Occupied Quds

By Geoffrey Cook, Muslim Media News Service (MMNS)

Berkeley–I am continuing my sporadic series on contemporary Palestine. I have extended the name of the Arab of the Holy Land to Quds, Jerusalem, and its rightful capital!

This past week nuclear Israel made a massive (“secret,” sic) non-nuclear air attack against its neighbor Syria. This is a live conflict, and the weak Palestinians are at the center of it.

Except for one American Likudite that I know, most American Jews are almost universally highly critical of Tel Aviv, and downright ashamed of their policies.

An American (non settler) Jewess reported to me on the myriad military checkpoints she saw dotted over the West Bank over her year’s residence on the West Bank. These blockades close at 7 P.M. — even preventing women from reaching hospitals – at the worst losing their children in childbirth!

Jewish pioneers are invited to come to colonize the land by their political Center. The Hebrew State has built an extensive scheme for their citizens to build and develop Islamic land. 80% of the immigrants believe it is their God-given right to occupy indigenous terrain. Further, The U.S. has subsidized this land grab! The Fundamentalists (mostly Orthodox) do not believe the Muslims and the Christian minorities have a right to be there! It is illegal for a Palestinian to possess a weapon to protect their families, but it is universally accepted for the colonists to be armed. The IDF (the Israel Defense Force) has been consistently driving out the villagers that the U.N. (United Nations) along with NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) peace groups support.

As I showed in an earlier article, a Zionist does not necessarily have to be Jewish. Whatever religion, they only have to accept the right of Right-wing Israelis to steal the land from the ancient possessors of the landscape.

The “Wall” (Security Fence) that is being built is not for security at all, but it is a land and resources grab by the Israelis from their neighbors. It goes deep into the West Bank stealing natural reserves. Succinctly, it separates the Palestinians from their territory. The people cannot access a third of their land! Israel has forced the Arabs from their homes. For instance a West Bank city of tens of tens of thousands has literarily been surrounded by one of these hideous walls. The citizens are bluntly separated from their ancestral soil. There is always the danger that their ground will be seized from them. It is a fact; too, that the United States even finances the flak jackets of the IDF guards around this “Wall.”

While still boys, young stone throwers are arrested. Yet our media never has given the direct context of the oppression that impels them to so. When your author in America was asked to give the background for their actions, I was physically attacked. Another time, when I made the statement at a meeting “To understand 9/11, one must comprehend the injustice of the Palestine-Israeli struggle,” I was shouted down by a woman. Both of these people were upper middle class mainstream individuals.

Back to the Holy Land, 40% of the adult males have spent time in Tel Aviv’ jails at one time or another in their lives, but they continue to resist!

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