Thursday 26 November 2009

PALESTINIAN PRISONERS: SHARED STRUGGLE, SHARED SUFFERING, SHARED ASPIRATIONS

Yesterday I did a post involving several Palestinian prisoners. The main article was about Bil'in Peace Activist Mohammad Othman, a high profile situation for an internationally known man. But what of the thousands of others languishing under appalling conditions in these jails. How vengeful are their jailers? Last week, a cat that visited the cells was jailed so that it could not wander from prisoner to prisoner. A cat!


An Israeli prison,The Nakab, located between Egypt and Israel has booked one cat in solitary confinement as punishment for its services and assistance to prisoners who are serving sentences in solitary confinement.


Today I present this piece by Reham Ahlesi from her blog My Palestine. Meet the ordinary Palestinian prisoners who are locked in these places. I introduced you to the children a few months ago. Now meet the adults who live in a place that would rival hell.

No matter how much we write about Palestinian prisoners, it is not enough in comparison to these prisoner’s sacrifices and daily suffering. They lost their freedom in the fight for the freedom of Palestine and for our freedom.

As you read this, please remember these Zionist Jews are also followers of the Talmudic Rabbis. According to the Talmud, if one is not born Jewish, one is no more than a beast on two legs. They are obeying the extinction laws of the Talmud by letting these beasts die, without lifting a hand to assist them.

Maimonides, Mishnah Torah: "Accordingly, if we see an idolater (gentile) being swept away or drowning in the river, we should not help him. If we see that his life is in danger, we should not save him." The Hebrew text of the Feldheim 1981 edition of Mishnah Torah state this as well. University of Jerusalem Prof. Ehud Sprinzak described Kahane and Goldstein's philosophy: "They believe it's God's will that they commit violence against goyim, a Hebrew term for non-Jews." (NY Daily News, Feb. 26, 1994, p. 5)

Their “road of suffering” begins with the minute of their arrest. They are often brutally beaten by the IOF upon arrest, to be then handed over to the Israeli intelligence “Shabak”, who don't hesitate to use all forms of physical and mental torture to force Palestinians into admitting things they didn't do.

Those prisoners who survive the Shabak interrogation are then handed over to the Israeli prison authority, which runs some Nazi-like prison facilities, death cells waiting to engulf Palestinians.

Here, Palestinian prisoners are subjected to an inhumane treatment much similar to methods used by the Nazis in Concentration camps, such as conducting medical experiments on powerless prisoners, or neglecting their injuries and ailments leaving them to die an agonizing and slow death, or defining Palestinian prisoners according to their given numbers and not as human beings with names.

Despite all, these Palestinian prisoners fight as one against the injustices inflicted upon them, against the atrocities of their executioners. Their fight is a daily fight; for they have to fight for the food they eat and the water the drink and the air they breathe.

They fight for their right to see their families, to get medical treatment, to get decent food fit for human consumption, to sleep at night, to walk and see the sun during the day, to read books and newspapers, to watch television and hear a radio and get legal support.

It is a daily fight to survive a prison institution that is run by a terror state that wouldn't hesitate in shooting at unarmed prisoners who go on hunger strikes in protest of the treatment they receive;

A prison institution that wouldn't hesitate in sending a terminally ill Palestinian prisoner back to his cell with a pill of Acamol, a useless pain killer, and ignore his screams of pain all night long;

A prison institution that wouldn't hesitate to lock up blind and handicapped Palestinian prisoners in isolation cells which are not fit to be used as a pig’s pens;

A prison institution that feeds and thrives on the lives of Palestinian children, women, men and elderly.


PALESTINIAN PRISONERS CLUB ~ Through this site, Israeli criminal activities and small prisoners' successes are reported and celebrated. There is much information to be found only here since it is written by the prisoners themselves.

Every nation has the right to fight for its freedom, for its legitimate rights and for the future of its children. These freedom fighters locked up behind Israeli prison bars also depend on us to fight for them, to carry their fight to the outside world, to remind the world of their suffering and their sacrifices.

It is our word they depend upon, our word to inform those at home and those far away, to mobilize people on their behalf, to uncover the crimes being committed against them behind locked doors, and to keep their issue on the top of our national priorities.

During the last couple of weeks, several reports and articles were published on the issue of Palestinian prisoners. There were a number of campaigns and a few petitions distributed widely in support of certain cases. While some of these petitions and reports found great resonance on social sites such as Facebook, twitter, and some yahoo and Google groups, the stories of other prisoners and their suffering were limited to a few websites.

And unfortunately, while some arrests make the headlines, tens of other arrests remain sidelines, numbers added to the list of thousands locked up inside Israeli jails. Regardless of the excuses given, ALL Palestinian prisoners deserve our interest and our work and campaigning for their freedom, and they don't deserve to be reduced to a single line added to certain petitions whenever we find it appropriate or necessary.

Last week, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club started a campaign calling for the release of Akram Mansour, 49 years old, from Israeli imprisonment because of his deteriorating health situation. Mansour has been locked up in Israeli jails since more than 30 years now and suffers from several diseases. His complaints were often ignored by the Israeli prison authorities, until one day he collapsed during morning exercise.

Despite loss of hearing, the Israeli prison authorities told him there was nothing wrong with him and refused him further medical examination. After several demands that he be thoroughly examined and treated, Mansour was given a CT scan at the so-called Ramleh prison “hospital”, which showed the existence of a mass growing inside Mansour’s head, causing the loss of hearing and other ailments.

Mansour lost both his parents and one of his sisters while in prison, unable to say goodbye to them, and might die in prison without having the chance to see his remaining siblings.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Club
“appealed to all institutions and the authorities concerned with prisoners’ affairs to activate his case for his release and to provide appropriate treatment as well as attention to the issues of sick prisoners, and to raise awareness at all levels and international forums.”
Palestinian reports of experiments being conducted on Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli prison authority have always been denied by Israel, claiming as usual that the Palestinians are spreading lies and it being another Palestinian propaganda.

Actually, all it needs is a study of the medical status of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails to realize that this is no lie and no propaganda: the number of Palestinian prisoners in need of medical care is on the rise.

Those who urgently need medical help have often to wait long before receiving the appropriate treatment, i.e. if they are lucky enough to get any treatment at all, and are often left to die a slow and painful death or are treated with mere painkiller, no matter how severe the case is, while those who suffer from minor ailments end up with severe problems after they get “treated” at the so-called prison clinics.

Examples exist of prisoners who needed urgent surgery but didn't receive it, and of others who had to wait years before they were finally operated upon, with the condition of the patients not getting better after the operation, and others who lost their eye-sight, movement in their limbs and caught serious diseases after being “treated”.

There are cases of prisoners suffering from diabetes where the deliberate delay in providing the needed medical help had led to the amputation of their limbs. Several registered cases of mass food poisoning inside the prisons strengthen what many prisoners and prisoner organizations say about Palestinian prisoners being used against their will and knowledge as test persons in medical experiments conducted by the Israeli prison authorities.

Also, Palestinian prisoners who need urgent treatment get interrogated in the so-called prison clinics and are blackmailed into giving information or admitting to things they didn't commit.

Israeli soldiers comprise the medical staff running these so-called clinics, whereby an Israeli soldier can become a nurse after only 6 months of training. Palestinian prisoners are transferred in vans to the so-called Ramlah prison “hospital” instead of in ambulances and they are hand and leg cuffed, including during the operations which are often conducted without anesthetic.

According to several Palestinian prisoner organizations there are 1500 Palestinian prisoners with medical problems. Many of them suffer from heart diseases, high blood pressure, kidney diseases, diabetes, paralysis, vision loss, dental problems and other chronic diseases. Some suffer from past injuries inflicted upon them by the IOF during their arrest, or by the Israeli prison authority and the Israeli intelligence (Shabak) during interrogation and after it.

Today, there are 16 Palestinian prisoners who suffer from cancer, which, according to several reports, is on the rise among Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons. At least 150 Palestinian prisoners suffer from heart diseases and blood pressure problems, tens have become handicapped after being shot at by the IOF just before their arrest, and at least 12 suffer from Hemiplegia.

In addition to physical suffering, more than 40 Palestinian prisoners suffer from mental and psychological ailments due to the interrogation methods used by the Israeli Shabak and the Israeli prison authorities, which include torture.

Raid Darabieh, 36 years old, from Jabalya RC, was diagnosed with kidney stones and was operated by the Israeli prison authority 4 times in the back and spine after the discovery of a tumor in the spinal cord. All operations failed, leaving Darabieh with open back-wounds and the loss of feeling in his feet, making him a cripple.

Anas Shihadeh had an Appendectomy without any anesthetic being used. During the operation his heart stopped beating 3 times.

Nur Alasa, 23, suffered from kidney failure and cirrhosis of the liver after being given pills by the Israeli prison authority as treatment for his cold.

Jum’a Muhammad Musa, 66 years old and a father of 8, died on 24.12.2008 in Israeli jails after spending 10 years in the so-called Ramlah prison “hospital”. Musa was given all sorts of medicines causing him only more pain and suffering, and an injection given to him caused paralysis in his left arm and leg.

Mohammad Abu Wahdan was tied to the bed in the “hospital” by his hands and legs and was left to die a slow and painful death.

Lieberman has gone on record wanting to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza.

Avigdor Lieberman, current Israeli foreign minister, stated on 07.07.2003 in front of the Israeli Knesset in a discussion on Palestinian political prisoners that “It would be better to drown these prisoners in the Dead Sea if possible, since that's the lowest point in the world.”, adding that as transport minister, he would be willing to provide the buses to take the prisoners there.

Tzahi Hanegbi, former Israeli ministry for internal security, said in 2004 after Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails declared a hunger strike against the inhumane prison conditions: “They can strike for a day, a month, until death. We will ward off this strike and it will be as if it never happened." He has ordered large, open grills to be set up to barbecue meat and for bread to be baked just outside the prison doors, to torture prisoners with the smells. Prison guards are encouraged to eat all this in front of the fasting prisoners.”

He later said: “for all I care, they can starve to death!

Commenting on the same issue, Dany Naveh, former Israeli health minister, gave orders preventing Palestinian prisoners from receiving treatment in health facilities: “let them be treated where they lie … we don't want these murderers in hospitals.”
These men express shocking sentiments shared by most of their electorate. If you wonder how they can say such things and be lauded, not condemned for such statement, then please take a few moments to read this piece. In it are quotes and writings as well as encouragement from Talmudic rabbis to kill anyone you wish, if you are Jewish and if your victim is not Jewish. The key is doing NOTHING if your victim is put into a deadly situation. For example:

"Letting mosquitoes bite your neighbor to death. Bind your neighbour so he can neither move nor call out. As for the mosquitoes, they come and go, so, since the ones which bit him when you tied the victim go away and others end his life, you are pure and blameless."

MURDERING YOUR NEIGHBOUR ~ ENCOURAGED
So it is not difficult to understand these Talmudic Jews. This book and their culture has resulted in such a corrupt way of thinking.
According to reports there are at least 28 Palestinian prisoners who are dying in Israeli prisons.

197 Palestinian prisoners have been killed by the IOF since 1967; 70 as a result of torture, 71 killed in cold blood after being arrested, 49 as a result of medical negligence and 7 being shot dead inside prisons by the Israeli prison authorities.

49 Palestinian prisoners were killed due to medical negligence by the Israeli prison authorities:

Khalil Rashaydeh, Abdelqader, Abu Al-Fahim, Ramadan Al-Banna,Omar Awad-Allah, Omran Abu Khalaf, ‘Ajaj Alawneh, Nasser Hweitat, Farid Ghannam,Idrees Nofal, Rasim Halawah, Ali Al-Ja’farai, Anis Dawlah, Salah Abbas, Ali Al-Shatreet, Salim Abu Sbeih, Michael Lazaro, Isaac Maraghah, Mahmoud Najajrah, Qandil Abdel Rahman, Ata Ayyad, Mohammad Hammad, Abdel Min’im Kolek, Omar AlQasem, Muhammad Al-Rifi, Raeq Suleiman, Jasir Abu Rmeileh, Hussein ‘Abeidat, Yahya Natour, Ahmad Ismael, Riyad Udwan, Yousif Al’ar’ar, Mohammad Dahameen, Ahmad Jawabreh, Walid Amr, Bashir ‘Eweis, Fawwaz Al-Balbal, Mohammad Abu Wahdan, Bashar Bani Odeh, Jawad Abu Maghseeb, Suleiman Darabjeh, Rasim Ghneimat, Abdel Fattah Raddad, Jamal Saraheen, Mahir Dandan, Shadi Sa’aydeh, Omar Masalmeh, Fadi AbuRub, Fadil Shaheen, Jum’a Musa.
70 Palestinian prisoners were killed as a result of torture at the hands of Israeli Shabak and prison authorities:

Yousef Al-Jabali, Mustapha Harb, Fathi Al-Natsheh, Younis Abu Sbeitan, Qasem Abu Aker, Ahmad Abu Amerah, Qasem Abu Khdeirah, Awn Al-‘Ar’er, Othman AlBahsh, Deeb Shtayeh, Hashim Karim, Salim Safi, Mustapha Al-Drabee’, MuhyiIldeen Al’Uri, Mohammad Wishah, Hassan Al-Sawarkah, Issa Abdel Hamid, Mustapha Al-Awawdah, Naser Aldeen Al-Shakhsheer, Fareez Tashtoush, Omar Shalabi, Salem Abu Sitta, Jamil Barakat, Fouad Hmed, Ahmad Dahdoul, Youssef Karim, Nasser Alheb, Said Abu Sitta, Faiz Al-Tarayrah, Salameh Hassouni, Husam Qar’an, Yacoub Dababish, Hamzah Abu Sh’eb, Khalil Abu Khadijah, Mahmoud Freitekh, Ghassan Lahham, Tariq Al-Hindi, Tariq Hammouri, Awwad Hamdan, Khadir Tarazi, Ibrahim AlRa’i, Iyad Aqil, Nabil Ibdah, Hani AlShami, Ibrahim Mutawwar, Mahmoud AlMasri, Jamal Abu Sharkh, Khalid Alsheikh Ali, Abdallah Alawneh, Atiyah Za’aneen, Ali AlShahid, Sami Zu’rub, Mustapha Akkawi, Ahmad Barakat, Samir Omar, Mohmmad Barbas, Haazim Eid, Mustapha Barakat, Ayman Barhum, Samir Salameh, Ayman Nassar, Mohammad AlJundi, Abdel Samad Hreizat, Ma’zuz Dalal, Majid Daghlas, Khalid Abu Dayyeh, Nidal Abu Srour, Ibrahim Abu Hawwash, Ali Abu Alrub, Wael AlQarawi.

71 Palestinian prisoners killed in cold blood by the IOF after being arrested:

Ahmad Al-Nuweiri, Kahlil Syam, Zaki Syam, Ahmad Abu Dayyeh, Yopusef ‘Asaliyeh, Ahmad Afaneh, Haris Abu Alhayyeh, Ali Abu Sultan, Samih Abu Hasaballah, Mohammad Khreizat, Hassan Abu Rukba, Khader Hilani, Bilal Burini, Jamal Qiblan, Mohammad Abu Jami’, Bader Karadah, Ibrahim Barad’ah, Yousef Al-Mughrabi, Hassan Abu Sh’era, Mahmoud Khalil, Jamal Thalji, Mustapha Yassin, Ali Julani, Issa Dabadbeh, Midhat Abu Dalal, Mohammad Hussein, Yousef AlSukarji, Jassir Samaro, Nasim Abu-Alrus, Karim Mafarjeh, Anwar Abdel Ghani, Abdel-Ghani Abu Daggah, Mahmoud Salah, Basim Abu Shihadeh, Khalid Awad-Allah, Ismael Zaid, Said Mahdi, Abdel Rahman Abdallah, Omar Musa, Ahmad ‘Ajaj, Azmi ‘Ajaj, Baha’ Sharqawi, Hazim Qabaha, Ala’ Khadriyeh, Yassin Al-Agha, Jadallah Shokah, Omran Gheith, Faiz Jabir, Mohammad Al’s’is, Jasir Hasaneen, Ahmad Atiyah, Abdel Afu AlQassas, Falah Masharqah, Qasem Al-Ja’bari, Mohammad Al-Khawaja, Walid Srouji, Hisham Abu Jamous, Sufian Al-‘Ardah, Tha’er Al-Mahdawi, Jamal Abu Mallouj, Iyad Al-Khatib, Ali Abu Hijleh, Nassar Abu Slim, Tariq Al-Hindawi, Mahmoud Kmel, Salah Sheikh Eid, Mazin Shabat, Salim AbulHija, Mahmoud Abu Hassan, Fawwaz Freihat, Obeidah Dweik.

7 Palestinian prisoners were shot dead inside prisons by the Israeli prison guards:

Assad Al-Showa from Gaza was killed on 16.8.1988 in Al-Naqab detention camp.

Bassam Al-Somoody from Al-Yamon was killed on 16.8.1988 in Al-Naqab detention camp.

Nidal Deeb from Ramallah was killed on 8.2.1989 in Majido prison.

Abdallah Abu Mahruqa from Deir Al-Balaha was killed on 12.9.1989 in Ansar 2.

Sabry Mansoor from Al-Jeep was killed on 7.7.1990 in Ofer.

Musa Abdul Rahman from Nuba was killed on 18.1.1992.

Mohammed Al-Ashqar from Sida was killed on 22.10.2007 in Al-Naqab detention camp.

Mothers, wives and children of the imprisoned demonstrate holding images of their loved one, bearing witness to the absence of the prisoners in their lives.

A week earlier, on 25.09.2009, it was reported that Palestinian prisoner Sameh Al-Shobaky from Qalqylia had entered his 7th year in isolation in Israeli prisons. Al-Shobaky was transferred to isolation immediately after his arrest and the subsequent interrogation, and he stays in isolation till this very day.

Through his lawyer, Al-Shobaky demanded more attention from the media to the situation of Palestinian prisoners, especially those held in isolation, and to inform the world of the daily human rights violations these prisoners are exposed to on a daily basis on the hands of the Israeli prison authority.

He “appealed to all the human rights organizations and human rights groups to act on the subject of the prisoners in isolation and raising it to all levels, to get the prisoners out of isolation from the world.” Prisoners who are placed in isolation are either locked up in solitary confinement where they neither see nor hear any other human being, or share the same tiny cell with one other prisoner.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club confirms the existence of “a phony court where the prisoner is taken every six months and in the event of their being two prisoners they are taken to it once a year. This court obeys the Israeli intelligence court orders “Al-Shabak” and the prisons administration “Al-Shabas”, and often requires the extension of the period that the prisoner is in isolation without giving reasons for it, and it also lacks the bare images and elements of a fair trial.”

According to the latest reports, there are at least 50 Palestinian prisoners in isolation, including the two female prisoners Wafa’ Albis and Latifah Abu Thra’ who has been in isolation for more than three years.

Prisoners who are placed in isolation remain so for many years and have no access to other prisoners or to news from other prisons. Among those, there are more than 14 prisoners who have spent over five years in isolation such as:

Abdul Nasser Al-halisy and Tayseer Samody: have each spent over 13 years in isolation.

Al-Jallad "The isolation cells in Nafha are like graves for the living"

Sameh Al-Shobaky and Mo’taz Hijazy: have each spent 7 years in isolation.

Jamal Abu Al-Hijan, Ahmed Al-Magriby, and Hassan Salameh: have each spent 5 years in solitary confinement.

Other prisoners in isolation include Abbas Al-Sayed, Saeyd Al-Tubasy, Anas Jaradat, Abu Ali Maqadmeh, Thaer Hammad, Ahmed Awaywy and Islam Hadmy.

In isolation, many Palestinian prisoners are subjected to all forms of physical, psychological and emotional suffering. The isolation cells have an area of only 1.8m x 2.7m, including the bathroom, with no room for movement and very bad ventilation.

These prisoners are punished further by denying them family visits. Family members, who often make the long and hard trip to the Israeli prisons, are often turned back without being allowed to see their loved ones.

Isolated prisoners who have family members also locked up inside Israeli jails are also not allowed to see them. For example, Jamal Abu Heyja “is not allowed to see his wife Asma'a Abu Al Hayja, a former prisoner whose life is withering with cancer. Also, he is not permitted to see his small son and two daughters or to meet any of his three sons who are imprisoned in the occupation jails.”

Other punishments include sending the prisoners to the “snooker”, which a very small room (180cm x 150cm). The only facilities in the room are two containers for drinking and washing after urinating.

Prisoners locked up here are allowed only once a day to go to the toilet.

Here, prisoners are completely isolated, not only from other prisoner, but from any connection to the outside world such as newspapers, radios or even watches to know the time.

Mohammed Barash, who is blind and “suffers from the amputation of his left leg and other diseases in his body ... was taken to the snooker and tied by his hands and foot to the bed, and during the night he suffered from suffocation and could not get up because of the restrictions, he had no choice but to scream to get the attention of the nurse.”

As a result of the conditions prevailing in isolation cells, a number of isolated prisoners suffer from diseases and do not receive the needed medical treatment. A report of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club mentions:[8]

Jihad Yaghmoor: ”suffers from severe pneumonia, and has recently been suffering from cases of suffocation at night then he awakens not finding anyone near him, so he knocks on the door shouting to force the nurse to attend.”

Abdul Nasser Al-Halisy: suffers from a difficult mental disorder. He is in isolation since over 13, of them 8 in solitary confinement.

‘Owaydeh Kallab: suffers from mental and physical illnesses, and general weakness, to the extent that “he is unable to prepare himself a cup of tea, previously the Palestinian prisoners prepared food and sent it to him, till the administration prevented the transport between rooms, despite requests by prisoners and his difficult health situation.”

Hassan Salameh: suffers from an injury in the stomach inflicted upon him on his arrest.

Mohammed Jaber Abdoh: suffers from urinary tract problems.

Mo’taz Hijazy: suffers from the brutal assault on him, because of which he was transferred to the intensive care unit. He has been in solitary confinement for the past 8 years.

Hani Jabir and Ahmad Shukry: were brutally beaten.

Among the over 11,650 Palestinian prisoners locked up inside Israeli jails, there are 325 “veteran prisoners”. The “Veteran Prisoners” is an expression used by prisoner movements and organizations to refer to Palestinian prisoners who have been locked up in Israelis jails since before the signing of the so-called peace agreement between Israel and the PLO in 1993.

There are 108 Palestinian prisoners who have spent more than 20 years inside Israeli jails. These prisoners are called the “deans” of Palestinian prisoners. According to Abdel Nasser Farawna, a Prisoner Affairs expert, 20 of those belonging to “deans of prisoners” list are from Jerusalem, 16 are from the Palestinian Territories occupied in 1948 and 72 are from the Occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Among the Palestinian “deans of prisoners” there are 13 prisoners who are in Israeli prisons since more than 25 years. These prisoners are:

Na’il Saleh Al Bargouhti, 52 years old, Ramallah, in prison since 04.04.1978 (31 years, 6 months) and is thus the longest-standing political prisoner in the world.

Fakhri (Asfour) Abdallah Al Bargouthi, 55 years old, Ramallah, in prison since 23.06.1978 (31 years, 4 months)

Akram Abdel Aziz Mansour, 47 years old, Qalqilya, in prison since 02.08.1979 (30 years, 2 months)

Fouad Qasem Al-Razem, 51 years old, Jerusalem, in prison since 30.01.1981 (28 years, 8 months)

Ibrahim Fadel Jaber, 55 years old, Hebron, in prison since 08.01.1982 (27 years, 9 months)

Hasan Ali Salma, 51 years old, Ramallah, in prison since 08.08.1982 (27 years, 2 months)

Othman Ali Misleh, 57 years old, Nablus, in prison since 15.10.1982 (27 years)

Sami Khaled Younis, 77 years old, from ‘Ara, in prison since 05.01.1983 (26 years, 9 months)

Karim Yousif Younis, 51 years old, from ‘Ara, in prison since 06.01.1983 (26 years, 9 months)

Maher Abdel Latif Younis, 52 years old, from ‘Ara, in prison since 20.01.1983 (26 years, 9 months)

Salim Ali Al Kayal, 56 years old, from Gaza, in prison since 30.05.1983 (26 years, 4 months)

Hafith Qundus, 46 years old, from Yafa, in prison since 15.05.1984 (25 years, 5 months)

Issa Abed Rabbo, 46 years old, from Dheisheh RC, in prison since 20.10.1984 (~ 25 years)

I am not a full-time writer and can only write in my free time, and sometimes it takes me weeks to finish a paper.

While writing this one, almost every single day there were news and reports of new arrests, of more suffering inside Israeli jails, of more horrors and new crimes being committed against Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli prison authority.

No matter how many times we raise the issue of Palestinian prisoners, we will not do them justice. Those who are locked up behind bars are denied the sight of the green meadows of Palestine and the smell of the Taboon bread, solely for their love of Palestine, and for their fight for freedom, which is a legitimate right.

They are denied the sight of their families, the hug of their mothers, the talk with their fathers. And they are denied the chance to say goodbye to those family members who die while waiting and hoping.

And as long as there is still one single Palestinian in Israeli jails, it is our duty to talk about them, to write about them and demand their release, every single one of them!

It is our duty to mobilize local and international support and efforts for their protection and release.

It is our duty to expose the crimes committed against them and the daily violation of their human rights starting with their right to be free.

Their struggle is our struggle, their captivity is our captivity and their freedom is our freedom.

We are their voice and they depend on us to keep their issue alive and not forgotten.

According to latest statistics there are:

Some 11,650 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails

326 Palestinian children inside Israeli jails

32 Palestinian women inside Israeli jails

50 Palestinian prisoners in isolation cells

1500 Palestinian prisoners in need of medical care

16 Palestinian prisoners suffer from cancer

150 Palestinian prisoners suffer from heart diseases and blood pressure problems

12 suffer from Hemiplegia

40 Palestinian prisoners suffer from mental and psychological ailments due to the interrogation methods used by the Israeli Shabak and the Israeli prison authorities, which include torture

197 Palestinian prisoners have been killed by the IOF since 1967: 70 as a result of torture, 71 killed in cold blood after being arrested, 49 as a result of medical negligence and 7 being shot dead inside prisons by the Israeli prison authorities

325 Palestinian “veteran prisoners” have been locked up in Israelis jails since before 1993

108 Palestinian “deans of prisoners” have spent 20+ years inside Israeli jails

13 Palestinian prisoners are in Israeli prisons since more than 25 years

Some 500 Palestinian administrative detainees

THESE PRISONERS ARE BEING KILLED AS SURELY AS IF THE BOMBS OF THE GAZAN MASSACRE FELL UPON THEM ~ ONLY THEIR MURDER IS SLOW LIKE CHINESE WATER TORTURE. THEY ARE IN NEED OF OUR HELP. ANOTHER ISRAELI OUTRAGE TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST!

SOLUTION TO ARAB-ISRAELI PROBLEM


53% Of Israeli's Favor Ethnic Cleansing

Poll: Transfer Tops Solutions to Arab-Israeli Problem

By Israeli National News
November 20, 2009
IsraelNN
Nov. 19, 2009

Transfer of Arabs from the Palestinian Authority to actual Arab countries was the most popular solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, according to a poll this week by Israel National News. Of the more than 6,400 people surveyed, 53.2 said 'Transfer of Palestinians to another Arab country' when asked, "What's the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?"

The "two-states for two peoples" solution being pushed by the United States and the international community received 30.8 percent support, while the idea of giving Palestinians Jordanian citizenship was approved by 14.5 percent. Maintaining the status quo received 1.3 percent of the vote.

New poll: 53% of Israelis think ethnic cleansing is the solution to the conflict

by Yaniv Reich

November 19, 2009

Hybrid States

Israelis talk often and loudly about their desires for peace. But its never been clear precisely what peace concept it is they desire. In particular, Israeli notions of peace have never gone so far as to grant the Palestinians the same national rights that Israelis claim for themselves.

Well, according to a new poll by Israeli National News (disclaimer: its a right-wing rag, sample size “more than 6,400″), a majority of Israelis are clear about what kind of “peace” they desire.

53.2% of surveyed Israelis say the “solution” to the conflict was the ethnic cleansing (”transfer”) of Palestinians out of occupied Palestine and into other neighboring Arab countries.

This was the most popular option among all alternatives, including the two state solution, Jordanian citizenship in the West Bank, status quo, etc. For comparative purposes, only 30.8% of Israelis support the “two-states for two peoples” framework for peace.

Keep this information in mind next to you hear Israeli hasbara about “partners for peace” or when someone tries to claim that the two-state solution is the only “realistic” solution to the conflict.

If only those Palestinians would “recognize Israel’s right to exist”, then everything would be SO much better.

NO WAY THROUGH ~ PURE GENIUS

Written and Directed by: Alexandra Monro + Sheila Menon
Mentor: Jim Threapleton
Music: The Thirst
Created by
Ctrl.Alt.Shift. Video
No Way Through highlights mobility restrictions imposed in the West Bank, that are limiting its habitants access to health care, thus violating a fundamental human right.

Take Action to help people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories get justice.

Wednesday 25 November 2009

INSIDE ISRAELI JAILS THE REAL VICTIMS OF A CRY FOR JUSTICE

I go on record once again claiming that ~ should we last that long ~ in the not-so-distant future, humanity will look back on what is being done in Palestine by the Israelis and, if one has not done what one could to halt these horrors, one will feel shame for his apathy and negligence.

These people do not realize that what is going on in Palestine is what the Talmudic Zionists have in mind for ALL OF US should they succeed in their diabolical and greedy endeavours for humanity. Only, they would not use the word "humanity" for THEY consider themselves the only true humans. The rest of us would be treated like the chattel/cattle their beloved Talmud and rabid rabbis tell them we are.

Well, I don't buy this swine swill and will remain defiant until the end.

For now, "defiant" means fighting for our future and the future of our progeny. I repeat myself, Palestine is a trial run for the future for all of us.

If we care about anything at all, we must deal with these beasts of Satan as quickly and effectively as possible.

Read here the cost of protest, if not at the receiving end of a bullet. America backs this up so well that even when their own Nationals are killed or seriously maimed they ignore it, as in the cases of Rachel Corrie mowed down by a Caterpillar tractor and Tristan Anderson, shot in the eye and permanently damaged.


And then there is Mohammad Othman.


Please enlarge the thumbs to read.

November 24, 2009
By Jesse Rosenfeld
The National

Amid the growing media fever over a possible prisoner swap involving the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by Hamas, another young captive has a less visible public profile ~ but personifies Israel’s choke-hold on Palestinian self-expression.


(In the tape of Gilad Shalit released a short time ago, the young man was in fine health, looked well cared for and his eyes were not haunted. He did not look at all ill treated other than kept from his home and family.)

Mohammad Othman, 33, from the West Bank town of Jayyous, and an activist with the grassroots Palestinian organization Stop the Wall, was arrested on September 22 at the Allenby Bridge crossing on the Jordanian border. He was on his way home after a meeting in Norway with supporters of the global movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel (BDS).

Adameer (Arabic for “conscience”), the Palestinian prisoners’ support and human rights organization, contends that his arrest is a result of “his successful human rights advocacy and community activism”.

Mohammad was interrogated for two months at the Kishon detention centre in northern Israel. His lawyer told me he was repeatedly asked about his meetings, contacts and political activities in Europe. He alleges that Mohammad was kept in isolation, deprived of sleep, questioned round the clock, and threatened with death.

On Monday, Mohammad was formally placed in Israeli administrative detention for three months. He is the latest of more than 335 Palestinians held in this way, a practice based on a 1945 emergency British Mandate law and highlighted in a report last month by the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and HaMoked.

I first met Mohammad Othman in Jayyous a year ago, during a protest against the annexation of the town’s farmland to build Israel’s wall. Residents had just had their permits to cross the wall to their farms revoked, and had rekindled their earlier campaign of resistance.

He led me down an alley as soldiers began retaking the main street with tear gas and rubber bullets, forcing young boys to retreat from the barricades that were blocking the military jeeps from driving through the town. “We constantly worry about army raids and arrests, all the local activists do,” he told me after we were out of the line of fire.

On Sunday, almost exactly a year after that in Jayyous, I watched Mohammad stand in front of a military tribunal housed in a barracks that looked like an over-sized chicken-coop inside Israel’s Ofer prison in the West Bank. His lawyers were appealing against his prolonged detention without charge.

Outside the court, family members of other detained Palestinians clung to the fence, waiting for news about their loved ones. British and German consular officials and representatives from Israeli and international NGOs filled the small courtroom. Shackled at the legs, and having only a fraction of the proceedings against him translated, Mohammad raised his fist twice to the gallery in a gesture of strength and resistance.

Across the West Bank, just as in that courtroom, Israel is trying to tighten its grip on expressions of Palestinian self-determination. The border village of Bil’in has captured the international eye with a forceful and well-documented resistance campaign against the dispossession caused by Israel’s wall.

It is precisely such international calls from Palestinian society that Israel is targeting with a systematic campaign of violence and incarceration inside its controlled territory.

This summer a committee of representatives from Bil’in visited Canada to support a lawsuit against two Israeli settlement construction companies registered in Montreal. When they returned, their leader, Mohammad Khatib, was arrested by the Israeli army.

And while those two companies continued to build illegal homes on the farmland of Bil’in, the military conducted systematic raids into the village for three months.

When I last spoke to Mohammad Khatib in September, he was exhausted from a combination of the Ramadan fast and constant night-time army invasions. He told me that young people arrested in Bil’in were severely beaten by the army on the way to interrogation, and then had confessions beaten out of them.

Last Thursday, pressure on the town again escalated again when undercover Israeli soldiers beat and arrested a 19-year-old village activist, Mohammed Yasin. Gaby Lasky, the lawyer for the Bil’in detainees, says she has been told by the military prosecution that the army intends to put an end to the village’s anti-wall demonstrations by using the full force of the law against protesters.

And that is the strategy of Benjamin Netanyau: hit all pressure points. On the diplomatic stage he is demanding acquiescence from the Palestinians’ official representatives, but that policy is not limited to a public-relations dance with a Palestinian Authority that a growing number of people are calling to be dissolved.

The aim is to turn

the Palestinians’ internationally heard

call for solidarity

into a cry for Israeli mercy.

It is being expressed in military raids on Palestinian homes, and in political prisoners held without trial in Israeli jails and tied to chairs in interrogation rooms.

Jesse Rosenfeld is a Canadian freelance journalist working in Israel and the Occupied Territories since 2007, and currently based in Jaffa.




Enlarge the above brochure for an education you might wish you never had.

Free Mohammad Othman, Palestine’s first BDS Prisoner of Conscience!

On Tuesday, September 22, Mohammad Othman (33 years old) ~ a Palestinian human rights activist and advocate of the non-violent civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) ~ was arrested by Israeli authorities at the Allenby Crossing, the border terminal between Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territory.

He was returning from a trip to Norway ~ where he had been promoting BDS ~ when he was detained, arrested and then moved to a prison where he is being held for a military hearing scheduled for next Tuesday.

While Mohammad is only one of the approximately 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, he has become the first Palestinian to be imprisoned by Israel in response to BDS advocacy activity.

With BDS campaigns around the world gaining momentum, Israel has increasingly come under pressure to comply with international law and respect Palestinian rights. It is precisely the spectacular rise in the effectiveness of the BDS campaign and its successes in the Western mainstream that seems to have prompted Israel to take such a draconian measure against a prominent and indefatigable BDS activist.

What can you do? Boycot Leviev businesses.
Learn more about this vengeful greedy Jew here:
DID LEVIEV'S EMPIRE SUCCUMB TO BOYCOTT?

Mohammad has dedicated the last ten years of his life to the defense of Palestinian human rights. His village, Jayyous, in the occupied West Bank, has lost most of its fertile agricultural land to Israel’s illegal Wall and colonial settlements. He has campaigned with the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign against the dispossession of Palestinian farmers and has urged for mechanisms of accountability for Israeli violations of international law and human rights, based on the Palestinian call for BDS, issued on 9 July 2005, a year after the International Court of Justice at the Hague had found Israel’s Wall and colonies illegal.

Mohammad’s trips to Norway ~ during which he met with senior officials including Finance Minister Kristen Halvorsen ~ reflect the increasing international support for effective mechanisms of upholding international law and Palestinian rights.

Norway’s state Pension Fund recently announced that it had divested from Elbit Systems, the Israeli company which provides both Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other military technology for Occupation forces as well as security systems for the Wall and settlements.

The decision came after representatives of the fund’s Ethics Council met with Palestinian and Israeli human rights activists, including Mohammad, who accompanied them on a tour of Jayyous and other West Bank villages affected by the Wall.

Since Israel’s illegal war of aggression on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009 that killed over 1400 people, predominantly civilians, the BDS movement has grown exponentially and gained wide support among conscientious individuals, unions and international civil society in general, as well as among some governments.

In the last two weeks, more countries have followed Norway’s example. The Brazilian Parliament has expressed itself against the ratification of a Free Trade Agreement with Israel until a Palestinian state is established, and the government of Spain denied settlement-based Ariel University College permission to participate in a high profile academic architecture competition.

With the BDS movement making significant gains worldwide, human rights defenders like Mohammad are likely to be increasingly targeted by the Israeli government in its efforts to evade accountability for its ongoing violations of international law
.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls on all those who support basic human rights, whether or not they endorse BDS, international solidarity groups and human rights organizations to act urgently to bring attention to this case and apply due pressure to achieve the immediate and unconditional release of Palestinian human rights activist Mohammad Othman.

It is crucial that the international community combat Israeli attempts to criminalize human rights activists adopting BDS or any other popular struggle aimed at ending violations of international law and upholding universal principles of human rights.

Recommended Actions:
  • Encourage others to join this campaign through petitions, demonstrations and / or letter writing / phone calling. Please provide them with contact information and details;
  • Urge your representatives at consular offices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem/Ramallah to demand the immediate release of Mohammad Othman. (For your consular contacts, see: http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-in/Israel#11725);
  • Let the Israeli Embassy in your country know that you are campaigning for Mohammad’s release and for a just and lasting peace based on international law.
  • Bring the case of Palestine’s first BDS prisoner of conscience to the attention of local and national media outlets;
  • Follow the blog and facebook to free Mohammad Othman to see the latest updates and action alerts.

For more information contact: freemohammad@bdsmovement.net

YOU SURE HAVE TO GIVE THE ISRAELIS BIG GOLD STARS FOR BRAVERY. THEY HAVE BRANCHED OUT FROM KILLING WOMEN, AND BABIES AND HAVE ADDED THE BLIND TO THEIR LATEST TALLY OF VICTIMS!


This gentle looking blind man, Obadah Bilal, does indeed look like a terrifying individual. Over and over again, these Israelis do not even know how they embarrass themselves by their inhumanity and foolish actions. We who witness, will not forget.

HOMO INTERNATIONAL CONTROLS EAST AND WEST ~ SOVIET DEFECTOR

By Nazi sculptor, Arno Breker, 1900-1991,
known as the Michelangelo of the 20th Century, favoured by Hitler.

By Richard Evans(For Henrymakow.com)
November 25, 2009
In 1947: a young officer of the Soviet Military Administration (SVAG) in occupied East Germany defected to the West. Gregory Klimov didn't have any Soviet weapons secrets but he brought something far more valuable to the CIA. He understood the hidden workings of Soviet system.
Klimov discovered that the Soviet system was dominated by a secret society of sociopaths bonded by a common pathology termed 'the power complex'. "This complex is usually associated with suppressed sadism, which in turn is result of latent homosexuality. Anybody who has knowledge of this forbidden area can influence and promote these leaders-to-be to position of power".

Klimov observed that admission up the ladder of the power structure required membership in the usual secret societies ~ "Masons, Shriners, Illuminates, Theosophy, etc. ~ are clubs, where degenerates observe behavior of possible candidates and upon verifying real homo-sadistic inclination of the person ~ promote him into the real world of power.

Of course there will be some normal curious bystanders, who always be in the background crowd as decoration. The real purpose of this clubs is to select active sado-homosexual maniacs who will not stop at committing any crime in order to be recognized and promoted to the position of power."

Klimov uses the term ''degenerates" to identify this secret brotherhood. Degenerates can't produce or invent or perform necessary tasks. They control and delegate. Through a system of fear and envy.

They rely upon a social structure of hierarchy based upon fear and covetous envy ~ the essence of sado-masochism. It's the 'dog eat dog' rat race culture. As a translator and communications expert, Klimov saw normal productive individuals like himself were essentially prisoners in the system serving these degenerate 'superiors' out of fear.

These degenerates come about as result of inbreeding.

"When close relatives marry each other ~ children will be degenerates. This is an old, well-known fact. If a group of religious leaders forbid marrying outside of sect ~ this sect in 4-5 generations will be full of degenerates.


(Bush Kisses Johnny Gosch, aka Jeff Gannon)

Do you know any sect, which forbids marriages to outsiders and has been doing that for the last 5,000 years? [Jews? or Sabatean Jews? ed.]

Many degenerates have some unusual qualities
l
ike incredible desire to dominate,ABNORMAL wish to rule,ABNORMAL thirst for power."

DEFECTOR
In his book Soviet Defectors: the KGB List, Vladislav Krason wrote of Klimov, "Having come to the conclusion ... that the hard-won victory over the Nazis was stolen by Stalin and his henchmen in the Party and KGB, Klimov decided he had no future in his fatherland."

Klimov himself wrote, "were it not for a secret agreement between the Americans and Soviet command to hand over deserters, the West would have been flooded with Soviet Army deserters."

Uncertain that the US Military governor of West Berlin wouldn't hand him over as a deserter, Klimov risked his life escaping to the American zone, gambling on having sufficient value to disappear through the black hole of the CIA.

Working inside the top secret level of the CIA it wasn't long before he recognized the same culture of degenerates operates both sides behind the scenes.

Krason writes,

"Klimov's own encounter with the American authorities left a bitter taste with him that especially shows in his later writings".
'Homintern' is a play on 'Comintern'. The Communist International. But Klimov's Homintern

Klimov's discovery of a sado-homo-cidal mafia at the top levels of power whether East or West coincides with Jim Garrison's 1967 independent investigation into the Kennedy Assassination.

Garrison was told of the Washington DC 'homosexual elite' which constitutes the secret government. Garrison concluded that a primary reason Kennedy was so blatantly and brutally murdered before the American public was their contempt for Kennedy's heterosexuality.

ANTI SEMITISM?

Some of Klimov's later books are rumored to contain anti Semitic statements. As those books aren't available in English this reviewer has found no such statements to quote.

A web search of sites in English does indicate some anti Semitic websites have latched onto his 'theory' of "degenerate-ocracy" in support of their own paradigm, but the following quote of Klimov seems inconsistent with the spirit antisemitism.

Q. 9: What do you think about "pure blood" nations?

A.: Good God hates racism in any form. Good God hates any concepts of "chosen" nations.

ANYBODY who tries to keep pure blood by forbidding marriages to the other normal people risks the danger of increasing degeneration process of his own nation. Especially if it is small nation. Keep in mind, that we are talking here about normal marriages between residents of community of normal people.

SEE ~ KLIMOV'S "QUESTIONS & ANSWERS"
pre-dates the Soviet system by at least 5,000 years.
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-341031042963487862#

http://video.google.ca

/videoplay?docid=-341031042963487862#docid=9137016279925999679
This interview of a high-ranking American military man's wife confirms the above article and will give the viewer a very disturbing perspective on all persons who attain high status in social hierarchies. The world is indeed not how the media present it to us.

TOWARD RESOLVING THANKSGIVING CONTRADICTIONS

By R. Crumb


By Emily Spence
November 24, 2009

Information Clearing House

Years ago, a friend of mine, when we were discussing goodness and malevolence, casually mentioned that even the worst criminals nearly always thought that whatever they were doing was constructive and the problem, then, became one in which different people hold radically different outlooks concerning whatever stands for benefits.

In this sense, Josef Mengele (a human representing the epitome of moral depravity) probably thought that he was advancing scientific knowledge and ultimately helping humankind by his unconscionable medical experiments carried out on Jews and gypsies during the Nazi regime.

At the same time, he was being an exemplary patriotic citizen by, unquestioningly, supporting the atrocious aims of his government for which he was commended many times. (Oh, how the leadership loves to dole out accolades, medals, praise and certificates during grand speeches when their nefarious objectives are backed by their lackeys and cohorts.)

In a similar vein, I am sure that many European immigrants, who came to America during the last three hundred years, thought that they, too, were carrying out positive actions when they eradicated indigenous tribes at the behest of their community leaders.

I am, also, convinced that many of those conducting the killings felt relieved that such a strange scourge (as the "dirty savages" seemed to be) was systematically obliterated. Indeed, there probably was little remorse on the part of the majority of the butchers as the so-called Indians were viewed as subhuman, just as were Blacks, Jews, Asians and many other persecuted peoples in this country.

Indeed, the killers' sense of identity, doubtlessly, was strengthened individually and as members of a culturally cohesive unit (i.e., an exclusive social assemblage) in the process of carrying out their communally sanctioned, xenophobic brutality. In this manner, the murderers managed to avoid acknowledging any sense of shared and universal humanity in the maligned others with whom they refused to identify.

As such, they recognized few, if any, commonalities. Instead they called the natives alienating terms (such as "blood thirsty vermin," "Indian giver" and "scalpers") that further strengthened a feeling of estrangement, made it easier to destroy them and assigned them to the position of "The Other," an unfortunate and dangerous category in which to be placed.
"Lawrence Cahoone (1996) explains it thus:

'What appear to be cultural units ~ human beings, words, meanings, ideas, philosophical systems, social organizations ~ are maintained in their apparent unity only through an active process of exclusion, opposition, and hierarchization. Other phenomena or units must be represented as foreign or 'other' through representing a hierarchical dualism in which the unit is 'privileged' or favored, and the other is devalued in some way.'

"It has been used in social science to understand the processes by which societies and groups exclude 'Others' who they want to subordinate or who do not fit into their society. For example, Edward Said's book Orientalism demonstrates how this was done by western societies ~ particularly England and France ~ to 'other' those people in the 'Orient' who they wanted to control.

The concept of 'otherness' is also integral to the understanding of identities, as people construct roles for themselves in relation to an 'other' as part of a fluid process of action-reaction that is not necessarily related with subjugation or stigmatization [1]."

In any case, we are all quite capable of too readily seeing negative traits that we personally abhor in "The Other" rather than accepting and supporting whomever or whatever we imagine exemplifies these qualities. In this manner, some Catholics hate and fear Protestants, some Jews hate and fear Arabs, some Moslems hate and fear Americans, some Whites hate and fear darker skinned peoples and so it goes like a merry-go-round with each person and social group denigrating and abhorring the next rather than being inclusive.

In such a fashion, the mind set of us VS. them keeps circling around and around to create an inordinate amount of deep lasting misery. All the while, hatred and rejection are being taught in the process to each successive generation of perpetrators and victims alike.

Meanwhile, one can wonder whether reparation is due to Native Americans, Blacks, Latinos and others whose ancestors were viciously exploited and killed. Should they have recompense since many have, indirectly, become impoverished as a result? Should they be given funds and/or land because they, on account of prior events, now live in dreadful slums and have pathetically poor public schools for their children, as well as low paying jobs for themselves?

If so, who should provide compensation and in what amount to whom? Who is culpable ~ the offspring of the originally predatory groups, i.e., those of European stock and our current government whose prior members had ratified Indian Wars, theft of land from natives, slavery and other wrongs? Is someone else accountable for remuneration?

Meanwhile, I do know that societal and environmental problems (including inequitable distribution of resources, as well as lack of sufficient agricultural know-how and capability to feed the ever burgeoning population) in Europe certainly did cause a large throng of desperately poor people to want to flee their lands to other ones with better opportunities.

As such, they kept coming (and still do) in wave after wave of newcomers to America while, for obvious reasons, many settled inhabitants (whose ancestors also migrated here) unequivocally resent the changing conditions that result. In any case, I refuse to take responsibility for what any of my forebears did or didn't do. It was not my fault.

All the same, I am, when I consider the topic, sorry for all who were involved. I feel sorry for natives and the nearly indigent Europeans in the same way that I feel sorry for a Kurd father who stole a loaf of bread from an elderly woman in an attempt, during the Gulf War, to keep his eleven children and wife alive.

(It was thrown from a US military craft and the woman had snatched it from the air a few seconds faster than the father could lay hands on it. He, then, wrestled it from her with the ultimate result that both the old woman and her husband died of malnourishment. So did some of the father's children... Meanwhile, he now has to live with his painful choice for the rest of his life.

He has to remember the vision of the aged couple and his children full of suffering, panic and the drawn out process of their dying. He has to continually face his feelings of regret, helplessness and rage over what he could not change.)

While I pity him to the depth of my heart, I am deeply grateful that I do not have to bear the burden of subsuming his role.

Likewise, I am utterly thankful that I was not one of the women in a particular broiling hot cattle car parked for days on end on the track leading up to a Nazi concentration camp. After having run out of food and water and with no one responding to their plea for provisions, the women slowly came to the recognition that they were not going to be given any.

They also realized that they were not being brought to a new settlement. So, rather than prolong the agony of water and food deprivation, they quietly murdered their children and each other one by one during the night while the children slept.

As such, their only satisfaction was in the thought that the bloody mess that they left behind would render the car unusable ever again to transport other Jews to the camp as the stains could not be able to be removed from the wood [2].

Most of us are fortunate that we are not forced by circumstances outside of our control to make such difficult decisions as had the Kurd father and these Jewish mothers.

We are lucky that we do not have to choose whether to battle others over desperately sought out American land, nor be in a condition to possibly commit other heinous acts. One individual, who hasn't had to face them, is an old Quaker associate of mine, who carries out a tremendous amount of social service volunteer work.

On account of her not having had to make awful decisions, she is in a position in which she could state the opinion that her "sin" (a term that she used for a lack of a better word devoid of religious connotation) was not so much a "sin" of commission (the deeds that she carried out), but concerned omission (the massive number of undertakings that she neglected to accomplish).

In other words, she felt that she simply was not doing enough to provide uplift, care and compassion towards others in less fortunate situations than hers. Yet for how much are we responsible for each other and the state of the world in general?

Because I pay taxes, am I responsible for the massacre in Iraq and Afghanistan despite that I didn't vote for Presidents Bush and Obama?

Am I accountable for the sweatshops conditions and poverty level wages paid by Wal Mart owners and stock bearers because I was given a gift from Wal Mart by a friend? Would the right course of action be to return it to the store? Would we be helping or hindering Wal Malt management [3] and the sweatshop workers if we all refused to purchase the goods that they make?

Perhaps I should decline use of drugs because management at many pharmaceutical firms routinely lie about the dangers of products so as to command a huge fiscal gain from sales ($125,835,595,000 in 1999 alone of which approximately only one fifth went into research while up to two-fifths were used towards advertisements and marketing costs [4]) even as they only have to dole out a modicum of that amount in wrongful death suits.

There IS a point where complete boycott is complete idiocy. Some drugs are necessary in today's world. Just use your common sense!

("The known deadly side effects of prescription drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in the industrialized world, surpassed only by the number of deaths from heart attacks, cancer and strokes," according to Journal of the American Medical Association, April 15, 1998 [5].

Point #3, of the advice of the Elders of Zion is the following: As for what you say about making attempts on your lives: make your sons doctors and apothecaries, that they may take away Christian's lives.

Dr. David Bates, associate professor of medicine at Harvard University School of Medicine, told the "Times" "... these numbers translate to 36 million adverse drug events per year."[6])

Spend a few minutes enjoying this excellent little film! Amusing, amazing and educational.


THE STORY OF STUFF

Surely, it is hard to fiscally support unconscionable companies like these without having some degree of reservation. In an analogous vein, should I stop eating certain foods because the Frankenseeds and the poisonous pesticides used to grow them came from Monsanto [7] and other vile agro-firms?

How would I even know about the foods to place on my rejection list?

Go on line like everyone else. This is not difficult information to access!

Likewise, should I stop driving my car to visit an aged relative living in another state because it is a frivolous waste of oil given that my act of doing so contributes to climate changing effects and more rapidly uses up a non-renewable, critical energy source?

Similarly, should I stop using paper and other wood based products because I know that, with our rising population ever in demand, more than three millions hectares of forest have been torn down in African over only fifteen years (1990 to 2005) and forests are not being replaced nearly as fast as they are being obliterated? Meanwhile, they ARE being decimated at an increasing and appalling rate all across the globe.

For example: "During the 1990s, it was estimated that 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) of forest worldwide were being destroyed every day ~ an area larger than New York City. In the mid-1990s, the World Resources Institute reported that more than 80 percent of the world's natural forests had been destroyed. Much of what remained was in the Brazilian Amazon and in the boreal areas of Canada and Russia.

"Deforestation has a variety of causes. It is in part driven by worldwide demand for wood products. Deforestation can also accommodate population growth and the desire to create new agricultural land or grazing land for cattle. However, deforestation has serious consequences for the global environment and for the continued existence of human life.

It can lead to soil erosion, flooding, and the loss of animal and plant habitats. The world's tropical rain forests, which occupy only 7 percent of the dry surface of the earth, hold over half of the earth's species. As these forests are cleared, species become extinct at an estimated rate of up to 137 species per day. Deforestation also contributes to global warming, since the burning of forests releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide traps the sun's heat and causes temperatures to rise.

The clear cut logging on Vancouver Island, had had a definite effect on the climate over the past few decades. Less rain, less fog, more hot, dry summers. Not to mention thousands of misplaced wild animals.

"Ecologists warn that if current rates of deforestation continue, rain forests will disappear from the planet within 100 years, affecting global climate in unpredictable ways and eliminating a majority of the world's animal and plant species...[8]."

This all in consideration, I have to, in the end, consider myself somewhat in a different way than my Quaker friend views herself. It is because I recognize my deliberate culpability.

I use up a vast store of finite and renewable resources, maintain the grotesque and enormous inequity of wealth distribution in the world by being directly engaged in the economic and the social systems promoting it, am responsible for an incredible amount of assorted environmental damage (such as pollution of waterways) of which I do not see direct consequences, as well as am caught up in an American way of life that is largely structured by self-serving governmental, business and other interests, which are undeniably outside of my control.

1889 Illustration of American Thanksgiving. Please enlarge this thumb.

In a similar vein, I personally create the climate change outcomes through my purchases, which depend on fossil fuels for their manufacturing and transportation, as well as by my very use of products and services (such as utilities).

All of this certainly is cause for unqualified remorse. Yet, I cannot figure out a way to avoid much of the harm for which I am liable even though my complicity in the above circumstances is not entirely welcomed by me.

So, the best that I can do is to try as much as possible to minimize my ecological footprint, strengthen natural environments where I can through community sponsored measures (such as the building of bat houses and planting of trees) and actively seek out other opportunities wherein I can have a positive impact on behalf of other life on this planet.

As such, I realize that it is, also, a moral obligation for me to help others, who have not had the opportunities in life to which I have had access.

All of this in mind, I will not discuss fatuous repugnant myths concerning Indians and Pilgrims when I sit down to my next Thanksgiving dinner with relatives who lives so many states away from mine. I will, instead, remember the suffering that transpired after the "New World" became seen as a land of opportunity ~ a fresh spot to environmentally plunder and through which to get wealthy.

Simultaneously, I will contemplate on the deliberate displacement and vicious slaughter of ever so many natives [9] in the last three hundred years, which all together represents a devastation similar to the ones continually sanctioned by the US government in the Middle East and elsewhere across the globe. I will also muse on those destitute relatives of mine, who fled desperate situations overseas to enter this country more than a century ago.

At the same time, I will, also, reflect on my joy to be with family members and the bounty of the fall harvest, a harvest that came despite the lack of water in many farming communities in the Southeastern United States and other locations. In addition, I will recall that many Americans and others do not have enough to eat, nor clean water to drink.

As such, Thanksgiving will be a mixed blessing, one in which I affirm all for which I am grateful. Yet, it will also be a time during which I will avow to strive all the harder to ensure that I am as supportive as possible towards other life in the world. The reason for doing so is quite simple in the end. It is because my life and every other one unequivocally depends on this sort of caring provision.

Put another way: "The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.” ~ Sir Walter Scott

References

[1] A more greatly detailed explanation of "the Other" is located at: Other - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other)

[2] This account can be examined in full in either the book or movie version of the following: Shoah (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoah_(film)]

[3] Assessments of Wal-Mart are located at: Wal-Mart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-Mart) and Criticism of Wal-Mart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wal-Mart).

[4] This information was obtained from: Drugs companies (http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/pharmaceutical-companies.htm).

[5] This evaluation is found in: The Laws of the Pharmaceutical Industry | The Dr. Rath Health ... (www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/.../laws_of_the_pharmaceutical_industry.htm)

[6] This quotation is located at: Both sides of the pharmaceutical death coin: Jon Rapporport ... (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_279/ai_n16865289/)

[7] For an overview of Monsanto, please go to: Monsanto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto)

[8] This quotation is from: The Forest (Historical Context): Information from Answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/the-forest-poem-5)

[9] The destruction of natives is discussed at: Indian massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_massacre), National Day of Mourning (United States protest) - Wikipedia, the ... [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_Mourning_(United_States_protest)] and Native American Genocide (http://www.wicocomico-indian-nation.com/pages/genocide.html).