FORTY YEARS OF OCCUPATION AND REPRESSION

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9:46 am (50 minutes ago)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Doyle (CAABU)"
To: "Chris Doyle (CAABU)"
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 4:22 AM
Subject: CAABU Press Release: 40 years of conflict, 40 years of suffering,
40 years of occupation is too long


CAABU Press Release: 40 years of conflict, 40 years of suffering, 40
years of occupation is too long
05 June 2007


Four decades after the devastating war of 1967, one can only conclude
that the international community and especially the United Nations
Security Council, has failed Israelis, Palestinians and other Arabs.
Rather than try to resolve this major conflict that has undermined peace
and security in the Middle East, the major powers, particularly the
United States but also Britain, have dodged their responsibilities and
condoned the systematic and prolonged flouting of international law and
human rights standards. If prospects for peace look more remote than
ever today, then a large part of that is due to this acute failure.

Few people in the 'West' remember or know what it is like to live under
military occupation, to be controlled and humiliated by foreign troops,
and to have your basic freedom taken away from you. Such occupations,
whether for example in France, the Netherlands, and Norway in the Second
World War, triggered active resistance that we still venerate to this
day. This was something acknowledged by Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Defence
Minister in 1967, who predicted that the Palestinians would resist with
violence, because that is what he would have done had he been in their
place. The Israeli army has occupied Palestinian lands by using ever
increasing military force and brutal methods leading to the deaths of
thousands of Palestinians. Sadly, Palestinian resistance has
increasingly meant, especially in the last decade, attacks on Israeli
civilians. Occupation has led to resistance, to repression and to more
violence.

How then, can we in the 'West', understand life for Palestinians who
have endured a 40-year Israeli occupation, and have seen their lands
colonised by Israeli settlements stealing their vital land, water and
other resources. Do we have any notion of what it is like to live on
less than $2 a day? Gaza is one vast prison, one of the most
overcrowded places on earth, where trade and travel are not permitted,
and even fishing is viewed as a security threat. The West Bank is now a
series of Palestinian city prisons, each surrounded by checkpoints,
roadblocks and earth mounds, buttressed by the Israeli wall that serves
to annex large chunks of the West Bank.

The continued Israeli occupation and colonisation of the Syrian Golan
Heights also prolongs a cold war between Syria and Israel. This has
largely been played out with devastating consequences in the cities,
towns and villages of Lebanon. Moreover, who cares for or remembers
those 20,000 Syrians who still survive under Israeli occupation, split
from their families, friends and country?

Commenting on the anniversary, CAABU Director, Chris Doyle, stated "It
was the 1967 war that led to CAABU's establishment 40 years ago. Our
message remains as valid today as it was then. To avoid another 40 years
of misery, this conflict needs resolving, and a core part of that
process is to end the occupation once and for all. This solution is all
laid out in the Arab peace plan that envisages full withdrawal from Arab
lands for full peace. It is time for the international community to get
behind this before it is too late."

Ends

Background information:

To see our page on 40 years of Israeli occupation:
http://www.caabu.org/index.asp?homepage=key_issues&article=40_years_of_o
ccupation


For further information or interviews, contact Chris Doyle,
doylec@caabu.org. Tel:+ 44 207 832 1310 +44 7968 040281



Chris Doyle
Director

CAABU (Council for Arab-British Understanding)

To see our page on 40 years of Israeli occupation:
http://www.caabu.org/index.asp?homepage=key_issues&article=40_years_of_o
ccupation


For details about CAABU's forthcoming events
http://www.caabu.org/index.asp?homepage=events&article=events

To become a CAABU member:
http://www.caabu.org/index.asp?homepage=membership&article=member_applic
ations


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Tel: 020 7832 1310
Fax: 020 7832 1329
www.caabu.org


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