1) Video: On Sunday 5 Feb 2012, villagers from Al-Walaja and international supporters went to the area where the Israeli apartheid authorities were still destroying lands to build a wall that will isolate the villagers from their remaining lands and allow for further expansion of the illegal colonies of Gilo and Har Gilo. Already over 90% of the village lands were taken for colonial settler activities in the past 6 decades. The area this short video was taken is just around the oldest tree in Bethlehem district (an olive tree > 3,000 year old).

2) The “Herzliya Conference” just concluded. This is the annual conference that brings the elites of the Israeli military industrial complex together to plot “strategy” in a coastal town named after the founder of Political Zionism Theodor Herzl. This location is on ethnically-cleansed Palestinian land (see for history of the location). Shimon Peres, a war criminal and architect of Israel’s arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction appropriately opened as a key note speaker. There were several sessions that touched on Iran including “Iran: Will Sanctions Work?” and “The Ticking Clock: Dissuading and containing Iran’s strategic ambitions” where war criminals like Danny Ayalon debated whether it is enough to continue to use clandestine terrorist operations in Iran or whether we need to push the US to start another war like they did on Iraq (one million civilians killed so far) on behalf of Israel. There was a session on “Galilee: Setting Priorities for Regional Development” where a number of Jewish Zionists discuss how to transform the Galilee into a Jewish area (without consulting the native inhabitants of the Galilee).

The Galilee and Negev were left with a good number of Palestinians after the ethnic cleansing during the foundation of “Israel”. There were sessions titled things like “Advancing Israel Normalization in the International Community” where efforts to whitewash apartheid are celebrated and plans for new propaganda and lobbying campaigns debated. There were also sessions celebrating the anniversary of the Jewish National Fund or KKL (Keren Keyemeth L’Israel), a group that participated for decades in ethnic cleansing and continues to do so (e.g. in the Negev where Bedouins are being displaced to Judaicize the Negev). Participants were also taken to military bases and training facilities of the apartheid army so that they could visit with the most moral army that caused the largest post-World War II refugee crisis and that has murdered over 25,000 children. There was even some talk about how to get Mahmoud Abbas (whose term has expired long ago) to return to fruitless and endless negotiations. After all, the “Peace process industry” needs to be revived so that more time is allowed for continued rape of Palestine (expanding colonial settlement etc)! In over 20 sessions, not one dealt with what the natives of Palestine (Christians and Muslims) go through or how we feel. To cap the “conference” the Israeli government made announcements of more land confiscation (e.g. 430 dunums in Nahhalin) and more home demolitions (e.g. in Al-Aqaba).

Shamelessly, the head of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon addressed this gathering of apartheid leaders. Also Mr. John Baird, foreign minister of Canada (with MP Irwin Cotler) came to claim that Canada supports Apartheid Israel. Mr. Riad Al-Khoury from Jordan came and thus also lent his blessings to apartheid. There was also the Zionist Zoelnick (head of the World Bank) and a few other American Jewish Zionists “discussing” how best to get Israel even more money and arms from our taxes.

I guess I should look on the positive side: that this year, there were less of those “Internationals” willing to show their faces at this circus. But it is a distraction to blame these rich elites but ultimately it is our responsibility to make sure that we end their games of domination, war, and destruction. People are taking on the responsibility of change and each of us can do more to advance peace with justice. The horrific events in Egypt (where 80 people were killed when fans of two football teams collided) also remind us of the worst element of human weaknesses. It then matters a lot what those who disapprove DO.

Unfortunately, many of our closest supporters and even Palestinians themselves do not understand basic issues relating to Palestine and the Israeli apartheid system. Because of these misunderstandings, they make devastating choices including for example supporting the mythical “two state solution”. I will not discuss here why it is mythical and why it is what led us to 20 years suspension of the Palestinian liberation Struggle in return for an industry of negotiations (yes an industry that is profiting some Palestinians who became invested in the status quo (i.e. in the occupation) and addicted to the “security aid” and “humanitarian aid” that comes primarily from the US and Europe (respectively). I already discussed this in detail in my 2004 book “Sharing the Land of Canaan”. But I am also willing to debate anyone in pubic on these issues.

3) Example of action: I wrote to these email addresses the letters below about Brussels Air promoting Israeli apartheid. Please read and if interested to write or take action based on your conscience, then please do. That is how change happens in society: when enough people say enough is enough!

To Brussels Air and Ink Global
wlemmes@brusselsairlines.com
gsciot@brusselsairlines.com
info@btheremag.com
jane.wright@ink-global.com
jenny.mcneely@ink-global.com
Bart.Beirlant@standaard.be

You did not respond to my earlier email (copy below) sent three weeks ago about your January 2012 Brussels Air magazine’s shameless promotion of Israeli apartheid. But then when I returned home from Belgium, I noted that this was not the first time you are promoting Apartheid Israel as a destination. In fact, your web-page which I just checked http://www.btheremag.com starts out with the August 2011 issue promoting Tel Aviv and stolen Palestinian food (Falafel) as if it is an Israeli food “Tasting Tel Aviv: Where Fashion meets Falafel”. So I am now personally boycotting your airline and will be promoting a boycott of your airlines.

Sincerely,
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Earlier email:

Dear Colleagues in Brussels Air and Ink Global

It was my first trip on Brussels Air and it will likely be the last. Your B.There! Airline magazine soured my trip since it promoted apartheid. Imagine if at the height of Apartheid in South Africa, your magazine chose to highlight the white part of the segregated country and promoted it in three distinct locations in one issue, something you do not do for any other of the nearly 200 destinations to normal cities/countries. This is precisely what you did by promoting Apartheid Israel in three locations in your January 2012 issue: On page 14 you promoted “Tel Aviv Art weekend”, on page 50 you promoted a Tel-Aviv “food blog”, and in page 55 you had feature article advertising (free) an Israeli company (Uploads). Brussels Air according to your magazine and website flies to nearly 200 destinations around the world. Yet, I saw most of those not mentioned in this magazine let alone deserving of three free promotional items.

This alone is favoritism but is scandalous when we add the fact that Israel is recognized by people around the world as an apartheid state and there is a worldwide movement for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) called for by Palestinian Civil Society.

I realize Brussels Air contracts with a British company to do their magazine and the mistaken bias likely originated with Ink Global. Perhaps in your next magazine you can promote Palestine alternative tourism (www.atg.ps and http://sirajcenter.org/ ) or highlight the way Belgians are traveling to help their fellow human beings like in the upcoming welcome to Palestine Campaign (http://bienvenuepalestine.com/). I would be happy to help.

I have an email list of more than 50,000 activists and depending on your answer to this email, I will write to them to encourage a boycott of this airline. After all, there are other ways to travel without being pelted with free advertisements for apartheid Israel.

Sincerely,

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
Palestinian – American Professor and author currently on speaking tour in Belgium

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4) Sabeel 7th Young Adult Conference. Challenging Oppression, on a Donkey: Christ, Resistance, and Creative Discipleship.
4 -15 July 2012

Hamas, in an official statement, confirmed over the weekend that long-time leader Khaled Meshaal has informed the movement he does not intend to run again for political bureau chief when elections are held in the 55-member shura (consultative) council during the coming months.

But tellingly, Hamas also said the council may not accept Mr. Meshaal’s stepping down, leaving the door open for him to continue in the post he has held since 1996. Since 2004, due to Israel’s assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, Mr. Meshaal has been the overall leader of the organization.

The Damascus-based Mr. Meshaal’s threat to stand down stems from a deepening split in Hamas where his leadership, including his efforts to steer the group into a reconciliation with the rival Fatah movement, and other recent signs of relative pragmatism, are being challenged by the increasingly powerful Gaza Hamas leadership, embodied in Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and Hamas founder Mahmoud Zahar.

Saying he does not want to run again may be a recognition by Mr. Meshaal he would not get elected or it may be a ploy to attempt to rally support behind him.

”He wants to know if the Hamas movement wants him to continue,” says Talal Awkal, a Gaza-based columnist for al-Ayyam daily newspaper. In Mr. Awkal’s view, Mr. Meshaal is also keenly aware that in the aftermath of last year’s Arab Spring, which saw the toppling of long-standing dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, he cannot be seen to be clinging to his leadership position indefinitely and he must at least appear ready to step down. ”He has been continuing in his position a long while, at the same time that people everywhere in the Arab world are rising up against those leaders holding onto their authority for a long time.” Mr. Awkal said.

In the event of Mr. Meshaal’s not running, the leading candidates to replace him would be his deputy, Musa Abu Marzouk, Mr. Haniya or Mr. Zahar. Mr. Abu Marzouk would be expected to continue Mr. Meshaal’s efforts to reconcile with Fatah, while the Gaza based leaders could overturn the policy. All of the successors are expected to continue Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel while perhaps voicing willingness for a conditional truce with it.

The relative strength of the Gaza leadership has increased in recent years, starting with Hamas’s armed takeover of Gaza from Fatah in 2007. With its own de facto government in place there that levies taxes and customs and garners revenues from tunnels through which goods are brought from Egypt, the Hamas leadership in Gaza is no longer dependent on Iranian money channeled through Damascus. Meanwhile, the unrest in Syria and President Bashar Assad’s brutal suppression of it has severely weakened its utility to Meshaal as an ally and made Damascus an unsafe base from which much of the Hamas leadership has relocated. Mr. Meshaal desperately needs another haven.

A reconciliation with the leader of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas could bring his leadership back to the fore and help him achieve another base, possibly in Egypt, a strong backer of Fatah-Hamas unity. But much of the Gaza leadership is opposed to consummating a unity deal with Fatah. ”They don’t want to give up power or have a partner in the control of Gaza,” says Wadie Abu Nassar, head of the Haifa-based International Center for Consultations. Moreover, Gaza Hamas leaders harbor hopes that Mr. Abbas’s rule in the West Bank will collapse and they see no reason in propping up their rival.

Mr. Meshaal, survivor of a 1999 assassination attempt by the Mossad, has also touched off heated opposition from the Gazans through his stress in recent months that the struggle with Israel should be channeled into mass protests in the style of Tunisia and Egypt. Although Mr. Meshaal has not renounced violence, the Gazans see this stress as a betrayal of their venerated ”armed resistance” against Israel.

Inside Fatah, meanwhile, there are concerns that a new Hamas leader would be a negative development. ”Meshaal had a significant role in pursuing reconciliation,” Fatah leader Amin Makboul told the Associated Press. ”We hope his successor takes the same path particularly since there are some forces in Gaza who are not interested in reconciliation.”

The stabbing by three masked men Friday night of Mahmoud Abu Rahma, international affairs director of al-Mezan Human Rights Center, is seen as one of the more serious incidents of internal violence since the Islamic militant group’s armed takeover of Gaza in 2007. Hamas leaders have condemned the attack, which wounded Abu Rahma in the hand, back and leg, and insist it is not related to his criticism, human rights activists counter that the assault is the latest in a series of episodes undermining free expression for which the government bears ultimate responsibility.

”From what we have heard from Mahmoud and al-Mezan and according to the investigations they have made, this is a continuation of the attack on freedom of expression,” said Jaber Wishah, deputy director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). ”As long as the authority is the responsible body, the full responsibility falls on its shoulders to stop such attacks.”

Abu Rahma had received numerous death threats since January 1. That was when he published an article on the Maan news agency website accusing resistance groups of causing death and injury by deploying and training next to schools and homes, a charge frequently leveled by Israel but until now not publicly voiced by Palestinians.

On January 3, Abu Rahma was roughed up by unarmed men, and on Friday he escaped being stabbed in the chest only because he was able to use his laptop as a shield, his brother Imad said, adding that the assailants shouted at him that he was a ”collaborator” with Israel.

In his article, Mr. Abu Rahma wrote:”Many citizens fall victim to the continuous negligence of the resistance groups, who show little or no care for people’s life and well being, or worse, fail to take responsibility for shocking acts by their members.Numerous people were injured by live fire coming from resistance group training sites including children, and at least one man lost an eye.”

He added that there is a training site in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya ”that threatens people every day including a girl who was injured inside her school when an explosion occurred in this site.”’

Abu Rahma also criticized the ”misfiring” of rockets aimed at Israel that ”fall on houses and kill [Gaza] civilians”
”Many children have been killed or maimed by explosive devices left in the streets or on farms,” he added. ”And there is the young man who was shot in the legs for daring to criticize a local resistance leader.”.

”Who will protect the people from the wrongful acts of the resistance and government?” Abu Rahma asked.
The assault on Abu Rahma follows a string of attacks against media outlets last year, including an attempt to set fire to the Maan offices in July and an incident in March, during which armed men entered the offices of Reuters and threatened employees with guns. According to Reuters account, the men struck one journalist on the arm with a metal bar and threatened to throw another out the window of the high rise. They took away a video camera apparently after they spotted a reporter filming a demonstration from a building. The group smashed a television set and other equipment before leaving and also seized videotapes from nearby offices of CNN and the Japanese station NHK. Reuters reported that the men said they came from Hamas internal security, but senior Hamas officials condemned the action and denied the group was involved in it.
”We are seeing a silencing of the press,” says Wishah, from PCHR.”These acts cause internal censorship which is even more harmful than external censorship.”

Salah Bardawil, a Hamas legislator, termed the attack against Abu Rahma ”a deplorable act.”

”Any attack on a Palestinian citizen is a crime and an attack on a human rights activist is a bigger crime,” he said. Bardawil stressed, however, that he thought the attack was the work of criminal elements and not political or related to Abu Rahma’s article.

He said Hamas works to uphold freedom of expression ”but on the ground there are some transgressions and we in the legislative council are working to correct this.” Bardawil took issue with Abu Rahma’s assertion that fighters endanger the lives of civilians by positioning themselves close to homes. ”These are the houses of our children and we don’t ever allow any resistance training that endangers civilians,” he said.

The 6 to 5 ruling late Wednesday comes after months of the court being under unprecedented attack from legislators in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party for—in their view—being too liberal and interventionist on human rights issues.

Citing security concerns, the justices upheld a 2003 provision that has led to draconian limits on family reunification and is believed to have prevented thousands of West Bank Palestinians from living with their spouses inside Israel. The provision was passed at the height of the second intifada uprising, when attacks on Israeli targets were frequent. It was later expanded to include spouses from enemy states such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.

”Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide,” wrote Asher Grunis, who is about to become president of the court, in his opinion. Mr. Grunis argued that striking down the law would bring about the entry of thousands of Palestinian spouses and that the state could not take the risk that some would engage in terrorism and cause loss of life.
Human rights groups argue that Israeli law grants all citizens the right to family life and equality and that few Palestinian spouses have been involved in violence. But upholding those rights goes against the current mood in the Knesset and public, explained liberal legislator Nitzan Horowitz. ”There is an ill wind blowing from the Knesset and the judges are influenced by the harsh public atmosphere,” he said.

The court decision makes life more precarious for couples already living in Israel in which one partner comes from the West Bank. In recent years, the Israeli interior ministry allowed West Bank spouses to stay if they were males over 35 or females over 25 and not considered a security threat. These spouses are not allowed to work or even drive, and have to renew their permits every few months.

The gnawing fear now is that in the wake of the supreme court decision, the spouses’ permits will not be renewed.”This would separate our family into two parts,” said Tayseer Khatib, an Israeli Arab anthropology professor whose wife, Lana, comes from the West Bank city of Jenin. ”I will take responsibility for the kids if we have to separate. Lana will go to Jenin and I will stay in Acre with the kids.” The two fell in love when Tayseer conducted academic research in Jenin and met Lana, who moved to Acre six years ago. They have a four year old boy, Adnan and a three year old girl, Yusra. Tayseer says his leaving Acre to join Lana in Jenin would be out of the question, since he does not want to repeat the events of 1948, when thousands of Palestinians fled Acre under Jewish military pressure at Israel’s establishment.

A dissenting justice, Edmund Levy, warned that upholding the law was a negative turning point in the history of Israeli democracy.

According to the court ruling, about 135,000 Palestinians were granted Israeli citizenship through marriage between 1994 and 2002. Twenty percent of Israel’s citizens are Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who did not flee or were not expelled during Israel’s establishment in 1948. They frequently intermarry with Palestinians from the West Bank.

We native Christian and Muslim Palestinians remember that Jesus, the Aramaic speaking Palestinian born in this town spoke truth to powers and asked us to be a “light unto the world”. Join us in working for Peace and Justice this Christmas and the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL

Cartoons for Christmas showing what Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) are thinking about -
From the PLO:

From ARIJ:

Data/Report on Bethlehem geopolitical status.

If you still want to make a year-end donation, I encourage you to do so to one of the many deserving Palestinian Charities in Palestine or to groups that do good work for Palestine abroad and have presence in the streets of your country (not ones that merely hold conventions).

PROGRAM

Friday 23/12/2011
18:00 – 21:00 Shepherds’ Nights Festival, Greek Catholic School, Beit Sahour (include Wajd Musical Band –Tunes for Peace Group, Baqoun Troupe for Palestinian Popular Heritage, and more)

Saturday Dec 24:
8:00 Orientation for Internationals about the advocacy work (Palestinian Center for Rapprochement)
10:00 Nativity Square – Christmas Card Distributtion to Tourist
16:00 – 20:00 Shepherds’ Nights Festival, Greek Catholic School (include Keefak Hey Band, Roni Rock, Children Show & Gifts, Sheibat Band – Rock and Roll)

- December 1908: Palestinian villagers of Kafr Kama (near Tiberias) tried to reclaim land taken unfairly by the “Jewish Colonisation Association” (yes that was its actual name).

- 9 December 1917, British forces marched into Jerusalem to begin over three decades of repressive occupation that devastated the country and left an apartheid system in its wake.

- 14 December 1920: Third Congress of the Arab Executive Committee meets in Haifa and declares opposition to the Balfour Declaration and to Zionist plans for Palestine.

- December 1921: The Jewish Zionist Herbert Samuel appointed by the British as a “High Commissioner” of Palestine makes decrees allowing transfer of native Arab land ownership to the European Zionist movement.

- 7-17 December 1931: general Islamic conference held in Jerusalem attended by 145 key Islamic scholars and leaders from 22 countries.

- 13 December 1931: leaders of the previous organisation Al-Arabiya Al-Fatat and supporters of independence were mobilised and 50 of them met in the home of Awni Abd Hadi and drafted an Arab nationalist covenant. This document re-emphasised the regional Arab context for the struggle for Palestine as a joint effort against imperialism )this movement evolved later in 1933to form Hizb Al-Istiqlal).

- 9 December 1935: Palestinian strategy meetings and popular gatherings were held to commemorate the anniversary of the British occupation recognized as the beginning stirrings of the intifada/uprising of 1936-1939.

- December 1936: Michel Mitri, the most recognised Palestinian labour leader of the period, was assassinated by Zionist forces. He had dared to challenge the monopoly/hegemony of the Histadrut (Zionist labour federation) and always believed in popular resistance activities (non-violent).

- 2-4 December 1947: Three-day Palestinian general strike to reject the unfair conditions of a partition resolution at the UN which allocated 55% of the land to Jews who constituted less than a third of the population and were mostly new migrants (many illegal).

- 31 December 1947: Zionist forces massacred 60 villagers in Balad Al-Sheikh (Haifa district). Dozens of villages were “cleansed” in this December wave. Massacres were committed in Al-Tira, Haifa, Balad el-Sheikh, Yehiday, Khisas, and Qazaza. Between December 1st 1947 and May 14, 1948 (the date, the Zionists unilaterally declared their state), over half of the Palestinian refugee population was created. Thus, half of the 530 village and towns were ethnically cleansed while the area was still supposedly under British rule and protection (another British government treachery).

- 1 December 1948: The (British appointed) King of Jordan convened a conference in Jericho of unelected Palestinian elites who were to profit from agreeing to his annexation of what became known as the West Bank of Jordan. Later, the Jordanian monarch and his British Army commander turned the Negev and the Galilee over to Israel to allow the further expansion of the nascent state. The ancient name of Palestine was thus erased on both sides of what was to be called the Green Line (the armistice line)

- 2 December 1961: Arab students at the Hebrew University convened and established the Arab Jewish Committee ‘to end the military rule’ (the few remaining Palestinians inside the new state of Israel were under military rule from 1948-1966).

- December 1975: Israeli occupation forces raid Al-Qassaba area of Nablus killing nonviolent protesters.

- December 1986: Israeli soldiers chase students inside Birzeit university and used live ammunition, killing two and injuring twelve students.

- December 1987: demonstrations throughout Palestine and dozens of civilians (most under 18) were murdered.

- 13 December 1988: Arafat addressed the UNGA meeting in Geneva and stated that all parties should live in peace and security ‘including the state of Palestine, Israel, and other neighbours’.

- 15 December 1988: The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People (PCR) issued an invitation to Internationals (including Israelis) to Beit Sahour to help break the siege and curfew. This was the beginnings of what evolved into the International Solidarity Movement.

- mid-December 1992: Israel took the unprecedented step of ordering the deportation to Lebanon of 416 Palestinians (an act contrary to international law). They stayed near the border in tents provided by the Red Cross and resisted the deportation.

I could go on but as can be seen December is as any other period in history brings up both sad memories of atrocities as well as memories of resilience and persistence and resistance of ordinary people. As we look to 2012, we hope that what is left of December will see more of the latter actions. There is a genuine popular resistance movement in the Arab world. But, as happened previously there are those who try to profit from other people’s work by posing only for the cameras or in conference rooms or worse yet engage in destroying the resistance while speaking about it in positive terms. There is a counter-revolutionary movement by forces allied with the US, with the apartheid regime (otherwise known as Israel), and with the cleptocracy (otherwise known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). There is an effort (which I think and hope will fail) to co-opt these revolutions. Some in the West (goaded on by Israeli lobbies) now speak openly of “allowing” Islamic forces to take over and in return insist that each new government ignores its people’s wishes and continue to support (or even increase) its support of Israel and allow “Free Market” businesses to continue to get rich people richer and poor people poorer. Libyan elites indeed were very open about this as are some opposition forces in Syria blessed by the US. The recent interview with a Mr. Ghalyoun of the Syrian opposition that appeared on the pages of the Wall Street Journal is an indication of such co-opted individuals. But we are hearing more rational voices from Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya and elsewhere that is against dictatorships and for real democracy (which means isolating racist apartheid regimes). We must support all these people and demand real democracy.

Let there be no mistake about it, hundreds of millions of dollars are being mobilized and intelligence services and diplomatic and business “teams” are very busy shuttling back and forth to ensure this outcome. There is also a game of regional interests and some groups watching their own interests (Iran, Hezbollah, Turkey etc.). There are also dirty games of divide and conquer and false-flag operations. In all this mayhem, better awareness and education are critical. People who do not become aware and engage in serious work will go extinct (or at least continue to be impoverished) in the wild foggy jungle.

Palestinian Center for Human Rights: PLO’s Refusal to Pursue Accountability at UN Exhibits Disregard for Victims of Gaza Conflict.

From Occupation to “Occupy”: The Israelification of American Domestic Security” By Max Blumenthal:

Given the amount of training the NYPD and so many other police forces have received from Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus, and the profuse levels of gratitude American police chiefs have expressed to their Israeli mentors, it is worth asking how much Israeli instruction has influenced the way the police have attempted to suppress the Occupy movement, and how much it will inform police repression of future upsurges of street protest. But already, the Israelification of American law enforcement appears to have intensified police hostility towards the civilian population, blurring the lines between protesters, common criminals, and terrorists.

As an example of what Max is talking about, here is an example of a good peaceful action met with US police Brutality.

And [Israeli Apartheid] “Law Enforcement” Destroys Prayer House, Homes, School – Just Because They’re for Arabs.

Action for California people.

UN assembly passes 6 resolutions on Mideast conflict
“Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and United States voted against each of the resolutions.” [All other >180 countries voted for them with few abstentions]

*Taken from the book “Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of hope and empowerment” where you can find references/citation.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home

The villagers were speaking with soldiers demanding paperwork and telling them that court cases are pending and to stop blowing up their lands. Instead the soldiers arrogantly pushed and shoved and as they tried to arrest one young man, a group of Israeli soldiers and native Palestinians fell off the side of the bulldozed area of the route of the apartheid wall. Outside of camera views, Mustafa was beaten repeatedly in the car (I was hit twice) by a mean young Israeli soldiers who said he hated Arabs. The video we have of our abduction:

And still pictures can be seen here and here.

After the US government (under the Yolk of the Israel lobby) cut funding for UNESCO, people of the world and other governments should step up to the plate and donate to this institution. You can do so here.

Some of us scheduled to go on the boats to Gaza* but were not permitted to get on the boat are now visiting Egypt post-revolution. On of us was held at the Cairo airport for nearly 8 hours making us think that change still has along way to go here. Please let us know if you have Egyptian contacts we can connect with especially those who can brief us on the changes in the society post-Mubarak. The Israeli occupation authorities did this last July with the Europeans trying to visit us in the West Bank (through arriving at airport in the Welcome to Palestine Campaign) and before that in blocking freedom flotillas and murdering peace activists like Rachel Corrie and like Turkish visitors. The incident is uncomfortable for Israel because it exposes an apartheid system built on racism and violence. The best evidence of this is to compare the peaceful nature of those of us who tried or did get on the boats with the vicious verbal attack (preluding the actual navy attacks) on the flotilla ships. Here are things to contrast:

Call from Palestinians in Gaza to the international community.

Amy Goodman interviews activists aboard the boats [Link.]

Contrast those with comments posted on a misleading Jerusalem Post article (misleading because the siege is illegal and the Zionist Palmar had no authority or mandate to rule on its legality). The UN Human Rights Council and International Legal experts all ruled the siege is illegal. But I think the comments on the story from Israelis is telling in terms of the sentiment of the privileged class in the apartheid regime.

But again our job is to shed a lot of light and noise about these issues and to help a captive population begging us to help. Please act by contacting media and politicians. Also if you know anyone who can help us get into Gaza via Rafah, please write to me.

According to a British report Israel is upgrading its nuclear weapons. According to Israeli papers is seriously considering an attack on Iran. Put it together and it is not another Zionist driven regional or world conflict but a catastrophe beyond imagination. The ghetto mentality visible from reading the comments in the Jerusalem Post or other Israeli papers show a deeply schizophrenic and paranoid psychology that is extremely dangerous: Zionists think that they can get away with the large scale ethnic cleansing of Palestine (war crimes and crimes against humanity) by creating perpetual conflict and scaring Jews to always be afraid of gentiles (what they refer to as ‘goyim’). The rest of the world and especially Western countries need to understand this and treat Israel as the rogue apartheid state it is.

US citizens should not let more of this kind of charade goer on:

Action: As of October 28, 2011, the total number of Palestinian organizations participating in the GMJ is close to fifty, including 15 in Palestine, 14 in Jordan, approximately 20 in Lebanon and some from other countries. The main list is here and a separate list for the autonomous North American GMJ group is here.
and also join us in the Welcome to Palestine Campaign And April 15-21.

Stay human.

See my earlier blog from Turkey point of boat departure here.

You’re Also Right

Sagi Melamed

There is a well-known story about a rabbi who was called upon to settle a dispute between two of his followers.  The first man poured out his complaints to the rabbi, and when he finished, the rabbi said, “You’re right.”  Then it was the second one’s turn.  When he finished, the rabbi said, “You’re also right.”  The rabbi’s wife, who had been listening to the conversation, said incredulously to her husband, “What do you mean, ‘You’re also right’? They can’t both be right!”  The rabbi thought for a few moments, and then replied, “You know, my dear, you’re also right.”

If an alien were to land in our general vicinity, his response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would probably be like that of the rabbi in the story: You’re both right.

The Palestinian people are right when they expect and demand independence.  The Palestinian father is right to long for a life in which he can sleep safe at home without fearing a midnight pounding on his door.  The Palestinian woman is right to want to go from place to place without having to go through security checkpoints or risk arrest.

The Jewish people were also right when they returned to their homeland after a 2,000 year exile, establishing their own national home.  Jews are right to fear hatred and persecution, right to believe that only by relying on their own resources, can they prevent the nightmare of another Holocaust.  Jews are right to state that they entitled to all they have achieved through their own efforts.  The Jewish people are correct when they point out that the world has totally unreasonable expectations of them, expectations that are never imposed on any other people.  And they are also right to fear that if they give away some of their land today, then tomorrow the Palestinians might demand it all.

Friends and neighbors may say, “Why do you, the grandson of a refugee from Germany, offspring of kibbutz founders, army officer, and member of a religious community in the Galilee, feel the need to justify the position of our enemies?”  I reply, “I don’t have to justify anything, but I do have to understand.”  It is not hard to find untruths, gross exaggerations and significant holes in the Palestinian version of the conflict.  But even the most extreme among us cannot deny that Palestinians lack freedom, live in very difficult conditions, declare themselves to be a people and are hungry for independence.

In the 90s I believed, along with many others, that we could find a way to live side-by-side.  We had the feeling that it was beginning to happen, that it would come to pass soon.  I remember that I was even somewhat concerned, during my MA studies in Boston, that peace would break out before I could return to Israel.  What would we only give to be able to have such concerns nowadays! 

The speeches of Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly might have been the last nails in the coffin of the dream of living side-by-side – if not actually in peace, then at least living without war.  But this does not seem possible any time in the foreseeable future.  Both speeches focused on why I am right/fearful/angry/threatened and why the other side is threatening/thieving/untrustworthy.  From their own perspectives, they were both right.  And with “right” like that, who needs “wrong”?

Sagi Melamed lives with his family in the community of Hoshaya in the Galilee.  He serves as Vice President of External Affairs at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, and as Chief Instructor (4^th Dan) of the Hoshaya Karate Club.  Sagi received his Masters degree from Harvard University in Middle Eastern Studies with a specialty in Conflict Resolution. He can be contacted at: melamed.sagi@gmail.com. 

September 2011

UNESCO voted to admit Palestine to full membership despite the threats and bribes of the Israeli-occupied US policy. It is clear now that the US/Israeli government (is one or two?) stand isolated in one corner and the people of the world are rising up. Some EU Member countries voted in favor (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia, Spain) whilst most of the others abstained. US, Canada, Holland, Germany voted against. Please write to your governments and to the media and give them feedback. The UN released yet another report detailing the humanitarian effect of the illegal siege of Gaza, available in several languages.

It is ironic that this happened around October 29, a day with meaning for us. It was on this day in 1948 that the massacre at Al-Duwayima Village happened (one of over 40 massacres used to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Palestine). The testimony of an Israeli soldier who participated was quoted in Davar, 9 June 1979 (a Hebrew-language daily newspaper published in the Mandate Palestine and Israel between 1925 and 1996): “Killed between 80 to 100 Arabs, women and children. To kill the children they fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one house without corpses. The men and women of the villages were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite the houses. One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a house he was about to blow up. Another soldier
prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman with her newborn baby was made to clean the place for a couple of days, and then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered ‘good guys’became base murderers, and this not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remain, the better.”

The date also happens to be the date of tripartite aggression on Egypt in 1956. President Eisenhower showed US leadership then by standing up to Israel. No other president has been willing to do that since then (although some would say that President Kennedy did for a while but was then assassinated ending those efforts to curtail Israel’s nuclear weapons development).

Join us in Palestine in December, and the Global March to Jerusalem on March 30, 2012 (GMJ).