Happy Orthodox Easter, Happy Passover, and Happy Happy Talk
This week is Orthdox Easter. It began Sunday (April 20) with Palm Sunday, representing Jesus’ triumphal return to Jerusalem and the week long conflict that followed leading up to his crucifixion, and then resurrection. Friday is Good Friday. Sunday is Easter.
This week is also Passover and for the next 10 days Jews will observe the day when the Hebrews began the flight from Egypt and the conflict with the Pharoah.
And this week, is a week of Happy Lies. The Government of Israel, once again insists it does not target civilians in its conflict with the Palestinians, a claim backed up, not surprisingly, but 404 members of the U.S. Congress. They make that claim because it gives them the “higher moral ground” in fighting with the Palestinians. Although maybe more importantly, the Israelis use it to hammer away at the Palestinians, arguing that Palestinian militants intentionally target Israeli civilians.
Obviously, no one cares about civilians because the majority of Israelis and majority of Palestinians killed in this conflict are civilians. But, both sides like to play the “happy talk” game.
Hamas fires Qassam rockets across its borders into the civilian town of Sderot, and that is intentionally trying to kill Israelis.
But the Israelis are no better. They fire missiles at buildings in civilian neighborhoods and while Israel likes to make the semantics argument that it doesn’t “intentionally” kill civilians, the fact is they do, and they do so knowingly.
Congress doesn’t care about the killing of civilians. All they care about is the politics of killing civilians. Is it “intentional” or is it not? Israel likes that argument because they play on Western and American stereotypes driven by racist hatred — America is a nation based on race and racism is one of its primary societal products. Oh, Americans don’t lynch Black people any more like they did in the 50s, 60s and even the 70s. Racism has become very sophisticated since then. So when Congress says the issue is “intention,” Americans support Israel — White Europeans — and hate the Arabs — dark skinned heathens. That’s the American conscience. It’s because of that American racism — it’s okay to kill civilians they dislike but wrong to kill civilians they like and view as allies — that civilians are killed every day.
Take the case of the Palestinian journalist working for Reuters. I am not sure if the Israelis “intentionally” fired the weapon directly at him recognizing that he was a civilian. Afterall, he was carrying a camera and a notepad, which are evidence of more weapons of mass destruction I guess than President Bush has been able to find in Iraq where hundreds of thousands of civlians have been killed by both American and al-Qaeda forces.
But this fact really angers me about Israel (from the BBC News, April 21, 2008):
Meanwhile, Israel said it would investigate the death of Palestinian Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who died with several other civilians in Gaza last Wednesday.
New York-based Human Rights Watch says it has evidence an Israeli tank team fired either recklessly or deliberately at Mr Shana.
The final footage taken by Mr Shana – and released by Reuters – shows the tank firing in his direction. The Israeli army denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Israeli Human rights group B’tselem has reported that Mr Shana was killed by a “flechette” shell.
The shell is an anti-personnel weapon that explodes in the air and releases thousands of small metal darts over a wide area.
The group called on the Israeli Army’s judge advocate general to order the immediate cessation of the use of the shell and open a criminal investigation of the event. The group says the weapon is prohibited.
A “flechette” shell that explodes int he air and fires thousands of little darts into the surrounding area killing whatever they hit. Oh, we didn’t kill that little baby on purpose. The baby threw itself into the “flechette” shell pieces.
A “flechette” shell is a cluster bomb and cluster bombs are violations of human rights. And the reason they are violations of human rights is because they intentionally kill anyone including civilians.
In fact, I might go as far as to say than when Israel uses one of those shells, they are no better than the suicide bombers who strap themselves with explosives covered with “thousands of little darts” (usually nuts, bolts, pieces of metal) and walk into a place where soldiers are present and explode the belt killing themselves, the soldiers and Israeli civilians.
And just as an aside, the National Arab American Journalists Association (www.NAAJA-US.com) denounced the murder of Fadel Shana and the release was distributed to every American newspaper. But then, we’re Arab and not a major Jewish American organization and not one newspaper picked up the release which called for an investigation of Shana’s killing. But then, why should Americans pretend they are not racist or that they care.
Maybe its not intentional?
So Happy Easter and Happy Passover and Happy Talk.
Ray Hanania
www.ArabWritersGroup.com
Join the Conversation
Although I must agree with Ray as to Israel’s crimes against humanity, I just wonder why, on the one hand, he does not support racism in America and speaks out against it (bravo), yet, he supports Israel as a racist Jewish state, and does not tackle its vile racism or how its Palestinian Arab citizens are treated. He also supports a state that uses racist criteria to determine who is Jewish, and hence, has the right of return, yet Mr. Hanania denies the return of the Palestinian refugees, although fully supported by UN resolutions and international law, because HE feels it is not realistic. However, the denial of their return is based solely on the fact that they do not meet the racist criteria of who is Jewish.
If Mr. Hanania is going to be an advocate against racism, then let him at least be consistent. For some reason, it does not bother him that his “comedy team,” all of whom are Jewish, have the right to reside in Israel, yet were not even born there, and one of them is even a convert to Judiaism and has taken up residence there. Yet, Mr. Hanania outright denies the return of the Palestinian refugees expelled from their beloved Haifa, Nazareth, etc., but supports the right of his buddies to be there.
Is this supposed to be funny? I must have lost my sense of humor.
I don’t read all of Ray’s articles, but I know he’s written articles on these issues, as well as his explanations for supporting an Israeli state next to a Palestinian one. The notion that he does not support Palestinians, as your comment implies, can be dispelled by reading his past posts on this site.
What I distinctly said is that Mr. Hanania does not support the just and inalienable rights of the Palestinian refugees as accorded to them by UN resolutions and international law, which means unequivocally, the right of return. Denying the Palestinians their just rights is, in essence, not supporting them. Denying any people their just rights, irrespective of who they are, is not supporting them.
To his credit he did want to expand the presence of more Palestinians in his group. See this post for details.
My writings have been very clear and I can’tr fault someone for not having read them all and speaking out of ignorance. Here’s what I HAVE said in the past and consistently:
The Palestinian refugees have an absolute legal Right of Return — but they do not have a Realistic Rights of Return.
What that means is that while they do have a legal right of return, in the context of recognizing two-states and compromising they must accept the FACT that they will NOT be permittedf to return to their original homes and lands, but can expect to receive both an apology and compensation.
That’s a far cry from the politically motivated assertions of Marlene Newesri
I actually blame the leaders of the Palestinian movement, including activists like the writer, for this predicament. They keep telling them they have a right of return but they never offer them a realistic strategy or means of returning. So they sit in the poverty and oppression of the refugee camps used and abused.
As for the Standup Comedy Act I do, I am also very clear on that: I do not support Israeli Government Policy, but I have absolutely nothing against the Israeli people other than a view that they need to do more to be fair and just. Appearing with Israelis is not wrong and doesn’t contradict the Palestinian rights. What contradicts Palestinian rights is the ABSOLUTE FAILURE and IMPOTENCE of the Palestinian activist community which mischaracterizes issues because they can’t speak to the real issues.
I think that mischaracterization of the issues has everything to do with the hatred that feeds most of the Palestinian activists who scream when a palestinian sicivlian is killed and then smirtk silently in satisfaction when an Israeli civilian is killed.
That’s not the Palestinian face I want for my people.
I will apply principle, whether the extremists in my community like it or not and in fact, this year I will be stepping this up with an even more bolder action to come to confront the Palestinian fanatics who say the refugees have a right of return and their only answer to how they can help them return is to murder other civilians who happen to be Israelis or destroy a state that has been in existence for 60 years whether they liek it or not.
More and more Palestinians are agreeing with me that the activists — mostly based in the West and in Europe and the United States, have created and are thriving in an Industry of Exploitation … if there were peace today, they would be absolutely out of a job and I think that frightens them more than anything else
We received MUCH support from Palestinians in the West Bank and several came out and ALSO performed with the Israeli comedians and the Israeli comedians received a standing ovation for their comedy.
Thanks
Ray hanania
http://www.hanania.com
PS … Notice how Marlene only criticizes me for working with Israelis — we are the ONLY Palestinian-Israeli standup comedy team int he world.
BUT, we are NOT the only Palestinian-Israeli collaboration. I think Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim also had a similar collaboration and Mr. Said worked closely with Israelis.
I thinkt he real issue is that the activists don’t like the fact that I call them out in their failure and the emptiness of their rhetoric. So much emotion goes into the clarion call for the Palestinian Right of Return but also it is equally driven by hatred rather than reason, logic, cleverness, common sense or even talent. They know how to say what they hate but they have no idea how to achieve what they want.
That is the failure that plagues them and drives them nuts.
Ray Hanania
http://www.hanania.com
Mr. Hanania has totally missed the point, which I think is intentional on his part. I do not criticize him for working with Israelis. What I do criticize him for is working with Israelis who have the right of return based on racist criteria which he finds realistic (and I repeat, one of those people is a convert to Judiaism and has more rights than any Palestinian refugee) but Mr. Hanania does not support the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, even though supported by international law and UN resolutions which he finds unrealistic. To add more insult, he then has the audacity to call other people “extremists” although it is not extreme to him that any convert to Judaism has more rights than any Palestinian citizen of Israel or Palestinian refugee.
There are Israelis, although perhaps not many, who do support the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, unlike Mr. Hanania who does not, however, they all put him to shame.
Mr. Hanania should also not dare put himself in the same category as great men like Edward Said or Daniel Barenboim, neither of whom ever said the Palestinian right of return was “unrealistic” and had far more sensitivity for Palestinian suffering and their denial of rights than was ever displayed by Mr. Hanania.
You Mr. Hanania help to keep the Palestinian refugees where they are.
Mr. Hananis said the following:
I must add a comment to what Ray wrote above which sounds more like a Zionist speaking. This is a total demonization of the Palestinian people who did not go to Europe or anywhere else to expel people, to oppress, to kill, to destroy their homes and lands. The Zionists came to the Palestinians. Mr. Hanania cares more about the existence of Israel at 60 than he cares about the existence of the Palestinian people, and what culminated from the partition of Palestine 60 years ago. He speaks just like a Zionist who forever is spouting propaganda about how the Palestinians want to destroy the Jewish state, yet it is the Jewish state who has slowly destroyed the Palestinian people and continues to do so. This is what sixty years represents Mr. Hanania.
That cameraman was too far away to be identified as Press; and in any case, many vehicles have had a sign “Press” put on them as cover for terrorists.
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