Palestine is African

Geologically, Palestine rests on the African tectonic plate, located precisely at the only land-route between Africa and Europe. Culturally, the Palestinian people have lived and thrived there for more than 2,000 years. Societally, they have stood at the crossroads of innumerable migrations, trade routes, the comings and goings of empires. The Palestinians are not leaving Palestine to take the (art of the phony) deal of the century.

African Tectonic Plate

“A land without people” for “a people without a land”? Propagandists deal in the art of false witness.

Palestinian Social Customs and Traditions

In 1947, the British Empire abandoned The Raj — their puppet regime in South Asia. They left vast populations to fend for themselves when imperial ambitions could no longer criminally plunder. Arbitrary partitions were drawn in London by the elites who spewed in the chambers of Parliament — the same chambers Brexiteers presently pollute. Kashmir is merely the most recent victim of European hegemony, of patriotic white supremacist presumption.

A single blowhard elitist, Lord Balfour, issued a document as ambiguously worded as the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The White Founding Fathers envisioned a Manifest Destiny for White European, English-speaking “settlers.” Were Whites endowed by their creator to Black human resources obtained from Africa?

Alexander Haig described Israel as a land-based aircraft carrier that promised a distinct advantage — it could not be sunk. It represented a militarily critical geopolitical footstep in the Middle East. Geopolitical advantage attracts tyrants. Does it not?

The empire of these United States still expresses an active interest in every squeezable square inch of terra firma. The US Treasury transfers ten million dollars a day to further militarize a country that has only been around as long as I’ve been around. Actually, I am eight-months older than Israel, a country still craving “a land without Palestinians for a people who hate Palestinians.”

One year after their Sun set in South Asia, the British Empire abandoned the Mandate for Palestine. In a sleight of hand, the terrorists who had bedeviled the British since 1929 began a pogrom to destroy Palestinian businesses, dispossess their families, empty their homes, destroy their towns, rename each town from Arabic to Hebrew, and to begin preparations for a wider geographic footprint — something dreadfully similar to the March of Tears, the Cherokee Nakba.

The sudden appearance of Israel caught a couple thousand years of Palestinian culture in an annihilating squeeze play. The geopolitical juggernaut of American empire played their land-based aircraft carrier card — actually, they are still playing the same card. What does not matter to the various shades of blue and white flag wavers — that the heirs of 2,000 years of Palestine must always yield to a State that did not even exist in 1947.

By comparison, Israel is a nuclear power. Had their Six-Day War faltered, they had a Plan B: set off a nuclear bomb in the Sinai Peninsula to serve as a warning.

Israel is also a white supremacist society that serves white persons and terrorizes non-white persons. Your life and livelihood is destroyed if you criticize Brand Israel.

White Israeli settlers routinely kill Palestinian children, there are quite a few proud boys among those settlers. Israeli soldiers fire expanding bullets at the legs of unarmed Palestinian youth. Israel’s message to Palestinian youth: Live long and suffer.

You would think that descendants of Holocaust victims would be the last persons on the planet who would adopt genocide as a solution. Wishing death to your enemy, to spray paint “Gas all Arabs” on Palestinian houses slated for demolition to house another 100,000 or so Israeli citizens.

Thanks for reading.

Author: Bill Ziegler

I am a former resident of Delhi Township. These are memories of my life and times in that community during the 1950s and 1960s. A time capsule.

40 thoughts on “Palestine is African”

    1. Kindest thanks, Terry. I sweat the details, so your comment is particularly well received and gratefully acknowledged. It’s exhausting to weigh the stuff of truth, always is.

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    1. Thank you, Sha’Tara. I stand in full solidarity with BDS and am solidly opposed to an apartheid Israel that doesn’t even blush at the 24/7 atrocities it has been committing for 71 years and counting. What can you say about a society that has no left-of-center political representation, a society that disenfranchises the Palestinian electorate without a hint of regret or second thoughts, a society that breaks into the bedrooms of adolescent children “suspected” of rock-throwing and detains them indefinitely? I think of Israel as a de facto US State: the 49th, admitted in 1948 with the signature of Harry Truman. But perhaps I am mistaken.

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      1. As far as I am concerned the great axis of evil is represented by the Anglo-American-Zionist empire which enslaves most of Europe through the European Union-NATO. The counter, secondary but rising axis of evil power is China-Russia-India and whatever rest of the world aligns with those. Keeping these in a constant state of war and war preparedness: banking cartels led by the Federal Reserves and the World Bank. The UN, like its predecessor, the League of Nations, has become nothing but a rubber stamp of acquiescence to any and all evils. We’re on our own, Bill, sad to say, and often I think of climate change, or the politicized aspect of it as nothing more than misdirection so we won’t see what is really going on. The “deep state” has created a modern Joan of Arc in Greta Thunberg to stir up emotions, create some gender-based entertainment and increase the confusion around the issue. I wonder if they’ve already decided whether to buy her with a Nobel prize (as they did with Malala Yousafzai) or make her disappear if she steps out of line? Perhaps you will have the sense (and be allowed) to quit when she catches on that she’s nothing more than a poster girl for a new arm of predatory capitalism’s technology… sorry, off topic.

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        1. Thank you for perspective, Sha’Tara. You bring much to the table that I shall look into.
          That defunct League of Nations rubber-stamped the Balfour Document that has been turned into a holy relic that gets hauled out endlessly. The redacted part is the reference to the Palestinians. The powers that be have the best-funded propaganda. Hasbara is Hebrew for “explain”, but its principal purpose is propaganda that either whitewashes or obfuscates. Search Google for “hasbara” and you are not taken to a page titled “hasbara”, as you would expect. Rather, it routes you automatically to a hasbara instrument titled “Public Diplomacy of Israel.” Hasbara Fellowships teach you how to churn the stuff out.
          And going off-topic is nothing to apologize for 🙂

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          2. Personally as far as propaganda goes the Palestinians and other Muslems are brilliant at it. They have managed to convince you all that blowing up people and planes is OK because they were wronged. Their propaganda has drowned out any facts and rational thoughts that people may have had. They can send young kids to throw grenades at soldiers and think that is also OK. I know you guys don’t believe anything I say so watch this: https://youtu.be/o9sCvyOE_ys

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          3. This guy is a shill for Israel, another opportunist who parrots the party line to deliver a very tired and taudry zionist/hasbarist fairy tale. When this “Green Prince” refers to Israel as a light in the midst of darkness, as he tells pithy jokes about this Jewish guy and this Arab guy…Consider this:
            The darkness in Gaza is caused by Israel’s limiting electricity to a few hours per day, or the guards “lights out” message to the prisoners in Camp Gaza. A darkness punctuated perhaps by the light from exploding incendiary bomb: an enormous powerful bit of ordinance, not a half-ass molotov cocktail or a rock picked up from the rubble caused by a punishing occupier. Why are there so many amputees among Palestinian youth? Why so many ctutches? Do a Google Search for “exploding bullets leg youth Palestinian.” Israel: a beacon of light?

            Or my suggestion for the T-shirt:
            Live Long and Suffer
            Consider that.
            Please compare this dog and pony show to the contributions of a genuine witness to the occupation, the son of a priviliged military operation commander. Of course, I refer to the General’s Son: Miko Peled:
            https://electronicintifada.net/content/rejoicing-ethnic-cleansing/20621

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          4. Zionism depends entirely on US/NATO military and propaganda support. When that fails, and it is going to fail as the game changes and new alliances are formed while old ones are abandoned, Israel will have to confront its nemesis and it will lose, just as the apartheid regime of terror in South Africa was destined to fall. From my viewpoint, and it is long of years and of history, the “returning” Jews of Israel made a very bad choice even if they got to enjoy it for a mere 70 years. They could have blended in with their brethren as Palestinians but they were misled by US, British and Zionist propagandists to make a deal with the Devil. Like Esau, they sold their birthright for a mess of pottage cooked up with millions, then billions of US $$$ so they would keep the Arab world confused and disunited so the British-US empire could collect the oil without too much inteference… that is until now. The military face of the Middle East is changing fast and conservative groups like Zionist Israel (the US “unsinkable battleship) and its counterpart, Saudi Arabia are in for a very rude awakening. This is my opinion, of course. It’s how I see things and I see no reason to change it, or defend it.

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          5. Well I suppose I should give up. There was a time I could walk through Gaza alone to get to my army base and nobody in Gaza had a problem with it. That was before Hamas started up there. An eye witness? You idiots I was there many years ago. We supply the electricity and they don’t pay for it. Maybe you want to pay? We supply the water and medical assistance. The IDF does not use exploding bullets. Really? There are more NGO’s waiting for that than you have had happy holidays. I suppose Colonel Kemp is also a liar. These crazy people burnt 10’s of square kilometers of farm land and send rockets to kill Israelis. They tunnel under our kibbutzim hoping to kill people. Iran supplies the weapons and material the same country that kills your soldiers but nothing I say will light that dormant light in your heads. OK you hate Jews. I get that. But why doesn’t facts have any meaning to you? Go to Gaza and visit the hospitals and ask them. Knowing them they could want a missing leg they hate us as much as you do. If Egypt opened the border with Gaza everyone could leave and settle in the US. Now there is an idea. I think you guys should fix your own problems first. We don’t have kids shooting up schools yet all our kids are given better rifles than you have. Everyone here, including kids, can get medical assistance without having to sell their house. The world pays for all this mayhem including urging kids to kill anyone and their family is taken care of. They get a salary in jail. Still today Israel runs engineering offices in Gaza and make a good salary. Once there was no border. Your information is bad. Either you can find out the truth or you can’t. Which country knocks on the roof of a building before destroying it due to Hamas operating there? This is my last correspondence because I find it impossible to change hate to anything else. Go to Gaza or Iran and find out for yourselves. Then again you need balls for that.
            Bill I harbour no bad feelings and wish you all a good year just please have the courage to look at facts. You could start with Tibet and Crimea. I am sure the Chinese and Russians will give you as much help as you need. The Russians shot down a civilian plane and you are still in Gaza. Bye Guys

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          7. Bill, Bill, Bill that would be hollow bullets which are illegal and when you consider that in the IDF there is a frickin lawyer there with the troops to ensure those scores of very unfriendly NGO’s hanging around here don’t find something like that. There is a rule of thumb here – do not believe anything you read unless from a trusted source and they are few. Like Iran now says that the US is the biggest terrorist state and they only fought ISIS. Hezbollah got 130,000 missiles from Alibaba or Ali Express and Hamas must have bought their weapons online. I lived under apartheid and I live here so when one of your commentators tell the world we are the same the term bullshit comes to mind.
            They have children brain washed now telling us we need to shut down our western culture and return to the stone age. They must have UNWRA in charge their again. Nobody mentioned anything about a new hospital in Gaza so they don’t have to come to Israel for treatment. Also someone is supplying them electricity. Maybe from Egypt. Jesus here I am explaining facts that you people should all know already. I suggest you contact Colonel Richard Kemp he knows a lot more than me – ask him questions. But I suppose you will have a problem believing him as well. https://richard-kemp.com/
            Thursday tomorrow.
            Mikel

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          8. Very few IOF soldiers are ever charged, frickin lawyers are nowhere to be seen while the IOF shoot at a whim, though your security systems track Palestinians everywhere they go. If they have 130,000 missiles then why do they use ancient mortars — and rocks (encrusted with mortar) from your constant shelling. Once Israeli withdrew”settlers” from the Gaza Strip you have been shooting and bombing everywhere. Rooftop-knocking is a myth. Children serving as shields is also a myth — witness Israeli bombing footage and you’ll recognize that; however, this assumes that you would ever view something that might be critical of Israel. Being PC in Israel — threatening anyone who criticizes Israel as being an anti semite, everytime. Criticism of Israel is not anti semitism.
            Israel has gone beyond apartheid. You have been the recipient of apartheids’ benefits in both apartheid states. The spoils go to the occupier. South Africa is still White-controlled. Israel bombs hospitals in Gaza, new or old, they shoot children on their way to school, they shoot old women who have the temerity to hold up a Palestinian flag with both hands.
            And lies are not facts.

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    2. Since I lived in South Africa for 20 years and now live in Israel it would be interesting on how you realised Israel is an apartheid country? Have you ever visited South Africa during apartheid? Have you ever visited Israel? Ask the Bahai they made their world headquarters here in Israel.

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    1. Thanks for reading and for your inquiry, Katrina. The US government is obligated to disburse funds to the Israeli military in a substantially rubberstamped process signed every ten years. As much as Obama was disliked by Netanyahu, the latest 10-year contract was signed by Obama in 2016, so they’re committed to 2026 at least. However, the ties to Israel take place over a wide range of funding: security systems, US Police Department training at Israeli military compounds, AIPAC agreements every year in Washington D.C. Anti-BDS enforcement at American universities, on and on and on…
      US veto power at the UN keeps the system operating full tilt, despite our being outvoted by nearly every other country.

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  5. Hi Bill just reading your email I think saying today’s Palestinians have been in that area for 2000 years is a bit dicey. From their names you can tell most are really from surrounding countries. Most of the leaders anyway. Maybe what you don’t know is quite a significant percentage are Jewish due to inter-marriage over the years. I have read many research results on who lives in the middle east and if I can find one of them I will send them to you. If you can find anything written by Absalom Kapach you will find interesting material. We are lucky enough to be able to attend his amazing lectures. Have a good week everyone.

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    1. A rose by any other name…
      The principal point is that the Palestinian culture has long vibrant roots to the land, that the Nakba was a deliberate slash and burn operation, that those “operations” continue relentlessly — one Palestinian at a time. Their homeland has become a set of disparate prisons of various size — the prison that is Gaza, where they are shot and bombed at will by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
      … our cat just jumped on the keyboard. to be continued 🙂

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      1. …had to edit Loki’s scratch marks…
        They were expelled to every point of the compass: to ships, to Lebanon, to the West Bank, to Jordan. It was a genuine diaspora, taking only what they could carry or cart, circa 700,000 unarmed people who were living peacefully with their neighbors up to May 14, 1948.
        The horror of 1967 is known as Naksa in Arabic, something I translate as FUBAR. The occupation of the disenfranchised who cannot vote in any Israeli election, though there are as many Palestinians in former Palestine as there are Israelis. Those who were not expelled in 1948 became Israelis, their population rate has increased to 20% of the population. Many Israelis think that 20% is far too high, that something must be done. Meanwhile, settler colonialism is exploding in the West Bank, where the “settlers” number about 700,000. Where have I written that number before? Modern commuter highways — with fences on both shoulders — may not be used by Palestinians; however, these very highways separate the already dispersed Palestinians even further. Divide, conquer, shoot, bomb, and burn at will without consequence while everyone looks away. Damned if it doesn’t look like white supremacy to me. Just opining, of course.

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        1. Let me edit some of your facts and add in a few missing ones.
          Firstly there are ONLY 400,000 settlers in the West Bank. Remember in 1948 Jordan annexed it and in 1967 Israel took it over but has not annexed it.
          The amount of Jews expelled from Arab countries after living there for centuries is 800,000 and there are no more Jewish refugees. Yes 800,000 Arabs were either expelled or left and they are mainly still refugees. The reason for the roads and fences is because they are stilling killing us. The wall helped us and Trump is doing the same. Walls make better neighbours and they kill less of us. You write like you were educated in an UNWRA school.
          It is so much easier to keep to the facts and tell the truth – truth as in what happened not what you imagine happened.

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      2. Found this blog of yours by chance. I have a question. Are we worse than the Syrian and Russian armys? You write like we are the only country behaving badly? Why don’t you all come and visit Israel and see for yourselves. I told my friends you said the whites still run South Africa. They think you need to visit.
        Until then you will never know the truth will you?j

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        1. Are are saying Kay Wilson cooked up the whole story? What is the connection with what the JP is or not and the story. Go to one of her lectures when she gets to the US. Read her book. Send her an email. You want her email I can ask her as I know where she is tonight.

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    2. My wife told me to add that at the trial of the people that thought they had killed her many people, Arab muslims and Christians, Bedouin and Druse as well as religious and secular Jews plus a quite few Bahai’ists came to show support. The Bahai religion is centered in Haifa Israel as they were thrown out of Iran.

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      1. What a straw man is Iran — a country that has no nuclear weapons vilified by a country that has hundreds of them. Officially, of course, Israel has “no comment, no comment.”

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        1. Iran that gentle giant that is responsible for the deaths of a substantial amount of American soldiers. Then there were those hundred’s of marines in Beirut.
          Where do you think the missiles or their components come from that are falling on Israel. You have either a narrow knowledge of what is happening or you are as biased as CNN and the Guardian.

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    3. Thank you for mentioning the Haganah, suburban. The Nakba did not occur without forethought and planning. The British Empire was a yoke (the Arabic phrase for ‘shaking off the yoke’ is ‘intifada’ by the way) that had to be broken away. No one wants to be occupied by a foreign power that occupied most of the Middle East. The same group that calls itself freedom fighters are called terrorists by the more deadly terrorists — the occupiers. Zionism, a secular movement that knows how to be ruthless, had been active for many years before 1948. The Haganah morphed to a better-sounding name: Israel Defense Forces. The unarmed Palestinians were blindsided by the nascent IDF. They were the operational surgeons, so to speak. In 1967 they occupied the West Bank and now “defend” the newest set of terrorists who terrorize for freedom, as it were.

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  7. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is yet another reminder that we the people of Earth are still suffering from the consequences of European colonialism. Our current unfolding climate and ecological crises are also a result of the capitalistic system of human and non-human exploitation set into motion during that period.

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    1. Thanks so much for highlighting the continent that made colonialism seem wholesome and enlivening to the recipients of the plunder that magically arrived on cargo ships. I doubt that the shipping crates were labelled “fresh plunder.” The Industrial Revolution made capitalism an unstoppable brand that patriots dare never question, that a breakthrough a day keeps the crises at bay.

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  8. 🙂 One last thing Sha’Tara come and visit Israel and see for yourself. This is definitely not a perfect country but nothing like you think. If I could (I am a pensioner) I would even pay for your visit. Just talk to people and visit the universities and speak to students specially the young women. Tel-Aviv would be a good place to start. You will find it difficult to differentiate between Askenazi, Sfaradim and Arabs as many are all mixed together. Many living together or married. Their kids are the new world. Think about it the weather is good here and the food scene excellent. There is no PC here, so you can speak your mind in complete safety. Be well.
    Mikel

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  9. Reading the comments it looks like it is only me and you now Bill 🙂
    Reading an English online newscast earlier on I was made aware of the fact that when Corbyn becomes prime minister of the UK the first order of business is to proclaim a Palestinian state (from the river to the sea). Then forbid the export of sniper rifles, sights and bullets to the IDF. So there you have it, the bullets (definitely not hollow point). I spoke to Alex a friend who actually teaches the snipers in the police and the IDF. When I asked him about bullets he explained that bullets follow strict rules of combat but some snipers could make a cross in the front of the bullet to make it explode/expand. But if they are caught it is a very long time in military prison. He thinks that the chances of actually happening these days is next to null. I asked for his email for you but he laughed and declined as he is on a hit list or something. But as I said previously speak to Colonel Kemp. He gives lectures on warfare and the IDF in particular. So whatever you think bad in the IDF it seems other armies are a lot worse.
    My last suggestion is to get all your members of this list and come for a visit. All I can promise you is that it is a lot different to what you people think. You can also visit Petra but I would suggest on passing on the night walk/visit it is 2 km there and 2 km back in the dark with access through a narrow canyon.
    You have my email in case you have any questions – as I think we have flogged this poor horse to death already – as my mother used to say.

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    1. Corbyn is being bombarded ruthlessly with utterly groundless charges of anti-Semitism. Preference for conservatives anywhere is government policy. Even so, Israel is far far more powerful a force on this planet than the UK.
      River to the Sea is a simple recognition of the presence of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens and Palestinians without a franchise. They have no political voice. How many IDF soldiers are ever sent to military prison?
      Speaking of Richard Kemp, have you read anything by Miko Peled?
      And on the devastating disabilities scene, here is an informative article by Amira Hass:
      https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-gaza-doctors-injuries-in-border-protests-worst-since-2014-war-1.6014013

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  10. Pingback: Palestine is African — billziegler1947 – jetsetterweb

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