Tuning up for Peace in the Middle East
Wednesday, November 27 2002 @ 07:27 PM GMT
"Since Israel has fought the Quartet initiative every step of the way, it already had become clear that Washington would have to .."
By Richard H. Curtiss
Thanks to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the next show on the international agenda will be headlined by the International Quartet, starring the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia. While Israel had anticipated a long postponement of peace negotiations due to a war with Iraq, Powell has circumvented that problem. Now it is time to negotiate the biggest international conundrum of all — Israel and human rights for the Palestinians.
Palestinians literally are starving in the blocked-off streets of their encircled villages. Washington must address this crisis first, and insist that food relief be provided now, without delay. All along, the European Union has been helping to meet the Palestinians’ food, budgetary and significant infrastructure needs. The Israelis, by contrast, are used to haggling for everything —which, of course, will include bargaining to allow needed food supplies into Palestine.
After backing down once before when Ariel Sharon rejected an ultimatum, however, President George W. Bush has stiffened his backbone. He has strengthened his mandate in an off-year election, which historically should have diluted his strength in Congress. Now the Republican president and his party control both houses of Congress, and have an international mandate to stop the slide toward war. The frightened world, meanwhile, has been calling insistently for peace for the Palestinians. Bush had tried, seemingly in quite good faith, to start negotiations with the “Quartet” even while the outcome of the Saddam Hussein imbroglio was not yet known. With the Iraq problem at least temporarily resolved, he sent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield to the Middle East. Satterfield and his American team met with Quartet diplomats on Nov. 11 and 12 to finalize a plan for presentation in mid-December.
At its mid-November meeting in Jerusalem, Quartet representatives worked out the text that envisages the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state by 2003 and full statehood two years later. It is based on a vision for the Middle East put forward by Bush in a June speech.
Since Israel has fought the Quartet initiative every step of the way, it already had become clear that Washington would have to step in firmly to start things moving. Claiming Israel was too busy dealing with the expected war with Iraq, Sharon had been “blowing off” any talk on the subject of peace with the Palestinians. With that war put on hold, the Israelis, with their ever-industrious American lobby, had to find a new excuse for procrastination. They now are trying to freeze the process until after the upcoming Israeli elections.
It appears, however, that Israel’s January elections will not delay the US and the other Quartet members, which plan to go ahead whether Israel cooperates or not. After discussing the possible impact of the upcoming Israeli elections, Satterfield and his colleagues decided to proceed on schedule.
Stated Norwegian diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen, the Quartet’s UN representative: “The parties will have to decide whether to accept [the plan] or reject it. But, if they reject it, they must be aware that they will be rejecting not only the will of the Quartet but of a significant part of the international community.”
Although a non-Quartet diplomat predicted “They will return empty-handed,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair this week urged speedy progress toward solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Blair’s remarks were seen as an appeal to Bush not to freeze the process because of the Israeli elections. Meanwhile, it appears certain that Bush will brook no excuses when it comes to putting a halt to Israel’s starvation of the Palestinians.
The Bush administration is anxious to keep the Quartet plan alive and allay Arab fears. The road map calls for an initial three-month phase during which the Palestinian Authority would resume security cooperation with the United States and Israel, call for an end to armed attacks on Israelis, and install a new Cabinet and prime minister to take over from Arafat. During the same three months, Israel would be required to end its attacks in Palestinian civilian areas, ease its curbs on the travel of Palestinian officials, lift curfews and unfreeze Palestinian assets.
According to administration officials, there is a new strain between Bush and Sharon. During his October visit to Washington, Sharon said that ties between Israel and Washington had never been so close or harmonious. According to administration officials, however, Bush was angry that Sharon was undercutting efforts to get the Palestinians to turn away from Arafat and making it harder to rally Arab support for a possible war against Iraq.
Another major concern, both inside and outside the administration, is what most experts say are the worst conditions among Palestinians they have ever seen. These include malnutrition and the growing sense of isolation because of travel restrictions imposed by the Israelis.
“We are facing a situation where all of those years of progress in the Middle East are essentially going down the tubes,” one diplomat declared. Prime Minister Blair has called for a full Middle East peace conference by the end of this year.
If Bush proceeds with his new sense of resolution and makes it clear to Israel that there will be no more American funding until it accepts the Quartet’s decisions, the road map may be put to use sooner than pessimists might think.
— Richard H. Curtiss is the executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2002 4:15 pm Post subject: Examining Arab Strategy, or Lack Thereof
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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20021004130724217
Examining Arab Strategy, or Lack Thereof
Friday, October 04 2002 @ 01:07 PM GMT
"There has been little or no efforts in refining existing strategies or building new ones to combat the US government’s bias toward Israel. There has been no serious efforts put forth to reach the ordinary American, to back those who dare to confront the ever demanding Israeli lobby in the Congress .."
By Ramzy Baroud
In a conversation with a respected Palestinian official months ago, I was told that the reason the Palestinian Authority (PA), “keeps coming back” seeking a more active US role in the Middle East conflict is because the US is the only viable broker. Only a few countries and international bodies are capable of pushing the “peace process” forward, able to persuade both sides to “compromise”, and particularly, able to exert “pressure” on Israel.
The logic seemed odd, considering the unquestionable one-sidedness the US has exhibited in the Arab-Israeli daunting conflict. One doesn’t need to spend a great deal of time and effort researching for US bias in archived official statements and news that goes back to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Just one look at the US selective practices in the United Nations says it all. The United States government has vetoed an estimated 68 UN Security Council resolutions throughout the years, blocking numerous attempts by the international community to impose disciplinary measures on various, if not all past Israeli governments, for violating international law, time and again.
The official US justifications for alienating itself from the rest of the world to rescue Israel varied, but often centered around the same anemic idea that such UN resolutions will only hamper the peace process, and that negotiations alone can solve the Middle East conflict. For an outsider, the justification is appealing, even wise, but for those whose know a thing or two about the Middle East conflict, it’s ridiculous to depict a peaceful Middle East, at least at this current stage without the presence of a fair-handed arbitrator, a frame of reference of international law (not the Israeli Supreme Court or Knesset that justifies the assassination of Palestinian activists), and certainly a power with the will and genuine interest to find a just solution to the bloody conflict.
As far as Israel is concerned, the United States is certainly the right power for the job. Of course, a country like the US which pours several billion dollars into Israel’s military machine annually, provides Israel with political cover to apply its backward imperialist practices on the Palestinians, with the help of the US media to clean up the mess along the way, is certainly a country that is qualified to be the “honest broker” in the Middle East.
But why is the Palestinian leadership holding the same perception?
The Palestinian Authority, despite all of its ailments has no illusions that the US is only a broker, but certainly not an honest one. Take for example, President George W. Bush’s insistence not to meet with the PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, at a time that he frequently met Israel’s Ariel Sharon at the ranch, both smiling to the cameras like the best of pals. Put the official justification aside: “Arafat needs to prove to me that he is genuinely interested in fighting terrorism,” since at the time that Arafat has exerted some sincere efforts (once out of his besieged office) to halt the violence, even from one side, Sharon would openly share his regrets with the media of not killing Arafat when he had the chance.
Only in a fantasy world does Sharon emerge as a “man of peace”, as Bush dubbed him, and Arafat as a “Mafia boss” as described by retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, US special envoy to the Middle East.
The US Defense Secretary, certainly a powerful man, decided to reconstruct the Middle East conflict in a way that would suit his way of thinking, leaving jungle law in charge of what should have been handled by international law. Here is what Donald Rumsfeld had to say, speaking at a town hall meeting at the Pentagon on 6 Aug., 2002:
“My feelings about the so-called occupied territories are that there was a war; Israel urged neighboring countries not to get involve in it once it started. They all jumped in, and they lost a lot of real estate to Israel because Israel prevailed in the conflict.”
Now, Rumsfeld proceeds to share his view of the Jewish militant outposts or settlements:
“In the intervening period, they’ve made some settlements in various parts of the so-called occupied area, which was the result of a war, which they won.”
Such a simplified, poor approach in analyzing a conflict, extending through the 20th and 21 century, reminds us of fiery speeches of Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson or “God's new banker?” as some British media have recently describe him. But in Rumsfeld’s case, one doesn’t have the privilege of turning the “700 Club” off. Rumsfeld is a leading figure in a powerful country, and is only a reflection of right wing policies carried out by his government.
While the ultimate victims of such a right wing are the American people, should Arabs, but most importantly Palestinians simply look elsewhere for answers, for another broker, an honest one, for a change?
While Rumsfeld has the whole Middle East conflict (or the so-called Middle East conflict) all figured out, the Arab masses have no illusions about the detrimental role played by the US government in keeping Israel’s occupation of Arab land, and of the subsequent persecution of the Palestinian people.
"It has to be a slip of the tongue by the US defense secretary, as he was speaking spontaneously and not from a written speech," this is what Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters when asked about Rumsfeld's "so-called occupied" remark
Maher is an educated man and is certainly aware that Rumsfeld’s remarks are not qualified to be categorized as a “slip of the tongue.” Most Arab governments, and the Palestinian leadership knows, they must know, that the United States’ support of Israel was a leading reason for the Israeli government’s arrogance and defiance. Yet they continue to dub the US government as a friend and an ally.
My conversation with the Palestinian official flashed again in my head on Tuesday, Oct 1, when the US Congress passed legislation, that was ratified by President Bush which implicitly recognized Jerusalem, including Arab East Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
True, a “barrage” of condemnation by a “chorus” of leaders (this is how some media phrased it), was heard and seen, loud and clear. But by the end, the Arab strategy is still the same. While the US government and Congress have openly submitted to the right wing elements of the US government and media, the pressure of the Israeli-Jewish lobby groups and to the will of the Israeli government, the official statement of the PA, although clearly reflected outrage, said that the decision “harms the credibly of the US as a peace mediator.” If The PA still anticipates a positive US role in the Middle East, then there is a serious issue for debate, an issue that has been ignored for such a long time.
One has to remember that the Palestinian leadership (considering the might of its enemies, the gigantic influence of the US and the negative use of that influence, the fragmentation of the Arab world and its inability to reshape an overall Middle East policy) is in a very difficult position. Ignoring the US role can hardly change things for the better for the Palestinians, and gambling on the happy day in which Washington is a kinder Washington is more of a daydream, at least for now. Continuing with this vicious cycle, in which Arabs are slapped at the face, almost everyday, yet remain faithful believers in the American government’s virtue, will maintain the status quo, in which Israel will remain the greatest, or only beneficiary.
There has been little or no efforts in refining existing strategies or building new ones to combat the US government’s bias toward Israel. There has been no serious efforts put forth to reach the ordinary American, to back those who dare to confront the ever demanding Israeli lobby in the Congress (and who as a result are losing to the Israeli-backed politicians). There has been little or no efforts to influence the media (except of the greatly admirable efforts of independent groups). There has been no unified Arab front in serving Arab causes, or in using strategic Arab wealth to influence US polices, of saying enough is enough, when such a call is needed.
I do remember my conversation with the Palestinian official, and I do sympathize with his statement: ‘the Palestinian Authority (PA), “keeps coming back” seeking a more active US role in the Middle East conflict because the US is the only viable broker.’ But feeding on such an observation, without any real attempt to find alternative brokers or turn the only “viable” one into an honest one, has been a major component responsible for today’s catastrophic foreign policies, and I don’t mean American foreign policies, but Arab and Palestinian policies. Too bad the US decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but the real challenge is knowing what else can we do about it, aside from registering our opposition with a few official statements and expressions of regret.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2002 9:16 pm Post subject: Parents of Gaza boy killed on film have new baby
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Parents of Gaza boy killed on film have new baby
AL-BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The parents of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy whose death became a symbol of an uprising for statehood are celebrating the birth of a brother, whom they named after their slain son.
Mohammed al-Durra was born on Friday in the Gaza Strip.
His namesake was killed in a shootout between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen at Gaza's Netzarim junction in September 2000, when the revolt erupted there and in the West Bank.
Television footage of the boy's last moments cowering behind his father Jamal, who was himself wounded, shocked the world.
Two years on, the Durra family hoped for better times.
"This child is our hope to reach peace. I hope that (baby) Mohammed will be a message to the world which saw me trying to protect my son who was killed. We love life and need peace," Jamal told Reuters on Sunday.
Palestinians say the troops shot 12-year-old Mohammed. A preliminary Israeli inquiry supported this, but military officials have since backed off and blamed Palestinian gunfire.
"We had seven children and now we again have seven children," mother Amal Durra said.
The family lives in a three-room home with a corrugated iron roof in the Gaza refugee camp of al-Bureij.
12/01: AOL News: Parents of Gaza boy killed on film have new baby
12/01/02 10:33 ET
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 11:16 pm Post subject: Boy Sells His Bicycle to Purchase School Books
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Boy Sells His Bicycle to Purchase School Books
By Saleh Al Ni'ami
November 12, 2002
Document Location:
http://www.miftah.org/display.cfm?DocId=1331
FRUSTRATION WAS written all over his face. Ala', 16, had been standing for hours waiting for someone to buy his bike. He is one of scores of boys his age who gathered Friday morning in the Faras market, the main flea market in Gaza, to sell their bicycles.
"I want to buy some school books and my father, who is unemployed, doesn't have enough money for them," said Ala', who is a sophomore in high school. "I had no other choice but to sell my bicycle," he said, looking embarrassed.
By selling his bicycle, Ala' will have to walk two kilometers every day to and from school. Although the other boys each have their own reasons for selling their bicycles, they have all decided to bear the daily walk to school in return for spending their bikes' worth on what they consider more important matters.
The extremely difficult economic circumstances have most residents of the Gaza Strip seeing their possessions as luxuries that can be done without. A walk around the Faras market on Friday and Saturday mornings shows many residents selling their belongings, not to buy new and better replacements, but to earn money on urgently needed items. People are even selling personal property like televisions and furniture.
Since the beginning of the Intifada, many women in the Gaza Strip have also been selling their jewelry to support their families and to help their husbands shoulder the burdens of daily life.
Ghassan Al Jama'i, who lives in a refugee camp in the central region of the Gaza Strip, says that his wife only has one gold chain left from the jewelry he bought her when they first married. Ghassan has been unemployed since the beginning of the Intifada, and so they have sold her jewelry to cover life's basic necessities. Ghassan's wife is nine months pregnant and he plans on selling her last necklace to cover the costs of a hospital delivery.
More than 60 percent of Gazans live below the poverty line, and unemployment in the Gaza Strip is now more than 56 percent. More than 1.3 million residents live in an area smaller than 365 square kilometers, while over one third of this area is controlled by 4,000 settlers.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 11:18 pm Post subject: " A seed in the Fruit of Palestine"
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" A seed in the Fruit of Palestine"
http://www.pcwf.org The link to the website of Palestine Children's Welfare Fund
Click to buy Palestinian embroidery online, sponsor a Palestinian child ,buy a flag or a Kuffiya to feed one, or donate books for the children of the refugee camps and BirZeit University.
"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity," ,Horace Mann " We can not educate for freedom with methods of slavery."Horace Mann
STOP the Occupation NOW ! NO SETTLEMENTS =NO SETTLERS=PEACE...Human RIGHTS are for all NOT just the "chosen few"...
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 11:45 pm Post subject: And The Terrorism Continues; Change U.S. Middle East Policy
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Subject: 11-17-2002 And The Terrorism Continues; Change U.S. Middle East Policy
Mr. President,
Your comments on Islam were very beneficial, but when will you and your administration make a positive change in your failed Middle east foreign policy that will bring peace to Palestine and Israel. The unbridled support of Israel and your shunning of Arafat will not bring the peace. The net result of your current policy has surrounded Israel with enemies. Now the World is on the verge of a war that will never bring peace to the region.
No Justice = No Peace
Joseph E S
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: Ha'aretz, November 17, 2002
:
: And the terrorism continues
: By Gideon Levy
:
:
: The terror attacks come in rapid succession, each new attack making
: us forget the previous one. The ambush in Hebron Friday night pushed
: aside the murders at Kibbutz Metzer. Who remembers? The Israel
: Defense Forces captured Nablus in response to the Metzer attack.
: Creative, bold, original and with the know-how to eradicate
: terrorism, the defense minister promised, as a sign of his
: determination, that this time we will stay in Nablus for a long time.
:
: Indeed, "Wheels of Momentum" - the code name for the Nablus
: operation - has already chalked up a number of achievements: a
: teenager who tried to throw a firebomb at a tank was shot and killed,
: and there have been some arrests.
:
: In another month or two, the IDF will withdraw from Nablus, as well
: as from Hebron, which was reconquered yesterday, and move to the next-
: in-line terrorist center, Jenin, or maybe Ramallah or Tul Karm.
: Officers and military correspondents will then explain with expertise
: that that is where the real terrorist infrastructure is located,
: every liquidation will be termed the end of "the individual chiefly
: responsible for the terrorist infrastructure in northern Samaria," or
: of the "main engineer" or of the "mastermind." His house will be
: demolished, and Israel's war on terrorism will continue without
: letup. Nevertheless, the terrorist attacks come one after another, as
: unfortunately occured in Hebron this weekend.
:
: New "senior wanted individuals" will make their appearance, replacing
: their liquidated predecessors, more bomb-manufacturing workshops will
: be bombed, and the public will know that the IDF is doing everything
: in its power to protect it, even if unsuccessfully.
:
: Israel's only method of operation continues to be one that has never
: produced meaningful results. Yet no one - not in the IDF, not in the
: government, and, above all, not among the public - is asking how long
: Israel will persist with its automatic responses based on force, in
: the form of conquest and occupation after every attack, instead of
: finally trying another route in the wake of the abject failure of the
: one the government has resorted to for the past two years.
:
: Whether it's "Maybe This Time," "Wheels of Momentum," "Determined
: Path" or "Defensive Shield," the true balance sheet of the occupation
: operations with the childish names that the IDF gives them has yet to
: be reckoned: while the security forces boast about the number of
: wanted individuals who have been arrested or liquidated, no one
: really knows how much these operations have actually done to boost
: terrorism. How many young Palestinians have sworn after every such
: operation to take revenge for the suffering and humiliation inflicted
: on them and their parents, when they were imprisoned for long days
: and nights - children, the elderly, the sick - in their homes, when
: they had to ask permission of the soldiers to relieve themselves. How
: many young people have reached the conclusion, and precisely in the
: course of these cruel operations, that they have no other option but
: to pursue the violent struggle against the occupier, and worse, that
: they have nothing left to lose.
:
: The average Israeli has no way of knowing what the Palestinians are
: enduring as "Wheels of Momentum" takes its course. The papers barely
: report on the suffering they are undergoing. Instead, the media
: mobilizes to carry out a campaign of demonization against the
: residents of whole cities. Indeed, if Jenin is the "city of the
: suicide bombers," why shouldn't all its inhabitants be made to
: suffer? And if Nablus is a "hornets' nest of murderers," why not keep
: its entire population confined to their homes indefinitely? In Jenin,
: though, there are 32,000 residents, most of whom don't want to commit
: suicide, while in Nablus there are 200,000 residents, the vast
: majority of whom are not murderers. They are hardworking people, some
: of them second- or third-generation refugees, and all they want is to
: live a normal life, a life of freedom and national dignity, which
: Israel has prevented them from doing for more than three decades.
: They were not born any more bloodthirsty than other people and the
: atrocities some of them perpetrate did not spring from a vacuum. Even
: if they have no moral justification, there are explanations aplenty.
:
: For the past two years, the Palestinians have been imprisoned in
: their places of residence in a manner without precedent in the
: history of the Israeli occupation. Hunger, humiliation and daily
: danger to life - far greater than the danger Israelis face - are
: their lot. When they gather these days in the evening for the meal
: that breaks the month-long Ramadan fast during the day, they see
: tanks in the streets and desperate poverty in their homes. These are
: classic conditions for the growth of terrorism. The fact that the IDF
: does not dare remain in the cities as a full-fledged occupier, for
: fear that it will have to assume the burden of tending to the
: population, does not absolve it of responsibility for the residents'
: fate. The destruction of the life of the territories is now on all
: our heads and its result is an increase of terrorism.
:
: It has to be said in all honesty: this attempt has failed. The IDF's
: occupation interruptus - occupy and pull out - has not brought about
: the eradication of terrorism and will never do so. Nor will a full
: return to the cities help. A different method has to be tried, and
: immediately: the population has to be helped instead of being
: brutalized, Israel has to get out of their lives as far as possible
: and give them grounds for hope. They are entitled to that, as we are
: entitled to a different form of struggle against terrorism, one that
: will reduce its motivation, instead of increasing it, and will again
: make terrorism's perpetrators a shunned minority in the Palestinian
: society, as was once the case, and not so long ago.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 11:52 pm Post subject: UN agency charges Israeli soldiers destroyed their food ware
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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1038803810431
Dec. 2, 2002
UN agency charges Israeli soldiers destroyed their food warehouse in
Gaza (UPDATE)
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A UN agency charged Monday that during a weekend incursion into the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers blew up a warehouse full of food for needy Palestinians. The World Food Progamme, affiliated with the United Nations, said in a statement that on Saturday night, six Israeli tanks surrounded a warehouse in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, checked the interior and then blew up the building with dynamite. The group said the warehouse contained food worth $271,000 dollars, meant for more than 40,000 Palestinians who are suffering severe economic hardships because of two years of Palestinian-Israeli violence. The statement said the building was clearly marked, and the food was stored on the ground floor. The military said it would check the group's complaint. After the Israeli incursion, the military said soldiers destroyed three houses belonging to suspected militants. In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "extremely concerned" about the report and called for an investigation. The World Food Programme statement urged "the Israeli government to observe humanitarian principles and compensate the agency for its loss." It was the second incident involving Israel and the United Nations in 10 days. On Nov. 22, UN aid worker Iain Hook was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers during a battle between the soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp. Israel said soldiers mistook a cell phone Hook was holding as a weapon. Hook was the first senior UN official to be killed during the current conflict.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 11:55 pm Post subject: Israel plans large scale house demolitions in Hebron
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From: iapinfo@iap.org (IAP NEWS)
Israel plans large scale house demolitions in Hebron
Hebron: 2 December, 2002 (IAP News)
The Israeli occupation army is planing to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes in the heart of Hebron in an effort to push more Palestinians to leave the town’s old quarter, Israeli press sources reported Monday.
The sources said in the initial stage, the army would demolish as many as 15 Palestinian homes located between the Ibrahimi Mosque and Kiryat Arba’a.
The Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, said on its webpage (www.jpost.com) that the purpose of the wholesale demolitions was to assure a safe passage for Jewish settlers between Kiryat Arba’a and the small Jewish enclave in Hebron.
Palestinian leaders in the city described the planned destruction of homes as “a demographic massacre.”
“We are telling the world that Israel is practicing ethnic cleansing in its ugliest form…What the Serbs did in Bosnia, Israel is doing in Hebron. Ethnic cleansing is wrong, the world must condemn it and stop it immediately,” said Yousef Ja’abari, a proprietor of one of the homes slated for demolition.
“Where in the world peoples’ homes are destroyed and innocent inhabitants are thrown into the street just because they happen to have a different religion…this Israeli occupation is Nazi-like in every conceivable respect?”
There are as many as 400 messianic Jewish settlers living in Hebron among the town’s estimated 170,000 Palestinians.
The settlers, protected round-the-clock by more than 2000 Israeli soldiers, make no secret of their desire to expel or exterminate the Palestinians and obliterate the town’s Arab-Islamic identity.
A settler by the name of Baruch Goldstein, an American trained doctor, murdered 29 Arab worshipers at the Ibrahimi Mosque on 25 February, 1994 while they were prostrating in prayer. He was killed in the incident. A special tomb was set up in his honor and thousands of Jews come to pay homage to him and consider his crime an act of heroism.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 12:05 am Post subject: Palestinian olive trees sold to rich Israelis
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Palestinian olive trees sold to rich Israelis
By Alan Philps in Jerusalem
(Filed: 28/11/2002)
Israel's Defence Ministry is investigating reports that Palestinian
olive trees uprooted to make way for a security fence are being sold
illegally to rich Israelis and town councils, sometimes for thousands
of pounds each.
The illegal trade in olive trees has flourished as Israeli contractors,
supported by armed guards, clear Palestinian agricultural land
where an 80-mile electronic fence is being built to seal off the West
Bank.
Thousands of olive trees have been dug up to make way for the
150-ft wide barrier and security zone. Its route usually passes inside
Palestinian territory, not along the old pre-1967 border, and
thousands of Palestinian farmers say their livelihood is being taken
away.
Sale of the olive trees emerged after the owner of a contracting
company offered two reporters from a popular Israeli newspaper,
Yedioth Ahronoth, 100 large olive trees for 150 each.
The reporters found one enormous tree, said to be 600 years old,
on sale at an Israeli plant nursery for 3,500. They said the trade
was conducted with the complicity of an official in the civil
administration, the Israeli military government in the occupied
territories.
Olive trees are extremely hardy, can live for hundreds of years and
will often stand transplanting. Gnarled old specimens which are
claimed, with some exaggeration, to have been alive at the time of
Jesus are much sought after for gardens of the rich or city parks.
The Defence Ministry, which is in charge of the security fence, said
it had launched an investigation. "The ministry pays contractors for
uprooting and replanting and, in their contract, there is no clause
that allows for trade in the trees. If there is such a trade, it is a
criminal activity," it said.
Some contracts require the olive trees to be relocated to areas
suggested by their owners outside the Israeli-declared security
zone. But Yael Stein, researcher for B'tselem, an Israeli human
rights organisation, said: "We have never seen any relocation. The
contractors cannot just sell the trees. That is theft."
While the trees may be ornaments to Israelis, olives are the
lifeblood of Palestinian agriculture, almost the only crop which grows
on the stony hillsides of the West Bank without irrigation. Most
Palestinians are unemployed after two years of violence and their
staple diet is bread and olive oil.
About 11,000 Palestinian farmers will lose all or some of their land
holdings to the fence. Sharif Omar, from the village of Jayous, near
the Israeli town of Kochav Yair, said: "I have lost almost everything.
I have lost 2,700 fruit and olive trees. And 44 of 50 acres I own have
been confiscated for the fence."
His village lost seven wells, 15,000 olive trees and 50,000 citrus and
other fruit trees. "This area is the agricultural store for the West
Bank. They are destroying us," he said.
Israel is offering compensation for confiscated agricultural land but
Palestinians are unlikely to apply, as they still hope to get their land
back.
The Palestinian Agriculture Ministry says 200,000 olive trees have
been destroyed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the past two years
to provide security for settlers.
The 90 million fence will prevent suicide bombers infiltrating into
Israel. But some Israeli border communities say depriving
Palestinians of their livelihood will make for worse, not better,
neighbours.
Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 12:08 am Post subject: Palestinian Christians face ethnic cleansing
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http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives/112202/112202r.htm
Palestinian Christians face ethnic cleansing
National Catholic Reporter, November 22, 2002
By ABE ATA
The Palestinian Christian is an endangered species. When the
modern state of Israel was established there were about 400,000 of
us. Two years ago the number was down to 80,000. Now it’s down
to 60,000. At that rate, in a few years there will be none of us left.
Palestinian Christians within Israel fare little better. On the face of it,
their number has grown by 20,000 since 1991. But this is
misleading, for the census classification “Christian” includes some
20,000 recent non-Arab migrants from the former Soviet Union. So
why are Palestinian Christians abandoning their homeland? We
have lost hope, that’s why. We are treated as non-people. Few
outside the Middle East even know we exist, and those who do,
conveniently forget.
I refer, of course, to the American religious right. They see the
modern Israel as a harbinger of the Second Coming, at which time
Christians will go to paradise, and all others (presumably including
Jews) to hell. To this end they lend military and moral support to
Israel. Even by the double-dealing standards of international
diplomacy, this is a breathtakingly cynical bargain. It is hard to know
who is using whom more: the Christian right for offering secular
power in the expectation that the Jewish state will be destroyed by a
greater spiritual one, or the Israeli right for accepting their offer.
What we do know is that both sides are abusing the Palestinians.
Apparently we don’t enter into anyone’s calculations.
The views of the Israeli right are well known: They want us gone.
Less well known are the views of the American religious right.
Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla., said: “God appeared to Abraham
and said: ‘I am giving you this land,’ the West Bank. This is not a
political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of
God is true.” House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, was
even more forthright: “I’m content to have Israel grab the entire
West Bank. … I happen to believe that the Palestinians should
leave.”
There is a phrase for this: ethnic cleansing. Why do American
Christians stand by while their leaders advocate the expulsion of
fellow Christians? Could it be that they do not know that the Holy
Land has been a home to Christians since, well … since Christ? Do
not think I am asking for special treatment for Christians. Ethnic
cleansing is evil whoever does it and to whomever it is done.
Palestinian Christians -- Maronite Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans,
Armenians, Baptists, Copts and Assyrians -- have been rubbing
shoulders with each other and with other religions -- Muslims, Jews,
Druze and most recently Baha’is -- for centuries. We want to do so
for centuries more. But we can’t if we are driven out by despair.
What we seek is support: material, moral, political and spiritual. As
Palestinians, we grieve for what we have lost, and few people (the
Ashkenazi Jews are one) have lost more than us. But grief can be
assuaged by the fellowship of friends.
Abe Ata is a ninth-generation Christian Palestinian born in
Bethlehem. He is a visiting Senior Fellow at the University of
Melbourne in Australia and author of 11 books, including
Intermarriage between Christians and Muslims.
