Hi. I didn't want to send more on this issue, this week, but the one
show which should have cited the critical revelations in Karsil's
speech was Friday's Democracy Now, which featured Amy Goodman
interviewing Tom Segev, noted Israeli historian and columnist.
It did not, but it did play Roseanne's recorded speech. Here are both:
Ed
Parliamentary Debate on the Palestine-Israeli issue: Address by Minister
Ronnie Kasrils, MP -- 6 June 2007 (South Africa)
FREE PALESTINE - END ISRAELI OCCUPATION
Madam Speaker, Honourable members, this speech is dedicated to the memory of
David Rabkin, South African freedom fighter, who died in Angola.
Forty Years ago this week Israel's military unleashed lighting attacks
against Egypt, Jordan and Syria, alleging provocations as justification for
its strikes.
Within six days the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East
Jerusalem, and Golan Heights had been captured.
Apart from the Sinai from which Israel withdrew in 1977; the other areas
remain under Israeli military occupation and control to this day.
Whilst some justify Israel's actions on the grounds of pre-emptive
self-defence, the obverse was the truth. From the horses' mouth we learn
whom the aggressor was:
Israel's military Chief of Staff, Yitzhak Rabin stated: "I do not believe
that Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent into Sinai on May 14
[1967] would not have been enough to unleash an offensive against Israel. He
knew it and we knew it."[1]
Menachem Begin, later Israel's Prime Minister, reminisced that the Egyptian
army deployment in the Sinai did not prove that Nasser was about to attack
Israel. "We must be honest" he explained. "We decided to attack him."[2]
General Moshe Dayan explained that "many of the firefights with the Syrians
were deliberately provoked by Israel." He said that the kibbutz residents
who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights.did so less for the
security than for the farmland."[3]
These are clearly statements of an aggressor. Nevertheless, some claim that
Israel is justified and obligated, from its birth as a state in 1948 in
fact, to defend its land and people by force whenever necessary. But where
is the morality in this? Fortress Israel, a militarist aggressive state,
defends a stolen land that belonged to another people.
Moshe Dayan, unabashedly explained:
"Before [the Palestinians] very eyes we are possessing the land and villages
where they, and their ancestors, have lived.We are the generation of
colonizers, and without the gun barrel we cannot plant a tree and build a
home."[4]
Israel's first Prime Minister ", David Ben Gurion, stated in the 1950s:
"Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader, I would never
make terms with Israel. That is natural: We have taken their country. Sure,
God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them. Our God is not
theirs. We come from Israel, its true, but two thousand years ago, and what
is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis.but was that their
fault? They only see one thing: we came here and stole their country."[5]
Such statements contextualise Israel's position and show it has not been
interested in real peace terms. In 1897 the founding father of Zionism,
Theodor Herzl, stated that once in power the aim would be to: "Spirit the
penniless population (the Palestinians) across the borders."[6]
Therein lies the fundamental cause of the conflict - lest anyone remains
unclear. It stems from the Zionist world view - its belief in a perpetual
anti-Semitism that requires that Jewish people around the world - a faith
group - should have a national home of their own. The biblical narrative was
evoked to proclaim Palestine as the promised land reserved exclusively for
God's "chosen people" and their civilizing mission. It sounds all too
familiar as a vision the Voortrekkers had in this country. It gives rise to
racism, apartheid and a total onslaught on those who stand in your way,
whether blacks or Arabs or red Indians. Many Jews do not agree with this
Zionist world view, and declare that being anti-Zionism and critical of
Israel does not equate with anti-semitism.
Far from being a land without people, as Zionist propaganda falsely
proclaimed, to attract and justify colonial settlement, the fact was that an
indigenous people - the Palestinians - lived there, developed agriculture
and towns since the Canaanite Kingdom over 5,500 years ago.
Indeed a delegation of skeptical Vienna rabbis traveled to the Holy Land in
1898 to assess the Zionist vision and cabled home: "The Bride is indeed
beautiful but already married."[7]
This did not deter the Zionists who plotted to abduct the bride and murder
or expel the groom by whatever means necessary; and then defend what they
had stolen at all costs by creating a supremacist Fortress State.
That exactly sums up the bloody and tragic history that befell the
Palestinian people, and their Arab neighbours, at the hands of a rapacious,
expansionist Zionist project that has been the source of war and untold
suffering in the Near-East for the past sixty years, and is the root cause
of the conflict that threatens the entire region and beyond.
With the adoption of the United Nations Partition Plan of November, 1947; a
Jewish homeland was accorded 56% of the territory although they owned only
7% and were one-third of the population (most of whom had recently arrived
as Holocaust refugees from Europe). The Palestinian majority were given 44%
and were never consulted nor had they anything to do with the abominable
suffering of the European Jews. The Zionists accepted partition with
alacrity but never intended to honour the decision.
According to the Zionist's strategy, which has become public record with the
declassification of documents, the intention was to roll-out a systematic
reign of terror, massacres, dispossession and expulsion. This drove out the
Palestinian population in a horrific episode of ethnic cleansing that saw
over 750,000 or two-thirds of the indigenous people at that time becoming
penniless refugees, as Herzl had promised. By the 1949 Armistice the Israeli
state had expanded to 78% of the territory.
That was almost sixty years ago. The result of Israel's war of aggression of
forty years ago this week, an extension of 1948, saw Israeli military
occupation of the remaining 22% of the land.
The people within the West Bank and Gaza are literally imprisoned under the
most unjust conditions suffering hardships and methods of control that are
far worse than anything our people faced during the most dreadful days of
apartheid. In fact any South African, visiting what amount to enclosed
prison-ghettoes - imposed by a Jewish people that tragically suffered the
Nazi Holocaust - will find similarity with Apartheid immediately coming to
mind; and even more shocking, comparisons with some of the methods of
collective punishment and control devised under tyrannies elsewhere. An
Israeli cabinet Minister, Aharon Cizling, stated in 1948, after the Deir
Yassin Massacre:
"Now we too have behaved like Nazis and my whole being is shaken."[8]
If anyone has any doubt what the 1948 and 1967 wars were about, listen to
Ben Gurion who stated in 1938: "after we become a strong force, as the
result of the creation of a state, we shall abolish partition and expand
into the whole of Palestine."
And mark these words of Moshe Dayan:
"Our fathers had reached the frontiers which were recognized in the UN
Partition Plan of 1947 [56% of the land]. Our generation reached the
frontiers of 1949 [78% of the land]. Now the Six Day Generation [of 1967]
has managed to reach Suez, Jordan and the Golan Heights. This is not the
end."[9]
Indeed the saga of agony for the Palestinians continues, inevitably creating
insecurity for Israelis as well; because as we know from our own South
African experience - injustice and repression generates resistance. It is no
good blaming the victims when they hit back.
The Palestinian people's fate clearly reflects that of South Africa's
indigenous majority during the colonial wars of dispossession of land and
property, and the harsh discrimination and suffering of the apartheid period
classified as a crime against humanity and violation of international
humanitarian law. Israel is as guilty as the Apartheid regime. Israel's
conquest and occupation, with the latest land grab caused by its monstrous
Apartheid Wall and continued construction of the illegal settlements has
reduced the West Bank into several disconnected pockets amounting to 12% of
former Palestine. No wonder that Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Tutu and others
compare the situation to Apartheid and the infamous Bantustans - which gave
13% of land for South Africa's indigenous people.
This people's Parliament should be unanimous in calling for Israel's
immediate withdrawal from the occupied territories - lifting the physical,
economic and financial blockade and siege of Gaza and the West Bank -
removing the physical impediments to the freedom of movement of Palestinians
including the Wall and over 500 check-points - dismantling the illegal
settlements - releasing 10 000 political prisoners (113 women and children
amongst them) -- negotiating a just solution with the elected
representatives of the Palestinian people and implementing the UN
Resolutions, including Resolution 194 of 1948, concerning the Right of
Return of the Refugees. These are necessary steps to create lasting peace,
justice and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike, reinforced by
international guarantees, so they may live in harmony. Since 1988, when
Chairman Yasser Arafat and the PLO agreed to accept 22% of historic
Palestine in the interests of peace they show they have been ready for
negotiations.
Let us unanimously extend our solidarity and support to the forty-two
members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including the Speakers of
the West Bank and Gaza, who together with ten Ministers have been summarily
detained without trial, most for nearly a year, by the Israeli security
forces. This is a shocking illustration of Israel's disrespect for
Parliamentary democracy, the law and basic human rights so reminiscent of
what we suffered under apartheid. We call for their immediate and
unconditional release; and all prisoners held by both sides.
In support of these demands let us join with the people of our country, and
the international Community, in the solidarity marches, rallies and
demonstrations this week, the 40th Anniversary of Israel's unjust
occupation. And we make it clear to our Jewish community, these peaceful and
disciplined actions, are aimed solely at that government. The struggle for
freedom and justice is against a system and not a people.
Let me conclude with the words of President Mandela, who declared in 1998
during the visit to South Africa by Chairman Yasser Arafat:
"We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the
Palestinians."[10]
[1] David Hirst - The Gun and the Olive Branch
[2] Naom Chomsky - The Fateful Triangle
[3] New York Times, May 11, 1977
[4] Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi - Original Sins: Reflections on the History of
Zionism and Israel
[5] Nathan Goldman - The Jewish Paradox
[6] The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, Vol 1, p 86
[7] Avi Shlaim - The Iron Wall
[8] Tom Seger - The First Israelis
[9] London Times, June 25, 1969
[10] Speech by Nelson Mandela at the Banquet in Honour of President Yasser
Arafat of Palestine on 11 August 1998
********************************************************************
RESEARCH AND INFORMATION NETWORK (RAIN)
Director : Abie Dawjee
P O Box 26119, Isipingo Beach, Durban, South Africa 4115.
tel: 0027 31 9029174. fax: 0866893206.
mobile: 082 352 352 6 e-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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***
ROSEANNE BARR: Hi everybody. This is Roseanne Barr. And I'm here to add my
voice to all of your voices. I'm here speaking as a citizen of the world, as
an American, as a Jew and as a grandmother. All of us who gather here today
are united in our desire to seek a just peace in the Middle East, instead of
the vicious cycle of revenge and recriminations that benefit only those who
profit from a distance. They never actually themselves experience the
violence and terror and suffering inflicted upon those human beings who pay
the actual price in terms of their family's lives. Those people who do pay
that price want change, as well as all of us here who care about them. That
change starts with our calling for the end of the American taxpayer support
of, as well as the United States government's support of, the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian lands. All of us, regardless of our nationalities
or our religious affiliations seek a new policy in the Middle East based on
equal rights for all. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeah, that was the comedian Rosanne Barr. Phyllis, as we wrap
up - she hasn't weighed in in this discussion publicly, that we know of.
Will she be at Sunday's protest?
PHYLLIS BENNIS: She is not able to be with us physically because she is
performing that night, but she has sent this message. She has been weighing
in on this issue, Amy - I was on her radio program for an hour last week
discussing it. She has become very public, and she is not the only one. More
and more Americans, more and more Jewish-Americans among so many others, are
joining this campaign to say no to US support for Israeli occupation. It is
our government's support - our billions of dollars in tax money that goes to
support Israel every year; the military support; the uncritical diplomatic
embrace that protects Israel from being held accountable for these
violations of international law. That's what our government's support for
occupation means in the real world on the ground. The boycott by the United
States of - not the Israeli occupation - but of the Palestinian people who
are living under occupation on the grounds that they elected a government
the US doesn't like, has made the conditions on the ground profoundly worse.
We now have 87% of the people of Gaza living below the international poverty
line of $2 a day. That's a tragedy that our government is responsible for.
That's why people are gonna be gathering in the thousands on Sunday at 2:00
in front of the Capitol, marching to the White House to say to our
government, to say to the rest of our citizens, to say to all of us, this is
the time to stop. 40 years is too long. Military occupation has to end, and
the way to end it is to stop US military support, to stop US economic
support, to stop US corporate and diplomatic support and all support, to end
the Israeli occupation.
===
This Sunday, June 10, join the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,
United for Peace and Justice, and more than 300 other endorsing
organizations for a historic national mobilization in Washington, DC, to
protest 40 years of Israel's illegal military occupation of the Palestinian
West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan Heights.
Be a part of this unprecedented global day of action taking place in two
dozen countries around the world and help us deliver a loud and clear
message: It is time to end U.S. military, economic and political support of
the Israeli Occupation!
Now is the time to call all your friends and family, forward this email to
everyone in your address book, and invite them to join you for these
historic events!
At 2PM on Sunday, thousands of people will gather at the West Lawn of the
Capitol for a rally. We're excited about the amazing line-up of speakers,
performers, and emcees for the rally. For an updated list, click here.
The current weather forecast is calling for a high of 83 degrees and sunny
with a 10% chance of precipitation.
For those who are coming from out of town, please be aware that Washington,
DC, in June can get very hot and very humid. Please bring plenty of water
and food to keep you hydrated and nourished, as well as sunglasses,
sunscreen, and a hat to protect yourself against the sun.
Do not drive to the Capitol -- take the metro train and get off at Union
Station on the Red Line or Capitol South on the Orange/Blue Lines. Click
here for maps of the rally site, march route, and more.
We have secured a permit for this rally and we are working in close
coordination with the appropriate agencies to ensure the safety of all
people attending this demonstration. We will also have volunteer security
and legal observer teams, as well as professional medical teams on hand
throughout the day.
Please be aware that a small counter-protest will be taking place a few
blocks away. We ask all participants to refrain from engaging with
counter-protesters or provocateurs either physically or verbally. For
additional important suggestions for the rally, please read the important
memo to participants in the June 10th mobilization.
Following the rally, at 4PM, we will march from the Capitol to the
Washington Monument, not far from the White House. We have an agreed-upon
march route with the Metropolitan Police Department, which will take us
southwest on Maryland Ave., west on Independence Ave., and north on 15th St.
NW to end at the northeast corner of the Washington Monument. Please be
advised that this is a new march route from the original planned march
route.
We're anticipating that the march will last until 6:00PM. At 7:30PM, there
will be an amazing night of cultural entertainment at the National City
Christian Church at 5 Thomas Circle NW, about one mile from the end point of
the march.
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