{"id":1354,"date":"2006-03-16T08:09:43","date_gmt":"2006-03-16T12:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/wordpress\/?p=1354"},"modified":"2008-06-08T18:13:04","modified_gmt":"2008-06-08T23:13:04","slug":"maybe-you-could-look-up-the-definition-of-genocide-according-to-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=1354","title":{"rendered":"“Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

February 27 2003<\/strong><\/p>\n

(To her mother<\/a>)<\/p>\n

You asked me about non-violent resistance.<\/p>\n

When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family\u2019s house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I\u2019m having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can\u2019t believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me, again, like it has hurt me in the past, to witness how awful we can allow the world to be. I felt after talking to you that maybe you didn\u2019t completely believe me. I think it\u2019s actually good if you don\u2019t, because I do believe pretty much above all else in the importance of independent critical thinking. And I also realise that with you I\u2019m much less careful than usual about trying to source every assertion that I make. A lot of the reason for that is I know that you actually do go and do your own research. But it makes me worry about the job I\u2019m doing. All of the situation that I tried to enumerate above – and a lot of other things – constitutes a somewhat gradual – often hidden, but nevertheless massive – removal and destruction of the ability of a particular group of people to survive. This is what I am seeing here. The assassinations, rocket attacks and shooting of children are atrocities – but in focusing on them I\u2019m terrified of missing their context. The vast majority of people here – even if they had the economic means to escape, even if they actually wanted to give up resisting on their land and just leave (which appears to be maybe the less nefarious of Sharon\u2019s possible goals), can\u2019t leave. Because they can\u2019t even get into Israel to apply for visas, and because their destination countries won\u2019t let them in (both our country and Arab countries). So I think when all means of survival is cut off in a pen (Gaza) which people can\u2019t get out of, I think that qualifies as genocide. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law. I don\u2019t remember it right now. I\u2019m going to get better at illustrating this, hopefully. I don\u2019t like to use those charged words. I think you know this about me. I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.<\/p>\n

March 16 Actions for Rachel’s Words<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

(from my e-mail<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n

For those who like to see our misery in numbers…<\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest World Bank Economic Update on West Bank and Gaza. (Download pdf file<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sam<\/strong><\/p>\n

(from my e-mail<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n

The Council for the National Interest and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation<\/a> both asked to be heard at the March 8th hearing held by the House Subcommittee on the Middle East on the Palestinian elections, and were ignored.<\/p>\n

Despite receiving numerous phone calls at her office protesting the unbalanced witness list for the hearing, Subcommittee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) refused to add any of our suggested speakers to the witness list and even asserted at the hearing that the subcommittee had heard from a “diverse” group of people regarding the Palestinian elections.<\/p>\n

The hearing, titled “Palestinian Authority Elections: Implications for Peace, Regional Security, and U.S. Assistance,” included no witnesses who could speak to a Palestinian perspective on the results of the elections. After hearing the witnesses, which included an Israeli general, a former EU parliament member and a discredited Israeli demographer, the U.S. Campaign’s Josh Ruebner and I approached the majority staff director of the subcommittee, Yleem Poblete. Ms. Poblete agreed, after hearing our concerns, to publish my testimony (available on our website here<\/a>) as an appendix to the subcommittee report on the hearing.<\/p>\n

While this is hardly the same exposure to our very different views on how the administration should approach the Hamas-led government on the question of aid to the Palestinians, we are hoping it will be an entering wedge for future hearings.<\/p>\n

Included below is a letter sent by Josh Ruebner to Ms. Poblete, which details the incident. We have submitted our testimony and we will be following up with the subcommittee.<\/p>\n

Eugene Bird
\nPresident<\/p>\n

PS: The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, H.R. 4681<\/a>, which Rep. Ros-Lehtinen introduced, has gained 149 co-sponsors, while a similar bill introduced into the Senate, S. 2370<\/a>, has already received 42. More than 3,000 CNI members and friends have sent a message to their representatives and the President to oppose legislation that would punish the Palestinians for voting. Please join them by sending a petition to your representatives today<\/a>.
\n<\/p>\n

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation<\/strong>
\nPO Box 21539
\nWashington, DC 20003
\n202-332-0994
\nwww.endtheoccupation.org<\/a><\/p>\n

March 13, 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n

TO: Yleem Poblete, Majority Staff Director, Middle East and Central Asia Sub-Committee, House International Relations Committee<\/p>\n

FROM: Josh Ruebner, Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator, U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation<\/p>\n

RE: March 8 Hearing, “Palestinian Authority Elections: Implications for Peace, Regional Security, and U.S. Assistance”<\/p>\n

Dear Ms. Poblete,<\/p>\n

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me briefly after last week’s Middle East and Central Asia Sub-Committee hearing on the Palestinian Authority legislative election in order to address my concerns about the composition of the witness list for this hearing.<\/p>\n

As soon as our organization, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, saw the witness list for this hearing, we protested to Rep. Ros-Lehtinen about the unbalanced, biased composition of the witness list. As Rep. Ros-Lehtinen’s office can attest, her office received many phone calls from around the country from people who agreed with us.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Rep. Ros-Lehtinen’s assertion at the hearing that she includes diverse viewpoints in her selection of witnesses, the testimony at this hearing proves otherwise. When the most responsible of three witnesses at a hearing on Palestinian elections is a former Israeli brigadier general who is a fellow at a pro-Israel think tank, then there is something fundamentally askew with the choice of witnesses.<\/p>\n

One witness, Bennett Zimmerman, condescendingly referred to Palestinians as “Arabs living in the West Bank,” suggested that Palestinians in the occupied territories were over-counted by more than one million people, and urged Members of Congress to reject the idea of supporting an independent Palestinian state in favor of the so-called “Jordanian option” – ethnically cleansing the West Bank of Palestinians and exiling them to Jordan. That the sub-committee would see fit to give a platform on Capitol Hill to someone who denies Palestinian identity and supports ethnic cleansing is an abomination.<\/p>\n

Another witness at this hearing, Ilka Schroeder, made absurd and unverified claims, such as that the European Union is funding a Palestinian war against Israel and that the vast majority of European parliamentarians justify and sympathize with the terrorist attacks of September 11.<\/p>\n

This hearing was not only unbalanced, but inflammatory. Had the sub-committee seen fit to address our concerns before the hearing, we would have been more than happy to provide the sub-committee with the names of reputable professors, analysts, and representatives of organizations who could have spoken to the issue at hand in a professional and objective manner.<\/p>\n

It speaks volumes of the sub-committee’s agenda that it did not see fit to include one witness to properly contextualize the Palestinian legislative election. No mention was made of Israel’s illegal 38 year-old military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Not one word was uttered about the daily indignities and human rights violations that Palestinians are subjected to by Israel. Not one bit of analysis was offered to suggest that perhaps Hamas won the legislative election because more than one decade of a so-called “peace process” has brought the Palestinians no closer toward statehood, independence, and self-determination.<\/p>\n

If this were an isolated incident, then perhaps we could chalk up this biased witness panel to naivety or some other excuse. However, the sub-committee has a history of only calling witnesses who agree with the dominant policy paradigm of supporting Israel’s illegal military occupation and excusing its human rights violations of the Palestinian people. For example, in February 2004, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen called a sub-committee hearing to examine Israel’s West Bank wall, declared illegal by the International Court of Justice later that year. The only two witnesses – both of whom supported Israel’s construction of this illegal wall – were from the same pro-Israel think tank!<\/p>\n

At that time, our organization protested this unbalanced witness list as well. We thought that Rep. Ros-Lehtinen was listening to our critique of the witness list when she stated at the hearing:<\/p>\n

“When we come back — next week we have a district work period — and when we come back, we will have the second part of this — of this conflict, and we will be hearing from other guests who will — may have different points of views than ones that are — (inaudible) — dissimilar to the ones who are going to be speaking today, we will make sure that we have another set of panelists when we come back.”<\/p>\n

Despite our subsequent efforts to schedule a meeting with Rep. Ros-Lehtinen and our numerous attempts to provide her office with a list of alternative witnesses, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen reneged on her commitment. We are still waiting for her to fulfill her pledge to hold that second panel.<\/p>\n

These biased hearings are symptomatic of the sub-committee’s confidence that the people of United States are behind our current policy of supporting Israel’s illegal military occupation of and human rights violations against the Palestinian people. This assumption is misplaced. Within less than a month of Rep. Ros-Lehtinen introducing a resolution that would punish and isolate the Palestinian people for voting by imposing draconian economic and diplomatic measures against them, our organization collected endorsements from more than 250 U.S.-based organizations opposing HR4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. The list of diverse organizations can be found on our website at: http:\/\/www.endtheoccupation.org\/article.php?id=1188<\/a><\/p>\n

I urge you to take a look at this letter and the organizations endorsing it so that you are made aware that a broad cross-section of people in the United States do not support punishing the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote. I reiterate my offer to the sub-committee to provide names of potential witnesses who can attest to policy options toward Palestinians that are different from the narrow perspectives that are articulated by witnesses time and again in these sub-committee hearings.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Josh Ruebner
\nGrassroots Advocacy Coordinator
\nU.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation<\/p>\n

Council for the National Interest Foundation
\n1250 4th Street SW, Suite WG-1
\nWashington, District of Columbia 20024
\nhttp:\/\/www.cnionline.org\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.rescuemideastpolicy.com\/<\/a>
\nPhone: 202-863-2951
\nFax: 202-863-2952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 27 2003 (To her mother) You asked me about non-violent resistance. When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family\u2019s house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-lQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}