Thursday, January 29th 2009
In the past few weeks, the world witnessed the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. The conflict lasted 22 days. 1,314 Palestinian casualties were reported killed, of which the majority were civilians. On the Israeli side, there were 13 deaths between Dec. 27 of 2008 and Jan. 17, of whom three were civilians killed by rockets fired from Gaza. Of the 10 soldiers killed, four were lost to “friendly fire.”
To gain a greater understanding of the history of the conflict within the land of Israel and Palestine, Gaza is a small strip of land considered the most densely populated area on Earth. Their inhabitants are overwhelmingly refugees from the southern part of what used to be Palestine. Its inhabitants were driven there during the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. Since then, Israel has taken over most of the contested land, leaving only the Gaza strip and small regions of land to the Palestinians.
Jeff Halper, an Israeli author and speaker about non-violent strategies to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a co-founder of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and a Nobel Peace prize nominee came to McMaster on Jan. 21 to present peaceful strategies for Israel and Palestine. During his presentation, Halper addressed issues such as the Gaza conflict on a global scheme, Canada’s involvement within the issue, the Jewish perspective on the conflict and Israel’s apparent goal for exclusivity.
The ICAHD which Halper heads is an Israel peace and human rights group dedicated to enemy occupation and focused on the issue of house demolitions. “Israel’s demolished 25,000 Palestinian homes in the occupied territory since 1967 and probably 10,000 to 20,000 houses have been demolished by Israel and destroyed in Gaza in the last few weeks… Israel has killed infinitely more Palestinians civilians, than the other way around, so in a sense we’re trying to give a voice to the colonized people, to the oppressed people, whose voice doesn’t get heard often in the media.”
In a personal interview, Halper explained the origins of the issue between the Palestinians and Israelis. “There was a country called Palestine… and the Jews came from Europe to live and said this is the land of Israel and we want to live here. Fine… the problem was that the Zionist country said, ‘this is our country exclusively, there is no Palestinian people, you Arabs have no right to be here so we either throw you out or you have to shut up and accept the fact that this is a Jewish State.’ And so we like in the west – in our liberal language – to talk about both sides… But in fact, this is a conflict in which Israel is responsible, Israel is a strong party, Israel has the ideology of exclusivity, Israel is the occupying power and Israel is the only one in the end who can end the occupation and bring peace. So I’m an Israeli coming from an Israeli perspective that is critical of Israel,” explained Halper.
In regards to his presentation, Halper explained that he will speak of the issues and implications of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict on two levels, the local and the international level. “On one level, it’s to present the Israeli Palestinian conflict, what it is about, what the problems are, why it can’t be resolved, especially in the wake of what happened in Gaza over the last few weeks end we have a peace perspective. What we argue is…there has to be a Two-State solution which Israel doesn’t want or a One-State solution that Israel doesn’t want. So in fact the problem is – which is different from what’s usually presented in Canadian media – the problem is really Israel. It won’t give the Palestinians either a state or the ability to live within Israel even though Israel controls the entire country. The other level is this isn’t a localized conflict between Israelis and Palestinians only, but it’s a global conflict. You have Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Iraq is a problem, Iran, the whole Middle East is falling apart… and Canada has positioned itself to the right of Bush on the issue of the Middle East. In the end I think the West is going to have to reconcile with the Muslim world, you can’t beat it, and the issue of Palestine conflict is the epicentre of- I think- the alienation between the West and the Muslim world.”
In regards to proposing a solution, Halper explained that the state of Israel doesn’t seem to seek an end to the conflict, and the Palestinians can not over throw the occupation by themselves and therefore the international organizations must intervene. “The only thing we can [do]… is to mobilize the people so we’re talking to university groups, church groups, labour union, political groups who are really trying to get the people to understand that this conflict is impacting negatively on the entire global system and has to be changed.
With files from Sam Colbert.
Tags: Gaza, Jeff Halper, Palestine
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This entire article is disgusting, and makes me sick.
Jeff Halper is an accomplished liar with an obvious agenda. He twists the truth to suit his own ends, and is acclaimed as a peace activist because he is an “Israeli” attacking Israel.
In fact, he is American, born and raised in Minnesota, who studied for a few short years in Israel, before leaving again.
Halper’s actions only serve to prolong the conflict and the violence within the region by obscuring the facts and enabling terrorist groups like Hamas to continue their criminal and inhumane hijacking of Palestinian society, to use as a weapon against Israel.
The basic premises of his talk were two-fold:
1) That Israel is founded on the concept of “jewish exclusivity” which is complete and utter nonsense. The state of Israel has citizens from a myriad of backgrounds, including Israeli Arabs of both Muslim and Christian inclination. There are at least two Arab political parties running in the coming elections. Too claim that Israel is anything but a diverse, liberal, democracy is nonsense.
2) That Canada and the West are complicit in Israeli actions, because Israel develops and sells new military technology to the West, after first testing them on Palestinians. This is also a clear manipulation of the facts. It is unfortunate that Israel’s political situation leaves it with the need to maintain a strong, humane, and intelligent army, whose experiences in combatting terror while observing international law and preventing “collateral” damage is obviously useful to countries such as Canada.
I am ashamed of the Silhouette for publishing this glorification of someone who is so detrimental to peace in the Middle East.
The writer, under the tutelage and traveling hate show produced by Halper, has made some grievous factual errors in her piece:
1) There never was a “Palestinian” state. There was a region under British occupation called Palestine but it was never a country or state governed by Arabs or Muslims. Jews have been the longest unbroken inhabitants of the land, long before Islam was rampaging across the land killing and converting people throughout the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent; in fact 270 million people through history have been slaughtered in the Islamic conquest through the ages. Now they control over 99% of the Middle East and have sponsored their terrorist refugees (the Palestinians) to ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews to make the first Palestinian state ever.
2) Israel is the only country in the region which has both Jews and Muslims living in peace side-by-side in their country, in their universities and in their government. The fascist dictatorships and terror states surrounding Israel, if the do allow Jews and Christians, demote them to Dhimmi status and treat them as inferiors. In fact about one million Jews were expelled and killed by Islamic countries prior to, during and after WWII in a world war in which Arabs sided with Hitler.
3) Only the Israelis want a two-state solution based on security and peace – the Arab states and especially Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Hamas, want a one-state Islamic solution minus Jews – it is in their Charters and in their religious decrees.
4) The international community must stop supporting the most radical elements of the region (Iran proxies) and encourage Arabs and Islamic states to take care of their own people by providing them employment, the chance to immigrate, stern warnings that violence and jihad will not be tolerated and supports other than weapons for terror and urging them on to destroy the only democracy and the only multi-cultural country in the region – Israel.
5) Urging campus groups, unions, churches and media to support terrorism seems a bit ridiculous coming from a Canadian students with all the freedoms, security, and support offered by a democratic country – Canada – a country whose government understands, even if naive writers do not, that offering moral support to Hamas and Hezbollah who want war, terror and destruction of its neighbors is tantamount to siding with Hitler during WWII and undermines our own institutions. Most first generation Muslims from countries that are repressive would never support terror groups because they were subject to the same regressive sharia that made them slaves in their own homes – something that second generation Canadians, trade unions, some churches and some academics have forgotten. Freedom does not flow from terror groups – it comes from the understanding that violence, ignorance and hate of others will never lead to the sound foundations of any new country.
The writer, under the tutelage and traveling hate show produced by Halper, has made some grievous factual errors in her piece:
1) There never was a “Palestinian” state. There was an administered region under British occupation called Palestine but it was never a country or state governed by Arabs or Muslims. Jews have been the longest unbroken inhabitants of the land, long before Islam was rampaging across the land killing and forcibly converting people throughout the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent and parts of Europe; in fact 270 million people through history have been slaughtered or converted in the Islamic conquest through the ages. Now they control over 99% of the Middle East and are sponsoring their permanent terrorist refugees (the Palestinians) to ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews.
2) Israel is the only country in the region which has both Jews and Muslims living in peace side-by-side in their country, in their universities and in their government. The fascist dictatorships and terror states surrounding Israel, if they do allow Jews and Christians, demote them to Dhimmi status and treat them as inferiors. In fact, about one million Jews were expelled and killed by Islamic countries prior to, during and after WWII in a world war in which Arabs sided with Hitler.
3) Only the Israelis want a two-state solution based on security and peace – the Arab states and especially Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Hamas, want a one-state Islamic solution without Jews – it is in their Charters and in their religious decrees.
4) Some in the international community, and paid (by institutions such as McMaster) self-haters such as Halper, are supporting the most radical elements of the region (Iran’s proxies). Instead, they should encourage Arabs and Islamic states to take care of their own people by providing them with employment, the chance to immigrate to their own resource-rich countries, warn them that violence and jihad will not be tolerated or solve their problems and urge them on to end their jihad against Israel.
Israel does have the right to defend itself and does so with skill and care. Were an Islamic army to deal with similar terrorism in a place like Gaza, 70,000 – 100,000 would be dead, not 500 terrorists and, sadly, 200 of the civilians the terrorists hid behind as their leaders took cover and fired rockets from mosques, schools and hospitals and their big chiefs hid in Syria villas and on the Syria and Iranian payroll.
5) The author wants to exaggerate and stir up hate and chaos and to get unions, churches and media to support terrorism. It seems a bit ridiculous coming from a Canadian student with all the freedoms, security and support offered by a democratic country – Canada – a country whose government understands, even if the writer does not, that offering moral support to Hamas and Hezbollah is tantamount to siding with the instigators and perpetrators of violent jihad.
Most Canadian Muslims have fled from countries that are repressive and they would never support terror groups because they were subject to the same regressive Shari’a that made them slaves in their own countries – something that their children, trade unions, some churches and some academics conveniently ignore because of the vested interest in their ongoing Israel hate campaign.
Freedom does not flow from terror groups. A terror group advocating violence, ignorance and hate of others will never form the sound foundations of a new country. They either have to be forced to change or we will be forced by them through terror to become like them.
Concerned student. Halper told me the other week, when he was here to speak that he has been living in Israel since ‘73. He has been there for a long time and has been very engaged with studying, teaching and promoting peace for over 3 decades.
That said it is of course worth examining ALL parties twisting or misinterpretation of the truth.
Just because Israel is diverse doesn’t mean that it not founded on the concept of Jewish primacy. The whole idea of Zionism is having a Jewish state. This has to be focused on creating and maintaining a JEwish majority. So although of course there are minorities, with citizenship and (mostly) equal rights, Jeff Halper was talking about the way that Israeli policy treats Palestinians living inside the occupied territories. He was talking about the political ideology of revisionist Zionism from which ISraeli policy stems. This is an important concept to understand if a 2 state solution can be reached.
With regards to your second point I think it is important to consider for a moment what it means to have a humane army. Killing 1300 people can hardly be considered humane. Yes, I know that ISrael claims that they ‘broadcasted on the radio the places that they were going to hit, and dropped leaflets’. But do you really think people stayed in places that were going to be bombed. Yes, some terrorists may have a death wish, but we can not go assigning 1300 lives to collateral damage from the humane IDF. There is more to the story.
ISrael has effectively made peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt so it is possible to imagine a symbiotic way to live with neighbors who hate you, or at least did at one point. It is worthwhile contemplating how one should go about creating relationships with neighbors with whom you want to live in peace. Bombing 1300 people? I think not.
I don’t know if this is news to people, but Arabs are not all the same. There are different affiliations (national, religious, etc) within the big blanket term ‘arab’. There are arab jews. Can we please start calling the people in the territories Palestinians. Don’t they deserve at least that?