A recent screen grab from The Guardian‘s website — nice use of the periodic table
I know this is contentious, the claim that Yasser Arafat was murdered using Polonium (as the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was, his killers leaving a radioactive trail through London). I reproduce this Al Jazeera banner (above) here, prompted in part by the clever use of the Po 84 periodic table reference to spell ‘POISONED’.
Whatever your own opinion of Arafat and the whole ‘Palestinian question’ which has so fixated world leaders and the United Nations, this 1990 ABC TV ‘town meeting’ appearance by Nelson Mandela is absolutely essential viewing on the subject of the PLO and its struggle for ‘self-determination’. (I know use of that word is contentious too, but let’s run with it for now. It’s a quote, as you’ll see.)
Some people resist the equating of apartheid to anything else at all, but when I see photos like this:
A Palestinian boy walks past a section of the controversial Israeli barrier, in Shuafat refugee camp in the West Bank near Jerusalem November 23, 2013. Marooned behind the wall, Israel’s controversial barrier, the Shuafat refugee camp reveals the state’s uneven treatment of Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods, creating a de facto partition of Jerusalem, which is the epicentre of the Middle East conflict. Picture taken November 23, 2013. (REUTERS/Ammar Awad) – via Baltimore Sun click for link
… I just can’t help but think of South Africa’s townships and the forced segregation and brutality of apartheid. My conclusion: Nelson Mandela’s opinion, his ‘identification’ with the PLO is worth hearing …
Also: Mandela’a master statement about leadership provoked by his being accused of not being ‘political’ enough absolutely echoes …
For anybody who changes his principles depending on whom he is dealing — that is not a man who can lead a nation.
So what would he make of a prime minister who ‘can’t even remember‘ his stance (‘for or against’) on the anti-apartheid 1981 Springbok Tour protests?
– P
Fact is that Israel is a sacred cow to many. They have been a bunch of jewish gangsters trading on the holocaust in many peoples opinion in order to justify seperate development, racial and cultural superiority and other very nice things. Two wrongs dont make a right.
Even Muki Betser the great Israeli Soldier has been critical of his own Governments machinations. His autobiography is worth a read … great man.
Disclaimer – i am not a nazi, anti semite or otherwise. I just happen to believe that Israel is a state that does nothing for stability or humanity. I’m entitled to my opinion. I also use the term Jew and Jewish as quite acceptable descriptors of a group of common interest.
Yes, there is a learned ‘be very careful’ attitude about criticising the modern state of Israel, I agree. And I think it’s fair to say the unmitigated horror of the Holocaust (WW2) following as it did generations (centuries) of persecutions, pogroms and genocide inflicted on Jewish people will never be forgotten, nor should it be allowed to be denied.
Modern Israeli politicians and lobbyists, including those referred to in the video, play a tough ‘game’ — for high stakes. They are, it seems undeniable, surrounded by people and governments who want to, as it has been said, push them into the sea.
Fanatics often conceal a doubt (a saying I recall reading in a John le Carré novel in a different context).
Here’s a comment I saw this morning, which is peripherally relevant:
https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/417367571302977537
– P
I think the fact is … whatever the historical viewpoint and i’m reluctant to get into the issues including Shakespeares characterisation of Shylock … that Israel shouldnt be allowed a different set of rules … and the fact also remains that the dumbass Brits via the Balfour Declaration and other such issues allowed a state to be superimposed over existing residents of that land.
Are the rules different for Jews than others .. that is the question. Do the Palestinians have to pay the price for a holocaust not of their making.
Do Jews stand for Justice.
Ivan, did you know Britain didn’t give nationhood only to the Jews but also all the Arab states too? Or was that “dumbass” too? Personally, I agree with Lord Balfour’s comment in 1920:
So far as the Arabs are concerned, I hope they will remember that it is we who have established an independent Arab sovereignty of the Hedjaz. I hope they will remember it is we who desire in Mesopotamia to prepare the way for the future of a self-governing, autonomous Arab State [creating Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and the Gulf States], and I hope that, remembering all that, they will not grudge that small notch – for it is no more than that geographically – that small notch in what are now Arab territories being given to the [Jews].
And how many other minorities have been persecuted for centuries .. the Armenians, the Uighuirs, other ethnic groups including Roma for centuries … apologetics dont support a rogue and violent state
There is no excuse for a rogue and violent state. Israel must be held to account on how it treats the Palestinians. However, are you aware that the most infamous massacres of Palestinians, whether in Jordan in the “Black September” or Lebanon, at Sabra & Chatila refugee camps, were perpetrated by Arabs? Why are they never called to account? That Palestinians have always had a higher standard of living in Jewish-controlled areas over the last 100 years? That’s why so many moved there over that time, including Yasser Arafat who regretted his father selling all their land in Jerusalem and moving to Egypt, where he was born.
Re the Armenians and other minorities, I agree. However, genocidal attacks on Israel have been the norm for not centuries but for 3,500 years and they’ve simply run out of room to run. Their last major homeland in Western Europe was destroyed by the Inquisition in the 14th Century, then in Eastern Europe by the Tsars and Cossacks in the 19th, then by the Nazis in the 20th. That’s why so many Jews ended up in the USA until they were granted a restoration of nationhood, not by the Brits but by the U.N. in Nov 1947.
Sorry, Peter, but I think this undeniably great man made a tragic error of judgment in accepting Arafat, Gaddafi and Castro as “comrades in arms”. There’s no doubt they were very well-armed and that they wanted self-determination for their people, but at what terrible cost to those very people? Did any of these leaders besides Mr Mandela deliver what they promised? Would you describe Palestine, Libya or Cuba as actually liberated peoples? And what of Arafat and Gaddafi amassing personal fortunes of billions of dollars while their people subsisted? Mr Mandela chose the wrong company to align with precisely because he limited the issues to only “do these men support our struggle?” He should have broadened it to “do these man have any other redeeming qualities, such as actually caring for their people, lack of personal greed and love of power, etc?”
As for your apparent acceptance of Israel’s wall as creating apartheid, a few questions: are you aware that before the wall, hundreds were killed and thousands injured annually by suicide bombers? Everywhere else on the planet, such as Ireland, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, these walls are “Peace Walls” because they stop bombers. Belfast has 48 of them and 69% of the population want them retained. Why is it only Israel that is not allowed to stop suicide bombers and snipers? Did you know that Israel’s wall is only 10% wall, the rest being a fence? On the other side of the wall pictured is a motorway – it was built to stop the snipers picking off motorists in that area. Lastly, how can it be apartheid in Israel when they allow Arab citizens to be MPs, judges, civic leaders and even serve in the Israeli Defence forces? Does Palestine allow Jews to serve anywhere in Gaza or the West Bank?
There’s no need to apologise for providing an alternative POV, Graeme.
I’m not aware that I’ve said Israel should NOT be ‘allowed’ barriers like that pictured. I do have a negative response to seeing them, and I regard the deployment of them, and other punitive ‘controls’ on, say, electricity & water as well as controls on movement that make some who live in Israel second-class citizens (despite your suggestion of MPs, judges etc) as a failure and a blight.
I don’t want to inflame an argument, but I’m reminded of the saying about judging a society by how it treats its weakest citizens.
Thanks for mentioning the Belfast Peace walls. This article Report says Belfast’s peace walls should come down by 2022 includes this photo of a ‘Belfast peace wall in Cupar Street’:
Similar, as you say. But that’s a pretty sad looking response to sectarianism, I think.
Sad that it appears religious sectarianism leads to such extremism.
– P
Thanks, Peter. I wholeheartedly agree it would ideal for the walls to come down asap but as long as one side keeps educating their children as follows, what should the other side do? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_K2_0elIqshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em-MnAYiEWk
Sorry, I ran two together – here’s the second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em-MnAYiEWk
And two more examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1lMKX-Le1I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsuF1it68tg
Polonoium? The half-life of conspiracy theories
As for Israel and the blast walls. When at least 10% (I probably greatly underestimate, but 10% still translates to a large number) of the surrounding population think you have no right to exist, and would eradicate those people if given half the chance, the walls become somewhat understandable.