by Eileen Fleming
[The World] — “All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed…If God, as some now say, is dead, He no doubt died of trying to find an equitable solution to the Arab-Jewish problem.”- Isidor Feinstein/Izzy Stone.
“Our governments have failed us. Unless we, the people worldwide, can mobilize grassroots opposition to the Israeli-US-European Occupation, a new apartheid regime, in the Holy Land no less, will soon emerge before our very eyes. Its only when the people lead that our ‘leaders’ will even contemplate doing the right thing.”-Jeff Halper.
“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it.”- Dwight D. Eisenhower.
I do believe that the recent calls for unity between Fatah and Hamas are the result of the youth movement that was strengthened by the Palestine Papers which exposed many of the PA’s concessions and deceptions that ignited the Rally of March 15, 2011 in Gaza and the West Bank, which was spread weeks ago by tech savvy youth on Facebook via the page The People want the End of Division and it reads:
Palestine: Demands for a Unified Nation set for March 15
We call on the governments of the West Bank and Gaza to respond to the legitimate demands of the people:
1 – The release all political detainees in the prisons of the PA and Hamas.
2 – The end of all forms of media campaigns against each others.
3 – The resignation of the governments of Haniyeh and Fayyad to re-build a government of national unity agreed by all Palestinian factions representing the Palestinian people.
4 – The restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organization to contain all the Palestinian factions and get back to its initial aim: Palestine’s freedom.
5 – The announcement of the freeze of negotiations until the full compatibility between the various Palestinian factions on a political program.
6 – The end of all forms of security coordination with the Zionist enemy.
7 – The organization of presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously in the time chosen by all the factions.
A Brief TIME LINE:
On March 9, 2011, Representatives of various Palestinian factions met in a Gaza hotel to discuss new ideas for achieving an internal reconciliation, but leaders of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party did not attend.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, “reiterated the necessity of ending the rift and gaining back the Palestinian unity.” [1]
Barhoum also stated that the factions’ leaders agreed to organize a popular rally on March 11, 2011 to manifest national unity to confront all the ongoing challenges, adding, “Only Palestinian flags will be waved. Friday’s rally will be the first step forward towards ending the current division,” and he welcomed popular effort from where ever Palestinians are until they get their freedom and independence. [Ibid]
On March 15, 2011, Hamas dispersed the nonviolent unity protest by force and injured dozens when thousands thronged major squares in the Gaza Strip to deliver their impassioned pleas to end the feud that divided the Palestinian people between the two rival governments.
“Palestinian sources said Hamas officers, some of them plain-clothed, beat protestors with clubs and fired rubber bullets at them. The officers also fired tear gas at the crowd, the eyewitnesses said, adding that reporters who covered the violence were arrested, and cameras belonging to photojournalists were confiscated.” [2]
Many of the demonstrators said that they would hold sit-in strikes in main squares in Gaza City until Hamas and Fatah agreed to end their dispute.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh admitted it was time for the sides to meet and set aside their differences but Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf responded, “This call of Hamas for unity is not serious – it’s rather a way to bypass the people’s movement aimed at ending the split. Hamas turned down several initiatives for unity and if it was serious, it would have accepted these initiatives rather than calling for more talks.” [Ibid]
In a message to the demonstrators, Haniyeh said, “The Palestinian government is delighted to see the masses demanding reconciliation. Our government never wanted the division and did not cause it.” [3]
Haniyeh added that Hamas had even made concessions to end the split, “but outside factors thwarted” the efforts and he called on Palestinians to take advantage of the recent changes in the Arab world to achieve unity.
In Ramallah, which is the seat of the West Bank government, approximately 8,000 demonstrators- most of them university students and youths-marched through Manara Square and called for national unity on March 15, 2011.
The demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Oh Abbas, Oh Haniyeh, we want national unity,” “The people want to end the division” and “One flag, not two flags.”
Mahmoud Taha, one of the organizers of the Facebook campaign, said that the protesters would remain in the square until the two parties heed their call.
Abbas said he supported the campaign because unity is needed to end the “occupation.” [Ibid]
On March 17, 2011, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on Hamas to accept President Mahmoud Abbas’s initiative to end Palestinian division and form a national unity government as the way to reunite Palestine. He said, “President Abbas‘s initiative can be immediately implemented and will help in reuniting the country. We can’t waste any more time and we should support it.” [4]
Flashing Back to 2006:
Five months after Israel’s ‘disengagement’ from Gaza- which in reality was just a redeployment for Israel has continued to maintain complete control over all of Gaza’s borders, Hamas won a decisive victory over Fatah in the Palestinian legislative elections.
Abbas warned President George W. Bush that he wanted to postpone the January 2006 elections, but Bush pushed and Hamas was thus transparently and democratically elected, because the indigenous people of the so-called Holy Land comprehend that Fatah had become just another layer of The Occupation.
Israel responded by ratcheting up economic pressure on the Palestinians, but in March 2007, Fatah and Hamas first came together to form a national unity government.
As Hamas’s stature and political power were growing Israel’s divide-and-conquer strategy was unraveling because the first call for a national unity government began pushing for a long-term ceasefire.
The Palestinians agreed to end firing Quassam missiles if the Israelis would stop arresting and assassinating Palestinians and end their economic stranglehold by opening the border crossings into Gaza.
Israel rejected that offer and the American Government aided, abetted and collaborated to create a civil war between Fatah and Hamas that wrecked havoc upon the first attempt to form a national unity government.
Hamas then drove Fatah out of Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge and Fatah maintained control of the West Bank and that thus divided Palestinians from Palestinians as much as The Apartheid Wall:
While Israel tightened the screws on the blockade Hamas responded by continuing to fire rockets and mortars into Israel, while claiming that they still sought a long-term ceasefire, perhaps lasting ten years or more.
Israel had no interest in a ceasefire and intensified the economic pressure on Gaza, but by the spring of 2008, pressure from Israelis living under the rocket attacks led the government to agree to a six-month ceasefire starting on June 19, 2008.
That agreement formally ended on Dec. 19th and Operation Cast Lead, which was aided and abetted by the United States, transpired two days after Christmas 2008.
Please understand that Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to begin preparing for that war while the ceasefire was being negotiated in June 2008.
Dan Gillerman, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, reported that Jerusalem began to prepare the propaganda campaign to sell war months before the conflict began.
Hamas drastically reduced the number of their missile attacks during the first five months of the ceasefire and although a total of two rockets were fired into Israel during September through October, Hamas claimed none.
Israel persisted to arrest and assassinate Palestinians and the blockade continued to strangle Gaza.
On November 4, 2008, while Americans elected Obama hoping for real change, Israel attacked a tunnel inside Gaza and killed six Palestinians. This was the first major violation of the ceasefire, and the Palestinians—who had been “careful to maintain the ceasefire” according to Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center—responded by resuming rocket attacks.
Israel then ratcheted up the blockade of Gaza and they responded with hurling more rockets at Israel, but please understand that the missiles out of Gaza between Nov. 4 and the launching of Operation Cast Lead killed not a single Israeli!
In mid-December, Hamas informed Israel that it was still willing to negotiate a long-term ceasefire if it included an end to the arrests and assassinations as well as the lifting of the blockade. But Israel rejected the overture and eight days later the ceasefire formally ended.
Please also understand that Israel has been humiliating, torturing, and killing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories since 1967.
Please also understand that a true friend will always call you on your bad behavior and Israel has become an Apartheid State!
Even ex-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted that Israel will “face a South African-style struggle if the Palestinians do not get a viable state of their own.”
On September 29, 2009, Justice Goldstone issued a 575-page report and accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes perpetuated during the 22 days of assault on Gaza, which began December 27, 2008.
Operation Cast Lead was a full-scale attack on Gaza that killed 13 Israelis and 1,400 Palestinians.
Over 5,000 Palestinians were injured, 400,000 were left without running water, 4,000 homes were destroyed, rendering tens of thousands who are still homeless because of Israel’s targeted attacks upon them, their schools, hospitals, streets, water wells, sewage system, farms, police stations and UN buildings.
US-supplied weapons enabled the 22 days of Israel’s attack on the people of Gaza and we the people of the US who pay taxes provide over $3 billion annually to Israel although Israel has consistently misused U.S. weapons in violation of America’s Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts.
America is the worlds largest arms supplier to Israel and under a Bush negotiated deal with Israel, which Obama signed into law during the Christmas season of 2009, we the people who pay taxes in America will also provide over $30 billion more to Israel over the next decade.
Through its illegal 43-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, Israel misuses U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. law to kill and injure Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian civilian infrastructure, blockade the Gaza Strip, and build illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem. How much of this total will your community provide? Find out at this interactive map
During the 22 days of Israeli assault on Gaza, “Washington provided F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles, and a wide array of munitions, including white phosphorus and DIME. The weapons required for the Israeli assault was decided upon in June 2008, and the transfer of 1,000 bunker-buster GPS-guided Small Diameter Guided Bomb Units 39 (GBU-39) were approved by Congress in September. The GBU 39 bombs were delivered to Israel in November (prior to any claims of Hamas cease fire violation!) for use in the initial air raids on Gaza.” [5]
Please understand that Israel’s disastrous 2006 Lebanon war birthed the no-win strategy for its war against Hamas and Operation Cast Lead has lead to nothing more than more misery for the people of Israel-USA and Gaza-Palestine for it illuminates that the Occupation of the so called Holy Land is also a US-Israeli collaboration.
Please understand that I do believe that musicians, poets and prophets will bring us together and we shall overcome because “The Truth Will set US FREE!”-John 8:32
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEo9Bh679wM]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMMHepfYVc]
1. As the Hamas team laughs
2. Hamas disperses ‘unity’ protest by force; dozens hurt
3. Gaza policemen forcefully break up demo
4. Fayyad calls on Hamas to end division
5.US arms used for war crimes in Gaza
Eileen Fleming founded WeAreWideAwake.org. She produced videos “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”. She has authored many books including; A USS Liberty Remembrance of 50 years USA Government Cover-Up of Israel’s 8 June 1967 Attack on USA Spy-Ship, Wabi Sabi Body ETERNAL SPIRIT, and Heroes, Muses and the Saga of Mordechai Vanunu. Click here to see her latest books. Visit Eileen’s YouTube Channel
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