Israeli Apartheid

What drives Isarael?

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Ilan Pappe

(source: Voice of the Cape Online)

Probably the most bewildering aspect of the Gaza flotilla affair has been the righteous indignation expressed by the Israeli government and people. The nature of this response is not being fully reported in the UK press, but it includes official parades celebrating the heroism of the commandos who stormed the ship and demonstrations by schoolchildren giving their unequivocal support for the government against the new wave of anti-Semitism.

As someone who was born in Israel and went enthusiastically through the socialisation and indoctrination process until my mid-20s, this reaction is all too familiar. Understanding the root of this furious defensiveness is key to comprehending the principal obstacle for peace in Israel and Palestine. One can best define this barrier as the official and popular Jewish Israeli perception of the political and cultural reality around them.

A number of factors explain this phenomenon, but three are outstanding and they are interconnected. They form the mental infrastructure on which life in Israel as a Jewish Zionist individual is based, and one from which it is almost impossible to depart – as I know too well from personal experience. The first and most important assumption is that what used to be historical Palestine is by sacred and irrefutable right the political, cultural and religious possession of the Jewish people represented by the Zionist movement and later the state of Israel.

Stronger palestinian resistance needed to fight attacks

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Tasneem Mohammed

(source: Voice of the Cape fm Online)

“Where is the democracy that Israel claims to uphold? Where are the peace-loving people that Israel claims to have? Where is the respect and tolerance for religious sensitivities?” These are the pertinent questions raised by Al Quds Foundation SA president Maulana Igsaan Hendricks, in response to brutal attack on a mosque Beit Fajjar in Bethlehem in the early hours of Monday morning.

A group of Israeli settlers forcibly entered the mosque, desecrated its walls and set the carpet alight. The perpetrators also burnt copies of the Holy Qur’an, sprayed graffiti blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on the walls of the mosque, and later held a demonstration demanding the military demolish a mosque in Burin, Nablus.

Speaking to VOC this week, Hendricks denounced the attack as a “violation of religious sanctity and total disregard for a place of worship”. This assault was an attempt to provoke a religious fracas and to disrupt and sabotage any efforts made by foreign governments to resume peace talks, he said.

“This is a typical example of what happens under Zionist occupation. For the last 40 years, since the occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, there has been a systematic attack on Palestinians by Jewish settlers. They have constantly exercised violent, malicious and brutal attacks against Palestinians. This is something that must be condemned in the strongest terms.”

From 1967 to date, there have been approximately 650 recorded attempts to destroy Masjidul-Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site. On the 22 August 1969, the sacred mosque was brutally attacked by Michael Rohan, an extremist Australian Christian. A few years ago, medical doctor Dr Baruch Goldstein massacred 19 Muslims and injured 150 in a mosque in Hebron whilst performing Fajr salaah.

The ascent of the palestinian pharaoh

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Abdaljawad Hamayel

(source: The Electronic Intifada)

Palestinians in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank

demonstrate in support of the Egyptian people, 6 February.

“They are marching to freedom, while we march to surrender.”

These were my mother’s words as she reacted spontaneously, but intensely to the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions and lamented over Palestinians’ self-inflicted wounds emanating from the Palestinian Authority and its numerous failures.

Economic dependency and an oppressive security state is the recipe that many dictatorial, one-person, or one-party regimes apply across the region. This model was followed by the once American-supported, and then American-deposed Saddam Hussein, to Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, who was first a pariah in the West and then became its darling, to Tunisia’s Zine El Abedine Ben Ali who was overthrown by his people, among others.

And while the Egyptian people stand steadfast in an effort to overthrow their own Pharoah, a similar “pharoah regime” is steadily being built for Palestinians in the West Bank. It is not only surrender we are marching to, but we are marching — under PA tutelage — toward a typical one-party, pseudo-security state.

“Pseudo” because it is not even a state — this entity exists under Israeli occupation. And the “security” is increasingly repressive towards dissenting voices, groups and political parties.

Calls for moderation at opening of Lebanon mosque

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Sunni Lebanese Muslims pray outside Mohammed al-Amin mosque

Picture: (AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

Sunni Lebanese Muslims pray outside Mohammed al-Amin mosque as they attend its opening ceremony and the first Friday prayer in downtown Beirut. Muslim religious leaders, politicians and a crowd of thousands gathered in central Beirut today for the inauguration of Lebanon’s largest mosque, a project launched by assassinated ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.

Calls for unity and religious moderation from Muslim and Christian leaders have marked the opening of Lebanon’s biggest mosque in the heart of the capital.

The inauguration today of the Muhammad al-Amin Sunni Mosque also serves to boost the Sunni community’s place as a major player in the country’s politics.

It comes as Sunni-Shiite tensions continue to simmer after clashes earlier in the year and despite recent attempts at reconciliation.

Built Ottoman style with a sky blue central dome and towering minarets on its four corners, the mosque dominates downtown Beirut’s skyline.

It gained added prominence because of the adjacent grave of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Sapa-AP