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The Palestinians Are No Longer Alone
The Palestinians are no longer alone; Israel, despite the craven intimidation of some of its supporters, has ceased to be immune from truthful media criticism [in Britain].
Edward Said once asked who, if not the writer, will "defeat the imposed silence and normalised quiet of power". Ghada Karmi is such a writer. Her book In Search of Fatima: a Palestinian story, to be published this month by Verso, is one of the finest, most eloquent and painfully honest memoirs of the Palestinian exile and displacement, which western power and its creature, Israel, have "normalised".
As a child in British Mandated Palestine, Ghada Karmi watched Jewish terrorists create the climate of fear and terror that gave Palestinian families the choice of fleeing or expulsion. She notes the irony that the word "terrorist" was invented by the British to describe the Jewish Irgun and the Stern Gang and its killers, two of whom became prime ministers of Israel.
Her family came as refugees to Britain, settling in, of all places, Jewish Golders Green. A few years ago, she looked for her home in Jerusalem and found in its place a kindergarten for religious Israelis. Everything of her childhood was gone, as if it had been airbrushed. "The scene could have come from the Orthodox Jewish part of Golders Green," she wrote. "Unutterably dismayed, I walked back and stood staring at what had been the site of our house. I squeezed my eyes shut to banish the present from my consciousness and recall the memories of childhood, the echoes of laughter and the scents and sounds which had been homely and familiar. But I could not. Flotsam and jetsam, I thought, that's how we ended up, not a stick or stone to mark our existence. No homeland, no reference point, only a fragile, displaced and misfit Arab family in England to take on those crucial roles."
The "quiet of power" is no more; the Palestinians, having fought back, are no longer alone. Last Saturday, up to 400,000 people filled much of central London calling for justice for them, and in opposition to the proposed criminal attack on Iraq. The two are linked; only the vintage of the imperial regime in Whitehall is different.
At the Israeli Ministry of Truth on Palestine, and its branches in America and this country, there is panic, which is understandable. Until recently, a Zionist narrative has dominated much of the region's historiography in the west; and Israel's immunity from truthful media criticism has been almost guaranteed. Tim Llewellyn, for many years the BBC's Middle East correspondent, has described this, accusing the BBC of "continuing to duck" its public service duty to explain "the true nature of the disaster [of the occupation] and Israel's overwhelming responsibility for it".
Merely to say that invites intimidation and smear, which, says Yishai Rosen-Zvi, one of the brave Israelis who have refused to serve in the Occupied Territories, "has been the huge bluff of the Israeli establishment. [Every] criticism of its policies is called anti-Semitism, [when] criticising your country's policy is the only patriotic thing that one can do." He said this in my documentary Palestine Is Still the Issue, which was broadcast on ITV1 last month.
The horde of mostly vicious, violent and threatening bigots who assaulted Carlton Television following the film's transmission made no mention of him or the other decent, reasoning Israelis I interviewed and featured. The wisdom and compassion of Rami Elhanan, a veteran of the Yom Kippur war, who lost his teenage daughter in a suicide bombing, were ignored.
He told me: "Someone who murders little girls is a criminal and should be punished. But if you think from the head and not from the guts and you look what made people do what they do, people that don't have hope, people who are desperate enough to commit suicide, you have to ask yourself, have you contributed in any way to this despair and craziness . . . the suicide bomber was a victim the same as my girl was . . . understanding is part of the way to solving the problem." Those like Rami and Yishai, wrote Miriam Karlin in a letter to the Guardian, "represent the best of Israel, humanity and true Judaism".
Indeed, most of those interviewed were Israelis, including "settlers" and Ariel Sharon's closest adviser, who was given the most airtime. Not a word about this was uttered by the ranters, who e-mailed their abuse and screamed down the phone from all points west of Finchley, including New York and California.
Many were Americans, none of whom had seen the film. Analysing the e-mails, we calculate that around 10 per cent are genuine critical responses to the film. Most of the rest have a generic theme, including those clearly orchestrated by a thoroughly sinister organisation called HonestReporting.
Following a similar assault last year on the Guardian's Middle East correspondent, Suzanne Goldenberg (who was abused as a "self-hating Jew"), an investigation by the paper revealed a website, honestreporting.com, that gave no address and was registered under a London name and phone number that seemed not to exist. The site was set up by a 27-year-old called Jonathan, who pleaded, as cowards in his situation do, that his name not be published.
This organisation is now funded in America by a front called Media Watch International, run by one Shraga Simmons. Simmons is employed by a group of Zionist fanatics known as Aish HaTorah. According to David Leigh in the Guardian, Aish HaTorah was "founded by Rabbi Noah Weinberg, who complains that '20,000 kids a year' are being lost to Judaism by marrying out. Aish invented speed-dating - eight-minute sessions in cafés to help New Yorkers find compatible Jewish partners. They're widely regarded as right-wing extremists. And they're certainly not entitled to harass the media into what they would call 'objectivity'."
It goes beyond that. Many of the e-mails are quite disgusting, containing menacing racist filth of the kind you associate with anti-Semitic fascists. The murder of my family is considered "not a bad idea". I am a "demonic psychopath" and likened to David Irving. Someone called Arie Karseboom says that I must belong to a Nazi party or have an Arab wife: otherwise, a film explaining the injustice done to the Palestinians is simply inexplicable!
The distinguished Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, whose works are taught in universities all over the world and who describes my film as "balanced [and] faultless in its historical description", is called a "pro-Arab dog" and worse.
In order to create the impression of an avalanche of complaints, many of the e-mails run to five or six pages. Not all the writers are American fanatics. At Carlton's offices in London, the duty officers have been abused by those close by. They have been called "worse than Hitler". I have had death threats. A Jewish friend says that the Jewish community has to take some responsibility for this outrageous behaviour from even its "respectable" members. For example, a doctor from Cheshire suggested in an e-mail that I had been personally bribed by Yasser Arafat in return for "programs like that [that] encourage the murder of innocent Jewish civilians . . ." Note the American spelling of programme, which indicates that the nice doctor from Cheshire may not write his own bile.
The invective and threats increased noticeably the day after Michael Green, the Jewish chairman of Carlton, attacked his own company's film in off-the-cuff abuse in the Jewish Chronicle, calling it "a tragedy for Israel" and "inaccurate". Two weeks on, Green has yet to identify let alone substantiate a single "inaccuracy". He should apologise to those of us who have distinguished his company with careful, fair and truthful work. His irresponsibility is a disgrace.
The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem has complained to the Israeli government about its "defence force" targeting journalists - that is, shooting to kill them, just as they routinely kill Palestinians. The next step is for the same foreign journalists, who privately express understanding of the historic injustice done to people suffering one of the longest occupations in modern times, to reject the craven intimidation coming from New York and Finchley and Cheshire, and speak the truth.
As a child in British Mandated Palestine, Ghada Karmi watched Jewish terrorists create the climate of fear and terror that gave Palestinian families the choice of fleeing or expulsion. She notes the irony that the word "terrorist" was invented by the British to describe the Jewish Irgun and the Stern Gang and its killers, two of whom became prime ministers of Israel.
Her family came as refugees to Britain, settling in, of all places, Jewish Golders Green. A few years ago, she looked for her home in Jerusalem and found in its place a kindergarten for religious Israelis. Everything of her childhood was gone, as if it had been airbrushed. "The scene could have come from the Orthodox Jewish part of Golders Green," she wrote. "Unutterably dismayed, I walked back and stood staring at what had been the site of our house. I squeezed my eyes shut to banish the present from my consciousness and recall the memories of childhood, the echoes of laughter and the scents and sounds which had been homely and familiar. But I could not. Flotsam and jetsam, I thought, that's how we ended up, not a stick or stone to mark our existence. No homeland, no reference point, only a fragile, displaced and misfit Arab family in England to take on those crucial roles."
The "quiet of power" is no more; the Palestinians, having fought back, are no longer alone. Last Saturday, up to 400,000 people filled much of central London calling for justice for them, and in opposition to the proposed criminal attack on Iraq. The two are linked; only the vintage of the imperial regime in Whitehall is different.
At the Israeli Ministry of Truth on Palestine, and its branches in America and this country, there is panic, which is understandable. Until recently, a Zionist narrative has dominated much of the region's historiography in the west; and Israel's immunity from truthful media criticism has been almost guaranteed. Tim Llewellyn, for many years the BBC's Middle East correspondent, has described this, accusing the BBC of "continuing to duck" its public service duty to explain "the true nature of the disaster [of the occupation] and Israel's overwhelming responsibility for it".
Merely to say that invites intimidation and smear, which, says Yishai Rosen-Zvi, one of the brave Israelis who have refused to serve in the Occupied Territories, "has been the huge bluff of the Israeli establishment. [Every] criticism of its policies is called anti-Semitism, [when] criticising your country's policy is the only patriotic thing that one can do." He said this in my documentary Palestine Is Still the Issue, which was broadcast on ITV1 last month.
The horde of mostly vicious, violent and threatening bigots who assaulted Carlton Television following the film's transmission made no mention of him or the other decent, reasoning Israelis I interviewed and featured. The wisdom and compassion of Rami Elhanan, a veteran of the Yom Kippur war, who lost his teenage daughter in a suicide bombing, were ignored.
He told me: "Someone who murders little girls is a criminal and should be punished. But if you think from the head and not from the guts and you look what made people do what they do, people that don't have hope, people who are desperate enough to commit suicide, you have to ask yourself, have you contributed in any way to this despair and craziness . . . the suicide bomber was a victim the same as my girl was . . . understanding is part of the way to solving the problem." Those like Rami and Yishai, wrote Miriam Karlin in a letter to the Guardian, "represent the best of Israel, humanity and true Judaism".
Indeed, most of those interviewed were Israelis, including "settlers" and Ariel Sharon's closest adviser, who was given the most airtime. Not a word about this was uttered by the ranters, who e-mailed their abuse and screamed down the phone from all points west of Finchley, including New York and California.
Many were Americans, none of whom had seen the film. Analysing the e-mails, we calculate that around 10 per cent are genuine critical responses to the film. Most of the rest have a generic theme, including those clearly orchestrated by a thoroughly sinister organisation called HonestReporting.
Following a similar assault last year on the Guardian's Middle East correspondent, Suzanne Goldenberg (who was abused as a "self-hating Jew"), an investigation by the paper revealed a website, honestreporting.com, that gave no address and was registered under a London name and phone number that seemed not to exist. The site was set up by a 27-year-old called Jonathan, who pleaded, as cowards in his situation do, that his name not be published.
This organisation is now funded in America by a front called Media Watch International, run by one Shraga Simmons. Simmons is employed by a group of Zionist fanatics known as Aish HaTorah. According to David Leigh in the Guardian, Aish HaTorah was "founded by Rabbi Noah Weinberg, who complains that '20,000 kids a year' are being lost to Judaism by marrying out. Aish invented speed-dating - eight-minute sessions in cafés to help New Yorkers find compatible Jewish partners. They're widely regarded as right-wing extremists. And they're certainly not entitled to harass the media into what they would call 'objectivity'."
It goes beyond that. Many of the e-mails are quite disgusting, containing menacing racist filth of the kind you associate with anti-Semitic fascists. The murder of my family is considered "not a bad idea". I am a "demonic psychopath" and likened to David Irving. Someone called Arie Karseboom says that I must belong to a Nazi party or have an Arab wife: otherwise, a film explaining the injustice done to the Palestinians is simply inexplicable!
The distinguished Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, whose works are taught in universities all over the world and who describes my film as "balanced [and] faultless in its historical description", is called a "pro-Arab dog" and worse.
In order to create the impression of an avalanche of complaints, many of the e-mails run to five or six pages. Not all the writers are American fanatics. At Carlton's offices in London, the duty officers have been abused by those close by. They have been called "worse than Hitler". I have had death threats. A Jewish friend says that the Jewish community has to take some responsibility for this outrageous behaviour from even its "respectable" members. For example, a doctor from Cheshire suggested in an e-mail that I had been personally bribed by Yasser Arafat in return for "programs like that [that] encourage the murder of innocent Jewish civilians . . ." Note the American spelling of programme, which indicates that the nice doctor from Cheshire may not write his own bile.
The invective and threats increased noticeably the day after Michael Green, the Jewish chairman of Carlton, attacked his own company's film in off-the-cuff abuse in the Jewish Chronicle, calling it "a tragedy for Israel" and "inaccurate". Two weeks on, Green has yet to identify let alone substantiate a single "inaccuracy". He should apologise to those of us who have distinguished his company with careful, fair and truthful work. His irresponsibility is a disgrace.
The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem has complained to the Israeli government about its "defence force" targeting journalists - that is, shooting to kill them, just as they routinely kill Palestinians. The next step is for the same foreign journalists, who privately express understanding of the historic injustice done to people suffering one of the longest occupations in modern times, to reject the craven intimidation coming from New York and Finchley and Cheshire, and speak the truth.
For more information:
http://pilger.carlton.com/print
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"At the Israeli Ministry of Truth on Palestine, and its branches in America and this country, there is panic, which is understandable. Until recently, a Zionist narrative has dominated much of the region's historiography in the west; and Israel's immunity from truthful media criticism has been almost guaranteed."
-John Pilger
Pilger goes on to explain how fanatical pro-Israelis were up in arms, emailing, spamming and calling in to express their hate at a show which attempted to tell the truth about the longest occupation in modern history.
No community should have to face injustice alone -- not Jews under Nazis, East Timorese under Suharto, Black South Africans under whites, or Palestinians under Israelis.
-John Pilger
Pilger goes on to explain how fanatical pro-Israelis were up in arms, emailing, spamming and calling in to express their hate at a show which attempted to tell the truth about the longest occupation in modern history.
No community should have to face injustice alone -- not Jews under Nazis, East Timorese under Suharto, Black South Africans under whites, or Palestinians under Israelis.
For more information:
http://pilger.carlton.com/print
Palestinians were NEVER alone.
I must laugh at your posts- All you say is how bad Israel is, when all Israel is doing is defending herself. When one looks at the many Arab atrocities that have been committed in recent history- you realize one thing.
The Arab world is racist, sexist, poverty stricken, diseased, inbred, filled with religious hatred, ignorant, and celebrates mass murder of woman and children. The Arabs have killed their own with guns, hangings, be-headings, chemical and biological weapons, electrified them, and tortured fellow Arabs to death. Arabs even kill there own woman if there raped or not virgins before they get married. ( Honor Killings ) Do you people ever take responsiblity. I guess its far easier for the Arabs to blame everyone else for there failures
A Christian British traveller, Mrs. A. Goodrich-Freer, wrote poignantly in 1903 of the plight of Jews in Muslim-ruled Jerusalem, observing the patience "with which Jews ignore the insults shouted after them in the streets." She commented on the injustice of Arabs' extorting money from Jews: "Considering how much [Jews] contribute as citizens to the welfare of Jerusalem, it is sad that large sums of money should be paid for permission to pray beside the western wall of the Temple enclosure, to the villagers of Siloam for not disturbing the graves east of the village, and to the Arabs for letting alone the Jewish share of the Tomb of Rachel on the road to Bethlehem."
In 1948 when Jordan captured the Old City, the Arabs killed or expelled every Jew in eastern Jerusalem, destroyed every one of 58 synagogues in the ancient Jewish quarter, and desecrated the 2,500 year old Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, digging a road through it and using Jewish tombstones as a pathway to an army latrine. The Arabs decreed that selling land to a Jew was a crime punishable by death. (Indeed, Palestinian Authority Minister of Justice Freih Abu Medein has now apparently reinstated the edict, having said in a December 23rd interview that Arabs selling land to Israelis are traitors and "we are planning to send them to execution.")
There is not a word of this from Jennings, though he repeatedly points out how "very modern" the Jewish Quarter is today. Why is it "modern"? Because the Arabs destroyed it in 1948 and when the Jews united the city in 1967 they had to rebuild it. That's why it's "modern." Again, the half-truth amounts to a lie, with images of new construction reinforcing the rhetoric of interloper Jews encroaching on the terrain of authentic, native Arabs.
The Palestinians who reject all offers of peace, then respond by deliberately blowing up innocent civilians. Worse still are the naive supporters who egg the Palestinians on in this murderous 'struggle'. Why are those protesting war against Iraq, screaming for war against Israel??? Only when the Palestinians stop obsessing over blowing up Jews will there be a chance of peace.
How come with 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, the "reformists" can't even find 50, 500 (let alone 5,000, 50,000 or 100,000+ like the Israeli Peacenow rallies which every few months call for peaceful co-existence) to demonstrate for PEACEFUL co-existence ?? There was not one single peace rally by the Palestinians even when Barak was Prime Minister.
Yet 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza recently found the wherewithal to "organize" and wildly celebrated the killings of American and Israeli students at an Israeli University which educates over 1000 Arabs at little to no cost. This is a very uncomfortable question for Palestinian supporters, with no coherent answer. As a peace activist, I'll admit, it is hard to face reality when it deligitmizes the agenda of Arab apologetics and anti-Israel "humanism." But sometimes, we need to face it. I believe its called integrity.
If there is ever emerges a true will or motivation for true "reformists" amongst the Palestinians, they would have plenty of opportunities to express themselves --- but for Arafat's oppressive dictatorship and for the brutal murder of supposed Palestinian collaborators" whose bloody bodies are dragged through West Bank village squares and strung on Flag poles" Now comes proof that infact, most so called Palestinian collaborators are killed, because they criticize Arafat for his corrupt policy of keeping all the money the Europeans give him.
In early March 2002, BBC reported the execution of two Palestinians who had been accused by the PA of collaboration. When the BBC crew met with the families of the two victims, they discovered that both had a history of opposition to Arafat and that both had openly criticized Arafat, about him keeping the money the Europeans give him. The family said, that dozens of Palestinians are killed because Arafat calls them collaborators with Israel, where infact, they were people who were critical of Arafat's policies, especially Arafat putting the money the Europeans give him in his secret Swiss bank account and Arafat using children as human shields for the media. The BBC correspondent told a human watch group that these were dissidents, not collaborators, but BBC World Service chose not to report the story.
Arafat is now killing any Palestinian who wants peace.
"After two years of bloodshed, Nabil Amr is now calling for what we rejected," .
Not only do Arafat & Company appear deeply entrenched against reforms, but a violent opposition has surfaced as well:
On Tuesday in Ramallah, these threats were carried out. Masked gunmen opened fire at the home of Nabil Amr, a former PA cabinet member who has openly challenged Arafat and called for wide-scale reforms in the PA.
Palestinian sources told The Jerusalem Post they believed the attack was carried out by Fatah gunmen as a warning to PA officials who are trying to undermine Arafat's rule.
Amr, who until recently served as PA minister for parliamentary affairs, recently published an article in London's Arab newspaper blasting Arafat for having missed an historic opportunity by rejecting proposals at Camp David. Amr said, Arafat planned this war in June 2000 and never intended to make peace with Barak. "After two years of bloodshed, we are now calling for what we rejected," he wrote. He also suggested that many senior PA officials are corrupt and responsible for the theft of public funds.
London Times, Sep 23, 02.
Who's hiding behind Arafat? Joel Marr
PA Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi, who is hiding at Arafats headquarters, is not only responsible for a multitude of fatal attacks against Israeli civilians but also for the torture of his own people. Israel wants him to stand trial.
A Palestinian accused of collaboration who managed to flee from Hebron last week has accused Palestinian Authority General Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi's men of torturing him and many others suspected of working as "informers" for the Shin Bet. The man, 32, is now hiding in an apartment in Jerusalem. He is sharing the apartment together with two others who also managed to escape from Tirawi's prisons.
Tirawi is one of 20 wanted Palestinians who are reportedly hiding in PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Mukata headquarters compound in Ramallah.
The man said Tirawi's men had brutally tortured him since his arrest about 18 months ago. He said he was released only after a relative paid a top General Intelligence official $10,000.
"I was summoned to the General Intelligence offices near Hebron for a routine interview," he said. "I had a big appliance shop in one of the towns in the Hebron area. "One day there was a big explosion that destroyed the shop. I lost all my money.
"I thought they were going to tell me that they had discovered who was behind the gutting of my shop. When I arrived, I was surprised to hear that I was being accused of being a spy for Israel."
He said that for the first month, he was tortured almost daily inside his small cell. "They beat me with telephone cables all over my body. For many days my head was covered with a stinking bag. They would also tie me to the ceiling by my arms. On other occasions, they made me stand for several hours on a small cup."
He said his interrogators threatened several times to shoot him if he did not confess. Last April, he added, his interrogators informed him that a decision had been taken "on the highest levels" to kill him.
He was blindfolded, handcuffed, and asked for his final words. He was then taken into the back yard. There, the cover was removed from his eyes, and he saw a firing squad of five masked, uniformed policemen.
"They tied me to an electricity poll and pretended that I was about to be executed," he said. "I shouted out that I'm innocent and that Islam does not permit killing innocent people, but they only looked at me with smiles. Then the policemen aimed their rifles at me and waited for the order.
Seconds later one of the officers shouted: 'Fire.' I could hear them pulling the triggers, but I didn't feel the pain.
"For a moment, I didn't know if I was alive or dead. I heard shots, but there was no pain or blood. I quickly realized that it was a mock execution. It was the worst experience in my life.
For a while, I thought I was dead. Only when I heard them laughing did I understand that they were just trying to intimidate me.
"They agreed to release me for health reasons; that's what they wrote in the papers they gave me. If it wasn't for the bribe, I would have been dead by now."
He said that while in prison he met many detainees who were also suspected of helping Israel. "Tirawi's people specialize in arresting Palestinians who are accused of being collaborators. The prisons are full of people like me. Many were released when the IDF entered the Palestinian cities. But others are still being held in secret locations. In the prison where I was, there were more than 25 people, all accused of collaboration with Israel."
He said some were very sick and required immediate medical attention. Those whose families could afford to pay the bribes were released after a short while.
"I have no sympathy for Tirawi or any of his men, and I hope Israel will put him in prison. He said he had no connection Israel, before he was got away from Tirawi. "When I see what's happening to Tirawi today, I say to myself, thank God he's finally paying the price for what his men did to me.
Who wanted ethnic cleasing. Lets see what you think, by these statements. On March 1 1944, the Palestinian leader, Hajj Amin Al Husseini who was in Cahoots with Hitler. Husseini said in a broadcast from Berlin: "Arabs Rise as one and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor." After the 5 Arab Armies attacked Israel in 48, the Arab League Secretary General, Azzam Pasha said, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the massacres of the Crusades". Hajj Amin Al Husseini stated, "I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!" The armies of lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq invaded the tiny new country with the declared intent of destroying it.
Its well known, it was the surrounding Arab countries, that Told the Arab population to leave there Holmes. The Arab Armies requested and ordered, that the Arab population leave there holmes to clear the Area, so that the Arab armies could kill the Jews. According to a research report by the Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, the majority of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled and "68%" left without seeing an Israeli soldier. How about some more Arab statements. Azzam Pasha regarding the 1 million Jews in the Arab countries. Assam in May 1948 said "There are over one million Jews in the Arab Lands. Their lives will be forfeit as well when we conquer the Jews.
The Real ethnic cleasing happened, when the Arabs kicked out 800,000 Jews from the Arab countries in 48. Israel took in every single of those 800,000 Jewish Refugees, while the Arabs with 22 countries, refuse to take in any of the Refugees they created, when they attacked Israel in 48. The reason the Arab countries dont take in these Refugees, is because they want to use them, for some kind of sick western media propangada. Did you know, that Hajj Amin Al Husseini dispatched a terrorist squad led by Hassan Ali Salameh to Israel during the second World War, with the object of poisoning Lake Kinneret and other water sources to kill all Israeli Jews? They were discovered by the British and prevented from carrying out their murderous Deed. his is well documented in the book "The quest for the Red Prince. Right now as we Speak, Israel has 20 percent of the actual British Mandate borders of 1917. The Arabs have 80 percent. Jordan was part of the British Mandate. The British created Jordan and named the country after the Jordan River in 1922
The Arab world is racist, sexist, poverty stricken, diseased, inbred, filled with religious hatred, ignorant, and celebrates mass murder of woman and children. The Arabs have killed their own with guns, hangings, be-headings, chemical and biological weapons, electrified them, and tortured fellow Arabs to death. Arabs even kill there own woman if there raped or not virgins before they get married. ( Honor Killings ) Do you people ever take responsiblity. I guess its far easier for the Arabs to blame everyone else for there failures
A Christian British traveller, Mrs. A. Goodrich-Freer, wrote poignantly in 1903 of the plight of Jews in Muslim-ruled Jerusalem, observing the patience "with which Jews ignore the insults shouted after them in the streets." She commented on the injustice of Arabs' extorting money from Jews: "Considering how much [Jews] contribute as citizens to the welfare of Jerusalem, it is sad that large sums of money should be paid for permission to pray beside the western wall of the Temple enclosure, to the villagers of Siloam for not disturbing the graves east of the village, and to the Arabs for letting alone the Jewish share of the Tomb of Rachel on the road to Bethlehem."
In 1948 when Jordan captured the Old City, the Arabs killed or expelled every Jew in eastern Jerusalem, destroyed every one of 58 synagogues in the ancient Jewish quarter, and desecrated the 2,500 year old Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, digging a road through it and using Jewish tombstones as a pathway to an army latrine. The Arabs decreed that selling land to a Jew was a crime punishable by death. (Indeed, Palestinian Authority Minister of Justice Freih Abu Medein has now apparently reinstated the edict, having said in a December 23rd interview that Arabs selling land to Israelis are traitors and "we are planning to send them to execution.")
There is not a word of this from Jennings, though he repeatedly points out how "very modern" the Jewish Quarter is today. Why is it "modern"? Because the Arabs destroyed it in 1948 and when the Jews united the city in 1967 they had to rebuild it. That's why it's "modern." Again, the half-truth amounts to a lie, with images of new construction reinforcing the rhetoric of interloper Jews encroaching on the terrain of authentic, native Arabs.
The Palestinians who reject all offers of peace, then respond by deliberately blowing up innocent civilians. Worse still are the naive supporters who egg the Palestinians on in this murderous 'struggle'. Why are those protesting war against Iraq, screaming for war against Israel??? Only when the Palestinians stop obsessing over blowing up Jews will there be a chance of peace.
How come with 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, the "reformists" can't even find 50, 500 (let alone 5,000, 50,000 or 100,000+ like the Israeli Peacenow rallies which every few months call for peaceful co-existence) to demonstrate for PEACEFUL co-existence ?? There was not one single peace rally by the Palestinians even when Barak was Prime Minister.
Yet 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza recently found the wherewithal to "organize" and wildly celebrated the killings of American and Israeli students at an Israeli University which educates over 1000 Arabs at little to no cost. This is a very uncomfortable question for Palestinian supporters, with no coherent answer. As a peace activist, I'll admit, it is hard to face reality when it deligitmizes the agenda of Arab apologetics and anti-Israel "humanism." But sometimes, we need to face it. I believe its called integrity.
If there is ever emerges a true will or motivation for true "reformists" amongst the Palestinians, they would have plenty of opportunities to express themselves --- but for Arafat's oppressive dictatorship and for the brutal murder of supposed Palestinian collaborators" whose bloody bodies are dragged through West Bank village squares and strung on Flag poles" Now comes proof that infact, most so called Palestinian collaborators are killed, because they criticize Arafat for his corrupt policy of keeping all the money the Europeans give him.
In early March 2002, BBC reported the execution of two Palestinians who had been accused by the PA of collaboration. When the BBC crew met with the families of the two victims, they discovered that both had a history of opposition to Arafat and that both had openly criticized Arafat, about him keeping the money the Europeans give him. The family said, that dozens of Palestinians are killed because Arafat calls them collaborators with Israel, where infact, they were people who were critical of Arafat's policies, especially Arafat putting the money the Europeans give him in his secret Swiss bank account and Arafat using children as human shields for the media. The BBC correspondent told a human watch group that these were dissidents, not collaborators, but BBC World Service chose not to report the story.
Arafat is now killing any Palestinian who wants peace.
"After two years of bloodshed, Nabil Amr is now calling for what we rejected," .
Not only do Arafat & Company appear deeply entrenched against reforms, but a violent opposition has surfaced as well:
On Tuesday in Ramallah, these threats were carried out. Masked gunmen opened fire at the home of Nabil Amr, a former PA cabinet member who has openly challenged Arafat and called for wide-scale reforms in the PA.
Palestinian sources told The Jerusalem Post they believed the attack was carried out by Fatah gunmen as a warning to PA officials who are trying to undermine Arafat's rule.
Amr, who until recently served as PA minister for parliamentary affairs, recently published an article in London's Arab newspaper blasting Arafat for having missed an historic opportunity by rejecting proposals at Camp David. Amr said, Arafat planned this war in June 2000 and never intended to make peace with Barak. "After two years of bloodshed, we are now calling for what we rejected," he wrote. He also suggested that many senior PA officials are corrupt and responsible for the theft of public funds.
London Times, Sep 23, 02.
Who's hiding behind Arafat? Joel Marr
PA Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi, who is hiding at Arafats headquarters, is not only responsible for a multitude of fatal attacks against Israeli civilians but also for the torture of his own people. Israel wants him to stand trial.
A Palestinian accused of collaboration who managed to flee from Hebron last week has accused Palestinian Authority General Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi's men of torturing him and many others suspected of working as "informers" for the Shin Bet. The man, 32, is now hiding in an apartment in Jerusalem. He is sharing the apartment together with two others who also managed to escape from Tirawi's prisons.
Tirawi is one of 20 wanted Palestinians who are reportedly hiding in PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Mukata headquarters compound in Ramallah.
The man said Tirawi's men had brutally tortured him since his arrest about 18 months ago. He said he was released only after a relative paid a top General Intelligence official $10,000.
"I was summoned to the General Intelligence offices near Hebron for a routine interview," he said. "I had a big appliance shop in one of the towns in the Hebron area. "One day there was a big explosion that destroyed the shop. I lost all my money.
"I thought they were going to tell me that they had discovered who was behind the gutting of my shop. When I arrived, I was surprised to hear that I was being accused of being a spy for Israel."
He said that for the first month, he was tortured almost daily inside his small cell. "They beat me with telephone cables all over my body. For many days my head was covered with a stinking bag. They would also tie me to the ceiling by my arms. On other occasions, they made me stand for several hours on a small cup."
He said his interrogators threatened several times to shoot him if he did not confess. Last April, he added, his interrogators informed him that a decision had been taken "on the highest levels" to kill him.
He was blindfolded, handcuffed, and asked for his final words. He was then taken into the back yard. There, the cover was removed from his eyes, and he saw a firing squad of five masked, uniformed policemen.
"They tied me to an electricity poll and pretended that I was about to be executed," he said. "I shouted out that I'm innocent and that Islam does not permit killing innocent people, but they only looked at me with smiles. Then the policemen aimed their rifles at me and waited for the order.
Seconds later one of the officers shouted: 'Fire.' I could hear them pulling the triggers, but I didn't feel the pain.
"For a moment, I didn't know if I was alive or dead. I heard shots, but there was no pain or blood. I quickly realized that it was a mock execution. It was the worst experience in my life.
For a while, I thought I was dead. Only when I heard them laughing did I understand that they were just trying to intimidate me.
"They agreed to release me for health reasons; that's what they wrote in the papers they gave me. If it wasn't for the bribe, I would have been dead by now."
He said that while in prison he met many detainees who were also suspected of helping Israel. "Tirawi's people specialize in arresting Palestinians who are accused of being collaborators. The prisons are full of people like me. Many were released when the IDF entered the Palestinian cities. But others are still being held in secret locations. In the prison where I was, there were more than 25 people, all accused of collaboration with Israel."
He said some were very sick and required immediate medical attention. Those whose families could afford to pay the bribes were released after a short while.
"I have no sympathy for Tirawi or any of his men, and I hope Israel will put him in prison. He said he had no connection Israel, before he was got away from Tirawi. "When I see what's happening to Tirawi today, I say to myself, thank God he's finally paying the price for what his men did to me.
Who wanted ethnic cleasing. Lets see what you think, by these statements. On March 1 1944, the Palestinian leader, Hajj Amin Al Husseini who was in Cahoots with Hitler. Husseini said in a broadcast from Berlin: "Arabs Rise as one and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor." After the 5 Arab Armies attacked Israel in 48, the Arab League Secretary General, Azzam Pasha said, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the massacres of the Crusades". Hajj Amin Al Husseini stated, "I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!" The armies of lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq invaded the tiny new country with the declared intent of destroying it.
Its well known, it was the surrounding Arab countries, that Told the Arab population to leave there Holmes. The Arab Armies requested and ordered, that the Arab population leave there holmes to clear the Area, so that the Arab armies could kill the Jews. According to a research report by the Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, the majority of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled and "68%" left without seeing an Israeli soldier. How about some more Arab statements. Azzam Pasha regarding the 1 million Jews in the Arab countries. Assam in May 1948 said "There are over one million Jews in the Arab Lands. Their lives will be forfeit as well when we conquer the Jews.
The Real ethnic cleasing happened, when the Arabs kicked out 800,000 Jews from the Arab countries in 48. Israel took in every single of those 800,000 Jewish Refugees, while the Arabs with 22 countries, refuse to take in any of the Refugees they created, when they attacked Israel in 48. The reason the Arab countries dont take in these Refugees, is because they want to use them, for some kind of sick western media propangada. Did you know, that Hajj Amin Al Husseini dispatched a terrorist squad led by Hassan Ali Salameh to Israel during the second World War, with the object of poisoning Lake Kinneret and other water sources to kill all Israeli Jews? They were discovered by the British and prevented from carrying out their murderous Deed. his is well documented in the book "The quest for the Red Prince. Right now as we Speak, Israel has 20 percent of the actual British Mandate borders of 1917. The Arabs have 80 percent. Jordan was part of the British Mandate. The British created Jordan and named the country after the Jordan River in 1922
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