<nettime> Palestine [3x]

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   Re: <nettime> nonviolent palestinian resistance                                 
     WoNereH@aol.com                                                                 

   Et Tu, Elie?                                                                    
     Brandon Keim <brandonkeim@mindspring.com>                                       

   [Fwd: EXTRA! - NEW MAP OF THE WEST BANK]                                        
     chris paul <idea@mcr1.poptel.org.uk>                                            



------------------------------

Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 13:43:58 EDT
From: WoNereH@aol.com
Subject: Re: <nettime> nonviolent palestinian resistance

In a message dated 5/15/02 11:09:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
brandonkeim@mindspring.com writes:> 
> The following is an outtake from an op-ed piece I hope to have 
> published in outlets that would probably be turned off by such a 
> suggestion.  Still, perhaps it may be of use as an idea, or to start 
> a debate on forms of visible, immediate nonviolent protest:
> 
> The situation demands the development of a drastic, nonviolent 
> Palestinian strategy of resistance.  Not cute, first world sociology 
> major sign-waving and puppet-making, but something real that cannot 
> be ignored.  Widespread hunger strikes, perhaps, combined with the 
> tattooing of identification numbers on forearms and a mass 
> procession, under a vow of silence, to every Israeli checkpoint.
> 
> This would be seen as an unforgivable obscenity by many, but it could 
> be no more obscene than the bloodshed that is already happening.
> Peace be with you,
> BK
> www.djinnetic.org/blog     

Perhaps while you are writing your op-ed pieces you would consider adding
some things that might actually help the Palestinians make some progress,
instead of keeping them as perpetual victims.  For instance, if the
Palestinians can start getting serious about having a real government, and
eventually, a real state, they need to realize that having their state
divided up into 3 parts, with inevitable Israeli checkpoints (due to the
fear Israelis have of Palestinians which probably won't be going away any
time soon), is not a workable plan.  Israel is never going to give the
Palestinians back parts of Israel that, it once was willing to sacrifice,
but now has become perfectly obvious it needs for security.  Israel has
been attacked far too many times, either in outright war, or with suicide
bombers, to ever feel generous when it comes to land.

Arafat has pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars for himself rather
than allow his people a measure of dignity, and thereby, satisfaction.  
The Arabs nations have not allowed the Palestinians to build permanent
structures in the occupied territories, having always hoped Israel would
eventually be eliminated.  If the Israelis and the Palestinians are to
genuinely live in peace, which thus far is still not the aim of the
Palestinians or most other Arabs, the Palestinians need to look to their
own people for advancement, and stop trying to bleed off the Israelis.  
As radical as this sounds, the Palestinians need to focus their attention
on Jordan, who can offer them far more land than Israel ever can.  Hunger
strikes cannot take back all the murderous rampages the Palestinians have
committed.  Boycotting a McDonald's in Dubai will never give Arafat a
second chance at Jerusalem.  The sooner the Palestinians accept this, the
sooner they can get on with their lives.  It is not up to Israel to give
the Palestinians jobs anymore.  It is also not up to Israel to give them
land, no matter how much the Palestinians feel they are entitled to it.  
It's time to move on, face reality, get a life.  Grow, prosper in peace,
and give up the futile attempts to hurt others who now claim the land that
was once both Israelis and Arab.  The Arabs did not want to share, now
they must take the consequences of their poor choices. IMHO DG



------------------------------

Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 06:53:48 -0400
From: Brandon Keim <brandonkeim@mindspring.com>
Subject: Et Tu, Elie?


Many thanks & karma considerations to all those who are putting this
list out -- hope you like this --

best,

Brandon

brandonkeim@mindspring.com
www.djinnetic.org/blog


ET TU, ELIE?

The first casualty of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, and perhaps in
the end a loss greater than that of life and property, has been
objectivity.  Far too few commentators have tried to steer through the
storms of warring propaganda make it so difficult to simply understand the
situation, much less conceive of a peaceful solution.

An open letter from Elie Wiesel to President Bush in the May 7 New York
Times is a characteristic example.  Mr. Wiesel, an acclaimed Holocaust
author and Nobel Peace Prize winner, displays the reflexive bias and
determined absence of self-examination rampant among those who sympathize
with the Israeli 'cause'.  Such tendencies are also common on the
Palestinian side; but the immorality of suicide bombing apologists is well
documented, and poses less of a long-term threat to peace than the
single-mindedness of Israel's leaders and their American allies.

Mr. Wiesel begins by urging Bush to remember that "a majority of Israelis
favor a Palestinian State alongside Israel if the terror is stopped,
whereas a majority of Palestinians including Yasir Arafat support suicide
killing operations against Israel."  The imbalance of this statement is
obvious.  Whereas Israeli sentiment is qualified -- "if the terror is
stopped" -- the Palestinians are given no such consideration.  A fair
treatment would measure Palestinian support for suicide bombing if
occupation were ended and a viable, independent Palestine established.  
Perhaps support would exist even under these conditions, in which case
Wiesel would be justified in saying so -- but to imply that pro-terror
sentiments are unconditional is dishonest.

"Please remember that while Palestinian terrorists were hiding explosives
in ambulances," Mr. Wiesel continues, "Israeli reservists in Jenin were
taking up collections out of their own funds to repay Palestinian families
for the damage done to their homes."

Structural bias is replaced by linguistic: the subtle inflection of
'reservists' rather than 'soldiers.' The distinction is irrelevant here;
whether part-time or professional, citizens who bear arms for their
nation's military are soldiers.  To call them by another, gentler name is
misleading.  Conversely, Mr. Wiesel fails to make a distinction that is
necessary:  'the damage done to their homes.' 'Damage' can be used to
describe a broken window as easily as a flattened building.

One need not be be impartial to be objective.  Wherever our sympathies
lie, when referring to Jenin, the word we should use is 'destruction.'

As for those 'reservists' passing the hat for freshly 'displaced'
Palestinian families -- what fiscal compensation can they provide for the
supposedly inadvertent loss of innocent life that Israel claims did not
happen, yet forbids the investigation of.  If Mr. Wiesel is going to
mention the conscientious benevolence of reservists, he should also
acknowledge those who have chosen incarceration over service in the
occupied territories.  While the maps on Arafat's uniform indeed depict "a
Palestine encompassing not only the West Bank but the whole of Israel,"
there are many Israelis whose conception of Israel includes what is now
Palestine.

Most disturbing is the presence in Mr. Wiesel's letter of a germ of the
most abhorrent of all beliefs -- the idea that, somehow, the lives of one
people are more valuable than those of another.

"Please remember Danielle Shefi, a little girl in Israel," Mr. Wiesel
writes.  "When the murderers came, she hid under her bed.  Palestinian
gunmen bound and killed her anyway.  Think of all the other victims of
terror in the Holy Land.  With rare exceptions, the targets were young
people, children, and families."

Indeed, we should remember the death of Danielle Shefi -- just as we
should remember all who have died in this miserable conflict, Israeli and
Palestinian alike.  It is wrong to make one death a symbol of the
violence, and to assign terror solely to one side.  When condemning those
Palestinian terrorists who have targeted the young, so too should we
condemn the similar behavior of Israeli soldiers, described with terrible
eloquence by Chris Hedges' in "A Gaza Diary":

"Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered -- death squads
gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were
lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their
sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo -- but I
have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap
and murder them for sport."

It is not only Israel which has lost "too many sons and daughters, mothers
and fathers" -- and neither has Israel been alone in learning to "trust
its enemies threats more than the empty promises of 'neutral'
governments.'"

Mr. Wiesel suggests that, now more than ever, Israel should be trusted to
chart the course of peace in the Holy Land.  He calls Ariel Sharon a
"military man who knows the ugly face of war better than anyone," an
unintentionally apt description -- for Mr. Sharon is the ugly face of war,
as survivors of massacres in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila will
attest.

This is not to suggest that the responsibility of negotiating peace should
fall principally to Yasser Arafat and the current PLO leadership.  While
he is not "Osama bin Laden with better P.R.," in the words of the
apocalyptically hawkish former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Arafat's
sponsorhip of terrorism can hardly be doubted.  Israel's distrust is
wholly justified -- but to imagine that Yasser Arafat is the dark heart of
terrorism, that it would end with his removal, is an act of willful and
self-destructive blindness.

Nevertheless, political reality dictates that both Sharon and Arafat will
have to play some part in negotiating peace.  Sharon's staggeringly myopic
military offensives have unified Palestinian support for Arafat; in less
than a year he has been transformed from a corrupt politician to a
people's champion who will be honored as either a hero or a martyr.  
Meanwhile, the latest wave of terror has swelled the ranks of Israelis who
-- like Netanyahu -- advocate the total annihilation of Palestine.  Ariel
Sharon and Yasser Arafat may end up as two of the strangest bedfellows
ever created by politics.

Whatever happens, we hopefully will see an end to the odious practice of
pretending that, of Arafat or Sharon, one is a beleaguered but noble
leader, and the other a soulless terror.  Both are covered in the blood of
innocents and should be brought to justice as soon as circumstances
permit.

Mr. Wiesel's letter concludes by reminding President Bush that "American
Jews share your moral outrage at international terrorism as well as your
determination to defend democratic ideals and religious freedom in the
world."  This is simply another way of saying that the Jewish vote is
important to Bush's chances for re-election -- and it is utterly
deplorable.  Up to this point, Mr. Wiesel's appeals were at least grounded
in morality.  Making peace in the Holy Land a matter of political
expediency is profoundly wrong.  Whatever solution is found, it should be
motivated by a love of life -- not the desire for power.

To see someone so great resorting to such shameless maneuvering is
disheartening.  Were Elie Wiesel a mere politician or pundit, his
posturing would expected -- but to many he is a symbol of peace, almost a
saint.  Rather than appealing in the name of democracy and freedom to a
President for whom those words mean so little, one hopes that Mr. Wiesel
would speak honestly against all terror, be it sponsored by Palestine or
Israel, Saudi Arabia or America.

Perhaps, given the primal emotions stirred by the conflict, and the
disturbing rise of anti-semitism in Western Europe and the Arab world, it
is too much to expect that Mr. Wiesel -- himself a survivor of Nazi
concentration camps -- not revert to tribalism.  But even if Mr. Wiesel is
not capable in this situation of maintaining the strength of his
convictions, the world can still heed his words:  "When human lives are
endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and
sensitivities become irrelevant."

Until Jews and Arabs, the international community and its media, accept
the impossibility of military solutions and approach Israel and Palestine
objectively and without prejudice, there will be no peace.






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Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 17:29:24 +0100
From: chris paul <idea@mcr1.poptel.org.uk>
Subject: [Fwd: EXTRA! - NEW MAP OF THE WEST BANK]



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From: "openDemocracy" <openDemocracy@openDemocracy.net>
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Subject: EXTRA! - NEW MAP OF THE WEST BANK 
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 17:12:52 +0100
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We have just published Eyal Weizman's detailed new map of the West Bank on
www.openDemocracy.net. It reveals the full and terrifying extent of the
territory's fragmentation into a patchwork of incoherent enclaves. This
amazing resource makes it possible to understand both the totality and the
detail of Israeli settlement strategy. We add fascinating case studies of
localities like East Jerusalem, Jenin, Hebron and Ramallah.

For the first time, Weizman shows the extent of potential settlement
expansion. This map is an essential tool to understanding the conflict in
its fundamentals.

Please tell your friends.

Download the new map and view the case studies:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/document_details.asp?CatID=127&DocID=1380

Weizman's The Politics of Verticality online: 9 episodes of text and
photo-essays dissecting the West Bank conflict - from settlements to
sewage, archaeology to Apaches:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/document_details.asp?CatID=127&DocID=1253

Download and print the Politics of Verticality:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/dynamics/pg.asp?DocID=1356&Action=DisplayPage





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