Comments on: The Great Experiment

By: kimmy

kimmy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:23:58 +0000

Robin,
Sorry, I was in a miserable state when I wrote it. I have a really bad cold, and a really bad year.
This year I went to six funerals (Penny’s mother and an aunt, My mother’s and an uncle, great friends daughter was murdered, great friend’s father died after routine surgery), and I guess I am looking for scapegoats.
I guess that this makes me sound like a Republican.
No excuses, I am sorry, Robin!
Maybe I should hide for some time to get my head together?
Actually, this is my sanity. Haitham is one of my calming sites. He has gone through more grief that I will ever go through and he is so calm and levelheaded.
Robin, no excuses. I was wrong, I am sorry for looking into an argument that wasn’t there.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:24:39 +0000

Kimmy,
What are “occupied rights”? The mere fact that Israel has occupied the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms for years is against international law (MANY UN resolutions) and it is a “belligerent occupation”, (not that there is such a thing as a “benevolent occupation” when that land was gained by means of war.) When I state, “in solidarity” I am stating that I am in “unity” with the Palestinian aspirations for a homeland AND stand firmly against Zionism which uprooted almost one million Palestinian Muslims and Christians from their lands which they had lived on for milenium. “Solidarity in sociology refers to the feeling or condition of unity based on common goals, interests, and sympathies among a group’s members. Solidarity refers to the ties in a society - social relations - that bind people to one another.” Although the word “solidarity” has been used for various purposes, as you state in particular, political (Poland) definitions,that does not diminish the meaning of the word, “Solidarity” to me in this case means standing for the “ties that bind people to one another”, those bonds being that we are ALL children of a common creator (no matter it be a deity or an evolutionary occurance) and that as those children/humans, every single person (child of God) is equal and deserving of their basic human rights, which in the case of the Palestinias have ABSOLUTELY been abrogated by the political force of Zionism. I am not Palestinian and can never become that, but as a human, there is absolutely no difference other than nationality, birth and circustance. When everyone wakes up to the fact that we are ALL brothers and sisters and as such are given the responsibility of protecting each other, then “words, terms and labels” will have much lesser meaning than the goal of a shared stand against injustice and a peaceful coexistance for all.

By: kimmy

kimmy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:17:03 +0000

Robin,
I am not trying to diminish your post, but the use of the word “solidarity” bothers me.
The Polish union used it when Poland was still an occupied country. They suffered too much but stood their ground.
The next thing you know was that every union in North America used that word to make them look better. These unions were now big businesses and the word was destroyed by them using it.
Instead of “solidarity”, why not say “I support occupied rights”?
A little long, but to the point!

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:30:49 +0000

This is without doubt the most powerful article I have read concerning the situation in Palestine. My heart is both outraged and filled with tears at the same time. May God continue to hold the Palestinian people in the occupied territories in his loving arms, giving them the strenghth they need to withstand this horror, and may he curse all those who in their lack of any humanity, treat others, the Palestinians,as less than the children of God that they are. For the good of all mankind, this MUST end. In solidarity.