Stop the Wall Activism

by Stephen Lendman

On November 9, 1989, Berliners began demolishing the wall separating East from West. More on commemorations marking its 25th anniversary below.

Palestinians face their own repression. Israel's Separation Wall one of many ways. Ruled illegal by the International Criminal Court (ICJ).

Calling for it to be dismantled. Reparations paid for lost homes. Businesses. Farmland. Orchards. Olive groves. Other immovable property.

Israel ignores all international laws and rulings. Ones conflicting with its ruthless agenda.

Construction continues. A monstrous 430 mile-long land grab on completion. Stealing 12% of Palestinian land. Build largely for this reason.

Part of Israel's Greater Middle East Agenda. National security claims a ruse. Big Lies. Cover for Judaization.

Stealing all valued Judea and Samaria areas. Isolating Palestinians on cantonized scrubland.

Ghettoizing millions of people. Ethnically cleansing them. Slow-motion genocide by various means.

Longstanding Israeli policy. Supported and encouraged by Washington. Rogue EU states. Despotic regional partners. Palestinians on their own. Struggling to survive.

Stop the Wall is a grassroots movement. Uniting Palestinian civil society. In cities, villages and refugee camps. Against Israeli settlements, land theft and Wall construction.

"The Campaign's aim to tear down the Wall is aligned with the Palestinian desire for liberation - for those of us inside and in exile, the young and old, those who have died, and those yet to be born," it says.

"We are part of the struggle to protect our birthright to not only exist, but to reclaim our history and our ancestral land, and ensure a just future for the Palestinian people."

"Our vision is built upon our strength of will and steadfastness, which, like the roots of our ancient olive trees, run deep within our struggle and continue to feed our resistance."

"We stand firmly in the belief that these basic principles of our cause must no longer be betrayed or compromised."

"We will not relinquish our right to our lands, and we will not stand by while a new Nakba descends upon our people."

"The Wall is an integral part of the Zionist project to remove Palestinians from Palestine."

"We strongly believe that it can be torn down, and with it, the racist ambitions of Zionism."

"We know that our struggle will not be won tomorrow, and we are not in a hurry."

"Our road ahead is long, and so we must build a strong foundation of resistance by staying honest and true to our principles."

"Generation after generation, we have to provide the youth with the lessons, guidance and trust they need and deserve so that they can continue to lead our struggle until one day we will be free and able to return to our homes."

"The Palestinian struggle is, at its core, a basic human instinct and drive for self-determination."

"It is a fight against expulsion and subjugation under Occupation. We ask the world to recognize this and support our path towards liberation without imposing conditions upon this aim."

Israel's Separation Wall is part of Judaization agenda. Militarized occupation harshness.

Colonialism. Apartheid worse than South Africa's. Stop the Wall activists prioritize nonviolent resistance. Committed efforts for long denied justice.

Fundamental civil and human rights. Pressuring "institutions, corporations and governments to hold Israel accountable and stop international support to Israeli occupation, colonialism and apartheid."

The Wall's route is mostly within the Green Line. Confiscating Palestinian land and resources by a network of walls.

Fences. Military zones. No-go ones. Dozens of fortified checkpoints and tunnels.

Hundreds of other checkpoints and obstructions. Electric fences. Razor wire topped ones. Trenches. Cameras. Sensors.

Patrol roads. Paths to trace footprints. Nearly 1,700 km of Jews only roads.

Seam zone residents between the Wall and Green Line required to have permits to stay in their homes. Access their land.

Israel controls over 60% of the West Bank. Intending total control of all areas it wishes. Including Jerusalem in its entirety.

Depriving Palestinians of their legitimate East Jerusalem capital. In violation of international law.

Stolen land includes settlements. Regional councils. State land. Military zones. Nature reserves. National parks.

Separation Wall land. Free-firing zones. Commercial locations. Other development areas. No-go ones.

Jews-only roads. Checkpoints. Other barriers. Various other Jews-only areas.

Palestinians denied free movement. Virtually all other fundamental rights. Dispossessing thousands from their property and means of subsistence.

Displacing others for construction. Forcing tens of thousands in dozens of communities to abandon homes, land and livelihoods.

Their ability to access healthcare, education, and religious sites. Their right to move freely in their own country.

Live normal lives in peace. Enjoy rights everyone deserves. Official Israeli policy denies them.

Stop the Wall activists "underline the obligation of the international community not to recognize and not to render any aid and assistance to Israeli violations of Palestinian rights and international law."

Resisting tyranny is a universal right. Pressure is essential to stop longstanding Israeli ruthlessness. Its "brutal clamp down" on Palestinians demanding long denied justice.

Including demolishing Israel's Separation Wall. Boycotting, divesting and sanctioning Israel. Holding it accountable for decades of high crimes.

Ending ones too egregious to ignore. State terror writ large. Liberating Palestinians to live freely.

On their own land. In their own country in peace. Enforced by international community leaders.

On November 8, Palestinian activists affiliated with popular resistance committees in villages northwest of Jerusalem commemorated the 25th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin
Wall their own way.

By breaking open a section of Israel's Separation Wall. Saying "(n)o matter how high walls are built, they will fall. Just as the Berlin Wall fell, the wall in Palestine will fall, along with the occupation."

Affirming East Jerusalem as Palestine's exclusive capital. Wall construction won't prevent it. Nor militarized occupation harshness.

Or deny all Palestinians free access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Urging them to unite for justice.

Participate in struggling for Jerusalem. Defend Al-Aqsa and other holy sites.

Ready themselves for "the final, fateful intifada to liberate Palestine."

Israel's Separation Wall is double the height of Berlin's wall in places. Nearly six times its length.

Isolating Palestinians lawlessly from each other. Stealing their land. Wanting it for Jews only.

What Stop the Wall and other Palestinian activists won't tolerate. Nor should anyone.

UN resolutions and ICJ's ruling called Israel's Wall and settlements illegal. Flagrant Fourth Geneva violations.

Breaching fundamental international law. Lawless annexation of Palestinian land. Infringing on their fundamental rights.

It bears repeating. Resisting tyranny is a universal right. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Preamble:

"Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."

Under General Assembly Resolution 2625 - Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, every state must "refrain from any forcible action which deprives people (of) their right to self-determination and freedom and independence."

When denied, "such peoples are entitled to (resist) and receive support in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter."

Numerous UN resolutions affirmed Palestinian self-determination. Including 3070 in 1973 supporting "all available means" to achieve it.

Resistance and civil disobedience are legitimate self-defense forms. Against lawless repression. For fundamental rights.

Stop the Wall activists ask:

"Does the continuing confiscation of houses, destruction of property and forced evictions taking place in the West Bank in order to build the Wall constitute big enough crimes or risks to justify the measures taken by Palestinians to dismantle the Wall?"

"And can these measures be further justified by showing that they have a notable impact on those crimes or risks?"

Israeli high crimes against peace persist. Ending them requires sustained resistance.

The alternative includes continued militarized occupation harshness. Repression writ large.

No rights. No land. No capital. No right of return. No peace. No justice. What no one anywhere should tolerate.

On November 7, Soviet Russia's last President, Mikhail Gorbachev, opened an exhibition in downtown Berlin. Commemorating its Wall demolition.

He visited Checkpoint Charlie. "I haven't been here for quite some time and I'm really glad I came here again in these important days," he said.

He participated in a symposium titled "The World 25 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall: New Crisis, New Doubts, New Walls."

He commented on current conditions, saying:

"We must think again about how to act on time, how to avert bad things and how to preserve everything that has been done in previous years."

"We wasted the chances that the end of the Cold War presented."

"My firmest belief is that Ukraine is just a pretext the United States picked at."

"Russia agreed to new relations, created new structures for cooperation.

"It would have been OK, but not everyone in the US liked it. They had other plans."

"They needed a situation that would allow them to intervene everywhere."

Lawlessly. Ruthlessly. Dangerously. Washington and Moscow are rivals. A new Cold War looms, said Gorbachev.

Risking the unthinkable. Former US National Security Council member/US NATO ambassador/Assistant Defense Secretary NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow effectively runs things.

Jens Stoltenberg is a convenient figurehead. A US stooge. A CIA asset. A caricature of a leader.

According to Vershbow, Russia is "more…enemy than…partner." In October, Vladimir Putin said "(t)he Cold War ended."

But not "with a peace treaty…(W)ith clear and transparent agreements on keeping the old rules and standards or creating new ones."

So-called Cold War winners "decided to push forward, to reshape the world according to their whim, to their interests."

Mindless of rule of law principles. Sovereign independent states' rights. Inviolable international norms and standards.

"(W)here…international relations, international law, checks and balances stood in their way, (US officials) declared (them) useless, obsolete and subject to immediate dismantling."

Washington's campaign to marginalize, contain and isolate Russia constitutes a rebuilt Berlin Wall in new form. Ruthless, destructive, lawless behavior.

Gorbachev called on Western leaders to act responsibly. Deescalate tensions. Renounce "monopoly leadership and domination of the world."

"The events of the past months are consequences of short-sighted policies of seeking to impose one's will and fait accompli while ignoring the interests of one's partners."

He cited Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine among others. He called Ukraine a "blister turning into a bleeding, festering wound."

Europe suffers most, he said. "Instead of becoming a leader of change in a global world, (it became) an arena of political upheaval, of competition for the spheres of influence, and finally of military conflict."

"The consequence inevitably is Europe's weakening at a time when other centers of power and influence are gaining momentum."

"If this continues, (it) will lose a strong voice in world affairs and gradually become irrelevant," he stressed.

Today's "foremost priority is to regain the ability to interact (responsibly), listen and hear each other."

Work cooperatively. Seek convergence. Eliminate anti-Russian rhetoric. Destructive policies.

Putin seeks ways to deescalate tensions, he said. "(U)ltimately to build a new basis for partnership."

It's up to Western leaders to operate the same way. Failure risks open confrontation.

The unthinkable. Possible WW III. What leaders everywhere should go all-out to prevent.

It bears repeating what other articles stressed. End wars or they'll end us. There's no in between.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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