The End of One Journey is the Beginning of Another…

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The end of one journey is the beginning of another…



The end of one journey is the beginning of another… by Shawn Robinson, July 2014 Page 2

By Shawn Robinson

July, 2014

To start this writing I need to tell you who I am. I have never done this before, published my information

as I am more a person who works behind the scenes. Until today I do not have an online presence in any

form but that is about to change.

I am a middle-aged woman living a very nice life with a husband and step-children. I even have a dog

and a cat and access to a world in Canada that I appreciate but also have worked hard to create. But my

journey to now started so long ago. I was smart and graduated early going to university to study science.

I hated every minute of it not because it was not interesting, I just did not see myself with this future.

After studying science I took a year to become an adult and discovered my love of horticulture; from

there I studied horticulture and landscape design. I even won an award for my work. But I found it not

profitable, not sustainable to be able to live. I was restricted by my gender and it became unsettling to

earn less to do more, to work harder for less recognition and to have to put up with sexual advances as

part of my working environment.

One day I was walking through my tony neighbourhood “The Glebe” in central Ottawa and I saw the

husband of a friend of mine had opened a service bureau. I had a part-time job, took some courses at

the university and still had many hours on hand and volunteered him my time. Very quickly I was hired

to design logos and materials and from there I started my journey in art and design that culminated in a

teaching position at a local art college approximately ten years later.

But still that was not enough for me. I continued to offer graphic design services and through word of

mouth I was given opportunities to design materials for local, national and international NGOs. Design

did not limit me, my ideas to build on fundraising and public engagement campaigns became sought

after and soon I was writing, developing and designing from concept to finish. I worked and learnedfrom the best of the best both in NGOs and external consultants. And even though my work hours were

long I continued to study and expand my knowledge on specific areas of interests. They included the

period of the Tudors in England, the Irish period of self-determination and the history and politics of

Israel-Palestine and the Middle East.

For fifteen years every day I was exposed to the realities of animal and human rights on behalf of my

clients. And one day in 2005 I received a call just after Christmas that the executive director of Medecins

Sans Frontieres Canada had committed suicide. He had two masters degrees in international

development and international law. He also was a lawyer in Quebec and Canada who had successfully

been called to the bar. He was not even 35 years old. His dignity and messaging of the work of MSF

always left me in awe of such a human being in that they were able to bring you, the recipient of their

words in to the reality of the situation. I did not know it, but I too had those moments of hopelessness.

So I started to pull away from my work bit by bit, not consciously just matter factually. Eventually I just

didn’t want to do it anymore. I wanted out and I did not know how without disappointing so many.

Eventually the opportunity came for me to walk away and in that process I turned myself towards

menial work to pass my time while I figured out the next of phase of what to do.




I live in an English and French region and worked every day in both languages, so I seriously began the

study of French thinking I could work in an administrative position for my federal government.

Periodically I would volunteer my services but on the most part I retreated away from NGO community. I

got married, became a step-mother and started to plan a whole new future. After the suicide of this

amazing client, and the issues of PTSD in the media, I began serious studies in the area of counselling.But I do not qualify for loans because of my income and assets so I had to pay every penny from my

pocket. I chipped away at this new future over three years while continuing to work in menial

employment.

During that time I also worked on large documents writing and editing on subjects like engineering and

employment issues, anything as long as it did not qualify under animal and human rights. For a year I

researched extensively material for an author developing a book on pre-Mandate Palestine and that

impacted my thinking on the Middle East and everything I had learned.

And then just two months ago, I opened the news and saw the Israeli Ambassador to Canada publically

condemning an art exhibit of Rehab Nazzal, a Palestinian artist with extensive academic credentials in

art and war. I immediately wanted to see the exhibit and of course reviewed everything I could at that

moment online.

This was my return to human rights but I did not know it. Ms. Nazzal was someone I did not know

personally however recognized her as she was a prominent figure here in Ottawa on Palestine. She has

since moved to the Greater Toronto Area in pursuit of her Phd on drone warfare and the families left in

the aftermath of the loss of their loved ones.

I found the exhibit amazing. For the first time a Palestinian, an artist, an academic, an Arab, a Moslem, a

woman and an expert on Palestine in my Canadian waspy forum of life, was able to present her story ofher people without fear of censorship or direction from others on her messaging.

The Israeli Ambassador unleashed his words on Ms. Nazzal primarily drawing attention to her exhibit as

promoting terrorism. He called for the exhibit to be shut down and that the City of Ottawa, who hosts

the gallery in which the art was exhibited, to review the selection policy for future exhibits. Shawn

Robinson, public engagement expert came back and reached out to all involved. And during this process

reactivated the dormant desire to ensure respect for freedom of speech for political art and to also to

ensure the recognition of human rights for all.

As an aside, this exhibit haunted me for its imagery of Palestinian prisoners in the Negev Prison and

even more powerfully, the audio of the prisoners being attacked viciously by Israeli prison guards and

special police in a coordinated operation. It left me devastated that humans could inflict such misery on

another. I did not sleep for days as their terrified voices rang in my ears.

Then one month later, another unfolding in the saga of Israel-Palestine story began.




The Israeli settler teens were kidnapped, murdered, and a Palestinian teen was burned alive and his

cousin beaten mercilessly by Israeli border police. The Israeli authorities using the Israeli army went

door-to-door in the West Bank, Palestine arresting more than 500 Palestinians, more than a hundred

who were children and those with ties to Hamas.

An already restricted environment as a result of military occupation became locked down further, if itcould be imagined possible.

Shawn Robinson the activist came back with force. Overwhelmed by the murder and attacks on

innocents – children, teens, adolescents – I launched Save Palestinian Children, an advocacy

organization to advocate the UN to form an international commission to investigate the targeting of

children by the State of Israel through arrests, interrogations without representation, torture, and

imprisonment without charge, solitary confinement and murder. This is the only focus of my

organization and it has already sprung in to action and more than 7500 people from around the world

have responded.

And once this is achieved, we will work for the end of this conduct again by an international commission.

And once THAT is achieved we will transition to an organization that facilitates education and mental

health programs for Palestinian children affected by war and military occupation.

So where I am going with all this? I wanted to tell you who I am so you could read my words and know

that I don’t speak from a political position, but from facts and international law.

The title of my story is “The Beginning of the End” and I would like to be one of the few who writes

about the history of how Palestine became Israel.

To begin, Palestine is for almost two thousand years a place known as the Holy Land. It has a long longhistory of crusades, pilgrims, faith, and occupation. And through these two thousand years, a people

called Palestinians established a culture fiercely connected to the land – and I mean this literally –

through cultivation of plants, shrubs, trees; food, music, religion; language, civility, and hospitality. Even

under 400 years of Ottoman occupation, the Palestinians welcomed every visitor regardless their

intention. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims wandered the land of Palestine as they sought religious

moments of elevation. Pilgrims from all faiths were welcomed and travelled freely without fear for their

safety.

Also during this period under Ottoman occupation, Sephardic Jewish families migrated back to Palestine

from places such Spain, as they faced religious conversion, expulsion and execution. Knowing that these

Jews were their brothers and sisters, the Palestinians shared life and worked closely together in the

simplicity of just living as equals. There was no history of war between them. There was mutual respect

and an understanding of their situation under the Ottoman rulers.

Switching to Europe, the Jewish people did not live so fortunately. They also during the early and latter

periods that Palestine was under Ottoman rule, could not travel freely to escape their misery. They were




forced to live in ghettos with limited options in employment and even what they could wear amongst

Christian community.

In some regions, such as the Pale in Ukraine, along with Russia and Poland, the Jewish people were not

just subjected to regular persecution, were mass murdered through pogroms. These were regular

occurrences and wiped Jewish men and male children.

Every country in Europe was hateful to the Jewish people. They restricted them on every level. And then

in 1849 the Jews in Austria-Hungary were suddenly emancipated by Franz Ferdinand. This incredible

moment in history was understood that the time had come to change with regards to the status of the

Jewish citizens of Europe. Eventually the majority of Europe followed the same.

The Jewish people of Europe were able to leave their ghettos and establish themselves not only in

occupations of their choice and outside the “ghetto”.

It was at this time that many of the Jewish people moved away from the orthodoxy of their religion, still

maintaining their faith and celebrations, but began the transition of integrating in to Christian Europe.

While this was happening, hatred towards Jews continued unabated. The old attitudes did not

disappear. Jewish people still remained targets for blame and oppression. But they persevered by

insisting on education for their children, and being the best of their abilities in all walks of life. The

Jewish people enhanced Europe with their ingenuity and skills whether in business, art, education,

science and inventions. Europe benefited from the Jewish presence and capitalized on the Jewish

people’s new found ability to participate in the European economy.

And as had been previously stated, life was still hard for European Jews. They were fundamentally

accepted as citizens however they were still prevented from high level government, military and politicallevels. They were still subjected to horrendous abuses and made scape goats for failures that had

nothing to do with them.

So the time came when Theodor Hertzl, a Swiss Jew had the same awakening I experienced just a few

weeks ago. He knew that European Jews would always face persecution and never be able to function

like other Christian Europeans. He in 1896 formed the first conference in Basle Switzerland under the

title of Zionism as an answer to this centuries old problem of persecution and oppression.

The Zionists quickly communicated amongst themselves that a land was needed to create a state for all

Jews to live in peace and without limitations. In time, Palestine was the land of their focus as it was the

Holy and had connection to their history thousands of years ago. It should be noted that the Zionism

coined during that period was not religious in function, it was merely a strategy based on the principals

of living without persecution. So the first waves of European Jews began to move to Palestine with the

intent to establish their future and state. They just had one problem, the Ottoman occupation.

This was not a secret so soon the Palestinians became very concerned. As stated previously they always

welcomed new visitors including Jews who wished to establish themselves in Palestine. But this was




something different and the Palestinians realised it was a threat to their being. The Palestinians had a

love-hate relationship with the Ottomans – they resented their sons whom they needed to form the

land in being drafted into the Ottoman army but at the same time lived freely to do as they wished but

under Ottoman control.

I am not going to say much about the Balfour Declaration other than it was the ultimate British double-cross. The British being colonialists wanted to establish themselves strongly in the Middle East and to do

so needed to uproot the Ottomans. This period in time was during the First World War. Australian and

Canadian soldiers were fighting in Europe under the British flag so Britain could put its army in the

Levantine and take control. But they needed the Arabs to undo the Ottomans who had spread their

empire throughout the Middle East. What better offer to convince such a switch in masters could only

be done by offering the ultimate gift – Arab self-determination. Every Arab’s dream.

But by 1917 the British were losing the war in Europe. They were broke financially and public morale to

continue on was at all-time low. The British needed a cash infusion desperately to bring an end to this

war of attrition that had no winners or losers. They were able to secure funding from a multitude of

sources including the Zionists who knew that this was an opportunity to firmly establish themselves in

Palestine through the British. By then the Ottoman Empire was crumbling, and a new Middle East was

unfolding.

With no thought or respect to their earlier promises to the Arabs, and in particular the Palestinians,

Balfour the spokesperson for Britain offered Palestine as a future “home” for the Jews. It should be

added that he did state “without compromising the native people” which when evaluated appears as an

afterthought in his declaration.

The war ended and the 1919 Paris Peace Conference was conferred. American President Wilson

established the fourteen points that included the right of self-determination. The countries of the worldmet in Paris and pled their cases. Some wanted parts of another country, some wanted compensation

for the war, and some wanted to be recognized as official states no longer occupied under annexation.

Hundreds of countries secured their intentions, however the Palestinians and the Kurdish were given no

mind in this matter.

During the period of 1921-22, Britain established its’ Mandate on Palestine and there was nothing the

Palestinians could do; especially frustrating for them was that their neighbours were able to govern their

own states and Palestine was left occupied again.

As the 1920’s and 30’s unfolded, more waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine unfolded. The Jewish

population grew not just in people but in economy and political stature. They were not Sephardic Jews,

they were Ashkenazi Jewish Europeans, with a different sense of organization and will to establish a

homeland that in theory would protect their people from persecution.

There were uprisings by the Palestinians and Jews against each other and against the British, even

intensely during a three-year period in the 30’s, the Arab Revolt was a reaction to the increase of Jewish

population under the British Mandate.




The Palestinians could not control what was happening and desperately pled their case to their British

occupiers who permitted the open borders to European Jewish migration. Jews and Arabs became

enemies. The Jewish Land Fund was long established and worked very hard to secure funding to

purchase land in Palestine, even under spurious conditions.

The Palestinians saw their future as Palestinians compromised by the increasing Jewish population who

did not deny their intentions in forming their own state that would come from the land of Palestine.

Through their pleas to the British, Winston Churchill finally wrote the now famous “White Papers” that

secured the future for European Jews in Palestine.

Also during this period Adolph Hitler came to power in Germany creating a Nazi party that promoted a

strange connection to the environment but also purity of the races. Jewry was considered impure and a

threat to Europe. Many European Jews saw the writing on the wall and packed up and migrated to

places around the world including Palestine. The Nazi Socialist Party spread throughout Europe blaming

European Jews for past failures including the German loss of the First World War. The European Jews

were the top targets for their hate and blame.

As Hitler annexed and occupied European countries, Jews were rounded up methodically and with an

organization of great detail that after the war investigators were astounded by the attention to detail

and documenting of these atrocities by number and names. And in one of our world’s greatest losses,

millions were murdered cruelly and systematically in extermination camps populated throughout

Europe. There was no shortage in Europeans who willingly participated in this genocide on every level.

And western powers knew it was happening and established policies to not intervene.

This genocide, the Holocaust, was a turning point for Jews and Arabs in Palestine, along with Jewish

survivors in Europe and the western powers who including my own country Canada, established furtherpolices to not accept Jewish refugees.

Having lived through the unimaginable, many Europeans and Jews refused to return to their points of

origin. Their lives and their families were destroyed by their own neighbours and fellow citizens during

this war; there was no way they would live in those circumstances again.

Meanwhile the British public was exhausted by the war and the loss of their sons. They had no will to

maintain the Mandate of Palestine knowing that there was turmoil between all involved. The British had

become targets by both Jewish paramilitaries and Palestinians resisting their situation. The British

looked eagerly for every opportunity to escape the mess they had created starting in 1916.

The League of Nations established in 1919 as a result of the First World War had failed to prevent the

Second World War and had very few of the world’s countries as its members. The United Nations was

formed with a new structure that included the famed Security Council that today with its five original

members, are able to veto any resolution.




In 1947 on the day that the United Nations became official, the British handed over the Mandate of

Palestine to the UN. By then the population of Jews in Palestine was more than 300,000 while

Palestinians was close to a million and a little bit more.

In my theory of the official establishment of Israel, I have concluded that it was successful as a result of

the incredible will of the European Jews to form their state. They had without question endured enoughin Europe.

When reviewing communications during that period, the writing is very clear. They would not accept

anything less than the formation of the State of Israel. They did not recognize the Palestinians as being

legitimate land holders of Palestine, and in their drive for Israel, they were not going to be stopped by

the Arabs who were less organized, had much fewer resources and ability to cooperate amongst each

other. This lack of cooperation would follow the Pan-Arab community until today resulting in lost wars

and further military occupation on Palestine.

The Zionists who established Israel were in their majority from Europe with substantially less from

Palestine. Many were survivors and to understand survival of war, of extermination, of threats of death

under every circumstance and to sustain this over a ten plus year period in Europe, it is the “super

humans” who are left not killed by disease or their enemies.

The Palestinians were no match for these Jewish people who had a will greater than anything the Arabs

had to see through their goal of establishing Israel. And it took only days after Israel achieved enough

votes under the United Nations to create their state. For the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to begin,

the Jewish paramilitaries including the Stern Gang, Haganah and Ergun, they created their strategy

playing on the culture of the Arabs and terror policies.

Within months, more than 750,000 Palestinians were documented by the United Nations living inrefugee camps outside Palestine-Israel. They were forced out by terror, by threat of death, by

paramilitaries and even Canadian military personnel. Some were even convinced their expulsion was

temporary so as to allow the region to cool in tensions, but that would turn to be a fraud, even when it

was expressed by the British army to the Palestinians.

As the people of Palestine were forced to live through practices of the ethnic cleansing, Israel quickly

established laws that if an individual of Arab or Palestinian origin vacated their land and buildings for

whatever means, leaving Israel albeit temporarily, they would not be allowed to return and their

holdings would be sold to only Israelis who were Jewish. These were the tactics employed to ensure

Palestinians were never able to return home.

There is much in this history I did not document including the war over Israel and Palestine in 1948. My

point is to share the centuries of subject abuses on European Jews that created the idea to form a state

for their people. If they had been allowed the opportunity to live freely without persecution and

genocide, they would still be established in Europe.




For the Palestinians, they are left with memories and horror to their situation as a people. Millions live

in refugee camps outside and inside Israel and Palestine-Gaza sixty-seven years later. Nothing has been

resolved in regards to their future or self-determination.

Meanwhile in 1967, Israel during the war with its neighbours, was able to occupy the Sinai, Gaza, West

Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. This occupation is illegal as per international law. Even underpressure from world leaders, Israel refuses to ameliorate this situation. There is no question that Israel

intends to continue the occupation and establish itself firmly in these areas and annex them by

instituting settler Jewish migrations to these areas so as to be part of a greater Israel.

They can’t officially mass murder two million Palestinians in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank,

however their policy is to make Palestinian life so miserable the people will give up and leave; which is

futile as there is nowhere for them to go, so forty-four years later they live under military occupation

with few freedoms and oppression through violence. And to add to their misery Israel in its own

manipulations of the media furthers the concept that the Palestinians are the perpetrators as they are

militants and terrorists. That somehow if they stopped their “resistance” which by the way is legal under

the 4th Geneva Convention for those living under occupation, the Palestinians would be able to exist but

of course under Israel’s borders and self-determination.

But that is not going to happen.

And even worse, the situation in Gaza is even more frightening.

Gaza is officially no longer occupied by Israel, however is blockaded since 2007 which is in my own

words a proxy-occupation strategy that keeps the Gaza population unable to experience freedom.

Furthermore blockades under international law are an act of war.

In the umpteenth day of bombardments and now ground force penetration, more than five hundred

Palestinians in Gaza are dead, and thousands are gravely injured; agriculture land destroyed by

ammunitions, buildings leveled, hospitals under attack, 70,000 people again expelled from their homes,

and all this is unnoticed by the media or the people of the world. Israel controls the conversation and

the statements are repeated to be the same… that they Israel is under attack by Hamas and they are the

only victim of terror and violence.

As I draw to an end I would like to inform those not-in-the-know that Hamas was formed in Gaza

twenty-two years into the military occupation and was done so to resist the tyranny the Gaza people

experienced by Israel. This resistance is legal and as stated previously is featured in the Fourth Geneva

Convention, people under occupation have the right to resist their occupiers through force. Hamas

eventually grew in numbers and formed a political arm, much like the IRA and Sinn Fein in Northern and

Southern Ireland.

Fatah over all these years did not invest in the people. Fatah did not create social programs that met the

needs of the Palestinians. The frustration of their situation was from all involved – their leadership and

Israel included.




The Palestinian people like you and I only wish for what we have – social programs and the right to exist.

It seriously troubles me that this part of the conversation is never stated or concluded.

While Israel vacated Gaza in 2005, by 2007 in response to the election of Hamas as the legitimate

leadership of the people of Gaza, Israel imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza that exists until today. Ablockade under international law is considered an act of war.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas in response to the blockade fired rockets in to the no-man’s land between Gaza

and Israel until two weeks ago, and seven years into their blockade, a missile hit Tel Aviv to everyone’s

surprise at their capability.

What I have written are facts not fallacies. I have spent thirty years studying, learning, experiencing and

absorbing this story from all avenues and sides. I know there will be many who attack me for my words,

but as I stated I deal in facts not delusions.

I am against every form of violence regardless the perpetrator. But I live in Canada where we use words

to resolve our difference and our problems.

It is abhorrent that during the period of the Second World War that so many suffered because of Hitler’s

policies of expansion and purity. My next statement is not to connect Hitler to Israel, but to connect the

same policies that Israel institutes unfettered and with the collusion of the western media in

perpetrating their crimes.

Hamas refused the ceasefire conditions because the wording was very clear. The situation for Gaza

would return to the same conditions of the blockade and the denial of forming their own state. Israel

does not have the right to impose the blockade legally nor does it have the right to determine whatPalestinians are subject to with respect to their being.

The punishment on Gaza is horrific. I have personally seen hundreds of pictures that my sanitized

western world that I live in, will and never has, nor ever will publish. If you saw the truth about non-stop

bombardments and one tonne bombs that are dropped on civilian populations, you would never

condone Israel’s attack on Gaza. That is correct, Israel attacked Gaza on assertions where there is not

only a lack of evidence but directives to the contrary that Hamas is responsible for the Settler teenager

murder-kidnappings. Even the US State Department advised Israel that there was no evidence that

Hamas was responsible.

Hamas, is not a terrorist organization. It is a legally democratically elected government of Gaza. The

unity government formed by Fatah and Hamas is logical and should have happened in 2007. Netanyahu

publically stated within hours of this announcement of the unity government that he and Israel would

never tolerate such a unification, that Israel would refuse to negotiate with Hamas regardless, and that

he and Israel would dismantle this unification by force and will.




After 67 years of endless peace negotiations that accomplished little to nothing, and 44 years of military

occupation and blockades, and multiple wars, isn’t it time to bring an end to this violence? The people of

Palestine and Gaza and East Jerusalem should not be blamed for not liking Jews and Israelis as a whole.

They have lived in decades of misery that just perpetuates and degrades them and when they think it

can’t get any worse, it does. I am only imagining what it must feel to be bombed and occupied and

denied and the world calls you a terrorist and underserving of humanity.

This war is disproportionate in its hostilities as well. As I close, I would like to say that two things prevent

a future and sustainable peace and they need to be removed from the situation. The first being the

yearly multi-billion dollar gift from the US to Israel, that is currently financing the mass murder of people

in Gaza, but also the recognition of the State of Palestine. Under those conditions, Palestine would be

able to form a military and obtain legitimate weapons that Israel would have to respect and realise that

a future war would be even more devastating. With that in position, peace would exist and both parties

would carry on their futures that in time could be united economically that would add to the

sustainability of the region.

All western interests in and for Israel need to stop taking sides and respect and impose international law

to the equation and enforce it with Israel and Palestine. As most of the world are signatories to these

conventions and laws, including Israel, they know what is at stake and that with this precedence of these

violations going unchallenged or prosecuted, puts us all at risk.

Israel by July 22, 2014 has dropped white phosphorus again on the Gaza population. This illegal and

heinous war crime only demonstrates their insanity in crossing the red line. Everything the Israel has

worked for is now in jeopardy and I am talking about world opinion. I hope that this issue will turn them

back on their heels and force them to re-evaluate their position.

Hamas must stand firm and ensure that the blockade is over and that will be protected from futureIsraeli incursions. At the same token, Hamas must redirect their efforts and work harder to be politically

acceptable in the world forum.

Israel with its population of 5.5 million are not leaving the region. That must also be accepted. But Israel

has to atone for their sins. They can no longer re-write history to justify their existence. The days of

Israeli nationalism on the backs of Palestinians are over. They must establish their statehood on the

same fundamentals that Palestine must establish theirs, through legitimacy and compliance of

international law.

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The End of One Journey is the Beginning of Another…