Where there is smoke there is mirrors...

Many of my writings are a reaction to what I view as a morally corrupt and
one sided corporate media and government policy. As a liberal
Palestinian-American with family in Israel and the West Bank I consider
myself fairly informed, extremely concerned and admittedly biased. Some
responses to my recent piece encouraged much discourse and birthed these
thoughts. My hope is that these writings are taken in the context of stream
of conscience, passion, process and may bring us a bit closer to justice and
peace in Palestine.

I will admit to being anti-American Imperialist any day of the week. I
think our government Democratic or Republican is a sham and has little
interest in the welfare of its people or freedom. I have no sympathy for
most of our foreign policy and believe we are a hypocritical empire to a
fault and are witnessing the slow demise of a great country. We are at war
in the name of personal vendetta and financial gain for a few at the expense
of many. Americans are in more danger from their neighbor drunk driving
than from a terrorist attack, however if Bush has his way this may change.

Just yesterday the National Guard was pulled off the Golden Gate Bridge.
They had been there 24 hours a day, seven days a week since November of
2001. Why did they leave? Money issues. How inane is our government to
think that short term "homeland security" is money well spent. Well we
protected a bridge for 2 and 1/2 years at least! Did no one foresee the
money running out? Oh, sorry I forgot, it was just a political maneuver to
make us ignorant Americans live in fear and thereby give a green light to
foreign wars to make us feel safer. Yes, let us spend our tax money ousting
a dictator we installed in order to find weapons we gave him. Would our
country be better off if we spent $200 billion here instead or Iraq? Would
we the terrorist threat be higher or lower? I know you know the answer to
that and I am sure that we agree. One more question. I have never known
terrorists to be impatient. I was in mid-town the first time the trade
center was bombed. How long did they wait? Eight years! Eight years from
2001 is 2009. We as Americans are easily lulled back into our air-
conditioned and lawn sprinkler lives. Can we be diligent and understanding
with our video game mentalities? How long will we stand in line at the
airport? How long will it be okay for the FBI to tap my phone or read my
email or know what I use my credit cards for? How long will it be okay for
the Jose Padillas to be held without trial, legal counsel, or family contact
simply because some member of Al-Qaeda said to be on the lookout for a
Hispanic man?

Now on the question of anti-Semitism. As a half-breed Semite it would
probably be unwise for me to be anti-Semitic, but let us say that
anti-Semitism means anti-Jewish. No, I am not anti-Jew, some of my best
friends are Jews as they say. Anti-Zionist? Mostly. Zionism has done more
for anti-Semitism than anything else in history. Did the Jews deserve a
land to go in the face of 20th century anti-Semitism? Certainly. Was it
okay for them to live in Palestine? Sure, come on over, live in Palestine,
under one flag as one population. But Palestine was not a "land without a
people" and it was not Lord Balfour's to give to anyone else either. And,
how many lands WITH INHABITANTS would simply say okay when suddenly provided
with a new landscape half the size of the old? Exactly. No, the British
screwed up. They screwed up all over the place. Ah, the remnants of
empire...

Pro-Terrorist? I am against killing in any form but I personally feel Hamas
or anyone else have the right to self-preservation and defense of their land
and people. Are Hamas terrorists? Yes. Are they freedom fighters? Yes.
Do they have a right to use whatever means necessary to fight back? Yes.
Are these means winning the fight? Perhaps not, but who the hell am I to
judge them? My money is going directly to a country in the form of
Caterpillars to crush their homes. F-16's and black hawks to assassinate
their chosen leaders, and just plain good ole army infrastructure to seize
land, water and agriculture. The Palestinians are fighting back and they
have every legal and moral right in the world to do so. And as long as
Israel continues to deprive Palestinians AND Israelis AND Muslims AND
Christians AND Jews of basic human rights and dignity, Palestinians and
Israelis, Christians, Muslims and Jews will die.

A lot of times when I make statements like the ones above I get slammed by
all my non-violent peace activist friends. I have a couple problems with
this. One, as I stated above, who am I to decide what reaction should be
provided for something I am not going through. It is easy for me, a
privileged, somewhat white American to chain myself up in the middle of an
intersection to protest tree chopping "non-violently." But tell that to an
Iraqi teenager whose older brother just got offed by some hothead G.I. Joe.
Number two. PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS PROTEST NON-VIOLENTLY EVERY DAY.
(See below for an article on the treatment of non-violent protesters in
Palestine)

Whenever I am thrown a Gandhi-like option in Palestine as a solution I must
profess the devil in the details. Are Palestinians supposed to just march
through the streets until they are somehow freed and granted justice? It
seems to me a rat in a cage running on a wheel. Who would care? Who cares
now when non-violent protesters are shot? There are no impartial observers.
The U.N. wants them there, Israel won't allow it. This is a place where
Americans are run over by bulldozers, British are shot in the head, both
with bright orange neon vests on. This is a battleground. This, I am sorry
to say has very little similarity to South Africa or to the civil rights
movement in the U.S. or even Gandhi's India. Those situations came from
disenfranchised segments of a population within a population. The
Palestinian/Israeli conflict is two separate countries who have been at war
for decades. This is analogous to the Native Americans marching
non-violently by the White man on the plains of Wyoming. The problem is
that when two countries are at war a part of each side feels they are right
to such an extent as to completely eradicate or extinguish the other.
Unfortunately this is the case in the Middle East. Maybe if there was a
fair and balanced broker non-violence would be an option. I contend in the
current tragedy it is nothing but suicide.

In fact the Palestinian existence is already, by default, a non-violent
protest. Go live in a refugee camp and tell me they aren't being
non-violent. Any population who has lived as the Palestinians have under
illegal occupation for over fifty years with relatively little resistance IS
non-violent. What percentage of Palestinians are suicide bombers? I tried
to calculate this figure before to try and make the point that it is a very
small part of the population. It doesn't matter. One is too many. One
bomber initiates an aggressive Israeli reaction which in turn initiates
another bombing. But, you can't stop someone who is willing to die for
their cause until you stop the reasons behind it. As long as Palestinians
are disenfranchised their will be suicide bombings in Israel. As long as
the U.S. goes empire and hypocritical and continues to support military
dictators in places like Pakistan, oppressive Kingdoms in Saudi Arabia and
claim freedom for all we will see terrorist attacks on Americans. And, no
matter how much money we spend or liberties we repeal or rhetoric we preach,
some will be successful.

As far as who is innocent in this situation, there can be much debate. Who
is guilty? The Israeli Government? Likhud? Sharon? Bush? Daddy
Bush? The leaders of Hamas? Arafat? The Israeli army, the army of Hamas?
How old are those fighters? How old do you have to be to have a conscience?
How much education do you need to know right from wrong? Who has access to
a wider scope of information? Why do they have more access? Is an orthodox
Jew born and raised in Brooklyn and recently emigrated to Israel innocent?
How about a female Palestinian lawyer who fights for the rights of young
Palestinian "terrorists" who are locked up in Israeli jails with no charges?
Is Osama Bin Laden so off base to reject U.S. military bases from his
country? To stop bombing Iraq and killing over one million "innocents" for
a whole decade? Have you actually read his full statements? Granted his
methods are tragic and cruel but aside from the religious infidel schtick
and taking over the world his political aims are digestible. We (the U.S.)
don't have much of a leg to stand on. History is full of our hypocrisies
and loathsome acts. Year after God-forsaken year. Haiti, Panama, Cuba,
Rwanda, you name it. And guess what? OUR President talks to God!!! Good
God!!! Not my God. God told him to run! This is the man that half the
country supports? This is a man who believes if Jesus is not your savior
then you are going to hell. My how well rounded and empathetically grounded
we are.

The fact is Hamas is an organization originally funded by Israel to counter
the PLO and it got out of hand. Why? As a reaction to Israel. Not because
young Palestinians wake up and go, "What a beautiful day, I think I'll go
blow myself up in a nice seaside café." No, they wake up and look around at
barbed wire, rubble and through a fence to an ocean they can smell but can't
touch because only Israelis are allowed there and their own father that is
now in an Israeli jail purgatory once told them of how when he was a kid he
and his friends used to swim and fish and tell stories on the sand. As long
as Israel continues acting like a colonizer Hamas will just get stronger in
number and power. Not only do they battle Israel, they also provide
schooling and hospitals and no one else is doing that. At least not Israel
and certainly not the Palestine Authority. In fact, last week Hamas raised
over a million dollars in two days in Palestine. IN PALESTINE!!! From
small donations, not like the Palestinian Authority who gets all their money
from the outside. Like it or not, they are the people's choice.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have both made many mistakes, but I say
again Israel has the power to change all of this and so does the U.S. The
Palestinians leadership, Hamas or otherwise, will never be able to control
the fanaticism that continues to be fed on desperation. This must come from
outside. There must be neutral observers. The U.S. policy must be
balanced. But it won't be. Why? AIPAC. There is no way around it.
Sharon's words not mine. "We control the U.S. Congress."

If Israel and the the U.S. agreed to let the Palestinian refugees back to
their homeland and become one with Palestine all of this would stop. There
would be six million Jews and six million Arabs living in one country. What
is so wrong with that? One state, one solution. A country where all
religions have the right to live in peace. The violence on both sides of
the issue would be extinguished because all people really want is for their
kids to go to school and to be able to put food on the table. This is the
ultimate chance for the worlds most ancient and consuming struggle to
resolve in a harmony of shalom, salam, peace. And there is one way it can
happen. For God's chosen people to take the initiative. Isn't it
wonderfully circular? Of course we Christians wouldn't get our apocalypse,
but who cares, we got the air-conditioning...

Jason Broome


------------------------------------

Non-violent Protests

Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 2:29 PM
Subject: Anarchy in our souls

Gila Svirsky writes:

Friends,

I just spoke to Molly Malekar on her way to Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital in
Jerusalem, and here is what she reported:

"We were about 60 women, only women: roughly 1/3 Israeli, 1/3
Palestinian, and 1/3 internationals. We gathered at Bidu to protest the
construction of the wall in this village. It was a quiet march, with
women carrying signs and walking toward the area where soldiers were
guarding the construction of the fence. At a distance of about 10 meters
(30 feet) from them, we stopped walking because the soldiers turned to
point their rifles directly at us. I called out to them in Hebrew, "Don't
shoot, we're not armed, this is a nonviolent demonstration." Suddenly
there was an onslaught of teargas and stun grenades, falling all around
us, completely out of proportion to the quiet, nonprovocative nature of
our action. The grenades fell right there at our feet and we were
choking, unable to breathe. Most dispersed and ran back. Soldiers
charged toward us and fell upon the women, grabbing some whom they
arrested. By then, there was no demonstration at all, nothing to
disperse. Most of the women had run back, trying to recover from the tear
gas, but I remained as I wanted to talk to the soldiers to prevent the
arrest of the four women. Suddenly out of nowhere four horses charged,
with border police mounted on them. I started to run away, but one of
them ridden by a girl soldier caught up with me and she struck me on my
head with a baton. I fell, and then a second horse charged toward me and
I felt more blows on my head and back. There was no provocation
whatsoever at any point while this was happening."

Molly is the director of Bat Shalom, which is the women's peace
organization that forms the Israeli side of The Jerusalem Link: A Women's
Joint Venture for Peace (the Palestinian side is called the Jerusalem
Center for Women). Molly is the most wonderfully serious and thoughtful
woman you would ever want to have at the head of your organization. Anyone
who has ever met Molly knows that she has never engaged in provocation,
but has only been cautious and respectful. I asked her by cell phone, on
her way to the hospital, how she feels and she said, "A horrible headache,
my ears hurt, and aching from the blows. But let's think about how to
wake people up to what is happening out there. We have to wake people
up."

Wake up, world! Hear O Israel, wake up!! Israeli soldiers have made
brutality a way of life against Palestinians, then they turned their
weapons and death upon international peace activists, and now they are
brutalizing Israelis who express disapproval of their ways. Who will be
the first one killed?

Writes US woman activist Starhawk, who participated in some of these, "The
Israelis who are involved in the day to day resistance ... said to me that
they know it is only a matter of time before there is an Israeli 'shaheed
'- a martyr of the occupation. Being Israeli is no longer a protection
against the violence of the military."

What's worse: Nonviolence is no longer protection against the brutality
of the military, regardless of whether you are Israeli or Palestinian or
international. No one should be assaulted for peacefully demonstrating,
and yet that has become the norm. Today, any single demonstration that
takes place in the territories -- whether by Palestinians or Israelis,
women or men, nonviolent or violent -- is treated to the same brutal
behavior of guns, stun grenades, and clubs. And no one investigates the
incidents in a serious, unbiased manner, and the soldiers learn that they
can be more and more cruel, and no one gives a damn.

What has happened? The occupation has happened. The occupation has
corrupted the soul of Israel. A situation of "Ein din v'ein dayan", as
the Bible says: "No law and no one standing in judgment".

There is anarchy in the soul of Israel today, and it won't be gone until
we uproot the occupation from our land and from our hearts.

Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem

*******************************
Coalition of Women for Peace:
http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org
<http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org>
<http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org>