By: Hank Hardy
The word terrorist is not new to the English language, but in recent years, it was used more often than ever before.
As a devout Christian, I decided to educate myself on the religious and political aspects of the Holy Land. After reading Jimmy Carter’s book
“Palestine: Peace not Apartheid“, I decided to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the rest of the Holy Land. I’ve been warned about all the fighting and the unrest in the area, but decided to go anyway. I also visited the Gaza Strip and talked to the people in Gaza and the West Bank as well as Israel.
What I found, and experienced firsthand, would blow your mind. Almost everything we’ve been told and led to believe was false. We’ve been told that the Palestinians are terrorists and all they want is to kill the Israelis who are just trying to live their lives in peace, and if the Israelis fight and kill the Palestinians, it would be only in a case of self-defense, in fact they call the Israeli army “the defense army”. What a load of crap!! Nothing Could be further from the truth.
The dictionary defines the word “terror” as the policy of violence aiming to achieve or maintain supremacy. And that’s exactly what the Israeli army and police are doing in the West Bank and Gaza. They will not hesitate to march their tanks and armored vehicles in the middle of any and all towns to show the people “who’s boss”. If they suspect that someone is helping “the terrorists”, they toss him in jail and destroy his house, leaving his family out in the cold if not inside the house. Thousands of homes have been bulldozed or blown up just because someone was suspected of helping the terrorists, whether that’s true or not. They don’t wait for a trial or a proof of guilt. Why bother when they have the absolute power to do whatever they damn please. Who’s going to stop them or even complain and to whom? They adapt the policy “shoot and ask questions later”. If any other country in the world did what the Israelis are doing in Palestine, the whole world would stand up, led by the US and the US President in protest and try to stop this inhumane act, but when a big and powerful country like the United States is controlled by a much smaller country like Israel, the big country turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to all the atrocities that the small country is committing.
Among the many terrifying stories I’ve been told and have verified by the people who live in the West Bank was one about a man is his sixties. He worked very hard all his life and saved enough money to build a three story building. Three independent floors, with separate entrance to each, in the city of Nablus for his three sons to live with their families and stay close to each other. Two of his sons were married and have kids of their own; the third and youngest one was unmarried and lived with his parents in the ground floor level. His parent plan was to give him that floor when they pass on, so he can be close to his brothers. The Israelis were given false information by someone who envied that family for the money they have. He told the Israeli army that the youngest son is associated with the terrorists. They went to their house in the middle of the night, arrested the 18 year old and told his father that they have 24 hours to leave the building because they are going to blow it up. The father said: blow it up while I am in it, I have no reason to live, and he hung on to a piece of furniture. The Israeli soldiers had to carry him out of the house and put him on the front lawn while they filled the house with dynamite and blew it up. The man died less than a month later.
Another story was told about two teenage boys. They were told to stop by the soldiers in an Israeli tank. The boys were scared and ran, the tank followed them. They found a house close by; they went inside for cover. The Israeli soldiers did not go after them, instead they fired a bomb from their tank at the house, destroying it and killing everyone in it including the two boys.
A very disturbing event took place in a city called Rafah in the Gaza Strip, and was in the news for a while. It was about an American woman named Rachel Corrie, a 23 years old form Olympia, Washington. She decided to investigate and uncover the truth in the Middle East, so she traveled, at her own expense, to the West Bank and Gaza to find out if the Israelis really destroy people’s houses for no good reason. She visited several homes and talked to the people in Gaza and became a peace activist. While she was at a house in Rafah, the word spread that the Israeli army is going to destroy the very house that she’s visiting. She couldn’t believe it, so she went outside and saw the Israeli bulldozer going toward the house. She stood in front of the bulldozer waving to the driver to stop. Instead of stopping, the driver kept going and ran over her, killing her instantly, then he backed up and ran over her again. When the US government asked the Israeli government for an explanation, the latter said that the driver did not see her. Unless the driver is totally blind, there is no way he could not have seen her, and why did he back up and run over her again? Just google Rachel Corrie.
Stories like these and thousands of others are what the Israelis call self-defense. The missiles, tanks and planes that we generously give them, are not used for self-defense but to kill and terrorize the people whose land they are occupying.
Could anyone tell me why the West bank is still controlled by the Israeli army?
And could anyone tell me why Gaza is still under siege after all these years?
And why our beloved government is ignoring this pressing issue?
When the Israelis feel like killing more Palestinians, they create a war; yes create a war in Gaza.
How do they do that?
By firing a missile from an airplane and killing one of Hamas’s leaders. Hamas people get angry and start firing their home made rockets. Those rockets are very ineffective, but could kill someone or destroy something if they hit directly that person or object. The Israelis then say, we have to defend ourselves against those rockets, so they send their tanks and airplanes firing a barrage of missiles and bombs indiscriminately at the people and buildings killing 10’s, 100’s or even 100’s of people and destroying numerous buildings, big and small. All in the name of self-defense.
As much as I love our country and our American people, I have to admit that we are among the most ignorant, if not the most ignorant, people of all industrialized countries in the world.
Why should we care about the Palestinians and the Middle East?
Because we, the Americans, are indirectly responsible for all these despicable acts committed by the Israelis.
How?
By supplying them with all the weapons and money they need to kill innocent men, women and children. Our tax dollars enable them to murder thousands of these innocent people. With our help, they stole the Palestinians land and resources under the gun. In this country, we call that armed robbery, but in Israel it’s called self-defense.
Please understand that I am not insinuating that all Jews are bad people, on the contrary, some Jews have formed several organizations and are steadfast against the Israeli government and its barbaric tactics against the Palestinians.
We strongly recommend a book written by a Jewish author named Miko Peled, who is the son of a high ranking general in the Israeli army. The title of the book is “The General’s Son”. A wonderful book written by a man who has conscience and integrity.
In the US, the television stations and newspapers cannot stop talking about human rights, or lack of, in countries like North Korea, Russia and China, but when it comes to Israel’s inhumane treatment of the Palestinians after stealing their land; our government and news media turn deaf and blind.
In the United States, big movie stars and filthy rich people seem to be in a race and tripping over their own feet, trying to help people from Africa, India and other parts of the world but not one of them dare to voice his/her opinion or spend a dollar to help the Palestinians who’s only fault is owning land that the Israelis want. What a shame.
When a disaster strikes anywhere in the world, we, the United States government and people are among the first nations to help the people in that country. We send ships and airplanes full of food, medical supplies, clothing, fresh water and whatever is needed to help the people cope with their situation, but when the disaster is man-made, by the Israelis against the Palestinians, not one person in the government lifts a finger to help, as if those women and children don’t count as humans like other people in the world. No one wants the Israeli government to get mad at him.
In 2008, the Israeli airplane fired a missile on a car driven by one of Hamas leaders in Gaza. The car was blown to smithereens and the man inside was killed. Hamas People fired rockets at Israel, which was the excuse that the Israeli army was looking for. They invaded Gaza with their tanks and blanketed its sky with fire jets dumping thousands of bombs on the city, killing thousands of people and destroying a large number of buildings. They called that invasion “The Gaza War” which I call “The Gaza Massacre”. The United Nations decided to send food to help the people there. The food was stored in a building, waiting to be distributed to the people. The Israeli planes destroyed that building with everything in it, claiming it was a mistake.
There is nothing more frustration than seeing our good hearted American people watching from the side line, either not understanding what’s going on in the Middle East or not caring. We need to stand up and do the right thing if we want to be called humans.