<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Keeping up with news by Mazin Qumsiyeh from Palestine. --mkb<div><br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><b><br></b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>[HumanRights] The slippery slope</b><br></span></div><br><div>As the descent into the slippery slope of racism continues unabated in this<br>land of apartheid, the angle and degree of the slide seem to surprise many.<br>The Israeli parliament (Knesset) has a "Constitution, Law and Justice<br>Committee" terms that only sound similar to what exists in a Western<br>democracy. But the "Jewish state" is "special" where a committee with this<br>name drafts laws to discourage inter-religious marriages, to deny<br>Jerusalemites residency rights, to declare it legal to take land for Jewish<br>development from those natives who happen to be non-Jews, and to flaunt many<br>other basic rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<br>In the last election, the Israeli public split their votes between right and<br>radical right and fascist right parties. The Israeli government shifted from<br>right to ultra-fascist and with it this Knesset Committee. For example,<br>since coming to power the Netanyahu apartheid government froze Palestinian<br>family reunifications that involve Palestinians were frozen (including my<br>wife's) and withdrew residency rights from thousands of Palestinians in<br>Jerusalem. <br><br>It has been so bizarre to watch the level of vitriol emanating from this<br>Knesset committee. They felt emboldened by public support, a public lulled<br>by racist education and by inculcated fear in a similar way that Germans<br>were lulled into accepting the Nazi programs. The party most influential in<br>the committee wants Muslims and Christians, the minority who remained after<br>all the ethnic cleansing, to publicly pledge allegiance to the Jewish<br>(nature of the) state, thus legitimizing their 10th class "citizenship".<br>The committee has now set-up a subcommittee to target even Zionist groups<br>that are deemed not going far enough in their support of a homogeneous<br>Jewish state in all of historic Palestine. They want to examine what can be<br>done about European and North American support for Israeli groups that<br>support a two-state solution or even begin to suggest that Israeli system<br>needs a reform. We are not talking here about funding for Israeli-Jewish<br>groups that are anti-Zionist or that support a democratic state in all of<br>historic Palestinian. They want a cut-off of funding for Israeli groups<br>that simply want an Israel on 78% of historic Palestine and let the<br>Palestinians live somewhat left alone on the 22% that is the West Bank and<br>Gaza (occupied in 1967). <br><br>Most of the groups targeted for being not right enough are also happy to<br>leave most of the 450,000 illegal colonial settlers inside the West Bank.<br>In exchange, they are willing to allow us a little desert land from the 78%<br>that they took in 1948 (in the process ethnically cleansing 530 towns and<br>villages; see Ilan Pappe, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine"). Some<br>targeted groups believe in philosophies of Ben Gurion but not Zeev<br>Jabotinsky (founder of revisionist Zionism and Zionist terror groups in the<br>1930s and 1940s). Ben Gurion with a wave of his hand ordered the expulsion<br>of residents of Lydda and Ramla and had a saying that "Im tirtzu, ain zo<br>agada" (If you will it it is no dream)[IT here is now clear with the<br>outcome, a Jewish state in historic Palestine to replace the native<br>population and living by the sword behind walls in a large Jewish ghetto].<br>Ben Gurion does look moderate compared to Avigdor Lieberman, Menachem Begin<br>and Zeev Jabotinsky. The latter's philosophy does not believe in even using<br>accommodating (diplomatic) rhetoric let alone trying to work with the<br>International powers to achieve the Zionist objectives. By contrast, the<br>late Ben Gurion and Yitzhaq Rabin believed in a mix of violence and<br>political/diplomatic activism (and of course media work). <br><br>But Zionism has always been an International movement with only a part of it<br>here in Palestine (a part that has been growing but increasingly facing<br>stiffer resistance). Sometime we find more moderate Zionists here that say<br>in the USA. American Jews who support Zionism are a bit more radical on<br>average than the average Israeli. That is why the most extreme colonial<br>settlers that are right in the middle of Palestinian towns like Hebron are<br>American Jews. These ultra extremists vandalize mosques and cemeteries,<br>attack Palestinians and their property regularly, uproot trees, steel crops,<br>set fire to homes, and much more. The Israeli government does not intend to<br>investigate the foreign source of funding for these groups but of the groups<br>that are hoping for a two state solution. In the US there is a new campaign<br>to look into the tax-exempt status of groups that support these settlers<br>(see <a href="http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=3437">http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=3437</a><br><<a href="http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=3437&no_cache=1&sword_list%5b%5d=tax&sword_">http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=3437&no_cache=1&sword_list%5b%5d=tax&sword_</a><br>list%5b%5d=exempt&sword_list%5b%5d=status><br>&no_cache=1&sword_list[]=tax&sword_list[]=exempt&sword_list[]=status and<br>support this action). <br>Those Americans get a cozy life on tax-deductible donations from other<br>Americans and are paid by the Israeli government to live on stolen<br>Palestinian lands. The settlers also inadvertently expose the inconsistency<br>in the positions that say we think Palestinians should not be removed from<br>their lands in Ramallah area but it is OK to remove them from their land in<br>the Galilee and the Negev (see <<a href="http://rcuv.wordpress.com/">http://rcuv.wordpress.com/</a>><br><a href="http://rcuv.wordpress.com/">http://rcuv.wordpress.com/</a>). <br><br>Yet, there are many Jews and those who come from Jewish backgrounds who join<br>our struggle here and abroad for restoring the rights to the natives.<br>Palestinians on their part have always welcomed immigrants who come not to<br>control (before Zionism came we welcomed: Jewish European, Circasians,<br>Armenians, Roma, and other groups). Working together for one democratic<br>state in historic Palestine has become to many of us the only way forward<br>that guarantees the natural rights of natives and the wishes of those<br>immigrants who want to live here in peace without denying us basic rights<br>(see my book "Sharing the Land of Canaan" for details).<br><br>Finally, thanks to all of you who expressed interest in our struggle to<br>maintain Ush Ghrab from the settlers. There have been stories about the<br>struggle in Haaretz (e.g. <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147472.html">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147472.html</a>)<br>and in Al-Quds newspaper (see front page on the PDF file of 5 February at<br><a href="http://www.alquds.com/pdf?date=20100205">http://www.alquds.com/pdf?date=20100205</a> but note it is not true that the<br>army has already reoccupied the area, the army is still not there and we<br>will make sure it will not happen). You can help by continuing to educate<br>people around you, by pressuring and educating those in power (media and<br>politicians), by visiting us, and much more. For background on Ush Ghrab<br><a href="http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=1392">http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=1392</a><br>http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=40<br>Let us know if you can help in any other ways and do keep us informed of<br>your activities. <br><br><br>Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD<br>Popular Committee to Defend Ush Ghrab (PCDUG)<br>A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home<br>http://www.qumsiyeh.org <http://www.qumsiyeh.org/> <br>http://www.pcr.ps <http://www.pcr.ps/> <br><br>-------------- next part --------------<br>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>URL: <http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/pipermail/humanrights/attachments/20100207/0d02ba3c/attachment.htm><br>_______________________________________________<br>HumanRights newsletter<br>http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/mailman/listinfo/humanrights<br>This message was sent to brussel@illinois.edu. 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