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"Controlled Strangulation"

Take it as a given that the usual catch-cry of anti-semitism or anti-Zionism will go up from the usual suspects - but the UN Human Rights Commission Report on the Occupied Territories cannot be ignored. It is damning and an indictment of Israel and the policies it is pursuing. Israel can put its collective head in the sand, but sooner or later, as happened with apartheid in South Africa, something will give. In the case of Israel, sadly, it is unlikely to be pretty!

MotherJones starts its "cover" of the Report thus:

"Perhaps because it is striking news or a powerful message, the media has heavily focused on only one of the findings of the recent UN Human Rights Council report on the Occupied Territories- that Israel's actions are similar to apartheid. But the coverage doesn't reach into the other two assertions that the report makes: Israel's occupation exhibits elements of apartheid and colonialism. In other words, Israel is violating human rights in three forms: occupation, apartheid, and colonialism.

The report calls Israel's 2005 "unilateral withdrawal" which supposedly ended occupation as "grossly inaccurate" and "not possible to seriously argue." Israel has maintained total control over Gaza's airspace, sea space, external borders, and the movement of people and goods ever since it has withdrawn, including exercising military authority with over 364 military incursions."

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