Sunday 31 December 2017

Ahed Tamimi and the Israeli Apartheid State

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Welcome to Back in the USSR on 93.3 FM CFRU, I am Siegfried, and tonight, on the last show of 2017, I’m going to pick up where I left off last week talking about the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation against the Apartheid state of Israel and its US ally.  Last week I talked about the recent decision by the Trump administration to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, in violation of international law and the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a viable independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.  I also talked about how this action, which was overwhelmingly condemned at the United Nations, was not in defiance of but actually was the logical conclusion of the so-called “peace process” starting with the Oslo accords in 1993, which, far from granting a viable independent state for Palestinians or guaranteeing refugees the right of return to lands stolen by Israel, reduced the Palestinian people to living in a permanent state of siege – hemmed in by expanding Israeli settlements, subject to constant aggression by Israeli security forces, and dominated by a Palestinian Authority that actively collaborates with the Israeli government in its oppression of the Palestinian people.  I quoted from Greg Shupak’s excellent article “The Jerusalem Gambit”, in which he details how these things are connected in what is a decidedly colonial situation as Israel illegally grabs more and more Palestinian land with the aid of the United States, the supposedly “honest broker” in peace talks that offer nothing but betrayal to the Palestinians who have fought an anti-colonial struggle since 1947.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump 'recognized' Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6, 610 Palestinians have been arrested for resisting the occupation, including 170 children and 12 women, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) reported on December 27, so even these figures are out of date.

According to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, at least 6,831 Palestinians are already being held in Israeli custody, including 331 children.  The latest arrests bring the total number of Palestinian prisoners to 7,441.  

In addition, 12 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since Trump's Jerusalem declaration and many thousands wounded from rubber bullets, tear gas and the many other weapons in the IDF's arsenal.

But if there's one case that has truly stood out and captured headlines recently, it's the case of a sixteen 16-year old Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested and is currently being held without charges by Israeli authorities.

I'd like to read an Al-Jazeera article on this case from December 26th in full, because I believe it shows quite well the kind of reality Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are living in today.


The Real News Network interviewed Ahed Tamimi's father earlier this week, a man who has long been active in the Palestinian liberation struggle.  This is what he had to say.



Play Public Enemy - "By the time I get to Arizona"

You're listening to Back in the USSR.  One of the tactics of a colonial power is always the ideological demonization of those it colonizes, and Israel is no exception.  You've seen how Israeli social media demonized Ahed Tamimi, a sixteen year old girl, baying for her blood because she stood up to Israeli soldiers and would not be intimidated.  We've seen how high-profile Israeli government ministers have called for outright genocide of the Palestinian people.  We've even seen current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu try to blame the Holocaust on the Palestinians, effectively letting the Nazis off the hook in an attempt to demonize the resistance against his own genocidal policies.  That was back in 2015 when Israel launched its last assault on Gaza and more than a thousand Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, were killed, and the Israeli media and political establishment was bending over backwards trying to justify the atrocities they were committing on a daily basis.  This is what Max Blumenthal had to say about this horrendous propaganda from an interview he did with the Real News two years ago.





Amir Sulaiman - "Danger"

Lee Reed "Bazooka Rap"

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