“Our roots have always been deep, but there are those who are trying to extirpate these roots by way of bulldozers and ethnic cleansing. We must foil and thwart these efforts by all means necessary.”
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Palestinians mark Land Day
The struggle of Palestinians against Zionist attempts to erase them, physically and culturally, continues with the focus turning again to the sacred Al-Aqsa, writes Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. A protester holds a Palestinian flag in front of Israeli soldiers during a protest marking Land Day near the border between Israel and southern Gaza Strip (photo: Reuters)
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Palestinians in Israel proper and the occupied territories this week marked Land Day, which commemorates the murder by Israeli troops of six Palestinians in the Arab Israeli town of Sakhnin in 1976.
The six young men were trying to stop Israeli authorities from confiscating their land for Jewish settlement expansion.
Large rallies and marches took place in several localities in the Galilee, Triangle and Negev regions, with speakers urging thousands of participants to cling to their land and keep up the struggle against Judaisation and ethnic cleansing.
Among the speakers was Arab Knesset member Ahmed Teibi who exhorted a large multitude of Arab Israeli citizens to “consolidate their existence on this land”.
“This is our homeland, this is our ancestral land, this is our patrimony; we have no other homeland. This is the message that we must communicate to the whole world, especially to the Israeli state.” Teibi said Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line (the former armistice line between Israel and the West Bank) ought to leave “no stone unturned” in order to “further consolidate our existence in our land”.
“Our roots have always been deep, but there are those who are trying to extirpate these roots by way of bulldozers and ethnic cleansing. We must foil and thwart these efforts by all means necessary.”
Other speakers reminded participants that Israel is trying to devise “every imagined and non-imagined tactic to steal our land and render us strangers in our own homeland”.
Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic movement in Israel, said Palestine had always been Arab and Islamic irrespective of Zionist lies and fabrications.
“Their lies may prevail for some time. But one day the snow will melt away and the truth shall appear and the falsehood will be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Similarly, numerous rallies took place in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip amid skirmishes between stone-hurling activists and heavily armed Israeli soldiers.
Land Day commemorations this year coincided with another attempt by messianic Jewish settlers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest shrines.
According to Israeli and Palestinian sources, settlers were seen reciting prayers at the exclusively Islamic shrine. Palestinian eyewitnesses also reported seeing a Jewish settler urinating in the Mosque’s esplanade.
Messianic Jewish groups make no secret of their goal of earning “prayer rights” at the Haram Al-Sharif complex, or Nobel Sanctuary.
However, for Muslims in general, “Prayer rights” spell “vicious attempts to partition the Islamic sanctuary”.
“They want to do here what they did in Hebron,” said Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, the highest-ranking Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, alluding to the partitioning by Israel of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron following the 1994 massacre, when a Jewish terrorist murdered 29 Arab worshipers and injured many more.
“How would Catholics react if some Jews tried to partition Saint Peters Church in Rome between Jews and Catholics?
“Yet, this is what these invaders from Eastern Europe and other parts of the world are trying to do here; namely, take over holy places that belong to another religion and another people.”
According to reliable Palestinian sources, the Israeli occupation authorities are planning to introduce “far reaching changes” at Haram Al-Sharif, which could alter the legal status of the Muslim sanctuary.
The unspecific Israeli plans seem to have prompted the latest Palestinian-Jordanian agreement, reached in Amman last week, which confirmed “Jordan’s historic role as custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem”.
The agreement signed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Sunday also stressed “our common goal of defending Jerusalem and its sacred sites” against Judaising attempts.
“This is a historic agreement. Abbas reiterated that the King is the custodian of holy sites in Jerusalem and that he has the right to exert all legal efforts to preserve them, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque,” a statement issued from the Jordanian royal court said.
The statement went on to say: “The agreement emphasises the historic principles agreed by Jordan and Palestine to exert joint efforts to protect the city from Judaisation attempts.”
Palestinian leaders lauded the agreement as a positive step toward putting up a solid front in the face of Israeli efforts to encroach on Muslim holy places in Jerusalem.
“I don’t care if Palestinians or Jordanians or other Muslims carry out this mission. The important thing is that Muslims and Arabs must do everything possible to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said Sheikh Raed Salah in interview with the BBC.
“Whether those who defend and protect this paramount Muslim sanctuary are Palestinians or Jordanian is irrelevant in the final analysis,” he added.
Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994 allowing the Jordanian government to administer Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
However, there have been hints by the right-wing Israeli government that Israel might embark on unilateral action that would effectively wrest legal administration of the holy sites from Jordan.
And not every Palestinian is satisfied with the agreement, described by some pundits as “innocuous”.
Hizb Al-Tahrir, an Islamist party that calls for the reinstitution of the Islamic Caliphate, called the agreement “media hyperbole with no practical benefit for Muslims”.
“This agreement was signed as Jewish settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is utterly unlikely that the agreement will have any practical positive results on the ground. Only a truly Islamic state will be able to protect Islamic holy sites. Jordan has strong ties with the Zionist entity and is unfit to be a custodian or guardian of the holy places,” the party said.
Palestinian activist Sam Bahour was interviewed by RT yesterday about the possibilities of restarting Peace talks between Israel and Palestine. Below you will find why this is not possible as long as the occupation continues.
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Kerry arrived in Israel on Monday, in a direct move to end the four-year stalemate between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
But activist, Sam Bahour, believes the US official’s attempts are likely to fail as the Palestinians are firm about not starting any peace talks while they remain under Israeli occupation.
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‘Palestinians won’t talk peace until Israeli occupationends’
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Palestinians are ‘fed up’ with peace talks and demand action, which the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is unlikely to provide on his Israeli visit, argued Palestinian activist Sam Bahour, in his interview with RT.
Kerry arrived in Israel on Monday, in a direct move to end the four-year stalemate between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
But activist, Sam Bahour, believes the US official’s attempts are likely to fail as the Palestinians are firm about not starting any peace talks while they remain under Israeli occupation.
RT: President Barack Obama was in Israel just last month and barely even mentioned the stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. Is John Kerry doing all the dirty work?
Sam Bahour: It’s not clear yet. It seems as if John Kerry’s mission is a continuation of the last 45 years of US policy, which is trying to force the people under occupation, the Palestinians, to come to the table and negotiate their freedom with their occupier. It’s a model that failed for 20 years now during the peace process. And to be honest with you, the Palestinians are fed up with trying to be forced to have to negotiate bilaterally with those who are occupying them. The only thing we should really negotiate now is how the settlements will be dismantled and when the last Israeli soldier is going to leave Palestine.
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
US Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks to US Foreign Service workers during a “meet & greet” at the US Counsulate General on April 8, 2013, in Jerusalem, Israel (AFP Photo / Pool Paul J.Richards)
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RT:Many people in the Middle East put all hope in the Obama administration’s ability to breathe new life into peace negotiations, yet they are still in collapse. Is the American administration running out of solutions?
SB: Yes, as long as the American administration – whether it’s Obama’s or previous administrations – refuse to apply international law to this conflict, they can pull solutions out of the hat until they’re blue in the face – nothing will be successful. At the end of the day, this is a military occupation. Even the US recognizes it as a military occupation. That means the Fourth Geneva Convention applies. What needs to happen is for this occupation to end. Once it ends, the Palestinians – in good faith – could start negotiations with Israel to be able to find a final status solution. But to ask the Palestinians to negotiate while they’re under the boot of occupation is no longer acceptable and it’s rather disingenuous.
RT:Reports on Sunday say that Hamas arrested Westerners it claims were spying inside the Gaza strip. Was this a deliberate signal to the US and why was it sent?
SB: I haven’t received enough information to know, but I can tell you for a fact that on the ground things are very messy right now. Not only is there a forced separation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but also Israel has forced separation between the west bank and Jerusalem. This continued fragmentation of our land and separation of the Palestinian people is causing our own society’s fabric to come apart. And this latest episode is one of those sad links in a long chain that has been created by the pressures of this occupation over 45 years.
And that’s one of the reasons the Palestinian community is no longer willing to accept the ‘talk of peace’. We’re now willing to see, who’s willing to walk the ‘walk of peace’. And that means to start ending this occupation tomorrow morning instead of continuing to talk about it, while the Palestinians are under that boot of occupation.
Gideon Levy is no stranger to these pages. His writings in HaAretz have been a direct blow against the occupation and all other moves to discredit or destroy the Palestinian people. He has been showered with praises for his views, THIS being one of the best essays written about him.
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Amira Hass, Levy’s co-worker and fellow journalist is another who writes the truth and as Levy often gets in ‘hot water’ over it. This week the hot water boiled over into a full-scale storm because of THIS opinion piece that appeared in HaAretz.
Hass, like me, is against violence. I take the liberty to write that out of deep conviction. Who wants to see children killed by rocks, citizens torn apart by an improvised explosive device, or teenagers who have been shot?
But resistance to violence must be direct, comprehensive and fair. It must include the resistance to the occupier’s violence. There is no need to count the dead and wounded, the physically and mentally disabled − of both nations − to recognize that the greater, and inherent, violence is that of the occupier.
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The inner syntax of the storm
Coming to Amira Hass’ defense after her controversial op-ed on Palestinian stone-throwing, Gideon Levy argues that the criticism against Hass laid bare the hypocrisy, or the ignorance, of large swaths of Israeli public opinion.
ByGideon Levy
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The storm that was unleashed by Amira Hass’ important opinion piece,“The inner syntax of Palestinian stone-throwing,” was a welcome one. It laid bare at once the hypocrisy, or the ignorance, of large swaths of Israeli public opinion.
Hypocrisy, because the up-in-arms crowd ignores the original, fundamental, institutionalized and methodical violence of the very fact of the occupation and its mechanisms. Ignorance, because the implication is that the impassioned naysayers might not know just how cruel is the military tyranny in the territories.
In addition, those who accused Hass so furiously of “crossing lines” and “inciting murder” did not read her piece all the way through. It contains not incitement to murder, but rather a straight-on, fair and courageous apprehension of the Palestinian liberation struggle that is absent from the Israeli dialogue.
If there is any preaching in her commentary, it is mainly devoted to the nonviolent struggle against the occupation, in the form of calling for documentation, going out to work pilfered lands, and overcoming the fear of interrogations. Even the act of taking up the stone is justified only as an inevitable refuge.
The commentary was published a few days after Jews read from the Haggadah, which tells the story of a different people’s freedom struggle, a struggle that included much more terrible calamities than rocks thrown at the deniers of liberty. Generations of Jews read this text in awe and wonder, telling it to their children. But they are not willing to apply the same basic rule − the same internal justice, according to which resistance, including violent resistance, is the birthright and duty of every vanquished nation, as Hass wrote − to everyone, and not just the Jews.
Rooted deep in the Israeli experience is the idea that what is permitted to the Jewish people is prohibited to others. But there is no need to go back as far as the time of Pharaoh. Ever since then, human history has been paved with freedom struggles against foreign rulers, struggles that earned the respect of history, and that were, in the main, violent, often more violent than the Palestinian struggle. The slogan “We’ve had enough of you, occupiers” is not exclusive to Arabic; it has been voiced down through history in nearly every language, including modern Hebrew.
Hass, like me, is against violence. I take the liberty to write that out of deep conviction. Who wants to see children killed by rocks, citizens torn apart by an improvised explosive device, or teenagers who have been shot?
But resistance to violence must be direct, comprehensive and fair. It must include the resistance to the occupier’s violence. There is no need to count the dead and wounded, the physically and mentally disabled − of both nations − to recognize that the greater, and inherent, violence is that of the occupier.
Palestinian rocks and IEDs have caused great losses to both peoples. The only way to end them is to end the occupation. Unfortunately, that will not happen on its own. In 46 years of occupation, Israel has proved it cannot be forced to stop its evil actions through acts of good.
Now we must ask Hass’ detractors: What do you expect? What are you, patriots and supposed opposers of violence, offering the Palestinians? Do you honestly think they will bow their heads in submission and obedience for another 46 years? Is there an historical precedent for such behavior?
And even if they were to do so, what would happen? Their fight would only be further forgotten. That is the lesson Israel taught them − the hard way.
A stone can indeed be lethal. So can a rubber-tipped bullet, a tear gas grenade, live fire, bombs and shells. The fact that these latter weapons are used by Israel does not dull their violence. The claim that Israel uses them solely for self-defense is just as ridiculous as the claim, also voiced in the heat of emotion, that Israel is the victim of this entire bloody story and that the occupation was in fact imposed (!) on it.
Such is the way of self-righteousness, distorted morals and lies, elements of the inner syntax of the Hass storm.
Mezna Qato (US Palestinian Community Network): “Absolutely beautiful.”
Dr. Ghada Karmi, M.D.: “An excellent statement which gets at the heart of the Palestinian cause. All people of conscience must sign it.”
Fatin Jarara (Al Awda-NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition): “Thank you, JFPROR, for your support of the right of return for Palestinian refugees to all of Historic Palestine and for the call for a single democratic state, a point that must never be compromised by Palestinians, first and foremost, or their allies.”
Max Blumenthal: ”I was proud to join so many outstanding people in signing.”
Stuart Bramhall (Daily Censored): “Profoundly moving.”
Kevin Ovenden (Palestine solidarity activist, London): “Well done – forwards to peace and justice, without which there can be no peace.”
————- Jews For Palestinian Right of Return January 1, 2013
“For Palestinians, the right to return home and the right to live in dignity and equality in their own land are not any less important than the right to live free of military occupation.” –Prof. Saree Makdisi
For more than a century, Zionists have sought to construct a “Jewish state” through forced removal of the indigenous Palestinian people.
In 1948, this state was established through the Nakba (Catastrophe): erasure and occupation of more than 500 Palestinian towns and villages, dispossession of over 750,000 Palestinians, and a terror campaign of which the massacre at Deir Yassin is but the most infamous example.
Since 1967, Israel has also occupied and colonized the remainder of historic Palestine. Today, this relentless ethnic cleansing continues — armed and financed by the U.S. and its allies — on both sides of the 1948 “Green Line.”
As a cumulative result, seventy percent of Palestinians are in exile, the world’s largest refugee population.
Nowhere is this clearer than in Gaza, where Israel inflicts particularly brutal collective punishment on 1.7 million people — most of them refugees — for defiantly resisting expulsion from their homes throughout historic Palestine.
“Pick a point, any point, along [Gaza's] 25-mile coastline,” writes Gaza City resident Lara Aburamadan, “and you’re seven or so miles — never more — from the other side. The other side is where my grandparents were born, in a village that has since become someone else’s country, off limits to me. You call it Israel. I call it the place where the bombs come from.”
To hide these crimes and shield itself from their consequences, the Zionist regime officially denies the Nakba, the ethical equivalent of Holocaust denial. It has even authorized legislation to penalize those who memorialize the Nakba — a step toward criminalizing its observance altogether.
As it is for all colonized peoples, liberation means reversing dispossession. “The Palestinian cause,” writes Dr. Haidar Eid in Gaza, “is the right of return for all refugees and nothing less.”
Return — one of the key demands of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign — is affirmed in U.N. resolution 194, but derives from the principle of universal human rights and, as such, cannot be renounced or abandoned by any body or representative; it inalienably attaches to Palestinians, both individually and collectively.
Despite this, even some who criticize Israel’s 1967 occupation claim that Palestinian return is “unrealistic.”
However, solidarity means unconditional support for the just aims of those resisting oppression. As Palestinian journalist-activist Maath Musleh explains: “If you think that [return] is not possible, then you are really not in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”
Some also object that refugees’ return would mean an end to the “Jewish state.” But supporters of social justice must ask themselves how they can defend a state whose very existence depends on structural denial of Palestinian rights.
Such racism and bigotry is reflected precisely in Zionism’s attempt to erase the Palestinian people, a century long campaign that dishonors the memory of Jewish suffering and resistance in Europe.
The moral response is clear: “There is one geopolitical entity in historic Palestine,” writes Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah. “Israel must not be allowed to continue to entrench its apartheid, racist and colonial rule throughout that land.”
As Jews of conscience, we call on all supporters of social justice to stand up for Palestinian Right of Return and a democratic state throughout historic Palestine — “From the River to the Sea” — with equal rights for all.
The full measure of justice, upon which the hopes of all humanity depends, requires no less.
(Except where marked as organizational endorsements,* affiliations below are listed for identification only.)
Initial Signers Max Ajl, Writer and activist; Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine Gabriel Ash, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Switzerland Max Blumenthal, Journalist and author Prof. Haim Bresheeth, Filmmaker, photographer and film studies scholar Lenni Brenner, Author and antiwar activist Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK) Sonia Fayman, French Jewish Union for Peace; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network France Sherna Berger Gluck, Founding member, U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel; Israel Divestment Campaign Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Coordinator, Fellowship of Reconciliation Peacewalks, Mural Arts in Palestine and Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence Hector Grad, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Spain Abraham Greenhouse, Blogger, Electronic Intifada Tony Greenstein, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK) Jeff Halper, Director, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Stanley Heller, Host of “The Struggle” TV News Tikva Honig-Parnass, Former member of the Zionist armed forces (1948); author of False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor, Mondoweiss.net Selma James, Global Women’s Strike; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK David Klein, Organizing Committee, U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel Dennis Kortheuer, Organizing Committee, U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel; Israel Divestment Campaign; Dump Veolia LA David Letwin, Activist and writer; Gaza Freedom March Michael Letwin, Co-Founder, Labor for Palestine; Organizing Committee, U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel; Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition Antony Loewenstein, Australian journalist and author Barbara Lubin, Executive Director, Middle East Children’s Alliance Mike Marqusee, Author of If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew Hajo Meyer, Auschwitz survivor; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Linda Milazzo, Participatory journalist and educator Prof. IlanPappé, Israeli historian and socialist activist MikoPeled, Author of The General’s Son Karen Pomer, Granddaughter of Henri B. van Leeuwen, Dutch anti-Zionist leader and Bergen-Belsen survivor Diana Ralph, Assistant Coordinator, Independent Jewish Voices-Canada Dorothy Reik, Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, President, International League for Human Rights (German Section FIDH); Founding member, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace – EJJP Germany Rachel Roberts, Civil rights attorney and writer Ilana Rossoff, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Carol K. Smith, Activist and civil rights attorney Lia Tarachansky, Director, Seven Deadly Myths Hadas Thier, Contributing author of The Struggle for Palestine; Israeli-born daughter and granddaughter of Nazi Holocaust survivors Dr. Abraham Weizfeld, Jewish People’s Liberation Organization (Montréal) Sherry Wolf, Author and public speaker; International Socialist Organization; Adalah-NY Marcy Winograd, Former Congressional peace candidate; public school teacher Dr. Roger van Zwanenberg, Non-Executive Director, Pluto Books Ltd.
Additional Signers Dr. Liz Aaronsohn, New Britain, CT Stephen Aberle, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver, BC Deborah Agre, Middle East Children’s Alliance; Berkeley, CA Seymour Alexander, Jews for Justice for Palestinians; Slough, UK *American Jews For A Just Peace (ajjp.org)
Steve Amsel, Jerusalem Jeremy Appel, Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) York; Toronto, ON Ruth Bader, German-Jewish/Australian daughter of Holocaust survivors Adam Balsam, Independent Jewish Voices Canada Miri Barak, Israel Elifelet Sara Der Barambdiker, Jerusalem Moran Barir, Human rights activist; Jerusalem Ronnie Barkan, Boycott from Within; Tel-Aviv Nora Barrows-Friedman, Journalist Dalit Baum, Israeli feminist teacher and activist Medea Benjamin, Codirector, Codepink Ray Bergmann, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Craig Berman, Kampala, Uganda Mark Berman, Playwright Rima Berns-McGown, Writer and Adjunct Faculty, University of Toronto at Mississauga Frances Bernstein, Leeds, UK Professor Naomi Binder Wall, Toronto, ON Councillor Jonathan Bloch, London, UK Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices; Toronto, ON Audrey Bomse, National Lawyers Guild, Free Gaza Lawrence Boxall, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver, BC Professor Dennis Brasky, Rutgers University Monique Buckner, BDS South Africa; Cassington, Oxfordshire, UK Estee Chandler, Founding Member, Jewish Voice for Peace, L.A. Chapter Linda Clair, Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign, UK Jonathan Cohen, College Park Robert A. H. Cohen, Kendal, Cumbria, UK Richard Colbath-Hess, Jewish Voices for Peace; Cambridge, MA David Comedi, Tucumán, Argentina Prof. Stuart Cryer, Gatineau, QC Prof. Roger Dittmann, Scientists Without Borders; CSU Fullerton Gordon Doctorow, Toronto, ON Amy Druker, Toronto, ON Sarah Ducker, Leeds, UK Mark Elf, Jews sans frontiers Arlene Eisen, San Francisco, CA Marc Etlin, NYC Prof. Sam Farber, NYC PnIna Feiler, Yad Hanna, Israel Marian Feinberg, Environmental and social justice activist; Bronx, NY Harry Feldman, Blogger Keith Fine, Birmingham, AL Deborah Fink, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods; UK Julius Fisher, Vancouver, BC Alexei Folger, Jewish Voice for Peace; Bay Area Maxine Fookson, Jewish Voice for Peace; Portland, OR Racheli Gai, Tucson Women in Black; Jewish Voice for Peace Prof. Roni Gechtman, PhD, Mount Saint Vincent University; Halifax, NS Nicole Gevirtz, Voorhees, NJ Amit Gilutz, Ithaca, NY Dr. Terri Ginsberg, film scholar; Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism; NYC Christoph Glanz, Oldenburg, Germany Neta Golan, ISM, Palestinian Territories Nathan Goldbaum, International Socialist Organization; Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, Chicago Teachers Union Sharon Goldberg, Surrey, BC Michael Golden, Ashland, OR Steve Goldfield, PhD, Former chair, Palestine Solidarity Committee; former editor, Palestine Focus; Oakland, CA Jean R. Goldman, Women in Black; Miami Beach Rachel Goldstein, Lakewood, CO Sue Goldstein, Women in Solidarity with Palestine; Toronto, ON Arifa Goodman, San Cristobal, NM Kathryn Goodman, Paekakariki, Kapiti Coast, Wellington, NZ Marty Goodman, Former Executive Board member, Transport Workers Union Local 100, NYC Allen Greenberg, NYC Terry Greenberg, Vancouver, BC Shaina Greiff, Researcher/writer; London, UK Jennifer Grossbard Heidi Grunebaum, Cape Town Cathy Gulkin, Independent Jewish Voices; Queers Against Israeli Apartheid; Toronto, ON Georges Gumpel, Union Juive Française pour la Paix Freda Guttman, Tadamon!; Montreal Boris Hammerschlag, Internationalist Socialist League, grandson of holocaust survivors and victims (Dachau); Israel/Occupied Palestine Shaul Hanuka, Mitzpe Ramon Benjamin Hecht, Germany Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, Author and journalist; Germany Elliot Helman, Jewish Voices for Peace; San Francisco, CA Annette Herskovits, Holocaust survivor, writer, and activist; Berkeley, CA Louis Hirsch, Chicago, IL Rebecca Hom, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-U.S. Bec Hynek,Socialist Alternative; Sydney, NSW Naomi Isaacs, Munich, Bavaria *Jews Opposing Zionism, Not In Our Name – NION (Canada)
Riva Joffe, Jews Against Zionism; London, UK Bette Jones, Jews for Justice for Palestinians; Network of Oxford Women (NOW) for Justice & Peace; UK Ramsey Judah, Activist and immigration rights attorney; Los Angeles, CA Elena Judensnaider, São Paulo, SP, Brazil Alex Kane, Assistant Editor, Mondoweiss.net; World Editor, AlterNet Dan Kaplan, Executive Secretary, AFT Local 1493, San Mateo, CA Community College Federation of Teachers Jenny Kastner, Cambridge, MA Louis Katz, Longmeadow, MA Martha H. Katz, Youngstown, OH Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta, Author, Refusing to be Enemies: Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israeli Occupation; Independent Jewish Voices–Canada; Burnaby, BC Asaf Kedar, Zochrot Alice Diane Kisch, Jewish Voice for Peace; Emeryville, CA Elena Klaver, Niwot, CO Janet Klecker, Sonoma Valley Peace & Justice Mark Klein, Toronto, ON Dr. Irena Klepfisz Jacob Klippenstein, Chicago, IL Harris Kornstein, Graduate student, UC Santa Cruz Bud Korotzer, Brooklyn, NY Francine Korotzer, Brooklyn, NY Yael Korin, Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid; Southern California Al Kovnat, Vietnam Vets Against the War; OSS; Veterans for Peace; Bensalem, PA Prof. Emeritus Steve Kowit, American poet, Southwestern College *L.A. Jews for Peace Rosa Kurshan-Emmer, public school teacher; Oakland, CA Micha Kurz, Grassroots Jerusalem; Al-Quds Sylvia Laale, Ottawa, ON Stephen Landau, Translator and publisher; White Plains, NY David Landy, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign Lenny Lapon, Springfield, MA Valerie Lasciak, WILPF Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Santa Cruz, CA Lillian Laskin, L.A. Jews for Peace Prof. Barbara Laslett, Seattle, WA Albert Meyer, Gainesville, FL Alan Myerson, Culver City, CA Pauline Laurance
Chuck Scurich, Oakland, CA Melanie Lazarow, University of Melbourne, Australia Rachel Lederman, Attorney; San Francisco, CA Howard Lenow, Union Attorney, Founder, American Jews For A Just Peace;
Sudbury, MA Aaron Lerner, Senior, University of Washington-Seattle Leah Levane, Jews for Justice for Palestinians; London, UK Adam Levenstein
Michael Levin, Musician; Chicago, IL Rebekah Levin, Steering Committee, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine; Oak Park, IL Daniel Levyne, Union juive française pour la paix, France Brenda Lewis, Child of Holocaust survivor; Guelph, ON Mark Lickerman, Chicago, IL Molly Lidz, Labor organizer; Philadelphia, PA Daniella Liebling, Brooklyn, NY Prof. Emerita Abby Lippman, McGill University, Montreal Dave Lippman, NYC Michael Locker, NYC Stephanie Locker, NYC Jennifer Loewenstein, Faculty & Programming Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Madison Henry Lowi Prof. Alex Lubin, American University of Beirut David Makofsky, Research anthropologist; Oakland, CA/Beijing, PRC Helga Mankovitz, Independent Jewish Voices; Kingston, ON Eli Marcus, Occupied Palestine Richard Marcuse, Independent Jewish Voices; West Vancouver, BC Katrina Mayer, Jewish socialist & anti-Zionist; Leeds, UK Hilda Meers, Scottish Jews For a Just Peace Helaine Meisler, Jews Say No!, Middle East Crisis Response Chloe Meltzer Peter Melvyn, Critical Jewish Voice; Vienna Abraham Melzer, Publisher and Journalist; Neu Isenburg, Germany Waldo Mermelstein, Sao Paulo, Brasil Karen Meshkov, Philadelphia, PA Gail Miller, Passenger, U.S. Boat to Gaza-The Audacity of Hope; NY Prof. David Moshman, Lincoln, NB Susannah Nachenberg, Oakland, CA Dorothy Naor, Herzliah, Israel Ofer Neiman, Jerusalem, Israel Sheryl Nestel, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Toronto, ON Prof. Hilton Obenzinger, Palo Alto, CA Orna Neumann, London, UK Marlene Newesri, NYC Hiam Tabbarah Odds, Spain Paula Orloff, Nevada City, CA Norah Orlow, Jerusalem Akiva Orr (1931-2013), Matzpen Dr. Susan Pashkoff, London, UK Ibrahim Paul, Sweden Sharon Pavlovich, Teacher, NYC Yael Petretti, Southampton, MA Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace; Albany, CA Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Peter Purich, Ottawa, ON Prof. Peter Rachleff, Macalester College; Saint Paul, MN Dr. Marco Ramazzotti Stockel, Ebrei Contro l’Occupazione; Roma Roland Rance, Jews Against Zionism; London, UK Zohar Chamberlain Regev, Dúrcal; Granada, Spain Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace-EJJP Germany Renen, Boycott From Within; Tel Aviv Ernest Rodker, Jews for Justice for Palestinians; UK Barbara Rosenbaum, Co-editor, Patterns of Prejudice; London, UK Ernesto Rosenberg, Gynecologist; Neuquén, Argentina Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, Chair, British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) Emma Rosenthal, Director, Cafe Intifada; Los Angeles, CA Yehoshua Rosin, Gush-Shalom; Rehovot, Israel Martha Roth, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver, BC Peter Roth, Stockholm, Sweden Reuben Roth, Laurentian University, Oshawa, ON Gerald Rozner, Monroe, MI Prof. Cheyl A. Rubenberg, Boca Raton, FL Rachel Rubin, Chicago, IL Sandra Ruch, Toronto, ON Michael Sackin, Leicester, UK Leslie Safran, London, UK Margot Salom, Just Peace for Palestine; Brisbane, Australia Marlena Santoyo, Jewish Quaker, Germantown Friends Meeting, Philadelphia, PA Prof. Christiane Schomblond (Ret.), University of Brussels Ralph Schoenman, Author: Hidden History of Zionism; Vallejo, CA Abraham Schultz, Mexico City Chuck Scurich, Oakland, CA Susan Schwartz, Thousand Oaks, CA Sylvia Schwarz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Saint Paul, MN Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League; Haifa Amanda Sebestyen, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Independent Jewish Voices Carole Seligman, Co-editor, Socialist Viewpoint; San Francisco, CA Noa Shaindlinger, PhD candidate, Department of Near and Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto Stephen Shenfield, Researcher and translator; Providence, RI Ur Shlonsky, Geneva, Switzerland Sid Shniad, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver, BC Mya Shone, Author, The Hidden History of Zionism Benjamin Silverman, Student and writer; New Jersey Inbal Sinai, Tel-Aviv, Israel/Occupied Palestine John Sigler, Jewish Friends of Palestine, Colorado Palestine Solidarity Campaign Judy Slosser, Los Angeles, CA Erica Smith, New Rochelle, NY Kobi Snitz, Tel Aviv Abba A. Solomon, Author of The Speech, and Its Context Peter Sporn, Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice in the Middle East; Oak Park, IL Lyn Stein, San Francisco, CA Marsha Steinberg, BDS LA for Justice in Palestine Alan Stolzer, NYC Bilha Suendermann Golan, Human rights activist; Beit She’arim, Israel Rhonda Sussman Cy Swartz, Grandparents for Peace in the Middle East; Philadelphia, PA Lois Swartz, Grandparents for Peace in the Middle East; Philadelphia, PA Len Szajko, Israel Marta Szedlak, Australia Joshua Tartakovsky, Jerusalem Prof. Barry Trachtenberg, Historian; Albany, NY Matthew Taylor, Founding member, Young Jewish and Proud group within Jewish Voice for Peace; Berkeley, CA Steve Terry, Criminal defense attorney; Brooklyn, NY Sara Traub, Toronto, ON Michael Treiger, Palestine Lily van den Bergh, Documentary filmmaker & organizer; Women in Black; NL Dominique Ventre, French Jewish Union for Peace; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network France Richard Wagman, Honorary Chairman, French Jewish Peace Union (UJFP), Paris Donna Wallach, Founder, Justice for Palestinians Judith Weisman, Independent Jewish Voices; Not in Our Name (NION); Toronto, ON Jeff Warner, La Habra Heights, CA Suzanne Weiss, Not In Our Name (NION); Toronto, ON Barry Weisleder, Federal Secretary, Socialist Action/Ligue pour l’Actionsocialiste; Toronto, ON Devra Wiseman
Adrienne Weller, Freedom Socialist Party; Seattle, WA Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Founder member, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods; UK Bekah Wolf, Co-Founder, Palestine Solidarity Project Tamar Yaron, Founder & moderator: Encounter-EMEM for International Israel-Palestine peace activities; Kibbutz Hazorea, Israel Myk Zeitlin, London, UK Helen Holt Zuckerman, Philadelphia, PA Larry Zweig, Solidarität International e.V.; Fürth, Germany
Allies
*Al Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Avigail Abarbanel, Psychotherapist, activist and writer; Inverness, UK Medhat Abbas, Bioinformatician, Director, Egyptiske KulturSenter I Norge Lamia Abbas, Atlanta Ramy Abdeljabbar, Paterson, NJ Milagros Ahmad, Clermont Jane Alexander, Oxford, UK Faisal Algahtani, Saudi Arabia Elaine Algrain, Luxembourg Tony Ali, Vancouver, BC Jackie Alsaid, Academic lawyer in international law; Fareham, UK Nawal Annab Don Anderson, Vietnam Veteran; Lebanon, OR Muhammad Haris Ansari, Medical student; Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan Marshall Ansell, Sweden Larry C. Anthony, Richardson Enzo Apicella, FCSD/Cartoonist; London, UK Rita Appleby, Grays, Essex, UK B. Ross Ashley, Steering Committee, NDP Socialist Caucus; Toronto, ON Captain Wajkih Asi, Los Angeles, CA Muna Assaf, Ramallah, Palestine Rev. Rene August, Cape Town, South Africa Prof. Silvio Augusto de Carvalho, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil Ahmed Azeddine, Retired didactic engineering specialist, Teknologist Institut, Frederiksberg, Denmark Belal Bahader, Writer/activist, Seton Hall University; South Orange, NJ William Bailey, Kaneohe HI Maggie Bagon, Florence, OR Samar Barakat, London, UK Benjamin Baker, Doctoral candidate, University of Pennsylvania Prof. Mona Baker, Translation Studies, University of Manchester, UK Julien Ball, International Socialist Organization; San Francisco, CA John Banks, Care Africa; Las Vegas, NV Pier Luigi Barberini, Civitella San Paolo, Italy Brenda Barnard, Brighton, UK Julia Barnett, Toronto, ON Faye Bartlett, United Methodist; Bellingham, WA Bonita Behun, Sebastopol, CA Nancy J. Bell, US Student Ambassador for Peace to Israel (1978); Rossville, GA Linda Benedikt, Writer; München, Deutschland Ray Bergmann, Just Peace for Palestine; Brisbane, QLD S. Bergsma, Zwinderen, NL Joshua Beth Ada Bilu, Jerusalem Nils Bjørkelo, Fredrikstad, Norge Paul Bouwmeester, Elgin, IL Anne Bowers, Women in Black; NYC Sallye Steiner Bowyer Soraya Boyd, Facilitate Global; London, UK Eamon Bradley, Derry, Ireland David Bragin, USA Jed Brandt, Occupied Media; Brooklyn, NY Nadine Brennan, Santa Cruz, CA Tibby Brooks, NYC Jean Brown, Oakland, CA Pauline Brown, Oakland, CA Regina Brown, MD, Anochi; San Francisco, CA Tom Brown, Oakland, CA Rick Burgess, Bangor & Ynys Mon Peace and Justice Group, Anglesey, Wales Dr. Clint Le Bruyns, Director & Senior Lecturer of Theology & Development Programme, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa Francisco Caballos, Sefarad Al Andalus, Rojo, Seville, Spain Edith Cacciatore, Novato, CA Maria Cal, Vigo, España Paola Canarutto, Italy Jen Carlo, Staten Island, NY Smadar Carmon, Human rights activist; Toronto, ON Daniel Carnie, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)-UCLA Vittorio Caroselli, Blogger; Palermo, Italy Eva Carter, Pittsburgh, PA Eric Carwardine, Thornlie, Western Australia Teresa Castillo, Madera, CA Carolyn Cicciu, Palestine Education Network (NH) and New Englanders for Justice in Palestine; Goffstown, NH Ben Collins, International HIV Partnerships; London, UK Margot Connolly, Charleville, Co. Cork, Ireland Ismael Cordeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Sue Cosgrave, Cork, Ireland Aquila Coulibaly, Occupy The Hood; Philadelphia, PA Armand Crispin, Staten Island, NY Prof. Susan Curtiss, PhD, UCLA Ian Cuthbertson, UK Michelle Dalnoky, RN; Florida Jamal Daoud, Viva Palestina Australia; Sydney, NSW Susan Daum, MD, NYC Walter Daum, League for the Revolutionary Party; NYC Howard Davidson, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid; Toronto, ON Rebeca Dawson, MD; Houston, TX Jean Day, Seattle, WA Langlois Dominique, Hainaut, Belgium Elsie Dean, Burnaby, BC Pucci Dellanno, Public speaker, music manager; Porterville, CA Alexander R. DeSantiago, Stockton, CA Dr. Sheila Delany, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC Stany Dembour, Belgium David DePoe, Teacher, Rank and File Education Workers of Toronto, Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly Merav Devere, Brighton, UK Gustav Draijer, Amsterdam, NL Francine Dumas, Gatineau, Quebec Shane Duran, Brisbane, QLD Juan De Santiago, San Jose, CA Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian & Gay Solidarity; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Sarah Ebady David Ehrens, Dartmouth, MA Prof. Nada Elia, Antioch University, Seattle WA Hilde Kristin Ellingsund, Norway James A. Everett, President, Ark of the Covenant Foundation Shaban Mahamoud El-Hellou, Gaza, Palestine Ramzy Elian
Liz Elkind, Scotland Philip Englehard, Macclesfield, UK Sydda Essop, Cape Town Unni Evang, Norway David Evans, Rochester, NY Prof. Faramarz Farbod, Moravian College, Nazareth, PA Kathy Felgran, Watertown, MA Daniel Fernandes, Curitiba, PR, Brazil Prof. Gary Fields, University of California, San Diego Michael J. Fitzgerald, Klamath Falls, OR Steven Flowers, Chicago Cuba Coalition Richard Forer, Author, Breakthrough: Transforming Fear into Compassion–A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict; Trenton, NJ Heather Formaini, Italy Sadie Fourie, Pretoria, South Africa Prof. Cynthia Franklin, Univ. of Hawaii Carl Freeman, France Joseph Freeman, Toronto, ON Craig Fulton, UK Patricia Furlough, Conway SC Maria Galan, Spain Alisa Gayle-Deutsch, Toronto, ON Daniel Geery, Salt Lake City, UT Gumpel Georges, Union Juive Française pour la Paix, France Ihsan Ghadieh, Michigan Kamran Ghasri, CA Green Party Israel Divestment Campaign Bilal Billy Gibbons, London, UK W. Gifford, Leesburg Christoph Glanz, Oldenburg, Germany Veronica Golos, Poet, Taos, NM Alicia Fdez Gómez, Asturias Neil Gordon, Author; Paris Alice Graner, Minneapolis, MN Shaina Greiff, Researcher and writer; London, UK Elsa Guerra, San Francisco, CA Leticia Guerra, San Antonio, TX Mitchell Gumbley
Marilyn Hacker, Poet, translator and editor; Paris Ismail Hammad, Fairfield, CA Khaled Hamam, Qatra, Palestine Cliff G. Hanley Marcus Christain Hansen, Alstead, NH Jane Harries, UK Leora Harris, Brooklyn, NY Wendy Hartley, Palestine-Israel Working Group of Nevada County, CA Kamal Hassan, Grants Pass, OR Abe Hayeem, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, UK Dietrich Heißenbüttel, Esslingen, Germany Detlef Heier, Watamu, Coast, Kenya Amy Helfant, Activist and worker Philippe de Henau, ingénieur civil member of ABP, INTAL; Belgium Elise Hendrick, Cincinnati, OH George Henry, Bellevue Shir Hever, Goettingen, Germany Pat Hewett, Friends of Sabeel; USA Guy St. Hialie, Canada Martin Hijmans, Journalist & blogger, Amsterdam, NL Sally Hinshaw, Columbus, OH Reverend Andy Hird, Santa Fe, NM Guus Hoelen, Leusden, NL David Howard, Ojai, CA Michael V. Hugo, Youth and Young Adult Minister; Clinical Social Worker; Mundelein, IL Thami Hukwe, Socialist Party of Azania Tony Iltis, Green Left Weekly, Melbourne, Australia John A. Imani, Los Angeles, CA Jane Jackman, Researcher, UK Mohammed Jaradat, Torrance, CA Jake Javanshir, Toronto, ON Patrick Jay, Occupy Colorado Springs Lee Jenkins, Deputy General Counsel, Howard University; Sterling, VA Michael Jerome, NYC Roland James Jesperson, Attorney, Taylor, ND Nicholas Jewitt, Bangor, Wales, UK Linea Johansen, Social-and healthcare helper; Denmark Susan Kadray, London, ON Ghada Karmi, UK Research Fellow, University of Exeter Adah Kay Asaf Kedar, Zochrot Warren Keller, Clearwater, FL Kieran Kelly, Aotearoa June Forsyth Kenagy, Albany, NY Stephen Kerpen, Portland, OR Dr. Israr Khan, UK Migna Khan, Advocates for Peace and Social Justice; West New York, NJ Dr. Nasir Khan, Historian and peace activist; Oslo, Norway Samira Khoury, Lebanon Mark Kilian, Internationale Socialisten NL, Alkmaar, Nederland John King, NYC Orang Kiyani, London, UK Kim Klausner, San Francisco, CA Susie Kneedler, USA Gill Knight
Margaret Knight, Santa Cruz, CA Terri Knoll, Tampa, FL Kostas Kounenidakis, Athens, Greece Robert Krikourian
Larry Kronen, Albuquerque, NM Elfriede Krutsch, Berlin, Germany Jurgen P. Kuhl, Burnaby, BC *Labor for Palestine
Scott Lafferty, Brighton, UK Mika Laiho, Ex-peacekeeper, UNIFIL, UNPROFOR, IFOR; Pori, Finland David Landy, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Dublin David K. Langstaff, Bay Area, CA Marian Larsen, Odense, Denmark Pam Laurance, London, UK Larry Lawson, Tignish, PEI, Canada Rachel Lea Arthur Leahy, Ireland William Leavy
Lucien Legrand, Président, Comité pour unePaixJuste au Proche-Orient (CPJPO)–Luxembourg Margaret Leicester, Albuquerque, NM Paola Leonardini, Livorno, Italy Kathy Lessuck, Providence, RI Benji de Levie, NL Palestina Komitee, Rotterdam Jeremy Levinger, University of Wisconsin-Madison; St. Paul, MN Carol Frances Likins, ICUJP (Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace); Los Angeles, CA Scott Linder, Fremont, CA Brittney Little, Students for Liberty; Toms River, NJ Brooke Lober, PhD Student, Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson Tristan Lohendrin, Amsterdam, NL Ben Lorber, Journalist and activist; Chicago, IL Leila J. Louis Rhonda Lumley, Pensacola, FL Prof. Andrew Lyons, PhD; Toronto, ON Prof. Emerita Harriet Lyons, University of Waterloo, Toronto, ON Michael McAllister, Founder of Ché scholarship Bethlehem University; Belfast, Ireland Ellen McGovern, Buderim, QLD Dr. William F. McIver II, PhD; Eugene, OR Paula McPheeters
Dorothy Macedo Savdah Manjra, Toronto, ON David Marchesi, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK Daniel Marlin
Eugene Marner, Franklin, NY Robby Martin, Dublin Marita Mayer Marijke Merel, Utrecht, NL Katherine M. Metres, Writer entrepreneur; Silver Spring, MD Cecily Michaels, Blaxland, NSW Salem Mikdadi, China Julia Miranda, Montreal, QC Mirna Miranda, U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation; LaPorte, CO Sean Mohsin, Chicago, IL Jeffrey Monheit, Fresh Meadows, NY Liron Mor, Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine Margrit Moser, Berne, Switzerland Marie Mouradi, East Greenwich, RI Neil Mulholland, Ireland Mariyam Mulla, London, UK Sean Mulligan, Alpharetta, GA Haroon Munir, Watford, UK A. Munshi, Toronto, ON Maarten Muskens, PK NL; Germany Prof. Rima Najjar, Al Quds University, Occupied Palestinian Territory; Bloomington, IN Taghreed Najjar, Amman, Jordan Yahya Nana, Lenasia, South Africa Jeff Neff, Los Angeles, CA Mical Nelken, London, UK Diana Neslen, Ilford, UK Si Neumann, Artist, Cairo Cindy Newman, Los Angeles, CA Hayley Newman *New York City Labor Against the War Tony Nicholas, Sydney, NSW Rael Nidess, MD; Marshall, TX Kathy Nitsan, Berkeley, CA Dagmar Noble, Weston-super-Mare, Avon, UK Devon Nola, Political and social justice activist Judith Norman, San Antonio, TX Henry Norr, Berkeley, CA *North Pyget Sound Israel-Palestine Mission Network, Everett, WA Adam Nuchtern, Houston, TX Cornelius O’Brien, London, UK Dr. John O’Brien, Sydney, NSW Margaret O’Bryan, Australia Gerry Ohannessian, London, UK Annika Ohlson, Teacher; Bjärred, Sweden KajOhrnberg, Historian; Helsinki, Finland Roberta Olimpi
Vaneide Olmo, São Paulo, Brazil Cristina López Ortiz, Barcelona, Spain Sot Otter, Scotland Kevin Ovenden, Palestine solidarity activist and Respect Party; London, UK *Palestine Poster Archives
Pauline Pan, Toronto Students for Justice in Palestine Dr. Kathy Panama, London, UK Meredith Pass, Louisville, KY Judith Pecho, RN; Educator; Corrales Grahame Perkins, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Deutschland Ursula Peters, Germany Mr. Blair M. Phillips, St. Catharines, ON P.G. Phippen, New London, NH Caroline Picker, Phoenix, AZ Daniel Pines, Rochester, NY Sophia Ponders, Interfaith worker; Los Angeles, CA Sylvia Posadas, Blogger, Kadaitcha; Noosa, QLD Jenean Qaddura, SMU; Dallas, TX *Queensland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Australia Ezyño Ezygual Quemasda, Madrid, Spain Steve Quester, Teacher; Brooklyn, NY Attia Rajab, Palestine Solidarity Committee; Stuttgart, Germany Najah Rammouni, Dearborn Heights, MI Boris Ran, Dallas, TX Sterling Rand, Eugene OR Naomi Rankin, Edmonton, AB Ismaeel Abdur-Rasheed, Vietnam-era veteran; NYC Dan Read, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK Peter Reid, Abbotsford, BC Dick Reilly, Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism Michael Richter, München, Deutschland David Rider, Washington Rosalie Riegle, Neighbors For Peace; Evanston, IL Bill Risebero, Palestine Solidarity Committee; Friend of Alrowwad; London, UK William Roberts, Redwood City, CA Liz Roberts, War Resisters League; Brooklyn, NY Stewart Robinson, Cleveland Hts., OH Joan F. Rodriguez, San Mateo, CA Linda Rogers, Bangor and Ynys Mon Peace and Justice Group; Llangoed, Ynys Mon, Wales Ned Rosch
Rudy Ruddell, Castro Valley, CA Michael Ryan, Lacoste, France Sara Saba, Esq., Attorney and human rights activist; Princeton, NJ Katherine Salahi, Oxford, UK Joe Salameh, Brentwood, CA Julieta Salgado, Organizer, New York Students Rising; Brooklyn, NY Herbert Salit, Los Angeles, CA Yasmina Samahy, Houston, TX Dr. Ian Saville, Lecturer, Middlesex University, London, UK Michael Schembri, Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine; Allawah, NSW Gabriel M. Schivone, Ad Hoc Steering Committee, National Students for Justice in Palestine; Tucson, AZ Fred Schloessinger, Nanaimo, BC Margot Schlösser, Malmedy, France Angelika Schneider, German Branch Fellowship of Reconciliation; Lilienthal Björn Schneider, Frankfurt, Germany Prof. Christiane Schomblond (Ret.), Brussels, Belgium *Scientists Without Borders Neil Scott, Auckland, NZ Chuck Scurich, Oakland, CA Prof. Sako Sefiani, Glendale, CA Mehrdad Shahabi, Tehran, Iran Mehraz Shahabi, Bristol, UK Jennifer Selwyn, PhD Mona Seredin, Delray Beach, FL Ellen Shatter, Providence, RI Glenn Shelton, Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice; Detroit, MI Anouche Sherman, London, UK Amanda Joy Sidell, Chicago, IL Damon Simonetti, ACLU, F&AM; Greenfield, MA Sam Simpson, Cork, Ireland Inbal Sinai, Tel-Aviv, Israel/Occupied Palestine Diego Siragusa, Author of “Il terrorismoimpunito”; Biella, IT Melinda Smith, International peace education consultant; Albuquerque, NM *Socialist Party of Azania
Rebecca Anshell Song, Redmond, WA Dan Sockrider, Indianapolis, IN Isabelle Spreafico Prof. Carol Strauss Sotiropoulos, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI John Spritzler, Editor, www.NewDemocracyWorld.org Aviva Stahl, US researcher, CagePrisoners; London, UK Rick Staggenborg, MD, Board President, Take Back America for the People; Coos Bay, OR Burton Steck, Chicago, IL Ron Strand, Vancouver, BC Mary-Alice Strom, USA Deena Stryker, Philadelphia, PA Beverly Stuart, Seattle, WA Dr. Dwyer Sullivvan, Organization Director, Camp Micah: Leadership for Peace and Justice; Kitchener, ON Liz Taha, London, UK Mohamed Taha, London, UK John Taulbee, Fort Wayne, IN H. Kelly Taylor, University City, MO Nadya Tannous Barbara Thiessen, Kansas City Laura Tillem, Wichita, KS Maxime Touzel, Sept-Iles, QC Roger Tucker, Publisher, One Democratic State; Eronga, Michoacan, Mexico Beth Tupper, Allston Rogers Turrentine, WGAwest; Encinitas, CA Samir Twair, Journalist; Los Angeles, CA Willi Uebelherr, Halle/Westfalen, Germany Katie Unger, NYC *US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) Lily van den Bergh, Documentary filmmaker & organizer; Women in Black; Amsterdam, NL Rev. Johan A. van der Merwe, Dutch Reformed Church; George, West Cape, South Africa Dottie Villesvik, North Pyget Sound Israel-Palestine Mission Network; Everett, WA Johan Viljoen, South Africa Maria Vittoria, Italy
Viva Palestina Australia
Fay Waddington, Founding member, Queensland Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Brisbane, Australia Bonnie Walker, Portland, OR Dan Walsh, Palestine Poster Project Archives Sharron Ward, London, UK Stuart Ward, Chairperson, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Thailand;
Bangkok Nadia Warrayat, Washington, DC Kathy Wazana, Director, They Were Promised the Sea; Toronto, ON Terry Weber, NYC Lilian Wehbe
Alison Weir, Executive Director, If Americans Knew, USA Pim Wiersinga, Rotterdam, NL Barbara B. Wilhelm, Brookline, MA Samantha Wischnia, NYU Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP Vincent Calvetti-Wolf, TESC Divest!; Oakland, CA Naomi Woodspring, Palestine Solidarity Committee; UK Elizabeth Woolever, Lay Delegate, United Methodist Upper NY Conference; Rochester Efa Wulle, Wales Rhona Wyer, Bangor & Abglesey Peace & Justice Group; Upper Bangor, Wales Rev. Darrell Yeaney, Santa Cruz, CA Sue Yeaney, Santa Cruz, CA Samar Yunis, Florida Ben Young, London, UK Errol Young, Toronto, ON Frances Yule, Mt. Barker, Western Australia Giuseppe Zambon, Grankfurt am Main, Deutschland Elizabeth Zoob, CSW; Boston
By participating in the boycott, Hawking joins a small but growing list of British personalities who have turned down invitations to visit Israel, including Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Annie Lennox and Mike Leigh.
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Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel
Physicist pulls out of conference hosted by president Shimon Peres in protest at treatment of Palestinians
Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
A statement published with Stephen Hawking’s approval said his withdrawal was based on advice from academic contacts in Palestine. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
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Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Hawking, 71, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, had accepted an invitation to headline the fifth annual president’s conference, Facing Tomorrow, in June, which features major international personalities, attracts thousands of participants and this year will celebrate Peres’s 90th birthday.
Hawking is in very poor health, but last week he wrote a brief letter to the Israeli president to say he had changed his mind. He has not announced his decision publicly, but a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine with Hawking’s approval described it as “his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there”.
Hawking’s decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.
In April the Teachers’ Union of Ireland became the first lecturers’ association in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in the United States members of the Association for Asian American Studies voted to support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so.
In the four weeks since Hawking’s participation in the Jerusalem event was announced, he has been bombarded with messages from Britain and abroad as part of an intense campaign by boycott supporters trying to persuade him to change his mind. In the end, Hawking told friends, he decided to follow the advice of Palestinian colleagues who unanimously agreed that he should not attend.
By participating in the boycott, Hawking joins a small but growing list of British personalities who have turned down invitations to visit Israel, including Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Annie Lennox and Mike Leigh.
However, many artists, writers and academics have defied and even denounced the boycott, calling it ineffective and selective. Ian McEwan, who was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 2011, responded to critics by saying: “If I only went to countries that I approve of, I probably would never get out of bed … It’s not great if everyone stops talking.”
Hawking has visited Israel four times in the past. Most recently, in 2006, he delivered public lectures at Israeli and Palestinian universities as the guest of the British embassy in Tel Aviv. At the time, he said he was “looking forward to coming out to Israel and the Palestinian territoriesand excited about meeting both Israeli and Palestinian scientists”.
Since then, his attitude to Israel appears to have hardened. In 2009, Hawking denounced Israel’s three-week attack on Gaza, telling Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera that Israel’s response to rocket fire from Gaza was “plain out of proportion … The situation is like that of South Africa before 1990 and cannot continue.”
The office of President Peres, which has not yet announced Hawking’s withdrawal, did not respond to requests for comment. Hawking’s name has been removed from the speakers listed on the official website.
Very often my living in Israel is thrown at me in a negative way ….
How could you?
Why did you??
How dare you!!!
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But, when reports such as the following come to light, I feel that living here has not been a total waste of time, even if there are just a handful of people like Natan Blanc. They are the future and the hope both of Israel and the Jewish people. It symbolizes the real Peace Process that is meant to be.
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THANK YOU NATAN!
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“Natan is very stubborn − already as a boy he knew what he wanted,” Judy Blanc, 84, says. A well-known veteran left-wing activist in Jerusalem, including in Women in Black, she played a large part in shaping her grandson’s worldview. “She is brimming with energy and vitality, and is very sharp,” Natan says. “She always finds something in common with the person opposite her. She’s right: I am stubborn and always stick to my opinions.”
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Grandson of Americans is Israeli army’s longest serving conscientious objector
Even after ten consecutive terms at Military Prison 6 – for refusal to serve in an army whose government he believes continues to occupy another people – Natan Blanc is standing firm.
ByDaliaKarpel
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A protester displays a poster in support of Natan Blanc at a demonstration in London.
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Like all those incarcerated in Military Prison 6, south of Haifa and near Atlit, conscientious objector Natan Blanc wears Marine camouflage fatigues. Nothing could be more symbolic. Join the army and see America − in Prison 6.
Reveille is at 4:45 A.M., after which the day progresses from one roll call to another. Blanc works in the kitchen. On Saturday morning two weeks ago, the heat in the prison was high-noon oppressive. The interview with Blanc was conducted by phone. He sounded eerily calm. It was his 145th day of incarceration. The next day, Sunday, May 19, he told me, was cause for celebrating “exactly half a year since the first time I reported to the Israel Defense Forces National Induction Center.”
Blanc will complete his current sentence on June 6, with 178 days of imprisonment behind him. To my rhetorical question of how he was feeling, he replied, “Besides the fact that it’s hard to get used to the severe heat, I’m doing fine. When I reported for my current incarceration, the 10th, I was disappointed about once more facing 28 long days in jail. But the first week went by quite fast, and the second will, too. So, if we ignore the heat for a moment, life in Prison 6 is pretty easy.”
Blanc spends most of his time in the kitchen, making salads, and polishing and shining the utensils (“I have become an expert in scouring frying pans”). “When I first entered the prison we had a television in the mess hall and were allowed to watch 20 minutes each evening. At the moment we don’t have a TV or a radio. We get [mass-circulation] newspapers every day − Yedioth Ahronoth, Maariv, sometimes Israel Hayom − so I know what’s happening.”
Blanc tried to keep a diary but found that he was too busy to devote himself to daily writing. He reads voraciously. He recently finished Amos Oz’s 1991 novel “The Third Condition,” which addresses the issue of messianism against the backdrop of the first intifada. He then plunged immediately into Joseph Heller’s mordant 1974 novel “Something Happened.”
His grandmother, Judy Blanc, gave him the collected works of Berthold Brecht, in English, as a present. And just for the fun of it, and because he loved the Harry Potter books as a boy, he bought J.K. Rowling’s novel for adults (“The Casual Vacancy”) on his last furlough.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Supporters of Natan Blanc in Cairo, Egypt.No for Compulsory Military Service Movement
In November 2012, Blanc chose to refuse to obey the order to perform active service in the IDF. It is unconscionable, he believes, to serve in the army of the State of Israel, whose government has chosen consciously to continue the occupation and the settlement project.
“As elected officials, the members of the government are under no obligation to spell out their vision for the country’s future, and they have the right to pursue this bloody cycle with no end in sight. But we, as citizens, as human beings, have a moral duty to refuse to play this cynical game,” he wrote in his declaration of refusal. Blind obedience, he emphasized, is not always the right solution.
Blanc turned 20 on May 17. That morning, one of the cooks managed to make a cake out of ingredients in the main kitchen. He laid out cold cuts, and all of Blanc’s friends from the kitchen and the prison came to congratulate him on this milestone occasion.
Are you well liked in the prison?
“I think so. Comparatively speaking, I am a person who manages to get along and be well-enough liked. I was loved at home and in my circle of friends. I think people should learn to love themselves as much as they can.”
He doesn’t have a girlfriend these days, and there are times during the day when he misses his friends. Sometimes he longs for his parents, David and Naomi. He speaks to them almost every day; they visit him every two weeks, and he spends the time between periods of incarceration at home.
What do you do at moments of crisis or anger?
“I remind myself that you don’t have to take everything too seriously, and especially not the hard things in life. When I feel low, I remind myself that I am doing the right thing, that I had no other choice and that there was no other moral act I could have chosen. I do not forget that I am in jail by choice. I have learned to enjoy the little things – for example, conversations with other prisoners. We have a lot of laughs. Yesterday I enjoyed the cake my friends brought me for my birthday. You can find plenty of good things in prison, it’s just a matter of locating them.”
How do the other prisoners respond to the fact you are a conscientious objector?
“Some of the prisoners here were delighted to be drafted and were highly motivated, but during their service they ran into difficulties, usually for personal reasons, such as economic hardship at home, and they went AWOL or deserted. They take a great interest in my private story. For many of them, this is the first time they have met someone like me, who espouses views so different from theirs. Quite a few prejudices about left-wingers were quickly shattered. Most of them are angry and disappointed at the IDF for not understanding their problems. They treat me well and we have actually become friends.”
‘Go all the way’
“Natan is very stubborn − already as a boy he knew what he wanted,” Judy Blanc, 84, says. A well-known veteran left-wing activist in Jerusalem, including in Women in Black, she played a large part in shaping her grandson’s worldview. “She is brimming with energy and vitality, and is very sharp,” Natan says. “She always finds something in common with the person opposite her. She’s right: I am stubborn and always stick to my opinions.”
He never knew his grandfather, Prof. Haim Blanc, a linguist who was a world-renowned expert in Arabic dialects: “From my childhood I have been interested in my grandfather, who broke off his studies at Harvard, came to Israel in the War of Independence as a volunteer, fought in the war, was wounded and became blind. I wonder what he would say about this confrontation between conscience and the law, which has been forced on me.”
Judy, who discerns resemblances between Natan and his late grandfather, answers that question: “I think Haim would be proud of his grandson Natan. He would say that Natan thinks for himself. A person needs to decide what’s important for him and stick to it, go all the way with it. When it comes to that, grandfather and grandson are very much alike.”
Blanc waited expectantly on his birthday. He had a feeling that his family and friends would surprise him. At 4 P.M. they gathered outside the prison and held up posters with birthday greetings. Balloons, too. “It was so moving,” Blanc says. “A friend and I saw the whole thing from the prison. We even waved to them with a towel and they waved back. They played music and sang birthday songs. I didn’t get to celebrate properly, but it was very special, considering the fact that I am incarcerated. I am so proud and filled with warm feelings for my family and friends, who are continuing to demonstrate and act for my release.”
They are indeed active. On May 16, 36 lecturers from the law faculties in local universities sent a letter to IDF Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Danny Efroni, calling for Blanc to be released in June after serving 10 consecutive terms, in order to avoid unnecessary harm to his freedom of conscience. A petition calling for his release can be found at freenatanblanc.wordpress.com (Hebrew and English). The site also contains information about demonstrations held for Blanc, and about Israeli and international media reports about him, including articles in English daily The Guardian.
As of this week, Blanc’s supporters are running two international campaigns on his behalf, and have also called on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to intercede for Blanc. In the early 1970s, Kerry, then a discharged soldier, was active against the war in Vietnam and called on Congress to end the unjust conflict. The expectation is that Kerry will take the matter up with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, and will find a connection between his own antiwar activity in the ’70s and Blanc’s stance. (Kerry, it should be noted, fought in Vietnam as a lieutenant and was awarded three citations for bravery.) The approach to Kerry is being made through Jewish Voice for Peace, an American organization whose members “are inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace and social justice,” according to its website.
Prof. Kobi Peter (Peterzil), head of the department of mathematics at the University of Haifa, is a friend of the Blanc family and a colleague of Natan’s father, the mathematician Prof. David Blanc. Peter has known Natan since he was born.
“It’s hard to know if he is the ‘last Mohican,’” Peter says. “Maybe his actions will give rise to something. He is doing what he feels deep inside. He is neither arrogant nor prideful, and has no desire for fame. Nor does he think, ‘I know better than others.’
“He seems to have given the matter a great deal of thought before launching his struggle,” Peter adds. “I see it as climbing a high mountain, but we have to remember that he did not travel to a distant land to find himself: He was inducted at the age of 19, after spending a year doing community service. In his declaration of refusal, he speaks directly into the camera and explains how he perceives citizenship, which for him entails responsibility for Israel’s actions in the territories for the past 46 years. His friends are probably telling him, ‘Let it go, don’t be so grim. Take an office job at HQ or get a mental health discharge.’
“Natan, who views citizenship as a binding obligation, is as stubborn as his parents. He is made of the stuff of heroes. Part of what he is doing is aimed at opening a door and laying a foundation for recognition of a conscientious objector’s right to refuse to serve.”
‘Lying is wrong’
Natan Blanc is well aware that the IDF never releases people for reasons of conscience, other than reservists. Why, then, I ask him, is he wasting energy when there is no way he will change the army’s approach? Isn’t it time to climb down?
“From the outset of my struggle, my aim was not to preach in favor of one approach or another,” he says. “I repeat: My reason for refusing is one of conscience. The option of seeing a mental health officer in order to get a discharge, because it’s tough for me in prison, or for some psychological reason, is not relevant. I also think that people who take that route are making a mistake.
“Throughout, my actions have been dictated solely by my conscience. It is essential to be obstinate and speak your truth, down to the last comma. That is the only thing that can influence society when it must decide on issues of principle and forgo manipulation. I am against lying. Lying is wrong in every situation − and especially in the case of military service. The IDF really likes to get people who refuse to serve to say, ‘I am depressed-crazy-handicapped, etc.’ So it is important to underscore that my refusal does not stem from mental reasons.”
Do you view your refusal as a type of civic patriotism?
“I don’t like the word patriotism. It somehow connects with love of homeland, and with nationalistic viewpoints that produce more and more wars. I don’t know whether my refusal supports the continued existence of the Jewish state in the territories of the Land of Israel. Let’s say that was not the aim of my refusal. I was out to act according to my conscience, in part for the good of society.”
You could advance your political goals in a civic framework. Why continue within the military framework?
“The military framework was forced upon me, just as it is forced upon every young Israeli by law. I had no choice, and I am being forced to be tried time and again by officers at the induction center, though in the future I might face a court-martial. I did not choose this. As for acting within a civic framework, obviously I will do that.”
Blanc did his year of community service in an organization founded by the businessman Erel Margalit, now a Labor MK, aimed at empowering weak families. Blanc was active in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, built after 1967. In the morning he helped secular children who were having difficulty in school; in the afternoon, he did the same in an ultra-Orthodox school, where he was dubbed “Reb Natan.”
At the end of the year, on November 19, 2012, he reported to the induction center. That was five days after the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, the commander of the military wing of Hamas, an operation that marked the start of Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. Blanc hoped he would be able to persuade the army to allow him to do national service, perhaps in Magen David Adom (the local version of the Red Cross), where he had been a volunteer during his high school period. But the army said no. Blanc refused to put on a uniform and was sentenced to his first term in prison. Since then, he has reported back to the center at the end of each prison term. He will do so again in two weeks, after completing his 10th term. No one knows what the IDF has in store for him.
Is there a stage at which one adjusts to life behind bars, and it becomes a type of routine?
“Yes, one can talk about a routine. Sad though it is, my stay in Prison 6 is starting to resemble compulsory service. What weighs down on day-to-day life is the uncertainty about when it all will end and what they are planning for me afterward. That’s the hard part.”
Are you ready for the possibility that your case, which the IDF is dealing with by what it calls “special means,” might end, as in the case of Jonathan Ben-Artzi − Sara Netanyahu’s nephew − and other refuseniks, who were court-martialed for political refusal and, in some cases, spent almost two years in prison?
“I am prepared for that mentally, but I hope it will not come to that and that the army authorities will have the good sense to put an end to my case without all that chaos. If I have no choice, I will face a military court, and if necessary I will spend a year in prison. I hope we succeed, and that I will not have to be imprisoned for such a lengthy period. Of course it scares me, but on the other hand, when it comes to principles of conscience, not even a prolonged prison term will change my stance. There are more important things than my own personal comfort or the price this exacts from me.”
Are you not disappointed by the apathy of the Israeli public and by the fact that yours is a lone voice?
“My refusal is not intended to get more soldiers to do the same, but to emphasize that, as an Israeli citizen, I acted according to my conscience. The fact that I am alone just now in thinking this way and acting on it is also fine. I am disappointed to some extent in Israeli society − the fact that much of it does not agree about the actions that need to be taken to stop the occupation and our rule over another nation.”
Not a political objector
Blanc calls himself a conscientious objector and emphasizes that he is not a political objector. “The IDF distinguishes between a selective conscientious objector, who refuses to serve only in the IDF (though not in other armies) and a pacifist conscientious objector, who refuses to serve in all armies. The IDF likes to differentiate between the political objector whose aim is to oppose the government’s policy, and the conscientious objector, who wants to spare himself from taking part in actions that conflict with his conscience. That differentiation is divorced from reality. If you look at the dry legal definition, I am closer to conscientious objection than to what is defined as political refusal.”
The IDF is not accepting the solution Blanc has proposed: three years of service in Magen David Adom. “They made it clear that the option of civilian service is not relevant here. From their point of view, it makes no difference whether you refuse because you feel like backpacking abroad or because you want to do national service.”
In contrast to most of his high school classmates, Blanc never dreamed of being a combat soldier. He started pondering the question of army service in 10th grade: “In December 2008, when the fighting erupted in Gaza, in Operation Cast Lead, my doubts only increased, but I still wasn’t sure I would refuse. Even after the preliminary call-up order arrived, I continued to wrestle with myself. The moment at which I grasped clearly that I would be a conscientious objector came just before I was supposed to embark on a year of national service through the Mahanot Ha’olim youth movement, in which I was a member for years. That track was supposed to take us into a Nahal paramilitary brigade, to do a year of civilian service before entering the IDF. I could not commit to doing army service. I left and did volunteer work in the community through a different organization.”
How old were you when you developed your political beliefs?
“At the time of the Gaza disengagement, in 2005, I was a curious and interested 12-year-old in elementary school. I tried to form an opinion about the evacuation of the Jewish settlements from the Strip. I was a member of Mahanot Ha’olim, which is, relatively speaking, a politically oriented youth movement. We held discussions about these issues. My political thinking took shape over time. Toward the end of juniorhigh I was already an involved political activist, and for a short time I was a member of Banki [Youth Communist League of Israel].”
Did going to demonstrations with your parents influence you?
“My parents took me to demonstrations when I was a boy. I was 6 years old and sat on Dad’s shoulders at a demonstration in Haifa. I remember going with Dad when volunteers renovated homes in the Khalisa neighborhood [an Arab section of Haifa]. That had a great effect on me, on top of which there were many children of my age there. But attending demonstrations with my parents does not constitute a significant element in my development as a political individual. If anything, my activity with Ta’ayush [an Israeli-Palestinian group that advocates nonviolence] during the Palestinian olive harvest has influenced me. You get to meet Palestinian people and discover there is no reason for the hatred and the racism in the air. I was 11 when I went with Dad on my first Palestinian olive harvest. That was meaningful. Going to demonstrations did not contribute in this regard. I am not fond of demonstrations. There is a lot of shouting and very little talking there.”
I get the impression that your mother is ambivalent about the character of your struggle. What do your parents think about your refusal to serve in the army?
“At first it was hard for them. They both served in the Intelligence Corps and they do not fully agree with what I am doing. Over time they came to support me as their son, irrespective of their identification with my struggle. It took time for them to understand that maybe, despite everything, [displaying] civic courage is the right thing, and that I had no other choice.
“Today, they understand that, at least from my point of view, I am taking the right steps. I have two sisters who support me. One did not serve in the army and the other one served in intelligence, like our parents, and she is less positive about what I am doing. It’s funny that the whole family served in intelligence and two are refuseniks.”
‘A regular child’
Natan Blanc was born in May 1993, in Jerusalem, the youngest child of David and Naomi, a lecturer in literature at Oranim − School of Education of the Kibbutz Movement. One sister, Ayelet, 26, is employed in high-tech; the other, Hamutal, 23, is doing volunteer work in Tanzania. In 2005, David and Naomi became the foster parents of a 7-year-old boy, who lived with the family for five years.
The Blancs moved to Haifa when Natan was three. The kindergarten teacher called the parents in for a talk and told them their boy didn’t like being told that something was not allowed. “He was a sociable boy who played chess and read a lot, but all in all he was a regular child,” his mother relates.
At this point, Judy interjects. “Natan was not so ordinary as a boy. He was smart and sweet at the same time, and thought for himself.” Naomi smiles. “Natan is his father’s son. When David and I quarrel sometimes, Natan takes his father’s side.”
Blanc attended the Open School in Haifa and went on to junior high in Reut, a community school for the arts, in the film track. He made four short movies; his graduation project, “Friends of Cancer,” was about a sick girl and her relations with her classmates.
Many left-wingers who attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 1970s have fond memories of the home of Haim and Judy Blanc. One of them is Smadar Nahav, who founded Tsofen, a high-tech nonprofit center in Nazareth, with the aim of integrating Israel’s Arab citizens in the computer-technology industry.
Nahav is married to Noam Kaminer, a historian, scientist and veteran left-wing activist who was one of the 160 soldiers who refused to serve in the first Lebanon war. Their son, Matan, was one of those court-martialed in 2003 − along with Shimri Tsameret, Noam Bahat and Adam Maor − for refusing to serve in the IDF as long as it is an occupation army, and spent time in jail.
Nahav met Judy and Haim when she was a student at the Hebrew University. “The first meetings with left-wing people were held at their home in [Jerusalem’s affluent] Talbieh neighborhood. Judy was the moving spirit.
“It was an inspiring home,” Nahav says, “where people talked about the possibilities of a common future for us and the Palestinians. It was in their home that the Committee for Solidarity with Birzeit University and the Committee Against the War in Lebanon were formed. I joined the left under the inspiration of Haim and Judy.”
At this stage of the conversation, de Malach starts to become worried. “Natan is not brainwashed, and I don’t want the article to create the impression that his grandmother and his parents are from Hadash and Women in Black, and that whole left scene. “Natan is an independent entity. In the last demonstration outside Prison 6, he heard his supporters shouting that ‘the IDF is a terrorist organization,’ and he told me on the phone that he was very upset by that.”
I asked David Blanc whether he fears for his son. “The IDF is not the army of the czar,” he replied. “In the end, a solution will be found. Natan is not a draft dodger and is not looking for shortcuts. He wants to serve the country and conclude his service on the same day that the members of his graduating class are discharged from the IDF.
“I don’t think the army will break him. If they discharge him within a reasonable time, he will do service in Magen David Adom. In the meantime, he is waiting and has registered to do a matriculation exam in physics.”
Judy Blanc is a beautiful woman, not least because of the vitality she projects and her warm, direct gaze. She was introduced to Haim Blanc by his friend, the poet T. Carmi; she was then a young woman who was studying history.
She and Haim knew each other for many years, having been friends before they became a couple. That occurred after he was wounded and returned to the United States for rehabilitation. They were married in Israel in 1954.
“Haim was stable and strong and stubborn,” Judy says. “I loved him. He was somewhat aloof but very much loved children and dogs.” His son David recalls that he was a hands-on, loving father who told him bedtime stories. Judy and Haim had three children: Sara, a psychologist; David; and Jeremiah Blanc, who is involved in wastewater treatment.
Admiring the grandfather
One of Haim Blanc’s admirers is Sasson Somekh, professor emeritus of modern Arab literature at Tel Aviv University and an Israel Prize laureate (2005). “I had the privilege to meet a true genius and to be his friend for years,” he says of Blanc.
Somekh even devotes a chapter of his 2008 volume of memoirs, “Call it Dreaming” (in Hebrew), to his friendship with the linguist. This week, Somekh said, “I don’t personally know his grandson, Natan Blanc, but I see him as a very positive force, if not a national hero. It is clear that we need someone who will stick to his guns and not be afraid. People will call him a traitor, and so forth, but he has no fear. He is healthy for us and for the Israeli society.”
According to Somekh, the chapter about Haim Blanc is the loveliest in the memoir. “He was a salient left-wing person who came from a liberal milieu at Harvard,” he explained. “He completed his undergraduate studies in linguistics at Harvard under the tutelage of Roman Jakobson, one of the greatest linguists of our time.
“Blanc submitted a research paper on the influence of the Slavic languages on Yiddish,” he adds. “Within three years, in 1953, he completed his doctoral studies at the Hebrew University, which focused on the Druze dialect in Western Galilee and Mount Carmel. And he did it all as a blind man.”
There are many who still recall Blanc’s tall figure walking in Jerusalem and on the Hebrew University campus with his German Shepherd guide dog. Somekh writes of his “distinctive personality which radiates friendship and warmth,” adding that Blanc could also be gruff and impatient in an argument about matters related to the Hebrew language.
Haim Blanc was born in 1926 in Czernowitz (then in Romania, now part of Ukraine) to parents of Russian-Ukrainian origin. He was educated in Paris, to where his parents had immigrated. In the summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the war, the family moved to New York. He eventually went on to Harvard, but his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. From 1944-1946, he served as the commander of an infantry unit in Germany. Because of his linguistic fluency (he spoke French, Russian, Yiddish, English and Hebrew), he was appointed a liaison officer with the French army in occupied Austria.
Afterward, he resumed his studies, but when the Israeli War of Independence broke out, he boarded a ship for Haifa and was taken directly to an army base, where he was issued a uniform and given the rank of second lieutenant.
In an interview with Army Radio in 1971, Blanc related that he had encountered no difficulty in making the transition from the pastoral Harvard scene to being an officer in the Palmach, the elite strike force of the Haganah (the prestate underground Jewish militia).
During the second truce, in July 1948, Blanc’s unit was sent to reinforce the Harel Brigade, in the Judean Hills. They took up positions in the police station at Hartuv, on the road to Jerusalem; he served for a few weeks and even went on furlough in Jerusalem.
A normal life
One evening, mortar fire struck their position and he suffered a head wound. Shrapnel struck him in both eyes. In the Army Radio interview, he recalled, “I felt a strong blow to the head. Shrapnel penetrated the right side of my head. I felt a powerful blow and the blood hemorrhaging. I tried to give orders to the soldiers, but my deputy told me to lie down and he covered my eyes with gauze.”
It was not until a few weeks later, when he was on the way to the port of Haifa, heading home to New York, that a physician informed him that he was irrecoverably blind. The way Blanc coped with the disaster is nothing short of astonishing. He decided to lead a normal life. He was treated in a New York institute and prepared for a sightless life. His family and friends were there for him; he could not have done it alone.
Despite the difficulties, the need to learn Braille and to have academic material read to him, he became a professor and a distinguished linguist. He married and raised a family.
Blanc returned to Harvard in 1958 and a research project entitled, “Communal Dialects in Baghdad,” about language usage by Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Iraqi capital; his study was published by Harvard University Press.
Somekh notes in his book that researching the Iraqi dialects required not only a stay in Baghdad, which was not possible, but also interviewing “witnesses” whom Blanc met in the United States, and transcribing unerringly what they said. Blanc, who suffered from arteriosclerosis, died in 1984, aged 58.
For her part, de Malach finds the public exposure her family is experiencing excruciatingly difficult. She is from Kibbutz Revivim, in the Negev, and describes herself as shy and modest.
“Natan’s refusal thrust me into all kinds of places,” she notes. “I am ready to demonstrate and visit him, but the public exposure is hard for me. Not everyone is aware of this part of my life. Certainly I am proud of it, but I do not want to be colored in left-wing political hues because my son is a refusenik.”
In fact, Natan, too, will be happy to abandon the political struggles after he is released from prison. “I want to disengage from this whole political thing and get into science,” he says.
“Politics will always remain part of my identity and my occupations,” he admits. “I hope I will be able to do my national service in Magen David Adom or anywhere else the IDF will approve, and after that I want to study physics or subjects related to technology.”
The Egyptian connection
The act of a lone individual can have a powerful effect. Natan Blanc’s act is resonating widely. Some Haredim admire him. Right-wing activists are also waiting to see how the IDF decides in his case. And he even has supporters in Egypt.
The media reports about Blanc’s latest prison term produced two short posts on the Haredi site Hadrei Hadarim. “My Haredi friends, we can learn something from the secular fellow − hats off to the fellow,” one post said. The other added, “If only we could show the same dedication − not for his reasons, but for ours.”
The army’s decision concerning Blanc is also relevant for young right-wing activists. A discharge will constitute a precedent, and the army will no longer be able to act against soldiers whose conscience does not allow them to evacuate settlers in the territories.
In April, a few Egyptian peace activists demonstrated in Talaat Harb Square, Cairo, calling for Blanc’s release. This is documented on the website of Maikel Nabil Sanad, a 28-year-old Egyptian social activist and blogger, who was the first conscientious objector in Egypt and conducted a 130-day hunger strike. Egyptian law does not recognize the right of citizens to refuse to serve for reasons of religion or conscience. Photographs show peace activists carrying leaflets, calling for Blanc’s immediate release. Blanc, for his part, was happy to hear about the Egyptian peaceniks and had his photo taken holding pictures of his supporters in Cairo.
Jonathan Ben-Artzi, militant pacifist
From the age of 17, Jonathan Ben-Artzi conducted one of the longest struggles ever against the IDF. It began with a letter he wrote to the induction authorities declaring that he was a pacifist. The letter got him a deferral for a year, in the course of which he appeared twice before “conscience committees.” Ultimately, in August 2001, he was issued an order to report for active service.
During his legal struggle, Ben-Artzi was sentenced to prison terms seven times, accumulating 196 days behind bars. The eighth time he was hauled before a military court, which sentenced him to a few months in prison. “I went to the Military Appeals Court, but it left the punishment intact. All this lasted for about a year, during which I was in detention at an education base in Galilee,” he relates. In 2005, he petitioned the High Court of Justice, requesting official recognition as a conscientious objector. He was finally discharged not as such, nor as a pacifist, but on the grounds that he was unfit and lacked motivation to serve in the IDF.
Now 30, he is a mathematician (he obtained his Ph.D. from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island) and teaches at Cambridge University in England. He is attached to Israel and occasionally visits his parents, Ofra and Matania Ben-Artzi, who supported his battle against the IDF unreservedly. “I live in London, but that is temporary,” he says. “I have Israeli citizenship and I am part of what is happening in Israel.” In his last visit, not long ago, he used public transportation and was shocked at the sight of young men and women in uniform and bearing arms.
Ben-Artzi is from a well-known Israeli family. His father, who is a professor of mathematics in the Einstein Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the brother of Sara Netanyahu, a psychologist and the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; of Haggai Ben-Artzi, a lecturer in Jewish thought who lives in the settlement of Beit Eil; and of Amatzia Ben-Artzi, a former combat pilot, now in high-tech, who lives in the United States.
Ben-Artzi knew at the age of 16 that he was a pacifist and that he would not serve in the IDF or any other army. A decade on, he sees his struggle against the army authorities as a sacrifice. “I did not choose it, it was forced on me; but I am proud of what I did,” he says. “Certainly I paid a personal price, but I did something I believe in and is important. It is hard for me to gauge the mental price. I am not capable of being my own psychologist. From a distance of years I see that the struggle was just. There is not a single thing I would change if I had to go through it again. Well, actually I might behave more assertively and more militantly than I did. I have no doubt that I would not try to find other ways to cope with the army, which did nothing less than persecute me. It’s true that it took up time in which I could have done other things, but I have no regrets.”
What was the hardest part?
“When you are released from prison – after 30 days, let’s say – you are filled with hope that this was your last time in incarceration. But then you are informed that you have to go back. It’s a real downer. Again you have to go through the checks when you enter the prison, and the chain of accompanying events, such as what you are allowed and not allowed to take in. And there is a moment when you change into the prison uniform. It’s not easy.
“A more important point, which I understood over the years,” he continues, “is how cruel it is of the IDF authorities to place an 18-19-year-old youngster who is refusing to serve in the position of an educated adult. The IDF expects you to be a learned philosopher so that you will be able to explain the worldview or the way of life that underlies your refusal.
“It is impossible to expect that the objector will have coherent, articulate opinions, which will exactly match the spiel that the members of the committee expect to hear. It’s not reasonable for a young inductee to be called on to explain all the distinctions between the different types of objection to serve. A soldier sits opposite a conscience committee, aware of what Israel is doing in the territories, and he declares that he is a pacifist, and someone judges him and says, No, he is not a pacifist, he is actually a conscientious objector, etc.”
What did being imprisoned for such a long time do to you?
“There were plenty of moments of frustration and loneliness before I realized that I do not have to be ashamed of my stance and that I don’t have to try to be liked by the other side; that I have to feel good about my belief and be faithful to myself and my values. Once that change occurred, life became easier. I projected that to the army’s representatives and then things moved faster. After my fifth round of prison, I began to be afraid that I was serving as a pawn in the hands of all kinds of people who were sending me here for 28 days and there for 35 days, that they were really just playing with me. I understood that they could do whatever they pleased. Because I was convinced of the rightness of my path I had to pay the necessary price and pay it proudly.
“When the commander of the National Induction Center tried me, I told her that she could sentence me to however long a term she wished, but that she should remember full well that one day she would be brought to trial in an international court. She sentenced me to a long term, and when I was brought before her again she transferred the case to her superior officer.”
At the end of your struggle, did your uncle, who is also prime minister, say anything about what you did?
“Even if I were to provide an answer to that question, it would be an uninteresting answer.”
Israel releases conscientious objector Natan Blanc from prison after nearly six months
Blanc, who was protesting the occupation, now seeks to do national service at the Magen David Adom rescue service.
By Gili Cohen
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Natan Blanc, with his father, after his release from military prison on June 4, 2013. Photo by Rami Shalosh
Conscientious objector Natan Blanc was released from military prison Tuesday after a five-and-a-half-month term for refusing to serve in the Israel Defense Forces because of the occupation.
Last week, the IDF had declared Blanc unfit for duty and said it was about to release him.
Blanc, 20, has consistently defined himself as a conscientious objector and has refused to be released from the IDF on psychological grounds. He was sentenced 10 times for a total of 178 days and was let out eight days early.
During Blanc’s time in prison, human rights groups lobbied for his release. Last month several dozen people from academia sent a letter to Military Advocate General Danny Efroni calling for his release on the grounds that he was exercising his right to freedom of conscience.
Blanc intends to apply to the Magen David Adom rescue service to do two years of national service.
Four activists from the Yesh Gvul draft-resistance movement came to Military Prison 6 on Tuesday to congratulate Blanc on his release. “We’re glad that the IDF, even though it had to be pressured politically, understood that there’s no point in remaining angry at someone because he isn’t going to serve,” said an activist in the movement, Yishai Menuhin.
“Yesh Gvul congratulates Natan Blanc for his steadfastness in insisting on his right and obligation to say no to taking part in the occupation’s antidemocratic activities. We’re also glad that the IDF has decided to drop the method of repeated prison sentences for people who are committed to democratic values and are unwilling to take part in activities that contravene them.”
Blanc himself told Haaretz recently: “The option of seeing a mental-health officer in order to get a discharge, because it’s tough for me in prison, or for some psychological reason, isn’t relevant. I think that people who take that route are making a mistake.”
But after my visit to Gaza, I think there’s another reason that the decision to teach Hebrew might not be so surprising after all: the Hebrew language, though not used in Gaza, is visible everywhere, evidence of the ongoing colonial and occupier-occupied relationship between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
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In Gaza, I found Hebrew everywhere
byAli Abunimah
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Under a Gaza City window, a sign for a dentist’s office, likely dating from before 1948, is in Arabic, English and Hebrew.
The move was surprising, given that there is virtually no direct contact between Palestinians in Gaza and Hebrew-speaking Israelis, and just months earlier Palestinian resistance organizations in Gaza had fought back fiercely against the latest Israeli aggression.
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Boxes of produce with Hebrew writing, imported from Israel, are visible in all of Gaza’s markets.
There is some background to this: some Hamas leaders learned to speak Hebrew in Israeli prisons, and thousands of older Palestinians in Gaza are conversant in Hebrew as a result of having worked in Israel as laborers when that was still a possibility.
Arabic and Hebrew have a lot of similarities and, as the BBC reported, the students learning it at school “seem to have taken to it quickly.”
“It is very easy,” 14-year-old Nadine al-Ashi told the BBC. “It is easier than English, it is not difficult at all.” That matches my own experience as an Arabic-speaker who studied Hebrew. If you know Arabic, Hebrew will follow quickly.
Yet during my visit, I did not detect any traces of Hebrew in Gaza Arabic as one finds among Palestinian citizens of Israel, where quite a few Hebrew loan words and idioms have come into day-to-day spoken Arabic.
But after my visit to Gaza, I think there’s another reason that the decision to teach Hebrew might not be so surprising after all: the Hebrew language, though not used in Gaza, isvisible everywhere, evidence of the ongoing colonial and occupier-occupied relationship between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
I also saw some Hebrew graffiti left by occupation forces on Israeli-built fortifications near the Rafah crossing – but I was not quick enough with the camera to get pictures.
During my visit no one commented specifically on the presence of Hebrew (as opposed to Israeli goods which were a topic of discussion).
Is it simply a fact of life under Israeli occupation and siege that people living in Gaza don’t notice any more?
I found it fascinating, and these photos show some of the many places where Hebrew appears in Gaza – just about everywhere you look.
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There are few alternatives to Israeli products in the Gaza Strip. Israel allows imports — because they benefit its companies — while preventing Gaza’s export trade.
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Israeli chocolate milk at the Abu Dallal supermarket in Nuseirat.
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In Gaza City’s second-hand clothes market: a cast off t-shirt from a Zionist youth movement depicts all of historic Palestine as belonging to Israel.
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Many vehicles in Gaza, imported second-hand from Israel, still display stickers and decals in Hebrew.
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Access covers all over Gaza City sidewalks still say “Ministry of Communications” (misrad hatikshoret) in Hebrew.
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A door lock in Maghazi refugee camp.
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Maximum and minimum – in Hebrew.
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Fire extinguisher in a Gaza City building.
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When I tried to configure the TV in my hotel room, it gave me instructions in Hebrew.
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Because Internet service in Gaza comes via Israeli service providers, google.com often redirects to google.co.il, rather than “Google Palestine” (google.ps)
So concerned about America? How conveniently she forgets about THIS guy …
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Then there’s this one … Zionist Miriam Levinger is from the Bronx, New York and is living illegally as a colonial occupier in Al Khalil / Hebron, Palestine, fully supported fordecades by the United States government to carry out genocide against the indigenous Palestinian people of the city. Miriam Levinger and her fellow colonial settlers work together with thecolonial Israeli army and police to make the lives of the Palestinian families of the city into a living Hell, in an attempt to force them to leave their land. This genocide is fully funded by the United States government through the stolen money of the U.S. people’s tax money to the tune of $11 -13 million dollars a DAY. Most people in the U.S. have no idea of the ongoing and constant genocide that is happening in Palestine, or that they themselves are paying for it, because they are lied to constantly by their government, who steals their money at the sametime.
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Let’s not forget about this one ….
Would you want her as a neighbour? Surely the Palestinians don’t …
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Aside from the 30 Billion Dollars that the USA sends Israel annually, the above are some examples of other things they send here.
America’s loss? I think not, but definitely not Israel’s gain either.
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As a final note, let’s not forget the garbage that the US dumps on the streets of Jerusalem (extremely rude language) …. YouTube ‘cleaned’ it off their site, but here you can still find it on Vimeo …
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Despite the sentiments displayed above, Obama still sends those checks …
No doubt a lot of Jews would say: Israelis have a long history of terror and hatred from Arabs, what do you expect? In return I would say: Arabs have a long history of violent subjugation and hatred from Jews, what do you expect?
But let’s put that duel aside and keep in mind who we’re talking about: Bedouin kids with cancer. Arab youngsters wishing to go to an amusement park. Random Arab adults trying to switch their bank accounts.
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Everyday ‘Apartheid’ and the Liberal Dream
By Larry Derfner
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The following items appeared in the Israeli media this month: Superland, an amusement park outside Tel Aviv, makes a policy of reserving separate days for Israeli Arab high school classes and separate ones for Israeli Jewish classes. A Jewish community pool in the Negev refused to admit a group of Bedouin children with cancer because, in the words of the manager, the patrons have a problem with that “sector.” In a hidden-camera investigation by Channel 10 news, branches of Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank, refused to allow three out of five Israeli Arab customers to transfer their accounts to a branch in a predominantly Jewish area, while routinely allowing all the Jewish customers to do so.
I have to admit, I am surprised. I didn’t think it was this bad.
I didn’t think the racist practices against Arabs in Israel — not Palestinians in the West Bank, but people who live in “Israel proper” as citizens — were so deeply entrenched. Unless I’m extremely mistaken, this sort of thing doesn’t, couldn’t, go on in the United States, or Canada, or other Western countries that Israel likes to think of as its peers in the democratic world.
No doubt a lot of Jews would say: Israelis have a long history of terror and hatred from Arabs, what do you expect? In return I would say: Arabs have a long history of violent subjugation and hatred from Jews, what do you expect?
But let’s put that duel aside and keep in mind who we’re talking about: Bedouin kids with cancer. Arab youngsters wishing to go to an amusement park. Random Arab adults trying to switch their bank accounts.
There’s a lot more where that comes from, of course — Israeli Arabs looking for jobs, looking for apartments, trying to get into a nightclub, trying to reserve a table at a restaurant. It’s a matter of luck, of which Jew in a position of power they happen to come across.
Two out of the five Arabs at Bank Hapoalim got lucky, the other three didn’t. The five Jews, of course, didn’t need luck.
As the saying goes, it is what it is.
What does this state of affairs say, for instance, about Israel’s blanket defense of “security” in ethnically profiling Arabs (along with all other gentiles) at Ben-Gurion Airport? How much of the true reason for that is security, and how much is straight-up racism? (And – sorry to come back to that old duel – but how much is the security problem responsible for Israeli racism, and how much is Israeli racism responsible for the security problem?)
And what does the past week’s news say about the popular claim that not only isn’t Israel an apartheid country, but that it’s anti-Semitic to even suggest so?
Finally, what does all this say to the liberals? What does it say to those (including me) who want to believe that if this country just ends the occupation, if it allows a Palestinian state to come into being in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, if it goes back to living within its old, pre-Six Day War borders, its spirit will be healed?
Larry Derfner is a journalist in Israel who blogs for +972 Magazine.
‘Fuck it, I Love Israel’ — Artists 4 Israel bombards Ibiza with hasbara condoms
by Max Blumenthal
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These are exciting times for an affluent Zionist hipster. This Spring, Craig Dershowitz, the tattooed, 32-year-old founder of Artists 4 Israel, arranged for the distribution of thousands of condoms bearing pro-Israel messages at the Spanish island dance bacchanal known as Ibiza. At the grand opening party at Sankeys, a popular Ibiza techno club, Artists 4 Israel bombarded party people with 1000 condoms reading, “Fuck It, I Love Israel.”
A self-described “highly trained advocated and creative director/writer,” Dershowitz boasts of his organization’s “passionate dedication to creativity, beauty and Israel which, let’s be honest, is one in the same.” Though Artists 4 Israel was his brainchild, it hasreceived plenty of help from the Jewish National Fund, the Israeli para-governmental organization famous forplanting pine forests atop destroyed Palestinian villages, and which is currently engaged in the violent ethnic cleansing of the Bedouin village of Al Araqib.
With a tattoo sleeve on his arm depicting revisionist Zionist godfather Vladimir Jabotinsky, his “favorite Jew,” Dershowitz has become a frequent presence on universities across the country, bringing pro-Israel graffiti artists to campus for the “DTF” tour. Artists 4 Israel fliers distributed at Haverford college explained the connotations of the DTF abbreviation: Israel is struggling to “Defeat the Fanaticism,” demanding, “Terrorists, stop blowing shit up.” At the same time, Israel is a “a land of sexual liberation” that is “Down To Fuck.”
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ‘DTF’ tour flyer. (Image: Vandalog)
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A Haverford student described the DTF tour as “an attempt to manipulate students into having a greater hate and fear of the Arab world and a greater love for Israel.” Describing Artists 4 Israel’s presence on campus as “destructive,” the studentwrote, ”I feel that the DTF Tour’s visit to Haverford damaged the community. Luckily, students came together to heal those wounds.”
In 2011, Artists 4 Israel attempted to beautify Hebron’s occupied H2 area — a “sterile zone,” according to the Israeli army, with main streets off limits to Palestinian residents. According to Haaretz, Artists 4 Israel graffiti artists painted next to Israel army posts and on the the homes of Palestinians while soldiers stood by and watched. One giant piece portrayed the Temple Mount and read, “May the Temple be built soon in our time.”
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In a video posted on Youtube, Dershowitz appeared in the heart of H2 while two graffiti artists in the background adorned a concrete blast wall with an image of the Second Temple. Dershowitz explained that the Hebron project was aimed at increasing international support “for the Jewish people living in its ancestral homeland” — in other words, for colonizing the West Bank. Complaining that some of his artists had been pelted with rocks while in the city, Dershowitz declared, “Their destruction is only furthering our creation.”
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. Craig Dershowitz (Photo: Aish Center)
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Artists 4 Israel isn’t Dershowitz’s only claim to fame. He was seen in 2012 on theToday Show begging for donations to help him wage a legal battle to recover “Knuckles,” his pet puggle, from his ex-girlfriend, who took the dog to Los Angeles and refused to give it back. Claiming to have spent $60,000 on the dogfight, Dershowitz hired super-lawyer Sean Dweck to litigate the case in two courts in New York and in California.
Dershowitz even set up a website, “Rescue Knux,” to beg for donations to keep his legal battle going.
“Knuckles is my son and I don’t mean to come off as if he’s more important than a human child, but to me he is,” he pleaded.
“You talk about pleading for money,” Today Show host Ann Curry said to Dershowitz. “You’re asking for people to contribute to your legal bills. Through the internet there are a lot of great charities that people should contribute to. Why do you think they should contribute to you?”
“I’m only asking for small bits,” Dershowitz responded plaintively. “…This is something that with only a small amount, you can make a huge difference.”
Today, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child accused Israeli forces of torturing Palestinian children.
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Israel is accused of abusing Palestinian children–again Annie Robbins
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Today, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child accused Israeli forces of torturing Palestinian children.
The report (pdf)comes within a year of three other reports: a UNICEF report on children in military detention last winter; a British report of a year ago, Children in Military Custody, which gained wide attention for its assertion that Israel was torturing children by holding them “routinely and for substantial periods in solitary confinement;” and this Breaking the Silence report last summer on Israeli soldiers’ abuses of Palestinian children, which included many reports of children getting beaten “to a pulp.”
A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields.
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“Palestinian children arrested by (Israeli) military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released,” it said in a report.
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“If someone simply wants to magnify their political bias and political bashing of Israel not based on a new report, on work on the ground, but simply recycling old stuff, there is no importance in that,” [Israeli Foreign Ministry] spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
The “old stuff” FM spokesperson Yigal Palmor is referencing is the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) February report Children in Israeli Military Detention, Observations and Recommendations (pdf) on the “widespread, systematic and institutionalized” abuse of Palestinian children held in Israeli custody.
After UNICEF released its report, Israel’s Foreign Ministry claimed in March that it would “study the conclusions and… work to implement them through ongoing cooperation with UNICEF.”
But that didn’t happen. No; instead, in a bizarre twist, a month later UNICEF attempted to sanitize its own findings at a press conference in Jerusalem.
No doubt Palmor would much rather deal with UNICEF than with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which issued today’s report, since Israel joined UNICEF’s board this year, and UNICEF’s new Jerusalem bureau chief has been very respectful of Israel.
Back to Reuters:
The U.N. committee [OHCHR] regretted Israel’s “persistent refusal” to respond to requests for information on children in the Palestinian territories and occupied Syrian Golan Heights since the last review in 2002.
Today is a good time to be reminding Israel to stop torturing Palestinian children. It’s World Refugee Day, established by the U.N. in December 2000, nearly 50 years after the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. It is observed every year on June 20th to raise awareness of the plight of refugees.
House demolitions: Zionism’s constant background noise
Hardly a day goes by without the State of Israeldemolishing an Arab home between the Jordan River and the sea. The hum of bulldozers is the constant background noise of Zionism. Listen to it for a few moments.
By Idan Landau, translated from Hebrew by Ofer Neiman
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House demolition in Anata, Northern Jerusalem, April 14, 2008 (Photo: Meged Gozani/Activestills.org)
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When people summarize the Zionist project, with the fanfare of victory or the gloom of defeat, one thing will be certain, they will be puzzled over one strange mystery. How could so many people associate Zionism with creation and construction, and not with regression and destruction. After all, in parallel with the endless construction frenzy, especially beyond the green line, the hum of bulldozers has always been audible: beating, breaking, shattering. Housing projects for new Jewish immigrants were built in record speed. Build-your-own-house neighborhoods, neighborhoods for IDF career officers, commuter suburbs, and luxury residential towers popped up everywhere; and at the very same time, the angel of Zionist history left more and more piles of ruin and devastation behind.
The demolition policy has, of course, been the Arabs’ share. From time to time, the state demolishes a tiny shred of a Jewish outpost in the occupied territories; just going through the motions, while bowing sanctimoniously to the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ). Let no one compare the master race, whose members have the benefit of myriad legal options when building their house, to the enslaved race, whose members are denied access to land, everywhere, by mountains of legal barriers; those who wish and even succeed in building their home on stolen land, to those who wish and fail to build their home on their own private land; those whose house will be protected by the sovereign through a reign of terror imposed on their neighbors, to those who can only dream of having the sovereign’s protection.
And perhaps those analysts in the future will inquire further as to why so few Israelis knew about this devastation at all, even though it took place constantly, week by week. Hardly a day goes by between the Jordan River and the sea, without a demolition of an Arab home by the State of Israel. And they will be baffled by the short Israeli memory, a memory that had forgotten long ago that the foreign British rule had committed the same crimes against us. And the greatest mystery of all will regard those who had known, yet had always assumed that the demolition policy was right, appropriate, legally justified; those who had assumed, with unquestionable simplicity, that half of the population between the river and the sea, which happens to be the Arabic-speaking half, was also delinquent by nature, simply unable to abide by the laws of planning and construction; and not only that, the other half also suffered from such staggering folly and shortsightedness, that it brought those endless demolitions upon itself, impoverishing itself to perdition in the process. After all, would there be anything simpler than lawful planning, and lawful submission of plans, and lawful attainment of permits, followed by construction? In short, is there anything simpler than being Jewish?
Yes, that is what law-abiding Israelis think to themselves, and someone will be perplexed by this as well one day. Let us now put all this perplexity aside, and get back to the dismal reality of rubble and furniture lying upside down. It happens all the time, with hardly any media coverage; reports go through one ear and come out through the other. The hum of bulldozers is the constant background noise of Zionism. Listen to it for a few moments.
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The demolition of the el-Arabiyeh family home in Anata exceeds all the terrible things I have seen in my 17 years in Rabbis for Human Rights. The sight of a boy or a girl coming back from school and discovering that their house was demolished is something I would not wish my worst enemies to see.
(Rabbi Arik Asherman)
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Excluding bodily and psychological harm, no graver cruelty can be inflicted on people than the demolition of their home. The financial consequence for most people is the loss of most of the capital they had accrued throughout their lives; being pushed back 20-30 years as far as their financial independence is concerned. But the demolition amounts of course to much more than that. It’s a demolition of the personal, intimate space where one’s most precious memories were formed; for a child – it is the space where all her/his intimate memories were formed. Every little detail of the house, seemingly trivial to the outside observer, is loaded with intensive meaning to those living in it. The tree in the backyard, the angle formed by shadows penetrating the room, the cracked door frame, the personal arrangement of clothes or toys. All these are wiped out in a brutal instant when the bulldozer goes over your house, and you are bound to feel disconnected – sheer detachment and floating in an alienating, impersonal space; this word, which has undergone such appalling devaluation in our language – “Trauma” – describes the situation precisely.
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The State of Israel demolishes, time and time again. Here is a sequence of such demolitions, a devastating sequence, from the beginning of the year up to the past few days. It is impossible to document everything. Hundreds of photos, of every single house demolished by the state in the past six months, cannot be uploaded. One must perceive the catastrophe, but it is imperceptible. For now, we will settle for a sample. Hail the demolishing hero.
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The State of Israel demolished the house of Rafat Issawi, in order to pressure his brother Samer, who went on hunger strike, Issawiya, East Jerusalem, Jan 4 2013, (photo: Activestills/Shiraz Grinbaum)
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The State of Israel demolished four houses and left 36 people homeless, Um el-Kheir, South Hebron Hills, Jan 14 2013, (photo: Activestills/Keren Manor)
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The State of Israel demolished 70 structures and left an unknown number of people homeless, Jan 17 2013, Hamam el-Maleh, Jordan Valley, (photo: Activestills/Ahmed el-Bazz)
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The State of Israel demolished 55 structures, leaving 187 people homeless, El-Maita, Jordan Valley Jan 20 2013, (photo: Activestills/Keren Manor)
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The State of Israel demolished two houses and left 30 people homeless, Feb. 5 2013, Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem. (photo: WAFA)
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The State of Israel demolished the Abu-Saffa family house, leaving 12 people homeless, Feb 18, Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem. (photo: PNN.)
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The State of Israel demolished a restaurant, Beit Jalla, Apr 18 2013. (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills)
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The State of Israel demolished parts of the Jaradat family house, a-Tur, East Jerusalem, Apr 24 2013 (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills)
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The State of Israel demolished the Sabah family house and left two parents and five children homeless, Shuafat Refugee Camp, May 20 2013. (photo: Tali Maier/Activestills)
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The State of Israel demolished 15 structures and left tens of Bedouins homeless in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Atir, Negev (within the 67 borders), Mat 21 2013. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills)
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The State of Israel demolished two apartments belonging to the el-Salaima family, leaving 13 people homeless, Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, May 21 2013. (photo: Lazar Simeonov)
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In 2011 alone, Israel demolished around 1,000 houses in the Bedouin villages in the Negev. The Ministry of Interior refuses to disclose data for 2012.
In 2012 alone, Israel demolished around 600 buildings throughout the West Bank. As a result, 880 people, more than half of them children, have lost their homes. Around 90 percent of the demolitions were carried out in Area C, and the rest in East Jerusalem.
As of now, more than 400 houses in neighborhoods of East Jerusalem are under the threat of imminent demolition.
Since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 28,000 Palestinian buildings in the Occupied Territories.
37 percent of state owned land on the West Bank has been allotted to Jewish settlements since 1967. Over the same period, just 0.7 percent of this land has been allotted to Palestinians.
Since 1967, East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population has grown by almost 250,000; throughout the same period, only 3,900 building permits have been issued in that part of the city.
Nearly half of East Jerusalem still does not have zoning plans, after 46 years. 35 percent of the planning area has been designated as “open view areas,” on which construction is prohibited. Just 17 percent of Palestinian East Jerusalem is available to residents for housing and construction, and these land resources have been nearly exhausted. Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have no legal way of building houses.
Between 2005 and 2009, the construction of 18,000 housing units in Jerusalem was approved; just 13 percent of them were in Palestinian East Jerusalem.
In most parts of East Jerusalem, building density is restricted to 75 percent. In West Jerusalem, the rate goes up to 150 percent.
180,000 Palestinians who reside in Area C have to settle for just 0.5 percent of this area for legal construction.
In 2009-2010 just 13 out of 776 requests for building permits by Palestinians in Area C were approved, no more than 1.7 percent.
Demolition orders have been issued against the majority of the buildings in the 180-year-old village of Hirbet Susya, home to 250 people, and the same goes for the inhabitants of the Hirbet Dukaikah and Hirbet Zanuta (Hebrew), home to 550 people. The State of Israel intends to wipe out entire villages in Area C.
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And what happens when you demolish the wrong house? Mistakes (by Jews) are paid for (by Arabs), and then you confess (to Jews) and get a warm embrace:
Late yesterday in Israel, the Knesset approved the first reading of the infamous Prawer Plan – a blueprint for removing 40,000 Bedouin people from their ancestralhomeland.This massive violation of human rights just got a big step closer to reality. But it’s not too late to stop it: if we act now, we can make a difference.
From the years I lived in Israel, I remember visiting “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in the Negev that had been destroyed multiple times.I remember children and grandmothers sitting near the rubble of their homes, and especially the young man who had been called to serve in the Israeli Army – on the very day his home had been destroyed.
The Prawer Plan threatens that level of destruction on an unprecedented scale.
It is appalling that transfer based on nothing more than ethnic identity is even under consideration.
And if our government is going to offer unconditional support to Israel, we need to send that message to Ambassador Oren, Israel’s official representative to the U.S.
The passing of the first reading of the Prawer Plan threatens disaster for the Bedouin people, and is a sad day for all who believe in justice, equality, and human rights.
I urge you to use your influence to warn Knesset members from taking further steps forward, while there is still time to avoid this human rights catastrophe.
In what can only be described as contempt for the child, Israeli authorities closed an East Jerusalem puppet festival. The reason given was its activities were being organized under the auspices of the PalestinianAuthority.”
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Theater director Mohammed Halayiqa condemned the decision as “disgraceful”, saying the PA had no involvement in the International Puppet Festival which was funded by donations from abroad and aimed atchildren.
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The move is being protested by various sections of the Israeli community ….
Ariel Doron, the voice of Elmo on the Israeli version of the popular children’s television show, and Yousef Sweid, who plays an Arab Muppet on the show, created a Facebook group namedPuppets4All calling on Israel to permit the festival.
Two other Israeli “Sesame Street” puppeteers, along with a number of fellow Israeli actors, uploaded photos to the Facebook group holding puppets and signs protesting the closure.
“I think every boy and girl deserves to see puppet theater,” said Doron. “There is no sense to this.”
In actuality, there is no sense to zionism, period.
One day the Palestinian people will rise up against their occupiers. I hope this day comes soon.
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One day, Ramallah will rise up
The events at Tahrir Square will surely be replicated one day in Ramallah’s Manara Square. It is hard now to imagine it happening, but it is even more difficult to imagine that it will not.
ByGideonLevy
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Palestinians demonstrating in Ramallah in 2012. Photo by AP
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One day the Palestinian people will rise up against their occupiers. I hope this day comes soon.
It’s true that this scenario seems unrealistic right now. The Palestinians are still bleeding from the second intifada, which only brought disaster upon them (and the Israelis). They are divided and torn, with no real leadership and lacking a fighting spirit, and the world has tired of their distress. The Israeli occupation seems as strong and established as ever, the settlements are growing, and the military is in complete control, with all the world’s governments silent and indifferent.
On the other hand, it is impossible to imagine that this scenario will not materialize. To our south, the Egyptian people are struggling over the nature of their regime, in a way that can only inspire awe. To the north, the Syrian people are also doing this, albeit in a much crueler fashion. Could it be that only the Palestinian people will forever bow their heads, submissively and obediently, to the Israeli jackboot? Don’t make the minister of history laugh.
The regimes against which most of the Arab nations are rebelling were generally less brutal than the regime of the Israeli occupation. They were also less corrupt, in the broad sense of the word. Most did not take over the lives of their subjects day and night, did not so drastically restrict their movement and freedom, did not systematically abuse and humiliate them in the manner of the Israeli regime. Moreover, they were not foreign regimes.
Therefore, the events at Tahrir Square will surely be replicated one day in Ramallah’s Manara Square. The masses will flood the Unknown Soldier’s Square in Gaza, push into Police Square in Hebron and storm all the checkpoints along their way. It is hard now to imagine it happening, but it is even more difficult to imagine that it will not.
From Jenin to Rafah, they are enviously watching the wonders of Tahrir Square. Can anyone seriously think these scenes and this spirit will not affect Balata? Not sweep through Jabalya? The first is under Israeli rule, while the other is supposedly controlled by Hamas, and yet residents of the two places cannot even meet with each other. How much longer will they accept this?
Yes, it will happen one day. The masses will rise up against the settlements and checkpoints, against the army barracks and the prisons. And at that point, the Israeli Arabs will no longer stand idly by. They are also watching what’s happening at Tahrir Square and also realize they deserve a different regime and a different country.
It seems to happen when you least expect it. No Military Intelligence report will predict it, and no Shin Bet field coordinator will warn about it. The defense minister will act shocked, the prime minister will convene urgent consultations, and the finance minister will post something on Facebook. The president of the United States will call for calm, and who knows, maybe will send a special envoy. The world’s most powerful and especially most moral military will try to restore order, but the new order will assert its control over the army as well.
As with other unjust and evil regimes, which are always destined to fall, this regime also will fall – it’s just not clear when and how. Sometimes these regimes fall in the wake of terrible bloodshed, as in Syria, and sometimes they fall on their own, like a tall tree whose trunk has rotted, as happened in the Soviet Union, South Africa and Eastern Europe. One day it will happen here, too; there is no other way.
It would be best that this day come soon; too bad it hasn’t come yet. The Israeli public, which didn’t know how to end its occupation regime on its own, will also act surprised, and offended. Again they will say that “there’s no partner,” that “they’re like animals,” but no one will take these statements seriously. Israel will again play the victim, but few will be able to identify with it anymore.
Why is it best that this happens soon? Because as time passes, the damage and rage accumulate. Because there is no chance that Israel will end the occupation voluntarily. Because justice cries out for it to happen. Because whether the solution is one state or two, an Israel that isn’t an occupier, that is just and egalitarian, will be a different and infinitely better place to live.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli ministry of interior has come up with a new plan to expel the Palestinian natives of occupied Jerusalem from their city through classifying them as “noncitizens,” lawyer Ahmed Roweidi revealed. Roweidi stated on Tuesday that the Israeli interior ministry started to specify periods for the residence of the natives in Jerusalem and classified them as noncitizens who are susceptible to deportation anytime. Roweidi described this new measure as a prelude to a new ethnic-cleansing campaign against the Palestinian natives in the holy city. He affirmed that a number of Jerusalemite citizens went lately to the Israeli occupation authority to renew their IDs and noticed that the word “resident” was added into the new cards with an expiry date for their residence in the holy city. *
The response …
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Jerusalemite groups: The natives of Jerusalem are citizens, not residents
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, The higher Islamic commission and the council of awqaf and Islamic affairs in occupied Jerusalem said that the Palestinian natives of Jerusalem are citizens and can never be residents.
This came in a statement released on Saturday by the two Jerusalemite institutions in response to a recent Israeli measure classifying the Palestinian natives of Jerusalem as residents and not citizens in new IDs issued by the interior ministry.
The new Israeli IDs given to the Palestinians in Jerusalem do not only identify them as residents, but also they are provided with an expiry date for their residence in their holy city.
The higher Islamic commission and the council of awqaf and Islamic affairs condemned the Israeli measure as racist and urged the Palestinians in the holy city to uphold their legitimate rights, protect their homes and property and defend their holy sites.
They highlighted that the Palestinians in the holy city are its native citizens and their citizenship cannot be decided by the Israeli occupation regime, for they are deeply rooted in their city.
The first proclaimed leak from Secretary John Kerry’s efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as it is so often called, were published last week in the reputable London-based daily Arabic newspaper, Al-Hayat.
A Peek inside Kerry’s “Peace” Efforts or Propaganda?
By Sam Bahour
The first proclaimed leak from Secretary John Kerry’s efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as it is so often called, were published last week in the reputable London-based daily Arabic newspaper, Al-Hayat. The source is said to be from a posting from the website of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, who claim the information was leaked to them by someone attending the tightly closed negotiating sessions. The validity of this claim and the contents of the leak are unverifiable and the infighting between Hamas and Fatah give both a vested interest to publicly damage the other, however, a read through the supposed leaked information makes anyone familiar with this issue take a worrying note.
The Al-Hayat article on the leak states that Secretary Kerry obtained Palestinian President Abbas’ approval on general parameters for the restart of negotiations, at meetings between the two in Amman on 17-18 July 2013, prior to Secretary Kerry’s announcement that negotiations would restart. According to the leaked document, “Kerry set a maximum period of time ranging from 6 to 9 monthswould be dedicated to bilateral Palestinian-Israeli negotiations … without anypreconditions,” beyond the principles listed below and whereby Jordanparticipates in meetings on refugees, Jerusalem and borders where necessary:
1.“The Separation Wall will serve as the security borders of the ‘Jewish’ state, and the temporary border of the ‘Palestinian’ state… Both parties will acknowledge and announce this.”
2.There will be “an exchange in disputed territories within the plan of the Separation Wall noted above, as agreed to by both parties and with the blessing of the Arab League Follow-up Committee, as specified by this Committee to Mr. Kerry during their last visit to Washington, ranging in size from eight to ten percent of West Bank lands.”
3.There will be also be a “freeze in the settlement projects at a number of outposts, as approved by the Israeli government, which does not apply to existing projects in large settlement communities located in the vicinity of Jerusalem and in the Jordan Valley, including the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Har Homa, Gilo, Neve Yacov, Ramat Shlomo, Ramat Alman, Kiryat Arba’, and other densely populated settlements.”
4.The document adds that “residents in frozen settlement communities will have the right to choose between Israeli citizenship, or Palestinian citizenship, or both, at the conclusion of negotiations,” and that “talks will culminate with a historic agreement … along the lines of the Oslo Agreement, during which both parties will announce the end of the historic conflict between their peoples, as well as full normalization with all Arab states, at a celebratory meeting attended by the Arab League and representatives of all Arab countries, announcing their approval of Israel’s establishment of a Palestinian state within the limits set out … above, according to agreements…. concluded by the two parties at the end of the negotiations, which will also entail Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people.”
5.It adds that “at the end of negotiations some Palestinian families will be allowed to reunite in the West Bank, Rafah and Gaza, while others will have the right to compensation, or emigration … to Arab countries, especially the Gulf…” where they will be “…naturalized… utilizing the Right of Return Fund for this purpose.”
6.Concerning the status of East Jerusalem, the leaked document indicates that it will be “placed under an international administration (Palestinian-Israeli-Jordanian) for ten years, whereby resident Israelis in East Jerusalem will have the right to choose their identity,” i.e. citizenship.
7.Furthermore, “Israelis and Palestinians agree to discuss the issue of land exchanges, in the West Bank and Jerusalem, through negotiating committees despite the non-core points of contention between the two parties… especially those points that are considered important by the delegation of the Arab League, including the proposal to grant citizenship to every Palestinian who has been resident in the Gulf for more than ten years.”
8.The document indicates that there will be a “discussion of executive steps in this agreement during negotiations within the time-limit mentioned above, and that its implementation will extend to ten years from the signing of the agreement.”
9.Israel will also “release a number of Palestinian detainees have who spent twenty years or more in detention, and no longer pose a security threat.”
10.It also stipulates that “President Mahmoud Abbas will call for legislative and presidential elections in the West Bank after the public announcement of the Agreement, in anticipation of the possibility of the emergence of objections to it, and that the terms of the agreement will not fully be announced until after the start of negotiations and the preoccupation of Palestinians with the battles of the Legislative Council and the Presidency.”
11.It also says that “with the signing of the agreement at the end of the specified time-limit and the declaration of an independent Palestinian state, the Palestinians and Jordanians will, with the blessing of Israel and the Arabs, reach an understandings on the role of Jordanian security assistance … to the Palestinian Authority … to stand by its side and help it overcome potential internal or external dangers … as part of a Confederation, which will be announced in conjunction with a trilateral economic initiative, in which Israel will play an active role in its formation.”
Shocking, to say the least!
If these are anywhere near the truth, the region should be preparing for yet another major fallout, this time in Palestine and Israel, again.
If the U.S. and Israel continue to choose the game of might is right, then they should expect, sooner rather than later, a new generation of Palestinians to lookIsrael straight in the eye and say, “You win! You get it all Israel: Israel, theWest Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, both east and west sides, all of the settlements, all of the water, all of the Jordan Valley, all of the electromagnetic spectrum, all of the airspace, and most importantly, you also get all of us. Now, we heard you have free health care in Israel; where do we pick up our medical cards? We also want some of that free education too.”
In other words, if the U.S. and Israel are adamant to throw into the sea international law, humanitarian law, UN resolutions, human rights, rights of refugees, and sheer common sense, then expect the Palestinians to redefine their self-determination from a struggle for statehood to a struggle for civil rights between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.
In the words of the late Palestinian (and global) intellectual, Edward Said, it’s “equality or nothing.” What is it about these three simple words that are so hard to comprehend?
I have no attitude towards Jews. I do not group or categorise human beings in that way. I know many people who are Jewish, I have many very close friends who are Jewish, my two Grandsons are Jewish. I also have many friends who are not Jewish, who are Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, Agnostic, whatever, they are my friends, and I love them, their faith or lack of it is irrelevant to me.
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A note from Roger Waters to Abe Foxman
Roger Waters
Dear Mr. Foxman,
Thank you for your letter. I will try to address the points you make, in the order that you make them. With the general proviso though, that I am wary of, and wearied by any form of slanging match.
Anti Semitism:
I think I note a change in A.D.L.’s position on my work, but it is not clear. Are you accusing me or my work of anti-Semitism or not? For the record I am not anti-semitic, neither is my theatrical piece The Wall and nor are any of the props, puppets or projections in that work.
You are right in saying that I have attacked The Israeli Governments’ policies in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel itself. You are wrong in your conclusion that my criticism of the policies of the Government of Israel requires the A.D.L. to “reexamine your attitude towards Jews”.
I have no attitude towards Jews. I do not group or categorise human beings in that way. I know many people who are Jewish, I have many very close friends who are Jewish, my two Grandsons are Jewish. I also have many friends who are not Jewish, who are Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, Agnostic, whatever, they are my friends, and I love them, their faith or lack of it is irrelevant to me.
I do however have an antipathy to racism and bigotry, I have no time for racists or bigots whatever their religion or their race or their politics or the color of their skin.
You speak of the omission of “important details” from my letter, if I may, to provide context I will quote you here:
“Important details are omitted from your letter, which is a classic propaganda technique. Why didn’t you point out that one of the stated objectives of the BDS movement, promoting a complete right of return for all Palestinians classified as refugees and the creation of a bi-national state, would result in the end of the Jewish character of the State of Israel and destroy Jewish national self-determination? Your writing also makes no mention of Palestinian terrorism, nor does it provide any context to the complex nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas, a terrorist organization which continues to advocate for Israel’s destruction, is entirely absent from your letter.”
You accuse the Israeli government of committing ethnic cleansing by physically evicting non-Jewish families from East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish occupants, yet provide zero evidence for this frivolous claim. You argue that Israel is akin to Apartheid South Africa, despite the complete and equal rights enjoyed by Arab citizens of Israel.
Your point about the right of Palestinian refugees to return is well taken, it is, as you say central to the B.D.S. position. The refugee’s right to return is enshrined in Article 13 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Fourth Geneva Convention and in UN resolution 194. This fundamental human right is a founding stone upon which the possibility of a civilized future for mankind rests. You are wrong, however in your assertion that B.D.S. requires a single bi-national State. The B.D.S. movement is open to a two State solution, the whole point of B.D.S. is to encourage any peaceful solution that guarantees equal rights to all the people regardless of race or religion. Is your position that the refugees should not be allowed to return? Should the refugees remain refugees forever? How would you feel if the boot was on the other foot? You are in a better position than most to understand the enormity of The Nakbah having been through a diaspora of your own.
Turning now to Hamas; Hamas does not “continue to advocate Israel’s destruction”. The charter you quote is out of date.
On December 1st 2010 Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh stated, “ We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue of refugees” In February 2012 Hamas forswore the use of violence.
I wish my claims as to the ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem were “frivolous”, sadly they are anything but, I direct you to two pieces of corroborative evidence, 1)Roadmap to Apartheid 2012 a documentary film by Ana Nogueira a white South African and Eron Davidson a Jewish Israeli. And, 2) Extreme Rambling, Walking Israel’s Separation Barrier. For Fun. 2011 by Englishman, Mark Thomas.
Moving on, again for clarity’s sake I quote your text:
“Most disturbing of all is your decision to single out Israel for a boycott, while ignoring real human rights abusing countries around the world.”
Your question about singling out Israel for a cultural boycott is an interesting one. I equally deplored the occupation of East Timor or The Western Sahara, but one cannot take up cudgels for every just cause, if one tried to one would be spread too thin, so to speak. Also B.D.S. had already started in Palestine, so I joined an existing movement of people who were organized and proposing a non violent method of resistance to the occupation and inequality of Palestinian Israeli citizens civil rights.
Having said that, I do also support organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights watch which try to focus on all human rights violations and abuses where ever they may occur. I haven’t been everywhere, so there’s a lot of bad stuff going on that I haven’t seen with my own eyes. I do absolutely agree with you that I should speak out as often as possible against all abuses of human rights. As a matter of fact everywhere we perform “The Wall,” I speak in the local language and dedicate the Wall Concert to All The Victims of State Terrorism All over The World.
Finally, I notice you couldn’t resist the little anti-semitic dig at the end of your letter.
“Mr. Waters, having many Jewish friends and relatives does not give legitimacy to your hostile campaign against the Jewish State, and while painting a Star of David on your pig may have been free of anti-Semitic intent, your strong animosity towards Israel is indeed riddled with it.”
Just to reiterate my position, I am anti-war, anti-apartheid, anti-racist, pro human rights, pro peace and pro self-determination for all peoples. I am not anti-Israel or anti-semitic.
I am also passionately pro dialogue and thank you for taking the time and trouble to share your thoughts with me in this open letter. You speak of a Two State Solution, and although I know you don’t represent the Israeli Government, you do represent a point of view, and I should be most interested to hear what you think such a solution would look like, both geographically and demographically. Where would you think it just and equitable to put the borders between two such states, and who would live where? Given the continuing policies of occupation, colonization and settlement building in the West Bank and the siege of Gaza, it is very difficult for any neutral observer to imagine that the Israeli Government is serious in moving towards an equitable two state solution.
However, It maybe that there is a glimmer of light this week. We are assured by John Kerry, Secretary of State for Barack Obama that peace talks are taking place in Jerusalem. These are secret talks so we don’t know who is having them or on behalf of whom, but, should those talks bare fruit and a just and equitable peace break out, then it will be time to tear down the walls and picket lines, end the boycotts, clamber disheveled over the barricades and join the people in the streets.
After watching their land being raped for over 65 years, Palestinian youth are attempting to take back the night …
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The new wave of movements which have gained prominence this summer can be traced back partly to a group of third generation, internally displaced youth from the village of Iqrit, who in August 2012 decided that they would take matters into their own hands and return to their ancestral village.
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Palestinian youth assert right of return with direct action
Nadim Nashef*
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Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Summer camps aim to reconnect Palestinian youth to their ancestral villages. (Photograph courtesy of Baladna)
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During the summer of 2013 a new grassroots movement burst onto the scene and announced itself as a major development in the long struggle for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Activities occurring throughout the Galilee region of present-day Israel have been held which reaffirm the connection of the younger generation of internally displaced Palestinians to their ancestral villages. Events and projects simultaneously take practical steps to realize this long-denied, fundamental right.
The right of return is one of the most evocative and central issues for Palestinians ever since the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, which saw the destruction of more than 530 Arab villages and the displacement of approximately 800,000 Palestinians. The majority of them ended up as refugees in neighboring Arab states, or in those parts of Palestine which initially remained outside of Israeli control, namely the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Between 30,000 and 40,000 managed to remain inside the new state of Israel, however, finding refuge in nearby towns which had survived the ethnic cleansing of the majority of Palestine’s villages.
Brutal Israel
Attempts by the original inhabitants to return to their villages in the immediate aftermath of the Nakba were fought against by the new state, which used all the means at its disposal, often brutally.
Dispersed villagers attempting to return from outside the borders of the new state were often shot dead on sight by the Israeli army. Meanwhile, villagers attempting to return who had managed to remain within the borders of the new state were routinely rounded up and deported as “infiltrators.” Legislation such as the Absentees Property Law enabled the confiscation of property of those Palestinians who had been made into internally displaced persons, while denying their rights to live there or even to enter the site of their ancestral lands.
Between 1948 and 1955, the majority of these villages were destroyed by the Israeli army and covered either with pine forests or new Jewish-only settlements. In many cases, a cemetery, mosque or church was the only remaining evidence of a village’s existence.
The new wave of movements which have gained prominence this summer can be traced back partly to a group of third generation, internally displaced youth from the village of Iqrit, who in August 2012 decided that they would take matters into their own hands and return to their ancestral village.
Iqrit’s residents were originally ordered out of their village for two weeks shortly after the Nakba for so-called security reasons. Exceptionally, three years later they obtained Israeli high court approval to return, and received information that they would be able to return on Christmas Day, especially symbolic for the Christian community.
On that day in 1951, as the villagers waited to return, the Israeli army razed the village to the ground.
Potent symbol
Now living in two small rooms built as extensions of the still-standing church, Iqrit’s youth activists today sleep in the village in shifts in order to maintain a permanent presence there. This summer a small football stadium was also built, a potent symbol of the will and permanence of their return.
Iqrit’s community has been organizing summer camps for its younger members annually since 1996; this year approximately 200 youth between the ages of 8 and 16 attended. The aim of the camp was to help the youth develop their identity by teaching them about their own history, and connecting this to the wider Palestinian history before 1948.
In addition to the summer camp and the newly permanent presence, villagers hold religious celebrations during Easter and Christmas in the local church. The village’s cemetery is also still in use.
The youth-led, grassroots approach of Iqrit is very much indicative of the movement as a whole. Youth took the lead in 2013’s “Summer of Return,” ensuring that demands for the right of return find a renewed voice among the latest generation of the dispossessed.
One village which has adopted Iqrit’s strategy of youth-based return is Kufr Birim. Located close to the boundary between Israel and Lebanon — not far from Iqrit — for the past few years Kufir Birim has played host to summer camps for children.
This summer, people with family connections to Kufir Birim have also decided to maintain a permanent presence in the village, centered around the old community’s surviving church. However, their initiative has not been without obstacles.
On 28 August, Iqrit also received a visit by inspectors from the Israel Lands Authority, accompanied by border policemen. They came during the morning and confiscated tents and beds, uprooted the small garden, removed signs and destroyed property, including the new football stadium.
However, as in Kufr Birim, the youth are not willing to leave their ancestral land.
This summer has also witnessed a very successful summer camp in the village of Ghabisiya, while Baladna (the Assocation for Arab Youth) and a number of other groups initiated the Udna (Our Return) project with the participation of five ethnically cleansed villages: Saffuriyya, Miar, Maalul, Lajjun and Iqrit, with one youth group in each village.
The project aims to educate the new generation with family connections to these villages of their history and rights, with film screenings and storytelling featuring residents who survived the expulsion. Practical approaches to the issue of return such as town planning and logistics were also explored, while musical events by local artists added a cultural feature.
Iqrit, Kufr Birim, Ghabisiya, Saffuriyya, Miar, Malul, Lajjun. These are just seven of the Palestinians towns and villages which were destroyed and whose inhabitants were displaced during the Nakba.
Yet the combined activities of these villages during the summer of 2013 represent the most significant movement in the struggle for return since the years following the Nakba. Far from forgetting their roots and historical injustices, the latest generation of Palestinians inside Israel are showing their dedication to their right of return.
This, combined with the youth’s energy, enthusiasm and innovative approaches, has resulted in a grassroots, youth-led movement unprecedented in the history of activism for the right to return. Whatever the immediate reaction of Israeli authorities to the return of villagers in Iqrit and Kufr Birim, these movements have captured the imagination of people across historic Palestine, young and old.
And while the future of the movement is full of uncertainty, the determination and energy of our youth alone is reason for optimism.
*Nadim Nashef is is the director of the Haifa-based Association for Arab Youth-Baladna.
Image may be NSFW.
