Over the weekend, Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators along the Golan Heights, killing 23 of them and wounding some 350 others. The “Naksa” march, not to be confused with last month’s “Nakba” march, was protesting the occupation of the Golan Heights and other territory in a 1967 Israeli invasion.
Predictably, when criticism began emerging about the killings, the US State Department said Israel had a right “like any sovereign nation” to defend itself from such protests with gunfire. The came with allegations that the Syrian government was secretly behind the protests.
This claim was later bolstered by an opposition faction within northern Syria, which alleged that southern Syrians were being paid $1,000 a head to participate in the march. What followed were predictable conclusions that the protests were manufactured entirely in Damascus as a “distraction” from their own killings of pro-democracy protesters across Syria.
Yet this misses a number of important points about the march, and the killings. Firstly, whether marches were compensated or not, the grievances behind them are very real. Similar marches were held in occupied East Jerusalem, and would also have been held in Lebanon had the Lebanese military not pre-emptively cracked down on them. Clearly neither of these could be blamed on the Assad regime, nor can the Israeli military’s shooting of peaceful demonstrators along the border.
Indeed if anything the killings along the border were a reminder to the region and the world that civilians are being killed in Syria, and will attract more attention, not less, to Assad regime crackdowns. The fact that US officials are able to shift from moral outrage to virtual ambivalence about the death of Syrian protesters based on which nation’s troops are firing the bullets is surely worth noting, but is not relevant to the issues which lead the protesters to put their lives on the line standing up to either regime.
44 years after their conquest the Golan Heights remain occupied territory, and those who lost homes in the invasion remain aggrieved by this. The effort to spin Israel’s violent retention of occupied territory as an indictment of the Syrian regime may score political points, but ignores a serious issue that isn’t going away.
You know, I think it's about time for the US to return the southwest territories it stole from Mexico, back to Mexico. After all, the Mexican illegals want their land back, right? I love the double standard. Not to mention the fact that there is no occupation in the West Bank because no country or legal sovereign existed beforehand. Even today, there is no such thing as a unified Palestinian nation. The populations in Gaza and the West Bank are completely different from one another.
so your saying that israel is an apartheid state that denies all rights to half its population…
To call Israel an apartheid state is so ridiculous and so dumb. Its Arab citizens have much more freedom than any other place in the Middle East. Why don't you look up Khaled Abu Toameh. The "Palestinians" were never citizens of Israel. Why should Israel be forced to treat non-citizens as if they were citizens? Ridiculous. I'm an objective libertarian. Each country has a right to its sovereignty, and yes that includes Israel.
im not talking about the sovereignty of a state but the rights of individual people mr "objective libertarian" if you claim that the west bank is a part of the state of israel( which i am not denying) then the only honest conclusion is that the state of israel denies half its population citizenship based on ethnicity… thus apartheid
im not talking about the sovereignty of a state but the rights of individual people mr "objective libertarian" if you claim that the west bank is a part of the state of israel( which i am not denying) then the only honest conclusion is that the state of israel denies half its population citizenship based on ethnicity… thus apartheid.
p.s. and on the subject of stupid comparisons, im sure if the united states were to tell you all your property and belongings are now federal property and that you have no citizenship as an honest/objective "libertarian" i assume you would fully support such a just claim?
Calling Israel an Apartheid state is as ridiculous and dumb as calling former South Africa (Israel's former ally) an Apartheid state. As far as those parts of Mexico that were stolen by the US, I completely agree, give them back. Better yet, give the entire country back to the Natives and get the fuck out and go back to Europe along with your good pals the jews in the racist and illegal entity called Israel.
The government of Syria accepted at 2 am the peace proposal and cease fire that Israel demanded. At 8 am 6 hours after receiving the formal acceptance of the cease fire the Israel military launched the assault on the Golan Heights. They had placed a spy in the government of Syria and stole the locations of all defense positions on the Golan heights. This disgraceful attack after receiving the formal acceptance of the cease fire happened a few hours after the Israel attack on the USS Liberty which many believe happened to cover up the intentional stealing of the Golan heights. 34 US Sailors lost thier lives in the clear murderous attack by the Israel military. The Israel government has refused to release the tapes of different government communications and miltary aircraft made as do our Israel firster refuse to release our tapes made which would clearly tell the story of what happened. YOu are correct that there is no unified Palestanian nation mostly because of the cruel actions of the poeple who did not live on the land owned by the Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians died in the effort during WWI to support the British effort to eliminiate the turkish control of the area. The zionist who came refused to support the effort and not one died in the effort to free the area but after the war they demanded 1/2 the spoil. I am not sure what you are attempting to do by making the statement that the people of Gaza and the west bank are different. I sure hope you knew that Gaza was part of Egypt until stolen in 1955 and 1967 by the Israel nation. I hope you know that the jews of northern africa and the jews of Poland are different people. The major difference is the jews of northern Africa were probably children of the jews of the roman empire while the jews of poland had no connection to the middle east. One major difference was the nation of Israel blocked the jews of northern africa from moving to Israel.
While speaking to the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vishinsky in the early 1950s , Moshe Sharett expressed interests in receiving Eastern European Jewish immigrants over Moroccan Arab Jews. In his opinion "the Jews of Eastern Europe are the salt of the earth" who should take precedence over other Jews in immigrating to the "Jewish state", he said:
"There are countries—and I was referring to North Africa— from which not all Jews need to emigrate. It is not so much of quantity as of quality. Our role in Israel is a pioneering one, and we need people with certain strength of fiber. We are very anxious to bring the Jews of Morocco over and we are doing all we can to achieve this. But we cannot count on the Jews of Morocco alone to build the country, because they have not been educated for this.
While Israel of course should be condemned for the USS liberty incident, (whether it was intentional or ridiculously negligent is up for debate), the US military as in many other instances was not engaged in a humble foreign policy. The US, like in Vietnam and many other places around the world, had no business being there or getting involved in foreign conflicts. Had the US adopted a humble foreign policy, the USS liberty incident would never have happened.
What I am trying to say is that there has never been a unified Palestinian nation. Alternatively, there has been a Jewish nation that has existed for some 3,000 years. True, many Jews around the world are different from one another. But that has much more to do with the fact that Jews around the world have adapted to the respective cultures of the countries around them, which is what still connects the Jews of Europe with the Jews of the Middle East. And to add to that, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in historic Palestine for the past 3,000 years. Objectively, the Jewish nation should have rights to that land before any other group of people.
"…USS liberty incident…whether it was intentional or ridiculously negligent is up for debate"
please post a link to any information that would in any way substantiate the claim that it was negligence.
"there has never been a unified Palestinian nation."
ergo they have no human or property rights, says the honest libertarian
"there has been a Jewish nation that has existed for some 3,000 years."
either you are purposely misusing the word nation, or you using it in stead of the word race. and if that is the case (which is highly debatable) i can assure you that what ever "race" the people of Palestine are a part of has existed for just as long.
"Objectively, the Jewish nation should have rights to that land before any other group of people"
the logical conclusion of that statement would be that the "jewish nation" should have rights to that land, and no other." and since most jewish people do not live in the state of israel and many jewish people are leaving the state of israel, i assume the jewish nation does not support that claim.
How come its OK for Israel to kill protestors? I mean, not only OK but Israel's "right." And this wasn't an armed rebellion as in Libya and Syria, it was protestors.
Those who know Israel's MO can tell that this nothing else than smoke and mirrors. More of Israel's propaganda and vain attempt to take the spot light off its crimes against humanity.
Boycott, divest & sanction Israel!