- "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" - Jesus
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- I never thought I'd be asking for used tents, milk money
and coloring books. But who in a world populated primarily by
compassionate, rational people would have thought that the US-funded Israeli
military would destroy for the tenth time a small, remote village of refugees
in the Negev desert? The tenth destruction of the
village of "Tawil Abu-Jarwal," was carried out several days ago
in the land of Palestine that since 1948 has been renamed
"Israel."
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- The Israeli storm troopers swarmed the village with bulldozers
and other military equipment, flattened the tin homes, destroyed the village's
four water tanks, destroyed the refugees' tents, and the refugees were
left standing speechless in the hot desert sun as the Israeli soldiers
then fixed coffee for themselves and ate lunch. This time, in addition
to merely demolishing the village as they had previously done nine times,
the US-funded Israeli military brought trailers with them so they could
cart off the remains of the refugees' meager tin shacks, tent homes and
personal belongings. After destroying everything belonging to the humans
who have no human rights in apartheid Israel because they are not Jewish,
the Israeli military carried the smashed and confiscated belongings off
to a dump. (1) (2)
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- Many Americans have been chronically manipulated by mainstream
"news" and Hollywood to believe that all Palestinians are terrorists
and that the Israeli military only acts in "defense." After
all, Israel named its military force the "Israeli Defense Force"
(IDF) in 1948. Many will assume, therefore, that Israel was merely "defending"
itself yet again from another village of "terrorists." The
truth, however, is that this village was simply a peaceful Bedouin village
that, like others, is "unrecognized" by Israel because it is
populated by individuals who are not Jewish.
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- When the zionists declared a state for the "Jewish
only" within Palestine in 1948 and named it Israel, all non-Jewish
residents in Palestine became "unrecognized" refugees in the
eyes of Israel. It is ironic that the zionists claimed to need a state
for the "Jewish only" because of past nazi behavior, while at
the same time they embraced the nazi "Goebbels Principles of Propaganda."
These principles hold that if you tell a lie often enough, people will
eventually--through ignorance or laziness--come to believe the lie. The
first lie told and spread by the media, was that Palestine was an uninhabited
land awaiting Jewish settlers to come from other countries and populate
it.
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- Believing this, in innocence they came and populated
Israel, not knowing that the land they were living on actually belonged
to the Palestinians, not the Israelis. When it became apparent that Palestine
was not "uninhabited" after all, that Palestinian Semites were
not disappearing as hoped, and some were even daring to resist being driven
from their ancestral lands, a second lie was needed. We were then told
that all of the millions of Palestinians are dangerous "terrorists"
who deserve to be eliminated. The truth is that before there was the creation
of a "Jewish-only" apartheid state in the Holy Land, people of
many different religions lived in Palestine in peace.
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- The world has believed the revisionist propaganda, however,
and has stood by for 60 years while US-funded zionists have slaughtered,
maimed and made homeless the Palestinian refugees. One hundred more have
been made homeless as of last week.
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- The truth usually has a way of standing up like a flower
in the middle of a barren desert of lies and slander, and the one standing
up on behalf of the village of Tawil Abu-Jarwal, is the leader of the village.
Far from being a terrorist, the gentleman is a retired school principal
named Aqil el-Talalqa. He has appealed to the Israeli government with rational
arguments of human rights, liberties, property rights and simple justice,
but those embracing the Goebbels Principle have not listened to the retired
school principal. Nothing has yet been done to stop the Israeli racist
rampage, destruction, imprisonment, kidnapping, genocide, terrorism and
its vicious apartheid regime, all of which appear to be the hallmarks of
the very regime of anti-Semitism that zionists first claimed they needed
to escape. They never escaped it. They established it all around them in
Palestine with an iron fist and now with 25-foot-tall apartheid walls that
dwarf the Berlin Wall.
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- While 100 people are newly homeless again in the Negev
desert, this is merely the tip of a deadly iceberg that has been claiming
Palestinian lives and Palestinian land for almost 60 years now. The Israeli
military has fragmented the Holy Land, destroyed millions of ancient olive
trees, bulldozed orchards without regard to the people or the ecology.
It has turned many villages into the worst prison camps, refugee camps
and ghettoes the world has ever known, and in doing so, they have destroyed
countless lives.
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- In the West Bank, there are roughly 600 Israeli "checkpoints"
scattered throughout the villages and refugee camps, causing delays that
frequently prevent workers from reaching their jobs. The loss of a day's
work can mean no food on the family's table that night. Little boys as
well as adults who have been unable to find work since 2000 have begun
digging through dumps in search of anything salvageable that might bring
in some money. Working from dawn to dusk, on a good day they might make
$4.75. This will put food on their family table. (3) (4) (5)
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- On the other side of this state of misery is Gaza Strip,
which is located on the Mediterranean Sea bordering Egypt. It is home to
approximately 1.5 million Palestinians. Gazais 25 miles long and about
six miles wide, and US-funded Israel has physically cut Gaza off from the
rest of the world, closing all of its borders by land, sea and air, including
the border between Gaza and Egypt. The Palestinian fishermen are not even
free to fish their own waters, and they are frequently shelled by Israeli
gunboats. With all borders closed, neither people nor supplies can enter
or leave Gaza without specific Israeli permission, and waiting for permission
to cross the borders has been a death sentence for some. Because of supply
shortages, the economy in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse. Unemployment
is rampant; money is scarce. Through correspondence with Gazan refugees,
I learned that the people are hungry, and many children have been living
on a diet consisting of only bread and tea for months now.
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- Several weeks ago, after learning that the US government
was backing this inhumane border closure and it was encouraging the disruption
of supplies into Gaza, I phoned the UN to urge them to deliver food to
the Gazans. Incredibly, I was told by the woman who answered the phone
at the UN that "there is no food shortage in Gaza." I explained
to her that I was hearing something different from those actually living
in Gaza. There was indeed a food shortage in Gaza, and the people
are hungry. Additionally, I explained that evenWestern Union had been maliciously
closed down in order to keep people from sending money to their desperate
family members.
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- Initially, the woman suggested that I "write a letter
to the local newspaper and contact church groups," as a way of correcting
this emergent situation. I found this somewhat insulting, but have since
changed my mind regarding the church groups and plan on contacting churches
as well as synagogues. (Most Jewish people do not know what is happening
to the Palestinians, and they are appalled when they learn of this situation.
In the US, Jewish Rabbis have begun marching in protests against Israel.)
In the meantime, the UN began delivering emergency food, but only enough
to prevent an outright calamity. The people remain hungry, I am told, and
the children are suffering from the worst malnutrition physicians have
seen in 23 years, because US-funded Israel, one of the wealthiest countries
on Earth, has turned Gaza into a prison camp. (6)
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- If the UN is too large to be aware of the individual
suffering of small lives, if the US government is so out of control that
it is unconstitutionally bank-rolling an illegal foreign government that
completely violates the principles of American ethics and compassion--if
all of the largest groups, unions of justice and humanitarian organizations
have not been able to help Palestine as she has free-fallen for 60 years
through every massive crack on earth, then it is time for us to do what
the largest of the large cannot or will not do. It is time for us to individually
act.
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- We can each help correct this terrible and tragic situation.
We can each help return the Holy Land to a place where--of all places on
Earth--people of all religions should be free to visit, free to worship,
and free to live in peace. We can each bypass all of the enormous organizations,
corporations and unions that have become too large, too controlled, too
politically manipulated to actually provide adequate humanitarian care
and services any longer. They have blinded themselves.
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- We can open our eyes and bypass them all. We can do something
that was once done in the Holy Land 2000 years ago. It was a miracle when
he did it back then, and it will be a miracle when we do it now: We can
feed the hungry.
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- We can also help provide shelter for those who were standing
speechless in the Negev desert last week. We can sponsor tents for them.
For those who could not find their shoes last week after the bulldozers
came to town, we can buy new sandals. We can help replace the water tanks
that should have never been destroyed. In Gaza, where Israel is blocking
shipments of everything including paper, we can find a way to send the
children some paper, some books, perhaps coloring books and crayons, and
a few toys. But first, let's send them food money. Children need more to
eat than just bread and tea.
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- Dr. Yeela Raanan, an Israeli activist who has devoted
herself to the plight of the "unrecognized" Bedouin refugees,
states that what the refugees in the Negev desert primarily need at this
moment are tents. In an August 31, 2007 plea, she stated, "If you
can donate your old tent, or are willing to sponsor a tenta good second
hand military-style tent," please contact her in Israel: Yeela
Raanan, RCUV. yallylivnat@gmail.com 054 7487005. A tent large
enough for a family of six costs about $100. Yeela states that the four
water tanks were completely destroyed and will need to be replaced at a
cost of about $180 each. While clothing has already been donated, Yeela
stated in an email to me that "these people have become a lot poorer
over the last couple of years with the repetitive demolitions of their
homes, so toys and other items for the children are very, very welcome.
They own close to nothing."
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- If you do not have $100, or wish to send a gift anonymously,
you can send it to me via Paypal. Go to this website, <https://www.paypal.com/>https://www.paypal.com/,
and type my email address into recipient. I will let you know when we have
enough pooled money to sponsor a whole tent. I will keep your name anonymous
if you wish, and I will then send our combined sponsored tent funds to
Yeela. This is for the Bedouin village in the Negev.
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- If you would like to help the Palestinians in Gaza and
the West Bank where food is needed, please send anything you can. Even
$5 will help. Go to Paypal,https://www.paypal.com/ and enter my email address.
It's that simple. You can let me know if you wish to sponsor a family throughout
these very hard times. I have made arrangements with unarmed Palestinian
civilians who are committed to nonviolence and peace, to have the food
money hand-delivered to families who badly need food at this time.
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- Thank you.
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- The most important thing that we will accomplish in this
gesture of love and compassion, is the gesture itself. It means that after
sixty years, we have finally learned the truth about Palestine, and about
the people who are now refugees in their own land. Last week, a little
girl in Palestine asked a prominent doctor if the whole world hated Palestinians,
and if so, why--why had no one come to help the Palestinians? The
doctor said that the world did not hate Palestinians, we just were not
aware of their situation. But, she said, we were learning. And we are.
Now we know. Let us hope that the little girl never goes to bed hungry
and thinking that no one on Earth cares about her, again.
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- The Holy Land was never meant to be for only one religion.
It was never meant to be desecrated in the way it has been with apartheid
walls, electric fences, barbed wire, and hundreds of miserable "checkpoints."
The ancient olive trees were never meant to have been uprooted, and
of all places on earth, the Holy Land was always meant to be a shining
example for the rest of the world that all religions and all races can
live side-by-side together in peace. No child living in the Holy Land should
ever wonder if the whole world hates her. No child should ever have a diet
of only bread and tea because someone is blocking the borders of her country
hoping that she will suffer enough to go away.
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- We can change all of this. We can change everything and
someone told us 2000 years ago that we would change everything one day.
He said we would one day work miracles. Our time has come.
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- mary was ordained to speak about the compassionate, human
rights teachings of Jesus in 1988. She was then asked to begin
speaking in 1989. She is the mother of two, an independent journlalist,
and the author of a bestselling book, "The Love Song," which
is currently being reprinted. www.sparrowdancer.com "Happy Birthday,
Daddy. I know you would be standing behind me in this humane call for
peace and justice." Reach mary here - sparrowdancer1@earthlink.net
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- 1. Tawil Abu-Jarwal, destroyed again. (9/5/07)
- http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22078
- 2. More on Tawil Abu-Jarwal. (9/5/07)
- http://www.seamless-israel.org/images/Destruction
%20Negev/Destruction%20Negev_low.pdf
- 3. The misery of Checkpoints (9/5/07)
- http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0607/p13s02-wome.html
- 4. Digging through the dumps, slideshow. (9/5/07)
- http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/01/world/2
- 0070902_WESTBANK_SLIDESHOW_index.html
- 5.. NYT A good day at the dump might bring
in $4.75. (9/5/97)
- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/world/middleeast/02westbank.html
- 6. Worst malnutrition in 23 years.
- http://uruknet.info/?p=m35825&s1=h1
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