In her weekly column in the Syrian government daily Teshreen, Dr. Buthayna Sha'ban, political and media advisor to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, wrote that Israel was trying to exterminate the Palestinian people by methods such as starving them, poisoning their food and water, raping prisoners, and running over children with vehicles. She went on to harshly criticize international organizations, and the West, for not doing enough to protect the Palestinians from Israel.
Following are excerpts from her column: [1]
The U.N. Can Redeem Itself By Eliminating Jewish Colonialism
"When we read that the U.N. has called on Israel to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes and the policy of forced evacuation in East Jerusalem, and has warned that 60,000 Palestinians are in danger of having their homes destroyed or of being expelled [from their homes], we wonder about the role of the U.N. today and about the purpose for which it was founded [in 1945], with the victory of the forces of freedom over fascism and the Nazi barbarism.
"Is this the same organization that was entrusted by history, and by the peoples of the world, with the mission of ensuring the right of self-determination? Is this the same organization that is supposed to end colonialism? Is this the same organization whose members believe that all peoples have a right to freedom, regardless of race or religion?...
"The fact that the U.N. has made no move and taken no initiative to ensure the Palestinians' right to self-determination is a mark of shame on the history of this international organization. This mark of shame can only be expunged by eliminating Jewish colonialism in Palestine, [and liberating the Palestinian] people that has been bent under [the yoke of] this land-grabbing, racist occupation for over 60 years.
Israel Employs Death Squads Against the Palestinians
"Today, [the Palestinians are the target of] an ethnic cleansing [campaign] carried out by armed gangs of Jewish settlers, supported by Israel's army and police forces. This is a crime the like of which has not yet been seen in the 21st century; it includes siege, murder, starvation, assassination, poisoning of food, destruction of homes, burning of crops, razing of fields, withholding of sources of livelihood from an entire people, daily arrests of Palestinians, the running over of civilians and children with tractors and [other] vehicles, rape of prisoners, trafficking in organs of the dead, and [roadblocks that] prevent the Palestinians from moving freely between their cities, villages, fields and schools.
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"[And as] all this [is happening], the 'enlightened' Western world keeps silent, completely supporting the Israeli government and ignoring the barbaric crimes carried out every day by the Jewish settlers and the Israeli army in the plain sight of the entire world. The world's silence is a crime against the Palestinian people, for it enables the politicians and army generals who run Israel, and their allies, to continue their barbaric crimes against civilians and their violations of the Geneva Convention and international law...
"Every day, Israel's occupation forces [dispatch] the special death squads of their intelligence apparatuses to hunt down and kill children and civilians in the streets, at the checkpoints, and in the fields, and [to persecute and kill journalists] behind their camera lenses - and the 'free' and 'enlightened' world is not [even] curious to know the names [of the victims]. Those killed by the Israeli leaders do not count as normal [people] whose life, freedom, and dignity the Western politicians claim to defend. Occasionally, the U.N. or [E.U. Foreign Minister Javier] Solana acknowledge that the destruction of Palestinian homes is a violation of international law... They acknowledge that [Israel's actions] - the destruction [of homes], the razing of Palestinians' fields, the arrest of civilians, thousands of whom are imprisoned in Israeli jails without trial for [as long as] 20 years, the selling of spoiled food coming from the settlements to the Palestinians, as well as the wars and massacres - are violations of the international law, as they clearly are. So why doesn't [the international community's] conscience compel it to defend the Palestinian's security?...
"Hundreds of years ago, the white settlers [in America] threw blankets contaminated with germs on the Indians in order to exterminate them. Today, Israel's leaders are withholding food and medicines [from the Palestinians], destroying homes, burning crops and poisoning the water in order to exterminate the Palestinians or force them to emigrate..."
These Crimes "Are a Mark of Shame on Humanity Which Must Be Eliminated Forthwith"
"What the isolated Palestinian people need today is for Israel's crimes to be investigated with all expediency, and for the [resulting] reports to be submitted to some international body that still retains a modicum of self-respect and credibility. The crimes carried out by the Israeli occupation forces, and the unrestrained [barbarity] of the armed settlers against the isolated Palestinian civilians in all their cities and villages in the West Bank and Gaza, are a mark of shame on humanity which must be eliminated forthwith. These settlers, [as well as] the official Israeli government apparatuses that support them and the Western lobbies that finance them, take the world back to the Dark Ages and to the laws of the jungle that prevailed then..."
"The Jewish Intellectuals Who Keep Silent [in the Face of These Crimes] Bear the Responsibility for the Existence of Antisemitism"
"The free people and intellectuals of the world, including Jewish intellectuals, should cry out against [the deeds of] the Israeli war criminals, so that the Jews do not carry an eternal mark of shame for war crimes and genocide... They must not keep silent in the face of these barbaric crimes. They must not be content to [merely] keep the Israeli criminals from traveling [abroad], but must bring them to trial as the world has done with other senior officials [guilty of] murder, deportations and occupation.
"Jewish intellectuals must ask themselves why their government must be founded on the ruined lives and [stolen] freedom of another nation. Why does their government - the only government they ever had in the course of history - murder children, commit massacres, destroy homes and carry out assassinations, and then justify these crimes and condemn anyone who calls to bring it to justice? Why don't Jewish intellectuals confront [this] moral and historic crisis of the Zionist entity?
"After Nazi Germany carried out massacres against the Jews and other nations, the Germans confronted this crisis and passed laws against antisemitism. After the world paid the price for Japan's wars and imperialist aspirations, Japan took a historic decision against [participating in future] wars.
"Why do Jewish intellectuals think that they must justify every action by Israeli politicians and army generals?... Why don't they criticize [these] criminals and tyrants whose hands are dripping with the blood of children?
"The Jewish intellectuals who keep silent [in the face of these crimes] bear the responsibility for the existence of antisemitism. They [also] bear the responsibility for the continuation of these crimes, which brand all [Jews] with an eternal mark of shame..."
Endnotes:
[1] Teshreen (Syria), November 2, 2009.
