Protest: Israeli ambassador in NUI Galway Wednesday evening.

by TD - IPSC Mon Oct 02, 2006 18:58

Tomorrow evening/Tuesday evening is of course Wednesday evening.

Anyone out there that does brain transplants as I'm in sore need of one?.

by PaddyK Mon Oct 02, 2006 19:39

Its the Law Society that invited him.

Of all Societies...LAW....... I'm stunned.

http://www.socs.nuigalway.ie/list_socs/viewSoc.php?id=55

Here's their email :

[email protected]

Ask them what the hell they are thinking, inviting the Ambassador from Israel , a leading violator of international law, to speak in one of our educational institutions. The country that makes up one set of laws for one group and another set for their inferior group of citizens. The ambassador from the country that diligently works every day on perfecting Apartheid.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook06142006.html

"Close to the end of the line, he walks over to the driver, levels his automatic rifle against the man's head and pumps him with bullets. He turns and empties the rest of the magazine -- one of 14 in his backpack -- into the passenger behind the driver and two young women sitting across the gangway..........As bystanders in the street outside look on in horror, our gunman then reloads his weapon and sprays the bus with yet more fire, injuring 20 people. He approaches a woman huddled beneath a seat, trying to hide from him, lowers the gun to her head and pulls the trigger. ..........A ministerial committee ruled that, because Zada was a serving soldier, his attack could not be considered a terrorist incident. Apparently only Arabs can be terrorists. "

by Fred Johnston Mon Oct 02, 2006 20:24

I don't know why everyone is so surprised. NUI Galway is a conservative organisation, very frightened by notions of protest or anti-Establishmentism. This has been the case for years. And who is going to find a career in the Law Library who has shown Leftist or anti-consensus leanings in their university days? It would be good to see NUI Galway academics - never mind students - taking a stand on this, as several did to sign the Irish Times petition of a couple of weeks ago.

by seward Mon Oct 02, 2006 23:32

The unmitigated nerve to let the Israeli Ambassador speak!! Why should we be told about the countless homicide bombings that have killed and maimed thousands of Israeli citizens. Who needs to hear about the daily firng of rockets into pre-1967 Israel from Gaza. Note: this is well after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Why do we need to hear about the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. Note: Israel did not occupy a single inch of Lebanon at the time -check the UN to verify. Why should we hear about tsrael's struggle to survive in their small democratic state in a sea of dictatorships. The nerve of this group to invite this Jew!!

by PaddyK Tue Oct 03, 2006 00:16

I have no idea what the Israeli Ambassador's religious or cultural background is , nor do I care.

It's not the speaking that bothers me - Hell, if you're going to invite him he may as well speak.

Its the invitation that is mind boggling.

Unless, these trainee solicitors are going to tear strips off him, for parctice, if he tries to portray Israeli society as some kind of democratic model. OR.. Perhaps the Ambassador is coming to apologise to the Palestinians for the nightmare that Israeli law has visited upon the Israeli Arabs. Or to cry for international assistance for the beleagured and terrorised people of the Gaza strip and West Bank. To help protect these poor people from the ravages of a disillusioned and hateful military which takes its frustration out on the captive population of men, women and children, on a daily basis.

Yes, perhaps this diplomat or "Jew" as you insist on referring to him, is coming to make peace with his Palestinian Arab neighbours and he needs the assistance of Irish legal academia to present his plea in a neutral forum. Oooh, I feel warm and fuzzy.

Or perhaps not.

by PaddyK Tue Oct 03, 2006 02:28

The Law Society of National University Galway is having the Israeli Ambassador down for a chat .

I suggest he takes the opportunity to apologise on behalf of the facist Israeli regime for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. Israel has made itself the administrator over this system of modern torture. We call it occupation and siege, they call it Security. We call it ethnic cleansing , they call it security.
They call it genocide, Israel calls it justice.

Let the Israeli Ambassador explain what we dont understand about international war crimes and crimes against humanity, that's the job.

http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/nat_5.html

Break all diplomatic ties with Israel until Hamas Government is recognised as the Palestinian negotiator.

Send a clear message and expel the Israeli Ambassador .

by let him speak Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:45

Or to cry for international assistance for the beleagured and terrorised people of the Gaza strip

last i heard Israel withdrew from the strip with the promise from the palestinians that they would not attack from gaza and they would maintain law and order.

the strip is a mess,they cant even control the strip, rockets rained on Israel from the strip less than 2 hrs after Israel withdrew

counterpunch...rofl, shame everything they spew is bias and bullshit

israel has had to go back into the strip as the palastinians are incapable of control or enforcing law and order on the strip

maybe he can comment on hamas and the plo blowing each other away on a regular basis, if there is no Israeli in site they just start shooting each other

classy

by the right call Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:03

he should tell us the horror of seeing the palestinian people starve because their leadership is one of the most corrupt on earth and steals the billions donated to it from its biggest donor --the USA

how the so called palestinian leadership does not pay wages to its people but instead shuffles the money into swiss bank accounts for personal use by corrupt shisters

he might even enlighten you as to why the USA has donated more aid to the palestinians than ALL of the arab nations combined

he may explain why nasrallah is again talking of war(just as the israelis withdraw and hand over to the incumbant peace force)as nasrallah talks of wiping Israel off the map...ohh hold on this guy was resisting wasnt he? whats he talking about destroying Israel offensively for?

he may even tell you about how effective the wall is against suicide bombers intent on maiming and killing innocent civilians!

he may even tell you why nobody will recognise hamas, a group which primary objective is the destruction of Israel, followed by the creation of a sharia law based islamic state(listed in its founding charter)

all in all it will be an eyeopener for the illeducated amongst you, the counterbull fans and all the rest

welcome to the real world

by israeli haters Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:38

more than likely he will talk about his textbook on Human Rights in International Relations which is to be published by Open University Press

I would expect the Israel bashers to spout rubbish about an extremely well educated and honest man, no surprise to see people commenting who have no idea who the guy actually is or why he is lecturing at a law society

but hey ignorance is bliss

by israeli haters Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:40

link to his work

http://www-e.openu.ac.il/courses/10535.htm

by nice speech Tue Oct 03, 2006 13:13

from JUNE 2001

Israel has the Right to Defend its Citizens
By Zion Evrony
Since fall, Israel's citizens have been exposed to a particularly virulent wave of terrorism to which Israel has been forced to react. Every state has the obligation to protect the life and liberty of its citizens. That right to self-defense is a foundation of international law and is enshrined in the United Nations charter.

Although there has been a loss of life on both sides, there is absolutely no equivalence between the actions of Palestinian terrorists and the reaction of Israel, the target of their violence. The dissimilarity between the two can be clearly demonstrated by examining the overall motivation behind each side's actions.

Israel seeks to end the violence in order to enable the negotiation of a mutually acceptable solution. By comparison, the Palestinians have decided to employ violence as a means of promoting a unilateral solution.

Regrettably, both Palestinian and Israeli children have suffered injury in recent months. But here again, a basic distinction exists between the two. In most cases, the injury of Palestinian children results from their participation in violent confrontations against Israeli forces. Palestinian gunmen often hide behind young stone throwers, using them as human shields.

For the past few years, the Israeli army hasn't been deployed in Palestinian-populated areas. For children to initiate clashes with the Israeli soldiers, they must walk, or in some cases are bused, to within "a stone's throw" of Israeli units on the out-skirts of town.

Yes, some Palestinian children killed in the violence are totally innocent. But in each of those cases, the children never were the intended target of Israeli actions. For example, 5-month-old Iman Haju was unintentionally killed in Israeli return fire, which was directed at positions used by a Palestinian mortar crew to bombard an Israeli community a few minutes before.

Those terrorists deliberately locate their mortars within schoolyards and other civilian areas, hoping not only to injure Israeli citizens with their bombs but also to injure Israel's public image, when it is forced to respond. Collateral civilian casualties are a deeply regrettable, but often unavoidable, consequence of all armed confrontations.

By contrast, Israeli children have been shot by the terrorists when driving with their parents on the open road or maimed by suicide bombers while shopping in the neighborhood mall or even riding on public buses.

Just several days ago, two 13-year-old Israeli boys were brutally stoned to death and their bodies mutilated by terrorists as they were hiking in a riverbed close to their home. The deaths weren't cases of unintentional civilian casualties. The boys, and other Israeli children, were killed because they were targeted by their Palestinian persecutors.

The heinous actions of Palestinian terrorists don't come in a vacuum. In recent months, the Palestinian Authority has been orchestrating a campaign of hate and incitement through its official newspapers, TV and radio stations. Palestinian Authority spokesmen have praised violence and confrontation, the Palestinian Authority has freed known terrorists from detention, and Palestinian police and security men have joined in the attacks with impunity.

Israelis are asking: What are the Palestinians seeking to achieve? Israel, on the other hand, seeks only to protect its citizens and end the violence in order to return to negotiations and reach a mutually acceptable settlement for both peoples.

PaddyK, as a guy who actually has BEEN to Israel and IS Israeli

He may be able to tell you a few home truths

PaddyK, you should go to the territories and see all this for yourself

by PaddyK Tue Oct 03, 2006 17:41

Gaza did not belong to Israel to give back: you cant give back a stolen car and then expect your victim to lavish gifts on you, "Oh here, you can have my TV for being such a stand up guy and giving me back my car."
Those Israeli immigrant were moved from one part of Occupied Palestine and compensated to illegally occupy another part of Palestine all at the expense of the Indigenous Palestinian population, who are being pushed into little pockets isolated behind fences and in the shadow of an illegal apartheid wall, lands livelihoods and houses Stolen in broad daylight.

But if that was all that would not be so bad by the usual low standards set by israel in dealing with the indigenous population. The low level warfare that has been instigated since day one has been the most urgent atrocity. Sealed up in a 7km wide 40km wide Gaza prison of fences and fired at daily with bullets and shells. Criss crossed by Spy drones, Jets, Helicopters all firing at will, killing liberally men, women and children.
The elected government spurned and then kidnapped. 21 of them held hostage while they should be trying to stabilise society for their people. These people starved in an open air concentration camp, without hope. Rightful tax monies illegally held as a collective punishment, against common families. Utterly illegal and outrageous international embargo on funding to these people by the entire international community in an effort to get them to overturn the outcome of completely democratic elections.
And what does NUI Galway do? Invites Israeli delegates to lecture them in law.

Now we see Anti-Palestinian robots on here sneering at the hopeless man-made hell that slowly degenerates into street fighting between political factions in Palestine. Violence that threatens to tear apart the last shreds of resolve held by these desparate people. Ireland having experienced the horror of civil war must whince at the antics of those who laugh at the captive women and children in the middle of a potential bloodbath. Such snivelling warmongers are beneath revulsion. This was all planned and instigated by Israel with the full backing of the US and is slowly coming to fruition.

Let the Israeli Ambassador admit that much.

So Now we have a 5 year old speech by this Ambassador for Apartheid, who is shortly to lecture the aspiring lawyers of this country, posted here as proof of the terrorist credentials of every man woman and child unfortunate enough to have found themsleves living under Israeli Martial Law. Well that speech is a sham and it highlights perfectly the insult to international law and Ireland's failings in its humanitarian obligations to the Palestinian people. Those boys who were murdered were brought to the Palestinian territories by a government policy that puts its poorest citizens in the firing line. Sends them out to illegally occupied Palestine where they are perceived by militant radicals as legitimate targets of the occupation. Why weren't they properly housed behind the Green Line in the safety of Israel, protected behind a security barrier erected on Israeli soil. Why? Because Israel's painful attention to it's children is a bloody myth propogated for nearly a century. Israel wants its pawns out there, slowly stealing land, expelling, killing Arab farmers. When there is a counter atrocity in comes the army and levels a load of houses, punishes a village, kidnaps the men. And so slowly continues the expansion.

Some clown tells me to go to Palestine to see this slow ethnic cleansing for myself? Well perhaps I would, except under the current accelerated ethnic cleansing policy its next to impossible for even a Palestinian to get into Palestine. If they leave, they may never see their homes and families again. Not unless they are prepared to take them out of Palestine also, in which case they must say goodbye to their heritage which will be swallowed up forever.

It is well documented that Israeli citizens have been in a majority in favour of negotiating with the Palestinians to get a peaceful solution but they are powerless within Israel to make that a policy. They need external help, an embargo against all things Israeli, until their regime in power have no choice but to capitulate.

The NUI Galway law society appears to not give a toss about these ethics, but when did that ever bother a solicitor?

by loving it all Tue Oct 03, 2006 18:09

Gaza did not belong to Israel to give back: you cant give back a stolen car and then expect your victim to lavish gifts on you, "Oh here, you can have my TV for being such a stand up guy and giving me back my car."

On that explanation you are effectively saying that whatever Israel give back, the palestinians can then attack the State Of Israel from this new position, this of course is after they assure Israel that they will govern the area effectively and make sure that there are no attacks from that area.(which is what they did with gaza)

this sums up quite nicely why Israel will not trust these dodgy people, they simply cannot be trusted, their leaders steal from their own citizens with impunity, and they are brazen faced liars that cannot keep a deal

by paddyfinallylosesit Tue Oct 03, 2006 18:21

Now we see Anti-Palestinian robots on here sneering at the hopeless man-made hell that slowly degenerates into street fighting between political factions in Palestine.. This was all planned and instigated by Israel with the full backing of the US and is slowly coming to fruition.

\indeed Israel and the bad old USA planned a hamas government and a PLO demise, yes ahh yes they planned the street fighting in the areas that the Palestinians control

its all their fault!!!! really...truly......

get a grip

by BK Tue Oct 03, 2006 20:43

http://www.israellawcenter.org/article.php?id=120

Experience a dynamic and intensive eight day exploration of Israel's struggle for survival and security in the Middle East today.

# Briefings by Mossad officials and Shin Bet commanders.

# Briefing by officers in the IDF Intelligence and Operations branches.

# Inside tour of the IAF unit who carries out targeted killings.

# Live exhibition of penetration raids in Arab territory.

# Observe a trial of Hamas terrorists in an IDF military court.

# First hand tours of the Lebanese front-line military positions and the Gaza border check-points.

# Inside tour of the controversial Security Fence and secret intelligence bases.

# Meeting Israel's Arab agents who infiltrate the terrorist groups and provide real-time intelligence.

# Briefing by Israel's war heros who saved the country.

# Meetings with senior Cabinet Ministers and other key policymakers.

# Small airplane tour of the Galilee, Jeep rides in the Golan hights, water activities on Lake Kinneret, a cook-out barbecue and a Shabbat enjoying the rich religious and historic wonders of Jerusalem's Old City.

All of this brought to you by...the Israeli Law Center.

by avi15 Tue Oct 03, 2006 23:40

Those on the left bashing Israel love to pretend that the link between Israel and the Jewish people is merely accidental. Sadly, this flies in the face of all the evidence, as Israel is the world's only Jewish state, approved in 1948 BY THE UN as a safe haven for holocaust survivors. Why didn't the holocaust survivors go back to their original homes in Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Germany, etc.? You ask. Because they were murdered, when they attempted to do this, as their nice non-Jewish former neighbours had stolen their homes and businesses and didn't want them back. Why didn't they go somewhere else, then, other than Israel? Because a) they were traumatized by the experience of the Nazi death camps and could only cope psychologically with living among other Jews and b) because nowhere else would have them in significant numbers, apart from the US. To pretend that Israel means nothing to Jews, then, is wilful ignorance and sheer prejudice; and to rant against Israel is deeply offensive to 99% of Jews. It is even more offensive to deploy Nazi comparisons and to use the same arguments used against Jews by Nazis and other anti-semites down through the ages, only this time against Israel. This also applies to tactics like boycotting, which the Nazis first used to great effect against German Jews, before sacking and burning their homes, businesses and synagogues and then finally driving them into gas chambers.

Ireland, take a good, hard look at the direction the Pal Solidarity crowd are leading you in. These people are bigots.

by Totti - Comunisti Wed Oct 04, 2006 01:29

All your moralistic swadroning can't hide the fact that Israel is committing a genocide on the palestinian people. I am sick and tired of people like you justifying israeli war crimes and their disregard of international and humanitarian law by instrumentalising the holocaust and their survivors.

Here is what David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff, once said:

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.". David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff

If that's not racist and fascist, what is it?

by PaddyK Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:21

A recent report from Defense for Children International/Palestine Section highlight tragic fears that this year will be the most deadly since 1967 for the Children of Palestine.

Operation "Summer Rain", an Israeli military bombardment of Gazan civil society, continues to collectively punish the Palestinian society by targetting their families. Collective punishment, under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, are a war crime.

"The press release said that Israel has continued its systematic practices in violation of its international human rights and/or humanitarian law obligations throughout the occupied Palestinian territories such as extra judicial executions, resulting in the killing of child bystanders, employment of disproportionate force against children as well as arrest of hundreds of children without the most basic due process guarantees.

The report also highlights Israel's historic practice of engineering it's laws to protect it's human rights violators at the expense of the victims.

"Furthermore, the culture of impunity through governmental inaction to launch appropriately constituted criminal investigations for unlawful conduct by Israeli military/security personnel has been further bolstered by the amendment of the 1952 Israeli Civil Wrongs (Liability of the State Law which prevents Palestinians from seeking civil compensation for damages to life and property, the press release said."

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/061003/200610....html

The Honourable Ambassador will no doubt be addressing the contents of this report when he attends NUI Galway to lecture the Law Society.

by Shipsea Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:24

From Deutoronomy 2

When you approach the frontier of the Ammonites, do not harass them or engage them in battle, for I will not give the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot.’ (It also is usually reckoned as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly inhabited it, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, a strong and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place. He did the same for the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, by destroying the Horim before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their place even to this day. As for the Avvim, who had lived in settlements in the vicinity of Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) ‘Proceed on your journey and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I have handed over to you King Sihon the Amorite of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession by engaging him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven; when they hear report of you, they will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following terms of peace: ‘If you let me pass through your land, I will travel only along the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money, so that I may eat, and supply me water for money, so that I may drink. Only allow me to pass through on foot— just as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir have done for me and likewise the Moabites who live in Ar—until I cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us.’ But King Sihon of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass through, for the Lord your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart defiant in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.

The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to take possession of his land.’ So when Sihon came out against us, he and all his people for battle at Jahaz, the Lord our God gave him over to us; and we struck him down, along with his offspring and all his people. At that time we captured all his towns, and in each town we utterly destroyed men, women, and children. We left not a single survivor. Only the livestock we kept as spoil for ourselves, as well as the plunder of the towns that we had captured. From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon (including the town that is in the wadi itself) as far as Gilead, there was no citadel too high for us. The Lord our God gave everything to us. You did not encroach, however, on the land of the Ammonites, avoiding the whole upper region of the Wadi Jabbok as well as the towns of the hill country, just as* the Lord our God had charged.

by PaddyK Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:48

That's THIS evening by the way , in case anyone is interested.

by avi15 Wed Oct 04, 2006 13:06

99% of the allegations made against Israel are either false or taken out of context. This is what anti-semites do: they lie and they pull in the gullible and the ignorant. There are any number of mistranslated, exaggerated or fabricated misquotes about Israel. Those who use these things never use the same technique against the Palestinians., where actually it isn't necessary, because the evidence shows that they really do just want to kill Jews and destroy their country.

The argument for Israel is complicated. The arguments used to justify Arab terrorism are simple. Since a complicated argument requires effort and patience to understand, the lazy and impatient - and I might add, antisemitic - won't be able to follow it. I never have any problem at all in defeating a pro-Palestinian speaker on the merits of the arguments in a truly free debate. That is when they usually resort to threats of personal violence: i.e. they can't think of anything else; which of course speaks volumes.

Fundamentally, like all totalitarian, racist positions, the Pro-Palestinian cause masquerades as democratic, adopting the discourse of democracy and freedom; but actually, it is simply a regression to good old fashioned tyranny. Hence, its anti-intellectual nature.

by PaddyK Wed Oct 04, 2006 14:53

"The argument for Israel is complicated."

I presume that is why you didn't actually manage to make one or any part thereof.

The Internet is littered with inconsequential interjections along the lines of your "false allegation" claim. The Anti-Palestinian argument is almost entirely made up of shouting "lies, lies, lies". Its been going on for decades and it has worked to a large extent because it has the backing of the international community. Its not that the World cant believe that the Palestinians are suffering grave injustices, this is a historical fact. The international community just turns a blind eye and allows Israel and America to brow beat them into submission.
Those who wont leave it at that get the second part of the historically tested defense for Israel's atrocities against the Palestinian indigenous, that is to shout "Anti-Semite".

So that’s it! That’s the argument: "Lies lies lies...You Anti-Semite"

Amazingly simple and crude but so far highly effective. It’s a double-edged blunt sword. No one wants to get caught out making a false argument that might affect the well being of the Jews, so many people who are deeply shocked at the plight of the Palestinians simply don’t try.

So no, the argument for Israel’s actions is not complicated. It puerile, as it does not even attempt to broach a single relevant issue, but it has proven itself effective.
What is complicated however is the manner in which ongoing Anti-Palestinian rhetoric stitches the past the present and pure propaganda into a very complex maze of insinuation. So that every current event, such as the ongoing siege of Gaza or the bombardment of Lebanon, can be linked through an intractable mess of implications to the bottom rung on this descending ladder of racism. That is the connecting of Israel’s breaches of human rights laws in its treatment of the Occupied Palestinians to Israel's right to exist. This destructive form of debate is so commonplace as to continually find it's way even into the tabloid press in an absurd five-line bulletin. It's pure poison and it is being used to wipe out the Human rights of the Indigenous Palestinian population.

This bitter tactic is not being deployed by average Israelis, who continually have been polled as being in favour of a properly negotiated settlement with the chosen Palestinian representatives, many of which have been either murdered or kidnapped, but it is the effective tool of those who see an opportunity to use the cultural identity of the Israeli Jews as a political weapon. This is not a new phenomenon, trying to link the Jewish community with unpopular actions so as to deflect the anger from the true perpetrators.

The most thoroughly despicable act implemented against the Palestinians recently is the economic siege deployed as a collective punishment for their rightful democratic election of a Hamas led government to office. Implemented by Israel and sanctioned by all western countries, it is the absolute proof that the War for Democracy in the Middle East is a complete sham and a disgrace.
The person who will link this to Israel's right to Exist is the one you will find permanently standing on the bottom rung of the racist ladder, absolutely opposed to negotiating with the Palestinians for a just peace out of pure Anti-Palestinian bitterness.

I hope for the Law Students of NUI that that is not where they find the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland standing tonight.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18939

by PaddyK Wed Oct 04, 2006 19:37

Some robot said:

"PaddyK, as a guy who actually has BEEN to Israel and IS Israeli

He may be able to tell you a few home truths

PaddyK, you should go to the territories and see all this for yourself "

The Anti-Palestinian Robots are right, I've never been to Palestine.
Dont take my word for it, I could be brainwashed. Better that we hear from someone who knows what she is talking about:

Tanya Reinhart is Professor Emeritus of linguistics and media studies at Tel Aviv University and, from January 2007, a Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. She has had a regular column in the largest Israeli daily, Yediot Aharonot, is the author of Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, and contributes regularly to Counterpunch and Zmag.

"In the present political atmosphere in the US and Europe, anybody who expresses criticism of Israel’s policies is immediately silenced as an anti-Semite. Part of the reason why the pro-Israel lobbies have been so successful in their use of this accusation is the massive lack of knowledge about what is really happening in Israel-Palestine. Without the facts, the dominant narrative remains that Israel is struggling to defend its very existence. Attention focuses mainly on the horrible, despicable Palestinian terror; hence critics of Israel are often accused of justifying terror. "

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2...11117

by Susan Abulhawa Wed Oct 04, 2006 20:33

The apartheid government of South Africa came to power in 1948, the same year that the State of Israel was created in Palestine. Having lived and witnessed the legacy of Zionism, I wonder sometimes if this shared birth year was not an accidental prophecy.

Both governments were born on the miserable premise of entitlement for a select group of people. This entitlement, to land rights and resources, spawned laws and societies that measured human worth by human irrelevancies. In the case of South Africa, it was skin color. In the case of Israel, it is religion. In both lands, the privilege accorded to the chosen group came at the expense and detriment of the natives--the 'un-chosen.'

As if we were children of a lesser God, we were uprooted from our ancestral homes and piled like garbage into wretched refugee camps or exiled into drifting oblivion. As if they were not quite human, black souls of South Africa were dumped in abject ghettos. In the Holy Land, where religion has no physical features, everyone carries color-coded ID cards and drives cars with color-coded plates. That is how oppression discriminates there.

During the gist of Apartheid's cruelty, Nobel Laureate and Archbishop Desmund Tutu went to the land of my mothers. He stood in Jerusalem on Christmas Day of 1989 and said before an audience "I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa."

Last month, Desmund Tutu gave a lecture in Boston, where he affirmed Israel's right to security, but added "What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it does to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very distressed during my visits to the Holy Land; it reminds me so much of what happened to us, black people, in South Africa during the apartheid rule."

Many have long pointed to the tragic parallels between Israel and Apartheid South Africa where one people cruelly control the lives and fate of another. In Hebron, where 600 Uzi-toting Jewish settlers live among 240,000 Palestinians, 85% of the water is diverted to the few Jewish settlers. The remainder is rationed among Palestinians. The reality is a cruel contrast between a people with swimming pools amidst green lawns and a people who must share bathing water.

The shared values of Zionism and Apartheid spurred the nostalgic reflection in Henry Katzew's book, South Africa: A Country Without Friends, in which he said: "What is the difference between the way in which the Jewish people struggles to remain what it is in the midst of a non-Jewish population, and the way the Afrikaners try to stay what they are?" (Die Transvaler, quoted by R. Stevens in Zionism, South Africa and Apartheid.)

Most people no longer recall that Israel remained a close ally with South Africa when the world embarked on a global boycott against it. Few remember that the weapons used to mow down young boys in Soweto were supplied by the State of Israel.

And long after the injustice of Apartheid fell to its knees, Ehud Barak made an offer for a Palestinian State in the style of apartheid's bantustans. He was widely hailed as "brave" and his offer as "far reaching." But to those of us who saw the map or witnessed the reality, the "97% concession" was clearly apartheid, cleverly repackaged and renamed. His offer was a patchwork of isolated islands hemmed on all fronts by Jewish-only settlements and Jewish-only roads.

Author Breyten Breytenbach was dispatched in March to the occupied territories as part of a delegation from the International Parliament of Writers. Upon his return he wrote:

"I recently visited the occupied territories for the first time. And yes, I'm afraid they can reasonably be described as resembling Bantustans, reminiscent of the ghettoes and controlled camps of misery one knew in South Africa."

Breytenbach, too, is familiar with apartheid. He spent seven years in prison under the "Terrorism Act" in South Africa-the same act under which Mandela was imprisoned.

Yet a brutal Israeli occupation endures long after apartheid collapsed and it builds tall barriers throughout the land, long after the world understood the wickedness of the Berlin Wall.

Israel's ironic denial of Palestine's right to life (repeated again this month by its ruling party) spurs the hearts that fought apartheid like few others.

In an open letter to Ariel Sharon Breyten wrote: "there can be no peace through the annihilation of the other, just as there is no paradise for the 'martyr' you have not broken the spirit of the Palestinian people."

Desmund Tutu uttered the questions that baffle us all. "My heart aches," he said. "Why are our memories so short? Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolition, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?"

It makes my heart ache, too. The anger and helplessness I felt in Jenin and Ramallah subside now to a constant ache. But I keep looking to the final similarity between Zionism and Apartheid. The fruition of that accidental prophecy. The time when the subjugation of my people will end. When the institution of religious exclusivity will crumble in Palestine and Israel like apartheid did in South Africa.

by no arguement Thu Oct 05, 2006 13:09

Attention focuses mainly on the horrible, despicable Palestinian terror

I certainly would not disagree with that sentence because its totally true

it is terror
it is despicable
it is horrible

Well done paddy

by give it up Thu Oct 05, 2006 13:34

Susan Abulhawa is a palestinian that publishes works of fiction not fact. Perhaps you can show more of her work paddy and show the bias she spews forth as most of her articles literally spew bias, another pallywood production. Like most pallywood inventors she refuses to recognise the palestinian leaderships massive faults, corruption being a tiny one for starters

The only good work she does is playgrounds for children.

by PaddyK Thu Oct 05, 2006 14:33

Dear AH.

For your information I did not post that piece by that Palestinian woman.

And the Newly elected and kidnapped Hamas Goovernment is not corrupt. It is anything but.
They were elected on the basis that they were anything but corrupt. If you want to make such stupid allegations then I suggest you bugger off and get some iota of evidence to back your wretched claims.

These people have been kidnapped and are being held hostage as we speak by Israel.

by armsneedcash Thu Oct 05, 2006 19:52

And the Newly elected and kidnapped Hamas Goovernment is not corrupt. It is anything but.
They were elected on the basis that they were anything but corrupt. If you want to make such stupid allegations then I suggest you bugger off and get some iota of evidence to back your wretched claims.

People said the same thing about the PLO...snigger

but yaknow i heard something once...

power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts absolutely

HAMAS are no exception

quick logical question

HAMAS get some aid monies, now are HAMAS gonna spent the cash on ARMS or on PEOPLE?

What do you think? yehhh i thought so.....its a pretty obvious one really