(Ben Heine © Cartoons){hattip Desert Peace}
Palestinians are the Priority an open statement of commitment to the Palestinian Solidarity Cause.
There are individuals within the Palestinian solidarity movement seeking to create divisions by:
* deliberately shifting focus away from Israel's war crimes and its supremacist Zionist ideology;
* imposing unilateral agendas by presenting both sides as victims;
* sabotaging service to the just cause of the Palestinian people;
* ignoring the issue of right of return for the Palestinians;
* utilising the platform of the Palestinian discourse to argue about anti-Semitism, which is not a Palestinian problem and not created by Arabs.
Our primary and single concern is solidarity with the Palestinian people.
As ethical human beings we consider it our obligation to:
* do all we can to allow the information to be diffused as widely and as quickly as possible;
* ensure the argument of the oppression and disenfranchisement of the Palestinian people stays in the forefront;
* present as clear and honest a picture as possible of the meaning of Zionism and the Jewish State;
* to cross the divide and to unite in our war against the Zionist crime.
We accept and believe in equality of all persons, regardless of their race, religion, political or other orientation. We believe that full and unconditional support of the Palestinian people is a condition sine qua non for activists to adopt, and we recognise that their attachment to their homeland is a fundamental and unalterable condition. To that end we advocate for one unified State with equal rights for all its citizens.
Any attempts at censoring reasoned critique of Israel and Zionism must be refused a priori, as it is in conflict with the goal of seeking to protect and support the Palestinian people - as their empowerment is the only way to peaceful coexistence for all the populations of the Middle East. Any attempts at dictating what the Palestinians should do will be looked upon with great circumspection and suspicion. Palestinians themselves wish to construct their own future and are not pawns to be shifted on the chessboard.
We demand free speech for sincere critics of Zionism and call for an end to campaigns created in order to ostracise its most vocal critics. Smear campaigns will not be tolerated, as we recognise that they are the instrument of choice of Zionists, and detract energy from our work. We will not hesitate to expose the instrumental usage of them, no matter the claimed principles of those who are engaged in creating such campaigns. On the other hand, open dialogue and reasoned argumentation is welcome and greatly encouraged as a tool to understanding and collaboration.
The indigenous people of Palestine are facing extermination by the hands of the Jewish State, and the world keeps silent. The sooner we draw public attention to Israel's needless wanton destruction, the sooner we can do away with this horrifying, insufferable situation.
If you agree with this statement, please sign the petition.
http://www.petitiononline.com/grosveno/petition.html
22 comments:
ignoring the issue of right of return for the Palestinians;
Not going to happen. They are not going to be able to return to the state of Israel. The focus should be on getting Arab countries to allow them to integrate into their host societies and not on continuing to force them to live in squalid refugee camps.
The surrounding Arab nations started the wars that led to these people being displaced and, in the 1947 war in particular, actually demanded that many of the Palestinians clear out of the area so that they could kill or drive out the Jews indiscriminately. Of course, these Palestinians thought they would be coming back shortly thereafter to reclaim both their own property and the property of the Jews. Unfortunately for Palestinians, the Arabs lost. Time for the Arab nations to actually take some responsibility for their aggression and help the Palestinians integrate.
utilising the platform of the Palestinian discourse to argue about anti-Semitism, which is not a Palestinian problem and not created by Arabs.
Clearly it is a Palestinian and Arab problem. It may not have been "created" by them but, then again, Germans were not the first antisemitic people on the planet either. It hardly matters. Today the Arabs are among the biggest promoters of antisemitism globally.
The indigenous people of Palestine are facing extermination by the hands of the Jewish State,
What are you talking about? The Palestinian population is growing even faster than the Jewish population. How can they be facing "extermination?" Lets stick to facts not empty hyperbole.
present as clear and honest a picture as possible of the meaning of Zionism and the Jewish State;
Yawn. Instead of "clearly and honestly" engaging in the same old bunch of misguided criticisms, how about actually providing some ideas about how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? How about a concrete plan that people can actually act upoon? How would you end terrorism? How would you solve the refugee problem? How would you divide things among the Israelis and the Palestinians? Where would a final settlement leave the Palestinians? Where would it leave the Jews? What if the Jews do exactly what you ask them to do and terrorism persists or increases? What if the conflict deepens? Can you propose a Plan B if things go wrong? How about engaging in proposals that are actually constructive and thoughtful for a change?
For an alternative take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I recommend reading this:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/media/pdf/BigLies.pdf
imposing unilateral agendas by presenting both sides as victims;
Aren't both sides victims?Or have you forgot the suicide bombs that has been used on Israeli citizens and the rockets that hit Israeli towns daily?Both sides suffer- the Palestinians suffer more because they are the weaker side, yet something that many people forget is the Israelis also suffer.
ignoring the issue of right of return for the Palestinians;
The right of return is not a viable concept both from political and from practical points of view, the political POV is widely known so I'll address the practical one:They have nowhere to go- the places they fled from are no more, or owned by people who bought them with clear conscience.Reparations are another matter and may or may not be viable.
utilising the platform of the Palestinian discourse to argue about anti-Semitism, which is not a Palestinian problem and not created by Arabs.
Has poverty been created by Arabs?Nope.Yet it is a Palestinian problem.Anti-Semitism is a problem in Palestinian and Arab public discourse because it is so widely accepted and encouraged.He who fosters one kind of racism invites others.
do all we can to allow the information to be diffused as widely and as quickly as possible;
Do be sure to include the information about the clan wars and the rocket bombardments of Israeli towns please.
present as clear and honest a picture as possible of the meaning of Zionism and the Jewish State;
Do be sure to mention that Arab citizens get full votes and human rights over here, although there is discrimination, which is understandable- given both human nature and the fact that we have been at war with Arabs for as long as most people have lived, it is being fought by the courts and the justice system.
to cross the divide and to unite in our war against the Zionist crime.
Which one is that?Our existence?Sorry, Zionism has the same right to exist as the Palestinian(or American) National movement.Although I'd say the Palestinian National movement *did* lose some legitimacy by its practice of targeting civilians and using human shields.
The right of return is an inalienable right. "Everyone has the right to leave his home and return to his home." Article 13, Section 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is non-negotiable.
To quote Palestinian journalist, Khalid Amayreh:
" . . .the Palestinians will never ever give up the right to return to their homes and towns from which they were uprooted at gun point by Judeo-Nazi gangs, emulating their former oppressors.
"Rape doesn't become legal and acceptable after 59 years. The arrogaton of Palestine was an act of rape in 1948; it is still an act of rape today. Anything else is futile argument."
Post your Zionist garbage somewhere else. Readers here know better.
umkahlil, I assume that in this case the Jews that were evicted from their homes is Arab countries at gunpoint have the right to return, or get reparations, right?Oh, and maybe those Amerindian tribes uprooted about a century and a half ago should be reinstated in their traditional tribal lands and the towns and cities erected since then eradicated?
Many Jews don't want anything to do with the Jewish "refugee" designation, including former Knesset speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu:
'We are not refugees. [Some of us] came to this country before the state was born. We had messianic aspirations.'
"Shlomo Hillel, a government minister and an active Zionist in Iraq, adamantly opposed the analogy: 'I don't regard the departure of Jews from Arab lands as that of refugees. They came here because they wanted to, as Zionists.'
"Ran Cohen stated emphatically: 'I have this to say: I am not a refugee.' He added: 'I came at the behest of Zionism, due to the pull that this land exerts, and due to the idea of redemption. Nobody is going to define me as a refugee.'"
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=329736
Furthermore, the Palestinians are not responsible for what occurred to Arab Jews in other countries; in fact, according to Naim Giladi, Zionists themselves created situations which effected an exodus of Arab Jews:
http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2005/08/naeim-giladis-jews-of-iraq-dispells.html
The right of return is established through international law. As an inalienable right it is not a matter for argument.
Both Shlomo Hillel and Yisrael Yeshayahu immigrated to Israel long before 1948(1933 and 1920 respectively) and although Ran Cohen and his family may have immigrated voluntarily, from all accounts there were many who didn't, who given choice would have stayed in the home they grew up in.Even assuming each one of them would have chosen in time to immigrate to Israel, the fact that this choice was *taken* from them means they should be allowed return or reparations by your interpretation of international law.
And even assuming you are right from the point of the dry law, the practical impossibility stands.How do you propose to overcome this without creating further wrong?Remember, the law does not stand in vacuum, it has to work within a socio-economical reality, and when its decisions become impossible it will be honored more in the breach then in than in the observance, because society can't pay that price.
Your standing in this matter shows a rather interesting hypocrisy:Why do the Palestinians deserve more rights then the Jews who were subjected to the same conditions?
I don't see why we need a Palestinian state anyway. It would be just one more unproductive, fascistic, religiously intolerant, terrorist-promoting loser nation in that great sea of loser nations of which the modern Arab world is comprised.
The Arab world needs to get with the program and step into the 21st century (or even just the 18th, 19th, or 20th century) and stop all this tribalism, sectarianism, and plain old madness.
I would advise those Arabs interested in advancement to start by leading a campaign against cousin marriage. Inbreeding feeds tribalism, inhibits national cohesion, and helps maintain the paleolithic honor/shame culture of the Arab world. Besides, unibrows suck.
I would also advise them to look at finding a religion other than Islam. Any religion other than Islam. Maybe they could take up Babylonian and Egyptian paganism again. Even allowing for the occasional human sacrifice, it would undoubtedly be a substantial improvement. ;-)
Do those two things and the Mideast might once again emerge as a world leader in terms of progress and advancement like it was thousands of years ago. Arab reformists, may the force be with you.
The Feasibility of Return
http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/MEPP/PRRN/papers/abusitta.html
Suggest that you read Naim Giladi regarding Zionists efforts in effecting the exit of Jews from Arab countries; again, this is not the responsibility of the Palestinians.
Also suggest Route 181 . . .a very poignant scene in which an Arab Jewish woman who immigrated to Israel regrets her decision and talks about a better life that she had in the Arab Country.
Repatriation of the Palestinian refugees is the sole responsibility of the offending party. Palestinians will never relinquish their inalienable right to return home.
Actually, it is not in the interests of the Israeli government to demand repatriation for those Arab Jews who lost property (from Hitching A Ride on A Magic Carpet, URL in earlier comment):
"Shenhav writes: 'The history of the 'Mizrahi aliyah' (immigration to Israel) is complex, and cannot be subsumed within a facile explanation. Many of the newcomers lost considerable property, and there can be no question that they should be allowed to submit individual property claims against Arab states (up to the present day, the State of Israel and WOJAC have blocked the submission of claims on this basis).'"
Of course its in the interests of the state of Israel to block submission of individual property claims rather than adhering to UN Resolution 194 which requires that it pay claims for the ninety-two percent of Palestine it confiscated from its individual personal property owners.
Hehehehehehe, this is so much fun. I'll do more "Twosret posts" in the future.
Can’t we all just be one big happy family? :)
Ba3deen isma3eeni ya Twosret, inti bigadik? Inti wa3ateeni. Mush munkin ti’3ayari rayik. Ana lisa 7astanna il molokhia bita3ti
Repatriation of the Palestinian refugees is the sole responsibility of the offending party. Palestinians will never relinquish their inalienable right to return home.
I guess Palestinians are bound for a long and unsatisfying future then because it isn't going to happen, I'm sorry to say.
But really now, Umkahlil, do you really mean never? Because if you mean never, then I would have to argue that the Jews had prior claims on the land before the Palestinians. The Palestinians, by your own logic, are invaders and occupiers and ought to be forced out of the West Bank and Gaza.
Isn't it time to consider a more pragmatic approach? We've got two peoples, each numbering in the millions, living side-by-side with each other. Regardless of history, it is neither feasible nor moral for either side to attempt to vanquish the other.
Why don't we take a pragmatic approach to the realities on the ground and face the present, look towards a better future, and not endlessly rehash the past?
I don't agree with your take on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Umkahlil, but even if you were entirely right, I think you are approaching things incorrectly. I have a grandparent who is a Cherokee from Oklahoma. His ancestors were, over 150 years ago, forcibly and brutally removed from their homeland in Georgia. They were given crummy, unproductive land in eastern Oklahoma.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_tears
In spite of this, within a few years of arriving in Oklahoma they had largely reestablished themselves and their community and moved on. They didn't keep agitating for the impossible notion of returning to Georgia. The time for that had passed. They accepted reality and didn't wallow in their pain. They got on with living their lives. It is past time for the Palestinians to get on with living their lives also.
Dr. Salman Abu Sitta has shown that return is feasible. Jews are concentrated on only about fifteen percent of the land (URL provided in earlier comment).
The Caananites pre-dated the Jewish presence in Palestine; however, the issue is not one merely of history; the issue is one of human, civil, and personal property rights.
Before the Hebrews first migrated there around 1800BC, the land of Canaan was occupied by Canaanities.
"Between 3000 and 1100BC, Canaanite civilization covered what is today Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon and much of Syria and Jordan... Those would remain in the Jerusalem hills after the Romans expelled the Jews [in the second century AD] were a potpourri: farmers and vineyard growers, pagans and converts to Christianity, descendants of the Arabs, Persians, Samaritans, Greeks an old Canaanite tribes."
Marcia Kunstel and Joseph Albright,
"Their Promised Land". The Present day Palestinians' ancestral heritage
"But all these [different peoples who had come into Canaan] were additions, sprigs grafted onto the parent tree...And that parentry was Canaanite...[the Arab invaders of the 7th century AD] made Moslem converts of the natives, settled down as residents, and intermarried with them, with the result that all are now so completely Arabised that we cannot tell whether Canaanites leave off and the Arabs begin."
Ilene Beatty,
"Arab and Jew in the land of Canaan."
Political Zionism is institutionalized bigotry and injustice.
"The time is always right to do the right thing." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The original refugees should be allowed to come back to israel if they want, but not their descendants. Being the child of a refugee does not make you a refugee. If the arab countries refused to help integrate the pal. refugees and them stay in camps thats not israels fauly.
And what about the jews who lived in hebron for years until the arabs killed a lot of them and kicked the rest out?
The Caananites pre-dated the Jewish presence in Palestine; however, the issue is not one merely of history;
The Palestinians are not the descendants of the Canaanites. This is absurd Palestinian propaganda. (The Palestinians also sometimes claim to be descended from the Philistines at times.)
The Biblical record speaks of the destruction of the Canaanites at the hands of the Hebrews. Secular historians largely disagree and believe that the Canaanites and Hebrews merged over time into a single people or that the Hebrews were a faction of the Canaanites that eventually became dominant. Whatever the truth, it is quite clear that the Hebrews constituted a single unified ethnic group as time progressed and that the Canaanites became nothing but a distant memory. They were no longer a separate or independent people. If they were, later Greeks and Romans would have noted their existence later in history which they quite obviously did not.
I am thoroughly impressed by Umkahlil and really dismayed by Tommy. Not because I side with Palestinians and agree with the right of return both for the Palestinian (and any other legitimate refugee nation,) but because of the dishonesty of the zionist writers like tommy--and his uber-sophist nightmare, Alan Dershowitz. Their history is incorrect, and they challenge other's facts until they cannot reconcile the hypocracy of their own words. It is not worth an argument or a discussion because they play dirty and they change the rules midway. I realize however that the compulsive attention to good scholarship which includes source material and supporting secondary sources is also laid out for the surfing reader to read; its is not there to convince Tommy. So well done Umkahlil--keep up the good work!!! I am an admirer.
drima, she promised you moloo7'ia too! i thought it was only to the select few. By the way she never delivers! been waiting for the fed ex guy, nothing, not a sausage
"Can’t we all just be one big happy family? " ripped right out of samira saeed's mouth..enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh-MFCi9xR4
Palestine should be nuked
but because of the dishonesty of the zionist writers like tommy--and his uber-sophist nightmare, Alan Dershowitz.
Actually, I'm not a fan at all of Dershowitz. I think he is a creep. I guess dishonesty is your strong suit, not mine. Not that I'm surprised. I've learned that your average physician barely has more scruples than your average lawyer, unfortunately.
Their history is incorrect, and they challenge other's facts until they cannot reconcile the hypocracy of their own words.
And to challenge my "incorrect" version of history, you offer up what exactly? That is right, nothing. (It is spelled "hypocrisy," BTW.) Go ahead and prove me wrong. Start by demonstrating that the modern Palestinians are the Canaanites.
I'd more more inclined to compare them to the Ammonites actually: they both sacrificed their own children. The Ammonites sacrificed their children to Moloch and the Palestinians sacrifice their children for the sake of that other Mo'.
I realize however that the compulsive attention to good scholarship which includes source material and supporting secondary sources is also laid out for the surfing reader to read; its is not there to convince Tommy
Well, if those sources are those same Arab outlets that also promote things like the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" and the idea that 9/11 was an inside job and the like, then probably not.
I quite agree with what Terry Scott said... I am thoroughly impressed by Umkahlil !!!!
& what a nice blog by the way- Chez Twosret :-)
UmKhalil, your response to antoncaro's claim that the arab jews were kicked at gun point out of their arab homes gives the impression that you agree with this piece of propaganda lie, because as far as I know, this didn't happen, and the proof is the sizeable jewish community in Syria and Morroco, also till the mid sixties there was a large one in Egypt, they declined in numbers mainly due to Nasser's screwing up the country and the declining economy in addition to the increasing hostility towards them for of our inability to distinguish between them and Israel's actions, and the last one is definitely our fault.
Certainly didn't mean to give that impression, Mohamed.
Tommy, your typical Zionist attempts at obfuscation: Ileane Beatty, Marcia Kunstel, Joseph Albright . . .these historians are not Palestinian.
Annie,
Thank you.
Tommy, your typical Zionist attempts at obfuscation: Ileane Beatty, Marcia Kunstel, Joseph Albright . . .these historians are not Palestinian.
So that is a prerequisit to being a historian? I an only assume then that the palastinian view of history is different from the rest of the world. nice media manipulation.
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