Report: Israeli occupation causes terror

[Steve Gardner]

The Israelis will be in a state of apoplexy about this. Particularly since the report was authored by John Dugard, who was reported in The Guardian this time last year as saying:

"Israel's laws and practices in the OPT [occupied Palestinian territories] certainly resemble aspects of apartheid."

And, after describing the situation for Palestinians in the West Bank, with closed zones, demolitions and preference given to settlers on roads, with building rights and by the army, said:

"Can it seriously be denied that the purpose of such action is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically oppressing them?"

Look out for the backlash.
Source: Yahoo

GENEVA - A report commissioned by the United Nations says Palestinian terrorism is the "inevitable consequence" of Israeli occupation — a claim Israel rejected Tuesday as inflammatory.

The report — posted on the U.N. Human Rights Council's Web site — says that while Palestinian terrorist acts are deplorable, "they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation."

The report accuses the Jewish state of acts and policies consistent with all three.

As long as there is occupation, there will be terrorism, says the author, John Dugard, an independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s.

Dugard says in the report that "common sense ... dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by al-Qaida, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation."

The report calls for an end to the Israeli occupation, citing the country's checkpoints and roadblocks restricting Palestinian movement, house demolitions and the "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

Until the occupation is ended, "peace cannot be expected, and violence will continue," the report says.

Israel's U.N. ambassador in Geneva rejected Dugard's analysis and questioned his objectivity.

"Dugard will better serve the cause of peace by ceasing to enflame the hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, who have embarked on serious talks to solve this contentious situation," Itzhak Levanon said.

"The common link between al-Qaida and the Palestinian terrorists is that both intentionally target civilians with the mere purpose to kill," he said.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were relaunched in November after a seven-year lapse, but have been marred by ongoing Israeli construction in disputed areas and by Palestinian rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The 25-page report will be presented next month to the 47-nation rights council, which has been criticized — even by its founder, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan — for spending most of its time reproaching one government, Israel's, over alleged abuses.

Dugard was appointed in 2001 as an unpaid expert to investigate only violations by the Israeli side, prompting Israel and the U.S. to dismiss his reports as one-sided.

Israel refused to allow Dugard to conduct a U.N.-mandated fact-finding mission on its Gaza offensive in 2006.

[Semiotic Colderthanice]

Wait! The Palestinians are terrorists?
Cos last tie I checked they are just defending themselves against their oppressors. <_<

[Steve Gardner]

semiotic said:

Wait! The Palestinians are terrorists?

The problem here is with the term 'terrorist' or 'terrorism' (check this article out for a bit more about my view).

Whilst Dugard does accuse the Palestinians of committing acts of terrorism, it seems clear to me (based on this article at least) that his sympathies actually lie with the Palestinians. In fact, he's arguing that the Palestinians will inevitably turn to terrorism as a consequence of the oppression they have to endure.

And he makes this very important observation:

"[C]ommon sense ... dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by al-Qaida, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation."

I think he's right. It's no surprise that the Americans and the Israelis are the most vocal opponents of any definition of the term that recognises this distinction.

[Steve Gardner]

And now we have this, excerpted from today's Guardian

An Israeli minister today warned of increasingly bitter conflict in the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinians could bring on themselves what he called a "holocaust".

"The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told army radio.

Shoah is the Hebrew word normally reserved to refer to the Jewish Holocaust. It is rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi extermination of Jews during the second world war, and many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other events.

Anyone ever read the Bible, specifically Deuteronomy? It reads almost like a blueprint for what's going on in the Occupied Territories. Here's a bit from Chapter 7.

1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.