>
> I'm sure you'd all be just as
> supportive if the National Front
> were out stoning the police in
> Britain - they only want their land
> back after all.
>
whilst i am not going to get into a debate on the rights and wrongs of the current situation in the middle east (this is hardly the forum), i couldn't let the above comment go unanswered.
firstly, i genuinely fail to see how anyone - with even a cursory knowledge of the situation - could compare the population of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, to the NF in this country. the two don't bear comparison, and trying to imply that Israel is up against some fringe organisation with the support of a fraction of the indigenous population whose actions are driven entirely by prejudice and bigotry just doesn't wash.
the NF have not been forced to live in refugee camps for much of their lives. They have not witnessed a foreign army of occupation evict them from their homes and build colonial settlements on what was once, legally, their land. They are not denied basic freedom of movement (by armed men in tanks) when attempting to travel to the neighbouring town, and not subjected to random search, arrest and incarceration (without trial) by said men in tanks. They are not economically deprived to the extent that they can only provide for their families from the food distributed through aid agencies. They have not witnessed the total destruction of their way of life. for although the NF may claim that's what's happening in britain, i think most sane people would agree; they're just plain wrong. whereas that claim made by a Palestinian living in a refugee camp who's been evicted by people with guns should probably be greeted with less scepticism. the fact is, cancer boy, the united nations as a whole - and just about every nation on the planet, individually - has stated categorically that the palestinians have a justifiable grievance which israel is *illegally* ignoring.
secondly, and of vital importance, is the fact that if right wing extremists were to begin throwing rocks at police during the next NF march in Oldham (for example), i would condemn them along with every other decent person in the land. however, if the police response was to gun down the stone throwers, and then call in military helicopters to level the area of the town in which some of those rock throwers are believed to have lived, then you can be bloody sure that whilst my sympathies would never be with the NF, i WOULD be condemning the police / military of this country just as much as i condemn the israeli security forces for their actions.
what israel is doing in the occupied territories is illegal under international law and quite simply morally reprehensible. that does not justify the palestinian use of violence against random israeli civilian targets, but just because a number of palestinians choose to respond viciously to the circumstances of their oppression, cannot be used as a justification for the continuance of that oppression.
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