Friday July 31, 2009, 4:58 pm
On 6 October 2005, the High Court of Justice ruled that it was illegal for the IDF to use Palestinian civilians during military actions. The decision was made on a petition that B'Tselem and six other human rights organizations filed in 2002. The petition followed the IDF's use of Palestinian civilians as human shields since the beginning of the second intifada, primarily during IDF operations carried out in Palestinian population centers, as occurred in Operation Defensive Shield.

Soldiers used to pick civilians at random and force the civilians to protect them by doing dangerous tasks. For example, soldiers have ordered Palestinians to:

enter buildings to check if they are booby-trapped, or to remove the occupants

remove suspicious objects from roads used by the army

stand inside houses where soldiers have set up military positions, so that Palestinians will not fire at the soldiers

walk in front of soldiers to shield them from gunfire, while the soldiers hold a gun behind their backs and sometimes fire over their shoulders.
The soldiers in the field did not initiate this practice; rather, the order to use civilians as a means of protection was made by senior army officials.

Friday July 31, 2009, 4:58 pm
Despite the High Court’s decision and army orders preceding and following it, security forces continue to use Palestinians as human shields. In 2007, for example, B'Tselem documented twelve such cases.

The IDF must act in accordance with the High Court’s ruling, issue clear commands and briefings, and direct the commanders to transmit to their forces the absolute prohibition on use of Palestinians to carry out military assignments. Also, the Judge Advocate General’s Office must open a Military Police investigation into every case of suspected violation of the prohibition, and prosecute every soldier, including the senior command echelon, if the findings of the investigation warrant it.

Friday July 31, 2009, 7:57 pm
Thankyou Emiko...the world needs to know these things. It seems no one cares about the Palestinians..

Friday July 31, 2009, 8:26 pm
Emiko Dear One thanx for the post - awareness is paramount - the amount of attrocities committed against the Palestinians is diabolical and I am sorry I have to say this - but has Israel not learnt her lesson from the attrocities committed against her peoples during the Holocaust years??? We need COMPASSION FOR EACH OTHER - RESPECT AND UNDESTANDING WHICH LEAD TO LOVE TO ONE'S FELLOW MAN/WOMAN.xLove & Light

Friday July 31, 2009, 8:37 pm
Thank you for your caring, AniTA,Jacqueline.

Full of appreciation with Palestinian I met in there.
They always told me great appreciation for all people who cares about truth of Palestine.

Friday July 31, 2009, 10:54 pm
Israel often claims that Palestinian people use civilians as "human shields", but, despite Israel's massive resources and domination and occupation of Palestine, there is little or not evidence for that claim.

On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that Israel uses civilians as "human shields". It sounds like Israel is engaging in the usual hypocrisy of the powerful. Like Michael Franti said: "hypocrisy is the greatest luxury".

Saturday August 1, 2009, 1:14 am
Thank you Emiko, for sharing this article. The truth needs to be told!

Saturday August 1, 2009, 6:22 am
Yes Emiko, i too have a Palestinian friend, and have met other Palestinians and they are soo happy and grateful to know when there is even one person who is aware of their situation. They feel abandoned by the world.

Saturday August 1, 2009, 8:45 am
Simon,

Thank you, you use very nice word "hypocrisy is the greatest luxury" expressing the very Israeli sates strategy..!

Brigitte,

Thank you for caring about this imformation. Please spread to people to make world change..

AniTa,

Yes,Palestinians know that most people around world don't know about truth events in Palestine, what Israel doing by almost major mmedia according to Israel.

I went to Israel and Palestine and I knew how Israel is good at hidding what doing only to Palestinian..
Even if we were in Palestine district, if we don't truth, for example about check point abusement, we can stay there without oppression against Palestinian.
Because Israel soldiers change their attidute too much, only when foreign people comes..

But Palestine people are so bright and it is seldum they say their victims or what Israel always doing cluel.
It seems that because they care about us not to known serious their situation..and always do so kind, tender hearted things ,helps for any travelers...

That's why I can't believe why they should be oppessed at all...

Saturday August 1, 2009, 5:05 pm
Shucks.. wars are never fair and just, this practice of human shields is totally unacceptable

Saturday August 1, 2009, 8:18 pm
Simon, cases of Hamas using Palestinians as human shields are well documented and proven, including Hamas leaders setting up their HQ in the Shefa hospital during the last war with Israel.

Hamas claims about Israelis using human shields are ALWAYS false - including this one. Please note for yourself: this staged photo is very old one, and was used by Hamas PR squadron here multiple times. The article itself comes from Anti-Israel organizaion Btselem.

And finally, as the article says itself, the Supreme Court in Israel forbade such practices in 2005. So, if these incidents truly happened - Btselem would need to simply file a complaint and have the justice restored. Israeli solders are punishes for even minor actions, than tying a child to a jeep, so Btselem would be a big winner if there was any truth in it.

Chaz, you are right - the practice of human shields is totally unacceptable. And Hamas should stop doing it, even if they are not blamed for that in posts by Emiko, Brigitte and Marty.

Saturday August 1, 2009, 9:24 pm
It's the very propaganda of Israeli army.
"Even if" Hamas was claimed, Israel has done same things 100 times more for long time.

And they have been happen only in Palestinian by invation from Israel.

Victimes are Palestinian.

Saturday August 1, 2009, 9:46 pm
Chaz,

Yes, using Palestine children as human shield, such evil act mustn't be forgiven.

Israeli conducter has orderd it and done so many many times till know.

Bexause they were proved recently and claimed from international human rights organisation,, Israeli government announced they prohibite it.

But as usual, it is only for show such news to the world and making Paletine children as human shield has still been continued...

Israel always do such way, "only announce to world news" and never stop cruel things against Palestinian and concieling.

Saturday August 1, 2009, 9:49 pm
And the usual way is like this

:Israeli millitary made Palestine children as human shield on the Tank,in fromt of their house of targetted person and killed their parents in front of the child.

Israeli solder ordered the child to pick up any luxury things on the dead parent body.

It is so serious to cure mental damage of these Palestine children.

Saturday August 1, 2009, 10:16 pm
What a nonsense.

Sunday August 2, 2009, 6:28 am
And yet another prove that this whole story is a lie: the jeep on the photo is a POLICE jeep, not the army jeep. And police doesn't fight Hamas, the Israeli Army does.

Sunday August 2, 2009, 9:27 am
Mustang M wrote:
"Simon, cases of Hamas using Palestinians as human shields are well documented and proven, including Hamas leaders setting up their HQ in the Shefa hospital during the last war with Israel."

No they aren't "well-documented". That is Israeli propaganda. You have yet to give any real evidence - probably because there is none.

"Hamas leaders setting up their HQ in the Shefa hospital during the last war with Israel" - I have never heard about that, even in Australia's virulently pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian media broadcasting about that "war".

By the way, it wasn't a "war". It was a massacre: Palestine's democratically-elected government offered peace. Israel rejected that peace offer, and the Israeli military (which is the most powerful of any Middle Eastern militrary, nd the 5th most powerful in the entire world), massacred many hundreds of Palestinian civilians, and a couple of hundred Palestinian military who tried to defend their country against Israeli attack. Palestine only killed 3 Israeli civilians, and only 10 Israeli military were killed, some by Israel's own military in "friendly fire".

Israel invaded the land of Palestine and set up their colonial apartheid state in 1947-48, and since then Israel has killed about 70,000 Indigenous opponents of the colony, while its Indigenous opponents have only killed about 7,000 Israelis. Clearly the wars have been one-sided, in imperialist Israel's favour, with Israel armed by the world's superpower, the USA, with yearly military aid of U.S.$3-4 billion per year.

End the brutal Israeli siege, occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine!!!

Free Palestine from Israeli rule!!!

Sunday August 2, 2009, 9:30 am
Mustang M wrote:
"And yet another prove that this whole story is a lie: the jeep on the photo is a POLICE jeep, not the army jeep. And police doesn't fight Hamas, the Israeli Army does."

So it's ok for Israeli police to invade Indigenous Palestinian land, kidnap Palestinian children and use Palestinian children as human shields? Your implicit argument sounds pretty racist, Mustang!!!

Sunday August 2, 2009, 9:42 am
Mustang M wrote:

"Hamas claims about Israelis using human shields are ALWAYS false - including this one. Please note for yourself: this staged photo is very old one, and was used by Hamas PR squadron here multiple times."

Mustang is lying. Israel has the most powerful military of any Middle Eastern country, and sieges and occupies Palestine, preventing Palestine from even having a military. Palestine has no power to capture a jeep and stage a photo like that.

Hamas is the Indigenous Palestinian Resistance to the brutal Israeli invasion and annexation of 78% Palestine, and invasion, occupation and siege of the rest of Palestine. You have a problem with that? I guess you would also have a problem with the resistance against the nazis in occupied Europe, then. Fortunately, the thinking people of the world don't agree with you, Mustang.

Perhaps most importantly, the evidence that Israel has used people as human shields comes from numerous sources, including many NGOs, and the UN condemns Israel doing that!!!

"The article itself comes from Anti-Israel organizaion Btselem."

Btselem is a human rights organisation! If being pro-human rights is "against Israel", then clearly Israel is violating human rights!!!

End Israeli human rights violations NOW!!!

Force Israel to agree to the many UN resolutions against Israeli abuses of Indigenious Middle Eastern people!!!

Sunday August 2, 2009, 9:54 am
Mustang M wrote:

"And finally, as the article says itself, the Supreme Court in Israel forbade such practices in 2005."

So? The Israeli military clearly ignores human rights laws (e.g. in the massacres against Lebanon in 2006 and Palestine in 2008-2009) and no Israeli courts stop it, do they??? In fact, the Israeli occupation and siege of Palestine, and the Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine, which now house 500,000 Israeli citizens, is all against international law, but Israel's courts don't stop it!!!

"So, if these incidents truly happened - Btselem would need to simply file a complaint and have the justice restored."

You can't get an apartheid court to help the colonised Indigenous people - that is illogical, and simply doesn't happen, as we saw in apartheid South Africa, and as we see in Israeli-occupied Palestine, when we get our information from the NON-imperialist media.

"Israeli solders are punishes for even minor actions, than tying a child to a jeep, so Btselem would be a big winner if there was any truth in it."

That is clearly a lie. The Israeli military has killed over 70,000 Indigenous people, to enforce an invasion and colonisation of the land of Palestine. And in the Isaeli massacre against Lebanon in 2006 and against Palestine in 2008-2009, Israel's military committed a huge number of human rights violations, including killing thousands of civilians - and the world condemned those abuses - but Israel did not imprison its military for doing those abuses!!! And the UN has overwhelmingly voted to condemn Israel for numerous violations over the years,and Israel's courts have rejected those UN resolutions!!! Clearly the Israeli "courts of justice" and "justice system" is a LIE!!!

Sunday August 2, 2009, 9:57 am
End the brutal Israeli occupation and siege of Palestine!!!

Go away Israeli troops!!! We don't want your genocidal brutality!!! Go surrender yourselves to the International Criminal Court for war crimes!!!

Sunday August 2, 2009, 9:59 am
PS, Israel and its superpower supporter, the USA, are the only 2 countries that reject the 2-state solution. Hamas and the rest of the world agree to the 2-state solution!!! Get with the peace program, Israel and USA!!!

Sunday August 2, 2009, 4:13 pm
Mustang; you remind me of an old saying -there's wiser eating grass.

Sunday August 2, 2009, 5:33 pm
The fact remains that Israel is openly practicing ethnic cleansing in defiance of world opinion. Palestine is bigger than just the concentration camp of Gaza...in fact Palestine pretty much covers most of the land stolen by the stormtroopers of the Zionist Forces backed by America (that is paid for, armed and supported by the US Dollar). While nasty little objects like those represented by the views of Mustang here are in the minority it is of importance to note that following the totally disproportionate slaughter for 22 days by the fifth most powerful military on earth against a largely unarmed, besieged and imprisoned people of Gaza...oh yes the gallant Zionist bullies murdered over 400 women and children (were they terrorists?) the world looked on in horror and all support morally for the Zionist cause disintegrated around the world. Gaza held its head up high and won a resounding public relations war.

Jews want us to always remember the Shoah or the holocaust when six million were murdered by the thugs of Nazis Germany...and we will remember them forever...BUT modern day Israel must also learn that it cannot use the same tactics against its fellow Semitic people (Arabs are Semitic people as well so don't go calling me anti-Semitic) and not in turn be roundly condemned for acting like latter day Nazis themselves...jackboots are jackboots regardless of who is wearing them.

This picture was taken last year not in Gaza as there were no Israeli police actions there but in greater (or lesser) Palestine...the so called West Bank. Regardless of where it was taken it is proof of a crime against both Israeli Law and International Law. Obama has called for an end to the illegal settlements but as usual Israel is ignoring what the rest of the world thinks or believes...it is attitude that makes the rest of the world have growing sympathy with the Arab and Palestinian Cause.

Sunday August 2, 2009, 6:44 pm
Pete M, thank you for giving the good saying. I apply it to those of David Gould, Simon Wood and Emiko, but as English proverbs says, "Tastes Differ".

"David Gould", there is no ethnic cleansing in Israel - it is democracy where Arab minority lives pretty well with Jewish majority, There is no comparison how many rights which Israeli Arabs have - they are MKs, generals in IDF, professionals, doctors, etc - and the way same Arabs are treated in the Arab countries. Lebanon and Syria keep them simply in the concentration camps.

David, support for Palestinian Arab cause diminished greatly: first after Palestinians supported Saddam in his attack on Quwait - and Palestinians were evicted from Quwait after the legal authority was restored. Then they were expelled from Iraq, with no Arab country willing to take them - only US agreed to bring several thousands of them as refugees. The list could continue.

David, Israel does not gas Palestinians, or murders them indiscriminately just for being Palestinians. You Palestinian Arabs have two main political powers: Fatah and Hamas, and both of them reject Israeli right to exist and are calling for war to destroy her. Hamas bombed Israel for 8 years, and finally got legitimate, proportionate and effective response. West Bank ruled by Fatah was not bombing Israel, and that's why the West Bank was quiet.

Obama's political views obviously come from him Muslim bckground and listening to anti-Semitic preachers for years. He was very wrong to demand from Israel to stop construction in many parts of Israel, which are disputed at most. Lands taken from Egypt and Jordan do not belong to the state to be created yet, and Israel is not obligated to vacate all of them.

It seems that you guys are just trying to hide the fact that Emiko lied with her staged picture, irrelevant to the story, which was printed by an Arab Nationalist Legal organization. The story still looks like a cheap Hamas PR campaign.

Monday August 3, 2009, 1:17 am
And your posts look like cheap very, very old troll rantings & troll nonsense.

Good - because the more you write, the more people can see right thru you and your attempts at fascist anti-human rights, pro-genocide propaganda.

Bad, because they are also an insult to all the children that were left dead, injured, traumatized by your IMMORAL Israeli army and government.

Monday August 3, 2009, 1:28 am
Israel used human shields: Amnesty

A 117-page Amnesty report charges Israeli forces with killing hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians and wanton destruction of thousands of homes.
Jason Koutsoukis,Jerusalem
July 3, 2009

"AMNESTY International has accused Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement of committing war crimes during Israel's January offensive in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of more than 1400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

Amnesty found no evidence of Palestinian militants using human shields to stop Israeli attacks, but it accuses the Israel Defence Forces of launching attacks from buildings in which Palestinian civilians were sheltering.

The rights group also accuses Israel of failing to properly investigate its actions during the conflict and refusing to co-operate with international organisations trying to conduct their own inquiries."

Monday August 3, 2009, 1:30 am
Amnesty International: Israeli Troops Reveal Gaza Abuses
1 April 2009

The Israeli army has dismissed as "hearsay" the testimonies of soldiers who served in Gaza during the recent 22-day military offensive and who gave chilling accounts of the conduct of some of the troops.

The soldiers - speaking at a conference for graduates of a pre-army service training college on 13 February – have described lax rules of engagement, which seemingly allowed troops to open fire at unarmed civilians posing no threat to their lives, and an atmosphere of impunity where disregard for fundamental principles of international law was too often tolerated and even encouraged.

"That's what is supposedly cool in Gaza… You see some guy on a road, walking along a path. They don't have to be carrying weapons, you don't have to identify that they have anything, you can just shoot them," said one soldier.

The army's so-called "investigation" was unusually speedy - in stark contrast to the foot-dragging on so many other cases which have been pending for years - and its conclusions predictably dismissive of even the most remote possibility of abuse of power and international law breaches by some of the troops.

However, what they have described sounds familiar to Amnesty International's researchers who arrived in Gaza towards the end of the conflict and spent three weeks investigating case after case of unwarranted attacks on defenceless civilians, many of them children.

The information raises the question of why soldiers fired two tank shells into the bedroom of Dr Abu al-‘Eish's daughters in the afternoon of 16 January, killing three of his daughers and one of his nieces, as well as seriously injuring a fourth daughter and another niece. There were no militants in the house, only civilians, most of them children.

Israeli TV reported a commander briefing ground troops before entering Gaza on the new rules of engagement: "I want aggressiveness - if there's someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we'll shell it… let the mistakes be over their lives, not ours."

In one of the Palestinian houses which had been used and trashed by Israeli troops, a note left behind by an Israeli platoon commander contained various operational instructions. One said: "Rules of Engagement: Fire also upon rescue". Could this explain why so many ambulances came under fire and why so many wounded bled to death because ambulances were prevented from reaching them?

In their testimonies the soldiers also tell of wanton destruction of Palestinian property One soldier recalls taking over a Palestinian home for use as a military post.

"There was an order one day that we had to clean out the whole house, all the equipment and furniture. So we just threw it all out of the window to make room and tidy up. The whole house came flying through the window – fridge, plates…"

Amnesty International's researchers inspected tens of houses which had been taken over and used as military positions by Israeli soldiers. On the walls soldiers had scribbled military instructions as well as racist and threatening graffiti, such as "Death to the Arabs", "We came to annihilate you" or "Next time it will hurt more". Even though the houses had functioning toilets, soldiers had defecated in cardboard boxes and plastic bags and left them lying in rooms. Wardrobes and cupboards had been emptied on the floor and contents stepped on and otherwise soiled.

"The utter devastation we came upon in house after house was not the result of legitimate searches - it was pure and unwarranted vandalism," said Donatella Rovera, who headed Amnesty International's research mission in Gaza and southern Israel..

The process which led the Israeli army to dismiss the soldiers' testimonies - a process in which the army investigates itself - does not fulfil the requirements of independence and impartiality.

Monday August 3, 2009, 1:30 am
Children of Gaza

Stories of Those Who Died and the Trauma for Those Who Survived

By Rory McCarthy

Rory McCarthy reports from Gaza City on the individual stories of some victims and the physical and psychological toll on an estimated 350,000 youngsters.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21836.htm

Monday August 3, 2009, 2:10 am
Mustang wrote: "Israeli POLICE jeep does not go into Gaza, there is not need to tie poor Palestinian child. Somebody just staged this photo for morons long time ago. Emiko just took the picture from her old storage and attached it to the article where it is not relevant to."

Palestine is more than just Gaza. All of modern "Israel" is actually the land of Palestine, and includes a minority of Palestinians who Israel did not expell. Israel is also occupying Palestine's West Bank, Israel occupied Gaza for decades, and now Israel continues to have control over the Gaza part of Palestine, by siege.

Israel lies often - as is acknowledged by the U.N.. Hamas does not lie often, if at all. Hamas is renowned for its lack of corruption, which is one of the reasons the people of Palestine elected Hamas instead of the corrupt Fatah.

Mustang wrote: ""Hamas leaders setting up their HQ in the Shefa hospital during the last war with Israel". Very strange you didn't hear about that, Simon - the articles were posted here on Care2. Google and find for youself.

Ha! I never heard abotu that before you mentioned it in your comments here. I guess it was a lie in the extreme zionist media, like Fox News or Israeli media.

Mustang wrote: "Hamas terrorized Israel for 8 years shooting thosands of rockets and bombs, while leftist Israeli government showed restraint and hoped to engage in peace."

First of all, Israel is a COLONY, get it??? Israel was founded in 1947-1948, on the land of Palestine, against the wishes of the Indigenous people who were living there continuously for thousands of years, the people called "Palestinian"! Israel was founded by Israeli military violence, forcing out over a million Indigenous people, stealing their land and refusing to let them return. And Israel, with its most powerful military of any Middle Eastern nation, has killed 10x as many people in the conflict as its opponents have killed, and thus has maintained its colony, and also occupies southern Lebanon, Syria's Golan Heights and Palestine's West Bank, and maintains a brutal siege of Gaza. Hamas is the Indigenous Palestinian resistance against that colonialism, Israel is the oppressor, and Israel has killed many more people than Hamas.

"Leftwing" means "leaning towards socialism". Socialism means "society owning and controlling the means of production, distibution and exchange", i.e. democratic control of the all of the economic sphere. It means sharing wealth and power amongst all people. No Israeli government has ever been that. They have all maintrained the Israeli colonial control of the land they are on, instead of welcoming back the millions of Palestinian refugees, ending the brutal occupation of the occupied territories and decolonising all of Israel and making a Palestine-Israel multi-ethnic nation-state.

"After all the peace attempts failed, Israeli government had to take the anti-terror operation and clear the Hamas terrorists out. Looks like the operation achied good results, with the minimal number of civilians killed on both sides, cosidering that Hamas fired from populated areas and actively used human shields."

Israel doesn't even have any right to exist! It is a COLONY on the land of PALESTINE. Israelis might have a right to live in Palestine, as equals with Palestinian people, but not as oppressors, and not on land and homes stolen from Palestinian people.

Furthermore, Israel doesn't have any right to occupy the West Bank, to siege Gaza, nor to continue its settlements of 500,000 people in occupied Palestine, which is against the 4th Geneva convention! And as long as Israel continues the military enforcement of those things, then the Palestinian resistance has the right to fight for self-determination.

However, no-one has the right to kill civilians. Mustang might say "ah, but Hamas is killing civilians". However, in REAL LIFE, Israel has killed many times as many civilians as Palestine has done. So, to accuse Hamas of "terrorism", and yet ignore the much bigger terrorism done by Israel, is an extreme double standard.

The only "peace" that Israel has ever offered is a "Pax Romana" - a peace in which the imperialist power (Israel in this case) maintains its oppression of the people of Palestine. Hamas, on the other hand, offers peace on equal terms, with a 2-state solution, that the rest of teh world agrees to.

"Hamas and Fatah openly declare their desire to war with Israel until it's destruction, while Simon here says that Hamas accepted 2-state solution. Simon, this is a direct insult to readers' intelligence."

Maybe Mustang's zionist media says that. However, IN REAL LIFE, Hamas and Fatah and the rest of the world all agree to the 2-state solution, and only Israel and its superpower supporter, the USA, disagree with the 2-state solution.

"Simon's avatar shows his political affiliation, so I will save time by not disputing all the nonsense and lies he wrote."

What Mustang has written are lies and other hypocritical propaganda supporting the invader, the coloniser, the oppressor, the main aggressor, the main terrorist, the genocidal bully, he main violator of international law, the main abuser condemned by the U.N., and the main obstacle to peace - ISRAEL.

Monday August 3, 2009, 3:58 am
Mustang; you show the true level of your ignorance with statements like-

''Hamas claims about Israelis using human shields are ALWAYS false - including this one.''

&

''So, if these incidents truly happened - Btselem would need to simply file a complaint and have the justice restored. Israeli solders are punishes for even minor actions, than tying a child to a jeep, so Btselem would be a big winner if there was any truth in it. ''

I suggest you stick to eating grass.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel's Human Shields
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2008/07/israels-human-shields.html

Mustang; ''...Palestinian Arabs have two main political powers: Fatah and Hamas, and both of them reject Israeli right to exist...''

Eggs Fail To Recognize Omelette's Right To Exist

One of the Quartet's conditions for dealing with a Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority is that it must "recognize Israel". Quite often, this demand that Hamas recognize Israel morphs into the requirement that Palestinians must "recognize Israel's right to exist". This sounds similar superficially, but really is a quite different demand altogether. And it's one that even the most amenable, "moderate" Palestinian is unlikely to comply with, let alone Hamas.

"Israel's right to exist" is code for a very specific demand. It isn't asking the Palestinians to recognize that the state of Israel exists and has the right to security within mutually agreed borders (which is essentially what the PLO has accepted). And it doesn't mean that the Palestinians must recognize an Israeli state where Jewish and non-Jewish citizens alike enjoy full rights of citizenship (as proposed in the partition resolution of 1947, in which "Jewish Palestine" was essentially a binational state). When Israel and its supporters demand that Palestinians must "recognize Israel's right to exist" they specifically mean that Palestinians must acknowledge Israel's "right" to exist as a Jewish state on the lands of former Mandate Palestine.

Why would that be a problem for Palestinians? Well, bear in mind that when Zionists established their first settlement in Palestine in 1882, the population of the land that they proposed to turn into a Jewish state was not in fact Jewish, but 95% Muslim and Christian Arab. Bear in mind too that throughout the twentieth century, Palestinians maintained one of the highest birthrates on earth. So even though the proponents of a Jewish state managed in mid-century to create a Jewish majority by expelling large numbers of Arabs, within a couple of generations they are – even without allowing the expelled population to return - once again facing the prospect of a Palestinian majority. So creating a Jewish state in Palestine comes down to an endless battle to gerrymander a Jewish majority where one does not naturally exist.

There are various ways you can do this. You can do it by killing off or expelling the majority population, till it is reduced to a manageable size, as in 1948. (And then you can even afford to give the vote to the remnant left behind, and proclaim yourself a democracy, because you have made sure that the natives are so reduced in number they can never democratically bring about any change in their status). Or you can do it by simply disenfranchising large numbers of the "undesirable" population in the land you claim for your Jewish state, as is the current situation for millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. These ugly means are not an unfortunate by-product of an Arab propensity for "terrorism" or "anti-semitism", forced upon unfortunate Zionists who would otherwise have preferred to peacefully coexist; they are absolutely intrinsic to creating a Jewish-majority state in Palestine. They are simply what you have to do in order to create a regime that favours one kind of people over another, in a land where the "other" people are the majority. Presumably, for Zionism, the end goal of creating a Jewish state in Palestine is of such import that its benefits outweigh the "collateral damage" that this inevitably involves for the Palestinian population.

When you demand that Palestinians acknowledge the "right" of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, you are asking them to say that they too think Zionism is worth all this "collateral damage". You are asking them to acknowledge that it was and is morally right to do all the things that were and are necessary for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, even though these necessary things include their own displacement, dispossession and disenfranchisement. You are asking them to internalize the fact that they have less right to live freely on their own ancestral lands where they have lived in unbroken continuity for millenia, than an immigrant to the Middle East who, by an accident of birth, happens to have been born into a "preferred" religion.

http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2007/03/eggs_fail_to_re.html

They Hate, We Don't

http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2005/12/this_is_in_resp.html

Thanks Emiko for the story, and excellent comments from Simon, Brigitte & David .

Monday August 3, 2009, 5:27 am
Mustang is a ZIONIST!!!

Monday August 3, 2009, 5:52 am
Thanks Emiko.

Monday August 3, 2009, 5:53 am
Mustang supports racial ideologies.....

Monday August 3, 2009, 5:58 am
check here mustang, so you can see what you are defending. Perhaps you didnt know ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8180743.stm

Monday August 3, 2009, 6:37 am
Pete O, I don't support "racial ideologies". I read your link, and it tells about evicting Palestinian Arab squatters taking over Jewish-owned property in Jerusalem. Pete, this is a completely legal action - similart to destroying houses built by Israelis on lands owned by Palestinian Arabs. Both are illegal outputs, and both are evacuated.

And again, "It seems that you guys are just trying to hide the fact that Emiko lied with her staged picture, irrelevant to the story, which was printed by an Arab Nationalist Legal organization. The story still looks like a cheap Hamas PR campaign. "

Monday August 3, 2009, 7:20 am
Pete M, Balfour declaration allocated land for both Israel and Jews in The Land of Israel in Palestine. Then Jordan got 80% of it. Then in 1948 UN divided the land between Arabs and Jews. Jews were happy and celebrated, Arabs went to war to capture everything. 700,000 Arabs left Israel, 850,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries, their property confiscated. Don't mention grievances of one side only, it's not fair. And nor productive.

Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State and the emerging country of Palestine means that Jews will have the right to return to Israel and Arabs will have the right to return to Palestine. Palestinian Arab nationalism = Zionism - both say that their people have to have their countries.

Monday August 3, 2009, 8:14 am
''700,000 Arabs **left** Israel, 850,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries...''

Let me guess- urged to leave by radio broadcasts from the Arab Leadership rather than any ethnic cleansing by Zionists...

Monday August 3, 2009, 10:42 am
Pete M, Arabs were "urged to leave by radio broadcasts from the Arab Leadership " AND SOME were expelled by Zionists. Israel didn't do ethnic cleansing - Druze stayed and fought against other Arabs. Christian Arabs stood with Jews as well. You can't say that nobody listened to Naser and others.

Arab countries DID ethnic cleansing against their Jewish population, and stole all their property. Recently Iraq issued a law against returning properties stolen from Jews to their heirs. Isn't it a legal robbery, Pete M?

Monday August 3, 2009, 10:50 am
Mustang,

I note that your reply shows your complete compliance to Zionist propaganda without one shred of evidence. Most of what you write here shows a lamentable ignorance of actual facts. Ethnic cleansing is widespread in the West bank as you very well know...as do most Jewish people as well...as houses of the Arabs are bulldozed to make way for Israeli 'settlers in Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank...on the flimsiest of legal grounds.(new Laws) The constant expansionism of the Jewish lands that carve the land up with militarised roads that prevent the infrastructure of the ordinary Palestinian, denies their access to health care, family, other sides of their own communities and to their olive groves...which the bullies of the Zionists frequently burn to deprive the Arab of an income amounts to ethnic cleansing in most peoples book. The 22 days of indiscriminate slaughter of a captive people was a major victory of the dignity and long suffering Arab against a brutal, ignorant and poorly disciplined force that showed complete disregard to the rights of the citizens of Gaza.

Let us face it you only come onto sites like care2 to try and cause the sort of trouble that you love, the discord on which objects like you thrive. You are a bully and an ignorant one at that...and just because you know that you happen to be on the side that has lost world opinion you want to cause trouble...in other words you are what we call a troll and as such need to be ostracized and ignored since you and your viewpoints are irrelevant to any caring person that cares about human right.

Monday August 3, 2009, 10:58 am

Thought-Police Is Here - Israel Opinion - Vacancy, Thought Police and Prolific Liars Only Need Apply


"Where do I submit a CV?" wrote one respondent. "I'm fluent in several languages and I'm able to spew forth bullshit for hours on end." Viva Palestina Ooooops Israel.

Monday August 3, 2009, 11:20 am
Mustang has a right point.


Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaida's second-in-command, said on Monday that Israel should be wiped off the map and described the Jewish state as a crime against Muslims.

Zawahri also accused US President Barack Obama of conducting a policy on Israeli-Palestinian issues that was bound to end in failure for the Palestinians, Reuters reported, saying that Obama wanted a Palestinian state that would serve as "an extension of the CIA."

"Israel is a crime that should be removed," Zawahri reportedly said in an interview with al Qaida's media arm As-sahab, posted on an Islamist website on Monday.

Arabs don't protest this type of hateful incitement, which is detrimental to establishing peace in the ME.

Monday August 3, 2009, 11:21 am
Koro ... this is for you:

There are some pretty choice quotes from shockingly honest Zionists.

1. "We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages, Jewish villages were established. You even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab Village." ­ Moshe Dyan, March 19, 1969, speech at the Technion in Haifa, quoted in Ha'aretz, April 4, 1969.

The State of Israel was built after a movement called Zionism.The term Zionism first came to public attention as a result of the works of Viennese Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl, who argued in his 1896 book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) that the best way of avoiding anti-Semitism in Europe was to create an independent Jewish state or national homeland. (He was originally thinking of Uganda or South America). The movement eventually culminated in establishing the State of Israel in 1948 in Palestine. Some 700,000 Palestinians became refugees and a similar number of Jews arrived in the new state. Since then, the term "Zionism" properly refers to supporters of the Israeli state.

The term racism refers to discriminatory beliefs and practices that presume inherent and significant differences exist between different human races; that assume these traits can be measured on a scale of "superior" to "inferior"; and that can result in the social, political and economic advantage of one group in relation to others.

In November 1975, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 declared that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." In December 1991, the General Assembly rescinded this resolution through Resolution 4686. At the time, the Soviet Union, a major sponsor of the "Zionism is racism" doctrine (see Zionology), had completed its rapid collapse. Israel made revocation of resolution 3379 a condition of its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference.

Some Racist statements by main Israeli and Zionist figures

* "The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more".... Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000.

* " (The Palestinians are) beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

* "The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." " Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988.

* "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.

* "How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to." Golda Maier, March 8, 1969.

* "There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed." Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969.

* "The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war." Israeli General Matityahu Peled, Ha'aretz, 19 March 1972.

* Ben Gurion also warned in 1948 : "We must do everything to insure they ( the Palestinians) never do return." Assuring his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come back to their homes. "The old will die and the young will forget."

* "We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours." Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983.

* "We must do everything to ensure they (the Palestinian refugees) never do return" David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.

* "We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai." David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

* "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum."

* "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist... There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969.

* "We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'" Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.

* Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet. "We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters" Uri Lubrani, PM Ben-Gurion's special adviser on Arab Affairs, 1960. From "The Arabs in Israel" by Sabri Jiryas.

* "There are some who believe that the non-Jewish population, even in a high percentage, within our borders will be more effectively under our surveillance; and there are some who believe the contrary, i.e., that it is easier to carry out surveillance over the activities of a neighbor than over those of a tenant. [I] tend to support the latter view and have an additional argument:...the need to sustain the character of the state which will henceforth be Jewish...with a non-Jewish minority limited to 15 percent. I had already reached this fundamental position as early as 1940 [and] it is entered in my diary." Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department. From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5.

* "Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

* "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism,colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.

* "Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine,Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.
* "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." -- Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994 (Source: N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1).

* "We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not...You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world." (Chaim Weizmann, Published in "Judische Rundschau," No. 4, 1920).


Arie Dayan: "The Debate over Zionism and Racism: An Israeli View"; Haaretz, 27 December 1991; translated in Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3. (Spring, 1993), pp. 96-105.
Michael Adams: "Israel's Treatment of the Arabs in the Occupied Territories"; Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Winter, 1977), pp. 19-40.
Janice J. Terry: "Zionist Attitudes toward Arabs; Journal of Palestine Studies", Vol. 6, No. 1. (Autumn, 1976), pp. 67-78.
Roselle Tekiner: "Race and the Issue of National Identity in Israel"; International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Feb., 1991), pp. 39-55.

Right of return

The Israeli law of the right of return which, despite Israel's otherwise restrictive immigration policies, grant every Jew in the world the right to settle in Israel. This is especially agitating for the Palestinian refugees, who were expeled from their lands that is modern Israel, but are denied their right to return.

The Article 11 of the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, "resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property...". Like many other resolutions by UN, Israel still refuse to comply with this resolution.

Many opponents of Zionism declare that Zionism is racist, and compare its continuation to the reform of Germany's former 'Blood Laws', which had allowed ethnic Germans to claim citizenship, even if they were nationals of another country.

Zionism Racism Against Some Jews

Zionists hold that any person may choose to become a Jew, after meeting the necessary requirements, and enjoy all the benefits and responsibilities of membership. Since anyone can (i.e., regardless of race, ethnicity or nationality) both join the Jewish people and equally enjoy the benefits of membership, Zionists conclude that Zionism is anti-Racist among jews at least. Even this claim was challenged all over the history of Israel. The jews of Eastern origins (called Sephardim or Mizrahim) suffered from various kinds of racism by Ashkenazic Jews.

The Jewishness of many jewish minorities in Israel (like the Ethiopian Jews, the Russian Jews and Indian Jews) has been always questioned by the religious authorities[1].

In many Israeli settlements they refuse to accept Falasha jews and The Falasha rabbis privileges are not recognized in Israel[2] and the unemployment rate among them is at least three times the Israeli average[3].

According to prof. Esther Herzog: The Falasha jews where brought to Israel to work in the inferior jobs... and they are considered as third class citizens (after the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim)[4].

Falasha used to complain from the systematic racism against them everywhre in Israel because of their origin and black colour. In the last few years Falasha demonstrations erupted after the exposure of the scandal of throwing the blood donated by Falasha in the Israeli hospitals and medical clinics[5].

The modern founder of Zionism Theodor Herzl once said:

"It is essential that the sufferings of Jews. . . become worse. . . this will assist in realization of our plans. . .I have an excellent idea. . . I shall induce anti-semites to liquidate Jewish wealth. . . The anti-semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-semites shall be our best friends".[6][7]

UN resolutions

Main articles: United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 and UN General Assembly Resolution 4686

On November 10, 1975 the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions), Resolution 3379, which stated that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination."

However, on 16 December 1991, it was rescinded by Resolution 4686, with a vote of 111 to 25 (with 13 abstentions). The resolution 4686 was acheived under a severe pressure from US and Israel. Israel made it a condition to participate in the Peace process in the Middle East.
http://www.care2.com/news/member/193692282/1014922

Monday August 3, 2009, 9:44 pm
Oh right it wasn't in The Jerusalem Post so it's not true. Typical Israeli propogandist; no friends. :)

Tuesday August 4, 2009, 1:17 am
What is disgusting is multiple personalities trolls supporting fascist, NAZI agendas, condoning the deaths and extermination of the Palestinian people.

What is disgusting is racist trolls filled with hatred against a population because of their ethnicity and religion.

What is disgusting is trolls programmed for greed and power, with total disrespect for human rights, denying the facts, ignoring the truth and distorting reality in their desperate efforts to paint the perpetrator of a genocide as the victims.

Trolls will never have any credit on these forums, and their slandering Care2 members is pure cowardice.So Josh aka a hundred phoney names and no friend no profiles, you are just wasting YOUR time. Not ours, because as I said earlier you actually help people see how bad and how sick racist propaganda can get.

You can ignore Amnesty International reports as much as you want, there are countless other human rights groups, and officials, and doctors, and reporters, and eye-witnesses, who have testified that the Israeli military have used Palestinian children and adults as human shields, that they have killed children and families for no reason at all, displaying not only total contempt for human life but also in many case, sadism. And all this is symbolized by the t-shirts that were so popular (still are?) among certain Israeli soldiers, where pregnant Palestinian/Arab women, children and other vulnerable citizens are printed as targets or game to be shot to death.

So don't expect Care2 members with a conscience to start supporting those atrocities and turn into gestapo trolls just because you imply that they should..

Tuesday August 4, 2009, 6:12 am
For anyone who doesn't know , the alleged 'Arab radio broadcasts' urging the Palestinians to leave in 1947-48 were proven to be a zionist fabrication back in 1961by Erskine Childers in his Spectator article 'The Other Exodus'.
Someone really ought to tell the Hasbara crowd.... ;-)

Erskine Childers: The Other Exodus

'' I next decided to test the undocumented charge that the Arab evacuation orders were broadcast by Arab radio-which could be done thoroughly because the BBC monitored all Middle Eastern broadcasts throughout 1948. The records, and companion ones by a U.S. monitoring unit, can be seen at the British Museum.

There was nova single order, or appeal, or suggestion about evacuation from Palestine from any Arab radio station, inside or outside Palestine, in 1948. There is repeated monitored record of Arab appeals, even flat orders, to the civilians of Palestine to stay put. To select only two examples: on April 4, as the first great wave of flight began, Damascus Radio broadcast an appeal to everyone to stay at their homes and jobs. On April 24, with the exodus now a flood, Palestine Arab leaders warned that:

Certain elements and Jewish agents are spreading defeatist news to create chaos and panic among the peaceful population. Some cowards are deserting their houses, villages or cities. . . Zionist agents and corrupt cowards will be severely punished (Al-Inqaz, the Arab Liberation Radio, at 12.00 hours).

Even Jewish broadcasts (in Hebrew) mentioned such Arab appeals to stay put. Zionist newspapers in Palestine reported the same: none so much as hinted at any Arab evacuation orders.

The fact is that Israel's official charges, which have vitally influenced the last ten years of Western thought about the refugees, are demonstrably and totally hollow. And from this alone, suspicion is justified. Why make such charges at all? On the face of it, this mass exodus might have been entirely the result of "normal" panic and wartime dislocation.

We need not even -touch upon Arab evidence that panic was quite deliberately incited. The evidence is there, on the Zionist record. For example, on March 27, four days before the big offensive against Arab centres by the official Zionist (Haganah) forces, the Irgun's radio unit broadcast in Arabic. Irgun, a terrorist organisation like the Stern Gang, was officially disowned by Ben Gurion and the Haganah. Yet just four days before the Haganah offensive Irgun warned "Arabs in urban agglomerations" that typhus, cholera and similar diseases would break out, "heavily" among. them "in April and May."

http://www.users.cloud9.net/~recross/israel-watch/ErskinChilders.html

Soz for straying off topic Emiko !

Tuesday August 4, 2009, 7:02 am
Guys, Misha Koshkin does have a point: the photo and picture are irrelevant to the article, the picture is staged, and the report itself comes from Palestinian advocacy group. They are obviously biased against Israel.

Tuesday August 4, 2009, 12:56 pm
So your point is anything Arabs say is bullshit but anything we read in The Jerusalem Post is "kosher"? You can stick your Zionist propoganda in the usual place.

Tuesday August 4, 2009, 3:31 pm
Hey guys...its gone...breath a fresher breeze.

Thursday August 6, 2009, 6:39 pm
no lets not breath anything Dave, they came here to argue let us argue they have had the floor to entertain us for too long now without response. Past member the fact that people are being evicted in any part of jerusalem is proof in itself of ethnic cleansing, Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel the UN has not changed this old resolution * * Resolution 476: " . . . 'reiterates' that Israel's claim to Jerusalem are 'null and void'". So why are the Israeli people living in another countries capital city ?

Thursday August 6, 2009, 6:44 pm
Everyone is biased against Israel when they are behaving in a way people dont like. As they would be about any country doing the same thing. Expansionists tend not to get the sympathy vote....Israel is an expansionist entity.

Saturday August 15, 2009, 11:42 pm
Always same persons get profile and becomes past member, after writing Israeli right-wing Zionist comments including a lot of lies, justification of war crimes...

It's so coward,just like Israeli soldiers always having guns toward Palestine children,women..babies..