Viva Gaza Malaysia :: KONVOI FREEDOM FLOTILLA 4 GAZA

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis

Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis

By Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute



Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the American Israel Public Affairs Council on Monday that "Jerusalem is not a settlement." He continued that the historical connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel cannot be denied. He added that neither could the historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem . He insisted, "The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today." He said, " Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital." He told his applauding audience of 7500 that he was simply following the policies of all Israeli governments since the 1967 conquest of Jerusalem in the Six Day War.

Netanyahu mixed together Romantic-nationalist cliches with a series of historically false assertions. But even more important was everything he left out of the history, and his citation of his warped and inaccurate history instead of considering laws, rights or common human decency toward others not of his ethnic group.

So here are the reasons that Netanyahu is profoundly wrong, and East Jerusalem does not belong to him.

1. In international law, East Jerusalem is occupied territory, as are the parts of the West Bank that Israel unilaterally annexed to its district of Jerusalem. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Hague Regulations of 1907 forbid occupying powers to alter the lifeways of civilians who are occupied, and forbid the settling of people from the occupiers' country in the occupied territory. Israel 's expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem , its usurpation of Palestinian property there, and its settling of Israelis on Palestinian land are all gross violations of international law. Israeli claims that they are not occupying Palestinians because the Palestinians have no state are cruel and tautological. Israeli claims that they are building on empty territory are laughable. My back yard is empty, but that does not give Netanyahu the right to put up an apartment complex on it.

2. Israeli governments have not in fact been united or consistent about what to do with East Jerusalem and the West Bank , contrary to what Netanyahu says. The Galili Plan for settlements in the West Bank was adopted only in 1973. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave undertakings as part of the Oslo Peace Process to withdraw from Palestinian territory and grant Palestinians a state, promises for which he was assassinated by the Israeli far right (elements of which are now supporting Netanyahu's government). As late as 2000, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak claims that he gave oral assurances that Palestinians could have almost all of the West Bank and could have some arrangement by which East Jerusalem could be its capital. Netanyahu tried to give the impression that far rightwing Likud policy on East Jerusalem and the West Bank has been shared by all previous Israeli governments, but this is simply not true.

3. Romantic nationalism imagines a "people" as eternal and as having an eternal connection with a specific piece of land. This way of thinking is fantastic and mythological. Peoples are formed and change and sometimes cease to be, though they might have descendants who abandoned that religion or ethnicity or language. Human beings have moved all around and are not directly tied to any territory in an exclusive way, since many groups have lived on most pieces of land. Jerusalem was not founded by Jews, i.e. adherents of the Jewish religion. It was founded between 3000 BCE and 2600 BCE by a West Semitic people or possibly the Canaanites, the common ancestors of Palestinians, Lebanese, many Syrians and Jordanians, and many Jews. But when it was founded Jews did not exist.

4. Jerusalem was founded in honor of the ancient god Shalem. It does not mean City of Peace but rather 'built-up place of Shalem."

5. The "Jewish people" were not building Jerusalem 3000 years ago, i.e. 1000 BCE. First of all, it is not clear when exactly Judaism as a religion centered on the worship of the one God took firm form. It appears to have been a late development since no evidence of worship of anything but ordinary Canaanite deities has been found in archeological sites through 1000 BCE. There was no invasion of geographical Palestine from Egypt by former slaves in the 1200s BCE. The pyramids had been built much earlier and had not used slave labor. The chronicle of the events of the reign of Ramses II on the wall in Luxor does not know about any major slave revolts or flights by same into the Sinai peninsula . Egyptian sources never heard of Moses or the 12 plagues & etc. Jews and Judaism emerged from a certain social class of Canaanites over a period of centuries inside Palestine .

6. Jerusalem not only was not being built by the likely then non-existent "Jewish people" in 1000 BCE, but Jerusalem probably was not even inhabited at that point in history. Jerusalem appears to have been abandoned between 1000 BCE and 900 BCE, the traditional dates for the united kingdom under David and Solomon. So Jerusalem was not 'the city of David ,' since there was no city when he is said to have lived. No sign of magnificent palaces or great states has been found in the archeology of this period, and the Assyrian tablets, which recorded even minor events throughout the Middle East, such as the actions of Arab queens, don't know about any great kingdom of David and Solomon in geographical Palestine .

7. Since archeology does not show the existence of a Jewish kingdom or kingdoms in the so-called First Temple Period, it is not clear when exactly the Jewish people would have ruled Jerusalem except for the Hasmonean Kingdom . The Assyrians conquered Jerusalem in 722. The Babylonians took it in 597 and ruled it until they were themselves conquered in 539 BCE by the Achaemenids of ancient Iran , who ruled Jerusalem until Alexander the Great took the Levant in the 330s BCE. Alexander's descendants, the Ptolemies ruled Jerusalem until 198 when Alexander's other descendants, the Seleucids, took the city. With the Maccabean Revolt in 168 BCE, the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom did rule Jerusalem until 37 BCE, though Antigonus II Mattathias, the last Hasmonean, only took over Jerusalem with the help of the Parthian dynasty in 40 BCE. Herod ruled 37 BCE until the Romans conquered what they called Palestine in 6 CE (CE= 'Common Era' or what Christians call AD). The Romans and then the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium ruled Jerusalem from 6 CE until 614 CE when the Iranian Sasanian Empire Conquered it, ruling until 629 CE when the Byzantines took it back.

The Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 638 and ruled it until 1099 when the Crusaders conquered it. The Crusaders killed or expelled Jews and Muslims from the city. The Muslims under Saladin took it back in 1187 CE and allowed Jews to return, and Muslims ruled it until the end of World War I, or altogether for about 1192 years.

Adherents of Judaism did not found Jerusalem . It existed for perhaps 2700 years before anything we might recognize as Judaism arose. Jewish rule may have been no longer than 170 years or so, i.e., the kingdom of the Hasmoneans.

8. Therefore if historical building of Jerusalem and historical connection with Jerusalem establishes sovereignty over it as Netanyahu claims, here are the groups that have the greatest claim to the city:

A. The Muslims, who ruled it and built it over 1191 years.

B. The Egyptians, who ruled it as a vassal state for several hundred years in the second millennium BCE.

C. The Italians, who ruled it about 444 years until the fall of the Roman Empire in 450 CE.

D. The Iranians, who ruled it for 205 years under the Achaemenids, for three years under the Parthians (insofar as the last Hasmonean was actually their vassal), and for 15 years under the Sasanids.

E. The Greeks, who ruled it for over 160 years if we count the Ptolemys and Seleucids as Greek. If we count them as Egyptians and Syrians, that would increase the Egyptian claim and introduce a Syrian one.

F. The successor states to the Byzantines, which could be either Greece or Turkey , who ruled it 188 years, though if we consider the heir to be Greece and add in the time the Hellenistic Greek dynasties ruled it, that would give Greece nearly 350 years as ruler of Jerusalem .

G. There is an Iraqi claim to Jerusalem based on the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, as well as perhaps the rule of the Ayyubids (Saladin's dynasty), who were Kurds from Iraq.

9. Of course, Jews are historically connected to Jerusalem by the Temple , whenever that connection is dated to. But that link mostly was pursued when Jews were not in political control of the city, under Iranian, Greek and Roman rule. It cannot therefore be deployed to make a demand for political control of the whole city.

10. The Jews of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine did not for the most part leave after the failure of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans in 136 CE. They continued to live there and to farm in Palestine under Roman rule and then Byzantine. They gradually converted to Christianity. After 638 CE all but 10 percent gradually converted to Islam. The present-day Palestinians are the descendants of the ancient Jews and have every right to live where their ancestors have lived for centuries.


CITIZENS INTERNATIONAL is a global initiative from Penang , Malaysia . It seeks to analyse the causes of increased militarisation of the planet and to work towards an environment of peace and international security including the preservation of social justice, ecology and sustainable development. CI also intends to support the development of traditional knowledge systems.

BOIKOT PRODUK ISRAEL

Subject: Stop supermarkets profiting from the Occupation


http://sn115w.snt115.mail.live.com/mail/SafeRedirect.aspx?hm__tg=http://65.55.85.231/att/GetAttachment.aspx&hm__qs=file%3dac7f3c58-3e98-4e82-8d6d-e1de3dfba22a.jpg%26ct%3daW1hZ2UvanBlZw_3d_3d%26name%3daGVyYnNfaGVhZGVyLmpwZw_3d_3d%26inline%3d1%26rfc%3d0%26empty%3dFalse%26imgsrc%3dcid%253a1.3648689961%2540web30507.mail.mud.yahoo.com&oneredir=1&ip=10.13.28.8&d=d6854&mf=0&a=01_1a32199a232b5000b12972628e907ddcbdeaf7ba27befd0921a7083b80057250

Stop supermarket power

Dear Aminah

High street supermarkets are profiting from Israel 's occupation of Palestine by selling produce from Israeli settlements. Under international law, Israel 's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal. By selling settlement produce, supermarkets are complicit in their illegal activity and profiting from Palestinian suffering.

We need to stop them.

Act now to tell the CEOs of Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda to stop selling settlement produce in their stores.

Take action at www.waronwant.org/stopsupermarketsprofitingfromtheoccupation

Thank you,

Yasmin Khan
Senior Campaigns Officer

KENYATAAN MEDIA MAPIM DI PARLIMEN 7 APR 2010

INFO PENTING DARI KOALISI KONVOI VIVA ANTARABANGSA...

The Freedom Flotilla Sails to Gaza in May

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(London, UK) On May 24, 2010, the Freedom Flotilla sets sail for Gaza determined to, once again, challenge Israel’s blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in an open-air prison. Under the coordination of the Free Gaza Movement, numerous human rights organizations, including the Turkish Relief Foundation (IHH), the Perdana Global Peace Organization from Malaysia, the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza, and the Swedish and Greek Boat to Gaza initiatives will send three cargo ships loaded with reconstruction, medical and educational supplies. At least five passenger boats with over 600 people on board will accompany the cargo ships.

These passengers include members of Parliament from around the world, U.N., human rights and trade union activists, as well as journalists who will document the largest coordinated effort to directly confront Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and take in basic supplies.

Said Mary Hughes Thompson, one of Free Gaza’s co-founders, “Although we were happy with the first trips, it was bitter-sweet, knowing that our small boats and symbolic amounts of relief paled in comparison to what was really needed in Gaza. Now, we finally feel we are helping to organize a powerful action, one with the potential to translate into a sustained campaign of much more effective challenges to Israel's brutal siege.”

In the past three months, Israel has limited fuel to run the power station. Much of Gaza is often in darkness. There are just enough trucks coming in to barely prevent total starvation, and Egypt, complicit with the Israeli-US policy of blockading Palestinians, is building an underground steel wall to prevent people in Gaza from bringing in vitally needed supplies through tunnels.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 28, 2010





Contact: Greta Berlin, +33 63 142 7577, http://mc/compose?to=Iristulip@gmail.com

Huwaida Arraf, +970-598-336-215, +972-542-635-936, http://mc/compose?to=huwaida@freegaza.org

Caoimhe Butterly, +353 876 114 553, http://mc/compose?to=sahara78@hotmail.co.uk

http://www.youtube.com/gazafriends#p/a/u/0/yz-LYXV6_t0



A cargo ship sponsored by the people of Malaysia and loaded with cargo donated from citizens of Ireland, Scotland, and Britain as well as thousands around the world, will depart from Ireland the second week of May. When it reaches the Mediterranean, she will be joined by the other boats and begin the journey to Gaza.

Dr. Mona El-Farra, Deputy Director of the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza was pleased to hear we are coming back. “When the two boats from Free Gaza entered the harbor in 2008, it was like a dream, it was historic. And all great things start with some dreamers who made it true. For us in Gaza, the dream of freedom will not be lost, and we welcome this next voyage with open hearts.”

The Free Gaza Movement along with the partners listed above, are the organizers of this flotilla. However, dozens of organizations and tens of thousands of people around the world are taking part to make this voyage a success. http://www.freegaza.org/

Greta Berlin



http://www.freegaza.org/








NASIB PELARIAN PALESTIN DAN BOIKOT PRODUK ISRAEL....

10 Produk yang Memiliki Link dengan Israel, Diboikot!

Jumat, 18/12/2009 23:48 WIB

KNRP - Aktivis anti-apartheid telah menamai sejumlah merek komersial sebagai sponsor Israel, dan mendesak negara-negara dunia untuk berpikir dua kali sebelum membeli produk-produk tersebut menjelang Natal.

Kampanye AS untuk Boikot Akademik dan Budaya Israel (USACBI) merilis daftar 10 perusahaan multi-nasional yang terikat dengan Israel, serta mengatakan bahwa perusahaan tersebut mendapatkan keuntungan salah satunya dari pembangunan dinding apartheid Tepi Barat.

USACBI menuduh kelompok-kelompok komersial ini memiliki peran langsung dalam penderitaan rakyat Palestina, dengan memanfaatkan kekuatan pekerja Palestina dan mendukung militer Israel untuk membangun proyek-proyek pemukiman ilegal di wilayah-wilayah Palestina yang diduduki.

Lebih lanjt mereka mengatakan bahwa perusahaan-perusahaan tersebut juga telah menjadi ancaman serius terhadap lingkungan dan melanggar undang-undang ketenagakerjaan internasional. Dengan adanya catatan ini, maka upaya untuk memboikot produk-produk mereka menjadi sangat penting.

Perusahaan yang terdaftar untuk diboikot itu antara lain AHAVA cosmeceutical, industri tekstil Galil, Produk Bawang Putih dan Herbal Dorot, yang semuanya memiliki basis di Israel.

Perusahaan telekomunikasi Motorola, Intel Corporation - terbesar di dunia semi konduktor pembuat chip -, perusahaan Estee Lauder kosmetik dan perawatan kulit, perusahaan Sabra, yang menghasilkan produk makanan bergaya Mediterania, dan perususahaan barang-barang konsumen global Sara Lee juga termasuk perusahaan yang terdapat dalam daftar.

Sementara itu perusahaan kosmetik raksasa yang berbasis di Paris L'Oreal dan pengecer pakaian wanita asal Amerika Victoria's Secret, juga berada di antara perusahaan-perusahaan yang akan diboikot oleh USACBI.

Para penggerak Pro-Palestina ini semakin memiliki banyak pendukung di seluruh Eropa setelah Tel Aviv melakukan serangan ofensif di Jalur Gaza bulan Desember 2008-Januari 2009. Dan kali ini tampaknya sasaran para penggerak Pro-palestina ini mengarah pada rezim sektor perdagangan Israel.

Sementara itu di lain pihak, pada hari Kamis kemarin (17/12) para anggota parlemen Israel mengancam akan memboikot produk-produk Inggris sebagai tanggapan atas dikeluarkannya sebuah kebijakan oleh Departemen Inggris untuk urusan Lingkungan Hidup, Food and Rural Affairs, yang mengharuskan para penjual menyatakan apakah produk Tepi Barat yang tercantum dalam label-label produk dagang, benar-benar di buat oleh warga Palestina atau hanya manipulasi dan dibuat oleh Israel.

Empat puluh anggota parlemen dari Israel serta 120 anggota parlemen Knesset, menandatangani petisi tersebut untuk dikirim ke parlemen Inggris, demikian menurup penuturan seorang pembantu anggota dewan bernama Ronit Tirosh, yang akan memimpin pergerakan ini.

Kini masyarakat internasional semakin banyak yang menganggap bhawa permukiman Israel di Tepi Barat tidak sah dan serta menjadi rintangan utama dalam upaya perdamaian. Untuk itulah semakin banyaak lahir gerakan-gerakan pro-Palestina dan anti-apartheid Israel. (mirzah/presstv)





Australia Terima Puluhan Pengungsi Palestina

Sabtu, 05/12/2009 22:47 WIB

KNRP – Pada Rabu (2/12) sore lalu tercatat 42 pengungsi Palestina yang tinggal di kamp padang pasir, Al-Haul di Kota Hasakah, 700 km timur laut Damaskus, telah bertolak meninggalkan tempat padang pasir itu sejak selama lebih dari tiga tahun mereka hidup di tengah kondisi yang memburuk.

Para pengungsi itu telah meninggalkan kamp padang pasir Al-Haul melalui Bandar Udara Internasional Damaskus, menyusul pengumuman yang diberikan Australia ihwal persetujuan untuk menjadikan Australia sebagai rumah mereka.

Asosiasi Palestina di Irak yang dipimpin oleh Thamer Misheen telah memberikan para pengungsi Palestina itu sebuah tas 'Dia Palestina yang Pulang' dan berfoto bersama sebagai keang-kenangan. Asosiasi juga mendesak mereka untuk berpegang kepada identitas Islam dan nasionalisme serta komitmen terhadap masalah Palestina.

Jumlah pengungsi di kamp Al-Haul sendiri melampaui 600 orang, yang sebelumnya berjumlah 331 yang kemudian datang ratusan pengungsi dari dari kamp-kamp pengungsi Palestina di Suriah. Namun ratusan pengungsi itu menyampaikan keluhannya atas kondisi mereka. Karena itu, mereka mendesak Komisaris Tinggi untuk Pengungsi Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa untuk menerbitkan KTP kepada mereka dan membangun rumah untuk berteduh serta menghimbau kepada semua badan dan organisasi-organisasi kemanusiaan dan media untuk memberikan bantuan kemanusiaan.

Menarik diungkap, sejumlah pengungsi kamp Al-Haul telah didistribusikan ke Swedia, Kanada, Perancis dan Denmark. Sementara itu, seperti disebutkan paltimes, kamp Al-Haul merupakan kamp pengungsi padang pasir paling awal di Irak, dimana kamp itu didirikan pada Mei 2006 setelah Suriah menyetujui untuk menerima para pengungsi itu di wilayah Trebil di perbatasan Yordania di Irak.(milyas/pt)



Putus Sekolah, 50% Anak Palestina di Kamp Pengungsi Lebanon

Senin, 23/11/2009 17:04 WIB

KNRP - Angka putus sekolah di kalangan anak-anak pengungsi Palestina di Libanon sudah sampai ke tingkat mencemaskan, yaitu hampir 50 persen dari siswa yang berusia 17 tahun dan 40 persen dari yang berusia 16. Demikian seperti diingatkan oleh para pejabat PBB pada Jumat pekan lalu.

"Kami sedang membunyikan alarm bahwa tingkat putus sekolah itu terlalu tinggi di kalangan anak-anak usia sekolah dari perantara untuk tingkat sekolah tinggi," kata Ray Virgilio Torres, Kepala Dana untuk Anak-anak di PBB (UNICEF) di Beirut, dalam kaitan laporannya dalam masalah tersebut, seperti dilansir situs palestinechronicle.

Laporan itu sendiri dirilis bertepatan dengan ulang tahun ke-20 terkait konvensi internasional mengenai hak-hak anak. Di dalam laporan itu Torres mengatakan bahwa secara keseluruhan, hampir 15 persen anak-anak yang berusia antara 7 dan 17 tahun bertempat tinggal di Libanon yang berasal 12 kamp-kamp pengungsi dan dalam pertemuan warga Palestina di sana diketahui banyak dari mereka yang putus sekolah.

Menurut UNICEF, sepertiga dari anak-anak itu buta huruf. "Angka ini sangat mengkhawatirkan jika Anda mempertimbangkan bahwa separuh dari usia 17 tahun anak-anak itu putus sekolah dibandingkan dengan 40 persen ketika mereka sampai pada usia 16 tahun," imbuh Torres.

"Ini adalah usia yang sensitif dan jika Anda menambahkan bahwa risiko lain akan terkena mereka di kamp-kamp, inilah alasan untuk khawatir," tegas dia sembari menambahkan bahwa sebagian besar anak-anak yang putus sekolah itu karena kemiskinan, kurangnya pendidikan sesuai program dan kurangnya perspektif untuk masa depan.

"Para pemuda mengatakan, mengapa harus sekolah ketika saya tidak bisa bekerja setelah itu'," kata Torres menirukan salah sebab alasan putus sekolah mereka itu. Untuk diketahui, Hukum Libanon mencegah pengungsi Palestina untuk melakoni sebuah profesi atau memiliki properti.

Torres juga mengungkapkan faktor lain yang mengkhawatirkan yaitu pekerja anak anak-anak di kalangan pengungsi Palestina yang mencapai 6,1 persen, sebagian besar dari mereka adalah anak laki-laki. "Ini terlalu tinggi bila Anda membandingkannya dengan angka di negara-negara maju di mana tenaga kerja anak praktis menghilang," kata Torres.

Terdapat sekitar 250.000 sampai 270.000 pengungsi Palestina hidup di Libanon. Sebagian besar berasal dari keluarga yang tiba pada tahun 1948 setelah pembentukan negara Israel secara paksa.(milyas/ palestinechronicle)


Pemandangan sepanjang KONVOI..VP 3..

"PALESTINA TERCINTA..SHOUTUL HARAKAH"

Semangat Ummi buat anak-anak dan pejuang Palestin...

VP KONVOI BERJAYA MELEPASI PINTU RAFAH..

VP KONVOI.."KAMI ADALAH WARGA BRITAIN YG TERBAIK...

[News] George Galloway - Save Gaza!

KONVOI pergi dengan satu niat.."bantu apa yang terdaya"

VP KONVOI "KAMI ADALAH KAWAN BAIK PALESTIN..."

KONVOI MEMBAWA APA YANG TERMAMPU UNTUK SDRNYA DI GAZA...

[Song] Michael Heart - We Will Not Go Down

VP KONVOI DISERANG OLEH POLIS MESIR...

VP KONVOI MULA BERGERAK.....

VP KONVOI..MENDAPAT SOKONGAN DARI SEMUA...BUKAN HANYA ISLAM..

VP KONVOI..MANUSIA YANG PUNYA HATI..

Bersama 30 jam di GAZA..

[Song] Muadz - Baitul Maqdis