Ethnic cleansing? What ethnic cleansing?

by MainStreet, Tue Jan 05, 2010 at 07:44:09 PM EST

Nothing in Israel-Palestine has changed in 60 years. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that has never stopped continues to be defended by Israelophiles. Today, these two reports appeared which could not be ignored. The Likud Charter to colonize all of original Palestine seems to remain in the forefront of Israeli occupation policy in the Palestinian territories.

Jerusalem municipality publishes plans to demolish hundreds of Palestinian homes

Moaz Zat`ari

Al-Maqdese Society Development (MSD)

January 3, 2010

While the world was celebrating the new year eve, Palestinians in East Jerusalem received shocking news for more demolition orders issued by Jerusalem Municipality. MSD held a press conference on 31/12/2009 and revealed a map issued on 28/12/2009 by the Jerusalem Municipality. By this, the Municipality plans to demolish hundreds of Palestinian residency buildings in Silwan and other neighborhoods as Al-Bustan and Al-Thouri.

And so, it seems that it won't be a happy year for Palestinians in East Jerusalem according to the latest Israeli demolition plans.

Accordingly, MSD published a report in order to highlight the residency buildings (contained in the map) which Jerusalem Municipality plans to demolish in Silwan in East Jerusalem.

(snip)

......the map used Jewish names instead of the famous and well-known Arabic ones for areas in East Jerusalem. For instance, Silwan was named Air David, Wadi-Hilwa was named Kfar Hshelwah and Al-Bustan was named Gad Hmealakh.

http://www.al-maqdese.org/english/news/plugins/spaw/uploads/files/MSD%20%20Report%20about%20Silwan.PDF

So that is one of the ways ethnic cleansing is done, change the names. And then this report,

The only thing flourishing - the settler houses

Beny Gefen

Jan. 4, 2010

Yesterday I, with another 3 human beings, organized by `rabbis for human rights`, accompanied peasants from the Palestinian village Awarta who wanted to plow their lands. Having settlements and a few outposts near by and partially on their private lands they are afraid to cultivate their lands. The military doesn`t protect them in spite of many commitments to the supreme court. With us they dare to go to their lands.

We came to a small plot in which the peasant had planted about 100 olive seedlings a few weeks ago. He had protected each seedling with an expensive barrel against the gazelles. ALL THE SEEDLINGS HAD BEEN UPROOTED BY THE VANDAL SETTLERS! ALL OF THEM!

The peasant began to plow his plot, about 800 meters from Itamar settlement. A military vehicle came and ordered him to leave his land `being a security danger to the settlement`...

I had been in this area a year ago. Then there had been on one of the hills a small outpost of one house. Now there are about 25 houses there and there are more outposts near by. This is in the `fingers concept` of the settlers: building lines (`fingers`) of illegal outposts in order to prevent the establishing of continuous Palestinian state.

http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=37583

Does anyone actually believe that it is all about Iran or Hamas? While these red herrings are thrown out there, recently by Netanyahu at the UN, the reality on the ground, as demonstrated above, shows that Israeli colonialism goes on apace, of which a big part is unseen ethnic cleansing.

 

 

Tags: Israel, Palestine, Ethnic Cleansing (all tags)

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28 Comments

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ethnic cleansing! genocide! siege! imperialism! colonialism!

are there any buzzwords you won't use to describe Israel protecting itself from jihadist terror?

by Lakrosse 2010-01-05 08:04PM | 1 recs
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RE: ethnic cleansing! genocide! siege! imperialism! colonialism!
Well you said it yourself: "ethnic cleansing! genocide! siege! imperialism! colonialism!" That's what defines Israeli behavior toward the Palestinians over the past 60 years. That's why we have an Israeli-Palestinian conflict today. I could add other concepts, but those are sufficient for the time being.
by MainStreet 2010-01-05 09:51PM | 0 recs
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RE: ethnic cleansing! genocide! siege! imperialism! colonialism!

Just for you:

 

<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/albums/pp81/mainstreet99/?action=view&amp;current=jihad.jpg"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp81/mainstreet99/jihad.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=500 ></a>

by MainStreet 2010-01-05 10:35PM | 0 recs
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Indeed
The olive seedlings were clearly jihadists.
by JJE 2010-01-06 12:02AM | 1 recs
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RE: Ethnic cleansing? What ethnic cleansing?

For the thugs who vandalized the seedlings--no, I don't think it's about Hamas or Iran.  For Netanyahu? No, I don't think it's about Hamas or Iran for him either.

On the other hand, Netanyahu and the right-wing settler movement have been strengthened politically by a shift to the right in Israel in recent years, with many formerly from the left, center-left, and center losing hope in the possibility of a negotiated settlement following the rise of Hamas the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.  In other words, For many thousands of Israelis who previously supported a negotiated settlement and now are wary of it, it is about Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran -- and it the shift among them that has further empowered Netanyahu and the settlers.

by markjay 2010-01-05 10:41PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: Ethnic cleansing? What ethnic cleansing?

I obviously meant to say the rise of Hamas AND the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

by markjay 2010-01-05 10:42PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: Ethnic cleansing? What ethnic cleansing?

Israeli propaganda has never been just for foreign consumption, but is also fed to its own people. The Likud Charter that I diaried on several weeks ago has never contained the makings of a Palestinian state: just the opposite. Since M. Negin's reign in the 70s, Likud has all been about bringing Judea and Samaria into Israel, and that policy has not changed through subsequent prime ministers, including Sharon before he came to his sense and realized that the Palestinians were not going away.

In short, the Likud Charter seeks to wipe Palestine off the map and it is being implemented by the present Israeli government, a Likud right wing controlled one.

by MainStreet 2010-01-06 06:43AM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: Ethnic cleansing? What ethnic cleansing?

And by those same standards, Hamas' charter calls for the destruction of Israel, They have never changed that stance.

 

by NJ Liberal 2010-01-06 11:08AM | 0 recs
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Yep

Hamas and Likud are peas in a pod.  Interesting stance for an Israel-firster to take.

by JJE 2010-01-06 11:11AM | 0 recs
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RE: Yep
More like peas in different pods. I am not an "Israel-firster" (whatever that means), but I am sick of MainStreet and his buddies laying all the blame on Israel. Every time that have made a move towards peace, they have been greeted with further attacks. It leads one (well me, anyway) to believe that there is nothing short of the total destruction of Israel that would satisfy the Palestinians. Is a two-state solution possible? I'd like to think so, but it has to be done with the clear understanding that there will be zero tolerance for infractions of a peaceful border. And it has to be done with the support of the surrounding Arab countries, the US and the UN. The vast majority of the Israeli population would go along with that in a heartbeat. You let me know when the Palestinians agree.
by NJ Liberal 2010-01-06 11:24AM | 0 recs
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Keep dreaming

There will never be a two-state solution because Israel wants the most desirable parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem far more than it wants peace.  This is not about a handful of ineffective rocket attacks.  It's about land.  Israel wants it; the Palestinians are currently on it.  This has been obvious for decades.

by JJE 2010-01-06 11:48AM | 0 recs
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RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.
If you understood Israeli propaganda a bit more, instead of just accepting Israel's line, you would probably agree that Israel's ongoing occupation and colonization of more and more Palestinian lands is at the bottom of this conflict. Hamas was created around 1987, long after Israel began the occupation and colonization, and it was created to fight for Palestinian freedom and self-determination. And most of that colonization, even then, was Likud inspired, as I said, beginning with Begin and continuing through Shamir, Sharon, and now Netanyahu. And for this, you blame Hamas? You blame Hamas for Israel's expansion of settlements, of planned house demolitions in East Jerusalem, of the theft of Palestinian water, the wreckage of farms and olive groves, in short the continuing ethnic cleansing. Look up the history and get enlightened. You are apparently not well versed in this conflict except for Israeli propaganda talking points. I said that Hamas is just a red herring, something around to distract attention from the occupation/colonization. The truth is that Hamas is not an excuse to "wipe Palestine off the map." Only 20% of Palestinians are supporters of Hamas, 18% in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and 25% in Gaza. Most of the innocent Palestinian families and children killed in Gaza last year were not Hamas supporters.
by MainStreet 2010-01-06 12:37PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

Oh give me a break. Before Hamas there were countless other political entities who claimed to speak for the Palestinians. Not a single one of them ever made a real move towards peace with Israel.

I do not, nor have I ever "blamed" Hamas for anything. You simply can't accept the fact that the Palestinian people, or the people who represent them, are not without responsibilty.

I DO NOT support the continued building of Israeli settlements in the disputed territories. QUite to the contrary, I think that any settlers who think that, for whatever reason, their place is in Gaza or in the West Bank should be left there to become part of whatever country (Palestine, I guess) forms there.

Have you ever been to the middle east? have you ever been on the receiving end of a rocket attack? Were do you get your information? You say mine is flawed, that I need to get "educated." From where did you get your education?

You have spewed this hatred for Israel pretty much continuously for some time now. Every time someone asks you a question, you respond with a comment about the questioner's lack of education. I'm asking you now: Do you have a solution in mind for the I/P situation that will guarantee Israel's continued existence as a Jewish state?

 

by NJ Liberal 2010-01-06 01:53PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.
Whatever you support or don't support, the colonization of the Palestinian territories, enforced by the Israeli occupation forces, has been going on since 1967, and except for a few months during Rabin's administration, has never stopped. Your defense of Israel post, like the others we get here, strangely never use the words military occupation or colonialism, the mechanisms by which Israel is seeking to attain the Greater Israel, one from the Jordan River to the sea. And now you claim that this obvious condition was the Palestinians fault or lack of leadership therein. Now you excuse Likud, whose Charter wipes Palestine off the map, by saying you are not for it but...the Palestinians again. Then after I gave the stats concerning party affiliation among the Palestinians showing that Hamas represents only a fifth, you claim they are in charge. Yes I said get educated because all you are doing here is repeating Israeli propaganda, the kind of falsities you can read on the GIYUS or Israel Project sites. In the meantime, on this very day, as on almost every day for the past 42 years, Israel is continuing to steal Palestinian land and build outposts, towns, cities, infrastructure, whatever all over the territories. And for this too, the Palestinians are at fault. Give us a break, will you?
by MainStreet 2010-01-06 03:18PM | 0 recs
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can you make up your mind?

at the start of the diary, you say Israeli "colonialism" and "ethnic cleansing" began 60 years ago (62 to be precise, the founding of the Jewish State) but then you talk about how Israel has been "colonially ethnic cleansing" Palestinians for 42 (you mean 43) years. MAKE UP YOUR MIND? It seems you make the Freudian slip about how you really just wish to eliminate Israel altogether when you criticize its founding, tho you try to cover by then in other posts referring to the Six Day War. Just admit it: you're a one state guy. Be open. You're fooling nobody

by Lakrosse 2010-01-06 03:44PM | 0 recs
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RE: can you make up your mind?

You or I are certainly correct. The ethnic cleansing began with the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing or two thirds of the Palestinian population, roughly 800,000 people who were forceably thrown out or forced out through fear of massacres, of Palestine/Israel in 1948. And there was another ethnic cleansing in 1967, not as large, but an ethnic cleansing just the same. It was the slow ethnic cleansing after 1967 that we usually refer to today, when Israel decided to confiscate through colonialism, large portions of land in the Palestinian territories.

So there is no conflict in references as you contend.

by MainStreet 2010-01-06 05:12PM | 0 recs
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are you in favor of a

one state solution or two state? How about a clear articulation already?

by Lakrosse 2010-01-06 08:35PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

Then after I gave the stats concerning party affiliation among the Palestinians showing that Hamas represents only a fifth, you claim they are in charge.

Hamas's influence stems not principally from the size of its party membership, but from the fact that it politically and military controls Gaza.

by markjay 2010-01-06 03:50PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

And so what if they control Gaza. Israel wants it that way so that it can point to Hamas as the reason it continues to colonize the Palestinian territories. We don't want rockets do we? I would answer that question, but I have no idea what it has to do with Israel's continuing colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Perhaps you can answer for all of us in some rational way. because for me, the answer is obvious. Red herring, and a lousy one at that.

And by the way, you are probably not aware that Hamas, before the massacres of last year, proposed ceasefires with Israel a half dozen or more time. Israel refused and continued entering Gaza to kill Palestinians, often farmers in fields and children playing. When Egypt negotiated the six month ceasefire that Israel agreed to, in the fourth month it entered Gaza and killed six Palestinian fighters. Rockets flew. And then two months later, just before the Israeli election, the triumvariate, Olmert-Livni-Barak, started the Gaza atrocities based on the notion that Hamas rockets was the reason and not the upcoming election. So Israel breaks the ceasefire and Hamas gets blamed.

I hope that you don't believe everything you read in the newspapers, because a lot of it is right out of IDF sources. So who is the (state or otherwise) terrorist here, Israel or Hamas?

by MainStreet 2010-01-06 04:11PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

You seem to have let your atred of Israel interfere with your visualization of reality.

The kind of arguments you make, suggesting that Hamas is in power in Gaza only because Israel wants it that way, are ludicrous.

And, once again, you have hidden behind your pompus, dismissive, statements and avoided answering my questions.

I asked you for a suggestion for a peaceful solution that ensures that Israel continues to exist as a Jewish state. You responded with a lecture about my not understanding the situation.

I truly hope that you don't believe everything you read on the Arab propoganda web sites, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

 

 

by NJ Liberal 2010-01-06 05:23PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

At this point, any talk about solutions is absurd, given that the only soution, going back to the Oslo hoax, has been two states, and it has only ever been two states. Now we hear that Netanyahu believes it is no longer possible. Why? Because Israel has colonized so much of the West Bank, claimed the Jordan Valley, and annexed East Jerusalem, that there is nothing left for a Palestinian state except some internal bantustans that is unacceptable to the Palestinians.

South African Apartheid is nothing that the Palestinians would ever sign off on, but that is precisely what Israel has in mind.

The Likuds at least are not as dishonest about what they intent as was Labor in the past or Kadima recently.

by MainStreet 2010-01-06 07:42PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

So you have nothing to offer
other than continued hatred.

by NJ Liberal 2010-01-06 11:02PM | 0 recs
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off the topic, but...

it's pretty cool how the new software, with its overzealous indenting mad my last comment look like very hip poetry.

Just sayin'

 

by NJ Liberal 2010-01-06 11:05PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.
And PS: Did you ever bother reading the diary, which is about factual events occurring today that amount to the further ethnic cleansing of Palestinians? These events have been going on for decades. How else would Israel have attained control of half of the West Bank? And now Israel or Likud (same thing) claims all of East Jerusalem, which today is 90% Palestinian. Let's watch and see how these Palestinians are slowly ethnically cleansed. They do it one Palestinian family at a time.
by MainStreet 2010-01-06 03:37PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

How else would Israel have attained control of half of the West Bank?

Israel gained control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a war in 1967 that started following an Egyptian naval blockade of Israel.  (At the time, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were not independent or autonomous but were controlled by Jordan.)  After the 1967 war started, Israel still refrained from moving troops into the West Bank or East Jerusalem and even promised Jordan not to initiate any military activity against it if Jordan stayed out of the war.  King Hussein rejected this and attacked Israel, opening up another front in the war. At that time, Israel counter-attacked and seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  And that is how Israel attained control of the West Bank.

by markjay 2010-01-06 03:47PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

Well you are not incorrect. I did not actually mean military control, but control via colonization, where we have over 200 outposts, villages, towns, and large cities that are Israeli only in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Sorry if I didn't make that stimulation. And of course, Israeli occupation forces are close by to protect those developments, and in fact to work with settler teams to help gain further land belonging to Palestinians through harassment, deprivation of water, house demolition, and the destruction of farms and orchards.

Sharon, as Minister of Agriculture actually started the settler-IDF team concept to get rid of, i.e., ethnically cleanse, Palestinians.

by MainStreet 2010-01-06 03:58PM | 0 recs
Shadow_head_small
RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.

Well you are not incorrect. I did not actually mean military control, but control via colonization, where we have over 200 outposts, villages, towns, and large cities that are Israeli only in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Sorry if I didn't make that stimulation. And of course, Israeli occupation forces are close by to protect those developments, and in fact to work with settler teams to help gain further land belonging to Palestinians through harassment, deprivation of water, house demolition, and the destruction of farms and orchards.

Sharon, as Minister of Agriculture actually started the settler-IDF team concept to get rid of, i.e., ethnically cleanse, Palestinians.

by MainStreet 2010-01-06 03:58PM | 0 recs
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RE: RE: RE: Hamas is just an excuse a red herring for the continuation of the colonialism.
Read the newspapers or blogs:
Israel presses ahead on settlements Abbas reiterated that a total freeze on settlements was necessary for talks to progress [Reuters] Israeli officials have pushed forward a project to build four new apartment blocks in occupied East Jerusalem, a move likely to heighten tensions with Palestinians amid US efforts to restart peace talks. Meir Margalit, a Municipal councilman, confirmed on Tuesday that a local planning committee had approved the project, saying final approval could be granted in a matter of weeks. The project is being developed by Irving Moskowitz, an American Jew who has funded Jewish settlers determined to cement Israel's hold on the city. Annexed by Israel in 1967, East Jerusalem is a major stumbling block in peace negotiations with the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/2010159620425850.html&#13;
It's the fault of the Palestinians, no doubt. Did I ever mention the words of Izak Shamir, when he was the Likud prime minister (not literally)? He said that he would engage in "automony talks" with the Palestinians for ten years, and in that time, another half million settlers would move onto Judea and Samaria (West Bank).
by MainStreet 2010-01-06 03:52PM | 0 recs

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