Product Description
Chapters: Human Rights in Israel, Israeli Apartheid Week, Jeff Halper, Brian Avery. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Land of IsraelDistricts Cities TransportationMediterranean Sea Red SeaDead Sea Sea of GalileeJerusalem Tel Aviv Haifa Human rights in Israel have been evaluated by various human rights treaty bodies, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals, often in relation to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict which forms part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel internal politics. When analyzing Israel's human rights records, most observers agree that it is important to maintain the distinction between Israel proper and the territories that it currently occupies (Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza strip). However, residents of the Golan Heights are entitled to citizenship, voting rights and residency that allows them to travel within Israel's borders. Israel proper is a multiparty parliamentary democracy, and while it is a Jewish state,, it includes religious and ethnic minorities. Some of these claim de facto discrimination. In the Palestinian territories, successive Israeli governments have been subject to severe criticism by other governments and human rights groups inside and outside the country. While Israel does not have a constitution, it has a set of Basic Laws, intended to form the basis of a future constitution. One of those Basic Laws, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, serves as one of the major tools for defending human rights and civil liberties. David Ben-Gurion proclaiming independence of Israel.A longstanding diplomatic precedent required that religious and minority rights in the territory of newly created states be guaranteed and placed under international protection. T...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=6065693 ... Read more

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"The Israel Yearbook on Human Rights" - an annual published under the auspices of the Faculty of Law of Tel Aviv University since 1971 - is devoted to publishing studies by distinguished scholars in Israel and other countries on human rights in peace and war, with particular emphasis on problems relevant to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The Yearbook also incorporates documentary materials relating to Israel and the Administered Areas which are not otherwise available in English (including summaries of judicial decisions, compilations of legislative enactments and military proclamations). ... Read more

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In 1948 many Palestinians became citizens of an alien country. This book examines the struggle of the Palestinian community in Israel through local community iniatitives. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from APS Diplomat Recorder, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on November 11, 2000. The length of the article is 1344 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ISRAEL - Nov.10 - Amnesty Attacks.(Israel condemned by Amnesty International)(Brief Article)
Publication: APS Diplomat Recorder (Newsletter)
Date: November 11, 2000
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 53Issue: 19Page: NA

Article Type: Brief Article

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As the Oslo Peace Process has given way to the violence of the second intifada, this book explores the continuing legacy of Oslo in the everyday life of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Taking a perspective that sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a conflict over the distribution of legal rights, it focuses on the daily concerns of West Bank Palestinians, and explores the meanings, limitations and potential of legal claims in the context of the region's structures of governance. Kelly argues that fundamental contradictions in the process through which the West Bank has been ruled and misruled have resulted in an unstable mixture of legality, fear and uncertainty. Based on long term ethnographic fieldwork, this book provides an insight into how the wider Middle East conflict manifests itself through the daily encounters of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, offering an evocative and theoretically informed account of the relationship between law, peace-building and violence. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Harvard International Review, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 665 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Perpetuating conflict.(CORRESPONDENCE)(in Palestine)
Author: Joseph Massad
Publication: Harvard International Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 27Issue: 4Page: 5(1)

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Customer Reviews (1)

Absurd and useless propaganda
We've seen plenty of very strange remarks from Joseph Massad.He's a very strong opponent of human rights for Israeli Jews, but he's said that he is in fact pro-Jewish!Well, that is something I would never guess, and I certainly have not seen any evidence for that.

Massad has also talked about a "witch hunt" at Columbia University.That surely is a good analogy. MEALAC, the Middle East studies group at Columbia that Massad is a part of, has demonized Israel in a manner that resembles a Salem Witchcraft trial.But Massad instead complains that the witch hunters are those who oppose him!

The intolerance shown by those who do not abide human rights for Middle Eastern Jews is a serious problem at Columbia University.Could this intolerance be called "McCarthyism?"Perhaps.But Massad turns this around, calling those who want to defend free speech the McCarthyists.

It is no surprise that Massad opposes the Geneva Initiative as giving too much to the Zionists and not enough to the anti-Zionists.I don't think much of the Geneva Initiative either.I think that its suggestions probably will not be helpful.And I think that if some of its ideas do turn out to be of some value, it will be only if peace is already achieved by some other means.

I do think that it is relevant that the Geneva Initiative is opposed by many Jews and Arabs.I think we need to realize that this does not mean that this initiative must be perfect, or balanced, or good in some respect.All it means is that many people on both sides think it is no good.And I think it really does offer very little to either side.Peace would in fact be a great benefit to both sides, but I do not believe that the Geneva Initiative would make peace very likely were it to be "adopted."

I was hoping that this article would make some good points.But I just can't find them.There is an issue about how many Levantine Arabs are truly represented by Arafat's gang.But I think a more important issue is how to represent all those who want to own or live on Levantine land as well as enjoy human rights there.

Massad also says that some of Israel's laws are racist.One example he picks is the Law of Return.Well, Massad is wrong; these laws are not racist.The Law of Return merely grants human rights to prospective and actual Israeli Jews.Non-Jews are allowed to immigrate to Israel too. And the Law of Return does allow Israel to fulfill its charter of being a refuge for persecuted people, especially persecuted Jews.In the same way, Hungarians can move to Hungary, and Germans can move to Germany.Laws permitting this are not racist either.

The government of Hungary does not have jurisdiction over Hungarians who are citizens of other nations.But it does have the option of trying to address concerns of Hungarians (or, say, Hungarian-speakers) worldwide, and sometimes it does so.Similarly, Israel has the option of addressing concerns of Hebrew-speakers worldwide, and sometimes it does that.I think that Massad is wrong to complain about this at all, and I think if he has a genuine point to make, he ought not waste our time with such stuff.

Will the Geneva Initiative perpetuate conflict?Well, I certainly do not think it will help end it.As for Massad, he's a big part of the problem, and I think he's done far more than his share to perpetuate a truly counterproductive fight against human rights.
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Product Description
In this insightful new book, a leading Palestinian commentator,analyzes where Palestinians and Israelis are now—eight years after the Oslo Accords of 1993 and the peace process they were supposed to have begun. Bishara shows how the asymmetry of power between Palestinians (the occupied) and Israelis (the occupiers) was ignored by patrons of the Oslo peace process—notably the US. Running counter to the prevailing support for the Oslo process, this evocative new book shows how it was in fact doomed from the start. Inviting the reader to look ahead, Bishara examines the demographic, political, and security stakes, and explores the avenues that eventually could lead both sides to a just and durable peace.
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Customer Reviews (4)

He's got to be kidding
In this incredible display of projection, Marwan Bishara presents nonsense instead of any sort of case.

The author does not like Ariel Sharon.As a matter of fact, he'd probably want to indict Sharon for crimes against humanity.It is as if Bishara does not realize that most Arab "moderates" (not to mention the extremists) are well to the right, politically, of fascism, and even further to the right of Sharon.And if Bishara doesn't like Sharon, just why didn't he oppose the Arab violence that preceded (and helped ensure) Sharon's election?

As near as I can tell, Bishara wants to turn back the clock a couple of centuries, perhaps to a time when Blacks and Jews, um, knew their place.Well, I'm a liberal and I certainly oppose a return to those days.The author says that another de Klerk is needed.I agree.An Arab de Klerk.

Bishara wants the Arabs to swipe part or all of Israel's capital, Jerusalem.And to support this idea, he appears to pretend that the Arabs, not Israel, are land-poor and Israel, not the Arabs, are land-rich holders of millions of square miles.He pretends that the disputed West Bank is "occupied" territory.And he seems to want to destroy Israel by pumping in Arabs who promise to vote to abolish human rights for Jews there. Well, maybe he ought to consider the possibility that what goes around can come around.Greedy and dishonest aggressors do not always win.World War Two proved that.

The author keeps talking about Israel, Israel, and Israel as if Israel were the solution to all of the world's problems.But it isn't.He and those who agree with him ought to grow up.

NOT FOR EVERYONE
If you happen to be a Palestinian or relate to the media's version of a Palestinian Cause, looking to feed your fervor, this book is definitely for you.If you happen to have a pro-Israel stance and bear an intellectual capacity to distinguish between pseudo scholarly bias and nonsense, this book is also for you (you'll be able to cement your case).BUT, if you are someone with common sense looking for a somewhat truthful or dare I say historic approach to this sensitive material, than save your money and buy another book or take a class in Middle Eastern Affaires.This work is quite weak, tedious, and appears to have been fallen victim to horribly poor translation (there's no indication that this work has been translated, however, it's quite apparent by the outrageous use of language in the book that something's odd). Perhaps my opinion of this book might improve were I to read the Arabic version, should one actually exist, and provided the laughable content was in fact a blundering consequence of the translation.

Overcoming American Disinformation
As a fairly secular American Christian I feel relatively nonpartisan in this tragic and ongoing confrontation.However, the more I have interacted with Israelis and Palestinians over the past 3 years, the more I began to feel that the debates between them did not square with my understanding of the conflict.Especially with respect to the peace process after 1993 and the entire involvement of the Clinton administration.

This book is a powerful, succint and spot-on antidote to the heavily biased media coverage in the United States.It presents the Palestinian case in an articulate fashion and lays out why seemingly fair proposals were designed such that their implementation would have either been impossible or deeply favorable to the stae of Israel.

But above all, Bishara explores the less tangible elements of the conflict which are oft ignored, yet are perhaps the most crucial dimensions.Who is "guilty"?Who will emerge as the "benevolent" party in the conflict?Who is generous & fair, and who is hateful and untrustworthy?These attributes Bishara argues are deeply skewed to the advantage of the Israelis under nearly all current negotiations, no matter what their strictly territorial or other tangible aspects.These psychological dimensions are what remain unaddressed and are what will perpetuate the violence which has already harmed so many.

Read this book if only for the sake of those whose voice goes unheard.

an intellectual alternative
These days, Marwan Bishara's older brother, Azmi Bishara, the Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, is being prosecuted for political statements he made in Syria and Um-Al-Fahm. As a Palestinian living in Israel, i sympathize with Azmi Bishara and point an accusing finger at Israel's hypocritical and racist "democratic" machinery. My accusations do not stem from hate nor from any racist basis, but from a belief in the justice of the Palestinian cause, and the belief in a future where Palestinians and Jews will be able to live together in peace and as equals. However, Marwan Bishara's analysis of the Palestinian/Israeli dispute current condition enlightens the reader with details that have not been highlighted during the conflict in the last decade. Marwan is a penetrating critic of Israeli and American policies. He guides the reader through layers and layers of details concerning the dispute on a very profound level. During his analysis, the reader gets to know the true origins of the term 'Tanzim', and how the Israeli secret security service(Shabak) turned it into a name of a notorious terrorist group that did not exist. Marwan also provides the reader with information about Al Gore's motivation for supporting the Oslo Agreement, and about his economical interest in the success of the agreement. This book should be read with an open mind, and the reader should prepare him/herself for fundamental changes in his/her perception of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. ... Read more

Product Description
This text tells the story of Amnon Zichroni, the Israeli civil rights lawyer whose legal and political battles from the early 1950s reveal a hitherto unknown chapter in the history of Israel: the struggle for human and civil rights in the occupied territories. Michael Keren's narrative explores the seminal court cases in which Zichroni challenged the definition of citizenship by nationalist criteria, opposed the construction of West Bank settlement, and defended freedom of the press, of association, and of religion. The work offers a portrayal of one man's campaign for justice in an embattled nation struggling to balance security imperatives with the rule of law. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Middle East Policy, published by Middle East Policy Council on December 22, 2009. The length of the article is 8330 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Is anti-Zionism anti-Semitic? Jewish critics speak.(Joel Beinin, George Soros, Ben Ehrenreich)
Author: Edward C. Corrigan
Publication: Middle East Policy (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2009
Publisher: Middle East Policy Council
Volume: 16Issue: 4Page: 146(14)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from UN Chronicle, published by United Nations Publications on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1905 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The new anti-Semitism: graffiti on the walls of history.(Thinking Aloud)
Author: Mortimer B. Zuckerman
Publication: UN Chronicle (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: United Nations Publications
Volume: 41Issue: 4Page: 34(2)

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In times of war, human rights violations often go unreported. In Israel and the Occupied Territories, where ongoing conflict has killed many thousands, abuses of human rights are commonplace, but these stories seldom reach the outside world. This book redresses that balance: taken from documents produced by international human rights groups -- and assembled by the international journalist's organisation Reporters sans Frontieres -- it provides an authoritative account of human rights violations that have taken place on both sides of the conflict since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000.

Unlike conventional reportage or partisan polemic, these accounts of abuses and violations are careful not to overdramatise the story. Instead, they offer as objective an account as possible of the degradations that both Israelis and Palestinians have suffered. In this way the book provides an important assessment of the conflict's continuing impact on both communities.

The reports are taken from groups including Amnesty International, The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, Human Rights Watch, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, B’Tselem and Reporters sans Frontieres. Almost all have remained largely unknown to the wider world until now.

Bringing these abuses to public attention for the first time, this book is both an important historical document, and a sobering account of what is going on in Israel and Palestine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Grim, unpalatable truths.
In this selection of reports on Israel and the occupied territories, supplied by eight human rights organisations, various issues - such as terrorism, torture and press freedom - are analysed in relation to the overall policy and modus operandi of either side of the conflict. As such it stands as a timely corrective to the media manipulation in both camps which, besides routine censorship, has also entailed violence against journalists attempting to report from troubled areas. The stance of the editors (`Reporters Without Borders') is objective and non-partisan. Incidents and situations are described, and where they show some provision of international law being flouted crtiticisms are made accordingly. The premise is established that, in any discussion of human rights, whether the behaviour of the oppressor or the underdog is being considered, the same standards of justice and morality apply.

Of particular interest are the reports by Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations which focus on abuses perpetrated by their own side. For example B'Tselem, the Israeli Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, considers the Israeli Defence Force's programme of house demolition and destruction of agricultural areas, without warning, in the Gaza Strip after the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada. Despite Israel's special pleading along the lines of `pressing military necessity' B'Tselem finds the IDF action to be indiscriminate, amounting to collective punishment, and thus constituting a violation of international humanitarian law. It notes Israel's failure to respect the principle of proportionality which requires hostile parties to discriminate between civilians and combatants, and also condemns the IDF - or certain stray elements thereof - for targetting clearly marked ambulances.

On the subject of torture in Israel, Chapter 9 consists of a report by Israel's own Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. It discusses a 1999 ruling by the country's Supreme Court which determined that torture routinely inflicted on Palestinian detainees by the General Security Service was no longer acceptable, despite the contrary view being held by virtually the entire political establishment and a large section of the public. However, difficulties in defining what constitutes the `reasonable interrogation' recommended by the High Court have meant that, two years after the ruling (at the time of the PCATI report's publication - September 2002), methods of ill-treatment were still being used by the GSS. Graphic details of their interrogation techniques are described and the report concludes pessimistically, regretting that, despite any accusations levelled against them by detainees,the GSS are under no legal obligation to give an account of their actions.

The section on Palestine takes up a mere 25% of the book's 200-odd pages.
This may be seen as simply a reaction against the familiar skewed media treatment of the issue which has unjustly downplayed or ignored Israel's human rights abuses, and the compilers of these reports perhaps felt a need to redress the balance. In any event, the case made here against Palestinian terrorism and corruption within the Palestinian Authority is damning enough. Israel's democratic credentials are highlighted by its Supreme Court ruling on torture whereas, at the time of the Human Rights Watch report cited here (November 2000), no semblance of an independent judiciary existed under the Palestinian Authority. On the matter of press freedom the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, based in Gaza City, depicts a repressive scenario under Yasser Arafat's tenure in which journalists were frequently harassed and press institutions closed for publishing certain news items. Though nowhere explicitly stated it is clear that Israel's independent `Haaretz' daily newspaper - which frequently criticises Israeli policy -has (or had) no Palestinian counterpart.

Contributions by Amnesty International deal with attacks on Israeli civilians carried out by, specifically, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Both these organisations are associated with the cult of martyrdom and have used suicide bombers. Numerous terrorist attacks are mentioned including one carried out on an Israeli settlement on the West Bank in April 2002 in which five-year old Danielle Shefi was killed while hiding from a gunman. This incident, which also claimed the lives of three adults, was described by the military wing of Hamas as `an heroic and daring operation'. Palestinian political leader Dr Hanan `Ashrawi is quoted as condemning these atrocities along with the silence held by extremist elements in her community who feel that their own suffering cancels out any moral obligation. Amnesty International concludes, on the basis of its work in the region and other areas of conflict around the world, that the cycle of violence will only be broken if all parties respect human rights as part of a major and concerted effort to achieve peace.

Some mild criticism of this book is occasioned by its all too brief, though not inaccurate, historical overview in the introduction. Also, an Amnesty International report is included which fails to address the contentious, unresolved issue of the Muhammad Jamal al-Dura killing in September 2000, responsibility for which continues to be hotly disputed. However, this does not detract from the horrors described on page after page or the credibility of accounts by victims and eyewitnesses. Indeed, these first-hand testimonies cut through the official propaganda of either side and provide solid substantiation of the case made by human rights organisations against both Israel and the PA. Human Rights Watch's account of the Jenin incursion, for example, quotes various inhabitants of the camp who endured, or witnessed, examples of summary justice meted out by rogue IDF elements. Although clearly the intention was to flush out suicide bombers and destroy the infrastructure they used, that grim episode stands as yet another example of Israel's tactics which, far from combatting terrorism, seem merely to incite more.

Inevitably those who have the candour and honesty to document the brutal excesses committed by their own side are despised, effectively, as collaborators. Sources other than this volume reveal that B'Tselem staff have received telephoned death threats and been assaulted in the street by mobs. Meanwhile the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has come under a more insidious form of attack. Torture defender and professional hoax merchant Alan Dershowitz, who makes regular appearances in the media, once infamously claimed in a talk at Toronto's York University that the PCATI told him it no longer had any torture to investigate. It is a claim strenuously denied by the Committee which, more than three years after the eminent Harvard professor's statement, referred in a July 2003 report to 48 affidavits showing that torture by Israeli authorities was ongoing and that therefore the Committee still had a vital role to play.

For the benefit of those requiring a complete update on this, and on all of the other issues discussed, the book has an appendix which helpfully provides websites of all the contributor organisations. In conclusion the words of B'Tselem director Eitan Felner, quoted on Christian Aid's website, seem apposite.; `When I, as an Israeli, witness these injustices, I feel indignant that these things are done in my name.I feel I am responsible. If I don't try to stop it, I am an accomplice - I am guilty aswell'.

Part of the problem
There is a war going on in the Levant.And people are indeed getting hurt on both sides.Ought we document abuses of human rights?Of course.What about manipulation of the media?Ought we document that as well?Yes! And a book that did that honestly would be worthwhile.But this book isn't it.

Joceyln Grange leads off with a malicious misrepresentation of Israeli history.Does that make a difference?Yes, because we now are misled into thinking that Israel is somehow the result of a crime, or is engaged in criminal activity just by existing, or as a minimum is illegally occupying someone else's country.That might justify, or at least explain, a very strong response by the people Israel has Wronged.

Once we get into the details of Israeli crimes, it gets worse.Logic dictates that Israel as a nation wants to minimize civilian deaths in this war.Arab civilian deaths are known to be bad militarily, morally, and from a media standpoint.So we should suspect that many accounts of willful Israeli killings of civilians are dubious.This book does not seem to follow this simple logic.Instead, we are treated to a description of the death of Muhammed al-Dura that implies that it is likely that Israelis killed this boy on purpose.In fact, it is very unlikely that Israelis killed him at all.The entire incident may well have been staged.We don't read anything about that in this book!Now, what were we just saying about media manipulation?

If the rest of the incidents are reported as accurately as the al-Dura one, the entire book is simply fraudulent.But there is a deeper problem.We want to know just why there are deaths in this war.The reason is that the Arab side chose to attack.Without this aggression, there would be no deaths on either side.And the book, by not making this clear, is simply Arab propaganda.

An interesting and relevant question is whether Israel is using excessive force in responding to murderous attacks on its civilians. Excessive force is not good for either side.We need to realize that using too little force is also bad, in that it produces more attacks and more responses, some of which may be excessive as a result.Anyway, the verdict of this book is that Israel has been going too far.And that Israel bears some responsibility for this as a nation.I do wonder just what recommendations these folks would give their own nations were they under attack.

It is hard for me to imagine Israel doing more to limit civilian casualties than it did in Jenin.If that is not good enough for these reporters, then these reporters are opposing human rights, not supporting them.Eventually, nations will probably defend themselves, whether others approve or not.Israel is no exception.If Israel is not going to be granted a right to defend itself, then the concept of a "right to defend oneself" will no longer have any meaning.

But I almost forgot the best part!There is Balance in this book.After 140 pages of extremely misleading material condemning Israel, we have 60 pages of criticism of the Arabs!Yes, some individual Arabs have committed crimes.Many are listed explicitly.These include suicide bombings.But there is more.Some "collaborators" have been murdered.The Arabs have not prosecuted and convicted people for such crimes.In fact, some Arab courts have passed dubious sentences of death on collaborators themselves.The Arab justice system is imperfect!On top of that, free expression is limited in Arafat's territory, and even freedom of the press could be improved.

Still, the book implies that any responsibility for such problems is individual.A few terrorist groups are out of line.Even an administration may have some corruption and mismanagement.But there is no hint that there may be something wrong with the whole idea of pressuring Israel into ceding land.And there is little hint that the whole purpose of the Arab aggression may be to attack Jewish rights of life, liberty, and property in the region.

A serious discussion of attacks on human rights and media manipulation ought to include the pervasive antisemitic incitement in Arab media and schools.It should recognize the contamination of the Arab and international media by arbitrary antizionist untruths.And it needs to identify the aggressors.It sure isn't the Israeli side that wants a war that could destroy it. ... Read more

Product Description
An analysis of the relationship between the individual and the state as played out in the Levant. Dr Davis pioneers a new conceptual framework for the Middle East. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Another Amazing Book by Jonathan Cook
If you want to understand, truly understand, what is going on inside Israel and what life is truly like for Palestinian citizens of Israel, you shoud read this book.NO one understands the intricacies of the Israeli's government's systematic and institutionalized discrimination against its Palestinian citizens like Mr. Cook.

Powerful journalism
Mr. Cook starts off the book by examining the foundations of the Jewish state.750,000 Palestinians fled their homes in 1948 because of ethnic cleansing by Israel. Cook notes that this ethnic cleansing plan, "Plan Dalet" was approved by the Zionist leadership in Tel Aviv in March 1948. Both sides committed atrocities in the 1948 conflict but the Zionists committed several dozen massacres at minimum. Cook writes that the Deir Yessin massacre did not actually kill 250 Arabs but around 100 and that Begin exaggerated the number killed so as to sow terror in Palestinians.. Cook notes that, in the midst of the ethnic cleansing of Lydd and Ramla, forces under the command of Yigal Allon and Yitzhak Rabin massacred about 170 Palestinian males who had taken shelter in the Dahamish mosque in Lydd. Thousands of Israeli Arabs were quietly expelled from their homes in the 1948-56 period. Cook writes that an attempt to create a pretext to expel the Israeli Arab inhabitants of the Iron Triangle, called Operation Hafarferet,had to be called off after the massacre of 47 Israeli Arabs by the Israeli border police at Kafr Qassem.

Israeli Arabs, i.e. non-Jews, make up a fifth of Israel's citizenry. Yet non-Jews are effectively excluded from owning or receiving leases on 93 percent of the land within Israel's pre-1967 borders. They are barred from many job categories because of Jewish racism and numerous barriers limit their access to higher education. Israeli Arabs are forced to use the vast majority of the land allotted to them for residential purposes. They have very little access to land to build new housing or start new businesses--Israeli local and regional government planning bodies make sure that they do not. . Israeli Arabs have the right to vote and Cook extensively discusses the fear of Israeli elites that their high birthrate might lead them to use the ballot box to overturn the racist foundations of the Israeli state. Cook quotes an article from one of Israel's leading newspapers, Ma'ariv, in early 2007 which reported that Prime Minister Olmert discussed with Shin Bet officials the need to target Israeli Arab leaders and organizations that engage in the "subversion" of advocating the elimination of Israel as a Jewish supremacist state.

Cook notes that all Israeli policy in the occupied territories since 1967 can be explained by the desire to make life so miserable for Palestinians, killing them and destroying their economic existence, that they will gradually leave the territories and Jews can take all the land.He quotes Moshe Dayan privately explaining in the 1970's that Palestinians would be made to live "like dogs" and hopefully they would be encouraged to leave the occupied territories. Israel refused to allow the Palestinian economy to develop after 1967. Large amounts of Palestinian land were confiscated, including communal farm land. Cook notes that the Swedish branch of Save the Children reported that 10,000 children suffered broken bones caused by Israeli soldiers in the first two years of the first Intifada. In 1988, a prominent settler leader named Pinchas Wallerstein chased around some Palestinian children with a firearm, killing one and wounding another. Cooks notes that Wallerstein said he was not exercising self-defense but attempting to teach the children about the supremacy of Jewish authority in the holy land. He was sentenced to 4 months community service. Similarly, in 2002, as the Israeli army looked on, Jewish settlers attacked the West Bank village of Yanun, forcing the inhabitants to flee as they fired on homes, poisoned the village wells and killed the villagers' livestock. The settlers often have carte blanche to engage in racist terror against Palestinians.

Cook quotes from a report authored by an Israeli defense ministry advisor, General Baruch Spiegel, in 2005. The Speigel report stated that a third of the 120 Israeli settlements in the West Bank were on land that was confiscated from Palestinian landowners in the following manner. The Israeli army would seize the land for "security" purposes and then quietly hand off the land for settlement to civilian Israeli settlers, not uncommonly religious fascists. The number of Israeli settlers during the Oslo "peace process" (1993-2000) doubled in the occupied territories, as Yasser Arafat's clique enriched themselves policing Palestinian population centers. The US and successive Israeli governments pretended that they were making substantial gestures toward Palestinian rights. Actually what they did was consolidate Palestinians into scattered population centers whose territorial contiguity was broken up by Jewish settlements and Jew-only bypass roads, with Israel controlling the aquifers and agricultural land of the Jordan Valley. Israel, since its occupation of the West Bank began, has stolen almost all the water of the West Bank for its citizens and settlers, making it extremely difficult for Palestinians to get water, much less clean water. It was this state of affairs that was offered to the Palestinians as a "state" by Ehud Barak in 2000, notes Cook. For all the horrible screaming about Barak's "generous" offer and Arafat's satanic motives in rejecting it, the fact that Barak offered Arafat a "state" of isolated Bantustans was confirmed, according to Cook, by written guidelines that Ha'aretz, Israel's leading newspaper, reported was provided to Olmert before the Annapolis summit in 2007.

Other essays include an examination of the legal charges against Azmi Bishara and reflections on the fate of Palestinian Christians. In another essay, he travels along with a group of Israeli Jewish women who hang around Israeli checkpoints in an attempt to deter Israeli soldiers from engaging in their usual activities of humiliating, abusing and beating Palestinians at the checkpoints. He discusses the largely bogus scare about the "new anti-Semitism" allegedly raging in Europe (see his endnotes for elaboration on a few of the points).

The economic strangulation of the people of Gaza has intensified since 2006, what with the periodic military bombardment of civilian infrastructure and agricultural land, has reduced Gaza to the worst destitution levels of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Cook's at it again
Jonathan Cook, the anti-semite and professional Israel basher, has now written his third book containing nothing but vitriol, huge distortions, and a complete lack of context and objectivity in relation to Israel.

Indeed, the author appears to be a bit of a crank, being completely obsessed with Israel. Apart from the three books he has written about Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians/Arabs, he also has a website exclusively dedicated to bashing Israel. And if that's not enough, he even lives in Israel, ostensibly for the purpose of being able to see the situation first hand. Given that his entire life is devoted to Israel bashing, one wonders what the author would do if Israel didn't exist. Needless to say, for readers wanting so much as an ounce of objectivity, books by Cook are to be avoided like the plague.

The basic premise of this book is as follows: Despite the Palestinians accepting the UN partition of what was then British Mandate Palestine in 1947 by UN Resolution 181 and desiring to live peacefully side by side Israel in the two state solution, the wicked Israelis have systematically continued to occupy more and more Palestinian land, with Palestinian resistance being solely attributable to Israel continuing to expand beyond its internationally recognised borders.

What a load of tosh.

As anyone who knows anything about this dispute knows all too well, the Palestinians (not to mention the whole of the Arab world) violently rejected - and continue to reject - the creation of Israel, and ever since its creation have fought a ruthless terrorist war to destroy it. In the words of Hamas' Charter, which, as critics of Israel are forever pointing out, was democratically elected by Gazans:

'Israel exists and will continue to exist until Islam obliterates it...'.

Apparently, the likes of Cook expect Israel to do one of two things:
- Make peace with those who seek to 'obliterate' it
- Sit on its hands and allow Palestinians (not to mention other terrorist groups like Hizbollah) perpetrate suicide bombings and fire rockets with impunity

Strange as it may seem, Israel has chosen the third option, which is to take all action necessary to provide security to its citizens.

Inevitably, due to Israel's tiny size, this necessarily involves annexing Palestinian land, as quite simply, Israel is not defensible in its internationally recognised borders.

As Hizbollah and Hamas have both clearly demonstrated, even in its expanded borders, Israel is still highly susceptible to even primitive rockets. Now imagine Israel had smaller borders and Hamas/Hizbollah had more sophisticated rockets...

Then there's the fact that when Israel withdrew from occupied land (Southern Lebanon in 2000; Gaza in 2005), rather than gaining peace, it had rockets fired at it from the very land from which it had withdrawn. Which makes it rather obvious why Israel is so loathe to withdraw from the West Bank.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that Israel should continue to expand its settlements in the West Bank. To the contrary, I am opposed to such a policy. However, there are clear security based reasons, albeit not recognised by international law, why Israel has occupied and built settlements in the West Bank.

And speaking of international law, what right do the Palestinians and critics of Israel have to invoke international law when they reject the most fundamental principle of international law governing the Israel-Palestine conflict, namely, Israel's right to exist?

The reality is that there can never be a two state solution. The only practical hope of ending this tragic conflict is the three state solution, entailing Gaza becoming part of Egypt, and the West Bank, or part thereof, becoming part of Jordan.

Jonathan: May I make a suggestion? Having flogged to death the topic of Israel and its relationship with the Palestinians/Arabs, I have a suggestion for the topic of your next book. I recommend you write a book about how the Jews are behind the financial crisis currently sweeping the world. There are two clear reasons why the Jews had the motive to bring about the collapse of the world's economy:
- Reduce the power of Iran through decimating the oil price
- Cause Western leaders (Barak Obama in particular) to focus their time and energies on their economies rather than devoting time to the Israel-Palestine conflict

Surely you have noticed the incredible coincidence that as soon as it appeared that Obama - believed by many to be reasonably symapthetic to the Palestinian cause - was likely to be elected in late 2008, the financial crisis suddenly moved into overdrive. And what caused the crisis to reach these new depths? The sudden collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street investment bank with significant Jewish ownership and control. Hardly a coincidence.

So there we have it, means, motive, and opportunity. Not to mention timing. Surely enough material for your highly fertile mind to weave together a compelling story.

Of course, you should make absolutely no mention of all the non-Jewish bankers who were heavily involved in bringing about the financial crisis. Nor mention the Jewish bankers who carefully avoided the worst of the subprime crisis (Goldman Sachs). Nor should you make any mention of the fact that Jews have lost their jobs/businesses/fortunes in the same proportion as everyone else. In writing the book, you should continue your well established form of argument whereby any and all facts - irrespective of how strongly they contradict your views - are completely ignored.

As we know, the Jews have been blamed for numerous recessions/depressions in the past, so why should this one be any different? The only difference on this occasion is the motive, as noted above.

May I also suggest that before writing this book, first carefully read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to ensure you incorporate all of its key themes. Then again, you are probably already extremely familar with the Protocols.

Essential book, outrageously overpriced in the US
This book is the first to focus on an essential aspect of Israel's conduct of its nearly 42 year brutal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. One cannot comprehend Israel's behavior toward the Palestinian people it holds under its control without the information in this book. What a shame, then, that it is so outrageously overpriced in the United States.

I buy the great majority of my books from Amazon, but in this case I paid about one third the Amazon price by ordering the book from a UK seller via abebooks.com. I strongly recommend this book, but I do not recommend buying it from a U.S. source. ... Read more

Product Description

Reaping What You Sow: A Comparative Examination of Torture Reform in the United States, France, Argentina, and Israel presents a new angle in the study of this controversial practice, approaching the issue of torture from a cost-benefit analysis for the practicing nation, rather than from a sensationalist, emotive vantage point.

Adopting a transnational approach, the author examines the use of torture by the French in Algeria, the Argentines within their own borders, the Israelis in the Middle East, and the Americans in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. In attempting to define torture, he asks: Is the information gained through torture worth the potential damage? What is the harm (or benefit) to the state once the torture becomes known? What are the political and strategic ramifications? Does torture help win wars? Can the use of torture bring about any lasting or beneficial reforms? These are daring questions seldom pondered. In asking them, this book will help to foster a discussion that is long overdue.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from UN Chronicle, published by United Nations Publications on September 1, 1989. The length of the article is 418 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Security Council fails to adopt text on Palestinian rights.
Publication: UN Chronicle (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 1989
Publisher: United Nations Publications
Volume: v26Issue: n3Page: p18(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
A summary of the major atrocities of the 20th century, which looks at the historical context of genocides, and how they were perpetrated. Eyewitness accounts form the basis of the reports which range from the Khmer Rouge massacre of Cambodians, to the annihilation of the Hutu in Burundi. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

GENOCIDE TEXTBOOK
This can probably best be described as a genocide textbook.It starts with the massacre of the Hereroes of South West Africa in 1904, and ends with Rwanda and Bosnia.Each chapter follows the same format, beginning with a brief description of events and concluding with eyewitness accounts.The historical material in the introductions is a bit dry and matter of fact, but this is more than made up for by the eyewitness accounts, which are both horrific and riveting.Some readers may feel the need to consult an atlas, as chapters refer to such out of the way places as Burundi, Timor and Cambodia.

The biggest weakness here is that the authors don't make clear why each genocide is unique.What factors in Armenia, for instance, are also present in Rwanda?Are the massacres in Bangledesh likely to reccur in other situations?Why is the holocaust thought of as different from other genocides?These and other questions are not explored adequately.

Very useful
This is a great book for a student who is looking for an overview of genocides from around the world.It is a good first step in holocaust and genocide education. ... Read more