Reinventing Israeli Ruthlessness

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Longstanding Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians can't be papered over no matter how hard Zionist ideologues try.

The Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute endorses status quo harshness in Occupied Palestine.

Largely supported by right-wing and Islamophobic extremists, it wants Palestinian voices silenced. It backed Israeli wars of aggression on Gaza.

It's involved in undermining pro-Palestinian activities on college campuses, especially BDS activism.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a Shalom Hartman Institute senior fellow. The NYT gave him feature op-ed space to reinvent deplorable Israeli actions. His commentary was a litany of disinformation and Big Lies.

Halevi: In 2002, "Israel had offered to withdraw from virtually the entire West Bank and Gaza. In return, it received the worst wave of terrorism in its history." 

"That Israeli narrative of why the peace process failed transformed Israel's politics for a generation…(M)uch of the world ignored Israel's spurned overture and continued to fault the Jewish state for the continuing occupation it had sought to end."

Fact: In July 2014 during Israeli aggression on Gaza, Netanyahu said the following:

"(T)here cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan (the West Bank and East Jerusalem)."

He clearly indicated occupation won't end, intending it to be permanent, along with rejecting Palestinian sovereignty.

Fact: In 1948, Israel stole 78% of historic Palestine, one of history's greatest crimes. In 1967, it took the rest.

Fact: In 1980, Israel's Jerusalem Law illegally annexed the city as Israel's exclusive capital.

Fact: Months ahead of its action, Security Council Res. 465 declared:

"(A)ll measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation...and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

In 2004, the the International Court of Justice (ICC) ruled that "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development (and) have been established in breach of international law."

Nothing changed. Settlements keep expanding on stolen Palestinian land. Israel wants all valued parts of Judea and Samaria Judaized - displacing Arabs, replacing them with Jews.

Halevi's remarks above disgracefully turned truth on its head.

Israel has no intention of ending occupation, no intention of granting Palestinian statehood, no intention of returning land it stole, wanting it solely for exclusive Jewish development and use.

So-called "worst wave of terrorism in (Israeli) history" was legitimate Palestinian Second Intifada resistance against Israeli ruthlessness.

Residents of abandoned Gaza settlements were moved to expropriated West Bank Palestinian land.

Oslo was a Palestinian Versailles scheme to serve Israeli interests exclusively at the expense of fundamental Palestinian rights.

They got nothing for renouncing armed struggle, recognizing Israel's right to exist, and agreeing to leave major unresolved issues for later final status talks. They're still waiting nearly 25 years later.

A Palestinian Authority was established to serve as Israel's enforcer - PA leadership betraying their people for special benefits gotten. Theft of Palestinian land continues unabated.

Halevi: Gaza " 'march of return' (demonstrations aim) to destroy the fence and cross Israel's internationally recognized border."

"The long-term goal is to demographically destroy the Jewish-majority state through a 'return' of descendants of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war."

Fact: Gaza has been illegally blockaded by Israel for over a decade - solely for political reasons, unrelated to security, causing severe humanitarian crisis conditions.

Fact: Weekly Gazan Great March of Return demonstrations have nothing to do with breaching the oppressive border fence well inside the Strip, nothing to do with destroying a Jewish majority in Israel - everything to do with resisting Israeli tyranny, struggling for liberation Gazans and all Palestinians deserve. 

Fact: UN Res 194 stated Palestinian "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date."

Other UN resolutions affirmed the right of return. So does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stating: "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states "no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country." 

There were no "firebombs and burning kites dispatched into Israeli fields" nor Hamas infiltration into Israel, as Halevi falsely claimed.

Nothing threatened Israeli security. IDF snipers gunned down defenseless Gazans protesting for fundamental rights denied them.

Israel faces no threats from neighboring countries, not Iran, Syria, Lebanon or any others, as Halevi falsely claimed.

His entire commentary was an exercise in justifying unjustifiable Israeli actions.

No responsible editors would have published it. Times editors featured it to their disgrace!

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