Peace Now buses turned back from Hebron after settlers protest

[notfullofit]

Hebron settlers successfully thwarted Peace Now's attempt to bring five busloads of visitors to their city on Friday.

The tour was meant to highlight the plight of Hebron's 166,000 Arabs and illustrate how their lives have become increasingly difficult as a result of the town's 600 Jewish residents.

Instead of a tour, a confrontation ensued between settlers, police and individuals from the tour outside the city, where police and soldiers were waiting to turn the buses around.

Peace Now insists it had all the proper permits to enter Hebron, having been in touch with the relevant ministries. They had also coordinated the entire trip with the police and even had undercover police officers on the buses and in unmarked vehicles driving alongside.

snip

Hebron resident Noam Federman, who came to meet the buses, said the settlers were justified on Friday.

"Ninety percent of the Arabs in Hebron are Hamas and groups like Peace Now encourage them to kill Jews," he said.

Federman also said Hebron's Arabs got a dangerous message when they saw large numbers of Israelis and foreigners, guarded by the army, coming to see their struggle against the settlers.

"They get the impression that everyone is against us and that they can kill us without being condemned," he said.

more
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331024853&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[pelsar]

1. he might have something there.....

They get the impression that everyone is against us.........

[notfullofit]

2. Pelsar, these are a few comments from Talkback re Peace Now

is this reflective of how the movement is seen by most Israelis? There are many other posts like this.

27. Peace Now Violates Israeli Law
Peace Now has been declared by the Israeli Supreme Court to be in violation of the law as
they use a cover organization rather than exist directly.

45. LOL. Maybe now the Violent Pieceniks taste their own medicine. Now if only theyd stop
destroyiong Jewish property and burning Jewish fields. The hypocrites couldnt do that though. I have a trade : Israel will take Arab families who support the Jewish country and Arab countries can take the Violent Piece Capos who support the Arab countries.

47. Peace Now is FILLED with Arab sympathisers who are self-hating Jews!
Send "War Now" Oops! Peace Now to Gaza, where they can do some good for their oppressed brethren, while the local people try to kill them for being Jewish. These morons in
"Surrender Now" feel that if only we had never been given a country, then the world wouldn't
hate us. What a bunch of "LOSERS NOW"! You'd think they would be fighting for Jewish survival instead of helping others kill more Jews.

53. Peace Now
Congratulations to the settlers, and the IDF for not allowing these people who hate the land of Israel and the Jewish people from doing what they had planned to do (encourge the enemies of Israel). It would be a good idea for someone to charge them as traitors to the land of Israel and remove them from the country completely.
more
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331024853&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[pelsar]

3. in general...

peace now doesnt have much of a backing....what the Palestinians did with Gaza (and what happened with Lebanon) destroyed their whole thesis....land for peace.

for the most part they are seen as "has beens" idealists when faced with reality, ignore it...meaning they no longer have the backing nor sympathy from the masses.

those particular talkbalks are bit on the extreme...

____

and there is no love lost for those in Hebron for that matter, hence the busses are filled with "tourists"

[notfullofit]

4. Thank you,

I have seen worse than this about them but was not sure if it was the prevailing attitude.
Thanks again.

[azurnoir]

5. NFoI

Someone looking at the comments on this board might think that Americans fall into one of two opposing camps, reality is the average attitude is not here, in America what I mostly hear from average joe is "those people over there have been killing each other for thousands of years and their going to keep doing it so......." with a shrug.

I suspect the same to a degree goes for jpost, with those with extreme attitudes taking over certain talkbacks, and who says the same person is not using more than one name/email "appearances of numbers"

[notfullofit]

6. Thank you too. I just found this on wiki re criticism

Criticism and controversy

Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet and co-initiator of the National Census peace proposal (with professor Sari Nusseibeh), has criticized Peace Now for what he claims is demonizing the Jewish settlers, thus encouraging hate towards settlers, and providing the general public reasons to dislike the peace camp.

Ayalon scorns Peace Now for failing to rally the masses in support of the Israeli Peace movement. Ayalon also claims that this because Peace Now and the left wing have shown alienation and a patronizing attitude towards the general Israeli public, and that this attitude combined with increased terrorist activity over the past four years are to blame for Peace Now's current poor standing within the Israeli public, which feels the peace camp is not committed (enough) to stop Palestinian terrorism and protect Israel's interests.

Ayalon concluded that many settlements should indeed be disbanded, but the transferred settlers should be embraced and receive support - both financial and moral - from the state and the public, and not being treated as enemies.<8>

Peace Now has also been criticized by some groups within Israel for receiving funding from sources such as the European Union.<9> In January 2008, Israel's Knesset passed a law requiring organizations to publicize financial contributions from foreign governments. This law was aimed specifically at Peace Now, who many Israelis have come to view as agents of Europe acting against the State of Israel's national interests.<10>

Following a protest by Peace Now activists in Hebron against Israeli control of the territories, Palestinians hurled rocks at their bus and a police car driving near it.<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Now

[azurnoir]

7. Interesting piece thank you n/t

[notfullofit]

13. Question please,

how reliable/accurate is this source, IMRA?
Thanks

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=34369

[subsuelo]

8. Peace Now is a great organization

Nothing like a lefty pro-human rights group promoting peace to anger the conservatives.

[Shaktimaan]

10. You do remember that Peace Now supported

Israel's 2006 military action against Hezbollah, right?

Just curious as to whether you had/have any issues with supporting a group that backed Israel's decision to invade Lebanon?

By the way, it isn't PN's commitment to peace that angers people (for the most part.) It is that their strategy was tried already and was a failure by any standards. Conservatives are not against peace. But many fear that PN's strategy will paradoxically encourage war. The sad thing is that all evidence thus far supports this fear.

[Shaktimaan]

9. Does anyone remember last year's PN Hebron rally?

Peace Now in Hebron: Expel settlers from city

Hundreds of left-wing protestors hold demonstration in Hebron marking 40 years of 'Israeli occupation.' Right-wing activists call rally goers 'traitors seeking provocation.' After rally Palestinians pelt Peace Now bus with rocks

Lilach Shoval
Published: 06.05.07, 14:50 / Israel News

Under heavy security by dozens of police officers and IDF soldiers, some 300 Peace Now activists held a demonstration in Hebron on Tuesday marking 40 years since the Six Day War and "the Israeli occupation" of the territories. The demonstration, held near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, passed largely without incidents and only several dozen right-wing activists arrived to hold a counter-protest.

After the rally a bus filled with left-wing activists leaving Hebron came under assault as Palestinians hurled rocks at the vehicle and a police squad car traveling near it. No injuries were reported.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3409006,00.html

I have to admit that I've always been flummoxed by these kinds of actions by Hebron's Arab residents against westerners who are only in Hebron to try and help them. There was a far worse incident there in the wake of the Danish cartoon scandal where a mob of a few hundred protesters attacked the Temporary International Presence in Hebron's headquarters, trying to set it on fire with 60 members inside and partially destroying it. Why would any Palestinians do that considering TIPH's mission? Why were two members shot and killed a few years ago, despite their being in a specially marked TIPH vehicle?

I'm not posting this to try and cast the Palestinians as a fundamentalist nation, whose hatred of Westerners outweighs their gratitude towards those who support their cause. I realize that most Palestinians are not radicals of this nature. But I'm having trouble understanding why ANY of them would take their frustrations out on those who have sacrificed their time, money and safety to support Palestinian rights.

Perhaps it is similar to the settlers who spit on IDF soldiers in Hebron, although their presence is the only thing protecting the settlers. Still, the settlers hate the soldiers because they also enforce laws that restrict settler activity. So they have a reason, even if it is a stupid one. Why in the world would a Palestinian try and burn down an organization that only exists to help them?

[pelsar]

11. because....its part of the "useful idiot" syndrome....

as in the ISM-now you will excuse my generalizations but we are talking about a culture here.......the Palestenians in general simply do not want westerners in their territory. If you read PMs comments many are also based on the bad western influence. Whereas they are willing to tolerate them, its only up to the point to where they are useful. If you would speak to the western ISM members you'll discover that part of their training is to keep their mouth shut when it comes to commenting on the blatant inequalities of the Palestinian society, they are not there for that..they single purpose is to help rid the land of the jews/zionists/colonializers ,etc. Their handlers do not want to hear about western democracy (again a generalization that i understand to be the basis for their "training").

So they dont really differentiate between the ideologies of the western's "left and right"......the bottom line is that all westerners represent the colonializers -all of them.

[notfullofit]

12. I just can't wrap myself

around that kind of thinking, makes no damn sense to me.

'the Palestenians in general simply do not want westerners in their territory. If you read PMs comments many are also based on the bad western influence. Whereas they are willing to tolerate them, its only up to the point to where they are useful.'

They sure as hell are happy enough to tolerate western millions, though I guess you could call that 'being useful'. They sure as hell like to cry foul to any westerners that will listen any time somebody steps on their toes, are we the useful idiots here?

Sorry for the rant but I get pissed off when I'm being used as a 'useful idiot' when it's convenient and then in return they want to burn me to death because of my 'western ideals' thanks but no thanks, I'd rather not be 'tolerated' at all.

Shakti mentioned 'taking out their frustrations' on those trying to help them, seems like we are damned if we do and damned if we don't.