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Follow Us on TwitterDuncan Shipley-Smith (Qld) answers the JNF letter re the eviction of the Sumarin family 25Nov11 November 25, 2011
Thanks for your response Jodi,
Firstly I find it ironic that you should use a German term for ‘humanity’, (menschlichkeit), when we are talking about the systematic and institutionalised theft of Palestinian land funded in no small part by your tax-exempt organisation and facilitated by the ‘absentee property laws’ that constitute one of many discriminatory (apartheid) legislative instruments that marginalise Israeli Arabs and rob them of their lands.
I therefore argue that ‘exercising the due process of the legal system of Israel’ amounts to robbery and ethnic-cleansing that certainly does not qualify under any known definition of justice. Distancing your organisation from human rights abuses simply because it is the landlord sounds distinctly like the Nazi who cried “Ich war nur Befehle befolgt’ – (“I was only following orders”). In this case the Judaization of East Jerusalem, ‘Judea and Samaria’ is not dissimilar to the Nazi plan to expel Jews from Germany – the same techniques of land appropriation, harassment, bigotry and racist lawmaking embraced by one of the most despised regimes of the 20thC. You thereby dishonour the survivors of the Shoah.
What and who gives you the right to lease another person’s property? Israeli domestic law?
Do not assume for one moment that the world has not woken up to the injustices foisted on the people of Palestine by the heavy hand of Zionism. The JNF is an integral part of that system of injustice by funding the appropriation of Palestinian land. It has blood on its hands.
It is for this reason I and many others are dedicated to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement whose aim is to force Israel’s hand into complying with what most civilised human beings regard as the cornerstone of enlightened society – international humanitarian law. The tide of disinvestment from, and disenchantment with Israel is growing by the day.
Should the Sumarin family be evicted I am certain Israel will pay a far higher price than that expected by the greedy, right-wing orthodox settlers that lay claim to the land of Palestine – your clients. This lucrative business, funded as it is, by organisations such as the JNF, is also instrumental in the process of Israel’s increasing diplomatic and trade isolation from the rest of the world.
I hope you go to sleep at night realising that the determination and steadfastness of the people of Palestine is an inspiration to us all. The dirty tricks perpetrated by organisations such as yours and the endless flow of billions of US taxpayers money to a rogue state only the size of Wisconsin will one day cease. The people will demand it.
Be prepared for the shoe to be on the other foot when that day comes.
This marks the end of our correspondence.
Thank You.
