Arab News
SAUDI
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=14333
Wake up
By Karen Grundhofer El-Kawa, Special to Arab News
Published on 14 April 2002
At the risk of being labeled an extremist, I send you this
list of undisputed facts regarding the history of
Why do UN resolutions only apply when the
For example, we need to bomb
How can we allow
I would like to make the distinction right now between “the
real terrorists” of the world and the Palestinian suicide bombers. Since Sept.
11 governments and the media have distorted this issue to no end. The Israeli
government has latched onto this new terminology taking advantage of
Why today is the idea of “dying for a cause” so foreign to Americans? We have been taught since childhood about the heroes in American history who have died for our freedom or what they believe in.
Our founding fathers would be rolling in their graves if
they could see us now bowing to the
If you think the Palestinians are willing to die for anything less than their freedom, you are incorrect. Martyrdom and the fact that they also go straight to Heaven according to Islamic teachings, is just a bonus. While those who died in the American Revolution are definitely heroes, we denounce the Palestinians who defend themselves the only way they can.
Israeli Army can enter any home, kill its inhabitants, and destroy any personal property without blinking an eye. Israeli soldiers can bulldoze any home of their choosing without a flinch, build a set of condos in its place, call it a settlement and deny access to the land’s original owners (if they are even still alive). Nobody would bat an eye if the original owners were killed in the process.
We Americans treat minks and lab rats better than the
Israelis treat the Palestinians. You might be willing to die for freedom in
such circumstances too. Wouldn’t you? It is their only hope. More soldiers and
civilians died in the US Civil War than any other war — over what — slavery.
And you think the Palestinians are crazy? For those of you who think you will
be accused of being an anti-Semite for backing a Palestinian state, this is not
a religious issue for the Israelis. It is a political one! It is all about land
and borders and control of an oppressed people. When Israelis turn it into a
Jewish issue, they are trying to manipulate you. There are many Jewish people
all over the world (especially in Europe), who denounce the
Ariel Sharon is without a doubt a murderer and a liar. Say
what you want about Yasser Arafat. Before this
current incursion, Arafat was hated more by the Arabs than anybody. But
He was found directly responsible for the massacres at the
refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila
where over 2,000 Palestinians died in 1982. But what you don’t know,
Would we let a Mafia boss run our country?
Why are there people willing to spend years and years plotting against innocent Americans? We have to make some changes and pay attention to world opinion. We cannot remain the isolationists we are today and were before we joined World War II if we want to reduce the terrorist threat.
Solving the Israel/Palestinian issue would be a step in the right direction. Arabs (Muslims and Christians) are completely insulted by the lack of regard for human life in the Arab world. Arabs are frustrated by the one-sided American policy.
For those of you who believe this
is not our battle to resolve, please realize every tank, gun, F-16, helicopter,
and bullet read “Made in the
Yes, I realize there is more than just one side to every
fight. But while our fellow Americans sit waiting in fear for the next
terrorist attack on the
We have to do something to eradicate this hatred toward
Did you know?
1 — THAT, when the
2 — THAT, more than half of the Jews living in Palestine at
that time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine in the preceding
decades in order to escape persecution in Europe? And that less than 5 percent
of the population of
3 — THAT, the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97.5 percent of the land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent immigrants together) owned only 2.5 percent of the land?
4 — THAT, during the 30 years of British occupation and rule, the Zionists were able to purchase only 3.5 percent of the land of Palestine, in spite of the encouragement of the British Government? And that much of this land was transferred to Zionist bodies by the British Government directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
5 — THAT, therefore, when British passed the Palestine problem to the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than 6 percent of the total land area of Palestine?
6 — THAT, notwithstanding these facts, the General Assembly of the United Nations recommended that a “Jewish State” be established in Palestine? And that the Assembly granted that proposed “State” about 54 percent of the total area of the country?
7 — THAT,
8 — THAT, this territorial expansion took place, for the
most part, before May 15, 1948 i.e., before the formal end of the British
forces from
9 — THAT, the 1947 recommendation of the General Assembly in favor of the creation of a “Jewish State” was outside the competence of the Assembly under the Charter of the United Nations?
10 — THAT, all attempts by the Arab states and other Asian countries to have the Assembly submit “the question of constitutionality” of its recommendation to the International Court of Justice for an “advisory opinion” by the Court were rejected or ignored by the Assembly?
11 — THAT, when the Assembly began to experience “second thoughts” over the matter and convened for its second special session in 1948, it failed to reaffirm the 1947 recommendation for the partition of Palestine — thus destroying whatever dubious legality that recommendation for the establishment of a “Jewish State” had had?
12 — THAT, that original 1947 recommendation to create a “Jewish State” in Palestine was approved, at the first vote, only by European, American and Australian states... for every Asian state, and every African state (with the exception of the Union of South Africa) voted against it? And that, when the vote was cast in plenary session on Nov. 29, 1947, urgent American pressures (which a member of the Harry Truman Cabinet described as “bordering onto scandal”) had succeeded in prevailing only upon one African country (Liberia), both of which had special vulnerability to American pressures, to abandon their declared opposition? And that, in other words, the “Jewish State” was planted at the point-of-intersection of Asia and Africa without the free approval of any Middle Eastern, Asian or African country except that Union of South Africa, itself ruled by an alien minority?
13 — THAT, Israel remained, ever since its inception, a total stranger in the emerging world of Afro-Asia; and that Israel has been refused admission to any inter-state conference of Asian, African, Afro-Asian, or Non-Aligned States ever held?
14 — THAT, since the General Armistice Agreements were signed in 1949, Israel has maintained an aggressive policy of waging military attacks across the Armistice Demarcation Lines, repeatedly invading the territories of the neighboring Arab states. And that Israel has been duly rebuked, censured, or condemned for these military attacks by the Security Council of the General Assembly of the United Nations on 11 occasions — five times by the Security Council and six times by the General Assembly?
15 — THAT, no other country in the world, whether member of the United Nations or non-member, has been so frequently condemned by the United Nations?
16 — THAT, no Arab state has ever been condemned by any
organ of the United Nations for military attacks upon
17 — THAT, besides expelling the bulk of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, and besides constantly attacking the neighboring Arab states, Israel has also consistently harassed the United Nations observers and other personnel stationed along the Armistice Demarcation Lines: It has assassinated the first United Nations mediator and his military aide; it has detained some truce observers; it has militarily occupied and illegally searched the headquarters of United Nations personnel; and it has boycotted meetings of the Mixed Armistice commissions?
18 — THAT,
19 — THAT, notwithstanding the foregoing facts,
20 — THAT, the Western powers have persisted in declaring
their determination to ensure a so-called “arms balance” in the area, as
between
21 — THAT,
22 — THAT, the
23 — THAT, GDP, per capita, and consumption per capita in the occupied territories have dropped about 15 percent in the West Bank and Gaza since 1993 — that’s even with large foreign assistance pouring in, from Europe, mostly?
24 — THAT, up until 1993, the
25 — THAT,
26 — THAT,
27 — THAT, Israel currently occupies territories of two sovereign nations (Lebanon and Syria) in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions?
28 — THAT, high-ranking military officers in the Israeli military have admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed by the Israeli Army?
29 — THAT,
30 — THAT,
31 — THAT,
32 — THAT,
33 — THAT, today’s Israel sits on the former sites of more than 400 destroyed Palestinian villages, and that the Israelis renamed almost every physical site in the country to cover up the traces?
34 — THAT,
35 — THAT, Israel’s illegal settlement-building in the Occupied Palestinian territories more than doubled in the eight years since the Oslo agreements?
36 — THAT, illegal settlement building under Prime Minister Ehud Barak doubled compared to settlement building under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?
37 — THAT, more illegal settlements in the occupied
Palestinian territories were built under Barak than
at any other time in the history of
38 — THAT, despite a ban on torture by
39 — THAT, Palestinian refugees make up the largest refugee population in the world?
40 — THAT, Israeli military checkpoints surround every Palestinian population center in violation of the Oslo Accords?
41 — THAT, the right of self-determination is guaranteed to every human being under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December, 1948), yet Palestinians were/are expected to negotiate for this right under the Oslo Accords?
42 — THAT, Palestinians have the highest ratio of PhDs per capita in the world?