[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [GushShalomBillboard] Hell in Nablus // CNN // Avnery
article //demo J'lem Please forward to the SF list
Al Kagan
akagan at uiuc.edu
Sun Aug 4 14:21:45 CDT 2002
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>Date: Sun, 04 Aug 2002 14:02:24 -0500
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>From: "Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)" <info at gush-shalom.org>(by
>way of Belden Fields <a-fields at uiuc.edu>)
>Subject: [GushShalomBillboard] Hell in Nablus // CNN // Avnery article
> //demo J'lem Please forward to the SF list
>Cc: Alfred Kagan <akagan at uiuc.edu>
>Sender: a-fields at uiuc.edu
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> // Gush Shalom Billboard //
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>[1] Hell in Nablus: Internationals at the spot and Israeli HR organization
> try to stop collective punishment
>[2] Israeli cables to ban CNN - sign the website petition
>[3] Indict the Murderers of Oslo!! - Uri Avnery
>[4] Peace Now tonight in Jerusalem: Occupation=economic crisis
>
>[Through billboard we forward our own material and announcements received from
>others. We include articles and reports. For more information,
>approach the addresses
>appearing in each item.]
>
>[1] Hell in Nablus: Internationals at the spot and Israeli HR organization
> try to stop collective punishment
>
>[The following is based on information received from the
>International Solidarity Movement, and on Israeli media reports.]
>
>ISRAELI ARMY CARRYING OUT COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT IN NABLUS
>
> International activists are currently stationed in Nablus homes due
>to be demolished
>as part of the policy of collective punishment - in which families
>are punished for the
>act of an already dead family member, sometimes an act committed long ago.
>.
>The Shakhshir family home, in the Al-Aryone neighborhood, is one of
>those under
>threat. Seven international activists (6 Americans and 1 Irish) are
>now stationed there.
>In flagrant violation of international law banning collective
>punishment, ten members of
>two families residing in the home, are to be made homeless as
>revenge for the act of
>Ammar Shakhshir, on March 17, 2002. Among the famliy members are
>5 children.
>The head of the family is disabled due to a stroke.
>
>As of Friday evening, 4 homes had already been destroyed, with
>families thrown out of
>their residences by Israeli soldiers rampaging through the city.
>International activists
>witnessed Israeli tanks deployed on every corner of the Old City, while troops
>conducted house-to-house searches and used Palestinian civilians as
>human shields.
>(Footage available).
>
>Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states "No protected person may be
>punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed.
>Collective penalties
>and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are
>prohibited. Pillage is
>prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property
>are prohibited."
>
>Over two dozen international activists are currently stationed
>throughout Nablus,
>including in the Old City and in Palestinian Medical Relief Centers
>bearing witness and
>trying to stop human rights violations.
>
>Meanwhile, the army is proceeding with its intention to deport to
>the Gaza Strip two
>Nablus inhabitants. They have been accused of unspecified terrorist
>connections, but
>it is an open secret that they have been singled out as "the brothers of". The
>Jerusalem-based Hamoked (Center for individual rights) has taken up
>their legal
>defence. Adv. Yossi Wolfsohn was interviewed Friday night on
>First-Channel Israeli TV:
>"My clients are not guilty of any offense themselves; they have been
>arrested and face
>deportation because of acts atttributed to their brothers."
>
>The case is now before the military appeals committee which is
>little more than a
>rubber stamp. Next would come an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court...
>
>For more information contact:
>
>Jonathan ISM 972 (0) 58 781 646
>Susan ISM 972 (0) 59 877 091
>Dr. Ghassan Hamdam UPMRC 972 (0) 52 844 608
>Hamoked: 972(0)2-6283555/2249/
> or 972(0)2-6264438
>
>[2] Israeli cables to ban CNN - sign the website petition
>
>On our website - http://www.gush-shalom.org - (Hebrew) a petition against the
>decision to ban CNN from the Israeli cable television can be signed.
>The ban which
>brings our society still closer to the regimes it doesn't like to be
>compared with, is the
>culmination of a government-sponsored right-wing campaign against
>the so-called pro-
>Palestinian bias of CNN. Fact is that also from the Palestinian
>side there is a lot of
>criticism on CNN for being too pro-Israel. We consider the
>combination a sign that
>CNN is an important forum and that it is intolerable that the
>Israeli cable subscribers
>would be deprived of it altogether.
>
>[3] Indict the Murderers of Oslo!! - Uri Avnery
>
> Indict the Murderers of Oslo!!
> Uri Avnery- 3.8.02
>
> When I hear right-wing Israelis shout "Indict the Oslo
>Criminals!" I shudder. Not
>because of the inherent falsification, but because of the sound of the words.
> This slogan is a virtual (and perhaps conscious) copy of the
>slogan used by the
>Nazis in their successful campaign to undermine the Weimar republic.
>Their throats
>were hoarse from shouting "Indict the November Criminals!"
> The "November Criminals" were the German statesmen who, in
>November 1918,
>signed the armistice that ended World War I. After four years of
>valiant fighting, the
>German army was exhausted. The Kaiser had fled. The vaunted General
>Staff was in
>despair. The generals begged the statesmen to sign the capitulation,
>in order to save
>what could be saved.
> But according to Nazi legend, the very opposite had happened.
>The statesmen who
>had signed the armistice were traitors. They had stuck a knife into
>the back of the
>victorious army. The Nazi propaganda wizard, Joseph Goebbels, taught
>his pupils that
>by constant repetition one can turn a lie into truth, and the bigger
>the lie, the easier it
>is to get it accepted.
> The incitement against the "Novemberverbrecher" (November
>criminals) succeeded.
>They were murdered, and the Nazis became a democratically elected government.
> The campaign against the "Oslo Criminals" was successful, too. Rabin was
>murdered and the incitement assumes ever-growing dimensions. By this
>means, the
>extreme rightwing and the settlers hope to take over the state.
>According to the well-
>known recipe, they repeat the historic lie endlessly, so that by now
>it is widely
>accepted as gospel truth. The media repeat it as a self-evident
>fact. The "left", or what
>is left of the "left", looks on as if hypnotized, unable to respond.
> The historic truth is, of course, that it's not the creators of
>the Oslo agreement who
>have caused a historic disaster, but its murderers. If there are
>"Oslo criminals"' they
>are the people who have undermined the agreement from its inception,
>prevented its
>implementation and, by a stubborn sabotage campaign, succeeded in
>derailing it.
> As a basis for peace, the Oslo agreement was not a good
>agreement. It could not
>be good, because the objective circumstances were bad. The balance of power
>between Israel and the Palestinians was something like 1000:1.
>According to all
>criteria - political, military, economic, technological and what not
>- Israel enjoyed an
>immense superiority. The success of the first intifada did somewhat
>redress the
>imbalance and make a compromise easier, but the situation was still far from a
>reasonable balance. Arafat was not so wrong when he told his people
>that this was
>"the best agreement possible in the worst circumstances."
> Considering this, the Oslo agreement was better than it might
>have been. It
>enabled an enormous achievement: the recognition of the State of
>Israel by the
>Palestinian people, and the recognition of the Palestinian people
>and its liberation
>organization by the State of Israel. Until then, each side had
>denied the very existence
>of the other. This mutual recognition is an irreversible historical fact.
> There is no need to enumerate the faults of the agreement,
>headed by the default
>to define its final aim. It outlined a set of interim stages without
>stipulating where they
>would lead. It set a time-table that was much too long. The
>commitments of the two
>sides were formulated vaguely. These faults were not the result of
>carelessness, as
>many (especially Palestinians) believe, but were put into the agreement quite
>intentionally, especially by the Israeli army officers who, by
>request of Rabin, changed
>many paragraphs at the last moment.
> In the Israeli peace camp, many saw the faults clearly, but
>after a heated internal
>debate, most of us decided to support the agreement in spite of them. Our main
>argument was that after the historic mutual recognition, an
>irreversible peace dynamic
>would drive the process forward.
> I am convinced even today that if things had been pushed
>forward rapidly, the Oslo
>agreement would have led to peace. At the time, we asked Rabin to
>heed the warning
>of former British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George who had said
>(about the Irish
>problem) that one cannot cross an abyss in two jumps. Rabin, a
>decent but hesitant
>person, was afraid to rush things. He himself drove the first nail
>into the coffin of Oslo
>by declaring that "there are no sacred dates". By doing so he
>justified the first
>violations of the agreement and allowed the antagonistic forces in
>Israel time to
>regroup for the counter-attack.
> Among the Palestinians, the agreement caused immense euphoria. I was an
>eyewitness to the explosion of joy on the day of signing. Attacks in
>Israel stopped for
>a long time. The Palestinians were convinced that in return for
>their major concessions
>(in Oslo, the Palestinians officially gave up 78% of mandatory Palestine) the
>Palestinian state would soon come into being in all the occupied
>territories, including
>East Jerusalem.
> It did not happen. One after another, successive Israeli
>governments refused to
>carry out their obligations, arguing that the other side, too, had
>violated the agreement.
>Israel has still not implemented the third withdrawal, which should
>have liberated
>almost all the West Bank (Area C) three years ago. Until today, the
>four promised
>"safe passages" between Gaza and the West Bank have not been opened.
>Settlement
>activity has continued on an ever-increasing scale. The economic and
>human situation
>in the territories has got worse daily. (For example: before Oslo,
>every Palestinian
>could travel freely in Israel proper and between Gaza and the West
>Bank, including
>Jerusalem. Oslo put an end to that.)
> On the Palestinian side, disappointment has created a dangerous
>situation. On the
>Israeli side, opposition turned aggressive and violent. The murder
>of Rabin, the deed of
>an individual expressing the will of a large camp, was the beginning
>of the murder of
>Oslo. The enemies of Oslo have come to power in Israel, and they are
>still running our
>state.
> All the Oslo processes have been turned on their head, and no
>other solution has
>taken their place. The bloody cycle of attack-retaliation-
>suicide-assassination has
>started again.
> When the logic of peace gave way to the logic of war, all the
>achievements of Oslo
>assumed an opposite character. For example: the 40 thousand armed
>Palestinians,
>who were allowed to enter the Palestinian territories in order to
>serve as a solid
>foundation for the Palestinian state and safeguard peace and
>security, turned into an
>arm of the uprising against the continuing occupation. The
>Palestinian Authority, which
>was meant to be the nucleus of the state-in-the-making, became the
>center of the
>intifada.
> All this would have been avoided, and peace between the two
>states would have
>become a reality long ago, had we moved forward quickly and
>resolutely on the Oslo
>road. The murderers of Oslo have prevented this - and they are
>mostly on the Israeli
>side, because we are the stronger party.
> The slogan "Indict the Oslo Criminals" should be turned against them.
>
>[4] Peace Now tonight in Jerusalem: Occupation=economic crisis
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Shiri Iram [mailto:shiri at peacenow.org.il]
>
> Sharon-Fuad Government is perpetuating the occupation
>
> Occupation=economic crisis
>
>We just heard about the last economic commands that mean only one thing: more
>unemployed, more bankruptcies, more poor people and more hungry children.
>No money for education, no money for the health system, no money for
>the benefit of
>creation new places to work, no money for handicapped people, No money for
>investments.
>And on the same spot the government spends tons of money, for the
>routine life of the
>settlers.
>The war of settlements cost us
>50 billion shekels already!
>Sharon's government is leading us to the lowest place morality and
>to a social-
>economy crisis Argentina style
>Join us
>this upcoming Saturday night, 3.8.02,
>to a massive demonstration in front of the Prim Minister's residence
>in Jerusalem
>at 20:00hrs
>Bring your friends with you- attached is a flier calling to the
>demonstration- spread it
>among your friends (you can e-mail it, or print it and
>distribute).
>Bring a few pots and spoons with you to wake up the PM before it's
>getting too late!
> For any further information please call
> Shiri 054-687539
> Office 02-5660648
>
>
> ----
> Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
> For Hebrew http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
> For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
> French available at request
>
>Also on the site:
> photo's - of action or otherwise informative
> the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
> the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
> (and a lot more)
> http://www.gush-shalom.org
>
> * *
>
> Palestinian life under occupation, reports and letters
> at: http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
>
> Why are the volunteer international observers important?
> Because the United Nations didn't send its protection force.
> Information about the International Solidarity Movement
> - and how to support it in different ways -
> at http://www.palsolidarity.org/
>
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--
Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA
tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
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