OVr2_Other Voices Supplement 4/4/18 4:20 PM Page OV-1 OTHER VOICES FROMTHEMIDDLEEASTCLIPBOARD Compiled by Janet McMahon culated project of ethnic cleansing is flat. The hurried desperate mass flight Palestinians Will that continues unabated today. of Palestinians from the paramilitary as- To suggest that almost a million Pales- sault upon our age-old communities is Not Cease to tinians voluntarily left their homes, beyond honest debate or dispute. schools, mosques and churches in 1948 Despite near unanimity among inter- Demand Their is little more than to proclaim the earth national jurists about our cause, the Rights VOL. 21 ISSUE 3—MAY 2018 BY BASEM NAIM he West has long been enam- TABLE OF CONTENTS ored with the specter of passive resistance with tens of thou- Palestinians Will Not Cease to It’s Time for AIPAC to Register T Demand Their Rights, As a Foreign Agent, sands of unarmed demonstrators fac- M.J. Rosenberg, ing off against a heavily armed and Basem Naim, The Forward OV-13 ruthless force in pursuit of justice. www.counterpunch.com OV-1 Today hundreds of thousands of Israel Sniggers at a Cowardly One Man Has Taken Over a Historic peaceful unarmed demonstrators World, Linda S. Heard, Organization. Is It Good for The Jews?, Josh Nathan Kazis, marched towards the rim of the sealed- Gulf News OV-3 off Gaza Strip. They got no closer than The Forward OV-14 Killing Palestinian Protesters several hundred yards from Israeli What Will Happen When Turns Into a PR Debacle for snipers before shots rang out, leaving Muslims Outnumber Jews in hundreds of Palestinians injured and at Israel, Philip Weiss, The U.S. by 2040?, least 10 dead. http://mondoweiss.net OV-4 Dunia El-Zobaidi, This is not a movie. It is Gaza. It is Is Trump Assembling a War The Arab Weekly OV-16 Palestine. Cabinet?, Patrick J. Buchanan, Palestinian Teen Ahed Tamimi For more than 70 years Palestinians Creators Syndicate, Inc. OV-5 Reaches Plea Bargain, to Serve have tried by all means possible to ob- 8 Months in Israeli Prison, Trump’s Choice of Bolton tain their rights as guaranteed under Yotam Berger, Haaretz OV-16 international and humanitarian law. Satisfies His Biggest Donor, You Bet It’s Apartheid, Over these decades dozens of resolu- Eli Clifton & Jim Lobe, Gideon Levy, Haaretz OV-17 tions have come from a wide range of http://lobelog.com OV-6 international bodies, associations and Trump’s and Pompeo’s Path to Take a Look Around. This Is NGOs in support of our fundamental Nuclear Crisis, Paul R. Pillar, What Annexation Looks Like, Michael Omer-Man, rights to freedom and self-determina- http://nationalinterest.org OV-7 tion and a return to our homes, from 972mag.com OV-18 We Made a Documentary which we were forcibly expelled in Sderot, “Bomb Shelter Capital Exposing the “Israel Lobby.” 1948. Of the World,” not as Heroic Why Hasn’t It Run?, Despite a romantic rewrite, dozens As Israel Claims, Clayton Swisher, The Forward OV-9 of respected historians and journal- Stuart Littlewood, ists, including Israelis such as Ilan U.S. Officials Demand Al Jazeera www.redressonline.com OV-19 Pappé and Gideon Levy, have docu- Register as Propaganda There Is No Justice in Our World, mented the coordinated Zionist attack “Agent,” Peter Van Buren, Eric S. Margolis, on hundreds of age-old Palestinian The American Conservative OV-11 ericmargolis.com OV-19 villages in 1948 as the onset of a cal- OTHER VOICES A SUPPLEMENTTOTHE WASHINGTON REPORTON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS MAY 2018 OV-1 OVr2_Other Voices Supplement 4/4/18 4:20 PM Page OV-2 world community has been unable or bias, Israel has exploited this “negotia- segregation barricades that deny us any unwilling to provide justice for Pales- tion” as little more than dilatory cover meaningful scrap of self-determination. tinian people who live in walled-off while it has continued its agenda of il- This campaign will demand an end to Bantustans in our own homeland or in legal annexation of Palestinian land in the occupation, an end to the siege of a forced diaspora as so-much stateless the West Bank. Gaza, and recognition of the right of refugees throughout the world. Not satisfied with flooding the West Palestinians to return to their homes in Meanwhile Western states have Bank with hundreds of thousands of il- accordance with U.N. Resolution 194, openly embraced policies that not only legal “settlers,” Israel has continued its issued in December 1948. favor and protect Israel but empower it systematic attack upon fundamental These events, which begin today, co- to continue a now decades-old illegal rights of Palestinians throughout all incide with the anniversary of “Land occupation of the Palestinian territo- the occupied territories, including Day,” in which six Palestinians were ries. Gaza. killed in 1976 while defending their No state has been more supportive of What, then, has been the result of land as it was seized by Israeli authori- this historical injustice than has the this 25-year-old unilateral Israeli stall? ties in the Galilee area. United States. Not satisfied with more Have we not seen the destruction of In the tradition of passive resistance, than 250 billion dollars in direct gov- any meaningful opportunity for stabil- our activities will be peaceful and con- ernment aid to Israel, the USA has used ity and de-escalation of violence that, tinue on the borders until May 15th, its veto more than 70 times in the Se- predictably, has spilled over through- the 70th anniversary of the “Nakba,” curity Council to prevent passage of out the region? when upwards of a million Palestinians resolutions condemning Israeli policies. Has not the delay, by design, chal- were expelled from their homes. Among its unprecedented financial lenged the remaining hope for our peo- All Palestinians in our homeland and support for Israel, the U.S. has provided ple for freedom, an independent state diaspora, including men, women and many tens of billions of dollars in mil- and a return to the homes they have children, will participate in these itary aid and equipment that has subsi- been displaced from over these many marches and related demonstrations dized Israeli control over the legitimate years? And what of the daily life of that share a common theme of justice, rights and aspirations of millions of Palestinians under occupation, opportunity and freedom. Our activity Palestinians and inflicted widespread whether in the West Bank that is di- will be overseen by a national commit- death and destruction among our com- vided into controlled cantons or the tee which represents all Palestinian munities. Tens of thousands have lost besieged Gaza Strip? Both have been forces and factions as well as civil soci- their lives, many more been injured or turned into an unbearable hell, for all ety and independent Palestinian figures crippled, and even more detained for to see but for us to taste. Murder, im- and supporters. years on end in a military “justice” sys- prisonment, siege, land seizure, house The Committee has circulated nu- tem which denies Palestinians any demolitions, poverty, unemployment, merous publications and directives for modicum of justice. and denial of medical treatment and participants in the marches, which em- Recently, in an effort to further pun- travel have become the daily way of life phasize the peacefulness of this particu- ish Palestinian civilians for the temer- for millions of Palestinians. lar movement and the need to avoid ity of their political will, the U.S. ad- Like the rest of the world, Palestini- violence or any provocative escalation ministration cut more than $300 mil- ans are a people who love life, commu- by Israel. The Committee has also des- lion in aid out of what was its $360 nity and family and seek only a better ignated various on-site representatives million annual share to the U.N. Relief future for our children. However, it to oversee our collective efforts and to and Works Agency (UNRWA). This in- seems as if our collective and lawful as- ensure that our message is heard ternational aid effort provides health, piration is unacceptable to some of the through powerful and peaceful means. education and food benefits to some 5 world, which stands by with idle inter- Notwithstanding our best efforts, we million Palestinian refugees worldwide est and even less action as the occupa- full well expect provocation by Israel who represent some 40 percent of the tion and injustice unfolds in plain during our protests and will do all that total population of 11.5 million Pales- view. we can to ensure its inflammatory ef- tinians inside and out of Palestine. It seems few at the table of nations forts will pass without any response. For the last 25 years, Palestinians have felt the need to confront the Is- Despite our best efforts, once again, have tried in good faith, and in vain, to raeli aggression and its occupation this fear proved to be reality today, as achieve their legitimate aspirations which, by any definition, offends all Israel unleashed hundreds of rounds of through participation in a long, com- standards of decency and international live ammunition and canisters of tear plex and counter-productive negotia- law. gas at first sight of peaceful demonstra- tion process. Having considered our various op- tors armed with nothing more than Because of the fundamental imbal- tions, as well as our lawful right to re- their voice and self-determination. ance of power on the ground and an sist, Palestinians in Gaza have decided Ultimately, Israel has long feared and ever-present international pro-Israeli to launch peaceful marches near the challenged any and all efforts by Pales- OV-2 MAY 2018 A SUPPLEMENTTOTHE WASHINGTON REPORTON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS OTHER VOICES OVr2_Other Voices Supplement 4/4/18 4:20 PM Page OV-3 tinians to expose the reality of the oc- “to defend its sovereignty”—as though cupation and the siege of Gaza, which Israel Sniggers at this military state masquerading as the certainly puts the lie to its claim as the only Middle East democracy requires only democratic state in the region; A Cowardly defending from civilians whose only one that respects and protects human weapons are stones.