What ever did the Palestinians do to deserve the attention of wankers like these?
"Nothing titillates the Icelandic bondage and dominance-themed band Hatari more than a glaring contradiction... They have slammed Eurovision in Israel... as being 'built on a lie', calling it propaganda and a whitewash, yet they have agreed to represent their country in Tel Aviv this week, expressing genuine love for the competition's message of unity and diversity... With their deadpan humour, Hatari challenged the country's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, to a traditional Icelandic trouser-grip wrestling match the day after the Eurovision finale, to be adjudicated by a 'neutral UN-sponsored referee'... 'Eurovision is, of course, a beautiful thing... based on ideas of peace and unity and this year it's held in a country that's marred by conflict,' says Tryggvi Haraldsson. 'Letting the narrative of the fluffy, peace-loving pop contest go on unchallenged in this context in our view is extremely political... To push back, Hatari's first port of call after landing was to drive to the largest city in the occupied West Bank. More than 200,000 Palestinians live in Hebron, but the presence of ultranationalist Israeli settlers around the main souk has in effect shut down local life in its centre as army checkpoints cut off the area. 'It's so absurd to be in this contest... and everyone is super polite; it's all about the music and everybody loves each other,' says Tryggvi Haraldsson at his hotel in Tel Aviv. 'And to be in that bubble a day after witnessing apartheid in action just an hour's drive away is the contradiction that we want to be aware of.'... Tryggvi Haraldsson says he supports any non-violent movement that campaigns for Palestinian rights, including BDS,'even though, obviously, and paradoxically, our approach is very different'." ('Hate will prevail' Icelandic BDSM band put Eurovision and Israel in a bind, Oliver Holmes, theguardian.com, 13/5/19)
Showing posts with label Hebron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hebron. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Where Do You Even Begin?
Maybe in somewhere in the wilds of Georgia, where her parents originated.
Unfortunately, at some point in time, they conceived/received the mad idea, the delusion, that they weren't really Georgians, but part of a grander scheme, something called 'the Jewish people,' and that that, therefore, required them to migrate to a place called Israel, which had been, up until its majority Arab population were driven out by bomb and bullet in 1948, an integrally Arab country known as Palestine.
Their daughter, Tzipi Hotovely, the subject of our post, was, again unfortunately, too stupid, or too indoctrinated, or both, to see through the delusion she'd inherited from her parents, although in Israel, of course, this category invariably goes far, particularly in politics.
And so here she is, Israel's deputy foreign minister, telling Palestinian Israeli representatives in the Knesset, apropos UNESCO's listing of occupied Hebron and the Mosque of Ibrahim as "endangered Palestinian heritage sites," that:
"You are history thieves. Your history books are empty, and you are trying to co-opt Jewish history and Islamicize it. I recommend to UNESCO and the Arab Knesset members to read these two books, the Bible which tells the story of the Jewish people, and Assaf Voll's new bestseller, A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era. It will captivate you because it is empty. Because the Palestinians don't have kings and they don't have heritage sites. The Palestinians are appropriating Jewish heritage sites and displacing them, just as they are trying to change the Western Wall into an Islamic site and just like they are attempting to sever the Jews' connection to the Temple Mount." (Hotovely to Arab MKs: You are thieves of history, israelnationalnews.com, 13/7/17)
Cliocide on a grand scale.
Par for the course in Israel.
Unfortunately, at some point in time, they conceived/received the mad idea, the delusion, that they weren't really Georgians, but part of a grander scheme, something called 'the Jewish people,' and that that, therefore, required them to migrate to a place called Israel, which had been, up until its majority Arab population were driven out by bomb and bullet in 1948, an integrally Arab country known as Palestine.
Their daughter, Tzipi Hotovely, the subject of our post, was, again unfortunately, too stupid, or too indoctrinated, or both, to see through the delusion she'd inherited from her parents, although in Israel, of course, this category invariably goes far, particularly in politics.
And so here she is, Israel's deputy foreign minister, telling Palestinian Israeli representatives in the Knesset, apropos UNESCO's listing of occupied Hebron and the Mosque of Ibrahim as "endangered Palestinian heritage sites," that:
"You are history thieves. Your history books are empty, and you are trying to co-opt Jewish history and Islamicize it. I recommend to UNESCO and the Arab Knesset members to read these two books, the Bible which tells the story of the Jewish people, and Assaf Voll's new bestseller, A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era. It will captivate you because it is empty. Because the Palestinians don't have kings and they don't have heritage sites. The Palestinians are appropriating Jewish heritage sites and displacing them, just as they are trying to change the Western Wall into an Islamic site and just like they are attempting to sever the Jews' connection to the Temple Mount." (Hotovely to Arab MKs: You are thieves of history, israelnationalnews.com, 13/7/17)
Cliocide on a grand scale.
Par for the course in Israel.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Breakfast at Joe's
Please spare a thought for 'Diamond' Joe Gutnick in his hour of need:
"Mining magnate 'Diamond' Joe Gutnick was once ranked among the wealthiest men in the country, with a fortune totalling more than $300 million. Now the former Melbourne Football Club president has declared himself bankrupt, with debts totalling more than $275 million, after a deal with one of India's biggest fertiliser groups turned sour." ('Diamond' Joe Gutnick bankrupt owing $275 million, Mark Hawthorne & Sarah Danckert, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/7/16)
What a cruel blow! Now I know what you're thinking: Joe Gutnick is just some rich prick who deserves what he gets. But you'd be wrong. Sure he may have been rich, even filthy rich. But if truth be told, the wretched of the earth were never far from Joe's mind:
"If there is one thing about his political activity in Israel that Joseph is touchy about, it is the perception - especially in the wider Australian community - that he is a political extremist. In his December 1998 interview with Peter Ellingsen, he initially described himself as a 'hardline right-winger'. But he was clearly uneasy with this, and a few days later he called Ellingsen back to say: 'I'm not really a hardliner A lot of people think I'm an extremist, but I'm not. You shouldn't get the idea that I'm a belligerent, non-tolerant person'. Ellingsen took this on board, but with something of a raised eyebrow. He noted that Joseph had answered his question 'How many Palestinians are there in Israel?' with a flip but none too-tolerant: 'Too many!' And when asked about the Gypsies, who, like the Jews, had been the target of Hitler's extermination program in Europe, he replied: 'We have a message for the world. I don't know what message the Gypsies have'." (Diamonds & Demons: The Joseph Gutnick Story, David Bernstein, 2000, pp 109-10)
And as (an extended) family man, Joe is a legend. If even his most distant rellies needed a newsettlement house, Joe was always there to help out. So much so that one lot, in Israeli- liberated Hebron, thought it only fair that his name should go up in lights. Hence the Gutnick Center. Vibrant Israel doesn't get much more vibrant than this welcoming 5-Star of David establishment:
"Occasionally I patronised the Gutnick Center, hoping to get into conversation with a few settlers - so unapproachable on the street. 'Diamond Joe' Gutnick, an Australian mining tycoon and enthusiastic funder of settlements, is commemorated by this small cafe-cum-souvenir shop between Shuhada Street and the Street of Prayer. Above the entrance a misleading notice says 'All are Welcome!' On my first visit, at opening time, the dreary cafe was empty. A teenage boy, made girlish-looking by long curly ear-locks, scuttled away to find the 'in-charge', a puny little man who wore a striped apron and had hardly enough hair left to accept his kippa's paper-clips. He was distantly polite, with downcast eyes. From the microwave he served instant coffee and a chocolate pastry, then disappeared into the kitchen until another customer arrived, a tall young man wearing prayer gear and a stern expression. He sat with his back to me, as far as possible from the gentile. An appeal leaflet came with my order - 'Dear Visitor, you have an opportunity to ADOPT A SOLDIER. Buy a coupon in the cafeteria for a Family Size Pizza & Bottle of Drink for just 65 nis and give the coupon to a soldier. On behalf of the soldiers we thank you'." (Between River & Sea: Encounters in Israel & Palestine, Dervla Murphy, 2015, p 284)
"Mining magnate 'Diamond' Joe Gutnick was once ranked among the wealthiest men in the country, with a fortune totalling more than $300 million. Now the former Melbourne Football Club president has declared himself bankrupt, with debts totalling more than $275 million, after a deal with one of India's biggest fertiliser groups turned sour." ('Diamond' Joe Gutnick bankrupt owing $275 million, Mark Hawthorne & Sarah Danckert, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/7/16)
What a cruel blow! Now I know what you're thinking: Joe Gutnick is just some rich prick who deserves what he gets. But you'd be wrong. Sure he may have been rich, even filthy rich. But if truth be told, the wretched of the earth were never far from Joe's mind:
"If there is one thing about his political activity in Israel that Joseph is touchy about, it is the perception - especially in the wider Australian community - that he is a political extremist. In his December 1998 interview with Peter Ellingsen, he initially described himself as a 'hardline right-winger'. But he was clearly uneasy with this, and a few days later he called Ellingsen back to say: 'I'm not really a hardliner A lot of people think I'm an extremist, but I'm not. You shouldn't get the idea that I'm a belligerent, non-tolerant person'. Ellingsen took this on board, but with something of a raised eyebrow. He noted that Joseph had answered his question 'How many Palestinians are there in Israel?' with a flip but none too-tolerant: 'Too many!' And when asked about the Gypsies, who, like the Jews, had been the target of Hitler's extermination program in Europe, he replied: 'We have a message for the world. I don't know what message the Gypsies have'." (Diamonds & Demons: The Joseph Gutnick Story, David Bernstein, 2000, pp 109-10)
And as (an extended) family man, Joe is a legend. If even his most distant rellies needed a new
"Occasionally I patronised the Gutnick Center, hoping to get into conversation with a few settlers - so unapproachable on the street. 'Diamond Joe' Gutnick, an Australian mining tycoon and enthusiastic funder of settlements, is commemorated by this small cafe-cum-souvenir shop between Shuhada Street and the Street of Prayer. Above the entrance a misleading notice says 'All are Welcome!' On my first visit, at opening time, the dreary cafe was empty. A teenage boy, made girlish-looking by long curly ear-locks, scuttled away to find the 'in-charge', a puny little man who wore a striped apron and had hardly enough hair left to accept his kippa's paper-clips. He was distantly polite, with downcast eyes. From the microwave he served instant coffee and a chocolate pastry, then disappeared into the kitchen until another customer arrived, a tall young man wearing prayer gear and a stern expression. He sat with his back to me, as far as possible from the gentile. An appeal leaflet came with my order - 'Dear Visitor, you have an opportunity to ADOPT A SOLDIER. Buy a coupon in the cafeteria for a Family Size Pizza & Bottle of Drink for just 65 nis and give the coupon to a soldier. On behalf of the soldiers we thank you'." (Between River & Sea: Encounters in Israel & Palestine, Dervla Murphy, 2015, p 284)
Monday, June 20, 2016
'Neighbours' From Hell
In Israeli-occupied Hebron:
"Fahdi had a scarred face and a shortage of teeth. During one nocturnal incursion a conscript laid a hand on his wife's breast and when he struck out another soldier hit him on the left cheek with a rifle butt and he lost three teeth. Then the offender smote him on the right cheek and he lost two more. Between my first and second visits to this family stick-wielding settler children had left their seven-year-old son with a four-inch scar on his scalp. Fahdi's brother Abdul lived next door and his nine-year-old son had recently been attacked by a woman who dragged him into her trailer home, held him down in an armchair - knee on stomach - then forced a stone into his mouth and manipulated his jaw until two teeth were broken. The bruises on his face had not yet faded. As Fahdi said, 'You couldn't make it up.' Abdul's wife had suffered fractured fingers when a mob of women went on a rampage and she tried to shield her five-year-old daughter from their fists." (Between River & Sea: Encounters in Israel & Palestine, Dervla Murphy, 2015, pp 270-271)
Murphy's latest book is a must-read.
"Fahdi had a scarred face and a shortage of teeth. During one nocturnal incursion a conscript laid a hand on his wife's breast and when he struck out another soldier hit him on the left cheek with a rifle butt and he lost three teeth. Then the offender smote him on the right cheek and he lost two more. Between my first and second visits to this family stick-wielding settler children had left their seven-year-old son with a four-inch scar on his scalp. Fahdi's brother Abdul lived next door and his nine-year-old son had recently been attacked by a woman who dragged him into her trailer home, held him down in an armchair - knee on stomach - then forced a stone into his mouth and manipulated his jaw until two teeth were broken. The bruises on his face had not yet faded. As Fahdi said, 'You couldn't make it up.' Abdul's wife had suffered fractured fingers when a mob of women went on a rampage and she tried to shield her five-year-old daughter from their fists." (Between River & Sea: Encounters in Israel & Palestine, Dervla Murphy, 2015, pp 270-271)
Murphy's latest book is a must-read.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
RIP: Hadeel Salah Hashlamoun 1997-2015
"Evidence obtained by Amnesty International indicates that the killing of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun by Israeli forces in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, on 22 September 2016 was an EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION... [S]he at no time posed a sufficient threat to the soldiers to make their use of lethal force permissible. This killing is the latest in a long line of unlawful killings carried out by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank with impunity... [T]he girl was behind metal rails separating her from the soldiers and the same soldier who had fired the first shots [at the ground], moved back, dropped to one knee, and shot al-Hashlamoun in her left leg... [T]he soldier [then] got up and moved closer to her, until he was about a metre away, and then shot at her upper body 4 or 5 times again while she was lying motionless on the ground [...]
"More than 25 Palestinians including at least 3 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2015... Al-Hashlamoun was shot at a checkpoint that separates the centre of Hebron from al-Shuhada Street, which is completely closed to Palestinians. Hebron is the only city in the West Bank that has Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, in the city centre... Palestinian residents of Hebron have had their freedom of movement and their economic rights severely curtailed by those closures. In addition, Palestinians are often subject to arbitrary detention and humiliating treatment by Israeli security forces stationed in the city, and are often subject to settler violence, which the Israeli authorities fail to investigate effectively." (Amnesty International Public Statement: Israel/OPT: Evidence indicates West Bank killing was extrajudicial execution, 25/9/15)
For all of Palestine's Hadeels...
from Rafeef Ziadah's poem, Hadeel:
Hadeel
Hadeel
Hadeel is 9
Hadeel was 9
Officials said...
Israeli officials said
They regret her death
But terrorism must stop
Rockets must stop
Resistance must stop
Or they will continue to shell Gaza
Until we surrender the bit of dignity we have left
Until we elect who they want
Sign what they want
And die in silence
... the way they want
"More than 25 Palestinians including at least 3 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2015... Al-Hashlamoun was shot at a checkpoint that separates the centre of Hebron from al-Shuhada Street, which is completely closed to Palestinians. Hebron is the only city in the West Bank that has Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, in the city centre... Palestinian residents of Hebron have had their freedom of movement and their economic rights severely curtailed by those closures. In addition, Palestinians are often subject to arbitrary detention and humiliating treatment by Israeli security forces stationed in the city, and are often subject to settler violence, which the Israeli authorities fail to investigate effectively." (Amnesty International Public Statement: Israel/OPT: Evidence indicates West Bank killing was extrajudicial execution, 25/9/15)
For all of Palestine's Hadeels...
from Rafeef Ziadah's poem, Hadeel:
Hadeel
Hadeel
Hadeel is 9
Hadeel was 9
Officials said...
Israeli officials said
They regret her death
But terrorism must stop
Rockets must stop
Resistance must stop
Or they will continue to shell Gaza
Until we surrender the bit of dignity we have left
Until we elect who they want
Sign what they want
And die in silence
... the way they want
Saturday, March 28, 2015
The Editorial From Kiryat Arba
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rhetoric has become more reasonable since his election victory. He apologised to Arab-Israelis for complaining they were voting in 'droves' on election day. He also claimed to support a Palestinian state, but not under current conditions."
So begins a most peculiar editorial in last Wednesday's Australian, Eight-state solution floated.
How "reasonable" is that:
Netanyahu during the election: 'The f...ing Arabs are voting, man the barricades!'
Netanyahu after the election: 'Sorry about that. I don't know what came after me.'
Netanyahu when asked about a Palestinian state: 'Palestinian state? What, now? Are you serious? The weather's f...ing terrible. Come back and see me when it's cleared up, OK?'
Now here's where it gets seriously weird:
"Within a week of Likud's victory, prominent Israeli academic and commentator Mordechai Kedar, a former Israeli Defence Forces spook, urged Mr Netanyahu to act on what is quietly referred to as the 'eight emirates' plan. In addition to Gaza in the east [!!!???], Dr Kedar and others advocate the creation of seven geographically separate and discrete Palestinian emirates on the West Bank."
"Emirates"?
Impoverished, besieged Palestinian bantustans spun as entities on a par with the wealthy Persian Gulf United Arab Emirates. Nice one!
The United Palestinian Emirates (UPE)?
Except they're not united. They're "separate and discreet."
Remember the good old days of the 'viable, contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital'? Gone with the wind. Once used to distract the easily distracted from dealing seriously with Jewish State in the Levant (JSIL) while Ziojihadis from around the world flocked to the Zionist Emirate, the formula has served its purpose and can now be safely dispensed with.
"These would be centred in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Ramallah, Jericho and the Arab neighbourhoods of the city of Hevron."
Hello... "Hevron"?!!
WTF is writing this shit? Some fanatic in Kiryat Arba?
Now I knew that The Australian had long ago been taken over by Zionist dead-enders but I had no idea they'd set up an IDF-defended enclave in the editor's office and were now writing its editorials.
"Israel would control the rural space between them."
But of course. How could it be otherwise? Maybe the Palestinians in the "emirates" could be supplied by air (when not being bombed from the air that is).
"Nobody, Dr Kedar argues, can guarantee that a single Palestinian state in the West Bank would not fall to Hamas, endangering Israel's future..."
The only one that matters...
"Dr Kedar, known for his extremist views, once claimed the only thing that could deter a suicide bomber was raping his sister or mother."
What a mensch is DrStrangelove Kedar!
"But regardless of whether his hawkish 'eight emirates' proposal gains traction..."
So caging the indigenous population of the West Bank in 8 urbanghettos emirates is merely "hawkish"?!
"... the prospect of a peaceful and sustainable two-state solution is bleak. Likud's official platform 'flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river' and any division of Jerusalem. It says Palestinians should be 'able to manage their lives freely in the framework of an autonomous regime' but not 'as a sovereign independent state'. The number of settlers in the West Bank is now more than 400,000 and Mr Netanyahu is encouraging more. They occupy 40% of the territory and a Palestinian state would involve massive disruption."
And that's it. Not a hint that anything's amiss here. Not an editorial eyebrow raised anywhere in the piece. Clearing settlers out of the places they've illegally occupied is simply not on. They should, therefore, be given free range and the Palestinians simply confined to ghettos.
I think we can safely conclude, absent a clarification, that that's now Rupert Murdoch's official position on the subject.
So begins a most peculiar editorial in last Wednesday's Australian, Eight-state solution floated.
How "reasonable" is that:
Netanyahu during the election: 'The f...ing Arabs are voting, man the barricades!'
Netanyahu after the election: 'Sorry about that. I don't know what came after me.'
Netanyahu when asked about a Palestinian state: 'Palestinian state? What, now? Are you serious? The weather's f...ing terrible. Come back and see me when it's cleared up, OK?'
Now here's where it gets seriously weird:
"Within a week of Likud's victory, prominent Israeli academic and commentator Mordechai Kedar, a former Israeli Defence Forces spook, urged Mr Netanyahu to act on what is quietly referred to as the 'eight emirates' plan. In addition to Gaza in the east [!!!???], Dr Kedar and others advocate the creation of seven geographically separate and discrete Palestinian emirates on the West Bank."
"Emirates"?
Impoverished, besieged Palestinian bantustans spun as entities on a par with the wealthy Persian Gulf United Arab Emirates. Nice one!
The United Palestinian Emirates (UPE)?
Except they're not united. They're "separate and discreet."
Remember the good old days of the 'viable, contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital'? Gone with the wind. Once used to distract the easily distracted from dealing seriously with Jewish State in the Levant (JSIL) while Ziojihadis from around the world flocked to the Zionist Emirate, the formula has served its purpose and can now be safely dispensed with.
"These would be centred in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Ramallah, Jericho and the Arab neighbourhoods of the city of Hevron."
Hello... "Hevron"?!!
WTF is writing this shit? Some fanatic in Kiryat Arba?
Now I knew that The Australian had long ago been taken over by Zionist dead-enders but I had no idea they'd set up an IDF-defended enclave in the editor's office and were now writing its editorials.
"Israel would control the rural space between them."
But of course. How could it be otherwise? Maybe the Palestinians in the "emirates" could be supplied by air (when not being bombed from the air that is).
"Nobody, Dr Kedar argues, can guarantee that a single Palestinian state in the West Bank would not fall to Hamas, endangering Israel's future..."
The only one that matters...
"Dr Kedar, known for his extremist views, once claimed the only thing that could deter a suicide bomber was raping his sister or mother."
What a mensch is Dr
"But regardless of whether his hawkish 'eight emirates' proposal gains traction..."
So caging the indigenous population of the West Bank in 8 urban
"... the prospect of a peaceful and sustainable two-state solution is bleak. Likud's official platform 'flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river' and any division of Jerusalem. It says Palestinians should be 'able to manage their lives freely in the framework of an autonomous regime' but not 'as a sovereign independent state'. The number of settlers in the West Bank is now more than 400,000 and Mr Netanyahu is encouraging more. They occupy 40% of the territory and a Palestinian state would involve massive disruption."
And that's it. Not a hint that anything's amiss here. Not an editorial eyebrow raised anywhere in the piece. Clearing settlers out of the places they've illegally occupied is simply not on. They should, therefore, be given free range and the Palestinians simply confined to ghettos.
I think we can safely conclude, absent a clarification, that that's now Rupert Murdoch's official position on the subject.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
An Anti-Semite's Dream Jews
Israeli journalist Amira Hass reports on the progress of the Israeli master plan for the ethnic cleansing of Hebron:
"The sickest imagination of present-day anti-Semites cannot compete with the handiwork of Israel and its emissaries the settlers in Hebron for the past 20 years. The demand for the Jewish return is broken down here into all its raw components: the expulsion of the Palestinians, the destruction of their homes and cultural legacy, destruction of the economy, extreme ethnic-spatial separation and deranged prohibitions regarding movement and housing, attacks in the name of the Torah, harassment and denial of the other. If gentile foes were to say that's how Jews behave, the institutes for the study of anti-Semitism would sound the alarm.
"Today, February 25, is the 21st anniversary of the massacre perpetrated by Dr Baruch Goldstein against worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque (the Cave of the Patriarchs). The prime minister and defence minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, could have dismantled the nuclear bombs stored by his colleagues from Mapai (the forerunner of Labor) in the late 1960s - Yigal Alon and Moshe Dayan - when they allowed groups of messianic Jews to settle there and encouraged them by providing military protection and weapons. The evacuation of the settlers from Hebron would have been received with great understanding in 1994. But Rabin decided to continue with the traditional policy, which was natural for Mapai, of pampering the settlers, and instructed the army to punish the Palestinians for the massacre committed against them by a Jewish doctor - an immigrant from the United States - with a prolonged curfew, restrictions on movement, the closing of shops and marketplaces, and criminal forgiveness for the violence of the settlers. Since then Israel has continued with its policy of punishing those who are attacked.
"Twenty-one years after the massacre, the settlers in Hebron have many reasons for celebration. President Reuven Rivlin visited them and gave his approval for the evaporation of the Palestinian community from the center of Hebron. Last week a second representative of the Hebron settlers entered the Knesset, instead of the late Uri Orbach: Rabbi Hillel Horowitz of Habayit Hayehudi, who is joining his colleague and neighbour Orit Strock. And even if it's only symbolic and for a month or two, there's a chance that another of their neighbors, Baruch Mazel, who lives in the settlement of Tel Rumeida, will preserve the handsome quota in the next Knesset: two elected officials from a community of several hundred people who have orchestrated one of the most violent and racist realities.
"The Hebron settlers can be credited with several more accomplishments achieved in the past 3 years: another new promenade connecting Kiryat Arba and the Cave of the Patriarchs, an expanded Beit Romano, an archaeological park under construction, the Cave of the Patriarchs as a national heritage site, tours by school students, and the main thing - a first settlement site in Hebron in 30 years in 'Beit Hameriva' (the house of contention) in the heart of the ar-Ras neighborhood, after the Supreme Court confirmed that it was purchased legally.
"And among the achievements and festivities, the center of the city is deserted and in ruins. You have to visit there, repeatedly, in order to begin to understand not only how it looks when 120 blockades and checkpoints cut off abandoned streets in the middle, and how it is when young soldiers enforce the prohibition against visiting the family that insists on continuing to live in its home or walk in the street that's for Jews only, and how the elderly climb up the incline short of breath, because Palestinian cars are not allowed there. The visit is necessary in order to understand this all-Israeli creation: Active and conscious assistance of Labor governments, and conscious support, indifference and the emotional and intellectual laziness of elites and ordinary people, have implemented the most extremist settlement-oriented-messianic-right-wing master plan since 1948." (Israel's Hebron handiwork: Its most heinous endeavor since 1948, Haaretz, 25/2/15)
"The sickest imagination of present-day anti-Semites cannot compete with the handiwork of Israel and its emissaries the settlers in Hebron for the past 20 years. The demand for the Jewish return is broken down here into all its raw components: the expulsion of the Palestinians, the destruction of their homes and cultural legacy, destruction of the economy, extreme ethnic-spatial separation and deranged prohibitions regarding movement and housing, attacks in the name of the Torah, harassment and denial of the other. If gentile foes were to say that's how Jews behave, the institutes for the study of anti-Semitism would sound the alarm.
"Today, February 25, is the 21st anniversary of the massacre perpetrated by Dr Baruch Goldstein against worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque (the Cave of the Patriarchs). The prime minister and defence minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, could have dismantled the nuclear bombs stored by his colleagues from Mapai (the forerunner of Labor) in the late 1960s - Yigal Alon and Moshe Dayan - when they allowed groups of messianic Jews to settle there and encouraged them by providing military protection and weapons. The evacuation of the settlers from Hebron would have been received with great understanding in 1994. But Rabin decided to continue with the traditional policy, which was natural for Mapai, of pampering the settlers, and instructed the army to punish the Palestinians for the massacre committed against them by a Jewish doctor - an immigrant from the United States - with a prolonged curfew, restrictions on movement, the closing of shops and marketplaces, and criminal forgiveness for the violence of the settlers. Since then Israel has continued with its policy of punishing those who are attacked.
"Twenty-one years after the massacre, the settlers in Hebron have many reasons for celebration. President Reuven Rivlin visited them and gave his approval for the evaporation of the Palestinian community from the center of Hebron. Last week a second representative of the Hebron settlers entered the Knesset, instead of the late Uri Orbach: Rabbi Hillel Horowitz of Habayit Hayehudi, who is joining his colleague and neighbour Orit Strock. And even if it's only symbolic and for a month or two, there's a chance that another of their neighbors, Baruch Mazel, who lives in the settlement of Tel Rumeida, will preserve the handsome quota in the next Knesset: two elected officials from a community of several hundred people who have orchestrated one of the most violent and racist realities.
"The Hebron settlers can be credited with several more accomplishments achieved in the past 3 years: another new promenade connecting Kiryat Arba and the Cave of the Patriarchs, an expanded Beit Romano, an archaeological park under construction, the Cave of the Patriarchs as a national heritage site, tours by school students, and the main thing - a first settlement site in Hebron in 30 years in 'Beit Hameriva' (the house of contention) in the heart of the ar-Ras neighborhood, after the Supreme Court confirmed that it was purchased legally.
"And among the achievements and festivities, the center of the city is deserted and in ruins. You have to visit there, repeatedly, in order to begin to understand not only how it looks when 120 blockades and checkpoints cut off abandoned streets in the middle, and how it is when young soldiers enforce the prohibition against visiting the family that insists on continuing to live in its home or walk in the street that's for Jews only, and how the elderly climb up the incline short of breath, because Palestinian cars are not allowed there. The visit is necessary in order to understand this all-Israeli creation: Active and conscious assistance of Labor governments, and conscious support, indifference and the emotional and intellectual laziness of elites and ordinary people, have implemented the most extremist settlement-oriented-messianic-right-wing master plan since 1948." (Israel's Hebron handiwork: Its most heinous endeavor since 1948, Haaretz, 25/2/15)
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Who Needs Kafka?
"Yesterday I had an idea for a short story to explain the unrelenting insanity of the occupation for ordinary Palestinians. Tell me what you think.
"In my story, there is a Palestinian family, let's call them the Jaabaris, and they live next to a Jewish settlement, let's call it Kiryat Arba, close to Hebron deep in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"One day the settlers decide to build a synagogue on the family's private land in an effort to force them off.
"This family decide to stand their ground. Sadly, they have no way to stop the takeover of land that has been in their family for generations other than by appealing to the Israeli legal system. They petition the Israeli Supreme Court to order the synagogue demolished.
"In the courtroom, the settlers argue that the land is not under Kiryat Arba's control - it's private Palestinian property - and therefore it is outside the court's jurisdiction. The judges have no right to issue a ruling in this case, they claim.
"The court disagrees and says the land is under Kiryat Arba's control - ie the judges treat it as part of Israel - and therefore the court can issue a ruling. The judges' verdict is a triumph for justice: the synagogue should be demolished.
"However, now that the settlers have a piece of paper with the court's decision stating that the land belongs to Kiryat Arba, they can bill the Palestinian family for years of arrears on property taxes amounting to $22,000 - more than the family earns in several years. If they don't pay, the settlers will seize the land and sell it.
"Heads the Jaabaris lose; tails they lose too. That's Israeli occupier's justice.
"What do you think? Have I gone a bit too far? Too crazy to be credible?
"Or have I simply plagiarised this story from the Times of Israel, where exactly this has happened to the Jaabari family?" (Occupier's justice: heads & tails you lose, Jonathan Cook, jonathan-cook.net/blog/ 23/1/15)
"In my story, there is a Palestinian family, let's call them the Jaabaris, and they live next to a Jewish settlement, let's call it Kiryat Arba, close to Hebron deep in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"One day the settlers decide to build a synagogue on the family's private land in an effort to force them off.
"This family decide to stand their ground. Sadly, they have no way to stop the takeover of land that has been in their family for generations other than by appealing to the Israeli legal system. They petition the Israeli Supreme Court to order the synagogue demolished.
"In the courtroom, the settlers argue that the land is not under Kiryat Arba's control - it's private Palestinian property - and therefore it is outside the court's jurisdiction. The judges have no right to issue a ruling in this case, they claim.
"The court disagrees and says the land is under Kiryat Arba's control - ie the judges treat it as part of Israel - and therefore the court can issue a ruling. The judges' verdict is a triumph for justice: the synagogue should be demolished.
"However, now that the settlers have a piece of paper with the court's decision stating that the land belongs to Kiryat Arba, they can bill the Palestinian family for years of arrears on property taxes amounting to $22,000 - more than the family earns in several years. If they don't pay, the settlers will seize the land and sell it.
"Heads the Jaabaris lose; tails they lose too. That's Israeli occupier's justice.
"What do you think? Have I gone a bit too far? Too crazy to be credible?
"Or have I simply plagiarised this story from the Times of Israel, where exactly this has happened to the Jaabari family?" (Occupier's justice: heads & tails you lose, Jonathan Cook, jonathan-cook.net/blog/ 23/1/15)
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Playing With Fire in Jerusalem: 2014 & 1929
Yesterday's attack by two Palestinians on a West Jerusalem synagogue is a stark reminder that those Israelis who would mess with the status quo on occupied Arab East Jerusalem's Haram ash-Sharif are playing with fire. This has been acknowledged by no less than the head of Israel's Shin Bet, Yoram Cohen:
"While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly points an accusing finger at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Israel's top secret security service said Tuesday he did not believe Abbas was responsible for the current round of terror and violence... According to the Shin Bet head, the central factors behind the current violence were the murder of Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir... and attempts by Israeli legislators to change the status-quo on the Temple Mount. According to Cohen, visits by right-wing MKs and attempts to introduce legislation which would change the status quo on the flashpoint holy site were the main factors for rising tensions in East Jerusalem... 'The religious aspect which latches onto the (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict is very dangerous and volatile because it has implications on the Palestinians and Muslims around the world. We must do everything we can to defuse the current tensions,' Cohen said." (Shin Bet chief: Abbas is not inciting terror, Attila Somfalvi, ynetnews.com, 18/11/14)
Those possessing more than a nodding acquaintance with modern Palestinian history may recall the events in Jerusalem and Hebron of August 1929 and see a parallel with the situation today. The following vivid account of those events is by American journalist Vincent Sheean:
"The disorders of Friday resulted in many deaths among both Jews and Arabs (the Arabs including Christians as well as Moslems), and the impulse of murder continued for a week. At the end of the terror the official roll for Jerusalem was: 29 Jews and 38 Arabs killed, 43 Jews and 51 Arabs wounded...
"The horrors of Friday in Jerusalem were followed by something much worse: the ghastly outbreak at Hebron, where 64 Jews of the old-fashioned religious community were slaughtered and 54 of them wounded. Hebron was one of the four holy cities of Judaism, and had a small, constant Jewish population since medieval days. These were not Zionists at all; a more innocent and harmless group of people could not have been found in Palestine; many of them were Oriental Jews, and all were religious. They had had nothing to do with the Zionist excesses [in Jerusalem], and had lived in amity with their Arab neighbours up to that day. But when the Arabs of Hebron - an unruly lot, at best - heard that Arabs were being killed by Jews in Jerusalem, and that the Mosque of Omar was in danger, they went mad... the Jewish houses were rushed by the mob, and there was an hour of slashing, killing, stabbing, burning and looting...
"I cannot, at this late date, go through all the story of that week; it has been told over and over again... At the end of the disturbances the official British casualty lists showed 207 dead and 379 wounded among the population of Palestine, of which the dead included 87 Arabs (Christian and Moslem) and 120 Jews, the wounded 181 Arabs and 198 Jews...
"The effort to be an efficient, unemotional newspaper correspondent was difficult to the point of impossibility. Living as I did without sleep and without rest, eating little, and that at the weirdest hours, I should probably have collapsed in time simply from physical exhaustion. But there was a great deal more in it than that. I was bitterly indignant with the Zionists for having, as I believed, brought on this disaster*; I was shocked into hysteria by the ferocity of the Arab anger; and I was aghast at the inadequacy of the British government. I knew that the Moslem authorities were trying to quell the storm, and that the British officials were doing their best against appalling difficulties; I also assumed that the responsible Zionist leaders (none of whom were in Palestine then) had done what they could. But all around me were the visible evidences of their failure. Although I had spent a good part of my life amid scenes of violence and was no stranger to the sight of blood and dying men, I had never overcome my loathing for the spectacle even when it seemed, as in some of the conflicts I had witnessed, compelled by historical necessity. But here, in this miserable little country, no bigger, in relation to the rest of the world, than the tip of your finger in relation to your body, I could see no historical necessity whatever. The country was tiny and already inhabited: why couldn't the Zionists leave it alone? It would never hold enough Jews to make even a beginning towards the solution of the Jewish problem; it would always be a prey to such ghastly horrors as those I saw every day and every night: religion, the eternal intransigence of religion, ensured that the problem could never be solved. The Holy Land seemed as near an approximation of hell on earth as I had ever seen." (Personal History, 1935; quoted in From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism & the Palestine Problem Until 1948, Edited by Walid Khalidi, 1971, pp 298-300)
Britain's 1930 Shaw Commission, charged with the task of investigating these events, concluded that their immediate cause was: "The long series of incidents connected with the Wailing Wall... but the incident among them which in our view contributed most to the outbreak was the Jewish demonstration at the Wailing Wall on 15 August 1929."
"The fundamental cause, without which in our opinion disturbances either would not have occurred or would not have been little more than a local riot," the Commission concluded, "is the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future... The feeling as it exists today is based on the twofold fear of the Arabs that by Jewish immigration and land purchases they may be deprived of their livelihood and in time pass under the political domination of the Jews."
If, for Sheehan, Palestine in 1929 was "as near an approximation of hell on earth as I had ever seen," one can only wonder what he'd make of it today.
[*These were the 'Maccabees', armed followers of Vladimir Jabotinsky, godfather of Revisionist Zionism, the movement which, in its current Likud incarnation, now governs Israel. Netanyahu's fire-eating father, Benzion, was Jabotinsky's secretary. See my 24/9/11 post Benzion, My Father.]
"While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly points an accusing finger at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Israel's top secret security service said Tuesday he did not believe Abbas was responsible for the current round of terror and violence... According to the Shin Bet head, the central factors behind the current violence were the murder of Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir... and attempts by Israeli legislators to change the status-quo on the Temple Mount. According to Cohen, visits by right-wing MKs and attempts to introduce legislation which would change the status quo on the flashpoint holy site were the main factors for rising tensions in East Jerusalem... 'The religious aspect which latches onto the (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict is very dangerous and volatile because it has implications on the Palestinians and Muslims around the world. We must do everything we can to defuse the current tensions,' Cohen said." (Shin Bet chief: Abbas is not inciting terror, Attila Somfalvi, ynetnews.com, 18/11/14)
Those possessing more than a nodding acquaintance with modern Palestinian history may recall the events in Jerusalem and Hebron of August 1929 and see a parallel with the situation today. The following vivid account of those events is by American journalist Vincent Sheean:
"The disorders of Friday resulted in many deaths among both Jews and Arabs (the Arabs including Christians as well as Moslems), and the impulse of murder continued for a week. At the end of the terror the official roll for Jerusalem was: 29 Jews and 38 Arabs killed, 43 Jews and 51 Arabs wounded...
"The horrors of Friday in Jerusalem were followed by something much worse: the ghastly outbreak at Hebron, where 64 Jews of the old-fashioned religious community were slaughtered and 54 of them wounded. Hebron was one of the four holy cities of Judaism, and had a small, constant Jewish population since medieval days. These were not Zionists at all; a more innocent and harmless group of people could not have been found in Palestine; many of them were Oriental Jews, and all were religious. They had had nothing to do with the Zionist excesses [in Jerusalem], and had lived in amity with their Arab neighbours up to that day. But when the Arabs of Hebron - an unruly lot, at best - heard that Arabs were being killed by Jews in Jerusalem, and that the Mosque of Omar was in danger, they went mad... the Jewish houses were rushed by the mob, and there was an hour of slashing, killing, stabbing, burning and looting...
"I cannot, at this late date, go through all the story of that week; it has been told over and over again... At the end of the disturbances the official British casualty lists showed 207 dead and 379 wounded among the population of Palestine, of which the dead included 87 Arabs (Christian and Moslem) and 120 Jews, the wounded 181 Arabs and 198 Jews...
"The effort to be an efficient, unemotional newspaper correspondent was difficult to the point of impossibility. Living as I did without sleep and without rest, eating little, and that at the weirdest hours, I should probably have collapsed in time simply from physical exhaustion. But there was a great deal more in it than that. I was bitterly indignant with the Zionists for having, as I believed, brought on this disaster*; I was shocked into hysteria by the ferocity of the Arab anger; and I was aghast at the inadequacy of the British government. I knew that the Moslem authorities were trying to quell the storm, and that the British officials were doing their best against appalling difficulties; I also assumed that the responsible Zionist leaders (none of whom were in Palestine then) had done what they could. But all around me were the visible evidences of their failure. Although I had spent a good part of my life amid scenes of violence and was no stranger to the sight of blood and dying men, I had never overcome my loathing for the spectacle even when it seemed, as in some of the conflicts I had witnessed, compelled by historical necessity. But here, in this miserable little country, no bigger, in relation to the rest of the world, than the tip of your finger in relation to your body, I could see no historical necessity whatever. The country was tiny and already inhabited: why couldn't the Zionists leave it alone? It would never hold enough Jews to make even a beginning towards the solution of the Jewish problem; it would always be a prey to such ghastly horrors as those I saw every day and every night: religion, the eternal intransigence of religion, ensured that the problem could never be solved. The Holy Land seemed as near an approximation of hell on earth as I had ever seen." (Personal History, 1935; quoted in From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism & the Palestine Problem Until 1948, Edited by Walid Khalidi, 1971, pp 298-300)
Britain's 1930 Shaw Commission, charged with the task of investigating these events, concluded that their immediate cause was: "The long series of incidents connected with the Wailing Wall... but the incident among them which in our view contributed most to the outbreak was the Jewish demonstration at the Wailing Wall on 15 August 1929."
"The fundamental cause, without which in our opinion disturbances either would not have occurred or would not have been little more than a local riot," the Commission concluded, "is the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future... The feeling as it exists today is based on the twofold fear of the Arabs that by Jewish immigration and land purchases they may be deprived of their livelihood and in time pass under the political domination of the Jews."
If, for Sheehan, Palestine in 1929 was "as near an approximation of hell on earth as I had ever seen," one can only wonder what he'd make of it today.
[*These were the 'Maccabees', armed followers of Vladimir Jabotinsky, godfather of Revisionist Zionism, the movement which, in its current Likud incarnation, now governs Israel. Netanyahu's fire-eating father, Benzion, was Jabotinsky's secretary. See my 24/9/11 post Benzion, My Father.]
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
100 Years of a Shockingly Bad Idea
In 1929, 67 Jews were massacred by an Arab mob in the Palestinian city of Hebron.
To determine why, the British government of the day appointed a commission of inquiry known as the Shaw Commission.
Its report, issued in 1930, concluded that:
"There can be no doubt that racial animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future, was the fundamental cause of the outbreak of August last."
Now, 85 years later, the bodies of 3 Jewish settler youths have just been found in shallow graves, presumably murdered by Arabs from Hebron or thereabouts.
Were the Shaw Commission around today to determine why, they may well have concluded, in addition to the above, that:
There can be no doubt that racial animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon their despair at the unrelenting Zionist colonization of their land, severe and extensive restrictions on their movements, the Israeli authorities' systematic failure to enforce law and order on violent settlers attacking them, their suffering at the hands of Israel's security forces, and fear for their very existence, is the fundamental cause of last month's murders.*
The inevitable Israeli hammering of the Gaza Strip, already underway following several weeks of Israeli murder and mayhem (known officially as 'Operation Brother's Keeper': 6 Palestinians dead, 120 wounded) against defenceless Palestinian communities in the West Bank, will, of course, be routinely portrayed, by our terminally myopic corporate media, simply as retaliation for the murders of the Israeli youths.
Any objective probe into the murders, however, whether it be the work of a revived Shaw Commission or that of a contemporary scholar tracing the violence back to its historical, near 100-year-old roots, will know where to place the blame. And guess what? It won't be with the Palestinians - any of them.
Here, for example, is the noted historian of World War I, Margaret MacMillan, author of The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, and Paris 1919, speaking recently on what is arguably the war's worst, and most enduring, legacy:
"The British had issued something during the First World War called the Balfour Declaration, and it was in the form of a letter to Lord Rothschild, a leading British Jew who supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland. And what the letter said was the British government looks with favour on the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. And then it said something about 'due consideration being given of course to the wishes of the existing population.' The existing population, Arabs, who were both Muslim and Christian, was about 90% of the population or more, and so there really was a contradiction inherent here. A Jewish homeland was being established in a country where there was already a majority, a big majority, of non-Jewish people. Even at the time, there were people who said, 'Look, this going to cause trouble, because the existing inhabitants of Palestine are not going to particularly like a new entity with... Jewish settlers coming in from around the world. They're not going to like that new entity growing within their society, and there is going to be trouble.' And that indeed was absolutely right. And the Balfour Declaration, and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was the beginning of a long and complicated struggle between Jews and Arabs..." (The Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Rear Vision, Radio National, 29/6/14)
[*To adapt the findings of the 2007 report of The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Where Silence Reigns: Israel's Separation Policy & Forced Eviction of Palestinians from the Center of Hebron.]
To determine why, the British government of the day appointed a commission of inquiry known as the Shaw Commission.
Its report, issued in 1930, concluded that:
"There can be no doubt that racial animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future, was the fundamental cause of the outbreak of August last."
Now, 85 years later, the bodies of 3 Jewish settler youths have just been found in shallow graves, presumably murdered by Arabs from Hebron or thereabouts.
Were the Shaw Commission around today to determine why, they may well have concluded, in addition to the above, that:
There can be no doubt that racial animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon their despair at the unrelenting Zionist colonization of their land, severe and extensive restrictions on their movements, the Israeli authorities' systematic failure to enforce law and order on violent settlers attacking them, their suffering at the hands of Israel's security forces, and fear for their very existence, is the fundamental cause of last month's murders.*
The inevitable Israeli hammering of the Gaza Strip, already underway following several weeks of Israeli murder and mayhem (known officially as 'Operation Brother's Keeper': 6 Palestinians dead, 120 wounded) against defenceless Palestinian communities in the West Bank, will, of course, be routinely portrayed, by our terminally myopic corporate media, simply as retaliation for the murders of the Israeli youths.
Any objective probe into the murders, however, whether it be the work of a revived Shaw Commission or that of a contemporary scholar tracing the violence back to its historical, near 100-year-old roots, will know where to place the blame. And guess what? It won't be with the Palestinians - any of them.
Here, for example, is the noted historian of World War I, Margaret MacMillan, author of The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, and Paris 1919, speaking recently on what is arguably the war's worst, and most enduring, legacy:
"The British had issued something during the First World War called the Balfour Declaration, and it was in the form of a letter to Lord Rothschild, a leading British Jew who supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland. And what the letter said was the British government looks with favour on the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. And then it said something about 'due consideration being given of course to the wishes of the existing population.' The existing population, Arabs, who were both Muslim and Christian, was about 90% of the population or more, and so there really was a contradiction inherent here. A Jewish homeland was being established in a country where there was already a majority, a big majority, of non-Jewish people. Even at the time, there were people who said, 'Look, this going to cause trouble, because the existing inhabitants of Palestine are not going to particularly like a new entity with... Jewish settlers coming in from around the world. They're not going to like that new entity growing within their society, and there is going to be trouble.' And that indeed was absolutely right. And the Balfour Declaration, and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was the beginning of a long and complicated struggle between Jews and Arabs..." (The Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Rear Vision, Radio National, 29/6/14)
[*To adapt the findings of the 2007 report of The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Where Silence Reigns: Israel's Separation Policy & Forced Eviction of Palestinians from the Center of Hebron.]
Monday, May 12, 2014
Senator Xenophon's Israeli Apartheid Moment
Just when I was beginning to think that The Australian's Middle East correspondent, John Lyons, had been exiled to Cairo as punishment for exposing the winning ways of Israeli troops with Palestinian kids on the ABC's Four Corners program in February, he's now back in the West Bank, reporting on a visit to the Israeli settler-besieged city of Hebron by that rarity in Australian politics, a politician of independent mind beholden to neither party line nor Israel lobby:
"In an empty street in Hebron, deep in the Palestinian territories, independent senator Nick Xenophon is trying to have two conversations at once. A Palestinian woman in a caged balcony is explaining her plight while an Israeli settler carrying a handgun wants his say." (Hebron 'heartbreaking,' for Xenophon, John Lyons, The Australian, 10/5/14)
Don't they all.
"Both want the ear of the South Australian senator on his first visit to the region. 'This is madness,' he said later. In Hebron, 800 settlers live surrounded by 180,000 Palestinians. 'I would urge any Australian politician who comes here to go to Hebron, walk the streets, run the gauntlet of checkpoints and speak to both sides,' he told The Weekend Australian.'
"As he walked the ghost-town streets of Hebron, the Palestinian woman, Zleikha Muhtaseb, called from the cage she has built to prevent settlers breaking her windows. 'Where in the world do you need to put a cage around your house?' she shouted. She came downstairs to shake Senator Xenophon's hand through a security grill - the Israeli army has welded shut her front door so she can only open the back door, and the army does not allow her to walk on the street in front of her house.
"But US-born settler..."
That'd be right.
"... David Wilder, carrying a Glock, says Palestinians are not allowed on to that street for security reasons - that recently an Israeli was shot dead nearby."
Can you believe it, Senator, these Arab schmuks have the crazy idea that we're here to take over their town?!
"Senator Xenophon said later: 'What I saw in Hebron was heartbreaking - the division, the segregation, the palpable fear in the community. He questioned whether having a civilian law for Israelis and military law for the Palestinians could last. 'It seems unsustainable that you have two different legal systems for people living in the same community,' he said."
It's called apartheid, Nick. (Not that you'd expect to see the 'A' word in a Lyons' report on Israel. Not since the hue and cry that followed the last time he (?) used the word at any rate: See my 10/5/12 post Down the Memory Hole.)
"In Jerusalem, he met the Likud party's Yariv Levin, who said Israel was committed to peace."
LOL
"He met Breaking the Silence - almost 1,000 current and former Israeli soldiers trying to reform how the army relates to Palestinians - and human rights group B'Tselem. Senator Xenophon said: 'There is some hope through Israeli groups like Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem, who show the views of the Israeli government do not necessarily represent the views of all Israelis.'
"He was briefed by Australian barrister Gerard Horton from Military Court Watch about a Unicef report that found ill treatment of Palestinian children appeared to be 'widespread, systematic and institutionalised.' Mr Horton said MCW had found that since the report there had been some improvements but 90% of detained children were still tied and 55% reported physical abuse.
"Before leaving, Senator Xenophon had a message for any Australian politician who argued Israel's settlements were not illegal. 'I would urge Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to have a good look at the International Court of Justice's statement on Israeli settlements,' he said. 'The ICJ statement is crystal clear - all settlements are illegal under international law'."
The accompanying photograph (in the print edition), by Sylvie Le Clezio, showing Zleikha Muhtaseb in her balcony/cage, with Xenophon below on the street being earbashed by The Glock is priceless. The pained look on the senator's face says it all. This is clearly his Israeli apartheid moment.
"In an empty street in Hebron, deep in the Palestinian territories, independent senator Nick Xenophon is trying to have two conversations at once. A Palestinian woman in a caged balcony is explaining her plight while an Israeli settler carrying a handgun wants his say." (Hebron 'heartbreaking,' for Xenophon, John Lyons, The Australian, 10/5/14)
Don't they all.
"Both want the ear of the South Australian senator on his first visit to the region. 'This is madness,' he said later. In Hebron, 800 settlers live surrounded by 180,000 Palestinians. 'I would urge any Australian politician who comes here to go to Hebron, walk the streets, run the gauntlet of checkpoints and speak to both sides,' he told The Weekend Australian.'
"As he walked the ghost-town streets of Hebron, the Palestinian woman, Zleikha Muhtaseb, called from the cage she has built to prevent settlers breaking her windows. 'Where in the world do you need to put a cage around your house?' she shouted. She came downstairs to shake Senator Xenophon's hand through a security grill - the Israeli army has welded shut her front door so she can only open the back door, and the army does not allow her to walk on the street in front of her house.
"But US-born settler..."
That'd be right.
"... David Wilder, carrying a Glock, says Palestinians are not allowed on to that street for security reasons - that recently an Israeli was shot dead nearby."
Can you believe it, Senator, these Arab schmuks have the crazy idea that we're here to take over their town?!
"Senator Xenophon said later: 'What I saw in Hebron was heartbreaking - the division, the segregation, the palpable fear in the community. He questioned whether having a civilian law for Israelis and military law for the Palestinians could last. 'It seems unsustainable that you have two different legal systems for people living in the same community,' he said."
It's called apartheid, Nick. (Not that you'd expect to see the 'A' word in a Lyons' report on Israel. Not since the hue and cry that followed the last time he (?) used the word at any rate: See my 10/5/12 post Down the Memory Hole.)
"In Jerusalem, he met the Likud party's Yariv Levin, who said Israel was committed to peace."
LOL
"He met Breaking the Silence - almost 1,000 current and former Israeli soldiers trying to reform how the army relates to Palestinians - and human rights group B'Tselem. Senator Xenophon said: 'There is some hope through Israeli groups like Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem, who show the views of the Israeli government do not necessarily represent the views of all Israelis.'
"He was briefed by Australian barrister Gerard Horton from Military Court Watch about a Unicef report that found ill treatment of Palestinian children appeared to be 'widespread, systematic and institutionalised.' Mr Horton said MCW had found that since the report there had been some improvements but 90% of detained children were still tied and 55% reported physical abuse.
"Before leaving, Senator Xenophon had a message for any Australian politician who argued Israel's settlements were not illegal. 'I would urge Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to have a good look at the International Court of Justice's statement on Israeli settlements,' he said. 'The ICJ statement is crystal clear - all settlements are illegal under international law'."
The accompanying photograph (in the print edition), by Sylvie Le Clezio, showing Zleikha Muhtaseb in her balcony/cage, with Xenophon below on the street being earbashed by The Glock is priceless. The pained look on the senator's face says it all. This is clearly his Israeli apartheid moment.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Confected Outrage Over a Boy-cott
The drama queens of the Israel lobby would have us believe that they are SHOCKED to learn that someone's kid/little brother was not only present at last Tuesday's protest against a proposed Max Brenner outlet at UNSW, but that the child (around 8-10 judging from the photograph featured on the front page of this week's Australian Jewish News) was "brandishing" (Ziospeak for 'holding' when someone they don't like is doing it) a sign reading 'Max, Max, Murderer!':
"They are raising a young child on myths and prejudice and planting the seeds of hatred with reckless disregard for the ultimate consequences. They have learnt nothing from history," ranted Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. "It is deplorable to see a young child being indoctrinated with falsehoods and hatred," echoed Yair Miller of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies. ('Planting the seeds of hatred', AJN, 3/5/13)
"[I]t's hard to respect people who allow their children to brandish such offensive signs at such a young age," intoned the the AJN editorialist piously. "If more time was invested in teaching youngsters about tolerance and peace, instead of promoting conflict and hate, such scenes - and indeed the scenes we see in the Middle East on all too frequent a basis - would perhaps be less common." (What are they teaching?)
God forbid that our kids should know that consumer choices have real consequences. That there is often a connection between Big Business and War. Or that, in this instance, Max Brenner "sweetens [the] special moments" of troops who gun down Palestinians, young and old, with monotonous regularity and get away with it every time. (See my 12/7/09 post How Sweet It Is.)
The sheer humbug of such voices is breathtaking.
Not from them an admission that Israeli kids are groomed from day 1 for conflict and hate:
"This very cute kid who'd regularly visit our [army] post decided that he didn't like Palestinians walking beneath his house, so he took a brick and threw it at this girl's head. Kid's there do whatever they want. No one does anything about it. No one cares. Afterward, his parents just praised him. The parents there encourage their children to behave like that. There were many cases like that. Eleven-, twelve-year-old Jewish kids beat up Palestinians and their parents come along to help them, set their dogs on them - there's a thousand and one stories." (Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010, Breaking the Silence, pp 308-309)
Nor from them an admission - let alone an expression of concern - that the abuse of Palestinian kids by Israeli soldiers, police and intelligence personnel has reached alarming proportions.
Here, for example, is the opening paragraph of the Christian Peacemaker Teams' recent report, Occupied Childhoods: Impact of the actions of Israeli soldiers on Palestinian children in H2 during February, March & April 2013:
"The recent mass arrest of 27 Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers on March 20, 2013 is a shocking example of the violation of children's rights in H2 (the portion of Hebron under Israeli Military control) in and near the Old City neighborhood of Hebron. Sadly the event is not an isolated incident. The suddenness of the arrest and the fact that it was not precipitated by a specific incident but was instead an attempt to round up as many children as possible in order to question them make the incident particularly egregious. Unfortunately children living in H2 are subject to experiences which violate their rights as children on a daily basis. Since the start of February human rights workers in Hebron have witnessed and documented 47 detentions and/or arrests of children age 15 and under by Israeli soldiers. A UNICEF document* released in February, 2013 describes the arrest, interrogation and detention by the Israeli army, police and security agents of approximately 700 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17 each year, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)." (cpt.org)
What hypocrites!
[*See my 18/4/13 post The UN Goes to Water.]
"They are raising a young child on myths and prejudice and planting the seeds of hatred with reckless disregard for the ultimate consequences. They have learnt nothing from history," ranted Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. "It is deplorable to see a young child being indoctrinated with falsehoods and hatred," echoed Yair Miller of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies. ('Planting the seeds of hatred', AJN, 3/5/13)
"[I]t's hard to respect people who allow their children to brandish such offensive signs at such a young age," intoned the the AJN editorialist piously. "If more time was invested in teaching youngsters about tolerance and peace, instead of promoting conflict and hate, such scenes - and indeed the scenes we see in the Middle East on all too frequent a basis - would perhaps be less common." (What are they teaching?)
God forbid that our kids should know that consumer choices have real consequences. That there is often a connection between Big Business and War. Or that, in this instance, Max Brenner "sweetens [the] special moments" of troops who gun down Palestinians, young and old, with monotonous regularity and get away with it every time. (See my 12/7/09 post How Sweet It Is.)
The sheer humbug of such voices is breathtaking.
Not from them an admission that Israeli kids are groomed from day 1 for conflict and hate:
"This very cute kid who'd regularly visit our [army] post decided that he didn't like Palestinians walking beneath his house, so he took a brick and threw it at this girl's head. Kid's there do whatever they want. No one does anything about it. No one cares. Afterward, his parents just praised him. The parents there encourage their children to behave like that. There were many cases like that. Eleven-, twelve-year-old Jewish kids beat up Palestinians and their parents come along to help them, set their dogs on them - there's a thousand and one stories." (Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010, Breaking the Silence, pp 308-309)
Nor from them an admission - let alone an expression of concern - that the abuse of Palestinian kids by Israeli soldiers, police and intelligence personnel has reached alarming proportions.
Here, for example, is the opening paragraph of the Christian Peacemaker Teams' recent report, Occupied Childhoods: Impact of the actions of Israeli soldiers on Palestinian children in H2 during February, March & April 2013:
"The recent mass arrest of 27 Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers on March 20, 2013 is a shocking example of the violation of children's rights in H2 (the portion of Hebron under Israeli Military control) in and near the Old City neighborhood of Hebron. Sadly the event is not an isolated incident. The suddenness of the arrest and the fact that it was not precipitated by a specific incident but was instead an attempt to round up as many children as possible in order to question them make the incident particularly egregious. Unfortunately children living in H2 are subject to experiences which violate their rights as children on a daily basis. Since the start of February human rights workers in Hebron have witnessed and documented 47 detentions and/or arrests of children age 15 and under by Israeli soldiers. A UNICEF document* released in February, 2013 describes the arrest, interrogation and detention by the Israeli army, police and security agents of approximately 700 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17 each year, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)." (cpt.org)
What hypocrites!
[*See my 18/4/13 post The UN Goes to Water.]
Monday, April 22, 2013
Flabergasted 3
Lorraine Levy's melodrama The Other Son continues to expose the appalling ignorance of its reviewers. This time it's David Stratton (of David and Margaret fame):
"For much of its length, this story is acutely moving, calling into question the appalling way in which neighbours and potential friends have been reduced to living in fear and loathing of one another." (House divided, The Australian, 20/4/13)
Stratton's been around now for over 70 years, and yet in all that time it appears he's led such a sheltered life that he actually believes that if only Israelis and Palestinians would drop in on one another for a cuppa, they'd get along like the proverbial house on fire. Almost a century of ethnic cleansing and dispossession in Palestine, it seems, has failed to register.
Once again, my flaber is well and truly gasted.
Now speaking of houses on fire, if only young Sundus Azza would get off her bum and whip up, say, a nice batch of scones for her 'neighbours' in Hebron:
"Nineteen-year-old Palestinian Sundus Azza cannot leave her family home, or the Sumoud & Challenge Center it is attached to, without making sure there is someone else there, because if she does, she might come home to find Israeli settlers living there. So far, settlers have attacked her house and the center with spray paint, fire, rocks, eggs, and filthy water, cut water pipes, and recently built a large wooden swinging chair sporting an Israeli flag in the middle of the garden in the backyard. A month ago, settlers brought dogs to attack Palestinian children playing in a field by Azza's home, and 5 months ago, a settler attempted to run over her 15-year-old brother with a minibus. 'They are trying to make us leave', explained the cheerful teenager as she pointed to the place on the outer wall near the front door where the fire scorched a black path. 'To be here is a form of resistance'." (Palestinian in Hebron: 'To be here is a form of resistance', Sarah Lazare, truth-out.org, 17/4/13)
"For much of its length, this story is acutely moving, calling into question the appalling way in which neighbours and potential friends have been reduced to living in fear and loathing of one another." (House divided, The Australian, 20/4/13)
Stratton's been around now for over 70 years, and yet in all that time it appears he's led such a sheltered life that he actually believes that if only Israelis and Palestinians would drop in on one another for a cuppa, they'd get along like the proverbial house on fire. Almost a century of ethnic cleansing and dispossession in Palestine, it seems, has failed to register.
Once again, my flaber is well and truly gasted.
Now speaking of houses on fire, if only young Sundus Azza would get off her bum and whip up, say, a nice batch of scones for her 'neighbours' in Hebron:
"Nineteen-year-old Palestinian Sundus Azza cannot leave her family home, or the Sumoud & Challenge Center it is attached to, without making sure there is someone else there, because if she does, she might come home to find Israeli settlers living there. So far, settlers have attacked her house and the center with spray paint, fire, rocks, eggs, and filthy water, cut water pipes, and recently built a large wooden swinging chair sporting an Israeli flag in the middle of the garden in the backyard. A month ago, settlers brought dogs to attack Palestinian children playing in a field by Azza's home, and 5 months ago, a settler attempted to run over her 15-year-old brother with a minibus. 'They are trying to make us leave', explained the cheerful teenager as she pointed to the place on the outer wall near the front door where the fire scorched a black path. 'To be here is a form of resistance'." (Palestinian in Hebron: 'To be here is a form of resistance', Sarah Lazare, truth-out.org, 17/4/13)
Thursday, January 10, 2013
What Price Honest Reporting?
On July 8 last year, I posted an Australian Jewish News advertisement for an "Advocates Mission for Israel," co-sponsored by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and Zionist website HonestReporting and scheduled for November 2012.
According to HonestReporting, there were 20 takers - "mostly members of Sydney's Jewish community, plus a number of West Australians and Americans." (30/11/12)
Precisely which category participant Anne Skinner, described in The Australian Jewish News as a "freelance writer and editor [who] self-funded her participation," fits into I do not know. Let us assume she's Australian. At any rate, it was Ms Skinner's wrap-up which appeared in the December 21 issue:
"The opinions in this article," we are told, "were partially informed by the mission's advocacy program." Now whatever else may have helped inform Ms Skinner's opinions on the Palestinians - Leon Uris' novel, Exodus, perhaps? - she does not reveal. One thing's for sure, though: Israeli settler Itamar Marcus's wearily familiar line - that the Palestinians are not so much sinned against as sinning - was given an unqualified thumbs-up by her:
"According to Israeli independent media monitor Palestinian Media Watch, PA-controlled Arab [sic] language media routinely incites hatred against Israel and Jews, much of it aimed at radicalising children and delivered via cartoons, sermons and programs on sport, culture and education. The Palestinians need - and must have - a state of their own. But instead of preparing them for peace, their leaders are warping the minds of generations of citizens - a criminal tragedy conveniently ignored by journalists intent on blaming Israel for all Palestinian ills." (Time to engage soft power)
Yes, I know, we've heard it all before, but what really puzzles me is the extraordinary revelation that Ms Skinner self-funded her undignified prostration at the feet of Mr Marcus.
Frankly, if she'd really wanted to find out what's going on (or should that be 'who's going down'?) in the occupied Palestinian territories, and where the undoubted hate is coming from, all she had to do was visit a well-stocked book store here in Australia, and, for a mere AUS$35, purchase and read Our Harsh Logic: Israeli soldiers' testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010 (2012), compiled by the good folk of Breaking the Silence.
Our Harsh Logic is no amateur effort. Its contributors are all experts in the field if I may put it that way. Yes, if honest reporting was what Ms Skinner really wanted, as opposed to HonestReporting - know what I mean? - Our Harsh Logic is the place to find it:
"The worst thing I saw in Hebron happened the day after Elazar Leibowitz's funeral. I was guarding the Gross post, which is on the roof of a building and is the lookout for Hebron's central square... [I]n the middle of my shift, sometime in the afternoon, I see an old man with a cane walking down, an Arab from Abu Sneina. The old man looked sixty-plus, had a cane, he gets to the Abu Sneina intersection, to Gross Square, and all of a sudden three sixteen- or seventeen-year old [settler] kids jump him, they push him down to the ground in a second. They grab a stone and they open up his head. They start kicking him down on the ground, bashing his head. Here's a sixty-year-old man with a stream of blood gushing from his head, blood pouring from his head... I understood that basically anything that goes on there, that innocent [Palestinian] kids, fourteen years old, eight years old, die there for no reason, that settlers go into their houses and shoot at them, and settlers go crazy in the streets and break store windows and beat up soldiers and throw eggs at soldiers and lynch the elderly - all these things don't make it to the media. Hebron is a small, isolated world, and the Avraham Avinu neighborhood is isolated inside Hebron, and more soldiers guard it than people living there. The people living in the neighborhood do whatever they want, the soldiers are forced to protect them. The settlers are the biggest Jewish Nazis I've ever met. And it's here in the State of Israel, and no one knows about it, and no one wants to know, and no one reports on it." (pp 304-307)
"We were in Jabal Juar at that time. It used to be an Arab school, and for at least a few years now it's been an IDF post. There was an incident there where some settlers jumped some woman, an elderly woman. She was ill in some way. They injured her stomach, a serious stomach injury. It was only later that we understood she'd been ill. But apart from that, she was very old, and a few settlers jumped her in the Erez alley." (p 307)
"My main problem in Hebron was with the settlers, the Jewish community. I got the feeling we were protecting the Arabs from the Jews. And neither side liked us, but it felt like the Jews did whatever they wanted and no one cared... Here's an example of something that happened right near me: I was on guard duty, and one of the soldiers at another post called a medic over the radio. Someone replaced me at the post and I ran down to see what had happened, and I saw a six-year-old Palestinian girl, her whole head a gaping wound... This very cute [settler] kid who'd regularly visit our post decided that he didn't like Palestinians walking beneath his house, so he took a brick and threw it at this girl's head. Kids there do whatever they want. No one does anything about it. No one cares. Afterward, his parents just praised him. The parents there encourage their children to behave like that. There were many cases like that. Eleven-, twelve-year-old Jewish kids beat up Palestinians and their parents come along to help them, set their dogs on them - there's a thousand and one stories." (pp 308-309)
See what I mean?
According to HonestReporting, there were 20 takers - "mostly members of Sydney's Jewish community, plus a number of West Australians and Americans." (30/11/12)
Precisely which category participant Anne Skinner, described in The Australian Jewish News as a "freelance writer and editor [who] self-funded her participation," fits into I do not know. Let us assume she's Australian. At any rate, it was Ms Skinner's wrap-up which appeared in the December 21 issue:
"The opinions in this article," we are told, "were partially informed by the mission's advocacy program." Now whatever else may have helped inform Ms Skinner's opinions on the Palestinians - Leon Uris' novel, Exodus, perhaps? - she does not reveal. One thing's for sure, though: Israeli settler Itamar Marcus's wearily familiar line - that the Palestinians are not so much sinned against as sinning - was given an unqualified thumbs-up by her:
"According to Israeli independent media monitor Palestinian Media Watch, PA-controlled Arab [sic] language media routinely incites hatred against Israel and Jews, much of it aimed at radicalising children and delivered via cartoons, sermons and programs on sport, culture and education. The Palestinians need - and must have - a state of their own. But instead of preparing them for peace, their leaders are warping the minds of generations of citizens - a criminal tragedy conveniently ignored by journalists intent on blaming Israel for all Palestinian ills." (Time to engage soft power)
Yes, I know, we've heard it all before, but what really puzzles me is the extraordinary revelation that Ms Skinner self-funded her undignified prostration at the feet of Mr Marcus.
Frankly, if she'd really wanted to find out what's going on (or should that be 'who's going down'?) in the occupied Palestinian territories, and where the undoubted hate is coming from, all she had to do was visit a well-stocked book store here in Australia, and, for a mere AUS$35, purchase and read Our Harsh Logic: Israeli soldiers' testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010 (2012), compiled by the good folk of Breaking the Silence.
Our Harsh Logic is no amateur effort. Its contributors are all experts in the field if I may put it that way. Yes, if honest reporting was what Ms Skinner really wanted, as opposed to HonestReporting - know what I mean? - Our Harsh Logic is the place to find it:
"The worst thing I saw in Hebron happened the day after Elazar Leibowitz's funeral. I was guarding the Gross post, which is on the roof of a building and is the lookout for Hebron's central square... [I]n the middle of my shift, sometime in the afternoon, I see an old man with a cane walking down, an Arab from Abu Sneina. The old man looked sixty-plus, had a cane, he gets to the Abu Sneina intersection, to Gross Square, and all of a sudden three sixteen- or seventeen-year old [settler] kids jump him, they push him down to the ground in a second. They grab a stone and they open up his head. They start kicking him down on the ground, bashing his head. Here's a sixty-year-old man with a stream of blood gushing from his head, blood pouring from his head... I understood that basically anything that goes on there, that innocent [Palestinian] kids, fourteen years old, eight years old, die there for no reason, that settlers go into their houses and shoot at them, and settlers go crazy in the streets and break store windows and beat up soldiers and throw eggs at soldiers and lynch the elderly - all these things don't make it to the media. Hebron is a small, isolated world, and the Avraham Avinu neighborhood is isolated inside Hebron, and more soldiers guard it than people living there. The people living in the neighborhood do whatever they want, the soldiers are forced to protect them. The settlers are the biggest Jewish Nazis I've ever met. And it's here in the State of Israel, and no one knows about it, and no one wants to know, and no one reports on it." (pp 304-307)
"We were in Jabal Juar at that time. It used to be an Arab school, and for at least a few years now it's been an IDF post. There was an incident there where some settlers jumped some woman, an elderly woman. She was ill in some way. They injured her stomach, a serious stomach injury. It was only later that we understood she'd been ill. But apart from that, she was very old, and a few settlers jumped her in the Erez alley." (p 307)
"My main problem in Hebron was with the settlers, the Jewish community. I got the feeling we were protecting the Arabs from the Jews. And neither side liked us, but it felt like the Jews did whatever they wanted and no one cared... Here's an example of something that happened right near me: I was on guard duty, and one of the soldiers at another post called a medic over the radio. Someone replaced me at the post and I ran down to see what had happened, and I saw a six-year-old Palestinian girl, her whole head a gaping wound... This very cute [settler] kid who'd regularly visit our post decided that he didn't like Palestinians walking beneath his house, so he took a brick and threw it at this girl's head. Kids there do whatever they want. No one does anything about it. No one cares. Afterward, his parents just praised him. The parents there encourage their children to behave like that. There were many cases like that. Eleven-, twelve-year-old Jewish kids beat up Palestinians and their parents come along to help them, set their dogs on them - there's a thousand and one stories." (pp 308-309)
See what I mean?
Monday, September 3, 2012
Baruch Goldstein Trumps Rachel Corrie
"The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is deeply concerned by the verdict of Judge Oded Gershon that absolved Israel's military and state of the 2003 murder of American ISM activist Rachel Corrie. Rachel was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip. Despite the American administration stating that the Israeli military investigation had not been 'thorough, credible and transparent' and the Israeli government withholding key video and audio evidence, Judge Gershon found no fault in the investigation or in the conclusion that the military and state were not responsible for Rachel's death. Judge Gershon ruled that Rachel was to blame for her own murder and classifies her non-violent attempt to prevent war crimes as proof that Rachel was not a 'thinking person'. By disregarding international law and granting Israeli war criminals impunity Judge Gershon's verdict exemplifies the fact that Israel's legal system cannot be trusted to administer justice according to international standards." (From the ISM's response to the Rachel Corrie verdict)
Given that Israel's founding ideology - political Zionism - is a species of toxic, tribal nationalism, the very antithesis of the universal principles and standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and that its record in giving the finger to countless UN resolutions is legendary, verdicts such as that in the case of Rachel Corrie (and in many others over the years) are hardly surprising.
As an indication of the depth of the problem, it is worth revisiting the case of Israel's Anders Behring Breivik, Baruch Goldstein. On February 25, 1994, Goldstein, a member of Rabbi Meir Kahane's terrorist Kach organisation, opened fire on worshippers in a Hebron mosque, killing 29 Palestinians and wounding 125. Only a blow to the head by a fire extinguisher ended the massacre - and his life.
According to the Wikipedia entry on Goldstein and his massacre, he was "denounced by mainstream Orthodox Judaism" and "widely described as insane by Israelis." One is left with the impression that Israel's reaction was somehow comparable to that of Norway's following Breivik's Utoya Island massacre. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth, as Israeli scholar and human rights defender Israel Shahak reveals in his penetrating study, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (1999/2004). Some excerpts from Chapter 6, The Real Significance of Baruch Goldstein, serve to contextualise Judge Gershon's verdict in the Corrie case :
"Israeli policies, directed towards Palestinians, other Middle East Arabs (perceived by Zionists as non-Jews) and people of other nations, are only explainable by assuming that they are based upon anti-Gentile feeling. The anti-Gentile feeling is strongest among the most religious Jews but exists as well in this secular milieu. This is the reason why support for Goldstein in 1994 and 1995 had a sequel in the excuses by many Israeli leaders for the slaughter. These excuses were thinly disguised by mostly hypocritical expressions of shock." (p 98)
"[Yediot Ahronot journalist Nahum] Barnea reported: 'Within hours a whole edifice of rationalization was built, according to which Goldstein [a military doctor] had allegedly been under unbearable mental pressure, because he had to attend so many wounded and dead [persons], including Arabs.' The men who propagated this lie knew that Goldstein had refused to treat Arabs. Barnea continued: 'Thus, the Arabs were made guilty for what he could not avoid doing. The implication was that the Arabs assaulted him rather than the other way around and that he really acted for the benefit of the Arabs by letting them finally realize that Jewish blood could not be shed with impunity.' This brazen lie was maintained as long as possible before being abandoned without apology. The propagation of such a lie reveals the influence of Jewish fundamentalism upon the secular parts of the Israeli establishment." (p 99)
"An even greater example of Jewish fundamentalism's influence upon the secular part of the Israeli establishment can be detected in the official arrangement of Goldstein's elaborate funeral at a time that the deliberate character of the massacre could not be denied. The establishment was affected by the fact, widely reported in the Hebrew press but given little place in the foreign press, that within 2 days of the massacre the walls of religious neighborhoods of west Jerusalem (and to a lesser extent of many other religious neighborhoods) were covered by posters extolling Goldstein's virtues and complaining that he did not manage to kill more Arabs. Children of religious settlers who came to Jerusalem to demonstrate sported buttons for months after the massacre that were inscribed: 'Dr Goldstein cured Israel's ills.' Numerous concerts of Jewish religious music and other events often developed into demonstrations of tribute to Goldstein. The Hebrew press reported these incidents of public tribute in copious detail. No major politician protested against such celebrations.
"President Weizman expressed more extravagantly than others his sorrow for the massacre. Weizman, as reported by Uzi Benziman in his March 4, 1994 Haaretz article, was also engaged in lengthy and amiable negotiations with Goldstein's family and Kach comrades concerning a suitably honorable funeral for the murderer. Kiryat Arba settlers, many of whom had already declared themselves in favor of the mass murder in radio and television interviews and had lauded Goldstein as a martyr and holy man, demanded that General Yatom, the commander responsible for the Hebron area, allow the funeral cortage to parade through the city of Hebron, in order to be viewed by the Arabs even though a curfew existed. Yatom did not object outright to the demand but opposed it as something that could cause disorder. Tzvi Katzover, the mayor of Kiryat Arba and one of the most extreme leaders of the religious settlers, telephoned Weizman and threatened that the settlers would make a pogrom of Arabs if their demands were not met. Weizman responded by telephoning the chief of staff and asking why the army opposed the demand of the settlers. According to Benziman, Chief of Staff [Ehud] Barak answered: 'The army was afraid that Arabs would desecrate Goldstein's tomb and carry away his corpse.' In further negotiations involving Barak, Yatom, Rabin, Kach leaders and Kiryat Arba settlers, Weizman assumed the consistant position, as stated by Benziman, that 'the army should pay respect to the desires and sensibilities of the settlers and of the Goldstein family.' Ultimately, the negotiated decision was that a massively attended funeral cortage would take place in Jerusalem and that the police would close some of the busiest streets to the traffic in Goldstein's honor. Afterwards the murderer would be buried in Kiryat Arba along the continuation of Kahane Avenue. According to Benziman, Kach leaders at first rejected this compromise. General Yatom had to approach the Kach leaders in person and beg them abjectly for their agreement, which he finally secured. Yatom also had to obtain consent from the notorious Kiryat Arba rabbi, Dov Lior. As reported in the March 4, 1994, issue of Yerushalaim Lior declared: 'Since Goldstein did what he did in God's own name, he is to be regarded as a righteous man.' Benziman explained the conduct of Weizman and his entourage: 'After the fact the officials of the presidential mansion justify those goings on by the need to becalm the settlers' mood. After the funeral the army provided a guard of honor for Goldstein's tomb. The tomb became a pilgrimage site, not only for the religious settlers but also for delegations of pious Jews from all Israeli cities." (pp 100-102)
I could go on - there's lots more in Shahak's account - but I'm sure you've got the picture. Pro-Israel propaganda notwithstanding, Israel always was, is now, and will continue to be - this side of apartheid - a deeply tribal society in which Gentile-killers will always get special treatment. As an ethnographic state born of a monumental act of injustice to the Arab Palestinians in 1948, it simply cannot be relied upon to dispense justice to its victims, Palestinians or otherwise.
Given that Israel's founding ideology - political Zionism - is a species of toxic, tribal nationalism, the very antithesis of the universal principles and standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and that its record in giving the finger to countless UN resolutions is legendary, verdicts such as that in the case of Rachel Corrie (and in many others over the years) are hardly surprising.
As an indication of the depth of the problem, it is worth revisiting the case of Israel's Anders Behring Breivik, Baruch Goldstein. On February 25, 1994, Goldstein, a member of Rabbi Meir Kahane's terrorist Kach organisation, opened fire on worshippers in a Hebron mosque, killing 29 Palestinians and wounding 125. Only a blow to the head by a fire extinguisher ended the massacre - and his life.
According to the Wikipedia entry on Goldstein and his massacre, he was "denounced by mainstream Orthodox Judaism" and "widely described as insane by Israelis." One is left with the impression that Israel's reaction was somehow comparable to that of Norway's following Breivik's Utoya Island massacre. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth, as Israeli scholar and human rights defender Israel Shahak reveals in his penetrating study, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (1999/2004). Some excerpts from Chapter 6, The Real Significance of Baruch Goldstein, serve to contextualise Judge Gershon's verdict in the Corrie case :
"Israeli policies, directed towards Palestinians, other Middle East Arabs (perceived by Zionists as non-Jews) and people of other nations, are only explainable by assuming that they are based upon anti-Gentile feeling. The anti-Gentile feeling is strongest among the most religious Jews but exists as well in this secular milieu. This is the reason why support for Goldstein in 1994 and 1995 had a sequel in the excuses by many Israeli leaders for the slaughter. These excuses were thinly disguised by mostly hypocritical expressions of shock." (p 98)
"[Yediot Ahronot journalist Nahum] Barnea reported: 'Within hours a whole edifice of rationalization was built, according to which Goldstein [a military doctor] had allegedly been under unbearable mental pressure, because he had to attend so many wounded and dead [persons], including Arabs.' The men who propagated this lie knew that Goldstein had refused to treat Arabs. Barnea continued: 'Thus, the Arabs were made guilty for what he could not avoid doing. The implication was that the Arabs assaulted him rather than the other way around and that he really acted for the benefit of the Arabs by letting them finally realize that Jewish blood could not be shed with impunity.' This brazen lie was maintained as long as possible before being abandoned without apology. The propagation of such a lie reveals the influence of Jewish fundamentalism upon the secular parts of the Israeli establishment." (p 99)
"An even greater example of Jewish fundamentalism's influence upon the secular part of the Israeli establishment can be detected in the official arrangement of Goldstein's elaborate funeral at a time that the deliberate character of the massacre could not be denied. The establishment was affected by the fact, widely reported in the Hebrew press but given little place in the foreign press, that within 2 days of the massacre the walls of religious neighborhoods of west Jerusalem (and to a lesser extent of many other religious neighborhoods) were covered by posters extolling Goldstein's virtues and complaining that he did not manage to kill more Arabs. Children of religious settlers who came to Jerusalem to demonstrate sported buttons for months after the massacre that were inscribed: 'Dr Goldstein cured Israel's ills.' Numerous concerts of Jewish religious music and other events often developed into demonstrations of tribute to Goldstein. The Hebrew press reported these incidents of public tribute in copious detail. No major politician protested against such celebrations.
"President Weizman expressed more extravagantly than others his sorrow for the massacre. Weizman, as reported by Uzi Benziman in his March 4, 1994 Haaretz article, was also engaged in lengthy and amiable negotiations with Goldstein's family and Kach comrades concerning a suitably honorable funeral for the murderer. Kiryat Arba settlers, many of whom had already declared themselves in favor of the mass murder in radio and television interviews and had lauded Goldstein as a martyr and holy man, demanded that General Yatom, the commander responsible for the Hebron area, allow the funeral cortage to parade through the city of Hebron, in order to be viewed by the Arabs even though a curfew existed. Yatom did not object outright to the demand but opposed it as something that could cause disorder. Tzvi Katzover, the mayor of Kiryat Arba and one of the most extreme leaders of the religious settlers, telephoned Weizman and threatened that the settlers would make a pogrom of Arabs if their demands were not met. Weizman responded by telephoning the chief of staff and asking why the army opposed the demand of the settlers. According to Benziman, Chief of Staff [Ehud] Barak answered: 'The army was afraid that Arabs would desecrate Goldstein's tomb and carry away his corpse.' In further negotiations involving Barak, Yatom, Rabin, Kach leaders and Kiryat Arba settlers, Weizman assumed the consistant position, as stated by Benziman, that 'the army should pay respect to the desires and sensibilities of the settlers and of the Goldstein family.' Ultimately, the negotiated decision was that a massively attended funeral cortage would take place in Jerusalem and that the police would close some of the busiest streets to the traffic in Goldstein's honor. Afterwards the murderer would be buried in Kiryat Arba along the continuation of Kahane Avenue. According to Benziman, Kach leaders at first rejected this compromise. General Yatom had to approach the Kach leaders in person and beg them abjectly for their agreement, which he finally secured. Yatom also had to obtain consent from the notorious Kiryat Arba rabbi, Dov Lior. As reported in the March 4, 1994, issue of Yerushalaim Lior declared: 'Since Goldstein did what he did in God's own name, he is to be regarded as a righteous man.' Benziman explained the conduct of Weizman and his entourage: 'After the fact the officials of the presidential mansion justify those goings on by the need to becalm the settlers' mood. After the funeral the army provided a guard of honor for Goldstein's tomb. The tomb became a pilgrimage site, not only for the religious settlers but also for delegations of pious Jews from all Israeli cities." (pp 100-102)
I could go on - there's lots more in Shahak's account - but I'm sure you've got the picture. Pro-Israel propaganda notwithstanding, Israel always was, is now, and will continue to be - this side of apartheid - a deeply tribal society in which Gentile-killers will always get special treatment. As an ethnographic state born of a monumental act of injustice to the Arab Palestinians in 1948, it simply cannot be relied upon to dispense justice to its victims, Palestinians or otherwise.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
In Senate Estimates They Can't Hear You Scream
The questioning of SBS's managing director Michael Ebeid on February 14 by elements of the Senate Environment & Communications Legislation Committee over the broadcaster's decision to screen The Promise is revealing of the Israel lobby's ability to deploy its federal parliamentary assets (in this instance, Senators Ryan, Kroger and Fifield) to intimidate SBS or ABC personnel for any expression of opinion or perspective that deviates from the party line of unconditional and uncritical support for the state Israel.
Here are the relevant extracts from the proceedings with accompanying commentary:
Chairperson, Labor senator Doug Cameron:
"As you are probably aware [Mr Ebeid], there has been a lot of controversy around the drama The Promise. Obviously there is a fair bit of interest here but I do not want to have the whole of estimates dealing with The Promise, so can you just give the committee your view on the controversy arising over that drama?"
The very fact that Senator Cameron, one of the rare few in federal parliament capable of independent, critical thought on the issue of Palestine/Israel, feels compelled to say that he doesn't want the whole of estimates dealing with The Promise is an important indication that, as far as the lobby's parliamentary assets are concerned, the protection from criticism of Israel's image takes precedence over any other issue, a quite incredible state of affairs, and one that passes wholly unremarked by the ms media.
Equally noteworthy is the opening sentence of Ebeid's reply, in which he reveals that, whenever SBS dares to run an item on the issue of Palestine/Israel, a ruckus is sure to follow:
"We are certainly aware that any program that we have, whether a documentary or a drama, as this was, that concerns Israel and Palestine certainly has the potential to cause a lot of controversy, as this program did."
In the case of The Promise, a ruckus sufficient, it seems, to compel the broadcaster into taking the following, quite unecessary, evasive action:
"As anticipated, the program did cause some controversy here in Australia, as it did in the UK. In a response to that controversy, after the first episode we had several discussions with some of the Jewish community affairs groups in both Sydney and Melbourne. In response to that, we tried to make sure that all of our audience members were well aware that it was a drama and so we placed a statement at the beginning of the following 3 episodes... to remind audiences that this was a work of fiction and a drama."
To Cameron's great credit, no doubt aware that Ryan, Kroger and Fifield were straining on the leash for a go at Ebeid, he injected the following welcome note of common sense and proportion into the dismal proceedings:
"I enjoyed the program. I thank SBS for sending copies of the program. Because of parliamentary committments I had not seen it. I have now managed to see it. I knew there was going to be a controversy. I enjoyed it. It has had some critical acclaim, hasn't it?"
Cameron's sweetness and light, however, gave way to Liberal senator Scott Ryan's (rambammed 2009 & 2010) assertion that the film "negatively stereotyped" Jews and Israelis:
"[S]ome of the biggest slanders in history have been works of fiction. The overwhelming majority of depictions of Jewish people in this... were of Jewish children throwing rocks at Arab children and soldiers standing by and doing nothing... You have scenes of Jewish women settlers in Hebron... calling Arab women 'whores'... In the historical part you have the clearing of Arab civilians, portraying Jews as the aggressors... I put it to you that [those scenes] represent a negative portrayal of Jewish Israelis."
Note how, in typical Zionist fashion, Ryan simply can't bring himself to refer to Palestinians as Palestinians, and makes no attempt to distinguish between Jews and Israelis. He also seems to be suggesting here that rock-throwing settler children and their foul-mouthed mothers are entirely fictional. Not so. They are, unfortunately, as real as the senator's appalling ignorance of what is going on in Hebron. (See my posts Two Uneasy Pieces (29/3/11) and The Muslim Brotherhood are Just Pussies! (15/11/11) Furthermore, in relation to the events of 1948, Ryan is ludicrously suggesting that by accurately dramatising some of the incidents of Zionist ethnic cleansing that took place at that time, such as the Deir Yassin massacre and the driving out of the Palestinian population of Haifa, the film is negatively portraying the Israelis who perpetrated those crimes. Would he, I wonder, complain with regard to any other dramatisations of war crimes that they unfairly show the perpetrators in a negative light? The mind boggles.
Ryan continued:
"The letter from SBS to Mr Wertheim does concede that people are more likely to be sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than the Israeli cause at the end. If the overwhelming majority of the portrayals of events is of instances like that, which are the subject of news reports and other complaints to your news service and other news services at intermittent times, if that is not reinforcing a negative stereotype, what is?"
The possibility that Israeli behaviour has for decades now been generating and reinforcing its own negative stereotypes, would obviously be lost on Senator Ryan.
Ryan's nonsense was followed by Liberal senator Helen Kroger (rambammed 2007), who wanted to know - seriously - why SBS doesn't run programs by the Israel lobby before broadcasting them:
"You can see why there is the number of people who wish to ask questions on the level of concern about this production. I will follow up with just a couple more comments, then. Firstly, when you are assessing the quality of content and quality of script that you were referring to and it is a subject based on a particular take on history, do you engage historical experts to give you input into assessing that quality?"
Ebeid: "Certainly not for a drama, but for a documentary we might consult some. I would say, on average, probably not."
"Given the controversial nature of the content of this, did you consider consulting any of the community group stakeholders and getting their feedback on it before it went to air?"
Ebeid: No. We would not normally do that.
Finally, Senator Mitch Fifield (rambammed 2010) revealed the extent of his mastery of the film and the issue it dramatised by suggesting that it was really all about religion!:
"Section 1.6 [of the SBS Code of Practice] says that SBS will not support any particular religion over any other... As this is a drama, I guess it could be construed that it was a dramatic depiction of one religion denigrating another."
Although the committee eventually moved on to lesser matters, the balm of chairperson Doug Cameron's parting words to Ebeid - "I hope tonight has helped the DVD sales for The Promise" - may well have been responsible for restoring the poor man's sanity following the hearing.
PS: Why not help fulfill Cameron's hope by buying a few copies of The Promise and distributing them among your friends. You can pick them up at any JB HiFi or Dymocks outlet.
Here are the relevant extracts from the proceedings with accompanying commentary:
Chairperson, Labor senator Doug Cameron:
"As you are probably aware [Mr Ebeid], there has been a lot of controversy around the drama The Promise. Obviously there is a fair bit of interest here but I do not want to have the whole of estimates dealing with The Promise, so can you just give the committee your view on the controversy arising over that drama?"
The very fact that Senator Cameron, one of the rare few in federal parliament capable of independent, critical thought on the issue of Palestine/Israel, feels compelled to say that he doesn't want the whole of estimates dealing with The Promise is an important indication that, as far as the lobby's parliamentary assets are concerned, the protection from criticism of Israel's image takes precedence over any other issue, a quite incredible state of affairs, and one that passes wholly unremarked by the ms media.
Equally noteworthy is the opening sentence of Ebeid's reply, in which he reveals that, whenever SBS dares to run an item on the issue of Palestine/Israel, a ruckus is sure to follow:
"We are certainly aware that any program that we have, whether a documentary or a drama, as this was, that concerns Israel and Palestine certainly has the potential to cause a lot of controversy, as this program did."
In the case of The Promise, a ruckus sufficient, it seems, to compel the broadcaster into taking the following, quite unecessary, evasive action:
"As anticipated, the program did cause some controversy here in Australia, as it did in the UK. In a response to that controversy, after the first episode we had several discussions with some of the Jewish community affairs groups in both Sydney and Melbourne. In response to that, we tried to make sure that all of our audience members were well aware that it was a drama and so we placed a statement at the beginning of the following 3 episodes... to remind audiences that this was a work of fiction and a drama."
To Cameron's great credit, no doubt aware that Ryan, Kroger and Fifield were straining on the leash for a go at Ebeid, he injected the following welcome note of common sense and proportion into the dismal proceedings:
"I enjoyed the program. I thank SBS for sending copies of the program. Because of parliamentary committments I had not seen it. I have now managed to see it. I knew there was going to be a controversy. I enjoyed it. It has had some critical acclaim, hasn't it?"
Cameron's sweetness and light, however, gave way to Liberal senator Scott Ryan's (rambammed 2009 & 2010) assertion that the film "negatively stereotyped" Jews and Israelis:
"[S]ome of the biggest slanders in history have been works of fiction. The overwhelming majority of depictions of Jewish people in this... were of Jewish children throwing rocks at Arab children and soldiers standing by and doing nothing... You have scenes of Jewish women settlers in Hebron... calling Arab women 'whores'... In the historical part you have the clearing of Arab civilians, portraying Jews as the aggressors... I put it to you that [those scenes] represent a negative portrayal of Jewish Israelis."
Note how, in typical Zionist fashion, Ryan simply can't bring himself to refer to Palestinians as Palestinians, and makes no attempt to distinguish between Jews and Israelis. He also seems to be suggesting here that rock-throwing settler children and their foul-mouthed mothers are entirely fictional. Not so. They are, unfortunately, as real as the senator's appalling ignorance of what is going on in Hebron. (See my posts Two Uneasy Pieces (29/3/11) and The Muslim Brotherhood are Just Pussies! (15/11/11) Furthermore, in relation to the events of 1948, Ryan is ludicrously suggesting that by accurately dramatising some of the incidents of Zionist ethnic cleansing that took place at that time, such as the Deir Yassin massacre and the driving out of the Palestinian population of Haifa, the film is negatively portraying the Israelis who perpetrated those crimes. Would he, I wonder, complain with regard to any other dramatisations of war crimes that they unfairly show the perpetrators in a negative light? The mind boggles.
Ryan continued:
"The letter from SBS to Mr Wertheim does concede that people are more likely to be sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than the Israeli cause at the end. If the overwhelming majority of the portrayals of events is of instances like that, which are the subject of news reports and other complaints to your news service and other news services at intermittent times, if that is not reinforcing a negative stereotype, what is?"
The possibility that Israeli behaviour has for decades now been generating and reinforcing its own negative stereotypes, would obviously be lost on Senator Ryan.
Ryan's nonsense was followed by Liberal senator Helen Kroger (rambammed 2007), who wanted to know - seriously - why SBS doesn't run programs by the Israel lobby before broadcasting them:
"You can see why there is the number of people who wish to ask questions on the level of concern about this production. I will follow up with just a couple more comments, then. Firstly, when you are assessing the quality of content and quality of script that you were referring to and it is a subject based on a particular take on history, do you engage historical experts to give you input into assessing that quality?"
Ebeid: "Certainly not for a drama, but for a documentary we might consult some. I would say, on average, probably not."
"Given the controversial nature of the content of this, did you consider consulting any of the community group stakeholders and getting their feedback on it before it went to air?"
Ebeid: No. We would not normally do that.
Finally, Senator Mitch Fifield (rambammed 2010) revealed the extent of his mastery of the film and the issue it dramatised by suggesting that it was really all about religion!:
"Section 1.6 [of the SBS Code of Practice] says that SBS will not support any particular religion over any other... As this is a drama, I guess it could be construed that it was a dramatic depiction of one religion denigrating another."
Although the committee eventually moved on to lesser matters, the balm of chairperson Doug Cameron's parting words to Ebeid - "I hope tonight has helped the DVD sales for The Promise" - may well have been responsible for restoring the poor man's sanity following the hearing.
PS: Why not help fulfill Cameron's hope by buying a few copies of The Promise and distributing them among your friends. You can pick them up at any JB HiFi or Dymocks outlet.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Muslim Brotherhood are Just Pussies!
Meet the 'ladies' of the Zionist Sisterhood:
The smug, smirking, ball-busting Israeli settler woman, loitering with (genocidal) intent on a street somewhere in Israeli-occupied Hebron, simply cannot resist the guy with the microphone:
Here it's great. This is Hebron Heights. We've got King David's palace, fresh air, olive trees, fruit trees. The entire Hebron landscape. It's the best.
-Do the Arabs here make trouble?
If they do, then we... That's the challenge. This is not paradise. There's still a lot of work to do and... From two of my windows you can see that side of town, all of Hebron. My neighbour calls it 'motivational windows'. You open them in the morning and see what else has to be done. Until we can return to there... That's it.
-It's Jewish or Arab...?
(Pointing to house in a wire cage) This house is still Arab. Another one here (pointing to door daubed with Hebrew graffiti and stars of David) used to be Arab and today it houses Jews. It will become more and more Jewish.
-(Palestinian woman standing on her doorstep inside the wire cage calls out to interviewer) She wants to lock us in!
(Zionist Sister marches towards her, barking orders) Get in the house!
-I won't close the door.
Close it! Close the door!
-Stay out of this!
Close the door!
-Stay out of this! I'm not closing the door.
Sit here, in the cage.
-I'm not closing the door.
Sit here. Close the door!
-I don't want to go inside.
Close the... (Zionist Sister notices she's being filmed by the woman's daughter) Get the camera out of here!
-Call the police.
Turn the camera off!
-It's early in the morning, what do you want from us?
Shut up!
-(Calling to Israeli soldier) Don't you see what she's doing?
Sharmoota (Whore), sharmoota.
-You are.
Sharmoota.
-You are. Go away.
Sharmoota.
-Look what she's doing. Go away!
Sharmoota.
-Go away, you bitch!
Sharmoota.
-(To soldier) Did you see what she did?
(Dragging it out for effect) Sharmooota. Sharmooota. You are a sharmooota. Your daughter is too. Don't you dare open this door!
-Don't you dare come here!
Sharmooota.
-I'll leave as I please.
(The complete b'tselem.org video - Orthodox Jewish woman harasses Palestinian - may be viewed at angryarab.blogspot.com, 13/11/11)
Meanwhile, across the seas, somewhere in Israel's nurturing motherland, her Sister*, Rachel Abrams, a woman with (genocidal) attitude, the wife of neocon Bush official Elliot Abrams, and Board Member of Bill Kristol's Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), is so overcome by the news of Gilad Shalit's release that she just up and vomits it all into her blog, titled - but of course - Bad Rachel:
"He's free and he's home in the bosom of his family and his country. Celebrate, Israel, with all the joyous gratitude that fills your hearts, as we all do along with you. Then round up his captors, the slaughtering, death-worshiping, innocent-butchering, child-sacrificing savages who dip their hands in blood and use women - those who aren't strapping bombs to their own devils' spawn and sending them out to meet their 72 virgins by taking the lives of the school-bus-riding, heart-drawing, Transformer-doodling, homework-losing children of Others - and their offspring - those who haven't already been pimped out by their mothers to the murder god - as shields, hiding behind their burkas and cradles like the unmanned animals they are, and throw them not into your prisons, where they can bide until they're traded by the thousands for another child of Israel, but into the sea, to float there, food for sharks, stargazers, and whatever other oceanic carnivores God has put there for the purpose." (GILAD!!!!!!!!!! badrachel.blogspot.com, 18/10/11)
[* "To the Jews of Judea and Samaria whose every stud hammered and floor tile laid in that magnificent, empty lunar landscape summoned the disapproving scrutiny of allies and the menacing outrage of foes, and who must contemplate the possibility of expulsion - or worse - every day for the sake of a 'peace' with a people whose declared war against them has never abated: May it be a sweet year." (May it be a sweet year, badrachel.blogspot.com, 28/9/10)]
The smug, smirking, ball-busting Israeli settler woman, loitering with (genocidal) intent on a street somewhere in Israeli-occupied Hebron, simply cannot resist the guy with the microphone:
Here it's great. This is Hebron Heights. We've got King David's palace, fresh air, olive trees, fruit trees. The entire Hebron landscape. It's the best.
-Do the Arabs here make trouble?
If they do, then we... That's the challenge. This is not paradise. There's still a lot of work to do and... From two of my windows you can see that side of town, all of Hebron. My neighbour calls it 'motivational windows'. You open them in the morning and see what else has to be done. Until we can return to there... That's it.
-It's Jewish or Arab...?
(Pointing to house in a wire cage) This house is still Arab. Another one here (pointing to door daubed with Hebrew graffiti and stars of David) used to be Arab and today it houses Jews. It will become more and more Jewish.
-(Palestinian woman standing on her doorstep inside the wire cage calls out to interviewer) She wants to lock us in!
(Zionist Sister marches towards her, barking orders) Get in the house!
-I won't close the door.
Close it! Close the door!
-Stay out of this!
Close the door!
-Stay out of this! I'm not closing the door.
Sit here, in the cage.
-I'm not closing the door.
Sit here. Close the door!
-I don't want to go inside.
Close the... (Zionist Sister notices she's being filmed by the woman's daughter) Get the camera out of here!
-Call the police.
Turn the camera off!
-It's early in the morning, what do you want from us?
Shut up!
-(Calling to Israeli soldier) Don't you see what she's doing?
Sharmoota (Whore), sharmoota.
-You are.
Sharmoota.
-You are. Go away.
Sharmoota.
-Look what she's doing. Go away!
Sharmoota.
-Go away, you bitch!
Sharmoota.
-(To soldier) Did you see what she did?
(Dragging it out for effect) Sharmooota. Sharmooota. You are a sharmooota. Your daughter is too. Don't you dare open this door!
-Don't you dare come here!
Sharmooota.
-I'll leave as I please.
(The complete b'tselem.org video - Orthodox Jewish woman harasses Palestinian - may be viewed at angryarab.blogspot.com, 13/11/11)
Meanwhile, across the seas, somewhere in Israel's nurturing motherland, her Sister*, Rachel Abrams, a woman with (genocidal) attitude, the wife of neocon Bush official Elliot Abrams, and Board Member of Bill Kristol's Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), is so overcome by the news of Gilad Shalit's release that she just up and vomits it all into her blog, titled - but of course - Bad Rachel:
"He's free and he's home in the bosom of his family and his country. Celebrate, Israel, with all the joyous gratitude that fills your hearts, as we all do along with you. Then round up his captors, the slaughtering, death-worshiping, innocent-butchering, child-sacrificing savages who dip their hands in blood and use women - those who aren't strapping bombs to their own devils' spawn and sending them out to meet their 72 virgins by taking the lives of the school-bus-riding, heart-drawing, Transformer-doodling, homework-losing children of Others - and their offspring - those who haven't already been pimped out by their mothers to the murder god - as shields, hiding behind their burkas and cradles like the unmanned animals they are, and throw them not into your prisons, where they can bide until they're traded by the thousands for another child of Israel, but into the sea, to float there, food for sharks, stargazers, and whatever other oceanic carnivores God has put there for the purpose." (GILAD!!!!!!!!!! badrachel.blogspot.com, 18/10/11)
[* "To the Jews of Judea and Samaria whose every stud hammered and floor tile laid in that magnificent, empty lunar landscape summoned the disapproving scrutiny of allies and the menacing outrage of foes, and who must contemplate the possibility of expulsion - or worse - every day for the sake of a 'peace' with a people whose declared war against them has never abated: May it be a sweet year." (May it be a sweet year, badrachel.blogspot.com, 28/9/10)]
Friday, August 19, 2011
Sport Rots the Brain
You've really got to hand it to Israel's Ministry for Pulling the Wool Over Western Eyes, aka the Peres Centre for Peace, for proving that sport rots the brain.
For example, to make up the Palestinian component of their joint Israeli-Palestinian football team, dubbed - what else? - the Peace Team, the PCfP has recruited the likes of Khaled Abu Althom:
"... Kamal Abu Althom, a Hebron soccer coach, claimed it was all about getting to know the players. 'Look, you know about the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Everyone on the West Bank thinks of Israelis as our enemies. And the only thing I knew about Israelis was what people said about them, what I read in the newspapers and what I heard on the radio all my life. They are killing us, they are destroying our houses, and so on. Then I came to play on the Peace Team and met Israelis for the first time face to face as individuals. Before, they were 'the enemy'. But when I talk with the Israelis, I'm talking with a human being - not an 'Israeli' or whatever - you will surely change your mind." (Peace Team a mighty mark, Daily Telegraph, 13/8/11)
Now here's a guy who lives in what the Palestinian researchers, who keep tabs on these things, call Ground Zero for Israeli settler violence but claims he's only ever heard about these Zionist pitbulls? I mean, does he live a sheltered life or what?
[* 451 acts of settler violence in Hebron; 460 in Hebron governorate: Hebron: Ground Zero for Israeli settler violence, April/2011, blog.thejerusalemfund.org]
As for the PT's Australian coach, Robert 'Dipper' DiPierdomenico, I sincerely hope his grasp of the game is better than his grasp of history:
"I couldn't believe people wanted to bring Israelis and Palestinians together to play football. I thought, 'You're kidding, aren't you?' I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Five weeks later I was in Israel coaching in the team. We're talking about thousands of years of war, and now look at them." (ibid)
Dipper, you're kidding, aren't you?
[On what really goes on in Israeli sport, read my 17/6/11 post Foul Play]
For example, to make up the Palestinian component of their joint Israeli-Palestinian football team, dubbed - what else? - the Peace Team, the PCfP has recruited the likes of Khaled Abu Althom:
"... Kamal Abu Althom, a Hebron soccer coach, claimed it was all about getting to know the players. 'Look, you know about the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Everyone on the West Bank thinks of Israelis as our enemies. And the only thing I knew about Israelis was what people said about them, what I read in the newspapers and what I heard on the radio all my life. They are killing us, they are destroying our houses, and so on. Then I came to play on the Peace Team and met Israelis for the first time face to face as individuals. Before, they were 'the enemy'. But when I talk with the Israelis, I'm talking with a human being - not an 'Israeli' or whatever - you will surely change your mind." (Peace Team a mighty mark, Daily Telegraph, 13/8/11)
Now here's a guy who lives in what the Palestinian researchers, who keep tabs on these things, call Ground Zero for Israeli settler violence but claims he's only ever heard about these Zionist pitbulls? I mean, does he live a sheltered life or what?
[* 451 acts of settler violence in Hebron; 460 in Hebron governorate: Hebron: Ground Zero for Israeli settler violence, April/2011, blog.thejerusalemfund.org]
As for the PT's Australian coach, Robert 'Dipper' DiPierdomenico, I sincerely hope his grasp of the game is better than his grasp of history:
"I couldn't believe people wanted to bring Israelis and Palestinians together to play football. I thought, 'You're kidding, aren't you?' I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Five weeks later I was in Israel coaching in the team. We're talking about thousands of years of war, and now look at them." (ibid)
Dipper, you're kidding, aren't you?
[On what really goes on in Israeli sport, read my 17/6/11 post Foul Play]
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
We Need to Talk About Ted
What is it with Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and BDS?
What do we really know about this guy?
We know that he believes that until the creation of Melbourne's parliamentary bearpit in 1851, Victoria was engulfed in darkness, and we know that he's been successfully rambammed:
"The Chanukah Menorah was lit in the Victorian Parliament House by the Shliach of Chabad of Melbourne CBD, in attendance were the Deputy Premier of Victoria Rob Hull and leader of the Opposition Ted Baillieu, as well as other ministers and members of Parliament and leaders of the Melbourne Jewish community... [T]he head Shliach of the Chabad of Melbourne CBD, Rabbi Chaim Herzog explained that this festival teaches us of the need to ensure that the light overshadows the darkness especially when the deeds of the terrorists may their memory be erased make the darkness so plain to see... The leader of the Opposition Ted Baillieu was then invited to speak, he told the gathering that in relation to Parliament House, this house demonstrates that freedom and democracy arrived here 160 years ago, which like Chanukah demonstrates the victory of light over darkness, therefore it's appropriate that it be celebrated in this building. Mr Baillieu spoke of his trip to Israel, where he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre, in which the darkness and suffering which the Jews endured was so obviously noted, therefore the festival of Chanukah will bring light on the nations to ensure no repetition of such events could occur." (Chanukah at Parliament House, chabad.org.au, undated)
Speaking of Chanukah, had Ted been around for the following Chabad event he would surely have been inspired by this wonderful tale of a bravely flickering Jewish light in a sea of Arab darkness:
"Chabad of Melbourne CBD was the venue of 'A Lunchtime Encounter with the Rebbe's Shliach in Hevron'. When Rabbi Chaim Herzog... introduced Rabbi Danny Cohen the Rebbe's Shliach in Chevron, he said we may both be Shluchim of the Rebbe, but my shliches is the easier one at least I am not surrounded by hundreds of thousands of hostile Arabs. Rabbi Cohen who lives in downtown Hevron with his wife and 6 children came to Melbourne to share the thrills and chills of living on the front lines of Jewish history - past, present and future. Chevron: The Biblical city of the founders of the Jewish nation is currently the home to hundreds of Jewish residents, a thousand Jewish soldiers and hundreds of thousands of hostile Arabs. A large crowd came to show their support of what Rabbi Cohen is doing there, he encourages the soldiers to have faith, tour groups are invited for Shabbosim, young students are enlightened as to where the beginnings and endings of their forefathers took place. The lecture was followed by Lunch and Mincha."
What a shame he missed it, but all is not lost! Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, for a real inspiration fix Ted need only access chabadhebron.com where he can read for himself all about those thrills & chills. If I may digress, my fav is the Youtube video with the following caption: "As worldwide media strains to portray Jewish soldiers as powerful brutes, a group of soldiers in Hevron boogied their way down an Arab street in full combat gear. See for yourself how the soldiers change the screech from the local mosque to a sweet melody of rhythm and outright fun!" (Combat gear coreography [sic] rocks the street!, 8/7/10)
We know that Ted should choose his friends more carefully:
"The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has extended 'sincere congratulations' to Victorian Liberal Party leader Ted Baillieu on his 'stunning election victory and on becoming the 46th Premier of Victoria'. Mark Leibler, AIJAC's National Chairman, also expressed appreciation for Mr Baillieu's 'long-standing support of Israel and genuine understanding of the interests and needs of the Australian Jewish community'. 'We have no doubt that as Premier, you will continue to be a true friend to both the Jewish people and the Jewish state', he added." (AIJAC congratulates Ted Baillieu on his election as Premier of Victoria, aijac.org.au, 30/11/10)
We know that although Ted's election victory was like unto the victory of the Maccabees, Melbourne's Greek community was thankfully not put to the sword:
"The seventh flame of the Chanukah Menorah was kindled at an event in the Victorian State Parliament... Premier Ted Baillieu addressed the crowd regarding the significance of delivering his first speech at a community function, since his election as Premier, being during Chanukah for 3 special reasons. The Premier first acknowledged that Chanukah marked a personal victory for himself, as election results revealing his appointment to Premier were released on Chanukah. He later expounded on this comparison, by stating that Chanukah celebrates not just an ordinary victory, but the defeat of the masses by minority groups, even in the face of tremendous adversity. The Premier thus paralleled his emerging from his position as head of a minority party to head of the Governing party, to the miraculous win of the Maccabees over the multitudes of Greek soldiers. He also emphasised that Chanukah is celebrated as a festival of victory for the Jewish nation, marking an end to religious oppression." (Chanukah celebration Victorian State parliament, chabad.org.au, undated)
We know that Ted is more than happy to see tax-free Australian dollars flow into Israeli coffers:
"'Anything is possible', was the message from The Hon Ted Baillieu MLA, Premier of Victoria, who was the guest speaker at the United Israel Appeal Community Evening held on Tuesday 15th March at Lincoln of Toorak. In stating that 'the Jewish Community is vital to the whole world', Mr Baillieu particularly noted the solidarity in our community which works so well together as we are [a] strong, inspiring and innovative unit... His sentiments highlighted the importance of the State of Israel in that Israel 'makes it possible' for their own but also for the others and UIA 'makes it possible' as it grows for the future of Israel." (2011 community evening, uiavac.org, 17/3/11)
While Ted may have missed hearing all about the thrills & chills in liberated Hebron, how lucky was he not to have missed these tales of Israeli daring-do in the evil kingdom of Hamastan:
"Second speaker for the evening was Australian-born IDF officer Captain Benjamin Rutland, Head of the NATO Desk, IDF Strategic Division. Rutland discussed his experience as a spokesperson for the IDF, particularly during the Gaza War and shared personal stories of Olim that he has been fortunate enough to have served with, many of whom would not have been able to if it wasn't for the assistance provided by the Jewish Agency and UIA." (ibid)
We know he's a party animal:
"<strong>Baillieu addressed a large gathering at Melbourne's Windsor Hotel last Wednesday as part of Israel's 63rd Independence Day celebrations. The habitual swimmer also made a 'teetotaller's toast' to the Jewish state... Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem commended Victoria for its support of Israel... The crowd was also addressed by Jewish Community Council of Victoria president John Searle and Zionist Council of Victoria president Sam Tatarka, whose organisation hosted the event." (Teetotaller toast to Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 10/6/11)
Finally, we know Ted'd be out of his depth in a puddle.
What do we really know about this guy?
We know that he believes that until the creation of Melbourne's parliamentary bearpit in 1851, Victoria was engulfed in darkness, and we know that he's been successfully rambammed:
"The Chanukah Menorah was lit in the Victorian Parliament House by the Shliach of Chabad of Melbourne CBD, in attendance were the Deputy Premier of Victoria Rob Hull and leader of the Opposition Ted Baillieu, as well as other ministers and members of Parliament and leaders of the Melbourne Jewish community... [T]he head Shliach of the Chabad of Melbourne CBD, Rabbi Chaim Herzog explained that this festival teaches us of the need to ensure that the light overshadows the darkness especially when the deeds of the terrorists may their memory be erased make the darkness so plain to see... The leader of the Opposition Ted Baillieu was then invited to speak, he told the gathering that in relation to Parliament House, this house demonstrates that freedom and democracy arrived here 160 years ago, which like Chanukah demonstrates the victory of light over darkness, therefore it's appropriate that it be celebrated in this building. Mr Baillieu spoke of his trip to Israel, where he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre, in which the darkness and suffering which the Jews endured was so obviously noted, therefore the festival of Chanukah will bring light on the nations to ensure no repetition of such events could occur." (Chanukah at Parliament House, chabad.org.au, undated)
Speaking of Chanukah, had Ted been around for the following Chabad event he would surely have been inspired by this wonderful tale of a bravely flickering Jewish light in a sea of Arab darkness:
"Chabad of Melbourne CBD was the venue of 'A Lunchtime Encounter with the Rebbe's Shliach in Hevron'. When Rabbi Chaim Herzog... introduced Rabbi Danny Cohen the Rebbe's Shliach in Chevron, he said we may both be Shluchim of the Rebbe, but my shliches is the easier one at least I am not surrounded by hundreds of thousands of hostile Arabs. Rabbi Cohen who lives in downtown Hevron with his wife and 6 children came to Melbourne to share the thrills and chills of living on the front lines of Jewish history - past, present and future. Chevron: The Biblical city of the founders of the Jewish nation is currently the home to hundreds of Jewish residents, a thousand Jewish soldiers and hundreds of thousands of hostile Arabs. A large crowd came to show their support of what Rabbi Cohen is doing there, he encourages the soldiers to have faith, tour groups are invited for Shabbosim, young students are enlightened as to where the beginnings and endings of their forefathers took place. The lecture was followed by Lunch and Mincha."
What a shame he missed it, but all is not lost! Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, for a real inspiration fix Ted need only access chabadhebron.com where he can read for himself all about those thrills & chills. If I may digress, my fav is the Youtube video with the following caption: "As worldwide media strains to portray Jewish soldiers as powerful brutes, a group of soldiers in Hevron boogied their way down an Arab street in full combat gear. See for yourself how the soldiers change the screech from the local mosque to a sweet melody of rhythm and outright fun!" (Combat gear coreography [sic] rocks the street!, 8/7/10)
We know that Ted should choose his friends more carefully:
"The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has extended 'sincere congratulations' to Victorian Liberal Party leader Ted Baillieu on his 'stunning election victory and on becoming the 46th Premier of Victoria'. Mark Leibler, AIJAC's National Chairman, also expressed appreciation for Mr Baillieu's 'long-standing support of Israel and genuine understanding of the interests and needs of the Australian Jewish community'. 'We have no doubt that as Premier, you will continue to be a true friend to both the Jewish people and the Jewish state', he added." (AIJAC congratulates Ted Baillieu on his election as Premier of Victoria, aijac.org.au, 30/11/10)
We know that although Ted's election victory was like unto the victory of the Maccabees, Melbourne's Greek community was thankfully not put to the sword:
"The seventh flame of the Chanukah Menorah was kindled at an event in the Victorian State Parliament... Premier Ted Baillieu addressed the crowd regarding the significance of delivering his first speech at a community function, since his election as Premier, being during Chanukah for 3 special reasons. The Premier first acknowledged that Chanukah marked a personal victory for himself, as election results revealing his appointment to Premier were released on Chanukah. He later expounded on this comparison, by stating that Chanukah celebrates not just an ordinary victory, but the defeat of the masses by minority groups, even in the face of tremendous adversity. The Premier thus paralleled his emerging from his position as head of a minority party to head of the Governing party, to the miraculous win of the Maccabees over the multitudes of Greek soldiers. He also emphasised that Chanukah is celebrated as a festival of victory for the Jewish nation, marking an end to religious oppression." (Chanukah celebration Victorian State parliament, chabad.org.au, undated)
We know that Ted is more than happy to see tax-free Australian dollars flow into Israeli coffers:
"'Anything is possible', was the message from The Hon Ted Baillieu MLA, Premier of Victoria, who was the guest speaker at the United Israel Appeal Community Evening held on Tuesday 15th March at Lincoln of Toorak. In stating that 'the Jewish Community is vital to the whole world', Mr Baillieu particularly noted the solidarity in our community which works so well together as we are [a] strong, inspiring and innovative unit... His sentiments highlighted the importance of the State of Israel in that Israel 'makes it possible' for their own but also for the others and UIA 'makes it possible' as it grows for the future of Israel." (2011 community evening, uiavac.org, 17/3/11)
While Ted may have missed hearing all about the thrills & chills in liberated Hebron, how lucky was he not to have missed these tales of Israeli daring-do in the evil kingdom of Hamastan:
"Second speaker for the evening was Australian-born IDF officer Captain Benjamin Rutland, Head of the NATO Desk, IDF Strategic Division. Rutland discussed his experience as a spokesperson for the IDF, particularly during the Gaza War and shared personal stories of Olim that he has been fortunate enough to have served with, many of whom would not have been able to if it wasn't for the assistance provided by the Jewish Agency and UIA." (ibid)
We know he's a party animal:
"<strong>Baillieu addressed a large gathering at Melbourne's Windsor Hotel last Wednesday as part of Israel's 63rd Independence Day celebrations. The habitual swimmer also made a 'teetotaller's toast' to the Jewish state... Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem commended Victoria for its support of Israel... The crowd was also addressed by Jewish Community Council of Victoria president John Searle and Zionist Council of Victoria president Sam Tatarka, whose organisation hosted the event." (Teetotaller toast to Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 10/6/11)
Finally, we know Ted'd be out of his depth in a puddle.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Two Uneasy Pieces
"Every fighter for justice in the world should ask himself/herself: what have I done against Israel today?" The Angry Arab
Today I watched two YouTube videos posted by Max Blumenthal on his website.
The first, from occupied East Jerusalem, was captioned: Jewish settlers filmed themselves humiliating a local Palestinian man, or, as they call it, 'lowering the confidence of Palestinians in the neighborhood':
The video opens with a title in Hebrew. A young, neatly dressed Palestinian man emerges from a house. An off-camera voice hails him in Hebrew. Calling him over? He approaches, answering in Hebrew. Maybe he's asking what they want. There is no aggression in him, he appears completely unaware of what's coming. The 'voice' proceeds to tip a bucket of what appears to be white paint over his head. The thick white substance covers his head and face, and drips down onto his clothes. He appears stunned, gasping for breath. He walks off, muttering something, occasionally looking over his shoulder, to the accompaniment of a jaunty piano piece provided by the maker of the film. I am suitably awed by the creativity and humour of those who created this filmic bon bon. And the piano accompaniment, so cute! Next year's Tropfest? The next Israeli film festival perhaps?
The second video was simply captioned Settlers assault Palestinian girls on the way to school in occupied Hebron:
A group of teenage Jewish settler girls are standing on a hillside by a path. A young female international volunteer appears to be trying to negotiate passage with an Israeli policeman. In the distance, a group of Palestinian schoolgirls led by their teacher and another volunteer approach. The settler girls mill around excitedly. They begin chanting. It sounds Arabic to me. I catch ma fi filastin (There is no Palestine) but the rest is unclear, apart from the word Israel. The settler girls block the path as the schoolgirls near. A scuffle ensues. An Israeli soldier appears, making a desultory effort to separate the two groups. One of the settler girls kicks the Palestinian teacher, a middle-aged woman, from behind. Another soldier, or perhaps the same one, urges the remonstrating teacher to move on. I can hear the Arabic word imshi (Let's go). The path soon ends at the wall of a tall building where a set of narrow steps lead steeply down to a street below. As the schoolgirls begin the descent, in full view of the street, they come under fire from a group of settler boys throwing stones. The girls cry out in distress, but push on down the exposed steps. There are police and troops down on the street but they make no effort to stop the stonethrowers. The first schoolgirls reach the bottom of the steps, scurry around the corner of the building and run up the street which leads away from their harrassers. By this stage the settler boys have been joined by the settler girls from the hillside. The camera pans up to show a group of schoolgirls trapped midway down the stairs under a hail of stones. A police vehicle finally wedges itself between the strategic corner at the bottom of the steps and the stonethrowers. Finally, the last of the schoolgirls has rounded the corner, followed by the teacher and one of the volunteers. One of the schoolgirls has been struck by a stone on the face and is holding a handkerchief over her nose. The settler youth hoot and shriek as the police and troops prevent them from chasing the schoolgirls. The Palestinian teacher, gesturing toward the girl with the handkerchief over her face, says to a soldier in English, See? There is nothing we can do, he replies in English. Of course, I feel sorry for the poor young soldier placed in an impossible situation. And the kids? If only they could hang out together and dialog, I'm sure they'd get along just fine. Oh yeah! And for sure those Palestinian teachers have got to put a stop to all that dreadful anti-Semitic incitement going on in their schools NOW!
Today I watched two YouTube videos posted by Max Blumenthal on his website.
The first, from occupied East Jerusalem, was captioned: Jewish settlers filmed themselves humiliating a local Palestinian man, or, as they call it, 'lowering the confidence of Palestinians in the neighborhood':
The video opens with a title in Hebrew. A young, neatly dressed Palestinian man emerges from a house. An off-camera voice hails him in Hebrew. Calling him over? He approaches, answering in Hebrew. Maybe he's asking what they want. There is no aggression in him, he appears completely unaware of what's coming. The 'voice' proceeds to tip a bucket of what appears to be white paint over his head. The thick white substance covers his head and face, and drips down onto his clothes. He appears stunned, gasping for breath. He walks off, muttering something, occasionally looking over his shoulder, to the accompaniment of a jaunty piano piece provided by the maker of the film. I am suitably awed by the creativity and humour of those who created this filmic bon bon. And the piano accompaniment, so cute! Next year's Tropfest? The next Israeli film festival perhaps?
The second video was simply captioned Settlers assault Palestinian girls on the way to school in occupied Hebron:
A group of teenage Jewish settler girls are standing on a hillside by a path. A young female international volunteer appears to be trying to negotiate passage with an Israeli policeman. In the distance, a group of Palestinian schoolgirls led by their teacher and another volunteer approach. The settler girls mill around excitedly. They begin chanting. It sounds Arabic to me. I catch ma fi filastin (There is no Palestine) but the rest is unclear, apart from the word Israel. The settler girls block the path as the schoolgirls near. A scuffle ensues. An Israeli soldier appears, making a desultory effort to separate the two groups. One of the settler girls kicks the Palestinian teacher, a middle-aged woman, from behind. Another soldier, or perhaps the same one, urges the remonstrating teacher to move on. I can hear the Arabic word imshi (Let's go). The path soon ends at the wall of a tall building where a set of narrow steps lead steeply down to a street below. As the schoolgirls begin the descent, in full view of the street, they come under fire from a group of settler boys throwing stones. The girls cry out in distress, but push on down the exposed steps. There are police and troops down on the street but they make no effort to stop the stonethrowers. The first schoolgirls reach the bottom of the steps, scurry around the corner of the building and run up the street which leads away from their harrassers. By this stage the settler boys have been joined by the settler girls from the hillside. The camera pans up to show a group of schoolgirls trapped midway down the stairs under a hail of stones. A police vehicle finally wedges itself between the strategic corner at the bottom of the steps and the stonethrowers. Finally, the last of the schoolgirls has rounded the corner, followed by the teacher and one of the volunteers. One of the schoolgirls has been struck by a stone on the face and is holding a handkerchief over her nose. The settler youth hoot and shriek as the police and troops prevent them from chasing the schoolgirls. The Palestinian teacher, gesturing toward the girl with the handkerchief over her face, says to a soldier in English, See? There is nothing we can do, he replies in English. Of course, I feel sorry for the poor young soldier placed in an impossible situation. And the kids? If only they could hang out together and dialog, I'm sure they'd get along just fine. Oh yeah! And for sure those Palestinian teachers have got to put a stop to all that dreadful anti-Semitic incitement going on in their schools NOW!
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