Palestinian Takes On UK In Court
A 60-year-old Palestinian will begin a case against the UK government in the High Court later when he will say that sales of arms to Israel are illegal.Saleh Hassan, who lives on the West Bank, says his land was confiscated by Israel to make way for its barrier.
He claims Israel uses military equipment bought in Britain to repress Palestinians which, he says, violates their human rights.
Israel says the barrier is necessary to prevent acts of terrorism.
Mr Hassan, who lives in Bethlehem, claims that Israel used military equipment to bulldoze his farm and confiscate his land in 2005 to allow the construction of what he calls its “annexation wall”.
He will argue that the UK sale of arms-related equipment to Israel breaks laws that prohibit the export of military equipment to countries where there is a clear risk they might be used for internal repression or the violation of fundamental freedoms.
Mr Hassan will cite a call by the International Court of Justice for the wall to be dismantled.
The Israeli government says the West Bank barrier is a security measure to stop suicide bombers.
Critics say the structure is part of an effort to annex occupied land.
The International Court of Justice has argued that the barrier should not be allowed to become Israel’s new border because it would constitute the expansion of Israeli territory by force.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israeli MPs he would devote the next year to pursuing peace with the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas was serious about reaching a deal, he added.
© 2007 BBC News
I just love the look of that smug, bald, ugly Israeli soldier standing in the background. Can you imagine how much worse they are becoming, the right wing religious government not only exploiting the traumas of the holocaust living on in these people, but now the forced militarization of every single young person going into what should be Palestine by now and murdering the Palestinians? I’m sure they are all in favor of nuclear weapons and are just waiting to use them on Iran.
Taking the bastards and their enablers to court might be the smartest way to go.
Greeks who lost their homes in Cyprus after the Turkish invasion of 1974 are taking Brits who bought their confiscated homes after the Turkish regime in northern Cyprus confiscated them to court. If they win, maybe Palestinians will find a way to get their cases against the “huddled masses longing to be free,” from Brooklyn and Los Angeles, who stole their land to court.
I am an American Jew who was 11 years old when the State of Israel was founded in 1948. I was raised in a Labor Zionist family. I had an older brother who immigrated to Israel and lived on a kibbutz (collective farm) in the Negev desert. I am now 70 years old and am sick to my stomach over the conduct of the Israeli government and military in it’s policies and treatment of the Palestinian people. The Israeli government and military for the past 59 years has not understood that it’s conduct and policies gaurantees continued hatred and resistance directed toward Israel. If Ehud Olmert says that he is interested in meeting with Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) to discuss peace, then he should make some of his proposals public as an act of good faith. He should fire Defence Minister Ehud Barack who was a former military general who is still trying to prove his “toughness.” Israel survives because of the blank check it continues to receive from the American government. The world is beginning to understand what a fraud the “Jewish and democratic state of Israel” is. All one has to do is examine the treatment of Israeli Arabs in the country. Examine the quality of life that Israeli Arabs live in the 40 or so “unrecognized villages” throughout the country. The Israeli government and military has no shame. And because of that, they will remain stupid and brutal. May God help them!
Hank Silver
Berkeley, CA
Hank, you’re a brave one. Next step is to get this article, or your views, in your local newspaper in the USA. If a US paper were to publish something like this– which isn’t radical but merely exposes a few salient facts and states Palestinian views without ridiculing them– they would be flooded immediately by hostile responses. Editors learn that they can just turn off the flood by not publishing anything critical of Israel.
That’s where the censorship wall– or do we call it a security fence– is located, here in the US.
How do we confront that barrier?
The barrier has shifted a bit over the past 10 years. I wonder why? Six years ago I remember that you could not use the word “occupation” in polite discourse to describe what Israel was doing, because Zionists would confront this and say that its not an occupation because the occupied territories “really” belong to them. The majority seem to have given up on this now. The discourse has shifted, just a bit. Whats the next step?
I served in Palestine in 1948 as a British National serviceman and I can tell you the Zionists were terrorists then just as they’re terrorists now.
The Bush gang have lost most of their power and the American people have awakened to the fact that Israel have been using American military force to further it’s own agenda. That is why Ulmert is being a bit more conciliatory towards the Palestinians just now. Israel have chewed off more than it can swallow let’s hope the Palestinians unite and throw that cancer of the M.E. into the pit it’s dug for itself.
Thank you Hank for your courage it always brings me hope and relief to learn about people like you.
Thank you Hank, I know that there is a difference between Jews and Israelis, between Judism and Zionism, but with the neverending atrocities sometimes that separation becomes confused.
We Americans believe that we are an honorary lost tribe of Israel and feel guilt over the fate of European Jews in World War II. Listing the crimes of Zionists in Palestine will never win the argument. We will move towards peace when we Americans tire of our sick entanglements in the Middle East just as we tired of our adventure in Indochina. Read the Old Testament. The Jewish tribes came out of the desert to carve out a country. God took sides. As we move into a true global village and away from savage nation-states the stupidity of what is today a sore on the map will become self-evident. We are all brothers and sisters with or without God on our side…
Cudos to the man! When faced against the Evil Empires, (insert Isreael/United States), you have little chance of success. Mainly because the people are either duped, or, as the case with most U.S. sheeple, you have an insidious case of “they’re towelheads, so they’re evil”. Well, in fact, look at whom is in whos country…look at who, (with the help of the mass-murderer/war criminal Eisenhower, whom, it is said was a swedish Jew) have made billions from the hogwash called the “Holocaust”. Look back in history, the ONLY time “towelheads” acted aggressively was when they were attacked first, usually in their own territory. Here, where to date you aren’t put in prison(yet)for denying the facts of the holocaust, the drones say it’s the most documented historical event there is. Well, producing those “documents” will prove as impossible as Bush’s WMD or honorable military history. The oil these swine hustle us into murdering for, does US no good, unless we’re willing to let them continune screwing US along with the world. Remember, Poland has already taken down the 6,000,000 plaques, replaced ‘em with 1.5 and are considering lowering it even further. and in the light of the recent confessions of the UK hero who, along with 2 other heroes, admitted to TORTURING Hess’ confession over the course of three days. As for Iran, they do nothing Israel hasn’t done times 100. And let’s not forget the United States of Amnesia under (Jewish) Eisenhower had his toadies in the CIA topple the first indigenous Iranian Democracy in 1953 which caused death and chaos. A nation of sheep, led by a cartel of whores, Controlled by Israel/big business. Welcome,.. to the REAL Evil Empire.
thanks nahida for all that information.
like paschn said, much of the information about the “holocaust” is certainly disputable. while these people milk that tragedy, the same kind of hatred is being used against palestinians. what’s worse is the religious right’s virtual worship of the state of Israel.
Hank, great post. it’s nice to see a jewish perspective of this situation. the Israeli government does a great disservicee to jews, palestinians and the world in general. We definitely need more people like you to speak out