18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates slam Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?" ***
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Letter signed by 350 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide and published by ICAN:
“As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.
We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.
Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.
We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. We call for an immediate end to the siege against and blockade of Gaza. We call for the full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. “Never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!
Signed [by 350 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide]” (see “Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza”, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), 23 August 2014: http://ijsn.net/nafa/survivors-and-descendants-letter/ ).
Dr Chris Abani is a Nigerian novelist and poet and has published numerous works (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Abani ).
Chris Abani was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
PS. In answer to Juliano Mer Khamis’ question (above) "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?" a possible candidate is Gideon Polya's "Qana" (see: Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4293063550/ ) , a huge painting (1.3 metres x 2.9 metres) that is is geometrically and conceptually based on Pablo Picasso's huge anti-war painting "Guernica" about the Nazi and fascist destruction of the Basque town of Guernica in Spain in 1937. Qana is based on the 2006 destruction by the war criminal Israelis (for the second time) of the Southern Lebanese town of Qana (assertedly where Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast). Some elements (the screaming woman, the bull, the screaming horse are common) as is the geometrical scaffolding (a double Golden Rectangle between upper and lower strips).
ABBAS, Mahmoud (Palestinian Authority President) quoted in BBC report (2014): “Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of carrying out a "war of genocide" in Gaza in his speech at the UN General Assembly” ( “Palestinian leader accuses Israel of 'genocide' at UN”, BBC News, 27 September 2014: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29387079 ).
Saleh Abdel-Jawad (Associate Professor of History, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine) referred to by Eve Spenger re his term “Palestinian sociocide”: “The cumulative weight of all these [Zionist] aggressions constitutes, in the words of Abdel Jawad, a Palestinian sociocide. Abdel Jawad’s term has spawned a host of cognates – “spaciocide” to describe the incredible disappearing Palestine, “politicide” to describe the dismembering of the Palestinian political hopes. Clearly his term , sociocide, is the most inclusive and it also has the immense moral advantage of allowing Palestinians to name their own experience, if they so choose. Perhaps it is correct to understand that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is Zionism’s aim and “sociocide” describes the complex set of policies by which this aim is accomplished without unmasking “the only democracy in the Middle East”” (Eve Spengler, “Understanding Israel/Palestine: Race, Nation and human Rights in the Conflict”, Sense, 2015, page 199).
Saleh Abdel-Jawad (Associate Professor of History, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine) on “Palestinian sociocide” (1998): “Israeli policy since 1948 has, explicitly or implicitly, been designed to force the Palestinians into exile. Sometimes this has taken the form of war, sometimes of measures designed to make daily life for the Arab population as difficult as possible. Its single aim, however, has always been Palestinian "sociocide"” (Saleh Abdel Jawad, “War by other means”, AL Ahram, 1998: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/1998/1948/359_salh.htm).
ABUNIMAH, Ali: "In addition to expelling 800,000 Palestinians during its founding, Israel has killed some 100,000 Palestinians and Arabs since 1948"
Ali Abunimah (executive director of The Electronic Intifada) (2021): “Omar rightly challenges Blinken over US opposition to the International Criminal Court investigation of these alleged “war crimes and crimes against humanity. “I would emphasize that in Israel and Palestine, this includes crimes committed by both the Israeli security forces and Hamas,” she says. “In Afghanistan it includes crimes committed by the Afghan national government and the Taliban.” In her spoken comments, Omar notably omits crimes committed by the United States… But it is deeply troubling that Omar – who has been raising election campaign money off her rhetorical support for Palestinians – describes Palestinian resistance and self-defense as “crimes against humanity” and equates it with Israel’s colonial violence… Israel’s list of atrocities is too long and well-known to repeat here. In addition to expelling 800,000 Palestinians during its founding, Israel has killed some 100,000 Palestinians and Arabs since 1948 – beginning decades before Hamas was established in 1988” (Ali Abunimah, “It’s time to change liberal discourse about Hamas”, Electronic Intifada, 10 June 2021: https://electronicintifada.net/content/its-time-change-liberal-discourse-about-hamas/33376?fbclid=IwAR2ZYyWyo1Nc2jvTaD83DdL95ZRppzn-QulyrbYmJHerTLq01n55OsZKxGQ .)
Rashad Abu Shawar (Arab journalist) in reviewing Nawaf Al Zaru’s book “The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust” (2011): “Because the Palestinian holocaust targets not only human beings but also land, trees, heritage and civilisation, the author gave it a subtitle: The fabrication of 'Israel' and ethnic cleansing policies. And because the Palestinian holocaust did not end with the 1948 war, or the 1967 war, and because the Zionist genocide scheme … and displacement policies are still very much in effect - and will stay that way until the Palestinians are completely and definitively uprooted from the land of their ancestors - the Palestinian holocaust could only be described as 'ongoing'” (Rashad Abu Shawar quoted in “A Palestinian “holocaust””, The National, 20 January 2012: https://www.thenational.ae/a-palestinian-holocaust-1.395990 ).
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an engineer and teacher, the former President of Iran and a major leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a conservative political coalition. He has been the target of false and vitriolic abuse from racist Zionists and their neoconservative Western backers because of his opposition to race-based colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad ).
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the WW2 Jewish Holocaust and the Palestinian Genocide (2009): “The first question that I have to try and understand is why in the midst of all that happened in World War II, the Holocaust is emphasized more than any other [event]? The second question is why do Western politicians focus on this issue so much? The third question is how does that event connect with issues that we see around us in the world today? Was this a historical event that happened in isolation without impacting the present conditions? The next question we should ask ourselves is if the event did take place, where did it happen, who were the perpetrators, what was the role of the Palestinian people? What crime have they committed to deserve what they have received as a result? Why exactly should the Palestinian people be victimized? Are you aware that over 5 million Palestinians have been displaced and have had refugee status? What role did they play in the Holocaust? Why is the Holocaust used as a pretext to occupy the land of other people? Why should the Palestinian people give their lives up for it? You are probably aware that there have been embargoes on the people of Gaza. … At the end of the day the people in Gaza are sitting in their homes living their lives and staying in their homeland. Who is the occupier here? The United Nations resolutions condemn which occupying regime? What fair-minded person can accept that an event that happened in Europe [results] in having his or her land occupied elsewhere in the world? If a crime happened in Europe, why should the people of Palestine make up for it? It is a really clear-cut question. Unfortunately, Western politicians refuse to answer these questions and divert into other areas. We are primarily opposed to the murder of human beings. Sixty million people were killed back then [in World War II], and it is indeed regrettable. It does not matter what creed or belief they came from—human beings and their lives are to be respected simply because they are human beings. I would like to emphasize that we are not living 60 years ago—we are living today. We see the Holocaust as a pretext to commit genocide against the Palestinian people.” [1].
[1]. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad interviewed by Newsweek (23 Septembebr 2009): http://www.newsweek.com/id/216040/page/1 .
Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer of Palestinian descent, born in the town of Beit-Jala, Palestine. He currently lives in the US (see: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8354.htm ).
Dr Elias Akleh on Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide (2008): “Holocaust is the genocidal crime against people based on their ethnicity. This genocide could be perpetrated through different means such as poison gas, guns, tanks, air raids, biological warfare, economical siege, starvation, destruction of vital natural resources, eviction into desert, and deprivation of basic vital materials among others, to produce the same result; mass deaths. For the last sixty years Palestinians have been suffering from all these methods in a deliberate programmed holocaust. The perpetrators are not Nazis, but those who claim to be survivors, and their descendents, of Nazi-caused holocaust; Zionist Jewish Israelis.
The threat of Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Metan Vinai, to inflict “bigger Shoah” (Holocaust) [British Telegraph 2/29] on Gaza’s Palestinians reflect the adopted policy of the Israeli government towards Palestinians. Encircled by 8 foot high cement wall on three sides and a sea filled with hostile Israeli gun boats on the fourth, Gaza, with a dense population of 1.5 million people, has become the largest concentration camp ever on this globe. Israeli army is the prison guards of this concentration camp. Controlling all borders, sea and air Israeli army controls and restricts all vital materials going into Gaza.” [1, 2].
Elias Akleh on the Gaza Massacre and the 62 year Palestinian Genocide (2009): “A fully pre-meditated international crime of genocide has been taking place during the last 62 years in the heart of the Arab World. The victims are the Palestinian people especially those in the Gaza Strip. The assassin is the worst ever terrorist group deceptively called the Israeli Defense Forces under the leadership of the theocratically most racist “god’s chosen” deceitfully self-proclaimed “democratic Jewish-only” Israel. Israel had been created, financed, armed, and politically protected by, mainly, British and American rapture-vision-obsessed Talmudist power elites consisting of profit-seeking financiers and military-industrial complex… For almost the last three years Israel had subjected Gaza to an illegal economic siege, which in itself constitutes a crime against humanity. Israel had, and still is, preventing the entry into Gaza of vital life sustaining products such as food stuff, fuel, medicine and needed medical equipment, water purification equipment and many building materials. This is a genocidal crime using hunger and thirst as weapons.
Starting late December of 2008 and for continuous 22 days Israeli terrorist army had perpetrated a genocidal war crime against Gaza Palestinians. The Israeli army, known to be the fourth powerful army in the world, attacked unarmed civilian Palestinians of Gaza comprising mostly of children, women, and old people. There was no regular army in Gaza to face the well equipped, well trained to murder Israeli army. Only few male civilians, who took it on themselves to carry the light arms they could obtain to resist the Israeli war criminals in order to protect their own families.
The Israeli military radio station announced that half of the Israeli air force had conducted 2500 air sorties dropping a total of 1,000,000 KG of explosives on the civilian families of Gaza. This is not counting the shells fired by the artillery and tanks. They had used high precision GPS-guided bombs to destroy vital locations such as the UN food warehouse and schools, government buildings, hospitals and medical clinics, religious buildings and civilian institutions...
This week protests are organized in major countries around the world in US, UK, France, Turkey, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Jordan, and occupied Palestine (Israel), commemorating the first anniversary of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
Under the Principle of Universal Jurisdiction we are witnessing Western courts issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders (Tzibi Livni) and army generals (former military chief Moshe Yaalon and General Doron Almog) for committing war crimes. International lawyers are filing for more arrest warrants against more Israeli war criminals. Soon Israeli leaders will be chased across the globe as war criminals the same way Israel had chased German Nazis as war criminals. ” [3].
[1]. Dr Elias Akleh, “Gaza’s Holocaust”, Countercurrents, 4 March 2008: http://www.countercurrents.org/akleh040308.htm .
[2]. Dr Elias Akleh, “Gaza’s Holocaust”, republished as Chapter 12 in
“The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
[2]. Elias Akleh, “An international crime called Gaza”, MWC News, 29 December 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/35268/42/ .
Al Haq (an independent Palestinian human-rights organization) and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Nawaf Al Zaru “The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust”, 1040 pages, Amman 2011 (referred to in “A Palestinian “holocaust””, The National, 20 January 2012: https://www.thenational.ae/a-palestinian-holocaust-1.395990 ).
Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Aldameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Tariq Ali (born 21 October 1943), is a British Pakistani historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, activist, and commentator. He is the author of numerous books, notably “Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity” (2002) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali ).
Tariq Ali signed the following letter together with John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” (Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .)
Amnesty International re the 2014 Gaza Massacre (the so-called “Operation Protective Edge”) by Apartheid Israel (2014): “An International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation is essential to break the culture of impunity which perpetuates the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The case for such action is made all the more compelling in the light of the ongoing serious violations of international humanitarian law being committed by all parties to the current hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Israeli Citizens espousing Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (2016): “We are Israeli citizens, opposed to the Israeli government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people. Many of us are veteran human rights activists who have long worked against these policies. It's our long years of anti-racism advocacy that brought us to the understanding that the most effective way to stop the apartheid system is to deny its economic fuel and political legitimacy. Therefore, we strongly support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), aimed at ending these actions. We write to you to ask you to heed the Palestinian call for justice, and cancel your concert in Israel… Israel holds the Gaza Strip under hermetic siege, in which Israel conducts vicious major bombing campaigns on a regular basis. The latest one, in 2014, resulted in over 2000 innocent Palestinians massacred, 500 of whom were children. The Palestinians in Gaza live in constant anxiety, knowing that the next massacre is just around the corner. In the West Bank, Israel has massively escalated its home-demolition policies against Palestinians, while it continues to construct Jewish-only colonies on stolen Palestinian land. 2016 has seen a massive escalation in policy of extrajudicial executions, with an execution taking place almost every day, including women and children. Another oppressive policy seeing escalation is that of mass, arbitrary arrests, with currently 7000 Palestinians in Israel’s prisons. Over 10% of total prisoners are held without charge, trial, or release date. All prisoners are subject to systematic ill-treatment, medical neglect, beatings, and torture. Most disturbing is the fact that children aren’t protected, and in fact, Israel’s arrest of children has escalated in the past two years, despite United Nations pressure to end all forms of state child abuse. Within Israel itself there are no less than 50 laws discriminating against the Palestinian citizens of the State, while Israeli parliament members compete for votes, by exhibiting who can make the most genocidal statement ” (Israeli Citizens espousing Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, “From Israeli citizens to Peter Murphy – the answer is clear, boycott apartheid Israel”, BDS, 4 October 2016: https://bdsmovement.net/news/israeli-citizens-peter-murphy-answer-clear-boycott-apartheid-israel ).
Gilad Atzmon is an anti-racist, Jewish Israeli jazz musician, composer, novelist, commentator and anti-Zionist activist. The moral power of his straightforward anti-racist position is reflected in the extraordinary hostility towards him from Zionists (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilad_Atzmon ).
Gilad Atzmon on the Palestinian Genocide in Gaza and Old Testament Biblical prescriptives used by the genocidal secular state of Apartheid Israel (December 2009): “There is not much doubt amongst Biblical scholars that the Hebrew Bible contains some highly charged non-ethical suggestions, some of which are no less than a call for a genocide. Biblical scholar Raymund Schwager has found in the Old Testament 600 passages of explicit violence, 1000 descriptive verses of God's own violent actions of punishment, 100 passages where God expressly commands others to kill people. Apparently, violence is the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible. As devastating as it may be, the Hebrew Bible saturation with violence and extermination of others may throw some light over the horrifying genocide conducted in Gaza by the Jewish state. In broad daylight, the IDF was using the most lethal methods against civilians as if their main objective is to ‘destroy’ the Gazans while showing ‘no mercy’ whatsoever. Interestingly enough, Israel regards itself as a secular state. Ehud Barak is not exactly a qualified Rabbi and Tzipi Livni is not a Rabbi’s wife. Accordingly, we are entitled to assume that it isn’t actually Judaism per se that directly transforms Israeli politicians and military leaders into war criminals. Moreover, early Zionists believed that within a national home Jews would become 'people like all other people', i.e., civilised and ethical. In that very respect, Israeli reality is pretty peculiar. The Hebraic secular Jews may have managed to drop their God, most of them do not follow Judaic law, they are largely secular, and yet 94% of them interpret their Jewish identity as a genocidal mission. They have successfully managed to transform the Bible from being a spiritual text into a bloodsoaked land registry. They are there, in Zion i.e., Palestine, to invade the land and to lock up, starve and destroy its indigenous habitants…Currently, Israel and Zionism are the only collective voice available for Jews. The merciless offensive against the Palestinian civilian population does not leave any room for doubt. Israel is the gravest danger to world peace. Clearly the nations made a tragic mistake in 1947 giving an emerging volatile racially orientated identity an opportunity to set itself into a national state. However, the nations’ duty now is to peacefully dismantle that state before it is too late. We must do it before the Jewish state and its forceful lobbies around the world manage to pull us all into a global war in the ‘name’ of one banal populist ideology or another (democracy, war against terror, cultural clash and so on). We have to wake up now before our one and only planet is transformed into a bursting boil of hatred” (Gilad Atzmon, “The Old Testament and the Genocide in Gaza”, MWC News, 23 December 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/35176/26/ .)
Australians For Palestine (AFP) ”seeks to dispel the myths and disinformation about Palestine in Australia” (see: http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/about-us ).
Australians For Palestine (AFP) on the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine [detailed maps provided] (2012): “Background. For Palestinians, their land is their identity and this has been taken away from them in ever-increasing amounts since the United Nations decided to partition historic Palestine in 1947. The, the total area of historic Palestine was 6.5 million acres, with only a mere 370,000 acres under Jewish control. The Palestinians , who formed the majority population, owned some 2.25 million acres under various titles with the rest cam under the Islamic trust (waqf) and what we would call today “state land”.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. The UN Partition, which divided the land into 56 per cent for the Jewish State, 43 per cent for the Arab State with Jerusalem designated as an International Zone, never eventuated. Instead, the forcible dispossession of Palestinians began even for Israel was declared a state in 1948. Jewish Zionist leaders knew that Israel’s existence could only be assured by ridding it of the indigenous Palestinian population. Zionist militia groups used physical and psychological terror tactics to force Palestinians to flee their homes in towns and villages and then took control of 5 million acres of land. Some 400 Palestinian villages and towns were ethnically cleansed, but the Palestinians never thought for a moment that they would become “permanent” refugees. To obliterate any evidence of these villages, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) planted hundreds of thousands of non-native trees in their place. In effect, the new State of Israel took a further 22 per cent of Palestinian land, and to this day, has denied the indigenous Palestinians their right of return.
Israel’s illegal land grabs are continuing. Since the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians have been victims of a new wave of land expropriations and have witnessed the demolition of their homes and the razing of their farmlands to make way for illegal Israeli settlements, military posts, the Wall and Israeli-only freeways
The Palestinians who remained living in what had become Israel also feel the effects of Israel’s illegal land policies that favour Jewish citizens. For six decades Israel has refused to allow any new towns or villages to accommodate the growth rate of Palestinians. A 1961 law, which states that the JNF exists :for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands and properties”, blatantly discriminates on the basis if ethnicity” ( Australians For Palestine (AFP) and Women For Palestine (Melbourne), “Palestinian Land Day [Yawm al Ard]”, Briefing Paper, 30 March 2012: http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/45585#more-45585 .)
John Scales Avery (a theoretical chemist at the University of Copenhagen; since 1990 he has been the Chairman of the Danish National Group of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs that won a Nobel Peace Prize) (2018): “Genocides must also be included if we are to have a complete picture of the way in which governments attack civilian populations. These include the mass murder of Jews, Poles and Gypsies by the Nazis during World War II, Armenian Genocide, the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, the genocidal treatment of Palestinians by Israel, and many many other cases” (John Scales Avery, “A World Federation”, Chapter 5, “Nuclear weapons as collective punishment”, Countercurrents, 11 December 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/11/a-world-federation-chapter-5-nuclear-weapons-as-collective-punishment/ ; John Scales Avery, “A World Federation”: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/A-World-Federation-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf ).
Uri Avnery was a Jewish Israeli member of the Israeli Knesset, 1965-1974 and 1979-1981, and a founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. He writes extensively about Palestinian human rights and is the author of “1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem”, “Israel’s Vicious Circle”” and “My Friend, the Enemy” (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Uri Avnery on Apartheid Israel’s slow-motion ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians (2003): “It may seem that there are only two possibilities: One state in the whole country, which will necessarily be bi-national, or an Israeli state in a part of the country, inside the green Line, next to a Palestinian state. But there is a third possibility: An Israeli state in all of the country, from which the Palestinian population will be expelled. Few Israelis speak of this openly, but a great many think about it. Good people ignore this alternative because they do not find it thinkable. They imagine Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing: driving millions out in one big dramatic sweep. They console themselves: "The world won't stand for it! Sharon wouldn't dare!" But there are other ways to implement ethnic cleansing: not dramatically, but slowly, daily, even routinely. Like, for example, what's happening now in Bethlehem. It works like this: Pressure is put on property-owners. They are told: It's better for you to sell us your properties now, before the authorities come and expropriate them for security reasons” ( Uri Avnery, “Slow-motion ethnic cleansing”, Countercurrents, 9 October 2003: http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-avnery091003.htm and Uri Avnery, “Slow-motion ethnic cleansing”, republished in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
BALFOUR, Arthur: "Zionism... of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs"
Arthur Balfour (author of the evil Balfour Declaration): “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land” (Joseph Massad, “The Balfour Declaration’s many questions”, Electronic Intifada, 8 November 2017: https://electronicintifada.net/content/balfour-declarations-many-questions/22216 ).
Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an outstanding American writer of novels, short stories, non-fiction and poetry (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Banks ).
Russell Banks was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica” (18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers . )
Omar Barghouti was born in Qatar, moved to Ramallah, Palestine and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York. He is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and writes extensively about the Palestinian cause and human rights (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Omar Barghouti on European collusion in the Apartheid Israel’s slow Palestinian Genocide (2008): “Princeton academic Richard Falk considered Israel’s siege a “prelude to genocide,” even before this latest crime of altogether cutting off energy supplies. Now, Israel’s crimes in Gaza can accurately be categorized as acts of genocide, albeit slow. According to Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the term is defined as:
“[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; …”
Clearly, Israel’s hermetic siege of Gaza, designed to kill, cause serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about partial and gradual physical destruction, qualifies as an act of genocide, if not all-out genocide yet. And the EU is suspiciously silent.” (Omar Barghouti, “European collusion in Israel’s slow genocide”, The Electronic Intifada, 21 January 2008: http://electronicintifada.net/content/never-against-european-collusion-israels-slow-genocide/7309 and Omar Barghouti, “European collusion in Israel’s slow genocide”, republished as Chapter 23 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html . )
Dr Ramzy Baroud ( internationally syndicated columnist, a media consultant, founder of PalestineChronicle.com and an author of “ Searching Jenin”, “The Second Palestinian Intifada”, and “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story”) on new Israeli Apartheid laws after UNSC Resolution 2334 (2017): “The so-called "Regulation Bill" will retroactively validate 4,000 illegal structures built on private Palestinian land. In the occupied Palestinian territories, all Jewish settlements are considered illegal under international law, as further indicated in UNSC Resolution 2334. There are also 97 illegal Jewish settlement outposts - a modest estimation - that are now set to be legalised and, naturally, expanded at the expense of Palestine. The price of these settlements has been paid mostly by US taxpayers' money, but also the blood and tears of Palestinians, generation after generation. It is important, though, that we realise that Israel's latest push to legalise illegal outposts and annex large swaths of the West Bank is the norm, not the exception. Indeed, the entire Zionist vision for Israel was achieved based on the illegal appropriation of Palestinian land. Wasn't so-called "Israel proper" - as in land obtained by force from 1948 to 1967 - originally Palestinian land?...
Kevin Barrett (American Middle East scholar, writer and human rights activist) (2019): “Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million. Israel should be paying holocaust reparations, not collecting them. Israel must end the Palestinian Holocaust… Despite conspiring with Zionist and militarist Americans to murder 294 Americans in 1967 [USS Liberty incident] and almost 3,000 Americans on 9/11, Israel has been far more merciful to Americans than to Palestinians. The Zionist assault on Palestine has killed about 2.2 million Palestinians—100,000 directly, the other 2.1 million from imposed deprivation—according to Dr. Gideon Polya, retired science professor from La Trobe University of Melbourne, Australia. Below is Dr. Polya’s recent communiqué. –KB. Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million” (Kevin Barrett, “Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million”, Veterans Today, 10 June 2019: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/06/10/new-evidence/ ).
John Peter Berger (born 5 November 1926) is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author of the novel ”G.” which won the 1972 Booker Prize, and “Ways of Seeing” a BBC TV series and book on art criticism (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berger ).
John Berger signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” (Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .)
William Blum (author of “Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2”, “Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower”, “West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir”, “Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire”) on “Israel's genocide against the Palestinians” (2012): “And once again, the United States is participating in the overthrow of a secular Mideast government. At the same time, the Muslim fundamentalists in Syria, as in Libya, can have no illusions that America loves them. A half century of US assaults on Mideast countries, the establishment of American military bases in the holy land of Saudi Arabia, and US support for dictatorships and for Israel's genocide against the Palestinians have relieved them of such fanciful thoughts. So why is the United States looking to forcefully intervene once again? A tale told many times — world domination, oil, Israel, ideology, etc. Assad of Syria, like Gaddafi of Libya, has shown little promise as a reliable client state so vital to the American Empire. It's only the barrier set up by Russia and China on the UN Security Council that keeps NATO (aka the United States) from unleashing thousands of airborne missiles to "liberate" Syria as they did Libya” (William Blum, “Syria, The Story Thus Far”, Countercurrents, 3 October, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/blum031012.htm ).
Francis Boyle is a Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Illinois, USA and very active in the defence of human rights and International law. Professor Boyle is the author of Foundations of World Order, Duke University Press, The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, and Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, by Clarity Press. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Boyle ).
Francis Boyle on Palestinian Genocide (December 2000): “I would like to propose publicly here in Gaza, Palestine--where the Intifadah began ten years ago at this time--that the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine and its President institute legal proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague (the so-called World Court) for violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I am sure we can all agree that Israel has indeed perpetrated the international crime of genocide against the Palestinian People. The purpose of this lawsuit would be to demonstrate that undeniable fact to the entire world. These World Court legal proceedings will prove to the entire world and to all of history that what the Nazis did to the Jews a generation ago is legally similar to what the Israelis are currently doing to the Palestinian People today: genocide.” [1].
Francis Boyle on Palestinian Genocide (January 2009): “The world has not yet heard even one word uttered by the United States and its NATO allies in favor of “humanitarian intervention” against Israel in order to protect the Palestinian people, let alone a “responsibility to protect” the Palestinians from Zionist/Israeli genocide. The United States, its NATO allies, and the Great Powers on the U.N. Security Council would not even dispatch a U.N. Charter Chapter 6 monitoring force to help protect the Palestinians, let alone even contemplate any type of U.N. Charter Chapter 7 enforcement actions against Israel – shudder the thought!. The doctrine of “humanitarian intervention” so readily espoused elsewhere when U.S. foreign policy goals are allegedly at stake has been clearly proved to be a joke and a fraud when it comes to stopping the ongoing and accelerating Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.
Rather than rein in the Israelis—which would be possible just by turning off the funding pipeline—the United States government, the U.S. Congress, and U.S. taxpayers instead support the “Jewish” state to the tune of about 4 billion dollars per year, without whose munificence this instance of genocide – and indeed conceivably the State of Israel itself – would not be possible. What the world witnesses here is (yet another) case of “dishumanitarian intervention” or “humanitarian extermination” by the United States and Israel against the Palestinians and Palestine. In today’s world genocide pays so long as it is done at the behest of the United States and its de jure or de facto allies such as Israel.
Of course miracles can always happen. But I anticipate no fundamental change in America’s support for the Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinians during the tenure of the Obama/Clinton administration.” [2].
Francis Boyle on Palestinian Genocide (January 2009): “Furthermore, the Nuremberg “crimes against humanity” are the historical and legal precursor to the international crime of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. The theory here was that what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people was so horrific that it required a special international treaty that would codify and universalize the Nuremberg concept of “crimes against humanity.” And that treaty ultimately became the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the international crime of genocide in relevant part as follows:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even intensifying against the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much touted “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide.
Certainly, Israel and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have committed genocide against the Palestinian people that actually started on or about 1948 and has continued apace until today in violation of Genocide Convention Articles II(a), (b), and (c). For at least the past six decades, the Israeli government and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have ruthlessly implemented a systematic and comprehensive military, political, and economic campaign with the intent to destroy in substantial part the national, ethnical, racial, and different religious (Jews versus Muslims and Christians) group constituting the Palestinian people. This Zionist/Israeli campaign has consisted of killing members of the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(a). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also caused serious bodily and mental harm to the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(b). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also deliberately inflicted on the Palestinian people conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in substantial part in violation of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.’ [3].
Professor Francis Boyle on US promotion of Israel’s Palestinian Genocide (December 2009): “As long ago as October 19, 2000, the then United Nations Human Rights Commission (now Council) condemned Israel for inflicting "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" upon the Palestinian people, most of whom are Muslims. The reader has a general idea of what a war crime is, so I am not going to elaborate upon that term here. But there are different degrees of heinousness for war crimes. In particular are the more serious war crimes denominated "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987, the world has seen those heinous war crimes inflicted every day by Israel against the Palestinian people living in occupied Palestine: e.g., willful killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army and by Israel's illegal paramilitary settlers. These Israeli "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention mandate universal prosecution for the perpetrators and their commanders, whether military or civilian, including and especially Israel's political leaders… The paradigmatic example of "crimes against humanity" is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people. This is where the concept of "crimes against humanity" came from. And this is what the U.N. Human Rights Commission determined that Israel is currently doing to the Palestinian people: crimes against humanity. Expressed in legal terms, this is just like what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jews. That is the significance of the formal determination by the U.N. Human Rights Commission that Israel has inflicted "crimes against humanity" upon the Palestinian people. The Commission chose this well-known and long-standing legal term of art quite carefully and deliberately based upon the evidence it had compiled… As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel's genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even intensifying against the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Zionism's "final solution" to Israel's much touted "demographic threat" allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide… Rather than rein in the Israelis-which would be possible just by turning off the funding pipeline-the United States government, the U.S. Congress, and U.S. taxpayers instead support the "Jewish" state to the tune of about 4 billion dollars per year, without whose munificence this instance of genocide - and indeed conceivably the State of Israel itself - would not be possible. What the world witnesses here is (yet another) case of "dishumanitarian intervention" or "humanitarian extermination" by the United States and Israel against the Palestinians and Palestine. In today's world genocide pays so long as it is done at the behest of the United States and its de jure or de facto allies such as Israel. Of course miracles can always happen. But I anticipate no fundamental change in America's support for the Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinians during the tenure of the Obama/Clinton administration.“ [4].
Professor Francis Boyle in testimony to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, Malaysia (2013): “The Palestinians have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I say that because of my practical experience: On 8 April 1993 and 13 September 1993 I single-handedly won two World Court Orders on the basis of the 1948 Genocide Convention that were overwhelmingly in favor of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Bosnians in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. This was the first time ever that any Government had won two such Orders in one case since the World Court was founded in 1921. On 5August 1993 I also won a so-called Article 74(4) World Court Order for Bosnia against Yugoslavia for genocide. According to I.C.J. Statute Article 74(4), when the full World Court is not in session in The Hague, the President of the Court exercises the full powers of the Court and can issue an Order to the parties in a lawsuit that is legally binding upon them.
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the international crime of genocide in relevant part as follows:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group such as:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even now intensifying against the 1.75 million Palestinians living in Gaza as this Tribunal convenes here today. As Pappe’s analysis established, Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much-touted and racist “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide, whether slow-motion or in blood-thirsty spurts of violence. Indeed, the very essence of Zionism requires ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide against the Palestinians. For example, concerning the 2008-2009 Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza – so-called Operation Cast-lead -- U.N. General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua during the Reagan administration’s contra-terror war of aggression against that country which was condemned by the World Court, condemned it as “genocide”.” [5].
[1]. Francis Boyle, “Palestine should sue Israel for genocide before th e International Court of Justice”, Media Monitors Network, 2 December 2000: http://www.mediamonitors.net/francis1.html .
[2]. Francis Boyle, “US promotes Israeli genocide”, The Journal of Turkish Weekly, 10 January 2009: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/63104/us-promotes-israeli-genocide.html .
[3]. Professor Francis A. Boyle, “The United States promotes Israeli genocide against Palestinians”, Information Clearing House, 12 January 2009: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21722.htm .
[4]. Professor Francis A.. Boyle, “The US promotes Israeli Genocide. The United States Promotes Israeli Genocide Against the Palestinians”, Scoop, 29 December 2009: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0912/S00249.htm .
[5]. Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, MWC News, 30 August 2013: http://www.mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/30445-palestinian-genocide.html .
Professor Francis Boyle (University of Illinois) re the Palestinian Genocide (2013): “The Palestinians have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, under which a government can be guilty of genocide even if it intends to destroy a mere “part” of the group” (Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, 21 August 2013: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2339254 .)
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann is a a former Roman Catholic priest, Nicaraguan foreign minister, and president of the UN General Assembly (see: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2009/01/200911321467988347.html ).
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann as president of the UN General Assembly on Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the Israeli Palestinian Genocide (2009): “"The number of victims in Gaza is increasing by the day... The situation is untenable. It's genocide… "There have been some who were under the illusion that the Security Council would do something that could help the situation. I never thought so. Now we're faced with not only with a lack of compliance but with a prime minister of Israel who has practically responded to the Security Council by saying 'mind your own business'. It's unbelievable that a country that owes its existence to a general assembly resolution could be so disdainful of the resolutions that emanate from the UN… You have to attack problems at their root cause and the Palestinian people have been subjected to subhuman treatment for decades and this [the Israeli offensive] is going to make matters worse” (Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann quoted in “Israel accused of Gaza “genocide”. UN General Assembly president tells Al Jazeera the violence in Gaza is “untenable””, Al Jazeera, 14 January 2009: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2009/01/200911321467988347.html .)
BRULL, Michael. Anti-racist Jewish Australian writer Michael Brull in an Open Letter to J.K. Rowling on the blockade and imprisonment of (now in 2018) 2 million Palestinians in Gaza (2015): “In June 2008, Amnesty International observed that “in June, the Israeli government imposed an unprecedented blockade on the Gaza Strip, virtually imprisoning its entire 1.5 million people population, subjecting them to collective punishment and causing the gravest humanitarian crisis to date”. The results have been catastrophic. Mary Robinson formerly served as the President of Ireland and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She observed of the siege: “Their whole civilization has been destroyed, I’m not exaggerating. It’s almost unbelievable that the world doesn’t care while this is happening ” (Michael Brull, “Open Letter to J.K. Rowling from Michael Brull on Palestine”, New Matilda, 1 November 2015: https://newmatilda.com/2015/11/01/an-open-letter-to-jk-rowling-from-michael-brull-on-palestine/ ).
Michael Brull re the “siege on Gaza” and extensively quoting international humanitarian observers on this ongoing atrocity (2018): “The siege on Gaza was imposed in 2006, after Hamas won the elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It was tightened in 2007, when Hamas pre-empted a coup attempt by Fatah. This is a brief guide to what it has meant, though statistics can hardly convey the misery, suffering and desperation on the ground. This is also a cursory guide, given the effect of other factors, notably the wars on Gaza in 2008-9, and 2014, and the military coup in Egypt in 2013” ( Michael Brull, “The siege on Gaza: a brief guide (Part 1)”, New Matilda, 5 May 2018: https://newmatilda.com/2018/05/05/siege-gaza-brief-guide-part-1/ ).
Michael R. Burch compilation of anti-racist Jews and non-Jews critical of Israeli Apartheid and the Palestinian Genocide: “Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing… [numerous quotations from anti-racsit Jews]. Other Jewish critics of Zionism and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians include renowned author Philip Roth, acclaimed poet Adrianne Rich, actor Ed Asner, actress Rosanne Barr, Sidney Hook, Jeff Halper, I. F. Stone, Paul Wellstone, Maxine Rodinson, Moshe Menuhin, Yehudi Menuhin, Alfred Lilienthal, Roger Cohen, Professor Don Peretz, journalist Eric Rouleau, Harvard Professor Sara Roy, Professor Jennifer Loewenstein, former South African government mnister Ronnie Kasrils, Professor Saul Landau, Professor Zachery Lochman, Professor Joel Beinin, Professor Ian Lustick, Professor Edward Herman, writer Stephen Lendman, Anthony Loewenstein, Professor Steven Zunes, Stanley Heller, Danny Schechter, Lenni Brenner, Jeff Blankfort, author and journalist Alain Gresh, Professor Cheryl Rubenberg, Professor Michael Selzer, Professor David Fromkin, Howard Zinn, author Seymour M. Hersh, Bob Simon, Senior CBS Foreign Correspondent Barry Lando, Democracy Now radio host Amy Goodman, media critic Norman Solomon, writer Bennett Muraskin, Professor Lawrence Davidson, Jerome M. Segal, Professor Mark Levine, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Jewish Voice for Peace activist Sydney Levy, Mark Braverman, author Phylis Bennis, journalist and editor David Finkel, Professor Mark Ellis, Joel Fischer, Professor Noel Ignatiev, Professor Bill Robinson, Allan C. Brownfeld editor of the American Council for Judaism Issues magazine, New York University Professor Bertrell Ollman, Dr. Gideon Polya, activist and writer Ralph Schoenman, writer Mike Marquisee, Swedish activists Snorre Lindquist and Lasse Wilhelmson, New York Times journalist Anthony Lewis, journalist Robert Scheer, journalist and blogger Philip Weiss, journalist Adam Horowitz, blogger Richard Silverstein, activist and writer Tim Wise, Professor Eric Alterman, Tsela Barr, Judith Laitman, Haley Michaels Pollack, Michelle Goldberg, activist and writer Adrienne Weller, Dan Leiberman editor of Alternative Insight, Dr. Marc Sapir, Hannah Mermelstein, Anna Baltzser, Professor Sharon Weill, Professor Randall Kuhn, author Ben Ehrenreich, Dr. Norton Mezvinsky, Dr. Joel Kovel and many other leading Jewish activists, intellectuals and religious figures.
Jewish and Israeli Peace and Humanitarian Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Breaking the Silence (Israeli soldiers tell the truth about the Occupation)
Rabbis for Human Rights
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions
B'Tselem
Jewish Voice for Peace
American Jews for a Just Peace
Gush Shalom
Jews Against the Occupation
and many others ...
Nobel Peace Laureates Who have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Desmond Tutu
Nelson Mandela
Jimmy Carter
Adolfo Peres Esquivel
Jody Williams
Mairead Maguire
Rigoberta Menchú
Betty Williams
Christian Churches and Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine Israel Network
Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Quaker Palestine Israel Network
United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network
Other Individuals and Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Amnesty International
Mohandas Gandhi
Vanessa Redgrave (she sold a house to raise money to film a documentary about the plight of the Palestinians)
Roger Waters
Brian Eno
Boots Riley
Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple)
Michael Ondaatje
Edward Said
Rashid Khalidi
David Palumbo-Liu
Mira Nair
Mike Leigh
Ken Loach
John Pilger” (Michael R. Burch, “Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing”, The Hyper Texts: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jewish%20Intellectuals%20Who%20Opposed%20Zionism%20Israel%20Racism%20Injustices%20Apartheid%20Ethnic%20Cleansing.htm ).
Wendy Campbell (US writer, film-maker, creator of the documentaries called "Neturei Karta: Jews Against Zionism" and "Truth: Exposing Israeli Apartheid") on racist Zionism (2004): “ Definition of Zionism. At any rate, please allow me to explain my definition of "Zionism". Zionism is a racist ideology that allows for Jews from anywhere in the world to go to Israel-Palestine to claim superior rights to the land and government there at the expense of the indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians. It can be argued that Zionist Jews expect certain privileges above and beyond the average citizen in any country they live. By the way, not all Jews are Zionists, and not all American Jews think of Israel as their homeland. Many American Jews, I'm sure, if not most, think of themselves as Americans first and foremost. Many American Jews, I'm sure, accept their fellow Americans as equals regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity or gender. However, only Jews enjoy completely equal rights in Israel, where it is not a true secular democracy even for Jews, in that only marriages between Jews are acknowledged as legal in Israel, for just one example. Furthermore, all non-Jews are marginalized in Israel.
Zionist American Jews are the chauvinistic Jews who commonly believe in innate, irreducible differences from others and their own cultural-religious superiority to gentiles, or non-Jews. This attitude apparently enables them to justify Israel's national campaign of blatant ethnic cleansing against the non-Jewish Palestinians at worst as per "hard Zionists" or at the very least, complete segregation as per the apartheid two-state solution favored by "soft Zionists"” (Wendy Campbell, “Miami Florida: Zionist Occupied Territory”, Rense.com, 6 March 2004: http://www.rense.com/general50/pro.htm ).
Fidel Castro was a lawyer and a major leader of the Communist-led Cuban Revolution, Prime Minister of Cuba (1958-1976) and President (1976-2008). Despite US sanctions Cuba achieved an infant mortality rate the same as that of the US (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro ).
Fidel Castro on Obama’s support for Israel and its Palestinian Genocide (30 January 2009): “It is the way our friend Obama has fallen into sharing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians” ( Fidel Castro’s article “Deciphering the thought of the new US president” reported by the Jakarta Globe, 30 January 2009: http://thejakartaglobe.com/world/fidel-castro-turns-against-obama-in-demand-for-guantanamos-return/306263 .)
Center for Constitutional Rights (founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South of the US and dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) (2016): “While there has been recent criticism of those taking the position that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, there is a long history of human rights scholarship and legal analysis that supports the assertion. Prominent scholars of the international law crime of genocide and human rights authorities take the position that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people could constitute a form of genocide. Those policies range from the 1948 mass killing and displacement of Palestinians to a half-century of military occupation and, correspondingly, the discriminatory legal regime governing Palestinians, repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements expressly favoring the elimination of Palestinians. Genocide is a term that has both sociological and legal meaning. The term genocide was coined in 1944 by a Jewish Polish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin. For Lemkin, “the term does not necessarily signify mass killings.” He explained: “More often [genocide] refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight. The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion. It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity. When these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort. Genocide is directed against a national group as an entity and the attack on individuals is only secondary to the annihilation of the national group to which they belong” (Center for Consitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian people: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Center for Constitutional Rights (2016): “While there has been recent criticism of those taking the position that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, there is a long history of human rights scholarship and legal analysis that supports the assertion. Prominent scholars of the international law crime of genocide and human rights authorities take the position that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people could constitute a form of genocide. Those policies range from the 1948 mass killing and displacement of Palestinians to a half-century of military occupation and, correspondingly, the discriminatory legal regime governing Palestinians, repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements expressly favoring the elimination of Palestinians. Genocide is a term that has both sociological and legal meaning. The term genocide was coined in 1944 by a Jewish Polish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin. For Lemkin, “the term does not necessarily signify mass killings”…
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,[4] genocide includes various acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” as such, including:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.[5]
This definition is reflected in Article 6 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has jurisdiction over crimes occurring on the territory of the State of Palestine since June 13, 2014.[6]…
Prominent human rights advocates and scholars have argued that the killings of Palestinians and their forceful expulsion from mandate Palestine in 1948, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the violence and discrimination directed at Palestinians by the Israeli government have violated a number of human rights protections contained in international human rights law, genocide being among them” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Hugo Chavez is the President of Venezuela, He has raised US ire through his survival, universalism, socialism and populism (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez ).
Hugo Chavez on Israeli Gaza Massacre (September 2009): “"The question is not whether the Israelis want to exterminate the Palestinians. They're doing it openly ...What was it if not genocide? ... The Israelis were looking for an excuse to exterminate the Palestinians” (Hugo Chavez, quoted by Reuters, “Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accuses Israel of Palestinian Genocide”, NY Daily News, 9 September 2009: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/09/2009-09-09_venezuelan_president_hugo_chavez_accuses_israel_of_genocide.html .)
Professor Noam Chomsky is an outstanding Jewish American linguistics scholar at the prestigious, 73-Nobel-Laureate Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, Massachusetts, USA (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky ; for links to many of Professor Chomsky’s writings also see his website : http://www.chomsky.info/ ).
Noam Chomsky signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” ( Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm . )
Michel Chossudovsky (anti-racist Jewish Canadian, emeritus professor of economics, University of Ottawa, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Member of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC)) (2020): “Israel is currently in the process of implementing the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands. The issue of “illegality” must be put in context. We are dealing with a broader issue: Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against the People of Palestine. Annexation is a crime against Humanity. And the Western governments which support Israel’s actions or turn a blind eye are complicit. Donald Trump has given the Green Light to Netanyahu. Trump is responsible for supporting and endorsing an illegal and criminal undertaking” (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky, “Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide against the people of Palestine”, Global Research, 2 July 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/kuala-lumpur-tribunal-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-genocide/5359404 .
Michel Chossudovsky (anti-racist Jewish Canadian, emeritus professor of economics, University of Ottawa, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Member of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC)) (2020): “Israel is currently in the process of implementing the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands. The issue of “illegality” must be put in context. We are dealing with a broader issue: Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against the People of Palestine. Annexation is a crime against Humanity. And the Western governments which support Israel’s actions or turn a blind eye are complicit. Donald Trump has given the Green Light to Netanyahu. Trump is responsible for supporting and endorsing an illegal and criminal undertaking” (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky, “Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide against the people of Palestine”, Global Research, 2 July 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/kuala-lumpur-tribunal-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-genocide/5359404 .
.
Kathleen Christison is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for 30 years. She is the author of “Perceptions of Palestine” and “The Wound of Dispossession”. Bill Christison was a senior official of the CIA. He served as a National Intelligence Officer and as Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis. They spent October 2006 in Palestine and on a speaking tour of Ireland sponsored by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (see: http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/11/27/genocide-or-erasure-of-palestinians/ ). .
Kathleen and Bill Christison on the genocide or erasure of Palestinians (2006): “You can argue over terminology, but the truth is evident everywhere on the ground where Israel has extended its writ: Palestinians are unworthy, inferior to Jews, and in the name of the Jewish people, Israel has given itself the right to erase the Palestinian presence in Palestine — in other words, to commit genocide by destroying "in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group." As we debate about and analyze the Palestinian psyche, trying to determine if they have had enough and will surrender or will survive by resisting, it is important to remember that the Jewish people, despite unspeakable tragedy, emerged from the holocaust ultimately triumphant. Israel and its supporters should keep this in mind: empires never last, as Ahmad said, and gross injustice such as the Nazis and Israel have inflicted on innocent people cannot prevail for long” (Kathleen and Bill Christison, “Does it matter what you call it? Genocide or erasure of Palestinians”, Counterpunch, 27 November 2006: http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/11/27/genocide-or-erasure-of-palestinians/ and Kathleen and Bill Christison, “Does it matter what you call it?”, republished as Chapter 16 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
Professor Marjorie Cohn, according to Wikipedia “is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She also "participated in delegations to Cuba, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia" early in her career” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cohn ).
Professor Marjorie Cohn on US and Israeli Palestine Genocide and the latest Israeli Gaza Massacre (2014): “ By sending vast amounts of military aid to Israel, members of the US Congress, President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.An individual can be convicted of a war crime, genocide or a crime against humanity [PDF] in the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he or she "aids, abets or otherwise assists" in the commission or attempted commission of the crime, "including providing the means for its commission." There is growing evidence that Israeli leaders and commanders have committed the following war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute for the ICC. US military aid has aided, abetted and assisted the commission of these crimes by providing Israel with the military means to commit them. During Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces again used the Dahiye Doctrine, which, according to the UN Human Rights Council [Goldstone] Report [PDF], involves "the application of disproportionate force and causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations"…
On July 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established a commission of inquiry into Israeli violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. The resolution also called on parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene and respond to the alleged violations. That convention requires parties to prosecute violators. Countries can bring foreign nationals to justice for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the well-established doctrine of universal jurisdiction. Genocide charges could also be brought under the Genocide Convention, to which both Israel and the United States are parties. That convention also punishes complicity in genocide; US leaders' provision of military aid would constitute complicity. Although the Israeli and US governments continue to maintain that Israel has only acted in self-defense against Hamas' terrorism, the weight of world opinion points in the opposite direction. There is overwhelming opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza and calls for justice and accountability. Both Israeli and US leaders must be criminally prosecuted for committing and aiding and abetting these crimes” (Marjorie Cohn, “Israeli war crimes. Genocide & crimes against humanity”, MWC News, 8 August 2014: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/44454-israeli-war-crimes.html . )
Professor John Docker and Dr Ned Curthoys are anti-racist Jewish Australian academics and have formed a Committee for the Dismantling of Zionism which issued the following statement (see: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2009/01/05/how-to-dismantle-zionism-in-a-few-easy-steps/ ). :
“JOHN DOCKER and NED CURTHOYS
Committee for the Dismantling of Zionism
Statement of Aims
1. In the Gandhian tradition of non-violence, the committee stands for the peaceful co-existence of Israeli Jews and Palestinians within a unified democratic state where everyone is a full citizen irrespective of religion or ethnicity.
2. The committee supports the view of Sir Isaac Isaacs, Jewish jurist and former Governor General of Australia in the 1940s, that the very idea of a Jewish state is absurd, unjust, and ultimately untenable, since it makes all non-Jewish citizens necessarily and inevitably second-class citizens.
3. In the Gandhian tradition of non-violence, we support the cultural and economic boycott of Israel.
4. The Jewish Right of Return is a weapon in the Zionist colonization and occupation of Palestinian lands. Accordingly, we urge that the world wide Jewish diaspora should renounce the Right of Return.
5. We urge support for UN Resolution 194 which declares the unconditional right of the Palestinian refugees expelled from Palestine in 1948 to return to their homes.
6. We observe that Zionist Israel is guilty of genocidal policies as defined in Article II (c) of the Genocide Convention, in that it intends to destroy, in whole or in part, an ethnic group by “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. By ‘physical destruction’ we mean that Zionist Israel transparently seeks to destroy Palestinian society and remove Palestinians from their ancestral lands in order to Judaize those same lands.
7. The world wide Zionist organisations are also guilty, in terms of the Genocide Convention, Article III (e), of “complicity in genocide””
William A. Cook is Professor of English at the University of La Verne, Southern California, USA, senior editor at MWC News, Prout World Assembly and the Palestine Chronicle, and he writes extensively for major “alternative” media. He is the author of “Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy”, “The Rape of Palestine”, “The Chronicles of Nefaria”, and “Psalms for the 21st Century”, and “Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied: The Rape of Palestine”(see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide and ethnic cleansing (2010): “ Thus began in November 1947 what is euphemistically called the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the combined d forces of the Jewish armies – the Haganah, the Stern and the Irgun – as they drove more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes, leaving them destitute, homeless, and abandoned without a country in what is now the largest refugee Diaspora in the world. More realistically, the evacuation of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947,and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Raphael Lemkin’s term in 1948.” [1].
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide (2010): “What is the true nature of this state of Israel that commands the allegiance of the American people? It is a state without mercy, a state without morals, a state promised on racism, a state built on deception and lies … a state that has defied more than 160 UNGA and 39 UNSC resolutions, demanding that it act as a civilized state abide by international law and protocol … a state that will not tolerate interference by the UN in its calculated genocide of the Palestinian people”. [2].
[1]. William Cook, “Introduction”, pp 1-26, “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
[2]. William Cook, “Propaganda, perception and reality”, pp 98-101 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
William A. Cook is Professor of English at the University of La Verne, Southern California, USA, senior editor at MWC News, Prout World Assembly and the Palestine Chronicle, and he writes extensively for major “alternative” media. He is the author of “Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy”, “The Rape of Palestine”, “The Chronicles of Nefaria”, and “Psalms for the 21st Century”, and “Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied: The Rape of Palestine”(see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide and ethnic cleansing (2010): “ Thus began in November 1947 what is euphemistically called the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the combined d forces of the Jewish armies – the Haganah, the Stern and the Irgun – as they drove more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes, leaving them destitute, homeless, and abandoned without a country in what is now the largest refugee Diaspora in the world. More realistically, the evacuation of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947,and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Raphael Lemkin’s term in 1948” ( William Cook, “Introduction”, pp 1-26, “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide (2010): “What is the true nature of this state of Israel that commands the allegiance of the American people? It is a state without mercy, a state without morals, a state promised on racism, a state built on deception and lies … a state that has defied more than 160 UNGA and 39 UNSC resolutions, demanding that it act as a civilized state abide by international law and protocol … a state that will not tolerate interference by the UN in its calculated genocide of the Palestinian people” (William Cook, “Propaganda, perception and reality”, pp 98-101 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
Benjamin L. Corey (Anabaptist US Missiologist, author, blogger, speaker and a prominent figure within the Emerging Church Movement, Progressive Christianity and radical Christianity) (2017): “In the Israel/Palestine conflict, is Israel guilty of genocide against the Palestinians? Yes– absolutely. The other day I wrote a short piece on why the Bible does not command us to blindly stand with the modern state of Israel, and one of the points I made is that Israel is guilty of genocide. There were no shortage of internet commenters who objected to my use of this word and felt it was over the top. However, I stand by my assertion that Israel is guilty of genocide, so allow me to expand upon that.
I believe the main reason many push back on the idea that Israel is guilty of genocide is because of a lack of understanding of the full nuance of the word, and what genocide can look like in a modern context. While rounding up people for mass executions would be obvious evidence of genocide, the reality is that genocide can take place in ways that are more subtle– making it palatable for the masses, and even seem justified at times. Some scholars have referred to the Israel/Palestine conflict as “incremental genocide” and I would agree with that term. Instead of an overt, blatant attempt to eradicate a people group, incremental genocide involves actions and policies that are designed to slowly erode, break up, and destroy a specific population. Think for example of early American history and the genocide of Native Americans. While it wasn’t always mass killings, genocide occurred by military conflict, expanding land holdings, resettlements, and creating conditions that were destructive for the indigenous population. While it took many years to complete, and while it took many forms, what early Americans did to the indigenous people of North America was nothing short of genocide. The same holds true for Israel.
The legal definition of genocide includes the following: “Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group such as:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
While A and B are both elements we find present in Israel’s approach to Palestinians, the key aspect of genocide being waged by Israel is found in C: the deliberate infliction of conditions that in part or as a whole will destroy a people group. Arab Christians and Muslims known as Palestinians have been undoubtedly the target of Israel and a desire to eradicate them from the land” (Benjamin L. Corey, “Yes, what Israel is doing to Palestinians is actually genocide”, Patheos, 1 March 2017: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/formerlyfundie/yes-israel-palestinians-actually-genocide/ ).
Dr Ned Curthoys is an anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish Australian scholar who is a Research Fellow in the Research School of Humanities & the Arts, College of Arts and Social Sciences. According to the ANU website: “Ned Curthoys completed his PhD in the English Department at the University of Sydney in 2002. His doctorate focused on the dissemination of the humanist tradition of classical rhetoric into twentieth century literary theory, philosophy, and political theory. Post-PhD he has researched and published on the political theorist Hannah Arendt’s cross-cutting interests in literary narrative and biography. More recently he has published on various aspects of the German Jewish experience from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, returned to a long standing interest in Albert Camus and the Algerian war, and entered debates about the cross-cultural validity of secularism” (see: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/people/profile_system/public.php?id=123 ).
Ned Curthoys and John Docker on the Palestinian Genocide (2009): “[ We are part of an increasing number of people around the world of Jewish descent who are sickened by the coldly calculated massacre of the Palestinians of Gaza and who utterly repudiate Israel's claim that it acts in the name of Jews the world over… The massacre in Gaza cries out not only for immediate condemnation but for historical explanation. As scholars working in the fields of genocide studies and research into the long history of European colonization, it seems clear to us that Israel - as in the history of white Australia since 1788 - is a genocidal settler colonial society that since its founding in 1948 continually seeks to destroy the foundations of life of the indigenous Palestinians, their health, dignity, livelihood, personal security, access to education, and political organisation, so that the Palestinians can be replaced by colonizing Zionist settlers. Recent genocide scholarship has highlighted how much the original definition of genocide (by Raphael Lemkin in chapter nine of his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe) linked genocide and colonization as a two stage process of destruction of the home society (not necessarily by physical annihilation qua Nazism) and replacement by the incoming colonizers.Such has been the continuing historical pattern of Israel in relation to the indigenous people of the land. In 1948 the Zionist forces violently drove out over 700,000 Palestinians by deploying 'admonitory massacres', as the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé has evoked in horrific detail in his recent The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006)” (John Docker and Ned Curthoys. “The Gaza Massacre:, ABC, The Drum, 9 January 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/37828.html .)
Dr Uri Davis (Jewish Israeli academic, writer and human rights activist) on Zionism, 93% ethnic cleansing of Israel, and Apartheid Israel (2005): “Zionism is not a swear word, Zionism is not a conspiracy. When I refer to myself as an anti-Zionist, I do so with reference to the mainstream. The mainstream and the dominant element in Zionist history is political Zionism. But there have been other schools, and some of these schools within the Zionist environment have been bitter opponents of the mainstream of political Zionism. I would refer in this connection for instance, to the school known as spiritual Zionism, founded and led by a very distinguished Jewish intellectual known as Ahad Ha'am , Asher Ginsburg. And the vision is significant, whereas the political Zionist school aimed to establish a sovereign State, and attempt to secure in that territory both in law and in practice, a demographic majority of ethnic Jews. Spiritual Zionism were very vehement and strongly opposed to that. Ahad Ha'am argued very much in favour of establishing in Jerusalem, a cultural centre for the Jewish people, and was dead opposed to the establishment of a Jewish State. He had a series of seminal articles published in the wake of his visit to Palestine, and these should be re-read again today. They were prophetic, he explained, that the banner or the slogan of "A Land without the People, for a People without the Land" is wholly false, that the country is populated, that attempting to establish a State there would result in a protracted and unjustified conflict he was against, then, to our project… You're quite right, you don't see petty apartheid in Israel. But the core is very similar, both in South Africa and in Israel; the core is a conflict between a settler-colonial State and the indigenous population, and these conflicts are anchored in the quest of the settler State to appropriate control of the land and the sub-soil, and deny the indigenous peoples their rights in the land and the sub-soil. The consequence of this project in South Africa resulted in some 87% of the territory reserved in law for white settlement cultivation and development. In Israel it's worse. At the core, namely access to land, housing and sub-soil, 93% of the territory of the State of Israel, 93% is reserved in law exclusively for Jewish settlement, cultivation and development” (Uri Davis in interview, “Apartheid Israel?”, ABC Radio National, The Religion Report, 8 June 2005: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/religionreport/apartheid-israel/3442902#transcript ).
Paul de Rooij is a Dutch mathematicians, economist and writer based in London, UK. A committed activist for the Palestinians since the First Intifada, he has written extensively for “alternative” media `including Z magazine, Agenda, Counterpunch, Arab Media Internet Network, Miftah and various media research journals (see: http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=227 ).
Paul de Rooij on Palestinian Genocide (2004): “Is it Genocide? It is evident that Israel under Ariel Sharon is pursuing relentless campaign that aims to drive the Palestinians off the land and dispossess an ever-greater number of people. The construction of the wall is proof that this policy is being implemented. Driving armored Caterpillar bulldozers through refugee camps obviously entails a casualty toll. Similarly, the usually violent suppression of the demonstrations against this policy conjures its own grim statistics. From the graphs we detect a pattern: the repression is systematic and gradually increases the severity of its methods – this is especially apparent after July 2003. In Ariel Sharon's calculus, and with American blessing, the dispossession and repression of the Palestinians can continue as long as it is performed gradually with a slowly increasing rate. So, mass abuses are occurring in the occupied territories today; these are chronic, and indeed systematic. When the scale, intent and period are taken into account, then one can only conclude that Israel's policy is genocidal” ( Paul de Rooij, “Palestinian misery in perspective”, The Blanket, 3 June 2004: http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu:81/miseryinpdr.html and Paul de Rooij, “Palestinian misery in perspective” republished as Chapter 10 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html . )
John Docker is an Honorary Professor in the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry at the University of Sydney. In 2002, he was part of a group calling for a boycott of visiting Israeli academics. According to the University of Sydney he “researches and writes in the fields of genocide and massacre studies, cultural theory, the Enlightenment, monotheism and polytheism, intellectual history, historiography, diaspora, ethnic and cultural identity, and the history of Zionism and Israel-Palestine” (see: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/history/staff/profiles/docker.shtml and http://hist-phil.arts.unsw.edu.au/staff/peter-slezak-160.html and http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/voices-of-dissent/3135248 ).
John Docker and Ned Curthoys on the Palestinian Genocide (2009): “[ We are part of an increasing number of people around the world of Jewish descent who are sickened by the coldly calculated massacre of the Palestinians of Gaza and who utterly repudiate Israel's claim that it acts in the name of Jews the world over… The massacre in Gaza cries out not only for immediate condemnation but for historical explanation. As scholars working in the fields of genocide studies and research into the long history of European colonization, it seems clear to us that Israel - as in the history of white Australia since 1788 - is a genocidal settler colonial society that since its founding in 1948 continually seeks to destroy the foundations of life of the indigenous Palestinians, their health, dignity, livelihood, personal security, access to education, and political organisation, so that the Palestinians can be replaced by colonizing Zionist settlers. Recent genocide scholarship has highlighted how much the original definition of genocide (by Raphael Lemkin in chapter nine of his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe) linked genocide and colonization as a two stage process of destruction of the home society (not necessarily by physical annihilation qua Nazism) and replacement by the incoming colonizers.Such has been the continuing historical pattern of Israel in relation to the indigenous people of the land. In 1948 the Zionist forces violently drove out over 700,000 Palestinians by deploying 'admonitory massacres', as the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé has evoked in horrific detail in his recent The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006)” (John Docker and Ned Curthoys. “The Gaza Massacre:, ABC, The Drum, 9 January 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/37828.html .)
Curtis F. J. Doebbler is a famed international human rights lawyer who has represented individuals around the world and also represented the Palestinian National Authority and the Hamas Government. He is the author of numerous articles, notably for Al-Ahram, Egypt; and is the author of numerous books including “An Introduction to International Human Rights Law” and “International Criminal Law” (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Doebbler ).
Curtis F. J. Doebbler on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2007): “The history of genocide is a complex one. The man who coined the term in the mid-20th century, Raphael Lemkin saw genocide as “a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life … so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight … accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion … [or] … by wiping out all bases of personal security, liberty, health and dignity.” Lemkin added, that “[w]hen these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort”… Palestine: A Case of Contemporary Genocide. No single example better exemplifies the international community’s failure to stop genocide then the case of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian. This contemporary genocide has existed since and as long as the international crime of genocide has been defined. The Palestinians owned approximately 94% of Palestine prior to in the creation of Israel in 1947. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181(II) of 1947, however, gave Israel 54% of the land of Palestine. By the end of the 1948 war this had climbed to about 80%, approximately where it stands today. Since 1967 Israel had confiscated since 1967 an estimated 60 per cent of the West Bank and an estimated 33 per cent of the Gaza Strip. Israel has also confiscated an estimated 33 per cent of the Palestinian land in Jerusalem for public, semi-public, and private use in order to create Israeli military zones, settlements, industrial areas, elaborate “bypass” roads and quarries, as well as to hold “State land” for exclusive Israeli use. While Israel withdrew its settlements in Gaza it often reoccupies territory in Gaza, and maintains about 200 settlements in the West Bank. Israel’s intention in undertaking these acts appears clear” ( Curtis F. J. Doebbler, “Genocide among us”, Al Jazeerah, 28 January 2007: http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2007%20Opinion%20Editorials/January/28%20o/Genocide%20Among%20Us%20By%20Curtis%20F.J.%20Doebbler.htm and Curtis F. J. Doebbler, “Genocide among us”, republished as Chapter 26 in in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html . )
DUNNING, Tristan: "Palestine's ongoing Nakba".
Dr Tristan Dunning ( honorary research fellow at the University of Queensland.; author of Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy: Reinterpreting Resistance in Palestine (2016) and the editor of Palestine: Past and Present (2019) and Dr Anas Iqtait (lecturer at the Australian National University; previously worked in Palestinian issues with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Oxfam, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency) (2020): “The Nakba continues to decimate Palestinian society at home and in exile. Palestinian refugee communities are among the most vulnerable in the region. The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria was subjugated to terror, siege, and repeated displacement Gaza’s refugees, who constitute 74 percent of the total population of the territory, have resided under a crippling siege and repeated assaults by Israel for more than a decade, which have killed thousands. Lebanon’s 180,000 Palestinian refugees suffer from systematic discrimination, isolation, and violence. Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are subject to other forms of Nakba. Settler violence, housing demolitions, daily humiliations, economic subjugation, and hundreds of walls, checkpoints, and roadblocks constitute daily life for three million Palestinians. For Palestinians, the Nakba is never ending and part of everyday life over 72 years later” (Tristan Dunning and Anas Iqtait, “Palestine’s ongoing Nakba”, Australian Institute of International Affairs, 15 May 2020: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/palestines-ongoing-nakba/ ).
Martín Espada (born 1957) is a New York-born Puerto Rico Latino poet, a tenants legal rights lawyer, and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches poetry. He has published several books of poetry (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_Espada ).
Martín Espada was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” (18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers . )
Mohammad Fadhel (Arab journalist and researcher in Dubai) (2017): “Balfour: Britain must own up to responsibility for the Palestinian Holocaust. This disastrous imperial legacy is still highly visible… Richard Gott wrote in the Guardian in July 2006: “The brutal story of the British Empire continues to this day”, and “This disastrous imperial legacy is still highly visible, and it is one of the reasons why the British Empire continues to provoke such harsh debate. If Britain made such a success of its colonies, why are so many in an unholy mess half a century later ...?” Gott placed Palestine on top of the list of conflicts caused by the brutal story of the British Empire, but it is clear that the British colonial malice continues to this day, and English politicians are still committed to the core of what Balfour justified through his shameful declaration when he said that “The desires of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs are of no importance compared to the fate of a European colonial movement [Zionism] in essence”” (Mohammad Fadhel, “Balfour: Britain must own up to responsibility for the Palestinian Holocaust”, Gulf News Opinion, 2 November 2017: https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/balfour-britain-must-own-up-to-responsibility-for-the-palestinian-holocaust-1.2117721 ).
Professor Richard Falk is an outstanding Jewish American scholar: emeritus professor in international law at Princeton University, writer, the author or co-author of 20 books ) speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to2 UN positions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk ). In 2008 this eminent Jewish international law scholar was arrested, imprisoned and deported by Apartheid Israel when he attempted to fulfil his role as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Professor Richard Falk in “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust”: “There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination … Against this background, it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust’ … Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty … But Gaza is morally far worse[ than Darfur], although mass death has not yet resulted. It is far worse because the international community is watching the ugly spectacle unfold while some of its most influential members actively encourage and assist Israel in its approach to Gaza. Not only the United States, but also the European Union, are complicit, as are such neighbors as Egypt and Jordan … Israel is currently stiffening the boycott on economic relations that has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation. This set of policies, carried on for more than four decades, has imposed a sub-human existence on a people that have been repeatedly and systematically made the target of a variety of severe forms of collective punishment.” [1].
Professor Richard Falk and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Richard A. Falk (United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, an investigator with the UN Human Rights Council and an eminent American professor emeritus of international law at 41-Nobel-laureate Princeton University) addressing the UN Human Rights Council as it prepared to pass a resolution condemning settlement building in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem (2010): “The continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians is creating an intolerable situation in the part of the city previously controlled by Jordan. This situation can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing” [3].
[1]. Richard Falk, “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust “, The Translational Foundation for Peace and Future research (TFF), 29 Jiune 2007: http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Falk_PalestineGenocide.html .
[2]. Letter from Richard Falk with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Richard Falk quoted in Mel Frykberg, “Legal expert warns of “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem”, Electronic Intifada, 24 March 2011: https://electronicintifada.net/content/legal-expert-warns-ethnic-cleansing-jerusalem/9281 .
Professor Richard Falk is an outstanding Jewish American scholar: emeritus professor in international law at Princeton University, writer, the author or co-author of 20 books ) speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to2 UN positions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk ). In 2008 this eminent Jewish international law scholar was arrested, imprisoned and deported by Apartheid Israel when he attempted to fulfil his role as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Professor Richard Falk in “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust”: “There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination … Against this background, it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust’ … Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty … But Gaza is morally far worse[ than Darfur], although mass death has not yet resulted. It is far worse because the international community is watching the ugly spectacle unfold while some of its most influential members actively encourage and assist Israel in its approach to Gaza. Not only the United States, but also the European Union, are complicit, as are such neighbors as Egypt and Jordan … Israel is currently stiffening the boycott on economic relations that has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation. This set of policies, carried on for more than four decades, has imposed a sub-human existence on a people that have been repeatedly and systematically made the target of a variety of severe forms of collective punishment.” [1].
Professor Richard Falk and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Richard A. Falk (United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, an investigator with the UN Human Rights Council and an eminent American professor emeritus of international law at 41-Nobel-laureate Princeton University) addressing the UN Human Rights Council as it prepared to pass a resolution condemning settlement building in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem (2010): “The continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians is creating an intolerable situation in the part of the city previously controlled by Jordan. This situation can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing” [3].
[1]. Richard Falk, “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust “, The Translational Foundation for Peace and Future research (TFF), 29 Jiune 2007: http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Falk_PalestineGenocide.html .
[2]. Letter from Richard Falk with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Richard Falk quoted in Mel Frykberg, “Legal expert warns of “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem”, Electronic Intifada, 24 March 2011: https://electronicintifada.net/content/legal-expert-warns-ethnic-cleansing-jerusalem/9281 .
Carolyn Forché (born April 28, 1950) is an American poet, editor, translator, academic and human rights advocate. She is Director of the Lannan Center for Poetry and Poetics and holds the Lannan Chair in Poetry at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., USA and has published numerous books (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Forch%C3%A9 ). FORCHÉ
Carolyn Forché was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Genevieve Cora Fraser (born in Massachusetts in 1945) is a playwright, director, poet, historian, journalist and human rights activist, especially in relation to Occupied Palestine (see: http://student.cs.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=2682 ).
Genevieve Cora Fraser on the Palestinian Genocide (2006): “When I signed up to become a Democrat, I did not sign up to sponsor genocide. Yet, that is exactly what my elected federal officials Senators Kerry and Kennedy have done as well as Congressman John Olver. These men are personally responsible for sponsoring the Anti-Palestinian legislation that has blocked all funds from reaching the Palestinian Authority (150,000 civilian workers) as well as most Palestinians, creating a blockade that has resulted in starvation. They also back Israel unconditionally despite the utter brutality of their assault.
Shortly after the January elections where an overwhelming percentage of the Palestinians voted for Hamas, Israel declared war on Palestine – calling it an Axis of Evil. Hamas had upheld a truce with Israel for nearly 1 ½ years while Israel violated it continuously – strafing and bombing, bulldozing homes, torture, imprisoning and slaughtering Palestinian men, women and children. Our legislators followed suit – in essence declaring Palestinians terrorist and creating legislation aimed at collective punishment – which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a Crime against Humanity.
Gaza today is a killing field – with indiscriminate slaughter occurring day and night. Hundreds have died and over 1,200 wounded in the past 2 ½ months alone. The borders are sealed and it is rare that any food or medicine enters. The infrastructure for 1.5 million people has been destroyed and the Israeli military is destroying all means of agriculture – including beehives that produce pollination. Fishermen are prohibited from launching their boats and those who defy Israel pay with their lives. The United Nations, European media and human rights organizations are warning that the population is near starvation and the conditions are ripe for genocide. Yet, when you broach this subject to our legislators, their aides all but scoff at you. ” [1].
[1]. Genevieve Cora Fraser, “Democrats Sponsorship of Palestinian Genocide beneath Contempt”, Al-Jazeera, 12 September 2006: http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2006%20Opinion%20Editorials/September/12%20o/Democrats%20Sponsorship%20of%20Palestinian%20Genocide%20beneath%20Contempt%20By%20Genevieve%20Cora%20Fraser.htm .
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].
Eduardo Galeano (Eduardo Hughes Galeano; born September 3, 1940) is a Uruguayan journalist, writer, novelist and author of “ Memoria del fuego” (“Memory of Fire Trilogy”, 1986) and “Las venas abiertas de América Latina” (“Open Veins of Latin America”, 1971) which have been translated into twenty languages (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano ).
Eduardo Galeano signed the following letter together with John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War state:
“Article 55
To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.
The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods.
The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements.
Article 56
To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21.
In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory. “ [1].
[1]. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm .
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (pen-name Ahad Ha'Am , Jewish Russian writer and believer in spiritual Zionism) (1891) on Zionist wrongs imposed on the Indigenous inhabitants of Palestine (1891): “We abroad are used to believe the Eretz Yisrael is now almost totally desolate, a desert that is not sowed ..... But in truth that is not the case. Throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not sowed. Only sand dunes and stony mountains .... are not cultivated… If a time comes when our people in Palestine develop so that, in small or great measure, they push out the native inhabitants, these will not give up their place easily".
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am) (1891): “[The Jewish settlers] treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly, beat them shamelessly for no sufficient reason, and even take pride in doing so. The Jews were slaves in the land of their Exile, and suddenly they found themselves with unlimited freedom, wild freedom that ONLY exists in a land like Turkey. This sudden change has produced in their hearts an inclination towards repressive tyranny, as always happens when slave rules." 'Ahad Ha'Am warned: "We are used to thinking of the Arabs as primitive men of the desert, as a donkey-like nation that neither sees nor understands what is going around it. But this is a GREAT ERROR. The Arab, like all sons of Sham, has sharp and crafty mind . . . Should time come when life of our people in Palestine imposes to a smaller or greater extent on the natives, they WILL NOT easily step aside”.
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am) (1891): “The secret enabling our people to survive is ... that already in antiquities prophets taught it to respect only spiritual power and never to admire physical power. Therefore, it has not succumbed, like all ancient people, to a loss of identity when faced with stronger adversaries ... However, a political idea alien to the national culture can turn the people's heart away from spiritual power and produce a tendency to achieve its 'honors' by achieving physical power and political independence, thus severing the thread linking it with its past and losing the base which sustained it through out history”.
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am) (circa 1914): “Yet what do our brethren do in Palestine? Just the very opposite! Serfs they were in the lands of the Diaspora and suddenly they find themselves in unrestricted freedom and this change has awakened in them an inclination to despotism. They treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, deprive them of their rights, offend them without cause and even boast of these deeds; and nobody among us opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination ... The same lack of understanding he found in the boycott of Arab labour proclaimed by Jewish labour ... Apart from the political danger, I can't put up with the idea that our brethren are morally capable of behaving in such a way to humans of another people, and unwittingly the thought comes to my mind: if it is so now, what will be our relation to the others if in truth we shall achieve at the end of times power in Eretz Yisrael? And if this be the Messiah: I do not wish to see his coming” (Ahad Ha'Am quotyed in Ahad Ha'Am – a brief biography & quotes”, Palestine Remembered, 23 October 2001: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Famous-Zionist-Quotes/Story642.html ).
Charles Glass (born in 1951) is a US author, journalist, and broadcaster specializing in Middle East affairs. He has worked for The Spectator, Newsweek and The Observer, was ABC News chief Middle East correspondent from 1983–93 and has written a number of books (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Glass ).
Charles Glass was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn (born 1949 in Manila, the Philippines ) is a Filipino-American playwright, writer, poet, storyteller, musician, and multimedia performance artist who explores the Filipino-American relationship. Her work is included in many anthologies (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Hagedorn ).
Jessica Hagedorn was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Jeff Halper (an anti-racist Jewish American Israeli, professor of anthropology, lecturer, political activist, author of several books and co-founder (1997) and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD)) on Israeli Apartheid (2015): “Israel is an apartheid state implementing a Matrix of Control which transforms the Occupied Palestinian Territory into probably the most monitored, controlled and militarised place on earth. It epitomises the dream of every general, security expert and police officer to be able to exercise total biopolitical control. In a situation where the local population enjoys no effective legal protections or privacy, they and their lands become a laboratory where the latest technologies of surveillance, control and suppression are perfected and showcased, giving Israel an edge in the highly competitive global market” (Jeff Halper, “War against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification”, Pluto Press, 2015, p.143; quoted in Gareth W.R. Smith, “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does”, Echonetdaily, 20 January 2017: https://www.echo.net.au/2017/01/apartheid-israel-doesnt-need-defending-palestine/ ).
[Editor: As exampled by genocide-based, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel’s ongoing Palestinian Genocide, the ultimate in racism and Apartheid is genocide and ethnic cleansing] .
Jeff Halper (an anti-racist Jewish American Israeli, professor of anthropology, lecturer, political activist, author of several books and co-founder (1997) and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD)) on Israeli Apartheid (2015): “Israel is an apartheid state implementing a Matrix of Control which transforms the Occupied Palestinian Territory into probably the most monitored, controlled and militarised place on earth. It epitomises the dream of every general, security expert and police officer to be able to exercise total biopolitical control. In a situation where the local population enjoys no effective legal protections or privacy, they and their lands become a laboratory where the latest technologies of surveillance, control and suppression are perfected and showcased, giving Israel an edge in the highly competitive global market” (Jeff Halper, “War against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification”, Pluto Press, 2015, p.143; quoted in Gareth W.R. Smith, “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does”, Echonetdaily, 20 January 2017: https://www.echo.net.au/2017/01/apartheid-israel-doesnt-need-defending-palestine/ ).
[Editor: As exampled by genocide-based, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel’s ongoing Palestinian Genocide, the ultimate in racism and Apartheid is genocide and ethnic cleansing] .
William Hanna on the Palestinian Genocide and the “open prisons” of Gaza and the West Bank (2014): “Following the World War Two Jewish Holocaust (6 million Jews murdered) and the general Holocaust death toll of more than 30 million, well-intentioned vows of “zero tolerance for racism” and “never again to anyone” were made and quickly forgotten. The first victims of this postwar universal forgetfulness were the Palestinians whose homeland, heritage, history, and human rights as a people was — without their consent — given as compensation to displaced Jews in Europe by Western nations who did not want them. The result of this Western generosity at the expense of the Palestinian people has seen the displacement of some 7 million Palestinians who are virtual prisoners in either scattered refugee camps (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt) or in what are in effect still Israeli occupied territories (open prisons) such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank where they are subject to a racist genocidal horror at the hands of a people whose Talmud — containing the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety of subjects including Jewish ethics — categorically states that the supreme sanctity of all human life is pertinent to man's place in the universe: “He who saves one life . . . is as if he saves an entire universe. He who destroys a life . . . is as if he destroys an entire universe.” (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5). All law, civil and religious, has as its purpose the promotion of human life, and when it ceases to serve that end it becomes obsolete and is superseded… Can Jews and Judaism honestly justify either their support for, or toleration of such a barbarous, war criminal state? While Israel may be able (with iniquitous support from the world’s foremost war criminal nation the U.S.) to contemptuously ignore condemnation by the rest of the world, it would not be able to ignore the universal condemnation of the Jewish people it claims to represent.” [1].
[1]. William Hanna, “Who Is Actually Guilty of More Than 60 Years of Palestinian Genocide?”, Countercurrents, 11 August, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/hanna110814.htm .
Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent. He is author of “Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews” (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/hart110814.htm ) .
Alan Hart on the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine (2014): “Israel was created, mainly, by Zionist terrorism and ethnic cleansing; and without the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust Zionism almost certainly would not have been able to mobilise and command enough Jewish support – financial, political and other – to establish itself in Palestine in state form. (Prior to the Nazi holocaust a majority of the Jews of the world were opposed to Zionism’s enterprise. They believed it to be morally wrong. They believed it would lead to unending conflict. And they feared that if Zionism was allowed by the major powers to have its way in Palestine it would one day provoke anti-Semitism. Which is what it is doing today)” [1].
[1]. Alan Hart, “An Open Letter To President Obama: Your Legacy”, Countercurrents, 11 August 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/hart110814.htm .
Andrea Howard is a psychiatric case manager in the central US. She has organized for local and national organizations focussing on social justice issues (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
Andrea Howard on “Israeli immunity for genocide” in Lebanon and Gaza (2006): “Having no concept of the rule of law and no sense of humanity or morality, Israel continues its adventure in Palestine. Violating every crime of war and human rights known to man with the tacit approval and complicity of the international community, the military might of Israel collectively target a civilian population and the infrastructure of a nation … The United States continues to absurdly define genocide as Israeli self-defense, and a blind eye continues to be turned to the systematic subjugation and slaughter of innocent people.” [1].
[1]. Andrea Howard, “Israeli immunity for genocide” (2006) republished as Chapter 9 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Human Rights Watch (2021): “About 6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution… The international community has for too long explained away and turned a blind eye to the increasingly transparent reality on the ground. Every day a person is born in Gaza into an open-air prison, in the West Bank without civil rights, in Israel with an inferior status by law, and in neighboring countries effectively condemned to lifelong refugee status, like their parents and grandparents before them, solely because they are Palestinian and not Jewish. A future rooted in the freedom, equality, and dignity of all people living in Israel and the OPT will remain elusive so long as Israel’s abusive practices against Palestinians persist.” (Human Rights Watch, “A threshold crossed. Israeli authorities and the crimes of apartheid and persecution”, 27 April 2021: https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution ).
IQTAIT, Anas: "Palestine's ongoing Nakba".
Dr Tristan Dunning ( honorary research fellow at the University of Queensland.; author of Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy: Reinterpreting Resistance in Palestine (2016) and the editor of Palestine: Past and Present (2019) and Dr Anas Iqtait (lecturer at the Australian National University; previously worked in Palestinian issues with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Oxfam, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency) (2020): “The Nakba continues to decimate Palestinian society at home and in exile. Palestinian refugee communities are among the most vulnerable in the region. The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria was subjugated to terror, siege, and repeated displacement Gaza’s refugees, who constitute 74 percent of the total population of the territory, have resided under a crippling siege and repeated assaults by Israel for more than a decade, which have killed thousands. Lebanon’s 180,000 Palestinian refugees suffer from systematic discrimination, isolation, and violence. Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are subject to other forms of Nakba. Settler violence, housing demolitions, daily humiliations, economic subjugation, and hundreds of walls, checkpoints, and roadblocks constitute daily life for three million Palestinians. For Palestinians, the Nakba is never ending and part of everyday life over 72 years later” (Tristan Dunning and Anas Iqtait, “Palestine’s ongoing Nakba”, Australian Institute of International Affairs, 15 May 2020: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/palestines-ongoing-nakba/ ).
“Israel Genocide?” in their own words: “We are people from all around the world who fear that we are witnessing the genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. Witnessing Israel’s daily violations of Palestinian human rights- military take-over of land, restriction of movement, economic strangulation, house demolitions, restrictions on basic foodstuff, mass arbitrary arrests of both adults and children, torture, extra judicial executions, and large-scale massacres of whole families, openly calling for genocide and/extermination by law makers and other public figures- we can not keep silent about this 67 year-old atrocity, unfolding before our eyes. We demand the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor take action and investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian People, and that the office publish its findings and recommendations” (see “Israel Genocide?” about: http://israelgenocide.com/about/ ).
“Israel Genocide?” in listing numerous articles on the Palestinian Genocide with the preamble that “More and more legal experts, public figures, institutions, civil society groups, journalists, artists and bloggers have stated that Israel’s systematic oppression of the Palestinian people may amount to genocide” (“Israel Genocide?” articles: http://israelgenocide.com/articles/ ).
“Israel Genocide?” petition to the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and ICC prosecutor on action on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide: “I am a concerned person of conscience, who fears that I am witnessing the genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. Witnessing Israel’s daily violations of Palestinian human rights- military take-over of land, restriction of movement, economic strangulation, house demolitions, restrictions on basic foodstuff, mass arbitrary arrests of both adults and children, torture, extra judicial executions, and large-scale massacres of whole families, openly calling for genocide and extermination by law makers and other public figures- I can not keep silent about this 68 year-old atrocity, unfolding before our eyes.The Crime of Genocide is defined in a declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946. I demand the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor take action and investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian People, and that the office publish its findings and recommendations.Thank you” (see “Israel Genocide?” take action: http://israelgenocide.com/take-action/ ).
“Israel Genocide?” statement in response to the United Nations Human Rights “Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict”: “The United Nations Human Rights “Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict” has been released and the word genocide appears only once, to define what an International Crime is. Even though the numbers speak for themselves, the treatment of the occupying army and the population it besieges as some kind of equals, with equal responsibility and military ability, in this report is glaring. We feel that the report, while detailing Israel’s individual war crimes, both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, during Israel’s attack last summer, intentionally glosses over the context of 68 years of colonization and its subsequent on-going genocidal effects. A crime of this magnitude- which lasted 51 consecutive days and resulted in the extermination of 89 whole families and the deaths of scores of others, and in devastating damage to civilian property and infrastructure in the context of Israel’s ever-tightening de-facto stranglehold on Palestinian land and lives and infinitely superior fire-power- cannot be assessed under the laws of war, but under the laws of genocide. We appeal to the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda to investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people” “Israel Genocide?”: http://israelgenocide.com/ ).
Jewish Holocaust Survivors on Palestinian Genocide as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Dozens of Holocaust survivors, together with hundreds of descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims, accused Israel of “genocide” for the deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians in Gaza during the 2014 Israeli military offensive against Gaza, "Operation Protective Edge" (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
“Jews for Palestinian Right of Return” demand Palestinian Right of Return and a democratic state throughout historic Palestine (see : http://jfpror.wordpress.com/ ).
Petitition of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, “Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!”
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014: http://jfpror.wordpress.com/ and https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/benjamin-netanyahu-jews-say-end-the-war-on-gaza-no-aid-to-apartheid-israel-bds-with-200-initial-signers .
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: “How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?”
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel’s ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state” — armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies — wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X’s warning: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel’s relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of “self-defense” than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide — including Israel’s very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel’s apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine — from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
Initial Signers (list in formation; organizations, schools and other affiliations shown for identification only; *Co-founder, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return)
Avigail Abarbanel, Psychotherapist; editor, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists (2012, Cambridge Scholars), Inverness, Scotland
Noa Abend, Boycott From Within
Stephen Aberle, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver, BC
Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D. Social Justice Program, University of Minnesota
Anya Achtenberg, novelist and poet; teacher; activist; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Mike Alewitz, Associate Professor, Central CT State Unversity; Artistic Director, Labor Art & Mural Project
Zalman Amit, Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Author, Israeli Rejectionism
Anthony Arnove, International Socialist Organization
Gabriel Ash, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Switzerland
Ted Auerbach, Brooklyn for Peace
Anna Baltzer, author and organizer
Ronnie Barkan, Co-founder, Boycott from Within, Tel-Aviv
Judith Bello, Administrative Committee, United National Antiwar Coalition
Lawrence Boxall, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada; Vancouver Ecosocialist Group
Linda Benedikt, writer Munich, Germany
Nora Barrows-Friedman, journalist; Oakland
Prof. Jonathan Beller, Humanities and Media Studies Graduate Program in Media Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
Medea Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK
Rica Bird, Joint Founder, Merseyside Jews for Peace and Justice
Audrey Bomse, Co-chair, National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee
Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC Berkeley
Lenni Brenner, Author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators
Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
Max Blumenthal, Author, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel; and Senior Writer for Alternet.org
Mary P. Buchwald, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York
Monique Buckner, BDS South Africa
Maia Brown, Health and Human Rights Project-Seattle & Stop Veolia Seattle
Estee Chandler, Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles
Rick Chertoff, L..A. Jews for Peace
Prof. Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law; past president, National Lawyers Guild
Ally Cohen, Ramallah, Palestine; International Solidarity Movement media coordinator
Ruben Rosenberg Colorni, Youth for Palestine, Netherlands
Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK)
Margaretta D’arcy, Irish actress, writer, playwright, and peace-activist
Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian
Warren Davis, labor and political activist, Philadelphia, PA
Eron Davidson, film maker
Judith Deutsch, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Science for Peace
Roger Dittmann, Professor of Physics, Emeritus California State University, Fullerton; President, Scholars and Scientists without Borders Executive Council, World Federation of Scientific Workers
Gordon Doctorow, Ed.D., Canada
Mark Elf, Jews Sans Frontieres, London, UK
Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor and human rights activist; St. Louis, MO
Marla Erlien, New York NY
Shelley Ettinger, writer/activist, New York, NY
Inge Etzbach, Human Rights Activist, Café Palestina NY
Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University; Former UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014
Malkah B. Feldman, Jewish Voice for Peace and recent delegate to Palestine with American Jews For A Just Peace
Deborah Fink, Co-Founder, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods UK
Joel Finkel, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago
Sylvia Finzi, JfjfP; Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, EJJP. Germany)
Maxine Fookson, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner; Jewish Voice for Peace, Portland OR-
Richard Forer, Author, Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion – A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine
Sid Frankel, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba
Prof. Cynthia Franklin, Co-Editor, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Hawai’i
Racheli Gai, Jewish Voice for Peace
Herb Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
Ruth Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Cheryl Gaster, social justice activist and human right lawyer, Toronto ON
Alisa Gayle-Deutsch, American/Canadian Musician and Anti-Israeli Apartheid Activist
Jack Gegenberg, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB
Prof. Terri Ginsberg, film and media scholar, New York
David Glick, psychotherapist; Jewish Voice for Peace
Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita Professor, CSULB; Israel Divestment Campaign
Neta Golan, Ramallah, Palestine; Jews Against Genocide; Co-founder, International Solidarity Movement.
Tsilli Goldenberg, teacher, Jerusalem, Israel
Steve Goldfield, Ph.D.
Sue Goldstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Canada
Marty Goodman, former Executive Board member, Transport Workers Union Local 100; Socialist Action
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Freeman Fellow, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Hector Grad, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Spain
Prof. Jesse Greener, University of Laval
Cathy Gulkin, Filmmaker, Toronto ON
Ira Grupper, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
Jeff Halper, The Israeli Committee Against House demolitions (ICAHD)
Larry Haiven, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Halifax
Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, publisher, Germany
Stanley Heller, The Struggle Video News TSVN
Shir Hever, Jewish Voice for Just Peace, Germany
Deborah Hrbek, media and civil rights lawyer, NLG-NYC
Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor, Mondoweiss
Gilad Isaacs, Economist, Wits University.
Selma James, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Jake Javanshir, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto
Riva Joffe, Jews Against Zionism
Val Jonas, attorney, Miami Beach
Sima Kahn, MD; President of the board, Kadima Reconstructionist Community
Yael Kahn, Israeli anti-apartheid activist
Michael Kalmanovitz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (UK)
Dan Kaplan, AFT Local 1493
Susan Kaplan, J.D. National Lawyers Guild
Danny Katch, activist and author
Bruce Katz, President, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Montreal, Canada
Lynn Kessler, Ph.D., MPH, psychologist/social justice activist
Janet Klecker, Sonomans for Justice & Peace for Palestine, Sonoma CA
Prof. David Klein, California State University, Northridge; USACBI
Emma Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace, Seattle WA
Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Harry Kopyto, Legal activist Toronto ON
Richard Koritz, veteran postal trade unionist and former member of North Carolina Human Relations Commission
Yael Korin, PhD., Scientist at UCLA; Campaign to End IsraelI Apartheid, Southern California
Dennis Kortheuer, CSULB, Israel Divestment Campaign
Steve Kowit, Professor Emeritus, Jewish Voice for Peace
Toby Kramer, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Jason Kunin, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Dr. David Landy, Trinity College, Dublin
Jean Léger, Coalition pour la Justice et la Paix en Palestine, membre de la Coalition BDS Québec et de Palestiniens et Juifs Unis
Lynda Lemberg, Educators for Peace and Justice, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
David Letwin,* activist and teacher, Al-Awda NY
Michael Letwin,* former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325; USACBI; Al-Awda NY
Les Levidow, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), UK
Corey Levine, Human Rights Activist, Writer; National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Joseph Levine, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Lesley Levy, Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal
Mich Levy, teacher, Oakland CA
Abby Lippman, Professor Emerita; activist; Montreal
Brooke Lober, PhD candidate, University of Arizona, Gender and Women’s Studies Department
Antony Loewenstein, journalist, author and Guardian columnist
Jennifer Loewenstein, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Alex Lubin, Professor of American Studies, University of New Meixco
Andrew Lugg, Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, Canada
David Makofsky, Jewish Voice for Peace, Research Anthropologist
Harriet Malinowitz, Professor of English, Long Island University, Brooklyn
Mike Marqusee, Author, If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew
Miriam Marton, JD
Dr. Richard Matthews. independent scholar, London ON
Daniel L. Meyers, Former President National Lawyers Guild-NYC
Linda Milazzo, Writer/Activist/Educator, Los Angeles
Eva Steiner Moseley, Holocaust refugee, Massachusetts Peace Action board member and Palestine/Israel Working Group
Dr. Dorothy Naor, retired teacher, Herzliah, Israel
Marcy Newman, independent scholar; Author; The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans
Alex Nissen, Women in Black
Dr. Judith Norman, San Antonio, TX
Henry Norr, retired journalist, Berkeley CA
Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror
Prof. Bertell Ollman, NYU
Karin Pally, Santa Monica, CA
Prof. Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and socialist activist
Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany CA
Dr. Susan Pashkoff, Jews Against Zionism, London UK
Miko Peled, writer, activist; Author, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine
Prof. Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA
Mitch Podolak, Founder, Winnipeg Folk Festival and Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Karen Pomer,* granddaughter of Henri B. van Leeuwen, Dutch anti-Zionist leader and Bergen-Belsen survivor
Lenny Potash, Los Angeles CA
Fabienne Presentey, Independent Jewish Voices, Montréal
Diana Ralph, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Roland Rance, Jews Against Zionism, London
Karen Ranucci, Independent Journalist, Democracy Now!
Ana Ratner, Artist, Puppeteer, Activist.
Michael Ratner, President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights
Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Jewish Voice Germany
Diana M.A. Relke, Professor Emerita, University of Saskatchewan
Prof. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University
Stewart M. Robinson, retired Prof of Mathematics
Professor Lisa Rofel, University of California, Santa Cruz
Mimi Rosenberg, Producer & Host, Building Bridges and Wednesday Edition, WBAI 99.5 FM; Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Lillian Rosengarten, Author, From The Shadows Of Nazi Germany To The Jewish Boat To Gaza
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)
Yehoahua Rosin, Israel
Ilana Rossoff, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Martha Roth, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver BC
Marty Roth, Emeritus professor of English, University of Minnesota
Ruben Roth, Assistant Professor, Labour Studies, Laurentian University; Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Emma Rubin, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Middle East Scholar; Editor, Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Author, The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace
Josh Ruebner, Author, Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Mark Rudd, retired teacher, Albuquerque NM
Ben Saifer, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Evalyn Segal, Rossmoor Senior Community
Sylvia Schwarz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League; Haifa
Carole Seligman, co-editor, Socialist Viewpoint magazine
Yom Shamash, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver, Canada
Tali Shapiro, Boycott from Within; Israel
Karen Shenfeld, Poet, Toronto ON
Sid Shniad, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
William Shookhoff, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
Melinda Smith, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albuquerque NM
Kobi Snitz, Tel Aviv
Marsha Steinberg, BDS-LA for Justice in Palestine, Los Angeles
Lotta Strandberg, Visiting Scholar, NYU
Carol Stone, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver BC
Miriam (Cherkes-Julkowski) Swenson, Ph.D.
Matthew Taylor, author
Laura Tillem, Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas
Peter Trainor, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto
Rebecca Tumposky, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Darlene Wallach, Justice for Palestinians, San Jose CA
Dr. Abraham Weizfeld, JPLO
Bonnie Weinstein, Co-Editor of Socialist Viewpoint magazine; Publisher, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Sam Weinstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Labor; former President, UWUA Local 132
Judith Weisman, Independent Jewish Voices; Not in Our Name (NION); Toronto ON
Paul Werner, PhD, DSFS Editor, WOID, a journal of visual language
Noga Wizansky, Ph.D., artist, instructor, and researcher; Administrator, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley
Marcy Winograd, public school teacher, former congressional peace candidate
Bekah Wolf, UC Hastings College of Law Student; Co-founder, Palestine Solidarity Project
Sherry Wolf, International Socialist Organization
Dave Zirin, Author, Game Over: How Politics Have Turned the Sports World Upside Down
KANAFANI, Ghassan: "You do not mean peace talks, you mean surrender ... that is kind of conversation between the sword and the neck"
Ghassan Kanafani (Palestinian writer, assassinated with his niece by Mossad in 1972, notable for coining the concept of adab al-moqawameh, meaning the resistance by literature) asked by ABC journalist Richard Carleton why he rejected peace talks with Israel (1970): "You do not mean peace talks, you mean surrender ... that is kind of conversation between the sword and the neck" (Diana Alghoul, “Between the sword and the neck: Palestinians remember Ghassan Kanafani, The New Arab, 8 July 2018: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/palestinians-remember-ghassan-kanafani-46-years ). In similar vein he wrote: “Everything in this world can be robbed and stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause. You have something in this world, so stand for it”.
Thomas Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an outstanding Australian novelist, playwright and author of fiction and non-fiction. His novel Schindler's Ark won the Booker Prize in 1982, was inspired by Holocaust survivor Poldek Pfefferberg, and was to Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning movie Schindler's List. He recently published “Three Famines” an account of the Israeli-complicit Ethiopian famine (1984-1987, excess deaths 2.1 million), the Disraeli-complicit Irish Famine (1845-1850, 1 million dead, 1.5 million forced to emigrate) and the pro-Zionist Churchill’s 1942-1945 Bengali Holocaust in which the British deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death (see Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ ). His novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) was about the (continuing) Australian Aboriginal Genocide (violent deaths and avoidable deaths from disease and deprivation about 2 million since 1788; see "Aboriginal Genocide" : https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ ) and was also made into a movie (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Keneally ).
Thomas Keneally was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Professor Baruch Kimmerling (George S. Wise Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; co- authored with Joel S. Migdal “The Palestinian People: A History”) on the 1948 Palestinian Genocide or “purification” (2004) : “The conclusion was that, as in many other cases, what seemed at first glance a pure and limited military doctrine, proved itself in the case of “Plan D” to comprise far-reaching measures that lead to a complete demographic, ethnic, social and political transformation of Palestine. Implementing the spirit of this doctrine, the Jewish military forces conquered about 20,000 square kilometers of territory (compared with the 14,000 square kilometers granted them by the UN Partition Resolution) and purified them almost completely from their Arab inhabitants. About 800,000 Arab inhabitants lived on the territories before they fell under Jewish control following the 1948 war. Fewer than 100,000 Arabs remained there under Jewish control after the cease fire. An additional 50,000 were included within the Israeli state’s territory following the Israeli-Jordan’s armistice agreements that transferred several villages to Israeli rule” (Baruch Kimmerling, “Benny Morris’s Shocking Interview”, The Electronic Intifada, 27 January 2004: https://electronicintifada.net/content/top-israeli-historian-analyzes-benny-morriss-shocking-interview/4968 ).
Naomi Klein is a famous Jewish Canadian journalist, author and activist who is very well known for her books and critiques of corporate globalization (for biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein; see also Naomi Klein website: http://www.naomiklein.org/main ).
Naomi Klein on “never again to anyone”: “There is a debate among Jews - I'm a Jew by the way. The debate boils down to the question: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free card...There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that say, 'Never again to anyone.”” [1].
.Naomi Klein and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Naomi Klein to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel: “Congratulations to the students of Hampshire College for your principled and thoughtful divestment decision. Economic sanctions are among the most potent tools in the arsenal of non-violent tactics. Divestment and boycotts are controversial precisely because they work. So stay strong in the face of the attacks and misinformation, they are a measure of the effectiveness of the tactic you have chosen. And know that that there are many who stand with you, and will soon be inspired to join you” [3].
Naomi Klein on sanctions against Apartheid Israel as against Apartheid South Africa (2009): “It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” [4].
[1]. Yotam Feldman, “Naomi Klein: oppose the state not the people”, Haartetz, 2 July 2007: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html .
[2]. Letter from Naomi Klein with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, and Gore Vidal re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, California, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
[4]. Naomi Klein, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Naomi Klein signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” ( Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm . )
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT), according to Wikipedia “also known as the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, is a Malaysian organisation established in 2007 by [former PM] Mahathir Mohamad to investigate war crimes. The KLWCC was instigated as an alternative to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which Mahathir accused of bias in its selection of cases to cover” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_War_Crimes_Commission ).
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) press release on its hearings concerning the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2013): PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. TRIBUNAL HEARING AGAINST ISRAEL AND YARON TO COMMENCE
KUALA LUMPUR, 19 November 2013 – The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) will be hearing genocide and war crimes charges against the State of Israel and Amos Yaron, a retired Israeli army general from November 20 to 25, 2013 in Kuala Lumpur.
This is the first time that genocide charges will be heard against the State of Israel and the retired Israeli army general in compliance with due legal process. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), having received complaints from victims from Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) and the Sabra – Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, in 2012, investigated these complaints resulting in the institution of formal charges against the accused. [1].
[1]. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT), “Genocide charges against the State of Israel”, Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, global Research, 19 November 2013: http://www.globalresearch.ca/genocide-charges-against-the-state-of-israel-kuala-lumpur-war-crimes-tribunal/5358643 .
Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky (2020): “Israel is currently in the process of implementing the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands. The issue of “illegality” must be put in context. We are dealing with a broader issue: Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against the People of Palestine. Annexation is a crime against Humanity. And the Western governments which support Israel’s actions or turn a blind eye are complicit. Donald Trump has given the Green Light to Netanyahu. Trump is responsible for supporting and endorsing an illegal and criminal undertaking… Text of the November 2013 Judgment against the State of Israel. KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) today found former Israeli army general Amos Yaron and the State of Israel guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide stemming from the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982.KLWCT president Tan Sri Lamin Mohd Yunus, who headed a seven-member panel, said the tribunal was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that both the defendants were guilty as charged. The other judges were Tunku Sofiah Jewa, Prof Salleh Buang, Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi, Datuk Saari Yusof, John Philpot and Tunku Intan Mainura” (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky, “Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide against the people of Palestine”, Global Research, 2 July 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/kuala-lumpur-tribunal-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-genocide/5359404 .
Stephen Lendman is an outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish American analyst, writer, broadcaster and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (see Stephen Lendman blog:: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/ ) .
Stephen Lendman reviewing Ilan Pappe’s “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”: “Since the 1940s, they [the Palestinians] were ethnically cleansed and slaughtered without mercy so their homeland would become one for Jews alone. The shameful result is that Palestinians then and today have almost no rights including being able to live in peace and security on their own land in their own state that no longer exists. Survivors then and their offspring either live in Israel as unwanted Arab citizens with few rights or in the Occupied Palestinians Territories (OPT) where their lives are suspended in limbo in an occupied country in which they're subjected to daily institutionalized and codified racism and persecution. They have no power over their daily lives and live in a constant state of fear with good reason. They face economic strangulation; collective punishment for any reason; loss of free movement; enclosures by separation walls, electric fences and border closings; regular curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, loss of their homes by bulldozings and crops and orchards by wanton destruction and seizure; arrest without cause, and routine subjection to torture while in custody. They're targeted for extra-judicial assassination and indiscriminate killing; taxed punitively and denied basic services essential to life and well-being including health care, education, employment and even enough food and water at the whim of Israeli authorities in a deliberate effort to destroy their will to resist and eliminate those who won't by expulsion or extermination.”. [1].
Stephen Lendman on Israel’s slow-motion Palestinian Genocide (with a dramatic map illustrating the extent of territorial Palestinian Genocide) (26 November 2008): “They won't explain that Israel is obligated to provide essentials under Fourth Geneva's Article 55. It states: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other (essential) articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate." Israel continues to violate this law and all others…Today starving Gazans won't be silenced. They keep protesting, and according to Hamazah Mansur, head of the Jordanian-based Islamic Action Front's six-member parliamentary bloc: If conditions in the Territory worsens, "Arab rulers should expect an earthquake that would shake their countries and regimes." It's high time something shook them out of their silent complicity with decades of slow-motion genocide, now worse than ever in Gaza under siege. “. [2].
Stephen Lendman on Israel/Palestine today (July 2009): “B'Tselem is the Jerusalem-based independent Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (OPT) with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy and integrity. It was founded in 1989 to "document and educate the Israeli public, policymakers (and concerned people everywhere) about human rights violations in the OPT, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public (and elsewhere, especially among Jews), and create a human rights culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human rights and comply with international law. It conducts wide-ranging, carefully researched, and thoroughly cross-checked reports, most recently its June one titled, "Foul Play: Neglect of wastewater treatment in the West Bank." This article discusses its findings as further evidence of how Israel violates international humanitarian law as an occupying power. Because no global authority holds it accountable, over 2.8 million West Bank Palestinians suffer along with another 1.5 million under siege in Gaza for over two years and counting …Of the West Bank's 2.8 million Palestinians, wastewater for over two million of them goes untreated, the result of Israel's wilful neglect in violation of international humanitarian law and its obligation as an occupier.” [3].
Stephen Lendman on the Palestinian Holocaust (2011): “What Ilan Pappe described as "the ethnic cleaning of Palestine," Edward Said called its "holocaust," saying: "Every human calamity is different, but there is value in seeing analogies and perhaps hidden similarities." He called Nazi extermination "the lowest point of (Jewish) collective existence." Occupied Palestinians today "are as powerless as Jews were" under Hitler, devastated by "power used for evil purposes," not self-defense. As a result, they hang onto life by a thread, while Israel's military juggernaut systematically reigns terror against them, no one intervening to help. "Is this the Zionist goal for which hundreds of thousands have died," Said asked? Isn't it time for justice advocates to demand for Palestinians what Jews spent decades to achieve.
In his book titled, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," Pappe documented Israel's master plan D (Dalet in Hebrew), a war without mercy:
-- depopulating villages and cities;
-- massacring innocent victims;
-- committing rapes and other atrocities;
-- burning, bulldozing, blowing up or stealing homes, property and goods; and
-- preventing expelled Palestinians from returning.
In all, systematic terror expelled about 800,000 Palestinians, killed many others, and destroyed 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in cities like Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. It was genocidal ethnic cleansing, what international law today calls a crime of war and against humanity for which convicted Nazis at Nuremberg were hanged.
Under 44 years of occupation this June, Palestinians still experience daily institutionalized persecution with no power over their daily lives in a constant state of fear with good reason. They face:
-- economic strangulation;
-- collective punishment for any reason;
-- loss of basic freedoms, especially in Gaza under siege;
-- enclosures by separation walls, electric fences and border closings;
-- regular curfews, roadblocks, and checkpoints;
-- bulldozing of their homes, crops and orchards; and
-- arrest, imprisonment, and torture without cause.
Moreover, they endure:
-- assaults and extra-judicial assassinations;
-- punitive taxation; and
-- denial of basic services essential to life and well-being, including healthcare, education, employment and enough food and water at the whim of Israeli authorities, trying to destroy their will to resist.
With no effective power to resist, they're denied redress in international tribunals that ignore them, perpetuating their occupation, denial of basic rights and misery. ” [4].
[1]. Stephen Lendman, “The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ian Pappe”, Global Research, 7 February 2007: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4715 .
[2]. Stephen Lendman, “Israel’s slow-motion genocide in Occupied Palestine”, Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinal, 26 November 2008: http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/112608Lendman.shtml .
[3]. Stephen Lendman” “Dangerous Untreated Wastewater in the West Bank”, Stephen Lendman Blog, 17 July 2009: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/ .
[4]. Stephen Lendman, “Commemorating the Palestinian Holocaust”, Rense, 11 May 2011: http://rense.com/general94/comm.htm .
Eric Margolis (anti-racist, Jewish-origin, conservative US writer) on Palestinian human rights and the Palestinian Genocide (2018): “There was no joy in Gaza. This miserable, squalid human garbage dump is a giant open-air prison packed with 2 million Palestinian refugees driven from the newly created state of Israel in 1948. Israel and its close ally Egypt keep Gaza bottled up on its land and sea borders. Palestinians are only allowed to fish along the shore. Coastal gas and oil reserves have been expropriated by Israel and Egypt. Gaza’s two million people subsist on the edge of starvation. Israel openly boasts that it allows just enough food into the enclave to prevent outright starvation. Chemicals to treat water are banned. Electricity runs only a few hours daily because the power plant was bombed by Israel’s US-supplied air force. Hospitals have almost no medicines. In short, wartime conditions in the open-air prison. Even the wretched animals in Gaza zoo are starving. The intensive punishment of Gaza, a crime under international law, began after its people voted in a free election for the Hamas movement over the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which is more or less run by Israel and the United States. Israel helped found Hamas in 1987, but then sought, with the US, to destroy the organization, branding it ‘terrorist’… When Israel was created by the US and UN (with Soviet support) in 1948, from 750,000 to one million native Palestinians were driven from their ancestral home at gunpoint or panicked to flight by massacres and ethnic cleansing. Their villages were bulldozed. When Israel conquered and annexed the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, another 500,000 Palestinians were made refugees. Some 50,000-250,000 Syrians were driven by Israel from the strategic Golan Heights. Bedouins were driven from Israel’s Negev Desert. By our era, the number of homeless Palestinians has grown to 5 million refugees helped by the UN and at least another million scattered about the Mideast. The actual number could reach as high as 8-9 million thanks to the Palestinian’s high birth rate and strong family values. Half of Jordan’s people are Palestinian refugees. Kuwait had 400,000 Palestinians until they were expelled in 1990-1991 after their leader, Yasser Arafat, foolishly backed claims by Saddam Hussein that he was occupying Kuwait in order to trade it for a Palestinian state. This was the biggest Palestinian expulsion since 1948. Egypt’s brutal dictator, Gen. al-Sisi, is now the biggest persecutor of Palestinians after Israel, keeping them locked away in the Gaza prison” (Eric Margolis, “Palestinians – 70 years of suffering”, The Unz Review, 26 May 2018: http://www.unz.com/emargolis/palestinians-70-years-of-suffering/ ).
Evo Morales (Bolivian President ) in condemning the 2014 Gaza Massacre (Operation Protective Edge) (2014): “[Action needed] “to end the genocide that Israel is carrying out on Palestine” (Evo Morales, quoted in “Stop the genocide! S. American leaders condemn Israeli operations in Gaza”, RT, 20 July 2014: https://www.rt.com/news/174144-south-america-gaza-genocide/ .
Evo Morales (Bolivian President ) in recalling Bolivia’s ambassador from Israel (2014): “What is happening in Palestine is genocide”( “Bolivian president: Israel air strikes on Gaza is 'genocide'”, ITV, July 16, 2014, http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-07-16/bolivian-president-israel-air-strikes-of-gaza-is-genocide ).
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford February 18, 1931) is a Literature Nobel Prize winner and a Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American novelist, editor, and academic. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sula and Beloved. She also was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison held a Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison ).
Toni Morrison was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Craig John Murray (born 17 October 1958) is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan, and former Rector of the University of Dundee who has been awarded for his exposure and opposition to torture (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray ).
Craig Murray on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2012): “The BBC World Service TV has this minute, at 9.00am GMT, started its news broadcast as usual from Ashkelon in Israel, highlighting rocket attacks on Israel. There is no mention on the BBC – there has never been any mention on the BBC, or anywhere in the Western mainstream media – that for at least 4,000 years Ashkelon was an Arab town, until in 1948 the entire, Arab population of 12,000 was driven out by armed force, many being massacred. Doubtless some older inhabitants of Gaza are refugees whose home is Ashkelon.
Israel is exercising its right of self-defence in precisely the same sense that Hitler was exercising the right of self-defence in Normandy in 1944 – ie not at all. Why the world puts up with this blatant ethnic cleansing and prolonged, agonizing genocide of the Palestinian people, I have no idea. It is not just about bombs and rockets and deaths now. It is about the shepherds being pushed out of their village in 2012 as part of the same process of the massacre of Ashkelon in 1948, all a process of genocide of the Palestinians in which Obama, Clinton, Cameron and Hague, as two whole generations of western politicians before them, are actively complicit.” [1].
[1]. Craig Murray, “The Palestinian Genocide continues”, 21 November 2012: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/11/the-palestinain-genocide-continues/ .
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) exists “i To promote cooperation, consensus and unity on Muslim affairs in the UK. ii To encourage and strengthen all existing efforts being made for the benefit of the Muslim community. iii To work for a more enlightened appreciation of Islam and Muslims in the wider society. iv To establish a position for the Muslim community within British society that is fair and based on due rights. v To work for the eradication of disadvantages and forms of discrimination faced by Muslims. vi To foster better community relations and work for the good of society as a whole.” (see: http://www.mcb.org.uk/aim.php ).
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) on exclusion from Holocaust Day of the Palestinian Genocide (27 January 2003): “The MCB has conveyed its deepest sense of pain and anguish over the Nazi Holocaust. In a message to this Monday's Holocaust Memorial National Day ceremony in Edinburgh, Iqbal Sacranie, MCB Secretary-General said: “We are fully with the Jewish community in their pain and anguish. None of us must ever forget how the Holocaust began. We must remember it began with hatred that dehumanised an entire people, that fostered state brutality, made second class citizens of honest, innocent people because of their religion and ethnic identity. Those who were vilified and seen as a threat could be subjected to group punishment; dispossession and impoverishment while the rest of the world stood idly by, washing its hands of despair and suffering that kept getting worse. We must do more than remember and reflect on the past - we must be able to see when the same abuses occur in our time.”
“The living memorial for the victims of the Nazi Holocaust”, Iqbal Sacranie added, “is ensuring we make the cry ‘Never Again’ real for all people who suffer, everywhere. We honour the dead most sincerely by working to end suffering and bring peace with justice to those who live without hope today. But sadly,” he pointed out, “ ‘Ethnic cleansing’ is not a thing of the past; it is a present terror. Remembrance must, therefore, refocus our moral vision and rededicate our commitment to prevent current and future inhumanity, state brutality and crimes against humanity.”
However, he said that despite their persistent request, regrettably the memorial ceremony in its present form excludes and ignores other ongoing genocide and human rights abuses around the world, notably in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Much as we wanted to be there, he said they were unable to join the memorial ceremony but he urged the Home Secretary to make the Memorial Day inclusive of the sufferings of all people. “Genocide is the most abhorrent and outrageous crime against humanity and we are not going to prevent it by selectively remembering only some of its victims”, Mr Sacranie declared.” [1].
NABULSI, Jamal: Israel sees all Palestinians as a threat to be eliminated"
Jamal Nabulsi (a diaspora Palestinian writer and researcher, living on the unceded sovereign lands of the Indigenous Jagera and Turrbal peoples of present-day Brisbane Australia) (2021): “The erasure and repression of ’48 Palestinians continues. The violent Israeli response to recent protests across both ’67 and ’48 Palestine is testament to the fact that Israel sees all Palestinians as a threat to be eliminated, regardless of whether or not they carry an Israeli passport. Palestinians become a security threat to Israel simply in being born Palestinian. The millions of diaspora Palestinians continue to be denied their right to return home. Many of those in the near diaspora, particularly in Lebanon, continue to struggle through conditions of statelessness and the immense precarity entailed” (Jamal Nabulsi, “Righting the history of Palestine”, Overland, 2 June 2021: https://overland.org.au/2021/06/righting-the-history-of-palestine/?fbclid=IwAR1bN5JbtFEuwuowmOPloJwuswZJoT5W4SJJTddkzleKoMktv6-CiFGSAgY . )
Adi Ophir (born 22 September 1951) is an Israeli philosopher who is a professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Ophir ).
Adi Ophir on Palestinian genocide hiding behind Palestinian expulsion (2004): “At some point in Ari Shavit’s interview with Beny Morris [Benny Morris (professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel], when the reader might think that Morris has already said the most terrible things, he brings up, in passing, the extermination of the Native Americans. Morris contends that their annihilation was unavoidable. "The great American democracy could not have been achieved without the extermination of the Indians. There are cases in which the general and final good justifies difficult and cruel deeds that are carried out in the course of history." Morris seems to know what the general and final good is: the good of the Americans, of course. He knows that this good justifies partial evil. In other words, under specific conditions, specific circumstances, Morris believes that it is possible to justify genocide. In the case of the Indians, it is the existence of the American nation. In the case of the Palestinians, it is the existence of the Jewish state. For Morris, genocide is a matter of circumstances, that can be justified under certain conditions, all according to the perceived threat that the people to be annihilated represent to the people carrying out the genocide, or just to their form of government. The murderers of Rwanda or Serbia, that are standing trial today in international courts for their crimes against humanity, might like to retain Morris as an advisor.” [1, 2].
[1]. Adi Ophir, “A response to Benny Morris. Genocide hides behind expulsion”, Counterpunch, 16-18 January 2004: http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/01/16/genocide-hides-behind-expulsion/ .
[2]. Adi Ophir, “Genocide hides behind expulsion”, republished (slightly edited) as Chapter 18 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
The appalling catalogue of human suffering and premature death in the century-long Palestinian Genocide should be considered in the context of atrocities in the 20th century and earlier as listed in the Epilogue of the 400-page book “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” by Gideon Polya (Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 4 June 2020: https://www.amazon.com/US-Imposed-Post-9-Muslim-Holocaust-Genocide/dp/8793987056 ), and the article by Gideon Polya, “Racist Mainstream ignores “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide””, Countercurrents, 17 July 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/racist-mainstream-ignores-us-imposed-post-9-11-muslim-holocaust-muslim-genocide/ .
Deaths in 60 holocausts, genocides and famines and deriving from actual violence or from imposed deprivation are given in brackets as follows for the following alphabetically listed atrocities:
1978-1997 Afghan Genocide and Afghan Holocaust (6 million),
2001 onwards Afghan Genocide and Afghan Holocaust (7 million),
15th – 19th century African Holocaust (slave trade; 6 million),
16th century onwards Amerindian Genocide (90 million),
19th century Argentinian Indian Genocide (1 million),
1915-1923 Armenian Genocide (1.5 million),
post-1950 Asian Holocaust due to Australia-complicit US Asian Wars (40 million),
1914-1924 Assyrian Genocide (Syriac Genocide; 0.2-0.3 million),
1788 onwards Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Aboriginal Ethnocide (2 million),
1769-1770, Bengal Famine (10 million),
1942-1945 WW2 Bengali Holocaust, WW2 Bengal Famine and WW2 Indian Holocaust (6-7 million),
1971-1972 Bengali Holocaust and gendercide (3.0 million),
1967-1970, Biafran Genocide (2 million),
1990s Bosnian Genocide (circa 0.1 million),
20th century Brazilian Indigenous Genocide (1 million),
1969-1998 Cambodian Genocide (6.0 million),
19th century Chinese Holocaust (Opium wars and Tai Ping rebellion; 20-100 million),
1937-1945 WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million),
1958-1961 Chinese Holocaust of the Great Leap Forward (20-30 million),
19th -20th century Congo Genocide (Belgian Congo) (10 million),
1960 onwards Congolese Genocide and Congolese Holocaust (20 million),
1984-1985 Ethiopian famine (1 million),
1939-1945 WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Roma killed),
1941-1950 German Genocide and German Holocaust (9 million),
Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust (1,500 million since 1950),
1960-1996, Guatemala Mayan Indian Genocide (1.9 million),
1757-1947 Indian Holocaust from famine and deprivation (1,800 million),
1947 Indian Holocaust due to Partition (1.0 million),
1918-1920 Influenza epidemic (50-100 million),
1917-1919 Iranian Famine (2 million),
1978 onwards Iranian Holocaust and Iranian Genocide (3 million),
2003-2011 21st century Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (2.7 million),
1990-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (4.6 million),
1914-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (9 million),
1939-1945 WW2 Jewish Holocaust, Shoa (5-6 million),
1950-1953 Korean Genocide and Korean Holocaust (5.2 million),
1840s Irish Famine (2 million),
1955-1975 Laotian Genocide (1.2 million),
2011 Libyan Genocide (0.2 million),
19th century Maori Genocide in New Zealand (0.2 million),
2000 onwards 21st century Muslim Genocide and Muslim Holocaust (32 million),
1900s Namibian Genocide (0.1 million),
17th – 19th century North American Indian Genocide (up to 18 million),
1916 onwards Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust (2.2 million),
1865-1870 Paraguay Genocide (1 million)
1939-1945 WW2 Polish Genocide and Polish Holocaust (6 million),
21st century Rohingya Genocide (circa 0.1 million),
1921-1922 Russian famine, Povolzhye famine (5 million),
1930-1953 Russian Holocaust under Stalin (20 million),
1994 Rwandan Genocide (0.9 million),
1992 onwards Somali Genocide and Somali Holocaust (2.2 million),
19th century South Pacific Genocide via disease (0.1 million),
1930-1953 Soviet Holocaust under Stalin (20 million),
1955-2018 Sudan Genocide and Sudan Holocaust (13 million),
2011 onwards Syrian Genocide (1.0 million),
1990-2018 Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka (0.2 million),
1975-1999 East Timorese Genocide (0.3 million),
1930s Ukrainian Famine, Holodomor (7 million),
1945-1975 Vietnamese Genocide and Vietnamese Holocaust (15.3 million),
2015 onwards Yemeni Genocide (circa 0.1 million) (my sincere apologies for any absences or underestimates).
And then they stole the falafel
The violent, lying Zionists stole
All of the ancient land of Palestine,
Three cities, hundreds of villages and towns,
An ancient land ethnically cleansed.
They stole the human rights of Palestinians,
Of Exiled Palestinians, Occupied Palestinians,
And of Israeli Palestinians living as oppressed
Third Class Citizens under race-based laws.
They stole the lives of two million Palestinians,
A hundred thousand dying violently, and
Over two million dying from imposed deprivation
In a Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide.
They stole the futures of millions of children
Abusively imprisoned without charge or trial
In refugee camps, West Bank ghettoes,
And the blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp.
They stole the future of all the World’s children
Under threat from Israeli and other nuclear terrorism,
And stole free speech in Zionist-subverted
America, Britain, Canada and Australia.
They stole an ancient religion, Judaism,
Subverting humanism for evil state terrorism,
And the actual history of the non-Semitic Ashkenazim
And of other Jewish peoples around the world.
They stole the very name of Israel,
The ancient name of Torah-observant Jews,
And the religious language of Hebrew,
In the interests of Anglo-American imperialism.
They stole the ancient city of Al Quds,
The third holiest city for Muslims,
And backed America in the US-imposed, post-9-11
Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide.
They stole the Jewish Israeli heritage
Of Berber, Arabic and Yiddish language,
And with evil America helped destroy
Aramaic-speaking societies from Palestine to Iraq.
They stole the flag of Apartheid Israel
From the innocent Greeks, with the Star of David
Stolen from anti-Zionist Orthodox Judaism;
Their national anthem they stole from Smetana.
They stole the reputations of anti-racist Jews,
And of all those opposed to genocide and Apartheid.
They stole the name of a hill facing the Mount of Olives,
Renaming it for genocidal psychopath Herzl.
And then they stole the falafel.
Gideon Polya, 31 May 2020
Outstanding Jewish Israeli historian Ilan Pappé is Professor of history at the University of Exeter (UK) and co-Director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer in political science at Haifa University (1984-2007), and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa (2000-2008). He is the author of “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (2006) and many other scholarly books (for details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Papp%C3%A9 ).
Professor Ilan Pappé in his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”: "When it created its nation-state, the Zionist movement did not wage a war that `tragically but inevitably' led to the expulsion of `parts of' the indigenous population, but the other way round: the main goal was the ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine, which the movement coveted for its new state. A few weeks after the ethnic cleansing operations began, the neighbouring Arab states sent a small army - small in comparison to their overall military might - to try, in vain, to prevent the ethnic cleansing. The war with the regular Arab armies did not bring the ethnic cleansing operations to a halt until their successful completion in the autumn of 1948 … [after expelling 800,000 people, destroying 531 villages and empty eleven urban neighbourhoods] a clear-cut case of an ethnic cleansing operation, regarded under international law today as a crime against humanity." [1].
Professor Ilan Pappé in reviewing Alan Hart’s “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009): ““In this extraordinary book, Alan Hart has succeeded in elucidating for us the immediate and long term dangers involved in the unconditional Western support for Zionism and its oppressive policies against the Palestinians. The author provides us with a chilling exposure of how this embrace developed and continues to endanger the Jewish existence and fuels the anti-Semitism that refuses to disappear. Motivated by a genuine concern for peace in Israel and Palestine and beyond in the world at large, Alan Hart has written not only a strong indictment of Zionism, based on both research and personal experience, but also provided us with a charter for a better future” [2].
Professor Ilan Pappé re Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa (2008): “There are similarities and dissimilarities. The colonialist history has many chapters in common and some of the features of the Apartheid system can be found in the Israeli policies towards its own Palestinian minority and towards those in the occupied territories. Some aspects of the occupation, however, are worse than the apartheid reality of South Africa and some aspects in the lives of Palestinian citizens in Israel are not as bad as they were in the hey days of Apartheid. The main point of comparison to my mind is political inspiration. The anti-Apartheid movement, the ANC, the solidarity networks developed throughout the years in the West, should inspire a more focused and effect pro-Palestinian campaign”. [3].
Professor Ilan Pappé to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “I was thrilled to learn about the courageous step the college has taken. I am confident that history would judge it to be in hindsight one of the definitive moments in the non violent struggle to tend the occupation and the oppression in Palestine and Israel.” [4].
[1]. Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (Oneworld publications, 2006); Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe/dp/1851684670 .
[2]. Ilan Pappe, review of Alan Hart’s book “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009), Clarity Press: http://www.claritypress.com/files/Hart-I.html .
[3]. Interviews with Professors Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, OpEd News, 25 September 2008: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Noam-Chomsky-Ilan-Pappe-In-by-Duffer2205-080925-957.html .
[4]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
Kim Petersen (co-editor of Dissident Voice, lives in the traditional Mi'kmaq homeland colonially designated Nova Scotia, Canada; writes extensively about the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the Indigenous Arab Palestinians, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Kim Petersen on Palestinian Genocide (2007): “Genocide in Palestine. Pappe considers 1948 is a “clear cut case, according to informed and scholarly definitions, of ethnic cleansing.” Simply put, “genocide” is the killing of a group, and “ethnic cleansing” is the removal of a group. But “genocide” is not so simple. Article 2 (a,b,c, & d) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide seems to apply well to the case of 1948 and also today… What is needed is an independent international institution fully empowered to investigate and identify genocide wherever it may occur in the world and to make public its findings. The ghastly crimes of genocide must not be left to the inexpertise of ad hoc bureaucracy. Countries must not shirk from genocide. They must speak out unhesitatingly, with linguistic clarity and act with forthright remediation. Elementary morality demands, though, that we confront, criticize, act against, atone, and repent of our own great crimes first before we can criticize, with any iota of moral integrity, the great crimes of others. After all, linguistic honesty is more easily practiced when one has a clear conscience.”. [1, 2]
[1]. Kim Petersen, “Bleaching the atrocities of genocide. Linguistic honesty is better with a clear conscience”, Dissident Voice, 7 June 2007: http://dissidentvoice.org/2007/06/bleaching-the-atrocities-of-genocide/ .
[2]. Kim Petersen, “Bleaching the atrocities of genocide, republished as Chapter 27 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Professor James Petras is emeritus professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York; adjunct professor at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; author of 67 books published in 31 languages, of 600 articles in professional journals and of over 2,000 articles in non-professional journals, mainstream media and extensive Internet commentary. His latest book is “World Depression Regional Wars”(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Petras and http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ) .
Professor James Petras on the final solution applied to Palestinians in Palestine with reference to anti-racist humanitarian and Literature Nobel Laureate José Saramago comparing the Palestinian Genocide with Auschwitz (2002): “The Israeli public, its media, intellectuals, and journalists were scandalized when the Portuguese Nobel prize winning author, Jose Saramago, confronted them with the historical truth: “What is happening in Palestine is a crime that we can compare to what occurred in Auschwitz.” The Israeli public, instead of reflecting on their violent deeds instead turned on Saramago for daring to compare them with the Nazis. In his moral blindness, Amos Oz, the Israeli writer and sometime pacifist-until Israel goes to war-accused Saramago of being an “anti-Semite” and “incredible moral blindness”… In the world’s forums-from the European Union to the United Nations and throughout the Third World-Israel is condemned for acts against humanity. Israeli apologists will discover that calling critics “anti-Semites” no longer intimidates people. World public opinion has seen and read too much. We are realizing that victims can become executioners; that military occupation leads to ethnic cleansing and mass expulsions; that scratches can become gangrene… What is absolutely clear is that while Tel Aviv has the leverage of the Israeli lobby in Washington and Bush’s support, any number of United Nations resolutions, Geneva Conventions and European appeals will be completely ignored. In the bunker mentality of Sharon and his paranoid Israeli followers-they are all anti- Semites, followers of the Protocols of Zion, attempting to demoralize the Israelis from realizing the Biblical mission of a Greater Israel, one people, one nation, one God; the expulsion of all Palestinians from their Promised Land. World public opinion must not stand passive and repeat the tragedy of the 20th century Jewish Holocaust in the 21st century. There is still time. But how long can even a heroic people resist without food and water? Sharon’s offer to Arafat-freedom to leave without return, is meant for all the Palestinian people.” [1, 2].
{1]. James Petras “Palestine: the final solution and José Saramago”, The James Petras Website, 2 April 2002: http://www.petras.lahaine.org/articulo.php?p=124&more=1&c=1 .
[2]. James Petras “Palestine: the final solution and José Saramago”, republished as Chapter 19 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
John Pilger, renowned investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, is one of only two to have twice won British journalism's top award; his documentaries have won academy awards in both the UK and the US. In a New Statesman survey of the 50 heroes of our time, Pilger came fourth behind Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. "John Pilger," wrote Harold Pinter, "unearths, with steely attention facts, the filthy truth. I salute him." (see New Statesman: http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2009/10/obama-pilger-war-peace ).
John Pilger on the Palestinian Genocide (25 January 2007): “A genocide is engulfing the people of Gaza while a silence engulfs its bystanders. “Some 1.4 million people, mostly children, are piled up in one of the most densely populated regions of the world, with no freedom of movement, no place to run and no space to hide”, wrote senior UN relief official Jan Egeland and Jan Eliasson, then Swedish foreign minister, in Le Figaro. They described people “living in a cage”, cut off by land, sea and air, with no reliable power and little water, and tortured by hunger and disease and incessant attacks by Israeli troops and planes… “Looking from the side” is what those of us do who are cowed into silence by the threat of being called anti-Semitic. Looking from the side is what too many Western Jews do, while those Jews who honour the humane traditions of Judaism and say, “Not in our name!” are abused as “self-despising”. Looking from the side is what almost the entire US Congress does, in thrall to or intimidated by a vicious Zionist “lobby”. Looking from the side is what “even-handed” journalists do as they excuse the lawlessness that is the source of Israeli atrocities and suppress the historic shifts in the Palestinian resistance, such as the implicit recognition of Israel by Hamas. The people of Gaza cry out for better.” [1].
John Pilger on Western lying and holocaust ignoring (January 2009): ““When the truth is replaced by silence”, the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, “the silence is a lie”. It may appear the silence is broken on Gaza. The cocoons of murdered children, wrapped in green, together with boxes containing their dismembered parents and the cries of grief and rage of everyone in that death camp by the sea, can be viewed on Al Jazeera and YouTube, even glimpsed on the BBC. But Russia’s incorrigible poet was not referring to the ephemeral we call news; he was asking why those who knew the why never spoke it and so denied it. Among the Anglo-American intelligentsia, this is especially striking. It is they who hold the keys to the great storehouses of knowledge: the historiographies and archives that lead us to the why. They know that the horror now raining on Gaza has little to do with Hamas or, absurdly, “Israel’s right to exist”. They know the opposite to be true: that Palestine’s right to exist was canceled 61 years ago and the expulsion and, if necessary, extinction of the indigenous people was planned and executed by the founders of Israel. They know, for example, that the infamous “Plan D” resulted in the murderous depopulation of 369 Palestinian towns and villages by the Haganah (Jewish army) and that massacre upon massacre of Palestinian civilians in such places as Deir Yassin, al-Dawayima, Eilaboun, Jish, Ramle and Lydda are referred to in official records as “ethnic cleansing”. Ongoing ethnic cleansing … In Gaza, the enforced starvation and denial of humanitarian aid, the piracy of life-giving resources such as fuel and water, the denial of medicines and treatment, the systematic destruction of infrastructure and the killing and maiming of the civilian population, 50% of whom are children, meet the international standard of the Genocide Convention. Holocaust in the making.” [2].
[1]. John Pilger, “John Pilger: genocide in Gaza”, Green Left Weekly, 25 January 2007: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/696/36148 .
[2]. John Pilger, “John Pilger: holocaust denied”, Green Left Weekly, 17 January 2009: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/779/40192 .
Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was an outstanding Jewish British playwright and winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature (for biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter ). For his 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech slamming US atrocities in Latin America and Asia and calling for arraignment and Bush and Blair before the International Criminal Court see “Art, Truth and Politics”: http://www.countercurrents.org/arts-pinter081205.htm .
Harold Pinter signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Dr Gideon Polya on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (6 March 2008): “The situation has been recently described as described as a Palestinian Holocaust by Palestinian scholar Dr Elias Akleh, exiled from his homeland and now living in the US (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/akleh040308.htm ). It has been frequently described by others as a Palestinian Genocide, a term that is amply justified in relation to the definitions of the UN Genocide Convention as outlined below.
Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ) states:
“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”.
Using the latest available UN Agency data we can systematically analyze these UN Genocide Convention points thus:
“Intent to destroy in whole or in part" - sustained (and frequently asserted) intent over about 150 years of the Zionist colonial project; 0.75 million Palestinian refugees in 1948; currently 7 million Palestinian refugees, and 4.2 million Palestinian refugees registered with the UN in the Middle East; over 40 years of illegal Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million; post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million; 2,400 under-5 year old Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) infants die avoidably EACH YEAR in the OPT "Prison" due to Apartheid Israeli war crimes.
a) Killing - about 50,000 Palestinians killed since 1948; post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million; post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million; 2,400 under-5 year old Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) infants die avoidably EACH YEAR in the OPT "Prison" due to Israeli ignoring of the Geneva Convention; 254 OPT Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in the LAST 2 MONTHS OF 2008 ALONE, 301 killed thus last year (latest UNRWA data; see above).
b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm - see (a) and the shocking UNICEF reports of the appalling conditions psychologically scarring OPT children: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/oPt.html .
(c) Conditions to cause destruction in whole or in part - see (a) and (b); Professor Noam Chomsky describes the OPT as a highly abusive "Prison"; others use the valid term "Concentration Camp" and make parallels with the Warsaw Ghetto; one has to turn to US-guarded Vietnamese hamlets and the Nazi era atrocities to see routine, horrendously violent and deadly military policing of civilian concentration camps.
(d) Measures intended to prevent births - see (a), (b), and (c) above; dozens of pregnant women dying at road blocks; other killing of pregnant Palestinian women; huge infant mortality in the OPT with the Occupier in gross violation of the Geneva Convention.
(e) Forcible transferring of children – irreversible transferring by killing of children - 0.2 million post-invasion infant deaths; 27 OPT children violently killed in the LAST WEEK ALONE; mass imprisonment of 2 million OPT children; hundreds of Palestinian children in abusive Israeli high-security prisons in Israel; forcible separation of families by racist Israeli Apartheid Laws, marriage laws and immigration laws.
As indicated above we have to turn to the Nazi crimes of WW2 and post-war US war crimes in its post-1950 Asian Wars for baseline comparisons for horrendous maltreatment and mass murder of conquered Indigenous civilians.” [1].
Dr Gideon Polya on racist Zionism and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (29 September 2009): “7. 1.5 million Arab Israelis live as second class citizens subject to Nazi-style race laws demanding Apartheid-style, race-based ID and affecting property rights, employment, and marriage.
8. 4 million Indigenous Palestinians live under an illegal, brutal, genocidal, 42 year duration Occupation that has been formally condemned by both General Assembly and UN Security Council Resolutions.
9. 2 .5 million West Bank Occupied Palestinians live in Zionist-encircled “Bantustans” in a territory being illegally whittled away by military camps, military check points, race-based settlements and Jews-only highways and roads.
10. 1.5 million Occupied Palestinians live in what the Catholic Church has described as the Gaza Concentration Camp which is policed not by Israeli police but by Israeli air force, army and naval shelling, bombing and shooting.
11. In 1880 there were 500,000 Indigenous Arab Palestinians and 25,000 Jews (50% immigrants) in the Holy Land – today there are 5.5 million Indigenous Palestinians in the Holy Land and some 5.5 million Palestinian refugees elsewhere and excluded from their Homeland, which is occupied by 5.5 million Jewish Israelis backed by the US, UK, Canada, the EU and racist Australia.
12. In the 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections conducted under Occupier guns, Hamas won 76 seats out of 132 but these Hamas MPs are now overwhelmingly either dead, imprisoned or hiding in the Gaza Concentration Camp and regarded as “terrorists” by the “democratic Nazi” US, UK, Canada, the EU and Australia.
13. UN data reveal that each year Israel is responsible for 3,600 Occupied Palestinian under-5 year old avoidable deaths, 5,700 Occupied Palestinian non-violent avoidable deaths and about 800 violent Occupied Palestinian deaths.
14. The Palestinian Genocide continues despite numerous UN General Assembly and UN Security Council Resolutions, notably UN Security Council Resolution 252 prohibiting land and property seizure, notably in Jerusalem…
22. As of mid-2009, in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories post-invasion non-violent excess deaths total 0.3 million, 1.0 million and 3.2 million, respectively; post-invasion violent deaths total about 11,000, 1.3 million and up to 4 million, respectively; post-invasion violent plus non-violent excess deaths total 0.3 million, 2.3 million and 3-7 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; and refugees total 7 million, 5-6 million and 3-4 million, respectively (plus a further 2.5 million Pashtun refugees in NW Pakistan). This constitutes a Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention; and egregious war crimes due in part to Occupier war criminal non-supply of life-sustaining food and medical requisites demanded unequivocally by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War – thus the Gaza Concentration Camp has been under US-backed Israeli blockade for 2 years and according to WHO the “total annual per capita medical expenditure” permitted by the Occupiers in Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan is US$124 and US$29, respectively, as compared to US$6,714 for the US.” [2].
Gideon Polya, “We are all Palestinian” (February 2008): “3,000 under-5 Occupied Palestinians die each year. Comparisons with other countries will reveal that about 2,400 of these infant deaths are avoidable, that Zionist-run Apartheid is deliberately, remorselessly (albeit passively) murdering 2,400 Occupied Palestinian infants each year through deliberate, intentional and war criminal
NON-provision of life-sustaining requisites unequivocally demanded of Occupiers by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War).
However the bigger picture derives from UN Population Division and UNHCR data that reveal that post-invasion Occupied Palestinian excess deaths total 0.3 million, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million and that there are about 7 million Palestinian refugees (see “Zionism, Occupation & Palestinian Genocide” on MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17194/42/ . This constitutes a Palestinian Holocaust and a Palestinian Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention.
However behind these awful statistics lie horrendously abusive conditions that are also reported by UNICEF. Half of the Occupied Palestinians are children who are being denied proper food, nutrition, medicine, medical aid, sanitation, physical and psychological security, education and basic human rights by the proto-Nazi Zionists running the Occupied Palestinian Territory Concentration camp.
My family’s story
Many years ago racist invaders occupied my family’s country, my people were subject to brutality, dispossession, torture and killing - several hundred thousand of my people died out of a population of the order of a million. Our homes and lands were taken so that, even if permitted to return, refugees would have nothing to return to. Several years ago the European Union approved our dispossession.
My family was Palestinian, you say?
No. In 1944 the German Nazis invaded Hungary, 0.2 million out of 0.7 million Jewish Hungarians were killed [Professor Gilbert has recently estimated 0.4 million were killed] and many of the survivors fled immediately after 1945 or during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. In 2004 Hungary entered the EU with the EU approval of the permanent dispossession of Jewish Hungarian victims of Nazism and thence Communism. Our lands and homes have been simply given to others. Indeed a relative reported visiting one such property in the heart of Budapest – it was converted into 4 apartments decorated with paintings and photographs of our family members for the amusement of total strangers.
Comparison of the Palestinian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust in Hungary is appropriate. The Jewish Holocaust occurring in Hungary in 1944 -1945 killed 0.2 million out of a total Jewish Hungarian population of 0.7 million (see: Gilbert, M. (1969), Jewish History Atlas (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London).
Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London). The survivors who fled as refugees remain permanently dispossessed with EU, UK and US approval.
The Palestinian Genocide involved invasion, occupation, disempowerment, dispossession, violence, ethnic cleansing and (within the Holy Land) post-1967 excess deaths totalling 0.3 million out of an average 1967-2008 Occupied Palestinian territory population of 1.8 million. The survivors who fled as refugees remain permanently dispossessed with EU, US, UK and US-lackey Australian approval.
Whereas the Jewish Holocaust involved rapid, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic , race-based extermination for Nazi and Nazi collaborator benefit and gratification, the Palestinian Genocide has involved slow, anti-Arab anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing for Zionist lebensraum.” [3]
Gideon Polya on Israeli state terrorism (2009): “Israelis killed by Palestinians (1967-2009) = 987 (1967-Sep 2000) + 1,182 (Sep 2000-Jan 2009) = 2,169 (1967-Jan 2009).
Israeli non-violent excess deaths (1967-Jan 2009) = 0.
Palestinians violently killed by Israelis (1967-2009) = 5,636 (Sep 2000-Jan 2009) + POSSIBLY about 5,000 (1967-Sep 2000) = 10, 636.
Palestinian non-violent excess deaths from food and medical deprivation by Israelis (post-1967) = about 300,000.
Palestinian violent and non-violent excess deaths (post-1967) = 300,000 + 10,636 = 310,636.
DEATH RATIO of Palestinians violently killed by Israelis/Israelis killed by Palestinians = 10,636/2,169 = 4.9.
DEATH RATIO of Palestinian violent and non-violent excess deaths from Israelis/Israelis killed by Palestinians = 310,636/2,169 = 143…
The post-1967 under-5 infant deaths in the Occupied Palestinian Territory total 0.2 million (80% avoidable and due to war criminal Occupier non-provision of life-sustaining requisites unequivocally demanded of Occupiers by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Comparative UNICEF data indicate that 2,400 under-5 year old infants die avoidably each year (3,000 in total each year) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, this corresponding to about 4,300 total avoidable deaths in the Occupied Palestinian Territory annually. The current devastation of the Gaza Concentration Camp part of Occupied Palestinian Territory (1.5 million people in Gaza out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory total population of 4 million , 50% children, 75% women and children) suggests that this will rise hugely in the future on the basis of Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan comparisons.
The Gaza Strip is a self-governing Apartheid Israeli Concentration Camp ruled by the Hamas Government which won 76 out of 132 seats in the Occupied Palestinian Parliamentary elections held under Israeli guns in 2006. The Israelis responded by arresting as many Hamas MPs as they could find , the remainder fleeing to Gaza. In the current Israeli Gaza Massacre, the Israelis are evidently bent on “finishing the job” (they have already destroyed the Gaza Parliament House). The war criminal, pro-Zionist Western backers of Apartheid Israel, followed suit by declaring the democratically elected Hamas MPs to be “terrorists”.
The ostensible excuse for Apartheid Israel’s current Gaza Massacre is “Gaza rocket terror”. However “terror” is directly proportional to “proportion of people killed” and the ACTUAL number of Israelis killed by Gaza rockets and mortars since the start of the Second Intifada 8.25 years ago is TWENTY EIGHT (28), this corresponding to a 21st century “annual homicide rate” in units of persons killed per million per year of 0.5 (Israelis killed by Gaza missiles) – as compared to 15 (Israelis by Israelis), 56 (Americans), 100 (Americans by guns), 164 (Palestinians killed violently by Israelis), 200 (African-Americans), 473 (citizens of Detroit, Michigan, USA) and 902 per million per year (annual Palestinian non-violent deaths through war criminal, Geneva Convention-violating Israeli-imposed deprivation).
The above REALITIES show that Apartheid Israel and racist, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, pro-Zionist Mainstream media and politicians in the Western Murdochracies are simply and blatantly LYING about “Hamas terror” and “Gaza rocket terror”. Clearly, indiscriminate firing of missiles is WRONG and should STOP – indeed the greatest danger from such acts has been from the horrendous, disproportionate, war criminal attacks by the Israelis on Gaza, one of the most the densely populated urban areas of the Planet.
Rational analysis indicates that the “annual death rate” of Israelis from Gaza missiles is about ONE THOUSAND (1,000) times LOWER than the “annual homicide rate” in Detroit, Michigan, USA – it would be crazy, racist and utterly EVIL to suggest that African-Americans should be listed as “terrorists” and African-American suburbs sealed off as Concentration Camps, shelled by the US Navy and Army and bombed with high explosive bombs and rockets, cluster bombs and phosphorus bombs by the US Air Force.” [4].
Gideon Polya on Gaza Massacre, Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide (February 2009): “The horrendous mortality and morbidity statistics revealed by the paper "The Wounds of Gaza", just published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet are truly shocking – 1,350 killed (60% children) and 5,450 severely wounded (40% children) in reprisals for zero (0) Israeli deaths from Gaza rockets in the preceding year…In the period 1967-2009 in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, post-invasion non-violent excess deaths totalled 0.3 million; post-invasion violent deaths at the hands of Israelis totalled about 10,000; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths totalled about 0.2 million; there are over 7 million Palestinian refugees (4.3 million registered with the UN) - a Palestinian Holocaust and a Palestinian Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention.” [5].
Gideon Polya (anti-racist Jewish Hungarian-origin Australian scientist, writer, artist and humanitarian) (2017): “Netanyahu is the PM of nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, serial invader, serial war criminal, women-abusing, children-abusing, democracy-by-genocide, ethnic cleansing, pathologically mendacious, neo-Nazi, anti-Arab anti-Semitic and indeed anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, race-based kleptocracy Apartheid Israel. Netanyahu has been invited to visit pro-Zionist, US-lackey, climate criminal Australia, the world’s leading supporter of Apartheid Israel after the US, and will address the Australian Federal Parliament in February 2017…
Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention states that :“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. Apartheid Israel is guilty of violating all these elements of the UN Genocide Convention: (1) since 1936 there have been 2 million Palestinian deaths from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or Zionist-imposed deprivation (1.9 million ); (2) there are 7 million Palestinian refugees and all of the 12 million Palestinians are excluded from all or part of Palestine; (3) of 12 million Palestinians (half of them children), 6 million are forbidden to even step foot in their own country on pain of death, 4.7 million are highly abusively and violently held hostage with zero human rights under Israeli guns in the Gaza Concentration Camp (2.0 million) or in ever-dwindling West Bank Bantustan ghettoes (2.7 million), and 1.7 million live as Third Class citizens as Israeli Palestinians under Nazi-style Apartheid Israeli race laws; (4) 90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants (this making a 2-State Solution impossible); (5) the huge disparity in annual GDP per capita between Occupied Palestinians ($2,800) and Israel-proper ($38,000) is reflected in huge differential avoidable mortality of over 4,000 avoidable deaths per year for Occupied Palestinians versus zero (0) for Israelis; (6) through imposed deprivation, each year Apartheid Israel passively murders about 2,700 under-5 year old Palestinian infants and passively murders about 4,200 Occupied Palestinians in general; (7) Apartheid Israel violently kills an average of about 500 Occupied Palestinians each year (3,900 Gaza Palestinian violently killed in 2008-2014 in response to 32 Israeli deaths from home-made Gaza rockets since 2004); and (8) Occupied Palestinians are deprived of essentially all human rights by Apartheid Israel, of which the most fundamental is the right to live unmolested in their own country…
Decent people around the world urge and apply comprehensive Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against genocidally racist Apartheid Israel and all its racist supporters” [6].
[1]. Gideon Polya, “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide. Israel-US & Nazi death ratios compared”, MWC News, 6 March 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20745/42/ .
[2]. Gideon Polya, “Zionist Israel racism exposed in 50 steps”, MWC News, 29 September 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/33457/42/ .
[3]. Gideon Polya, “We are all Palestinian. Apartheid Israel’s Gaza Concentration Camp & Palestinian Genocide”, MWC News, 1 February 2008: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19915/42/ .
[4]. Gideon Polya, “Palestinian-Israeli death ratios. Nazi style Israel Gaza war crimes”, MWC News, 10 January 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/27795/42/ .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel Gaza Massacre. “The Lancet” reveals horrendous Israeli war crimes”, MWC News, 15 February 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28566/42/ .
[6]. Gideon Polya, “Australia welcomes genocidal racist and serial war criminal Netanyahu”, Countercurrents, 10 February 2017: http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/10/australia-welcomes-genocidal-racist-and-serial-war-criminal-netanyahu/ .
Dr Gideon Polya (11 June 2019):
“Tales Of A City By The Sea” by Gaza-born, Palestinian Australian playwright and poet, Samah Sabawi, is a simple but powerful play about the realities of life and love in the Gaza Concentration Camp that is ruled with an iron fist by nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. However fundamentally the play is about those who have choices and those who do not. This excellent and moving play describes part of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust in microcosm.
The land of Palestine has now been 90% ethnically cleansed, rendering a “2-state solution” dead and making imperative a unitary, secular and democratic state in Palestine. While Indigenous Palestinians represent 50% of Apartheid Israeli subjects, nearly three quarters have zero human rights and cannot vote for the government ruling them – egregious Apartheid that is declared by the UN to be a crime against Humanity. While only 4,000 Zionists were killed by Palestinians in the period 1920-2019, since the British invasion of the Middle East in 1914 about 2.2 million Palestinians have died from violence, 0.1 million, or from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million.
The 100-year Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust is of the same order of magnitude as the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed by violence or imposed deprivation) or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death by the British with Australian complicity). All decent people must urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all its genocidally racist supporters, just as such boycotts and sanctions were successfully applied by the world to end the racist obscenity of Apartheid in South Africa (see Gideon Polya, “Review: “Tales Of A City By The Sea” by Samah Sabawi – Palestinian Genocide & Palestinian Holocaust In Microcosm”, Countercurrents, 10 June 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/review-tales-of-a-city-by-the-sea-by-samah-sabawi-palestinian-genocide-palestinian-holocaust-in-microcosm )."
Dr Gideon Polya (2019): “I have estimated that 2.2 million Palestinian have died from violence, 0.1 million, or from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million, since the British invasion of the Ottoman Empire in 1914 in WW1. The details are set out below in a 2019 update on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide… The total number of violent and non-violent avoidable deaths from deprivation in the Palestinian Genocide (2.2 million) is of same order of magnitude as the number of victims of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed by violence or imposed deprivation)” (Gideon Polya, “Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million”, Veterans Today, 10 June 2019: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/06/10/new-evidence/ ).
Dr Gideon Polya (2019): “The total number of violent deaths and non-violent avoidable deaths from deprivation in the Palestinian Genocide (2.2 million) is of same order of magnitude as the number of victims of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed by violence or imposed deprivation) [31-33], and of the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust (the WW2 Indian Holocaust or WW2 Bengal Famine in which the British with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to deaths in Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Orissa for strategic reasons) [34-41], but is an order of magnitude lower than the number of victims of the “forgotten” WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million Chinese killed under the Japanese, 1937-1945) [42] or of the largely Western-ignored WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed by the Nazis in WW2) [24]. “Holocaust” refers to a huge number of deaths whereas “genocide” is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” [43]. Thus on a comparative basis the Palestinian Genocide merits the term Palestinian Holocaust. Numerous victims and descendants of victims of the WW2 Jewish Genocide (WW2 Jewish Holocaust, Shoa) together with Western supporters of Zionism have been involved in supporting an ongoing Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust. However for the best part of a century anti-racist Jews have been variously rejecting genocidal Zionism, criticizing the appalling crimes of Apartheid Israel, and declaring “Not in our name”” (Gideon Polya, “Review: “Tales Of A City By The Sea” by Samah Sabawi – Palestinian Genocide & Palestinian Holocaust In Microcosm”, Countercurrents, 10 June 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/review-tales-of-a-city-by-the-sea-by-samah-sabawi-palestinian-genocide-palestinian-holocaust-in-microcosm ).
The pro-war, pro-US, pro-Zionist BBC censors the word “Palestine” and, in addition, using the BBC Search function one finds that the BBC completely censors the term “Palestinian Holocaust” (2 million dead) and largely censors out the term “Palestinian Genocide” (2 million dead, 7 million refugees, 90% of Palestine ethnically cleansed and only 6% of 12 million Palestinians can vote for the government of Apartheid Israel that rules all of historical Palestine plus an ethnically cleansed part of Syria). In addition to its blatant anti-Arab anti-Semitism, the anti-Semitic BBC exhibits anti-Jewish anti-Semitism by censoring out the “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jews” and “anti-racist Jewish” humanitarians. The BBC has an appalling record of pro-Zionist, pro-US, pro-war, pro-imperialism, pro-neocolonialism and racist censorship, lying by commission and lying by omission (e.g. see Gideon Polya, “Censorship by the BBC. How the BBC censors US-UK atrocities”, MWC News, 8 April 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/18092-bbc.html .
1. BBC censors “Palestine”.
Anti-racist Jewish Australian writer Antony Loewenstein (author of “My Israel Question”, Melbourne University Press) and others have exposed BBC censorship of the very word “Palestine” from qa broadcast of a rapper’s song. Thus Antony Loewenstein reports: “Appearing on the popular Charlie Sloth Hip Hop M1X last February, the artist Mic Righteous performed a rap which included the lyrics: “I can scream Free Palestine for my pride/still pray for peace.” BBC producers replaced the word ‘Palestine’ with the sound of breaking glass and this is the version that was aired and which can be seen on a video on the BBC website (the censorship occurs at 2:59)… The edited performance was repeated in April on the same show. Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has spent the last eight months trying to find out why the decision to censor an artist who raised the issue of Palestine was made. During the course of a long correspondence, the BBC’s head of editorial standards for audio and music, Paul Smith, wrote that the show’s producer “did not edit out the word ‘Palestine’ because it was offensive — referencing Palestine is fine, but implying that it is not free is the contentious issue”” (see Antony Loewenstein, “BBC censors “Palestine” because, well, I mean, really, who says its occupied?”: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2012/02/04/bbc-censors-palestine-because-well-i-mean-really-who-says-its-occupied/ .
2. BBC censors “Palestinian Holocaust”.
A BBC Search for the term “Palestinian Holocaust” elicits zero (0) results. Yet it is estimated that since 1936 a total of about 0.1 million Palestinians have been killed violently and Palestinian avoidable deaths from invasion,-, war-, occupation- and expulsion-related deprivation total 1.9 million. In stark contrast, thje Israeli Foreign Ministry estimates that about 3,700 Jewish colonizers had been killed by Palestinians since 1920 (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ). A BBC Search for “Jewish Holocaust” yields 44 results. A BBC Search for “Holocaust” (which the racist, lying and holocaust-ignoring BBC regards as synonymous with the Jewish Holocaust part of the WW2 Holocaust in which 30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies were killed) yields 3,312 results (of which 2,783 results are for BBC News). In contrast, a BBC Search for “Palestinian Holocaust” yields 89,300 results.
3. BBC censors “Palestinian Genocide”.
A BBC Search for the term “Palestinian Genocide” elicits only two (2) results, specifically (1) “Two Stoke-on-Trent councilors snub Holocaust book”, BBC News, 26 January 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-12290915 (Kassem Al-Khatib, a Palestinian, and Gavin Webb, a Libertarian, would not add their signatures to the Stoke-on-Trent City Council Holocaust Memorial book, Mr Al-Khatib saying he would be happy to do so if there were a Palestinian Genocide memorial and Mr Webb protesting the "gross stink of hypocrisy" throughout the British government's foreign policies); and (2) “Turkey accuses Israel of genocide”, BBC News, 4 April 2002: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1911609.stm (“The Prime Minister of Turkey - Israel's longstanding and sole Muslim ally - has accused the country of genocide against the Palestinians.” ) In contrast, a Google Search for “Palestinian Genocide” yields 28,000 results.
Inspection of the multi-author book “The Plight of the Palestinians” (editor William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ) reveals numerous well-known writer and scholar co-authors explicitly referring to a “Palestinian Genocide”, a “Palestinian Holocaust” or an “ethnic cleansing” pr “liquidation” of Palestine, these anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish humanitarian writers including Dr. Elias Akleh, Uri Avnery, Omar Barghouti, Professor Francis Boyle, Kathleen Christison, Bill Christison, Professor William Cook, Curtis F. J. Doebbler, Professor Richard Falk, Stephen Lendman, Ilan Pappe, Kim Petersen, Professor James Petras, John Pilger, Dr Gideon Polya, and Professor Tanya Reinhart.
18 leading Jewish and non-Jewish writers and entertainers have including 3 Nobel Laureates slam Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”, these signatories including John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Harold Pinter, José Saramago, Eduardo Galeano, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, Howard Zinn, Charles Glass, Richard Falk, Gore Vidal, Russell Banks, Thomas Keneally, Chris Abani, Carolyn Forché, Martín Espada, Jessica Hagedorn, and Toni Morrison (see “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers ).
4. BBC censors the “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jews” and “anti-racist Jewish” humanitarians.
Do a BBC Search for the terms “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jewish” and ‘anti-racist Jews” and you get 37, 28 and 14 results , respectively, but none of these stories relate to an “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jewish” people or “anti-racist Jews” i.e. the BBC completely ignores the large body of such decent, anti-racist, Jewish humanitarians who are necessarily opposed as decent anti-racist humanitarians to the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel (for an alphabetic compendium of the views of such outstanding anti-racist Jews see “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ; see also “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ ).
For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”.
However these sacred injunctions are grossly violated by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel and their Western backers variously involved in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Somali Genocide, and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths from war-imposed deprivation 2.0 million (Palestine 1936-2012), 4.6 million (Iraq 1990-2012), 2.2 million (Somalia 1992-2011) and 5.6 million (Afghanistan 2011-2012), respectively; and refugees totalling 7 million, 5-6 million, 2 million and 3-4 million, respectively, plus a further 2.5 million NW Pakistan Pashtun refugees generated by US –backed war) (see “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ).
All decent, anti-racist, humanitarians must vigorously oppose and sideline those supporting racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel and racist Western wars and occupations who are currently complicit in 0.7 million non-violent excess deaths annually; continuing, racist perversion of human rights, humanitarian values and rational discourse in the Western democracies (aka Murdochracies and Lobbocracies) ; ignoring of worsening climate genocide (that may kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century through unaddressed man-made climate change); and egregious anti-Jewish anti-Semitism through sidelining outstanding anti-racist Jews and falsely identifying decent, anti-racist Jews with these appalling crimes.
PS. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the taxpayer-funded Australian equivalent of the UK BBC. The ABC, like the BBC, is pro-Zionist, pro-war, pro-US, pro-imperialism and holocaust ignoring – and also censors, lies by omission and lies by commission (see “ABC Censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ ). The ABC also has a Search device that enables one to do an ABC Search of the “entire ABC site”. ABC Searches for the terms discussed above in relation to the BBC yield the following results for “Palestinian Holocaust” (3 but actually effectively zero, 2 involving a reader comment referring to the “Palestinian Holocaust” and the remaining article being irrelevant); “Palestinian Genocide” (0); “anti-racist Jew” (0); “anti-racist Jewish” (0); and “anti-racist Jews” (0).
PPS. The Australian ABC is clearly worse than the UK BBC when it comes to censorship as well as anti-Arab anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic pro-Zionism. However other Mainstream media are involved in egregious censorship and mal-reportage e.g. see “Boycott Murdoch Media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ ; “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age ; “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ ; and “Mainstream Media Censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/ ; “ABC Late Night Live (LNL) censors listener comments”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/abc-late-night-live-1 ; “Censorship by Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ ; and “ABC Censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ .
Professor Tanya Reinhart (born 1943 in Haifa, Palestine Mandate; died 2007) had an MA, Hebrew University Jerusalem and a PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under Professor Noam Chomsky). She was professor of linguistics and literary theory, Tel Aviv University, Israel. She was an Israeli linguist, author and peace activist; wrote many articles for Israeli and US journals (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Reinhart ).
Professor Tanya Reinhart on “A slow, steady genocide” in {Palestine (2003): “After September 11, Israel succeeded in depicting its project of destroying Palestinian society as part of the war against terror, and the Palestinians terrorists. The consequence, at least in the Israeli propaganda, has been that the same means the US uses in fighting its own terror, Israel can also use in fighting the Palestinians. For the Palestinians, this has had very grave consequences - Operation Defensive Shield [in April 2002, Israel's largest escalation since the 1982 war on Lebanon], in which Israel invaded all of the West Bank, and the Jenin horrors that came afterwards. Ever since, Israel has used all of the US methods, including economic strangulation. Under the pretext of fighting terror, they are freezing all sorts of funds to the Palestinian society. Many of the Hamas funds go to support families that are affected by the siege, the blockades, the lack of work. The only funds that are still supporting the social infrastructure of the Territories are often these charity funds, and they are being frozen - all in the name of the war against terror… But I don't like the term anti-Zionism to define opposition to Israeli policies, because Zionism - the way it is perceived by most Israelis - is that Jews are entitled to a State of their own. It is the liberation and self-determination of the Jewish people motivated by the Holocaust and their fate in exile. The trouble is not exactly with Zionism, but with the Israeli leadership and the way Zionism has been executed, based on ethnic cleansing from the very start. I believe it was possible to reach the same goal [of Jewish self-determination] with much less loss and sacrifice for the Palestinian people. It is not part of having your own state that it must be based on striving to grab more and more of your neighbour's land, or depriving minorities of their rights - this is the Israeli military system's implementation of the idea of Zionism. So I believe what we should say is that we are against Israel - meaning Israel's acts and the policy of its leadership, and against the Occupation, and leave the question of Zionism aside.” [1, 2].
[1]. Tanya Reinhart, “A slow, steady genocide”, Z Net, 11 September 2003: http://www.zcommunications.org/a-slow-steady-genocide-by-tanya-reinhart .
[2]. Tanya Reinhart, “A slow, steady genocide”, republished as Chapter 11 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Dr Paul Craig Roberts (born April 3, 1939), is an economist, academic, former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Business Week, nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate, and author of numerous books. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the "Father of Reaganomics” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts ).
Paul Craig Roberts on the US and Israeli Muslim Genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Middle East and “the shame of being an American” (2006): “Gentle reader, do you know that Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing in southern Lebanon? Israel has ordered all the villagers to clear out. Israel then destroys their homes and murders the fleeing villagers. That way there is no one to come back and nothing to which to return, making it easier for Israel to grab the territory, just as Israel has been stealing Palestine from the Palestinians… Of course, you don't know these things, because the US print and TV media do not report them… On July 20, "your" House of Representatives voted 410-8 in favor of Israel's massive war crimes in Lebanon. Not content with making every American complicit in war crimes, "your" House of Representatives, according to the Associated Press, also "condemns enemies of the Jewish state." Who are the "enemies of the Jewish state"? They are the Palestinians whose land has been stolen by the Jewish state, whose homes and olive groves have been destroyed by the Jewish state, whose children have been shot down in the streets by the Jewish state, whose women have been abused by the Jewish state. They are Palestinians who have been walled off into ghettos, who cannot reach their farm lands or medical care or schools, who cannot drive on roads through Palestine that have been constructed for Israelis only. They are Palestinians whose ancient towns have been invaded by militant Zionist "settlers" under the protection of the Israeli army who beat and persecute the Palestinians and drive them out of their towns. They are Palestinians who cannot allow their children outside their homes because they will be murdered by Israeli "settlers." The Palestinians who confront Israeli evil are called "terrorists The hope in the Muslim world has always been that the United States would intervene in behalf of compromise and make Israel realize that Israel cannot steal Palestine and turn every Palestinian into a refugee… Muslim genocide in one form or another is the professed goal of the neoconservatives who have total control over the Bush administration.” [1].
Dr Paul Craig Roberts on the destruction of Palestine (2015): The “Christian” West is a master at propaganda and self-deception. Look at the evangelical churches. They support a criminal, inhumane regime while professing to be followers of Christ. Look at American “conservatives.” They support the militarized police state. They support the routine police murders of dark-skinned American citizens. They support every war Washington dreams up and even more. Indeed, there are not enough wars for the satisfaction of Congressional Republicans who now want war with Russia and with Iran. Look at the Republicans in Congress and in state governments. They hate the environment. They love polluters. They worship Israel and Israel’s destruction of the Palestinians and the ongoing theft of the Palestinians’ country, a 60-year old activity. Just look at the map of shrinking Palestine. More is stolen each day. Washington has supported this theft of an entire country. Yet, Washington is able to masquerade as a great defender of human rights. Whose rights? Washington’s and Israel’s. No one else’s rights count. How does the world survive the American-Israeli aggression? Probably it will not. The evil is now directed at Iran, Russia, and China. These countries cannot be bombed year after year after year with no consequences to the bombers” [2].
Paul Craig Roberts, “The shame of being an American” (2006) republished as Chapter 8 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
[2]. Paul Craig Roberts, “A Middle East Holocaust”, Paul Craig Roberts, 30 March 2015: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/03/30/middle-east-holocaust-paul-craig-roberts/ .
Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, “The God of Small Things”, and has written two screenplays and several collections of essays. She is an outspoken anti-war, pro-human rights humanitarian (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundhati_Roy ).
Arundhati Roy signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Edward Wadie Sa’id (born 1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a major figure in analysis of postcolonialism and postmodernism (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said ).
Palestinian-American Professor Edward Sa'id comparing the European Jewish Holocaust with the current situation of the Palestinians (2002): “Sixty years ago, the Jews of Europe were at the lowest point of their collective existence. Herded like cattle into trains, they were transported from the rest of Europe by Nazi soldiers into death camps where they were systematically exterminated in gas ovens. They had offered some resistance in Poland, but in most places they first lost their civil status, then they were removed from their jobs, then they were designated official enemies to be destroyed, and then they were. In every significant instance they were the most powerless of people, treated as insidious, potentially overpowering enemies by leaders and armies whose own power was far, far greater; indeed, even the idea of Jews representing a danger to the might of countries like Germany, France, and Italy was preposterous. But it was an accepted idea, since with few exceptions most of Europe turned its back on them during their slaughter... Every human calamity is different, so there is no point in trying to look for equivalence between one and the other. But it is certainly true that one universal truth about the Holocaust is not only that it should never again happen to Jews, but that as a cruel and tragic collective punishment, it should not happen to any people at all. But if there is no point in looking for equivalence, there is a value in seeing analogies and perhaps hidden similarities, even as we preserve a sense of proportion… Quite apart from his actual history of mistakes and misrule, Yasser Arafat is now being made to feel like a hunted Jew by the state of the Jews. There is no gainsaying the fact that the greatest irony of his siege by the Israeli army in his ruined Ramallah compound, is that his ordeal has been planned and carried out by a psychopathic leader who claims to represent the Jewish people. I do not want to press the analogy too far, but it is true to say that Palestinians under Israeli occupation today are as powerless as Jews were in the 1940s. Israel's army, air force and navy, heavily subsidized by the United States, have been wreaking havoc on the totally defenseless civilian population of the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip... And still Sharon makes the case that Israel is struggling to survive against Palestinian terrorism. Is there anything more grotesque than this claim, even as this deranged killer of Arabs sends his F-16s, his attack helicopters and hundreds of tanks against unarmed people without any defenses at all?... As popular protests grow worldwide, the organized Zionist counter-response has been to complain that antisemitism is on the rise... Criticism of Israeli policy is now routinely equated [by the Zionists and their allies with antisemitism of the kind that brought about the Holocaust... What conclusion is one to draw from all this? That Israeli policy has been a disaster for the entire region. The more powerful it becomes, the more ruin it sows in the countries around it, to say nothing of the catastrophes it has executed against the Palestinian people, and the more hated it becomes. It is power used for evil purposes, not self-defense at all. The Zionist dream of a Jewish state being a normal state like all others has come to the vision of the leader of Palestine's indigenous people hanging on to his life by a thread, while Israeli tanks and bulldozers continue to wreck everything around him. Is this the Zionist goal for which hundreds of thousands have died?... Isn't it time for those who feel that his [i.e. Sharon's] appalling actions do not represent them to call a halt to his behavior?"
[1]. English translation of Edward Sa'id's, "Low Point of Powerlessness," Al-Hayat (London), September 30, 2002: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/761308/posts .
Mauri’ Salakhan is an American Muslim poet, writer and human rights activist.described thus by The Peace and Justice Foundation: “El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan is the author of several books: The Teacher, a work of Islamically-based poetry and commentary on a myriad of social and political issues; Sacrilege In the Haramain, an eyewitness account of the tragedy that occurred in Mecca, Arabia (on 6 Dhul-Hijjah 1407/July 31, 1987); Why Our Children Are Killing Themselves, an examination of the root causes behind the crises facing children, youth and families in America; and Criminal Justice in America, an examination of the U.S. Criminal Justice System and its impact on the African American community.
Among his other works are September 11th: The Truth, Will It Ever Be Known?; The Case of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin: Is It A Government Conspiracy?; Iraq: The Question of American Values; The Message of Rachel Corrie, the young American woman who was killed in Occupied Palestine in March 2003 (while non-violently attempting to stop the destruction of a Palestinian's home); The State of the Union 2003: Don't Say You Didn't know!; Target Sudan: What's Really Behind The Crisis in Darfur; and his most recent publication, Islam & Terrorism: Myth vs. Reality.
Mauri' Saalakhan is a critically-acclaimed poet, and was selected as “An Outstanding Young Man of America” in 1986. In 1995 he was the recipient of the “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award,” from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and a “Maryland State Senate Resolution,” for his human rights work in and outside the State of Maryland.
In 1999 Saalakhan served as a consultant for Amnesty International's year long focus on human rights abuses in the United States of America “ (see: http://www.peacethrujustice.org/home.htm ).
Mauri' Saalakhan on “The Palestinians' Holocaust: American Perspectives” (2009): “The Palestinians' Holocaust: American Perspectives is perhaps the most important book that we've produced to date. It contains a myriad of voices which collectively cry out against the crimes against humanity being committed in that tortured part of the world sometimes referred to (ironically) as "the land of the prophets." The open genocide taking place in Gaza at present - one of the largest open air prisons in the world - has compelled us to make this information widely available to as many people as possible, as a matter of urgency. If this ends up hurting the bottom [financial] line of a small grassroots, human-rights organization, it would be a small price to pay for helping to educate (and hopefully activate) our neighbors in this global village called earth!” [1].
[1]. Mauri' Saalakhan on “The Palestinians' Holocaust: American Perspectives” by Mauri' Saalakhan (2009): http://www.thepalestiniansholocaust.com/ .
Kawther Salam is a is a Palestinian journalist but after a career of over 20 years working for various newspapers and TV stations in Palestine she was forced to live in the exile in Vienna since 2002 (see: http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/10/03/decision-of-collaborators-furthers-palestinian-genocide/ ).
Kawther Salam on US-Israeli-backed West Bank Palestinian leadership deferral of the Goldstone UN Human Rights Report on the Gaza Massacre (3 October 2009): “Decision of collaborators furthers Palestinian Genocide. Yesterday, 2 October 2009, the Palestinian leadership, under heavy international oessure led by the United States, deferred the draft proposal at the Human Rights Council endorsing all the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission (the Goldstone Report). This deferral denies the Palestinian peoples’ right to an effective judicial remedy and the equal protection of the law. It represents the triumph of politics over human rights. It is an insult to all victims and a rejection of their rights. The crimes documented in the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission represent the most serious violations of international law; Justice Goldstone concluded that there was evidence to indicate that crimes against humanity may have been committed in the Gaza Strip. Violations of international law continue to this day, inter alia, through the continuing Israeli-imposed illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. The findings of the Mission confirmed earlier investigations conducted by independent Palestinian, Israeli and international organizations.
The injustice that has now been brought upon Palestinians has been brought upon everyone on this globe.” [1].
[1]. Kawther Salam, “Decision of collaborators furthers Palestinian Genocide”, Palestine Think Tank, 3 Octpber 2009: http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/10/03/decision-of-collaborators-furthers-palestinian-genocide/ .
José de Sousa Saramago (16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a prolific, humorous and gently subversive Literature Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright, journalist ands author of numerous books , most recently “The Elephant’s Joumey” (2009) and “Cain” (2010). After his comments attacking Apartheid Israeli war crimes, Jose Saramago’s books were banned in Apartheid Israel (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago ).
José de Sousa Saramago on the ongoing Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide (circa 2000): “What is happening in Palestine is a crime that we can compare to what occurred in Auschwitz… A sense of impunity characterizes today the Israeli people and its army. They have been converted into rentiers of the Holocaust” [1].
José Saramago signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [2].
[1] José Saramago, quoted by Professor James Petras in “Palestine: The Final Solution and Jose Saramago”, Chapter 19 in “The Plight of the Palestinians”. A long history of destruction”, edited by {Professor William Cook, Palgrave Macmilllan, London, 2010.
[2]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Natalie Abu Shakra is from Lebanon and is affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement. She defied Israeli orders for Lebanese citizens not to go to Gaza and was able to get in with the Free Gaza movement, She supports the Boycotting of Apartheid Israel (see: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14943 ).
Natalie Abu Shakra on the 2008/2009 Gaza Massacre and the need to Boycott Apartheid Israel (2009): “The concept of civil resistance is not new at all. This non-violent, unarmed, citizen oriented strategy of resistance in modern history played a role in the struggles against colonialism, and neo-colonialism especially in British colonies of Africa, in Apartheid South Africa, India, and the Middle East, particularly Palestine. We live in a very imbalanced world, where language, dress, technology, education, food, media, and other aspects in post-modern life are dictated by a few and are imposed on the many, the rest of the world. This few decides the flow of politics, and dictates how the world will rotate around. This few, also, will accept no resistance, at any cost… How can I affect what is happening and how can the world respond? The truth is that we can defy oppression and the illusion of power that the oppressor creates in our minds. I was asked once, “are you not afraid to die?” I am only afraid of what I consider the evil of all evils, repression, oppression, colonialism, and occupation, anything that can wipe my existence off, just erasing identities off the map, and this is what has been happening to the Palestinians for 61 years and on going now. What do you choose to do about it? Boycott Apartheid Israel.” [1].
[1]. Natalie Abu Shakra, “Boycott Apartheid Israel”, The Palestine Chronicle, 25 March 2009: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14943 .
Martin Shaw (British sociologist and academic, research professor of international relations at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals and Sussex University, Professorial Fellow in International Relations and Human Rights at Roehampton University, and author of “What is Genocide?”) (2010) “We can conclude that pre-war Zionism included the development of an incipiently genocidal mentality towards Arab society… Israel entered without an overarching plan, so that its specific genocidal thrusts developed situationally and incrementally, through local as well as national decisions. On this account, this was a partly decentred, networked genocide, developing in interaction with the Palestinian and Arab enemy, in the context of war ”( Martin Shaw, “Palestine In An International Historical Perspective On Genocide”, 9 Holy Land Studies 1, 13 & 19, 2010; quoted in (Center for Consitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian people: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Eve Spengler (an Associate of Sociology at Boston College) on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and Saleh Abdel-Jawad’s “sociocide” (2015): “The cumulative weight of all thsie [Zionist] aggressions constitutes, in the words of Abdel Jawad, a Palestinian sociocide. Abdel Jawad’s term has spawned a host of cognates – “spaciocide” to describe the incredible disappearing Palestine, “politicide” to describe the dismembering of the Palestinian political hopes. Clearly his term , sociocide, is the most inclusive and it also has the immense moral advantage of allowing Palestinians to name their own experience, if they so choose. Perhaps it is correct to understand that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is Zionism’s aim and “sociocide” describes the complex set of policies by which this aim is accomplished without unmasking “the only democracy in the Middle East”” (Eve Spengler, “Understanding Israel/Palestine: Race, Nation and human Rights in the Conflict”, Sense, 2015, page 199).
Dr Marcelo Svirsky is a faculty member, Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, Australia with Research Interests in Critical Theory, Middle East Studies, Palestine, and Decolonialization. He is the author of “After Israel: towards cultural transformation” (see: https://uow.academia.edu/MarceloSvirsky ).
Dr Marcelo Svirsky on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine (2014): “Founded in 1951, first as a transit camp for Jewish immigrants, Sderot is located about a kilometre from the Gaza Strip and a few more strides from the city of Beit Hanoun. As with almost the entirety of Israel’s settled areas, Sderot was built on Palestinian land seized by the Jewish armed forces at the onset of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that gave birth to the state of Israel. The original owners of that particular tract of land, most of whom lived in the village of Najd, were expelled to Gaza during two consecutive days in May 1948, and their village was later destroyed. It’s not implausible to assume that the descendants of refugees from Najd could be among those launching rockets at Sderot today. For their part, descendants of the Jewish immigrants to Sderot can be found gathering on the hillsides of the city to watch and cheer as the Israeli army drops bombs on Gaza”. [1].
[1]. Marcelo Svirsky, “From Auschwitz to Sderot: the decline of our humanity”, New Matilda, 1 August 2014: https://newmatilda.com/2014/08/01/auschwitz-sderot-decline-our-humanity .
Sarah Tawashy (member of Students for Justice in Palestine) (2018): “ Genocide is not only applicable to mass murder but also to the crippling of economy and infrastructure. Palestinians as a whole have no major contribution to an industry of their own, and Gaza’s economy has been crippled by the blockade and worsening electricity cuts. Gazans have not even been able to rebuild their homes that were destroyed in the 2014 Israeli offensive .The majority of the 2 million inhabitants in Gaza are refugees that were expelled from their ancestral lands in 1948, more than 400 of their hometowns and cities destroyed by Israeli militants or repopulated by Jewish settlers. It is perplexing that Americans would not consider the mass murder and expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians, and the ongoing efforts to purge their homeland of their presence, a genocide. It may be because less focus is on the actions that lead up to “extermination,” being wholly placed on a shocking death toll. The U.S. government does not recognize what is being done to Palestinians as genocide because it is a staunch ally of Israel and enables these horrendous acts by sending it billions of dollars every year” (Sarah Tawashy in Brant Roberts, Dina Hamadi, Sarah Tawashy, “Roundtable: How is the US involved in Palestinian ethnic cleansing?”, The Cougar, 11 April 2018: http://thedailycougar.com/2018/04/11/roundtable-genocide-palestine/ ).
On 16 December 1982, the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 37/123 determined that “the large-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps… was an act of genocide” as follows:
“The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 95 (I) of 11 December 1946,
Recalling also its resolution 96 (I) of 11 December 1946, in which it, inter alia, affirmed that genocide is a crime under international law which the civilized world condemns, and for the commission of which principals and accomplices – whether private individuals, public officials or statesmen, and whether the crime is committed on religious, racial, political or any other grounds – are punishable,
Referring to the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1948,
Recalling the relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
Appalled at the large-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps situated at Beirut,
Recognizing the universal outrage and condemnation of that massacre,
Recalling its resolution ES-7/9 of 24 September 1982,
1. Condemns in the strongest terms the large-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps;
2. Resolves that the massacre was an act of genocide.” [1].
[1] Item #41 in Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, MWC News, 30 August 2013: http://www.mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/30445-palestinian-genocide.html .
UN Genocide Convention.
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.
Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.
Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948.
The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State to which an invitation to sign has been addressed by the General Assembly.
The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
After 1 January 1950, the present Convention may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State which has received an invitation as aforesaid.
Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible.
On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the Secretary-General shall draw up a proces-verbal and transmit a copy of it to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.
The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.
Any ratification or accession effected subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession.
The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its coming into force.
It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period.
Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective.
A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.
The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and the non-member States contemplated in Article 11 of the following:
(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with Article 11;
(b) Notifications received in accordance with Article 12;
(c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with Article 13;
(d) Denunciations received in accordance with Article 14;
(e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with Article 15;
(f) Notifications received in accordance with Article 16.
The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.
A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to all Members of the United Nations and to the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.
The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force.”
[1]. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html .
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was a very famous American writer of essays, novels, screenplays and Broadway plays. His numerous books included Myra Breckinridge, the historical novels Julian, Burr and Lincoln and The City and the Pillar that was notable for featuring explicit homosexuality. He was anti-war and demolished his barbarous critics with scathing wit (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal ).
Gore Vidal was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
VLAZNA, Vacy. Australian humanitarian scholar and activist slams JNF role in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Apartheid Israel
Dr. Vacy Vlazna on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2014): “At the black heart of Israel’s 65 year rape of Palestine, is the Jewish National Fund ( JNF) which once went by the more germane, Jewish COLONIAL Trust; an opportunistic real-estate jackal that has aggressively deposited its Zionist stink throughout the ancestral land of Palestine.
From its inception in 1901, JNF’s mission of the theft of Palestinian land for the Jews-only Greater (Eretz) Israel is racist, colonial, criminal (colonial expansion is a warcrime under Article 8.2(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute) and bloody.
Max Blumenthal writes “JNF director Yosef Weitz was instrumental in hatching Plan Dalet, the campaign to ethnically cleanse at least 400 Palestinian villages and expel their residents in 1947 and 1948. After the war of 1948, Weitz orchestrated the planting of hundreds of thousands of non-native trees west of Jerusalem to cover up the scores of villages that had just been ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias.”
These days, to cover up its criminal activities, JNF has reinvented itself as ‘the caretaker of the land of Israel on behalf of its owners--Jewish people everywhere’. To promote this benign image of the normalisation of ethnic cleansing, JNF offers tours and missions of Israel that are “intensely emotional, educational and spiritual experiences” of Orwellian Newspeak and war crime whitewash.” [1].
[1]. Vacy Vlazna, “Jewish National Fund’s War Crimes Mission”, Countercurrents, 30 January 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna300114A.htm .
Margaret Waspe (Australian humanitarian) (2017): “An adequate historical knowledge is important for our leaders. When history is distorted or re-invented, how can appropriate foreign policy be formed? When the Israeli Prime Minister and our Prime Minister met, it was publicly said that we had a 100 year old history of friendship, since the Battle of Beersheba. Was this corrected at all? Who advises our leaders? Israel became a state in 1948. What are the facts? From the nineteenth century the European Zionists (in Europe) planned to acquire and expand territorial control in the Middle East and intended to use diverse methods to separate the inhabitants from their land. That was an age when European imperialism was still the norm. Palestine then was a thriving agricultural society with approx. 500,000 inhabitants. In the 1920s the British and the Zionists assured the Palestinian leaders, that by allowing in persecuted European Jews, Palestinian rights would be strictly preserved. On that basis, Palestinian leaders agreed to limited immigration of persecuted European Jews – as long as their land, Palestine was able to retain its Arab identity. There is evidence that Muslims were encouraged by a leader to welcome the Jews as brethren according to the hospitable traditions of their religion.8 As the true Zionist intentions became evident, resistance then grew. The British authorities struggled with what they regarded as Zionist terrorist gangs who acted violently to destabilise the social context. The problem was handed to the United Nations, who with difficulty and intense pressure and lobbying, voted in favour of partition in 1947. Was that biased or not? In 1948, in the Naqba (catastrophe) the Palestinians experienced massacre, were forced to flee from their villages and lands, many still now living in permanent refugee camps elsewhere. Evidence from the writing of Zionist government leaders, shows that a deliberate policy was followed, of – covertly provoking an incident over the border in order to incite a retaliatory response, which would instill fear of danger in their people, and could be used as means of further Israeli powerful military attack and extended territorial control. Peace was never intended… In 1974, I worked as a volunteer on Kibbutz Reshafim in Israel, for about 4 months, followed by a similar time living and working with Palestinians in Eastern Jerusalem. I grew to love the land and its people, but I realised I was in a type of apartheid state. As a concerned person I had been working to bring justice and positive change in the Police State of apartheid-era South Africa, with Jewish friends amongst my working associates” (Margaret Waspe, “Open letter to the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, Senators and Members of the Australian Parliament. In search of truth. The Middle east and Australia’s future foreign policy”, 25 March 2017: https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3551/f/submission/170331-715-margaret-waspe.pdf ).
Laura Westra, “Faces of State Terrorism" (2012): "Then there is the “hyper-example’ of state terrorism (supported, once again, by the US), that is, the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by the US’s “partner” Israel, and the elimination of others in the Muslim world (Polya, 2011). 15… Then there is the way “inequality kills…
[Polya, 2011] Gideon Polya, “New Year's Day 1/1/11 Message: Equal Shares on Our One Planet”, Countercurrents, 2 January, 2011: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya020111.htm .
“Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ “ (Laura Westra, “Faces of State Terrorism. Volume 42 of Studies in Critical Social Sciences”, BRILL, 2012, page 128)."
Naomi Wolf (anti-racist Jewish American author and activist) (2014): “I mourn genocide in Gaza because I am the granddaughter of a family half wiped out in a holocaust and I know genocide when I see it” (Naomi Wolf quoted in Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Professor Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was an outstanding Jewish American activist, civil libertarian, anti-war activist, historian, playwright, political activist, social critic, and socialist. The author of some 20 books, Zinn was Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University, Boston Massachusetts, USA and the author of the best-seller “A People’s History of the United States” (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn ).
Howard Zinn signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Arunbdhati Roy and José Saramago on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Professor Marjorie Cohn, according to Wikipedia “is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She also "participated in delegations to Cuba, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia" early in her career” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cohn ).
Professor Marjorie Cohn on US and Israeli Palestine Genocide and the latest Israeli Gaza Massacre (2014): “ By sending vast amounts of military aid to Israel, members of the US Congress, President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.An individual can be convicted of a war crime, genocide or a crime against humanity [PDF] in the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he or she "aids, abets or otherwise assists" in the commission or attempted commission of the crime, "including providing the means for its commission." There is growing evidence that Israeli leaders and commanders have committed the following war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute for the ICC. US military aid has aided, abetted and assisted the commission of these crimes by providing Israel with the military means to commit them. During Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces again used the Dahiye Doctrine, which, according to the UN Human Rights Council [Goldstone] Report [PDF], involves "the application of disproportionate force and causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations"…
On July 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established a commission of inquiry into Israeli violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. The resolution also called on parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene and respond to the alleged violations. That convention requires parties to prosecute violators. Countries can bring foreign nationals to justice for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the well-established doctrine of universal jurisdiction. Genocide charges could also be brought under the Genocide Convention, to which both Israel and the United States are parties. That convention also punishes complicity in genocide; US leaders' provision of military aid would constitute complicity. Although the Israeli and US governments continue to maintain that Israel has only acted in self-defense against Hamas' terrorism, the weight of world opinion points in the opposite direction. There is overwhelming opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza and calls for justice and accountability. Both Israeli and US leaders must be criminally prosecuted for committing and aiding and abetting these crimes.” [1].
[1]. Marjorie Cohn, “Israeli war crimes. Genocide & crimes against humanity”, MWC News, 8 August 2014: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/44454-israeli-war-crimes.html .
Professor Marjorie Cohn, according to Wikipedia “is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She also "participated in delegations to Cuba, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia" early in her career” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cohn ).
Professor Marjorie Cohn on US and Israeli Palestine Genocide and the latest Israeli Gaza Massacre (2014): “ By sending vast amounts of military aid to Israel, members of the US Congress, President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.An individual can be convicted of a war crime, genocide or a crime against humanity [PDF] in the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he or she "aids, abets or otherwise assists" in the commission or attempted commission of the crime, "including providing the means for its commission." There is growing evidence that Israeli leaders and commanders have committed the following war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute for the ICC. US military aid has aided, abetted and assisted the commission of these crimes by providing Israel with the military means to commit them. During Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces again used the Dahiye Doctrine, which, according to the UN Human Rights Council [Goldstone] Report [PDF], involves "the application of disproportionate force and causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations"…
On July 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established a commission of inquiry into Israeli violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. The resolution also called on parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene and respond to the alleged violations. That convention requires parties to prosecute violators. Countries can bring foreign nationals to justice for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the well-established doctrine of universal jurisdiction. Genocide charges could also be brought under the Genocide Convention, to which both Israel and the United States are parties. That convention also punishes complicity in genocide; US leaders' provision of military aid would constitute complicity. Although the Israeli and US governments continue to maintain that Israel has only acted in self-defense against Hamas' terrorism, the weight of world opinion points in the opposite direction. There is overwhelming opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza and calls for justice and accountability. Both Israeli and US leaders must be criminally prosecuted for committing and aiding and abetting these crimes.” [1].
[1]. Marjorie Cohn, “Israeli war crimes. Genocide & crimes against humanity”, MWC News, 8 August 2014: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/44454-israeli-war-crimes.html .
[1]. Ezra HaLevi, “Spanish town observes “Palestinian Genocide Day”, Arutz Sheva, 31 January 2007: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/120674 .
Kathleen Christison is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for 30 years. She is the author of “Perceptions of Palestine” and “The Wound of Dispossession”. Bill Christison was a senior official of the CIA. He served as a National Intelligence Officer and as Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis. They spent October 2006 in Palestine and on a speaking tour of Ireland sponsored by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (see: http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/11/27/genocide-or-erasure-of-palestinians/ ). .
Kathleen and Bill Christison on the genocide or erasure of Palestinians (2006): “You can argue over terminology, but the truth is evident everywhere on the ground where Israel has extended its writ: Palestinians are unworthy, inferior to Jews, and in the name of the Jewish people, Israel has given itself the right to erase the Palestinian presence in Palestine — in other words, to commit genocide by destroying "in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group." As we debate about and analyze the Palestinian psyche, trying to determine if they have had enough and will surrender or will survive by resisting, it is important to remember that the Jewish people, despite unspeakable tragedy, emerged from the holocaust ultimately triumphant. Israel and its supporters should keep this in mind: empires never last, as Ahmad said, and gross injustice such as the Nazis and Israel have inflicted on innocent people cannot prevail for long.” [1, 2].
[1]. Kathleen and Bill Christison, “Does it matter what you call it? Genocide or erasure of Palestinians”, Counterpunch, 27 November 2006: http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/11/27/genocide-or-erasure-of-palestinians/ .
[2]. Kathleen and Bill Christison, “Does it matter what you call it?”, republished as Chapter 16 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Michel Chossudovsky (anti-racist Jewish Canadian, emeritus professor of economics, University of Ottawa, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Member of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC)) (2020): “Israel is currently in the process of implementing the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands. The issue of “illegality” must be put in context. We are dealing with a broader issue: Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against the People of Palestine. Annexation is a crime against Humanity. And the Western governments which support Israel’s actions or turn a blind eye are complicit. Donald Trump has given the Green Light to Netanyahu. Trump is responsible for supporting and endorsing an illegal and criminal undertaking” (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky, “Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide against the people of Palestine”, Global Research, 2 July 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/kuala-lumpur-tribunal-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-genocide/5359404 .
18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates slam Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?" ***
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Letter signed by 350 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide and published by ICAN:
“As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.
We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.
Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.
We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. We call for an immediate end to the siege against and blockade of Gaza. We call for the full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. “Never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!
Signed [by 350 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide]” (see “Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza”, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), 23 August 2014: http://ijsn.net/nafa/survivors-and-descendants-letter/ ).
Dr Chris Abani is a Nigerian novelist and poet and has published numerous works (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Abani ).
Chris Abani was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
PS. In answer to Juliano Mer Khamis’ question (above) "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?" a possible candidate is Gideon Polya's "Qana" (see: Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4293063550/ ) , a huge painting (1.3 metres x 2.9 metres) that is is geometrically and conceptually based on Pablo Picasso's huge anti-war painting "Guernica" about the Nazi and fascist destruction of the Basque town of Guernica in Spain in 1937. Qana is based on the 2006 destruction by the war criminal Israelis (for the second time) of the Southern Lebanese town of Qana (assertedly where Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast). Some elements (the screaming woman, the bull, the screaming horse are common) as is the geometrical scaffolding (a double Golden Rectangle between upper and lower strips).
Saleh Abdel-Jawad (Associate Professor of History, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine) referred to by Eve Spenger re his term “Palestinian sociocide”: “The cumulative weight of all these [Zionist] aggressions constitutes, in the words of Abdel Jawad, a Palestinian sociocide. Abdel Jawad’s term has spawned a host of cognates – “spaciocide” to describe the incredible disappearing Palestine, “politicide” to describe the dismembering of the Palestinian political hopes. Clearly his term , sociocide, is the most inclusive and it also has the immense moral advantage of allowing Palestinians to name their own experience, if they so choose. Perhaps it is correct to understand that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is Zionism’s aim and “sociocide” describes the complex set of policies by which this aim is accomplished without unmasking “the only democracy in the Middle East”” (Eve Spengler, “Understanding Israel/Palestine: Race, Nation and human Rights in the Conflict”, Sense, 2015, page 199).
Saleh Abdel-Jawad (Associate Professor of History, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine) on “Palestinian sociocide” (1998): “Israeli policy since 1948 has, explicitly or implicitly, been designed to force the Palestinians into exile. Sometimes this has taken the form of war, sometimes of measures designed to make daily life for the Arab population as difficult as possible. Its single aim, however, has always been Palestinian "sociocide"” (Saleh Abdel Jawad, “War by other means”, AL Ahram, 1998: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/1998/1948/359_salh.htm).
Rashad Abu Shawar (Arab journalist) in reviewing Nawaf Al Zaru’s book “The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust” (2011): “Because the Palestinian holocaust targets not only human beings but also land, trees, heritage and civilisation, the author gave it a subtitle: The fabrication of 'Israel' and ethnic cleansing policies. And because the Palestinian holocaust did not end with the 1948 war, or the 1967 war, and because the Zionist genocide scheme … and displacement policies are still very much in effect - and will stay that way until the Palestinians are completely and definitively uprooted from the land of their ancestors - the Palestinian holocaust could only be described as 'ongoing'” (Rashad Abu Shawar quoted in “A Palestinian “holocaust””, The National, 20 January 2012: https://www.thenational.ae/a-palestinian-holocaust-1.395990 ).
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an engineer and teacher, the former President of Iran and a major leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a conservative political coalition. He has been the target of false and vitriolic abuse from racist Zionists and their neoconservative Western backers because of his opposition to race-based colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad ).
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the WW2 Jewish Holocaust and the Palestinian Genocide (2009): “The first question that I have to try and understand is why in the midst of all that happened in World War II, the Holocaust is emphasized more than any other [event]? The second question is why do Western politicians focus on this issue so much? The third question is how does that event connect with issues that we see around us in the world today? Was this a historical event that happened in isolation without impacting the present conditions? The next question we should ask ourselves is if the event did take place, where did it happen, who were the perpetrators, what was the role of the Palestinian people? What crime have they committed to deserve what they have received as a result? Why exactly should the Palestinian people be victimized? Are you aware that over 5 million Palestinians have been displaced and have had refugee status? What role did they play in the Holocaust? Why is the Holocaust used as a pretext to occupy the land of other people? Why should the Palestinian people give their lives up for it? You are probably aware that there have been embargoes on the people of Gaza. … At the end of the day the people in Gaza are sitting in their homes living their lives and staying in their homeland. Who is the occupier here? The United Nations resolutions condemn which occupying regime? What fair-minded person can accept that an event that happened in Europe [results] in having his or her land occupied elsewhere in the world? If a crime happened in Europe, why should the people of Palestine make up for it? It is a really clear-cut question. Unfortunately, Western politicians refuse to answer these questions and divert into other areas. We are primarily opposed to the murder of human beings. Sixty million people were killed back then [in World War II], and it is indeed regrettable. It does not matter what creed or belief they came from—human beings and their lives are to be respected simply because they are human beings. I would like to emphasize that we are not living 60 years ago—we are living today. We see the Holocaust as a pretext to commit genocide against the Palestinian people.” [1].
[1]. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad interviewed by Newsweek (23 Septembebr 2009): http://www.newsweek.com/id/216040/page/1 .
Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer of Palestinian descent, born in the town of Beit-Jala, Palestine. He currently lives in the US (see: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8354.htm ).
Dr Elias Akleh on Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide (2008): “Holocaust is the genocidal crime against people based on their ethnicity. This genocide could be perpetrated through different means such as poison gas, guns, tanks, air raids, biological warfare, economical siege, starvation, destruction of vital natural resources, eviction into desert, and deprivation of basic vital materials among others, to produce the same result; mass deaths. For the last sixty years Palestinians have been suffering from all these methods in a deliberate programmed holocaust. The perpetrators are not Nazis, but those who claim to be survivors, and their descendents, of Nazi-caused holocaust; Zionist Jewish Israelis.
The threat of Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Metan Vinai, to inflict “bigger Shoah” (Holocaust) [British Telegraph 2/29] on Gaza’s Palestinians reflect the adopted policy of the Israeli government towards Palestinians. Encircled by 8 foot high cement wall on three sides and a sea filled with hostile Israeli gun boats on the fourth, Gaza, with a dense population of 1.5 million people, has become the largest concentration camp ever on this globe. Israeli army is the prison guards of this concentration camp. Controlling all borders, sea and air Israeli army controls and restricts all vital materials going into Gaza.” [1, 2].
Elias Akleh on the Gaza Massacre and the 62 year Palestinian Genocide (2009): “A fully pre-meditated international crime of genocide has been taking place during the last 62 years in the heart of the Arab World. The victims are the Palestinian people especially those in the Gaza Strip. The assassin is the worst ever terrorist group deceptively called the Israeli Defense Forces under the leadership of the theocratically most racist “god’s chosen” deceitfully self-proclaimed “democratic Jewish-only” Israel. Israel had been created, financed, armed, and politically protected by, mainly, British and American rapture-vision-obsessed Talmudist power elites consisting of profit-seeking financiers and military-industrial complex… For almost the last three years Israel had subjected Gaza to an illegal economic siege, which in itself constitutes a crime against humanity. Israel had, and still is, preventing the entry into Gaza of vital life sustaining products such as food stuff, fuel, medicine and needed medical equipment, water purification equipment and many building materials. This is a genocidal crime using hunger and thirst as weapons.
Starting late December of 2008 and for continuous 22 days Israeli terrorist army had perpetrated a genocidal war crime against Gaza Palestinians. The Israeli army, known to be the fourth powerful army in the world, attacked unarmed civilian Palestinians of Gaza comprising mostly of children, women, and old people. There was no regular army in Gaza to face the well equipped, well trained to murder Israeli army. Only few male civilians, who took it on themselves to carry the light arms they could obtain to resist the Israeli war criminals in order to protect their own families.
The Israeli military radio station announced that half of the Israeli air force had conducted 2500 air sorties dropping a total of 1,000,000 KG of explosives on the civilian families of Gaza. This is not counting the shells fired by the artillery and tanks. They had used high precision GPS-guided bombs to destroy vital locations such as the UN food warehouse and schools, government buildings, hospitals and medical clinics, religious buildings and civilian institutions...
This week protests are organized in major countries around the world in US, UK, France, Turkey, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Jordan, and occupied Palestine (Israel), commemorating the first anniversary of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
Under the Principle of Universal Jurisdiction we are witnessing Western courts issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders (Tzibi Livni) and army generals (former military chief Moshe Yaalon and General Doron Almog) for committing war crimes. International lawyers are filing for more arrest warrants against more Israeli war criminals. Soon Israeli leaders will be chased across the globe as war criminals the same way Israel had chased German Nazis as war criminals. ” [3].
[1]. Dr Elias Akleh, “Gaza’s Holocaust”, Countercurrents, 4 March 2008: http://www.countercurrents.org/akleh040308.htm .
[2]. Dr Elias Akleh, “Gaza’s Holocaust”, republished as Chapter 12 in
“The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
[2]. Elias Akleh, “An international crime called Gaza”, MWC News, 29 December 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/35268/42/ .
Al Haq (an independent Palestinian human-rights organization) and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Nawaf Al Zaru “The Ongoing Palestinian Holocaust”, 1040 pages, Amman 2011 (referred to in “A Palestinian “holocaust””, The National, 20 January 2012: https://www.thenational.ae/a-palestinian-holocaust-1.395990 ).
Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Aldameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Tariq Ali (born 21 October 1943), is a British Pakistani historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, activist, and commentator. He is the author of numerous books, notably “Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity” (2002) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali ).
Tariq Ali signed the following letter together with John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” (Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .)
Amnesty International re the 2014 Gaza Massacre (the so-called “Operation Protective Edge”) by Apartheid Israel (2014): “An International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation is essential to break the culture of impunity which perpetuates the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The case for such action is made all the more compelling in the light of the ongoing serious violations of international humanitarian law being committed by all parties to the current hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Israeli Citizens espousing Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (2016): “We are Israeli citizens, opposed to the Israeli government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people. Many of us are veteran human rights activists who have long worked against these policies. It's our long years of anti-racism advocacy that brought us to the understanding that the most effective way to stop the apartheid system is to deny its economic fuel and political legitimacy. Therefore, we strongly support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), aimed at ending these actions. We write to you to ask you to heed the Palestinian call for justice, and cancel your concert in Israel… Israel holds the Gaza Strip under hermetic siege, in which Israel conducts vicious major bombing campaigns on a regular basis. The latest one, in 2014, resulted in over 2000 innocent Palestinians massacred, 500 of whom were children. The Palestinians in Gaza live in constant anxiety, knowing that the next massacre is just around the corner. In the West Bank, Israel has massively escalated its home-demolition policies against Palestinians, while it continues to construct Jewish-only colonies on stolen Palestinian land. 2016 has seen a massive escalation in policy of extrajudicial executions, with an execution taking place almost every day, including women and children. Another oppressive policy seeing escalation is that of mass, arbitrary arrests, with currently 7000 Palestinians in Israel’s prisons. Over 10% of total prisoners are held without charge, trial, or release date. All prisoners are subject to systematic ill-treatment, medical neglect, beatings, and torture. Most disturbing is the fact that children aren’t protected, and in fact, Israel’s arrest of children has escalated in the past two years, despite United Nations pressure to end all forms of state child abuse. Within Israel itself there are no less than 50 laws discriminating against the Palestinian citizens of the State, while Israeli parliament members compete for votes, by exhibiting who can make the most genocidal statement ” (Israeli Citizens espousing Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, “From Israeli citizens to Peter Murphy – the answer is clear, boycott apartheid Israel”, BDS, 4 October 2016: https://bdsmovement.net/news/israeli-citizens-peter-murphy-answer-clear-boycott-apartheid-israel ).
Gilad Atzmon is an anti-racist, Jewish Israeli jazz musician, composer, novelist, commentator and anti-Zionist activist. The moral power of his straightforward anti-racist position is reflected in the extraordinary hostility towards him from Zionists (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilad_Atzmon ).
Gilad Atzmon on the Palestinian Genocide in Gaza and Old Testament Biblical prescriptives used by the genocidal secular state of Apartheid Israel (December 2009): “There is not much doubt amongst Biblical scholars that the Hebrew Bible contains some highly charged non-ethical suggestions, some of which are no less than a call for a genocide. Biblical scholar Raymund Schwager has found in the Old Testament 600 passages of explicit violence, 1000 descriptive verses of God's own violent actions of punishment, 100 passages where God expressly commands others to kill people. Apparently, violence is the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible. As devastating as it may be, the Hebrew Bible saturation with violence and extermination of others may throw some light over the horrifying genocide conducted in Gaza by the Jewish state. In broad daylight, the IDF was using the most lethal methods against civilians as if their main objective is to ‘destroy’ the Gazans while showing ‘no mercy’ whatsoever. Interestingly enough, Israel regards itself as a secular state. Ehud Barak is not exactly a qualified Rabbi and Tzipi Livni is not a Rabbi’s wife. Accordingly, we are entitled to assume that it isn’t actually Judaism per se that directly transforms Israeli politicians and military leaders into war criminals. Moreover, early Zionists believed that within a national home Jews would become 'people like all other people', i.e., civilised and ethical. In that very respect, Israeli reality is pretty peculiar. The Hebraic secular Jews may have managed to drop their God, most of them do not follow Judaic law, they are largely secular, and yet 94% of them interpret their Jewish identity as a genocidal mission. They have successfully managed to transform the Bible from being a spiritual text into a bloodsoaked land registry. They are there, in Zion i.e., Palestine, to invade the land and to lock up, starve and destroy its indigenous habitants…Currently, Israel and Zionism are the only collective voice available for Jews. The merciless offensive against the Palestinian civilian population does not leave any room for doubt. Israel is the gravest danger to world peace. Clearly the nations made a tragic mistake in 1947 giving an emerging volatile racially orientated identity an opportunity to set itself into a national state. However, the nations’ duty now is to peacefully dismantle that state before it is too late. We must do it before the Jewish state and its forceful lobbies around the world manage to pull us all into a global war in the ‘name’ of one banal populist ideology or another (democracy, war against terror, cultural clash and so on). We have to wake up now before our one and only planet is transformed into a bursting boil of hatred” (Gilad Atzmon, “The Old Testament and the Genocide in Gaza”, MWC News, 23 December 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/35176/26/ .)
Australians For Palestine (AFP) ”seeks to dispel the myths and disinformation about Palestine in Australia” (see: http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/about-us ).
Australians For Palestine (AFP) on the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine [detailed maps provided] (2012): “Background. For Palestinians, their land is their identity and this has been taken away from them in ever-increasing amounts since the United Nations decided to partition historic Palestine in 1947. The, the total area of historic Palestine was 6.5 million acres, with only a mere 370,000 acres under Jewish control. The Palestinians , who formed the majority population, owned some 2.25 million acres under various titles with the rest cam under the Islamic trust (waqf) and what we would call today “state land”.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. The UN Partition, which divided the land into 56 per cent for the Jewish State, 43 per cent for the Arab State with Jerusalem designated as an International Zone, never eventuated. Instead, the forcible dispossession of Palestinians began even for Israel was declared a state in 1948. Jewish Zionist leaders knew that Israel’s existence could only be assured by ridding it of the indigenous Palestinian population. Zionist militia groups used physical and psychological terror tactics to force Palestinians to flee their homes in towns and villages and then took control of 5 million acres of land. Some 400 Palestinian villages and towns were ethnically cleansed, but the Palestinians never thought for a moment that they would become “permanent” refugees. To obliterate any evidence of these villages, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) planted hundreds of thousands of non-native trees in their place. In effect, the new State of Israel took a further 22 per cent of Palestinian land, and to this day, has denied the indigenous Palestinians their right of return.
Israel’s illegal land grabs are continuing. Since the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians have been victims of a new wave of land expropriations and have witnessed the demolition of their homes and the razing of their farmlands to make way for illegal Israeli settlements, military posts, the Wall and Israeli-only freeways
The Palestinians who remained living in what had become Israel also feel the effects of Israel’s illegal land policies that favour Jewish citizens. For six decades Israel has refused to allow any new towns or villages to accommodate the growth rate of Palestinians. A 1961 law, which states that the JNF exists :for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands and properties”, blatantly discriminates on the basis if ethnicity” ( Australians For Palestine (AFP) and Women For Palestine (Melbourne), “Palestinian Land Day [Yawm al Ard]”, Briefing Paper, 30 March 2012: http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/45585#more-45585 .)
John Scales Avery (a theoretical chemist at the University of Copenhagen; since 1990 he has been the Chairman of the Danish National Group of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs that won a Nobel Peace Prize) (2018): “Genocides must also be included if we are to have a complete picture of the way in which governments attack civilian populations. These include the mass murder of Jews, Poles and Gypsies by the Nazis during World War II, Armenian Genocide, the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, the genocidal treatment of Palestinians by Israel, and many many other cases” (John Scales Avery, “A World Federation”, Chapter 5, “Nuclear weapons as collective punishment”, Countercurrents, 11 December 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/11/a-world-federation-chapter-5-nuclear-weapons-as-collective-punishment/ ; John Scales Avery, “A World Federation”: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/A-World-Federation-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf ).
Uri Avnery was a Jewish Israeli member of the Israeli Knesset, 1965-1974 and 1979-1981, and a founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. He writes extensively about Palestinian human rights and is the author of “1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem”, “Israel’s Vicious Circle”” and “My Friend, the Enemy” (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Uri Avnery on Apartheid Israel’s slow-motion ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians (2003): “It may seem that there are only two possibilities: One state in the whole country, which will necessarily be bi-national, or an Israeli state in a part of the country, inside the green Line, next to a Palestinian state. But there is a third possibility: An Israeli state in all of the country, from which the Palestinian population will be expelled. Few Israelis speak of this openly, but a great many think about it. Good people ignore this alternative because they do not find it thinkable. They imagine Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing: driving millions out in one big dramatic sweep. They console themselves: "The world won't stand for it! Sharon wouldn't dare!" But there are other ways to implement ethnic cleansing: not dramatically, but slowly, daily, even routinely. Like, for example, what's happening now in Bethlehem. It works like this: Pressure is put on property-owners. They are told: It's better for you to sell us your properties now, before the authorities come and expropriate them for security reasons” ( Uri Avnery, “Slow-motion ethnic cleansing”, Countercurrents, 9 October 2003: http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-avnery091003.htm and Uri Avnery, “Slow-motion ethnic cleansing”, republished in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an outstanding American writer of novels, short stories, non-fiction and poetry (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Banks ).
Russell Banks was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica” (18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers . )
Omar Barghouti was born in Qatar, moved to Ramallah, Palestine and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York. He is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and writes extensively about the Palestinian cause and human rights (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Omar Barghouti on European collusion in the Apartheid Israel’s slow Palestinian Genocide (2008): “Princeton academic Richard Falk considered Israel’s siege a “prelude to genocide,” even before this latest crime of altogether cutting off energy supplies. Now, Israel’s crimes in Gaza can accurately be categorized as acts of genocide, albeit slow. According to Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the term is defined as:
“[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; …”
Clearly, Israel’s hermetic siege of Gaza, designed to kill, cause serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about partial and gradual physical destruction, qualifies as an act of genocide, if not all-out genocide yet. And the EU is suspiciously silent.” (Omar Barghouti, “European collusion in Israel’s slow genocide”, The Electronic Intifada, 21 January 2008: http://electronicintifada.net/content/never-against-european-collusion-israels-slow-genocide/7309 and Omar Barghouti, “European collusion in Israel’s slow genocide”, republished as Chapter 23 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html . )
Dr Ramzy Baroud ( internationally syndicated columnist, a media consultant, founder of PalestineChronicle.com and an author of “ Searching Jenin”, “The Second Palestinian Intifada”, and “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story”) on new Israeli Apartheid laws after UNSC Resolution 2334 (2017): “The so-called "Regulation Bill" will retroactively validate 4,000 illegal structures built on private Palestinian land. In the occupied Palestinian territories, all Jewish settlements are considered illegal under international law, as further indicated in UNSC Resolution 2334. There are also 97 illegal Jewish settlement outposts - a modest estimation - that are now set to be legalised and, naturally, expanded at the expense of Palestine. The price of these settlements has been paid mostly by US taxpayers' money, but also the blood and tears of Palestinians, generation after generation. It is important, though, that we realise that Israel's latest push to legalise illegal outposts and annex large swaths of the West Bank is the norm, not the exception. Indeed, the entire Zionist vision for Israel was achieved based on the illegal appropriation of Palestinian land. Wasn't so-called "Israel proper" - as in land obtained by force from 1948 to 1967 - originally Palestinian land?...
Kevin Barrett (American Middle East scholar, writer and human rights activist) (2019): “Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million. Israel should be paying holocaust reparations, not collecting them. Israel must end the Palestinian Holocaust… Despite conspiring with Zionist and militarist Americans to murder 294 Americans in 1967 [USS Liberty incident] and almost 3,000 Americans on 9/11, Israel has been far more merciful to Americans than to Palestinians. The Zionist assault on Palestine has killed about 2.2 million Palestinians—100,000 directly, the other 2.1 million from imposed deprivation—according to Dr. Gideon Polya, retired science professor from La Trobe University of Melbourne, Australia. Below is Dr. Polya’s recent communiqué. –KB. Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million” (Kevin Barrett, “Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million”, Veterans Today, 10 June 2019: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/06/10/new-evidence/ ).
John Peter Berger (born 5 November 1926) is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author of the novel ”G.” which won the 1972 Booker Prize, and “Ways of Seeing” a BBC TV series and book on art criticism (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berger ).
John Berger signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” (Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .)
William Blum (author of “Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2”, “Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower”, “West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir”, “Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire”) on “Israel's genocide against the Palestinians” (2012): “And once again, the United States is participating in the overthrow of a secular Mideast government. At the same time, the Muslim fundamentalists in Syria, as in Libya, can have no illusions that America loves them. A half century of US assaults on Mideast countries, the establishment of American military bases in the holy land of Saudi Arabia, and US support for dictatorships and for Israel's genocide against the Palestinians have relieved them of such fanciful thoughts. So why is the United States looking to forcefully intervene once again? A tale told many times — world domination, oil, Israel, ideology, etc. Assad of Syria, like Gaddafi of Libya, has shown little promise as a reliable client state so vital to the American Empire. It's only the barrier set up by Russia and China on the UN Security Council that keeps NATO (aka the United States) from unleashing thousands of airborne missiles to "liberate" Syria as they did Libya” (William Blum, “Syria, The Story Thus Far”, Countercurrents, 3 October, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/blum031012.htm ).
Francis Boyle is a Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Illinois, USA and very active in the defence of human rights and International law. Professor Boyle is the author of Foundations of World Order, Duke University Press, The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, and Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, by Clarity Press. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Boyle ).
Francis Boyle on Palestinian Genocide (December 2000): “I would like to propose publicly here in Gaza, Palestine--where the Intifadah began ten years ago at this time--that the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine and its President institute legal proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague (the so-called World Court) for violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I am sure we can all agree that Israel has indeed perpetrated the international crime of genocide against the Palestinian People. The purpose of this lawsuit would be to demonstrate that undeniable fact to the entire world. These World Court legal proceedings will prove to the entire world and to all of history that what the Nazis did to the Jews a generation ago is legally similar to what the Israelis are currently doing to the Palestinian People today: genocide.” [1].
Francis Boyle on Palestinian Genocide (January 2009): “The world has not yet heard even one word uttered by the United States and its NATO allies in favor of “humanitarian intervention” against Israel in order to protect the Palestinian people, let alone a “responsibility to protect” the Palestinians from Zionist/Israeli genocide. The United States, its NATO allies, and the Great Powers on the U.N. Security Council would not even dispatch a U.N. Charter Chapter 6 monitoring force to help protect the Palestinians, let alone even contemplate any type of U.N. Charter Chapter 7 enforcement actions against Israel – shudder the thought!. The doctrine of “humanitarian intervention” so readily espoused elsewhere when U.S. foreign policy goals are allegedly at stake has been clearly proved to be a joke and a fraud when it comes to stopping the ongoing and accelerating Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.
Rather than rein in the Israelis—which would be possible just by turning off the funding pipeline—the United States government, the U.S. Congress, and U.S. taxpayers instead support the “Jewish” state to the tune of about 4 billion dollars per year, without whose munificence this instance of genocide – and indeed conceivably the State of Israel itself – would not be possible. What the world witnesses here is (yet another) case of “dishumanitarian intervention” or “humanitarian extermination” by the United States and Israel against the Palestinians and Palestine. In today’s world genocide pays so long as it is done at the behest of the United States and its de jure or de facto allies such as Israel.
Of course miracles can always happen. But I anticipate no fundamental change in America’s support for the Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinians during the tenure of the Obama/Clinton administration.” [2].
Francis Boyle on Palestinian Genocide (January 2009): “Furthermore, the Nuremberg “crimes against humanity” are the historical and legal precursor to the international crime of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. The theory here was that what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people was so horrific that it required a special international treaty that would codify and universalize the Nuremberg concept of “crimes against humanity.” And that treaty ultimately became the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the international crime of genocide in relevant part as follows:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even intensifying against the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much touted “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide.
Certainly, Israel and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have committed genocide against the Palestinian people that actually started on or about 1948 and has continued apace until today in violation of Genocide Convention Articles II(a), (b), and (c). For at least the past six decades, the Israeli government and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have ruthlessly implemented a systematic and comprehensive military, political, and economic campaign with the intent to destroy in substantial part the national, ethnical, racial, and different religious (Jews versus Muslims and Christians) group constituting the Palestinian people. This Zionist/Israeli campaign has consisted of killing members of the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(a). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also caused serious bodily and mental harm to the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(b). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also deliberately inflicted on the Palestinian people conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in substantial part in violation of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.’ [3].
Professor Francis Boyle on US promotion of Israel’s Palestinian Genocide (December 2009): “As long ago as October 19, 2000, the then United Nations Human Rights Commission (now Council) condemned Israel for inflicting "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" upon the Palestinian people, most of whom are Muslims. The reader has a general idea of what a war crime is, so I am not going to elaborate upon that term here. But there are different degrees of heinousness for war crimes. In particular are the more serious war crimes denominated "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987, the world has seen those heinous war crimes inflicted every day by Israel against the Palestinian people living in occupied Palestine: e.g., willful killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army and by Israel's illegal paramilitary settlers. These Israeli "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention mandate universal prosecution for the perpetrators and their commanders, whether military or civilian, including and especially Israel's political leaders… The paradigmatic example of "crimes against humanity" is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people. This is where the concept of "crimes against humanity" came from. And this is what the U.N. Human Rights Commission determined that Israel is currently doing to the Palestinian people: crimes against humanity. Expressed in legal terms, this is just like what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jews. That is the significance of the formal determination by the U.N. Human Rights Commission that Israel has inflicted "crimes against humanity" upon the Palestinian people. The Commission chose this well-known and long-standing legal term of art quite carefully and deliberately based upon the evidence it had compiled… As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel's genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even intensifying against the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Zionism's "final solution" to Israel's much touted "demographic threat" allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide… Rather than rein in the Israelis-which would be possible just by turning off the funding pipeline-the United States government, the U.S. Congress, and U.S. taxpayers instead support the "Jewish" state to the tune of about 4 billion dollars per year, without whose munificence this instance of genocide - and indeed conceivably the State of Israel itself - would not be possible. What the world witnesses here is (yet another) case of "dishumanitarian intervention" or "humanitarian extermination" by the United States and Israel against the Palestinians and Palestine. In today's world genocide pays so long as it is done at the behest of the United States and its de jure or de facto allies such as Israel. Of course miracles can always happen. But I anticipate no fundamental change in America's support for the Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinians during the tenure of the Obama/Clinton administration.“ [4].
Professor Francis Boyle in testimony to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, Malaysia (2013): “The Palestinians have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I say that because of my practical experience: On 8 April 1993 and 13 September 1993 I single-handedly won two World Court Orders on the basis of the 1948 Genocide Convention that were overwhelmingly in favor of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Bosnians in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. This was the first time ever that any Government had won two such Orders in one case since the World Court was founded in 1921. On 5August 1993 I also won a so-called Article 74(4) World Court Order for Bosnia against Yugoslavia for genocide. According to I.C.J. Statute Article 74(4), when the full World Court is not in session in The Hague, the President of the Court exercises the full powers of the Court and can issue an Order to the parties in a lawsuit that is legally binding upon them.
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the international crime of genocide in relevant part as follows:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group such as:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even now intensifying against the 1.75 million Palestinians living in Gaza as this Tribunal convenes here today. As Pappe’s analysis established, Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much-touted and racist “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide, whether slow-motion or in blood-thirsty spurts of violence. Indeed, the very essence of Zionism requires ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide against the Palestinians. For example, concerning the 2008-2009 Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza – so-called Operation Cast-lead -- U.N. General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua during the Reagan administration’s contra-terror war of aggression against that country which was condemned by the World Court, condemned it as “genocide”.” [5].
[1]. Francis Boyle, “Palestine should sue Israel for genocide before th e International Court of Justice”, Media Monitors Network, 2 December 2000: http://www.mediamonitors.net/francis1.html .
[2]. Francis Boyle, “US promotes Israeli genocide”, The Journal of Turkish Weekly, 10 January 2009: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/63104/us-promotes-israeli-genocide.html .
[3]. Professor Francis A. Boyle, “The United States promotes Israeli genocide against Palestinians”, Information Clearing House, 12 January 2009: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21722.htm .
[4]. Professor Francis A.. Boyle, “The US promotes Israeli Genocide. The United States Promotes Israeli Genocide Against the Palestinians”, Scoop, 29 December 2009: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0912/S00249.htm .
[5]. Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, MWC News, 30 August 2013: http://www.mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/30445-palestinian-genocide.html .
Professor Francis Boyle (University of Illinois) re the Palestinian Genocide (2013): “The Palestinians have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, under which a government can be guilty of genocide even if it intends to destroy a mere “part” of the group” (Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, 21 August 2013: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2339254 .)
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann is a a former Roman Catholic priest, Nicaraguan foreign minister, and president of the UN General Assembly (see: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2009/01/200911321467988347.html ).
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann as president of the UN General Assembly on Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the Israeli Palestinian Genocide (2009): “"The number of victims in Gaza is increasing by the day... The situation is untenable. It's genocide… "There have been some who were under the illusion that the Security Council would do something that could help the situation. I never thought so. Now we're faced with not only with a lack of compliance but with a prime minister of Israel who has practically responded to the Security Council by saying 'mind your own business'. It's unbelievable that a country that owes its existence to a general assembly resolution could be so disdainful of the resolutions that emanate from the UN… You have to attack problems at their root cause and the Palestinian people have been subjected to subhuman treatment for decades and this [the Israeli offensive] is going to make matters worse” (Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann quoted in “Israel accused of Gaza “genocide”. UN General Assembly president tells Al Jazeera the violence in Gaza is “untenable””, Al Jazeera, 14 January 2009: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2009/01/200911321467988347.html .)
BRULL, Michael. Anti-racist Jewish Australian writer Michael Brull in an Open Letter to J.K. Rowling on the blockade and imprisonment of (now in 2018) 2 million Palestinians in Gaza (2015): “In June 2008, Amnesty International observed that “in June, the Israeli government imposed an unprecedented blockade on the Gaza Strip, virtually imprisoning its entire 1.5 million people population, subjecting them to collective punishment and causing the gravest humanitarian crisis to date”. The results have been catastrophic. Mary Robinson formerly served as the President of Ireland and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She observed of the siege: “Their whole civilization has been destroyed, I’m not exaggerating. It’s almost unbelievable that the world doesn’t care while this is happening ” (Michael Brull, “Open Letter to J.K. Rowling from Michael Brull on Palestine”, New Matilda, 1 November 2015: https://newmatilda.com/2015/11/01/an-open-letter-to-jk-rowling-from-michael-brull-on-palestine/ ).
Michael Brull re the “siege on Gaza” and extensively quoting international humanitarian observers on this ongoing atrocity (2018): “The siege on Gaza was imposed in 2006, after Hamas won the elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It was tightened in 2007, when Hamas pre-empted a coup attempt by Fatah. This is a brief guide to what it has meant, though statistics can hardly convey the misery, suffering and desperation on the ground. This is also a cursory guide, given the effect of other factors, notably the wars on Gaza in 2008-9, and 2014, and the military coup in Egypt in 2013” ( Michael Brull, “The siege on Gaza: a brief guide (Part 1)”, New Matilda, 5 May 2018: https://newmatilda.com/2018/05/05/siege-gaza-brief-guide-part-1/ ).
Michael R. Burch compilation of anti-racist Jews and non-Jews critical of Israeli Apartheid and the Palestinian Genocide: “Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing… [numerous quotations from anti-racsit Jews]. Other Jewish critics of Zionism and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians include renowned author Philip Roth, acclaimed poet Adrianne Rich, actor Ed Asner, actress Rosanne Barr, Sidney Hook, Jeff Halper, I. F. Stone, Paul Wellstone, Maxine Rodinson, Moshe Menuhin, Yehudi Menuhin, Alfred Lilienthal, Roger Cohen, Professor Don Peretz, journalist Eric Rouleau, Harvard Professor Sara Roy, Professor Jennifer Loewenstein, former South African government mnister Ronnie Kasrils, Professor Saul Landau, Professor Zachery Lochman, Professor Joel Beinin, Professor Ian Lustick, Professor Edward Herman, writer Stephen Lendman, Anthony Loewenstein, Professor Steven Zunes, Stanley Heller, Danny Schechter, Lenni Brenner, Jeff Blankfort, author and journalist Alain Gresh, Professor Cheryl Rubenberg, Professor Michael Selzer, Professor David Fromkin, Howard Zinn, author Seymour M. Hersh, Bob Simon, Senior CBS Foreign Correspondent Barry Lando, Democracy Now radio host Amy Goodman, media critic Norman Solomon, writer Bennett Muraskin, Professor Lawrence Davidson, Jerome M. Segal, Professor Mark Levine, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Jewish Voice for Peace activist Sydney Levy, Mark Braverman, author Phylis Bennis, journalist and editor David Finkel, Professor Mark Ellis, Joel Fischer, Professor Noel Ignatiev, Professor Bill Robinson, Allan C. Brownfeld editor of the American Council for Judaism Issues magazine, New York University Professor Bertrell Ollman, Dr. Gideon Polya, activist and writer Ralph Schoenman, writer Mike Marquisee, Swedish activists Snorre Lindquist and Lasse Wilhelmson, New York Times journalist Anthony Lewis, journalist Robert Scheer, journalist and blogger Philip Weiss, journalist Adam Horowitz, blogger Richard Silverstein, activist and writer Tim Wise, Professor Eric Alterman, Tsela Barr, Judith Laitman, Haley Michaels Pollack, Michelle Goldberg, activist and writer Adrienne Weller, Dan Leiberman editor of Alternative Insight, Dr. Marc Sapir, Hannah Mermelstein, Anna Baltzser, Professor Sharon Weill, Professor Randall Kuhn, author Ben Ehrenreich, Dr. Norton Mezvinsky, Dr. Joel Kovel and many other leading Jewish activists, intellectuals and religious figures.
Jewish and Israeli Peace and Humanitarian Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Breaking the Silence (Israeli soldiers tell the truth about the Occupation)
Rabbis for Human Rights
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions
B'Tselem
Jewish Voice for Peace
American Jews for a Just Peace
Gush Shalom
Jews Against the Occupation
and many others ...
Nobel Peace Laureates Who have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Desmond Tutu
Nelson Mandela
Jimmy Carter
Adolfo Peres Esquivel
Jody Williams
Mairead Maguire
Rigoberta Menchú
Betty Williams
Christian Churches and Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine Israel Network
Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Quaker Palestine Israel Network
United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network
Other Individuals and Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Amnesty International
Mohandas Gandhi
Vanessa Redgrave (she sold a house to raise money to film a documentary about the plight of the Palestinians)
Roger Waters
Brian Eno
Boots Riley
Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple)
Michael Ondaatje
Edward Said
Rashid Khalidi
David Palumbo-Liu
Mira Nair
Mike Leigh
Ken Loach
John Pilger” (Michael R. Burch, “Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing”, The Hyper Texts: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jewish%20Intellectuals%20Who%20Opposed%20Zionism%20Israel%20Racism%20Injustices%20Apartheid%20Ethnic%20Cleansing.htm ).
Wendy Campbell (US writer, film-maker, creator of the documentaries called "Neturei Karta: Jews Against Zionism" and "Truth: Exposing Israeli Apartheid") on racist Zionism (2004): “ Definition of Zionism. At any rate, please allow me to explain my definition of "Zionism". Zionism is a racist ideology that allows for Jews from anywhere in the world to go to Israel-Palestine to claim superior rights to the land and government there at the expense of the indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians. It can be argued that Zionist Jews expect certain privileges above and beyond the average citizen in any country they live. By the way, not all Jews are Zionists, and not all American Jews think of Israel as their homeland. Many American Jews, I'm sure, if not most, think of themselves as Americans first and foremost. Many American Jews, I'm sure, accept their fellow Americans as equals regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity or gender. However, only Jews enjoy completely equal rights in Israel, where it is not a true secular democracy even for Jews, in that only marriages between Jews are acknowledged as legal in Israel, for just one example. Furthermore, all non-Jews are marginalized in Israel.
Zionist American Jews are the chauvinistic Jews who commonly believe in innate, irreducible differences from others and their own cultural-religious superiority to gentiles, or non-Jews. This attitude apparently enables them to justify Israel's national campaign of blatant ethnic cleansing against the non-Jewish Palestinians at worst as per "hard Zionists" or at the very least, complete segregation as per the apartheid two-state solution favored by "soft Zionists"” (Wendy Campbell, “Miami Florida: Zionist Occupied Territory”, Rense.com, 6 March 2004: http://www.rense.com/general50/pro.htm ).
Fidel Castro was a lawyer and a major leader of the Communist-led Cuban Revolution, Prime Minister of Cuba (1958-1976) and President (1976-2008). Despite US sanctions Cuba achieved an infant mortality rate the same as that of the US (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro ).
Fidel Castro on Obama’s support for Israel and its Palestinian Genocide (30 January 2009): “It is the way our friend Obama has fallen into sharing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians” ( Fidel Castro’s article “Deciphering the thought of the new US president” reported by the Jakarta Globe, 30 January 2009: http://thejakartaglobe.com/world/fidel-castro-turns-against-obama-in-demand-for-guantanamos-return/306263 .)
Center for Constitutional Rights (founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South of the US and dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) (2016): “While there has been recent criticism of those taking the position that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, there is a long history of human rights scholarship and legal analysis that supports the assertion. Prominent scholars of the international law crime of genocide and human rights authorities take the position that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people could constitute a form of genocide. Those policies range from the 1948 mass killing and displacement of Palestinians to a half-century of military occupation and, correspondingly, the discriminatory legal regime governing Palestinians, repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements expressly favoring the elimination of Palestinians. Genocide is a term that has both sociological and legal meaning. The term genocide was coined in 1944 by a Jewish Polish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin. For Lemkin, “the term does not necessarily signify mass killings.” He explained: “More often [genocide] refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight. The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion. It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity. When these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort. Genocide is directed against a national group as an entity and the attack on individuals is only secondary to the annihilation of the national group to which they belong” (Center for Consitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian people: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Center for Constitutional Rights (2016): “While there has been recent criticism of those taking the position that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, there is a long history of human rights scholarship and legal analysis that supports the assertion. Prominent scholars of the international law crime of genocide and human rights authorities take the position that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people could constitute a form of genocide. Those policies range from the 1948 mass killing and displacement of Palestinians to a half-century of military occupation and, correspondingly, the discriminatory legal regime governing Palestinians, repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements expressly favoring the elimination of Palestinians. Genocide is a term that has both sociological and legal meaning. The term genocide was coined in 1944 by a Jewish Polish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin. For Lemkin, “the term does not necessarily signify mass killings”…
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,[4] genocide includes various acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” as such, including:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.[5]
This definition is reflected in Article 6 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has jurisdiction over crimes occurring on the territory of the State of Palestine since June 13, 2014.[6]…
Prominent human rights advocates and scholars have argued that the killings of Palestinians and their forceful expulsion from mandate Palestine in 1948, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the violence and discrimination directed at Palestinians by the Israeli government have violated a number of human rights protections contained in international human rights law, genocide being among them” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Hugo Chavez is the President of Venezuela, He has raised US ire through his survival, universalism, socialism and populism (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez ).
Hugo Chavez on Israeli Gaza Massacre (September 2009): “"The question is not whether the Israelis want to exterminate the Palestinians. They're doing it openly ...What was it if not genocide? ... The Israelis were looking for an excuse to exterminate the Palestinians” (Hugo Chavez, quoted by Reuters, “Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accuses Israel of Palestinian Genocide”, NY Daily News, 9 September 2009: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/09/2009-09-09_venezuelan_president_hugo_chavez_accuses_israel_of_genocide.html .)
Professor Noam Chomsky is an outstanding Jewish American linguistics scholar at the prestigious, 73-Nobel-Laureate Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, Massachusetts, USA (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky ; for links to many of Professor Chomsky’s writings also see his website : http://www.chomsky.info/ ).
Noam Chomsky signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” ( Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm . )
Michel Chossudovsky (anti-racist Jewish Canadian, emeritus professor of economics, University of Ottawa, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Member of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC)) (2020): “Israel is currently in the process of implementing the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands. The issue of “illegality” must be put in context. We are dealing with a broader issue: Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against the People of Palestine. Annexation is a crime against Humanity. And the Western governments which support Israel’s actions or turn a blind eye are complicit. Donald Trump has given the Green Light to Netanyahu. Trump is responsible for supporting and endorsing an illegal and criminal undertaking” (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky, “Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide against the people of Palestine”, Global Research, 2 July 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/kuala-lumpur-tribunal-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-genocide/5359404 .
Michel Chossudovsky (anti-racist Jewish Canadian, emeritus professor of economics, University of Ottawa, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Member of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC)) (2020): “Israel is currently in the process of implementing the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands. The issue of “illegality” must be put in context. We are dealing with a broader issue: Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against the People of Palestine. Annexation is a crime against Humanity. And the Western governments which support Israel’s actions or turn a blind eye are complicit. Donald Trump has given the Green Light to Netanyahu. Trump is responsible for supporting and endorsing an illegal and criminal undertaking” (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky, “Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide against the people of Palestine”, Global Research, 2 July 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/kuala-lumpur-tribunal-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-genocide/5359404 .
Kathleen Christison is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for 30 years. She is the author of “Perceptions of Palestine” and “The Wound of Dispossession”. Bill Christison was a senior official of the CIA. He served as a National Intelligence Officer and as Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis. They spent October 2006 in Palestine and on a speaking tour of Ireland sponsored by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (see: http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/11/27/genocide-or-erasure-of-palestinians/ ). .
Kathleen and Bill Christison on the genocide or erasure of Palestinians (2006): “You can argue over terminology, but the truth is evident everywhere on the ground where Israel has extended its writ: Palestinians are unworthy, inferior to Jews, and in the name of the Jewish people, Israel has given itself the right to erase the Palestinian presence in Palestine — in other words, to commit genocide by destroying "in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group." As we debate about and analyze the Palestinian psyche, trying to determine if they have had enough and will surrender or will survive by resisting, it is important to remember that the Jewish people, despite unspeakable tragedy, emerged from the holocaust ultimately triumphant. Israel and its supporters should keep this in mind: empires never last, as Ahmad said, and gross injustice such as the Nazis and Israel have inflicted on innocent people cannot prevail for long” (Kathleen and Bill Christison, “Does it matter what you call it? Genocide or erasure of Palestinians”, Counterpunch, 27 November 2006: http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/11/27/genocide-or-erasure-of-palestinians/ and Kathleen and Bill Christison, “Does it matter what you call it?”, republished as Chapter 16 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
Professor Marjorie Cohn, according to Wikipedia “is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She also "participated in delegations to Cuba, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia" early in her career” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cohn ).
Professor Marjorie Cohn on US and Israeli Palestine Genocide and the latest Israeli Gaza Massacre (2014): “ By sending vast amounts of military aid to Israel, members of the US Congress, President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.An individual can be convicted of a war crime, genocide or a crime against humanity [PDF] in the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he or she "aids, abets or otherwise assists" in the commission or attempted commission of the crime, "including providing the means for its commission." There is growing evidence that Israeli leaders and commanders have committed the following war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute for the ICC. US military aid has aided, abetted and assisted the commission of these crimes by providing Israel with the military means to commit them. During Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces again used the Dahiye Doctrine, which, according to the UN Human Rights Council [Goldstone] Report [PDF], involves "the application of disproportionate force and causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations"…
On July 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established a commission of inquiry into Israeli violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. The resolution also called on parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene and respond to the alleged violations. That convention requires parties to prosecute violators. Countries can bring foreign nationals to justice for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the well-established doctrine of universal jurisdiction. Genocide charges could also be brought under the Genocide Convention, to which both Israel and the United States are parties. That convention also punishes complicity in genocide; US leaders' provision of military aid would constitute complicity. Although the Israeli and US governments continue to maintain that Israel has only acted in self-defense against Hamas' terrorism, the weight of world opinion points in the opposite direction. There is overwhelming opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza and calls for justice and accountability. Both Israeli and US leaders must be criminally prosecuted for committing and aiding and abetting these crimes” (Marjorie Cohn, “Israeli war crimes. Genocide & crimes against humanity”, MWC News, 8 August 2014: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/44454-israeli-war-crimes.html . )
Professor John Docker and Dr Ned Curthoys are anti-racist Jewish Australian academics and have formed a Committee for the Dismantling of Zionism which issued the following statement (see: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2009/01/05/how-to-dismantle-zionism-in-a-few-easy-steps/ ). :
“JOHN DOCKER and NED CURTHOYS
Committee for the Dismantling of Zionism
Statement of Aims
1. In the Gandhian tradition of non-violence, the committee stands for the peaceful co-existence of Israeli Jews and Palestinians within a unified democratic state where everyone is a full citizen irrespective of religion or ethnicity.
2. The committee supports the view of Sir Isaac Isaacs, Jewish jurist and former Governor General of Australia in the 1940s, that the very idea of a Jewish state is absurd, unjust, and ultimately untenable, since it makes all non-Jewish citizens necessarily and inevitably second-class citizens.
3. In the Gandhian tradition of non-violence, we support the cultural and economic boycott of Israel.
4. The Jewish Right of Return is a weapon in the Zionist colonization and occupation of Palestinian lands. Accordingly, we urge that the world wide Jewish diaspora should renounce the Right of Return.
5. We urge support for UN Resolution 194 which declares the unconditional right of the Palestinian refugees expelled from Palestine in 1948 to return to their homes.
6. We observe that Zionist Israel is guilty of genocidal policies as defined in Article II (c) of the Genocide Convention, in that it intends to destroy, in whole or in part, an ethnic group by “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. By ‘physical destruction’ we mean that Zionist Israel transparently seeks to destroy Palestinian society and remove Palestinians from their ancestral lands in order to Judaize those same lands.
7. The world wide Zionist organisations are also guilty, in terms of the Genocide Convention, Article III (e), of “complicity in genocide””
William A. Cook is Professor of English at the University of La Verne, Southern California, USA, senior editor at MWC News, Prout World Assembly and the Palestine Chronicle, and he writes extensively for major “alternative” media. He is the author of “Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy”, “The Rape of Palestine”, “The Chronicles of Nefaria”, and “Psalms for the 21st Century”, and “Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied: The Rape of Palestine”(see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide and ethnic cleansing (2010): “ Thus began in November 1947 what is euphemistically called the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the combined d forces of the Jewish armies – the Haganah, the Stern and the Irgun – as they drove more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes, leaving them destitute, homeless, and abandoned without a country in what is now the largest refugee Diaspora in the world. More realistically, the evacuation of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947,and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Raphael Lemkin’s term in 1948.” [1].
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide (2010): “What is the true nature of this state of Israel that commands the allegiance of the American people? It is a state without mercy, a state without morals, a state promised on racism, a state built on deception and lies … a state that has defied more than 160 UNGA and 39 UNSC resolutions, demanding that it act as a civilized state abide by international law and protocol … a state that will not tolerate interference by the UN in its calculated genocide of the Palestinian people”. [2].
[1]. William Cook, “Introduction”, pp 1-26, “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
[2]. William Cook, “Propaganda, perception and reality”, pp 98-101 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
William A. Cook is Professor of English at the University of La Verne, Southern California, USA, senior editor at MWC News, Prout World Assembly and the Palestine Chronicle, and he writes extensively for major “alternative” media. He is the author of “Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy”, “The Rape of Palestine”, “The Chronicles of Nefaria”, and “Psalms for the 21st Century”, and “Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied: The Rape of Palestine”(see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide and ethnic cleansing (2010): “ Thus began in November 1947 what is euphemistically called the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the combined d forces of the Jewish armies – the Haganah, the Stern and the Irgun – as they drove more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes, leaving them destitute, homeless, and abandoned without a country in what is now the largest refugee Diaspora in the world. More realistically, the evacuation of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947,and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Raphael Lemkin’s term in 1948” ( William Cook, “Introduction”, pp 1-26, “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
William Cook on the US-backed, ongoing Zionist Palestinian Genocide (2010): “What is the true nature of this state of Israel that commands the allegiance of the American people? It is a state without mercy, a state without morals, a state promised on racism, a state built on deception and lies … a state that has defied more than 160 UNGA and 39 UNSC resolutions, demanding that it act as a civilized state abide by international law and protocol … a state that will not tolerate interference by the UN in its calculated genocide of the Palestinian people” (William Cook, “Propaganda, perception and reality”, pp 98-101 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
Benjamin L. Corey (Anabaptist US Missiologist, author, blogger, speaker and a prominent figure within the Emerging Church Movement, Progressive Christianity and radical Christianity) (2017): “In the Israel/Palestine conflict, is Israel guilty of genocide against the Palestinians? Yes– absolutely. The other day I wrote a short piece on why the Bible does not command us to blindly stand with the modern state of Israel, and one of the points I made is that Israel is guilty of genocide. There were no shortage of internet commenters who objected to my use of this word and felt it was over the top. However, I stand by my assertion that Israel is guilty of genocide, so allow me to expand upon that.
I believe the main reason many push back on the idea that Israel is guilty of genocide is because of a lack of understanding of the full nuance of the word, and what genocide can look like in a modern context. While rounding up people for mass executions would be obvious evidence of genocide, the reality is that genocide can take place in ways that are more subtle– making it palatable for the masses, and even seem justified at times. Some scholars have referred to the Israel/Palestine conflict as “incremental genocide” and I would agree with that term. Instead of an overt, blatant attempt to eradicate a people group, incremental genocide involves actions and policies that are designed to slowly erode, break up, and destroy a specific population. Think for example of early American history and the genocide of Native Americans. While it wasn’t always mass killings, genocide occurred by military conflict, expanding land holdings, resettlements, and creating conditions that were destructive for the indigenous population. While it took many years to complete, and while it took many forms, what early Americans did to the indigenous people of North America was nothing short of genocide. The same holds true for Israel.
The legal definition of genocide includes the following: “Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group such as:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
While A and B are both elements we find present in Israel’s approach to Palestinians, the key aspect of genocide being waged by Israel is found in C: the deliberate infliction of conditions that in part or as a whole will destroy a people group. Arab Christians and Muslims known as Palestinians have been undoubtedly the target of Israel and a desire to eradicate them from the land” (Benjamin L. Corey, “Yes, what Israel is doing to Palestinians is actually genocide”, Patheos, 1 March 2017: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/formerlyfundie/yes-israel-palestinians-actually-genocide/ ).
Dr Ned Curthoys is an anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish Australian scholar who is a Research Fellow in the Research School of Humanities & the Arts, College of Arts and Social Sciences. According to the ANU website: “Ned Curthoys completed his PhD in the English Department at the University of Sydney in 2002. His doctorate focused on the dissemination of the humanist tradition of classical rhetoric into twentieth century literary theory, philosophy, and political theory. Post-PhD he has researched and published on the political theorist Hannah Arendt’s cross-cutting interests in literary narrative and biography. More recently he has published on various aspects of the German Jewish experience from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, returned to a long standing interest in Albert Camus and the Algerian war, and entered debates about the cross-cultural validity of secularism” (see: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/people/profile_system/public.php?id=123 ).
Ned Curthoys and John Docker on the Palestinian Genocide (2009): “[ We are part of an increasing number of people around the world of Jewish descent who are sickened by the coldly calculated massacre of the Palestinians of Gaza and who utterly repudiate Israel's claim that it acts in the name of Jews the world over… The massacre in Gaza cries out not only for immediate condemnation but for historical explanation. As scholars working in the fields of genocide studies and research into the long history of European colonization, it seems clear to us that Israel - as in the history of white Australia since 1788 - is a genocidal settler colonial society that since its founding in 1948 continually seeks to destroy the foundations of life of the indigenous Palestinians, their health, dignity, livelihood, personal security, access to education, and political organisation, so that the Palestinians can be replaced by colonizing Zionist settlers. Recent genocide scholarship has highlighted how much the original definition of genocide (by Raphael Lemkin in chapter nine of his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe) linked genocide and colonization as a two stage process of destruction of the home society (not necessarily by physical annihilation qua Nazism) and replacement by the incoming colonizers.Such has been the continuing historical pattern of Israel in relation to the indigenous people of the land. In 1948 the Zionist forces violently drove out over 700,000 Palestinians by deploying 'admonitory massacres', as the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé has evoked in horrific detail in his recent The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006)” (John Docker and Ned Curthoys. “The Gaza Massacre:, ABC, The Drum, 9 January 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/37828.html .)
Dr Uri Davis (Jewish Israeli academic, writer and human rights activist) on Zionism, 93% ethnic cleansing of Israel, and Apartheid Israel (2005): “Zionism is not a swear word, Zionism is not a conspiracy. When I refer to myself as an anti-Zionist, I do so with reference to the mainstream. The mainstream and the dominant element in Zionist history is political Zionism. But there have been other schools, and some of these schools within the Zionist environment have been bitter opponents of the mainstream of political Zionism. I would refer in this connection for instance, to the school known as spiritual Zionism, founded and led by a very distinguished Jewish intellectual known as Ahad Ha'am , Asher Ginsburg. And the vision is significant, whereas the political Zionist school aimed to establish a sovereign State, and attempt to secure in that territory both in law and in practice, a demographic majority of ethnic Jews. Spiritual Zionism were very vehement and strongly opposed to that. Ahad Ha'am argued very much in favour of establishing in Jerusalem, a cultural centre for the Jewish people, and was dead opposed to the establishment of a Jewish State. He had a series of seminal articles published in the wake of his visit to Palestine, and these should be re-read again today. They were prophetic, he explained, that the banner or the slogan of "A Land without the People, for a People without the Land" is wholly false, that the country is populated, that attempting to establish a State there would result in a protracted and unjustified conflict he was against, then, to our project… You're quite right, you don't see petty apartheid in Israel. But the core is very similar, both in South Africa and in Israel; the core is a conflict between a settler-colonial State and the indigenous population, and these conflicts are anchored in the quest of the settler State to appropriate control of the land and the sub-soil, and deny the indigenous peoples their rights in the land and the sub-soil. The consequence of this project in South Africa resulted in some 87% of the territory reserved in law for white settlement cultivation and development. In Israel it's worse. At the core, namely access to land, housing and sub-soil, 93% of the territory of the State of Israel, 93% is reserved in law exclusively for Jewish settlement, cultivation and development” (Uri Davis in interview, “Apartheid Israel?”, ABC Radio National, The Religion Report, 8 June 2005: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/religionreport/apartheid-israel/3442902#transcript ).
Paul de Rooij is a Dutch mathematicians, economist and writer based in London, UK. A committed activist for the Palestinians since the First Intifada, he has written extensively for “alternative” media `including Z magazine, Agenda, Counterpunch, Arab Media Internet Network, Miftah and various media research journals (see: http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=227 ).
Paul de Rooij on Palestinian Genocide (2004): “Is it Genocide? It is evident that Israel under Ariel Sharon is pursuing relentless campaign that aims to drive the Palestinians off the land and dispossess an ever-greater number of people. The construction of the wall is proof that this policy is being implemented. Driving armored Caterpillar bulldozers through refugee camps obviously entails a casualty toll. Similarly, the usually violent suppression of the demonstrations against this policy conjures its own grim statistics. From the graphs we detect a pattern: the repression is systematic and gradually increases the severity of its methods – this is especially apparent after July 2003. In Ariel Sharon's calculus, and with American blessing, the dispossession and repression of the Palestinians can continue as long as it is performed gradually with a slowly increasing rate. So, mass abuses are occurring in the occupied territories today; these are chronic, and indeed systematic. When the scale, intent and period are taken into account, then one can only conclude that Israel's policy is genocidal” ( Paul de Rooij, “Palestinian misery in perspective”, The Blanket, 3 June 2004: http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu:81/miseryinpdr.html and Paul de Rooij, “Palestinian misery in perspective” republished as Chapter 10 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html . )
John Docker is an Honorary Professor in the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry at the University of Sydney. In 2002, he was part of a group calling for a boycott of visiting Israeli academics. According to the University of Sydney he “researches and writes in the fields of genocide and massacre studies, cultural theory, the Enlightenment, monotheism and polytheism, intellectual history, historiography, diaspora, ethnic and cultural identity, and the history of Zionism and Israel-Palestine” (see: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/history/staff/profiles/docker.shtml and http://hist-phil.arts.unsw.edu.au/staff/peter-slezak-160.html and http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/voices-of-dissent/3135248 ).
John Docker and Ned Curthoys on the Palestinian Genocide (2009): “[ We are part of an increasing number of people around the world of Jewish descent who are sickened by the coldly calculated massacre of the Palestinians of Gaza and who utterly repudiate Israel's claim that it acts in the name of Jews the world over… The massacre in Gaza cries out not only for immediate condemnation but for historical explanation. As scholars working in the fields of genocide studies and research into the long history of European colonization, it seems clear to us that Israel - as in the history of white Australia since 1788 - is a genocidal settler colonial society that since its founding in 1948 continually seeks to destroy the foundations of life of the indigenous Palestinians, their health, dignity, livelihood, personal security, access to education, and political organisation, so that the Palestinians can be replaced by colonizing Zionist settlers. Recent genocide scholarship has highlighted how much the original definition of genocide (by Raphael Lemkin in chapter nine of his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe) linked genocide and colonization as a two stage process of destruction of the home society (not necessarily by physical annihilation qua Nazism) and replacement by the incoming colonizers.Such has been the continuing historical pattern of Israel in relation to the indigenous people of the land. In 1948 the Zionist forces violently drove out over 700,000 Palestinians by deploying 'admonitory massacres', as the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé has evoked in horrific detail in his recent The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006)” (John Docker and Ned Curthoys. “The Gaza Massacre:, ABC, The Drum, 9 January 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/37828.html .)
Curtis F. J. Doebbler is a famed international human rights lawyer who has represented individuals around the world and also represented the Palestinian National Authority and the Hamas Government. He is the author of numerous articles, notably for Al-Ahram, Egypt; and is the author of numerous books including “An Introduction to International Human Rights Law” and “International Criminal Law” (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Doebbler ).
Curtis F. J. Doebbler on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2007): “The history of genocide is a complex one. The man who coined the term in the mid-20th century, Raphael Lemkin saw genocide as “a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life … so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight … accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion … [or] … by wiping out all bases of personal security, liberty, health and dignity.” Lemkin added, that “[w]hen these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort”… Palestine: A Case of Contemporary Genocide. No single example better exemplifies the international community’s failure to stop genocide then the case of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian. This contemporary genocide has existed since and as long as the international crime of genocide has been defined. The Palestinians owned approximately 94% of Palestine prior to in the creation of Israel in 1947. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181(II) of 1947, however, gave Israel 54% of the land of Palestine. By the end of the 1948 war this had climbed to about 80%, approximately where it stands today. Since 1967 Israel had confiscated since 1967 an estimated 60 per cent of the West Bank and an estimated 33 per cent of the Gaza Strip. Israel has also confiscated an estimated 33 per cent of the Palestinian land in Jerusalem for public, semi-public, and private use in order to create Israeli military zones, settlements, industrial areas, elaborate “bypass” roads and quarries, as well as to hold “State land” for exclusive Israeli use. While Israel withdrew its settlements in Gaza it often reoccupies territory in Gaza, and maintains about 200 settlements in the West Bank. Israel’s intention in undertaking these acts appears clear” ( Curtis F. J. Doebbler, “Genocide among us”, Al Jazeerah, 28 January 2007: http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2007%20Opinion%20Editorials/January/28%20o/Genocide%20Among%20Us%20By%20Curtis%20F.J.%20Doebbler.htm and Curtis F. J. Doebbler, “Genocide among us”, republished as Chapter 26 in in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html . )
Martín Espada (born 1957) is a New York-born Puerto Rico Latino poet, a tenants legal rights lawyer, and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches poetry. He has published several books of poetry (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_Espada ).
Martín Espada was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” (18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers . )
Mohammad Fadhel (Arab journalist and researcher in Dubai) (2017): “Balfour: Britain must own up to responsibility for the Palestinian Holocaust. This disastrous imperial legacy is still highly visible… Richard Gott wrote in the Guardian in July 2006: “The brutal story of the British Empire continues to this day”, and “This disastrous imperial legacy is still highly visible, and it is one of the reasons why the British Empire continues to provoke such harsh debate. If Britain made such a success of its colonies, why are so many in an unholy mess half a century later ...?” Gott placed Palestine on top of the list of conflicts caused by the brutal story of the British Empire, but it is clear that the British colonial malice continues to this day, and English politicians are still committed to the core of what Balfour justified through his shameful declaration when he said that “The desires of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs are of no importance compared to the fate of a European colonial movement [Zionism] in essence”” (Mohammad Fadhel, “Balfour: Britain must own up to responsibility for the Palestinian Holocaust”, Gulf News Opinion, 2 November 2017: https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/balfour-britain-must-own-up-to-responsibility-for-the-palestinian-holocaust-1.2117721 ).
Professor Richard Falk is an outstanding Jewish American scholar: emeritus professor in international law at Princeton University, writer, the author or co-author of 20 books ) speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to2 UN positions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk ). In 2008 this eminent Jewish international law scholar was arrested, imprisoned and deported by Apartheid Israel when he attempted to fulfil his role as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Professor Richard Falk in “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust”: “There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination … Against this background, it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust’ … Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty … But Gaza is morally far worse[ than Darfur], although mass death has not yet resulted. It is far worse because the international community is watching the ugly spectacle unfold while some of its most influential members actively encourage and assist Israel in its approach to Gaza. Not only the United States, but also the European Union, are complicit, as are such neighbors as Egypt and Jordan … Israel is currently stiffening the boycott on economic relations that has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation. This set of policies, carried on for more than four decades, has imposed a sub-human existence on a people that have been repeatedly and systematically made the target of a variety of severe forms of collective punishment.” [1].
Professor Richard Falk and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Richard A. Falk (United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, an investigator with the UN Human Rights Council and an eminent American professor emeritus of international law at 41-Nobel-laureate Princeton University) addressing the UN Human Rights Council as it prepared to pass a resolution condemning settlement building in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem (2010): “The continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians is creating an intolerable situation in the part of the city previously controlled by Jordan. This situation can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing” [3].
[1]. Richard Falk, “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust “, The Translational Foundation for Peace and Future research (TFF), 29 Jiune 2007: http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Falk_PalestineGenocide.html .
[2]. Letter from Richard Falk with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Richard Falk quoted in Mel Frykberg, “Legal expert warns of “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem”, Electronic Intifada, 24 March 2011: https://electronicintifada.net/content/legal-expert-warns-ethnic-cleansing-jerusalem/9281 .
Professor Richard Falk is an outstanding Jewish American scholar: emeritus professor in international law at Princeton University, writer, the author or co-author of 20 books ) speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to2 UN positions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk ). In 2008 this eminent Jewish international law scholar was arrested, imprisoned and deported by Apartheid Israel when he attempted to fulfil his role as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Professor Richard Falk in “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust”: “There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination … Against this background, it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust’ … Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty … But Gaza is morally far worse[ than Darfur], although mass death has not yet resulted. It is far worse because the international community is watching the ugly spectacle unfold while some of its most influential members actively encourage and assist Israel in its approach to Gaza. Not only the United States, but also the European Union, are complicit, as are such neighbors as Egypt and Jordan … Israel is currently stiffening the boycott on economic relations that has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation. This set of policies, carried on for more than four decades, has imposed a sub-human existence on a people that have been repeatedly and systematically made the target of a variety of severe forms of collective punishment.” [1].
Professor Richard Falk and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Richard A. Falk (United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, an investigator with the UN Human Rights Council and an eminent American professor emeritus of international law at 41-Nobel-laureate Princeton University) addressing the UN Human Rights Council as it prepared to pass a resolution condemning settlement building in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem (2010): “The continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians is creating an intolerable situation in the part of the city previously controlled by Jordan. This situation can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing” [3].
[1]. Richard Falk, “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust “, The Translational Foundation for Peace and Future research (TFF), 29 Jiune 2007: http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Falk_PalestineGenocide.html .
[2]. Letter from Richard Falk with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Richard Falk quoted in Mel Frykberg, “Legal expert warns of “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem”, Electronic Intifada, 24 March 2011: https://electronicintifada.net/content/legal-expert-warns-ethnic-cleansing-jerusalem/9281 .
Carolyn Forché (born April 28, 1950) is an American poet, editor, translator, academic and human rights advocate. She is Director of the Lannan Center for Poetry and Poetics and holds the Lannan Chair in Poetry at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., USA and has published numerous books (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Forch%C3%A9 ). FORCHÉ
Carolyn Forché was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Genevieve Cora Fraser (born in Massachusetts in 1945) is a playwright, director, poet, historian, journalist and human rights activist, especially in relation to Occupied Palestine (see: http://student.cs.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=2682 ).
Genevieve Cora Fraser on the Palestinian Genocide (2006): “When I signed up to become a Democrat, I did not sign up to sponsor genocide. Yet, that is exactly what my elected federal officials Senators Kerry and Kennedy have done as well as Congressman John Olver. These men are personally responsible for sponsoring the Anti-Palestinian legislation that has blocked all funds from reaching the Palestinian Authority (150,000 civilian workers) as well as most Palestinians, creating a blockade that has resulted in starvation. They also back Israel unconditionally despite the utter brutality of their assault.
Shortly after the January elections where an overwhelming percentage of the Palestinians voted for Hamas, Israel declared war on Palestine – calling it an Axis of Evil. Hamas had upheld a truce with Israel for nearly 1 ½ years while Israel violated it continuously – strafing and bombing, bulldozing homes, torture, imprisoning and slaughtering Palestinian men, women and children. Our legislators followed suit – in essence declaring Palestinians terrorist and creating legislation aimed at collective punishment – which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a Crime against Humanity.
Gaza today is a killing field – with indiscriminate slaughter occurring day and night. Hundreds have died and over 1,200 wounded in the past 2 ½ months alone. The borders are sealed and it is rare that any food or medicine enters. The infrastructure for 1.5 million people has been destroyed and the Israeli military is destroying all means of agriculture – including beehives that produce pollination. Fishermen are prohibited from launching their boats and those who defy Israel pay with their lives. The United Nations, European media and human rights organizations are warning that the population is near starvation and the conditions are ripe for genocide. Yet, when you broach this subject to our legislators, their aides all but scoff at you. ” [1].
[1]. Genevieve Cora Fraser, “Democrats Sponsorship of Palestinian Genocide beneath Contempt”, Al-Jazeera, 12 September 2006: http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2006%20Opinion%20Editorials/September/12%20o/Democrats%20Sponsorship%20of%20Palestinian%20Genocide%20beneath%20Contempt%20By%20Genevieve%20Cora%20Fraser.htm .
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].
Eduardo Galeano (Eduardo Hughes Galeano; born September 3, 1940) is a Uruguayan journalist, writer, novelist and author of “ Memoria del fuego” (“Memory of Fire Trilogy”, 1986) and “Las venas abiertas de América Latina” (“Open Veins of Latin America”, 1971) which have been translated into twenty languages (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano ).
Eduardo Galeano signed the following letter together with John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War state:
“Article 55
To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.
The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods.
The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements.
Article 56
To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21.
In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory. “ [1].
[1]. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm .
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (pen-name Ahad Ha'Am , Jewish Russian writer and believer in spiritual Zionism) (1891) on Zionist wrongs imposed on the Indigenous inhabitants of Palestine (1891): “We abroad are used to believe the Eretz Yisrael is now almost totally desolate, a desert that is not sowed ..... But in truth that is not the case. Throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not sowed. Only sand dunes and stony mountains .... are not cultivated… If a time comes when our people in Palestine develop so that, in small or great measure, they push out the native inhabitants, these will not give up their place easily".
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am) (1891): “[The Jewish settlers] treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly, beat them shamelessly for no sufficient reason, and even take pride in doing so. The Jews were slaves in the land of their Exile, and suddenly they found themselves with unlimited freedom, wild freedom that ONLY exists in a land like Turkey. This sudden change has produced in their hearts an inclination towards repressive tyranny, as always happens when slave rules." 'Ahad Ha'Am warned: "We are used to thinking of the Arabs as primitive men of the desert, as a donkey-like nation that neither sees nor understands what is going around it. But this is a GREAT ERROR. The Arab, like all sons of Sham, has sharp and crafty mind . . . Should time come when life of our people in Palestine imposes to a smaller or greater extent on the natives, they WILL NOT easily step aside”.
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am) (1891): “The secret enabling our people to survive is ... that already in antiquities prophets taught it to respect only spiritual power and never to admire physical power. Therefore, it has not succumbed, like all ancient people, to a loss of identity when faced with stronger adversaries ... However, a political idea alien to the national culture can turn the people's heart away from spiritual power and produce a tendency to achieve its 'honors' by achieving physical power and political independence, thus severing the thread linking it with its past and losing the base which sustained it through out history”.
Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am) (circa 1914): “Yet what do our brethren do in Palestine? Just the very opposite! Serfs they were in the lands of the Diaspora and suddenly they find themselves in unrestricted freedom and this change has awakened in them an inclination to despotism. They treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, deprive them of their rights, offend them without cause and even boast of these deeds; and nobody among us opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination ... The same lack of understanding he found in the boycott of Arab labour proclaimed by Jewish labour ... Apart from the political danger, I can't put up with the idea that our brethren are morally capable of behaving in such a way to humans of another people, and unwittingly the thought comes to my mind: if it is so now, what will be our relation to the others if in truth we shall achieve at the end of times power in Eretz Yisrael? And if this be the Messiah: I do not wish to see his coming” (Ahad Ha'Am quotyed in Ahad Ha'Am – a brief biography & quotes”, Palestine Remembered, 23 October 2001: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Famous-Zionist-Quotes/Story642.html ).
Charles Glass (born in 1951) is a US author, journalist, and broadcaster specializing in Middle East affairs. He has worked for The Spectator, Newsweek and The Observer, was ABC News chief Middle East correspondent from 1983–93 and has written a number of books (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Glass ).
Charles Glass was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn (born 1949 in Manila, the Philippines ) is a Filipino-American playwright, writer, poet, storyteller, musician, and multimedia performance artist who explores the Filipino-American relationship. Her work is included in many anthologies (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Hagedorn ).
Jessica Hagedorn was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Jeff Halper (an anti-racist Jewish American Israeli, professor of anthropology, lecturer, political activist, author of several books and co-founder (1997) and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD)) on Israeli Apartheid (2015): “Israel is an apartheid state implementing a Matrix of Control which transforms the Occupied Palestinian Territory into probably the most monitored, controlled and militarised place on earth. It epitomises the dream of every general, security expert and police officer to be able to exercise total biopolitical control. In a situation where the local population enjoys no effective legal protections or privacy, they and their lands become a laboratory where the latest technologies of surveillance, control and suppression are perfected and showcased, giving Israel an edge in the highly competitive global market” (Jeff Halper, “War against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification”, Pluto Press, 2015, p.143; quoted in Gareth W.R. Smith, “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does”, Echonetdaily, 20 January 2017: https://www.echo.net.au/2017/01/apartheid-israel-doesnt-need-defending-palestine/ ).
[Editor: As exampled by genocide-based, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel’s ongoing Palestinian Genocide, the ultimate in racism and Apartheid is genocide and ethnic cleansing] .
Jeff Halper (an anti-racist Jewish American Israeli, professor of anthropology, lecturer, political activist, author of several books and co-founder (1997) and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD)) on Israeli Apartheid (2015): “Israel is an apartheid state implementing a Matrix of Control which transforms the Occupied Palestinian Territory into probably the most monitored, controlled and militarised place on earth. It epitomises the dream of every general, security expert and police officer to be able to exercise total biopolitical control. In a situation where the local population enjoys no effective legal protections or privacy, they and their lands become a laboratory where the latest technologies of surveillance, control and suppression are perfected and showcased, giving Israel an edge in the highly competitive global market” (Jeff Halper, “War against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification”, Pluto Press, 2015, p.143; quoted in Gareth W.R. Smith, “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does”, Echonetdaily, 20 January 2017: https://www.echo.net.au/2017/01/apartheid-israel-doesnt-need-defending-palestine/ ).
[Editor: As exampled by genocide-based, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel’s ongoing Palestinian Genocide, the ultimate in racism and Apartheid is genocide and ethnic cleansing] .
William Hanna on the Palestinian Genocide and the “open prisons” of Gaza and the West Bank (2014): “Following the World War Two Jewish Holocaust (6 million Jews murdered) and the general Holocaust death toll of more than 30 million, well-intentioned vows of “zero tolerance for racism” and “never again to anyone” were made and quickly forgotten. The first victims of this postwar universal forgetfulness were the Palestinians whose homeland, heritage, history, and human rights as a people was — without their consent — given as compensation to displaced Jews in Europe by Western nations who did not want them. The result of this Western generosity at the expense of the Palestinian people has seen the displacement of some 7 million Palestinians who are virtual prisoners in either scattered refugee camps (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt) or in what are in effect still Israeli occupied territories (open prisons) such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank where they are subject to a racist genocidal horror at the hands of a people whose Talmud — containing the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety of subjects including Jewish ethics — categorically states that the supreme sanctity of all human life is pertinent to man's place in the universe: “He who saves one life . . . is as if he saves an entire universe. He who destroys a life . . . is as if he destroys an entire universe.” (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5). All law, civil and religious, has as its purpose the promotion of human life, and when it ceases to serve that end it becomes obsolete and is superseded… Can Jews and Judaism honestly justify either their support for, or toleration of such a barbarous, war criminal state? While Israel may be able (with iniquitous support from the world’s foremost war criminal nation the U.S.) to contemptuously ignore condemnation by the rest of the world, it would not be able to ignore the universal condemnation of the Jewish people it claims to represent.” [1].
[1]. William Hanna, “Who Is Actually Guilty of More Than 60 Years of Palestinian Genocide?”, Countercurrents, 11 August, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/hanna110814.htm .
Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent. He is author of “Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews” (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/hart110814.htm ) .
Alan Hart on the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine (2014): “Israel was created, mainly, by Zionist terrorism and ethnic cleansing; and without the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust Zionism almost certainly would not have been able to mobilise and command enough Jewish support – financial, political and other – to establish itself in Palestine in state form. (Prior to the Nazi holocaust a majority of the Jews of the world were opposed to Zionism’s enterprise. They believed it to be morally wrong. They believed it would lead to unending conflict. And they feared that if Zionism was allowed by the major powers to have its way in Palestine it would one day provoke anti-Semitism. Which is what it is doing today)” [1].
[1]. Alan Hart, “An Open Letter To President Obama: Your Legacy”, Countercurrents, 11 August 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/hart110814.htm .
Andrea Howard is a psychiatric case manager in the central US. She has organized for local and national organizations focussing on social justice issues (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .)
Andrea Howard on “Israeli immunity for genocide” in Lebanon and Gaza (2006): “Having no concept of the rule of law and no sense of humanity or morality, Israel continues its adventure in Palestine. Violating every crime of war and human rights known to man with the tacit approval and complicity of the international community, the military might of Israel collectively target a civilian population and the infrastructure of a nation … The United States continues to absurdly define genocide as Israeli self-defense, and a blind eye continues to be turned to the systematic subjugation and slaughter of innocent people.” [1].
[1]. Andrea Howard, “Israeli immunity for genocide” (2006) republished as Chapter 9 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Human Rights Watch (2021): “About 6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution… The international community has for too long explained away and turned a blind eye to the increasingly transparent reality on the ground. Every day a person is born in Gaza into an open-air prison, in the West Bank without civil rights, in Israel with an inferior status by law, and in neighboring countries effectively condemned to lifelong refugee status, like their parents and grandparents before them, solely because they are Palestinian and not Jewish. A future rooted in the freedom, equality, and dignity of all people living in Israel and the OPT will remain elusive so long as Israel’s abusive practices against Palestinians persist.” (Human Rights Watch, “A threshold crossed. Israeli authorities and the crimes of apartheid and persecution”, 27 April 2021: https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution ).
“Israel Genocide?” in their own words: “We are people from all around the world who fear that we are witnessing the genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. Witnessing Israel’s daily violations of Palestinian human rights- military take-over of land, restriction of movement, economic strangulation, house demolitions, restrictions on basic foodstuff, mass arbitrary arrests of both adults and children, torture, extra judicial executions, and large-scale massacres of whole families, openly calling for genocide and/extermination by law makers and other public figures- we can not keep silent about this 67 year-old atrocity, unfolding before our eyes. We demand the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor take action and investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian People, and that the office publish its findings and recommendations” (see “Israel Genocide?” about: http://israelgenocide.com/about/ ).
“Israel Genocide?” in listing numerous articles on the Palestinian Genocide with the preamble that “More and more legal experts, public figures, institutions, civil society groups, journalists, artists and bloggers have stated that Israel’s systematic oppression of the Palestinian people may amount to genocide” (“Israel Genocide?” articles: http://israelgenocide.com/articles/ ).
“Israel Genocide?” petition to the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and ICC prosecutor on action on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide: “I am a concerned person of conscience, who fears that I am witnessing the genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. Witnessing Israel’s daily violations of Palestinian human rights- military take-over of land, restriction of movement, economic strangulation, house demolitions, restrictions on basic foodstuff, mass arbitrary arrests of both adults and children, torture, extra judicial executions, and large-scale massacres of whole families, openly calling for genocide and extermination by law makers and other public figures- I can not keep silent about this 68 year-old atrocity, unfolding before our eyes.The Crime of Genocide is defined in a declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946. I demand the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor take action and investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian People, and that the office publish its findings and recommendations.Thank you” (see “Israel Genocide?” take action: http://israelgenocide.com/take-action/ ).
“Israel Genocide?” statement in response to the United Nations Human Rights “Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict”: “The United Nations Human Rights “Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict” has been released and the word genocide appears only once, to define what an International Crime is. Even though the numbers speak for themselves, the treatment of the occupying army and the population it besieges as some kind of equals, with equal responsibility and military ability, in this report is glaring. We feel that the report, while detailing Israel’s individual war crimes, both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, during Israel’s attack last summer, intentionally glosses over the context of 68 years of colonization and its subsequent on-going genocidal effects. A crime of this magnitude- which lasted 51 consecutive days and resulted in the extermination of 89 whole families and the deaths of scores of others, and in devastating damage to civilian property and infrastructure in the context of Israel’s ever-tightening de-facto stranglehold on Palestinian land and lives and infinitely superior fire-power- cannot be assessed under the laws of war, but under the laws of genocide. We appeal to the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda to investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people” “Israel Genocide?”: http://israelgenocide.com/ ).
Jewish Holocaust Survivors on Palestinian Genocide as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Dozens of Holocaust survivors, together with hundreds of descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims, accused Israel of “genocide” for the deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians in Gaza during the 2014 Israeli military offensive against Gaza, "Operation Protective Edge" (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
“Jews for Palestinian Right of Return” demand Palestinian Right of Return and a democratic state throughout historic Palestine (see : http://jfpror.wordpress.com/ ).
Petitition of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, “Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!”
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014: http://jfpror.wordpress.com/ and https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/benjamin-netanyahu-jews-say-end-the-war-on-gaza-no-aid-to-apartheid-israel-bds-with-200-initial-signers .
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: “How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?”
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel’s ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state” — armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies — wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X’s warning: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel’s relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of “self-defense” than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide — including Israel’s very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel’s apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine — from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
Initial Signers (list in formation; organizations, schools and other affiliations shown for identification only; *Co-founder, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return)
Avigail Abarbanel, Psychotherapist; editor, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists (2012, Cambridge Scholars), Inverness, Scotland
Noa Abend, Boycott From Within
Stephen Aberle, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver, BC
Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D. Social Justice Program, University of Minnesota
Anya Achtenberg, novelist and poet; teacher; activist; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Mike Alewitz, Associate Professor, Central CT State Unversity; Artistic Director, Labor Art & Mural Project
Zalman Amit, Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Author, Israeli Rejectionism
Anthony Arnove, International Socialist Organization
Gabriel Ash, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Switzerland
Ted Auerbach, Brooklyn for Peace
Anna Baltzer, author and organizer
Ronnie Barkan, Co-founder, Boycott from Within, Tel-Aviv
Judith Bello, Administrative Committee, United National Antiwar Coalition
Lawrence Boxall, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada; Vancouver Ecosocialist Group
Linda Benedikt, writer Munich, Germany
Nora Barrows-Friedman, journalist; Oakland
Prof. Jonathan Beller, Humanities and Media Studies Graduate Program in Media Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
Medea Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK
Rica Bird, Joint Founder, Merseyside Jews for Peace and Justice
Audrey Bomse, Co-chair, National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee
Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC Berkeley
Lenni Brenner, Author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators
Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
Max Blumenthal, Author, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel; and Senior Writer for Alternet.org
Mary P. Buchwald, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York
Monique Buckner, BDS South Africa
Maia Brown, Health and Human Rights Project-Seattle & Stop Veolia Seattle
Estee Chandler, Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles
Rick Chertoff, L..A. Jews for Peace
Prof. Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law; past president, National Lawyers Guild
Ally Cohen, Ramallah, Palestine; International Solidarity Movement media coordinator
Ruben Rosenberg Colorni, Youth for Palestine, Netherlands
Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK)
Margaretta D’arcy, Irish actress, writer, playwright, and peace-activist
Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian
Warren Davis, labor and political activist, Philadelphia, PA
Eron Davidson, film maker
Judith Deutsch, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Science for Peace
Roger Dittmann, Professor of Physics, Emeritus California State University, Fullerton; President, Scholars and Scientists without Borders Executive Council, World Federation of Scientific Workers
Gordon Doctorow, Ed.D., Canada
Mark Elf, Jews Sans Frontieres, London, UK
Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor and human rights activist; St. Louis, MO
Marla Erlien, New York NY
Shelley Ettinger, writer/activist, New York, NY
Inge Etzbach, Human Rights Activist, Café Palestina NY
Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University; Former UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014
Malkah B. Feldman, Jewish Voice for Peace and recent delegate to Palestine with American Jews For A Just Peace
Deborah Fink, Co-Founder, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods UK
Joel Finkel, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago
Sylvia Finzi, JfjfP; Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, EJJP. Germany)
Maxine Fookson, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner; Jewish Voice for Peace, Portland OR-
Richard Forer, Author, Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion – A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine
Sid Frankel, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba
Prof. Cynthia Franklin, Co-Editor, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Hawai’i
Racheli Gai, Jewish Voice for Peace
Herb Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
Ruth Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Cheryl Gaster, social justice activist and human right lawyer, Toronto ON
Alisa Gayle-Deutsch, American/Canadian Musician and Anti-Israeli Apartheid Activist
Jack Gegenberg, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB
Prof. Terri Ginsberg, film and media scholar, New York
David Glick, psychotherapist; Jewish Voice for Peace
Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita Professor, CSULB; Israel Divestment Campaign
Neta Golan, Ramallah, Palestine; Jews Against Genocide; Co-founder, International Solidarity Movement.
Tsilli Goldenberg, teacher, Jerusalem, Israel
Steve Goldfield, Ph.D.
Sue Goldstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Canada
Marty Goodman, former Executive Board member, Transport Workers Union Local 100; Socialist Action
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Freeman Fellow, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Hector Grad, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Spain
Prof. Jesse Greener, University of Laval
Cathy Gulkin, Filmmaker, Toronto ON
Ira Grupper, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
Jeff Halper, The Israeli Committee Against House demolitions (ICAHD)
Larry Haiven, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Halifax
Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, publisher, Germany
Stanley Heller, The Struggle Video News TSVN
Shir Hever, Jewish Voice for Just Peace, Germany
Deborah Hrbek, media and civil rights lawyer, NLG-NYC
Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor, Mondoweiss
Gilad Isaacs, Economist, Wits University.
Selma James, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Jake Javanshir, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto
Riva Joffe, Jews Against Zionism
Val Jonas, attorney, Miami Beach
Sima Kahn, MD; President of the board, Kadima Reconstructionist Community
Yael Kahn, Israeli anti-apartheid activist
Michael Kalmanovitz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (UK)
Dan Kaplan, AFT Local 1493
Susan Kaplan, J.D. National Lawyers Guild
Danny Katch, activist and author
Bruce Katz, President, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Montreal, Canada
Lynn Kessler, Ph.D., MPH, psychologist/social justice activist
Janet Klecker, Sonomans for Justice & Peace for Palestine, Sonoma CA
Prof. David Klein, California State University, Northridge; USACBI
Emma Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace, Seattle WA
Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Harry Kopyto, Legal activist Toronto ON
Richard Koritz, veteran postal trade unionist and former member of North Carolina Human Relations Commission
Yael Korin, PhD., Scientist at UCLA; Campaign to End IsraelI Apartheid, Southern California
Dennis Kortheuer, CSULB, Israel Divestment Campaign
Steve Kowit, Professor Emeritus, Jewish Voice for Peace
Toby Kramer, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Jason Kunin, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Dr. David Landy, Trinity College, Dublin
Jean Léger, Coalition pour la Justice et la Paix en Palestine, membre de la Coalition BDS Québec et de Palestiniens et Juifs Unis
Lynda Lemberg, Educators for Peace and Justice, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
David Letwin,* activist and teacher, Al-Awda NY
Michael Letwin,* former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325; USACBI; Al-Awda NY
Les Levidow, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), UK
Corey Levine, Human Rights Activist, Writer; National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Joseph Levine, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Lesley Levy, Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal
Mich Levy, teacher, Oakland CA
Abby Lippman, Professor Emerita; activist; Montreal
Brooke Lober, PhD candidate, University of Arizona, Gender and Women’s Studies Department
Antony Loewenstein, journalist, author and Guardian columnist
Jennifer Loewenstein, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Alex Lubin, Professor of American Studies, University of New Meixco
Andrew Lugg, Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, Canada
David Makofsky, Jewish Voice for Peace, Research Anthropologist
Harriet Malinowitz, Professor of English, Long Island University, Brooklyn
Mike Marqusee, Author, If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew
Miriam Marton, JD
Dr. Richard Matthews. independent scholar, London ON
Daniel L. Meyers, Former President National Lawyers Guild-NYC
Linda Milazzo, Writer/Activist/Educator, Los Angeles
Eva Steiner Moseley, Holocaust refugee, Massachusetts Peace Action board member and Palestine/Israel Working Group
Dr. Dorothy Naor, retired teacher, Herzliah, Israel
Marcy Newman, independent scholar; Author; The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans
Alex Nissen, Women in Black
Dr. Judith Norman, San Antonio, TX
Henry Norr, retired journalist, Berkeley CA
Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror
Prof. Bertell Ollman, NYU
Karin Pally, Santa Monica, CA
Prof. Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and socialist activist
Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany CA
Dr. Susan Pashkoff, Jews Against Zionism, London UK
Miko Peled, writer, activist; Author, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine
Prof. Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA
Mitch Podolak, Founder, Winnipeg Folk Festival and Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Karen Pomer,* granddaughter of Henri B. van Leeuwen, Dutch anti-Zionist leader and Bergen-Belsen survivor
Lenny Potash, Los Angeles CA
Fabienne Presentey, Independent Jewish Voices, Montréal
Diana Ralph, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Roland Rance, Jews Against Zionism, London
Karen Ranucci, Independent Journalist, Democracy Now!
Ana Ratner, Artist, Puppeteer, Activist.
Michael Ratner, President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights
Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Jewish Voice Germany
Diana M.A. Relke, Professor Emerita, University of Saskatchewan
Prof. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University
Stewart M. Robinson, retired Prof of Mathematics
Professor Lisa Rofel, University of California, Santa Cruz
Mimi Rosenberg, Producer & Host, Building Bridges and Wednesday Edition, WBAI 99.5 FM; Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Lillian Rosengarten, Author, From The Shadows Of Nazi Germany To The Jewish Boat To Gaza
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)
Yehoahua Rosin, Israel
Ilana Rossoff, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Martha Roth, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver BC
Marty Roth, Emeritus professor of English, University of Minnesota
Ruben Roth, Assistant Professor, Labour Studies, Laurentian University; Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Emma Rubin, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Middle East Scholar; Editor, Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Author, The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace
Josh Ruebner, Author, Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Mark Rudd, retired teacher, Albuquerque NM
Ben Saifer, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Evalyn Segal, Rossmoor Senior Community
Sylvia Schwarz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League; Haifa
Carole Seligman, co-editor, Socialist Viewpoint magazine
Yom Shamash, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver, Canada
Tali Shapiro, Boycott from Within; Israel
Karen Shenfeld, Poet, Toronto ON
Sid Shniad, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
William Shookhoff, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
Melinda Smith, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albuquerque NM
Kobi Snitz, Tel Aviv
Marsha Steinberg, BDS-LA for Justice in Palestine, Los Angeles
Lotta Strandberg, Visiting Scholar, NYU
Carol Stone, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver BC
Miriam (Cherkes-Julkowski) Swenson, Ph.D.
Matthew Taylor, author
Laura Tillem, Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas
Peter Trainor, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto
Rebecca Tumposky, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Darlene Wallach, Justice for Palestinians, San Jose CA
Dr. Abraham Weizfeld, JPLO
Bonnie Weinstein, Co-Editor of Socialist Viewpoint magazine; Publisher, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Sam Weinstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Labor; former President, UWUA Local 132
Judith Weisman, Independent Jewish Voices; Not in Our Name (NION); Toronto ON
Paul Werner, PhD, DSFS Editor, WOID, a journal of visual language
Noga Wizansky, Ph.D., artist, instructor, and researcher; Administrator, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley
Marcy Winograd, public school teacher, former congressional peace candidate
Bekah Wolf, UC Hastings College of Law Student; Co-founder, Palestine Solidarity Project
Sherry Wolf, International Socialist Organization
Dave Zirin, Author, Game Over: How Politics Have Turned the Sports World Upside Down
KANAFANI, Ghassan: "You do not mean peace talks, you mean surrender ... that is kind of conversation between the sword and the neck"
Ghassan Kanafani (Palestinian writer, assassinated with his niece by Mossad in 1972, notable for coining the concept of adab al-moqawameh, meaning the resistance by literature) asked by ABC journalist Richard Carleton why he rejected peace talks with Israel (1970): "You do not mean peace talks, you mean surrender ... that is kind of conversation between the sword and the neck" (Diana Alghoul, “Between the sword and the neck: Palestinians remember Ghassan Kanafani, The New Arab, 8 July 2018: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/palestinians-remember-ghassan-kanafani-46-years ). In similar vein he wrote: “Everything in this world can be robbed and stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause. You have something in this world, so stand for it”.
Thomas Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an outstanding Australian novelist, playwright and author of fiction and non-fiction. His novel Schindler's Ark won the Booker Prize in 1982, was inspired by Holocaust survivor Poldek Pfefferberg, and was to Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning movie Schindler's List. He recently published “Three Famines” an account of the Israeli-complicit Ethiopian famine (1984-1987, excess deaths 2.1 million), the Disraeli-complicit Irish Famine (1845-1850, 1 million dead, 1.5 million forced to emigrate) and the pro-Zionist Churchill’s 1942-1945 Bengali Holocaust in which the British deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death (see Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ ). His novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) was about the (continuing) Australian Aboriginal Genocide (violent deaths and avoidable deaths from disease and deprivation about 2 million since 1788; see "Aboriginal Genocide" : https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ ) and was also made into a movie (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Keneally ).
Thomas Keneally was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Professor Baruch Kimmerling (George S. Wise Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; co- authored with Joel S. Migdal “The Palestinian People: A History”) on the 1948 Palestinian Genocide or “purification” (2004) : “The conclusion was that, as in many other cases, what seemed at first glance a pure and limited military doctrine, proved itself in the case of “Plan D” to comprise far-reaching measures that lead to a complete demographic, ethnic, social and political transformation of Palestine. Implementing the spirit of this doctrine, the Jewish military forces conquered about 20,000 square kilometers of territory (compared with the 14,000 square kilometers granted them by the UN Partition Resolution) and purified them almost completely from their Arab inhabitants. About 800,000 Arab inhabitants lived on the territories before they fell under Jewish control following the 1948 war. Fewer than 100,000 Arabs remained there under Jewish control after the cease fire. An additional 50,000 were included within the Israeli state’s territory following the Israeli-Jordan’s armistice agreements that transferred several villages to Israeli rule” (Baruch Kimmerling, “Benny Morris’s Shocking Interview”, The Electronic Intifada, 27 January 2004: https://electronicintifada.net/content/top-israeli-historian-analyzes-benny-morriss-shocking-interview/4968 ).
Naomi Klein is a famous Jewish Canadian journalist, author and activist who is very well known for her books and critiques of corporate globalization (for biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein; see also Naomi Klein website: http://www.naomiklein.org/main ).
Naomi Klein on “never again to anyone”: “There is a debate among Jews - I'm a Jew by the way. The debate boils down to the question: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free card...There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that say, 'Never again to anyone.”” [1].
.Naomi Klein and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Naomi Klein to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel: “Congratulations to the students of Hampshire College for your principled and thoughtful divestment decision. Economic sanctions are among the most potent tools in the arsenal of non-violent tactics. Divestment and boycotts are controversial precisely because they work. So stay strong in the face of the attacks and misinformation, they are a measure of the effectiveness of the tactic you have chosen. And know that that there are many who stand with you, and will soon be inspired to join you” [3].
Naomi Klein on sanctions against Apartheid Israel as against Apartheid South Africa (2009): “It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” [4].
[1]. Yotam Feldman, “Naomi Klein: oppose the state not the people”, Haartetz, 2 July 2007: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html .
[2]. Letter from Naomi Klein with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, and Gore Vidal re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, California, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
[4]. Naomi Klein, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Naomi Klein signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted” ( Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm . )
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT), according to Wikipedia “also known as the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, is a Malaysian organisation established in 2007 by [former PM] Mahathir Mohamad to investigate war crimes. The KLWCC was instigated as an alternative to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which Mahathir accused of bias in its selection of cases to cover” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_War_Crimes_Commission ).
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) press release on its hearings concerning the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2013): PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. TRIBUNAL HEARING AGAINST ISRAEL AND YARON TO COMMENCE
KUALA LUMPUR, 19 November 2013 – The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) will be hearing genocide and war crimes charges against the State of Israel and Amos Yaron, a retired Israeli army general from November 20 to 25, 2013 in Kuala Lumpur.
This is the first time that genocide charges will be heard against the State of Israel and the retired Israeli army general in compliance with due legal process. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), having received complaints from victims from Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) and the Sabra – Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, in 2012, investigated these complaints resulting in the institution of formal charges against the accused. [1].
[1]. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT), “Genocide charges against the State of Israel”, Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, global Research, 19 November 2013: http://www.globalresearch.ca/genocide-charges-against-the-state-of-israel-kuala-lumpur-war-crimes-tribunal/5358643 .
Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky (2020): “Israel is currently in the process of implementing the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands. The issue of “illegality” must be put in context. We are dealing with a broader issue: Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against the People of Palestine. Annexation is a crime against Humanity. And the Western governments which support Israel’s actions or turn a blind eye are complicit. Donald Trump has given the Green Light to Netanyahu. Trump is responsible for supporting and endorsing an illegal and criminal undertaking… Text of the November 2013 Judgment against the State of Israel. KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) today found former Israeli army general Amos Yaron and the State of Israel guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide stemming from the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982.KLWCT president Tan Sri Lamin Mohd Yunus, who headed a seven-member panel, said the tribunal was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that both the defendants were guilty as charged. The other judges were Tunku Sofiah Jewa, Prof Salleh Buang, Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi, Datuk Saari Yusof, John Philpot and Tunku Intan Mainura” (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal and Michel Chossudovsky, “Israel guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide against the people of Palestine”, Global Research, 2 July 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/kuala-lumpur-tribunal-finds-israel-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-genocide/5359404 .
Stephen Lendman is an outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish American analyst, writer, broadcaster and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (see Stephen Lendman blog:: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/ ) .
Stephen Lendman reviewing Ilan Pappe’s “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”: “Since the 1940s, they [the Palestinians] were ethnically cleansed and slaughtered without mercy so their homeland would become one for Jews alone. The shameful result is that Palestinians then and today have almost no rights including being able to live in peace and security on their own land in their own state that no longer exists. Survivors then and their offspring either live in Israel as unwanted Arab citizens with few rights or in the Occupied Palestinians Territories (OPT) where their lives are suspended in limbo in an occupied country in which they're subjected to daily institutionalized and codified racism and persecution. They have no power over their daily lives and live in a constant state of fear with good reason. They face economic strangulation; collective punishment for any reason; loss of free movement; enclosures by separation walls, electric fences and border closings; regular curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, loss of their homes by bulldozings and crops and orchards by wanton destruction and seizure; arrest without cause, and routine subjection to torture while in custody. They're targeted for extra-judicial assassination and indiscriminate killing; taxed punitively and denied basic services essential to life and well-being including health care, education, employment and even enough food and water at the whim of Israeli authorities in a deliberate effort to destroy their will to resist and eliminate those who won't by expulsion or extermination.”. [1].
Stephen Lendman on Israel’s slow-motion Palestinian Genocide (with a dramatic map illustrating the extent of territorial Palestinian Genocide) (26 November 2008): “They won't explain that Israel is obligated to provide essentials under Fourth Geneva's Article 55. It states: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other (essential) articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate." Israel continues to violate this law and all others…Today starving Gazans won't be silenced. They keep protesting, and according to Hamazah Mansur, head of the Jordanian-based Islamic Action Front's six-member parliamentary bloc: If conditions in the Territory worsens, "Arab rulers should expect an earthquake that would shake their countries and regimes." It's high time something shook them out of their silent complicity with decades of slow-motion genocide, now worse than ever in Gaza under siege. “. [2].
Stephen Lendman on Israel/Palestine today (July 2009): “B'Tselem is the Jerusalem-based independent Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (OPT) with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy and integrity. It was founded in 1989 to "document and educate the Israeli public, policymakers (and concerned people everywhere) about human rights violations in the OPT, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public (and elsewhere, especially among Jews), and create a human rights culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human rights and comply with international law. It conducts wide-ranging, carefully researched, and thoroughly cross-checked reports, most recently its June one titled, "Foul Play: Neglect of wastewater treatment in the West Bank." This article discusses its findings as further evidence of how Israel violates international humanitarian law as an occupying power. Because no global authority holds it accountable, over 2.8 million West Bank Palestinians suffer along with another 1.5 million under siege in Gaza for over two years and counting …Of the West Bank's 2.8 million Palestinians, wastewater for over two million of them goes untreated, the result of Israel's wilful neglect in violation of international humanitarian law and its obligation as an occupier.” [3].
Stephen Lendman on the Palestinian Holocaust (2011): “What Ilan Pappe described as "the ethnic cleaning of Palestine," Edward Said called its "holocaust," saying: "Every human calamity is different, but there is value in seeing analogies and perhaps hidden similarities." He called Nazi extermination "the lowest point of (Jewish) collective existence." Occupied Palestinians today "are as powerless as Jews were" under Hitler, devastated by "power used for evil purposes," not self-defense. As a result, they hang onto life by a thread, while Israel's military juggernaut systematically reigns terror against them, no one intervening to help. "Is this the Zionist goal for which hundreds of thousands have died," Said asked? Isn't it time for justice advocates to demand for Palestinians what Jews spent decades to achieve.
In his book titled, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," Pappe documented Israel's master plan D (Dalet in Hebrew), a war without mercy:
-- depopulating villages and cities;
-- massacring innocent victims;
-- committing rapes and other atrocities;
-- burning, bulldozing, blowing up or stealing homes, property and goods; and
-- preventing expelled Palestinians from returning.
In all, systematic terror expelled about 800,000 Palestinians, killed many others, and destroyed 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in cities like Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. It was genocidal ethnic cleansing, what international law today calls a crime of war and against humanity for which convicted Nazis at Nuremberg were hanged.
Under 44 years of occupation this June, Palestinians still experience daily institutionalized persecution with no power over their daily lives in a constant state of fear with good reason. They face:
-- economic strangulation;
-- collective punishment for any reason;
-- loss of basic freedoms, especially in Gaza under siege;
-- enclosures by separation walls, electric fences and border closings;
-- regular curfews, roadblocks, and checkpoints;
-- bulldozing of their homes, crops and orchards; and
-- arrest, imprisonment, and torture without cause.
Moreover, they endure:
-- assaults and extra-judicial assassinations;
-- punitive taxation; and
-- denial of basic services essential to life and well-being, including healthcare, education, employment and enough food and water at the whim of Israeli authorities, trying to destroy their will to resist.
With no effective power to resist, they're denied redress in international tribunals that ignore them, perpetuating their occupation, denial of basic rights and misery. ” [4].
[1]. Stephen Lendman, “The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ian Pappe”, Global Research, 7 February 2007: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4715 .
[2]. Stephen Lendman, “Israel’s slow-motion genocide in Occupied Palestine”, Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinal, 26 November 2008: http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/112608Lendman.shtml .
[3]. Stephen Lendman” “Dangerous Untreated Wastewater in the West Bank”, Stephen Lendman Blog, 17 July 2009: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/ .
[4]. Stephen Lendman, “Commemorating the Palestinian Holocaust”, Rense, 11 May 2011: http://rense.com/general94/comm.htm .
Eric Margolis (anti-racist, Jewish-origin, conservative US writer) on Palestinian human rights and the Palestinian Genocide (2018): “There was no joy in Gaza. This miserable, squalid human garbage dump is a giant open-air prison packed with 2 million Palestinian refugees driven from the newly created state of Israel in 1948. Israel and its close ally Egypt keep Gaza bottled up on its land and sea borders. Palestinians are only allowed to fish along the shore. Coastal gas and oil reserves have been expropriated by Israel and Egypt. Gaza’s two million people subsist on the edge of starvation. Israel openly boasts that it allows just enough food into the enclave to prevent outright starvation. Chemicals to treat water are banned. Electricity runs only a few hours daily because the power plant was bombed by Israel’s US-supplied air force. Hospitals have almost no medicines. In short, wartime conditions in the open-air prison. Even the wretched animals in Gaza zoo are starving. The intensive punishment of Gaza, a crime under international law, began after its people voted in a free election for the Hamas movement over the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which is more or less run by Israel and the United States. Israel helped found Hamas in 1987, but then sought, with the US, to destroy the organization, branding it ‘terrorist’… When Israel was created by the US and UN (with Soviet support) in 1948, from 750,000 to one million native Palestinians were driven from their ancestral home at gunpoint or panicked to flight by massacres and ethnic cleansing. Their villages were bulldozed. When Israel conquered and annexed the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, another 500,000 Palestinians were made refugees. Some 50,000-250,000 Syrians were driven by Israel from the strategic Golan Heights. Bedouins were driven from Israel’s Negev Desert. By our era, the number of homeless Palestinians has grown to 5 million refugees helped by the UN and at least another million scattered about the Mideast. The actual number could reach as high as 8-9 million thanks to the Palestinian’s high birth rate and strong family values. Half of Jordan’s people are Palestinian refugees. Kuwait had 400,000 Palestinians until they were expelled in 1990-1991 after their leader, Yasser Arafat, foolishly backed claims by Saddam Hussein that he was occupying Kuwait in order to trade it for a Palestinian state. This was the biggest Palestinian expulsion since 1948. Egypt’s brutal dictator, Gen. al-Sisi, is now the biggest persecutor of Palestinians after Israel, keeping them locked away in the Gaza prison” (Eric Margolis, “Palestinians – 70 years of suffering”, The Unz Review, 26 May 2018: http://www.unz.com/emargolis/palestinians-70-years-of-suffering/ ).
MASSAD, Joseph: "Israel has killed more than 100,000 Palestinians and Arabs since 1948, thousands more were killed by the British and the Zionists between 1917 and 1948. Israel has expelled half the population of historic Palestine"
Joseph Massad (Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University. He is the author most recently of Islam in Liberalism (University of Chicago Press, 2015)(2017): “Israel has killed more than 100,000 Palestinians and Arabs since 1948, thousands more were killed by the British and the Zionists between 1917 and 1948. Israel has expelled half the population of historic Palestine who continue to live in exile while the other half lives under different racist and colonial laws and regulations in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza. The majority of the world’s Jews today live in their countries of origin and refuse to go to Israel. These include the majority of US Jews, Latin American Jews, French Jews, Russian Jews and British Jews, among others” (Joseph Massad, “The Balfour Declaration’s many questions”, Electronic Intifada, 8 November 2017: https://electronicintifada.net/content/balfour-declarations-many-questions/22216 ).
Evo Morales (Bolivian President ) in condemning the 2014 Gaza Massacre (Operation Protective Edge) (2014): “[Action needed] “to end the genocide that Israel is carrying out on Palestine” (Evo Morales, quoted in “Stop the genocide! S. American leaders condemn Israeli operations in Gaza”, RT, 20 July 2014: https://www.rt.com/news/174144-south-america-gaza-genocide/ .
Evo Morales (Bolivian President ) in recalling Bolivia’s ambassador from Israel (2014): “What is happening in Palestine is genocide”( “Bolivian president: Israel air strikes on Gaza is 'genocide'”, ITV, July 16, 2014, http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-07-16/bolivian-president-israel-air-strikes-of-gaza-is-genocide ).
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford February 18, 1931) is a Literature Nobel Prize winner and a Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American novelist, editor, and academic. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sula and Beloved. She also was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison held a Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison ).
Toni Morrison was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide in 2006 slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
Craig John Murray (born 17 October 1958) is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan, and former Rector of the University of Dundee who has been awarded for his exposure and opposition to torture (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray ).
Craig Murray on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2012): “The BBC World Service TV has this minute, at 9.00am GMT, started its news broadcast as usual from Ashkelon in Israel, highlighting rocket attacks on Israel. There is no mention on the BBC – there has never been any mention on the BBC, or anywhere in the Western mainstream media – that for at least 4,000 years Ashkelon was an Arab town, until in 1948 the entire, Arab population of 12,000 was driven out by armed force, many being massacred. Doubtless some older inhabitants of Gaza are refugees whose home is Ashkelon.
Israel is exercising its right of self-defence in precisely the same sense that Hitler was exercising the right of self-defence in Normandy in 1944 – ie not at all. Why the world puts up with this blatant ethnic cleansing and prolonged, agonizing genocide of the Palestinian people, I have no idea. It is not just about bombs and rockets and deaths now. It is about the shepherds being pushed out of their village in 2012 as part of the same process of the massacre of Ashkelon in 1948, all a process of genocide of the Palestinians in which Obama, Clinton, Cameron and Hague, as two whole generations of western politicians before them, are actively complicit.” [1].
[1]. Craig Murray, “The Palestinian Genocide continues”, 21 November 2012: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/11/the-palestinain-genocide-continues/ .
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) exists “i To promote cooperation, consensus and unity on Muslim affairs in the UK. ii To encourage and strengthen all existing efforts being made for the benefit of the Muslim community. iii To work for a more enlightened appreciation of Islam and Muslims in the wider society. iv To establish a position for the Muslim community within British society that is fair and based on due rights. v To work for the eradication of disadvantages and forms of discrimination faced by Muslims. vi To foster better community relations and work for the good of society as a whole.” (see: http://www.mcb.org.uk/aim.php ).
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) on exclusion from Holocaust Day of the Palestinian Genocide (27 January 2003): “The MCB has conveyed its deepest sense of pain and anguish over the Nazi Holocaust. In a message to this Monday's Holocaust Memorial National Day ceremony in Edinburgh, Iqbal Sacranie, MCB Secretary-General said: “We are fully with the Jewish community in their pain and anguish. None of us must ever forget how the Holocaust began. We must remember it began with hatred that dehumanised an entire people, that fostered state brutality, made second class citizens of honest, innocent people because of their religion and ethnic identity. Those who were vilified and seen as a threat could be subjected to group punishment; dispossession and impoverishment while the rest of the world stood idly by, washing its hands of despair and suffering that kept getting worse. We must do more than remember and reflect on the past - we must be able to see when the same abuses occur in our time.”
“The living memorial for the victims of the Nazi Holocaust”, Iqbal Sacranie added, “is ensuring we make the cry ‘Never Again’ real for all people who suffer, everywhere. We honour the dead most sincerely by working to end suffering and bring peace with justice to those who live without hope today. But sadly,” he pointed out, “ ‘Ethnic cleansing’ is not a thing of the past; it is a present terror. Remembrance must, therefore, refocus our moral vision and rededicate our commitment to prevent current and future inhumanity, state brutality and crimes against humanity.”
However, he said that despite their persistent request, regrettably the memorial ceremony in its present form excludes and ignores other ongoing genocide and human rights abuses around the world, notably in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Much as we wanted to be there, he said they were unable to join the memorial ceremony but he urged the Home Secretary to make the Memorial Day inclusive of the sufferings of all people. “Genocide is the most abhorrent and outrageous crime against humanity and we are not going to prevent it by selectively remembering only some of its victims”, Mr Sacranie declared.” [1].
Adi Ophir (born 22 September 1951) is an Israeli philosopher who is a professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Ophir ).
Adi Ophir on Palestinian genocide hiding behind Palestinian expulsion (2004): “At some point in Ari Shavit’s interview with Beny Morris [Benny Morris (professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel], when the reader might think that Morris has already said the most terrible things, he brings up, in passing, the extermination of the Native Americans. Morris contends that their annihilation was unavoidable. "The great American democracy could not have been achieved without the extermination of the Indians. There are cases in which the general and final good justifies difficult and cruel deeds that are carried out in the course of history." Morris seems to know what the general and final good is: the good of the Americans, of course. He knows that this good justifies partial evil. In other words, under specific conditions, specific circumstances, Morris believes that it is possible to justify genocide. In the case of the Indians, it is the existence of the American nation. In the case of the Palestinians, it is the existence of the Jewish state. For Morris, genocide is a matter of circumstances, that can be justified under certain conditions, all according to the perceived threat that the people to be annihilated represent to the people carrying out the genocide, or just to their form of government. The murderers of Rwanda or Serbia, that are standing trial today in international courts for their crimes against humanity, might like to retain Morris as an advisor.” [1, 2].
[1]. Adi Ophir, “A response to Benny Morris. Genocide hides behind expulsion”, Counterpunch, 16-18 January 2004: http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/01/16/genocide-hides-behind-expulsion/ .
[2]. Adi Ophir, “Genocide hides behind expulsion”, republished (slightly edited) as Chapter 18 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and other Palestinian human rights organizations on Palestinian Genocide in the 2014 Gaza Massacre as reported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (2014): “Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian Human Rights organization, found that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. Al-Haq, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Mezan, and Aldameer, submitted a legal file to the International Criminal Court urging it to open an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive. The crimes suggested for prosecution by these human rights organizations include genocide” (Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
The appalling catalogue of human suffering and premature death in the century-long Palestinian Genocide should be considered in the context of atrocities in the 20th century and earlier as listed in the Epilogue of the 400-page book “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” by Gideon Polya (Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 4 June 2020: https://www.amazon.com/US-Imposed-Post-9-Muslim-Holocaust-Genocide/dp/8793987056 ), and the article by Gideon Polya, “Racist Mainstream ignores “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide””, Countercurrents, 17 July 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/racist-mainstream-ignores-us-imposed-post-9-11-muslim-holocaust-muslim-genocide/ .
Deaths in 60 holocausts, genocides and famines and deriving from actual violence or from imposed deprivation are given in brackets as follows for the following alphabetically listed atrocities:
1978-1997 Afghan Genocide and Afghan Holocaust (6 million),
2001 onwards Afghan Genocide and Afghan Holocaust (7 million),
15th – 19th century African Holocaust (slave trade; 6 million),
16th century onwards Amerindian Genocide (90 million),
19th century Argentinian Indian Genocide (1 million),
1915-1923 Armenian Genocide (1.5 million),
post-1950 Asian Holocaust due to Australia-complicit US Asian Wars (40 million),
1914-1924 Assyrian Genocide (Syriac Genocide; 0.2-0.3 million),
1788 onwards Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Aboriginal Ethnocide (2 million),
1769-1770, Bengal Famine (10 million),
1942-1945 WW2 Bengali Holocaust, WW2 Bengal Famine and WW2 Indian Holocaust (6-7 million),
1971-1972 Bengali Holocaust and gendercide (3.0 million),
1967-1970, Biafran Genocide (2 million),
1990s Bosnian Genocide (circa 0.1 million),
20th century Brazilian Indigenous Genocide (1 million),
1969-1998 Cambodian Genocide (6.0 million),
19th century Chinese Holocaust (Opium wars and Tai Ping rebellion; 20-100 million),
1937-1945 WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million),
1958-1961 Chinese Holocaust of the Great Leap Forward (20-30 million),
19th -20th century Congo Genocide (Belgian Congo) (10 million),
1960 onwards Congolese Genocide and Congolese Holocaust (20 million),
1984-1985 Ethiopian famine (1 million),
1939-1945 WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Roma killed),
1941-1950 German Genocide and German Holocaust (9 million),
Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust (1,500 million since 1950),
1960-1996, Guatemala Mayan Indian Genocide (1.9 million),
1757-1947 Indian Holocaust from famine and deprivation (1,800 million),
1947 Indian Holocaust due to Partition (1.0 million),
1918-1920 Influenza epidemic (50-100 million),
1917-1919 Iranian Famine (2 million),
1978 onwards Iranian Holocaust and Iranian Genocide (3 million),
2003-2011 21st century Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (2.7 million),
1990-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (4.6 million),
1914-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (9 million),
1939-1945 WW2 Jewish Holocaust, Shoa (5-6 million),
1950-1953 Korean Genocide and Korean Holocaust (5.2 million),
1840s Irish Famine (2 million),
1955-1975 Laotian Genocide (1.2 million),
2011 Libyan Genocide (0.2 million),
19th century Maori Genocide in New Zealand (0.2 million),
2000 onwards 21st century Muslim Genocide and Muslim Holocaust (32 million),
1900s Namibian Genocide (0.1 million),
17th – 19th century North American Indian Genocide (up to 18 million),
1916 onwards Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust (2.2 million),
1865-1870 Paraguay Genocide (1 million)
1939-1945 WW2 Polish Genocide and Polish Holocaust (6 million),
21st century Rohingya Genocide (circa 0.1 million),
1921-1922 Russian famine, Povolzhye famine (5 million),
1930-1953 Russian Holocaust under Stalin (20 million),
1994 Rwandan Genocide (0.9 million),
1992 onwards Somali Genocide and Somali Holocaust (2.2 million),
19th century South Pacific Genocide via disease (0.1 million),
1930-1953 Soviet Holocaust under Stalin (20 million),
1955-2018 Sudan Genocide and Sudan Holocaust (13 million),
2011 onwards Syrian Genocide (1.0 million),
1990-2018 Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka (0.2 million),
1975-1999 East Timorese Genocide (0.3 million),
1930s Ukrainian Famine, Holodomor (7 million),
1945-1975 Vietnamese Genocide and Vietnamese Holocaust (15.3 million),
2015 onwards Yemeni Genocide (circa 0.1 million) (my sincere apologies for any absences or underestimates).
And then they stole the falafel
The violent, lying Zionists stole
All of the ancient land of Palestine,
Three cities, hundreds of villages and towns,
An ancient land ethnically cleansed.
They stole the human rights of Palestinians,
Of Exiled Palestinians, Occupied Palestinians,
And of Israeli Palestinians living as oppressed
Third Class Citizens under race-based laws.
They stole the lives of two million Palestinians,
A hundred thousand dying violently, and
Over two million dying from imposed deprivation
In a Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide.
They stole the futures of millions of children
Abusively imprisoned without charge or trial
In refugee camps, West Bank ghettoes,
And the blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp.
They stole the future of all the World’s children
Under threat from Israeli and other nuclear terrorism,
And stole free speech in Zionist-subverted
America, Britain, Canada and Australia.
They stole an ancient religion, Judaism,
Subverting humanism for evil state terrorism,
And the actual history of the non-Semitic Ashkenazim
And of other Jewish peoples around the world.
They stole the very name of Israel,
The ancient name of Torah-observant Jews,
And the religious language of Hebrew,
In the interests of Anglo-American imperialism.
They stole the ancient city of Al Quds,
The third holiest city for Muslims,
And backed America in the US-imposed, post-9-11
Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide.
They stole the Jewish Israeli heritage
Of Berber, Arabic and Yiddish language,
And with evil America helped destroy
Aramaic-speaking societies from Palestine to Iraq.
They stole the flag of Apartheid Israel
From the innocent Greeks, with the Star of David
Stolen from anti-Zionist Orthodox Judaism;
Their national anthem they stole from Smetana.
They stole the reputations of anti-racist Jews,
And of all those opposed to genocide and Apartheid.
They stole the name of a hill facing the Mount of Olives,
Renaming it for genocidal psychopath Herzl.
And then they stole the falafel.
Gideon Polya, 31 May 2020
Outstanding Jewish Israeli historian Ilan Pappé is Professor of history at the University of Exeter (UK) and co-Director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer in political science at Haifa University (1984-2007), and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa (2000-2008). He is the author of “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (2006) and many other scholarly books (for details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Papp%C3%A9 ).
Professor Ilan Pappé in his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”: "When it created its nation-state, the Zionist movement did not wage a war that `tragically but inevitably' led to the expulsion of `parts of' the indigenous population, but the other way round: the main goal was the ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine, which the movement coveted for its new state. A few weeks after the ethnic cleansing operations began, the neighbouring Arab states sent a small army - small in comparison to their overall military might - to try, in vain, to prevent the ethnic cleansing. The war with the regular Arab armies did not bring the ethnic cleansing operations to a halt until their successful completion in the autumn of 1948 … [after expelling 800,000 people, destroying 531 villages and empty eleven urban neighbourhoods] a clear-cut case of an ethnic cleansing operation, regarded under international law today as a crime against humanity." [1].
Professor Ilan Pappé in reviewing Alan Hart’s “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009): ““In this extraordinary book, Alan Hart has succeeded in elucidating for us the immediate and long term dangers involved in the unconditional Western support for Zionism and its oppressive policies against the Palestinians. The author provides us with a chilling exposure of how this embrace developed and continues to endanger the Jewish existence and fuels the anti-Semitism that refuses to disappear. Motivated by a genuine concern for peace in Israel and Palestine and beyond in the world at large, Alan Hart has written not only a strong indictment of Zionism, based on both research and personal experience, but also provided us with a charter for a better future” [2].
Professor Ilan Pappé re Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa (2008): “There are similarities and dissimilarities. The colonialist history has many chapters in common and some of the features of the Apartheid system can be found in the Israeli policies towards its own Palestinian minority and towards those in the occupied territories. Some aspects of the occupation, however, are worse than the apartheid reality of South Africa and some aspects in the lives of Palestinian citizens in Israel are not as bad as they were in the hey days of Apartheid. The main point of comparison to my mind is political inspiration. The anti-Apartheid movement, the ANC, the solidarity networks developed throughout the years in the West, should inspire a more focused and effect pro-Palestinian campaign”. [3].
Professor Ilan Pappé to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “I was thrilled to learn about the courageous step the college has taken. I am confident that history would judge it to be in hindsight one of the definitive moments in the non violent struggle to tend the occupation and the oppression in Palestine and Israel.” [4].
[1]. Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (Oneworld publications, 2006); Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe/dp/1851684670 .
[2]. Ilan Pappe, review of Alan Hart’s book “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009), Clarity Press: http://www.claritypress.com/files/Hart-I.html .
[3]. Interviews with Professors Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, OpEd News, 25 September 2008: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Noam-Chomsky-Ilan-Pappe-In-by-Duffer2205-080925-957.html .
[4]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
Kim Petersen (co-editor of Dissident Voice, lives in the traditional Mi'kmaq homeland colonially designated Nova Scotia, Canada; writes extensively about the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the Indigenous Arab Palestinians, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Kim Petersen on Palestinian Genocide (2007): “Genocide in Palestine. Pappe considers 1948 is a “clear cut case, according to informed and scholarly definitions, of ethnic cleansing.” Simply put, “genocide” is the killing of a group, and “ethnic cleansing” is the removal of a group. But “genocide” is not so simple. Article 2 (a,b,c, & d) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide seems to apply well to the case of 1948 and also today… What is needed is an independent international institution fully empowered to investigate and identify genocide wherever it may occur in the world and to make public its findings. The ghastly crimes of genocide must not be left to the inexpertise of ad hoc bureaucracy. Countries must not shirk from genocide. They must speak out unhesitatingly, with linguistic clarity and act with forthright remediation. Elementary morality demands, though, that we confront, criticize, act against, atone, and repent of our own great crimes first before we can criticize, with any iota of moral integrity, the great crimes of others. After all, linguistic honesty is more easily practiced when one has a clear conscience.”. [1, 2]
[1]. Kim Petersen, “Bleaching the atrocities of genocide. Linguistic honesty is better with a clear conscience”, Dissident Voice, 7 June 2007: http://dissidentvoice.org/2007/06/bleaching-the-atrocities-of-genocide/ .
[2]. Kim Petersen, “Bleaching the atrocities of genocide, republished as Chapter 27 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Professor James Petras is emeritus professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York; adjunct professor at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; author of 67 books published in 31 languages, of 600 articles in professional journals and of over 2,000 articles in non-professional journals, mainstream media and extensive Internet commentary. His latest book is “World Depression Regional Wars”(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Petras and http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ) .
Professor James Petras on the final solution applied to Palestinians in Palestine with reference to anti-racist humanitarian and Literature Nobel Laureate José Saramago comparing the Palestinian Genocide with Auschwitz (2002): “The Israeli public, its media, intellectuals, and journalists were scandalized when the Portuguese Nobel prize winning author, Jose Saramago, confronted them with the historical truth: “What is happening in Palestine is a crime that we can compare to what occurred in Auschwitz.” The Israeli public, instead of reflecting on their violent deeds instead turned on Saramago for daring to compare them with the Nazis. In his moral blindness, Amos Oz, the Israeli writer and sometime pacifist-until Israel goes to war-accused Saramago of being an “anti-Semite” and “incredible moral blindness”… In the world’s forums-from the European Union to the United Nations and throughout the Third World-Israel is condemned for acts against humanity. Israeli apologists will discover that calling critics “anti-Semites” no longer intimidates people. World public opinion has seen and read too much. We are realizing that victims can become executioners; that military occupation leads to ethnic cleansing and mass expulsions; that scratches can become gangrene… What is absolutely clear is that while Tel Aviv has the leverage of the Israeli lobby in Washington and Bush’s support, any number of United Nations resolutions, Geneva Conventions and European appeals will be completely ignored. In the bunker mentality of Sharon and his paranoid Israeli followers-they are all anti- Semites, followers of the Protocols of Zion, attempting to demoralize the Israelis from realizing the Biblical mission of a Greater Israel, one people, one nation, one God; the expulsion of all Palestinians from their Promised Land. World public opinion must not stand passive and repeat the tragedy of the 20th century Jewish Holocaust in the 21st century. There is still time. But how long can even a heroic people resist without food and water? Sharon’s offer to Arafat-freedom to leave without return, is meant for all the Palestinian people.” [1, 2].
{1]. James Petras “Palestine: the final solution and José Saramago”, The James Petras Website, 2 April 2002: http://www.petras.lahaine.org/articulo.php?p=124&more=1&c=1 .
[2]. James Petras “Palestine: the final solution and José Saramago”, republished as Chapter 19 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
John Pilger, renowned investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, is one of only two to have twice won British journalism's top award; his documentaries have won academy awards in both the UK and the US. In a New Statesman survey of the 50 heroes of our time, Pilger came fourth behind Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. "John Pilger," wrote Harold Pinter, "unearths, with steely attention facts, the filthy truth. I salute him." (see New Statesman: http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2009/10/obama-pilger-war-peace ).
John Pilger on the Palestinian Genocide (25 January 2007): “A genocide is engulfing the people of Gaza while a silence engulfs its bystanders. “Some 1.4 million people, mostly children, are piled up in one of the most densely populated regions of the world, with no freedom of movement, no place to run and no space to hide”, wrote senior UN relief official Jan Egeland and Jan Eliasson, then Swedish foreign minister, in Le Figaro. They described people “living in a cage”, cut off by land, sea and air, with no reliable power and little water, and tortured by hunger and disease and incessant attacks by Israeli troops and planes… “Looking from the side” is what those of us do who are cowed into silence by the threat of being called anti-Semitic. Looking from the side is what too many Western Jews do, while those Jews who honour the humane traditions of Judaism and say, “Not in our name!” are abused as “self-despising”. Looking from the side is what almost the entire US Congress does, in thrall to or intimidated by a vicious Zionist “lobby”. Looking from the side is what “even-handed” journalists do as they excuse the lawlessness that is the source of Israeli atrocities and suppress the historic shifts in the Palestinian resistance, such as the implicit recognition of Israel by Hamas. The people of Gaza cry out for better.” [1].
John Pilger on Western lying and holocaust ignoring (January 2009): ““When the truth is replaced by silence”, the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, “the silence is a lie”. It may appear the silence is broken on Gaza. The cocoons of murdered children, wrapped in green, together with boxes containing their dismembered parents and the cries of grief and rage of everyone in that death camp by the sea, can be viewed on Al Jazeera and YouTube, even glimpsed on the BBC. But Russia’s incorrigible poet was not referring to the ephemeral we call news; he was asking why those who knew the why never spoke it and so denied it. Among the Anglo-American intelligentsia, this is especially striking. It is they who hold the keys to the great storehouses of knowledge: the historiographies and archives that lead us to the why. They know that the horror now raining on Gaza has little to do with Hamas or, absurdly, “Israel’s right to exist”. They know the opposite to be true: that Palestine’s right to exist was canceled 61 years ago and the expulsion and, if necessary, extinction of the indigenous people was planned and executed by the founders of Israel. They know, for example, that the infamous “Plan D” resulted in the murderous depopulation of 369 Palestinian towns and villages by the Haganah (Jewish army) and that massacre upon massacre of Palestinian civilians in such places as Deir Yassin, al-Dawayima, Eilaboun, Jish, Ramle and Lydda are referred to in official records as “ethnic cleansing”. Ongoing ethnic cleansing … In Gaza, the enforced starvation and denial of humanitarian aid, the piracy of life-giving resources such as fuel and water, the denial of medicines and treatment, the systematic destruction of infrastructure and the killing and maiming of the civilian population, 50% of whom are children, meet the international standard of the Genocide Convention. Holocaust in the making.” [2].
[1]. John Pilger, “John Pilger: genocide in Gaza”, Green Left Weekly, 25 January 2007: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/696/36148 .
[2]. John Pilger, “John Pilger: holocaust denied”, Green Left Weekly, 17 January 2009: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/779/40192 .
Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was an outstanding Jewish British playwright and winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature (for biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter ). For his 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech slamming US atrocities in Latin America and Asia and calling for arraignment and Bush and Blair before the International Criminal Court see “Art, Truth and Politics”: http://www.countercurrents.org/arts-pinter081205.htm .
Harold Pinter signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Dr Gideon Polya on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (6 March 2008): “The situation has been recently described as described as a Palestinian Holocaust by Palestinian scholar Dr Elias Akleh, exiled from his homeland and now living in the US (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/akleh040308.htm ). It has been frequently described by others as a Palestinian Genocide, a term that is amply justified in relation to the definitions of the UN Genocide Convention as outlined below.
Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ) states:
“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”.
Using the latest available UN Agency data we can systematically analyze these UN Genocide Convention points thus:
“Intent to destroy in whole or in part" - sustained (and frequently asserted) intent over about 150 years of the Zionist colonial project; 0.75 million Palestinian refugees in 1948; currently 7 million Palestinian refugees, and 4.2 million Palestinian refugees registered with the UN in the Middle East; over 40 years of illegal Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million; post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million; 2,400 under-5 year old Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) infants die avoidably EACH YEAR in the OPT "Prison" due to Apartheid Israeli war crimes.
a) Killing - about 50,000 Palestinians killed since 1948; post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million; post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million; 2,400 under-5 year old Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) infants die avoidably EACH YEAR in the OPT "Prison" due to Israeli ignoring of the Geneva Convention; 254 OPT Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in the LAST 2 MONTHS OF 2008 ALONE, 301 killed thus last year (latest UNRWA data; see above).
b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm - see (a) and the shocking UNICEF reports of the appalling conditions psychologically scarring OPT children: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/oPt.html .
(c) Conditions to cause destruction in whole or in part - see (a) and (b); Professor Noam Chomsky describes the OPT as a highly abusive "Prison"; others use the valid term "Concentration Camp" and make parallels with the Warsaw Ghetto; one has to turn to US-guarded Vietnamese hamlets and the Nazi era atrocities to see routine, horrendously violent and deadly military policing of civilian concentration camps.
(d) Measures intended to prevent births - see (a), (b), and (c) above; dozens of pregnant women dying at road blocks; other killing of pregnant Palestinian women; huge infant mortality in the OPT with the Occupier in gross violation of the Geneva Convention.
(e) Forcible transferring of children – irreversible transferring by killing of children - 0.2 million post-invasion infant deaths; 27 OPT children violently killed in the LAST WEEK ALONE; mass imprisonment of 2 million OPT children; hundreds of Palestinian children in abusive Israeli high-security prisons in Israel; forcible separation of families by racist Israeli Apartheid Laws, marriage laws and immigration laws.
As indicated above we have to turn to the Nazi crimes of WW2 and post-war US war crimes in its post-1950 Asian Wars for baseline comparisons for horrendous maltreatment and mass murder of conquered Indigenous civilians.” [1].
Dr Gideon Polya on racist Zionism and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (29 September 2009): “7. 1.5 million Arab Israelis live as second class citizens subject to Nazi-style race laws demanding Apartheid-style, race-based ID and affecting property rights, employment, and marriage.
8. 4 million Indigenous Palestinians live under an illegal, brutal, genocidal, 42 year duration Occupation that has been formally condemned by both General Assembly and UN Security Council Resolutions.
9. 2 .5 million West Bank Occupied Palestinians live in Zionist-encircled “Bantustans” in a territory being illegally whittled away by military camps, military check points, race-based settlements and Jews-only highways and roads.
10. 1.5 million Occupied Palestinians live in what the Catholic Church has described as the Gaza Concentration Camp which is policed not by Israeli police but by Israeli air force, army and naval shelling, bombing and shooting.
11. In 1880 there were 500,000 Indigenous Arab Palestinians and 25,000 Jews (50% immigrants) in the Holy Land – today there are 5.5 million Indigenous Palestinians in the Holy Land and some 5.5 million Palestinian refugees elsewhere and excluded from their Homeland, which is occupied by 5.5 million Jewish Israelis backed by the US, UK, Canada, the EU and racist Australia.
12. In the 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections conducted under Occupier guns, Hamas won 76 seats out of 132 but these Hamas MPs are now overwhelmingly either dead, imprisoned or hiding in the Gaza Concentration Camp and regarded as “terrorists” by the “democratic Nazi” US, UK, Canada, the EU and Australia.
13. UN data reveal that each year Israel is responsible for 3,600 Occupied Palestinian under-5 year old avoidable deaths, 5,700 Occupied Palestinian non-violent avoidable deaths and about 800 violent Occupied Palestinian deaths.
14. The Palestinian Genocide continues despite numerous UN General Assembly and UN Security Council Resolutions, notably UN Security Council Resolution 252 prohibiting land and property seizure, notably in Jerusalem…
22. As of mid-2009, in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories post-invasion non-violent excess deaths total 0.3 million, 1.0 million and 3.2 million, respectively; post-invasion violent deaths total about 11,000, 1.3 million and up to 4 million, respectively; post-invasion violent plus non-violent excess deaths total 0.3 million, 2.3 million and 3-7 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; and refugees total 7 million, 5-6 million and 3-4 million, respectively (plus a further 2.5 million Pashtun refugees in NW Pakistan). This constitutes a Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention; and egregious war crimes due in part to Occupier war criminal non-supply of life-sustaining food and medical requisites demanded unequivocally by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War – thus the Gaza Concentration Camp has been under US-backed Israeli blockade for 2 years and according to WHO the “total annual per capita medical expenditure” permitted by the Occupiers in Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan is US$124 and US$29, respectively, as compared to US$6,714 for the US.” [2].
Gideon Polya, “We are all Palestinian” (February 2008): “3,000 under-5 Occupied Palestinians die each year. Comparisons with other countries will reveal that about 2,400 of these infant deaths are avoidable, that Zionist-run Apartheid is deliberately, remorselessly (albeit passively) murdering 2,400 Occupied Palestinian infants each year through deliberate, intentional and war criminal
NON-provision of life-sustaining requisites unequivocally demanded of Occupiers by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War).
However the bigger picture derives from UN Population Division and UNHCR data that reveal that post-invasion Occupied Palestinian excess deaths total 0.3 million, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million and that there are about 7 million Palestinian refugees (see “Zionism, Occupation & Palestinian Genocide” on MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17194/42/ . This constitutes a Palestinian Holocaust and a Palestinian Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention.
However behind these awful statistics lie horrendously abusive conditions that are also reported by UNICEF. Half of the Occupied Palestinians are children who are being denied proper food, nutrition, medicine, medical aid, sanitation, physical and psychological security, education and basic human rights by the proto-Nazi Zionists running the Occupied Palestinian Territory Concentration camp.
My family’s story
Many years ago racist invaders occupied my family’s country, my people were subject to brutality, dispossession, torture and killing - several hundred thousand of my people died out of a population of the order of a million. Our homes and lands were taken so that, even if permitted to return, refugees would have nothing to return to. Several years ago the European Union approved our dispossession.
My family was Palestinian, you say?
No. In 1944 the German Nazis invaded Hungary, 0.2 million out of 0.7 million Jewish Hungarians were killed [Professor Gilbert has recently estimated 0.4 million were killed] and many of the survivors fled immediately after 1945 or during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. In 2004 Hungary entered the EU with the EU approval of the permanent dispossession of Jewish Hungarian victims of Nazism and thence Communism. Our lands and homes have been simply given to others. Indeed a relative reported visiting one such property in the heart of Budapest – it was converted into 4 apartments decorated with paintings and photographs of our family members for the amusement of total strangers.
Comparison of the Palestinian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust in Hungary is appropriate. The Jewish Holocaust occurring in Hungary in 1944 -1945 killed 0.2 million out of a total Jewish Hungarian population of 0.7 million (see: Gilbert, M. (1969), Jewish History Atlas (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London).
Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London). The survivors who fled as refugees remain permanently dispossessed with EU, UK and US approval.
The Palestinian Genocide involved invasion, occupation, disempowerment, dispossession, violence, ethnic cleansing and (within the Holy Land) post-1967 excess deaths totalling 0.3 million out of an average 1967-2008 Occupied Palestinian territory population of 1.8 million. The survivors who fled as refugees remain permanently dispossessed with EU, US, UK and US-lackey Australian approval.
Whereas the Jewish Holocaust involved rapid, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic , race-based extermination for Nazi and Nazi collaborator benefit and gratification, the Palestinian Genocide has involved slow, anti-Arab anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing for Zionist lebensraum.” [3]
Gideon Polya on Israeli state terrorism (2009): “Israelis killed by Palestinians (1967-2009) = 987 (1967-Sep 2000) + 1,182 (Sep 2000-Jan 2009) = 2,169 (1967-Jan 2009).
Israeli non-violent excess deaths (1967-Jan 2009) = 0.
Palestinians violently killed by Israelis (1967-2009) = 5,636 (Sep 2000-Jan 2009) + POSSIBLY about 5,000 (1967-Sep 2000) = 10, 636.
Palestinian non-violent excess deaths from food and medical deprivation by Israelis (post-1967) = about 300,000.
Palestinian violent and non-violent excess deaths (post-1967) = 300,000 + 10,636 = 310,636.
DEATH RATIO of Palestinians violently killed by Israelis/Israelis killed by Palestinians = 10,636/2,169 = 4.9.
DEATH RATIO of Palestinian violent and non-violent excess deaths from Israelis/Israelis killed by Palestinians = 310,636/2,169 = 143…
The post-1967 under-5 infant deaths in the Occupied Palestinian Territory total 0.2 million (80% avoidable and due to war criminal Occupier non-provision of life-sustaining requisites unequivocally demanded of Occupiers by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Comparative UNICEF data indicate that 2,400 under-5 year old infants die avoidably each year (3,000 in total each year) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, this corresponding to about 4,300 total avoidable deaths in the Occupied Palestinian Territory annually. The current devastation of the Gaza Concentration Camp part of Occupied Palestinian Territory (1.5 million people in Gaza out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory total population of 4 million , 50% children, 75% women and children) suggests that this will rise hugely in the future on the basis of Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan comparisons.
The Gaza Strip is a self-governing Apartheid Israeli Concentration Camp ruled by the Hamas Government which won 76 out of 132 seats in the Occupied Palestinian Parliamentary elections held under Israeli guns in 2006. The Israelis responded by arresting as many Hamas MPs as they could find , the remainder fleeing to Gaza. In the current Israeli Gaza Massacre, the Israelis are evidently bent on “finishing the job” (they have already destroyed the Gaza Parliament House). The war criminal, pro-Zionist Western backers of Apartheid Israel, followed suit by declaring the democratically elected Hamas MPs to be “terrorists”.
The ostensible excuse for Apartheid Israel’s current Gaza Massacre is “Gaza rocket terror”. However “terror” is directly proportional to “proportion of people killed” and the ACTUAL number of Israelis killed by Gaza rockets and mortars since the start of the Second Intifada 8.25 years ago is TWENTY EIGHT (28), this corresponding to a 21st century “annual homicide rate” in units of persons killed per million per year of 0.5 (Israelis killed by Gaza missiles) – as compared to 15 (Israelis by Israelis), 56 (Americans), 100 (Americans by guns), 164 (Palestinians killed violently by Israelis), 200 (African-Americans), 473 (citizens of Detroit, Michigan, USA) and 902 per million per year (annual Palestinian non-violent deaths through war criminal, Geneva Convention-violating Israeli-imposed deprivation).
The above REALITIES show that Apartheid Israel and racist, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, pro-Zionist Mainstream media and politicians in the Western Murdochracies are simply and blatantly LYING about “Hamas terror” and “Gaza rocket terror”. Clearly, indiscriminate firing of missiles is WRONG and should STOP – indeed the greatest danger from such acts has been from the horrendous, disproportionate, war criminal attacks by the Israelis on Gaza, one of the most the densely populated urban areas of the Planet.
Rational analysis indicates that the “annual death rate” of Israelis from Gaza missiles is about ONE THOUSAND (1,000) times LOWER than the “annual homicide rate” in Detroit, Michigan, USA – it would be crazy, racist and utterly EVIL to suggest that African-Americans should be listed as “terrorists” and African-American suburbs sealed off as Concentration Camps, shelled by the US Navy and Army and bombed with high explosive bombs and rockets, cluster bombs and phosphorus bombs by the US Air Force.” [4].
Gideon Polya on Gaza Massacre, Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide (February 2009): “The horrendous mortality and morbidity statistics revealed by the paper "The Wounds of Gaza", just published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet are truly shocking – 1,350 killed (60% children) and 5,450 severely wounded (40% children) in reprisals for zero (0) Israeli deaths from Gaza rockets in the preceding year…In the period 1967-2009 in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, post-invasion non-violent excess deaths totalled 0.3 million; post-invasion violent deaths at the hands of Israelis totalled about 10,000; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths totalled about 0.2 million; there are over 7 million Palestinian refugees (4.3 million registered with the UN) - a Palestinian Holocaust and a Palestinian Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention.” [5].
Gideon Polya (anti-racist Jewish Hungarian-origin Australian scientist, writer, artist and humanitarian) (2017): “Netanyahu is the PM of nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, serial invader, serial war criminal, women-abusing, children-abusing, democracy-by-genocide, ethnic cleansing, pathologically mendacious, neo-Nazi, anti-Arab anti-Semitic and indeed anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, race-based kleptocracy Apartheid Israel. Netanyahu has been invited to visit pro-Zionist, US-lackey, climate criminal Australia, the world’s leading supporter of Apartheid Israel after the US, and will address the Australian Federal Parliament in February 2017…
Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention states that :“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. Apartheid Israel is guilty of violating all these elements of the UN Genocide Convention: (1) since 1936 there have been 2 million Palestinian deaths from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or Zionist-imposed deprivation (1.9 million ); (2) there are 7 million Palestinian refugees and all of the 12 million Palestinians are excluded from all or part of Palestine; (3) of 12 million Palestinians (half of them children), 6 million are forbidden to even step foot in their own country on pain of death, 4.7 million are highly abusively and violently held hostage with zero human rights under Israeli guns in the Gaza Concentration Camp (2.0 million) or in ever-dwindling West Bank Bantustan ghettoes (2.7 million), and 1.7 million live as Third Class citizens as Israeli Palestinians under Nazi-style Apartheid Israeli race laws; (4) 90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants (this making a 2-State Solution impossible); (5) the huge disparity in annual GDP per capita between Occupied Palestinians ($2,800) and Israel-proper ($38,000) is reflected in huge differential avoidable mortality of over 4,000 avoidable deaths per year for Occupied Palestinians versus zero (0) for Israelis; (6) through imposed deprivation, each year Apartheid Israel passively murders about 2,700 under-5 year old Palestinian infants and passively murders about 4,200 Occupied Palestinians in general; (7) Apartheid Israel violently kills an average of about 500 Occupied Palestinians each year (3,900 Gaza Palestinian violently killed in 2008-2014 in response to 32 Israeli deaths from home-made Gaza rockets since 2004); and (8) Occupied Palestinians are deprived of essentially all human rights by Apartheid Israel, of which the most fundamental is the right to live unmolested in their own country…
Decent people around the world urge and apply comprehensive Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against genocidally racist Apartheid Israel and all its racist supporters” [6].
[1]. Gideon Polya, “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide. Israel-US & Nazi death ratios compared”, MWC News, 6 March 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20745/42/ .
[2]. Gideon Polya, “Zionist Israel racism exposed in 50 steps”, MWC News, 29 September 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/33457/42/ .
[3]. Gideon Polya, “We are all Palestinian. Apartheid Israel’s Gaza Concentration Camp & Palestinian Genocide”, MWC News, 1 February 2008: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19915/42/ .
[4]. Gideon Polya, “Palestinian-Israeli death ratios. Nazi style Israel Gaza war crimes”, MWC News, 10 January 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/27795/42/ .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel Gaza Massacre. “The Lancet” reveals horrendous Israeli war crimes”, MWC News, 15 February 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28566/42/ .
[6]. Gideon Polya, “Australia welcomes genocidal racist and serial war criminal Netanyahu”, Countercurrents, 10 February 2017: http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/10/australia-welcomes-genocidal-racist-and-serial-war-criminal-netanyahu/ .
Dr Gideon Polya (11 June 2019):
“Tales Of A City By The Sea” by Gaza-born, Palestinian Australian playwright and poet, Samah Sabawi, is a simple but powerful play about the realities of life and love in the Gaza Concentration Camp that is ruled with an iron fist by nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. However fundamentally the play is about those who have choices and those who do not. This excellent and moving play describes part of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust in microcosm.
The land of Palestine has now been 90% ethnically cleansed, rendering a “2-state solution” dead and making imperative a unitary, secular and democratic state in Palestine. While Indigenous Palestinians represent 50% of Apartheid Israeli subjects, nearly three quarters have zero human rights and cannot vote for the government ruling them – egregious Apartheid that is declared by the UN to be a crime against Humanity. While only 4,000 Zionists were killed by Palestinians in the period 1920-2019, since the British invasion of the Middle East in 1914 about 2.2 million Palestinians have died from violence, 0.1 million, or from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million.
The 100-year Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust is of the same order of magnitude as the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed by violence or imposed deprivation) or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death by the British with Australian complicity). All decent people must urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all its genocidally racist supporters, just as such boycotts and sanctions were successfully applied by the world to end the racist obscenity of Apartheid in South Africa (see Gideon Polya, “Review: “Tales Of A City By The Sea” by Samah Sabawi – Palestinian Genocide & Palestinian Holocaust In Microcosm”, Countercurrents, 10 June 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/review-tales-of-a-city-by-the-sea-by-samah-sabawi-palestinian-genocide-palestinian-holocaust-in-microcosm )."
Dr Gideon Polya (2019): “I have estimated that 2.2 million Palestinian have died from violence, 0.1 million, or from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million, since the British invasion of the Ottoman Empire in 1914 in WW1. The details are set out below in a 2019 update on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide… The total number of violent and non-violent avoidable deaths from deprivation in the Palestinian Genocide (2.2 million) is of same order of magnitude as the number of victims of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed by violence or imposed deprivation)” (Gideon Polya, “Palestinian Genocide has killed 2.2 million”, Veterans Today, 10 June 2019: https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/06/10/new-evidence/ ).
Dr Gideon Polya (2019): “The total number of violent deaths and non-violent avoidable deaths from deprivation in the Palestinian Genocide (2.2 million) is of same order of magnitude as the number of victims of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed by violence or imposed deprivation) [31-33], and of the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust (the WW2 Indian Holocaust or WW2 Bengal Famine in which the British with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to deaths in Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Orissa for strategic reasons) [34-41], but is an order of magnitude lower than the number of victims of the “forgotten” WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million Chinese killed under the Japanese, 1937-1945) [42] or of the largely Western-ignored WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed by the Nazis in WW2) [24]. “Holocaust” refers to a huge number of deaths whereas “genocide” is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” [43]. Thus on a comparative basis the Palestinian Genocide merits the term Palestinian Holocaust. Numerous victims and descendants of victims of the WW2 Jewish Genocide (WW2 Jewish Holocaust, Shoa) together with Western supporters of Zionism have been involved in supporting an ongoing Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust. However for the best part of a century anti-racist Jews have been variously rejecting genocidal Zionism, criticizing the appalling crimes of Apartheid Israel, and declaring “Not in our name”” (Gideon Polya, “Review: “Tales Of A City By The Sea” by Samah Sabawi – Palestinian Genocide & Palestinian Holocaust In Microcosm”, Countercurrents, 10 June 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/review-tales-of-a-city-by-the-sea-by-samah-sabawi-palestinian-genocide-palestinian-holocaust-in-microcosm ).
The pro-war, pro-US, pro-Zionist BBC censors the word “Palestine” and, in addition, using the BBC Search function one finds that the BBC completely censors the term “Palestinian Holocaust” (2 million dead) and largely censors out the term “Palestinian Genocide” (2 million dead, 7 million refugees, 90% of Palestine ethnically cleansed and only 6% of 12 million Palestinians can vote for the government of Apartheid Israel that rules all of historical Palestine plus an ethnically cleansed part of Syria). In addition to its blatant anti-Arab anti-Semitism, the anti-Semitic BBC exhibits anti-Jewish anti-Semitism by censoring out the “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jews” and “anti-racist Jewish” humanitarians. The BBC has an appalling record of pro-Zionist, pro-US, pro-war, pro-imperialism, pro-neocolonialism and racist censorship, lying by commission and lying by omission (e.g. see Gideon Polya, “Censorship by the BBC. How the BBC censors US-UK atrocities”, MWC News, 8 April 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/18092-bbc.html .
1. BBC censors “Palestine”.
Anti-racist Jewish Australian writer Antony Loewenstein (author of “My Israel Question”, Melbourne University Press) and others have exposed BBC censorship of the very word “Palestine” from qa broadcast of a rapper’s song. Thus Antony Loewenstein reports: “Appearing on the popular Charlie Sloth Hip Hop M1X last February, the artist Mic Righteous performed a rap which included the lyrics: “I can scream Free Palestine for my pride/still pray for peace.” BBC producers replaced the word ‘Palestine’ with the sound of breaking glass and this is the version that was aired and which can be seen on a video on the BBC website (the censorship occurs at 2:59)… The edited performance was repeated in April on the same show. Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has spent the last eight months trying to find out why the decision to censor an artist who raised the issue of Palestine was made. During the course of a long correspondence, the BBC’s head of editorial standards for audio and music, Paul Smith, wrote that the show’s producer “did not edit out the word ‘Palestine’ because it was offensive — referencing Palestine is fine, but implying that it is not free is the contentious issue”” (see Antony Loewenstein, “BBC censors “Palestine” because, well, I mean, really, who says its occupied?”: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2012/02/04/bbc-censors-palestine-because-well-i-mean-really-who-says-its-occupied/ .
2. BBC censors “Palestinian Holocaust”.
A BBC Search for the term “Palestinian Holocaust” elicits zero (0) results. Yet it is estimated that since 1936 a total of about 0.1 million Palestinians have been killed violently and Palestinian avoidable deaths from invasion,-, war-, occupation- and expulsion-related deprivation total 1.9 million. In stark contrast, thje Israeli Foreign Ministry estimates that about 3,700 Jewish colonizers had been killed by Palestinians since 1920 (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ). A BBC Search for “Jewish Holocaust” yields 44 results. A BBC Search for “Holocaust” (which the racist, lying and holocaust-ignoring BBC regards as synonymous with the Jewish Holocaust part of the WW2 Holocaust in which 30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies were killed) yields 3,312 results (of which 2,783 results are for BBC News). In contrast, a BBC Search for “Palestinian Holocaust” yields 89,300 results.
3. BBC censors “Palestinian Genocide”.
A BBC Search for the term “Palestinian Genocide” elicits only two (2) results, specifically (1) “Two Stoke-on-Trent councilors snub Holocaust book”, BBC News, 26 January 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-12290915 (Kassem Al-Khatib, a Palestinian, and Gavin Webb, a Libertarian, would not add their signatures to the Stoke-on-Trent City Council Holocaust Memorial book, Mr Al-Khatib saying he would be happy to do so if there were a Palestinian Genocide memorial and Mr Webb protesting the "gross stink of hypocrisy" throughout the British government's foreign policies); and (2) “Turkey accuses Israel of genocide”, BBC News, 4 April 2002: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1911609.stm (“The Prime Minister of Turkey - Israel's longstanding and sole Muslim ally - has accused the country of genocide against the Palestinians.” ) In contrast, a Google Search for “Palestinian Genocide” yields 28,000 results.
Inspection of the multi-author book “The Plight of the Palestinians” (editor William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ) reveals numerous well-known writer and scholar co-authors explicitly referring to a “Palestinian Genocide”, a “Palestinian Holocaust” or an “ethnic cleansing” pr “liquidation” of Palestine, these anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish humanitarian writers including Dr. Elias Akleh, Uri Avnery, Omar Barghouti, Professor Francis Boyle, Kathleen Christison, Bill Christison, Professor William Cook, Curtis F. J. Doebbler, Professor Richard Falk, Stephen Lendman, Ilan Pappe, Kim Petersen, Professor James Petras, John Pilger, Dr Gideon Polya, and Professor Tanya Reinhart.
18 leading Jewish and non-Jewish writers and entertainers have including 3 Nobel Laureates slam Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”, these signatories including John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Harold Pinter, José Saramago, Eduardo Galeano, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, Howard Zinn, Charles Glass, Richard Falk, Gore Vidal, Russell Banks, Thomas Keneally, Chris Abani, Carolyn Forché, Martín Espada, Jessica Hagedorn, and Toni Morrison (see “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers ).
4. BBC censors the “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jews” and “anti-racist Jewish” humanitarians.
Do a BBC Search for the terms “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jewish” and ‘anti-racist Jews” and you get 37, 28 and 14 results , respectively, but none of these stories relate to an “anti-racist Jew”, “anti-racist Jewish” people or “anti-racist Jews” i.e. the BBC completely ignores the large body of such decent, anti-racist, Jewish humanitarians who are necessarily opposed as decent anti-racist humanitarians to the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel (for an alphabetic compendium of the views of such outstanding anti-racist Jews see “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ; see also “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ ).
For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”.
However these sacred injunctions are grossly violated by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel and their Western backers variously involved in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Somali Genocide, and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths from war-imposed deprivation 2.0 million (Palestine 1936-2012), 4.6 million (Iraq 1990-2012), 2.2 million (Somalia 1992-2011) and 5.6 million (Afghanistan 2011-2012), respectively; and refugees totalling 7 million, 5-6 million, 2 million and 3-4 million, respectively, plus a further 2.5 million NW Pakistan Pashtun refugees generated by US –backed war) (see “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ).
All decent, anti-racist, humanitarians must vigorously oppose and sideline those supporting racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel and racist Western wars and occupations who are currently complicit in 0.7 million non-violent excess deaths annually; continuing, racist perversion of human rights, humanitarian values and rational discourse in the Western democracies (aka Murdochracies and Lobbocracies) ; ignoring of worsening climate genocide (that may kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century through unaddressed man-made climate change); and egregious anti-Jewish anti-Semitism through sidelining outstanding anti-racist Jews and falsely identifying decent, anti-racist Jews with these appalling crimes.
PS. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the taxpayer-funded Australian equivalent of the UK BBC. The ABC, like the BBC, is pro-Zionist, pro-war, pro-US, pro-imperialism and holocaust ignoring – and also censors, lies by omission and lies by commission (see “ABC Censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ ). The ABC also has a Search device that enables one to do an ABC Search of the “entire ABC site”. ABC Searches for the terms discussed above in relation to the BBC yield the following results for “Palestinian Holocaust” (3 but actually effectively zero, 2 involving a reader comment referring to the “Palestinian Holocaust” and the remaining article being irrelevant); “Palestinian Genocide” (0); “anti-racist Jew” (0); “anti-racist Jewish” (0); and “anti-racist Jews” (0).
PPS. The Australian ABC is clearly worse than the UK BBC when it comes to censorship as well as anti-Arab anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic pro-Zionism. However other Mainstream media are involved in egregious censorship and mal-reportage e.g. see “Boycott Murdoch Media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ ; “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age ; “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ ; and “Mainstream Media Censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/ ; “ABC Late Night Live (LNL) censors listener comments”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/abc-late-night-live-1 ; “Censorship by Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ ; and “ABC Censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ .
Professor Tanya Reinhart (born 1943 in Haifa, Palestine Mandate; died 2007) had an MA, Hebrew University Jerusalem and a PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under Professor Noam Chomsky). She was professor of linguistics and literary theory, Tel Aviv University, Israel. She was an Israeli linguist, author and peace activist; wrote many articles for Israeli and US journals (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Reinhart ).
Professor Tanya Reinhart on “A slow, steady genocide” in {Palestine (2003): “After September 11, Israel succeeded in depicting its project of destroying Palestinian society as part of the war against terror, and the Palestinians terrorists. The consequence, at least in the Israeli propaganda, has been that the same means the US uses in fighting its own terror, Israel can also use in fighting the Palestinians. For the Palestinians, this has had very grave consequences - Operation Defensive Shield [in April 2002, Israel's largest escalation since the 1982 war on Lebanon], in which Israel invaded all of the West Bank, and the Jenin horrors that came afterwards. Ever since, Israel has used all of the US methods, including economic strangulation. Under the pretext of fighting terror, they are freezing all sorts of funds to the Palestinian society. Many of the Hamas funds go to support families that are affected by the siege, the blockades, the lack of work. The only funds that are still supporting the social infrastructure of the Territories are often these charity funds, and they are being frozen - all in the name of the war against terror… But I don't like the term anti-Zionism to define opposition to Israeli policies, because Zionism - the way it is perceived by most Israelis - is that Jews are entitled to a State of their own. It is the liberation and self-determination of the Jewish people motivated by the Holocaust and their fate in exile. The trouble is not exactly with Zionism, but with the Israeli leadership and the way Zionism has been executed, based on ethnic cleansing from the very start. I believe it was possible to reach the same goal [of Jewish self-determination] with much less loss and sacrifice for the Palestinian people. It is not part of having your own state that it must be based on striving to grab more and more of your neighbour's land, or depriving minorities of their rights - this is the Israeli military system's implementation of the idea of Zionism. So I believe what we should say is that we are against Israel - meaning Israel's acts and the policy of its leadership, and against the Occupation, and leave the question of Zionism aside.” [1, 2].
[1]. Tanya Reinhart, “A slow, steady genocide”, Z Net, 11 September 2003: http://www.zcommunications.org/a-slow-steady-genocide-by-tanya-reinhart .
[2]. Tanya Reinhart, “A slow, steady genocide”, republished as Chapter 11 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
Dr Paul Craig Roberts (born April 3, 1939), is an economist, academic, former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Business Week, nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate, and author of numerous books. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the "Father of Reaganomics” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts ).
Paul Craig Roberts on the US and Israeli Muslim Genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Middle East and “the shame of being an American” (2006): “Gentle reader, do you know that Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing in southern Lebanon? Israel has ordered all the villagers to clear out. Israel then destroys their homes and murders the fleeing villagers. That way there is no one to come back and nothing to which to return, making it easier for Israel to grab the territory, just as Israel has been stealing Palestine from the Palestinians… Of course, you don't know these things, because the US print and TV media do not report them… On July 20, "your" House of Representatives voted 410-8 in favor of Israel's massive war crimes in Lebanon. Not content with making every American complicit in war crimes, "your" House of Representatives, according to the Associated Press, also "condemns enemies of the Jewish state." Who are the "enemies of the Jewish state"? They are the Palestinians whose land has been stolen by the Jewish state, whose homes and olive groves have been destroyed by the Jewish state, whose children have been shot down in the streets by the Jewish state, whose women have been abused by the Jewish state. They are Palestinians who have been walled off into ghettos, who cannot reach their farm lands or medical care or schools, who cannot drive on roads through Palestine that have been constructed for Israelis only. They are Palestinians whose ancient towns have been invaded by militant Zionist "settlers" under the protection of the Israeli army who beat and persecute the Palestinians and drive them out of their towns. They are Palestinians who cannot allow their children outside their homes because they will be murdered by Israeli "settlers." The Palestinians who confront Israeli evil are called "terrorists The hope in the Muslim world has always been that the United States would intervene in behalf of compromise and make Israel realize that Israel cannot steal Palestine and turn every Palestinian into a refugee… Muslim genocide in one form or another is the professed goal of the neoconservatives who have total control over the Bush administration.” [1].
Dr Paul Craig Roberts on the destruction of Palestine (2015): The “Christian” West is a master at propaganda and self-deception. Look at the evangelical churches. They support a criminal, inhumane regime while professing to be followers of Christ. Look at American “conservatives.” They support the militarized police state. They support the routine police murders of dark-skinned American citizens. They support every war Washington dreams up and even more. Indeed, there are not enough wars for the satisfaction of Congressional Republicans who now want war with Russia and with Iran. Look at the Republicans in Congress and in state governments. They hate the environment. They love polluters. They worship Israel and Israel’s destruction of the Palestinians and the ongoing theft of the Palestinians’ country, a 60-year old activity. Just look at the map of shrinking Palestine. More is stolen each day. Washington has supported this theft of an entire country. Yet, Washington is able to masquerade as a great defender of human rights. Whose rights? Washington’s and Israel’s. No one else’s rights count. How does the world survive the American-Israeli aggression? Probably it will not. The evil is now directed at Iran, Russia, and China. These countries cannot be bombed year after year after year with no consequences to the bombers” [2].
Paul Craig Roberts, “The shame of being an American” (2006) republished as Chapter 8 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .
[2]. Paul Craig Roberts, “A Middle East Holocaust”, Paul Craig Roberts, 30 March 2015: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/03/30/middle-east-holocaust-paul-craig-roberts/ .
Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, “The God of Small Things”, and has written two screenplays and several collections of essays. She is an outspoken anti-war, pro-human rights humanitarian (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundhati_Roy ).
Arundhati Roy signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Edward Wadie Sa’id (born 1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a major figure in analysis of postcolonialism and postmodernism (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said ).
Palestinian-American Professor Edward Sa'id comparing the European Jewish Holocaust with the current situation of the Palestinians (2002): “Sixty years ago, the Jews of Europe were at the lowest point of their collective existence. Herded like cattle into trains, they were transported from the rest of Europe by Nazi soldiers into death camps where they were systematically exterminated in gas ovens. They had offered some resistance in Poland, but in most places they first lost their civil status, then they were removed from their jobs, then they were designated official enemies to be destroyed, and then they were. In every significant instance they were the most powerless of people, treated as insidious, potentially overpowering enemies by leaders and armies whose own power was far, far greater; indeed, even the idea of Jews representing a danger to the might of countries like Germany, France, and Italy was preposterous. But it was an accepted idea, since with few exceptions most of Europe turned its back on them during their slaughter... Every human calamity is different, so there is no point in trying to look for equivalence between one and the other. But it is certainly true that one universal truth about the Holocaust is not only that it should never again happen to Jews, but that as a cruel and tragic collective punishment, it should not happen to any people at all. But if there is no point in looking for equivalence, there is a value in seeing analogies and perhaps hidden similarities, even as we preserve a sense of proportion… Quite apart from his actual history of mistakes and misrule, Yasser Arafat is now being made to feel like a hunted Jew by the state of the Jews. There is no gainsaying the fact that the greatest irony of his siege by the Israeli army in his ruined Ramallah compound, is that his ordeal has been planned and carried out by a psychopathic leader who claims to represent the Jewish people. I do not want to press the analogy too far, but it is true to say that Palestinians under Israeli occupation today are as powerless as Jews were in the 1940s. Israel's army, air force and navy, heavily subsidized by the United States, have been wreaking havoc on the totally defenseless civilian population of the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip... And still Sharon makes the case that Israel is struggling to survive against Palestinian terrorism. Is there anything more grotesque than this claim, even as this deranged killer of Arabs sends his F-16s, his attack helicopters and hundreds of tanks against unarmed people without any defenses at all?... As popular protests grow worldwide, the organized Zionist counter-response has been to complain that antisemitism is on the rise... Criticism of Israeli policy is now routinely equated [by the Zionists and their allies with antisemitism of the kind that brought about the Holocaust... What conclusion is one to draw from all this? That Israeli policy has been a disaster for the entire region. The more powerful it becomes, the more ruin it sows in the countries around it, to say nothing of the catastrophes it has executed against the Palestinian people, and the more hated it becomes. It is power used for evil purposes, not self-defense at all. The Zionist dream of a Jewish state being a normal state like all others has come to the vision of the leader of Palestine's indigenous people hanging on to his life by a thread, while Israeli tanks and bulldozers continue to wreck everything around him. Is this the Zionist goal for which hundreds of thousands have died?... Isn't it time for those who feel that his [i.e. Sharon's] appalling actions do not represent them to call a halt to his behavior?"
[1]. English translation of Edward Sa'id's, "Low Point of Powerlessness," Al-Hayat (London), September 30, 2002: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/761308/posts .
Mauri’ Salakhan is an American Muslim poet, writer and human rights activist.described thus by The Peace and Justice Foundation: “El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan is the author of several books: The Teacher, a work of Islamically-based poetry and commentary on a myriad of social and political issues; Sacrilege In the Haramain, an eyewitness account of the tragedy that occurred in Mecca, Arabia (on 6 Dhul-Hijjah 1407/July 31, 1987); Why Our Children Are Killing Themselves, an examination of the root causes behind the crises facing children, youth and families in America; and Criminal Justice in America, an examination of the U.S. Criminal Justice System and its impact on the African American community.
Among his other works are September 11th: The Truth, Will It Ever Be Known?; The Case of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin: Is It A Government Conspiracy?; Iraq: The Question of American Values; The Message of Rachel Corrie, the young American woman who was killed in Occupied Palestine in March 2003 (while non-violently attempting to stop the destruction of a Palestinian's home); The State of the Union 2003: Don't Say You Didn't know!; Target Sudan: What's Really Behind The Crisis in Darfur; and his most recent publication, Islam & Terrorism: Myth vs. Reality.
Mauri' Saalakhan is a critically-acclaimed poet, and was selected as “An Outstanding Young Man of America” in 1986. In 1995 he was the recipient of the “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award,” from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and a “Maryland State Senate Resolution,” for his human rights work in and outside the State of Maryland.
In 1999 Saalakhan served as a consultant for Amnesty International's year long focus on human rights abuses in the United States of America “ (see: http://www.peacethrujustice.org/home.htm ).
Mauri' Saalakhan on “The Palestinians' Holocaust: American Perspectives” (2009): “The Palestinians' Holocaust: American Perspectives is perhaps the most important book that we've produced to date. It contains a myriad of voices which collectively cry out against the crimes against humanity being committed in that tortured part of the world sometimes referred to (ironically) as "the land of the prophets." The open genocide taking place in Gaza at present - one of the largest open air prisons in the world - has compelled us to make this information widely available to as many people as possible, as a matter of urgency. If this ends up hurting the bottom [financial] line of a small grassroots, human-rights organization, it would be a small price to pay for helping to educate (and hopefully activate) our neighbors in this global village called earth!” [1].
[1]. Mauri' Saalakhan on “The Palestinians' Holocaust: American Perspectives” by Mauri' Saalakhan (2009): http://www.thepalestiniansholocaust.com/ .
Kawther Salam is a is a Palestinian journalist but after a career of over 20 years working for various newspapers and TV stations in Palestine she was forced to live in the exile in Vienna since 2002 (see: http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/10/03/decision-of-collaborators-furthers-palestinian-genocide/ ).
Kawther Salam on US-Israeli-backed West Bank Palestinian leadership deferral of the Goldstone UN Human Rights Report on the Gaza Massacre (3 October 2009): “Decision of collaborators furthers Palestinian Genocide. Yesterday, 2 October 2009, the Palestinian leadership, under heavy international oessure led by the United States, deferred the draft proposal at the Human Rights Council endorsing all the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission (the Goldstone Report). This deferral denies the Palestinian peoples’ right to an effective judicial remedy and the equal protection of the law. It represents the triumph of politics over human rights. It is an insult to all victims and a rejection of their rights. The crimes documented in the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission represent the most serious violations of international law; Justice Goldstone concluded that there was evidence to indicate that crimes against humanity may have been committed in the Gaza Strip. Violations of international law continue to this day, inter alia, through the continuing Israeli-imposed illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. The findings of the Mission confirmed earlier investigations conducted by independent Palestinian, Israeli and international organizations.
The injustice that has now been brought upon Palestinians has been brought upon everyone on this globe.” [1].
[1]. Kawther Salam, “Decision of collaborators furthers Palestinian Genocide”, Palestine Think Tank, 3 Octpber 2009: http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/10/03/decision-of-collaborators-furthers-palestinian-genocide/ .
José de Sousa Saramago (16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a prolific, humorous and gently subversive Literature Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright, journalist ands author of numerous books , most recently “The Elephant’s Joumey” (2009) and “Cain” (2010). After his comments attacking Apartheid Israeli war crimes, Jose Saramago’s books were banned in Apartheid Israel (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago ).
José de Sousa Saramago on the ongoing Palestinian Holocaust and Palestinian Genocide (circa 2000): “What is happening in Palestine is a crime that we can compare to what occurred in Auschwitz… A sense of impunity characterizes today the Israeli people and its army. They have been converted into rentiers of the Holocaust” [1].
José Saramago signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [2].
[1] José Saramago, quoted by Professor James Petras in “Palestine: The Final Solution and Jose Saramago”, Chapter 19 in “The Plight of the Palestinians”. A long history of destruction”, edited by {Professor William Cook, Palgrave Macmilllan, London, 2010.
[2]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Natalie Abu Shakra is from Lebanon and is affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement. She defied Israeli orders for Lebanese citizens not to go to Gaza and was able to get in with the Free Gaza movement, She supports the Boycotting of Apartheid Israel (see: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14943 ).
Natalie Abu Shakra on the 2008/2009 Gaza Massacre and the need to Boycott Apartheid Israel (2009): “The concept of civil resistance is not new at all. This non-violent, unarmed, citizen oriented strategy of resistance in modern history played a role in the struggles against colonialism, and neo-colonialism especially in British colonies of Africa, in Apartheid South Africa, India, and the Middle East, particularly Palestine. We live in a very imbalanced world, where language, dress, technology, education, food, media, and other aspects in post-modern life are dictated by a few and are imposed on the many, the rest of the world. This few decides the flow of politics, and dictates how the world will rotate around. This few, also, will accept no resistance, at any cost… How can I affect what is happening and how can the world respond? The truth is that we can defy oppression and the illusion of power that the oppressor creates in our minds. I was asked once, “are you not afraid to die?” I am only afraid of what I consider the evil of all evils, repression, oppression, colonialism, and occupation, anything that can wipe my existence off, just erasing identities off the map, and this is what has been happening to the Palestinians for 61 years and on going now. What do you choose to do about it? Boycott Apartheid Israel.” [1].
[1]. Natalie Abu Shakra, “Boycott Apartheid Israel”, The Palestine Chronicle, 25 March 2009: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14943 .
Martin Shaw (British sociologist and academic, research professor of international relations at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals and Sussex University, Professorial Fellow in International Relations and Human Rights at Roehampton University, and author of “What is Genocide?”) (2010) “We can conclude that pre-war Zionism included the development of an incipiently genocidal mentality towards Arab society… Israel entered without an overarching plan, so that its specific genocidal thrusts developed situationally and incrementally, through local as well as national decisions. On this account, this was a partly decentred, networked genocide, developing in interaction with the Palestinian and Arab enemy, in the context of war ”( Martin Shaw, “Palestine In An International Historical Perspective On Genocide”, 9 Holy Land Studies 1, 13 & 19, 2010; quoted in (Center for Consitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian people: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Eve Spengler (an Associate of Sociology at Boston College) on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and Saleh Abdel-Jawad’s “sociocide” (2015): “The cumulative weight of all thsie [Zionist] aggressions constitutes, in the words of Abdel Jawad, a Palestinian sociocide. Abdel Jawad’s term has spawned a host of cognates – “spaciocide” to describe the incredible disappearing Palestine, “politicide” to describe the dismembering of the Palestinian political hopes. Clearly his term , sociocide, is the most inclusive and it also has the immense moral advantage of allowing Palestinians to name their own experience, if they so choose. Perhaps it is correct to understand that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is Zionism’s aim and “sociocide” describes the complex set of policies by which this aim is accomplished without unmasking “the only democracy in the Middle East”” (Eve Spengler, “Understanding Israel/Palestine: Race, Nation and human Rights in the Conflict”, Sense, 2015, page 199).
Dr Marcelo Svirsky is a faculty member, Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, Australia with Research Interests in Critical Theory, Middle East Studies, Palestine, and Decolonialization. He is the author of “After Israel: towards cultural transformation” (see: https://uow.academia.edu/MarceloSvirsky ).
Dr Marcelo Svirsky on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine (2014): “Founded in 1951, first as a transit camp for Jewish immigrants, Sderot is located about a kilometre from the Gaza Strip and a few more strides from the city of Beit Hanoun. As with almost the entirety of Israel’s settled areas, Sderot was built on Palestinian land seized by the Jewish armed forces at the onset of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that gave birth to the state of Israel. The original owners of that particular tract of land, most of whom lived in the village of Najd, were expelled to Gaza during two consecutive days in May 1948, and their village was later destroyed. It’s not implausible to assume that the descendants of refugees from Najd could be among those launching rockets at Sderot today. For their part, descendants of the Jewish immigrants to Sderot can be found gathering on the hillsides of the city to watch and cheer as the Israeli army drops bombs on Gaza”. [1].
[1]. Marcelo Svirsky, “From Auschwitz to Sderot: the decline of our humanity”, New Matilda, 1 August 2014: https://newmatilda.com/2014/08/01/auschwitz-sderot-decline-our-humanity .
SYDENHAM, Lord: "The Jews had no more right to Palestine than the descendants of the ancient Romans had to this country"
Lord Sydenham (British conservative member of parliament): “The Jews had no more right to Palestine than the descendants of the ancient Romans had to this country” (Joseph Massad, “The Balfour Declaration’s many questions”, Electronic Intifada, 8 November 2017: https://electronicintifada.net/content/balfour-declarations-many-questions/22216 ).
Sarah Tawashy (member of Students for Justice in Palestine) (2018): “ Genocide is not only applicable to mass murder but also to the crippling of economy and infrastructure. Palestinians as a whole have no major contribution to an industry of their own, and Gaza’s economy has been crippled by the blockade and worsening electricity cuts. Gazans have not even been able to rebuild their homes that were destroyed in the 2014 Israeli offensive .The majority of the 2 million inhabitants in Gaza are refugees that were expelled from their ancestral lands in 1948, more than 400 of their hometowns and cities destroyed by Israeli militants or repopulated by Jewish settlers. It is perplexing that Americans would not consider the mass murder and expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians, and the ongoing efforts to purge their homeland of their presence, a genocide. It may be because less focus is on the actions that lead up to “extermination,” being wholly placed on a shocking death toll. The U.S. government does not recognize what is being done to Palestinians as genocide because it is a staunch ally of Israel and enables these horrendous acts by sending it billions of dollars every year” (Sarah Tawashy in Brant Roberts, Dina Hamadi, Sarah Tawashy, “Roundtable: How is the US involved in Palestinian ethnic cleansing?”, The Cougar, 11 April 2018: http://thedailycougar.com/2018/04/11/roundtable-genocide-palestine/ ).
On 16 December 1982, the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 37/123 determined that “the large-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps… was an act of genocide” as follows:
“The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 95 (I) of 11 December 1946,
Recalling also its resolution 96 (I) of 11 December 1946, in which it, inter alia, affirmed that genocide is a crime under international law which the civilized world condemns, and for the commission of which principals and accomplices – whether private individuals, public officials or statesmen, and whether the crime is committed on religious, racial, political or any other grounds – are punishable,
Referring to the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1948,
Recalling the relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,
Appalled at the large-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps situated at Beirut,
Recognizing the universal outrage and condemnation of that massacre,
Recalling its resolution ES-7/9 of 24 September 1982,
1. Condemns in the strongest terms the large-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps;
2. Resolves that the massacre was an act of genocide.” [1].
[1] Item #41 in Francis Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide by Israel”, MWC News, 30 August 2013: http://www.mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/30445-palestinian-genocide.html .
UN Genocide Convention.
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.
Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.
Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948.
The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State to which an invitation to sign has been addressed by the General Assembly.
The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
After 1 January 1950, the present Convention may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State which has received an invitation as aforesaid.
Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible.
On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the Secretary-General shall draw up a proces-verbal and transmit a copy of it to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.
The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.
Any ratification or accession effected subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession.
The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its coming into force.
It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period.
Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective.
A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.
The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and the non-member States contemplated in Article 11 of the following:
(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with Article 11;
(b) Notifications received in accordance with Article 12;
(c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with Article 13;
(d) Denunciations received in accordance with Article 14;
(e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with Article 15;
(f) Notifications received in accordance with Article 16.
The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.
A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to all Members of the United Nations and to the non-member States contemplated in Article 11.
The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force.”
[1]. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html .
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was a very famous American writer of essays, novels, screenplays and Broadway plays. His numerous books included Myra Breckinridge, the historical novels Julian, Burr and Lincoln and The City and the Pillar that was notable for featuring explicit homosexuality. He was anti-war and demolished his barbarous critics with scathing wit (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal ).
Gore Vidal was one of 18 FAMOUS WRITERS including 3 Nobel Laureates who in an Open Letter published worldwide slammed Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide as “[Israel’s] long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation”:
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison.
This letter has been printed in newspapers throughout the world, including Le Monde, El País, The Independent and La Repubblica.” [1].
[1]. 18 writers, “A letter from 18 writers including 3 Nobel laureates”, The Nation, 18 August 2006: http://www.thenation.com/article/letter-18-writers .
VLAZNA, Vacy. Australian humanitarian scholar and activist slams JNF role in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Apartheid Israel
Dr. Vacy Vlazna on the ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2014): “At the black heart of Israel’s 65 year rape of Palestine, is the Jewish National Fund ( JNF) which once went by the more germane, Jewish COLONIAL Trust; an opportunistic real-estate jackal that has aggressively deposited its Zionist stink throughout the ancestral land of Palestine.
From its inception in 1901, JNF’s mission of the theft of Palestinian land for the Jews-only Greater (Eretz) Israel is racist, colonial, criminal (colonial expansion is a warcrime under Article 8.2(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute) and bloody.
Max Blumenthal writes “JNF director Yosef Weitz was instrumental in hatching Plan Dalet, the campaign to ethnically cleanse at least 400 Palestinian villages and expel their residents in 1947 and 1948. After the war of 1948, Weitz orchestrated the planting of hundreds of thousands of non-native trees west of Jerusalem to cover up the scores of villages that had just been ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias.”
These days, to cover up its criminal activities, JNF has reinvented itself as ‘the caretaker of the land of Israel on behalf of its owners--Jewish people everywhere’. To promote this benign image of the normalisation of ethnic cleansing, JNF offers tours and missions of Israel that are “intensely emotional, educational and spiritual experiences” of Orwellian Newspeak and war crime whitewash.” [1].
[1]. Vacy Vlazna, “Jewish National Fund’s War Crimes Mission”, Countercurrents, 30 January 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna300114A.htm .
VLAZNA. Dr Vacy Vlazna (anti-racist Czech Australian human rights activist, pro-Palestinian human rights): “Assimilation is where Australia differs from Israel. For Israel the assimilation of Palestinians is an anathema. The Zionist goal is racist; a pure Aryan-like Jewish state, rid of all Palestinians from the river to the sea. Ergo, Israel perpetrates a slow-motion brutal genocide and a relentless push of Palestinians over the exile cliff” (Antisemitism Report 2021, p188: https://www.ecaj.org.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/ECAJ-Antisemitism-Report-2021.pdf ).
Margaret Waspe (Australian humanitarian) (2017): “An adequate historical knowledge is important for our leaders. When history is distorted or re-invented, how can appropriate foreign policy be formed? When the Israeli Prime Minister and our Prime Minister met, it was publicly said that we had a 100 year old history of friendship, since the Battle of Beersheba. Was this corrected at all? Who advises our leaders? Israel became a state in 1948. What are the facts? From the nineteenth century the European Zionists (in Europe) planned to acquire and expand territorial control in the Middle East and intended to use diverse methods to separate the inhabitants from their land. That was an age when European imperialism was still the norm. Palestine then was a thriving agricultural society with approx. 500,000 inhabitants. In the 1920s the British and the Zionists assured the Palestinian leaders, that by allowing in persecuted European Jews, Palestinian rights would be strictly preserved. On that basis, Palestinian leaders agreed to limited immigration of persecuted European Jews – as long as their land, Palestine was able to retain its Arab identity. There is evidence that Muslims were encouraged by a leader to welcome the Jews as brethren according to the hospitable traditions of their religion.8 As the true Zionist intentions became evident, resistance then grew. The British authorities struggled with what they regarded as Zionist terrorist gangs who acted violently to destabilise the social context. The problem was handed to the United Nations, who with difficulty and intense pressure and lobbying, voted in favour of partition in 1947. Was that biased or not? In 1948, in the Naqba (catastrophe) the Palestinians experienced massacre, were forced to flee from their villages and lands, many still now living in permanent refugee camps elsewhere. Evidence from the writing of Zionist government leaders, shows that a deliberate policy was followed, of – covertly provoking an incident over the border in order to incite a retaliatory response, which would instill fear of danger in their people, and could be used as means of further Israeli powerful military attack and extended territorial control. Peace was never intended… In 1974, I worked as a volunteer on Kibbutz Reshafim in Israel, for about 4 months, followed by a similar time living and working with Palestinians in Eastern Jerusalem. I grew to love the land and its people, but I realised I was in a type of apartheid state. As a concerned person I had been working to bring justice and positive change in the Police State of apartheid-era South Africa, with Jewish friends amongst my working associates” (Margaret Waspe, “Open letter to the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, Senators and Members of the Australian Parliament. In search of truth. The Middle east and Australia’s future foreign policy”, 25 March 2017: https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3551/f/submission/170331-715-margaret-waspe.pdf ).
Laura Westra, “Faces of State Terrorism" (2012): "Then there is the “hyper-example’ of state terrorism (supported, once again, by the US), that is, the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by the US’s “partner” Israel, and the elimination of others in the Muslim world (Polya, 2011). 15… Then there is the way “inequality kills…
[Polya, 2011] Gideon Polya, “New Year's Day 1/1/11 Message: Equal Shares on Our One Planet”, Countercurrents, 2 January, 2011: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya020111.htm .
“Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ “ (Laura Westra, “Faces of State Terrorism. Volume 42 of Studies in Critical Social Sciences”, BRILL, 2012, page 128)."
Naomi Wolf (anti-racist Jewish American author and activist) (2014): “I mourn genocide in Gaza because I am the granddaughter of a family half wiped out in a holocaust and I know genocide when I see it” (Naomi Wolf quoted in Center for Constitutional Rights, “The genocide of the Palestinian People: an international law and human rights perspective”, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective ).
Professor Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was an outstanding Jewish American activist, civil libertarian, anti-war activist, historian, playwright, political activist, social critic, and socialist. The author of some 20 books, Zinn was Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University, Boston Massachusetts, USA and the author of the best-seller “A People’s History of the United States” (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn ).
Howard Zinn signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Arunbdhati Roy and José Saramago on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):
“The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.” [1].
[1]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .
Professor Marjorie Cohn, according to Wikipedia “is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She also "participated in delegations to Cuba, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia" early in her career” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cohn ).
Professor Marjorie Cohn on US and Israeli Palestine Genocide and the latest Israeli Gaza Massacre (2014): “ By sending vast amounts of military aid to Israel, members of the US Congress, President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.An individual can be convicted of a war crime, genocide or a crime against humanity [PDF] in the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he or she "aids, abets or otherwise assists" in the commission or attempted commission of the crime, "including providing the means for its commission." There is growing evidence that Israeli leaders and commanders have committed the following war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute for the ICC. US military aid has aided, abetted and assisted the commission of these crimes by providing Israel with the military means to commit them. During Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces again used the Dahiye Doctrine, which, according to the UN Human Rights Council [Goldstone] Report [PDF], involves "the application of disproportionate force and causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations"…
On July 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established a commission of inquiry into Israeli violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. The resolution also called on parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene and respond to the alleged violations. That convention requires parties to prosecute violators. Countries can bring foreign nationals to justice for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the well-established doctrine of universal jurisdiction. Genocide charges could also be brought under the Genocide Convention, to which both Israel and the United States are parties. That convention also punishes complicity in genocide; US leaders' provision of military aid would constitute complicity. Although the Israeli and US governments continue to maintain that Israel has only acted in self-defense against Hamas' terrorism, the weight of world opinion points in the opposite direction. There is overwhelming opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza and calls for justice and accountability. Both Israeli and US leaders must be criminally prosecuted for committing and aiding and abetting these crimes.” [1].
[1]. Marjorie Cohn, “Israeli war crimes. Genocide & crimes against humanity”, MWC News, 8 August 2014: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/44454-israeli-war-crimes.html .
Professor Marjorie Cohn, according to Wikipedia “is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She also "participated in delegations to Cuba, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia" early in her career” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cohn ).
Professor Marjorie Cohn on US and Israeli Palestine Genocide and the latest Israeli Gaza Massacre (2014): “ By sending vast amounts of military aid to Israel, members of the US Congress, President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.An individual can be convicted of a war crime, genocide or a crime against humanity [PDF] in the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he or she "aids, abets or otherwise assists" in the commission or attempted commission of the crime, "including providing the means for its commission." There is growing evidence that Israeli leaders and commanders have committed the following war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute for the ICC. US military aid has aided, abetted and assisted the commission of these crimes by providing Israel with the military means to commit them. During Operation Protective Edge, Israeli forces again used the Dahiye Doctrine, which, according to the UN Human Rights Council [Goldstone] Report [PDF], involves "the application of disproportionate force and causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations"…
On July 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established a commission of inquiry into Israeli violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. The resolution also called on parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene and respond to the alleged violations. That convention requires parties to prosecute violators. Countries can bring foreign nationals to justice for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the well-established doctrine of universal jurisdiction. Genocide charges could also be brought under the Genocide Convention, to which both Israel and the United States are parties. That convention also punishes complicity in genocide; US leaders' provision of military aid would constitute complicity. Although the Israeli and US governments continue to maintain that Israel has only acted in self-defense against Hamas' terrorism, the weight of world opinion points in the opposite direction. There is overwhelming opposition to Israeli aggression in Gaza and calls for justice and accountability. Both Israeli and US leaders must be criminally prosecuted for committing and aiding and abetting these crimes.” [1].
[1]. Marjorie Cohn, “Israeli war crimes. Genocide & crimes against humanity”, MWC News, 8 August 2014: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/44454-israeli-war-crimes.html .
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