Students at George Washington University disrupt talk by Michael Oren, hold up signs reading ‘Oren supports colonialism,’ and ‘What are you going to do with 30 billion?’
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aziz
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aziz
CBS’ 60 Minutes had a fantastic segment on how the Israeli occupation is driving Christians out of the Holy Land. The report has earned CBS the ire of the Israeli government – even before it aired.
There’s a petition setup to thank CBS for their courageous reporting, as well.
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aziz
A Palestinian Christian group, Kairos Palestine, has denounced Amb. Oren’s attempt to silence CBS:
http://www.kairospalestine.ps/?q=node/1
In this inaccurate and manipulative text, Oren… blames the plight of Palestinian Christians on oppression at the hands of Palestinian Muslims — rather than at the hands of the illegal Israeli occupation itself, as is our reality.
We add our voices to several other recently published responses that have emphasized this reality and the ways in which Oren’s op-ed attempts to mask it. Indeed, contrary to his assertions, Christian persecution is caused mainly by the occupation that systematically degrades all Palestinians, restricts our movement, confiscates our land, devastates our economy, and violates our rights — including the very basic right to a decent life.
We are particularly troubled by Oren’s attribution of migration within the Palestinian Christian community to ill-treatment by Palestinian Muslims. This damaging analysis wilfully ignores the underlying political oppression that afflicts Christians and Muslims alike. In the case of Bethlehem, for instance, it is in fact the rampant construction of Israeli settlements, the chokehold imposed by the separation wall, and the Israeli government’s confiscation of Palestinian land — largely Christian-owned land in the Bethlehem area — that has driven many Christians to leave.
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aziz
Piece in Ha’aretz about Oren’s continuing efforts at propaganda and using teh Christian community as a political prop:
In 2006, Qassis conducted a survey of Christians who live in the occupied Palestinian territories, and, he says, the vast majority said their desire to emigrate was linked to the lack of security and stability they feel under Israeli rule. Less than 1 percent spoke about being afraid of Muslims.
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thabet
It’s April Fool’s Day:
Israel is an example of that today: technology and not territory are the drivers of wealth. We have shown that with a small piece of land, little water and no oil, it is possible to create a thriving economy and a sustainable democracy.
Israel welcomes the wind of change, and sees a window of opportunity. Democratic and science-based economies by nature desire peace. Israel does not want to be an island of affluence in an ocean of poverty. Improvements in our neighbours’ lives mean improvements to the neighbourhood in which we live.
Israelis understand that this is no less true of the Palestinians. That is why successive Israeli governments have given their full support to the efforts of Palestinians in the West Bank to build their own economy, their own institutions, and their own security forces. Economic growth in the West Bank is now close to 10% annually. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians see the tangible fruit of this co-operation. Knowledge, freedom and peace are inseparable.
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aziz
Taking credit for Palestinian growth? Obscene, but not surprising.
10% growth is a meaningless number anyway. If I’m earning $1 a day and then I start earning $1.50, thats 50% growth right there. BFD.
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aziz
Under Israeli military law, Palestinians are not allowed to protest the occupation without special permits, which are almost never requested—partly as a matter of principle, but also because they are almost never given. The unarmed demonstrations are usually met with heavy-handed measures, including tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and even live ammunition. Since 2005, twenty-one Palestinians have been killed in these demonstrations, including ten under 18, with thousands injured. Israelis and international activists have been injured too, but so far no Israeli Jews have been killed. The Israeli protesters claim that their presence restrains the army and helps draw media attention. Many Palestinians agree, and over the years they have come to see the Israeli activists as partners.
http://josephdana.com/2011/03/the-new-israeli-left/ -
thabet
The Guardian has put up what is being called The Palestine Papers, ‘secret’ documents on the negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis.
These papers were obtained by Al Jazeera and then shared with the Guardian.
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thabet
A brief review of the papers:
The documents – many of which will be published by the Guardian over the coming days – also reveal:
• The scale of confidential concessions offered by Palestinian negotiators, including on the highly sensitive issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
• How Israeli leaders privately asked for some Arab citizens to be transferred to a new Palestinian state.
• The intimate level of covert co-operation between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian Authority.
• The central role of British intelligence in drawing up a secret plan to crush Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
• How Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders were privately tipped off about Israel’s 2008-9 war in Gaza.
As well as the annexation of all East Jerusalem settlements except Har Homa, the Palestine papers show PLO leaders privately suggested swapping part of the flashpoint East Jerusalem Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah for land elsewhere.
Most controversially, they also proposed a joint committee to take over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City – the neuralgic issue that helped sink the Camp David talks in 2000 after Yasser Arafat refused to concede sovereignty around the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques.
The offers were made in 2008-9, in the wake of George Bush’s Annapolis conference, and were privately hailed by the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, as giving Israel “the biggest Yerushalayim [the Hebrew name for Jerusalem] in history” in order to resolve the world’s most intractable conflict. Israeli leaders, backed by the US government, said the offers were inadequate.
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aziz
what’s useful about this is how it puts the lie to the “partner libel” – no partner fr peace, etc.
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thabet
Yep, I think it kills this slur on the Palestinians.
The position of the ‘official’ PA is now untenable — if they were considered spineless collaborators before these revelations…
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Admin
which is a problem. The leaks damage the case, and seem designed to kill the 2-state solution. It’s not a good prospect for a negotiated solution.
looks to me like both sides are in denial. The Israelis think they can punt the problem forever. The Palestinians think that their lot is better with a unilateral declaration and then a civil rights campaign.
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thabet
But these documents make it clear there is no real ‘peace’ process or negotiated settlement — something which I think many knew anyway.
For better or for worse, the two-state solution is dead. My gut feeling is in the short-term this is ‘bad’ (but ‘good’ in the sense Palestinians can see what a bunch of frauds their leaders are). However, in the long-term the hope is a one-state solution will be possible (backed by a comprehensive regional peace and economic treaty — I don’t think any settlement can ever be solved in isolation).
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aziz
agreed, the Palestinian faction has had basically no real representation. check out MJ Rosenberg’s take:
For Palestinians, it means that the Palestinian Authority understands that with the United States solidly backing every Israeli position no matter how extreme, the only thing it can do is negotiate for crumbs. It never told the Palestinian people that it was unable to represent them in any serious way. Its credibility is in tatters, although it is hard not to have sympathy for the PA. What can it really do when it, not Israel, has no negotiating partner and, on top of it, America sits on its face like a thousand pound gorilla?
For Israelis, they can be reassured (if they are on the right) that they have a government that intends never to give up anything. The settlements — even mega-settlement Ariel, smack dab in the middle of the West Bank — are safe. All of Jerusalem will be theirs. Above all, they need not worry about negotiations because Israel is not really negotiating. It is playing at negotiating.
The problem with the only real alternative left – unilateralism, and then a civil rights movement – is that it relies on liberal jewish goodwill, in Israel and in the diaspora. MJ Rosenberg speaks well, but does he speak for all?
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thabet
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aziz
wow man. thats dredging up ancient history indeed
But thereal yeoman’s work was being done by groups like TIME (remember them?) and electronic intifada (who’ve gone much more cynical since). did that old link come up on a google search? I’m amazed it’s still findable.
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thabet
Yes, I did a quick search to find your UNMEDIA website, then just used the Google site: command to find this article.
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eganmk
I saw this this morning at Tablet. Shorter Marc Tracy (and I agree with him): Kinda what you said, but it would be a lot more meaningful if it weren’t kept a secret and then denied by the PA, since the reaction of the Palestinian people is kinda important in the whole thing. He ends, “One would like to imagine an Israeli leadership daring enough to call the Palestinian bet and force all hands on the table—whether in the form of agreeing to the 2008 deal or, in 2010, extending the settlement freeze, whether to East Jerusalem or past its September expiration. Such a concession would have either demonstrated to the world the fundamental stagnancy of the peace process, or—maybe?—have taken a real step toward its fulfillment. We’ll never know.” I think that’s kinda cynical, and I hate to see politics treated as trying to outmaneuver your “opponents,” but complaining about that seems a lonely cause.
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thabet
(Via Mondoweiss who have been covering the (latest) murder of a Palestinian woman, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, by the Israeli army.)
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thabet
The Only Liberal Democracy In The Middle East (Because It Doesn’t Stone Women Or Hang Gays):
Three Palestinians also were injured by gunfire in the same area, medical officials said.
Israel Defense Forces would only confirm that soldiers fired on two Palestinians who were seen in a 300-meter (984-foot) restricted “no-go” zone near the crossing. Both were hit below the waist, according to IDF.The shepherd died Thursday night after getting shot in the spine earlier in the day, Palestinian medical officials said.
The medical officials also said three teenage boys out collecting stones Thursday were injured by gunfire in separate incidents in the same area as the fatal shooting. A 14-year-old boy was shot in the head. Another victim, 18, was shot in the leg. A third victim, 19 was shot in the arm.
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bk
You’re not welcome on my threads. Please go away and find some other website on which you can blame The Jews for Obama’s appalling record on foreign policy, torture, kidnapping, war crimes, and indefinite incarceration.
Christmas mubarak.
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bk
Do you not get hints?
If not here’s a simple message: fuck off.
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thabet
Binyamin Netanyahu agrees with your sardonic blogger that Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
In related news:
The 166-page report, “Separate and Unequal: Israel’s Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” shows that Israel operates a two-tier system for the two populations of the West Bank in the large areas where it exercises exclusive control.
What’s that word pro-Israeli fanatics get scared of?
Apartheid.
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shams
meh.
big whup. israel is not a “liberal” democracy. that implies adherence to enlightenment principles.
israel is a religious democracy.
Israel is a jewish democracy like turkey and iraq are islamic democracies like America is a protest democracy like GB is an anglican democracy like germany is a judeoxian democracy.
there are no true secular enlightenment democracies that im aware of.
because of the consent of the governed.-
shams
PROTESTANT democracy.
WEC doctrine got us into the twin quagmires of Iraq and A-stan, brother thabet.
get a clue. -
thabet
I agree with this.
It’s a number of Western liberals who don’t.
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aziz
good point, in fact there is a lot of parallel between Israel and Hamas!
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Lawrence of Arabia
Wasn’t that always the point?
Of course the recent demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish nation effectively blocks a one-state solution, as well. So what is left?
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thabet
The hard numbers:
Regarding these 617 fatalities, BʹTselem demanded an MPIU [Military Police Investigation Unit] investigation into the deaths of 288 of them, who were killed in 148 incidents. Ninety‐five of these incidents occurred in the Gaza Strip, accounting for 230 of the deaths. The other 53 incidents took place in the West Bank and resulted in the killing of 58 Palestinians. One hundred and four of the fatalities were minors under age 18, 23 were persons 50 and above, and 52 were women. One hundred of the Palestinians whose deaths B’Tselem demanded to investigate were killed in 2006, 86 in 2007, 93 in 2008, and 9 in 2009.
thabet, and 1 other are discussing. 
bk is discussing. 
shams are discussing. 
Matthew 1:27 pm on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2012/05/oh-yeah-its-walk-out.html