- Hi Jeff,
-
- GREAT job on your site. I'm one of your frequent visitors
and supporters. Please take a couple of moments to read what I'm pasting
below. It's some info that will shed some light on the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict and how it started and where it stands at the moment...
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-
- Did you know?
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- 1 - THAT, when the Palestine Problem was created by Britain
in 1917, more than 90% of the population of Palestine were Arabs, and that
there were at that time no more than 56,000 Jews in Palestine?
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- 2 - THAT, more than half of the Jews living in Palestine
at that time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine in the preceding
decades in order to escape persecution in Europe?... And that less than
5% of the population of Palestine were native Palestinian Jews?
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- 3 - THAT, the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97.5%
of the land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent immigrants together)
owned only 2.5% of the land?
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- 4 - THAT, during the thirty years of British occupation
and rule, the Zionists were able to purchase only 3.5% of the land of Palestine,
in spite of the encouragement of the British Government?... And that much
of this land was transferred to Zionist bodies by the British Government
directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
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- 5 - THAT, therefore, when British passed the Palestine
Problem to the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than 6% of
the total land area of Palestine?
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- 6 - THAT, notwithstanding these facts, the General Assembly
of the United Nations recommended that a "Jewish State" be established
in Palestine?... And that the Assembly granted that proposed "State"
about 54% of the total area of the country?
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- 7 - THAT, Israel immediately occupied (and still occupies)
80.48% of the total land area of Palestine?
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- 8 - THAT, this territorial expansion took place, for
the most part, before 15 May 1948: i.e., before the formal end of the British
forces from Palestine, before the entry of Arab armies to protect Palestinian
Arabs, and before the Arab-Israeli war?
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- 9 - THAT, the 1947 recommendation of the General Assembly
in favor of the creation of a "Jewish State" was outside the
competence of the Assembly under the Charter of the United Nations?
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- 10 - THAT, all attempts by the Arab States and other
Asian countries to have the Assembly submit "the question of constitutionality"
of its recommendation to the International Court of Justice for an "advisory
opinion" by the Court were rejected or ignored by the Assembly?
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- 11 - THAT, when the Assembly began to experience "second
thoughts" over the matter and convened for its second special session
in 1948, it failed to reaffirm the 1947 recommendation for the partition
of Palestine-thus destroying whatever dubious legality that recommendation
for the establishment of a "Jewish State" had had?
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- 12 - THAT, that original 1947 recommendation to create
a "Jewish State" in Palestine was approved, at the first vote,
only by European, American and Australian States...for every Asian State,
and every African State (with the exception of the Union of South Africa)
voted against it?...And that, when the vote was cast in plenary session
on 29 November 1947, urgent American pressures (which a member of the Truman
cabinet described as "bordering onto scandal") had succeeded
in prevailing only upon one African country (Liberia), both of which had
special vulnerability to American pressures, to abandon their declared
opposition?...And that, in other words, the "Jewish State" was
planted at the point-of-intersection of Asia and Africa without the free
approval of any Middle Eastern, Asian or African country except that Union
of South Africa, itself ruled by an alien minority?
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- 13 - THAT, Israel remained, ever since its inception,
a total stranger in the emerging world of Afro-Asia; and that Israel has
been refused admission to any inter-state conference of Asian, African,
Afro-Asian, or Non-Aligned States ever held?
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- 14 - THAT, since the General Armistice Agreements were
signed in 1949, Israel has maintained an aggressive policy of waging military
attacks across the Armistice Demarcation Lines, repeatedly invading the
territories of the neighboring Arab States...And that Israel has been duly
rebuked, censured, or condemned for these military attacks by the Security
Council of the General Assembly of the United Nations on eleven occasions-five
times by the Security Council and six times by the General Assembly?
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- 15 - THAT, no other country in the world, whether member
of the United Nations or non-member, has been so frequently condemned by
the United Nations?
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- 16 - THAT, no Arab State has ever been condemned by any
organ of the United Nations for military attacks upon Israel?
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- 17 - THAT, besides expelling the bulk of the Arab inhabitants
of Palestine, and besides constantly attacking the neighboring Arab States,
Israel has also consistently harassed the United Nations observers and
other personnel stationed along the Armistice Demarcation Lines: It has
assassinated the first United Nations Mediator and his military aide; it
has detained some truce observers; it has militarily occupied and illegally
searched the Headquarters of United Nations personnel; and it has boycotted
meetings of the Mixed Armistice Commissions?...
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- 18 - THAT, Israel has additionally imposed a system of
apartheid upon the Arabs who stayed in their homeland? More than 90% of
these Arabs live in "security zones;" they alone live under martial
law, restricting their freedom to travel from village to village or from
town to town; their children are denied equal opportunities for education;
and they are denied decent opportunities for work, and the right to receive
"equal pay for equal work?"
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- 19 - THAT, notwithstanding the foregoing facts, Israel
has always been, and still is, widely portrayed in the Western press as
the "bastion of democracy" and the "champion of peace"
in the Middle East?
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- 20 - THAT, the Western Powers have persisted in declaring
their determination to ensure a so-called "arms balance" in the
area, as between Israel, on the one hand, and the one-hundred million inhabitants
of the thirteen Arab States, on the other hand?... And this unilateral
Western doctrine of so-called "arms balance" is no more reasonable
than the suggestion that, in the Cuba-U.S.A conflict, there should be "arms
balance" as between Cuba and the United States... or that the whole
Continent of Africa should not be allowed to acquire more arms than South
Africa... or that Mainland China should not be permitted to have more arms
than Taiwan... or that the military allowed to acquire more arms than South
Africa... and that only thus can peace be safeguarded in the Western Hemisphere,
in Africa, in Asia, or in Europe?...
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- 21 THAT, Israel allots 85% of the water resources in
the occupied territories for Jews and the remaining 15% is divided among
all Palestinians in the territories? For example in Hebron, 85% of the
water is given to about 500 settlers, while 15% must be divided among Hebron`s
120,000 Palestinians?
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- 22 THAT, The United States awards Israel $3 billion in
aid each year, more than to any other country in the world: US aid to Israel
exceeds the aid the US grants to the whole sub-Sahara Africa?
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- 23 THAT, GDP, per capita, and consumption per capita
in the Occupied Territories have dropped about 15 percent in the West Bank
and Gaza since 1993 - that`s even with large foreign assistance pouring
in, from Europe, mostly?
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- 24 THAT, Up until 1993, the U.S. and Israel permitted
humanitarian aid to come into the territories. UN humanitarian aid was
permitted into the West Bank and Gaza. In 1993, that was restricted?
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- 25 THAT, Israel is the only country in the Middle East
that has nuclear weapons?
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- 26 THAT, Israel is the only country in the Middle East
that refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international
inspections from its sites?
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- 27 THAT, Israel currently occupies territories of two
sovereign nations (Lebanon and Syria) in defiance of United Nations Security
Council resolutions?
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- 28 THAT, High-ranking military officers in the Israeli
Defense Forces have admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were
executed by the IDF?
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- 29 THAT, Israel refuses to prosecute its soldiers who
have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?
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- 30 THAT, Israel routinely confiscates bank accounts,
businesses, and land from Palestinians and refuses to pay compensation
to those who suffer the confiscation?
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- 31 THAT, Israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations
Security Council Resolutions?
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- 32 THAT, Israel`s current prime minister, Ariel Sharon,
was found by an Israeli court to be "personally responsible"
for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in Lebanon in which thousands of unarmed
Palestinian refugees were slaughtered in 1982?
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- 33 THAT, Today`s Israel sits on the former sites of more
than 400 destroyed Palestinian villages, and that the Israelis renamed
almost every physical site in the country to cover up the traces?
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- 34 THAT, Ariel Sharon`s coalition government includes
a party -- Molodet -- which advocates expelling all [of the over two million]
Palestinians from [their homes in] the occupied territories?
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- 35 THAT, Israel`s illegal settlement-building in the
Occupied Palestinian territories more than doubled doubled in the eight
years since the Oslo agreements?
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- 36 THAT, Illegal settlement building under Prime Minister
Barak doubled compared to settlement building under Prime Minister Netanyahu?
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- 37 THAT, More illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territories were built under Prime Minister Barak than at any other time
in the history of Israel`s occupation of Palestinian land?
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- 38 THAT, Despite a ban on torture by Israel`s High Court
of Justice, torture has continued by Shin Bet interrogators on Palestinian
prisoners?
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- 39 THAT, Palestinian refugees make up the largest refugee
population in the world?
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- 40 THAT, Israeli military checkpoints surround every
Palestinian population center in violation of the Oslo Accords?
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- 41 THAT, The right of self-determination is guaranteed
to every human being under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December,
1948), yet Palestinians were/are expected to negotiate for this right under
the Oslo Accords?
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- 42 THAT, Palestinians have the highest ratio of PhDs
per capita in the world?
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