From: Thomas M McHugh (tmmchugh@msn.com)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2003 - 14:16:25 PDT
OK, now that we have had comments about everything except the vehicles
involved. How about if the thread dies quickly.
At times both sides are justified & it does not belong on our mil-veh list
Tom McHugh, NJ
1952 M38A1
M-416 Trailer
MVPA, MTA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kimberly Stevens" <stevensk@mailhost.mechsysdesign.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 8:38 AM
> for certain members of the list who don't think that israeli bulldozers
are
> used under the guise of "anti-terrorism" weapons to bulldoze down homes of
> suspected terrorists and aleged suicide bombers families read on:
> (this in no way is a discussion of political viewpoints on my part, simply
> clearing up the perception of misinformation)
>
> Article courtesy of COUNTERPUNCH @ counterpunch.org
>
> August 13/19, 2002
> Fortress Israel
> The Message of the Bulldozer
>
> by Jeff Halper
>
> The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) deplores this
week's
> decision by the Israeli High Court of Justice against permitting judicial
> review for families of Palestinians whose homes are targeted for
demolition
> because a family member has been involved in (or even suspected of) terror
> attacks. True to the pattern of many years, the Court has accepted the
> argument of the army that such demolitions take place as integral parts of
> military operations. Israel's High Court thus permits the setting aside of
> fundamental human rights in favor of military considerations (which are
but
> extensions of the governmentOs political goals).
>
> What human rights are violated by this decision?
>
> The right of innocent individuals not to be held legally accountable for
the
> actions of relatives. Blood ties cannot be the basis of demolition
someone's
> home. The notion that individuals may be punished for crimes of others
> without any criminal charge being made against them forfeits the
elementary
> protection that the legal system owes to every person.
>
> The right of every person to due process and judicial review. Punishing
> individuals not charged with any crime, or denying them recourse to the
> court if they are faced with punitive actions, constitutes extra-judicial
> punishment. When an entire family is punished for the suspected deeds of
one
> of its members, this is collective punishment. Both violate the essence of
> both Israeli civil law and international humanitarian law.
>
> The demolition of houses or destruction of other private property of
> individuals residing in occupied territories is explicitly forbidden by
the
> Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 53), as is collective punishment
(Article
> 33).
>
> This sad decision, which immediately effects 49 Palestinian families whose
> homes may be demolished at any time, represents the steady erosion of
> Israeli democracy as it tries to cope with popular resistance to an
illegal
> Occupation. In its decision, the High Court itself subordinates the rule
of
> law, not to mention human rights, to the requirements of military
> repression. In the simplest terms, it condones and permits war crimes.
> Absolute rule over another people is possible only by denying them
> fundamental legal protection. In the end, this must destroy the very moral
> and legal basis underlying democracy and law.
>
> For the past six years ICAHD has been working on the issue of house
> demolitions. Every time we think: "OK, we've exhausted the subject, let's
go
> on to other, perhaps more pressing issues," the systematic destruction of
> Palestinian homes returns to the center of the conflict with a vengeance.
It
> happened in the Jenin refugee camp, where the indomitable drivers of the
> massive D-9 Caterpillar bulldozers labored for three straight days and
> nights demolishing more than 300 homes in the densely packed camp, thereby
> becoming the heroes of the invasion. And it is happening today as Israel
> demolishes dozens of houses belonging to families of terrorists, a form of
> collective punishment that is clearly a war crime.
>
> Why? Why does house demolitions remain at the center of the conflict? Why
> has it been at the center of the Israeli struggle against the Palestinians
> since 1948? There are many specific reasons given: security, deterrence,
> punishment, self-defense, warfare, "illegal" construction, enforcement of
> the law and on and on. But one element remains throughout: The Message.
> Sharon, like his predecessors, never tire of warning that Israeli attacks
on
> the Palestinians will continue "until they get The Message." What is The
> Message? As stated by Sharon and the others (going back some 80 years to
the
> "Iron Wall" concept of Jabotinsky and Ben Gurion), The Message is:
"Submit.
> Only when you abandon your dreams for an independent state of your own,
and
> accept that Palestine has become the Land of Israel, will we relent." But
> The Message goes even deeper, is more sinister than that. The Message of
the
> Bulldozers is: "You do not belong here. We uprooted you from your homes in
> 1948 and prevented your return, and now we will uproot you from all of the
> Land of Israel." "Transfer" has become an acceptable topic of television
> talk shows. And that is why house demolitions remain so prominent, the
> bulldozer beside the tank. Because in the end this process of reoccupation
> is one of displacement.
>
> The bulldozer certainly deserves to take its rightful place alongside the
> tank as a symbol of Israel's relationship with the Palestinians. The two
> deserve to be on the national flag. The tank as symbol of an Israel
> "fighting for its existence," and for its prowess on the battlefield. And
> the bulldozer for the dark underside of Israel's struggle for existence,
its
> ongoing struggle to displace the Palestinians from the country. For Israel
> has always treated the Palestinians as an enemy, never as a people with
> collective rights and legitimate claims to the country with which it might
> someday live in peace. In 1948 Israel played an active role in driving 75%
> of the Palestinians from the Land. Over the next four or five years the
> bulldozer, following the tank, systematically demolished 418 Palestinian
> villages. Since 1967, as Israel's tanks suppress Palestinian resistance to
> the Occupation with increasing frequency and ferocity, its bulldozers
(aided
> by artillery and missiles) have demolished more than 9000 Palestinian
homes
> and counting. Even as I write this, a day after the Israeli High Court of
> Justice gave its consent to demolishing houses of families of terrorists
> without warning or a chance to appeal to the court, houses are being
> bulldozed in Bethlehem and Gaza with dozens more threatened throughout the
> Occupied Territories. And not only. Throughout Israel proper, in the
> "unrecognized villages" and Palestinian neighborhoods of Ramle, Lod and
> elsewhere, houses continue to be demolished 54 years later. Jews now live
in
> Palestinian houses in Israel's major cities and Palestinian villages have
> long disappeared under the agricultural fields of kibbutzim and moshavs.
> Amidst this destruction 150,000 housing units have been built for the
> 400,000 Jews living across the 1967 border.
>
> The bulldozer remains at the center of the "action" for the simple reason
> that repression and control alone do not secure the country for those the
> Jews whose claim excludes all others. Those with competing claims the
> Palestinians must be displaced if the Jews are really going to take
> possession, or at least confined to small islands where they cannot
> interfere with or challenge Israeli dominion. (The announcement this week
by
> the Ministry of the Interior that Palestinian Israelis would be stripped
of
> their citizenship if proven "unloyal" to the State extends the work of
> bulldozers.)
>
> But just as Israel cannot insulate itself from the Occupation, so too it
> cannot escape the ravages of its own house demolitions policy. Fear that
the
> displaced might yet rise again and claim their patrimony prevents Israelis
> from enjoying the fruits of their power. The country has been seized by
> rising xenophobia and national--religious fanaticism. Polarization
> characterizes the relations between the right and left, Jewish and Arab
> citizens, Jews of European and Middle East origin, the working and middle
> classes, religious and secular. Israelis are "hunkering down,"
increasingly
> isolated from the world. Young Israeli men and women are themselves
> brutalized as they are sent as soldiers to evict Palestinian families from
> their homes. Even the beauty of the land is destroyed as the authorities
> rush to construct ugly, sprawling suburbs and massive highways in order to
> "claim" the land before Palestinians creep back in. Aesthetics, human
> rights, environmental concerns, education, social justice these are the
> finer things of life that cannot coexist with displacement and occupation.
> "Fortress Israel," as we call it, is by necessity based on a culture of
> strength, violence and crudity.
>
> In the final analysis, it will be the bulldozer that razes the structure
> that once was Israel.
>
> and don't forget the student from Washington State who was crushed to
death
> defending one of these houses this March.
>
> http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6710/671050.html
>
> Now enough of this....lets get back to talking about the
vehicles...please!
>
>
> --
>
> Ms. Kimberly Stevens
> Office Administrator
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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> callto:802.753.2200
> mailto:stevensk@mechsysdesign.com
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