[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Michael Warschawski on Isreali leaders, BDS

[Patrick Bond]

("until an international court of justice will put Israeli leaders on 
trial, civil society throughout the world should strengthen the campaign 
for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, a state that has 
clearly put itself outside the framework of international law and human 
rights constraints.")

Absolutely Not in Their Name, Not in Ours

Written by Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Absolutely Not! Not in Their Name, Not in Ours

Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni, Gabi Ashkenazi and Ehud Olmert--don’t you dare 
show your faces at any memorial ceremony for the heroes of the Warsaw 
Ghetto, Lublin, Vilna or Kishinev. And you too, leaders of Peace Now, 
for whom peace means a pacification of the Palestinian resistance by any 
means, including the destruction of a people. Whenever I will be there, 
I shall personally do my best to expel each of you from these events, 
for your very presence would be an immense sacrilege.

Not in Their Names

You have no right to speak in the name of the martyrs of our people. You 
are not Anne Frank of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp but Hans 
Frank, the German general who acted to starve and destroy the Jews of 
Poland.

You are not representing any continuity with the Warsaw Ghetto, because 
today the Warsaw Ghetto is right in front of you, targeted by your own 
tanks and artillery, and its name is Gaza. Gaza that you have decided to 
eliminate from the map, as General Frank intended to eliminate the 
Ghetto. But, unlike the Ghettos of Poland and Belorussia, in which the 
Jews were left almost alone, Gaza will not be eliminated because 
millions of men and women from the four corners of our world are 
building a powerful human shield carrying two words: Never Again!

Not in Our Name!

Together with tens of thousands of other Jews, from Canada to Great 
Britain, from Australia to Germany, we are warning you: don't dare to 
speak in our names, because we will run after you, even, if needed, to 
the hell of war-criminals, and stuff your words down your throat until 
you ask for forgiveness for having mixed us up with your crimes. We, and 
not you, are the children of Mala Zimetbaum and Marek Edelman, of 
Mordechai Anilevicz and Stephane Hessel, and we are conveying their 
message to humankind for custody in the hands of the Gaza resistance 
fighters: "We are fighting for our freedom and yours, for our pride and 
yours, for our human, social and national dignity and yours." (Appeal of 
the Ghetto to the world, Passover 1943)

But for you, the leaders of Israel, “freedom” is a dirty word. You have 
no pride and you do not understand the meaning of human dignity.

We are not “another Jewish voice,” but the sole Jewish voice able to 
speak in the names of the tortured saints of the Jewish people. Your 
voice is nothing other than the old bestial vociferations of the killers 
of our ancestors. That war crimes are being perpetuated by the Israeli 
military in Gaza is not anymore a question, but hard facts documented by 
tens of television programs, videos and photos.

The Israeli perpetuators of these crimes must be tried in an 
international court of justice for war crimes and crimes against 
humanity, in particular Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, Chief of 
Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, and Air Force Commander General Ido 
Nechushtan. Their crimes are definitely not less horrible than the ones 
that brought Milosevic and his generals to an international war crimes 
tribunal.

The Alternative Information Center has decided to join the call of one 
hundred civil organizations from all over the world demanding the 
opening of a procedure by the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

In the meantime, and until an international court of justice will put 
Israeli leaders on trial, civil society throughout the world should 
strengthen the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against 
Israel, a state that has clearly put itself outside the framework of 
international law and human rights constraints.

Impunity is what may transform international relations into a jungle. 
Whoever aspires to a civilized world, in which human lives and dignity 
are respected, must demand the immediate implementation of sanctions on 
the outlaw state of Israel.

At the last minute...

We have just heard that the Israeli forces attacked a hospital of Gaza 
City, which is on fire. Hundreds are buried under the rubble and the 
military is preventing ambulances to reach the place.