[ Facts and arguments that will strengthen your pro-Palestinian rights arguments]
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Kit. UNFAIR INTERVIEW PRACTICES BY THE
US MEDIA REVEALING DID YOU KNOW QUESTIONS? THE BIG QUESTIONS 1. Israel
has been "cracking down" against terrorism for three
decades now, and yet to this day suicide bombings continue to
take place -- why does Israel continue following a policy that
is patently a failure? 2. If
Israel were serious about a long-lasting peace with the Palestinians,
then why did it double the size of its settlements in the occupied
territories between 1993 and 2000? 3. For
the whole of 1999, not one single Israel was killed in a terrorist
attack. If Palestinians were only intent on destroying
Israel, then why did attacks against Israelis taper off to nothing
when Barak seemed to be making progress towards peace? 4. If
Israel really wants Arafat to reign in militants, as it says it
does, then why does it make it both politically and physically
impossible for him to do so by humiliating him, denouncing him
as a criminal, and physically dismantling his security apparatus
and the infrastructure of his authority? 5. If
Israel were really interested in ensuring the security of its
citizens, then why does it carry out assassinations, knowing full
well that such assassinations will only trigger another wave of
suicide bombings and escalate the cycle of violence? THINGS TO HARP ON
ON NEWS COVERAGE
ON EDITORIAL COVERAGE
UNFAIR INTERVIEW PRACTICES BY THE US MEDIA
REVEALING DID YOU KNOW QUESTIONS? 1
- THAT, when the Palestine Problem was created by Britain in 1917,
more than 90% of the population of Palestine were Arabs, and that
there were at that time no more than 56,000 Jews in Palestine?
2
- THAT, more than half of the Jews living in Palestine at that
time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine in the
preceding decades in order to escape persecution in Europe?...
And that less than 5% of the population of Palestine were native
Palestinian Jews? 3
- THAT, the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97.5% of the
land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent immigrants together)
owned only 2.5% of the land? 4
- THAT, during the thirty years of British occupation and rule,
the Zionists were able to purchase only 3.5% of the land of Palestine,
in spite of the encouragement of the British Government?... And
that much of this land was transferred to Zionist bodies by the
British Government directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
5
- THAT, therefore, when British passed the Palestine Problem to
the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than 6% of
the total land area of Palestine? 6
- THAT, notwithstanding these facts, the General Assembly of the
United Nations recommended that a "Jewish State" be
established in Palestine?... And that the Assembly granted that
proposed "State" about 54% of the total area of the
country? 7
- THAT, Israel immediately occupied (and still occupies) 80.48%
of the total land area of Palestine? 8
- THAT, this territorial expansion took place, for the most part,
before 15 May 1948: i.e., before the formal end of the British
forces from Palestine, before the entry of Arab armies to protect
Palestinian Arabs, and before the Arab-Israeli war? 9
- THAT, the 1947 recommendation of the General Assembly in favor
of the creation of a "Jewish State" was outside the
competence of the Assembly under the Charter of the United Nations?
10
- THAT, all attempts by the Arab States and other Asian countries
to have the Assembly submit “the question of constitutionality"
of its recommendation to the International Court of Justice for
an "advisory opinion" by the Court were rejected or
ignored by the Assembly? 11
- THAT, when the Assembly began to experience "second thoughts"
over the matter and convened for its second special session in
1948, it failed to reaffirm the 1947 recommendation for the partition
of Palestine-thus destroying whatever dubious legality that recommendation
for the establishment of a "Jewish State" had had? 12
- THAT, that original 1947 recommendation to create a "Jewish
State" in Palestine was approved, at the first vote, only
by European, American and Australian States...for every Asian
State, and every African State (with the exception of the Union
of South Africa) voted against it?...And that, when the vote was
cast in plenary session on 29 November 1947, urgent American pressures
(which a member of the Truman cabinet described as "bordering
onto scandal") had succeeded in prevailing only upon one
African country (Liberia), both of which had special vulnerability
to American pressures, to abandon their declared opposition?...And
that, in other words, the "Jewish State" was planted
at the point-of-intersection of Asia and Africa without the free
approval of any Middle Eastern, Asian or African country except
that Union of South Africa, itself ruled by an alien minority?
13
- THAT, Israel remained, ever since its inception, a total stranger
in the emerging world of Afro-Asia; and that Israel has been refused
admission to any inter-state conference of Asian, African, Afro-Asian,
or Non-Aligned States ever held? 14
- THAT, since the General Armistice Agreements were signed in
1949, Israel has maintained an aggressive policy of waging military
attacks across the Armistice Demarcation Lines, repeatedly invading
the territories of the neighboring Arab States...And that Israel
has been duly rebuked, censured, or condemned for these military
attacks by the Security Council of the General Assembly of the
United Nations on eleven occasions-five times by the Security
Council and six times by the General Assembly? 15
- THAT, no other country in the world, whether member of the United
Nations or non-member, has been so frequently condemned by the
United Nations? 16
- THAT, no Arab State has ever been condemned by any organ of
the United Nations for military attacks upon Israel? 17
- THAT, besides expelling the bulk of the Arab inhabitants of
Palestine, and besides constantly attacking the neighboring Arab
States, Israel has also consistently harassed the United Nations
observers and other personnel stationed along the Armistice Demarcation
Lines: It has assassinated the first United Nations Mediator and
his military aide; it has detained some truce observers; it has
militarily occupied and illegally searched the Headquarters of
United Nations personnel; and it has boycotted meetings of the
Mixed Armistice Commissions?... 18
- THAT, Israel has additionally imposed a system of apartheid
upon the Arabs who stayed in their homeland? More than 90% of
these Arabs live in "security zones;" they alone live
under martial law, restricting their freedom to travel from village
to village or from town to town; their children are denied equal
opportunities for education; and they are denied decent opportunities
for work, and the right to receive "equal pay for equal work?"
19
- THAT, notwithstanding the foregoing facts, Israel has always
been, and still is, widely portrayed in the Western press as the
"bastion of democracy" and the "champion of peace"
in the Middle East? 20
- THAT, the Western Powers have persisted in declaring their determination
to ensure a so-called "arms balance" in the area, as
between Israel, on the one hand, and the one-hundred million inhabitants
of the thirteen Arab States, on the other hand?... And this unilateral
Western doctrine of so-called "arms balance" is no more
reasonable than the suggestion that, in the Cuba-U.S.A conflict,
there should be "arms balance" as between Cuba and the
United States... or that the whole Continent of Africa should
not be allowed to acquire more
arms than South Africa... or that Mainland China should not be
permitted to have more arms than Taiwan... or that the military
allowed to acquire more arms than South Africa... and that only
thus can peace be safeguarded in the Western Hemisphere, in Africa,
in Asia, or in Europe?... 21
– THAT, Israel allots 85% of the water resources in the occupied
territories for Jews and the remaining 15% is divided among all
Palestinians in the territories? For example in Hebron, 85% of
the water is given to about 500 settlers, while 15% must be divided
among Hebron's 120,000 Palestinians? 22
– THAT, The United States awards Israel $3 billion in aid each
year, more than to any other country in the world: US aid to Israel
exceeds the aid the US grants to the whole sub-Sahara Africa? 23
– THAT, GDP, per capita, and consumption per capita in the Occupied
Territories have dropped about 15 percent in the West Bank and
Gaza since 1993 - that's even with large foreign assistance pouring
in, from Europe, mostly? 24
– THAT, Up until 1993, the U.S. and Israel permitted humanitarian
aid to come into the territories. UN humanitarian aid was permitted
into the West Bank and Gaza. In 1993, that was restricted? 25
– THAT, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has
nuclear weapons? 26
– THAT, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that refuses
to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international
inspections from its sites? 27
– THAT, Israel currently occupies territories of two sovereign
nations (Lebanon and Syria) in defiance of United Nations Security
Council resolutions? 28
– THAT, High-ranking military officers in the Israeli Defense
Forces have admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were
executed by the IDF? 29
– THAT, Israel refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged
executing prisoners of war? 30
– THAT, Israel routinely confiscates bank accounts, businesses,
and land from Palestinians and refuses to pay compensation to
those who suffer the confiscation? 31
– THAT, Israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations Security
Council Resolutions? 32
– THAT, Israel's current prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was found
by an Israeli court to be "personally responsible" for
the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in Lebanon in which thousands
of unarmed Palestinian refugees were slaughtered in 1982? 33
– THAT, Today's Israel sits on the former sites of more than 400
destroyed Palestinian villages, and that the Israelis renamed
almost every physical site in the country to cover up the traces? 34
– THAT, Ariel Sharon's coalition government includes a party --
Molodet -- which advocates expelling all [of the over two million]
Palestinians from [their homes in] the occupied territories? 35
– THAT, Israel's illegal settlement-building in the Occupied Palestinian
territories more than doubled doubled in the eight years since
the Oslo agreements? 36
– THAT, Illegal settlement building under Prime Minister Barak
doubled compared to settlement building under Prime Minister Netanyahu? 37
– THAT, More illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories
were built under Prime Minister Barak than at any other time in
the history of Israel's occupation of Palestinian land? 38
– THAT, Despite a ban on torture by Israel's High Court of Justice,
torture has continued by Shin Bet interrogators on Palestinian
prisoners? 39
– THAT, Palestinian refugees make up the largest refugee population
in the world? 40
– THAT, Israeli military checkpoints surround every Palestinian
population center in violation of the Oslo Accords? 41
– THAT, The right of self-determination is guaranteed to every
human being under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December,
1948), yet Palestinians were/are expected to negotiate for this
right under the Oslo Accords? 42
– THAT, Palestinians have the highest ratio of PhDs per capita
in the world? |