Photo of raiding Israeli soldier by Hamde Abu
Distressing news from an activist in Bi'lin, the West Bank village divided by the wall that has been at the epicenter of the nonviolent Gandhi-and-Martin-Luther-King-inspired movement:
At 2 AM on this night [last night], Bil'in was once again raided by the Israeli Army. A document was posted around the whole village of Bil'in. This document declared that Israeli and international activists were strictly prohibited from entering Bil'in between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm on every Friday, the day in which the weekly demonstration takes place. Every Israeli and international activist must leave the village during this time, or else he or she will be deported or arrested by Israeli soldiers. The head of the police, Benjamin, ordered that this action be taken. The permit declares Bil'in to be a closed military area until August 17th. This is an attempt to stop Israeli and international activists from supporting the popular struggle of Bil'in, and is therefore just another action to repress and destroy the village's resistance against the occupation and also against the annexation of it's land.
Also, earlier in the day, Iyad Burnat, the head of the Popular Committee, received a phone call by the 'shabak.' [Israeli security agency, Shin Bet] He was ordered to report to an office tomorrow for questioning.
At Facebook, Burnat says: "We say you are more than welcome to Bilin this is our Village."
Readers, that is the voice of... a human being's sovereign, self-determination! It calls to us across our own past, of Tom Paine and RW Emerson and Martin Luther King Jr. Let us celebrate that spirit and take joy in the prospect of Palestinian freedom. Thanks to K.E. Feldman for all the tips on this post.
Palestinians should change the day of weekly protest to Monday, then try each day of the week until all are forbidden. Force the IDF to further expose the permanence and corruption of its occupation.
Endgame.
Every single step Israel takes lately is wrong, inevitably, and only further weakens her reputation and standing.
Who is the soldier? Probably a Polish Jew . With a gun. Indocrinated to death from the age of 0.
They hate us which is why he can only go to Bil’in in a uniform and with a gun. To dispossess the natives again.
What sort of Israel will his grandchildren live in? Will they ask him what he did while Israel was still a Jewish ethnocracy? Will he answer with pride? Does he ever question what he does? Does he know anyone who questions? Do his parents approve?
To Witty and the other Zionists, that’s just “Jewish self-determination.” That’s “Jewish democracy.”
Who do you suppose are the actual anti-Semites between us? I think it’s the Zionists. I certainly don’t believe that Zionist military nationalism is the summation of Jewish theology and intellectualism.
israel is desperate
Pingback: Spirit of Bil’in travels to London
What happens is that everything finally devolves to this, they are primed, prodded, fed propaganda, and the mind slowly begins to wane. What you end up with is what I am about to link to –
“I’d like to welcome you to Sparta. Fascistan is here.
Yedioth Aharonoth devoted its first four pages Friday to the result of a poll commissioned by the Israel Defense Forces and the Education Ministry.
“The combat-ready and draft-dodging test,” the headline blared. Underneath it were lists of high schools across the country measured by the rate of service in IDF combat units among high school graduates.
Sde Eliyahu’s school and the Hispin yeshiva high school are at the top of the heap in a country where combat is tops, my brother. In most other countries around the world, including not-so-enlightened ones, schools compete with one another over educational and intellectual achievements of their graduates as well as their future success in society. In Israel, success is measured by combat service.
While Israel disgracefully lags behind in every international educational ranking, it encourages and takes pride in the military service of its students as a questionable substitute.
Service in the IDF is a necessity. It shares little in common with education. An army is an entity which trains its members to be blindly obedient, while schools must educate by inculcating creative thought.
The job of a school is to impart knowledge, education, and values on its students. On this score, they have registered a shameful failure, one after the other. International tests in recent years have exposed Israel’s education system for what it is, given the particularly meager achievements which are only getting worse. The latest TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) results registered by our students placed them 24th in math and 25th in science out of 49 countries that participated in the exam. Israel trails Armenia, Cyprus and Malaysia.”
NATIONS USED TO EXPLOIT AND DESTROY PEOPLE
Pingback: Tips To Speed Up Your Windows 7 Experience | Software Blogs and Other Computer-licious Bytes
Pingback: John Lewis arrested in Alabama– sorry, make that Haitham Al Khatib in Palestine
Pingback: BRAVE PALESTINIAN’S « Shoah
Pingback: My beautiful Palestine « Indigenous People’s Literature Weblog