and third party states' failure to enforce them.
Taking the Palestinian refugee issue as a case in point, the State of Israel, which controls the key to solving their problem, has refused to recognize the right of the refugees to choose whether to return to their homes and denied any responsibility for the problem since 1948. Israel has adopted this position in violation of international law, including UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which affirmed the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes or receive compensation. The General Assembly has affirmed this most basic human right of the Palestinian refugees every year since 1948. Additionally, admission of Israel to membership in the United Nations (General Assembly Resolution 273 of May 11, 1949) requires Israel to comply with General Assembly Resolution 194 of December 11, 1948. At the time, Israel stated it agreed to comply with this resolution.
Israel has defended its refusal to concede the right of return on the grounds that the massive return of Palestinian refugees would spell the death of the Jewish state. But admitting its historical responsibility to the Palestinian people and recognizing the rights of the refugees could in fact deliver security and prosperity to Israel. Indeed, Israeli recognition of these basic principles would improve the atmosphere on the ground, help create more parity between the parties, and provide a fair framework for working out the details of a peace plan for resolving the conflict.
Israel’s first Prime Minister said that “the old [refugees] will die, and the young will forget”. A few days ago, Israel’s current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, explicitly stated that Palestinians must “relinquish your demand for the realization of the right of return.” Following these ill-fated desires, Israel has sought to deny or delay addressing the refugee issue. However, the amount of blood shed since 1948 proves the fallacy and the immorality of the Israeli position. Adhering to it will only lead to more bloodshed.
The rights of the Palestinian people, and in particular the refugees, should be recognized alongside any legitimate rights of the Israeli people. Ultimately, it is through the evenhanded application of international legitimacy that we may be able to get out of the current stalemate and reach real grounds for peace. Otherwise, the failed Israeli practice of “might is right” will prevail and prolong needless death and destruction on all sides.
The writer is a Palestinian-American businessman living in the besieged Palestinian city of El-Bireh in the West Bank. He co-edited with Staughton and Alice Lynd HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994) and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6185.shtml
First justice, then peace.
by First justice, then peace.
Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006 at 3:45 PM
First justice, then peace. In the meantime, the struggle continues, by any means necessary.
"by any means necessary"
by that's odd
Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2006 at 10:00 PM
There are people in the Klan who use those words too.
And what is "justice"? Be specific. Give examples. But don't speak atop your gored ox.
What comes first
by chicken or the egg?
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006 at 12:50 AM
All this talk about justice and peace neglects the simple fact that without peace there will be no state for the Palestinians.
Without justice, there will be no peace.
by death to the Zionist entity
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006 at 2:50 PM
With armed Zionists on the ground, there will never be justice. Disarm the IDF.
Anti-Zionism is Racism
by Rabid anti-Zionism is Racist Terror
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007 at 8:50 AM
e stand opposed to state sponsored terror: Syria and PA terror alike
It would save more lives if the terror quasi-state of "Palestine" stopped murdering babies, elderly and infirm.
Unfortuately
by This is palestinian resistence
Tuesday, Feb. 06, 2007 at 10:17 AM
This does not echo the words or actions of King and Gandhi
This is what they resist
by Zionism = ethnic cleansing
Monday, Feb. 12, 2007 at 5:09 AM
Say no to bantustans
by death to colonialism
Monday, Feb. 12, 2007 at 1:21 PM
Some quick facts about the wall
by (pssst: Its really a fence)
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007 at 2:07 PM
97 percent of Israel's security barrier is a chain link fence. Yeah, its ugly and no one really likes it, but 90% of all attacks on Israeli civilians have been stopped since the barriers' construction. The security barrier is a temporary, moveable, non-violent way of saving lives until there is a true and lasting peace. Shouldn't saving lives be our priority?
Some quick facts about the wall
by (pssst: Its really a fence)
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007 at 2:07 PM
97 percent of Israel's security barrier is a chain link fence. Yeah, its ugly and no one really likes it, but 90% of all attacks on Israeli civilians have been stopped since the barriers' construction. The security barrier is a temporary, moveable, non-violent way of saving lives until there is a true and lasting peace. Shouldn't saving lives be our priority?
Absolutely not.
by justice for Palestine
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007 at 9:56 PM
Humanity's first priority should be justice for all. When it cost no lives, so much the better. When it costs lives, so be it. Justice is worth more than life.
There will be no justice in Palestine until there is, from the river to the sea, a single secular, egalitarian society, in which it doesn't matter who your mother was, or what name, if any, you use for deity.
If you want to establish that society peacefully, first disarm the racist army of occupation. They are the cause of the violence. Then give back the homes that were stolen, share the land, water and political power equally. Then there will be justice. Then there will be peace. Without justice, there will never be peace.
Sad
by Zionism, Irrelevant Within A Generation
Monday, Feb. 19, 2007 at 5:58 PM
The willingness of Zionists to spit on the dead only exposes the hatred inherent of their supremacist Cult.
No justice no peace?
by No peace, no state!
Friday, Mar. 02, 2007 at 6:42 PM
Humanity's first priority should be justice for all.
Peace must come first, then all can work for Justice.
There will be no justice in Palestine until there is, from the river to the sea, a single secular, egalitarian society, in which it doesn't matter who your mother was, or what name, if any, you use for deity.
This cannot happen in the middle east. Islamic culture forbids it. Monotheists will be tolerated, but will always be subservient. A group like the Ba'hai, who have their headquarters in Israel, as well as their beautiful gardens, are considered apostates, and they will be slaughtered, as they are being throughout the middle east. It is only in Israel, a secular state that Jews, Christians and Muslims live in relative peace and security. Israel is the only country in the middle East that has had its Christian population increase in recent years.
They are the cause of the violence.
The cause of the violence is racial hatred as written in the Koran and perpetuated by Palestinian schoolbooks.
"The cause of the violence"
by death to colonialism
Saturday, Mar. 03, 2007 at 7:24 AM
The cause of the violence is the occupation of Palestine by racist settlers.
No justice no peace?
by No peace, no state!
Sunday, Mar. 18, 2007 at 5:19 AM
>Humanity's first priority should be justice for all.
Peace must come first, then all can work for Justice.
>There will be no justice in Palestine until there is, from the river to the sea, a single secular, egalitarian society, in which it doesn't matter who your mother was, or what name, if any, you use for deity.
This cannot happen in the Middle East. Islamic culture forbids it. Monotheists will be tolerated, but will always be subservient. A group like the Ba'hai, who have their headquarters in Israel, as well as their beautiful gardens, are considered apostates, and they will be slaughtered, as they are being throughout the Middle East. It is only in Israel, a secular state that Jews, Christians and Muslims live in relative peace and security. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has had its Christian population increase in recent years.
>They are the cause of the violence.
The cause of the violence is racial hatred as written in the Qur'an and perpetuated by Palestinian schoolbooks.
"Peace must come first, then all can work for Justice. "
by easy for you say
Sunday, Mar. 25, 2007 at 6:13 PM
Tell that to a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
![[masthead]](/images/masthead_140.png)