Responses
Dear Israel
Shamir;
I read with sorrow and longing your beautiful piece below on Aboud. I
know the village quite well from the period after the Gulf War when I
was working on residence rights and family reunification there and other
places for the Palestinian Federation of Women's Action Committees (Zahira
Kamal), and from 1989, when our then press office (Sanabel, at which
Rayna Moss was assistant editor) spearheaded a campaign to counter the
middle-of-the-night deportations of people whose right to live there had
been denied.
I currently work with destitute AIDS patients in Cambodia, so it is
impossible for me to be in Palestine now. It is good to know that
someone with your loving heart is working on behalf of people I still
love and miss.
In solidarity, Beth Goldring----
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Dear Mr. Shamir,
Thank you for going to Aboud. I knew this had happened, but didn't see
anything in print about it. Recently I "gained" a critic who told the
EWTN network that I am too "one-sided". Reading your reports always
makes me feel that I'm not anti-semite, just trying to get the other
side of the news out there. This article really helped me even though it
is about such violence to people and to the environment. Gratefully, Sr.
Mary
One is so outraged to read your articles. One feel impotent. But at
least you are one voice in the wilderness. And the most important thing.
Arabs are also Christian. Thank you for your article. NAILA.---
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Dear Israel, I loved this piece; it tackles the often overlooked issue
that people, good, solid people, have been living on the land for
millennia. Best. Nabeel---
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Israel: It is very dificult not to feel a profound pain upon hearning
your testimony. The reply of the Israeli officer is the same as that of
the Nazi station master. Hitler won his war against the Jews. The most
pitiful victims of the Shoa are not the men and women of who were
railroaded to their death, but the men and women who survived only to
become Nazis. Miguel Bedolla Mr. Shamir: For some time I doubted your
intentions. This goes back to an exchange that took place earlier on
between the two of us. Perhaps I misunderstood your intentions. It is
not that I do not think that Israelis are capable of caring about what
is happening to the Palestinians....for I know there are some very good
Israeli people who are working hard for peace. Also, some of your
recurring themes deeply disturbed me and made me feel that somehow you
were not genuine. I am still confused about what and who you really are
but what would impress me the most is when you go physically out to stop
the aggression against the Palestinians....which I believe you have
started doing. It is not that you are not eloquent, for you are. But
what I mistrusted for some time was your sincerity. I asked many people
about you. Some did not know, some told me good things, some felt you to
be a fake. If I have misjudged you, forgive me. If we are both on the
same side, I would be delighted more than you could ever know. Edna Dear
Lena, The Abboud Article is so beautiful. I was touched! and to be
written by someone called Israel Shamir, Wow.... Mary
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Habibna Shamir, it is good to hear from you as always. Many thanks for
your concern about my favorite place on this planet Aboud. As my cousin
Hiam said to me this past Sunday when I talked to her "we are lonely
here, send friends to visit us". Her Mom, my Aunt Um Munier asked her to
tell me that they are living a life of "a mouse in the trap". This
really summed up the situation pretty good. As for Aboud, what I
understand is that about two weeks ago a settler was killed or injured
about a kilometer outside Aboud in the direction of Bir Zeit which was
used by settlers as an excuse to grab the surrounding land for the start
of a new settlement. They moved in and the Army is protecting them and
no one in the village is allowed to even check their property. The Land
of at least three of the village families are affected but no one is
sure how much damage to the olive trees has occurred. Two of these
families are my relatives. No one in the Village is allowed to use this
main road to Bir Zeit and Ramallah and are forced to take a 2.5 hours
route (one way) through Shoukba and round about. Real nice life. Salamat,
Mousa
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Amazing and sad. Thanks for sending me Olives of Aboud. When will it
end? Warm regards, Builder----
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Dearest Issi, This is really such a beautiful piece.... Wallah mabrouk
wa alf shookur! I've fallen in love with the village through your words
and I hope that I visit it one day and help to plant new olive trees
with the villagers. Genie--
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Your account of another example of shameless Israeli brutality has to
reflect the dichotomy of Israel's way of life which allows you to write
such things without fear of persecution, yet lacking respect for their
Palestinian neighbors' rights, is baffling proving once more that
Israel's democratic system must only be for Jews. My question then is,
are the Israeli authorities allowing you to express your views just to
show the world how fair minded they can be to their Jewish population or
is that their way of attempting to ferret like-minded people like
yourself for some nefarious reasons ? Regardless of Israel's intentions,
your courage to express your opinions to the world is very much
appreciated and we hope will awaken the conscience of those Israelis who
are blindly following the policies of their previous rulers, the British
during their ignominious mandate of Palestine which saw my father
incarcerated twice for defending Palestinian freedom fighters during the
1936-39 riots !! Salams and keep hope alive !! Cecil
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In passing Shamir's article alludes to an aspect of Zionist destruction
that often escapes notice or mention. In the early 20th century
anthropologists discovered Appalachia as a storehouse of 17th century
British folk culture, linguistics and music.
Likewise, the Palestinian villages that Zionist destroyed in 1948 and
the population that the Zionists ethnically cleansed were a treasure of
at least 2000 years of anthropological, cultural and linguistic
information. It will probably require at least another century to
comprehend exactly what Zionism destroyed beyond all recovery in
Palestine.
To be fair, I should note that the Zionists had equally murderous
intention toward Eastern European Jewish folkculture and probably would
have happily worked with Nazis for its demise if a reasonable
understanding could have been achieved (as it might have been if
Arlosoroff had not been assassinated -- Arlosoroff and the Nazis had a
good working relationship and basically spoke the same language).
Joachim Carlo Santos Martillo Ajami---
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Dear Shamir, - A great account, very powerful.
If it is not a final version, may I suggest that in the passage,"... the
complete lunacy of the prevailing Jewish narrative, of the *land without
people* ..." you replace the word "Jewish" either with "Zionist" or if
you don't like that word something else such as "Israeli state
propaganda" to replace "Jewish narrative" - ?
An analogy: I
have a photograph of an atrocity taken in Afghanistan. It is of an
execution, a deliberately botched hanging of four men said to be guilty
of looting and murder. A man, identified in the caption as "an Islamic
guard," is pulling the leg of the dying man, making him swing from side
to side, thus prolonging the death agony. Now it seems to me that there
are many ways this guard could be APTLY identified, but that the single
BROAD word "Islamic" is an offensive and racist locution. It provides
some license for animosity, possibly even hatred, toward Muslims, in my
view. But Olives of Aboud is a wonderful account, and look forward to
sending it to an old friend of mine who is caught up in the prevailing
"Jewish" mythology. I wish I had been there with you with a video
camera. Walter----
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From Ezra Ounce to Israel Shamir:
As a result of posting your article to Free Republic, I have been banned
from that site.... I can no longer post, there. It would appear that
"Free" Republic is available only for the discussion of non-sacred
cows.... Here is the discussion on the site.
To: Ezra Ounce The latest cease fire will fail just as every one before
has. There will never be peace in the middle east until one side
exterminates the other. It seems that humans just can't coexist with
other humans who happen to have a different religion, skin color,
cultural background, etc. Give me one example of different people living
in harmony and I'll give you 100 examples of different people trying to
destroy each other. AlaskaErik
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To: Ezra Ounce I believe this man has been discredited as a Communist
plant from the former Soviet Union. newwahoo "Give me one example of
different people living in harmony and I'll give you 100 examples of
different people trying to destroy each other."
How about the Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Church of God Christians,
and Arab/Palestinian Moslems living in Aboud ? Israel's report reads to
me as though they were living in perfect harmony for more than nineteen
hundred years..... until the 'holy' Israelis, aided and abetted by the
American 'Government' interposed Ezra Ounce And doubtless those "olive
trees" were only PLO stunt men dressed up in paper mache and wearing
fake branches on their helmets. Those darned A-rabs.
I'd like to see a second source on this. The Israelis have their hands
full right now without having to busy them with destroying a peace
loving Christian village. Something is missing from this story.
"I believe this man has been discredited as a Communist plant from the
former Soviet Union." Please provide references for this assertion
(unless it just happens to be one of your beliefs). As you know, our
'government' has historically favored many "Communist plants" from the
former Soviet Union, e.g., Mikail Gorbachev, now presiding over the
former Presidio......... Also, many Jews are openly and
self-acknowledged communists, but that fact does not necessarily
invalidate all of their observations.
Do you have any basis for your statement, or is this simply an ad
hominem slur, an attempt to discredit the man, because you are unable to
discredit his eye-witness observations ? What could be more
"communistic" than the current brutalization of the Arabs by the
Israelis ? Ezra Ounce Arafat is a criminal of global proportions.... no
doubt about that...... An Arab version of Rabin, the Irgun, and the
Stern Gang. But that doesn't justify the destruction of ages-old olive
trees!!! Or the pauperization of non-adversarial, peaceful and
harmonious people!
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To: Ezra Ounce Rabin???? Didn't he bear witness to his personally
commitment to peace with his own blood? I would still like a second
source on this story and if not that at least the source of your
original article (and not just the author's name). He is not anyone I am
familiar with.
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To: newwahoo "Your attempt to link Israel to communism is laughable." If
you will refer to your first post, you will see that it was you (not me)
who attempted to link an Israeli Jew (Israel Shamir) to communism....
Soviet communism, for heaven's sake! Do you no longer remember (or
believe) your previous assertion ? Here is your quote: "I believe this
man has been discredited as a Communist plant from the former Soviet
Union." Calm down, newwahoo, don't blow your keppa! Take a valium, and
regain your composure and coherence!
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To: newwahoo "..being religous and communist at the same time is
impossible as a matter of philosophy..." True, WaWa, unless you are a
jew. Jews are such experienced experts at twisting things in media and
history that such a sandwich would go together like gravlax and bagels!
What a joke. Mixing religion and communism is as easy for a jew as
mixing dinner with politics. Also, in regard to your confused statement
above, it was jews who succeeded in making communism THE state religion
in Russia. Finally, don't whine about 'antisemitism', you don't even
follow the meaning of the word and for someone who gets so much mileage
out of a term, you sure do ask for it with your mouthy, arrogant
attitude. Is it really that Israeli murder of Palestinian kids and
destruction and trespass of Arab property is such a small problem,
globally speaking, or is it that jews just can't deal with ANY criticism
at all?
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