Material collected from Palestine Media Watch gadfly letters, electronicIntifada

· The number of settlements doubled and settlement construction went on uninterrupted, with more land confiscation. For Palestinians, Peace Process = Land Confiscation

ISRAEL WANTS TO REMAIN JEWISH

· This is by definition a racist policy

· This is incompatible with democracy

· What will Israel do if in a decade or so, the number of Arabs equals the number of Jews? Will Arabs be expelled? Will Israel forestall this development via some kind of Arab birth control program?

· Hamas is called “terrorist” because it insists on exercising its internationally sanctioned right to resist an occupation by any means. By contrast, gun-toting, murderous terrorist settlers are at worst called “extremist”.

· We do not hear about the much uglier Jewish extremist groups who call for the killing or expulsion of Arabs

· More Palestinians have been killed by settlers than Israelis by car bombs

· The number of Palestinians killed by the IDF is an order of magnitude greater than the number of Israelis called by the PLO in its hey day

INTIFADHA WAS PLANNED BY THE PA

· The one person who is most afraid of the uprising is Yasser Arafat

· The second group of people most afraid of the uprising are the Arab dictatorships

· Arafat does not have the moral authority to stop the Intifadha because it is partly against him and the legitimacy of his rule, besides being against the Israel occupation

WHY DOES THE US SUPPORT ISRAEL?

Usual answer is: BECAUSE ISRAEL IS THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. But:

· Israel is as much a democracy as France was a democracy in Algeria. It coast the lives of more than 1 million Algerians to attain independence from France

· And yet, JFK stood up as one of the staunchest supporters of Algerian nationalism. And mind you, Algeria was an INTEGRAL part of France (not a colony) for 130 years!

· US has been best friends with some of the ugliest dictatorships: Pinochet’s Chile, Apartheid’s South Africa, Zaire under Mobutu, Indonesia under Suharto, Saddam before the Gulf War, Iran under the Shah

· Is it worth the US to alienate the whole Arab and Muslim world?

PALESTINIANS ARE TEACHING HATRED TO THEIR CHILDREN

· Palestinian children are taught to call an oppressor what he is: an oppressor

· Studies have found that Israelis are guilty of teaching their children hatred for Arabs and Palestinians: http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0999/9909019.html -- "Israeli Textbooks and Children’s Literature Promote Racism and Hatred -- Toward Palestinians and Arabs" - SEE APPENDIX A

PALESTINIANS ARE PUTTING THEIR CHILDREN UP FOR SACRIFICE

· Is this supposed to be a justification for killing children?

· Israeli settlers are much more reckless putting their children at risk in hostile situations

· Amnesty International has released statements and reports that flatly denies that children are being cynically used: "[some] have said that Palestinians firing guns may be hidden by Palestinian children throwing stones. Again, none of Amnesty International's cases of children killed relates to any such incident; nor has Amnesty International received details of any such incident." SEE APPENDIX B

· Under Apartheid, the exact same reasoning was presented:

"Senior [South African] police officers have complained recently that their efforts to deal with unrest are hampered by the rioters' tactics, including the use of women and children as human shields'...” (the Los Angeles Times - June 3rd, 1985)

ISRAELIS ARE UNDER SIEGE

In fact, it is Palestinians who are under siege:

· Israeli soldiers surround each one and block it off from the surrounding towns and villages. People cannot get to their work, farmers cannot get to their fields to harvest their produce, and distributors cannot get their goods delivered to shops. In addition the Israeli army and the settlers have been extensively destroying olive groves and agricultural land.

· Israel also controls all border crossing into Palestinian territories including Gaza airport. They have prevented all goods from being exported and have only allowed essential supplies, food and fuel, to enter. 730 cargo containers bound for Palestine have been stuck in Israeli ports for weeks. And finally, Gaza is cut off from the West Bank.

· Israel is using not only excessive force and firepower to subdue the Palestinian uprising; but blockade measures to destroy the Palestinian economy driving people to starvation and submission. This makes it all the more imperative that Israel end its occupation and withdraw fully from the West Bank and Gaza.

ISRAEL IS SUFFERING PALESTINIAN VIOLENCE AGAINST THEM

Number of civilians Palestinians killed vs number of Israeli civilians killed tells the whole story about who is suffering more than the other

· The fact that Israel is one of the largest armies in the world -- and that it makes use of that army to fight back civil unrest -- is another important measure of who is bearing the brunt of suffering

STONE THROWING CIVILIANS ARE LEGITIMATE TARGETS

The Geneva Conventions prohibit treating civilians as soldiers.

CIVILIANS HAVE NO RIGHT TO ATTACK ISRAELI SOLDIERS

The IDF is an occupying force. International law sanctions repelling occupation by any means.

Did the French resistance have a right to fight nazi occupation? Of course they did - Just like many resistance movements have fought occupiers throughout history. Were the French resistance fighters regular army or where they civilians? Civilians, of course. Their cause was just and right.
The Palestinians have a universally recognized right to fight occupation as granted by United Nations Charter. They are fighting for their freedom. Palestinians civilians are fighting, and their cause is just and right and the United States, my country, must support their quest.

ARAFAT WAS INFLEXIBLE WITH BARAK

In fact, he was recklessly flexible. Here are the concessions Arafat was willing to make In Camp David:

· permanent Israeli sovereignty over existing Jewish settlements

· Israel's demand to maintain a permanent military presence in the Jordan Valley

· Israel's demand to use its army on Palestinian land if it fears a danger to the State of Israel

· carte blanche for Israel to fly over Palestinian air space

· the presence of Israeli early warning stations on Palestinian territory

· Israel's demand that Palestine not have an army of its own

ISRAEL HAS WITHDRAWN FROM 99 PERCENT OF THE GAZA STRIP AND 39.7 PERCENT OF THE WEST BANK -- 99 PERCENT OF THE PALESTINIAN POPULATION RESIDES UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY. ISRAEL WAS OFFERING A PALESTINIAN STATE IN 95 PERCENT OF THE WEST BANK

In reality, The land from which Israel was proposing to withdraw (Maps tell the whole story here):

· Represents less than 18% of historical Palestine

· Is dotted by Jewish-only settlments and Israeli army bases

· Is criss-crossed by Israeli roads physically fenced off from the surrounding Palestinian lands

· Would have consisted of four disconnected regions between which travel and movement would have been completely controlled by Israel.

BARAK OFFERED MAJOR CONCESSIONS ON JERUSALEM

· What Ehud Barak meant by "sharing Jerusalem" was nothing more than granting Palestinians shared adminstrative control over some neighborhoods. Barak has time and again said:

"I shall not sign any document which would grant Palestinians sovereignty over al-Haram al-Sharif." (Reuters - Jan 21, 2001)

THIS IS A JEW AGAINST ARAB CONFLICT

List of Jewish organizations that have come out strongly on the side of Palestinian rights and have condemned Israeli brutality

· Jewish Peace Fellowship http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org/

· Neturei Karta Homepage http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/5750/home.html

· Jews NOT Zionists http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/

· Yesh Gvul, The movement for IDF men refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. http://www.diak.org/Haayesh-gvul.htm

· Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions http://www.salam.org/activism/home_demolitions.html

· Bat Shalom, Israeli Women for Peace http://www.batshalom.org/

· B'Tselem http://www.btselem.org/

· "Occupied Territory" -- http://www.occupied.org/

· Rabbis for Human Rights -- http://www.rhr.israel.net/indexa.html

· Not in Our Name Coalition -- http://www.diak.org/not_in_our_name.htm

· Oz v'Shalom - Netivot Shalom (religious Zionist anti-Occupation) http://www.ariga.com/ozveshalom/index.asp

· Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation -- http://www.opentent.org/jews.html

· Association for Civil Rights in Israel -- http://www.nif.org/acri/

· Gush Shalom -- http://www.gush-shalom.org/

· Jewish People Liberation Army -- http://msanews.mynet.net/Scholars/Weizfeld/

· Amira Hass, Gideon Levy and others writing articles in Haaretz http://www.haaretzdaily.com/

· Alliance of Middle East Scientists and Physicians http://www.keck.ucsf.edu/~yoram/amesp.html

· Visions for peace with justice in Israel/Palestine -- http://www.vopj.org/

· Search for justice and equality -- http://www.searchforjustice.org

· Tikkun Magazine -- http://www.tikkun.org

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY AND THE PALESTINIANS ARE ONE BLOB

The Palestinian people have suffered a great deal in the hands of Arafat and his PA, under the supervision and encouragement of both Israel and the United States -- who rewarded Arafat for cracking down, not only on Hamas but on any opposition. Israel was only too happy to ensure that a viable civil-based political alternative to Arafat not be allowed to come to life