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March 8, 2007

After visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem recently, a group of German bishops crossed over into Occupied Palestine and compared Israeli treatment of Palestinians to Nazis treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust.

Bishop Gregor Hanke of Eichstaett reported, "This morning we saw pictures of the bestial Warsaw Ghetto at Yad Vashem, and in the evening we were in the ghetto of Ramallah. It gives one the creeps," he said.

Cardinal Joachim Meisner, who served as bishop of Berlin when it was divided by the Communist-built Berlin Wall, commented when crossing a checkpoint into eastern Jerusalem, "This is something that is done to animals, not people." He later explained to reporters, "I never thought I would see something like this again in my life."

Walter Mixa, the bishop of Augsburg spoke of Palestinians facing "ghettoization with almost racist characteristics." When asked to clarify his comment he replied, "I wanted to say that building the wall between Israel and the Palestinian autonomous areas, as well as the many Israeli settlements, amounts to a degree of provocation from the point of view of the Palestinian population."

As might be expected, the bishop’s statements have been condemned as anti-Semitic, just as President Jimmy Carter has been accused of anti-Semitism for daring to tell the truth about Israeli-American policies in his best seller, "Palestine - Peace Not Apartheid."

Israel’s killing, maiming, imprisonment, torture and abuse of Palestinian men, women, children and elders is supported by Congress with US tax dollars.

www.uruknet.info?p=31223

Comment posted: by scotrob on 09 Mar 2007 - 12:46

It is all very well for the German Bishops to condemn the poor conditions under which Palestinians, however to compare them with the Holocaust is utterly unreal istic. In blaming Israel they have curiously omitted to remember that the Arabs have never taken the slightest interest in supporting Palestinian society but is willing to supply weaponry to foment violence death an destruction. They have omitted to remember that statehood has been offered several times and been rejected for purely ideological reasons namely the destruction of Israel. They have omitted to remember that whereas one million Arabs live in Israel with full democratic rights not a single Jew may live in Arab lands. They heve omitted to remember that Israeli doctors and nurses treat Palestinian patients even when those patients have been embarked on homicide bombings. They have omitted to remember that Israel has been under attack every day of its life since its inception and is constantly threatened. Given these points perhaps they can now explain in what way the treatment of Palestinians resembles the Holocaust.

March 8, 2007
Palestinian Girl Says Used by Israel as Human Shield
By REUTERS

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian girl as a ``human shield'' during an operation against militants in the West Bank town of Nablus last week, an Israeli human rights group said on Thursday.

The Israeli army said it was checking the information from the B'Tselem group, which monitors Israeli actions in the occupied territory. Israeli law bans the military from using human shields.

B'Tselem said the girl, Jihan Daadush, told its interviewers that Israeli soldiers had entered her family home and questioned her and her relatives about the whereabouts of gunmen who had fired at them during the raid.

The soldiers, she said, threatened to arrest her unless she led them to a nearby house.

"(A soldier) ordered me to go toward the house,"' B'Tselem quoted the girl as saying. "Three soldiers walked behind me. When we reached the house, there were a lot of soldiers. The soldiers ordered me to go inside the house and I went inside."

B'Tselem said Jihan told them the soldiers shone flashlights and asked about the rooms of the house. There was no mention in the report of whether troops found militants inside. The girl said two soldiers then returned her home.

"(One of the soldiers) told me, 'Thank you, but don't tell anyone,'" the girl said, according to B'Tselem. "I was afraid they would kill me or put me in jail. I am still afraid the soldiers will invade the city again and take me away."

B'tselem also said the army had used a 15-year-old Palestinian boy and a Palestinian man for a similar purpose during the five-day raid of Nablus, a militant stronghold.

The Israeli army ended the operation on March 1. During the incursion, troops shot dead a Palestinian civilian who had observed the raid from his rooftop. Soldiers also detained 11 suspected militants.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-palestini
ans-girl.html?_r=1&oref=slogin