[Peace-discuss] Gaza bumper sticker conversation was Re: Peace-discuss Digest, Vol 95, Issue 20

[Karen Medina]

The hate crime / xenophobia / thought-crime / kedesophobia
conversation reminded me of a conversation at the AWARE table last
weekend.

Two women were looking over the bumper stickers and calendars, when
one of the women noticed our new bumper sticker, "Gaza, The World's
Largest Outdoor Prison" and decided to voice her disagreement.

She had been on a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel and she came home
full of Israeli history, evidently.

She said Israel had made wonderful generous offers in the years of
1917, 1936, 1948, and 1978. [None of these dates were even in her
lifetime, so that would have been an interesting point I failed to
make.] But also, Francis Boyle had advised Palestine during a few of
the Israeli offers, and his stories are quite worth knowing about.
(see note 1)

Anyway, she went on and on about how the 1948 Palestinian exodus was
by choice -- they were going to Jordan and other countries because the
Palestinians had been promised that those countries would send their
militaries back with the Palestinians and take care of the Israelis
once and for all. She denied that the Israeli army was massacring
people. (see note 2 if you are interested in multiple stories about
the same event.)

After much heated conversation, she said something about even the
Muslims have the right to have a pure Muslim democracy. And I think I
surprised her when I said that I don't think a single race or
religious group has the right to their own nation and that such a
country could never claim to be a democracy. She was taken aback --
the only time during our conversation when she was taken aback.

Anyway, it was kind of fun. But I was surprised by the conversation
and not up on my Palestinian history enough to be confident.

She mentioned several things that I should read, and I failed to
mention anything she should read, though Norman Finkelstein and even
Jimmy Carter would have been fine to mention. Chomsky, and Boyle would
also have been worth mentioning.


Note 1: Francis A. Boyle's resume includes:
* Counsel, Concerned Academics for Peace and Justice in the Middle
East (1984-86).
* Legal Adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization (from 1987)
and the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine (from 1988)
on the creation of the State of Palestine, its accession to the Geneva
Conventions and Protocols, invocation of the Uniting for Peace
Resolution, admission to the United Nations Organization, accepting
the I.C.C.’s jurisdiction, etc.
* Legal Adviser to the Republic of Lithuania under President Vytautas
Landsbergis (1991-92).
* Legal Adviser to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace
Negotiations (1991-93).
* Legal Adviser to the Syrian Delegation to the Middle East Peace
Negotiations during their First Round in Washington, D.C. (1991).
* Counsel to Libya, in Cases Concerning Questions of Interpretation
And Application Of The 1971 Montreal Convention Arising From The
Aerial Incident At Lockerbie (Libya v. United Kingdom) (Libya v.
United States).  See Orders of 14 April 1992, 1992 I.C.J. Rep. at 3
and 114, 31 Int'l L. Mats. 662 (1992).
* General Agent for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Powers before the International
Court of Justice by appointment of President Alija Izetbegovic (March
19, 1993 to January 12, 1994).
...

Note 2: 1948 / The Wikipedia entry is kind of interesting because it
mentions so many different stories inside the main story of the
Palestinians leaving. It is definitely not pro-Palestinian:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus

Note 3: I also think the following bumper sticker would be worthy of my car:
"It was wrong in Auschwitz it is wrong in Gaza"

Sincerely,
Karen Medina