Jewish Voices Rising Up for Peace by Pursuing Justice

Jewish Voices Rising Up for Peace by Pursuing Justice

Diary Entry by Eileen Fleming

Diplomacy and negotiations and not unilateral actions and violence must be employed to resolve the escalating conflict in Gaza.

Out of the darkness of Gaza, Jewish voices of light, peace and justice are rising up while Israel continues to demolish the civilian infrastructure in Gaza by targeting power plants and bridges.

Diplomacy and negotiations and not unilateral actions and violence must be employed to resolve the escalating and untenable conflict.

It is Jewish voices that are leading 'we the people' to pressure the Israeli government to stop its invasion and shelling of Gaza. These Jewish voices speak just as loudly in their insistence that Palestinians also stop firing their largely ineffective rockets at Israeli towns.

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Norman Finkelstein, the Professor of Political Science at DePaul University in Chicago, author of. "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History" spoke with Amy Goddman and Josh Block, Director of Media Affairs for AIPAC: American Israel Public Affairs Committee on June 29, 2006. The following is a short excerpt

AIPAC v. Norman Finkelstein: A Debate on Israel's buttault on Gaza

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: I think it is useful to begin with what the human rights groups have to say about this. Let's leave aside the background for a moment and look narrowly at the incident that triggered the Israeli invasion. Let's see what Hamas did not do, what the Palestinian militants did not do. Number one, they did not liquidate the corporal, which Israel routinely does, namely its political buttbuttinations. That's a war crime under international law. Israel routinely does that. Hamas did not do that to the corporal.

Number two, they didn't kill the corporal while trying to arrest him. Israel routinely does that. If you look at July 2005, B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, they put out a very hefty report enbreastled "Take No Prisoners." And the report shows Israel routinely, during so-called arrest operations, kills Palestinians, documents a case of a Palestinian who was wounded, on the ground, no weapon. Israel end him. Hamas didn't do that to the corporal. It said by this - by inaudible, it said that they took him hostage, they kidnapped him. Okay. Israel routinely takes Palestinians, Lebanese hostage. In fact, Israel was the only country in the world, in 1997, which legalized hostage-taking. The liberal head of the Israeli High Court, Aharon Barak, he said it's legal, legitimate, under international law to take what he called bargaining chips in order to get prisoners, Israeli prisoners being held by the Lebanese. The decision was reversed in 2000, but Israel continued to hold Lebanese hostages until 2004. So, at worst, Hamas is being accused of what Israel legalized and routinely does.

And finally, let's talk about those 9,000 Palestinians who are effectively hostages being held by Israel. 1,000 of them are administrative detainees...Administrative detainees who are being held without any charges or trial. And the other 8,000 are being held after military courts have convicted them, almost always on the basis of confessions which were extracted by torture. So if we're going to look simply at the numbers, we have one hostage on the Palestinian side, and effectively we have about 9,000 on the Israeli side...Let's look at the context. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in September 2005 'til today, the estimates run between 7,000 and 9,000 heavy artillery shells have been shot and fired into Gaza. On the Palestinian side, the estimates are approximately 1,000 Kbuttam missiles, crude missiles, have been fired into Israel. So we have a ratio of between seven and nine to one.

Let's look at casualties. In the last six months, approximately 80 Palestinians have been end in Gaza due to Israel artillery firing. Now, on the Israeli side, we hear all of these terrible things about these Kbuttams. Even Shlomo Ben-Ami, yesterday on your program, who I respect, he said what's Israel to do about these Kbuttams? What does the record show? I mentioned a moment ago, 80 Palestinians end in six months. There have been exactly eight Israelis end in the last five years from the Kbuttam missiles. Again, we have a huge disproportion, a huge discrepancy.

Now, Josh says Israel has a responsibility to protect its citizens. I totally agree with that. But Hamas is the elected government of the Palestinians. They have a responsibility to protect their citizens. They have a responsibility to get back their 9,000 hostages. They have a responsibility to protect their Palestinian civilians, who are being daily attacked by Israel.

Eileen is an activist, author, poet, reporter and editor for the WAWA Blog: wearewideawake.org Her first novel "Keep Hope Alive" will be available August 2006 and 100% of royalties will go to provide olive trees for peace in Israel Palestine.