40 years of lies and fears of inconvenience
on June 7, 2007
Category: Social Movements, The World, War/Conflict, Human Rights
Following on from Kameelah’s post on Palestine a couple of days ago which clearly set out the historical facts on the displacement of Palestinians and the Israeli occupation. On Palestine Solidarity Day two articles to get people thinking and respond to Kameelah’s call for action
While we all can’t fight every battle, what does it mean when Black people of America and the Diaspora turn a blind eye to the struggles of Palestinians? What does it mean when people who recently struggled an lived through Apartheid condone or otherwise ignore the Palestinian struggle? What does it mean that human beings who are so spot-on in their analysis and action in other world events can be so myopic, silent and complacent when it comes to the struggles of Palestinian people?
The first comes from South Africa - a speech made to the South African parliament yesterday by MP, Ronnie Kasrils, MP with some home truths on the 6 day war and Israeli occupation that this was not an act of “self-defence” but a planned act of aggression.
Israel’s military Chief of Staff, Yitzhak Rabin stated: “I do not believe that Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent into Sinai on May 14 [1967] would not have been enough to unleash an offensive against Israel. He knew it and we knew it.” [1]
Menachem Begin, later Israel’s Prime Minister, reminisced that the Egyptian army deployment in the Sinai did not prove that Nasser was about to attack Israel. “We must be honest,” he explained. “We decided to attack him.” [2]
General Moshe Dayan explained that “many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel.” He said that the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights … did so less for the security than for the farmland …”
These are clearly statements of an aggressor. Nevertheless, some claim that Israel is justified and obligated, from its birth as a state in 1948 in fact, to defend its land and people by force whenever necessary. But where is the morality in this? Fortress Israel, a militarist aggressive state, defends a stolen land that belonged to another people.
David Ben Gurion reveals more of Israel’s deception and present revisionist interpretations of the historical facts: the decision to systematically drive out the Palestinians from the land admitting that they Israel had “stolen their country”
“Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: We have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them. Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, its true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis … but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we came here and stole their country.”
From Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web: Mazin Qumsiyeh’s call to action: How willing are we to be inconvenienced? and this goes for other conflicts, occupations and injustices taking place at this very moment. (Via Haitham)
I want to take time to address those who have yet to do so by asking them the question How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice? and till when will those who are silently observing (or cursing the darkness instead of lighting a candle) remain silent. But first, please take the time to review this very short vide on Gaza. It will change you even if you think you know what is going on…So How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After all, it is about convenience. Fear of inconvenience permeates us. Our lives are commercialized (go shopping Bush told us after 9/11), sanitized from the suffering of others, routinized lest we encounter the unfamiliar, and stigmatized (both stigmatizing ourselves and others). All in all, avoiding what the Budhists call “having joyful participation in the sorrows of this world”.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After 60 years of ethnic cleansing, 6 million Palestinians refugees and displaced people. After 530 depopulated villages and towns and more land being confiscated daily (All done with Western governments direct and indirect support).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
If you are in London this weekend there is a march organised for Saturday by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign
Links: Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) Campaign
Tags: Palestine ; Israel ; Apartheid ; Occupation; Imperialism; Zionism
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2 Comments so far
1. Hathor
June 7th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
I think you forget that no one wanted the Jew and felt guilty that before and during WWII the US refused so many refugees. It is a combination of anti-antisemitism and guilt that created Israel. Palestine had originally part Transjordan, a colonialist created state and it was not in the western interest to disband that country. There was suppose to be a creation of both an Israeli and Palestinian State by the UN, but Palestinian efforts got put by the way side during the cold war. I hardly think that at that time when most blacks people had there own struggle, could identify in that kind of world politics or would have been able to have any influence.
In the US the Jews were allies of blacks people in there struggle for full citizenship. In many cases they were the only people that would be able represent us fully in a court of law. Some time later there were issue with Jewish people exploiting our neighborhoods, but we still have a love/hate relationship.
I don’t know now why blacks don’t support the Palestinians, but for myself I didn’t like their tactics. I didn’t like the situation they were in, but there was no one I ever felt had any power to get reason to prevail. I began to realize that Arafat should have not been there leader and there would never be any progress with him in charge. There also were going to have to be some generations of Israeli’s that didn’t remember the Nazi’s. Quite a bit of their response had been more a reaction to the past than a response to reality.
As an African you would have perhaps more power, but blacks in the US are loosing the credibility, especially in world affairs. Someone like Dr. Rice only has credibility, because of her political alignment.
2. Black Looks
October 6th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
[…] Palestinians Anti-Zionist and unequivocally committed to the dismantling of Israeli apartheid, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the ending of the Israeli colonization of historic […]