Junket

Yesterday Julia Gillard boasted to the "Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange" (sic) assembled in Jerusalem that Australia was "the first to vote in favour of Israel's right to full independent nationhood and its right to live securely within defined borders", in the United Nations in 1947. She also made reference to Israelis living alongside "Arabs" - as though she couldn't bear to utter the word Palestinians.

The problem in all of this lies in the term "defined borders". What borders? The area allocated to Israel under the UN partition plan? The borders they established by military might in the 1948 Nakba? The borders they have controlled since their war of aggression in 1967? It goes on and on, the endless theft of land, the endlessly expanding state.

Since 1993 the PLO, under Arafat, and more recently Hamas have unequivocally supported Israel's right to exist - within its 1967 borders (whereby it occupied more than 78% of Mandated Palestine, leaving the Palestinians, the indigenous population, with the remaining 22%). But peaceful co-existence doesn't suit the Zionist colonial enterprise. It thrives on death and destruction, lies and deceit.

Meanwhile, those parliamentarians insensitive enough to accept a place in this latest all-expenses-paid junket to Israel do so - their salaries continuing to be paid by the Australian taxpayer - while our parliament is sitting! What absolute bloody cheek!

Natural growth

Ma'ele Adumim "settlement" in the distance.

All this talk of limiting Israeli colonial settlements on the West Bank to their "natural growth" is a red herring. All settlements built on the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 are illegal. They have all been built on Palestinian land. If there is to be a two-state solution - Israel and Palestine, side by side - then they must go.

When the Israeli war machine rolled across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967 it continued its policy, perfected in 1948, of driving the native population from villages of particular strategic interest. In scenes reminiscent of the Armenian holocaust Palestinians were forced to leave their homes at a moment's notice and driven away at gunpoint, before entire villages were bulldozed into dust.*

In 42 years under Israeli military occupation the rest of the land has been devoured by the cancer of settlement. Concrete excrescences dominate every hilltop. And still it goes on, the relentless theft of land and homes. The ethnic cleansing.

So I join my Palestinian brothers and sisters in saying "Forget the talk of natural growth. Respect international law. Force the Israelis to get out and let us, in our turn, bulldoze all evidence of their occupation."

See Reham Alhesi's article, "The Tale of 3 Cities", online at the Palestine Think Tank.

Jordan is Palestine

Moshe Arens

Looks okay, doesn't he? Avuncular, a family man. But then again, no, doesn't he remind you of Donald Rumsfeld - a bit creepy? Phrenology, physiology or the hairstyle aside, this is Moshe Arens, former Israeli Minister of Defence and Foreign Minister, now writing for Haaretz. Back then he was described as Likud's "right wing ideological anchor" - and you can't get more right wing than that! 

Arens is still singing from the fascist songbook: "Jordan is Palestine". He advocates giving Gaza to Egypt and the remaining Palestinian fragments of the West Bank (what he calls Judea and Samaria) to Jordan. Problem solved: get rid of all those pesky natives and we (Jewish) Israelis can get on with our faux-European lifestyles in blissful comfort, untroubled by any notions of justice, equality or human rights.

Arens and his ilk see no future for an independent Palestinian state, and the last thing they want is to incorporate Palestinians into Israel and give them equal rights and opportunities - thereby making Israel a democratic state for all its citizens. Hence their calls to carve up Gaza and the West Bank bantustans between Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

Unfortunately, this virus has affected Australia and a character named David Singer, a lawyer, has convened a group which he calls Jordan is Palestine International and promotes his vile notions via a blog: http:jordanispalestine.blogspot.com. Oh dear.