Events In Bethlehem Area And The Real Road To Peace - Apartheid Wall Album
25 September 2010By Mazin Qumsiyeh
There are good events in the Bethlehem area in the
next few days and we could use your
participation/support: 1) Thursday 3:30 PM, land
reclamation in Wad Rahhal , 2) Friday at Noon, march
from the mosque area to the apartheid wall in Al-Walaja
(important to come to encourage this village that ios
valiantly trying to stop the wall encircling the
village), 3) Monday and Tuesday beginning 9:30 AM
rehabilitation for Land in Al-Khader (destroyed by
settlers).
My wife's photos of Palestine:
Wildlife photo album http://picasaweb.google.com /jchangcpa/Wildlife?authkey
=Gv1sRgCOK8qqfiqrq2nQE
Apartheid wall album
http://picasaweb.google.com/ jchangcpa/AlWalajaApartheidConstruction?
authkey=
Gv1sRgCKnp9ZeYzaTicw
As I keep hearing the mantra of a "new" opening for
peace in the Middle East, I am reminded of the
statement issued by Amnesty International inMarch
2001, stating that "a major flaw of the process that
began with the Oslo Agreement of 1993 was that peace
was not founded on ensuring respect and protection for
human rights. if human rights are sacrificed in the
search for peace and security there will be no peace
and no security". The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly on
Dec. 10, 1948. The next day, the UN General Assembly
also adopted Resolution 194, which dealt specifically
with human rights in the Israeli-Palestinian context
and included establishing a conciliatory commission,
sharing Jerusalem, and guaranteeing the right of
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and
lands. To this date, neither UDHR nor
General Assembly Resolution 194 have been implemented.
62 years later, Israeli apartheid still seems to get
away literally with murder. The UN Human Rights
Council just issued a report on the massacre of
activists in the flotilla ship bringing aid to Gaza.
And just yesterday Jerusalem was up in flames after a
settler mercenary murdered a Palestinian in occupied
East Jerusalem.
Israel, armed to the teeth by the US, is the strongest
military power in the Middle East. The state harbors
hundreds of nuclear weapons (with a don't ask don't
tell policy supported by the US) as well as other WMD.
It receives billions in US taxpayer largess every
year. And the US government has vetoed over 35 UN
Security Council resolutions that attempted to hold
Israel accountable to international law and human
rights in the region. This is a state that caused the
largest post-WWII refugee crisis that is still
unresolved. The ethnic cleansing accompanying the
foundation of this apartheid Jewish state meant the
destruction of 530 villages and towns. It has become
well known as the Palestinian Nakba or catastrophe.
But this is an ongoing process that still involves
many homer demolitions and deportations of people even
today. 62 years of ethnic cleansing must come to a
stop and must be reversed. Today 7 million of the 11
million Palestinians around the world are refugees or
displaced people. Palestinian Christians and Muslims
who owned and used 93% of historic Palestine in 1947
have now been reduced to use of 8.3% of the land.
In 2007, Ehud Olmert, then prime minister, declared:
"If the day comes when the two-state solution
collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle
for equal voting rights [also for the Palestinians in
the territories], then, as soon as that happens, the
state of Israel is finished." More recently, making a
similar point, Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister,
said "as long as between the Jordan and the sea there
is only one political entity, named Israel, it will
end up being either non-Jewish or non-democratic ...
If the Palestinians vote in elections, it is a
bi-national state, and if they don't, it is an
apartheid state."
There are resolutions at the UN that were almost
forgotten but should be and can be activated. Here is
one that calls on all governments to cut and freeze
all economic or other ties (ie. Boycotts and
sanctions) http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/
RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/000/64/IMG /NR000064.pdf?Open
Element
To achieve our rights despite Israeli massive military
might and support from western governments, we must as
before depend on themselves with support from people
of conscience in the rest of the world (for example
via the International Solidarity Movement and the
movement for Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions).
Palestinian popular resistance has been inspirational
even as we faced massive violent repression, loss of
our lands, restrictions of movements, concentration
camp like Ghettos, walls of apartheid and much more.
Bishop Desmond Tutu and all major South African
leaders described this situation as worse than what
existed in Apartheid South Africa. One year after the
International Court of Justice ruled on the illegality
of the apartheid wall and colonial settlement
activity, the Palestinian civil society organizations
issued a call in 2005 to the world community to engage
in the same kinds of activities that helped bring an
end to Apartheid in South Africa. This includes BDS
until Israel complies with International law including
basic human rights (on issues of refugees, equality,
and ending occupation/colonization). This is the
assured road to a durable peace. We hope you will join
us as we walk it.
Adalah organization video on treatment of so called
"Israeli Arabs" (Palestinians who stayed in Palestine
despite the attempt at ethnic cleansing) tp://www.adalah.org/
newsletter/eng/mar10 /mar10.html
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a
villager at home http://www.qumsiyeh.org Professor,
Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities Chairman of the
Board, Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between
People, http://www.pcr.ps
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments