Travels in Palestine, Part One

[not systems]

http://www.counterpunch.org/christison09192005.html

September 19, 2005

Horror Story

By KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON
Former CIA political analysts

It all quickly comes together traveling through the West Bank: the separation wall encircling Anata; the verdant natural spring in the Israeli settlement of Anatot -- the spring, along with the mountains and wadis surrounding it and even the settlement's very name, all stolen from Palestinians by Israel and its settlers; the wall encroaching on the small, heroic village of Bil'in; the Israeli trash and garbage heaps that loom over Wadi Fuqin and other Palestinian villages, wherever there is a settlement under construction or expanding; the Israeli construction everywhere, everywhere, cutting through the land, destroying the land, building for Israelis, destroying what is Palestinian; the ecological devastation throughout the West Bank.

You cannot travel around the West Bank for more than a day or two without seeing all of this, without knowing what it means, without knowing how Israel is committing a kind of slow ethnocide -- perhaps, over the longer term, even genocide -- against Palestinians. You cannot see the extent of this without wondering how it can ever be turned around.

The village of Anata is as good a place as any to start. Just outside the Jerusalem city limits (in fact, in one of the many weird anomalies of the occupation, part of the town is inside the municipal limits, most of it outside), Anata's land once encompassed several thousand dunams, including a natural spring where villagers once gathered clean fresh water, some farmland where a wheat crop was grown, and tens of square miles of spectacular desert wilderness. The land now "belongs" to four Israeli settlements that encircle the town, including the tiny settlement of Anatot. All taken without so much as a by-your-leave.

...

Ha'aretz correspondent Gideon Levy recently said it outright: this pogrom against the Palestinians is the shame of Israel. Levy was writing of Hebron, where 450 malicious Israeli settlers, backed up by hundreds of Israeli soldiers and the full power of the Israeli state, harass and intimidate, physically attack, throw slop on, and steal from 150,000 Palestinians, but what he says applies to Israel's actions throughout the West Bank. Hebron is the worst but by no means the only horror in Israel's long catalog of horrors. Each day that the pogrom in Hebron continues, Levy wrote, "is another day of shame for the State of Israel" -- a day in which "Israel cannot be considered a state ruled by law, or a democracy."
...

[Team44Car]

1. That is riveting. A must read for the uninformed.

[riverwalker]

2. great article

and mirrors my impressions as well.

[newyorican]

3. Amen corner:

Praying this drops like a stone....

[pelsar]

4. it should since...

"perhaps, over the longer term, even genocide -- against Palestinians"

crap like that has no place in a serious article/view of the conflict. Either the auther doesnt understand the word or they're trying to get support from those "who also have trouble with word definitions and prefer emotional responses

[not systems]

5. genocide? Crap like this is quite believable...

here are some comments on the term genocide by the person
who coined the word.

...
Much debate about genocide revolves around the proper definition of the word genocide.

Here is what Lemkin said about the definition of genocide in its original adoption for international law at the Geneva Conventions:

Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. - Raphael Lemkin, *Axis Rule in Occupied Europe
(http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/AxisRule1944-1.htm) (Wash., D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944), p. 79.
...



This is why people who cite the population of Palestinian people
as proof that no genocide is taking place are defining the word more
narrowly than it should be.

If over time it become clear that the life that the people of
Palestine has become permanently attenuated by Israel's colonization
then genocide will be the correct word to describe the crime that
was committed against them.

The world will know and remember it as such.

[eyl]

7. Read what you just quoted again

It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves

Genocide, by definition (see Article 6 of the ICC Statute, requires the intent to destroy the group "in whole or in part". "Attenuating life in Palestine" (whatever that means) doesn't come close to that, unless you're claiming that it's done with intent to destroy the Palestinians. In that case, there should have been some drop in the Palestinian population, unless you think Israel is going for the world record of comitting the slowest genocide in history - and apparently, we're throwing obstacles in our own way to make it more challenging (for instance, if you look at population statistics for the Territories, you'll see that the rate of population increase went up after Israel conquered them).

[not systems]

9. I have read it...

because Israel is a country with different forces pulling
different directions it doesn't act with a singularity of
purpose.

The USA was and has been a democracy for two hundred and
thirty years. Most would argue that it never had a planned
"aim of annihilating" the Native American people but for most
of our history we did just that. Constricting the lands
they lived on and taking the best lands and destroying
their economic lively hoods. But for perfectly understandable
reasons like the need of resources and the quest for the
manifest destiny the idea of god given borders.

Few claim that it was not genocide in retrospect.

If someday the world wakes up and what once existed
in Palestine is forever gone and instead Israel settler
control all the usable land and water.

Few will claim that it was not genocide in retrospect.

You have once again resorted to the population canard
not surprising as it is a salve for the conscience.

"Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves."

History will be the judge. I believe many of the Israeli
actors have exactly the "aim of annihilating" the Palestinians
as a goal. The question is will they be able to continue to
use state power to achive their goals for a long enough
and sustained enough effort to accomplish their goals.
Publicly their goals are perfectly understandable
reasons like the need of resources and the quest for
god given borders.

[eyl]

10. So if history is the judge

are you claiming some precognitive capability?

Or are you just assuming Israel is committing genocide?

[not systems]

11. No...

what I'm saying is the path that it is on appears
to be leading to genocide.

When people are moved into to smaller and smaller areas
of land and water resources are confiscated and farms are
destroyed and people are unable to travel to meet medical and
educational and cultural needs the trajectory is clear.

Unless Israel changes course it is likely that it will
commit genocide in the West Bank.

History will be the judge.

I'm just pointing out the obvious direction of the present actions.

[eyl]

15. So...Israel

is not committing genocide; but it might do so in the future? Well, you might commit murder tomorrow. Should I call you a murderer now?

Genocide is the destruction (or attempted destruction) of an ethnic group, either by physical destruction or by demolishing their cultural identity. If that's what Israel is trying to do, we're certainly taking our sweet time about it, since both the Palestinian numbers and their identity as a people are growing (arguably, there was no "Palestinian" identity separate from "Arab" prior to Zionism). It's bad enough when we're accused of being evil, but I hate it even more when we're accused of being both evil and incompetent.

[not systems]

16. There you go again...

claiming that the Palestinian cultural identity is "growing"
even as they stand at check points to reach market places,
schools and hospitals.

As settler garbage piles build up near their towns and
houses and olive groves are bulldozed you claim that their
culture and identity is growing.

As if an "Palestinian" identity separate from "Arab" prior to Zionism
somehow is meaningful to measuring the value of their dislocation.

I see no incompetence only measured steps that allow
the continued belief in the morality legality and correctness
of a grinding occupation dehumanizing another people well
claiming to be the victims of the very people it oppresses.

[barb162]

12. "god given borders"

your last line. What does that mean?

[not systems]

14. It means that...

many people believe that Israel has a right to all the
lands of historical Palestine because it was gifted by
their god in perpetuity.

I don't agree but many people believe that a claim based
on god exists to much more land than Israel's legal borders.

I'm sure you have heard of this claim.

[barb162]

17. Haven't you heard this god-given claim used by Palestinians ?

[not systems]

18. I have...

but they have no state enforcing their claims nor
do they occupy land that do not belong to them well
suppressing the occupied population's economic and
cultural well being.

[barb162]

19. I think just about no one listens these days to claims of god-

given anything and it has been that way for a long time. Couldn't Palestinians have organized into statehood years ago and still retained claims to disputed areas and borders? (ala Pakistan / India:Kashmir)

British mandate Palestine had Christians, Jews, Bedouin Arabs, etal. in the population. Jews and Palestinians both have valid historical claims and so do even other groups (if they chose to claim) depending on which decades of which centuries one wants to investigate.

As to economic (and resultant cultural) well-being, the billions in the bank accounts perhaps should have been used over the last few decades for the Palestinian people. Why the Palestinian people didn't revolt against Arafat for his corruption on this matter....

[not systems]

20. Never mind the...

settlers and their garbage piles.

Never mind the patchwork of settler only roads
and checkpoints.

I'm sure the 400000+ settlers haven't taken one piece
of land that can't be justified by their supporters as
necessary or fitting punishment for the historical
resistance to colonization.

And that bad bad Arafat.

Surly they are getting what they deserve for supporting him.

Got it.

[barb162]

21. You might want to take a look at population and census statistics

during the British mandate and prior (although they are less valid)and you will find a few groups lived in and owned land in the Mandate.

Do Palestinians also have garbage piles? Checkpoints are there for security. Etc., etc. Is there a point going through charges item by item?

Both sides have historical claims, charges and countercharges going back a long time. Innocent civilians have been killed on both sides. Why not work toward the Peace Plan.

[not systems]

22. Why not remove the...

settlers who illegally colonize the West Bank?

What right do they have to steal land?

[barb162]

23. Let's see what Abbas and Sharon have to say to each other

about that subject in early October. Will Sharon budge if Abbas doesn't get certain militants factions under control? Abbas is looking continually weaker to some observers.

[Andromeda]

26. This is what I don't get.

"As to economic (and resultant cultural) well-being, the billions in the bank accounts perhaps should have been used over the last few decades for the Palestinian people. Why the Palestinian people didn't revolt against Arafat for his corruption on this matter....

The poverty-stricken Palestinian people could use those millions and yet nary a whisper about it here on DU.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. What on earth did that have to do with anything?

n/t

[newyorican]

13. Why...everything...

to do with avoidance...of the topic, that is.

[Jim Sagle]

24. This article is one long filthy antisemitic lie.

When genocide happens, the targeted population falls. The Palestinian population is rising.

End of fucking discussion.

[not systems]

25. The population canard again...

I suppose you can point to some evidence that
the settlers on the West Bank are not taking the very land
that is needed to sustain a Palestinian state for their own.


...
Much debate about genocide revolves around the proper definition of the word genocide.

Here is what Lemkin said about the definition of genocide in its original adoption for international law at the Geneva Conventions:

Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. - Raphael Lemkin, *Axis Rule in Occupied Europe
(http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/AxisRule1944-1.ht... ) (Wash., D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944), p. 79.
...

[pelsar]

27. more demonazation....

with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.


as written above:...end of fuking discussion

[Jim Sagle]

28. Whatever the definition, Palestinian population is rising not falling.

NO legitimate definition of genocide encompasses THAT, except on Opposite Day.