PIUS RUGONZIBWA, 11th February 2009 @ 11:16
Eight senior lecturers with the Mzumbe University have doctorate degrees that are either fake or acquired from institutions that lack internationally accepted accreditation, the Tanzania Commission of Universities (TCU) said today.
TCU Executive Secretary, Prof Mayunga Nkunya, said in an interview that it was recently established that some dons at the Morogoro-based varsity held questionable degrees. He said verification of the degrees was carried out after widespread public complaints on the authenticity of the degrees.
The matter was also repeatedly raised in the National Assembly. Prof Nkunya said TCU has already communicated its findings to the government for further action. He cautioned the public to be careful with some foreign institutions and individuals who were of late increasingly peddling undergraduate and graduate around the world.
The TCU chief said he was aware that some degrees were selling at around 2,000 US dollars (about 2.7m/-) and above. He said such offers were often being made online. "It is ridiculous that these people are even sending a lot of e-mails to me, asking me to take part in the deals.
I have received many such offers," he said. He, however, declined to name the universities, local agents and individuals involved in the academic scam. "We need to gather all the facts on the transactions, otherwise they may sue us," he cautioned further. Prof Nkunya warned members of the academic staff in institutions of higher learning against pursuing online courses, including degrees from unknown universities.
He also doubted the competency of online graduates in the world of research and academia, where they would need skills of impacting knowledge to their students. "Such lecturers cannot do research professionally. They cannot teach well their students and help them become good researchers," he pointed out. Prof Nkunya said further that apart from the higher learning institutions, the problem of fake degrees was rampant in other organisations, saying TCU recently discovered five other fake doctorate degrees. He said there were proposals to amend the Universities Act, to give more teeth to TCU deal with proven culprits including prosecution.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT ACTION ON FAKE DEGREES?
PIUS RUGONZIBWA, 11th February 2009 @ 11:16
Eight senior lecturers with the Mzumbe University have doctorate degrees that are either fake or acquired from institutions that lack internationally accepted accreditation, the Tanzania Commission of Universities (TCU) said today.
TCU Executive Secretary, Prof Mayunga Nkunya, said in an interview that it was recently established that some dons at the Morogoro-based varsity held questionable degrees. He said verification of the degrees was carried out after widespread public complaints on the authenticity of the degrees.
The matter was also repeatedly raised in the National Assembly. Prof Nkunya said TCU has already communicated its findings to the government for further action. He cautioned the public to be careful with some foreign institutions and individuals who were of late increasingly peddling undergraduate and graduate around the world.
The TCU chief said he was aware that some degrees were selling at around 2,000 US dollars (about 2.7m/-) and above. He said such offers were often being made online. "It is ridiculous that these people are even sending a lot of e-mails to me, asking me to take part in the deals.
I have received many such offers," he said. He, however, declined to name the universities, local agents and individuals involved in the academic scam. "We need to gather all the facts on the transactions, otherwise they may sue us," he cautioned further. Prof Nkunya warned members of the academic staff in institutions of higher learning against pursuing online courses, including degrees from unknown universities.
He also doubted the competency of online graduates in the world of research and academia, where they would need skills of impacting knowledge to their students. "Such lecturers cannot do research professionally. They cannot teach well their students and help them become good researchers," he pointed out. Prof Nkunya said further that apart from the higher learning institutions, the problem of fake degrees was rampant in other organisations, saying TCU recently discovered five other fake doctorate degrees. He said there were proposals to amend the Universities Act, to give more teeth to TCU deal with proven culprits including prosecution.
Monday, February 16, 2009
MWALIMU MBUYA K A C H A N G A N Y I K I W A !
By Mwalimu Mbuya, Mtanzania.
Mimi nimechanganyikiwa:
1. Huko California mama aliyekuwa na watoto sita (wawili au watatu kati yao wana ulemavu/upungufu wa aina moja au ingine), ati kaamua kuongeza wengine nane.
Huyu mama hana kazi anaishi kwa food stamps (welfare) ........yaani wafanyakazi ndiyo wanalipia gharama zake za kuishi.
2. Huko Uingereza "watoto" wa miaka 13 na 15 "wameamua" kuzaa (sawa na kuendesha gari bila leseni).
3. Kuhusu dondoo #1 hapo juu, je huyu mama au daktari wake (fertility doctor) wana akili timamu kweli?
4. Kuhusu dondoo #2, "madereva" wanaoendesha "magari" bila leseni tuwafanyeje? (haya ni matatizo makubwa ya maadili).
5. Jamii (wewe, mimi, vyombo vya habari, viongozi, wazazi) "inachangiaje" katika hivi "vituko"?
VIBOKO is not a far fetch short term solution. For sure.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
SUCH POLICIES SPELL DOOM TO INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS
un, Feb 15, 2009 at 3:04 AM, Kamala Kajungu <eyakamala@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
| Biofuels cause land scramble in TZ | | | |
| Wandugu, sera kama hizi ndizo zinazogeuza wenye nchi kuwa watumwa katika nchi zao. Hazina maendeleo ila kuturudisha nyuma na hatima yake sio njema kwa sababu kuna siku aliyechukuliwa ardhi yake atasimama kidete kuidai kwa chochote alichonacho. Hasa pale atakapofikia hatu ya kusema SINA CHA KUPOTEZA (asina mali kwa Madiba); I have nothing to lose! Written by EABW CORRESPONDENT | |
| Saturday, 07 February 2009 | |
| DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - A new scramble for arable land in Tanzania has started - the coastline and the fertile land in Northern and Southern Tanzania being the prime targets. This scramble which has seen thousands of acres of fertile arable land falling into the hands of foreign companies has been engineered by the quest for bio fuels.At least for now five regions have been at the centre of this scramble. Dar es Salaam, Coast, Tanga, Mbeya and Arusha regions have been cited as the first victims of land grabbing engineered by foreign companies in Tanzania. Already the coastline of more than 1,000 kilometres stretching from Tanga to Mtwara has been taken either directly by foreign companies or by local well-to-do Tanzanians who pose and act on behalf of multinational corporations. Most of these companies pose as strategic investors. The EABW has discovered that in Bagamoyo district, Coast region the situation is alarming. The district, which is about 40 kilometres from Dar es salaam city centre has been the focus of these land grabbers. Recently, thousands of acres of land were given to an 'investor' for sugar cane farming. The land was given to the investor despite technical advice by agricultural experts from the ministry of agriculture and food security who had turned down the proposal. Like many other places, the land is needed for cultivation of sugar cane to produce bio fuels. In the same region in Mkuranga district, a Swedish company, Sekab is seeking to be given two million acres of land for the cultivation of bio fuel plants. EABW was told by the locals and the district authorities that the company is expected to invest over US$400 million for the project. Another company, British Sun Biofuels is also scrambling to acquire at least 8,000 acres of land in Mkuranga for a bio fuel project. In Kisarawe district in Coast region the story is the same. One company has been given about 8,000 acres of land to plant jathropa. Kisarawe district authorities have already sanctioned the deal. In Arusha, thousands of acres of land have been given to 'investors' in flower farming, coffee and aloe vera, leaving the locals without land. The locals are now forced to be labourers on their own land. In Rufiji district, also in Coast region the story is the same. Thousands of acres have been given to foreign companies who have promised the Tanzanian government to cultivate food crops. What the approval of these projects means is that thousands of villagers if not millions will have to be removed from their land. Some of the land was taken during the privatization of public corporations through the Parastatal Sector Reform Commission (PSRC). A case in point is in Mbeya region where one Asian business tycoon is controlling more than 7,500 hectares of fertile paddy fields in the Kapunga area where he cultivates rice. He purchased the once government owned paddy fields from the PSRC in 2006 promising the authorities that he would engage in large scale farming. What the government expected from the 'investor' was creation of jobs and an increase in food production for both local market and export. This has never happened. Instead what the investor is doing is to lease the land for a fee under conditions similar to feudalism.. Before the land was privatized, it was a source of livelihood for more than 30,000 villagers in the area.
|
MAYAI YA KUKU WA KUCHAKUA (FREE RANGE CHICKEN)
Wandugu,
Hapa Washington DC kuna Gulio kila siku ya Jumapili (wenyewe wanaita Sunday Market) mahala paitwapo Dupont Circle (Circle huku ni Round-about ya kwetu). Hivyo mahala hapo pana barabara kama nane hivi zinakutana na pia ni kituo maarufu cha Treni (za rangi nyekundu).
Lo, inabidi niwafahamishe hata hizi rangi za treni. Jiji hili lina ruti nne za treni cha chini kwa chini (metro). Kuna treni za hiyo Red Line kutoka Shady Grove hadi Glenmont. Blue Line inatoka Franconia-Springfield hadi Largo Town Center, Orange Line inatoka Vienna Firfax-GMU hadi New Carrolton na Green Line itokayo Branch Avenue hadi Greenbelt. Hizo ni njia za metro. Mabasi yapitayo juu ya barabara nayo yako mengi na ruti zake ziko nyingi tu.
Sasa leo nilipojitupa hapo Gulioni, nikaenda kwa muuza Mayai ya kuku wa kuchakua. Nikashangaa kukuta watu wamesimama mstari wakisubiri zamu yao wanunue mayai hayo. Nimeshangaa kwa sababu nimeona ni ustaarabu wa hali ya juu kutomzunguka/kutomzonga muuzaji ila kila ajaye awe anahudumiwa pekee na mwenye bidhaa. Hili ni jambo jema sana la kuigwa.
Ilipofika zamu yangu nikanunua mayai dazeni moja ya saizi ya kati (medium) kwa $3.50. Saizi kubwa ya mayai hayo anayauza kwa $4.50 na madogo zaidi anauza kwa $2.70. Muuzaji huyu kwa kumuangalia usoni tu ni mtu mzima anayeweza kuwa na wajukuu wengi tu. Kwa haraka haraka naweza kumkisia kama ana miaka inayoelekea au imeshavuka 70.
Muuzaji huyu alikuwa na Business Card zake hapo nami nikaomba na kuruhusiwa kuchukua moja. Mshangao wa pili. Mfugaji wa kuku wa mayai anazo business card za kuwagawia wateja ili wamsaidie kumtangaza! Bwana huyu anakaribisha wateja wake kwa bashasha ya hali ya juu na anatumia lugha ya kuvutia mteja hadi unajisikia uko nyumbani. Mimi nilipofika kwake sikujuwa pesa nilizoshika mkononi kama zingetosha hivyo nikamnyooshea mkono na sarafu nyingi tu za Marekani. Yeye akachagua hiyo $0.50 pamoja na noti tatu za dola mojamoja. Nikamwambia mimi sifahamu thamani ya sarafu zao na kwamba mayai yake ya kuku wa kuchakua yanafanana sana na mayai ya kwetu ya kuku hao hao wa kuchakua. Akaniuliza natoka nchi gani na kunikaribisha tena wiki ijayo. Nikamwambia natoka Tanzania, East Africa, akafurahi na kunikaribisha Marekani.
Mfanyabiashara huyu anaitwa Tom "Cranky" Hubric na biashara yake inaitwa "Waterview Foods". Simu yake kwenye kadi yake imeandikwa kuwa ni 410 873-3346. Ofisi yake ipo 9942 Kentucky Springs Rd., Suite 35, Meneral, Virginia 23117. Kwa kweli kwa jinsi alivyoisuuza nafsi yangu katika kunihudumia, nikaona na wenzangu mumkaribie kufanya naye biashara. Email yake ni tom@waterviewfoods.com na website yake ni www.waterviewfoods.com.
Baada ya kumalizana mfanyabiashara huyu nikaenda kwenye meza nyingine. Nikakuta kuna keki za maboga. Nikashangaa pia kwamba kumbe wenzetu wanaweza kutumia unga wa maboga kutengeneza keki. Nikanunua moja na hivi niandikavyo nimetoka kuila na nawahakikishia wasomaji kuwa ni nzuri sana, haina sukari nyingi, na katikati ya keki imewekwa krimu. Nilitamani kumuomba recipe aliyeniuzia keki hii lakini alikuwa amezungukwa na wanunuzi. Ila nina hakika keki hii itakuwa na lishe tele kwa sababu maboga ni katika mboga za majani zenye faida kubwa sana mwilini.
Hapa Washington DC kuna Gulio kila siku ya Jumapili (wenyewe wanaita Sunday Market) mahala paitwapo Dupont Circle (Circle huku ni Round-about ya kwetu). Hivyo mahala hapo pana barabara kama nane hivi zinakutana na pia ni kituo maarufu cha Treni (za rangi nyekundu).
Lo, inabidi niwafahamishe hata hizi rangi za treni. Jiji hili lina ruti nne za treni cha chini kwa chini (metro). Kuna treni za hiyo Red Line kutoka Shady Grove hadi Glenmont. Blue Line inatoka Franconia-Springfield hadi Largo Town Center, Orange Line inatoka Vienna Firfax-GMU hadi New Carrolton na Green Line itokayo Branch Avenue hadi Greenbelt. Hizo ni njia za metro. Mabasi yapitayo juu ya barabara nayo yako mengi na ruti zake ziko nyingi tu.
Sasa leo nilipojitupa hapo Gulioni, nikaenda kwa muuza Mayai ya kuku wa kuchakua. Nikashangaa kukuta watu wamesimama mstari wakisubiri zamu yao wanunue mayai hayo. Nimeshangaa kwa sababu nimeona ni ustaarabu wa hali ya juu kutomzunguka/kutomzonga muuzaji ila kila ajaye awe anahudumiwa pekee na mwenye bidhaa. Hili ni jambo jema sana la kuigwa.
Ilipofika zamu yangu nikanunua mayai dazeni moja ya saizi ya kati (medium) kwa $3.50. Saizi kubwa ya mayai hayo anayauza kwa $4.50 na madogo zaidi anauza kwa $2.70. Muuzaji huyu kwa kumuangalia usoni tu ni mtu mzima anayeweza kuwa na wajukuu wengi tu. Kwa haraka haraka naweza kumkisia kama ana miaka inayoelekea au imeshavuka 70.
Muuzaji huyu alikuwa na Business Card zake hapo nami nikaomba na kuruhusiwa kuchukua moja. Mshangao wa pili. Mfugaji wa kuku wa mayai anazo business card za kuwagawia wateja ili wamsaidie kumtangaza! Bwana huyu anakaribisha wateja wake kwa bashasha ya hali ya juu na anatumia lugha ya kuvutia mteja hadi unajisikia uko nyumbani. Mimi nilipofika kwake sikujuwa pesa nilizoshika mkononi kama zingetosha hivyo nikamnyooshea mkono na sarafu nyingi tu za Marekani. Yeye akachagua hiyo $0.50 pamoja na noti tatu za dola mojamoja. Nikamwambia mimi sifahamu thamani ya sarafu zao na kwamba mayai yake ya kuku wa kuchakua yanafanana sana na mayai ya kwetu ya kuku hao hao wa kuchakua. Akaniuliza natoka nchi gani na kunikaribisha tena wiki ijayo. Nikamwambia natoka Tanzania, East Africa, akafurahi na kunikaribisha Marekani.
Mfanyabiashara huyu anaitwa Tom "Cranky" Hubric na biashara yake inaitwa "Waterview Foods". Simu yake kwenye kadi yake imeandikwa kuwa ni 410 873-3346. Ofisi yake ipo 9942 Kentucky Springs Rd., Suite 35, Meneral, Virginia 23117. Kwa kweli kwa jinsi alivyoisuuza nafsi yangu katika kunihudumia, nikaona na wenzangu mumkaribie kufanya naye biashara. Email yake ni tom@waterviewfoods.com na website yake ni www.waterviewfoods.com.
Baada ya kumalizana mfanyabiashara huyu nikaenda kwenye meza nyingine. Nikakuta kuna keki za maboga. Nikashangaa pia kwamba kumbe wenzetu wanaweza kutumia unga wa maboga kutengeneza keki. Nikanunua moja na hivi niandikavyo nimetoka kuila na nawahakikishia wasomaji kuwa ni nzuri sana, haina sukari nyingi, na katikati ya keki imewekwa krimu. Nilitamani kumuomba recipe aliyeniuzia keki hii lakini alikuwa amezungukwa na wanunuzi. Ila nina hakika keki hii itakuwa na lishe tele kwa sababu maboga ni katika mboga za majani zenye faida kubwa sana mwilini.
DIFFERENCES IN MUCH CONFUSED WORDS
Tafsiri zote zinatoka kwa Bi Saada Al-Ghafry, Mtanzania.
Hizi generalization zina matatizo. You give such a negative generalization of the citizens of a country when you don't even know the make-up of that country or the terminologies defining them? Kwa mara nyingine, fundi wa kuagiza wengine kuelekea google, mwenyewe anataka wengine wamfundishe atakacho?
Hizi generalization zina matatizo. You give such a negative generalization of the citizens of a country when you don't even know the make-up of that country or the terminologies defining them? Kwa mara nyingine, fundi wa kuagiza wengine kuelekea google, mwenyewe anataka wengine wamfundishe atakacho?
Israelis are citizens of a country called Israel, equivalent of Tanzanians (national character).
Jews are religious followers of Moses, equivalent to Christians (religious character).
Zionists are followers of a movement called Zionism, born in the nineteenth century Europe to establish a homeland for all diaspora Jews. It is secular, values of which clash with the values and practices of the Jewish religion and the Jews they prophess to stand for. It used and continues to use financial, military, educational, intelligence and media muscle to formulate and implement its agenda, most times openly ruthless and sometimes subterfugely and yet others by deception and trickery.
Anti-semitism is one of the deceptive strategies of Zionists to label gentiles who criticized Jews in Europe and, now, Israel's policies and actions. It is deceptive because Semites are a group of Middle Eastern people who speak semitic languages including Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian. Zionists have hijacked the terminology and now Anti-semitism is forcefully meant criticizing Israeli policies/actions and Jews even though they may not be speakers of any Semitic language.
EXPRESSING THIS OPINION COST HER JOB!
ICN
Independent Catholic News
LONDON - January - 1150 words
Jewish editor sacked for publishing article
This article was sent to Debbie Ducro, a Jewish-American journalist with the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. She published it, and was fired the next day.
Quest for justice
By Judith Stone
I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to Palestine. It was the right thing to do.
I've heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I've visited the memorials in Washington, DC and Jerusalem dedicated to Jewish lives lost and I've cried at the recognition to what level of atrocity mankind is capable of sinking.
Where are the Jews of conscience? No righteous malice can be held against the survivors of Hitler's holocaust. These fragments of humanity were in no position to make choices beyond that of personal survival. We must not forget that being a survivor or a co-religionist of the victims of the European Holocaust does not grant dispensation from abiding by the rules of humanity.
"Never again" as a motto, rings hollow when it means "never again to us alone." My generation was raised being led to believe that the biblical land was a vast desert inhabited by a handful of impoverished Palestinians living with their camels and eking out a living in the sand. The arrival of the Jews was touted as a tremendous benefit to these desert dwellers. Golda Meir even assured us that there "is no Palestinian problem".
We know now this picture wasn't as it was painted. Palestine was a land filled with people who called it home. There were thriving towns and villages, schools and hospitals. There were Jews, Christians and Muslims.
In fact, prior to the occupation, Jews represented a mere seven per cent of the population and owned three per cent of the land.
Taking the blinders off for a moment, I see a second atrocity perpetuated by the very people who should be exquisitely sensitive to the suffering of others. These people knew what it felt like to be ordered out of your home at gun point and forced to march into the night to unknown destinations or face execution on the spot. The people who displaced the Palestinians knew first hand what it means to watch your home in flames, to surrender everything dear to your heart at a moment's notice. Bulldozers levelled hundreds of villages, along with the remains of the village inhabitants, the old and the young. This was nothing new to the world.
Poland is a vast graveyard of the Jews of Europe. Israel is the final resting place of the massacred Palestinian people. A short distance from the memorial to the Jewish children lost to the holocaust in Europe there is a levelled parking lot. Under this parking lot is what's left of a once flourishing village and the bodies of men, women and children whose only crime was taking up needed space and not leaving graciously. This particular burial marker reads: "Public Parking".
I've talked with Palestinians. I have yet to meet a Palestinian who hasn't lost a member of their family to the Israeli Shoah, nor a Palestinian who cannot name a relative or friend languishing under inhumane conditions in an Israeli prison. Time and time again, Israel is cited for human rights violations to no avail. On a recent trip to Israel, I visited the refugee camps inhabited by a people who have waited 52 years in these 'temporary' camps to go home. Every Palestinian grandparent can tell you the name of their village, their street, and where the olive trees were planted. Their grandchildren may never have been home, but they can tell you where their great-grandfather lies buried and where the village well stood. The press has fostered the portrait of the Palestinian terrorist. But the victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. The Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist.
Two years ago I drove through Palestine and watched intricate sprinkler systems watering lush green lawns of Zionist settlers in their new condominium complexes, surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire in the midst of a Palestinian community where there was not adequate water to drink and the surrounding fields were sandy and dry. University professor Moshe Zimmerman reported in the Jerusalem Post (30 April, 1995), "The [Jewish] children of Hebron are just like Hitler's youth."
We Jews are suing for restitution, lost wages, compensation for homes, land, slave labour and back wages in Europe. Am I a traitor of a Jew for supporting the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their birthplace and compensation for what was taken that cannot be returned?
The Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves...politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves...The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country...".
Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. Its cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of God. We must recognise that Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fait accompli realised through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. The UN missions directed at Israel in attempting to correct its violations of have thus far been futile.
In Hertzl's 'The Jewish State' the father of Zionism said: "We must investigate and take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient." I guess I agree with Ehud Barak ( 3 June 1998) when he said, "If I were a Palestinian, I'd also join a terror group." I'd go a step further perhaps. Rather than throwing little stones in desperation, I'd hurdle a boulder.
Hopefully, somewhere deep inside, every Jew of conscience knows that this was no war; that this was not God's restitution of the holy land to its rightful owners. We know that a human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people.
We cannot continue to say, "But what were we to do?" Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism. I wholly support the rally of the right of return of the Palestinian people. here.
Contact Independent Catholic News tel/fax:
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Independent Catholic News
LONDON - January - 1150 words
Jewish editor sacked for publishing article
This article was sent to Debbie Ducro, a Jewish-American journalist with the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. She published it, and was fired the next day.
Quest for justice
By Judith Stone
I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to Palestine. It was the right thing to do.
I've heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I've visited the memorials in Washington, DC and Jerusalem dedicated to Jewish lives lost and I've cried at the recognition to what level of atrocity mankind is capable of sinking.
Where are the Jews of conscience? No righteous malice can be held against the survivors of Hitler's holocaust. These fragments of humanity were in no position to make choices beyond that of personal survival. We must not forget that being a survivor or a co-religionist of the victims of the European Holocaust does not grant dispensation from abiding by the rules of humanity.
"Never again" as a motto, rings hollow when it means "never again to us alone." My generation was raised being led to believe that the biblical land was a vast desert inhabited by a handful of impoverished Palestinians living with their camels and eking out a living in the sand. The arrival of the Jews was touted as a tremendous benefit to these desert dwellers. Golda Meir even assured us that there "is no Palestinian problem".
We know now this picture wasn't as it was painted. Palestine was a land filled with people who called it home. There were thriving towns and villages, schools and hospitals. There were Jews, Christians and Muslims.
In fact, prior to the occupation, Jews represented a mere seven per cent of the population and owned three per cent of the land.
Taking the blinders off for a moment, I see a second atrocity perpetuated by the very people who should be exquisitely sensitive to the suffering of others. These people knew what it felt like to be ordered out of your home at gun point and forced to march into the night to unknown destinations or face execution on the spot. The people who displaced the Palestinians knew first hand what it means to watch your home in flames, to surrender everything dear to your heart at a moment's notice. Bulldozers levelled hundreds of villages, along with the remains of the village inhabitants, the old and the young. This was nothing new to the world.
Poland is a vast graveyard of the Jews of Europe. Israel is the final resting place of the massacred Palestinian people. A short distance from the memorial to the Jewish children lost to the holocaust in Europe there is a levelled parking lot. Under this parking lot is what's left of a once flourishing village and the bodies of men, women and children whose only crime was taking up needed space and not leaving graciously. This particular burial marker reads: "Public Parking".
I've talked with Palestinians. I have yet to meet a Palestinian who hasn't lost a member of their family to the Israeli Shoah, nor a Palestinian who cannot name a relative or friend languishing under inhumane conditions in an Israeli prison. Time and time again, Israel is cited for human rights violations to no avail. On a recent trip to Israel, I visited the refugee camps inhabited by a people who have waited 52 years in these 'temporary' camps to go home. Every Palestinian grandparent can tell you the name of their village, their street, and where the olive trees were planted. Their grandchildren may never have been home, but they can tell you where their great-grandfather lies buried and where the village well stood. The press has fostered the portrait of the Palestinian terrorist. But the victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. The Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist.
Two years ago I drove through Palestine and watched intricate sprinkler systems watering lush green lawns of Zionist settlers in their new condominium complexes, surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire in the midst of a Palestinian community where there was not adequate water to drink and the surrounding fields were sandy and dry. University professor Moshe Zimmerman reported in the Jerusalem Post (30 April, 1995), "The [Jewish] children of Hebron are just like Hitler's youth."
We Jews are suing for restitution, lost wages, compensation for homes, land, slave labour and back wages in Europe. Am I a traitor of a Jew for supporting the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their birthplace and compensation for what was taken that cannot be returned?
The Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves...politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves...The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country...".
Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. Its cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of God. We must recognise that Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fait accompli realised through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. The UN missions directed at Israel in attempting to correct its violations of have thus far been futile.
In Hertzl's 'The Jewish State' the father of Zionism said: "We must investigate and take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient." I guess I agree with Ehud Barak ( 3 June 1998) when he said, "If I were a Palestinian, I'd also join a terror group." I'd go a step further perhaps. Rather than throwing little stones in desperation, I'd hurdle a boulder.
Hopefully, somewhere deep inside, every Jew of conscience knows that this was no war; that this was not God's restitution of the holy land to its rightful owners. We know that a human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people.
We cannot continue to say, "But what were we to do?" Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism. I wholly support the rally of the right of return of the Palestinian people. here.
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