Opinion
Israeli plan actually hurts Palestinians
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Also by Mohammed Abed:
- Israeli plan actually hurts Palestinians (September 8, 2005)
- Conservative ideology failed victims (September 15, 2005)
- Local front of war on women's rights (September 22, 2005)
- Case for divesting from Israeli interests (September 30, 2005)
- Columbus anything but a national hero (October 13, 2005)
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The territory of historical Palestine is home to two ethnic groups, Israelis and Palestinians. Today, this entire territory is under the full political and military control of Israel, a state that defines itself as serving the interests of only one of the ethnic groups residing within its territory rather than every person that falls under its political control, irrespective of their ethnic origin. Historically, Israel has attempted to use military force to expel persons of non-Jewish origin from historic Palestine. In fact, the establishment of Israel in 1948 was made possible by a coordinated campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people. As well as being the indigenous inhabitants, the Palestinians were a two-thirds majority in Palestine when the state of Israel was founded. Although most were exiled, some remained. Today, for the first time since they were expelled en masse from their homeland, the Palestinians are once again a majority in the territory that falls under Israel's control.
Under the cover of regional war in 1967, Israel expelled a further 400,000 Palestinians from the areas known today as the West Bank and Gaza. Since 1967, opportunities to engage in mass ethnic cleansing have been few and far between. As a result, Israel adopted an interim policy towards the Palestinians. At its core is the idea that there should be physical separation between the two ethnic groups in historical Palestine. However, separation is not a prelude to political and territorial equality. The policy aims at using a variety of means to expropriate land from the Palestinians and to settle this land with Israeli-Jews. If all goes to plan, the Palestinians will be concentrated into territorially non-contiguous areas that comprise a fraction of the lands they have a legitimate moral claim to.
While Israel placates the international community by claiming that this new political scheme realizes self-determination, the reality is that the Palestinians are being denied the political agency to safeguard their individual rights or to shape any aspect of their future as a people. However, this new arrangement removes a burden from Israel's shoulders: it no longer has to provide the Palestinians with municipal services or police them from day to day. If they become too disruptive or unruly, Israel can deploy its military to brutally repress them. Life under these conditions is of course unbearable, so many of the people living in these areas will eventually leave or their culture and identity will be destroyed.
This project has proceeded smoothly barring three obstacles. First, the indigenous people — the Palestinians — have risen up in rebellion and have proven to be formidable adversaries. Second, the international community continues to push for an end to this violent confrontation and peaceful settlement of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Third, in Gaza, Israel's colonization project has proven difficult to implement. To deal with these problems in one fell swoop, Israel's government invented something called the "disengagement plan." Gaza is territorially insignificant, and in contrast to other areas in historical Palestine, it has little religious, cultural or economic value for Israel. However, what it does have is very high population density, but of the wrong kind. To protect the few Israeli-Jews who settled in the area, Israel had to expend enormous human and material resources. As a result, minimal costs are incurred if the settlers and the army leave. By maintaining control of Gaza's borders, airspace and territorial waters, Israel retains a hold on the economy and political destiny of the Palestinians who inhabit the strip.
The disengagement plan also entails significant benefits. In fact, it allows Israel to solve the first and second problems noted above. By creating an illusion of reasonableness and political compromise, the plan de-rationalizes Palestinian resistance. After all, why would anyone resist such magnanimous overtures? Secondly, the plan satisfies the international community's yearning for progress in the "peace process;" at the very least, it looks like a first step in the right direction. However, the most significant benefit of the plan is that it monopolizes the world's attention, buys time and accumulates the kind of political capital that allows Israel to intensify its colonization of Palestinian lands and solidify its interim policy of ethnic separation.
While the world focuses obsessively on the Gaza withdrawal and its long political aftermath, Israel will be busy territorially solidifying its system of control and working to endow it with de-facto legitimacy. The separation wall continues to be built in defiance of a ruling by the International Court of Justice that unequivocally established its illegality. The wall cuts deep into the West Bank and its elaborate route destroys the territorial contiguity of the area. The settlements and the infrastructure that supports them continue to expand. Very recently, the Israeli government confiscated large swaths of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem to accommodate an additional 3,500 housing units in the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Once this expansion is complete, Ma'ale Adumim will cut the West Bank in half.
The definition of the concept of apartheid is separation without self-determination. Apartheid-era South Africa concentrated its black population into territorially disconnected "homelands." The homelands system gave blacks the opportunity to run their own municipal affairs while it denied them self-determination and other basic human rights. Israel is well on its way to establishing a similar regime in the entire territory of historical Palestine. The Israeli version of the homelands system will cover Gaza, 40 percent of the West Bank and limited areas inside Israel where a wide range of racist policies keep the Palestinian minority separate but unequal. In these areas, the Palestinians will continue to live without the most basic of liberties, without self-determination, and without any kind of control over their own future.
This is not the only reason that Israel can be correctly labeled the heir to apartheid South Africa's legacy of racism and brutality. It is true that since the beginning of the second wave of Jewish settlement in 1905, Israel worked to become a "pure settler colony" that eschewed reliance on cheap indigenous labor and aimed to build an exclusively Jewish economy whereas white South African economic privilege was always dependent on the exploitation of black labor. It's also true that Israel is an "apartheid-plus" state in the sense that it is actively opposed to the presence of indigenous populations on the land it covets and aims at their total expulsion.
However, these differences do very little to undermine the comparison. Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel are territorially segregated and their communities purposefully de-developed. Ninety-three percent of Israel is defined as state land held in perpetuity for the sole benefit of the Jewish people rather than Israel's citizens. The administration of these lands is undertaken by quasi-governmental agencies that ensure no citizen of Palestinian-Arab descent can buy, lease or work in these areas. While non-Jewish citizens are denied these resources, their lands and homes are expropriated and destroyed by the state through a variety of bureaucratic means. The de-development of their communities is furthered by the denial of other socially meaningful goods such as state funding for education and basic municipal services. The result is that year after year, Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent score lower than Israeli-Jews on all the important socio-economic indicators. The isolation of the Palestinian community in Israel is augmented by other brazenly racist measures. The main highways in Israel do not have exits to Arab towns and localities. Discrimination even extends to laws about residency, citizenship and marriage. A Palestinian from the West Bank and Gaza who marries an Israeli citizen is legally prohibited from settling in Israel and acquiring residency and eventually citizenship. This law only applies to Palestinian Arabs. While Israel denies the internationally recognized right of the Palestinian refugees to return to the homeland they were expelled from in 1948, it will immediately grant citizenship to any person of Jewish descent and allow them to settle on lands the Palestinians have a legitimate moral claim to. The law of return is one of the many components of Israel's matrix of apartheid laws and regulations. Finally, Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin can be killed with utter impunity by border police or the army as they were in October 2000.
When the international community was faced with the specter of apartheid in South Africa, it boycotted the regime until it was replaced by a political system that ensured political equality between whites and blacks. After almost 60 years of Israel's brutal treatment of Palestine's indigenous inhabitants, it should do the same now.
Mohammed Abed (mabed@badgerherald.com) is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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So what is your proposed solution, other than to be perpetually outraged?
I get the feeling that if you were standing knee deep in the Mediterranean with a clear sunny sky overhead and a Jew told you it was a nice day, you’d disagree with him.
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This article is completly biased and in no way represents the actual events going on in Israel
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It is a very sad state of affairs indeed that this man is permitted to “lecture” anywhere, let alone a top 50 university.
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I was appauled to read the Article by Mohammed Abed, entitled, Israeli Plan Actually Hurts Palestinians. Regarless of my personal views about the situation in Israel, I feel that there is no place on a college campus for speakers that preach hatred. This not only is irresponsible of the University for allowing such a speaker to come, but any institute that endources such hatred in an educational setting will only be enstilling and furthering racisism and hatred into the comming generations. In this world of chaos one should look towards creating a better future for everyone, rather than repeating the ignorant and racist ideals of the past. It is my hope that this form of enlightenment and understanding of other peoples, and the constant learning process about those different from you should not stop at the college gates.
—Anonymous
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What a vile, completely one-sided attack piece.
Is it any surprise, based on his previous pieces, that this man has nothing but bile to spew after Israel uprooted thousands of its own people and relocated them?
Disgusting.
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I am glad that Mohammed has the courage to speak up about this particluar subject regardless of the ‘anonymous’ individuals that continue to attack him, rather than engage in any real discourse about the issue. Keep up the good work! —Genia
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Israel gave the Apartheid regime nuclear weapons. Israel facilitated the genocide of the Guatemalan people, training and arming beasts like Gen. Rios Montt. Israel is the most consistant violator of UN resolutions, including its own recognition as a state which was conditioned on the return of the hundreds of thousands Palestinian refugees ethnically cleansed in 1947-48. I challenge anyone to demonstrate otherwise.
Given Zionism’s history of recklessness, deception and brutality, and with more than 300 nuclear warheads, Israel represents possibly the greatest threat to world peace today. I think Mr. Abed is dead on and applaud the UW community for their just and principled efforts to divest from Israel.
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Excellent analysis of events on the ground in the Middle East. Israel’s racism is the main reason behind instaibility and regress in the region. This is becomming more and more of an issue that American public can no longer ignore.
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i’m sick and tired of mohammed abed exposing the israel state.
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since 10,000 israeli were evacuated from gaza, 18,000 have settled illegally in the west bank.
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“Israel gave the Apartheid regime nuclear weapons. Israel facilitated the genocide of the Guatemalan people…”
Do you know how far apart Israel and Guatemala are? And how would Israel even want to be involved anyway?
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“Israel represents possibly the greatest threat to world peace today.”
What an absurd comment.
Perhaps this listing could clarify a few things for you.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/TerrorAttacks.html
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And all god’s children said ‘Amen’. Geographic proximity is like THE main criteron of militaristic, strategic and political support, no? Look how close the Africa country is to colonial countries in Europe; it sits on top of Africa. On top. [Watch out, Israel, lebanon and, more importantly southern lebanon with hizbollah people trapsing around sits on top of you. Don’t even need to mention the other northern ‘neighbor’.]
Mohammed Abed definitely needs to cradle a globe to sleep tonight, hug it closely, study it, get intimate. And then, take a compass, stick the pointy in in Israel, maybe Tel Aviv, and then draw a circle. A circle with radius that goes from Tel Aviv to DC and then, ponder and look INSIDE the circle for your historical arguments next time. Think INSIDE the circle. Inside.
In-side.
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A message to the editor:
Stop publishing Abed’s articles. He has the right to speak, but not the right to be heard. This person does more to ruin Jewish/Muslim relations on campus than any single person. He creates tension and forces people to draw lines, “with us or against us.” This creates a campus of tension, where people cannot learn from eachother or even form a basis to understand eachother’s differences. Instead, Abed causes the shots to be fired before the sides can even meet to talk peace and understanding.
Moreover, Abed’s articles are full of lies, half-truths, and simple outright propaganda. Because this is not a scholarly newspaper or eduacational piece, Abed is never forced to site his work to any credible books/sources. Essentially he is given a free hand to manipulate any data or tell any fictional stories he likes, completely unchecked. You might respond, that people unahappy with these articles can simply write the Herald and have their articles published. Yet, most students do not want to tell the lies that abed does, this binds them more than abed is when writing. Nor do they want to get involved in agressive attacks against other people (Jews and Americans), as abed enjoys to do. It’s simple, most people do not want to lie nor do they want to create friction with their fellow students. Also, you have given mohammad a positoin as a staff writer. Few others could have such a priviledged position from which to tell their side of the story. The fact that you have given abed this position allows him to propagate his lies more readily than his opponents can tell the truth. Nor do people want to always beforced to refute outright lies, facutal manipulations, and propaganda.
Lastly, continually publishing abed’s biased and outright false articles and hate spewn statements causes this paper to lose any ounce of objectivity. People look at this paper, read abed’s hateful rants, and they then view this paper in disgust. You lower your paper to a biased, unfactual, hate-filled rag. It will not be taken seriously so long as it publishes such garbage. Again, papers do publish poor editorial once in a while. Yet, the BAdger Herald has given abed a staff writer position. It publishes his articles constanly, and lets them take up full pages. It is a concerted effort to allow abed to spew his outright lies.
With all respect, I ask you to please reconsider your actions in continually publishing abed’s articles. for the sake of peace on campus between different people, who can actually learn from one another. For the sake of truth. For the sake of the integrity of your own paper. Reconsider.
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RE: “Israel facilitated the genocide of the Guatemalan people,” Israel is a proxy state for the United States. When the United States had to abandon their conquest in Guatemala due to accusations of Human Rights abuses, aid to Israel increased and the Israelis stepped in. They benefitted through additional aid and new markets for their arms industry.
Your comments so far have no substance. If you can’t believe it, look it up and provide some evidence that dispproves my allegations.
For those of ypu who are open-minded, here are some further resources on the subject: 1. “It’s No Secret: Israel’s Military Involvement in Central America” by Milton Jamail and Margo Gutierrez 2. Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection” by Bishara Bahbah 3. “No Simple Proxy: Israel in Central America” by Jane Hunter
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I was glad to see Mohammed Abed’s forthright ” Israeli plan actually hurts Palestinians .”
Despite pervasive Zionist pressure to demonize the Palestinians at every opportunity and the many ongoing Zionist campaigns to pressure American colleges and media outlets into ignoring, dismissing or vilifying those who dare speak out for real justice and a lasting peace- people everywhere really are speaking out and explaining the truth about Israeli racism- and brutality.
Israel’s plans hurt everyone. <>We need to know. It is not pleasant to face ugly reality when a plethora of polished Israeli propaganda has been painting such a different seemingly reasonable and rational picture… but we have been grossly misinformed by Zionists and we need to know the facts, not the fantasy, because American money and political support help make this terrible crime against humanity possible.
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To Anne Selden Annab,
Your comments about Abed’s article are rather hazy. You speak in no real concrete terms, “to pressure American colleges and media outlets into ignoring, dismissing or vilifying those who dare speak out for real justice and a lasting peace”. What does this mean? Who is not wanting a real peace?
You also speak of Israeli propaganda, but I see no evidence that you have given of this. “but we have been grossly misinformed by Zionists and we need to know the facts” What are the facts? This until you actually say something of substance, your response is only propaganda. I will agree we do need to know the facts, but you are in no way helping contribute to a lack of information. Perhaps you are saying Abed is giving us information. However througout all of Abed’s article i saw absolutely no cited sources, no proof, just his opinion. Therefore please help us all and stop discrediting yourself.
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Perhaps what she meant about being grossly misinformed is that which has been demonstrated by the many negative posters here - that this is a muslim-jewish problem. arabs in palestine include both jews and christians, all of whom have been the victims of israeli policies since its emergence as a state, and all of which are still discriminated against today. arab jews have a difficult time even getting into synagogues in israel. jews have just as much reason to be angered with israel’s actions as do anyone else. articles such as this exposing these atrocities are neccessary, congrats on the good work
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Thanks for your comments Anne and Genia. Also, thanks to all the rest of you for once again failing to engage the actual arguments I’ve made and engaging in ad-hominem attacks instead. This does a wonderful job of exposing that support for Zionism and Israeli policy is based on nothing more than blind sentiment and prejudice.
Mohammed Abed
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“You lower your paper to a biased, unfactual, hate-filled rag”
you talk about this article as though it were someone simply spewing hate left and right, but it was written in such a way that was analytical of the situation. there aren’t any “hate rants” in it, it isn’t even all that emotional, perhaps less than it even should be considering what has been going on. but i digress. abed is writing in a manner that is ‘biased,’ of course, but that does nothing to the integrity of the paper(in fact, i would say it adds to its objectivity), journalism is about the pursuit of truth, the concept of a university is all about the pursuit of truth, and there is no reason for the paper to water down their articles. and what were you talking about with peace on campus? if anything, exposing these views creates a gateway for dialogue, you seem to want to silence certain peoples.
“Abed causes the shots to be fired before the sides can even meet to talk peace and understanding” - who is he going to meet with, ariel sharon? this is a critique of the israeli government, not of jews, this has little to do with cross-cultural talk and understanding.
what i gathered from your response was that you read this article with a hatred for mohammed abed and a hatred for the palestinian view and from there derived your assessment of it. it is nowhere close to as dramatic as you make it seem. i applaud the herald for publishing pointed articles that demonstrate an understanding for the topic, especially in our age of media ambiguity.
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I am outraged that a newspaper will let a student on campus preach his thoughts to us on such a controversal topic. He is only creating more hate and anger in people and not bridging the gap between Jews and Muslims. If the Badger Herald continues to let Mohammed post his articles, I will no longer read the Badger Herald. I ask that the Badger Herald try to bring peace and good to the UW campus, and not support Mohammed and his articles.
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“This does a wonderful job of exposing that support for Zionism and Israeli policy is based on nothing more than blind sentiment and prejudice.”
Maybe your article is so full of lies that there are too many to even address. How about “historic palestine” This was the land of both Israel and what is today 80% of Jordan. Historic palestine was divided in 1922. 80% of it was given to the Arabs, and it became “Transjordan.” Jews were then expelled from this area of palestine and could not become citizens. Palestinians then already have a state that is and was palestine. Even King Hussein, an implanted foreign king (by the British) from Arabia, offered to give it to Arafat, with Huessein staying on as a symbolic leader. Historic Palestine also consisted of a predominently Jewish Hebron, which had been Jewish for thousands of years. But, in 1929, the Arabs decided to kill, rape, pillage, and expell all the Jews from the city. Only in the past few decades did Jews eventually return to the city. The real palestinians before 1948 were the Jews. Even the British army had a Palestine brigade, which was all Jewish. the Arabs preferred to serve in the Nazi side. The Grand Mufti himself met with Hitler and Himmler. The palestinians and their leadership supported the Final Solution. To Quote the leader of the Palestinians, the grand mufti “I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews. Murder them all”
Rather than accusing Jews of being racist, lets consider the fact that in 1948, the Arabs wanted to drive the Jews into the Sea. Sounds worse than racist, sounds rather genocidal to me, right old chap?
Here is a quote from an offical religious broadcast on Palestinian TV: “Jews are monkeys and pigs, conceited, arrogant, disloyal and treacherous, and will be tortured on Judgment Day”
Here is another segment from Palestinian TV: “[Allah] will not resurrect them [Jews] until Judgement Day, and then they will be tortured [with] harsh torture.”
Another: “We shall battle them and wage jihad against them…
Here is a clip from a palestinian children’s program: “We must expel all Israelis from Palestine. Because Israel - there is nothing called ‘Israel’ in the world. The Israelis [came] from Holland, America, Iran.”
Here are some quotes from Palestinian Text books: "One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal." [Islamic Education for Ninth Grade]
"I learn from this lesson: I believe that the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers."[Islamic Education, Part Two, for Fourth Grade] "Remember: "The final and inevitable result will be the victory of the Muslims over the Jews." [Our Arabic Language for Fifth Grade]
Sounds rather racist, mohammad, doesn’t it? Sounds pretty violent too. And it gets even more interesting considering the fact that these words are translated into action, in the form of over 28,000 terrorist attacks in nearly 5 years. At least 29 suicide attacks were carried out by palestinians under the age of 18.
You love to claim ad hominem attacks, yet you throw around the words aparthide and racism like the candy palestinians were throwing to their children to celebrate the 9/11 World Trade Towers suicide bombings.
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In terms of racism, Mohammad, lets talk suicide bombers. Though, this is more the form of a GENOCIDE. it is the intentional targeting of innocent people, due to their race/relgion and particular nationality.
When doing a sucicide bomibg, Palestinians are trying to kill as many innocent Israelis as possible. They are trained to stand in areas of public busses and restaurants where their explosives will cause the most damage. Who do they want to cause damage to and Kill? Why Israelis, a national group. Sounds like Genocide Mohammad. I guess after this explaination its time for you to start crying about “occupation” or some other bankrupt excuse for palestinians and muslims murdering innocent people. Guess what, before there was Israel, before there was the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, terrorist attacks against Jews and Americans were taking place. Lets remember the Hebron Massacre 1929, the Damascus Blood Libel of 1840 (where thousands of Jews were raped injured or killed), and the Khobar towers bomings, the Embassay bomings in Kenya and Tanzania the bombing of the US embassy and state department officials in Beirut.
By the way, your arguement that people support Israel blindly, well, never has anyone once heard you say a good thing about Israel. Never have you criticized the palestinans in any of your articles. Sounds like you are a blind follower.
Also, in terms of lies and baseless statements, what about in your last article where you argued that Iran was non-violent. How about the Marine corps. bomings, khobar towers bombings, and embassy bomings that they are responsible for? Sounds like you are manipulating the press and that you lack a basis for your statements. Sounds like you are a blind follower of a morally bankrupt ideology and cause. Try to read more buddy and not just write whatever come off the top of your mind.
—Husam
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The tit-for-tat rants posted against Abed’s well written piece is pathetic at the least.
Agree with him or not, have the self-respect to acknowledge his right to hold and espouse his views.
In a university/nation/culture which prides itself in the pursuit of intellectual freedom, this blind hatred of dissenting views, especially in the Palestinian/Israeli issue is very disconcerting.
Kudos to the Badger Herald for upholding the principles of the 1st Amendment!
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The 1st Amendment guarantees the right to free speach not the right to have a forum to be heard. Get it right, simple constitutional law doctrine. The badgerherlad does not uphold the right to free speach. Rather they just give a forum for obnoxious people to be heard.
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tit for tat rants? I guess its ok for mohammad to attack but no one to respond? He critizes people for not responding with facts. People did respond with facts, and now its “pathetic” rants? Sounds a bit hypocritical don’t you think? By the way, 1st Amendment free speech is about being allowed to say what you want, it is not about being allowed to publish or have access to spread your views. On the same principle the badger herald should let convicted rapists say what they want. Who cares about the validity of their rants? Its free speech right, 1st Amendment protected? I am sure many of them would like to have unfettered press access with no accountability.
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“I am outraged that a newspaper will let a student on campus preach his thoughts to us on such a controversal topic” ……….. that’s right people!! No more controversial topics!! Shame, shame. God forbid a person has an opinion different from someone else. Let’s censor anything we don’t agree with!! These people are starting to sound like dear ol’ George W. -G
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The badger herald should let convicted rapists say what they want. Who cares about the validity of their rants? Its free speech right, 1st Amendment protected? I am sure many of them would like to have unfettered press access with no accountability. Its not about controversial topics, its about having some academic integrity when writing about these topics.
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No more controversial topics!!
No, how about just discussing them in a mature way, unlike Abed.
Also, how about supporting your statements, rather than ad hominem attacks made by Abed constantly.
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abed did discuss them in a mature way. the posters here responded childishly. if you asked abed, i am sure he’d be vehemently against suicide bombing… but thats not the point of his article. whether or not suicide bombings are being committed, israel is not justified in the racial discrimination they practice against all faiths, and this is what mohammed is writing about. to disagree with him and sound like you are actually in college and not running around on the grade school playground, perhaps you should point out why you think israel is not rascist, not why you think arabs are genocidal. and by the way, israel has killed more non combatants than suicide bombers in palestine. in one night they massacred 1700 refugees at sabra and chatila. it was on nbc news, i believe, where i heard that until the late 1990’s, 23 non combatant palestinians were killed by israelis for every israeli killed by a palestinian. i believe that number changed to 3 to 1 in the late 90’s. and please realize here that abed is criticizing ISRAEL not JEWS.
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Sabra and Shatilla was carried out by Christian Arabs from LEBANON, taking revenge for the murder of their children on a school bus by Palestinian terrorists hiding in the refugee camps. The amount of people killed at maximum was 800. Get your facts straight.
In terms of the current fighting: On the Israeli side, 80 percent of those killed have been noncombatants. While Israelis account for about 27 percent of the total "Intifada" fatalities, they represent over 43 percent of the noncombatant victims.
Over 54 percent of the Palestinians killed were actively involved in fighting — and this does not include stone-throwers or "unknowns". And Palestinians are directly responsible for the deaths of at least 253 of their own number — more than one out of every eight Palestinians killed.
Women and girls account for 31 percent of all Israelis killed in the conflict, and almost 40 percent of the Israeli noncombatants killed by Palestinians.
Palestinian fatalities, in contrast, have been consistently and overwhelmingly (over 95 percent) male.
Still so sure about your facts? Sounds like your response is rather hollow. It lacks facts like Abed does. Concrete facts proving you wrong, right here in front of your face. Have a nice day, genius.
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sabra and shatila were carried out by militias sent in by israel, whose forces were surrounding the camp. israel was responsible for what went on there. they had a commitment to protect palestinian citizens and failed miserably in a situation they could have prevented, and one that people like ariel sharon were found to be quite likely personally responsible for. it was israel’s responsibility.
the thing about those ict numbers, is that they prove israel has in fact killed, and consistantly kills, more palestinian noncombatants. it says this right in the report. this is unjustified. it’s wrong to target and kill noncombatants. and israel needs to be confronted about this.
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i haven’t heard one person yet say what facts abed has been lying about or leaving out or distorting.
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Read the facts again. On the Israeli side, 80 percent of those killed have been noncombatants.
Only 46% of the palestinians were “non-combatants,” but this does not include the fact that over 253 of their own “non-combatants” were killed by Palestinians themselves.
I guess you are not a math major. Its clear that Israelis per death have suffered almost twice as many civilian casualties.
Sabra and Shatilla were done by Lebanese Christians. Yes, Christians. They were taking revenge for the fact that Palestinians from these camps decided to shoot up a school bus filled with their own Christian children. The commander of this force was actually a Syrian Double Agent. Even he claims Sharon knew nothing, and was “too incompetent to know or do anything about it.” Sharon, by failing to act was indirectly held responsible. Not responsible. Its all in a commission report, but obviously you do not read.
Second of all why do you always quote that one instance of Sabra and Shatilla, where not even the Israelis carried it out (again, done by Christians). The Israelis have suffered massacres like this every year. How about when the Palestinians killed a whole family during a religious meal? How about when they took a kindergarten class hostage? What about when they tried to ram a car full of explosives into a school bus? How about when they placed a bomb in a crowded Tel Aviv Market?
“it’s wrong to target and kill noncombatants. and israel needs to be confronted about this.”
The palestinians’ tactic for nearly 40 years has been to target and kill noncombatants. I guess you don’t follow the news. I guess you have never heard of suicide bombers. Maybe you never heard of all the airplane hijackings Palestinians did over the decades? What about the fact that the palestinians coat their bombs in nails and rat poison to kill as many innocent Jews on busses and in restaurants as possible? Now, thats pretty intentional, isn’t it? Not only that but the Palestinians glorify in this murder. They name streets, buildings, and even kindergartens after suicide bombers, Hamas gunmen, and bomb makers.
Open your eyes. Learn to see the whole conflict, rather than your own biased, foolish, unsupported, and outright silly statements.
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you are the one not seeing the whole world of conflict, because everytime someone mentions something wrong that israel does, you immediately jump to what the palestinians have done. just because atrocious acts have been committed by palestine does not mean israel has a clear for everything they do. this isnt about what palestine does. because quite frankly the world already is quite liberal in their condemnation of palestine. israel is obviously infringing on the basic rights of a whole slew of people, and yes, they do need to be confronted.
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You people are just redicolous!!! Not to understand the conflict is one thing, but to preach accordingly to those missunderstandings is quite another. Any credible historian (credability includes objectivity, by the way) will out-right say that Israel has always wanted nothing but peace! And what does the Palestinian leadership do? They support martyrdom and terrorism!!! Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot! Slaughtering 21 highschool kids in a nightclub is not considered terrorism, because your people are “oppressed”… Give me a break! But insted of attempting to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict, as they claim to be doing, the Palestinian leadership does the exact opposite. This was made perfectly clear after the 2000 Camp David talks. Barak offered the Palestinians almost everything they wanted - including east Jerusalem. But instead of making a counter offer, Arafat simply walked away! Are these the actions of a man who wants to achieve peace, or a damned terrorist who wants nothing but killings??? So you’re right, the Disengagement Plan was NOT done for the benefit of the Palestinians. We are done trying to achieve peace, offering all we can without any will from the Palestinians to negotiate. It is now our turn to care for the citizens of Israel (both Arabs and Jews, by the way)!!!
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Palestinians killed 3 American State Department officials out to give Palestinian children educational grants. Their leaders refused to do anything about it. They know who these people are and let them walk around free. The U.S. keeps pressuring them, but the Palestinians refuse to do anything. Back in the U.S. the wives of the dead government officials struggle to survive on whatever salary they can recieve, since the lives of their loved ones where destroyed by Palestinian terrorism.
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why are you even using those numbers, they only encompass the years 2000-2002.
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There are no such people as Palestinians, therefore they cannot be indigenous. They are Arabs from Egypt, Jordan and Syria. They have as much claim to Judea and Samaria as do Syrians. Palestine never existed as a country, never had currency, never had kings and never held culture. Is Saudi Arabian a nationality? No. Neither is Palestinian. As such, all your comparisions with South Africa fall apart since Palestinians are merely illegitimate Egyptian immigrants who were not welcomed and not used as cheap labor. And they would have been destroyed if it was not for US and EU.
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Israelis are not an ethnic group. I could not get past your first sentence.