ISRAELI AGGRESSION Is Getting Crazier By The Day

By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

 

Things are really getting out of hand in the occupied territories and our reports may have to become more frequent to keep up with the rapidly evolving situation.  We must write to let you know what is going on and ask you to take urgent actions on all fronts (media, politicians, on the ground etc).  On the last day of the conference in Bil’in, the Israeli army was particularly violent against the demonstrators injuring Palestinians and Internationals.  The most critical injury was to Imad Rizka, a Palestinian from Jaffa inside the Green line  (see including picture of Imad).

Video just loaded that covers places I was at in the past couple of days including inspiring acts of popular resistance from Bilin to Beit Jala to Al-Walaja. In Al-Walaja, we took over the mountain and the Shabab blocked the new road that soldiesr had opened to get equipment that uproots the olive trees in the villager’s land. Watch     here 

And here is the ISM story on what happened in Beit Jala.

ACTION ITEM (before listing more videos and inspiring stories): We have acts of popular resistance in Al-Walaja and Beit Jala planned this Sunday.  Email me if you want more details on times etc.

Bilin-inspired Gaza protests against the “buffer zone” that now eats 20% of Gaza and is a no-man’s land according to the Israeli occupation authorities.
Video: Young Palestinian women do investigative journalism.  Here they accompany the body of Raed Abu Hamad who was murdered while in Israeli custody
http://www.youtube.com/sleeplessingaza#p/u/2/1r1o2B7ts5U
http://www.youtube.com/sleeplessingaza#p/u/0/o5AHZ_swQCQ

(while there you can explore other documentaries done by these aspiring and great journalists)

Stand-up for human rights: Protest AIPAC (Apartheid Israel Pirates Against Coexistance) in Portland, Oregon this Sunday
Hard talk: Zionists occupiers… Heed my call!! by Nahida

Action: BNC calls on Trade Unions and others to urgently intervene with their governments to stop Israel from joining the OECD. On May 2010, OECD is going to decide the accession of Israel into the organization.  For Israel, membership in the OECD would mean a victory of legitimacy, that the violations of international law are rewarded and all the member countries of OECD will be accomplices of the illegal Israeli occupation, since according to the European law, European countries are forbidden to recognize the Israeli occupation to the Palestinian territories. Yet by granting Israel membership in the OECD, they will be doing exactly that.  Israel has refused to comply with the OECD demand to provide statistical data which applies only to the internationally-recognized parts of Israel , excluding the illegal settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). OECD members will knowingly accept Israel to the organization based on deceptive statistics provided by the latter, statistics which conceal the occupation while simultaneously treating it as a permanent fact. It only takes one OECD country to oppose the integration of Israel into the organization in order to block the process. Please, send a letter of protest to the delegation of OECD of your country, demanding to vote NO to Israel ‘s inclusion in economic organization. It only takes you a few minutes to act on this. In this link  you can find the list of OECD member-states and their email addresses (write to them):

more at.

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Bethlehem ghetto uprising continues

The Ghetto of Bethlehem is shrinking, the people are resisting but feel
abandoned by the self-appointed leadership.  Many people complain who come
to give their blessings to projects or to plant a tree for the cameras or to
promise support that never materializes.   Planting a tree for the photo
opportunity is not a replacement for real action.   Internationals and
locals did  replace the children’s swings and slide in Mitri’s home in Beit
Jala only to see them pulled out again a few days later (see  video of the
dragging of nonviolent protesters from the garden and its destruction here

 

Saturday night we had an educational protest to hundreds of Italian tourists
who were brought by the catholic church on pilgrimage.  We were distressed
to find that they had coordinated their visit with the Palestinian ministry
of tourism AND with the Israeli ministry of tourism.  We objected to the way
it was presented and dealt with.  The wall is not after all a border between
states to march to for peace and play games on the “other side”.  The wall
is an illegal apartheid structure built on occupied territories separating
Palestinians in the shrinking Bethlehem Ghetto from their land and from
other Palestinians and from their holy sites in Jerusalem. As the Italians
were crossing the apartheid wall, the Israeli army was extending the wall
around Al-Walaja village of Bethlehem and destroying more of Mitri’s land.
But Al-Walaja people were heroic on Sunday. These people were displaced in
1948 and are being displaced again today.   They delayed the uprooting of
their trees at a great cost Sunday: over 30 Palestinians and a few
internationals were injured and several detained.  Photos are Here.
We will try to get you the link to a video of the actual action.  It is hard for us to be at many places of destruction at one time and we lack resources to get video cameras in the
hands of qualified people to document the atrocities so this initial video
(photographed by another person) has little of the more rough and tumble
action.
http://videopalestine.blogspot.com/2010/04/bethlehem-ghetto.html

We hear talk of resuming “proximity talks” between the administration of
President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu.  The negotiations have been going on for nearly 20 years while Israel continues to demolish and
destroy and ethnically cleanse the land of its people.  The disastrous Oslo
accords really caused the second Nakba for us.  It freed Israel of its
obligations as an occupying power and gave them a green light for squeezing
us into disconnected ghettos.  Meanwhile, many politicians of all
backgrounds continue to draw big salaries while destroying any chances for
peace (which can only be based on justice).
We need lots of letters and lots of direct contact with everyone (friend and
foe).  Things are getting out of hand here with Israel intensifying its
colonial settlement activities.  Apartheid here is far worse than it was in
South Africa. We need much more pressure on this fascist government here and on its enablers abroad and on its local Palestinian enablers.
F
inally here is a question asked to influential US Senator Charles Shumer
who answers in a way that reveals where his loyalties lie:
Question: Finally Senator, just for our own curiosity, just like the most
recent justice appointed to the Supreme Court, will the next one also be a
New Yorker?

SCHUMER: I don’t know. I would like it to be, I recommended the first one. I
have 3 criteria for Supreme Court Justices: they should be legally
excellent, they should be moderate as is typical of my politics I don’t want
too far right or far left, and diversity, which means different ethnic
groups and everything else. Luckily in terms of Jewish people we have good
representation in terms of the Supreme Court. That will continue. One thing
I want to assure your listeners Nachum, my name as you know comes from a Hebrew word. It comes from the word shomer, which mean guardian. My ancestors were guardians of the ghetto wall in Chortkov and I believe Hashem, actually, gave me name as one of my roles that is very important in the United States Senate to be a shomer for Israel and I will continue to be that with every bone in my body..