The Silence was Deafening By Eileen Fleming

The Silence was Deafening

By Eileen Fleming

Al-Jazeerah, June 22, 2006

On June 20th, International Refugee day passed without a whimper from the USA media. America's intake of refugees has gone from 100,000 annually to 45,000. Our taxes go to support ethnic cleansing and the creation of new refugees and displaced persons and the vast majority of good American's don't even know it.

Billions of USA dollars go to Israel yet Israel openly defies International Law. The largest remaining refugee crisis in the world can be traced back to American foreign policy regarding Palestine.

• When Israel was established in 1948, 3/4th of the native Palestinians
(Christian and Muslims) were made refugees (over 500 villages and towns completely depopulated and erased off the maps). The 1/4th who managed to stay were subjected to Marshal Law between 1948-1966. Even after 1966, they were not integrated in the society and remain as foreigners in their own lands. Over 100 of their remaining villages are not state "recognized" (get no electricity, water, schools etc). Israeli law also considers 250,000 as "present absentees": present but their land confiscated under "absentee property law" turned over for Jewish use. Israel defines itself as a state not of its citizens (Jewish and remaining non-Jewish citizens) but as a state for Jewish people everywhere. Any Jew, regardless of his current country, is considered a Israeli national entitled to automatic citizenship in Israel while over 5 million Palestinians cannot return to their towns and villages (even for those under Israeli jurisdiction).

• The Right to Return has a solid legal basis. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 13 reaffirms the right of every individual to leave
and return to his country. The United Nations adopted Resolution 194 on
December 11, 1948. Paragraph 11 states: "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date... compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." Principles of Self Determination adopted by the UN guarantee inter alia the right of ownership and domicile in one's own country. In 1969 and thereafter, it was explicitly applied to the Palestinian People, including "the legality of the Peoples' struggle for Self-Determination and Liberation". International law states that neither occupation nor sovereignty diminishes the rights of private ownership.

• The right of refugees to return is not only sacred and legal but also
possible. Demographic studies show that 80% of Israelis live in 15 percent of the land and that the remaining 20% live on 85% of the land that belongs to the refugees. More than 5,000 refugees live per square kilometer in the impoverished and besieged Gaza Strip, while over the barbed wires and walls, their lands are practically empty.

• Ethnic cleansing continues. According to Amnesty International and other Human Rights groups, Israel destroyed thousands of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and confiscated tens of thousands of acres in the past few years to expand Jewish colonies and control rich Palestinian lands. The settlements/colonies contravene the 4th Geneva Convention Article 49 stating that the "Occupying Power shall not transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." In the next six months, nearly 250,000 Palestinians will likely be removed by various means from Palestinian lands coveted by Israel and falling between the "Green Line" (Israel pre-1967 border) and the apartheid wall that Israel is building around remaining Palestinian cantons/ghettos contrary to International law."- Mazin Qumsiyeh.

"For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides."- The Israel Lobby, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.

American taxpayers provide Israel nearly a quarter of the total of our foreign aid and Israel has a population of 0.1% of the entire world population.

Israel was established in 1948 at the termination of the British Mandate and statehood was contingent upon upholding the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. International Law deems occupation is to be temporary and maintain the status quo. Forty years of occupation and a wall that does not follow the Green Line and has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and ordered to come down, continues to grab Palestinian land.

"If the state of Israel aspires to perceive itself as a democracy, it should abandon once and for all, any legal and ideological foundation of religious, ethnic, and demographic discrimination. The state of Israel should strive to become the state of all its citizens. We call for the annulment of all laws that make Israel an apartheid state". -Israeli Artist's Declaration.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu supported boycotts and divestments from what he described as Apartheid Israel adding: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

"This is a time when there seems to be a particular need for men of PHILOSOPHICAL persuasion-that is to say, friends of wisdom and truth-to join together…We Jews should be, and remain the carriers and patrons of spiritual values. But we should always be aware of the fact that these spiritual values are and always have been the common goal of mankind."-Einstein, "Out of My Later Years"

Thomas Jefferson weeded out the miracle stories and clarified the teachings of the gospels/good news of Christ in
"THE PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS of JESUS of NAZARETH"

1. Be just: justice comes from virtue which comes from the heart.

2. Treat people the way we want to be treated.

3. Always work for PEACEFUL resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with COMPASSION.

4. Consider valuable the things that have no material value.

5. Do not judge others.

6. Do not bear grudges.

7. Be modest and unpretentious.

8. Give out of true generosity, not because we expect to be repaid.

9. Being true to one's self in more important than being loyal to one's family...those who think they know the most are the most ignorant......

Imagine a world when everyone who claimed to be a Christian actually did the philosophy.

Resources:

http://www.wearewideawake.org

Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://Qumsiyeh.org

Who used:
http://PalestineRemembered.com
http://www.assoc40.org
http://www.thestruggle.org (local)
http://www.arabhra.org/
http://www.azmibishara.info/
http://www.mossawacenter.org
http://electronicintifada,net
http://www.badil.org/Boycott-Statement.htm
http://www.plands.org/
http://al-awda.org
http://ittijah.org