Quote
Of The Day: Arab-US Relations - Supporting Dictators That
Are Keeping Their Own Societies In Misery
30 July 2010By Mazin Qumsiyeh
“[The US gave] $392 million in rehabilitating and
training PA [Palestinian Authority] security forces
since 2007 - more than $160 million to fund certain
units of the security forces, $89 million for vehicles
and nonlethal equipment, $99 million for the
renovation or construction of PA security forces'
installations and $22 million in programs to increase
the forces' capacity. The State Department has
requested an additional $150 million for 2011.”
Haaretz
I am in Istanbul, Turkey where we (3 Palestinians plus
17 others from many countries) attended a workshop
exploring development of curricula on nonviolent or
popular resistance. The examples used include Eastern
Europe, South Africa, Latin America, Palestine and
elsewhere. It was a very useful opportunity to network
and reflect on our common human struggles and
strategize as to how to advance the causes of justice
around the globe. The country is very beautiful, grand
mosques and grand parks, good food, and friendly down
to earth people. Many Arabs are here on vacations.
Mosques are busy. The city is bustling. Everyone who
finds out we are Palestinian is happy to see us. I can
see why Turkish people mobilized the humanitarian aid
ships to break the illegal siege on Gaza. Today, we
crossed from the European part of Istanbul to the
Asian side of the same city. This is truly at the
crossroad of Europe and Asia. I believe letting Turkey
join the European Union and insisting on respect for
human rights in all the countries bordering the
Mediterranean (starting with Israel), would be in the
best interest of Europe and Asia.
While here, the usual mix of bad and good news are
received. In bad news, the Israeli occupied US
congress is trying to pass a resolution that will give
the green light to Israel to attack Iran! Meanwhile
there is no resolution to condemn Israel for
ethnically cleansing yet another village(to add to the
hundreds of Palestinian villages depopulated in the
past 62 years. Wikeleaks published on its cite
thousands of classified documents on Afghanistan
showing that US and NATO forces and intelligence
community know this war is not winnable. The war now
its 9th year claims more lives and treasures. The
documents validated my long-held belief that unless
the USand Europe shed the policies that created
fundamentalism, fundamentalism will continue to grow.
These policies include a) the unconditional support of
Israeli violations of human rights and International
law, b) the support of ‘friendly’ dictators that are
keeping their own societies in misery (while claiming
verbally to support human rights and International
Law).
In good news, the legal case for Al-Walaja moved in a
positive direction as the court decided to reopen the
case and ask the Israeli government to rethink why, if
the wall is for security purposes, why can’t ot be
built on the Green line. The Court also rejected a
settler petition to include all Al-Walaja behin the
wall on the so called ‘Israeli side’. (Article in
Arabic on Al-Walaja decision http://www.panet.co.il/online/articles/1/2/S-317185,1,2.html).
In other good news, Bishop Munib Younan was elected
president of the Lutheran World Federation.
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/experience/lwi-assembly-news/news-detail/article/520/8/
ACTION: Help the legal struggles in different
countries against Israeli war crimes and crimes
against humanity: http://www.humanrightsfund.org/
URGENT: Thousands of Israeli apartheid forces
ethnically cleanse and demolished the Bedouin village
of El-Araqib in the Negev. Pictures at http://www.amgadalarab.com/
?todo=view&cat=2&id=00002880 Please write to media,
politicians etc. Yeela Raanan wrote earlier ”The
village of el-Araqib is between Rahat and Beer Sheva,
and in a location that the Goldberg commission deemed
outside of the areas allowed for the Negev Arabs... an
area designated only for Jews... the JNF (Jewish
National Fund) is planting a forest on this village
lands - to make sure that the Bedouin cannot live on
their village lands or use them for agriculture. The
villagers turned to the Israeli courts, as the JNF
were planting this forest at the bequest of the
Israeli government... the people of el-Araqib won the
court battle... but this morning it seems that the
Government of Israel has started a war -- of the
Government against its own citizens.” For more
information: Dr. Yeela Raanan, Regional Council for
the Unrecognized Villages (RCUV). +972 54 7487005
yallylivnat@gmail.com
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a
Villager at Home http://www.qumsiyeh.org
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EsinIslam.Com
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