Hamas "spiritual advisor" damages the Palestinian cause by denying the Holocaust

Meanwhile ...

Quote:

"The quotes attributed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to UNRWA's Commissioner General, Karen AbuZayd and UNRWA's Gaza Director, John Ging are false. We condemn Holocaust denial in all its forms and we reject the politicization of the Holocaust. UNRWA will remain focused on positive curriculum development in teaching children the human rights values enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

UNRWA is committed to human rights education. UNRWA rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event.

UNRWA implements a human rights, conflict resolution and tolerance programme in its schools in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. In Gaza, UNRWA is strengthening this programme by developing a dedicated human rights curriculum anchored in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/LSGZ-7VKD2R?OpenDocument

It is disturbing that with all the evil and violence that permeates the occupation, it is this tiny footnote that rises to the top.

Why not this:

Quote:

Hareidi and national-religious rabbis will meet Monday in Jerusalem to discuss ways of dealing with the Arab influx into Jewish neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem, as well as the purchasing of agricultural land in the Galilee by wealthy foreign Arabs.

The rabbis are expected to call for an end to the phenomenon of sale of land and houses by Jews to Arabs. The organizer, Aryeh King, who heads the Israel Lands Fund, told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service that he is hoping to see the rabbis issue a pronouncement that sale of land and houses to Arabs is forbidden.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133178

Or this ...

Quote:

Over the summer, the Tarabin tribe, all of them Israeli citizens, have had the sole access road to their homes sealed off, while the dirt track they must use instead is regularly blocked by temporary checkpoints at which their papers and vehicles are inspected at length.

Coils of razor wire now surround much of the village, and children as young as eight have been arrested in a series of night-time raids.

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090824/FOREIGN/70...

Or this ...

Quote:

When Canadian businessman Sam Ismail brought his wife and five children to visit his brother's family in Ramallah last week, he planned to stay for 10 days and tour both Israel and the Palestinian territories. They had flown into Amman, crossed over to the West Bank. Knowing that Palestinian Authority license plates are banned in Israel, Ismail reserved a car at an Israeli rental company. But, when he got to Israeli border control, he was shocked to discover that his Canadian passport was stamped "Palestinian Authority Only." "Last time they came, they visited Acre, Haifa, Jerusalem — the whole country," Ismail's brother Nedal, who lives in the West Bank, told TIME. "This time they packed up after 96 hours and spent the extra week in Jordan instead."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1917917,00.html?xid=rss-world

For really sickening, how about this:

Quote:

Arafat Hamdona, 20, has been confined to the cancer unit of As-Shifa, Gaza’s primary hospital, since he was diagnosed with maxillary skin tumours in June 2008. Red lesions protrude from his face, his features are distorted and his eyes swollen shut.

 

In April, Arafat was permitted to travel to Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem where he received three series of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment. He was scheduled to return for further treatment, but has not been granted permission by the Israeli authorities to leave Gaza.

 

“He is only given pain killers,” said Arafat’s father, Faraj Hamdona, explaining that that is all As-Shifa has to offer.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=33824

On any given day attrocities take place in the occupied territories with Palestinians paying in blood, death, and enduring official crueltiies, humiliations, and brutalities one might have thought impossible in this age. And yet, here we have one Hamas functionary displacing all of the above with a single statement being ehoed well beyond his place in the world by those who prefer Palestinians only ever be viewed as enemies -- how nice that such crimes against humanity can be so swiftly swept aside.

What a fucking joke!

Thanks, KB.  That needed doing, and you are one stalwart fellow in the face of the bunched  defenders of "another perspective".

Because there has been a lot of personal slagging since, I thought it bore repeating this point.

Cueball wrote:

All that aside, the fact is that the most recent loyalty test being imposed on the people who Israel has been at war with for the last 70 years is what Palestinians "don't say" about the Holocaust. Before it was what they "didn't say" about "suicide bombers" and before that it was what they "didn't say" about the existance of Israel. Making people say things that they would not ordinarily have a reason to say is what loyalty tests are all about.

Your position, just like all the good cops before you is that all the Palestinians need to do is jump through just one more hoop and say what it is the Israeli's want them to say. In this case you want Palestinian teachers to say things about the Holocaust. This isn't about Hamas leaders, this is about teachers, and kids, and forcing them to learn the history of their opressors.

That is all well and fine, and I am a big fan of history and wish all Palestinians would learn as much as they can about WWII, the Holocaust and all of that stuff, I think it is important, but making them do it...

Try looking at it pragmatically- as to what you can reasonably expect from people.

And as far as it goes I don't think the Hamas guys point- that we don't want to teach the Holocaust because of the way that narrative is used against us- is a new point at all. Not new to me anyway. So there is also the question of why someone chose to feature it now. My guess is nothing to with now in particular, just the constant 'refreshing' of the propaganda war.

Surely the Associated press and Yahoo could have referred to an Arabic written text of what Sheikh Younis Al-Astal said. This Hamas official is known for his criticism of Al-Qaida, its idelogy and its means and has been criticized by AL-Qaida for his stand. He is no dumb to deny the holocaust much less to do that publicly, if such is his inner thinking, says  I !

I wonder if the Associated Press makes it a habit to fill in blanks and improvise. The picture beside the "news" depicts a mural. The Associated Press kindly volunteered to translate the Arabic text in the mural as "It is my right to learn". In reality the text reads "It is my right to". Period. It could well be "to live free" or "to go back from my school and find out that my home hasnt been bulldozed" or whatever comes to mind for anyone with a minimum knowledge of the Palestinians' struggle and who is wataching the picture.

Sorry again (hell, what a sorry word sorry can become) but perhaps if that single utterance about the historical event stood alone as an example of the culture of revenge - and of course, the average peron on a  Palestinian street wants justice, revenge, maybe a reckoning?

But any watcher of Al Jazeera knows that declaration was not made in a heavenly setting, FM. 

And now even the local Waterloo Region Record is starting to use the editorial smear line about the purity of purpose of the Conservative Party of Canada in its treatment of Muslim people , resident and "non-resident" here.  My running battle with an editor there  falls on deaf ears given the political ignorance of the extremist political faction in Palestine.

But maybe you've also found that intransigence in your appeals to published opinion locally, FM?  Or have you given it a shot, lately?

Quote:

But any watcher of Al Jazeera knows that declaration was not made in a heavenly setting, FM.

It is a rather small audience in Southern Ontario, George. But here is the problem, even if we could provide every Palestinians with Media 101 and ensure not one spoke out of turn to become a propaganda tool for the Israelis, then the Israelis would have to invent one. And of course, there is the converse, why isn't every utterance by an Israeli racist, of which there is no shortage, given the same level of exposure and condemnation? Well, therein, lies the racism of the media which provides the cover for a racist, and brutal colonial regime.

We don't have to play the game of the media by trumpeting the racism it presents as news and information. We could, rather, deconstruct it. How could this have been a better thread if it was instead used as a platform to examine why this obscure fellow could rise to the top of the headlines while an open racist like the Israeli foreign minister is feted by our own government?

Threads like this demonstrate the power of the media over our perceptions and the weakness of our own skill at analyzing and criticizing it. And if we are the media watchers, then what power does it hold over those who consume it without analysis?

I think it is obvious, George. And do remember, "layabout" is your word.

The real obstacle for finding peace in Israel/Palestine is not Holocaust denial but Nakba denial, according to Isaelis such as Prof. Ilan Pappe and Oren Ben Dor.  Since Israel has such a great democracy and freedom, why were they looking at legislation that could have put people in prison for up to three years for describing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948?

Fisherwoman wrote:

The real obstacle for finding peace in Israel/Palestine is not Holocaust denial but Nakba denial, according to Isaelis such as Prof. Ilan Pappe and Oren Ben Dor.  Since Israel has such a great democracy and freedom, why were they looking at legislation that could have put people in prison for up to three years for describing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948?

Did the mainstream media even mention this point?

Only if given fuel and encouragement by the politically ignorant...well, perhaps Fox knows no decency.

Ken Burch wrote:

  Don't assume that I disagree with that.

Ken, believe it or not, and I'm repeating myself - [b]I'm not talking about you[/b] and what you agree or disagree with. I'm talking about the motive behind these "news" stories and the role they play in smearing the struggle of the Palestinian people, and dividing their allies.

Your statements start with a species of "I support the Palestinians BUT ..."

I treated them in the same vein as: I am not a racist BUT; I am not a homophobe BUT etc.

If you respond Ken please do not respond by using Nazi imagery against me personally.  This thread was a misguided attempt at commentary that when looked at logically did in fact blame the victim in the exact same way as women are told they should have walked on eggshells and been very quiet instead of pissing off the abusive asshole that beats them. That is victim blaming in my view no matter what your supposed intent was.  And your use of Nazi imagery to try to silence me tells me you have a double standard as to how the history of WWII can be used.  You vilify anyone who uses the holocaust as a comparison and then you use it as a sword against me.  You do your cause a great disservice by using Nazi imagery so blithely.

"This thread", MS, is an example of people talking about what they want to believe, and not at all about the average Canadian's understanding of what is happening over there.

Try talking to your local newspaper editorial writer - you know, the one who "interprets" what is going on "over there", explains it to the "masses" over here. But your attempt to cleanse that sentence you have boldened is a work of editorializing in itself.

The political ignorance of the folks feeding the hatred over there is only matched by the theorists' wistful musings here.

Cue: "Whatever that means."
Political ignorance.

"This thread", MS, is an example of people talking about what they want to believe, and not at all about the average Canadian's understanding of what is happening over there.

Sorry if you find this too hard to understand, Cue. Have another coffee and an anti-animosity pill.

I do find this hard to understand George. You are not being very clear.

I think George is saying the thread title reflects the understanding of the typical Canadian and  that, whether it is right or wrong, a Palestianian making a comment with regard to teaching the holocaust will never come through the MSM grinder without casting aspersions on the Palestinian people as a whole.

What I would say to George, and Ken, is that the very essence of racial stereotyping is ascribing the actions and/or characteristsics of an individual, whether the acts are real or imagined are of no consequence, to an entire people. This has been an integral part of the Zionist MO since the get-go and it has been used with much success. I would argue it is up to every one of us to call it racist when we see it and especially when it is repeated by those who ought to no better.

The fact that the reporting and the repeating represents a wider public perception means that we must be more vigilant when we see it, not less.

You are most perceptive, FM. I did not want to engage in a slanging match.

When you observe that "The fact that the reporting and the repeating represents a wider public perception means that we must be more vigilant when we see it, not less" however, you are saying that perhaps we can edit out the more vicious, racist rambliings of some of the people caught up in that monstrous ghetto created by the Israelis. Make it a reactionary act to breath a word. This, in my mind, is madness. The MSM are informing millions while we chatter about political ocrrectness in our lonely splendour.

Do you not think it possible that if the moderate Palestinians - who are very understanding of just what Ken and I are trying to put across, and practising that restraint - are on the right track?

And U, thanks for staying "cool and civilized" in your superior moral situation. Much appreciated. I understand restraint.