I have kept a picture that had occupied two pages in a London newspaper, of a boisterous demonstration in New York against Wall Street, the home of the stock exchange and the bastion of business and finance, to protest the greed of bankers and major corporations. The protesters called for a march on Wall Street. Their cause is purely American, as they want jobs and a stop to the domination of the wealthy over their daily lives. However, what caught my eye in that large picture was that some protesters had raised a banner saying “Stop military aid to Israel.” I say stop all U.S. aid to Israel. The United States is a bankrupt country and Israel now enjoys affluence thanks to direct and undeclared U.S. aid that exceeds ten billion dollars a year. Israel is stealing from the dinner table of America's poor, thanks to a Congress that has been bought by the Israel lobby, which dictates all the former's foreign policy resolutions. As I sat in the seats of the General Assembly of the United Nations with Abu Mazen delivering Palestine's speech, and as more than half of the members were interrupting him with applause, standing ovations and even cheers sometimes, I estimated that half of the members were with Palestine, while the other half was against Israel. No one likes Israel. In truth, Israeli newspapers write each day about Israel's isolation around the world. Nevertheless, the fascist government of Israel continues its policy of settlement, killing and demolition for the reason that it enjoys full American protection at the expense of U.S. interests themselves. Every day, there is news about how the world hates Israel and what it represents. This month began with a call by 218 Swedish figures for an academic boycott of Israel, which would require Swedish universities not to participate in research or any other type of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions. The signatories to this call included 12 professors, 14 associate professors, 21 senior lecturers and 70 students. The initiative to the call was taken by the Action group for boycott of Israel at the Royal Institute of Technology. Moving on from Sweden to Belgium, the Belgian singer Natasha Atlas said she will not perform in Israel 'until this systemized apartheid is abolished once and for all'. Natasha wanted to visit Israel to perform there. However, the organizers said that they received an e-mail message from the singer in which she said that she wanted to visit Israel to encourage her fans to oppose the Israeli government's actions and policies, but that in the end, she decided that her nonappearance would make a stronger statement against this government. In addition to her world fame as a singer, Natasha Atlas serves as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. The racism, extremism and violations of the Netanyahu government have provoked the Israelis themselves. Although a majority of the Israeli people has veered right in recent years, the peace camp is strong and very active. Recently, Press TV aired a program entitled “Israel VS Israel”, about the activists in the peace camp who were accused by the Right of treason, including Yehuda Shaul, founder of the group Breaking the Silence, and Jonathan Pollack and his group Anarchists Against the Wall. Recently, I followed the case of the so-called Museum of Tolerance funded by the New York-based Wiesenthal Foundation, at a cost of about one hundred million dollars. The museum is so tolerant that it is being built on a Palestinian land that contains the historical Mamilla Cemetry, and for this reason, digging the foundations required the exhumation of the remains of the dead and their transfer elsewhere. I write this after I read a 25-page petition by the affected Palestinians who are being assisted by Israeli peace activists. The petition is nothing short of a full condemnation of the museum, those behind it, and the Israeli government assisting them. Incidentally, this month also witnessed the burning of a mosque in a Palestinian village, while the Palestinians were commemorating this month the anniversary of ten different massacres in Palestinian villages in 1948, a massacre led by Ariel Sharon in 1953, and another in 19658 in which 48 Palestinians were killed including six women- one pregnant-, and 13 children aged eight to seventeen. The whole world now knows and condemns Israel's crimes, and tomorrow, there shall be yet another crime and yet another condemnation. [email protected]
