Published Thursday 23/10/2014 (updated) 23/10/2014 20:59
(MaanImages/file)
SALFIT (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Thursday confiscated 20 dunums (5 acres) of Palestinian land near the Jewish settlement bloc of Ariel in the northern West Bank, on the same day that Israeli authorities halted plans to take 15 dunums (4 acres) nearby.
Israeli bulldozers began razing 20 dunums of agricultural lands in the Palestinian village of Haris near Barqan settlement on Thursday, while locals said dozens of Israelis from the nearby Jewish settlement came to help destroy the fields.
Palestinian local Muhammad Suf told Ma'an that the lands belonged to his grandfather Ali Abed Daoud Jaber Suf from Haris near the Khillet Habiba area north of Barqan settlement.
The land seizure and destruction of Palestinian agriculture comes on the same day that Palestinian officials working in coordination with the local Committee Against Israel's Separation Wall and the Settlements announced that they had succeeded in saving 15 dunums of land from confiscation just a few kilometers away, in the southwestern part of the Ariel settlement bloc.
The office of the Salfit governorate said in a statement that the land, located in Bruqin village, had been under threat since its owners were handed a 2013 evacuation order that stated the land was Israeli state property.
A lawyer representing the Committee Against Israel's Separation Wall and the Settlements, Alaa Mahajna, manged to demur the Israeli claims by proving the land was privately-owned Palestinian property that has been under constant cultivation by the owner.
As a result, Israeli authorities retracted the confiscation decision and recognized the land as private property.
Since the beginning of the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Israel has confiscated hundreds of thousands of dunums by declaring it state land.
Israeli authorities in 1968 banned Palestinians from registering their lands and subsequently took advantage of previously low rates of land registration to confiscate areas currently or previously in use by locals but not registered as such.
The confiscated lands are then used to construct Jewish-only settlements on the land, while further confiscation often uses the pretext of the settlements' security
Many of us have friends or family who suffer from addiction, and all too often it is only when we cut them off and stop enabling their negative behavior that things can actually change. It is that model of tough love that led me to become a BDS supporter.
Unfortunately the Middle East peace talks started with the best of intentions by President Obama and Secretary Kerry are dead – a victim of Israel’s unfettered development of illegal settlements and Netanyahu’s decision to go back on his promise to free Palestinian prisoners. There is no longer any doubt that Israel has become addicted to settlements, occupation of Palestinian territory and to treating the 23 percent of Israelis who are not Jewish as second-class citizens.
I am a Reconstructionist Jew from Long Island, now living outside Washington DC and for most of my life I was active in Jewish and Zionist activities – as a member, leader and regional director for Young Judaea and over the years as an activist and leader in the American Zionist Federation, local Jewish Federations, JNF, the New Israel Fund, J Street and the Friends of the Arava Institute. For the majority of my life the Zionist perspective on Israel and Palestine was how I understood the situation and targeted my activism.
As I became more involved my eyes were opened by a combinations of factors, involvement in the New Israel Fund, work with well know Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin – a member of Young Judaea when I was a leader – and work on environmental issues and co-existence with the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies since it was founded in 1996.
As the chair of the Washington DC Metro Chapter of J Street I attended many meetings where we were told that we must oppose any form of BDS because it was anti-Semitic and would only make things worse. That sounded good until I realized that in spite of my years of work in progressive organizations, my donations to left-wing Israeli causes and a lot of lobbying in Congress, I was actually enabling the status quo.
There has been lots of propaganda equating BDS with anti-Semitism but let’s look at the facts. Boycott is a completely legitimate political and economic tactic. From the nearly world-wide boycott of South Africa – which Israel frequently violated – to the recent Hollywood boycott of hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei, from the Montgomery Alabama bus boycott to Caesar Chavez’s grape boycott the tactic has been widely used to protest against injustice.
My friends at J Street and in so-called liberal Zionist organizations advocate that Israel should be exempt from boycotts based on a theory that BDS will somehow make things worse. How is that possible when Israel has built thousands of new settlement homes while supposedly negotiating peace? When Palestinian lands are confiscated and used to build Jewish only communities?
It is sad that the Jewish values I have been taught throughout my life are ignored when it comes to treatment of the Palestinians. The Torah teaches us to welcome the stranger, to treat employees fairly, not to steal, not to covet etc. With no signs that Israel will take any meaningful steps to end the occupation I see no alternative.
This week I’m in Detroit attending the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to share my perspective ahead of a vote on divestment from companies enabling the occupation. I made this trip because it is essential that individuals and organizations considering BDS recognize the depth of Israel’s addiction to the occupation and the importance role tough love can play in ending it.
Seth Morrison has held leadership posts in various local, regional and national Jewish organizations starting in college as a youth leader in Young Judea. He is also active in LGBTQ organizations and local politics in Northern Virginia. Professionally, Morrison is a consultant specializing in marketing and strategic planning for both for and non-profit organizations.
He's a hate-filled ignorant smear on this glorious forum of architectural debate. Unfortunately, like during the cold war, it's cool to support the enemy. So he's going to be keep supporting Hamas and saying all Jews are murders while ignoring anyone with an opposing view.
Zionist bots further exposing how they underestimate everyone else's intelligence here by falsely accusing people who voice their denial of the moral right of a colonial and racist entity such as Israel to exist of denying the Holocaust.
In fact, I am not at all a denier of the Holocaust having occurred (and not just for the jewish people) and I think its disgusting that such a memory of that horror should be used abusively against others in order to misrepresent, obfuscate and blatantly lie. However, it is to be expected of Zionist bots who are not above lying rather than criticizing others on rational and viable grounds.
Furthermore, it is equally repulsive that the holocaust (or pogroms) should be used in order to rationalize the necessity of subjecting another people to another round of mass oppression, incremental genocide and so on. Palestinians have been at the receiving end of this stupefying rhetoric that allows a group of people associated as being the victims of the Holocaust and other crimes committed in Europe against the Jewish people and others (for instance the Roma people) in one way or the other (and many are indeed such victims) should have a carte blanche in stealing from, killing and oppressing other people in other parts of the world who have not been the guilty party in the oppression of the former. Its disgusting and repulsive ... and by associations, so are these Zionist bots and the pro-Zionist hyenas congregating around them.
Of course, the author is also lying by conspicuous omission when he is says: "Forty-seven difficult years are behind you;" . Its not just 47 years.The oppression, colonialism and land theft goes back to the 1940's and earlier. This post-1948 pre-1967 nonsense is a lie. Israel within 1967 borders is just as much based on oppression, land theft, massacres, all committed against Palestinians and just as much based on the total lack of a right to the land and the right to exist as a colonial racist cancer as Israel in its so-called post-1967 borders.
Faced with a reality in which Israel is strong and the United States is in its pocket, it is the duty of Palestinians to resist the occupation. The only question relates to the means.
Imagine you’re the Palestinians. Perhaps residents of East Jerusalem. Forty-seven difficult years are behind you; a big, depressing darkness lies ahead. The Israeli tyranny that dooms your fate declares arrogantly that everything will stay like this forever. Your city will remain under occupation “for ever and ever.” The defense minister, second in importance in the government that subjugates you, says a Palestinian state will never be established.
Imagine you’re Palestinian and your children are in danger. Two days ago, the occupation forces killed another child because “he lit a firebomb.” The words “Death to Arabs” were sprayed near your home. Everywhere you turn, a soldier or Border Police officer may shout at you. Every night, your home may be invaded brutally. You will never be treated like human beings. They’ll destroy, humiliate, intimidate, perhaps even arrest you, possibly without trial.
There are close to 500 administrative detainees, a record number in recent years. If one of your dear ones is arrested, you will have difficulty visiting him. If you succeed, you’ll get half an hour’s conversation through a glass window. If your dear one is an administrative detainee, you will never know when he’ll be released. But these are trivia you grew accustomed to long ago.
Maybe you’ve also grown accustomed to the land theft. At every moment a settler can invade your land, burn your plantation or torch your fields. He will not be brought to trial for this; the soldiers who are supposed to protect you will stand idly by. At any moment, a demolition order or random eviction order may appear. There’s nothing you can do.
Imagine you’re the Palestinians. You can’t leave Gaza and it’s not easy to leave the West Bank, either. The beach, less than an hour’s drive from your West Bank home, is beyond the mountains of darkness. An Israeli can go to Tierra del Fuego, between Argentina and Chile, much more easily than you can go to the beach at Ajami.
There are no dreams, no wishes. Your children have a slim chance of accomplishing anything in life, even if they go to university. All they can look forward to is a life of humiliation and unemployment.
There’s no chance that this situation is about to change anytime soon. Israel is strong, the United States is in its pocket, your leadership is weak (the Palestinian Authority) and isolated (Hamas), and the world is losing interest in your fate. What do you do?
There are two possibilities. The first is to accept, give in, give up. The second is to resist. Whom have we respected more in history? Those who passed their days under the occupation and collaborated with it, or those who struggled for their freedom?
Imagine you’re a Palestinian. You have every right to resist. In fact, it’s your civil duty. No argument there. The occupied people’s right to resist occupation is secured in natural justice, in the morals of history and in international law.
The only restrictions are on the means of resistance. The Palestinians have tried almost all of them, for better and worse – negotiations and terror; with a carrot and with a stick; with a stone and with bombs; in demonstrations and in suicide. All in vain. Are they to despair and give up? This has almost never happened in history, so they’ll continue. Sometimes they’ll use legitimate means, sometimes vile ones. It’s their right to resist.
Now they’re resisting in Jerusalem. They don’t want Israeli rule, or people who set live children on fire. They don’t want armed settlers who invade their apartments in the middle of the night, under the Israeli law’s protection, and evict them. They don’t want a municipality that grants its services according to national affiliation, or judges that sentence their children according to their origin. They also go nuts when the house of a Jewish terrorist is not demolished, while the house of a Palestinian will be torn down.
They don’t want Israel to continue tyrannizing them, so they resist. They hurl stones and firebombs. That’s what resistance looks like. Sometimes they act with heinous murderousness, but even that is not as bad as their occupier’s built-in violence.
You're actually dumb. I've mentioned that I oppose settlements and racism by Israeli civilians. This has nothing to do with me defending Israel-- it has everything to do with you using revisionist, racist garbage to advance your arguments about Palestinian rights. You're the fucking robot.
Last Wednesday in Jerusalem, a three-month-old American baby was killed, and eight other people injured, when a car plowed into a crowded sidewalk; the driver, a 20-year-old Palestinian named Abed a-Rahman a-Shaludi, was killed by police when he tried to flee the scene. The family of the driver insisted it was an accident, but Israeli officials immediately called it a “terrorist act.” Some Israelis speculated that it was in retaliation for the killing in the West Bank of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl days earlier by an Israeli settler who ran his car into her (and another Palestinian girl, seriously injured) and then fled the scene (Palestinian officials denounced that incident as “terrorism”).
Yesterday, a soldier in the Israeli military shot and killed a 14-year-old boy in the West Bank who was participating in a protest against the 5-decade Israeli occupation. The boy, Orwah Hammad (pictured above at his funeral), was a U.S. citizen as well as a Palestinian; he was born in New Orleans and moved with his family to the West Bank when he was 6. The IDF claimed he was throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers and that another man was preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail, and that this justified the live ammunition they fired.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement about the two incidents. Here’s the one it issued about last week’s Jerusalem incident where the Palestinian driver killed the American baby, issued on the very day the incident took place (i.e., prior to any investigation):
Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem
The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem. We express our deepest condolences to the family of the baby, reportedly an American citizen, who was killed in this despicable attack, and extend our prayers for a full recovery to those injured. We urge all sides to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of this incident.
Here’s the markedly different statement the State Department issued last night about the fatal shooting by an Israeli soldier of the 14-year-old American boy:
Death of a U.S. Minor in Silwad
The United States expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a U.S. citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes in Silwad on October 24. Officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem are in contact with the family and are providing all appropriate consular assistance. We call for a speedy and transparent investigation, and will remain closely engaged with the local authorities, who have the lead on this investigation. We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
There is certainly nothing wrong with waiting for the results of an investigation before making definite statements, but that’s not what the State Department did in the Jerusalem incident, which was instantly labelled a “despicable” act of “terror.” Moreover, when the U.S. calls for a “speedy and transparent investigation” of the West Bank shooting, what they mean is that they want the IDF – the occupying force which killed the American teenager – to investigate (and inevitably clear) itself (Rania Khalek today documents how reflexively Israeli authorities clear Israeli settlers and soldiers while instantly finding Palestinians guilty in similar circumstances). As the driver’s family told Israeli media:
A few days ago a Jewish settler knocked over two girls near Ramallah. He killed one and the other is in serious condition. The police immediately said it was a car accident. In our case they said the opposite in seconds. This is because the driver was an Arab driver. When a Jewish driver was involved in an accident the attitude was different and no one shot him.
Whatever else is true, IDF soldiers should not be in the West Bank given that the occupation they are there to enforce is regarded as illegal by virtually the entire world.
Most importantly, the U.S. Government has a remarkable history of exhibiting indifference, or even support, when Israel kills American citizens. The State Department never uttered a peep of protest over the Israeli bulldozer killing in 2003 of peace activist Rachel Corrie, and then implicitly endorsed the killing by Israel of the Turkish-American teenager Furkan Dogan aboard the anti-blockade Mavi Marmara flotilla (in stark contrast to the Turkish government, which – acting as most governments would – was furious that Israel had killed its citizens).
In general, countries become indignant when other nations kill their own citizens. But all of the normal rules are inapplicable when the countries in question are the U.S. and Israel. Thus, when a Palestinian runs his car into an American child, this is instantly declared a “despicable act” of “terrorism” which is condemned in “the strongest possible terms”: no investigation needed. But when an Israeli occupying soldier shoots and kills an American child, the most tepid, nonjudgmental and careful language is used to politely call for an “investigation” by the very occupying military responsible for the killing.
Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SeaMAC) ad on Portland’s TriMet buses with the slogan ISRAEL’S WAR CRIMES: YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK. (graphic: SeaMAC)
The slogan of the current ad is almost identical to the SeaMac bus ad that King County Metro abruptly censored 2010. Readers may recall King County Metro reversed its decision to run the ads on Seattle buses just days before the campaign was to begin on December 27, 2010, the two-year anniversary of Israel’s 2008-2009 Gaza massacre. Metro officials initially examined, approved, and signed a contract before rejecting SeaMAC’s 2010 “Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars At Work” ad campaign. At the time, the ads were already in print.
This did not deter SeaMAC and since then they’ve funded and produced campaign after campaign after campaign.
In honor of 2014 being International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, SeaMac has been running a series of Nelson Mandela ads on buses in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula: “Our Freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”. Volunteer board member Edward Mast explained, “SeaMAC had moved on to the message of Equal Rights for Palestinians, but this recent escalation of Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians made our original message urgent once more.”
Like the previous ‘Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars At Work’ campaign, the purpose of the Portland campaign is to raise awareness and call attention to “Israel’s ongoing violations of human rights and international law, including Israel’s recent assault on the captive population of Gaza, during which Israel bombed schools, hospitals, UN-designated shelters, Gaza’s only power plant, and Gaza’s water purification system. ” The current ad also features SeaMAC’s alternate URL, StopFundingApartheid.org to draw attention to our tax dollars supporting apartheid.
While it’s difficult to gauge exactly how much of an impact these ads are having, along with similar ads and billboards running in municipalities all across the country, I thought about SeaMAC’s relentless awareness campaigns when I read the results of the recent Google Consumer Survey (interactive), fielded by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep), indicating that over 60% of Americans think we give Israel too much federal aid. I thought about the political and conscience climate of both urban and rural areas of the country, and wondered how much public opinion had shifted since King County Metro halted SeaMAC’s anniversary campaign almost 4 years ago and the impact of SeaMAC’s ad campaigns in the Pacific Northwest.
Behind the scenes, SeaMAC is waiting for an opinion to be handed down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that has been pending for 2 years now. SeaMAC is suing for the reinstatement of the ads, plus some minor restitution. The objective is to finally get those ads on King county metro buses.
SeaMAC’s original bus ad censored by King County Metro
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington is representing SeaMAC in the lawsuit against King County for breach of contract and for violating SeaMAC’s First Amendment right of free expression. A trial in the suit was scheduled to begin in federal district court in October 2011 until King County lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the suit and a federal judge granted King County’s motion. At the time, SeaMAC volunteer Carla Curio noted “Ads about abortion, atheism and other contentious issues have appeared on Metro buses. SeaMAC’s ad used language from Amnesty International and the United Nations. Why should criticism of the State of Israel be singled out for exclusion from buses or any other public forum?”
The Court of Appeals will either direct a verdict or the lawsuit will go back to the trial court to be heard before a jury.
The Portland ads will run for four weeks. SeaMAC is fundraising (here) to put this ad in other cities as well. To view a fuller collection of SeaMAC’s past ad campaigns click here.
Annie Robbins is Editor at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area. Follow her on Twitter @anniefofani
So, Palestinians won't be even allowed to ride at the back of the (west bank) bus...in their own country, thanks to policy created and enforced by the thieving land usurping racist colony of Israel.
An Israeli army officer looks over a bus transporting Palestinians into Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing in Israel (AFP/File David Buimovitch)
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Palestinians will be effectively banned from riding the same buses as Israeli settlers in the West Bank, local media said Sunday, with a rights group slamming the plan as "racial segregation."
Hundreds of Palestinians travel each day to work in Israel from the occupied West Bank, mainly in the construction business, using a single crossing point at Eyal where they present travel permits.
Currently they are allowed to return to the West Bank on the same buses as Israeli settlers.
But a new measure announced by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, due to go into effect next month, will require them to again check in at the Eyal crossing point, the Haaretz daily reported.
The workers would have to find separate transportation from that point on.
The directive in effect "bans Palestinian workers from traveling on Israeli-run public transportation in the West Bank," said Haaretz.
The defense minister was not immediately available for comment.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank have called for years for Palestinians to be banned from public transport there, arguing their presence poses a security risk.
But Haaretz reported that the bus ban contradicted the view of the Israeli army, which does not see Palestinian commuters on Israeli transport as a threat, since the workers go through security vetting before receiving their travel permits.
Israeli rights group B'Tselem accused Yaalon of making a racially motivated decision.
"It is time to stop hiding behind technical arrangements ... and admit this military procedure is thinly veiled pandering to the demand for racial segregation on buses," a group statement said.
Last year, the group criticized the Israeli government for its decision to launch separate bus lines for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
alternative, israel supporters are all zionist bots. it's not possible to think the nation and people of a sovereign country should be allowed to exist without being both a zionist and a script designed to automate repetitive tasks such as re-posting other people's politically biased propaganda.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday defended his policy of settlement construction, telling a lawmaker from his Likud faction that he was "committed to construction in every part of Judea and Samaria [West Bank]."
Orhan, do you want to lecture more on how Turkey is "light years" ahead of Israel with respect to Kurdish rights? As Erdogan sits idly while Kurds are murdered by ISIS? And, indeed, uses Turkish forces to bomb Kurds?
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the main Kurdish party in Syria of not wanting Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq to help it fight Islamic State jihadists trying to overrun the town of Kobane, reports said Sunday.
Erdogan said that the Syrian Kurdish party the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has been leading the defence of Kobane, fears losing its influence in northern Syria when the peshmerga arrive in the coming days.
His comments underlined the extent of Turkey's animosity towards the PYD, which Erdogan described as a terror group linked to Kurdish militants in Turkey.
"The PYD does not want the peshmerga to come," Erdogan said in comments published by newspapers including the Milliyet and Hurriyet dailies.
turkey doesn't put its kurdish citizens on different buses like israel does with palestinians to just a name one condition of difference.
btw, i am a long time american citizen. i suggest you take your argument, like i do, with the turkish government. or, alternatively, with a turkish nationalist hack, a bot type. there are plenty of those idiots..
orhan, why does defending a sovereign's existential right make someone a "nationalist hack"?
just to be clear: the palestinians on those buses are not israeli citizens. i don't agree with the segregation, in any event. arab israelis are not separated from israelis in public transportation. look it up.
furthermore, it makes no difference that you're an american citizen. you're the one that put turkey (your country of nationality) on the pedestal.
you and tammuz sure can dish it out but you're little nonresponsive victims whenever you're called out on your specious arguments.
I'm going to provide this link for a pretty good account of Palestinian access to Israeli citizenship. It will, without question, be shit on by Tammuz because it's by a pro-Israel organization from Stanford. But give it a look.
The entire article cites to various sources and is pretty accurate.
i am very passionate about speaking against terrorist israel killing hundreds of innocent children. and very passionately disgusted by people who defend it. there is no rational defending innocent children and their parents blown into pieces and their headless bodies charred by high tech bombs of israel. there is no excuse to defend apartheid and racism. i might be ignorant on some details but i gather you are a lier saying you are against israeli nationalism and racism after passionately defending what you say you are opposed to. people in this forum are not as stupid as you think they are.
dishonesty is not something i respond to, but if you want to know, i have a lot of piercing "adjectives" in my disposal. make no mistake about it.
okay since you want to quantify things, tell us, how many israeli children are dead by mortar shells? i think one is too many but let us know how many? and please write down in the same sentence, how many palestinian children. don't forget the last detail please.
During the last conflict, MANY more Palestinian children died. I'm not debating this. But recall that the Israeli government is interested in protecting its citizens and Hamas placed its arms in civilian zones. Israel also warned Palestinians that it would be attacking certain sites; Hamas encouraged Gazans not to move from those sites after those warnings.
But of course, you'll accuse me of lying about these facts. Or that these facts somehow reveal callousness on my part toward the Palestinian plight.
Hamas has broken the past ELEVEN cease fires Israel. It's my view that Hamas is a greater enemy to Palestinians than Israel, itself.
But facts are uncomfortable for you and tammuz to engage with.
orhan, it sounds like you're saying you think it's ok for palestinians to kill children? it's a math question for you, and you only want to see the underdog win? so what happens if israelis become the underdog, and the palestinians are able to kill more children? will you switch your allegiance? that's a pretty likely scenario if there is a single state solution like tammuz is asking for. he wants to ship in as many 'palestinians' from places like canada as he can and stop immigration of white peopleso the israelis lose their political voice right?
so would you support israel if they became the underdog? it's not really about numbers, is it? have you actually read enough of tammuz's propaganda that you've become just as racist as he is?
this is what you're supporting:
Kuntar's group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shoot-out with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. According to the official Israeli version, when Kuntar's group found that the rubber boat they had arrived in was disabled by gunfire, Kuntar shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, he allegedly smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle. Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place,[18][19] from where she saw Danny and Einat being led away at gunpoint by Kuntar. During the shoot-out a second policeman[citation needed] and another of Kuntar's comrades were killed. Kuntar and the fourth member of the group, Ahmad Assad al-Abras, were injured and captured. al-Abras was freed by Israel in the prisoner exchange of May 1985.
you didn't answer my questions. you started the numbers game and now you are also backing out while accusing me. figures... answer the questions; how many and how many? write it in a sentence. one sentence is enough. keep the bot talk to yourself. just the numbers. finish what you started once without resorting to hasbara arguments.
i don't know. i don't know. i thought you were asking alternative, so i didn't answer. sometimes it's hard to tell who comments are directed towards. anyway, since i don't consider murdering children to be a math problem, i guess i found the question somewhat arbitrary.
i suppose the idea that all human life, regardless of religion or skin color, has value is a bit too abstract for those who support hamas?
What about the Israeli children killed by Hamas mortar shells?
since you are going into comparative studies.., so i am asking you to give numbers to discuss it more in detail. why are you twisting and turning after the fact?
You invoked the death of Palestinian children-- I TOTALLY agree that their deaths are a tragedy. I countered that equally valuable lives of Israeli children were lost and then stated that-- without question-- many more Palestinian children died.
This episode illustrates how anti-Arab racism in Israeli society — what Israeli President Reuben Rivlin recently called “sick” — makes it susceptible to manipulation of facts in order to advance the far right’s agenda. Though the secular elite in Tel Aviv may appear to be ambivalent to the religious settler movement’s aspirations to completely Judaize Jerusalem, they practically support it in the name of security measures and counter-terrorism. Under the pretext of restoring quiet, the Netanyahu government is escalating Israel’s war on Palestinians in Jerusalem. Led by Moshe Feiglin, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset who has called for genocide of Palestinians, extremist settlers escorted by armed police have increasingly been visiting the courtyard surrounding the al-Aqsa mosque — a site of huge importance in Islam. Police have attacked Palestinian worshippers on a near daily basis, and in a move that could ignite an intifada, Israeli lawmakers will soon vote on partitioning the mosque. As Netanyahu incites Israelis and ramps up attacks on Palestinians neighborhoods, the future of Jerusalem is anything but quiet. - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/10/government-escalating-palestinians#sthash.cCEFkdWu.dpuf
I disagree with parts of the below article, namely in regards to the generalization here: "The cosmic joke here is that the roles have been reversed: the victim now has become the victimizer; the new victimizer seemingly devoid of any empathy"
Of course, that is stupid. We know that there are actual Jewish survivors and descendants (example, example) of survivors of the Holocaust who condemn Israel for its acts and, inversely, we know that many - if not most- of Israel's population have no historical connection to the Holocaust even if they perceive one based on identity --- which actually relates them to Europe and its racism rather than have them, in their turn, terrorize and colonize Palestinians in a pathologically sick and twisted logic based on some ridiculous belief that the Holocaust gives them carte blanche to violate others' rights because their right - or more factually, the right of some of them- was violated at one point in their history.
Sick and pathological - exactly as is curtkram's moronic logic that situates the core of the problem not where the factual historical criminal but wishes to shift it to vapidity free of any talk against Israel (as ISrael continues to colonize, oppress and so on) and to where the victim is ....Thus spewing that nonsense drivel about Hamas, as if the whole history of Israel's colonialism, theft of land and mass murder of Palestinians from the early 20th century to today can be collapsed to this forgery of history that wishes to divorce cause from effect, colonial acts from resistance reaction, the violator from their criminal history and the victims from their history of being oppressed. Anything but face - or actually have others face- the actual and real history of the racist colony of Israel. If the forgery of history needs to be revised for some people, then a revisioning is indeed called for. But really, ISrael's history as a history of colonialism is tautologically self-defining.
It is understandable that the Zionist bot comes here specifically to lie and obfuscate and even to insult and devolve to name-calling after pathetically trying to form more amicable bond in the aim to mitigate negative criticism against Israel ("Dubai gay"). Utterly transparent, ridiculous and has not the intelligence to estimate. But what is more sour are these Archinect schmucks who gather around it like hyenas, who purposefully resolve to moronic logic about how I conceive of the one state solution within their own racist worldview. No, I like many others believe that the one state solution is a peaceful solution for all...and the Palestinians have all the right to return to their lands.
But of course, racist scumbags like curtkram value more the paranoia that the "white man" (ie the colonizer) who belongs to the party that stole the land would have his non-rights on the lands revoked over and above the real, ancestral, historical rights of the Palestinians to be in Palestine if it is their wish to do so. In other words, even the "white man" (I use that scumbag's terminology) fault is of more value to this scumbag than the Palestinian's right.
Israel’s modern war machine and its sophisticated, cunning Hasbara propaganda system – that cleverly conveys to the world a negative portrayal of Arab peoples, and especially of Palestinians – promotes perhaps yet the biggest “Big Lie” of all, which is that it simply is a peace-loving nation trying to survive while surrounded by dangerous, barbaric, terroristic peoples against whom they must constantly defend itself. Yet this has to rank right up there with Nazi Germany’s own propaganda in World War II that once portrayed the Jews in Europe as the main cause of the world’s problems. Some would say that what Nazi Germany perpetrated against the Jews is not unlike what the Zionists in Israel now are perpetrating against the Palestinians. The cosmic joke here is that the roles have been reversed: the victim now has become the victimizer; the new victimizer seemingly devoid of any empathy, unable or unwilling to see the same plight of the new victim, unable to recall the same horror of what it once was like to be the victims caught in a similar situation. Case in point: what transpired during the infamous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, led by the heroic Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany in 1942 in Poland.
During German-occupied Poland in World War II, a brave, yet poorly-armed and supplied Jewish resistance movement was crushed by the Nazi SS, their labyrinth of secret supply line conduits and passages through the maze of sewers that ran under Warsaw ultimately discovered, cut off and their armouries destroyed; just as Israel’s military forces now are intent upon crushing the heroic, yet poorly-armed and supplied Hamas resistance movement in Gaza, while destroying their own intricate maze of homemade supply-line tunnels and armouries beneath Gaza and Southern Israel and assassinating those leaders who sustain their resistance movement. Like the Jews of Warsaw, the Palestinian people and their Hamas leaders have been concentrated into a number of extremely-dense ghettos throughout the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Like the Warsaw Jews of 70 years ago, the Palestinians have been dying by the thousands due to rampant disease, starvation, poor to non-existent medical care or supplies, suicide, depression and racial oppression. Just as Hamas leaders have had to resort to suicide-bombing, as a last resort against their Jewish oppressors, Warsaw’s Jewish resistance leader, Adam Czerniakow, eventually committed suicide in protest once he learned of the true goal of the Nazi’s so-called Treblinka “resettlement” plan.
Desperate Hamas leaders and their resistance movement today fully realize that whatever eventual “resettlement” plans Zionist Israel have in store for them and the Palestinian people, the outcome does not bode in their favour. They know that just as the Nazi SS finally liquidated the entire Jewish Ghetto in May 1942, and carried out the Final Solution by transporting the Jewish Ghetto population to the Treblinka Extermination Camp, the Zionists in Israel have their own secret Final Solution plan for the Palestinian’s. Some characterize Israel’s Operation Protective Edge as being rather more that of an Operation Cutting Edge, and but the latest of many more sharply planned, evermore deadlier, cutting-edged blitzkriegs, designed to one day accomplish the ultimate mass dissolution and Diaspora of the Palestinian people.
Israel’s hasbara system, time and again, has cunningly used this Big Lie technique, first coined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 book, Mein Kampf, to obscure the truth and bamboozle the world about what is truly going on inside Israel and the Occupied Territories.
For over 70 years, the Zionist’s have continued to shape and hone world-wide opinion, with the conspiratorial help of the West’s mainstream press, to believe that It is those like Hamas, not the Israeli’s, who are the ones who must be demilitarized and disarmed. It is those like Hamas, not Israel, who are the biggest terrorists and arms merchants of terror in the world. It is only besieged Israel who has the right and duty to strike back at “international terrorism”, and annihilate whomever in support of its own self-defence and that of the free world.
But if one analyzes this phony guise, it closely follows Adolf Hitler’s psychological profile who masterfully understood some critically basic things about human nature. Namely, that: People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; Never allow public consciousness of an issue and problem to cool off; If a big lie is repeated enough, people will sooner or later believe it as truth; Never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; Never leave room for alternative solutions; Never accept blame for what is happening; Focus on one enemy at a time, and blame that enemy for everything that goes wrong; Continually claim that black is white and white is black, and; Always use double-think and tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, and forget or ignore any fact or truth that has become inconvenient.
To see these deceitful ploys for what they are, one could again use the analogy of the Warsaw Jews in a Treblinka concentration camp of seven decades ago; placing the onus not on the Nazi SS but on those rioting, angry Jewish ghetto-inmates, awaiting their ultimate ethnic cleansing destiny, who defiantly refuse to cooperate with their murderous, cold-blooded captors who they know, only too well, have but one outcome in mind for their captives.
And, what is more, just because you believe in a nonviolent one-state solution doesn't mean that the facts suggest that's viable. If you will recall, in 48, five bordering nations launched an attack on Israel; much of what led to the 67 war involved neighboring states mobilizing for an another attack on Israel. People accuse israel of being bellicose; could you ever strain to think that it's had to defend itself for existential survival for 66 years, but that it does legitimately want peace? (See Egypt and Jordan)
The article posted basically regurgitates the usual radical left-wing argument (increasingly mainstream) that we should "critically assess who the terrorists really are." Hamas is a terror group, Tammuz. You're the one trying to obfuscate, to say nothing of the holocaust revisionist articles you've posted on more than several occasions.
Tammuz, I had a chance to reread your post. You wrote:
We know that there are actual Jewish survivors and descendants (example, example) of survivors of the Holocaust who condemn Israel for its acts and, inversely, we know that many - if not most- of Israel's population have no historical connection to the Holocaust even if they perceive one based on identity -
Where are you getting this idea that Israelis are historically disconnected from the Holocaust?
Although many Holocaust survivors are dying off, I know of entire neighborhoods outside of Haifa primarily made up of death camp survivors and their descendants (from Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Germany, etc.). Do you not realize that many Jews could not return to their native lands after they were liberated from death camps? My grandparents spent four years in refugee camps in Italy and Cyprus because they were not permitted to return to Lithuania and Poland, where they were from.
Before you attack, keep in mind that I agree with the proposition that the suffering of Jews does not provide Israel carte blanche to engage in activities like settlements (and the many, many problems that settlements bring). But you seem to think that all survivors were opposed to Israel-- which is false. Israel became a home for many thousands of Jews who were dispossessed, and those survivors did believe in the defense of the State of Israel.
It's pretty obvious that a major factor in undergirding aggressive defense tactics by Israel is the collective memory of the Holocaust, and calls by certain (not all) Arabs to rid the world of Jews. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has complained that the task of hunting down Jews worldwide is too burdensome, observing that “if all the Jews were gathered in Israel, it would save us the trouble of going after them world-wide,” while further proclaiming “an open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth.” (Link)
I agree that the formation of the State of Israel was fraught with latent (or patent) conflict, but here we are in 2014 and we have organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad calling not only for the elimination of the state of Israel, but the murder of Jews worldwide. You don't think that's alarming to descendants of Holocaust survivors?
Tammuz, you're entitled to an opinion, but you're attempting to rewrite history in a perverse way. If we're going to have a debate, at least adhere to some historical accuracy. Your minimization of the Holocaust is unnerving.
Tuesday October 28, 2014 10:23 by IMEMC & Agencies
A large number of Israeli settlers of the Bruchin illegal settlement outpost built on Palestinian lands east of Broqeen town, west of the central West Bank city of Salfit, started bulldozing lands in an attempt to expand their illegitimate settlement.
The Palestine News Network (PNN) said the settlers brought bulldozers and started leveling the lands, and digging, while several Israeli soldiers were deployed in the area preventing the Palestinians from reaching it.
Palestinian Researcher Khaled Ma’ali said the Israeli government lately announcement its intention to expand Brochin settlement by constructing new units, part of the recently declared 550 new units to be built on agricultural lands belonging to residents of Broqeen, and Sarta village.
Bruchin settlement was built in 1999; it started just as a small illegitimate outpost, and kept expanding since then.
The expansion comes following a decision by the head of the Central Command of the Israeli military of the West Bank, Nitzan Alon, to upgrade the outpost into a settlement under the umbrella of the “Regional Council of Settlements.”
Archinect, please boycott Israel (its about time!)
Israel confiscates 20 dunums of Palestinian land near Salfit
Published Thursday 23/10/2014 (updated) 23/10/2014 20:59
(MaanImages/file)
SALFIT (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Thursday confiscated 20 dunums (5 acres) of Palestinian land near the Jewish settlement bloc of Ariel in the northern West Bank, on the same day that Israeli authorities halted plans to take 15 dunums (4 acres) nearby.
Israeli bulldozers began razing 20 dunums of agricultural lands in the Palestinian village of Haris near Barqan settlement on Thursday, while locals said dozens of Israelis from the nearby Jewish settlement came to help destroy the fields.
Palestinian local Muhammad Suf told Ma'an that the lands belonged to his grandfather Ali Abed Daoud Jaber Suf from Haris near the Khillet Habiba area north of Barqan settlement.
The land seizure and destruction of Palestinian agriculture comes on the same day that Palestinian officials working in coordination with the local Committee Against Israel's Separation Wall and the Settlements announced that they had succeeded in saving 15 dunums of land from confiscation just a few kilometers away, in the southwestern part of the Ariel settlement bloc.
The office of the Salfit governorate said in a statement that the land, located in Bruqin village, had been under threat since its owners were handed a 2013 evacuation order that stated the land was Israeli state property.
A lawyer representing the Committee Against Israel's Separation Wall and the Settlements, Alaa Mahajna, manged to demur the Israeli claims by proving the land was privately-owned Palestinian property that has been under constant cultivation by the owner.
As a result, Israeli authorities retracted the confiscation decision and recognized the land as private property.
Since the beginning of the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Israel has confiscated hundreds of thousands of dunums by declaring it state land.
Israeli authorities in 1968 banned Palestinians from registering their lands and subsequently took advantage of previously low rates of land registration to confiscate areas currently or previously in use by locals but not registered as such.
The confiscated lands are then used to construct Jewish-only settlements on the land, while further confiscation often uses the pretext of the settlements' security
Addressing Israel’s addiction to settlements
A former J Street leader explains why he became a supporter of BDS.
By Seth Morrison
Many of us have friends or family who suffer from addiction, and all too often it is only when we cut them off and stop enabling their negative behavior that things can actually change. It is that model of tough love that led me to become a BDS supporter.
Unfortunately the Middle East peace talks started with the best of intentions by President Obama and Secretary Kerry are dead – a victim of Israel’s unfettered development of illegal settlements and Netanyahu’s decision to go back on his promise to free Palestinian prisoners. There is no longer any doubt that Israel has become addicted to settlements, occupation of Palestinian territory and to treating the 23 percent of Israelis who are not Jewish as second-class citizens.
I am a Reconstructionist Jew from Long Island, now living outside Washington DC and for most of my life I was active in Jewish and Zionist activities – as a member, leader and regional director for Young Judaea and over the years as an activist and leader in the American Zionist Federation, local Jewish Federations, JNF, the New Israel Fund, J Street and the Friends of the Arava Institute. For the majority of my life the Zionist perspective on Israel and Palestine was how I understood the situation and targeted my activism.
As I became more involved my eyes were opened by a combinations of factors, involvement in the New Israel Fund, work with well know Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin – a member of Young Judaea when I was a leader – and work on environmental issues and co-existence with the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies since it was founded in 1996.
As the chair of the Washington DC Metro Chapter of J Street I attended many meetings where we were told that we must oppose any form of BDS because it was anti-Semitic and would only make things worse. That sounded good until I realized that in spite of my years of work in progressive organizations, my donations to left-wing Israeli causes and a lot of lobbying in Congress, I was actually enabling the status quo.
There has been lots of propaganda equating BDS with anti-Semitism but let’s look at the facts. Boycott is a completely legitimate political and economic tactic. From the nearly world-wide boycott of South Africa – which Israel frequently violated – to the recent Hollywood boycott of hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei, from the Montgomery Alabama bus boycott to Caesar Chavez’s grape boycott the tactic has been widely used to protest against injustice.
My friends at J Street and in so-called liberal Zionist organizations advocate that Israel should be exempt from boycotts based on a theory that BDS will somehow make things worse. How is that possible when Israel has built thousands of new settlement homes while supposedly negotiating peace? When Palestinian lands are confiscated and used to build Jewish only communities?
It is sad that the Jewish values I have been taught throughout my life are ignored when it comes to treatment of the Palestinians. The Torah teaches us to welcome the stranger, to treat employees fairly, not to steal, not to covet etc. With no signs that Israel will take any meaningful steps to end the occupation I see no alternative.
This week I’m in Detroit attending the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to share my perspective ahead of a vote on divestment from companies enabling the occupation. I made this trip because it is essential that individuals and organizations considering BDS recognize the depth of Israel’s addiction to the occupation and the importance role tough love can play in ending it.
Seth Morrison has held leadership posts in various local, regional and national Jewish organizations starting in college as a youth leader in Young Judea. He is also active in LGBTQ organizations and local politics in Northern Virginia. Professionally, Morrison is a consultant specializing in marketing and strategic planning for both for and non-profit organizations.
*argues that Holocaust-era Zionists were "opportunistic" but did not "contribute" to Holocaust*
*accuses opponents of obfuscation*
*is a hypocritical dumbass*
Why don't you re-post that article denying that the Holocaust happened?
He's a hate-filled ignorant smear on this glorious forum of architectural debate. Unfortunately, like during the cold war, it's cool to support the enemy. So he's going to be keep supporting Hamas and saying all Jews are murders while ignoring anyone with an opposing view.
pretty sure he is on the Hamas payroll, he probably writes their speeches...wait do they give speeches? i'm probably giving them too much credit.
The coffee stains on these scraps of paper around my desk contribute more to this "discussion" than TAMMUZ ever will.
Zionist bots further exposing how they underestimate everyone else's intelligence here by falsely accusing people who voice their denial of the moral right of a colonial and racist entity such as Israel to exist of denying the Holocaust.
In fact, I am not at all a denier of the Holocaust having occurred (and not just for the jewish people) and I think its disgusting that such a memory of that horror should be used abusively against others in order to misrepresent, obfuscate and blatantly lie. However, it is to be expected of Zionist bots who are not above lying rather than criticizing others on rational and viable grounds.
Furthermore, it is equally repulsive that the holocaust (or pogroms) should be used in order to rationalize the necessity of subjecting another people to another round of mass oppression, incremental genocide and so on. Palestinians have been at the receiving end of this stupefying rhetoric that allows a group of people associated as being the victims of the Holocaust and other crimes committed in Europe against the Jewish people and others (for instance the Roma people) in one way or the other (and many are indeed such victims) should have a carte blanche in stealing from, killing and oppressing other people in other parts of the world who have not been the guilty party in the oppression of the former. Its disgusting and repulsive ... and by associations, so are these Zionist bots and the pro-Zionist hyenas congregating around them.
And the below from...Haaretz
Of course, the author is also lying by conspicuous omission when he is says: "Forty-seven difficult years are behind you;" . Its not just 47 years.The oppression, colonialism and land theft goes back to the 1940's and earlier. This post-1948 pre-1967 nonsense is a lie. Israel within 1967 borders is just as much based on oppression, land theft, massacres, all committed against Palestinians and just as much based on the total lack of a right to the land and the right to exist as a colonial racist cancer as Israel in its so-called post-1967 borders.
.....................................................................
The Palestinians’ right and duty to resist
Faced with a reality in which Israel is strong and the United States is in its pocket, it is the duty of Palestinians to resist the occupation. The only question relates to the means.
By Gideon Levy |
Oct. 26, 2014 | 11:23 AM |
16
Imagine you’re the Palestinians. Perhaps residents of East Jerusalem. Forty-seven difficult years are behind you; a big, depressing darkness lies ahead. The Israeli tyranny that dooms your fate declares arrogantly that everything will stay like this forever. Your city will remain under occupation “for ever and ever.” The defense minister, second in importance in the government that subjugates you, says a Palestinian state will never be established.
Imagine you’re Palestinian and your children are in danger. Two days ago, the occupation forces killed another child because “he lit a firebomb.” The words “Death to Arabs” were sprayed near your home. Everywhere you turn, a soldier or Border Police officer may shout at you. Every night, your home may be invaded brutally. You will never be treated like human beings. They’ll destroy, humiliate, intimidate, perhaps even arrest you, possibly without trial.
There are close to 500 administrative detainees, a record number in recent years. If one of your dear ones is arrested, you will have difficulty visiting him. If you succeed, you’ll get half an hour’s conversation through a glass window. If your dear one is an administrative detainee, you will never know when he’ll be released. But these are trivia you grew accustomed to long ago.
Maybe you’ve also grown accustomed to the land theft. At every moment a settler can invade your land, burn your plantation or torch your fields. He will not be brought to trial for this; the soldiers who are supposed to protect you will stand idly by. At any moment, a demolition order or random eviction order may appear. There’s nothing you can do.
Imagine you’re the Palestinians. You can’t leave Gaza and it’s not easy to leave the West Bank, either. The beach, less than an hour’s drive from your West Bank home, is beyond the mountains of darkness. An Israeli can go to Tierra del Fuego, between Argentina and Chile, much more easily than you can go to the beach at Ajami.
There are no dreams, no wishes. Your children have a slim chance of accomplishing anything in life, even if they go to university. All they can look forward to is a life of humiliation and unemployment.
There’s no chance that this situation is about to change anytime soon. Israel is strong, the United States is in its pocket, your leadership is weak (the Palestinian Authority) and isolated (Hamas), and the world is losing interest in your fate. What do you do?
There are two possibilities. The first is to accept, give in, give up. The second is to resist. Whom have we respected more in history? Those who passed their days under the occupation and collaborated with it, or those who struggled for their freedom?
Imagine you’re a Palestinian. You have every right to resist. In fact, it’s your civil duty. No argument there. The occupied people’s right to resist occupation is secured in natural justice, in the morals of history and in international law.
The only restrictions are on the means of resistance. The Palestinians have tried almost all of them, for better and worse – negotiations and terror; with a carrot and with a stick; with a stone and with bombs; in demonstrations and in suicide. All in vain. Are they to despair and give up? This has almost never happened in history, so they’ll continue. Sometimes they’ll use legitimate means, sometimes vile ones. It’s their right to resist.
Now they’re resisting in Jerusalem. They don’t want Israeli rule, or people who set live children on fire. They don’t want armed settlers who invade their apartments in the middle of the night, under the Israeli law’s protection, and evict them. They don’t want a municipality that grants its services according to national affiliation, or judges that sentence their children according to their origin. They also go nuts when the house of a Jewish terrorist is not demolished, while the house of a Palestinian will be torn down.
They don’t want Israel to continue tyrannizing them, so they resist. They hurl stones and firebombs. That’s what resistance looks like. Sometimes they act with heinous murderousness, but even that is not as bad as their occupier’s built-in violence.
It’s their right; it’s their duty.
Yawn...
You're actually dumb. I've mentioned that I oppose settlements and racism by Israeli civilians. This has nothing to do with me defending Israel-- it has everything to do with you using revisionist, racist garbage to advance your arguments about Palestinian rights. You're the fucking robot.
Alternative, you need more adjectives.
Just trying to drive the point home for him. He has a hard time processing information.
Compare How U.S. Responds To The Killing Of American Kids Based On Identity Of The Killers
By Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Saturday at 4:07 PM
AP
Last Wednesday in Jerusalem, a three-month-old American baby was killed, and eight other people injured, when a car plowed into a crowded sidewalk; the driver, a 20-year-old Palestinian named Abed a-Rahman a-Shaludi, was killed by police when he tried to flee the scene. The family of the driver insisted it was an accident, but Israeli officials immediately called it a “terrorist act.” Some Israelis speculated that it was in retaliation for the killing in the West Bank of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl days earlier by an Israeli settler who ran his car into her (and another Palestinian girl, seriously injured) and then fled the scene (Palestinian officials denounced that incident as “terrorism”).
Yesterday, a soldier in the Israeli military shot and killed a 14-year-old boy in the West Bank who was participating in a protest against the 5-decade Israeli occupation. The boy, Orwah Hammad (pictured above at his funeral), was a U.S. citizen as well as a Palestinian; he was born in New Orleans and moved with his family to the West Bank when he was 6. The IDF claimed he was throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers and that another man was preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail, and that this justified the live ammunition they fired.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement about the two incidents. Here’s the one it issued about last week’s Jerusalem incident where the Palestinian driver killed the American baby, issued on the very day the incident took place (i.e., prior to any investigation):
Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem
The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem. We express our deepest condolences to the family of the baby, reportedly an American citizen, who was killed in this despicable attack, and extend our prayers for a full recovery to those injured. We urge all sides to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of this incident.
Here’s the markedly different statement the State Department issued last night about the fatal shooting by an Israeli soldier of the 14-year-old American boy:
Death of a U.S. Minor in Silwad
The United States expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a U.S. citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes in Silwad on October 24. Officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem are in contact with the family and are providing all appropriate consular assistance. We call for a speedy and transparent investigation, and will remain closely engaged with the local authorities, who have the lead on this investigation. We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
There is certainly nothing wrong with waiting for the results of an investigation before making definite statements, but that’s not what the State Department did in the Jerusalem incident, which was instantly labelled a “despicable” act of “terror.” Moreover, when the U.S. calls for a “speedy and transparent investigation” of the West Bank shooting, what they mean is that they want the IDF – the occupying force which killed the American teenager – to investigate (and inevitably clear) itself (Rania Khalek today documents how reflexively Israeli authorities clear Israeli settlers and soldiers while instantly finding Palestinians guilty in similar circumstances). As the driver’s family told Israeli media:
A few days ago a Jewish settler knocked over two girls near Ramallah. He killed one and the other is in serious condition. The police immediately said it was a car accident. In our case they said the opposite in seconds. This is because the driver was an Arab driver. When a Jewish driver was involved in an accident the attitude was different and no one shot him.
Whatever else is true, IDF soldiers should not be in the West Bank given that the occupation they are there to enforce is regarded as illegal by virtually the entire world.
Most importantly, the U.S. Government has a remarkable history of exhibiting indifference, or even support, when Israel kills American citizens. The State Department never uttered a peep of protest over the Israeli bulldozer killing in 2003 of peace activist Rachel Corrie, and then implicitly endorsed the killing by Israel of the Turkish-American teenager Furkan Dogan aboard the anti-blockade Mavi Marmara flotilla (in stark contrast to the Turkish government, which – acting as most governments would – was furious that Israel had killed its citizens).
In general, countries become indignant when other nations kill their own citizens. But all of the normal rules are inapplicable when the countries in question are the U.S. and Israel. Thus, when a Palestinian runs his car into an American child, this is instantly declared a “despicable act” of “terrorism” which is condemned in “the strongest possible terms”: no investigation needed. But when an Israeli occupying soldier shoots and kills an American child, the most tepid, nonjudgmental and careful language is used to politely call for an “investigation” by the very occupying military responsible for the killing.
Photo: Majdi Mohammed/AP
Bus ads hitting US aid for Israeli ‘war crimes’ roll in Portland (after ban in Seattle)
Activism
Annie Robbins on October 25, 2014 12 Comments
Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SeaMAC) ad on Portland’s TriMet buses with the slogan ISRAEL’S WAR CRIMES: YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK. (graphic: SeaMAC)
The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SeaMAC) is still plugging away, educating and informing the Pacific Northwest about Israel war crimes and apartheid. Currently, along with Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace – Portland, SeaMac’s running a new ad campaign on Portland’s TriMet buses with the slogan ISRAEL’S WAR CRIMES: YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK.
The slogan of the current ad is almost identical to the SeaMac bus ad that King County Metro abruptly censored 2010. Readers may recall King County Metro reversed its decision to run the ads on Seattle buses just days before the campaign was to begin on December 27, 2010, the two-year anniversary of Israel’s 2008-2009 Gaza massacre. Metro officials initially examined, approved, and signed a contract before rejecting SeaMAC’s 2010 “Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars At Work” ad campaign. At the time, the ads were already in print.
This did not deter SeaMAC and since then they’ve funded and produced campaign after campaign after campaign.
In honor of 2014 being International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, SeaMac has been running a series of Nelson Mandela ads on buses in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula: “Our Freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”. Volunteer board member Edward Mast explained, “SeaMAC had moved on to the message of Equal Rights for Palestinians, but this recent escalation of Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians made our original message urgent once more.”
Like the previous ‘Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars At Work’ campaign, the purpose of the Portland campaign is to raise awareness and call attention to “Israel’s ongoing violations of human rights and international law, including Israel’s recent assault on the captive population of Gaza, during which Israel bombed schools, hospitals, UN-designated shelters, Gaza’s only power plant, and Gaza’s water purification system. ” The current ad also features SeaMAC’s alternate URL, StopFundingApartheid.org to draw attention to our tax dollars supporting apartheid.
While it’s difficult to gauge exactly how much of an impact these ads are having, along with similar ads and billboards running in municipalities all across the country, I thought about SeaMAC’s relentless awareness campaigns when I read the results of the recent Google Consumer Survey (interactive), fielded by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep), indicating that over 60% of Americans think we give Israel too much federal aid. I thought about the political and conscience climate of both urban and rural areas of the country, and wondered how much public opinion had shifted since King County Metro halted SeaMAC’s anniversary campaign almost 4 years ago and the impact of SeaMAC’s ad campaigns in the Pacific Northwest.
Behind the scenes, SeaMAC is waiting for an opinion to be handed down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that has been pending for 2 years now. SeaMAC is suing for the reinstatement of the ads, plus some minor restitution. The objective is to finally get those ads on King county metro buses.
SeaMAC’s original bus ad
censored by King County Metro
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington is representing SeaMAC in the lawsuit against King County for breach of contract and for violating SeaMAC’s First Amendment right of free expression. A trial in the suit was scheduled to begin in federal district court in October 2011 until King County lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the suit and a federal judge granted King County’s motion. At the time, SeaMAC volunteer Carla Curio noted “Ads about abortion, atheism and other contentious issues have appeared on Metro buses. SeaMAC’s ad used language from Amnesty International and the United Nations. Why should criticism of the State of Israel be singled out for exclusion from buses or any other public forum?”
The Court of Appeals will either direct a verdict or the lawsuit will go back to the trial court to be heard before a jury.
The Portland ads will run for four weeks. SeaMAC is fundraising (here) to put this ad in other cities as well. To view a fuller collection of SeaMAC’s past ad campaigns click here.
Graphic: Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SeaMAC)
About Annie Robbins
Annie Robbins is Editor at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area. Follow her on Twitter @anniefofani
Other posts by Annie Robbins.
- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/10/israeli-portland-seattle#sthash.ywUTfPUz.dpuf
So, Palestinians won't be even allowed to ride at the back of the (west bank) bus...in their own country, thanks to policy created and enforced by the thieving land usurping racist colony of Israel.
..........................................................................................................................................
Report: Palestinians barred from Israeli West Bank buses
Published yesterday (updated) 27/10/2014 15:02
An Israeli army officer looks over a bus transporting Palestinians
into Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing in Israel
(AFP/File David Buimovitch)
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Palestinians will be effectively banned from riding the same buses as Israeli settlers in the West Bank, local media said Sunday, with a rights group slamming the plan as "racial segregation."
Hundreds of Palestinians travel each day to work in Israel from the occupied West Bank, mainly in the construction business, using a single crossing point at Eyal where they present travel permits.
Currently they are allowed to return to the West Bank on the same buses as Israeli settlers.
But a new measure announced by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, due to go into effect next month, will require them to again check in at the Eyal crossing point, the Haaretz daily reported.
The workers would have to find separate transportation from that point on.
The directive in effect "bans Palestinian workers from traveling on Israeli-run public transportation in the West Bank," said Haaretz.
The defense minister was not immediately available for comment.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank have called for years for Palestinians to be banned from public transport there, arguing their presence poses a security risk.
But Haaretz reported that the bus ban contradicted the view of the Israeli army, which does not see Palestinian commuters on Israeli transport as a threat, since the workers go through security vetting before receiving their travel permits.
Israeli rights group B'Tselem accused Yaalon of making a racially motivated decision.
"It is time to stop hiding behind technical arrangements ... and admit this military procedure is thinly veiled pandering to the demand for racial segregation on buses," a group statement said.
Last year, the group criticized the Israeli government for its decision to launch separate bus lines for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Do you think that all israel supporters are happy about this violence?
I wonder if Tammuz is billing these hours to a Jewish client...stick it to the man my friend.
alternative, israel supporters are all zionist bots. it's not possible to think the nation and people of a sovereign country should be allowed to exist without being both a zionist and a script designed to automate repetitive tasks such as re-posting other people's politically biased propaganda.
Meanwhile, onslaught and thievery continues.
http://Netanyahu orders plans be advanced for 1,060 new East Jerusalem housing units
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday defended his policy of settlement construction, telling a lawmaker from his Likud faction that he was "committed to construction in every part of Judea and Samaria [West Bank]."
I'm pro-Israel. I don't support Likud.
Orhan, do you want to lecture more on how Turkey is "light years" ahead of Israel with respect to Kurdish rights? As Erdogan sits idly while Kurds are murdered by ISIS? And, indeed, uses Turkish forces to bomb Kurds?
http://news.yahoo.com/erdogan-says-syrian-kurds-dont-want-peshmerga-kobane-004443792.html
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the main Kurdish party in Syria of not wanting Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq to help it fight Islamic State jihadists trying to overrun the town of Kobane, reports said Sunday.
Erdogan said that the Syrian Kurdish party the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has been leading the defence of Kobane, fears losing its influence in northern Syria when the peshmerga arrive in the coming days.
His comments underlined the extent of Turkey's animosity towards the PYD, which Erdogan described as a terror group linked to Kurdish militants in Turkey.
"The PYD does not want the peshmerga to come," Erdogan said in comments published by newspapers including the Milliyet and Hurriyet dailies.
turkey doesn't put its kurdish citizens on different buses like israel does with palestinians to just a name one condition of difference.
btw, i am a long time american citizen. i suggest you take your argument, like i do, with the turkish government. or, alternatively, with a turkish nationalist hack, a bot type. there are plenty of those idiots..
orhan, why does defending a sovereign's existential right make someone a "nationalist hack"?
just to be clear: the palestinians on those buses are not israeli citizens. i don't agree with the segregation, in any event. arab israelis are not separated from israelis in public transportation. look it up.
furthermore, it makes no difference that you're an american citizen. you're the one that put turkey (your country of nationality) on the pedestal.
you and tammuz sure can dish it out but you're little nonresponsive victims whenever you're called out on your specious arguments.
whatever dude. i just pointed out a difference. if israel not recognizing palestinians as citizens, then they should recognize their sovereignty.
They can apply for Israeli citizenship, Orhan. How familiar are you with the issues? From the looks of it, not very.
http://972mag.com/quietly-east-jerusalem-palestinians-are-becoming-israeli-citizens/46298/
i have to defer that particular area directly to tammuz.
do you know the details, acceptance rate, requirements?
Here's a good article explaining the situation (and the consequences of leaving East Jerusalem on citizenship applications): http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3407/palestinians-israeli-citizenship
It's astounding how passionate you are about an issue, considering that you're rather ignorant about it.
I'm going to provide this link for a pretty good account of Palestinian access to Israeli citizenship. It will, without question, be shit on by Tammuz because it's by a pro-Israel organization from Stanford. But give it a look.
The entire article cites to various sources and is pretty accurate.
http://stanfordisraelalliance.stanford.edu/?page_id=7
i am very passionate about speaking against terrorist israel killing hundreds of innocent children. and very passionately disgusted by people who defend it. there is no rational defending innocent children and their parents blown into pieces and their headless bodies charred by high tech bombs of israel. there is no excuse to defend apartheid and racism. i might be ignorant on some details but i gather you are a lier saying you are against israeli nationalism and racism after passionately defending what you say you are opposed to. people in this forum are not as stupid as you think they are.
dishonesty is not something i respond to, but if you want to know, i have a lot of piercing "adjectives" in my disposal. make no mistake about it.
You call Israel an apartheid state when you don't even know the basics of Israeli citizenship law. Yup, you're ignorant alright!
What about the Israeli children killed by Hamas mortar shells?
I support Israel. Not everyone in Israel is a hate-monger racist, as you'd like to suggest.
okay since you want to quantify things, tell us, how many israeli children are dead by mortar shells? i think one is too many but let us know how many? and please write down in the same sentence, how many palestinian children. don't forget the last detail please.
During the last conflict, MANY more Palestinian children died. I'm not debating this. But recall that the Israeli government is interested in protecting its citizens and Hamas placed its arms in civilian zones. Israel also warned Palestinians that it would be attacking certain sites; Hamas encouraged Gazans not to move from those sites after those warnings.
But of course, you'll accuse me of lying about these facts. Or that these facts somehow reveal callousness on my part toward the Palestinian plight.
Hamas has broken the past ELEVEN cease fires Israel. It's my view that Hamas is a greater enemy to Palestinians than Israel, itself.
But facts are uncomfortable for you and tammuz to engage with.
orhan, it sounds like you're saying you think it's ok for palestinians to kill children? it's a math question for you, and you only want to see the underdog win? so what happens if israelis become the underdog, and the palestinians are able to kill more children? will you switch your allegiance? that's a pretty likely scenario if there is a single state solution like tammuz is asking for. he wants to ship in as many 'palestinians' from places like canada as he can and stop immigration of white peopleso the israelis lose their political voice right?
so would you support israel if they became the underdog? it's not really about numbers, is it? have you actually read enough of tammuz's propaganda that you've become just as racist as he is?
this is what you're supporting:
Kuntar's group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shoot-out with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. According to the official Israeli version, when Kuntar's group found that the rubber boat they had arrived in was disabled by gunfire, Kuntar shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, he allegedly smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle. Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place,[18][19] from where she saw Danny and Einat being led away at gunpoint by Kuntar. During the shoot-out a second policeman[citation needed] and another of Kuntar's comrades were killed. Kuntar and the fourth member of the group, Ahmad Assad al-Abras, were injured and captured. al-Abras was freed by Israel in the prisoner exchange of May 1985.
but it's just one kid right?
you didn't answer my questions. you started the numbers game and now you are also backing out while accusing me. figures... answer the questions; how many and how many? write it in a sentence. one sentence is enough. keep the bot talk to yourself. just the numbers. finish what you started once without resorting to hasbara arguments.
how many and how many?
i don't know. i don't know. i thought you were asking alternative, so i didn't answer. sometimes it's hard to tell who comments are directed towards. anyway, since i don't consider murdering children to be a math problem, i guess i found the question somewhat arbitrary.
i suppose the idea that all human life, regardless of religion or skin color, has value is a bit too abstract for those who support hamas?
Please point to where I invoked numbers about numbers killed. That was all you, Orhan, darling.
Typo above-- tell me where I invoked numbers killed. You started that argument
What about the Israeli children killed by Hamas mortar shells?
since you are going into comparative studies.., so i am asking you to give numbers to discuss it more in detail. why are you twisting and turning after the fact?
You invoked the death of Palestinian children-- I TOTALLY agree that their deaths are a tragedy. I countered that equally valuable lives of Israeli children were lost and then stated that-- without question-- many more Palestinian children died.
What twisting and turning, orhan?
From: Under pretext of restoring calm, Netanyahu government is escalating Israel’s war on Palestinians in Jerusalem
(...)
This episode illustrates how anti-Arab racism in Israeli society — what Israeli President Reuben Rivlin recently called “sick” — makes it susceptible to manipulation of facts in order to advance the far right’s agenda. Though the secular elite in Tel Aviv may appear to be ambivalent to the religious settler movement’s aspirations to completely Judaize Jerusalem, they practically support it in the name of security measures and counter-terrorism. Under the pretext of restoring quiet, the Netanyahu government is escalating Israel’s war on Palestinians in Jerusalem. Led by Moshe Feiglin, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset who has called for genocide of Palestinians, extremist settlers escorted by armed police have increasingly been visiting the courtyard surrounding the al-Aqsa mosque — a site of huge importance in Islam. Police have attacked Palestinian worshippers on a near daily basis, and in a move that could ignite an intifada, Israeli lawmakers will soon vote on partitioning the mosque. As Netanyahu incites Israelis and ramps up attacks on Palestinians neighborhoods, the future of Jerusalem is anything but quiet. - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/10/government-escalating-palestinians#sthash.cCEFkdWu.dpuf
I disagree with parts of the below article, namely in regards to the generalization here: "The cosmic joke here is that the roles have been reversed: the victim now has become the victimizer; the new victimizer seemingly devoid of any empathy"
Of course, that is stupid. We know that there are actual Jewish survivors and descendants (example, example) of survivors of the Holocaust who condemn Israel for its acts and, inversely, we know that many - if not most- of Israel's population have no historical connection to the Holocaust even if they perceive one based on identity --- which actually relates them to Europe and its racism rather than have them, in their turn, terrorize and colonize Palestinians in a pathologically sick and twisted logic based on some ridiculous belief that the Holocaust gives them carte blanche to violate others' rights because their right - or more factually, the right of some of them- was violated at one point in their history.
Sick and pathological - exactly as is curtkram's moronic logic that situates the core of the problem not where the factual historical criminal but wishes to shift it to vapidity free of any talk against Israel (as ISrael continues to colonize, oppress and so on) and to where the victim is ....Thus spewing that nonsense drivel about Hamas, as if the whole history of Israel's colonialism, theft of land and mass murder of Palestinians from the early 20th century to today can be collapsed to this forgery of history that wishes to divorce cause from effect, colonial acts from resistance reaction, the violator from their criminal history and the victims from their history of being oppressed. Anything but face - or actually have others face- the actual and real history of the racist colony of Israel. If the forgery of history needs to be revised for some people, then a revisioning is indeed called for. But really, ISrael's history as a history of colonialism is tautologically self-defining.
It is understandable that the Zionist bot comes here specifically to lie and obfuscate and even to insult and devolve to name-calling after pathetically trying to form more amicable bond in the aim to mitigate negative criticism against Israel ("Dubai gay"). Utterly transparent, ridiculous and has not the intelligence to estimate. But what is more sour are these Archinect schmucks who gather around it like hyenas, who purposefully resolve to moronic logic about how I conceive of the one state solution within their own racist worldview. No, I like many others believe that the one state solution is a peaceful solution for all...and the Palestinians have all the right to return to their lands.
But of course, racist scumbags like curtkram value more the paranoia that the "white man" (ie the colonizer) who belongs to the party that stole the land would have his non-rights on the lands revoked over and above the real, ancestral, historical rights of the Palestinians to be in Palestine if it is their wish to do so. In other words, even the "white man" (I use that scumbag's terminology) fault is of more value to this scumbag than the Palestinian's right.
And now for the article referenced above
....................................................................................................................
From Gaza and Beyond
The Entire World Is Under Siege
(...)
Israel’s modern war machine and its sophisticated, cunning Hasbara propaganda system – that cleverly conveys to the world a negative portrayal of Arab peoples, and especially of Palestinians – promotes perhaps yet the biggest “Big Lie” of all, which is that it simply is a peace-loving nation trying to survive while surrounded by dangerous, barbaric, terroristic peoples against whom they must constantly defend itself. Yet this has to rank right up there with Nazi Germany’s own propaganda in World War II that once portrayed the Jews in Europe as the main cause of the world’s problems. Some would say that what Nazi Germany perpetrated against the Jews is not unlike what the Zionists in Israel now are perpetrating against the Palestinians. The cosmic joke here is that the roles have been reversed: the victim now has become the victimizer; the new victimizer seemingly devoid of any empathy, unable or unwilling to see the same plight of the new victim, unable to recall the same horror of what it once was like to be the victims caught in a similar situation. Case in point: what transpired during the infamous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, led by the heroic Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany in 1942 in Poland.
During German-occupied Poland in World War II, a brave, yet poorly-armed and supplied Jewish resistance movement was crushed by the Nazi SS, their labyrinth of secret supply line conduits and passages through the maze of sewers that ran under Warsaw ultimately discovered, cut off and their armouries destroyed; just as Israel’s military forces now are intent upon crushing the heroic, yet poorly-armed and supplied Hamas resistance movement in Gaza, while destroying their own intricate maze of homemade supply-line tunnels and armouries beneath Gaza and Southern Israel and assassinating those leaders who sustain their resistance movement. Like the Jews of Warsaw, the Palestinian people and their Hamas leaders have been concentrated into a number of extremely-dense ghettos throughout the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Like the Warsaw Jews of 70 years ago, the Palestinians have been dying by the thousands due to rampant disease, starvation, poor to non-existent medical care or supplies, suicide, depression and racial oppression. Just as Hamas leaders have had to resort to suicide-bombing, as a last resort against their Jewish oppressors, Warsaw’s Jewish resistance leader, Adam Czerniakow, eventually committed suicide in protest once he learned of the true goal of the Nazi’s so-called Treblinka “resettlement” plan.
Desperate Hamas leaders and their resistance movement today fully realize that whatever eventual “resettlement” plans Zionist Israel have in store for them and the Palestinian people, the outcome does not bode in their favour. They know that just as the Nazi SS finally liquidated the entire Jewish Ghetto in May 1942, and carried out the Final Solution by transporting the Jewish Ghetto population to the Treblinka Extermination Camp, the Zionists in Israel have their own secret Final Solution plan for the Palestinian’s. Some characterize Israel’s Operation Protective Edge as being rather more that of an Operation Cutting Edge, and but the latest of many more sharply planned, evermore deadlier, cutting-edged blitzkriegs, designed to one day accomplish the ultimate mass dissolution and Diaspora of the Palestinian people.
Israel’s hasbara system, time and again, has cunningly used this Big Lie technique, first coined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 book, Mein Kampf, to obscure the truth and bamboozle the world about what is truly going on inside Israel and the Occupied Territories.
For over 70 years, the Zionist’s have continued to shape and hone world-wide opinion, with the conspiratorial help of the West’s mainstream press, to believe that It is those like Hamas, not the Israeli’s, who are the ones who must be demilitarized and disarmed. It is those like Hamas, not Israel, who are the biggest terrorists and arms merchants of terror in the world. It is only besieged Israel who has the right and duty to strike back at “international terrorism”, and annihilate whomever in support of its own self-defence and that of the free world.
But if one analyzes this phony guise, it closely follows Adolf Hitler’s psychological profile who masterfully understood some critically basic things about human nature. Namely, that: People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; Never allow public consciousness of an issue and problem to cool off; If a big lie is repeated enough, people will sooner or later believe it as truth; Never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; Never leave room for alternative solutions; Never accept blame for what is happening; Focus on one enemy at a time, and blame that enemy for everything that goes wrong; Continually claim that black is white and white is black, and; Always use double-think and tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, and forget or ignore any fact or truth that has become inconvenient.
To see these deceitful ploys for what they are, one could again use the analogy of the Warsaw Jews in a Treblinka concentration camp of seven decades ago; placing the onus not on the Nazi SS but on those rioting, angry Jewish ghetto-inmates, awaiting their ultimate ethnic cleansing destiny, who defiantly refuse to cooperate with their murderous, cold-blooded captors who they know, only too well, have but one outcome in mind for their captives.
Tammuz, I asked if you were gay and in Dubai because you mentioned grindr in Dubai.
And, what is more, just because you believe in a nonviolent one-state solution doesn't mean that the facts suggest that's viable. If you will recall, in 48, five bordering nations launched an attack on Israel; much of what led to the 67 war involved neighboring states mobilizing for an another attack on Israel. People accuse israel of being bellicose; could you ever strain to think that it's had to defend itself for existential survival for 66 years, but that it does legitimately want peace? (See Egypt and Jordan)
The article posted basically regurgitates the usual radical left-wing argument (increasingly mainstream) that we should "critically assess who the terrorists really are." Hamas is a terror group, Tammuz. You're the one trying to obfuscate, to say nothing of the holocaust revisionist articles you've posted on more than several occasions.
I think Tammuz is actually Ben Affleck....
http://youtu.be/vln9D81eO60
Tammuz, I had a chance to reread your post. You wrote:
We know that there are actual Jewish survivors and descendants (example, example) of survivors of the Holocaust who condemn Israel for its acts and, inversely, we know that many - if not most- of Israel's population have no historical connection to the Holocaust even if they perceive one based on identity -
Where are you getting this idea that Israelis are historically disconnected from the Holocaust?
Although many Holocaust survivors are dying off, I know of entire neighborhoods outside of Haifa primarily made up of death camp survivors and their descendants (from Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Germany, etc.). Do you not realize that many Jews could not return to their native lands after they were liberated from death camps? My grandparents spent four years in refugee camps in Italy and Cyprus because they were not permitted to return to Lithuania and Poland, where they were from.
Before you attack, keep in mind that I agree with the proposition that the suffering of Jews does not provide Israel carte blanche to engage in activities like settlements (and the many, many problems that settlements bring). But you seem to think that all survivors were opposed to Israel-- which is false. Israel became a home for many thousands of Jews who were dispossessed, and those survivors did believe in the defense of the State of Israel.
It's pretty obvious that a major factor in undergirding aggressive defense tactics by Israel is the collective memory of the Holocaust, and calls by certain (not all) Arabs to rid the world of Jews. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has complained that the task of hunting down Jews worldwide is too burdensome, observing that “if all the Jews were gathered in Israel, it would save us the trouble of going after them world-wide,” while further proclaiming “an open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth.” (Link)
I agree that the formation of the State of Israel was fraught with latent (or patent) conflict, but here we are in 2014 and we have organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad calling not only for the elimination of the state of Israel, but the murder of Jews worldwide. You don't think that's alarming to descendants of Holocaust survivors?
Tammuz, you're entitled to an opinion, but you're attempting to rewrite history in a perverse way. If we're going to have a debate, at least adhere to some historical accuracy. Your minimization of the Holocaust is unnerving.
Video :Israeli Military Demolishes Palestinian Homes in Um al Khair - 10.27.2014
Settlers Prepare To Expand illegitimate Settlement Near Salfit
A large number of Israeli settlers of the Bruchin illegal settlement outpost built on Palestinian lands east of Broqeen town, west of the central West Bank city of Salfit, started bulldozing lands in an attempt to expand their illegitimate settlement.
The Palestine News Network (PNN) said the settlers brought bulldozers and started leveling the lands, and digging, while several Israeli soldiers were deployed in the area preventing the Palestinians from reaching it.
Palestinian Researcher Khaled Ma’ali said the Israeli government lately announcement its intention to expand Brochin settlement by constructing new units, part of the recently declared 550 new units to be built on agricultural lands belonging to residents of Broqeen, and Sarta village.
Bruchin settlement was built in 1999; it started just as a small illegitimate outpost, and kept expanding since then.
The expansion comes following a decision by the head of the Central Command of the Israeli military of the West Bank, Nitzan Alon, to upgrade the outpost into a settlement under the umbrella of the “Regional Council of Settlements.”
Refusal to engage. Typical Tammuz.
.
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