| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Bob Dog" |
| Date: |
13 Nov 2003 09:54:57 AM |
| Object: |
semi-OT: The Wall of Jerrymander-cho |
Yet another example of Israeli government duplicity, and for
once a positive sign coming out of Israel.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/World/Primetime/rabbis_human_rights_031113-1.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/13/1068674313260.html
A leak from within the Israeli government proves they know what
is going on and are deliberately exacerbating the situation.
"We promised the United States that we would dismantle
the outposts and have not done so. That is our Achilles
heel."
- from a leaked Israeli gov't. memo
"The Palestinians must be to blame for the illegal Israeli
settlements not being removed." I'm sure we'll hear that from
the people who said Sharon's assassination of Hamas leaders
was not the first attack after the "Roadmap" was signed.
If anyone's interested, the Rabbis for Human Rights have a
web site: http://www.rhr.israel.net/profile/index.shtml
Seething below the surface of apparent Jewish
insensitivity to the rights of "the other" in this
country is also the traumatic memory of the Nazi
Holocaust, and the continuing tendency, despite a
radically changed reality, of Israeli and Diaspora
Jews to see themselves as the victim.
This view of our existential situation is spiritually
destructive, as well as serving as a basis for
unfortunate rationalizations of unethical and immoral
behavior toward non -- Jewish minorities in Israel.
That's quite a breathtaking statement.
Bob Dog
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Israel 'ignored' road map
By Ed O'Loughlin
Jerusalem
November 14, 2003
A leaked Israeli Government memo admits Israel failed to honour
key obligations under the stalled "road map" for peace.
The document emerged amid signs of a faint thaw in Israeli-
Palestinian relations.
The memo - leaked to Reuters as Palestinian legislators were
endorsing a new prime minister and a fresh push for peace - says
that instead of honouring its commitment to evacuate new Jewish
settlements in West Bank, Israel had "sought in every way to
whitewash their existence and build more".
Details of the memo leaked to Reuters by government sources
concluded that Israel lacked international credibility because
of its failure to follow the road map or come up with its own
creative ideas to end the conflict.
"We promised the United States that we would dismantle the
outposts and have not done so. That is our Achilles heel," the
memo said.
News of the memo's existence follows recent Israeli Government
decisions to build hundreds of homes in existing settlements
and extend recognition and support to several new "outpost"
settlements previously scheduled for demolition under the road
map.
In addition, plans for Israel's new security fence show it
dipping deep inside occupied Palestinian territory to encompass
more than 50 settlements regarded as illegal by the
international community.
Human rights groups say despite the Government's commitment to
dismantle dozens of new outpost settlements, only one inhabited
outpost had been removed and this was soon replaced by another
nearby.
Reuters said the memorandum had been prepared for Israeli
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, although a spokesman for Mr
Shalom denied knowledge of it. Reuters said another senior
government source acknowledged the memo's existence but denied
it showed Israel had acted in bad faith.
Israel also accuses the Palestinian Authority of reneging on its
road map obligation to move against militant groups responsible
for terrorist attacks in Israel and armed resistance in the
occupied territories.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Parliament met in Ramallah to
endorse the appointment of new moderate Prime Minister Ahmed
Qurie and his calls for a new push for peace.
In his speech Mr Qurie stopped short of promising a violent
crackdown on Palestinian militants but called for a new ceasefire
and the need to restore the rule of law.
Mr Qurie's acceptance of the post was a victory for Palestinian
chairman Yasser Arafat, who persuaded his ally to drop his
demand Mr Arafat cede him control of the security forces.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hillside Heartbreak
Palestinian Harvest Protected by Rabbis, Attacked by Jewish Settlers
By Courtney Kealy
AIN ABBUS, West Bank, Nov. 13
It was meant to be a fruitful day. Rabbis for Human Rights had
organized police protection and a group of determined volunteers
to hike up a West Bank hillside and help local Palestinians
harvest their olives.
Radical Jewish settlers claim the the hilltops above the Arab
village of Ain Abbus as their own. Palestinians say the settlers
have resorted to both threats and violence to prevent them from
picking their olives. The settlers say God has called on them to
settle there.
Ironically, it's another Jewish group - Rabbis for Human Rights
- that often intervenes to help the Palestinians.
Founded during the first intifada in 1988, Rabbis for Human
Rights is comprised of more than 90 Reform, Orthodox,
Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis and rabbinical
students, all of them Israeli citizens.
The rabbis believe that their organization must uphold the Jewish
tradition of human rights and teach moral responsibility and
biblical concern for "the stranger in your midst," even if it
means in the face of danger.
And danger is omnipresent. Just the previous week, members of the
rabbis' group and other volunteers said they were attacked by
settlers.
"It's the End of the World?
Arriving at the top of the hillside on this day, the rabbis and
their group of volunteers were greeted by a shocking, unexpected
scene. Hundreds of olive trees had been hacked apart. There was
nothing left to pick.
All of Fawzi Houssein's trees had been destroyed. "Look at this!"
he cried. "This is all my land. It's the end of the world."
While Israeli police took a statement from Houssein, a settler
the rabbis suspected of being one of last week's attackers came
down to watch. Members of the rabbis' group, which believes in
nonviolent confrontation, walked away from the scene.
"The Torah that I read from says do not trespass, it says do not
cut down the fruit trees," said the director of the group, Rabbi
Arik Ascherman. "Specifically, we're taught not to act with
violence."
A Different Sort of Tradition
As part of the U.S.-sponsored road map for peace, the Israeli
government was supposed to remove illegal settlements such as
this one near the olive grove. But Israeli-Palestinian violence
stalled the peace plan and the settlements remain.
Ephram Sneh, a member of the Knesset, Irsaeli's parliament, came
to check on the olive harvest. He condemned the destruction.
"What you see here is outrageous," he said. "It's terrible. I
can't believe the Jews committed such a crime."
Fares Ahmed Abu Rothman, a schoolteacher who lost 65 trees,
waved an empty bag that he had planned to fill with olives from
his trees. "My father and my grandfather planted them, and I
find them cut," he said as he choked back tears. "I condemn
everything."
Determined to continue, the rabbis' group hiked to another
hillside underneath the settlements, where some olive trees
remained. The Israeli volunteers took their places alongside
the Palestinians on the rocky hillside to help in the harvest.
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| User: "JTEM" |
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| Title: Re: semi-OT: The Wall of Jerrymander-cho |
13 Nov 2003 10:38:04 AM |
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"Bob Dog" <bg12345@apexmail.com> wrote
Yet another example of Israeli government duplicity, and for
once a positive sign coming out of Israel.
There are plenty of positive signs coming out of Israel. In an
exchange once, I had an Israeli slip me a URL to an Israeli
group's proposed peace plan that turned out to be far more
generous than anything even I would have offered!
This doesn't change the fact that Israel couldn't be any more
wrong in it's occupation of the west bank.
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