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Supporting Palestinian Rights Not Tolerated in the West

Written by Subject: Israel - Palestine

Supporting Palestinian Rights Not Tolerated in the West

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Some disturbing facts about Israel virtually unreported in the West:

Occupation and settlements are flagrantly illegal. There's nothing "disputed" about the cold hard truth.

Under Israeli regimes from inception, state terror, institutionalized racism and apartheid rule, slow-motion genocide, and naked aggression have been and remain official state policy.

Palestinians are persecuted and brutalized viciously for not being Jewish - for praying to the wrong God.

Zionism is tyranny by another name – extremist, undemocratic, hateful, ruthless, racist, destructive, and hostile to peace, equity and justice.

It's contemptuous of fundamental legal, moral and ethical principles – a monster threatening anyone and anything it opposes, a cancer infesting Israel, America, other Western societies and elsewhere.

It considers Jews and others unequal, Muslims especially demeaned, Palestinians considered virtual enemies of the state, Gazans most of all - besieged, virtually imprisoned, and held hostage for political reasons, no others.

The Territories overall are a virtual isolated prison, an entire population being suffocated into submission or out of existence - Zionism's final solution.

Ethnic cleansing, land theft, mass gulag imprisonment for political reasons, torture, targeted assassinations, and other crimes without punishment reflect what Edward Said called Israeli state-sponsored "refined viciousness," adding:

It's "a disheartening bloody impasse," the world community indifferent about Palestinian suffering, one-sidedly supporting Israel, ignoring its high crimes.

Francis Boyle explained that Israel willfully and maliciously "inflicts on the Palestinian people conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in substantial part in violation of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention."

Ilan Pappe stressed that "(t)he inhuman living conditions in (Gaza is) the most dense area in the world, and one of the poorest human spaces in the northern hemisphere, disabl(ing) the people who live it to reconcile with the imprisonment Israel had imposed on them ever since 1967."

The rest of Occupied Palestine fares little better, subjected to dozens of brutalizing community raids weekly, numerous arrests and detentions, an entire population held hostage to an occupying power, treating them like subhumans.

For Occupied Palestinians and Arab citizens, Israel is a ruthless fascist police state, treating them as viciously as Nazis mistreated Jews.

For Jews, the Jewish state enforces neoliberal harshness, serving its privileged class exclusively at the expense of most others.

For the region and beyond, Israel is a warrior state, armed and dangerous with nuclear, chemical, biological, and other banned weapons, willing to use them against adversaries.

Criticizing Israel publicly is verboten in the West, notably in the US, especially through print and electronic media to expose its longstanding high crimes.

Temple University Professor of Media Studies and Urban Education Marc Lamont Hill is the latest casualty for stating hard truths about Israel on CNN.

The most distrusted name in television news sacked him as a commentator, the cable channel saying he's "no longer under contract," according to its spokesman, with no further elaboration.

At a Wednesday UN meeting on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with them, Hill justifiably accused Israel of "normalizing settler colonization…state violence and "ethnic cleaning." 

He said "(w)e have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea."

Commenting on his remarks, Hill forthrightly said he "supports Palestinian freedom," adding via Twitter: 

"My reference to 'river to the sea' was not a call to destroy anything or anyone. It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza." 

"The speech very clearly and specifically said those things. No amount of debate will change what I actually said or what I meant."

Palestinians deserve universal support for their liberating struggle - Israel universal condemnation for high crimes too egregious to ignore.

Hill supports the global BDS movement. So do I as a cultural member, an unapologetic Israeli critic, a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights – not a self-hating Jew. The movement is the single most effective campaign against Israeli ruthlessness.

It's why efforts in the Jewish state and West aim to criminalize and delegitimize what deserves universal support.

Israel bans BDS supporters from entering the country. Congressional efforts to restrict or ban boycotting Israel so far failed to be enacted into law.

Speech, media, and academic freedoms are fundamental, including the right to publicly criticize Israel or any other nations.

Anti-Zionism and public criticism of Israeli viciousness aren't anti-Semitic. Claiming otherwise is a long ago discredited canard.

I'm a longstanding harsh Israeli critic. As a Jew, I'm neither self-hating or anti-Semitic.

I'm anti-high crimes no one should tolerate. I'm pro-what democracy is supposed to be all about, pro-peace, equity, and justice for everyone everywhere.

I'm against anyone harming the fundamental rights of others under international, constitutional, and US statute laws.

I'm for rule of law principles and holding violators fully accountable for breaching them. I'm for a world fit and safe to live in.

I'm against the horrors committed by my country, NATO, Israel, and their accomplices against anyone unwilling to bow to their will.

I'm for saving planet earth and all its life forms by radically changing the way things are - dooming us if not stopped.

A Final Comment

Temple University where Hill teaches issued the following statement in response to his sacking by CNN, saying:

"Marc Lamont Hill has been quoted extensively over the last 24 hours. (He) does not represent Temple University and his views are his own. However, we acknowledge that he has a constitutionally protected right to express his opinion as a private citizen."

So does everyone else, protected by law - free from unjustifiable recrimination. That's the way it's supposed to be but most often otherwise.

CNN's action is another reason to avoid its broadcasts. Tune it out and other major media. 

Choose reliable independent sources for news, information and opinion, largely online - the only way to get informed and stay that way.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

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

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