Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
The ongoing betrayal of Palestinian children
Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker, The Electronic Intifada, 29 January 2006
A Palestinian teacher escorts school children during an Israeli military operation in the village of Al-Yamoun, near the West Bank city Jenin, December 20, 2005. (MAANnews/Mohamad Torkoman)
The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, dispossession of Palestinian land and properties and discriminatory policies in Israel have hit Palestinian children hard. Recent research of the Palestinian Counselling Centre (PCC) has conclusively established that the wall has had a profound negative impact on the mental health of Palestinian children1 and created a major obstacle to them obtaining an education.2 In this article, Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker examine certain violations of children's rights caused by the formation of the State of Israel and following Israel's occupation since 1967 and further explore their social and psychological impacts on children.
Long-term impacts of violence
In an appeal for donor support in 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that almost fifty per cent of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have directly experienced violence or witnessed violence affecting a family member.3 In a document about children in situations of armed conflict of 1986, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) came to the conclusion that:
"... war has an all-embracing impact on a child's development, on his attitudes, his experiences of human relations, his moral norms and his outlook on life. Facing armed violence on a continuous basis creates deep-rooted feelings of helplessness and undermines the child's trust in others."
Well-respected researcher Raija-Leena Punamaeki is also quoted in the UNICEF study, drawing on her comprehensive research of Palestinian children and coming to a shocking conclusion: "Socialisation of children to desirable moral values is impossible in a beleaguered society".
Ongoing violence towards children
Writing about Palestinian children who have been hurt by war and occupation is depressing. It is clear that for generations children have paid a particularly high price for this. Children who experienced the war in 1948 and witnessed the 1967 war are the parents, grandparents and possibly great-grandparents of today. Millions of Palestinian children have become homeless, refugees, displaced and orphans.
After 1967, children have, in addition, experienced daily the effects of the Israeli occupation. Israel's illegal policy of encouraging and financing Jewish settlers to live in the occupied Palestinian territories has brought even more anxieties. As documented by numerous Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations as well as United Nations organisations and some governments, settlers who have received military and financial support from the Israeli occupation authorities have threatened and attacked Palestinian children. Israel is directly responsible for their illegal behaviour.
The perspective of an eyewitness from the village of Al-Nahalin was quoted in a United Nations document, which is mentioned in the study of the Division for Palestinian Rights:4
"From the outset the settlers have been provoking the inhabitants and now the village is like a virtual prison. The settlers, of course, have the support of the authorities. .... When they find children they beat them, and chase them. ... All the complaints addressed to the authorities and to the settlers themselves have remained futile." (sic)
The UN document makes clear that Palestinian children are made to feel inferior by the settlers who were far better off economically. Settlers are furthermore permitted to "defend" themselves with firearms, provided by the Israeli government. Settlers also benefit from a legal system that is not impartial.
Even a 1988 report by the United States Government5 described a discriminatory legal system prevailing in most of the Occupied Palestinian Territories:
"Jewish settlers in the occupied territories are subject to Israeli law while Palestinians are subject to Israeli military occupation law. Under the dual system of governance applied to Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinians are treated less favourably than Jewish settlers in the same areas on a broad range of issues, such as the right to legal process, rights of residency, freedom of movement, sale of crops and goods, land and water use, and access to health and social services."
"Iron fist" policies
In the eighties, Israel's "iron fist "and "strong-arm" policies increased, leading to considerable loss of life and widespread injuries of children as well as violent interference with their universal rights to personal security, family, education and health.
In many different and tragic circumstances, most of which were fully avoidable had Israel respected human rights and the rules of engagement provided by international humanitarian law, countless Palestinian children have been killed or severely wounded.
For example, thousands of Palestinian children have been killed while travelling in a vehicle that did not stop for questioning by soldiers; during military or security agency operations where a family member was arrested; playing with explosives left behind (deliberately or through negligence) by the Israeli military; stepping on a mine; or during a raid on a school or participating in a demonstration that was met with Israeli military gunfire. There are accounts of soldiers beating and kicking children as young as 12 years old, either in prison, or in full view, outside on the street. Children have also been killed, kidnapped and beaten by settlers.
In each of these well-documented examples (there are many more), the fundamental right of children to personal protection was violated.
During this period the mental health of children has also become an urgent concern. Mental health professionals have documented a massive increase in psychiatric disorders amongst Palestinians.
Home demolitions in the Naqab In a recent press release, Physicians for Human Rights wrote that home demolitions in the Naqab (Negev)6 are a source of serious trauma for children. Physical trauma is particularly caused by the current weather conditions of cold weather and rain. Demolitions also cause profound emotional trauma that is intensified during Muslim celebrations, such as the sacred Eid al-Adha. The press release stated: "Home demolitions are under the cover of 'unlicensed construction', when their real intention is to traumatise the residents". For children, this violent act implies not only the demolition of their homes but also of their lives, and will instil in them a destructive drive.7
On Wednesday, 18 January 2006, the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev warned about the recommendations of the Israeli National Security Council (NSC), which will be presented in the Herzliya Sixth Conference the following week. The NSC suggested that Palestinian Bedouins be forcefully evacuated in a campaign that can be compared with evacuation of the settlers from Gaza Strip. The population of the unrecognised villages is estimated at 80,000; 50 per cent is under the age of 18. However, unlike the settlers who illegally occupied land not belonging to them, Palestinian Bedouins are the indigenous residents of the Negev who lived on their land long before the establishment of the State of Israel.
An attack on a home is an attack on a child
Destroying the homes of children, the sealing-off of homes or rooms and the blocking and sealing-off of streets is a collective punishment. Apart from the fact that it is a serious violation of international humanitarian law, it also has a devastating psychological impact on Palestinian children. A safe and secure home is a basic need for every person. As Qouta and El-Sarraj have noted:
"When families witness the destruction of their own homes by enemy soldiers, the psychological effects can be serious. Loss of home can be a traumatic experience for not only the material loss but for psychological meaning. The home means the shelter and heart of family life. It contains memories and pain as well as attachment to the families' objects. Home is associated with feelings of security and consolation."8
Qouta and El-Sarraj studied a substantial amount of data on the severity of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms among children in the Middle East. Displacement from home especially led to increased depression among Lebanese children during the 1982 invasion and among Israeli children after the Iraqi shelling in 1990. Any attack by military forces on the homes of children is a major trauma in the life of a child.
Between 1967 and 1987, hundreds of houses were destroyed. This made children extremely vulnerable as it was not permitted to rebuild homes. According to UNRWA, between October 2000 and January 2004, 3,062 homes were completely or partially demolished and 2,524 homes needed repair in the Gaza Strip following attacks by the Israeli military. It has been confirmed by Defence for Children Palestine that there were 1,037 house demolitions in the occupied territories in 2003. In 2004, a staggering 1,471 families in the West Bank and Gaza lost their homes following attacks by the Israeli military, affecting the lives of almost 5,000 children.
Attacks on Palestinian homes and home demolitions are a regular activity of the Israeli military. In its weekly report of the week of 8 January 2006, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reports that numerous houses were raided and 94 Palestinians were arrested, including 11 children. Six houses and a shop were transformed into military areas by the Israeli army.9
Accumulation of frustration and rage
A 1990 study from the Division for Palestinian Rights notes that:
"By the late 1980s, two generations of Palestinian children had grown up under military occupation. The children of 1967 had become adults and their children experienced the accumulated pain of a generation enduring a childhood under military occupation."
The first Intifada that started in 1987 gave children the opportunity to clearly express their rejection of the occupation -- its humiliation and deprivation. During the first year of the Intifada, 32 children under the age of ten were reported to have lost their lives. The number of children injured also rose sharply. After a year, thousands of Palestinian children under the age of 15 were recorded as having suffered injuries due to systematic beatings, exposure to tear gas and gunshots by live ammunition as well as plastic and rubber-coated metal bullets. Many injuries led to permanent disability.10
Since the beginning of the second Intifada (Al Aqsa), Israel has killed 749 children, 22 per cent of the overall death toll. Of the Palestinians injured, 42 per cent are children.11
The incapacity of the international community to develop adequate policies that hold Israel to account and stop the harm done to Palestinian children is heartbreaking. Rather than protect vulnerable Palestinian children, as they are legally and morally obliged to do, the powerful Israeli government can count on the protection and assistance of Europe and the United States. In the next section of this article, we speak of Israel's and the international community's legal responsibilities towards Palestinian children.
More
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4439.shtml
The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, dispossession of Palestinian land and properties and discriminatory policies in Israel have hit Palestinian children hard. Recent research of the Palestinian Counselling Centre (PCC) has conclusively established that the wall has had a profound negative impact on the mental health of Palestinian children1 and created a major obstacle to them obtaining an education.2 In this article, Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker examine certain violations of children's rights caused by the formation of the State of Israel and following Israel's occupation since 1967 and further explore their social and psychological impacts on children.
Long-term impacts of violence
In an appeal for donor support in 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that almost fifty per cent of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have directly experienced violence or witnessed violence affecting a family member.3 In a document about children in situations of armed conflict of 1986, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) came to the conclusion that:
"... war has an all-embracing impact on a child's development, on his attitudes, his experiences of human relations, his moral norms and his outlook on life. Facing armed violence on a continuous basis creates deep-rooted feelings of helplessness and undermines the child's trust in others."
Well-respected researcher Raija-Leena Punamaeki is also quoted in the UNICEF study, drawing on her comprehensive research of Palestinian children and coming to a shocking conclusion: "Socialisation of children to desirable moral values is impossible in a beleaguered society".
Ongoing violence towards children
Writing about Palestinian children who have been hurt by war and occupation is depressing. It is clear that for generations children have paid a particularly high price for this. Children who experienced the war in 1948 and witnessed the 1967 war are the parents, grandparents and possibly great-grandparents of today. Millions of Palestinian children have become homeless, refugees, displaced and orphans.
After 1967, children have, in addition, experienced daily the effects of the Israeli occupation. Israel's illegal policy of encouraging and financing Jewish settlers to live in the occupied Palestinian territories has brought even more anxieties. As documented by numerous Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations as well as United Nations organisations and some governments, settlers who have received military and financial support from the Israeli occupation authorities have threatened and attacked Palestinian children. Israel is directly responsible for their illegal behaviour.
The perspective of an eyewitness from the village of Al-Nahalin was quoted in a United Nations document, which is mentioned in the study of the Division for Palestinian Rights:4
"From the outset the settlers have been provoking the inhabitants and now the village is like a virtual prison. The settlers, of course, have the support of the authorities. .... When they find children they beat them, and chase them. ... All the complaints addressed to the authorities and to the settlers themselves have remained futile." (sic)
The UN document makes clear that Palestinian children are made to feel inferior by the settlers who were far better off economically. Settlers are furthermore permitted to "defend" themselves with firearms, provided by the Israeli government. Settlers also benefit from a legal system that is not impartial.
Even a 1988 report by the United States Government5 described a discriminatory legal system prevailing in most of the Occupied Palestinian Territories:
"Jewish settlers in the occupied territories are subject to Israeli law while Palestinians are subject to Israeli military occupation law. Under the dual system of governance applied to Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinians are treated less favourably than Jewish settlers in the same areas on a broad range of issues, such as the right to legal process, rights of residency, freedom of movement, sale of crops and goods, land and water use, and access to health and social services."
"Iron fist" policies
In the eighties, Israel's "iron fist "and "strong-arm" policies increased, leading to considerable loss of life and widespread injuries of children as well as violent interference with their universal rights to personal security, family, education and health.
In many different and tragic circumstances, most of which were fully avoidable had Israel respected human rights and the rules of engagement provided by international humanitarian law, countless Palestinian children have been killed or severely wounded.
For example, thousands of Palestinian children have been killed while travelling in a vehicle that did not stop for questioning by soldiers; during military or security agency operations where a family member was arrested; playing with explosives left behind (deliberately or through negligence) by the Israeli military; stepping on a mine; or during a raid on a school or participating in a demonstration that was met with Israeli military gunfire. There are accounts of soldiers beating and kicking children as young as 12 years old, either in prison, or in full view, outside on the street. Children have also been killed, kidnapped and beaten by settlers.
In each of these well-documented examples (there are many more), the fundamental right of children to personal protection was violated.
During this period the mental health of children has also become an urgent concern. Mental health professionals have documented a massive increase in psychiatric disorders amongst Palestinians.
Home demolitions in the Naqab In a recent press release, Physicians for Human Rights wrote that home demolitions in the Naqab (Negev)6 are a source of serious trauma for children. Physical trauma is particularly caused by the current weather conditions of cold weather and rain. Demolitions also cause profound emotional trauma that is intensified during Muslim celebrations, such as the sacred Eid al-Adha. The press release stated: "Home demolitions are under the cover of 'unlicensed construction', when their real intention is to traumatise the residents". For children, this violent act implies not only the demolition of their homes but also of their lives, and will instil in them a destructive drive.7
On Wednesday, 18 January 2006, the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev warned about the recommendations of the Israeli National Security Council (NSC), which will be presented in the Herzliya Sixth Conference the following week. The NSC suggested that Palestinian Bedouins be forcefully evacuated in a campaign that can be compared with evacuation of the settlers from Gaza Strip. The population of the unrecognised villages is estimated at 80,000; 50 per cent is under the age of 18. However, unlike the settlers who illegally occupied land not belonging to them, Palestinian Bedouins are the indigenous residents of the Negev who lived on their land long before the establishment of the State of Israel.
An attack on a home is an attack on a child
Destroying the homes of children, the sealing-off of homes or rooms and the blocking and sealing-off of streets is a collective punishment. Apart from the fact that it is a serious violation of international humanitarian law, it also has a devastating psychological impact on Palestinian children. A safe and secure home is a basic need for every person. As Qouta and El-Sarraj have noted:
"When families witness the destruction of their own homes by enemy soldiers, the psychological effects can be serious. Loss of home can be a traumatic experience for not only the material loss but for psychological meaning. The home means the shelter and heart of family life. It contains memories and pain as well as attachment to the families' objects. Home is associated with feelings of security and consolation."8
Qouta and El-Sarraj studied a substantial amount of data on the severity of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms among children in the Middle East. Displacement from home especially led to increased depression among Lebanese children during the 1982 invasion and among Israeli children after the Iraqi shelling in 1990. Any attack by military forces on the homes of children is a major trauma in the life of a child.
Between 1967 and 1987, hundreds of houses were destroyed. This made children extremely vulnerable as it was not permitted to rebuild homes. According to UNRWA, between October 2000 and January 2004, 3,062 homes were completely or partially demolished and 2,524 homes needed repair in the Gaza Strip following attacks by the Israeli military. It has been confirmed by Defence for Children Palestine that there were 1,037 house demolitions in the occupied territories in 2003. In 2004, a staggering 1,471 families in the West Bank and Gaza lost their homes following attacks by the Israeli military, affecting the lives of almost 5,000 children.
Attacks on Palestinian homes and home demolitions are a regular activity of the Israeli military. In its weekly report of the week of 8 January 2006, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reports that numerous houses were raided and 94 Palestinians were arrested, including 11 children. Six houses and a shop were transformed into military areas by the Israeli army.9
Accumulation of frustration and rage
A 1990 study from the Division for Palestinian Rights notes that:
"By the late 1980s, two generations of Palestinian children had grown up under military occupation. The children of 1967 had become adults and their children experienced the accumulated pain of a generation enduring a childhood under military occupation."
The first Intifada that started in 1987 gave children the opportunity to clearly express their rejection of the occupation -- its humiliation and deprivation. During the first year of the Intifada, 32 children under the age of ten were reported to have lost their lives. The number of children injured also rose sharply. After a year, thousands of Palestinian children under the age of 15 were recorded as having suffered injuries due to systematic beatings, exposure to tear gas and gunshots by live ammunition as well as plastic and rubber-coated metal bullets. Many injuries led to permanent disability.10
Since the beginning of the second Intifada (Al Aqsa), Israel has killed 749 children, 22 per cent of the overall death toll. Of the Palestinians injured, 42 per cent are children.11
The incapacity of the international community to develop adequate policies that hold Israel to account and stop the harm done to Palestinian children is heartbreaking. Rather than protect vulnerable Palestinian children, as they are legally and morally obliged to do, the powerful Israeli government can count on the protection and assistance of Europe and the United States. In the next section of this article, we speak of Israel's and the international community's legal responsibilities towards Palestinian children.
More
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4439.shtml
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
Thanks to above poster.
which is more than can be said of the Zionists.
Megafauna- we showed her a copy of David Dukes website- with her article on the opening page. *IF* she said "I didn't give him permission to use that. I'll have my attorney contact him tommorrow"- she would have greatly enhanced her credibility in my eyes. Instead, she simply didn't care. At all.
Well, you are known by the company you keep. David Duke, ex KKK president , described by the Southern Poverty and Law Center as a neo nazi and white supremist and Alison Weir rubbing cyber elbows. Its very telling. As was her silence.
The best part of the event was the students at the University- who were well organized, and did their homework. They were exceedingly well prepared, and handled everything quite well. They are the future leaders of the community. We should all feel proud.
Well, you are known by the company you keep. David Duke, ex KKK president , described by the Southern Poverty and Law Center as a neo nazi and white supremist and Alison Weir rubbing cyber elbows. Its very telling. As was her silence.
The best part of the event was the students at the University- who were well organized, and did their homework. They were exceedingly well prepared, and handled everything quite well. They are the future leaders of the community. We should all feel proud.
Yeah, Alison Weir allows unlimited reproduction of her information, so therefore when stormfront reproduces it it's because that's what she had in mind all along. In fact that's why she created her site...
This is one of the most desperate examples of 'inventing an issue' I have ever seen. Good work, truth warriors! We've really got their backs to the wall now!
This is one of the most desperate examples of 'inventing an issue' I have ever seen. Good work, truth warriors! We've really got their backs to the wall now!
Anti-Semitism At Sonoma State University
Author's Note: It must be noted that there are tragic circumstances occurring in the Middle East. Too many innocent people, Israeli, Arab and others of the global community have died in this violence. I make no secret that I am a staunch supporter of Israel. My position is clearly stated in the sidebar at left. I try my best, where possible, to refer to credible sources when presenting facts, which is more than I can say for Alison Weir. However, please read this before continuing. Thank you.
This past Thursday, February 2, I attended a lecture being given by Alison Weir at Sonoma State University. Weir's presentation was sponsored by a SSU group by the name of Project Censored, a group about which I know little as yet, but that will change. Their website proclaims that they present the "news that didn't make the news", which is a noble effort if the "news" you are presenting is based on facts.
I attended the lecture with my father, a veteran of the War of Independence in 1948. There were a number of other Jews in attendance, most members of the student group Hillel. They were appreciative of the attendance by my father, and several thanked him for his service, a refreshing change from an incident a few years ago at Congregation Rodef Shalom in Marin where a Jewish woman, upon hearing of my father's contribution to the 1948 war, replied, "So what?", a sad reflection on the fact that many American Jews seem to regard Israel as a millstone around their necks rather than the asset she is.
The Hillel students asked good questions, all of which were neatly sidestepped by Weir. Not one question from a member of the audience not supportive of Weir's position was answered directly. In fact, several attempts by those of us to keep her on point immediately drew catcalls from other members of the audience that were Weir supporters, something that was not done by our camp.
Weir's presentation began with a glib statement that she did not take sides in the Israeli -"Palestinian" Arab conflict, and that she was interested in human rights for all people, everywhere. What ensued was three hours of some of the most vile anti-Israeli propaganda that I have yet witnessed. It became clear very early on that she, in fact, was anything but an objective observer of events in the Middle East.
The first part of her lecture consisted of a film presenting several official-sounding "experts" stating that the US should not fund Israel because she is a threat to the security of the United States and the world, that Israel is guilty of atrocities that are on a par with those committed by the Nazis against Jews, and included at least teo people from the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, an organization that I, quite coincidentally, discredited a few days ago.
I am highlighting some of the most eggregious of Weir's misinformation:
On the history of the founding of Israel:
Weir claimed that "Zionist lobbies" in the US pressured the US to create the state of Israel.
It was, in fact, the UN that voted on , and approved, the new states of Israel and another for Arabs, the Partition Plan of 1947. The plan was accepted by the Jews, and renounced by the Arab community. The linchpin vote came from the USSR, who, up until the actual voting, was expected to return a "no" vote. "Zionist lobbies" hardly had any influence on the USSR in 1948.
Weir claimed that the Jews had a vastly superior army to that of the Arabs.
My question for Weir was to explain what European countries supplied the 90,000 fighters to Israel for the so-called "Zionist Army" in 1948, a claim she makes on her website. Instead of answering my question, she focused on my "Zionist Army" remark and asked me what I would call that army. I replied that I would call it the Israeli Army as Israel, at that time was a sovereign state declared by the UN. Incredibly, she replied that , in fact, Israel was not a state in 1948. I pointed out that Israel was declared a state in May of 1948, prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and then I began to be heckled by many in the audience including the woman sitting next to me. Weir then muttered some more revisionist history and my question remained unanswered.
Weir claimed that 900,000 Arabs were driven from their homeland during the War of Independence in 1948.
Point of fact, the number is officially recognized by the UN and other glocbal organizations as approximately 450,000, not the inflated figure used by Weir. As far as "the Jews driving "Palestinian" Arabs from their homes it needs to be pointed out that all wars create refugees. This war was started by Israel's neighbors, not the new state of Israel.
Weir presented a photo of the "Arab army" of 1948: Several men on foot and horseback, insinuating that the Arabs had no mechanized equipment.
The Arab army was actually the combined armies of no less than five of Israel's neighbors, including the British trained and led Jordanian Legion. Jordan and Egypt both had mechanized armor and Egypt had a fledgling air force that was founded years earlier than that of Israel. It was hardly an unfair fight for the Arabs.
Weir presented a photo of the "Zionist Army" of 1948.
The picture was, in fact, a photo of the Palestine Brigade of Jews who served in the British Army during World War II and not the "Zionist Army" of Israel in 1948.
Modern-day Middle East Conflict:
Weir presented many graphs detailing the number of deaths of children, both Arab and Israeli, as well as the frequency of reporting in four media outlets.
I do not for one minute, deny that "Palestinian" Arab children are killed as a result of Middle Eastern violence. However, what was lacking in Weir's presentation was any context to describe how and why Palestinian children are dying at a rate higher than those of the Israelis. Further, Weir used many stirring images in order to bolster her claims that the IDF routinely uses excessive force on a defenseless and unarmed, peaceful populace. As stated above, the images Weir presents are not exactly reliable indicators of what is actually happening in the Middle East.
Here is a classic example (just one of many) of how unreliable an image can be when used as "proof" of excessive IDF force.
When it was pointed out to Weir that Palestinian sources are extremely suspect and often unreliable, the erroneous reporting of 500 Arabs massacred in Jenin cited as an example, Weir deflected the issue by retorting that even 54 deaths were 54 too many. Point of fact, most of those were gunmen who had inflicted violence on Israeli troops and their deaths were the result of the bitter fighting in Jenin that was carried out by IDF troops on a door-to-door basis so as to vastly minimize civilian casualties at greater loss of life to Israeli troops that other methods would have prevented.
Weir then went on to claim, preposterously, that the original figure of 500 came directly from the Israeli government itself.
Weir continued to sidestep questions from those who were clearly not supportive of her position of Israel as aggressor and "Palestinian" Arab innocent of any and all violent activity.
One student asked point-blank exactly how many Israelis she had interviewed in an effort to provide balance. As with my question, Weir refused to answer despite repeatedly being asked to do so by the strudent until the heckling from Weir's camp put an end to the student's question. That student left after Weir compared Israel to "a child molester who must be stopped".
But that wasn't the most chilling claim by Weir. Incredibly, Weir stated that the Israelis don't care how many children they kill, or how difficult they make life for the "Palestinian" Arabs as their goal is to keep a Jewish state free of non-Jews in order to "keep the race pure" (her words, not mine).
To me, Weir represents the most dangerous type of anti-Semite: One who couches her words in the guise of "humanitarian" concern. She doesn't fool me, and didn't fool many there that night. But she definitely has her blind following.
At the moment of this writing, Weir is in the middle of a two-day engagement at a mosque in Fairfax, Marin County, California. I have it on good authority that this mosque was attended, for a time, by John Walker Lindh. Her presence there, according to her website, is being sponsored by "The 14 friends of Palestine, Marin". I have searched exrtensively for information on this group to no avail. They seem to sponsor many similar events but have no website of their own.
I know for a fact that the mosque exists. I was there myself on a couple of occasions when we first moved to Marin in the mid-1970's. My father was there just today. It is currently called "The Meditation Center". What is the significance of this? Maybe nothing. But I'm not willing to turn a blind eye to what is arguably a subversive group in the heart of Marin County in Northern California. I have seen and heard first hand the type of inflammatory rhetoric being disseminated by the woman whose lecture they are hosting. It does not bode well for the reputation of The Meditation Center.
It should also be noted that Weir had an escort of campus police when she left. She needn't have bothered. We were there to present balance to her ridiculous claims, not create violence anew around a charged issue. None of us gave her so much as a nod as she passed our group in the hall on her way out.
If, in fact, pro-"Palestinian" Arab groups such as Weir's are interested in furthering the humanitarian treatment of Arabs by the Israeli government, they should begin by encouraging the recognition of Israel as a sovereign state, and the fact that Israel can only be an asset to the "Palestinian" people, not a curse. Terrorist groups such as Hamas should be renounced in the strongest possible terms at every juncture. As long as they continue to disseminate outright lies about Jews and Israel, they only weaken the case for the people they profess to want to help.
Author's Note: It must be noted that there are tragic circumstances occurring in the Middle East. Too many innocent people, Israeli, Arab and others of the global community have died in this violence. I make no secret that I am a staunch supporter of Israel. My position is clearly stated in the sidebar at left. I try my best, where possible, to refer to credible sources when presenting facts, which is more than I can say for Alison Weir. However, please read this before continuing. Thank you.
This past Thursday, February 2, I attended a lecture being given by Alison Weir at Sonoma State University. Weir's presentation was sponsored by a SSU group by the name of Project Censored, a group about which I know little as yet, but that will change. Their website proclaims that they present the "news that didn't make the news", which is a noble effort if the "news" you are presenting is based on facts.
I attended the lecture with my father, a veteran of the War of Independence in 1948. There were a number of other Jews in attendance, most members of the student group Hillel. They were appreciative of the attendance by my father, and several thanked him for his service, a refreshing change from an incident a few years ago at Congregation Rodef Shalom in Marin where a Jewish woman, upon hearing of my father's contribution to the 1948 war, replied, "So what?", a sad reflection on the fact that many American Jews seem to regard Israel as a millstone around their necks rather than the asset she is.
The Hillel students asked good questions, all of which were neatly sidestepped by Weir. Not one question from a member of the audience not supportive of Weir's position was answered directly. In fact, several attempts by those of us to keep her on point immediately drew catcalls from other members of the audience that were Weir supporters, something that was not done by our camp.
Weir's presentation began with a glib statement that she did not take sides in the Israeli -"Palestinian" Arab conflict, and that she was interested in human rights for all people, everywhere. What ensued was three hours of some of the most vile anti-Israeli propaganda that I have yet witnessed. It became clear very early on that she, in fact, was anything but an objective observer of events in the Middle East.
The first part of her lecture consisted of a film presenting several official-sounding "experts" stating that the US should not fund Israel because she is a threat to the security of the United States and the world, that Israel is guilty of atrocities that are on a par with those committed by the Nazis against Jews, and included at least teo people from the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, an organization that I, quite coincidentally, discredited a few days ago.
I am highlighting some of the most eggregious of Weir's misinformation:
On the history of the founding of Israel:
Weir claimed that "Zionist lobbies" in the US pressured the US to create the state of Israel.
It was, in fact, the UN that voted on , and approved, the new states of Israel and another for Arabs, the Partition Plan of 1947. The plan was accepted by the Jews, and renounced by the Arab community. The linchpin vote came from the USSR, who, up until the actual voting, was expected to return a "no" vote. "Zionist lobbies" hardly had any influence on the USSR in 1948.
Weir claimed that the Jews had a vastly superior army to that of the Arabs.
My question for Weir was to explain what European countries supplied the 90,000 fighters to Israel for the so-called "Zionist Army" in 1948, a claim she makes on her website. Instead of answering my question, she focused on my "Zionist Army" remark and asked me what I would call that army. I replied that I would call it the Israeli Army as Israel, at that time was a sovereign state declared by the UN. Incredibly, she replied that , in fact, Israel was not a state in 1948. I pointed out that Israel was declared a state in May of 1948, prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and then I began to be heckled by many in the audience including the woman sitting next to me. Weir then muttered some more revisionist history and my question remained unanswered.
Weir claimed that 900,000 Arabs were driven from their homeland during the War of Independence in 1948.
Point of fact, the number is officially recognized by the UN and other glocbal organizations as approximately 450,000, not the inflated figure used by Weir. As far as "the Jews driving "Palestinian" Arabs from their homes it needs to be pointed out that all wars create refugees. This war was started by Israel's neighbors, not the new state of Israel.
Weir presented a photo of the "Arab army" of 1948: Several men on foot and horseback, insinuating that the Arabs had no mechanized equipment.
The Arab army was actually the combined armies of no less than five of Israel's neighbors, including the British trained and led Jordanian Legion. Jordan and Egypt both had mechanized armor and Egypt had a fledgling air force that was founded years earlier than that of Israel. It was hardly an unfair fight for the Arabs.
Weir presented a photo of the "Zionist Army" of 1948.
The picture was, in fact, a photo of the Palestine Brigade of Jews who served in the British Army during World War II and not the "Zionist Army" of Israel in 1948.
Modern-day Middle East Conflict:
Weir presented many graphs detailing the number of deaths of children, both Arab and Israeli, as well as the frequency of reporting in four media outlets.
I do not for one minute, deny that "Palestinian" Arab children are killed as a result of Middle Eastern violence. However, what was lacking in Weir's presentation was any context to describe how and why Palestinian children are dying at a rate higher than those of the Israelis. Further, Weir used many stirring images in order to bolster her claims that the IDF routinely uses excessive force on a defenseless and unarmed, peaceful populace. As stated above, the images Weir presents are not exactly reliable indicators of what is actually happening in the Middle East.
Here is a classic example (just one of many) of how unreliable an image can be when used as "proof" of excessive IDF force.
When it was pointed out to Weir that Palestinian sources are extremely suspect and often unreliable, the erroneous reporting of 500 Arabs massacred in Jenin cited as an example, Weir deflected the issue by retorting that even 54 deaths were 54 too many. Point of fact, most of those were gunmen who had inflicted violence on Israeli troops and their deaths were the result of the bitter fighting in Jenin that was carried out by IDF troops on a door-to-door basis so as to vastly minimize civilian casualties at greater loss of life to Israeli troops that other methods would have prevented.
Weir then went on to claim, preposterously, that the original figure of 500 came directly from the Israeli government itself.
Weir continued to sidestep questions from those who were clearly not supportive of her position of Israel as aggressor and "Palestinian" Arab innocent of any and all violent activity.
One student asked point-blank exactly how many Israelis she had interviewed in an effort to provide balance. As with my question, Weir refused to answer despite repeatedly being asked to do so by the strudent until the heckling from Weir's camp put an end to the student's question. That student left after Weir compared Israel to "a child molester who must be stopped".
But that wasn't the most chilling claim by Weir. Incredibly, Weir stated that the Israelis don't care how many children they kill, or how difficult they make life for the "Palestinian" Arabs as their goal is to keep a Jewish state free of non-Jews in order to "keep the race pure" (her words, not mine).
To me, Weir represents the most dangerous type of anti-Semite: One who couches her words in the guise of "humanitarian" concern. She doesn't fool me, and didn't fool many there that night. But she definitely has her blind following.
At the moment of this writing, Weir is in the middle of a two-day engagement at a mosque in Fairfax, Marin County, California. I have it on good authority that this mosque was attended, for a time, by John Walker Lindh. Her presence there, according to her website, is being sponsored by "The 14 friends of Palestine, Marin". I have searched exrtensively for information on this group to no avail. They seem to sponsor many similar events but have no website of their own.
I know for a fact that the mosque exists. I was there myself on a couple of occasions when we first moved to Marin in the mid-1970's. My father was there just today. It is currently called "The Meditation Center". What is the significance of this? Maybe nothing. But I'm not willing to turn a blind eye to what is arguably a subversive group in the heart of Marin County in Northern California. I have seen and heard first hand the type of inflammatory rhetoric being disseminated by the woman whose lecture they are hosting. It does not bode well for the reputation of The Meditation Center.
It should also be noted that Weir had an escort of campus police when she left. She needn't have bothered. We were there to present balance to her ridiculous claims, not create violence anew around a charged issue. None of us gave her so much as a nod as she passed our group in the hall on her way out.
If, in fact, pro-"Palestinian" Arab groups such as Weir's are interested in furthering the humanitarian treatment of Arabs by the Israeli government, they should begin by encouraging the recognition of Israel as a sovereign state, and the fact that Israel can only be an asset to the "Palestinian" people, not a curse. Terrorist groups such as Hamas should be renounced in the strongest possible terms at every juncture. As long as they continue to disseminate outright lies about Jews and Israel, they only weaken the case for the people they profess to want to help.
For more information:
http://knockinonthegoldendoor.mu.nu/
"To me, Weir represents the most dangerous type of anti-Semite: One who couches her words in the guise of "humanitarian" concern."
Wow, is it just me or does that have a familiar ring?
Did anyone else notice how this maniac didn't go anywhere near Alison's main theme, which is grossly imbalanced US media coverage of Israel/Palestine? This is a classic zio-slime exercise: avoid the main subject, which they can't attack without revealing what assholes they are. Instead they zero in on petty inaccuracies and blow these out of proportion to obscure the substance of what was said. Orin Starn's 'Ishi's Brain' is the most elaborate example I've ever seen.
Here's a non-Alison-Weir documentation of US media's gross pro-Israel bias
http://indybay.org/news/2005/03/1726547.php
Wow, is it just me or does that have a familiar ring?
Did anyone else notice how this maniac didn't go anywhere near Alison's main theme, which is grossly imbalanced US media coverage of Israel/Palestine? This is a classic zio-slime exercise: avoid the main subject, which they can't attack without revealing what assholes they are. Instead they zero in on petty inaccuracies and blow these out of proportion to obscure the substance of what was said. Orin Starn's 'Ishi's Brain' is the most elaborate example I've ever seen.
Here's a non-Alison-Weir documentation of US media's gross pro-Israel bias
http://indybay.org/news/2005/03/1726547.php
Toothless: ""One who couches her words in the guise of "humanitarian" concern." Wow, is it just me or does that have a familiar ring? "
They should have a familiar ring -- the description fits you reasonably well, although in your case it doesn't go far enough. The difference is that unlike Weir you go beyond anti-Zi-i-i-ionism and into overt antisemitism, although again pretending to present your hatred as humanitarian concern. Your suggestion that The Jew Has An Honesty Problem was, after all, presented as "helpful advice." And did you notice how many people defended you on that point? Zero. Because even your buddies know you crossed the line, and unlike you they didn't then try to pretend that becoming an overt antisemite is a _good_ thing, as long as you do it "for humanitarian reasons."
@%<
They should have a familiar ring -- the description fits you reasonably well, although in your case it doesn't go far enough. The difference is that unlike Weir you go beyond anti-Zi-i-i-ionism and into overt antisemitism, although again pretending to present your hatred as humanitarian concern. Your suggestion that The Jew Has An Honesty Problem was, after all, presented as "helpful advice." And did you notice how many people defended you on that point? Zero. Because even your buddies know you crossed the line, and unlike you they didn't then try to pretend that becoming an overt antisemite is a _good_ thing, as long as you do it "for humanitarian reasons."
@%<
Her presentation was an exercise in proving that raw statistics can be used to present a distorted picture of reality. Her big intro was a slide show of graphs that purported to show simply the number of child deaths on each side as reported. However, it is the explanation and interpretation of the raw figures that creates the distorted impression. For instance defining "child" so as to include the older, male teeenage Palestinian combatants, and concealing that fact, Weir creates a distorted image of both whats going on and the media. Interestingly, all of the Palestinian "children" listed by name and age were in that category. It was quite interesting whan an audience member described how his cousin was killed by a 13 year old Palestinian terrorist. Lets all remember that child soldiers are outlawed by the Geneva convention, apparently a mystery to Allison Weir.
Did anyone else notice how this maniac didn't go anywhere near Alison's main theme, which is grossly imbalanced US media coverage of Israel/Palestine?
Interesting enough, neither did Alison, during the bulk of her performance. It was just used as a jumping off point to spread her lies, " petty inaccuracies"and propaganda. A student commented on this during the question and answer period. We are working on getting a transcript done- we will link to it at a later date.
To trust you rabid pro-Israel compulsive liars to relate accurately what Alison said, I would have to be every bit as stupid as you seem to think all the untermenschen are.
Tell you what: I'll trust you if you put it on video and then post it to the internet within a half-hour of rolling tape. You could actually do this if you had your shit together, and it would be completely fair. C'mon I'm holding my breath here -- guffaw! For that matter, you TOOK an audio recording didn't you? How thuh fuck else you gonna do a transcript? From memory? So why don't you post the audio, then? That'd be way easier than typing up a transcript. Ah, but it doesn't have the same *interpretive* potential does it? Ya-ha-ha-ha!! People would hear all the weird continuity breaks from your editing job
"Interesting enough, neither did Alison"
Oh really? That's not what the other sayan said:
"Her big intro was a slide show of graphs that purported to show simply the number of child deaths on each side as reported."
Gee, that sure sounds like Alison's usual 'media bias' spiel, as delivered on Flashpoints the other day
http://flashpoints.net/index.html#2006-02-02
You people need to get your lies straight
By the way, since when do 13-year-olds not count as children? I guess to be 'children' they first have to qualify as 'human' -- that's the real bug up yore ass, isn't it?
Meanwhile I notice none of you went anywhere near my 3/12/2005 item, which specifically mentions children getting killed by the IDF over and over during the alleged "period of calm" declared by US media.
It's at times like this -- when you get hit with heavily documented facts that your bullshit can't cope with -- that you pathetic pieces of shit always show what you're really made of by running around in circles whooping and yipping and setting off smoke bombs instead of just addressing the informaton
October 25, 2004
[an IDF] tank shell killed two and soldiers shot dead five people, including a boy of 11...
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=608757§ion=news
All of ELEVEN!! A hardened killer, no doubt
October 28, 2004.
A 9-year old girl, Rania Arram, was killed when Israeli forces fired heavy machineguns on houses...
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=287861&lang=e&dir=news
9-year-old untermensch scum! The WORST!!!
November 11, 2004. Ahmed Al Jazzar, 13, was killed by Israeli gunfire as four bulldozers continued their destruction of his neighborhood in Rafah. Fatma Al Hashash, 9, and her sister Asma Al Hashash, 10, were injured during heavy random shelling of the camp.
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm
Hey, genocide sucks, but somebody's gotta do it
November 24, 2004. Since September 2000, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 1,656 Palestinians who took no part in the fighting. Of those killed, 529 were children. To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian. In the vast majority of cases, no one is ever held accountable.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/2004/041124.asp
Don't worry, it's just Arab propagand-- whoops!
December 1, 2004. Israeli forces shot and seriously wounded a four-year-old Palestinian girl in Rafah, in southern Gaza. Witnesses said Shayma Hasan Abu Shammala was hit by several bullets fired by an Israeli soldier manning a military tower.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3388.shtml
Yeah, but those 4-year-old untermensch terrorist larvae DESERVE to get riddled with bullets!!
December 2, 2004. An Israeli soldier fired at two boys in Nablus, killing both of them. Montasser Hadada and Amar Banaat, both 15, had been standing in the street. Another child, Khaled Osta, 9, was shot dead in the middle of the night while fleeing from soldiers who told his father to evacuate their home.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=6813
Standard zio-logic: The two 15-year-olds were **OBVIOUSLY** hardened terrorist cockroaches, so therefore the killing of the 9-year-old doesn't mean anything
December 3, 2004. In Rafah, 8-year-old Khalil Berika was seriously wounded by a bullet in the head while inside his home.
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm
Ah, what the fuck. Nits make lice
December 10, 2004. A 7-year-old Palestinian girl was killed yesterday as she was eating lunch in her home in Khan Younis refugee camp. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=591997
She was wearing an explosive belt. No, really!
December 12, 2004. An Israeli army tank fired shells at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, wounding seven schoolchildren. Two of the children were treated at the scene while the others, aged 8-12, suffered shrapnel wounds and were taken to hospital.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/12/international0525EST0412.DTL
Those schools, man! Little terrorist nurseries, all of 'em! Just fuckin blow tank rounds through every one and have it done with
December 17, 2004. Halla Gharib, 3, of the Rafah refugee camp has been reportedly wounded after being shot by Israeli soldiers manning the Palestinian- Egyptian border just south of Rafah.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=1537
I bet she was wearing one of those Hamas head-bands and packing an M-60
December 26, 2004. A six-year-old girl, Tasahil Al-Hasanat, died in hospital from wounds she sustained in October, when Israeli troops stationed at a Jewish settlement attacked houses in the Al-Moghraqa neighborhood of Al-Buraij refugee camp.
http://tinyurl.com/767xj
A six-year-old girl????? A terrorist or a whore, one or the other. Untermensch either way
January 4, 2005. Five Palestinian children were killed by Israeli tank fire in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya. Killed were three brothers, Hanni, 16, Mahmoud, 14, and Bisaam, 13, and two of their cousins Jabir, 12, and Rajikh, 10. Eight others were wounded in the incident.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=93a518d5513945d5
A tank against five boys in a field. Yah, that's fair. I wonder what these zio-goons would say if the boys were Israeli and the tank was Egyptian
January 27, 2005. A three-year-old Palestinian girl was killed when Israeli troops opened fire in the Gaza city of Deyr Al-Balah yesterday. Rahma Abu Shams was sitting at home when she was hit in the head by a bullet fired from a Jewish settlement.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=15997
Not another one of those three-year-old Arab sluts, already!
January 31, 2005. Israeli army gunfire killed a 10-year-old Palestinian girl today as she stood with other children in a schoolyard in Rafah refugee camp. Noran Deeb was lining up to enter their school in the morning when she was hit by gunfire from an army post some 900 metres away.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12113102%255E401,00.html
Eh, serves the little bitch right
February 15, 2005. Israeli troops in the West Bank village of Beitunia shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy, Ala Hani, who threw stones at them. The troops wounded two others in the same incident. The dead boy was shot in the neck.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26226-2005Feb15.html
Hey, man, he threw stones! Throw stones at invaders in your own hometown, get shot to death -- that's fair!
Tell you what: I'll trust you if you put it on video and then post it to the internet within a half-hour of rolling tape. You could actually do this if you had your shit together, and it would be completely fair. C'mon I'm holding my breath here -- guffaw! For that matter, you TOOK an audio recording didn't you? How thuh fuck else you gonna do a transcript? From memory? So why don't you post the audio, then? That'd be way easier than typing up a transcript. Ah, but it doesn't have the same *interpretive* potential does it? Ya-ha-ha-ha!! People would hear all the weird continuity breaks from your editing job
"Interesting enough, neither did Alison"
Oh really? That's not what the other sayan said:
"Her big intro was a slide show of graphs that purported to show simply the number of child deaths on each side as reported."
Gee, that sure sounds like Alison's usual 'media bias' spiel, as delivered on Flashpoints the other day
http://flashpoints.net/index.html#2006-02-02
You people need to get your lies straight
By the way, since when do 13-year-olds not count as children? I guess to be 'children' they first have to qualify as 'human' -- that's the real bug up yore ass, isn't it?
Meanwhile I notice none of you went anywhere near my 3/12/2005 item, which specifically mentions children getting killed by the IDF over and over during the alleged "period of calm" declared by US media.
It's at times like this -- when you get hit with heavily documented facts that your bullshit can't cope with -- that you pathetic pieces of shit always show what you're really made of by running around in circles whooping and yipping and setting off smoke bombs instead of just addressing the informaton
October 25, 2004
[an IDF] tank shell killed two and soldiers shot dead five people, including a boy of 11...
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=608757§ion=news
All of ELEVEN!! A hardened killer, no doubt
October 28, 2004.
A 9-year old girl, Rania Arram, was killed when Israeli forces fired heavy machineguns on houses...
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=287861&lang=e&dir=news
9-year-old untermensch scum! The WORST!!!
November 11, 2004. Ahmed Al Jazzar, 13, was killed by Israeli gunfire as four bulldozers continued their destruction of his neighborhood in Rafah. Fatma Al Hashash, 9, and her sister Asma Al Hashash, 10, were injured during heavy random shelling of the camp.
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm
Hey, genocide sucks, but somebody's gotta do it
November 24, 2004. Since September 2000, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 1,656 Palestinians who took no part in the fighting. Of those killed, 529 were children. To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian. In the vast majority of cases, no one is ever held accountable.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/2004/041124.asp
Don't worry, it's just Arab propagand-- whoops!
December 1, 2004. Israeli forces shot and seriously wounded a four-year-old Palestinian girl in Rafah, in southern Gaza. Witnesses said Shayma Hasan Abu Shammala was hit by several bullets fired by an Israeli soldier manning a military tower.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3388.shtml
Yeah, but those 4-year-old untermensch terrorist larvae DESERVE to get riddled with bullets!!
December 2, 2004. An Israeli soldier fired at two boys in Nablus, killing both of them. Montasser Hadada and Amar Banaat, both 15, had been standing in the street. Another child, Khaled Osta, 9, was shot dead in the middle of the night while fleeing from soldiers who told his father to evacuate their home.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=6813
Standard zio-logic: The two 15-year-olds were **OBVIOUSLY** hardened terrorist cockroaches, so therefore the killing of the 9-year-old doesn't mean anything
December 3, 2004. In Rafah, 8-year-old Khalil Berika was seriously wounded by a bullet in the head while inside his home.
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm
Ah, what the fuck. Nits make lice
December 10, 2004. A 7-year-old Palestinian girl was killed yesterday as she was eating lunch in her home in Khan Younis refugee camp. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=591997
She was wearing an explosive belt. No, really!
December 12, 2004. An Israeli army tank fired shells at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, wounding seven schoolchildren. Two of the children were treated at the scene while the others, aged 8-12, suffered shrapnel wounds and were taken to hospital.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/12/international0525EST0412.DTL
Those schools, man! Little terrorist nurseries, all of 'em! Just fuckin blow tank rounds through every one and have it done with
December 17, 2004. Halla Gharib, 3, of the Rafah refugee camp has been reportedly wounded after being shot by Israeli soldiers manning the Palestinian- Egyptian border just south of Rafah.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=1537
I bet she was wearing one of those Hamas head-bands and packing an M-60
December 26, 2004. A six-year-old girl, Tasahil Al-Hasanat, died in hospital from wounds she sustained in October, when Israeli troops stationed at a Jewish settlement attacked houses in the Al-Moghraqa neighborhood of Al-Buraij refugee camp.
http://tinyurl.com/767xj
A six-year-old girl????? A terrorist or a whore, one or the other. Untermensch either way
January 4, 2005. Five Palestinian children were killed by Israeli tank fire in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya. Killed were three brothers, Hanni, 16, Mahmoud, 14, and Bisaam, 13, and two of their cousins Jabir, 12, and Rajikh, 10. Eight others were wounded in the incident.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=93a518d5513945d5
A tank against five boys in a field. Yah, that's fair. I wonder what these zio-goons would say if the boys were Israeli and the tank was Egyptian
January 27, 2005. A three-year-old Palestinian girl was killed when Israeli troops opened fire in the Gaza city of Deyr Al-Balah yesterday. Rahma Abu Shams was sitting at home when she was hit in the head by a bullet fired from a Jewish settlement.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=15997
Not another one of those three-year-old Arab sluts, already!
January 31, 2005. Israeli army gunfire killed a 10-year-old Palestinian girl today as she stood with other children in a schoolyard in Rafah refugee camp. Noran Deeb was lining up to enter their school in the morning when she was hit by gunfire from an army post some 900 metres away.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12113102%255E401,00.html
Eh, serves the little bitch right
February 15, 2005. Israeli troops in the West Bank village of Beitunia shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy, Ala Hani, who threw stones at them. The troops wounded two others in the same incident. The dead boy was shot in the neck.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26226-2005Feb15.html
Hey, man, he threw stones! Throw stones at invaders in your own hometown, get shot to death -- that's fair!
On Thursday February 2, noted anti-Israel activist Alison Weir spoke at
Sonoma State University. She was invited by the university's Project
Censored, ostensibly to speak about how the American media distorted the
Israeli-Arab conflict by its coverage. However, Weir used this opportunity
not to simply criticize what she saw as a pro-Israel slant to media
coverage, but to harangue the audience with her unrelentingly anti-Israel
viewpoint (which she had the temerity to describe as "unbiased").
Weir's claim to support "equal rights and equal respect for all people"
evaporated right at the start of her presentation, when she showed a trailer
for a "documentary" that she was preparing about the conflict. It featured
former US Congressman Paul Findlay (who is on the board of Weir's organization, If Americans Knew, and receives funding from the Saudis) and a number of State Department career officers (all of whom had served in Arab
countries). One of those officials stated, on camera, that the actions taken by Israel against the Arabs are "EXACTLY what the Nazis did to the Jews" (Emphasis added).
The early part of Weir's talk centered on what she described as "vast omissions" of coverage in US media, mostly detailing how much headline space was given to Israeli deaths of children from terror compared to deaths of Arab "children" in the conflict, some of whom were 16 and 17 year old
combatants. Then she really got into her actual agenda, a propaganda screed against Israel's existence, going all the way back to the 1947 UN partition and claiming that this was unjust right from the start. She denied that Jewish forces were outnumbered and outgunned, even showing a well-known photo
of the British Army's Jewish brigade and claiming that this represented the
"Zionist army". The heart of her talk was pictures that she took in 2001 on
a trip to the West Banka and Gaza, a trip that apparently turned her into
the unbiased expert she claims to be. Oddly enough, the pictures she showed
were mostly happy-appearing residents in furnished homes, while she spoke of
widespread poverty and oppression that is supposedly the reason that otherwise normal Arab youth turn into "crazed freedom fighters" who commit acts of mass murder directed against Israeli women and children.
The question and answer period was marked by two things: very well prepared
questions from the students at SSU Hillel and the SFV4I/SWU members, and
Weir's failure to answer any of those questions. By the end of the session,
Weir had put herself on record as calling Israel an "apartheid state" and
supported the infamous 1975 UN resolution equating Zionism with racism (she
claimed that this was overturned later only because of pressure from the
"Zionist lobby"). One student, who was not a member of Hillel, did complain
to her that he came expecting to hear a critique of American media coverage
but only got one-sided propaganda from Weir.
Sonoma State University. She was invited by the university's Project
Censored, ostensibly to speak about how the American media distorted the
Israeli-Arab conflict by its coverage. However, Weir used this opportunity
not to simply criticize what she saw as a pro-Israel slant to media
coverage, but to harangue the audience with her unrelentingly anti-Israel
viewpoint (which she had the temerity to describe as "unbiased").
Weir's claim to support "equal rights and equal respect for all people"
evaporated right at the start of her presentation, when she showed a trailer
for a "documentary" that she was preparing about the conflict. It featured
former US Congressman Paul Findlay (who is on the board of Weir's organization, If Americans Knew, and receives funding from the Saudis) and a number of State Department career officers (all of whom had served in Arab
countries). One of those officials stated, on camera, that the actions taken by Israel against the Arabs are "EXACTLY what the Nazis did to the Jews" (Emphasis added).
The early part of Weir's talk centered on what she described as "vast omissions" of coverage in US media, mostly detailing how much headline space was given to Israeli deaths of children from terror compared to deaths of Arab "children" in the conflict, some of whom were 16 and 17 year old
combatants. Then she really got into her actual agenda, a propaganda screed against Israel's existence, going all the way back to the 1947 UN partition and claiming that this was unjust right from the start. She denied that Jewish forces were outnumbered and outgunned, even showing a well-known photo
of the British Army's Jewish brigade and claiming that this represented the
"Zionist army". The heart of her talk was pictures that she took in 2001 on
a trip to the West Banka and Gaza, a trip that apparently turned her into
the unbiased expert she claims to be. Oddly enough, the pictures she showed
were mostly happy-appearing residents in furnished homes, while she spoke of
widespread poverty and oppression that is supposedly the reason that otherwise normal Arab youth turn into "crazed freedom fighters" who commit acts of mass murder directed against Israeli women and children.
The question and answer period was marked by two things: very well prepared
questions from the students at SSU Hillel and the SFV4I/SWU members, and
Weir's failure to answer any of those questions. By the end of the session,
Weir had put herself on record as calling Israel an "apartheid state" and
supported the infamous 1975 UN resolution equating Zionism with racism (she
claimed that this was overturned later only because of pressure from the
"Zionist lobby"). One student, who was not a member of Hillel, did complain
to her that he came expecting to hear a critique of American media coverage
but only got one-sided propaganda from Weir.
you mean 'verbal tripwire traps'
Aw, gee, Alison didn't play huh? How slimy of her. She must have seen your bullshit coming from about 50,000 miles away, huh?
BTW, this is a REALLY interesting concept of a "transcript"
You nutcases are pathetic. Your bullshit is going down the tubes real fast. You better hurry up and set off an "Al Qaeda" suitcase nuke in a major city or something. Der Vaderland auf Zionismus is conting on you, mon!
Aw, gee, Alison didn't play huh? How slimy of her. She must have seen your bullshit coming from about 50,000 miles away, huh?
BTW, this is a REALLY interesting concept of a "transcript"
You nutcases are pathetic. Your bullshit is going down the tubes real fast. You better hurry up and set off an "Al Qaeda" suitcase nuke in a major city or something. Der Vaderland auf Zionismus is conting on you, mon!
Aw, gee, Alison didn't play huh?
No. Alison couldnt play. All the oil money in the world couldn't buy her a modicum of intelligence or common sense.
She was nearly in tears when the event ended. She called for a police escort. Oh, yes, the 18 year old students were just so intimidating.
Don't underestimate the ability of a handful passionate and well informed individuals to make a difference in the world, people. She won't be coming back any time soon.
No. Alison couldnt play. All the oil money in the world couldn't buy her a modicum of intelligence or common sense.
She was nearly in tears when the event ended. She called for a police escort. Oh, yes, the 18 year old students were just so intimidating.
Don't underestimate the ability of a handful passionate and well informed individuals to make a difference in the world, people. She won't be coming back any time soon.
You mean 18 year old zionist punk asshole goons pumped up with testosterone, adrenaline, and raw hatred
Yeah, I've seen the type. They're hanging around glaring and bristling at most any public appearance by prominent Israel critics. The IDF (like every other homicidal gang throughout history) is jam-packed with 'em. 18-year-old brainwashed fanatics are the perfect hotheads.
So kudos to Alison for calling in police to help her get out of there safe. Your kahanist psycho thug friends might have run her off the road and gang-raped her to death otherwise. Too bad the cops weren't itching for a fight, though. Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?
Yeah, I've seen the type. They're hanging around glaring and bristling at most any public appearance by prominent Israel critics. The IDF (like every other homicidal gang throughout history) is jam-packed with 'em. 18-year-old brainwashed fanatics are the perfect hotheads.
So kudos to Alison for calling in police to help her get out of there safe. Your kahanist psycho thug friends might have run her off the road and gang-raped her to death otherwise. Too bad the cops weren't itching for a fight, though. Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?
"...punk asshole goons pumped up with testosterone, adrenaline, and raw hatred cluck cluck cluck"
TW's self description.
"So kudos to Alison for calling in police to help her get out of there safe yap yap puke yap fart yap yap..."
Otherwise they might have thrown acid in her face...
"Too bad the cops weren't itching for a fight, though. Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?"
Translation: why couldn't the cops be pigs, but at least on my behalf? Why couldn't they act out my own violent fantasies on Jews that I'm too afraid of trying?
TW's self description.
"So kudos to Alison for calling in police to help her get out of there safe yap yap puke yap fart yap yap..."
Otherwise they might have thrown acid in her face...
"Too bad the cops weren't itching for a fight, though. Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?"
Translation: why couldn't the cops be pigs, but at least on my behalf? Why couldn't they act out my own violent fantasies on Jews that I'm too afraid of trying?
Toothless: "18 year old zionist punk asshole goons pumped up with testosterone, adrenaline, and raw hatred"
What a riot Toothless is. He's like a hate-spew machine. Drop in a penny and a meme, and watch what happens. Say "college student" and he replies, "18 year old zionist punk asshole goons pumped up with testosterone, adrenaline, and raw hatred."
Could he make it any clearer that _he's_ the one being driven by hatred?
@%<
What a riot Toothless is. He's like a hate-spew machine. Drop in a penny and a meme, and watch what happens. Say "college student" and he replies, "18 year old zionist punk asshole goons pumped up with testosterone, adrenaline, and raw hatred."
Could he make it any clearer that _he's_ the one being driven by hatred?
@%<
"...punk asshole goons pumped up with testosterone, adrenaline, and raw hatred cluck cluck cluck"
Actually, really nice, really sweet, well dressed Hillel kids, who were a lot more polite than I was. Damn. I was supposed to set a good example! I am failing as a role model.
"So kudos to Alison for calling in police to help her get out of there safe yap yap puke ..."
Amazing that they always call on the police power of the state....
"Too bad the cops weren't itching for a fight, though. Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?"
The cops weren't that much older than the Hillel kids. Three of them showed up. They were giggling and rolling their eyes. But it was their job to protect the campus, so they took Ally seriously. Oh, yes they did.
Translation: why couldn't the cops be pigs, but at least on my behalf? Why couldn't they act out my own violent fantasies on Jews that I'm too afraid of trying?
Or why couldn't those name Zionists get off the moral high ground for once and do something juicy that we could really condemn? Why oh why did they need to fight lies with truth, deceipt with information? Why did they need to educate their young in the finer points of debate? Why oh why couldn't they be shtetl Jews, good little quiet Jews, and then we could run all over them and gloat afterwards?
And the answer is: Never again. Never again will we meet your lies with silence. Never again will be sit idlely while our brothers blood is spilled. Never again we will be complacent.
Actually, really nice, really sweet, well dressed Hillel kids, who were a lot more polite than I was. Damn. I was supposed to set a good example! I am failing as a role model.
"So kudos to Alison for calling in police to help her get out of there safe yap yap puke ..."
Amazing that they always call on the police power of the state....
"Too bad the cops weren't itching for a fight, though. Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?"
The cops weren't that much older than the Hillel kids. Three of them showed up. They were giggling and rolling their eyes. But it was their job to protect the campus, so they took Ally seriously. Oh, yes they did.
Translation: why couldn't the cops be pigs, but at least on my behalf? Why couldn't they act out my own violent fantasies on Jews that I'm too afraid of trying?
Or why couldn't those name Zionists get off the moral high ground for once and do something juicy that we could really condemn? Why oh why did they need to fight lies with truth, deceipt with information? Why did they need to educate their young in the finer points of debate? Why oh why couldn't they be shtetl Jews, good little quiet Jews, and then we could run all over them and gloat afterwards?
And the answer is: Never again. Never again will we meet your lies with silence. Never again will be sit idlely while our brothers blood is spilled. Never again we will be complacent.
You're right, I missed that.
Toothless: "Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?"
Dammit, why don't the cops beat Jewish college students?
Like I said, TW's aiming for a meltdown. I'm looking forward to it -- he always says the most revealing things.
@%<
Toothless: "Dammit, why don't they ever do a Rodney King on the RIGHT people?"
Dammit, why don't the cops beat Jewish college students?
Like I said, TW's aiming for a meltdown. I'm looking forward to it -- he always says the most revealing things.
@%<
But they are. So are you.
Your shtetl is called "zionism." It's inside a hall of mirrors.
Your shtetl is called "zionism." It's inside a hall of mirrors.
Looks like TW is trying for "aphorism." He's seen people do it in the movies and is trying it himself. He has not yet learned that you're also supposed to include wit (or at least, in his case, half-wit).
@%<
@%<
This condition of yours that I just described, what's it called?
I predicted you were headed for a meltdown, Toothless, and you're obliging.
Stop your feet harder. Stalk me from thread to thread. Rage against The Dishonest Jew some more. You know you want to.
@%<
Stop your feet harder. Stalk me from thread to thread. Rage against The Dishonest Jew some more. You know you want to.
@%<
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
On June 13, 2005, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for its failure to enact an anti-lynching law in years past, and on June 21, a Mississippi jury found a former Klansman guilty of manslaughter in the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964. These two redemptive milestones combined to form a welcome punctuation mark in history, symbolizing the burial of the last remnants of the shameful history of racist terrorist murder in the U.S.
Yet it almost seems a Newtonian law of human nature that when a form of evil is pounded into submission and left for dead, it simply pops up somewhere else, as if in a tragic game of "Whack-a-Mole." Today it is the radical Left that actively supports lynching, and innocent Israeli civilians are the victims.
The new lynch mob’s "capital," supplanting the Mississippi of old, appears to be northern California, a place that at one time had a reputation for tolerance. When the charred, twisted wreckage of Jerusalem Bus 19 was displayed throughout the U.S. in 2005, it was only in northern California that the exhibit ran into callous opposition from local government, followed by a counter-demonstration in support of murdering Jewish civilians on buses.
Among the cities on the tour, only Berkeley imposed a series of unreasonable delays and obstacles; when the Jerusalem Bus 19 anti-terror rally was finally allowed to proceed, thanks to the persistence of rally organizer Sanne DeWitt, the gathering was disrupted by violent pro-terror thugs who screamed, "Go back to Germany" Sanne DeWitt is a survivor of Dachau.
Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been prevented from speaking in Berkeley, where the police admit they cannot guarantee their safety. The same mentality was dramatically on display at San Francisco State University, where pro-Israel students and elderly Holocaust survivors trying to hold a rally were stopped by violent fascists screaming "[expletive] the Jews," "Jews, go back to Russia," "Too bad Hitler didn’t finish the job," and "Get out or we’ll kill you."
Today’s skinheads of the Left are not confined to the streets; they also enjoy an active media presence. One such journalistic propagandist is Alison Weir of Sausalito, a freelance reporter and executive director of the anti-Israel organization If Americans Knew. Shortly after the terrorist bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2005 that killed five Israelis and wounded more than 50, Weir sent out an e-mail press release expressing support for the massacre. (Even Palestinian leader/veteran terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, who alternately condemns and praises terrorism, condemned this particular attack, which occurred during a "truce.")
It was not the first time Weir gave a big thumbs-up to a mass slaughter of innocent Jews. As Lee Kaplan reported in an article for FrontPageMag.com., Weir "once called a massacre of 60 yeshiva students in Hebron in 1929 by Arabs an ‘Arab uprising’ against Jewish oppression – even before Israel existed."
Despite this disturbing record of hate-inspired falsehoods, the "progressive" Project Censored, founded in 1976 as a project of faculty and students of northern California’s Sonoma College, chose to feature an article by Weir – her distorted rewriting of Israel’s history, with the Jews cast as heartless villains throughout – in its anthology Censored 2005, as one of "the undercovered stories of 2004."
To be included in this popular anthology is a rare honor. Project Censored has been lavishly praised by prominent mainstream progressives including Molly Ivins and Walter Cronkite, and by major book reviewers – Library Journal has hailed the annual volume as "a terrific resource" and the Los Angeles Times has called it "required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens."
The producers of Project Censored say they "screen several thousand stories each year. About 700 of these are selected for evaluation by faculty and community evaluators. Our 89 faculty/community evaluators are experts in their individual fields and they rate the stories for credibility and national importance…" The 700 stories are narrowed down to 200, then 125, 60, and finally the top 25.
Even granting for the sake of argument that Israel is "undercovered," and that what happened there from the 1940’s onward was a major "story of 2004," the choice of someone like Weir to cover the story is stunning and revealing. This is a "journalist" who has declared, in dramatic contradiction of reality, that "Israel has a record of attacking its neighbors – mounting massive invasions of surrounding territory in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1982…" She has alleged that a secret "Zionist-Nazi" alliance conspired during World War II to settle Jews in Palestine.
Borrowing from a famous quotation about the Holocaust, Weir depicts the Israelis as Nazis who plan to round up and exterminate the Palestinians and then conquer and annihilate others: "It is time to stop saying, ‘They came for the Palestinians…and I did nothing. It is time to begin acting in a way that will allow us to say, ‘They came for the Palestinians…and I stopped them.’ " She claims that Israel controls what appears in the U.S. media. And she has "described Palestinian terrorism as a ‘legitimate right and…moral duty’ and even referred to the founding of Israel as the start of a ‘holocaust,’" according to a report by Gilead Ini for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.
In her Censored 2005 article Weir graciously notes, "I hope future editions of Project Censored will include work by some of the other superb writers and reporters on this topic today," and proceeds to recommend the work of extremists including columnist Charley Reese, who likens Israel to Nazi Germany, and author Norman Finkelstein, whose book attacking Holocaust survivors has been described by The New York Times as "a novel variation on the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
Weir’s article also recommends the journalism of Counterpunch editor Alexander Cockburn, who, as Haifa University Professor (and frequent Jewish Press contributor) Steven Plaut has reported, "openly gave credence to reports that Jews spread anthrax in the U.S. and that Israel was part of a conspiracy to topple the World Trade Center. Cockburn insists Jews conspire to control the media."
(Not surprisingly, shortly after a 2003 Iranian military parade displayed medium-range ballistic missiles bearing banners that said "Death to Israel" and "Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth," Cockburn’s publication ran an article entitled "The Case for a Nuclear Iran.")
The Weir article was a predictable continuation of deeply dishonest propaganda from the previous year, when Censored 2004 featured a story entitled "U.S. Aid to Israel Fuels Repressive Occupation in Palestine" which claimed Israel was limiting Palestinian freedom of movement and building a monstrous "Apartheid Wall" for no apparent reason other than inherent Israeli "brutality" and a desire "to imprison Palestinians."
The article repeatedly uses the word "nonviolent" to characterize Palestinian behavior, even though since September 2000 there have been more than 26,000 Palestinian terrorist attacks, killing over 1,000 people and horribly maiming many thousands more – atrocities endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinians in poll after poll. This deliberate omission of crucial facts that do not fit the desired storyline gives the term "Project Censored" a whole new meaning. The authors also urge readers to "Please contribute financially" to the International Solidarity Movement, an organization notorious for its support of Palestinian terror organizations.
And now the newly released Censored 2006, in which all but two stories are about the U.S., probes the child-welfare policies of guess-which-one of the 193 nations on this planet. Hint: it’s not Iran, where innocent teenagers are being executed simply for being homosexual. Not Sudan, where black civilians, including countless children, are being raped, maimed, slaughtered in genocidal numbers and taken into slavery by their Islamist oppressors.
Censored 2006 focuses solely on the conditions endured by Palestinian children being held in detention, including "no educational facilities;" the article fails to mention whether the word "children" really refers to teenagers or the likelihood that they are in detention for smuggling explosives or attempting to murder Jews after being indoctrinated to do so by Palestinian Authority school textbooks and television programs financed with U.S. tax dollars (now there’s an "undercovered story").
Censored 2006 provides an impressive list of "Project Censored 2004 and 2005 faculty, staff, and community evaluators" that includes 81 PhDs and numerous JDs and MDs. Considering that this illustrious team reviews thousands of stories for "credibility" before picking the top 25, how does such distorted, dishonest propaganda get included in the anthology year after year? And what were they thinking when they featured an "expert" who admits in her opening paragraph that she did not even begin paying attention to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis until 2000; who writes venomous articles that appear in pro-Nazi, white supremacist publications; and who sends out a press release applauding a massacre of Jews standing in line outside a nightclub?
Edward Olshaker is a longtime journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, History News Network, TomPaine.com, and other publications and websites.
On June 13, 2005, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for its failure to enact an anti-lynching law in years past, and on June 21, a Mississippi jury found a former Klansman guilty of manslaughter in the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964. These two redemptive milestones combined to form a welcome punctuation mark in history, symbolizing the burial of the last remnants of the shameful history of racist terrorist murder in the U.S.
Yet it almost seems a Newtonian law of human nature that when a form of evil is pounded into submission and left for dead, it simply pops up somewhere else, as if in a tragic game of "Whack-a-Mole." Today it is the radical Left that actively supports lynching, and innocent Israeli civilians are the victims.
The new lynch mob’s "capital," supplanting the Mississippi of old, appears to be northern California, a place that at one time had a reputation for tolerance. When the charred, twisted wreckage of Jerusalem Bus 19 was displayed throughout the U.S. in 2005, it was only in northern California that the exhibit ran into callous opposition from local government, followed by a counter-demonstration in support of murdering Jewish civilians on buses.
Among the cities on the tour, only Berkeley imposed a series of unreasonable delays and obstacles; when the Jerusalem Bus 19 anti-terror rally was finally allowed to proceed, thanks to the persistence of rally organizer Sanne DeWitt, the gathering was disrupted by violent pro-terror thugs who screamed, "Go back to Germany" Sanne DeWitt is a survivor of Dachau.
Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been prevented from speaking in Berkeley, where the police admit they cannot guarantee their safety. The same mentality was dramatically on display at San Francisco State University, where pro-Israel students and elderly Holocaust survivors trying to hold a rally were stopped by violent fascists screaming "[expletive] the Jews," "Jews, go back to Russia," "Too bad Hitler didn’t finish the job," and "Get out or we’ll kill you."
Today’s skinheads of the Left are not confined to the streets; they also enjoy an active media presence. One such journalistic propagandist is Alison Weir of Sausalito, a freelance reporter and executive director of the anti-Israel organization If Americans Knew. Shortly after the terrorist bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2005 that killed five Israelis and wounded more than 50, Weir sent out an e-mail press release expressing support for the massacre. (Even Palestinian leader/veteran terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, who alternately condemns and praises terrorism, condemned this particular attack, which occurred during a "truce.")
It was not the first time Weir gave a big thumbs-up to a mass slaughter of innocent Jews. As Lee Kaplan reported in an article for FrontPageMag.com., Weir "once called a massacre of 60 yeshiva students in Hebron in 1929 by Arabs an ‘Arab uprising’ against Jewish oppression – even before Israel existed."
Despite this disturbing record of hate-inspired falsehoods, the "progressive" Project Censored, founded in 1976 as a project of faculty and students of northern California’s Sonoma College, chose to feature an article by Weir – her distorted rewriting of Israel’s history, with the Jews cast as heartless villains throughout – in its anthology Censored 2005, as one of "the undercovered stories of 2004."
To be included in this popular anthology is a rare honor. Project Censored has been lavishly praised by prominent mainstream progressives including Molly Ivins and Walter Cronkite, and by major book reviewers – Library Journal has hailed the annual volume as "a terrific resource" and the Los Angeles Times has called it "required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens."
The producers of Project Censored say they "screen several thousand stories each year. About 700 of these are selected for evaluation by faculty and community evaluators. Our 89 faculty/community evaluators are experts in their individual fields and they rate the stories for credibility and national importance…" The 700 stories are narrowed down to 200, then 125, 60, and finally the top 25.
Even granting for the sake of argument that Israel is "undercovered," and that what happened there from the 1940’s onward was a major "story of 2004," the choice of someone like Weir to cover the story is stunning and revealing. This is a "journalist" who has declared, in dramatic contradiction of reality, that "Israel has a record of attacking its neighbors – mounting massive invasions of surrounding territory in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1982…" She has alleged that a secret "Zionist-Nazi" alliance conspired during World War II to settle Jews in Palestine.
Borrowing from a famous quotation about the Holocaust, Weir depicts the Israelis as Nazis who plan to round up and exterminate the Palestinians and then conquer and annihilate others: "It is time to stop saying, ‘They came for the Palestinians…and I did nothing. It is time to begin acting in a way that will allow us to say, ‘They came for the Palestinians…and I stopped them.’ " She claims that Israel controls what appears in the U.S. media. And she has "described Palestinian terrorism as a ‘legitimate right and…moral duty’ and even referred to the founding of Israel as the start of a ‘holocaust,’" according to a report by Gilead Ini for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.
In her Censored 2005 article Weir graciously notes, "I hope future editions of Project Censored will include work by some of the other superb writers and reporters on this topic today," and proceeds to recommend the work of extremists including columnist Charley Reese, who likens Israel to Nazi Germany, and author Norman Finkelstein, whose book attacking Holocaust survivors has been described by The New York Times as "a novel variation on the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
Weir’s article also recommends the journalism of Counterpunch editor Alexander Cockburn, who, as Haifa University Professor (and frequent Jewish Press contributor) Steven Plaut has reported, "openly gave credence to reports that Jews spread anthrax in the U.S. and that Israel was part of a conspiracy to topple the World Trade Center. Cockburn insists Jews conspire to control the media."
(Not surprisingly, shortly after a 2003 Iranian military parade displayed medium-range ballistic missiles bearing banners that said "Death to Israel" and "Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth," Cockburn’s publication ran an article entitled "The Case for a Nuclear Iran.")
The Weir article was a predictable continuation of deeply dishonest propaganda from the previous year, when Censored 2004 featured a story entitled "U.S. Aid to Israel Fuels Repressive Occupation in Palestine" which claimed Israel was limiting Palestinian freedom of movement and building a monstrous "Apartheid Wall" for no apparent reason other than inherent Israeli "brutality" and a desire "to imprison Palestinians."
The article repeatedly uses the word "nonviolent" to characterize Palestinian behavior, even though since September 2000 there have been more than 26,000 Palestinian terrorist attacks, killing over 1,000 people and horribly maiming many thousands more – atrocities endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinians in poll after poll. This deliberate omission of crucial facts that do not fit the desired storyline gives the term "Project Censored" a whole new meaning. The authors also urge readers to "Please contribute financially" to the International Solidarity Movement, an organization notorious for its support of Palestinian terror organizations.
And now the newly released Censored 2006, in which all but two stories are about the U.S., probes the child-welfare policies of guess-which-one of the 193 nations on this planet. Hint: it’s not Iran, where innocent teenagers are being executed simply for being homosexual. Not Sudan, where black civilians, including countless children, are being raped, maimed, slaughtered in genocidal numbers and taken into slavery by their Islamist oppressors.
Censored 2006 focuses solely on the conditions endured by Palestinian children being held in detention, including "no educational facilities;" the article fails to mention whether the word "children" really refers to teenagers or the likelihood that they are in detention for smuggling explosives or attempting to murder Jews after being indoctrinated to do so by Palestinian Authority school textbooks and television programs financed with U.S. tax dollars (now there’s an "undercovered story").
Censored 2006 provides an impressive list of "Project Censored 2004 and 2005 faculty, staff, and community evaluators" that includes 81 PhDs and numerous JDs and MDs. Considering that this illustrious team reviews thousands of stories for "credibility" before picking the top 25, how does such distorted, dishonest propaganda get included in the anthology year after year? And what were they thinking when they featured an "expert" who admits in her opening paragraph that she did not even begin paying attention to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis until 2000; who writes venomous articles that appear in pro-Nazi, white supremacist publications; and who sends out a press release applauding a massacre of Jews standing in line outside a nightclub?
Edward Olshaker is a longtime journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, History News Network, TomPaine.com, and other publications and websites.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$215.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network