Sunday, April 29, 2007
The Zionists Committed A Holocaust Against My Family
No catalogue of Israel’s Nazi-like criminality against the Palestinian people can be complete without the story of Hussein Abu Kweik, whose family was wiped out by the Israeli army in a failed attempt on his life nearly five years ago.On 4 March, 2002, shortly afternoon, Abu Kweik’s wife, Bushra, drove the family car to collect their three children from two Ramallah schools, the al-Mughtarebin (Expatriates) school for males and the Al-Fajr al Jadid (the New Dawn) school for females.Neither the Kweiks nor, indeed, their children had the faintest idea that their car was being closely watched and is about to be targeted by an Israeli tank taking position at the nearby hilly Jewish colony of Psogot.Hussein, now 48, knew that the Israelis might arrest him for affiliation with Hamas’s political wing and for making a lot of interviews with the local and international media on Hamas’s behalf.But it never occurred to him, as he says “ that they would assassinate me, let alone exterminate my entire family for making statements to the media and for criticizing the Israeli occupation of my country.”As Bushra collected Aziza, 14, Baraa 13, and Muhammed 9, she drove back home at al Ama’ari refugee camp in Ramallah’s southern suburbs as she did everyday.She was only a few hundreds meters away from home when an Israeli Merkava tank fired two large artillery shells at the car, reducing it to a huge fireball. Bushra and her three kids were annihilated immediately as their charred, dismembered remains protruded from the twisted metal of their Mitsubishi- 2000.The exploding shells killed two more children who were traveling in an adjacent car. The two victims were identified as Shayma Ezzidin al Masri, 4, and her cousin, Arafat Ibrahim al Masri, 16 years old. (Eleven more Palestinians were killed on that day, including a medical doctor named Khalil Suleiman in Jenin, when the ambulance he was riding was hit with an artillery shell).Following the massacre, the Israeli occupation army said the killing of the Abu Kweik’s family and other civilians was not “deliberate” and happened as a result of “faulty intelligence.”The Occupation army spokesman suggested that their target was Hussein Abu Kweik himself , not his family.Earlier, Israeli political and military leaders had warned that they would target “the militants and their families.” On 4 March, 2002, the BBC quoted Israeli Prime Minister and certified war criminal Ariel Sharon as telling the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, that Israel was fighting “a harsh war against a cruel and bloodthirsty enemy” and that “heavy losses must now be inflicted on the Palestinians.”On the runWith his wife and their three children annihilated and only a small child, Hafez, spared, Hussein Abu Kweik felt that he was living on a borrowed time and that he had to go underground in order to maximize his chances of remaining alive.His apprehension was vindicated several times as crack Israeli soldiers stormed his home, terrorizing his elderly mother, who since then developed has become diabetic and lost nearly completely her eyesight, and savagely vandalizing property, furniture and house appliances.“We want to kill Hussein so that he will join his wife and children,” the soldiers would tell the old lady.“They would commit every conceivable act of barbarism, including throwing bombs and explosives inside the living room just to make us suffer.” In one instance, Israeli soldiers blasted with explosive the interior of the house, inflicting a lot of damage. Normally, the pretext in such circumstances is to kill “terrorists” who may be hiding inside. However, the real reason is to wreak damage and material losses on the Palestinians.Eventually, on 28 July, 2002, less than four months after the extermination of his family, Hussein was arrested.He spent 58 days “of intensive interrogation and torture” at the Russian Compound Lockup in West Jerusalem during which “every sadistic form of harm” was applied against him for the purpose of extracting confessions from him.“They would get furious whenever I invoked their crime against my family, they would warn me not to mention ‘this story’ again.”According to Abu Kweik, an Israeli Shin Beth officer code-named Abu Yosef (nearly all Israeli Shin Bet interrogators assume fictitious Arab nicknames) admitted that there was no logical justification for murdering Abu Kweik’s family, except to make the Palestinians suffer.“I told Abu Yosef that I read the Quran, the New and Old Testaments and never saw a more barbaric and more criminal people. I told them ‘suppose that I was the biggest criminal in the world, what was the guilt of my innocent wife and children to deserve this brutal death at their hands’?"The interrogators’ response was usually that “this is war, and that in war no holds are barred and that everything was fair in love and war.”And when Hussein sought to retort by saying, for example, that even the Nazis would have made the same argument, the interrogators would be further enraged and would warn me not to compare “the Jews with the Nazis.”In 2003, when Abu Kweik was prosecuted before an Israeli army court, the military attorney couldn’t prove that he was involved in “acts of terror,” especially “serious violations” that, from the Israeli view point, would have justified the decision to assassinate him and murder his family.Still, he was given a 4-year prison sentence on secondary charges, including “affiliation with the political wing of a hostile organization” and “acting as spokesman for Hamas,” and similar routine charges.Kweik’s imprisonment term expired in August 2006. However, the Shin Beth, which has the final say in everything pertaining to the Palestinians, decided to give him eight more months of “administrative detention” because he “constituted a threat to the security of the region.”On 1 April, 2007, he was freed, and allowed to return to his home at the al-Amaari refugee camp.Hafez, his remaining son, now 11, is having mild-to-moderate symptoms of emotional trauma and needs psychological rehabilitation. He is almost morbidly attached to his father and experiences nightmares and other psychological disorders stemming from the trauma of witnessing the brutal death of his mother and siblings.Hussein Kweik has since re-married, but he still can’t get over his haunting catastrophe.“What happened to my family defies linguistic description. The Zionists committed a holocaust against my family. And after wiping out my family, they arrested me and exposed me to physical and psychological tortured and unjustly kept me in inhuman conditions for close to 5 years.“If there are Nazis in this world, it is the Zionists; if there is evil in this world, nobody embodies it more thoroughly than do the Israelis. They are devils in human forms, they are evil, satanic.”Kweik is trying “as much as possible” to recuperate from the seemingly irremediable nightmare.He says he now wants to devote more time to rebuild his life and rehabilitate his son.Asked if he would sue the Israeli state for murder, Kweik, after a moment of silence, said: “you know, there is no justice in this world. Besides, Justice and Israel is a contradiction in terms.People who commit these ghastly crimes can’t be counted upon to be just.”But he did appeal to “conscientious jurists and lawyers around the world” to help him obtain “some semblance of justice from the evil state.”“I know that had my wife and children been Jewish or American, I would probably receive millions of dollars in compensation. But we are Palestinians and much of the so-called enlightened world treats us as lesser human beings. Even animals in other countries probably have more human rights than we are allowed to …Isn’t this what the Zionists and America want”?Asked further what he would tell the Israeli tank crew who fired the two artillery shells that killed his family.“I wouldn’t want to see them. But on the Day of Judgment, my wife and children would confront these killers and ask them…Why did you kill us?”Immoral world Abu Kweik says he is embittered not only by the mass murder of his family, but also by the silence and indifference of much of the world toward Israel’s “genocidal crimes against our people.”“I can’t understand how these states and governments which claim to be enlightened and civilized could remain silent in the face of what Israel has been doing to us?“Are they blind, are they deaf, are they dumb, don’t they have senses? Or are they just simply hypocrites and liars?”
No catalogue of Israel’s Nazi-like criminality against the Palestinian people can be complete without the story of Hussein Abu Kweik, whose family was wiped out by the Israeli army in a failed attempt on his life nearly five years ago.On 4 March, 2002, shortly afternoon, Abu Kweik’s wife, Bushra, drove the family car to collect their three children from two Ramallah schools, the al-Mughtarebin (Expatriates) school for males and the Al-Fajr al Jadid (the New Dawn) school for females.Neither the Kweiks nor, indeed, their children had the faintest idea that their car was being closely watched and is about to be targeted by an Israeli tank taking position at the nearby hilly Jewish colony of Psogot.Hussein, now 48, knew that the Israelis might arrest him for affiliation with Hamas’s political wing and for making a lot of interviews with the local and international media on Hamas’s behalf.But it never occurred to him, as he says “ that they would assassinate me, let alone exterminate my entire family for making statements to the media and for criticizing the Israeli occupation of my country.”As Bushra collected Aziza, 14, Baraa 13, and Muhammed 9, she drove back home at al Ama’ari refugee camp in Ramallah’s southern suburbs as she did everyday.She was only a few hundreds meters away from home when an Israeli Merkava tank fired two large artillery shells at the car, reducing it to a huge fireball. Bushra and her three kids were annihilated immediately as their charred, dismembered remains protruded from the twisted metal of their Mitsubishi- 2000.The exploding shells killed two more children who were traveling in an adjacent car. The two victims were identified as Shayma Ezzidin al Masri, 4, and her cousin, Arafat Ibrahim al Masri, 16 years old. (Eleven more Palestinians were killed on that day, including a medical doctor named Khalil Suleiman in Jenin, when the ambulance he was riding was hit with an artillery shell).Following the massacre, the Israeli occupation army said the killing of the Abu Kweik’s family and other civilians was not “deliberate” and happened as a result of “faulty intelligence.”The Occupation army spokesman suggested that their target was Hussein Abu Kweik himself , not his family.Earlier, Israeli political and military leaders had warned that they would target “the militants and their families.” On 4 March, 2002, the BBC quoted Israeli Prime Minister and certified war criminal Ariel Sharon as telling the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, that Israel was fighting “a harsh war against a cruel and bloodthirsty enemy” and that “heavy losses must now be inflicted on the Palestinians.”On the runWith his wife and their three children annihilated and only a small child, Hafez, spared, Hussein Abu Kweik felt that he was living on a borrowed time and that he had to go underground in order to maximize his chances of remaining alive.His apprehension was vindicated several times as crack Israeli soldiers stormed his home, terrorizing his elderly mother, who since then developed has become diabetic and lost nearly completely her eyesight, and savagely vandalizing property, furniture and house appliances.“We want to kill Hussein so that he will join his wife and children,” the soldiers would tell the old lady.“They would commit every conceivable act of barbarism, including throwing bombs and explosives inside the living room just to make us suffer.” In one instance, Israeli soldiers blasted with explosive the interior of the house, inflicting a lot of damage. Normally, the pretext in such circumstances is to kill “terrorists” who may be hiding inside. However, the real reason is to wreak damage and material losses on the Palestinians.Eventually, on 28 July, 2002, less than four months after the extermination of his family, Hussein was arrested.He spent 58 days “of intensive interrogation and torture” at the Russian Compound Lockup in West Jerusalem during which “every sadistic form of harm” was applied against him for the purpose of extracting confessions from him.“They would get furious whenever I invoked their crime against my family, they would warn me not to mention ‘this story’ again.”According to Abu Kweik, an Israeli Shin Beth officer code-named Abu Yosef (nearly all Israeli Shin Bet interrogators assume fictitious Arab nicknames) admitted that there was no logical justification for murdering Abu Kweik’s family, except to make the Palestinians suffer.“I told Abu Yosef that I read the Quran, the New and Old Testaments and never saw a more barbaric and more criminal people. I told them ‘suppose that I was the biggest criminal in the world, what was the guilt of my innocent wife and children to deserve this brutal death at their hands’?"The interrogators’ response was usually that “this is war, and that in war no holds are barred and that everything was fair in love and war.”And when Hussein sought to retort by saying, for example, that even the Nazis would have made the same argument, the interrogators would be further enraged and would warn me not to compare “the Jews with the Nazis.”In 2003, when Abu Kweik was prosecuted before an Israeli army court, the military attorney couldn’t prove that he was involved in “acts of terror,” especially “serious violations” that, from the Israeli view point, would have justified the decision to assassinate him and murder his family.Still, he was given a 4-year prison sentence on secondary charges, including “affiliation with the political wing of a hostile organization” and “acting as spokesman for Hamas,” and similar routine charges.Kweik’s imprisonment term expired in August 2006. However, the Shin Beth, which has the final say in everything pertaining to the Palestinians, decided to give him eight more months of “administrative detention” because he “constituted a threat to the security of the region.”On 1 April, 2007, he was freed, and allowed to return to his home at the al-Amaari refugee camp.Hafez, his remaining son, now 11, is having mild-to-moderate symptoms of emotional trauma and needs psychological rehabilitation. He is almost morbidly attached to his father and experiences nightmares and other psychological disorders stemming from the trauma of witnessing the brutal death of his mother and siblings.Hussein Kweik has since re-married, but he still can’t get over his haunting catastrophe.“What happened to my family defies linguistic description. The Zionists committed a holocaust against my family. And after wiping out my family, they arrested me and exposed me to physical and psychological tortured and unjustly kept me in inhuman conditions for close to 5 years.“If there are Nazis in this world, it is the Zionists; if there is evil in this world, nobody embodies it more thoroughly than do the Israelis. They are devils in human forms, they are evil, satanic.”Kweik is trying “as much as possible” to recuperate from the seemingly irremediable nightmare.He says he now wants to devote more time to rebuild his life and rehabilitate his son.Asked if he would sue the Israeli state for murder, Kweik, after a moment of silence, said: “you know, there is no justice in this world. Besides, Justice and Israel is a contradiction in terms.People who commit these ghastly crimes can’t be counted upon to be just.”But he did appeal to “conscientious jurists and lawyers around the world” to help him obtain “some semblance of justice from the evil state.”“I know that had my wife and children been Jewish or American, I would probably receive millions of dollars in compensation. But we are Palestinians and much of the so-called enlightened world treats us as lesser human beings. Even animals in other countries probably have more human rights than we are allowed to …Isn’t this what the Zionists and America want”?Asked further what he would tell the Israeli tank crew who fired the two artillery shells that killed his family.“I wouldn’t want to see them. But on the Day of Judgment, my wife and children would confront these killers and ask them…Why did you kill us?”Immoral world Abu Kweik says he is embittered not only by the mass murder of his family, but also by the silence and indifference of much of the world toward Israel’s “genocidal crimes against our people.”“I can’t understand how these states and governments which claim to be enlightened and civilized could remain silent in the face of what Israel has been doing to us?“Are they blind, are they deaf, are they dumb, don’t they have senses? Or are they just simply hypocrites and liars?”
Labels: The Zone where the natives live
Saturday, April 28, 2007
The myth called Israeli left
Around the world, the word spreads that among the Zionists there are the good guys and the bad guys. We have grown accustomed to calling the first group The (dovish, peaceful intellectual ...) Left, and the second was accordingly named The (hawkish, radical, fanatic...) Right. And so the word spread that there are the good guys who work for justice and peace, and there are bad guys who are only interested in bloodshed and violence.This has become a strong argument of many of Israel's supporters. Saying, for example, this government does not represent all Israelis, there are Israelis who want peace.However, the idea of what a leftist movement really is usually escapes these arguments. The Left, should, in my modest understanding, present a way forward that is not built on intolerance and bigotry. The left should me more open to ideas that present a real alternative. More importantly, the left can only be called so if it puts matters of justice, equality, democracy, participation and human rights over and above all other considerations. The left should be the anti-thesis of all social and political forces which are based on intolerance and bigotry. It should be willing to fight these groups, in democratic means, in order to achieve these ideals.That is why the left has come to be understood amongst progressive groups as good. Simply because all humans are viewed as equals and no matter of their differences.My argument is that in Israel, no such movement exists. At least not at scale which can be called a movement.The pride of Israel's propagandists who preach of its "Left" is Meretz. It is nonetheless a Zionist party which views all humans as equal in their status, beneath Jews- that is. Of course you will not find this argument in the party's literature which is full of arguments on peace and justice. But racism is not only to call an African American the N-word, it is a state of mind. Meretz's state of mind, allows its to believe that Jews have more rights to this land than other people who lived and continue to live there. This is really interesting considering the fact that they do not hold religious reasons behind their views, but rather historic reasons. So to them it is not the fact that God promised this land to Abraham's seed, but rather that the seed lived here. At the same time, other people who lived there do not have this right. That really is a strange reasoning coming from a secular party! If religious people cite a divine promise for their claims, then what can you call such secular claims other than racism?look at the following words of Yossi Sarid for example "... Britain had made up its mind to fold up the flag of the empire ... the Yishuv must prepare for its real war of liberation, against the Arabs, and not waste its strength in a war against the rearguard of an imaginary enemy."These words are a clear indication of the fact that his mentality, as that of his party and Zionism in general, is loaded with bigotry. So how can this mentality be considered to stem from a leftist progressive mind?
Labels: Neocolonialism
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Legal Vs. Ethical
Zionists, usually try to defend the discriminatory practices against non-jews living inside Palestine (whether Israeli citizens or not) by claiming that they are following specific laws that serve the public interest. I am not intending to argue that the "public" in this context refers to Jews in particular, for this is an axiom of Israseli politics which needs no proof.It is interesting however to inspect how Israel creates a legal framework that allows for such practices to pass. One only has to pay a passing look to the fact that Israel applies two sets of laws in the West Bank and Gaza. While these areas are subject to the Israeli Civil Administration which applies martial laws in the territories, settlers, by virtue of being Jewish are excluded from these laws. Inside Israel you will find that a strange leagal framework gives more rights to those who serve in the Israeli army, while miracuoulsly giving these privelages to Orthodox Jews, and somehow, "legally", leaving the Arabs outside this set of privelages.To be short, Israeli laws are full of "ifs and thens": if the subject is a Jew, then ..., if the subject did not serve in the army, then.... except if he is a Jew.Now enters the "Bishara Law", the diamond of Israel's sick mentality, which would give the Kinnesset the right to strip another member of his membership! Wow! how wonderfully democratic... of course there are lots of ifs and thens in this law, but somehow, these ifs and thens can only be applied to Arabs.This law, is tailor made to suit the Bishara case. I am really speechless, but did anyone from around the world hear of a similar law being applied in a democracy. I think even the harshest autocratic regimes would not have a similar provision in their laws. The Knesset will soon become a rubber stamp parliament for the Zionist leadership, and maybe then those blinded Israel supporter can see that. But maybe not, afterall there were people who thought South Africa was always a democratic country!The issue here is that we can defend some acts by saying they are legal. But laws are set by those who have the power, and if these are corrupt (ethically I mean), then we will need a different standard to judge state practices other than the legality of such practices. Afterall, the sick minds in Israel which thought up a grey 8 meter high concrete wall to imprison the Palestinians, can think up anything else.
Labels: The Zone where the natives live
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Dr. Salman Abu Sitta: A Sacred Right
Dr. Salman Abu Sitta: A Sacred Right
Your people, Bir'im have not died
And will not forsake a grain of sand from you
As long as you have men like these
As long as you have men like these
Who continually strive for justice
Issa Chacour
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/salman_abusitta/2007/03/salman_abu_sitta.html
Why should I, a Jew from north London, be permitted to take up Israeli citizenship, when that right is denied to a Palestinian who languishes in a refugee camp in Lebanon? Especially when I acknowledge that a large majority of those that left in 1948 were ethnically cleansed by Israeli forces.Those are the words of Alex Stein, writing for Comment is free last week. A commendable admission of injustice to Palestinians, you would say. But then he derives conclusions that are contrary to this premise; that the right of a Palestinian to return to his home is neither sacred, legal nor possible.
This split-personality theme has been infamously adopted by Benny Morris who poured over hundreds of declassified Israeli files. Morris confirmed in minute detail that, in 1948, Israeli invasion forces committed massacres, expelled Palestinians, destroyed their villages, looted their property, burnt their crops, poisoned their wells and shot on the spot any Palestinian who tried to return to his home. Referring to the remaining minority, Morris then solemnly declared that he was sorry that Ben Gurion "did not finish the job".
Both Alex Stein and Benny Morris escape from the fact, slowly seeping into the western conscience, that Palestinians were - and are today - subject to the most massive, comprehensive, meticulously planned and executed and continuous ethnic cleansing operation in modern history. This has long been denied by Israeli historians. A notable exception is a brave and honest Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe.
The sensation created by Benny Morris's revelation about al-Nakba, grudgingly accepted by some Jews, is a stark measure of how the west was taken in by the Zionist propaganda for several decades. The Palestinians do not know whether to laugh or cry, for the "revelations" are only some of what they have been saying all along since 1948. Hundreds of thousands of refugees gave graphic details of their plight but these were dismissed by the Zionist Europeans as "a figment of oriental imagination" until an Israeli historian found damning evidence in Israeli files.
Facts have a way of surfacing. The facts, documented on maps and records, show that in 1948 Israelis depopulated the Palestinian inhabitants of 675 towns and villages, that their land represents 93% of Israel's area; that half of all the refugees have been expelled in the last six weeks of the British Mandate, before the state of Israel was declared and before any Arab regular soldier set foot on Palestine to save its people from the invasion of Jewish European immigrants who had just waded into their shores to build Israel on the ruins of Palestine.What is more natural than a person returning to their home? If Stein does not believe this is "sacred", he has to ask 6 million Palestinian refugees (two-thirds of all Palestinians) why are they still determined to fight for their right to return over a period of six decades and through three generations and many wars. That the right of return for Palestinians has been affirmed by the UN more than 130 times is enough to put this matter to rest. No need to spill more ink on that score.
If defeated on both counts, Zionists usually resort to their last defence: that the right of return is not possible to implement.
In a civilised society, if a crime is committed, its consequences must be reversed. The criminal should not be rewarded, and his crime should not be forgiven or even legitimised. The stolen property must be returned. Rights must be reinstated and reparation paid for material losses.This is what the international community insisted upon, sometimes using military force, in implementing the return of refugees to Bosnia, Kosovo, Burundi, Cambodia, East Timor, Georgia, Guatemala, Mozambique, Ruwanda, South Africa, Tajikistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
This is also what the European Jews rightly got when they returned to their former homes (if they so wished), recovered their property in Europe and received massive amounts of compensation for their suffering during the second world war, without the benefit of a single UN resolution.
The pretext that return is not possible because of the influx of Jewish immigrants to Palestine to replace the expelled Palestinians is not a valid one, morally, legally or politically. But we are spared the argument on this point. Here we have yet another one of the misconceptions designed to mislead and misinform the western public. It is not true that it is physically impossible to implement the right of return.
Palestine is the most documented among conflict-torn countries, certainly much more than Bosnia and Kosovo. We have complete UN-documented ownership records of every acre of land. Not a single Israeli Jew has an equivalent title deed after al-Nakba. We have detailed maps of what every acre was, what it is today and can visualise what it could/should be in the future.We have a huge database of millions of Palestinians - where they come from in Palestine, and where they are residing today, their family structure and their ages. Today, 90% of them reside within 100 km of their homes, 50% within 40km and many can actually see their home on the opposite hill.
That is not all. The refugees' land is still sparsely populated. Eighty per cent of Israeli Jews still live in the same area they acquired during the Mandate and a little more, but 15% of Israel in total. About 18% of the remaining 20% of the Jews live mostly in half a dozen originally Palestinian or mixed cities, considerably enlarged. This leaves 2% of Israeli Jews who are the members of Qibbutz and Moshav.
This small number of population, in addition to the army, use and control 85%-88% of Israel's area, which is the patrimony of 6 million Palestinian refugees. To take an example, all the rural Jews in the southern district from Ashdod (Isdud) to Eilat (Umm Rashrash) are less in number that one refugee camp in Gaza. Their density is six persons per square kilometre while that of Gaza population - the owners of this very land - is 6,000 per square kilometre. These owners of the land are held captive by the occupier in a concentration camp called Gaza.
Labels: Were should we go after the last sky
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Settlers are the guardians of democracy
No. This is not and April fools comment! It is true, in my point of view at least. Israel Harel Wrote today in Haaretz that "Israeli settlers are not a threat to democracy". I say they are the only hope for democracy!Israeli settlers are among the most ideologically driven members of the Israeli community. They look upon the colonisation of the West Bank as a divine order which they should fulfill. This ideological drive which controls the settlers' mentality turns them in some areas into beasts when dealing with their Palestinian neighbours. One should only have a look at the settlers in Hebron, Gush Emunim and Gush Etzion to understand what I am talking about.However, the settlers still give hope for democracy. This is one oxymoron in the Israeli society, one of many.How is this possible? To understand this, I will go into a journey through the five pillars of the final status negotiations which have for long ago been forgotten! The five pillar are: water, refugees, security and borders, Jerusalem and settlements. At least three of these five can be resolved in a two state solution. Two issues remain unresolved under such an agreement: Refugees and settlers.Water is one of the most controversial topics. The water resources between the Jordan Rive and the Mediterranean come from three large underground aquifers one in the Northern West Bank, another in the Southern West Bank, and a shared aquifer between Gaza Strip and Negev Desert. Other water resources include the Jordan River and the Sea of the Galilee (Tiberias Lake). So most of these resources are inside the 1967 borders. Israel, however, has monopoly rights over them, as Palestinians extraction is severely limited by Israel. Palestinians buy water from Mekorot, the Israeli company, which sells it at significantly higher prices. Palestinians end up covering the subsidies of water consumed by Israelis. This however, will be forgotten in the final status if two states are formed. The current situation is likely to remain. Very few international players ar expected to have the moral integrity to mention this!Border and Security arrangements are possibly the easiest! they can be discussed and agreed upon. The agreement is likely to infringe on Palestinian rights, but who cares!Jerusalem, also is likely to fall under an agreement. Palestinians will not accept anything less than East Jerusalem. This is likely to happen at a very high price in concessions in other areas!Refugees! Israel says no right of return. UNGA R194 says Yes. This is likely to remain an obstacle in a two state solution. But since its subjects are Palestinians it is likely it will not be regarded as important in the international arena.Settlers and settlements! It is unlikely that over a half million settlers in West Bank including Jerusalem are likely to agree to any solution that requires their relocation. They have significant powers in Israel, they are supported by political parties with strong powers in the Knesset. So any solution that contradict their demands will not be passed!Settlements are spreading like a cancer that eats away through the heart of the West Bank. They are the most stubborn obstacle in the face of a two state solution. Any solution as such, is likely to institutionalise a Bantustans system which is in effect in Palestine/Israel. It will therefore be unacceptable for any Palestinian, and it will emphasise Israel's Apartheid nature.Being such a difficult scenario, Israeli settlement will remain the main obstacle in achieving a two state solution until Israeli and Palestinian leaders will have the courage to sit down and discuss how true democracy should prevail in this piece of land. We know it can only prevail in a single state for all its citizens, one that all Jews and Palestinian Arabs would call 'our home'. The settlers are hence the guardians of our dream for a true and just democracy!
No. This is not and April fools comment! It is true, in my point of view at least. Israel Harel Wrote today in Haaretz that "Israeli settlers are not a threat to democracy". I say they are the only hope for democracy!Israeli settlers are among the most ideologically driven members of the Israeli community. They look upon the colonisation of the West Bank as a divine order which they should fulfill. This ideological drive which controls the settlers' mentality turns them in some areas into beasts when dealing with their Palestinian neighbours. One should only have a look at the settlers in Hebron, Gush Emunim and Gush Etzion to understand what I am talking about.However, the settlers still give hope for democracy. This is one oxymoron in the Israeli society, one of many.How is this possible? To understand this, I will go into a journey through the five pillars of the final status negotiations which have for long ago been forgotten! The five pillar are: water, refugees, security and borders, Jerusalem and settlements. At least three of these five can be resolved in a two state solution. Two issues remain unresolved under such an agreement: Refugees and settlers.Water is one of the most controversial topics. The water resources between the Jordan Rive and the Mediterranean come from three large underground aquifers one in the Northern West Bank, another in the Southern West Bank, and a shared aquifer between Gaza Strip and Negev Desert. Other water resources include the Jordan River and the Sea of the Galilee (Tiberias Lake). So most of these resources are inside the 1967 borders. Israel, however, has monopoly rights over them, as Palestinians extraction is severely limited by Israel. Palestinians buy water from Mekorot, the Israeli company, which sells it at significantly higher prices. Palestinians end up covering the subsidies of water consumed by Israelis. This however, will be forgotten in the final status if two states are formed. The current situation is likely to remain. Very few international players ar expected to have the moral integrity to mention this!Border and Security arrangements are possibly the easiest! they can be discussed and agreed upon. The agreement is likely to infringe on Palestinian rights, but who cares!Jerusalem, also is likely to fall under an agreement. Palestinians will not accept anything less than East Jerusalem. This is likely to happen at a very high price in concessions in other areas!Refugees! Israel says no right of return. UNGA R194 says Yes. This is likely to remain an obstacle in a two state solution. But since its subjects are Palestinians it is likely it will not be regarded as important in the international arena.Settlers and settlements! It is unlikely that over a half million settlers in West Bank including Jerusalem are likely to agree to any solution that requires their relocation. They have significant powers in Israel, they are supported by political parties with strong powers in the Knesset. So any solution that contradict their demands will not be passed!Settlements are spreading like a cancer that eats away through the heart of the West Bank. They are the most stubborn obstacle in the face of a two state solution. Any solution as such, is likely to institutionalise a Bantustans system which is in effect in Palestine/Israel. It will therefore be unacceptable for any Palestinian, and it will emphasise Israel's Apartheid nature.Being such a difficult scenario, Israeli settlement will remain the main obstacle in achieving a two state solution until Israeli and Palestinian leaders will have the courage to sit down and discuss how true democracy should prevail in this piece of land. We know it can only prevail in a single state for all its citizens, one that all Jews and Palestinian Arabs would call 'our home'. The settlers are hence the guardians of our dream for a true and just democracy!
Labels: The Zone where the natives live
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