Does the truth matter?

 The Israeli government just downgraded the number of those killed in October 7 attack to 1200 from 1400. Haaretz Newspaper was able to name less than 980 (some yet to be identified). George Galloway wrote: "The foul allegations of rape have been dropped by the Israeli government. The forty beheaded babies has been downscaled to one dead baby, not beheaded, and killed by persons unknown." Does the truth of what happened on October 7 matter? Yes it does because it is used to justify an ongoing genocide (of course nothing justifies genocide even exaggerated and fabricated stories). But why do many western leaders and western media parrot Israeli lies and not just about 7 October but for the past 75 years of committing atrocities against a largely defenseless Palestinian population? DOES THE TRUTH MATTER? The links below are a glimpse of the overwhelming body of evidence about Israeli/Zionist lies. You be the judge. In the end I will say why this is important if not CRITICAL to achieve peace.

The Zionist movement literally threw Palestinians into the sea (loading boats in Haifa and Jaffa) in 1948 to sent them to Lebanon and Gaza, Only AFTER this ethnic cleansing, they came up with the lie that Palestinians were going to throw Jews into the sea (see http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/). From these early lies sprung many others over the past 75 years. A book should be written about this as it is the most remarkable set of orchestrated lies in the history of global colonization. Here are some information and links from ongaza.org about lies and then I add a comment on why these lies will contribute to the end of the Israeli apartheid regime. Since western media puppets always start with the events of October 7, ignore history, ignore lies, and ignore preplanned and executed genocide, we can start with 7 October.lies about Hamas atrocities (beheading 40 babies, raping women, burning people alive etc.):
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters/
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/what-really-happened-on-7th-october
see also Why is Israel trying to HIDE this hostage interview?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HugMS0k0kB4
https://www.jta.org/2023/10/16/israel/i-decided-to-play-dead-my-son-is-still-missing-a-survivors-account-from-kibbutz-nir-oz
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231030-report-7-october-testimonies-strikes-major-blow-to-israeli-narrative/
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/hostages-how-the-u-s-media-is-distorting-the-news-from-palestine/  
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/no-proof-of-beheaded-israeli-babies-white-house-backtracks-on-bidens-comments-breaking
https://fair.org/home/unconfirmed-beheaded-babies-report-helped-justify-israeli-slaughter/

Fabricating a picture of a burnt baby 

https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9/posts/pfbid0471gNBRhrK4iySTFbvt5qNvet6GMgywH7TdUnRsqVw7G1UWgdAA6y9SjsFjGHBnol

Israeli forces shot at their own civilians
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861
also look up Hannibal doctrine.  

There were false flag operations like the Lavon Affair, or the bombing of Jewish community centers in Iraq to blame it on locals and scare Iraqi Jews to leave their country. Hasbara (propaganda) is a very common Zionist tactic to advance their project of colonization. During the October 2023 incidents Israeli leaders lied about Hamas killing and beheading babies, about Israeli soldiers killing Israeli citizens, or even about wanting peace and set the stage for ongoing genocide.

The Lavon Affair: Israel and Terror in Egypt http://www.mideastweb.org/lavon.htm
Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew (about Israel's false flag operations targeting Jews to drive them out of Iraq) https://books.google.ps/books?id=XTWUEAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/avi-shlaim-proof-israel-zionist-involvement-iraq-jews-attacks
Israel killed an American citizen and lied about it https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/24/middleeast/shireen-abu-akleh-jenin-killing-investigation-cmd-intl/index.html
This UN report on the shelling of a UN Compound that killed civilians (Qana massacre 1996 that contradict Israeli lies 

https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N96/117/52/IMG/N9611752.pdf
https://youtu.be/ergrmLKmv7I

The current prime Minister Netanyahu is well known for lying to foreigners. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz (7/15/01) reported that: "... giving his audience (Likud leaders) a bit of advice on how to deal with foreign interviewers (Benjamin Netanyahu said): 'Always, irrespective of whether you're right or not, you must always present your side as right'".
In private and thinking he is not taped, he gives a more candid assessment of where he stands:  https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9/posts/10160919216451181
https://twitter.com/trtworld/status/1711750682733355146

Israel's history of lies
https://imeu.org/article/fact-sheet-israels-history-of-spreading-disinformation
Israel lies to manufacture a case for genocide 

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/12/israel-is-manufacturing-a-case-for-genocide
https://truthout.org/articles/medias-selective-moral-outrage-manufactures-consent-for-palestinian-genocide/
Taking responsibility and then lying https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1714357542879457390

Israel lied when it said an errant Islamic Jihad rocket fell in Al-Ahli hospital courtyard killing 471 civilians:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231018/what-could-have-triggered-gazas-deadly-hospital-blast-1114287684.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9-XPw8bixg
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/al-ahli-arab-hospital-piecing-together-what-happened-as-israel-insists-militant-rocket-to-blame
https://youtu.be/RcNMPlj1iAA
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/10/19/israel-caught-out-in-further-lie-about-hospital-strike-after-doctored-image-exposed/
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/who-bombed-al-ahli-baptist-hospital-three-top-investigations-offer-an-answer/
https://www.who.int/news/item/17-10-2023-who-statement-on-attack-on-al-ahli-arab-hospital-and-reported-large-scale-casualties
Israeli history of attacking medical facilities
https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/p/israel-would-never-target-medical
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-10-19-video-evidence-points-to-israeli-air-burst-bomb-striking-al-ahli-hospital-grounds.html
Hospital warned two and four days before it was targeted https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2023/10/anglican-run-al-ahli-arab-hospital-in-gaza-damaged-by-israeli-rocket-fire-as-conflict-continues.aspx

UN says Israel intentionally and recklessly killed Journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh (a US Ctizen) https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/press-releases/article/israel-un-concludes-that-idf-intentionally-or-recklessly-killed-palestinian-journalist-shireen-abu-akleh
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/how-israel-likely-killed-its-own-settlers-on-october-7
Killing Aljazeera Correspondent’s Family Days After Blinken Demands the Channel’s Coverage be ‘Toned Down’

https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-kills-al-jazeera-correspondent-family-days-after-blinken-demands-channel-coverage-toned-down/5838015
(Dozens of journalists were killed in 1 month in Gaza. Why target journalists and not allow others into Gaza if you have nothing to hide)

The self-declared “I am zionist” US president Biden questioned the number of people killed in Gaza as documented by the Ministry of Heath so in response, the ministry released the data with names, ages, and ID card numbers (Biden has no shame to dehumanize Palestinians and start to lie on behalf of his pimps. The list released did not include the names of the reported missing who are likely dead under the rubble.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-death-toll-names-killed-released-biden-questions
You can find the list of names here but this grows daily by hundreds https://tinyurl.com/2y7fkrac

Now I did not expect everyone to look through the above in detail because of its length. But it is actually a tiny glimpse of a 75 year history of lies and myths that are used by a movement that never had any moral or logical justifcation for its existence.  Zionists lie because they have to justify stealing land from indigenous people and to transform a multi-ethnic multi-cultural and multi-religious society to a Jewish state with countless laws that discriminate against the remaining Palestinians kept in Ghettos/concentration camps.  Truth matters because lies and myths justify colonization, ethnic cleansing, and now accelerated genocide (2.3 million without food or water or medicines while their hospitals are taken out of service). As the lies are exposed Zionists resort to their last card: weaponizing "anti-Semitism" but even this trick is not working as opposition to the apartheid colonial regime comes from every quarter including hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world. Here is Dan Lieberman explaining how Israel is using the last card it has to defend the indefensible genocide https://dlieb10gmailcom.substack.com/p/a-call-to-action and see this on weaponization of anti-Semitism  https://youtu.be/qJfYXVI_-Dc

Israel's Military Rabbi Amichai Friedman: "This is the happiest month of my life... We're finally realizing who we are. All of this land is ours. The entire land, including Gaza & Lebanon... We will destroy everyone" he said to cheering Israeli soldiers https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1721239223091536228?s=20

see also https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/israelis-keep-hurting-their-own-pr-interests-by-talking-fa653840d732
This and other genocidal statements listed at ongaza.org (39 in list) plus the history of lies to sugar coat genocide (of which a glimpse is above) should shed any remaining doubt about why we must utilize all possible tools of resistance (especially truth telling, boycotts, divestments, sanctions) to end the nightmare.

If Martin Luther King was alive today, would he have made a similar speech about the US support of the genocide in Palestine to the speech a he made about Vietnam? Read his speech and judge for yourself https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
But if not convinced, here is more about MLK Jr including his letter about Israel's aggression
http://qumsiyeh.org/martinlutherking/

Get a glimpse of Gaza that is now subject to genocide. Note that the photographer interviewed is a Christian Marwant Tarazi who was killed with his wife, a child, and many Chistians when Israel bombed of the church compound hey were sheltering in
https://www.dw.com/en/collected-memories-photographs-of-gaza/video-54540624

A letter from a person who chose to stay in Gaza city despite the illegal and immoral order for ethnic cleansing of North Gaza
https://www.972mag.com/israel-ground-offensive-gaza-city-children/

Remarks at media briefing by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk following visit to Rafah, Egypt.
Statement: https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/11/un-human-rights-chief-visits-rafah-border-crossing-gaza

Democrats are feeling the pressure of public sentiment in the US for ceasefire (will Biden sac his Zionist secretary of state and replace his his Zionist VP and change course to ensure a second term or will it be the orange monster Trump again?). Will the US and Israel implode anyway? https://www.huffpost.com/entry/calls-for-congress-ceasefire-gaza-israel_n_654d4d0ce4b0373d70b16b0f

Stay Human, keep Palestine alive, stay tuned and act

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home

Mainstream media kills truth

What happened October 7 and after as UN Chief Gutteres said “did not happen in a vacuum”. Palestinians endured ethnic cleansing and racist onslaught daily for 75 years (that is over 27325 days). That left 8 million Palestinians refugees or displaced people and the rest stored in disconnected concentration camps (Gaza, Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah etc).  There is deepening crime of apartheid and racial discrimination in the West Bank while genocide goes on in Gaza. Israel's ongoing horrors are a mockery of international law.  Today the situation in Gaza is catastrophic as it shifts to a higher stage of carnage: from sudden death and injury of civilians by bombing them without warning to ADD death by thirst, starvation, lack of hygiene, and collapse of health care services (Israeli policies of mass murder by denial of basics of life). We in the West Bank as Palestinians everywhere in the world) witness this genocide and ethnic cleansing of a captive population in Gaza and know we are next.  Already 163 Palestinians were murdered by the occupation army and settlers in the West Bank since 7 October and we expect the worse. Israel blocked our cantons and arrested/kidnapped over 2500 more Palestinians in the West Bank. And they are torturing these political prisoners (now over 11,000 by direct physical abuse and denial of food and medicine. See example here  https://twitter.com/Issaamro/status/1719332892608753828 The mood is somber and angry. We just can't believe how the US government and its western allies colluded and collaborated and funded this carnage for 75 years.

But we remain focused for now on Gaza where relentless bombing of residential buildings and of even people on the streets, bakeries and schools meant hundreds of civilians die daily. Over 10,000 are registered now as civilians killed with some 2500 missing presumed dead under the rubble.  Half the population in Gaza are Children and 42% of those killed are children.. But this pales compared to denial of water, food, medicines and fuel (babies and patients on dialysis die with lack of fuel for generators for the remaining devastated hospitals). Health care system completely collapsed and Israel refuses even to pause or to allow humanitarian aid.  Several countries (Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Jordan, South Africa) suspended diplomatic ties with Israel but this is not sufficient to deter this genocidal regime.  People around the world are mobilizing and the gap between the Western Governments and their citizens grow wider daily. But people are also still being murdered daily despite the millions on the streets. More pressure is needed. Palestinians will continue to resist even as we say the governments of both the West and the many Arab countries take a stand of collusion, aiding and abetting genocide while issuing vague statements of "concern."

 There are many battles going on simultaneously: 1) A genocidal slaughter of the civilian population of Gaza, 2) a battle against the civilian population in the West Bank and 1948 areas of Palestine (intensified colonization and persecution), 3) a battle between Israel on the one hand and and resistance forces of Hamas and Hizbollah, and 4) the battle to destroy truth waged by Zionists and their arms globally. As Israel is losing the battles with the resistance despite massive air power, the occupying army is intensifying the battles on the other fronts including the slaughter of civilians (intensifying genocide) while the US administration and its allies try to throw sand in the face of the world via the mainstream media (MSM). They even claim they seek peace AFTER Israel finishes off preplanned ethnic cleansing and genocide. Civilians die but colonialism/apartheid/ genocide (US/Israel) will not continue if we grow our marches and pressures around the world (a global uprising).

Activists just demonstrated for the first time at the Statue of Liberty (see https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/11/07/wire-statue-of-liberty/ and https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-protests-2666166026).  We live in a historic moment where we can see and act on genocide in real time and we need better and bigger organizing to change the course of this rotten old world order in which might be made right and people's lives were dispensable for greed while the Zionist lobby machine works feverishly to lie and pressure and buy politicians and media. The western politicians support Israel because they are bribed and lobbied to do so. Here is an example from the UK https://www.declassifieduk.org/two-fifths-of-keir-starmers-cabinet-have-been-funded-by-pro-israel-lobbyists/
But the media is an integral part of this war https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/29/western-coverage-of-israels-war-on-gaza-bias-or-unprofessionalism

The MSM is complicit in genocide by regurgitating Zionist talking points. Ignoring UN reports, human rights reports, the carnage and massacres committed, the MSM some times states that civilians are killed "in fighting". No civilians are being bombed and obliterated in large numbers without any "fighting". The fighting is happening with advancing Israeli tanks away from civilians and the evidence shows the Israeli army not doing well there and maybe that is why they intensified bombing civilians. Gaza health officials invited any International fact finding missions to visit them to prove the lies that hospitals house Hamas fighters (in them or under them). Israel's lies that they are targeting fighters in civilian areas are disproved even by current staff and reports from a number of international organizations. Lying and killing are not restricted to the military and government. The MSM kills the truth.  See this excellent Jonathan Cook's analysis of BBC's complicity https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2023-11-02/bbc-october-7/
MSM is not only guilty of lying but also of intentionally hiding important facts. For examples:

1) How many western MSM outlets covered this unprecedented report from UN Chiefs dubbed "Enough is enough"  https://www.arabnews.com/node/2403981/middle-east

2) How many MSM covered this leaked memo shows there is mutiny within the US State Department against the Zionist Blinken/Biden foreign policy that supports genocide of Gaza population
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/06/u-s-diplomats-slam-israel-policy-in-leaked-memo-00125538 or for that matter interviewed Josh Paul who resigned (only Democracy Now interviewed him and it is a must see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w9fAgaUBrw). Also how bout interviewing Craig Mokhiber who resigned from the UN (see https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24103463-craig-mokhiber-resignation-letter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvm0HYvPJu4 )

3) Did the MSM cover the plummeting public support for Biden? Just among Arab Americans it declined from 59% to 17%!
https://www.aaiusa.org/library/arab-americans-special-poll-domestic-implications-of-the-most-recent-outbreak-of-violence-in-palestineisrael

4) Did the MSM report on Delta force members working on the ground with Israelis or the expansion of the US military base in Israel
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/27/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512/
How about polls that show the US public does not want to arm apartheid and genocidal regimes?

5) Did the MSM cover the massive rallies to end the genocide in Gaza that show the government is disconnected from the . Here is Democracy Now coverage which is rare among media outlets.
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/6/dc_march_for_palestine_nov_2023
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/6/alice_rothchild_gaza_healthcare_crisis
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/6/shibley_telhami_israel_palestine_one_state
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/6/ahmed_abu_artemahttps://www.democracynow.org

6) Why does the MSM fail to highlight the growing rift between political elites and the people. Here are two examples from Frankfort and 11-12 November mobilizing at the upcoming APEC summit in San Francisco
https://criticalresistance.org/event/no-apec-summit-2023/
https://bnn.network/breaking-news/protests/frankfurt-protests-shine-light-on-german-cancel-culture-silencing-palestinian-support/

7) Why is the MSM not ciovering Jewish pogroms against Arabs even those who ar Israeli citizens? See examples here  https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-citizens-gaza-war-enemies/

https://www.btselem.org/video/20230312_jewish_supremacy_regime_carries_out_pogrom_in_huwarah_and_other_palestinian_communities_in_northern_west_bank

8) Context is not given in MSM making it look like Israel is a legitimate state "defending itself". But the facts are so obvious, Israel is a colonial entity that stripped Palestinians from their land, made them refugees, and those who remained are kept in ghettos/concentration areas like the Gaza strip. Here are the conditions in Gaza in 2019 (before this latest prison outbreak and genocidal actions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZSaKYmP2s For background on Gaza see http://ongaza.org

Open letter to the PLO

 I wrote four open letters earlier addressed to: people of Gaza, Israelis and Jews who support the Israeli government, the global community, and the US public (you can find them at this blog links at right by date) This my fifth open letter is addressed to the Palestinian authority and factions of the PLO

The truth is being murdered together with our men, women, and children in Gaza. Let me start with the most obvious question. What make anyone (let alone you Mr. Mahmoud Abbas) think that Israel can be pressured to allow us our own state in the West Bank and Gaza after it finishes off Hamas? The "global community" (Western Governments) could not even influence the RATE of genocide and wanton destruction of residential buildings, universities, schools, and hospitals. They could not even stop Israel from destroying water storage facilities and starve a people of water and food. To the contrary they even joined in silencing Palestinian voices in their countries. The definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results. The Oslo group has been doing this for 30 years and the results is entrenched colonization with now over 900,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Keeping repeating the mantra of a state in the 1967 areas is madness.

One Israeli minister said that Israel should consider dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. He is not alone. Netanyahu himself showed a map of the new Middle East at the United Nations a few months ago that does not have a reference to Palestine or Palestinians. Israel's President himself said there are no innocent Palestinians in Gaza and his opinion is shared by .  Israel already dropped the equivalent of two Hiroshima nuclear bombs on Gaza and is forcing death by starvation and thirst on millions. Can you name one other place in the past 100 years where millions of people were subjected to such denial of water, food, electricity, fuel, medicines? But what is remarkable is that the UN is paralyzed and the slaughter is happening with Western government support led by the US (partners in genocide). As one civilian is killed on average every four minutes and six children every hour, why would you Mr. Mahmoud Abbas meet with Blinken who is equally guilty of these massacres. Even US citizens disrupted his public appearance telling him he has blood on his hands. But even if you actually think you can get Blinken to give you something (crumbs maybe), who authorized you to tell him that the PLO is still the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people with you at its head. Why would you not at least form your own emergency unity government (yes including Islamic parties whether we agree with them or not). Why is building a coalition government is allowed to apartheid Israel but not us? Note that despite their differences, all the members of the Israeli interim government running this "war" are unified that targeting Palestinian civilians and starving 2.3 million and destroying all healthcare facilities is a legitimate tool of subjugation. 

After one month of this state terrorism that Gaza people are subjected to, time has run out. You also must clearly know that Israel's control of the West Bank is tighter than ever. Do you really think that Blinken's hollow statements about Israel needing to restrain the settlers in the West Bank is of any use? It is the same kind of statement that while fighting terrorism, Israel is encouraged to comply with international law (they don't and they won't). Don't you already know that this is a government of settlers, its soldiers, its ministers...etc all support murdering and ethnically cleansing Palestinians whether in the 1948 areas, in the West Bank or in Gaza. 

People rightly call for "ceasefire" but this is more accurately a call to pause slaughter of innocent Palestinians by an occupation fascist army intent on finishing the job started in 1948. We were hammered for 75 years by a Zionist force supported by imperialist countries (Sykes Picot 1916. Cambon and Balfour Declarations supported but the US in 1917 etc) and betrayed by corrupt Arab leaders for over 100 years (including our own). We were denied even the right to tell our story or to mourn our dead. Some Palestinians heroically resisted and in so doing delayed the progress of this hegemonic entity for decades. Thousands languish in horrible conditions in Israeli jails (dungeons!).  You also know that the Zionist lobby successfully colonized many western capitals, media, and even the military industrial complex that President Eisenhauer warned us about.

Elected Israeli politicians (under apartheid laws they must be Zionist) have repeatedly shown you repeatedly that they want to liquidate the Palestinian cause.  The Allon Plan of 1968 (reflected in 1979 Camp David Accord and 1993 Oslo Accord) sets the maximum you can aspire to "semi-autonomy" under Israeli sovereignty and you know that ( In my book "Sharing the Land of Canaan" I explained why there was never in human history an anti-colonial struggle that ended in two states (see the logical arguments at http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/). 

After these events in Gaza, sustaining a two-state delusion is even harder as Israeli colonization in the West Bank is empowered and accelerating. The West Bank ghettos will become permanent unless we move beyond the pathetic attempt to plead with Western governments and collusionist Arab governments for tokenism. What can be done? Rise to the (existential) challenge.

1) Democratize the PLO and if not possible, then create a new umbrella for the Palestinian people. This is a way to ensure strengthened participation by 15 million Palestinians and getting them to donate, act, and pressure governments wherever they are. 

2) We must first and foremost depend on ourselves to shape our future. While we welcome all solidarity and joint struggle movements (and these are growing) , setting directions and plans of action must be done based on careful internal studies and analysis. Palestinian intellectuals must play a significant role. A specific plan of action must have SMART criteria (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time bound)

3) We need to revolutionize diplomacy towards public and strong diplomacy. The Fatah run foreign ministry needs to be changed drastically. With few exceptions (like Ambassador Husam Zomlut), we have a majority of "ambassadors" who sit on desks and do very little. That public diplomacy should not give legitimacy to apartheid and allow normalization with it. We must push for removing racism and apartheid.

4) Fight corruption at all levels. Fight corruption. A noble cause like Palestine cannot afford corrupt systems.

5) (Re)education is an essential component of any freedom movement. Our children are our future and our biggest asset and we must focus on creating the best environment for empowered learning. 

We must realize that whether you are a dove or a hawk, you are fair game to the Zionist movement which wants the land and does not even want to share your land with you.  We must work together in all humility but all seriousness to act in ways that honor the huge sacrifices done in the past 75 years. It is an existential struggle.

رسالة مفتوحة للسلطة الفلسطينية

 لقد كتبت أربع رسائل مفتوحة في وقت سابق موجهة إلى: شعب غزة، والإسرائيليين واليهود الذين يدعمون الحكومة الإسرائيلية، والمجتمع العالمي، والجمهور الأمريكي (يمكنك العثور عليها على يمين الصفحة)

رسالتي المفتوحة الخامسة هذه موجهة إلى السلطة الفلسطينية وفصائل منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية

الحقيقة تُقتل مع رجالنا ونسائنا وأطفالنا في غزة. اسمحوا لي أن أبدأ بالسؤال الأكثر وضوحا. ما الذي يجعل أي شخص (ناهيك عنك يا سيد محمود عباس) يعتقد أنه يمكن الضغط على إسرائيل للسماح لنا بدولتنا في الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة بعد القضاء على حماس؟ لم يتمكن "المجتمع العالمي" (الحكومات الغربية) حتى من التأثير على معدل الإبادة الجماعية والتدمير الممنهج للمباني السكنية والجامعات والمدارس والمستشفيات. ولم يتمكنوا حتى من منع إسرائيل من تدمير مرافق تخزين المياه وتجويع الشعب من الماء والغذاء. وعلى العكس من ذلك، فقد شاركوا في إسكات الأصوات الفلسطينية في بلدانهم وشاركوا بدعم عسكري وأموال. تعريف الجنون هو الاستمرار في فعل نفس الشيء وتوقع نتائج مختلفة. ظلت مجموعة أوسلو تفعل ذلك لمدة 30 عامًا، وكانت النتيجة ترسيخ الاستعمار حيث يوجد الآن أكثر من 900 ألف مستوطن يهودي في الضفة الغربية. الاستمرار في ترديد شعار الدولة في مناطق 1967 هو جنون.

قال أحد الوزراء الإسرائيليين إن على إسرائيل أن تفكر في إسقاط قنبلة نووية على غزة. إنه ليس وحده. لقد عرض نتنياهو بنفسه خريطة للشرق الأوسط الجديد في الأمم المتحدة قبل بضعة أشهر لا تحتوي على أي إشارة إلى فلسطين أو الفلسطينيين. وقال الرئيس الإسرائيلي نفسه إنه لا يوجد فلسطينيون أبرياء في غزة ويشاركه رأيه كل قادة اسرائيل. لقد أسقطت إسرائيل بالفعل ما يعادل قنبلتين نوويتين على غزة، وتفرض الموت جوعا وعطشا على الملايين. هل يمكنك تسمية مكان آخر خلال المائة عام الماضية حيث تعرض ملايين الأشخاص لمثل هذا الحرمان من الماء والغذاء والكهرباء والوقود والأدوية؟ لكن اللافت للنظر هو أن الأمم المتحدة مشلولة والمذبحة تحدث بدعم من الحكومات الغربية بقيادة الولايات المتحدة (شركاء في الإبادة الجماعية). يستشهد مدنياً كل أربع دقائق في المتوسط وستة أطفال كل ساعة، فلماذا يجتمع السيد محمود عباس مع بلينكن المذنب بنفس القدر في هذه المذابح? حتى أن مواطنين أمريكيين قاموا بمقاطعة ظهوره وأخبروه أن يديه ملطختان بالدماء. لكن حتى لو كنت تعتقد فعلا أنه يمكنك جعل بلينكن يعطيك شيئا (ربما فتات) فمن الذي أذن لك أن تقول له إن منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية لا تزال الممثل الشرعي للشعب الفلسطيني وعلى رأسها أنت? لماذا لا تقومون على الأقل بتشكيل حكومة وحدة الطوارئ الخاصة بكم (نعم بما في ذلك فصائال اسلامية سواء اتفقنا معها أم لا). لما لا يحق لنا ما يحق لدولة الإحتلال؟ لاحظ مع اختلافهم أن جميع أعضاء الحكومة الإسرائيلية المؤقتة التي تدير هذه "الحرب" فإنهم متفقون على أن استهداف المدنيين الفلسطينيين وتجويع 2.3 مليون وتدمير جميع مرافق الرعاية الصحية هو أداة مشروعة.

بعد مرور شهر على إرهاب الدولة الذي يتعرض له سكان غزة نفد الوقت! وتعلموا بوضوح أن سيطرة إسرائيل على الضفة الغربية أصبحت أكثر حدة من أي وقت مضى  وسيأتي دورنا وثم بقية العالم العربي بعد غزة. هل تعتقدون حقاً أن تصريحات بلينكن الجوفاء حول حاجة إسرائيل إلى كبح جماح المستوطنين في الضفة الغربية لها أي فائدة؟ وهو نفس النوع من التصريحات القائلة بأنه أثناء مكافحة الإرهاب يتم تشجيع إسرائيل على الامتثال للقانون الدولي (وهم لا يفعلون ذلك ولن يفعلوا ذلك). ألا تعلمون أن هذه حكومة المستوطنين وجنودها ووزرائها... إلخ، كلهم يدعمون القتل والتطهير العرقي للفلسطينيين سواء في مناطق 1948 أو في الضفة الغربية أو في غزة.

يدعو الناس بحق إلى "وقف إطلاق النار"، لكن هذه دعوة  لوقف مؤقت لذبح الفلسطينيين الأبرياء على يد جيش الاحتلال الفاشي الذي كان عازمًا على إنهاء المهمة التي بدأها عام 1948. لقد تعرضنا للضرب لمدة 75 عامًا من قبل القوة الصهيونية المدعومة من الدول الإمبريالية (سايكس بيكو 1916 و دعمت الولايات المتحدة إعلاني كامبون وبلفور في عام 1917 وما إلى ذلك) وخانهما الزعماء العرب الفاسدون لأكثر من 100 عام (بما في ذلك زعماءنا). لقد حُرمنا حتى من حقنا في رواية قصتنا أو الحداد على موتانا. وقد قاوم بعض الفلسطينيين بأعمال بطولية مما أدى إلى تأخير تقدم هذا الكيان المهيمن لعقود من الزمن. الآلاف يقبعون في ظروف مزرية في الزنزانات الإسرائيلية. وتعلمون أيضاً أن اللوبي الصهيوني نجح في استعمار العديد من العواصم ووسائل الإعلام الغربية، وحتى المجمع الصناعي العسكري الذي حذرنا منه الرئيس الأمريكي روزفلت.

لقد أظهر لك السياسيون الإسرائيليون المنتخبون (بموجب قوانين الفصل العنصري، يجب أن يكونوا صهاينة) مرارًا وتكرارًا أنهم يريدون تصفية القضية الفلسطينية. تحدد خطة ألون لعام 1968 (التي انعكست في اتفاق كامب ديفيد عام 1979 واتفاق أوسلو عام 1993) الحد الأقصى الذي يمكن أن تطمح إليه للحصول على "حكم شبه ذاتي" تحت السيادة الإسرائيلية وأنت تعلم ذلك. في كتابي "مشركة أرض كنعان" شرحت السبب لماذا لم ولن يكن هناك  صراع ضد الاستعمار انتهى/ينتهي إلى حل الدولتين. كفا أوهام أو مهاترات بمصير 15 مليون فلسطيني لمنفعة شخصية.

بعد هذه الأحداث في غزة، أصبح الحفاظ على وهم الدولتين أكثر صعوبة. مع تمكين وتسارع الاستعمار الإسرائيلي في الضفة الغربية سوف تصبح الكانتونات  دائمة وأكثر عزلة ما لم نتجاوز المحاولة البائسة والخادعة لمناشدة الحكومات الغربية والحكومات العربية المتواطئة من أجل اعطائنا الفتات. ماذا يمكن ان نفعل للارتقاء إلى مستوى التحدي الوجودي؟

1) تغيير منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية باتجاه الديمقراطية وإذا لم يكن ذلك ممكناً، فيجب إنشاء مظلة جديدة للشعب الفلسطيني. وهذه طريقة لضمان تعزيز مشاركة 15 مليون فلسطيني وحملهم على التبرع والعمل والضغط على الحكومات أينما كانوا.

2) يجب علينا أولاً وقبل كل شيء أن نعتمد على أنفسنا في تشكيل مستقبلنا بتواضع وحزم. نرحب بكل الحركات التضامنية والنضالية المشتركة (وهي في تزايد) إلا أن تحديد التوجهات وخطط العمل يجب أن يتم بناء على دراسات وتحليلات داخلية متأنية ومدروسة. يجب على المثقفين الفلسطينيين أن يلعبوا دورا هاما هنا. يجب أن تحتوي خطة العمل المحددة على معايير ذكية (محددة وقابلة للقياس وقابلة للتحقيق وواقعية ومحددة زمنياً)

3) نحن بحاجة إلى إحداث ثورة في الدبلوماسية العامة والقوية. تحتاج وزارة الخارجية التابعة لحركة فتح إلى تغيير جذري. فمع استثناءات قليلة (مثل السفير حسام زملط)، لدينا أغلبية من "السفراء" الذين يجلسون على مكاتبهم ولا يقومون إلا بالقليل وبعضه مضر. الدبلوماسية العامة لا ينبغي أن تعطي الشرعية للفصل العنصري وتسمح بالتطبيع مع نظام الأبارتهايد. بل نصر على إزالة الفصل العنصري.

4) محاربة الفساد على كافة المستويات. قضية نبيلة مثل فلسطين لا يمكنها تحمل الأنظمة الفاسدة. يشمل هذا قضاء مستقل وقوانين لا تحمي الفساد

5) (إعادة) التعليم هو عنصر أساسي في أي حركة حرية. أطفالنا هم مستقبلنا ويجب علينا التركيز على خلق أفضل بيئة للتعلم الذي يقوي الشعب ويصنع مستقبل أفضل

بالتغيير نكون وفيين للتضحيات: لدم الشهداء والمصابين ولمعانات المشردين

يجب على الجميع تحمل المسؤولية  

In Bethlehem

 In all the focus on Gaza we did not want to bother telling readers what is going on in West Bank nor at our museum of natural history. To rectify this, below are some thoughts from me, some photos of our vigil in front of the Church of Nativity and then reflections from Johnnie, one of our museum/garden volunteers which give you a good overview of what is happening here. 

Israel was given US greenlight to not only to assault and massacre Gaza's 2.3 million civilian population but also imprison and torture nearly 3 million Palestinians in some 10 concentration camps in the West Bank (where I am in Bethlehem is one of them). Here is just two examples: https://twitter.com/Issaamro/status/1719332892608753828 

https://forward.com/opinion/567856/bilal-muhammad-saleh-palestinian-farmer-murder-israeli-settler-donkey/

Israeli incursions into Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus are happening daily. Bethlehem concentration camp/ghetto, like other ghettos in the West Bank was sealed so we cannot travel freely. When we are out we meet marauding armed Jewish settlers who are trigger happy. Many of our university students can't get to the University so classes are held online (at least we still have electricity and internet). One of our staff members took the week off to help his family pick olives in a nearby village. Settlers and soldiers harass farmers. Israel had rounded up thousand of Gaza workers which they dumped in the West Bank for a while and then kept them in horrific conditions for three weeks, torturing them, trying to make them informers, stripping them of their phones, stealing their money. Israeli occupation forces then dumped them at Keren Salem crossing in Gaza and they had to walk 5 km to Rafah. All of them are from North Gaza which is now blocked and so they cannot get to their homes (which are being bombed anyway). One worker died from his beatings. 

We had a vigil on Thursday 2 November about Gaza in front of the Church of Nativity. Somber and sad people who like 7 billion other people on this planet wonder why humanity is silent or content with such small shows of concern! When I was asked I said if each person merely writes a few letters every day. Our message was simple, stop the genocide, ceasefire now, peace to all people in this troubled Holy Land. It is a poignant message from the city of the birthplace of the Prince of Peace.

Jesus was born here. What would he do?

A multireligious gatherig

Me with sign never again to anyone

Little Media coverage

From the journal of our volunteer Johnnie

There’s a saying in French : “Qui n’a pas une bonne tete a besoin de bonnes jambes”, meaning “If you haven’t got a good head, you need good legs”. I’m reminded of it every day here in Bethlehem.  How could I forget how hilly this city is!  It is, after all, located in the Judean Mountains. The Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH), three stories above and a basement, and the volunteer accommodation is on the top floor. The gardens are built on a series of terraces, overlooking what’s left of the Judean Desert.  Stairs and steps everywhere.  Steps of all kinds:  some concrete, some stone, some brick, and even one, rather too steep for me, made of old tyres, filled with concrete. And every time my no-good head forgets to bring something down to where I’m working, I am thankful for my still reasonably good legs. Several flights of steps and stairs every day should be doing wonders for my fitness levels and balance!

An abundance of fresh fruit, grown in the gardens here, contribute to a healthy diet.  Figs to pick from the trees at will, sweet little green oranges, pomegranates, pecans, and the other day, I tasted a cactus fruit, also very sweet, for the first time ever.  One local volunteer brought carob pods from his own garden and showed us how to soak and press them to extract the juice, for a delicious drink.

The PMNH brochures describe it as “an oasis of peace and tranquility”. Not an idle boast. When I first visited this time last year, just for a day, on a break between two of Martin Linton’s excellent Travel2Palestine political tours, it provided exactly that. A much-needed tonic after the trauma of seeing what’s happened in the West Bank in just three years since my previous visit. I noted then the concrete jungle that Palestine was becoming.

Now, on an extended personal trip for the first time, I have direct experience of the impact of building works. We’re surrounded by them.  Everywhere you look, new blocks of flats are being thrown up, smothering the Hills. Even here, in a supposedly Palestinian neighbourhood, Israel multiplies the settlements to accommodate the numbers of immigrants it encourages. Meanwhile, Palestinians are very restricted as to where they can build so, to accommodate their population needs, the houses seem to be all on top of each other. The noise of bulldozers, excavators and other heavy machinery is all around, not to mention the shouted conversations of construction workers which, from my first night at PMNH, woke me at 07.00. The PMNH building is on an East-West axis. Dominating the Eastern skyline, the pristine settlement of Abu Ghniem, identifiable as Israeli by the absence of the black water tanks on its roofs which generally identify Palestinian dwellings. The settlement has no need of them. Their water flows as required through their taps, direct from the Israeli Water Company, Mekorot.  Palestinians on the other hand, have to buy back the water which flows under their land, at an inflated price, from Mekorot, through the Palestinian Authority, and their supply is not constant.  Mekorot cuts it off frequently and fairly arbitrarily, hence the need to store water for such periods.

During the day, the street cries of rag and bone men, scrap merchants and other hawkers calling their wares are mingled with the four notes of the school bell, reminiscent of the prelude to a British train station announcement.

A dog barks. All the dogs in the neighbourhood take up his bark and they can howl for what seems like hours; sometimes during the day, often at night. I worry that they may belong to one of the camps and may be reacting to yet another Israeli incursion. Cockerels crow seemingly randomly, at all hours of day and night. Only the small geckos make no noise as they roam the building.

Other creatures keep me awake at night:  a fearsome breed of ‘Mosquito palaestina’, tiny, but with a more vicious and lasting bite than any I’ve experienced at home. The small tube of antihistamine cream I brought with me is almost finished but far more effective is Germoline, whose anaesthetic properties give some respite.

The Muezzin, who enraged me at first by waking me at 5 o’clock in the morning, apparently to tell me that I’d be much better off praying than sleeping, no longer disturbs me.  It’s cool enough now at night to close the windows and block him out, though the days are still hot and sunny - sorry for those of you who are suffering the effects of Babet and other storms! The other evening, a cool, refreshing wind was blowing and I actually put on a long-sleeved shirt for the first time in a month.

At first, there was little air traffic. In the last ten days or so, it’s been almost constant. It’s highly unlikely that commercial flights are operating over Palestinian airspace now and anyway, the menacing hum indicates heavier craft. Since Palestine has no Air Force, I guess it’s the Israeli Air Force flying out to bomb Gaza to dust or flying troops in for their ground invasion.  This morning, I was woken again at 3 a.m. by military aircraft flying over. How much more destruction and carnage can these wicked cowards wreak on their neighbours? How many more Palestinians need to die in defense of Israel? How can any thinking person reckon slaughter on this scale “defensive”? 

One day, I saw the Iron Dome in operation.  A siren sounded an alarm, for the settlement. Then, a deafening explosion, seemingly just overhead. Looking up, I saw two little white puffs of cloud or smoke. I was told that these were the remains of Hamas rockets, fired towards Jerusalem to send a message to Netanyahu, who was due to speak in the Knesset. The Iron Dome senses the rockets, and drones home in to destroy them. The whole incident lasted a matter of minutes.  No damage to any Israeli but, ironically, some debris fell on Aida Refugee Camp, injuring a young child.

It is now exactly four weeks since I arrived at PMNH, and almost the mid-point of my visit.  Things couldn’t have gone more differently than planned! I never expected to find myself in the middle of a hot war.  Violent occupation, I already knew about and expected. And of course, constant Israeli provocation and unremitting humiliation, the “kettling” of Palestinians, was bound, at some point, to produce this result. But no one could predict when the kettle would boil over.  Even after it did, I expected life to get back to ‘normal’ fairly quickly. Could any normal person have predicted the brutal savagery of the Israeli Government and its occupying forces (who like to be known as IDF – Israeli Defence Force - but are now more appropriately called IOF here); or the sycophancy and horrific complicity of Western Governments which condone and abet the slaughter?

This has made it much more difficult to write up this second installment of my journal. Optimism replaced by despondency, disbelief, despair. No, not quite despair. The resilience of the Palestinian people, their fortitude in the face of unremitting hostility, the resigned humour, the kindness and generosity, not to mention the ingenuity and inventiveness which allows them to get round the hurdles Israel puts in their way, to make the very best of what they’re left with, forbid despair.  Israel will not defeat them with its terror against Gaza, it is merely training a new generation of activists.

Recently, I heard a senior Israeli politician calling Hamas “Nazi”.  The French Resistance in the face of German Occupation in WW2 was never called that, nor, I think, the Irish resistance mentioned previously.  I have no time for religious zealots of any hue, be they Muslim, Jewish or, for that matter, Christian, Hindi or whatever else.  But if Hamas can be described as “Nazi”, what of the Zionists, whose creed allows them, in the name of religion, to exterminate the native inhabitants of the country they have decided belongs to them?  Of course, Israel has prepared the ground expertly.  Naftali Bennett has no fear of the epithet being applied to his ‘side’, for that would be deemed antisemitic and no one wants to be antisemitic.  But Zionists should beware of overplaying that card. In current circumstances, it could just finally backfire.

When I came here a month ago, although I know the Region has been unstable since Britain and the League of Nations decided to allow the creation of the State of Israel and deny a state to the indigenous people of Palestine, and although I know that the Occupation has been a constant war of attrition, the last thing I expected was open war.

I don’t sing anymore. I haven’t the heart. I am saddened by the wanton destruction in the Gaza Strip. I grieve for the more than 8,000 Palestinians (and counting) who have been killed in the last two weeks, the hundreds more buried under the rubble of their homes and hospitals, the thousands made homeless; for the 1,400 Israeli dead; for the 220 or so Palestinians already killed in the West Bank by the IOF, or by settlers intent on displacing them, from the beginning of 2023 up to 7th October.  I fear, not just for the hostages held by Hamas, but for the thousands of Palestinian hostages, held for years without charge or trial in Israeli prisons, in “administrative detention”. I am sorry for our newly-wed gardener, separated from his wife who went to visit her parents in Hebron and can’t return because Israel has sealed the area off. I am saddened by the good people at home who really think they’re doing the right thing by burying themselves in talk of “balance” but who, in effect, are just as complicit, by turning a blind eye to genocide happening in front of them, as those who shoot and bomb. I grieve for the State of Israel, conceived in blood and likely to continue so because its people continue to elect governments which want land, not peace. “Maximum geography, minimum demography”, they say.

I was talking to an old man a few days ago who told me that, when Muslims were the dominant population, people of all religions lived together, as neighbours. A census undertaken by the previous Ottoman rulers in the latter part of the 19th Century puts the Jewish population in the area at around 3%, with Christians at about 9% and Muslims an overwhelming 85%. As Jewish settlers, notably Zionists, began to arrive, tensions arose between them and the majority population. In the year I was born, 1946, according to a survey by the British Mandatory Power, Muslims still outnumbered people of any other faith by about two to one.  In the first half of the 20th Century, immigration of Zionists was causing increasing problems, and the British limited it. Then, in 1948, they abandoned Palestine to its fate and the Zionists overwhelmed the country.  So now, with the Zionists hotly pursuing their objective of making Palestine theirs, from the River to the Sea, we have mayhem.

Now, we have lots of “strike” days, mandated by the Palestinian Authority, when everything is closed, so workers can go to demonstrations called in protest against the death and destruction. The first of these, initiating three days of national mourning, was called after the dastardly attack on the Baptist Hospital. The Israeli Government, true to form, and despite having announced its intention to carry it out, tried to shift the blame for its crime onto the victims. Unlikely! What Palestinian has the power of such a devastating explosion?

The original purpose of this journal was to let friends and family at home know what I was doing, to tell them about the work of PMNH, and about the life of ordinary people going about their ordinary jobs in the extraordinary context of artificial shortages produced by occupation. During my visit, I had hoped to visit people in the Aida Camp, where I stayed last year. Now, I’m told that would be dangerous. Not because of the same people who still live there but because of frequent Israeli incursions. I had hoped to visit Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron…; now, that will be difficult, if not impossible. Previously, I’ve come to Palestine as a bystander. Now, I wanted to see a little more from the inside. I wanted to talk about the far-seeing project of a Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, set up in an area struggling for day-to-day survival, to document and conserve the disappearing fauna and flora of Palestine and save it from the depredations of overdevelopment, about the research projects into plant and animal taxonomy and the education outreach. Instead, I talk about war. Details of the Museum and Institute will have to wait, perhaps for a further episode.

Just a few words about the Olive Harvest:  knowing that I would be here at Olive Harvest time, and knowing little of olive picking, I had expected a fair proportion of my time to be spent on that. In the event, it was a bit of a let-down. I’d somehow expected the camaraderie of grape-picking or of an archaeological dig. But this was a very male affair, all done in the space of four days. The Museum has some 90 olive trees; two or three members of staff, assisted by two professionals, did most of the picking.  Speed seemed to be the main principle and branches full of olives were stripped from the trees. A handful of local volunteers, mainly women and children, were relegated to the repetitive task of picking over the pile of branches, twigs and leaves to retrieve the olives, while the pickers continually threw down more, on top of branches already “cleaned”.

As soon as the olives had been bagged up in old sacks, we took them to the Community Cooperative Press: chaotic, noisy and impressive, full of machinery and people.  As a curious visitor, probably the only westerner in the place, I was allowed to wander freely among the machines to observe the process. A kindly participant, seeing my interest and wanting to make sure I understood, beckoned me over to where he was watching his olives being processed and, without English, took me from machine to machine to show each stage. Of course, everyone is harvesting now and everyone wants to get their oil as quickly as possible.  Sacks of olives are off-loaded from an impatient stream of cars, weighed and marked for each proprietor, then stacked up in whatever free space said proprietor can find, before taking their turn to be pressed. It’s a wonder how anyone keeps track but they must, for this is said to be the best press in town.  It works well into the night. One member of PMNH staff stayed to collect our pressed oil. He was there till 2 o’clock in the morning.

Spare a thought for those who won’t be picking their olives this year. A fellow-customer in a grocery store told me that Israeli blockades, erected to contain the West Bank because of “the situation”, make it even more difficult than usual to circulate between towns and villages here in the West Bank. Jerusalem has been cut off from Bethlehem for the past three weeks – you can come to Bethlehem from Jerusalem but you can’t go back – and, since this man’s olive grove is on the wrong side, he won’t be able to go to it.  He told me, with a resigned smile, that his olives would undoubtedly be stolen.

In the absence of any sign of sanity, any sense of responsibility, from our supposed leaders, I am grateful for the thousands of people around the World who are joining protests against the obscene policies of their governments. May their numbers grow.  It must be time for an alternative to these failed parliamentary so-called democracies.

To end on a lighter note:  the brightest spot on my present horizon is provided by the antics of our endearing Hyena cubs.  They keep me sane.  The only fighting they know is play-fighting. Initially, they were provided with a bowl for water, and a large bucket from which it could be topped up.  A few days ago, they decided the drinking bowl was a toy.  They emptied it, taking turns to pull it around their enclosure.  Patiently, I retrieved it, put a large stone in it to prevent it being moved again and topped it up with water.  The next day, it had disappeared.  After some searching, I found the cubs had taken it inside the shelter placed within their enclosure, to protect them from the elements as winter approaches.  I respected their arrangement for a few days, then, worried that they might have difficulty getting enough water from the tall bucket, I decided to make another attempt to restore the bowl to its original purpose.  The cubs watched with interest as I again filled it with water and put another anchoring stone in it.  No more than an hour later, the bowl was back in its rightful place, upside down inside the shelter. The cubs have obviously decided they need furniture.  Who am I to contradict them? Live and let live! 

Open letter to US Citizens

My first open letter was addressed to the people of Gaza  

My second open letter was addressed to Jews and Israelis who support the Israeli government

My third public letter was addressed to global activists

My fourth public letter herein is addressed to US citizens

Netanyahu once was caught on video saying the US is easily manipulated. Thus 121 countries voted for a ceasefire at the UN General assembly. The US, Israel and 12 other countries (most tiny ones dependent on US largess like Micronesia, Tonga, and Marshal Islands but also Paraguay and Austria) voted no to cease fire.  These minority (14 to 121) countries voted for continuing genocide and potentially voted for start of a regional and perhaps a global war. But they also are now partner in the crime of genocide (see ongaza.org for links). The US is the biggest because it arms Israel and funnels more federal money to Israel on a per capita basis than to US citizens! Congress is now to act on President Biden’s request to give Israel $14.8 billion more of US taxpayer money in weapons (he also sent weapons, US ships to start more wars, and US Delta forces to help Israel without public approval).

Netanyahu once was caught on video saying the US is easily manipulated.121 countries voted for a ceasefire at the UN General assembly. The US, Israel and 12 other countries (most tiny ones dependent on US largess like Micronesia, Tonga, and Marshal Islands) voted no to cease fire. These minority countries (14 to 121) voted for continuing genocide and potentially voted for start of a regional and perhaps a global war. But they also are now partner in the crime of genocide (see http://ongaza.org for links). The US is the biggest because it arms Israel and funnels more federal money to Israel on a per capita basis than to US citizens! 

As a US citizen myself (lived in the US for over 25 years before returning to my country of birth in 2008), I am ashamed of the genocidal executive and legislative branches of the US government. 70,000 daycare facilities go without funding. The US healthcare system is bloated and dysfunctional. US infrastructure is falling apart. Hardly any decent public transport systems. So many homeless in the streets of all major US cities. Drug addictions and political corruption. The list goes on. All of these could have been fixed with the cost of even 1/10th of one US led wars.  The Israel-pushed Iraq war (also based on government lies like this war) cost us taxpayers $3 trillion. The Israel lobby including its agents within the US administration like Secretary Blinken (who emphasized his “Jewishness” as cause of his support to apartheid Israel) drive many of these wars. So do interests of companies like Raytheon and General Dynamics whose stock prices went up 15-20% since 7 October! 

According to surveys, most US Voters have a different opinion than their government which is blindly supporting the rogue apartheid racist state of Israel and endless wars

US Delta force members are participating actively with Israelis in Gaza (there are even unconfirmed reports of casualties among them). The US is expanding its “secret” military facility in the Negev . And the US administration had the temerity to call Qatar to tell them that AlJazeera coverage (https://www.aljazeera.com/live) should be dialed down!

But US citizens of all backgrounds will be marching in Washington DC Nov. 4th to challenge the dictatorship of the minority that forces the US to be a partner in genocide and you can join them https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/we-are-millions-we-are-billions-we-are-all-palestinians-stand-with-palestine-in-dc-on-november-4th/

They have already engaged in civil disobedience actions. Here are just three important ones

Directly Confronting Blinken & Austin over Gaza Genocide

https://youtu.be/m2vvY7WfUXI?si=CAQ0LB-LhP71FF77

Closing Grand Central Station https://www.alquds.com/en/posts/98312 https://youtu.be/NWo5t6KQCjc 

Hundreds arrested at US Capitol protest https://www.commondreams.org/news/jewish-capitol-protest

Note that young US Jews are more likely to stand up for human rights than their parents. Jewish Voice for Peace that led many of the demonstrations is the largest growing US Jewish organization. Being anti-Zionist is not being anti-Jewish. This truism is becoming clearer thanks to the massacres being committed daily by the apartheid state of Israel. Under this public pressure the US claims to  be “working to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza”,  but the UN and human rights organizations say aid that was allowed in is symbolic (mostly for public relations) and is a drop in the ocean of what is needed: immediate halt to bombing and a minimum of 100-200 trucks per day including the fuel needed to operate the emergency generators at the hospitals. Thus Israel was given the green light by the US to continue bombing civilians in Gaza using American weapons including white phosphorous. Two massacres of whole families in the past 24 hours killed hundreds using these weapons (see one here https://www.juancole.com/2023/11/hiroshima-buildings-civilians.html ). Nearly 2000 civilians (mostly dead, some living) under the rubble that cannot be removed due to lack of equipment and fuels. Thousands of cancer patients will die for lack of electricity and medicines. Hundreds of newborns in incubators and hundreds of dialysis patients will soon die due to lack of fuel to operate hospital electric generators. The health care system is totally collapsed in Gaza. Several countries (Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Jordan) suspended diplomatic ties with Israel (recalling ambassadors).  Militarily it is amazing that the fifth strongest army in the world supported directly by the first military power in the world can’t handle a ramshackle resistance movement in Gaza and can only resort to large scale carpet bombing destroying whole neighborhoods and killing now over 10,000 civilians (42% of them children) [also incidentally killing some of their own captives]. Maybe they don’t care about the captives. Israel was a;lso given US Greenlight to imprison nearly 3 million Palestinians in some 10 concentration camps in the West Bank (where I am in Bethlehem is one of them) and to torture us as it pleases while the media is focused on Gaza. Here is just one example: https://twitter.com/Issaamro/status/1719332892608753828

US citizens need to wake up to understand how this government ignored the Israeli killing of US citizens (Crew of the USS Liberty; Shireen Aby Aqleh, Rahel Corrie, 78 year old Oman Assad and countless others). But more urgently that your tax money is being used to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity and sink us into endless wars. Our government needs to be challenged for representing special interests and listening to lunatic fascist right wing apartheid governments like Israel and start listening to logic and to taxpayers. We ALL must demand it. You can make a difference  Putting US public interests first would start by removing the military aid (now 3.8 billion/year and additional supplemental this month of 14.8 billion which is more than what we give latin America and Africa combined. Note that this aid actually violates its own law which prohibits aid to foreign countries that persistently violate human rights (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leahy_Law ). I urge you as fellow US citizens to get involved and act on knowledge (see ongaza.org and http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/ )

Letter to the world

My first open letter was addressed to the people of Gaza https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2023/10/letter-to-gaza.html . It had hundreds of responses mostly asking us not to give up and asking for list of actions to do (these are available at ongaza.org and http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/ )

My second open letter was addressed to Jews and Israelis who support the Israeli government (https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2023/10/questions-to-israelis-and-jews.html). It had 13 sets of questions. Only two real committed Zionists had the courage to answer. A third person told me after answering that he is now abandoning Zionism and wishes to join the ranks of post-Zionist (though not anti-Zionist) Jews. Other reactions were from honest Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists etc, around the world were predictable and supportive. 

As promised this third open letter is addressed to other fellow human beings.:

I will start by saying THANK YOU on behalf of all Palestinians. Thank you for keeping your humanity. Thank you for not succumbing to the lies and distortions you heard from corrupt politicians and from corrupt media (yes corrupt is anyone who supports a 75 year apartheid and racist regime - see ongaza.org Q#6 to 9).  Do not underestimate your individual power to act. Millions went to the streets in the last few days in this global uprising(see examples at ongaza.org Question #21 ) . If each of them took time to write to a few others (family, friends, politicians, media), we can stop this genocide. Israel cannot be above the law and cannot get away with state terrorism and with committing a holocaust (yes it is, again see ongaza.org).  We in Palestine are really afraid and not merely for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza being eliminated but for ourselves in the West Bank and 1948 Palestine ignored for decades by the world and with increasing apartheid laws and settler rampage. We are also afraid for the potential lives to be lost by Israelis and Americans in the rage/calls for vengeance growing from the holocaust of Gaza. It is not a coincidence that the young Palestinian men who attacked areas near Gaza had relatives and friends killed earlier or had been themselves targeted in indiscriminate attacks in 2014. Further their families were expelled from those same areas now dubbed "south Israel".  So the spiral of violence escalates, We are afraid of eroding humanity. 

Today the situation in Gaza is catastrophic as it shifts to a higher stage of carnage: from sudden death and injury of civilians by bombing them without warning to ADD death by thirst, starvation, lack of hygiene, and collapse of health care services (Israeli policies of mass murder by denial of basics of life). This is not incidental death during war: this is genocide of a captive population.  Relentless bombing of residential buildings and of even people on the streets meant hundreds of civilians die daily. Now the official number is 8010 civilians murdered and over 21,000 injured (75% women and children) and if we add those reported missing and are buried under the rubble would make this over 10,000 murdered civilians in three weeks. Compared to populations, that would be equivalent to over one million US citizens killed.  These are not numbers, as noted, the list of names and ages are available and are being translated to English now. Half the population in Gaza are Children and 42% of those killed are children.. But this pales compared to denial of even medicines and fuel (babies and patients on dialysis die with lack of fuel for generators for the remaining devastated hospitals). Health care system completely collapsed and Israel refuses even to pause or to allow humanitarian aid. 

Two days ago we commemorated the anniversary of the 1956 Kufr Kasem Massacre ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafr_Qasim_massacre ) but the intentional massacres in Palestine have a 75 year history. Here are some examples:

https://thepalestineproject.medium.com/notorious-massacres-of-palestinians-between-1937-1948-ae4f4d1f61d0

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/510520.aspx

and of course all of that is now eclipsed by the hundreds of massacres committed in the last three weeks in Gaza .Einstein and others were prophetic about the early rise of fascism when they condemned the party that committed the Deir Yassin Massacre of 1948 (my late mother's best friend was killed with her students in Deir Yassin). Their letter is a must read: http://qumsiyeh.org/einsteinetalonbegin/ . Note that the perpetrators of this and many other massacres in 1948 became the Likud that now runs Israel. The language used by Netanyahu like Begin before him is genocidal. See

https://www.juancole.com/2023/10/netanyahu-annihilation-civilians.html

https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/weekly-briefing-israels-vengeance-spreads-fear-in-washington/

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/exterminate-all-the-brutes

I urge you to disseminate information like those now available on ongaza.org and hundreds of other website. Our messaging should be clear and our actions should be BOLD:

-There is an ongoing genocide/holocaust in Gaza and it is part of a 75 year program to eliminate Palestinians and transform Palestine to become Israel (an ethnocentric chauvinistic fascist and apartheid state). Like all colonizers, they never accepted the rights of the indigenous people.

-This is not about the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas (founded in 1988) or the dozen other resistance movements, secular or religious. This is about Palestine and Palestinians denied their rights for decades by a western supported regime. Their rights include the rights of refugees to return to their homes and lands and to be treated equally (no more and no less)

-We are not fooled by the endless talk about "two state solution" (Ben Gurion said this was merely a Public Relations Campaign intended to give more time to strengthen colonization). It is intended to distract us from seeking basic human rights so please insist on recognizing Palestinian rights to their lands and to be treated equally "from the river to the sea"  (see my book that centralizes these basic human rights http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/ ).

-We always need to put things in historical context but we also need to demand accountability of Israeli and western leaders that support this current unprecedented ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing (war crimes and crimes against humanity). Those leaders have blood on their hands.

-We must insist on expelling apartheid "diplomats" and businesses from all countries (remember all Israelis serve in the army and Israel is not a normal country, it is a terrorist army with fig-leaf of statehood).

-We must accelerate the boycott, divestments, and sanctions campaign (see bdsmovement.net) which helps; just like in South Africa under apartheid. 

-Arab governments like Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and Saudi Arabia should be shamed for ignoring the will of their own people. Same for subservient Western Countries

-We MUST highlight who profits from wars and from attempts at shaping the Middle East to be suppressed and subjugated people (see ongaza.org Q # 14)

-We need to liberate not just Gaza and Palestine from the Zionist occupation but also their occupation of Washington DC and other Western Capitals and their attempt through the media to colonize western minds

There are 15 million Palestinians in the world. 7.3 million are under the direct boots of Israeli occupation and apartheid. The rest are in forced exile. Palestinians have paid heavily with their blood for the imperial interests of Israeli colonialism (see Nur Masalha's book "Imperial Israel and the Palestinians"). Our resistance and resilience (even during this holocaust in Gaza) is now what keeps Israel from expanding its empire as originally planned. PLEASE we implore you to educate yourself on reality, expose the lies, push to defend human rights, fight oppression and injustice with everything you have. For ideas of specific actions, please see http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/ and http://ongaza.org Question #19. Action is the best antidote to despair.

Stay human and ACT more