THIRD PALESTINIAN INTIFADA: All Arabs to March on Israel on May 15th

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

“With those powerful political storms rolling up the Middle East, and with this unstoppable and unpredictable domino effect of popular uprisings, how long before we watch the Israeli domino piece fall down”

“And if dictatorships are not tolerated in the Arab world anymore, why the Israeli quasi-dictatorship over the Palestinians should be any exception”

Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

All of The popular uprisings that swept through the Arab world have been preplanned and officially launched on facebook pages weeks in advance.

Pro-Israel lobbying. An Israeli Cabinet minister, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a massive American-Zionist campaign have succeeded in pressuring Facebook into removing the“third Intifada” page, which clearly calls for an all-Arab uprising against Israel.
According to the facebook “cause” page, the plan for the intifada would go as follows;

Friday, May 13th
 In Egypt, the epicenter of the Arab world, the biggest Arab country and from Tahrir square at the heart of Cairo where the whole Arab spring has sprung and gained fervent momentum, this massive Arab intifada will be launched.
Millions will gather once again in Tahrir square at the heart of Cairo but this time to call for all Arab-march toward Israel.
This mass protest will come two days prior to the actual march, as a clear message to Israel and the rest of the world that liberating Palestine is the core cause for every Arab in the Middle East. And that restoring Jerusalem is all Arab’s sacred mission

Sunday, May 15th
 To commemorate the Palestinian exodus day 1948 ( Nakba) when well over 750000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled out of their home land by Israel, similar number of Thousands angry Arab protesters from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon along with their Palestinian brothers from Gaza and the occupied west bank will advance toward Israel in what they call, the third intifada 

Profile photo of third intifada
facebook page

In their march they will be denouncing the ongoing Zionist occupation of the Arabic land of Palestine and calling for internationally recognized independent Palestinian state over its legitimate pre-1967 borders with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

Those fair Palestinian demands have been begged for by all ways known to diplomacy over the last 60 years. But since diplomacy has utterly failed the Arabs of Palestine and since politicians have granted them nothing except despair and Diaspora, they thought it was time they put their life into their own hands.

And what could be more timely than this Arab spring, which a lot of Arabs could not see or rather imagine approaching its full bloom without Palestine included.

This revolutionary plan that has been publicly posted on a facebook “cause” page and given the daring title “the third Palestinian Intifada” as there has been two Palestinian Intifada- uprisings- before. The first was sparked in 1987 and the second or what is known as the Aq’sa intifada in 2000, during both uprisings, Israel had to live through years of domestic unrest and worldwide condemnation of its apartheid and oppressive policy toward the Palestinians.

But as this “cause” page managed to attract almost 300000 fans and incredibly growing number of visitors in just few days Israel grew restlessly nervous about it. And nervously restless Israel acted in response.
What was worrying Tel Aviv is the fact that, so far, all Arab uprisings have been kicked off on facebook pages. So, under the boiling situation in the Arab world this facebook call couldn’t be underrated nor neglected.

Bullying facebook

With the unbelievably growing traffic to the facebook page and the spread of the call for a third intifada Israel couldn’t just stand watching underneath its big sign that reads “The only democracy in the Middle East”
Quickly switching signs, Israel grabbed the “Israel-hating and anti-Semitism” sign and put on its despotic mask, and before the administrators of the third intifada knew it, Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s Minister of Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, on the last week of March wrote Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder and told him ..

“the social network site has great potential to rally the masses around good causes, and we are all thankful for that. However, such potential comes hand in hand with the ability to cause great harm, such as in the case of the wild incitement displayed on the Third Palestinian Intifada page” 



Third Inifada



A facebook statement said on Monday of the first week of April that

whiles the “third Intifada” page “may be upsetting for someone, criticism of a certain culture, country, religion, lifestyle, or political ideology, for example — that alone is not a reason to remove the discussion.”



At that point it was clear to Israel that this Zuckerberg is not getting the message, Israel didn’t not seek his eloquent definition of the site’s terms for freedom of speech, removing the page that what Israel wanted. So Israel, with its Zionist lobbies and pro-Israel campaigns began to pull some strings and show some muscles and it did not take long before Mr. Mark Zuckerberg came to his senses and reevaluated the page as inciting violence against Israel.

And to make sure this will always be a lesson, learned the hard way, less than a week after facebook removed the intifada page; Zuckerberg was hit by a law suit seeking more than $ 1 billion in damages, for doing too little too late. The law suit has been filed by one of the American Zionist puppets- let off the leash- by the name of Larry Klayman.

After the page was no longer available on Tuesday, ADL director Abraham Foxman commented ..

“By taking this action, Facebook has now recognized an important standard to be applied when evaluating issues of non-compliance with its terms of service involving distinctions between incitement to violence and legitimate calls for collective expressions of opinion and action. We hope that they will continue to vigilantly monitor their pages for other groups that call for violence or terrorism against Jews and Israel.

But that will be mission impossible, for how could facebook go after thousands of Arab users who replaced their profile photos with the poster photo of the third intifada. Will facebook be able to pull down the other pages that began to play the same intifada tune?Why can’t Israel face the truth, it is crystal clear, it needs no terrorizing of Zuckerberg or Goldstone. Arabs will never accept Israel as a neighbor state as long as Palestine is being systematically wiped off the map by the Zionist military dictatorship.

Israel could intimidate facebook but not the millions of awakening Arabs.

If facebook to block any page or any account that speaks unfavorably of Israel that will mean that Mr. Zuckerberg is going to sacrifice the hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims who are already using facebook worldwide.

Could facebook, contrary to its previous role in boosting the Arab uprisings, save the Israeli domino piece from falling?
That is yet to be seen.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

THIRD PALESTINIAN INTIFADA: All Arabs to March on Israel on May 15th

April 24, 2011 posted by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat ·

“With those powerful political storms rolling up the Middle East, and with this unstoppable and unpredictable domino effect of popular uprisings, how long before we watch the Israeli domino piece fall down”

“And if dictatorships are not tolerated in the Arab world anymore, why the Israeli quasi-dictatorship over the Palestinians should be any exception”

Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

All of The popular uprisings that swept through the Arab world have been preplanned and officially launched on facebook pages weeks in advance.

Pro-Israel lobbying. An Israeli Cabinet minister, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a massive American-Zionist campaign have succeeded in pressuring Facebook into removing the “third Intifada” page, which clearly calls for an all-Arab uprising against Israel.
According to the facebook “cause” page, the plan for the intifada would go as follows;

Friday, May 13th
 In Egypt, the epicenter of the Arab world, the biggest Arab country and from Tahrir square at the heart of Cairo where the whole Arab spring has sprung and gained fervent momentum, this massive Arab intifada will be launched.
Millions will gather once again in Tahrir square at the heart of Cairo but this time to call for all Arab-march toward Israel.
This mass protest will come two days prior to the actual march, as a clear message to Israel and the rest of the world that liberating Palestine is the core cause for every Arab in the Middle East. And that restoring Jerusalem is all Arab’s sacred mission
 
Sunday, May 15th
 To commemorate the Palestinian exodus day 1948 ( Nakba) when well over 750000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled out of their home land by Israel, similar number of Thousands angry Arab protesters from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon along with their Palestinian brothers from Gaza and the occupied west bank will advance toward Israel in what they call, the third intifada



Profile photo of the
third Intifada on facebook



In their march they will be denouncing the ongoing Zionist occupation of the Arabic land of Palestine and calling for internationally recognized independent Palestinian state over its legitimate pre-1967 borders with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

Those fair Palestinian demands have been begged for by all ways known to diplomacy over the last 60 years. But since diplomacy has utterly failed the Arabs of Palestine and since politicians have granted them nothing except despair and Diaspora, they thought it was time they put their life into their own hands.

And what could be more timely than this Arab spring, which

a lot of Arabs could not see or rather imagine approaching its full bloom without Palestine included.

This revolutionary plan that has been publicly posted on a facebook “cause” page and given the daring title “the third Palestinian Intifada” as there has been two Palestinian Intifada- uprisings- before. The first was sparked in 1987 and the second or what is known as the Aq’sa intifada in 2000, during both uprisings, Israel had to live through years of domestic unrest and worldwide condemnation of its apartheid and oppressive policy toward the Palestinians.

But as this “cause” page managed to attract almost 300000 fans and incredibly growing number of visitors in just few days Israel grew restlessly nervous about it. And nervously restless Israel acted in response.

What was worrying Tel Aviv is the fact that, so far, all Arab uprisings have been kicked off on facebook pages. So, under the boiling situation in the Arab world this facebook call couldn’t be underrated nor neglected.

Bullying facebook

With the unbelievably growing traffic to the facebook page and the spread of the call for a third intifada Israel couldn’t just stand watching underneath its big sign that reads “The only democracy in the Middle East”
Quickly switching signs, Israel grabbed the “Israel-hating and anti-Semitism” sign and put on its despotic mask, and before the administrators of the third intifada knew it, Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s Minister of Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, on the last week of March wrote Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder and told him ..

“the social network site has great potential to rally the masses around good causes, and we are all thankful for that. However, such potential comes hand in hand with the ability to cause great harm, such as in the case of the wild incitement displayed on the Third Palestinian Intifada page”

Third Intifada

A facebook statement said on Monday of the first week of April that whiles the “third Intifada” page “may be upsetting for someone, criticism of a certain culture, country, religion, lifestyle, or political ideology, for example — that alone is not a reason to remove the discussion.”

At that point it was clear to Israel that this Zuckerberg is not getting the message, Israel didn’t not seek his eloquent definition of the site’s terms for freedom of speech, removing the page that what Israel wanted. So Israel, with its Zionist lobbies and pro-Israel campaigns began to pull some strings and show some muscles and it did not take long before Mr. Mark Zuckerberg came to his senses and reevaluated the page as inciting violence against Israel.

And to make sure this will always be a lesson, learned the hard way, less than a week after facebook removed the intifada page; Zuckerberg was hit by a law suit seeking more than $ 1 billion in damages, for doing too little too late. The law suit has been filed by one of the American Zionist puppets- let off the leash- by the name of Larry Klayman.

After the page was no longer available on Tuesday, ADL director Abraham Foxman commented ..

“By taking this action, Facebook has now recognized an important standard to be applied when evaluating issues of non-compliance with its terms of service involving distinctions between incitement to violence and legitimate calls for collective expressions of opinion and action. We hope that they will continue to vigilantly monitor their pages for other groups that call for violence or terrorism against Jews and Israel.”

But that will be mission impossible, for how could facebook go after thousands of Arab users who replaced their profile photos with the poster photo of the third intifada. Will facebook be able to pull down the other pages that began to play the same intifada tune?

Why can’t Israel face the truth, it is crystal clear, it needs no terrorizing of Zuckerberg or Goldstone. Arabs will never accept Israel as a neighbor state as long as Palestine is being systematically wiped off the map by the Zionist military dictatorship.

Israel could intimidate facebook but not the millions of awakening Arabs.

If facebook to block any page or any account that speaks unfavorably of Israel that will mean that Mr. Zuckergerg is going to sacrifice the hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims who are already using facebook worldwide.

Could facebook, contrary to its previous boosting role to the Arab uprisings, save the Israeli domino piece from falling?

That is yet to be seen.

For more articles by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat visit his website  

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Third intifada website bypasses Facebook closure - Abbas: I won't allow a new intifada

Abbas: I won't allow a new intifada

[ 20/04/2011 - 03:26 PM ]

TUNIS, (PIC)-- De facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said that he would not allow the outbreak of a new intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation.

Abbas, speaking to Tunisian journalists on Wednesday during his current visit to Tunisia, said that as long as he remained president of the Palestinian Authority he would not allow the eruption of a new intifada.

"I won't allow any security or military flare-up in the West Bank or any other Palestinian area," he said, adding that he wants to preserve the life of the Palestinians. "Those who speak about resistance or armed intifada let them do that away from the Palestinian people," he said.

Abbas also said that the PA was interested in resuming serious negotiations with Israel over "key issues".

Third intifada website bypasses Facebook closure

[ 20/04/2011 - 02:13 PM ]

WASHINGTON, (PIC)-- Palestinian youths in the United States have launched a website similar to Facebook to support calls for a third intifada (uprising) against Israel on May 15 timed to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba.

The organizers said the site, dubbed Al-Quds Moon, was launched to support the ”struggle of the Palestinians to restore their full legitimate rights as stipulated by United Nations resolutions”.

They confirmed the site does not follow the agendas of any political parties, but only the Palestinians in the occupied territories, according to the introduction page.

They added that the site is not subject to the control as was the case for a popular similar websites hosted by Facebook; and it cannot be blocked by U.S. authorities because it supports a peaceful uprising.

The organizers also clarified that the page is not a substitute for the multiple Facebook pages serving the same cause. ”It is complementary to these efforts,” they said, ”and it could serve as a substitute if the Facebook administration shuts the pages down.”

The site has many of the same features as Facebook and allows members to create groups, upload photos and post videos as well as to write blogs and chat using voice and image.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Walking the wall: Comedian Mark Thomas interviewed

Kevin Squires, The Electronic Intifada, 13 April 2011

Mark Thomas walked all 732 kilometers of Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank. (Image courtesy of Mark Thomas)

Last month, Mark Thomas, the English "activist-comedian," was in Dublin performing his new live show Extreme Rambling: Walking Israel's Barrier. For Fun. The show (and accompanying book and film) has its sights trained on Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank. Thomas recounts his experiences of walking its full 723 kilometer route -- from detentions by the Israeli military, to encounters with Palestinians from all walks of life, to conversations with settlers and officials.

For Thomas, comedy is not merely a passive medium. "I think it's pointless for me to do this stuff unless it's part of some process of change," he says. "There has to be a purpose to art." Indeed, his record speaks to this. Over the past two decades he has confronted power, exposed corruption and fought oppression -- from Britain, to Western Sahara, to Kurdistan, to Indonesia -- and on several occasions has won victories. "I love the fact that when people go, 'Well, what good has come from your work?' I've got a small list I like to look at," he laughs.

He is also eager to point out that "What I do isn't stand up. It has a foot in theatre and a foot in comedy. But it's not stand up. It's about getting out, telling the stories and taking people on a journey, somewhere they didn't necessarily expect to go."

It's not the first time Thomas has taken on the Palestinian issue, previously having campaigned against Britain's arms trade with Israel, and "a successful embarrassment of the Israeli embassy" after they had agreed to pay the family of Tom Hurndall -- the International Solidarity Movement activist shot in the head by the Israeli military in Gaza in April 2003, who died after nine months in a coma -- some of the cost of transporting him back to England. "The check bounced! So we organized a bring-and-buy sale to save Israel from going bust," Thomas explains.

However, the tactics of the second intifada made Thomas reluctant to engage fully with the issue. "It made me switch off," he says. "I did carry on with the arms trade stuff, but the second intifada was this huge bloody mess. I mean the suicide bombs were horrendous, of course there is disproportionate [Israeli] abuse of human rights, but that doesn't excuse it on any count."

So what shook him out of his relative complacency? "Operation Cast Lead," Israel's winter invasion of Gaza in 2008-09 that left more than 1,400 dead. Thomas describes the invasion as Israel "dropping banned weapons on a captive civilian population, just hugely cruel." This reawakened interest, coupled with his love of rambling and natural trouble-making instinct, saw Thomas and his cameraman Phil embark on a nine week trek along Israel's wall.

With regard to the book (of which the live show is a condensed version), the journey chronicles the grim reality of Israel's wall that strangles the life from Palestinians living in its shadow. While this could be just another tale of woe, Thomas' clever and sardonic wit, righteous anger and frequent self-depreciation make the book an enjoyable read -- funny and tragic in equal measure.

He tells me that the journey was "very much about the people I met." True to this, traveling from the northern West Bank to the south, Thomas interviews a wide range of individuals. From nonviolent resistance activists like Jamal Juma'a to Palestinian workers who "illegally" cross into Israel. He meets Palestinian children who have to share their route to school with human excrement while also interviewing Israeli settlers like Arieh King who believes the wall is "apartheid against Jews" because it prevents him from buying property in the occupied West Bank. Thomas also encounters Israeli anti-occupation activists and meets Colonel Danny Tirza, the man who plotted the wall's route and remains immensely proud of this ignoble achievement. He also has frequent run-ins with the Israeli military, and explains "why do you think it took nearly nine weeks? Because we kept getting detained!"

Extreme Rambling is also cautiously optimistic. While Thomas feels that "everyone is a bit shattered, just keeping their heads above water," he is convinced that Israel's wall is an unsustainable venture and will eventually be brought down. He also found himself inspired by the nonviolent resistance in Palestinian villages like Bilin and Budrus. "It's really exciting, incredible! The national leadership is fucked, on both sides, but the grassroots stuff, that's what's really interesting. The community leadership and action coming out is just superb," he exclaims. On the Israeli side he has praise for the organizations Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Anarchists Against the Wall and Breaking the Silence.

Thomas adds that "I love that people are quite honest about their approach to nonviolence. Lots of people were saying 'it's the way to change things,' others would say 'I was in jail, we started discussing Gandhi, we're not winning militarily, we need to change tack' and others would say 'we're giving it a go because violence hasn't worked.' People were very honest about it, and I was fascinated by the fact that there was discussion all along the walk about nonviolent resistance and what it meant. Whether it was talking about 'unarmed' versus 'nonviolent' resistance, or campaigning work, or attacking Zionism's theological underpinnings through the Kairos Palestine document or what have you."

One of Extreme Rambling's major triumphs is its portrayal of ordinary Palestinians. They are not faceless statistics, nor meek and passive victims. Rather, the Palestinians that Thomas encounters are real people with aspirations and everyday problems who form part of a vibrant society and culture of resistance. Of course their lives are infinitely complicated by Israel's occupation -- of which the wall is merely a concrete manifestation -- but their struggle continues. In this respect it is reminiscent of Joe Sacco's excellent works of comic book journalism, Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza.

Similarly, to someone whose knowledge of Israel's occupation is limited to news headlines, it illustrates the depressing, mundane reality for Palestinians of the "everyday occupation." Thomas recounts the nightmarish task of simply going to school, work, or the hospital as well as the realities of state-support for the settler movement. He also describes the daily humiliation Palestinians experience at Israeli checkpoints and the arbitrary but commonplace beatings and detentions.

Thomas is justifiably proud of this work. He explains that "Fifty-thousand people [will] see the show over the next year. The programs for the show will probably sell something like 10,000 to 15,000 copies, part of the proceeds going to [the nonprofit organization] Zaytoun. They have articles by Stop The Wall, Combatants For Peace, Zaytoun and War On Want on boycotts and divestment. We've published the Palestinian [boycott, divestment and sanctions] call on the back of the program [and in the book] and there's maps showing the reduction of Palestinian land since 1917."

He adds that "This stuff is quite exciting for people to take away, but it's also intellectual ammunition so you can come out fighting at the end of it. It's also going to go to Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals, places where it's not just the 'usual suspects,' and that's exciting. For example, I was in Cardiff the other night and the best moment of the night was finishing the show, packing up to go, and the bouncer just came up and said to me 'that was fucking great, I've never seen anything like that. That's marvelous!' Well, my job is done, you know what I mean! Also, the book will reach maybe 100,000 people. And who knows what will happen with the film, which we hope to get into cinemas. I'm really pleased with this work."

When asked if he learned anything new from the experience, Thomas replies "Somebody said to me on the first day that what they were most proud of was the fact that 'my people are still here.' I think by the time I got to the end I kind of understood a little bit about that. It's actually stunning that people have withstood the onslaught that's going on. That is quite amazing."

Extreme Rambling is published by Ebury Press on 14 April. The live show is touring Britain until 25 September 2011.

Kevin Squires is a Palestine solidarity and political activist based in Ireland. A frequent contributor to various Irish leftist publications, he blogs about music, comedy, comics and politics at Citizen Partridge, where a full transcript of this interview will be posted.