Sunday, November 28, 2010

Debate Or (or And) Money

Where would you not expect this ad to appear?

Petition to End House Demolitions Now!

To President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Special Envoy Mitchell:

We urge you to use the power of your offices to end the demolition of Palestinian homes in the Israeli Occupied Territories.

Until recently your administration had expressed strong opposition to Israeli settlement expansion [which includes Jerusalem]...Instead of backing down in the face of Israeli intransigence, we believe you need to do more.

Since 1967, the Israeli government has demolished over 24,000 Palestinian homes -- which families have built on their own land inside the Occupied Territories -- in order to:

* Make room for Israeli settlements, businesses or governmental offices;
* Create Israeli-only “by-pass” roads that allow Israeli settlers to drive to and from their new homes in the Territories while “by-passing” Palestinian towns and villages; and
* Build the Separation Wall deep into the West Bank, effectively annexing large settlement blocs situated on Palestinian land into the State of Israel.

...B'tselem, the Israeli Information Center in the Occupied Territories, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and other Israeli Human Rights groups note that Palestinians in East Jerusalem face the same reality. The Israeli Ministry of Defense acknowledged in 2005 that these home demolitions serve no security purpose and ended its policy of punitive demolitions at that time.

Israel’s house demolition policy is intimately linked to the expansion of Israeli settlements in Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. This policy is illegal under international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention of 1907.

And when asked, the site owner replies:

I'll take ads from all sides of a political debate.

And then adds:

I'm not going to take sides when it's just over an ad. My readers can make their own evaluations.

Which is reasonable until you realize that in this matter, there are no two sides because that petition is not a debate but a propaganda screed with untruths weaved in, as well as a vicious message: pry loose Israel control from Jerusalem.

And the site is providing legitimacy to this stuff.

Do you think the site should reconsider?  Isn't the site essentially taking sides?

---------------------------------------

Some have intimated that I am not being fair to too many sites so here's a screen grab:



^

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

note the company he keeps:

# Endorsing Organizations American Jews for a Just Peace (AJJP)
# Christian Peacemakers Team - Palestine (CPT)
# Council for the National Interest (CNI)
# Free Gaza Movement
# Friends of Sabeel - North America (FOSNA)
# If Americans Knew
# Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB)
# International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
# Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
# MADRE
# Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA)
# Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP)
# US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
# Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights
# Holy Land Peace Foundation
# Los Angeles Jews for Peace
# National Lawyers Guild International Committee
# National Lawyers Guild, North Texas Chapter
# The Middle East Study Group of the Diocese of Pennsylvania
# Palestine-Israel Action Committee
# Monterey Arab/Jewish Dialogue Group
# Adalah-NY
# WESPAC-ME
# Alwan for the Arts
# Al-Nakba Awareness Project
# Coalition for Peace with Justice
# The Rebuilding Alliance
# Green Olive Tours
# Citizens for Justice in the Middle East-Kansas City
# Bathurst United Church
# Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine
# Justice First Foundation
# Sabeel Iowa
# Sabeel South Carolina
# Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine
# Collectif Urgence Palestine-Geneva
# Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Seattle
# Episcopal Peace Fellowship - Southwest Washington
# International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
# Palestine Solidarity Committee - Seattle
# Baltimore Tikkun
# We Are Wide Awake
# Jews for a Just Peace - North Carolina
# Corvallis-Albany Friends of Middle East Peace, Oregon
# Creative Music Productions
# Edmonton Small Press Association
# Educators for Peace and Justice
# Jews Say No!
# Christians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East
# Independent Jewish Voices
# Cincinnati Palestinian Rights Meetup
# Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation
# Coalition To Stop Billion To Israel
# Dominican Sisters of Houston
# Palestinian Rights Committee
# Americans for a Palestinian State
# In His Steps
# Pax Christi Brownsville
# Coalition for Peace in the Middle East, Youngstown
# U.S. Dominicans Palestine Coordinating Committee
# Westchester Women in Black
# Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land
# Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice
# Middle East Crisis Response
# American Libyan Freedom Alliance
# Women in Black Union Square, NYC
# Episcopal Peace Fellowship of Asheville, NC
# Interfaith Community for Palestinian Rights
# Ecumenical Centre for Service and Popular Education, Brazil
# No More Victims
# Cincinnati Palestinian Rights Meetup
# Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

Anonymous said...

I guess he could claim that he's bleeding them. No worse than Shylock,

Anonymous said...

Would he take an ad from an anti-circumcision group? a pro-treife group?

contactos en valencia said...

I found a great deal of helpful information above!