Politician Lies, Wars, and Atrocities vs. Local Action

To work for justice is to work for peace.

West Bank teen Ahed Tamimi has resisted occupation all of her life. Photo: Radiance of Resistance

(OCCUPIED PALESTINE) - “I consider the comparison between the Nazi atrocities and the Israeli crimes, despite the many differences, not only historically justified, but mainly politically necessary. As this is one of the important tools to prevent Israel from misusing the Nazi Judeocide as a free license to kill, to abuse, to dispossess and to expel the Palestinians.
"This is one of the means to show that Israel has no moral right and actually never had to induce guilt feelings for example in Europe. Guilt feelings among non-Jews, that are the result of the long history of persecutions suffered by the Jews and that Israel and its affiliates know perfectly how to play upon and manipulate them."
~ Shraga Elam, 4 August 2004

Life moves on, grinding, sometimes nice and sometimes painful. We saw Israeli regime’s aggression on Syria which went unanswered for years and “Israel” continues to illegally occupy the Syrian Golan.

That was unanswered until Saturday morning when Syrian air defenses shot down an Israeli F-16 jet (paid for by US taxpayers) and crippled an F-15. This is shocking the establishment in the apartheid state and changing the rules of engagement.

It is also a message to the US which used its F-16s to bomb Syrians fighting the US backed terrorist group called ISIS. This comes on the heels of imminent final defeat of terrorist groups funded by the US (both in Iraq and Syria) which left only the US funded Kurds which are now fighting Turkish forces who are, like the US forces, are illegally inside Syria.

There is still the genocidal war on Yemen by Israel/US puppet regimes in the UAE in Riyad (who also arrested a Saudi women for criticizing normalization between the Kingdom and “Israel”).

The US-backed Egyptian dictator Sisi eliminated opposition and the Egyptian people are growing poorer every day while helping still suffocate Gaza to please the US/Israel. These and other dangerous geopolitics could spark wider instability and conflict across Western Asia (AKA “Middle East”).

Here in Palestine, the Indian prime minister visited Ramallah and said a few nice words to Abbas. By contrast when he visited Israeli leaders, he said much nicer words and most importantly did business deals that propped-up the Israeli apartheid regime. In parallel, Israel intensified its genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people.

Most Palestinians recognized another hero martyr killed by the colonizers and accused the Palestinian Authority of continuing to help the occupiers. Gaza is unlivable but even Jerusalem neighborhoods like Al-Eisawiya are besieged. And dozens of our friends languish in Israeli “jails”.

They treat anyone who resists colonization (most of them non-violent) as criminals and even worse than criminals (because criminals at least get legal rights).

Saturday, I gave a talk to a delegation of 23 internationals who participated in planting trees. I explained my optimism based on many factors: failure of monolithic states before, strength in diversity, weakening US and Israeli positions, war becoming obsolete, growing resistance etc. I admonished them to work for justice which is a way to peace.

The first thing is “speaking truth to power”. Then comes a) resistance in all its forms (including BDS and other acts of civil/popular resistance), b) building new models of life and coexistence (sharing, equality, justice, sustainability). Which brings us back to thinking globally and acting locally.

We have 8 international volunteers and several local ones working at the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (palestinenature.org) and yesterday we were out in the field and then in the garden working away.

• South Africa slams Israel at the UN as an apartheid state: https://youtu.be/tYI2MhGQqVs
• Radiance of Resistance: A film about the Tamimis and Nebi Saleh. Trailer here: www.radianceofresistance.com
• Another unnecessary war: https://972mag.com/another-unnecessary-war/132905/
• I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again.www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/opinion/trump-iran-war.html

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