[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [HumanRights] The slippery slope

Wed Feb 17 11:59:53 CST 2010

Keeping up with news by Mazin Qumsiyeh from Palestine.  --mkb

Begin forwarded message:

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