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14 comments from readers

thru-other-Jewish-eyes
22 May 2008 at 17:42

My most heartfelt congratulations. I have just read some of your articles for the first time and see you are making a valuable contribution to providing a more complete picture of what's going on in Gaza. Thank you for your dedication to journalism.

Tom Older
22 May 2008 at 18:23

Yes, reporting from Gaza is non-existent on a day-to-day basis. One has to go to the internet to find out anything whatever. Like today, May 21st, 17 wounded when Israelis open fire on a peaceful protest against the Gaza exit closures. And yesterday, four killed including a 13-year-old decapitated by Israeli firing on a civilian car in Gaza. And where does one read this, or about the continuing uprooting of olive trees, the continuing expansion of settlements, the daily killing, wounding and arrests, the ever-increasing toll, now 160, of patients dying in Gaza hospitals because they are refused exit to better facilities?

One reads it nowhere at all in the Western media, least of all does one hear of it on radio or TV. A fantasy parallel world created, of silence, of Israel supposedly frustrated by failure of peace efforts; of relentless stories about the 1 and a half million suffering in Burma from blocked aid- as distinct from the one and a half million suffering from blocked aid in Gaza thanks to Britain, EU, America and Israel, and endless tales of the suffering of the god Dalai Llama and his followers.

Better not tell the truth, it seems. But the truth somehow gets out. Mohammed Omar is one journalist with some integrity.

umkahlil
22 May 2008 at 22:12

Mabrook, Mohammed. I am so very proud of you and grateful for your courageous service to the voiceless.

Gideon Polya
22 May 2008 at 23:36

Congratulations Mohammed Omer for your award with the greatly respected Dahr Jamail - and for your profoundly moving article.

There is HOPE that Apartheid Israel will be dismantled and replaced by a non-racist democracy - and it comes from, of all people, war criminal, racist Zionist Olmert himself.

Decent anti-racist, humanitarians will take great heart from the following comments by Apartheid Israel leader Olmert reported recently (see: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/israeli-apartheid-at-6... ):

"Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remarked recently in the New York Times, “We now have the Palestinians running an Algeria-style campaign against Israel, but what I fear is that they will try to run a South Africa-type campaign against us.” If international sanctions are imposed as they were against apartheid, “the state of Israel is finished.”

All decent folk want to see the end of the State of Israel as a racist, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, race-based, ethnocratic, grossly human rights-abusing, Apartheid State.

Peace with equity, justice and reconciliation is possible NOW in the Holy Land but will not happen as long as racist Zionists are running an Apartheid Israel.

Sanctions worked against the Anglo-American- and Apartheid Israeli-supported Nazi-style Apartheid South African regime 2 decades ago and should also be successful against the similarly human rights-violating nuclear terrorist rogue state Apartheid Israel.

Outstanding Jewish South African Government Minister and hero in the fight against Nazi-style Apartheid, Ronnie Kasrils, has recently stated that the State of Israel is "worse than Apartheid" (see: "Israel 2007: worse than Apartheid: http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/31/worse-apartheid... ).

The fundamental messages from the Jewish Holocaust (6 million dead) and the WW2 Holocaust in general (30 million Slav, Jewish and Roma dead) are "zero tolerance for racism" and "never again to anyone" - all decent folk must support comprehensive international and intra-national SANCTIONS against Apartheid Israel and its racist backers.

Just as the Danes put on Stars of David in WW2 to say "We are all Jews" to protect Jews from the Nazis, so all decent folk around the world today must say "we are all Palestinians" (see "We are all Palestinian. Apartheid Israel’s Gaza Concentration Camp & Palestinian Genocide: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19915/42/ ; "Ongoing Palestinian Genocide. Israel-US & Nazi death ratios compared ": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20745/42/ , and "Apartheid Israel's 60 years of war , theft & Palestinian genocide": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22356/42/ ).

Comprehensive Sanctions against Apartheid Israel and its racist backers NOW!

Mick
23 May 2008 at 14:05

What about an "Award" for the civilians of Sederot, Ashkelon and Western Negev towns who live under a daily barrage of rocket fire, missiles and mortar shells (almost FOUR THOUSAND rocket attacks in the last three years alone).

What about an "Award" for the civilians who lost their lives at Nahal Oz supplying fuel to the Palestinian population in Gaza?

What about an "Award" for those risking their lives daily trying to keep the crossings open to allow relief supplies in. (Huge suicide truck bombing attempt on Keren Shalom crossing, from Gaza side only yesterday)!

.......Oh, sorry! They're Israelis....

Gideon Polya
24 May 2008 at 01:17

A dispassionate counter to anti-Arab anti-Semitic. "terror hysteria" rhetoric are the horrible statistics derived from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2,600 Jewish Israelis murdered by Palestinians since about 1950 i.e. in SIX DECADES); UNICEF (2,400 avoidable under-5 Occupied Palestinian infants passively murdered EACH YEAR by the brutal, war criminal Apartheid Israeli imprisonment regime); and from the UN Population Division (post-1967 excess deaths (violent or non-violent avoidable deaths, deaths that should not have happened) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory total 0.3 million and the under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million) (see: "Ongoing Palestinian Genocide. Israel-US & Nazi death ratios compared ": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20745/42/ , and "Apartheid Israel's 60 years of war , theft & Palestinian Genocide": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22356/42/ ).

The "annual probability of death" is 2 in 100,000 (for a Jewish Israeli in the 21st century at the hands of a Palestinian) , similar to the annual risk of death at the hands of a Jewish Israeli acquaintance or family member (1 in 100,000).

In contrast, the “annual risk of avoidable death” in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories is 130 per 100,000 (Occupied Palestine), 890-1,190 per 100,000 (Occupied Iraq) and 2,100-4,200 per 100,000 (Occupied Afghanistan) (see "The Big Lie. Falsity of Zionist, neo-con and US Administration terror hysteria": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20850/42/ ).

Any Jew, any Brit, any American - ANY person - who KNOWINGLY denies, ignores, minimizes, obfuscates, supports, advocates or is otherwise complicit in the active and passive mass murder of CHILDREN (e.g. by US-backed Apartheid Israel, the Burmese Junta, the US military or indeed by ANYONE: see "Passive Genocide by Burma Junta & US Alliance. Mass Killing by US Empire & Myanmar": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22634/42/ ) has crossed the line separating decent humanity from utter barbarism.

Peace is the only way - INFORMING OTHERS and SANCTIONS are the only way to defeat US State Terrorism, Israeli State Terrorism and US-Israeli State Terrorism.

Racist, anti-Arab anti-Semitic Britishers financially supporting Apartheid Israeli State terrorism, war crimes and genocide should be rigorously prosecuted under British Law (ditto racist pro-Zionist Americans, Australians etc) - and also subject to intra-national Sanctions and Boycotts of the kind decent people apply to racists such as neo-Nazi, Apartheider, KKK and White Power fanatics.

solo man
24 May 2008 at 08:54

Apart from a two year hiatus in the army and a one and a half year interlude in Copenhagen,I spent the first 38 years of my life the U.S..and the next twenty in England.I have now been in Israel for the past thirteen years.

My family doctor is an Arab.The surgeon who operated on my wife is an Arab.The specialist who diagnosed her problem is an Arab.one of two oncologists she consults is an Arab.my urologist is an Arab.The minor procedure he advised was performed by an Arab.One of three ear specialists I consult is an Arab.The bus company that serves the north is owned and run by an Arab consortium.Most of the pharmacists in Nahariya are Arabs The owner of the largest fruit market plus two supermarkets is an Arab.My neighbor in the flat below is an Arab.Twenty percent of all students in higher education here are Arabs.

This is by far the most tolerant and least aparthied country I have ever lived in.

Leo Solomon....Nahariya,Israel

Claddach
24 May 2008 at 09:40

When Gideon Polya is on your side in any debate, it's time to reconsider your position. He's the man in his more lucid moments believes Zionists are "proto-Nazis" and alleges that they are committing genocide in Palestine comparable to that of the Nazis in Hungary. Stark Raving Bonkers. Standing by for an outpouring of verbal diarrhoea from the edge of madness. I wonder how often he'll use the word Zionist. Come on Gideon, be a mensch, a Jew, is a Jew, is a Jew.

maryb
24 May 2008 at 23:22

Well done Mohammed. Richly deserved - you are a talented and brave young man. I was reading the other day on Palestine Think Tank about the large number of Palestinian journalists who have been killed or imprisoned by the Israelis and although luckily this fate has not befallen you, you are living in that other open air prison, Gaza. I sincerely hope that freedom will be yours and soon. Best wishes.Mary

Gideon Polya
25 May 2008 at 01:24

Why is it that pro-Zionist bloggers typically operate by false, ad hominem abuse, putting words into the mouths of the anti-racist humanitarians they attack and do so with the courage of anonymity (see Claddach above).

If people want to know what I think or say, they should take it from ME and not from such false ad hominem abuse.

Well, lets compare the Jewish Genocide in Hungary in WW2 with the Apartheid Israeli Palestinian Genocide (1948-2008) - noting that "genocide" as defined by Article 2 of the the UN Genocide Convention involves "intent [e.g. sustained policy] to destroy in whole or in part [actively or passively, violently or non-violently]] a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.htm...)

The Jewish Genocide in Hungary (1944-1945) killed 0.2 million out of a Jewish Population of 0.7 million (perhaps 1 in 6 dying from deprivation according to outstanding Jewish British historian Professor Martin Gilbert); most of the survivors fled immediately post-war or in 1956 (see Gilbert, M. (1969) (with Banks, A., cartographer), Jewish History Atlas (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London).

Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London).

The Palestinian Genocide (1948-2008) has involved 0.3 million post-1967 excess deaths (mostly non-violent deaths from deprivation, perhaps about 5% or 15,000 violent deaths); 0.2 million post-1967 under-5 infant deaths due to Apartheid Israeli war crimes; there are 7 million refugees (about 4.3 million registered with the UN).

Currently the Palestinian Genocide CONTINUES. 5.5 million Indigenous Palestinians live outside Palestine and are forbidden to return by Apartheid Israel (in gross contravention of International Law); 1.5 million Palestinian Israelis live as second class citizens under Nazi-style, Apartheid-style, race-based ID, property, employment , family reunion, travel and marriage restriction laws); 4 million Occupied Palestinians (half of them KIDS and three quarters Women and Children) are incarcerated in the tank shelling- and airforce bombing-policed Gaza, Samaria and Judaea Concentration Camps (over 40 years of highly abusive imprisonment in what outstanding Jewish American scholar Professor Noam Chomsky calls a "Prison").

Apartheid Israel kills about 5,000 Occupied Palestinian EACH YEAR, 800 violently, the rest - including 2,400 infants - through deprivation).

The 0.2 million Hungarian Jews /0.7 million were mostly killed violently - the 0.3 million Occupied Palestinians have been mostly killed through deprivation.

However whether a child is shot by a racist, child-killing Zionist goon or dies from shocking deprivation in the Occupied Palestine Concentration Camp (see UNICEF for the shocking conditions: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/oPt.html ), the end result is the same and the culpability the same (this passive killing is FINALLY now recognized by World media in relation to the evil Burma junta post-Cyclone Nargis but applies also to the equally evil Apartheid Israeli regime and the racist, war criminal regimes of the genocidal US Alliance with as many as 9 million excess deaths associated so far with the racist Zionist promoted UK-US "War on Terror"; see "Passive Genocide by Burma Junta & US Alliance. Mass Killing by US Empire & Myanmar": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22634/42/ ).

Racist, colonialist, lebensraum- and resource-driven proto-Nazi conduct? Neo-, quasi-, proto- or much of a muchness? You be the judge.

Any person who minimizes the Hungarian part of the Jewish holocaust goes to jail for up to 10 years in Austria.

Such laws need to be extended to ALL genocide- and holocaust-denial (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12483/26/ ).

Any Jew, any Brit, any American, any Australia - indeed ANY person - who KNOWINGLY ignores, denies, minimizes, obfuscates, excuses, supports, advocates or is otherwise complicit in the Palestinian Genocide has parted company with decent, anti-racist, humanitarian Humanity.

neatman
25 May 2008 at 07:05

hey claddach, its only proto nazis who make sweeping generalizations about the pathology of certain ethnicities and races. That funny quote from the Atlantic monthly is great example of that. "the arabs feed on hate" OOKK!!! Well it wouldn't be so hard to find out why they are soo full of hate, its because they've been kicked out of their homes. Next time you might want to use a more neutral source than the atlantic monthly.

shakeybooty
27 May 2008 at 05:01

Yo Claddach stop spewing your hate... shut your damn mouth

Claddach
27 May 2008 at 10:22

OK shakebooty you to smart fo' me. I go away.

Noga
02 July 2008 at 21:01

"Just as the Danes put on Stars of David in WW2 to say "We are all Jews" to protect Jews from the Nazis, so...”

When you try to pluck a rose from a rose bush, there is no way you can get you hand in, and avoid the thorns. This is what it feels like to read the poster Gideon Polya's comments. They are so replete with lies, distortions and myths that it is simply impossible to begin to unravel it all. But you can get an idea of the worth of this person's knowledge from the way he struts the above quoted myth as though it were some incontrovertible piece of information.

From someone who so confidently prescribes the destruction of a state, one expects a more astute type of knowledge of history.

"The legend says that when the Germans ordered Jews in occupied Denmark to identify themselves by wearing armbands with yellow stars, King Christian X of Denmark and non-Jewish Danes thwarted the order by donning the armbands themselves. A popular version of the legend has King Christian sporting an armband as he makes his daily morning horseback ride through the streets of Copenhagen, explaining to citizens that he wears the Star of David as a demonstration of the principal that all Danes are equal. And non-Jewish Danes respond to their king's example by wearing the armband as well, thus preventing the Germans from identifying Jewish citizens and rendering the order ineffective.

Although the Danes did undertake heroic efforts to shelter their Jews and help them escape from the Nazis, there is no real-life example of the actions described by this legend. Danish citizens never wore the yellow badge, nor did King Christian ever threaten to don it himself. In fact, Danish Jews never wore the yellow badge either, nor did German officials ever issue an order requiring Danish Jews to display it."

http://www.auschwitz.dk/Denmark.htm

A judge always instructs the jury that if they conclude a witness to have told a lie, even one lie, they are entitled to dismiss the witness’ entire testimony as tainted with perjury and therefore cannot be relied upon.

It is my suggestion that Polya’s comments here be treated with the same kind of healthy scepticism.