WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
December 18, 2009: A Letter regarding Deir Yassin and Remembering More
Dear Ms. Fleming,
I can’t tell you how much I respect your efforts in speaking
out for the people of Palestine.
I simply loved your recent book. It so much reminded me of
my visits to Palestine. The chapter about Brother V I liked very much. During
my visit Christmas 2004 I had the honor of visiting with Mordechai. I found him
to be very reserved and soft-spoken. I very much enjoyed the few minutes we had
to talk. I found out after my return home that Mordechai had been arrested for
trying to attend midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity on Christmas Eve.
That was something that I did without giving it any thought. I felt bad for
Mordechai and was embarrassed because I took the simple act of attending church
service for granted.
With your visits and speaking out for the people of
Palestine you have exhibited personal sacrifice not often seen nowadays. If you
are ever in the Houston, Texas area on a speaking tour I would love to hear you
speak.
I have in my own life tried to make it a goal to speak up
for others who for whatever reason find their voices silenced. One of the
things that I have done to further this goal, with the help of three
colleagues, is to establish a small grassroots organization which has
established a scholarship for Palestinian students. We named the scholarship
after the village of Deir Yassin. Deir Yassin was one of the first Palestinian
Arab villages to suffer the onslaught of the newly founded State of Israel.
As I'm sure you already know, the situation in Palestinian
seems to be getting worse every day. An area especially hard hit are the
educational institutions. Money for the schools and teachers salaries is almost
non-existent.
My involvement in Palestinian education began as a result of
my last visit to Palestine during. I visited with some friends I met the
previous year in the West Bank village of Al-Walajah. Al-Walajah has the
unfortunate distinction of being situated too close to Jerusalem. The village
has already lost much of its land to the expansion of Jerusalem and the
separation wall. All without compensation of course.
One gentleman I had a lengthy conversation with was Hassan
Hamdan. Hassan is teacher at the public school in the village. We talked about
the problems the village was having with the Israeli authorities. Home
demolitions and road closures being the most serious. Hassan also told me about
the villages’ efforts to build a new elementary school because the old school,
which has been in use since the 1960’s, was pretty dilapidated. It really
wasn’t even built to be a school. The village had been renting three separate
buildings for use as classrooms. The kindergarten class was being held in one
room of the local mosque.
The biggest obstacle to building a new school was a building
permit. Since the municipality of Jerusalem threw a blanket of control around
Al-Walajah and the surrounding area in 1967, residents of the area have to ask
the Jerusalem government for building permits. Needless to say if the request
comes from a Palestinian, permits are almost never granted. Last year the
village finally overcame the hurdles and with the help of OXFAM-Belgium they
now have a nice new school building.
Eventually my conversation with Hassan turned to his son
Nafiz. At the time, Nafiz was to graduate from high school the next year
(2005). Hassan explained how Nafiz’s dream was to attend Bethlehem University
but on his civil servants salary that would be impossible.
A couple of weeks after returning home I received a nice
email from Hassan. He thanked me for visiting his home and for my interest in
Al-Walajah. He then did something that I know was difficult for him. He asked
me if there was any way that I could help pay for his son’s university tuition.
I didn’t have to think about it for long. Since I don’t have any children of my
own I decided to adopt Nafiz financially. I’m happy to say that Nafiz in now
finishing his studies at Bethlehem University. In fact he will be graduating in
June. If everything works out, I plan on attending his graduation ceremony.
I must admit that creating the scholarship and putting
together the committee was the easy part. Fund raising is another story all
together. We finally raised enough money to award our first scholarship in
January 2007.
The award was given to a young woman also from Al-Walajah.
Her name is Reem Khalifa.
Reem is enrolled at Al Quds University in East Jerusalem and
is studying dentistry. Since our scholarship award only covers about half of
Reem's tuition I have personally helped with the other half. Like with Nafiz, I
just wanted to give another young Palestinian a chance at a better life. Four
years ago I didn’t have any children. Now I have two in college. God does work
in mysterious ways.
In August 2007 we selected another young woman from East
Jerusalem as the scholarships next recipient. Her name is Aya Bustami. She is a
graduate of Dar Al-Tifl Al-Arabi School in East Jerusalem. Aya has enrolled in
business administration at Bethlehem University. And then last summer we award
a scholarship to two additional young women. Nida’ Ahmaru is from the Farwar
Refugee Camp (Hebron) and Haneen Abu Eisha is from the Shu’fat Refugee Camp
(Jerusalem). About two months ago we awarded a scholarship to our fifth
student. Her name is Lama Abu Rajab. She is from Hebron. And then just last
week we presented a scholarship to a young girl from Gaza. He name is Khulud
Abu Askar. She lives in Jabalya Refugee Camp and wants to study journalism.
We continue to struggle with fund raising but I have no
doubt that we will meet our goal of providing financial aid to the young people
of Palestine who wish to pursue a college or university education.
We believe there is no greater priority for peacemaking in
the world today than that between the Israelis and Palestinians. The long and
tragic conflict between these two peoples threatens the health and welfare of
future generations.
While we affirm that the military occupation of Palestine
underpins the cycle of violence, we believe that education offers a path to
empowerment and understanding, which in turn may open new doors toward justice
and peace.
Through our scholarship, we affirm the Right to Education;
we aim to empower the young with enlightenment and understanding; and we offer
what we can toward peace, through education.
I’m hoping that you will do us the honor of helping to get
the word out about the Deir Yassin Remembered Scholarship. I know that with all
of us working together and speaking out we can change the future for Palestine.
If you have any questions about the work we are doing,
please let me know. I would enjoy hearing from you.
Remembering What NOT Many of We the People Ever Knew about Never Forget, Deir Yassin, 9/11 and Israel Too
Deir Yassin was once a peaceful Palestinian village on the
west side of Jerusalem. On April 9, 1948 the lives of over 100 innocent men,
women, and children ended by the hand of Jewish terrorists from the Irgun and
the Stern Gang.
Deir Yassin is 1,400 meters to the north of Yad Vashem, the
most famous Holocaust memorial, where the world is taught to “Never Forget.”
Might the world also remember that on May 15, 1948, the
British left Palestine and the Israeli military force consisted of three
independent groups: "The larger one was the Hagana. Within the Hagana
there was a strike force known as the Palmah. Outside Hagana there were two
more independent smaller forces. The bigger of the two was Etzel, which was the
underground terrorist organization of the opposition party led by Menahem
Begin, and the smaller one was Lehi, known also as the Stern Gang, a splinter
group which separated from the Etzel a few years previously."[1]
"The Deir Yassin incident was part of the Middle
East war of 1948, variously referred to as the Israeli War of Independence, the
First Arab-Israeli War, or the First Palestine War. The conflict arose out of
decades-old competing claims of nationalist Jews and Arabs for sovereignty over
Palestine (today Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip). European
Jewish nationalists, organized as Zionists in 1897, sought to establish a
Jewish state through colonization of Palestine, while Arab nationalists sought
an Arab state for Palestine's Arab majority." [2]
There are many versions of what happened in Deir Yassin on
April 9, 1948. One report by then Colonel Dr. Me'ir Pa'ill, [who later represented
the Meretz Party in the Knesset] a liaison officer representing the Palmah in
the headquarters of the Hagana in Jerusalem gave an interview in the magazine
Monitin, April 1981, Edition 32, page 36:
"Etzel and Lehi had decided to carry out one operation
together. They counted their men and discovered that together they could supply
130 fighters. Among the Etzel members there was one, Joshua Goldshmid, who
lived in Giv'at Shaul, a western suburb of Jerusalem close to Deir Yassin and
he was the one that pushed for Deir Yassin. The place itself was a small
village of 750 inhabitants. It did not have a strategic location and wasn't
situated on any important road....Since the Hagana was holding the lines of
communications, Etzel and Lehi asked David Sha'altiel, the commander of the
Hagana's Jerusalem district for a meeting. I'm telling you this to show that I
knew what was going on, because I was in the picture from the beginning.
Sha'altiel told them that the plan of the Hagana was, that when the British
army leave (shortly), they would take over Deir Yassin and level it to build an
airport… [3]
"It was Friday, the 9th of April 1948 and I went in
together with them. I had a tommy-gun with a disc magazine, 50 bullets and
proper boots. On that day I did not fire even one bullet. With me was a guy
with a good Leica camera capable of taking 36 still, black and white pictures.
Half of them were shot during the battle and half afterwards...The raid was
supposed to start two hours before dawn. The road to Deir Yassin was open. It
was not mined or obstructed because it was constantly in use. The plan was that
the van carrying the Etzel/Lehi members would drive on this dusty road and a
loudspeaker would call to the inhabitants to flee from the village. I was
walking on this very road. They (Lehi) didn't know who I was. They were late
and reached the village when it was already daylight…I thought that now a small
skirmish would develop, but there was actually a battle. From my battleground
experience I noticed that the Arabs had only rifles. All their shots were
single shots. Only the attackers had automatic weapons...Suddenly; at about 11
o'clock in the morning, I heard the explosions of 2 inch mortar shells. I
looked out of the window and I saw ten Palmah fighters under the command of the
late Jacob Wog, descending and taking over the rest of the village…They (Etzel Lehi), were not able to carry out even their own task. We had to send
in a tired platoon to finish the job for them. Suddenly I started to hear
shooting from all directions in the village. I ran there with my photographer
and I saw gangs of Etzel and Lehi running through the alleys. In my report I
added: 'with bulging eyes' as if they were 'running amok'. They were running
from house to house. They got inside, and butchered whoever was there by
shooting, not by hand grenades! By shooting! I called it hot blooded murder. It
was spontaneous, not planned. I ran after them shouting:' what are you doing?'
They looked at me as if I was crazy, also with those bulging eyes. The
photographer was taking pictures of scenes that I can still see, even now, with
my own eyes: A corner in a room. A woman, children and an old man, butchered.
[4]
"...On the Saturday, Etzel and Lehi notified David
Sha'altiel: 'Tomorrow we leave the place. We are a crash unit. We don't hold to
command posts. They were asked to at least bury the corpses. 'We don't care'
was their answer. Two platoons of Gadna, seven and eighth grade students (a
pre-military unit of the Hagana), were brought to Deir Yassin on the Sunday and
they did most of the burying. They counted the corpses. The Red Cross arrived
later on. There were 254 dead out of 750 people who had lived in this village.
A third was killed, a third was evacuated and a third escaped."[5]
The massacre in Deir Yassin was neither the first of its
kind nor the most horrific, but "its timing, scope, and historic
long-term consequences have made Deir Yassin, in the words of philosopher
Martin Buber, "infamous throughout the Jewish world, the Arab world,
and the whole world."[6]
Also infamous is the 1954 incident when Israel attempted to
bomb US government offices in Egypt and Israel's 1967 two hour attack upon the
lightly armed spy ship the USS LIBERTY, which resulted in 34 dead sailors and a
still traumatized crew who were commanded to keep silent by the LBJ
Administration, who sacrificed the troops rather than embarrass an ally. [7]
Another infamous fact is that, "through the years,
Israel has regularly spied on the US. According to the Government Accounting
Office, Israel 'conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the
United States of any ally.' Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said of
Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard: 'It is difficult for me to conceive of greater
harm done to national security.' And the Pollard case was just the tip of a
very large iceberg; the most recent operation coming to light involves two
senior officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),
Israel's powerful American lobbying organization."[8]
In December 2001, FOX News began a four part series [that
has since been removed from their website] regarding Israel's spying on
America. However, Information Clearing House has preserved those insights. In
Part One, Part I, host Brit Hume stated,
"It has been more than 16 years since a civilian
working for the Navy was charged with passing secrets to Israel. Jonathan
Pollard pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and is serving a life
sentence. At first, Israeli leaders claimed Pollard was part of a rogue
operation, but later took responsibility for his work. Now Fox News has learned
some U.S. investigators believe that there are Israelis again very much engaged
in spying in and on the U.S., who may have known things they didn't tell us
before September 11. Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron has details in the
first of a four-part series."[9]
Carl Cameron reported, "Since September 11, more
than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained, either under the new patriot
anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations. A handful of active Israeli
military were among those detained, according to investigators, who say some of
the detainees also failed polygraph questions when asked about alleged
surveillance activities against and in the United States. There is no
indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11 attacks, but
investigators suspect that they Israelis may have gathered intelligence about
the attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed investigator said
there are 'tie-ins'; But when asked for details, he flatly
refused to describe them, saying, "evidence linking these Israelis to
9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered.
It's classified information."[10]
Numerous classified documents obtained by Fox News indicated
that even prior to September 11; as many as 140 other Israelis had been
detained or arrested in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected
espionage by Israelis in the United States. Investigators from numerous
government agencies are part of a working group that's been compiling evidence
since the mid '90s. These documents detail hundreds of incidents in cities and
towns across the country that investigators say, "may well be an
organized intelligence gathering activity." [11]
"Why would Israelis spy in and on the U.S.? A
general accounting office investigation referred to Israel as country A and
said, 'According to a U.S. intelligence agency, the government of country A
conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any U.S.
ally.' [12]
"A defense intelligence report said Israel has a
voracious appetite for information and said, 'the Israelis are motivated by
strong survival instincts which dictate every possible facet of their political
and economical policies. It aggressively collects military and industrial
technology and the U.S. is a high priority target…Israel possesses the
resources and technical capability to achieve its collection objectives."[13]
After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Israel's economy was
devastated, but then came 9/11, and "suddenly new profit vistas opened
up for any company that claimed it could spot terrorists in crowds, seal
borders from attack and extract confessions from closed-mouthed prisoners…Many
of the country's most successful entrepreneurs are using Israel's status as a
fortressed state, surrounded by furious enemies, as a kind of
twenty-four-hour-a-day showroom--a living example of how to enjoy relative
safety amid constant war…Israel now sends $1.2 billion in "products to the United States—up dramatically from $270 million in 1999…That
makes Israel the fourth-largest arms dealer in the world…Much of this growth
has been in the so-called homeland security sector. Before
9/11 homeland security barely existed as an industry. By the end of this year,
Israeli exports in the sector will reach $1.2 billion--an increase of 20
percent. The key products and services are …precisely the tools and
technologies Israel has used to lock in the occupied territories. Israel has
learned to turn endless war into a brand asset, pitching its uprooting,
occupation and containment of the Palestinian people as a half-century head
start in the "global war on terror." [14]
Thinking people comprehend that all governments lie, that
politicians get addicted to gaining and keeping power and that religion has
been misused for eons.
Shortly after my first of five trips to occupied Palestine,
in 2005, a USA Episcopal priest and I exchanged a few emails before he left America
to work with Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem Holocaust memorial, where the world is
taught to “Never Forget.”
I wrote to the priest about my concern that the fastest
growing cult in the U.S.A. is the cult of Christian Zionism and that
approximately 25 million U.S. Christians choose the simple answers of
fundamentalism rather than struggle with a God of justice, mercy and
compassion.
Christian Zionists, such as John Hagee cling to Genesis
12:3: "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I
will curse: and in you all the families of the world are blessed" as
if God meant blessings to be political power and military might.
The ancient Israelites and today's religious fundamentalist
nationalist Zionists hold to the belief that a particular religion and race are
more chosen, worthy, special and esteemed by God over and above any other.
Looking down on one’s enemies to foster one’s own tribal interest and praying
to God to smite one’s enemies is what the ancients did.
The fact that Genesis 12:3 was promised even before Ishmael,
the father of the Arab nation, and Isaac, the Jew, were born is overlooked and
ignored by Christian Zionists, who also fail to comprehend that the very first
mention of Israel is when Jacob was renamed Israel for having wrestled and
struggled with God. Thus, in the Biblical sense, anyone and everyone who
struggles and wrestles with God is Israel, too, for Israel means more than a
geographical location.
The Episcopal priest insisted that the modern state of
Israel is the fulfillment of the prophetic scriptures, and God’s covenant with
Israel is eternal, exclusive, and will not be abrogated. He referred me to
Genesis 12:1-7, 15:4-7, 17:1-8; Leviticus 26:44-45; and Deuteronomy 7:7:8.
I wrote back that for Christians, the New Testament holds
greater weight than the Hebrew Scriptures and I referred him to Matthew
5:43-45, which not only critiques Genesis 12:3; it blows it apart, for Jesus
commanded his followers to, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use
you, that you maybe children of your Father."
I asked that priest to consider the fact that blind
allegiance to the Israeli government has allowed our 'best friend' in the world
to become a very big bully. I questioned that priest regarding how God is
always on the side of the oppressed and if we truly love our friend, wouldn't
we hold them accountable when they cross the line and practice injustice?
I asked that priest to consider how the views of Christian
Zionists who have come to see the political state of Israel as a replacement
for Jesus is at the center of their Christian faith, and that certainly is not
Christianity.
I asked that priest how he could take Genesis 12:3 to
literally mean that blessings equal land and political power, and ignore God’s
promise in Genesis 21:17-20 to ‘make a great nation out of Ishmael’s
descendents’ and that ‘God was with the boy.’
I charged that priest that his way of thinking allows for
the continuing military occupation of Palestine and oppression of people that
God also made promises too, and I asked him aren't Christians to be on the side
of the oppressed and marginalized?
I cautioned that priest that whenever religion and politics
get in bed together, we the people for justice and peace always get screwed!
I alerted that priest if he ever considered that the Israeli
government is using uninformed, misinformed Christians like him to become
apologists in support of their agenda of illegal occupation and settlements in
the West Bank, east Jerusalem, Golan, and Gaza, on literal biblical
misinterpreted grounds taken out of context.
I admonished that priest to consider how American Christians
blind allegiance to every act of Israel as being orchestrated by God and
therefore is to be condoned, supported, and even praised, should instead compel
all people of integrity and good will to instead question and challenge the
true motives of Christians who actually relish the idea of Armageddon-and who
love to speculate on who gets left behind on Judgment Day.
After three email exchanges, I never heard from that priest
again, but a parishioner of his from his Central Florida church wrote me that
he had moved to Jerusalem and was now working at Yad Vashem.
Jesus' other name is The Prince of Peace, and he was very
clear that on the final day, there will be a lot of wailing and gnashing of
teeth by those who were so sure they were in, because they get left out.
If only the self-righteous and militant minded amongst us
could remember what they have never even known and seek to do what Jesus
promised; be peacemakers for they are the children of God.
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel