That Israel has become an apartheid state is so self-evident that it is impossible to put the fact back in the box. Sky News’ Sam Kiley said it a year ago, and that was almost as surprising as Kerry’s rush of honesty. A state which has hundreds of laws defining the rights and obligations of its different groups of citizens by their ethnicity, enforcing zoning and separate education and public service provisio, and even limiting the right of defined ethnic groups to live with their spouses, is a state which can be characterized by no other word than Apartheid. Israel’s claims to be a democracy exactly echo the similar claim of apartheid South Africa.
I am however delighted if the neo-con plan for a “two state” solution is now dead, because that plan was precisely the same plan that South Africa had for its “Bantustan” reserves for black people. The only difference being that Israel has been much more vicious, herded the indigenous population into much smaller and less viable areas than was allowed to the “Bantustans”, subjected them to appalling economic blockade and then continually ripped away more and more of their small amount of land on a daily basis.
The difference between apartheid South Africa’s Bantustans and the “two state solution”, is that the Israel version is, incredibly, even worse, even more evil.
As in South Africa, the ONLY acceptable solution for Israel/Palestine is freedom and majority rule. People of goodwill should never again be sidetracked into pursuing the kind of apartheid solutions being pushed by Tony Blair.
If there is ‘majority rule’ then the Israelis will still dominate and control.
Latest Population Statistics for Israel
(Updated March 2014)
On the eve of the secular New Year 2014, Israel’s population stood at a record 8,132,000.
The Jewish population makes up 6,102,000 (75.2%); 1,682,000 (20.6%) are Arabs; and, those identified as “others” (non-Arab Christians, Baha’i, etc) make up 348,000 people (4.2%). When the state was established, there were only 806,000 residents and the total population reached its first and second millions in 1949 and 1958 respectively.
The overall population grew by approximately 147,000 people (1.8%) since the secular New Year 2013- a growth rate similar to that of the last decade.
The Jewish population grew 1.8% (similar to past years) while the Arab population grew 2.4% (a rapid decline from the 3.4% annual growth rate in the 1990’s). The Christian population grew 1.3% and the Druze population grew 1.7%.
/..
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/newpop.html
Will the Israelis grant the right of return to the Palestinian diaspora estimated to be 4m? Probably not. And freedom to come and go?
“…surging tides of aid to Israel…”
Which today contribute a little over 1 per cent to Israel’s GDP, compared to nearly 15 per cent in the 1980s.
More of a receding tide.
1D Glasses
LOL Not IDF glasses then?
I was hearing of the virtues of Israeli technology yesterday. They produce some membrane that is laid under floor coverings in stately homes here and the like that prevents the build up of condensation and mildew. I assume it contains some form of heating element.
Anyway it is an example of how proficient their propaganda machine is and how far it reaches.
The BBC website says it all.
Israel is a country
Country profiles
Countries
Algeria
Bahrain
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Mauritania
Morocco
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Syria
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Palestine is lumped with the Golan Heights under Territories. The words ‘illegally occupied’ are missing.
Territories
Golan Heights
Palestinian territories
Hi Mary, can you provide a link for this piece of propaganda you found concerning Israeli floor membranes? Is it a business and/or the government marketing Israeli products or something more sinister? Thanks in advance.
Yeah, yeah, Anon. But as it’s given by the US taxpayer from his/her earnings, it hardly qualifies as any part of Israeli GDP, does it?
On the other hand, it’s around 10% of Israeli annual military expenditure – and it’s almost all military aid. And maybe we should factor in US support for the military dictatorship in Egypt which prevents those nasty tunnels into Sinai, and keeps the fish firmly in the Gaza barrel.
From the US POV, it’s all highly profitable:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf
Some depressing figures there.
U.S. aid to Israel totals $233.7b over six decades
Moshe Arens: Generous assistance reflects common strategic interests and values, rather than lobbying pressure.
Mar. 20, 2013
The United States has provided Israel with $233.7 billion in aid (after adjusting for inflation) since the state was formed in 1948 through the end of last year, research by TheMarker has found.
http://www.haaretz.com/business/u-s-aid-to-israel-totals-233-7b-over-six-decades.premium-1.510592
The aid has not declined. The value has because the Israel economy has grown.
‘The figures do not include loan guarantees amounting to about $19 billion that Washington has granted Israel in recent years to make it easier for it to borrow overseas. It also doesn’t include the transfer of surplus military equipment to Israel.’
No sorry Anon. It came by word of mouth from a friend who had attended a course on building conservation.
Did you perhaps want to obtain some? Mildew in the bathroom? Condensation dripping off the walls? If so, recommend letting in some fresh air and sunlight.
Mary.
Those 1DF Glasses are unreliable.
Testimonies here from real IDF heros,
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/database
It seems humanity will break out in the bleakest of times.
More dancing here. However, the IDF has said it is going to deal with the “incident” with the “utmost severity”.
Two repsonses to my post of 9:58 am:
K*modo, “yeah, yeah, Anon”, desperately trying to ramp up the fairly insignificant figure of US aid to Israel.
Mary totting up all six decades of US aid to try and make it look more significant than it presently is.
Perhaps Rehmat can help you both convey the “beholden” image more convincingly?
Readers will note that I have had to use the word “K*modo” in place of the actual uncensored word for the lizard presently writing under the pseudonym Ba’al Zevul.
The reason for this is that each time I use the full word my comment is flagged for moderation, but never released. Is the moderator beholden to the lizard and why I am I banned from writing his name?
[craigmurray.org.uk – just use the current username so that other readers know who you’re replying to.]
Training the little ones up.
Too young for the Holocaust?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-27191263
Take the ‘first grades’ to the Israeli prisons. Where torture was taking place, the screams could be muffled.
List of prisons and detention centers
North Bloc
Carmel Prison (Oren Junction)
Damun Prison
Gilbo’a Prison (HaShita Junction)
Hermon Prison (North Tzalmon Creek Junction)
Megiddo Prison (Megiddo Junction)
shita(shatta)Prison (HaShita Junction)
Tzalmon Prison (North Tzalmon Creek Junction)
Center Bloc
Ashmoret Prison (HaSharon Junction)
Ayalon Prison (Ramla)
Giv’on Prison (Ramla)
HaSharon Prison (Hadarim Interchange)
Maasiyahu Prison (Ramla)
Magen Prison (Ramla)
Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison (Ramla)
Ofek Juvenile Prison (Even Yehuda)
Rimonim Prison (Even Yehuda)
ofer Prison (West Bank, between Ramallah/Beituniya and Giv’at Ze’ev)
South Bloc
Dekel Prison
Eshel Prison
Ktzi’ot Prison (Ktzi’ot Junction)
Nafha Prison
ella Prison
Ramon Prison
Shikma Prison (Ashkelon)
sharonim prison (Ktzi’ot Junction)
Detention centers
Eilat Detention Center
Hadarim Detention Center
Jerusalem Detention Center
Kishon Detention Center
Nitzan Detention Center
Ohalei Kedar Detention Center
Petah Tikva Detention Center
Tel Aviv (Abu Kabir) Detention Center
Ketziot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ktzi%27ot_Prison Historic but relevant. Note – no medical care. Also note G4S.
I have read terrible stories of neglect of illness in Israeli prisons.
Medical Negligence in Israeli Prisons
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2013/01/28/medical-negligence-in-israeli-prisons
“Palestinians in Israeli prisons are grievously abused. Conditions resemble gulag hell. Treatment is deplorable. Fundamental human rights are violated.”
Who or what is Rehmat? Is that another floor covering?
Mary
Am I right in assuming that your having never once commented on such minutiae as floor membrane technology propaganda of any one of the 184 countries featuring below Israel on the human rights index means that none of these has been able to produce anything worth marketing?
“Training the little ones up. Too young for the Holocaust?”
Mary, do you believe that the industrial-scale slaughter of 6 million Jews within living memory is not something worth educating future generations about?
Anon
“Mary totting up all six decades of US aid to try and make it look more significant than it presently is.”
______________
You’re of course right. The device of giving figures adjusted for inflation, eagerly cut and pasted by Mary:
“The United States has provided Israel with $233.7 billion in aid (after adjusting for inflation) since the state was formed in 1948 through the end of last year,…”
is risible and meaningless.
You might as well say that US govt Federal spending over the last 50 years – adjusted for inflation – was……
Or UK NHS expenditure since 1948 – adjusted for inflation – was ……
Try calling me “Ba’al Zevul (Canaan for the Canaanites)”, and it will all be fine, Anon.
One of Quentin Letts’ “50 People Who Buggered Up Britain” is Anon, by the way. I do hope you’re not using someone else’s nick.
Your attempt to minimise the extent of US aid to Israel by using the largest and least meaningful economic measure, GDP, as a standard, does not pass unnoticed. GDP includes every transaction taking place in an economy, and is routinely exaggerated by governments in the interests of good news. Comparison with Israel’s – grossly swollen – military budget is far more meaningful. Or with US aid to Palestinians, which I see Ron Paul is proposing to remove completely. Or we might try $Bn3.15 per annum per capita for the population of Israel: about $387.00. Annually. Discount the Arabs and Beduin against whom Israel’s military is routinely deployed, and you’re looking at $500 a head for the rest. Beats the UK’s cold weather heating allowance, dunnit?
Less quantifiable is the formal designation by the US of Israel as a favoured non-Nato ally, which allows it privileges which even the UK does not enjoy, in terms of arms sales in both directions, and the probability that clandestine, off-the-books assistance to maintain Israel as a regional pustule bumps the figure up much further.
Anon, I think future generations should be taught about all holocausts, and all illegal military acts of aggression, like this one:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9740044/The-cowardice-at-the-heart-of-our-relationship-with-Israel.html
virtual extermination of an indigenous race like this one:
http://agreenroad.blogspot.ca/2013/05/19-to-100-million-native-american.html
We never hear, or hardly ever hear, about the above holocaust, or the ones in Asia and Australasia, but hear ad-nauseum about the NAZI holocaust.
They should be taught that all these acts of extermination are wrong. They should also be taught that holocausts are not weapons with which to divert from other evils, as this Jewish lady claims is happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-GVXunrbE4
“It’s a trick. We always use it,” she says, referring to the holocaust card. So this should be taught too alongside the history, how Israeli (or other) politicians use historical incidents to divert from criticism of Israeli acts of aggression or land grab.
And where does some of that aid go?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Iran_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war
Hmmm.
Despite all the speeches of Iranian leaders and the denunciation of Israel at Friday prayers, there were never less than around one hundred Israeli advisers and technicians in Iran at any time throughout the war, living in a carefully guarded and secluded camp just north of Tehran, where they remained even after the ceasefire.[10]
In August 1982 Aerospace Daily reported that Israel’s support was “crucial” to keeping Iran’s air force flying against Iraq. Israeli sales also included spare parts for U.S.-made F-4 Phantom jets. Newsweek also reported that after an Iranian defector landed his F-4 Phantom jet in Saudi Arabia in 1984, intelligence experts determined that many of its parts had originally been sold to Israel, and had then been re-exported to Tehran in violation of U.S. law.[5] (Wiki)
Hmmm again.
Great value for money:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/israel-accused-of-selling-us-secrets-to-china-1510406.html
Rigorously hidden costs to the US (to 2003)
http://www.wrmea.org/wrmea-archives/251-washington-report-archives-2000-2005/june-2003/4641-the-costs-to-american-taxpayers-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-3-trillion.html
Excellent link, John. So good they post it twice:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9740044/The-cowardice-at-the-heart-of-our-relationship-with-Israel.html
And Oborne’s no bleeding-heart liberal, either. That will be read and reflected on.
what I like about the link to the Telegraphs article, are the explicitly placed excusary links next to the article,
as if to say, ‘yeah but’look at Ariel Sharons life,
look at how Israel releases prisoners, ahhhh,
see how hard it is to be a settler in the ovccupied territories, ahhh,
and ,off course, two references to stories about Obama’s presence, together with Bibi, our best mate….
Peter Oborne must face a lot of internal criticism over his excellently researched articles.
Truth will out. Sorry for the O/T — just had to share!
Qatari crazies or Maidan brownshirts? “We” are not fussy.
Proxy forces wanted for regime change. Twisted ideology desirable but not essential. Must have clean driving licence.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
Wonder if the US paid for this?
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=693711
“Gaza’s Ark” blown up and sunk.
Maybe indirectly, Ba’al, but it was an act of cowardice at a time when sour grapes make for bad indigestion so it seems.
Since Hamas and Fatah are talking unity, these mangey acts, carried out in secretive desperation, resemble an inner self erupting, the ugly spots of fascism are now openly popping their visceral puss all over Bibi’s face.
Now going to give the hedge its first, and looking at how things are developing in the Ukraine, hopefully not its last, cut of the year.
Anon ‘Too young for the Holocaust?’ was the BBC headline if you would like to check the link.
Yes tell the children about ALL the holocausts not just THE holocaust which is always spelt with a capital H. How about Vilnai’s ‘greater shoah’ on Gaza, Cast Lead too?
Thanks for that link John. The Jewish lady Shulamit Aloni is probably described as a ‘self hating Jew’ just as Gilad Atzmon is called. He and the others must have a terrible time of it. Gilad has just put this YT up of a performance artist, also Jewish, at Yad Vashem. A brave young woman. She is ‘The Holocaust’.
ביקור השואה ביד ושם The Holocaust’s visit to Yad Vashem
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/must-watch-the-holocausts-visit-to-yad-vashem.html
Jimmy Carter wrote a book entitled “Palestine – Peace not Apartheid” (ISBN 1847391540).
I was merely taunting Anon, Nevermind. Who has forgotten that this week’s hasbara meme is in fact “Israel isn’t an apartheid state” and is going with last June’s* “The US doesn’t give us enough and we are under constant assault from MILLIONS OF ROCKETS”.
You’re quite right. The spitefulness index has reached a high point since the Pals decided to bypass their enemies and go straight to the UN.
*or was it July? Whatever.