Apparently, this year they are making one scenario about Israeli checkpoints in Palestine. A student wrote in and complained about it. I quote her letter below in its entirety. Following the letter will be my reply, one that first outlines problems in this letter, and then explains exactly what checkpoints are, how they affect Palestinian lives, and why it is not one-sided. Here is the letter:

I am a senior at Boise State majoring in Business. I am writing this letter as a response to the proposed theme of this year’s “Tunnel of Oppression” that is put on yearly at BSU by your students. I am an Observant Jew and not only a supporter of the State of Israel but also of the proposed Palestinian State. The Palestinian people have lived in the land of Israel for a very long time and deserve a sovereign nation of their own. I have studied both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian situation and feel that I can write this letter in complete confidence of my knowledge.

A reliable source contacted me and forwarded me both the Youtube video entitled “Pregnant Palestinian Stopped at an Israeli Checkpoint!” which was apparently shown to the students in your class, and the proposed outline for the ‘Checkpoint’ scene in your tunnel. After reading the proposed idea and viewing the Youtube clip, I felt alarmed at the blatant one-sidedness and appalling misinformation that is portrayed by your project. You are portraying an Israel that only exists in western (and eastern – the blood libel has reappeared recently in Arab newspapers) media, the great “Zionist oppressor” that only the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talk about. (I have personal friends that are Israeli and have served with pride in the Israel Defense Forces and they would be the first to tell you that none of it is true. I have personal friends that have lived in and visit Israel regularly and who are equally comfortable around Israelis and Palestinians.)

You are forgetting the other side of the story. Why don’t you tell your students to imagine Idaho being hit by several thousand rockets fired by a fringe-group of extremists from Canada? Why don’t you tell them the truth, which is that the checkpoints exist only because they must? There is a reason that every mall, Synagogue, school, and Mosque requires armed guards; it’s not because Israelis like being searched at every destination, it is due to the very real, everyday threat of terrorist attacks funded and supported by Islamist fanaticism. Why don’t you tell your students to imagine being killed by a suicide bomber during Christmas dinner at a local hotel? You’re forgetting that part. You also fail to mention that the Palestinians are regularly cared for at Israeli hospitals by staffs that comprise of both Jews and Muslims that work together seamlessly on a daily basis, treating peoples of all races, religions, creeds, and political affiliations. But I don’t need to mention any more because there is no truth to the portrayal of Israel and Israelis suggested for this farce.

This presentation is not only one-sided but also blatantly anti-Semitic. The representation of American Christians as being duped by a hidden cabal of Shylock-esque Israelis is clear. The Muslims are clearly supposed to be the helpless victims in this caricature, the Christians clueless but well-meaning, and the Jews are left to be characterized as bloodthirsty thugs “aroused by the sudden chaos” into beating civilians at random. I believe any Jew would be offended by this.

I have already made Boise’s small but very close-knit Jewish community aware of this atrocity along with the Idaho Statesman and the Arbiter. If you decide to allow this presentation to continue as it is written, I will contact the Anti-Defamation League and the ACLU for blatant Anti-Semitism on a college campus. I am in the process of forming a group of Israelis, American Jews, and fellow supporters of Israel of all faiths to protest your Tunnel of Oppression and hand out fliers from standwithus.org that show in plain fact, the truth in the Holy Land.

Dear Comrades,

The first claim this student makes is that Palestinians have lived "on the land of Israel" for a "very long time." Actually, Palestinians have always lived in Palestine NOT Israel; Israel did not exist before 1948. These Palestinians have been and are Muslims, Christians, and Jews. In fact, the city of Nablus, where I now live, is home to a community of Jews called Samaritans. These Jews identify as Palestinian Jews and when the state of Israel was created, they refused to move to the other side of the Green Line (the 1949 Armistice Line also known as the pre-1967 border). The Jewish Zionists who came to Palestine, starting in the late 19th century to colonize the land were European, also known as Ashkenazi Jews. They use the language of "return" to suggest that they were originally from here. But Israeli historian Shlomo Sand makes it clear that this is a myth; these Jews who colonized Palestine and ethnically cleansed the land of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 were Jews who converted to Judaism in Russia and Europe.

Second, the student argues that the Tunnel is only presenting one side of the story. I think what s/he really means is not that it's one-sided, but rather that it is not the side that s/he wishes to have at the forefront. The fact of the matter is: if you live in the U.S. and you breathe you get the other side of the the story on a daily basis. If you watch the presidential and vice presidential debates you not only hear the word Israel numerous times, you also hear the candidates' profession of love for Israel. In contradistinction, the word Palestine or Palestinian is never mentioned. That, my dear comrades, is one sided. The reason that some of us who do work in the U.S. trying to educate people about Palestine do not tell the so-called other side of the story is that we are working to bring to bear a side that is not represented, that is vigorously silenced. The only way one can understand the issue of sides is to think about the fact that the two sides are of colonizer and colonized. Of occupier and occupied. Imagine, for instant, that we wanted to present a narrative of slavery in the U.S. Would we (meaning those who oppose human rights violations, oppression) tell that story from the point of view of the slave owner? Or what if we wanted to tell a story about what happened in to gay people, Jehovah's Witnesses, handicapped people, and Jews in Nazi Germany--would we tell that story through the eyes of Adolf Hitler? Or if we wanted to talk about violence against Mexicans crossing the U.S. border would we use Chris Simcox of the Minute Men to tell that story? Or if we wanted to narrate a piece about the Native American genocide would we rely upon the words of those who conquered and colonized the Americas? I think you get my point.

The analogy s/he tries to draw with a made-up scenario of Canadians firing rockets into the U.S. doesn't quite work. One would have to tweak the scenario a bit. It would work as an analogy if about 60 years before the rockets started firing Americans had invaded, stolen and conquered Canada. If Americans massacred thousands of Canadians. If Americans made 750,000 Canadians refugees for 60 years. If throughout that time Americans stole Canadian homes, water, agricultural lands, murdered innocent civilians on a daily basis, built a 20 foot high concrete wall to confiscate more land and water and displace more people. If Americans set up a system of controlling Canadians through over 650 checkpoints on a daily basis. If Americans invaded Canadian homes, villages, and refugee camps every day, killing civilians and kidnapping them to warehouse 11,000 Canadians in American jails. If all of these things--and so much more--were true, then we would understand, I think, why Canadians would be firing rockets on to American soil. They would be using armed resistance and they would be legally allowed to do so under international law. (Oh, and by the way, there are no rockets being fired by Palestinians in the West Bank, where all 650 checkpoints are into Israel.) Moreover, armed resistance in Palestine has only in recent years had become Islamic. Over the course of Palestinian resistance for the last few decades it has been predominantly secular, and oftentimes Communist. The rise of Hamas after the first intifada had a lot to do with the state of Israel itself bolstering Hamas as a way to weaken the then-stronger Fatah movement. This should come as no surprise as colonial regimes have always relied upon the tactic of divide and rule. The latest phase of this meddling in Hamas-Fatah politics, including U.S. involvement, was revealed in an article in Vanity Fair last year.

A third point the student brings up is about Antisemitism. S/he compares creating a scene about Israeli checkpoints in Palestine to blood libel. First, blood libel is certainly anti-Semitic; it involves a mythology about Jews using the blood of children for their matzah during their holiday Passover. The mythology is just that. Anti-Semitism actually refers to prejudice directed at any of the three peoples who speak or spoke one of the three Semitic languages: Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic. But over the course of the last century--and more specifically, since World War II--Jews have worked to dislodge the original meaning of the word to only mean anti-Jewish. But even if we take this Zionist definition of the word at face value, through this student's logic being anti-Jewish is the same as being anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist. These are three distinct categories. I think the first is self explanatory. The second, being anti-Israel, means critiquing the state of Israel and its policies. It is no different than critiquing the U.S. for its policies. But because the state of Israel is a Jewish state by definition (legally speaking there is no Israeli nationality; on Israeli Jews' identity cards it reads "Jewish" and some Israelis have tried to change this in court without success) some people choose to conflate the two. Importantly, there are many Palestinians who also live inside what is now Israel, all of whom are subjected to a set of laws that resemble Jim Crow segregation in the U.S. One must be Jewish to have equal rights in the state of Israel. The third term, Zionism, is an ideology. People who believe in Zionism believe that Jews have a right to conquer and settle a land even though that land, Palestine, belongs to an indigenous population, the Palestinians. This ideology began as a secular one, though there are of course religious Zionists today, many living in illegal settlements in the West Bank. One of the primary tactics used to silence people who wish to speak about the reality here in Palestine is to call them anti-Semitic in order to get them to shut up. It is worth noting that this tactic is especially used by the Israel lobby (organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] as well as the Anti-Defamation League [ADL] this student refers to in her/his letter) to force politicians to submit to unconditional support of Israel. Barack Obama is a perfect example of this as before he ran for office he had strong personal and political relationships with Palestinian Americans in Illinois. In any case, those of us who are committed to justice and human rights for Palestinians and all oppressed people around the world, the issue is not bashing a state. Rather, it is asking that state to comply with international law and uphold human rights; when a state violates these codes it deserves to be critiqued and challenged at the very least. The organizations this student is working with in the threats directed at you are Zionist organizations of the worst order. The ADL and Stand With Us disguise work that they do as upholding human rights. In fact, these organizations are stealth. In Congress and on American university campuses alike they work on a number of levels to ensure that nothing negative is ever said about the state of Israel. They work to silence student activism on the subject and by equal measure they work to fire or make sure faculty are not tenured if they conduct research on Palestine or are critical of Israel. Just following the ADL's campaign against Jimmy Carter for writing Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid, which was in many ways very tame and did not go far enough to explain the horrors that Israel unleashes on Palestinians every day and you may get a sense of what I mean. These organizations try to work with people of color in the U.S. united under some kind of "we're all oppressed" banner; but the reality is that most Jews in the U.S. are white folks like me. They have white privilege and use it to their advantage. I'll give you an example. The "Tunnel of Oppression" originated at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. I went there a few years ago thinking that it would be a museum highlighting the oppression of all peoples. I was horrified to see that in fact 90% of it was about a history of anti-Jewish persecution and the remaining 10% about African Americans and Native Americans; this is especially appalling when you measure the number of indigenous people who suffered genocide under the hands of brutal European colonialism. No other genocide in history can quite match this. For me what this is all about is a kind of Jewish supremacy (I use this term with a nod to white supremacy). What I mean by this is that such organizations like the ADL which feign interest in the suffering of other people always do so with an eye towards making sure that no one ever compares their suffering to what happened to Jews during World War II. Take a look, too, at the Washington DC Holocaust Museum. They have a genocide watch page which tracks more recent genocide around the world. But they are very clear that the world holocaust can never be used again to describe the suffering of any other people. And it is worth asking the question: why is it that we have a museum about something that happened in Europe in Washington DC? This museum was erected before the Native American museum was built and we still have no such museum about slavery or the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. But you don't have to go that far to see how this works. The Idaho Human Rights Education Center chose to build an Anne Frank memorial. Why is that exactly? The land on which Boise as a city, or the monument more specifically, is land that once belonged to tribes who were forcibly removed, ethnically cleansed, massacred, and who now live on reservations in Idaho. Why is it that we are not looking at those human rights violations? And on the adjacent memorial wall, why are there no quotes by any Arabs or Muslims?

So the checkpoints. From the letter I gather that you all chose to do a scene this year about the checkpoints here in Palestine. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) released a report this week updating the number of checkpoints in the West Bank. As of this week there are 630 such military checkpoints. These checkpoints take various forms. One is a permanent structure that is like a land border crossing as if you are crossing an international border. Right now, as far as I know, these only exist if you are going to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is part of Palestine (however the Annexation Wall has annexed Jerusalem in such a way that if you want to go there you must cross through one of these checkpoints. If you are on foot, you walk through a maze of steel turnstiles, each one locking you inside the next space (there are several such spaces you must walk through in order to pass). The first one checks your ID card (Palestinians have several kinds of IDs: 1) if you live in 1948 or what is now known as Israel; 2) if you live in Jerusalem; 3) if you live in the West Bank; 4) if you live in Gaza. Depending on your ID you may or may not be allowed to cross. And even if you have proper papers, you still may not be allowed to pass (sometimes even if you have legitimate papers from an embassy or from a hospital in Israel the soldiers will most often turn you away). After the double ID check you are locked into an area where it resembles an airport as you are required to walk through a metal detector and then put your bag on a metal detection machine. Only here in some of these checkpoints there are armed soldiers pointing guns at you from planks above as you do this. Then there is yet another hoop at the end where you must put your hand on a computer-generated hand print machine before you may pass. And even then, you still may not be able to pass. Everything is at the whim of the soldiers. There are not any laws here; even Israeli laws do not apply to the West Bank. The law is basically the whim of a soldier on a particular day.

A couple of examples. A few years ago I was taking a friend to the American consulate in Jerusalem because she was going to study in the U.S. We had all the proper papers and an appointment at the consulate. She was 19 years old at the time. We went to the checkpoint, but they refused to let us go through to Jerusalem from Bethlehem. Another example, from a couple of years ago: I was with a couple of girlfriends in a rented car driving from Ramallah to Bethlehem. We drove through a checkpoint, known as the Container Checkpoint, which is in a neighborhood of Jerusalem called Abu Dies. We were told we could not pass because I there was a foreigner in the car with Palestinians. On that night--it was around 9 PM--we were told that it's illegal for foreigners and Palestinians to be in the same car. Another example: a few weeks ago a student invited me home for iftar (breaking the fast during Ramadan). The checkpoint near Nablus (the city I live in) is called Huwarra. By all accounts it is the worst (meaning the soldiers are the most lethal and violent with the people and are least likely to allow you to pass in either direction) checkpoint in the West Bank. This checkpoint is outdoors like the old ones used to be when you would go to Jerusalem. You just stand in line and wait for hours, especially if you are a Palestinian man, and this waiting is entirely a form of harassment. Most of the time we stand and watch the soldiers laughing, talking on the phone, eating, hanging out, even playing cards, rather than allow us to cross. This checkpoint, by the way, is deep inside the West Bank. It is nowhere near the Green Line or the Israeli-imposed border. Crossing Huwarra means crossing from one Palestinian area to another--which is the case for at least 80% of these checkpoints. On this day the soldiers were standing on the railing above us, threatening to shoot us. One of the women in line asked me to go speak to the soldier. I did, though I lost my cool, and called him a name he didn't like. He told me that my choices were either to go to prison or home.

There is another kinds of checkpoint, too. This is called a "flying checkpoint." These are checkpoints that move from place to place every day and you never know where they will be. They are always in a different location. If you would like to have more of a context for checkpoints in general, there are reports on the Israeli human rights organization B'tselem's website.

Why do the checkpoints exist? The student who wrote to you would have it that they exist for "security" reasons. But for whose security? United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, written at the end of the 1967 war in which Israel conquered and annexed Gaza and the West Bank, it was made clear that:

Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,

UN Resolution 242 has been the main document used in all negotiations between the state of Israel and Palestinians. However, since 1967 the state of Israel has been in direct violation of this UN Resolution, as well as a host of others (most importantly UN Resolution 194, which states that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to their homes, and which UN Resolution 242 upholds later in the document). One of the ways it has violated this resolution is by building illegal settlements. These settlements, or colonies, are illegal because they violate UN Resolution 242. It is also illegal because it violates the Fourth Geneva Convention which states:

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

The real reason for these checkpoints, which also prevent Palestinians from driving on Jewish-only roads, is to protect their illegal settlements. These settlements help to create facts on the ground; what this means is by continuing to build them and offer tremendous savings to Israelis who wish to live there (most who live in them do so because they can purchase houses for half the price of those inside the Green Line; the other population living in these settlements are religious Zionists who believe that it is their God-given right to occupy and control all of historic Palestine by force). There are also what is known as illegal "outposts" which are basically a group of mobile home units. Israelis come into the West Bank, plop them down, and presto, you have the beginning of an illegal settlement in the making. To give you a sense of what these facts on the ground mean in terms of checkpoints and the related military infrastructure here is a description of what Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions calls the "Matrix of Control":

A second set of controls derives from Israel's policy of "creating facts on the ground" - virtually all of them in violation of international law (including the Fourth Geneva Convention signed by Israel itself). These include:

* Massive expropriation of Palestinian land;

* Construction of more than 200 settlements and the transfer of 400,000 Israelis across the 1967 boundaries: about 200,000 in the West Bank, 200,000 in East Jerusalem and 6000 in Gaza (the latter occupying a fourth of the land, including most of the coastline);

* Carving the Occupied Territories into areas -- Areas "A," "B," "C," "D" in the West Bank; "H-1" and "H-2" in Hebron; Yellow, Green, Blue and White Areas in Gaza; nature reserves; closed military areas, security zones, and "open green spaces" of restricted housing over more than half of Palestinian East Jerusalem - which confine the Palestinians to some 190 islands all surrounded by Israeli settlements, roads and checkpoints;

* Carving the Occupied Territories into areas -- Areas "A," "B," "C," "D" in the West Bank; "H-1" and "H-2" in Hebron; Yellow, Green, Blue and White Areas in Gaza; nature reserves; closed military areas, security zones, and "open green spaces" of restricted housing over more than half of Palestinian East Jerusalem - which confine the Palestinians to some 190 islands all surrounded by Israeli settlements, roads and checkpoints;

* A massive system of highways and by-pass roads designed to link settlements, to create barriers between Palestinian areas and to incorporate the West Bank into Israel proper;

* Imposing severe controls on Palestinian movement;

* Construction of seven industrial parks that give new life to isolated settlements, exploit cheap Palestinian labor while denying it access to Israel, rob Palestinian cities of their economic vitality, control key locations and ensure Israel's ability to continue dumping its industrial wastes onto the West Bank;

* Maintaining control over aquifers and other vital natural resources;

* Exploiting holy places (Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and others in and around Jerusalem) as pretexts for maintaining a "security presence," and hence military control.

This carving up of the Palestinian landscape is done with the Jewish-only roads, the illegal settlements, and, of course, the checkpoints. You can't isolate one from the other. For instance, because it is a Jewish holiday right now we are under what is called "closure." This means everyone who lives in the West Bank is sealed up and everyone basically becomes a prisoner of their own village or city.

There is violence that targets Palestinians every day. Some of it comes from these illegal Israeli settlers that the Israeli army is here to protect. Some of it comes from the army itself. Here are some recent links about the checkpoints and also about its context.

The Israeli army forces Palestinian men to remove their cloths at a checkpoint near Jenin city

Palestinian toddler almost dies due to Israeli checkpoint

World Bank: Israeli siege is strangling Palestinian economy

Three Palestinian residents wounded by Israeli army fire at a Nablus checkpoint

UN facing increased delays at Israeli checkpoints

Settlers increase attacks on Palestinians as olive picking season begins

UN says number of West Bank checkpoints on the rise

Gaza patients continue painful wait for urgent medical treatment

Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory 25 Sep. 08 Oct. 2008

Rights org: Eight years of intifada, international failure

I hope this offers you some context and I hope it gives you some tools to fight the silencing work of Zionist students on campus.

In solidarity,
Marcy

[caption id="attachment_1368" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Israeli Checkpoints in the West Bank"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1369" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Qalandia Checkpoint, summer 2005"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1370" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Qalandia Checkpoint, summer 2005"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1371" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flying Checkpoint, Abu Dis (summer 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1372" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flying Checkpoint, Abu Dis (summer 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1373" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Approaching Checkpoint sign, Jerusalem (summer 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1374" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Jerusalem Checkpoint (summer 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1375" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bethlehem Checkpoint (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1376" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flying Checkpoint, Abu Dis (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1377" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Qalandia Checkpoint (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1378" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Qalandia Checkpoint (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1379" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Hebron Checkpoint, inside the Old City (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1380" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Hebron Checkpoint (inside the old city) (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1381" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Beit Jala Checkpoint (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1382" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bethlehem Checkpoint (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1383" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flying Checkpoint, Beit Sahour (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1384" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flying Checkpiont, Beit Sahour (fall 2005)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1385" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1386" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1387" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1388" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1389" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1390" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1391" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Bethelehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1392" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1393" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1394" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1395" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1396" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1397" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1398" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1399" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Qalandia Checkpont (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1400" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1401" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1402" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1403" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1404" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Qalandia Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1405" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (winter 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1406" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Bethlehem Checkpoint (summer 2006)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1407" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Handprint Detector, Bethlehem Checkpoint (fall 2007)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1408" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flying Checkpoint, Jenin (fall 2007)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1409" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Flying Checkpoint, Jenin (fall 2007)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1410" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Beit Hanina Checkpoint (fall 2007)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1411" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Huwwara Checkpoint, Nablus (fall 2008)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1412" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Huwwara Checkpoint, Nablus (fall 2008)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1413" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Huwwara Checkpoint under construction, Nablus (fall 2008)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1414" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Huwwara Checkpoint, Nablus (fall 2008)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1415" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New Huwwara Checkpoint Under Construction, Nablus (fall 2008)"][/caption] ]]> http://5pillar.wordpress.com/?p=8373 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:57:55 +0000 5-Pillar Scribe http://5pillar.tr.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/khudari-deplores-israel-for-barring-doctors-from-entering-gaza/ GAZA, (PIC)-- MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular committee against the siege, strongly denounced Wednesday the IOA for barring a medical delegation from the 1948 occupied lands from entering the Gaza Strip, saying that Israel wants to prevent any efforts to help the Gaza people.

In a press release received by the PIC, MP Khudari stated that the delegation is from the organization of physicians for human rights and was intending to perform surgeries and provide medical consultations for patients. >>>>>

Most of those contributors did identify themselves as living abroad in foreign cities. Under federal law, foreign citizens cannot make political contributions, but U.S. citizens living abroad can.

The Republican National Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday asking for an investigation of Obama's foreign contributions, among other things.

The FEC on Monday provided The Associated Press with a spread sheet of potential overseas donors that did not include contributors who left their state designation blank. As a result, the list was incomplete.

The $3.3 million total does not include donors who have given less than $200 and whose contributions do not have to be itemized. Some of that money could also have come from overseas. About half of Obama's $455 million in contributions so far are unitemized. The campaign does not identify those donors.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, speaking to reporters en route to Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, noted that anyone can donate to the campaign through the Internet. "We monitor these things as best we can," he said.

Shirey: Senator, as a retired Navy chief, my thoughts are often with those who serve our country. I know both candidates, both of you, expressed support for Israel.

If, despite your best diplomatic efforts, Iran attacks Israel, would you be willing to commit U.S. troops in support and defense of Israel? Or would you wait on approval from the U.N. Security Council?

McCain: Well, thank you, Terry (ph). And thank you for your service to the country.

I want to say, everything I ever learned about leadership I learned from a chief petty officer. And I thank you, and I thank you, my friend. Thanks for serving.

Let -- let -- let me say that we obviously would not wait for the United Nations Security Council. I think the realities are that both Russia and China would probably pose significant obstacles.

And our challenge right now is the Iranians continue on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons, and it's a great threat. It's not just a threat -- threat to the state of Israel. It's a threat to the stability of the entire Middle East.

If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, all the other countries will acquire them, too. The tensions will be ratcheted up.

What would you do if you were the Israelis and the president of a country says that they are -- they are determined to wipe you off the map, calls your country a stinking corpse?

Now, Sen. Obama without precondition wants to sit down and negotiate with them, without preconditions. That's what he stated, again, a matter of record.

I want to make sure that the Iranians are put enough -- that we put enough pressure on the Iranians by joining with our allies, imposing significant, tough sanctions to modify their behavior. And I think we can do that.

I think, joining with our allies and friends in a league of democracies, that we can effectively abridge their behavior, and hopefully they would abandon this quest that they are on for nuclear weapons.

But, at the end of the day, my friend, I have to tell you again, and you know what it's like to serve, and you know what it's like to sacrifice, but we can never allow a second Holocaust to take place.

Brokaw: Sen. Obama?

Obama: Well, Terry, first of all, we honor your service, and we're grateful for it.

We cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. It would be a game-changer in the region. Not only would it threaten Israel, our strongest ally in the region and one of our strongest allies in the world, but it would also create a possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.

And so it's unacceptable. And I will do everything that's required to prevent it.

And we will never take military options off the table. And it is important that we don't provide veto power to the United Nations or anyone else in acting in our interests.

It is important, though, for us to use all the tools at our disposal to prevent the scenario where we've got to make those kinds of choices.

And that's why I have consistently said that, if we can work more effectively with other countries diplomatically to tighten sanctions on Iran, if we can reduce our energy consumption through alternative energy, so that Iran has less money, if we can impose the kinds of sanctions that, say, for example, Iran right now imports gasoline, even though it's an oil-producer, because its oil infrastructure has broken down, if we can prevent them from importing the gasoline that they need and the refined petroleum products, that starts changing their cost-benefit analysis. That starts putting the squeeze on them.

Now, it is true, though, that I believe that we should have direct talks -- not just with our friends, but also with our enemies -- to deliver a tough, direct message to Iran that, if you don't change your behavior, then there will be dire consequences.

If you do change your behavior, then it is possible for you to re-join the community of nations.

Now, it may not work. But one of the things we've learned is, is that when we take that approach, whether it's in North Korea or in Iran, then we have a better chance at better outcomes.

When President Bush decided we're not going to talk to Iran, we're not going to talk to North Korea, you know what happened? Iran went from zero centrifuges to develop nuclear weapons to 4,000. North Korea quadrupled its nuclear capability.

We've got to try to have talks, understanding that we're not taking military options off the table.

While this wasn't the vapid race to profess love that we saw when Joe Biden and Sarah Palin debated, it was equally disturbing. It is disturbing that these would-be leaders think that it is Iran that is the threat to stability in the region. There was no instability in the region until Americans and Europeans invaded the region and unleashed their war machine on Iraq. The U.S. invaded Iraq by its hyperbolic warmongering and by spreading unfounded fears and deceptions masquerading as facts that made this possible. The same is true when they misquote Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement about the Zionist state's existence. Ahmadinejad has said two key things on the subject: one, that Palestinians should not have had to pay for a European problem (i.e., the Nazi holocaust) and two, that the state of Israel is a racist, colonial state that should not exist. That does not mean that he is calling for a second holocaust. Rather, it means the Zionist regime is illegal and illegitimate. As illegitimate as the French in Algeria or as the English in India. By not talking about Palestinians as indigenous people whose rights have been violated for over 120 years, since Zionist colonialism began in earnest, and by bandying about words like "second holocaust" they play right into the hands of the Israeli lobby. They are continuing in this grand tradition of using the Nazi holocaust as a weapon to push through billions of dollars in military aid to the Zionist regime. Interesting that with all these fears about the economy not one American at this town hall can make the connection between this obscene amount of aid--obscene in its amount and obscene in terms of how it murders Palestinians and Lebanese on a regular basis--granted to the state of Israel and the economic woes that face the U.S. today.

But I also find it disturbing and disingenuous that the U.S. is constantly haranguing Iran about nuclear weapons they may have in the future, when the state of Israel has them NOW:

Most estimates, many based on evidence leaked in 1986 by Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, put the number of Israeli nuclear weapons at between 100 and 200. But other experts have said the number is as low as 60 or as high as 400.

The United Nations or the world community must regulate nuclear proliferation--and this, of course applies to the U.S., the only nation to use them against another nation and its own citizens--in a way that maintains equality among all nations.

But back to the settler colonial Zionists who occupy Palestine illegally. I posted a review of a new book by an Israeli historian last year, which seems to be coming out in English later this year. This important book by Shlomo Sand argues that the Jews who colonized Palestine had no historical relationship to this land. Jonathan Cook has a new review of the book in today's National:

Dr Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation – whose need for a safe haven was originally used to justify the founding of the state of Israel – is a myth invented little more than a century ago.

An expert on European history at Tel Aviv University, Dr Sand drew on extensive historical and archaeological research to support not only this claim but several more – all equally controversial.

In addition, he argues that the Jews were never exiled from the Holy Land, that most of today’s Jews have no historical connection to the land called Israel and that the only political solution to the country’s conflict with the Palestinians is to abolish the Jewish state....

Dr Sand’s main argument is that until little more than a century ago, Jews thought of themselves as Jews only because they shared a common religion. At the turn of the 20th century, he said, Zionist Jews challenged this idea and started creating a national history by inventing the idea that Jews existed as a people separate from their religion.

Equally, the modern Zionist idea of Jews being obligated to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism, he added.

“Zionism changed the idea of Jerusalem. Before, the holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. For 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem not because they could not return but because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came.”

The biggest surprise during his research came when he started looking at the archaeological evidence from the biblical era.

“I was not raised as a Zionist, but like all other Israelis I took it for granted that the Jews were a people living in Judea and that they were exiled by the Romans in 70AD.

“But once I started looking at the evidence, I discovered that the kingdoms of David and Solomon were legends. “Similarly with the exile. In fact, you can’t explain Jewishness without exile. But when I started to look for history books describing the events of this exile, I couldn’t find any. Not one.

“That was because the Romans did not exile people. In fact, Jews in Palestine were overwhelming peasants and all the evidence suggests they stayed on their lands.”

What Sand is saying is no different than Ahmadinejad. It's just coming from a different source. A source who has researched the subject extensively.

Starting tonight Jews will begin their Yom Kippur holiday. This is a holiday that asks Jews to atone for their sins. Let's examine some of them, shall we? Perhaps we can evaluate how the Jews of Israel are doing:

You shall not murder.

You shall not steal.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

It seems to me that the foundation of the Zionist state violates these three commandments, those that I personally find the most valuable of the ten. The entire history of the state of Israel is dependent upon violating these very commandments. But it is not just history. It is present-day reality. Take, for example, what happened here in Nablus last night:

The Palestine News reported that dozens of soldiers, members of the under-cover units of the Israeli military, supported by a number of military vehicles invaded on Tuesday morning the Al Far’a refugee camp, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and surrounded a number of homes while firing at random, several residents were wounded; one seriously.

Or, we could go to the recent past to look at how much death and destruction the Israeli Terrorist Forces have unleashed on Palestine since the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000:

Israeli forces have killed 5,526 Palestinians over the past eight years including 1,010 children under 18 and 340 women and girls, says a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) International and National Relations Department report released recently.

The report was released in commemoration of the eighth anniversary of Al-Aqsa Intifada, the second uprising of Palestinians in the occupied territories. According to the report, 664 of the victims were school students and 11 were journalists.

Furthermore, 33,000 Palestinians were injured and 15,000 suffered from the inhalation of tear gas. More than 7,500 citizens were disabled including 3,600 who were “permanently handicapped.”

The report also highlighted that 247 Gazans died as they were denied travel outside the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

With regards to demolition of houses, the PLO report recorded 8,300 demolitions including 900 houses in Jerusalem which Israeli authorities destroyed on the pretext that they were built without permits.

According to the report, over the past eight years, Israeli forces have detained more than 65,000 Palestinians, of whom 11,000 are still in Israeli jails. As a result of negligence and dire prison conditions, 76 prisoners died in custody since the beginning of the Intifada eight years ago.

As for military checkpoints and roadblocks, the PLO report stated that since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada, Israeli forces erected 93 checkpoints manned by Israeli soldiers and 537 roadblocks closing different routes across the West Bank using earth and rocks as well as huge cement blocks.

The report concluded with highlighting an escalation in assaults and harassments by Israeli settlers against Palestinian citizens, especially in Hebron in the southern West bank and Nablus in the north. According to the report, 167 Palestinians were killed at the hands of settlers since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada.

These checkpoints, illegal settlements, and house demolitions exist because the Zionists covet this land and steal more of it each day. This is, of course, in addition to the widespread murder and theft of people into Israeli jails each day. It seems to me that if such a holiday mattered or of Jews took their religion seriously they would repent and leave or repent and dismantle their state and make it a democratic state for all who live here without special privileges for Jews.

Of course for those of us living in Palestine this holiday also means another closure, lock down in other words. But of course, you didn't hear any of this in that debate last night, did you?

Playing Palestinians off Against Each Other

Ghassan Khatib

Latuff on Fatah, Hamas and Israel West Bank In spite of their recent fierce confrontations and the continuing hostile rhetoric, there are apparently three levels of direct and indirect dealings between Israel and Hamas of Gaza. A ceasefire was reached and is still maintained, negotiations are taking place through third parties on a likely prisoners' exchange and the two sides are exchanging views over the possible opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The most striking aspect of Hamas-Israel relations has been the success and duration of the ceasefire. It is worth noting, that since the resumption of violent confrontations between Israel and the Palestinians in 2000, this has been the most successful ceasefire to date. Based on that, the Israeli security establishment has already drawn its conclusions about the strength of Hamas and its willingness and ability to abide by its commitments. Palestinian fears of a possible development in the Hamas-Israel relationship are deeply rooted in the Islamic Resistance Movement's history. The late president Yasser Arafat repeated more than once in closed circles that during peace negotiations, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had expressed regret for the earlier Israeli involvement in supporting and encouraging the creation of Hamas. Israel did this during the first intifada in order to counterbalance the growing strength and influence of the PLO. Now, however, and judging by its behavior, Israel seems comfortable with Hamas' control over Gaza. In addition to undermining Palestinian aspirations for independence and statehood, the split between Hamas in Gaza and Fateh in the West Bank is causing each to compete with the other over who can better prevent Palestinian violence against Israel. The split, moreover, and Hamas' control over Gaza are reducing international pressure on Israel. Israel is thus free to continue its violations of international law, avoiding its responsibility to implement United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, expanding and building more illegal Jewish settlements in occupied territory and maintaining its draconian and inhuman closure policies in both the West Bank and on Gaza. Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, earlier this month published a report about a meeting between the top eight Palestinian security chiefs, most of whom are new appointees, and the Israeli army commander in the West Bank. The report revealed the extent of the security cooperation between the two sides, centered around the "common enemy", Hamas. The two seem to be anticipating an intensification of the confrontation with Hamas, including in the West Bank next January, when President Mahmoud Abbas' term as president ends. The irony is that on the one hand Israel is committed to a ceasefire and is conducting prisoner exchange negotiations with Hamas while on the other hand, Israel is supporting, training and coordinating with the West Bank Palestinian security services the continuation of the internal Palestinian confrontations and divisions. This would make sense if on the political level of relations, the two sides were moving toward an agreement on ending the occupation or at least stopping the expansion of Jewish settlements in occupied territories. This is not the case. The Israeli manipulation of the Palestinian leadership and its cooption during the Oslo process, with the consent of the international community, undermined that leadership, and led directly to the popularity of Hamas that ultimately secured its election victory in 2006. The current deepening of Israel-Hamas coordination and cooperation in Gaza and the continuing failure of the political negotiations to end the occupation will only enhance the current trends of radicalization and sustain the factors that caused the shift in the balance of power against the peace camp. -Ghassan Khatib is coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet publications. He is vice-president of Birzeit University and a former Palestinian Authority minister of planning. He holds a PhD in Middle East politics from the University of Durham. (Originally published in Bitterlemons.org, September 22, 2008) Source via

Durante varios años, grupos de derechos humanos han criticado al gobierno israelí por negar el acceso a los habitantes de Gaza  a recibir permisos para ser atenidos en hospitales en Israel, la ANP y Jordania. Aun asi los datos muestran el numero de pacientes que recibieron permisos para ser atendidos en Israel - o la ANP o Jordania - aumentaron en un 45% de los 4 932 en 2006, a los 7 176 en 2006, y siguieron aumetnando en los primeros seis meses de 2008, a pesar del aumento de los ataques con cohetes contra la población civil de Israel, incluyendo ataques con morteros y atentados terroristas dirigidos contra el cruce Erez utilizado por pacientes. Al mismo tiempo, han habido al menos 20 incidentes donde los palestinos utilizaron misiones medicas para intentar perpetrar atentados terroristas.

Elder of Ziyon nos ofrece una tabla mucho mas detallada con estos datos.

Logically a step like that requires cooperation and coordination between 3 countries: Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Operation like this requires different kind of weaponry and massive forces. According to Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, 15 thousand solider are being trainedin Ariha in Jordan with the help and supervision from the Americans. On the other hand, the IDF started assisting Fatah ahead from the expected violence, and the army agreed to deploy a platoon in Hebron, a Hamas stronghold. Moreover, the IDF pledged to assist Fatah in training and planning.

The problem is that this rally ignores 3 main problems that face Fatah and threaten its assault: first, the political failure of Fatah, which did not achieve any of the Palestinian demands. Second, the readiness of some Fatah leaders to give up some of the basic Palestinian principles like the right of return, Thirdly, centralizing the authority in handful members of the Palestinian authority and thus disregarding legal frames like PLO. According to leading Egyptian columnist Fahmi Howedi the cracks among the members of the Palestinian authority are far more greater than the ones between Fatah and Hamas. Howedi believes that its illogical to put the destiny of the Palestinian people in the hands of an authority that is worried by war between Ramallah and Gaza, especially as its authority has no international recognition, and that authority is a product of an agreement between the occupying country and the occupied people, such an agreement is based on many references none of them includes the rights of the Palestinian people.

"Israeli naval forces on Sunday opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off Gaza Strip shores, wounding at least one fisherman, medical sources said.

The sources said a gunshot hit the fisherman in his leg, wounding him moderately, adding that the incident took place in the waters of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza Strip which borders Egypt.

The shooting violated a fragile Egypt-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since June 2007.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources reported that the Israeli gunboats also fired at fishing boats in northern Gaza Strip and the west of Gaza City overnight. No injuries were reported."

Via Jews Sans Frontieres.

The U.S. government has met its target of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended on Sep. 30, and promises to admit more than 17,000 for the next year, in addition to 5,000 under a special visa programme.

Approximately 1.5 million Iraqi refuges live in Syria, Jordan and other neighbouring countries. Ninety thousand of them are seeking resettlement in the U.S., according to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Groups that advocate on behalf of refugees have praised the increased numbers of Iraqi refugees being resettled in the U.S. But considering the vast number that are seeking resettlement, the groups say the U.S. is still not doing enough.

"The U.S. certainly met its goal for this year, but next year's target of resettling 17,000 Iraqi refugees falls far short of what is needed," said Kristele Younes of Refugees International.

and, a short clip that also appeared on al jazeera today is a first-person piece from bangladesh talking about the relationship between the u.s., climate change, and increasing numbers of environmental refugees:

meanwhile, america's parter in crime, the zionist regime, is up to its usual tricks: killing palestinians, destroying the environment, and abusing workers.

In August, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the international watchdog organization, asked three Israeli companies to respond to a report by an Israeli non-governmental organization that protested the treatment of Palestinian workers at West Bank settlement industrial parks. Kav LaOved, which is concerned with the rights of migrant and Palestinian workers employed in Israel and Israel's illegal settlements, reported on the rising number of claims by Palestinian workers employed in West Bank settlements following an October 2007 Israeli high court ruling that the country's labor laws applied in the settlements.

Amongst the companies whose labor practices were criticized in the Kav LaOved report was Royalnight, a textile manufacturer owned by Royalife. In 2003, Royalife established a factory in the Barkan Industrial Park located near the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank. Royalnight's sheet sets, bed skirts, quilted blankets, and decorated pillows are exported to and marketed in the United States and Europe. According to Kav LaOved's report, Palestinian workers who come from all over the West Bank have to work under poor health and safety conditions at Royalnight's textile plant. To evade liability, work permits are issued under the name of a different employer, and workers employed through a Palestinian contractor are paid less.

In 1999, the United Nations Economic and Social Council criticized the practice of Israeli companies, including most of those operating in the Barkan park, moving their factories to the West Bank to escape the higher health and environment standards applicable in Israel. Kav LaOved states in its report that the Royalnight textile plant is no different: "Health and safety standards are poor, the working environment is noisy and the air is full of fabric dust. Most work is carried out standing, and the workers take five minutes breaks at their own expense."

The report adds: "[Workers] complain of exposure to dangerous cleaning substances and of working near cutting machines lacking safety devices. The company does not employ a Health and Safety official and the workers have received no instructions or cautions regarding possible dangers of operating machinery."

In an unsigned letter, Royalife replied to the Business and Human Rights Centre's query and the allegations raised by Kav LaOved: "All complaints are not correct. While Western Europe and the United States moved the industry to countries like Pakistan, India, China, with much lower labor costs, we tried to keep the textile industry in our region, enabling income to the people who live in the area."

However, Kav LaOved writes that Barkan Industrial Park is "away from the eye of the law. Israeli employers have found ways of evading the high court ruling by for instance issuing pay slips with false attendance reports. The normal practice is to register fewer working days than those actually worked, so it appears that the minimum wage is being paid." According to the report, "workers employed through a Palestinian contractor are paid between six and eight shekels an hour, whereas workers employed directly by the factory are paid between nine and 11 shekels an hour." At the time of writing, 3.5 shekels was the approximate equivalent to one US dollar.

Palestinian workers from the occupied territories were once widely employed inside Israel. But following the Oslo Accords, Israel has dramatically reduced the number of work permits issued to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since April 2006, Gazans are no longer able to receive work permits for employment inside Israel or its West Bank settlements at all. Those in the West Bank who do receive the permits find that they are only valid for three months at a time and Israel's severe movement restrictions make it difficult for even permit-holders to reach their places of employment.

Israel's closures have significantly contributed to rampant unemployment and underemployment in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where 33 percent and 80 percent of the population, respectively, is dependent on international food assistance, according to an April 2008 report by the International Labour Organization. The World Bank has identified Israel's closure and movement restriction regime as a leading cause of the rapid deterioration of the Palestinian economy.

The dire economic situation means more Palestinians are forced to seek work in Israel's illegal settlements, where they are vulnerable to exploitation. Palestinian human rights organizations have reported that Palestinian workers are coerced into collaboration with Israeli security services to receive the permits necessary to work in the settlements and inside Israel.

So far, Royalnight has gone unpunished for its profitable exploitation of Palestinian workers in its settlement manufacturing plant. The goods it exports are likely marked as "Made in Israel" even though the Barkan Industrial Park where its sewing factory is located is built in violation of international law on stolen Palestinian land. However, there is a growing movement to hold companies like Royalife accountable. Earlier this year Barkan Wineries terminated its lease at the Barkan Industrial Park and moved its operations inside the internationally-recognized boundary between the West Bank and Israel, following a campaign against the company's settlement operations that tarnished its image (the company, however, still owns a vineyard in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights). As the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel's rights violations increasingly gains momentum, the exploitation of Palestinian labor by Israeli companies operating on occupied land will surely come under further scrutiny.

Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate.

still questioning the logic of boycott?

Young Palestinians continue to dig tunnels despite the risk of collapse [GALLO/GETTY]

Hundreds of tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt are keeping many of the Palestinian territory's 1.5 million impoverished residents supplied with food and fuel.

On Saturday, Egyptian authorities found the entrances of three tunnels and confiscated a large amount of fuel about to be smuggled into the territory.

Sources say there are more than 6,000 Palestinians employed in the clandestine industry, which merchants say is heavily controlled by the Hamas authorities.

Strict rules are imposed on what can be brought in - weapons, drugs and people-trafficking are prohibited - and tunnel operators are taxed.

Ehab Gheissen, a spokesman for the interior ministry in the deposed Hamas-led government, said: "It is the right of the Palestinian people to do whatever they can to break the siege they live under.

"They have a right to do whatever they can to get what they need, including through tunnels, but at the same time we are watching all of the things that are being brought in."

Basic necessities

The tunnels were previously used to smuggle weapons to fight the Israeli occupation, but the blockade that was enforced after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 has made the smuggling of basic supplies a necessity.

Shortages have sent prices of flour and milk soaring, and the industry established around the tunnel smuggling system is now worth millions of dollars.

Sami Abdel Shafi, a Gaza-based business analyst, said: "These days, most of the anecdotal evidence we hear is that the tunnels are being used to bring in very human items, for lack of proper medicine in the Gaza Strip.

"They are used to bring in shoes, chocolate and 7-Up, things like that.

"Then again, all of the quantities being brought in are being blown out of proportion I feel, 1.5 million people deserve a lot more than having to operate under ground, they deserve a much better chance at operating an economy above ground."

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin visited a nondescript warehouse in Rafah where one tunnel operator was waiting for merchants to pick up the goods that they had ordered.
About 6,000 Palestinians are said to be engaged in smuggling through the tunnels [EPA]

A diverse range of items, such as cigarettes, teacups and spare parts for motorcycles, were among the items awaiting collection.

But no matter how important the tunnels are in keeping the Palestinian economy going, there is a human cost. At least 35 people have died in the tunnels since the beginning of the year, according to the UN.

General Mahmoud Khalaf, a military analyst, told Al Jazeera that the tunnels should not be seen as a lifeline for the Palestinians.

"These tunnels are not neccessary, and illegal procedures should not be used to transport goods," he said.

"The fact that these tunnels are seen as vital is an allegation perpetrated by Hamas to justify these actions. But yes, I do admit the Israeli-imposed siege has made life harder, but I believe these means are not the way forward."

Tunnel dangers

Abu Mohammed lost his son and a brother when the tunnel they were digging fell in on them. Since then, he has stopped his other children from going down the tunnels.

"What can we do? We have to eat and they were making money for the family. But now, I won't allow them to work no matter how poor we are. It's just not right," he told Al Jazeera.

Egypt is under pressure from Israel to crack down on the tunnels, some of which are in sight of the border police.

Cairo says it is making efforts to halt the trade, and the UN says that during a two-day period in August, 28 tunnels were destroyed by the authorities.

Mohyeldin reported that some Palestinians even boast that the Egyptians will never be able to shut all the tunnels because it is also a lucrative trade for many Egyptians.

But Abdel Shafi warns that longer the tunnels remain a lifeline, the more it will undermine the chances of a proper Palestinian economy being developed.

"It will have catastrophic consequences in the long term, even if it does provide or alleviate some of the need for the moment," he said.

"The Gaza Strip cannot be sustained on the operations of the tunnels."

In Gaza, 85 per cent of the population relies on aid and unemployment is running at 45 per cent.

Source

Much of the Arab World seems to me (an American) to be obsessed with Shakespeare!  Yes, I do think there is a place for Shakespeare in the literature curriculum, but I think it is being entirely overdone.  I think one or (certainly not more than three) Shakespeare plays should be included in the curriculum, but other time should be spent on more interesting and valuable literature.

I spoke with some British friends I have who told me that British children are started on reading Shakespeare at age 11!  When I asked what for, one of them finally told me that knowledge of Shakespeare is used as an adult mainly to impress other adults.  OK, I'm American, and I find much of the language terribly hard to understand.  I really can't see it being useful to most people to learn much of this sort of antiquidated language.  Yet, throughout the Arab World, so many university programs seem to focus on extensive reading of Shakespeare!

About fifteen years ago, I had a friend from Libya.  He went on and on about how when he was in school, they had performed Shakespeare's plays in Arabic, using all the correct classical Arabic endings for words (as opposed to using the local dialet of Arabic).   People in my present country have told me similar things.

Where I live now, I often have country nationals who have earned university degrees in English (as a second or third language) talk to me about how they read a lot of Shakespeare in university.  At the same time, their command of ordinary English vocabulary is often lacking.  Some of them cannot write clear English sentences.  Wouldn't the time spend studying Shakespeare be better spent in English composition classes, and/or reading literature that uses language currently used, particularly when they are subsequently in jobs requiring a good command of English?

Eileen

The next event was the beginning of the USA's brutal attack on Afghanistan in 2001.  I was always against that war.  Afghanistan had offered to hand over bin Laden if the USA would only produce evidence (as is the international norm for extradition requests).  The US considered it not necessary to hand over evidence and decided it would be better to bomb Afghanistan.  The bombing caused untold sufferring as millions of people were forced to flee the bombs as the cold and severe winter was starting.  The sufferring continues today with bombings of wedding parties, killing women and children and innocent Afghanistani civilians. 

In October 2002, the Senate gave Bush war powers to attack Iraq and of course Bush signed it into law, and you know what a utter disaster that has been.

Not so much and event, but a UN report came out in October 2003 which stated that 1 billion people on the earth live in slums.

In October 2004 the US pursued a murderous seige of the city of Fallujah in Iraq.

In October 2006, the Johns Hopkins report came out estimating 655,000 excess deaths in Iraq attributable to the war.

It is notable that the Dow hit 14,000 in October 2007 since now in 2008, we see it dipping below 10,000. 

The beginning of the end of the financial world as we know it occurring this October and the events of 2000 and 2001 are the ones that stand out the most in my mind though.  The collapse Babylon right now sickens me as I think of all of the people that are losing their retirement money.  Even a few days ago I felt a twisted pleasure at the writhing I perceived on Wall Street since I really don't like the way the world is ruled by money.  However, I don't like to see people suffer and that is what I am starting to see.  October is not a good month.  It's a month of fasting and prayer if you ask me.  It's a month of getting closer to God so that we can be found standing in holy places when everything around us dissappears into a puff of smoke.  I recall the words of Paul when he said that everything we can see is not real.  The only things that are real are the things we can't see.  The mirage of the security of the world is about to go poof.  Then we shall see things as they really are.  It's not going to be pretty so we'd better make sure we put our trust in the right place.  God bless you my brothers and sisters.