A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights © Copyright 2010, The Veritas Handbook. 1st Edition: July 2010. Online PDF, Cost: $0.00 Cover Photo: Ahmad Mesleh This document may be reproduced and redistributed, in part, or in full, for educational and non- profit purposes only and cannot be used for fundraising or any monetary purposes. We encourage you to distribute the material and print it, while keeping the environment in mind. Photos by Ahmad Mesleh, Jon Elmer, and Zoriah are copyrighted by the authors and used with permission. Please see www.jonelmer.ca, www.ahmadmesleh.wordpress.com and www.zoriah.com for detailed copyright information and more information on these photographers. Excerpts from Rashid Khalidi’s Palestinian Identity, Ben White’s Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide and Norman Finkelstein’s This Time We Went Too Far are also taken with permission of the author and/or publishers and can only be used for the purposes of this handbook. Articles from The Electronic Intifada and PULSE Media have been used with written permission. We claim no rights to the images included or content that has been cited from other online resources. Contact: [email protected] Web: www.veritashandbook.blogspot.com T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 2 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights To make this handbook possible, we would like to thank 1. The Hasbara Handbook and the Hasbara Fellowships 2. The Israel Project’s Global Language Dictionary Both of which served as great inspirations, convincing us of the necessity of this handbook in our plight to establish truth and justice. This handbook has been compiled by individuals who wish to remain anonymous. To contact the team, please email [email protected] T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 3 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights Throughout this project we have received extensive help and support from many parties. In particular, we would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their support in making various parts of this publication possible, including permissions on copyrighted material. To support our work and that of the amazing entities mentioned, we kindly ask that you make generous donations (links provided) to all of them as much as possible! Once again, THANK YOU! The Electronic Intifada PULSE Media Zoriah Ahmed Mesleh Jon Elmer Norman Finkelstein Rashid Khalidi George Bisharat Ben White Columbia University Press OR Books T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 4 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights THE VERITAS HANDBOOK A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights our fundamental Non- negotiable Principles 1. Truth 2. Accurate Historicity 3. Justice 4. Self-Determination 5. Objectivity 6. Opposition to all forms of discrimination. inequality and oppression 7. Equality 8 Truth . T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 5 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s PREFACE 14 PART I: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION (17) Introduction to Part I 18 Background Information 19 Geographical Orientation of Palestine 20 History/Anthropology of Canaan/Palestine/Eretz Yisrael 20 Religious Aspect: Why is Palestine Holy to all Three Abrahamic Religions? 21 The Roots of Conflict, 1878-1947 23 Definition of Zionism 24 World War I and the Balfour Declaration 25 Zionist Colonization of Palestine 26 British Mandate of Palestine 27 Palestinian Resistance to Zionism and to British Imperialism: 1929 and 1936 riots 27 Establishment of Zionist paramilitary forces: Haganah, Irgun, Stern Gang, Palmach 29 Setting the stage for the ethnic cleansing of 1947 32 Ethnic Cleansing, War, and Collective Punishment: Israel and the Palestinians, 1948-1955 36 Partition of Palestine 37 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine 37 1948 War, “War of Independence” 40 Armistice Agreement 43 Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 43 The UN Conciliation Committee and Resolution 194 44 Creating a Jewish Israel, Destroying an Arab Palestine 45 Jews from Arab countries: Exodus and Absorption 46 Offensive deterrence and collective punishment 49 Pax Hebraica: Israel, the Arab States, and the Palestinians 1955-1981 51 T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 6 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights 1956 Suez War 52 Six-Day War 55 Internationalization of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict 56 Yom Kippur War 57 The Powder Keg: Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinians, 1943-2008 62 National Pact (Al-Mithaq al-Watani) 63 Demographics 64 The Palestinian Refugees 65 1958 Crisis 66 1959-1970: The Golden Age 67 The PLO in Lebanon 67 The Lebanese Civil War 69 Syria and Lebanon 71 Israel and Lebanon 72 Hezbollah, Israel, and the SLA 75 Uprisings, Settlements, and Apartheid: Israel and the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, 1987-2009 80 Occupation and Settlements (1967-1987) 81 The First Intifada 82 Madrid Peace Conference (1991) 83 Oslo Accords(1993) 84 Oslo Years (1993-2000) 85 Camp David Summit (2000) 87 Second Intifada (2000-present) 88 Gaza Disengagement 90 2006 Palestinian Legislative Elections 91 Palestinian Factional Violence (2007) 92 Operation Cast Lead 93 The Goldstone Report 95 Gaza Flotilla Massacre 96 The Israeli Political System 98 T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 7 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights The Knesset 99 The Secular Zionist Parties 100 The Israeli Left (The Anti-Zionist Parties) 105 The Arab-Israeli Parties 105 The Far Religious Right (The Religious Zionist Parties) 107 The Kahanist/Radical Settler Movement 109 The current Israeli Political Landscape and its Implications 111 The Palestinian Political Scene 112 The PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) 113 The Palestinian National Authority 114 Fatah 114 Palestinian Leftists 116 Secular Independents 118 Islamists 120 Historical Photo Gallery 125 PART II: A GUIDE TO ANSWERING COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND THE ZIONIST NARRATIVE Introduction to Part II 127 Answering the Zionist Narrative 127 (Taken from FAQ from “Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide” by Ben White) Isn’t singling out Israel for criticism anti-semitic? 128 Criticising certain Israeli government policies is one thing. But surely demonising Israel, and denying its very right to exist as a Jewish state is anti-semitic? 128 The English have England, and the French have France. Why deny the right of the Jews to a state of their own? 129 Undeniably, you can find racism in Israeli society. But why don’t you condemn the hate- preachers and racists in Palestinian society as well? 130 Isn’t Israel the only democracy in the Middle East? 130 In 2005, Israel actually withdrew from the Gaza Strip. But instead of concentrating on building up an economy and demonstrating a desire for peace, haven’t Palestinians responded to this painful concession with rocket fire and terrorism? 131 T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 8 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights When the Palestinians voted in 2006, they chose Hamas, a Muslim fundamentalist terror group sworn to Israel’s destruction. How can the Israelis be expected to feel like making concessions? 133 People talk about the Palestinian refugees, but weren’t a similar number of Jewish refugees kicked out of Arab countries and welcomed by Israel? 134 Haven’t the Arab countries used the Palestinian refugees as a political football, leaving them to rot in refugee camps? 135 Hundreds of thousands of Jews came to live in Israel as survivors of the Holocaust and because there was nowhere else for them to go. How can you simply label them as racist colonisers? 136 Why have the Palestinians continued to reject a compromise with Israel, from the very beginning of the state in 1948, to Arafat’s ‘No’ at Camp David? 136 Excerpts from Counter-Rhetoric: Challenging “conventional wisdom” & reframing the conflict. By Emily Schaeffer, Jeff Halper, & Jimmy Johnson 138 Reframing the Conflict 138 The land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people 139 The Arabs only came to this country after the Zionists started to build the country 139 The refugees left voluntarily or under direction of Arab commanders 140 There were no massacres 140 If events had been turned around, the Arabs would have massacred us 140 There is no occupation. It is disputed territory. 141 The settlements are for security 141 The other Arabs don’t help the Palestinians 141 Jews and Arabs cannot live together peacefully and/or never have 141 The Arabs have no concept of human rights 142 The real problem is the anti-Semitic propaganda that Palestinians receive since childhood 142 There are no Palestinians 142 There are 22 Arab states, why can’t the Palestinians go there? 143 The Palestinians do not want peace 143 Most Palestinians are terrorists or support terrorists 143 The Palestinians will never be satisfied with part of the land, they want it all 144 There is no partner for peace 144 The Palestinians rejected Barak’s ‘Generous Offer’ and then responded in violence 144 T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 9 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights The Palestinians have ruined every possibility of peace 145 Even if Israel withdraws, all the Arabs want is to throw the Jews into the sea 145 The PA can’t control its people.