Sam PF's Journal - 40 years

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June 10th, 2007

01:17 am

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40 years
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, following the 6-Day War. 40 years of occupation have meant 40 years of almost daily killings, arbitrary imprisonment, dispossession, denial of the most basic freedoms, humiliation and destruction of property for the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, and 40 years of inaction and blaming the victims by the international community. For Israel it has meant 40 years of knowing neither peace nor security, and for the last third of those facing the horrors of suicide bombings.

The anniversary has been marked by demonstrations in Israel, Palestine and around the world this week. This included a demonstration of about 20,000 in London today, at which Palestinian information minister Mustapha Barghouti, and the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Riah Abu el Assal amongst others spoke. In Bristol about 10 of us held a Boycott Israeli Goods protest outside Fresh & Wild (they sell quite a lot of Israeli stuff, including fruit and veg from Carmel which may well be produced in the Occupied territories.)

The London demo doesn't seem to have merited attention from the BBC, who have nonetheless recently run a very good series of features on both the current situation and the Six Day War that led to the Occupation. (Why yes, by "good" I do at least partly mean "more in line with what I think than usual", though also very in-depth and presenting both sides.)

A couple of good articles marking the 40th anniversary here by Uri Avnery of Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, and Mustapha Barghouti in the International Herald Tribune.

The conflict is not, in principle, insoluble. The revived Arab Peace Plan, offers Israel a complete normalisation of relations with Israel by all Arab states, not just the Palestinians, in exchange for a return by Israel to its 1967 borders, a sharing of Jerusalem, and a 'just solution' for the plight of Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli forces in 1948 (which would not necessarily involve Palestinians actually returning to Israel in large numbers). But Israel has essentially rejected this plan. They have likewise rejected a more immediate-term Palestinian proposal for a comprehensive truce on the West Bank and Gaza. Right now, it is the Palestinians who have no 'partner for peace'.

Meanwhile, a few items that have passed through my inbox recently, or gleaned from news sites, giving an idea of the daily realities of occupation. Some of them are a few weeks old, they've just been sitting in my inbox until I decided to do something with them or delete them.

In the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, which Israel particularly covets for its fertile land and water resources, the villagers of Al Aqaba are to be confined to just 0.1% of their land, 20 dunums out of 30,000 that they own. Homes are to be destroyed, and hundreds of families will be displaced. Land confiscations will likely follow, a common pattern.

Reports by 2 Israeli human rights organisations, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Civil Rights in the Occupied Territories, show that Palestinians have abandoned 1,000 homes and 1,829 businesses in central Hebron since 2000 due to continual harrasment and violence by Israeli settlers, supported by the Israeli army. The organisations claim that a "policy of separation on a national basis" is being imposed in Hebron.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces shot and killed an eldery man in Hebron, wounding four members of his family. The soldiers claimed they were attacked by the residents of the house. Eyewitnesses say this is a lie. Also a video report from Al Jazeera.

Israeli troops today shot and injured a 12-year old Palestinian boy and a deaf resident in the northern Gaza Strip. They then kidnapped the 12-year old. Eleven other Palestinians were kidnapped by the Israelis around Hebron.

In Israel's Al Jalamah detention facility, 30 Palestinian prisoners have gone on hunger strike in protest at continued solitary confinement and appalling conditions.

Palestinian non-violent resistance to the construction of the illegal wall on their land, with the ghettoisation and land confiscation that implies, continue at Bil'in near Ramallah, and Umm Salamoneh and Artas south of Bethlehem, as always supported by Israeli and international activists, and meeting with violent repression by Israeli forces. Last month, demonstrators including local children played football on the planned site of the wall in Umm Salamoneh, in defiance of Israeli forces.

Just normal life in the West Bank and Gaza. Nothing to see, move it along.

Tags: palestine

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Comments

From:	doonya
Date:	June 10th, 2007 02:20 am (UTC)

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I found your journal by way of the free_palestine group. I hope you don't mind that I added you to my friends list.

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From:	smhwpf
Date:	June 10th, 2007 12:10 pm (UTC)

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Pleased to meet you! Added you back. And good luck with your trip out there this summer!

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