An ex-CIA husband and wife team published a report on the Occupied Territories last week. They recently returned from a two-week trip there, their fifth such trip since early 2003. Kathleen Christison is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for 30 years. Bill Christison was a senior official of the CIA. He served as a National Intelligence Officer and as Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis. They are very familiar with the issues surrounding Israel and Palestine.
Their article is titled
Does It Matter What You Call It?
Genocide or Erasure of Palestinians
Yes, you read that right: Genocide The G-word. Because, as they state:
In fact, it matters little what you call it, so long as it is recognized that what Israel intends and is working toward is the erasure of the Palestinian people from the Palestine landscape.
Or, as David Ben Gurion put it in 1937:
"We must expel Arabs and take their places."
More fire on the flip...
During a week when Bishop Tutu was controversially appointed head of a UN fact-finding mission to the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun and President Jimmy Carter has published a new book, "Peace, Not Apartheid", on the Israel-Palestine issue, it seems to be a good time to keep this subject in everyone's minds. There are several sides to this issue, but it comes down to land, a single piece of land roughly the size of New Jersey that is claimed by two groups. One of whom is much stronger than the other and slowly, yet surely, "winning". And one that is resisting as much as possible, and will continue to resist, right to the bitter end.
Because that's what anyone would do if they were being driven from the land of their forefathers.
The Christison's article will be taken as extremely inflammatory by some and as truth on the ground by others. It is both. They began with an anecdote about comparing Israel's policies to the Nazi's on an Ireland radio show (a comparision also made by one of the refuseniks in "On The Objection Front", which will be aired several times this week on LinkTV--click title for link to times):
During an appearance in late October on Ireland's Pat Kenny radio show, a popular national program broadcast daily on Ireland's RTE Radio, we were asked as the opening question if Israel could be compared to Nazi Germany. Not across the board, we said, but there are certainly some aspects of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians that bear a clear resemblance to the Nazis' oppression. Do you mean the wall, Kenny prompted, and we agreed, describing the ghettoization and other effects of this monstrosity. Before we could elaborate on other Nazi-like features of Israel's policies, Kenny moved on to another question. Within minutes, while we were still on the air, a producer handed Kenny a note, which we later learned was a request from the newly arrived Israeli ambassador to Ireland to appear on the show, by himself. Several days later, on the air by himself, the ambassador pronounced us and our comparisons of Israeli and Nazi policies "outrageous."
Their reaction to the Israeli ambassador?
In retrospect, we regret not having used even stronger language. Having at that point just completed our fifth trip to Palestine since early 2003, we should have had the courage and the insight to call what we have observed Israel doing to the Palestinians by its rightful name: genocide.
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"Genocide" -- defined by the UN Convention as the intention "to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group" -- most aptly describes Israel's efforts, akin to the Nazis', to erase an entire people.
This is a very strong word. But to the Christison's, Israel activities today are simply the continuance of Zionist policies over the last 60 years. For what Israel calls Independence Day is referred to by Palestinians as al-Nakba aka The Catastrophe. It wasn't a simple leaving of homes following encouragement by other Arab countries, it was being driven out by force. Father Audeh Rantisi's family lived in the Palestinian town of Lydda for over 1600 years, until July, 1948. Some of his story:
I cannot forget three horror-filled days in July of 1948. The pain sears my memory, and I cannot rid myself of it no matter how hard I try. First, Israeli soldiers forced thousands of Palestinians from their homes near the Mediterranean coast, even though some families had lived in the same houses for centuries. (My family had been in the town of Lydda in Palestine at least 1,600 years). Then, without water, we stumbled into the hills and continued for three deadly days. The Jewish soldiers followed, occasionally shooting over our heads to scare us and keep us moving.
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The horror began when Zionist soldiers deceived us into leaving our homes, then would not let us go back, driving us through a small gate just outside Lydda. I remember the scene well: thousands of frightened people being herded like cattle through the narrow opening by armed soldiers firing overhead. In front of me a cart wobbled toward the gate. Alongside, a lady struggled, carrying her baby, pressed by the crowd. Suddenly, in the jostling of the throngs, the child fell. The mother shrieked in agony as the cart's metal-rimmed wheel ran over her baby's neck. That infant's death was the most awful sight I had ever seen.
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We eventually found a well, but had no way to get water. Some of the men tied a rope around my father's cousin and lowered him down, then pulled him out, and gave us water squeezed from his clothing. The few drops helped, but thirst still tormented me as I marched along in the shadeless, one-hundred plus degree heat.
It is important to remember that the founding of Israel, "a land without a people for a people without a land", actually resulted in three-quarters of a million Palestinian refugees. And the Zionists immediately set about rewriting history. David Ben Gurion as quoted in 1978:
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."
The town if Lydda, where Father Rantisi's family lived for over 1600 years, now the site of Ben Gurion Airport. Another mass transfer occurred after the 1967 war:
In the 1960s, Ariel Sharon, then a colonel, ordered his subordinates to investigate how many buses would be required to transfer 300,000 Palestinians out of northern Israel in the event of war. Advance planning bore fruit during the 1967 war, when 200,000-300,000 Palestinians fled and were expelled from the West Bank, some transported in buses marked "Free Passage to Amman." Others, specifically those in the Latrun area, left on their own power after being threatened, according to Uzi Narkiss, the head of Central Command in 1967: "We came in the morning and said, 'Everybody go to Ramallah.... Afterward, we leveled the villages and today we have Canada Park there."
This pattern of pressuring Arabs to leave and to force the issue under the cover of war has been a part of Israeli policy since its founding. And once Palestinians leave, it is very hard for them to come back. And anyone who may be sympathetic to the Palestinians is heavily discouraged from entering the territories, or even Israel. The Christson's cover this in their article:
We met westerners who have lived in the West Bank, working on behalf of the Palestinians for various NGOs for a decade and more, who are planning to leave out of frustration at seeing the situation worsen year after year and their own work increasingly go for naught. Many other western human rights workers and educators, particularly at venerable institutions like the Friends' School in Ramallah and Bir Zeit University, are being denied visas by the Israelis as part of their deliberate campaign to keep out foreign passport holders, including thousands of ethnic Palestinians who have lived in the West Bank with their families and worked for years. The Israeli campaign to deny residency and re-entry permits is a deliberate attempt at ethnic cleansing, a hope that if a husband or wife is barred, he or she will remove the rest of the family and Israel will have fewer Palestinians to deal with. In addition, the entry denial campaign targets in particular anyone, Palestinian or international, who might bring a measure of business prosperity to the Palestinian territories, or education, or medical assistance, or humanitarian assistance.
The campaign against foreigners who might help the Palestinians or bear witness for them became particularly vicious in mid-November when a 19-year-old Swedish volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement escorting Palestinian children to school was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers in Hebron as Israeli soldiers watched. The young woman, Tove Johansson, was walking through an Israeli army checkpoint with several other volunteers when they were set upon by a group of approximately 100 settlers chanting, "We killed Jesus, we'll kill you too!" A settler hit Johansson in the face with a broken bottle, breaking her cheekbone, and as she lay bleeding on the ground, the settlers cheered and clapped and took pictures of themselves posing next to her. The Israeli soldiers briefly questioned three settlers but made no arrests and conducted no investigation. In fact, they threatened the international volunteers with arrest if they did not leave the area immediately.
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These policies lead to personal stories like this on from "Raising Yousuf, Unplugged: diary of a Palestinian mother", a personal blog:
Monday, December 04, 2006
what do I tell a two-year-old?
He keeps asking me about the border. Yousuf, I mean. He overhears things, ma3bar this and ma3bar that...and so naturally inquisitive, he asks what we are doing and why are we still here and each question if followed by another and another..
"Mama can I ask you something?"
"Anything, my love"
"Why are we still here, in Arish?"
"Because we are waiting to enter Gaza, dear"
"But then why don’t we go to Gaza?
Because the ma3bar is closed, my love.
"Why is it still closed??"
[silence]
"Mommy why is still closed?"
"I don’t know." I know my, dear, but do you really want to know? Do you really need to know?
Ms. El-Haddad has been waiting at the border since Nov. 20th, two weeks now. Read her blog and you will see that most Palestinians are just people who want a life for their families.
And that is the point of this diary: that Palestinians are people, too. There has been an ongoing effort for decades to demonize them, to make it seem that somehow they deserve to be kicked out of Israel, that they are bringing it upon themselves. We in America have been brought up on the myth of Israel as "a land without a people for a people without a land", as "a shining light of democracy in the Middle East", on "the purity of arms that is the IDF" and more. We have been carefully limited to what knowledge we are provided regarding Israel and Palestine. This has been going on for decades, as noted by author Grace Halsell in her excellent essay"What Christians Don’t Know About Israel":
The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East policy might lie elsewhere—among those who support Israel but don’t really know why. This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are well-meaning, fair-minded Christians who feel bonded to Israel—and Zionism—often from atavistic feelings, in some cases dating from childhood.
I am one of those. I grew up listening to stories of a mystical, allegorical, spiritual Israel. This was before a modern political entity with the same name appeared on our maps. I attended Sunday School and watched an instructor draw down window- type shades to show maps of the Holy Land. I imbibed stories of a Good and Chosen people who fought against their Bad "unChosen" enemies.
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As I would learn, the politics is about land, and the co-claimants to that land: the indigenous Palestinians who have lived there for 2,000 years and the Jews who started arriving in large numbers after the Second World War. By living among Israeli Jews as well as Palestinian Christians and Muslims, I saw, heard, smelled, experienced the police state tactics Israelis use against Palestinians.
My research led to a book entitled Journey to Jerusalem. My journey not only was enlightening to me as regards Israel, but also I came to a deeper, and sadder, understanding of my own country. I say sadder understanding because I began to see that, in Middle East politics, we the people are not making the decisions, but rather that supporters of Israel are doing so. And typical of most Americans, I tended to think the U.S. media was "free" to print news impartially.
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The process of getting my book Journey to Jerusalem published also was a learning experience. Bill Griffin, who signed a contract with me on behalf of MacMillan Publishing Company, was a former Roman Catholic priest. He assured me that no one other than himself would edit the book. As I researched the book, making several trips to Israel and Palestine, I met frequently with Griffin, showing him sample chapters. "Terrific," he said of my material.
The day the book was scheduled to be published, I went to visit MacMillan’s. Checking in at a reception desk, I spotted Griffin across a room, cleaning out his desk. His secretary Margie came to greet me. In tears, she whispered for me to meet her in the ladies room. When we were alone, she confided, "He’s been fired." She indicated it was because he had signed a contract for a book that was sympathetic to Palestinians. Griffin, she said, had no time to see me.
Later, I met with another MacMillan official, William Curry. "I was told to take your manuscript to the Israeli Embassy, to let them read it for mistakes," he told me. "They were not pleased. They asked me, ‘You are not going to publish this book, are you?’ I asked, ‘Were there mistakes?’ ‘Not mistakes as such. But it shouldn’t be published. It’s anti-Israel.’"
We hear over and over again from our leaders about how we have a special relationship with Israel. A relationship that costs US taxpayers over $3 billion a year. And one that arguably costs us a great deal of prestige in the world, and even the ire of terrorists, including the long lost Osama bin Laden.
With this special relationship comes a special responsibility to learn more about all sides of this issue, not just the Zionist side. After learning the myths, after hearing the Israeli side, find out about the Palestinian side: the matrix of checkpoints and settler-only roads restricting simple movement between towns in the West Bank, the wall being built along a winding path mostly inside the Wst Bank, the settlements (especially the nuts in Hebron) and the settlers long-term plan for the West Bank (which does not include a Palestinian state), the ongoing legal and administrative steps Israel takes to detain thouands of Palestinians without findings of guilt and to take control of Palestinian land and water, and Israel's failure to keep even one of the promises it made to Secretary Rice last fall in "The Agreement on Movement and Access".
This is an issue that has affected us and will continue to affect us, our children and their children. And we are a reality-based community, after all.
So let me leave you with a little reality from "Does It Matter What You Call It?":
You can argue over terminology, but the truth is evident everywhere on the ground where Israel has extended its writ: Palestinians are unworthy, inferior to Jews, and in the name of the Jewish people, Israel has given itself the right to erase the Palestinian presence in Palestine -- in other words, to commit genocide by destroying "in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group."
As we debate about and analyze the Palestinian psyche, trying to determine if they have had enough and will surrender or will survive by resisting, it is important to remember that the Jewish people, despite unspeakable tragedy, emerged from the holocaust ultimately triumphant. Israel and its supporters should keep this in mind: empires never last, as Ahmad said, and gross injustice such as the Nazis and Israel have inflicted on innocent people cannot prevail for long.
This on-the-ground reality-based article commits the very uncorrect "sins" of conflating the words Nazis, Israel, genocide, and Palestine, but if you want to know what reality on the ground in Palestine was like less than two months ago, it's a great place to start learning more. And while you read it, keep in mind that it's much worse in Gaza.
Also, try to catch "On The Objection Front" this week on LinkTV. The voices of these soldiers will deeply affect you:
"Not a week goes by in which I don't dream or think about what happened. Why did I want to be a brave soldier when I was a boy? I feel guilty for years of not rebeling, at least during my reserve service. I should have done it a long time ago. Maybe if I had done this earlier, the soldier who died next to me and the child I witnessed beaten to death would be alive today."
They were there, and they are resisting enormous social pressure to serve in the occupation, to which they answer:
We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
Peace out.