Mississippi by the Jordan
In a move that defies logic, but rather re-enforces the most radical theories of an official Israeli government policy of tormenting the Palestinians, the Israeli Army in the West Bank is banning Israelis and foreign nationals from aiding Palestinian farmers in harvesting their olive crop.
Despite endless documentation of Jewish ultra-nationalist thugs sabotaging - for years now - the Palestinian olive harvest, the Israeli army, which is legally bound to protect the farmers, but has never done so, instead removes the very people who have been attempting to provide the protection that the army will not. For years, Israeli and foreign peace activists have escorted Palestinian olive pickers in some 30 West Bank villages, as protection against settler attacks. This year, apparently, this will not be allowed.
More then anything else this reminds me of the cozy and hypocritical relationship the Mississippi police departments used to have with the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan would burn down negro churches, and intimidate "uppity" blacks, while the police would not only look the other way, but arrest any one trying to protect or comfort the negro population.
See here for more details.
And lest we think that the seemingly systematic and never-ending harassment of the Palestinians is restricted to destroying their agricultural base - a policy that at least can be rationally explained as an (immoral but potentially effective) method of limiting access to land and livelihood, we read about incidents that are pure intimidation. Designed to at once humiliate and terrorize the Palestinian people, and to aggrandize and solidify the superior self image of the Israeli instigators. Is this what things have come to? Beating Palestinians just to boost Jewish egos? Thuggery in uniform? The Klan and the police have become one!
See here for more details of one such incident. Complaints of incidents like these have risen sharply in the past three months.
Defense Minister Peretz promised to turn over a new leaf in the army's relationship with the Palestinian population. No one thought this is what he meant.
What hypocracy! What shame! Or are we already beyond shame?
Despite endless documentation of Jewish ultra-nationalist thugs sabotaging - for years now - the Palestinian olive harvest, the Israeli army, which is legally bound to protect the farmers, but has never done so, instead removes the very people who have been attempting to provide the protection that the army will not. For years, Israeli and foreign peace activists have escorted Palestinian olive pickers in some 30 West Bank villages, as protection against settler attacks. This year, apparently, this will not be allowed.
More then anything else this reminds me of the cozy and hypocritical relationship the Mississippi police departments used to have with the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan would burn down negro churches, and intimidate "uppity" blacks, while the police would not only look the other way, but arrest any one trying to protect or comfort the negro population.
See here for more details.
And lest we think that the seemingly systematic and never-ending harassment of the Palestinians is restricted to destroying their agricultural base - a policy that at least can be rationally explained as an (immoral but potentially effective) method of limiting access to land and livelihood, we read about incidents that are pure intimidation. Designed to at once humiliate and terrorize the Palestinian people, and to aggrandize and solidify the superior self image of the Israeli instigators. Is this what things have come to? Beating Palestinians just to boost Jewish egos? Thuggery in uniform? The Klan and the police have become one!
See here for more details of one such incident. Complaints of incidents like these have risen sharply in the past three months.
Defense Minister Peretz promised to turn over a new leaf in the army's relationship with the Palestinian population. No one thought this is what he meant.
What hypocracy! What shame! Or are we already beyond shame?
posted by Sydney Nestel at 4:33 pm
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