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Quote of the year
This racist theocracy [Israel] , whose only claim to legitimacy is an alleged conversation between a local deity, Yahwah, and an Iraqi shepherd named Abraham sometime in the Bronze Age, has been guilty of the most egregious crimes against the native Palestinians.
-- Author unknown

posted by LoZo 11:14 AM

 

Israel shoots demonstrators, ponders next response
(Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 29, 2003)
The shooting of an unarmed Israeli peace activist during a demonstration last week has set off a debate among Israelis over the military's response to protesters during the past three years of conflict with the Palestinians. While some say the shooting was legitimate, others say it finally forced Israelis to confront the kind of treatment Palestinian demonstrators have long faced. . . . The incident occurred Friday, when about 100 protesters gathered at the barrier Israel is building along and through parts of the West Bank to keep out Palestinian attackers. . . . The protesters demanded that the gate near the West Bank village of Mascha be opened so Palestinian farmers could tend their fields. When it was not, they cut the fence with pliers. . . . On the other side, a half-dozen Israeli soldiers, who appeared panicked and unprepared, demanded they stop, fired several bullets in the air and then shot at their legs, wounding an Israeli and an American. . . . The wounded Israeli, Gil Naamati, 21, had just completed three years of military service last month. The American, Anne Farina, 26, has been released from the hospital. . . . Military sources said the soldiers were not equipped with rubber-covered bullets or tear gas. . . . Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Cabinet on Sunday that the barrier needs to be protected but that Israel has to use appropriate means for dispersing demonstrators. . . . The army announced that it had opened two investigations into the shooting.

posted by LoZo 6:37 PM

 

Nation Mourns Loss of Fadwa Tuqan
The Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, who has died aged 86, forcefully expressed a nation's sense of loss and defiance. Moshe Dayan, the Israeli general, likened reading one of Tuqan's poems to facing 20 enemy commandos. In Martyrs Of The Intifada, Tuqan wrote of young stone-throwers: They died standing, blazing on the road

Shining like stars, their lips pressed to the lips of life
They stood up in the face of death
Then disappeared like the sun.

Yet the true power of her words derived not from warlike imagery, but their affirmation of Palestinian identity and the dream of return. In Call Of The Land (1954), she tells how a refugee is lured by the distant lights of Jaffa to cross the border, knowing he will lose his life.
In a gentler sequel, Tuqan depicts herself as a link in the chain of history:

I ask nothing more
Than to die in my country
To dissolve and merge with the grass,
To give life to a flower
That a child of my country will pick,
All I ask
Is to remain in the bosom of my country
As soil,
Grass,
A flower.

She was born in Nablus, shortly before the Balfour declaration promised the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine. . . . Israel, however, was not her only foe. Another was Arab society itself, and, in particular, its treatment of women. In her autobiography, translated as Mountainous Journey (1990), she describes how Arab women were hidden in the household like frightened birds in a crowded coop . . . Tuqan gained an international audience after her poetry was translated into English in the 1980s. Young Arab-Americans read her work to rediscover their roots; Israeli and Jewish feminists divined a sympathetic resonance from their sister across the "green line". She did not marry or have children. . . . Tuqan won poetry prizes from Italy, Greece and Jordan; gained the Palestinians' Jerusalem Award for Culture and Art in 1990; and served on the board of trustees for An-Najah University in Nablus. . . . Ultimately, Tuqan will be remembered for the potency of her poetry. To Salma Jayussi she was "a mistress of two gifts: love and pain"; a woman who undeniably preserved her people's memories and expressed their aspirations.

Fadwa Tuqan, poet, born March 1 1917; died December 12 2003

posted by LoZo 8:40 PM

 

Thought for the day
We are the only people on Earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupier ..while Israel is the only country that calls for defense from its victims.
-- Hanan Ashrawi

posted by LoZo 3:06 PM

 

Accusing Israel's Critics of anti-Semitism will Have Dangerous Consequences
(Samah Sabawi, Palestine Chronicle, November 29, 2003)
According to some Israelis we are guilty of a heinous racist crime. By criticizing Israel, we have been engaging in anti-Semitism. Imagine that! . . . Apparently a crack is created in the definition of anti-Semitism large enough to conveniently include two more groups of people; the first are the Palestinians. It seems that the Palestinians lack a good reason for not liking the young Israeli ambassadors who show up in tanks and terrorize their neighborhoods, so they�ve decided to hate them just because they are Jewish, thereby they have become anti-Semitic. This claim is preposterous for many reasons, the least of which is because the Palestinians themselves are Semites. But more so because of the million other reasons the Palestinians have to dislike and even hate Israel. I�ve heard Palestinians say, �We will fight them because they destroyed our homes,� or �we will fight them because they stole our land�, or �we will fight them because they killed our loved ones�, but I�ve never heard any Palestinian say �We will fight them because they are Jewish�. . . . The second group of people shoved under the anti-Semitic banner is made up of those who have the moral courage to point out the atrocities committed by the Israeli Government. Thereby, the label �anti-Semitic� has at times been manipulated to strengthen the tyranny of the Israeli right and to silence those who voice their discontent. . . . There was a time when the power of the �anti-Semitic� label worked like a charm. Many critics of Israel were silenced and intimidated as they took the accusation seriously � and make no mistake, it is a serious issue we are dealing with. But with time and I dare say over use, people have learned to shrug off the anti-Semitic label and carry on with their business as usual. . . . a man asked �How can one support justice for the Palestinians without being branded anti-Semitic?� Before I had a chance to respond, a woman stood up and said �So what if they call you anti-Semitic. The first time it may feel bad, but hey, trust me, you�ll get used to it. We all have!� . . . That was the first time I realized how much damage Israel has caused the Jewish people in the long run. What if we all get used to being branded ant-Semitic? After all, we constantly hear about good people we trust who are wrongly labeled anti-Semites? What if the day should come when we stop believing the charge of anti-Semitism even when it is real? How does this serve the interest of the global Jewish community? There is no question that it does not. . . . So, we may never know with certainty if there is a rise in anti-Semitism, and we will never know the scope of anti-Semitic incidents. We are unable to trust the statistics because they include along with the skinheads and the bigots respectable human rights groups, scholars, alleged �self-hating� Jews and peace activists who dared to criticize Israel. . . . This spectacle reminds me of the story about the boy who cried wolf. Israel must consider the dangerous consequences of including legitimate criticism under the anti-Semitic banner as the day may come when the world will not react with outrage over alleged anti-Semitism because there had been far too many false alarms.

posted by LoZo 5:13 PM