[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [HumanRights] Hate so thick, actions, and more

Wed Feb 4 16:57:54 CST 2009

The view from the West Bank of Mazin Qumsiyeh.

Begin forwarded message:

> Here in occupied Palestine, we are faced with hate so thick that as  
> the cliche goes "you can cut it with a knife".  Nearly a dozen  
> Palestinian students were injured when the floor collapsed under  
> their feet in Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem, a neighborhood that  
> has been targeted for ethnic cleansing.  Many homes were already  
> demolished and over 40 homes are cracking because Israelis  
> occupation forces are digging tunnels underneath them.  No home  
> repairs are allowed and no legal recourse.  The neighborhood has  
> undergone slow ethnic cleansing and more Jewish settlers are moving  
> in to recreate a “city of David” Arabrein.  In the West Bank, an  
> Israeli army unit decided to shoot an unarmed man and riddle his  
> body with bullets as an example for other workers who try to cross  
> imposed lines of the ghettos (in this case the Ghetto of Hebron) to  
> seek work.  And everyday we hear new stories of Gaza horrors coming  
> out.  Today, we saw doctors explain in frustration the unusual  
> effects of expanding burns (of white phosphorous) and effects of  
> DIME weapons on civilians and children. We also saw remaining family  
> members on the ruins of their homes describe how their wives,  
> husbands, mothers, fathers, and/or children killed in front of their  
> eyes while ambulances were prevented from getting near the injured  
> and dying victims (in one incident a guy who lost his wife and son  
> in law described how the ambulance was hit as it tried to reach them  
> instantly flattening it).  I tried to imagine losing a child, losing  
> a home and then to imagine losing two or more children plus a home  
> (a story that is the case for over 200 families). We learn that the  
> few homes visited by Israeli soldiers and left standing (most were  
> demolished) were left with racist graffitti (Ynet news).
>
> In PR news, the Israeli public by a majority has been convinced that  
> a massacre of 420 children in 3 weeks, destroying 70% of the  
> agricultural sector in Gaza, destroying most factories and food  
> processing plans, shelling several schools and 27 mosques is all  
> justified! Justified for what: for defense of the colonizers and  
> occupiers from any potential resistance by the colonized and  
> occupied. In election news, Ehud Barak of the Labor party hopes to  
> boost his party’s election chances by striking a deal with racist  
> colonial settlers (the Yesha council).  The deal? They agree to  
> voluntarily evacuate an illegal outpost (called Migron) built on  
> private Palestinian lands and the army will build them a new  
> settlement on other Palestinian land (“Adam” area in the occupied  
> West Bank).   Settlers do not have to move until the new settlement/ 
> colony is built.  Other Israeli leaders are competing for who can be  
> more racist in their pronouncements to gather maximum votes from a  
> society that has been built on racism and the denial of the rights  
> of the natives while claiming "chosenness" (rights for Jews from  
> around the world to come here and displace us). So even Avigdor  
> Lieberman who has no compunction about getting rid of “Arab  
> Israelis” (ie. Finish the ethnic cleansing that started in 1948) is  
> not extreme enough for some Israelis who want us gone from even the  
> heavily populated areas of the West Bank.
>
> Ofcourse Israeli leaders can get away with this now because of an  
> International system of supine and/or arrogant stupid governments  
> and because of Palestinian divisions.  While there are many  
> Palestinian factions that have dueled politically in the past, the  
> two main factions now have entered a dark tunnel of idiocy.  Some  
> leaders of one party (Hamas) believes in violent resistance and  
> historical determinism and is convinced that Zionism's (some in  
> Hamas would say Judaism's) main target is Islam.  This even though  
> they know very well that Christians were also ethnically cleansed  
> and that if Palestine was populated with those who worship the  
> camel, that we would still be a target of Zionism. Some leaders of  
> the other party (Fatah) believes they can abandon resistance for  
> endless negotiations (which they call pragmatism) while they  
> brandish the long history of resistance as a club to bash anyone who  
> dares critique their current policies.  The former wants to  
> emphasize their current achievements including at the ballot box  
> while the latter wants to emphasize the glorious past achievements.   
> In both cases to hold on to imaginary positions as leaders of  
> different cell blocks (Gaza cell block and West Bank cell block) in  
> the larger jail of Palestine.  The former wants to build a new PLO  
> while the latter does not want to accept that the current PLO has  
> been rendered almost nonexistant (or at least badly in need of  
> reforms). and on and on.
>
> I for one think it healthy to have different points of views in  
> society (religious, secular, right, left etc).  I also believe it is  
> possible to have healthy functioning societies with such  
> pluralities.  I detest the efforts to dominate and control and set a  
> single political line while oppressing others who disagree as much  
> as I detest manufactured differences that escalate from calling each  
> other names to violent confrontations.  I would hope the rational  
> heads in Hamas and Fatah realize how dangerous this is not only to  
> their own prestige (not behaving like adults) but more importantly  
> to the Palestinian cause of return and freedom (afterall our cause  
> was never about "authority").  The most significant danger to  
> Palestine after the Nakba may be coming because of divisiveness.   
> While this jostle goes on, the people of Gaza suffer a fate of a  
> starved targeted population in a concentration camp with Israeli SS  
> guards happy with the infighting of inmates.  Colonization in the  
> West Bank has accelerated over the years.  Gaza was impoverished and  
> besieged and bombed so massively ("set back decades" per the  
> description of one Israeli leader) that it is indeed a major  
> humanitarian catastrophe.  The "International community" is playing  
> politics even with reconstruction and humanitarian aid efforts.
>
> So instead of massively sending in the aid, politicians squabble  
> while people starve and die (yes, people are still dying from lack  
> of medicines, food, water, etc). I myself feel like throwing up at  
> the callousness of those saying this is because of "Hamas rockets".   
> I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs that collective  
> "punishment" is a crime against humanity (haven't we learned  
> anything from WWII atrocities).   Punishment is in quotes here  
> because according to International law, Palestinians do have a right  
> to resist a foreign military colonizer/occupier "by any means." But  
> even if one considers the resistors to have used unjustified means  
> of resistance (I do in certain cases), punishment of an entire  
> civilian population like what Israel did in Gaza is a war crime and  
> a crime against humanity.
>
> I leave you with three short questions for contemplation before I  
> post the weekly links: 1) how are we to stop the ongoing colonial  
> settlement activities in the West Bank that has suffocated liufe for  
> this segment of Palestine?, 2) how have we prepared for the  
> inevitable Israeli upcoming violent attack on the West Bank (Israel  
> prepared plans of attack Gaza a year before the actual attack)?  And  
> 3) with hate so strong, how are we to increase love and peace  
> especially when the oppressors have such massive power?
>
> Action 1: protest censorship by DIRECTV censorship of Gaza ad
> http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1817
>
> Action 2: Contact Congress to support a positive resolution on Gaza  
> for a change
> http://capwiz.com/adc/issues/alert/?alertid=12576921
>
> Can Mitchell turn Jerusalem into Belfast? Ali Abunimah The  
> Electronic Intifada 2 February 2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10255.shtml
>
> Exchange between journalist Bil Moyers and Abraham Foxman (who  
> defended genocides before
> http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/01/exchange_between_bill_moyers_a.html
>
> Chris Hedges, Peace Is in the Eye of the Beholder
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090119_peace_is_in_the_eye_of_the_beholder/
>
> US "Increasing evenhandedness in the Middle East"
> http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/30/israel/index.html
>
> Photos from Mohammed Fares El Majdalawi in Gaza
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/droplits/sets/72157613249865405/
>
> Mazin Qumsiyeh
> http://qumsiyeh.org
>

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