Palestine

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday January 11, 2011 20:17

by Con Carroll

we should shout if from every rooftop that Israel is apartheid state

we in Europe could learn a lot from the Palestinian people. their friendship hospitality welcome. one can't put into writing
watching certain people visiting the Holy Sites. I am left asking myself a question. are these people from all over the world, aware of the political reality of the lives of the people.
as we cross into the Palestinian areas of Jericho, Bethlehem the welcome and friendship is relaxed. children, greet us with smiles of appreciation. that we should be honored to be in their company, again I meet people visiting who have their eyes closed. they take their views from the media

this morning Jerusalem post. Tuesday 11. the Minister foreing affairs wants to make it more difficult for people wanting to visit Israel.
on their list is people who advocate support, boycott Israeli products. people who are migrants/asylum seekers, who political organise against Israel immigration. people who attend conferences which could be seen as a threat, protests, to underminding the security of Israel

the Israeli check points are something else, as we witness Palestinian people been detained. I want to get out of the van and roar, shout at the Israelis, I cant. I am told by Palestinians that the number of people, who travel through Tel Aviv. wanting to show their solidarity and support is down compared to 5 years ago. indeed it is known that people were deported
I am living in the home of Palestinian family I have been followed and stopped by Israeli occupying forces, asking were I come from, purpose of my been in East Jerusalem.

allow me to quote the words of retired Arch bishop Desmond Tutu, ours was a picnic compared to the reality of Palestinians

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Comments (3 of 3)

That's the stuff, Con.

by Aoife - Act for Palestine

Thu Jan 13, 2011 00:23

It's heartening to see you're over in the West Bank in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Tutu calls it as is

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party

Sat Jan 15, 2011 16:22

I spent a couple of years (as a whiteman) in apartheid SA. It did not have the viciousness of Zionist racism so far as I experienced it(and I travelled it fairly thoroughly, and got picked up for being critical and immediately labelled commie even though I was marketing for a multi-national). It was more paternalistic and less rancid. I'd say the American Southern States system was closer to the lynch-mob hate in current Israel. I found Australians more rabid about their miniscule Aboriginal populations(bit like Paddy and the Travellers).

Someone should write to the irish Times about their increase in Israeli tourism ads(see today's) since the shit hit the PR fan after the passports/piracy/Cast Lead overkill. I seem to be barred(not that I've stopped). Madam&Co is being kept sweet.

A letter from inside the bantustan, or from one of the official spokesgroups would have a better(maybe)chance of penetration of the Zionist hasbara curtain(iron curtain origianally referred to the fire curtain in theatres seperating stage from auditorium after a series of disasters in the 19th century. It was later applied to propaganda curtains on both sides in WW1 that ensured the gridlocked idiocy of slaughter continued because of the ignorance fostered by mutual 'morale' maintainence propaganda. Churchill and others then applied it to the shroud of Pravda(truth)that decended on Stalinist Russia. In South Africa, despite considerable censorship it was amateur compared to Tel Aviv's sophisticated blanket).

Madam likes her 'liberal' mask. I do believe she does believe she is actually both progressive and democratic, since she got elected on that ticket once and briefly upon a time. She does not pronounce her liberalism with its 'neo' prefix. As in BAe-bi face Tony's Neo-Labour.

Examiner letter on Israel/Palestine tourism

by Saladin

Mon Jan 17, 2011 08:48

Know the facts before visiting the Holy Land
Examiner Letters, Monday, January 17, 2011

SOME prominent Irish tour operators have recommenced promoting tours to the Holy Land.

However, these operators should consider that there are an increasing number of historical sites under dispute, and under false and illegitimate claims by Israel.

Such visits carry the risk of creating historical distortions in the minds of visitors.

Further, in keeping with Israeli patterns of tourism, visitors are unlikely to have the opportunity to meet and encounter Palestinians, and understand their legitimate claims to a just share in the travel and tourism sector in the Holy Land.

The Irish tour operators are giving Israel an important vote of confidence by promoting Israeli tourism and generally improving Israelis image around the world.

It should be known that Israeli tourism has been an instrument of propaganda against the Palestinians, presenting them in a very unfavourable and untruthful light, as a dangerous and violent people, void of history and culture. Encouraging tourists to Israel becomes an endorsement of Israeli racist propaganda assisting Israel in keeping the tourism industry of Palestine invisible to visitors from around the world.

While there are more than 6,000 Israeli tour guides, there are only 300 Palestinian tour guides with a mere 42 Palestinian guides who are permitted to work beyond the West Bank in Israel.

The vast majority of Palestinian professionals in the tourism industry have been denied entry to Jerusalem since 1993.

The Israeli military, the I.D.F., will not let them past the checkpoints to reach Jerusalem. This is the same IDF that carried out the mass murder of some 1,500 defenceless citizens of Gaza, 640 of which were children, and continues to lay siege to that open air prison, carrying out daily aerial attacks and other acts of wanton destruction which confines these unfortunate Palestinians to a stone age existence.

These facts should be in the public domain and particularly in the knowledge of potential visitors to the Holy Land.

Daniel Teegan
Union Hall
Cork

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, January 17, 2011

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/letters/know-the-f...jvRis

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Comments (3 of 3)