Israel, just celebrated its 60th birthday recently, also known as the Holy Land for the Christians here in India and perhaps around the world. Lets take a look and see what makes Israel the holy land.

Israel, was originally called Canaan, an ancient term for a region encompassing present-day Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Jordan as well as the coastal parts of Egypt and Syria. The place of birth, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ the king of the Jews, whose message was peace, love and compassion for all.

Let me start a little after 1920 - 1948, when the British and Americans were supporting the Jewish settlements to forcibly wipe out the inhabitants of Canaan, if you would like to read the entire history of Palestine and Israel I would recommend that you read this ebook distributed by IfAmericaKnew.org. The Massacre of Deir Yassin as told by Israeli colonel Me'ir Pilavski, I insist you read the entire article here, I have just used excerpts from it,

From my battleground experience I noticed that the Arabs had only rifles. All their shots were single shots. Only the attackers had automatic weapons. They managed to take over the eastern side of the village with a handful of casualties. The Arabs took over a few houses on the western side of the village and were sniping at us. So it lasted a long time. They didn't move.

I was sitting with my photographer in one of the houses and waited. Suddenly, at about 11 o'clock in the morning, I heard the explosions of 2 inch mortar shells. I looked out of the window and I saw ten Palmah fighters under the command of the late Jacob Wog, descending and taking over the rest of the village. I ran up to them, "Yaki" I asked him", what are you doing here?". "I know" he said, "I returned last night from a raid on Ein Karem and at nine o'clock somebody walks to me and says 'come! There is a crisis. We have attacked Deir Yassin and we've got stuck. It could turn into a disaster! I equipped the platoon with mortars and did a flanking". The Palmach didn't have even one casualty. I said to Yaki: " This is a job by Etzel and Lehi. This isn't our quarter. Take your guys and go to sleep."

I think that if the platoon had stayed on, there would not have been a massacre. They (Etzel & Lehi), were not able to carry out even their own task. We had to send in a tired platoon to finish the job for them.

Suddenly I started to hear shooting from all directions in the village. I ran there with my photographer and I saw gangs of Etzel and Lehi running through the alleys. In my report I added: 'with bulging eyes' as if they were 'running amok'. They were running from house to house. They got inside, and butchered whoever was there by shooting, not by hand grenades! By shooting! I called it hot blooded murder. It was spontaneous, not planned. I ran after them shouting:' what are you doing?' They looked at me as if I was crazy, also with those bulging eyes. The photographer was taking pictures of scenes that I can still see, even now, with my own eyes: A corner in a room. A woman, children and an old man, butchered. Another house. A man, a woman and children were lying in a corner. Not along the walls. Here and there was somebody wounded.

This massacre ended in the afternoon, when some of our people came from Giv'at Shaul and started to shout. Then they stopped it. They gathered those who were still alive and put them in a house while shouting wildly: 'We will explode it on them'. They took about 20 to 25 men and put them on a lorry. We joined them in their trip to town. They arranged a parade in some of Jerusalem suburbs where they had followers. The crowd cheered and clapped. Then back to the lorry. They took them to a quarry between Giv'at Shaul and Deir Yassin. Took them off the lorry, made them stand against the wall and shot them. This picture was also taken by my photographer.

After that lets hear Rowaidah Abd-al-Rahman al-Azzeh's story,

"I was 12 years old when we were forced to leave Beit Jibreen, our home-village, in October 1948. This was five months after the creation of Israel and the big cruel massacre at Deir Yassin. Residents of Beit Jibreen thought that they were safe until Israeli air crafts flew over the village and dropped statements on pieces of paper. I still remember that day well; three air crafts threw hundreds of statements printed on coloured paper."

"I was the only one who could read in my family. My father brought me one of those statements, which was written in Arabic, and asked me to read: “To all residents of Beit Jibreen, you have only six hours to leave the village, if you do not leave, you will face the same end as Deir Yassin.” We fled to a nearby field where we stayed for one day and two nights. Twenty to 30 men remained in Beit Jibreen with their hand guns to defend the village and protect the properties. A small battle occurred in which most of our relatives were killed, so we fled to Hebron. Suddenly we became refugees, and stateless, with no home, no nationality and no property. After 60 years of Nakba, we still live here, in a refugee camp, but we also still believe that we will return. And even if we die before our time, certainly our descendants will return."

Return for me means existence itself; it is not only a piece of land, it represents our history, culture, humanity and future. If I could not return then my grandson, Miras, has to plant two trees in Biet Jibreen! For sure, when he does so my soul will be there and will again be relaxed … even if my grave is still in Aida Camp. You can read more about the ongoing struggle for Palestinian right of return.

Christianity and Israel in India:

In India, the Christians have been staunch supporters of the Zionist principles as according to my father, "They Israelites are the chosen people of God." For major masses like Good Friday, the collections are sent to Israel, with no account of what happens to this money. I estimate a church depending where it is located collecting anywhere from Rs.2,000 to Rs.2,00,000. I really do not know the number of Churches in India, but I do know that this will be a massive sum of money being sent to a country that does not respect the basic rights of humans.

In recent times Israel has aggressively started wooing the Indians with tours to the so called Holy Land. I have an image here given by someone who has asked my mother to pass on the leaflets in Church for a tour to all the places that are advertised to attract Christians, by the same people who killed him, I find that a little bit strange. Jesus is the most mistaken messiah in the world, he rebelled against the system at that point of time. If you need to find the Holy Land look within yourself and make the changes required, no land that has the blood of thousands of innocent people can ever be holy.

The problem that the Israeli government is facing is that an increasing number of the young tend to stay back in India after they finish their military training. Most of them want to break away from this circle of violence, they realize that there is so much more to life than war. Goa, Himachal, Hampi and even the Adamans find themselves full of them on their journey to elevated consciousness that India provides. Although some of them bring along the violence streak with them, but sooner or later compassion and love always wins.

Current Scenario in Israel:

My knowledge on this sub topic is pretty limited, the reason being is I am half way across the globe and I am not sure if I can trust all my sources of information to be cent percent accurate, but at our recent participation at the Pangea Day event gave us a short insight into the way the Israeli Military, treated the peaceful demonstration of Israeli's and Palestinians at the Gaza strip which did not receive any notice amongst the western media or know media circles. The peaceful demonstrators were shot at killing woman and children in cold blood. This my friends is the so called holy land by visiting and contributing to its economy you are responsible for the deaths of thousands.

I recently asked a friend of mine, who I remember having a discussion on Israel and Palestine with while we were studying Journalism together a couple of years ago, I asked him what are his current views of Israel as the celebrate their 60th birthday, Sabir Shaikh, said,"Its fine for a nation to celebrate its 60th birthday, but that doesn't mean at the expense of civil liberties or others. Look at the apartheid wall, its frustrating to see people separated in their own home land by a huge wall. They have to take permission of Israeli troops to cross over for basic routine work like going to schools, hospitals etc. Israeli soldiers check women, children, humiliate them and if they are not satisfied they don't allow these people to cross the wall."

"Imagine you and me in the same situation, imagine the lives of the Indians who were ruled by the British. They came to our land as traders and made us slaves. The difference is the land still belonged to us but the Israelis have even thrown the Palestinians out," he added.

How can anybody who is a believer in the true Jesus Christ support the killing of another? George Bush visited Israel and has spoken about supporting them when it comes to fighting terrorists. Is George Bush really a person who can judge who a terrorist is, I feel extremely sorry with the curfew and propaganda spread by nations who rule with the sword. Its never to late to realize that by killing one another you are only killing parts of yourself, when you experience God you can only be filled with overwhelming feelings of peace, love and humanity any killing done in the name of God is based on selfish human motives.

Here are some reads that may not be too pleasent but very interesting:

• How Israeli terrorism and American treason caused the September 11 Attacks



• Tainted by Terror