Tag Archives: israel palestine

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Craven Liberal Democrats dump human rights champion Jenny Tonge

Stuart Littlewood
Stuart Littlewood

Stuart Littlewood

Victory for the Israel lobby bullies

It was no surprise to read in The Guardian on 29 February that Baroness Jenny Tonge, a Liberal Democrat peer who has given unstinting support to the Palestinian struggle for freedom, had been sacked after declaring that Israel would not last for ever. She rejected an ultimatum from party leader Nick Clegg to apologise and said she stood by her remarks.

Nothing to apologise for

The row blew up when Jenny allegedly told a meeting at Middlesex University: “Beware Israel. Israel is not going to be there for ever in its present form…  Israel will lose support and then they will reap what they have sown.”   She said America would one day get sick of funding what she called America’s aircraft carrier in the Middle East. “One day, the American people are going to say to the Israel lobby in the USA: enough is enough.”

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YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE: THE NEED FOR “COLLAPSE WITH AGENCY” IN PALESTINE

Jeff Halper

Jeff Halper

Even as I write this, the bulldozers have been busy throughout that one indivisible country known by the bifurcated term Israel/Palestine. Palestinian homes, community centers, livestock pens and other “structures” (as the Israel authorities dispassionately call them) have been demolished in the Old City, Silwan and various parts of “Area C” in the West Bank, as well among the Bedouin – Israeli citizens – in the Negev/Nakab. This is merely mopping up, herding the last of the Arabs into their prison cells where, forever, they will cease to be heard or heard from, a non-issue in Israel and, eventually, in the wider world distracted from bigger, more pressing matters.

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UNFORGETTABLE WORDS FROM AN ISRAELI GENERAL’S SON

The General’s Son
The General’s Son

The General’s Son

Miko Peled is a peace activist who dares to say in public what others still choose to deny. Born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well known Zionist family, his grandfather, Dr. Avraham Katsnelson was a Zionist leader and signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His Father, Matti Peled, was a young officer in the war of 1948 and a general in the war of 1967 when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai.

Miko’s unlikely opinions reflect his father’s legacy. General Peled was a war hero turned peacemaker.
Miko grew up in Jerusalem, a multi-ethnic city, but had to leave Israel before he made his first Palestinian friend, the result of his participation in a dialogue group in California. He was 39.

On September 4, 1997 the beloved Smadar, 13, the daughter of Miko’s sister Nurit and her husband Rami Elhanan was killed in a suicide attack.

Peled insists that Israel/Palestine is one state—the separation wall notwithstanding, massive investment in infrastructure, towns and highways that bisect and connect settlements on the West Bank, have destroyed the possibility for a viable Palestinian state. The result, Peled says is that Israelis and Palestinians are governed by the same government but live under different sets of laws.

At the heart of Peled’s conclusion lies the realization that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace as equals in their shared homeland.

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Shot in the Head: Giffords, Hurndall and Palestinian Children

Gaza June 2010 - Israeli snipers arriving in jeeps

Alison Weir, 14 Jan 2011

There is something particularly horrifying when someone is shot in the head. Perhaps it’s the gruesome image, the destruction of the brain, the clear intent to kill. The recent shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is made even more nightmarish by the location of her devastating injury.

Those of us who focus on Israel-Palestine are acutely aware of this horror.

Several years ago, I was researching the cause of death of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces during the first months of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. As I counted up the numbers, I was chilled to discover that the single most frequent cause of death in those beginning months was “gunfire to the head.”

In the past 10 years Israeli forces have killed at least 255 Palestinian minors by fire to the head, and the number may actually be greater, since in many instances the specific bodily location of the lethal trauma is unlisted. In addition, this statistic does not include the many more Palestinian youngsters shot in the head by Israeli soldiers who survived, in one form or another.

Below is a small sampling of those who died. (The term IDF stands for “Israeli Defense Forces,” although these forces are, in reality, an occupation army and are almost always deployed offensively; the incidents below took place on Palestinian territory):

Sami, 12, died of head wounds from IDF gunfire during a demonstration. Abdul, 9, was killed by IDF gunfire to his head during a funeral. Ala, 14, died of head wounds from IDF gunfire while on the terrace of his home one hour after injuring an Israeli soldier with a stone. Omar, 11, died of head wounds from IDF gunfire during a demonstration. Diya, 3 months, was killed, along with her older brother, by Israeli settler gunfire to her head and back. Bara, 10, was killed by IDF gunfire to his head while near his home. Ayman, 15, was killed by IDF tank fire to his head while farming. Khalil, 11, was killed by IDF tank fire to his head while playing with a friend. Rami, 13, was killed by IDF helicopter fire to his head while playing in front of his house. Yaser, 11, died of head wounds from an IDF rubber-coated bullet fired at close range during a demonstration…(1)

Imagine if these names were Bobby… Michael… Susan… Melissa… Jimmy…and that the foreign troops killing them were invading Arizona, Connecticut, Ohio…

I remember seeing one little brain-dead boy when I was in Gaza in February of 2001; long before any rockets had been fired out of this already assaulted enclave. It’s not a sight you forget, regardless of the name or nationality.

A 2009 article in the UK Telegraph entitled “Bullets in the brain, shrapnel in the spine: the terrible injuries suffered by children of Gaza,” investigated a situation in which doctors at a hospital near Gaza were “almost overwhelmed by the number of Palestinian children needing treatment for bullet wounds to their heads.” (2)

The article began: “On just one day last week staff at the El-Arish hospital in Sinai were called to perform sophisticated CAT brain scans on a nine-year-old, two 10-year-olds and a 14-year-old – each of whom had a bullet still lodged in their brain, after coming under fire during the Israeli ground assault on Gaza.”

Asked about the nature of these shootings, a physician replied:

“I can’t precisely decide whether these children are being shot at as a target, but in some cases the bullet comes from the front of the head and goes towards the back, so I think the gun has been directly pointed at the child.”

Israeli soldiers in a group called “Breaking the Silence” have provided chilling testimonies about Israeli military culture; the titles alone tell a great deal. Following are a few:

“The battalion commander ordered us to shoot anyone trying to remove the bodies”, “The commander of the navy commandos put the muzzle of the rifle into the man’s mouth”, “They told us to shoot at anybody moving in the street”, “You can do whatever you feel like, nobody is going to question it.” (3)

Another person shot in the head by Israeli forces was 21-year-old Tom Hurndall. The anniversary of his death is this week.  Hurndall, a student and photographer, had wanted to “make a difference” with his life. In 2003 he went to Gaza to join the nonviolence movement against Israeli aggression and to photograph what he saw.(4)

On April 11th he was nearby when a group of children who had been playing suddenly came under Israeli rifle fire. Most of the children fled, but three, aged four to seven, froze with fear. Hurndall dashed over, rushed one small boy to safety and returned for two little girls. Just as he was reaching to lift one up, an Israeli sniper shot him in the head.

Despite the urgency of his injury, Israeli officials delayed his transport to specialized medical care for over two and a half hours. A British television crew in the area filmed a powerful on-the-scene report that was aired on England’s Channel 4 (5) but has never, to my knowledge, been shown on American television. Tom remained in a vegetative state for nine months, finally dying on Jan. 13t, 2004.

From the end of 2002 to the spring of 2003, Israeli forces killed four internationals and shot another in the face. One of the dead was a UN official, Iain Hook. As with Hurndall, Israeli forces retarded efforts to provide critical medical care. (6) Another was filmmaker James Miller, who had been waving a white flag. He was shot in the throat. (7)

Two recent non-Palestinian victims shot in the head, in this case by high velocity tear gas canisters, are 37-year-old Tristan Anderson  (8) and 21-year-old Emily Henochowicz. (9) Both have survived, Emily without an eye and Tristan in a wheelchair. Part of his right frontal lobe has been removed, he is partially paralyzed, blind in one eye, and it is unclear to what degree his cognitive abilities will return. After shooting him at close range, Israeli forces twice delayed his ambulance to a hospital.

It is difficult to know how many of the 45,000 Palestinian men, women, and children killed or injured by Israeli forces since September 29, 2000 (10) have been shot in the head. Quite likely the number is staggering. Former Yale professor and author Mazin Qumsiyeh describes one:

[Mohammed] was 12 years old when Israeli soldiers shot him in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet, fragmenting his skull and damaging part of his brain. Ten years later, Israeli army officers severely beat and tortured him.  He got married… the young couple received a blessing in the form of a donation of a very small plot of land from their uncle and they built a humble one room house… they lived in this house for 3 years…Then the Israeli army demolished the home saying that it was built without permit (Israel gave no permits for any houses in the village since the occupation began in 1967.)  The family rebuilt the house but Israeli threats forced them to not live in it (Israel wants also some NIS 20,000 for the cost of destroying the home and wants to levy other fines on the family.)  So the young family came to live in a small dwelling underground… (11)

A Dec. 23rd news story by the International Middle East Middle Center mentions another:

“After being brought to the hospital, 22-year old Salamah Abu Hashish succumbed to his wounds. He had been shot in the back by Israeli troops stationed at the border. Another of the victims was a 14-year old boy who was critically injured when he was shot in the head while collecting rubble near where Abu Hashish was tending his sheep.” (12)

The stories go on and on.

Gabrielle Giffords

Ironically, the American Congresswoman recently so tragically shot in the head has been extremely close to the Israel lobby, which has played a critical role in enabling the tragedies sketched above. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) works year after year to ensure that the approximately $7-8 million per day of American tax to Israel (13) keeps flowing regardless of how many civilians its troops kill. (14)

Giffords has been known as “a safe pro-Israel vote in the House” (15) and could be counted on to support AIPAC’s various initiatives to shield Israel from negative consequences for its ruthless and illegal use of American weaponry. (16)

She called a 2001 visit to Israel a turning point in her life (Israeli forces killed 103 children that year, 31 of them shot in the head) and wrote in 2006 (a year in which Israeli forces killed 665 Palestinians, 139 of them children, and Palestinians killed 23 Israelis, two of them children) that “the United States must do everything possible to secure Israel’s long-term security.” (17) Palestinian victims – killed first and in far greater numbers – seem to have been invisible to her. (18)

Giffords, of course, wasn’t the only victim of the Tucson shooting; 14 were injured and six were killed. It is deeply saddening to read about the dead and to imagine the unending grief for their survivors. (19) It is particularly difficult to view the sweet, smiling picture of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, knowing that her bright life is no longer before her.

It is equally tragic to read of nine-year-old Akaber, killed by Israeli gunfire to her head while riding in her uncle’s car to get medical stitches removed, and of the 29 other nine-year-olds killed by Israeli forces in the past decade, eight of them by Israeli gunfire to the head.

It is too late for Akabar, Diya, Mohammed, Tom, and the multitude of others. But there is hope that Gabrielle Giffords is going to survive. Let us pray that she recovers fully, that she is able to return to Congress, and that she then works to prevent others – including Palestinians – from being shot in the head.

We have better uses for our money than to fund atrocities.

- Alison Weir is President of the Council for the National Interest and Executive Director of If Americans Knew, which has produced posters and cards for people to disseminate in commemoration of the seventh anniversary of Tom Hurndall’s killing and about Palestinian children, (which contain a picture of the Gaza boy she saw). Contact her at: alisonweir@ifamericansknew.org and visit: http://ifamericansknew. (This article was first published in Counter Punch: www.counterpunch.org)

Notes:

1. Remember These Children. Since Sept 29, 2000 Israeli forces have killed at least 1,452 Palestinian children; Palestinians have killed 124 Israeli children. Every single one of these deaths is a tragedy.  91 Palestinian children were killed before any Israeli children were killed.

2. “Bullets in the brain, shrapnel in the spine: the terrible injuries suffered by children of Gaza,” The Telegraph, Jan. 2009.

3. “The Darkness to Expel! Israeli soldiers’ book ‘Breaking the Silence’ describes ‘routine’ oppression,” The Missing Headlines, Uri Avnery, Dec. 27, 2010.

4. Section with articles on Tom Hurndall, If Americans Knew website.

5. “Dispatches: The Killing Zone,”  Sandra Jordan and Rodrigo Vasquez, UK Channel 4, May 19, 2003.

6. “Israel’s killing of British citizen Iain Hook, UNRWA’s Project Manager in Jenin
Caoimhe Butterly as told to Annie Higgins writing from Jenin Refugee Camp,” Live from Palestine, 22 November 2002.

7. “Film-maker’s death ‘was murder’,” BBC News, April 4, 2006.

8. “Facts about Tristan”. http://justicefortristan.org

9. “EXCLUSIVE…Emily Henochowicz Speaks Out: Art Student Who Lost Her Eye After Being Shot by Israeli Tear Gas Canister in West Bank Protest Discusses Her Life, Her Art, and Why She Plans to Return,” Democracy Now, Aug 5, 2010.

10. If Americans Knew website, from B’Tselem and Remember These Children.

11. “The Story of a Palestinian Shot in the Head with a Rubber-Coated Steel Bullet by Israeli Occupation Soldiers,” Mazin Qumsiyeh, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, September 20, 2010.

12. “Shepherd killed; 3 injured in Northern Gaza,” IMEMC, Dec. 23, 2010.

13. “U.S. Military Aid and the Israel/Palestine Conflict,” If Americans Knew, from Congressional Research Service reports; “$3.4b in US military aid delayed: US military aid to Israel in 2011 is due to be largest amount Israel has ever received,” Globes Israel’s Business Arena, December 26, 2010.  http://www.globes.co.il.

14. “The Israel Lobby,” London Review of Books, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, March 23, 2006.

15. “Gabrielle Giffords Shot in the Head,” The Forward, Jan 8, 2011.

16. “Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideast,” IPS, Jan 17, 2006.

17. AIPAC Facebook post, Jan. 9, 2011, 3:35 pm.

“A Tribe of Candidates Leads Drive To Retake House for Democrats,” The Forward, Sept. 22, 2006: “…Several candidates who spoke with the Forward did say that they would be strong advocates for Israel in Congress. This is ‘an opportunity to send someone to Congress who’s going to work for Israel,’ Giffords told the Forward…”

18. B’Tselem – Israeli Information Center for Human Rights. http://www.btselem.org/

If Americans Knew. http://ifamericansknew.org.

19. “Thumbnail sketches of those shot in Arizona,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 11, 2011. http://www.ajc.com.

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Liar, Liar

Obama is acting like desperate salesmen before a conceited tourist.

Philip Giraldi, November 18, 2010

President Barack Obama’s speech in Indonesia in which he conceded that the United States must do more to establish a good working relationship with many Muslim nations would have ranked as one of the more pathetic performances by an American president in recent years but for the fact that there have been so many awful performances to choose from.  The president’s grammar and syntax were perfect and the speech was cleverly crafted, exactly what we have come to expect.  It was replete with carefully designed pauses, Indonesian words and phrases, and some self deprecating humor, but it was characteristically bloodless and completely tone deaf.  One almost longed to see Bill Clinton choking up and shedding a tear or two.

Obama’s spin team made a heroic effort to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.  They likened the Indonesia speech to his Cairo offering seventeen months ago, in which he likewise committed his administration to establishing a new, more convivial modality for dealing with Islamic nations.  That speech was received respectfully and even positively in many quarters, but this time no one was fooled.  It’s funny how a year and a half of inaction and even retreat can reshape how someone thinks.  One Indonesian commented afterwards “What will Obama do in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? If we don’t see any progress, what he says is just a speech.”

Obama’s offering was full of the usual bromides, about how respectful he is of Islam and its traditions.  He even touched on Israel-Palestine, not surprisingly blaming both sides for not taking the necessary courageous steps to find peace.  It is a familiar argument for American audiences who are used to hearing that the conflict is bilateral, but did not go down well in Indonesia where the listeners are all too aware of the details of the brutal Israeli occupation.

What Obama should have said was that it has now become clear that Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has no desire for any peace agreement that does not provide for perpetual and absolute Israeli dominance over the Palestinians.  He should have added that he knows that Netanyahu has nothing but contempt for him personally in the wake of the midterm election debacle and he might also observe that his ability to act independently is conditioned by the Israel Lobby so he can do nothing to help the Palestinians achieve statehood or even to recover a measure of dignity under Israeli occupation.  He might admit that he has now been reduced to offering multi-billion dollar bribes of military equipment to Israel just to tempt it to suspend some settlement activity for ninety day.  Obama’s words would not have changed reality on the ground, but at least he would have told the truth for a change and the candor would have been refreshing.

If Obama wants to establish some kind of modus vivendi with the Islamic world he must speak to it in language that it understands and not lie about things that all Muslims know to be true.  And it is also past time that he begin to speak the truth to the American people also.  His administration’s retreat from any confrontation with Israel in an attempt to make a recalcitrant Netanyahu conform even to minimal standards of behavior confirms what all the world already knows:  Israel will act and the United States will follow, even if those actions will inflict grave damage on the American people and on the US national interest.

And what will that mean for the United States?  It means that the decision about going to war for the US is essentially controlled by Israel because Tel Aviv can start a conflict with Iran at any time that will quickly draw Washington in.  Those who think that the White House still is managing the situation are completely naïve.  There is no indication that the Obama administration has warned Israel against bombing Iran because the US has no cards to play, having ruled out exerting any sort of economic or military pressure on Netanyahu. And there should be no doubt that an attack by Israel on an Iranian nuclear facility would trigger Iranian retaliation and immediate calls in Congress and the media to support Tel Aviv, leaving the president no option but to enter the conflict.  A third war in the region would mean goodbye to any American ability to disengage from the other conflicts that are bleeding the US white and would possibly lead to even more dire consequences if neighbors like nuclear armed Pakistan and India somehow enter the fray.

Bibi Netanyahu surely understands that the cost to the United States in lives and treasure from war with Iran could potentially be catastrophic but it is a price he is willing to pay as his own people and economy would largely be spared, at least initially.  No American leader should tolerate such a situation but, deplorably, those who have spoken out at all on the Middle East have lined up behind the Israelis as if they were part of the United States, or even more esteemed than any of the fifty states. Vice President Joe Biden told the Jewish Federations of North America annual gathering in New Orleans last week that “the ties between our two countries are literally unbreakable” and described how he is “absolutely certain that our support for Israel must continue … forever,” echoing similar statements made by both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama.  Biden knows full well that Israeli and US interests do not coincide and his comments amount to political pandering of the worst sort.  It is even more disconcerting to think that he might actually mean what he says.

Meanwhile Steny Hoyer, who calls himself a Zionist and frequently expresses his love for Israel, and has spoken of “our responsibility to stand by Israel and the Jewish people,” is poised to take over as Minority Whip in the House of Representatives.  On the other side of the aisle, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Eric Cantor are unrelenting advocates of Israel who are about to step into senior positions in the Republican dominated congress.  Cantor recently met privately with Bibi Netanyahu and said the Republican Party would serve “as a check on” the Obama Administration over its policies in the Middle East. Then “He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.” In other words, Cantor was meeting with the leader of a foreign country and promising to do whatever he could to influence and even subvert the foreign policy of his own country.  Think about that one for a minute or two.

And while Cantor, Hoyer, Biden and company are ceding US national security to the Israelis, who actually is calling the shots on shaping American policy?  None other than the redoubtable Dennis Ross, perched in the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region.  Ross, who has been described as Israel’s lawyer, is poison in the very heart of the policy making apparatus. He recently spoke at an AIPAC Conference in Hollywood Florida where he said “Just last week, I participated in the US-Strategic Dialogue, a biannual event that includes a comprehensive exchange of views on regional issues crucial to both the United State and Israel. But more importantly, the Strategic Dialogue is just one of many, ongoing, and high-level exchanges that occur regularly between the United States in Israel. I’m not aware of another country that we engage more regularly on such a wide range of issues. These types of exchanges not only provide opportunities for discussion of ideas on policy, but they also help solidify connections between our two governments. Over the last two years, I have seen four-star generals, intelligence officers, and high-ranking diplomats all develop personal relationships with their Israeli counterparts. Frankly, this degree of coordination is unprecedented. I have participated in these types of discussions for the last 30 years, and they have never been as intense or focused, reflecting the serious cooperation that we have today with Israel. But our commitment to Israel’s security is defined not by talk. It is defined by the kinds of actions and deeds that help make both of our countries safer and stronger in the face of common threats.”

So if you doubt that the United States is tied hand and foot to Israel in terms of its ability to take independent action in the Middle East, just listen to what Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Eric Cantor are saying.  Does it sound like they are articulating policies beneficial to the US?  They are insisting that Americans have to support Israel unquestioningly no matter what it does and are little more than advocates for monsters like Bibi Netanyahu, pure and simple.  The word Quisling comes to mind when one thinks of them and also Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen.  If their failure to be truly loyal to the country that has nurtured them brings about a new war in which many of their fellow citizens will die, their actions and posturing should be defined by one and all as treason.  If America is to be taken back in a new revolution that will lead to a restoration of the vision of the Founding Fathers it will only take place after the betrayers of our constitution are removed from government, every single one of them.  When American politicians and senior government officials speak of their love of a foreign government that pursues policies inimical to US values and interests they should be disowned by every true patriot and also by every respectable media outlet.  It should be grounds for their immediate removal.


This article first appeared in Antiwar.com. Republished with the author’s permission
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is a contributing editor to The American Conservative and executive director of the Council for the National Interest.

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Holy mackerel!

Stuart Littlewood

Christians must love and defend Israelis, preaches church mission

Stuart Littlewood, 9 July 2010

Ever heard of the CMJ (the Church’s Ministry among Jewish People)?

Neither had I until I saw a parish magazine recently announcing a talk by the CMJ’s Director of Advocacy to a local Church of England study group about “God’s purpose for the Jewish people and Great Britain’s involvement in the formation of modern Israel”.

Apparently the CMJ has a proud 200-year history and is a worldwide ministry sharing with Jewish people its belief that not only is Jesus the Saviour of the world, He is the Jewish Messiah. CMJ is “propelled by devotion to God and the fulfillment of His promises to His people Israel”, and it feels a need to provide in-depth teaching on the Jewish roots of the Christian faith.

CMJ’s USA website talks of “the spiritual rebirth of the Jewish people and the education of the Christian church in its call to take the Gospel to ‘the Jew first’.”

And in its statement of faith the CMJ says Christians have “a special responsibility to love, defend and share the Gospel with God’s historic, chosen People, the Jews”.

As for the CMJ’s attitude to the Israel-Palestine struggle…

* CMJ believes that both Jewish and Gentile believers (including our Palestinian brothers and sisters) are united in the one “olive tree”. In fact, Jesus has made Jew and Gentile believers one “and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…”

The Israelis are still building the barrier and love nothing better than destroying whole groves of olive trees.

* Gentiles are “fellow-citizens with God’s people”… God loves all people equally. This means that he loves the Israelis and the Palestinians equally.

So all those claims to be God’s “chosen ones” are meaningless?

* CMJ… has always seen the return of the Jewish people to their ancient land, and on a national scale to their Messiah, as a precursor to the return of Jesus in glory.

Their return is achieved by ethnically cleansing the Holy Land, expelling the Arabs (whom God loves equally), slaughtering those who resist and trashing just about all of God’s commandments. Jesus is really going to appreciate that when he arrives.

* CMJ rejoices that, after 2000 years… the Jewish people now, at last, have returned to the land from which the majority were dispersed in AD70…

Rejoice in the Jewish occupation and you rejoice in the murderous crime spree it entails.

* Israel is a secular state which is no more religious than Britain.

* CMJ recognizes that the State of Israel was set up as a result of a majority vote of the United Nations in 1947… However the Ministry does not hold any official position as to the appropriate location of the borders of the state.

But greedy Israel isn’t satisfied. If CMJ recognises the UN’s partition it should also accept the borders on which it was based. To do otherwise only serves to legitimise Israel’s ongoing land-grab and lawlessness.

* CMJ believes that the term “Restoration” when applied to the Jewish people is primarily restoration to their Messiah… The focus of New Testament doctrine of the end times is on Jesus and holy living, rather than land.

So why rejoice in their seizing the land and dispossessing the rightful owners?

* CMJ affirms that God is a God of justice and peace, and that he desires justice and peace for all people groups.

How can there be justice or peace under illegal occupation?

* CMJ Ministry recognizes that the Israelis, after 2000 years of anti-Semitism, face a resurgence of anti-Semitism, a military threat from various nations, Palestinian terrorism and a threat to the stability of their safe homeland through demographic factors.

Israel, with its nuclear arsenal and American-supplied state of the art weaponry, easily outguns the other nations in the Middle East. Its lack of restraint and contempt for international law, demonstrated many times, makes it the prime military and terror menace to the region. Meanwhile Palestinians have every right to defend their homes as best they can.

* [The Palestinians] experience economic disaster and lack of infrastructure, partly through Israeli policies and partly through the failures of the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian infrastructure is regularly destroyed by Israel. Left in peace the Palestinians would have prospered like other nations. The PA has no legitimacy, it is a tool of the West.

Bombshell

Some say the CMJ encourages the physical restoration of the Jewish people to the biblical Land of Israel despite the suffering this causes, and published statements seem to confirm it.

Wikipedia says: “CMJ has always adopted a Zionist position, and expressed the view that the Jewish people deserved a state in the Holy Land decades before Zionism began as a movement.”

CMJ is also accused of propagating Zionism rather than Christianity.

Ready for the bombshell? The CMJ was adopted as an official ministry of the Church of England in 1995. It has been operating in the shadows for 15 years.

So is this the Church of England’s official Zionist wing?

Within the Church it is said that some believe the mission to Jewish people is inappropriate. Others maintain that Jewish people cannot be excluded from the scope of Christian mission.

And what about the local parish study group, and all the other study groups targeted by the CMJ? Did they know enough about the facts on the ground to challenge the CMJ’s advocacy?

Here are the thoughts of the Local Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, as set down in their Jerusalem Declaration of 2006… and they are in the front line, in the cauldron of brutal reality, facing the disastrous consequences of evangelical meddling by America and Britain.

* We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as a false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation.

* We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine.

* We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war…

* Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from ideologies of militarism and occupation.

Amen to that.

  • Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk

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Apartheid – Ancient, Past, and Present: Systematic and Gross Human Rights Violations in Graeco-Roman Egypt, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine

Woman in Gaza, 2009 (Sameh Habeeb)

NEW BOOK RELEASE

Anthony Löwstedt, 7 July 2010, Apartheid – Ancient, Past, and Present: Systematic and Gross Human Rights Violations in Graeco-Roman Egypt, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine, Vienna: Gesellschaft für Phänomenologie und kritische Anthropologie, 2010, 6th edition, (1st edition 2006)

The author, Dr. Anthony Löwstedt, worked and carried out research over twelve years on three continents for this book, which is now appearing in a new, updated and considerably extended edition on the web. In his Foreword to this edition, the Israeli historian and editor of the forthcoming volume, Peoples Apart: Israel, South Africa and the Apartheid Question (I.B. Tauris, 2010), Ilan Pappe, writes:

„Although the association of apartheid South Africa and the Palestine issue has been in the air for quite a while, very few scholarly books tackled the comparison in a profound and professional way. This book is one of the first serious attempts. . . It does not confine the comparison to South Africa alone. After all, apartheid and segregation accompanied other…regimes and these case studies are equally important for such a comparative study. The novelty here, however, is not confined to extending the comparison geographically or chronologically. What the author calls the ‘wide sense’ of apartheid exposes layers quite often hidden from the public, and quite often the professional eye. These include the impact of segregation polices in both societies on individual violence, family cohesion and gender issues. . . The awareness that the story in one case, South Africa, has come to an end and the terrible sense of worse to come in the other, in Israel and Palestine, gives this book particular urgency and vitality.”

Apartheid is a crime against humanity under international law, which uses the term ‘apartheid’ in a generic sense, i.e. not restricted to South Africa, yet academic and theoretical efforts to extend the applicability of the term, ‘apartheid’, have been slow. This book attempts to meet what the author sees as a need to discuss the definition of apartheid much more extensively, especially since the UN Human Rights Envoy, John Dugard, has recommended charging Israel with the crime of apartheid in international courts. The book also addresses such questions as: How does apartheid relate to colonialism, genocide, and other crimes against humanity? To what extent does the concept of apartheid enable us to explain what has happened and what is happening in Israel/Palestine? Are predictions possible based on the South African experience? In what areas and for how long are apartheid legacies likely to linger in South Africa (and in a possible post-conflict Israel/Palestine)?

Anthony Löwstedt was born in Sweden and grew up there and in Hong Kong, he studied in Vienna, and worked here for a press freedom organization, the International Press Institute, for ten years. He has also been active as an academic and UN consultant in South Africa (University of the Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria, UNESCO) and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Bir Zeit University, UNDP, UNESCO). Since 1997 he teaches Media Communications, History, and Philosophy at Webster University Vienna.

You can view the web edition here, or below on RamallahOnline.com

Apartheid – Ancient, Past, and Present: Systematic and Gross Human Rights Violations in Graeco-Roman Egypt,…

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Judaizing Jerusalem

Holy Sepulture - Crosses etched in wall (Nick Marouf)

Stephen Lendman. 6 July 2010

The Middle East Monitor (MEM) covers significant regional issues and events through its weekly newspaper and reports like Samira Quraishy’s September 2009 Briefing Paper titled, “The Judaization of Jerusalem,” discussing Israel’s “escalating campaign of land seizures, house demolitions and eviction(s) of Palestinians.”

Israeli scholars agree, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Professor Oren Yiftachel, in a 1999 paper titled “Ethnocracy: the Politics of Judaizing Israel/Palestine,” saying Israel is an ethnocratic regime “enhanc(ing) a rule by, and for, a specific ethnos, and a dominance of ethnicity over citizenship (by) facilitat(ing) the expansion of one ethnic group over contested territory or polity.” It evolved around “the central Zionist (uni-ethnic) project of Judaizing and de-Arabising Israel/Palestine, (and as a consequence undermining) equal citizenship and popular sovereignty,” reserving it solely for Jews, exposing the myth of a democratic nation.

Hebrew University Professor Moshe Ma’oz, Ankara’s Bilkent University Professor Jeremy Salt, Professor Norman Finkelstein, Professor James Petras, and many other scholars agree that Israel pursued this policy since 1967, planning it decades earlier, based on the Zionist notion of dispossessing Arabs to make greater Israel an exclusive Jewish state.

Jerusalem is its epicenter, a religiously important city for Christians, Muslims and Jews, today the scene of epic injustice and discrimination of its Palestinian residents.

For Zionists, the city is politically important, as its historic capital, national and religious center, as well as the symbol of Judaism’s revival and prominence. For Christians, it’s where Jesus lived and died, and for Muslims it’s their third holiest site (the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque) after Mecca’s Sacred Mosque and the Mosque of the Prophet in Madina.

Settlement Expansions 2009

Settlement Expansions 2009 (Click for larger image)

After its 1967 annexation, East Jerusalem underwent legal and bureaucratic changes to its physical, cultural and spiritual character under Israel’s Judaization plan. Settlements were established and expanded, at the expense of land expropriations, dispossessions, home demolitions, the Separation Wall, and other draconian measures to transform the city to an entirely Jewish one. As a result, Palestinian culture and religious heritage are threatened by the establishment of “facts on the ground,” a process begun after the city’s annexation that continues relentlessly to this day.

At the time, official annexation would have caused rupture or confrontation with the international community, because of the city’s symbolic, religious and historic importance. In addition, international laws would have been hard to get around besides ideological differences among Israeli officials. Further, direct annexation would have forced the government to make all city inhabitants citizens, contrary to the plan to Judaize the entire city

On the Six Day War’s final day, Israeli leaders ordered the demolition of the Old City’s Moroccan Quarter, allowing for easier access to the Western Wall. It left 650 residents homeless, many others killed, two mosques destroyed along with other religious and cultural sites, and set the tone for what continued.

Under military occupation, Israel transformed Jerusalem from a multi-cultural, multi-religious city into a predominantly Jewish one under exclusive Israeli control toward the final goal of making the entire city exclusively Jewish – meaning Arabs had to go, voluntarily, by dispossessions, or other means.

Thereafter, Israel manipulated city demographics in its favor toward establishing a Greater Jerusalem by reinforced municipal boundaries – separating Jerusalem from the West Bank by land seizures, dispossessions, home demolitions, the Separation Wall, and a matrix of restrictions over Palestinian residents in the Old City as well as 64 additional square kilometers from surrounding West Bank areas, affecting 28 villages inside the new municipal boundary. As a result, the demographic balance shifted markedly to one predominantly Jewish.

On July 30, 1980, the Knesset introduced the Jerusalem Law, officially annexing the city as Israel’s unified capital – a ceremonial move as East Jerusalem residents were already under military occupation rule.

Yet on March 1, 1980, UN Security Council Resolution 465 declared that:

“all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation….and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development (and) have been established in breach of international law.”

Throughout its history, Israel routinely defied all UN resolutions and court rulings against its interests, knowing it can get away with it, always with Washington’s backing. Instead, it’s intensified efforts to annex East Jerusalem through continued settlement expansions on expropriated land. For the West Bank, E. Jerusalem and Golan combined, they’re home for a 500,000 Jewish population, growing at around 4 – 6% yearly.

Extremist groups spearhead it, supported generously by Washington, the Jewish diaspora, and others, contributing billions of dollars annually for Israeli occupation, militarism, and settlement expansions.

Through 2009, settlements covered over one-third of East Jerusalem land, and another 30% is designated as “unplanned area” where little or no development is allowed.

In 2009, OCHA reported that Palestinian construction is allowed only in 13% of East Jerusalem, provided required permits are issued. Because of the bureaucratic nightmare getting them, a huge housing shortage exists, exacerbated by regular home demolitions to provide more space for Jews.

Religious, cultural and archeological sites aren’t spared either to accommodate them, Silwan a notable example. Occupied in 1967, Judaizing followed to change its religious and demographic character, an initiative promoted by ELAD (the Hebrew acronym for the City of David), a Jewish organization wanting full control of the area, using extremist measures to achieve it, including excavations destroying priceless antiquities.

Ones below the Al-Aqsa Mosque continue. Others also to control the town through more land ownership, Palestinian dispossessions, and destruction of Islamic and Christian heritage sites.

In 2004, 88 Al Bustan neighborhood homes were demolished to create King’s Garden, an archeological park located where King David established his kingdom.

Islamic cemetery excavations also aroused anger, including converting Bab al-Rahmad into recreational biblical gardens. So far, the cemetery has lost 1,800 square meters on which new burials are prohibited, a portion already converted into a park.

Ma’man Allah Cemetery is Jerusalem’s largest, reputed to hold the remains of important Islamic figures, including Companions of Prophet Muhammad and Muslim intellects and soldiers who fought the Crusaders.

Yet Israel intends a Museum of Tolerance there, turning it into a large excavation site, over 300 skeletons removed, contrary to international law. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, they were desecrated – dumped into a single mass grave.

Worse still may await the Al-Aqsa Mosque because of excavations under and around it, weakening its foundation, threatening its existence. In 2007, Israel began excavating a pathway from the Western Wall to the compound, sparking Muslim outrage.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock Restoration Committee, established in 1956 to restore it and other Jerusalem holy sites, warned that further excavations would imperil the structural integrity, most seriously by the western tunnel (one of 60) near the Mosque.

Deputy Committee head, Ra’if Najm also said chemicals used to break up rocks are causing more damage. As a result, the Security Council and UNESCO demanded that Israel comply with international law, halting further excavations and related operations. Israel didn’t respond.

Other excavations in the Old City and Silwan have also been damaging, Adnan Al-Hussaini, special PA adviser on Jerusalem Affairs warning that Israel is destroying Islamic antiquities, “replacing them with other ones.”

PA legislator Hatem Abdul Qader threatened an International Court of Justice (ICJ) lawsuit to stop the looting. In early 2009, an Umayyad-era artifact was stolen, an ancient stone, transferred to the Knesset’s courtyard, Israel blocking demands to return it.

The Separation Wall, checkpoints, and other restrictions have also been devastating, impeding Palestinian access to, in and around Jerusalem. Yet prohibiting them from worshipping at Al-Aqsa and nearby mosques violates Fourth Geneva, Christians wanting access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other religious sites also affected.

The extremist Netanyahu government exacerbates the problem, Palestine’s Chief Justice, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi, expressing deep concern about outlandish racist policies threatening “to cancel Arab identity.”

On March 28, 2010, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported that he urged Palestinians “to exert more efforts and unite in order to protect the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque (by) defy(ing Jewish extremists) attempts to storm the holy shrine,” adding that Judaizing has been ongoing since 1967, in calling for efforts to stop it.

PA Authority under Fatah

Shortly after assuming office, Abdul Qader, PA Minister for Jerusalem, resigned in protest, saying inadequate funding defends Palestinian interests in the city – for law suits, against land confiscations, home demolitions, Israeli security force and settler violence, and the destruction of the city’s religious, historical, cultural and demographic character.

Final Comments

Throughout 43 years of colonization, displacement, land seizures, and East Jerusalem annexation, Judaization continues relentlessly to establish irreversible “facts on the ground (to) cancel Arab identity” by making the entire city exclusively Jewish along with the West Bank’s most valued areas.

MEM supports efforts to stop it and demands accountability. “The Israeli authorities and settlers who impede the civil liberties of the rightful Palestinian owners should be brought (before) an open and fair court of law,” to halt Israeli lawlessness, ensure holy, historic Muslim sites are protected, preserved and restored, and to defend their right to a sovereign state, East Jerusalem its capital, or a one-state solution for all.

Israel will react violently, viciously, and illegally against it, its customary behavior as a rapacious occupier, defying the rule of law in pursuit of a Greater Israel and regional dominance, partnered with Washington in its global imperial agenda, threatening all humanity unless stopped.

  • Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.