Caterpillar Inc's Role in Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

A coalition of student groups from the Arizona university system invited me recently to talk to the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) about Caterpillar, Inc’s role in violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).  Although an unusual setting, I accepted for a number of reasons.

Although Amnesty International (AI) hasn’t focused on Caterpillar (CAT) in an action since our 2004 report, there has been a frightening surge in home demolitions and forced evictions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem recently, as well as demolitions in ‘unrecognized’ villages like Al-‘Araqib inside Israel – which has a current AI Urgent Action in effect.  Over the past 3 weeks, the IDF has demolished dozens of structures in the OPT and the Israeli authorities continue to use CAT equipment regularly to carry out these demolitions, so AI continues to have longstanding and ongoing concerns.

Grandfather and grandchild watch home in Sur Baher east Jerusalem being demolished by CAT machinery March 2007. Keren Manor/ActiveStills.org

The day before I left for Arizona, the IDF demolished 10 residential structures and the village school in the West Bank village of Khirbet Tana.  Sixty-one (61) people including 13 children were left without shelter.

CAT equipment has been used to uproot olive trees and destroy other agricultural products and land.  During ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in the Gaza Strip two years ago, Israel used armored D9 bulldozers to demolish wide swathes of homes, factories, agricultural land and civilian infrastructure, including water pipes and networks needed for basic survival.

There have been several Palestinian deaths during home demolitions, most of them occurring during the second intifada in the early 2000’s.  A Caterpillar D9 bulldozer is directly involved in the death of U.S. citizen Rachel Corrie in March 2003.  An Israeli soldier drove the armored bulldozer over Rachel as she protested an imminent home demolition in the Gaza Strip.  An IDF investigation ruled it an accident, but the Corrie family has filed a lawsuit and the current trial underway in Haifa, Israel, ‘Rachel Corrie v. the State of Israel‘, has uncovered discrepancies and short-comings in the investigation.

Although produced in 2005, this news clip produced by Inigo Gilmore gives a good idea of the type of actions CAT bulldozers and equipment are still used for in the OPT:

CAT has temporarily suspended the transfer of D9 bulldozers to Israel.  However, this suspension is only temporary and there is no guarantee that the sale and transfer of CAT equipment won’t begin again once the Corrie trial is over.

CAT’s role in human rights violations in the OPT continues to be relevant and these recent developments made the invitation to make the ABOR statement particularly timely.

AI campaigns for global standards on business and human rights and stronger legal frameworks at the national and international levels to hold companies to account for their human rights impact. Companies, including Caterpillar, must ensure that their business operations do not undermine human rights.

So far, Caterpillar’s public position is that they are unable to monitor all the uses of their equipment by their customers.  They have stated, “we expect our customers to use our products in [ways] consistent with human rights and the requirements of international humanitarian law.”

According to the ‘Respect, Protect, and Remedy’ framework on business and human rights developed by John Ruggie, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations, that’s not enough.  Ruggie elaborated the concept of human rights due diligence (pg. 17, 56-64), which sets out what corporations must do to discharge ‘their responsibility to respect’  and prevent their equipment or services from becoming complicit in or benefiting from human rights abuses.  Due diligence includes all of the following:

  • producing a statement of policy articulating the company’s commitment to respect human rights;
  • conducting periodic assessment of actual and potential human rights impacts of company activities and relationships;
  • integrating these commitments and assessments into internal control and oversight systems;
  • and tracking and reporting performance.

Amnesty International takes no position on what tactics to use to achieve corporate responsibility (such as boycott and divestment initiatives, protests or direct actions); neither supporting, nor opposing them.  It is simply outside our mandate, but we do support the principle that human rights due diligence is essential to fulfilling the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and to reduce the risk that they may become complicit in violations.

Any actor considering a relationship with Caterpillar – or any corporation or company whose services or products have played a role in violations of human rights – should ask that company to demonstrate its commitment to human rights and to ensure that it does not contribute to or benefit from human rights violations. Such a demonstrated commitment should include the company demonstrating human rights due diligence.

AIUSA welcomes a lively and courteous discussion that follow our Community Guidelines. Comments are not pre-screened before they post but AIUSA reserves the right to remove any comments violating our guidelines.

63 thoughts on “Caterpillar Inc's Role in Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

  1. .When you hear the brand name "Caterpillar", what do you think of ?

    i think of Rachel Corrie.

    i think of this 23 year old girl standing before a D 9 Caterpillar bulldozer to prevent a Palestinian pharmacist's home from being demolished.

    i think of the driver of the bulldozer deliberately driving over Rachel & crushing her to death.

    i think not of an ordinary bulldozer, but of a weapon.

    i think of a D 9 or D 10 Caterpillar bulldozer after the IDF gets them from Caterpillar …….. & then armors & weaponizes them, militarizes them into weapons of mass destruction of civilian homes & living bodies ……… in complete violation of international law.

    When i hear "Caterpillar" i thnk of a D 9 bulldozer hitting Mahmoud Al Shobi's family home in the middle of the night in Nablus …… crushing to death is father Umar, sisters Fatima & Abvir, brother Samir, pregnant sister in law Nabila…..

    i think of the paralyzed boy Jamal Fayed as the bulldozer crushes him in Jenin as his mother Fathiya tries in vain to save him… as hundreds of other houses are crushed to rubble to make apath for the IDF tanks.

    i think of the bulldozer hitting the Khan Yunis home of the Khalafallah family, smashing over the 70 year old Ibrahim wjo is too sick to move, as his wife Eida tries to stop the driver…..

    i think of Mahmoud Al Kfafi, 19, taking shelter behind an olive tree in Gaza as an IDF tank opens fire, unaware

  2. unaware perhaps as the blade of an D9 armored Caterpillar bulldozer hits him in the head & slashes it in half, killing him instantly.

    When i hear "Caterpillar", i think of at least 11, 795 Palestinian homes demolished in 10 years…

    i think of Caterpillar Industrial Inc. continuing to deny responsibility for how its products are weaponized & used by the IDF in violation of international law …

    i think of Jewish Voice for Peace, & its call, "Divest from Caterpillar".

    & i remember Oscar Wilde's words about "commerce without conscience"….

  3. .When you hear the brand name “Caterpillar”, what do you think of ?

    i think of Rachel Corrie.

    i think of this 23 year old girl standing before a D 9 Caterpillar bulldozer to prevent a Palestinian pharmacist’s home from being demolished.

    i think of the driver of the bulldozer deliberately driving over Rachel & crushing her to death.

    i think not of an ordinary bulldozer, but of a weapon.

    i think of a D 9 or D 10 Caterpillar bulldozer after the IDF gets them from Caterpillar …….. & then armors & weaponizes them, militarizes them into weapons of mass destruction of civilian homes & living bodies ……… in complete violation of international law.

    When i hear “Caterpillar” i thnk of a D 9 bulldozer hitting Mahmoud Al Shobi’s family home in the middle of the night in Nablus …… crushing to death is father Umar, sisters Fatima & Abvir, brother Samir, pregnant sister in law Nabila…..

    i think of the paralyzed boy Jamal Fayed as the bulldozer crushes him in Jenin as his mother Fathiya tries in vain to save him… as hundreds of other houses are crushed to rubble to make apath for the IDF tanks.

    i think of the bulldozer hitting the Khan Yunis home of the Khalafallah family, smashing over the 70 year old Ibrahim wjo is too sick to move, as his wife Eida tries to stop the driver…..

    i think of Mahmoud Al Kfafi, 19, taking shelter behind an olive tree in Gaza as an IDF tank opens fire, unaware

  4. unaware perhaps as the blade of an D9 armored Caterpillar bulldozer hits him in the head & slashes it in half, killing him instantly.

    When i hear “Caterpillar”, i think of at least 11, 795 Palestinian homes demolished in 10 years…

    i think of Caterpillar Industrial Inc. continuing to deny responsibility for how its products are weaponized & used by the IDF in violation of international law …

    i think of Jewish Voice for Peace, & its call, “Divest from Caterpillar”.

    & i remember Oscar Wilde’s words about “commerce without conscience”….

  5. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67129P20100

    Ramallah building boom symbolizes West Bank growth

    By Mohammed Assadi

    RAMALLAH, West Bank | Mon Aug 2, 2010 8:00am EDT

    "RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The din of earth-movers leveling the hilly terrain of Ramallah for construction is unremitting as modern buildings shoot up all over the West Bank city."

    Once a mere village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Ramallah has seen its population double in the last 10 years and land prices surge, in part due to the fact it falls within the 40 percent of the West Bank where Palestinians can build without Israeli permission.

    The Ramallah construction boom is one of the most obvious signs of West Bank economic growth estimated at an annual rate of 8 percent — which Palestinian policymakers attribute to relative stability and Western donor support to the Palestinian Authority.

    Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

    But unlike Gaza, where Palestinians are packed into a slowly crumbling city, Ramallah has no shortage of concrete and steel reinforcing rods — construction materials barred from the Gaza Strip by an Israeli blockade, on the grounds they can be used for military purposes by the enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers.

    Ramallah has swallowed the neighboring town of El-Bireh and is home to 83,000 Palestinians. As traffic queues grow longer, the Palestinian Authority is expanding the roads to cope.

    Developers say property prices have risen by 30 percent in the last two years. Buyers expect prices to go higher, though accurate price surveys do not exist.

    A home in Ramallah is now twice as expensive as in Nablus, an industrial city 45 minutes by car to the north.

    But that did not stop Ibrahim Sowan, a plastic surgeon from Nablus, from deciding to buy in Ramallah.

    "I know that it is expensive, but if I want to sell it the price may be even higher," he said. "I have a clinic in Ramallah so I bought an apartment and I plan to settle here," he said.

    "TREMENDOUS DEMAND"

    Israel says it has helped revive the Palestinian economy in the West Bank by removing checkpoints, movement restrictions imposed during the Intifada, or uprising, that erupted in 2000 in the Israeli-occupied territory.

    The Intifada partly explains why Ramallah has grown so rapidly. Many Palestinians who worked here but lived elsewhere moved in to avoid the hassle created by Israeli checkpoints, which in the worst days of the violence could seal off a Palestinian town or village for weeks.

    Today, Ramallah's buoyant economy continues to draw Palestinians from other West Bank towns where jobs are fewer. The checkpoints that still generate lengthy traffic queues are those that guard access to Jerusalem.

    Ramallah's built-up area has grown five fold since the peak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2002, said Ahmad Odaly, head of the Palestinian Engineers Union.

    "There is tremendous demand for apartment buildings," he said. An apartment in a wealthy area today costs $200,000.

    Israel exercises complete control over 60 percent of building in the West Bank under interim peace agreements concluded in the 1990s with the Palestinian Authority.

    The peace process has yet to produce the state the Palestinians aim to establish in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, where they hope to set up their capital.

    Until it does, Ramallah remains the de facto capital and seat of Palestinian government in the West Bank.

    A new, $500 million mortgage fund operated by the Palestinian Authority's Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) is expected to give a further boost to the residential property market. It is set to start lending this year.

    Construction activity goes beyond the residential sector. The PIF last week began work on a $400 million commercial center comprising 13 towers which will be some of the tallest in Ramallah.

    The Ersal Center has drawn investment from a Saudi Arabian firm, The Land Holding, which has a 10 percent stake. It is not the only Gulf Arab firm investing in Ramallah and its outskirts.

    The Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company has a stake in Rawabi, a completely new town being constructed in the hills outside Ramallah at a cost of $800 million.

    (wikipedia:
    Rawabi (Arabic: روابي‎, meaning "The Hills") is the first Palestinian planned city in the West Bank. Rawabi is being built to a master plan and, when complete, will cover 6,300,000 square meters and initially have space for 40,000 people to live. It is the largest private sector investment project in Palestinian history.)

    Some developers see demand growing for several years to come. "I could hardly find a plot of land to buy," said Isam Rimawi, a developer.

  6. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67129P20100

    Ramallah building boom symbolizes West Bank growth

    By Mohammed Assadi

    RAMALLAH, West Bank | Mon Aug 2, 2010 8:00am EDT

    "RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The din of earth-movers leveling the hilly terrain of Ramallah for construction is unremitting as modern buildings shoot up all over the West Bank city."

    Once a mere village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Ramallah has seen its population double in the last 10 years and land prices surge, in part due to the fact it falls within the 40 percent of the West Bank where Palestinians can build without Israeli permission.

    The Ramallah construction boom is one of the most obvious signs of West Bank economic growth estimated at an annual rate of 8 percent — which Palestinian policymakers attribute to relative stability and Western donor support to the Palestinian Authority.

    Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

    But unlike Gaza, where Palestinians are packed into a slowly crumbling city, Ramallah has no shortage of concrete and steel reinforcing rods — construction materials barred from the Gaza Strip by an Israeli blockade, on the grounds they can be used for military purposes by the enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers.

    Ramallah has swallowed the neighboring town of El-Bireh and is home to 83,000 Palestinians. As traffic queues grow longer, the Palestinian Authority is expanding the roads to cope.

    Developers say property prices have risen by 30 percent in the last two years. Buyers expect prices to go higher, though accurate price surveys do not exist.

    A home in Ramallah is now twice as expensive as in Nablus, an industrial city 45 minutes by car to the north.

    But that did not stop Ibrahim Sowan, a plastic surgeon from Nablus, from deciding to buy in Ramallah.

    "I know that it is expensive, but if I want to sell it the price may be even higher," he said. "I have a clinic in Ramallah so I bought an apartment and I plan to settle here," he said.

    "TREMENDOUS DEMAND"

    Israel says it has helped revive the Palestinian economy in the West Bank by removing checkpoints, movement restrictions imposed during the Intifada, or uprising, that erupted in 2000 in the Israeli-occupied territory.

    The Intifada partly explains why Ramallah has grown so rapidly. Many Palestinians who worked here but lived elsewhere moved in to avoid the hassle created by Israeli checkpoints, which in the worst days of the violence could seal off a Palestinian town or village for weeks.

    Today, Ramallah's buoyant economy continues to draw Palestinians from other West Bank towns where jobs are fewer. The checkpoints that still generate lengthy traffic queues are those that guard access to Jerusalem.

    Ramallah's built-up area has grown five fold since the peak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2002, said Ahmad Odaly, head of the Palestinian Engineers Union.

    "There is tremendous demand for apartment buildings," he said. An apartment in a wealthy area today costs $200,000.

    Israel exercises complete control over 60 percent of building in the West Bank under interim peace agreements concluded in the 1990s with the Palestinian Authority.

    The peace process has yet to produce the state the Palestinians aim to establish in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, where they hope to set up their capital.

    Until it does, Ramallah remains the de facto capital and seat of Palestinian government in the West Bank.

    A new, $500 million mortgage fund operated by the Palestinian Authority's Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) is expected to give a further boost to the residential property market. It is set to start lending this year.

    Construction activity goes beyond the residential sector. The PIF last week began work on a $400 million commercial center comprising 13 towers which will be some of the tallest in Ramallah.

    The Ersal Center has drawn investment from a Saudi Arabian firm, The Land Holding, which has a 10 percent stake. It is not the only Gulf Arab firm investing in Ramallah and its outskirts.

    The Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company has a stake in Rawabi, a completely new town being constructed in the hills outside Ramallah at a cost of $800 million.

    (wikipedia:
    Rawabi (Arabic: روابي‎, meaning "The Hills") is the first Palestinian planned city in the West Bank. Rawabi is being built to a master plan and, when complete, will cover 6,300,000 square meters and initially have space for 40,000 people to live. It is the largest private sector investment project in Palestinian history.)

    Some developers see demand growing for several years to come. "I could hardly find a plot of land to buy," said Isam Rimawi, a developer.

  7. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67129P20100

    Ramallah building boom symbolizes West Bank growth

    By Mohammed Assadi

    RAMALLAH, West Bank | Mon Aug 2, 2010 8:00am EDT

    "RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The din of earth-movers leveling the hilly terrain of Ramallah for construction is unremitting as modern buildings shoot up all over the West Bank city."

    Once a mere village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Ramallah has seen its population double in the last 10 years and land prices surge, in part due to the fact it falls within the 40 percent of the West Bank where Palestinians can build without Israeli permission.

    The Ramallah construction boom is one of the most obvious signs of West Bank economic growth estimated at an annual rate of 8 percent — which Palestinian policymakers attribute to relative stability and Western donor support to the Palestinian Authority.

    Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

    But unlike Gaza, where Palestinians are packed into a slowly crumbling city, Ramallah has no shortage of concrete and steel reinforcing rods — construction materials barred from the Gaza Strip by an Israeli blockade, on the grounds they can be used for military purposes by the enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers.

    Ramallah has swallowed the neighboring town of El-Bireh and is home to 83,000 Palestinians. As traffic queues grow longer, the Palestinian Authority is expanding the roads to cope.

    Developers say property prices have risen by 30 percent in the last two years. Buyers expect prices to go higher, though accurate price surveys do not exist.

    A home in Ramallah is now twice as expensive as in Nablus, an industrial city 45 minutes by car to the north.

    But that did not stop Ibrahim Sowan, a plastic surgeon from Nablus, from deciding to buy in Ramallah.

    "I know that it is expensive, but if I want to sell it the price may be even higher," he said. "I have a clinic in Ramallah so I bought an apartment and I plan to settle here," he said.

    "TREMENDOUS DEMAND"

    Israel says it has helped revive the Palestinian economy in the West Bank by removing checkpoints, movement restrictions imposed during the Intifada, or uprising, that erupted in 2000 in the Israeli-occupied territory.

    The Intifada partly explains why Ramallah has grown so rapidly. Many Palestinians who worked here but lived elsewhere moved in to avoid the hassle created by Israeli checkpoints, which in the worst days of the violence could seal off a Palestinian town or village for weeks.

    Today, Ramallah's buoyant economy continues to draw Palestinians from other West Bank towns where jobs are fewer. The checkpoints that still generate lengthy traffic queues are those that guard access to Jerusalem.

    Ramallah's built-up area has grown five fold since the peak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2002, said Ahmad Odaly, head of the Palestinian Engineers Union.

    "There is tremendous demand for apartment buildings," he said. An apartment in a wealthy area today costs $200,000.

    Israel exercises complete control over 60 percent of building in the West Bank under interim peace agreements concluded in the 1990s with the Palestinian Authority.

    The peace process has yet to produce the state the Palestinians aim to establish in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, where they hope to set up their capital.

    Until it does, Ramallah remains the de facto capital and seat of Palestinian government in the West Bank.

    A new, $500 million mortgage fund operated by the Palestinian Authority's Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) is expected to give a further boost to the residential property market. It is set to start lending this year.

    Construction activity goes beyond the residential sector. The PIF last week began work on a $400 million commercial center comprising 13 towers which will be some of the tallest in Ramallah.

    The Ersal Center has drawn investment from a Saudi Arabian firm, The Land Holding, which has a 10 percent stake. It is not the only Gulf Arab firm investing in Ramallah and its outskirts.

    The Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company has a stake in Rawabi, a completely new town being constructed in the hills outside Ramallah at a cost of $800 million.

    (wikipedia:
    Rawabi (Arabic: روابي‎, meaning "The Hills") is the first Palestinian planned city in the West Bank. Rawabi is being built to a master plan and, when complete, will cover 6,300,000 square meters and initially have space for 40,000 people to live. It is the largest private sector investment project in Palestinian history.)

    Some developers see demand growing for several years to come. "I could hardly find a plot of land to buy," said Isam Rimawi, a developer.

  8. The Wall Street Journal DECEMBER 19, 2010

    RAMALLAH, West Bank—Swanky coffee shops, luxury-car dealerships, and a designer boutique are among hundreds of new businesses that have sprouted here in recent months, part of a boom that has defied failures to make progress toward peace with Israel.

    Economic growth in the West Bank raced at 9% through the first half of 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund. Proponents of a Palestinian state have taken heart in that growth.

    "It is easier than ever to envision an independent Palestine able to govern itself, uphold its responsibilities to provide for its people, and ensure security," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in October, in a speech highlighting that growth.

    Improved Palestinian governance, better security and relaxed Israeli restrictions appear to be underpinning investors' booming confidence.
    After the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, erupted against Israel in 2000, the Palestinian territories were plunged into violence and the economy took a nose dive. As the violence started to recede, the militant Hamas Party won elections, triggering a punishing boycott of the Palestinian Authority by Western donors. Salaries went unpaid, militias ruled the streets and government barely functioned.

    Hamas was forced from power in the West Bank in 2007. Under the new government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad—a University of Texas-educated former IMF official—the Palestinian Authority moved to reduce corruption, make government more transparent and attract business.

    The European Union and the U.S. stepped in to oversee the retraining of the Palestinian security forces and order on the West Bank's streets. In response, Israel has eased its tough regime of restrictions on the movement of goods and people.

    Meanwhile, the stability also drawn a generation of Palestinian expatriates, who fled during the years of unrest, back home with savings to invest.
    "Investors are taking a leap of faith," says Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman who invested money in the West Bank long before most, opening the $10.2 million Plaza Shopping Center in Ramallah in 2004. "These investors want to be the first movers in postoccupation Palestine."
    Signs of new wealth are ubiquitous here. "The Boutique," Ramallah's first haute couture clothing store, opened late last year, offering Palestinians python-skin purses by Prada for $3,000, Sergio Rossi heels, and one-of-a-kind Valentino dresses. Next door, the Zaman Café serves up Belgian microbrews, French Bordeauxs and $4 cappuccinos.

    This spring, the West Bank's first licensed Mercedes dealership opened a showroom on Ramallah Boulevard. Owners say it is doing a brisk business selling luxury-class sports cars and sport-utility vehicles, with sticker prices ranging from $100,000 to $200,000, to wealthy Palestinians.

    On Nov. 1, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts made its Palestinian debut, opening the city's first five-star hotel. The 172-room, $40 million hotel boasts a head chef imported from Florence, a pastry chef from Paris, and a lobby bedecked in marble and Italian suede.

    In the past six months, the West Bank has also seen the launch of three private-equity funds.

  9. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67129P20100802

    Ramallah building boom symbolizes West Bank growth

    By Mohammed Assadi

    RAMALLAH, West Bank | Mon Aug 2, 2010 8:00am EDT

    “RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The din of earth-movers leveling the hilly terrain of Ramallah for construction is unremitting as modern buildings shoot up all over the West Bank city.”

    Once a mere village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Ramallah has seen its population double in the last 10 years and land prices surge, in part due to the fact it falls within the 40 percent of the West Bank where Palestinians can build without Israeli permission.

    The Ramallah construction boom is one of the most obvious signs of West Bank economic growth estimated at an annual rate of 8 percent — which Palestinian policymakers attribute to relative stability and Western donor support to the Palestinian Authority.

    Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

    But unlike Gaza, where Palestinians are packed into a slowly crumbling city, Ramallah has no shortage of concrete and steel reinforcing rods — construction materials barred from the Gaza Strip by an Israeli blockade, on the grounds they can be used for military purposes by the enclave’s Islamist Hamas rulers.

    Ramallah has swallowed the neighboring town of El-Bireh and is home to 83,000 Palestinians. As traffic queues grow longer, the Palestinian Authority is expanding the roads to cope.

    Developers say property prices have risen by 30 percent in the last two years. Buyers expect prices to go higher, though accurate price surveys do not exist.

    A home in Ramallah is now twice as expensive as in Nablus, an industrial city 45 minutes by car to the north.

    But that did not stop Ibrahim Sowan, a plastic surgeon from Nablus, from deciding to buy in Ramallah.

    “I know that it is expensive, but if I want to sell it the price may be even higher,” he said. “I have a clinic in Ramallah so I bought an apartment and I plan to settle here,” he said.

    “TREMENDOUS DEMAND”

    Israel says it has helped revive the Palestinian economy in the West Bank by removing checkpoints, movement restrictions imposed during the Intifada, or uprising, that erupted in 2000 in the Israeli-occupied territory.

    The Intifada partly explains why Ramallah has grown so rapidly. Many Palestinians who worked here but lived elsewhere moved in to avoid the hassle created by Israeli checkpoints, which in the worst days of the violence could seal off a Palestinian town or village for weeks.

    Today, Ramallah’s buoyant economy continues to draw Palestinians from other West Bank towns where jobs are fewer. The checkpoints that still generate lengthy traffic queues are those that guard access to Jerusalem.

    Ramallah’s built-up area has grown five fold since the peak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2002, said Ahmad Odaly, head of the Palestinian Engineers Union.

    “There is tremendous demand for apartment buildings,” he said. An apartment in a wealthy area today costs $200,000.

    Israel exercises complete control over 60 percent of building in the West Bank under interim peace agreements concluded in the 1990s with the Palestinian Authority.

    The peace process has yet to produce the state the Palestinians aim to establish in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, where they hope to set up their capital.

    Until it does, Ramallah remains the de facto capital and seat of Palestinian government in the West Bank.

    A new, $500 million mortgage fund operated by the Palestinian Authority’s Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) is expected to give a further boost to the residential property market. It is set to start lending this year.

    Construction activity goes beyond the residential sector. The PIF last week began work on a $400 million commercial center comprising 13 towers which will be some of the tallest in Ramallah.

    The Ersal Center has drawn investment from a Saudi Arabian firm, The Land Holding, which has a 10 percent stake. It is not the only Gulf Arab firm investing in Ramallah and its outskirts.

    The Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company has a stake in Rawabi, a completely new town being constructed in the hills outside Ramallah at a cost of $800 million.

    (wikipedia:
    Rawabi (Arabic: روابي‎, meaning “The Hills”) is the first Palestinian planned city in the West Bank. Rawabi is being built to a master plan and, when complete, will cover 6,300,000 square meters and initially have space for 40,000 people to live. It is the largest private sector investment project in Palestinian history.)

    Some developers see demand growing for several years to come. “I could hardly find a plot of land to buy,” said Isam Rimawi, a developer.

  10. The Wall Street Journal DECEMBER 19, 2010

    RAMALLAH, West Bank—Swanky coffee shops, luxury-car dealerships, and a designer boutique are among hundreds of new businesses that have sprouted here in recent months, part of a boom that has defied failures to make progress toward peace with Israel.

    Economic growth in the West Bank raced at 9% through the first half of 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund. Proponents of a Palestinian state have taken heart in that growth.

    “It is easier than ever to envision an independent Palestine able to govern itself, uphold its responsibilities to provide for its people, and ensure security,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in October, in a speech highlighting that growth.

    Improved Palestinian governance, better security and relaxed Israeli restrictions appear to be underpinning investors’ booming confidence.
    After the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, erupted against Israel in 2000, the Palestinian territories were plunged into violence and the economy took a nose dive. As the violence started to recede, the militant Hamas Party won elections, triggering a punishing boycott of the Palestinian Authority by Western donors. Salaries went unpaid, militias ruled the streets and government barely functioned.

    Hamas was forced from power in the West Bank in 2007. Under the new government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad—a University of Texas-educated former IMF official—the Palestinian Authority moved to reduce corruption, make government more transparent and attract business.

    The European Union and the U.S. stepped in to oversee the retraining of the Palestinian security forces and order on the West Bank’s streets. In response, Israel has eased its tough regime of restrictions on the movement of goods and people.

    Meanwhile, the stability also drawn a generation of Palestinian expatriates, who fled during the years of unrest, back home with savings to invest.
    “Investors are taking a leap of faith,” says Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman who invested money in the West Bank long before most, opening the $10.2 million Plaza Shopping Center in Ramallah in 2004. “These investors want to be the first movers in postoccupation Palestine.”
    Signs of new wealth are ubiquitous here. “The Boutique,” Ramallah’s first haute couture clothing store, opened late last year, offering Palestinians python-skin purses by Prada for $3,000, Sergio Rossi heels, and one-of-a-kind Valentino dresses. Next door, the Zaman Café serves up Belgian microbrews, French Bordeauxs and $4 cappuccinos.

    This spring, the West Bank’s first licensed Mercedes dealership opened a showroom on Ramallah Boulevard. Owners say it is doing a brisk business selling luxury-class sports cars and sport-utility vehicles, with sticker prices ranging from $100,000 to $200,000, to wealthy Palestinians.

    On Nov. 1, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts made its Palestinian debut, opening the city’s first five-star hotel. The 172-room, $40 million hotel boasts a head chef imported from Florence, a pastry chef from Paris, and a lobby bedecked in marble and Italian suede.

    In the past six months, the West Bank has also seen the launch of three private-equity funds.

  11. Why such long & detailed descriptions of the pleasures of Ramallah from Mr Judo, without a SINGLE mention of THE ISSUE HERE …. namely, Caterpillar Inc. ….. & the IDF's armored bulldozers ????

    Mr Judo loves to dwell in the relative "oasis" of Ramallah without venturing out into the burning desert of the Occupation.

    No wonder.

    Ramallah's coffee bars & restaurants are far more preferable, after all, than being trapped in the labyrinth of checkpoints & roadblocks which is the general lot of Palestinians.

    As the observer Sandy Tolan reported, "Ramallah is not Palestine."

    But even this oasis is "a permanent ghetto behind checkpoints & walls", as the journalist Jonathan Cook characterizes Ramallah.

    Nor would this oasis even exist but for israel's sufference, which shores up the UNELECTED client cabal of Abbas, which is otherwise too weak to stand on its own feet without American help.

    Within Ramallah Abbas' intelligence service goons heckle & harass & shout down public expressions of democratic & nationalist opposition.

    & on Ramallah's border stands the IDF, ready to meet the unarmed & nonviolent protests of the International Solidarity Movement ( ISM ) with overarmed & pinpointed violence .

    A few months ago this year on Ramallah's border, a uniformed coward of the IDF fired 3 teargas cannister shells from an IDF checkpoint with calculated deliberation & in rapid succession at 100 unarmed & nonviolent ISM protestors.

    The last cannister hit the talented young American artist Emily Honochowitz full in the face.

    She was permanently blinded in one eye.

    Enough !!

    I won't get bogged down in Mr Judo's by now wellknown divertionary game of sidestepping every issue by raising another.

    Let us REfocus our attention on the murderous consequences of selling Caterpillars to the IDF for its illegitimate war on the Palestinian civilians.

  12. Why such long & detailed descriptions of the pleasures of Ramallah from Mr Judo, without a SINGLE mention of THE ISSUE HERE …. namely, Caterpillar Inc. ….. & the IDF’s armored bulldozers ????

    Mr Judo loves to dwell in the relative “oasis” of Ramallah without venturing out into the burning desert of the Occupation.

    No wonder.

    Ramallah’s coffee bars & restaurants are far more preferable, after all, than being trapped in the labyrinth of checkpoints & roadblocks which is the general lot of Palestinians.

    As the observer Sandy Tolan reported, “Ramallah is not Palestine.”

    But even this oasis is “a permanent ghetto behind checkpoints & walls”, as the journalist Jonathan Cook characterizes Ramallah.

    Nor would this oasis even exist but for israel’s sufference, which shores up the UNELECTED client cabal of Abbas, which is otherwise too weak to stand on its own feet without American help.

    Within Ramallah Abbas’ intelligence service goons heckle & harass & shout down public expressions of democratic & nationalist opposition.

    & on Ramallah’s border stands the IDF, ready to meet the unarmed & nonviolent protests of the International Solidarity Movement ( ISM ) with overarmed & pinpointed violence .

    A few months ago this year on Ramallah’s border, a uniformed coward of the IDF fired 3 teargas cannister shells from an IDF checkpoint with calculated deliberation & in rapid succession at 100 unarmed & nonviolent ISM protestors.

    The last cannister hit the talented young American artist Emily Honochowitz full in the face.

    She was permanently blinded in one eye.

    Enough !!

    I won’t get bogged down in Mr Judo’s by now wellknown divertionary game of sidestepping every issue by raising another.

    Let us REfocus our attention on the murderous consequences of selling Caterpillars to the IDF for its illegitimate war on the Palestinian civilians.

  13. Yes, I am sure it is a distraction.

    Almost 2 billion dollars in West Bank Palestinian residential construction was undertaken in 2010 alone, more than 100,000 Palestinian homes under construction across the West Bank in the biggest building boom in Palestinian history, all with complete Israeli cooperation.

    Edith's cheap propaganda campaign above, focusing on the 80 or 90 Palestinian buildings torn down in 2010 while ignoring the 100,000 Palestinian West Bank homes being constructed simultaneously in 2010 is intended to, with the use of partial truths, exaggeration and fabrication, to trick the ignorant and uninformed into falsely believing that Israel is conducting a racist ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

    The real facts show the exact 180 degree opposite is true.

    The facts are that in 2010 all *Jewish* construction was frozen for most of the year in the West Bank and hundreds of Jewish homes that were built contrary to the freeze were torn down by the Israeli authorities.

    Israel's goal is to find a peace compromise with the Palestinians to share the land, two states for two peoples, and to end all wars forever.

    A prosperous Palestine arising with a high standard of living is key to realizing this dream.

    A wealthy Palestine as a good neighbor and trading partner living in peace is in Israels interest in every way.

    The cooperation Israel has shown in facilitating the massive boom in Palestinian residential construction seen in 2010 is just one of the ways Israel is showing this.

  14. The gap between reality & Zionist "response" …… have you ever seen it as GAPING , as UNBRIDGEABLE, as you see it, here & now ??

    We are talking of Caterpillar Industrial Inc.& the IDF's use of these weaponized bulldozers against civilians…. & Mr Judo comes up with ….. why, Ramallah !

    "The biggest building boom in Palestinian history", announces Mr Judo …."all with complete Israeli cooperation"…..

    Indeed !!!

    When even Abbas' closest allies INSIDE Fatah …. just 4 months back !! …. were warning that the scheduled September negotiations with israel were A DISASTER IN THE MAKING ……. a step that would make Abbas' isolation in relation to Palestinian opinion damaged beyond repair !!

    But Mr Judo is unstoppable now.

    "..all Jewish construction frozen in the West Bank," he declares. "…. hundreds of Jewish homes built contrary to the freeze were torn down by the israeli authorities…"

    Indeed !!

    When even the almighty US government is wallowing in international embarrassment & impotence at not being able to stop Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank !!!

    When Obama had to beg Netanyahu to announce a settlement freeze …. even temporarily ?? ….for at least 4 months, please ?? … until the elections ?? … & he couldn't get even THAT ! !

    When even israel's best friends in the corporate media are RIGHT NOW telling Obama to get tough with israel on settlement construction in the West Bank !!

    But the US isn't alone in its impotence.

    For there's no party.. .. no leadership … in israel which can do what Mr Judo says israel is doing, namely, freezing & demolishing settler construction.

    For israeli opinion … & the hold upon it by the far right & the fundamentalist Rabbi Ovadias …. wouldn't stand for such a thing even as an idea, let alone a possibility.

    Netanyahu wouldn't last the night if he took but one step in this direction .

    But these same forces will advise that it is perfectly justified to lie to the goyim.

    "BY WAY OF DECEPTION THOU SHALT DO WAR." — Mossad's motto.

  15. Yes, I am sure it is a distraction.

    Almost 2 billion dollars in West Bank Palestinian residential construction was undertaken in 2010 alone, more than 100,000 Palestinian homes under construction across the West Bank in the biggest building boom in Palestinian history, all with complete Israeli cooperation.

    Edith’s cheap propaganda campaign above, focusing on the 80 or 90 Palestinian buildings torn down in 2010 while ignoring the 100,000 Palestinian West Bank homes being constructed simultaneously in 2010 is intended to, with the use of partial truths, exaggeration and fabrication, to trick the ignorant and uninformed into falsely believing that Israel is conducting a racist ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

    The real facts show the exact 180 degree opposite is true.

    The facts are that in 2010 all *Jewish* construction was frozen for most of the year in the West Bank and hundreds of Jewish homes that were built contrary to the freeze were torn down by the Israeli authorities.

    Israel’s goal is to find a peace compromise with the Palestinians to share the land, two states for two peoples, and to end all wars forever.

    A prosperous Palestine arising with a high standard of living is key to realizing this dream.

    A wealthy Palestine as a good neighbor and trading partner living in peace is in Israels interest in every way.

    The cooperation Israel has shown in facilitating the massive boom in Palestinian residential construction seen in 2010 is just one of the ways Israel is showing this.

  16. I think AI is stretching things too much here & attempting to destroy a companies integrity based on how a product is used. Bulldozers don't kill people, people kill people. Those homes would be destroyed regardless of what brand machinery is being utilized. I am very disappointed with AI.

  17. In my posts above I have documented with referenced Reuters and Wall Street Journal articles that 2010 was a record breaking year for Palestinian residential and commercial construction with several billions of dollars in projects underway.

    It does not matter at all if professional Palestinian propagandists like Edith and her ilk want to cover up the fact that the Palestinian West Bank is covered with construction sites and cranes and massive Palestinian high rises developments going up everywhere. A massive construction boom is in deed occurring at this moment in the Palestinian West Bank with complete Israeli cooperation and assistance.

    Just one such example is the first entire new Palestinian city, Rawabi, with homes for 40,000 Palestinians, currently being built by the Palestinians themselves from nothing on bare hills of the West Bank.

    What is central to the point is that Caterpillar equipment is used throughout the Palestinian West Bank on all of these construction sites.

    Caterpillar equipment is in fact being being used right now to build a hundred thousand homes for Palestinians to live, and businesses and factories for Palestinians to work and support their families.

    And not only in Palestine but of course throughout the world. The 3 billion people on earth that live under conditions of poverty far worse than the Palestinians do, these poor people everywhere are trying develop their countries with roads, hydro dams, cities, factories, to improve the lives of their children and in every one of these places around the world Caterpillar equipment is often found front and center.

    Yes Caterpillar Equipment is also used to destroy rain forests around the world, from land often stolen from the original native Indians owners like Brazil does to the Indonesians currently clearing the last 1% of Orangutan habitat left on earth on the Island of Java to grow more Palm oil.

    Yes, Caterpillar equipment is also used by the Sudanese Government and Chinese oil companies throughout Darfur to prepare oil drilling well sites to finance the genocide.

    Yes, Caterpillar equipment is also being used in the Democratic Republic of Congo to build mines of so-called "conflict minerals" which fund the worst ongoing conflict in human history since the end of World War 2, a conflict a thousand times worse than the Palestinian Israeli conflict, with more than 5 million deaths as a result of the Congo War since 1990.

    Yes, Caterpillar Equipment is also an essential component of all western armies engineering corps, and as such played a central role in the United States and British Armed forces invasion and occupations of Iraq leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths.

    Yes, also as BBC World Affairs News editor John Simpson eye witnessed and reported on, during the First Gulf War, during the two-day assault which took place on 24-25 February 1991, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division of the United States Army decided to use Caterpillar Equipment to plow over and fill in with sand dozens of kilometers of Iraqi trenches without giving the thousands of Iraqi soldiers of Saddam's already defeated army in the trenches an opportunity to surrender first, resulting in thousands of Iraqis being buried alive, a well documented and eye witnessed atrocity and war crime of the most extreme cruelty and viciousness imaginable which Amnesty never uttered a word about or investigated in any way.

    etc
    etc.

    But, what is really most interesting to observe, is that of all the uses of Caterpillars in the last 50 years, out of all the good uses for the massive benefit of humanity and and all the terrible evil uses that have also being done with Caterpillars by so many countries, which is the one and only particular use of Caterpillars to the exclusion of all other uses , both good and evil the world over which suddenly seems to really bother Amnesty and Edith.

    And you wonder why Israel sees Amnesty as biased.

  18. Mr Judo has begun changing his name into new shapes.

    Jodow… Judoo…. Joodoo … why this sudden spate of name shapeshifting ?

    To make it harder to refer to his slippery, singular record of shifting focus from the issues at hand ?

    He gives us a REdefinition … & "new" "history" …. of Occupation…

    One where an Occupier is a moral, noble force that even demolishes its own settlements !! … to boost up, instead, … the Occupied People !!! … to the biggest building boom in their history !!!

    That is, an Occupation which dismantles its OWN branches … to make room for its supplanter !!!

    May i suggest a new variation of his name … Jadoo ? ….from Kipling, another fictionalist who saw the Occupier as a "benevolent", "uplifting" power.

    Kipling's "Jadoo" is magic … it can also connote "sleight of hand".

    ************************

    Occupation's actual history is magical, of course, but in a vastly different chronicle.

    Caterpillar bulldozers have destroyed over 12,000 Palestinian homes.

    Caterpillars also help israel build the Apartheid Wall….
    the 25 foot high, 5 foot thick, 350 kilometer long series of walls / razor wire / trenches / electrified fences / watchtowers …
    ….that will annex UPTO FORTY PER CENT of the West Bank.

    The Caterpillar that crushed the breath & life out of Rachel's small & fragile body is a 60 ton monster.

    The Palestinian whom Judo mentioned, Sam Bahour, can testify to the Occupation's real nature.

    He remembers how Caterpillars dug up the roads going in & out of Palestinian villages, converting them into open air prisons …… under permanent lockdown.

    Bahour tells how his small girl prays to God to lift the israeli curfew ……. so she can go to school.

    israel, says Bahour, has sentenced a whole generation of Palestinians to illiteracy & ignorance by depriving it of schooling.

    But i doubt even such a generation will subscribe to Mr Judoo's version of a selflessly benevolent & uplifting Occupation.

  19. The gap between reality & Zionist “response” …… have you ever seen it as GAPING , as UNBRIDGEABLE, as you see it, here & now ??

    We are talking of Caterpillar Industrial Inc.& the IDF’s use of these weaponized bulldozers against civilians…. & Mr Judo comes up with ….. why, Ramallah !

    “The biggest building boom in Palestinian history”, announces Mr Judo ….”all with complete Israeli cooperation”…..

    Indeed !!!

    When even Abbas’ closest allies INSIDE Fatah …. just 4 months back !! …. were warning that the scheduled September negotiations with israel were A DISASTER IN THE MAKING ……. a step that would make Abbas’ isolation in relation to Palestinian opinion damaged beyond repair !!

    But Mr Judo is unstoppable now.

    “..all Jewish construction frozen in the West Bank,” he declares. “…. hundreds of Jewish homes built contrary to the freeze were torn down by the israeli authorities…”

    Indeed !!

    When even the almighty US government is wallowing in international embarrassment & impotence at not being able to stop Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank !!!

    When Obama had to beg Netanyahu to announce a settlement freeze …. even temporarily ?? ….for at least 4 months, please ?? … until the elections ?? … & he couldn’t get even THAT ! !

    When even israel’s best friends in the corporate media are RIGHT NOW telling Obama to get tough with israel on settlement construction in the West Bank !!

    But the US isn’t alone in its impotence.

    For there’s no party.. .. no leadership … in israel which can do what Mr Judo says israel is doing, namely, freezing & demolishing settler construction.

    For israeli opinion … & the hold upon it by the far right & the fundamentalist Rabbi Ovadias …. wouldn’t stand for such a thing even as an idea, let alone a possibility.

    Netanyahu wouldn’t last the night if he took but one step in this direction .

    But these same forces will advise that it is perfectly justified to lie to the goyim.

    “BY WAY OF DECEPTION THOU SHALT DO WAR.” — Mossad’s motto.

  20. I think AI is stretching things too much here & attempting to destroy a companies integrity based on how a product is used. Bulldozers don’t kill people, people kill people. Those homes would be destroyed regardless of what brand machinery is being utilized. I am very disappointed with AI.

  21. In my posts above I have documented with referenced Reuters and Wall Street Journal articles that 2010 was a record breaking year for Palestinian residential and commercial construction with several billions of dollars in projects underway.

    It does not matter at all if professional Palestinian propagandists like Edith and her ilk want to cover up the fact that the Palestinian West Bank is covered with construction sites and cranes and massive Palestinian high rises developments going up everywhere. A massive construction boom is in deed occurring at this moment in the Palestinian West Bank with complete Israeli cooperation and assistance.

    Just one such example is the first entire new Palestinian city, Rawabi, with homes for 40,000 Palestinians, currently being built by the Palestinians themselves from nothing on bare hills of the West Bank.

    What is central to the point is that Caterpillar equipment is used throughout the Palestinian West Bank on all of these construction sites.

    Caterpillar equipment is in fact being being used right now to build a hundred thousand homes for Palestinians to live, and businesses and factories for Palestinians to work and support their families.

    And not only in Palestine but of course throughout the world. The 3 billion people on earth that live under conditions of poverty far worse than the Palestinians do, these poor people everywhere are trying develop their countries with roads, hydro dams, cities, factories, to improve the lives of their children and in every one of these places around the world Caterpillar equipment is often found front and center.

    Yes Caterpillar Equipment is also used to destroy rain forests around the world, from land often stolen from the original native Indians owners like Brazil does to the Indonesians currently clearing the last 1% of Orangutan habitat left on earth on the Island of Java to grow more Palm oil.

    Yes, Caterpillar equipment is also used by the Sudanese Government and Chinese oil companies throughout Darfur to prepare oil drilling well sites to finance the genocide.

    Yes, Caterpillar equipment is also being used in the Democratic Republic of Congo to build mines of so-called “conflict minerals” which fund the worst ongoing conflict in human history since the end of World War 2, a conflict a thousand times worse than the Palestinian Israeli conflict, with more than 5 million deaths as a result of the Congo War since 1990.

    Yes, Caterpillar Equipment is also an essential component of all western armies engineering corps, and as such played a central role in the United States and British Armed forces invasion and occupations of Iraq leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths.

    Yes, also as BBC World Affairs News editor John Simpson eye witnessed and reported on, during the First Gulf War, during the two-day assault which took place on 24-25 February 1991, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division of the United States Army decided to use Caterpillar Equipment to plow over and fill in with sand dozens of kilometers of Iraqi trenches without giving the thousands of Iraqi soldiers of Saddam’s already defeated army in the trenches an opportunity to surrender first, resulting in thousands of Iraqis being buried alive, a well documented and eye witnessed atrocity and war crime of the most extreme cruelty and viciousness imaginable which Amnesty never uttered a word about or investigated in any way.

    etc
    etc.

    But, what is really most interesting to observe, is that of all the uses of Caterpillars in the last 50 years, out of all the good uses for the massive benefit of humanity and and all the terrible evil uses that have also being done with Caterpillars by so many countries, which is the one and only particular use of Caterpillars to the exclusion of all other uses , both good and evil the world over which suddenly seems to really bother Amnesty and Edith.

    And you wonder why Israel sees Amnesty as biased.

  22. Mr Judo has begun changing his name into new shapes.

    Jodow… Judoo…. Joodoo … why this sudden spate of name shapeshifting ?

    To make it harder to refer to his slippery, singular record of shifting focus from the issues at hand ?

    He gives us a REdefinition … & “new” “history” …. of Occupation…

    One where an Occupier is a moral, noble force that even demolishes its own settlements !! … to boost up, instead, … the Occupied People !!! … to the biggest building boom in their history !!!

    That is, an Occupation which dismantles its OWN branches … to make room for its supplanter !!!

    May i suggest a new variation of his name … Jadoo ? ….from Kipling, another fictionalist who saw the Occupier as a “benevolent”, “uplifting” power.

    Kipling’s “Jadoo” is magic … it can also connote “sleight of hand”.

    ************************

    Occupation’s actual history is magical, of course, but in a vastly different chronicle.

    Caterpillar bulldozers have destroyed over 12,000 Palestinian homes.

    Caterpillars also help israel build the Apartheid Wall….
    the 25 foot high, 5 foot thick, 350 kilometer long series of walls / razor wire / trenches / electrified fences / watchtowers …
    ….that will annex UPTO FORTY PER CENT of the West Bank.

    The Caterpillar that crushed the breath & life out of Rachel’s small & fragile body is a 60 ton monster.

    The Palestinian whom Judo mentioned, Sam Bahour, can testify to the Occupation’s real nature.

    He remembers how Caterpillars dug up the roads going in & out of Palestinian villages, converting them into open air prisons …… under permanent lockdown.

    Bahour tells how his small girl prays to God to lift the israeli curfew ……. so she can go to school.

    israel, says Bahour, has sentenced a whole generation of Palestinians to illiteracy & ignorance by depriving it of schooling.

    But i doubt even such a generation will subscribe to Mr Judoo’s version of a selflessly benevolent & uplifting Occupation.

  23. =========================================================
    "Israeli companies to help build Palestinian city

    (Associated Press, December 28, 2010)

    RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — About 20 Israeli suppliers will help build the first modern planned Palestinian city in the West Bank the project's developer said Tuesday.

    The West Bank city of Rawabi, going up 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Jerusalem, will be home to more than 40,000 Palestinian families when completed in 2012 and is a key part of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's plans to lay the groundwork for a future Palestinian state, regardless of progress in peace talks.

    Project developer Bashar Masri told The Associated Press that he tries to use Palestinian suppliers whenever possible. But when necessary, he turns to Israeli firms. He refused to identify any of the Israeli companies, but said they were suppliers of building and construction materials and equipment. "
    =========================================================

    Oh my goodness Edie, this is horrible, horrible I say.

    This guy building this new modern Palestinian city in the West Bank must not have heard about your boycott and disinvestment campaign against nasty Israel to retaliate against all the "ethnic cleansing (haha)" the Jews are committing against the Palestinians.

    Please Edie, you and all your co conspirators in the boycott against Israel must go immediately and hurl your bodies in front of all those horrid Israeli Caterpillar tractors building this new Palestinian city.

    Please, this is an urgent appeal. There is no time to waste.

    You must do anything you can to prevent those 40,000 Palestinian families from having this nice modern spanking new city to live in, since if it is built with any help from Israel it must be pure evil according to you right ?

    Beside, if the Palestinians actually have nice homes to live in and good jobs to work at and the refugee camps are emptied and closed how will we possible convince them to keep all the hate alive on into the future generations ? How I ask you ?

    This city could even represent ( gasp! no! the horror! the horror ! ) the beginning of the end of the conflict between Jew and Arab, peace !

    We must prevent this new Palestinian city for 40.000 families from being built with Israeli Caterpillars at all costs!

    Who is with me ? Lets roll !

  24. @Kat – re: "attempting to destroy a company's integrity" by "stretching things". Caterpillar, Inc. equipment has been tied DIRECTLY to violations of IHL and human rights law and CAT executives have known their equipment is being used in illegal actions for several years now. There is no 'stretch'. These links have been well documented and well documented for years.

    Also, Amnesty does not set out to 'destroy a company's integrity', but believes companies must exercise reasonable due diligence concerning the use of their services and products to not only prevent benefiting from human rights abuses, but to protect themselves from becoming complicit in these abuses. Companies should not pursue profit at the expense of human rights. See: http://www.amnestyusa.org/demand-dignity/hold-cor

    @Juudo: You speak of facts, then spew misinformation.

    1) You state that only "80 or 90 Palestinian buildings torn down in 2010", yet according to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs for the OPT (OCHA), as of 11/22/10, 320 structures have been demolished in the OPT under Israeli orders. This has resulted in 1689 being affected, including 706 children.

    Please cite your source for statement: "… 100,000 Palestinian West Bank homes being constructed simultaneously in 2010 …" and please indicate what percentage of these 'homes being constructed' have official permits from Israeli authorities or are being built under threat of future demolition.

    2) re: "to trick the ignorant and uninformed into falsely believing that Israel is conducting a racist ethnic cleansing of the West Bank". Interesting that you should make that correlation, but this blog post mentions nothing about 'ethnic cleansing', but is about corporate accountability.

    3) re: " … the Palestinian West Bank is covered with construction sites and cranes and massive Palestinian high rises developments going up everywhere." Are you kidding? I think it's interesting how debaters who are not standing on a firm foundation accuse their 'opponent' of something, when they are actually the guilty party. Judoo – you are counting on readers of this blog to be 'ignorant or misinformed', but you forget that more and more Americans are travelling to not only Israel, but to the OPT, where it is obvious that your statement above is simply a fantasy-land vision that exists only in your head.

    Your posting of articles on one city, the de facto Palestinian capital that was set up temporarily in Ramallah, is highly misleading. In addition to it being the provisional capital which alone brings in money, NGO staff and visitors as well as foreign government officials and media outlet employees that flock there have brought money and demand and have created an oasis or island in the middle of an ongoing occupation. What is happening in Ramallah is NOT being extrapolated to other areas of the Occupied Territories. See AFP article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeq

    4) Of course CAT equipment is used around the world for both good purposes – and probably for bad purposes as you mentioned – but this has nothing to do with the documented use of CAT equipment in violations of IHL and human rights law in the OPT which is what THIS blog entry is discussing.

    5) re: "…your boycott and disinvestment campaign against nasty Israel …" Please do read more carefully Judoo. This blog post is about corporate accountability and mentions 'boycott and divestment' nowhere except to say "Amnesty International takes no position on what tactics to use to achieve corporate responsibility (such as boycott and divestment initiatives, protests or direct actions); neither supporting, nor opposing them. It is simply outside our mandate, but we do support the principle that human rights due diligence is essential to fulfilling the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and to reduce the risk that they may become complicit in violations."

    Apparently, even clarifying our position and explicitly stating that we neither support, nor oppose tactics such as boycotts and divestment initiatives, doesn't stop you from reading, hearing, seeing what you want to read, hear, see.

    Amnesty Int'l does not take sides in a political conflict, but bases its work in support of universal human rights standards on well documented and credible research. Amnesty's positions and recommendations are based on universally recognized and applicable international law. Attributing words and intentions to Amnesty or to myself to fit your warped interpretation is unhelpful.

    I have no problem letting you speak your mind, but if you're going to address me directly, please stick to the facts and the blog entry information specifically so it is an intelligent conversation based on facts and avoids becoming simply mud-slinging.

    Thank you.

  25. @Kat – re: "attempting to destroy a company's integrity" by "stretching things". Caterpillar, Inc. equipment has been tied DIRECTLY to violations of IHL and human rights law and CAT executives have known their equipment is being used in illegal actions for several years now. There is no 'stretch'. These links have been well documented and well documented for years.

    Also, Amnesty does not set out to 'destroy a company's integrity', but believes companies must exercise reasonable due diligence concerning the use of their services and products to not only prevent benefiting from human rights abuses, but to protect themselves from becoming complicit in these abuses. Companies should not pursue profit at the expense of human rights. See: http://www.amnestyusa.org/demand-dignity/hold-cor

    @Juudo: You speak of facts, then spew misinformation.

    1) You state that only "80 or 90 Palestinian buildings torn down in 2010", yet according to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs for the OPT (OCHA), as of 11/22/10, 320 structures have been demolished in the OPT under Israeli orders. This has resulted in 1689 being affected, including 706 children.

    Please cite your source for statement: "… 100,000 Palestinian West Bank homes being constructed simultaneously in 2010 …" and please indicate what percentage of these 'homes being constructed' have official permits from Israeli authorities or are being built under threat of future demolition.

    2) re: "to trick the ignorant and uninformed into falsely believing that Israel is conducting a racist ethnic cleansing of the West Bank". Interesting that you should make that correlation, but this blog post mentions nothing about 'ethnic cleansing', but is about corporate accountability.

    3) re: " … the Palestinian West Bank is covered with construction sites and cranes and massive Palestinian high rises developments going up everywhere." Are you kidding? I think it's interesting how debaters who are not standing on a firm foundation accuse their 'opponent' of something, when they are actually the guilty party. Judoo – you are counting on readers of this blog to be 'ignorant or misinformed', but you forget that more and more Americans are travelling to not only Israel, but to the OPT, where it is obvious that your statement above is simply a fantasy-land vision that exists only in your head.

    Your posting of articles on one city, the de facto Palestinian capital that was set up temporarily in Ramallah, is highly misleading. In addition to it being the provisional capital which alone brings in money, NGO staff and visitors as well as foreign government officials and media outlet employees that flock there have brought money and demand and have created an oasis or island in the middle of an ongoing occupation. What is happening in Ramallah is NOT being extrapolated to other areas of the Occupied Territories. See AFP article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeq

    4) Of course CAT equipment is used around the world for both good purposes – and probably for bad purposes as you mentioned – but this has nothing to do with the documented use of CAT equipment in violations of IHL and human rights law in the OPT which is what THIS blog entry is discussing.

    5) re: "…your boycott and disinvestment campaign against nasty Israel …" Please do read more carefully Judoo. This blog post is about corporate accountability and mentions 'boycott and divestment' nowhere except to say "Amnesty International takes no position on what tactics to use to achieve corporate responsibility (such as boycott and divestment initiatives, protests or direct actions); neither supporting, nor opposing them. It is simply outside our mandate, but we do support the principle that human rights due diligence is essential to fulfilling the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and to reduce the risk that they may become complicit in violations."

    Apparently, even clarifying our position and explicitly stating that we neither support, nor oppose tactics such as boycotts and divestment initiatives, doesn't stop you from reading, hearing, seeing what you want to read, hear, see.

    Amnesty Int'l does not take sides in a political conflict, but bases its work in support of universal human rights standards on well documented and credible research. Amnesty's positions and recommendations are based on universally recognized and applicable international law. Attributing words and intentions to Amnesty or to myself to fit your warped interpretation is unhelpful.

    I have no problem letting you speak your mind, but if you're going to address me directly, please stick to the facts and the blog entry information specifically so it is an intelligent conversation based on facts and avoids becoming simply mud-slinging.

    Thank you.

  26. @Kat – re: "attempting to destroy a company's integrity" by "stretching things". Caterpillar, Inc. equipment has been tied DIRECTLY to violations of IHL and human rights law and CAT executives have known their equipment is being used in illegal actions for several years now. There is no 'stretch'. These links have been well documented and well documented for years.

    Also, Amnesty does not set out to 'destroy a company's integrity', but believes companies must exercise reasonable due diligence concerning the use of their services and products to not only prevent benefiting from human rights abuses, but to protect themselves from becoming complicit in these abuses. Companies should not pursue profit at the expense of human rights. See: http://www.amnestyusa.org/demand-dignity/hold-cor

    @Juudo: You speak of facts, then spew misinformation.

    1) You state that only "80 or 90 Palestinian buildings torn down in 2010", yet according to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs for the OPT (OCHA), as of 11/22/10, 320 structures have been demolished in the OPT under Israeli orders. This has resulted in 1689 being affected, including 706 children.

    Please cite your source for statement: "… 100,000 Palestinian West Bank homes being constructed simultaneously in 2010 …" and please indicate what percentage of these 'homes being constructed' have official permits from Israeli authorities or are being built under threat of future demolition.

    2) re: "to trick the ignorant and uninformed into falsely believing that Israel is conducting a racist ethnic cleansing of the West Bank". Interesting that you should make that correlation, but this blog post mentions nothing about 'ethnic cleansing', but is about corporate accountability.

    3) re: " … the Palestinian West Bank is covered with construction sites and cranes and massive Palestinian high rises developments going up everywhere." Are you kidding? I think it's interesting how debaters who are not standing on a firm foundation accuse their 'opponent' of something, when they are actually the guilty party. Judoo – you are counting on readers of this blog to be 'ignorant or misinformed', but you forget that more and more Americans are travelling to not only Israel, but to the OPT, where it is obvious that your statement above is simply a fantasy-land vision that exists only in your head.

    Your posting of articles on one city, the de facto Palestinian capital that was set up temporarily in Ramallah, is highly misleading. In addition to it being the provisional capital which alone brings in money, NGO staff and visitors as well as foreign government officials and media outlet employees that flock there have brought money and demand and have created an oasis or island in the middle of an ongoing occupation. What is happening in Ramallah is NOT being extrapolated to other areas of the Occupied Territories. See AFP article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeq

    4) Of course CAT equipment is used around the world for both good purposes – and probably for bad purposes as you mentioned – but this has nothing to do with the documented use of CAT equipment in violations of IHL and human rights law in the OPT which is what THIS blog entry is discussing.

    5) re: "…your boycott and disinvestment campaign against nasty Israel …" Please do read more carefully Judoo. This blog post is about corporate accountability and mentions 'boycott and divestment' nowhere except to say "Amnesty International takes no position on what tactics to use to achieve corporate responsibility (such as boycott and divestment initiatives, protests or direct actions); neither supporting, nor opposing them. It is simply outside our mandate, but we do support the principle that human rights due diligence is essential to fulfilling the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and to reduce the risk that they may become complicit in violations."

    Apparently, even clarifying our position and explicitly stating that we neither support, nor oppose tactics such as boycotts and divestment initiatives, doesn't stop you from reading, hearing, seeing what you want to read, hear, see.

    Amnesty Int'l does not take sides in a political conflict, but bases its work in support of universal human rights standards on well documented and credible research. Amnesty's positions and recommendations are based on universally recognized and applicable international law. Attributing words and intentions to Amnesty or to myself to fit your warped interpretation is unhelpful.

    I have no problem letting you speak your mind, but if you're going to address me directly, please stick to the facts and the blog entry information specifically so it is an intelligent conversation based on facts and avoids becoming simply mud-slinging.

    Thank you.

  27. I misspoke and should have said "homes", not "buildings"

    B'tselem, the pro palestinain human rights group has not updated their statistics page on West Bank home demolitions in several months. The latest figures on the Btselem web site that I checked before I made my post state in fact 71 West Bank homes, and 9 Palestinian homes more within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem torn down for lack of building permits. I myself added ten more to err on the side of caution since the Btselem statistics are months old and this is how I brought the number up to 90 "homes" destroyed. http://www.btselem.org

    This destruction of 90 "homes"is opposed by what, Edie ?

    I will tell you.

    By the more than 2 billion dollars in West Bank Palestinian **construction** in 2010, including many many tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
    all with the full support and active cooperation of Israel

    Oh, but wait. I forgot.

    Edie, your theory is that the IMF, the UN, and various Arab Palestinian journalists working for Reuters and the New York Times, Al Jezeera, Maan Palestine News Service etc. that have all reported extensively on the West Bank economic growth and the building boom are all participants in some dark mysterious conspiracy to fake the economic success story that is the West Bank in 2010 and all these people are lying about the West Bank having a 9% economic growth rate, 5 star hotels, prada shoes and Mercedes Benz dealerships.

    You are arguing that this is all some big Zionist lie huh ? Is that where you are going with this Edie?

    Its all a lie according to you, Edie, especially that mythical imaginary city Rawabi which really is really not being constructed at all according to you, no, no, no.

    And all those tens of thousands of Palestinian homes and that beautiful modern city on the West Bank hills that 40,000 happy West Bank families will move into in less than 2 years, it is just one big mirage, a Zionist hologram intended to trick the world media and fake a new city into the Google Earth satellite photos, a complete figment of my fertile imagination.

    Sorry Edie, just because my facts clash with your little propaganda campaign does not make these facts not true.

  28. I misspoke and should have said "homes", not "buildings"

    B'tselem, the pro palestinain human rights group has not updated their statistics page on West Bank home demolitions in several months. The latest figures on the Btselem web site that I checked before I made my post state in fact 71 West Bank homes, and 9 Palestinian homes more within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem torn down for lack of building permits. I myself added ten more to err on the side of caution since the Btselem statistics are months old and this is how I brought the number up to 90 "homes" destroyed. http://www.btselem.org

    This destruction of 90 "homes"is opposed by what, Edie ?

    I will tell you.

    By the more than 2 billion dollars in West Bank Palestinian **construction** in 2010, including many many tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
    all with the full support and active cooperation of Israel

    Oh, but wait. I forgot.

    Edie, your theory is that the IMF, the UN, and various Arab Palestinian journalists working for Reuters and the New York Times, Al Jezeera, Maan Palestine News Service etc. that have all reported extensively on the West Bank economic growth and the building boom are all participants in some dark mysterious conspiracy to fake the economic success story that is the West Bank in 2010 and all these people are lying about the West Bank having a 9% economic growth rate, 5 star hotels, prada shoes and Mercedes Benz dealerships.

    You are arguing that this is all some big Zionist lie huh ? Is that where you are going with this Edie?

    Its all a lie according to you, Edie, especially that mythical imaginary city Rawabi which really is really not being constructed at all according to you, no, no, no.

    And all those tens of thousands of Palestinian homes and that beautiful modern city on the West Bank hills that 40,000 happy West Bank families will move into in less than 2 years, it is just one big mirage, a Zionist hologram intended to trick the world media and fake a new city into the Google Earth satellite photos, a complete figment of my fertile imagination.

    Sorry Edie, just because my facts clash with your little propaganda campaign does not make these facts not true.

  29. I misspoke and should have said "homes", not "buildings"

    B'tselem, the pro palestinain human rights group has not updated their statistics page on West Bank home demolitions in several months. The latest figures on the Btselem web site that I checked before I made my post state in fact 71 West Bank homes, and 9 Palestinian homes more within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem torn down for lack of building permits. I myself added ten more to err on the side of caution since the Btselem statistics are months old and this is how I brought the number up to 90 "homes" destroyed. http://www.btselem.org

    This destruction of 90 "homes"is opposed by what, Edie ?

    I will tell you.

    By the more than 2 billion dollars in West Bank Palestinian **construction** in 2010, including many many tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
    all with the full support and active cooperation of Israel

    Oh, but wait. I forgot.

    Edie, your theory is that the IMF, the UN, and various Arab Palestinian journalists working for Reuters and the New York Times, Al Jezeera, Maan Palestine News Service etc. that have all reported extensively on the West Bank economic growth and the building boom are all participants in some dark mysterious conspiracy to fake the economic success story that is the West Bank in 2010 and all these people are lying about the West Bank having a 9% economic growth rate, 5 star hotels, prada shoes and Mercedes Benz dealerships.

    You are arguing that this is all some big Zionist lie huh ? Is that where you are going with this Edie?

    Its all a lie according to you, Edie, especially that mythical imaginary city Rawabi which really is really not being constructed at all according to you, no, no, no.

    And all those tens of thousands of Palestinian homes and that beautiful modern city on the West Bank hills that 40,000 happy West Bank families will move into in less than 2 years, it is just one big mirage, a Zionist hologram intended to trick the world media and fake a new city into the Google Earth satellite photos, a complete figment of my fertile imagination.

    Sorry Edie, just because my facts clash with your little propaganda campaign does not make these facts not true.

  30. =========================================================
    “Israeli companies to help build Palestinian city

    (Associated Press, December 28, 2010)

    RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — About 20 Israeli suppliers will help build the first modern planned Palestinian city in the West Bank the project’s developer said Tuesday.

    The West Bank city of Rawabi, going up 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Jerusalem, will be home to more than 40,000 Palestinian families when completed in 2012 and is a key part of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plans to lay the groundwork for a future Palestinian state, regardless of progress in peace talks.

    Project developer Bashar Masri told The Associated Press that he tries to use Palestinian suppliers whenever possible. But when necessary, he turns to Israeli firms. He refused to identify any of the Israeli companies, but said they were suppliers of building and construction materials and equipment. ”
    =========================================================

    Oh my goodness Edie, this is horrible, horrible I say.

    This guy building this new modern Palestinian city in the West Bank must not have heard about your boycott and disinvestment campaign against nasty Israel to retaliate against all the “ethnic cleansing (haha)” the Jews are committing against the Palestinians.

    Please Edie, you and all your co conspirators in the boycott against Israel must go immediately and hurl your bodies in front of all those horrid Israeli Caterpillar tractors building this new Palestinian city.

    Please, this is an urgent appeal. There is no time to waste.

    You must do anything you can to prevent those 40,000 Palestinian families from having this nice modern spanking new city to live in, since if it is built with any help from Israel it must be pure evil according to you right ?

    Beside, if the Palestinians actually have nice homes to live in and good jobs to work at and the refugee camps are emptied and closed how will we possible convince them to keep all the hate alive on into the future generations ? How I ask you ?

    This city could even represent ( gasp! no! the horror! the horror ! ) the beginning of the end of the conflict between Jew and Arab, peace !

    We must prevent this new Palestinian city for 40.000 families from being built with Israeli Caterpillars at all costs!

    Who is with me ? Lets roll !

  31. @Kat – re: “attempting to destroy a company’s integrity” by “stretching things”. Caterpillar, Inc. equipment has been tied DIRECTLY to violations of IHL and human rights law and CAT executives have known their equipment is being used in illegal actions for several years now. There is no ‘stretch’. These links have been well documented and well documented for years.

    Also, Amnesty does not set out to ‘destroy a company’s integrity’, but believes companies must exercise reasonable due diligence concerning the use of their services and products to not only prevent benefiting from human rights abuses, but to protect themselves from becoming complicit in these abuses. Companies should not pursue profit at the expense of human rights. See: http://www.amnestyusa.org/demand-dignity/hold-corporations-accountable/page.do?id=1021232

    @Juudo: You speak of facts, then spew misinformation.

    1) You state that only “80 or 90 Palestinian buildings torn down in 2010”, yet according to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs for the OPT (OCHA), as of 11/22/10, 320 structures have been demolished in the OPT under Israeli orders. This has resulted in 1689 being affected, including 706 children.

    Please cite your source for statement: “… 100,000 Palestinian West Bank homes being constructed simultaneously in 2010 …” and please indicate what percentage of these ‘homes being constructed’ have official permits from Israeli authorities or are being built under threat of future demolition.

    2) re: “to trick the ignorant and uninformed into falsely believing that Israel is conducting a racist ethnic cleansing of the West Bank”. Interesting that you should make that correlation, but this blog post mentions nothing about ‘ethnic cleansing’, but is about corporate accountability.

    3) re: ” … the Palestinian West Bank is covered with construction sites and cranes and massive Palestinian high rises developments going up everywhere.” Are you kidding? I think it’s interesting how debaters who are not standing on a firm foundation accuse their ‘opponent’ of something, when they are actually the guilty party. Judoo – you are counting on readers of this blog to be ‘ignorant or misinformed’, but you forget that more and more Americans are travelling to not only Israel, but to the OPT, where it is obvious that your statement above is simply a fantasy-land vision that exists only in your head.

    Your posting of articles on one city, the de facto Palestinian capital that was set up temporarily in Ramallah, is highly misleading. In addition to it being the provisional capital which alone brings in money, NGO staff and visitors as well as foreign government officials and media outlet employees that flock there have brought money and demand and have created an oasis or island in the middle of an ongoing occupation. What is happening in Ramallah is NOT being extrapolated to other areas of the Occupied Territories. See AFP article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i43IEYmXa230s-QZmiUcIDYkblVg

    4) Of course CAT equipment is used around the world for both good purposes – and probably for bad purposes as you mentioned – but this has nothing to do with the documented use of CAT equipment in violations of IHL and human rights law in the OPT which is what THIS blog entry is discussing.

    5) re: “…your boycott and disinvestment campaign against nasty Israel …” Please do read more carefully Judoo. This blog post is about corporate accountability and mentions ‘boycott and divestment’ nowhere except to say “Amnesty International takes no position on what tactics to use to achieve corporate responsibility (such as boycott and divestment initiatives, protests or direct actions); neither supporting, nor opposing them. It is simply outside our mandate, but we do support the principle that human rights due diligence is essential to fulfilling the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and to reduce the risk that they may become complicit in violations.”

    Apparently, even clarifying our position and explicitly stating that we neither support, nor oppose tactics such as boycotts and divestment initiatives, doesn’t stop you from reading, hearing, seeing what you want to read, hear, see.

    Amnesty Int’l does not take sides in a political conflict, but bases its work in support of universal human rights standards on well documented and credible research. Amnesty’s positions and recommendations are based on universally recognized and applicable international law. Attributing words and intentions to Amnesty or to myself to fit your warped interpretation is unhelpful.

    I have no problem letting you speak your mind, but if you’re going to address me directly, please stick to the facts and the blog entry information specifically so it is an intelligent conversation based on facts and avoids becoming simply mud-slinging.

    Thank you.

  32. I misspoke and should have said “homes”, not “buildings”

    B’tselem, the pro palestinain human rights group has not updated their statistics page on West Bank home demolitions in several months. The latest figures on the Btselem web site that I checked before I made my post state in fact 71 West Bank homes, and 9 Palestinian homes more within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem torn down for lack of building permits. I myself added ten more to err on the side of caution since the Btselem statistics are months old and this is how I brought the number up to 90 “homes” destroyed.
    http://www.btselem.org

    This destruction of 90 “homes”is opposed by what, Edie ?

    I will tell you.

    By the more than 2 billion dollars in West Bank Palestinian **construction** in 2010, including many many tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
    all with the full support and active cooperation of Israel

    Oh, but wait. I forgot.

    Edie, your theory is that the IMF, the UN, and various Arab Palestinian journalists working for Reuters and the New York Times, Al Jezeera, Maan Palestine News Service etc. that have all reported extensively on the West Bank economic growth and the building boom are all participants in some dark mysterious conspiracy to fake the economic success story that is the West Bank in 2010 and all these people are lying about the West Bank having a 9% economic growth rate, 5 star hotels, prada shoes and Mercedes Benz dealerships.

    You are arguing that this is all some big Zionist lie huh ? Is that where you are going with this Edie?

    Its all a lie according to you, Edie, especially that mythical imaginary city Rawabi which really is really not being constructed at all according to you, no, no, no.

    And all those tens of thousands of Palestinian homes and that beautiful modern city on the West Bank hills that 40,000 happy West Bank families will move into in less than 2 years, it is just one big mirage, a Zionist hologram intended to trick the world media and fake a new city into the Google Earth satellite photos, a complete figment of my fertile imagination.

    Sorry Edie, just because my facts clash with your little propaganda campaign does not make these facts not true.

  33. The headline reads "UN official condemns MASSIVE INCREASE in East Jerusalm house demolitions" [ all emphases mine ].

    The dateline is last Friday, 24 December, 2010… Not outdated news, but the very LATEST UPDATE.

    Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, says,

    " In 2010 almost FOUR HUNDRED STRUCTURES belonging to Palestinians were demolished in East Jerusalem & other areas under full Israeli control in the West Bank. As result, 561 people have been displaced, including 280 children, & the livelihoods of over 3,000 people have also been affected."

    Such actions, he said, " have a severe social & economic impact on the lives & welfare of Palestinians & increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance. THE POSITION OF THE UNITED NATIONS REMAINS that the Government of Israel must take IMMEDIATE STEPS TO CEASE DEMOLITIONS & EVICTIONS in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."

    Christmas Eve … not a time for concern or pessimism, you'd think …

    But the UN official for the Occupied Palestinian Territory ( OPT ) can give no joy to the world save his utmost concern.

    ***************************

    Volvo … another company whose bulldozers are being used right now in israel's demolitions of Palestinian homes.

    Volvo … a partner in the UN Global Compact, the UN's policy initiative for responsible business practices.

    Volvo, like Caterpillar, upholding principles of corporate responsibility …

    … while its bulldozers have demolished Bedouin homes & animal shelters in the Jordan Valley in recent weeks, killing baby goats & wounding many more animals …

    Volvo, whose bulldozers are destroying Palestinian homes in other places, & building the Apartheid Wall to steal yet more land….

    ***************************************

    i stand by Ms Garwood's position as detailed by her above.

    Mr Judoo's latest blog again mislabels her presentations with his wild eyed accusations.

    Nowhere dos she speak of "Zionist lies" as he accuses her of saying ….

    Indeed, "Zionist" is not a term she uses AT ALL, if memory serves …

    She is far too careful & conservative in her language, which is NEVER polemical or ideological, but rigorously limited solely to facts & information.

    The gap between reality….. & Judoo's representations of it …. yawns wider still.

  34. The headline reads “UN official condemns MASSIVE INCREASE in East Jerusalm house demolitions” [ all emphases mine ].

    The dateline is last Friday, 24 December, 2010… Not outdated news, but the very LATEST UPDATE.

    Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, says,

    ” In 2010 almost FOUR HUNDRED STRUCTURES belonging to Palestinians were demolished in East Jerusalem & other areas under full Israeli control in the West Bank. As result, 561 people have been displaced, including 280 children, & the livelihoods of over 3,000 people have also been affected.”

    Such actions, he said, ” have a severe social & economic impact on the lives & welfare of Palestinians & increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance. THE POSITION OF THE UNITED NATIONS REMAINS that the Government of Israel must take IMMEDIATE STEPS TO CEASE DEMOLITIONS & EVICTIONS in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

    Christmas Eve … not a time for concern or pessimism, you’d think …

    But the UN official for the Occupied Palestinian Territory ( OPT ) can give no joy to the world save his utmost concern.

    ***************************

    Volvo … another company whose bulldozers are being used right now in israel’s demolitions of Palestinian homes.

    Volvo … a partner in the UN Global Compact, the UN’s policy initiative for responsible business practices.

    Volvo, like Caterpillar, upholding principles of corporate responsibility …

    … while its bulldozers have demolished Bedouin homes & animal shelters in the Jordan Valley in recent weeks, killing baby goats & wounding many more animals …

    Volvo, whose bulldozers are destroying Palestinian homes in other places, & building the Apartheid Wall to steal yet more land….

    ***************************************

    i stand by Ms Garwood’s position as detailed by her above.

    Mr Judoo’s latest blog again mislabels her presentations with his wild eyed accusations.

    Nowhere dos she speak of “Zionist lies” as he accuses her of saying ….

    Indeed, “Zionist” is not a term she uses AT ALL, if memory serves …

    She is far too careful & conservative in her language, which is NEVER polemical or ideological, but rigorously limited solely to facts & information.

    The gap between reality….. & Judoo’s representations of it …. yawns wider still.

  35. Let's talk about big companies and their interests, which is nothing more than economic interest. Not Caterpillar or Volvo or any other company spends their time in politics if not the opposite, to accept money “without any conscience”, whatever are they dirty and abominable sources.
    Commercial corruption exists everywhere in the world, ethics and respect for human lives should be part of a policy state and although is not established in large companies, Governments of each country should control it.
    Israel is not only unfulfilling this responsibility if not also used and weaponized Caterpillar's products.
    The astute and sagacious policy managed by Ehud Barak and his President, evidenced the constant Israel’s betrayals towards the Palestinian people.
    This measures do not aimed at alleviating the problem, but rather to confuse international opinion.
    Palestinian people have shown the world its great capacity to rebuild itself in these last recent events. And now, after the unjust brutality with which he has been treated for many years by Israel, has a great moral and economic support of a large part of the world.
    Global observers are still not very convinced about Israel’s goals, For this reason US must ensure Palestinians Security.
    Shimon Peres Should faces the difficult task of convincing the whole world that Isrel’s goal is to find a peace compromise with the Palestinians to Share the Land: “twos states for to Peoples, and to end war forever” We hope, we hope, we hope…

  36. Let’s talk about big companies and their interests, which is nothing more than economic interest. Not Caterpillar or Volvo or any other company spends their time in politics if not the opposite, to accept money “without any conscience”, whatever are they dirty and abominable sources.
    Commercial corruption exists everywhere in the world, ethics and respect for human lives should be part of a policy state and although is not established in large companies, Governments of each country should control it.
    Israel is not only unfulfilling this responsibility if not also used and weaponized Caterpillar’s products.
    The astute and sagacious policy managed by Ehud Barak and his President, evidenced the constant Israel’s betrayals towards the Palestinian people.
    This measures do not aimed at alleviating the problem, but rather to confuse international opinion.
    Palestinian people have shown the world its great capacity to rebuild itself in these last recent events. And now, after the unjust brutality with which he has been treated for many years by Israel, has a great moral and economic support of a large part of the world.
    Global observers are still not very convinced about Israel’s goals, For this reason US must ensure Palestinians Security.
    Shimon Peres Should faces the difficult task of convincing the whole world that Isrel’s goal is to find a peace compromise with the Palestinians to Share the Land: “twos states for to Peoples, and to end war forever” We hope, we hope, we hope…

  37. Ms Elisabeth Simon,

    Your every thought you express with such care, precision & reason … & lead me, too, to each just & hopeful conclusion you reach yourself.

    Your dream for Palestine ….. it is what millions of people on Earth also dream of.

    Who will help save Palestine ?

    Governments won't check corporations.

    Shimon Peres won't compromise.

    The US won't defend Palestine.

    Only you … the millions who dream of peace & justice like you … can save Palestine …. & stop the corporations.

  38. Ms Elisabeth Simon,

    Your every thought you express with such care, precision & reason … & lead me, too, to each just & hopeful conclusion you reach yourself.

    Your dream for Palestine ….. it is what millions of people on Earth also dream of.

    Who will help save Palestine ?

    Governments won’t check corporations.

    Shimon Peres won’t compromise.

    The US won’t defend Palestine.

    Only you … the millions who dream of peace & justice like you … can save Palestine …. & stop the corporations.

  39. Thank You for your words, Dear Savage,
    said a French writer “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry”: In this world the most essential is invisible to our eyes.
    May not Simon Peris care anything about Palestine, may not EU want much bother with the safety of your people and may even some corporations continue to sell his soul and others souls for money.
    But what really move the world is the dream of million’s people who struggle every day for peace, justice and equality, and although this can not be seen by you, one can breathe each day in the sky and Palestinians air and also in Corporations like the Mövenpick hotel chain, in Bordeauxs French wines, at Zaman’s Cafes, in Mercedes Company, in famous designer’s shops like Valentino, Prada….
    If Palestinian people rose against abuses and feels up able to face hate and resentment caused by the war, nothing and nobody can stop them from growing.
    Just believe your pain… and change it for strength and hope.

  40. Thank You for your words, Dear Savage,
    said a French writer “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry”: In this world the most essential is invisible to our eyes.
    May not Simon Peris care anything about Palestine, may not EU want much bother with the safety of your people and may even some corporations continue to sell his soul and others souls for money.
    But what really move the world is the dream of million’s people who struggle every day for peace, justice and equality, and although this can not be seen by you, one can breathe each day in the sky and Palestinians air and also in Corporations like the Mövenpick hotel chain, in Bordeauxs French wines, at Zaman’s Cafes, in Mercedes Company, in famous designer’s shops like Valentino, Prada….
    If Palestinian people rose against abuses and feels up able to face hate and resentment caused by the war, nothing and nobody can stop them from growing.
    Just believe your pain… and change it for strength and hope.

  41. Dear Elisabeth,

    Your voice reaches my soul.

    St-Exupery speaks true … the "essential" IS invisible.

    May i add … the "essential" has no tongue.

    It cannot speak its heart.

    The People are rising …they are struggling, as you rightly demand of them.

    They "believe their pain" & turn it to strength, as you have said it so well !

    But every struggle needs to fight on 2 Fronts.

    An internal front & an external front.

    From INSIDE the Occupation, the People are fighting to be free.

    The Zionist settlers all around them inside the Occupied Territories speed around on THEIR highways with full freedom of movement.

    They have complete freedom of communication with the outside world.

    The Palestinians live on heaps of ruins, in their bulldozed homes inside roofless prisons ….

    ….they cannot move freely around the Land that once was theirs.

    ….they cannot communicate.

    They need the World People to press forward & continue the Boycott Divest Sanction Movement against the powerful Enemy from OUTSIDE.

    From inside the prison … & from outside.

    The Struggle is Together.

    The Struggle is Together.

  42. Dear Elisabeth,

    Your voice reaches my soul.

    St-Exupery speaks true … the “essential” IS invisible.

    May i add … the “essential” has no tongue.

    It cannot speak its heart.

    The People are rising …they are struggling, as you rightly demand of them.

    They “believe their pain” & turn it to strength, as you have said it so well !

    But every struggle needs to fight on 2 Fronts.

    An internal front & an external front.

    From INSIDE the Occupation, the People are fighting to be free.

    The Zionist settlers all around them inside the Occupied Territories speed around on THEIR highways with full freedom of movement.

    They have complete freedom of communication with the outside world.

    The Palestinians live on heaps of ruins, in their bulldozed homes inside roofless prisons ….

    ….they cannot move freely around the Land that once was theirs.

    ….they cannot communicate.

    They need the World People to press forward & continue the Boycott Divest Sanction Movement against the powerful Enemy from OUTSIDE.

    From inside the prison … & from outside.

    The Struggle is Together.

    The Struggle is Together.

  43. Dear Savage,
    because I am not from any Islamic country, I need my time to understand Islamic events. I would like to provide a remedy to the terminally sickness of this World, this lack of peace and understanding that Leads the World to a deep agony.
    I’ll never understand Zionism’s conservative darkness and his necessary murder on the God’s name.
    We, the Europeans have been educated in the belief of the World’s complexity and the understanding’s psychological aspects of things.
    I like what you say about struggles, that “every struggle needs to fight on 2 Fronts.” that “The struggle is together”.
    Perhaps there is only a problem: Israel's necessity to get rid of his brain trauma.
    I wonder if Israel has been able to regain a sense of stability.
    Maybe the responsible fact for effusive and vengeful actions is nothing more than the psychological makeup for this outpouring revenge: the incompatibility of the present with the material of memories.
    The urgent necessity to feel proud of his own country, feeling that a country is for life, especially if is a country that lost millions of souls in the 2º war.
    A race destroyed by a psychopathic and xenophobic nation rejecting the Jewish status,
    I’m sure the memory of the past reflects the present reality by using their victim complex in the Holocaust Absence.
    A country, whose only purpose was to survive, has a stronger sense of loss and permanence.
    Sometimes the memory of the past reflects the present reality, the differences or contrasts between Israel and Palestine wouldn’t be so remarkable if the Holocaust had not existed.
    There is still a struggle to win, the wounds and marks left by cruelty, tyrannies and blind violence of many wars.
    Your words are clear: “every struggle needs to fight on 2 Fronts.” “The struggle is together”.

  44. Dear Elisabeth,

    When we suffer …. we Know the PAIN OF IT IN OTHERS.

    Zionism does not know this pain.

    Why ?

    Because it's born out of the invasion of a people…. the displacement of a people.

    ********

    Yes, you are right to speak of the memory of pain, the memory of the Holocaust.

    Zionism never faced this memory WHERE IT HAPPENED…. in EUROPE.

    Instead, it RAN AWAY from this memory where it happened … by invading & displacing a different, distant People who had NOT caused the Holocaust AT ALL..

    When you ABUSE & MISUSE MEMORY … by inflicting its pain on others who are IN NO WAY a part of what CAUSED your pain, then "Zionism" & "israel" is what you will produce.

    Do you know Holocaust survivors have generally faced intolerance & dislike in israel ….. & theft of their money by israeli banks ?

    It's because israel uses them … & when you use people you don't respect them anymore.

    *******

    Read Norman Finkelstein.

    He's the great Jewish scholar of our time.

    Read his book "The Holocaust Industry" ( published by Verso )….

    About how the Holocaust is misused by Zionism .

    Raul Hilberg, the greatest Jewish scholar on the Holocaust, has declared he agrees completely with Finkelstein.

    Finkelstein …….. & many other Jewish writers today …. show how the Holocaust is being used to FUEL the USraeli imperialist & colonialist project in the Middle East.

    **************

    When i speak of a people's struggle, i speak of an oppressed people struggling on THEIR OWN …& ENTIRE …. land.

    To recover & return to that stolen earth … & its memory.

  45. Dear Savage,
    because I am not from any Islamic country, I need my time to understand Islamic events. I would like to provide a remedy to the terminally sickness of this World, this lack of peace and understanding that Leads the World to a deep agony.
    I’ll never understand Zionism’s conservative darkness and his necessary murder on the God’s name.
    We, the Europeans have been educated in the belief of the World’s complexity and the understanding’s psychological aspects of things.
    I like what you say about struggles, that “every struggle needs to fight on 2 Fronts.” that “The struggle is together”.
    Perhaps there is only a problem: Israel’s necessity to get rid of his brain trauma.
    I wonder if Israel has been able to regain a sense of stability.
    Maybe the responsible fact for effusive and vengeful actions is nothing more than the psychological makeup for this outpouring revenge: the incompatibility of the present with the material of memories.
    The urgent necessity to feel proud of his own country, feeling that a country is for life, especially if is a country that lost millions of souls in the 2º war.
    A race destroyed by a psychopathic and xenophobic nation rejecting the Jewish status,
    I’m sure the memory of the past reflects the present reality by using their victim complex in the Holocaust Absence.
    A country, whose only purpose was to survive, has a stronger sense of loss and permanence.
    Sometimes the memory of the past reflects the present reality, the differences or contrasts between Israel and Palestine wouldn’t be so remarkable if the Holocaust had not existed.
    There is still a struggle to win, the wounds and marks left by cruelty, tyrannies and blind violence of many wars.
    Your words are clear: “every struggle needs to fight on 2 Fronts.” “The struggle is together”.

  46. Dear Elisabeth,

    When we suffer …. we Know the PAIN OF IT IN OTHERS.

    Zionism does not know this pain.

    Why ?

    Because it’s born out of the invasion of a people…. the displacement of a people.

    ********

    Yes, you are right to speak of the memory of pain, the memory of the Holocaust.

    Zionism never faced this memory WHERE IT HAPPENED…. in EUROPE.

    Instead, it RAN AWAY from this memory where it happened … by invading & displacing a different, distant People who had NOT caused the Holocaust AT ALL..

    When you ABUSE & MISUSE MEMORY … by inflicting its pain on others who are IN NO WAY a part of what CAUSED your pain, then “Zionism” & “israel” is what you will produce.

    Do you know Holocaust survivors have generally faced intolerance & dislike in israel ….. & theft of their money by israeli banks ?

    It’s because israel uses them … & when you use people you don’t respect them anymore.

    *******

    Read Norman Finkelstein.

    He’s the great Jewish scholar of our time.

    Read his book “The Holocaust Industry” ( published by Verso )….

    About how the Holocaust is misused by Zionism .

    Raul Hilberg, the greatest Jewish scholar on the Holocaust, has declared he agrees completely with Finkelstein.

    Finkelstein …….. & many other Jewish writers today …. show how the Holocaust is being used to FUEL the USraeli imperialist & colonialist project in the Middle East.

    **************

    When i speak of a people’s struggle, i speak of an oppressed people struggling on THEIR OWN …& ENTIRE …. land.

    To recover & return to that stolen earth … & its memory.

  47. Here in this video you can watch some of the evil Zionist Caterpillars building a new PALESTINIAN city, for 40,000 Palestinians to have nice homes and schools for their children and hospitals and good jobs and maybe even a college or two, and where maybe, just maybe, if this is protected and nurtured by all decent humans, the seeds of a future without war between the two peoples, Arab and Jew, the dream of every sane person, peace, complete and once and for all conflict ending peace, two national homes, one for Jews one for Palestinians, sharing the holy land and living side by side as good neighbors, can be planted and sprout and flourish.

    http://online.wsj.com/video/palestinian-authority

    This video is clearly some kind of Zionist trick photography.
    What will these crafty Zionists stoop to next?

  48. Here in this video you can watch some of the evil Zionist Caterpillars building a new PALESTINIAN city, for 40,000 Palestinians to have nice homes and schools for their children and hospitals and good jobs and maybe even a college or two, and where maybe, just maybe, if this is protected and nurtured by all decent humans, the seeds of a future without war between the two peoples, Arab and Jew, the dream of every sane person, peace, complete and once and for all conflict ending peace, two national homes, one for Jews one for Palestinians, sharing the holy land and living side by side as good neighbors, can be planted and sprout and flourish.

    http://online.wsj.com/video/palestinian-authority

    This video is clearly some kind of Zionist trick photography.
    What will these crafty Zionists stoop to next?

  49. Here in this video you can watch some of the evil Zionist Caterpillars building a new PALESTINIAN city, for 40,000 Palestinians to have nice homes and schools for their children and hospitals and good jobs and maybe even a college or two, and where maybe, just maybe, if this is protected and nurtured by all decent humans, the seeds of a future without war between the two peoples, Arab and Jew, the dream of every sane person, peace, complete and once and for all conflict ending peace, two national homes, one for Jews one for Palestinians, sharing the holy land and living side by side as good neighbors, can be planted and sprout and flourish.

    http://online.wsj.com/video/palestinian-authority

    This video is clearly some kind of Zionist trick photography.
    What will these crafty Zionists stoop to next?

  50. Into incoherence of nostalgia…. the horros of the moon's change, the corruption of and absolute time that makes us objects, multiplies our natural loneliness. Time that is intolerant of the brave and innocent, and indeferent to a human life. worships language and forgives Everyone by whom its lives; Pardons cowardice, conceit, Lays its honours attheir feet. I had never heard of any world where promises were kept or one could weep because another wept
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud5E8WMSotQ&fe

    I do not want to see a single death between these two countries, I'll pray to God, Alà…or whatever your God is, gives to each people peace, love and freedom they deserve. And both: Zionists and Muslims should know how to show the world the ability to forgive..

  51. Here in this video you can watch some of the evil Zionist Caterpillars building a new PALESTINIAN city, for 40,000 Palestinians to have nice homes and schools for their children and hospitals and good jobs and maybe even a college or two, and where maybe, just maybe, if this is protected and nurtured by all decent humans, the seeds of a future without war between the two peoples, Arab and Jew, the dream of every sane person, peace, complete and once and for all conflict ending peace, two national homes, one for Jews one for Palestinians, sharing the holy land and living side by side as good neighbors, can be planted and sprout and flourish.

    http://online.wsj.com/video/palestinian-authority-plans-city-builds-statehood/0CDA2976-5EB2-403F-BFBB-54A6D42CC499.html?KEYWORDS=RawabiKEYWORDS%3DRawabi

    This video is clearly some kind of Zionist trick photography.
    What will these crafty Zionists stoop to next?

  52. Into incoherence of nostalgia…. the horros of the moon's change, the corruption of and absolute time that makes us objects, multiplies our natural loneliness. Time that is intolerant of the brave and innocent, and indeferent to a human life. worships language and forgives Everyone by whom its lives; Pardons cowardice, conceit, Lays its honours attheir feet. I had never heard of any world where promises were kept or one could weep because another wept
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud5E8WMSotQ&fe

    I do not want to see a single death between these two countries, I'll pray to God, Alà…or whatever your God is, gives to each people peace, love and freedom they deserve. And both: Zionists and Muslims should know how to show the world the ability to forgive..

  53. Into incoherence of nostalgia…. the horros of the moon's change, the corruption of and absolute time that makes us objects, multiplies our natural loneliness. Time that is intolerant of the brave and innocent, and indeferent to a human life. worships language and forgives Everyone by whom its lives; Pardons cowardice, conceit, Lays its honours attheir feet. I had never heard of any world where promises were kept or one could weep because another wept
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud5E8WMSotQ&fe

    I do not want to see a single death between these two countries, I'll pray to God, Alà…or whatever your God is, gives to each people peace, love and freedom they deserve. And both: Zionists and Muslims should know how to show the world the ability to forgive..

  54. Into incoherence of nostalgia…. the horros of the moon’s change, the corruption of and absolute time that makes us objects, multiplies our natural loneliness. Time that is intolerant of the brave and innocent, and indeferent to a human life. worships language and forgives Everyone by whom its lives; Pardons cowardice, conceit, Lays its honours attheir feet. I had never heard of any world where promises were kept or one could weep because another wept

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud5E8WMSotQ&feature=player_embedded

    I do not want to see a single death between these two countries, I’ll pray to God, Alà…or whatever your God is, gives to each people peace, love and freedom they deserve. And both: Zionists and Muslims should know how to show the world the ability to forgive..

  55. Where's the border in israel ?

    The border is not where you look for it or expect it, says Oren Ziv, israeli photojournalist.

    Where Palestinians are concerned, israel sends the border police to deal with them EVERYWHERE.

    THIS mobile border , says Ziv, runs between Tel Aviv & Jaffa, & right within communities in the city of Lyd.

    He says this after he watches Palestinian children returning home from school in Lyd, only to find BULLDOZERS guarded by israeli border police finishing the transformation of their homes into rubble, with all their belongings buried under them.

    BULLDOZERS destroy alAraqib & many other Bedouin villages …. & threaten DOZENS of others …. indigenous Bedouin villages that have been here BEFORE ISRAEL EVEN EXISTED !!

    Human Rights Watch speaks about israel's demolitions being carried out on the basis of race & ethnicity … demolitions going against all laws protecting human rights.

    While Judo singlehandedly recreates a sovereign, independent , even FLOURISHING Palestine with the same carefree inventiveness with which he reinvents new versions of his own name, a harrassed Barbara Shenstone of the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees tells the very OPPOSITE story about the Palestinian demolitions.

    She describes israel's policies as "cruel & distressing."

    She comments scathingly, "While children around the world are enjoying the holiday season in their homes, these [ Palestinian ] children have suffered the trauma & indignity of watching their homes destroyed in the presence of their parents."

    In Sur Bahir village a Palestinian family has even been made to do the work of the BULLDOZERS themselves, being made to demolish their own home with their own hands after being threatened by israeli authorities with a higher bill if they waited til the municipality had to come to demolish their home for them !!

  56. Dear savage,
    In this world there is no greater power than the information, and I can see that you have a peaceful time bomb in your hands that is the truth. Not only Palestine truth. Humbler’s, helpless, weakest truth, and thousands people who die or are killed unjustly worldwide. All they are victims of ambition, ignorance, selfishness and the evil whose danger lies ahead of us.
    I will follow you in the various issues that Amnesty International describes, if you do not mind…
    I have the need to know who I am, where I am and what my cause is.

  57. Where’s the border in israel ?

    The border is not where you look for it or expect it, says Oren Ziv, israeli photojournalist.

    Where Palestinians are concerned, israel sends the border police to deal with them EVERYWHERE.

    THIS mobile border , says Ziv, runs between Tel Aviv & Jaffa, & right within communities in the city of Lyd.

    He says this after he watches Palestinian children returning home from school in Lyd, only to find BULLDOZERS guarded by israeli border police finishing the transformation of their homes into rubble, with all their belongings buried under them.

    BULLDOZERS destroy alAraqib & many other Bedouin villages …. & threaten DOZENS of others …. indigenous Bedouin villages that have been here BEFORE ISRAEL EVEN EXISTED !!

    Human Rights Watch speaks about israel’s demolitions being carried out on the basis of race & ethnicity … demolitions going against all laws protecting human rights.

    While Judo singlehandedly recreates a sovereign, independent , even FLOURISHING Palestine with the same carefree inventiveness with which he reinvents new versions of his own name, a harrassed Barbara Shenstone of the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees tells the very OPPOSITE story about the Palestinian demolitions.

    She describes israel’s policies as “cruel & distressing.”

    She comments scathingly, “While children around the world are enjoying the holiday season in their homes, these [ Palestinian ] children have suffered the trauma & indignity of watching their homes destroyed in the presence of their parents.”

    In Sur Bahir village a Palestinian family has even been made to do the work of the BULLDOZERS themselves, being made to demolish their own home with their own hands after being threatened by israeli authorities with a higher bill if they waited til the municipality had to come to demolish their home for them !!

  58. Dear savage,
    In this world there is no greater power than the information, and I can see that you have a peaceful time bomb in your hands that is the truth. Not only Palestine truth. Humbler’s, helpless, weakest truth, and thousands people who die or are killed unjustly worldwide. All they are victims of ambition, ignorance, selfishness and the evil whose danger lies ahead of us.
    I will follow you in the various issues that Amnesty International describes, if you do not mind…
    I have the need to know who I am, where I am and what my cause is.

  59. Mr Savage would seem to have a bias in his many ranting posts.He seems to state many of his personal beliefs and opinions as fact in a rather Dan Brown fashion. This does the cause of Palestine and Bedouin's no favours whatsoever!
    Anyone with even a basic education would be aware of the fact that Bedouin tribes did not and do not build villages. They are an ethnically nomadic people who live in tents, not villages! It was the combined actions of Jordan, Egypt and Syria forbidding the Bedouin to cross their lands ( which they had been doing for many century's ) which has caused the present situation in Israel to arise. Israel,( despite its many sins); is the only country in the region to offer the Bedouin's a right of passage and grant the full cultural expression of the Nomadic lifestyle within Israel ! This of course does not in any way excuse the disgraceful destruction of peoples homes and lives,but the fact still remains,the Bedouin,s plight is a direct consequence of Jordanian, Egyptian and Syrian policy ! Before you Blogg,know your facts! ! !
    Richard.E.Craig

  60. Mr Savage would seem to have a bias in his many ranting posts.He seems to state many of his personal beliefs and opinions as fact in a rather Dan Brown fashion. This does the cause of Palestine and Bedouin’s no favours whatsoever!
    Anyone with even a basic education would be aware of the fact that Bedouin tribes did not and do not build villages. They are an ethnically nomadic people who live in tents, not villages! It was the combined actions of Jordan, Egypt and Syria forbidding the Bedouin to cross their lands ( which they had been doing for many century’s ) which has caused the present situation in Israel to arise. Israel,( despite its many sins); is the only country in the region to offer the Bedouin’s a right of passage and grant the full cultural expression of the Nomadic lifestyle within Israel ! This of course does not in any way excuse the disgraceful destruction of peoples homes and lives,but the fact still remains,the Bedouin,s plight is a direct consequence of Jordanian, Egyptian and Syrian policy ! Before you Blogg,know your facts! ! !
    Richard.E.Craig

  61. Do you have a Youtube channel as well with this kind of content on it? I would love to see this post turned into a longer video if possible. Maybe I can share on it on my website.

Comments are closed.