israeli occupation of palestine and ensuing violence
i'm starting this thread to gather information about what's going on in israel/palestine... this is going to be a work-in-progress.
Gaza youth breaks out with a ‘manifesto for change’
Fuck Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this fucking situation we live in; we are like lice between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope, no space for freedom. We are sick of being caught in this political struggle; sick of coal dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes; sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands; sick of bearded guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes; sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards in enforcing anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored by the rest of the world.
A decisive conclusion is necessary By GILAD SHARON
There is no justification for the State of Gaza being able to shoot at our towns with impunity. We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza.
2008-2012
Israelis killed by Gaza-based Palestinian groups: 18
Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli forces: 1,661
That is not "DEFENSE"!
What Constitutes Occupation? Israel as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip after the Disengagement
Israel maintains that Gaza ceased to be occupied territory when it withdrew
its forces in 2005 and that Gaza is now a ‘hostile entity’, whatever this may
mean, which may be subjected to military attacks in the name of self-defence,
and in respect of which no humanitarian obligations arise. The United Nations
and most of the international community take a very different position. For
them Gaza was militarily occupied by Israel in 1967 and remains occupied
territory, despite the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Breaking the silence: Israeli soldiers talk about the occupied territories
11:00 "In order to understand what is happening in the occupation-- and this is where there is a difference between whats happening in the rest of Israel-- is, in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, everything of course is under Israeli control... we are still controlling both pieces of land. The law there, and it doesn't matter what your politics are-- is a different law than the rest of Israel. We're talking about one area that has civilian law, where people have right to vote, where people have a political power, where people can go out to the streets and demonstrate, and it's legal. In the West Bank, it's army law. It's martial law. And it's not by the people, for the people... it's by Israel, for Israel."
11:00 "In order to understand what is happening in the occupation-- and this is where there is a difference between whats happening in the rest of Israel-- is, in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, everything of course is under Israeli control... we are still controlling both pieces of land. The law there, and it doesn't matter what your politics are-- is a different law than the rest of Israel. We're talking about one area that has civilian law, where people have right to vote, where people have a political power, where people can go out to the streets and demonstrate, and it's legal. In the West Bank, it's army law. It's martial law. And it's not by the people, for the people... it's by Israel, for Israel."
Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010
Our Harsh Logic
Israeli soldiers speak out for the first time about the truth of the Palestinian occupation, in "one of the most important books on Israel/Palestine in this generation" (The New York Review of Books)
The very name of the Israel Defense Forces—which many Israelis speak of as "the most moral army in the world"—suggests that its primary mission is the defense of the country's territory. Indeed, both internationally and within Israel, support for the occupation of Palestinian territory rests on the belief that the army's actions and presence in the West Bank and Gaza are essentially defensive and responsive, aimed at protecting the country from terror.
But Israeli soldiers themselves tell a profoundly different story. In this landmark work, which includes hundreds of soldiers' testimonies collected over a decade, what emerges is a broad policy that is anything but defensive. In their own words, the soldiers reveal in human and vivid detail how the key planks of the army's ostensibly protective program—"prevention of terror," "separation of populations," "preservation of the fabric of life," and "law enforcement"—have in fact served to accelerate acquisition of Palestinian land, cripple all normal political and social life, and ultimately thwart the possibility of independence.
The many soldiers who have spoken out have taken aim at a silence of complicity, both within Israel and in the wider world, that perpetuates the justification for occupation. In the process, they have created a gripping and immediate record of oppression. Powerful and incontrovertible, Our Harsh Logic is a supremely significant contribution to one of the world's most vexed conflicts.
...to portray Israel as some kind of victim with every right to "defend itself" from attack from "outside its borders" is a grotesque inversion of reality. Israel has after all been in illegal occupation of both the West Bank and Gaza, where most of the population are the families of refugees who were driven out of what is now Israel in 1948, for the past 45 years. It's Palestinians who have the right to defend themselves
