Palestine/Israel Documentary

This was orginally posted Jan/3rd 2009

Yesterday on CNN the Israeli ambassador to the US tried to lump all Muslims together with a common purpose of terrorizing humanity. He said that we (as in everyone else but Muslims) in Gaza are fighting a war against terrorism just like the hotel bombings in Mumbai. For the record, there is as much in common with a Pakistani Muslim and an Arab Muslim as there is in common between an Italian Catholic and an American Protestant. In general they have the same religion but both pairs don’t speak the same language and definitely don’t come from the same historical and political background. But I guess the ambassador at least acknowledges that the ignorant west has made some progress since he didn’t say we are all against the orientals.

What does Intifada mean? The news networks use these terms and non-Arabic speakers assume they mean kill all Jews or Bomb everyone for the hell of it when it really means shake off as in shaking off the occupation of Palestine by Israel. I remember reading a comment once written by an American Christian woman where she was showing her support for Israel and she wrote that she’s read about Muslims and how lying is part of our religion and we call that hudna. What?! I’m a born and bred Muslim and the only thing that I’ve been taught about lying is that it is haram (prohibited) and children are always told that if you lie you go to hell. And hudna means truce, so where’s the link?

An average American’s experience of so called Islamic terrorism is 9/11 and 15 of the 19 involved were Saudis. The way it is depicted in the media is that those Saudis just out of the blue grew pure hatred towards the US and decided that they would sacrifice their lives (many of which were promising) to succumb to that hatred. Yes I know Americans are infamous for their arrogance and self-centeredness but come on we don’t care that much about them. What pushed those Saudis to do such a thing is the USA’s unwavering commitment and support for Israel. A commitment that has supplied Israel with billions of dollars worth of army supplies to conduct an ethnic cleansing of Palestine. And Palestine matters to Saudi in the same way that Texas matters to Kansas. Just a little more than a century ago we were one country under Ottoman rule.

To learn more you can watch this video. The whole thing is essential in understanding the Middle-East crisis but if you don’t have to time then start watching from minute 51:20 to learn about the USA’s role in the crisis.