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TITLE: There Can Be No Return to the Extreme Right Zionism |
AUTHOR: Marc Azar |
PUB: Letter to Editor, Globe & Mail |
DATE: January 5, 2001 |
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Marcus Gee is to intellectual honesty what a skunk is to perfume. And I believe, in this case, the twain have met. From bioethics topics, to globalization, to human rights, Marcus stands tall in his septic think-tank. It seems that subscribers to the Globe and Mail are made to suffer his uninformed opinions until a suitable brain donor can be found for him. Considering the dwindling quality of writers at the new BCE acquisition, it might not happen very soon. For one thing, Marcus Gee misspelled the word Oslo 'piece process', not to be confused with 'peace process'. Admittedly, a minor fault since all right and extreme right wing columnists in North American newspapers seem to share the same problem. Then Marcus qualifies the ROR as the biggest stumbling block in the present so called negociations between Palestinians and Israelis. I certainly don't have a problem with that except that 4 months ago, Mr. Gee and every editorial writers at the Globe and Mail dissmissed the ROR as a minor problem compared with the real stumbling block of the century, so we were told: East Jerusalem. I wonder what will be in store in the next coming months as the new REAL stumbling block according to the Globe and Mail experts: the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Well, at least, Marcus got this one right... for the time being. But may I suggest that settlements, water, freedom of passage/movement, freedom of religion, freedom of education, unhindered economic freedom, political freedom, respect of Palestinian basic human rights, and countless othet topics never mentioned in Marcus Gee's column might also qualify as stumbling blocks in the present negociations between the occupying fascist Israeli illegal state and the occupied, oppressed and dispossessed Palestinians. The history B.S. part served by Mr. Gee, I could have done without. Palestinians and Arab states never attacked anyone in 1947. The Irgoun started its own pogroms on Palestinian towns in 1946. Starting in May 1946, underground Jewish terrorist groups (the Irgoun, the Lehi (Stern gang) and Haganah) were already applying the May plan also known as the C plan. Raids on Palestinian infrastructures such as transports, cafés, water cisterns, expulsions of villages, dynamiting of houses. These raids had only one purpose: to provoke massive exodus and panic on a maximum of Palestinians in order to 'liberate' the sites of any Palestinian presence. So ethnic cleansing by the zionist fascists was going on long before the UN resolution. At the time, only 10 % of all lands in Palestine were in legal possession of the zionist terrorists. So it is obvious that the UN solution to zionist demands of a "homeland" was a total affront and injustice to Palestinians. The fact that the UN recommendation actually gave most of the fertile lands to zionists was also just as unacceptable then as it would be today. Would Ontario or any other Canadian province accept such idiocy today if it where happening on its own soil? And never mind that the opinion of the native majority, the Palestinians, was never taking into consideration either. And, at the time, the recommendation for partition of Palestine referred less to international law than to arm twisting by the US delegation on small nations at the General Assembly, in order to have them acquiesce to this unacceptable and immoral plan. Not unlike the Oslo piece negociations today. Following the UN partition, ethnic cleansing campaigns by zionists increased against Palestinian villages, culminating with the infamous Deir Yassin massacre, the Lod and Ramleh expulsions, and numerous other abject zionist actions. In May 14, 1948, two thirds of all Palestinian villages had already been "cleansed" of Palestinian presence by the zionist thugs. So it is a myth to infer that displacement was caused by the war and invading Arab countries on May 15 1948. Btw, those Arab columns limited themselves to the Arab territory alloted to Palestinians by the UN recommendation of 47 and did not advance further into Palestine. In other words, Palestinians did not fled from their homes as Marcus Gee implies. Rather they were victims of planned forcible expulsion campaigns. This fact was studied by Arab scholars and other at the start of the 50's. Where has Marcus Gee been during all this time? In the last 20 years, Israeli scholars have done some catch up with their own archives unearthing those exact same disclosed facts 50 years before by Arab scholars (Walid Kahalidi amongst others), but with of course more of the juicy details included. If Mr. Gee prefers 'reading' Playboy to Benny Morris, Simha Flapan, Tom Segev or Ilan Pappé, that is of his own decision. But he should avoid make us suffer his Phd in 'ignoramus'. As usual, Mr Gee never refers to UN resolutions or international law, on which all Palestinian claims are legitimatley based, unlike those of the fascist zionist aggressors. But I suppose we shouldn't expect too much from someone who knows nothing of 1947-49. To be aware of UNSCR 194, 242, etc.. would demand a certain intellectual effort and honesty, feats at which Mr. Gee has proven himself utterly incapable. But only then can someone really understand that Palestinians are not demanding anything or refusing to compromise during negociations of 'gives and takes', but rather standing firm for their inalienable and basic rights recognized by all world countries and international organizations. International law is not up for compromise, Mr. Gee, but is made to be respected and applied. END |