community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Land Theft near Jenin
by www.soundslikefreedom.org
Monday, Oct. 20, 2003 at 5:13 PM
sounds_like_freedom@yahoo.co.uk
* www.SoundsLikeFreedom.org is the website of a group of people working In Jenin, Occupied Palestine. On the website are written articles and reports, and radio and real-media video files for download, made both by Palestinians and Internationals, some available in both English and Arabic. We aim to provide a direct voice from the residents of Jenin to the world, and also provide on the spot, witness based news from the town.*
Update from Kharba Ghanam.
The harassment of the 36 people living in the hamlet of Kharba Ghanam, on the outskirts of Jenin has continued since our last report. (See previous reports, film, radio and pictures from Kharba Ghanem on http://www.soundslikefreedom.org). The Israeli government still wishes to expand the settlement of Kadim, and the tiny hamlet at Kharba Ghanam is on the land the government would prefer to build on. If the Israeli authorities get their way 36 more people will lose their homes and the land which provides them with their livelihood, and all because they have committed the heinous crime of living in homes deemed too near to an Israeli settlement which did not exist at the time their homes were built.
Since the conquest of the West Bank and Gaza strip in the 1967 war, the government of Israel has pursued a policy of building settlements on the land that they captured. This practice is illegal under international law but none the less the Israeli state continues to build new settlements and expand existing ones on land that previously belonged to the Palestinian residents of the territories now under Israeli military control.
Since the outbreak of the current intifada (the uprising of the Palestinians living in these occupied lands against their Israeli occupiers) there has been little demand among Israelis for homes in the settlements, which many regard as being on the front lines of the conflict. The Sharon administration like its predecessors has resorted to the use of increasingly generous financial incentives to entice people, often from South Asia or the former Soviet Union that are too poor to buy a home elsewhere in Israel/Palestine to move into the settlements.
Despite this policy many settlement houses remain uninhabited and many more residents would move out of the settlements were it not for financial constraints (a recent survey commissioned by the Israeli group Peace Now found that most settlers would be wiling to move inside the green line if the government provided them with suitable financial aid to do so). Even though many existing settlement homes are empty, the government of Israel persists with its efforts to build more and extend existing settlements, and in the already densely populated Occupied Territories this policy often means that inhabited Palestinian homes must be demolished to make way for new Israeli homes for which there is not actually any demand. Needless to say unlike the incentives used to entice Israelis to move into the settlements, the means used to evict Palestinians living in homes in the way of settlement construction do not take the form of financial incentives but rather the threat of violence or arrest (the most basic threat being that homes will be demolished whether their inhabitants are in them or not).
This process, which fits the definition of ethnic cleansing, is known in most of the Israeli and Western media as the "natural growth of the settlements". The frontline victims of this policy are ordinary Palestinians like the ones living in Kharba Ghanam. They stand to be driven from their homes because the state of Israel has now designated their land as land that only Israelis have the right to inhabit.
Two of the five houses in Kharba Ghanam were demolished without warning on the 15th of September, but at the time of writing, the others have not been demolished. Possibly due to the attention bought to this case by international activists, the Israeli authorities are pursuing legal proceedings through the courts before demolishing the remaining homes. While the Israeli army waits for formal legal sanction to destroy the remaining homes and evict the family from their land, it has stepped up its harassment of the families, perhaps hoping that if they make life difficult enough the residents of Kharba Ghanam will leave voluntarily.
On the 15th of October some of the inhabitants of Kharba Ghanam were grazing the families five cows and 100 sheep on their land, in full view of Kadim settlement as well as an Israeli military outpost, a part of the families ongoing struggle not just to feed 36 mouths but also to find the funds to rebuild their two demolished homes so they can move out of the tents that some family members are currently forced to live in. Israeli soldiers came and abducted two young men from the family while they tended to their animals.
The men�s relatives attempted to find out about the men�s condition and try to help them if they could. Four women from the family set out towards the nearby Israeli outpost, carrying with them a large, hastily assembled white flag (a sheet tied to a branch) and accompanied by a small child (the abducted men�s little brother) and an international activist. The group walked through fields of knee high grass, and next to the outpost a field of thistles, all the while in full view of an Israeli sniper tower. As the group approached they could see the soldiers working on their tanks and the international activist was calling "hello" to them but they seemed to not to have noticed five people in a field next to their base with a big white flag.
When the group moved round to the entrance to the base the soldiers finally noticed them and motioned angrily for them to leave before rushing inside their barracks. A few soldiers then came out of the barracks wearing their body armour and aimed their rifles at the frightened women. At this point the group attempted to leave with their hands raised in the air.
But it was too late, a number of soldiers, some not wearing all of their uniform, and perhaps angered at having been caught unawares, ran towards the group and demanded that the international activist drop his bag and step away from it before lifting up his shirt and turning around. They then angrily surrounded the group and demanded that they explain what they were doing there. The women tried to plead with the soldiers to release the two men that they had taken that morning, but the soldiers acted as though they did not understand Arabic and tried to speak only to the international activist in English, even though they had been screaming at him in Arabic just a minute before.
The soldiers said that they were not holding the men there, and said that they would be released the next day. The men�s mother asked if they could expect her sons home tomorrow at seven, and the soldiers taunted her that it would be seven in the evening, at the earliest. One guilty looking soldier, possibly embarrassed by his colleagues behaviour added that it usually took 24 hours to check up on "suspects" in custody.
The soldiers made it clear to the women, who by this stage were in tears at the news that their sons would not be home today combined with having so many guns aimed at them, that they never wanted to see any of them near the base again, or else...
The soldiers then expected the group to leave promptly, but not before they had searched the international accompanying the women. The group left dejected and walked back across the fields to their homes. Half an hour later the two sons turned up, having been held in Salem prison for the day, and actually having been released before the women reached the outpost where they believed them to be held. The soldiers had been lying the whole time when they acted as though they knew, if not controlled when the boys would be released, perhaps they gained some enjoyment from taunting the women distressed over their loved ones well being.
The sons said that they were ok, physically at least, and their uncle vowed that the family was not afraid of the Israelis and would not be intimidated off of their land. Although the daily humiliations and harassment can be withstood with determination and strength, in the end the force of the Israeli army can overwhelm physically the attempts of the families at Kharba Ghanam to continue living in their homes.
TAKE ACTION!
Please pressure the Israelis: find your local embassy at http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel.htm
Call the Israeli Offensive Forces spokesman-
00972 3608339 or the press office 00972 256245789
Or call the Major responsible and tell him what you think, Major Shkera - 00972 (0) 56 234 182
A Leftist's Rant
by the Postert
Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 at 10:26 AM
80% of Palestine became (trans)JORDAN about 70 years ago.
There's your "PALESTINE," jackasses.
E LEFTISTS JUST SINGLE ISRAEL OUT
ISRAEL IS ALL THAT MATTERS.
THE JEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAVE A STATE THAT FAVORS JEWS IN ANY WAY
THE MUSLIMS? WHO CARES, LET THEM DO WHATEVER THEY WANT, ALL WE CARE ABOUT IS DEMONIZING THE JEWISH ZIONIST ENTITY
SO YOU SAY THAT THE ARAB WORLD BEING ANTI-JEW IS CURRENTLY AN OBVIOUS KEY FACTOR IN ISRAEL FAVORING JEWS SINCE IT IS A JEWISH HOMELAND? I AGREE WITH YOU BUT LETS NOT TALK ABOUT THAT, WE NEED TO JUST PUT THE JEWS UNDER A MICROSCOP AND IGNORE ALL OUTSIDE FACTORS, EVEN IF THEY ARE DIRECTLY RELEVANT.
LEFTISTS IN THE 60'S FOUGHT FOR GOOD AND TRUTH AND EQUAL RIGHTS IN AMERICA AGAINST NAZIS, THE KKK AND WHITE SUPREMECISTS, LEFTISTS IN THE 2000'S FIGHT FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWISH STATE, NOW ALL WE CARE ABOUT IS FORCING THE JEWS OF ISRAEL TO LET MILLIONS OF PALESTINIANS FLOOD IN SO THE 5% OR 10% THAT ARE TERRORISTS CAN THEN PROCEED TO MURDER THE JEWS. WE ARE PEACE ACTIVISTS, YET THE ONLY COUNTRY WE OBSESS UPON AND DEMAND THE UNDOING OF IS THE LITTLE JEWISH ONE WITH A MERE 6 MILLION PEOPLE.
HUNDREDS OF MILLION OF ARABS CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT AND KILL EACH OTHER AND DISCRIMINATE, BUT WHO CARES, WE NEED TO ONLY TALK ABOUT THE JEWS. BUT JUST TO BE SAFE, LETS CALL THEM "ZIONISTS" AND THEN POINT OUT THAT SOME JEWS ARE NOT PRO-ZIONISM, AND USE THAT AS AN EXCUSE TO EXCESSIVELY DEMONIZE EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT ISRAEL THAT WE CAN THINK OF.
WE LEFTISTS OF TODAY, WE DON"T FIGHT AGAINST NAZIS OR GENUINE RACISTS OR THE KKK OR THE CHRISTIAN COALITION, WE BARELY UTTER A WORD ABOUT THE ANTI-GAY REPUBLICANS, WE DON"T CARE ABOUT MASSIVE SLAUGHTER IN AFRICA, WE ARE PROGRAMMED TO OBSESS DAILY ON A TINY PATCH OF DESERT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD.
ALSO, A FACT IS THAT IN THE 1920'S ABOUT 80% OF THE TERRITORY CALLED PALESTINE BECAME JORDAN, BUT WE ENJOY IGNORING THAT AND PRETENDING THAT "PALESTINE" WAS STOLEN BY THE JEWS. IT"S A FUN LIE THAT DOES NOT GO ALONG WITH HISTORY, BUT WE LIKE TO SPREAD IT ANYWAY.
TONS OF LAND BEING RIPPED FROM INDIA AND TURNED INTO PAKISTAN, A MUSLIM TERRORIST STATE? NO PROBLEM! BUT A SLIVER OF DESERT BEING PUT UNDER CONTROL OF THE GROWING JEWISH COMMUNITIES THAT WERE SETTLING THERE AND ALSO HAD BEEN THERE FOR A LONG TIME? WE ARE OUTRAGED!
JEWS WERE CLEANSED OUT OF JORDAN AND THE WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP. WE ARE FINE WITH THAT. BUT WHEN ISRAEL SETTLES ON LAND IT WON IN WAR, WE MARCH IN PROTEST!
WHY? WE ARE FUCKING CRAZED BRAINWASHED IDIOTS WHO REALLY NEED TO STEP BACK, STEP OUT OF OURSELVES, EXAMINE OUR BALANCE AND PERSPECTIVE, AND ADJUST OURSELVES.
Say what? Anti-Semites? Who, us anti-Zionists? Us? We have nothing against Jews as such. We just hate Zionism and Zionists. We think Israel does not have a right to exist. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such. Heavens to Mergatroyd. Marx Forbid. We are humanists. Progressives. Peace lovers.
Anti-Semitism is the hatred of Jews. Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism and Israeli policies. The two have nothing to do with one another. Venus and Mars. Night and day. Trust us.
Sure, we think the only country on the earth that must be annihilated is Israel. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
Sure, we think that the only children on earth whose being blown up is okay if it serves a good cause are Jewish children. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
Sure, we think that if Palestinians have legitimate grievances this entitles them to mass murder Jews. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
Naturally, we think that the only people on earth who should never be allowed to exercise the right of self-defense are the Jews. Jews should only resolve the aggression against them through capitulation, never through self-defense. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We only denounce racist apartheid in the one country in the Middle East that is not a racist apartheid country. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We refuse to acknowledge the Jews as a people, and think they are only a religion. We do not have an answer to how people who do not practice the Jewish religion can still be regarded as Jews. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We think that all peoples have the right to self-determination, except Jews, and including even the make-pretend Palestinian �people� - and we like to ignore the fact that 80% of land arabs who now call themselves Palestinans lived on became Jordan. Israel is just a tiny sliver of that land. We like to pretend that the Jews stole Palestine, even though Palestine as it has always been known (a territory) became Jordan a lot more than it became Israel. We are happy to intentionally spread distortion about this. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We hate it when people blame the victims, except of course when people blame the Jews for the jihads and terrorist campaigns against them. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We think the only country in the Middle East that is a fascist anti-democratic one is the one that has free elections. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We demand that the only country in the Middle East with free speech, free press or free courts be destroyed. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We oppose military aggression, except when it is directed at Israel. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We really understand suicide bombers who murder bus loads of Jewish children and we insist that their demands be met in full. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We think the only conflict on earth that must be solved through dismembering one of the parties to that conflict is the one involving Israel. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We do not think that Jews have any human rights that need to be respected, and especially not the right to ride a bus without being murdered. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
There are Jewish, leftist anti-Zionists and we consider this proof that anti-Zionists could not possibly be anti-Semitic; not even the ones who cheer when Jews are mass murdered. These are the only Jews we think need be acknowledged or respected. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We do not think murder proves how righteous and just the cause of the murderer is, except when it comes to murderers of Jews. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We do not think the Jews are entitled to their own state and must submit to being a minority in a Rwanda-style �bi-national state�, although no other state on earth, including the 22 Arab countries, should be similarly expected to be deprived of its sovereignty. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We think that Israel�s having a Jewish majority and a star on its flag makes it a racist apartheid state. We do not think any other country having an ethnic-religious majority or having crosses or crescents or �Allah Akbar� on its flag is racist or needs dismemberment. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We condemn the �mistreatment� of women in the only country of the Middle East in which they are not mistreated. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We condemn the �mistreatment� of minorities in the only country in the Middle East in which minorities are not brutally suppressed and mass murdered. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We demand equal citizen rights, which is why the only country in the Middle East in need of extermination is the only one in which such rights exist. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
We have no trouble with the fact that there is no freedom of religion in any Arab countries. But we are mad as hell at Israel for violating religious freedom, and never mind that we are never quite sure where or when it does so. But that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
So how can you possibly say we are anti-Semites? We are simply anti-Zionists. We seek peace and justice, that�s all. And surely that does not mean we have anything against Jews as such.
Damn Reagan
by 80's kid
Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 at 1:51 PM
Because you cut mental health funding, I have to read crap like this.
In fact, the amesiacs who wax poetic on your reign apparently hadn't had their psych meds in 20 years.
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