Let me just say this also, irishenglish...

Institutionalized social injustice never ever ends on its own. Slavery didn't end on its own, segregation in the US didn't end on its own. Apartheid in South Africa didn't end on its own. And it wasn't governments that led the way to getting rid of these forms of social injustice either.

It was social justice movements that did all of the work to bring these things to an end in the places where they existed. One of the challenges that social justice movements have always had is to inform people who have been purposely and heavily misinformed by the governments of the countries where these forms of social injustice have occurred. Governments of countries with institutionalized forms of social injustice use heavy propaganda to justify their activities, and they are often very successful in shaping people's perceptions so that they are favorable to the governments' agendas.

If one wants to end social injustice, it is always necessary to show people how they have been misled, and help them see the truth about what has been going on. It is also necessary, when a government has presented a distorted version of history for the purpose of concealing and/or justifying what it is doing, to correct this distortion of history. And in the case of the Palestinians, this distortion of history has been an enormous libel on them, and this libel has been the cause of a lot of suffering for and the deaths of a lot of Palestinians.

When someone presents us with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as the truth, those of us who believe in social justice will tell that person that the Protocols hoax is a vicious lie that is being used to generate and spread hatred toward Jews. It is important to do this because, 1. it is a lie that spreads hatred, and 2. spreading hatred causes suffering, and 3. a lie like that one can and will be used as a justification for committing violence against Jews, and in some cases, even killing them. It is no different with the lies that the government of Israel has been promoting about the Palestinians and also about Israel's neighbors. These lies have been and are being used to justify killing a hell of a lot of people. And a lot of those people are civilians. And these lies are also being used to justify the apartheid and ethnic cleansing that Israel is forcing on the Palestinians.

Just as with the Protocols, these lies and distortions of history must be corrected. Not only because doing so is the only way to have social justice, but also because it's the only way to have peace in the Middle East. For this reason, it is not only appropriate for us to revisit what has happened in that region in the past, but it is absolutely necessary to do so.

Have you watched the video with the two former members of the Israeli military that I posted a link to? They were saying that the Israeli public is very misled by the government about what is going on in occupied Palestine, and that if the public really knew what is going on in those areas, they wouldn't stand for it. It's time to get the word out.

You may not feel that you can be involved in helping to do this work. There are many ways that people can help. But it doesn't help the Palestinians, or even the cause of peace in the Middle East to try to silence those who are doing this work. And while you may not be aware of the difference these efforts make, even in places like online forums, I can see it, and the difference I can see is enormous.