Tell Palestine's story, too

This Web only Speakout has not been edited.

Kathy Glatz

Published April 13, 2008 at 6 a.m.

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I read John Temple’s Saturday editorial on Israel 60 years since independance with interest, since I’d visited there last summer. I want to remind readers that there is another 60th birthday to celebrate because 2 countries were born in 1948: Palestine as well as Israel. Israel celebrated their independance 60 years ago by bulldozing 418 unarmed Palestinian villages, resulting in the first of many waves of Palestinian refugees. What crime had these Palestinians committed? They were on Israel’s side of the UN-drawn border! The Israeli definition of ‘Palestinian’ does not mean ‘resident of Palestine’, but rather ‘non-Jewish person’, which includes Christians as well as Muslims living in both Israel and Palestine. Palestinian occupants of those 418 villages refer to this ‘celebration’ as nakba: catastrophe, and still wear the house keys from those homes where their families had lived and farmed peacefully for generations.

Fast forward 60 years: what is the status of those 2 countries? Israel gets millions of dollars from US annually in opposition to US’ own Military Arms Act , and our tax dollars have provided scatter bombs , weapons and tanks and bullet-proof bulldozers. Statistics show that when the Israelis ‘reciprocate’ after a Palestinian bomb, the Palestinian death rate is at least 10 times more. http://www.btselem.org/English/ Last week, after Israel told Secretary Rice that they’d talk with Palestine, the next day they announced they intended to build more Israeli settlements within Palestine’s borders.

This is what I saw last summer during my visit to the Holy Land: checkpoints in the wall surrounding Bethlehem, preventing kids in the refugee camp from playing in the fields now on the other side, and heard about the seige during the 2nd intifada. I saw the apartheid roads connecting legal Israel to its illegal settlements on the West Bank within Palestine. In Hebron, well within Palestine, I saw Israeli Defense Forces in action, blocking the way of Christian Peace Keepers who walk Muslim children to school to prevent Israeli settlers from bullying them. In Jayous, I saw the checkpoint in the wall surrounding the village, 27 km. within legal UN-recognized Palestine, only open certain unpredictable hours a day, preventing residents from tending to olive groves outside, resulting in dying olive trees; outside the wall next to Jayous, I saw and smelled burning garbage from the nearby Israeli settlement. In Qalkilya, I saw the UN hospital which had been seized by Israeli Defense Forces for days, preventing necessary medical care, and Isreali Defense Forces surrounding the city. We visited Ein Haud, an ‘unrecognized’ Palestinian village within Israel which is not provided any services despite being taxed, and ate the most delicious lunch. Everywhere someone had a neighbor or relative who’d died at a checkpoint being denied timely passage to a hospital. We met Palestinians denied livelihoods, forced to re-import anything they need from Israel at exorbitant prices, and not receiving services that the UN insists occupied nations deserve: water , schools, health care, roads—despite the fact that Palestinians pay Israel taxes!!! Teachers and health workers hadn’t been paid for 1.5 years. We saw Palestinians denied freedom of movement within their own country.

I am happy to present slide shows of all this, or visit www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com .

What can US citizens who value peace and justice do? Come visit Sabeel’s Palestinian Culturefest and commemoration of the nakba on west lawn of Capitol Sat. May 17 11-3. Demand that our congressfolks stop sending illegal military aid to Israel. Demand that the Occupation of Palestine end and that Israel pull back to the UN-recognized 1967 Green Line. Demand that our tax dollars be used for peaceful projects. Shalom & Selam,

Kathy Glatz is a resident of Denver.

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Comments

April 13, 2008

7:43 a.m.

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Michael writes:

You want demands? I DEMAND that Hamas and Hezbollah (who now are the government of the Palis) remove immediately the words in their written charter(s) that call for the total destruction of the State of Israel. I DEMAND an immediate cessation of all hostilities by Hamas and Hezbollah (and their Iranian and Syrian supporters) towards Israel for a minimum of 6 months. When they have proven they can negotiate without terror tactics, Israel and the world's opinion will undoubtedly change. I DEMAND that Hamas and Hezbollah cease immediately the videos on TV and the indoctrination that goes on everyday in Gaza and elsewhere of Pali children with blatant lies and propaganda about the Jewish people and Israel. I DEMAND that the State of Israel give up NO MORE "land for peace" from gains it has made during wars when Israel was attacked overwhelmingly by its Arab neighbors - and WON. Lands seized in a war that was started by an enemy are NOT an occupation. That is propaganda spread by the Palis and their supporters. I DEMAND that the descendants of the Arabs who lived in what is now Israel back in 1948 and were extended an invitation to remain in Israel but fled knowing of the coming war (initiated by Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon) and assuming victory, give up all demands about a "right of return" because if their ancestors had not fled in the first place they would still have their ancestral homes - as many Arabs still do who reside in Israel. I DEMAND that Jordan open up its country to all Palis who wish to live there as under the original agreemant in 1948 it was called Trans-Jordan and was supposed to be the home of the so-called Pali people. That is until King Hussein butchered 10000 or so of his Arab brothers and refused to allow them in his country. I DEMAND that the Muslim world and the oil rich Arab states stop fueling this war with their $$ and their lack of action on helping their Arab/Muslim brothers. If Dubai can do what they have done with their glittering city of oil wealth, then surely they can turn Gaza from a cesspool of despair to something resembling a city or state for the Pali people. Those are my demands.
April 13, 2008

9:23 a.m.

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kathyM writes:

Michael, well said!
April 13, 2008

10:51 a.m.

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infidel91 writes:

Israel can buy a bunch of our old B-52s and carpet bomb the Gaza strip for all I care. The "Palestinians" have proven, by electing terrorists to lead them and by their celebrations in the streets on 9/11, that they are thoroughly corrupt and totally irredeemable.

When a dog is infected with rabies, the only thing left to do is to put it down.
April 13, 2008

7:04 p.m.

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Marlene_Newesri writes:

I appreciated reading Kathy Glatz's comments. Unfortunately, the western press for the most part is devoid of giving a full picture of the events which culminated in the dispossesion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees when Israel become a state, besides its horrendous brutal occupation that surpasses cruelty beyond imagination. The facts however are borne out by Israel's own human rights group B'tselem which Ms. Glatz mentions, along with a multitude of other human rights organizations throughout the world, but basically falls upon deaf ears and complete indifference.

Just to correct Ms. Glatz though on her comment that "2 countries were born in 1948: Palestine as well as Israel." It was Israel that was carved out of Palestine which was already there. The creation of Israel came via UN General Assembly Resolution No. 181.

The inalienable rights of the Palestinian refugees are supported by international law, UN resolutions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet Israel has refused to abide by any of these laws and standards for the past 60 years while the Palestinian people go on suffering as a completely unprotected people.

I sincerely thank the Rocky Mountain News for publishing this. It is sad that in this country, the news media, for the most part refuses to publish a fair account of the facts. Even Israel's own papers puts the American press to shame.
April 14, 2008

7:09 a.m.

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eyewitness writes:

Michael should educate himself and stop wasting his and our time with his nonsense. And infidel81 should stop parading his racism (comparing Palestinians to rabid dogs that must be "put down"). Talking trash by Israel's supporters serves no useful purpose.

It is time that Israel obey international law. And that involves ending its occupation, taking down the wall that impoverishes Palestinians and helps Israel steal more land, and implement the internationally sanctioned right of Palestinian return, which gives all civilians the right to return to their homes at the end of war. Whether you like Palestinians or not is irrelevant; the law is clear. Israel violates the law over and over. And its policies are not going to bring it peace. Its supporters in this country who encourage Israeli lawlessness are not doing it any favors.
April 14, 2008

7:30 a.m.

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Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

Hello, folks? Palestine was not a nation and has never been one. Palestine was the name of the region, much like Arabia was a region and not a nation.

Modern Palestine is more rightly part of Jordan, not Israel. Kathy Glatz's anti-Isreal bias is s-o-o-o obvious.
April 14, 2008

10:41 a.m.

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T1anda writes:

Well, just send in (senile) Jimmy Carter... he has all the answers for this region, doesn't he??
Hmmmm wonder why he didn't fix this when he was president??
Oh, yeah, he tried but it didn't work did it Jimmy??
I'd say give it up.

There will never be peace for the Isrealis or the Palistinians....someone would have to cave in, surrender, and say they were wrong. Neither side will EVER be willing to do that and so it goes since 1948 and will still be going until 3048. I guess both sides will have to live in a world of fear, war, and conflict forever. Such is the stupidity of humans.
April 14, 2008

8:15 p.m.

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infidel91 writes:

Eyewitness, you've only helped to make my point.

"And its policies are not going to bring it peace. Its supporters in this country who encourage Israeli lawlessness are not doing it any favors."

In other words, we "Palestinians" are going to keep murdering civilians until Israel gives us what we want. So stop encouraging them to resist.

Whatever, dude.
April 14, 2008

11:02 p.m.

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Marlene_Newesri writes:

For the Palestinians, there is no 60th birthday to celebrate, but only a time of mourning. Palestine was unjustly divided by the United Nations in order to make way for Jewish refugees from Europe since the rest of the world did not want them, including the United States. In 1939, before the outbreak of WWII, a boat of Jewish refugees trying to escape Germany was turned away in Florida. They were sent back, many of whom did not survive.

The Palestinians did not come to Europe to dispossess anyone from their lands, yet they have paid for the crimes carried out by the Nazis.

No there is nothing to celebrate for the Palestinians for sixty years of dispossession, for oppression, for destruction of lands and homes while apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and subtle genocide carry on in an atmosphere of total indifference in this country.

It is sad to think that anyone could celebrate the tragedy that they brought to others.

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Home › Opinion › Speakout

Tell Palestine's story, too

This Web only Speakout has not been edited.

Kathy Glatz

Published April 13, 2008 at 6 a.m.

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