History does not repeat itself except in the minds of those who do not know history, Kahlil Gibran
This section aims to provide facts about Palestine that help us understand the current situation in the Middle-East and assist us in furthering the cause of human rights for the Palestinians.
JANUARY
2005: January 9th Abbas wins Palestinian elections
2005: January: “Treasures of Palestine” exhibition at Gallery of the SA Museum
2006: January 25th Hamas wins Palestinian legislative election
Ismail Haniya (Ismail 'Abd al-Salah Ahmad Haniya) leading figure in Hamas. Born 1962, Shati camp, to a family from Ashqulon. Studied Arabic literature at Islamic University of Gaza, graduating in 1987. Was imprisoned by Israel for most of period 1988-1992, before being deported to Marj al-Zuhhur in South Lebanon. Allowed to return in December 1993, serving as Dean of Islamic University of Gaza. Later appointed assistant to Ahmad Yassin on his release from prison in 1997. Believed to have been appointed to the three-person collective leadership of Hamas in Palestine in April. 2004. Led the campaign in the January. 2006 elections. (Source: Wikipedia)
FEBRUARY
http://www.al-awda.org/until-return/important_dates4.html
1939:Round Table Conference on Palestine at St. James' Palace, London, followed by 1939 White Paper restricting Jewish immigration and land buying.
1942: Avraham Stern killed by British police. It should be noted that the Stern gang received extensive financial and military support from the Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to terrorize the British Mandate in Palestine. Click here to learn more about the subject.
Stern Group or Lehi, formally Loḥamei Ḥerut Yisrael (Hebrew: “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”) :Zionist extremist organization in Palestine, founded in 1940 by Avraham Stern (1907–42) after a split in the right-wing underground movement Irgun Zvai Leumi.
Extremely anti-British, the group repeatedly attacked British personnel in Palestine and even invited aid from the Axis powers. The British police retaliated by killing Stern in his apartment in February 1942; many of the gang’s leaders were subsequently arrested. The group’s terrorist activities extended beyond Palestine: two members assassinated Lord Moyne, British minister of state in the Middle East, at Cairo (November 1944).
1958: Feb. 1st: Egypt and Syria proclaim union as United Arab Republic (UAR).
1962 Israel destroys Syrian village of Al Tawafiq on 1 February.
1969 5th Palestinian National Council convenes in Cairo on 1 February. Yasser Arafat becomes president of the PLO after Palestinian Resistance factions join the PLO.
1988: Feb. 17: Maj. Gen. Ehud Barak, Israel's deputy Chief of Staff, and Defence Min. Rabin confirm soldiers buried 4 Palestinians alive on Feb. 2, 1988.
1994 Feb. 25: Hebron Massacre: 29 Palestinian killed by US-born settler Baruch Goldstein who opens fire on Muslim worshippers at Haram al-Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0694/9406008.htm
Gush Emunim:
http://radioislam.org/islam/english/toread/hebron3.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/gush-emunim
http://www.polisci.upenn.edu/faculty/data/lustick/for_the_land/lustick13.html
1995: Feb. 2: Cairo summit: Arafat, King Hussein, Rabin and Mubarak meet to discuss the peace process and to restart the stalled negotiations. They issue a joint statement reaffirming their support for the peace process and condemning bloodshed and terror in the region.
2001 Ariel Sharon elected Israel’s PM on 6 February .Israel assassinates Palestinian leader Massud Ayad, a Force 17 officer in Gaza, 13 February. Israel assassinates Palestinian leader Mahmud al-Madani, a Hamas leader in Nablus on 19 February. Random Israeli attacks & bombardment from helicopter gunships & sea. (14 February).
MARCH
On 16 March 2003, Rachel Corrie was mowed down by an Israeli bulldozer in Palestine. She never had a chance as she bravely faced the armed bulldozer in a vain bid to stop it demolishing a home where she had been welcomed by a Palestinian family. Being a US citizen had not protected her, nor had her orange flak jacket as the bulldozer advanced pushing the dirt up against her and running over her as she fell. She had come to Palestine as a peace activist wanting only to help a people denied justice and freedom. Her death was a big price to pay for championing human rights, but the tragedy spawned in death what it would never have in her life – a growing recognition the world over about Israel’s shocking oppression of Palestine and a strong and lasting connectedness between activists everywhere to free Palestine. She remains alive in many people’s hearts and memories and she herself would have said that her death is no more tragic than that suffered by Palestinians almost every day. And so, in a place where heroic acts loom larger than life, there is no greater tribute to Rachel Corrie than to continue the struggle for human rights and peace in any way we can.
See more: Australians for Palestine
APRIL
1933: Palestinian Arab women march to holy sites to protest British Lord Allenby's visit. Tarab Abdul Hadi speaks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Matiel Mogannam in the Dome of the Rock mosque warning of the replacement of Arab population of Palestine with Jewish immigrants.(19 April). See: The Palestine Right of Return Coalition.
1948: Deir Yassin massacre: Early in the morning of Friday, April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin, and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. It was several weeks before the end of the British Mandate. The village lay outside of the area that the United Nations recommended be included in a future Jewish State. Deir Yassin had a peaceful reputation and was even said by a Jewish newspaper to have driven out some Arab militants. (9 April), See Deir Yassin Remembered
2002: Battle of Jenin (2 April). See The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
2008: Jimmy Carter meets with Hamas (18 April). See New York Times
2011: April 9th: 63rd Anniversary of Deir Yassin
MAY
1948: 14 May - David Ben-Gurion declares the State of Israel.
1964: May - Founding of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
2002: 10 May: Siege of the Church of the Nativity ends.
See The Los Angeles Times for a gallery of the photographs of the siege by 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist Carolyn Cole.
2004: 19 May – United Nations Security Council Resolution 1544 calling on calling on Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian homes.
JUNE
We would especially like to draw your attention to this month's history bytes.
In June 1967 Israel launched the Six Day War with pre-emptive strikes against Egypt.
These area series of YouTubes presenting this war from the point of view of Israel as a tiny
beleaguered nation battling the forces of surrounding Arab states.
However, this footage clearly reveals a meticulously planned attack on Egypt, using
overwhelming force backed by Western governments and using the latest in military hardware
including napalm.
The end result was a blatant land grab with Israel taking the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai.
1967 5th to 10th June: Six Day War
Arab-Israeli War - Part 1/6
Arab-Israeli War - Part 2/6
Arab-Israeli War - Part 3/6
Arab-Israeli War - Part 4/6
Arab-Israeli War - Part 5/6
Arab-Israeli War - Part 6/6
JULY
9 July 2005 - Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
One year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel's Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, Israel continues its construction of the colonial Wall with total disregard to the Court's decision. Thirty eight years into Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel continues to expand Jewish colonies. It has unilaterally annexed occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and is now de facto annexing large parts of the West Bank by means of the Wall. Israel is also preparing - in the shadow of its planned redeployment from the Gaza Strip - to build and expand colonies in the West Bank. Fifty seven years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners, a majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless. Moreover, Israel's entrenched system of racial discrimination against its own Arab- Palestinian citizens remains intact. Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights . Read the entire call to the international community.
9 July 2010 - Boycott, divestment and sanctions in Australia, five years on – Sonja Karkar
It is five years since Palestinian civil society first made the call for a global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the apartheid state of Israel. At the time, introducing such action in Australia seemed impossible when the public barely knew anything about the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom. Education had to be a priority if there was to be any overturning of the long-accepted and indulged Zionist narrative.
A glimmer of hope emerged when a number of prominent Australians and others signed on to two significant nationwide newspaper advertisement campaigns run by Australian advocacy groups against a highly unorthodox motion taken in parliament to congratulate Israel on its 60 years of independence in 2008. The Labor government chose to ignore a strongly-supported request by church leaders, former ministers, judges and various other respected figures, to acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians. Nevertheless the people had spoken and by the time Israel had attacked Gaza at the end of that year, Australians were again signing on to another national newspaper campaign in the strongest outcry yet seen against Israel’s unfolding slaughter of civilians.
While the newspaper campaigns are not boycotts, they have, in fact, galvanized more and more support for the Palestinian struggle amongst mainstream Australians. People are willing to donate, and even more importantly, they are no longer afraid to have their names openly associated with Palestine. Read Sonja’s inspiring piece at Australians for Palestine
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The barcode for Israeli goods is: |
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CHECK THE BARCODE. If it begins with 729, it is made in Israel. ALSO CHECK LABELS. |
Global brand that profits from Israeli apartheid |
Dead Sea Products - Israeli brand
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Israeli pretzel company |
Israeli footwear |
Thanks to our friends at Australians for Palestine for permission to use their great information on their website about products to boycott.
AUGUST
In response to human rights abuses against Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli gaols, thousands went on a hunger strike in August 2003 and this continued into the next year.
At the present time it is estimated that there are about 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli gaols, many without any charges laid against them..
2 August 2003: 4200 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike
also: Palestinian prisoner hunger strike continues, despite Israeli repression
15 August 2004: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israeli Prisons Begin Hunger Strike
SEPTEMBER
18 September 1982 – 2010: SABRA-SHATILA – THE DAY & YEARS AFTER (Courtesy of Sonja Karkar of Women For Palestine/Australian for Palestine)
Sonja’s Note: No – don’t skip this story thinking you have read all you care to read about Sabra-Shatila. Not in your lifetime could you read enough to understand the full import of this savage inhumanity. Every single person killed had meaning, had family, had memories and had life until it was snuffed out by those whose lives never resonated in harmonious vibration with life’s longing for itself. Somehow, somewhere, they lost or traded their souls for hatred, lust, blood, thrills – who knows what strips us back to naked barbarity. But of this I am sure – none would live free of torment today – the nightmares, the shaking, the sweats, the searing flashes of memory that will never bring a single moment of peace for the crimes committed in three days of vicious frenzy and twenty-eight years since of running from justice. There is no hiding from truth or justice. One day the snarling dogs these tormentors unleashed will turn on them and nothing then will save the warmongers or those that cheered them on. And those who thought to turn the page just now, read and be ashamed that today the world is still mute on the humiliations, horrors and massacres that have been and are being perpetrated against the Palestinian people with wanton impunity.
“Munir’s Story” by Franklin Lamb
The untreated psychic wounds are still open. Accountability, justice and basic civil rights for the survivors are still denied. Scores of horror testimonies have been shared over the past nearly three decades by survivors of the September 1982 Sabra- Shatila massacre. More come to light only through circumstantial evidence because would-be affiants perished during the slaughter. Other eyewitness are just beginning to emerge from deep trauma or self imposed silence.
Some testimonies will be shared this month by massacre survivors at Shatila camp. They will sit with the growing numbers of international visitors who annually come to commemorate one of the most horrific crimes of the 20th century. Continue reading…
OCTOBER
1973: October 6 to 26 - The 1973 Arab-Israeli War (the Fourth Arab-Israeli War), also known as The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War or October War. 1973. Egypt and Syria attack Israel.
1991: 30 October - Peace Conference in Madrid
1996: 23 October - French President Jacques Chirac gives the first speech to the Palestinian legislature by a head of state. He visits the West Bank and Gaza.
2000: October - A medical team from Physicians for Human Rights-USA release their findings, saying that the IDF has used live ammunition and rubber bullets excessively and inappropriately to control demonstrators, and that “based on the high number of documented injuries to the head and thighs”, Israeli soldiers appear to be shooting to inflict harm, rather than solely in self-defense. Full report
Cautionary Note: A reference has been given above to Wikipedia (for the 1973 Arab-Israeli War). It has been widely reported that a current Zionist project is the editing of as much of Wikipedia as possible to put the Zionist point of view. Read about this in Haaretz.
NOVEMBER
1917: November 2 - The British Foreign Minister pledges British support for a “Jewish national home in Palestine”
known as the Balfour Declaration. At this time Jews in Palestine were less than 8% of the total population.
1967: November 22 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 reiterates “the Inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”.
2006: November 11 - US vetoes
United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli actions in Gaza. (Vote: 10 for, 4 abstentions, 1 veto)
DECEMBER
1920: December 13 - Third Palestinian National Congress held in Haifa stressed autonomy of Palestine and elected the Executive Committee which led the Palestinian political movement from 1920 to 1935.
1948: December 11 - United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 (article 11) which provides for the right of return for Palestinian who have been forced from their lands:
Article 11 reads:
Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.
1987: December 8 - First Intifada:
Conditions in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, involving more than 20 years of military occupation, repression and confiscation of land, contributed to the eruption of a spontaneous uprising, the intifada, in December 1987. Palestinians from all walks of life—youth, merchants, labourers, women and children—joined massive demonstrations, economic boycotts, tax resistance and strikes, protesting the military occupation of their land and demanding national independence.
2008: Christmas 2008 - Massacre: 27 December to 18 January - "Operation Cast Lead".