Source: Israeli HOLOCAUST in Palestine

Source: Israeli HOLOCAUST in Palestine http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freeamericanow/message/13 Colonialism When Theodor Hartzl, the ideological founder of the Zionist ovements in the 1890s, was asked what he proposed to do with the indigenous Palestinian population when his "state of the Jews" become a reality, he replied, "We will quietly spirit them across the boarder". "For Europe", Hartzl believed, "we would constitute a bulwark against Asia down there [in Palestine]; we would be the advance post of civilisation against barbarism". The Fundamental Aim of Zionist Policy The fundamental aim of Zionist policy in Palestine from 1917 to the United Nations-sanctioned partition in 1948 was the creation of this "bulwark", a colonial settler state with a population made up of the exclusively Jewish immigrants coming mainly from Europe. The Palestinian Arabs were not simply to exploited economically. They were to be replaced by European Jewish settlers. The Israeli State was to be founded on the basis of the "ethnic cleansing" of Palestine of its indigenous Arabic-speaking inhabitants. Joseph Weitz, the head of the Jewish Agency's colonisation department, confirmed this in his 1940 diary. "It must be clear", he wrote, "that there is no room for both people's together in this country … not one (Arab) village, not one tribe should be left". The common Zionist argument- the Palestine was uninhabited land- is comparable to the doctrine of terra nullius which was employed by a different group of European colonists to justify the "ethnic cleansing" of the Aboriginal tribes from much of the Australia. The Key Foundation of the Israeli Constitution The key foundation of the Israeli constitution and declaration of independence is that Israel is a "Jewish state". The predominantly Muslim and Christian Palestinians living in Israel are in theory Israeli citizens, but they can never enjoy the same rights as Israel's Jewish citizens. The Zionist colonisation of Palestine is predicated upon anti-Arab racism. The Zionist colonisation of Palestine is predicated upon anti-Arab racism. So accepted is this racism by Zionists that they have very little shame in openly expressing it. In October 1973, for example, British MP Robyn Maxwell-Hyslop told the House of Commons about the attitude of David Hacohen, at the time the influential chairperson of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs committee: "Six week after the (June 1967) war six honourable members of this house, six from each side, including myself, went to Israel and to Jordan as guests of these countries. There was a horrifying moment for me. We were all present as guests at lunch of the foreign affairs committee of the Knesset in Jerusalem. After lunch the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Knesset spoke with great intemperance and at great length to us about the Arabs. "When he drew breath I was constrained to say, 'Doctor Hocohen, I am profoundly shocked that you should speak of other human beings in terms similar to those in which [Nazi Journalist] Julius Streicher spoke of the Jews. Have you learned nothing?" I shall remember his reply to my dying day. He smote the table with both hands and said, "but they are not human beings, they are not people, they are Arabs". Con Merchant Since its formation in 1948, Israel has worked hard to portray itself as a beleaguered oasis of democracy in the Middle East, a tiny outpost of decency constantly and incessantly threatened by hordes of bloodthirsty Arabs who are blinded by their irrational hatred of Judaism that they refuse to leave the peace-loving Israel alone. Anti-Semitism? Criticism of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians is routinely branded as "anti-semitism". Zionist leaders have used the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during the second world war to justify their own genocidal campaign against the indigenous Palestinian population. Israel is a RACIST APARTHEID state The Jewish state of Israel is a racist apartheid state. In the same way the apartheid South Africa was an attempt to build an anti-black, exclusively white-controlled state on African land, Israel is an attempt to build an anti-Arab, exclusively Jewish-controlled state on Arab land. Mass Participation The significance of this uprising can be seen in the mass participation in protests in the West Bank and Gaza, the concurrent and unprecedented uprising among Palestinians living in Israel and the large, and growing, expressions of solidarity from around the world. The 1952 Law of Entry Anti-Arab racism is Israel is not only expressed in the attitudes of Israeli Jews towards Arabs, but it is embedded in the Israeli legal system. The 1952 Law of Entry, for example, states that whatever "does not hold an immigration visa or immigration certificate" can face immediate deportation by the interior minister or can be denied visa at any time. But who is able to qualify for such a visa? The Law of Return restricts immigration visas solely to Jews. Palestinian refugees are therefore legally barred from re-entering Israel. The interior minister also has the ability to withdraw residence from non-Jews regardless of how long they have been living in Israel. The 1952 Citizenship Law The 1952 Citizenship Law is also discriminatory, in that it allows only Jews the right to retain their former citizenship after becoming Israeli citizens. The same law obliges non-Jews to renounce their former citizenship before becoming citizens. Many discriminatory rulings have been delivered by Jewish Rabbinical courts which are recognised as part of Israel's judiciary. Under Jewish religious laws non-Jews are unable to validly testify in rabbinical courts. "Harlot" (prostitute) ? A "Harlot" (prostitute) is designated in the Torah as any women who is not "a daughter of Israel" or who has sex with a man she is forbidden to marry. According to this interpretation, all non-Jewish women are considered "harlots" under the Jewish religious law. Codified Racism Under the Military Service Law am enumerator is appointed to call up draftees to be conscripted into the Israeli army. But the enumerator also has the authority to refuse to conscript certain people; i.e., Arabs Palestinians and therefore denied all benefits, access to many jobs and the right to lease homes or land controlled by government bodies, as it is stipulated that candidates must be draftees. Israel was founded by driving out of some 850 000 Palestinians from the territory conquered by the Zionist state in 1948. The number of Palestinians living in refugee camps now totals more than 3 million. Why any Jew from anywhere in the world has the right to settle in Israel under the Law of Return. Israel refuses to even enter negotiations about allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. Instead the refugees have been the target of further Israeli abuses of human rights such as when the Israeli army provided protection for and co-ordinated the ultra-right Phalange militia as it massacred over 2000 Palestinian women and children in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. Israel has dealt with the problem of refugees in the Gaza Strip by bulldozing refugee camps. Under the 1948 UN-sponsored partition Israel was granted 54% of Palestine. The Palestinians reject the partition on the grounds that the setting up of the Israeli State would necessarily lead to the ethnic-cleansing of the local Palestinian population. By 1948, Israel had taken control of 78% of Palestinian territory. Between 1948 and 1967 90% of Palestine had been grabbed by the Zionist state. Land Before 1948 there were 475 Arab villages within the boarders of what became the state of Israel by 1973, 385 of these have been destroyed by the Israeli authorities. In 1948, the average amount of arable land for each Palestinian village was 923 hectares; by 1974 it had diminished to 202 hectares as a result of the expropriation of Arab land. The majority of the expropriations were carried out within the framework of Israeli civilian law. Laws with relatively benign sounding names such as the Law of Acquisition of Absentee Property. Emergency articles for the expropriation Uncultivated Lands, the Law for Acquisition of Land and the Law for the Requisition of Land in Times of Emergency were passed in the early years of the Israeli state. The Emergency Articles for the Exploitation The Emergency Articles for the Exploitation of Uncultivated Lands were typically invoked after the military governor had designated a piece of land as a "defence area" to which civilians were denied access. The Palestinian owners of this land would be unable to farm it and so it would become fallow. The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture would then declare the land "uncultivated" and order its expropriation. The Law of Acquisition of Absentee Property The Law of Acquisition of Absentee Property gave the Israeli state the legal right to confiscate all Arab land unless the owners could produce documentary evidence showing they owned that land and also providing they had not left their residence between September 29, 1947 and September 1 1948 to go anywhere outside Jewish control. It was often impossible for many Arabs to prove land ownership as most land was never registered but had passed on through hereditary right. Only for the Jews By 1981 one third of the West Bank - conquered by Israel during its June 1967 war against Jordan - had been expropriated. Today 60% of land in the West Bank is owned by non-Arab Israeli settlers even though they constitute a tinny minority of the population. In Gaza there are 6000 Israeli Jewish settlers living among a population of one million Palestinians. Yet 42% of the land in Gaza is owned by the Jews. Ninety four percent of land in Israel is under the administration of the Jewish National Fund, a member of the World Zionist Organisation. This land can be leased only to Jews. Palestinians and all other non- Jews are excluded from leasing this land without exception. No Conspiracy Israeli settlements are continually being constructed in the occupied territories. They are often built on strategic sites which overlook Palestinian towns and villages. Israeli settlements now form a ring around Jerusalem, isolating the Palestinian population from the main Palestinian towns to the south: Hebron and Bethelehem. The number of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories has increased from three at the end of 1967 to 195 today. New settlements continued to be constructed on Palestinian land throughout the so called "peace process". Water Policy The Israeli government has also pursued a grossly discriminatory water policy in order to control and enforce the dependence of Palestinians in the occupied territories. In Gaza in 1985, for instance, Israeli settlers consumed 2326 cubic metres of water per person; Palestinians were allowed to consume only 123 cubic metres per person. Peace process? During the "peace process" the Israeli government pursued the policy of "closure" around the occupied territories. Closure became a policy of segregation. Eight road blocks were set up between Israel and the territories. Israeli settlers were allowed to pass through freely. Palestinians were not. These restrictions led to 90 000 Palestinians losing their jobs as well as they were prevented from travelling to Israel to work. With the mass uprising in the occupied territories in 1987 - the intifada - the Israeli government begun to issue identification cards. These cards list a "nationality" - either Jewish, Arab, Druze, Circassian, Samaritan, Kara'ite or foreign. The Jews should be Discriminated around the World! The purpose of the ID cards was to increase the ability of the Israeli government to restrict the travel of non-Jews. Palestinians living in the West Bank are routinely prevented from travelling to the Gaza Strip because they would have to travel through Israeli territory. The cards also allow for discrimination against non-Jews when they apply at government offices for service regarding the acquisition of property, government support for young couples, educational curricula and government support for schools. The Israeli Education System = Nazi System The Israeli education system is totally Jewish and racist in content. Almost no Arab history is covered and there are no Arab textbooks in the Israeli curricula. Palestinians also face significant barriers to gaining a university education. In 1969, out of the 37, 343 students in higher education, only 700 were Arabs. Nazi = Israel A key component of Israeli rule in the occupied territories has been to ensure that Palestinians remain economically dependent upon Israel. No significant industry has been permitted to develop in the West Bank or in Gaza. Most industrial and agricultural development in Israel is the exclusive preserve of the quasi-official Jewish agency. The by-laws of the Jewish Agency prevent it from offering any services to non- Jews. In consequences Palestinians are concentrated in the lowest paying jobs and from a super-exploited labour force for Israeli capital. The Zionist Labour Movement The Zionist labour movement, dominated by white European Jews, refuses to organise Palestinian workers. The Zionist labour movement fought strongly to exclude all Palestinians from employment in Israel in the years immediately following the founding of the Israeli state. The Zionist Ghetto Today the occupied territories import 93% of the goods their inhabitants consume and export a mere 7% of what they produce. Palestinian exports to Western Europe have been banned so as not to compete with Israeli exports. Israel has implemented a land tax, a value-added tax and export taxes upon Palestinians while subsidies and credit are made available to Jewish farmers and denied to Palestinians. Electricity, sewerage, roads and water supplies are provided free to Israeli households whereas many Palestinian communities in Israel, let alone the occupied territories, have existed for decades without adequate services. The occupied territories are economically depressed to the extent that 90% of Palestinian workers must travel to Jewish towns to find employment. In Gaza, one in five workers are unemployed. Mother of all con Yet, despite all the injustices and discrimination perpetrated by the Israeli state, Israel is far from an international pariah as was apartheid South Africa. As Elmer Burger, a Jewish-American Rabbi, explained: "Most of the world remains unaware of the dynamic of racial discrimination in the 'only democracy in the Middle East' because Zionism's propagandist rate with the world's best in phrasing plausible, even sympathy-attracting camouflage for the Israeli policies which flow from Zionism's racism; 'security', 'law and order', 'pereventing fifth column sub-version'. Such verbal disguises restrain the faithful of the democratic tradition from insisting upon corrective action." But this is only a partial explanation. The nature of the apartheid regime in Israel has also been obfuscated and white-washed with the help of the Western "democracies", including the United States and Australia, whose rulers consider it in their interests to support and protect Israel's abuses of the human rights of the Palestinian people. Source: http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/17016/index.php Israeli HOLOCAUST in Palestine

Faruque Ahmed	Feb 6 2007, 01:21 AM Post #2
Group: Members Posts: 287 Joined: 15-Dec 06 Member No.: 5,258	IMAGINE HAVING EVEN A GUEST IN YOUR HOME WHO, FOR FORTY YEARS, BEATS YOU AND INSULTS YOU IN FRONT OF YOUR CHILDREN, EATS YOUR FOOD, KILLS YOUR CHILDREN, DESTROYS YOUR GARDEN/LIVELIHOOD, PREVENTS YOU FROM MOVING IN YOUR OWN HOME. CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE THAT? ==================================== A schoolgirl riddled with bullets. And no one is to blame. Rafah, October 21, 2004 Chris Mc Greal, The Guardian, England. Israeli unit commander is cleared of Palestinian pupil's death ! The undisputed facts are these: it was broad daylight, 13-year-old Iman al-Hams was wearing her school uniform, and when she walked into the Israeli army's "forbidden zone" at the bottom of her street she was carrying her satchel. A few minutes later the short, slight child was pumped with bullets. Doctors counted at least 17 wounds and said much of her head was destroyed. Beyond that there is little agreement between the army top brass and Palestinian witnesses as to how Iman came to die last week, or even among members of the military unit responsible for killing the child in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp. Palestinian witnesses described the shooting as cold-blooded. They say soldiers could not have failed to see they were firing at a child, and she was killed as she already lay wounded and helpless. "Some soldiers were lying on the ground and shooting very heavily toward her," said Basim Breaka, who saw the killing from her living room. "Then one of the soldiers walked to her and emptied his clip into her. For sure she died on the second or third bullet. I could see her lying on the ground, not moving. I can't imagine why that soldier wanted to shoot her after she was dead." This week an army investigation cleared the unit's commander after some of his own soldiers accused him of giving the order to shoot knowing the target was a young girl, and of then emptying the clip of his automatic rifle into her. On the day she died, Iman left home shortly before 7am for the short walk to school in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood. The school, facing the heavily militarised border with Egypt, is under the shadow of a towering camouflaged Israeli gunpost. Like almost every other building in the area, Iman's school is pockmarked by bullets. Last year, a 13-year-old boy was shot dead by the army outside the school. This year, two pupils and a teacher were wounded by bullets inside the grounds. Iman walked past her school with her satchel over her shoulder, crossed the road and climbed down a small sandy bank to an area that was an olive and citrus orchard until the army's bulldozers flattened it in April. She had entered the "forbidden zone" next to the watchtower where any Palestinian risks being shot. The schoolgirl kept on walking toward the tower but was still several hundred metres away when two shots caught her in the leg. She dropped her bag, turned, tried to hobble away, and fell. Four or five soldiers emerged from the army post and shot at her from a distance. Palestinian witnesses and some Israeli soldiers say that the platoon commander moved in closer to put two bullets in the child's head. They say that he then walked away, turned back and fired a stream of bullets into her body. Iman's corpse was taken to Rafah's hospital and inspected by Dr Mohammed al-Hams. "She has at least 17 bullets in several parts of the body, all along the chest, hands, arms, legs," he said. "The bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. She had three bullets in the head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face. Another bullet went from the neck to the face and damaged the area under the mouth." The doctor said that the nature of the wounds suggested that Iman was already dead when some of the bullets hit her. The army swiftly blamed Iman for her own death by entering the forbidden zone. At first, the military said soldiers suspected the girl was carrying a bomb in her satchel. When it turned out there was no bomb, it said she was being used by Palestinian combatants to lure troops from their post. But some soldiers in the unit responsible, the Shaked battalion, were outraged at what they saw as a cover-up. One told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that a soldier in the watchtower had told the company commander that he was about to shoot a child: "Don't shoot, it's a little girl". "The company commander approached her, shot two bullets into her, walked back towards the force, turned back to her, switched his weapon to automatic and emptied his entire magazine into her. We were in shock. We couldn't believe what he was doing. Our hearts ached for her. Just a girl of 13," a soldier told the newspaper. Other soldiers said that if the company commander was not dismissed they would refuse to serve under him: "It is a disgrace that he is still in his position. We want him kicked out." The accounts of Palestinian witnesses back the claims of the protesting soldiers. Fuad Zourob was working at a small brick factory overlooking the area where Iman was shot. "The girl was walking in the sand. She was shot from the army post. She was hit in the leg and she was crawling. "Then she stood up and started to try and run and then she fell. The shooting went on. The soldiers arrived by foot. One came close to the girl and started to shoot. He walked away, turned back and then shot her some more," he said. Yousef Breaka watched from the balcony of his second floor flat. He owns the 12 acres of bulldozed land beside the building which Iman crossed minutes before she was shot. "The first shot came from the army post. It hit her in the leg. She was starting to walk on and then fell. She dropped her bag. They were firing, heavy shooting. I am sure she died before the two soldiers came and shot her bag and then her," he said. Mr Breaka's living room wall is decorated with the holes of nine bullets fired from the Israeli army watchtower two years ago. A tenth bullet killed his 80-year-old mother, Jindiya. Neither Iman's father, Samir al-Hams, nor the witnesses know why the girl walked into the forbidden zone. "I can't explain why she was there. I've asked everyone and no one can explain it. Perhaps she just wanted to walk on the sand. Perhaps she was confused. I don't know," said Mr al-Hams. Mr Zourob was surprised to see Iman walking at the back of his factory. "I was astonished. I didn't know why she was there. No one goes toward that area. She was alone but some of the schoolchildren were calling her: Iman, why are you there?" he said. The watchtower sits atop a large hill of sand. It is surrounded by barbed wire and other defences. Even before she was hit in the leg, it would have taken Iman 10 minutes or more to scramble up the hill. Once she was wounded, there was little chance she could have got to the watchtower. If she was carrying a bomb, it could have harmed Israeli troops had she got close enough to them. But after Iman was shot in the leg she dropped her school bag. Palestinian witnesses say soldiers pumped it full of bullets, establishing that it was not a bomb, but still went on to shoot the girl. The Israeli army's rules of engagement permit soldiers to wound a person who enters a security zone and does not heed warning shots to leave. But once the person is wounded, soldiers are only permitted to kill if there is an imminent threat to their lives. Witnesses say Iman was helpless and posed no such threat. Her father is a teacher at a primary school neighbouring his daughter's. "The day Iman was killed, the headmistress of her school called me at 8.15 and asked why she wasn't at school. I said I had no idea.," he said. "I ran to the school. The teachers and headmistress told me the army shot toward a small girl but she was fine, don't worry. I calmed down a bit when I heard that and thought maybe they shot toward her to make her afraid and arrested her for interrogation and they will release her. But then they declared her dead. That was the worst moment in my life." This week, the officer responsible for the Gaza strip, Major General Dan Harel, completed his investigation and pronounced that the company commander had not acted unethically in the shooting of Iman but was being suspended for losing the confidence of his soldiers. The speed of the investigation has revealed once again the cursory nature of the army's inquiries into such shootings. A more thorough investigation usually only follows if there is external pressure, such as in the case of three Britons shot dead by Israeli soldiers over the past two years. The military has quietly dropped an investigation into the killing by an Israeli sniper of a brother and sister, both teenagers, in Rafah in May. The army falsely claimed that the pair were killed by a Palestinian bomb and only began the investigation after journalists found the bodies of the children and reported that both had a single shot to the head. Under pressure from the revelations of the Shaked battalion soldiers, the military police has launched a separate investigation into the death of Iman al-Hams. The soldiers say they will insist that it is completed. Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bangla-vision/message/19507 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freeamericanow/message/37621

Faruque Ahmed

Feb 6 2007, 11:59 PM Post #3

Group: Members Posts: 287 Joined: 15-Dec 06 Member No.: 5,258

Emma Thompson bids for Palestinian Rights Report, Enough! 27 January 2007 Broadbased coalition in support of an end to Israeli occupation set for launch http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6451.shtml Record-breaking actor Emma Thompson revealed today why she is helping to make political history by supporting Britain's first broad-based alliance for a just peace in the Middle East. Ms Thompson earned her Oscars for best actress in Howard's End and for best-adapted screenplay for adapting Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility. The only person ever to have won film Oscars for acting and writing is backing a new historic drive for a just settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. The ENOUGH! coalition, representing over three million people in charities, trade unions, faith and campaign groups has come together to mark this year's 40th anniversary of the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The launch will come only days after a report, funded by the British government, warned that Israel's separation wall is trapping 250,000 Palestinians. The report on Israel's separation wall was produced by the Israeli planning and rights organisation Bimkom. The report says the wall is cutting off Palestinians from employment, education, healthcare needs, undermining social and family life and isolating farmers from markets. Ms Thompson said: "This report cites the devastating effects on Palestinians' health and livelihoods of Israel's separation wall. It shows the vital need for our ministers to make fresh moves for a just peace. It is high time the UK government matched its rhetoric with action which can save Palestinians and Israelis from another 40 years' conflict." ENOUGH will be launched with a news conference at 11.00 am next Tuesday (30 January) in the Wilson Room at Portcullis House, Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2LW. Supporters include actor -Miriam Margolyes, now appearing in London's West End hit musical Wicked - and other celebrities such as Richard Wilson, Stephen Fry, Angus Deayton, Zoe Wanamaker and film director Mike Leigh. Other ENOUGH! backers include the MP Clare Short, former UK international development secretary, comedian Mark Steel, playwright Caryl Churchill, poets Benjamin Zephaniah and Adrian Mitchell, artists John Keane and Laila Shawa, and novelist Ahdaf Soueif. Ms Margolyes will introduce the news conference, where the speakers will be: Palestinian farmer Sharif Omar, whose livelihood has been hit by Israel's separation wall, Mona El-Farra, a Gaza doctor treating children traumatised by occupation, Professor Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian delegate to Britain and former Israeli pilot Yonatan Shapira, who refused to fly missions over the occupied territories. The news conference precedes a public launch rally later the same day. Tony Benn, the ex-UK cabinet minister, will address the rally, along with award-winning Gaza cameraman Zakaria Abu Harbid, Yonatan Shapira, Sharif Omar, Mona El-Farra and Professor Hassassian. It will take place at 7.00 pm on Tuesday, 30 January at Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ. ENOUGH! coalition will organise throughout the year: In April - local events across the country with a special focus on Jerusalem; 9th June - a national demonstration and concert in London on Saturday 9 June, to mark the 6 Day war 28th November - a lobby of the British parliament to mark the United Nations International Day for Palestine. The coalition comprises: Amicus, Amos Trust, BFAWU, Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group, Britain Palestine Twinning Network, CAABU, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Friends of Birzeit University, GMB, Green Party, ICAHD UK, Interpal, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jewish Socialist Group, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Muslim Association of Britain, Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Public Affairs Committee, NUJ, NUS Black Students Campaign, Open Bethlehem, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Palestinian Return Centre, Pax Christi, PCS, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, T&G, Trade Union Friends of Palestine, UNISON, War on Want, Welfare Association.

Israeli HOLOCAUST in Palestine