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[arjuna]

By Jeff Halper

http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/01/24/power-to-the-palestinian-people/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TocjkugWEEc

The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own �moderate� political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking a siege imposed on them by an Arab government in collaboration with Israel.

We, the peoples of the world, should take great pride and encouragement in this quintessentially civil society refusal to accept subjugation, to abandon their fate to governments, including their own, for whom the lives of ordinary people are simply grist for their political charades - Annapolis and its subsequent �peace process� being but the last cynical expression. For the Palestinians represent far more than just themselves. Their refusal to submit to the dictates of governments, or to governments� lack of interest in the well-being of people in general, reflects the desire of billions of oppressed people for identity, freedom, a decent life and actualization of their collective and individual rights and potentials. Most of the oppressed, the �wretched of the earth� as Franz Fanon called them a half-century ago, are too preoccupied with the daunting daily struggle for survival to organize and resist. Others do resist in a myriad of ways, but are most often repressed by their own political and economic �leaders,� disappearing anonymously from view. In a few cases they have managed to mount effective resistance to oppression, even to prevail - though the billions spent on �counterinsurgency� warfare by the US, Europe, Russia, Israel and many �developing� nations augur ill for peoples attempting to overthrow oppressive regimes.

In this the Palestinians stand at the forefront, in the front lines of peoples� insistence everywhere that their rights, well-being and fundamental values as human beings be respected by governments. And they do so (and I write this as an Israeli with great sorrow and shame) against one of the world�s strongest and most ruthless military powers - a power that has dispossessed them from 85% of their land, which is trying to transform its occupation into a permanent regime of apartheid, which has spent decades impoverishing and disenfranchising them; the fourth largest nuclear power which nevertheless casts itself as the victim. Not only have the Palestinians experienced the dehumanization all oppressed and colonized peoples experience, not only have they been made into the embodiment of the rich and powerful�s greatest fear, evil �terrorists� who may tear down their privileged �civilization,� but they have been turned into guinea pigs. Israel is able to gain an edge in the counterinsurgency industry and win entree into the heart of the American military/hi tech complex by turning the Occupied Territories into a laboratory for the development of fiendish weaponry and tactics intended for use against people.

And yet the Palestinian people - and in particular those who remain sumud, steadfast, in Palestine - continue not only to resist but to surprise and confound its would-be Israeli master at every turn. Despite unlimited control, a complete monopoly over the use of force, utter callousness and a vaunted Shin Beit, Israel�s military intelligence, Palestinians vote as they want, resist, carry on their daily lives with dignity - and blow huge holes in the walls and policies constructed in order to imprison and defeat them.

All this is not on the minds of those desperate people who surged into Egypt today. They may not have the �Big Picture.� Yet they deserve the respect and gratefulness of every person who cherishes a better world based on human rights and dignity, a world that is inclusive. As an Israeli Jew, I have been saddened and mortified that my own people, after all they have experienced, cannot see what they are doing to others. But on a larger scale, not as an Israeli Jew but as a human being, I take heart in the Palestinians� active refusal to be ground under a global system that is producing unimaginable wealth and power for a few at the expense of the growing ranks of the wretched.

I am not a Palestinian; I am not one of the oppressed. I only hope I can use my privilege in an effective way in order to redeem the gift the people of Gaza have given all of us: the realization that the people do have power and can prevail even in the face of overwhelming power. We may each express our responsibility towards the people of Gaza in whatever way most suits us, but as the privileged we must do something. We owe the Palestinians and the Palestinians writ large at least that.

(Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - ICAHD).

[yawarakaijin]

Must be one of those self-loathing jews we keep hearing about.

[pesawattahi]

Anyone else notice the daylight beaming in from behind these curtains? Note: Don't forget to read the caption.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1706384_1522984,00.html

[thepeel]

[sundubuman]

More Pallywood for you. I've seen a lot of creative Palestinian victimhood stuff, but that one is beyond pathetic. Couldn't they have just wait until sunset?

Silly terrorist supporters.....

[thepeel]

"War is deceit".

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/052.sbt.html#004.052.267

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 267:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "Khosrau will be ruined, and there will be no Khosrau after him, and Caesar will surely be ruined and there will be no Caesar after him, and you will spend their treasures in Allah's Cause." He called, "War is deceit'.

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 268:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle called,: "War is deceit".

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 269:

Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah:

The Prophet said, "War is deceit."


No connection, I'm sure.

[Julius]

Hello "arjuna". ahem,....big bird.

Did you enroll Letty at the islamic suicide bomber sunday school yet?

BTW it was the Egyptians who built the wall, not the Israelis. Are the Jews to blame for everything in your mind?

[crusher_of_heads]

Egypt's problem now.


That should make Big Bird and igotthisguitar extremely happy.

[igotthisguitar]

[Kuros]

Power to the Palestinian People, indeed, if they can pull their collective heads out of their arses.

[arjuna]

Camp or Conspiracy?

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19183.htm

25/01/08 "ICH" -- -- What monsters could possibly be responsible for summary killings and deportations of peoples merely for their identity? The horrendous memory of what man is capable of in his darkest hour is a reminder of the fragile thread of humanity easily broken if not protected from greed. Once torn, we assume the aspects of hell; our culpability in Gaza for our awareness makes us accomplices. Our guilt is undeniable. Palestinians look for ways to escape from the camps; we cannot escape our conscience, if indeed, we have one.

A fleeting woman is hosed down, her dignity washed away with the scarce water that she should be offered to quench her thirst with, as she attempts to escape into neighboring Egypt; she is escaping hunger, disease and death brought on by Hitler�s victims, victims who are re-reliving their past by creating a concentration camp they can peer into - a window into their tragic history. Perhaps they need to punish Palestinians for their Arab identity as a reminder to themselves that they themselves were humiliated for being Jewish. Exorcising their hatred, and with the backing of all the powers in the world, not only are they abusing helpless people who seem to be abandoned even by God, but Israel�s actions are offending humanity. Is Israel truly compensating for its past pain; is this reminder of its humiliation helping this nation stay strong?

Our leaders in America tell us that we support Israel because of our shared values. Does the United States support concentration camps, deportation, and genocide? Are we all children of Adolf Hitler, his genes an inescapable legacy?

The unfolding events in camp Gaza are the results of decisions made long before some of us were born.

In a letter dated April 5, 1945, President Roosevelt sent a letter to Ibn Saud in which he pledged that he would never do anything which may prove to be hostile to the Arabs. A week later he died. Truman saw no need to follow in his predecessor�s footsteps. Falling for Ben Gurion�s bait which had failed to catch Roosevelt, Truman won the hearts of the American Zionist by endorsing The Biltmore Programme, the objective of which was domination of the whole Palestine- eventually. He bluntly explained to his American diplomats from Arab countries: �I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents�. And he did all this in the name of the most cherished values of his civilization.; chasing out Arabs from their homes to send Jews to Palestine so that they would not have to come to America en masse.

Today, Mr. Bush continues those �cherished values� � he arms Israel to continue the deportation of Palestinians so that Israelis can have the rest of their land � to complete the Biltmore Programme. He gets the Jewish vote, and the Evangelical, and the special lobby � but who votes for the dying Palestinian, who will stand up for humanity and cry out: �where is your decency?�