Settlers come to Ush Ghrab in Beit Sahour every week and the army lies to the mayor of Beit Sahour by claiming that their presence deters the settlers. The reverse is true and settlers of course get army permission and protection which emboldens them. On Feb 5th, when the army was bulldozing in the area and had a military order for closing the area for military purposes preventing us from getting close, the settlers were inside and having a lecture (and bragged about it on their website). At the end of the video from Al-Masara confrontation Friday, I had a short section with settler graffiti at the wall in Ush Ghrab (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?
[Good read] How Settlers Prevented The Construction of a Palestinian Hospital by Hagit Ofran
" Once again, even Americans cannot stand up to a small group of settlers, who show - more often than not - that they have the last word on what takes place in the West Bank. This time, a small group of settlers insisted, and succeeded, to squash a plan for building a hospital for Palestinian children at "Oush Grab" ("the Crow's Nest") east of Bethlehem"
Under pressure from settlers, IDF rebuilding West Bank watchtower
(on the scandal of the Israeli abuse of British passports) The tide has changed by Gilad Atzmon
This scandal is even incensing traditional Israeli apologists. One Zionist who regularly writes in Haaretz wrote:
"Determined to take our fate into its own hands. Israel, at its highest level, has decided that the job of delegitimizing the Jewish state must not be left to foreigners and amateurs. Showing itself desperate to be a pariah state, Israel will now get it done on its own. What the far-left from Britain to Berkeley has been been unable to bring off - a sense among Israel's allies that Israel has become a heartless, morally heedless aggressor state worthy of sanction and shunning - the far-right in Israel's own government, and in particular, its Foreign Ministry, seems determined to inculcate to the full. It wasn't enough to threaten our relations with the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Austria and the whole of the European Union, as well as the emirates and other moderate Muslim states, by apparently violating the basic conventions of all civilized states in the Dubai murder. …."
What this gentleman fails to see is that this was the predictable outcome of the enterprise in the same way that Apartheid in South Africa had a predictable outcome. Unfortunately, those lessons in history tell us that the meanness will get worse as the regime feels cornered and will not face the reality of its own racism but starts to lash-out at anything and everything. That is the last stage of dismantlement of racism.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
Popular Committee to Defend Ush Ghrab (PCDUG)
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
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