Why I'm Pro-Israeli AND Pro-Palestinian

[HalloIsBack]

Lliana Bird Become a fan London-born presenter who's worked across a variety of radio and TV -- half Israeli and half British


Why I'm Pro-Israeli AND Pro-Palestinian

Posted: 16/07/2014 23:11 BST Updated: 17/07/2014 10:59 BST
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As my sister and my mother ran from rockets to bomb shelters in Israel this past week, I was surprised that none of my friends here in the UK asked me how they were. Or how I was. Did they simply not care? My friend explained that many people just didn't understand what was going on or why, and she suggested I write a blog post to try to explain a little about the Israel-Palestine conflict. She said that people were confused, outraged and misinformed, and that as half Israeli-half British Londoner, I might have a unique perspective. And so I began.
At first I spoke of both sides' claims over the land of Palestine. Of how Palestine was actually historically a geographical area (formerly called Judea), which has never been a country with its own with a currency, language, or government. How for thousands of years Jews, Arabs and Christians have all lived (and died) here, always under the rule of other empires/peoples including the Maccabees, the Assyrians, the Byzantines, the Romans (who renamed it 'Palestine'), the Ottomans and the British.
I pointed out that three quarters of the land of Palestine was given to the Arab population and called Jordan in 1917. That the proposal for the remaining quarter to be divided into two states (one Jewish, one Arab) by the British, and then the UN was rejected time after time. I spoke of bloody wars waged, of who was to blame, which lands were won and lost, who created refugees, of who broke peace talk after peace talk.
I went on. Noting how Hamas is an internationally recognised terrorist organisation which has sent over 13,000 thousand rockets onto Israel (a far stronger military country) since 2001, with little thought of how Israel's response might damage its own people. How the Palestinian people are not Hamas, and in fact it is they who are their greatest victims. How Hamas embed their missile launchers/training grounds and weapons stores amongst the very citizens it is supposed to protect, turning them into human shields, encouraging them to stay home even in the face of Israeli warning to evacuate targeted buildings. That the only reason there aren't far more Israeli fatalities is not for lack of intent from Hamas, but for Israel's investment in defences and bomb shelters (which Hamas does not chose to provide for its own people, despite its own vast private wealth).
I posted videos of the Palestinian ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council admitting that Hamas' rockets taretting Israeli citizens were "crimes of humanity", of Palestinian president Abbas asking Hamas what they hope to gain from rocketing Israel, of Hamas stating they "love death the way Jews love life", of Israeli armies calling off strikes when civilians were spotted, of Egyptian media blasting Hamas, of UN reps stating that Israel goes to further lengths to avoid military casualties and to provide humanitarian aid to the victims then any army ever the world. I even spoke of my own cousin, who alongside many other Israelis drives daily to the border with Palestine to pick up the sick and drive them to Israeli hospitals for treatment. That talk of an Israeli "apartheid" is madness when 20% of the Israeli population is Arab.
I also talked of the Palestinian's oppression, of their poverty, the heavy sanctions Israel imposes on them, and their genuine feeling that they need a resistance, whether violent or otherwise. I spoke of their hopelessness, their feeling of being trapped, forgotten and helpless, whilst being brutalised from every direction, by their own government and by Israelis. And how Palestinians crave a lifting of the Israeli siege, but that Israelis maintain sanctions for fear of increased imports of the very weapons used in the terror attacks against them. And on... and on...
But then... I saw a message from a Gazan student named Eslam on a Facebook page I belong to called "Palestine Loves Israel". Eslam asked us why Israelis want her dead. She said she has never met an Israeli, or seen one, she had only seen photos of them pointing guns, or seen the destruction they wreak upon her life. She asked us if Israelis are even human. If they think. If they feel. It broke my heart.
For whilst we all sit here trying to justify who is right/who is wrong/who has claim to the land/who was here first/who is provoking who, innocent people are dying. For every fact I have given you above to justify Israel's actions there no doubt is a counter fact a Palestinian could give. For every video posted, a counter-video. Meanwhile homes are being destroyed. Lies are being told and spread, and lives and dreams are lost. Eslam is not Hamas. She is just a young woman, hoping to live, in peace. And with every drop of blood spilled, with every building blown to smithereens, people from both sides feel greater injustice, deeper hate from and towards each other and the chasm grows wider.
I wrote back to Eslam, so did many others. We all sent her our love, our wishes for her safety. My sister told her that in Israel people see the same images, but of Palestinian people wishing them dead, that Israelis too are afraid for their lives. That people on both sides MUST both see the truth that we are all just humans and break the cycle of hate, joining instead together in our demands with our leaders for peace. That there are good and bad people, haters and lovers on both sides.
Eslam wrote back to my sister in tears. She saw that yes, Israelis are human too! That they are shown the same images as she is. That no one hates her for simply being a Palestinian. That there are people out there who really care for her and her safety. And most of all that there is a chance for peace. She was overwhelmed by all of our love for her. And I decided that this article would instead be dedicated to her. To her strength, and that of all those on BOTH "sides of the fence" who question what they are told, acknowledge that we are all in fact the same, and reach out to each other with hope for peace for ALL.
Eslam has opened my eyes, she says we have opened her eyes too.
Israelis and Palestinians both have the right to exist. We must all accept that. The past is gone, the people, the present is now. Israelis (especially those in the Southern communities) have the right to live without fear of constant rocket attacks. The Palestinians have the right to live in security and socio-economic prosperity in their own state without fear of Israeli strikes.
And so I've realised a few things:
1. We MUST stop arguing the moral high ground and pointing fingers. Everyone has a claim to this land. Everyone feels attacked, and afraid. Trying to decipher who is justified/right/entitled is an impossible and fruitless task.
2. You can be Pro-Israeli, and Pro-Palestinian, but anti-Hamas. As a Israeli-Arab woman told me herself, the Palestinians suffer as much if not more under Hamas than anyone else. Hamas must be dismantled. They are a terror organisation intent on death and destruction (even in their own words) who wreak violence upon Israelis, but also invite it thousand-fold upon their own people and (by their own admission) use them as human shields, encouraging them to stay put in houses despite Israeli warnings and to face death and "matrydom" whilst they live a life of luxury and hide in their own private bomb shelters.
3. Israel are NOT the people to dismantle Hamas. Their violent attempts to do so will serve only to drive more Palestinians to support Hamas, and gain them international sympathy and finance.
4. The only way to oust Hamas and the other violent militant factions is to win the HEARTS and MINDS of the Palestinian people, and to give them hope for a real future.
5. Israel should instead shower the Palestinian people with love and respect. Fire missiles filled with flowers and notes of Israeli's hopes for peace and love at the Palestinian people. Perhaps, after a few months of this, the Palestinian people might truly believe Israeli's are not monsters out to murder them, that Israelis WANT them to have peace and prosperity, and they will see Hamas for what they are and drive them out themselves.
6. You will think that I'm naïve, and that my last suggestion is ludicrous, but is it really any more ludicrous that the endless cycle of violence and lives lost?
Neither Israel nor Hamas will ever get what they want long term by shooting at each other. Let's hope they both realise that before too many more people die.
In the meantime let's keep communicating. The more Palestinians and Israelis actually talk to each other (without the middle men of media or governments) the better we will understand that we are all the same. That we all want, and deserve peace. And look! The tide is indeed turning. A recent poll in Palestine showed that the majority want Hamas out, and for their moderate leader Abbas to resume control and talk peace with Israel. Let's keep working to turn each other's hearts and minds. Join up on Facebook with "Israel loves Palestine' or with "Palestine loves Israel" and speak to each other, share stories of good will of hope. Only then can the people beat the powers that be and earn themselves and each other the peace they all deserve.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lliana-bird/why-im-proisraeli-and-pro-palestinian_b_5592220.html

[Tjanaparh]

Sorry, but this article is of full falsity. To talk like this is very easy if You invaded ones land.
Lets give an example of people who supposedly suffered dusring WWII not less then Jews - the Gypsies. Mostly the are thought to come somwhere from today Pakistan and India, right?
Let's say regions like Sindh or Panjab maybe, doesn't matter, but let's immagine only tht with some mandate they create their new Romayestan somewhere in Sindh, call settles from Roma of Europe, Bosha from Armenia nd Georgia, Lyuli from Tajikestan. They come to Sindh, kick the Sindhis out with time and then say "we don't hate you"....
Jews didn'T come there because they were simply missing their supposed land of origin , which is really more supposed than true.
They came to have a country for their own, without Palestinians, and depalestenized it with the decades of occupation.
If they wanted to avoid the blodshed they could have come as brothers and simpy ask for hospitality and see if they are welcome or less in this land that they havn't even been living in. Your deeds have consequences , as you in Russia say "Chto poseesh to pozhnesh" - this is exactly what is the reult.
now if You say Hamas is bad for Palestinians. Yes maybe - I am not pro Hamas, but Hamas is a result not an origin of the problem.

Jews have already two stolen lands - one a stare and the other an autonomous region. And while the state at least mythologically belongs to them the autonomous region defenitely belongs to Goldes,Manchurians.... or whoever lived there

Peace is easy, and if jews wanted to avoid all this wars there was a simple way - now to say anything is meaningless. And by the way Israel almost achieved what they wanted - the Palestinian territory shrinked through the decades a lot.

If this viewpoint of the article is ok, then pashtuns have the full right as a stateless nation to claim Rostov region, Stavropol, Krasnodar... from Russia, as it was populated by Saka tribes in very ancient times and create Sakastan or Sarmatestan, kick the now local population day by day out and at the end say "hey - stop the violence, we want to live in peace..."

[tor_khan]

I read a quote by a Hindu who wrote that "terrorists are not born but are created". He was attempting to be sympathetic towards Muslims. Since Then i have read that quote several times over.

The woman in the article is clearly avoiding making reference to Israel's past actions that led to the emergence of Hamas in the late 80s. Remember this was after they pursued the secular PLO following the 67 war. If someone cannot see that Zionism leads to apartheid, then they have no business calling anyone else a terrorist.

Fact is, it is not up to London based Israelis or half Israelis or anyone else to suggest that Palestinians should dismantle Hamas. That fate is up to Palestinians alone. Hamas happens to be in power by virtue of an electoral mandate; calling it a terrorist organisation because they have been aggressive in the past would make Israeli governments "d Terrorist Plaaruna". You reap what you sow.

[MENTION=5349]Hallo[/MENTION] Why are you so keen to interfere in matters that the Palestinians, the Arabs in general and the Jewish Israelis need to resolve? Heck, even Russia refuses to declare Hamas as terrorists, not that I care much for Russian opinion. Or maybe you will choose to look away again whilst your country sponsors cross-border insurgents who shoot down passenger aircraft and then denies all knowledge.

Tell me the difference between that and Israel.

[Tjanaparh]

Actually before Israel in Soviet Union there was created a region with autonomy special for jews. And while other regional people, who lived forlong time in thheir original places were sent to exiles the Jewish population in general got a region, that never belong to them, in oriental Russia. The region is called Birobijan and till now remains a Jewesh autonomous region with its rights, eventhough most Jews left for Israel.
Same way local population was seen as not having rights, because they were mostly people of nature without creating big settlements.

The Jews at that time lived perhaps some 150 years on the territory of nowdays Russia, what is really not much.
On the other hand other peoples were denied their right to live on their motherland with their identity.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I read a quote by a Hindu who wrote that "terrorists are not born but are created". He was attempting to be sympathetic towards Muslims. Since Then i have read that quote several times over.

The woman in the article is clearly avoiding making reference to Israel's past actions that led to the emergence of Hamas in the late 80s. Remember this was after they pursued the secular PLO following the 67 war. If someone cannot see that Zionism leads to apartheid, then they have no business calling anyone else a terrorist.

Fact is, it is not up to London based Israelis or half Israelis or anyone else to suggest that Palestinians should dismantle Hamas. That fate is up to Palestinians alone. Hamas happens to be in power by virtue of an electoral mandate; calling it a terrorist organisation because they have been aggressive in the past would make Israeli governments "d Terrorist Plaaruna". You reap what you sow.

@Hallo Why are you so keen to interfere in matters that the Palestinians, the Arabs in general and the Jewish Israelis need to resolve? Heck, even Russia refuses to declare Hamas as terrorists, not that I care much for Russian opinion. Or maybe you will choose to look away again whilst your country sponsors cross-border insurgents who shoot down passenger aircraft and then denies all knowledge.

Tell me the difference between that and Israel.

You hit the nail on the head. What is lost to many is that there is cause and there is effect... perhaps its temporal and that might be the only real moral relativism imposed on deciding who a prepretrator is and who a victim is. For example, and Hindu Nationalist might cite centuries of Muslim rule as contributing to their reactionaryism whereas a modern Indian Muslim, should he be from Ahmadabad and harbor sentiments, might be reacting to the here and now.

Another example might be the Tamils and the other group the Sinhalese. To those of us in the here in and now the Tamil looks like the beat down upon man, the deprived of his rights man, using "whatever means necessary" to rise up. Yet if you talk to Sinhalese, their resentment is towards centuries of oppression under the Tamil ethnic group which was empowered by the British.

So it is this tete a tete across the globe between groups of humans that has locked us in the perpetual cycle of violence, perhaps finding foundation in our bioligical desire to ensure safe passage of our genes and memes.

The problem with Hallo's posting, dare I say propaganda? Is that a series of low impact factor and poorly referenced articles are clearly a part of the spin cycle, meant to confuse the issues. I refer for instance to that article claiming Edward Snowden leaked that ISIS had traind at Langley for instance, or for disseminating this news in recent days about nonexistent female genital mutilation in Mosul. This is severely problematic because it causes groups to EMOTIONALIZE and not use an evidence based approach or a historical based approach to analyzing a problem. For instance, if one only read those things she posted, one would never know of the very real sunni resentment in Anbar and such places that has empowered ISIS in the initial.

The same exact problem is with respect to Hamas what you mention. This article provides a nice historical overview:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...75572295011847

When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and '80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank.
"When I look back at the chain of events I think we made a mistake," says David Hacham, who worked in Gaza in the late 1980s and early '90s as an Arab-affairs expert in the Israeli military. "But at the time nobody thought about the possible results."

So instead of understanding that Israel did not so much as create Hamas and plant sleeper agents as they pressurized and limited Fatah (an antibiotic might decimate one type of gut bacteria and allow the overgrowth of other natural florae) - these folks shout to the hills with conspiracy theories.

The reality is what you mentioned, which is that years of escalating brutality and the limited successes of Fatah has also pushed a population on the brink into Hamas's camp.

The secular female Palestinian author Adania Shibli tells it like it is:

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/14/331298...t-bank-outrage

INSKEEP: So, you're saying if there were another Intifada, another uprising on the West Bank, one possible way that could go would be against the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas?

SHIBLI: Definitely. This is what you hear, this is what the students are saying. On the other hand you have also depression in the sense of being lost because if this is a political leadership, you also thinking what are the alternatives, are there any other leadership available and there isn't.

SHIBLI: People see Hamas as the only party that is not accepting to live under occupation. You don't see the Israeli Army inside Ramallah but it is around Ramallah, so people cannot move freely. And you have the check point still there, building the wall, confiscating land to build settlements and then they see, OK, they cannot resist that or their political leadership is not managing to resist that. While Hamas is saying, Ok we don't accept this policy.

INSKEEP: Are you saying and of course we're not thing about a scientific poll, just the people that you talk with, friends, family, students and so forth. People are not saying that Hamas is responsible for bringing down all this Israeli force on them?

SHIBLI: (Unintelligible) the occupation was there before Hamas, so Hamas is an outcome of occupation. Of course, I mean they're also saying here that what the Israeli government is doing - it's not because of kidnapping these three teenager settlers but because they want the unit government to fail.

Yet somehow, in Hallo's version, this is all a secret plan between Saudi and Hamas and Israel, all sitting in some evil room somewhere, drinking evil tea, and coming up with evil plans. Such a narrative ignores the inherent right of people to rally behind whatever resistance responds to their needs as Shibli is saying above.

[torkham]

Lliana Bird Become a fan London-born presenter who's worked across a variety of radio and TV -- half Israeli and half British


Why I'm Pro-Israeli AND Pro-Palestinian

Posted: 16/07/2014 23:11 BST Updated: 17/07/2014 10:59 BST
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As my sister and my mother ran from rockets to bomb shelters in Israel this past week, I was surprised that none of my friends here in the UK asked me how they were. Or how I was. Did they simply not care? My friend explained that many people just didn't understand what was going on or why, and she suggested I write a blog post to try to explain a little about the Israel-Palestine conflict. She said that people were confused, outraged and misinformed, and that as half Israeli-half British Londoner, I might have a unique perspective. And so I began.
At first I spoke of both sides' claims over the land of Palestine. Of how Palestine was actually historically a geographical area (formerly called Judea), which has never been a country with its own with a currency, language, or government. How for thousands of years Jews, Arabs and Christians have all lived (and died) here, always under the rule of other empires/peoples including the Maccabees, the Assyrians, the Byzantines, the Romans (who renamed it 'Palestine'), the Ottomans and the British.
I pointed out that three quarters of the land of Palestine was given to the Arab population and called Jordan in 1917. That the proposal for the remaining quarter to be divided into two states (one Jewish, one Arab) by the British, and then the UN was rejected time after time. I spoke of bloody wars waged, of who was to blame, which lands were won and lost, who created refugees, of who broke peace talk after peace talk.
I went on. Noting how Hamas is an internationally recognised terrorist organisation which has sent over 13,000 thousand rockets onto Israel (a far stronger military country) since 2001, with little thought of how Israel's response might damage its own people. How the Palestinian people are not Hamas, and in fact it is they who are their greatest victims. How Hamas embed their missile launchers/training grounds and weapons stores amongst the very citizens it is supposed to protect, turning them into human shields, encouraging them to stay home even in the face of Israeli warning to evacuate targeted buildings. That the only reason there aren't far more Israeli fatalities is not for lack of intent from Hamas, but for Israel's investment in defences and bomb shelters (which Hamas does not chose to provide for its own people, despite its own vast private wealth).
I posted videos of the Palestinian ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council admitting that Hamas' rockets taretting Israeli citizens were "crimes of humanity", of Palestinian president Abbas asking Hamas what they hope to gain from rocketing Israel, of Hamas stating they "love death the way Jews love life", of Israeli armies calling off strikes when civilians were spotted, of Egyptian media blasting Hamas, of UN reps stating that Israel goes to further lengths to avoid military casualties and to provide humanitarian aid to the victims then any army ever the world. I even spoke of my own cousin, who alongside many other Israelis drives daily to the border with Palestine to pick up the sick and drive them to Israeli hospitals for treatment. That talk of an Israeli "apartheid" is madness when 20% of the Israeli population is Arab.
I also talked of the Palestinian's oppression, of their poverty, the heavy sanctions Israel imposes on them, and their genuine feeling that they need a resistance, whether violent or otherwise. I spoke of their hopelessness, their feeling of being trapped, forgotten and helpless, whilst being brutalised from every direction, by their own government and by Israelis. And how Palestinians crave a lifting of the Israeli siege, but that Israelis maintain sanctions for fear of increased imports of the very weapons used in the terror attacks against them. And on... and on...
But then... I saw a message from a Gazan student named Eslam on a Facebook page I belong to called "Palestine Loves Israel". Eslam asked us why Israelis want her dead. She said she has never met an Israeli, or seen one, she had only seen photos of them pointing guns, or seen the destruction they wreak upon her life. She asked us if Israelis are even human. If they think. If they feel. It broke my heart.
For whilst we all sit here trying to justify who is right/who is wrong/who has claim to the land/who was here first/who is provoking who, innocent people are dying. For every fact I have given you above to justify Israel's actions there no doubt is a counter fact a Palestinian could give. For every video posted, a counter-video. Meanwhile homes are being destroyed. Lies are being told and spread, and lives and dreams are lost. Eslam is not Hamas. She is just a young woman, hoping to live, in peace. And with every drop of blood spilled, with every building blown to smithereens, people from both sides feel greater injustice, deeper hate from and towards each other and the chasm grows wider.
I wrote back to Eslam, so did many others. We all sent her our love, our wishes for her safety. My sister told her that in Israel people see the same images, but of Palestinian people wishing them dead, that Israelis too are afraid for their lives. That people on both sides MUST both see the truth that we are all just humans and break the cycle of hate, joining instead together in our demands with our leaders for peace. That there are good and bad people, haters and lovers on both sides.
Eslam wrote back to my sister in tears. She saw that yes, Israelis are human too! That they are shown the same images as she is. That no one hates her for simply being a Palestinian. That there are people out there who really care for her and her safety. And most of all that there is a chance for peace. She was overwhelmed by all of our love for her. And I decided that this article would instead be dedicated to her. To her strength, and that of all those on BOTH "sides of the fence" who question what they are told, acknowledge that we are all in fact the same, and reach out to each other with hope for peace for ALL.
Eslam has opened my eyes, she says we have opened her eyes too.
Israelis and Palestinians both have the right to exist. We must all accept that. The past is gone, the people, the present is now. Israelis (especially those in the Southern communities) have the right to live without fear of constant rocket attacks. The Palestinians have the right to live in security and socio-economic prosperity in their own state without fear of Israeli strikes.
And so I've realised a few things:
1. We MUST stop arguing the moral high ground and pointing fingers. Everyone has a claim to this land. Everyone feels attacked, and afraid. Trying to decipher who is justified/right/entitled is an impossible and fruitless task.
2. You can be Pro-Israeli, and Pro-Palestinian, but anti-Hamas. As a Israeli-Arab woman told me herself, the Palestinians suffer as much if not more under Hamas than anyone else. Hamas must be dismantled. They are a terror organisation intent on death and destruction (even in their own words) who wreak violence upon Israelis, but also invite it thousand-fold upon their own people and (by their own admission) use them as human shields, encouraging them to stay put in houses despite Israeli warnings and to face death and "matrydom" whilst they live a life of luxury and hide in their own private bomb shelters.
3. Israel are NOT the people to dismantle Hamas. Their violent attempts to do so will serve only to drive more Palestinians to support Hamas, and gain them international sympathy and finance.
4. The only way to oust Hamas and the other violent militant factions is to win the HEARTS and MINDS of the Palestinian people, and to give them hope for a real future.
5. Israel should instead shower the Palestinian people with love and respect. Fire missiles filled with flowers and notes of Israeli's hopes for peace and love at the Palestinian people. Perhaps, after a few months of this, the Palestinian people might truly believe Israeli's are not monsters out to murder them, that Israelis WANT them to have peace and prosperity, and they will see Hamas for what they are and drive them out themselves.
6. You will think that I'm naïve, and that my last suggestion is ludicrous, but is it really any more ludicrous that the endless cycle of violence and lives lost?
Neither Israel nor Hamas will ever get what they want long term by shooting at each other. Let's hope they both realise that before too many more people die.
In the meantime let's keep communicating. The more Palestinians and Israelis actually talk to each other (without the middle men of media or governments) the better we will understand that we are all the same. That we all want, and deserve peace. And look! The tide is indeed turning. A recent poll in Palestine showed that the majority want Hamas out, and for their moderate leader Abbas to resume control and talk peace with Israel. Let's keep working to turn each other's hearts and minds. Join up on Facebook with "Israel loves Palestine' or with "Palestine loves Israel" and speak to each other, share stories of good will of hope. Only then can the people beat the powers that be and earn themselves and each other the peace they all deserve.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/llia...b_5592220.html

"Of course she can say that" (said in voice imitation of Marie Harf, the whitehouse barf), but consider the following interview of Khaled Mishaal of Hamas by BBC's Sackur. Its worth listening to HAMAS's answers to Western consensus questions. Except for Hamas-fata issue, I found resonance in every answer given by Khaled Mishaal.

http://youtu.be/_z3aRM0er48