The news of the Arab uprisings preoccupy me night and day, and are almost distracting me from everything else. However, I chose, during the weekend, to go over what I missed last month in terms of Israeli news, and I selected for the reader the following reports from and about Israel. - Shortly before the Palestinians marked ‘Land Day' in Occupied Palestine (all of Israel is occupied Palestinian land), the Knesset passed a series of racist laws that reflect the policy of the fascists in the government, and the deplorable racism that has rendered Israel the de facto successor of the former South African apartheid regime. The new laws prohibit the Palestinians from commemorating the Nakbah. Instead, the Moldovan Avigdor Lieberman wants them to be pleased about the murder of their families, the theft of their land and their dispossession, to make way for the establishment of the thieves' state atop the ruins of Palestine. Another law allows for the citizenship of any Israeli citizen, who undermines Israel's security, to be revoked. This law was passed at a late hour, with a majority of 37 to 11, i.e. less than half of the Knesset's one hundred and twenty members. Yet, another law stipulated that any community with a population smaller than 400 can establish ‘admission committees', to prevent any unsuitable individuals from living among them. Although the law bans rejecting residents based on race or religion, if a Palestinian is the head of a large family or if he had not served in the Israeli army, then this is grounds for being rejected admission. - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Yoram Cohen as the next director of the General Security Service (GSS), replacing Yuval Diskin, although the candidates that were best poised to replace him were the number two and number three men in the GSS respectively. Over several days near the end of last month, the Israeli newspapers ran extensive coverage of this appointment that no one expected. In short, the neo-Nazi Netanyahu appointed Cohen, because he is religious and close to the settlers, who have often considered the GSS to be severe with them. They want the GSS to ignore their daily crimes against the Palestinians, although their very presence in Palestine is a crime per se. - The ‘Land Day' takes place each year on the 30th of March. This year, it took place right after the Israel Apartheid Week, which saw many Palestine-related events held in almost one hundred cities around the world. For the readers who only know Land Day by name, I say: The beginning was in Nazareth in 1975, when thousands of Palestinians protested against the confiscation of 22 thousand dunums of their lands in the Galilee, and set up a follow-up committee and a secretariat. On 6/3/1976, a meeting was held in Nazareth, and was attended by heads of municipalities and local village councils, who called for a day of protests and strikes on March 30. The Israelis then killed six people and wounded scores of others, and Land Day became an annual occasion ever since. This year, Lod was the scene of some boisterous protests marking the occasion, attracting thousands of citizens led by MKs such as Dr. Ahmed Tibi and Haneen Zoubi. The protestors chanted slogans against Avidgor Lieberman and accused him of racism. I also read that there are around three thousand orders awaiting execution to evict residents and demolish their homes in the Lod area. - This article will have barely been published when the Israeli President Shimon Peres arrives in Washington to meet President Barack Obama this week, to attempt to improve the relationship between the U.S. President and Netanyahu, to be followed by a meeting between the two. Peres is a professional impostor and Netanyahu a war criminal. These meetings will not yield any positive results. However, we know, from the news published on these Israeli visits, that Netanyahu is hated and unwanted by the Obama administration, and needs someone to mediate with it, sometimes Defense Minister Ehud Barak and others Peres. - I read an article written by Mohammed Dajani Daoudi and Robert Satloff, in which they make the case for teaching Palestinian children about the Nazi Holocaust, and the persecution of the Jews. They do not want this for the sake of fomenting the equation of ‘the Jews have the Holocaust, and the Palestinians have the Nakbah'. Personally, I do not have the same problem as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding the Nazi Holocaust. I have always written that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and criticized those who deny it, from revisionist historian David Irving, to the Iranian president. Nonetheless, I call for equal treatment. If the Palestinian children are to be taught about the Holocaust, then Israeli children must learn the history of Palestine and its people, how their country was stolen, and how they were killed, expelled and disposed in the name of religious myths that have no basis in history or geography. [email protected]
