Alison Weir... in 1947 with the conflict spiraling out of control Britain decided to turn the problem of Palestine over to the UN... the UN under pressure proposed to divide the land into 2 states... an Arab state/ a Jewish state... Arabs were to be given 43% of the land despite the fact that they made up more than 2/3 of the population... owned over 92% of the land... the Jews were to be given 56% although they comprised only 1/3 of the population... owned less than 8% of the total area... UN Partition Plan Arabs - given 43% of land... made up 69% of population... owned 92% of land Jews - given 56% of land... made up 31% of population... owned 8% of land Rashid Khalidi... they were given not only most of the land... they were given the most fertile land... Alison Weir...... the Zionist leaders took advantage of their superior military preparation... immediately began occupying major Arab cities in Palestine... Hava Keller... Israeli Soldier 1948 War... I was among the people that conquered the echo... we were walking around... there was a pair of shoes of a small child... maybe 2 years old... they did not have time to put on their shoes...they left the shoes... they ran away... they left everything... Rashid Khalidi... we found out that there was a systematic expulsion of Palestinians... there was an ethnic cleansing operation taking place... Alison Weir...... the most infamous campaign was the massacre at the village of Deria Yassin where over 100 men/ women/ children were systematically murdered... the ruthlessness of the attack on Deria Yassin drove fear/ panic into the Palestinian population... led to the flight of unarmed civilians from their homes all over the country... I/ my children/ my brother were hiding in this house... my brother spent the night in order to keep us company... they threw bombs at our home... my children/ I got wounded... when things calmed down the Jews broke the door down... took us out... they started to beat up my brother Musa severely... I gave a soldier some money so that he would not kill Musa... he took the money... said... you are kind-hearted... I will show you what I will do to your brother... he threw him to the ground... my brother fell down like this... face down... the soldier then pointed his gun to the head of Musa... shot him 5 times... the majority of her family members/ relatives were killed... her 2 sons/ one stepson/ her father/ mother/ her 2 brothers/ her grandparents/ her uncle/ aunt/ their children... Rashid Khalidi... as a result maybe 300,000 or so Palestinians had already been expelled before the 1st Arab soldier entered Palestine... Alison Weir...... some of the neighboring Arab armies finally intervened after May 15 1948 when Israel officially announced its statehood... James Akins... although there was a lot of war rhetoric on the Arab side... very few Arab soldiers were sent into the battlefield... actually for most part of the war there was a superiority on the side of the Israeli army... Arab Soldiers = 68,000 Jewish Soldiers = 90,000 Noam Chomsky... Middle East Analyst/ Author... the Israeli army cleansed most of the territory... took over a large part of the designated Palestinian state... Alison Weir... the new Israel state encompassed 78% of the total land of Palestine... the West Bank came under Jordanian control... the Gaza Strip under Egyptian dominion... although a truce was declared between Israel/ Arab states... true peace remained elusive as over 700,000 Palestinian refugees languished in nearby camps often in sight of homes to which they still held the deeds... a deep desire to return... Noam Chomsky... most of the deserted/ evicted Palestinian villages were erased from upon the earth... were either turned into Jewish settlements or into fertile land... James Akins... of the 500 Palestinian villages in what became Israel in 1948 400 were destroyed... Alison Weir... these efforts to destroy the possibility of their returning home were countered by the UN which continues to affirm their human right in international law/ morality to return... Phyllis Bennis... a Palestinian who had lost her land/ lost his land as a result of the creation of Israel in 1948 cannot come back even for a visit... I can go back to Israel as if I were returning... claim immediate citizenship having no historic tie... speaking no Hebrew... knowing no one in the country... having no family who ever was there... all that one needs is to be Jewish... a religious group like any other... Zionism Caused 54 Years Bloodshed in Mideast I am from Al-Quds (Jerusalem)... I am a witness... I know the Arabs... the Arabs are very good... no problem until the Zionist movement start... my grandmother tell me before Zionist movement start they babysitting kids of each other... they borrow both from each other... they were like brothers... the idea of Zionism... you take away the land from the Palestinians... from the Arabs... started all the fighting... not Arabs the problem... not Jews the problem... not Judaism... not Muslim... only Zionism... Alison Weir... the events of 1948 were a defining moment for the Middle East... from that point onward created instability throughout the region... violent tensions continued... led to another war in 1967... in that war Israel occupied the remainder of historic Palestine/ what is known today as the West Bank/ Gaza... James Akins... another myth was that Israel was about to be pushed into the sea... I was working in the State Department at that time... there was no question of Israel being pushed into the sea... the question was just the rapidity of the totality of the Israeli victory... the victory was crushing... Alison Weir... during the 1967 war Israel had displaced more than 400,000 Palestinians half of whom were 1948 refugees displaced for a 2nd time in less than 2 decades... it became clear that the world was not going to address their plight... Palestinians in Israel lived as 3rd class citizens of the state whose core identity excluded them while those in the newly occupied territories/ abroad continued as dispossessed refugees... the UN passed Resolution after Resolutions affirming their rights... leaders of surrounding Arab nations verbally championed their cause... failed to take action... finally Palestinians took matters into their own hands... there was a mass uprising... in Arabic... an intifada... shaking off... as people throughout the West Bank/ Gaza Strip rebelled... the Israeli government adopted a strategy in the words of Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin of might/ power/ beatings which became known as the break the bones strategy... thousands of Palestinians were rounded up/ imprisoned... since 1967 over 400,000... many were held without any charges whatsoever under harsh conditions where physical abuse/ torture were rampant... December 1987-December 1993 1st Intifada Palestinian civilians killed = 1,100... 250 children Jewish civilians killed = 114... 5 children by the end of 1993 the 1st Intifada wound down... for 7 years Palestinians entered a peace process with Israel... President Clinton... today we bear witness to an extraordinary act in one of the defining dramas of history... Noam Chomsky... the Oslo Peace Process begins officially with the handshake on the White House lawn... Amira Hass... Israeli Journalist for Ha´aretz... the think the main misconception is that the Oslo process were years of peace... Phyllis Bennis... in that period when there was supposed to be a peace process underway in fact the daily lives of Palestinians throughout the occupied territories got worse/ worse/ worse... the reality... I saw it with my own eyes... these people suffered a new form of Israeli domination over the Palestinians Roger Normand... Center for Economic/ Social Rights... economic/ social rights... which are rights to health/ education/ work/ etc... these areas are those that declined the worst for the majority of Palestinians... almost all Palestinians... Allegra Pacheco... all the economic indicators turned for the worst under Oslo... during this peace process... Rashid Khalidi... moreover the Israeli settlements continued to expand throughout that period... Israeli settlements doubled in size/ population... the number of Jewish settlers increased from 200,000 to 400,000 Alison Weir... at the same time that the Israeli control was expanding the Palestinian Authority was given the trappings of power over the shrinking/ non-contiguous Palestinian land being held out as a future Palestinian state... Phyllis Bennis... the challenges of governing for the Palestine Authority as extraordinarily complex... this is an authority that has very little authority... it has virtually no power... its power is derivative... it has the power that is given to it by Israel... at any moment any of those powers can be taken away... Amira Hass... it was very convenient to believe that there was an occupation... that the occupation is over... how many aspects in your life somebody else determines for you?... this is occupation... Israel could have terminated it for the last 10 years... could have terminated all of it... we hear Arafat say 10 times... a hundred times... that Ramallah is liberated... Gaza is liberated... how can it be liberated if there is an army around it?... the Palestinians officials spoke very warmly about the situation... about the reality... they were hiding the fact that the majority of the population existed in a disaster... Rashid Khalidi... those abuses... those violations of the public trust have been happening regularly since the Oslo process began... Amira Hass... the Palestinians who protested against Oslo were labeled as terrorists... the Palestinian Authority would not allow it... Rashid Khalidi... instead of having a real national authority you had this corrupt institution whose main task as far as Israel was concerned was to police the Palestinians... prevent them from resisting the continued occupation... Richard Falk... the Palestinian Authority has wasted a lot of the money the international community has given it... one sees the villas of leading Palestinian officials... the poverty with which the Palestinians masses are living... Rashid Khalidi... the performance of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in running the Palestinian Authority...its failures in negotiating with Israel have very much diminished support for the PLO leadership... January 2006 elections were held... the Palestinians voted the PLO-led government out of office... gave Hamas the required seats to form a majority government... Alison Weir... while Americans were being told by the media that a peace process was moving forward Israel continued its policy of home demolitions... since 1967 about 12,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished... more than 740 of those homes were demolished during the Oslo Peace Process... Edward Walker... US Ambassador to Israel 1997-1999... what you have to have... I think it is a fair demand on the part of the Palestinians... that during the process of negotiations you are not turning over more/ more territory to Israeli settlers... changing the character of the land about which you are supposed to be negotiating... Phyllis Bennis... the notion that this is going to be a negotiable question does not ring true to any Palestinian who lives up against one of these settlements which are continually expanding... what does it mean to expand?... it means you steal more land... Amira Hass... Abdul Jawad is a Palestinian farmer whose family has lived there... tended the land for centuries... the Israeli authorities have confiscated countless acres of their farmland...
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 04:30:18 +0000
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