Palestine Seen by Liberals as Noble Victim

For an outsider, visiting the West Bank for the first time is a bit like going to New York City for the first time, in the sense that it feels familiar even before you get there. It’s a place you expect to recognise because you’ve seen and heard about it countless times on television, in films, on the news. But, as with the myth-enshrouded Manhattan, the schism between stereotype and reality in places like Ramallah, Birzeit and Bethlehem is blatant.

Visiting these places over the weekend, I saw no armed militia men, no children in rags or violence-glorifying graffiti. Of course, all of these are present elsewhere in the Palestinian territories. For instance, on the day I arrived in Ramallah, an Italian member of the International Solidarity Movement was executed by Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip, and in places like Nablus I have seen walls covered in Islamist slogans calling for the destruction of Israel.

And of course, many Palestinians live in very poor conditions. In the West Bank, there are 60-year-old refugee camps where people have gone from living in tents to shacks constructed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and finally on to self-built concrete homes lining narrow, paved streets. One camp, Ayda, is home to 5,000 people and is just a short drive from the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. It is also adjacent to the lavish Jacir Palace Intercontinental Hotel.

A view of the West Bank, travelling between Ramallah and Bethlehem.

Yet flicking through This Week in Palestine, a local English-language listings and features magazine, one gets the impression that middle-class pleasures are not wanting in the West Bank. A contemporary dance festival, a theatre festival, a literature festival - all are currently in full swing. Also, any Western liberal chatterati type would have felt completely at home at Saturday’s TEDx event in Bethlehem. This was a locally organised day of talks and performances modelled on the California-based TED conference, which is arguably the best reflection we have today of the state of political correctness and middle-class preoccupations.

Driving within and between West Bank cities, along bumpy countryside roads criss-crossing through grassy and rock-strewn hills, the overall impression is not so much one of poverty as a sense of being trapped. The most obvious obstruction to free movement here is the concrete security barrier that cuts off Palestinians from Israelis and from one another. It snakes through the countryside and, by the major Israel Defense Forces-manned checkpoints, it has been covered in garish graffiti and slogans – mainly by foreign peace activists who seem to use the wall as a canvas on which to project their own political frustrations.

[Israeli security fence]
Graffitti on the security wall in Bethlehem (picture taken in 2006)

The infamous military terminals, ‘flying checkpoints’ and roadblocks impair freedom of movement further, and in addition a complex bureaucracy and stringent international visa restrictions make acquiring permits to enter Israel or to go abroad at best frustrating and at worst impossible for many Palestinians. Israelis are also disallowed from entering Palestinian territories. By contrast the freedom of ‘the internationals’, as foreign aid workers and activists are referred to, to move in and out of Israel and the Palestinian territories appears particularly unfair.

From listening to the 20-odd, mostly Palestinian speakers at the TEDx conference, and talking to young locals, international peace activists and aid workers, it also became clear that for many, self-imposed separation among Palestinians is the preferred response to the ongoing occupation. The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has made its mark among this section of Palestinian society, where cooperation with Israeli organisations and individuals is pejoratively branded as ‘normalisation’.

Jamil Abu Wardeh, best known for founding the Axis of Evil comedy tour, hosts TEDx Ramallah, which was re-located to Bethlehem.

At the first Palestinian BDS conference in 2007 it was agreed that, ‘Normalisation means to participate in any project or initiative or activity, local or international, specifically designed for gathering (either directly or indirectly) Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis, whether individuals or institutions, that does not explicitly aim to expose and resist the occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people.’

This delegitimises not just commercial links or political initiatives aimed specifically at blocking the struggle for Palestinian self-determination, but also any initiative that does not explicitly oppose Israeli policies. It is a great hindrance to potentially fruitful collaborations between Israeli and Palestinian scientists, artists, academics and others. An unwillingness to politicise projects that are not inherently political (a concert, an art workshop or a scientific study for instance), or an unwillingness to subscribe to the BDS-worldview, carries the risk of being slapped with an embargo or being socially ostracised and regarded as a colluder.

Boycotts are not a new strategy, of course. Arab boycotts of Zionist institutions and Jewish businesses started even before the founding of the state of Israel. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Arab League officially imposed an economic boycott of Israel. But the secret behind the international successes of the BDS movement lies in a relatively newfound obsession among westerners for playing a role in ‘the Palestinian struggle for justice’. At the same time as the BDS movement has hindered local collaborations, it has opened up spaces for international non-governmental organisations and campaign groups to come to the Palestinian territories, en masse, inevitably importing their own agendas and prejudices.

One of the four lions on Al-Manara square, Ramallah. In the tents on the right are the few remaining protesters from the Egypt-inspired 15 March demonstration calling for elections for the Palestinian National Council to end the division between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip.

Again, this trend was blatant at the TEDx event, which was in the top-three topics on Twitter that day (since ‘trending’ on Twitter has become a modern marker of success, this was certainly seen as a big deal among the event’s organisers and participants). At TEDx, speakers marvelled at the wonders of ‘the social media revolution’, expounded on the futility of higher education (this from a Harvard academic), celebrated leaderless political movements, hailed the heroism of the International Solidarity Movement, used psychological terminology to explain why humans are convinced by certain political ideas, and lobbied for a ‘green-state solution’. It felt as if the programme had been inspired by the opinion pages of a Western liberal broadsheet: the New York Times, perhaps, or the Guardian.

Of course, some of the importing of outside ideas and resources into the Palestinian territories has been positive. The Palestinian-American Sam Bahour, who spoke at TEDx, was instrumental in establishing the Palestine Telecommunications Company and also set up the Plaza Shopping Center, Ramallah’s first mall. But the preference for importing political ideas and allegiances from the wider ‘international community’ also means that Palestinians accept the global image of themselves as a trapped, ‘voiceless’ people in desperate need of international patronage, shiploads of assorted self-righteous Israel-opponents, and young Westerners on the lookout for a relatively safe place to ‘find themselves’ while at the same time posing as self-sacrificing, risky activists.

Plaza shopping centre, Ramallah’s first and only mall, opened 2003.

In This Week in Palestine, a London-born reporter explains that ‘since the International Solidarity Movement was established in 2001, over 200 NGOs have sprung up in the West Bank and Gaza. This presence is proof of how favourable Palestinian conditions have become.’ This shows how self-serving the NGO agenda in the Palestinian territories can be, where these activists, through BDS schemes, take it upon themselves to police whom Palestinians should interact with, while at the same time importing and imposing their own ideas and ideology in Palestinian towns and cities. For many young Westerners, no matter how clued-up or clueless they are about the history of Arab-Israeli tensions, the people living in these small strips of Palestinian land have clearly become the world’s No.1 victims - and Israel is clearly the world’s No.1 bully.

A herder crosses a street in Birzeit with his sheep in tow.

In the same article in This Week in Palestine, the writer says: ‘In London, where I grew up, this conflict was a “red-line” topic. If you took the wrong position on Palestine-Israel, it was as bad as supporting the death penalty, or liking Margaret Thatcher, and you would be considered the devil incarnate. As I overheard at a Kensington dinner party: “You cannot be a good person if you think the occupation is okay”.’

This just about sums up the extent to which, for many Western, ‘dinner party’ liberals, where you stand on Palestine and Israel has become a barometer of your moral worth. Serious and complex political questions are pushed to one side as instead people embrace Palestine to show that they are a ‘good person’ rather than the ‘devil incarnate’. And although life in the Palestinian territories is no Kensington dinner party, such conversations are echoed here, too. To this outsider, it seems that self-imposed estrangement from the Israelis, and the acceptance of international pity missions, can only further entrench Palestinians’ new degrading status as noble victims.

Nathalie Rothschild is an international correspondent for spiked. Visit her personal website here.

All photos taken by Nathalie Rothschild.

Boycott Israeli goods ad on Palestinian TV sponsored by Spanish government

I think this is about as blatant as interference with another country's affairs can get short of outright war. The Spanish government(!) sponsored an advertisement on official 'Palestinian Authority' television last week, calling for a boycott of all Israeli products.

The ad is sponsored by the Spanish government, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and AECID - the Spanish governmental humanitarian aid development.

Just like buying blue and white in Israel, or red, white and blue in the US, no? Except that this ad has some violence in it (note the gunfire) and this ad is sponsored by a foreign government.

Anyone up for a boycott of Spain?

Labels: boycott Israel, Palestinian Authority Television, Spain

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:32 AM

Iran Supports Foreign Freedoms Not Domestic

As proud as I am of the independent political path our country has taken and the role it plays as an enabler of resistance to Israel, I am deeply aware of the great costs we have been forced to bear as a people by our government. The national resistance to colonialism and oppression abroad has gone hand in hand with our repression domestically. The state-sponsored violence and mass arrests that have shaken our country for the last 16 months are not what the resistance looks like.

Our solidarity with the Lebanese resistance and with the Palestinians should not be pendant on our willingness to silence ourselves domestically, and the acceptance of this silencing by many Lebanese and many Palestinians deeply pains those of us who marched last year yelling "People why are you seated, Iran has become Palestine" and "Whether Iran or Gaza, stop killing people." We are not traitors, nor pro-American, nor Zionist "agents" -- we merely want the same freedom to live, to exist and to resist as we demand for the Palestinians and for the Lebanese.
Electronic Intifada

Palestinian Faces Prison for Facebook Comments

Obama just sent these cavemen nother 150 million dollars was cutting off Israel's oxygen. Appalling.This Palestinaian blogger needs by bus ad.

Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam Y Net News

[...]

The case of the unlikely apostate, a shy barber from the West Bank town of Qalqilya, is highlighting the limits of tolerance in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority – and illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.

Residents of Qalqilya say they had no idea that Walid Husayin – the 26-year-old son of a Muslim scholar – was leading a double life.

Now, Husayin faces a potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for "insulting the divine essence." Many in this conservative Muslim town say he should be killed for renouncing Islam, and even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.

"He should be burned to death," said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqilya resident. The execution should take place in public "to be an example to others," he added.
[...]

His Facebook groups elicited hundreds of angry comments, detailed death threats and the formation of more than a dozen Facebook groups against him, including once called "Fight the blasphemer who said 'I am God.'"

Husayin is the first to be arrested in the West Bank for his religious views, said Tayseer Tamimi, the former chief Islamic judge in the area.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority is among the more religiously liberal Arab governments in the region. It is dominated by secular elites and has frequently cracked down on hardline Muslims and activists connected to its conservative Islamic rival, Hamas.

[...]
Caught by café owner

Husayin used a fake name on his English and Arabic-language blogs and Facebook pages. After his mother discovered articles on atheism on his computer, she canceled his Internet connection in hopes that he would change his mind.

Instead, he began going to an Internet cafe – a move that turned out to be a costly mistake. The owner, Ahmed Abu-Asal, said the blogger aroused suspicion by spending up to seven hours a day in a corner booth. After several months, a cafe worker supplied captured snapshots of his Facebook pages to Palestinian intelligence officials.

Officials monitored him for several weeks and then arrested him on October 31 as he sat in the cafe, said Abu-Asal.

Husayin's family has been devastated by the arrest. On a recent day, his father stood sadly in the family barber shop, cluttered with colorful towels and posters of men in outdated haircuts. He requested that a reporter not write about his son to avoid being publicly shamed.

Two cousins attributed the writings to depression, saying Husayin was desperate to find better work. Requesting anonymity because of the shame the incident, they said Husayin's mother wants him to remain in prison for life – both to restore the family's honor and to protect him from vigilantes.
Hamas 'stalks' Facebook pages

Gaza's Hamas rulers stalk Facebook pages of suspected dissenters, said Palestinian rights activist Mustafa Ibrahim. He said Internet cafe owners are forced to monitor customers' online activity, and alert intelligence officials if they see anything critical of the militant group or that violates Hamas' stern interpretation of Islam.

Both governments also create fake Facebook profiles to befriend and monitor known dissidents, activists said. Such "stalking" on Facebook and other social media sites has become increasingly common in the Arab world. In Lebanon, four people were arrested over the summer and accused of slandering President Michel Suleiman on Facebook. All have been released on bail.

In neighboring Syria, Facebook is blocked altogether. And in Egypt, a blogger was charged with atheism in 2007 after intelligence officials monitored his posts.

[...]

He could face a life sentence if he's found guilty, depending on how harshly the judge thinks he attacked Islam and how widely his views were broadcast, said Islamic scholar Tamimi.

Even so, a small minority has questioned whether the government went too far.

Zainab Rashid, a liberal Palestinian commentator, wrote in an online opinion piece that Husayin has made an important point: "that criticizing religious texts for their (intellectual) weakness can only be combatted by ... oppression, prison and execution."

He sounds like our "liberals."
Atlas Shrugs

POTUS Trashes J ews, Judaism and Israel

In a stunning rebuke of Jewish rights in the Jewish homeland, President Obama, in yet another demand to ethnically cleanse the Jewish capital of its Jews, said that Israel's construction plans were harmful. His remarks came during another Muslim apology tour in Indonesia, and echo the Islamic supremacist OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference). The story is here; the LA Times has since removed the video of Obama's remarks, I am not sure why.

Obama says new Israeli home construction harms peace efforts Shortly after arriving in Indonesia, where he is to deliver another address to the Muslim world, the president says Israel is jeopardizing peace talks by reviving settlement building in East Jerusalem.

"This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations," Obama said. "And I'm concerned that we're not seeing each side make the extra effort to get a breakthrough that could finally create a framework for a secure Israel living side by side in peace with a sovereign Palestine."

How can there possibly be peace when Islamic antisemitism is not addressed, but is vigorously spread and taught throughout all of the ummah in madrassas, textbooks and television broadcasts, all citing Islamic teaching and the qur'an? How can there be peace when all of Israel is considered "occupied"? How can there be peace when a tiny Jewish state, surrounded by enormous Muslim lands, is forced to struggle for its survival and justify its existence every day, while living under the existential threat of promised annihilation by Iran?
Atlas Shrugs

Muslim Preacher Promotes Martyrdom for Children

Islamic child preacher: 'A child must be raised on the love of jihad and the desire to be martyred for the sake of Allah'

This video doesn't come from the 'Palestinian Authority' nor from Hamas in Gaza. It comes from Egyptian television, which is government-owned, and since Egypt is the second largest recipient of US foreign aid, in a sense, if you're an American taxpayer, this is your tax dollars at work.

Let's go to the videotape.



Aren't you glad you paid for that?

Labels: child preacher, Egypt, Islamic indoctrination, jihad, US foreign aid

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

Real Americans Defend Israel

President Obama may want to choose the UN over Israel, but fortunately, 80% of Americans would choose Israel.

President Obama has a jaundiced view of Israel, says Bolton, but actual recognition of "Palestine" seems remote. A more indirect but still effective course is to let statehood emerge through a Security Council resolution: “Israel would then confront a dramatic change in its international posture, facing a political equivalency with the new state of Palestine.

“A Security Council resolution fixing the 1967 lines as borders would call into question even Israel's legitimacy, dramatically undercutting prospects for security and defensibility,” says Bolton.

Bolton’s thinking has resonated in the past week. If America joined the world in opposition to Israel it would not hinder Israel’s progress in the world. It would, however, leave the U.N. jaundiced in the eyes of Americans, eight out of 10 of whom feel kindly toward Israel, and it would nurture the U.N.’s advanced state of irrelevancy.

But Roger Cohen, who keeps a close eye on Israel, writes in his New York Times column a week after Bolton’s piece: “President Barack Obama has to overcome that [Israeli] skepticism if his words to the United Nations General Assembly five weeks ago are not to be added to the long list of well-meaning Middle East blather. Those words were: ‘When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations — an independent sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel.’

“I don’t believe Israel has yet got to where the world is: the inevitability of a Palestinian state,” writes Cohen.

That is exactly the issue: the advanced Woodstock Nation model of world peace — the illusion of permanent global American cultural conquest. But “we are the world” only in hippie law. The “rest of the world’s” opinion should be as irrelevant to Israel as it is to South Boston or (“Come and take it”) Texas. And the president of the United States does not speak for “the world” in opposition to Israel or anyplace else outside our borders.

Mother of 4 Palestinian Terrorists Gets Award

The 'Elders' continue to push the delusion that 'peace' in the Middle East can be made with a people that awards mothers of suicide bombers, if only we would divide Jerusalem....

“We don’t have any authority, but we do have a voice,” Carter said, as he met with Arab residents in Silwan. “And we’ll ask them to continue working towards a peace and a division between east and west Jerusalem... because east Jerusalem should be a Palestinian capital only under Palestinian control.”

Barkat slammed the suggestion.

“No divided city in the world has ever succeeded,” he said in a statement. “In fact, I asked the Elders how they can celebrate the reunification of Berlin while at the same time advocate the division of Jerusalem. It is the ultimate inconsistency.”

Poor Nir Barkat (Jerusalem's Mayor). These people don't care about consistency. They care about destroying the Jewish state.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

The USA in the Middle East

Usually, the Israeli's initial boast is that he is a survivor. Many of us claim we are small droplets in the 5600-year stream the mighty flow of Jewish history. My morning prayers cover wisdom from our ancient sages. In this regard we share the Chinese disrespect for philosophies and ideologies of more recent vintage. The Chinese refer to these upstarts [and us] as barbarians.
This attitude can lead to the wrong conclusions, such as those held by the 78% of American Jews who speculated on the measure of Barack Obama style without substance. The Israelis banked the farmhouse on Ari Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Both men failed to realize that Republicans and Palestinians are cut from the same cloth. Both groups promise ultimate success for their actions while ignoring the growing heap of corpses they accumulate.
The Palestinians rejected the two-state solution twice by continuing terror and by invading Israel. This proved there would be only a de facto one-state Israel surrounded by hostiles. Faced with unpleasant alternatives, the Israel answer was to grab land hilltop by easily defended hilltop.
The GOP and the Palestinians usually contrive to snatch war from the jaws of peace.
The US did not choose to sell US nuclear secrets. Members of the FBI, the Congress and the State Department betrayed the USA to the Turks.

Nakba Day

'Israel/Palestine: Commemorating the Nakba and Debating Loyalty'
by Ayesha Saldanha

May 15 is Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate the creation of Israel and subsequent Palestinian displacement and dispossession. Shortly after the day this year, a controversial piece of legislation was proposed in the Knesset banning commemoration of the Nakba. Two other bills were recently proposed, one introducing a pledge of allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, and another criminalizing public denial of Israel as a Jewish state. While the "loyalty law" has been rejected, and the Nakba bill has been amended, the fact that the bills were introduced at all has prompted debate and protest.

It’s me has been contemplating the annual Nakba commemorations:

I didn’t want to write about this commemoration…I don’t know why.
However, as long as I don’t put the words down they kill me from inside. So let them come out…and one of them will kill me.
The Nakba.
A tent… a blue card [given to refugees]…and a key…and deluded hopes.
And expressions such as “holding on”, “we will return”, “refugees”…and so on.
A substantial subject for pedants such as I…This time I didn’t want to [write], but a discussion this morning with my mother – or with any mother – was as follows:
Me: Mother, today is the commemoration of the Nakba.
Mother: [sighing] Every day there is a nakba, every day there is an commemoration, every day there is a celebration.

Total silence.


Reacting to the "loyalty law", The Other Door has written a sarcastic post in the personae of various Palestinian citizens of Israel:


I am Mohammed Al Safoori. I swear by the Torah of the Jews that I will be a loyal citizen to the State of Israel, and will respect traffic regulations, pay my taxes and put up a picture of Mira Awad in my living room.
I am Salima Al Jebaili. On the soul of my dead father, I swear I will be loyal to Israel and bake only kosher bread.
I am Sulaiman Ladwai. I swear by Almighty God that I knew and named my eldest daughter Walaa' [loyalty] as a premonition of allegiance to the state of Lieberman. My whole family and I will be loyal to the state. We will see you at Yarkon Park on Independence Day. Arabs are allowed to enter, right?
I am Mahmoud Abu Daqa. I was called Mahmoud after my grandfather who was martyred with the resistance fighters in ’71. My grandfather was martyred for the sake of the nation, and I will continue on his path, and swear an oath of allegiance to the State of Israel.


I am Jameel Khouri from Efrat. On the life of Virgin Mary I swear to be loyal to Israel.
[…]
I am Nora Majdalawi and my friends call me Nurit [a Jewish name].You too all seem to betray… I am committed to be loyal to the state and also recognise it as a democratic Jewish state. I hope peace will manifest itself every country of the world, just has as it has for us. I would like to send greetings to my friends in the civil defence at Nahariya Hospital.
I am Murad Al Abed. I swear by God, by the mosque and by the prophets, by my love and your love, by my eyes (which I hope will be eaten by worms if I lie), by heaven, by my mother, by my father’s testicles, by prostitutes, and by the life of Najla Fathi, that I love Israel, and that we are against terrorism.


You may view the latest post at
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/06/05/israelpalestine-commemorating-the-nakba-and-


On the speech, Gorenberg writes:

His message to us was very, very basic Obama: First, I acknowledge your history. Second, it’s time each of you recognize the other’s side history, that you stop thinking that somehow by admitting the other’s side suffering you’ll erase your own. And now that you’ve acknowledged history, stop holding on to it as if electricity were running through it, as if your hand can’t let go. Move forward. Turn history into history - the text explaining how we got here - and stop treating it as an ever-repeating present.

How Did the Tiger Get into the Bath Tub?

How Did the Tiger Get Into the Bath Tub?
Over the years I have come to realize that many tough-talking politicians are little scared cats. To adjust for this, they exaggerate the threats coming from their target group. In my day Harry Truman was a leading proponent of scare tactics. In 1950 the fledgling military/industrial needed a ruthless opponent to justify huge military expenditures especially in times of relative calm. Harry Truman detailed the USSR [International Communism] as villain number one. Suddenly, every actor on radio became an American Spy. Ronnie Reagan became involved with foreign-born women with throaty accents. [Apparently, American girls stayed home to bake cookies.] The listener never knew where her loyalties lay till the end of the episode.
Shortly after this, US employers developed the Loyalty Oath. It placed everyone on the front line so to speak. Of course it was nonsense. Any Communist Agent worth his salt would lie. The oath became a trap for artists and intellectuals who had independent thoughts about the meaning of good citizenship. This loyalty business became a curse when many Americans lost their livelihood by resisting the bullying tactics to such as the House Un-American Activities Committee.
A number of witch hunt victims were Jewish.
This is partly why I went into partial shock when a number of right wing fanatics suggested a Loyalty Oath for Palestinian Israelis. Although it was voted down by the Knesset, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Other citizens [Palestinian] wiser than I, mocked the proposed oath into nothingness.
Reacting to the "loyalty law", The Other Door has written a sarcastic post in the personae of various Palestinian citizens of Israel:

I am Mohammed Al Safoori. I swear by the Torah of the Jews that I will be a loyal citizen to the State of Israel, and will respect traffic regulations, pay my taxes and put up a picture of Mira Awad [represented Israel at Eurovision] in my living room.

I am Salima Al Jebaili. On the soul of my dead father, I swear I will be loyal to Israel and bake only kosher bread.
I am Sulaiman Ladwai. I swear by Almighty God that I knew and named my eldest daughter Walaa' [loyalty] as a premonition of allegiance to the state of Lieberman. My whole family and I will be loyal to the state. We will see you at Yarkon Park on Independence Day. Arabs are allowed to enter, right?
I am Mahmoud Abu Daqa. I was called Mahmoud after my grandfather who was martyred with the resistance fighters in ’71. My grandfather was martyred for the sake of the nation, and I will continue on his path, and swear an oath of allegiance to the State of Israel.

I am Jameel Khouri from Efrat. On the life of Virgin Mary I swear to be loyal to Israel.
[…]
I am Nora Majdalawi and my friends call me Nurit [a Jewish name].You too all seem to betray… I am committed to be loyal to the state and also recognize it as a democratic Jewish state. I hope peace will manifest itself every country of the world, just has as it has for us. I would like to send greetings to my friends in the civil defense at Nahariya Hospital.
I am Murad Al Abed. I swear by God, by the mosque and by the prophets, by my love and your love, by my eyes (which I hope will be eaten by worms if I lie), by heaven, by my mother, by my father’s testicles, by prostitutes, and by the life of Najla Fathi, that I love Israel, and that we are against terrorism.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/06/05/israelpalestine-commemorating-the-nakba-and-

Honor Killings

Palestinians: Family killed boy, 15, over Israel collaboration By The Associated Press Tags: collaborator, palestinian
Palestinian police on Thursday said a 15-year-old boy was found hanged in a West Bank barn, and said his father, uncle and cousin confessed to the slaying.

Police said family members told them they believed the boy collaborated with the Israeli army.

But authorities said that they are investigating other motives as well, as it is unlikely someone so young would be recruited as an informer.
Palestinian courts officials on Sunday said a Palestinian woman suspected of spying for Israel may be sentenced to death.

The officials said the 22-year-old woman worked as a collaborator after obtaining a divorce from her husband, who forced her to work as a prostitute, making her a social outcast in Palestinian society.

Palestinian military judge Abdul Karim al-Masri said the woman confessed to passing low-level information and refused a lawyer. "She didn't hurt anybody except herself," he said.

In the past two years, more than 30 Palestinians have been sentenced to death for spying, but none of the sentences have been carried out.


Jordan: No Honour in Killing '
by Rami Abdelrahman

For the past three weeks, Jordanian bloggers have been renewing calls against "honor killings," following a court conviction of a father and his two sons for beating his daughter to death for "going out with full make up."

The case sent waves of awe and shock across the Jordanian blogosphere and some of the mainstream newspapers, as this was the seventh case of women being murdered brutally by their relatives on the suspicion that they had committed "adultery" this year alone.

Blogger Kinzi was among the first to call for Jordanian male bloggers to break their silence about this topic.

"You all rose well when it was Gaza. This time, the evil is within our own land, perpetuated by our own laws, executed by Jordanian hands. Don’t you care as much for your fellow female citizens as you do for innocent Gazan women?"

The Arab Observer answered with a post initiating an email campaign:


"It is time for our local media, whether it is printed or online, to stand up to their responsibilities towards Jordanian citizens. It is time for you all to raise up your voices and lobby to abolish such retarded law. We awe it to ourselves, to our mothers, to our daughters and to our wives, we ought to provide them with dignity, equality, and safety. No Jordanian woman should fear the prosecution of a male relative. No man should get away with murder under the name of honor."


Jordanian law stipulates that a man who finds his wife or a related female engaged in "adultery" and kills or wounds her as a result of this discovery in a "fit of fury" receives a reduced sentence according to articles 340 and 98 of the Penal code. The Jordanian parliament, with tribal and Islamic MPs leading majority of seats, has failed twice in 2003 to reverse or change these laws. Seven cases of "honor killings" took place that year.

Joining other bloggers, Qwaider wrote in support of stopping honor killings, saying there is no proof whatsoever that this is related to Islamic laws and teachings.

Many think that honor killing has it's roots in the Islamic Shariah. Quite frankly nothing can be farther from the truth. In fact, Islam doesn't take people's lives as award for committing adultery without proof... You really need 4 people to see them in the act as witnesses... The punishment for any unmarried person (male or females) is few flogs (or the modern equivalent).

He called upon fellow bloggers to start "a campaign to protest the unjust, inhuman, and extremely degrading dishonor killing pardons that are spelled out in the law."

The calls were echoed in the Syrian blogosphere.

According to blogger Bam Bam, there has been little interaction between Jordanian and Syrian bloggers. But the recent campaign found support from Syrian bloggers as seen in posts written by Abu Fares, Razan, and last but not least KJ who wrote a fictional story entitled "why I killed my sister."

Bam Bam goes on to say this is high time to ask all the tough question:

“Are honor crimes an isolated occurrence or a culmination of several events that lead to them ? how frequent do those events occur and if I reduce the occurrence of the most frequent event can I reduce honor crimes? Why do people commit honor crimes? is it because of religion , to protect social status and reputation, or some other reasons?"
Just as bloggers continued to spread these messages, another killing took place - a 19-year-old man was charged of stabbing his 21-year-old sister, just after she was released from the governor's protection. He confessed to the murder, saying his sister "often left their family home to go to an unknown destination."
Blogger Kinzi commented on the sentence, saying it is an " improvement from the six months slap on the hand," since the man was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. She added that blogger Naseem Tarawnah had written about the murder when it took place in 2007. He then wrote that the victim, as in many similar cases, was not sexually active.
It is estimated that an average of 18 to 20 cases of "honor killings" are reported in Jordan every year, according to this televised report.

I Resist: Palestine Like Never Before

I Resist Palestine: a campaign like never before

As Operation Lead was closing early this year, a new organization rose based in Beirut. The intent was to instill pride in the Palestinian resistance. During the hostilities the emphasis had been on victimhood. Pictures of bleeding bodies stacked up at hospitals had an immediate effect on world public opinion. The impression was of an Israeli shooting gallery with Palestinians as ducks on a pond.
After they adjusted to the carnage, various UN aid workers began to speak of crimes against humanity and mass murder. The innocent civilians had nowhere to hide from the furious bombardment. Instead of defending them, the soldiers hid in tunnels. They claimed victory by virtue of surviving the onslaught.
This did not inspire public confidence. After years of posturing and boasting, the militias had retired to the bomb shelters after four days of combat while the women and children dodged bullets to collect food.
These practices were hardly the type to inspire confidence in the Hamas regime. They left it to outside sources to carry the attack to Israel. Outside legal experts took the Israeli authorities to the international courts. Since Gaza is not a country, the complaints had to pass through the Israeli courts that proved unsympathetic to the collection of hearsay and gossip that constituted most of the charges. Another legal weakness occurred when the Palestinians stretched the allegations to war crimes. Claims of genocide involve the intent of the perpetrator. If he failed to take all measures available to him to destroy the Gaza citizenry, what he did was not genocide.
The basic legal problem for Hamas is they initiated the hostilities. If they withdrew four days into the fight, they should have never started it. The aggressor had exposed his civilian population to severe damage without gaining anything for them. Hamas was the war criminal in this case.
What does the new outfit hope to accomplish Like Never Before?
Here is a video from them.

The video is well done and good advertising. For maximum universal effect I would change to "oppose" rather than "resist" whenever it appears. Everyone opposes atrocities, closed zones and travel by permit. High walls and checkpoints are not on anybody's wish list. Occupation and genocide are madness personified. Who wouldn't oppose these cruel measures?

Resistance implies action a big step beyond opposition. Much of that depends on the nature of the regime in power. An efficient regime will define acceptable boundaries for dissent. The choice is up to the dissenter. Shall I tiptoe along the boundary, or do I risk prison or worse by crossing the line? What do I gain from violence? What can I take from the regime through negotiation or stealth?

The vital message to the enemy is he can't achieve anything through violence. The Israelis learned this in 1967. Anybody who urges the Palestinians to resist actively does not have the Palestinian welfare at heart. What are they to do against the fourth military power in the world?

The Palestinians could have had their own country many years ago if they had abandoned their side bets. Only military victory could have returned them to their original homes in Israel or would have led to a one-state solution. Nobody can give anybody their human rights. They are a matter between the people and their elected representatives.

President Obama has asked the Palestinians to disarm and to live side-by-side with the Israelis in peace. This is the best deal anybody in the region is likely to get.



Palestine: A Campaign Like Never Before'
by Ayesha Saldanha

A campaign was launched earlier this year, at the time of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, to promote the concept of taking pride in Palestinian resistance, and to focus on Palestinian rights not victimhood. Called the Never Before Campaign, it is based in Beirut, Lebanon, and has produced a series of videos to convey its message. Global Voices Online has interviewed the Never Before Campaign to find out more.

How did the Never Before Campaign start? Who is involved?
The Never Before Campaign is really a group of individuals from various backgrounds (media, business, sociology experts, civil society activists) in Lebanon who came together for a number of causes, locally in Lebanon and the Arab world in general. We haven’t disclosed our names because we prefer that focus remains on the campaign itself as well as on the causes we support. We have seen so many good movements turning bad after becoming personified…
The idea for the Never Before Campaign had been brewing for some time when the war on Gaza started last December. It was then we realized that we should launch the campaign. The term Never Before came about after lengthy discussions (prior to the Gaza war) over whether it would be better to draw parallelism between the Palestinian cause and the South Africa struggle, or with other past causes around the world. The conclusion was: It is true that severe injustice has befallen peoples around the world throughout history, but never before was it over such a long period of time, and so blatant and so cruel and met with such indifference. At the same time, never before has a people resisted and struggled for so long, with the odds being against them and faced so many betrayals. Finally, support for the Palestinian people against the injustice they face, is becoming stronger as never before.

Never Before Campaign - I Resist:



What makes the campaign different to other campaigns in support of Palestinian rights?
We do not claim that our campaign is drastically different. Advocating the Palestinian cause has been going on since the 1948 if not even before that. We are part of this movement. What we noticed is that campaigning for Palestine in the more than a decade or so, particularly in the West, has been confined to garnering sympathy on a humanitarian basis. We believe that what is needed is respect for the Palestinian people rather than empathy or a guilt driven sentiment.
Our view is that justice shall prevail in Palestine, our duty is to make this come sooner, and that we are inviting every decent human being to be part of this day when it comes.

Never Before Campaign - What it's all about:



Does the campaign focus on producing videos, or are there other ways in which you aim to get your message across?
We are all working people, with no resources allocated for the campaign. So, we are sticking with the videos for now. Many people have already joined us physically and virtually, so we hope to start expanding our activities as soon as it is feasible.

Never Before Campaign - Make the Lie Big:

Human Rights Rare in Middle East

Human Rights Laws Not Enforced for Anybody in Israel
Israel ratified the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights, but implementation of it is rare for Jew or Gentile. Over 60 years of warfare Israel became a Police State, and the authorities work with judges to discourage dissent. After three devastating attacks on our homeless shelter, a sweet young Judge advised me to go to European Courts to press for human rights. She lost her job for saying that.
We may agree that Palestinians have a right to eat and to heat their homes. The Israeli authorities maintain the Palestinian loses these rights when he lobs mortar rounds over the wall. Indeed, most Jews do not wish any contact with Arabs and the wall is emblematic of that.
Both peoples could stay at home and tend to their own business.

Barack Supporter in Gaza

Abu Jayaab, Voices Without Votes

Call him Barack Obama’s man in Gaza. Ibrahim Abu Jayyab, a bookish 23-year-old media studies student, gathers friends to try and rally support for the Democratic candidate by calling U.S. voters from a cybercafé in the Gaza strip.

Abu Jaayab told a reporter for the Ramattan News Network that he has called “tens or hundreds of random phone numbers” in the United States, pleading with people to vote for Obama, who he sees as “the man of the future.”

In an interview with the television network Al-Jazeera, Abu Jaayab explained:

It all started at the time of the US Primaries. After studying Obama’s campaign manifesto, I thought this is a man who is capable of change inside America. As for potential change in the Middle East, he can also do that. He can bring peace to the area. At least this is what he hopes.

For his work and dedication, Abu Jaayab has received death threats from Islamist fundamentalists – and was nominated for an Index on Censorship/Hugo Young Award for Journalism 2007. Undeterred, Abu Jaayab told Ramattan News Network that if Obama becomes President, he will help the Palestinians to achieve their dreams.

“We can not achieve our dreams because of the Israeli occupation, the world did not help us to end the Israeli occupation,” he said “we hope Obama will achieve what the world could not, to help us to live in peace and to achieve our dreams.”

Abu Jayyab believes that as Obama from an Islamic origin and from those who oppressed a long the history, he thinks that he will absorb the suffer of the Palestinians and will not hesitate to help them.

The work of Abu Jaayab and his friends at the cyber café – where the power supply can be precarious at best – is now quite uncommon for residents in Gaza, said Mkhaimer Abu Sada, a political analyst from Al-Azhar University. He told Al-Jazeera that while his students are following the US primaries, they remain intellectually detached.

[W]hether there is a Democratic President or Republican President in the White House, there is not going to be a big difference regarding the Palestinian issue.

The United State’s five-year military engagement in Iraq may be partly to blame, along with the country’s on-again, off-again war of words with Iran. (Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton recently became engaged in that debate, discussed here in Voices without Votes.) As Al-Jazeera – and others – have pointed out, the Israeli-Palestinian issue wasn’t of much interest within the Bush administration until the past year or so.

As presidential candidates concentrate more about Iraq’s future and America's dependence on Middle Eastern oil, bloggers around the region and beyond have picked up Abu Jaayab’s unlikely story and used it as a tool to debate Obama’s foreign policy bona-fides.

Throughout the campaign, Obama’s many intellectual U-turns on Israel and Hamas should warn us that we can’t believe a word he says, argues Israel Matzav:

When Obama said, “nobody's suffering more than the Palestinian people,” did he really mean as he later clarified, that nobody was suffering more from the failure of the Palestinian leadership? Or was he trying to start a “conversation” about whether the U.S. is too focused on Israeli suffering, and not enough on the suffering of the Palestinians?

When he was asked by Brian Williams in a debate last year to name the top three allies of the United States, why did he filibuster the question without naming Israel?

When he said in February, “I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, then you're anti-Israel, and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel,” what did he mean by “pro-Likud”?

… It's a shame that Obama has apparently gotten through the Democratic primaries without his true stance on the issues being fleshed out. Hopefully, they will be fleshed out enough by the Presidential elections to send him reeling in ignominious defeat.

Formally of Iran, Amil Imani warns that Obama may be in physical danger if he follows through with his proposal to meet the leaders of Iran:

Obama boasted that he would embark on a personal diplomacy to solve our foreign policy problems with countries such as Syria and Iran. He said that he would meet their leaders without any preconditions to settle our disputes. Doesn’t that sound like change, a real change of great relief to us all? Never mind the fact that he has about zero experience in foreign policy matters, he is foolish enough to aim to negotiate with the ever-conniving Assad of Syria and masters of deceptions such as the Mullahs of Iran.

Okay Obama, don’t claim that no one warned you. If you get elected President and you receive an invitation from your fellow Muslim brother Ahmadinejad to make good on your promise and visit him in Tehran for a tête-à-tête, don’t you do it.

…
My advice, Obama: Elected President or not, don’t you hazard a trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, don’t you go anywhere near where the crazed Islamists can get their hands on you. You don’t even rate a fatwa from one of the many bloodthirsty crafty Ayatollahs or Moftis asking for your head. Your fate is already sealed. You are on automatic, so to speak– a person who was given the gift of Islam and who ungratefully turned his back to the one and only faith of Allah, so the Muslims believe. The punishment for this kind of betrayal is prescribed as haad (most severe), meaning death.

Even Abu Jaayab has some doubts. Back to Ramattan News Network.

But, Abu Jayyab is so “disappointed and upset” because Obama did not mention the suffering and the security of the Palestinian people when he said that the security of Israel is “holy”.

“Why Senator Obama did not mention to the daily killing the Palestinian people lives in, why he did not talk about the siege on Gaza? What about security, is it not sacrosanct?” he said.

In TV discussion issues of anti-Semitism, with Hilary Clinton, Obama said Tuesday: “… I have been a stalwart friend of Israel and supported the special relationship we enjoy with it… they are among our most important allies and their security is sacrosanct.”

Ending the Palestinian/Israeli Debate

There are Two Sides to Every Story a Myth

Many of us like to think we are broadminded able to put ourselves in another man’s shoes.

Journalists like to present both sides of the dispute equal time to both parties.

This is not always possible. Once, you could debate the US presence in Iraq, global warming or universal health insurance. These issues have gone from left wing diatribes to mainstream axioms.

Let me settle the Israel/Palestine debate with a little magic.

Imagine one day all the Jews wake up wedged into Palestine. They are poor, inadequately housed with little to eat.

The Palestinians awaken in a Land of Milk and Honey. They are armed to the teeth with every modern weapon.

How much time will pass before every Israeli is dead?

Winston Churchill and the Jews

Winston Churchill said about Jews and Judaism. "On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization."

His biographer Martin Gilbert referred to Palestine. He truly believed the Zionists would make something special of Palestine.

Previously, western nations such as Germany and Italy have lapsed into barbarity and preemptive war. Is there one serious scholar who blames the Jews for these atrocities?

Similarly, the USA has embarked on her disastrous Crusade for Empire in Asia. How can any serious person believe she acts as our friend in this activity?

Many people could profit by reading Martin Gilbert's latest book Churchill and the Jews.

Israel: Palestine or Kosovo

'Israel: Kosovo or Palestine, the Balkan is Here!'

by Gilad Lotan, Global Voices
 

Unilateral declarations have played a central role in Israeli politics over the past years. Israel's withdrawals from both the south of Lebanon and the Gaza strip have been controversial in the region's politics. On the one hand, Israeli leaders were awarded by major support both internally and internationally, resulting from withdrawal. However, Israel is still dealing with the consequences: Hizbollah arming in Lebanon and the daily escalating violence in the Gaza Strip. When diplomacy fails and all hope is gone, unilateral actions tend to follow.

Kosovo's recent declaration of independence results from the failure of both sides to reach common grounds over diplomatic talks. Kosovo's Albanian citizens are not willing to wait anymore. As major European powers, including France, Germany, Britain and the United States officially recognized Kosovo's declaration, countries like Spain, Russia and China have been reluctant to recognize the State, claiming that the declaration did not respect international law.

The Israeli government has not formally announced its opinion. However, several Hebrew bloggers have been reacting and comparing the political fatigue in the Balkans to that back home. Ilan Goren's post, in Hebrew, caught my attention for its descriptive comparison between the two regions. It is translated below:

"If they continue to behave so wildly we'll simply cut off their electricity supply", promises a senior politician to his supporters. "Lets see them behave that way in the dark and cold". The audience applauds and flags are waived. National pride in its full force while all stand still. Foreign diplomats are far from thrilled.

The senior politician is not alone. This is an accepted tone in the wild east of 2008. At least 75 per cent of the electricity supplied to the stubborn region saturated with blood and hate comes from the larger, more powerful neighbor's power plant. The region is rebellious and stubborn, wanting independence and sovereignty as a country. The big war resulted with mass exile, killings and the war criminals on both sides declaring themselves as leaders. Now the local Muslims dream of independence; demand it. If by means of force, or even through heavy violence. Whatever price is necessary.

Nationalists from the big, powerful country, surrounded by enemies, will never concede. If necessary, they will limit the population's access out of the region. Also, a ban on trade and commodities will certainly be possible... As we are dealing with peoples' claim of right to the land of their fathers, we are also dealing with national rights of a poor and deprived population, including the right for refugees to return to their land. The local national party swears by this, and is willing to use terrorist methodology. From its point-of-view, this is a fight for freedom.

Yes. You guessed right. I am obviously writing about Serbia and Kosovo. I did not refer to Israel and the Palestinians (written in cynical font).

Serbia and Kosovo are not Israel and Palestine. There are many substantial differences. Over there, international military forces intervened, here only diplomacy. From some 50 years ago, the amount of death and exile is not similar. At least not in recent years. But one thing the conflicts do have in common: restraint is not in fashion. Politicians who want to succeed, especially in times of elections, choose the extreme: throwing inflammable material into the already existing fire is a sure sell. And what about the citizens? At first, they will be enthusiastic, but later scurry to purchase emergency lights and fire extinguishers.

In that sense, the Balkan is here.

 

Evil Jewish Acts?

Evil Jewish Acts

In 1938 Gandhi advised ALL Jews to accede to the Nazi desire to exterminate them. This advice came from his experience in India where it met with remarkable success. In this Ghandhi seriously underestimated the ability and will of the Nazi death apparatus.There were 153000 Nazis at work in the death camps. The estimate that 'only' 371000 Jews died in the camps suggests great inefficiency by the Germans.After the war 600000 Jewish Holocaust Survivors immigrated to Israel. Using the low death figure, one might conclude that two-thirds of Jews evaded the Gestapo for six years.The New England Medical Journal now claims that 'only' 151000 Iraqis died due to the US invasion. They claim that 4/5ths of all deaths were from natural causes.The British medical journal Lancet updated the violent deaths every week during the war to arrive at the estimate of 1.2 millions killed.Statistics lie according to the predilections of the statisticians, or the people who were paying them.Any minority group will exaggerate the damage done to it by those in power. The Gazans equate their present plight to genocide. If the Israelis desired this, they could easily have accomplished this in a bloody morning.The Arabs have not controlled Palestine since the year 1250 AD.Jewish terrorist groups such as the Stern Gang fought the then ruling power the British. The Jews executed the standard terror tactics well known in many circles.The Jews were neither the first nor the last people to stake out a territory.Why are they singled out for inspection?