Click on to enlarge
As a citizen of the
world, I extend a long awaited welcome to the state of Palestine with the firm
hope that this small step for an oppressed people will become a giant first
step towards peace and reconciliation in the Middle East and the death of
apartheid: Allen L Roland
"The General Assembly is called
upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the state of
Palestine."
MAHMOUD ABBAS, President of the Palestinian
Authority, before a vote granting Palestine the upgraded status of nonmember observer
state at the United Nations.
The birth of the STATE of Palestine was long
overdue and there were many obvious birth complications ~ but there is no
questions it was wanted by the vast majority of the world as witnessed in the
historic recognition of statehood vote at the UN ~ where 138 members voted
yes, 41 abstained and only 8 ( including Israel, Canada, the US and 4 of its
Pacific Island protectorates) voted no.
The times, they are a changing
!
Here's a 6-minute animation that explains what
Israelis and Palestinians are fighting over. It’s not meant to be
comprehensive, but it is meant to give you a tool to frame the conflict as one
about the struggle for equal rights to the land, the vote, the roads, the
resources. And it offers why one of the important tools to move toward a
solution is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
But let's turn to Uri Avnery ~ the long term
leader of the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom ~ for his valuable and
important insider perspective on this historic moment: " ON FIRST
sight, nothing much has changed. But only on first sight. What has
happened is that the foundation of the State of Palestine has now been
officially acknowledged as the aim of the world community. The “Two-State
solution” is now the only solution on the table. The “One-State solution”,
if it ever lived, is as dead as the dodo.
Of course, the apartheid one-state is
reality. If nothing changes on the ground, it will become deeper and stronger.
Almost every day brings news of it becoming more and more entrenched. (The
bus monopoly has just announced that from now on there will be separate buses
for West Bank Palestinians in Israel.)
But the quest for peace based on the
co-existence between Israel and Palestine has taken a big step forwards. Unity
between the Palestinians should be the next. US support for the actual
creation of the State of Palestine should come soon after."
See article:
How ironic that in this 2012 year of
transition, we have birthed the state of Palestine ~ much like the Christ child
over 2000 years ago ~ and now we have a shared responsibility to ensure and
protect its health through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The BDS movement has been
successful in drawing attention to Israel as a state deserving of the same
treatment as once evidenced with apartheid South Africa ~ whereas
prominent individuals such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, South African
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Richard Falk and
many others, have used the term apartheid at various moments to refer to
Israel’s regime of gross violations of international law. Apartheid has
come to hold a specific legal definition that was adopted by the 2002 Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and that has its basis in
the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the
Crime of Apartheid.
Under the Convention, the crime
of apartheid is defined as “a crime against humanity . . . inhuman acts
resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid and similar policies and
practices of racial segregation and discrimination, as defined in article II of
the Convention, are crimes violating the principles of international law."
Article II of the Convention
defines the crime as “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of
establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any
other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them,” and also
includes “similar policies and practices of racial segregation and
discrimination as practiced in southern Africa.”
Based upon the definition of
apartheid under international law, it becomes clear how and why Israel qualifies
as an apartheid state vis-Ã -vis the Palestinians. In the West Bank and
Gaza, the Israeli occupation has developed into a pervasive system of
apartheid, which includes checkpoints, the Wall, house demolitions, destruction
of property, denial of access to education, arbitrary imprisonment, and
Israeli-only roads. Israel’s apartheid policies also extend to the
Palestinian refugee population expelled from their lands in 1948 to make room
for the creation of the state of Israel ~ in refusing to
permit the return of these refugees Israel is in violation of Article 2c of the
apartheid convention adopted by the ICC … See
more http://muftah.org/understanding-the-boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement-against-israel/
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the UN General
Assembly vote implicitly recognizing Palestine as a state was “meaningless”
and will do nothing to realize actual statehood. “This
is a meaningless resolution that won’t change anything on the ground. No
Palestinian state will arise without an arrangement ensuring the security of
Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu on Thursday.
Netanyahu
in essence has said that no Palestinian state will
ever arise, so long as Israel has anything to do about it ~ Netanyahu and his
right-wing Likud Party, obviously dream of a Greater Israel with full
sovereignty over the territories currently recognized as Palestinian in the
West Bank and Gaza.
Meanwhile,
Apartheid continues as
Israeli police have begun removing Palestinian passengers from buses at the
request of Jewish settlers, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported ... and an army
reservist told Haaretz that Israeli police stationed near Salfit had ordered
Palestinians off buses multiple times, leaving them to walk several miles and
then catch taxis home.
Unfortunately,
Apartheid is a way of life in the West Bank where Settlements exclude Arabs and
Jews only roads already exist and it even extends to sports ~ ESPNs Jeremy Schaap
traveled to Jerusalem to report on those who have been called "the
most dangerous fans" in Israel soccer as
well as BEITAR - an Israeli Soccer Team
which has been called the MOST RACIST on the planet.
See 12 minute video ~
Israel
has also seized more than $120m (£75m)in tax revenues it collects on behalf of
the Palestinian Authority in response to last week's overwhelming vote at the
UN general assembly to recognize the state of Palestine. See story ~
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33199.htm
But the angry words and unjust actions
of Netanyahu and the Israeli right wing Zionist zealots
cannot stop a world coming to terms with its innate
urge to unite and cooperate with each other ~
while isolating any gross impediments (such
as apartheid) through the already proven methods of the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement.
It is now time for
conscientious people around the world to do more than just pay lip service to
the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom, and to advocate and implement
comprehensive boycotts against Israel’s apartheid policies ~ As Sami Hermez wrote
~ "the Palestinians deserve no less than the dignity for which they
have so patiently waited and struggled for over the last 60 years."
While we celebrate the long
awaited birth of the state of Palestine we must ensure the death of apartheid
as currently practiced by the state of Israel.
"The UN took a
strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus
was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know
too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the
Palestinians." Nelson Mandela
~ Address at The International
Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People ( 1997 )
Allen L Roland
Freelance
Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is
available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private
consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen
L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a
daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com
He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
