In the last 2 weeks, the mass media has been flooded with news about the Israeli release of 250 Palestinian prisoners. As a matter of fact, the propaganda exercise started 4 weeks ago on the 26th of June when this article from Reuters announced:
"Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday he was ready to free about 250 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to help President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction."This piece of alleged "Goodwill" got a lot of space in the electronic media, as the various reporters were beside themselves in praising Israel's sincerity for peace with this generous offer.
As it happened the prisoners to be released were all Fatah fighters, people who belong to Mahmoud Abbas security forces. The very same forces that have been supported and armed by the U.S. and Israel, against the democratically elected government of the Palestinians. As an example of the despicable nature of Abbas and his band of sycophants, consider the words of Abbas' right hand man, Mohhamed Dahlan, in a July 13th, 2003 letter to then Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz:
"Be certain that Yasser Arafat's final days are numbered, but allow us to finish him off our way, not yours. And be sure as well that ... the promises I made in front of President Bush, I will give my life to keep."
Dahlan closed his letter to Mofaz with:
It remains only for me to convey my gratitude to you and the prime minister [Ariel Sharon] for your continued confidence in us, and to you all respect."Which of course makes us wonder just how many others of Dahlan's ilk have been directing the Palestinian cause, and for how long...
As it happened the Zionists' long term efforts aimed at splitting the Palestinian factions up has paid off and support for the Israeli Stooge Abbas is now forthcoming from all quarters. AIPAC, the US, The EU and Israel have all shown their support for him, while agreeing to isolate the Hamas controlled Gaza strip even further and giving the green light to further the genocidal killings of Palestinians in the concentration camp that Gaza has become.
It is known that Israel routinely kidnaps and imprisons Palestinians so as to use them later as bargaining pawns and for publicity stunts such as the one currently in view. This routine kidnapping is so common that the number of Palestinians detained constitutes approximately 40% of the total male Palestinian population in the OPT.
To put the release of the 256 Fatah fighters that has been tooted worldwide as a sign of goodwill in perspective, here are some figures for the first 3 weeks of the 4 week period. The figures exclude so called "militants", who have been killed and injured:
July 12 - July 18, 2007
The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR), based in Gaza, published its weekly report on the Israeli violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the period between July 12 - July 18, 2007. During the reported period, soldiers carried out 22 invasions, killed one resident, injured four and kidnapped 33.
July 5 - July 11, 2007
The Palestinian Center For Human Rights, based in Gaza, published its weekly report on the Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories in the period between July 5 and 11, 2007. During the reported period, Israeli soldiers shot and killed eleven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and one of the West Bank". A total of 30 Palestinians, including 25 civilians, were injured in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Twenty of the injured were shot during an Israeli invasion to Al Boreij refugee camp, in the Central Gaza Strip.
Ten civilians were abducted by the army in the Gaza Strip during the reported period.
A total of 69 residents were kidnapped, including two who were shot and injured by the army, and three Palestinian civilians were taken prison at Israeli military roadblocks.
The army carried a total of two invasions in the Gaza Strip during the reported period and bulldozed 200 Dunams of agricultural land.
Israeli troops carried 36 invasions into the West Bank during the reported period, and continued to impose full siege.
June 28 - July 4, 2007
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), based in Gaza, published its weekly report on the Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories in the period between June 28 and July 4. During the reported period, ten Palestinian were killed and 27 were injured.
Israeli troops carried a total of 31 invasions in the West Bank and three in the Gaza Strip.
Also, soldiers kidnapped 92 residents, including nine children, in the occupied West Bank. Six residents were kidnapped at roadblocks and border crossings.
Twelve Palestinian residents, who were receiving treatment in Egypt, died after the Israeli authorities closed the Rafah border crossing and continued the total isolation of the Gaza Strip. The 12 residents died at the Egyptian side of the Crossing.
To sum up for this 3 week period period:
23 Palestinians were killed and another 12 died as a result of a closed border
61 Palestinians were injured
204 Palestinians were abducted or kidnapped
91 invasions
If we extrapolated these figures based on 3 weeks to what is likely for a 4 week period, we end up with:
47 killed, 81 injured, 271 abducted or kidnapped and 122 invasions.
So, in other words, during the 4 week propaganda offensive promoting Israels goodwill by releasing 256 prisoner a further 271 have been detained and 47 killed.
Currently there are 10,756 Palestinians held prisoner in Israeli dungeons, while 1 Israeli is held prisoner. Figures are from March 31 2007 and are unlikely to be less by now.
Instead of sympathetic words about Israels 'goodwill' there should be an international outrage at the fascist genocide of the Palestinians happening in real time in Israel as we speak.
Comment: A note on the video at the beginning of this editorial:
Israeli and US propaganda about the "Middle East conflict" has effectively convinced most people that there is indeed a real "conflict" going on between Israelis and Palestinians, or more to the point, that there are two sides that are in fact "at war" with each other. This is simply not true. And it is this propaganda that we sought to fight in making this video.
In general, we must consider the fact that people have been misled by this propaganda, but we cannot promote any part of this propaganda in our efforts to fight it. The reality of the situation is that, while a small percentage Palestinians have rudimentary weapons, they have no effective way to use even these weapons, meaning that they may as well not have them. In most instances, the ONLY weapons that the Palestinians have to fight back with are stones. This is the reality that is not presented by the mainstream media.
Further evidence that this is in fact the reality on the ground in Palestine is seen in the record of Israeli soldiers that have been killed by Palestinians with guns. Virtually none. Recent reports of the activities of the Fatah party and in particular Mohammed Dahlan, shows quite clearly that the weapons in the hands of Palestinians are put there by Israel and are either for propaganda purposes (to suggest that the Palestinians have an effective means to wage war against Israel) or are used to sow discord between the Palestinian factions.
As for "suicide bombings", we have already revealed the reality that lies behind this here
Every one of the 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza strip are targets for Israeli guns. There are 168,000 active IDF troops, ALL of them have access to the latest weaponry. Of the 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza strip, about 10,000 at most, are Hamas members/militia and only they have access to the weapons that are allowed them by Israel. The other 1.29 million Palestinians have stones, or nothing, as shown in the video, yet everyone on of them is a target for the 168,000 heavily armed IDF.
So basically, 10% of the Gaza population has a gun, and 100% of their enemy has a gun. Portraying the IDF Vs the Palestinians as rocks against high tech weapons is therefore a largely accurate reflection of the situation.
Picture, if you will, the scenario of a landlord and an unruly peasant worker. The peasant has insulted the "honor" of the landlord in some way and he demands "satisfaction". Basically, the landlord wants to kill the peasant, yet he does not want it to appear to others that he has murdered the peasant in cold blood. So he arranges a "duel".
Before the duel, he arranges for his men to break the peasant's arms, and then supplies the peasant with a gun that does not work with which to fight. The duel takes place with the expected results. To the onlookers however, it appears that a "fair fight" has taken place.
This scenario describes the situation in the Middle East conflict very well.
For all its contrived complexities, the Israeli/Palestine matter is not complex. It is creeping genocide. From an historical point of view, the Nazi murder of 12 million people was not "complex". It was mass murder. Exactly HOW the Nazis went about committing their crimes and how they covered it up IS perhaps complex, but the FACT of what they did is not complex. The events of Nazi Germany vis a vis the Jews and 6 million other minorities in Germany at that time provides another very real parallel to what is happening in Palestine.
Genocide is the most heinous act that can be perpetrated by psychopaths against normal human beings. In each historical instance, genocide has been carried out under a cloak of lies and subtle and not-so-subtle disinformation and manipulation of the facts of the matter by one or more of the perpetrators or "interested parties". This manipulation is always an attempt to "muddy the waters" and create the impression that the blame does not lie only with one side, but is shared between the two sides. This is a common ploy of the psychopath when committing unspeakable crimes, crimes for which they are the SOLELY responsible.
The end result of this propaganda is that the public is left with the feeling that "the truth lies somewhere in the middle", that war "just happens", that war in fact has a sort of life of its own and that no one is really responsible. Consider the fact that it is by way of this meme that ALL wars instigated by psychopaths have been and continue to be sanctioned by the masses, even those who suffer most as a result.
The only method at our disposal by which we can hope to level the playing field in favor of the victims (ultimately ALL normal human beings) is to continuously reveal the FULL Truth of the matter - that, in the case of Israel/Palestine "conflict", there is NO conflict. It is not a low level "war" between two armed forces, it is the slow creeping genocide of one defenseless people by another fully armed one.
You are however correct in stating that by presenting the Truth of the matter as we do in this video, we will likely be accused of "misleading" and "distorting the facts", even when in reality we are not. We cannot avoid this because we cannot shrink from exposing the FULL Truth of this particular matter, before it is too late, because it IS getting very late, and we would like to avoid finding ourselves in a situation where, when the "lights" finally go out over the "holy land", we are forced to admit that the FULL Truth of the true reasons for yet another round of mass murder was not laid out, at least somewhere.