An Existential Threat and its Solution.
May 8, 2009
by Brad Stroud
The bottom line is the settlements. They are an existential threat to the Palestinians. Their expansion is an existential threat to the Palestinians. Therefore the expansion of settlements must stop. Therefore the settlements must be dismantled.
The bottom line is the settlements. They are an existential threat to the Palestinians. Their expansion is an existential threat to the Palestinians. Therefore the expansion of settlements must stop. Therefore the settlements must be dismantled.
This is the only true and real existential threat in the Middle East.
Do not be placated by political talk from the lips of Obama and administration or any member of the Israeli government including Netanyahu until the words are these:
Obama: “Mr. Netanyahu. Dismantle the settlements.”
Netanyahu: “The Zionist ambition for a Greater Israel has seduced us into believing that anything great could come out of the complete destruction of a homeland for the Palestinians. Our future, our greatness as a nation, can only come about from a greatness of spirit. This spirit begins today with me as I sign into law the dismantling of the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
(Citizens and human rights advocates around the world cheer in unison! And those opposed? What ill thoughts must they be thinking to oppose this?)
60 Years Ago …
February 10, 2008
Sixty is the number of the year. There will be three invocations of this number over the coming months: One to celebrate, another to lament and I’ll get to the third in a moment.
Those celebrating will celebrate that which the others lament – the establishment of the State of Israel, entailing as it has the Dispossession and relentless, ongoing destruction of the community of Palestinians. Much like other western colonial nations the celebration of the existence of one nation will be inescapably connected with the near decimation of another. It will celebrate the establishment of so-called security for one people, at the expense of that of another. To put a finer point on it, those celebrating will be celebrating an existence (i.e., “existence” in the sense of actual historical policies and practices) inextricably connected to ethnic cleansing and cultural destruction (with some arguing also, genocide).
Some celebration.
While some celebrate 60 years of the State of Israel and others lament 60 years since the Palestinian Nakba, I’m going to celebrate a different 60 year anniversary:
Sixty years ago the world established, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. …
the severity of the Supreme Court’s decision is not only on the human level: The Supreme Court is authorizing collective punishment, which is specifically forbidden under international law (Article 33 of the Geneva Convention). Henceforth, Israel will no longer be able to complain about attacks against innocents in Israel: If all the residents of the Gaza Strip deserve to be punished because of the Qassam rockets, then maybe all Israelis deserve to be punished because of the occupation?
The Lights Have Been Turned Off – by Gideon Levy – 02/04/08 – Haaretz
Gaza is the Evidence: Israel is Demented
February 5, 2008
Some facts and interpretations about Gaza: What are the facts? What things have happened? Why?. Big project. There are literally thousands of articles on the topic from 2005 to the present, so it is necessary to build this post over time or over a number of posts. See here for the Israel is Demented piece.
August 15, 2005: Israel officially began pulling out the settlements from the Gaza Strip. Israel had occupied the strip for 38 years. During that period it had built up 21 settlements peopled with Jewish-Israelis.[1] The total area of Gaza: 363.7 sq. kilometers. Area of Jewish-Israeli settlements: 116.5 sq. kilometers (32.13% of the Gaza territory).[2] Number of Palestinians: approx. 1.4 million. Number of Jewish-Israeli settlers: approx. 8,700.[3]
Even before the official pullout date serious questions were being raised as to what the pullout would mean in practical, no less legal terms:
Ushani Agalawatta (07/28/05 – Inter Press Service):
-under international law the Gaza Strip would still be considered occupied territory
-the Palestinians in Gaza would not have “control over airports, sea ports or natural resources such as water or gas.”
-Renad Qubbaj of the Palestinian NGO Network stated (July 28, 2005) that despite the pullout, “there is a great risk of Gaza becoming one big prison,” and “the Israeli army will still be controlling the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza.”
-Further, “The disengagement plan specifically states that ‘Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza airspace, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip.’”
-Jaber Wishah, deputy director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) stated (July 28, 2005), “It is certain that Gaza will become a big prison, there will be no freedom of trade or freedom of movement. Until there is a safe and continuous passage to the West Bank, there will only be movement through the Rafah border with Egypt but even that the Israelis want joint control over.”[3]
