MURDERED: Asesinan a Walter Trochez

viernes 4 de diciembre de 2009
“Ha sido duro, sabemos que hay mucha lucha por delante, pero… somos Mujeres en Resistencia”
Por Rosa C. Báez
“Ha sido duro, sabemos que hay mucha lucha por delante, pero… somos Mujeres en Resistencia”
Amazonas en Resistencia

“A todas mis hermanas en resistencia; hijas y madres inquebrantables de Honduras. Con los pechos duros de rabia, herencia de Harmonía, y las caderas en equilibrio guerrero, van las amazonas hondureñas en marcha por la voz de luz. Salpicadas de odio ajeno y sangre iluminada, con brillo de leona navegando en sus ojos, marchan las Amazonas.

Viven por el día, por el aire, por el agua. Sus gritos elevan dagas hasta el cielo. Están en pie de guerra. Luchan por una tierra justa y libre. Van con las aves en vuelo silencioso conquistando el aire que respirarán sus hijos. Llueve en sus mejillas la rabia. Defienden las Amazonas.

La fuerza incólume de sus brazos, golpea firme la injusticia, la impunidad. Destruyen la farsa con su lanza de fuego. Con látigo temerario echan abajo la hipocresía. Melenas majestuosas, al viento enarboladas, protegen sus ideas. Castigan las Amazonas.

Banderas de esperanza y castigo flamean en sus vientres. Territorio abierto al amor y a la justicia. Arcos y flechas vibran en sus manos, destinados a eclipsar a los traidores de la patria. Defensoras de lo suyo, del pueblo, del sudor. Aman las Amazonas.

Marchan las Amazonas con paso constante, invariable. Aplastarán hasta el último parásito en su ruta a la libertad. Redimirán al pueblo, devolverán la vida. Más que la paz, reconstruirán la esperanza. El pueblo saluda su paso de ángeles. Ellas, impacientes, marchan por Honduras”.

Melissa Merlo
Con el rostro serio y en la mirada todo el dolor acumulado por el recuerdo de los numerosos casos de mujeres violadas y atropelladas que ha debido recoger en estos cruentos días vividos (“La denuncia y el seguimiento son armas de sobrevivencia”, postulan estas luchadoras), la escritora y feminista independiente hondureña Jessica Sánchez, llegada a la Habana para participar en el I Taller Regional sobre Género y Comunicación “Cambiar la Mirada”, comparte con nosotros estas vivencias…

“Estábamos allí, en el aeropuerto, mientras el avión de Mel sobrevolaba la multitud que lo esperaba: de pronto, se sucedieron disparos, no sabíamos de donde provenían, qué sucedía… unos corrieron, otros quedamos a la espera, pero todos seguros de que no nos moveríamos de allí… luego supimos la horrible noticia de que la primera vida era cobrada: el joven Isis Obed Murillo había caído bajo las balas asesinas y aún hoy día su padre guarda injusta prisión”.

“Hemos estado reportando detenciones, hemos entrevistado a mujeres, de todas las edades y etnias, que han sido violadas y nos dicen: ‘yo iba a acudir a la policía… pero ¿a qué policía si fueron ellos quienes me violaron, quienes usaron sus palos de goma para violarme, mientras yo les rogaba que no me hicieran daño, que tenía hijos pequeños’. ¿Quién puede admitir la legitimización de un régimen que no sólo toma el poder por la fuerza, secuestrando al legítimo Presidente de un país, si no que suelta sus ‘perros de caza’ contra la población inocente, que asesina a sus propios hermanos, mientras muestra una cara de credibilidad e inocencia?

“Las mujeres hondureñas hemos estado desde el primer día en la calle: fuimos las primeras en difundir el mensaje sobre el Golpe de Estado, sumándonos después al Frente Nacional de Resistencia contra el Golpe, apoyando en las asambleas casi diarias, en las reuniones, en las marchas. Luego debimos documentar las represiones, los abusos sexuales contra mujeres, los abusos físicos, las detenciones, trabajamos junto al Comité de Familiares y Desaparecidos de Honduras (COFADEH) para hacer guardias en los hospitales para evitar las detenciones o denunciarlas. Hemos sufrido el dolor de ver a familiares golpeados, hemos perdido, masacrados a machetazos, a amigos de toda la vida… pero nada nos ha detenido: somos más del 70% de la resistencia tanto en acciones como en marchas, ayudando en las cocinas, haciendo mantas, camisetas, haciendo pintas, difundiendo consignas…

“En la actualidad estamos, con medio casi artesanales, difundiendo la boletina Feministas en Resistencia –somos más de doscientas- en el que denunciamos la detención de compañeras, de compañeros, de líderes de nuestros grupos de resistencia pacífica y a través de la cual nos pronunciamos contra las elecciones bajo el lema “Ni violencia contra las mujeres, ni elecciones fraudulentas”.

“No sólo luchamos por Mel, por el Golpe de Estado: luchamos porque la voz de la mujer hondureña no pueda nunca más ser acallada, luchamos por no ser relegadas a la casa, por que nos hemos ganado este sitio y vamos a seguir luchando, porque, como dije una vez “La rabia no se me cansa, tal vez por eso todavía sigo escribiendo y protestando”

Apenas hicieron falta las preguntas: como un río de fuerza descomunal, desbordado ante el crimen, ante el dolor de su pueblo, esta mujer que hoy representa ante nosotras a todas las mujeres hondureñas, termina este encuentro con estas palabras:

“Lucharemos por la restitución del verdadero orden constitucional, seguiremos enfrentándonos a esta represión que desdichadamente continuará, porque estos hechos son un mensaje de la derecha, renovada y aupada por los grupos más conservadores de Estados Unidos y América. Y estamos seguras que venceremos, que seguirán las Jessica, las Suyapa, las Mariana, las Regina, las Dianas, luchando para que la memoria de Wendy, de Isis Obed, de las mujeres violadas, de las madres y las hijas e hijos que esperan con temor en nuestras casas no caiga en el olvido… porque cuando la gente se pregunte “¿y éstas quiénes son? les diremos ¡¡ SOMOS FEMINISTAS EN REVOLUCION!!!”*
*Lema de las Feministas en Resistencia
REF: Publicado por Feministas en Resistencia CR

Global majority deem “war on terror” a failure

A BBC survey shows that citizens in 22 out of 23 countries polled see futility in the American-led “war on terrorism”. Osama bin Laden’s poetry surfaces in academic journal. Somali pirates discover 33 Russian-made tanks on captured vessel. And much more in today’s briefing.

A poll for the BBC World Service has revealed that people worldwide think the “war on terrorism” has not weakened al-Qaida. The survey of almost 24,000 citizens found people in 22 out of 23 countries thought attempts to counter al-Qaida had failed to weaken the extremist militant network since the 9/11 attacks.

The toD verdict: Seven years into the war on terror, the poll is a damning indictment of the Bush administration’s foreign policy. Most damagingly, the poll reveals that in Egypt and Pakistan, two pivotal states in the confrontation with Islamist radicals, a majority have mixed or even positive views of al-Qaida. Cleary, US strategy has failed to win hearts and minds, strengthening doubts in the tactical merits of the “war on terrorism”. Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in a world of strife and struggle.

Sign up to receive toD’s daily security briefings via email by clicking here

The poll also shows that despite the unrivalled might of US military power, many believe that al-Qaida remains undiminished. The report follows a recent Rand Corporation study of over 600 former terrorist groups. It concluded that only 7 percent were destroyed by military force. According to figures from the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center, the war on terror has been counterproductive. Terrorist activity has increased exponentially in the last seven years, from 531 total terrorist attacks resulting in 3,295 deaths in 2001, to 14,499 incidents and 22,666 deaths in 2007.

A change in strategy is long overdue. Fifty-nine percent of those polled in the United States itself believe that the conduct of US counter-terrorism has had little effect or has even made the militants stronger. Can the change in administration in January 2009 usher in a new and more pragmatic era in the “war on terrorism”?

Bin Laden poetry to be published

Transcripts of Osama Bin Laden reciting poetry at jihadist recruitment events, as well as within more personal contexts, are to be published next month in the academic journal Language and Communication. Discovered at an al-Qaida compound in Kandahar in 2001, the iconic terrorist leader’s vast repertoire (consisting of nearly 1,500 audio cassette tapes) is being translated by Professor Flagg Miller who teaches Arabic poetry at the University of California at Davis. The poetry may provide an insight into the psyche of the al-Qaida leader. Some academics, however, deem the tapes too obscene for broadcast.

Three dead in Algeria attack

A suicide attack has killed three people and injured another six near the Algerian capital of Algiers on Sunday. The state news agency reported that a suicide car bomber hit a checkpoint in Dellys at the end of iftar, the meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan. Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Algeria has recently suffered persistent suicide attacks by rebels who had adopted the al-Qaida “franchise”, dubbing themselves “al-Qaida in the Maghreb”. A series of deadly attacks preceded the month-long fast, culminating in a massive bomb blast that killed 48 people on 19 August near Algiers. Despite Sunday’s incident, this has been the least bloody Ramadan in Algeria since Islamist violence erupted in the country in 1992.

Two separate bomb attacks in India’s west

Two separate bomb attacks in Muslim dominated neighbourhoods of western India have killed at least seven people late on Monday. Police report that five people died and over 100 injured in a blast near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra’s state. Two more were killed and 16 injured in an explosion in the Sabarkantha district in the neighbouring state of Gujarat. Nobody has taken responsibility for the explosions, though Hindu-Muslim tensions run high in both states.

The attacks occurred one day after seventeen bombs were discovered in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. India has been hit by a number of explosions in recent weeks. Just two days ago a similar incident occurred in Delhi when a bomb exploded in a market, killing one person and injuring at least 15 others. Cities in India are on high alert and the government has said it is concerned with preventing religious violence from flaring up.
Situation tense as shooting breaks out on hijacked cargo ship
Shooting broke out between Somali pirates on a hijacked cargo ship on Tuesday. Reports suggest three have died. Pirates seized the Ukrainian ship Faine, loaded with 33 Russian designed T-72 tanks bound for Kenya, last week and have demanded a $20m (£11m) ransom to release it. Pirates from two different clans, one moderate and one radical, seem to have disagreed over tactics. It is suggested that the radicals advocated taking hold of the shipment of T-72 tanks and other weapons. The tense situation has been further complicated by the presence of US navy vessels which were deployed within 10 miles of the ship’s hijacking. The waters off Somalia’s coast are considered some of the world’s most dangerous thanks in large part to the lack of a functioning central government in Somalia during the past seventeen years.

Ref: Open democracy

Settlers tie Palestinian man to phone pole and beat him

A group of West Bank settlers on Saturday beat a 31-year-old Palestinian man in the southern Hebron Hills, after having tied him to a telephone pole.

Left-wing activists later videoed a settler kicking Madahat Abu-Kirash, the victim, as he remained tied up and was surrounded by Israeli security forces. The soldiers subsequently removed the settler from the scene.

Hebron police opened an investigation into the incident after Abu-Kirash submitted a complaint, claiming that he had been beaten all over his body.

Ref: Haaretz

Israeli occupation in plain…

Read Palestinan history

51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis

I had to crack up when I saw the one star reviews on this book. That’s the grassroots portion of the Israel Lobby voicing its objection to truth again, (they do that A LOT). It’s also an excellent indication the book, film or information you’re seeking is exactly what you need to read. I first ran into this

The Lobby is out in force

The book on Jews Against Zionism, the Torah True Jews of New York who are 100% anti-apartheid, (Israel is the world’s only aparthied nation today. They call it ‘Zionism’). One of the tools used to keep apartheid alive and well in Israel is, as Norm Finkelstein put it, the Holocaust Industry. Yes, the German holocaust happened…as did another seven during the twentieth century. The Zionist movement set on the complete conquest of Palestine for a Jewish supremacist state did work with the Nazis. These documents prove it as do such facts as Walburg’s handling of security for the Nazi state until 1939, (his brother was one of the founding members of our Federal Reserve). Walburg, though Jewish was allowed to leave Nazi Germany with his fortune in tact in 1939 so certain influential Jews were shielded from Nazi oppression. You should be asking why. These documents will help you understand the double standard. Of course be careful where you discuss this. In some countries, deviating from the accepted historical revisionism with the truth on this issue, the German holocaust, lands you in jail. That is if you talk about the 50% of the victims who were Jewish. See, the Catholics, Mentally Ill, homosexuals, Gypsies, Communists and handicap making up the other 50% of victims, they don’t matter anymore.
They were not the right faith, nor were they included in reparations and rarely are they mentioned…even in the state funded holocaust museums. (Hint that also should give you a clue there is something very unkosher about this whole thing…that 50% of the victims no longer are mentioned or matter)

If history has lessons, you need to know these. Just be very careful with whom you discuss this book’s details. Trillions of dollars depend on the truth not getting out because if it does, the world’s greatest victims are shown for what they really are, the world’s foremost victimizers.

If that happens, bye, bye US support; bye bye US aid; bye bye protection from war crimes prosecution and bye, bye what little international sympathy that is left. Like I said. A lot is at stake if people learn the whole truth about the German holocaust. Today truth will land you in jail and that fear is used to censor your thoughts and what you read. Another reason you probably want to read this book.

Ref: Amazona

How Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal

By ED O’LOUGHLIN

Gaza

SAFA ABU SEIF, 12, was fatally wounded as she stood in an upstairs room of her home in the Gaza City district of Jabaliya 10 days ago.

She was one of 27 children identified by United Nations staff among the 107 Palestinians who were killed in five days last week. Another 25 dead, including five women, were identified as unarmed non-combatants. The status of 13 more dead victims could not be determined. At least three of the children were reportedly shot in their homes by Israeli small arms or sniper fire.

A Palestinian gunman killed eight Israeli students on Thursday before he was killed himself. An Israeli soldier was also killed that day. Two Israeli soldiers died in action in the early stages of a three-day incursion into Jabaliya, and an Israeli civilian was killed by Palestinian rocket fire on the first day of the surge in violence.

Asked by the Herald to comment on allegations that its troops had killed children in the area, the Israeli Defence Force blamed the violence on terrorist groups who exploited Palestinian civilians as human shields while firing rockets intended to harm Israeli civilians.

“IDF operations in the Gaza Strip are aimed solely at the Hamas terror infrastructure, armed terrorists and rocket launchers,” its statement said.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Civil Administration – Israel’s military government for the occupied territories – had received no complaints about shootings of civilians, and no investigation was underway.

Yet the family of the Palestinian television journalist Mahmoud Al Adjrami said that when Safa was struck Israeli troops were occupying their house, 90 metres across a stretch of open space from the window she was struck through.

They say the invading soldiers smashed up their tile floor to get sand to fill sand-bags for firing positions in first-floor windows facing the Abu Seif house. The discarded sand, together with the smashed door and tiles, spent bullet cases and heaps of Israeli ration boxes and discarded snack wrappers, were still in the house a day after the troops withdrew.

It is standard Israeli military procedure during tank raids to take over civilian homes as snipers’ nests and hideouts, holding the occupants at gunpoint. According to the testimonies of victims and from Israeli soldiers themselves, this process can frequently involve theft, vandalism and violence against unarmed civilians.

The 15 women and children of the extended al Adjrami family were herded together into a single room for 19 hours, while the two adult men had their wrists tightly bound with plastic cable ties. Mahmoud’s sister Naima, 33, said the soldiers gave them water but no food.

According to Mahmoud’s brother, Mamdoeh, the soldiers ransacked the wardrobes and cupboards, stealing two gold bracelets, four mobile phones and the equivalent of $8600.

Next door Jabr Zidane, 52, a taxi driver, said troops had taken over his house for 24 hours, looting jewellery and four mobile phones. He shows visitors the remains of a smashed television and stereo, a broken floor, discarded sand and Hebrew-labelled army rations.

In another home soldiers allegedly stole two large gold bracelets and $500 from Jumaa Abed Rabbo, 40, and his wife and eight children.

“I was sitting with my hands tied with plastic ties for 24 hours. I asked if my family could use the kitchen to get water and food. They refused and so we didn’t eat for 24 hours,” Abed Rabbo said.

The professed purpose of last weekend’s raid into Gaza was to kill or capture Palestinian terrorists involved in firing rockets into Israel, to capture or destroy equipment and to gather intelligence.

Yet all four of the families mentioned in this article are linked to Fatah, the Palestinian faction favoured by Israel and the United States over Hamas.

Abed Rabbo and al Adjrami are members of the Presidential Guard of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas – the key weapon in what the US magazine Vanity Fair said last week was a failed attempt by the Bush Administration last year to overthrow the Palestinian Authority’s elected Hamas government.

According to documents and testimony unearthed by the magazine, the administration coerced Mr Abbas into reneging on a power sharing agreement that paved the way for possible Hamas-backed peace talks with Israel.

Instead, new Presidential Guard factions trained by US soldiers were to be used to mount a coup against Hamas in Gaza with US-sponsored weapons shipped through Israel and Egypt.

Israel’s foot soldiers seem to be unaware of this relationship.

“They were punching me, saying, ‘You are a member of Hamas. You are a member of Fatah. Where do you work?”‘ Mamdoeh al Adjrami said. “I said, ‘I work in the Presidential Guard’ … They kept hitting me whenever they liked.”

Jabr Zidane’s son Mohammed, 21, was hardly able to speak on Monday, drugged with painkillers to ease the pain from beatings and from shoulders, elbows and hands swollen from more than a day in tight plastic restraints.

He said he was beaten, questioned, used as a human shield by Israeli troops, taken to Israeli territory, and released on the border.

Mr Zidane said he did not know why Mohammed, an unemployed stonemason, was singled out for interrogation and abduction.

“It makes no sense to us. Maybe it’s because he’s the only one with a beard.”

Ref: counterpunch

This article ran Monday in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Cinema of Terror

About halfway through Gavin Hood’s new film Rendition, something occurs that vaguely resembles a laugh line. When the sociopathic CIA director (Meryl Streep) calls up the agent (Jake Gyllenhaal) assigned to observe his first secret interrogation in North Africa, she interrupts him smoking a hookah in a belly-dancing club. Perhaps feeling bolder than he would during working hours, he tells her that the rather aggressive methods aren’t working. “You’re new to this aren’t you?” she asks the young lad. “This is my first torture,” he deadpans. The audience tittered–one of those vaguely knowing chuckles tinged with nervousness and rounded out with the relief of hearing a thing called by its proper name.

Rendition is the story of Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahami (Omar Metwally), who has lived in the United States on a green card for twenty years. Anwar is married to a very pregnant Isabella (Reese Witherspoon, who takes chin-trembling to heights not seen since Clare Danes in My So-Called Life), and the two already have one very adorable small boy. Suspicious calls related to a bombing where the CIA lost an agent have been traced to Anwar’s cellphone, leading to his arrest while returning home from a business trip to South Africa. Isabella, unable to get any answers and frantic with grief, lobbies her college sweetheart-turned-Senate aide (Peter Sarsgaard) for help finding the obviously innocent Anwar. Alan Arkin has a small role as a senator who does not feel overwhelmingly compelled to help.

Like The Kingdom, which was released in September, Rendition tells parallel stories of an American and an Arab family. Anwar’s interrogator, Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor), is the father of the teenage Fatima (Zineb Oukach), who is entangled in a romance with a strong-jawed, handsome jihadi boy (and is herself no slouch in the trembling department). If it seems like another ensemble picture of interlocking lives brought together on one fateful day, well, it is. But there’s also a twist that changes the picture somewhat at the end. It’s a movie that holds you–even the shlocky music can’t detract from the power of its images and the drama of the story.

As in The Kingdom, it’s the Arab family in Rendition that ultimately endures tragedy. Both films flirt with turning into an altar for white catharsis, but given the rarity of images of Arabs in the American mainstream, they ought to be recommended for at least humanizing these characters. Of course, audiences are not so comfortable with “Arabs–they’re just like us!” thinking, which means that Isabella and Anwar’s relationship can never move into the bedroom. Their love is familial love–as opposed to that of Gyllenhaal, who seems to receive his North African girlfriend when he picks up his badge at headquarters.

A touch of colonial entitlement notwithstanding, Gyllenhaal is clearly the cipher that Hood, who won an Oscar for the South African drama Tsotsi, uses to send the movie’s moral message. He is the one whom white audiences identify with, standing a few feet away from the waterboarding, the hooding, the electrocutions, deciding what is wrong and what he can do. Being a moral compass isn’t such a bad thing. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner had Katharine Houghton, Dead Man Walking Susan Sarandon, Twelve Angry Men Henry Fonda and Brokeback Mountain had… Gyllenhaal. (Jake Gyllenhaal–this generation’s Sidney Poitier? The jury is deliberating!) While the movie sticks him with some cringe-worthy wooden lines in defense of law and order, he at least gets to quote The Merchant of Venice: “I fear you speak upon the rack, where men enforced do speak anything.”

The real star is Metwally. He howls, convulses and bleeds–eyes giant and terrified and desperate. His is the body the movie writes its message on, a message that is more visceral than political. The only President Hood mentions by name is Clinton (as in, “Rendition started under Clinton and expanded after 9/11”). The images of Metwally’s suffering are not gratuitously violent. You’ll find worse in any of the torture-shock horror movies that have flooded the theaters lately. But the potent images of his suffering overwhelm the “debate” that Rendition pretends to have, a tit-for-tat that is largely pro forma. Streep smirks and struts, but she’s too extreme a villain, with boilerplate dialogue taken straight from 24 about sacrificing one for the protection of all. And although Arkin argues that Anwar’s isn’t the “watertight” case he’s willing to stake his career on, the film makes clear that such a case could never exist since the government will always find a scrap of “evidence” to justify detention.

Brian DePalma’s Redacted (which opens on November 16) also tells a story designed to provoke outrage about US crimes in the “war on terror.” A fictionalized account of the US soldiers who raped a teenage girl in Samara, it is told from the perspective of a soldier’s video diary, a conveniently located surveillance camera, a French documentary, Internet video and so forth. DePalma has claimed the film is about “information” and “perspective,” but it’s no Rashomon. Each view makes the very same point. And if Rendition seems too much like Hollywood finger-wagging for your tastes, steer very far clear of Redacted. It is less a series of moving images than a hard, spiked bludgeon coming out from the screen and smacking you square on the head for a long ninety minutes.

Rendition never resolves the question of how the suspicious calls wound up traced to Anwar’s phone. It leaves hanging the image of one of Fawal’s other victims–a jihadi youth. Audiences will surely find it easy to want fairness for a fine upstanding family man like Anwar El-Ibrahimi. But how easily will the desire to fight for justice for terrorists come to them? Without justice for terrorists, the film almost has the courage to say, there will be justice for no one.

The West Bank fence: an effective anti-terror bulwark?

Israel’s barrier is planned to be four times as long and in places twice as high as the Berlin Wall.It is not so simple. In addition to the concrete wall and fencing materials used in the construction of the structure, sections of Israel’s Separation Barrier additionally include electrified fencing, two-meter-deep trenches, roads for patrol vehicles, electronic ground/fence sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sniper towers, and razor wire. Most of the fence/wall is not being constructed on the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank. Close to 90% of the route of the fence/wall is on Palestinian land inside the West Bank, encircling Palestinian towns and villages and cutting off communities and families from each other, separating farmers from their land and Palestinians from their places of work and education and health care facilities and other essential services.

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REF: VTJP

Seeing is believing. Believing is to understand Israeli hatred, racisim, slaughter and ongoing Shoah.

The wall will fall at the end and will never protect Israel. Why waste time, money and energy while peace built on justice is the only way to ensure security for Israel. You have to know very well that secure borders are the secure and reconciliated hearts. Even if you insist on building it because you want to live inside a big prison, please build it on the Green Line to make out of it a permanent border for the future.
Raed Abusahlia, Rome, ITALY

Hmmm…one sides builds a fence (a very small portion of which is a wall) in response to the other side intentionally murdering innocent civilian women and children. Not hard for this non-Jew, non-Arab, to pick a side.
Donald Smith, Tulsa, USA

The fence is necessary but Arab land-owners MUST be compensated for confiscated property, so that Israel’s critics would not be able to say that Israel is stealing Arab property!
Jean Charles, Vincennes, FRANCE

If the wall had been built 30 years, ago we could have saved thousands of lives!
Jerry Nieuwenhuizen, Den Haag, THE NETHERLANDS

The victory of the security fence will soon be seen, however, not by those who watch television or newspapers. In the course of the next year the debate will cease, the protests and accusations will end, and things will normalize for Israeli citizens. The ruling at the UN is one of the last chances the Palestinians have to win the Intifada. This war has been one of terror showcased by world media; the attacks will stop and the public will lose interest – the uprising gained nothing and lost everything. The resolution of a conflict rarely has anything to do with justice, but rather power. The Palestinians attempted to use justice as a political tool and failed. Slowly, slowly they will find they are not in the spotlight of the world – just like Tibet and many others.
Ben Wold, Durham, U.K

The logical consequence of the ICJ ruling: take away the Great Wall of China too…
Esther van Praag, Zurich, SWITZERLAND

The ICJ, presided by a Chinese lawyer, has ruled against the separating fence in Israel ? But was the famous Great Wall of China not built for defensive purposes too ? It was indeed built to protect the State of Chin against the Tsongnoo tribes coming from the North. The logical consequence of the ICJ ruling: take away the Great Wall of China too…
Esther van Praag, Zurich, SWITZERLAND

Suicide bombers are desperate people. The wall will make people even more desperate.
Mia Oestergaard, Oslo, NORWAY

Israel has the right to build a wall -on it’s own territory -not on occupied territory. After visiting the West Bank I have seen the wall being built in East-Jerusalem, seen the grave consequences for the people of Qalqilyah, seen people’s despair and hopelessness growing as the wall was being built. It is difficult to find justifications for the suffering the wall causes. Israel could have accomplished the same security measures by building the wall on the Green Line. Suicide bombers are desperate people. I think the wall, because of the route chosen, in the end will make people even more desperate. Treat the Palestinians with respect and justice!
Mia Oestergaard, Oslo, NORWAY

The ICJ rule focuses on the very root of the problem: the appropriation of land both by Israel and by the Jewish outposts (both “illegal” and “legal” -amazing distinction-)in Gaza and, in this case, the West Bank. Since the 1967 UN resolutions (and former ones), Israel has recognized frontiers. Therefore, no “colonies” should exist beyond the Green Line, no WALL must be constructed. International law and allies protect Israel, why Israel and the Jewish movements stay ‘consequent’ to this. It will go in the moral and wealth benefit of Israel to respect the law, in all aspects.
Marc Martin, Barcelona, SPAIN

I think the fence is a deterrent to peace. If it is built at all it should be built on the “Green Line.” The Palestinian people are being impoverished by the building of this structure, denied access to their lands and livelihood.
Aletha Carlton, Norwalk CT, USA

The simple fact is that no wall can guarantee Israel security. Only a just and lasting peace will ensure peace and security.
B Dally, Adelaide, AUSTRALIA

At the time when Walls are falling all over the world Israel has decided to erect one. The simple fact is that no wall can guarantee Israel security. Only a just and lasting peace will ensure that both Israelis and Palestinians can have peace and security. We cannot accept the ICJ decisions when it suits us and reject it when it does not. The wall is illegal. Tear down this wall Mr Prime Minister.
B Dally, Adelaide, AUSTRALIA

As David Ben Gurion used to say “It is not important what non-jews say, It is important what jews do.”
Israel must stand firm and continue protecting its citizens. But also trying not to harm innocent palestinians. The fence has shown its efficacy.
ariel szvalb, buenos aires, ARGENTINA

So, when are the Brits going to give back the Falklands? When are the French going to give Corsica its independence? When will China return Tibet to its rightful people? etc., etc. Don’t forget, this land was offered to Arafat on a silver platter by Barak. Today’s events are a direct result of Arafat’s murderous, ruinous policy of terrorism, robbing Israel of its quest for peace, and his own people of their homeland as envisioned in the historic agreements, signed by Rabin, and negotiated with Barak and Clinton.
The ruling does NOT deny Israel its right to build the anti-terrorism fence, which has been an unprecedented success.
Elliott Vizel, Statesville, USA

Reading through all these comments, I am just wondering if it would be different if the Palestinians chose to build the seperation fence. From what would they want to be seperated really.
Barbara Wolf, Tel Aviv, ISRAEL

The elimination of borders must be the goal; nationalism, both Israeli and Palestinian only supports the rulers of each little enclave. The sad truth appears to be that the nationalism of the Palestinian movement is absorbed with a vicious hatred of Jews -for that matter, the Arab majorities in other regions, e.g. Algeria and Morocco seem to seek domination of the Berber popluation. The ultimate solution is not a fence but an opening of the Arab sector so that there is no need for d’himmi or second class citizenship for non Arabs (and non Muslims); the doors in civil society must open in both directions. In the meantime, a fence while odious appears necessary to prevent the murder of the Jewish population.
Paul Layton, New York, USA

One day an American president will take the moral and military authority to ask Israel to tear down that wall. Until then I am sadly disheartened at the path that Israel as a democracy is following. The building of the wall saddens me deeply and causes me to question the legitimacy of the state of Israel, which follows a path of policies that run counter to the foundation of democracy. I am a firm believer in the right of Israel to exist in peace with its neighbors, but the wall, in conjunction with so many other decisions by the state of Israel, can, in my opinion, only lead to the alienation of the American public that holds Israel so close.
Daniel Bec, San Diego , USA

All the Jew haters can go to hell. Israel should tear down the fence and rebuild it around the entire Biblical borders. Tell the rest of the world to give up some of their land for the murdering palestians. God will exact vengence on the world one day for the way they treat his people. Israel has been way too merciful to the palestinians. Kick them all out and take back your land and trust in the Lord. Until the day America gets destroyed you’ll always have a friend in us.
Troy, Shreveport, USA

The most important aspect of this debate is not whether the fence should be built, but what route it should follow. From a security perspective, if Israel wants to protect itself from Palestinian militants then it should build a fence that is short and easiest to secure. From a demographic perspective, if Israel wants to maintain its Jewish character it should include as few Palestinians as possible. To do this Israel should build its fence on or as close to the Green Line as possible. To protect the settlements at risk within the West Bank it should build separate, unconnected fences, which we all should hope will be taken down in a future agreement.
Ian Rosenberg, Washington DC, USA

The painful truth is that at this point in time there does need to be a physical barrier to separate Israel from the budding Palestinian nation. That is not in doubt. What is in doubt is the route that the barrier takes.
If Israel is to reclaim her place in the eyes of the world, the bigger gesture of dismantling the settlements – all of them – and pulling back to the Green Line, making it the border, is the only honorable move.
Too many sons have been killed, too many mothers cry uncomforted – on both sides. Both peoples love the land too much to allow their politicians to saturate it with any more blood.
Haim Ainsworth, Los Angeles, USA

The Palestinians have no sound basis to protest the security fence. Here is a people that have over and over – as recently as 2000 – rejected Israeli offers to give them their own state on land that Israel rightfully captured in a defensive war. Now the Palestinians harbor murderers whose sole mission is to slaughter Israelis, and the ICJ expects Israel to just sit back and accept this unspeakable fate. The fence is a defensive measure, but even if it is a “land grab,” the Palestinians cannot rightfully complain. They could have had this land anytime they wanted it; all that was required of them was that they stop murdering Israelis. This they have refused to do, so now they must live with the consequences of their actions.
Seth Spiegal, Philadelphia, USA

Israel needs this wall to protect its people. I hope the leaders of Israel ignore the World Court and continue building the wall. I would like to know why the war on terror doesn’t include the Palestinians?
Chris Lucas, Philadelphia, USA

Shame on the ICJ circus. Kudos to the American judge who has stood up for Israel.
Sam Blackman, Tull, Arkansas, USA

The “fence” should run along the eastern border of the first Balfour Declaration Map. No more and no less. The ICJ is a shameful sham, kowtowing to the Arabs. For them blowing up mothers and children in pizza parlors is OK, but they don’t allow Israel to even try to protect itself… Shame on the ICJ circus. Kudos to the American judge who has stood up for Israel.
Sam Blackman, Tull, Arkansas, USA

To paraphrase Charles de Gaulle, the one-time leader of one of Israel’s least friendly friends: “VIVE LE FENCE!”
Uzi Silber, New York, USA

No problem with the fence, but when I build a fence on the soil of my neighbour, then I have big problems.
Ton van der Heijden, Eibergen, THE NETHERLANDS

This wall does not bode well for Israel. It looks bad and conjures up visions of the Berlin Wall. Or, any wall that “divides” people. I am speaking from an emotional/public relations point of view.
F. Joel Schroeder, Leona Valley, USA

As the rightists and leftists had predicted: the fence is perceived as a border and it does supersede definitive adjudication of the Israeli-Arab situation. If the U.S. had built the fence, evidence would have been found to demonstrate that the fence was little more than a boondoggle for the construction industry. Maybe it is for Sharon and his builder friends. In any case, the fence is shekels thrown down the toilet as it is no more a proper solution than is the tomb a proper solution to life. I would like to see the Alon Initiative discussed.
Gilma Ramirez, Carmiel, ISRAEL

If the fence were built along the Green Line, then 230,000 Jews in Judea and Samaria (along with another 200,000 Jews in areas of Jerusalem) would be at the mercy of suicide bombers while outside the wall. It amazes me that the ICJ and so much of the world considers it to be a “non-security” issue to try to save the lives of Jews in these areas.
Sandra Conlon, Denver, USA

Have suicide bombers been able to strike as much as they used to be. No! It is simple, if they have to walk all the way to an opening only to be stopped at the entrance, then they won’t want to set out on these suicide missions. Also, this is just the fruit of their own labor. Tell them to stop sewing bad seeds so that they might begin to grow good fruit. The wall is the result of their own actions.
Bonnie Lucks, San Diego, USA

Instead of asking Israel to dismantle the fence, why aren’t the critics of the fence asking the Palestinians to rein in those whose actions prompted its construction in the first place?
Richard Rohan, Dallas, USA

Israel has the absolute right to defend its citizens from imminent mortal threats. The barrier between it and Gaza has succeeded in doing that, and it now appears the barrier in the West Bank is doing so as well. End of story. Is there any doubt the U.S. would do the same thing to protect its citizens from homicides on a daily basis? Instead of asking Israel to dismantle the fence, why aren’t the critics of the fence asking the Palestinians to rein in those whose actions prompted its construction in the first place? The problems caused by the fence pale in comparison to the terrorist activity it is hindering.
Richard Rohan, Dallas, USA

I have never heard my fellow defenders of the fence explain why it should be on land outside Israel’s borders. Just to guard post-1967 “Greater Israel” settlers who never should have illegally occupied Palestinian land in the first place? Why don’t they return to Israel so it can build its wall in a legal, moral way?
Rob Frieden, USA

If Israel withdrew to the 1967 border, the resulting Palestinian state would still be inviable. The world does not need more inviable states that will use warfare to distract from their population’s misery. The wall should be encouraged to prevent Israeli deaths, as well as to facilitate closer economic collaborations between the Palestinians, Egypt, and Jordan.
Herbert Kaine, Berkeley, USA

Normalcy will only come about when a just solution is found. Either there will be a default one-state solution or there will be a viable two-state solution – nothing else will stop the violence. The wall is the wall of a ghetto, it is inherently unstable and will fall sooner or later.
Robbie Litton, Oakland, USA

Better Palestinians should look up and see a fence, than Israelis get blown to bits. Palestinians had thier chance to make peace and a state in 2001 and didn’t take it. Instead they resorted to terrorism which they refuse to stop.
If if was the United States instead of Israel bearing the brunt of this terrorism, Palestinians would have much harsher consequences (witness Afghanistan and Iraq).
Ed Katz, Mesa, USA

There is an old proverb that states: “How can two stand together unless they first agree.” We must look very carefully at what the Palestinians and Israelis have in common and build on that before we look at anything else.
Naftali Bermuda, Hamilton, UK

People who criticize the Israeli government’s security measures should also suggest realistic alternatives.
Marco Lucarelli, Chicago, USA

People who criticize the Israeli government’s security measures should also suggest realistic alternatives.

The argument on the legality of the fence’s route is meaningless for two main reasons: 1) Sections of the fence are being built on DISPUTED territory, and not on “Palestinian territory” as some claim. The Palestinians don’t have a country yet. The final status of lands in the West Bank is up to negotiations. 2) As the Israeli government has stated, the security fence is not meant to pre-determine the official borders of a future Palestinian state. Those borders should be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians, as soon as the latter renounce terrorism and get serious about the peace process, rather than aiming at the destruction of the Jewish State.
Marco Lucarelli, Chicago, USA

Nazis had good reasons too for building the walls surrounding the Warsaw ghetto. They were trying to clear society from “terrorist” Jews. What’s next for these “terrorist” two million Palestinians after surrounding them with a wall? Auschwitz?
Onur Sav, Istanbul, TURKEY

If Israel built the fence on internationally and legally recognized borders, few would argue. But alas, it doesn’t. Israel ignores the law and UN resolutions, while collectively punishing an entire people. There is nothing wrong with security measures, but what Israel is doing is fueling hatred even more.
Matt, South Royalton, USA

Let us build the wall and let them have their own state! If the Palestinians are so desperate for their own state, why do they spend so much time arguing about the security fence instead of talking about their own issues?
Are the State of Israel and now the fence the only cause of the Palestinians people’s agonies? If there were no suicide bombers, the Palestinians would still be able to work in Israel as they did for so many years. As a replacement for labor, Palestinians send bombs, as a replacement for jobs, we then created the fence. Can we be blamed?
Roger Liftel, Leighton Buzzard, U.K

Ref: Haaretz