The Hebron massacre: 18 years on

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

On the 25th of February, 1994, as hundreds of Muslim worshipers were performing the dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in downtown Hebron, a Jewish-American terrorist by the name of Baruch Goldstein descended onto the mosque from the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arbaa, spraying the worshipers with machinegun bullets, killing at least 29 people and injuring many others.

The terrorist, who used his army-issued Galilion rifle, wanted to kill as many innocent people as possible in order to create mass terror throughout the city, the largest in the West Bank. His motive was to thoroughly terrorize the Arabs, who constitute 99.5% of the city's population.

The Israeli occupation authorities, who had to tackle a public relations disaster, denied any complicity or collusion with the perpetrator.

Israeli officials, including then Prime Minister Isaac Rabin claimed the massacre was thunder on a clear day. However, it was hard to believe that the terrorist could not have reached the heavily-protected premises of the huge compound without some connivance with the strong Israeli army garrison at the site.

Goldstein himself was eventually overpowered and killed by survivors, fearing he would still kill more worshipers. Many settler leaders had the audacity to demand the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for Goldstein's death.

Many Jewish religious leaders praised the mass murderer, calling him a great saint and hero. Eventually, a monument perpetuating his memory was erected in Kiryat Arbaa and Jewish pilgrims from as far as California came to pay their respects to and be blessed by the tomb.

Goldstein was also eulogized by many rabbis and Torah sages who heaped praise on him, arguing that a thousand Gentile or Goyem were not worth a Jew's fingernail.

One rabbi, when asked about the religious admissibility of murdering innocent non-Jewish people, said he was not only sorry about the death of innocent Arabs but that he was also sorry about the death of innocent flies!!!

Following the bloodbath, the Israeli government carried out a huge public relations campaign aimed at convincing western especially American public opinion that the Israeli government played no part in the carnage.

Israeli officials argued that Israel and most Jews were dismayed by the criminal act as much as anyone else.

However, polls in Israel and abroad showed that a majority of Jews, including Israeli high school students, enthusiastically supported the evil deed. Moreover, subsequent measures taken against the Palestinians as well as the excessive leniency toward settlers, who hailed the massacre, suggested the government was indifferent toward the massacre and behaved as if the lives of non-Jews were worthless.


Israel tests international patience on Jerusalem

Khalid Amayreh


An Israeli police officer fires tear gas at Palestinian pro-
testers (not seen) during clashes in the East Jerusalem
neighborhood of Issawiya.
(AP/Sebastian Scheiner)

The results of the Likud leadership elections and continuing provocation at the Haram Al-Sharif signal growing extremism in Israel, writes Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem.

Moshe Feiglin is not a typical Likudnik in the style of other past and present Likud leaders, such as Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu.

Those who know him say he is an incarnation of Meir Kahana, the racist-minded American rabbi who in the early 1970s founded the Kach organisation calling for the expulsion of non-Jews from Israel-Palestine, as well as the application of draconian Talmudic laws to replace Israel's quasi-secular system.

A few years ago, Feiglin decided to join the ranks of Likud, calculating that only by taking over a central and powerful party from within could he hope to transform Israel from a semi-secular state into a Jewish theocracy ruled by Halacha or the so-called Talmudic religious law.

So far, he has achieved only limited success, with less than 25 per cent of Likud registered members voting for him in the recent party leadership elections, in which the overwhelming majority voted for incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

However, the fact that Feiglin has been able to secure one fourth of Likud behind him does not bode well for either Israel's democracy or the future of Likud itself.

Ideologically, Feiglin is at the extreme right of the Israeli political map, believing that Israel should annex the West Bank, reoccupy the Gaza Strip, deport all Palestinians and demolish Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem.


Calling Israel "free state" is insult to language

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem


Auster greeting Israeli President Shimon Peres
with Salman Rushdie and Caro Llewellyn in 2008.

Paul Auster, a prominent American Jewish writer, apparently couldn't overcome his tribal instincts recently when he sought to desperately justify his double standards of criticizing Turkey's record on human rights while keeping completely reticent about Israel's scandalous maltreatment of non-Jews, particularly its thoroughly-tormented and discriminated-against Palestinian subjects.

Instead of quietly admitting his moral duplicity, Auster resorted to evasiveness and prevarication, saying that all countries had their failings and no country is perfect.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan called Auster an ignoramus for visiting the apartheid Israeli state but not Turkey .

"If he comes, so what? If he doesn't come so what? Will Turkey lose prestige?" Erdogan was quoted as saying.

In a statement released last week and published in the New York Times' Arts Beat blog, the Zionist author sought to defend his decision to boycott Turkey , saying that whatever the Turkish Prime Minister might think about Israel , the fact is that free speech exists there and no writers or journalists are in jail.

Well, in truth Israel has no true freedom of speech. And it is not true that journalists are not detained and imprisoned in the self-described Jewish state. In fact, journalists are detained and imprisoned in Israel for a host of reasons ranging from violating censorship laws to refusing to disclose their sources of information.

In addition, intellectuals, including Jewish intellectuals, are barred from entering Israel if they are critical of Israel's racist policies and notoriously criminal practices against the Palestinians. Israel, for example, has barred two American Jewish intellectuals, Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein for criticizing Israeli policies and crimes.


The Amman fiasco

Khalid Amayreh


Jordan's King Abdullah with Mahmoud Abbas (Abu
Mazen), the illegitimate[*] president of the Palestinian
Authority. Mahmoud Abbas is not rightful leader of
the Palestinians in the West Bank, much less in Gaza,
where Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was democratically
elected in 2006. Abbas is Israel's puppet & enforcer.

It seems the Jordanian-moderated talks between Zionist and Palestinian negotiators in Amman are going nowhere. Some observers argue the talks were doomed from the very beginning as the apartheid Israeli regime continued to refuse freezing settlement expansion.

The talks, dubbed as "exploratory" by some Palestinian Authority (PA) officials never really had the slightest chance of success, given Israel's determined and stubborn refusal to end her military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as well as allow for the repatriation of millions of uprooted Palestinians back to their homes and villages in what is called now "Israel."

These are the most elementary and minimalist Palestinian demands that must be met if a peace deal can ever be salvaged.

However, it is amply clear that the so-called peace talks are being held, not for the sake of pursuing genuine peace but rather for the sake of keeping the sides busy with something and also for the sake of satisfying demands by the Quartet which would like to have a feeling, however false and disingenuous, that some thing is going on and that the train of peace is not hopelessly stuck at station.

This is what the eternally and justifiably frustrated Palestinian negotiators are saying, namely that Israel, which never stops stealing Palestinian land and demolishing Palestinian homes, is not really seeking a dignified peace agreement but is rather trying to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

This is the message PA representatives got from the chief Zionist representative to the talks Yitzhak Molcho who briefed the Palestinians about Israel's vision of a final territorial "compromise" in the West Bank.


"Jewish state" is euphemism for Jewish fascism

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

Benyamin Netanyahu, the notorious liar-prime minister of the apartheid Zionist regime, has been regurgitating his characteristic racist venom of late. He has been quoted as saying that the root-cause of the Palestinian question is "the persistent Palestinian refusal to accept a Jewish state."

Speaking at a synagogue in the Netherlands during a recent visit during which he reportedly discussed "mounting international hostility to Israel," Netanyahu argued that Israel was a "beleaguered democracy, confronting great threats and challenges.

"There are those who cast Israel as a pariah state every time we exercise the inherent right of self defense."

Well, for those people who are closely aware of the basic realities of the Israeli-Palestinian situation, Netanyahu's words are tantamount to fornicating with words and truth.

The fact that Netanyahu's mendacious words find their way to publication in the media doesn't alter this fact. A publicized big lie is still a big lie, even if and when uttered and repeated by famous people.

The truth of the matter is that Israel is a huge crime against humanity, a thoroughly deformed entity that is based on genocidal ethnic cleansing, brash racism, sheer brutality, oppression and mendacity. It is a psychotic country that views every conceivable crime and violation of international laws and norms as "legitimate self-defense."


PA security agency harasses non-conformist Journalist

Khalid Amayreh

This is not the first time I'm subjected to harassment and abuse at the hands of Palestinian Authority (PA) security operatives. On several occasions, I had been abused, imprisoned and humiliated by the security agencies. In one episode in 2009, I was made to sleep in a rancid cell after reporting that PA police were preventing and brutally suppressing demonstrations against Israel in protest against Israel 's 2008-09 genocidal Blitzkrieg against the Gaza Strip.

I thought the Arab Spring would convince the PA security apparatus to abandon or at least alleviate their police-state tactics against dissent and show more respect for human rights and civil liberties. However, it seems that that the PA, as far as its treatment of its people, remains largely unchanged. Old habits die hard, after all.

Most of the PA security operatives remain deeply hateful of anything relating to Hamas. In fact, one could argue with little exaggeration that most of the security agencies have come to consider Hamas enemy number-1 while Israel is viewed as a distant second enemy. This is due to the intensive indoctrination the security apparatus has been subjected to ever since the defeat and ousting of Fatah militia by Hamas in 2007.


The Camp David treaty is not a sacred text

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine


President Carter with President Sadat of Egypt and
Prime Minister Begin of Israel at Camp David.

It is quite heartening that leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers are speaking of their disdain and contempt of the 1979 Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel.

It seems also prudent that the Islamist party, evidently the largest in Egypt, will not embark on a rash feat that could invite uncalculated reactions from the Zionist entity and its western allies, especially her guardian-ally, the United States.

The Muslim Brothers have said that they will respect Egypt's international obligations.

None the less, the Camp David treaty was not really a treaty of peace, but rather a treaty of submission and capitulation to Zionist regional hegemony, arrogance and military supremacy.

True, the Sinai Peninsula was "returned" to Egypt to the last inch. However, it is also true that vast swathes of the Sinai desert became off limit to the Egyptian forces. This is why smugglers, terrorists, saboteurs and foreign agents seem to act freely throughout that territory, blowing up gas pipelines, smuggling narcotics and other contrabands, and even attacking symbols of Egyptian sovereignty, including police centers and tourist resorts.

The defunct Egyptian regime of ex President Hosni Mubarak claimed mendaciously that the Sinai desert was completely liberated from the Israeli occupation. But how can Sinai are really completely liberated when the bulk of its territory is still off limit to the Egyptian army and air force?

In addition, it is quite scandalous how Israel came to understand the infamous treaty, e.g. that it gave the Zionist entity a carte blanch to gang up on the Palestinians, liquidate the Palestinian cause, though gradually and by desensitizing the world's moral conscience, and carrying out recurrent genocidal campaigns aimed at murdering, incinerating and maiming as many Palestinians as possible.


Palestinians must get their act together in 2012

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem

2011 was not a particularly bad year for Palestine. In this year, hundreds of Palestinian political and resistance prisoners were able to see the light, having been released from Israeli dungeons and detention camps.

Needless to say, many of these heroes would have spent the rest of their lives in Zionist jails, had it not been for the so-called Shalit deal and Israel's effective capitulation to Hamas's conditions for the release of the captive Zionist soldier.

Thanks to the deal, hundreds of Palestinian families, which had lost the hope for ever seeing their beloved ones alive again, breathed a sigh of relief as they were reunited with their children, brothers, husbands and daughters.

Needless to say, Israel had tried every conceivable effort and intelligence act to locate the captive soldier, but to no avail. After all, Shalit was held under Israel's nose somewhere in the Gaza Strip for more than 60 months.

This fact alone should make us look with admiration and gratitude to those unknown but heroic soldiers who were able to keep this valuable secret all these months and years.

2011 brought us the Arab Spring, which consigned several tyrannical pro-American regimes to the dustbin of history. Some of these regimes, such as that of ex-president Husni Mubarak of Egypt , had been a serious liability for the Palestinian struggle and steadfastness.


Just another Palestinian year

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem


Palestinian and foreign activists in Ramallah rally
in support of UN recognition of a Palestinian state,
which is opposed by Israeli leaders, but is gaining
momentum with reconciliation between Hamas
and the PLO.

Like in previous years, 2011 was more or less another "normal" year for the Palestinians as Israel, which is ruled by a racist coalition of right wing and religious parties, continued to narrow Palestinian horizons, effectively putting an end to any realistic hopes for establishing a viable and territorially contiguous Palestinian state on the West Bank.

Psychologically, most Palestinians were in a slightly better mood in 2011 due to the outbreak of the Arab Spring, which many Palestinians view as a promising development of strategic proportions and a potentially important asset for the Palestinian cause.

However, this feeling came with a certain realisation that years would pass before Arab revolutions could reach fruition and the new Arab regimes could pay real attention to the Palestinian issue.

In addition to its general banality, 2011 witnessed the continued expansion of Jewish settlements all over the occupied territories. Indeed, not a week passed without the Israeli government unfolding a new plan for seizing additional swathes of Palestinian land for settlement expansion.

According to Israeli sources, more than 2500 settler units were built in various parts of the West Bank in 2011. Additional settlements were either built or expanded in East Jerusalem where the current Israeli government accelerated the "Judaisation process", besieging Arab communities.

Plans for building more than 5000 settler units have been approved by the Israeli government, which demographic experts argue convincingly would make the two-state solution, the very basis of the peace process, unrealistic and impossible to implement.

Israel consistently refused to freeze settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories as the US proved unwilling or unable to exert meaningful pressure on the Netanyahu government to freeze its colonialist schemes.


Settlers run rampage in West Bank

Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem


A man waves the Palestinian flag as he waits at the
Beituniya checkpoint for released Palestinian pri-
soners to cross into the West Bank city of Ramallah
in the second and final phase of a swap with Hamas.

Nazi-like Jewish settlers have continued to attack mosques and churches in the West Bank as part of a seemingly concerted effort to force Palestinians to leave their homes.

The government-backed settlers often describe their frequent attacks on Palestinians and their properties as "price tag" reprisals against the Israeli army for daring to dismantle some isolated Jewish settler outposts.

As to why the settler terrorists choose to target innocent Palestinians, not the army, settler spokespersons argue that attacking Palestinian mosques -- and to a lesser extent churches -- creates headlines, and effectively highlights the settlers' "grievances" in addition to embarrassing the occupation army.

Another reason for the wanton terror has to do with the simple fact that the settlers can do it virtually with impunity. Indeed, despite the fact that as many as 20 mosques and six churches have been targeted of late, not a single settler has been apprehended for the attacks.

This colossal failure, say Jewish commentators, may be attributed to two main reasons. First, lack of political will on the Israeli government's part to harm or collide with the settlers since a confrontation with the settlers would probably bring down the government, or at least make a sizable segment of Israelis lose confidence in it.

The current coalition government includes key fundamentalist Talmudic parties that are largely considered "settler parties". These include the so-called National Union, which advocates ethnic cleansing of non-Jews, Shas, the Haredi ultra-orthodox party representing Middle Eastern Jews, as well as the Likud, which is no less demagogic and racist vis-³-vis the Palestinians.

Second, Israeli settlers and their supporters have infiltrated both the Israeli army itself as well as the justice system, hence the "kid gloves" treatment settlers receive from the political and military establishment as well as the courts.


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