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July 29, 2002
David Vest
A Blind Mule and
a Box of Medals
July 28, 2002
Bob Geary
Our Dinner
with Fidel Castro
July 27, 2002
Ian Daoust
The New
Mahler, Seattle Style
Gavin Keeney
Zizek
and Lenin
Ralph Nader
Citigroup
Heal Thyself
M. Shahid Alam
American
Presidents (Poem)
Mokhiber / Weissman
Push Back: Women Take
on the Corporate Beasts
July 26, 2002
Jerre Skog
American
Dictatorship:
It Couldn't Happen...Could It?
Philip Farruggio
Lie,
Rob and Steal
Rep. Ron Paul
Monitor
Thy Neighbor
Ron Jacobs
Thinking
About the
Weather (Underground)
Walt Brasch
Ashcroft's War on Bookstores
July 25, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Paul
Krugman's Howl:
Populism, War and
the Melting Economy
Gavin Keeney
Van Morrison: In September
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
War
on Terrorism or
Police State?
July 24, 2002
Gary Leupp
An Islam Primer
July 23, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Battle
for Zuni Salt Lake
Ansar Ahmed
Am I with You, George?
Bill Christison
The
Disastrous Foreign Policies of the US: Oppression Abroad Means
Repression at Home
July 22, 2002
Rick Giombetti
Glaxo Raises White Flag
in Paxil Case
Wayne Madsen
Forbidden
Truth
The Press, Bush, Oil
and the Taliban
July 21. 2002
Francis A. Boyle
The Rogue Elephant
Jennifer Harbury
Why are
the FBI & CIA Targeting Me?
Joan Claybrook
Time
for a Special Prosceutor
for Thomas White
Gloria Bergen
The Struggle
of Workers
in Palestine
Dave Marsh
Mr. Big Stuff:
Alan Lomax, Great White Fraud
James T. Phillips
"I'll
Tell You No Lies"
The Human Rubble of War
July 20, 2002
Gavin Keeney
The Grave
New Urbanism
World Trade Center Burlesque
Jacob Levich
"I
Was Schooled in Hate"
Confessions of a
Summer Camp Terror Tot
Thomas Croft
Augusta,
GA
Growing Up in the Deep South
Alexander Cockburn
The
Market Hogwallow:
Popgun Populism Isn't Enough
July 19, 2002
Abe Bonowitz / SueZann
Bosler
A Discussion
with Jeb Bush on the Death Penalty
Jonathan Power
No Need
for War Against Iraq
Rick Giombetti
Qwest
Death Watch
Kurt Nimmo
Of Mice,
Bullets & Bombs
M. Shahid Alam
Through
Racist Eyes:
Is Eurocentrism Unique?
July 18, 2002
Mokhiber / Weissman
Business
As Usual
Jerre Skog
I Spy: Now
Let's be Fair,
the USA Ain't East Germany
Ralph Nader
The CEO
Crimewave:
Corporate Socialism
Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)
The Rising Tensions
Between Spain and Morocco
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel
and Squawk:
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save the White House?
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The New Intifada:
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A Pocket Guide to
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July
29, 2002
Why
Do They Do It?
by Linda Belanger
Their religion teaches them to do it....
Their religion teaches them to do it
they say of the Palestinian suicide bombers.
They teach them in school to hate Jews
we are told.
But there are things that we are not
told about.
The International Solidarity Movement
website reports that "the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is
employing intimidation and violence against international journalists
in an effort to prevent them reporting on its occupation of Palestinian
towns.
The Guardian of London reports an incident
where Israeli troops threw stun grenades at a convoy of 25 foreign
journalists who were on their way to cover a meeting between
Yasser Arafat and a U.S. diplomat.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) has documented
more than 30 cases of journalists who have been wounded in shootings
by the Israeli army in the Occupied Territories in the last two
years.. Most were photographers or cameramen, clearly identifiable
as such and shot some distance away from clashes.
Palestinian journalists are especially
targetted. Two of them, Maher Shalabi and Majid Sawalha, were
arrested by soldiers in the centre of Ramallah on 16 April and
taken into a building where they were blindfolded and handcuffed.
They were insulted and hit in the stomach, legs and back before
being released a few hours later without being charged with any
offence.
Israeli Imperial News ( a website edited
by Israeli dissidents, reports that in the early days of the
April 2002 offensive, Israeli troops occupied and shut down Palestinian
television and radio stations in Ramallah and other cities. Foreign
TV reporters were denied freedom of movement except on selected
occasion in locations permitted by the military authorities.
Even the Israeli media has been denied free access into the occupied
cities. Israel's official and private media and in some instances
had to rely on European and American TV reports for their coverage.
.
In order to maintain their presence in
the occupied territories, certain media organizations such as
Reuters and AP are making concessions in their reports in order
to obtain the media passes that are necessary to enter the Palestine
and which are issued by Israel. To get the story, media organizations
like Reuters and AP and CNN which are the source of a lot of
what we see and read in the mainstream newspapers report only
half truths. For example one of the suicide bombings that took
place in late June 2002 was reported to have taken place in a
"Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem". What was
not reported is that Gilo is actually situated in occupied East
Jerusalem and build on land expropriated from Palestinians. The
bombing of a city bus reported that there were children on the
bus but failed to mention that the occupants were mostly Israeli
military personnel.
It does little good to read a variety
of newspapers, as often, the story is obtained from the same
source, Reuters and AP. If you refer to several mainstream newspapers
or their websites on a given day you will see the same article
pretty much word for word from one source to another. The information
from the common source (Reuters, AP) is just plugged directly
into the newspaper without being edited, verified or supplemented
with any background information.
Therefore, the day to day suffering and
humiliation of the Palestinian people is simply not reported
in the mainstream media. Unfortunately what little is getting
out is often not being published or aired on television. In Canada
141 newspapers, 14 of them major dailies and one of the three
television networks are owned by Israel Asper. It is well known
that Mr. Asper has issued instruction to his newspapers that
criticism of Israeli policies will not be tolerated. The situation
is similar in the U.S. and what is published is greatly monitored
and influenced by the Jewish lobby.
But what is it they do not want us to
know about?
The Israeli government has expropriated
Palestinians from their land and homes without compensation to
build settlements for Israelis .
The homes of people resisting the occupation,
even by peaceful means, have been demolished sometimes with only
a few hours notice for the occupants to get out. In May 2002,
an estimated 10,000 Palestinians were left homeless when their
homes in Jenin were damaged or totally destroyed in the IDFs
search for "terrorists". Over 60 people were killed
in the operation of which only 30 were "terrorists".
Israel refused to allow an international observers to investigate
the scene.
The Israeli government has diverted water
away from Palestinian farmland to serve the Jewish settlements
that they have established within Palestine. In many areas, water
is rationed for Palestinians but Israeli settlers have swimming
pools. Averages: Palestinians use 37.5 cubic metres of water
per person per year. Israelis use 235 cubic meters and Israeli
settlers in the occupied territories use 600.
Schools and churches have been shelled
by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships.
House searches without warrants are a
daily occurrence. Homes are ransacked, windows broken and furniture
destroyed for no reason and sometimes the occupants are executed
on the spot.. In the case of row housing, the IDF has a habit
of blasting through interior walls to get through to the next
unit.
Curfews are imposed for weeks on end.
Websters dictionary defines curfew as a time generally in the
evening set as a deadline beyond which children or inhabitants
of an occupied territory may not appear on the street. In the
context of Israel's war on the civilian population of Palestine,
curfews are 24 hours a day and lifted only for a few hours once
or twice a week. There is no going to school or work or shopping.
Children cannot play outside. People caught outside during curfews
can be shot on sight.
Ambulances are prevented from getting
to the sick and wounded. One hundred and twenty ambulance drivers
and paramedics have been killed in the last 18 month. Hospitals
are being damaged and destroyed.
Fifteen hundred Palestinian have been
killed since January 2000. Eighty percent of the victims were
civilians and 25% were children. New York Times reporter Chris
Hedges writes in Harper's magazine that he has watched Israeli
soldiers day after day taunt Palestinian children and then "shoot
them for sport".
Palestinians must carry color-coded ID
cards and drive cars with color-coded plates.
The Israelis have built highways throughout
Palestinian territories for the Jewish settlers that they have
established there in contravention of international rules of
occupation.(4th Geneva Convention 49th article) Only Israelis,
who have special licence plates are allowed to use these roads.
Students, truck drivers, civil servants all wait for hour after
hour, as the Israeli army closes off the main road whenever a
Jewish settler living in the nearby settlement, wants to pass.
What used to be a 20 minute trip to work can now take several
hours.
Palestinians cannot even move from one
village to another as many of their roads have been bulldozed
to prevent vehicular movement. The Gaza strip which is only 10
miles wide by 30 miles long has been divided into 4 separate
areas. A recent article by a BBC correspondent reports that the
line of cars waiting to cross from one area of Gaza to the other
stretched as far as the eye and that some people had been waiting
for 36 hours to cross.
The West Bank has been carved into 220
such areas. The direct transport of merchandise from town to
town is forbiden. Trucks must meet at checkpoints and goods must
be transferred from one truck to another. Transportation costs
have soared while goods perish on trucks held up at checkpoints.
Sixteen women have given birth at checkpoints due to delays.
Three of the babies died.
Israel controls who enters and leaves
Palestinian territory. Even foreign nationals married to Palestinians
are at the mercy of the Israeli authorities. Last year Israel
destroyed the radar at and dug up the runway at Gaza airport.
In order to leave the West Bank or Gaza, permission must be obtained
from Israel to cross into Israeli territory to fly out from an
Israeli airport.
Now I have a question.
How do you obtain any decency and goodwill
from people who have lived under these conditions or who have
family living in Palestine or from other Arab countries? Yet,
below are a few of many responses that I received to a
recent article that I wrote on the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
***
From a Palestinian.....If left to human
beings and their sense of compassion, none of the horrors that
occur in Palestine, as well as the stereotypes that are easily
given to the Arabs, would exist. This is the underlying message
that I felt through your message. I have read many other articles,
written by Jews, Israeli reporters, Christian reporters, in defense
of the Palestinian people. This goes to prove that internationally,
we are all there, Jews, Christians, and Muslims to join hands
and fight an evil that may well engulf the entire world.
***
From a woman in Saudi Arabia . I'm a
housewife from Saudi Arabia, and a mother of two children. All
the women and men I know cry, just as I do, at the sight of the
human degradation that we witness around us. God, Who sent all
three religions to His creatures at different stages of the world's
development, did not want us to hate each other this way. No,
on the contrary, His message is one of compassion, respect, and
love among all human beings. .... when I witness the writings
of well intentioned and sincere people such as you, I see a little
light at the end of the tunnel. God bless you.
***
I am a displaced "1948" Palestinian
Christian and like many of my displaced compatriots have resigned
ourselves to the loss of our hometown (Haifa)..All we seek now
is PEACE and reasonable living for our fellow Paletinians in
a viable State of their own in the occupied territories to afford
these maligned, humiliated, abused and terrorized people a chance
at earning a decent living, raising their children without fear
of zealots who want to steal all their land, destroy their homes,
uproot their trees and throw them out into the desert....
***
I am a Canadian of Palestinian origin.
My Grand parents and my parents were made refugees in 1948 when
the state of Israel was created. My parents, brothers and sisters
now live in Ramallah, in the occupied territories, and have been
suffering for many years, but things even got worse in the past
few years. The suffering goes beyond the economical and physical.
The emotional suffering is driving many to irrational acts. The
kids are having nightmares about the incursions and the home
demolishing. My heart aches when I think of the children who
are living under such horrible conditions. Many times I felt
hopeless and helpless when I write to politicians and I do not
get an answer or when I write to my local news paper but they
do not print my letter.
***
I am a Palestinian-American .... There
is a lasting and gut wrenching tragedy in the land of Palestine.
The tragedy is for the Israelis and the Palestinians. I will
be honest with you, I am very proud that the Jewish people have
a homeland, but I am sad to see them not share it wholly with
the original inhabitants of the land, the Palestinian people.
Amidst all the massacres, bloodshed, and finger pointing, people
must learn to get along and live with one another. No one side
is right in this conflict, but the media never explains this.
It is always the Palestinians who are the terrorists and it truly
makes me sad. ... I feel for all the Israelis and Palestinians
who have lost their lives, but the bloodshed will forever continue
if we allow ourselves to be stuck in this cycle. I apologize
for the lengthiness of this email, but you have truly touched
me with your article and I just wanted to say thank you.
ma'assalama
Linda Belanger
can be reached at: Belalin54@hotmail.com
Today's Features
David Vest
A Blind Mule and
a Box of Medals
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