could someone break this down....
what are these people killing each other over? Jerusalem or Israel...
they've been fighting each other for centuries.
Palestinians and Israelis want the same city as their homeland? Is that it?

i'm fuzzy on the issue...you know the news just shows them fighting in the streets. i saw the father trying to shield his 12 year old son from the crossfire...but they were shot down... on national tv.

i know this seems rather simplistic..but can't they just share?
what is this really all about?

check these out:
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/palestine99/war.htm
http://www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/mid.html
http://www.middleeastdaily.com/

these sources provide a good overview of the current conflicts and give a little historical background.

------QUOTE STARTS HERE------
BooDaah-OkayActivist Moderator
(see Candy1's sig about what that means)
** PLEASE READ THE POSTING GUIDELINES:
http://www.okayplayer.com/guidelines.html
-----------------------------
Sister SheRise's Activist Stew Recipe:
Step1:inform yourself step/Step2:inform others/Step3:discuss the problem/Step4: DISCUSS SOLUTIONS/Step5:EXECUTE SOLUTIONS/Step6:evaluate the results/Step7:start over at 1 until desired result is accomplished.
-----------------------------

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is no, they can't share. Both the Jews and the Muslims feel that they have a claim to the city of Jerusalem's holy cites.

But here's the real. The Palestinians had been living in Palestine for hundreds of years. The Nation-state of Israel wasn't created until the late 1940's after WWII. The world powers reeling over their ignorance and avoidance over the atrocities committed against European Jews by the Nazis, decided to give these Jews their own place to live where they could govern themselves. The problem is that the Palestinians had been living there for hundreds of years. All of a sudden, land that they had control over (i.e. Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights) was now under Israeli control. So in other words, their land was taken from them. Not only that, but their land was taken by people who did not share the same religion that they so dearly adhere to. The whole situation is messed up. You have Palestinians, who are throwing rocks and whatever else they can get their hands on, fighting against U.S. trained, Israeli troops who are sniping protesters and children from helicopters and tanks. Meanwhile, the U.S media portrays the Palestinians as savage terrorists who are stirring up trouble. Really, they just want their land back.

There has been some historical research (check out Ella Sohat's article -- I forget the name of it right now --in her edited book "Dangerous Liasons") about the pre-WWII hiostory of the region, and especially the "racial" breakdown of the conflict. You see, there have ALWAYS been Jews living in the area, and what with them having lived there for the millenia, they were Arab (Saphhardic) Jews (thus shattering the whole notion of Arabs vs. Jews). There were also plenty of Christians and Muslims, and they generally were able to live upon that land together. When the Zionist state of Isreal was created after WWII, European Jews moved in with their own agenda, and started running the show out of their own cultural (and "racialized) perspective, which often both exclued Arab Jews and pitted them against their Arab brothers of different religions. (as a side note, there has also been quite a few problems with Ethiopian Jews in Isreal due to racial/cultural differences). In a sense the Jewish/Arab conflict IS a racially constructed one, based in Eurocentrism, for that particular binary excludes the first-class citizenship of the Arab Jews that have been living there all along in relative harmony with their Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters.

love and respect,
El Rey


http://www.mumia2000.org
http://www.mumia.org

WELCOME TO AMERIKKKA WELCOME TO AMERIKKKA
The following is a conversation I overheard while waiting to get served a $1.69 bottle of spring water at the Hudon Valley Mall. It is between a couple of fine, upstanding young Americans (one of whom I was buying the water from):

Mallclerk: ... so he almost strangled her to death
Meathead: Dude, I almost killed MYSELF last weekend!
Mallclerk: Dude, I'm talking about domestic violence ...
Meathead: Dude, I was hanging out with my friends and we were all stoned. Actually I couldn't get stoned so I was pissed and bored so I thought I might kill myself
Mallclerk: Duuuuuuuude ...
Meathead: Yeah, man ...
Mallclerk: Oh man, there's that guy *pointing to random guy in the mall*
Meathead: Yo, what's HIS problem
Mallclerk: I dunno. He's just soooo wierd dude. I don't want to know him at all
Meathead: We should kill him dude
Mallclerk: Why do you think I'm calling the police on him right now, dude?
Meathead: We should still kill him. Killing people is the only solution
Mallclerk: *to me* Here's your water dude. Will that be all? ...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
who are you









really

...both have been unable to co-exist since the time Abraham. Many jews left the land hundreds of years of ago and settled other places. The arabs stayed there and lawfully aquired the extra land that was being left.

fast forward to World War 2...Jews were of course displaced and many were reclaiming their roots. The UN for the most part supported an israeli state , but in order to establish one many Arabs would have to be pushed out of their homes that they had occupied for generations...so that plus general dislike for each other has again produced constant fighting for what both claim is there homeland. They are also both fighting for preservation of their holy places which are in Jerusalem.

I know I tend to be on the arab side because I am muslim, but I try to to remain as possible. It is a little upsetting to me that Israel has sanctioned "archaeological" digs underneath a mosque that is sacred to muslims because it is where Muhummed recieved revelation and journied to the heavens.

But those a re decent links, I'm going to check them out too.

_____________________ .
Peace.
Inez AKA Starli
http://inez.diaryland.com/

Inez24@prodigy.net
_____________________ .
"Starli/gets the party started
like a car key" -Juice

"At times my going forward seems
like retreat" -Common

Fuck being hard, posdnous is
complicated!

SUPPORT THIS!
http://www.blumagazine.net/

... got a liter of knob creek and a bottle of ether
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annieappleseed/

To add fuel to an already blazing fire, the British promised the same land to BOTH the Palestinians and the Zionists, back when Zionism first got its start, like the turn of the century.

Further, part of the reason that the Israelis are so reactive to the Palestinians is that for decades the spokespersons for the Palestinians was the PLO, which was a radical terrorist organization, rather than the people themselves. Moderate Palestinians would have doubtless negotiated a reasonable deal when heads were cooler and before Israel got too full of itself, but the PLO refused to negotiate. The PLO also kept all the Palestinians evicted from Jewish settled areas in refugee camps. As political pawns. For decades. When there were other Arab nations that were willing to take them in and integrate them.

I'm not saying that the Israelis aren't bad actors. Just that no one is completely without some responsibility. But the real answer isn't found in the question "who's at fault?" but instead "where do we go from here?"

I always found the Israeli position that the Left Bank and the Gaza Strip were essential to be indefensible. Then, once the "buffer zone" of the Sinai desert was ceded, after the peace treaty with Egypt, the rationale for these two areas -- whose population was almost entirely Arab -- seemed even worse.

But, you know, until 1969, the city of Jerusalem itself was partitioned. It was only after the city was united after the 6 Day War that ALL religions were allowed to worship at the holiest sites. I would most like to see Jerusalem in neutral hands, but if that isn't a viable option, I frankly would rather have it in the hands of the Israelis, who haven't sworn as a matter of principle to exterminate any other religion.

Peace.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

I understand your argument, and there are many sides to the story. But, the manner in which the Israelis deal with a relatively unarmed population, is quite savage. I'm not defending the terrorism either. But ultimately, the Palestinians got jerked out of their land. Period.

>Further, part of the reason that
>the Israelis are so reactive
>to the Palestinians is that
>for decades the spokespersons for
>the Palestinians was the PLO,
>which was a radical terrorist
>organization, rather than the people
>themselves.

There's a reason why the PLO was a terrorist organisation.
It didn't come out of nowhere. It was a reaction to Israeli aggression and provocation.

If the PLO has become such a big factor it has a lot to do with a deliberate strategy from right wing Israelis to force them to use violence. Which made it easier afterwards to label them as 'terrorists' or 'violent', and discredit them as potential representatives for the Palestinian people.

Plus, today the PLO is considered pretty moderate. Plenty of young Palestinians support Hamas since they see that Israel is breaking every promise and/or agreement only minutes after it's been signed.

In general it's Palestinian youth throwing rocks agains Israeli soldiers with bullets (and this week even anti-tank missiles launched from helicopters ... anti-tank missiles ? WTF ?)


krewcial

>Moderate Palestinians would
>have doubtless negotiated a reasonable
>deal when heads were cooler
>and before Israel got too
>full of itself, but the
>PLO refused to negotiate.

Wrong janey. They've consistently been turned down by the Israeli government/havocs, due to the logic I just explained 'we don't negotiate with terrorists'. The Israeli government always sets ridiculous rules BEFORE negotiations even begin, that the PLO sometimes refuse to 'negotiate' since those ain't 'negotiations' in the first place.

This is all documented. I'll post some links/excerpts later on (don't have the time to find 'm now, this is lunch break ).

>The PLO also kept all
>the Palestinians evicted from Jewish
>settled areas in refugee camps.

Are you referring to Sabra and Chatila ?
FYI, those were two camps that were invaded by Israeli troops (led by Ariel Sharon) where a mass amount of refugees was slaughtered.

>I'm not saying that the Israelis
>aren't bad actors. Just
>that no one is completely
>without some responsibility. But
>the real answer isn't found
>in the question "who's at
>fault?" but instead "where do
>we go from here?"

I agree 100%.

>I would most
>like to see Jerusalem in
>neutral hands, but if that
>isn't a viable option, I
>frankly would rather have it
>in the hands of the
>Israelis, who haven't sworn as
>a matter of principle to
>exterminate any other religion.

Are you suggesting muslims did so ?

Plus Israel's actions led me to believe something else.



krewc
OKAYPLAYER COMPILATION 2000 !!!
http://urgent.rug.ac.be/vinylators/okpcompil2000.htm

OKAYPLAYERSONG PT. 2 :
http://urgent.rug.ac.be/vinylators/audio/okp2s.mp3

OKAYPLAYERSONG PT. 1 (the original baybee !!):
http://urgent.rug.ac.be/vinylators/audio/okplayer.mp3

HOME : http://urgent.rug.ac.be/vinylators

I'm part of this too ... :
http://www.thejawn.com/okprod/

the instrumentals for my next album (in MP3-format) :
http://urgent.rug.ac.be/vinylators/audio/instrus.html


'We've got to change our own minds about each other. We have to see each other with new eyes. We have to see each other as brothers and sisters. We have to come together with warmth'

krewcial
www.krewcial.com
www.myspace.com/krewcial
www.okayplayer.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=23051&forum=lesson

http://www.23hq.com/krewcial/photo/1085564?album_id=1085556

Nashville recording sessions : www.krewcial.com/nashville

We can go around and around on "who started it?" but that will lead us nowhere...

In every human interaction, people almost never take aggressive action unless they feel provoked or justified -- we see this on the grand scale between nations and on a more accessible level in interpersonal relationships. It's awfully easy to turn things into one side being completely justified and the other side being completely in the wrong. Pat answers are rarely completely right.

Peace.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

I have a Jewish friend who broke it down like this: Israeli aggression is directly related to fears regarding the Jews' continued survival. Essentially, they channeled all their fears and anger over the Holocaust into Israeli military victories. Once Israel had been established, the founders--many of whom barely survived WW2--took one look at the Arabs coming in from all sides, said "Oh shit", and reacted the way they felt they should have reacted when the Gestapo came for them.

And they've been reacting like that ever since.

----------------------------------------
Densetsu no hitokiri, Himura Battousai.

"You recognize this technique?"
"Huh? The Five Elements!"
"YOU REMEMBER!"

--"Mystery of Chess Boxing"


http://welcome.to/crunchyfrog/

--

Your San Francisco Giants: 4.26.2005 - 8.15.2005.

I don't buy that theory, because Zionism started long before WWII. But I certainly don't disagree that Judaism must have been changed by the Holocaust. Mary Doria Russell said in an interview, "As a post-Holocaust Jew, we have to acknowledge two things: being Jewish can get you killed and God won't save you."

The PLO stated in the early days of the state of Israel that its mission was to "push the Jews into the sea." I don't think that you have to have been through a Holocaust to find that threatening.


Peace.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

>I don't buy that theory, because
>Zionism started long before WWII.

True. Theodor Herzl and the majority of the Zionist Congress that met in 1897 weren't observant Jews. They were socialists. They didn't necessarily see their Israel as the revival of the biblical Israel, but rather as a safe haven for Jews seeking refuge from anti-Semitism.

> But I certainly don't
>disagree that Judaism must have
>been changed by the Holocaust.
> Mary Doria Russell said
>in an interview, "As a
>post-Holocaust Jew, we have to
>acknowledge two things: being
>Jewish can get you killed
>and God won't save you."

Agreed. Russell pretty much summed it up.

>The PLO stated in the early
>days of the state of
>Israel that its mission was
>to "push the Jews into
>the sea." I don't
>think that you have to
>have been through a Holocaust
>to find that threatening.

The Israeli Declaration of Independence actually called for cooperation between Jews and Arabs. That pretty much went out the window once the Arab states declared war on Israel.

Everything went to hell after that.

----------------------------------------
Densetsu no hitokiri, Himura Battousai.

"You recognize this technique?"
"Huh? The Five Elements!"
"YOU REMEMBER!"

--"Mystery of Chess Boxing"


http://welcome.to/crunchyfrog/

--

Your San Francisco Giants: 4.26.2005 - 8.15.2005.

While I can see where you're coming from about the Israelis reacting because of the trauma they suffered at the hands of the Nazis, I have 2 points to make.
1)If what the Nazis did to them is wrong, and it is, why are they doing the same thing, maybe on a lesser scale, but that's a whole different story, to the Palestinians. What ever happened to the term "Never Again" and why is it used to invoke memories of the Nazi holocaust of Jews. What about the 11 million Africans who died being transported from Africa to the Americas, or the 1 million Armenians killed by the Turks, the Native Americans in North, Central, and South America, and the Palestinians, among other groups.

2)Where you said that the Israelis saw all these Arabs coming in on them, you may or may not know the history of the situation, I don't know. But if you study the history books, they will usually say the Arabs attacked Israel first on May 15, 1948, the day Israel declared independence. However, if you study the FACTS, not the history book, it was actually Israel that started the war in 1948. 400 Palestinian villages were wiped out to deny existence that there ever were Palestinians. The most infamous of the village massacres was Deir Yassin, where 200 mostly unarmed, civilians were slaughtered. That massacre occurred in April, 1948. Much of the land Israel took over in the 1948 war happened before the Arabs "invaded" Israel, and was taken from a people whose leaders were in exile, and who had no standing army. So the Arab armies came to protect the Palestinians.

>frankly would rather have it
>in the hands of the
>Israelis, who haven't sworn as
>a matter of principle to
>exterminate any other religion.

excuse me?!!??!
please explain yourself

********************************************
LiMak79: Every girl I've spoken to in Polish has dropped her panties within thirty minutes...
giftedH: rofl
LiMak79: I've been giving them true Polish sausage for 21 years.
LiMak79: Put that in your sig! LOL
giftedH: rofl
giftedH: i will

IM: giftedH

The Question of Palestine by Edward Said

The book is a little dry but very informative. His view is more from an Arab prospective.

"From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard that it breaks down the history of the conflict in that area very well.


----------------------------------------
error 404 - signature not found

Writing from point blank(Mt. Scopus on the border of east jerusalem) maybe i can add some illumination...

If we really want to assign blame the best people to blame is probably the British, they really did fuck over this entire area and promised a state to both the palestinians and the zionists. From 1948-1967 the Jewish State was barely half the size of what it currently is, and jerusalem was not an open city. The Western Wall was almost completely blocked by houses and left in disarray, and was not half of what it has become today. In 1967 the Arab nations attempted to crush the Israelis once and for all and fullfill their promise of pushing the jews into the ocean. However, thanks to intelligence reports, the outnumbered Israelis not only held their own but decimated the arab forces in 6 days, which is when they conquered the Sinai, West Bank, and Golan Heights. The next big conflict came in 1973, when the arab nations again attacked the Israelis, this time on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the entire year to Jews. The Israelis again won, but this time continued pushing on after they had repulsed the arabs, which began the world backlash against the Israelis(before 1973 sentiment world-wide was mostly pro-Israel). In 1978 Sinai was returned to the egyptians, and that border has been pretty stable. The Border to Syria in the golan is also rather stable despite the fact that the two countries are at war with eachother. The next big event was the intifada, the Palestinian Youth uprising, after which the world finally became cognizant of the plight of the Palestinian people, and since then has been the continued broken peace treaties and so on. I know this account is Israel-biased, and I apologize, it's not intended to be that, but I am an American Jew currently in Israel and it comes out that way.

But fact is, both sides are completely dead wrong in this issue, and neither has more of a right to this land. It's useless to say the Arabs were here first, or the Jews were, because both have incredibly strong historical ties to the land. If you want to be exact I guess you could say the Jebusites and Canaanites and such were here first before the israeli forces led by Joshua conquered the land back in biblical time, but I'm not willing to use biblical sources to mediate current disputes. The fact is that the Jews were the original inhabitants of this land before they were forced out twice, first around 450 B.C.E. by the palestinians and then after the destruction of the second temple by the romans, after which Palestine severely declined as a center of Jewish life. However, if the Jews were there first, the Arabs were there longer and more current, and had inhabited the land for over a 1000 years including holding Jerusalem for many of those, even when they were conquered peoples living under the Ottoman turks for most of that.

On top of that both sides have committed unspeakable atrocities in the past and if there's any justice will both face severe penalties for this latest bout. It is easy to blame Sharon as instigator in this, but then it comes out that before he even stepped foot on the mount the Palestinians had stockpiled stones and had been urged on to exterminate the Jews. However, it was still an incredibly provocative act, but the Arab reaction has been beyond all reasonable bounds. Then on top of that, the Israeli response has used ridiculous amounts of force. For every arab rock, the israelis shoot more and hurt more, and for every arab hurt another rock is thrown and more bullets are shot and it just gets worse. Quickly on Sharon, he is a butcher, an unspeakably evil man, and hopefully the moderates can distance themselves from him on both sides.

There doesn't seem to be any easy end to this current uprising, it just keeps escalating. I took the first bus this morning to tel-aviv because I was honestly beginning to fear for my safety in Jerusalem. I have packed enough so that I can fly home if need be, although I am first headed to Prague for a four-day vacation, and hopefully after that it will calm significantly, although Yom Kippur could be another incredibly dangerous day...the arabs used it to their advantage 27 years ago and I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again. My friend Larry works for seeds of peace in jerusalem, an international organization which creates dialogue between palestinian and jewish teenagers, among other conflicted groups, and attempts to start peace from there. However, in these past days he has been forced to talk to a child who had been laying on the floor for 8 hours because he was scared to stand up, another whose neighbor's house got run over by a tank while they spoke, another who's family was killed in a house explosion, and one more who died. It was on his urging that I evacuated Jerusalem, and I am so thankful that I actually have the ability to do so.

One more thing then I'll shut up, the myth is that Jews and Arabs have never been able to get along. This is completely untrue. Christians have had far more antipathy shared with both of these groups than they have with each other. Throughout much of history Jews were treated well under the arabs as conquered people. For Example, the Jews lived in spain for many prosperous years under muslim rule and didn't have to leave until the Jesuits took over and began the inquisition.

For a long time now I have believed there will never be peace in the Middle East. Not because Arabs and Israelis will never agree, but because extremists exist on both sides and are unable to agree with either the moderates on their side or the other side. No one has any idea how long this will last over here either, we're just praying for a quick resolution. But this is a problem that goes way beyond blame games. There have been broken treaties on both sides and atrocities on both. As long as Hamas blows up innocent buses and Israel fires anti-tank missles at houses, as long as Israelis have blatant racism towards their neighbors or an arab can say to my german friend "you guys really know how to handle the Jews", this isn't ending.

DMC

"I think LL Cool J and Canibus are both fantastic!" - MC Paul Barman

"They need to make it legal, before I start barking like a beagle" - Black Attack(For Trooper)

"The greatest feeling I ever had in my life--with my clothes on--was when I first heard Diz and Bird together in St. Louis." - Miles Davis

"Who Said I drink? I don't drink I guzzle" - Subroc

That was wonderfully put. I really appreciate the way you framed your descrption, showing both sides of the issue. You also did a much better job than I did of explaining the situation going on there. Thanks.

BOTH sides need to calm down. I can't stand people pointing fingers when they really should be examining their own actions.

I have distant relatives who live in Tel Aviv and I have a friend who has family in Jerusalem. I hope for their sake, yours and for everyone's that the two sides can work this out.

Giving you true calcio since 1986

AIM: Marinera81
ICQ: 69123425
EMAIL: jonah_b27@hotmail.com

Check out http://www.greatergood.com help end world hunger & save the rainforest in less than a minute a day! FOR FREE! NO STRINGS!

I'm always happy when I can learn something from reading a post.

krewc

krewcial
www.krewcial.com
www.myspace.com/krewcial
www.okayplayer.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=23051&forum=lesson

http://www.23hq.com/krewcial/photo/1085564?album_id=1085556

Nashville recording sessions : www.krewcial.com/nashville

____________
Glowie's Deep Thoughts Signature

"These cats have $150,000 watches and still end up everywhere two hours late.” - Cheo Hodari Coker

“At the school where I teach, we have no funds to expose kids to other realities. All they have is TV to help them dream, and hip-hop is their escape. That’s how a Jay-Z becomes their role model. It breaks my heart not to be able to take my students to the zoo or the museum, or to a play. Instead of criticizing hip-hop, the government needs to make available other things for these kids to do—give them options, so fast money and material things won’t be their only dream.” - Jacqueline Smith, GA schoolteacher

Yo one of my main cats is from Jerusalem, Palenstine aka Israel.
He has been breaking down the situation in the Middle-East. He tells about the Jim Crow type treatment the Arabs get in the region. Checkpoints, how you need special passes to move from sector to sector if you are a muslim. I was like that's ill as shit. I think it's a shame how it has become a holy war (one of reason orgainized religion is wack!)over there. But i can't help to root for the Palestinians who were displaced by Western Imperialism. *Note the U.S. offerred half of Kenya to the Jews before settling on the "Holy Land." I think no one has the right to take some ones land like that especially after so long.
*Note i am appalled at the lives lost on both sides cuz that isn't what religion is about, especially the young kids with guns and shit.
It's funny how Jews and Muslims beef, in light of the fact that many of cats who first gave The Prophet Muhhamad a hance where Jews...

Yea thats a very good point, it's soo strange how people cant just get along in this world, especially when we're All SO ALIKE. It's also a little strange for me, as a Jew that one of my best friends from Turkey that I had met this summer is a Muslim. We dont care bout the beef cuz its all good but we just don't understand how our people can't get along. Hopefully but doubtfully we'll oneday see a peace in the Middle East im out
RiG

I thought y'all might be interested to hear what the Black Radical Congress has to say about this

**********************

This is a Press Release/Statement from the Black Radical Congress
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Current Conflict in Israel and the Occupied Territories

Statement by the National Coordinating Committee (CC)
of the Black Radical Congress (BRC)

October 7, 2000

The current situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories
is fast breaking, and circumstances change with every
passing moment. As we write, on the eighth day since extreme
right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon's provocative visit
to Jerusalem's Temple Mount -- called by the Palestinians,
Haram Al-Sharif -- triggered a Palestinian uprising, blood
is still flowing in the streets of many cities and towns,
overwhelmingly the blood of Palestinian men, women and
children.

We comment on the current events in northeastern Africa
(usually called the Middle East) as people of African
descent. We comment as people living in the United States
who have endured several hundred years of unpunished crimes
against our humanity, abuse of our rights as human beings
and as citizens, and state-sponsored and state-sanctioned
violence against our persons and homes. Only a few days
prior to the eruptions in Jerusalem, several articles in
the Israeli Arab paper Kull Al-Arab documented racist and
contemptuous treatment of Arab citizens by the Israeli
police. The subject has a familiar ring. Reading and viewing
reports of police suppression of demonstrations by Israel's
Arab minority, which has mobilized on an unprecedented scale
in solidarity with its Palestinian brothers and sisters, we
nod in recognition. These pictures, along with the picture
of Israeli soldiers' and police officers' disproportionate,
murderous response to the Palestinian protests, are pictures
we know well from the lived experiences of our own history.

First and foremost, in this moment when children are dying
from rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition in the chest
and head, the Black Radical Congress condemns these actions.
We join representatives of the Palestinian people, others
within the United States and in the international community
-- including Al Haq, the European Union and freedom fighters
throughout the world -- in an urgent call for the United
Nations to stop the bloodshed, and for a United Nations
investigation into the Israeli military and police forces'
excessive use of deadly force against Palestinian and
Israeli Arab demonstrators. We are also angered by reports
that journalists and medical personnel in ambulances have
been targeted. Further, The Black Radical Congress, reflecting
the sentiments of thousands of African Americans, demands that
Israel be held to account for the armed actions of its agents
under the Geneva Conventions and all other appropriate
provisions of international human rights law.

The most stunning of the many ironies marking the history
of Israel is that this State, established in the wake of a
holocaust of monumental crimes against the Jewish people by
the Third Reich and its allies, has itself inflicted upon
generations of another great people the pain of conquest,
occupation, displacement, statelessness, exile, subjugation,
national oppression within its borders and violent death.
Aiding and abetting Israel in this oppressive project has
been its principal patron and benefactor, the United States,
which, in recent years has also been party to a "peace
process" that can only be seen as deeply flawed and
inadequate through the lens of Palestinian interests
and aspirations.

The Oslo agreement of 1993, successor to the Camp David
Accords, falls woefully short of actualizing the Palestinian
dream of independence and equal sovereignty. Rather, it provides
for limited "self-rule" with a negotiated transition to greater
autonomy -- not independence -- and it leaves fundamentally
intact the conquering Israelis' supremacy over the vanquished
Palestinians. It also effectively perpetuates Israel's U.S.-
sponsored role as the nuclear-armed northeastern border guard
of a resourceful continent. Not only do the conditions of
Israeli occupation remain virtually unchanged under Oslo,
but the Black Radical Congress is appalled that the march
toward a stillbirth of Palestine as a bantustan, surrounded
by Israeli settlements and subject to the total political,
economic and military control of Israel, continues unabated.
In short, nothing but legitimate rage and frustration could
be expected to flow from the Palestinians' awareness that
Oslo promises not a peace with justice, but a peace of might
over right, of supremacy over the principle of equality, a
neo-colonialist peace, an apartheid peace, a peace of the
grave.

Into this context stepped Ariel Sharon, the former
defense minister who presided over the infamous slaughter
of innocents by Israeli Defense Forces under his command in
Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during the 1982
Israeli invasion, condemned worldwide for that episode and
ever since the premier symbol -- for Palestinians and for
the world -- of Israeli intransigence and brutality. How
else to view Sharon's taking his aggressive show to the
Temple Mount, under armed escort of the state, than as a
deliberate provocation intended to spark exactly what it
sparked: an uprising. Instructing posterity on what happens
to "a dream deferred," the great African American poet,
Langston Hughes, wrote, "it explodes." What else to conclude
than that the government presumed to be custodian of an
alleged peace process on the Israeli side is bent on arresting
that process, insufficient as it is. Let those who would demand
"restraint" from the Palestinian people in the face of outrageous
provocation redirect that demand to the occupiers. We view as
inescapable the conclusion that the Israeli government bears
full responsibility for the present disturbances, and as the
world watches we are reminded that rank injustices in any
part of the world, left to fester and metastasize, with
nuclear weapons lurking in the wings, threaten all of
humanity.

Several visions are competing for the resolution of this
conflict. Some Palestinians (and some Israelis alike) uphold
the ideal of a democratic, secular Palestine in which Moslem,
Christian and Jew enjoy equal rights of citizenship, equal
religious and cultural expression, equal protection under
the laws. The majority favors an independent Palestinian
state that enjoys equal sovereignty with the State of
Israel. Unfortunately, successive Israeli governments,
though never all of the Israeli people, cling to the
vision of a fortress Jewish state, its citizenry
divided into de facto first, second and third
classes, reigning supreme and dominant in the
region.

The Black Radical Congress calls upon the United States,
which consistently promotes itself globally as the foremost
defender of human rights, to end its silence and its
hypocrisy in the face of the slaughter of Palestinian
children, by demanding that Israel cease and desist
immediately its brutal conduct.

The Black Radical Congress further calls upon the
progressive sectors of the Israeli populace, those who seek
a safe and honorable future for their own children, to demand
that their government embark upon the journey toward a true
peace with justice and equality, a peace founded on the right
of self-determination for the Palestinian people, a peace that
respects the national and human rights of all the people of
the Middle East.


-30-

The Black Radical Congress
National Office
P.O. Box 490365
Atlanta, GA 30349-0365
Phone: (404) 768-2529
Fax: (404) 614-8563

love and respect,
El Rey


http://www.mumia2000.org
http://www.mumia.org

not only am I a co-founder of the HBN, I'm a (daily) client.

WELCOME TO AMERIKKKA WELCOME TO AMERIKKKA
The following is a conversation I overheard while waiting to get served a $1.69 bottle of spring water at the Hudon Valley Mall. It is between a couple of fine, upstanding young Americans (one of whom I was buying the water from):

Mallclerk: ... so he almost strangled her to death
Meathead: Dude, I almost killed MYSELF last weekend!
Mallclerk: Dude, I'm talking about domestic violence ...
Meathead: Dude, I was hanging out with my friends and we were all stoned. Actually I couldn't get stoned so I was pissed and bored so I thought I might kill myself
Mallclerk: Duuuuuuuude ...
Meathead: Yeah, man ...
Mallclerk: Oh man, there's that guy *pointing to random guy in the mall*
Meathead: Yo, what's HIS problem
Mallclerk: I dunno. He's just soooo wierd dude. I don't want to know him at all
Meathead: We should kill him dude
Mallclerk: Why do you think I'm calling the police on him right now, dude?
Meathead: We should still kill him. Killing people is the only solution
Mallclerk: *to me* Here's your water dude. Will that be all? ...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
who are you









really

As a Palestinian, the most fair solution, I think, might sound offensive and provocative, but read on. For justice to be done, Israel should be "pushed into the sea." I'm saying Israel, not the Jews. In place of Israel, a secular Palestine should be set up, allowing all Palestinian refugees to return. All citizens, Muslim, Christian, and Jew, should be granted equal rights: political, social, civil, religious, economic, etc. This was what the PLO wanted before it sold out and had peace terms dictated to it by the United States and Israel.
However, since this scenario is probably unlikely, in order for the peace process to be revived, some conditions should be met:
1)the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, and other world involvement should be introduced in the peace process
2)the basis of the peace process should be expanded from just having Israeli security as the top priority, but also justice for the Palestinians as an equally important priority. Justice for the Palestians and Israeli security go hand in hand, for if the Palestinians feel they have not been given justice, Israel will never live securely, and have peace of mind. So if Israelis want peace of mind and security, it is in their best interests to support Justice for the Palestinians.