Uri Avnery is now in his 80s and has seen the world. He writes about a time when he had just escaped the holocaust & gone to Palestine. Avnery was a soldier in the '48 war. Source: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1239519715/ Here is a small excerpt from the piece.
Uri Avnery, your hero, is a well known figure in the Israeli public life. His opinions are however considered extreme left wing, and he is far from the mainstream of the Israeli politics. His common nicknames are "daydreaming guy" and "the beautiful soul" (loosely translated) I have two points I would like to make: As I said numerous times already: the terrible catastrophe that was brought on the Palestinians is not only the fault of the Israelis. I claim that the main fault, it their own, by not willing to accept us, under any borders. The war waged on Israel in 1948, which we naturally not wish for (most didn't even believe that we will survive the war), and caused more than 6,000 israeli life, more than any other war of Israel, was the reason for the revenge actions. Although most Pals flee, some were deported. That's just what happens in a war. My second point is: Uri Avnery is one of many Israeli extreme left wings. I could name dozens other "Uri Avnery"'s. I am even close to be one of them. But, Could you point out to me a palestinian Uri Avnery? I mean, point out even one public figure who shows regularly in the palestinian media and says: "brainwashing our teenagers and sending them to explode themselves in buses in order to kill as many people as possible, is immoral, is useless, is justifying further occupation and is against our national values" You see the difference? There is not even a single palestinian Uri Avnery (at least I haven't heared of any, did you?). This relates with the 1st point I wanted to make, to help you understand why the palestinians are responsible for their suffering. p.s. The streets of Gaza are named after those murderers. There is no greater honour in the palestinian society than being related to their families. The great "warriors" and "defenders". From my knowledge of my people, I am sure that if a jew would have killed children in a German kindergarden in WWII (a thing that never happened, naturally), well maybe he will not be regarded as a filthy murderer and be outcast..... but for SURE!: he will not become a national hero. Becuase although pretty much "muslim" (commonly called in muslim lexicon: to "defend", to "resist"), such action is simply not a jewish action and will not be regarded as a great honour. Hope you understand a little more now about the difference between the Israelis/jewish people, and (probably your) palestinian people.
I cant believe anyone on this thread would try to justify the settlement building that is going on right now and i cant believe that our society and globe as a whole thinks someone is a leftwinger for telling the truth and wishing for peace. Chaos what kind of excuse can you give for the current settlement building going on. While I do agree that the plo was brutal (believe me i know, as my parents came from a country that was torn apart by the plo), the real inustice is as Ury said done to the average palestinian person, and judging by the settlement building going on now, that even if all the arabs didnt declare war on israel the palestinians would have eventually lost all their land anyways. Why should the israeli government negotiate with the palestinians now? All they need to do is wait 10 years and there will be no more palestinian land anyways.
Thanks Ziya. The world has to to start focusing on the plight of the palestinian people who are living in conditions that would make any ghetto neighborhood in america look like the waldoff astoria.
Hey PingPong. There are something like 200,000 settlers, 90% of them close to the 67 borders. The justification is very simple: the palestinians reject our right for the land (in any border), so this is the price they pay for being so stubborn. (or, stupid?) And I dont see why australians are allowed to "re-educate" the aboriginals, the americans are allowed to exterminate the native indians, the sudanese are allowed to make a genocide in darfur, the turks are allowed to hunt the kurds deep into iraq, and the israelis are not allowed to build settlements in no-mans-land, a place that was once the heart of the jewish historical state of 2500 BC - 77 AD, and the center of prayer and hopes in a 2000 year long stay in the diaspora. Don't get me wrong. I fully support the evacuation of the settlements. But not because they "can not be justified". In politics, "justice" does not exist. We need to evacuate this settlements because it would just be the smartest thing for us to do in the circumstances of 2009. It is however a pitty that our neighbours are a primitive society which educates its children to dance on blood, a society that we can not find any common grounds with, and the evacuation would have to be unilateral. regarding your 2nd post, I can say that I have no doubt that the palestinian territories ARE a waldord astoria in comparison with the slums of Rio de janero, the children starving to death in north korea, the poorest regions in India, and many other examples. But yea, who cares about them. Its Israel who is the biggest problem in the world. right?
Does building modern hightech cities from the sand is called "atrocities"? or, what do you call atrocities? and how is it more terrible than all other atrocities in the world which get no attention at all?
Removing families from their houses. Killing innocent civilians without probable cause. Redlining. Racial segregation. The list can go on and on. It is not as terrible as some other atrocities, but it doesn't make it right to ignore it. Peace,
You are the one who is living in Israel not me, you are the one who should be telling me. First step to fixing a problem is acknowledging that it exist, without such stance all efforts will be rendered useless. Peace,