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.]
Monday, May 6, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
The Neighbour from Hell
Israeli threats, intimidation and bullying have a too-long history:
Lebanon today:
"According to Lebanese news sites, Israeli fighter jets circled over Beirut and staged mock strikes over several towns on Thursday..." (Israel bombed Syria, says US, Ruth Pollard, Sydney Morning Herald, 5/5/13)
Gaza 2005:
"Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by letting loose deafening 'sound bombs' that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise children. The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken the sound to an earthquake or large bomb. They describe the effect as being hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears, sometimes causing nosebleeds and 'leaving you shaking inside'." (Palestinians hit by sonic boom air raids, Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 3/11/05)
Cairo 60s-70s:
"I remember earlier visits to Egypt when, every day, the Israelis would send jet fighters screaming down the Nile, flying over Cairo's bridges with just metres to spare, mocking the anti-aircraft gunners crouching under their camouflage nets - reminding Egyptians that a few dam-buster raids on the High Dam at Aswan could send the mightiest of all floods pouring down." (Devotion & division, Phillip Adams, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 21/2/09)
Palestine 1948:
"Leo Heiman, a Haganah officer, wrote honestly about the methods used by the Jews. According to him the Haganah brought up jeeps with loudspeakers that broadcast recorded 'horror sounds'. These included 'shrieks, wails and anguished moans of Arab women, the wail of sirens and the clang of fire-alarm bells, interrupted by a sepulchral voice calling out in Arabic: Save your souls all ye faithful! Flee for your lives.' According to Heiman, Haganah loudspeakers warned the Arabs that the Jews were using poison gas and atomic weapons. In view of what had recently taken place at Deir Yassin, the Arabs took these warnings seriously." (The Palestinian Catastrophe: The 1948 Expulsion of a People from Their Homeland, Michael Palumbo, 1987, p 64)
Lebanon today:
"According to Lebanese news sites, Israeli fighter jets circled over Beirut and staged mock strikes over several towns on Thursday..." (Israel bombed Syria, says US, Ruth Pollard, Sydney Morning Herald, 5/5/13)
Gaza 2005:
"Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by letting loose deafening 'sound bombs' that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise children. The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken the sound to an earthquake or large bomb. They describe the effect as being hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears, sometimes causing nosebleeds and 'leaving you shaking inside'." (Palestinians hit by sonic boom air raids, Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 3/11/05)
Cairo 60s-70s:
"I remember earlier visits to Egypt when, every day, the Israelis would send jet fighters screaming down the Nile, flying over Cairo's bridges with just metres to spare, mocking the anti-aircraft gunners crouching under their camouflage nets - reminding Egyptians that a few dam-buster raids on the High Dam at Aswan could send the mightiest of all floods pouring down." (Devotion & division, Phillip Adams, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 21/2/09)
Palestine 1948:
"Leo Heiman, a Haganah officer, wrote honestly about the methods used by the Jews. According to him the Haganah brought up jeeps with loudspeakers that broadcast recorded 'horror sounds'. These included 'shrieks, wails and anguished moans of Arab women, the wail of sirens and the clang of fire-alarm bells, interrupted by a sepulchral voice calling out in Arabic: Save your souls all ye faithful! Flee for your lives.' According to Heiman, Haganah loudspeakers warned the Arabs that the Jews were using poison gas and atomic weapons. In view of what had recently taken place at Deir Yassin, the Arabs took these warnings seriously." (The Palestinian Catastrophe: The 1948 Expulsion of a People from Their Homeland, Michael Palumbo, 1987, p 64)
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Clive Kessler's Guide for the Perplexed
In case any of you out there are wondering why we're witnessing a pro-Palestinian BDS campaign against a proposed Max Brenner outlet at the University of NSW, Clive Kessler, emeritus professor of sociology and anthropology at the UNSW, has the answer you've all been waiting for.
In his March 2 opinion piece in The Australian, Islam becomes the new guilt: We've replaced our contrition over the Holocaust, Clive explains that it's all because 'the West' has "fallen out of love with those always difficult Jews," by which he means Israel. (Conflation's all the go here.)
And why is this? Well, one thing's for sure; it's got nothing whatever to do with Israel. Still as good-looking as ever at 65!
No, according to Clive it's because 'the West' is feeling guilty over the Crusades - yes, you read right, the Crusades! - and is expiating that guilt by supporting the Palestinian cause.
Hence Patrick Harrison and friends, aka the guilty 'West', and their "bizarre... campaign against a chocolate* on an Australian university campus."
Well, thanks for that really interesting POV, Clive. Now if you don't mind I'll be...
[*The typo omission in the print original is inspired!]
In his March 2 opinion piece in The Australian, Islam becomes the new guilt: We've replaced our contrition over the Holocaust, Clive explains that it's all because 'the West' has "fallen out of love with those always difficult Jews," by which he means Israel. (Conflation's all the go here.)
And why is this? Well, one thing's for sure; it's got nothing whatever to do with Israel. Still as good-looking as ever at 65!
No, according to Clive it's because 'the West' is feeling guilty over the Crusades - yes, you read right, the Crusades! - and is expiating that guilt by supporting the Palestinian cause.
Hence Patrick Harrison and friends, aka the guilty 'West', and their "bizarre... campaign against a chocolate* on an Australian university campus."
Well, thanks for that really interesting POV, Clive. Now if you don't mind I'll be...
[*The typo omission in the print original is inspired!]
Friday, May 3, 2013
BDS: No Offence Meant
Never let it be said that I'm incapable of thinking beyond the dogmas laid down by "jejune students eager for an anti-establishment cause," as the worldly wise editorial in Wednesday's Australian described UNSW's BDS campaigners.
And what an editorial it was! Every line, a revelation. Every idea, positively Solomonic!
Still, if I had to choose the one line/idea that particularly resonated with me, it'd be this one:
"The legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people present a worthy cause, yet to couch their campaign in hateful language about 'apartheid' and 'war crimes' is demonstrably inaccurate and offensive." (Unis tolerating intolerance: Racist anti-Israel protests expose lack of understanding, 1/5/13)
Now that, let me tell you, really got me thinking outside the current BDS square. Maybe, I thought, the Australian's onto something here, much as I hate to admit it. Maybe those "jejune students" really do need to just sit down together and come up with a more appropriate, less offensive way of plugging the "worthy cause" of Palestine.
And then it hit me: this kind of discussion has already taken place, and among Palestinian leaders no less!
A quick rummage through my files, and I soon had the document I wanted. After reading through it again, I was struck by the way its contents echoed the wisdom of the Australian's call for the adoption by the "jejune" BDS brigade of a more moderate, more Israel-friendly approach to highlighting "the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people."
Why, I asked myself, shouldn't the spirit of tolerance for Israel's position that informed that cross-factional, post Gaza Flotilla discussion back in 2010, act as a guide today for those "jejune" pro-Palestinian students at UNSW? After all, we can't be more Palestinian than the Palestinians, now can we?
And so, with that in mind, I'm posting here a transcript of what is surely the single most important, though unfortunately least known, of all the documents of the Palestinian resistance movement ever to have fallen off the back of a truck:
Meshal (Hamas): Everyone hooked up?... Okay, gentlemen, we have a big problem, so I'm just gonna say what needs to be said: We're screwing up the one thing we always agreed on - Israel's needs come first. We must - I mean must - find modes of resistance that don't offend the Jews. By the way, I just got a bootleg Avi Gefen CD and it kicks ass. I'll burn copies for you guys.
Shallah (Islamic Jihad): Cool. Listen, I couldn't agree more about re-calibrating strategy, Khaled. I really thought the settlement boycott would be OK, since it's stuff made on our land and all that, but it's just way too aggressive. We should've run it by the Yesha Council.
Fayyad (PA): And that Aid Flotilla - what a bright idea. Not! Look, we were warned. When Lieberman calls something a violent provocation, it's a violent provocation. Those crazy boats and what-have-you. Why? Because of a siege? It just makes Israel look bad.
Sa'adat (PFLP): Say, who's gonna talk to these hotheads in Ni'lin and Bi'lin? It's not okay to provoke tear gas and bullets and scrawl that potty-mouth stuff on the Wall. I don't want Jewish kids seeing that trash on TV.
Fayyad: You're blaming the Authority, I assume.
Sa'adat: Your turf, man.
Fayyad: My turf? Listen, I have -
Meshal: C'mon, c'mon. Guys, there's plenty of blame for everyone. Let's keep it positive.
Shallah: Hey, a rabbi, a sheikh and a midget walk into a brothel. The sheikh says-
Sa'adat: This the one where the rabbi says 'Oy vey, it's bigger than a palm tree'?
Shallah: You heard it already?
Meshal: Who hasn't? That joke's older than the Jewish presence in Jerusalem. Look, let's focus here. One suggestion - why don't we just ask the Israelis what protest they'll tolerate?
Sa'adat: No, no, no, no, no! Khaled, are you trying to make things worse? Every lover wants you to just understand them and not ask a lot of questions. Besides, you're just trying to shift responsibility to the Jews. As Abdullah said, it's our duty to figure this out.
Meshal: What about a Palestinian Gandhi?
Shallah: That's just another version of asymmetrical warfare. With Sharon under the weather, the Israelis don't have a comparable peacemaker.
Fayyad: How about we use protest letters? Firm but polite. Good quality paper.
Meshal: Better yet, does anybody know if the Israelis have a standard complaint form? We fill it out, submit it quietly through proper channels, we can't go wrong. It's their own form.
Shallah: That's good. Just let's not flood them with complaints. We'll look like a nuisance and it's not very nice.
Meshal: Right, exactly. Everything in moderation. Not too much and not too little.
Fayyad: Well, too little's okay.
Shallah: Of course. By the way, a friend sent me an old Jackie Mason album. Vinyl - mint condition! Guy makes me laugh so hard I plotz!
Sa'adat: Jackie takes something, like, half-formed in my mind and says it perfectly. Like he's in my head!
Fayyad: You wish, Ahmad!
Meshal: Hey, I hate to be a nudje, but we're burning minutes. Listen, how about something like this Flotilla Commission the Israelis put together? A focus group of really old Jews that detest us. If something doesn't offend those guys, it's good to go.
Sa'adat: Again you make the Jews responsible! Not only do you want painful concessions, you want them to tell you how to ask for them. Nutty.
Meshal: Okay, Mr Diplomat, make a proposal - for once. One constructive idea.
Sa'adat: Well, maybe if you listened a little more carefully, you'd know I've been suggesting a petition drive from day one.
Meshal: I like petition drives. I always said they're very effective with the Israelis. But what do we demand?
Fayyad: Demand?
Meshal: Okay, not demand. Request.
Shallah: Something like, we, the undersigned, respectfully request... what?
Sa'adat: Negotiations?... Discussions about negotiations?
Fayyad: Preliminary discussions about preliminary negotiations?
Shallah: Jordanian citizenship and limited residency rights in restricted West Bank areas?
Sa'adat: No, no - that's to be negotiated.
Shallah: This's really hard. Ya know, I just don't think it's so wrong to ask the Israelis for a little guidance. They know what they'll tolerate.
Meshal: Do they? 2 Jews, 3 opinions.
Sa'adat: Why can't we be delightfully quirky like that?
Meshal: Lemme tell you something Abu Tir said the other day. 'Hamas wins parliamentary elections and they arrest 64 of us. So protest voting's obviously not allowed. After 4 years in prison, they revoke my Jerusalem residency. So even thinking about resistance is not allowed in territory they control. Maybe they just want us out of here.'
Fayyad: Khaled, c'mon, man...
Meshal: This never occurs to you? That everything we're talking about, the expulsions, the land grabs, the contempt, it's all on purpose to make us surrender?
Shallah: Wow. My brother, that's really paranoid.
Sa'adat: Worse, it's anti-Semitic incitement. Khaled, I'm very disappointed.
Shallah: Those Syrians slipped something in your falafel.
Fayyad: Look, if we present the right request in the right way at the right time, Israel will always consider it. Just like Oslo.
Meshal: Sorry. Guess I'm a little frustrated....
Shallah: Here's a good one. Arab walks into a bar on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. Slaps a pile of shekels on the bar, says 'Let bygones be bygones - drinks're on me!' Bunch of Jewish guys get drunk, they jump the Arab and beat his ass. Week later, the Arab comes back in. 'Let bygones be bygones - drinks're on me!' Jews get drunk, beat his ass again. Another week, in comes the Arab. This time he says, 'I'm not buying you guys any more drinks.' Jewish guy says, 'Good, 'cause we're tired of you making us drink before we beat your ass!'
Fayyad: Now that's funny! I gotta tell that one to Tony Blair!
(Circus Israel, Palestinians strive to resist appropriately,13/7/10, circusisrael.blogspot.com.au)
And what an editorial it was! Every line, a revelation. Every idea, positively Solomonic!
Still, if I had to choose the one line/idea that particularly resonated with me, it'd be this one:
"The legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people present a worthy cause, yet to couch their campaign in hateful language about 'apartheid' and 'war crimes' is demonstrably inaccurate and offensive." (Unis tolerating intolerance: Racist anti-Israel protests expose lack of understanding, 1/5/13)
Now that, let me tell you, really got me thinking outside the current BDS square. Maybe, I thought, the Australian's onto something here, much as I hate to admit it. Maybe those "jejune students" really do need to just sit down together and come up with a more appropriate, less offensive way of plugging the "worthy cause" of Palestine.
And then it hit me: this kind of discussion has already taken place, and among Palestinian leaders no less!
A quick rummage through my files, and I soon had the document I wanted. After reading through it again, I was struck by the way its contents echoed the wisdom of the Australian's call for the adoption by the "jejune" BDS brigade of a more moderate, more Israel-friendly approach to highlighting "the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people."
Why, I asked myself, shouldn't the spirit of tolerance for Israel's position that informed that cross-factional, post Gaza Flotilla discussion back in 2010, act as a guide today for those "jejune" pro-Palestinian students at UNSW? After all, we can't be more Palestinian than the Palestinians, now can we?
And so, with that in mind, I'm posting here a transcript of what is surely the single most important, though unfortunately least known, of all the documents of the Palestinian resistance movement ever to have fallen off the back of a truck:
Meshal (Hamas): Everyone hooked up?... Okay, gentlemen, we have a big problem, so I'm just gonna say what needs to be said: We're screwing up the one thing we always agreed on - Israel's needs come first. We must - I mean must - find modes of resistance that don't offend the Jews. By the way, I just got a bootleg Avi Gefen CD and it kicks ass. I'll burn copies for you guys.
Shallah (Islamic Jihad): Cool. Listen, I couldn't agree more about re-calibrating strategy, Khaled. I really thought the settlement boycott would be OK, since it's stuff made on our land and all that, but it's just way too aggressive. We should've run it by the Yesha Council.
Fayyad (PA): And that Aid Flotilla - what a bright idea. Not! Look, we were warned. When Lieberman calls something a violent provocation, it's a violent provocation. Those crazy boats and what-have-you. Why? Because of a siege? It just makes Israel look bad.
Sa'adat (PFLP): Say, who's gonna talk to these hotheads in Ni'lin and Bi'lin? It's not okay to provoke tear gas and bullets and scrawl that potty-mouth stuff on the Wall. I don't want Jewish kids seeing that trash on TV.
Fayyad: You're blaming the Authority, I assume.
Sa'adat: Your turf, man.
Fayyad: My turf? Listen, I have -
Meshal: C'mon, c'mon. Guys, there's plenty of blame for everyone. Let's keep it positive.
Shallah: Hey, a rabbi, a sheikh and a midget walk into a brothel. The sheikh says-
Sa'adat: This the one where the rabbi says 'Oy vey, it's bigger than a palm tree'?
Shallah: You heard it already?
Meshal: Who hasn't? That joke's older than the Jewish presence in Jerusalem. Look, let's focus here. One suggestion - why don't we just ask the Israelis what protest they'll tolerate?
Sa'adat: No, no, no, no, no! Khaled, are you trying to make things worse? Every lover wants you to just understand them and not ask a lot of questions. Besides, you're just trying to shift responsibility to the Jews. As Abdullah said, it's our duty to figure this out.
Meshal: What about a Palestinian Gandhi?
Shallah: That's just another version of asymmetrical warfare. With Sharon under the weather, the Israelis don't have a comparable peacemaker.
Fayyad: How about we use protest letters? Firm but polite. Good quality paper.
Meshal: Better yet, does anybody know if the Israelis have a standard complaint form? We fill it out, submit it quietly through proper channels, we can't go wrong. It's their own form.
Shallah: That's good. Just let's not flood them with complaints. We'll look like a nuisance and it's not very nice.
Meshal: Right, exactly. Everything in moderation. Not too much and not too little.
Fayyad: Well, too little's okay.
Shallah: Of course. By the way, a friend sent me an old Jackie Mason album. Vinyl - mint condition! Guy makes me laugh so hard I plotz!
Sa'adat: Jackie takes something, like, half-formed in my mind and says it perfectly. Like he's in my head!
Fayyad: You wish, Ahmad!
Meshal: Hey, I hate to be a nudje, but we're burning minutes. Listen, how about something like this Flotilla Commission the Israelis put together? A focus group of really old Jews that detest us. If something doesn't offend those guys, it's good to go.
Sa'adat: Again you make the Jews responsible! Not only do you want painful concessions, you want them to tell you how to ask for them. Nutty.
Meshal: Okay, Mr Diplomat, make a proposal - for once. One constructive idea.
Sa'adat: Well, maybe if you listened a little more carefully, you'd know I've been suggesting a petition drive from day one.
Meshal: I like petition drives. I always said they're very effective with the Israelis. But what do we demand?
Fayyad: Demand?
Meshal: Okay, not demand. Request.
Shallah: Something like, we, the undersigned, respectfully request... what?
Sa'adat: Negotiations?... Discussions about negotiations?
Fayyad: Preliminary discussions about preliminary negotiations?
Shallah: Jordanian citizenship and limited residency rights in restricted West Bank areas?
Sa'adat: No, no - that's to be negotiated.
Shallah: This's really hard. Ya know, I just don't think it's so wrong to ask the Israelis for a little guidance. They know what they'll tolerate.
Meshal: Do they? 2 Jews, 3 opinions.
Sa'adat: Why can't we be delightfully quirky like that?
Meshal: Lemme tell you something Abu Tir said the other day. 'Hamas wins parliamentary elections and they arrest 64 of us. So protest voting's obviously not allowed. After 4 years in prison, they revoke my Jerusalem residency. So even thinking about resistance is not allowed in territory they control. Maybe they just want us out of here.'
Fayyad: Khaled, c'mon, man...
Meshal: This never occurs to you? That everything we're talking about, the expulsions, the land grabs, the contempt, it's all on purpose to make us surrender?
Shallah: Wow. My brother, that's really paranoid.
Sa'adat: Worse, it's anti-Semitic incitement. Khaled, I'm very disappointed.
Shallah: Those Syrians slipped something in your falafel.
Fayyad: Look, if we present the right request in the right way at the right time, Israel will always consider it. Just like Oslo.
Meshal: Sorry. Guess I'm a little frustrated....
Shallah: Here's a good one. Arab walks into a bar on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. Slaps a pile of shekels on the bar, says 'Let bygones be bygones - drinks're on me!' Bunch of Jewish guys get drunk, they jump the Arab and beat his ass. Week later, the Arab comes back in. 'Let bygones be bygones - drinks're on me!' Jews get drunk, beat his ass again. Another week, in comes the Arab. This time he says, 'I'm not buying you guys any more drinks.' Jewish guy says, 'Good, 'cause we're tired of you making us drink before we beat your ass!'
Fayyad: Now that's funny! I gotta tell that one to Tony Blair!
(Circus Israel, Palestinians strive to resist appropriately,13/7/10, circusisrael.blogspot.com.au)
Thursday, May 2, 2013
The War on Civil Liberties
The following sentence, taken from a Herald feature on those-who-would-be-politicians following this September's federal election, neatly encapsulates the opportunism of young people who see one or other of the two major parties as a vehicle to feather their nests:
"For political hopefuls, budding careerists, and the lamentably rarer policy-motivated, election 2013 spells opportunity." (The game of thrones, Mark Kenny & Jacqueline Maley, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/4/13)
These are the kind for whom, as often as not, you'd need a pair of tweezers and a microscope to tell whether they're Lib or Lab.
Now they may be in it for Number 1, but the system has no problem whatever with that. The system loves these budding political careerists. In fact, they're an integral part of the system.
And we love them too. That's why we elect them, time and time again. They're correctly called the politicians we deserve.
But there's another breed of young people who involve themselves in activism for political change with no regard whatever for personal gain or status. Their only motivation is a simple desire to defend victims of injustice and oppression, whether near or far, and to resist the hell-bent pillaging and plundering of Planet Earth.
Unfortunately, however, the system doesn't in the least approve of such people. No, it abhors, smears, and harasses them. In other places it silences them - permanently. The following experience, described by Green Left Weekly's Patrick Harrison, documents that harassment:
"I received a knock on the door on April 16 from two members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, better known as ASIO. The two told me they would like to have a conversation. When I asked what they wanted to speak about, they told me they were doing their job - protecting 'national security' - and had a few questions about my involvement in political campaigns in Sydney. Apparently the latest threat to 'national security' is 'political violence' in the activist community.
"The agents wanted to speak to me, as a Palestine solidarity activist involved in organising the Sydney rally to commemorate Nakba (the catastrophe, when the state of Israel was created and Palestinians dispossessed), about any concerns I might have, or for me to identify any individuals who I was worried might be responsible for acts of political violence.
"I replied that the only fears of violence that I had from my involvement in Palestine solidarity activism were from the far-right groups and individuals who often organise counter-mobilisations or send threatening and intimidatory emails, messages and phone calls to try to stop or derail our protests and other events...
"Other people involved in campaign groups have also been approached by ASIO and asked not to speak about these visits.
"In a context of the 'war on terror' overseas - which has involved Australian troops in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past decade - there is a war on civil liberties at home. Security organisations have had their powers expanded and budgets increased by Labor and Coalition governments, and consequently have increased their monitoring of Australians.
"Last year, Green Left Weekly reported on activists involved in pro-Palestine and pro-Tamil solidarity campaigns in Adelaide who had also been visited by South Australian police working in 'security and intelligence'. These visits are an attempt to intimidate people into ending their involvement in legitimate political organisations.
"Organising and attending demonstrations is not illegal and people involved in these activities should not be monitored by ASIO. There is no law that prevents people from speaking publicly about a visit from ASIO. Shining a light on these practices is important to show that we will not be intimidated against exercising our democratic right to protest. As it is a politicised police force, ASIO should be abolished. Australian troops should also be withdrawn from the costly and unjustifiable occupation of Afghanistan." (ASIO spooks harass activists, 1/5/13)
"For political hopefuls, budding careerists, and the lamentably rarer policy-motivated, election 2013 spells opportunity." (The game of thrones, Mark Kenny & Jacqueline Maley, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/4/13)
These are the kind for whom, as often as not, you'd need a pair of tweezers and a microscope to tell whether they're Lib or Lab.
Now they may be in it for Number 1, but the system has no problem whatever with that. The system loves these budding political careerists. In fact, they're an integral part of the system.
And we love them too. That's why we elect them, time and time again. They're correctly called the politicians we deserve.
But there's another breed of young people who involve themselves in activism for political change with no regard whatever for personal gain or status. Their only motivation is a simple desire to defend victims of injustice and oppression, whether near or far, and to resist the hell-bent pillaging and plundering of Planet Earth.
Unfortunately, however, the system doesn't in the least approve of such people. No, it abhors, smears, and harasses them. In other places it silences them - permanently. The following experience, described by Green Left Weekly's Patrick Harrison, documents that harassment:
"I received a knock on the door on April 16 from two members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, better known as ASIO. The two told me they would like to have a conversation. When I asked what they wanted to speak about, they told me they were doing their job - protecting 'national security' - and had a few questions about my involvement in political campaigns in Sydney. Apparently the latest threat to 'national security' is 'political violence' in the activist community.
"The agents wanted to speak to me, as a Palestine solidarity activist involved in organising the Sydney rally to commemorate Nakba (the catastrophe, when the state of Israel was created and Palestinians dispossessed), about any concerns I might have, or for me to identify any individuals who I was worried might be responsible for acts of political violence.
"I replied that the only fears of violence that I had from my involvement in Palestine solidarity activism were from the far-right groups and individuals who often organise counter-mobilisations or send threatening and intimidatory emails, messages and phone calls to try to stop or derail our protests and other events...
"Other people involved in campaign groups have also been approached by ASIO and asked not to speak about these visits.
"In a context of the 'war on terror' overseas - which has involved Australian troops in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past decade - there is a war on civil liberties at home. Security organisations have had their powers expanded and budgets increased by Labor and Coalition governments, and consequently have increased their monitoring of Australians.
"Last year, Green Left Weekly reported on activists involved in pro-Palestine and pro-Tamil solidarity campaigns in Adelaide who had also been visited by South Australian police working in 'security and intelligence'. These visits are an attempt to intimidate people into ending their involvement in legitimate political organisations.
"Organising and attending demonstrations is not illegal and people involved in these activities should not be monitored by ASIO. There is no law that prevents people from speaking publicly about a visit from ASIO. Shining a light on these practices is important to show that we will not be intimidated against exercising our democratic right to protest. As it is a politicised police force, ASIO should be abolished. Australian troops should also be withdrawn from the costly and unjustifiable occupation of Afghanistan." (ASIO spooks harass activists, 1/5/13)
Scoop: Libs Infiltrated!
Jeez, I thought 'sleeper cells' had gone out with George Dubbya Bush. Seems I was wrong!
You see, one in-the-know has revealed that:
"Hezbollah is operating 3 different sleeper cells in Australia, a leading religious leader in Lebanon has warned. Sheik Bilal Radwan, an influential Sunni cleric in Tripoli... identified 3 Hezbollah cells operating in Australia - Abu Abbas, Abu Jafaar and Zaiter." (Hezbollah 'has sleeper cells here', John Lyons, The Australian, 27/4/13)
Hm... a bit of a worry, eh? I wonder where they're sleeping?
But wait, what's this?
Oh my God, it can't possibly be true... can it?!!!
"Martin Zaiter, a 29-year-old partner in in a local accounting firm, has been preselected as the Liberal aspirant to unseat [Julie] Owens, who holds the seat [of Parramatta] by 4.4%." (The game of thrones, Mark Kenny & Jacqueline Maley, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/4/13)
Zaiter... in the Liberal Party of all places! Who would have thought? Still, in hindsight, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? I mean, surely that's the last place anyone'd be looking for Hezbollah sleeper cells, right?
OK, now what about the other two, Abu Abbass and Abu Jafaar?
Could they too be sleeping soundly... somewhere in Tony Abbott's Liberal Party? Could the once proud party of Menzies and Howard, in fact, be riddled with snoozing Hezbollahis and God knows what else? And all this on Abbott's watch!
Fair dinkum, that bloke couldn't run the proverbial piss-up in a brewery! With a security breach of this order, heads have gotta roll, I reckon.
You see, one in-the-know has revealed that:
"Hezbollah is operating 3 different sleeper cells in Australia, a leading religious leader in Lebanon has warned. Sheik Bilal Radwan, an influential Sunni cleric in Tripoli... identified 3 Hezbollah cells operating in Australia - Abu Abbas, Abu Jafaar and Zaiter." (Hezbollah 'has sleeper cells here', John Lyons, The Australian, 27/4/13)
Hm... a bit of a worry, eh? I wonder where they're sleeping?
But wait, what's this?
Oh my God, it can't possibly be true... can it?!!!
"Martin Zaiter, a 29-year-old partner in in a local accounting firm, has been preselected as the Liberal aspirant to unseat [Julie] Owens, who holds the seat [of Parramatta] by 4.4%." (The game of thrones, Mark Kenny & Jacqueline Maley, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/4/13)
Zaiter... in the Liberal Party of all places! Who would have thought? Still, in hindsight, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? I mean, surely that's the last place anyone'd be looking for Hezbollah sleeper cells, right?
OK, now what about the other two, Abu Abbass and Abu Jafaar?
Could they too be sleeping soundly... somewhere in Tony Abbott's Liberal Party? Could the once proud party of Menzies and Howard, in fact, be riddled with snoozing Hezbollahis and God knows what else? And all this on Abbott's watch!
Fair dinkum, that bloke couldn't run the proverbial piss-up in a brewery! With a security breach of this order, heads have gotta roll, I reckon.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Dear Charlotte Lewis...
The BDS-bashing machine over at Murdoch's dark, satanic propaganda mill, News Ltd, is currently in overdrive (front page 'report' + 'opinion' piece yesterday; 'report' + editorial + letters today) relaying the confected outrage of the usual suspects (Gillard, Israel lobbyist Peter Wertheim, and the AUJS's Andrew Goldberg) over comments appearing on a UNSW Students for Justice in Palestine Facebook page.
To extract just one snippet:
"The UNSW Student Representative Council Ethnic Affairs Officer, Charlotte Lewis, was so shocked she posted: 'Reading over these comments has left me gobsmacked at the outrageous anti-Semitic slanders mentioned on this event. If I see one more antisemitic comment, I'm taking this to the University... I am the Ethno-Cultural Officer, meaning I need to look out for any hate speech towards any ethnic group. I have witnessed many accusations that the Holocaust didn't exist, and that Jews are money-hungry pigs. Due to this, several Jewish students actually feel unsafe to step [sic] foot into the University, meaning I actually DO need to solve this problem." (The ugly face of student activism, Peter Wertheim & Julie Nathan, The Australian, 30/4/13)
Now I hate to see people in pain (most people anyway), OK? And frankly, I'm a bit worried that Charlotte is about to burst a boiler over this matter. Therefore, in a compassionate effort to relieve her obvious suffering, I've decided to address the following open letter to her:
Dear Charlotte,
In the event that the comments which have so stressed you are genuine - by which I mean not the work of agent provocateurs - I wonder if, at some time in the future - obviously not now - when you're capable of thinking lucidly about this subject, you might consider carefully what I am about to say.
Given
a) that the state of Israel promotes itself as the world's only Jewish state, the go-to destination for world Jewry, the only place on Planet Earth where Jews can really feel safe and secure, and realise their Jewishness - because it is after all their real home (and anyway the Bible says so, so there); and
b) that it also expels, occupies, dispossesses and brutalises the indigenous Palestinian Arab population of the land which it has usurped - you know, the one called Palestine, in case you've never heard of it before - on behalf of Jews from all corners of God's earth (and even some who, with a little help from their Israeli friends, have only just discovered they're Jewish, such as India's Bnei Menashe)...
Given these two facts, is it any cause for wonder then that Jews as Jews, however unfairly and wrongly, have become targets for the kind of comments that have had you reaching for the smelling salts?
In which case, it has to be asked, who is responsible for this terrible state of affairs?
Is it
a) a group of students under the rubric 'Students for Justice in Palestine' who, as their name suggests, are merely trying to draw other students' attention to the monumental injustice perpetrated - and still being perpetrated - on the Palestinian people by the Zionist project in Palestine?; or
b) the Zionist movement itself, aided and abetted by their former British and now American imperial backers, which gave birth to the state of Israel, and today sustains and enables it to carry on with its project of wiping Palestine and Palestinians off the map?
Yours,
MERC
PS: If they still have a library at UNSW containing those thingies called books - remember those? - try getting hold of and reading David Hirst's classic, The Gun & the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East.
To extract just one snippet:
"The UNSW Student Representative Council Ethnic Affairs Officer, Charlotte Lewis, was so shocked she posted: 'Reading over these comments has left me gobsmacked at the outrageous anti-Semitic slanders mentioned on this event. If I see one more antisemitic comment, I'm taking this to the University... I am the Ethno-Cultural Officer, meaning I need to look out for any hate speech towards any ethnic group. I have witnessed many accusations that the Holocaust didn't exist, and that Jews are money-hungry pigs. Due to this, several Jewish students actually feel unsafe to step [sic] foot into the University, meaning I actually DO need to solve this problem." (The ugly face of student activism, Peter Wertheim & Julie Nathan, The Australian, 30/4/13)
Now I hate to see people in pain (most people anyway), OK? And frankly, I'm a bit worried that Charlotte is about to burst a boiler over this matter. Therefore, in a compassionate effort to relieve her obvious suffering, I've decided to address the following open letter to her:
Dear Charlotte,
In the event that the comments which have so stressed you are genuine - by which I mean not the work of agent provocateurs - I wonder if, at some time in the future - obviously not now - when you're capable of thinking lucidly about this subject, you might consider carefully what I am about to say.
Given
a) that the state of Israel promotes itself as the world's only Jewish state, the go-to destination for world Jewry, the only place on Planet Earth where Jews can really feel safe and secure, and realise their Jewishness - because it is after all their real home (and anyway the Bible says so, so there); and
b) that it also expels, occupies, dispossesses and brutalises the indigenous Palestinian Arab population of the land which it has usurped - you know, the one called Palestine, in case you've never heard of it before - on behalf of Jews from all corners of God's earth (and even some who, with a little help from their Israeli friends, have only just discovered they're Jewish, such as India's Bnei Menashe)...
Given these two facts, is it any cause for wonder then that Jews as Jews, however unfairly and wrongly, have become targets for the kind of comments that have had you reaching for the smelling salts?
In which case, it has to be asked, who is responsible for this terrible state of affairs?
Is it
a) a group of students under the rubric 'Students for Justice in Palestine' who, as their name suggests, are merely trying to draw other students' attention to the monumental injustice perpetrated - and still being perpetrated - on the Palestinian people by the Zionist project in Palestine?; or
b) the Zionist movement itself, aided and abetted by their former British and now American imperial backers, which gave birth to the state of Israel, and today sustains and enables it to carry on with its project of wiping Palestine and Palestinians off the map?
Yours,
MERC
PS: If they still have a library at UNSW containing those thingies called books - remember those? - try getting hold of and reading David Hirst's classic, The Gun & the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East.
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