How Would You Like To Live Like These Palestinians?

Israel is well out of step with Democracy.......it is a racist state, totally illegal, and it has been guilty of GENOCIDE.

We need to apply economic sanctions to Israel.

America needs to immediately suspend the $3billion of American taxpayers money it donates annually to Israel.

The most powerful lobby in America, AIPAC, needs to be dismantled........it is destroying democracy in USA.

Did Obama tell Israel to Raise a UN Flag at the Wailing Wall?

A United Nations human rights investigator calls on the Israeli leadership to cease the construction of the now 7-year old Apartheid Wall in the West Bank.

"Tear down that wall, Mr. Netanyahu," said the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk on Thursday addressing the Israeli prime minister, UN News Center reported.

He made the comments in The Hague at a conference on the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) issuance of the Advisory Opinion which denounced Tel Aviv's erection of the 723-kilometer (449-mile) barrier as illegal.

"There will be no peace between these two peoples until Israel shows respect for Palestinian rights under international law," said Falk. "And a good place to start would be with the wall," he added.

In 2002, the Zionist regime started building the barrier in the West Bank village of Ni'lin, arrogating vast expanses of Palestinian land under the pretext of "protecting" Israeli settlers from "terrorist attacks" by the Palestinian resistance movements. In comparison, the Berlin wall was only 155 kilometers in length.

In response to Falk, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement claiming that the ICJ's "attack" was a result of "a politically-motivated maneuver."

"Israel cannot accept this politicization of the Court... If there were no terrorism, there would be no fence," said the statement. "Israel calls on the international community not to lend its hand to the ongoing Palestinian attempts to use international forums to avoid fulfilling their own commitment to fight terrorism." Yeah, good luck with that!

The Wall and settlements, spread throughout the West Bank, antagonise the Palestinian population and create tension among Israelis. The Wall and the settlements also entail the presence of a large number of settlers and soldiers inside the OPT. According to DCI-Palestine documentation a large portion of child rights violations in the West Bank, including the right to life and liberty, during the past two years occurred in villages and towns that have been affected by the construction of the Wall, bypass roads, or villages located near illegal Israeli settlements.
In 2008, a notable number of child injuries and fatalities occurred during demonstrations against the Wall, drawing increased attention and scrutiny on Israeli forces. Israeli Border Police, who typically guard the areas along the Wall, have fired rubber-coated steel bullets and sometimes live ammunition, as well as tear gas canisters and sound bombs at demonstrators, placing children at significant risk of injury. In 2008, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented at least 98 child injuries during anti-Wall demonstrations in the villages of Ni’lin and Bil’in (Ramallah Governorate). The vast majority of injuries, 83 per cent, were the result of rubber-coated steel bullets while the remaining 17 per cent was the result of being hit by tear gas canisters.
In January this year, units of the Israeli army entered the village of Tura al-Gharbiya, near Jenin and rounded up a number of children, accusing them of throwing stones at the Wall. The village is located West of Jenin, in the north of the West Bank, and the Wall next to the village was built on land illegally seized from its inhabitants. At least six children aged 12-15 were arrested and interrogated in the middle of the night. They were sentenced to a one-month suspended prison term and NIS750 each for allegedly throwing stones at the Wall. [Read DCI-Palestine's press release]

The Wall is one of the major recent contributions to the settler movement. By building the Wall Israel confiscated large portions of Palestinian land. The 5th anniversary of the ICJ ruling coincides with the Israeli government’s plan to confiscate 139,000 dunums of land from Palestinians east of Bethlehem to the Dead Sea. This confiscation will allow Israel to maintain control of the Dead Sea. In addition, the settlements are continuously expanding and new outposts are being established.

The political consequences of the Wall are the most serious because the route of the Wall seeks to impose borders of an Israeli State before any peace agreement is reached. In addition to preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, 85 per cent of the wall is built inside the West Bank and this has serious social and economic consequences to Palestinians.