|
NorthernGent -> RE: Iran: Israel will soon disappear (2/28/2008 4:43:36 AM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: luckydog1
the Palestinians were not expelled in masse. they live in Isreal, with full rights, vote, serve in the Knesset, hold Mayor and police function, ect.
Let's step back a second and briefly chart the recent history of Israel. Let's understand who exactly is being oppressed here and to what extent.
Israel was artificially created and is externally sustained. It is a colonial settler state founded by Britain and the USA to safeguard their oil and other economic and military interests in the region. The Arab peoples had fought against Ottoman domination, why on earth would they peacefully swap masters?
Zionist settlement began by purchasing land from Arab feudal lords and they expelled Palestinian peasants who came with the land; Jewish immigrants replaced them. Zionist leader Joseph Weitz: among ourselves it must be clear that there is no place in the country for both peoples together. With the Arabs, we shall not achieve our aim of being an independent people in this country. Transfer the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries, transfer all of them, not one village or tribe should remain. This suggests there was to be no place in the Israeli state for any Palestinian.
Moreover, fascist violence was used as a tool to achieve this objective. A systematic strategy was devised in 1948 to drive out Palestinians. The strategy during this period was described by Ben Gurion, the Israeli Prime Minister: the strategic objective was to destroy the urban community, which were the most organised and politically conscious sections of the Palestinian people. This was not done by house to house fighting inside the towns and cities, but by the conquest and destruction of the rural areas surrounding most of the towns. Deprived of transportation, food and raw materials, the urban communities underwent a process of disintegration, chaos and hunger which forced them to surrender. Shades of the German strategy in Eastern Europe? Steal land, set Germans to work on it, and suppress the intelligensia in order to crush resistance.
In modern times, despite repeated UN resolutions, Israel has reluctantly ceded some ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since 1948, the vast majority of Arab land in Israel has been confiscasted and reserved for Jews only; Palestinians cannot buy, rent or lease in these areas. In the face of incontrovertible evidence, the UN in 1975 passed Resolution 3397 which determines that the Israeli authorities are undertaking a policy of racism and racial discrimination.
Crucially, the Israeli authorities have systematically undermined the possibility of an independent Palestinian agriculture and economy. On land requiring intensive water irrigation, Palestinians have virtually no rights to dig new wells. Water from existing Palestinian wells are also siphoned off to irrigate land confiscated by colonial settlers. Today there is no free passage between the supposedly autonomous regions of Gaza and the West Bank. All commercial traffic between these areas is in Israeli hands. Repeated closures of the border are devastating the Palestinian economy. For example, with trucks halted for days, it is cheaper for West Bank traders to import tomatoes from Spain than from Gaza. Repeatedly, Palestinian produce is left to rot at Israeli roadblocks and prohibitions are imposed on importing raw materials into areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile the tide of colonisers keeps flowing into the West Bank. According to Nekuda, a settler publication, their numbers have increased by some 50 per cent since the signing of the peace accords. Strategically placed, with state funded programmes for massive expansion, these settlements, together with Israeli army roadblocks, have ensured that the major Palestinian population centres are reduced to isolated clusters, cut off from each other and dependent entirely on Israeli authority.
According to the Financial Times: Israeli governments, whether led by Labour or Netanyahu's Likud, have... used housing and zoning policy, and discrimination over resident permits, to create a Jewish majority in the eastern quarters and make it impossible for Arab residents to build enough to house their expanding families.
According to Professor Steinberg of Israel's Barllan University, the peace accords have amounted to the following:
Netanyahu has managed...to reduce the amount of territory to be returned to the Palestinians by being able to designate the military locations which will be excluded from the troop redeployment.
Ultimately, the Palestinians have no power - economic, military or political - as a counterweight to the massive military, economic and social reality of the Israeli state. It could be argued that the Palestinians are literally fighting a life and death battle for their future.
It goes without saying that Palestinians are engaged in indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israelis, but the Israeli government's blockade of the Gaza Strip constitutes collective punishment and cannot be justified. This blockade has increased the dire poverty experienced by Palestinians.
This brings me back to my initial point, if there is to be lasting peace, yes, all political actors and relevant stakeholders will need to be included in negotiations, but this sustained policy of suppressing the Palestinians' economic, political and social potential will have to be ended immediately. Is there a will on the part of the Israeli authorities? history and current policy suggests otherwise.
Luckydog, this may prove useful for you: the disproportionate reporting in the American media. Perhaps this is generating a climate of misunderstanding.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html
|
|
|
|
