Tag: West Bank

Hear the Gazan People Explain Their Protests

The Electronic Intifada posted an article yesterday where young men and women participating in the ongoing Day of Return Marches along the Gaza Imprisonment Fence explain why they continue to face down Israeli bullets week after week.

The article is entitled, “Why We Protest.” Click on the title for the entire article or read the excerpt below:

It is always important to listen to the ways in which others explain themselves, their actions and their attitudes.

When it comes to understanding Israel and Palestine, this is especially important because the Western media rarely tells the entire story, substituting Israeli government talking-points for real investigation.

The worst source of information, in this regard, is Christian media. Listening to the so-called “expert analysis” provided by Christian newscasters always makes me want to scream, shout, and pull my hair out because they are no different than the mainstream when it comes to mindlessly repeating the propaganda fed to them by Israel’s government.

Here are the typical explanations for why thousands of Gazan residents gather every week, offering up their bodies for Israeli army target practice:

  1. The vast majority of the Gazan’s who march are Hamas terrorists seeking to destroy Israel.
  2. Hamas completely controls the marches, directing everyone who participates.
  3. Israel is only defending its southern border from a hoard of would-be, foreign invaders who want to enter the country illegally. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
  4. The Palestinian Authority from the West Bank is trying to take control of Gaza away from Hamas so the people are out to defend Hamas.

Yes, I have heard each of these ignorant and utterly false “explanations” expressed by some Christian “expert” providing his/her insights into the “Palestinian problem” on Christian radio.

You can also read them all in any number of Christian news magazines, both in print and online.

However, I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that not a single one of these pontificators has every been inside of Gaza, or lived with a Gazan family, or interviewed any of the people who brave the live ammunition and tear gas shot at them by Israeli soldiers week after week.

How often do these spokespeople for Christian media let their audience hear, first hand, the words and the voices of the people who are being killed and wounded week after bloody week?  Never.

Folks, this is not journalism.  Nor is it Christian.

God’s people are supposed to care about Truth. If we care about the truth, then facts matter. If we want to know the facts, then we have to engage the people who are actually involved. We have to do research. We have to investigate. We have to listen to all sides, AND be open to hearing things we never expected. We have to be even-handed. We must be willing to change our minds. We’ve got to be willing to admit that we have been wrong, that we misunderstood. We have to stop repeating the things that others tell us to believe and learn to think for ourselves.

More than that, we must be ready to repent, to confess our past errors. We must speak Truth to Power as we Speak Up for those who suffer, who are marginalized and ignored.

We have got to call sin sin, identify evil as evil, and condemn atrocities even when committed by those we call friends.

Here are only two of the stories from this article:

“More than 200 Palestinians have been killed since the launch of the Great March of Return along Gaza’s boundary with Israel on 30 March 2018.

“Palestinians participating in the protest series are demanding their right to return to the lands on the other side of the boundary from which their families were expelled decades earlier.

“Every two in three Palestinians in Gaza is a refugee.

“Protesters are also calling for an end to Israel’s land, sea and air blockade on Gaza, now in its 12th year, which has plunged the territory into poverty and despair.

“Mohammed Zaanoun, a member of the Activestills photo collective, has documented the Great March of Return since its beginning.

“Here protesters tell their stories and explain why they come back to the boundary week after week, despite Israel’s brutal crackdown.

Husam, 25, from Khan Younis, southern Gaza

“Last Friday, when I had the Palestinian flag painted on my face, I was hit by a gas canister directly in my back. I was badly injured and transferred to a hospital. I’m now being treated at home. I wish to recover so I can go [back to the protests] next Friday.

“Despite the killings and the injuries, I am still going. I think I will keep participating even if it lasts for nine years, not just nine months. One of the worst things I’ve seen was one of the Fridays during which about 60 people were killed, when they [soldiers] were killing youth randomly and shooting towards heads and legs. It was a horrific day. I felt like I was in a nightmare.

“It was so hard when I could not save one of my comrades who was bleeding on the ground after being injured by an Israeli sniper, and then he died. I can’t understand how they can kill unarmed people.

“After nine months, the world is still not doing anything. We need them to stand with us and to stop the killing of the unarmed youth by the occupying forces…

Aya, 21, from Gaza City

“I participate because it is our duty to demand our full rights, as the Palestinian people, despite the killing and the injuries. This is the march of a nation.

“I ask Avichay Adraee [the Israeli army spokesperson who advised Palestinian women on Twitter that it was best for them to stay at home] to sit next to his wife instead of spreading foolish speech. I have witnessed so many scenes of children being killed and the targeting of women, medics and the press. My oldest sister was seriously wounded but thank God she survived and she returned to the protest again. After all that time, the Return march continues and will not stop.

“I wish that the world would stop the oppression of the occupation and the killing of innocent, unarmed people. The difficult thing in my life is that I’m looking for a future amid the darkness. I wish to live in a society like any other Arab or Western society where there are no wars or killings, only justice, equality, love and peace….”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naturally, many folks (including many Christians) will accuse these people of lying. They will say, in effect, that they are not worth believing…

But why? Because they are Palestinians?

Are Palestinians not capable of telling the truth? Are they not able to think for themselves, to make up their own minds?

Such popular accusations of lying or serving as useful Hamas stooges not only express the crudest form of racism, they also reveal that the one expressing such foolishness has never put his/her life on the line for a heartfelt conviction.

How many people do you know who are willing to die for something they know is a lie?

U.S. Media Ignores Israeli Chants for Genocide While Condemning Legitimate Criticism of Pro-Zionist Lobby Groups

I am offering this post to highlight the stark contrast that exists between the way U.S. news outlets cover criticism of Israel (think of Rep. Ilhan Omar) vs. the way it covers, or fails to cover, truly horrific, racist events in Israel itself.

The difference is telling.

The events described in the article below occurred in 2016.  Think back two

A large anti-Palestinian rally in Tel Aviv. The sign says, Kill Them All

years ago. Can you remember hearing a news story describing these anti-Palestinian rallies in Tel Aviv?

Compare the number of times you’ve heard a public figure suggest that Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite with the number of similar condemnations you’ve heard of these despicable Israeli demonstrations.

The article was written by Whitney Webb, a reporter for Mint Press News. She describes an anti-Palestinian rally in Tel Aviv, Israel.  The article is entitled, “Thousands of Israelis Take to the Streets Calling for Palestinian Genocide.”

Israel in 2016 was no different than it is today. No, I take that back. Israel in 2019 may be worse.

While mainstream America, including too many of our politicians, are ready to muzzle Israel’s critics, a sizeable portion of Israeli citizens publicly advocate racist violence against Palestinians.

So, which is the more “dangerous” type of speech?  Ilhan Omar’s criticism of the power of pro-Zionist lobbying groups in D.C.?  Or large public rallies in Israel calling for the genocide of the Palestinian people?

You can read the entire article by clicking on the title above.  I also provide an excerpt below:

“Israeli government concern over recent violence has led them to arrest Palestinians for social media content that could potentially lead to crimes. So far, 145 Palestinians have been arrested this year for ‘pre-crime’ via social media ‘incitement.’ This practice eventually led to a collaboration between Facebook and the Israeli government, whose joint effort to curb social media ‘incitement’ has led to the banning of several Facebook accounts of Palestinian journalists and news agencies.

“However, social media, as well as mainstream Western media, have failed to condemn Israeli ‘incitement’ against Palestinians, a practice that is surprisingly

Another anti-Palestinian rally in Israel, photographed by Dan Cohen, a Jewish-American journalist. The crowd was chanting, Death to Arabs.

common considering the little to no attention it receives. Often these anti-Palestinian posts, pictures, and rallies are rife with calls for genocide, with cries of ‘Death to the whole Arab nation’ and ‘Kill them all’ surprisingly common.

“Even the Times of Israel ran an op-ed article about ‘When Genocide is Permissible’ in reference to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Though the post was eventually taken down, it points to an all-too-common and dangerous mentality that social media, the Israeli government, and Western media ‘conveniently’ ignore.

“An Israeli news agency even put the then-suspected preferential treatment to the test and found that Facebook and the Israeli authorities treated calls for revenge from Palestinians and Israelis very differently.

“Even massive rallies calling for Palestinian genocide have been ignored entirely by social media and the corporate press. Earlier this year in April, a massive anti-Palestinian rally took place in Tel Aviv where thousands called for the death of all Arabs. The rally was organized to support an Israeli soldier who killed an already-wounded Palestinian by shooting him execution-style in the head…

“A Jewish reporter at the scene remarked that it seemed ‘more like a celebration of murder than anything.’ Despite the obvious animosity and incitement made evident at the rally, it isn’t difficult to imagine what the response would have been if this has been a pro-Palestinian rally calling for the deaths of Jews. The stark divide between what is permissible for Palestinians and what is permissible for Israelis should concern us all as the widespread bias of social media, the press, and many governments threaten to blind us from the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Israel Loves Collective Punishment

Osama bin-Laden’s writings explain that the 9/11 Al Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers was a response to US imperialism in the Middle East; particularly the presence of American troops on Saudi Arabian soil.  That was a defilement of the holy land, in his eyes.

Bin-Laden justified the mass-murder attack in the heart of New York City because, in his mind, all Americans were equally guilty for the crimes of U.S. forces around the world.

Bin-Laden saw American civilians in the same way that many 19th century military commanders viewed Native Americans.  They were all equally guilty of resisting white settlement.  Therefore, all of them, including women, children and the elderly, were legitimate targets for white retribution.

Israel thinks the same way about Palestinians. As a nation, Israel stands in the same moral league as Osama bin-Laden and Col. John Chivington (the man responsible for the Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in 1864).

Gaza bombarded again

Once again, Israel is bombing the people of Gaza after several Israeli’s were tragically killed when their home was struck by a rocket fired from within Gaza.

Personally, I wish everyone would stop dropping bombs and firing rockets.

Both sides are behaving like Osama bin-Laden.  But there is no question that Israel remains the aggressor, the instigator of this entire horrible tragedy. How long will this Zionist state keep the people of Gaza locked up inside their open-air prison, with minimal food supplies and no –that’s right, NO – sources for clean drinking water anywhere?

Israel has always used this strategy of collective punishment.

I have seen it with my own eyes.

We were living with friends in the West Bank during the run up to Israel’s last assault on Gaza in 2014, Operation “Protective Edge.”

Three Israeli settlers from one of the many illegal settlements popping up

Operation Brother’s Keeper, every member of the Hamas political party was arrested and jailed

around the West Bank like mushrooms on steroids were kidnapped and later found dead. (I may write about the supposed search and rescue efforts – called Operation Brother’s Keeper – which swirled around us that summer in a future post.)

Israel had identified two suspects, though they never released any evidence to verify their definitive claims. Israeli officials said the two men were members of Hamas (the party that now governs Gaza), even though Hamas representatives not only vehemently denied the connection, but insisted that Hamas had nothing to do with the kidnappings.

The Hamas argument was entirely believable, given that Hamas was in delicate negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (the group that governs the West Bank) to form a unity government. Jeopardizing those negotiations with such a senseless stunt, knowing that it would bring down the wrath of Israel, made no sense at all.  (By the way, Israel’s government at that time hated the idea of a unified Palestinian government.)

We had become friends with an independent photojournalist that summer.  One evening she learned that the Israeli military was entering Hebron on a search and destroy mission. They intended to arrest their two suspects or at least let the Palestinian community know the consequences of not handing them over.

Our journalist friend intended to document the mayhem, and I was going along to take photos of my own.  Late into the night we searched for transportation to Hebron, but every effort failed.  Reports were circulating about gangs of Jewish settlers roaming the streets, together with the soldiers, attacking Palestinian cars and pedestrians.  No one was willing to drive us.

In the morning, we caught the first public bus to Hebron.  My friend had heard that Israel soldiers had bombed two Palestinian homes.  Since the soldiers were unable to find the two suspects, they located two family homes of the suspects’ relatives and destroyed them completely.

Eventually, we found both homes.  The shell-shocked families led us through the ruins.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, was left intact.  You can see it all for yourself in the accompanying photos.

Anything that was breakable was broken.  Everything shreddable had been shredded. All foodstuffs were torn from their bags or containers and strewn everywhere.

Both families were made to sit at a table and watch as the soldiers ridiculed them, hitting, kicking and slapping them, insisting that they tell them the whereabouts of their accused cousins.

Finally, once every nook and cranny of the homes were made unlivable, the soldiers walked upstairs to detonate a bomb in the family room.

Both explosions sent concrete walls flying through the air, opening large, gaping wounds blackened by flames. Fires raged throughout the remains as both families were forced to watch their belongings go up in smoke.  Once the soldiers left, they were free to put out the fires as best they could.

As I walked through the ruins, taking in the heartlessness and injustice of it all, I thought of General Sherman’s strategy of eliminating the American Indian.  His subordinates received explicit commands to kill, burn and destroy everything and everyone they met.  Attacking an Indian village meant that nothing was left standing.

Collective punishment has always been at the heart of Israel’s Palestinian policy.

Imagine that you are awakened late one night by soldiers kicking down your front door. Your children are pulled out of their beds and everyone is made to sit at the kitchen table.

Then the soldiers inform you that your second cousin (on your mother’s side) is suspected of a serious crime.  If you don’t tell the police where to find him, they will destroy you home.

Think about that.

Your cousin is suspected of a crime.  He has not been arrested or charged, much less tried or convicted. No evidence of your cousin’s involvement has been presented anywhere. Not in court; not on a charge sheet; and certainly not in the media.

The government can simply make a naked, unsubstantiated accusation. And on the basis of that accusation, your home will be demolished.  Why?  Because you are related to the accused.

Yep.  That, my friends, is what passes as “justice” for Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

Similar situations occur over and over again, month after month in the Occupied Territories.

And people wonder why rockets fly out of Gaza…

Out of the Mouth of Bibi

“Out of the mouths of babes,” so the old saying goes.  Children, in their naivete, are often more familiar with the truth than those jaded grown-ups talking in “grown-up” speak all around them.

But sometimes speaking the truth can also help the cynical prime minister of Israel jockeying for position in his upcoming, national elections.

Bibi is trying to woo the right.  He has always been a right-winger, but he is desperately working to polish his ethnocratic-Jewish-nationalist credentials.

So, baby Bibi (aka Benjamin) Netanyahu dared to speak the truth about Israel’s institutionalized, state-run racism — Israeli democracy is not for everyone, but only for its Jewish citizens.

That’s what he said.  Netanyahu was prompted to lay bare the ugly truth about life in Israel by a

Israeli actress, Rotem Sela

posting on social media from the Israeli actress Rotem Sela.  (You can read the complete story about this racial broo-haha in Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post newspapers.)

In response to a televised political interview promoting Israel’s Jewish exclusiveness, Ms. Sela wrote a social media posting saying that:

“Israel is a country for all its citizens. And every person was born equal. Arabs, too, God help us, are human beings. And so are the Druze. And so are gays, by the way, and lesbians, and…shock…leftists.”

In reply, Netanyahu uploaded a picture of himself against the backdrop of an Israeli flag, and said:

“Dear Rotem, an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens.

Bibi Netanyahu

According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People – and them alone.” (emphasis mine)

You can read about the other Israeli celebrities, including the actress who played Wonder Woman, jumping into the debate here.  The article is entitled “Wonder Woman vs. Bibi.”

What I find amazing about this Israeli conversation is not the prime minister’s willingness to openly admit that Israel is NOT a nation for all its citizens.  Nor am I surprised to read about celebrities giving voice to their humanitarian instincts, desiring justice and equality for all of Israel’s citizens.

What amazes me the most is the utter lack of self-understanding, the absence of any cultural or historical awareness on the part of these Israeli “liberals” who can say things as:

“Israel is a country for all its citizens. And every person was born equal. Arabs, too, God help us, are human beings.”

Really?  Since when?, I wonder.

I wonder, has Ms. Sela ever  lived in an Arab (read Palestinian) neighborhood, either in Israel or the Occupied Territories?

Has she seen the gross inequality for herself?

Has she ever witnessed the daily experience of Israeli Palestinians whose

A Palestinian family in East Jerusalem. Israeli authorities demolished their home because the state wants their property for Jewish construction

schools, hospitals, trash collectors (and every other sector of public services) are dramatically under-funded in comparison to the wealthy, well-subsidized Jewish neighborhoods nearby?

Has she watched the weekly slaughter of Palestinian protesters in Gaza, innocent men, women and young people being gunned down by the beloved Israeli army?

The results of Israeli bombing in Gaza

Has she ever watched the daily dehumanization suffered by Palestinians in the West Bank as Israeli soldiers abuse them for doing nothing more than walking to school or driving to a neighbor’s house?

Sure, many resident Palestinians are technically “citizens of Israel.”  But they are always second-class citizens.  Just as African-Americans were second-class citizens in this country long after they had received the right to vote.

I once asked a member of an Israeli leftist organization working to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, how it was possible for an entire society to exist where the vast majority of the people refuse to see, or cannot see, the gross injustices daily inflicted upon its Palestinian population.

After a pause, she shook her head and said:

“Zionism has done an amazing job at branding an illusion.  It’s a collective psychosis.”

So, while I admire these celebrity instincts, we also need to challenge Rotem Sela and her friends to shake off their Zionist psychosis.

To raise a ruckus, challenge, confront and overthrow the entire, elaborate, dehumanizing affair known as political Zionism, from top to bottom.

Dig down to the roots and pull it all out. It has always been rotten to the core.

Mr. Levy Highlights the All-Pervasive Racism of Israeli Politics

Rabbi Meir Kahane (1932-1990) was an American-Israel orthodox rabbi,

5/18/1989, MAY 19 1989, NOV 7 1990, DEC 22 1991 Land Mark Inn, Rabbi Meir Kahane, who wants Arabs deported
Credit: The Denver Post

murdered by an assassin in New York City on November 5, 1990.

Among his several claims to “fame,” he was co-founder of the Jewish Defense League, and a convicted terrorist (along with other members of the extremist JDL) who advocated the complete elimination of all Palestinians from Israel.

He emigrated to Israel in 1971 and founded the Kach political party, a racist, far-right, anti-Arab organization whose extreme-Zionist ideology he represented as a member of the Israeli Knesset from 1984 – 1988.

Even though the Kach party no longer exists, Israel’s orthodox community is filled with “Kahanists” who maintain a vocal presence in Israeli politics.  They are Israel’s equivalent of the Klu Klux Klan, with a sizeable, noisy membership, openly campaigning for the expulsion of all black people from their country.

With national elections on the horizon, Meir Kahane still has many devotees loudly demonstrating in favor of his racist policies.

Gideon Levy’s newest piece in Haaretz describes the role of Kahanist-style racism as it interacts with Israel’s garden-variety racism in the current political campaign.  The article is entitled, “The Kahanists Make It Easy to Ignore Everyone Else’s Racism.”

I have excerpted Levy’s piece below.  You can read the entire story by clicking on the link above.

“Kahanism is bad for racism. It gives racism a bad name, which it doesn’t have in Israel. It shakes Israeli racism out of its tranquility and correctness, exposes it and generates opposition to it. On the other hand, this opposition is good for respectable racists, allowing people who aren’t all that less racist to be portrayed as moderate and moral — downright champions of human rights.

“The influence of the Kahanists on public debate should not be underestimated. Because of them, one can live comfortably in the settlement of Shilo and dare to talk about principles…

“Kahanism allows the rest of the racists to feel good; we are not like them…

“These Israeli neo-Nazis are genuinely repulsive and despicable…

“But contaminating the debate isn’t the worst damage they wreak. They conceal the other racism, institutionalized and accepted racism, which causes more harm

Dr. Michael Ben-Ari

to its victims. To live in a country that imprisons 2 million people and to be shocked by Ben Ari [see my note below] is outrageous. To be part of a society that abuses an additional 2 million people while clicking one’s tongue over a threat to an Arab waiter is arrogance.

“Most of the Zionist parties are full partners in the Israeli race project; some even have founding shares. They are partners to the crime — from the ethnic cleansing in 1948, through the military government in the Little Triangle and the Galilee, to the days of military tyranny in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They have no moral right to condemn the Kahanists, because sometimes the Kahanists are only saying what the others are thinking.

“Of course there are degrees of evil and of racism… When Europe boycotts its extreme right — which is, by the way, more moderate than Israel’s non-extreme right — it’s relatively enlightened leaders who are doing so. Here, it’s respectable racists boycotting disreputable racists.”

[Dr. Michael Ben-Ari is an Israeli politician currently running for the Knesset.  As a disciple of Meir Kahane, he was a member of Kahane’s Kach party.  He once tore up a copy of the New Testament on the Knesset floor, calling it a despicable book responsible for the Holocaust, which belonged “in history’s trash can.” He resides in the illegal, Jewish-only settlement of Karnaei Shomron just west of Nablus in the West Bank.  This colonial-settlement is located on Palestinian land forcefully confiscated from four different Palestinian villages.  Read more about it here.]

Israel Imprisons Palestinian Legislator without Charge, Detained for 20 Months and Counting

Israeli leaders, and their Zionist cohorts, frequently describe themselves as “the only democracy in the Middle East.”  But as Gideon Levy points out in his lasted piece at Haaretz, this claim can only be accepted if we redefine “democracy” to mean “an ethnocratic state providing democracy to Jews while confining all others to a police-state devoid of liberty or due process of law.”

Levy’s article is entitled, “Remember: Israel is Still Holding a Palestinian Law Maker as Political Prisoner Indefinitely.”  I have excerpted his article below.  You can read the entire piece by clicking on the title above.

Palestinian legislator, Kalida Jarrar, being imprisoned indefinitely, without charges or trial, in an Israeli military prison

“Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar has been incarcerated in an Israeli jail without a trial for 20 months. Another period of ‘administrative detention’ will soon expire. Will she come home?

“Khalida Jarrar is Israel’s No. 1 female political prisoner, the leader of the inmates in Damon Prison, on Mt. Carmel, and the most senior Palestinian woman Israel has jailed, without her ever having been convicted of any offense.

“The public struggle for her release has been long and frustrating, with more resonance abroad than in Israel. Here it encounters the implacable walls of the occupation authorities and the startling indifference of Israeli public opinion: People here don’t care that they’re living under a regime in which there are political prisoners. There is also the silence of the female MKs and the muteness of the women’s organizations.

“Haaretz has devoted no fewer than five editorials demanding either that evidence against her be presented or that she be released immediately. To no avail: Jarrar is still in detention and she still hasn’t been charged…

“…Reminder: On April 2, 2015, troops of the Israel Defense Forces raided the Jarrar family’s home in El Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah, and abducted Khalida, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

“She was placed in administrative detention. In the wake of international protests over Israel’s arrest without charges of a lawmaker who was elected democratically, the occupation authorities decided to try her. She was indicted on 12 counts, all of them utterly grotesque, including suspicion of visiting the homes of prisoners’ families, suspicion of attending a book fair and suspicion of calling for the release of Ahmad Saadat, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who has been in prison for years.

“The charge sheet against Jarrar – an opponent of the occupation, a determined feminist and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee – will one day serve as the crushing proof that there is not even the slightest connection between “military justice” and actual law and justice…

“…During Khalida’s last arrest, recalls her husband, IDF soldiers and Shin Bet security service agents burst into the house by force in the dead of night. They entered Suha’s (their daughter) room and woke her up. He remembers how she shouted, panic-stricken at the sight of the rifles being brandished by strange men in her bedroom wearing black masks, and how the soldiers handcuffed her from behind. As Ghassan replays the scene in his mind and remembers his daughter’s shouts, he grows distraught, as if it had happened this week.

“Not knowing know what the soldiers were doing to her there, and only hearing her shouts, he tried to come to his daughter’s rescue, he recalls. He says he was almost killed by the soldiers for trying to force his way into Suha’s bedroom.

“After the soldiers took Khalida, preventing Ghassan from even kissing her goodbye, despite his request – he discovered his daughter, bound by plastic handcuffs.”

 

 

No, Mr. President, Israel’s Border Wall Has Not Worked

President Trump regularly appeals to Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims about the supposed success of Israel’s border wall with the West Bank as ironclad evidence in favor of his own border wall plans with Mexico.

The problem is, it’s not true.

The wall dividing Israel from the West Bank has not “worked” to stop terrorism, but then that was never its actual intent.  It has, on the other hand, been very successful in accomplishing its actual purpose, which Israel will never acknowledge in public.

Here’s why:

First, it is true that after Israel began construction of its separation/annexation wall during the Second Intifada in 2000, terrorist attacks within Israel came to a slow but steady halt.  But in 2001, Hamas leaders (the organization headquartered in Gaza largely responsible for the suicide bombings) claimed that their decision was driven by internal, political considerations and had nothing to do with Israel’s wall.  Check out this 2001 article in the British newspaper, The Independent, “Hamas Orders Halt to Suicide Bomb Attacks.”

Of course, Hamas leaders could be lying about their motives in order to save face.  But I suspect not, for the simple reason that Israel’s wall is not much of a barrier to the determined terrorist.

I have seen people climb over the wall quite easily.

Long stretches of the wall are nothing more than a fence, mostly strung up in far-flung, isolated areas.  It would be easy for a would-be bomber to dig under, climb over or cut through this fence at any number of spots where they would never be seen, or long-gone by the time a border patrol appeared.

This is why I believe Hamas is telling the truth.  They chose to stop their bombing campaign because it was costing them support for their cause in the international community and creating division within the membership of the Palestinian Authority.

Second, regardless of all this, touting the awesome success of Israel’s “wall” makes for great P.R. among the Zionist community.  It also provides a good illustration of a classic logical fallacy.  It’s just a shame that logic never stood in the way of a Zionist hoping to score political points – especially when that Zionist’s name is Benjamin Netanyahu.

Perhaps you have heard of the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.  If not, I’ll clue you in.  It’s a Latin phrase meaning “after this, therefore because of this.”  Its purpose is to point out the invalid assumption that just because one event follows after another event, we cannot assume that the first event was the cause of the other.

Yes, the rooster crows every morning just moments before sunup.  That doesn’t mean, however, that Mr. Sunshine is hovering below the horizon, waiting for Mr. Rooster’s signal.

In other words, correlation is not proof of causation.

Just because suicide bombings ended soon after Israel began building its separation wall is not proof, in and of itself, that suicide bombings ended because of the wall.  We must search for other evidence to prove this claim to be either true or false.

I think that the wall’s easy permeability – any determined bomber could get through if he/she wanted to – tips the scales in favor of believing Hamas’ own explanation:  they chose to stop using that particular tactic.

So, NO.  When president Trump says over and over again that these walls are always 99.9% effective, he is simply one presidential blow-hard mimicking another presidential blow-hard’s propaganda point. But then, both of these men, Trump and Netanyahu, are 99.9% die-hard political opportunists and only 0.1% intelligent thinkers – and I suspect even that figure is too generous for Trump.

Third, without going into the background here, political Zionism has a very, very long history of believing in the need for a literal wall of some sort to isolate Israel from the bloodthirsty Arab hordes around them.  Their current isolation/separation/annexation barrier is the product of Zionist colonial racism.  If you want to learn more about this issue, read Avi Shlaim’s important book, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (W.W. Norton, 2000).

The only way in which this wall has actually “worked” has been its success in illegally expropriating more land for Israel, in stopping Palestinian farmers and herdsmen from tending their flocks, their fields and their orchards, in dividing villages and families.

Israel’s wall is only one more Zionist tactic for stealing Palestinian land and oppressing the people of the West Bank.

In that way, it works marvelously.

Forward Magazine: “Does Israel Have the Right to Exist?”

Yousef Munayyer has an excellent article in the Forward entitled “‘Does Israel Have a Right to Exist’ Is a Trick Question.”  Mr. Munayyer provides an

Yousef Munayyer

excellent demonstration in critical thinking and the value of recognizing a leading question when asked.

Asking this question, do you recognize Israel’s right to exist?, is a favorite “go-to” strategy for Zionist apologists when debating critics of Israel.  It can arise in different forms.  Another favorite is the Zionist accusation that non-Zionist criticisms of Israeli policies “delegitimize” the state.

What does that mean, “to delegitimize Israel”?

The implied answer is that critics of Israel’s Zionist policies are denying Israel’s right to exist.  It’s another rhetorical trap.  Don’t fall for it.

Below is an excerpt from Mr. Munayyer’s article.  You can find the entire piece here.

“The truth is that no state has a ‘right to exist’ — not Israel, not Palestine, not the United States. Neither do Zimbabwe, Chile, North Korea, Saudi Arabia or Luxembourg have a “right to exist.”

“States do exist; there are about 200 in our world today, even though there are thousands of ethno-religious or ethno-linguistic groups.

“And these states don’t exist because they have a ‘right’ to. They exist because certain groups of people amassed enough political and material power to make territorial claims and establish governments, sometimes with the consent of those already living there and, oftentimes, at their expense.

“Most people understand this. I’ve never heard anyone demand to know whether Switzerland, or even the United States, has ‘a right to exist.’ States come and go over time; borders can change, names can change, regimes can change and yes, discriminatory systems underpinning regimes can change, too. But one state demands to be beyond reproach through a mythical ‘right to exist’: Israel.

“Can you imagine asking indigenous Americans and indigenous rights activists — fighting for the rights of a population whose languages, societies, culture and possessions were categorically decimated in the process of erecting the United States — whether the United States has a ‘right to exist’?

“That you can’t imagine this is testimony to the disingenuousness of the question. For this question is asked — almost always of critics of Israel’s policies — not for the purposes of debate and discourse, but rather, to create a gotcha moment, to undermine the credibility of the person questioned.

“It is intellectually dishonest and intended, almost always, to silence critics and criticism of Israeli policies.

“Worse, factors like the unfortunate though all-too-often-commonplace conflation of the State of Israel with Judaism and world Jewry, coupled with the awful history of persecution Jews have faced, mean that anyone who doesn’t answer the question about Israel’s right to exist with an unequivocal ‘yes’ risks being portrayed as an eliminationist radical worthy of labels like ‘anti-Semite’ and otherwise marginalized.

“In other words, it’s a set-up.

“Criticizing Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people, including during its establishment and since, in the form of discriminatory policies against refugee repatriation, should never be conflated with eliminationism. The policies of all states should be open to criticism.

“…it is humans, not states, that have a right to exist. This includes all people: those who identify as Israelis and Palestinians alike, along with seven billion others.

“People also have a whole set of other rights — human rights, which states cannot deny. These include the right to free movement, the right to consent to being governed, the right to enter and exit their country, the right not to be tortured or collectively punished, and so on.

“It is by guaranteeing these rights and only by guaranteeing them that states derive their moral legitimacy; it is not from some mythical ‘right to exist’ or even the historical need of their people, but rather from the extent to which their policies respect the rights of people.

“The question should not be ‘Does Israel have a right to exist’ but rather, ‘Is the way in which Israel exists right?’”

A Story of Christian Self-Denial in Palestine

Terry and I always make a point of worshiping with Bethlehem Evangelical Church whenever we are visiting the West Bank.  On this occasion I took some time to visit and have coffee with pastor Nihad Salman.  I specifically wanted to talk with him about what it is like to be a Christian leader in the Occupied Territory.

Pastor Salman not only answered my questions, he provided a moving example of what it means to live a life devoted to faithful Christian discipleship.  The Christian population in Gaza and the West Bank has dropped dramatically in recent decades, not so much because of “Muslim extremism” (though it certainly can be difficult for Christians to live freely in a predominately Muslim society) but because of the many pressures and insecurities created by Israel’s military occupation.

Pastor Salman’s repeated message to me were these words of Jesus, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross

Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity

and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”  (Matthew 16:24-25)

Whoever loses their life for Jesus’ sake will find it.

Whoever works to save their life will lose it.

Nihad repeated those words over and over again in the course of our conversation…with a great big smile on his face.  And he shared story after beautiful story of the ways in which God’s grace is changing lives in the West Bank.

Many members of Nihad’s extended family have moved to the United States.  They regularly call trying to persuade him to relocate with his family as well.  “You can pastor another church here in America,” they insist.  “Your children will have more opportunities with better educational choices.  Get out of there while you can.”

Becoming a parent can sometimes become the greatest stumbling block to

Illegal Jewish Settlements are surrounding Bethlehem cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank

faithful discipleship.  Which is the reason Jesus warns us that his followers must love Him more than their own children.  He said, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

So, this is what Nihad tells his family living in America: “Yes, my children could have better opportunities for important universities and high-paying jobs in the United States.  Yes, they may only have basic employment here and never make much money or have the opportunities your children will have.”

 “But Jesus has called me to be a pastor in Bethlehem.  He tells me that I must lose my life for His sake if I am to find true life at all.  And that includes the lives of my children.  They, too, must learn to lose their lives for Jesus. And we are all finding a wonderful life of mercy and grace here in the West Bank.”

Yes, I had the privilege of drinking coffee, praying and reading scripture

The light of the gospel is shining brightly in Bethlehem

with a saint in Bethlehem.

I was encouraged by Nihad’s model of genuine Christian discipleship, for here is a man who has said No to himself and Yes to our crucified, resurrected Lord Jesus.

This is what real Christianity looks like in every part of the world.

Please remember to pray for Pastor Salman, his family and the ever-expanding ministry of Bethlehem Evangelical Church.

P.S.  This particular church is not alone.  Over the years, Terry and I have worshiped with a wide variety of Christian churches throughout the Bethlehem area.  The gospel is being proclaimed widely by many faithful men and women in Palestine.

Evangelicals Share in War Crimes Remaining Blind to Oppression All Around Them

Every time I return to Israel’s Occupied Territory, I am taken aback by the irreversible transformations foisted onto the resident Palestinians by Israel’s illegal settlements project.

Every year, more and more hilltops sprout cookie-cutter apartment blocks, all covered by the same red-brick tiles, stretching end-to-end from one

Ariel settlement in the West Bank

settlement rooftop to the next.  Older settlements have grown.  Newer settlements appear as if by magic.  All of them shamelessly blushing brick-red under heaven’s gaze.

What little forest and greenery once existed in this barren land has been uprooted, plowed under and paved over to make way for more Jewish settlers, a good many of whom come from the United States, happy to take advantage of the many financial enticements Israel offers to this new generation of “pioneers.”

Several weeks ago, the Israeli daily paper Haaretz published an interesting exposé about this settler movement, and its sad ties to American evangelicalism.  It is entitled:  “Inside the Evangelical Money Flowing Into the West Bank.”

The article details the vast sums of money being donated by U.S. Christian Zionists to Israel’s illegal settler movement.

According to Haaretz, “the total amount of funding raised in the past 10 years [is] somewhere between $50 million and $65 million.”

Yep, $50 to $65 million US dollars channeled from Christian coffers into the

An American family of Christian Zionists volunteering in an illegal settlement

last western, settler-colonial project occurring in direct violation of international law.

Believe it or not, it is another of the many bizarre ways in which Israel continues to mimic the behavior of Nazi Germany and every other settler-colonial project in history.  I kid you not.

Check out the Fourth Geneva Convention, if you’ve never read it.  Especially Section III, article 49 dealing with Occupied Territories.  The most relevant portions declare:

“Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.

 “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Written during a time of rising anti-colonial sentiment, this portion of the Geneva Convention was also drafted in the shadow of Hitler’s massive population transfers throughout Eastern Europe prior to the outbreak of World War II.  After his conquest of Poland in 1939, Hitler announced:

“a new order of ethnographical conditions, that is to say, a resettlement of nationalities in such a manner that the process ultimately results in the obtaining of better dividing lines.” 

Populations would be moved about in order to benefit the expansion of

American volunteers helping with an illegal grape harvest in Occupied Territory

ethnic Germans.

Hitler’s explicit goal was to protect all Germans in Europe who were “threatened with de-Germanization.”

THAT is the primary motive behind the inclusion of Section III, article 49 in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

How tragically ironic that the offspring of Holocaust survivors who found refuge in Israel now implement a similar ethnographic plan intended to “Judaize” Samaria and Judea (aka the West Bank) by means of massive population transfers, i.e. native Palestinians are being pushed out so that foreign, Jewish settlers can move in.

This is why Israel’s settler project in the Occupied Territory is illegal, folks.  It’s illegal because it would make Hitler proud.  It violates the Geneva Conventions, which was spearheaded by the United States.

Only weeks ago, I was driving past many of these settlements as my

Illegal settlements funded by Christian donations from the US

Palestinian friend pointed out the numerous, new expansions now under construction.  In several cases, he also told me the stories of how the Israeli authorities had, once again, used their laughable “laws” of land ownership to “legally” confiscate, i.e. steal, more of this Palestinian real estate.

As I read this article (and another on the same subject) I am struck by the near complete absence of any reference to the native inhabitants of this land – the Palestinian people.  When passing reference is made to the “other” folks who were living here long before the state of Israel, they are noted in passing as the restless hostiles who really ought to give up their struggle, if they know what’s good for them.

One American Zionist, working as a volunteer picking illegal grapes in an illegal vineyard rooted in stolen land, calmly passes judgement, “It’s impossible to remove the settlers from here, as long as they believe in the Bible.  The solution to the conflict will be for the media to stop encouraging the Arabs’ uprising and encourage them to live together with the Jews.”

So, I guess it’s all the media’s fault.  Too many reporters agitating the hapless Palestinians who, apparently, aren’t able to think for themselves.

But it’s hard for anyone “to live together” with the marauders who invaded your property, taken control of your home, pushed you out, made you homeless, and then warns you repeatedly not to put down new roots whenever you try to make a new start.

Another American volunteer confirms the Zionist prejudice that all Palestinians are violent agitators:

“Last February a number of [volunteers in an illegal settlement] found themselves in the midst of a clash between settlers and Palestinians near Har Bracha. According to them, Palestinians from the nearby village of Iraq Burin attacked them with stones while they were in the vineyard.

“The Har Bracha security coordinator came and fired on the Palestinians, who say they were defending their lands, wounding a shepherd.”

But, of course, the American visitor never bothered to learn the first thing about the history of this conflict.  He certainly does not know why he is helping these settlers to break international law.  He knows nothing about the resident Palestinians who have long depended on this very piece of land for their own livelihoods.  He has never ventured beyond the walls and electrified fence surrounding his settlement. He certainly has never asked a Palestinian about the difficulties of living under military occupation while watching strangers pick fruit from your soil.

As with most western accounts, there is no back-story; the narrative begins ex nihilo with a “Palestinian attack” that comes out of nowhere, seemingly for no reason.  It’s just another story about those pesky Injuns doin’ what Injuns do best.  Makin’ trouble, hinderin’ the advance of western civilization.

Christian Zionists are remarkably incurious people, by and large.  Rarely do they ask if the Palestinians might have a good reason to be angry.  If they did, they would hear stories about the many previous assaults launched against them by Israeli soldiers and the very settlers they are now helping to protect.

They might also stop to think about why they are helping Israel do for Jews in the Middle East what Hitler hoped to do for ethnic Germans in eastern Europe.

I encourage you to take a few moments to check out these articles for yourself.