Fight Hollyocrisy: Sign the Petition
Written by Haitham Sabbah on 06. September 2006, 1520hrs // Part of Haitham Sabbah's adventure in Bleeding Edge, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine, Politics, War, War Crimes // Other posts by Haitham Sabbah
An Open Letter to the 84 Celebrities: No to Israeli Terror and Hollywood Hypocrisy
Action Alert
Eighty-four celebrities, mainly from Hollywood, published a full-page advertisement in the Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter and Variety on August 16.
The advertisement whitewashes Israel’s state sponsored terrorism and condemns its victims.
The celebrities’ statement is hypocritical; on the one hand they claim to promote justice, freedom and peace on the screen, while on the other hand, they deny the right of Palestinians and Lebanese to attain their freedom and to live in peace in their independent states, the only just solution to the Middle East conflict.
Action 1:
Sign the Petition to the Signatories Here
Action 2:
Please help spreading the message widely by:
1 - posting this action alert in your blog, website and public forums
2- forwarding it to your mailing list
3- placing the petition banners in your blog, website and email signature (You can find the banners here)
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September 8th, 2006 at 2:43 am
Haitham,
You said “they deny the right of Palestinians and Lebanese to attain their freedom and to live in peace in their independent states” however, the celebrities’ statement directly targets Hamas and Hezbollah for their actions, not the Palestinian and Lebanese people. I think you and I know that there are many Palestinian and Lebanese who do not agree with the methods or actions of the respective groups.
To make the leap from Hamas and Hezbollah to Palestinians and Lebanese is a misrepresentation, not only of the celebreties’ statment, but of the heart of the people of Palestine and Lebanon.
If the actions of the organizations cannot be controlled by those people who truly want freedom and peace, those people who oppose Hamas and Hezbollah from within Palestine and Lebanon, then organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah will continue to provoke instability and force the hand of Israel to further devistate those who cause that instability.
September 9th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Joe,
Hamas has been elected as a representative of the Palestinian people in what was called the “most democratic and transparent elections the Middle East has ever had”, so Hamas isn’t only an organisation but rather “The Organisation, resistance movement and political party” the Palestinians have put their trust in to achieve their freedom from the Israeli Occupation. By accusing Hamas as a terrorist organisation you will actually be accusing the majority of the Palestinians to be terrorists.
Hamas is the one representative that truly wants true peace and freedom, and that’s why they made their very simple offer to Israel once they became in power, and that was to “End the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (with all what that would mean), release prisoners, and get the refugees to return to their homes and lands”. I don’t think any Palestinian government or negotiator was more generous than Hamas in that offer and I don’t think Hamas can by any means give up on any of these basic rights of the Palestinian nation. The difference is that Hamas is straight, clean and its leaders are ready to die for their principles, unlike other leaders who can be easily bought or silenced with money or throne. In other words Israel and its big brother USA is scared about the idea of having Hamas to lead the Palestinians because they know that those people are “stubborn” when it comes to the nonnegotiable rights and facts, one of the very crucial ethics of a true and honest political and military fighter for freedom.
Hamas did not initiate the fight. If you have a long memory of 58 years or more you can easily comprehend that resistance is the only language the Israelis would ever understand. If you have a short memory you should still be able to recall that Hamas agreed on a truce with Israel in February 2005, which it fully respected despite the thousands of the Israeli violations to that truce. In June 10th 2006 Israel committed a massacre on the beach of Gaza killing seven Palestinian civilians from one family after they were shelled by the Israeli Navy. Consequently, Hamas’ military wing, Izzudeen Alqassam, announced a cessation of the truce with Israel. Few days after that Alqassam and two other Palestinian resistance brigades attacked an Israeli military site and captured an Israeli soldier. I dare you; do you have any idea about what Hamas asked for in exchange of the Israeli soldier they captured? They only demanded the release of the Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons! Was that too much to ask for? Has anyone ever criticised Israel for imprisoning those in the first place? Instead of negotiating the prisoners exchange Israel launched a massive military operation in Gaza strip of Palestine, where they believed their soldier was hidden, bombarding all civil infrastructures, including the main power plants and bridges, to add more to the suffering of the Palestinians who have been under siege since they democratically elected Hamas as their representative in the Palestinian Parliament and government. The Israeli warplanes and artillery shelled everything: residences, shops, factories, schools, universities, ministries and the airport. And as the Zionist arrogance is endless, Israel’s thirst for humiliating the Palestinians led it to the kidnapping of the majority of Hamas MPs in the West Bank, including the speaker of the Parliament Prof. Abdul-Aziz Dwaik, as well as most of the Palestinian government ministers in the West Bank including the Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Naser Al-Shaer.
So can you tell me now: how did Hamas “provoke instability and force the hand of Israel to further devastate those who cause the instability” ? And isn’t it a double standard to call for democracy and then overlook its results? As isn’t it a betrayal if a Palestinian accepts to be empowered by a foreign country or government just because he/she doesn’t agree with what the majority of the Palestinians want?
And by the way, have you read the petition?!
September 9th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Hamas and Hizballah would not even exist but for Zionist bigotry and terror creating the misnamed Jewish state and shaping Israel’s ongoing, blatantly racist land and rights grabbing war on the native non-Jewish Palestinians.
Israel has destroyed secular resistance to Israeli apartheid and so now Islam is rising up to defend the people’s dignity and basic human rights. On the current trajectory, with Israel’s heavily armed immigrant bigots still stealing Palestinian land, rights and peace, twenty years from now Hamas and Hizballah are going to look like mere child’s play compared to the resistance groups that emerge from the righteous indignation being felt today towards the Jewish state’s many despicable crimes against humanity.
September 9th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Well said umkahlil !
October 17th, 2007 at 12:26 am
I believe that it the ad was inappropriate and the celebrities used the media to their advantage to instill fear and hostility into the American public with misinformation. The continuing label of Hamas as a terrorist organization, when it is the democratically elected government of the Palestinians, is only further alienating the West against this organization. We need to be building bridges, not more walls. However, I must also state that I have not seen a counter-ad by Arab-American actors defending either Lebanon or Palestine - why have they not stepped up to be heard?