On May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel had proclaimed a new State of Israel comprising 77% of the land in Palestine.
On December 11, 1948, exactly one week after Albert Einstein condemned the macabre Israeli massacre at the Arab village of Deir Yassin and warned against supporting Fascism in Israel in a letter to the New York Times signed by other prominent Jews, [1]
The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution #194, resolving that:
“refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
75 Years of grieving millions and massive bloodshed is the result of Israel ignoring this UN directive,and instead bringing in Jews from Arab nations to settle largely on confiscated Palestinian homes and lands of that subsequently impoverished 700,000+ Arab Palestinians, by now having grown in population to millions, most of whom having remained relatively destitute long under Israeli military occupation and further seizure of their West Bank land by roughly half a million Jewish settlers,other millions living as refugees in nearby countries.
Regarding the attack by Hamas on October 7 referred to by Israelis as a terrorist atrocity in which 1,200 Israelis civilians were murdered (down from 1,400), however Israeli Hebrew newspaper Harretz has provided evidence that up to half the Israelis killed were soldiers; that Israeli forces were responsible for some of their own civilian deaths.
Outrageous allegations, such as the story of Hamas “beheading 40 babies” made headlines and the front pages of countless western news outlets. President Biden claimed to have seen “confirmed photos of terrorists beheading babies,” and that Israeli women were “raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies” The New York Jewish newspaper Forward‘s article on 11 October reported that the Israeli military acknowledged they had no evidence of such allegations. (The White House spokesperson’s retraction received minimal media coverage.)
A Hebrew-language Haaretz newspaper article published on 20 October quotes a kibbutz resident survivor trembling as he spoke of Israeli Defense Force shelling houses with all their occupants inside in order to eliminate the terrorists. Photos show that only the heavy munitions of the Israeli army could have destroyed residential homes in this manner. Yasmin Porat, another survivor from Kibbutz Be’eri, said in an interview for an Israeli radio-show, hosted by state-broadcaster Kan, that Israeli forces “eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” going on to state that “there was very, very heavy crossfire” and even noted tank shelling.
All the above Israeli reports noted does not mean to imply that there is no evidence of atrocious murders of Israeli civilians by Hamas invaders. Just haven’t found them yet.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressing the UN General Assembly on October 24 pointed out again: [2]
“…The October 7 Hamas attack didn’t happen in a vacuum, The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. “
Amnesty International on its website reports: [3]
For half a century, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip has resulted in systematic human rights violations against Palestinians living there.
Israel maintains an illegal air, sea and land blockade on Gaza and maintains a so-called “access-restricted area” or buffer zone within Gaza. These have cut off more than two million Palestinians from other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the outside world.
Since the occupation first began, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, coupled with rampant discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights.
Israel’s military rule disrupts every aspect of daily life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It continues to affect whether, when and how Palestinians can travel to work or school, go abroad, visit their relatives, earn a living, attend a protest, access their farmland, or even access electricity or a clean water supply. It means daily humiliation, fear and oppression. People’s entire lives are effectively held hostage by Israel.
Israel has also adopted a complex web of military laws to crush dissent against its policies, and senior government officials have branded Israelis advocating for Palestinian rights as “traitors“.
As well as controlling where Palestinians can go and who they see, Israel also controls and arbitrarily restricts their access to safe, clean water. Water consumption by Israelis is at least four times that of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories.
Israel’s restrictive allocation of water to Palestinians neither meets the Palestinian population’s basic needs nor constitutes a fair distribution of shared water resources. Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements on occupied land – lush green even at the height of the dry season – stand in stark contrast next to the parched and arid Palestinian villages on their doorstep, where residents struggle to have enough water to wash, take a shower, cook, clean or drink, let alone to water their crops.
Israel is under an obligation to return the land, orchards, olive groves and other immovable property seized for purposes of construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. All States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall
International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, 2004:
Regarding Israeli bombing having taken the lives of 11,200 Palestinians in Gaza as of November 14th including well over 4,000 children, and Israel is claiming a right to defend itself. A right to kill 4000+ kids?
Israel, as an occupying power, does not have “the right for self-defense” – UN International Court, 2004. Arab Palestinians are fighting to be freed from their open air concentration prison.
Below: a serious pertinent observation from someone whose neighboring country and people have been decimated with indescribable suffering, destruction and a near million violent deaths from years of a barbaric invasion by the U.S. CIA created ISIS [4]
“Talking about Gaza individually misses the point, as it is part of a whole, and the recent aggression against it is just an event in a series of events dating back to seventy-five years of Zionist crime, with thirty-two years of a failed peace, the only absolute, irrefutable result of which is that the entity has increased its aggression, and the Palestinian situation has become more unjust, and miserable.” President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
How many $billions worth of bombs have been dropped on Palestinian Arabs since that United Nations directive 75 years ago calling for the return the Arab Palestinian homes and land and to compensate? The yearly $USBillions in military aid to Israel by the American government (since 2019 raised to US$3.8 billion), could have been used to compensate Palestinians for their seized homes, lands and property and to facilitate the repatriation of those willing to be citizens of Israel.
Is it too too late for that and obviously too late any reasonable two state solution?
Mitri Raheb is a Palestinian Christian minister who runs schools, cultural centers and health clinics. He told the CBS TV channel show 60 Minutes: “… the West Bank is becoming more and more like a piece of Swiss cheese where Israel gets the cheese that is the land, the water resources, the archaeological sites. And the Palestinian are pushed in the holes behind the walls.”
Is the apartheid Israeli exclusively Jewish state seeking to spread out and envelope all the land of the ancient Kingdom of David still viable given its abominable record of mass murderous injustice toward its Palestinian neighbors and the hatred this has engendered in various fellow Arab nations and the general condemnation of much of the Third World population?
In his speech before the Israeli Knesset upon accepting Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize (1991), violinist Yehudi Menuhin bitterly criticized Israel’s continued presence in the West Bank, characterizing it as:
“contempt for the basic dignities of life, this steady asphyxiation of a dependent people.”The only solution is keep intact the territory and create a democratic federated union, allow people to live where they were, together, apart, schools apart or together – what ever they want – with Jerusalem capital of both like Bern is the capital of German Switzerland and French Switzerland and each president is there for a year and no one knows his name – that is the only solution, otherwise there’ll always be war.” Yehudi Menuhin
These are not the words and sentiments of an accusing Iranian President Ahmadinejad, or of a defiant Hezbollah, Hamas or other Palestinian spokesperson, but the words of a sensitive, soft spoken, internationally beloved and Israeli prize awarded musician whose very given name, Yehudi, means “the Jew” in Hebrew, his first language.
In the past Christians used the Bible to condone racism, intolerance, slavery, witch hunts, Inquisitions, Crusades, torture, “holy wars,” and the burning of “heretics” at the stake. Millions of people have been tortured, enslaved and killed in the name of Jesus Christ.
Israel’s Religious Justification for Mass Murderous Overkill
Since 1948, various Israeli leaders and rabbis have used the Bible’s Old Testament in which God gives the land of other races to Israelis to conquer to promote and excuse genocidal ethnic cleansing, racism and murderous injustice toward the thousand year long Arab inhabitants of what is often referred to as ‘the Holy Land.’
Better and Safer to just Give The Land & Homes Back and Compensate Palestinians!
Observation and Cautionary:
Hegemonists’ Criminal Media Lock Our Attention on the Status-Quo and Away from the Horrific Past Origin of Present Suffering
1. TO THE EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Amongst the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents. Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.
The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.
Attack on Arab Village
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants “240 men, women, and children” and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.
The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.
Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.
During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute
The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.
Discrepancies Seen
The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a “Leader State” is the goal.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.
The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.
(signed)
ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ, HANNAH ARENDT, ABRAHAM BRICK, RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO, ALBERT EINSTEIN, HERMAN EISEN, M.D., HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D., H.H. HARRIS, ZELIG S. HARRIS, SIDNEY HOOK, FRED KARUSH, BRURIA KAUFMAN, IRMA L. LINDHEIM, NACHMAN MAISEL, SYMOUR MELMAN, MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D., HARRY M. ORLINSKY, SAMUEL PITLICK, FRITZ ROHRLICH, LOUIS P. ROCKER, RUTH SAGER, ITZHAK SANKOWSKY, I.J. SCHOENBERG, SAMUEL SHUMAN, M. ZNGER, IRMA WOLPE, STEFAN WOLPE
Readers of Einstein’s letter might note that Menachem Begin, discussed in the letter, was a future prime minister of Israel. Begin was a racist, a fascist and the pre-eminent terrorist in the Middle East, murdering Arabs, Jews and the English. What sort of nation elects a fascist terrorist to its highest office?
2. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east%C2%A0
3. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/06/israel-occupation-50-years-of-dispossession/
4. Wayne Madsen, John-Paul Leonard, Washington’s Blog, Syrian Girl Partisan. ISIS IS US: The Shocking Truth: Behind the Army of Terror, Progressive Press, October, 2016, a panel of cutting-edge researchers tell what ISIS really is, Paperback – https://www.amazon.com/ISIS-US-Shocking-Behind-Terror/dp/1615771522
An American Senator Writes of ISIS “Hellish Filth We’ve Recruited, Armed and Trained for 8 Years!” https://countercurrents.org/2019/01/an-american-senator-writes-of-isis-hellish-filth-weve-recruited-armed-and-trained-for-8-years/
“Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A,” December 26, 1977, New York Times
Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist, musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India and in the US by Dissident Voice, Global Research; Information Clearing House; Counter Currents and others; now resides in NYC; First effort was a series of articles on deadly cultural pollution endangering seven areas of life emanating from Western corporate owned commercial media published in Hong Kong’s Window Magazine 1993; Howard Zinn lent his name to various projects of his; Weekly column, South China Morning Post, 1986-87; reviews for Ta Kung Bao; article China Daily, 1989. Is coordinator of the Howard Zinn co-founded King Condemned US Wars International Awareness Campaign, and website historian of the Ramsey Clark co-founded Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign, which contains a history of US crimes in 19 countries up to 2006
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