Palestine Think Tank

WRITTEN BY JORGE ALDAO 
Translated by Ernesto Paramo and revised by Machetera

In a recent piece titled “The Hottentots Morality” Uri Avnery makes some truly amazing assertions.

The most surprising of them is the one that states: ” *in my view, there is one simple principle, and it applies to everybody: every province that wants to secede from any country has the right to do so. In this respect there is, for me, no difference between Kosovars, Abkhazians, Basques, Scots and Palestinians. One rule for all.” *

As far as Ury Avnery is concerned, the Palestinians are nothing but inhabitants of a province that belongs to the State that invaded and occupied Palestine, so he supports their right to independence, as could be demanded by Kosovars, Abkhazians, Basques or Scots, respectively.

Mr. Avnery ignores the historical truth.

Because, if we accept his theory– in any case, as debatable as it is– what we might be able to accept is that the Jews that settled in Palestine, before 1947, may have had the right to become independent, keeping a very small part of that region.

But, in no way, can his theory justify the surrender more than half of Palestine to the Zionists, the later invasion by Diaspora Jews and the widespread and systematic pillage of Palestinian lands carried out by the Zionist through their policies of Eretz Israel.

If we accept Uri Avnery’s theory and apply it to the Spanish Kingdom, the Basques - if they could secure the total support of one of the big powers - would have the right to take control of the whole of Spain, expelling through the use of violence, terrorism and ethnic cleansing, the rest of the inhabitants of those lands. Then they would be able to call on all those Basques living anywhere in the world to return, in this case, not to the Basque country, but anywhere in the Iberian Peninsula, according to their choice.

According to Avnery’s theory, those newly returned descendents of Basques, would also have the right to establish colonies or settlements anywhere in the Spanish territory, subjugating with extreme violence those Castilian, Galician, Andalusian, Valencian, Catalan, Asturian or any other native settlers of the autonomous regions of Spain that were opposed to a similar dispossession.

Another lamentable phrase in Uri Avnery’s piece, which again conceals the historical truth, is that in which he states: * ” Yugoslavia has disintegrated and each of its component parts will become a member of the European Union some time in the future” *

Anyone who is not aware of what has been happening in the Balkans for quite a long time, might just think that Yugoslavia’s disintegration has been a natural phenomenon, like an earthquake or a tsunami, in which the hand of man - actually the hand of the imperialist powers - has had nothing to do with it.

The reality is very different.

The ex-Yugoslavia was a part of the Balkans- a geographical area that has been from ancient times a strategic region for the central empires, and its cyclical disintegration has taken place to suit the interests of the predominant empire of the time. Hence the creation of the term “Balkanization” * (1) *.

This must be kept in mind when we think about Latin-America, especially when we remember that Philip Goldberg, the US ambassador in Bolivia, had an active and fundamental role in Kosovo’s independence. *(2)*

According to the information available, Ambassador Goldberg, is today the engine behind the separatist movement that is trying to break up Bolivia so that the regions richer - in gas and oil - stay under the control of the oligarchies of the Bolivian Half Moon (the departments of *Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando) ensuring that the people of Bolivia lose this natural wealth, for the benefit of transnational oil companies. *

* This attempt to Balkanize Latin America, affecting those countries that are not servile to the Yankee Empire that try to rob them of their natural wealth and resources, include Venezuela (where they foment the secession of Zulia) and Ecuador, (where they have actively promoted a cessationist referendum, especially in Guayaquil).

For all this – apart from any good intentions that Uri Avnery may have- it is extremely significant the fact that he considers Palestine to be just a province of the Zionist State and that, in his analysis, he completely ignores the historical facts that led Yugoslavia to disintegration.

*Notes*

*1 *The very complex history of the Balkans (that includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and the European part of Turkey) is characterized by the constant divisions and sub-divisions that region has been subjected to, since the second half of the 19th century.

This tragic history is littered with hundreds of thousands of deaths, and has given origin to the term of “Balkanization”, which is today applied to territories very far away from the Balkans.

“Balkanization” has become a synonymous for a violent and artificial division -promoted or carried out by a foreign power- of the countries that are the integral part of a region, accentuating and accelerating political, religious or ethnic conflicts to make sure that one or more of those countries fall under the control and influence of the empire of the day, as a result of a so-called war of independence

*2* The last post of Ambassador Goldberg, before moving to take charge of the US embassy in Bolivia, was that of Chief of Mission in Pristina, Kosovo (2004-2006).
Source: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=5865&lg=es

Original article published on september 14, 2008

About the author

Ernesto Páramo and Machetera are members of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and reviser are cited.

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