A press release from the International Solidarity Movement stated that:

  “Rachel had been staying in Palestinian homes threatened with illegal demolition, and today Rachel was standing with other non-violent international activists in front of a home scheduled for illegal demolition. According to witnesses, Rachel was run over twice by the Israeli military bulldozer in its process of demolishing the Palestinian home. Witnesses say that Rachel was clearly visible to the bulldozer driver, and was doing nothing to provoke an attack.” (15 March 2003)”

“The confrontation between the ISM and the Israeli Army had been under way for two hours when Rachel was run over. Rachel and the other activists had clearly identified themselves as unarmed international peace activists throughout the confrontation.

The Israeli Army are attempting to dishonour her memory by claiming that Rachel was killed accidentally when she ran in front of the bulldozer. Eye-witnesses to the murder insist that this is totally untrue. Rachel was sitting in the path of the bulldozer as it advanced towards her. When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it wearing a fluorescent jacket to look directly at the driver who kept on advancing. The bulldozer continued to advance so that she was pulled under the pile of dirt and rubble.”

“The photos below clearly show that Rachel was well marked, had a megaphone which removes any doubt that the activists’ presence was somehow invisible to the driver, and she clearly posed no threat to the bulldozer driver.”

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel Corrie believed in her humanitarian cause & was clearly on the side of the oppressed, the victims of Israel’s brutal occupation.

Rachel most probably thought that by being an American, Israel’s IDF will not hurt her because it would create a big news story in the US & the international community.

How wrong was that courageous American peace activist who was crushed to death in broad daylight in front of her friends. The pictures tell the story! Israel’s IDF knew that killing Palestinians will NOT land them in prison for one hour…“NEVER” and getting rid of international peace activists who might expose Israel’s IDF crimes would be a plus for their PR. Israel’s army will lie & protect its IDF from any criminal charges. It has done that over and over!

Israel’s IDF killer mentality & objectives are…if a number of these international peace activists are shot at, killed or wounded, then it might scare the others from trying to continue with their cause of helping the oppressed Palestinian people.

“Israeli troops have shot and killed several other internationals in different incidents during the Intifada: German doctor Harald Fischer, Italian cameraman Rafaeli Ciriello, and British United Nations worker Iain Hook.”

Shingo, I’m not officially an Israeli—you have to be born there—though I hope to be able to live there some day and become one. Not sure it will ever happen; husband likes exploratory riding too much, country is too small, and he’d have to literally work all night to conduct his business from Israel’s time zone. He says he won’t even consider retiring until there’s a system in place to cover my expensive hi-tech RA drug, the only thing that works anymore, which will not be covered by Medicare and is also not on the list of existing singlepayer plans in this country.

I’m intrigued by the questions you asked about the driver, however, and will try to find some answers. It’s impossible to believe that he could have seen her and deliberately kept the blade down to kill her. The government is pretty clear about being careful about activists, hostile press, etc. because, apart from the morality involved, it would be a pr nightmare. In fact, I’m surprised that, having allowed ISM people on the site, there were no police or soldiers present who could, and should, have arrested protesters running around and in front of bulldozers. I realize official versions of anything controversial are sometimes whitewashed or “played” by both sides to a greater or lesser extent. It might take awhile but I’m pretty sure I can get some answers. Maybe from my friends at “Honest Reporting”—it has to work both ways.

Sepharad,

I have no doubt you would have done the compassionate and moral thing, but based on everything I’ve seen, it looks as though the driver did not.

If there were more Israelis like you, the world would b a very different place.

Shingo, those are good questions. I’d like the driver of the bulldozer to answer them. Reading the ISM account and looking at the photos Robert provided, it sounds pretty risky, delusionally heroically suicidal—climbing atop rubble being pushed in front of a moving bulldozer. If I had been driving it AND SAW someone climbing up a pile of dirt and debris in front of me, I’d have stopped, leaned out, and told them to get off and if they didn’t, I’d have called police or whoever was there to get the person off and out of the area. I’d like the IDF to answer these questions. If it happened as you say, then I’d have to conclude that Rachel behaved stupidly and the driver, criminally.

Sepharad,

“Do you really think an Israeli would deliberately drive over a young woman then reverse to go back over her again? If you honestly do, then there’s really no point in us trying to discuss anything pertaining to Israel.”

One has to ask if the subsequent actions of the driver were consistent with someone who had made a mistake, or who was guilty of a deliberate act.

Did the driver stop the tractor and get out to see if he could help the victim?

Did he driver express remorse and sorrow for what happened?

Or did the driver continue to demolish the hone without stopping?

By Sepharad, July 27 at 9:07 pm #

“Rachel Corrie’s film, you say, Israel wants no one to see? Strange: it’s one of the films playing in this week’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Also playing is a film biography of the two Israeli soldiers Hezbollah kidnapped and murdered. (The Corrie film doesn’t include the information that the house she was trying to protect from the bulldozer was being bulldozed because it opened into a tunnel used for smuggling weapons—not food. The armored bulldozer driver couldn’t see her kneeling in front of him—her colleagues were yelling at him, but they’d been yelling the whole time they were there. I think it was a tragic accident. Not a murder.)”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sepharad, your DISHONESTY is so palpable & transparent when it comes to a lot of the TRUTH that is posted regarding Israel & its killers, the IDF.

Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old student from Olympia, Washington, was murdered while attempting to prevent an Israeli army bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home near the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Despite being dressed in a bright colored orange vest, with reflective stripes, and carrying a bullhorn in broad daylight, Israel claimed the soldier driving a 52 ton D-9 bulldozer “could not see” his victim, as he mercilessly crushed her. And the Israeli IDF killer…just walked away scot-free.

Israel’s IDF continue to label Rachel Corrie’s crushing death as “An Accident”! The US State Dept. just turned a blind eye to the cold murder of a PEACEFUL, young, courageous American woman while her killer is free without any charges.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Click on link below to read the details & view the horrific pictures of a young, brave and peaceful American, Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by Israel’s IDF:

Photostory: Israeli bulldozer driver murders American peace activist

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

Shingo, wasn’t comparing West Bank to Gaza. Was comparing the West Bank’s economy—and growing ability to protect itself and lessened friction with IDF—than with conditions in the West Bank several months ago.

I was in SF but not at the SFJFF. People who were say the reason the chairman of the festival left the stage was that no one had told them that Rachel’s mother was going to come and make a political speech to the assembled. Obviously no one had any problem with showing the film, especially not one of the biggest sponsors, or it would not have been shown. (Do you really think an Israeli would deliberately drive over a young woman then reverse to go back over her again? If you honestly do, then there’s really no point in us trying to discuss anything pertaining to Israel.)

You are right Sepharad,

No one appreciates Howard’s biggotry and lies.

RE: The Rachel Corrie’s film, there is outrage among the usual suspects over this film being shown.  The festival’s biggest sponsor is pulling out in protest.

The reason the Corrie film doesn’t include the information that the house she was trying to protect from the bulldozer was being bulldozed because it opened into a tunnel, is because it wasn’t.  Israel had no right to be there in fact, because as part of the Oslo agreement, it had promised not to enter that territory.

The armored bulldozer driver knew exactly what he was doing, because he not only drove over her body, but then reversed over her a second time.  He didn’t even stop to see what had happened after killing her.

It was murder, and the worst part of it, is that Israel has continued to insult her name ever since they killed her. The Israeli government made no apology or expression of remorse. As Sharon said, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

All settlers in the West Bank are there illegally.  Teodor Meron told teh Israeli government that building any settlemtns in the occupied territories was a vilation of the 4th Geneva Convention.

The onyl reasn conditions are slightly better in the West Bank than Gaza is because Israel is not blockading the West Bank, or bombing it or burning farmland.

Howard, you’ve made many good points, though I doubt they’re appreciated.

Robert, I said a agreed with the Mermelstein story because I agree with it. Especially in line with the tolerance extended by Salam Fayyad re Jews in the state of Palestine.

Rachel Corrie’s film, you say, Israel wants no one to see? Strange: it’s one of the films playing in this week’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Also playing is a film biography of the two Israeli soldiers Hezbollah kidnapped and murdered. (The Corrie film doesn’t include the information that the house she was trying to protect from the bulldozer was being bulldozed because it opened into a tunnel used for smuggling weapons—not food. The armored bulldozer driver couldn’t see her kneeling in front of him—her colleagues were yelling at him, but they’d been yelling the whole time they were there. I think it was a tragic accident. Not a murder.)

Re settlements: at least one of the two largest settlements is on the West Bank/Jewish border. (Both are occupied by Haredim, religious but not Zionist.) The one on the border could expand into Israel instead of into the West Bank. The mayor of the other says they don’t care if they’re in the West Bank or Israel, and if the government will pay them they’ll leave. This is about 60% of the total settler population. The government is not letting illegal settlers stay; they keep tearing down the buildings they put up and were arresting resisters last week. (Today’s NYTimes had a long story on the settlements.)

Palestinian economy is slightly better in the West Bank and their own police and military are dealing with Hamas militants. It’s been a long time since the Fatah security and IDF forces have clashed. The progress is slow and painful for both sides; one would expect truthdiggers to stop carping at the progress on both sides and encourage it. It’s in the right direction for both Arabs and Jews. (The Liebermans still need slapping down, and Netanyahu mustn’t be allowed to talk anyone into going to war witgh Iran. Survival-oriented Jews in and out of Israel should do that they can.)

”...blame the 5 arab countries who went to war aagains Israel.

Let us not forget that at least 90% of the “Israelis” were recent, mostly illegal, immigrants who had already expelled 250,000 indigenous people from their homes and land.

That 5 Arab Nations “attacked” is yet another myth.

Between 200,000 and 400,00 Palestinians had been uprooted and were fleeing the massacres before the League moved. Many of those refugees were expelled from areas outside the area mandated to Israel such as Jaffa, many were farmers and villagers who had nothing to do with the fighting (Safad, February 15, 1948, Deir Yassin April 9-11, 1948, al-Husayniyya March 12 and 16-17, 1948, Tel Litvinsky pril 16, 1948, Tiberias April 19, 1948.

Remember that the Arab League, after advising the U.N. of it’s intention to bring order to and protect the lives and property of Palestinians, did not move until May 15. Their statement, made on that day, included the following:

#

First: That the rule of Palestine should revert to its inhabitants, in accordance with the provisions of the Covenant of the League of Nations and (the Charter) of the United Nations and that (the Palestinians) should alone have the right to determine their future.
#

Second: Security and order in Palestine have become disrupted. The Zionist aggression resulted in the exodus of more than a quarter of a million of its Arab inhabitants from their homes and in taking refuge in the neighbouring Arab countries. The events which have taken place in Palestine have unmasked the aggressive intentions and the imperialist designs of the Zionists, including the atrocities committed by them against the peace-loving Arab inhabitants, especially in Dayr Yasin, Tiberias and others. Nor have they respected the inviolability of consuls, as they have attacked the consulates of the Arab States in Jerusalem*. After the termination of the British mandate over Palestine the British authorities are no longer responsible for security in the country, except to the degree affecting their withdrawing forces, and (only) in the areas in which these forces happen to be at the time of withdrawal as announced by (these authorities). This state of affairs would render Palestine without any governmental machinery capable of restoring order and the rule of law to the country, and of protecting the lives and properties of the inhabitants.
#

Third: This state of affairs is threatening to spread to the neighbouring Arab countries, where feeling is running high because of the events in Palestine. The Governments of the Member States of the Arab League and the United Nations are exceedingly worried and deeply concerned about this state of affairs.
#

Fourth: These Governments had hoped that the United Nations would have succeeded in finding a peaceful and just solution of the problem of Palestine, in accordance with democratic principles and the provisions of the Covenant of the League of Nations and (the Charter) of the United Nations, so that peace, security and prosperity would prevail in this part of the world.

The statement is worth reading in its entirety.

*This alone constituted an act of War.

Davis Ben-Gurion, in 1936 said that:

“The acceptance of partition does not commit us to renounce Transjordan; one does not demand from anybody to give up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today. But the boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them.“

The Zionists were planning the conflict on 1948 sicne Hertzl. 

Ardent Zionists, Israel Zangwill, stated as early as 1905, that Palestine needed to be taken by force.

“Palestine proper has already its inhabitants. The pashalik of Jerusalem is already twice as thickly populated as the United States, having fifty-two souls to the square mile, and not 25% of them Jews ..... [We] must be prepared either to drive out by the sword the [Arab] tribes in possession as our forefathers did or to grapple with the problem of a large alien population, mostly Mohammedan and accustomed for centuries to despise us.” (Righteous Victims, p. 140 & Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 7-10)

The only responsibility the5 arab countries who went to war agains Israel had in this is that they gave Israel an excuse to carry out their evil plans.

There were good people and bad people on both sides.  But ...blame the 5 arab countries who went to war aagains Israel. They, those 5 countries were looking to destroy Israel and grab the land, not for the Pals but for themseves.

Be mad at them.
For then and even now.

Rubbish,  bad things happened on both sides, certainly not a one-way street. UN decided to make 2 state areas in ‘48 of the land to solve this ongoing and long problem. There were good people and bad people on both sides.  But ...blame the 5 arab countries who went to war aagains Israel. They, those 5 countries were looking to destroy Israel and grab the land, not for the Pals but for themseves.

Be mad at them.

For then and even now.

I don’t know why I bother dredging up the Historical record regarding this particular calumny visited on the Palestinian people. In the final analysis, it matters not why they left. International Law is unequivocal on the matter.
Persons displaced during wartime must be returned to their homes at the soonest possible moment after the cessation of hostilities.

The Historical record is only relevant as an indicator of the duplicity of the Ben Gurion period. Most of the propaganda succeeding the 1948 War was designed to influence World opinion. It was at once wildly successful - leveraging off the widespread sympathy for Jews following WWII - and totally false. Documents released since 1998 reveal a concerted campaign to dispossess an indigenous people of their land by a colonial enterprise - under the cover off a War provoked by the invaders. Check the dates of the massacres and the majority of the expulsions.

They precede the action taken by the Arab League.

It does not take much imagination to understand the Palestinian position.

What would you do if an immigrant force gained enough power to enter your home and instruct you to leave, taking only those possessions you can carry? For a moment put yourself in this position. You have heard that the Zionists have massacred entire villages. Now, an overwhelming force is at your door telling you that the home that you and your forbears have lived in since the beginning of time is no longer yours.

The terrible inevitability invades every sense you have.

Leave or die.

Every familiar thing is now denied you. The World is an alien place.

Palestinians have tried every possible method, including terrorism, in efforts to make the World recognise this reality. Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe, Tom Segev - Iraeli Historians all, record the accommodations offered by the Arab League. All were stymied by the Israeli thirst for territory and the unseemly haste to fill up the conquered land with settlers.

If you have difficulty with Palestinian methods consider again what you would do, 60 years after being expelled from your home with no recompense and none in sight.

Would you fire a rocket?

predictable lies from one of our resident Israeli propagandists, Howard.

“Enough people are alive who heard those radio broadcasts and enough people are alive who were there who begged arab civilians Not to Leave.”

Rubbish.  No one heard the heard those radio broadcasts because they are false.  Benny Morris debunked these lies long ago.

Zionists were talking about removing the Palestinians since Hertzl, commenting that a Jewish State was impossible without the removal of the Palestinians. Begin, who led one of the terrorist groups that carried out the enthnic cleansing boasted that the Jewish state owed it’s existence to this policy.

The war of 1948 was already under way in smaller pockets and was inevitable, especially with massacres of teh type seen at Deir Yassin.

As for the UN partition, Ben Gurion said that Israel woudl accept this plan initially, but would not be bound or limited by it.

”
According to Hitchens this confirmation; “by an Israeli historian using the most scrupulous and authentic Zionist sources, at last allows us to write finis to a debate which has been going on for a quarter of a century….

  “Even though nobody has ever testified to having heard them, and even though no record of their transmission has ever been found, we shall hear of these orders and broadcasts again and again.”“

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaming_the_Victims#Broadcasts_Christopher_Hitchens

Enough people are alive who heard those radio broadcasts and enough people are alive who were there who begged arab civilians Not to Leave.  And no war would not have happened if the the 5 neighboring Arab countries had not attacked Israel at the outset; would not have happened if they had helped their brethren instead accept the UN dividing of land into 2 countries and stayed away. Nothing has changed in 60 years as those same coutries do NOT yet help their Pal brethen and do NOT want them to have their own land.  For obvious reasons.

Ilan Pappe debate vs zionist propaganda

“A group of Historians who have debunked the the false Zionist narrative.They have exposed the Lies, including the great lie of 1948. The Zionists would have us believe that the indigenous inhabitants of the land (Palestinians), left after Arab Radio broadcasts advised them to leave and return after the Arabs had swept the Jews into the sea. To date there is no evidence to support this claim.
The Truth which is now beyond dispute due to declassified Israeli papers has been documented in numerous books written by these Historians.
Ilan Pappe’s book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” is one such book.
Avi Shlaim also calls 1948 an “Ethnic Cleansing in his book “The Iron Wall”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUejZmEaUc

And here is the pre-eminent Israeli Historian Avi Shlaim (MA Camb., MSC London, PHD Read.) on Morris’s ambiguity: “His post-conversion interpretation of history is old history with a vengeance. It is indistinguishable from the propaganda of the victors. He used to have the courage of his convictions. He now has the courage of his prejudices.”

How are you coming along with those references to Jews expelled from Arab Lands? I have found something quite interesting. It seems that prominent Israelis are not keen on being called refugees:

“Writing in 1966, Jakob J. Petuchowski commented in Zion Reconsidered : “Obviously, the very existence of the State of Israel had placed Jewish survival in the Arab world in jeopardy. This is the real price paid for the establishment of the Jewish State,” and concluded that “not only is the dissolution of Jewish settlements in the Diaspora something which needs not be regretted, it is actually part of Zionism’s ‘fulfillment.’… It was the pressure of the Jews themselves…that finally forced the hand of the [Iraqi] authorities.” (Jerusalem Post, July 21, 1964)...
...... in an article entitled “Hitching a Ride on the Magic Carpet”,
referring to “Operation Magic Carpet” that brought more than 40,000 Yemeni Jews to Israel in 1949, Yehouda Shenhav argues: “Any analogy between Palestinian refugees and Jewish immigrants from Arab lands is folly in historical and political terms”. To support his argument, he cites Knesset speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu who declared in 1975: “We are not refugees.
[Some of us] came to this country before the state was born. We had messianic aspirations”.

Shenhav also mentions that “Ran Cohen (MK) stated emphatically at a Knesset hearing “I have this to say: I am not a refugee….. I came at the behest of Zionism, due to the pull that this land exerts, and due to the idea of redemption. Nobody is going to define me as a refugee.” (Ha’aretz, August 15, 2003)

As I read more about the period, the necessity for massive immigration of Jews becomes quite clear. Having driven out the Palestinians, it became necessary to settle the land - fast. These “facts on the ground” were the outstanding pre-occupation of Ben Gurion and his followers:

“David Ben-Gourion stressed the need “for mass immigration in swift tempo,” stating “We have conquered territories, but without settlements they have no decisive value. Settlement… is the real conquest.”

Wikipedia reports:
“Like most Arab League states, Iraq initially forbade the emigration of its Jews after the 1948 war on the grounds that allowing them to go to Israel would strengthen that state.”

....but it seems Zionists had other plans:

“This, too, was the conclusion of Wilbur Crane Eveland, a former senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), whom I had the opportunity to meet in New York in 1988. In his book, Ropes of Sand, whose publication the CIA opposed, Eveland writes:
In attempts to portray the Iraqis as anti-American and to terrorize the Jews, the Zionists planted bombs in the U.S. Information Service library and in synagogues. Soon leaflets began to appear urging Jews to flee to Israel. . . . Although the Iraqi police later provided our embassy with evidence to show that the synagogue and library bombings, as well as the anti-Jewish and anti-American leaflet campaigns, had been the work of an underground Zionist organization, most of the world believed reports that Arab terrorism had motivated the flight of the Iraqi Jews whom the Zionists had “rescued” really just in order to increase Israel’s Jewish population.”

Benny Morris states in his latest book that ” the Palestinian refugee problem was born of war, not by design,Jewish or Arab”

Thanks for the link Howard. Unfortunately I cannot use it. Apart from the fact that it is an unreferenced polemic by one Gerardo Joffe, it carries this rider:

“This ad has been published and paid for by
Facts and Logic About the Middle East”

The Village Voice has taken Joffe to task:

” In 1990, Times columnist Anthony Lewis denounced a FLAME ad as a “sorry evasion of reality,”
http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-02-27/news/political-ads-shot-down/1

I did a quick search and found this letter to President Bush:

“Dear Mr. President:

Gerardo Joffe
San Francisco, CA “

What we need is documentary evidence of Arab Government officials expelling Jews from Arab lands. Zionist Historian Benny Morris provides an example:

(My book)...“is based on many documents that were not available to me when I wrote the original book, most of them from the Israel Defense Forces Archives. What the new material shows is that there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought. To my surprise, there were also many cases of rape.
In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah ... were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves….. Usually more than one soldier was involved. Usually there were one or two Palestinian girls. In a large proportion of the cases the event ended with murder. Because neither the victims nor the rapists liked to report these events, we have to assume that the dozen cases of rape that were reported, which I found, are not the whole story. They are just the tip of the iceberg.

According to your findings, how many acts of Israeli massacre were perpetrated in 1948?

The worst cases were Saliha (70-80 killed), Deir Yassin (100-110), Lod (250), Dawayima (hundreds) and perhaps Abu Shusha (70). There is no unequivocal proof of a large-scale massacre at Tantura, but war crimes were perpetrated there. At Jaffa there was a massacre about which nothing had been known until now. The same at Arab al Muwassi, in the north. About half of the acts of massacre were part of Operation Hiram [in the north, in October 1948]: at Safsaf, Saliha, Jish, Eilaboun, Arab al Muwasi, Deir al Asad, Majdal Krum, Sasa. In Operation Hiram there was a unusually high concentration of executions of people against a wall or next to a well in an orderly fashion.”
http://www.logosjournal.com/morris.htm

That’s the sort of stuff - recognised Historian, verifiable facts.

Nonsense indeed.  Zionism is none of that. 

Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like any other nation, are entitled to a homeland

History has shown the need to ensure Jewish security through a national homeland.  Zionism recognize that Jewsihness is is defined by shared origin, religion, culture and history.  The realization of the Zionist dream is exemplified by more than five million Jews, from more than 100 countries, who are israeli citizens.

Zionsim does NOT discriminate against anyone.  Israel’s open and democratic character, and its scrupulous protection of the religious and political rights of Christians and Muslims, rubuts the charge of exclusivity.  Moreover, anyone, Jew or non-Jew, Israeli, American, or Saudi, black, white, yellow or purple—can be a Zionist.

rosa Luxembourg stated that the major enemy is at home.  As an American Jew, I am especially sensitive to the racism and fascism of American zionists.  any opposition to them they call anti-semitism, obscuring the anti-semitism that has existed historically primirily in the Western Christian tradition, not the Muslim tradition.

The point is that Zionism is getting WORSE historically, now targeting Israeli Arabs, extending its war, violence, oppression and barbarism to Israeli citiens. And it has used American Zionism to gain US support for it.  They therefore magnify the horrors they are inflicting on Arabs and Muslims, but providing the Dem Progressives an ideology that drags them to the right.  Just as Christian fundamentalist Zionism drags the Gops to the right.

Zionists are enemies of the American people.  What is seldom realized, they are ENEMIES OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE.  They have hijacked the Israeli power system the way the neolibcons hijacked the US power system.  They are leading Israel to its own destruction and the Jewish people to a blot on their history comparable to the German Holocaust.

They are now targeting Israeli Arabs.  The next step is to target Israeli Jews who are anti-Zionist.  This they are now doing sporadically, but it will likely be done systemically.  Already Jews are leaving Israel and this will become a flood when the oppression of anti-zionist Jews becomes systemic.  Leaving Israel with a fascist ideology and nuclear weaapons.

Here is a soure of how the Jews have been treated in arab/islamic countries.

http://www.factsandlogic.org/ad_106a.html

“they have been drummed and thrown out from those lands in last few decades “

I am currently researching the expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands Howard. I would be grateful if you could post some links to hard data documenting this.

Cheers.

Let us see now;  arabs are in the Israeli Knesset, they are in the hospitals both as physicians and nurses; they are teachers in the schools.

No jews in arab lands in any signficant numbers as they have been drummed and thrown out from those lands in last few decades after having lived there for centuries.

quite a contrast, eh??

THE FILM ISRAEL DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE ~~ RACHEL

July 25, 2009 at 7:38 am

“Never Forget - Rachel Corrie (Ben Heine)
Israel and its watchdogs have been on special alert regarding criticisms coming from Jews and Jewish organisations. It’s almost as if they want the world at large to believe that all Jews stand behind them and support their policies of genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Anyone who is a regular reader of this Blog knows that nothing is further from the truth.

The latest uproar is about a film called Rachel…. a film by Simone Bitton about the death of Rachel Corrie. Ms. Bitton is not only Jewish, she is also an Israeli! That’s way too much for the zionists to swallow… so the campaign to boycott the film has started….

Better to BOYCOTT ISRAEL!

Below you will find some interesting information about the film and the efforts to keep it from the public eye….

The following is from an entry on Daily Kos…

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the largest Jewish Film festival in the world, will screen many films this year, many with discussion with filmmakers and others featured in the film. Some of these films will be controversial, there will be all sorts of issues explored.

None has generated more controversy than the film “Rachel”, a film by Jewish-Israeli filmmaker Simone Bitton about the death of Rachel Corrie, the young woman killed by an Israeli-military bulldozer as she was protecting homes in the Rafah, Gaza. At the request of the filmmaker, they have invited Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother to speak. Big time controversy and condemnation by a weekly Jewish magazine and even from the local Israel Consul General.

Cindy Corrie has publicly advocated for ensuring “justice, freedom, security and economic viability for both Israelis and Palestinians.””

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/the-film-israel-does-not-want-you-to-see-rachel/

Sepharad says:

“For once, I agree with the sentiments expressed in Robert’s xeroxes.”

Sepharad, you have written on TD & let us know about your numerous travel to Israel and your connections over there. I believe that you also stated that some of your relatives live in Israel. I am a bit puzzled that you seem to say or pretend that you have no knowledge regarding Israel’s racist treatment against its Arab citizens (Moslem & Christian). Have you seen all the massive Israeli settlements that are strictly for “Jews Only”? No Arab Moslem or Christian can live in those US taxpayer paid for settlements. Surely you have seen the way the Israelis treat Arabs in Tel-Aviv airport and other places?

Its pure racism…sepharad!

Sepharad - Ismail Haniyeh is the democratically elected Prime Minister who has repeatedly called for a two state solution. Fayyad is an IMF croney who was illegally appointed to his position and does not represent the Palestinian people.

For once, I agree with the sentiments expressed in Robert’s xeroxes. I hope Israelis who know how immoral this is will make their protests heard—and remind Netanyahu-Lieberman of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s words I refer to in my earlier post on this thread: that Jews will be welcome in the second state of Palestine and accorded the same rights that Israeli Arabs have.

The True Height of Insecurity

“The War is With the Arabs”

By HANNAH MERMELSTEIN

“I saw this sign as I was entering Nablus last week, again on my way to Ramallah, and again near Bethlehem.  The phrase is printed in Hebrew, presumably by Israeli settlers, on huge signs throughout the West Bank.  Israeli racism rarely shocks me anymore, but its blatant display still makes me stop and catch my breath as I translate it into other contexts.  Imagine driving through the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood in a US city or town and seeing a enormous sign that says, “The war is with the Blacks.”

I think about security.  Israel’s abuse of the word has rendered the concept almost meaningless in the region, but the importance of security on individual and communal levels cannot be underestimated. However, most discussions I see in the media about security ignore the Palestinian people’s right to security.  “The war is with the Arabs” is a new sign, as far as I know, but for years in the West Bank I have seen stars of David scrawled on Palestinian shops and homes, and signs like “Death to Arabs” and “Kahane was right” (Kahane was an extremist political leader who promoted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people; this sign is essentially equivalent to “Hitler was right” in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood).

But signs are not only created; they are also destroyed.  Since 1948, Palestinian people inside Israel have experienced erasure and denial of their identities that is perhaps stronger than that of any other group of Palestinian people.  I visited a friend in Lyd last week who lives on Giborai Yisrael (“Heroes of Israel”) Street.  Driving around the Palestinian neighborhoods in Lyd, we passed roads bearing the names of Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist leaders.  None of the old Arabic street names remain.  Even large cities with considerable Palestinian populations are now seeing Arabic names officially erased from signs.  In Arabic script, “Yaffa” will become “Yafo,” “Nasra” will become “Natzeret,” and “Al Quds” will become “Yerushalayim.”

Lack of security goes beyond denial of identity and history as visually expressed through signs.  A Palestinian friend with Israeli citizenship told me he has heard a rumor that a huge piece of land in Jordan is being cleared and built up for the eventual arrival of the Palestinian population of Israel after they are transferred from their homes.  “It may be conspiracy theory,” he said, “but I don’t know.”

“I’d like to think that Israel couldn’t get away with that,” I responded.

“Of course they can,” another friend from Lyd said, “and if the conditions are right, they will.”

Imagine living day to day thinking you might be expelled from your country in the near future.  Or in Gaza, wondering if you will be killed tomorrow, or if you will ever be able to come in and out of your country at will.  Or in the West Bank, if your son will be arrested, or if you will be able to get through the checkpoint in the morning to get to work.  Or in Jerusalem, if your residency will be stripped or your house destroyed.

Imagine little correlation between choice and consequence, an arbitrary relationship between cause and effect.  If you are just as likely to get shot and killed sipping tea in your doorway, or sitting in your fourth grade classroom, or participating in a demonstration, or joining the armed resistance, is it any surprise that some choose each?

A friend of mine from the West Bank once told me that she never feels safe, so safety is not a consideration for her in making decisions. As much as I may try, I cannot truly imagine this lack of control.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/mermelstein07242009.html

July 23, 2009

Ghettos, Demolitions and Housing Shortages

The Reality of Israel’s “Open” Jerusalem

By JONATHAN COOK

Jerusalem

“No one would have been more surprised than Fawziya Khurd by the recent pronouncement of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, that Israel operates an “open city” policy in Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem following the 1967 war—what he called the city’s “unification”—meant that all residents, Jews and Palestinians alike, could buy property wherever they chose.

“Our policy is that Jerusalem residents can purchase apartments anywhere in the city,” he said. “There is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the west of the city, and there is no ban on Jews building or buying in the city’s east.”

Mr Netanyahu was trying to justify recent construction in East Jerusalem by settler organizations in defiance of demands from the US that Israel halt all such work. In particular, US officials are objecting to the recent takeover of property by settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, where Mrs Khurd used to live, as well as the Old City, Silwan and Ras al-Amud.

According to experts, however, the reality is that in both a practical and legal sense Mr Netanyahu’s “open city” is a fiction, extended only to the settlers and not to Mrs Khurd or to the 250,000 other Palestinians of East Jerusalem.

Mrs Khurd, for example, has been forced to live in a tent after settlers ousted her from her East Jerusalem home of five decades in November. She also has no hope of moving back to the house taken from her family in Talbiyeh, now in West Jerusalem, during the 1948 war that established Israel.

In addition, movement restrictions mean that almost all of the nearly four million Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza are banned from entering the city or visiting its holy sites.

Inside Jerusalem, as in the West Bank, Israel enforces a strict programme of segregation to disadvantage the Palestinians, says Jeff Halper, of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

Israeli Jews have the freedom to live in both parts of the city, with 270,000 in West Jerusalem and a further 200,000 living in East Jerusalem in rapidly expanding settlements heavily subsidized by the state.

Palestinians, meanwhile, are denied the right to live both in West Jerusalem and in many residential areas of East Jerusalem. Even in their tightly controlled neighborhoods in the city’s east, at least 20,000 of their homes are subject to demolition orders, according to Mr Halper.

Daniel Seidemann, a Jerualem lawyer, says that in his 20 years of handling residency rights cases for Palestinians he has never heard of a Palestinian with a Jerusalem ID living in West Jerusalem.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook07232009.html

Of course Arab-Israelis are second class citizens. They just passed the “Nakba bill” which severely restricts the manner in which Arabs can commemorate the original ethnic cleansing Israel is based on. And of course they will be removing the word from children’s textbooks. It’s not just the supposed “right wing” of Israel, it has been Israel policy to drive every last Arab from the region from the very beginning.

Of course Livni, Peace Now, Labor, etc are not who you think they are. They promote two-state peace while in practice, they are continuing expansion and apartheid policies, And Fayyad DOES NOT LEGALLY REPRESENT the Palestinians, HAMAS DOES, and they have repeatedly called for a two state solution, Israel just won’t listen because that would require admitting their illegal settlements and the horribly inhumane blockade.

Considering Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad’s speech to the Aspen Institute earlier this month, the Netanyahu/Lieberman crowd might want to reconsider their undemocratic goals and activities. Fayyad said that in the second state, Palestine, Jews would always be welcome and would enjoy the same rights that Israeli Arabs have. This is a wonderful thing, extends a hand to Israel, is welcomed by the majority of Israelis, and should inspire (well, more like pressure) Netanyahu to freeze settlement activity and immediately reconsider his position on movement toward a second state. Now. (If Livni, Peres, Peace Now, Labor and Meretz can’t make something happen given Fayyad’s astonishing statements, they are not the people I think they are.)