Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
No one can take away from me
My identity,
For it is mine. Palestinian am I.
I am the river that flows
Through my land.
I am the mountain
Noble and magnificent
Rising up out of chaos and destruction. I greet the morning sun
That shines down on my fertile valleys
And parches my barren desert. I am the red poppy and yellow daffodil
That grow upon my bloodstained hills.
I am the battle cry of freedom
That echoes through my corridors
And every fiber of my being. Palestinian am I.
I am the proud owner of
Orange orchards and lemon blossoms
And honey bees, wild and free. I am the Palestinian
David child wielding a single stone
Against the Israeli Goliath.
I am not afraid,
For truth is with me and God is on my side.
If I die,
A choir of angels will honor me
And later, my parents will grasp my outstretched hand
And join me in Heaven. I am the tears of
Mothers weeping for their dead sons.
I am the footsteps of ancient prophets
Who foretold of doom and destruction
To those who torture and oppress me. My brethren are the doves, hummingbirds and seagulls
That fly unhindered above my sea.
I am Palestinian,
Therefore, I am. No one can take my identity
Away from me,
Not tanks or guns or bombs
Meant to desecrate me and kill me.
My country lives in me. I am the cry of liberty.
No matter what they take from me,
They can’t take away my identity
Or my dignity.
Palestinian am I.
Biopsies from 32 victims conducted at three universities: Rome (Italy), Chalmer (Sweden) and Beirut (Lebanon)
PRESS RELEASE
May 11th 2010
Toxic and carcinogenic metals, able to produce genetic mutations, have been found in the tissues of people wounded in Gaza during Israeli military operations of 2006 and 2009. The research has been carried out on biopsies from wounds provoked by weapons that do not leave fragments, a peculiarity of weapons utilized in Gaza that was pointed out repeatedly by doctors and that shows that weapons whose long term effects are still to be assessed were used.
The researchers compared the quantity in 32 elements present in the tissues through ICP/MS (a type of highly sensitive mass spectrometry). The job, carried out by laboratories in the Universities La Sapienza of Rome (Italy), Chalmer (Sweden) and Beirut (Lebanon), was coordinated by New Weapons Research Group (Nwrg), an independent committee of scientists and experts based in Italy, who is studying the use of unconventional weapons and their mid-term effects on the population of after-war areas.
The relevant presence of toxic and carcinogenic metals founds in the wound tissues points to direct risks for survivors, but also to the possibility of environmental contamination.
Biopsies of tissues were performed by doctors of Shifa hospital, in Gaza city, who selected and classified the type of wounds. Research was conducted on 16 tissue samples belonging to 13 victims. 4 biopsies were taken in june 2006, during operation “Summer Rains”, while the others were taken in the first week of january 2009, during operation “Cast Lead”. All tissues were appropriately preserved and then examined by each of the three universities.
Tissues belong to four types of wound: amputation (marked with “A” in the study), charred (C), burns (B), multiple piercing wounds by white phosphorus (M). The following elements were found in quantities well beyond normal:
* Alluminium, titanium, copper, strontium, barium, cobalt, mercury, vanadium, cesium and tin in samples of A and C wounds; * Alluminium, titanium, copper, strontium, barium, cobalt and mercury in M wounds; * Cobalt, mercury, cesium and tin in B wounds; * Lead and uranium in all wound types; * Barium, arsenic, manganese, rubidium, cadmium, chromium and zinc in all, but M, wounds; * Nickel in A wounds.
Some of these elements are carcinogenic (mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel and uranium), others are potentially carcinogenic (cobalt and vanadium), others are also fetotoxic (alluminium, mercury, copper, barium, lead and manganese). The first ones can produce genetic mutations; the second ones can have the same effect on animals, but they are not proven to do the same on people; the third ones have toxic effects for people ad can affect either the embryo or the foetus in pregnant women. All metals found in amounts over the controls have pathogenic effects in human respiratory organs, kidney and skin and affect sexual and neurological development and functions
The combination of metals in each type of wound is referred to as a “metal signature”, illustrated in the following image:
Your browser may not support display of this image. Legend
Columns represent elements, rows represent wound type
Red cicles: very high amounts in all biopsies
Orange squares: very high amounts in some biopsies
Blue triangles: amounts similar to those found in normal derma
“Nobody – says professor Paola Manduca, spokesperson of the New Weapons Research Group, genetics teacher and researcher at the University of Genoa – had never conducted bioptic analysis on tissue samples from wounds. We concentrate the attention on wounds made by weapons that do not leave fragments, as these were pointed out several times by the doctors in Gaza, and because weapons which do not leave fragments were developed in recent years. We wanted to verify if metals were present which remained in the wound skin and derma. The use of metals in the weapons utilized in Gaza had been hypothesized, but never demonstrated before. To our surprise, beside finding the metal components of amputating weapons, even the burns provoked by white phosporus contain high amount of metals. Moreover, the presence of these metals in the weapons implies that they have been dispersed in the environment, in unknown amounts and range.; they have been inhaled by the victim and by bystanders, thus constituting a risk for survivors and for people that were not directly hit by the bombing.”
This research was preceded by two other studies conducted by Nwrg. The former was published on December 17th 2009 and reported the presence of toxic metals in areas of craters provoked by the Israeli bombing on the Gaza Strip. The second was published on March 17th 2010 and reported the presence of toxic metals in hair samples of Palestinian children of Gaza Strip area hit by Israeli bombings. Both point to the presence of environmental contamination, aggravated by the living conditions on the ground and often in shelters exposed to wind and dust, due to the impossibility to rebuild housing imposed by the Israeli blockade to the entrance of needed building materials and tools.
Biopsies: wound types examples from which tissue samples have been taken
Today, Friday 14th May, the small farming village of Wadi Rahhal, just south of Bethlehem, held its first demonstration against the theft of its lands by the massive Israeli colony/settlement of Efrat. In particular, the villagers were objecting to the planned encroachment of the apartheid wall to within 30 metres of the village school. Regular incursions by armed settlers and Israeli troops have not previously brought forth this kind of response from the village.
It is in this central region that the cancerous growth of settlements is most noticeable. Lands annexed to various settlements have come close to splitting the West Bank in two, making a future, contiguous Palestinian state an impossibility. The Wall, both built and planned, completely ignores the “Green Line”, the previously accepted eastern border of the Israeli state.
Today’s demonstration was organised by the National Committee of Wadi Rahhal and is intended to become a regular event. It was supported by villagers from nearby Beit Ummar, together with a small group of Israeli activists and Australian, Canadian and United States supporters from the International Solidarity Movement and the Palestine Solidarity project. A notable feature was the number of school children marching alongside their elders.
Non-violent demonstrators were met with heavily-armed Israeli solders
The well-organised group of 70 to 80 demonstrators marched to within metres of Efrat’s present boundary, where they were met by a heavily-armed squad of Israeli Occupation Force soldiers. Leaders of the protest spoke in Arabic and Hebrew, announcing the peaceful and non-violent nature of the demonstration and appealing to the troops not to initiate a violent response. An international activist, speaking on behalf of the ISM, PSP and Israeli supporters present, affirmed their solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have endured 43 years of military occupation and called for three cheers for a Free Palestine. The demonstrators then dispersed, with no casualties suffered, ending a successful, peaceful and non-violent demonstration.
* “Mabrouk” is an Arabic term, meaning “Congratulations”.
While many still entertain the idea of two sovereign states, Palestine and Israel, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, history, politics, and geography have made this solution unattainable for certain people -- whatever rhetorical changes in American foreign policy may emerge from the Obama Administration.
In fact, if the handling of the Goldstone report by Obama and his UN ambassador Susan Rice is an example, then the difference between Bush and Obama on Palestine/Israel is perhaps imaginary.
The Zionist movement and the Israeli state are in the last stages of achieving effective sovereignty over all of historic Palestine. Jewish ownership of the entire land of Palestine has been the ideological sine qua non of the state and of its progenitor, Zionism, from the outset. This central goal has been consistently obfuscated by, among many other ploys, issues of "security"; eternal victimization, the Nazi Holocaust and demands of "recognition" both of the right of Israel to exist in general and specifically as a "Jewish State."
The Israeli nomenclature, "Judaization" of the land, first entered general public discourse in 1976, during the massive land confiscations of the country's Palestinian citizens of the Galilee. We must acknowledge that we are witnessing the Judaization of what remains to Palestinians of historic Palestine (with the possible exception of the Gaza Strip).
Failure to understand the process of Judaization, on the one hand, and the concomitant erasure of Palestinian WUJUD (existence), in all its forms, on the other hand, dooms all of us to continue granting Israel and its supporters the power to accomplish the process of negating Palestinian identity and nationhood. Israel continues to dispossess as many Palestinians as possible. Self-governance is a chimera. 'Legal' manipulations; confiscation; expulsion and brute force are the reality.
It is my intention to avoid the old jargon and to underscore the reality we are facing, by: first, Examining and illuminating current Palestinian existence in historic Palestine; second, by candidly pursuing the historical process of the Judaization of the country; and, third, by exploring the roles available to people seeking justice for the Palestinian people.
Therefore, we are not chasing headlines and trying to be "relevant"; real relevance must be reserved to the essence of Zionist aims and objectives no matter what Netanyahu chooses to say one day about the Palestinian state, or what Obama might say about Israel's construction of colonies. Almost six months ago, the new US president told Israel's leaders to put a freeze on building colonies. According to Ha'aretz, by the end of August (2009), the Obama administration agreed to Israel's request to remove East Jerusalem from negotiations on the "impending" settlement freeze. According to both Israeli officials and Western diplomats, U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell recognized the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not announce a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem. The officials said the U.S. would not endorse new construction there, but would not demand that Tel Aviv publicly announce a freeze. The term freeze is not in the vocabulary of Netanyahu or that of his cabinet ministers; their program, whose cornerstone is colonial settlement and ethnic cleansing, precludes a territorial compromise. The land extending between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, they believe, has space for only one state -- Israel. Therefore, waiting for Obama to obtain Palestinians independence is an exercise in futility.
This is indeed what we learn from reviewing contextual Zionist history before and after 1967. Israel's principal pursuits have been land, water, fertility, strategic locations, and the minimum number of native population in the interest of demographic "security." Again, a territorial compromise is not in the offing.
Meanwhile, US policy will not be able to reconcile the pronounced ambitions of George Mitchell, seeking a negotiated settlement, and those of General Keith Dayton, who has been exacerbating the civil conflict between Hamas and Fateh and training Fateh militias as anti-resistance forces. The machinations of Elliot Abrams of the Iran Contra days have not been abandoned either with the change of personnel in the White House; General Dayton has seen to it that while Israel keeps expanding and the occupation becomes harsher and harsher, Palestinian resistance is being transformed into a quisling. The target of Dayton's and Mohammed Dahlan's militia is not the occupation; it is the resistance, and that is billed as law and order.
With no inclinations towards a genuine peace settlement, Israel continues the land grab and the Palestinians continue to experience an ongoing Nakba. Some might prefer to call it a second Nakba. What was the first Nakba about after all? Was it not about Loss of land and water, ethnic cleansing, annexation and Judaization? This is exactly what is going on at present...a continuation of 1948. The colonization of Ras al-Amoud and Sheikh Jarrah which began in 2009 is not different from the colonization of Qatamoun, Jaffa Street, Talbiyeh and the rest of what became known as West Jerusalem after 1948. During the last week of August 2009, Israeli authorities approved plans to build hundreds of settler units in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem. The planned new colonies in the heart of the densely populated Arab neighborhood of Ras Al-Amoud are bound to kill the possibility of East Jerusalem becoming the future capital of a prospective Palestinian state. Hence the relevance of 1948 and the need to study Israel's ongoing expansion in the context of al-Nakba. Nor has there been a serious improvement in the response of the self-appointed Palestinian leaders to this colonial settlement and ethnic cleansing. The present leadership's strategy is built on waiting for Washington to deliver independence and restrain Israeli territorial expansion. And yet, Israel continues to demand Arab normalization, which is worse than acquiescence and equal to collusion in a second Nakba.
The two Palestinian meetings held in Bethlehem and Ramallah during the month of August 2009 were held under the watchful eyes of the occupation. Only Fateh members loyal to Mahmoud Abbas were allowed to enter the West Bank and participate in the election of delegates to the Fateh Revolutionary Council and Central Committee. Likewise, only loyalists were allowed to attend the hurriedly assembled Palestine National Council meeting in Ramallah held to fill vacancies with Abbas loyalists.
With the two top Palestinian bodies secured under Abbas, with the implicit agreement of Netanyahu and Dayton, the transformation of the resistance is complete, and the second Nakba goes on. Today, not unlike 1948, Palestinian leadership is bungling; US imperialism and hegemony are on the rise. Israel is governed by Iron Wall adherents, and thus unrestrained. The Arab states, which were inept in 1948, are now down-right complicit. Egypt and Jordan not only enforce the Israeli siege on Gaza civilians, but they also provide training camps to the Fateh quislings, in order to enable them to do the job of the Israeli army, and camouflage the occupation. Palestinian cities in the Oslo-designated "A" areas convey a façade of normalcy under Dayton's military engineering, under Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's bureaucratic "reforms," and under Netanyahu's economic "peace."
It is becoming increasingly clear that the long diplomatic paralysis and the impediments to a peaceful solution capable of yielding two independent and contiguous states, living side by side in the Middle East, are embedded in the "peace process" whose gridlock reveals no shortage of resolve, and in the Zionist consensus that pre-1948 Palestine from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea is a single state under exclusive Israeli sovereignty. As long as the termination of the Israeli occupation is not on the active Israeli agenda, and as long as the political forces in Israel are united in their rejection of a contiguous, viable and practicable Palestinian state, living side by side in peace with Israel, the longest occupation in history will continue unabated. Peace, therefore, will not be at hand as long as this ailing peace process fails to incorporate the essentials of the Palestine question: the 1948 Nakba is not recognized for what it is -- a form of ethnic cleansing, a colonial enterprise which covets the land without the people. Peace has also remained elusive as long as the 1967 occupation continues to be entrenched as a form of what the late Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called politicide (political genocide) in a book under that title. He defined it as "a "process that has as its ultimate goal the dissolution of the Palestinian people's existence as a legitimate national, social, and economic entity, which may also include partial or total ethnic cleansing." Politicide, which complements erasure, is a process that covers a wide range of social, political, military and bureaucratic activities whose goal is to destroy the political and national existence of a whole community of people, and thus deny it the possibility of self-determination. This is what Israel has been doing to the Palestinian people, persistently between 1948 and the present -- destroying the very fabric of the Palestinian nation and obliterating the Palestinian WUJOUD. Gary Zatzman uncovered a key difference between apartheid and Zionism in Dissident Voice (2005):
"For all its serious and undoubted evils and the numerous crimes against humanity committed in its name, including physical slaughters, South African white-racist apartheid was not premised on committing genocide. Zionism, on the other hand, has been committed to dissolving the social, cultural, political and economic integrity of the Palestinian people, i.e., genocide, from the outset, at least as early as Theodore Herzl's injunction in his diaries that the 'transfer' of the Palestinian 'penniless population' elsewhere be conducted 'discreetly and circumspectly.'"
The process is still ongoing, having included the invasions of 1967, 1976, 1982, 2002 (massacre of Jenin), 2006, and now the recent Gaza Massacre (2008/09). Over the three-week period, it was estimated that a million and a half tons of explosives were dropped on the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million people, making it the most densely crowded area in the world, where it is difficult to distinguish civilians from fighters. In the 22 days of relentless assault, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) put the Palestinian death toll at a total of 1,417 of which 926 were civilians, including 313 children and 116 women. Non-combatant police officers constituted 255, and 236 combatants were killed, representing 16.7% of the total deaths. The number of civilian fatalities included sixteen medics and four journalists. The number of wounded was approximately 5,500, of which two-thirds were civilians. Numerous schools, mosques, hospitals, residential and commercial buildings, and United Nations facilities were obliterated.
In a major 49-page report on "Gaza's Unfinished Business," published on 23 April, 2009, the International Crisis Group warned that Gaza could once again reach the boiling point. Gaza, it says, is an explosion waiting to happen. It lists the toll from Israel's callous 22-day battering in December-January, 2009 as 1,430 Gazans killed, over 5,300 wounded, 90,000 made homeless, Gaza's seven main textile factories damaged and closed down, 22 of the 29 concrete factories devastated, whole industrial zones flattened, and 60 per cent of agricultural land near the border with Israel harmed, leading to a virtual halt of agribusiness.
Israel's deliberately disproportionate response to Hamas' home-made rockets must be seen as an attempt to destroy the Palestinians' will to fight. If that was indeed the aim, it has not succeeded, but nor is Palestinian statehood any closer. What happened in Gaza in 2008/09 is nothing short of another Nakba. This time, however, it was granted a license from the biggest super power.
The United States has long opposed a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, consistent with the global consensus: total withdrawal to the 1967 borders, the establishment of a sovereign, contiguous, Palestinian state, endorsement of a non-rhetorical two-state solution, and the annulment of the annexation of Arab East Jerusalem. On the contrary, neither any Israeli government since 1967, nor any American Administration has ever pondered the issue of total withdrawal seriously or met the requisites of the global consensus. "A culture of impunity in the region has existed for too long," Goldstone told the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) when presenting his report. "The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible war crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point," he added. The Obama administration, the US media, and both leaderships of Congress are part of the problem; therefore, America has not been and will not be part of the solution. Naseer Aruri is Chancellor Professor (Emeritus) University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He is the author of Dishonest Broker published by South End Press, Cambridge, MA.
EDITOR’S NOTE: It has taken one week to get back online after our website was hacked and brought down. We lost 24 hours of postings prior to the hacking of 7 May 2010 on top of the week in which we were unable to post any updates. We will endeavour to post articles and news released over that time, but our priority is to get the latest information up. Unfortunately, we are likely to have lost a lot of visitors, so we hope that you will spread the news and let everyone know that we are continuing as robustly as before.
Our thanks go to all our supporters who have written in to tell us just how valuable they find the information provided in our “one-stop-shop” on Palestine. We literally received hundreds of emails from around the world which means we must be doing something right. Thanks also to bloggers and other websites that kept telling their followers about the status of our website. We have been told that this is likely to happen again, but as virulent as the attacks might be, we are making sure that it will become harder and harder for them to succeed.
One thing is certain, truth will not be silenced, and with or without our website, the myths and lies of the Zionist narrative will continue to be exposed by more and more people wanting to bring justice to the Palestinians.
It is appropriate that our return to providing a voice for Palestine should coincide with the worldwide remembrances of the Nakba, the very real human catastrophe that happened 62 years ago and which is every bit as real today as it was then.
To all supporters of Israel who wish for an end to the Palestinian memory, we say that will never ever happen. Hack us, attack us, close us down, you will not succeed.
Always someone somewhere is keeping the Palestinian memory alive and none more fervently and steadfastly than the 9 million Palestinians in and around Israel. To them we pay eternal tribute for what they are enduring under the yoke of Israel’s policies – occupation, apartheid, siege, dispossession, displacement, ethnic cleansing.
Message 1: While playing one day, I found a beautiful wooden box stacked back in the cupboard. It was well-hidden and surrounded by several sheets as if to protect it from theft or damage. I quietly and carefully opened the box. Inside was only one item: an old iron key. I ran to my grandmother and asked her about the key. She held it close to her heart, looked at it for a while before holding my hand and placing the key in my palm. She had tears in her eyes when she looked me in the eyes and said: this is the key to our home, the home to which we shall return one day. Never lose it, never give up your right to your home and never forget that you have no other home.
Message 2: I am from the old city of Jerusalem. I was born in a beautiful old house that was built by my ancestors. Generations of our family lived in this house. I got married and started my own family. I still live in the same old house with my own little family, my parents, my siblings and their families. We are not allowed to add rooms, enlarge the house or renovate it, while Zionist colonists come from all over the world and occupy our homes. We are squeezed in our homes like sardines, while Zionists are allowed to build mansions on the ruins of Palestinians homes. They think when we are stacked like this in a small place that we will pack and leave and let Zionist colonists occupy our home. We will continue to live in this small old house, and our children and their children and grandchildren will grow up here. We won’t be forced out of our house for we have no other home.
Message 3: my mother married a Palestinian refugee living in Jordan and she moved to live there. After 1967 she wasn’t allowed into Palestine anymore. She wasn’t allowed to see her parents and siblings any more. Her parents died without having the chance to say goodbye to her. She died without having the chance to say goodbye to Palestine. She died dreaming of Palestine and hoping of the return to her home. I promised her to return to her home, my home, one day and I will keep that promise.
Message 4: I am a Palestinian from Gaza. I can’t visit Jerusalem and pray in Al-Aqsa. I was never in Akka, Haifa or Yafa. I can’t visit Bethlehem, Nablus or Ramallah. I am a Palestinian from Gaza. The Zionists occupy my homeland, desecrate my holy sites, and besiege me in my home. They are slowly killing me and my children, but we won’t surrender for this is our home and they are the aggressors.
Message 5: We used to wake up to the singing of the birds, watch the sun as it rises and as it sets, take a walk in the nearby fields. Today, we are surrounded by a Zionist wall. The birds don’t sing anymore because the fields were destroyed and the trees uprooted and the bird nests stepped on. The sun sets and rises behind the wall without saying good morning or goodbye. They can hide the sun, kill the trees, expel the birds, but they won’t kill us or expel us. We are steadfast here, on our land, in our homes.
Message 6: we never needed anything. We worked the land and it rewarded us. We were happy and content. We were rich with our land. During the Nakba, the Zionists attacked our villages, killed many of us, expelled the rest and destroyed our homes. They made refugees out of us. Today we have to wait for food rations from the UNRWA. We still dream of working our lands and the homes that wait for us to rebuild them.
Message 7: They demolished our home. They said we have 10 minutes to remove our belongings. I searched for my toys, my painting book and my feast dress. When the bulldozers started demolishing our home, my father cried. My father never cries. They said our home was built illegally. What about the houses with the red-brick that are built on our lands for Americans and Germans? Everyone in the news says they are illegal, so why aren’t they being demolished? Why do they only demolish our homes? These people in the red-brick houses can go back to USA and Germany, but we have only one place: our home Palestine.
Message 8: Every stone stands witness to the owners of the land. Every olive tree stands witness to the owners of the land. Every hill, every valley, every street and every alley stand witness to the owners of the land belongs. The land of Palestine belongs to us; the Palestinians.
Message 9: Every day I have to wait hours at the checkpoint on my way to work and back. Every day I watch how Zionist soldiers abuse and humiliate Palestinian women, children and elderly. Every day I stand in line at the checkpoint and wonder if one of the Zionist soldiers will again shoot and kill one of us for no reason. Every day I stand at the checkpoint, watch those Zionist soldiers with their machine guns and hand grenades and I think: You can’t hold us hostages forever, one day you will go back to the countries you came from because it is you who have no place here and you can’t imprison a whole nation hungry for freedom.
Message 10: my father’s last wish was to be buried in his village which was ethnically cleansed in 1948. He died saying: Take me back to my home, take me back to my home.
Message 11: one morning in 1967 Zionist soldiers entered our village Imwas. They surrounded the houses and ordered everyone out. They threatened that they will kill anyone who doesn’t leave or anyone who tries to come back. Then their bulldozers started demolishing our houses, one house after the other. Some people refused to leave and were buried under the rubble of their demolished homes. They did the same to the villages of Yalou and Beit Nouba. We walked for days, with nothing to eat or drink. We walked for days with only pain in our hearts for we have been expelled from our homes. Years later, the Zionists established a recreational park on where the 3 Palestinian villages once stood. We never forgot Imwas. We think, dream, plan and live only for the day when we return back to Imwas and rebuild our homes because this is the only home we have.
Message 12: The Israeli occupation army raided our home in search of children who threw little stones at tanks. We told them there was only us women in the house. They beat my grandmother, mother, my sisters and me. Then they turned the house upside down, threw the flour and the rice and the sugar on the ground, broke the doors and the cupboards and before leaving they threw a gas bomb in our living room. And you still wonder why we resist them with all the means we have?
Message 13: I was born in occupied Palestine. I was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank. The UN, Israel, US, EU, the Arabs and the so-called PA tried for decades to convince me that this is the only home I will ever have. This refugee camp is not my home. I have a home. It is called Jrash, Deir Aban, Beit I’tab, Allar, Al-Malha. I have a home and I will return to it one day because it is the only home I will ever have.
Message 14: my husband has a Bethlehem ID. Our children and I have a Jerusalem ID. My husband isn’t allowed into Jerusalem anymore. The Zionist entity that claims to be a "democracy" divides Palestinian parents from their children. It is either I lose my right to live in my city Jerusalem or I lose my family. My husband and I decided that we would rather suffer the separation than let them expel us from Jerusalem. Now, the family is divided but we have a home in Jerusalem so our children can grow up in their city and one day the family will be reunited in Jerusalem, in the only home we will ever have.
Message 15: We live in Tel Rumeida. Zionist colonists from the US and other places occupy the homes of many Palestinians here and only few of us are still steadfast. We are harassed by the Zionist colonists and the Israeli occupation soldiers day and night. Our children are often attacked by the Zionists on their way to school. My daughter was attacked and her arm was broken and the Israeli soldiers watched and as usual did nothing. My daughter often comes at night and asks if she can sleep in our room because she is afraid that the colonists will come after her again. One day I asked her if she is afraid, she said: yes. I asked her if she wished we lived somewhere else, she answered: No, this is our home.
Message 16: My village is worth the whole world to me. Every stone in it is more valuable than diamonds. I wouldn’t exchange my home for the wealth of the world and I wouldn’t exchange my land for paradise because my land is my paradise.
Message 17: they built a park where my village once stood. Zionists play with their kids where once our cemetery stood and where my grandparents are buried. They make barbeque parties where once my home stood, where I was born. This is my home and it is my legitimate right to return to my home.
Message 18: I am one of the 80,000 Palestinians expelled from West Jerusalem and its villages in 1948. Our land and property was confiscated by the Zionist entity and given to Zionists who have no roots in Jerusalem. I live in a refugee camp and my village is a couple of hours ride away from where I live now, but I am not allowed to enter the Jerusalem area. I see pictures of my village on the internet, pictures taken by Israelis. I tell my children: this is your home, never forget this and never forget that one day we shall return.
Message 19: my little boy and his friends were stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint and were beaten by the soldiers. At night, he wets his bed and wakes up crying. He is afraid to go to school alone because he fears the soldiers at the checkpoint might beaten him again, so I have to accompany him to school and bring him back home every day. One day, the soldiers were harassing a group of pupils. I stepped forward to help the pupils. One Zionist soldier shouted: one day we will throw you all out of "Erez Israel"! My little boy shouted back at the soldier: this is our land and we won’t leave!
Message 20: On TV I saw an Israeli claim to be a peace activist. When asked where she lives, she answered: in Maale Adumim. She didn’t say in the illegal colony built on land stolen from Palestinians. To the Zionists I say: You want peace, then give me back my land and let my people return home.
Message 21: Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return, Right of Return.
Message 22: it was harvest time and the whole family was working in our olive fields. Zionist colonists came and demanded we leave, when we refused they started beating us with clubs. Israeli occupation soldiers came, stood watching until the colonists finished beating us, then they took our names and ID numbers and told us to come to the military camp the next day. We were accused of harassing the Zionist colonists while the colonists were escorted by the IOF to our fields to steal our harvest. They think they can frighten us into leaving this land, but we won’t leave because this land is our land.
Message 23: We were expelled from our home in Palestine during the Nakba. We lived first in Lebanon, then Syria, then for many years in Kuwait before being forced out of there. Now we live in Jordan. We don’t want to be Lebanese, or Syrian, or Kuwaiti or Jordanian. We have a nationality; we are Palestinians. We have a homeland; Palestine. We have a beautiful home in a small village and it is waiting for us to return to it.
Message 24: I am from a village to the east of occupied Jerusalem. The village is now divided by the wall into two. My house and the houses of my 3 brothers are now behind the wall. We were told that we will lose our residency right in Jerusalem so we all moved to our father’s house on the other side of the wall. Now 5 families share a small home. If we live or build in our land on the other side of the wall we lose our right to live in Jerusalem, but Zionists colonists from around the world are allowed to live wherever they want in occupied Palestine and can build on the land they stole from us. We will live in the family house in Jerusalem and will keep building on the land on the other side of the wall. This land on both sides of the wall is ours and will always be.
Message 25: I am from Rafah. The Israeli occupation army entered our neighborhood, killed tens of residents, demolished around 200 people and destroyed our fields. They claim they want peace. Is this how peace is done? No, this is Zionism: terror, land theft, racism, occupation and oppression. There will never be peace except when Zionism is defeated and all Palestinian refugees return to their homes.
Message 26: We searched in vain for an apartment in Yafa. We were told by a Zionist coming from Europe that we are not welcome in our city. My parents, grandparents and many generations of my family were born in Yafa, helped build the city and are buried in it. Today, I am told I am not welcome there by Germans, Russians and Americans occupying my city. I will live in a tent in Yafa, but you won’t force me out of my city, my only home.
Message 27: every Friday we protest the Israeli occupation and the Israeli wall that is eating our land. Palestinians, Israelis and internationals stand together against the occupation, against oppression and against apartheid. We are unarmed but the Israeli soldiers shoot live ammunition at us, throw gas and sound bombs. Several unarmed protests were killed by the IOF, but this won’t stop us. We will continue protesting the occupation until Palestine is free.
Message 28: Our grandparents and parents used to sing love songs in weddings when they were in Palestine. Today we sing about resistance and the struggle to free our homeland and to return to our villages.
Message 29: I am from Tabariya (Tiberias). I live in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Today, I learned a new song at the Kindergarten: My homeland is very beautiful…. my homeland is very beautiful … my homeland is called Palestine.
Message 30: The Israeli occupation army invaded our refugee camp. Israeli tanks and helicopters bombed our homes. Armored bulldozers were also used to demolish more houses to make way for the soldiers invading the refugee camp. Some houses were demolished over the heads of their residents. Many were killed or injured. They claimed we were the "terrorists". We are refugees forced to live in a refugee camp because we were expelled from our homes by these terrorists who invade us again and again and want us to disappear. Your tanks and helicopters don’t frighten us. Today we are steadfast in these refugee camps, tomorrow we will return to our villages and rebuild them.
Message 31: they claim we left "of our free will". What person leaves paradise freely? What person chooses to live as a refugee? What person chooses a life of displacement over the life in a homeland? We were expelled from our homes while the world watched and we continue to live as refugees while Zionists who have no roots in Palestine occupy our homes and lands. Palestine is our homeland and we shall return!
Message 32: as children we used to accompany my parents to the olive fields. My father, his father and his grandfather before him had each planted a new olive field. We used to spend weeks harvesting the trees. It was hard work but it was worthy. We loved our olive trees and they loved us in return. We cared for our olive trees and they provided us with a living. Then one day, armed Israeli soldiers came, surrounded our fields with barbed wires and left a plate saying that the land is a "closed area", no entrance allowed. The land has been confiscated to build more illegal colonies for Zionists coming from Russia, Europe and Mars. A couple of days later, we see a huge black cloud coming from the direction of the fields. We rush to see what has happened. It is too late, our beloved olive trees have been burned to ashes. They have been massacred, left to die a slow and a painful death like those who plant them and hold them sacred. We will continue planting olive trees, one row after the other, one field after the other. And one day, we will replant the fields they stole, we will replant the land they burnt, we will replant the land they destroyed. We will heal your wounds, Palestine.
Message 33: My family was expelled from Acca in 1948. We lived first in Syria then moved to the Gulf. I live and work there now. One of my European colleagues was recently in occupied Palestine. When he showed me the pictures he took in Acca I wanted to cry like a child and I wanted to shout out at the injustice of this world. Acca is my home and I will never give up my right to return to my home.
Message 34: we were awakened in the middle of the night by loud speakers. They ordered us to leave our homes, said anyone who doesn’t obey will regret it. Outside, we saw buses surrounded by Israeli occupation soldiers waiting to take us to the Allenby bridge. We didn’t want to go, but they started threatening and pushing us. Many were still in their sleeping attire, many had no shoes on, the children were crying. When the buses reached the bride, Israeli army airplanes bombarded it. They didn’t only want to expel us, they wanted to massacre us so none of us or our children would demand to return home. We will never give up our Right to Return to our homes and neither will our children.
Message 35: I am from the old city of Hebron. The Israeli occupation army expelled us from our homes and gave them to the fanatic Zionist colonists from the US. I want my home back and won’t stop fighting the occupation until I free my home from the colonists.
Message 36: fanatic Zionists planned to invade Al-Aqsa and conduct rituals in it. We all rushed to protect our holy sites. The Israeli army came in the thousands to protect the armed colonists and both started shooting at us. Many Palestinians were killed, hundreds were injured and others detained. Not one single fanatic colonist was detained. They repeat their invasions every couple of months, and every time we rush to protect Al-Aqsa. They attack our holy sites, desecrate them, say openly they want to destroy them and the whole world is silent. The world is coward, but we are not and will continue to defend our holy sites and our homeland with our bodies.
Message 37: They keep saying in the news that the residents of "Sderot" are under attack. Why don’t they mention that "Sderot" is a Zionist colony built on the ruins of the Palestinian village Najd? Why don’t they mention that Najd was ethnically cleansed and completely defaced by Zionist terrorists? Why don’t they mention that the land on which "Sderot" stands is Palestinian land occupied by Zionist colonists? Why don’t they mention that the land on which "Sderot" stands belongs to Palestinians who were made refugees, many of whom live in Gaza? Why don’t they mention that the refugees who were expelled from their homes insist on returning to these homes?
Message 38: the Israeli army besieged Bethlehem; the city of Jesus and the Nativity Church: the birthplace of Jesus. Israeli snipers shot at the people taking refugee inside, killing some, injuring some and damaging the church. The "western" world watched and said nothing. We, the people of Bethlehem, both Muslims and Christians, didn’t watch silently while the Zionists tried destroying the city of Jesus, we defended it and will continue to defend the city of Jesus from the Zionist aggressors.
Message 39: my cousin was on his way to visit friends. He was holding a cola can while waiting in the line at the checkpoint. When it was his turn, the soldiers didn’t ask any question, they just shot him several times. When ambulances came, the soldiers refused to let them save the boy. He bled to death. Later that day, the Israeli occupation army, that is equipped with the best observation equipment, claimed they thought the cola can was a bomb. You might believe a lie if it is told once, but not when it is repeated and told every time a Palestinian is murdered in cold blood at Israeli military checkpoints. To the Zionists I say: For every Palestinian you kill, hundred are born, and with every generation our return gets nearer.
Message 40: We had olive fields and they were our living and sustenance. The Zionists confiscated our land to build a road for the Zionist colony nearby. It is our land but we are no longer allowed to work it or even walk on it. This is our land, our home, our life.
Message 41: I am a Palestinian from Sawahreh. I was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Jerusalem but today the wall separates me from my city. My village was divided by the Zionists, one part inside the wall and the other outside it. Our cemetery lies inside the wall. When someone dies, we have to apply for a permit for the dead so they can be buried. Sometimes, they only allow a couple of relatives to accompany the dead, sometimes they refuse so the body has to be handed over at the checkpoint. They can build walls, erect checkpoints everywhere but they will never be able to remove Jerusalem from our hearts and minds. We will remain steadfast here till the day when we destroy the wall and remove the checkpoints. This is destiny because this is our land, this is our home.
Message 42: We will never forget the names of those who sell out our rights and our blood. We will never forget the names of those who sell out our Right of Return, nor will we ever forgive them. It is our right, not theirs to do with as they please. If they don’t mind selling the homes of their ancestors in Yafa, Haifa or Jerusalem in return for a villa, a Mercedes and a fake throne in Ramallah, then they better remember that millions and millions of Palestinians around the world won’t ever give up their Right to their homes in Palestine, not even for a piece in paradise.
Message 43: despite the occupation, despite the attacks on school, despite the checkpoints, I go to school every day. I want to become an architect and rebuild all the houses the Zionists demolished. I want to rebuild the homes of the refugees when they return to their villages and towns.
Message 44: my wife was in labor. We were on our way to the hospital when we were stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint. The soldiers saw that my wife was in great pain, nevertheless they refused to let us pass. I told them her condition is critical, that she or the baby or both might die if we don’t reach a hospital quickly. But the soldiers pointed their guns at me and said to turn back. On the way back home my wife and our unborn baby died. They come from Europe, the US and Russia and hold us prisoners in our own homeland. But no matter what they do, we won’t leave because this is where our families and our roots are. This is our past, present and future.
Message 45: In the media we always hear about the Israelis suffering from "terror", but we hear nothing about our suffering and what the Israelis do to us. Like every nation, it is our legitimate right to defend ourselves from occupiers and to fight for our freedom. Israel ethnically cleansed our homeland and occupied it, it destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages, confiscates land, destroys homes and hold us hostages in ghettos and besieges us. They attack us while on our way to work, to school, while playing and while sleeping in our homes, and they are the victims? Would you please explain to me why the world that keeps talking about human rights and easing human suffering ignores our rights and our suffering? We are not the occupiers nor are we the oppressors. We are the Palestinians who were expelled from their homeland by Zionist terrorists and all we want is to return to our homes, rebuild our villages and towns in Palestine.
Message 46: I am from Palestine. The Zionists want to force me out of my home so they give my home and my land to Zionist colonists from Russia and Australia. But no massacres, no siege, no Markava and no F-16 will force me out. I am a Palestinian and this is my home. When you kill me my blood will water this land, my spirit will guard it and my body will become an olive tree clinging to the land, steadfast and forever an undividable.
Message 47: We woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of shouting and shooting. Hundreds of Zionist colonists have attacked our village. They were shooting at the houses, burning the olive trees and the cars. My parents and older siblings told us kids to stay inside the house and they went out to defend our house. I looked through the window and saw thousands of our people, from our village and other villages come and stand up to the colonists and defend our village armed only with the stones against the machine guns of the Zionists. We don’t have your guns, nor your tanks nor your F-16s, but we have Palestine in our hearts and we have a just cause to fight for. We are stronger and the victory is ours.
Message 48: in 1948, fully armed Zionist terrorists came and told us to leave or else. How could they imagine that we would leave our Jerusalem? They came back and started shooting at whoever was still around. Our children started crying. We started crying. We feared for them, feared for our lives. No one was there to protect us. And so we were forced out of Jerusalem. We walked and walked. And we finally settled in the eastern part of Jerusalem. We made a home while still dreaming of our home in the western part of the city. We continued to live, but only for the day we return to our original home. We raised our children and told them of that home. Decades later, Zionist colonists coming from the US knocked on our door and demanded we leave, claiming the house is theirs. Their papers proved to be forgeries, but we were forced out of our home a second time. Now we live in a tent. We would rather die in Jerusalem than be expelled from it because it is the only home we have.
Message 49: at school we have to learn about the Nakba as the "Independence" day. We have to read how killing our people and ethnically cleansing our homeland is a cause for celebration. We have to carry the ID of an entity that denies us our rights and gives our land to colonists from Europe and Russia. They think we forgot who we are and what we are. We never did and never will: We are Palestinians and will continue fighting for our rights and for our lands.
Message 50: My father built a simple low stone wall around our land to protect it from Zionist colonists. The Israeli soldiers came the next day and destroyed the wall with their bulldozers. They build walls on our land, they imprison Palestinian villages, towns and refugees camps within walls and they divide Palestinian villages with walls and separate residents from their lands. We will protect our lands with our bodies, our bodies will be the walls surrounding our lands and protecting them, because there is nothing more precious than the land and this land is our home.
Message 51: I am from Safad. I live in a refugee camp, but only temporarily. The so-called PA doesn’t represent me and doesn’t have the right to speak in my name or decide on my behalf. Only those fighting for my Right to Return to my home represent me.
Message 52: during summer we often have no running water and we have to buy water from tanks for very high prices. The illegal Zionist colony nearby has swimming pools and a park that is watered every day. They drink, fill their pools and water the parks with our water. They build their colonies and parks on land that doesn’t belong to them. We are thirsty and our land is thirsty because the Zionist colonists steal our water. Our land is slowly dying, the Zionists are killing it. But we will water our land with our blood, will fight till we liberate it because our cause is a just cause and injustice never lasts.
Message 53: the Zionists terror gangs that bombarded our village, killed our families and expelled us from our homes in 1948 are the same terrorists who are today destroying Jerusalem, besieging Gaza and colonizing Palestine. These terrorists are now known as the "Israeli army". Injustice can never last, and one day these terrorists will be prosecuted for war crimes and one day we shall all return to our Palestine.
Message 54: I am from At-Taybeh. The Zionists want to expel us from Palestine. They confiscate our lands, deny us permits to build and demolish our houses. They claim they are a "democracy" while denying us our rights. We will remain steadfast on this land because it is ours and no Zionist from Europe can change that fact.
Message 55: the Israeli wall built to confiscate more Palestinian land separates us from our fields. We have to apply for a "permit" to be allowed in. Sometimes we have to wait for hours at the gates and sometimes we are sent back home by the IOF. They don’t allow us to enter our fields to work them, but they allow Zionist colonists to destroy Palestinian fields, uproot and burn Palestinian trees. We will go every day and wait at the gates and work the land because it is our land and the land of our ancestors and we promised them to pass it on to our children.
Message 56: my son was 20 years old when he needed urgent medical treatment. He died a slow and painful death because the Zionists who occupy our land and besiege us refused to let him out of Gaza. They claim they "left" Gaza, but they continue to besiege us, invade our neighborhoods and bombard our homes every day. They have turned Gaza into a concentration camp and they continue to lie and claim they "left" Gaza. One day, Gaza and all of Palestine will be free and I will pick poppies from Jerusalem, from Haifa and Bisan and place them on my son’s grave.
Message 57: The Israeli occupation army raided our house in the middle of the night. They beat me before handcuffing me and kidnapping me from my house for no reason. I was detained administratively for a couple of years. I was locked up behind bars without charge or a trial. They think when they detain all Palestinians that we will give up, that we will accept the occupation and wait our death in silence. Let me tell you; we will continue the fight to liberate Palestine, we will remain steadfast in Palestine. This is our home.
Message 58: The Zionists from the nearby colony come every now and then and cause havoc in our area. They drive through our village with loud sirens, they burn our fruit fields, they uproot our olive trees and they steal our land. And when we try to stop them and protect our land and homes and families, we are shot at and we are arrested for "attacking the settlers". All we are doing is defending our land, our home from the occupiers.
Message 59: the Zionists claim their entity is tolerant. They claim they respect all religions. I am a Palestinian Christian but I am not allowed to go and pray in Jerusalem. My neighbor is a Palestinian Muslim and he isn’t allowed to go and pray in Jerusalem. The Zionists have closed the city that had always been open to everyone and they claim they are tolerant. They have been ethnically cleansing the city of its original inhabitants since the Nakba and have made its western part Palestinian-free zone and are working on doing the same with the eastern part. The Zionists who claim tolerance are "Judaizing" the Jerusalem, and in the process, they are obliterating its features, defacing it with illegal colonies and are destroying it. Whatever they do, they will never be able to take us out of Jerusalem or take Jerusalem from us, because Jerusalem has and will always be the heart, the soul and the home of every Palestinian.
Message 60: I am a Palestinian from Palestine. My homeland gave me my name. You American, German, Russian, French, English, Canadian, Australian and Ethiopian Zionists have a home in the US, Germany, Russia, France, England, Canada, Australia and Ethiopia so go back to it, for you have no right to my homeland, nor to my land nor to my home. Injustice never lasts.
Message 61: We have only one home. Our home is called Palestine. Palestine extends from the River to the Sea and from Ras In-Naqoura to Im Ir-Rishrash.
Message 62: No Peace without Justice and no Justice without the Right to Return. The Right to Return is Inalienable.
Free Gaza Movement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2010
The MV Rachel Corrie
At 22:45 local time tonight, the MV Rachel Corrie, a 1200-ton cargo ship, part of the eight-vessel Freedom Flotilla, set sail from Ireland on its way to the Mediterranean Sea. There, ships from Turkey and Greece will join her, then sail to Gaza.
This past week reports from Israel have indicated that the Israeli authorities will not allow the Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza with its cargo of much-needed reconstruction material, medical equipment, and school supplies. According to Israeli news sources, clear orders have been issued to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza, even if this necessitates military violence.
The Free Gaza Movement, which has launched eight other sea missions to Gaza, confirms that Israel has tried these kinds of threats and intimidation tactics before in order to try to stop the missions before they start. “They have not deterred us before and will not deter us now,” said one of the organizers.
Ship to Gaza – Sweden, a Freedom Flotilla coalition partner, together with parliamentarian Mehmet Kaplan (Green Party) yesterday asked for an audience with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Carl Bildt, to discuss what measures the Swedish government and the European Union will take to protect the Freedom Flotilla’s peaceful, humanitarian voyage. Earlier this week during a meeting with the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza – another coalition partner, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyib Erdogan expressed his support for “breaking the oppressive siege on the Gaza Strip…which is at the top of Turkey’s list of priorities.“
Coalition partners, Ship to Gaza – Greece and the Turkish relief organization IHH, stressed that the ships, passengers, and cargo will be checked at each port of departure, making it clear that we constitute no security threat to Israel.
Israel’s threats to attack unarmed civilians aboard vessels carrying reconstruction aid are outrageous and indicative of the cruel and violent nature of Israel’s policies towards Gaza. The Freedom Flotilla is acting in line with universal principals of human rights and justice in defying a blockade identified as illegal by the UN and other humanitarian organizations. Palestinians in Gaza have a right to the thousands of basic supplies that Israel bans from entering, including cement and schoolbooks, as well as a right to access the outside world. The Freedom Flotilla coalition calls on all signatories to the Fourth Geneva Conventions to pressure Israel to adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law, to end the lethal blockade on Gaza, and to refrain from attacking this peaceful convoy.
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Many people, even some Palestinians, think that the only Palestinian refugees resulting from the creation of Israel in 1948 are those living in refugee camps in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip or neighbouring Arab countries, while in fact a large number of those uprooted from their villages became refugees within the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948.
Although these refugees have the advantage of being able to see the remains of their destroyed villages, they cannot make use of their land because the Jewish Agency have control over those lands.
On the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba, statistics point to the fact more than 25% (about 300,000) of the Palestinians living in 1948-occupied lands are actually refugees in their country, some times living in Palestinian towns and villages that are only a few kilometres from their original villages.
Human rights organisations, confirm that the Israeli occupation authorities evade the just demands of those refugees that they should be allowed to return to their villages and utilise their property and instead introduce new racist laws that ban popular activities to commemorate the Nakba, or increase awareness about it and about the issue of the right of those Palestinians to return to the villages and homes they were uprooted from.
The Israeli occupation deals with the internal Palestinian refugees the same as those refugees outside 1948-occupied lands, despite the fact that those refugees carry the "Israeli" nationality.
There are around 532 villages and towns in 1948-occupied lands whose populations were systematically uprooted by the Zionists in 1948. 1948-Palestinians today live on 3% of their land.
Russia is supplying Syria with warplanes, armoured vehicles and air defence systems under existing contracts, ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the head of the country's state military agency as saying.
Mig 29s
Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Russia was selling Syria MiG-29 fighter jets, Pantsir short-range air defence systems and armoured vehicles.
No further details were provided.
President Dmitry Medvedev this week paid the first-ever visit by a head of state from Moscow to Damascus, where he said the use of nuclear energy "may get a second wind" in Syria – a remark that prompted concern from Washington.
Russia's arms sales and possible nuclear cooperation with Syria, which has close ties to Iran, is unnerving for Israel and the United States, which earlier this month renewed sanctions on Syria for another year, accusing it of supporting "terrorist" groups.
Russia is also in talks to supply NATO member Turkey, which Medvedev also visited this week, with air defence systems and helicopters, Dmitriyev said.
"It is unclear what will happen, what Turkey would agree to," the news agency quoted him as saying.
"Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Russia would supply Syria with MiG-29 fighters, truck-mounted Pantsir short-range surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery systems.
He said Russia would also supply Damascus with anti-tank weapons but did not specify their type.
Syria's regional foe Israel reacted angrily to the deal but called into question the solvency of Damascus. "Syria at the present time cannot afford to pay for this sophisticated weaponry, indeed, it has hardly enough money to buy food for its citizens. One can only wonder what is the real reason behind this dubious deal," said an Israeli government official in Jerusalem who declined to be named..... While in Syria, Medvedev unnerved Israel by paying a visit to Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
"Russia's haste to win this contract has seen it even willing to meet with notorious Hamas leaders in Syria," the anonymous Israeli official said.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said it was "deeply disappointed" that Medvedev met the leader of Hamas, which it said was "a terror organization in every way."
Next week I am going to be traveling between Istanbul, Athens and Nicosia. I will be giving concerts and talks in support of the coming Free Gaza flotilla.
In the last few days, I gave many interviews to Greek papers. Here is one. I guess that it sums up many of my thoughts about Israel, Zionism, Jewish identity, Palestine, Gaza and the Free Gaza mission.
Q. Where were you born and where did you spend your early years?
GA: I was born in Israel in 1963. It took me many years before I realized that the place I was born in was in fact occupied Palestine.
Q. Musician, author, activist, philosopher – which of these identities suits you most?
GA: I am a Jazz musician. In ideal terms I would love to see myself as a person who reinvents himself on a daily basis. This is obviously a wet fantasy, a task almost impossible to achieve. But it is something to aspire to. I am academically trained as a philosopher and believe that German philosophy sets the right framework for an articulate, ideological, ethical and universal thinking. I am also an author yet I do not regard myself as an activist. I have never understood what activism stands for. I may as well mention that I am not interested in politics but rather in meaning and implications of political activity and political thinking.
Q: Why do you oppose your Jewish and Israeli identity?
GA: I do not oppose Jewish or Israeli identity. I oppose any possible form of Jewish politics and indeed any identity politics. The reason is simple. Since Jewish identity is racially orientated, every permutation of Jewish politics is racist to the bone and I am obviously against racism. In fact, Israel and Zionism was originally an attempt to rescue the Jew from racist politics and racial political orientation.Zionism invented the Jewish nation. (or: Jews as a nation). Early Zionists attempted to present the Jews as a people amongst other people instead of a distinct race. This idea looked fine on paper, yet, the reality of the Jewish state proves that Israel is the most radical form of Jewish chauvinism. The Israeli legal system is totally discriminatory toward non Jews. Israeli policies are no different form Nazi racial laws.
Q: What was it that hurt you so much as to state publicly that you fight the Israeli in you? Don’t you feel that this is a harsh statement to make? A statement that shows anger?
GA: Yes I am indeed angry. Watching 1.5 million Palestinians being starved in Gaza makes me angry. Watching the IDF throw bombs and white phosphorous on elders, women and children who seek shelter in an UNRA compound makes me angry. Watching the Israeli air force flatten Lebanon in 2006 made me angry. Watching the holy land get sliced by a gigantic separation wall makes me angry. Transforming Palestine into a Jewish bunker makes me angry. Meeting dispossessed Palestinian refugees who cannot even visit their land makes me very angry. Realising that 1.5 million Iraqis lost their life because of a Zionist global war designed by Ziocon Wolfowitz makes me furious. Zionists advocating the Killing of Muslims in the name of moral interventionism freaks me out. Watching AIPAC promote more wars and violence makes my blood boil.
Q: Don’t Israelis or Jews have the right for a national homeland, a safe homeland that is?
GA: Strictly speaking the answer is NO. If the Jews ever had a right for a national home, they lost this right a long time ago. As we know Zionism celebrated the Jewish national revival at the expense of the Palestinian people. Would you allow a bunch of Italian lunatics to invade your home in Athens just because they are convinced that your dwelling was once part of the Roman Empire? They could claim that your home was a property of their Roman forefathers. Clearly, Italians wouldn’t get away with it, but Zionists did, at least for a while. There is no right for a racist state that celebrates its tribal symptoms at the expense of others. There is no room for Israel amongst the nations.
Q: What concessions have to be made for Palestinians to live free and prosper?
GA: Pretty simple. Israel must become a state of its citizens. At the moment a Jew in Brooklyn enjoys more rights in Palestine than a Palestinian who was born on the land.
Q: Why should Israelis cut down on armaments? Is it not the case that the increase in military equipment is due to their sentiment of insecurity, as they are surrounded by Arabs?
GA: It doesn’t matter anymore whether Israel cuts down on armaments.Israel’s defeat is inevitable. In 2006 the entire Israeli military was humiliated by a small paramilitary organization namely the Hezbollah. In 2009 Israel didn’t achieve any of its military objectives in spite of the massive deployment of IDF units and the collective punishment of civilians by using extreme military measures against civilians including WMDs. The Israelis employ more and more force, they entangle themselves in more and more colossal war crimes, the legitimacy of the Jewish State is a matter for historians. The doomed fate of Israel is written on the wall.
Q: Do you believe that Jewish people still feel unwanted, even though so many decades have passed since the Holocaust?
GA: It is hard for me to talk about Jewish people, for I do not know all Jews. However, Jewish politicians always emphasize the fear of anti Semitism. All forms of Jewish politics present different methods of raising barriers between Jews and others, Zionism is there to separate the Jew from the Goy, the Bund (Jewish socialists) is also there to separate the Jew from the working class, the Jewish left is there to set a tribe of chosen people amongst peace lovers.
Q: Could Israelis and Palestinians live in peace?
GA: Not in a million years. The notion of peace and reconciliation are foreign to the Israeli ideology, politics and Identity. When an Israeli says Shalom, they do not mean peace, they actually mean ‘security for the Jews’. This self-centric mode was identified by Christ 2000 years ago. Love your neighbour and turn the other cheek was Jesus’ lesson. Israel on the other hand seeks collective gratification through revenge. According to the Jerusalem post 94% of Israeli Jews supported the 2009 IDF air raids against Palestinian civilians. There is no way to describe the fact above other than as an extreme form of lethal tribal barbarism.
For Israelis to live in peace, a metamorphic shift of consciousness is needed instead of a political shift.
Q: In what way can the “Ship to Gaza” help resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict?
GA: It is not there to resolve the conflict. It is there to first of all: Bring necessary aid to the people of Gaza. Secondly: It is there to raise media and public awareness of the ongoing colossal Israeli war crimes against humanity.
I would add that since the Palestinians are at the forefront of the war against modern evil. The Free Gaza is not just a humanitarian effort, it is actually a call from humanity, it is there to remind us all what humanism stands for.
Q: You are the founder of the “Orient House Ensemble”. What is it mainly about?
GA: Initially I wanted to Palestinise some Jewish tunes. I naively believed that if we play Israeli and Jewish tunes about homecoming implementing Arabic scales, Jews and Israelis may open their heart to the Palestinian cause. In fact some Jews and Israelis have followed our line of thinking. However, many people in the UK and around the world realized what we tried to achieve. Our message wasn’t a break through in Israel but we found many attentive ears around the world. We are playing together for almost 10 years. We do not have any plans to stop.
Q: How can the Greek people stand up against the imminent new reality?
GA: I travel all over the world and I can reassure you that the Greeks are at the very forefront of supporting Palestine. To oppose Israel is an ethical priority. All we have to do is to say what we believe and not to shy away from saying it loudly and proudly.
=====
Flashback:
"A few days before I meet Gilad Atzmon, he finds himself at the centre of an international storm. The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan, has approvingly cited Atzmon during a debate with Israeli president Shimon Peres. "Atzmon, a Jew himself," said Erdoǧan, "says that Israeli barbarity is far beyond even ordinary cruelty."..."A world leader quoting an artist?" he laughs. "Isn't that incredible? Not a singer, not even a fucking pianist, but a stupid fucking saxophonist! Ha!" It may come as a surprise to some that Atzmon is a saxophonist at all. His career as a musician has long been drowned out by the clatter of his extra-curricular activities: the furious attacks on Israel (he writes and edits for the website Palestine Think Tank); the philosophical texts on Jewish identity that get discussed by the likes of Noam Chomsky; the two comic novels that have been translated into 24 languages... " Read more...
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Honouring All Palestinian Women by Honouring Three: Hanin Zoabi, Ahed
Tamimi, Samah Sabawi Vacy Vlazna “Palestinian women have always stood side
by side ...
US’s Saudi Oil Deal from Win-Win to Mega-Lose
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By F. William Engdahl Who would’ve thought it would come to this? Certainly
not the Obama Administration, and their brilliant geo-political think-tank
neo-...
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*Mordechai Vanunu wins human rights prize of Brazilian Press Association *
* http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/features/updates/7038-mordechai...
Abdul Aziz Rantissi:
"My ultimate wish, my God, is to attain martyrdom,"...God granted him his wish on April 17, 2004, at the hands of Israeli assassins.
Uprooted Palestinian
