Israel has invaded Gaza...

[mpholland]

Originally Posted by finnbow

What's particularly galling to a lot of West Bank Palestinians is that Israel has actively recruited Jewish immigrants from all over the world to their shores since 1950 when they enacted their Law of Return, whereby anybody half Jewish (at least at the mother's side) along with any child or grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew can immigrate. In a very short period in the early 1990's, they allowed 1.6 million Russian to immigrate.

A lot of these immigrants, due to persecution in their native lands and/or strong beliefs in the Zionist ideal, are happy to build settlements (legally or otherwise) on Palestinian lands inside the West Bank or in East Jerusalem. FWIW, many of these (sometimes illegal) settlers are American. There are now 350,000 settlers living in the West Bank and over 200,000 living in East Jerusalem. A big reason for these settlements is to establish "facts on the ground," thereby cementing Israeli dominance over these lands.

Meanwhile, any discussion of Palestinian "right of return" for refugees of the 1948 or 1967 wars is formally off-the-table in any Israel-Palestine talks. How do you think you'd feel if you were born in Hebron, Jerico, Ramallah or Bethlehem? I guarantee you'd be at little less sympathetic to Israel, its Zionist ideals, 30' concrete walls and humiliating treatment within them.

I was as strongly pro-Israel as any American until I went there the first time in 1983. I've now been there over 5 weeks on several visits and covered virtually every square inch of the place from Eilat to the Golan Heights. I've also been all over the West Bank, but never in Gaza (though very close). Now I'm able to see both sides and am unwilling to demonize or dehumanize Palestinians, even if I disapprove of their tactics and intransigence. They deserve a lot better than they're getting from their leadership and Israel.

I know Isreal used to let only few thousand people per day from Gaza go to work in Isreal, and workers could only go through one of three security checkpoints on the border. Another checkpoint was for trucks and shipping and sometimes trucks would have to wait days to get their shipment through the wall. I can't imagine that being very profitable for loads of perishable produce. Isreal of course claims that this is all for security purposes, but it kind of makes you wonder why the need for security. Hmmm. Definitely a perpetual dilemma. I have heard stories from people who have been there that say Isrealis blocked roads inside Gaza that make people commute 45 minutes for what used to take 5 minutes. Fences went up through pastures so people had to travel long distances to tend to livestock that is pastured in what used to be their back yard. I think a lot of people don't understand the Palestinian life very well or how the Isreali treat them. The Palestinians might not be doing the right thing, but what is the right thing. Exercises in futility are often spawned by frustration.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by mpholland

I know Isreal used to let only few thousand people per day from Gaza go to work in Isreal, and workers could only go through one of three security checkpoints on the border. Another checkpoint was for trucks and shipping and sometimes trucks would have to wait days to get their shipment through the wall. I can't imagine that being very profitable for loads of perishable produce. Isreal of course claims that this is all for security purposes, but it kind of makes you wonder why the need for security. Hmmm. Definitely a perpetual dilemma. I have heard stories from people who have been there that say Isrealis blocked roads inside Gaza that make people commute 45 minutes for what used to take 5 minutes. Fences went up through pastures so people had to travel long distances to tend to livestock that is pastured in what used to be their back yard. I think a lot of people don't understand the Palestinian life very well or how the Isreali treat them. The Palestinians might not be doing the right thing, but what is the right thing. Exercises in futility are often spawned by frustration.

Thanks for posting this.

This is the other side of the story which you will never hear from the US mainstream media. I became aware of these issues from listening to "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman.

I would be interested to see responses to this post from our pro-Israeli posters.

[finnbow]

"Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we deplore their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate."

- Moshe Dayan at the funeral of a settler killed in a kibbutz near Gaza in 1956.

The people in Gaza have essentially been in a refugee camp for over 65 years now.