In 1978, I was selected as a representative from Detroit to serve as an Ambassador for Peace to Israel. There were six cities involved that year, including New York, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland, and San Francisco. There were five students from each city, totalling 30 students. In 1978, Israel was celebrating its 30th anniversary as a country and we were given t-shirts to wear saying, "After 2,000 years, it's great to be 30." We spent about two weeks in Tel Aviv, about 5 days in Jerusalem and traveled all over the country to what amounted to a 5 week program altogether. The trip was sponsored by the American-Israel Friendship League and the Council of the Great City Schools. The United Auto Workers (UAW) helped sponsor the cost of the Detroit representatives in a gesture intended to strengthen the ties between Israel and the United States. We returned to give several speaking engagements as a group and were encouraged to continue to advocate peace. The Palestinians were not a part of our peace agenda because they were considered "a problem" and "a threat" to Israel.
While we were there and traveling by bus, we passed a large tented area filled with people. We were told it was a Palestinian refugee camp. It was in the desert and water and food had to be brought to them since there was no source of either available to them by their own efforts. (This was in the Golan Heights, I believe). When I asked our tour-guide Eli about the Palestinians, he told me "They are dogs and they deserve to live like dogs." I asked him what they had done to deserve such treatment and he said "they are animals without souls" and told me any sympathy towards them in Israel could result in danger to my person.
When I got home, I began to learn about their history and a completely different (and very disturbing) message emerged. The first book I read was called, "Forgive Us Our Roots," written by a Palestinian who witnessed the exiling of Palestinians starting in 1948 and the devastating impact it had on the people who lived in the land when it was handed over to them by The League of Nations (prior to the United Nations) after Great Britain "handed it over." It was intended initially to be a military base in the Middle East so that Western Interests in Oil would be protected. The Holocaust of World War II gave the perfect appearance of it being a generous gift to a suffering and scattered people. It was and is much more than that, since it was already occupied.
American Jew and Entertainment icon Mandy Patinkin recently gave a powerful speech at a Peace Now Conference. You can hear him tell his own story about his initial and subsequent recent visit to the site of Abraham and Isaac's graves and the problems he encountered for caring about what he saw. http://www.youtube.com/
I saw this next video called "Tears of Gaza" during the time that Israel was carpet shooting Palestinians in Gaza, behind the wall built to confine them and control them, their mobility, their food and water, and their way of life. The footage leaves little doubt as to what is happening there. IF you dare to see the truth, and have the stomach for its sad story, educate yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynp-uEphoJ0 This story is told by Palestinians themselves, through the mouths of children who live it everyday, and watch death in real life more than we watch it at the cinemas.
Finally, if you continue to disbelieve the truth of the travesty, you can read for yourself, from the Grandson of Israel's first General what he learned about Palestinians, contrary to what he had believed for most of his life. He now is an active leader in the cause of a FREE Palestinian state and the end to Palestinian eradication by Israel forces, supported financially and politically, militarily and "religiously" by the United States. The General's Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, by Miko Peled. ISBN: 978-1-935982-15-9. It can be ordered online at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_17/186-2029208-1977543?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+general%27s+son+journey+of+an+israeli+in+palestine&sprefix=The+General%27s+Son%2Cstripbooks%2C291
You can do research of your own, and you can also go to sites where research is being done for you. On FACEBOOK, I encourage you to check out this site and be prepared to have your eyes sting with the painful truth captured in post after post of non-stop horror, including the killing of journalists, the arrest of children with cameras, and a campaign to keep the truth from us. https://www.facebook.com/#!/IAcknowledgeApartheidExists?hc_location=stream
I speak on behalf of the Children of Palestine, in Gaza and the West Bank, especially. It is time to SEE and RECOGNIZE the wrongness of what is going on. Educate Yourself!
What I know to be true is that Orthodox Jews in Israel do not support the treatment of Palestinians because they are also protesting Zionistic strategies to eradicate the Palestinians.
There are many people that support peace for the Palestinians,
and their own Palestine NOT under occupation.
BOYCOT THESE COMPANIES WHO HELP ISRAEL BLEED THE PALASTINIANS!
About the Author: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nancy-bell/30/231/855
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