Trafficking in children is a global problem affecting large numbers of children. Some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children being trafficked every year. There is a demand for trafficked children as cheap labour or for sexual exploitation. Children and their families are often unaware of the dangers of trafficking, believing that better employment and lives lie in other countries.
Russia to Help Palestine Become Independent State – Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the Arab League summit participants that Russia will continue contributing to the attainment of Palestine’s independence. MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will help Palestine in achieving its goal of becoming an independent state with the capital in East Jerusalem, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday in his address to the Arab League summit participants. “Russia will continue contributing to the attainment of this goal [Palestine’s independence], working through bilateral channels and through multilateral channels, including in the ‘Quartet’ of international mediators,” Putin said. The Quartet comprising Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, was established in 2002, aiming to reach a long-term peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians. The Russian president stressed on Saturday the need for closer cooperation between the Quartet and the Arab League, and highlighted Moscow’s readiness to cooperate with the league further.
Palestinians seek the creation of an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, as well as on the Gaza Strip. Palestinians have designated Jerusalem as its capital and called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it took after the 1967 war.
Russia to Help Palestine Become Independent State – Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the Arab League summit participants that Russia will continue contributing to the attainment of Palestine’s independence.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will help Palestine in achieving its goal of becoming an
independent state with the capital in East Jerusalem, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday in his address to the Arab League summit participants.
“Russia will continue contributing to the attainment of this goal [Palestine’s independence], working through bilateral channels and through multilateral channels, including in the ‘Quartet’ of international mediators,” Putin said.
The Quartet comprising Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, was established in 2002, aiming to reach a long-term peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians.
The Russian president stressed on Saturday the need for closer cooperation between the Quartet and the Arab League, and highlighted Moscow’s readiness to cooperate with the league further.
Palestinians seek the creation of an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, as well as on the Gaza Strip. Palestinians have designated Jerusalem as its capital and called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it took after the 1967 war.
Zionism and the Third Reich – Was Hitler a Zionist Agent? Did Hitler Create Israel??
This is part 3 in series dealing with the issues concerning Hitler, National Socialist Germany and the Jews. In the first part, I demonstrated that powerful and influential self-described “Jews” in New York and London declared war on Germany in 1933, and launched a world wide economic warfare against her, based upon bogus atrocity stories. In part 2, I showed that the largest and most influential Jewish organization in Germany at the time, publicly stated that these stories were untrue and that they themselves attempted to defend National Socialist Germany against the vile, slanderous atrocity propaganda, and how of their own accord, they took measures to re-assure the world that the atrocity stories were untrue, and moreover, that these stories were doing more harm than good, by fanning anti-Jewish sentiments within Germany. Now let’s turn to the issue of Zionism.
Many in the so-called “truth movement” today claim that Hitler was a Jew and / or a Rothschild, or a Zionist agent, and hence; that was “founder of Israel”. I have already dealt with this in a variety of previous posts and refuted those lies, but let’s look more closely now at the “Zionist agent” allegations. The so-called “Jewish Question” was not something that Hitler invented nor a problem that Hitler alone had perceived of. It was well discussed by Churchill and Roosevelt, and many others in Europe too. Hitler openly acknowledged the problem, which was also acknowledged by the Zionist Jews themselves!
Hitler sought to work with them to bring about a mutually beneficial solution. He did not, however, “ally” himself with the Zionists, as many today claim, but rather acknowledged them as a distinct race and culture, and he negotiated with them honourably, right in the midst of a wave of global Anti-Germanism, created and fanned by self-described “International Jewry”, which I believe was really a just front organization for the International Bankster Gangsters, the very same interests which Hitler decried and attempted to free his people from.
This group were attempting to strangle Germany economically, in the hope that the Hitler’s government would then collapse, return to the status quo: the Weimar “free for all” Republic, and the dictates of the Versailles Treaty, under which the International Bankster Gangsters could then go back to “business as usual” in bleeding Germany to a slow and painful death. And, thereby removing a real competitor from the world market. Not to mention leaving her and Europe wide open to the Soviet Bolshevik menace. Thus, the “status quo” was NOT acceptable to the Germans, which is precisely why Hitler and the NSDAP were elected to government and was NOT an option!
No other countries wished to take large numbers of Jews, and no other organization was in place with whom they could negotiate. Hitler’s support for them, however, was limited!
Excerpt from Zionism and The Third Reich, by Mark Weber (IHR)
Official Reservations
German support for Zionism was not unlimited. Government and Party officials were very mindful of the continuing campaign by powerful Jewish communities in the United States, Britain and other countries to mobilize “their” governments and fellow citizens against Germany. As long as world Jewry remained implacably hostile toward National Socialist Germany, and as long as the great majority of Jews around the world showed little eagerness to resettle in the Zionist “promised land,” a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine would not really “solve” the international Jewish question. Instead, German officials reasoned, it would immeasurably strengthen this dangerous anti-German campaign. German backing for Zionism was therefore limited to support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine under British control, not a sovereign Jewish state… /23″ FULL ARTICLE: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v13/v13n4p29_Weber.html
The above article by historian Mark Weber is also available as a free podcast here
To further understand the “Transfer Agreement” between NS Germany and the Zionists, I recommend you listen to the following. or download the free booklet and read it for yourself.:
Deanna Spingola reads from the book: The Transfer Agreement Boycott Fever of 1933 by by Professor Udo Walendy. This 40 page booklet goes into all of the pertinent background information regarding the declaration of war against Germany by self-described “World Jewry” or “Judea” , and their global boycott of German goods and services, based upon anti-German propaganda. Their objective was to bring Germany to her knees and to destroy her. They began to implement this plan, under false pretences (pretexts) , as soon as the National Socialists came to power, in order to undermine Hitler and the NS economic rescue plan, and thereby, subvert the democratically expressed will of the German people who had elected his party. It was a “False Flag Operation” of global proportions.
Hitler’s party platform did indeed include an appeal for racial purity in Germany, and the removal of Jews from positions of power and influence, and a return of power to the people. Even after the Nuremberg Laws were decreed, Jews however, could still make appeals to Hitler directly from exemptions, and he was dealing with these daily until at least late 1942 or early 1943 (well into the war). It must be noted too that, it was the British who put an end to emigration to Palestine when the war started, leaving any who wished to emigrate to Palestine stranded in Germany and later in transit camps. The western powers also refused to cooperate with Germany on alternative plans to have the Jews emigrate to locations such as Madagascar. But not all Jews wanted to leave Germany. Most rather enjoyed living there and wanted to stay. Approximately 150,000 loyal Jews served in the military and defended National Socialist Germany. Proven loyalty and devotion to Germany was always the key! I will cover this in more detail with expert sources at a later date.
It must also be underscored again, however, that Hitler’s support of Jewish immigration to Palestine was NEVER intended to be at the expense of the Palestinians, for whom he had great empathy, and he also worked closely with the Grand Mufti to support their cause, and vice versa.
In the picture below, the Grand Mufti Husseini meets with Adolf Hitler in Berlin
The picture below is of National Socialist supporters in Palestine.
Would this be possible if Hitler was a “Zionist Agent”? Do you think these people considered Hitler as the man responsible for the creation of modern day Israel? Or rather, as their ally?
Before wrapping this up, I will leave you with the following for your further consideration which demonstrates (again) the utter hypocrisy of the “ALL LIES”. Moreover, I believe it is further evidence of a criminal conspiracy to demonize Hitler and NS Germany for the sake of a profitable war, and for the protection of the interests of the self-described “Jewish” Bankster Gangsters, even at the expense of Jews in Germany and Europe. It is high-time for people to re-examine everything they thought they knew regarding Hitler, National Socialist Germany and World War II.
Allied Hypocrisy and Collusion: What FDR said about Jews in private
By Rafael Medoff, Los Angeles times, April 7, 2013
In May 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the White House. It was 17 months after Pearl Harbor and a little more than a year before D-Day. The two Allied leaders reviewed the war effort to date and exchanged thoughts on their plans for the postwar era. At one point in the discussion, FDR offered what he called “the best way to settle the Jewish question.”
In 1923, as a member of the Harvard board of directors, Roosevelt decided there were too many Jewish students at the college and helped institute a quota to limit the number admitted. In 1938, he privately suggested that Jews in Poland were dominating the economy and were therefore to blame for provoking anti-Semitism there. In 1941, he remarked at a Cabinet meeting that there were too many Jews among federal employees in Oregon. In 1943, he told government officials in Allied-liberated North Africa that the number of local Jews in various professions “should be definitely limited” so as to “eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany.” [FDR also]… dismissed pleas for Jewish refugees as “Jewish wailing” and “sob stuff”; expressing (to a senator ) his pride that “there is no Jewish blood in our veins”; and characterizing a tax maneuver by a Jewish newspaper publisher as “a dirty Jewish trick.” But the most common theme in Roosevelt’s private statements about Jews has to do with his perception that they were “overcrowding” many professions and exercising undue influence. ” http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-medoff-roosevelt-holocaust-20130407,0,581781.story Sir Winston Churchill: Zionist Hero
“Jewish supporters of Winston Churchill are to unveil a bust of the British wartime leader in Jerusalem this weekend in what they say is a long-overdue recognition of his staunch and unwavering support of the Jewish cause and their desire for a homeland.
“As a passionate Zionist all his life and a philo-semite, Churchill has been under-recognised,” says Anthony Rosenfelder, a trustee of the Jerusalem Foundation, which is behind the project to commemorate the British leader. He “combined a historical understanding of the Jewish people and what the promised land meant for Jews … with realpolitik”.
It is perhaps ironic that a statue of Churchill should stand just yards away from the King David Hotel, scene of a deadly Jewish terror attack on British military headquarters in 1946 that was to hasten the demise of mandate rule in Palestine.”
ISRAEL RAPIDLY LOSING SUPPORT IN WORLD: COMMENTATOR
Press TV has interviewed Richard Silverstein, a journalist and political commentator in Seattle, about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decrying latest remarks by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who has called for a probe into the Tel Aviv regime’s “extrajudicial executions” of Palestinians.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Well it looks like Israel basically hates the light of scrutiny, doesn’t it?
Silverstein: Yes it does. It has killed 141 Palestinians over the last two months in what is called the new Intifada and Sweden has rightfully called Israel to account and demanded that there be international pressure on Israel to stop these killings. Even if you use Israel’s judgment on who has been killed, at least one third of those 141 Palestinians had nothing to do with any attacks on Israelis and were killed by security forces either deliberately or accidentally but nonetheless were unarmed and uninvolved in any hostilities.
And what Sweden is going for is totally legitimate and Israel is losing support in the international community rapidly and I predict over the coming months and perhaps years or so more EU countries are going to be taking the similar kind of stand to Sweden’s and Israel is going to be losing gradually what little support it does have outside of Israel itself.
Press TV: Do you think we will see Israel being held accountable for its crimes against the Palestinians?
Silverstein: Well I do feel that that will happen, although I think it is going to take quite a long time. There is a lot of inertia in the international system against holding Israel accountable, bringing it to The Hague before the international Criminal Court or other types of judicial actions but that is coming. I think that international legal human rights activists are pressing cases around the world and I think eventually it will be held accountable for war crimes.
Press TV: Why do you think this Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been resolved so far, it is decades that it is going on?
Silverstein: Israel has a very powerful an effective foreign policy apparatus. It exerts a lot of impact in the United States and in Europe as well, it is able to manipulate levers of guilt in Europe especially in countries like Germany over what happened in the holocaust and there is a lot of … support in the United States for Israel because of the Israel lobby.
So it is very hard to lose grip of such impact in these countries but Israel, its actions in the Middle East are so reprehensible and extreme that they will not be able to stand this gradual change in international opinion that will either force resolution of the conflict or bring Israel before the International Criminal Court and have its leaders held accountable and perhaps even sent to prison at some point.
100 DAYS OF BRUTAL ISRAELI INTIMIDATION AND EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS
Israeli security troops forcibly detain a young Palestinian during clashes in the West Bank.
Executive Summary
It has been 100 days since grassroots, mostly youth-led protests broke out in Jerusalem, in reaction to increasing Israeli incursions into and restrictions on Islam’s Al-Aqsa Mosque. Since then, mass protests and individual attacks have spread across the West Bank and into Gaza and communities of Palestinian Israelis.
The story told primarily by the international media is one of Palestinian stabbers and Israeli retaliation in self-defense. However, as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documents in this 100-day report, proven Palestinian attacks are relatively small in number and often committed by lone youth, while the number of arrests, harassment and executions committed by Israeli forces are increasingly excessive and disproportionate.
As such, the behavior of the Israeli military constitutes violations of international law, and thus Euro-Med demands that the United Nations and other international bodies, as well as governments doing business with Israel, act now to pressure Israeli authorities to stop the abuse of human rights and end the root cause of the unrest: its decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Executions and Injuries
This report covers the period between 1 October, 2015 and 8 January, 2016, relying on photos, videos and eyewitness testimony. Data collected indicate that 150 Palestinians, including seven women and 27 minors, were extrajudicially executed, with Israel refusing to release the bodies of 24 to their families. In contrast, 27 Israelis, including one woman, were killed by Palestinians.
In addition, 15,759 Palestinians were injured, 92 seriously—including 58 journalists and 103 emergency medical personnel. Among Israelis, 385 were injured, 33 seriously.
Arbitrary Executions
Two-thirds of Palestinian victims—95 of 150—were executed in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the border area of the Gaza Strip during protests or immediately upon detention. Many were killed merely on “suspicion,” including those falsely accused of trying to attack Israelis.
In mid-October of 2015, Euro-Med published a video recording showing eight Palestinians being arbitrarily executed by Israeli forces. The UN special rapporteur called on the UN to launch a special investigation into such extrajudicial killings.
Targeting of Medical Staff and Civilian Hospitals
Euro-Med Monitor documented 314 cases of Israeli assaults on Palestinian medical staff and civilian hospitals. Israeli forces attacked medical staff and ambulances 171 times during the 100 covered days; 16 physicians were prevented from providing necessary medical care to the injured.
In addition, Israeli forces stormed civilian hospitals nine times, allegedly searching for Palestinians who had committed illegal acts during protests. The most serious incident took place when tens of Israeli soldiers, disguised in plain clothes, stormed the Ahli Hospital in Hebron on 12 November 12, 2015—killing Abdallah Al-Shalalida and abducting his cousin. In a similar incident on 29 October, more than 60 Israeli soldiers broke into the charitable Al-Maqasid Hospital to break up a demonstration staged by doctors protesting the frequent Israeli storming of the hospital.
Discriminatory Treatment of Wounded Palestinians
Euro-Med has found that the Israeli organization Magen David Adom (MDA), recognized as an emergency medical aid agency by the International Committee of the Red Cross, frequently gives top priority to the treatment of injured Israelis, while neglecting critically wounded Palestinians. This discrimination is a blatant violation of medical ethics and the code of conduct to which all physicians ascribe.
In addition, in a number of incidents, Israeli soldiers dealt with wounded Palestinians inhumanely, allowing them to bleed for hours without providing medical treatment. In some of these incidents, soldiers interrogated Palestinians while they were bleeding on the ground.
Euro-Med contacted the administrators of Magen David Adom 30 days before issuance of this report, providing documentation of five cases in which its medical team failed to treat injured Palestinians on a timely basis. However, no response was received.
Demolition of Houses and Damage to Other Property
Euro-Med has documented 352 assaults on Palestinians and their properties. During the 100 days of the coverage period, 92 homes were demolished as collective punishment of families with relatives accused of attacking Israelis.
During the reporting period, the Israeli army stormed Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps 908 times and broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque 74 times.
Attacks on Israeli Individuals and Properties
Palestinians attacked Israeli individuals or property an estimated 227 times, ranging from knife stabbings to car rammings. The most common incident, however, was stone-throwing by Palestinian youth. These incidents primarily occurred around checkpoints and on streets linking Palestinian cities and villages. They resulted in the death of 27 Israelis, including one woman, and the injury of 385 others (33 of whom were seriously wounded).
Detention of Palestinians
Since the escalation of protests in October 2015, 3,401 Palestinians have been detained—58 percent more than during the same period the year before. About half of these detainees, 1,511, are minors. One in every 3 of these detainees was exposed to cruel treatment such as beatings, humiliation, hand-cuffing and blindfolding.
***
As an occupying power, Israel is obligated under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure the safety and security of civilians from. Euro-Med now is communicating with the United Nations to urge it to launch a comprehensive investigation with the support of the Security Council or, if vetoed, the General Assembly. Signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention are obligated to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of crimes such as those described in this report.
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid...Jimmy Carter In His Own Words
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is accusing Israel of creating an apartheid system in the West Bank and Gaza. The charge comes in his new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." We play an address by Carter talking about the Palestine-Israel conflict, the role of the United States and much more. Carter says, "Palestinians are deprived of basic human rights, their land has been occupied, then confiscated, then colonized by the Israeli settlers." [includes rush transcript]
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is accusing Israel of creating an apartheid system in the West Bank and Gaza. The charge comes in his new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been deeply involved in Middle East policies for the past three decades. As president he negotiated the Camp David Accords–which secured a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt.
In his new book, Jimmy Carter writes, "Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land."
Carter criticizes Israel for building what he describes as an imprisonment wall through the West Bank. He accuses Israel of strangling the residents of Gaza where the poverty rate has reached 70 percent and where the malnutrition rate mirrors countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. And Carter is critical of Washington’s role. He writes, "The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories."
Some of the most vocal critics of Carter’s book have been fellow Democrats. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "It is wrong to suggest that the Jewish people would support a government in Israel or anywhere else that institutionalizes ethnically based oppression, and Democrats reject that allegation vigorously."
John Conyers, the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, urged Carter to change the title of the book, which he described as "offensive and wrong."
Meanwhile, the nation’s newspapers have largely ignored Jimmy Carter’s book since its publication two weeks ago. The book hasn’t even been mentioned in the news pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe or Los Angeles Times.
Today on Democracy Now we are going to hear Jimmy Carter in his own words. On Tuesday night he discussed his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" at an event in Virginia.
Jimmy Carter, former U.S. President, speaking November 28th, 2006.
AMY GOODMAN: Today on Democracy Now!, we’ll hear Jimmy Carter in his own words. On Tuesday night, he discussed his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, at an event in Virginia.
JIMMY CARTER: Some people have said the title is provocative, and I accept that categorization, but I don’t consider the word "provocative" to be a negative description, because it’s designed to provoke discussion and analysis and debate in a country where debate and discussion is almost completely absent if it involves any criticism at all of the policies of Israel. And I think the book is very balanced.
Secondly, the words "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" were carefully chosen by me. First of all, it’s Palestine, the area of Palestinians. It doesn’t refer to Israel. I’ve never and would imply that Israel is guilty of any form of apartheid in their own country, because Arabs who live inside Israel have the same voting rights and the same citizenship rights as do the Jews who live there.
And the next word is "peace." And my hope is that the publication of this book will not only precipitate debate, as I’ve already mentioned, but also will rejuvenate an absolutely dormant or absent peace process. For the last six years there’s not been one single day of good faith negotiations between Israelis and their neighbors, the Palestinians. And this is absolutely a departure from what has happened under all previous presidents since Israel became a nation. We’ve all negotiated or attempted to negotiate peace agreements. That has been totally absent now for six years. So "peace."
And then the last two words, "not apartheid." The alternative to peace is apartheid, not inside Israel, to repeat myself, but in the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem, the Palestinian territory. And there, apartheid exists in its more despicable forms, that Palestinians are deprived of basic human rights. Their land has been occupied and then confiscated and then colonized by the Israeli settlers. And they have now more than 205 settlements in the West Bank itself. And what has happened is, over a period of years, the Israelis have connected settlements with highways, and those highways make the West Bank look like a honeycomb and maybe a spider web. You can envision it. And in many cases, most cases, the Palestinians are prevented from using the highways at all, and in many cases, even from crossing the highways.
I’d like to make one other point. When Israel was founded back in 1948 by the United Nations, Israel was allocated 56% of what we would call "the holy land" between Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. After the wars, when the Arabs tried to destroy Israel, treaties were worked out, and Israel wound up with 77% of the holy land. 22% was designated as the West Bank, and 1% only, Gaza. So at the optimum case, as recognized by all the United Nations resolutions, Israel would wind up with 77% of the area, and the Palestinians only 23%, including Gaza and the West Bank. And remember that Gaza is on the sea coast, where the Philistines lived during the time of King David, and it’s separated by 40 kilometers, about 30 miles, from the rest of Palestinian territory. So in order for a Palestinian to go from Gaza to the West Bank, they have to go through 30 miles of Israeli land, though that’s just a geographical description.
This book is designed to restimulate the prospect for peace. And I’m going to just read three options that Israelis face. And I’d like to say at the beginning that none of them are completely acceptable to all Israelis. But for the last 40 years, a strong majority of Israelis have preferred to relinquish Arab land in return for peace. And this sentiment prevailed until the time when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by an irate Israeli who didn’t like what Rabin and Shimon Peres had done at Oslo in negotiating a peace agreement for which they both received the Nobel Peace Prize.
AMY GOODMAN: Former US President Jimmy Carter, speaking in Virginia. We’ll come back to this address in a minute.
AMYGOODMAN:We return to the words of former President Jimmy Carter. He was speaking Tuesday night at a book event in Virginia, where he read from his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
JIMMY CARTER: Although a clear majority of Israelis are persistently willing to accept terms that are tolerable to most of their Arab neighbors, it is clear that none of the options is attractive for all of the Israelis. And these are the three options. First one has been discussed quite extensively and most persistently by the present prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, who presented this thesis quite early in his career as a young member of the Israeli parliament — he’s now the prime minister — a forceful annexation of Palestine and its legal absorption into Israel, which would give large numbers of non-Jewish citizens the right to vote and live as equals under the law. So, a large sectarian nation involving both Israelis and Palestinians is this option.
This would directly violate international standards and the Camp David Accords, which are the basis for peace with Egypt. At the same time, non-Jewish citizens would immediately make up a powerful swing vote if other Israelis were divided. In other words, if Israelis, who now have a majority, were divided 60-40 or 50-50, as you could see, then if the Palestinians voted as a bloc, they would prevail in establishing the basic policies of Israel, if other Israelis were divided.
It would also maybe constitute an outright majority in the new greater Israel. This is because of demographic trends. The Palestinians have a much higher birthrate than do the Israelis, the Israeli Jews. In fact, in Gaza, which I describe, the Palestinian birthrate is 4.7% annually, which is the highest in the world. And that means that in Gaza at this time, half their citizens are 15 years old or less. Israel would be further isolated and condemned by the international community. So I think within 20 years or less, in a combined Israel and Palestinian land, the Arabs would actually have a majority, more than the Jews.
Second, a system of apartheid — this is, remember, in Palestine — with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. This is a policy now being followed, although many citizens of Israel deride the racist connotation, which I certainly don’t imply, of prescribing permanent second-class status for the Palestinians. As one prominent Israeli stated, quote, "I am afraid that we are moving toward a government like that of South Africa, with a dual society of Jewish rulers and Arab subjects with few rights of citizenship. The West Bank," this Israel said, "is not worth it." And that’s a majority — that’s the opinion of a majority of Israelis.
An unacceptable modification of this choice now being proposed is the taking of substantial portions of the occupied territory with the remaining Palestinians completely surrounded by walls, fences and Israeli checkpoints, living as prisoners within the small portion of land left to them. I think you can quickly see the unacceptability of both of those options.
There’s only one option left, and that is withdrawal to the 1967 border, as specified in UN Resolution 242 and as promised legally by the Israeli government in the Camp David Accords and the Oslo Agreement and prescribed in the Road Map of the International Quartet. You remember, the Quartet consists of the United States and Russia and the United Nations and the European Union. Those four comprise a Quartet. And they have devised the latest proposal, known as the Road Map for Peace, which has been enthusiastically endorsed by President Bush, as you know. This is the most attractive option and the only one that can ultimately be acceptable as a basis for peace. Good faith negotiations can lead to mutually agreeable exchanges of land, perhaps permitting a number of Israeli settlers to remain in their present homes near Jerusalem inside Palestinian territory.
One version of this choice was spelled out in the Geneva Initiative. The Geneva Initiative is described in a separate chapter. I was involved, in some ways, in the preparation of the Geneva Initiative, and I was there and made the keynote speech in Geneva when this initiative was prescribed. But what it does do is work out a compromise between the Palestinians and the Israelis through which about half of the total Israelis who live now in the West Bank could stay where they are, and the others would withdraw, which would still leave the Palestinians with a contiguous — that is, a constant — area of land over which they could have a united government of Palestinians.
And also a part of that was a swap of land. Whenever the Palestinians would give up part of their land, where the large Jewish settlements are built, then the Israelis would give up an equal amount of land that might lie just west of Gaza or some parts — relatively uninhabited parts — of Israel. So it was a swap of land for land.
The other step was the right of return. This is a very important thing for Palestinians, none of whom would give this up. It’s guaranteed in United Nations Resolution 194. The right of Palestinians to return to their homeland, or either to be compensated for their property if they can prove that they actually have title to that property. And a compromise worked out in the Geneva Initiative was, okay, the Palestinians can return, but they can return only to Palestine. They cannot return to Israel, the new nation of Israel, unless Israelis approve each application for return. But they would still be — have available to them some kind of compensation.
And the third major issue — I’m summarizing very quickly — is the settlement of the property, about who controls or owns East Jerusalem. And this is covered quite extensively throughout the book. But a very good compromise was reached, where the holy places would be under the complete control of the Arabs, on the one hand, and the Jews, on the other, including the Wailing Wall and the adjacent land. And then the rest of East Jerusalem would be administered by a joint commission that would take care of housing and schools and garbage collection and water and electricity and that sort of thing. So it was a very good compromise. In my opinion, ultimately something very close to the Geneva Initiative described in this book is the only avenue toward permanent peace for Israel, with justice and peace for their Palestinian neighbors.
So the book is deliberately — I wouldn’t say controversial, but it’s deliberately designed to be provocative, because, as I said earlier, in Israel and in Europe, these kind of issues are debated every day, in a most vehement way, particularly in Israel. Pros and cons, arguing back and forth, in the news media, television, radio, the major newspapers. Never, in this country, do you hear any of these issues proposed publicly by an elected member of the House or the Senate or in the White House or NBC or ABC or CBS, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times. Never. And I think it’s time for Americans to start looking at the facts about the Mid-East situation. And only then, and based on the knowledge of the facts, will we ever have a chance to move forward and consummate a peace agreement that would give Israel what they need and what they deserve — permanent peace, recognized by their neighbors and all Arab countries and the rest of the world — and the Palestinians to have their human rights, their land and a chance to have their own state, side by side, living in peace with their Israeli neighbors.
AMY GOODMAN: Afterward President Jimmy Carter spoke on Tuesday about his book, Palestine: Apartheid Not Peace [sic], he took questions from the audience. He was asked to outline what a balanced US-Middle East policy would look like. Again, his book is called Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
JIMMY CARTER: Yeah, the word "balance" is one that’s almost unacceptable in our country. If you had a candidate for Congress running either Democratic or Republican and they announced to the general public, "I’m going to take a balanced position between the Israelis and the Palestinians," they would never be elected. That’s an impossibility in our country. But that doesn’t preclude an incumbent administration from demonstrating with their own actions and words that they are concerned about Israeli peace, they are also concerned about peace and justice for the Palestinians. And that’s what I did. It’s what Richard Nixon did. It’s what Ronald Reagan did after I left office. It’s what George Bush, Sr. did. It’s what Bill Clinton did. But it’s not being done now.
There is a general feeling throughout the Arab world, throughout Europe, not even noticed in this country, that our present administration has not given any consideration, in my opinion, to the plight of the Palestinians. And you don’t have to be anti-Israel to protect the rights of the Palestinians to have their own land and to live in peace and without being subjugated by an occupying power.
So I think that that is a proper approach. If it is impossible during the next two years of President Bush’s administration for him to take that, to use your word, "balanced" approach, then as a fallback, it may be possible for the International Quartet to take that role. And that would obviously be the United States playing a major role, but not the only role, and for it to involve the United Nations and Russia and the European Union. And I think they could say, okay, let us orchestrate peace talks based on United Nations resolutions, based on the Camp David Agreement that I worked out, based on the Oslo Agreement, and based on the will of a majority of Israeli citizens, and based on the Road Map that we ourselves have prescribed.
By the way, every element of the Road Map has been adopted enthusiastically by the Palestinian side. None of the key elements in the Road Map have been adopted by the Israeli side. They have rejected all of them. And I have the actual action of the Israeli cabinet in the appendix to this book.
So, to summarize, the international group of leaders, the Quartet, could take strong action to implement the terms of the Road Map.
Thank you all very much, and I will sign a few books.
AMY GOODMAN: Former US President Jimmy Carter talking about his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
UK Lawmakers Debate Israeli Detention of Palestinian Children
A Palestinian child raises chained hands during a protest in Gaza. | Photo: Reuters
The debate comes as Israel has been increasing the detention of Palestinians since violence broke out in the occupied territories in early October.
Members of the United Kingdom Parliament held a special session to discuss for the second time the issue of child prisoners and detainees in Israel-occupied Palestinian territories.
In 2012, the British Foreign Office sponsored a visit by distinguished lawyers to assess Israel’s efforts to improve its record following the publication of the report, “Children in Military Custody,” by a team led by the former British attorney general, Baroness Patricia Scotland.
The debate also came as Israel has been increasing the detention of Palestinians since violence broke out in the occupied territories in early October. Since then, Tel Aviv’s armed forces and police have detained over 1,200 children, according to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
“The detention of Palestinian children by the Israeli occupation forces is a crime against humanity. What kind of threat would children pose to the Israeli soldiers,” said teleSUR Correspondent Naser Saadat, a Gaza citizen.
In February 2014, Israel announced the introduction of a pilot program to issue written summonses instead of arresting children, the move followed the international condemnation on the arbitrary arrests of minors, However, Tel Aviv has not stopped its campaign, according to human rights organizations. Israel also tortures about 95 percent of the Palestinian prisoners it holds in prisons, including minors, women and even ill detainees.
Meanwhile, the U.K. government has continued its unconditional support for Israel. Since 2007, the British multinational security company G4S has provided security for major prisons in Israel where political prisoners are held without trial.
In a challenge to the U.K. government and G4S, considered the world's largest security company, a global network of grassroots activist groups and members of the British Parliament launched the hashtag "Stop G4S," demanding the United Nations cancel its contracts with the security company.
‘Israeli war criminals must be put on UK govt watch-list’ – Labour MP
Israeli war criminals, who detain and mistreat Palestinian children, must be kept on a “watch-list” in case they attempt to enter Britain, a Labour MP has said.
While addressing MPs in Westminster Hall on Wednesday during a 90-minute debate, Labour MP Sarah Champion urged the government to create a list for “all known war crime suspects” who enter or attempt to enter Britain.
She said the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is guilty of the “collective punishment” of Palestinians in order to protect Israeli settlers in the West Bank. She then criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinian child detainees.
“The issue of transferring detainees en masse from occupied territory is a standalone issue because it is a war crime. It requires decisive action in accordance with our international legal obligations,” she said.
Champion described incidents where Palestinian children were being detained with plastic hand ties, blindfolds and hoods.
She then alleged detained youngsters were forced to sign documents in Hebrew, which they couldn’t understand.
The MP further criticized the IDF’s excessive response to the throwing of stones by Palestinian youngsters.
Commenting on Champion’s claims, Conservative MPs John Howell and Andrew Percy said investigations into such incidents are often conducted in Arabic.
Howell said Champion’s allegations against Israel are an “unfair selection.” He said Britain should “be drawing our attention to the Saudi execution of minors.”
Percy drew attention to a soft toy used to encourage Palestinian children to oppose Israel. The doll, wears a keffiyeh covering its face, on which is written in Arabic: “Jerusalem is ours.”
“This is clearly incitement,” Percy said.
Israeli authorities intercepted nearly 4,000 of the dolls last month.
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, urged the European Union to withdraw its deals with Israel over the treatment of young detainees.
During the debate, Labour MP Ian Austin alleged Palestinian television promotes anti-Semitism in children’s programmes.
Middle East Minister Tobias Ellwood said the government would continue to support Israel in “all the challenges it faces.”
“The level of incitement is certainly worrying, but that should not prevent us from working with Israel and being critical of Israel on these points,” he told the Jewish Chronicle.
In a statement, the Israeli embassy in London said: “The State of Israel attaches great importance to strengthening and promoting the protection granted to minors in the military justice system, while simultaneously taking into consideration the unique circumstances and the security situation in the West Bank.”
House Adopts Anti-Palestinian Resolution, Sustains “Israel’s Right to commit the Highest Crimes”
On Tuesday, a one-sided bipartisan non-binding House resolution with 71 co-sponsors was adopted by voice vote, no opposition registered.
The entire process on an issue this sensitive took 30 minutes, no debate needed. Rubber-stamp approval sufficed, more proof showing Palestinians are on their own, sustained resistance their only recourse. Changing the deplorable status quo is impossible any other way.
Neocon Republican House Foreign Affairs chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced the measure.
AIPAC applauded the resolution, (e)xpressing concern over anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement within the Palestinian Authority.” Its statement “condemning the recent wave of Palestinian terrorism in Israel.”
Ros-Lehtinen’s hate-filled comments were quoted, saying “(t)he House has sent a clear message to Palestinian leadership that its anti-Israel incitement causing so much of the recent tension, violence, and terror will no longer be tolerated.”
There should be no doubt that the Palestinian Authority sets the tone with its incitement, resulting in the recent wave of attacks that we’re seeing against innocent Israeli civilians.
Other House members voiced similar sentiments – ignoring longstanding Israeli state terror, wars at its discretion, brutalizing occupation harshness, persecuting an entire population ruthlessly, holding it hostage, stealing its land, murdering its people.
Congress near unanimously supports Israel’s right to commit the highest of high crimes. When Palestinians defend their rights, they’re called “terrorists.”
According to AIPAC, “a wave of Palestinian incitement and terror (is ongoing) throughout the state of Israel. (A)t least a dozen Israelis have been killed and scores more wounded.”
Eight Jews were killed since October 1 in Occupied Palestine, not Israel, only two by stabbings. AIPAC’s silence was deafening, ignoring 75 Palestinians murdered by Israeli soldiers and police over the same time period, thousands injured, many hundreds arrested and brutalized in confinement.
Things aren’t entirely hopeless. Activist Josh Ruebner points out similar pro-Israeli resolutions usually get 200 – 300 co-sponsors.
This measure was first introduced in June. House members took months bringing it to the floor for a vote. Only two Democrats spoke in support of the measure.
When a voice vote was called, many members weren’t on the floor. Most pro-Israeli resolutions show recorded votes so representatives can show their allegiance on the public record.
Still it goes without saying. Virtually the entire Congress one-sidedly supports Israel. Palestinian rights don’t matter. Not a single profile in courage in Washington speaks out on their behalf. No one condemns decades of Israeli high crimes.
The pilot announced: “We will soon be landing in Palestine”
Iberia aircraft Photo credit: Channel 2 News
Passengers on an Iberia flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv were surprised to hear the captain announce that the plane was going to land shortly in Tel-Aviv, which is in the state of Palestine. The airline’s spokesperson in response: "We apologize; the pilot will no longer be allowed to fly to Israel."
Passengers on Iberia Airline’s flight 3316 from Madrid to Tel Aviv were surprised to hear the captain’s announcement just a few minutes before landing. “We will soon be landing in Tel Aviv, which is in the state of Palestine,” the captain declared.
Lior, a passenger on Iberia flight 3316, told Channel 2 news that he was shocked by the announcement. “The entire flight immediately started whispering. We live in Israel and I don’t understand why he wouldn’t say the name of our country. He had purposely said it in English so we would understand it. It was deliberate, especially during these tense days Israel is going through.” Another passenger added: "It is not acceptable; everyone noticed it."
A spokesperson for the airline apologized for the incident and said that the airline has many flights flying back and fourth from Israel and that the company is well aware of the fact that Tel Aviv is in the State of Israel. Moreover, the spokesperson added that the company would investigate the incident and that the pilot would no longer be allowed to fly to Israel in the near future.
Netanyahu Proposes Revoking Residency Of 80,000 Palestinians From Jerusalem In Jerusalem, the Israeli Annexation Wall has been constructed in such a way as to annex as much of Jerusalem as possible for the Israeli state, while forcing the Palestinian population into smaller and smaller enclaves
Israeli border police check Palestinian’s identification cards at a checkpoint in Jerusalem, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
The Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in a recent Cabinet meeting, proposed revoking the residency rights of 80,000 Jerusalemites, which would mean that the people of Sho’afat refugee camp and Kafr Aqab, as well as other neighborhoods, would be cut off from the rest of Jerusalem.
The proposal was considered by the Israeli Cabinet in their recent meeting, but no decision was made.
Already, the 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank have been severed from Jerusalem due to the Israeli construction of a massive Wall over the past 13 years. The Wall has annexed large sections of Palestinian land and made them a de facto part of the state of Israel, in direct violation of the responsibilities of an occupier under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israel’s government signed the Convention in 1957, requiring it to provide for the needs of civilian populations under occupation. The Convention also requires that an Occupying Power must not transfer any civilians into the land it has militarily occupied. But Israel has transferred over half a million people into settlements constructed on Palestinian land that was militarily occupied, then illegally seized, since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights began in 1967.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli Annexation Wall has been constructed in such a way as to annex as much of Jerusalem as possible for the Israeli state, while forcing the Palestinian population into smaller and smaller enclaves. Now, under the Israeli Prime Minister’s proposal, residents of those enclaves would lose their residency rights altogether.
Israel has an identity card system for the residents of Jerusalem that is completely unique in the world. Jewish Israelis who live in Jerusalem or in paramilitary colonies in the West Bank are afforded full Israeli citizenship. But Palestinians who live on their ancestral land in Jerusalem are given a different kind of identity card, which ensures that they have far fewer rights than Jewish residents of the city.
If a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem, for example, were to travel abroad for more than a year, Israel would consider that person to be an ‘absentee property owner’, and would seize their land and home and annex it to Israel, denying the Palestinian owner the right to return to their home. The rule only applies to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, and not to Jewish residents of the city.
According to the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahranoth, following the construction of new walls and barricades in recent weeks to further separate and segregate Palestinian residents of Jerusalem from Jewish residents, the Israeli Prime Minister told his Cabinet ministers, “We need to examine the possibility of canceling their [Palestinian Jerusalemites] residency. There needs to be a discussion about it.”
Some Israeli ministers voiced opposition to the plan, not because they were concerned about the Palestinian Jerusalemites losing their residency rights, but because they believe such a division would “give up territory” that some Israelis believe should belong to Israel.
That claim is based on a military takeover of the land by Israeli forces. Neither international law nor signed agreements recognize military takeover of land as a legitimate way of expanding state territory.
Israeli police shoot, kill 17-year-old Palestinian in Hebron
Scene of the incident
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli border police shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian girl near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank on Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
The girl was identified as Dania Irsheid, 17, from central Hebron.
An Israeli police spokesperson said that the girl was shot dead after police officers allegedly saw "a knife in her hand." No Israelis were injured during the incident.
A Palestinian woman who was in the area told Ma'an that she watched as "occupation soldiers covered a young Palestinian woman who was lying on the ground bleeding without giving her medical aid at all, before an ambulance arrived and took her."
Another witness told Ma'an that he saw a schoolgirl with a schoolbag on her back trying to cross the Israeli checkpoint near the Ibrahimi mosque.
"An Israeli soldier asked her to take the knife out of her bag, then he immediately fired gunshots into the air," the witness said. "Seconds later the schoolgirl was lying on the ground bleeding."
The woman's death brings the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces to at least 57 since the beginning of the month.
While 29 of those killed were shot after allegedly carrying out attacks on Israelis, a number of alleged attacks have been disputed by Palestinian witnesses and investigations by rights groups who say the suspects posed no threat at the time of their death.
Video footage in a number of cases has raised criticism of what Israeli rights group B'Tselem terms "extrajudicial executions," where a "shoot-to-kill" policy advocated by Israeli officials has led to high numbers of unnecessary deaths.
Hebron has seen a particularly high death toll in recent weeks with nine Palestinians shot dead since late September -- in every case after an alleged stabbing attempt -- and one Palestinian activist dying from excessive tear gas inhalation.
At least nine Israelis have been killed by Palestinians since Oct. 1, leading Israeli authorities to deploy large numbers of Israeli military personnel and police forces across the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel “Violating Every International Law” with Use of Lethal Weapons against Palestinian Civilians
The Israeli army is using very dangerous weapons, which can be lethal, to disperse demonstrators who are just demonstrating. The rules of engagement that the Israeli army is using against Palestinian demonstrators simply violate every international law. First of all, Israeli forces use high velocity bullets, which have already caused at least 300 injuries and taken the lives of many people. Second, they use what they call “rubber bullets,” but these are not rubber bullets at all; it’s a misconception or misrepresentation to call them “rubber.” There are two types of rubber bullets. One is a cylinder, but inside it you have a very heavy metal. Usually when it is shot from a close distance it penetrates the body and frequently it penetrates the brain and becomes fatal.It is also very dangerous when it hits the eye. Many Palestinians have lost eyes because of these kinds of bullets. The other type of bullet they call “rubber” is not rubber at all but a very heavy shard, and this shard is covered with a very thin piece of plastic. Again, this is very dangerous and responsible for very serious injuries and it is misleading to keep saying that it is “rubber.” Third, recently, Israeli forces started using this kind of bullet in a big quantity, they are heavy metallic bullets which are usually used against animals, but now they are using them against Palestinians. You have what they call 0.22 bullets. The 0.22 bullet is a very small bullet, but it’s very dangerous because when it hits a vital organ or a major vein it can cause bleeding to death.The so-called 0.22 bullet is used by snipers and it has been responsible for the death and injury of many people. Even B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation, issued a statement saying that their use is illegal. Then you have the sponge, and the sponge is dangerous because it has taken away already 13 eyes, including 7 children who lost their eyes.They also use tear gas bombs, and they throw them in very big quantities, creating what we call “closed room effect”, which could kill people because of suffocation.We have already lost three women in previous years because of tear gas, they suffocated from tear gas. Sometimes Israeli forces fire up to 50 tear gas bombs at once and that can also have long term effects. When you throw tear gas to disperse the crowd you throw one, two, three tear gas bombs, not fifty.Tear gas is also very dangerous because it is a chemical and we don’t know the long term effects of using such chemicals. Many people including myself have had serious bronchitis and laryngitis because of this. We think that long term and repeated exposure could be risky to people’s health. Some neighbourhoods like Al-Aida camp in Bethlehem are very close to confrontation areas andare routinely exposed to tear gas, so children, families, everyone breathes in tear gas around the clock. The furniture is full of it, the walls, the beds, everything. Then they use stun grenades, and stun grenades are dangerous especially when they are thrown directly at people. Many people have had severe injuries because they have had stun grenades thrown at them directly, and when they explode they can cause serious injuries. Some people have lot their hearing because of stun grenades.Tear gas bombs also, the metallic ones are especially dangerous because sometimes the army uses them as bullets in the sense that they direct them at someone. One of the guys who died from this, his heart stopped beating when the tear gas bomb hit him.
You should not shoot people when they are very far from you and when they present no risk to you. They start shooting when they see people in the distance.
Israeli Forces Kill Beloved Palestinian Doctor and Peace Activist
“I will never move until I die or we get our freedom.” A 54 year old Palestinian physician who has devoted his life to peacefully resisting the Israeli occupation of his land was killed by IDF forces yesterday, October 21st. Since the Hebron agreement in 1997, Hashem Azzeh was made to feel like an outsider in his own home.
“The settlers harass us by throwing stones, garbage and sometimes human shit,” Azzeh said in a 2013 interview with the International Solidarity Movement.
Bottles of urine were often thrown into Azzeh’s garden
“The children here, including my own, can’t sleep well at night,” Azzeh continued. “They always expect soldiers or settlers to come and attack. Many children still wet their pants at the age of fourteen and fifteen.”
Despite this, Azzeh fought the occupation by refusing to leave and by helping others in his community. As recently as last July, Azzeh helped a 90 year old woman who was forced out of her home by Israeli forces to not only find shelter, but also assisted her in the long court proceedings to retake her home.
Hashem Azzeh and Um Mohammad
In 2009, Isreali settlers offered Azzeh $20 million to leave his home. When he refused, the military tried to bully him out.
“The settlers who live next to me cut the water pipes that lead to my house,” Azzeh said. “I lived without water for three years.”
“They attacked my wife when she was pregnant with our first child; she lost it in her third month. She was pregnant again but the settlers beat her when she was four months pregnant and she lost that baby as well.”
Hashem Azzeh and his wife, Nizreen
According to Azzeh, over 350 families lived in his neighborhood before the occupation. As of 2013, there were only 48.
“My neighbor is the leader of the Jewish National Front,” Azzeh said. “He has two stickers posted to his wall. One of them says ‘God gave us the right to kill Arabs and we love it.’”
Despite his struggles, Azzeh never advocated hate.
“We are not against Judaism,” Azzeh said. “We are only against the occupation. Every Palestinian has close Jewish friends.”
“He was a medical doctor who had founded a voluntary clinic in his neighborhood,” said Milla Katerina Tuominen, friend of Azzeh. “He was famous for inviting everyone to his house regardless of their religious or ethnic background and served as a perfect example of non-violent resistance despite having faced a lot of violence and hardship himself.”
Azzeh died from “excessive tear gas inhalation.” No disciplinary action has been reported from within the IDF ranks.
To support Hashem’s wife and 4 young children, his friends have started a GoFundMe fundraiser, which can be accessed here.
Hashem Azzeh with one of his children
“For me personally it is clear,” Azzeh said. “I will never move until I die or we get our freedom.”
Over 52 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the past 20 days.
The rotten soul of the Western political establishment is never more exposed than when it comes to the issue of Palestine. It is here where the hypocrisy, double standards, and political cowardice that is its truth is at its most extreme.
Bad enough that the Palestinian people have been forced to endure a decades-long negation of their human, natural, and national rights; the injustice they have suffered is compounded tenfold by the complicity of the West in denying their rightful status as an oppressed people struggling against a cruel and vindictive oppressor. Stripped of all of the embroidery and obfuscation that has been allowed to distort the contours of this struggle, here lies the root of the issue and the biblical suffering that has and continues to flow from it.
This conflict is not and never has been about Israel’s right to exist or Israel’s security. It is not and never has been about Hamas or its Charter. It is not even about a two state or a one state solution – at least not anymore it is not. It is about whether we take a stand on the side of an oppressed people or with their oppressor.
In this regard we must give thanks to Malcolm X for washing the bullshit from our eyes: “If you aren’t careful the newspapers will have you hating the people being oppressed, and loving the people doing the oppressing.”
Make no mistake, the political mainstream and its media echo chamber know exactly what is going on in Palestine, and they are well aware of its root cause. Yet, regardless, they continue to provide Israel with their unstinting and unwavering support. Even more, they genuflect at the feet of this apartheid state.
The desperate acts of violence that have erupted over the past few weeks in Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank – mostly in the form of random stabbings and acts of violence against any Israeli anywhere – do not denote evil on the part of those responsible; instead, such desperate acts reveal the extent of the despair which the Palestinians have endured and continue to endure as a direct result of their oppression. Theirs is an extreme but understandable response to the brutal negation of their dignity, rights, even humanity at the hands of a state that has never viewed them as anything other than an inconvenient fly in the milk of their pure ethno and religiocentric state to be crushed and crushed repeatedly.
The wanton, systemic, and systematic cruelty endured by an entire people follows the egregious logic of the campaign of ethnic cleansing that gave birth to Israel in 1948. It describes a moral sickness that, if anything, has grown increasingly acute in the decades since.
A Third Intifada is incontrovertible evidence of the abject failure of the international community to impose a just settlement for a people whose abandonment is a crime, consigned to a fate akin to the Australian aborigines and Native Americans, with the best they have long been expected to expect life on a reservation.
The Palestinians’ stubborn refusal to accept such a fate, even in the face of brutal and unremitting pressure to break, describes a level of sustained tenacity that has been Herculean in scope. For as ugly as their resistance has been, it is nothing when compared to the oppression that has given rise to it.
The prison imprisons the guards as much as it does the inmates, and the chains that bind the Palestinians also bind the people of Israel. Not for a minute in a given day does the word Palestine or Palestinian not intrude on their consciousness – though sadly not conscience in the case of most – reminding them of a people who remain unbowed, despite their immiseration, just a few miles from the affluence which they take for granted. Hatred of another is the handmaiden of hatred of self, with Israel an example of how the projection of hatred on a national level eats away at said nation’s own foundations.
Terrorism and terrorist are the most value-laden words in our language today. We use them to identify the violence of those we revile and whose cause we consider unworthy and unjust. As such there is not such thing as a Palestinian terrorist or Palestinian terrorism. What there is, and in abundance, is Palestinian desperation and Palestinian despair. Attacks carried out against Israeli civilians are an awful thing; however for a people who’ve been consistently denied their own humanity they have become the only thing left by which to command the attention of an international community whose silence is a lethal weapon in the hands of their oppressor.
BDS is the greatest and most effective weapon in the arsenal of international solidarity with the Palestinians. From small and marginal beginnings in 2005, BDS has grown exponentially to the point where it now strikes fear in the breast of Israel and is the only international lifeline that the people of Gaza and living throughout the West Bank have to hold on to. Its continuing growth and effectiveness is therefore a non-negotiable condition of the struggle against both Israel’s intransigence and the West’s hypocrisy, without which the status quo would have ended a long time since.
We have passed the stage where objectivity is an acceptable response to apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and the monument to injustice erected in the name of exceptionalism. The cause of the Palestinian people is the cause of humanity in our time.
John Wight is the author of a politically incorrect and irreverent Hollywood memoir – Dreams That Die – published by Zero Books. He’s also written five novels, which are available as Kindle eBooks. You can follow him on Twitter at @JohnWight1
