Article: STOP the Destruction of Lives and Homes in the Holy Land

Since June 2005, I have been to the occupied Palestinian territories four times.

I have spoken with hundreds of Palestinian Muslims and Christians, and democratically elected members of Hamas.

I have NOT met any terrorists.

I did meet human beings who have lived under occupation for forty years.

According to International Law, occupation is to be a temporary situation and maintain the status quo.
That is NOT the facts on the ground in Israel Palestine.

"During Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent visit to Washington, President Bush declared Olmert's "convergence" plan "bold." For Palestinians, however, it is disastrous, because it will annex much of the West Bank's water and fertile land to Israel." Fareed Taamallah, Coordinator for the Palestinian Central Election Commission for the district of Salfit in the West Bank.[June 9, 2006 The Nation online]

Orwell's "1984" nightmare has become reality in 21st century, for Big Brother spins the language and the limp MSM spits it back out.

The International Court of Justice has deemed ALL the West Bank settlements ILLEGAL. But our government and the MSM call them: "neighborhoods."

Olmert initially spoke about convergence, containment, and then re-alignment.

According to Webster's:

Convergence: is the act of converging and especially moving toward union or uniformity.

Containment: is the act, process, or means of containing and also the policy, process, or result of preventing the expansion of a hostile power or ideology.

Contain: to keep within limits: RESTRAIN, CONTROL, CHECK, HALT, ENCLOSE, BOUND

Realignment is NOT in the dictionary!
Realign is and means to re-adjust alliances or working arrangements between or within countries or political parties.

Realignment is NOT just Orwellian double-speak; IT IS "truthiness" for the facts on the ground are that there is no alliance or working arrangements between the occupier and the occupied.

The following is excerpted from December 06,2006 News report from Jerusalem:
http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=392%20
"Israeli Government Demolishes an Entire Bedouin Village"

"...This is the fourth time this year that the government demolished this village. This time they got it "right" - no house is left standing. But the villagers have nowhere to go to. They lived on the outskirts of the Bedouin town of Laqia, the old folk paid for plots of land to build homes in the 1970s, they still hold on the receipt, hoping someday to receive the plots...Of the 150,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel living in the Negev, over 50% live in villages that the government as policy has left "unrecognized" , meaning that there are no options for building permits, as well as running water, electricity, roads, sewer systems and trash removal, additionally there are very minimal education and health facilities. This policy's aim is to force the Bedouins off their ancestral lands and to concentrate the Bedouins in urban townships, regardless of their wishes or their culture. However, there are also no options for living in the concentration towns the government has built, as there are no available plots of land for homes, as in the case of the families of the Twail abu-Jarwal village. Therefore the government can "legally" demolish the homes of 80,000 members of this community, while they cannot build one "legal" home."- Yeela Raanan, Civil Society Activities Coordinator, Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages.

In Israel-and I am NOT speaking about the Occupied Palestinian Territories here, but Israel- there are still over one hundred Unrecognized Villages that over 100,000 Israeli Arab citizens call home.

These citizens pay taxes but receive NO services: NO electricity, NO water, NO schools, NO medical, NO roads, but THEY PAY TAXES!

Not very long ago, immigrants in a New Land rose up/intifada against an empire that demanded taxes without representation.

International Law demands the occupiers provide for the basic needs of the occupied.

Olmert's Convergence/ Containment/ Realignment policies of the West Bank will preclude all hopes for a viable Palestinian state and must be Internationally challenged.

Those who support justice -or even simply the enforcement of basic international humanitarian law - must go beyond raising awareness of the issue to directly confronting those whose acquiescence facilitates current repressive attitudes.

We the People of America are NOT being served when politicians only see terrorists and are blind to the fact that human beings in the land we claim is Holy, have lived under occupation for forty years and centuries of oppression from occupying forces.

Silence is Complicity.

PLEASE Take the One Click Action and send Congress and your local newspaper this message:

STOP the Destruction of Lives and Homes in the Holy Land

Only in solidarity do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine