Students for Justice in Palestine-Penn State

PALESTINE : HUMAN RIGHTS:

ISRAEL BOMBS UN AGENCY HEADQUARTERS IN GAZA CITY
Interview, The Electronic Intifada, 15 January 2009

"The UNRWA headquarters are in the al-Rimal district in
the center of Gaza City. The location is well known to the
Israeli authorities as is the fact that they enjoy UN
immunity. The damage is great. Although we do not know the
exact extent yet, we have lost many trucks, cars and food
aid supplies." UNRWA spokesman Sami Mushasha explains the
damage to the UN headquarters in Gaza City following an
Israeli strike there.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10192.shtml

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PALESTINE : HUMAN RIGHTS:

ISRAEL FIRES ON UN AGENCY HEADQUARTERS, CIVILIANS FLEEING VIOLENCE
Press release, Al Mezan, 15 January 2009

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has seriously
escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip since midnight
yesterday, as it advanced into Tel al-Hawa neighborhood
southern Gaza City, and heavily bombarded the
neighborhoods of al-Shejaiya and al-Tuffah in the east of
the City. Al Mezan Center's monitoring indicates that
about 70 percent of IOF's attacks casualties of these
attacks are from families who were hit inside their homes
or as they left their homes to flee these areas.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10191.shtml

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PALESTINE : DEVELOPMENT:

THOUSAND DEATHS DO NOT PUT OFF EU
By David Cronin, The Electronic Intifada, 15 January 2009

BRUSSELS (IPS) - Senior European Union figures have
signaled that they could push ahead with plans to
strengthen formal ties with Israel, even though more than
1,000 have now been killed by the bombardment of Gaza. Two
conflicting statements about EU-Israeli relations were
delivered 14 January, as the number of Palestinians, about
one-third of them children, killed in Gaza continued to
climb.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10190.shtml

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PALESTINE : DIARIES: LIVE FROM PALESTINE:

IT WAS LIKE "THE DAY AFTER"
By Dr. Asad Abu Sharekh, Live from Palestine, 15 January 2009

Since last night from about 8pm until a little while ago,
there have been heavy battles in Tel al-Hawa. They were
hitting from the sea, from the air. Tanks were shooting.
There were thick clouds of white phosphorus filling the
area and filling up houses. They bombed the Red Crescent
building and many cars in the street were destroyed. An
apartment near me was hit and burned and one on the other
side. A number of tall buildings were hit. All the windows
and doors are broken and shattered. There were maybe 10
bombs falling every minute.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10193.shtml

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PALESTINE : ISRAEL LOBBY WATCH:

OLMERT'S CLAIMS REVIVE SPECTER OF "ISRAEL LOBBY"
By Daniel Luban, The Electronic Intifada, 14 January 2009

WASHINGTON (IPS) - The US State Department fiercely denied
claims made by Ehud Olmert about his influence over
President Bush, in an incident that has stirred up old
debates about the role of the Israeli government and the
so-called "Israel lobby" in formulating Middle East policy
in Washington. On Monday, Olmert claimed that he demanded
and received an immediate conversation with President
Bush, during which he convinced the president to overrule
the wishes of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
abstain from a United Nations resolution calling for an
immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10189.shtml

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PALESTINE : DEVELOPMENT:

ANGER BEGINS TO KNOCK AT ISRAEL'S BORDERS
By Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 14 January 2009

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - A number of armed
attacks have taken place on Israel's borders with
Palestinian territories in the last six days as Arab
public anger over the death and destruction wrought on
Gaza spills over from massive street demonstrations.
Israeli security officials have voiced concern that the
Gaza violence could affect Israel's borders and that
Israeli settlers and soldiers in the Palestinian West Bank
could be targeted by armed Palestinians.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10188.shtml

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Egypt's Gaza truce plan is mostly bad for Hamas
Daily News Article by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff
Haaretz (Analysis) - January 15, 2009 - 12:00am

After 19 days of fighting and more than 1,000 Palestinian fatalities, the first significant signs that Hamas is breaking could be seen Wednesday night. Hamas representatives to talks with Egypt announced an agreement in principle on Wednesday to the Egyptian cease-fire proposal. They also demanded several clarifications, primarily from Israel.

The IDF has no mercy for the children in Gaza nursery schools
Daily News Article by Gideon Levy
Haaretz (Opinion) - January 15, 2009 - 12:00am

The fighting in Gaza is "war deluxe." Compared with previous wars, it is child's play - pilots bombing unimpeded as if on practice runs, tank and artillery soldiers shelling houses and civilians from their armored vehicles, combat engineering troops destroying entire streets in their ominous protected vehicles without facing serious opposition. A large, broad army is fighting against a helpless population and a weak, ragged organization that has fled the conflict zones and is barely putting up a fight. All this must be said openly, before we begin exulting in our heroism and victory.

Gaza Cries For Arab Attention
Daily News Article by
Khaleej Times (Editorial) - January 15, 2009 - 12:00am

This is the third consecutive week of Israel’s relentless offensive on Gaza. More than a thousand people have been killed, over 400 of them women and children. All efforts by the international community, including the United Nations, Europeans and others, have failed to break Israel’s resolve to destroy what remains of Gaza Strip. Individual efforts by Arab and Muslim countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have failed to bear fruit as well.

U.S. may cut $1b in loan guarantees to Israel over West Bank settlements
Daily News Article by Aluf Benn
Haaretz - January 15, 2009 - 12:00am

The United States administration plans to cut about $1 billion from the balance of its loan guarantees to Israel because of its investments in the settlements. The balance currently stands at $4.6 billion. Washington has not officially informed Jerusalem of the cut. The assumption is that the announcement, and the decision over the exact extent of the cut, will come only after Barack Obama is sworn in as president next Tuesday.

What will you do if you were born a Palestinian?

النسخة العربية تلي الإنجليزية

By Abu al-Sous (Salah Mansour)*

A view of al-Faluja (Gaza) soon after its occupation in March 1949, and in the background its school clearly can be seen. Currently, Palestinian refugees in Gaza are the ones who often rocket their usurped homes in southern Israel.

After doing lots of research on the internet, I was shocked to find that the most candid answer to this question comes from Israelis; most importantly from Israeli leaders who gained political notoriety as a result of crushing Palestinians. This question started to interest me several years ago when I read a eulogy written by Moshe Dayan (a former Israeli Defense Minister) to his Israeli friend who was killed by a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip in 1955:

". . . Let us not today fling accusation at the murderers. What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived.

We should demand his blood not from the [Palestinian] Arabs of Gaza but from ourselves. . . . Let us make our reckoning today. We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house. . . . Let us not be afraid to see the hatred that accompanies and consumes the lives of hundreds of thousands of [Palestinian] Arabs who sit all around us and wait for the moment when their hands will be able to reach our blood." (Iron Wall, p. 101)

Similarly, Ehud Barak (the current Israeli Defense Minister) was asked this question, and his reply was:

"If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I'd eventually join one of the terrorist organizations." (interviewed by Ha'aretz's Gideon Levy in March 1998)

Here in America, we're a brought up to believe in our sacred right to bare arms because the right of self-defense is enshrined in our American constitution. As an American, I have the right to defend my home and family here in Chicago by all possible means, even if my defense results in the death or injury of the assailant. However, as a Palestinian defending my home and family in Palestine, that makes me automatically the "terrorist" in the eyes of many in the Western world. It should be noted that when Palestinians rocket Israeli towns, they are rocketing their own homes and farms which have been usurped by Jews who recently escaped European anti-Semitism and pogroms, here are the names of a few of the usurped Palestinian towns which are located in what is now southern Israel: al-Majdal Asqalan, Faluja, Yibna, Huj & Najd.

The more I research Israeli history, the more I discover that Israelis have a hidden empathy to what Palestinians have experienced for the past 60 years. In my opinion, this is a proof that this conflict isn't only a colonial conflict over lands, but most importantly it's a conflict about the national identity which is connected to the land. Deep at heart, every Israeli Jew suspects that the Zionist narrative to be farce. However, because Israel was created by usurping Palestinian rights, Israelis and most Jews find it necessary to deny Palestinians of their national rights and identity. This Israeli insecurity (or paranoia) increases whenever Palestinians assert their national identity (i.e. resistance to colonialism, demanding the right of return, ..etc) because it reaffirms that this is a conflict that will transcend generations.

Be free to share this email with your friends and loved ones.

Our DATE is 60 years LATE, God willing sooner or later we shall return.
* Salah Mansour is the founder and editor of PalestineRemembered.com, the largest Palestinian online community.

Related Articless

sincerely,

Abu al-Sous (Salah Mansour)
Chicago - USA
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ماذا ستفعل لو ولدت فلسطينياً وتم إغتصاب أرضك لأكثر من 60 عاماً؟

بقلم أبو السوس (صلاح منصور)

صور نادرة لقرية الفالوجة الفلسطينية المغتصبة (محافظة غزة) أوخذت بعد الإحتلال الصهيوني مباشرتاً في آذار-1949، وتظهر مدرسة القرية في خلفية الصورة.

بعد الكثير من البحث على شبكة الإنترنت، وجدت أن الإسرائيليين يقدمون أكثر الإجابات صراحةًً لهذا السؤال، خاصةً الزعماء الإسرائيليون الذين يتسابقون على قمع الفلسطينيين. قبل عدة سنوات قرأت ما كتبه موشي ديان (وزير دفاع إسرائيلي سابق) تأبيناً لصديق له قتله فلسطينياً في إحدى الكيبوتزات الموجودة في جنوب إسرائيل عام 1955:

"في هذ اليوم يجب علينا أن لا نوجه أصابع الإتهام للقتلة. أنا أقول: ما هي أعذارنا لمُسببات هذه الكراهية الشرسة ضدنا؟ لقد مضى ثماني سنين وهم في مخيمات غزة وأمام أعينهم نفلح أراضيهم التي سكنها أجدادهم.

علينا أن نطلب دم هذا الإسرائيلي ليس من العرب الذين قتلوه ولكن من أنفسنا ..... اليوم يجب أن يكون يوم الحساب: نحن جيل من المستوطنيين، ومن دون الخوذة الفولاذية والمدفع، لن نكون قادرين على زرع شجرة أو بناء منزل .... دعونا أن لا نخشى الكراهية التي تستهلك حياة مئات الآلاف من العرب الفلسطينيين الموجودين حولنا والذين ينتظرون لحظة الإنتقام." (الجدار الحديدي، صفحة 101)

وبطريقة مماثلة أجاب وزير الحرب الإسرائيلي إيهود باراك عندما سُئل سؤالاً مُشابهاً:

"لو كنت فلسطينياً في سن الرشد، لوجدت أنه من المنطقي في نهاية المطاف الإنضمام لإحدى المنظمات الإرهابية." (مقابلة مع جدعون لفي في آذار 1998)

يؤمن الأمريكيون أيماناً قاطعاً بحق الدفاع عن النفس وهذا بالنسبة لهم حق مقدس ونصه واضح في الدستور. فكأمريكي أعيش في شيكاغو يحق لي الدفاع عن بيتي وعائلتي حتى ولو أدى ذلك بجرح أو قتل المعتدي. لكن هذا الحق يسقط إذا دافعت عن بيتي المغتصب في فلسطين مما يجعلني "إرهابياً" بنظر الكثير في العالم الغربي. هنا يجب الإشارة بأنه عندما يقوم الفلسطينون في غزة الصمود بقصف جنوب إسرائيل بالصواريخ، فإنهم يقصفون قراهم ومدنهم التي إغتصبها يهود هاجروا حديثاً بسبب معاداة أوروبا للسامية أو بسبب المحرقة النازية التي حلت بيهود أوروبا.

بعد قرائتي السيرة الذاتية للكثير من الزعماء الإسرائيليين وجدت أن هنالك الكثير من التعاطف والتفهم المُستتر لتجربة الشعب الفلسطيني. هذا التفهم دليل بأن هذا الصراع ليس فقط صراع إستعماري على الأرض الفلسطينية، وانما هو أيضاً صراع على الهوية المرتبطة بالأرض. فمُعظم الأسرائيليون واليهود يعلمون في قرارة أنفسهم بأن الرواية الصهيونية هي رواية كاذبة، ولكن لأن وجود إسرائيل كان مشروطاً بإغتصاب الحقوق الوطنية والمدنية للشعب الفلسطيني، وجد الكثير من قادتهم أنه من الضروري الإستمرار بشكل ممنهج ومتواصل بحرمان الفلسطينيين من حقوقهم الوطنية. فشعور الإسرائيليين بإنعدام الأمان يتزايد كلما يتشبث الفلسطينيون بهويتهم خاصةً من خلال مقاومة الإحتلال الأسرائيلي وتمسكهم بحق العودة. فترسيخ الفلسطينيين لهويتهم المرتبطة بالأرض المغتصبة هو أكبر خطر على المخطط الصهيوني لأنه يقول للصهيوني بأن هذا الصراع صراع أجيال ولن يحسم بمعركة أو إثنتين.

الرجاء مشاركة هذا البريد مع كل صديق وقريب، ولكم منا جزيل الشكر، والله الموفق.

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صلاح منصور / أبو السوس
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