Genocide in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine By Mazin Qumsiyeh

Genocide in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine

By Mazin Qumsiyeh

Al-Jazeerah, October 22, 2006

Iraq Genocide and more

News and tragedies around the world came into sharper focus as I rejoined the tour (Tuesday and Wednesday in Corning, NY). One of those is the coincidentally just published research report from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, that calculates that as many as 655,000 Iraqis have died from war-related causes since the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. These are not abstract numbers but real people each with a real story and life like yours and mine.

In fact this is the largest recent genocide in the world since Rwanda (800,000, killed; BTW Darfur 200-300,000) and we should not be afraid to use this term. It is actually worse since we should add the 1.5 million Iraqis who died as a direct result of the US/UK led sanctions (1991-2003) and the one million who died in the Iran-Iraq war (which was also US POLICY; as Henry Kissinger put it “our policy was to get them to kill each other”). Silence means complicity with this ongoing genocide especially for us living and paying taxes in the US.

The Palestinian catastrophe also continues and we are equally responsible. Some 7 million Palestinians are refugees or displaced people, some 5,000 were murdered in the past six years alone, and some 9,000 political prisoners languish in Israeli jails. And Lebanon had 1.2 million cluster bombs dropped on it, half in the less than three days between the UN approval of the cease fire and its final implementation).

Over 1400 Lebanese civilians were killed in one month and thousands lost their homes. Due to depleted Uranium use, cancer rates in Southern Iraq are at many folds the normal rate. 75 young US Soldiers were killed in the past two weeks alone and thousands will suffer from the effects of Depleted Uranium (both a teratogen and a carcinogen). I could go on and on but these are the symptoms of the underlying disease of colonialism, greed, and racism. Therapy and prognosis are areas we should also focus on.

I was inspired and my spirit uplifted by the reaction of the hundreds of young people we met at schools, colleges, universities, churches and more over the past two weeks on the bus. One student at a class at Corning Community College made our day when she stated how she was always nagged by many questions about why we are in the Middle East, why we support Israel etc and that for the first time she hears logical answers and facts (and wished there were more time to ask more questions). The young people are the future and they will inherit the trillions of debt incurred by the Bush/Clinton generation. I was inspired by groups like Corning Peaceworks, teachers and professors, retired and unemployed young people, and people of all other walks of life who decided to take things into their own hands, to be the leaders, and to do what needs to be done.

More and more citizens are awakening everywhere to reclaim their rights and duties as citizens (and not mere consumers of news and "things"). America had few times when real democracy (literally "people power") manifested itself with glory: from the rights of women to vote, to the civil rights movement, to ending support for Apartheid South Africa, to ending the war on Vietnam and much more. All were real people movements regardless of who was in the white house or congress at the time. Ditto for other parts of the world where all positive change comes from the people (grass root). Now we are in the midst of another people power campaign to end Israeli apartheid and challenge the war profiteers and the war mongers (be they Democrats or Republican).

I have been and continue to be on the road, my emails have become far rarer and so this one might include a bigger list of items than usual (plus the ramblings above):

WOJ new website: http://wheelsofjusticetour.org

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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