Three requests to Major of Oslo Anne Lindboe who is sincerely concerned of the fate and tragedy of People of Palestine.
IN SHORT:
1. To cooperate with Israel in resolving the humanitarian crisis in the South Gaza (“The sooner Israel, having completely destroyed Hamas, establishes control over the entire territory of Gaza, the sooner the current humanitarian crisis in South Gaza will be resolved”).
2. To help Israel to defend the Palestinians from the totalitarian terrorist way of governance; to put an end to poisoning of children's souls in PNA; Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden “in the same boat”. (“This function of Israel — to defend the Palestinians from the power of extremist is very hard, Israel needs assistance in this matter, assistance, not condemnation as an occupant.”).
3. To defend the civil rights of Palestinians – descendants of the long time ago refugees (“they should be fully granted the individual human and civil rights, they are Human Beings, and not raw material in the anti-Israeli policies of some Arab countries.”).
“With its Lab-Model of the Middle East Holocaust on 7 October Hamas seemingly finally killed the very idea of the Independent Palestinian State, showing that this “good intention” paves the way to Hell. But who knows, perhaps this is not the End of the Day?”
21.12.2023
To Anne Lindboe
Major of Oslo
The Norwegian Ombudsperson for Children from 2012 to 2018
From Boris Altshuler,
Chair of the “Right of the Child” NGO,
Moscow, Russia
Dear Anne!
Being both children\\\\\\\\s rights defenders, I believe that we both have the similar basic human values. About a quarter of a century ago, in the late 1990s, I had the honor of meeting in Oslo with the Norwegian Ombudsman for Children, this was shortly after the formation of our NGO, we were completely inexperienced in protecting children's rights and learned a lot from Norway.
This Open Letter is motivated by your Action on the 30 November in the Oslo City Hall in solidarity with people of Gaza. And since you are concerned of the fate of Palestinian people, of Palestinian children in particular, I address you with three requests directed at the protection of their fundamental human rights.
1. TO HELP RESOLVE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN THE SOUTH GAZA.
At the named above Action in the Oslo City Hall you said that “When we know that more than 5,000 children have lost their lives, it is only natural to remember them today”. Condemning the Hamas massacre in Israel on 7 October you underlined that number of its victims is essentially less than the number of victims of the Israeli retaliatory strike on Gaza, thereby putting Israel and Hamas in the same raw — with a much stronger indictment of Israel. These accusations are in line with condemnation of Israel, in the Norway political tops in particular, for the “collective punishment” of the civilian population of Gaza, with the words of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who declared that Israel made the Gaza Strip "a graveyard for children", etc.
But where did you and Mr. Guterres get the information about the 5,000 children killed by the Israel armed forces? Today, like in previous centuries, many people with full readiness and without hesitation accuse Jews of the most terrible crimes. The so called "information" from the Hamas Ministry of Health Care about the “brutal” Israeli bombing of Al Shifa Hospital "with 800 victims" instantly outraged anti-Jewish emotions of millions, without any question marks in their hearts or brains, whereas few days later it was proven that this was the debris of an Islamic Jihad rocket that fell in a car park next to the Hospital. We remember also the overwhelming accusation of Israel in deaths of the premature newborn babies in incubators of the same Hospital, but after Israeli troops took control over Al Shifa (which served Hamas as a headquarters), the hospital doctors reported that none of these 36 babies died, and soon they were all transferred to hospitals in Egypt.
On 7 October Hamas killed captured civilians — all from babies to old men/women only because they were Jews. "Those savage beasts do not represent the Palestinians”, — said after 7 October El Salvador President Nayib Bukele who himself is of the Palestinians ancestry. Dear Anne Linboe, have you ever seen Israel soldier killing the child because the child is Arab? Yes, tragic casualties in such a stormy battle are inevitable, and the death of every child is a horror for you, and for me as well. And be sure that everyone in Israel feels the same.
Let us look back to 1945, to the last battle aimed at the total liquidation of the awful Hitlerism. Who in the anti-Hitler coalition (USSR, USA and UK) thought at that time about millions of German civilians perishing in this battle? Nobody! And Israel thinks about civilians. You will not find in the history an example of a war when the attacking side would have warned in advance about every strike, about every bombing. The Israeli military do just that, saving civilians while neglecting the fact that these warnings also allow terrorists to escape.
The Gaza Strip is a small territory oversaturated with a huge population, and all of this in every cell is permeated with the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas. Is it possible in such situation to liquidate Hamas without enormous casualties among the civilians? We must admit that Israel made a real Humanitarian Miracle stimulating the relocation of almost 1,5 million of civil population of Gaza (most of them are children – about one million, according to Mr. Antonio Guterres) from the deadly dangerous fields of battle in the North Gaza. And now the Israeli military commandment has announced the creation of humanitarian zones liberated from Hamas, where these refugees can return. The sooner Israel, having completely destroyed Hamas, establishes control over the entire territory of Gaza, the sooner the current humanitarian crisis in South Gaza will be resolved.
My FIRST REQUEST to you is as follows: please address the Norwegian Government, the UN, wherever you see it sensible and useful with an Appeal to cooperate with Israel in solving this humanitarian task.
2. TO DEFEND THE PALESTINIANS FROM THE TOTALITARIAN TERRORIST WAY OF GOVERNANCE
And there is the next question: what is beyond Gaza war? About a month ago President of Russia Vladimir Putin insisting on creation of the Independent Palestinian State reminded the 1947 UN Resolution on the creation to the West of river Jordan of two independent states — Arab and Jewish. A few days ago, US President Joe Biden declared that establishment an Independent Palestinian State is a precondition for a permanent end to hostilities in the Middle East.
Both presidents did not recall that the named UN Resolution was rejected by the Arab countries, which, with the support of British advisers and British weapons, attacked the State of Israel shortly after its creation on May 14, 1948. But a miracle happened — Israel survived. I am a theoretical physicist, not a believer, my faith is beautiful formulas and strict laws of Nature. But when I remember those distant events, I cannot get rid of the feeling of a miracle that could only happen by the Will of the Master of the World, no matter what you call him — Yahweh in Judaism, Allah in Islam, Jesus in Christianity.
A similar miracle was repeated in 1956, 1967, 1973... My advice to everyone — from the fanatics of Iran to 74% (according to recent polls) of the population of the Palestinian Authority — who today declare the wiping out of Israel “from river to sea”, who express their sympathy to Hamas and to the Hamas made slaughter of 7 October: listen to the Will of the Master of the World. The shocking results of the named poll are easily explained if we take into account the many-years hatred-incitement towards Israel and the Jews in the West Bank. Hatred-incitement even among children, in the education system of the PNA, in school textbooks where Jews are referred to as “Satan’s helpers” or as “wolves and snakes”. Interestingly, this poisoning of children's souls is carried out with abundant financial support from European countries, including Norway. Because of this hatred-incitement the 1993 Oslo Accords turned to a disaster, and any talk of creating an Independent Palestinian State is today not only unrealistic, but also extremely dangerous for both Israel and the Palestinians themselves.
Israel twice, in 1993 and 1995, gave the Palestinians a chance to build their own normal state. However, Hamas took power soon after Israel full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the Fall of 2005. and for 17 years, population of Gaza has been the victim of the most terrible totalitarian way of governing. Do you know what Hamas did with the Palestinians who opposed to Hamas? Have you heard any protests at the UN, in Norway, anywhere against the brutal human rights violations in Hamas-run Gaza?
To build a normal Independent State is not a simple task. Let's think how to protect the Palestinians from the power of terrorists who would like to take the place of Hamas — Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah or any new ruthless fanatics. Who, if not Israel, can guarantee such protection: the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, or Turkish President Mr. Erdogan ? Or perhaps Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, his Administration and police who will be swept away and physically killed by the extremists in case of the complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, just like it happened in Gaza Strip with Hamas opponents 17 years ago? This function of Israel — to defend the Palestinians from the power of extremist is very hard, Israel needs assistance in this matter, assistance, not condemnation as an occupant.
With its Lab-Model of the Middle East Holocaust on 7 October Hamas seemingly finally killed the very idea of the Independent Palestinian State, showing that this “good intention” paves the way to Hell. But who knows, perhaps this is not the End of the Day?
My SECOND REQUEST to you: please try to initiate the worldwide campaign against hatred-incitement in Palestinian education system and in Palestinian media. This should be prohibited by Law in the same way that Nazi propaganda is prohibited by Law in Germany. And this is an evident precondition for the creation of the Palestinian State in future.
3. TO DEFEND THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF PALESTINIANS – DESCENDANTS OF THE LONG TIME AGO REFUGEES.
Another precondition for establishing the lasting peace in the Middle East is to put an end to the fatal discrimination in some Arab countries against the Palestinians — descendants of the long time ago refugees. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, whom I quoted above, is fortunate to live in Latin America, where, despite his Palestinian origin, his civil rights are fully realized, so much that he even became President of the country.
This is not the case in a number of Arab countries, where Palestinians are treated as second class citizens with allowed refugee status without granting full citizenship, even though the given country is the birthplace not only of these descendants but in many cases is the birthplace of their parents and grandparents.
My THIRD REQUEST to you: please, can you explain to the Government of Norway, the leaders of other countries, the UN Human Rights Committee, that the descendants of long-time Palestinian refugees should be fully granted the individual human and civil rights, that they are Human Beings, and not raw material in the anti-Israeli policies of some countries.
To conclude, I cannot help but express my deep gratitude to Norway for the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize to Andrei Sakharov. This moment became a turning point in the History of Humanity, since after that the strategic postulate about the inextricable connection between the observance of individual human rights and issues of peace and international security proclaimed by Sakharov in his Nobel Lecture gradually became generally accepted and proved to be salutary. Today this is an axiom for us, but it was not always so. I remember well that terrible era when the threat of self-immolation of Mankind in thermonuclear fire was the real option.
That is why I address you with the requests to defend human rights of Palestinians. This would be the real way to the Peace at the Middle East.
THANK YOU!
With best wishes
Boris Altshuler
Chair of the “Right of the Child” NGO
Member of the Russian (earlier Moscow) Helsinki Group,
Author of the book “Andrei Sakharov. On the Other Side of the Window” / World Scientific Publ., 2022.
Moscow, Russia
baltshuler@yandex.ru
Some statements concerning current Russia – Ukraine tragedy: https://www.rightsinrussia.org/?s=Boris+Altshuler
ABOUT MYSELF:
Physicist and human rights activist in USSR and then in Russia. Born on August 16, 1939 in Moscow, where I still live. In 1982-1987 I had to work as a janitor, Andrei Sakharov, after returning from the exile in December 1986, insisted on my admission to work in the Theoretical Physics Department of the P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute of Academy of Sciences (FIAN), where I still work (2023). Since the 1980s and for about 20 years, we have collaborated quite a lot with Norwegian friends in the human rights field. The driving force behind this collaboration was famous Norwegian human rights activist, professor of nuclear physics of the University of Oslo Kristoffer Gjotterud (1931 — 2001). In June 1989, I was lucky to attend a reception in Oslo in honor of Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner who visited Norway, Sakharov for the first time in his life. I remember a very warm meeting of Sakharov and Aase Lionaès (1907-1999, her role as the Head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee of 1975 was crucial in awarding the Prize to Sakharov) — this was an unforgettable event!
Personal Page:
http://right-child.ru/boris_altshuler.html
