In 1989 Francis Fukuyama argued in 'The End of History' that 'communism' was defeated and liberal capitalist democracies were the n Israelis speaking twice as much on television news as Palestinians, and, contrary to Israeli violence, Palestinian attacks never being 'in retaliation'.
Less than 0.5 per cent of media text on this second intifada explained the crucial history to the conflict. Ignored are the basic facts: that the state of Israel came into being in 1948 on 78% of Palestine; that for this to happen 530 Palestinian towns and villages were ethnically cleansed of 800,000 inhabitants and, according to the former director of the Israeli army's archives, 'in almost every village occupied by us during the War of Independence (what Palestinians call the Nakba, the Catastrophe), acts were committed which are defined as war crimes, such as murders, massacres and rapes' that UN Resolution 194 calls for the immediate return and compensation of Palestinian refugees and has been reaffirmed 135 times by the UN General Assembly; and that UN Resolution 242 demands that Israel withdraws from all t Amwaj TV, Ajhal FM, Angham FM, Tariq al Marhaba FM and Watan TV were destroyed. NGOs received similar treatment.
Most of the equipment and research of the Health Development Information Policy Institute was destroyed. Ditto the humanitarian law organisation MATTIN, where looted material included 19-years' of unpublished documents.
Ditto the human rights organization Al-Haq, an affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists.
Similarly attacked, vandalised and looted were the Bisan Centre for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, the Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners, the YMCA, the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, (named after a Palestinian who died helping a Jew), the National Conservatory of Music and so on.
The looting of Palestinian documents is a common Israeli act.
Last year Orient House was occupied by Israeli troops and its invaluable records, land deeds and maps were stolen.
The same happened in Beirut in 1982.
Manufactured western ignorance is at an all-time high, reasoned debate in Israel is equally besieged.
In politics, for helping organize reunions between Palestinian citizens of Israel and relatives in Syria from whom they have been separated since 1948, and for recognizing the right of people under occupation to resist, Knesset Member Azmi Bishara is being prosecuted under anti-terrorist legislation.
International Law Professor Richard Falk contrasts this with extremist Zionists who are never officially challenged even when promoting 'imposed mass transfer' of Palestinians. Falk's comparison is made starker by the research of the Israeli Jaffa Centre that shows extremism to be the norm. Fifty per cent of Israelis support 'imposed mass transfer' of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories, 70 per cent support 'imposed mass transfer' of Palestinian citizens of Israel from Israel itself.
In June the Israeli Knesset even debated such 'imposed mass transfer'. Such promotion o to serve in these Occupied Territories; the newspaper Maariv claimed that she had 'joined the ranks of the new anti-semites in Europe'. For his 1986 whistle-blowing on Israel's then several hundred nuclear warheads, Mordechai Vanunu still languishes inside Ashkelon Prison.
Despite that, Israel is now estimated to have a nuclear arsenal larger than Britain's, and the current discussion of potential nuclear war between Pakistan and India, Israel's nuclear identity is the hippopotamus in the living-room that noone sees.
Britain and the United States wallow in manipulated ignorance.
Britain's historic responsibility for the conflict - exemplified by the 1917 Balfour Declaration that promised Jews a homeland in Palestine - is never mentioned.
Phone the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a spokesman will tell you 'Britain continues to encourage Israel to ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear state'. British-made components are definitely in weapons systeon in the Middle East for Index on Censorship (www.indexoncensorship.org
Encourage your MP to sign Early Day Motion 321 demanding an arms embargo on Israel, EDM 1337 demanding Britain doesn't buy the Gil-Spike anti-tank missile practiced on Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, and EDM 1213 demanding that the government recognise Israel as a nuclear weapons state.
More information at www.palestinecampaign.org
