Prime Minister Netanyahu Pressured

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressured by the European Union to endorse and support a two state solution, calling for a Palestinian state to be established in pre-1967 borders, and East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinian leaders call for an immediate stop of the settlement building, however Netanyahu is a strong supporter of settlements in the West Bank. Netanyahu stated that improving the occupation, in means of economy would be far better than ending the occupation itself.

What is new then? Nothing is the answer. Nothing is new. For the past decades the Palestinians have been trying to reach peace with Israel, yet Israel is always setting the standards and the "rules" of this peace agreement. How can peace be established without justice. And I still don't understand in what way the two state solution will be viable and will work? I'm sure no Palestinian would want their state to be small fragments surrounded by Israeli soil. Who would anyway? Could that even be called a state?

Netanyahu also promised to work towards "peace" but I don't know what peace is in their eyes. How can peace be built without a base of justice? He doesn't even want to discuss the status of Jerusalem or the borders, all he wants to do is "improve the Palestinian economy". This is ridiculous because no economy can prosper under the strict and horrendous occupation, which includes checkpoints, the apartheid wall, the curfews, the IDF presence, and etc. In my opinion, this is another way that the Israeli government wants to show the world that is willing to discuss peace. Well thank you Israel, we really appreciate it.

Adding to the Israeli peace proccess, the Israeli government wants to control all aspects of this new Palestinian state, that may form, including borders, airspace, water, harbors, electricity, and such. Right now, while I sit here and right this, it is getting more prepostrous in my eyes. How can anyone see it otherwise?

Life in the West Bank: An Introduction

In many articles I have stressed the point of the Israeli occupation being unbearable. But as many times as I write it, I cannot give this point justice. Writing it is one thing and experiencing it is a another, however thank God I've never experienced it. The most important thing right understand is that the West Bank is not wholly Palestinian. It is in ownership, but not in population. This piece of land, west of the Jordan River, is cut up into many fragments. The reason being the Israeli military presence, and the Jewish settler population. These are both illegal, along with the rest of the aspects of occupation. Yet Israel is the only colonial power left in the whole world. Why does it occupy this piece of land? The answer to this question is that it captured it in the 1967 War, yet it would have given it up for a peace process. The Israeli government, however, is not willing to withdraw, because it thinks that this is their rightful claim, and to occupy is the only answer currently. They want to keep sending in settlers, and building settlement upon settlement on confiscated property from the Palestinians. Yet the world tends to ignore this, because Israel is going through with its plans to make it seem to the international community that nothing new is happening.

Yet every single day, something new is happening. This includes the constant settlement building, and checkpoints to the smallest details, which the world tends to ignore, such as the daily harassment of the Jewish settlers to Palestinians. These details are multiplying, and are spreading like an infection. Soon the whole West Bank, will not be under military occupation, but will be annexed to Israel, and the Palestinians will still be denied citizenship, or they will expel the Palestinians as they did in 1948 and will be rid of the "demographic problem".

There are many small aspects that should be brought to the world's attention concerning this occupation, and in the articles to come, all of this will be revealed, and then you can judge.

Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: Unchanged

You look ahead: blue skies, blue seas, and destruction. Utter destruction. That is the case in Gaza. All around you there is destruction and chaos. Children in the streets playing. The sewage line is in the civilian streets. Elderly people sit on the ground and pray to God to help them get out of this catostrophe.
It is in all means a catostrophe, nothing else. The recent Gaza Offensive, Cast Lead, as it was called by the Israeli Government and IDF destroyed what little infrastucture Gaza had. On top of all of that, Israel blames Hamas for bringing it on itself. The United States, and most of the European Union believes so too, yet the truth is in the eyes of every Gazan, that made it through the hellish three weeks, alive. Since the catostrophe, as I will refer to it, nothing has changed. The United Nations even said so. Nothing will change anyway if these ridiculous blockades are not lifted. 80% of the people in Gaza rely on relief agencies such as UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works agency for Palestinian refugees) for their survival, just survival, which means food and water. How is any humanitarian aid going to get through to Gaza if all the borders are closed most of the time, and there is simply not enough time for all the UN trucks to pass in. Israel has these borders closed, and is even denying the presence of a humanitarian aid! What a lie, a filthy lie, to deny anything ever happening to these people. I don't know what's going to happen now, but I'm sure the United Nations won't get anything done. What has it done throughout all of these occupations? It sets hundreds of resolutions, yet all of these are ignored by the State of Israel which thinks it is above International Law. I'm going to have a hard time believing that anything will change now, even if the United Nations is aware of what is happening. Maybe it'll pass yet another resolution, like the countless ones before it, and just like the countless ones before it, it will be jotted down in their historical archives, ignored and tucked away.

Settler Withdrawal from Gaza: Why It Happened

In a very well thought out move, Israel siginified to the world that it was a democratic state and is not willing to occupy captured territories from 1967. In 2005, the Israeli government withdrew its settler population from the Gaza Stip, which was about 5,000 people. By doing this, the Gaza strip was left tot he Palestinians to govern. The international society looks at this as a step leading up to a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, however it is very far from that.
With the Gaza Strip free of all Jewish and Israeli settlers and safe in Israel, the Israeli government transformed Gaza: the heavily and densely populated civilian area ino its own military "laboratory". No obstacles remain in the face of this government, because the Palestinians can hardly be regarded as humans, or living things in their eyes. Palestinians meant nothing to Israel, only a waste of space.
With the transformation of Gaza into this laboratory, Israel can test all of its latest technologies on the civilian population. It created horrors on this little piece of land, horrors that ended in chaos, poverty, death, and destruction. Along with the constant "experiments" Israel has also put a blockade on Gaza that will result in a humanitarian crisis that Israel and the United States would deny fully (but that will be a whole different article).
The most important thing to know now, is that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, did not mean peace or friendliness. It meant that they wanted their population to be safe, and to bestow upon the 1.5 million Palestinians terror that will end in many consequences. At the same time they refuse to them the basic necissties of living, such as food, and clean water, and such. This whole withdrawal triggered a number of events, such as the recent Gaza offensive, Cast Lead.
The Israeli Government should not hide behind the excuse of withdrawal and an end to the occupation in Gaza because that is a lie. Nothing justifies the horrors that these people are experiencing and these are war crimes! In articles to come, I will reveal the day to day terrorizing events the Palestinians endured.

IDF Admits War Crimes in Gaza

For the past couple of days, Ha'aretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, has been publishing first hand accounts from IDF soldiers in the Gaza offensive. These accounts reveal the war crimes that have been committed and the injustice that the Palestinians in Gaza had to suffer in that three-week long offensive.
I thought it was about time the Israelis started to reveal this treachery. For example, several papers have been retrieved from Palestinian homes, that were written by IDF commanders, ordering their troops to shoot at civilians, and rescue workers (from the Red Crescent and others). The Palestinians were either left inside their homes, waiting for rescue, or were dead because the IDF were preventing their evacuation. And to justify the evidence found in the homes of various Gazans is an IDF reserve officer that did not take part in the operation. He says that this note may have been written by a low-level commander.
Ha'aretz also admits that brutality of the Gaza offensive. IDF soldiers storming into houses, expelling the residents, and using the Palestinian house as means of safety and for shooting positions. Another article that was published a couple of days ago in Ha'aretz also stated that the IDF commanders ordered their soldiers to shoot at anyone in their way. The soldiers had to obey and they did as they were told. A Palestinian woman and her children was exiting her house so she could find a safe haven. The IDF soldier told her to go right, yet she didn't understand and went left. The cost of that small mistake was her life and the lives of her children.
The treachery of this offensive was known to many, but finally the Israelis are admitting to it. These troops of no humanity in them. They are heartless and that is the reason they were able to kill so much innocent civilians.

Jerusalem Capital of Arab Culture 2009

This news was extremely surprising to me, yet I was ecstatic. Finally, Jerusalem can be recognized as an Arab city. However the Israelis are far from pleased. They have had huge numbers of policemen around the city, stopping any festivities or celebrations. The government of Israel wants to prevent these people from celebrating their culture, and they want to deny the fact that Jerusalem was an Arab city, and East Jerusalem now, is still an Arab city. This is what I'm talking about in my past articles. The Israelis wiped out all traces of Palestine from the beginning of the occupation in 1948, yet it did not succeed in doing so to Jerusalem.
However, right now they are trying to rid all of Jerusalem of the Arab presence, for example, home demolitions, impossible permits, and the list goes on and on.
Since the Israeli Government did not let the Palestinians celebrate this special day, of marking Jerusalem as the Capital of Arab Culture 2009, they celebrated it in various cities in the West Bank, such as Bethlehem, and Ramallah, and Nablus. The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbass said a speech in Bethlehem, remarking about how the Israeli Government. He said that the Israeli government should recognize Jerusalem as the future capital of any Palestinian state that should form, and in preventing their celebration of this day, they are showing that they do not want peace.
I read an article about this in Haaretz, and I also read the readers' comments on it too. One that I found very interesting stated: "When the Muslims let us celebrate a Jewish national holiday in Mecca, then we will let this celebration go on".
My response to this is that Jews do not make up any part of the population in Mecca, and I'm sure no Jews live in Mecca as well, so there would be no point of celebrating a Jewish holiday there. However, in all of Israel, 20% are Arab Palestinian citizens. And East Jerusalem is a Palestinian territory that was occupied in 1967, therefore there is no comparison. This is another way to wipe out all traces of a Muslim or Arab presence in Jerusalem. But the will of the Palestinians is much stronger than the Israeli governments ridiculous policies.

Fear Controls the State of Israel

As an intelligent person, that focuses on both sides of the conflict, I decided to study the Israeli side. Everyone that visits this blog, and everyone I know, know that I am Pro-Palestinian, however we need to understand what the Israelis think, however, we do not have to agree with them.
The popular Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, was the first place I started. I went on its website and read several articles. The one that stuck out to me was an article explaining the Hamas rockets raining on Israeli cities, This is an excerpt:

"But the world should know this: No matter how progressive the government in Israel, no matter how grave the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, without an end to the rockets, there will be no peace process and certainly no peace. While the rockets are flying, nothing else moves. Nothing that Israel has tried, neither diplomacy nor brutality, has been able to stop the rockets. Only Hamas can do that. The world and Washington could have made the rockets a priority years ago, and perhaps brought this to resolution. But the world has other things to think about, and Washington as well. "

I have many comments on this part of the article. The Israelis are living in total fear of destruction and are trying to prevent another Holocaust (that will never happen) from happening, or that is what they think. But the truth is, no one is trying to wipe the Jews from the face of the Earth. The rockets launched by Hamas are there to resist the occupation, to resist the thousand of home demolitions, the thousands of innocent deaths and prisoners, the Wall, the checkpoints, all the aspects of the occupation.

I truly want to believe that if Hamas stops these rockets, then peace will find its way to that region, but it's very complicated. Another comment: The "nothing Israel has tried, neither diplomacy or brutality". The Israelis should know why these rockets are raining on their cities. The brutal occupation that has been in effect since 1967 and has been tightened in the past few years is the cause, as well as the failing of finding a solution to this problem. And Israel tries diplomacy to gain on its part, and not to gain peace. The many peace processes that have occurred in the past all have one common denominator. The West Bank is split into many parts, some settlements will not be removed, and the Palestinians cannot control their airspace, harbors, borders, water and other vital things to a country. The question is why? Because Israelis don't want to see the Palestinians prosper, or rather they do not want to deal with a threat of a powerful country sitting next to them, only the Palestinians in the occupied territories have to deal with that. All the diplomatic solutions Israel has tried is stripping Palestinians of their rights to a REAL country. Not a country that is controlled by another, then that would be occupation all over again.

I can understand the Israelis' fear of these rockets, and the threats from Iran, but I should think that these fears should drive them to a peace process, not to more tightened occupation. I would like to see a cease-fire, a real one this time, which insures rights on both sides. Hamas shouldn't launch rockets, and Israel should loosen its occupation [for now, it should actually end it, but that's not going to happen overnight] and to tear down the Apartheid Wall. Then peace will be reached, because one group cannot be asked to stop the violence with the other group still using it. Both sides should stop.

One Palestine of Jews and Muslims

Imagine the land, from the coasts of the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, peaceful. It is like a normal country, no walls, no barriers, no checkpoints, no military in the streets. Orthodox Jews and Muslim Shaikhs walk in the same street, to the same holy site. They converse, laugh and then part, the shaikh to the mosque and the Jew to the Wailing Wall.

Why could this not be a reality. Why did the Israelis have to establish their own state. They would have been welcome to live in Palestine. Look at Lebanon now, there's an almost even percentage of Christians and Muslims, and they are united under one name, Lebanese.

The Jewish argument would be, because their holy book promised the land "to the sons of Abraham". We don't know if that's true or not, because we cannot have a conflict involving two different religions and base the solution on a one sided resolution. If that was true though, they could live in the holy land. But I don't think any religious book would justify the expulsion and suffering of millions of Palestinians. When the state of Israel was established, it was the twentieth century. It wasn't like a thousand years back when there were crusades and religious leaders conquered half the world. I think it was very extreme of how they came in and established their state on stolen Palestinian land.

Anyway, my dream is to see a unified Palestine, 50% Israelis, 50% Palestinians. There has to be religious tolerance in that region, specifically that region, since it is the holy land. Three different religions claim it, there used to be Israeli kingdoms, Palestinian kingdoms, Christian kingdoms, the three Abrahamic religions had a claim.

If Israel will remain in this path, its future will not be ensured in any way. The Palestinians can come back and conquer the land, (just like the Israelis had done), and then they will show the Israelis how their hellish lives were. Israel is going nowhere towards peace, but rather to war. Wars have sparked in the past, and will remain to take place because peace has to be built on justice, it has be built between people, not governments; it is not merely a piece of paper.

The Violent Raids in the Occupied Territories

There are many treacheries and cruel behavior surrounding the Israeli occupation, but one of the cruelest can be the surprising home raids by the Israeli Defense Forces, IDF. They can come at any moment of the day, and break down an innocent Palestinian family's door to just destroy everything in their way. That is their nature. The Israeli military wants to make its presence known by going through with these raids.
One example, is Zaid. He was sitting with his wife and children in his living room, watching a television show, when all of a sudden he hears a loud bang, and immediately after that the front door had collapsed. In the doorway stood three soldiers, and one after another, they began filing into the house. Zaid's wife began screaming and running to the adjacent room, because she didn't have anything covering her hair. The children began screaming and crying. They wet their clothes. Zaid started asking the soldiers for a warrant. They began laughing and continued with their "playtime".They were destroying anything that lay in their path. Television sets, plates, vases, paintings. One soldier made his way to the roof of the house and destroyed the satellite dish. This is considered amusing to the IDF.
For no particular reason, they enter a Palestinian home, and demolish it's contents. No person on Earth has the right to go through another's personal possessions without a search warrant. The innocent family lay there helpless, watching their valuable possessions scattered, destroyed, and laughed upon.
Imagine someone going through your things. You watch the photo albums that had pictures of your dead grandparents being destroyed and laughed upon. You feel desperation and helplessness, and you hate these monsters to a degree you've never felt before.
These raids have a long term affect on people, and can scar them. No matter how long this occupation has been in effect, no one will ever get used to this sort of behavior.
Going back to Zaid's story: After the soldiers were finished, and there was simply nothing left to destroy, they fire hundreds of bullets through the wall and made a hole, so that they can exit the house. After a few days, Zaid found out why the IDF were in his home. They wanted to arrest a man two buildings beside Zaid's home, and the IDF soldiers did not want to risk their lives by walking in the dark streets. Instead, they cut holes in people's houses and have some "fun" while they are at it.