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An open letter from Anonymous to the Government of Israel

[youtube http://youtu.be/QNxi2lV0UM0?]

In the immediate aftermath of the illegal capture of the Freedom Waves flotillas, Israel’s public image has been tarnished, as reports of violence at sea surface to counteract its claims of a peaceful takeover, and as human rights cyber-resistance group Anonymous retaliates by shutting down Israeli government web sites.

As Israeli naval soldiers boarded the Tahrir and Saoirse Friday afternoon, the IDF released a statement saying that the ships were intercepted peacefully, and that no activists were harmed in the takeover. In addition, in an attempt to portray its own reasonable benevolence, the IDF released a video of soldiers contacting the ship and offering to reroute its humanitarian aid by land or through Ashdod, shortly before releasing another video which seemed to show Israeli soldiers peacefully and non-threateningly boarding one of the flotillas.

When Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, an activist aboard the Tahrir, wrote an account of Israel’s seizure of the boats after her release on Saturday, however, the world began to see a different picture.  “Towards the early afternoon,” she said, “we saw three Israeli warships in the horizon… Soon after, the Israeli presence in the waters around us intensified. We counted at least 15 ships, four of which were warships, and the rest a mix of smaller boats and water cannons. From inside the smaller boats, dozens of Israeli soldiers pointed their machines guns at us. This is when our communications system was jammed and we lost contact with the world…the Israelis sent radio messages to our boat, asking us to stop sailing because they would board the boat and take us to the Israeli port of Ashdod. When our boat refused to surrender, they aimed their canons at us, showering us with salty water. The boat had become highly unstable and panic was in the air… Israeli ships hit our boat and soldiers started boarding. Dozens of masked soldiers screamed “on your knees,” and “hands up.””

The violent nature of Israel’s takeover of the Tahrir and Saoirse became more apparent with a statement released mid-Sunday by Fintan Lane, the National Coordinator of the Irish Ship Saoirse, in a hurried phone call made from an Israeli prison. “The whole takeover [of the Saoirse by Israeli naval authorities] took about three hours”, claims Lane. “It began with Israeli forces hosing down the boats with high pressure hoses and pointing guns at the passengers through the windows. I was hosed down the stairs of the boat. Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire. The boats were corralled to such an extent that the two boats, the Saoirse and the Tahrir, collided with each other and were damaged, with most of the damage happening to the MV Saoirse.  The boats nearly sank. The method used in the takeover was dangerous to human life.”

The same day, Saoirse activist Paul Murphy, Socialist Party and United Left Alliance MEP for Dublin, related in a 3-minute phone call, monitored by Israeli prison authorities, that “our boat was almost sunk by the manner in which it was approached and boarded by the Israeli navy. People were shackled and deprived of all personal belongings. In Givon  prison the authorities tried to disorientate us through sleep deprivation and the removal of our watches and the prison clock recording the wrong time. We have been given no time frame as to how long we will be kept here before the deportation trial. We were denied our right by Israeli law to contact our families within 24 hours of our arrest.”

Also on Sunday, Greek captain of the Tahrir Giorgos Klontzas, after his release from jail, told Greek Omnia TV that during interrogation, Israeli forces handcuffed him tightly and stuck fingers in his eyes.

The clearest testament to the abuse suffered by the activists at the hands of the Israeli military has come from Canadian activist David Heap, in a letter smuggled out of his prison cell.  “I write to you from cell 9, block 59 Givon Prison near Ramla in Occupied Palestine”, the letter stated. “Although I was tasered during the assault on the Tahrir, and bruised during forcible removal dockside (I am limping slightly as a result) I am basically ok… [we] were transported in handcuffs and leg shackles…[we have created] a political prisoners’ committee in order to press our collective demands- association in the block, i.e. open cells; adequate writing and reading material; free communication with outside world- i.e. regular phone calls; [and] information about shipmate women held at same prison”. In response to the shortage of information regarding the female activists currently behind bars, the Women’s Organisation for Political Prisoners (WOFPP) offered Sunday night to send a lawyer free of charge to visit the female prisoners.

As reports of Israeli military violence leaked throughout the weekend, an international group of hackers named Anonymous released a video threatening retaliation against “a clear sign of piracy on the high seas.” The ‘Open Letter from Anonymous to the Government of Israel’ was pointed in its critique- “your actions”, it claimed, “are illegal, against democracy, human rights, international and maritime laws”, and an example of “justifying war, murder, illegal interception and pirate-like activities under an illegal cover of defense” which “will not go unnoticed by us or the people of the world”. Anonymous, which has temporarily disabled many web sites in past publicized acts of moral retribution, further threatened that “if you continue blocking humanitarian vessels to Gaza or repeat the dreadful actions of May 31st 2010 against any Gaza Freedom Flotillas, you will leave us no choice but to strike back, again and again, until you stop….we do not forget, we do not forgive. Expect us.”

A day later, Haaretz reported that “the websites of the IDF, Mossad and the Shin Bet security services were down”, likely due to an Anonymous cyber-attack. Hours later, however, the Israeli government released a statement on Facebook claiming that the websites were down “due to a systematic malfunction of the servers”, denying that Anonymous was behind the crash1. It is highly unlikely, however, for this shutdown to follow so soon after Anonymous’s threat as a matter of pure coincidence.

As the international community rises in condemnation of Israel’s illegal takeover of a ship in international waters, 21 of the 27 activists captured by Israel remain in prison awaiting deportation, and the whereabouts of one, PressTV journalist Hassan Ghani, remains unknown. The Irish activists have refused representation by a lawyer in the Israeli court system, on the grounds that they do not acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel’s legal system. In addition, they refuse to sign a waiver which would forfeit their claim to legal representation before a judge and allow for their immediate deportation, because the offered waiver claims that they came to Israel voluntarily and entered illegally, statements which are patently untrue in light of the fact that Israeli naval boats seized the activists from the Tahrir and Saoirse, and forcibly transported them to Ashdod. They will therefore, according to Israeli law, be detained for 72 hours and then brought to court, where they will almost certainly be deported- though, because they refused to sign the waiver, the deportation will occur without their consent.

As Israel unsuccessfully attempts to save face in the aftermath of its illegal and violent seizure of innocent civilians on a humanitarian aid mission in international waters, the international community once again bears witness to the fact that, in the words of a Saturday press release by the Canada Boat to Gaza team, “there is no legal justification for stopping or in any way impeding the passage of the totally peaceful Freedom Waves boats from the international solidarity movement with Palestinian people”. What is clear to all, in spite of Israeli repression, is that the recent aid mission is only the first of many Freedom Waves bound for Gaza’s shore. “Whatever the Israeli Occupation Forces do to us,” said David Heap and Ehab Lotayef, steering committee members of the Tahrir, from behind Israeli prison bars, “this flotilla marks the launching of the Freedom Waves. It is the continuation of many efforts over the years to bring the plight of Gaza and Palestine to the world’s attention. We will keep coming again and again, until the closure of Gaza is ended and Palestinians have been able to achieve liberation and justice… Expect us. Again and again. The Freedom Waves are just beginning.”

Ben Lorber is an activist with the International Solidarity Movement in Nablus. He is also a journalist with the Alternative Information Center in Bethlehem. He blogs at freepaly.wordpress.com.

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“Exploding Middle East Myths” written by Greg Felton-Epilogue-10-31-2011

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Gilad Atzmon: Armageddon Ahead

Friday, November 4, 2011 at 7:39AM Gilad Atzmon

It does not take a genius to gather that the Israeli aggression towards Iran would endanger every living species on this planet. Devastatingly enough, our Western governments  do nothing to stop the Jewish State. That should not take us by surprise: our politicians are largely funded and vetted by Israeli lobbies that openly support attack on Iran.

Here in Britain Defence Secretary Liam Fox had to resign two weeks ago when it became clear that he was ‘breaching ministerial laws’. The British press went out of its way to reduce the issue of his resignation into just another ‘gay-ish mini scandal’. But we actually have strong reason to believe that Fox was working intensively for Israel.

He was enthusiastically advocating Israeli interests such as an attack on Iran.  Together with his ‘best friend’ Adam Werritty,   he was also funded by the Israeli lobby. We  know also that Fox and his ‘flat mate’ Werritty were in direct contact with  Mossad, and were even warned by MI6 about it.

But Fox was not alone: with 80% of our leading party’s MP’s being Conservative Friends Of Israel’s (CFI) members, we have good reason to believe that treachery is now institutional amongst UK elected politicians.

As we brace ourselves while learning from the Israeli press about the IAF’s final preparations ahead for an attack on Iran’s nuclear plants, I would like to share with you a short passage from The Wandering Who.

In the following extract, I explore the exact genocidal scenario that Israeli pilots are now  training to accomplish, in these very days. As much as it is clear that our treacherous elected puppets will fail to restrain Israel, it is equally and tragically obvious that Israel lacks the means to restrain its own madness.

“…I will try to elucidate this idea through a simple and hypothetical yet horrifying war scenario. We, for instance, can envisage a horrific situation in which an Israeli so-called ‘pre-emptive’ attack on Iran escalates into a disastrous nuclear war, in which tens of millions of people perish. I guess that amongst the survivors of such a nightmare scenario, some may be bold enough to argue that ‘Hitler might had been right after all.’

The above is obviously a fictional scenario, and by no means a wishful one, yet such a vision of a ‘possible’ horrific development should restrain Israeli or Zionist aggression towards Iran. As we know, Israeli officials threaten to flatten Iran rather too often. In practice, pre-TSD[1] Israelis make this devastating scenario into a possible reality.

Seemingly, Israelis and Zionist politicians fail to see their own actions in the light of history.  They fail to look at their actions in terms of their consequences. From an ethical perspective, the above  ‘imaginary’ scenario is there to prevent Israel from attacking Iran. Yet, as we all know, Israel and its lobbies are desperate to dismantle the so-called ‘Iranian threat’. My explanation is simple. The Jewish state and the Jewish discourse in general are completely foreign to the notion of temporality. Israel is blinded to the consequences of its actions, it only thinks of its actions in terms of short-term pragmatism. Instead of temporality, Israel thinks in terms of an extended present.” (The Wandering Who pg. 179)

The Jewish State and its lobbies are the greatest threat to world peace.  If we want to save ourselves, there is no other way of doing so than looking closely into Jewish, Israeli and Zionist culture, identity and ideology. There is no other way of doing so than scrutinising Israel’s unique and relentless attitude towards lobbying.

The issues we are dealing with here are not solely political  they are actually deeply philosophical, psychological and sociological — and it is also about life and death.

 

You can now order The Wandering Who on Amazon.com  or Amazon.co.uk

[1] Pre TSD Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder-Within the condition of the Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the stress is the outcome of a phantasmic event, an imaginary episode set in the future; an event that has never taken place.

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War with Iran – Definitely, Maybe, Certainly, Probably

Some interesting developments on the international front with regards to Syria. The Arab League has a working paper that is being examined by the Syrian regime. Allegedly the regime has accepted it, and on face value that means they will withdraw their killing machines from the streets of Syria’s cities and towns. In reality I don’t think much will change and most people I speak with are very sceptical. Of course the Syrian regime and its supporters still speak about ‘armed gangs’ roaming the country, and after eight months of security services torturing and killing people there now are some.

The so-called Free Syrian Army is also claiming responsibility for attacks against government targets, and it seems that the level of defections continues at a steady trickle.

Anyway, you can read the string of events taking place on the news, but what’s really trigged my curiosity is the rising temperature that the entire region is experiencing. The ballistic missile test that the Israelis have carried out is a clear challenge to Iran, and an article on the Guardian’s website today speaks about the United Kingdom updating its contingency plans for attacks on Iran. Sometimes I think that the speed with which things are developing this year is almost breakneck, and when everything comes to its culmination it will happen so quickly that we won’t know about it till it’s well and truly underway. Everybody knows that a showdown with Iran has been in the cards since 2006.

 

What surprises me is that at no time in the number of years that I have been following this story has the region ever been closer to a complete explosion of war. For the first time ever, I find myself hoping that neither side wins. In a region of bad guys, the only losers are the people.

 

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The Most Important Prisoner in the Whole Wide World Submitted by Jaime Omar Yassin on Thu, 10/

Hatem Omar

13/2011 – 20:16

Its possible that there is a name more well-known than Gilad Shalit this week, but not likely. For the last two days, media of all kinds have been tripping over themselves trying to describe, explain, hagiographize, and contextualize Shalit, who is to be released soon after a five year detention by Hamas in a prisoner swap.

But the silence on the one thousand Palestinian lives to be exchanged for Shalit is deafening. Many Palestinians and supporters have been fuming at the discrepancy, but its not entirely true that all of the names and faces of the likely thousand to be released have been ignored. Rather, US media drama queens have enthusiastically joined in the shirt-rending of Israeli punditry and officials about the “terrorists” and “murderers” that are likely to be released under the deal, enumerating Hamas’ alleged top ten list of prisoners implicated in some act of violence against Israelis during the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Media Mirror Israeli Focus on Schalit

Mainstream media have been happy to have Israeli officials direct the narrative for them. The Associated Press [Wednesday, October 12] introduced an article by reiterating the anxiety Israelis now claim to suffer under with the release of the Palestinian prisoners. Jennifer Rubin’s column in the Washington Post was particularly nauseating. Though Rubin, like others, has no concrete list of the prisoners that will be released, she offers one anyway, richly embroidered with misleading statements. The Washington Post also carried a primer on Schalit, as well as a photo story which even seemed to imply that even Gazans care more about Schalit’s release than that the freedom of other Palestinians.

New York Times Jerusalem Desk Editor, Ethan Bronner excelled at the one sided coverage he is now famous for, reiterating Israeli talking points and reinforcing the idea that Palestinian prisoners in general present a threat of violence for Israelis:

Israel worries about having to contend with dozens of convicted militants’ suddenly being freed, some of them to the West Bank […] Israel agreed to allow more prisoners back into the West Bank even though the history of such releases suggests that some released killers return to violence

This is highly ironical in that there are no guarantees that Israel will not simply arbitararily arrest more Palestinians soon after the swap, as it has done in the past. But, of course, those are Palestinian concerns, and apparently not worth reporting. Though Bronner reports on a local strike in support of Palestinian prisoners, he fails to mention the hunger strike currently being waged by Palestinian prisoners , nor a solidarity strike by Haifa youth within the 1948 borders.  Bronner visited Gaza and the West Bank, but did not bother seeking out families with loved ones in Israeli prisons. As Ali Abunimah notes, Bronner also misleads readers about Israel’s cross-border attack on Egyptian soldiers.

Disinterest in the Personal Stories of Palestinian Prisoners

Fond of Schalit’s case, media organizations like the NYT, the Washington Post and CNN have an odd antipathy to the plight of over 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Certainly, there’s been a disinterest in the fact that at least 200 of the Palestinian prisoners will be exiled to Gaza and other countries. Such reporting ensures that many Americans by now know well the name of combat soldier Shalit. Some may even know the names of the most notorious [by American standards] of Israel’s prisoners. It remains unlikely that they will ever know any others.  They’ll hear little or nothing of the over 5,000 political prisoners currently in Israeli jails.

Certainly, not the names of over two hundred Palestinians under administrative detention, charged with no crimes at all, some incarcerated for over two or as many as five years. Not the names of Naji and Bassem Tamimi, who were arrested by Israel’s occupation forces for civil disobedience against a totalitarian military regime—acts which are celebrated throughout the region with the one exception being the Arab world’s “only democracy”.

Not the name of Hana Al Shalabi, a twenty-eight year old Jenin resident, never charged with a crime, but held in concurrent administrative detention for over two years. Not the name of Ayed Dudeen, an ambulance driver and activist, recently arrested again just a few weeks after being released from a four year stint of Israeli administrative detention.

Like Dudeen and many other Palestinians, the Tamimis had been arrested several times over the last two decades, and held for various periods, but never charged. The Tamimis have recently been jailed for the alleged offense of “solicitation” to throw stones at Israeli soldiers—a charge too ridiculous to be distinguished from administrative detention except for its advantage of having an end-dated sentence.

There is little that separates Israeli occupation justice—used like a magic wand by Israel to intimidate Palestinian communities and their leaders for over forty years—from the one imposed on Schalit by Hamas. The biggest difference, of course, is that Palestinians have only one prisoner: an adult who volunteerd for combat service in a military occupation. Somehow, at that time and since, the story that Israel holds thousands of Palestinians—some in a never-ending cycle of renewable detention, some of them even children—has been rejected again and again, in favor of ongoing saga of Schalit and his long suffering family. The dynamic continues today and shows no sign of abating soon.

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Virtual Field Visit: Impact of the Annexation Wall

[youtube http://youtu.be/1S2cOL6-30A?]

From MOndoweiss

Virtual field visit: Impact of the Annexation Wall
This tour shows how the building of the Annexation Wall on Palestinian land; the severe restrictions on movement resulting in loss of livelihoods; and the expansion of the settlements, are tactics being employed by the Israeli Occupying Power to fragment Palestinian existence in the West Bank. –  Read Al-Haq’s legal analysis of the Impact of the Annexation Wall. http://www.alhaq.org

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Robert Fisk: Jerusalem can do strange things to your sanity

Saturday, 8 October 2011

The Dome of the Rock mosque: green and gold are the colours of paradise APThe Dome of the Rock mosque: green and gold are the colours of paradise.So there was this chap, a bearded guy, spectacles, a settler, asking for a lift from Hebron to Kiryat Arba.

 And Kiryat Arba is quite a settlement, home to Baruch Goldstein who killed about 50 Palestinians before he himself was killed by the survivors, and Don, our man in Jerusalem – who was driving – said “Are you sure?” and my companion and I, anxious to hear “another point of view”, said “Why not?” and this chap climbed in to the back seat next to me. And as we left Hebron, he pointed to us and said: “Jew? Jew? Jew?”

And I was a bit taken aback and let Don do the talking, and he said: “No.” That kept our mate quiet for a bit. He had a gun in his belt, which I didn’t really like. But armed Palestinians had killed Jewish settlers, so I kept my mouth shut. Then we reached Kiryat Arba and an enormous chap – with an even bigger beard – came to the car window with an equally enormous gun and said we could enter. And this settler beside me said: “The Land of Israel – for Israelis. Arabs. In London.” Well, I see, we murmured. A bit like the Balfour Declaration in reverse, I suppose. “His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Britain of a national home for the Arab people …” Well there you have it, I suppose.

So then I called up from the King David Hotel – the best hotel in Jerusalem, I may add, whose Jewish and Arab staff are the best advertisement for a one-state solution, albeit that they may not agree with me! – and asked if the Waqf would permit me and my companion to visit the Haram al-Sharif, the Dome of the Rock, the Esplanade. And they called back and said yes, 9am sharp, Monday morning, and I could touch the footprint of the Prophet. I did – if indeed, it is his footprint, but this I cannot, alas, vouchsafe – and sure enough, I entered the great mosque which looks so like the Omayad mosque in Damascus and wondered at its beauty.

Gold and green are the colours of paradise, so I was told – I can believe it – and then, across the Esplanade, I was shown the Carrara marble aisles which that old trickster, Mussolini, gave to the holiest mosque in Palestine, and I remembered, of course, the Grand Mufti and his trip to Nazi Germany, and his visit to Hitler, and I recalled my student days, researching his speeches and his appeals to send the Jews of Europe to the East… Did he know?

And then I walked across the carpets and there was a plastic casket in which the Palestinians had boxed the cartridge cases of the Israelis who had fired tear gas at them in the 1990 killings here. “Saltsburg, Pennsylvania,” it said. “For outdoor use only.” Well, I can imagine. Saltsburg? Nice little town?

But then another question. What on earth, in this holy of holies, are these cartridge cases doing? Is this really their place? Should they be here, so close to Mohamed’s footprint? Well, yes, I suppose they should, in one way. But I wonder. And then to a brunch at the Hamam el-Ein – the Bathhouse of the Well – which is being carefully restored close to the Esplanade and I talked to a fine Palestinian woman who described Israeli occupation in the language of Conrad. “Israeli occupation,” she said to me. “They search everything on you; they go into your soul.” That really is an “ouch”.

And then we left Israel and the West Bank. “Please don’t stamp our passports. Please don’t stamp our passports,” we pleaded. And the Israelis did not stamp our passports. And then, on the Jordanian side of the river, “Please don’t stamp our passports. Please don’t stamp our passports,” we pleaded, and the Jordanians did not, although the Jordanian emigration officer at Amman airport did stamp our passports, thus allowing the Lebanese to see we had left Jordan but never entered it – but the Lebanese ignored the Jordanian stamp.

All of which makes me think that the Holy Land, Jerusalem, “Al-Quds”, “Yerushalayim” – the Israelis print the Hebrew name of the city in Arabic script on Arabic road signs, I notice – is all a bit mad. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a city where people go insane the nearer they get to it.

I once entered the Seven Arches Hotel above the Mount of Olives (and above the grave of one R Maxwell) – and do not ever, ever stay there, O reader – to find a group of Christians linking hands and praying and not prepared to let me through the lobby until they had finished praying. When I told them I was in a hurry one of the Christian men threatened to punch me in the face.

Funny place, Jerusalem. Funny place, Hebron. What on earth did God do to them?

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Brutal eviction of Palestinian family in Jaffa caught on tape by Kate on October 6, 2011

[youtube http://youtu.be/QRHqU8H1CVk?]

Jaffa family to sue for excessive force in house eviction
JPost 6 Oct — An Israeli-Arab family from Jaffa said Thursday they plan to file a lawsuit against the police, after officers used what appears to be excessive force to evict them from a south Tel Aviv house they were squatting in on Tuesday. In an amateur video taken at the scene, a group of YASSAM riot police can be seen wrestling with Sameer Kassem, 34, as he holds his four-year-old daughter in his hands: The video shows police kicking and punching Kassem while he lies on the ground, and one officer puts his sister, a Muslim woman wearing a veil, in a headlock and throws her to the ground. No social workers or female police are present at the scene, even though it constituted the eviction of a family with young children … Sameer said he and his family have been homeless since May when his mother, who used to help him with his expenses, died and he could no longer pay rent. He said that he, his wife, and their five children moved to the vacant house on Salameh Street about two weeks ago after someone set their tent at the Shtayim park on fire.

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Son of Israeli general speaks for Palestine

Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Miko Peled.

Israeli activist and author Miko Peled, currently touring Australia, is convinced that the Israel-Palestine conflict can be solved.

But, he told public meetings in Sydney and Newcastle, he doesn’t believe that it will happen while the government of Israel remains committed to Zionism (the maintenance of Israel as an exclusively “Jewish” state) and continues its ethnic cleansing operation by moving Palestinians off their land.

“It is not some inexorable process of nature,” Peled said. “It is a conflict between people, and it is therefore something over which people can have control.”

Peled was raised in a prominent Zionist family in Jerusalem. His grandfather, Dr Avraham Katsnelson, was a Zionist leader and signatory to the May 14, 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Katsnelson was also a member of Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party of Palestine that, in 1946, was the sole Zionist political organisation in Palestine at the time that recognised the national rights of the Palestinian Arabs.

Peled’s father, Matti Peled, was a young officer in the war of 1948 that led to Israel’s establishment. He was a general in the war of 1967 when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and the Sinai from Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

When he retired, Matti Peled became part of a group of retired army officers who met secretly with the Palestine Liberation Organisation to work on finding a two-state solution.

Peled recounted several life changing episodes — including the death of his niece from a suicide bombing attack in 1997 and the deaths of children of several Palestinian friends — that pushed him to discover and understand the true nature of Israel’s ongoing war on Palestinians that was having such a devastating impact on his family and friends.

He is now a fearless campaigner for one secular state for Palestinians and Israelis in which all live in equality.

He also supports the non-violent boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. He said the boycott of Max Brenner cafes was not anti-Semitic, explaining how the Stauss Group openly support the Israeli government’s apartheid politics and an Israeli army unit responsible for war crimes.

He added: “All businesses based in Israeli are a legitimate target, since all of Israel is based on Palestinian land.”

Peled was asked to brief the ALP’s foreign affairs committee in Canberra. He said he was asked some strange questions in response to his argument for one democratic secular state. Someone asked, “But wouldn’t the Arabs outnumber Jews if there was a single state?” Peled answered, “Yes. And?”

Responding to foreign minister Kevin Rudd’s accusations that BDS was “anti-Semitic”, Peled said there is no comparison. “Then, the Jews were victims. Today, it is the Israeli Defence Force [IDF] that is a terrorist organisation. Mr Rudd should be proud that Australians are standing up for the cause of justice and supporting the BDS.”

It takes enormous courage to stand up against the Zionist mind-set Israelis are raised with. Peled recounted a moving story about his first journey to the West Bank. It was a pivotal moment.

Driving past the Israeli checkpoints into the West Bank, in an Israeli-plated car, he suddenly felt very unsafe. His unfounded fears worsened when became lost and felt he couldn’t ask for directions as he only spoke Hebrew.

He finally managed to arrive at his destination in Bil’in — unscathed.

Peled now laughs while narrating this story. But he expresses concern that Israelis are taught from a young age to be racist by the racism embedded in their text books. For example, school maps of Israel do not include any Palestinian towns.

Children grow into adults only knowing that Israel is surrounded by it Arab neighbours and have little or no idea of the reality of the Occupied Territories.

Peled references tragic personal events alongside Israel’s 2008-09 attack on Gaza as examples of terrorism. He describes the 2008-2009 Israeli attack on Gaza — Operation Cast Lead — a deliberate act of terrorism committed against children.

“Gaza is a children’s land: there are 800,000 children there. The aerial bombing was timed to start precisely when the first shift of Palestinian school children were leaving school to go home. The second shift were leaving home to go to school.

“The Israel pilots who carried out the bombing went home every night to their wives and families, and go up the next morning to do it again and again.”

His conclusion is that Israel is a terrorist state, that Israel’s conquest of Palestine has been made “irreversible” and that a Palestinian state based on the territories Israel occupied in 1967 (the West Bank and Gaza) “can never emerge”.

Referring to the Palestinian Authority’s current push for a Palestinian state in the United Nations, he reminded people that the UN had already voted that way — in 1947. When Israel was created, in 1947, an overwhelming majority of countries voted in favour of the Partition Plan: 33 in favor, 13 against with 10 abstentions.

“However Israel immediately set out to conquer some 80% of the remaining Palestinian territory, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing some 800,000 people to flee. Its aim was to make sure the conquest of Palestine was irreversible, to prevent any possibility of a Palestinian state emerging.”

Peled exposed the myth that Israel launched the Six-day war in 1967 because it faced an external threat from neighbouring Arab states. Rather, his father, General Peled, urged the Israel cabinet to attack its neighbours arguing that an opportunistic attack would succeed as the Arab states were “unprepared”.

Peled said that documents from cabinet meetings prior to the war confirm that there was never any mention of any existential threats.

Immediately after the war, his father argued for a Palestinian state to be set up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip “to avoid Israel becoming an occupying power”. This was advice the Israeli Cabinet did not take.

“The two-state solution may have been possible 50 years ago”, Peled argued, “but not now.”

“Both sides have much the same population but Israel takes 80% of the resources. Palestinians are given about 1/20th the amount of water allocated to the Israeli settlers, for instance, and Israel refuses to negotiate this.”

But Peled believes that there is hope. “There is growing discussion that Israel has to change from being an occupier to a democracy”, Peled said. Citing the uprisings across the Arab world, Peled commented that mid way through last year it was inconceivable to imagine Egypt without Mubarak. “Change doesn’t happen from a single cause or reason. Apartheid in South Africa fell because of pressure from the outside, as well as within.

“Zionism is incompatible with peace because it offers no compromise. The only solution is to dismantle the Zionist framework and apply the rule of law equally to both people. It is not impossible, because the people of Egypt remind us that nothing is impossible.”

[Miko Peled’s book, The General’s Son will be available in February 2012. To find out more click here.]

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