An Appeal from Shabnam Nadiya on behalf of Mukto

The recent actions of the government of Ariel Sharon have gone far, far beyond the boundaries of acceptable conduct from any government. The Israeli government has supposedly lurched into action because of the suicide bombings carried out by the Palestinians. However, the distinction that must be made here is that an elected government that allegedly operates following democratic norms and conditions, should not respond by indiscriminate attacks upon a civilian population to �capture� militants. The Israeli government has proclaimed that their all out offensive on the Palestinians is a success as they have already captured �terrorist� leaders and active militants. However, the question that needs to be asked is whether the price that innocent have to pay for this �success� of Israel is either worth it or acceptable.

The rights or wrongs of Palestinian actions and/or demands are no longer an issue. Whether one supports the cause of the Palestinians or not is no longer an issue. These aspects of the situation have been neutralized by the Israeli government. What is today�s issue is the all out offensive being carried out by the state of Israel against ALL Palestinians. What is at stake today is not a few settlements, not strips of occupied lands, nor is it quibbles about whether it was the Palestinians or the Israelis that are more to blame. What is at stake today is clearly and simply the very survival of a whole people.

Palestinian suffering : Forwarded by Lopa Tasneem

A recent essay by Edward Said on the Palestine issue here. A short biography of Edward Said from The Nation: Edward W. Said, the University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, is the magazine's classical music critic as well as ...(Read more)

Eyewitness report from Ramallah : Forwarded by Saptarshi Ray

Ramallah, Occupied Palestine: My name is Tzaporah Ryter. I am an American student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in Ramallah. We are under a terrible siege and people are being massacred by both the Israeli army and armed militia groups of Israeli settlers. ...(Read more)

The Complaint Against Ariel Sharon : Forwarded by Avijit Roy

On 6 June 1982, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon, in reaction to the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador Argov in London on June 4. On the same day, the Israeli secret services attributed the attempted assassination to a dissident Palestinian organisation commandeered by the Iraqi government, which was then concerned with deflecting attention from its recent setback in the Iran-Iraq war. . ...(Read more)

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What the Israeli government is doing can be termed no less than an act of ethnic cleansing. The government of Israel �s actions are accomplishing the aim of creating a truly Jewish state, where religious pluralism will not, cannot and must not exist.

Notwithstanding the moral ambiguities present in the Palestinian suicide bombings, the dubious and immoral quality of Ariel Sharon�s actions remains open to question. A dubiousness that is strongly reflected in the small but significant dissension that has arisen in recent times even among the Israeli Jewish community as to this attempt at systematic extermination of the Palestinian population.

With all due respect to the sufferings that the Jewish community have endured, Ariel Sharon�s �Final Solution� seems to be a bigger problem than the problem it attempts to mitigate.

Therefore, we, people of diverse cultures, countries and creeds, have come together for the common good to demand that the rights of human beings be upheld against the rights of any particular state, race or religion, and that the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians be stopped immediately. We demand that Ariel Sharon be made to account for his war crimes � both present and past.

We convey our sincere thanks to Ms. Shabnam Nadiya for writing the above plea on behalf of Mukto-mona.

We also thank two of our members Mr. Mahbubul Karim and and Mr. Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya who have sent in two separate petitions. Please read the petitions and sign if you agree with them.