-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.mediamonitors.net/index.html
}}}>Begin Bury My Heart at Wounded... Jenin by Frank M. Afflitto For the past two decades, I have contended that the Palestinian fight is the same as the fight of Native Americans in the United States, and that the oppression of the Palestinians, even more noticeable when one looks at the reservation-bantustans that were offered to them in the ‘peace’, or was it "piece"?, negotiations, was the same as the oppression of the European descendants towards Native Americans. In teaching a course on ‘Terrorism’ this semester, I have ended up the semester taking a step back in our own history here in the country where I was born and reside along with nearly 200 undergraduate students, and we have just completed a reading of Dee Brown’s reprinted 1970 classic, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West" (Thirteenth Anniversary Edition, Henry Holt and Company, 2001). Striking throughout the five required chapters, from the arrival of the Spaniards to the (re) concentration of Navahos, Apaches, Comanches and Kiowas on government- administered reservations (concentration camps without walls?) ringed by soldiers, to the killing off of the natural resources, such as the bison, necessary to be able to maintain viable Native communities outside of the militarized sphere of the reservation- concentration system, were the similarities between U.S. actions 140 years ago or less and the advent and establishment of Zionism on Palestinian soil and lives. In quoting from author Brown’s informative work, I am easily capable of demonstrating to the reader what I am talking about. To begin with, it will be necessary to view the last of the maps ‘offered’ to Palestine by the Zionist government of Israel in the ‘piece’ negotiations, from Camp David in July, 2000, in order to begin the discussion with a common point of reference: Click here or on the Map to see the larger (pdf) version of the Map http://www.mediamonitors.net/images/campdavid.pdf In viewing the map ‘offered’ by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to the Palestinian nation, it is quite easy to dismiss the propagandish lie that President Arafat had turned down an offer of 95% of complete Palestinian sovereignty over their remaining lands. One can see that, on the eastern slopes leading to the Jordan Valley, Israel offered to keep those lands a ‘closed military zone’, with complete Israeli military control (read "occupation") over them. While the Israeli government would most assuredly state that they were keeping such land only temporarily as a security ‘buffer zone’, the fact that those eastern lands contain the bulk of the West Bank’s aquifer systems, necessary for both cultivation and industrial waters on illegal Jewish colonies, as well as for swimming pools and drinking water in their illegal colonialist residences, the security metaphor becomes ever more doubtful and fallacious. What one sees when viewing the Barak piece-plan map is a continuous string of discontinuous and discontiguous islands of land under proposed Palestinian ‘control’, surrounded by Jewish-only roads, Jewish-only settlements, and Jewish-only closed military zones. These Jewish-only zones are akin to the European descendants’ establishment of "whites- only" zones outside of the American Indian reservations, which were enforced by the shoot-to-kill orders given to U.S. troops and European- descendant vigilante death squads living outside the reservations, should they happen to see an Indian off of the allotted reservation lands. Many instances of this policy are detailed in Brown’s book, whereby Native Americans were ordered to come into and live on a particular reservation, as all those who remained outside the reservation’s boundaries would "face extinction by being hunted down and killed by… Bluecoat soldiers (p. 243)." Moving away from the maps of the proposed Palestinian "sovereign" Bantustan- reservation system, one is able to find numerous other similarities between the U.S. system of Indian oppression and the on-the- ground realities for the Palestinians since the Oslo ‘Piece’ Accords, especially in the recent era of the Al Aqsa Intifada. For example, in examining historical forms of U.S. anti-Indian violence, the study of war crimes and state-sanctioned terrorism being a specialty of mine, Brown writes that "[t]housands of Bluecoats armed with repeating rifles and artillery were in search of a few hundred Indians who wanted only to save their buffalo and live out their lives in freedom (p. 269)." This situation is synonymous with the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. Just like the U.S. European-descendants, the Israeli military oppresses the Palestinians through the employment of more and better weapons and the deployment of comparably many more soldiers against a relatively few mujahadeen and their fellow citizens who want simply to maintain their attachment to their lands along with their ways of life…. who want to thrive and prosper in their own Muslim, Christian or secular ways without outside interference, in self-determination… nothing more, nothing less, just like that which the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache and Cheyenne longed for. Just like the Native Americans, the Palestinians are almost always painted as the violent party in the Palestine-Israel conflict. The violence of Palestinians, however, has a social context which is eternally neglected, even by liberals and many so-called leftists in U.S. society. The Palestinians are called ‘terrorists’, as Native Americans were called ‘savages’. Fighting, however, and self-sacrifice, even to the point of giving one’s life for the just cause of liberation, was as valued by many Native Americans as it is by the majority of today’s American Indian Palestinians. The violence of original peoples has always been in reaction to the usurpation of land and lives by the European descendant settlers: "They made sorrow in our camps, and we went out like buffalo bulls when their cows are attacked. When we found them we killed them, and their scalps are hanging in our lodges. The Comanches are not weak and blind, like the pups of a dog when seven sleeps old. They are strong and farsighted, like grown horses. We took their road [emphasis mine] and we went on it. The white women cried and our women laughed (Parra-Wa- Samen of the Yamparika Comanches, p. 242)." … or…"From the Chiricahua country of Arizona to the Mimbres Mountains of New Mexico, Cochise and his three hundred warriors began a campaign to drive out the treacherous white men or sell their lives in the attempt (p. 199)." …or… "…heroic figures who preferred death to the loss of their heritage… (p. 398)." Not only was self-sacrifice a military necessity for the underarmed and understaffed Native armies, as it is in today’s Palestine, but the social conditions themselves of military occupation, whether by the U.S. or by the Israeli state, were the fertile grounds for the production of resistance fighters. Brown states that "… the best source for warriors was the reservations [read refugee camps], where hundreds of young men were penned up with nothing to do… (p. 401)." Above we see that Parra-Wa-Samen tells us that the American Indians took the warrior road of the colonists, as have the Palestinians, and states that the original peoples were not the instigators of the violence. In fact, in general, they were the recipients of horrific levels and tactics of violence. The minor gory violence of the resisters was all the European descendants focused on, neglecting both their own role in teaching such horrific forms of violence, as well as neglecting to tell the truth that their violence was the majority violence, in frequency, reach and intensity. While "…Cochise executed his prisoners"… and…"mutilated them with lances"… the European descendants failed to admit that this was "a cruel practice the Apaches had learned from the Spaniards (p. 194)." The Palestinians, continuously criticized and loathed by the liberal White media for their self- sacrificial martyr operations which have taken civilian lives are only copying tactics of the Irgun Zva Leumi and Stern Gang, who invented the use of marketplace bombings against Arab civilians and car bombings against civilians in order to found the state of Israel. The Palestinians have copied what the European Jews have done to them in recent history, as a form of resistance. The terrorist leaders of the Irgun and Stern terrorist organizations became Israeli prime ministers and have perpetually been welcome in Washington as "men of peace". Military occupation itself is not only a form of structural terrorism, with terrorist violence directly embedded into the framework of society. It is also the main motivating force for the violence of native resisters in reaction to those social conditions. Brown writes that there was "…plenty of evidence that white men were trying to arouse the Apaches to violent action so that they could be driven from the reservation, leaving it open for land-grabbing (p. 404)." This is no different from the tactics of the Israeli government in moving settler-colonists on to Palestinian land, via broken accords like the multitude of the U.S.’s broken treaties. By downing American Bison olive trees, by systematically killing children, by preventing ambulances from reaching hospitals so women die in childbirth, by constant humiliation at a sea of military checkpoints, Israel creates the reactionary violence which it later condemns. The more that Israel militarizes the occupied society, the more militarized the response becomes. Brown notes that "…an increase in the number of soldiers… brought more unrest among the Apaches on the reservation… (p. 402)". This is synonymous with the present situation of the Palestinians, as increased occupation will simply bring an increasingly military response from the Palestinians in their fight for justice and their homeland. "’It is too often the case,’ [General] Crook said, ‘that… newspapers… disseminate all sorts of exaggerations and falsehoods about the Indians… while the Indians’ side of the case is ever rarely heard. In this way the people at large get false ideas with reference to the matter. Then when the outbreak [of violence] does come public attention is turned to the Indians, their crimes and atrocities are alone condemned, while the persons whose injustice has driven them to this course escape scot-free and are the loudest in their denunciations [emphasis mine]. No one knows this fact better than the Indian, therefore he is excusable in seeing no justice in a government which only punishes him, while it allows the white man to plunder him as he pleases (p. 405)’." Related Links (s): Map of the Camp David Proposal The Reality of Barak's "Generous" Offers Camp David Peace Proposal of July, 2000: Frequently Asked Questions by Palestinian Negotiating Team Buy the related book (s) now: Frank M. Afflitto, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, School of Justice Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. Source: by courtesy & © 2002 Frank M. Afflitto End<{{{ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no automatic endorsement + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it." The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." --- Ernest Hemingway <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
