‘End Israeli Apartheid’ – Naledi Pandor Urges Progressive Forces to Push for Palestinians’ Rights 

May 10, 2024

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor. (Photo: Nurah Tape, Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“Progressive forces need to push for the inalienable right of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, which has been systematically denied since the British mandate.”

South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, has said “it has never been so urgent for progressive forces around the world to come together in a collective effort to exert maximum pressure to end the genocidal campaign underway in Gaza and to end the apartheid system of Israel in the occupied territories.”

Minister Pandor delivered the keynote address at Friday’s opening of the Global Anti-Apartheid Conference for Palestine in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Progressive forces need to push for the inalienable right of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, which has been systematically denied since the British mandate,” she said.

“They must also push for the right of refugees in the diaspora to return to their homeland,” stressed Pandor.

‘Watershed Moment’

She described the conference as “a watershed moment” as it is “the beginning of the global anti-apartheid movement on Palestine with all of us from around the globe coming together and joining forces in the struggle for justice for the Palestinian people.”

The three-day conference aims to set the basis for the mobilisation of a Global Anti-Apartheid Movement “to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people, and to work to dismantle Israeli apartheid,” according to the conference organizers.

Pandor said the “ongoing genocidal atrocities” being committed by Israel “have put renewed focus on the urgent need for wider international community demand for decolonization.”

Call to ICC

She also called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to expedite its investigation into the situation in occupied Palestine, saying the Court “must prioritize the case against Israel.”

“There can never be peace if the Palestinian people are not free …We should be ashamed that 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza,” the minister said.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,904 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,514 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Pandor said she was sure that when Israel planned its response to the October resistance operation, “it did not realize that its impunity and cruelty towards Palestinians will finally be naked to the world.”

She stressed that South Africa’s “association with the people of Palestine did not begin on the 8th of October 2023.”

The minister emphasized: “We continue to do so following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and will not rest until the freedom of the peoples of Palestine is realized.”

Symbolic Gesture of Kuffiyeh

In a symbolic gesture, Reverend Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem placed a kuffiyeh around the shoulders of Minister Pandor.

“There is symbolism in what I’m going to do, to take the keffiyeh from the shoulder of a Palestinian and place it on the shoulder of a South African leader, and acknowledge that today you carry our cross as Palestinians with us upon their shoulders,” explained the reverend.

Various other speakers addressed the conference on the first day including Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian Legislative Council; Reverend Frank Chikane, moderator of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs for the World Council of Churches; Declan Kearney, chairperson of Sinn Fein; and Ronnie Kasrils, former South African Minister of Intelligence.

The conference is being attended by delegations from across the globe, representing civil societies, religious institutions and Palestinian solidarity movements. Various workshops aimed at developing strategies for action are lined up for Day 2.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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Hamas on Land Day: Liberation can only be achieved via Resistance

March 29, 2024

Source: Hamas Media Offic

Palestinian demonstrators wave Palestine’s flags during a rally marking Land Day in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestine, March 30, 2012. (AP)

By Al Mayadeen English

Multiple Palestinian Resistance factions put out statements on Land Day, commemorating this year’s event, which coincides with Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

The Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas affirmed that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is an extension of the Palestinian people’s struggle to achieve their legitimate rights, liberation of their land, and return to their homeland.

Hamas made these remarks in a statement released on the Palestinian Land Day, which is commemorated on March 30. The movement released a five-point paper, detailing its outlook for the future of the Palestinian cause on this day.

First, Hamas stressed that Palestine’s historic land, with its capital al-Quds and the holy al-Aqsa Mosque, is the core cause of the struggle with the “Zionist enemy”, adding that the only way to liberate Palestine is through consolidating acts of “comprehensive resistance” and strengthening national unity. 

Second, Hamas promised to remain loyal to the Palestinian martyrs, adding that it “will not give up an inch of” Palestinian land and holy sites, “no matter the sacrifices.”

Third, the movement lauded the Resistance and its fighters, the Palestinian people in the West Bank, worshippers in al-Quds and al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinians in occupied ’48 territories, and Palestinians who have been expelled to refugee camps and countries around the world, calling on them to expand their actions in support of Gaza.

Fourth, the Resistance movement said that the struggle to promote and achieve the rights of Palestinians is not solely a Palestinian issue, underlining the Arab, Islamic, and global nature of the fight calling on all the free people of the world to uphold their respective responsibilities as soon as possible.

Fifth, Hamas called on all people of the world, specifically Arabs and Muslims, to escalate their actions in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, expose the crimes of the Israeli occupation, and stop the genocidal war by any means possible. 

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Palestinian Land Day has been commemorated by Palestinians on March 30 of each year since 1976 when Israeli forces seized thousands of dunams of privately owned or communal lands in al-Jalil, in occupied 48′ Palestinian territories. The event led to a general strike and popular marches from al-Jalil al-Naqqab, in addition to confrontations resulting in the martyrdom of six Palestinians, while hundreds were injured or detained.

Read more: Hamas, PIJ delegations meet in Tehran, praise unity of battlefields

PFLP: Protests in normalizing Arab countries are a beacon of hope

Echoing the Hamas’ call for mobilization and affirming the Palestinian people’s right to resist the Israeli occupation, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) put out a statement hailing the importance of Land Day as a unifying event for the Palestinian people. 

The PFLP called on the Palestinian people in occupied 48′ territories, who led the events that established Land Day, to confront the racist policies of the Israeli government.

“What was taken by force can only be retrieved by force and not by [political settlements] that led to a real disaster for our people,” the PFLP reiterated on Land Day.

The PFLP also lambasted the United States’ role in supporting the genocidal war on the Palestinian people, as well as the Biden administration’s mobilization to meddle in inter-Palestinian affairs. The Front stressed that only the Palestinian people have the right to decide the future of their governing system. 

To conclude, the PFLP pointed to mass protests in several Arab countries, specifically ones that have normalized relations with “Israel”, saying that these developments are a “beacon of hope” for the Front and the Arab nation. 

On its part, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) reiterated the necessity of unity in the Palestinian political scene, calling on political actors to uphold the outcomes of high-level meetings in Moscow and work toward holding further national talks and meetings. 

Read more: PFLP warns of suspicious US plan for Gaza pier

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What Did the Saudi Crown Prince Say, and Didn’t Say about Palestine, Israel, Iran, and Normalization – ANALYSIS 

September 21, 2023

Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia speaking to Bret Baier of Fox News. (Photo: Social Media)

By Palestine Chronicle Editors

In an interview with the conservative US media channel, Fox News on Wednesday, September 20, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke about Palestine, Iran, and normalization with Israel, among other issues. 

Every major media, including pan-Arab media channels seemed to interpret what Bin Salman said differently, depending on their own political agendas. 

US media focused mostly on the prospect of normalization with Israel, mostly relegating his references to Palestine and the rights of the Palestinians. 

Pro-Saudi Middle Eastern media seemed to emphasize the latter and largely omit the former. 

Arab channels that are not loyal to the Kingdom reiterated the US media line, thus focusing on normalization and little else. 

But What Did Bin Salman Actually Say? 

In general, the interview offered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political lifeline. 

But it remains unclear whether Netanyahu is willing to concede anything to the Palestinians, per Saudi expectations. 

Yet without concessions, normalization might not be possible, especially since Bin Salman emphasized in the interview three major points regarding Palestine:  

One, he said: “For us, the Palestinian issue is very important”, and “we need to solve that part”. 

Two, “we got to see where we go.. we hope that will reach a place, that it will ease the life of the Palestinians, (and) get Israel as a player in the Middle East.”

Finally, and perhaps the clearest of all of his statements, he said: 

“If we have a breakthrough, reaching a deal that gives the Palestinians their needs and (making) the region calm, we’ve got to work with whoever’s there.”

The latter emphasis was an answer to the question on whether the Saudis are willing to work with the likes of a rightwing leader like Netanyahu and his government. 

For Bin Salman, the issue of normalization does not seem to be tied to an individual but is a strategic question for his country. 

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75 Years on 1948 Cleansing… UN, US Forced to Recognize Palestine’s Nakba?

 May 15, 2023

Activists of Palestine Action, UK-based pro-Palestine protest network, taking over a Newcastle factory owned by Israeli-owned weapons company Rafael on The Nakba Day (May 15, 2023).

Batoul Wehbi

On May 15, 2023, the United Nations General Assembly will convene a significant high-level meeting to solemnly observe the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, a term denoting the mass displacement of approximately 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.

This historic occasion marks the first time the international community has officially acknowledged the date, serving as a poignant reminder of the profound historical injustice endured by the Palestinian people.

Nonetheless, the UN’s decision to commemorate this day has faced opposition from certain nations. The United States and the United Kingdom were among those that voted against the commemoration. Furthermore, the Israeli foreign ministry has called upon UN member states to refrain from participating in an event that it perceives as adopting a narrative that undermines Israel’s right to exist.

All the way to the US, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has made a noteworthy effort by introducing a resolution in the US House of Representatives to recognize the Palestinian Nakba. This term encapsulates the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

The proposed measure, presented by Tlaib, a Palestinian American representing Michigan, comes at a time when progressive voices in the United States are gaining momentum in advocating for Palestinian rights and seeking to impose restrictions on U.S. aid to Israel.

The resolution describes the Nakba as the “uprooting, dispossession, and exile of the Palestinian people from their homeland.” It asserts that addressing the Nakba and remedying the injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people are indispensable components of establishing a just and enduring peace. The proposal emphasizes that the Nakba represents the fundamental cause underlying the complexities and divisions between Israelis and Palestinians.

As Tlaib prepared to introduce the resolution in the House of Representatives, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy attempted to cancel an event organized by the congresswoman on Capitol Hill to commemorate the Nakba. Nevertheless, the commemoration proceeded on Wednesday, albeit with a change of venue from the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center to a nearby Senate office building, still within the Capitol campus.

Amidst this alteration, a multitude of supporters of Palestinian rights crowded into a Senate committee hearing room, many adorned with keffiyehs and traditional Palestinian thobes.

In front of the enthusiastic audience, Tlaib expressed her resolute stance: “I declare loudly and unequivocally, through the introduction of a historic resolution in Congress: The Nakba occurred in 1948, and its ramifications persist to this day.”

The Nakba stands as a poignant reminder of a profound historical injustice, and its recognition within international forums contributes to a broader understanding of the plight endured by the Palestinian people. By amplifying their voices and advocating for justice, these efforts aim to foster a more equitable future in the pursuit of lasting peace in the region.

Countries across the World Commemorate Nakba

To commemorate Nakba, a remarkable demonstration was held in London, as protesters marched towards the British cabinet headquarters, chanting in support of Palestine and denouncing the Israeli occupation. The demonstration, titled “Nakba 75 – End Apartheid, End the Occupation,” commenced in the heart of London outside the BBC headquarters before proceeding to Downing Street, the location of the British prime minister’s office.

Zaher Birawi, the head of the UK-based EuroPal Forum, emphasized that the commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba serves as a reaffirmation of the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people for their sacred right of return. Birawi called upon the British government to acknowledge its historical responsibility for the sufferings endured by Palestinians from the time of the Balfour Declaration until the present day. He urged the government to promptly cease its support for the occupying entity, discontinue all forms of assistance in international forums, bring an end to the Israeli occupation, and establish an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.

In a remarkable display of solidarity, many French citizens also stood with Gaza on the 75th anniversary of the Nakba.

Throughout various regions in Lebanon, movements in solidarity with Gaza emerged in response to the Israeli aggression. These gatherings also served as a commemoration of the Nakba anniversary, with hundreds of Palestinians from refugee camps participating alongside representatives of national and Islamic forces, popular committees, and active organizations in the Lebanese and Palestinian arenas.

Source: Al-Manar English Website
Palestinians on the anniversary of the Nakba: Returning to Lydda, Jaffa and Haifa
Nakba Day 1948: Why did Britain give Palestine to the Jews?

UN Recognition of the Nakba is a Step in the Right Direction

24 Apr 2023

Source: Al Mayadeen English

The decision by the United Nations also comes at an opportune time. In an age of disinformation, hybrid warfare, falsification, fake news, and attempts to equate Palestinian resistance with terrorism from “Israel”.

UN Recognition of the Nakba is a Step in the Right Direction

Hamzah Rifaat 

The year 2023 marks 75 years of the Nakba or genocide that was orchestrated, initiated, and perpetrated by Zionist fascist militias from 1948 and onwards. The toll of this catastrophe amounted to approximately 800,000 Palestinians being driven out of their homes and the first war between Arab states and the Zionist regime in 1948 also resulted in forced evictions of an indigenous population by an occupying force. The harrowing memories of Palestinians continue to live on as they bear witness to decades of state-sponsored Apartheid, oppression, persistent attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and expansion of settlements. In light of this, the commemoration of the Palestinian catastrophe remains a humanitarian imperative that needs greater promotion at the international level. 

Hence, the decision by the United Nations to commemorate Nakba Day for the very first time on its platform in May 2023 is laudable, appreciable, and a step in the right direction. In a statement issued by the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), the ‘commemoration of the Nakba will bring life to the Palestinian journey and will aim to create an immersive experience of the catastrophe through live music, photos, videos, and personal testimonies.’ This acknowledgment and promotion of the foundational symbol of the Palestinian identity provides the momentum needed to sensitize the international community to what the occupied Palestinian population has had to bear which stands in stark contrast to being misguided by the hyper-nationalist Jewish press which negates Palestinian catastrophes, labels the legitimate resistance as terrorism and justifies its occupation.  

The UN’s decision to commemorate the Nakba carries more than symbolic significance. Realities such as depopulation strategies, geographical erasures, shattering of Palestinian collective identities, orchestrating the exodus and eviction of 800,000 Palestinians from their homes, destroying over 500 Palestinian villages, and denying the right to return which continues in 2023, cannot be erased from Palestinian consciousness and should not escape international consciousness either. Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish for example described the Nakba as ‘an extended present that promises to continue into the future.’ As an institution that seeks to uphold principles of international justice, equity and conflict resolution, it is fitting that the United Nations has sought to commemorate the Nakba vividly, with photos, personal testimonies, and videos taking the Palestinian message of the just right to self-determination to the world for greater awareness, action against “Israel” and advocating for reparations. 

The decision by the United Nations also comes at an opportune time. In an age of disinformation, hybrid warfare, falsification, fake news, and attempts to equate Palestinian resistance with terrorism from “Israel”, it is imperative to showcase actual facts, underline the genesis of the resistance and Palestinian discontent, and separate fact from fiction. This is precisely what President Mahmoud Abbas alluded to while praising the UN’s decision to commemorate the Nakba. President Abbas considered it the memories of the catastrophe to be at the top of the Palestinian priority list with the need to preserve the actual narrative and convey it to the entire world. He further stated that all the lies and falsehoods that distort facts, figures, and actual history must be taken head-on in order for the Palestinian identity and resistance to survive and gain traction. As the Nakba is taken up at the highest multilateral forum in the world, the potential to act as a curtain-raiser for lobbyists who continue to side with the Zionist regime’s revisionist interpretation of history remains a possibility. 

Beyond the UN there is also a need for sovereign states with their respective legislatures and parliamentarians to acknowledge historical injustices meted out to the Palestinian people through genocide under the garb of Zionism. The best example of leveraging parliamentarian forums for greater action was witnessed in the US Congress, where Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib brought a resolution to recognize the Nakba of 1948. She further alluded to the undeniable fact that humanity is being denied to the Palestinian people even after decades of suppression and how the world has turned a blind eye to war crimes and human rights violations in fascist “Israel”. The resolution tabled by Tlaib has been hailed by the Institute for Middle East Understanding which termed it ‘historic’ and was also lauded by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights which acknowledged that for far too long, the Palestinian experience has been sidelined and ignored by Washington D.C. 

Commemorating the Nakba at the United Nations should also be followed by a universal, coordinated strategy for “Israel” to be held accountable for its actions. There is little denying the fact that this far-right Netanyahu government or its predecessors have been allowed to systematically exterminate the indigenous Palestinian population with impunity. The character of the Zionist state in 2023 however, raises further alarms with demagogues such as Bezalel Smotrich at the helms of power who brazenly deny the existence of Palestinians. The frequency and severity of the barbarity unleashed would increase significantly which requires nothing short of a swift end to the occupation. The land that constitutes “Israel” belongs to the Palestinians only and the Nakba is a stark reminder of the sacrifices rendered by Palestinians from all walks of life, including the youth and veterans. 

The commemoration of the Nakba at the UN is a step in the right direction.  

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.

Iran: Apartheid “Israel” Biggest Threat to Region, Muslim Nation

April 22, 2023

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian considered that the apartheid “Israeli” entity to be “the biggest threat to the region and the international Muslim Nation.”

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Thursday in a phone call with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi.

The Iranian top diplomat also laid emphasis on the necessity for the existence of unity across the Muslim world in the face of the occupying regime, the need to cut the regime’s hands off the al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound in the holy occupied city of al-Quds’ Old City — which is Islam’s third holiest site, and the importance of complete restoration of Palestinians’ rights.

Turning to the issue of the bilateral ties, Amir-Abdollahian pointed to his visit earlier this year to Amman, and announced the Islamic Republic’s readiness for expansion of the level of relations and cooperation between the countries.

For his part, Safadi stressed his country’s support for regional peace and stability, and defense of the holy sites in Al-Quds in the face of the Zionists’ acts of aggression.

He further hailed Iran to be “an important country in the region”, pointing out that Amman attached “great importance” to further development of its ties with Tehran.

Safadi, meanwhile, welcomed the recent reconciliation agreement reached between Iran and Saudi Arabia under the auspices of China in Beijing.

Also on Thursday, Amir-Abdollahian talked on the phone with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan.

The officials described as positive the process of underway work by the technical teams that have been exchanged mutually to lay the groundwork for the reopening of each country’s Embassy and Consulate on the other’s soil.

The Iranian official expressed hope that the Iranian Embassy in Riyadh and its Consulate General in the port city of Jeddah be opened in time before this year’s Hajj Pilgrimage.

The Saudi official said the kingdom would do its part to contribute to the prospect, and also hoped that the top diplomats would meet each other in the countries’ respective capitals in the near future.

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THE PRICE OF SOLIDARITY: PALESTINE, INDONESIA AND THE ENTITLEMENT OF WESTERN “HUMAN RIGHTS” ACTIVISM

APRIL 7TH, 2023

Source

By Ramzy Baroud

Some readers were unimpressed when I excitedly shared the news on social media that Indonesia had refused to host the Israeli team as part of the Under-20 World Cup,  scheduled from May 20 to June 11 in Indonesian cities.

Though any news related to Palestine and Israel often generates two sharply different kinds of responses, the latest act of Indonesian solidarity with the Palestinian people failed to impress even some pro-Palestine activists in the West. Their rationale had nothing to do with Palestine or Israel but the Indonesian government’s own human rights record.

This supposed dichotomy is as omnipresent as it is problematic. Some of the most genuine acts of solidarity with the Palestinians – or other oppressed nations in the Global South – tend to occur in other Southern nations and governments. But since the latter are frequently accused of poor human rights records by Western governments and West-based rights groups, these gestures of solidarity are often questioned as lacking substance.

Aside from the weaponization of human rights – and democracy – by Western governments, some of the concerns about human rights violations are worth a pause: can those who do not respect the rights of their own people be trusted to champion the rights of others?

THE LACK OF SELF-AWARENESS

Though intellectually intriguing, the argument, and the question, lack self-awareness, reek of entitlement, and reflect a poor understanding of history.

First, the lack of self-awareness. In the West, advocacy for Palestinian rights is predicated on reaching out, educating and lobbying some of the world’s most destructive colonial and neocolonial powers. This advocacy includes civil engagement with countries that have, for example, invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, tormented Africa and continue to subjugate many nations in the Global South.

These Western governments were also the ones who either handed the deed of Palestine  – Britain – to the Zionist movement or sustained Israel militarily, financially and politically for generations – the US and others.

Even though little tangible progress has been recorded regarding substantive political shifts away from Israel, we continue to engage with these governments with the hope that a change will come.

Rarely do Western activists make arguments similar to those made against Indonesia – or other Asian, African, Arab or Muslim countries. Personally, never once have I been reminded of the moral conflict of pursuing solidarity from Western governments that have long invested in the oppression of the Palestinian people.

THE ENTITLEMENT

Second, the entitlement. For many years and, particularly since the end of World War II, western governments endeavored to serve the roles of judge, jury and executioner. They drafted international law yet selectively implemented it. They passed the Human Rights Declaration yet selfishly determined who deserves this humanity. They launched wars in the name of defending others, yet left in their wake more death and mayhem than existed prior to these ‘humanitarian interventions.’

Some human rights activists in the West rarely appreciate that their influence is primarily derived from their very geographic position and, more importantly, citizenship. This is why Hannah Arendt rightly argued that individuals could only enjoy human rights once they obtain the right to be citizens of a nation-state. “Human rights lose all their significance as soon as an individual loses her political context,” she wrote in her seminal book, The Right to Have Rights.

Though some activists have paid a heavy price for their genuine solidarity with the Palestinian people, others understand solidarity in purely conceptual terms, without considering the numerous political obstacles and, sometimes, compromises an occupied nation faces.

Indonesia Israel U-20 World Cup
A protest in Jakarta against Israeli participation in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Indonesia, March 20, 2023. Achmad Ibrahim | AP

The fact that Palestinian civil societies launched the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement in 2005, in that particular order, reflects the awareness among Palestinians that it will take more than individual acts of solidarity to end the Israeli occupation and to dismantle Israeli apartheid. Divestment means that companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation must sever their ties with Israel – even if some of these companies may have questionable practices.

The same logic applies to sanctions, which require a strong political will by governments to ostracize Tel Aviv until it ends its occupation, respects international law and treats Palestinians as equal citizens.

If having a perfect human rights record is a prerequisite for government support, not many countries, if any, will qualify. Oppressed people simply cannot be so entitled, as they do not have the privilege or the leverage to shape a perfectly harmonious global solidarity.

A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF HISTORY

Finally, the need for a better understanding of history. Before the signing of the Oslo Accords between the Palestinian leadership and Israel in 1993, the term ‘human rights’ was an important component of the Palestinian struggle. But it was neither the only nor the main driving force behind the Palestinian quest for freedom. For Palestinians, all aspects of Palestinian resistance, including the pursuit of human rights, were parts of a larger liberation strategy.

Oslo changed all of that. It shunned such terms as resistance and redefined the Palestinian struggle from that of liberation to human rights. As a result, the Palestinian Authority respected its assigned task, and many Palestinians played along simply because they felt they had no other alternative.

Yet, by elevating the human rights discourse, Palestinians were entrapped in entirely Western priorities. Their language, which, in the past, was consistent with revolutionary lessons of anti-colonial movements in the Middle East, Africa and the rest of the Global South, was rejigged to appeal to Western expectations.

This should not suggest that anti-colonial movements did not champion human rights discourses. On the contrary, such lessons were at the core of millions of people’s valiant struggles and sacrifices worldwide. But for them, human rights was not an isolated moral position nor a political stance to be used or manipulated to highlight the moral superiority of the West over the rest or to sanction poor countries, often for the sake of exacting political or economic concessions.

Palestinians care deeply about the human rights of other nations. They ought to because they have experienced firsthand what it means to be stripped of their rights and humanity. But, also, they are in no position, nor should they seek one that would allow them to condition solidarity from others on the West’s politicized human rights agendas.

Victory is Defeat: Palestinian Children’s Art Exposes Israel’s Cultural Genocide

March 8, 2023

Palestinian children’s art was removed from a London hospital. (Photo: via WarmongerHodges TW Page)
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

By Ramzy Baroud

The following text tells the whole story of what pro-Palestinian communities around the world are fighting for, and what pro-Israelis are fighting against: “We are delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has removed a display of artwork designed by children from Gaza.”

That was the summary of a news report published on the homepage of the pro-Israel group, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). The group is credited for being the party that managed to successfully persuade the administration of a hospital in West London to take down a few pieces of artwork created by refugee children from Gaza.

Explaining the logic behind their relentless campaign to remove the children’s art, UKLFI said that “Jewish patients” in the hospital “felt vulnerable and victimized by the display”. The few pieces of artwork were those of the Dome of the Rock in occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestinian flag and other symbols that should hardly victimize anyone.

The UKLFI article was later edited, with the offensive summary removed, although it is still accessible via social media.

As ridiculous as this story sounds, it is, in fact, the very essence of the anti-Palestinian campaign launched by Israel and its allies worldwide. While Palestinians are fighting for basic human rights, freedom and sovereignty as enshrined in international law, the pro-Israel camp is fighting for a total and complete erasure of everything Palestinian.

Some call this cultural genocide or ethnocide. While Palestinians have been familiar with this Israeli practice in Palestine since the very inception of the state of Israel, the boundaries of the war have been expanded to reach anywhere in the world, especially in the western hemisphere.

The inhumanity of UKLFI and their allies is quite palpable, but the group cannot be the only party deserving blame. Those lawyers are but a continuation of an Israeli colonial culture that sees the very existence of a Palestinian people with a political discourse, including children refugees’ art, as an ‘existential threat’ to Israel.

The relationship between the very existence of a country and children’s art may seem absurd – and it is – but it has its own, albeit strange, logic: as long as these refugee children recognize themselves as Palestinian, as long as they will continue to count as part of a larger whole, the Palestinian people. This self-awareness, and the recognition by others – for example, patients and staff at a London hospital – of this collective Palestinian identity, makes it difficult, in fact, impossible, for Israel to win.

For Palestinians and Israelis, victory means two entirely different things, which cannot be consolidated. For Palestinians, victory means freedom for the Palestinian people and equality for all. For Israel, victory can only be achieved through the erasure of Palestinians – geographically, historically, culturally and in every way that could be part of a people’s identity.

Sadly, the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is now an active participant in this tragic erasure of the Palestinians, the same way that Virgin Airlines bowed to pressure in 2018 when it agreed to remove “Palestinian-inspired couscous” off its menu. At the time, this story appeared as if it was a strange episode in the so-called ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’, though, in reality, the story represented the very core of this ‘conflict’.

For Israel, the war in Palestine revolved around three basic tasks: acquiring land; erasing the people and rewriting history.

The first task has been largely achieved through a process of ethnic cleansing and unhinged colonization of Palestine since 1947-48. The current right-wing extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu is only hoping to finalize this process.

The second task involves more than ethnic cleansing, because even the mere awareness of Palestinians, wherever they are, of their collective identity, constitutes a problem. Thus, the active process of cultural genocide.

Though Israel has succeeded in rewriting history for many years, that task is now being challenged, thanks to the tenacity of Palestinians and their allies, and the power of social and digital media.

Palestinians are arguably the greatest beneficiary of the rise of digital media. The latter has contributed to the decentralization of political and even historical narratives. For decades, the popular understanding of what constitutes ‘Israel’ and ‘Palestine’ in mainstream imagination was largely controlled through a specific Israeli-sanctioned narrative. Those who deviated from this narrative were attacked and marginalized, and almost always accused of ‘antisemitism’. While these tactics are still unleashed at critics of Israel, the outcome is no longer guaranteed.

For example, a single tweet exposing the ‘delight’ of UKLFI has received over 2 million views on Twitter. Millions of outraged Brits and social media users around the world have turned what was meant to be a local story into one of the most discussed topics, worldwide, on Palestine and Israel. Expectedly, not many social media users took part in the ‘delight’ of the UKLFI, thus forcing them to reword their original article. More importantly, millions of people have, in a single day, been introduced to a whole new topic on Palestine and Israel: that of cultural erasure. The ‘victory’ has turned into a complete embarrassment, let alone defeat.

Thanks to the growing popularity of the Palestinian cause and the impact of social media, initial Israeli victories almost always backfire. A more recent example is the dismissal and the quick reinstatement of the former Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth.

In January, Roth’s fellowship at Harvard University’s Kennedy School was revoked due to the recent HRW report that defines Israel as an apartheid regime. A major campaign, which was started by small alternative media organizations, resulted in the reinstatement of Roth within days. This, and other cases, demonstrates that criticizing Israel is no longer a career-ender, as was often the case in the past.

Israel continues to employ old tactics to control the conversation on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It is failing because those traditional tactics can no longer work in a modern world in which access to information is decentralized, and where no amount of censorship can control the conversation.

For Palestinians, this new reality is an opportunity to widen their circle of support around the world. For Israel, the mission is a precarious one, especially when initial victories could, in hours, become utter defeats.

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The bloody sore on humanity’s conscience

February 14, 2023

Thou shalt not be a victim.
Thou shalt not be a perpetrator.
And above all,
Thou shalt not be a bystander.
Yehuda Bauer

Globalize the Intifada!
Lowkey

Intro – were do we really live?

Each society, each country has at least two foundational bases: an official ideology and a number of foundational myths (and these myths can be very close to the historical truth or not).  In the case of the West (roughly Zone A), the official ideology is “western liberal democracy” (itself based on a lionization of capitalism and “free market values”).  However, once we look “under the hood”, so to speak, we see that since its birth in the Middle-Ages the foundational myth of the West has been exceptionalism and its inevitable by-product, imperialism.  And it does not matter one bit what verbiage this myth has been wrapped it.  It can be the demented claims of universal authority the Papacy, or the so-called “universal values” (aka human rights) of Freemasonry, the racial superiority of the Nazis or globalist agenda of the transnational financiers.  The past two decades or so have, however, seen a very interesting phenomenon: the wholesale abandonment of any “pious” ideology other than the minimal lip-service needed to show a (totally non-existing) loyalty to any values.  That is, however, not to say that no ideology currently exists.  It does, very much so, but it is one *openly* based on hatred of the “other”.  I am talking, of course, of the Woke ideology which is so powerfully expressed by the actions of the “Biden” Administration.

The Woke ideology is not different from its predecessors by its underlying hatred of the “other” (all the previous western ideologies were also based on that hatred of the “other”), but by its unapologetic proclamation of this hatred.  You could say that the Woke ideology is following Dubya’s “you are either with us or with the terrorists“, but on steroids.  And like all western ideologies, the Woke ideology demands that you not only accept a lie (many lies, in fact), but that you also loudly proclaim it.  And, of course, the bigger the lie, the more vociferously it is proclaimed urbi et orbi.

Again, this is hardly anything new but, as Hegelian dialectics affirms, quantity can have a quality of its own.  We clearly see this today in the post-Christian society all of Zone A lives in: not only are falsehoods proclaimed as “secular dogma”, but the very notion of “truth” has lost any meaning.  To repeat, while in the past the rulers of the West did proclaim and even impose ideologies based on lies, today these same rulers have basically retired the very *concept* of “truth” in any other meaning than “in agreement with the official party line/narrative”.

Furthermore, while in the past violence had to be justified in various ways (be it the White Man’s burden, or Trotsky’s apology of Red Terror, or Roosevelt‘s “day of infamy” or Dubya’s GWOT), now violence has become accepted simply under the heading “because we can” and “what are you going to do about it?”.  The genocidal wars in Iraq or the terrorist attack on North Stream 2 are good examples of the “kuz we can” ideology.

In other words, we are now living in a society openly based on:

  • Lies or even the repudiation of the concept of “truth” and
  • Violence/terrorism

The first corollary of this is that facts simply don’t matter anymore.  Neither does logical analysis.

Second, in a way very reminiscent of Trotsky’s apology for Red Terror (if you have not, read his absolutely brilliant, if profoundly demonic, defense of Red Terror in this article!), the current ideology openly proclaims that “it’s okay if we do it, and it is not okay if you do it“.  That, of course, implies a qualitative superiority of the “we” over the “you”.  This type of “situational ethics” has some rather interesting characteristics and implications including:

  • It is profoundly narcissistic in its mindset (hence why the “we” has “rights” that the “other” does not).
  • It measures loyalty by how big a lie a person is willing to loudly proclaim and affirm

You could say that the bigger the lie you affirm and proclaim (virtue signaling) the “better” a person you are, at least by modern standards.  And if the lie is truly self-evidently ridiculous and counter-factual (Srebrenica, 9/11, MH-17, Skripals, etc. etc. etc.) then you are a loyal and enlightened member of society.  Conversely, if you reject a lie because it is simply obviously counter-factual, then you are not “just” wrong, you are the enemy.

This western infatuation with lies, ideology and violence has its roots in the heresies of the Papacy, but it has since long metastasized into every and all facets of our society and now it has openly become the main ideological pillar upon which everything else is built.

[Sidebar: in my personal observation, the northern European countries are, in that sense, far worse than the southern European ones.  That is also where, predictably, where you will find the most rabid russophobes.  The southern European countries, having more complex and stronger historical roots, seem to be less gullible and hateful than their northern counterparts.  The UK, of course, stands alone and above all others in terms of racist hatred for the “other”;  as for the rest of the Anglosphere, it is run by Neocons and Globalists whose hatred for the other is based on centuries of racist mythologizing, to the degree that this type of racism (externally; internally they proclaim to be categorically opposed to any racist notions which is, of course, yet another lie, except that in this case their – internal and external – racism is directed at any group upholding traditional values) has become a core pillar of their worldview, even if most brainwashed subjects are utterly unaware of it (or don’t even care anymore)].

The above is crucial to the understanding of the world we now all live in.  But before we continue, we need to address another issue: what is Zionism?

What is Zionism? A quick reminder

In my 2014 article “AngloZionism: Short primer for the newcomers” I wrote the following:

Let’s take the (hyper politically correct) Wikipedia definition of what the word “Zionism” means: it is “a nationalist movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the Land of Israel“.  Apparently, no link to the US, the Ukraine or Timbuktu, right?  But think again.  Why would Jews – whether defined as a religion or an ethnicity – need a homeland anyway?  Why can’t they just live wherever they are born, just like Buddhist (a religion) or the African Bushmen (ethnicity) who live in many different countries?  The canonical answer is that Jews have been persecuted everywhere and that therefore they need their own homeland to serve as a safe haven in case of persecutions.  Without going into the issue of why Jews were persecuted everywhere and, apparently, in all times, this rationale clearly implies if not the inevitability of more persecutions or, at the very least, a high risk thereof.  Let’s accept that for demonstration sake and see what this, in turn, implies.  First, that implies that Jews are inherently threatened by non-Jews who are all at least potential anti-Semites. The threat is so severe that a separate Gentile-free homeland must be created as the only, best and last way to protect Jews worldwide.  This, in turn, implies that the continued existence of this homeland should become an vital and irreplaceable priority of all Jews worldwide lest a persecution suddenly breaks out and they have nowhere to go.  Furthermore, until all Jews finally “move up” to Israel, they better be very, very careful as all the goyim around them could literally come down with a sudden case of genocidal anti-Semitism at any moment.  Hence all the anti-anti-Semitic organizations a la ADL or UEJF, the Betar clubs, the network of sayanim, etc.  In other words, far from being a local “dealing with Israel only” phenomenon, Zionism is a worldwide movement whose aim is to protect Jews from the apparently incurable anti-Semitism of the rest of the planet.  As Israel Shahak correctly identified it, Zionism postulates that Jews should “think locally and act globally” and when given a choice of policies always ask THE crucial question: “But is it good for Jews?“.  So far from being only focused on Israel, Zionism is really a global, planetary, ideology which unequivocally split up all of mankind into two groups (Jews and Gentiles), which assumes that the latter are all potential genocidal maniacs (which is racist) and believes that saving Jewish lives is qualitatively different and more important than saving Gentile lives (which is racist again).  Anyone doubting the ferocity of this determination should either ask a Palestinian or study the holiday of Purim, or both.  Even better, read Gilad Atzmon and look up his definition of what is brilliantly called “pre-traumatic stress disorder”

Now let’s be clear: while Zionism itself is based or the ideology and worldview of rabbinical (Pharisaic) “Judaism”, it is not an ethnicity, but an ideology.  This is why I wrote the following in that same article:

By the way, there are non-Jewish Zionists (Biden, in his own words) and there are (plenty of) anti-Zionist Jews.  Likewise, there are non-Anglo imperialists and there are (plenty of) anti-imperialists Anglos.  To speak of “Nazi Germany” or “Soviet Russia” does in now way imply that all Germans were Nazis or all Russian s Communists.  All this means it that the predominant ideology of these nations at that specific moment in time was National-Socialism and Marxism, that’s all.

[Sidebar: I want to add one more thing here, especially for those who hate Jews: every time a Jew is unfairly denounced as the perpetrator of some evil deed, it is not only one innocent person which is unfairly condemned, but there is some non-Jewish SOB who is happily slipping away.  Is that something which you really want?  Just think about this, carefully, and understand the consequences of such a worldview!  I suggest that you don’t have to like Jews, or approve of what some of them do, to not want an outcome where any real investigation into the fact of the matter becomes impossible.  Finally, please realize that blaming “the Jews” for something require no knowledge, no expertise of any kind and no brains.  This is therefore something which the dumbest members of our society will be very strongly drawn towards.  Again, just think about it carefully. ]

By the way, while (Pharisaic) “Judaism” is clearly religious and while most original Zionist were not religious, over time Zionism adopted all the man-hating assumptions of (Pharisaic) “Judaism” while, at the same time, secularizing them.  You could say that (Pharisaic) “Judaism” is “God ordained racism” while Zionism is “secular racism”.  More fundamentally, both (Pharisaic) “Judaism” and secular Zionism are virulently anti-Christian and want to eradicate even the tiny remnants of a completely defeated Christianity in the West.  Finally, in the modern state of “Israel”, we now see a new phenomenon becoming very important: religious Zionism, that is a bland of Haredi (Pharisaic) “Judaism” with the type of secular Fascism cum Apetheid modern “Israel” embodies.

If you want to see the kind of freaks which this ideology produces, just see my articles “A crash course on the true causes of “antisemitism”” and “A Crash Course on the True Causes of “Anti-Semitism”, part II: the hunt for anti-Semites“.  If you read those (please do!) you will discover what I can only call “God ordained racism” which is quite unique as most religions are, by their very nature, universalist, including, of course, both Christianity and Islam (after returning from his trip to Mecca, Malcolm X totally dropped his “blue eyed white devils” nonsense; Islam cured him from Elijah Muhammad’s crude racism!).

What happened after WWII?

Simply put, the end of WWII saw an ideological alliance between Anglos and Zionists.  Why? Mainly for two very different reasons:

  • Their common hatred and fear of Stalin (who is always and *wrongly* accused of hostility towards Jews)
  • A recognition of very similar worldviews (exceptionalism, supremacism)

Basically, the racist worldview of (Pharisaic) “Judaism” blended with the historical racist worldview of the leaders of the Anglosphere to create the modern Anglo-Zionism.

Do I even need to mention that both worldviews are not only based on lies, they use lies as their primary, go-to, “weapon” against anybody dares who oppose them. You could say that the following verse by Saint John the Apostle, Evangelist and Theologian are the best description of the ideological cornerstone of both wordviews: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).  Notice how closely Saint John connects lies and homicidal violence – these always go hand in hand!

During the Cold War, most of that hatred was directed at Communism, at least officially (after 1991 it became pretty clear that even without Communism the leaders of the West hated the Russian people).  After the 9/11 false flag, that hatred was directed at any state which would defy the West and Israel, and at any form of real, traditional, Islam.

I often smile when I hear the endless discussion about whether the dog is wagging its tail or the tail wag the dog.  In reality, this does not matter because the dog and the tail are one and the same organism, fully united in their purposes and goals.  And the point is, therefore, not who wags whom, but what the entire animal wants to achieve.

Originally, of course, the Anglos had mostly disdain for their up and coming Jewish counterparts, but money is much more powerful than any other consideration (at least in the West) and soon the part of the Anglo elites which was willing to adopt Zionism’s core values/reflexes easily out-competed the Anglo “old guard” which did not want to yield any real power to what they saw as their Jewish competitors.  And that is how AngloZionism was born.

What about “Israel” in all this?

The USA is probably the first and only country on the planet created by members of a demonic secret cult, that is Freemasonry (the fact that this Freemasonry had some external features of pseudo-Christianity does not change this).  “Israel” might well be the only country in history built purely on lies, also a sure sign of the “father of all lies”.  From the infamous “country without people for a people without country” to a complete ban on honest investigation into WWII or into the other founding myths of the state of Israel, to the endless “right” of this country to exist – “Israel’s” entire existence is predicated on the usual demonic pair: lies and violence.  In fact, while there were, and still are, plenty of states out there ruled by racists, Israeli is the only OPENLY racist state on the planet.  And this is why, for example, any Jew on the planet has the “right” to “return” to the state of “Israel” while a refugee born in Palestine has no right to return to his own home.  In “Israel” some are simply more equal than others!  Officially.

Is “Israel” unique in its systematic use of lies and violence?  No, not at all.  But it is unique in its unapologetic use of lies and violence to not only to achieve some specific geopolitical goals, but also to feed its cult of self-worship and sense of racial superiority above the “goyim” who, as we all know, “only understand violence”.

Yes, “Israel” is an abomination which no civilized person or society can accept, nevermind endorse.  But “Israel” is far more than that – it is also the litmus test of obedience to ruling classes of the West.  You can think of it as an Asch Conformity Experiment, but on a planetary scale, and one which you are asked not to only reject what your senses tell you, but one which shows how much you are willing to suppress you own conscience and embrace pure evil.

Those who embrace this lie become bound not only by a common worldview, but they become accomplices in something unspeakably evil and false.  Such people are much more than just bystanders to a slow-motion genocide, but they are also experts at Orwell’s doublethink:  when told to, they will gladly proclaim that right is wrong, white is black and reality whatever the ruling elites decree it to be.

For these people, neither “truth” nor “reality” make any difference.  None!

Such people are authoritarians not only because they love to give orders and impose their lies upon others, they are also authoritarians because they love to get orders and execute them (see here for an interesting discussion of this type of person).

Having said all that, we can we observe today?

Simply put, what we observe is a shameful and disgraceful attitude by almost every country out there.  And I will begin my denunciation of this state of affairs with Russia.

No, Russia is not “in cahoots” with “Israel” or Netanyahu!  This kind of crap is spread by infantiles who don’t understand how true complexity of the competition between states and by people who are paid (in money or recognition) to spread FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) about Putin and Russia.

However, Russian leaders are showing an ice-cold indifference to the plight of the Palestinian people.  Oh sure, Russia officially supports all the relevant UNSC Resolutions about “Israel” and the Palestinians, but other than paying them lip-service, Russia does absolutely nothing against the “Israelis” as long as Russian interests are not directly affected or threatened.  I guess you can call it “Realpolitik” but I call it immoral and criminal indifference and I find is shameful.  Russia will never be come a truly Orthodox country again until it renounces such ugly forms of “pragmatism” and until moral/ethics return to the center state of the core values of Russian society and Russian policies.

In sharp contrast, and in spite of being much weaker than Russia while living its entire existence under the threat of attack by the AngloZionist, the Iranians have steadfastly placed morals over so-called “pragmatism” when dealing with the issue of “Israel” and the Palestinian people.  Of sure, of course, not all Iranians are that pure and noble, enough to see how Rafsanjani’s “Gucci Revolution” was backed to the hilt by Zionists to see that not everything is perfect in Iran.  But humans are the same everywhere.  What makes Iran so dramatically different is not that Iranians are “better” people, but that Iran officially places moral, ethical and even religious values at the cornerstone of its worldview and policies!  That is quite remarkable, and unique, and puts the shame the rest of the planet.

What about the current war in the Ukraine?

Today we are all fixated on the war between NATO and Russia in the Ukraine, and this is quite logical.  After all there is a fair chance that the freaks who run the Empire will prefer the destruction of the entire northern hemisphere to a (now quite inevitable) Russian victory.  However, we should not kid ourselves, this war is not, repeat, NOT about the Ukraine or even the future of the EU.  This is a war which will decide whether the AngloZionist will take full control of our planet or whether the last empire in history will be replaced by a multi-polar, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-political international order regulated by the rule of law.  Thus “Israel” has a HUGE stake in it, and no, *not* because the “(((Khazarians)))” wand to create a new state in the Ukraine or Crimea, but because if the AngloZionist Empire falls, the Zionist regime in “Israel” will have to either renounce its worldview of “God given racism” or, indeed, face its demise as predicted by Imam Khomeini when he said: “this regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history“.

In the case of the Nazi run Banderastan, we saw the Ukrainian Nazis and the Israeli Nazis work hand in hand, while at the same time the Israelis pretended to maintain equidistance between the two belligerents.   Yes, the Ukronazis and the Israelis do hate each other too, but much less than they hate Russia and everything Russian.  What better example of the Zionist moral flexibility then to see “Israelis” sending weapons and “volunteer” instructors to the Bandera-worshipping Nazis in Kiev and against the people who liberated Jew from the Nazi camps!  Ditto for the so-called (and much misrepresented, see herehere or here) “pogroms” which were all located in what is today’s Ukraine and not in Russia.  As for the infamous (and also much misrepresented, see herehere or here) Pale of Settlement, how is is different from the wall the “Israelis” built to prevent Palestinians from freely loving across their own land?  In fact, any serious comparison of the two would immediately show that the latter is infinitely worse than the former.

And yet.

The truth is that the rabbinical/Pharisaic hatred of Russia is not based on history or any past wrongs, but on purely religious reasons: rabbinical/Pharisaic “Judaism” is an anti-Christianity just in the same was as the Latin Papacy is an anti-Orthodoxy!  Why?  Because Christians claim to the the “real Jews” (in spiritual terms) and Orthodox Christians claim to be the “true Church”.  In other words, Orthodox Christianity challenges and debunks both the Judaic claim to the Old Testament and the Latin claim to the New Testament.

Does it really surprise anyone to see the Latins working hand in hand with their “elder brothers in the faith” who “await the same messiah”?

There is also the fact that the Russian society today, while not truly Christian by a long stretch, is yet unwilling to give up the moral/ethical values of true Christianity.  Even “worse” is the real possibility that Russia might return to her true Christian roots, especially after the conclusion of the NATO war against Russia (assuming it does not end in a nuclear apocalypse, which it well might).

And no, it is no coincidence at all that the key actors (Nuland, Kagan, Blinken, etc.) are all Zionist Jews.  There are objective reasons for that.  Yet, we must always remember the words of Saint Paul who wrote “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph 6:12).  We must remember these words not only because innocent people have no nationality, including innocent victims, or because there is no such thing as “collective guilt”, but because we – unlike the Latins – cannot defend true Christianity while ignoring its key teachings!  It is as wrong to deny the nature of this warfare as it is wrong to deny its spiritual, and not ethnic, nature.  At the very core, we are dealing with a stark choice:

  • Do we accept the common humanity of all people or
  • Do we reject it

If the latter, than your place with with the Nazis, be them German or Israelis.  If accept that common humanity – then act on it and never allow yourself to be brought down by the fact that our enemies do not share this key value.  It is really that simple!

Conclusion

Ever since the 2014 coup in Kiev I have been almost exclusively focused on the Ukrainian civil war and, after 2022, on the US/NATO war against Russia.  Only rarely did I mention Zionism or Israel.  Primarily because I simply did not have the time.  And this is why today, in what shall be my last posted analysis on the Saker blog I wanted to revisit that topic again.  At over 4000 words, the above is not indented as an exhaustive discussion of the topic.  My hope is that what I wrote above my seen enticing enough for you, the reader, to pursue your own research into this immense and complex topic.  I think you could do worse than reading the various texts I have mentioned above. But the choice is yours.

I want to conclude this post with the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his famous text “Live not by the lie“.  I hope that they will inspire you.

Andrei

***

Excerpt from “Live not by the lie“:

When violence bursts onto the peaceful human condition, its face is flush with self-assurance, it displays on its banner and proclaims: “I am Violence! Make way, step aside, I will crush you!” But violence ages swiftly, a few years pass—and it is no longer sure of itself. To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally—Lies. For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence. And it is not every day and not on every shoulder that violence brings down its heavy hand: It demands of us only a submission to lies, a daily participation in deceit—and this suffices as our fealty.
And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold through me!
We are not called upon to step out onto the square and shout out the truth, to say out loud what we think—this is scary, we are not ready. But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think!
This is the way, then, the easiest and most accessible for us given our deep-seated organic cowardice, much easier than (it’s scary even to utter the words) civil disobedience à la Gandhi.
Our way must be: Never knowingly support lies! Having understood where the lies begin (and many see this line differently)—step back from that gangrenous edge! Let us not glue back the flaking scales of the Ideology, not gather back its crumbling bones, nor patch together its decomposing garb, and we will be amazed how swiftly and helplessly the lies will fall away, and that which is destined to be naked will be exposed as such to the world.
And thus, overcoming our temerity, let each man choose: Will he remain a witting servant of the lies (needless to say, not due to natural predisposition, but in order to provide a living for the family, to rear the children in the spirit of lies!), or has the time come for him to stand straight as an honest man, worthy of the respect of his children and contemporaries?

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Fatah: US blackmailed countries at the UN to vote against Palestine

31 Dec 2022

Source: Al Mayadeen Net

By Al Mayadeen English 

The member of the Fatah Central Committee says that the UN resolution to refer “Israel” to the criminal court is highly important.

Ahmed Halas, member of Fatah Central Committee in an interview on Al-Mayadeen.

Member of the Fatah Central Committee, Ahmed Halas, said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen on Saturday that, “the decision of the United Nations General Assembly to refer ‘Israel’ to criminal prosecution is of great importance.”

Halas emphasized that “the Palestinian position is the only thing capable of putting an end to the Israeli aggression,” stressing that “the international community is a catalyst.”

The official added that the “American role in the United Nations is more hostile than the Israeli position towards the Palestinian cause.”

He also pointed out that the “United States exerted pressure and blackmail against many countries to prevent them from voting in favor of the resolution.”

“The time has come to stop talking about Palestinian national unity,” and “we must move to practical steps, away from who will achieve more gains, and the signed unity agreements carry the same content,” Halas added.

Earlier today, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution requesting an opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal implications of “Israel’s” illegal occupation of Palestine and its “practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people,” despite the occupation’s strained efforts to incite and lure several countries in order to prevent the ICJ’s advisory opinion.

Last week, the resolution, titled “Israeli practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories,” was approved by the UN General Assembly Fourth Committee with 98 votes in favor, 17 votes against, and 52 abstentions.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), situated in The Hague and commonly known as the World Court, is the highest UN court dealing with international issues. Its decisions are binding, but the ICJ has no authority to enforce them.

The resolution was passed by the General Assembly by a vote of 87 to 26 with 53 abstentions. Russia and China voted in favor of the resolution.

Unsurprisingly, “Israel”, the United States, and 24 of their allies voted against the resolution, most notably the United Kingdom and Germany, while France was one of the 53 nations that abstained.

It is worth noting that the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to give an advisory opinion on the “legal consequences of Israeli occupation, settlement, and annexation – including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character, and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”

Read more: 

The Nakba Day Triumph: How the UN Is Correcting a Historical Wrong

December 14, 2022

Gaza’s Great March of Return. (Photo: Abdullah Aljamal, Palestine Chronicle)

The next Nakba Day will be officially commemorated by the United Nations General Assembly on May 15, 2023. The decision by the world’s largest democratic institution is significant, if not a game changer.

For nearly 75 years, the Palestinian Nakba, the ‘Catastrophe’ wrought by the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias in 1947-48, has served as the epicenter of the Palestinian tragedy as well as the collective Palestinian struggle for freedom.

Three decades ago, namely after the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian leadership in 1993, the Nakba practically ceased to exist as a relevant political variable. Palestinians were urged to move past that date, and to invest their energies and political capital in an alternative and more ‘practical’ goal, a return to the 1967 borders.

In June 1967, Israel occupied the rest of historic Palestine – East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza – igniting yet another wave of ethnic cleansing.

Based on these two dates, Western cheerleaders of Oslo divided Palestinians into two camps: the ‘extremists’ who insisted on the centrality of the 1948 Nakba, and the ‘moderates’ who agreed to shift the center of gravity of Palestinian history and politics to 1967.

Such historical revisionism impacted every aspect of the Palestinian struggle: it splintered Palestinians ideologically and politically; relegated the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, which is enshrined in UN Resolution 194; spared Israel the legal and moral accountability of its violent establishment on the ruins of Palestine, and more.

Leading Palestinian Nakba historian, Salman Abu Sitta, explained in an interview a few years ago the difference between the so-called pragmatic politics of Oslo and the collective struggle of Palestinians as the difference between ‘aims’ and ‘rights’. Palestinians “don’t have ‘aims’ … (but) rights,” he said. “… These rights are inalienable, they represent the bottom red line beyond which no concession is possible. Because doing so will destroy their life.”

Indeed, shifting the historical centrality of the narrative away from the Nakba was equivalent to the very destruction of the lives of Palestinian refugees as it has been tragically apparent in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria in recent years.

While politicians from all relevant sides continued to bemoan the ‘stagnant’ or even ‘dead’ peace process – often blaming one another for that supposed calamity – a different kind of conflict was taking place. On the one hand, ordinary Palestinians along with their historians and intellectuals fought to reassert the importance of the Nakba, while Israelis continued to almost completely ignore the earth-shattering event, as if it is of no consequence to the equally tragic present.

Gaza’s ‘Great March of Return‘ (2018-2019) was possibly the most significant collective and sustainable Palestinian action that attempted to reorient the new generation around the starting date of the Palestinian tragedy.

Over 300 people, mostly from third or fourth post-Nakba generations, were killed by Israeli snipers at the Gaza fence for demanding their Right of Return. The bloody events of those years were enough to tell us that Palestinians have not forgotten the roots of their struggle, as it also illustrated Israel’s fear of Palestinian memory.

The work of Rosemary Sayigh on the exclusion of the Nakba from the trauma genre, and also that of Samah Sabawi, demonstrate, not only the complexity of the Nakba’s impact on the Palestinian collective awareness, but also the ongoing denial – if not erasure – of the Nakba from academic and historical discourses.

“The most significant traumatic event in Palestinian history is absent from the ‘trauma genre’,” Sabawi wrote in the recently-published volume, Our Vision for Liberation.

Sayigh argued that “the loss of recognition of (the Palestinian refugees’) rights to people- and state- hood created by the Nakba has led to an exceptional vulnerability to violence,” with Syria being the latest example.

Israel was always aware of this. When Israeli leaders agreed to the Oslo political paradigm, they understood that removing the Nakba from the political discourse of the Palestinian leadership constituted a major victory for the Israeli narrative.

Thanks to ordinary Palestinians, those who have held on to the keys and deeds to their original homes and land in historic Palestine, history is finally being rewritten, back to its original and accurate form.

By passing Resolution A/77/L.24, which declared May 15, 2023, as ‘Nakba Day’, the UNGA has corrected a historical wrong.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, rightly understood the UN’s decision as a major step towards the delegitimization of Israel as a military occupier of Palestine. “Try to imagine the international community commemorating your country’s Independence Day by calling it a disaster. What a disgrace,” he said.

Absent from Erdan’s remarks and other responses by the Israeli officials is the mere hint of political or even moral accountability for the ethnic cleansing of over 530 Palestinian towns and villages, and the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians, whose descendants are now numbered in millions of refugees.

Not only did Israel invest decades in canceling and erasing the Nakba, it also criminalized it by passing what is now known as the Nakba Law of 2011.

But the more Israel engages in this form of historical negationism, the harder Palestinians fight to reclaim their historical rights.

May 15, 2023, UN Nakba Day represents the triumph of the Palestinian narrative over that of Israeli negationists. This means that the blood spilled during Gaza’s March of Return was not in vain, as the Nakba and the Right of Return are now back at the center of the Palestinian story.

New Era of “Israel’s” War Crimes Accountability

November 29, 2022 

Source: Al Mayadeen English

By Ruqiya Anwar 

Notably, ongoing violence and crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including limited access to health care, education, and livelihood activities, affect socioeconomic conditions.

Notably, ongoing violence and crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including limited access to health care, education, and livelihood activities, affect socioeconomic conditions. Plans to change the demographic mix, character, and status of the holy city of Jerusalem “were also mentioned. The resolution queries the court on how these Israeli policies and activities” impact the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal ramifications that arise for all states and the United Nations from this position. The Palestinian UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, recommended mobilizing “all elements of the international law-based order, including international justice”.

Significantly, the first report to the General Assembly from the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including “East Jerusalem and Israel”, was published earlier. It affirms that there are compelling reasons to believe that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is now illegal under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli Government’s de facto annexation policies. Furthermore, the Commission has concluded that “Israel’s” continued use of force to occupy Palestinian territory creates international obligations and keeps “Israel” responsible for past atrocities on Palestinian civil and political rights.

The ICJ addresses international conflicts between nations or offers legal advice on problems that the UN Security Council or General Assembly refers to it. An ICJ legal opinion typically takes at least a year to obtain. “Israel’s” separation wall and settlements in the occupied West Bank were found illegal by the International Court of Justice in a 2004 legal ruling. Israelis fear that the ICJ would support the Palestinian position that the occupation equates to annexation, which would undermine efforts by governments, businesses, and civil society organizations to boycott, divest and sanction “Israel”. To prevent the Palestinians from enacting the resolution, the Israeli Government has recently begun an all-out offensive.

In this scenario, International support for the special committee’s mandate is required to spread the message that the Israeli occupation is the root cause of all Middle Eastern problems and to inspire global action to end the suffering. It should call attention to the violent eviction and transfer of Palestinian families, the trespassing and intimidation of Palestinians by Israeli settlers, and the efforts to hasten al-Quds’s Judaization at the expense of the city’s Christian and Muslim Palestinian inhabitants.

The Israeli Government’s policies have severely and in many ways affected many facets of Palestinian life, including women’s access to clean, inexpensive water, negatively influencing the whole Palestinian agriculture industry. Moreover, the erosion of economic, social, and cultural rights causes a great deal of “silent harm” and psychological distress, some of which may not be immediately obvious. Nevertheless, the effects of these incapacitating processes, both now and in the future, are devastating.

Furthermore, “Israel” cannot continue to promote its narrative that it has done nothing wrong while also pursuing annexationist policies and denying the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination; it is now abundantly evident. Essentially, international law stands on the side of the Palestinians, and all they needed was the ultimate political environment for the world to applaud such a courageous act.

The situation on the ground has gotten worse in the occupied territories. Palestinian human rights have consistently been violated by “Israel”, which has continued its policy of repression. Human rights organizations worldwide agree that the ongoing Israeli occupation has established apartheid-like conditions.

The Palestinian diplomats’ ultimate goal was for the United Nations Security Council to vote to recognize Palestine as a full member state without any veto interference from the United States. Recognizing Palestine as a full UN member state, even while it is occupied, would signify that the international community is committed to the two-state solution.

Additionally, the rules of conduct for nations under temporary occupation are specified in international humanitarian law. However, because this is a 55-year-old occupation, it is not a temporary one. Therefore, the highest court in the world must rule that it is an occupation that leads to illegal annexation — a decision that will have global ramifications. In demanding such a legal requirement, the Palestinians astounded the Israelis and their allies.

Most importantly, the repeated statements before the United Nations have not stopped severe breaches of Palestinian rights. While nations continue to express outrage and resolutions are passed, nothing appears to change. No amount of occupation by the occupying power of Palestinian territory will ever lead to peace.

The Palestinian people’s intrinsic rights, such as the right to self-determination and the right of return, have been violated blatantly by “Israel” in violation of its commitments under international law. Bringing an end to this miserable situation was the international community’s responsibility. Although the international community has repeatedly stated that Palestinians have a right to freedom, security, and prosperity, Israel has persisted in denying it.

This appears unlikely given the inherent bias towards Israel and vested interests of the international community, the United States and Europe, in particular. Until there is a fundamental shift in the balance of power, the status quo of a constant conflict punctuated by periodic escalation and carnage will stay, as there is no indication that international political will is present or will emerge.

Now, the UN has adopted a Palestinian resolution calling for the ICJ to weigh in on “Israel’s” protracted occupation quickly. Nevertheless, there is hope because the UN has called “International Justice” for a legal advisory opinion on the nature of the Israeli occupation. But will the UN follow through and actually hold “Israel” accountable? 

References:

Fourth Committee Hears Support for Referring Question of Palestine to International Court of Justice for Advisory Opinion | UN Press

Report-COI-OPT-14Sept2022-EN.pdf (ohchr.org)

OHCHR | The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/03/special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-occupied-palestinian-territories

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.

Related Articles

Roger Waters Fends Off ‘Antisemitism’ Smears in Germany Ahead of Live Shows

November 10, 2022

Pink Floyd rock legend Roger Waters. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Pink Floyd rock legend Roger Waters has reaffirmed his commitment to perform in Germany next year as part of his This Is Not a Drill world tour in spite of vicious smears against him from German politicians and media outlets accusing him of antisemitism.

On Friday, Waters wrote on Facebook to his fans saying The Mayor of Munich, some members of the Green and SDP political parties and others “have been slandering me, accusing me of being an anti-semite and also a Putin apologist. I am neither of those things. Never have been and never will be.”

Waters, known for his outspoken commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as a proud supporter of rights for Palestinians, has been attacked by German officials attempting to have his upcoming shows canceled.

According to Berliner Zeitung, Samuel Salzborn, the anti-Semitism commissioner of the Social Democratic Party, called for the cancellation of his upcoming concert in Berlin in May 2023.

The German official recently described the musician as “one of the loudest voices in the music business, spreading anti-Israel anti-Semitism,” in the German newspaper B.Z, according to Tagesspiegel.

Salzborn has been criticized himself for his “deep intolerance against Palestinians” by Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah in the Electronic Intifada, following a Tweet he made in October 2019 (now deleted) which said:

“When you’re sitting in the train and the people next to you start talking about ‘Palestine’ without any apparent reason, it means it is time to either get off the train, put on your headphones, or scream at them”.

Abunimah said the tweet appears to be “a pure expression of his disgust even at the thought of Palestine or Palestinians existing.”

An article published last week in Jüdische Allgemeine smears Waters even more viciously, the article titled “Jew hatred on tour” says the Bavarian anti-Semitism commissioner Ludwig Spaenle recently called on the city of Munich to cancel the contract for the planned concert in the Olympiahalle if Waters did not distance himself from the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement.

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement encouraging non-violent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law.

In the same article, Sigmount Königsberg, the anti-Semitism commissioner for Berlin’s Jewish community is quoted as saying Waters is “an anti-Semite, a hate preacher with music that demonizes Israel.”

Likewise, Uwe Becker, Spaenle’s Hessian counterpart says Waters is, “a bad example of aggressive, Israel-related anti-Semitism” and that he is not welcome in the state.

Waters is not unique in having weaponized allegations of antisemitism wielded against him in Germany. The Euromed Human Rights Monitor recently expressed  concern over the “anti-Arab purge in German media.”

Waters has become an outspoken critic of Israel’s apartheid and oppression of the Palestinian people since he first visited the West Bank in 2006 and was approached by the BDS movement to support the campaign.

Speaking on Joe Rogan’s Experience last month, considered the world’s most popular podcast, Waters exposed Israel’s ongoing apartheid against the Palestinians saying, “now it is very difficult for anyone to have a conversation about Israel and Palestine without using the word apartheid because it is in the lexicon, and the problem is far more in the light.”

This year Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published reports asserting Israel is committing the crime of apartheid.

So far Waters’ tour has also illuminated Israel’s ongoing injustices against Palestinians, including the attacks made against Palestinian journalists. During his recent US shows, images of Israel’s apartheid wall were displayed as well as the name of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was shot dead by Israeli forces this year.

And it is not just adoring fans who listen to Waters’ informed perspective on Palestine, in 2012 he gave an extended address at the United Nations as part of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and has written many letters encouraging fellow musicians not to perform in Israel.

Last year, distinguished Palestinian historian, Professor Rashid Khalidi (Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University) suggested that young Palestinians should, “stop listening to old people for advice” on their activism at an event held by Palestine Dee Dive, before quickly correcting himself saying, “actually there is one older person you should still listen to, of course, his name is Roger Waters.”

Waters rounded off his to address  fans in Germany on Facebook, saying:

“Your Ruling Class and your media want to ban me from bringing my message of love and peace and revolution to enrich your lives. WELL I’M COMING, and together we will raise the roof on this charade”.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela cancel controversial ‘Tel Aviv’ concert

August 12, 2022

Source: Agencies

By Al Mayadeen English 

In a series of concert cancellations, Rodrigo y Gabriela has become one of many artists to terminate their show in “Tel Aviv” following an uproar from human rights activists.

Rodrigo y Gabriela (Guitar.com)

Various artists and musicians have been joining hands in canceling shows in apartheid “Israel”, especially in light of the 2021 and 2022 Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and after a massive global uproar from fans and human rights defenders. 

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the BDS movement, welcomed the decision of the Mexican band, Rodrigo y Gabriela, who announced the termination of their upcoming show hours before it was due to take place in the Tel Aviv Culture Center, just a short drive from where the Israeli occupation killed 48 Palestinians including 19 children and injured 360 more.

Chain of cancellations by global musicians 

Even before the attacks on Gaza, Rodrigo y Gabriela had privately told the Palestinian group Le Trio Joubran that they had ditched the Tel Aviv concert. Le Trio Joubran, renowned oud marvels, had appealed last month to the Mexican band to cancel their appearance by urging on social media: “Please Rod and Gabi, take the right decision”.

During the band’s show at the Esperanzah festival in Belgium, fans waved the Palestinian flags and keffiyehs and urged Rodrigo y Gabriela to cancel the concert in the occupied territories. 

Irish actor Steve Wall also appealed to the band, joined by Mexican and Irish human rights defenders. Rodrigo y Gabriela spent eight years living and working in Dublin, after originating in Mexico and becoming known for heavy metal, nuevo flamenco, and rock. 

While the duo did not publicly address their cancellation of the concert in apartheid “Israel”, they posted a tweet two days before it had been due to take place that their tour was now over – now the third apartheid “Tel Aviv” concert to be canceled this summer. 

Another was US band Big Thief who apologized to their fans in June for their announcement of two shows in apartheid “Israel”, and voiced their opposition to “the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people”. That did not sit well with the venue Barby in which they were supposed to play, calling the band a “bunch of miserable, spineless musicians”.

Read more: South Africans call to cancel Justin Bieber’s concert in “Israel”

Canadian group BADBADNOTGOOD followed suit and announced the cancellation of their concert at Barby as well, as a result of appeals from fans and activists which were privately verified. 

The PACBI urged all artists to reject offers from “Israel’s” cultural sector that is complicit in apartheid and to refuse to “art-wash” “Israel’s” massacres. 

“UNDER A VIRTUAL SIEGE” – ACTIVISTS DEMAND PAYPAL OFFER ITS SERVICES TO PALESTINIANS

AUGUST 10TH, 2022

Source

By Jessica Buxbaum

In June, actor Mark Ruffalo joined the campaign calling on online payments platform PayPal to offer its services to Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

“Paypal [sic] operates in Israel’s illegal settlements—but is refusing to provide service to Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank, in direct violation of UN guidelines,” the award-winning actor wrote on Twitter, sharing a link to corporate accountability non-profit SumOfUs’ petition advocating for Palestinian access to PayPal. Nearly 240,000 people have signed the petition thus far.

With a celebrity signature, activists spearheading the campaign have renewed their efforts to target PayPal for its economic censorship and discrimination against Palestinians.

On August 4, 7amleh, The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, in collaboration with SumOfUs and the Muslim grassroots movement, MPower Change, hosted a webinar sharing insights and updates on the #PayPal4Palestine campaign. The panel included speakers Lara Friedman, the Foundation for Middle East Peace president, Mona Shtaya, 7amleh’s advocacy advisor, and MPower Change co-founder Linda Sarsour.

UNDER VIRTUAL SIEGE

Launched in 2016, the #PayPal4Palestine campaign is led by 7amleh along with a number of civil society organizations. According to the campaign’s website, PayPal provides its services to Israeli citizens (including Palestinian citizens of Israel), settlers living in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem. But it does not offer access to Palestinians with bank accounts in the West Bank and Gaza.

“PayPal claims that its services are unavailable to Palestinians on the basis of its ‘Prohibited Countries’ policy, which classifies Palestine and around 30 other countries as ‘high-risk’ areas,” the website reads. Yet the online payment platform operates in over 200 countries including states with human rights violations and political instability, such as Yemen, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Jordan, Somalia, and Venezuela.

During the August 4 panel, 7amleh’s Shtaya explained that PayPal justified the lack of access because high-risk countries must take certain measures to qualify for PayPal services, specifically amending their banking system. A 2018 7amleh report on Palestinian access to PayPal states Palestine implemented several procedures to authorize electronic transactions and combat money laundering and fraud, such as passing the Electronic Transactions Law. According to 7amleh’s communications with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Monetary Authority, PayPal’s recommendations have been met in the last year, but the platform is still unavailable to Palestinians. PayPal did not respond to MintPress News inquiries on why it denies access to Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Indeed, earlier this year, PayPal banned MintPress and a number of other alternative media outlets from using their services.

According to 7amleh’s report, SumOfUs, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Jewish Voice for Peace published an online petition in 2016 urging PayPal to provide services to Palestinians. The following year, activists delivered the petition to PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose, California.

“Company representatives that received the petition acknowledged that accusing PayPal of discriminating against Palestinians because of their identity put PayPal in a very uncomfortable situation and that the company never intended to deliberately exclude Palestinians from its services. However, they still refused to commit to any concrete steps to remedy the situation,” 7amleh wrote in their report.

Other groups have also demanded PayPal extend its services to Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the company’s own investors, Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy, and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network. Yet these efforts were to no avail as PayPal continues to exclude Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from its platform.

During the webinar, Shtaya described how PayPal barring access to Gazans had put the besieged enclave’s residents under a double blockade.

“Preventing them from accessing PayPal or from having PayPal services means that they also prevent them from having work opportunities beyond [the] Gaza Strip,” Shtaya said. “They are not only under siege on the ground but also under siege virtually.”

Nowhere was this ban felt more acutely than during Israel’s assault on Gaza in May 2021. Shtaya explained that while Israeli rocket fire rained down on Gaza, international activists were blocked from supporting humanitarian organizations in Gaza through Venmo, a subsidiary of PayPal. “In the time of crisis, we’ve seen a huge discrimination against Palestinians, unlike the case of Ukraine and Russia,” Shtaya said.

When war broke out between Ukraine and Russia, PayPal launched a fundraiser to support Ukraine while also suspending its services in Russia.

And while Palestinians in the West Bank cannot open a PayPal account, Israeli settlers just next door can. During the panel discussion, Friedman noted that,

The settlement movement has been dedicated really to taking as much land as possible, putting down an Israeli civilian presence protected by a military presence. And then, over the years, getting us to the point where the Israeli policy, the Israeli government, the Israeli law treats that civilian presence in the West Bank as absolutely indistinguishable from Israelis inside sovereign Israel,”

She explained how Israel’s efforts to normalize the settlements led multinational corporations to treat settlements as part of Israel then and maintain a status quo that is often overlooked.

“You’ve got this two-pronged effort to both isolate the Palestinians and to normalize and weave the settlers into the international communities, a community of nations. And the problem is that organizations or companies like PayPal, I would argue, unwittingly, are absolutely party to that,” she said, noting how the #PayPal4Palestine campaign is part of a larger, global effort to hold international companies responsible for legitimizing settlement activity such as the recent actions against Airbnb and Ben & Jerry’s.

LIMITED OPTIONS FOR PALESTINIANS

Without PayPal, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have few alternatives. PalPay, a local version of PayPal, was established in 2010 by the Bank of Palestine, the First National Bank, and PCNC IT Solutions. Jawwal, the West Bank and Gaza’s largest mobile network provider, partnered with National Electronic Payment Company in 2019 to create Jawwal Pay, an e-wallet allowing individuals to transfer money, pay bills, and shop online.

Yet 7amleh emphasizes in their 2020 report on e-commerce in Palestine that these local electronic payment alternatives remain limited. “In order for these solutions to be more widely adopted in the West Bank and Gaza, they have to be easy to integrate into widely-used international e-commerce platforms,” 7amleh wrote.

Sarsour added that Palestinian business owners also use Western Union or MoneyGram, especially for international transactions. But these wire transfers often cost the entrepreneurs hefty fees and are tracked by the U.S.Treasury Department. As she explained,

A business owner in the United States working with a business owner in occupied Palestine, these wire transfers are very monitored. And sometimes the accounts are stopped. Sometimes the payments are delayed because there’s some sort of investigation into these multiple wire transfers.”

According to 7amleh’s research, PayPal access would not only benefit Palestinians but would also benefit the company itself.

7amleh identified three scenarios where high, middle, and low-income Palestinian households with internet access would spend $644-$1,550 annually, generating about $90 million to $5 billion in payments via PayPal.

“It’s an economic justice issue for me and to be honest, what is PayPal losing?” Sarsour said, highlighting how PayPal is a tangible way for activists abroad to help Palestinians. “It would be a dream for [Palestinian business owners] to be able to participate in PayPal, to be able to have foreigners be able to pay them in a secure way.”

Yet ultimately, what Palestinians are asking for is simply the opportunity to use PayPal.

“In Europe and in the U.S., they are talking about how companies are making profits from their data while we Palestinians, we don’t have the privilege to think about how they are using our data,” Shtaya said. “We are still fighting to have access to PayPal. So, that means that Israel is working systematically to delay or to deny Palestinian access to the digital services and to restrict our activism, our digital engagement.”

WASHINGTON IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION: WHY MAHMOUD ABBAS IS SEEKING NEW ‘POWERFUL’ SPONSORS

JULY 27TH, 2022

Source

By Ramzy Baroud

To judge US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and Palestine as a ‘failure’ in terms of activating the dormant ‘peace process’ is simply a misnomer. For this statement to be accurate, Washington would have had to indicate even a nominal desire to push for negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership.

Political and diplomatic platitudes aside, the current American administration has done the exact opposite as indicated in Biden’s words and actions. Alleging that the US commitment to a two-state solution “has not changed”, Biden dismissed his Administration’s interest in trying to achieve such a goal by declaring that the “ground is not ripe” for negotiations.

Considering that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly announced its readiness to return to negotiations, one can only assume that the process is being stalled due to Israel’s intransigence. Indeed, none of Israel’s top leaders or major parties champion negotiations, or the so-called peace process, as a strategic objective.

However, Israel is not the only party to blame. The Americans, too, have made it clear that they moved on from that political sham altogether, one which they have invented and sustained for decades. In fact, the final nail in the ‘negotiating solution’ coffin was hammered by the Donald Trump Administration, which has simply backed every Israeli claim, thus shunning all rightful Palestinian demands.

The Biden Administration has been habitually blamed by Palestinians, Arabs and progressive voices within the Democratic Party for failing to reverse Trump’s prejudiced moves in favor of Israel: for example, moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, shutting down the US consulate in East Jerusalem, accepting the unfounded Israeli claims regarding its jurisdiction over illegal Jewish settlements built over occupied Palestinian land, and so on.

Even if one assumes that the Biden Administration is capable of reversing some or all of Trump’s unlawful actions, what good would that be in the greater scheme of things? Washington was, and remains, Israel’s greatest benefactor, funding its military occupation of Palestine with an annual gift of $4 billion, in addition to many other schemes, including a massive and growing budget allocated for Israel’s Iron Dome alone.

As horrific as Trump’s years were in terms of undermining a just resolution to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Biden’s policies are but a continuation of an existing pro-Israel American legacy that surpasses that of Trump by decades.

As for Israel, the ‘peace process’ has served its purpose, which explains the infamous declaration by the CEO of the Jewish settlement council in the occupied West Bank, known as Yesha, in 2018, “I don’t want to brag that we’ve won. (…) Others would say it appears that we’re winning.”

However, Israel’s supposed ‘victory’ following three decades of a fraudulent ‘peace process’ cannot be credited to Trump alone. Biden and other top US officials have also been quite useful. While it is widely understood that US politicians support Israel out of sheer interest, for example, the need to appease the influential pro-Israel lobby in Washington DC, Biden’s, support for Israel stems from an ideological foundation. The US President was hardly bashful when he repeated, upon his arrival at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on July 13, his famous statement, “You need not be a Jew to be Zionist.”

Consequently, it may appear puzzling to hear Palestinian officials call on the US – and Biden, specifically – to pressure Tel Aviv to end its 55-year occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

Mohannad al-Aklouk, the Palestinian representative at the Arab League, for example, repeated the same cliched and unrealistic language of expecting the US to “exert practical pressure on Israel”, “set the stage for a fair political process based on international law”, and “meet its role as a fair sponsor of the peace process”. Strangely, Mr. al-Aklouk truly believes that Washington, with its dismal track record of pro-Israeli bias, can possibly be the savior of the Palestinians.

Another Palestinian official told The New Arab that PA President Abbas was “disappointed with the results of Biden’s visit,” as, apparently, the Palestinian leader “expected that the US President would make progress in the peace process”. The same source continued to say that Abbas’ Authority is holding meetings with representatives from “powerful countries” to replace the US as sponsors of the once US-sponsored negotiations.

Abbas’ political stance is confusing. The ‘peace process’ is, after all, an American invention. It was a unique, self-serving style of diplomacy that was formulated to ensure Israel’s priorities remain at center stage of US foreign policy in the Middle East. In the Palestinian case, the ‘peace process’ only served to entrench Israeli colonization of Palestine, while degrading, or completely sidelining, legitimate Palestinian demands. This ‘process’ was also constructed with the aim of marginalizing international law as a political and legal frame of reference to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Instead of questioning the entire ‘peace process’ apparatus and apologizing for the strategic plunders of pursuing American mirages at the expense of Palestinian rights, the Palestinian Authority is still desperately clutching on to the same old fantasy, even when the US, along with Israel, have abandoned their own political farce.

Even if, supposedly, China, Russia or India would agree to be the new sponsors of the ‘peace process’, there is no reason for Tel Aviv to engage in future negotiations, when it is able to achieve its colonial objectives with full American support. Moreover, none of these countries have, for now, much leverage over Israel, therefore are unable to sustain any kind of meaningful pressure on Tel Aviv to respect international law.

Yet, the PA is still holding on, simply because the ‘peace process’ proved greatly beneficial in terms of funds, power and prestige enjoyed by a small but powerful class of Palestinians that was largely formulated after the Oslo Accords in 1993.

It is time for Palestinians to stop investing their political capital in the Biden Administration or any other administration. What they need is not a new ‘powerful’ sponsor of the ‘peace process’ but a grassroots-based struggle for freedom and liberation starting at home, one that galvanizes the energies of the Palestinian people themselves. Alas, this new paradigm cannot be achieved when the priorities of the Palestinian leadership remain fixated on the handouts and political validation of Washington and its Western allies.

AS MORE STUDENTS, FACULTY BACK BDS, AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES MAINTAIN APARTHEID TIES

MAY 31ST, 2022

A poster on a closed shop shows an Israeli milk carton and Arabic in red reads: “boycott,” during a general strike, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territories are on strike in a rare collective action against Israel’s policies, as the war, now in its second week, showed no signs of abating. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

JESSICA BUXBAUM

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — This month, City University of New York’s (CUNY) law school faculty unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, joining a chorus of American universities advocating for Palestinian rights. Harvard University’s Crimson newspaper endorsed the movement earlier this year, with 50 of the school’s faculty members supporting the decision. And in March, the Middle East Studies Association also voted to endorse the BDS movement.

As college campuses across the U.S. grow in their support for Palestine, their administrations – many still having relations with major Israeli universities complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestine – appear less likely to agree. With that in mind, BDS activists urge supporters to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

HOW ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES ARE COMPLICIT

As illustrated by Visualizing Palestine, a data-driven project crafting graphics on the Palestine-Israel issue, several notable Israeli universities assist the state in maintaining its oppression of Palestinians. Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Ariel University, Haifa University, Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the Technion Institute of Technology all contribute to ongoing colonial violence.

Israeli academic Aparthied

Credit | VisualizingImpact

Israeli academic Aparthied

Credit | VisualizingImpact

For instance, Tel Aviv University invites weapon manufacturers like Elbit Systems to its annual Technology Employment Fair and invites students to Elbit Systems events for the purpose of recruitment. The school has also played a role in establishing the Israeli army’s military doctrines and ethical codes and training students to provide legal defense through its army reserve program. The school’s Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine is currently keeping 63 Palestinian corpses in a medical lab freezer as part of Israel’s policy of withholding bodies to use as bargaining chips in future negotiations.

Technion also works with arms developers, partnering with Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems on research projects. Technion, Ben-Gurion, and Bar-Ilan all participated in building a humanoid robot with funding provided by the Israeli and U.S. defense departments. Bar-Ilan and Technion also collaborate with the Israeli military to develop equipment used in executing home demolitions.

Hebrew University coordinates with the Israeli police in harassing and surveilling nearby Palestinian communities. Haifa University hosts a program training students on how to become “digital advocates for Israel.” And Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion, and Haifa University offered benefits and scholarships to students who participated in the military assault on Gaza in 2014.

These universities are deeply entwined in Israel’s apartheid, making their American partners also indirectly complicit.

AMERICAN ACADEMIA AND ISRAELI APARTHEID

Despite growing calls from student activists for their schools to support the BDS movement, American universities continue to collaborate with Israel.

“The university is putting itself at risk of importing the racist policies of the Israeli state into university campuses because of the collaboration that’s required,” Nasreen Abd Elal, information designer at Visualizing Palestine, told MintPress News. Abd Elal was referring to Columbia University’s dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, which was launched in 2020. She was involved in the student campaign against it at Columbia.

Columbia isn’t the only American school linked to complicit Israeli universities, though. Many of the U.S.’ leading universities coordinate with Israeli institutions. The following schools have study-abroad exchange programs or research partnerships with Tel Aviv University, in addition to Columbia and CUNY:

Technion and Cornell partnered together to create the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in 2011. Washington University of St. Louis partners with Technion through its McDonnell International Scholars Academy. The University of Illinois partners with both Tel Aviv and Hebrew University through its research center, Discovery Partners Institute. In 2019 Ariel University, which is located in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, announced a partnership with Florida Atlantic University.

Many of these academic institutions are also heavily invested in Israeli companies, including ColumbiaTuftsUNC, and Urbana-Champaign. Harvard grabbed headlines in April when its newspaper endorsed the BDS movement, but the school maintains investments in several companies listed on the UN’s database of companies involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. These include Bookings Holdings, Expedia, General Mills, and Motorola.

While BDS campaigns across college campuses have gained momentum, to this day no American university has actually divested from Israel.

NOT JUST ACADEMIA

Schools aren’t the only ones associating with Israeli universities. Several American companies also have ties.

Technion has partnered with American corporations Google, IBM, Intel, Nvidia, KLA, Amazon, Medtronic, Cisco, Marvell, and Cadence Design Systems. IBM has also participated in events with Ariel University, according to the research center Who Profits from the OccupationSoftware company PTC began collaborating with Technion on a research and development center in 2021.

BGN Technologies, Ben-Gurion’s technology transfer company, established its Advanced Technologies Park. The park’s tenants include American firms dbMotion and Oracle. BGN Technologies also works with American entities the Georgia Institute of Technology, Nexant, Delek US, Duquesne Light Company, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, and the MITRE Corporation, through its joint consortium related to developing cyber protection infrastructure.

And the Cleveland Clinic Foundation entered into an academic cooperation agreement with the Hebrew University in 2017.

SUPPRESSING PALESTINIAN ACADEMIC FREEDOM

BDS resolutions in academia aren’t passing at a record or even significant rate, but Abd Elal says the administrative reaction to those that have passed demonstrates the movement is working:

The instinctual response of administrators tends to come out swinging in opposition saying, “We’ll never commit to divestment.“ But the fact they feel obliged to respond is provoking that confrontation. Students and faculty are seeing how the university will throw out the democratic mandate because of their interest in maintaining good relationships with their investors.”

Abd Elal added that these campaigns have managed to garner a groundswell of support, and that, in itself, is powerful. “There have been significant strides made in building solidarity on campus and getting people to commit to not going to these institutions and putting pressure on the administration to end [the agreements],” she said.

The call for an academic boycott goes beyond the institutional level, however. “The Israeli state and occupation marginalize Palestinian students and universities and restrict access of international scholars and students to Palestinian universities, which is a significant threat to academic freedom,” Abd Elal said.

In February, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGATpublished new instructions on foreign entry into the West Bank. These guidelines included a swath of new restrictions for individuals wishing to learn or work at Palestinian universities. Foreign lecturers must hold a doctorate and can only teach in certain fields. COGAT will permit only 150 foreign students at Palestinian universities each year and can limit the fields of study open to them.

As detailed above, many American universities have academic agreements with Israeli universities. Yet promoting a free exchange of ideas between Israeli and American academics tends to ignore the crippling hold Israel has on Palestinian education.

Abd Elal explained that Visualizing Palestine’s graphic wasn’t meant to just describe how Israeli universities are complicit in apartheid, but also how the Israeli state has an interest in suppressing Palestinian academic freedom. “The occupation really cuts off Palestinians from the academic community,” she said. “So for that reason, the academic boycott is a key way of standing in solidarity with our academic peers.”

Feature photo | Nasser Nasser | AP

Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist for MintPress News covering Palestine, Israel, and Syria. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The New Arab and Gulf News.

Sabbagh: Syria Spared No Efforts to Stand by the Palestinians to Restore their Rights

Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° 

23 June، 2022
New York, SANA

Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, reiterated that Syria spared no effort to stand by the Palestinians in their struggle to restore their occupied lands and their legitimate rights.

In a statement at the UNRWA Donations Conference, Sabbagh said “Palestine was and still the central cause of Syria, for which Syria spared no effort to stand by the brotherly Palestinians, especially their right to establish their independent state on their land whose capital is Jerusalem, and for Bassam Sabbagh to obtain their rights to return to their homeland in accordance with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, foremost of which is Resolution No. 194 of 1948.

Ambassador Sabbagh indicated that “terrorism’s destruction of a large part of the infrastructure and vital sectors in a number of Palestinian camps calls for an urgent need to rehabilitate these sectors, which we hope will take place as soon as possible, including schools and health care centers, and UNRWA restores its headquarters and offices to resume managing activities through them”.

Fedaa al-Rhayiah/Amer dawa

The Palestinian ‘Work & See’ Equation Pushes Most ‘Israelis’ to Exodus, Sets Palestine on Track of Liberation

May 31, 2022

By Mohammad Youssef

The so-called ‘Flag March’ organized by the Zionist settlers in the occupied holy city of al-Quds under the protection of the ‘Israeli’ occupation army did not achieve its goals.

The ‘Israelis’ wanted to show their sovereignty over the holy city. They sent thousands of settlers holding the flags of their Zionist entity to show their hegemony and control. Nonetheless, the only thing this parade proved was the deterioration of the ‘Israeli’ entity and the determination of the Palestinian people to hold to their historical right in their land.

The Palestinian people confrontation of the parade was able to send a strong message that there is always an opposite reaction and complete readiness by the Palestinian people to defend their land and protect their sacred right.

Scores of Palestinians were wounded in the confrontations against the ‘Israeli’ enemy soldiers and the settlers, many others, especially the youths were kidnapped by the Zionists.

The ‘Israelis’ have resorted to a new tactic by exposing their criminal attacks on cameras.

Because they know they have an international, namely western and particularly American cover, they think they have immunity to do what they like to preserve their tight grip over the place.

However, the Palestinian resistance forces, with their deep and continuous organized coordination, have shown a greater level of seriousness and prudent responsibility. The harmony among the different resistance factions has caused a real sabotage to the ‘Israeli’ plans.

‘Israel’ that has always wanted to prove to the world and to the Arab people its might and its capability to conquer them in no time, is striving now to prove its capability to hold and consolidate its authority over the different quarters of the city of al-Quds.

This is very telling actually about the continuation of the dwindling and descending ‘Israeli’ capabilities.

In the literature of the struggle against the ‘Israeli’ occupation, there had been a time when the Palestinians and Arabs fought against what used to be called the Bigger ‘Israel’, this used to signify the ‘Israeli’ intentions and plans to occupy the lands from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq.

This expansionist plan of the ‘Israeli’ entity has totally failed and collapsed, thanks to the continuous Arab, particularly Palestinian and Lebanese resistance, namely Hezbollah.

When the ‘Israelis’ failed to achieve their plan of the Bigger ‘Israel’, they turned to an alternative which is the Greater ‘Israel’. Again the ‘Israeli’ leaders have experienced the bitterest taste of defeat. With resolve and determination of the Arab people and their support to the resistance forces, we can simply and proudly say that the Axis of Resistance, which stretches from Palestine to Lebanon and Syria reaching to Iraq, Iran and Yemen, made this second goal a complete failure to the Tel Aviv regime.

There had never been a time in the ‘Israeli’ entity’s history that it was in a position of strategic confusion than the present time. The situation now to ‘Israel’ is dim grim, it is a time of strategic uncertainty. The majority of the ‘Israelis’ have lost faith in their government and army. They have a deep sense of insecurity that cannot be treated easily. They are questioning the basics, and the use about their presence in Palestine. Thus is mounting and it is going to grow bigger and bigger till it becomes a big crisis that will push most of them to an exodus.

This will surely happen, the time is ticking in the Palestinian rhythm. The result will not be anything else but a total victory. It is an equation of wait and see. But the Palestinians, due to their habit of creativity, have turned it to an equation of work and see. That is why we will not wait long before we see, the liberation of Palestine from river to sea.

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74 Years of Historical Injustice: The Creation of “Israel”

18 May 2022

Source: Al Mayadeen English

Hussam AbdelKareem 

The British colonialists viewed the Zionist movement as a tool for their imperial designs and hence the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917.

74 Years of Historical Injustice: The Creation of “Israel”

“Al-Nakba” is the Arabic term used to commemorate the creation of the “State of Israel” on May 15, 1948. “Al Nakba” literally means “catastrophe”, which best describes how Arab peoples feel about the creation of the Hebrew “state” in Palestine at the expense of its legitimate owners; the Palestinian Arabs.

In 1948, the principles of right and justice were, literally, butchered at the hands of the Zionist gangs and militias known as Haganah, which later turned into the “Israeli Army”. The Jewish Zionists in Palestine, who emigrated mainly from Eastern Europe, were preparing for this day for decades. The Zionists knew very well that they were not welcomed in Palestine and will never be accepted by Arab nations, so conquering the land by force was their sole path to achieving their goals in Palestine. War with the Arabs, in the Zionists’ eyes, was inevitable. Extensive military planning and preparations were undertaken by the Zionists in Palestine since their early arrivals at the beginning of the 20th century and particularly after Great Britain took over Palestine at the end of World War I.

The British colonialists viewed the Zionist movement as a tool for their imperial designs and hence the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917, confirming Great Britain’s commitment to establishing a “Jewish homeland” in Palestine. The Zionists were receiving full support from the colonial power, which was true to its pledge. Waves of Jewish immigrants arrived from Europe to strengthen the Zionist project in Palestine, and by 1947, when the Palestine partition plan was passed at the UN, the Zionists had a 75,000 semi-army force, which was further aided by another 20,000 Jewish militants in the following year when they waged their war on the Arabs in Palestine in 1948. When the British withdrew their forces from Palestine in 1948, they handed their military installations, camps, and equipment to the Haganah, thus leaving behind them a fully armed and well-trained Jewish army ready to fight the Arabs in Palestine who were practically deprived of weapons and even the slightest means of defense.

The Zionists, who were owning a mere 6% of the land in Palestine in 1948, launched their “war of independence” against the Arabs, which ended in declaring their Jewish “state of Israel” after conquering about 80% of historical Palestine by force and bloodshed. The war was brutal, and the Zionists exhibited utmost forms of savagery and cruelty. Many massacres against civilian Arabs were committed in several cities and villages in Palestine. In one of the most horrible massacres, 254 civilian villagers, including women and children, were killed in cold blood at the hands of Zionist terrorists in the town of Der Yassin, near Jerusalem. Other brutal crimes were also committed in Haifa, Tantura, and Lydd, and the Zionist terror campaign resulted in about 800,000 Palestinian Arabs fleeing their homes and lands and becoming refugees in neighboring Arab countries, namely Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. Total destruction was inflicted by the Haganah on 531 Arab villages all over Palestine. About 85% of the Arabs who lived within the borders of the to-be “State of Israel” were forcefully expelled. It was ethnic cleansing in its ugliest forms.  

The world was watching while these Zionist crimes were happening in Palestine and did practically nothing except some relief efforts and humanitarian aid. Even when “Israel” officially decided to confiscate the Palestinian refugees’ homes, lands, and properties in 1949, the UN did not bother to intervene. Actually, it was no surprise, as the UN was under the domination of the Great Powers of the post-World War II era, particularly the UK and USA, both supporting the new Jewish “state” which was planted in the heart of the Arab world.

After the 1948 war ended, “Israel’ firmly refused to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to their country and demanded they be settled permanently in the other Arab countries. Furthermore, “Israel” refused to admit to the crimes committed by its troops and even declined to acknowledge its responsibility for uprooting the Palestinian Arabs and turning most of them into stateless refugees in miserable camps. The Israeli narrative about the Palestinian refugee problem is that they “voluntarily” left their homes and lands! And “Israel” refused to pay any financial compensation to the refugees whose properties were illegally confiscated and taken over by Jewish settlers. In 1967, another wave of displaced Palestinian refugees was added to the 1948 one to make the problem even worse. Again, the world did nothing apart from some expressions of sorrow for the humanitarian suffering of the refugees. With the help of its patron, the US, “Israel” escaped any accountability for its crimes and actions.

Seven decades have passed, with successive generations, and the status of the Palestinian refugees is still the same; not allowed to return to their historical homeland, not compensated, and not recognized as victims of historical injustice!

“Al-Nakba” will remain the term to be used to describe what happened on May 15, 1948, as long as the Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israeli occupation continues. It’s a shame that the world allows such a tragedy to go on this long. It’s a shame that “Israel” is left without accountability.

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.