A Jewish State If You Like it or Not

The State of Israel's top priority is to keep its status as a Jewish State, in other words ethnic cleansing. What else would you call it when they don't allow the rightful owners of a house in Haifa to live there, but welcome Jews from Eastern Europe that have never seen Haifa or probably heard of it all their lives? This is a reality Palestinians must face. Racism, racism, and more racism. I am going to give you an example:

A woman is pregnant. Her husband lives with her in Jerusalem. They are expecting a baby within three months. When their child is born, they could barely register the child in Jerusalem. The couple needs to prove that Jerusalem is their "center of life", as the Israelis call it. The couple has to retrieve electric bills, water bills, heating bills, and proof of the home ownership. And these documents all have to go back at least fifteen years. Who on Earth saves their electric bills over the course of fifteen years. That is impossible for Salma, because she recently moved from her parent's house, to Ahmad's house. And she has been living with Ahmad for a year, not fifteen. Since she left her parents house for a year (which was the only proof of her living in Jerusalem) and she has no official proof of living with Ahmad (because residency papers are extremely difficult to obtain), the Israeli government expels Salma from Jerusalem because she has "abandoned" it, when she was actually living there her whole life. Ahmad and their child can stay, but the child has to leave when he reaches the age of fourteen. Ahmad would have to follow Salma to the West Bank in order to live with his family. One family expelled, thousands more to go.

Thousands of people have to endure this racism in East Jerusalem. Let us remind the Israelis that East Jerusalem is an Occupied Territory and shares the status of the West Bank and Gaza since they were all captured in 1967. However Israel annexed East Jerusalem, and is slowly expelling the Palestinian population. They also built the separation wall along the border of the West Bank with the farthestmost suburbs of East Jerusalem. Now, a West Banker can never enter East Jerusalem.

A Jewish European family, Jewish being the key word, arrives from Ukraine, and they are immediately granted citizenship and residency papers as well as on option to live in "Judea and Samaria", or the rest of Israel. This family, that has never seen Jerusalem or Palestine in all its life, comes and within half an hour they are granted everything the Palestinians are rejected.

Israel is slowly expelling all the Palestinians from East Jerusalem, so the city would unanimously be Jewish. Isn't that racism, and discrimination against religion and nationality. Other than that, it is ethnic cleansing (well that sounds familiar doesn't it, hint hint: The Holocaust). which is extremely illegal internationally, not that all of the other things Israel is doing is legal. However the international community, being the United Nations chooses to keep its mouth shut. The United States however, plays an active role, and continues to supply weapons and financial support to the Jewish state because they think justice is served, and are very, very sympathetic with the Jews because of the Holocaust. Why not go build a Jewish Nation in California and save the world this trouble. I'm sure the Americans would "LOVE" that.

Racism in the Israeli Occupation

I will describe to you what is happening in this photo. An IDF soldier feels threatened by the presence of this three year old. Therefore he chooses to retrieve his gun (if you could call it a gun) and aim it at the little boy. This way, the 20+ year old IDF soldier can ensure his safety, his life, and his well-being.

What the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is in all meaning apartheid. The whole formation of this Jewish state goes against anything we learned in life. Let me explain what I mean. Little children learn to share, to communicate, not be violent. Not to be greedy, or selfish, but to be polite and understanding. All of these characteristics stick with the person for as all long as he/she lives. Yet here we have an exception. The Israelis. No not all Israelis are bad, but the majority of them think that what the Israeli government is doing is correct, politically and morally. Why doesn't the world see these acts of racism, I do not know. And I am extremely perplexed at the state of the world. The United States ended racism and segregation of African Americans, yet here we have the IDF treating these poor people like insects. And Israel is so proud of it's military, and the world is impressed with how dedicated these soldiers are to their country. Well think again, I surely am not proud of what these people did and are doing to this population.

Racism is a big crime in the world, but the International community chooses to ignore what's happening in the West Bank and Gaza. Half the population is under the poverty line, they can't eat or sleep (they don't have a house). They can't go to work, because of the checkpoints that are sprouting up everywhere. First they expelled them from their homes and land. They made them flee into the West Bank and to neighboring countries. Next they want "Judea and Samaria", because it's the promised land in their holy book. Well, if the world was going to go on claims of their holy books, the world would be a stage for wars and crimes. We'll have the Holy Wars and crusades all over again. But in the world's eyes, Israel has the right to exist. Alright, and if it does, why does it not stick to its original borders? No, it wants to expand. All those characteristics that I mentioned above don't describe the IDF and the Israeli government. But the opposites would. They are greedy, selfish, rude, cruel. They want everything, all the holy land. They even wanted the Jolan Heights which belonged to Syria. And now they got it, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Jolan Heights. I came across a photo of the Jolan Heights today labeled, "The Land God Promised to Us [Jews]. Why not claim the whole earth while they are at it. The Jolan Heights is part of Syria and will always be part of Syria. But their greed is blinding them, and their state of mind, that everyone is inferior to them, isn't helping anyone. They choose to ignore the people that are already living on it, and even have the nerve to say that the land was barren and it was waiting for the Jews to come (for two thousand years). This is unbelievable. And I hope people that have a different stand than I should open their eyes to the horrors. What next are the Israelis going to occupy, Jordan, or Syria? Israel can justify anything it does with the United States behind it, even the illegal settlements and the ethnic cleansing that is almost complete in Jerusalem.

Expulsion of Palestinians, An Introduction

The horrors that Israel is casting upon the Palestinians is unbelievable. I'm reading another book right now on this subject, and it's titled "Palestine Inside Out", by Saree Makdisi. It's a brilliant book that outlines the lives of the Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation, in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. I couldn't control my emotions while reading this book. Anger swept over me, and I was clutching the book so hard. The material is unbelievable, but it is true. The lives of these poor people that were expelled from their homes is terrifying. They are under control, they cannot move about freely. They have to carry numerous permits just to accomplish everyday tasks, such as grocery shopping, going to work or school, and that such. The checkpoints however, are the hardest part of the Palestinian life. There are about 600 checkpoints in the West Bank. They are operated by the IDF soldiers, and they have to be obeyed. It's ridiculous, the whole ordeal that they have to go through. And Israel's sole goal, is to expel the Palestinians from their land so they can annex the West Bank to Israel, and finally include "Judea and Samaria", as they call the West Bank, in the map of Israel. I just can't grasp the concept, of these foreign people coming into this land that was called Palestine, and establishing a state, in vain, expelling the current population, and they are still not satisfied. They want the whole land, yet they don't want the people on it. Right now, after 2,000 years, the Jews remember that they had ancestors living in Palestine, and right away they wanted to establish a state, that already housed a nation, which is Palestine. And currently, the Israelis want to keep the status of their state, as Jewish, and the problem lies in the occupied territories. They are at a point where their ambitions have reached an obstacle, which is the Palestinian population in the West Bank. Israel calls them the "demographic problem". I believe this whole campaign is racist. Any Jew, from all over the world, as the right of return to Israel, yet the Palestinians, that were living on this land for generations on end, don't. A Jew from Latvia, in Eastern Europe, can come into Israel and within half an hour he could have his residency papers, and citizenship granted, as well as the option to live in Israel or the West Bank (in the numerous ILLEGAL settlements that are being established). Yet a Palestinian does not have this right. A whole generation of Palestinians haven't seen Jerusalem, because of these ridiculous checkpoints, yet any Jew from anywhere in the world can come with ease and buy a house right next to the Dome of the Rock mosque. It's unbelievable, and I'm surprised the world as stayed quiet about this for so long. To anyone that has opposing views, what argument can you bring forth that makes sense, and defends the state of Israel for these acts of apartheid and racism.

Hillary Clinton in the Middle East

Recently, Hillary Clinton has toured the Middle East, specifically Israel and the West Bank city of Ramallah. she met with various Israeli leaders on Tuesday to discuss the current situation with the Palestinians and the possible solutions. Benjamin Natenyahu, the current Prime Minister who is in the process of forming a government, does not support the Two-State Solution, involving a Palestinian State to be created in the West Bank and Gaza, and to live side by side with the state of Israel. Natenyahu, however supports the building of illegal settlements in the West Bank, which is right now, the main obstacle standing in the way of this solution. The Prime Minister does not want to achieve peace, in my opinion, he just wants to push the Palestinians out of their homes and land. By building these settlements, he is telling the world that he wants to expand the border of Israel past the pre-1967 borders, past the green line and into the West Bank to the Jordan River. Hillary Clinton however is determined to have this Two-State Solution in effect, and the United States will always support this plan. Everyone knows it is the only way for the violence to end in that region, and for the people of that region to live in peace of mind. But this is wear the United States and the Israelis reach a conflict, and I truly don't know how Benjamin Natenyahu is going to be persuaded to support the Two-State Solution, but I hope it will be done if he likes it or not.
Hillary Clinton also met with Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, and discussed the current situation as well. She assured him that the establishment of a Palestinian State will always be the priority of the American government in that region, after he expressed concerns about Natenyahu's policies.
I believe that currently, the United States has to condemn the building of illegal settlements, as it is the first step in this long Two-State solution. It will only be more difficult to add to the number of already high settlers in the West Bank, and to remove them when the time comes of establishing a Palestinian State.

Queen Noor's Memoirs, an Inspiration

"Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life", is the story of Queen Noor's life, formerly known as Lisa Najeeb Halaby, and it was written from her perspective. This book is absolutely brilliant, to say the least, because it gave you insight on the circumstances that led to her and King Hussein's meet, and then their very eventful life and the struggles that they had to go through together. She sheds some light at the place where Jordan stands in this Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is more like an Arab-Israeli conflict. So I will outline this book very briefly.
Lisa Najeeb Halaby graduated with a degree in Architecture and went of to Iran and then to Jordan, to complete the Intercontinental Airport which will serve as a hub to the new Royal Jordanian Airlines. She meets King Hussein there, because he and her father had close business ties. A friendship forms, and then they both fall deeply in love with each other. Lisa admires King Hussein in everything he does, and his willingness to achieve the impossible. Soon after, King Hussein proposes to Lisa, and there begins the long life ahead. Lisa takes the decision by herself to convert to Islam, because she found the religion very logical and pure and it gave her ease of mind. Upon her conversion, her name was changed from Lisa, to Noor, which means light in Arabic, Noor al Hussein or the Light of Hussein.
Her life with King Hussein was a happy and honest one. They both worked very hard. Queen Noor immediately adjusted and loved the Jordanian people. She knew she had to accomplish many things in this country, so that it can become more advanced and appear on the world stage. Many of her accomplishments included the creation of the Annual Jerash Festival, the work for the Bedouin women, many projects in the refugee camps, campaigns against land mines, and many more.
The book inspired me so much, because this woman was so devoted to her husband, and attached to him. She gave him her whole life, and that was proved when he became very ill, and then diagnosed with cancer. She was strong, and gave him hope, and light. She took care of all her step children, and had four of her own children from the King. Queen Noor believed in peace. Her approach to politics was that any military action will not yield any results, but political action is what ought to be done. Also, one of King Hussein's sayings, that is a favorite of mine is that "A peace-treaty is not a piece of paper, that is signed between countries, governments to ensure it's economic growth or stability, but it is a pact between people, and the people have to feel it, and live it to make real peace." (And I was just paraphrasing).
I admired King Hussein's ways of peace. He always wanted to make peace with Israel, but also wanted to form a Palestinian state in peace, and I believe that is the exact way to go about these things. Violence will not solve anything, deaths of innocent children will not earn the security of the killers. King Hussein hoped that the Arabs can come to peace with Israel and that a Palestinian state can be created, but he never lived to see that dream come true, yet I hope that I do see this in the future.

The Queens of Jordan, Busy at Work

I'm currently reading an autobiography of Queen Noor, the late King Hussein's wife, and I can't help but admire this woman. Not only that, but King Abdullah's wife Queen Rania of Jordan is on the same track, and is setting up lots of different programs and looking into humanitarian issues. These women are breaking the stereotypes that Western Society has tagged the Arab World with as ignorant and violent. And I am very proud of what Queen Noor accomplished and what she is accomplishing as well as Queen Rania. I can't imagine how Jordanians feel, if I, a Syrian is extremely happy. These women present the Arabic World in an elegant and professional way, and exhibit their knowledge to help causes such as AIDS in Africa, Land Mines in South America, and the Palestinian-Israeli crisis that is till now affecting millions of people. These women, I feel, represent the Arab world in the best way possible and show the International Society what the Arab world really is, and the level of understanding and desire for peace we have. I was looking through YouTube earlier today and I found out that Queen Rania has her own YouTube channel. On it, there were exclusive interviews and a series of videos called "Breaking the Stereotypes", which is a aimed at the understanding of the Arabic world and society, and to put aside the stereotypes that affect people's minds so negatively. I was also watching Queen Noor's response to the Gaza Crisis and I'm ecstatic when I saw her explaining the situation from our point of view, to CNN. She is a very intelligent person, and upon the host of the show commenting and saying, "Israel would not have had this offensive if there weren't rockets being launched by Hamas, and other extremest groups". She says (and I'm just paraphrasing) "The level of poverty in Gaza and the West Bank as well as the Israeli Occupation they are living under deprives the Palestinians of hope, and it is so much easier to be drawn by these extremist groups, that only form because of the absence of peace." And people should hear these words and this exact answer to understand the situation in the Middle East.

The autobiography that I'm reading now is called "Leap of Faith, Memoirs of an Unexpected Life" by Queen Noor. It's brilliantly written, and it's easy to read. I did not know very much about the country of Jordan, but now I'm starting to appreciate it's role in the Middle East and King Hussein's as well as Queen Noor's work on getting the Arab-Israeli peace process re-ignited. Queen Noor was born in the United States into an Arab-American family. She travelled to Jordan and met King Hussein. They fell in love and married, and she faced a lot of obstacles once she was queen. But she knew that she wanted to accomplish many things, to benefit Jordan and the whole world. She started on projects for the Palestinian refugees in Jordan, and many architectural as well as cultural projects, such as the Jerash Annual Festival. And to this day, she is still working, along with Queen Rania who is side by side with UNRWA, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Take a look at Queen Rania's YouTube channel, and the videos that are on there to build a bridge between the Western World and the Middle East:

http://www.youtube.com/QueenRania

Israel's Excuse for War

Israel, always "acting in defense of its citizens" has a lot of different tactics to spark war in the region. One of them being to push the surrounding Arab countries to the limits of their patience, until they say enough and resort to violence. In response, Israel launches an all out war, and the IDF destroys anything in their way, being houses or innocent children. Let's take the example of the 1967 Six Day War. The start of this war was not in June, but in April, two months before the official Six Day War. Israeli Settlers were advancing deeper and deeper into the heart of the Golan Heights in Syria and they were plowing land, in an area known as the demilitarized zone. The Israeli government was pushing these people further and further. And this strategy was well thought out beforehand. They wanted a reaction from the Syrian Government, they wanted them to shoot at the Israeli Settlers and that's exactly what happened. Because in this situation, there are only two choices the Syrian government could take, and only one choice to defend Syrian land. If they didn't shoot, the Israeli Settlers would advance more and more and settle in Syria, just like they are currently in the West Bank. But they did shoot, and the Israelis launched a disproportionate offensive. This is what Israel's Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan said at the time to the New York Times, "If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also". So the Israeli Defense Minister at the time, said it himself, that this advancement of settlers was to trigger a reaction from the Syrians, and in response Israel would be justified to attack Syria, as an "Act of Defense for the Israeli Citizens". And they did exactly that, causing heavy Syrian casualties as well as the shooting down of several planes over the city of Damascus. These are their tactics, provocation, violence, and lies. And this cycle will never end. We saw it just recently with the Gaza offensive. Israel blockades, Hamas shoots rockets, and Israel announces a war "to ensure the safety of the citizens of the State of Israel", and kills around a thousand and a half people in the process. And I don't have to mention the state of destruction the Gaza strip is in right now, and all of that just for home made rockets being launched and barely killing 5 people and doing any damage. Israel's disproportionate offensives and attacks will never end. The world witnessed in 2006 how Israel bombed Rafik al Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon. Why, because Hezbollah imprisoned two Israeli soldiers and won't release them, in comparison with the hundreds of innocent war prisoners in Israel. Not only did it bomb the airport, but this whole issue became a month long war that destroyed a portion of Beirut. So before the world points fingers at the Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries, they should recognize what Israel had done, what it is doing, and what it will do in the near future.

Israel's Disproportionate "Retaliations"

Much of the time, the Western World, and the United States most importantly, persuade themselves that what Israel is doing, and all the attacks and offensives that take place are a reaction to Palestinian violence and attacks. Let's take the example of the Gaza Offensive, which just ended a little over a month ago. Because of the rockets that Hamas was launching into Israel, Israel decided that it was enough and attacked the small, yet heavily populated Gaza Strip, first from the air and then on foot. Yet the Israeli government, or the world at that matter, never asks why they started attacking Israel in the first place. Maybe it was resistance to the occupation, but in my opinion it was an outcry to the ridiculous blockade that Israel has cast on all the Gaza strip. It controls what comes in and what goes out. There is barely any food, no electricity, no clean water. What could the Palestinians do other than launch rockets. I see these rockets as flares, fireworks that get the attention of the population around them. They were used as signals of desperate and immediate help, just like the sinking Titanic used flares to signal to ships in the distance. After this "Act of Defense for the safety of the Israeli people" was over, the result would be the slaughter of about 1,300 people and more than a fourth of these victims are innocent women and children. When the world confronts the Israeli government with this information, all it can say is "Hamas is using innocent civilians as human shields". If I were to ask the Israeli government to explain what they mean, they would say that "Hamas is hiding in heavily populated areas to get the sympathy of the world when there is a huge number of casualties". However, where can the ruling group of an area live, or hide in that matter. Gaza is one of the most heavily populated areas in the world, with about 1.5 million people living there. I won't deny the "Acts of Humanity" that Israel has done by releasing flyers to the Gazans reading "We Will Destroy Your Home Tomorrow, Go Somewhere Safe". But where is safety? Where is safety in a strip that barely measures 139 square miles that is bombarded by white phosphorous and other lethal bombs every two minutes. Where is the family that just received this flyer going to go? Out on the streets, where it's even more dangerous due to the land offensive, because there is no way out of the Gaza Strip. This is what Tzipi Livni said "We are not telling them to go out of Gaza, we are just telling them to go to a safer place in Gaza". As if the poor innocent families had a copy of the IDF's agenda on what to destroy next.

The West Bank: Reaching Prosperity

In the first part of this series of articles, I wrote about the awful checkpoints and the results of the Separation Wall Israel has built around the West Bank. Now I want to write about the possibility of prosperity reaching the land. There is only one obstacle in the Palestinians way of reaching prosperity, and that is Israel. (Shocking, right?) The Israelis, when building this wall, didn't even stay on the path of the Green Line, which is the official borders of the West Bank. They chose to take their own path and zigzag around the original borders, taking a huge amount of land from some villages. For example, in the village of Bi'lin, Israel took 50% of the land, where all the farming fields and vegetation was, originally belonging to the village, and built modern settlements for the Israelis. It's so ironic, to have beautiful houses sitting on lush valleys on one side of this wall, and on the other, poverty-stricken villages, with dirt roads and crumbling houses. The Israelis would say, why not let the Palestinian Authority invest in infrastructure. First of all, the financial issues. The neighboring Arab countries, including Saudia Arabia and the gulf states could donate and aid them. Now they have the money. Next thing is, how are they going to bring in building supplies and steel and all the necessities of building, with a wall this size. There is no way in or out of this area for some. And how can the Palestinians be sure that Israel will not take these buildings away from them, just like they did in 1948. They wouldn't want to build for nothing. And if they build homes and new buildings, who would buy them. At the level of poverty the Palestinians are in because of Israel, there is no hope for the occupants to increase their wage, and live a better lifestyle. The West Bank is not even a country! When the Palestinian Territories become a fully independent state, then they can build and prosper their new land. But not now, when Israel is controlling what comes in and what goes out, including water, electricity, and food. People often point out the success of the young state of Israel. But we can point our fingers to the United States, for all the financial aid, and the modern military aid, that helped them acquire this land, violently and with force, in the first place.