tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36233160884973849762024-03-19T01:57:25.174-07:00Live From Occupied PalestineI am a political activist who has worked and lived in the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This blog chronicles my time in Palestine and also provides news and analysis about Palestine and the situation on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.comBlogger684125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-59922634632515910892021-05-27T04:34:00.004-07:002021-05-27T04:39:16.116-07:00Nakba: understanding the Palestinian catastrophe<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Dear friends,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">please find below my latest article on Palestine for RedFlag.<br /><br />In solidarity,<br />Kim</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;"><span style="font-size: 22.6667px;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;"><span style="font-size: 22.6667px;"><b><a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/nakba-understanding-palestinian-catastrophe">NAKBA: UNDERSTANDING THE PALESTINIAN CATASTROPHE</a></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #f6b26b; font-size: 17pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">by <a href="https://redflag.org.au/author/kim-bullimore"><span>Kim
Bullimore</span></a><br />
REDFLAG // 16 May 2021<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipi2gQW_W4eklGnIrCdampUty0Vs2A2AOnWCrptKIYFfeGKzN7eoR3LVu6v4SFtDPa2r5h-cOy7wrgh1lVhe4Pwp2YEtI4XWtU9SfkXcgtqGiAIfHQtJcLoNwvc9Tp4NdlaG5hTgI0USo/s696/NAKBA.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="696" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipi2gQW_W4eklGnIrCdampUty0Vs2A2AOnWCrptKIYFfeGKzN7eoR3LVu6v4SFtDPa2r5h-cOy7wrgh1lVhe4Pwp2YEtI4XWtU9SfkXcgtqGiAIfHQtJcLoNwvc9Tp4NdlaG5hTgI0USo/w640-h384/NAKBA.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Al-Nakba</span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> (“the catastrophe”)<a name="m_2186307002355221147__Hlk71920535"><b> </b></a></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">refers to the
destruction of Palestinian society that took place in 1948, when more than 500
villages were destroyed by Zionist militia and more than 1 million Palestinians
were forcibly expelled from their homes—750,000 fleeing to neighbouring Arab
states and the other 250,000 becoming internal refugees in the newly formed
Israeli state.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ever since, Israel has been an apartheid state that has used both
military force and legally sanctioned discrimination to oppress the Palestinian
people. Like other settler colonial states, Israel is primarily concerned
with controlling territory and replacing the indigenous population with a
settler population. As the late Australian theorist Patrick Wolfe noted,
“settler colonialism destroys to replace”.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Zionism, the ideological foundation on which the Israeli state is built,
emerged in the late 1800s in reaction to anti-Semitism and waves of anti-Jewish
pogroms taking place in Europe. At the time, a section of the Jewish middle
class concluded that anti-Semitism was an eternal and inescapable
phenomenon as long as Jews lived among non-Jews. They believed that the only
way to avoid it was to establish an independent state for the Jewish
people. While the Zionist movement eventually settled on Palestine as the
location for the new Jewish state, its leaders also considered a range of other
countries, including Argentina, Turkey, Kenya, Angola and Uganda.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Regardless of the area chosen, Zionism’s founding father, Theodore
Herzl, understood that it would be impossible to establish without the backing
of the one of the major imperial powers. The Zionist movement, however, didn’t
gain an imperial sponsor until in 1917, thirteen years after Herzl’s death,
when the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, which affirmed that
it would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people”.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Herzl also understood that, regardless of where the Jewish state was
eventually established, it would be necessary to expel the existing indigenous
population to make way for Jewish settler colonists. “When we occupy the land
... we shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by
procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any
employment in our country”, Herzl wrote in an 1895 diary entry. “Both the
[expropriation of property] and the removal of the poor must be carried out
discreetly and circumspectly.”</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Herzl here articulated two of Zionism’s central doctrines: exclusivist
Jewish labour and “transfer”. As Palestinian historian Nur Masalha explains
in <i>Expulsion of the Palestinians</i>,<i> </i>the concept of
“transfer” within Zionist ideology came to be “a euphemism denoting the
organised removal of the indigenous population of Palestine to neighbouring
countries”. Moreover, he notes, it “occupied a central position in
the strategic thinking of the leadership of the Zionist movement and the Yishuv
[the Jewish population in Palestine prior to the founding of Israel] as a
solution to the ‘Arab question’ in Palestine ... Virtually every member of the
Zionist pantheon of founding fathers and important leaders supported it and
advocated it in one form or another”.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Prior to the 1890s, Jewish people made up less than 4 percent of the
population of Palestine, while Palestinian Arab Muslims and Christians made up
the overwhelming majority. It was therefore essential, if the Zionist project
were to succeed, to change the demographic balance. Over the next 50 years,
mass Zionist immigration to Palestine increased the Jewish settler population
to approximately one-third of the overall population. The Zionist movement also
bought land from Palestinian and Arab landowners, establishing dozens of
colonies and expelling the Palestinian tenant farmers and their families who
had worked the land for centuries.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It soon became clear that very few Palestinians had any interest in
selling their land to the colonists. By 1947, Jewish settlers had succeeded in
purchasing just 7 percent of privately owned land in the territory. However, as
Patrick Wolfe notes in his 2016 book <i>Traces of History</i>, even this
limited acquisition of territory allowed the Zionist movement “to establish a
colonial beachhead” in Palestine from which it could carry out the mass,
violent expulsion of most of the Palestinian Arab population, expropriate the
lands which they once occupied and establish the state of Israel.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">As Zionist settler colonialism intensified, political violence in 1920,
1921, 1929 and 1933 erupted as tensions between the Jewish Zionist settlers and
the Palestinian Arab population boiled over. In 1936, Palestinians began a
three-year anti-colonial revolt. Combining non-violent civil disobedience,
general strikes and armed struggle, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from
all classes mobilised to throw off the shackles of British imperialism and
Zionist settler colonialism.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">During the revolt, British mandate police stations and government
buildings were targeted; British convoys were attacked; roads, railroads and
telegraph lines were cut; and trains and oil pipelines were blown up. More than
5,000 Palestinians were killed by British troops.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The British authorities also carried out collective punishment against
whole Palestinian villages. This included bombing several villages out of
existence, demolishing houses, enacting curfews, outlawing Palestinian
political parties and associations, deporting or exiling their leaders and
banning public protests. Hundreds of Palestinians were also convicted by
British military courts; more than 50 were hanged and 2,500 detained in
internment camps. By late 1938, Palestine was under a state of siege.
It took more than 20,000 British and 15,000 Zionist troops to finally put
the revolt down in 1939.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">By the end of the uprising, the Zionist movement was stronger than it
had been in 1936, having increased its military capacity due to its
collaboration with Britain to suppress the revolt. Between 1940 and 1945,
Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion continued to strengthen and expand the military
capabilities of the Zionist movement in Palestine, while supporting Britain’s
war efforts in Europe.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">With the Palestinian national movement crushed, the leaders of the
Zionist movement also began final preparations for the creation of the Zionist
state, including creating a detailed registry of every Arab village in
Palestine. This registry, known as the Village Files, was compiled by the
Jewish National Fund, which was responsible for settling Jewish colonists in
historic Palestine. Today, the fund remains one of the key tools used by the
Zionist movement to enable the colonisation of Palestine.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, although the Village Files
recorded the location of the villages, access roads, land quality and other
socio-cultural information such as the names of village leaders, religious
affiliations of the inhabitants and their main sources of income, they were not
simply an “academic exercise in geography”.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Pappe explains in his 2006 book <i>The Ethnic Cleansing of
Palestine</i> that the files also included “an index of hostility” towards
the Zionist project based on whether the villages had participated in the
1936-39 revolt. Accompanying the index was a series of lists, which
identified individuals and families who had fought against the British and the
Zionists during the revolt or had been involved in the Palestinian national
movement in any capacity.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">According to Pappe, these lists, along with lists added in 1947
detailing “wanted” persons, were used in 1948 by Zionist militias as they
seized control of and occupied Palestinian villages. Any Palestinians on the
lists were immediately identified and “shot on the spot”.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">As the war in
Europe drew to a close in 1945, the Zionists under the leadership of Ben-Gurion
enacted a new strategy, believing they were now militarily and demographically
strong enough to need no longer the imperial backing of Britain. Over the next
three years, Zionist militias attacked not only Palestinian Arabs but also
British troops and infrastructure, including the terrorist bombing of Britain’s
administrative headquarters in the King David Hotel in 1946, resulting in the
death of 91 government officials, soldiers, police and office workers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Zionist terrorist
attacks on both British infrastructure and Palestinian villages escalated
further after 29 November 1947, when the United Nations announced its plan to
partition Palestine. The UN plan allocated 55 percent of Palestine to the
Zionist movement, despite Palestinian Arabs making up two-thirds of the
population.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Between December
1947 and March 1948, Zionist militias stepped up their terrorist bombings of
Palestinian neighbourhoods and villages. Among the attacks ordered by
Ben-Gurion at the end of January 1948 was the destruction of the Sheikh Jarrah
neighbourhood in Jerusalem. On 7 February, a week after the attack, Ben-Gurion
also visited the Palestinian village of Lifta on the outskirts of Jerusalem,
which had been destroyed in early January. According to Pappe, after the visit,
Ben-Gurion “jubilantly recounted” to other leaders of his political party:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“In many Arab
neighbourhoods in the west [of Jerusalem] you do not see even one Arab ... what
happened in Jerusalem and in Haifa—can happen in large parts of the country ...
If we persist it is quite possible that in the next six or eight months there
will be considerable changes in the country, very considerable, and to our
advantage. There will certainly be considerable changes in the demographic
composition of the country.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Throughout February
1948, the Zionist militia under Ben-Gurion’s command continued to terrorise
Palestinian villages, expelling their residents. In March, Ben-Gurion finalised
Plan Dalet, the Zionist movement’s blueprint for the ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians. Pappe notes in his book that, at the beginning of April, “each
brigade commander received a list of the villages or neighbourhoods that had to
be occupied, destroyed, and their inhabitants expelled”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Following Ben-Gurion’s formal declaration of the establishment of Israel
on 14 May, his new government set up an unofficial “Transfer Committee” to
oversee the continued ethnic cleansing. In <i>The Birth of the Palestinian
Refugee Problem Revisited</i>, Israeli Zionist historian</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Benny Morris notes that a 5 June memorandum issued by the Transfer Committee
argued that “the uprooting of the Arabs should be seen as a solution to the
Arab question” and proposed “preventing Arabs from returning to their places”
by carrying out the “destruction of villages as much as possible during
military operations” and the “settlement of Jews in a number of villages and
towns”.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">By the time Zionist forces finished implementing Plan Dalet in January
1949, the Zionist movement had taken control of 78 percent of historic
Palestine and expelled 1 million Palestinians from their homes.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Since 1948, Israel has continued to expand, annexing more and more
Palestinian land. In 1967, it took East Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank and the
Golan Heights, ethnically cleansing a further 350,000-400,000 Palestinians
from their land and homes. Since then, Israel has established more than 130
colonies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, while another 100
wildcat (unofficial) colonies have been established independently. More than
600,000 Israeli colonists are living in the Occupied West Bank and East
Jerusalem in contravention of international law.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">For Palestinians, the <i>Nakba</i> of 1948 never ended.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p><span style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><br /></p>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-90110860540879511052021-05-10T20:09:00.003-07:002021-05-10T20:13:35.017-07:00MELBOURNE SOLIDARITY RALLY: SAVE SHEIKH JARRAH + NAKBA RALLY <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYH-XHhcqq1dxivXOaJUEso_U3z7LHlPVtid8oYUXOk5o1Ms17GFcTUqVx4MDoiyAJ2tTA4RQZXUvsV-iKyLQmUe6ilkz9Nrdk7FRfMbSorOwY_MUTsiwlnfp7MlIHgkJBS6sZSC-mLs/s795/haifa+nakba.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="795" height="526" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYH-XHhcqq1dxivXOaJUEso_U3z7LHlPVtid8oYUXOk5o1Ms17GFcTUqVx4MDoiyAJ2tTA4RQZXUvsV-iKyLQmUe6ilkz9Nrdk7FRfMbSorOwY_MUTsiwlnfp7MlIHgkJBS6sZSC-mLs/w640-h526/haifa+nakba.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><br /><b><u>SAVE SHEIKH JARRAH + NABKA RALLY</u><br /><br />TIME: 1pm</b></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b>DATE: SATURDAY, 22 MAY 2021</b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b>WHERE: STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE CBD</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b><br />For more details: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/922133665236736?ref=newsfeed" target="_blank">click here for Facebook event. </a></b></span><div class="bi6gxh9e aov4n071" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 8px; transition-property: none;"><h2 class="gmql0nx0 l94mrbxd p1ri9a11 lzcic4wl d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz" dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; color: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition-property: none;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 embtmqzv fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb teo7jy3c m6dqt4wy h7mekvxk hnhda86s oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" color="var(--primary-text)" dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; display: block; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.1429; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; word-break: break-word;"><span class="a8c37x1j ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs l9j0dhe7 pby63qed" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; animation-name: none; display: -webkit-box; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 3px; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><br /></span></span></h2></div></div></div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-9312064408581869502021-04-28T20:36:00.003-07:002021-04-28T20:37:57.235-07:00REDFLAG: Palestinian lives matter, but not to apartheid Israel<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCUI6TJFguY3Pp8e_zDM8Cgr9U_ikPe6NLsHVgC2mfahYVMYv6GDkzCJfLVkRfUBJsf4ncwBa4_qT1n1O0samgco-ccCnPVFMtnVVss4hsVXKGU_Hr4yCsP9zAPyJptlaQsikAYJjLfg/s696/palestine+covid+article.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="696" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCUI6TJFguY3Pp8e_zDM8Cgr9U_ikPe6NLsHVgC2mfahYVMYv6GDkzCJfLVkRfUBJsf4ncwBa4_qT1n1O0samgco-ccCnPVFMtnVVss4hsVXKGU_Hr4yCsP9zAPyJptlaQsikAYJjLfg/w640-h384/palestine+covid+article.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span class="article-header__author" style="font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.5;"><span> </span><span> </span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> by<span> </span><a href="https://redflag.org.au/author/nick-everett" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: 500; text-decoration: none;">Nick Everett</a></span></span></span><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="views-element-container block block-views block-views-blockarticle-metadata-block-1" id="block-redflag-redesign-views-block-article-metadata-block-1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="content"><div><div class="article-metadata js-view-dom-id-d37a4ba5aae669f1bc310fc3922dd8f13758aecdb80a869244643abc6dec44fa"><div class="views-row"><div class="views-field views-field-nothing"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="https://redflag.org.au/node/7532" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="field-content"><div class="article-header" style="margin-bottom: 24px;"><div class="article-header__meta" style="margin-left: 72px;"><span class="article-header__date" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><time class="datetime" datetime="00Z">RedFlag: 11 February 2021</time></span></div></div></span></span></a></span></span></div></div><footer class="category-footer" style="display: flex; justify-content: flex-end; margin-top: 24px;"></footer></div></div></div></div><div class="block block-system block-system-main-block" id="block-redflag-redesign-system-main" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="content" style="text-align: left;"><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><header style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">“We are all in this together”, our politicians love to emphasise in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Except, that is, if you are a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation. </span></span></span></span></header><header style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></header><header style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">On 24 January, Israel’s minister of health, Yuli Edelstein, boasted to the BBC that Israel leads the world in the vaccination of its citizens. In a campaign begun on 20 December, the Israeli health ministry intends to vaccinate fully 5.2 million of its 9 million citizens by the end of March. Yet none of the stateless Palestinians living in the West Bank or besieged Gaza Strip have received a single dose of the vaccine. And, outside of annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli health authorities have no plans to distribute the vaccine in the occupied Palestinian territories.</span></span></span></span></header><header style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></header><header style="display: block;"></header><header style="display: block;"></header><header style="display: block;"></header><header style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">When quizzed by BBC journalist Andrew Marr as to why Palestinians were being denied the vaccine, Edelstein callously responded that Israel has no legal obligation to provide it. “As far as vaccination is concerned”, he told Marr, “I think it is Israel's obligation first and foremost to its citizens—they pay taxes for that, don’t they?”</span></span></span></span></header><header style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></header><header style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">According
to the World Health Organisation, more than 175,000 Palestinians have
been infected with COVID-19, resulting in nearly 2,000 deaths.
Palestinian hospitals are currently overrun, with more than 100
Palestinians who have tested positive hospitalised in intensive-care
units.</span></span></span></span></header></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">The besieged Gaza Strip surpassed 50,000 infections on 26 January, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. With Israel preventing the import of essential medical equipment into Gaza, the health system is on the brink of collapse.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Furthermore, 227 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been infected by the virus over the last year—nearly an entire half of the Palestinians in Israeli custody. Yet Israel’s internal security minister, Amir Ohana, has directed Israeli health authorities not to vaccinate Palestinian prisoners.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">It would be hard to find a clearer textbook example of apartheid. Comparison between the oppressive and racist policies of Israel’s colonial-settler state and those of former apartheid South Africa is nothing new.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">In 1961, South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd dismissed Israeli criticism of South African apartheid at the United Nations, telling delegates: “Israel is not consistent in its new anti-apartheid attitude ... they took Israel away from the Arabs after the Arabs lived there for a thousand years. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state”.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2007, UN special rapporteur John Dugard concluded that “elements of the occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid”. In a subsequent<span> </span><a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/lawpeacemideast/publications/file60532.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">study</a><span> </span>commissioned by the Human Sciences Research Council, Palestinian and South African scholars found that Israel was indeed committing the crime of apartheid.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">A decade later, another UN special rapporteur, Richard Falk, reached similar conclusions. Falk co-authored a<span> </span><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/2017-03/un_apartheid_report_15_march_english_final_.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">report</a><span> </span>commissioned by the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA) that accused Israel of “policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid” against the Palestinian people.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">According to the ESCWA report, Israel is guilty of pursuing a policy of “strategic fragmentation” in order “to stabilise the Israeli regime of racial domination over the Palestinians and to weaken the will and capacity of the Palestinian people to mount a unified and effective resistance”.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Predictably, Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon denounced the report as an “attempt to smear and falsely label the only true democracy in the Middle East by creating a false analogy”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres swiftly capitulated to US pressure to withdraw the report, promptly scrubbing it from the UN website.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Yet a concerted campaign by powerful apologists for Israeli apartheid to smear their critics as “anti-Semitic” has failed to turn public opinion in Israel’s favour.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Last month Israeli human right organisation B’Tselem accused Israel of “advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group—Jews—over another—Palestinians”. Recognising that Israel has no intention of implementing a two-state solution, B’Tselem executive director Hagai El-Ad argued, “One of the key points in our analysis is that this is a single geopolitical area ruled by one government ...This is not democracy plus occupation. This is apartheid between the river and the sea”.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">The B’Tselem<span> </span><a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid" style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;">report</a><span> </span>points out that while approximately 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians live under a single system of Israeli control, Israel has attempted to destroy a Palestinian national identity by dividing Palestinians into four subordinate groups, each with “a different package of rights”. At the bottom of the heap are nearly 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza subject to an Israeli blockade that gives Israel “effective control”.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">In the next tier are 2.7 million Palestinian “subjects” in the West Bank, who live in “dozens of disconnected enclaves, under rigid military rule and without political rights”. The limited “self-rule” granted to Palestinians under the Oslo Accords has created a Palestinian Authority that “is still subordinate to Israel and can only exercise its limited powers with Israel’s consent”.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Three hundred and fifty thousand Palestinians living in East Jerusalem constitute the third tier, having been given residency status in territory illegally annexed by Israel. In the fourth tier are approximately one million Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have been granted Israeli citizenship, but remain second-class citizens living under discriminatory laws that deny them freedom of movement and political expression.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and numerous other human rights organisations have demanded Israel give Palestinians access to the vaccine.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">“Nothing can justify today’s reality in parts of the West Bank, where people on one side of the street are receiving vaccines, while those on the other do not, based on whether they’re Jewish or Palestinian”, stated Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, on 17 January. “Everyone in the same territory should have equitable access to the vaccine, regardless of their ethnicity.”</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">However, those with access to the vaccine living “on one side of the street” (or rather within the walled Israeli settlements that increasingly dominate the West Bank landscape) are no ordinary citizens who happen to have a different ethnicity to indigenous Palestinians. They are settlers on the front line of Israel’s brutal regime of colonisation.</span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></article><article class="node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-full clearfix" data-history-node-id="7532" role="article" style="display: block;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Israel is not only an apartheid state; it’s also a colonial-settler regime. And it is weaponising COVID-19 to inflict further suffering and death on the Palestinians.</span></span></span></span></article></div></div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-7759724519048942562021-04-28T20:19:00.002-07:002021-04-28T20:39:26.634-07:00Hello Again! Live From Occupied Palestine in 2021 <p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheHI-44m7Dr7ToENcIeoxI1pV3hV15k7RNlwDWsSXKx4jWDMSlnX49nfGKvqBOVIaXg9dzqC2EKPJPyC4ArojnvAsh0nqjU7VuyE4YyivvBn9iaKoCS0AqVD4hWhOuj5ISBrD2gBIguZo/s1200/palestine+-+wall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheHI-44m7Dr7ToENcIeoxI1pV3hV15k7RNlwDWsSXKx4jWDMSlnX49nfGKvqBOVIaXg9dzqC2EKPJPyC4ArojnvAsh0nqjU7VuyE4YyivvBn9iaKoCS0AqVD4hWhOuj5ISBrD2gBIguZo/w583-h313/palestine+-+wall.jpg" width="583" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><span>Hello everyone,</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />It's a been quite a while since I have posted anything. Unfortunately due to work, study and family ill-ness, I did not have the time over the last 22 or so months to devote to Live from Occupied Palestine.<br /><br />I am hoping to rectify that and to begin (albeit slow) posting again and updating this blog with news articles and items, as well as commentary and other information. <br /><br />To get the ball rolling, I will begin by posting a couple of articles from earlier this year which cover a range of important issues happening either in relation to what is happening on the ground in Palestine or within the International Palestine Solidarity Movement.<br /><br />I very much appreciate all the support many of you have give this blog in the past and I hope that it will be able to become an important source of news and information for you again over the coming year.<br /><br />Yours in solidarity,<br />Kim <br /></span><br /></span><br /></p>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-81401952911923856572019-07-07T21:07:00.000-07:002019-07-07T21:12:01.324-07:00HAARETZ: Burying the Nakba: How Israel Systematically Hides Evidence of 1948 Expulsion of Arabs <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear friends,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Due to a serious illness in my family, its been a while since I lasted posted or updated Live From Occupied Palestine. Although I am not able to currently post as regularly as I was before, I do hope to update this site with relevant news whenever I can (so it may or not be every few weeks or so before posts). </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My apologies for not being able to post as regularly at the moment as regularly has I have done so before but I do intend to keep posting whenever I can, so thank you for your continued support.<br /><br />Please find below an indepth article from Haaretz on how the Israeli state systematically hides evidence of expulsion of Palestinians during the Nakba, along with the war crimes and human rights abuses committed by Zionist militias, including the newly formed Israeli "Defence" Force. This is not new news as other journalists and historians have reported on this fact before. However, this article provides an indepth discussion of the issue.<br /><br />in solidarity, <br />Kim<br /><br />**</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEippXtmJP6ItTg9g2T80zHqQmPHt9lgengF1bKYUXDjHe38-X7UqT4bP6aVGWLyh4_EHC349_eUZfzWzqElD-TtzezKxelGPS5vK6UqzJmBMw5MEpI2a1zoIDFTC5ul1BZ8-gCoE97QoZ8/s1600/Nakba1+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="1600" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEippXtmJP6ItTg9g2T80zHqQmPHt9lgengF1bKYUXDjHe38-X7UqT4bP6aVGWLyh4_EHC349_eUZfzWzqElD-TtzezKxelGPS5vK6UqzJmBMw5MEpI2a1zoIDFTC5ul1BZ8-gCoE97QoZ8/s640/Nakba1+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" width="640" /></a></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">International forces overseeing the evacuation of Iraq al-Manshiyya, near today's Kiryat Gat, in March, 1949</span></i></span></b><br />
<h1 class="mag__h__title" id="art-headline" itemprop="headline">
<span style="color: orange;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-israel-systematically-hides-evidence-of-1948-expulsion-of-arabs-1.7435103"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Burying the Nakba: How Israel Systematically Hides Evidence of 1948 Expulsion of Arabs </span></a></span></h1>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since
early last decade, Defense Ministry teams have scoured local archives
and removed troves of historic documents to conceal proof of the Nakba</span></b></div>
<div class="[ t-beta t-lede ]" itemprop="description">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> By</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/WRITER-1.5603043" itemprop="sameAs" rel="author"><span itemprop="name"> Hagar Shezaf</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span> </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><time datetime="Fri Jul 05 08:25:40 IDT 2019" itemprop="datePublished"><b><span style="font-size: large;">July 05, 2019: HAARETZ</span></b></time></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><time datetime="Fri Jul 05 08:25:40 IDT 2019" itemprop="datePublished"></time></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a class="t-txt-link" href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/MAGAZINE-testimonies-from-the-censored-massacre-at-deir-yassin-1.5494094">
<b>Testimonies from the censored Deir Yassin massacre: 'They piled bodies
and burned them' </b></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b><b>
</b></span></div>
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</b></span></li>
<li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a class="t-txt-link" href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-general-s-confession-links-massacre-to-israel-s-secret-plan-to-expel-arabs-1.6550421">
General's final confession links 1956 massacre to Israel's secret plan
to expel Arabs </a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a class="t-txt-link" href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium.MAGAZINE-hidden-stories-of-the-nakba-1.6010350">
Palestinians uncover history of the Nakba, even as Israel cuts them off
from their sources </a></b></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="byline">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Four years ago, historian Tamar Novick was jolted by a document she
found in the file of Yosef Vashitz, from the Arab Department of the
left-wing Mapam Party, in the Yad Yaari archive at Givat Haviva. The
document, which seemed to describe events that took place during the
1948 war, began:</span><br />
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Safsaf [former Palestinian village near Safed] –
52 men were caught, tied them to one another, dug a pit and shot them.
10 were still twitching. Women came, begged for mercy. Found bodies of 6
elderly men. There were 61 bodies. 3 cases of rape, one east of from
Safed, girl of 14, 4 men shot and killed. From one they cut off his
fingers with a knife to take the ring.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The writer goes on to describe additional <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-who-commanded-massacre-of-dozens-of-arab-captives-in-1948-dies-at-93-1.7022943">massacres, looting and abuse</a>
perpetrated by Israeli forces in Israel’s War of Independence. “There’s
no name on the document and it’s not clear who’s behind it,” Dr. Novick
tells Haaretz. “It also breaks off in the middle. I found it very
disturbing. I knew that finding a document like this made me responsible
for clarifying what happened.”
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Upper Galilee village of Safsaf was captured
by the Israel Defense Forces in Operation Hiram toward the end of 1948.
Moshav Safsufa was established on its ruins. Allegations were made over
the years that the Seventh Brigade committed war crimes in the village.
Those charges are supported by the document Novick found, which was not
previously known to scholars. It could also constitute additional
evidence that the Israeli top brass knew about what was going on in real
time. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Novick decided to consult with other historians about the document. <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-israel-will-decline-and-jews-will-be-persecuted-those-who-can-will-flee-1.6848498">Benny Morris</a>,
whose books are basic texts in the study of the Nakba – the “calamity,”
as the Palestinians refer to the mass emigration of Arabs from the
country during the 1948 war – told her that he, too, had come across
similar documentation in the past. He was referring to notes made by
Mapam Central Committee member Aharon Cohen on the basis of a briefing
given in November 1948 by Israel Galili, the former chief of staff of
the Haganah militia, which became the IDF. Cohen’s notes in this
instance, which Morris published, stated: “Safsaf 52 men tied with a
rope. Dropped into a pit and shot. 10 were killed. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Women pleaded for
mercy. [There were] 3 cases of rape. Caught and released. A girl of 14
was raped. Another 4 were killed. Rings of knives.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Morris’ footnote (in his
seminal “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949”)
states that this document was also found in the Yad Yaari Archive. But
when Novick returned to examine the document, she was surprised to
discover that it was no longer there.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmizEpXmRPVizxZxNYCAGRM2-NDEnL8affv9qdWqK9xvIbITOzHAmvHa5UW7JhXRF7MZ2xVPZqImz0DPe5JlcWaEoA9Jdo4waPK1ifNmnNOUKIDbTHuMavymQqNQgG8ooi3P479EOOZaM/s1600/Nakba2+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1119" data-original-width="1406" height="507" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmizEpXmRPVizxZxNYCAGRM2-NDEnL8affv9qdWqK9xvIbITOzHAmvHa5UW7JhXRF7MZ2xVPZqImz0DPe5JlcWaEoA9Jdo4waPK1ifNmnNOUKIDbTHuMavymQqNQgG8ooi3P479EOOZaM/s640/Nakba2+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-hidden="true">Palestine refugees initially displaced to Gaza board boats to Lebanon or Egypt, in 1949. </span></span></b></i></span>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="fig__credit"></span><br />“At first I thought that maybe Morris hadn’t been accurate in his
footnote, that perhaps he had made a mistake,” Novick recalls. “It took
me time to consider the possibility that the document had simply
disappeared.” When she asked those in charge where the document was, she
was told that it had been placed behind lock and key at Yad Yaari – by
order of the Ministry of Defense. </span></div>
<div class="byline">
</div>
<div class="byline">
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since the start of the last decade, Defense
Ministry teams have been scouring Israel’s archives and removing
historic documents. But it’s not just <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-secret-handwritten-memos-reveal-how-israel-s-nuclear-program-came-to-be-1.6850955">papers relating to Israel’s nuclear project</a>
or to the country’s foreign relations that are being transferred to
vaults: Hundreds of documents have been concealed as part of a
systematic effort to hide evidence of the Nakba. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
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<div class="mag__aside-wrapper content__el as--tight">
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<aside class="mag__aside mag__aside--left">
<div class="js-dfp-ad" data-audtarget="all" data-google-query-id="CMSMnMKopOMCFdIRaAodDpQMqg" id="haaretz.com.web.magazine.box1">
</div>
</aside>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The phenomenon was first
detected by the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Research. According to a report drawn up by the institute, the operation
is being spearheaded by Malmab, the Defense Ministry’s secretive
security department (the name is a Hebrew acronym for “director of
security of the defense establishment”), whose activities and budget are
classified. The report asserts that Malmab removed historical
documentation illegally and with no authority, and at least in some
cases has sealed documents that had previously been cleared for
publication by the military censor. Some of the documents that were
placed in vaults had already been published. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An investigative report by
Haaretz found that Malmab has concealed testimony from IDF generals
about the killing of civilians and the demolition of villages, as well
as documentation of the expulsion of Bedouin during the first decade of
statehood. Conversations conducted by Haaretz with directors of public
and private archives alike revealed that staff of the security
department had treated the archives as their property, in some cases
threatening the directors themselves. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yehiel Horev, who headed Malmab for two decades,
until 2007, acknowledged to Haaretz that he launched the project, which
is still ongoing. He maintains that it makes sense to conceal the events
of 1948, because uncovering them could generate unrest among the
country’s Arab population. Asked what the point is of removing documents
that have already been published, he explained that the objective is to
undermine the credibility of studies about the history of the refugee
problem. In Horev’s view, an allegation made by a researcher that's
backed up by an original document is not the same as an allegation that
cannot be proved or refuted. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="mag__aside-wrapper content__el as--tight">
<br />
<aside class="mag__aside mag__aside--left">
</aside>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The document Novick was
looking for might have reinforced Morris’ work. During the
investigation, Haaretz was in fact able to find the Aharon Cohen memo,
which sums up a meeting of Mapam’s Political Committee on the subject of
massacres and expulsions in 1948. Participants in the meeting called
for cooperation with a commission of inquiry that would investigate the
events. One case the committee discussed concerned “grave actions”
carried out in the village of Al-Dawayima, east of Kiryat Gat. One
participant mentioned the then-disbanded Lehi underground militia in
this connection. Acts of looting were also reported: “Lod and Ramle,
Be’er Sheva, there isn’t [an Arab] store that hasn’t been broken into.
9th Brigade says 7, 7th Brigade says 8.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The party,” the document
states near the end, “is against expulsion if there is no military
necessity for it. There are different approaches concerning the
evaluation of necessity. And further clarification is best. What
happened in Galilee – those are Nazi acts! Every one of our members must
report what he knows.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Israeli version</b></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the most fascinating
documents about the origin of the Palestinian refugee problem was
written by an officer in Shai, the precursor to the Shin Bet security
service. It discusses why the country was emptied of so many of its Arab
inhabitants, dwelling on the circumstances of each village. Compiled in
late June 1948, it was titled “The Emigration of the Arabs of
Palestine.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/st/inter/Heng/1948.pdf" target="_blank">Read a translation of the document here</a></b></i></span></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b> </b></i></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This document was the basis
for an article that Benny Morris published in 1986. After the article
appeared, the document was removed from the archive and rendered
inaccessible to researchers. Years later, the Malmab team reexamined the
document, and ordered that it remain classified. They could not have
known that a few years later researchers from Akevot would find a copy
of the text and run it past the military censors – who authorized its
publication unconditionally. Now, after years of concealment, the gist
of the document is being revealed here. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The 25-page document begins with an introduction that unabashedly
approves of the evacuation of the Arab villages. According to the
author, the month of April “excelled in an increase of emigration,”
while May “was blessed with the evacuation of maximum places.” The
report then addresses “the causes of the Arab emigration.” According to
the Israeli narrative that was disseminated over the years,
responsibility for the exodus from Israel rests with Arab politicians
who encouraged the population to leave. However, according to the
document, 70 percent of the Arabs left as a result of Jewish military
operations.
<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEw_uulM4JoY8E5qVlvhawqro713F2yF4U7HWNUjwkQMwuPkO_3LXj8UNsooQ-mrVI5n0o11oEm7vQwrqbqp9zLIrATwaFeHg6jn_a6Gm1_K0P5dAV3CXfAqpYI7SqGOne0ek-fEuoZ4/s1600/Nakba3+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1423" data-original-width="1406" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEw_uulM4JoY8E5qVlvhawqro713F2yF4U7HWNUjwkQMwuPkO_3LXj8UNsooQ-mrVI5n0o11oEm7vQwrqbqp9zLIrATwaFeHg6jn_a6Gm1_K0P5dAV3CXfAqpYI7SqGOne0ek-fEuoZ4/s640/Nakba3+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" width="632" /></a></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-hidden="true">Palestinian children awaiting distribution of milk by UNICEF at the Nazareth Franciscan Sisters’ convent, on January 1, 1950</span><span class="fig__credit">.</span></span></b></i></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The unnamed author of the text ranks the reasons
for the Arabs’ departure in order of importance. The first reason:
“Direct Jewish acts of hostility against Arab places of settlement.” The
second reason was the impact of those actions on neighboring villages.
Third in importance came “operations by the breakaways,” namely the
Irgun and Lehi undergrounds. The fourth reason for the Arab exodus was
orders issued by Arab institutions and “gangs” (as the document refers
to all Arab fighting groups); fifth was “Jewish 'whispering operations'
to induce the Arab inhabitants to flee”; and the sixth factor was
“evacuation ultimatums.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The author asserts that,
“without a doubt, the hostile operations were the main cause of the
movement of the population.” In addition, “Loudspeakers in the Arabic
language proved their effectiveness on the occasions when they were
utilized properly.” As for Irgun and Lehi operations, the report
observes that “many in the villages of central Galilee started to flee
following the abduction of the notables of Sheikh Muwannis [a village
north of Tel Aviv]. The Arab learned that it is not enough to forge an
agreement with the Haganah and that there are other Jews [i.e., the
breakaway militias] to beware of.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The author notes that
ultimatums to leave were especially employed in central Galilee, less so
in the Mount Gilboa region. “Naturally, the act of this ultimatum, like
the effect of the 'friendly advice,' came after a certain preparing of
the ground by means of hostile actions in the area.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An appendix to the document
describes the specific causes of the exodus from each of scores of Arab
locales: Ein Zeitun – “our destruction of the village”; Qeitiya –
“harassment, threat of action”; Almaniya – “our action, many killed”;
Tira – “friendly Jewish advice”; Al’Amarir – “after robbery and murder
carried out by the breakaways”; Sumsum – “our ultimatum”; Bir Salim –
“attack on the orphanage”; and Zarnuga – “conquest and expulsion.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Short fuse</b></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the early 2000s, the
Yitzhak Rabin Center conducted a series of interviews with former public
and military figures as part of a project to document their activity in
the service of the state. The long arm of Malmab seized on these
interviews, too. Haaretz, which obtained the original texts of several
of the interviews, compared them to the versions that are now available
to the public, after large swaths of them were declared classified. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These included, for example,
sections of the testimony of Brig. Gen. (res.) Aryeh Shalev about the
expulsion across the border of the residents of a village he called
“Sabra.” Later in the interview, the following sentences were deleted:
“There was a very serious problem in the valley. There were refugees who
wanted to return to the valley, to the Triangle [a concentration of
Arab towns and villages in eastern Israel]. We expelled them. I met with
them to persuade them not to want that. I have papers about it.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In another case, Malmab
decided to conceal the following segment from an interview that
historian Boaz Lev Tov conducted with Maj. Gen. (res.) Elad Peled: </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov: </b>“We’re talking about a population – women and children?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Peled: </b>“All, all. Yes.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov: </b>“Don’t you distinguish between them?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Peled:</b> “The problem is very simple. The war is between two populations. They come out of their home.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov: </b>“If the home exists, they have somewhere to return to?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Peled: </b>“It’s not armies yet,
it’s gangs. We’re also actually gangs. We come out of the house and
return to the house. They come out of the house and return to the house.
It’s either their house or our house.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov: </b>“Qualms belong to the more recent generation?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Peled: “Yes, today. When I sit in an armchair here and think about what happened, all kinds of thoughts come to mind.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov:</b> “Wasn’t that the case then?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Peled:</b> “Look, let me tell
you something even less nice and cruel, about the big raid in Sasa
[Palestinian village in Upper Galilee]. The goal was actually to deter
them, to tell them, ‘Dear friends, the Palmach [the Haganah “shock
troops”] can reach every place, you are not immune.’ That was the heart
of the Arab settlement. But what did we do? My platoon blew up 20 homes
with everything that was there.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov: </b>“While people were sleeping there?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Peled:</b> “I suppose so. What
happened there, we came, we entered the village, planted a bomb next to
every house, and afterward Homesh blew on a trumpet, because we didn’t
have radios, and that was the signal [for our forces] to leave. We’re
running in reverse, the sappers stay, they pull, it’s all primitive.
They light the fuse or pull the detonator and all those houses are
gone.”
<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZE5irGDQJvGOth1v_Y-eWWbRgJTu6y6VxYD0FEmg4QcpVNwtN7PfjRPGXbAo7Cl3n4XEdWc1Hs3VFv5P6jxEAiBhbvLnCPs7K1Isg_cP1eQgLlZs9DvDxFj_dM0iaa4B6G_6EVgLFdo/s1600/Nakba4+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="989" data-original-width="1406" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZE5irGDQJvGOth1v_Y-eWWbRgJTu6y6VxYD0FEmg4QcpVNwtN7PfjRPGXbAo7Cl3n4XEdWc1Hs3VFv5P6jxEAiBhbvLnCPs7K1Isg_cP1eQgLlZs9DvDxFj_dM0iaa4B6G_6EVgLFdo/s640/Nakba4+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i> </i></b></span><span aria-hidden="true"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>Israeli Occupation soldiers guarding Palestinians in Ramle, in 1948</i></b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-hidden="true"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i> </i></b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another passage that the Defense Ministry wanted
to keep from the public came from Dr. Lev Tov’s conversation with Maj.
Gen. Avraham Tamir: </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tamir: </b>“I was under Chera
[Maj. Gen. Tzvi Tzur, later IDF chief of staff], and I had excellent
working relations with him. He gave me freedom of action – don’t ask –
and I happened to be in charge of staff and operations work during two
developments deriving from [Prime Minister David] Ben-Gurion’s policy.
One development was when reports arrived about marches of refugees from
Jordan toward the abandoned villages [in Israel]. And then Ben-Gurion
lays down as policy that we have to demolish [the villages] so they
won’t have anywhere to return to. That is, all the Arab villages, most
of which were in [the area covered by] Central Command, most of them.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov:</b> “The ones that were still standing?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tamir:</b> “The ones that
weren’t yet inhabited by Israelis. There were places where we had
already settled Israelis, like Zakariyya and others. But most of them
were still abandoned villages.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov:</b> “That were standing?” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tamir: </b>“Standing. It was
necessary for there to be no place for them to return to, so I mobilized
all the engineering battalions of Central Command, and within 48 hours I
knocked all those villages to the ground. Period. There’s no place to
return to.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lev Tov:</b> “Without hesitation, I imagine.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tamir:</b> “Without hesitation. That was the policy. I mobilized, I carried it out and I did it.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Crates in vaults</b></span></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The vault of the Yad Yaari
Research and Documentation Center is one floor below ground level. In
the vault, which is actually a small, well-secured room, are stacks of
crates containing classified documents. The archive houses the materials
of the Hashomer Hatzair movement, the Kibbutz Ha’artzi kibbutz
movement, Mapam, Meretz and other bodies, such as Peace Now. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="mag__aside-wrapper content__el as--tight">
<br />
<aside class="mag__aside mag__aside--left">
</aside>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The archive’s director is
Dudu Amitai, who is also chairman of the Association of Israel
Archivists. According to Amitai, Malmab personnel visited the archive
regularly between 2009 and 2011. Staff of the archive relate that
security department teams – two Defense Ministry retirees with no
archival training – would show up two or three times a week. They
searched for documents according to such keywords as “nuclear,”
“security” and “censorship,” and also devoted considerable time to the
War of Independence and the fate of the pre-1948 Arab villages. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“In the end, they submitted a
summary to us, saying that they had located a few dozen sensitive
documents,” Amitai says. “We don’t usually take apart files, so dozens
of files, in their entirety, found their way into our vault and were
removed from the public catalog.” A file might contain more than 100
documents. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the files that was
sealed deals with the military government that controlled the lives of
Israel’s Arab citizens from 1948 until 1966. For years, the documents
were stored in the same vault, inaccessible to scholars. Recently, in
the wake of a request by Prof. Gadi Algazi, a historian from Tel Aviv
University, Amitai examined the file himself and ruled that there was no
reason not to unseal it, Malmab’s opinion notwithstanding. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to Algazi, there
could be several reasons for Malmab’s decision to keep the file
classified. One of them has to do with a secret annex it contains to a
report by a committee that examined the operation of the military
government. The report deals almost entirely with land-ownership battles
between the state and Arab citizens, and barely touches on security
matters. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another possibility is a
1958 report by the ministerial committee that oversaw the military
government. In one of the report’s secret appendixes, Col. Mishael
Shaham, a senior officer in the military government, explains that one
reason for not dismantling the martial law apparatus is the need to
restrict Arab citizens’ access to the labor market and to prevent the
reestablishment of destroyed villages. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A third possible explanation
for hiding the file concerns previously unpublished historical
testimony about the expulsion of Bedouin. On the eve of Israel’s
establishment, nearly 100,000 Bedouin lived in the Negev. Three years
later, their number was down to 13,000. In the years during and after
the independence war, a number of expulsion operations were carried out
in the country’s south. In one case, United Nations observers reported
that Israel had expelled 400 Bedouin from the Azazma tribe and cited
testimonies of tents being burned. <br /><br /><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Below: <span aria-hidden="true">The evacuation of Iraq al-Manshiyya, near today's Kiryat Gat, in March, 1949</span></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3GicjlbHY-oVa2xtmGmlaONmrFnlaRyfqCun3uCYKIPZ-wiqH-vlG01IeFrm1NmBSykhbFBhCLGHKftcawzdE9Af3Avs6ok8p9MzUdGXsmjG9t57YRJhPkyV3o_CMfQU3SLFszou7RE/s1600/Nakba5+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1148" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3GicjlbHY-oVa2xtmGmlaONmrFnlaRyfqCun3uCYKIPZ-wiqH-vlG01IeFrm1NmBSykhbFBhCLGHKftcawzdE9Af3Avs6ok8p9MzUdGXsmjG9t57YRJhPkyV3o_CMfQU3SLFszou7RE/s640/Nakba5+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" width="458" /></a></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The letter that appears in the
classified file describes a similar expulsion carried out as late as
1956, as related by geologist Avraham Parnes: </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“A month ago we toured Ramon [crater]. The
Bedouin in the Mohila area came to us with their flocks and their
families and asked us to break bread with them. I replied that we had a
great deal of work to do and didn’t have time. In our visit this week,
we headed toward Mohila again. Instead of the Bedouin and their flocks,
there was deathly silence. Scores of camel carcasses were scattered in
the area. We learned that three days earlier the IDF had ‘screwed’ the
Bedouin, and their flocks were destroyed – the camels by shooting, the
sheep with grenades. One of the Bedouin, who started to complain, was
killed, the rest fled.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The testimony continued,
“Two weeks earlier, they’d been ordered to stay where they were for the
time being, afterward they were ordered to leave, and to speed things up
500 head were slaughtered.... The expulsion was executed
‘efficiently.’” The letter goes on to quote what one of the soldiers
said to Parnes, according to his testimony: “They won’t go unless we’ve
screwed their flocks. A young girl of about 16 approached us. She had a
beaded necklace of brass snakes. We tore the necklace and each of us
took a bead for a souvenir.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The letter was originally
sent to MK Yaakov Uri, from Mapai (forerunner of Labor), who passed it
on to Development Minister Mordechai Bentov (Mapam). “His letter shocked
me,” Uri wrote Bentov. The latter circulated the letter among all the
cabinet ministers, writing, “It is my opinion that the government cannot
simply ignore the facts related in the letter.” Bentov added that, in
light of the appalling contents of the letter, he asked security experts
to check its credibility. They had confirmed that the contents “do in
fact generally conform to the truth.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nuclear excuse</b></span></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was during the tenure of
historian Tuvia Friling as Israel’s chief archivist, from 2001 to 2004,
that Malmab carried out its first archival incursions. What began as an
operation to prevent the leakage of nuclear secrets, he says, became, in
time, a large-scale censorship project. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“I resigned after three
years, and that was one of the reasons,” Prof. Friling says. “The
classification placed on the document about the Arabs’ emigration in
1948 is precisely an example of what I was apprehensive about. The
storage and archival system is not an arm of the state’s public
relations. If there’s something you don’t like – well, that’s life. A
healthy society also learns from its mistakes.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why did Friling allow the
Defense Ministry to have access the archives? The reason, he says, was
the intention to give the public access to archival material via the
internet. In discussions about the implications of digitizing the
material, concern was expressed that references in the documents to a
“certain topic” would be made public by mistake. The topic, of course,
is Israel’s nuclear project. Friling insists that the only authorization
Malmab received was to search for documents on that subject. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But Malmab’s activity is
only one example of a broader problem, Friling notes: “In 1998, the
confidentiality of the [oldest documents in the] Shin Bet and Mossad
archives expired. For years those two institutions disdained the chief
archivist. When I took over, they requested that the confidentiality of
all the material be extended [from 50] to 70 years, which is ridiculous –
most of the material can be opened.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2010, the confidentiality
period was extended to 70 years; last February it was extended again,
to 90 years, despite the opposition of the Supreme Council of Archives.
“The state may impose confidentiality on some of its documentation,”
Friling says. “The question is whether the issue of security doesn’t act
as a kind of cover. In many cases, it’s already become a joke.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the view of Yad Yaari’s
Dudu Amitai, the confidentiality imposed by the Defense Ministry must be
challenged. In his period at the helm, he says, one of the documents
placed in the vault was an order issued by an IDF general, during a
truce in the War of Independence, for his troops to refrain from rape
and looting. Amitai now intends to go over the documents that were
deposited in the vault, especially 1948 documents, and open whatever is
possible. “We’ll do it cautiously and responsibly, but recognizing that
the State of Israel has to learn how to cope with the less pleasant
aspects of its history.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In contrast to Yad Yaari,
where ministry personnel no longer visit, they are continuing to peruse
documents at Yad Tabenkin, the research and documentation center of the
United Kibbutz Movement. The director, Aharon Azati, reached an
agreement with the Malmab teams under which documents will be
transferred to the vault only if he is convinced that this is justified.
But in Yad Tabenkin, too, Malmab has broadened its searches beyond the
realm of nuclear project to encompass interviews conducted by archival
staff with former members of the Palmach, and has even perused material
about the history of the settlements in the occupied territories. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Malmab has, for example,
shown interest in the Hebrew-language book “A Decade of Discretion:
Settlement Policy in the Territories 1967-1977,” published by Yad
Tabenkin in 1992, and written by Yehiel Admoni, director of the Jewish
Agency’s Settlement Department during the decade he writes about. The
book mentions a plan to settle Palestinian refugees in the Jordan Valley
and to the uprooting of 1,540 Bedouin families from the Rafah area of
the Gaza Strip in 1972, including an operation that included the sealing
of wells by the IDF. Ironically, in the case of the Bedouin, Admoni
quotes former Justice Minister Yaakov Shimshon Shapira as saying, “It is
not necessary to stretch the security rationale too far. The whole
Bedouin episode is not a glorious chapter of the State of Israel.”
<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9yVHLsgllmHssGIWGshjHGNhMvvoXNIPRTDZmpRjQLLfzkWgGkHXJUuSIBVF1H0DRbrSzmT4AmCWY-c8XpQHbOa8lhM_hZdtMhakEED78LkD6wh9CSwEzXJlNqO4NNqgbw3oEf-qAXk/s1600/Nakba6+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="987" data-original-width="1406" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9yVHLsgllmHssGIWGshjHGNhMvvoXNIPRTDZmpRjQLLfzkWgGkHXJUuSIBVF1H0DRbrSzmT4AmCWY-c8XpQHbOa8lhM_hZdtMhakEED78LkD6wh9CSwEzXJlNqO4NNqgbw3oEf-qAXk/s640/Nakba6+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span aria-hidden="true">Palestinian refugees leaving their village, unknown location, 1948.</span></b></i></span></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to Azati, “We are moving increasingly
to a tightening of the ranks. Although this is an era of openness and
transparency, there are apparently forces that are pulling in the
opposite direction.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Unauthorized secrecy</b></span></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">About a year ago, the legal
adviser to the State Archives, attorney Naomi Aldouby, wrote an opinion
titled “Files Closed Without Authorization in Public Archives.”
According to her, the accessibility policy of public archives is the
exclusive purview of the director of each institution. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite Aldouby’s opinion,
however, in the vast majority of cases, archivists who encountered
unreasonable decisions by Malmab did not raise objections – that is,
until 2014, when Defense Ministry personnel arrived at the archive of
the Harry S. Truman Research Institute at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. To the visitors’ surprise, their request to examine the
archive – which contains collections of former minister and diplomat
Abba Eban and Maj. Gen. (res.) Shlomo Gazit – was turned down by its
then director, Menahem Blondheim. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">According to Blondheim, “I
told them that the documents in question were decades old, and that I
could not imagine that there was any security problem that would warrant
restricting their access to researchers. In response, they said, ‘And
let’s say there is testimony here that wells were poisoned in the War of
Independence?’ I replied, ‘Fine, those people should be brought to
trial.’” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Blondheim’s refusal led to a
meeting with a more senior ministry official, only this time the
attitude he encountered was different and explicit threats were made.
Finally the two sides reached an accommodation. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
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<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Benny Morris is not
surprised at Malmab’s activity. “I knew about it,” he says “Not
officially, no one informed me, but I encountered it when I discovered
that documents I had seen in the past are now sealed. There were
documents from the IDF Archive that I used for an article about <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/MAGAZINE-testimonies-from-the-censored-massacre-at-deir-yassin-1.5494094">Deir Yassin, and which are now sealed</a>.
When I came to the archive, I was no longer allowed to see the
original, so I pointed out in a footnote [in the article] that the State
Archive had denied access to documents that I had published 15 years
earlier.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Malmab case is only one
example of the battle being waged for access to archives in Israel.
According to the executive director of the Akevot Institute, Lior Yavne,
“The IDF Archive, which is the largest archive in Israel, is sealed
almost hermetically. About 1 percent of the material is open. The Shin
Bet archive, which contains materials of immense importance [to
scholars], is totally closed apart from a handful of documents.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A report written by Yaacov
Lozowick, the previous chief archivist at the State Archives, upon his
retirement, refers to the defense establishment’s grip on the country’s
archival materials. In it, he writes, “A democracy must not conceal
information because it is liable to embarrass the state. In practice,
the security establishment in Israel, and to a certain extent that of
foreign relations as well, are interfering with the [public]
discussion.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Advocates of concealment put
forward several arguments, Lozowick notes: “The uncovering of the facts
could provide our enemies with a battering ram against us and weaken
the determination of our friends; it’s liable to stir up the Arab
population; it could enfeeble the state’s arguments in courts of law;
and what is revealed could be interpreted as Israeli war crimes.”
However, he says, “All these arguments must be rejected. This is an
attempt to hide part of the historical truth in order to construct a
more convenient version.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>What Malmab says</b></span></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yehiel Horev was the keeper
of the security establishment’s secrets for more than two decades. He
headed the Defense Ministry’s security department from 1986 until 2007
and naturally kept out of the limelight. To his credit, he now agreed to
talk forthrightly to Haaretz about the archives project. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“I don’t remember when it
began,” Horev says, “but I do know that I started it. If I’m not
mistaken, it started when people wanted to publish documents from the
archives. We had to set up teams to examine all outgoing material.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i></i></span><br />
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig25dJ2QieX9CRaPUwGVJjmmvYhXFfNBFT4Y_kPfRzqT28HpGQtHQcGPsd9BupCTvkS0urh7ASRnwEgXAyyZhcCK-zRhXqnTjBBRWs-KnBqkcvSRf4haf7QCPDyULntFPVmQdB-5xIMv0/s1600/Nakba7+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1041" data-original-width="1406" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig25dJ2QieX9CRaPUwGVJjmmvYhXFfNBFT4Y_kPfRzqT28HpGQtHQcGPsd9BupCTvkS0urh7ASRnwEgXAyyZhcCK-zRhXqnTjBBRWs-KnBqkcvSRf4haf7QCPDyULntFPVmQdB-5xIMv0/s640/Nakba7+-+from+Haaretz+article+on+expulsion+5+July+2019.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i></i></span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><span aria-hidden="true">Palestinian refugees in the Ramle area, 1948.</span></b></i><i></i></span></div>
</div>
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</div>
<div class="byline">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>From conversations with
archive directors, it’s clear that a good deal of the documents on which
confidentiality was imposed relate to the War of Independence. Is
concealing the events of 1948 part of the purpose of Malmab?</i></span></b></div>
<div class="byline">
<br />
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“What does ‘part of the purpose’ mean? The
subject is examined based on an approach of whether it could harm
Israel’s foreign relations and the defense establishment. Those are the
criteria. I think it’s still relevant. There has not been peace since
1948. I may be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge the Arab-Israeli
conflict has not been resolved. So yes, it could be that problematic
subjects remain.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Asked in what way such
documents might be problematic, Horev speaks of the possibility of
agitation among the country’s Arab citizens. From his point of view,
every document must be perused and every case decided on its merits. </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>If the events of 1948
weren’t known, we could argue about whether this approach is the right
one. That is not the case. Many testimonies and studies have appeared
about the history of the refugee problem. What’s the point of hiding
things?</i></span></b></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The question is whether it
can do harm or not. It’s a very sensitive matter. Not everything has
been published about the refugee issue, and there are all kinds of
narratives. Some say there was no flight at all, only expulsion. Others
say there was flight. It’s not black-and-white. There’s a difference
between flight and those who say they were forcibly expelled. It’s a
different picture. I can’t say now if it merits total confidentiality,
but it’s a subject that definitely has to be discussed before a decision
is made about what to publish.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>For years, the Defense
Ministry has imposed confidentiality on a detailed document that
describes the reasons for the departure of those who became refugees.
Benny Morris has already written about the document, so what’s the logic
of keeping it hidden?</i></span></b></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> </i>
</span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“I don’t remember the
document you’re referring to, but if he quoted from it and the document
itself is not there [i.e., where Morris says it is], then his facts
aren’t strong. If he says, ‘Yes, I have the document,’ I can’t argue
with that. But if he says that it’s written there, that could be right
and it could be wrong. If the document were already outside and were
sealed in the archive, I would say that that’s folly. But if someone
quoted from it – there’s a difference of day and night in terms of the
validity of the evidence he cited.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>In this case, we’re talking about the most quoted scholar when it comes to the Palestinian refugees.</i></span></b></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The fact that you say
‘scholar’ makes no impression on me. I know people in academia who spout
nonsense about subjects that I know from A to Z. When the state imposes
confidentiality, the published work is weakened, because he doesn’t
have the document.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>But isn’t concealing documents based on footnotes in books an attempt to lock the barn door after the horses have bolted?</i></span></b></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“I gave you an example that
this needn’t be the case. If someone writes that the horse is black, if
the horse isn’t outside the barn, you can’t prove that it’s really
black.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>There are legal opinions stating that Malmab’s activity in the archives is illegal and unauthorized.</i></span></b></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span>
</div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“If I know that an archive
contains classified material, I am empowered to tell the police to go
there and confiscate the material. I can also utilize the courts. I
don’t need the archivist’s authorization. If there is classified
material, I have the authority to act. Look, there’s policy. Documents
aren’t sealed for no reason. And despite it all, I won’t say to you that
everything that’s sealed is 100 percent justified [in being sealed].” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Defense Ministry refused
to respond to specific questions regarding the findings of this
investigative report and made do with the following response: “The
director of security of the defense establishment operates by virtue of
his responsibility to protect the state’s secrets and its security
assets. The Malmab does not provide details about its mode of activity
or its missions.” </span></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="t-body-text">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Lee Rotbart assisted in providing visual research for this article.</i></span>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-83731867588532790212019-01-23T20:02:00.000-08:002019-01-23T20:04:48.454-08:00Michelle Alexander: Time to Break The Silence on Palestine <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">please find below a repost of Michelle Alexanders excellent piece in the New York Times in the lead up to Martin Luther King Day in the USA. Alexander is well respected Black intellectual. She has written extensively on racism in the USA (You can check out her book, The New Jim Crow <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595586431">here</a>).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alexander is just the latest Black activist and intellectual to come out in support of Palestine. It's clear from her article, that this has in part been prompted by the increasing attacks on Black solidarity activists and intellectuals who have come out in support of Palestine. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It should come as no surprise than that Alexander has been attacked by Zionists for her article and support of Palestine. I have included an article from the Israeli based +972 magazine, which actively opposes Israel's occupation and apartheid regime. The article by Amjad Iraqi gives a good overview of the commentary from Zionist organisations in opposition to Alexander's article, which basically boil down to Palestinians do not deserve civil or human rights. <br /><br />It should be noted, that while the American Jewish Congress, complain that MLK's memory should not be used as a "moral cudgel", Zionist and Israel apologist have long wielded MLK as a cudgel against critics of Israel. There are plenty of articles in the Zionist and mainstream press over the years to demonstrate that this is the case. It should be noted, when Zionists wield this moral cudgel against critics of Israel who demand human and civil rights for Palestinians, they often quote a hoax letter attributed to King. <br /><br />As Electronic Intifada noted in their article on King and the hoax letter, Jewish anti-racism campaigner, Tim Wise checked the citation, which claimed that it
originated from a “Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend” in an August, 1967
edition of Saturday Review. In an article on January, 2003, essay he
declared that he found no letters from Dr. King in any of the four
August, 1967 editions. The authors of this essay verified Wise’s
discovery."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As the EI article notes: The letter was commonly cited to also have been published in a
book by Dr. King entitled, “This I Believe: Selections from the
Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” No such book was listed in the
bibliography provided by the King Center in Atlanta, nor in the catalogs
of several large public and university libraries." (<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-apologists-and-martin-luther-king-jr-hoax/4955">You can read the full article here</a>).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />In solidarity, Kim </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">***</span></span><br />
<h1 class="css-q2pomr e1h9rw200" id="link-7bf803bd" itemprop="headline">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opinion/sunday/martin-luther-king-palestine-israel.html"><span class="balancedHeadline" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 619.15px;">Time to Break the Silence on Palestine</span></a></span></h1>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Martin
Luther King Jr. courageously spoke out about the Vietnam War. We must
do the same when it comes to this grave injustice of our time. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/michelle-alexander"><img alt="Michelle Alexander" class="css-1m2sy69 ey68jwv2" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/09/13/opinion/michelle-alexander/michelle-alexander-thumbLarge-v2.png" title="Michelle Alexander" /></a></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By <a class="css-1riqqik e1jsehar0" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/michelle-alexander"><span class="css-1baulvz" itemprop="name">Michelle Alexander</span></a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Opinion Columnist</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><time class="css-qddhf4 e16638kd0" datetime="2019-01-19">Jan. 19, 2019</time></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> NEW YORK TIMES </span></b></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9X8IldVL4UkXgml6DospA35W3t7WKt2lFcSqkQdyYKMfrB9QJqLQqD8BHqDkydEcN1gfUExSHm6tKsM5LTUmesH0hw6KZ_91sDs_NoZcYqjRM-8u9qndHd7-R3t3rbdxAjL9nZC9PHo/s1600/MLK+-+NYT+article+on+black+solidarit+with+palestine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1017" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9X8IldVL4UkXgml6DospA35W3t7WKt2lFcSqkQdyYKMfrB9QJqLQqD8BHqDkydEcN1gfUExSHm6tKsM5LTUmesH0hw6KZ_91sDs_NoZcYqjRM-8u9qndHd7-R3t3rbdxAjL9nZC9PHo/s640/MLK+-+NYT+article+on+black+solidarit+with+palestine.jpg" width="634" /></a></span></div>
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<figure aria-label="media" class="sizeMedium layoutVertical css-z723vq toneOpinion" itemid="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/01/20/opinion/20ALEXANDER02/merlin_149323518_01a72722-437f-466a-9693-3b5e3018a11d-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><figcaption class="css-17ai7jg emkp2hg0" itemprop="caption description"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-8i9d0s e13ogyst0">“We
must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited
vision, but we must speak,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared
at Riverside Church in Manhattan in 1967.</span><span class="emkp2hg2 css-1nwzsjy e1z0qqy90" itemprop="copyrightHolder"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit</span><span class="css-1dv1kvn">Credit</span>John C. Goodwin</span></span></span></i></figcaption><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></figure><br />
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On
April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. stepped up to the lectern at the Riverside Church
in Manhattan. The United States had been in active combat in Vietnam
for two years and tens of thousands of people had been killed, including
some 10,000 American troops. The political establishment — from left to
right — backed the war, and more than 400,000 American service members
were in Vietnam, their lives on the line. </span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many
of King’s strongest allies urged him to remain silent about the war or
at least to soft-pedal any criticism. They knew that if he told the
whole truth about the unjust and disastrous war he would be falsely
labeled a Communist, suffer retaliation and severe backlash, alienate
supporters and threaten the fragile progress of the civil rights
movement.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">King rejected all the
well-meaning advice and said, “I come to this magnificent house of
worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice.”
Quoting a statement by the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, he
said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal” and added, “that time has
come for us in relation to Vietnam.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It
was a lonely, moral stance. And it cost him. But it set an example of
what is required of us if we are to honor our deepest values in times of
crisis, even when silence would better serve our personal interests or
the communities and causes we hold most dear. It’s what I think about
when I go over the excuses and rationalizations that have kept me
largely silent on one of the great moral challenges of our time: the
crisis in Israel-Palestine.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<aside class="css-1m2ozyi"></aside></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I
have not been alone. Until very recently, the entire Congress has
remained mostly silent on the human rights nightmare that has unfolded
in the occupied territories. Our elected representatives, who operate in
a political environment where Israel's political lobby holds
well-documented power, have consistently minimized and deflected
criticism of the State of Israel, even as it has grown more emboldened
in its occupation of Palestinian territory and adopted some practices
reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the
United States.</span><br />
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many civil rights
activists and organizations have remained silent as well, not because
they lack concern or sympathy for the Palestinian people, but because
they fear loss of funding from foundations, and false charges of
anti-Semitism. They worry, as I once did, that their important social
justice work will be compromised or discredited by smear campaigns.</span><br />
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Similarly,
many students are fearful of expressing support for Palestinian rights
because of the McCarthyite tactics of secret organizations like<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://theintercept.com/2018/11/22/israel-boycott-canary-mission-blacklist/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> Canary Mission</a>,
which blacklists those who publicly dare to support boycotts against
Israel, jeopardizing their employment prospects and future careers.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reading King’s <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/beyond-vietnam" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">speech</a>
at Riverside more than 50 years later, I am left with little doubt that
his teachings and message require us to speak out passionately against
the human rights crisis in Israel-Palestine, despite the risks and
despite the complexity of the issues. King argued, when speaking of
Vietnam, that even “when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they
often do in the case of this dreadful conflict,” we must not be
mesmerized by uncertainty. “We must speak with all the humility that is
appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And
so, if we are to honor King’s message and not merely the man, we must
condemn Israel’s actions: unrelenting violations of international law,
continued occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, home
demolitions and land confiscations. We must cry out at the treatment of
Palestinians at checkpoints, the routine searches of their homes and
restrictions on their movements, and the severely limited access to
decent housing, schools, food, hospitals and water that many of them
face.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We
must not tolerate Israel’s refusal even to discuss the right of
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, as prescribed by United
Nations resolutions, and we ought to question the U.S. government funds
that have supported <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIGaza/A_HRC_CRP_4.docx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">multiple hostilities</a> and thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza, as well as the<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-military-aid.html?module=inline" title=""> $38 billion</a> the U.S. government has pledged in military support to Israel.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And
finally, we must, with as much courage and conviction as we can muster,
speak out against the system of legal discrimination that exists inside
Israel, a system complete with, according to Adalah, the Legal Center
for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, more than 50 laws that discriminate
against Palestinians — such as the new<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.newsweek.com/israel-passes-nation-state-law-amid-accusations-racism-and-apartheid-1032630" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> nation-state law</a>
that says explicitly that only Jewish Israelis have the right of
self-determination in Israel, ignoring the rights of the Arab minority
that makes up 21 percent of the population.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of
course, there will be those who say that we can’t know for sure what
King would do or think regarding Israel-Palestine today. That is true.
The evidence regarding King’s views on Israel is<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/martinkramer/files/words_of_martin_luther_king.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> complicated and contradictory</a>. </span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.crmvet.org/docs/670815_sncc_palestine.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">denounced</a>
Israel’s actions against Palestinians, King found himself conflicted.
Like many black leaders of the time, he recognized European Jewry as a
persecuted, oppressed and homeless people striving to build a nation of
their own, and he wanted to show solidarity with the Jewish community,
which had been a critically important ally in the civil rights movement.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ultimately, King canceled a<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/martin-luther-king-jr-s-pilgrimage-to-israel-that-never-was-1.5975340" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> pilgrimage</a>
to Israel in 1967 after Israel captured the West Bank. During a phone
call about the visit with his advisers, he said, “I just think that if I
go, the Arab world, and of course Africa and Asia for that matter,
would interpret this as endorsing everything that Israel has done, and I
do have questions of doubt.” </span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He continued to support Israel’s right to exist but<b class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10"> </b>also
said on national television that it would be necessary for Israel to
return parts of its conquered territory to achieve true peace and
security and to avoid exacerbating the conflict. There was no way King
could publicly reconcile his commitment to nonviolence and justice for
all people, everywhere, with what had transpired after the 1967 war.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIxMxkYQ59HK8OmJL0zfN6HTsGFpT2UZ0q3ERGdlq4KeaG15RT4WwhqJP13p-wsVmxd4OoVtdfbdBEDCQFoJ9JeFVmtUlizUyR6DkoxtZRyBKhc6VGvoHg5j9_n3jXNrsK73ZoaPuvmM/s1600/PAL+NURSE+-+MICHELLE+ALEXANDERS+NYT+ARTICEL+ON+BLACK+SOL+WITH+PAL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIxMxkYQ59HK8OmJL0zfN6HTsGFpT2UZ0q3ERGdlq4KeaG15RT4WwhqJP13p-wsVmxd4OoVtdfbdBEDCQFoJ9JeFVmtUlizUyR6DkoxtZRyBKhc6VGvoHg5j9_n3jXNrsK73ZoaPuvmM/s640/PAL+NURSE+-+MICHELLE+ALEXANDERS+NYT+ARTICEL+ON+BLACK+SOL+WITH+PAL.jpg" width="640" /></a></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<figure aria-label="media" class="css-1lghxe1 e1g7ppur0" itemid="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/01/21/opinion/20ALEXANDER-05/merlin_139082622_223834e3-3897-4ab2-97b7-248338bf43ec-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><figcaption class="css-1l44abu e1xdpqjp0" itemprop="caption description"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="css-8i9d0s e13ogyst0">Relatives of a Palestinian nurse, Razan al-Najjar, 21, mourning in June after she was shot dead in Gaza by Israeli soldiers.</span><span class="css-vuqh7u e1z0qqy90" itemprop="copyrightHolder"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit</span>Hosam Salem for The New York Times</span></span></span></i></figcaption></figure><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, we can
only speculate about where King would stand. Yet I find myself in
agreement with the historian Robin D.G. Kelley, who<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2509-yes-i-said-national-liberation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> concluded</a>
that, if King had the opportunity to study the current situation in the
same way he had studied Vietnam, “his unequivocal opposition to
violence, colonialism, racism and militarism would have made him an
incisive critic of Israel’s current policies.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="css-u5vfum StoryBodyCompanionColumn">
<div class="css-4w7y5l">
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Indeed, King’s views may have evolved alongside many other spiritually grounded thinkers, like Rabbi Brian Walt,
who has spoken publicly about the reasons that he abandoned his faith
in what he viewed as political Zionism. To him, he recently explained to
me, liberal Zionism meant that he believed in the creation of a Jewish
state that would be a desperately needed safe haven and cultural center
for Jewish people around the world, "a state that would reflect as well
as honor the highest ideals of the Jewish tradition.” He said he grew up
in South Africa in a family that shared those views and identified as a
liberal Zionist,<b class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10"> </b>until his experiences in the occupied territories forever changed him.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During
more than 20 visits to the West Bank and Gaza, he saw horrific human
rights abuses, including Palestinian homes being bulldozed while people
cried — children's toys strewn over one demolished site — and saw
Palestinian lands being confiscated to make way for new illegal
settlements subsidized by the Israeli government. He was forced to
reckon with the reality that these demolitions, settlements and acts of
violent dispossession were not rogue moves, but fully supported and
enabled by the Israeli military. For him, the turning point was
witnessing legalized discrimination against Palestinians — including
streets for Jews only — which, he said, was worse in some ways than what
he had witnessed as a boy in South Africa.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not so long ago, it was fairly rare to hear this perspective. That is no longer the case.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">Jewish Voice for Peace</a>, for example, aims to educate the American public
about “the forced displacement of approximately 750,000 Palestinians
that began with Israel’s establishment and that continues to this day.”
Growing numbers of people of all faiths and backgrounds have spoken out
with more boldness and courage. American organizations such as <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://ifnotnowmovement.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">If Not Now</a>
support young American Jews as they struggle to break the deadly
silence that still exists among too many people regarding the
occupation, and hundreds of secular and faith-based groups have joined
the <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://uscpr.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights</a>.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In
view of these developments, it seems the days when critiques of Zionism
and the actions of the State of Israel can be written off as
anti-Semitism are coming to an end. There seems to be increased
understanding that criticism of the policies and practices of the
Israeli government <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/opinion/rashida-tlaib-israel-antisemitism.html?module=inline" title="">is not, in itself, anti-Semitic.</a></span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is not to say that anti-Semitism is not real. Neo-Nazism is<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/violent-protests-chemnitz-germany/569206/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> resurging</a> in Germany within a growing anti-immigrant movement. Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/us/anti-semitism-attacks.html?module=inline" title=""> rose 57</a> percent in 2017, and many of us are still mourning what is believed to be<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/27/us/jewish-hate-crimes-fbi/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> the deadliest attack on Jewish people in American history</a>. We must be mindful in this climate that, while criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic, it can slide there.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fortunately, people like the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II are leading by example,<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.thenation.com/article/in-response-to-pittsburgh-we-must-come-together-as-one/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> pledging allegiance to the fight against anti-Semitism</a> while also demonstrating unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people struggling to survive under Israeli occupation. </span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He declared in a<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg63AYzPwN0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> riveting speech</a>
last year that we cannot talk about justice without addressing the
displacement of native peoples, the systemic racism of colonialism and
the injustice of government repression. In the same breath he said: “I
want to say, as clearly as I know how, that the humanity and the dignity
of any person or people cannot in any way diminish the humanity and
dignity of another person or another people. To hold fast to the image
of God in every person is to insist that the Palestinian child is as
precious as the Jewish child.”</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<aside class="css-1m2ozyi"></aside></div>
<div class="css-4w7y5l">
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Guided by this kind of moral clarity, faith groups are taking action. In 2016, the pension board of the United Methodist Church<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.kairosresponse.org/pr_umc_divests_israeli_banks_jan2016.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> excluded from</a>
its multibillion-dollar pension fund Israeli banks whose loans for
settlement construction violate international law. Similarly, the United
Church of Christ the year before passed a<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.ucc.org/news_general_synod_israel_palestine_resolution_06302015" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> resolution</a> calling for divestments and boycotts of companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even
in Congress, change is on the horizon. For the first time, two sitting
members, Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Rashida
Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan,<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/419511-first-palestinian-american-congresswoman-plans-west-bank-trip-for-freshman" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> publicly support</a>
the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. In 2017, Representative
Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota, introduced a resolution to
ensure that no U.S. military aid went to support Israel’s juvenile
military detention system. Israel regularly prosecutes Palestinian
children detainees in the occupied territories in military court.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="css-4w7y5l">
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">None of this is
to say that the tide has turned entirely or that retaliation has ceased
against those who express strong support for Palestinian rights. To the
contrary, just as King received fierce, overwhelming criticism for his
speech condemning the Vietnam War — 168 major newspapers, including The
Times,<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125355148" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> denounced</a>
the address the following day — those who speak publicly in support of
the liberation of the Palestinian people still risk condemnation and
backlash. </span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCBQ4u9HupFMPbHxWdqe6kAjgOcril9BTF30AAookmO3dSZU2mWrfdIUU27OHTjyZyYYg8z-ZD6yRY1xoJzjwf8rJo0zrdhURAoeypIZEQL8yieUl0CJ8ncOzmW2Ll2LYjaldOc29aDw/s1600/GAZA+-+MICHELLE+ALEXANDERS+NYT+ARTICEL+ON+BLACK+SOL+WITH+PAL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="1024" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCBQ4u9HupFMPbHxWdqe6kAjgOcril9BTF30AAookmO3dSZU2mWrfdIUU27OHTjyZyYYg8z-ZD6yRY1xoJzjwf8rJo0zrdhURAoeypIZEQL8yieUl0CJ8ncOzmW2Ll2LYjaldOc29aDw/s640/GAZA+-+MICHELLE+ALEXANDERS+NYT+ARTICEL+ON+BLACK+SOL+WITH+PAL.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<figure aria-label="media" class="css-1lghxe1 e1g7ppur0" itemid="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/01/17/opinion/20ALEXANDER-04/merlin_148273482_335d1032-e7bd-4499-a2b9-337429314d1b-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><figcaption class="css-1l44abu e1xdpqjp0" itemprop="caption description"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="css-8i9d0s e13ogyst0">The Said al-Mis'hal cultural center in Gaza was hit by an Israeli airstrike in August.</span><span class="css-vuqh7u e1z0qqy90" itemprop="copyrightHolder"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit</span>Khalil Hamra/Associated Press</span></span></span></i></figcaption></figure></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bahia Amawi, an American speech pathologist of Palestinian descent, was<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://theintercept.com/2018/12/17/israel-texas-anti-bds-law/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> recently terminated</a>
for refusing to sign a contract that contains an anti-boycott pledge
stating that she does not, and will not, participate in boycotting the
State of Israel. In November, Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN for
giving a speech in support of Palestinian rights that was <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/marc-lamont-hill-temple-university-cnn-palestine-israel-united-nations-20181201.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">grossly misinterpreted</a> as expressing support for violence<b class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">. </b>Canary Mission continues to pose a<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://forward.com/news/national/407279/canary-missions-threat-grows-from-us-campuses-to-the-israeli-border/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> serious threat</a> to student activists. </span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And
just over a week ago, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama,
apparently under pressure mainly from segments of the Jewish community
and others,<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/alabama-civil-rights-institute-rescinds-angela-davis-honor-60208390" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> rescinded an honor</a>
it bestowed upon the civil rights icon Angela Davis, who has been a
vocal critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and supports B.D.S.</span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<br /></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But
that attack backfired. Within 48 hours, academics and activists had
mobilized in response. The mayor of Birmingham, Randall Woodfin, as well
as the Birmingham School Board and the City Council, expressed outrage
at the institute’s decision. The council unanimously passed a<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.birminghamalcitycouncil.org/2019/01/08/birmingham-city-council-unanimously-approves-resolution-of-support-for-dr-angela-davis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title=""> resolution</a> in Davis’ honor, and an alternative event is being organized to celebrate her decades-long commitment to liberation for all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I
cannot say for certain that King would applaud Birmingham for its
zealous defense of Angela Davis’s solidarity with Palestinian people.
But I do. In this new year, I aim to speak with greater courage and
conviction about injustices beyond our borders, particularly those that
are funded by our government, and stand in solidarity with struggles for
democracy and freedom. My conscience leaves me no other choice.<br /><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6uffh" data-offset-key="5hsgi-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5hsgi-0-0">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="5hsgi-0-0"><span data-text="true">Michelle Alexander became a New York Times columnist in 2018. She is a civil rights lawyer and advocate, legal scholar and author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” <br /><br /><br />****</span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<h1 class="post_title_h1 bluetext">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://972mag.com/michelle-alexanders-critics-palestinians-dont-deserve-civil-rights/139753/?fbclid=IwAR3gSteCAvSTNcuyJ9oWPhmUkTk6jpzS0LCldBB0AzBFmPJbDVFbzmIYMh4">For Michelle Alexander’s critics, Palestinians don’t deserve civil rights</a></span></span></h1>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>The uproar by Jewish establishment figures over
Alexander’s New York Times essay in support of Palestinian rights echoes
the reactions of white Americans to the Civil Rights Movement decades
ago.</i></b></span></span><br />
<h3 class="post_author_h3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By <a class="bluetext" href="https://972mag.com/author/amjad/" rel="author">Amjad Iraqi</a></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
<time datetime="2019-01-23T19:42:37+00:00" pubdate="pubdate">+972 magazine: January 23, 2019 </time></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><b><i></i></b></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiekl0xrdkw8b-q-zHIx9ZXushYeF-U5_gl5K-5WrlPPcqUwRN4RIw8rlOTAS3KFdQTckD6fOqPlPAEdgcf0pJ6uvhY3SLlW1HhTFPpFrwxU8RwcfnaULe_dyhvtmqBYbiL4nUNBqz6rrY/s1600/Michelle+aLEXANDER+-+MONDOWEISS+ARTICLE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="720" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiekl0xrdkw8b-q-zHIx9ZXushYeF-U5_gl5K-5WrlPPcqUwRN4RIw8rlOTAS3KFdQTckD6fOqPlPAEdgcf0pJ6uvhY3SLlW1HhTFPpFrwxU8RwcfnaULe_dyhvtmqBYbiL4nUNBqz6rrY/s640/Michelle+aLEXANDER+-+MONDOWEISS+ARTICLE.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="5hsgi-0-0"><span data-text="true">Michelle Alexander speaks at the Miller Center Forum, December 3, 2010. (Miller Center/CC BY 2.0)</span></span></span></i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Michelle Alexander’s powerful <i>New York Times</i> essay on Saturday (“<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opinion/sunday/martin-luther-king-palestine-israel.html">Time to Break the Silence on Palestine</a>”), ahead of the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was arguably a milestone for the Palestine movement in the U.S.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">First, for <i>who</i> wrote it: Alexander, the author of the seminal book <i><a href="http://newjimcrow.com/">The New Jim Crow</a></i>,
is a renowned lawyer and public intellectual respected for her activism
and scholarship on racism in the U.S., who cannot easily be dismissed
as “fringe.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Second, for <i>where</i> it was written: in a leading mainstream newspaper, which more frequently <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2019/01/cronkite-struggle-palestinian/">features</a>
op-eds by Israel advocates like Bari Weiss, Matti Friedman, Bret
Stephens, Shmuel Rosner, and even officials like Naftali Bennett.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Third, for <i>when</i> it was written: Alexander is the latest prominent Black American in recent months to vocally express — and be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/05/marc-lamont-hill-legacy-punishing-black-internationalists/">targeted</a> for — her solidarity with the Palestinian people, after others like Tamika Mallory, Marc Lamont Hill, and Angela Davis faced <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/417424/why-do-jews-keep-tearing-down-black-leaders/">similar</a> public outrages and disavowals.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And fourth, for <i>why</i> it was written: to challenge the
widespread fear of backlash, held by many progressive Americans, for
publicly criticizing Israel and speaking up for Palestinian rights.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The uproar over Alexander’s essay came swiftly from Jewish
establishment groups and figures. Some of them are worth reading in
full, if only to witness the hysteria and chutzpah of telling a Black
woman how to remember one of the most significant
African-American leaders in history, or how to interpret her knowledge
of injustice:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The <a href="https://twitter.com/ADL_National/status/1087080898544177154">Anti-Defamation League</a>
(ADL): “We have great respect for Michelle Alexander & her
path-breaking civil rights work, but her piece on the complex
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dangerously flawed, ignoring critical
facts, history & the shared responsibility of both parties to
resolve it.”</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The <a href="https://twitter.com/AJCGlobal/status/1086782340003594240">American Jewish Congress</a>
(AJC): “MLK’s memory is not a moral cudgel to wield against any cause
or country you disapprove of. Michelle Alexander’s op-ed is a shameful
appropriation. We all have a long way to go to reach the mountaintop.
There’s no need to take potshots at democratic Israel.”</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://twitter.com/DavidHarrisAJC/status/1087094232794451968">David Harris</a>,
CEO of AJC: “Michelle Alexander’s piece: in essence, calls for
#Israel’s end / approvingly cites extremists / invokes support of #MLKJr
w/no factual basis / ignores Israel’s search for peace since ’48;
nature of Hamas; terrorism; Jewish refugees from the Arab world.”</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5hsgi-0-0">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://twitter.com/USAmbIsrael/status/1087042669770141698">David Friedman</a>,
U.S. Ambassador to Israel: “Michelle Alexander has it all wrong in
today’s @NYT. If MLK were alive today I think he would be very proud of
his robust support for the State of Israel. An Arab in the ME [Middle
East] who is gay, a woman, a Christian, or seeking education &
self-improvement can’t do better than living in [Israeli flag].”</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://twitter.com/DrMichaelOren/status/1087051300980883456">Michael Oren</a>,
Kulanu MK and former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.: “Ambassador
Friedman is right but Israel has to take serious steps to defend itself.
By equating support for Israel with support for the Vietnam War and
opposition to MLK, Alexander dangerously deligitmizates [sic] us. It’s a
strategic threat and Israel must treat it as such.”</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Predictably, these establishment figures are attempting re-enforce the <a href="https://972mag.com/marc-lamont-hill-black-palestine-solidarity/138929/">parameters</a>
of “acceptable” conversation on the conflict. As far as they are
concerned, there is no such thing as a legitimate moral stance in
support of Palestinian rights; the only things Palestinians produce are
rockets and racism, and anyone who associates with their cause are
either misguided or anti-Semitic.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_138942" style="width: 740px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img alt="Marc Lamont Hill participates in a CNN panel, August 29, 2014. (Screenshot/CNN)" class="size-full wp-image-138942" height="425" src="https://staticv3.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2018/11/MLH-1.png" width="640" /></span></span><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Marc
Lamont Hill, who was fired from CNN for his views on Israel-Palestine,
participates in a panel, August 29, 2014. (Screenshot/CNN)</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is especially ironic that those accusing Alexander of manipulating
King’s legacy are also known for claiming, among other things, that
using nonviolent tactics such as boycotts against Israel is racist,
discriminatory, provocative, and/or unhelpful. King, and the Civil
Rights Movement as a whole, were accused of the same during their
campaigns of civil disobedience in the 1950s-60s.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As Jeanne Theoharis <a href="http://time.com/5099513/martin-luther-king-day-myths/">recounted</a> in <i>TIME</i>
this month, the U.S. government, the FBI, and local police forces used
heavy surveillance, brutal force, and criminal indictments to undermine
King and other Black leaders, viewing their activities as “dangerous,”
“demagogic,” and “treasonous.” Polling data and media responses at the
time further show that, far from being revered, the Civil Rights
Movement was in fact “deeply unpopular” among the white American
majority both in the South and the North:</span></span><br />
<div class="bq_wrap">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Most
Americans thought it [the movement] was going too far and movement
activists were being too extreme. Some thought its goals were wrong;
others that activists were going about it the wrong way – and most white
Americans were happy with the status quo as it was. And so, they
criticized, monitored, demonized and at times criminalized those who
challenged the way things were, making dissent very costly.</span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This precisely describes the conditions of the Palestine movement
today. Not only are Palestinian rights demands often viewed as extreme
in the American public discourse (particularly the right of return), but
opposition to Israeli policies face an aggressive political and legal
infrastructure designed to quash it. These include new federal and state
laws aimed at <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n14/amjad-iraqi/short-cuts">criminalizing</a> BDS and conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Moreover, the frequent portrayal of Israel as a victim of Palestinian
oppression, or that both sides share equal responsibility, is a fallacy
disguising the gross asymmetry of the conflict. Explaining why it was
disingenuous to tell Black Americans to do more to overcome their
inequality, King <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NBCNews/videos/3069521213067888/">once told</a>
a reporter “it’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to
lift himself by his own bootstraps.” It is just as disingenuous to say
that Palestinians have bootstraps to lift while they are subjected to
exile, occupation, blockade, discrimination, and silencing of dissent.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As Alexander noted, King was an open supporter of Israel and Zionism
in his time. However, it became increasingly difficult for him to
reconcile that position with the universal values he promoted. Today, it
is even clearer that his belief in justice, equality, and restitution
for people under oppression – demands that are at the heart of the
Palestinian cause – are antithetical to Israel’s goal of preserving
Jewish superiority, and to its view of Palestinian nonviolence as
equivalent to violence.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is this realization that has led many Black American activists
today – who have followed, built on, and transformed King’s legacy – to
include Palestinian rights in their <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/angela-davis-birmingham-civil-rights-institute/">struggle</a>
for global justice. As Alexander wrote, Israeli practices have become
inescapably “reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow
segregation in the United States,” and as such, require progressives to
be consistent in the values they claim to uphold. The fact that a person
like Alexander is adding her voice to this growing movement
could further widen the doors for others to follow suit.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though it is impossible to know what King would believe today, one
could guess that he may have been taken aback by how similar the
reactions to the Palestinian cause are to white America’s reactions to
his own. Despite what Alexander’s critics claim, the real betrayal of
King’s legacy is to think that Palestinians ought to remain subservient
to Israel’s supremacist demands, as if they don’t deserve the same
rights King fought to achieve for his own people.</span></span><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-69911464299480002292019-01-22T01:49:00.004-08:002019-01-22T01:50:31.732-08:00OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE IN SUPPORT OF DR. ANGELA Y. DAVIS <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="hJDwNd-AhqUyc-OiUrBf jXK9ad D2fZ2 OjCsFc wHaque GNzUNc" id="h.p_4HUvJ_pTi-4s">
<div class="jXK9ad-SmKAyb jXK9ad-SmKAyb-c4YZDc">
<div class="tyJCtd mGzaTb baZpAe lkHyyc">
<h2 class="zfr3Q JYVBee" id="h.p_Usbp0Mj-i-44" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends,</span></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="zfr3Q JYVBee" id="h.p_Usbp0Mj-i-44" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">please find below an Open Letter signed by more than 350 scholars and veterans of civil rights movement speak out in support of
Palestinian rights and in defense of Angela Davis.</span></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="zfr3Q JYVBee" id="h.p_Usbp0Mj-i-44" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> I have not listed the full signatories in this blog, but you can see the full list by clicking <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/angeladavispalestinesolidarity/">here</a>. </span></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="zfr3Q JYVBee" id="h.p_Usbp0Mj-i-44" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">in solidarity, Kim</span></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="zfr3Q JYVBee" id="h.p_Usbp0Mj-i-44" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">***</span></span></span></h2>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_NNb-CBDwjyAD">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</b></span></span></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_8ZF74dEQj2Gi">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>January 21, 2019</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_fYMYOd4Sj2Gm">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/angeladavispalestinesolidarity/"><b>SCHOLARS AND VETERANS OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT SPEAK OUT IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN RIGHTS AND IN DEFENSE OF ANGELA DAVIS</b>.</a></span></span></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_j74mtxOEj2Go">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On
this 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of national observance, over 350
scholars of the Civil Rights and Black Freedom Movements, and veterans
of these historic struggles, along with educators and human rights
advocates, issue a strong statement in support of Palestinian human
rights, and in defense of our colleague and sister, Angela Y. Davis, who
was publicly dishonored three weeks ago by the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute when it abruptly reversed its decision to recognize her with
its annual award because of her stand on this issue. </span></span></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_j74mtxOEj2Go">
<br /></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_FNhl4Xm3j2Gr">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
attached statement represents a broad cross section of scholars from
dozens of colleges and universities, including Pulitzer prize-winning
authors, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellows, and some of the most
distinguished Civil Rights historians and African American Studies
scholars in the country. Signees also include many who knew Dr. King and
organized alongside Rev. Shuttlesworth.</span></span></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_FNhl4Xm3j2Gr">
<br /></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_CC99FAblj2Gu">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many
of the sentiments expressed in our collective statement were amplified
in an eloquent opinion piece published yesterday, January 20, in <i>The New York Times </i>by one of our signees, Michelle Alexander, entitled “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine.” </span></span></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_CC99FAblj2Gu">
<br /></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_HdFXa7KEj2Gy">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
This statement is part of a larger movement that is refusing to be
silent on Palestinian rights, refusing to have our words and values
misconstrued and maligned, and refusing to tolerate McCarthy-like
tactics to subvert dissent and debate on this important issue.</span></span></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_HdFXa7KEj2Gy">
<br /></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_XNzcATKAj2G0">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
statement was the initiative of Scholars for Social Justice, a new
national network of progressive scholar-activists, led by scholars of
color. A contingent of our group will travel to Birmingham, Alabama on
February 16<sup>th</sup> to participate in an alternative ceremony to honor Angela Y. Davis organized by local activists and officials in the city.</span></span></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_XNzcATKAj2G0">
<br /></div>
<div class="zfr3Q" id="h.p_Q5XgPzDYj2G3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Initial
signees of the statement include: Barbara Ransby, Cathy J. Cohen, Beth
E. Richie, Patrick Jones, Premilla Nadasen, Russell Rickford, Ashley
Farmer, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Robin D.G. Kelley, Farah Jasmine Griffin,
Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Ruth Wilson Gilmore,
Nadine Naber and Robyn Spencer.</span></span></div>
<h2 class="zfr3Q JYVBee" id="h.p_Usbp0Mj-i-44" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">**** </span></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="zfr3Q JYVBee" id="h.p_Usbp0Mj-i-44" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/angeladavispalestinesolidarity/"><span style="font-size: large;">OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE IN SUPPORT OF DR. ANGELA Y. DAVIS</span> </a></span></span></h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 21, 2019</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">IN SUPPORT OF DR. ANGELA Y. DAVIS </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As scholars and historians of the Black Freedom Movement, and as veteran civil rights and human rights activists, we are appalled and outraged by the decision of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) to “dishonor” our colleague and sister, Angela Y. Davis, by rescinding its 2019 Fred Shuttlesworth Award, claiming that she does not meet the criteria for the award. As a daughter of Black Birmingham whose sense of justice was shaped by her community’s organizing tradition, who better than Davis to be honored by such an award.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are few individuals more admired and beloved in the U.S. Black Freedom struggle, and the global struggle for human rights and justice than Angela Y. Davis. Her status as an international human rights advocate is iconic. Davis has been an unwavering stalwart in the fight for freedom and justice for more than fifty years, speaking out against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, war, settler-colonialism, and imperialism around the world. She has been one of the most ardent advocates for prison abolition and for humane alternatives to the caging of our fellow human beings. She has also been a steadfast supporter of indigenous peoples. And yes, she has spoken out strongly in support of Palestinian rights, as have millions of principled activists around the world, including tens of thousands of Jews, and many Israelis.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In reflecting on the BCRI decision we are reminded of the following quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The ultimate measure of a man (or woman) is not where he (or she) stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he (or she) stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Sadly, the BCRI leadership has failed to live up to King’s challenge, caving in to pressure to reverse their earlier decision to honor Davis.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We may not all agree on the best way forward in the Middle East but we do share Dr. Davis’ view that the Israeli Occupation is wrong, and that the repressive, discriminatory and often violent policies of the Israeli government vis-à-vis the Palestinian population are wrong and indefensible. This is not a stance against the Jewish people, as is sometimes erroneously suggested, and as evidenced by the increasing number of Jewish people who are a part of the movement for Palestinian rights. Rather it is a stance against the policies of the Israeli government, and our own government’s immoral support of those policies. This is one of the fundamental human rights issues of our time, and we will not be bullied into silence on it. Individuals and institutions that choose to punish, censor, blacklist and dishonor anyone who dares to take a critical stand on this issue are acting in the disgraceful tradition of McCarthyism and furthering the intolerance of dissent.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Finally, we are especially disturbed and angered by the recent targeting of Black supporters of Palestinian rights. Journalist and scholar Marc Lamont Hill was abruptly fired as a CNN contributor for expressing his views on Palestine at the United Nations in December of last year. And now, Angela Davis is publicly disrespected in this way, in her hometown, a site of so many heroic struggles for the values that she, and many of us, uphold. This reminds us of the ways in which liberal supporters of civil rights reforms turned their backs on Dr. King when on April 4, 1967 he dared to speak out condemning the war in Vietnam. This sends a clear message today: how dare independent Black activists express views on international politics that differ with mainstream U.S. policy. This message, was then and is now, paternalistic and insulting. Many others, especially Palestinian and Arab scholars and activists, have also been targeted and attacked for their outspoken stance in support of Palestinian human rights. And we support their right of expression as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We stand with Angela Davis and applaud her outstanding and admirable track record as a public intellectual, feminist scholar, and advocate for peace, freedom and justice around the world. The BCRI leadership has refused to recognize or value Dr. Angela Davis’s sterling human rights record. They have instead chosen to pander to conservative critics and the pro-Israel lobby. History will not view this decision kindly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Angela Davis represents the best of the tradition Black freedom fighters who were uncompromising internationalists, refused to bow to intimidation, and were unafraid to speak truth to power. We thank and honor Angela Davis for her life’s work, her moral courage and her visionary leadership, even if BCRI has chosen not to do so.</span></span></div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-71822235552334105122019-01-20T22:51:00.001-08:002019-01-22T01:44:08.501-08:00Angela Davis is latest Black target of Israel lobby<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as you will be aware, Angela Davis - an icon of the American Black resistance and struggle was to be award the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in February. However, the award was hastily rescinded on 4 January, will little concrete explanation as to why. It has since come to light the a key reason is Davis' support for the Palestinian struggle and the BDS movement. (Please see my earlier post <a href="http://livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com/2019/01/birmingham-civil-rights-institution.html">here</a>).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A number of commentators and publications have made the argument that Davis is just the lastest Black solidarity activist to be targeted by Zionists for their solidarity with Palestine. I have included an articles addressing the issue from:<br /> </span></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Electronic Intifada by Palestinian-American writer and activist Ali Abunimah</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Washington Informer by African American political commentator </span></span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="meta-author meta-item" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-shadow: none;"><a class="author-name" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3623316088497384976#editor" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto auto; border-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-style: none; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; transition: all 0.3s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1) 0s;" title="Julianne Malveaux">Julianne Malveau</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="meta-author meta-item" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: inline-block; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-shadow: none;"> </span></span></span>The Nation by Mairav Zonszein, an Israeli-American Jewish political writer and activist. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Other Black commentators and publications have also made the argument that the rescinding of the award to Davis shows by individuals and groups outside the Black community is an attempt to co-opt and control Black decision making and Black narratives.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
In solidarity, Kim </span></span> <br />
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*****<br />
<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/angela-davis-latest-black-target-israel-lobby"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Angela Davis is latest Black target of Israel lobby</span></a></span></h1>
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<header class="node__header"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="node__submitted">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="field field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blog/lobby-watch">Lobby Watch</a></span> <span class="field field-publication-date"><span class="date-display-single" content="2019-01-07T17:42:08+00:00">7 January 2019/ Electronic Intifada </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="field field-publication-date"><span class="date-display-single" content="2019-01-07T17:42:08+00:00"> </span></span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdIFNzqgciB1x-esPzf4cBO3Z5B4jmorVARh4WIxDL3UMfUdPAh4U_y2M8PaAWX98Um3Zj2DlYg9mq0N_mNz-8EK-XA7j0MgULJEBqcBJgdWefcJQeMKyPLhx0cU8qeRpY8yJYFZ_GC84/s1600/angela_davis_EI.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="800" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdIFNzqgciB1x-esPzf4cBO3Z5B4jmorVARh4WIxDL3UMfUdPAh4U_y2M8PaAWX98Um3Zj2DlYg9mq0N_mNz-8EK-XA7j0MgULJEBqcBJgdWefcJQeMKyPLhx0cU8qeRpY8yJYFZ_GC84/s640/angela_davis_EI.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />The
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has canceled its annual gala at
which iconic Black scholar and activist Angela Davis was to receive a
prestigious human rights award.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />Randall
Woodfin, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, expressed his “dismay”
at the decision, which he said came “after protests from our local
Jewish community and some of its allies.”<br /><br />“The reactive
decision of the BCRI did not create an opportunity for necessary
consensus dialogue,” Woodfin added. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />Davis is the latest
prominent Black intellectual and outspoken supporter of Palestinian
rights to be targeted by the Israel lobby. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />Roy S. Johnson, a
columnist for several Alabama newspapers, revealed Monday that those
demanding the cancellation were “primarily – though not
exclusively – from the city’s Jewish leadership, according to a
source familiar with a decision that transpired quickly, and
stunningly, in a span of just a few days.”<br /><br />Last month,
Southern Jewish Life, a communal publication serving southern states,
ran an article criticizing the BCRI for honoring Davis, claiming that
she is “an outspoken voice in the boycott-Israel movement, and
advocates extensively on college campuses for the isolation of the
Jewish state, saying Israel engages in ethnic cleansing and is
connected to police violence against African Americans in the United
States.”<br /><br />While there is vocal and growing opposition to
Israel’s policies among American Jews at large, the leaders of
established Jewish communal groups, including the Birmingham Jewish
Federation, tend to be strongly pro-Israel.<br /><br />The Birmingham
Jewish Federation was reportedly among the groups that pressured
BCRI.<br /><br />Others who pressured BCRI to ditch Davis reportedly
included General Charles Krulak, a retired Marine commander and
former president of Birmingham-Southern College.</span></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Support
for Palestinians</span></b></span></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Angela
Davis, a Birmingham native, has long been an outspoken supporter of
Palestinian rights and an advocate of the BDS – boycott, divestment
and sanctions – movement to hold Israel accountable for its
violations and crimes against Palestinians.<br />Davis has also stood
up for Rasmea Odeh, the Palestinian activist and torture survivor
deported from the US in 2017 following a conviction for immigration
fraud.<br /><br />Adam Milstein, a major financier of anti-Palestinian
groups, took note of the BCRI’s decision on Twitter:</span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;">st <span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span></span></header><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMk32Mx-DU2N-uNCZ4HnmXT0nGN4viQ2Pqn6KckjJzcqWp_8Ixfm_1DoXmCfQESuljvCxRlVzI2_dn-QrhtHpIu7OkNvu6y8FnJQRCO6hhyphenhyphenXuAq8qia5HAleOUABVi0rvE5Yr2f9oKB-I/s1600/EI+article+on+attacks+on+Black+Sol+with+Pal.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="547" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMk32Mx-DU2N-uNCZ4HnmXT0nGN4viQ2Pqn6KckjJzcqWp_8Ixfm_1DoXmCfQESuljvCxRlVzI2_dn-QrhtHpIu7OkNvu6y8FnJQRCO6hhyphenhyphenXuAq8qia5HAleOUABVi0rvE5Yr2f9oKB-I/s400/EI+article+on+attacks+on+Black+Sol+with+Pal.png" width="361" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span></span>Milstein
was named in a censored Al Jazeera documentary about the Israel lobby
leaked by The Electronic Intifada in November, as a founder and
financier of the anti-Palestinian smear website Canary Mission.<br />That
same film, The Lobby–USA, also identified how Israel and its agents
are targeting and attempting to co-opt Black leaders and activists in
order to disrupt growing Black identification and solidarity with the
Palestinian struggle.<br /><br />Affiliated with the Smithsonian
Institution, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute was founded in
1992 to commemorate the city’s role in the struggle against
institutionalized American racism.<br /><br />In a statement Saturday,
BCRI noted that in September its board “selected Angela Davis to
receive the prestigious Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its
annual gala in February 2019.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePaJ8XHPDVSmkFquPF9SgzQY85lnnUxgHxUnFCc1ZuiXZH8-wIMn6LyDiE-DobZ_iEeM7TBsSCd1gvkVwppQPlQOb9GiCiLPrXN0N0UPCpql3r0efbTaKAnvFtuAAIM0EpaZlmitPO90/s1600/BCRI+tweet+-+statement.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePaJ8XHPDVSmkFquPF9SgzQY85lnnUxgHxUnFCc1ZuiXZH8-wIMn6LyDiE-DobZ_iEeM7TBsSCd1gvkVwppQPlQOb9GiCiLPrXN0N0UPCpql3r0efbTaKAnvFtuAAIM0EpaZlmitPO90/s1600/BCRI+tweet+-+statement.png" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"> <span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: white;"> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In
late December, supporters and other concerned individuals and
organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began
to make requests that we reconsider our decision,” BCRI added,
without naming or further characterizing the groups or their
objections.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />“Upon
closer examination of Ms. Davis’ statements and public record, we
concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on
which the award is based,” BCRI stated.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />“Therefore,
on 4 January, BCRI’s Board voted to rescind its invitation to Ms.
Davis to honor her with the Shuttlesworth Award.” </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Targeting
Black voices</span></b></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Davis
is the second high-profile Black intellectual to be targeted by
pro-Israel lobby pressure in recent weeks.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br />In
November, Marc Lamont Hill was dismissed from his role as a CNN
political commentator following an Israel lobby campaign of lies and
smears misrepresenting a speech he made at the United Nations in
support of Palestinian rights and BDS. </span>
</div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgly3deQXXNMmh65JKg0o_DMywW1p1w9fc-SxjH6pGPjCBiWQr8O2KSMAyjIMjb3dCRGkXtd_UrdAQcpEwKoL1pp8wHKIeqwineyDy98UK_y5oe0UE6LV8xW4VGvq20XQHcnoPcdit69WM/s1600/Marc+Lamont+Hill+on+Angela+Davis.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="527" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgly3deQXXNMmh65JKg0o_DMywW1p1w9fc-SxjH6pGPjCBiWQr8O2KSMAyjIMjb3dCRGkXtd_UrdAQcpEwKoL1pp8wHKIeqwineyDy98UK_y5oe0UE6LV8xW4VGvq20XQHcnoPcdit69WM/s400/Marc+Lamont+Hill+on+Angela+Davis.png" width="272" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Temple
University also faced pressure from the Zionist Organization of
America to dismiss Hill as a professor – a step it has not taken
amid warnings that this would violate Hill’s First Amendment
rights.<br /><br />Hill called BCRI’s decision to withdraw its award
from Davis “shameful.”<br /><br />Hill is one of many
people expressing consternation at BCRI’s decision to
disinvite Davis who is widely recognized as a groundbreaking Black
radical theorist, prison abolitionist and anti-racism activist who
throughout her life has faced institutional pressure and persecution
for her stances.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7mYcJXI4jusVWoB8AMMImidjG-ps98dVKeRvGzkMUuXSmPdxxVBTR7GY1deqaNfAp-xrDwC6EirCjWWum-fsX3YPUFNdPrpUNnbvT6lgGQ99FyIlABODrOu9DVGPNCedVlY0fOzHCzh4/s1600/Jamil+Dakwar+on+Angela+Davis.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="531" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7mYcJXI4jusVWoB8AMMImidjG-ps98dVKeRvGzkMUuXSmPdxxVBTR7GY1deqaNfAp-xrDwC6EirCjWWum-fsX3YPUFNdPrpUNnbvT6lgGQ99FyIlABODrOu9DVGPNCedVlY0fOzHCzh4/s400/Jamil+Dakwar+on+Angela+Davis.png" width="260" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw28Ao9DL_ss2oxQq3VZXkN9xcYqzc-cbNqcm09vbOcJTSLbVYf5li8zY7k4Kjfh-2DD5shSnbJeJ7_aSEBmFPaA5BBQX9XJjev1wY0W6m_pGHySpIEUyQqdCSPRLlENdfelsRENTAQNA/s1600/Bishop+Talbert+Swan+on+Angela+Davis.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="528" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw28Ao9DL_ss2oxQq3VZXkN9xcYqzc-cbNqcm09vbOcJTSLbVYf5li8zY7k4Kjfh-2DD5shSnbJeJ7_aSEBmFPaA5BBQX9XJjev1wY0W6m_pGHySpIEUyQqdCSPRLlENdfelsRENTAQNA/s400/Bishop+Talbert+Swan+on+Angela+Davis.png" width="245" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYM9pNYtx-bSKcKxWyKnyQz3FgY1DBxzuSM5Skgz8_fbTT4sjs9GKIVIciB6Xfe-nnlel-_HCPHvXlN7aNZl5tKfTbrLv8wdAOINYZrtJDiOEnkJ6YOoKSgixvByMQ6n_5qfk_wPNMkg/s1600/JVP+on+Angela+Davis.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYM9pNYtx-bSKcKxWyKnyQz3FgY1DBxzuSM5Skgz8_fbTT4sjs9GKIVIciB6Xfe-nnlel-_HCPHvXlN7aNZl5tKfTbrLv8wdAOINYZrtJDiOEnkJ6YOoKSgixvByMQ6n_5qfk_wPNMkg/s320/JVP+on+Angela+Davis.png" width="296" /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Alabama
columnist Roy S. Johnson also condemned the decision as an insult to
the memory of Fred Shuttlesworth, the preacher and leader in the
struggle against segregation for whom the BCRI award is
named.<br /><br />Shuttlesworth, Johnson wrote, “would not have bowed
to anyone trying to dissuade him from honoring someone who fought the
same fight – even if they fought with a different fervor, even if
they were decidedly more revolutionary.”<br /><br />But by disinviting
Davis, Johnson added, “one of our most venerable cultural
institutions, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, did just that –
it crumbled.”</span></div>
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*****<br />
<h1 class="post-title entry-title" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; border: 0px none rgb(44, 47, 52); box-sizing: border-box; color: #2c2f34; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 53.3px; list-style: outside none none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: none; text-transform: none; transition: all 0.3s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1) 0s; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://washingtoninformer.com/malveaux-shame-and-shade-in-birmingham/">MALVEAUX: Shame and Shade in Birmingham</a></span></span></h1>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3623316088497384976#editor" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.3s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1);"><img alt="" class="avatar avatar-140 photo avatar-default" height="140" src="https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=140&r=r" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-left-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; height: 30px; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: -5px; max-width: 836.58px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-shadow: none; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1); vertical-align: middle; width: 30px;" width="140" />
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<span class="meta-author meta-item" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: inline-block; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-shadow: none;"><a class="author-name" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3623316088497384976#editor" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-weight: 600; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.3s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1);" title="Julianne Malveaux">Julianne Malveaux</a>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If
anyone deserves a civil rights award, Angela Davis certainly does.
The activist and scholar has been on the front lines of the civil
rights movement all of her life. She has been especially active in
prison reform matters, but she has also been involved in other civil
and human rights issues.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
I learned in October that she would get the Fred Shuttlesworth Human
Rights Award from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, I was
absolutely delighted. I imagined the wide smile the daughter of
Birmingham must have flashed when she learned that she would be
honored.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Everyone
in Birmingham wasn’t thrilled, though. Some people in the
conservative Southern town seemed disturbed that she had been a
member of both the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party.
Others were concerned about her support of the BDS (Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions) movement against the Israeli occupation.
She has said that she stands in solidarity with the Palestinian
people, and advocates for their fair treatment in Israel.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some
ill-informed people consider the BDS movement to be anti-Semitic.
They suggest that any questions that one raises about Israel shows a
bias against Jewish people. But Davis, a lifelong human rights
activist, is concerned about the humanity of Palestinian people, as
well as other people.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
she is rightfully concerned, as many of us are, about the spate of
laws recently passed that downright outlaw the BDS movement.
According to the Middle East Monitor, a teacher in Texas, Bahia
Amawl, refused to sign an oath that required her to pledge that she
“does not currently boycott Israel,” that she will not boycott
Israel and that she will “refrain from any action that is intended
to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations
with Israel.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Texas
is among some 25 states that have passed laws forbidding the state
from doing business with companies that boycott Israel! It will also
not invest pension funds in companies that support BDS. Thirteen more
states as well as Washington, D.C., have similar laws to the Texas
law pending, pitting people’s First Amendment rights of free speech
against support for Israel. And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in the
middle of a government shutdown, had the nerve to introduce national
legislation that mirrors the Texas law (actually, Illinois was the
first state to pass this discriminatory law).</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lots
of people in Birmingham aren’t having it. Though the Civil Rights
Institute has rescinded its award to Davis, there has been
significant protest about the decision. Birmingham Mayor Randall
Woodfin, who is a nonvoting member of the institute’s board and did
not participate in the decision to rescind the award (the city
provides the institute with about $1 million year in operating funds)
has expressed his dismay about the decision. Three board members have
resigned from the board. And Alabama columnist Roy S. Johnson has
written a fiery column accusing the Civil Rights Institute of
insulting Rev. Shuttlesworth and staining its own legacy. Johnson
says the Birmingham Jewish community may have been the loudest folks
pushing for Davis’ award to be rescinded, but not the only ones.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Who
rescinds an award after it has been granted for statements that were
not recently made, but are a matter of record? Angela Davis has long
been an outspoken activist, just like Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was.
Nothing had been changed from the time Davis was notified of the
award and Jan. 4, when it was rescinded. The BCRI did not have to
honor Davis, but their canceling the award is a special kind of
insult. Fortunately, Davis has a thick skin, and she knows exactly
who she is. She didn’t cringe when then-California Gov. Ronald
Reagan had her fired from UCLA for her membership in the Communist
Party. She didn’t flinch when she was incarcerated for a crime she
did not commit. And she will not tremble because the BCRI rescinded
the award.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Indeed,
demonstrating the indomitable spirit that she is known for, Angela
Davis will travel to Birmingham in February for an alternative event.
And the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum has egg on its face. That city
showed a young Angela Davis who they were when the Four Little Girls,
some of whom she knew, were killed at the 16 Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham. And they are showing her who they are once again. Shame
and shade!</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately,
I’m not surprised. One of the founders of the Women’s March has
demanded the resignations of Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour because
they attended one of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Savior’s Days.
Marc Lamont Hill lost his CNN commentary gig because he spoke up for
Palestinian rights. Alice Walker has been criticized because she
supports BDS. Now Angela Davis is being denied an award. When is
enough going to be enough?</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
the record, I support Palestinian rights. And I support Israel’s
right to exist. Are the two incompatible? I think not. The one-state
solution, with a right to return, and full citizenship rights for
Palestinians makes sense. But Israel is not about to budge, and BDS
as an attempt to influence it. States passing laws to outlaw free
speech erodes the first principle of our Constitution and undercut
the actions at the very foundation of our nation. Remember the folks
who dumped tea into the Boston Harbor because of an unfair tax? Today
that action might be against the law!</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">***</span></span></span><br />
<h1 class="title">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/angela-davis-birmingham-civil-rights-institute/">The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s Insult to Angela Davis Has Boomeranged</a></span></span></span></h1>
<h2 class="subtitle">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
Scholars,
activists, and grassroots organizers have flocked to her defense, a
testament to the growing strength of intersectional solidarity for
Palestinian rights.</span></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="author_name">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
By <a class="author" href="https://www.thenation.com/authors/mairav-zonszein/">Mairav Zonszein</a></span></span></span></h2>
<h4 class="time is_date article_pub_time">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> January 15, 2019/The Nation</span></span></span></h4>
<div class="cta">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://ssl.drgnetwork.com/ecom/NAT/app/live/subscriptions?org=NAT&publ=NA&key_code=G8F1CEM&type=S">
</a></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: transparent;">It
has been nearly two weeks since the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
walked back its decision to honor renowned scholar, civil-rights
activist, and Birmingham, Alabama, native Angela Davis with its
annual Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, and yet the BCRI
remains embarrassingly silent over what led to the withdrawal. It
issued a statement on January 14 through an external PR firm, which
is apparently handling all further media inquiries, in which it
assumed responsibility and apologized for the poor handling of the
award and its aftermath. “In hindsight, more time, conversation and
consideration of diverse viewpoints should have informed our decision
to rescind our nomination, and we were silent for too long
afterward.”</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
</div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background: transparent;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Davis,
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, and local reports all indicate the
decision was largely, though not exclusively, due to pressure from
Jewish individuals and organizations over Davis’s outspokenness on
Palestinian human rights and vocal support for boycott, divestment,
and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: transparent;"><span style="color: black;"><br />“It’s
actually quite exciting.… The issue of Palestinian human rights,
and its relation to the struggle for civil rights for people of
African descent in this country, is finally being discussed in an
open way,” Davis told </span><span style="color: black;"><i>Democracy
Now!</i></span><span style="color: black;"> on January 11, adding that the
BCRI’s decision appears to be an effort to sabotage black
solidarity with Palestine. “This was not primarily an assault
against me as an individual; it was an assault against a whole
generation of activists who have come to recognize how important
internationalism is,” Davis said. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />In
its cryptic announcement on Saturday, January 5, the BCRI <a href="https://www.bcri.org/annual-shuttlesworth/">stated</a>
that individuals and organizations from “both inside and outside of
our local community” had requested that the award to Davis be
reconsidered. “Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis’ statements
and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet
all of the criteria on which the award is based,” but the BCRI did
not specify what those criteria are. Several attempts to reach BCRI
CEO Andrea Taylor were met with an initial willingness and then a
drawn-out refusal to comment, as the story quickly became much more
explosive than the BCRI likely anticipated.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />Davis
and others have cited an <a href="http://www.sjlmag.com/2018/12/prominent-bds-activist-davis-to-receive.html?m=1">article</a>
in the Birmingham-based outlet </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">Southern
Jewish Life</span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">
from December 23 criticizing the choice to honor Davis, penned by its
editor, Larry Brook—who told </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">The
Nation</span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">
he has been careful not to call her an anti-Semite. It outlines
aspects of Davis’s activism and political opinions that are common
knowledge, including her support for Palestinian-American <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/judge-orders-deportation-palestinian-activist-170817220003490.html">Rasmea
Odeh</a>, her incarceration nearly 50 years ago, and her former
membership in the Communist Party. Reports in the Alabama outlet
AL.com named the <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/in-caving-to-pressure-to-cancel-davis-bcri-insulted-shuttlesworth-stained-its-own-legacy.html">Birmingham
Jewish Federation</a> as one of the organizations expressing dismay
at the choice of Davis, along with the <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/birmingham-holocaust-center-asked-bcri-to-reconsider-davis-honor-yet-happy-to-meet-activist.html">Birmingham
Holocaust Education Center</a>, which sent a <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/birmingham-holocaust-center-asked-bcri-to-reconsider-davis-honor-yet-happy-to-meet-activist.html">letter</a>
to BCRI on January 2 specifying Davis’s support for BDS, which is
“very troubling as it targets the Jewish people exclusively.”
Both organizations were approached and refused to provide comment.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: transparent;"><span style="color: black;"><br />Maybe
even more egregious than the BCRI decision itself is the fact that,
as a museum dedicated to the heritage of the civil-rights movement
and which honors figures who have spoken truth to power, it has left
the matter shrouded in secrecy, dodging accountability and leaving
plenty of room for speculation. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />“The
outrage has come from lack of transparency behind the decision,”
DeJuana Thompson, a political organizer in Birmingham who grew up
around the corner from Davis’s family, told </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">The
Nation</span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">.
Thompson, who is part of the reconstituted Birmingham Committee for
Truth and Reconciliation (it had been active at the height of the
civil-rights movement in the 1960s), which is organizing an
<a href="https://wbhm.org/feature/2019/alternative-events-planned-recognize-birmingham-native-angela-davis/">alternative
event</a> in February to honor Davis, said the news impacted her
personally. “The BCRI has always held a significant place in my
heart. It helped craft my activism learning about our leaders.…
This is not the BCRI that I have known.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: transparent;"><span style="color: black;"><br />For
Thompson, the priority is honoring Davis in her hometown and showing
that the BCRI decision does not speak for the community. “What I
know to be true is that the silencing of black leaders and black
women has been a perpetual thing—particularly in the South—for
decades.” She says there is a diverse and inclusive group involved
in organizing the alternative event, including Jewish residents. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />Some
media coverage, specifically reacting to Birmingham Mayor Woodfin’s
initial <a href="https://www.apnews.com/9ee5f82bdf104bb5a8672d6c78d526b7">statement</a>
attributing the decision to pressure from the “local Jewish
community and some of its allies,” has presented a narrative in
which Jews were collectively blamed for the decision. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">The
Forward</span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">,
for example, had a short news item with the misleading and
inflammatory headline, “Birmingham Mayor Blames Only Some Jews for
Angela Davis Controversy.” The mayor, who is also an ex-officio
member of the BCRI board, issued another <a href="https://www.birminghamal.gov/2019/01/10/mayor-woodfin-updates-issue-surrounding-bcris-decision-to-rescind-dr-angela-davis-honor/">statement</a>
in which he clarified that he was not suggesting that the entire
Jewish community pressured the BCRI, as it is “not monolithic in
thought,” and emphasized that this is not a “clash of cultures,
ethnic groups, or races” but rather a crisis in the BCRI
leadership. He requested that BCRI release to the public the minutes
of its board meetings from September to January 5, and also issue an
apology to the community-at-large for its poor handling of the
situation. (The City of Birmingham is the BCRI’s largest donor.) </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />Three
of the BCRI’s top board members resigned on January 9, following
protests from local activists who have called on the entire BCRI
leadership to resign. The alternative, free, and open event to honor
Davis—which she confirmed she will attend—has already been
scheduled for February 16, the same date as the canceled BCRI gala.
The Birmingham City Council unanimously <a href="https://www.birminghamalcitycouncil.org/2019/01/08/birmingham-city-council-unanimously-approves-resolution-of-support-for-dr-angela-davis/">approved</a>
a resolution of support for “the civil rights icon.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />The
pro-BDS Jewish Voice for Peace circulated a <a href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/350-academics-stand-with-angela-davis/">letter
of support</a> for Davis signed by over 500 academics that specifies,
“The decision seems to stem from a misinformed view that to
advocate for Palestinian human rights is somehow offensive to the
Jewish community.” The Jewish anti-occupation group IfNotNow, which
does not endorse BDS, announced that it will award Davis a <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/join-the-jewish-future-in-awarding-the-medal-of-freedom-and-dignity-to-angela-davis/?fbclid=IwAR3jIoO0BX35pIvlonlzH_Ehuy-oGA_KCZmdigxqV5q8ajULu4GbbejmuvQ">symbolic
medal of honor</a>, stating, “We cannot let the Jewish
establishment and Christian Zionists use her support for Palestinian
human rights as a reason to deny her the recognition she deserves.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="border: none; line-height: 0.64cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0.13cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><br />Even
without all the facts out in the open, this incident is not occurring
in a vacuum. It is the latest in a long-standing and widespread
campaign to shut down those who are critical of Israeli policies and,
specifically, those who promote Palestinian equal rights and BDS.
Between 2014 and 2017, the nonprofit organization<a href="https://palestinelegal.org/2017-report">
Palestine Legal dealt with nearly 1,000 incidents </a>of censorship,
intimidation, and suppression targeting speech supportive of
Palestinian rights. “The Klan used to try and terrorize people who
spoke out against racial terror and racial segregation, and
unfortunately, the same tactics are being used here,” says Alicia
Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and strategy and partnerships
director with the National Domestic Workers Alliance.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<header class="node__header"><div style="left: -99999px; position: absolute;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">n Sunday, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute announced that it was rescinding the 2019 Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award it previously planned to grant to Black Power icon Angela Davis, and cancelling the annual fundraising gala where it is presented.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While the BCRI did not give a specific reason for the decision, local reporting and a statement from Davis herself suggests that the decision was made in response to complaints about Davis’ broad history of revolutionary politics — specifically opposition to her advocacy for Palestinian human rights.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While statements from BCRI claim opposition to Davis’ award came from all sides, local <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/in-caving-to-pressure-to-cancel-davis-bcri-insulted-shuttlesworth-stained-its-own-legacy.html" target="_blank">coverage</a> of the decision and <a href="https://www.birminghamal.gov/2019/01/06/mayor-randall-woodfins-statement-on-the-birmingham-civil-rights-institute-and-dr-angela-davis/" target="_blank">a statement</a> from Birmingham’s Mayor (who sits on a governing body of BCRI), indicate that the pressure to rescind the award may have come in part from within the Birmingham Jewish community, as well as from white Christians conservatives, some of whom position themselves as “allies” of the Jewish community.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many in the Jewish community are rightfully shocked and embarrassed at the idea that groups claiming to speak for us could have played a role in a prestigious and well-earned award being stripped from a Black icon like Angela Davis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Read more: <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/417289/why-jewish-organizations-should-not-be-tearing-down-angela-davis/">https://forward.com/opinion/417289/why-jewish-organizations-should-not-be-tearing-down-angela-davis/</a></span></div>
<div style="left: -99999px; position: absolute;">
<h1 itemprop="headline name">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Why Jewish Organizations Should Not Be Tearing Down Angela Davis</span></h1>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a class="author-name" href="https://forward.com/author/rebecca-pierce/" itemprop="url"><span itemprop="name">Rebecca Pierce</span></a></span></span>Read more: <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/417289/why-jewish-organizations-should-not-be-tearing-down-angela-davis/">https://forward.com/opinion/417289/why-jewish-organizations-should-not-be-tearing-down-angela-davis</a></span></div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-63771129152620603962019-01-18T04:43:00.001-08:002019-01-18T04:43:32.901-08:00Birmingham Civil Rights Institution rescinds award to Angela Davis over her support for Palestine & BDS.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">as you may have heard in October 2018, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute announced that it would be bestowing its highest award on well-known civil rights activist, Angela Davis. At the time, the <a href="https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2018/10/angela-davis-to-receive-birmingham-civil-rights-institutes-2018-shuttlesworth-human-rights-award.html">BCRI's President and CEO Andrea Taylor</a> stated that: "We are thrilled to bestow this honor on Angela Davis, and excited about
her return to her hometown of Birmingham, which is the very launching
pad of the modern human rights movement", saying "Arguably, she’s one of the most globally recognized
champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to
speak."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Two and half months later, the BCRI has done a stunning about face and announce on 4 January that they were rescinding the award to Davis and cancelling their 16 February gala, where Davis was to give a key note speech. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to the BCRI, they were rescinding the award as a result of "supporters and other concerned individuals and
organisations, both inside and outside of our local community, began
to make requests that we reconsider our decision". According to
the statement issued by the BCRI (you can read in full <a href="https://twitter.com/bhamcivilrights/status/1081701246090792962">here</a>), after closer examination of Davis'
public record it was “concluded that she unfortunately does not
meet all of the criteria on which the award is based”. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">However, despite requests by the Birmingham City Council and numerous media outlets, two weeks after their announcement, the BCRI has still not given an explanation as to what what the criteria was and
why Davis did not meet it. The BCRI cancellation has been widely denounced,
including by the Birmingham City Council who passed an unanimous
motion in support of Davis on 8 January.<br /><br />It has become evident that the primary reason for the BCRI's cancellation of the award to Davis is her outspoken support for Palestinian human rights and the Palestinian initiated and led non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international human rights laws (see: <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/birmingham-holocaust-center-asked-bcri-to-reconsider-davis-honor-yet-happy-to-meet-activist.html">Article 1</a>, <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2019/01/in-caving-to-pressure-to-cancel-davis-bcri-insulted-shuttlesworth-stained-its-own-legacy.html">Article 2</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/cultural-centre-backtracks-honouring-activist-angela-davis-190107110004455.html">Article 3</a>, <a href="http://www.sjlmag.com/2018/12/prominent-bds-activist-davis-to-receive.html">Article 4</a>, <a href="https://www.birminghamal.gov/2019/01/10/mayor-woodfin-updates-issue-surrounding-bcris-decision-to-rescind-dr-angela-davis-honor/">Article 5</a>). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On January 8, Angela Davis <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/angela-davis/statement-on-the-birmingham-civil-rights-institute/10156813038449788/">issued a statement</a> in response to the BCRI's rescinding of the award to her. On the same day, the Birmingham City Council <a href="https://medium.com/@bhamcitycouncil/birmingham-city-council-unanimously-approves-resolution-of-support-for-dr-angela-davis-91463537cba3?fbclid=IwAR0xtdcrTc74tiV7YdjOwpB0Svt0DuzziPMK0hpDDgwfFajl1qpOSUtNXns">passed an unanimous motion</a> in support of Davis. <br /><br />I have included both Davis' statement below, as well as a report on the Birmingham City Council resolution. I will also be posting over the next few days, a number of articles about on the debacle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In solidarity, Kim</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*** </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Statement on the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute</span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-TZcYvpDAQBlFhnpvP2_BIX8td-WBC11SxFIIsubqCux6SCOO2xu9YkyEBnlP46m6r95qvGEtOUE8HBY604SNWmfnE3St_ip7EP59-bZVnhiA85tBxXzU2e-R1LUN6NAlKVAOHFxty4/s1600/angela+davis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-TZcYvpDAQBlFhnpvP2_BIX8td-WBC11SxFIIsubqCux6SCOO2xu9YkyEBnlP46m6r95qvGEtOUE8HBY604SNWmfnE3St_ip7EP59-bZVnhiA85tBxXzU2e-R1LUN6NAlKVAOHFxty4/s640/angela+davis.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a class="_2yug" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=15716024787&extragetparams=%7B%22eid%22%3A%22ARDrVj4HrGbWHeR7GXHxNtazLCewgpHsEqdpLIRgMxpL5Z3Ag1kfv8BIx386FgZSKv4wNrTc5suffZsS%22%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/AngelaDavis26/?eid=ARDrVj4HrGbWHeR7GXHxNtazLCewgpHsEqdpLIRgMxpL5Z3Ag1kfv8BIx386FgZSKv4wNrTc5suffZsS" target="_blank">Angela Davis</a><span class="_4_mg">·</span><a class="_39g5" href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/angela-davis/statement-on-the-birmingham-civil-rights-institute/10156813038449788/">Tuesday, 8 January 2019</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On Saturday January 5, I was stunned to learn that the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Board of Directors had reversed their previous decision to award me the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award. Although the BCRI refused my requests to reveal the substantive reasons for this action, I later learned that my long-term support of justice for Palestine was at issue. This seemed particularly unfortunate, given that my own freedom was secured – and indeed my life was saved – by a vast international movement. And I have devoted much of my own activism to international solidarity and, specifically, to linking struggles in other parts of the world to U.S. grassroots campaigns against police violence, the prison industrial complex, and racism more broadly. The rescinding of this invitation and the cancellation of the event where I was scheduled to speak was thus not primarily an attack against me but rather against the very spirit of the indivisibility of justice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I support Palestinian political prisoners just as I support current political prisoners in the Basque Country, in Catalunya, in India, and in other parts of the world. I have indeed expressed opposition to policies and practices of the state of Israel, as I express similar opposition to U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and to other discriminatory U.S. policies. Through my experiences at Elizabeth Irwin High School in New York City and at Brandeis University in the late fifties and early sixties, and my subsequent time in graduate school in Frankfurt, Germany, I learned to be as passionate about opposition to antisemitism as to racism. It was during this period that I was also introduced to the Palestinian cause. I am proud to have worked closely with Jewish organizations and individuals on issues of concern to all of our communities throughout my life. In many ways, this work has been integral to my growing consciousness regarding the importance of protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The trip to Birmingham, where I was born and raised, to receive the Fred Shuttlesworth Award, was certain to be the highlight of my year—especially since I knew Rev. Shuttlesworth personally and attended school with his daughter, Patricia, and because my mother, Sallye B. Davis, worked tirelessly for the BCRI during its early years. Moreover, my most inspirational Sunday School teacher Odessa Woolfolk was the driving force for the institute’s creation. Despite the BCRI’s regrettable decision, I look forward to being in Birmingham in February for an alternative event organized by those who believe that the movement for civil rights in this moment must include a robust discussion of all of the injustices that surround us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Angela Y. Davis,
January 7, 2019</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://medium.com/@bhamcitycouncil/birmingham-city-council-unanimously-approves-resolution-of-support-for-dr-angela-davis-91463537cba3?fbclid=IwAR0xtdcrTc74tiV7YdjOwpB0Svt0DuzziPMK0hpDDgwfFajl1qpOSUtNXns">Birmingham City Council unanimously approves resolution of support for Dr. Angela Davis</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><time datetime="2019-01-08T21:04:43.366Z">Jan 8, 2019</time></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On
the heels of the news that broke over the weekend that the Birmingham
Civil Rights Institute rescinded an award that was to be presented to
Dr. Angela Davis, the Birmingham City Council unanimously passed a
resolution of support for the civil rights icon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
BCRI issued a statement saying “supporters and other concerned
individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local
community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision,” and
claimed Davis did not meet the criteria for the Fred Shuttlesworth Human
Rights Award.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It
has since been reported that Davis’s long-time support of Palestine and
calls for a boycott of Israel was seen as an issue for the BCRI board.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Councilor
Steven Hoyt issued this statement during today’s City Council meeting
regarding the matter (he later called for a resolution of support that
was unanimously approved):</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">I
want to say something about what we’ve experienced in the last couple
of days since we learned on Saturday that the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute decided to withdraw an award that was to be given to Dr.
Angela Davis.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">It
is absolutely embarrassing to withdraw an award and it’s disingenuous
that we would be selective in our measure of one’s humanity without
considering the totality of their lives. We are products of our
experiences, so where is the grace in this matter? She didn’t nominate
herself. The nominating committee deemed her worthy and now she’s not.
All money isn’t good money, especially if it’s contingent on a partial
view akin to “don’t shout until I tell you to shout.”</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">Where
is the inclusivity? The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute was founded
principally to embrace all cultures and all people from all walks of
life. In the academic community, professors like Dr. Davis have freedom.
Colleges like UAB don’t agree with everything that every professor
says. But we are to respect their opinions because sometimes their
teachings can provoke new thoughts. So to judge someone by a portion of
their work and not the body of their work is just not right.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">Here
we are in a society where banks owned slaves. Do we stop using those
banks? We have former presidents who owned slaves and yet do we not
honor them as founding fathers of the United States of America? So where
is the grace? It’s disheartening and embarrassing that you would judge a
person by a segment of their life.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">This
woman lived it. A bomb couldn’t have gone off at Center Street and she
not experience it and yet we’ve forgotten about that part. We let a few
people decide how we celebrate the black community. That’s an
indictment. We all should be outraged because this was the epicenter of
civil rights. Her influence is international and this makes it look like
everyone respects her but us. She’s a champion for women’s rights, race
relations and here she has an opportunity to be honored by her hometown
and this is how it get’s handled. I’m embarrassed to serve in a city
that would support this.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="c675" name="c675">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">George
Wallace said “Segregation now, segregation forever,” but he said he
changed his heart. We accepted that and there were a whole lot of black
folks that voted for him to be governor.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="0ebf" name="0ebf">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">But
now we have this woman — I want to emphasize, this woman, because they
wouldn’t treat a man like that — and you treat her wrong. It’s not
right. You can’t mischaracterize a person for one part of their life
when their work is so broad and their heart is inclusive.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">There
are some things that are in the works where the city still plans to
honor her. She’s one of our daughters. It’s important that young people
know the body of her work. Not just a piece of it. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i class="markup--em markup--p-em">Sometimes it takes an
outside voice. She’s gone into communities around the world to bring
awareness to humanitarian issues. Her entire life has been about
bringing civil rights to all people. And for that we must honor her and
celebrate the life of one of our own.</i></span></span></div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-67257961546721341402019-01-11T17:18:00.004-08:002019-01-11T17:20:43.783-08:00REDFLAG: Sued for standing against apartheid <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear friends,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am very late in posting this interview I did in November with New Zealand activists <b>Nadia Abu-Shanab and Justine Sachs</b><b></b>, who were sued by a Zionist lawfare group after they wrote an open letter to Grammy Award-winning singer Lorde last
December, asking to her not to perform in Israel.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My interview with Nadia and Justine was published in REDFLAG. You can check out REDFLAG online <a href="https://redflag.org.au/">here</a>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In solidarity,<br />Kim</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*****</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://redflag.org.au/node/6612"><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sued for standing against apartheid </span></b></span></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Kim Bullimore</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">REDFLAG, 18 November 2018 </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">New Zealand activists <b>Justine Sachs</b> and <b>Nadia Abu-Shanab</b>
wrote an open letter to Grammy Award-winning singer Lorde last
December, asking to her not to perform in Israel. A month later, they
were sued for their role in the cancellation of Lorde’s Tel Aviv
concert.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On 11 October, Sachs and Abu-Shanab were informed, via the media,
that a Jerusalem magistrates’ court had found them guilty of breaching
Israel’s anti-boycott laws, ordering them to pay damages of A$17,000. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The case against the activists was brought by lawfare proponent
Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Centre), which regularly uses SLAPP suits
(strategic lawsuits against public participation) to smear political
opponents, tie them up in court and financially cripple them. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shurat HaDin and other pro-Israel organisations have regularly tried
to intimidate supporters of the Palestinian boycott, divestment and
sanctions (BDS) campaign through such lawsuits in Australia, France, the
UK and the USA. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Australia, Shurat HaDin launched a SLAPP suit in 2013 against Jake
Lynch, the director of the University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies, over his support for the BDS campaign. That lawsuit
ultimately failed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While Shurat HaDin has presented itself as a independent
organisation, unaffiliated with any political party or government body,
its founder Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told US embassy diplomats in Tel
Aviv it worked “closely with Israeli intelligence in selecting cases and
collecting evidence”, including Mossad and Israel’s National Security
Council. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leitner’s 2007 comments to US diplomats were reported in a cable
exposed by WikiLeaks in 2011. According to the leaked cable, Leitner
said: “The National Security Council (NSC) legal office saw the use of
civil courts as a way to do things that they were not authorized to
do”. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kim Bullimore</b> from the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid spoke with Sachs and Abu-Shanab about Lorde, BDS and Shurat HaDin’s SLAPP suit.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Why did you write to Lorde?</b></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Abu-Shanab: It was important to write to her because we rightly believed she was likely to change her mind.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sachs: Israel is sinking a lot of resources into getting artists to
play in Israel. For them, it’s a frontier for fighting BDS and
normalising apartheid. Artists need to understand how Israel sees their
willingness to cross the BDS picket as an endorsement of its apartheid
policies.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>What legal advice did you receive regarding the SLAPP suit?</b></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sachs: The advice was clear: unless we entered Israel’s jurisdiction
by sending a response, the court would have no jurisdiction over us.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Abu-Shanab: In February, an Israeli Supreme Court judge stated
publicly that the 2011 boycott law applied only to Israeli citizens and
permanent residents, so we did think it was unlikely the case would win,
even in an Israeli court. However, we were also told, regardless of
what happened in the Israeli court, Shurat HaDin would not be able to
enforce any ruling here.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>You’re refusing to pay the fine and instead are raising money for Gaza mental health programs, right?</b></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sachs: There was an outpouring of generosity, and it struck us that
the strength of feeling, which was at its core about support for justice
for Palestinians, should be channelled into an act of solidarity. Our
strategy became one of not only reacting but turning it into something
material and positive. We were very deliberate about that.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Abu-Shanab: We [also] wanted to be really clear that we would not be
paying any money on the case, and we didn’t want people to do it our
behalf. This would legitimise the illegitimate.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sachs: We think it’s politically important to re-centre the debate on
Palestine. Gaza is in perpetual crisis due to Israel’s actions. That’s
what we need to talk about.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Are you surprised by the political solidarity you received, as well as the donations for the Gaza fundraiser?</b></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Abu-Shanab: Yes and no. We have always known that there is strong
support for Palestine, but to see our fundraiser go viral [raising
A$38,000] has been humbling.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sachs: Within New Zealand, this has really helped change the debate
around Palestine. People see that Israel’s claim about being a tolerant
democracy is totally at odds with its actions and the reality on the
ground … The issue wasn’t at all ambiguous. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Why is it important for yourselves and others to continue to advocate for the Palestinian people and the BDS campaign? </b></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Abu-Shanab: The situation in Palestine is getting worse every day.
Gaza is in a state of perpetual collapse, the settlements in the West
Bank continue to grow, and millions still languish in refugee camps 70
years after being expelled. The situation is urgent, as it always has
been. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
BDS gives us a strategy to intervene. We don’t want to just respond
morally when Israel makes an incursion into Gaza. Through BDS, we can
chip away at the political, economic and social links that facilitate
those crimes.</span></div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-16844559476719654432018-11-15T21:15:00.001-08:002018-11-15T21:15:08.265-08:00The Victorian Socialists Support Palestine <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear friends,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">if you are based in Melbourne or Victoria, you will be aware that state elections will be happening on Saturday 24 November. I will be supporting Stephen Jolly and Victorian Socialists - not only because they are outspoken supporters of the Palestinian people and their struggle, but they also stand for social justice for all oppressed groups.<span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><br /> <br /> Furthermore, Victorian Socialists
lead upper house candidate Stephen Jolly has declared that, if elected,
he will pursue a Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy for all
Victorian public institutions. He has promised that one of the first
motions he will put in parliament is in support of BDS.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption">You can find out more about the <b>Victorian Socialists </b>by clicking the links below:<br /></span></span></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><a href="https://www.victoriansocialists.org.au/?fbclid=IwAR1Hgss3rOTQdEgfy10mBrVLN7QZIlLzc0Pl8BYDVV7Xwd53APKRzsCnA6M">Victorian Socialists website</a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"> </span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/vicsocialists/?__xts__[0]=68.ARDFIyrRH4y73RStQHpJYyZgNacuBANexMUAnIrvWy9aOUxlZLmaizTYUgOke9mMdUWlUZYgj4bto4JteLqK8KneOGkhzp3EX9Rr9ytRmpvZcqIJ_n3Xt-rcqJHGkTqAtRAT-Kpi82G3TtjNFOWxaYKTKMa7tC02dqY_HsdWUrap4uny_y3DtQXc0V5Mr3bDZart-Hv4YeqSVmgcfyoyEomVXTsU1PAKsX925agRr8ssGzWcTgAihftLMxMzV10YyhW41Pb94laImGCdPfUxNSNPsVORtN7ujjsDn0MvnZQ45RkgdODg-AXHI909bly6qd0gqr-mRxKW3IuB-Kv6CBjETu6NIBofpE_8MGlOqA1g0xNFwCJ5SQnsxCC7oyufl1PGmJQfAYB40pWjbI_0WF4VhZ07Fnv_k1pizZyVt-TEwWdQiPwRRTWy9oEcI60YPgIA4yjjcfKqvDvWJj0GYbw3A76XrB7Cvq5-">Victorian Socialists on Facebook</a></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><br /></span></span></span>
<span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In solidarity, <br />Kim<br />****</span></span></span><br />
<span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><br /> </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPa4qgVVcamQDeqzcLBqQZRNE2BOLOIbrW8q8FMpXGU2KyThoKQVyndknPehjXRB-3u8X39LSqnYcKOEv0QETHQkcON3fAhX96L1wMi5eLpi-ivh26J3VNvwUoeFFcFQriw_zClOPoJs/s1600/Vic+Soc+Palestine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="683" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPa4qgVVcamQDeqzcLBqQZRNE2BOLOIbrW8q8FMpXGU2KyThoKQVyndknPehjXRB-3u8X39LSqnYcKOEv0QETHQkcON3fAhX96L1wMi5eLpi-ivh26J3VNvwUoeFFcFQriw_zClOPoJs/s1600/Vic+Soc+Palestine.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Victorian Socialists support Palestine.</b></span><br /> <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We support Palestinian rights and recognise the historic injustice done
to the Palestinians since 1948. <br /><br />We oppose the ongoing military
bombardment of the Gaza strip, the massacres of Palestinian activists,
Israeli incursions into Palestinian land and the denial of basic rights
for Palestinians living inside Israel.<br /> <br /> Victorian Socialists
lead upper house candidate Stephen Jolly has declared that, if elected,
he will pursue a Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy for all
Victorian public institutions. He has promised that one of the first
motions he will put in parliament is in support of BDS.<br /> <br /> A vote for Victorian Socialists is a vote for Palestine</span></span></span></span> </span></span></div>
</div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-73392584500453123032018-08-20T18:12:00.001-07:002018-08-20T18:14:59.394-07:00REDFLAG: In Palestine, two heroes of the resistance are finally freed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">my latest article for REDFLAG on the release of my dear friend Nariman Tamimi and her daughter Ahed. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In solidarity, Kim <br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nyIBC-N00_c" width="480"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Al Jazeera on the arrest of Ahed Tamimi</i></span><br />
<br />
****</span></span><a href="https://redflag.org.au/node/6479"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></span></a> <a href="https://redflag.org.au/node/6479"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">IN PALESTINE, TWO HEROES OF THE RESISTANCE ARE FINALLY FREED</span></b></span></a><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By KIM BULLIMORE</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>REDFLAG // 15 August 2018 </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">After
eight months in an Israeli prison, 17-year-old Palestinian Ahed
Tamimi and her mother Nariman Tamimi were released on 29 July.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
Tamimis were arrested in December, after Israeli television screened
a video, shot by Nariman, of Ahed and her cousin Nour confronting a
heavily armed Israeli soldier who had intruded into the Tamimis’
home. Nour was also arrested, but released after 16 days.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Israel’s
culture minister, Miri Regev, a former military spokesperson, was
among those who called for retribution against the Tamimis, saying
that after watching the video: “I felt humiliated, I felt crushed”.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">According
to Regev, the footage of a teenage Palestinian girl standing up to an
Israeli soldier – which occurred less than half an hour after her
14-year-old cousin Muhammed had been shot in the head by another
soldier – was “damaging to the honour of the military and the
state of Israel”.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Israeli
education minister Naftali Bennet called for Ahed and Nour to “spend
the rest of their days in prison”. Prominent Israeli journalist Ben
Caspit hailed the soldier’s “restraint” and called for violence
against the young women. “In the case of the girls, we should exact
a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and
cameras”, he wrote.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">After
Nariman and Ahed were jailed, settlers from the nearby Israeli colony
of Halamish, built on land belonging to the residents of Nabi Saleh,
the village in which the Tamimis live, staged protests. They carried
makeshift coffins and chanted, “Death to Ahed Tamimi!” </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Speaking
at a press conference near her home on the day of her release, Ahed
drew attention to other political prisoners. She was relieved to be
home, but said, “My happiness is incomplete because my sister
prisoners are not with me”.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ahed
was imprisoned with three other female Palestinian child prisoners:
Lama al-Bakri, Hadiya Ereinat and Manar Shweiki.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">According
to Palestinian political prisoner support group Addameer, there are
more than 5,900 Palestinians held in Israel’s prison. Of those
imprisoned, 60 are women and 49 are under the age of 16.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Israel
is the only country that systematically detains and prosecutes
children – between 500 and 700 each year, some as young as 12,
according to Defence for Children International-Palestine (DCIP).</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Last
year, Palestinian child prisoners made up 1,400 of the more than
6,000 Palestinian political prisoners jailed. According to the US
State Department, the conviction rate for Israel’s military
occupation court is more than 99 percent. Lawyer Gaby Lasky, who
regularly acts on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, noted in 2014 that
Israel military courts were not “courts of justice” but instead
“the long arm of occupation”.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In
prison, Palestinian child political prisoners – like Palestinian
adults – suffer torture and abuse at the hands of the Israeli
state. In its 2016 report “No Way to Treat A Child”, the DCIP
documented testimonies of 429 Palestinian child political prisoners.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
research revealed that three-quarters of the children endured
physical and psychological violence. Children were threatened, put in
isolation and denied food, water and access to the toilet to coerce
confessions from them.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A
2014 Jerusalem Post article revealed that Palestinian children were
held in outdoor cages overnight, including during snowstorms. It was
only after the practice became public that Israel stopped doing it.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Despite
their ordeal, Nariman and Ahed remain defiant. Arriving back in Nabi
Saleh with her mother, Ahed told the waiting media, “I did nothing
wrong that I should regret … the resistance continues until the
occupation is removed”.</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-92010519288250441172018-08-17T00:15:00.003-07:002018-08-17T00:17:48.370-07:00AHED TAMIMI: "I am a freedom fighter"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear friends,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">apologies for the delay in posting about the release of my good friend Nariman Tamimi and her daughter Ahed Tamimi. As you will be aware, both Nariman and Ahed were arrested in December after video footage shot by Nariman of Ahed slapping an Israeli solider who had invaded the yard in front of their home. Nariman, along with Ahed and her cousin Nour were arrested. Nour was released after 16 days but Nariman and Ahed have spent the last 8 months in Israel's jails as political prisoners.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since her arrest Ahed has become very much the face of the Palestinian resistance. Not only is she a child political prisoner, her courage and defiance in the face of Israel's military occupation have helped shine a light - once again - on not only Israel's apartheid laws but its ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Please find below copies of both Al Jazeera & the Guardian's articles on Ahed and Nariman's release.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In solidarity, Kim</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">*****</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/palestinian-ahed-tamimi-freed-jail-180729051621393.html"><span style="font-size: x-large;">PALESTINIAN TEEN ACTIVIST, AHED TAMIMI, FREED FROM JAIL</span></a><br /><br />Tamimi was arrested after a video of her slapping and hitting two Israeli soldiers went viral.</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/profile/jaclynn-ashly.html" rel="author">Jaclynn Ashly</a></span></span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><time class="timeagofunction" datetime="Sun Jul 29 2018 14:35:54 GMT+0000">30 Jul 2018 // Al Jazeera English</time></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Nabi Saleh, occupied West Bank - </b>Palestinian teen activist <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2018/03/ahed-tamimi-story-multiple-narratives-180303101517310.html">Ahed Tamimi</a>, whose <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/ahed-tamimi-months-prison-plea-deal-180321201412587.html">eight-month sentence</a> for slapping and hitting Israeli soldiers sparked international condemnation, has been released from Israeli prison .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tamimi broke down in tears as an emotional crowd welcomed her in the village of Nabi Saleh on Sunday. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">She was released with her mother, Nariman, who was also sentenced to eight months but, like her daughter, served three weeks short of that in line with remission policy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Addressing the crowd, Tamimi thanked activists and the media for their support during her prison stay. She said she was "extremely happy" to be "in the arms and embrace of my family" but added that her "happiness is not full" when others are still behind Israeli bars.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">"My happiness is not complete without my sisters [Palestinian female prisoners], who are not with me. I hope that they will also be free," she said.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">'Leave occupation'</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The 17-year-old also relayed messages delivered to her by Palestinian female political prisoners, saying that they "call for national unity inside Palestine; for the people of Palestine to remain strong and united in their resistance; and for everyone to stand with the rights of political prisoners and work for their release".</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tamimi said she was planning to pursue a career in law in order to "hold the occupation accountable".</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">"In the end I want to say that the power is with the people, and the people will and can decide their destiny and decide the future. Women are a key part of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, and the women’s role will continue to expand, not only in the struggle but by producing new generations that can continue the struggle. We say: 'Leave, leave occupation.'"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">For her part, Nariman Tamimi said: "As a parent, I want to say that we shouldn't be afraid of our children and we should support them in whatever they choose to do. They are being killed whether in our homes or resisting in the streets, so support them in resistance."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Speaking to Al Jazeera prior to the release of his daughter and wife, Bassem Tamimi described their release as "a very happy moment".</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">He added: "We have missed them a lot. But I am also worried because the [Israeli] occupation is continuing and still in our lives."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Bassem's happiness, however, was overshadowed by a heavy heart, as his 21-year-old son, Waed, remains in Israeli detention since being arrested in an overnight raid on his home in May.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">International condemnation</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tamimi and her mother were <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/palestinian-ahed-tamimi-arrested-israeli-forces-171219174834758.html">arrested by Israeli forces</a> in December 2017 after a video went viral showing the young woman, then 16, hitting and slapping two armed Israeli soldiers outside her home in Nabi Saleh.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">At the time, the teen was reacting to news that her 15-year-old cousin Mohammed had been shot in the face by Israeli forces with a rubber-coated steel bullet earlier in the day, leaving him in critical condition.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN9z0qSeOp1fKo5KeK_n6T7XerC4CzaobyZPTyrBP6Gf6MXtQeYzKr0Z7r1YaszcLQcTjTNs9vZS-7FQx1B0TmOwUjkt4qCsp3EIdeOAEzPWgprq89xRhFOjBsbaKMtXvpObjPPYIstn4/s1600/Ahed+and+nariman+home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN9z0qSeOp1fKo5KeK_n6T7XerC4CzaobyZPTyrBP6Gf6MXtQeYzKr0Z7r1YaszcLQcTjTNs9vZS-7FQx1B0TmOwUjkt4qCsp3EIdeOAEzPWgprq89xRhFOjBsbaKMtXvpObjPPYIstn4/s640/Ahed+and+nariman+home.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i> Ahed Tamimi and her mother were arrested in December 2017 [Abbas Momani/AFP] </i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The teen's arrest drew <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/palestinian-protesters-demand-ahed-tamimi-release-180113194320874.html">international condemnation</a> and again put the spotlight on Israel's <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/israel-military-courts-humiliating-charade-palestinians-180225121604862.html">treatment of Palestinians</a>, especially Palestinian youth.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tamimi was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/israel-indicts-palestinian-teen-activist-ahed-tamimi-180101183249057.html">indicted on 12 charges</a> in Israel's Ofer military court in Ramallah two weeks after her arrest. In March, Tamimi and her mother accepted plea deals that would see them serve eight months in prison, including time served, in exchange for pleading guilty to some of the charges.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Israeli forces initiated a crackdown on Nabi Saleh after the video went viral, arresting residents and shooting dead Ahed's 21-year-old relative Izz al-Din Tamimi during a raid on the village last month.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tamimi's cousin Mohammed, who is still healing from his injuries, has also been detained by Israeli forces twice since Israeli forces shot the teen in the face.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTo_ON7XXEGhrN-0Dv_utbzzZN_sBbrMFYRHiKnVVPPUlQ3JbBGNckjImjg7CR-iAKbxmgXzMX8flVgY2SUfXg-BbMQirAe3tJzzVJEmHwaCpqThjh6ViwxuOa3L6NcH-1rMsa2GpLF18/s1600/bassem+and+ahed+-+home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTo_ON7XXEGhrN-0Dv_utbzzZN_sBbrMFYRHiKnVVPPUlQ3JbBGNckjImjg7CR-iAKbxmgXzMX8flVgY2SUfXg-BbMQirAe3tJzzVJEmHwaCpqThjh6ViwxuOa3L6NcH-1rMsa2GpLF18/s640/bassem+and+ahed+-+home.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i> Ahed Tamimi greeted by her father, Bassem. Her case drew international condemnation [Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP Photo] </i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> According to Tamimi's aunt, Manal, who is also a prominent activist in the village, 15 Nabi Saleh residents are still in Israeli custody, four of whom are minors.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Meanwhile, Bassem said he was worried about the safety of his daughter after her release, noting that she had been threatened by right-wing Israeli politicians and settlers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Earlier this year, Nabi Saleh residents woke up to Hebrew graffiti splashed around the village, some of which read "Death to Ahed Tamimi" and "There's no place in this world for Ahed Tamimi."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Residents believe it was the act of Israeli settlers from the adjacent Halamish settlement, which was built on top of Nabi Saleh's lands.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In another incident, settlers from Halamish demonstrated on a road that divides the village and the settlement, carrying makeshift coffins and chanting "Death to Ahed Tamimi."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Manal, whose two sons Mohammad, 19, and Osama, 23, have continued to be held in Israeli detention since their arrests in January, said she is also worried about how Tamimi will cope with her experience in Israeli prison.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“We are worried about the experiences</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> that she’s been through,” Manal said. “In the end, Ahed is a child and what she went through is very difficult. I think she will need some time to be a child again.”</span></span><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">'Inform the world about Israeli prison'</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOWqAnTaoNQUcke6QBzMBfuZeJHaFoWePBht0snkW1X3jHKU2DRdydKBYN6QVkXJcVA1y1ZKj5-sJTwYtB1wfvc3De0xF1A1_EzTVPahYz-s7OUI3Y0seqJvU5Jh3E21i79Q9bNLEfRE/s1600/Ahed+IOF+home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOWqAnTaoNQUcke6QBzMBfuZeJHaFoWePBht0snkW1X3jHKU2DRdydKBYN6QVkXJcVA1y1ZKj5-sJTwYtB1wfvc3De0xF1A1_EzTVPahYz-s7OUI3Y0seqJvU5Jh3E21i79Q9bNLEfRE/s640/Ahed+IOF+home.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><b> As of June 1, there are more than 290 minors in Israeli custody, according to rights groups [Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP Photo]</b></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Manal said Ahed's imprisonment has "made it so the name Nabi Saleh and the name Tamimi have become global".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">However, she hopes that Tamimi's release can shift the international conversation from Nabi Saleh to the experiences of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">"Now the whole world knows about what's happening here [in Nabi Saleh]," she told Al Jazeera. "But what's important now is for Ahed to inform the whole world about the experiences and treatment of [Palestinian] women and minors in Israeli prison."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">According to Dawoud Yusef, advocacy coordinator for Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addameer, Palestinian women experience severe mistreatment in Israeli prisons, noting that Israeli guards are "commonly involved in the sexual abuse of female prisoners, whether verbally or physically."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Palestinian women also face extreme forms of neglect in the prisons, such as Israeli prison authorities refusing to provide "necessary sanitary products" to Palestinian female prisoners, Yusef said.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In the case of female minors being held in Israeli prisons, "the things that stand out are the mental effects of such abuses, combined with a sense of shame over the whole ordeal," Yusef added.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">According to Addameer, of the 5,900 Palestinians who were being held in Israeli prisons as of June 1, 60 were women and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/system-control-child-detention-occupied-west-bank-180227071826444.html">291 were minors</a> - 49 of whom were under the age of 16.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">***</span></span><br />
<h1 class="content__headline " itemprop="headline">
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/30/ahed-tamimi-i-am-a-freedom-fighter-i-will-not-be-the-victim-palestinian-israel"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="content__headline--interview-wrapper">Ahed Tamimi: 'I am a freedom fighter. I will not be the victim'</span></span></span></a>
</h1>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
<span class="content__headline--byline-interview"><span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
<b><a class="tone-colour" data-link-name="auto tag link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/oliver-holmes" itemprop="sameAs" rel="author"><span itemprop="name">Oliver Holmes</span></a></b></span><b> and Sufian Taha in Nabi Saleh</b></span></span></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content__headline--byline-interview">The Guardian // 31 July 2018</span></span></span></b><br />
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</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Day after her release, teenage Palestinian activist says she hopes to become lawyer and lead cases against Israel</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0NwqFXyjSHrBXepnSnauATeUe0MkNh_9ySWMvouw30NamkWkwFD1lxr93mvI5IhD_-V5YDtizOZrI5-a25OdVYSOs_jxAXeY3d8qrDqlArMaicB5da1oF2YfB9veY-VY2Q3vZ_7trC8/s1600/Ahed+at+home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0NwqFXyjSHrBXepnSnauATeUe0MkNh_9ySWMvouw30NamkWkwFD1lxr93mvI5IhD_-V5YDtizOZrI5-a25OdVYSOs_jxAXeY3d8qrDqlArMaicB5da1oF2YfB9veY-VY2Q3vZ_7trC8/s640/Ahed+at+home.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b> <span class="inline-triangle inline-icon hide-until-tablet">
</span>
Ahed Tamimi: ‘The experience of being arrested was really hard. This
experience added value to my life, maybe it made me more mature. More
conscious.’
Photograph: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images
</b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The teenage Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi has said she used her
eight months in prison as an opportunity to study international law and
hopes to one day lead cases against <a class="u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/israel">Israel</a> in international courts.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“God willing, I will manage to study law,” the 17-year-old from Nabi
Saleh in the occupied West Bank told the Guardian a day after her <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/29/palestinian-teenager-ahed-tamimi-released-from-prison">release</a>.
“I will present the violations against the Palestinians in criminal
courts. And to try Israel for it and to be a big lawyer, and to return
rights to my country.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tamimi, who rose to global prominence as a child living under
military occupation, said she and other Palestinians in her all-female
prison unit would sit for hours and learn legal texts. “We managed to
transform the jail into a school,” she said.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To an outcry from rights groups, the teenager was arrested in December after <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/01/ahed-tamimi-palestinian-girl-filmed-slapping-israeli-soldier-is-charged-with-assault">slapping and kicking Israeli soldiers</a>
on camera outside her home. The soldiers had been deployed at one of
Nabi Saleh’s weekly protests, where residents have thrown stones at
troops who have responded with teargas, arrests and, at times, live
ammunition<b tabindex="-1">.</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">She later <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/21/palestinian-ahed-tamimi-accepts-plea-deal-to-serve-eight-months-in-jail">accepted a deal in court to plead guilty</a> to assault, incitement and two counts of obstructing soldiers.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“The experience of being arrested was really hard. As much as I try, I
cannot describe it,” Ahed said. But she added: “This experience added
value to my life, maybe it made me more mature. More conscious.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Her trial was held behind closed doors. Concerns about her treatment in detention were raised after a <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/family-of-palestinian-teen-tamimi-release-video-of-her-interrogation-1.5980486">video emerged in which a male Israeli interrogator threatened the then 16-year-old</a>, commenting on her body and “eyes of an angel”.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ahed said her treatment was not unusual. “It was not the first, and
it was not a coincidence. This is their style of interrogating,” she
said.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Her case has highlighted the arrest and detention of what local human rights groups say are more than 300 Palestinian minors.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ahed said her experience in jail helped with her ambitions to become
an international lawyer. “For example, I was under interrogation. There
were violations against me. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">International law says that this should not
happen to me,” she said, adding that in another life she would have
trained to be a professional footballer.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixUerESr1z_T1oRrOnjIuDbIOC2keoJsqWKEMrsckkYGB0oCglO9VVcIX10Tx1Nq1xLyeuGEOIOYuaYyckGni4FATL8_8OQ0hHj1j9L0Gwwg_poLO2iebuwZlwYgIdRQB6NAQFJXevNPA/s1600/Ahed+and+Nariman+at+home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixUerESr1z_T1oRrOnjIuDbIOC2keoJsqWKEMrsckkYGB0oCglO9VVcIX10Tx1Nq1xLyeuGEOIOYuaYyckGni4FATL8_8OQ0hHj1j9L0Gwwg_poLO2iebuwZlwYgIdRQB6NAQFJXevNPA/s640/Ahed+and+Nariman+at+home.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span class="inline-triangle inline-icon "><svg class="inline-triangle__svg inline-icon__svg" height="10" viewbox="0 0 11 10" width="11">
</svg><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b> </b></i></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b> Nariman (lef) and Ahed Tamimi (on right), 17, at her home in Nabi Saleh on Monday. Photograph: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images
</b></i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nabi Saleh is populated almost exclusively by members of her extended
family and is a focus of the anti-occupation movement. Images or videos
of Ahed throughout her childhood, often grappling with or staring down
soldiers during village protests, have gone viral.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After gaining worldwide attention, the Tamimi family say their
daughter has been offered scholarships to study at a university abroad
but that she is still deciding.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Palestinian government has launched <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/22/palestinian-minister-israel-war-crimes-icc-referral">several international complaints against Israel</a>,
including for alleged war crimes and what it says is a system of
governance that amounts to apartheid. Israel has vehemently denied the
allegations.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ahed’s family home is filled with activists and Palestinian
officials, who sit drinking coffee in small paper cups on plastic stools
outside. Within hours of her release, the teenager met the Palestinian
president, Mahmoud Abbas. Two Italian artists were arrested for painting
a mural of Ahed’s face of the Israel separation barriers that divides
the <a class="u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/palestinian-territories">Palestinian territories</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCqsVO_3UvqWkM1K5DDbBmtX659DD7gI9ThaX8x4C3TUHoQBJAH6rFUBm1Ok8gpS3wFQ9XrUXC26hE5SeGxEd1TN9RI3WrVM1QkP-nRg3f7ZFs6qsu_4zfiJrM5Y5ZVYw_xvqnoG5LLc/s1600/Wall+art+of+Ahed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCqsVO_3UvqWkM1K5DDbBmtX659DD7gI9ThaX8x4C3TUHoQBJAH6rFUBm1Ok8gpS3wFQ9XrUXC26hE5SeGxEd1TN9RI3WrVM1QkP-nRg3f7ZFs6qsu_4zfiJrM5Y5ZVYw_xvqnoG5LLc/s640/Wall+art+of+Ahed.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b> <span class="inline-triangle inline-icon "><svg class="inline-triangle__svg inline-icon__svg" height="10" viewbox="0 0 11 10" width="11">
</svg><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> One of the two Italian artists works a mural of Ahed
Tamimi on the Israeli separation barrier. Photograph: Anadolu
Agency/Getty Images
</span></b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Her international recognition infuriated the Israeli government, Ahed
said. “They are afraid of the truth. If they were not wrong, they would
not be afraid of the truth. The truth scares them. And I managed to
deliver this truth to the world. And of course, they’re afraid how far I
reached<i>. </i>They always fear the truth, they are the occupier, and we are under occupation.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some in Israel believe the focus on and arrest of the teenager was a
self-defeating move for the country, while others have praised the
soldiers’ apparent restraint and have accuse Nabi Saleh residents of
provocations.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ahed has no regrets about the day she hit the solider, a man she
believed had earlier that day shot her 15-year-old cousin in the head
with a rubber bullet during a clash. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">She was reunited with her cousin upon release and he was at her home on Monday, a large scar marking his face.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But fame has also taken a toll on a girl who was seen as a local hero
before she was in secondary school. “I feel proud that became a symbol
for the Palestinian cause in order to deliver the message of Palestinian
to the whole world. Of course, it is a heavy burden on me. It’s true;
it’s a big responsibility. But I am totally confident that I am for of
it.”</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo9p_sqE0RTLxv_hdGTUQ3uFY0u0ifAXJgL-hPc7KWDaWSYWOQW8zjZFP9tFkUju6uQw8i_ezDeBdBq0kriP0RYp-Her7j_BsTGdNWmrrGtVONi0wL_MXpMpkVRGpVvZEC76cbuowjGaA/s1600/Ahed+Nariman+Nour+-+released.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo9p_sqE0RTLxv_hdGTUQ3uFY0u0ifAXJgL-hPc7KWDaWSYWOQW8zjZFP9tFkUju6uQw8i_ezDeBdBq0kriP0RYp-Her7j_BsTGdNWmrrGtVONi0wL_MXpMpkVRGpVvZEC76cbuowjGaA/s640/Ahed+Nariman+Nour+-+released.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b> Ahed Tamimi, centre, with her friends at the family home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP
</b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For now, she hopes for a little rest and to decide her next steps,
still enjoying the high of leaving prison. “At last, I saw the sky
without a fence. I can walk on the street without handcuffs. I can see
the stars, the moon. I haven’t seen them for a long time and now I am
with my family.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yet her 22-year-old brother, Wa’ed Tamimi, is in prison awaiting a
sentence for his involvement in confrontations with soldiers. And the
conflict is never far away. An Israeli military outpost and settlement
can be seen from the garden where she speaks.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“I’m not the victim of the occupation,” Ahed said. “The Jew or the
settler child who carries a rifle at the age of 15, they are the victims
of the occupation. For me, I am capable of distinguishing between right
and wrong. But not him. His view is clouded. His heart is filled with
hatred and scorn against the Palestinians. He is the victim, not me. I
always say I am a freedom fighter. So I will not be the victim.”</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-59408901851174128992018-08-16T06:30:00.003-07:002018-08-16T06:38:43.679-07:00RED FLAG: Apartheid becomes official in Israel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">please find below my article for Red Flag on Israel's new "nation-state" law.<br /><br />In solidarity,<br />Kim</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*******<br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://redflag.org.au/node/6449">APARTHEID BECOME OFFICIAL IN ISRAEL</a></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #e69138;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By KIM BULLIMORE</span></span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">REDFLAG // 28 JULY 2018 </span></span></b></span></span><br />
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Israeli Knesset (parliament) has enshrined decades of apartheid policy,
voting 62-55 for the Jewish Nation State Bill. Prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu gloated that it was “a defining moment in the annals of
Zionism and the annals of the state of Israel”. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
is not wrong. The lie peddled by Zionists and their supporters that
Israel is a model of democracy rather than a discriminatory, racist
oppressor state has been exposed once and for all. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
bill codifies within Israel’s Basic Laws (the country’s de facto
constitution) that Israel is the “national home of the Jewish people”
and that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State
of Israel is unique to the Jewish people” – denying Palestinians and
other non-Jews such a right. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It
strips Arabic of its former status as an officially recognised language
of the state, and declares Jerusalem – in violation of international
law – the capital of Israel. It also legalises segregated Jewish-only
communities and townships. “The state views the development of Jewish
settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its
establishment and consolidation”, it reads. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since
its founding in 1948, Israel has used both legal discrimination and
military force to ethnically cleanse and oppress the indigenous
Palestinian population, imposing an apartheid system inside both the
Zionist state and the Palestinian territories seized in 1967. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Adalah:
the Centre for the Arab Minority in Israel notes 65 discriminatory laws
in Israel, which ensure the second class status of 1.8 million
Palestinians and other non-Jewish citizens. The laws cover such things
as land ownership, employment, housing, education, culture, marriage and
citizenship. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Jewish Nation State law does more than simply reaffirm discrimination.
It enshrines discrimination as a “constitutional value” – allowing
Israel to continue and extend its oppression of Palestinians. According
to Adalah, the new law will entrench “the privileges enjoyed by Jewish
citizens, while simultaneously anchoring discrimination against
Palestinian citizens and legitimising exclusion, racism, and systemic
inequality”.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One
of the bill’s sponsors, Avi Dichter, originally introduced it in 2011.
After its passing, Dichter – an anti-Arab racist and former head of
Israel’s secret police responsible for Shin Bet’s program of
extrajudicial murders – clarified its purpose: “We are enshrining this
important bill into a law today to prevent even the slightest thought,
let alone attempt, to transform Israel to a country of all its
citizen[s]”. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dichter’s
declaration cuts to the heart of Zionism since its inception: the
so-called Palestinian demographic threat. An inherently racist and
dehumanising concept, it considers the growth of the Palestinian
population as a “ticking time bomb” and existential threat to the
Zionist state. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Prior
to the establishment of Israel, the primary concern of Zionism was to
gain control of the Palestinian homeland, while ensuring that the
smallest number of Palestinian Arabs (who made up the overwhelmingly
majority of the population) remained. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After
creating a Jewish majority by ethnically cleansing more than 500
villages and forcing more than 750,000 Palestinians into exile in 1948,
the Zionist state’s primary concern shifted to the repression of the
150,000 Palestinians left inside the newly formed state and ensuring
that they remained an ethnic minority with no national rights. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
1967, Israel extended its regime of oppression and repression to
another 1.5 to 2 million Palestinians when it illegally occupied East
Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Today, the Palestinian
population inside Israel, occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and
Gaza is about the same as the number of Jewish citizens of Israel. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Because
it is an expansionist settler-colonial state, this presents a
“demographic dilemma” not only inside Israel. There is a long-held
Zionist aspiration to annex the territories seized in 1967 – an
aspiration reiterated by the central committee of Netanyahu’s Likud
Party on the last day of 2017. In a unanimous vote, the committee called
for annexation of the West Bank and for the Likud leadership to work
toward “unhindered construction” of settlements and the extension of
“Israeli law and sovereignty”.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Netanyahu
is emboldened by the ascension of Donald Trump, whose brand of
anti-Muslim ethno-nationalism entirely fits with Likud’s hard right
Zionist desire to be rid of the “Palestinian problem”. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Israel
has for decades created “facts on the ground” in illegal colonies in
the West Bank. But the formal annexation of Palestinian territories
occupied in 1967 would mean the Zionist state would have to contend with
a Palestinian demand for full equality. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Jewish Nation State law therefore has been passed not only to prevent
the creation of a bi-national state, enshrining apartheid within Israel.
It has been passed also with an eye to ensuring that any expanded
Israeli state will privilege the rights of Jewish citizens above those
of any Palestinians and other non-Jews.</span></span></div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-65659417016382454002018-07-21T02:48:00.001-07:002018-07-21T02:48:40.022-07:00Israel passes "Jewish-Nation" law & dispenses with any pretense that they aren't an apartheid state. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dear
friends, <br /><br />as you will be aware Israel has finally passed the
"nation state" law which formally enshrines apartheid. The
bill has been on the table since 2011 and simply the latest law put
in place by the Zionist state to reinforce the every day apartheid
already happening on the ground.<br /><br />I have included below two
articles - one from Ben White discussing what the history, political
context and political reality of the law, as well as an article from
the New York Times which gives a reasonably overview of the law. <br /><br />in
solidarity, Kim </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />**********************</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/how-israel-enshrines-apartheid-law-818001636"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>'Jewish nationstate': How Israel enshrines apartheid into law</b></span></a></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ben
White, </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Middle East Eye, 19 July 2018</span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_Phw1EQG5x8fb1lZ5OkWhVJ5g7xIPF0KhodYAQfNGhVAmWdSQYkhxNyyyf88PyhB-prZ4WewaBgP1vR7604XSEkf6rIJMJig15wS6Npfp_AuNm2XABwZ2xK65i5gjTgtgkX-HYzAc3w/s1600/Jerusalem%252C+zionist+flags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="620" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_Phw1EQG5x8fb1lZ5OkWhVJ5g7xIPF0KhodYAQfNGhVAmWdSQYkhxNyyyf88PyhB-prZ4WewaBgP1vR7604XSEkf6rIJMJig15wS6Npfp_AuNm2XABwZ2xK65i5gjTgtgkX-HYzAc3w/s640/Jerusalem%252C+zionist+flags.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
law is only the latest attempt to legislate discrimination against
Palestinians</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">On
Thursday, the Israeli government formally passed the "Jewish
nation state"law. With the Knesset's summer recess on the
horizon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to pass
the law ahead of the break.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"This
is a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the
state of</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Israel,"
Netanyahu told the Knesset after the vote.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
initiative has risen to the top of the news agenda in Israel, with
high-profile interventions from opponents and supporters. Last
Tuesday, President Reuven Rivlin warned in a public letter of what he
believes are the dangers inherent in the law - especially an article
designed to protect and promote the existence of Jewish-only
communities.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Lobbying
efforts</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ahead
of the vote, a number of Jewish American leaders have strongly
urged Netanyahu to reconsider, intensifying their lobbying
efforts to prevent the bill's passage.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">These
responses have, regrettably but predictably, been characterised by a
failure to understand or take sufficiently into account how Israel's
status as a "Jewish state" has always been reflected in
legislation and practice, and, crucially, how this has impacted on
Palestinians since 1948.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Many
discriminatory laws arealready on the books, and legal ways to create
segregated communities in Israel already exist. There is no
right to equality, and Israel is not a state of all its
citizens. The much-heralded Declaration of Independence is not a
constitutional law, and the Basic Law already privileges the
protection of a “Jewish state” over equality for non-Jewish
citizens.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As
a UN special rapporteur put it in 2012, Israeli authorities already
pursue "a land development model that excludes, discriminates
against and displaces minorities". The UN Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination has similarly noted “the
enactment of a number of discriminatory laws on land issues which
disproportionately affect non-Jewish communities”.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Indeed,
the issue of Jewish-only communities, which has dominated recent
criticism over the law passed on Thursday, is often debated without
reference to the fact that Israel already has hundreds of such
segregated communities, thanks to the role of "admission
committees".</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Traced
back to the Nakba</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A
decade ago, Human Rights Watch reported on how these committees "are
made up of government and community representatives as well as a
senior official in the Jewish Agency or the Zionist Organisation, and
have notoriously been used to exclude Arabs from living in rural
Jewish communities". </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Such
decades-old institutionalised discrimination, which can be traced all
the way back to the Nakba, makes a mockery of the claim by the Israel
Democracy Institute's Mordechai Kremnitzer that the new law
would somehow constitute "the end of Israel as a Jewish and
democratic state".</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
new law does, however, represent an innovation, both legally and
politically, as analysedby legal rights centre Adalah in a new
position paper published on Sunday; enjoying the status of a Basic
Law, the Jewish nation state law would anchor racist practices in the
constitution.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Coverage
by Western media has, on the whole, reproduced the lacuna of the
law’s Israeli critics. Yet, the omission of the experience of
Palestinian citizens in this "Jewish and democratic” state is
compounded by an analysis that fails to look deeper into why this
legislation is being proposed at all.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
"Jewish nation state" law is not the product of a
right-wing tussle between Likud and Jewish Home, or Netanyahu and
Naftali Bennett. Rather, tracing the origins of this proposed
legislation reveals that it is, in essence, pushback against the
efforts by Palestinian citizens over the last two decades to affirm
their national identity and demand a state of all its citizens.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Doubling
down</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Not
long after former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter began efforts to pass a
"Jewish nation state" bill in 2011, Israeli journalist
Lahav Harkov – now news editor of the Jerusalem Post – praisedthe
initiative by citing “campaigns to delegitimise Israel on the rise
both inside and outside the country”.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Thus,
the response from the Israeli political establishment to a mobilised
Palestinian citizenry demanding genuine equality has been to
double-down on discrimination, and to defiantly and ever-more
explicitly assert and legally protect the existence of a “Jewish
state”.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But
this is not without its advantages, as highlighted by the furore over
the new law. For what the draft legislation threatens is not the
existence of a “democratic” Israel, but rather critics’ idea of
a “Jewish and democratic” state (or at least the plausibility of
maintaining this idea).</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Through
its crudeness, the law threatens Israel’s ability to continue
long-standing, institutionalised discrimination with no international
cost, a prospect flagged through the warnings of Israel’s attorney
general and Jewish American leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Demographic
war</b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"The
true face of Zionism in Israel," wrote Orly Noy in +972 magazine
last week, is “an inherent, perpetual demographic war against its
Palestinian citizens. If Israel seeks to be Jewish and democratic, it
needs to actively ensure a Jewish majority.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
"Jewish nation state" law is part of this historic and
ongoing demographic war - one that is testimony to the activism of
Palestinian citizens and an effort to stifle it.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As
Israel consolidates the de facto single state between the river and
the sea, this won’t be the last attempt to see the apartheid
reality on the ground further reflected in legislation.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">-
Ben White is the author of the new book Cracks in the Wall: Beyond
Apartheid in Palestine/Israel. He is a freelance journalist and
writer and his articles have been published by Al Jazeera, al-Araby,
Huffington Post, the Electronic Intifada, the Guardian's Comment is
Free and more.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />*******************<br /><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/middleeast/israel-law-jews-arabic.html"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">IsraeliLaw Declares the Country the‘Nation-State of the Jewish People’</span></b></a></span></div>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">
</span></b><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">By
David M. Halbfinger and Isabel Kershner</span></span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>July
19, 2018 New York
Times</b></span></span><ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">JERUSALEM
— Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has long demanded
that the Palestinians acknowledge his country’s existence as the
“nation-state of the Jewish people.” On Thursday, his governing
coalition stopped waiting around and pushed through a law that made
it a fact.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In
an incendiary move hailed as historic by Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing
coalition but denounced by centrists and leftists as racist and
anti-democratic, Israel’s Parliament enacted a law that enshrines
the right of national self-determination as “unique to the Jewish
people” — not all citizens.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
legislation, a “basic law” — giving it the weight of a
constitutional amendment — omits any mention of democracy or the
principle of equality, in what critics called a betrayal of Israel’s
1948 Declaration of Independence, which ensured “complete equality
of social and political rights” for “all its inhabitants” no
matter their religion, race or sex.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
new law promotes the development of Jewish communities, possibly
aiding those who would seek to advance discriminatory land-allocation
policies. And it downgrades Arabic from an official language to one
with a “special status.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Since
Israel was established, it has grappled with the inherent tensions
between its dual aspirations of being both a Jewish and democratic
state. The new law, portrayed by proponents as restoring that balance
in the aftermath of judicial rulings that favored democratic values,
nonetheless struck critics as an effort to tip the scales sharply
toward Jewishness.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Its
passage demonstrated the ascendancy of ultranationalists in Israel’s
government, who have been emboldened by the gains of similarly
nationalist and populist movements in Europe and elsewhere, as Mr.
Netanyahu has increasingly embraced illiberal democracies like that
of Hungary — whose far-right prime minister, Viktor Orban, arrived
in Jerusalem for a friendly visit only hours before the vote.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">With
the political opposition too weak to mount a credible threat, and
with the Trump administration providing a never-before-seen degree of
American support, Mr. Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing
and religious coalition in Israel’s 70-year history, has been
pressing its advantages on multiple fronts.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It
has sought to exercise more control over the news media, erode the
authority of the Supreme Court, curb the activities of left-wing
advocacy groups, press ahead with moves that amount to de facto
annexation of parts of the West Bank, and undermine the police by
trying to thwart or minimize the effect of multiple corruption
investigations against the prime minister.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
police have already recommended that Mr. Netanyahu be charged with
bribery in two inquiries.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But
none of these expressions of raw political power has carried more
symbolic weight than the new basic law.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This
is a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and the annals of the
state of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said after the bill was enacted in
the early morning after hours of impassioned debate, just before the
Knesset, or Parliament, went into summer recess.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
have determined in law the founding principle of our existence,” he
said. “Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and
respects the rights of all of its citizens.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Opponents
say the law will inevitably harm the fragile balance between the
country’s Jewish majority and Arab minority, which makes up about
21 percent of a population of nearly nine million.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If
the new law was meant to give expression to Israel’s national
identity, it exposed and further divided an already deeply fractured
society. It passed in the 120-seat Parliament by a vote of 62 to 55
with two abstentions. One member was absent.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Moments
after the vote, Arab lawmakers ripped up copies of the bill while
crying out, “Apartheid!” Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List
of predominantly Arab parties, which holds 13 seats and is the
third-largest bloc in Parliament, waved a black flag in protest.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
end of democracy,” declared Ahmad Tibi, a veteran Arab legislator,
charging the government with demagogy. “The official beginning of
fascism and apartheid. A black day (another black day),” he wrote
on Twitter.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Yael
German, a lawmaker from the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid,
called the law “a poison pill for democracy.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
law is now one of more than a dozen basic laws that together serve as
the country’s Constitution and can be amended only by a majority in
the Knesset. Two others, on human dignity and on liberty and freedom
of occupation, both enacted in the 1990s, determine the values of the
state as both Jewish and democratic.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
basic laws legally supersede the Declaration of Independence and,
unlike regular laws, have never been overturned by Israel’s Supreme
Court.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dan
Yakir, chief legal counsel for the Association for Civil Rights in
Israel, said that while largely only declaratory, the new law “will
give rise to arguments that Jews should enjoy privileges and
subsidies and rights, because of the special status that this law
purports to give to the Jewish people in Israel.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In
that regard,” he added, “this is a racist law.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He
noted that a right to equality in Israel had been derived, by
interpretation of the Israeli Supreme Court, from the Basic Law on
Human Dignity, but that the new law was explicit in elevating the
status of Jews.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There
is a plausible argument that the new basic law can overrule the right
of equality that is only inferred, and is not specified anywhere in
our constitution,” he said.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Adalah,
a legal center that campaigns for Arab rights in Israel, warned that
the law “entrenches the privileges enjoyed by Jewish citizens,
while simultaneously anchoring discrimination against Palestinian
citizens and legitimizing exclusion, racism, and systemic
inequality.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Some
supporters lamented that many of the law’s more polarizing clauses
had been diluted to assure passage. Critics decried it as a populist
measure that largely sprang from the perennial competition for votes
between Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative party, Likud, and political
rivals to its right.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I
don’t agree with those saying this is an apartheid law,” said
Amir Fuchs, an expert in legislative processes and liberal thought at
The Israel Democracy Institute, an independent research group in
Jerusalem. “It does not form two separate legal norms applying to
Jews or non-Jews,” he said.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But
he added, “Even if it is only declarative and won’t change
anything in the near future, I am 100 percent sure it will worsen the
feeling of non-Jews and especially the Arab minority in Israel.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
law, which also was subtly changed where it addresses the Jewish
diaspora to mollify ultra-Orthodox leaders, who feared it could
promote Jewish pluralism in Israel, also drew protests from overseas.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
will use all of the legal means available to us to challenge this new
law and to promote Reform and Progressive Judaism in Israel,” said
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the New York-based Union for Reform
Judaism.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Many
North American Jews have grown increasingly alienated from Israel
over the Netanyahu government’s hawkishness and coercion by the
strictly Orthodox state religious authorities. They remain angry
nearly a year after Mr. Netanyahu reneged on an agreement to improve
pluralistic prayer arrangements at the Western Wall in Jerusalem,
once a hallowed symbol of Jewish unity, and promoted a bill
enshrining the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over conversions
to Judaism in Israel.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
new law stipulates that Hebrew is “the state’s language” and
demotes Arabic to “special status,” though it is a largely
symbolic sleight since a subsequent clause says, “This clause does
not harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law came
into effect.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Another
highly divisive clause in the draft version, which experts said would
have opened the door to legalized segregation, was replaced by one
declaring “the development of Jewish settlement as a national
value” and promising “to encourage and promote its establishment
and consolidation.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Some
critics argued the replacement clause was even worse, because while
the previous version allowed for separate but equal communities, the
new one could be interpreted to allow for discrimination in the
allocation of resources.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Proponents
of the new law cite continuing demographic threats: Some in Israel’s
Arab minority are demanding collective rights and already form a
majority in the northern Galilee district. Others view it as a
largely pointless expression of nationalism that lays bare basic
insecurities in a hostile region and will serve only to fan tensions
at home and beyond.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Avi
Shilon, an Israeli historian who teaches at Ben-Gurion University of
the Negev and New York University’s campus in Tel Aviv, noted that
Mr. Netanyahu and Likud were the ideological heirs of the right-wing
Zionist Revisionist movement of Zeev Jabotinsky, which believed that
words could shape reality.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">That
view is in contrast with those held by the Labor Zionist founders of
the state, led by David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister, who
placed more faith in deeds and actions.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
great spirit of Ben-Gurion and the founding fathers was that they
knew how to adjust to the times,” Mr. Shilon said. “Mr. Netanyahu
and his colleagues are acting like we are still in the battle of
1948, or in a previous era.”</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A
former Labor Party legislator, Shakeeb Shnaan, a member of Israel’s
small, Arabic-speaking Druze community, whose men are drafted for
compulsory service in the military, pleaded emotionally for the
bill’s defeat. His son was one of two Druze police officers killed
in a shooting attack a year ago while guarding an entrance to
Jerusalem’s holiest site for Jews and Muslims. The perpetrators
were Arab citizens of Israel.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
state of Israel is my country and my home, and I have given it what
is most dear to me, and I continue, and I will continue, to serve it
with love,” he said, before adding: “The nationality law is a
mark of Cain on the forehead of everyone who votes for it.”</span></div>
</div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-56235544233040779482018-06-29T01:05:00.000-07:002018-06-29T01:05:02.268-07:00Birthright Participants Walk Off Trip to Join Anti-occupation Tour <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">please find below a news article from Haaretz discussing the Talgit-Birthright program. As many of you will be aware of Talgit-Birthright is funded by mulimillionaire hard right Zionist, Sheldon Adelson. The program is NOT apolitical. <br /><br />It was set up to encourage young American Jews to make Aliyah. All of this is done within the frame work of the Zionist world view. As a result, the program actively downplays Israel's illegal military occupation of Palestine and the human rights abuses and war crimes carried out against Palestinians by the Zionist state. <br /><br />There has been efforts over the years by young dissident Jewish activists to foster more honest engagement via Birthright in regard to the reality of Israel's military occupation and apartheid regime, including setting up alternative tour programs to allow young Jews who participated in Birthright to visit the Occupied West Bank to see for themselves the reality of Israel's occupation.<br /><br />The walk out of five participants from a recent Birthright Tour has made the news in Israel mainly because there is an increasing concern within Zionist circles that more and more young Jews are not falling behind the Zionist narrative as they once did. For more information on this see:</span></span><br />
<h1 class="entry-title instapaper_title" itemprop="name">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://theconversation.com/as-israel-turns-70-many-young-american-jews-turn-away-95271">As Israel turns 70, many young American Jews turn away</a></span></span></h1>
<h1 class="t-headline--em h-mb--xxtight" id="art-headline" itemprop="headline">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-jewish-agency-chief-warns-young-u-s-jews-more-turned-off-to-israel-1.5751616">Young American Jews Increasingly Turning Away From Israel, Jewish Agency Leader Warns</a></span></span></h1>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In solidarity,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kim</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">***</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-birthright-participants-leave-trip-to-visit-west-bank-1.6221440"><span data-offset-key="bveus-0-0"><span data-text="true">Birthright Participants Walk Off Trip to Join Anti-occupation Tour</span></span></a></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="ip1p-0-0"><span data-text="true">Five participants left the program in public protest in order to visit Hebron and Bethlehem with Breaking the Silence: 'Israel tour is one-sided' ■ Birthright: We're apolitical and reject promotion of any agenda</span></span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="fhcg6-0-0"><span data-text="true">Taly Krupkin</span></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="efkn8-0-0"><span data-text="true"><b>Jun 28, 2018 Haaretz</b></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span>Illustration, Birthright participants</span><span class="fig__credit">Birthright</span></span></b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="dd5fo-0-0"><span data-text="true">A group of five American Jews visiting Israel as part of the Birthright Israel program left the trip Thursday in protest of the program's treatment of the occupation and joined a tour of Hebron led by anti-occupation army veterans' group Breaking the Silence.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="6s7jh-0-0"><span data-text="true">The group split off from the rest of the tour on the eighth day of their trip. One of those who left the group said that Birthright, the organization that brings young Jewish adults on free, 10-day visits to Israel, "is not providing the kind of education that we really need... and is telling a one sided story. This is not fair, and we deserve the truth."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="8cas0-0-0"><span data-text="true">The five young Americans live-streamed the incident on Facebook, where they are seen leaving the bus and arguing with their guide and with fellow participants. They also published a statement on a Twitter account. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="1bbec-0-0"><span data-text="true">Following the incident one of the five people who walked off, Sophie Lasoff, 24, told Haaretz that she wanted to participate in Birthright due to its significant place in the American Jewish community, and that she and her friends did not initially plan to leave the Birthright program. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="e1m0r-0-0"><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(for full text of statement, see end of blog article)</span></b></i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="6dfjh-0-0"><span data-text="true">“I wanted to give Birthright a chance”, says Lasoff. “We didn’t want to do something like that, but we felt that it was the right thing to do.” <br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="6r4td-0-0"><span data-text="true">Lasoff told Haaretz that the members of the group did not know each other before the trip to Israel, and did not plan the action beforehand. She explained that they felt disappointed with the program's treatment of the occupation, and therefore contacted Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans organization that collects testimonies from Israeli soldiers about their service in the territories, and coordinated to join their tour of the West Bank.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="31vrv-0-0"><span data-text="true">Another woman who left the tour, Katie Anne, claimed on the live stream that "Birthright gave us a map of Israel that does not denote the West Bank [even though] the director of our Birthright organization admitted that the majority of maps in Israel do include [it]. They keep saying they're apolitical but this is clearly to the right."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="8qhp3-0-0"><span data-text="true">Anne added: "We love our Jewish community and that's why it's so hard for us to see Birthright systemically miseducating it. We cannot stand this injustice."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="cp5if-0-0"><span data-text="true">After leaving the Birthright bus, the group visited Hebron and Bethlehem.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="d035h-0-0"><span data-text="true">This week, IfNotNow, an anti-occupation movement led by young U.S. Jews, launched a new campaign targeting the Birthright program. The campaign, called, </span></span><span class="_5zk7" data-offset-key="d035h-1-0" spellcheck="false" start="153"><span data-offset-key="d035h-1-0"><span data-text="true">#NotJustAFreeTrip</span></span></span><span data-offset-key="d035h-2-0"><span data-text="true">, seeks to "pressure Birthright to tell the truth about the Israeli occupation to its 40,000 young Jewish participants". IfNotNow activists have been gathering in airports in the U.S. to engage with participants as they leave on Birthright trips, encouraging them to question the tour guides about the occupation. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="41b4n-0-0"><span data-text="true">Yonah Lieberman, spokesperson for IfNotNow, told Haaretz that members of his group met the group who left for the Birthright trip as they were flying to Israel from JFK airport in New York last week.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="6qqr5-0-0"><span data-text="true">In response to the protest, Birthright said that it is "an apolitical project and the leading educational initiative in Israel." The organization added that "since we respect our participants' abilities to form their own opinion, we reject the promotion of any agenda and any attempt at manipulation of provocation by any political side."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="ct7mf-0-0"><span data-text="true">In November, Haaretz reported that Birthright's education department instructed its trip providers to stop including meetings with Israeli Arabs on their itineraries. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="8perl-0-0"><span data-text="true">Birthright mandates that all of its trips include meetings with Israeli soldiers. Haaretz also reported last year that Birthright is promoting a free stay for participants who extend their time in Israel beyond the 10 days offered if they choose to remain at a hostel in Jerusalem’s Old City run by an extremist rabbi aligned with radical factions of the settler movement who encourages those who stay with him to volunteer at illegal Israeli outposts in the West Bank. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="coluk-0-0"></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="coluk-0-0"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrI1g9BrJpEAlQXrslhQ0IqwdSgGj44aGr_x07aCC-VG8KMhP0tT-KwwzIINSMsr2fiNwQovI4pgbFN0_K6huyh9p85uh4N8bWM1dRlc1gSauWNGCnjJWn_jrLdwFc_Jl9msJgqDd1Jw/s1600/sheldong+adelson+-+2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="993" data-original-width="1496" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrI1g9BrJpEAlQXrslhQ0IqwdSgGj44aGr_x07aCC-VG8KMhP0tT-KwwzIINSMsr2fiNwQovI4pgbFN0_K6huyh9p85uh4N8bWM1dRlc1gSauWNGCnjJWn_jrLdwFc_Jl9msJgqDd1Jw/s640/sheldong+adelson+-+2018.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="coluk-0-0"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span>Sheldon Adelson and Dr. Miriam Adelson attending Birthright's 18th anniversary gala in New York, April 15, 2018.</span><span class="fig__credit">Michael Priest Photography</span></span></span></span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="35mm6-0-0"><span data-text="true">Birthright’s single largest donor today is casino-magnate Sheldon Adelson, a major supporter of the Republican Party and of Israel’s right-wing government. Adelson and his associates have long insisted, however, that he does not intervene in any way in Birthright's itineraries. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="7kbgg-0-0"><span data-text="true">In April, 150 students protested a Birthright annual gala in New York.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="bkabm-0-0"><span data-text="true">Breaking the Silence has faced severe criticism by the Israeli government, including attempts to silence the group through legislation. </span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="fig__credit"></span></span></span><figure class="pic pic--b" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGaBEmOM7WMMtH1j1cPI-N1TMeVwEQ7axE53K_EZt_7fbAzIL4H4gMN_1soOtYFOXhcLdaooSWSbiGt25xPuzrhPqbWlP5b11ptk1ZZyDiOQOOiJ3uhTYt7moqIeiy16YvSXy5_bqbfjU/s1600/JVP+protest+against+birthright.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="948" data-original-width="1496" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGaBEmOM7WMMtH1j1cPI-N1TMeVwEQ7axE53K_EZt_7fbAzIL4H4gMN_1soOtYFOXhcLdaooSWSbiGt25xPuzrhPqbWlP5b11ptk1ZZyDiOQOOiJ3uhTYt7moqIeiy16YvSXy5_bqbfjU/s640/JVP+protest+against+birthright.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><figcaption class="fig__caption"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="fig__credit"></span></span></span></figcaption></figure><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="bkabm-0-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span></span></span><figure class="pic pic--b" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject"><figcaption class="fig__caption"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Protesters from Jewish Voice for Peace outside the Birthright gala event in New York, April 15, 2018.</span><span class="fig__credit">Ben Lorber, Jewish Voice for Peace</span></span></span></figcaption></figure><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="bkabm-0-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="bkabm-0-0"><span data-text="true"><b>FULL TEXT OF STATEMENT ISSUED VIA TWITTER: </b></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span data-offset-key="bkabm-0-0"><span data-text="true"><b> </b></span></span></span></span></div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-64477013425463292892018-06-14T22:19:00.006-07:002018-06-14T22:21:19.415-07:00UN Condemns Israel's 'Excessive Use of Force' in Gaza<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear friends,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you will be aware, Israel has repeatedly used excessive force over the last weeks against Palestinians in Gaza, killing 129 Palestinians and injuring hundreds more. <br /><br />Unsurprising, Australia - a country built on settler-colonialism like Israel, who like Israel is a serial human rights abuser - voted against the resolution and instead voted with/in support of their fellow human rights abuser. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once again, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the governing Liberal-National Party have blood on their hands. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is the reports on the vote from Al Jazeera and Haaretz.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in solidarity, Kim </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">***</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">UN slams 'excessive' Israeli force against Palestinians in Gaza</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The resolution, backed by 120 countries, rejected a US bid to blame Hamas for the violence that has left 129 dead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Al Jazeera News, 14 June 2018 </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The UN General Assembly on Wednesday condemned Israel for excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians, in a resolution adopted by a strong majority of 120 countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The 193-member world body rejected the United States' efforts to blame Gaza's Hamas rulers for the violence that has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/israel-lethal-force-amount-war-crime-180613163435893.html">killed</a> over 120 Palestinians in the past two and half months.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The resolution deplores Israel's use of "excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force" against Palestinian civilians and calls for protection measures for Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Presented by Algeria and Turkey on behalf of Arab and Muslim countries, the measure won a decisive 120 votes, with eight votes against and 45 abstentions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The resolutions are not legally binding but carry political weight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Solomon Islands and Togo joined Israel and the US in voting against the resolution, which comes weeks after Washington vetoed a similar resolution in the 15-member UN Security Council.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At least 129 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2018/05/palestinians-great-march-return-human-cost-180516110538165.html">Gaza border protests</a> since March 30 to commemorate 70 years since the Nakba (or Catastrophe), when about 750,000 Palestinians were driven out from their homes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The largest number of deaths occurred on May 14, the day the US moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Palestinians and their supporters said most protesters were unarmed civilians and Israel used excessive force against them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"We need protection of our civilian population," Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told the General Assembly before the vote, adding that the resolution was "intended to contribute to a de-escalation of the volatile situation".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"We cannot remain silent in the face of the most violent crimes and human rights violations being systematically perpetrated against our people," Mansour said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite international condemnation of its use of lethal force, Israel said many of the dead were armed and that the Israeli army was defending itself against attacks on the border fence with Gaza. Washington has maintained Israel's right to defend itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The resolution also asked UN chief Antonio Guterres to report back within 60 days on proposals "on ways and means for ensuring the safety, protection and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation, including ... recommendations regarding an international protection mechanism."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">No mention of Hamas</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While the General Assembly text condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas, it did not mention Hamas, the group that governs Gaza.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">US Ambassador Nikki Haley dismissed the resolution as "one-sided" and accused Arab countries of trying to score political points at home by seeking to condemn Israel at the United Nations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"For some, attacking Israel is their favourite political sport. That's why we are here today," Haley told the Assembly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An amendment presented by the US that condemned Hamas for "inciting violence" along the border with Gaza failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed for adoption.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In December 128 countries defied President Donald Trump and voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution calling for the US to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*****</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class=" UFICommentActorAndBody"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody _1n4g"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="color: orange;">UN Condemns Israel's 'Excessive Use of Force' in Gaza, Rejects Amendment Denouncing Hamas</span><br />
</b></span><br />
General Assembly passed the resolution with 120 countries in
favor and only 8 opposing. U.S. tried to add Hamas condemnation, but
couldn't garner sufficient majority<br />
<br />
<b>Amir Tibon and Reuters Jun 14, 2018<br />Haaretz</b></span></span></span></span></div>
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The UN General Assembly passed a resolution Wednesday night condemning Israel for excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians and proposing forming an international protection mechanism in Gaza.<br />
<br />
The resolution is not expected to lead to action against Israel since any attempt to bring such a decision to the Security Council is expected to be met with a U.S. veto.<br />
<br />
The resolution passed with 120 countries in favor, eight against, and 45 abstaining. It was put forward in the General Assembly by Algeria, Turkey and the Palestinians.<br />
<br />
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley criticized the General Assembly for discussing the situation in Gaza instead of the crises in Nicaragua, Yemen and Burma. "Gaza is important, but what makes it more urgent than many other desperate places?" Haley asked. "What makes Gaza different for some is that attacking Israel is their favorite sport." She called the resolution condemning Israel "totally one-sided" and unhelpful for promoting peace. <br />
<br />
Haley wanted to add an amendment to the resolution that included a strong denunciation of Hamas. While 62 countries voted in favor of the amendment and only 58 voted against it, that small majority wasn't enough in order to add the amendment to the resolution as passing an amendment would require a two thirds majority.<br />
<br />
Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Solomon Islands and Togo joined Israel and the United States in voting against the resolution. <br />
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"By supporting this resolution you are colluding with a terrorist organization, by supporting this resolution you are empowering Hamas," Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the General Assembly before the vote. <br />
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"We need protection of our civilian population," Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told the General Assembly before the vote, adding that the resolution was "intended to contribute to a de-escalation of the volatile situation." "We cannot remain silent in the face of the most violent crimes and human rights violations being systematically perpetrated against our people," Mansour said.</span></span></span></span></div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-79567847924265455302018-05-15T21:51:00.001-07:002018-05-15T21:51:09.777-07:00A grotesque spectacle and a Trump Square in Jerusalem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear friends,<br />
a MUST READ article by Michelle Goldberg which was first published in the New York Times and republished by the Fairfax Media in the Sydney Morning Herald.<br /><br />Goldberg makes clear in her article that the Trump's Embassy move is an alliance between rightwing anti-semites in the Christian fundmentalist (one of the bases Trump courts) and the Zionist movement. Goldberg writes:<br /><br />
<b><i>The event was grotesque. It was a consummation of the cynical alliance
between hawkish Jews and Zionist evangelicals who believe that the
return of Jews to Israel will usher in the apocalypse and the return of
Christ, after which Jews who don't convert will burn forever.</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>Religions
like "Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism" lead people "to an eternity
of separation from God in Hell," Robert Jeffress, a Dallas megachurch
pastor, once said. He was chosen to give the opening prayer at the
embassy ceremony. John Hagee, one of America's most prominent end-times
preachers, once said that Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews to
their ancestral homeland. He gave the closing benediction.</i></b><br />
<br />
Goldberg also draws attention to the grotesque spectacle in Jerusalem and Gaza, where Israel has massacred more than 55 Palestinians, including children.<br /><br />I have included the photos from the SMH article, but not the videos. If you wish to see the videos, click on the article title below and it will link to the SMH article. <br />
<b><i><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Please support the Nakba rallies and protests against Israel's massacre in Gaza in your city. If you are in Melbourne, please join the rally on Saturday 19th May at 12 noon at the State Library of Victoria.</span><br /></i></b>In solidarity, Kim<b><i><br /></i></b><br />
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<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/a-grotesque-spectacle-and-a-trump-square-in-jerusalem-20180515-p4zfcy.html">A grotesque spectacle and a Trump Square in Jerusalem</a></h1>
<aside class="_1ki1P" data-reactid="386"><section class="_3eMES" data-reactid="387"><div class="_1mseD" data-reactid="388">
<h5 class="_2FyET" data-reactid="389">
<span style="font-size: small;">By Michelle Goldberg<span class="_1wVn6" data-reactid="392"><time class="_2_zR-" data-reactid="393" datetime="2018-05-15T12:49:14+10:00"><b> </b></time></span></span></h5>
<h5 class="_2FyET" data-reactid="389">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="_1wVn6" data-reactid="392"><time class="_2_zR-" data-reactid="393" datetime="2018-05-15T12:49:14+10:00"><b>15 May 2018 Sydney Morning Herald</b></time></span><br /><span class="_1wVn6" data-reactid="392"><time class="_2_zR-" data-reactid="393" datetime="2018-05-15T12:49:14+10:00"></time></span><span class="_1wVn6" data-reactid="392"><time class="_2_zR-" data-reactid="393" datetime="2018-05-15T12:49:14+10:00">For original New York Times article, click <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/opinion/jerusalem-embassy-gaza-protests.html">here</a>.</time></span></span><span class="_1wVn6" data-reactid="392"><time class="_2_zR-" data-reactid="393" datetime="2018-05-15T12:49:14+10:00"></time></span></h5>
<span class="_1wVn6" data-reactid="392"><time class="_2_zR-" data-reactid="393" datetime="2018-05-15T12:49:14+10:00"> </time></span></div>
</section></aside><div class="_1665V undefined" data-reactid="403">
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<strong data-reactid="405">New York:</strong> On
Monday, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and other leading lights of the
Trumpist right gathered in Israel to celebrate the relocation of the US
Embassy to Jerusalem, a gesture widely seen as a slap in the face to
Palestinians who envision East Jerusalem as their future capital.</div>
</div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi57zPkOgmB9lfRgeDkpxCcmFsuB4ikSj_d4AiBiQmy0-Y08RjCmmtNGJDvhaJuqxm2L9Z5JLOe7nec_i6HhSeanlwwP1dKMyRgsLNZXfFi2Dlqb-22bnxv9OFtLjRKZEwqLqgNwhyqk3k/s1600/FireShot+Capture+015+-+Trump+square+and+a+grotesque+spectacl_+-+https___www.smh.com.au_world_middl.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="812" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi57zPkOgmB9lfRgeDkpxCcmFsuB4ikSj_d4AiBiQmy0-Y08RjCmmtNGJDvhaJuqxm2L9Z5JLOe7nec_i6HhSeanlwwP1dKMyRgsLNZXfFi2Dlqb-22bnxv9OFtLjRKZEwqLqgNwhyqk3k/s640/FireShot+Capture+015+-+Trump+square+and+a+grotesque+spectacl_+-+https___www.smh.com.au_world_middl.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The event was grotesque. It was a consummation of the cynical alliance
between hawkish Jews and Zionist evangelicals who believe that the
return of Jews to Israel will usher in the apocalypse and the return of
Christ, after which Jews who don't convert will burn forever.<br />
<br />
Religions
like "Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism" lead people "to an eternity
of separation from God in Hell," Robert Jeffress, a Dallas megachurch
pastor, once said. He was chosen to give the opening prayer at the
embassy ceremony. John Hagee, one of America's most prominent end-times
preachers, once said that Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews to
their ancestral homeland. He gave the closing benediction.<br /><br />This
spectacle, geared toward Donald Trump's Christian American base,
coincided with a massacre about 80 kilometres away. Since March 30,
there have been mass protests at the fence separating Gaza and Israel.
Gazans, facing an escalating humanitarian crisis due in large part to an
Israeli blockade, are demanding the right to return to homes in Israel
that their families were forced from at Israeli's founding. The
demonstrators have been mostly but not entirely peaceful; Gazans have
thrown rocks at Israeli soldiers and tried to fly flaming kites into
Israel. The Israeli military has responded with live gunfire as well as
rubber bullets and tear gas. In clashes Monday, dozens of Palestinians
were killed and thousands wounded, according to the Gaza Health
Ministry.<br />
<br />
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<br />
The juxtaposition of images of dead and wounded Palestinians and Ivanka
Trump smiling in Jerusalem like a Zionist Marie Antoinette tell us a lot
about America's relationship with Israel right now. It has never been
closer, but within that closeness there are seeds of potential
estrangement.<br /><br />
Defenders of Israel's actions in Gaza will argue no country would allow a
mob to charge its border. They will say that even if Hamas didn't call
the protests, it has thrown its support behind them. "The responsibility
for these tragic deaths rests squarely with Hamas," a White House
spokesman, Raj Shah, said.<br />
<br />
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<br />
But even if you completely dismiss the Palestinian
right of return — which I find harder to do now that Israel's
leadership has all but abandoned the possibility of a Palestinian state —
it hardly excuses the Israeli military's disproportionate violence.<br />
<br />
<div data-reactid="542">
"What
we're seeing is that Israel has used, yet again, excessive and lethal
force against protesters who do not pose an imminent threat," Magdalena
Mughrabi, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East
and North Africa, told me by phone from Jerusalem.</div>
<div data-reactid="542">
<br /></div>
Much
of the world condemned the killings in Gaza. Yet the United States,
Israel's most important patron, has given it a free hand to do with the
Palestinians what it will. Indeed, by moving the embassy to Jerusalem in
the first place, Trump sent the implicit message that the US government
has given up any pretence of neutrality.<br />
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<br />Reports
of Israel's gratitude to Trump abound. A square near the embassy is
being renamed in his honour. Beitar Jerusalem, a soccer team whose fans
are notorious for their racism, is now calling itself Beitar "Trump"
Jerusalem. But if Israelis love Trump, many Americans — and certainly
most American Jews — do not. The more Trumpism and Israel are
intertwined, the more left-leaning Americans will grow alienated from
Zionism.<br />
<br />
<div data-reactid="562">
Even
before Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helped open a
partisan divide on Israel in American politics, where previously there
had been stultifying unanimity.</div>
<div data-reactid="562">
<br /></div>
"Until these
past few years, you'd never heard the word 'occupation' or 'settlements'
or talk about Gaza," Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal
pro-Israel group J Street, said of American politicians. But Ben-Ami
told me that since 2015, when Netanyahu tried to undercut then president
Barack Obama with a controversial address to Congress opposing the Iran
deal, Democrats have felt more emboldened. "That changed the calculus
forever," he told me.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl86_58wnUyoEhZl27JngtRCXun4GM1xOnuKUPwsqJpxUhkJSKfCCSocTSS-iaXndiicoHTQ_5yU7w8bvB0pdoojbyQ0uFQD_S0PqLf4zCXLI72n026DxcEZ-trpDtMWLggXXDDbohWDQ/s1600/FireShot+Capture+019+-+Trump+square+and+a+grotesque+spectacl_+-+https___www.smh.com.au_world_middl.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="816" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl86_58wnUyoEhZl27JngtRCXun4GM1xOnuKUPwsqJpxUhkJSKfCCSocTSS-iaXndiicoHTQ_5yU7w8bvB0pdoojbyQ0uFQD_S0PqLf4zCXLI72n026DxcEZ-trpDtMWLggXXDDbohWDQ/s640/FireShot+Capture+019+-+Trump+square+and+a+grotesque+spectacl_+-+https___www.smh.com.au_world_middl.png" width="640" /></a><br /><br />
The
events of Monday may have changed it further, and things could get
worse still. Tuesday is Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate their
dispossession, and the protests at the fence are expected to be even
larger.<br />
<br />
<div data-reactid="580">
"People don't feel like they can stay
at home after loved ones and neighbours have been killed for peacefully
protesting for their rights,"Abdulrahman Abunahel, a Gaza-based activist
with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, told me via email.</div>
<div data-reactid="580">
<br /></div>
<div data-reactid="584">
Trump
has empowered what's worst in Israel, and as long as he is president,
it may be that Israel can kill Palestinians, demolish their homes and
appropriate their land with impunity. But some day, Trump will be gone.
With hope for a two-state solution nearly dead, current trends suggest
that a Jewish minority will come to rule over a largely disenfranchised
Muslim majority in all the land under Israel's control. A rising
generation of Americans may see an apartheid state with a Trump Square
in its capital and wonder why it's supposed to be our friend.<br /></div>
<strong data-reactid="587">Michelle Goldberg is an American blogger, author and <em data-reactid="589">New York Times</em> columnist.</strong></div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-4663553735241145092018-04-13T21:19:00.000-07:002018-04-13T21:23:01.745-07:00Israeli forces must end the use of excessive force in response to “Great March of Return” protests<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear friends, <br />
<br />
As unarmed Palestinians once again staged protests in Gaza, Israel has once again opened fire on them. As of today (14 April), 26 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel, including 3 children and Palestinian photojournalist Yasser Murtaja. An additional 3078 Palestinians have been injured.<br />
<br />
Amnesty International has issued the following statement condemning Israel's actions.<br />
<br />
Please support and join the Palestine solidarity actions in your city.<br />
<br />
In solidarity, Kim<br />
<br />
****<br />
<h1 class="heading--main heading--in-padded" data-start-content="">
<span style="color: orange;">Israel/OPT: Israeli forces must end the use of excessive force in response to “Great March of Return” protests</span></h1>
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<div class="wysiwyg">
<time datetime="2018-04-13T11:35:06"></time><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwQZ9DI-cPdFT4X_5g4Xx2-1or27Ifq3q91WSBASM5_Mme-DIxWBwA-KtQ28HSLxRDUNr5vJ63Xo32WbYPtTQPtXcJI9V4MZyqMnw9EZ0P388Z39aniDbbAyncnTx52oHB2mjuJT_UXs/s1600/march+of+return+amensty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwQZ9DI-cPdFT4X_5g4Xx2-1or27Ifq3q91WSBASM5_Mme-DIxWBwA-KtQ28HSLxRDUNr5vJ63Xo32WbYPtTQPtXcJI9V4MZyqMnw9EZ0P388Z39aniDbbAyncnTx52oHB2mjuJT_UXs/s640/march+of+return+amensty.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<time datetime="2018-04-13T11:35:06">13 April 2018</time><br />
<time datetime="2018-04-13T11:35:06"><br /></time>The Israeli authorities must put an immediate end to the excessive
and lethal force being used to suppress Palestinian demonstrations in
Gaza, Amnesty International said as fresh protests have started today.<br />
<br />
Following the deaths of 26 Palestinians, including three children and
a photojournalist, Yasser Murtaja, and the injuring of around 3,078
others during protests on the past two Fridays, Amnesty International is
renewing its call for independent and effective investigations into
reports that Israeli soldiers unlawfully used firearms and other
excessive force against unarmed protesters.<br />
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<div class="quote__text" data-utm-term="Rm9yIHRoZS">
For the past two
weeks, the world has watched in horror as Israeli forces unleashed
excessive, deadly force against protesters, including children, who
merely demand an end to Israel’s brutal policies towards Gaza and a life
of dignity </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<br />
<footer class="quote__source" data-scenario="quote_author">Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.</footer>
<aside class="share share--quote print-hidden">
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Share this</div>
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</aside>
</blockquote>
“For the past two weeks, the world has watched in horror as Israeli
forces unleashed excessive, deadly force against protesters, including
children, who merely demand an end to Israel’s brutal policies towards
Gaza and a life of dignity,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty
International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.<br />
<br />
“The Israeli authorities must urgently reverse their policies and
abide by their international legal obligations. Their horrifying use of
live ammunition against unarmed protesters, and the resultant deaths,
must be investigated as possible unlawful killings.<br />
<br />
“The Israeli authorities must respect the Palestinians’ right to
peaceful protest and, in the event that there is violence, use only the
force necessary to address it. Under international law, lethal force can
only be used when unavoidable to protect against imminent threats to
life.”<br />
<br />
Eyewitness testimonies as well as videos and photographs taken during
demonstrations point to evidence that, in some instances, unarmed
Palestinian protesters were shot by Israeli snipers while waving the
Palestinian flag or running away from the fence.<br />
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<div class="quote__text" data-utm-term="VGhlIElzcm">
The Israeli
authorities must urgently reverse their policies and abide by their
international legal obligations. Their horrifying use of live ammunition
against unarmed protesters, and the resultant deaths, must be
investigated as possible unlawful killings. The Israeli authorities must
respect the Palestinians’ right to peaceful protest and, in the event
that there is violence, use only the force necessary to address it. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="quote" data-scenario="quote_text">
<br />
<footer class="quote__source" data-scenario="quote_author">Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.</footer>
</blockquote>
Among those injured since Friday 30 March, there were around 445
children, at least 21 members of the Palestinian Red Crescent’s
emergency teams, and 15 journalists.<br />
<br />
According to the Ministry of Health
in Gaza, some 1,236 people have been hit by live ammunition. Others
have been injured by rubber bullets or treated for tear gas inhalation
dropped by drones. The World Health Organization expressed concern that
nearly 350 of those injured may be temporarily or permanently disabled
as a result of their injuries. So far, at least four people have had leg
amputations.<br />
<br />
On two consecutive Fridays, tens of thousands of Palestinians,
including men, women and children, have gathered in five camps set up
around 700 meters away from the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from
Israel to reassert their right of return and demand an end to nearly 11
years of Israel’s blockade. While protests have been largely peaceful, a
minority of protesters have thrown stones and, according to the Israeli
army, Molotov cocktails in the direction of the fence. The Israeli
forces claim that those killed were trying to cross the fence between
Gaza and Israel or were “main instigators.”<br />
<br />
There have been no Israeli
casualties.<br />
<br />
While the Israeli army indicated that it would investigate the
conduct of its forces during the protests in Gaza, Israel’s
investigations have consistently fallen short of international standards
and hardly ever result in criminal prosecution. As a result, serious
crimes against Palestinians routinely go unpunished.<br />
<br />
In a statement made on 8 April, Fatou Ben Souda, the Prosecutor of
the International Criminal Court expressed concern at the deaths and
injuries of Palestinians by Israeli forces, reminding that the situation
in Palestine was under preliminary examination by her office.<br />
<br />
“Accountability is urgently needed not only for this latest spate of
incidents where excessive and lethal force has been used by Israel but
also for decades of potentially unlawful killings, including
extrajudicial executions, and other crimes under international law.”<br />
<br />
The protests were launched to coincide with <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/03/land-day-2017-israels-relentless-land-grab-continues/">Land Day</a>, and are demanding the right of return for millions of refugees to villages and towns in what is now Israel.<br />
<br />
The protests are expected to last until 15 May, when Palestinians
commemorate the Nakba or “great catastrophe”. The day marks the
displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
in 1948-9 during the conflict following the creation of the state of
Israel.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-77126239534833067582018-04-13T21:09:00.001-07:002018-04-13T21:11:38.044-07:00MELBOURNE SOLIDARITY RALLY WITH GAZA - 7 APRIL 2018 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
Dear friends,<br />
my apologies for no posts for the last six week
due to work, study and family taking up most of my time. However, no
doubt you all - like me - have been following what has been happening in
Gaza. <br />
<br />
Yesterday, Israel has once opened fire on unarmed Palestinians in Gaza. As of today (14 April), 26
Palestinians have been murdered by Israel, including 3 children and
Palestinian photojournalist Yasser Murtaja. An additional 3078
Palestinians have been injured.<br />
<br />
Here in Melbourne, we organised and held a protest last weekend
in opposition to Israel's murderous attacks on unarmed civilians in
Gaza. I have included some photos below from the protest. Please get involved with helping to organise or please support the Palestine solidarity rallies happening in your city.<br />
<br />
In solidarity, Kim<br />
**<br />
<br />
<span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>SOLIDARITY RALLY WITH GAZA - MELBOURNE, 7 APRIL 2017</b></span></span><br />
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(all photos are mine, so if you use them please credit: <i><b>Live From Occupied Palestine </b></i>and link to this blog) </div>
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R from Gaza speaking about life in Gaza and Israel's attacks<br /><br />
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Jewish activist, James Crafti, speaking in solidarity with Palestine<br /><br />
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Nasser from Australians for Palestine<br /><br />
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Zionist counter protest of about 40</div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-54234850240540851052018-02-28T02:24:00.000-08:002018-02-28T02:52:48.385-08:00AMIRA HASS: How the Israeli Army Got a Teen Who Was Shot in the Head to Say He Fell Off a Bike<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">my apologies for not posting over the last seven or eight weeks, I have had pressing family and work issues. I hope to return to more posting more regularly over the coming weeks. <br /><br />Over the last two months or so, a lot has been happening in particular in regard to the arrest of Ahed Tamimi, including the arrest and harassment of her family members. Most recently, the IOF arrested Mohammed Tamimi, Ahed's cousin who was shot in the face by Israeli Occupation Forces.Leftwing Israeli political journal, +972 has documented the night raid and arrests <a href="https://972mag.com/months-after-shattering-his-skull-idf-arrests-teen-in-pre-dawn-raid/133443/"> here.</a><br /><br />The IOF has since coerced a statement out of Mohammed which claims that his injure was from a bike fall. This would be laughable if it wasn't so anger inducing. <br /><br />As Amira Hass notes in this article and she and many others have been noting for years. The IOF torture and coerce Palestinians into giving false statements. In particular, children are subject to this illegal behaviour. When they are being "questioned" Palestinians, including children, are not allowed any legal representative to be present and children are not allowed to have a parent or guardian with them. <br /><br />Beside the well document history of the IOF's torture and human rights abuses against Palestinian prisoners, including children - the shooting of Mohammed by the IOF is extremely well documents. However, the main aim of the IOF is not to be factual or to tell the true, it is to to muddy the waters and to pander to the Israeli hard right as Sarit Michaeli from the Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem notes in her tweet on the issues. This is a standard trick used by the IOF and Zionists to call Palestinian testimony and actual facts into questions. It's very much an exercise in the promotion of "fake news".<br /><br />As mentioned, Amira Hass outlines exactly how the IOF would have got Mohammed to saying something which can clearly be proven to be a lie.<br /><br />in solidarity, Kim </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-how-the-idf-got-a-kid-shot-in-the-head-to-say-he-fell-off-a-bike-1.5863260"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="2p4fe-0-0"><span data-text="true">Analysis: How the Israeli Army Got a Teen Who Was Shot in the Head to Say He Fell Off a Bike</span></span></span></b></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="3b7rs-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">COGAT chief Yoav Mordechai wants us to believe that friends, relatives, doctors and left-wing activists cooked up a huge lie about Mohammed Tamimi. But he was just telling investigators what they wanted to hear.</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="3b7rs-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="32mn8-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">Amira Hass Feb 28, 2018 Haaretz</span></span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mohammed Tamimi, at home in Nabi Saleh, January 2018.<span class="fig__credit">\ Alex Levac</span></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="3abr8-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, expects us to believe that tens of Palestinians and a few Israelis conspired to concoct a huge lie in order to slander the Israel Defense Forces.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="2crr2-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">According to him, the liar is not only 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi. The liars are also his parents, members of his extended family in the village of Nabi Saleh, and friends – including Israeli leftist activist Jonathan Pollak. The latter were with Tamimi when he climbed a ladder on December 15 to see what the soldiers, ensconced in an empty house in his village, were up to. The teen was shot in the head and fell to the ground in a puddle of his own blood.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="3hdga-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">In
his Facebook post on Tuesday, Mordechai claims, in effect, that the
Palestinians are stupid because so many of them collaborated in creating
a lie that is so very easy to expose. If indeed there was a lie.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="3hdga-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span data-offset-key="dtd9-0-0"><span data-text="true">Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, </span></span></span></span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="3hdga-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span data-offset-key="dtd9-0-0"><span data-text="true">the coordinator of government activities in the territories, in 2016.</span></span></span></span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="c9dct-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">He is relying on things Tamimi told his police interrogators on Monday, just hours after a large military force burst into Nabi Saleh and into his home, before dawn, rousing him from his sleep and arresting him. Five other minors and five adults were arrested along with him, under similar conditions.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="cfn9t-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">Still in the dark, half asleep and shaken, surrounded by rifles pointing at him, with air reeking of tear gas and the disgusting smell of the skunk-water sprayed by the troops – Mohammed Tamimi was taken in for interrogation. It is easy to guess what went through the mind of the wounded boy, who is slated to undergo yet another operation to reconstruct his skull in the coming weeks.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="1ffgs-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true"><br />He must have been thinking: Perhaps I'll be held under arrest for many weeks. Perhaps my medical condition will get worse. Perhaps I won't even be released before going into surgery.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="4dp3h-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">Tamimi told the investigators and representatives of the Civil Administration Coordination and Liaison Office, who for some reason made a point of being present, what they wanted to hear: that he was injured when he fell off his bike.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="64tnk-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">The security forces carry out hundreds of arrests and interrogations every week in Jerusalem and the West Bank. No one disputes the fact that one of their aims is to expose those who plan or carry out armed attacks. A second aim is to gather information, even of the most innocent sort, about as many people as possible and about social and political activities. Very banal, sometimes even embarrassing, information is extracted – even years later and under unexpected circumstances: when a person travels abroad, or when someone applies for an entry permit into Israel or for a residency permit for non-Palestinian spouse.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="b1rv7-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">A third aim (though not necessarily the third most important) is to quash popular activity against the occupation, of which the village of Nabi Saleh has become a symbol. Palestinians are forbidden to demonstrate their resistance to the occupation, in any manner.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="f58kj-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">One of the ways of deterring individuals who may be potential participants in popular struggles is to wreak serious harm on people who are already taking part in them – by means ranging from injuring to killing; to detention under conditions harsher than those encountered by graft suspect Nir Hefetz; sleep deprivation; painful handcuffing; humiliating interrogations; ridiculous accusations like those based on "evidence" like empty tear-gas cannisters or visits to book exhibitions; administrative detentions (arrest without charges being filed); arrest until the conclusion of proceedings; and exorbitant fines.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="a8e4v-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">Mass arrests, interrogations and collecting of information – these are an integral part of the control Israel wields over the Palestinians. Many of the arrests are another means whereby Israel attempts, systematically, to undermine and unravel the Palestinian social fabric in order to weaken its ability to withstand and defy the occupation.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="86c75-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">When the detainees are minors, their jailers have a greater ability – with the help of a few slaps, painful positions during questioning and psychological pressure – to extract false incriminations and exaggerated, boastful descriptions of events from them. It is easy to manipulate and break them.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="55pd5-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">Among themselves the Palestinians are debating participation of minors in protest activities against the occupation. The ethos of the struggle is dear to them, and the loathing of the occupation runs too deep for this debate to be conducted in public, but the high price that is being paid by minors and their families is clear to everyone.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span data-offset-key="de80t-0-0" style="font-size: small;"><span data-text="true">It is too early to say if a post like Yoav Mordechai’s will encourage the debate and whether it will be taken into the public domain or strengthen the position of those who say that Israel stops at nothing in order to oppress and therefore youngsters should not be denied their right to revolt. </span></span></span></div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-47338147753706330882018-01-06T19:14:00.002-08:002018-01-06T19:17:18.229-08:00Interview with Ahed Tamimi's lawyer, Gaby Lasky: Her case is making people see the occupation again<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">please find below an interview with Ahed Tamimi's lawyer, Gaby Lasky<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In solidarity, Kim<br />************ </span>
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<a href="https://972mag.com/ahed-tamimis-lawyer-her-case-is-making-people-see-the-occupation-again/132189/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Ahed Tamimi's Lawyer: Her case is making people see the occupation again</span></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Gaby Lasky, the human rights attorney representing Ahed Tamimi and her mother Nariman, talks to +972 about what it means for a Palestinian to be put on trial in the occupier’s military courts, and some of the dangerous precedents being set.</i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By Joshua Leifer </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a class="bluetext" href="https://972mag.com/author/972blog/" rel="author">+972 Blog</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><time datetime="2018-01-05T16:32:08+00:00" pubdate="pubdate">Published January 5, 2018 </time></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidok-redU8_om7F6xYE59Tb8RrhgqSCGtjjXqWxqhhxp1J9qlho8LNh_kvFmlAm0uLIYJ5IxpkzGgU7WoAtKn_m4Rn1YwtcmUExP9dQirlP3jZ8ZnE6jS8Vm1uoaN9cd5iYHBYr1osKMc/s1600/ahed-gaby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidok-redU8_om7F6xYE59Tb8RrhgqSCGtjjXqWxqhhxp1J9qlho8LNh_kvFmlAm0uLIYJ5IxpkzGgU7WoAtKn_m4Rn1YwtcmUExP9dQirlP3jZ8ZnE6jS8Vm1uoaN9cd5iYHBYr1osKMc/s640/ahed-gaby.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky (C-L) speaks with her client sixteen-years-old Ahed Tamimi (2R) before she stands for a hearing in the military court at Ofer military prison near the West Bank of Ramallah, January 1, 2018. (Activestills)</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The video of 16-year-old <a href="https://972mag.com/army-arrests-palestinian-teen-for-hurting-soldiers-masculinity/131697/">Ahed Tamimi confronting two Israeli soldiers</a> outside of her home in the village of Nabi Saleh has become ubiquitous, broadcast across every media platform for weeks. So have the pictures of Ahed, handcuffed and surrounded by guards in court. Posters of Ahed have even appeared on <a href="https://972mag.com/activists-bring-london-commuters-face-to-face-with-ahed-tamimi/131999/">bus stops in London</a>. What those images often fail to properly convey is that Ahed is being detained in a military prison and being tried in a military court, and how that differs from the way a minor would be treated in an Israeli civilian court.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Attorney Gaby Lasky represents Ahed Tamimi and her mother, Nariman. Lasky, a former secretary general of Peace Now and a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Council for the left-wing Meretz party, has spent <a href="https://972mag.com/the-israeli-lawyer-fighting-the-occupation-in-court/103388/">much of the last decade</a> defending Palestinians, many of them involved in the popular struggle against the occupation.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I spoke with Lasky on Thursday about the challenges of working in Israeli military court, where <a href="https://972mag.com/conviction-rate-for-palestinians-in-israels-military-courts-99-74-percent/28579/">99.7 percent of Palestinian suspects are convicted</a>; about the cases against Ahed Tamimi and her mother, Nariman; and about the structural injustices built into the Israeli legal system in the occupied territories.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The difficulty of Ahed’s case goes beyond the legal challenges Palestinians living under occupation face when arrested by the Israeli army, Lasky told me. “The video shows the essence of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” she stressed. Depending on where you stand, and perhaps who you are, watching the 16-year-old girl face down two heavily armed Israeli soldiers <a href="https://972mag.com/ahed-tamimi-seeing-the-forest-of-occupation-through-the-trees-of-nabi-saleh/131798/">can reinforce either the Palestinian and Israeli narrative.</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The following has been edited for length. </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>What does it mean that the judge is wearing the same uniform as the prosecution?</b></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The military court is not a court of justice in the regular sense; it’s an organ of the occupation. It perpetuates the occupation. Both the judge and the prosecution are wearing the same uniform, and are part of the same system, and the defense is not.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>What are some of the obstacles in a case like Ahed’s that would be different if she were being tried in a civilian court?</b></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">First, it would be much, much easier to get her released from detention. I brought to court a lot of examples of adults who were released in cases where their offenses were greater than hers. [Civilian] courts in Israel do tend to release [suspects on bail]. Her being a minor would have made things even easier in an Israeli court. Cases in military court are more difficult from the get-go much because the laws are stricter, the charges are heavier, and rights are only partially protected.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But the difficulty with Ahed’s case is not only that we’re facing a military court; it’s the fact that the video shows the essence of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Someone can see the narrative of the Palestinians in that video, and on the other side, Israelis can see the narrative of Israel in that video.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When you talk about an offense in a regular court, you can always talk about the circumstances of the incident. In this case, the circumstances are a 16-year-old girl who was born into occupation. The military court doesn’t take those things into consideration. It’s not an issue that is brought to the table. It’s a given. But if you want to see the whole picture, you have to talk about these things.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>What is the case against Ahed?</b></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The most serious charges against her are the ones regarding the video incident. She has 12 different charges in her indictment regarding five different incidents. Regarding the video, she’s charged with assault of a soldier, disrupting the work of a soldier, and incitement.</span></span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qHVwdzeVNRo" width="480"></iframe><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">She has other charges regarding stone-throwing but they are old — one of them is almost two years old. Nobody thought to report it or arrest her or question her at the time. The evidence against her regarding all of the other incidents was produced only after she was arrested and they found old pictures of Ahed [on her mother’s Facebook].</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But it was only after her arrest that soldiers were asked to come and give testimony regarding what they saw two years ago. They were presented with these pictures after she was in every newspaper or television program, and then asked if they could identify her in a photo line-up. That’s how they obtained all of the evidence against her.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>What is the case against Nariman, Ahed’s mother, who was arrested hours after her daughter? Would a civilian court ever consider live-streaming on Facebook as a form of incitement?</b></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It’s really dangerous that the prosecution is implying that live-streaming is the worst form of incitement. It would mean that a reporter doing a live report at a demonstration where someone says, “come join us in the demonstration,” would constitute incitement in the eyes of the prosecution. What the prosecution is trying to do is very dangerous for freedom of the press.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Ahed’s case has been all over the news, getting a lot attention for a case in Israeli military court. But what aren’t we hearing about? What’s not getting out to the public?</b></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Most people don’t know that the occupier has courts that put on trial people living under occupation just because they don’t follow the rules of the occupier. The Israeli public doesn’t want to hear about the occupation, and it’s the same for the court of the occupation.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is amazing that a 16-year-old youngster has forced everyone to have an opinion about the occupation, to have to deal with the fact that people are born into occupation, that their rights are infringed upon, and that they’re taken to prison when they’re 16 years old for offenses that don’t merit detention in Israel.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some in the Israeli public think the soldiers behaved as they should, others say they were humiliated. It was this humiliation that brought about Ahed’s arrest. But even so, everyone now has to deal with the occupation and what it does to the soldiers and to the people who live under occupation. Even without wanting to, Ahed’s case opened a door that has been closed for a long time for most of the public in Israel.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><img alt="Bassem Tamimi speaks to Gabi Lasky during the court of his daughter Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, in military court at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the West Bank near the West Bank city of Ramallah, December 20, 2017. (Activestills/Oren Ziv)" class="size-full wp-image-132206" height="426" src="https://staticv3.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2018/01/gaby-and-bassem.jpg" width="640" /></i></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bassem Tamimi speaks to Gabi Lasky during the trial of his daughter Ahed Tamimi, in military court at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the West Bank, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, December 20, 2017. (Activestills/Oren Ziv)</span></i></span><br />
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-82751069986721130932018-01-04T18:16:00.000-08:002018-01-04T18:16:24.688-08:00APARTHEID ISRAEL: What Happened When A Jewish Settler Slapped an Israeli Soldier<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear friends,<br />
in the last few days, numerous Palestinian solidarity activists have been pointing out the treatment of Palestinian teenager, Ahed Tamimi is at complete odds with the way in which Israeli settlers have been treated when they have similarly "slapped" an Israeli occupation soldier. Yesterday, Haaretz published an article also drawing attention to this fact. The arrested of Ahed and Nour Tamimi is the latest incident to expose Israel's apartheid regime to the world. <br /><br />Please find the text of the Haaretz article below.<br /><br />In solidarity, Kim<br /><br />*****<br />
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<a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="async" data-lynx-uri="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.haaretz.com%2Fopinion%2F.premium-1.832939&h=ATOCBreF0FVKjYgAa09-uYHq0_RIWyrQDGYuEIK02WuLb2sDf_m8z5vy56Bq5ErJH6YSNN1XxPaqoFy8HJmXqwi3LK8cYaCrXE5i5pueCm4J8uJ-KYPHqKNPbB93luMmYPtsZZz4qIqO8BNJbsHOeDoJo_vuT1Bms000GKPUZlNYuXRSbNFYNGWeNa5eaQetnrAVj8H381o5600rKBboGnqw5mvz2C6kWwsGmX5eJVN1U_Gx7yKjc4HMPQo2dWDAnQABbLTrDsPPLb-_lCSERR-u8YYKhmHEQsk" href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.832939" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.832939</a><br />
What happened when a Jewish settler slapped an Israeli soldier<br /><br />
Both Ahed Tamimi and Yifat Alkobi were questioned for slapping a
soldier in the West Bank, but little else about their cases are similar —
simply because one is Jewish, the other Palestinian<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6aN38D4SIBlOIIKH0R6vSgk7Ewemz-494SOZnUQuVIciZ29mV7kaeyok3dI3SR8mRgvvRisncCTKwPaonUCwbJlTrPPXAUPZdfTwCR8ylfu_r9hyphenhyphenGdaIdXHh8seqJY32RxcjeIr4FVNk/s1600/ahed+vs+heb+settler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="231" data-original-width="429" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6aN38D4SIBlOIIKH0R6vSgk7Ewemz-494SOZnUQuVIciZ29mV7kaeyok3dI3SR8mRgvvRisncCTKwPaonUCwbJlTrPPXAUPZdfTwCR8ylfu_r9hyphenhyphenGdaIdXHh8seqJY32RxcjeIr4FVNk/s640/ahed+vs+heb+settler.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />
<b>Noa Osterreicher Jan 04, 2018/Haaretz</b><br />
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This slap didn’t lead the nightly news. This slap, which landed on the
cheek of a Nahal soldier in Hebron, did not lead to an indictment. The
assailant, who slapped a soldier who was trying to stop her from
throwing stones, was taken in for questioning but released on bail the
same day and allowed to return home.<br />
<br />
Prior to this incident, she
had been convicted five times — for throwing rocks, for assaulting a
police officer and for disorderly conduct, but was not jailed even once.<br />
<br />
In one instance, she was sentenced to probation, and in the rest to a
month of community service and practically a token fine, as compensation
to the injured parties. The accused systematically failed to heed
summonses for questioning or for legal proceedings, but soldiers did not
come to drag her out of bed in the middle of the night, nor were any of
her relatives arrested. Aside from a brief report by Chaim Levinson
about the incident, on July 2, 2010, there were hardly any repercussions
to the slap and scratches inflicted by Yifat Alkobi on the face of a
soldier who caught her hurling rocks a Palestinians.<br />
<br />
The Israel
Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit said at the time that the army “takes
a grave view of any incidence of violence toward security forces,” and
yet the assailant goes on living peacefully at home. The education
minister didn’t demand that she sit in prison, social media have not
exploded with calls for her to be raped or murdered, and columnist Ben
Caspit didn’t recommend that she punished to the full extent of the law
“in a dark place, without cameras.”<br />
<br />
Like Ahed Tamimi, Alkobi has
been known for years to the military and police forces that surround her
place of residence, and both are considered a nuisance and even a
danger. The main difference between them is that Tamimi assaulted a
soldier who was sent by a hostile government that does not recognize her
existence, steals her land and kills and wounds her relatives, while
Alkobi, a serial criminal, assaulted a soldier from her own people and
her religion, who was sent by her nation to protect her, a nation in
which she is a citizen with special privileges.<br />
<br />
Jewish violence
against soldiers in the territories has been a matter of routine for
years. But even when it seems like there’s no point asking that soldiers
in the territories protect Palestinians from physical harassment and
vandalism of their property by settlers, it’s hard to understand why the
authorities continue to turn a blind eye, to cover up and close cases
or not even open them, when the violators are Jews. There is plenty of
evidence, some of it recorded on camera. And yet the offenders still
sleep at home in their beds, emboldened by divine command and amply
funded by organizations that receive state support.<br /><br />
In the winter
it’s nice to get warm and cozy under these double standards, but
there’s one question that every Israeli should be asking himself: Tamimi
and Alkobi committed the same offense. The punishment (or lack thereof)
should be the same. If the choice is between freeing Tamimi or jailing
Alkobi, which would you choose? <br /><br />Tamimi is to remain in custody for the
duration of the proceedings — trial in a hostile military court — and is
expected to receive a prison sentence. Alkobi, who was not prosecuted
for this offense, and was tried in a civilian court for much more
serious offenses, lived at home for the duration of the proceedings. She
was represented by a lawyer who did not have to wait at a checkpoint in
order to serve his client and her only punishment was community
service.<br /><br />
The Likud and Habayit Hayehudi cabinet ministers have no
reason to rush to pass a law that would apply Israeli law in the
territories. Even without it, the only thing that matters is if you were
born Jewish. Everything else is irrelevant.</div>
</div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-40846120125925593632018-01-01T23:17:00.001-08:002018-01-01T23:17:40.232-08:00Bassem Tamimi: Ahed is only 16 yrs old, and there's no father more proud of his daughter than I am<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear friends,<br />
as you will be aware, 16 year old Ahed Tamimi was arrested by the Israeli military last week because she had the temerity to stand up to an Israeli occupation soldier attempting to enter her house. Ahed, along with her cousin Nour confronted the soldiers and physically stopped them from illegally entering Ahed's family home, just 30 minutes after Ahed and Nour's cousin had been shot in the face by another Israeli occupation soldier.<br />
<br />
On 20 December, the Israeli military court has extend Ahed's detention by 5 days (<a href="https://972mag.com/israeli-army-court-orders-ahed-tamimi-imprisoned-for-five-more-days/131736/">read here</a>) and on December 28 it once again extended both Ahed and her mother Nariman's detention again for 5 days <a href="https://972mag.com/israel-arrests-three-leading-nonviolent-palestinian-activists/132003/">(read here</a>). Nour was suppose to be released, but her release has also been delayed 48 hours. In addition, they have arrested Ahed's aunt, Manal Tamimi during the protest outside of Ofer court in support of Ahed, Nariman and Nour (<a href="https://972mag.com/israel-arrests-three-leading-nonviolent-palestinian-activists/132003/">read here</a>).<br />
<br />
Despite the arrest, the Tamimi family and the village of Nabi Saleh remain defiant. On Friday, Ahed's father issued a very moving and powerful statement about his daughter's activism and courage, which was published in Haaretz. <br />
<br />
Please share widely with your networks and on social media.<br />
<br />
In solidarity, Kim<br />
<br />
*****<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.831873"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Opinion My Daughter, These Are Tears of Struggle</b></span></a><br />
<br />
Ahed Tamimi's father: I'm proud of my daughter. She is a freedom fighter who, in the coming years, will lead the resistance to Israeli rule<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyNFAYRFWqxED6GTKWtoCjmkXps_oMQDU-wzYDZ8BrsACc7zZSp-WRBxzTtdapiWvX41mNPe5Kd_OhgG7XU5s3dX84OzlO4FCqDi9FXyHMCNE4sgHZDYERJYoe_CV3pmToFH9qX3M-EI/s1600/ahed+-+close+up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyNFAYRFWqxED6GTKWtoCjmkXps_oMQDU-wzYDZ8BrsACc7zZSp-WRBxzTtdapiWvX41mNPe5Kd_OhgG7XU5s3dX84OzlO4FCqDi9FXyHMCNE4sgHZDYERJYoe_CV3pmToFH9qX3M-EI/s640/ahed+-+close+up.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Ahed Tamimi appears at a military court at the Israeli-run Ofer Prison in the West Bank village of Betunia on December 28, 2017. Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP</span></i><br />
<br />
<b>Bassem Tamimi, Dec 29, 2017 Haaretz</b><br />
<br />
This night too, like all the nights since dozens of soldiers raided our home in the middle of the night, my wife Nariman, my 16-year-old daughter Ahed and Ahed’s cousin Nur will spend behind bars. Although it is Ahed’s first arrest, she is no stranger to your prisons. My daughter has spent her whole life under the heavy shadow of the Israeli prison — from my lengthy incarcerations throughout her childhood, to the repeated arrests of her mother, brother and friends, to the covert-overt threat implied by your soldiers’ ongoing presence in our lives. So her own arrest was just a matter of time. An inevitable tragedy waiting to happen.<br />
<br />
<br />
Several months ago, on a trip to South Africa, we screened for an audience a video documenting the struggle of our village, Nabi Saleh, against Israel’s forced rule. When the lights came back on, Ahed stood up to thank the people for their support. When she noticed that some of the audience members had tears in their eyes, she said to them: “We may be victims of the Israeli regime, but we are just as proud of our choice to fight for our cause, despite the known cost. We knew where this path would lead us, but our identity, as a people and as individuals, is planted in the struggle, and draws its inspiration from there. Beyond the suffering and daily oppression of the prisoners, the wounded and the killed, we also know the tremendous power that comes from belonging to a resistance movement; the dedication, the love, the small sublime moments that come from the choice to shatter the invisible walls of passivity.<br />
<br />
“I don’t want to be perceived as a victim, and I won’t give their actions the power to define who I am and what I’ll be. I choose to decide for myself how you will see me. We don’t want you to support us because of some photogenic tears, but because we chose the struggle and our struggle is just. This is the only way that we’ll be able to stop crying one day.”<br />
<br />
Months after that event in South Africa, when she challenged the soldiers, who were armed from head to toe, it wasn’t sudden anger at the grave wounding of 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi not long before that, just meters away, that motivated her. Nor was it the provocation of those soldiers entering our home. No. These soldiers, or others who are identical in their action and their role, have been unwanted and uninvited guests in our home ever since Ahed was born. No. She stood there before them because this is our way, because freedom isn’t given as charity, and because despite the heavy price, we are ready to pay it.<br />
<br />
My daughter is just 16 years old. In another world, in your world, her life would look completely different. In our world, Ahed is a representative of a new generation of our people, of young freedom fighters. This generation has to wage its struggle on two fronts. On the one hand, they have the duty, of course, to keep on challenging and fighting the Israeli colonialism into which they were born, until the day it collapses. On the other hand, they have to boldly face the political stagnation and degeneration that has spread among us. They have to become the living artery that will revive our revolution and bring it back from the death entailed in a growing culture of passivity that has arisen from decades of political inactivity.<br />
<br />
Ahed is one of many young women who in the coming years will lead the resistance to Israeli rule. She is not interested in the spotlight currently being aimed at her due to her arrest, but in genuine change. She is not the product of one of the old parties or movements, and in her actions she is sending a message: In order to survive, we must candidly face our weaknesses and vanquish our fears.<br />
<br />
In this situation, the greatest duty of me and my generation is to support her and to make way; to restrain ourselves and not to try to corrupt and imprison this young generation in the old culture and ideologies in which we grew up.<br />
<br />
Ahed, no parent in the world yearns to see his daughter spending her days in a detention cell. However, Ahed, no one could be prouder than I am of you. You and your generation are courageous enough, at last, to win. Your actions and courage fill me with awe and bring tears to my eyes. But in accordance with your request, these are not tears of sadness or regret, but rather tears of struggle.<br />
<br />
Bassem Tamimi is a Palestinian activist.</div>
Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3623316088497384976.post-29250604252344455272017-12-30T20:05:00.001-08:002017-12-30T20:09:49.805-08:00NZ Herald Editorial: Lorde's stand on Israel does her credit <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
Dear friends,<br />
Since New Zealand singer Lorde announced that she would respect the Palestinian BDS call and no play Israel, there has been hundreds/thousands of comments by Zionist organisations and individual Zionists attempting to discredit her. However, the New Zealand Herald has come out in support of Lorde and her decision, writing an editorial that you would NEVER see written by Murdoch papers such as The Australia, Daily Telegraph or Herald Sun etc, here in Australia.<br />
<br />
While the editorial holds on to the delusion that a two state solution is still possible, it still makes numerous good points about not only Israel's human rights abuses and violation of international law and it makes a point that boycotts are a time honoured and legitimate form of protest. No doubt, this is informed by New Zealand's political history in regard to protests against South Africa's apartheid regime (which is also briefly noted in the editorial). <br />
<br />
In particular, the editorial notes in response to the standard Zionist talking point which try to whitewash Israel's human rights abuses and tries to paint BDS and any supporters of BDS as anti-semitic, that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>What rubbish. It is perfectly possible to oppose Jewish settlements on the West Bank, as indeed many Jews do, in Israel and outside, without being guilty of bigotry and prejudice. </i></b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<b><i>The suggestion Israel should not be singled out when countries such as Russia are guilty of something similar is an argument New Zealanders often heard from defenders of South Africa in the apartheid era. It is the weakest argument a nation's defenders can make.</i></b></div>
</blockquote>
If you have time, please thank Lorde for her stand in support of Palestinian human rights.<br />
<br />
In solidarity, Kim<br />
****<br />
<h1>
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11966801">Editorial: Lorde's stand on Israel does her credit </a></h1>
<div class="publish">
<b>28 Dec, 2017 New Zealand Herald Editorial</b><br />
<b> </b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNdXgbsOVwTomGd3or791GNv4CIMctO0hioCSRizzjZiya15qmf79LYBGiTbnR4DFYwdKM36B0fdDOLmtkiBfi7oYHfv4drpPh9KSxaZlZHKdYkUecO3Yj_GmPcRESOCyWyW8dn5VqAo/s1600/lorde.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="353" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNdXgbsOVwTomGd3or791GNv4CIMctO0hioCSRizzjZiya15qmf79LYBGiTbnR4DFYwdKM36B0fdDOLmtkiBfi7oYHfv4drpPh9KSxaZlZHKdYkUecO3Yj_GmPcRESOCyWyW8dn5VqAo/s640/lorde.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
<b> </b>Lorde
may have been young when she first scaled the heights of popular music
— and she still is — but as her songs demonstrate, she can think. To
suggest that in cancelling a concert in Israel she has "caved into
pressure", as the Zionist Federation of New Zealand put it, does her an
injustice.<br />
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
She
may now wish Tel Aviv had never been included in her world tour next
year but, once it was, she could not escape criticism. The easier
course for her would have been to ignore the critics and keep her
schedule. She could have insisted she was simply an entertainer
innocent of politics and world affairs. The criticism, largely confined
to social media, would have subsided in a day or two.</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
But
by reflecting on the issues and deciding to remove the concert from
her itinerary, she has exposed herself to wider attack and more
unpleasant insinuations from some of Israel's defenders.</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
The
Zionist Federation accused her of succumbing to pressure "from those
who wish to see the destruction of Israel" and added, "If Lorde is
cancelling her Tel Aviv concert due to a political reason, then we
assume she will soon be announcing the cancellation of her Russian
concerts due to Russia's occupation of the Crimea, its support of Bashar
al-Assad's regime in Syria and other human rights abuses. Not doing so
would reek of bigotry and prejudice against the Jewish State."</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
What
rubbish. It is perfectly possible to oppose Jewish settlements on the
West Bank, as indeed many Jews do, in Israel and outside, without being
guilty of bigotry and prejudice.</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
The
suggestion Israel should not be singled out when countries such as
Russia are guilty of something similar is an argument New Zealanders
often heard from defenders of South Africa in the apartheid era. It is
the weakest argument a nation's defenders can make. It says the nation
is guilty, but so are others. It is an admission Israel's settlements
are wrong. Not even the Israeli Government endorses them, though it does
little to stop them. The further the settlements go and the more
entrenched they become, the more difficult a two-state solution will be.</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
Sporting
and cultural boycotts and campaigns for business disinvestment and
international sanctions against Israel are a way of reminding public
opinion in Israel the world needs Israel to keep striving for peace in
its region.</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
Peace
almost certainly requires a Palestinian state on the West Bank of the
Jordan — one that acknowledges Israel's right to exist. The alternative
is for Israel to survive in a permanent state of siege, a prospect
which perhaps too many Israelis now find preferable to a Palestinian
state they would not trust. Hence the settlements.</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
But
unresolved tensions in the Middle East are not simply Israel's
concern. Such tensions impose themselves on the world through wars,
threats to oil supplies, nuclear ambitions and terrorism.</div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="element element-paragraph">
No
peace is imaginable without Palestinians being treated fairly, not
driven from their homes by bulldozers. Cultural figures such as Lorde
are in a privileged position to give that message and New Zealand can be
proud of her for doing so.</div>
</div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01202280513083661037noreply@blogger.com0