Here is just one little story of the everyday humiliation, the destruction of Palestinian livelihood and culture, carried out by the ruthless, racist Israeli military machine.
I could post such stories every day, including many much worse, and could describe more of the political context which beggars belief – the Israeli Knesset, for example, has just passed through its committee stage a bill providing for Palestinians and other Arabs to pay the costs of the demolition of their own homes by Israel bulldozers. There is a horror to that which should not lead you to overlook a yet more horrible underlying fact contained in that sentence – exactly as in apartheid South Africa, thousands of Israeli laws are ethnically explicit.
I haven’t checked out this little olive tree story, I don’t have to. it is prototypical of thousands of such stories throughout my adult life. I have met victims and know such stories are true.
This is why I support all those working to give some justice and hope for Palestinains. And this is why I cannot understand how such controlling sections of the media and political establishments of the west have signed up so completely to defend the indefensible, to deny to themselves what kind of state Israel has in truth become.
Dreoilin, oh I’m not so sure, both parties are equally batty.
Anne O’Nimmus, thanks very much for that excellent link to Miko Peled’s website/interview – the half-hour recording is a brilliant testament, I’d recommend the interview to everybody. It’s the first I’d heard of this author and of his book and I certainly shall spread word about it as widely as I can.
Natuurally there is nothing about the flotilla in the papers today apart from a few words in the Observer but we do have a lot on Kate’s ability to hold a spade WOW and the nonsense from the other Ruritania, Monaco.
See http://www.life.com/gallery/62321/image/117968843/monacos-royal-wedding-weekend#index/29 for a laugh. Which uniform is that and who gave him the medals?
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The previous day there was much coverage on the lavish wedding of Kate Moss with her 15 bridesmaids and the closure of all local roads to the residents. Not so long ago, the Surrey police provided a rolling road block on the A3 for Katie Price. Who decides to give these silly slebs protection paid for by the taxpayer?
Naturally. Iconography.
@Suhayl
This documentary is in a similar vein to the previous interview:
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/the-zionist-story-must-watch.html
The website belongs to Gilad Atzmon, a former Israeli and now very controversial anti-zionist, the film is by Ronen Berelovich, also Israeli and anti-zionist. Note how when he reaches events of 1967, he details how the policy of the state was to treat the newly occupied Palestinians AS prisoners in their own land.
Whether one agrees with Atzmon or not, the website is a valuable resource for learning about the issues around Israel/Palestine.
Thank you Anne for pointing us to that remarkable documentary. It gives the historical perspective behind the 63 years of torment of the Palestinian people who were sold out by us and the UN to the Zionists. Their torment is perhaps never greater than today when 1.5 million are imprisoned in the internment camp called Gaza. The other Palestinians live their lives on fragments of land surrounded by Israeli only roads leading to the settlements and with the daily horror and humiliation at the checkpoints.
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One is left with the inmpression that every Israeli however liberal is Zionist at their core and that the stolen land and homes will never be returned and that there will be no right of return.
Let me play devil’s advocate for a second. I genuinely don’t know the answer: Is there enough space in Palestine/Israel to allow a right of return given the influx of Jews that has happened since the fall of the Berlin Wall?
If the goal is to create a Palestinian state — as opposed to a scattering of bantustans — are there sufficient resources, primarily water, to allow that to happen?
We can talk historical wrongs until the cows come home, but in a sense Bibi is right: there are “demographic realities” on the ground i.e a lot of people who are now living in these illegal settlements who weren’t there 20 years ago. Now, these people shouldn’t be there – but they are! How many tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Are they to be evicted and sent back to wherever they came from? Dangerous language, indeed.
To deflect the inevitable hail of brickbats, I should point out at this stage that I am in favour of a right of return and a Palestinian state. But that doesn’t mean to say that these questions shouldn’t be asked.
I await your enlightening comments.
It is not only the Palestinians whose lives are made a misery. Pity the Bedouin, the outcasts in the Negev.
http://australiansforpalestine.com/47638
Israel – No place for Bedouin
Anne, that’s an amazing, incredibly powerful documentary, thank you so much for sharing the link. I too shall share it widely. I’d strongly recommend that everyone watch it. Good on you! Keep on!