Letters to the Editor, February 11, 2004

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I was searching everywhere for information on how many Palestinians have been killed and wounded since the Uprising, when I realized you are the logical resource. I previously ran across a web site that keeps track of the Iraqi civilians killed and wounded since the Occupation http://www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm#db and wonder if you might consider establishing something like it on your site. While I appreciate that it is very difficult in the case of Palestine, I would ask to see the comparison include details such as numbers of Palestinian police and militia leaders and members, and Israeli military and police, as well as Palestinian and Israeli civilians, plus age and gender categories (the latter not included in the IraqiBodyCount.net site, unfortunately). You did, thankfully, include the numbers of Palestinians incarcerated, something also not included in the IBC site.

I find the numbers of lives lost horrific, but we need to know, in detail, what is happening. We are not getting appropriate news coverage from the commercial media channels in the US, whether print, television or radio. Thanks to film makers and writers, Pacifica Public Radio and progressive web zines we are getting mere snippets of the tragedy unfolding there. Many of us, here in the Bay Area in California, are aware of the corporate slant of our media and are working to change it. We know that a democracy is only as strong as its media is independent.

Please continue your work, which I know you do in the face of much opposition from US corporate media. Thanks for Al-Jazeerah in English. I hope someday you will have it in Spanish as well.

Editor: There is a section that documents Palestinian deaths, injuries, and arrests starting from February 2002. It also includes Israeli deaths and injuries. Detailed data about names, categories, demolishing homes, uprooting trees, and destruction of fields and businesses are provided through other Palestinian websites, mainly the Palestinian President's, Wafa's, and the Red Crescent websites. All are posted in the same section. Just go to .Human price of the occupation.

I share with you the wish to have Al-Jazeerah in Spanish. I welcome any proposals or volunteering efforts and ideas towards that.

The Wall is Called Fence and Resistance is Called Terrorism

The Israelis are building a wall, but the rest of the world finds that wall to be rather disgusting. So, the Israelis put their conniving little heads together and decided to call it something else. The term "fence" is much less offensive, so therefore they simply change its name from "wall" to "fence."

When the Israelis started confiscating Palestinian land, the Palestinians fought back, which made them Palestinian resistance fighters, but that term put the Israelis in the position of being the aggressor, so once again they simply changed the name of the Palestinian resistance fighters to "terrorists." That put the Israelis into the position of being victims, and from that position they could suck all the sympathy from the United States that was needed to garner all the money they would ever need. Clever little devils now aren't they? I've never seen a "fence" over twenty feet high and made from thick concrete, but I've seen "walls" made that way, and so has the rest of the world.

Tariq A. Al-Maeena

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's soon-to-be-released film, "The Passion of the Christ." Perhaps the underlying concern is that the brutal portrayal of the crucifixion and death of Christ, a 1st century, Aramaic-speaking Palestinian, is too easily contrasted with the on-going brutalization of the Semitic Palestinians and and to some extent the Arab Israelis, many of whom are direct descendants of the ancient Hebrew, Christian and Muslims of the Holy Land.

Today, along with the population, the sacred biblical sites are being ravaged by tanks, bulldozers, Apache helicopter gunships and assault rifles, as the ancient olive groves through which Jesus once wandered are uprooted and burned. One can only hope that the movie portrayal of the "Passion of the Christ" will lead to an awakening and inspire a passion for peace and justice in the Terra Sancta, the Holy Land.

Ms. Flavia Agnes has correctly brought out the intense struggle between the 3 distinct groups that tried to fish in the trouble waters, after a Supreme Court judge, has taken the liberty of interpreting Sharia according to his own enlightenment, which Muslims interpreted as motivated anti-Muslim intrusion into the body sharia of their religion.

Muslims were not against money payment or even penalties against erring husbands.

They were more concerned about the precedent that a Supreme Court judge was trying to establish and thus opening a Pandora’s box of further intrusions into their Personal Laws, which they had struggled hard to secure even from the colonial British rulers and now were forced to surrender to an independent India’s non-representative judiciary.

The whole issue was not decided on the merits. It was politics and vested interests all around. The center of all the shenanigans were of course the so-called ‘welfare of women’; but the way different groups took the opportunity to sharpen their own ideological and sectarian claws, justice was the first victim.

The bigger spectable was the Saffron Brigade and the Red Brigade first time lined up both on the same side, finding common grounds to attack the 'other' ------ the beleagured Indian Muslims ---- outclassed, outnumbered, outraged.

The situation for Muslims is still not redressed and there is no judge to judge the judges when they cross their obligations of objectivity and start playing politics with affairs of the people.

The road ahead for 150 million Indian Muslims is for constant struggle to secure their legitimate rights even though fully guaranteed by the constitution of India.

Genocide Watch is the Coordinator for the International Campaign to End Genocide (ICEG), founded in the Hague, Netherlands, May 1999. The International Campaign to End Genocide is an international coalition dedicated to creating the international institutions and the political will to end genocide forever. Minority Rights Group International is a member of ICEG. http://www.genocidewatch.org

In an attempt to escape responsibility for the misleading statements that led the nation to war, President Bush has announced plans to form an independent inquiry to look into what went wrong. An inquiry would serve the Bush administration well: it would envelop the issue in a fog of uncertainty, deflect blame onto the intelligence services, and push any political damage into 2005, after the upcoming election.

But the facts need no clarification. Despite repeated warnings from the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, President Bush and his administration hyped and distorted the threat that Iraq posed. And now that reality is setting in, the President seeks to pin the blame on someone else... again! We can't let him.

Congress has the power to censure (impeach) the President -- to formally reprimand him for his betrayal of the nation's trust. If ever there was a time to use this function, it is now. Join the call for Congress to censure President Bush now at: http://www.moveon.org/censure/?id=-539027-24Vd7Yn86Y9kb1kp3dto2A

The Unbelievable Bush Telephone Call to Sharon That May Lead to Instant Middle East Peace

The president is the one person in the world that could bring instant peace to the Middle East, and all with a single phone call that would go something like this:

Ariel, George here. I’ve been watching how things are going over there and since no progress is being made towards peace, I need to make a change in our policy towards Israel. Effective immediately, we will not be providing any further military or economic aid until such time as Israel has moved their occupation troops and settlers out of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan heights and relocated them back behind the Green Line (pre 1967 border). Now I know you’re concerned about security, but since you now have the sixth most powerful military in the world, Saddam Hussein is no more, and the US guarantees your security, you should be OK. Israel is still an important ally to the US, but I feel you can be just as important behind the green line. Since everyone needs to have their own country, as I’m sure you can identify with, I plan to recognize the State of Palestine immediately. You will still have 78% of Old Palestine for your 5.6 million citizens, while the 3.2 million Palestinians will have the remaining 22%, which I’m sure you will agree is more than fair. It would appear that the money you save by not building a security wall in the West Bank or Gaza can be used to subsidize housing for your settlers as they return. In the interim, I will be providing financial aid to the Palestinians to rebuild their country as we did following WWII and are doing in Iraq. This may cause you some political grief, but the chance for Peace is too great to pass up. Thanks for this opportunity to chat, and Secretary Powell will be in touch to brief you on the details.

This was a letter titles, "INSTANT MIDDLE EAST PEACE POSSIBLE," I recently sent to The Seattle Times, Arizona Republic, Washington Post, and International Hearld Tribune. None printed it.

Although only about fifteen percent of the 3781 delegates are committed, the Democratic party appears to be focusing in on their Mr. Electability. Those candidates explicating peace by tempering the policies of organized evil that unsettle the world, and especially unsettle the Middle-East, are seeing their financial resources shorted, and media exposure slighted.

Even the once invincible Dr. Dean is finding himself sinking to the bottom after expressing some moderated thoughts. Retired General Wesley Clark whom many believe is for peace is portrayed as some turncoat or crazed nut.

The Reverend Al Sharpton is unfairly dismissed as a candidate for one race. Dennis Kucinich, probably the one most actively and honestly critical of evil’s agenda, is in some papers not even mentioned to by name. He is simply referred to as "other".
To those savvy of American politics, none of this should be a surprise. The same body of organized evil that highjacked the Republican party has also been beleaguering the Democrats.

So, with Mr. Electability already chosen, and knowing he will certainly have all our votes in November for a kinder and gentler form of evil, one comes to finding no sense in wasting a vote on him in these Democratic primaries when one can make a statement with a vote for "other" instead. Who knows; something interesting might actually come of it. The dramatic highpoint of the Democratic selection process is yet to come. The big delegate states of California, New York, and Ohio will have their primaries March 2. Florida and Texas will have their primaries the week thereafter. By then, the Dean and Clark campaigns may have collapsed by the weight of their large paid organizations. All that could be left is Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, and of course, Mr. Electabilty.