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Thursday February 28,
2008
A state of non-compliance
Did you know that in 1988
Palestine was declared a state within the 1967 borders with East
Jerusalem as its capital and over 100 countries recognized it as
such?
But Israel was allowed to continue its occupation.
Today Palestinians are likening themselves to Kosovo, but Kosovo has
western support. An article in Gulf
News suggests a different model:
"
... if
the Palestinians wanted a more applicable example of independence they
could cite East Timor, which unilaterally declared itself independent
on November 28, 1975 but could only achieve it in 2002, after its
people exercised their right of self-determination.
"Legally and in spite of Israeli presumptions, the Palestinians have a
water-tight case to present to the world body and its courts. Their
right to self-determination was reaffirmed as far back as 1974 by the
UN General Assembly and accordingly recognised by the majority of
countries."
The BBC
points out another strong similarity between East Timor and the state
of Palestine:
"World
powers were accused of contributing to the subsequent calamity by
turning a blind eye or by actively supporting the occupation by
supplying weapons."
"World powers"
have
managed to create a Palestinian split both geographically and
philosophically in order to prevent the formation of a cohesive state
entity, and the US
even provided weapons to Fatah
to forment the internal conflict in Gaza that ended with Hamas driving
Fatah out. The problem that Israel and the "world powers" have
with Hamas is not that they don't believe Hamas would keep a truce (it
has proven in the past that it would), but that Hamas is a
manifestation of Palestinian self-determination.
If the US supported self-determination for Palestinians, would it have
had "an American security coordinator in the area" named General
Keith Dayton (Ha'aretz
June 07),
responsible for creating and maintaining a rift between Hamas and
Fatah?
His job was not to coordinate security, but to get rid of the
democratically elected Hamas.
Virtually
every time we see
internal strife, we can literally assume that the US is covertly behind
it, all
the while it mouths platitudes that include prodigious use of the word
"peace".
But the Gaza battle was yet another war that the US lost, and now
Israel is back
to its old habits of terrorizing Gaza, while it drags its heels in
endless talks about peace.
From the above-linked June 07 Ha'aretz article:
...
Military Intelligence and other intelligence experts believe that Fatah
is not close to surrendering, and that reinforcing the group with
equipment from abroad should be considered seriously.
Some Fatah
officials in the Gaza Strip cite the latest round of fighting with
Hamas as proof that the organization is much stronger than was
originally thought.
General
Dayton supports this position, and has even made statements to this
effect during U.S. congressional hearings.
Meanwhile,
Mohammed Dahlan, Fatah's leading figure in the Gaza Strip, is
organizing another paramilitary unit.
Several
months
ago, Dahlan established another force, the Presidential Guard, which
comprises several thousand fighters trained with American assistance in
Arab countries. The latest group, Fatah's Executive Force, is supposed
to counter its synonymous rival in Hamas. It currently includes about
1,000 fighters.
Ehud
Olmert himself had Dahlan's number, and that of the US, in 2002:
"Word
has it that he just returned from a trip to Washington where he got
high marks from the National Security Council. (Mr. Dahlan denies ever
going.)" (Washington
Post)
But Israel is a
US
welfare state and, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds it, has
always had to work around US strategy, which is covert, dirty and
divisive. Besides, maybe Dahlan really could bring down Hamas.
He was just the type of henchman the US was looking for. He was not
working for Fatah, he dreamed of someday having with his own little
fiefdom.
If the US wanted him to foment a little internal strife among his own
people, it was a small price for him to pay.
Hamas
had Dahlan's number too. (JPost) They did everything
they could to get rid of him, but
in the end,
after coordinating the fight that ended with the PNA in the West
Bank
and Hamas as strong as ever in Gaza, not wanting to risk breaking a
fingernail, Dahlan vacated the scene.
And then everybody had his number.
Abbas should consider ceasing to be a Dahlan himself - that is he has
to stop taking
handouts that make him obligated to the US and Israel, and therefore
vulnerable to their dirty tricks. He needs to join forces with
all of
his people, including Hamas, and forge a united front.
If Palestine was declared a state in 1988, then maybe it's time to
start acting like it. Maybe it's time for the state of Palestine
to
demand its sovereignty rights as such. Gandhi proved that much
can be
accomplished without the use of violence once the people strongly unite
and stop
dealing with the oppressor. He said that if people want to be
free
they have to act as if they are free.
When I see the photos of various people standing in front of bulldozers
I wonder why they are standing there alone.
The same goes for all of us citizens in countries where governments are
moving to the far right - Canada for instance. Peaceful
non-compliance, en masse, is the only way to stop it, no matter how
brutally the government reacts.
After all, doesn't the government itself expect us to be willing to die
for our country? Don't we expect it of our soldiers? What are we
waiting for? Someone to pay us a salary for it?
Chew on that one. Think about it when you apply for NEXUS
or pay money for a passport to vacation in the US, or get a
microchipped drivers licence just
because you don't want to be inconvenienced. In the long run, you
risk
losing everything.
Think
about it, you police
officers who are being used to oppress the dissent of the very citizens
you are
sworn to protect, trampling on their civil rights, making a mockery of
our constitution.
Think about it you military who are set against foreign civilians, all
in the interests of a "free market" economy.
Learn about the free market which benefits only the wealthy few.
Watch economies fail in spite of it - actually, because of it.
Ours will soon follow and we will have helped it happen.
It's odd
that as struggles for independence go on all over the world, Canada is
gradually letting its own slip away.
By the
way: I've just discovered this
statement from Paul Martin that he, Fox and Bush did in fact
sign the SPP:
Thus,
on March
23, President Bush, President Fox and I signed the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America that establishes the way
forward on our continental agenda for security, prosperity and quality
of life. It is a partnership that respects the past but is devoted to
building for the future, to ensuring that we as North Americans are
able to continue to thrive in a world in which China and India have
emerged as economic giants.
Why does the government insist
the
SPP is not a signed document?
yayacanada
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