FRIEDMAN, Seth. UK writer on remorseless, continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestine

Seth Friedman is a journalist writing for the UK Guardian (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/09/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast )

Seth Friedman on the remorseless, continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestine (2008): “In Nilin specifically as well as in the West Bank as a whole, one thing is certain: the drugs don't work. The idea of international intervention is laughed at sorrowfully by Khaled and his peers. Similarly, the aid of the Israeli courts: "An Israeli judge banned them from continuing to build the wall here," said Khaled, "but they [the army] couldn't care less. They're still here — and if the courts can't stop them, who can?" The answer — as he, his son and the rest of the villagers know all too well — is that no one can. The eyes of the world look on either benevolently (in the case of Israel's backers in the US and elsewhere), or impotently; too cowed to act, too diplomatic to intervene. Time is not on the Palestinians' side. Just as Nilin appears in its death throes today, so too will another village tomorrow, then another, then another. As the life of the Palestinian nation ebbs away, the best treatment on offer is merely palliative; and even that is proving too weak to soothe their never-ending anguish.“ [1].

[1]. Seth Friedman, “A village in its death throes. The bloody violence in Nilin showed me that Israel's security wall could be the final blow in the destruction of Palestine”, Guardian, Comment is Free, 9 June 2008: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/09/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast .