هل الجنود الإسرائيليين إرهابيين ؟

قبل عدة أيام ، تم شاب فلسطيني 17 عاما ، و توفي في عيد ميلاده . أطلق جنود الاحتلال النار عليه و اردوه قتيلا بعدة طلقات على نقطة تفتيش في الخليل ، فلسطين. ثم انخرطوا بنشر دعاية بادعاء أن الشاب الفلسطيني كان يحمل مسدسا لعبة و وجهه إليهم. يا لها من قصة غير قابلة للتصديق من قبل المحتلين ؟

أولا ، أين هو هذا المسدس اللعبة ؟ ألن يظهره المحتلين مع القصة بنية جعل قضيتهم قابلة للتصديق ؟ ثانيا ، كيف يمكن لشاب فلسطيني ، ولد ونشأ مع الخوف في قلبه من جنود الاحتلال ، أن يكون بهذه السذاجة  ليلوح مسدس لعبة في وجه جندي الاحتلال ؟ وقد استحضرت جنود الاحتلال المسدس اللعبة عندما ذكرت انه حصل عليه أثناء عيد ميلاده. الآن، لو قال المحتلين انه لوح مسدس حقيقي ، القصة  تكون أكثر قبولا. سنوات من تراكم الإحباط ضد جنود الاحتلال قد يؤدي بشاب فلسطيني لمحاولة قتل المحتلين. أستطيع أن أصدق ذلك، ولكن ليقولوا انه كان يحمل مسدسا لعبة - هذا مجنون.

في مناقشات مع مختلف أنصار جنود الاحتلال، قمت باثارة نفاق عدم تسمية حادثة اطلاق النار في مركز تجاري في أوريغون مول الأخيرة عمل إرهابي ولكن كان يمكن أن يتم ذلك إذا وقع ذلك الفعل نفسه في مركز تجاري بتل أبيب . قام أنصار الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بتعريف الارهاب كالأتي: " يهدف إلى التسبب في الوفاة أو إلحاق إصابات جسمانية خطيرة في صفوف المدنيين أو غير المقاتلين بهدف ترويع مجموعة سكانية أو إرغام حكومة أو منظمة دولية على القيام أو الامتناع عن القيام بأي عمل " . وأظن أن هذا تم نسخه من مصدر موثوق .

باستخدام هذا التعريف ، قمت باثارة سؤال: هل يمكننا الاتفاق على أن الغرض من الجندي الإسرائيلي هو غرس الخوف في المدنيين الفلسطينيين ؟ ثم سألت ، في ضوء هذا التعريف ، هل يعتبر جندي الاحتلال الاسرائيلي الذي قتل شابا فلسطينيا في الخليل، فلسطين، "إرهابي ؟ "

ا شك في أن في 45 سنة من احتلال الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة ( وأنا أعتبر غزة لا تزال تحت الاحتلال ) أن جنود الاحتلال الإسرائيلي ( عوزي و المستوطنين غير الشرعيين السخرية ) تسببت في "موت أو إلحاق إصابات جسمانية خطيرة في صفوف المدنيين أو غير المقاتلين ، " أي السكان الفلسطينيين . وأنا أتحدى أي شخص أن يجادل خلاف ذلك.

اذن ما هو الغرض من الجندي الإسرائيلي ؟

قبل أن أجيب على هذا السؤال، اسمحوا لي أن أقول أنه إذا كان من الممكن أن تضم إسرائيل الضفة الغربية لها معنويا، لفعلت بسن تشريعات تسمح لها بذلك منذ عقود. لم يفعلوا لعدم توفر لديهم أي صفة قانونية تمكنهم من القيام بذلك. يريدون ضم الضفة الغربية إلى إسرائيل و ذلك باستخدام سياسة ممنهجة غير قانونية لمصادرة الأراضي الفلسطينية ، بادعاء أن الأرض هي " متنازع عليها "، ولكن لا أحد يصدق هذه الحجة .

تكتيك آخر تستخدمه إسرائيل ، و هنا يأتي دور الجندي الإسرائيلي، هو تكتيك اجبار اكبر عدد ممكن من الفلسطينيين على مغادرة الضفة الغربية.

ما هو التكتيك الذي يستخدمه المحتل ؟

الخوف !

الغرض من جندي الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في الضفة الغربية هو غرس الخوف ، أي تخويف السكان أو " على سبيل المثال... على القيام أو الامتناع عن القيام بشيء ما . و القصد من ذلك هو غرس الخوف في الفلسطينيين للسيطرة عليهم و جعل حياتهم بائسة لدرجة تدفعهم بالقيام بفعل لا يقوموا به عادة، وهو ترك الأرض.

وبالتالي ، فمن المنطقي ، بالنظر إلى تعريف الإرهاب الذي قدموه لي أنصار الاحتلال الإسرائيلي،فان  جندي الاحتلال الإسرائيلي هو إرهابي . هو/هي هناك لفعل شيئا واحدا : للسيطرة على السكان الفلسطينيين ، لتخويفهم ، لجعل حياتهم بائسة.

كيف يتم تحقيق ذلك؟

تنتشر في الضفة الغربية  العديد من الحواجز العسكرية اللا إنسانية والمعيقة يحرسها جنود الاحتلال والتي تعرض الفلسطينيين عمدا لشتى أنواع الاهانات والمضايقات. بل وهي سياسة منهجية يومية تنفذ يوميا على مدار السنة. في أي وقت من الأوقات، حتى في منتصف الليل، يستطيع جنود الاحتلال هدم الباب أي بيت فلسطيني و البحث عن والاستيلاء على ما يريدون، و سحب أي فلسطيني إلى السجن بحجة الاعتقال الإداري . إذا لم يكن هذا خوفا ، وهو خوف مستمر كل ثانية من كل يوم في حياة كل فلسطيني ، فلا أعرف ما هو الخوف.

وبالتالي ، إذا كان الخوف هو الغرض من وجود الجندي الإسرائيلي في الضفة الغربية ، فانه يجب أن يكون إرهابيا .

Movie Review: Twelve Years a Slave – Decades of Occupation

This weekend I viewed the movie Twelve Years A Slave.  As I sat throughout the movie and for five minutes afterwards I was numb, bewildered and astonished, unable to move from my seat. I just don't know how African-Americans endured such cruelty, such horror, such brutality, such a violation of every indignity known to man. Then I thought about what Israel has done and is currently doing to the Palestinians and while I cannot personally relate and while I do not want to belittle the dreadful era of American history known as slavery, I am perplexed to understand how man can commit such inhuman violations upon his fellow man.  Slavery and occupation are abhorrent attributes of the evil that man can inflict upon man.  Slavery has been constitutional banned in America.  Occupation is still in our midst in Palestine.

Twelve Years A Slave is a powerful movie which depicts the savagery of slavery like no other movie ever has. The arousal of our emotions is deliberate but you have to be spineless if you are not moved- by the brutality of the long hours of hard labor; by the whippings, even for the minuscule deviation from the white master’s rules; by the cramped and unsanitary living conditions; by the indignity of being constantly raped by the master; and by a constant dehumanization of a race. But there is something more in this movie to make you wonder beyond what you see on the screen.  

As I scrutinized the movie on the big screen, I wondered how man can be so malevolent towards another, so callous to the deprivation of another’s human rights and so righteously barbarous even when interpreting the words of the Prince of Peace.  The lure of cheap labor and the exploitation of another unlike “your image” for profitable gain based on a warped perception of superiority over another race are powerful persuasive monetary and narcissistic incentives that induce the worst trait of human behavior to dominate.  Hitler used this glorified perception of superiority to attempt to conquer Europe and the world and also to attempt to annihilate the Jews.  The Southern Whites in pre-civil war America needed a cheap labor force to pick the cotton fields and chop the sugar canes in order to keep their large multi-acre plantations and lavish lifestyle and they justified their actions within their own twisted and malignant minds by using the words of Jesus in support of their immoralities. The exploitation of the “uneducated” Africans presented the cheap labor force needed by Southern Whites to perpetuate their decadently self-centered existence. Besides Africans were different than Whites and identifiable in such a way as to be controlled.  

Thank God for the abolition of slavery in America.

Within the 150 years after the abolition of slavery, we find that the lessons of how not to treat our fellow man have not been learned.

·        The egocentric Nazis attempted to claim the German race superior to all other people and they galvanized the emotional charge of a defeated nation in World War I into another world war that saw a holocaust beyond imagination. 

·        At its height, the British Empire colonized over 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time. The empire covered almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. Revolutions around the globe in America and India and elsewhere attest to the abomination of what Britain has done throughout the centuries to exploit other people.

White South Africans subjugated the native Black South Africans to apartheid in 1948 but the precursors to that system were embedded into that region over a century before. It was not until the release and election of Nelson Mandela (1990 and 1994 respectively) that the human spirit of the Black South Africans was set free.

Many countries in the world have not learned these lessons and therefore, much to the disappointment of those who champion human rights, we see repeated violations against humanity. Paradoxically, Israel, which should be the chief advocated of human rights given its citizen’s memory of the holocaust and their “never again” mantra, is the chief country which repeatedly violates the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the protection afforded to civilians in an occupied territory.  Israeli atrocities against Palestinians have been documented extensively in the past forty to fifty years.

The brutal military occupation of Palestine by Israel is not unlike slavery in America and as I sat in my theater seat squirming within my mind at the horrific scenes of Twelve Years A Slave, I could not help recall what I read about the recently arrested Palestinian Rasmiah Odeh in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

As local news accounts flashed about Rasmiah having allegedly not disclosed her imprisonment by Israel for “terrorist” acts she allegedly committed in Jerusalem in 1969, I quickly did a quick Google search of her. To my amazement, the first thing I read was the following about her torturous interrogation by Israeli Mosad agents:  

In February 1969, Rasmiah Odeh was arrested and brought to Moscobiya [prison]. Her father, Joseph and two sisters were detained for interrogation. Joseph Odeh was kept in one room while Rasmiah was beaten nearby. When they brought him to her she was lying on the floor in blood stained clothes. Her face was blue, her eye black. In his presence, they held her down and shoved a stick up her vagina. One of the interrogators ordered Joseph Odeh "to fuck" his daughter. When he refused, they began beating both him and Rasmiah. They again spread her legs and shoved the stick into her. She was bleeding from the mouth, face and vagina when Joseph Odeh fell unconscious.  http://www.palestine-encyclopedia.com/EPP/Chapter22_1of4.htm

In Twelve Years a Slave there is a scene in which the main character, Solomon Northup, is ordered to whip a female slave, Patsey, and when he hesitates, a gun is pointed at his head as the enraged “master” threatens to indiscriminately kill all the “Niggers.”  Reluctantly, Solomon beats Patsey mercilessly and when his conscience no longer allows him to continue the whipping, the master takes over, but only to appease his wife as she knows that her licentious husband favors Patsey whom he repeatedly rapes.

That horrific scene on the big movie screen bellowed out the screams of Patsey but in my mind’s eye I also heard the screams of Rasmiah. The penetrating pain of whip marks upon Patseys’ back horrified me as I recalled the descriptive brutality inflicted upon Rasmiah.

Like the White Southern, the Israeli military brutality subjects Palestinians into a submissive state of being in order to exploit the cheap labor that Palestinians are compelled to offer the Israeli middle and upper class. Prior to the Oslo Accords, the Israeli military occupation administration of the West Bank and Gaza would not issue building permits for Palestinians (in Area A) thus leaving Palestinians clustered into shanty homes that can never be improved or expanded. This is not different than the shacks that were loosely built to house ten or more slaves in a single room.

Deprivation of basic rights such as housing, education, speech, assembly and representation in government are all denied by the oppressor. Slaves could not read or write and when Solomon is exposed as to his writing ability, he must deny it to save his hide from the wrath of an insecure oppressor who fears education among the oppressed. Israel routinely closes Palestinian schools and in many cases turned the buildings into military bases for the occupation.

According to a 2009 Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education report:

“Since 2004 the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] shelled and invaded 13 colleges and universities, “shelled and broken into”, 288 schools, overtook and converted 43 schools into military barracks, and disrupted 1125 school”.

During the First Intifada (which literally translates as the shaking off the occupation) in 1987 through 1992, Palestinian education was effectively made illegal by the Israeli occupation. Palestinian universities, schools and even Kindergartens were closed down by Israeli issued military order for nearly five years. http://organizations.bloomu.edu/gasi/2009%20Proceedings%20PDFs/RahmanImpact%20of%20the%20Israeli%20Occupation%20on%20Palestinian%20Education%20for%20GSIA.pdf

All this has come after the Oslo Accords (Treaty between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel) first signed in 1993 at the White House Rose Garden.

In Twelve Years A Slave, Solomon was once a free man and living comfortably as a violinist in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.  He was separated from them when he went to Washington D.C. (a slave territory  at the time—about 1842) to perform when he was captured and covertly shipped to the deep South to be sold as a slave.  Other slaves never knew what being free meant as they were born into slavery. In Palestine, a great majority of Palestinians know nothing but the brutal Israeli military occupation. Generations are being born into a submissive state where a gun is pointed at their heads and while they are not slaves subjected to the cruelties of the White Southern as Africans, their human spirit is nevertheless imprisoned and they are not free.

In the end, Solomon was freed when a Canadian working with him on the plantation agreed to write a letter for him to his family. This started a chain of events (not in the film) which freed him back to his family. 

Who will write a letter of conscience to the world to set the Palestinian human spirits free?

(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)

IF THE "TALKS" COLLAPSE--WHAT THEN?

I have always been very optimistic that peace between the Palestinians and Israelis will one day be achieved.  Yet, I cannot be the optimist I once was about the new round of “peace talks” recently launched by Secretary of State John Kerry.  For the sake of peace, however, I, as well as the majority of Palestinians, hope that peace will finally be achieved although we are not holding our breaths. This is the last chance for peace. 

On the 20^th Anniversary of the Oslo Accords, which I witnessed on the White House Rose Garden, it is fitting to say that we have been talking endlessly to no real end. What many perceived as the final chapter of the long enduring conflict was only a mirage in the desert seen by Palestinians while the Israelis knew that the thirst for peace would not be fulfilled.  With each passing unattained deadline; with the quadrupling of colony activity by Israeli right wing fanatics; with each assault on Gaza; and with the building of the Apartheid Wall, as well as many other measures that deflated rather than elevated the prospects for peace, I, along with a great majority of Palestinians,  have become pessimistic.  Secretary of State Kerry’s attempt to broker a Middle East peace does not alleviate this changed attitude.

Ever since the Madrid Conference in 1991, we have been talking with the Israelis.  Except for a limited, very limited, autonomy in the form of an “authority” over only populous Palestinian cities called Area A, the “talks” have led to a massive confiscation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and an increased hawkish mentality within Israel that will not dismantle the occupation’s military apparatus but rather has fermented that hateful feeling that the insidious Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its decadent blockade of Gaza will last forever.  All the while, Israel tells the world that Palestinians in Gaza cannot oppose, in any form, the open-air prison that Israel imposes.   Palestinians cannot fire rockets into Israel; cannot seek United Nations statehood; and cannot attempt to go to the World Court to bring Israeli leaders before an international tribunal for international war crimes.   We cannot even have democratic elections unless the outcome of the elections is what Israel and the US will accept.

Agreements were made but not regarding final status maters—which kept getting put on the back burner that never gets lit.  The Oslo Accords called for final status negotiations to begin no later than May 1996. Fast forward seventeen years later on the 20^th Anniversary of Oslo. Palestinians and Israelis are now “talking” once more after a three year stall due to Israeli refusal to freeze its expansion of its colonies on Palestinian land and their insistence of no preconditions to talks, while the Palestinians did not want to talk for the sake of talking and wanted to finally discuss a final status agreement.  After a concession by Israel to release Palestinian political prisoners (prisoners who should not be prisoners in the first place), the pressure from the United States, a leading donor country, was too great for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to overcome and he finally relented to the “talks”.  So we are now talking, yet again.

So here we are 20 years later waiting for the final status talks to conclude. While these “talks” are clouded in secrecy, the general sentiment among Palestinians is that this should be the final “Oslo” approach to attaining peace. Talking for the sake of talking will no longer be acceptable if the outcome of the “talks” does not bring forth a comprehensive peace agreement.  The meaning of a comprehensive peace agreement does not mean that it is conditioned upon issues to be agreed upon in the future. It means a final agreement, an end to the conflict, a fully implemented peace treaty that covers all aspect, all issues and all-encompassing matters.

Comprehensive peace agreement also means that the following major issues will be resolved:

·         Jerusalem’s status

·         Palestinian refugee right to return or be compensated

·         Established secure borders of the two states 

·         Water rights and control

·         Removal of colonists in the West Bank or incorporating them into a Palestinian State

If the “talks” do not lead to a comprehensive peace agreement, a different Palestinian strategy needs to emerge.  A strategic discussion of that alternative path to be addressed now, less we continue to stagnate for years without any real direction.

I am no supporter of violence and strongly believe that the rockets launched from Gaza into Israel and the use of suicide bombers against civilian targets leads to a negative perception of the Palestinians. Yet, I also strongly believe that those under occupation have a fundamental right to resist that occupation. I equate the Palestinian right to resist to that of the American colonies right to declare independence against a King who amassed troops in the Colonies to control the population, who taxed them without representation and who imposed a series of intolerable acts upon Americans.  The grievances that Palestinians have against Israel are not less intolerable.   They include:

·         Taxation in the Palestinian territories is beholden to the whims of the Israeli government. Israel collects about two-thirds of the Palestinian Authority‘s self-generated revenue which, since the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, has been routinely withheld by Israel.  No self-respecting people would tolerate this. The Thirteen American colonies did not and neither should the Palestinians.

·         Israel has two sets of laws for two peoples—which clearly show that Israel is practicing apartheid:  

o   Israelis living illegally in the West Bank are allowed to carry Uzi submachine guns which they use to intimidate Palestinians. Palestinians, on the other hand, are not allowed to carry any form of arms, including rocks.

o   These gun-taunting Jews are never prosecuted for their criminal activities including the destruction of Palestinian olive groves.

o   License plates on the West Bank are color coded to inform the soldiers whether the occupants are Jews or Palestinians.

o   By-pass roads are for the exclusive use of Jews while Palestinians are subjected to dehumanizing military checkpoints.

o   Palestinians are brutally subjected to imprisonment under military administrative detention orders that are renewable every six months; no formal charges are ever presented in open court; and no trial is ever forthcoming. Many Palestinians linger in Israeli military jails without ever having been accused of any crime and without being tried in court. Their detention is summarily extended under the guise of the military detention used by the British Mandate law of 1945 entitled Law on Authority in States of Emergency. As many as 200 Palestinian children, some between the ages of 12 to 15, are currently detained in such fashion. In July, 2013, Israeli soldiers even detained a 5 year old child.

o   Palestinians are not free to move from one part of the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority to another and cannot go from the West Bank to Gaza or vice versa.  Abusive military checkpoints dot the landscape, many of which are mobile, leaving the Palestinian population to wonder how long a normal 10 minute trip between Ramallah and Beir Zeit will take—sometimes hours.

·         Israel has built an apartheid wall

o   That divides and encircles towns into conclaves with controlled military gates that subject the Palestinians to the whims of the Israeli soldiers. This has created many open-air ghetto/enclave prisons;

o   That divides landowners from their farms thus depriving the use of the land which benefits Israeli farmers;

o   That divide relatives from each other;

o   That inhibits the flow of commerce, thus imposing a stranglehold upon the Palestinian economy; and

o   That cuts into more than 8.5% of Palestinian land on the West Bank an area that is less than 22% of the original partition by the United Nations in 1948.

No people can tolerate living under such grievances. The human spirit, inherent in all peoples, will not tolerate a permanent status which subjugates their inalienable right to be free. If the current “talks” do not end the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, the Palestinian human spirit needs to find another path to freedom. Looking back at the endless path that the Oslo peace process has taken over the past 20+ years would beget Palestinians to search for a new path to the inevitable desire for the human spirit to be free.

The first Palestinian Intifada which began in December, 1987 paved the road to the Madrid Conference in 1991.  Talks ensued thereafter only to be usurped by secret talks in Oslo, Norway which lead to the Oslo Accords signed on September 13, 1993 at the White House Rose Garden.  The Palestinian Authority took root in the West Bank and Gaza; hopes for peace were so high that many Palestinians activists became complacent. Then the peace process was derailed when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist and by Palestinian suicide bombers, both bent on scuttling the peace process. Benjamin Netanyahu became the Israeli Prime Minister and changed the Madrid Conference formula from “land for peace” to “land for security” demonstrating that the Israeli use of the English language was superior to that of the Palestinians in that the former knew how to play on the sympathies of the American public. Netanyahu’s self-proclaimed efforts to kill the Oslo Accords, exposed in a 2001 video, were successful.

Nevertheless, the Oslo Accords timeline for final status talks came and went; new agreements were signed (Oslo II, Wye River and Sharm el-Sheik) and the Camp David and Taba Summits (2000-2001) proved that an impasse was evident. The September 11, 1991 attack by Al-Qada terrorists focused the world attention away from the Palestinian/Israeli conflict throughout President George W. Bush’s administration.  While President Bush stated that the downfall of Saddam Hussein will lead to the democratization of the Middle East, paradoxically he and, not so surprisingly the Israelis, rejected the outcome of the Palestinian elections in 2006.

President Barrack Obama, although sincere in his efforts to achieve Middle East peace, could not budge the Israelis to stop the building of colonies on the West Bank, although succeeding American administrations called them “obstacles to peace.”  Consumed with domestic economic woes brought about by the Great Recession, President Obama let the conflict in status quo doldrums.  Israelis, happy to keep the status quo, insisted on the Palestinians returning peace talks without any preconditions—interpretation: Israelis wanted to continuously talk without talking about final status talks.

In the middle of the two decades of talks, a second Intifada took root.  This time Israel crushed the uprising with its use of tanks and helicopter gunships; such military might was not seen in the First Intifada. The fact that the Palestinian police force was given guns through the Oslo Accords to maintain civil order gave the Israelis the perceived justification for its precipitous use of its full military force to put suppress the Second Intifada—youths throwing stones. Images of helicopter gunships attacking Ramallah in 2002 remain vivid memories. Israel also attacked Tulkarm,  Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Jenin and Nablus.  Goliath was attacking David, yet the true story was not exposed as Israel prevented the media from entering the West Bank.

The perception of David vs. Goliath needs to be retold. Palestinians are the new David.  But before Palestinians can take on the role of David, they need to reconcile amongst themselves. Fatah and Hamas need to reconcile at all costs. Read my article entitled “Demand Palestinian Reconcilation” on this subject at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2013/04/demand-palestinian-reconcilation.html.   Additionally, the Palestinians must not fall into the Israeli trap of a three state solution: Israel and Area C and most of Area B; Palestinian Authority controlling Area A and some parts of Area B; and Gaza controlled by Hamas. Read my article entitled Oppose the Israeli Three State Solution at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2013/03/oppose-israeli-three-state-solution.html.  

The new path the Palestinian Revolution needs to take needs to be unorthodox.  Palestinians should endorse the following actions:

• ·         Palestinian unification. Palestinians should demand that Fatah and Hamas reconcile.
• ·         The Palestinian police should be ordered to take their guns and give them to the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints. We need to be David using a rock against the military might of the Big Israeli Army.  We do not need the guns that are not effective against the Mighty Israel Army.  We should confront Israel with our stones from Mother Earth against the tanks and helicopter gunships.
• ·         The Palestinian Authority should no longer accept money from donor nations.  We cannot afford to be bribed into complacency and to accept the status quo of a continued brutal military occupation.
• ·         Palestinians should use their cameras, camcorders and cell phones to inundate Facebook, Twitter, blogs and all forms of social media with images of the atrocities of the Israeli army.
• ·         Support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel
• ·         Palestinians need to organize a coherent message of non-violence that needs to be shared by thousands on these social media outlets.  Throwing stones against the military occupier is within the international right of Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
• ·         Palestinian youth need to understand the power of the land and use it against the military occupation forces.  This is not a call to arms but a call to repel the occupation. 

I can hear the arguments stating that these actions will cause an increase of Palestinian suffering and that people will die. My answer: Palestinians are suffering and dying regardless, albeit these policies may increase the rate.  I believe that Palestinians would rather die with their dignity rather than live in disgrace. The Palestinian youth understand that by allowing the status quo to linger, as did their fathers and grandfathers before, will only lead to the continued suppression of their inherent right to be free. Thus, the choice to rebel is easy. Either allow the status quo to linger and forever be occupied or rebel and free your human spirit.

The Palestinian human spirit to be free is no different than the human spirit inherent in all human beings desiring to be free. It is no different than the human spirit that inspired the American Colonies to declare themselves independent from a brutal King; that ignited Black South Africans to break the chains of apartheid; that encouraged African-Americans to March on Washington for equal rights; and that empowered the people of India to break the bonds of colonization.   Read more about my thoughts on the human spirit to be free at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2012/01/human-spirit-will-overthrow-apartheid.html

What alternative do the Palestinians have should the “talks” collapse? Should they accept the status quo and continue to be subjugated to the brutal Israeli occupation with the inherent bribery and forced complacency all the while seeing their land usurped dunnem by dunnem? Should the Palestinians give up, as the Israelis would love for them to do?

The human spirit inherent in all poeople will guide the Palestinians to a new revolutionary path should the “talks” collapse. That path should be guided by the moral cause against occupation and with the vision that the oppressed, the weak, the underdog will triumph over oppression, over colonization, over a contemptuous military occupation of Palestine..

It is a new revolution of Rocks vs. Tanks.  Boy vs. Soldier. Right vs. Might.

It is the story of David vs. Goliath retold. 

STRIKING SYRIA WILL NOT IMPROVE US CREDIBILITY

I just read the 4 page US assessment of its evidence on Syria.  It begins by saying "The United States Government assesses with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21, 2013." Beyond this there is nothing else. "High confidence" is just short of confirmation.

There are no satellite images showing that rockets were launched from Syrian government controlled areas at a specific time when these chemical weapon massacres took place, as the report claims.  Although the report states that numerous public media reports from different locations throughout the site of the attacks have been reviewed, no references are provided and the reader must research the internet on his/her own to verify the information used by US government.

There is nothing in the report, beyond the "assessment" of the US Government that would prove its veracity. While I am no fan of the Assad Regime, I must say this is Déjà vu: Iraq/Colin Powell/weapons of mass destruction.

The US claims that its credibility is at stake if it does not act against Syria. It says countries like North Korea and Iran are waiting in the lurch wondering if Syria will get away with using chemical weapons.  But the credibility of the US has already been devalued because of its lack of response to Israel's use of chemical weapons against the Palestinians.

There is wide spread evidence that Israel admittedly used white phosphorous on the Palestinians in Gaza.  see http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2013/05/03/israels-illegal-use-of-white-phosphorus-during-operation-cast-lead/

But the US did nothing against Israel. Incidentally, UN buildings in Gaza were targets of the Israeli Army and Israel was in no way penalized for this egregious crime.

The "assessment" by the world is that hose who are allies of the US can use chemical weapons but those who do not subscribe to US dictates and its inconsistent foreign policy cannot.

Inevitably, US officials claim "national security" interests to justify what it does.

US foreign policy cannot be based on "national security" for the use of this policy allows every other country to claim its own "national security" to do whatever it wants thus creating chaos in the world. But wait, there is already chaos in the world. Could it be that the leader of the free world, the country that is the oldest constitutional democracy, is creating chaos in the world?

A constitutional democracy is the best form of government, yet the US is making a mockery of this system by its inconsistent and chaotic foreign policy. By allowing Israel to go unpunished for its use of chemical weapons and then punishing Syria for its use of chemical weapons leaves one to doubt the credibility of the US government. Striking Syria would not make the US credible. In fact, striking Syria would make the US less credible for its lack of response to the Israeli use of chemical weapons against the Palestinians.

US credibility is already at a low point. Striking Syria will not improve US credibility.

US foreign policy should be to encourage the people of every country to want to establish a democracy in their country.  The US should encourage the rebels in Syria to want to remove the President-for-Life Assad for a democratic government.  The US should be a shinning example that a constitutional democracy is the best form of government.




http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/USGassessmentonSyria08302013.pdf

Demand Palestinian Reconciliation

I simply cannot understand the division within the Palestinian political makeup and I cannot understand why Palestinians are not speaking up against this division in our ranks.

Here we are a people struggling to free ourselves from the cruel and unjust chains of occupation and an apartheid system under the iron fists of a brutal Israeli army and we are more organized in our disunity rather organized against our oppressor.  One faction is being blackmailed by allowing the oppressor to collect the tax dollars that belong to the Palestinian people that it governs while the other faction is being retaliated against with US made weaponry with the goal of the oppressor to keep the two Palestinian factions from reconciling.  Both are playing into the hands of the collective oppressor.

Israel would like nothing better than to continue the division between Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.  By keeping these Palestinian factions split, Israel hopes to impose a three state solution (3SS) to the decades old conflict. Israel is working against a demographic time bomb that will unquestionably label the so called democratic Jewish (oxymoron) state an apartheid state, even if it does not agree with this label now.  Israelis will become a minority within the 1948 borders of Palestine by the year 2016; and as a minority it will collapse as a government as it cannot rule a Palestinian majority as did the apartheid regime of the minority White South Africa collapse as it tried to rule the Black African majority.  Keeping the Palestinian factions from reconciling through blackmail and military might, Israel hopes to overcome this demographic time bomb by imposing a 3SS. 

The division, ironically, started after democratic elections in 2006. Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislature and should have been allowed to govern. Israel and the US would not recognize the victor despite the fact that the world was told by President George W. Bush that the Iraqi invasion will lead to the democratization of the region. Instead of embracing democracy, blackmail and sanctions were imposed upon the Palestinians for having elected Hamas. The irony of the taunting democracies to not recognize a democratic election is beyond me.  What further irks me is that Fatah played right along with this devaluing of the democratic principles that the Palestinians are told they must have in order to establish a state.

The silence of Fatah during the 2008-2009 Israeli invasion and constant slaughter of Gaza was beyond belief.  Here was Israel bombarding innocent Palestinian women and children and Fatah leaders said nothing.  This was demoralizing to all of us diaspora Palestinians who demonstrated and organized against this massacre which was happening before our television screens for three weeks.  What we should have been demonstrating against was the silence of Palestinian Authority leaders.

Yet it was not enough that Israel was killing Palestinians, Palestinians died from bullets fired by Palestinians during 2008 and 2009 as the various clashes between Fatah and Hamas forces spilled Palestinian blood. While unfortunately we are all too familiar with seeing Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers, we are not accustomed to seeing Palestinians kill Palestinians. This is unbelievable the worst thing that Palestinians can do to each other.  Instead of having a unified front against the oppressor, the two factions started vilifying and attacking each other which lead to Fatah controlling the West Bank and Hamas governing Gaza.  Ultimately, this division is leading right into the Israeli plans to split, divide and impose its 3SS.

Reconciliation attempts have thus far been unsuccessful with the Doha Agreement signed by Fatah and Hamas in 2012 still far from being implemented. The agreement is described as “stalled” as no unity government is in sight. Legislative elections have been announced, delayed and rescheduled—this time for October, 2013, seven years after the last elections.  There are election law reforms which are in dispute. They were imposed by President Abbas because he states that he could rule by decree as long as the legislature is unable to convene.  From my readings, I am not sure whether Hamas will participate in the elections.

Both Fatah and Hamas need to go to the ballot box in October, 2013 and allow the Palestinian people to once again democratically vote their collective will. Whoever wins the election must be respected by both factions. If a unity government needs to be part of a ruling coalition, then the Palestinian people demand that such a ruling government be allowed to govern regardless what Israel, the US and Europe want, think, blackmail or impose.

If Hamas wins again, Fatah must stand up to the Israelis, the US and European leaders and state categorically that Hamas is the ruling party and that all Palestinians will stand unified behind Hamas.  The imposition that Hamas must first recognize Israel and denounce violence is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to keep the Palestinians from reconciling.  It is a diversion from getting to the crux of the conflict; it is another delay tactic by Israel to keep the status quo while it usurps more and more Palestinian land on the West Bank, land that Israel does not want to concede as it wants a 3SS. Israel wants to retain Area C and parts of Area B; wants the PA to establish a state on Area A and part of Area B that Israel is willing to give up; and it wants Gaza to be a separate state.  

This imposition upon Hamas is hypocritical as within Israel there are parties that want to either annihilate the Palestinians completely (as Hitler wanted to do to the Jews) or scatter them among the other Arab states.

Israel’s demand that Hamas recognize the State of Israel (not just as a state but a Jewish State) is absurd and will not result in any new round of talks.  “Hamas didn't come to power until 2006/07. Between 1993 & 2006 Israel had the more moderate, peaceful & pliant Palestinian authority (which recognizes Israel & renounces violence) to deal with as a partner for peace. What did Israel do? Did it make peace?” [see Michael Aydinian https://www.facebook.com/groups/321400271210048/permalink/622882407728498/)  

Israel cannot impose upon the Palestinians who can or cannot speak for them just as Palestinians cannot impose upon Israel who can be a part of their coalition government.  Since 1984 every Israeli coalition government included the Shas Party whose spiritual leader openly called for the annihilation of the Palestinian people without any repudiation by any Israeli leader, including Benjamin Netanyahu.  Could the Palestinians have said that they will not negotiate with Israel as long as this racist and Nazi-like party is part of the Israeli government?  Rightfully, Israelis would reject this precondition as should the Palestinians reject the imposition that Hamas cannot be part of any Palestinian government unless certain preconditions are met.

Before Palestinian elections are called, however, the Palestinian people, both in Palestine and in the diaspora, need to call upon both Fatah and Hamas to reconcile. We as a people need to impose upon our Palestinian leaders the wisdom of unity despite what the US and Israel want.  We can no longer be a house divided.  We can disagree with each other but when confronting the oppressor, we need to be united.

If the US and Israel want to impose economic and financial sanctions or want to withhold financial aid from the Palestinians, that should be the price of unity. The price of destabilization is what the Israelis and the US will have to consider for blackmailing the Palestinians.  Destabilizing economic conditions will lead to a third Intifada and Israel and the US will be to blame.   

I call upon all my Fatah and Hamas friends to speak up and communicate to Fatah and Hamas leaders that the time to stop this quibbling must end and now.  We need to demand that Fatah and Hamas reconcile now at all costs.

Celebrating: Day Of The Land in the Diaspora

ONE PEOPLE, OUR LAND

America is known as the melting pot—meaning that many people come to the U.S. and melt in the social and community fabric that makes up this great nation.  Yet, as we, the Palestinian  community in the U.S. become a part of that social fabric by becoming voters and active participants in what makes the U.S. great, we also need to keep the beauty of the Palestinian culture alive in our hearts, our minds and our souls.

As Palestinians, we know too well the many attempts to eradicate our culture; to uproot our roots in terms of people and our commercial epicenter—the olive tree; to steal our culinary meals—humos;   to confiscate our land—ever increasing illegal settlements; and to prevent the unification of our political parties—blackmailing one party to not reconcile.

We know too well that we need to be one people on our land—Palestine.  We know too well that our enemy wants to remove us from our land, our Palestine, and they will use any means necessary.  They have and continue to use the “divide and conquer” methods to attempt to destroy our will.  They employ religious tactics to pit Christians and Muslim against each other; and they employ blackmail, war and political incentives to pit Fatah against Hamas.

Our enemy can use all the tactics at its disposal.  It can use military tanks and war planes to destroy our buildings, our schools, our hospitals, our universities, and our commercial centers. They can build an Apartheid Wall which divides our people from each other; which separate us from cultivating our land; and which isolates our towns and cities into separate Bantustans.  

However, there is one thing our enemy can never destroy. They can never destroy our will, that innate human spirit that inspires every human being to be free.  The human spirit inside us, inside the collective will of the Palestinian people, cannot be destroyed; it cannot be separated from our culture; it cannot be stolen by claiming our food as theirs; it cannot be eradicated by military might; and it cannot be blackmailed with piecemeal political incentives that divide our people.

No, our human spirit to be free from the chains of occupation and apartheid cannot be destroyed. It lives in each and every Palestinian. The human spirit lives in the grandfather that still has the key to his house in Yaffa (not Jaffa as our enemy calls it). The human spirit lives in the Palestinian boy who faced down our enemy’s tank with a stone. The human spirit is rooted in our people who steadfastly remain strong and remain on the land.

So we celebrate the DAY OF THE LAND together to energize our collective human spirit; to cultivate the human spirit of our culture in our children and to state that we are ONE PEOPLE who remain defiant against any attempt to separate us from OUR LAND. 

Oppose The Israeli Three State Solution

I have written in previous articles that Israelis are excellent at using words to manipulate the thought patterns of world public opinion, especially in the United States. They have, through the use of the word “terrorist” against the Palestinians, been able to monopolize a negative opinion of Palestinians in the US, although the history of the creation of the State of Israel is not without horrendous terrorist acts against Palestinians.  I have countered that it is the Israeli soldier that is a terrorist because his/her primary job is to instill fear into the minds of Palestinians in order to get them to do what they would not ordinary do on their own, i.e. give up, leave their land.

Now the Israelis are trying to manipulate public opinion by redefining “checkpoints.” The Israeli soldier controls what Israel now calls “security crossings” to imbed into the minds of public opinion that the formerly called “checkpoints” is the border of the State of Israel.  United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that there were 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstructing Palestinian movement in the West Bank in July, 2010.  This figure is up from 503.  There are other checkpoints called “flying checkpoints” that are unknown as to when and where they will pop up. On average per month in 2011, 495 of these random checkpoints sprung up, in addition to the 522 permanent roadblocks and checkpoints, to not only hamper, humiliate, harass but also to instill fear, frustration and fatigue into the lives of every Palestinian.

The use of the term “security crossings” and its manipulation and blackmailing of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is what leads me to believe that Israel does not want a Two State Solution (2SS) but rather wants a Three State Solution (3SS). Israel is in a frantic mode to impose this 3SS upon the Palestinians before the projected demographics make Israelis the minority in 2016 to prevent the inevitable solution: One State Solution (1SS). Israelis believe that if they continue its policy of fear, frustration and fatigue, the Palestinians will ultimately succumb to the 3SS that Israel sees as a counter to the inevitable 1SS. This policy will fail.

Israelis argue that the Palestinians have negotiated away Area C in the West Bank by agreeing to give up control of this area to Israel in the Oslo Accords. Nonsense! Israeli intransigence in not agreeing to the final status matters in the so called “peace talks” and it’s continued expansion of the illegal settlements have rendered the Oslo Accords null and void. Israel refuses to discuss the final status of Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of a Palestinian State. Israel refuses to discuss the right of return of Palestinian refugees. And Israel refuses to discuss the borders between Israel and Palestine. Calling the checkpoints “security crossings” is part of the Israeli attempts to impose a 3SS.

Another blatant attempt to impose a 3SS is Israel’s blackmail of withholding taxes that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority if the Palestinian politicians of the West Bank attempt to reconcile with the Palestinian politicians in Gaza. In essence, Israel does not want Fatah and Hamas to reconcile. It wants separate States for these two political rivals in the West Bank and Gaza. The stupidity of these factions in continuing the divisions between themselves is playing right into the Israeli plans to impose a 3SS.

I argue, in other articles, that this imposition will not be successful as the Palestinian human spirit to be free, innately a part of every human being, will overcome the Israeli aggression against them. However, Palestinians cannot rely on the burning desire inside themselves alone, they must have gumption; they must be shrewd; they must think outside the box.  

Palestinians need to understand what Israel is planning and they must counter the political manipulation of their land, their lives and livelihood. 

There are a variety of practical actions that Palestinians could advocate in their struggle to break the Israeli chains of oppression.

• ·     Palestinians need to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement . Mobilization and support for the BDS movement needs to part of the Palestinian agenda around the globe.  Supporting supporters of Palestinian Statehood is a must.
•  ·   Palestinians need to make the Israeli businessman suffer the consequences of the occupation. In my article, “Hitting Israel Where it Hurts—Economically”, I argue outside the box by advocating boycotting a single Israeli product imported into the West Bank and Gaza at a time. Read it at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/hitting-israel-where-it-hurts.html
•  ·    Palestinian youth need to throw their stones. I advocate keeping the option of the stone alive in the following articles: “Romancing the Stone” and “Keeping the David vs. Goliath Option Open.”  http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/romancing-stone-option.html and http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/keeping-david-vs-goliath-option-open.html
•       Palestinians need to reconcile their divisions and present a unified front against the Israelis. I have written numerously in various articles about the need for Hamas and Fatah to reconcile. See “Palestinians Must Establish Parity with Israelis” at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/palestinians-must-establish-parity-with.html. Opposing Israeli attempts to place obstacles to the reconciliation of these Palestinian political factions needs to be the goal of every Palestinian. Palestinian unity is a must!
•       Palestinians need to take their fight to the International Criminal Court and bring to justice those Israeli leaders who ordered and Israeli soldiers who committed human rights violations against Palestinians.

While the impending demographics will impose a 1SS, Palestinians cannot sit idly back and let the hope of events control their destiny. Palestinians need to be continuously active to make the inevitable human spirit within them blossom sooner than later.