WaPo toon upsets loons

Here's the Washington Post cartoon:

And here are the unhappy loons as reported by Jerusalem Post

Total Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza proposed by Israeli Parliament's Deputy Speaker

This has either passed below the radar of the mainstream media and has been reported on mostly zionist sites.  +972 mag reports on it thus:

If you still see daylight between Israel’s current bloodletting and its state-sanctioned policy toward the Palestinians, have a look at what the deputy speaker of the Knesset, Moshe Feiglin, posted on his official website Tuesday. It’s a seven-point tract named, without a hint of irony, “My Outline for a Solution for Gaza.”

And here's the statement in full:

1. Ultimatum – One warning from the Prime Minister of Israel to the enemy population, in which he announces that Israel is about to attack military targets in their area and urges those who are not involved and do not wish to be harmed to leave immediately. Sinai is not far from Gaza and they can leave. This will be the limit of Israel’s humanitarian efforts. Hamas may unconditionally surrender and prevent the attack.
2. Attack – Attack of the entire ‘target bank’ throughout the Gaza Strip with the IDF’s maximum force (and not a tiny fraction of it) with all the conventional means at its disposal. All the military and infrastructural targets will be attacked with no consideration for ‘human shields’ or ‘environmental damage’. It is enough that we are hitting exact targets and that we gave them advance warning.
3. Siege – Parallel to the above, a total siege on Gaza. Nothing will enter the Strip. Israel, however, will allow exit from Gaza. (Civilians may go to Sinai, fighters may surrender to IDF forces).
4. Defense – Any place from which Israel or Israel’s forces were attacked will be immediately attacked with full force and no consideration for ‘human shields’ or ‘environmental damage’.
5. Conquer – After the IDF will complete the softening of the targets with its aerial and long distance fire-power, it will send in infantry to conquer the entire Gaza Strip, using all the means necessary to minimize any harm to our soldiers, with no other considerations.
6. Elimination- The GSS and IDF will thoroughly eliminate all armed enemies from Gaza. The enemy population that is innocent of wrong-doing and separated itself from the armed terrorists will be treated in accordance with international law and will be allowed to leave. Israel will generously aid those who wish to leave.
7. Sovereignty – Gaza is part of our Land and we will remain there forever. Liberation of parts of our land       forever is the only thing that justifies endangering our soldiers in battle to capture land. Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel. The coastal train line will be extended, as soon as possible, to reach the length of the Gaza Strip. According to polls, most of the Arabs in Gaza wish to leave. Those who were not involved in anti-Israel activity will be offered a generous international emigration package. Those who choose to remain will receive permanent resident status. After a number of years of living in Israel and becoming accustomed to it, contingent on appropriate legislation in the Knesset and the authorization of the Minister of Interior on a case by case basis, those who personally accept upon themselves Israel’s rule, substance and way of life of the Jewish State in its Land, will be offered Israeli citizenship.

Last I heard the UK prime minister, David Cameron, had phoned Netanyahu to offer his full support for Israel's attack on Gaza. Paradoxically this Feiglin guy is currently barred from entering the UK because apparently his racism is too much for even ardent supporters of the Likud like the UK government.

World turns upside down as it falls to The Daily Mail to report French ban on March for Gaza

Look at this in The Daily Mail:

France's Socialist government provoked outrage today by becoming the first in the world to ban protests against Israeli action in Palestine.

In what is viewed as an outrageous attack on democracy, Socialist Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said mass demonstrations planned for the weekend should be halted.

Mr Cazeneuve said there was a ‘threat to public order’, while opponents said he was ‘criminalising’ popular support of the Palestinian people.

Thousands were set to march against the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, calling for an immediate end to hostilities in which civilians including many children have been killed.

Cor! did you see that?  The Daily Mail condemning the "slaughter in Gaza" where "many children have been killed"?

Anyway, let's read on:

There were false claims made last week that synagogues in Paris had been targeted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

In fact videos showed armed vigilantes from a group called the Jewish Defence League (LDJ) baiting demonstrators into fights.

I remember reading about synagogues being attacked and then something or other about the JDL attacking Palestine solidarity people.  I'm so used to zionists lying about such things I didn't take a whole lot of notice.  Again I'm amazed that The Daily Mail (home of Mad Melanie Phillips) is breaking the news on this.

But again let's read on:

There were no arrests among the LDJ, despite them fighting and smashing up property in full view of the police.

Six pro-Palestine protestors were arrested for a variety of public order offences, but none had been anywhere near Paris synagogues, which remained undamaged.

A judicial enquiry is set to be launched into the false allegations made about the synagogue attacks – ones which people claim were made up to demonise supporters of Palestine by associating them with anti-Semitism.

On Friday night lawyers for a number of groups hoping to campaign on behalf of Palestine on Saturday lodged an appeal against the ban in a Paris court.

I don't know where to begin with my thoughts on this but let's take it from the top.  France, a country that has seen more than a few violent demonstrations over many things from Algeria to the definition of lamb (or was it sheep meat?), has banned a demo for Palestine.  It has done so on the pretext that passed violence could happen again.  The violence of the previous demos was caused by the judeo-nazis of the Jewish Defence League but it was Palestine solidarity demonstrators that were arrested.

Well let's see how the judicial review turns out but I don't hold out much hope.

Letters for BDS and a slap on the wrist for Chomsky

These letters are in today's Guardian:

It is now 10 years since the international court of justice ruled that the wall built by Israel in the occupied West Bank contravenes international law and must be removed. Israel is marking this anniversary with renewed attacks on Gaza which continue to punish the Palestinians for resisting the illegal occupation of their land (Israel turns screw on Hamas as 300 targets are hit in a single night, 11 July). The apartheid wall is still there, making any kind of normal life for Palestinians an impossibility, as well as stealing their land. It is 47 years since Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, thus extending the process (begun in 1948) of ethnically cleansing the indigenous population and then installing settlers.

All this is illegal under international law, which has been flouted by Israel, aided by the complicity of western governments. The media too, especially the BBC, must bear some responsibility with its grotesquely biased reporting which, as Owen Jones notes (9 July), portrays Israel as an innocent victim, exempt from any norms of behaviour. Our government will not hold Israel accountable, so we have a responsibility to do so, especially through the civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

Miriam Margolyes, Mike Marqusee, Alexei Sayle, Ahdaf Soueif, Prof Haim Bresheeth, Prof Jonathan Rosenhead, Prof Moshe Machover, Prof Nira Yuval-Davies, Seymour Alexander, Rica Bird, Elizabeth Carola, Mike Cushman, Judit Druks, Nancy Elan, Mark Elf, Deborah Fink, Sylvia Finzi, Kenneth Fryde, Claire Glasman, Tony Greenstein, Abe Hayeem, Rosamine Hayeem, Selma James, Riva Joffe, Michael Kalmanovitz, Adah Kay, Leah Levane, Les Levidow, Mica Nava, Diane Neslen, Susan Pashkoff, Roland Rance, Leon Rosselson, Maureen Rothstein, Michael Sackin, Ian Saville, Miriam Scharf, Sam Weinstein, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Devra Wiseman, Ben Young
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG)

• Debate about strategy is vital for good politics. We welcome Noam Chomsky's admonitions as a stimulus to the debate and education which the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement has enabled globally. Aside from the errors of fact in Chomsky's Nation article reported on by Ian Black (Israeli sanctions campaign: Chomsky's boycott warning, 2 July), the timing of his intervention is unfortunate since the BDS movement has now reached even American campuses, occasioned Israeli cabinet deliberations as to how to counter it, and caused reputational damage to corporations working with Israeli firms in occupied Palestine.

Chomsky also ignores that BDS is fully backed by Palestinian civil society and a growing number of Israelis. In this difficult period for progressive politics and international solidarity, the BDS movement builds across the globe. In its stead Chomsky proposes nothing.

Hilary Rose Professor emeritus of social policy, Bradford, Martha Mundy Professor emeritus in anthropology, LSE, Steven Rose Professor emeritus of neuroscience, Open University, Sami Ramadani London Metropolitan University

I ought to add that whilst the first letter was organised via Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) not all of the signatories are members.

Leaflet drop at Neil Young Hyde Park Gig July 12, 2014

From International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network:

Neil Young -- Tell us Why You Would Play for Apartheid Israel

Leafleting protest, Marble Arch gig entrance, Hyde Park, Sat 12 July, 1-5pm For YOU to play Israel is to abandon both your anti-war stance and the Palestinian "people of the earth".  They have appealed directly to you to honour the cultural boycott and cancel your 17 July concert in Tel Aviv. See Neil's speech contrasted with film of indigenous Palestinian people under attack from Israeli soldiers and warplanes. Gaza is burning and children are being incinerated by F16s of the Israeli military. Tell Neil Young not to side with the bombers! Read the Gaza Union of Agricultural Work Committees letter to Neil Young; Nasser Abu Said, a Gaza farmer’s, heartbreaking letter to Neil Young; and the Open Letter from Gaza to Neil Young by Palestinian students and youth. NEIL YOUNG - Cancel your date with apartheid!

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network: London Tuesday 8 July Protest & Film: Remembering the Hunger Strike

First Anniversary – Tuesday 8 July 2014

Remembering the Great Hunger & Work Strike
of California Prisoners
Against the torture of solitary confinement

London events highlight UK prison and detention struggles

Mon 7pm – Tues 7pm: 24-HOUR FAST in Support of Prisoners

Tues 5-6.30pm: PROTEST outside Holloway Prison. Parkhurst Road, N7 0NU

Tues 7-9pm: BREAKING the FAST with FILM of mothers and relatives of prisoners in struggle.

California Families Against Solitary Confinement, the Dallas 6 campaign, Donna Hill, mother of a woman in prison for 30 years for killing her attempted rapist.

Crossroads Women’s Centre, 25 Wolsey Mews, Kentish Town, NW5 2DX 
Soup & sandwiches

Background

On 8 July 2013, 30,000 prisoners in California, USA, began their 3^rd hunger strike – the largest and longest in US history – to end the torture of solitary confinement for years and even decades, improve their inhuman living conditions, and as an “act of solidarity with oppressed people around the world”.  

One prisoner did not survive, and after 58 days the prisoners suspended their strike to avoid further deaths. But they had already won a lot: the release from solitary of over 500 people extended visits with loved ones public legislative hearings access to canteen food (a crucial alternative to food contaminated by guards who piss and even defecate in it) and more . . .

Prisoners came together across race and other divides

In August 2012, after a previous hunger strike, prisoners issued an extraordinary Agreement to End Hostilities. It said that: “All hostilities between our racial groups will officially cease.” This set a new standard for unity within movements for justice inside and outside prison walls.

Family members ensured prisoners’ voices were heard

Mothers, daughters, partners, wives have worked tirelessly to prevent a blackout of the strike, gathering support for their loved ones, explaining the conditions inside, and what their demands are.

In London we held two protests outside the US embassy. The strikers received messages of support from around the world, from Ireland to Palestine where Palestinian prisoners, including children, are routinely detained for years without charge or trial. The day after the California hunger strike began in 2013, Palestinian Sheikh Khader Adnan, who had been on hunger strike for 66 days in 2012, sent his support. Dozens of Palestinians ended their 63-day hunger strike on 25 June this year – the longest in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

In London we will highlight:

·         The growing number of women in prison, mainly mothers who are inside for non-violent crimes of poverty, their children deprived of their care.

·         The 30 women a year who are sent to prison after reporting rape. Women Against Rape says that many are victims of a miscarriage of justice following negligent and biased police investigations, prosecuted with more zeal and resources than rapists.

·         The targeting of Black people so they are five times more likely to be imprisoned, while the number of Muslim people inside has doubled in the last decade, many of them teenagers.

·         The hunger strikes held by asylum seekers in detention centres in the UK (women in Yarl’s Wood, men in Harmondsworth), and the 56-day hunger strike by immigrant workers detained in Tacoma, Washington (US) and elsewhere.

·         The more than 1,000 African asylum seekers who went on hunger strike in Israel this week, to protest their illegal "inhuman and unlimited" detention in the Negev Desert.

·         The anti-war protest of Margaretta D’Arcy in Ireland, due to be imprisoned again on 9 July. She has refused for the second time to sign a bond to stay away from Shannon, a civilian airport used by the US military, breaking Ireland’s constitutional neutrality. She intends to “abstain from food during her two-week detention”.

Join us to work out how the California prisoners’ strike can be a lever against miscarriages of justice and inhuman conditions in prisons and detentions centres here in the UK. We want to spread information about prisoners organizing and the Cessation of Racial Hostilities in our communities.

---

Called by: Global Women’s Strike (GWS), Women of Colour GWS, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Legal Action for Women, Payday men’s network. For more information: 020 7482 2496

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network statement on Israel's escalation of violence

Protest Israel's Escalation of Violence

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) condemns Israel’s escalation of violence, as well as the revenge threats by the Israeli government and citizens and Zionist organizations and public figures. We denounce Western states and media claiming this brutality is somehow justified retribution for the deaths of three Jewish settlers from the racist, Jewish-only colony of Gush Etzion in the West Bank of Palestine.

In the space of just a few days, the Gaza Strip has been indiscriminately bombarded by warplanes; upwards of 600 Palestinians have been rounded up and imprisoned, and at least ten Palestinians have been killed—including several children, a pregnant mother, and a seventeen-year old boy whose burnt, mutilated body was found dumped in a forest outside East Jerusalem. These actions expose the terrorism of a racist settler-colonial state. IJAN stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and defends their right to resist the violence of colonialism and apartheid.

IJAN mourns the loss of all human life. We also recognize that the deaths of these three Jewish settlers are being exploited to justify Israel’s ongoing colonization of Palestinian lands and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Israel and its supporters, including Western media and politicians, have portrayed these Jewish settlers as innocent casualties—either of alleged Palestinian barbarism or of an intractably and inexplicably tragic conflict. In either case, Jewish Israeli lives are recognized and valued, while Palestinian lives are invisible and meaningless. Also erased is these settlers’ presence on the front lines of the Zionist terrorizing and dispossession of Palestine’s indigenous population. Further blotted out is the constant terrorism of the Zionist project and its irreducible responsibility for all deaths which occur in the course of its brutal expansion, be they Israeli or Palestinian.

IJAN also insists that any people whose lands, livelihood and dignity are being robbed from them by colonizers have a right to resist this violence. Prominent Zionist thinkers have often cynically recognized this fact. As the political predecessor of the present-day Israeli right, Vladimir Jabotinsky, famously wrote: “Every people will struggle against colonizers as long as there is a spark of hope of ridding itself of the danger of colonization. This too is what the Palestinian Arabs are doing and will go on doing as long as there is a spark of hope.” The brutality Israel is currently carrying out with the diplomatic and financial support of the US state is a futile attempt to extinguish that spark of hope, and to once again knowingly mislabel popular resistance against oppression as “terrorism.”

IJAN stands in solidarity with and honors the perseverance of Palestinian resistance, and calls on civil society everywhere to hold Israel accountable for its recurrent crimes, and end the occupation, colonization and apartheid in Palestine. We also call on Jewish people everywhere to recognize in this most recent bout of Israeli terror a larger and unmistakable pattern of unbridled violence and murder, collective punishment and hatred. We reject the suggestion that this is in the name of “the Jewish people.”

Propelled by the inescapable implications of its colonial logic, Zionism is not a revival of Jewish communal life, but a self-fulfilling prophecy of self-destruction. As Jewish people, we must act for the sake of Palestinian self-determination. It is urgent that we act: Over the next week, please organize rallies, protests, actions, demonstrations and vigils to protest this latest escalation of Israeli violence.

It is urgent that we act: Over the next week, please organize rallies, protests, actions, demonstrations and vigils to protest this latest escalation of Israeli violence.

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Argentina :: Canada :: England :: Europe :: India :: Israel :: United States
ijan@ijsn.net :: www.ijsn.net
© International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Racism at Jewish News Contradicts "Editor's Opinion"

I just picked up a copy of Jewish News at the local beigel bakery.   I saw read an article about how a Romanian guy had admitted to murdering an Israeli woman in London.  I looked for the article on line and here it is:

Romanian admits murdering Israeli woman in her London home

A Romanian who murdered a popular Israeli woman in her home is facing life behind bars.

I don't know the relevance of the fact that the perpetrator is Romanian.  It seems like too much information.  It seems racist, particularly in the current climate.

I went to leave a comment and noticed below the comment box a cluster of other Jewish News articles including this:

OPINION: Arabs need to grow up and look after their own refugees

I left the comment asking what the relevance of a murderer's nationality was and of course I was implicitly criticising the obvious racism in providing such irrelevant information.  But when I noticed the second article I realised that racism at the Jewish News appears to be so casual they might not even understand what I was saying.

And yet they do appear to recognise racism in some instances though they appear to be reluctant to call it what it is.  In the same cluster of headlines below the first article there was another, an "editor's opinion" explaining "why we must champion multiculturism".   Its the editor (apparently) criticising the racism of a Jewish UKIP member, Jeremy Zeid, who said that whites from Ilford in Essex were victims of "ethnic cleansing". Here's a taste of the editor's opinion:

does Mr Zeid represent today’s clash of civilisations? Has he and his party, which has an unfortunate habit of strafing whole races and religions with its stray sound-bites, barged its way to the front in this cultural showdown? 

If so, are we now being led by these yesteryear generals asking “why the bloody hell should they apologise”?
 
If so, where are we being led? And if we don’t speak out against their hate-filled bile, are we collectively only as good as them?

I'm more than happy for this editor chap, I think his name's Richard Ferrer, to condemn UKIP and its racism but if he is that concerned he might want to put his own house in order.

London Workshop on Stopping the Jewish National Fund

Stop the JNF London Workshop Sun 15th June, 2-5pm P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD
Eurig Scandrett speaking on the Friends of the Earth International Report ‘Environmental Nakba’ - the catastrophic impact on Palestinians of Israel’s occupation, colonisation, and apartheid. Plus documentary, Enduring Roots: Over a Century of Resistance to the JNF (35 mins) produced by IJAN.
The JNF’s role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the maintenance of an apartheid residential system has always been supported by great violence against its victims.   The murder of two Palestinian children by Israeli snipers, caught on camera few weeks ago, is an example.  The link between the JNF and Israeli war crimes was highlighted by the visit of Tzipi Livni last month to address a JNF event in London.  Livni was shielded from the possibility of arrest for war crimes by the UK Government’s grant to her of a temporary diplomatic status.  The JNF is an important part of the Zionist network. They are, nonetheless, worried. In the wake of their losing David Cameron and failing to get Miliband or Clegg as Honorary Patrons, a Westminster parliamentary motion condemning the JNF’s activities, EDM 1677, attracted an unprecedented 70 MPs’ endorsement (two MPs signed a related statement).  Worryingly for the JNF, their counter-attack failed to dislodge a single one of the MPs who signed EDM 1677.  Determined opposition to the JNF can defeat this racist organisation.  A vigorous protest greeted the JNF’s London hosting of Livni on Nakba Day, May 15th.  In Scotland, where grassroots opposition has been ongoing over the last decade, the determined protests that accompanied every public JNF event has led to their cancelling all their previously regular fundraisers, from glitzy Glasgow Hilton events with speakers like Bill Clinton and Colin Powell to pro-am golf tournaments sponsored by Lexus. Last September’s report by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), ‘Environmental Nakba’, took the case against the JNF to a new constituency.  It highlights Israel’s colonialism, water apartheid, ethnic cleansing and the role of the JNF in Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians.  Eurig Scandrett of FoE Scotland co-authored the report with Abeer Al Butmah from Palestine FoE and Bobby Peek from FoE South Africa. The international Stop the JNF Campaign was launched in 2010 to build on work already done around the world.  Help us to campaign against the JNF, a pillar of the apartheid system in Israel/Palestine, an active participant in the ethnic cleansing now accelerating there, and a registered charity in the UK (Patrons - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown). Read Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund's Environmental Cover Up JNF eBook (Volume 4) Join Stop the JNF Campaign and affiliate our organisation to the Stop the JNF Campaign - Use the Paypal button on the website: www.stopthejnf.org If you prefer to set up a direct debit or use bank transfer, the details are: Stop the JNF Campaign, Account Number: 65476611, Sort Code: 089299. Donations are also very welcome and will help us raise awareness of the role of the JNF in Israeli apartheid, colonisation and occupation: Make a donation. Stop the JNF Campaign, c/o Peace & Justice Centre, Edinburgh EH2 4BJ uk@stopthejnf.org  01501 78 55 63

Stop the JNF: regional workshops

Stop the JNF regional workshops
Eurig Scandrett speaking on the Friends of the Earth International Report Environmental Nakba - the catastrophic impact on Palestinians of Israel’s occupation, colonisation, and apartheid. Plus film premiere Enduring Roots: Over a Century of Resistance to the JNF (35 mins) Produced by IJAN.
Wed 11th June, 7pm – SHEFFIELD Friends Meeting House, Sheffield.  Supported by Sheffield PSC. Thurs 12th June, 7.30pm – BRIGHTON Friends Meeting House, Ship Street Sun 15th June, 2-5pm – LONDON P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD Thurs 26th June, 7pm – ABERDEEN check Stop the JNF campaign website for details. Sat 5th July, 2-5pm – CARDIFF Media Point, Chapter, Market Road, Canton, CF5 1QE The JNF’s role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the maintenance of an apartheid residential system has always been supported by great violence against its victims.   The murder of two Palestinian children by Israeli snipers, caught on camera few weeks ago, is an example.  The link between the JNF and Israeli war crimes was highlighted by the visit of Tzipi Livni last month to address a JNF event in London.  Livni was shielded from the possibility of arrest for war crimes by the UK Government’s grant to her of a temporary diplomatic status.  The JNF would seem to be an important part of the Zionist network. In the wake of their losing David Cameron and failing to get Miliband or Clegg as Honorary Patrons, a Westminster parliamentary motion condemning the JNF’s activities, EDM 1677, attracted an unprecedented 70 MPs’ endorsement (two MPs signed a related statement).  Worryingly for the JNF, their counter-attack failed to dislodge a single one of the MPs who signed EDM 1677.  Determined opposition to the JNF can defeat this racist organisation.  A vigorous protest greeted the JNF’s London hosting of Livni on Nakba Day, May 15th.  In Scotland, where grassroots opposition has been ongoing over the last decade, the determined protests that accompanied every public JNF event has led to their cancelling all their previously regular fundraisers, from glitzy Glasgow Hilton events with speakers like Bill Clinton and Colin Powell to pro-am golf tournaments sponsored by Lexus. Last September’s report by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), ‘Environmental Nakba’, took the case against the JNF to a new constituency.  It highlights Israel’s colonialism, water apartheid, ethnic cleansing and the role of the JNF in Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians.  Eurig Scandrett of FoE Scotland co-authored the report with Abeer Al Butmah from Palestine FoE and Bobby Peek from FoE South Africa. The international Stop the JNF Campaign was launched in 2010 to build on work already done around the world.  Help us to campaign against the JNF, a pillar of the apartheid system in Israel/Palestine, an active participant in the ethnic cleansing now accelerating there, and a registered charity in the UK (Patrons - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown). Read Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund's Environmental Cover Up JNF eBook (Volume 4) Join Stop the JNF Campaign and affiliate our organisation to the Stop the JNF Campaign - Use the Paypal button on the website: www.stopthejnf.org If you prefer to set up a direct debit or use bank transfer, the details are: Stop the JNF Campaign, Account Number: 65476611, Sort Code: 089299. Donations are also very welcome and will help us raise awareness of the role of the JNF in Israeli apartheid, colonisation and occupation: Make a donation. Stop the JNF Campaign, c/o Peace & Justice Centre, Edinburgh EH2 4BJ uk@stopthejnf.org 01501 78 55 63

Missing from the IMEU FAQ

Here's the content of a mailout from the Institute for Middle East Understanding.  As far as I can see there are some crucial points missing but I just want to let it hang here while I think of what they are

Q – Who is represented in the new Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet?

A – Based on the agreement announced on April 23, the new government is composed of a consensus cabinet consisting of individuals agreed upon by all of the major Palestinian political parties. The cabinet does not include members of the two largest Palestinian parties, Fatah or Hamas. Instead, it’s made up of independent technocrats whose job is to prepare the groundwork for elections for the PA.


Q – Is Hamas part of the new government?

A – No. Although Hamas supports the government, none of the members of the new cabinet is affiliated with Hamas.


Q - Will this government abide by the Quartet's conditions?

A - In 2006, the members of the so-called “Quartet,” consisting of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, laid out several conditions that Palestinians must meet before they agree to cooperate with or recognize any Palestinian government. They include the renunciation of terrorism, agreeing to abide by previously signed agreements, and recognition of Israel. PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah have said the new government will abide by the Quartet's conditions. However, it is important to note that no Israeli government, including the current one, has ever officially recognized the Palestinian right to statehood or self-determination. Israel has and continues to systematically violate the terms of numerous previously-signed deals, including the Oslo Accords and the 2002 Road Map to Peace, and Israel continues to practice what amounts to state terrorism, systematically using excessive force against Palestinians, including unarmed civilians as documented by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International.


Q - Will the US cut off ties and funding to the PA?

A – Some members of Congress have called for the US to cut off funding to the PA, however the Obama administration has stated that because the new government doesn’t include members of Hamas, and in light of assurances from President Abbas and Prime Minister Hamdallah that it will abide by the Quartet's conditions, the US will continue to work with and fund the PA while continuing to monitor the situation.


Q – Will Israel deal with the new PA government?

A - Although the new unity government does not include members of Hamas, Israel has said it still won’t deal with it because it is supported by the group, and has threatened to punish the PA as a result. Senior Israeli government officials have also criticized the US, accusing the Obama administration of “naïveté” and sending a message that “terrorism pays.” In response, the State Department rejected the Israeli allegations, pointing out that Hamas is not part of the cabinet and stating that the US will judge the new government by its actions.


Q – Does the unity government help efforts to make peace or harm them?

A – There can be no lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis that excludes a major player like Hamas. Although Israel officially withdrew from US-sponsored negotiations following the announcement of the unity agreement in April, according to all accounts there was little or no progress made over the previous nine months of talks. Critics of the Israeli government argue that Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing government were looking for an excuse to pull out of negotiations while placing the blame on the Palestinians, citing as evidence the repeated provocations Israel engaged in while talks were ongoing, most notably the announcement of some 14,000 new settlement units to be built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law and official US policy.


Q - What happens next?


A - This new technocratic government is tasked with managing the PA until elections take place in six months. Meanwhile, Israel will likely continue to apply economic pressure on the PA, withholding tax money that it is supposed to transfer and maintaining its crippling and illegal blockade of Gaza, leading to further humanitarian crises, particularly in besieged Gaza. However, it's unlikely that Israel will apply too much pressure on the PA, for fear that it could collapse and leave Israel directly responsible for all the residents of the occupied territories once again.

Samuel L Jackson and the Apartheid Connection

Samuel L Jackson caused a fair bit of dismay among anti-racists on twitter just recently with this "selfie".

Celebrate Israel Parade in NY today pic.twitter.com/AIUVMRYou5
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) June 1, 2014

Here are a couple of twitter responses I've taken from Ha'aretz:

@SamuelLJackson Uh. Why would you support something like this? Israel is an apartheid state.

@SamuelLJackson Wow, and I admired you :( Unfollow it is then....

@SamuelLJackson wow, pretty sad to hear that you support an apartheid state. You of all people.

That's just three of many responses from people who are clearly surprised at Jackson's, at best, cavalier attitude to racist statehood.  But I remember him promoting Barclays Bank and Barclays among people of my generation - ie, fifty somethings - will always be remembered as the apartheid bank.

Here's The Daily Telegraph from as far back as 2002 Jackson's role in a then new Barclays ad campaign:

What happens Hollywood star Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction, the mad kilted drug dealer in 51st State) offers up a variety of soliloquies straight to camera about money.

One talks about whether money is really evil; another about how it's better to know who you're dealing with; and a third about how people instinctively mistrust advice about money.

 So, surprise surprise, it's all about money with advertising as with banking.

Now look at Barclays connection to apartheid South Africa.  This is from News24.com:

I remember well 1977 and the so-called Carlton conference, at which Botha summoned all the leaders of big business and asked them to help the regime to beat the international arms embargo imposed by the United Nations.

The Barclays pledge
 
After that meeting Barclays bank pledged a whopping R90m to the apartheid army for its defence force bonds, and I remember well The Citizen, ever the chief supporter and main praise-singer of the racist and oppressive apartheid regime, praising Barclays and carrying a cartoon showing two uniformed apartheid troopies lugging away a hefty Barclays cheque for R90m.

That bank was an unrepentant supporter of apartheid, and I would argue that their financial help for apartheid delayed our liberation by at least a generation.

Now it's just possible that Jackson knew nothing of Barclays' involvement with apartheid South Africa.  It's possible that he didn't know about Israel's support for the apartheid regime, including nuclear weapons collaboration.  It's also possible that he doesn't know that Israel is a colonial settler state based on ethnic cleansing and segregationist laws.  Israel does, after all, get a very favourable press in the USA.  But can he really be so ignorant that there is at least some controversy around Israel that might be worth checking out.

Back in the day, Samuel L Jackson worked for the apartheid bank for money but when he did a selfie at the Celebrate Israel Parade, he gave racists a freebie.  He could at least stand back and look at himself and stop being such a bad motherfucker.

The Lure of Zion?

I got this article by Adi Schwartz out from behind the paywall of Ha'aretz.  It's mostly tosh, being an interview with Zionism: False Messiah author, Nathan Weinstock.  Weinstock was one of these star anti-zionist Jewish writers like, say, Ilan Halevi or Uri Davis but he had this epiphany, denounced his former self and became a rather nasty zionist.  I heard that he had banned anyone from promoting or selling his old book but it is still findable on google and it is still obtainable from Amazon brand new (£97.60) or used (from £4.84)

Here's a taste of the article:

According to Weinstock, underlying the growing hostility toward the Jewish population in Palestine was the realization that the dhimmi Jews were shaking off their traditional legal status of humiliation and submission. In retrospect, the writer maintains, dhimmi status, on the one hand, and the declared attempt by the Zionist movement to be free of it, on the other, led ultimately to the Arabs’ rejection of the United Nations partition plan in 1947 and to the War of Independence the following year.

It's interesting that much of the article takes the form of an interview whereas that bit and some others are in reported speech.  I'm guessing that, like Benny Morris, his direct speech has become too openly racist for Ha'aretz transfer straight to the page.  But I'm only guessing.

Anyway, Weinstock's position is that the rejection of The State of Israel by the Arabs is nothing to do with ethnic cleansing or discrimination or the fact that Israel is a colonialist plant but because of some inborn negative feeling that Arabs have towards Jews.  I should note here that Christians don't warrant a mention in the article.  I don't if they get a mention in the book.

But all that above is not actually the point of this post.  The point is that after so much anti-Arab hasbara, Adi Schwartz looks for and finds a balancer in the form of Dr Sami Shalom:

“[Nathan] Weinstock is a classic servant of the erasure of my history and of the history of the Jews in the Islamic lands,” says Dr. Sami Shalom Chetrit, a Moroccan-born Israeli intellectual who deals extensively with relations between Ashkenazim (European-born Jews) and Mizrahi (Jews of Middle Eastern or North African origin). He teaches Hebrew culture and Middle Eastern studies at Queens College, in New York.

“Like the textbooks in Israel, Weinstock focuses primarily on the Zionist, national era, in which Jewish nationalism developed in Europe in parallel to Arab nationalism from the Maghreb to the Mashriq [i.e., from the West to the East]. There he finds ‘pogroms,’ which are an Eastern European Jewish issue. He ignores the role played by the Zionist movement in undermining the relations between Jews and Muslims in the Arab countries. He talks about ‘anti-Semitism’ in the Arab countries and about expulsion, after much has been written about the ties between the Zionist leadership and the corrupt leaders of Iraq and Yemen, which lead to the decision to deport the Jews from those countries – without a passport and with only a laissez-passer – to Israel only.

“Let’s assume that things were very bad and stressful – why didn’t they get a passport allowing them to choose any destination? Or the Jews of Morocco, who were not allowed to leave after Morocco became independent. No one was allowed to leave Morocco in those years unless he was close to and well connected with the authorities. The Zionists had to use the Jews of the United States and the administration in Washington to bring pressure to bear on the palace in Morocco to allow the Jews to leave after 1956. Why not talk about the years before Moroccan independence, when [Prime Minister David] Ben-Gurion could have brought all the Jews of Morocco to Israel, but took fright and chose to conduct a racist selection in which the strength of their muscles and the width of their shoulders were measured!

“Let us not forget, also, that in the background, the Mossad was running Zionist ‘undergrounds’ that incited the Muslims against the Jews, including throwing a grenade into a Baghdad synagogue, painting anti-Jewish slogans in French on Jewish stores, and spreading harsh rumors about the Jews in order to hasten their departure. This was all done by good Zionists, and I am not saying anything new here.

“Indeed, the life of the Jews in the Islamic lands was no paradise, but neither was the life of the Muslims a paradise in the Islamic lands, unless they were close to the government. And above all, the life of the Jews in the Islamic countries was never the hell of the Jews of Europe. Never at any point in history. The Jews from the Islamic lands came to Israel out of love. Not because of hatred, not because of persecution and not for revenge. Only for love of the Land of Israel.”

That's a tad enigmatic at the end, but note it's "love of the Land of Israel", not the State of Israel and not hatred of or in the lands they left.

Finkelstein went Head to Head with Finkelstein at Conway Hall

Norman Finkelstein's Head to Head discussion with Mehdi Hassan played to a capacity audience at the Oxford Union on Friday June 30.  Kamel Hawwash blogged about it on his Brum2Jerusalem blog under the question, Which Norman Finkelstein turned up to Aljazeera Head to Head with Mehdi Hasan? Kamel concluded that "it was the “I choose my words very carefully” Norman that turned up in Oxford".

Well the Norman Finkelstein that turned up in London at Conway Hall wasn't so careful.  118 people attended the launch of Old Wine Broken Bottle: Finkelstein's latest book taking down, successfully by all accounts, Ari Shavit's ethnic cleansing and crying book, My Promised Land. 

The room in Conway Hall has a capacity of 400 so 118 was a pretty poor turn out.  In spite of this, Norm, managed to make things worse by provoking a walkout by insisting on his two state position and denouncing those who didn't support it as failing to understand him or it. But the hosts had had 40 copies of his new book printed. They sold out at £5 a go.

Anyway, here's an account that has just been emailed to me by one of my spies at Conway Hall.  I should stress, this was someone who attended the launch, not a member of the Conway Hall staff:

Basically he is completely contradictory. It’s not that he has become a zionist - his latest book, which he was launching, is a great demolition job on Ari Shavit’s attempt to justify ‘liberal zionism’ and in doing so he demolishes all the ideological foundations of zionism. And then he goes on with his vendetta against BDS for not being explicit enough in endorsing ‘two states’, rather than just being agnostic on it.His whole line on the so called ‘international consensus is based on a ridiculous fetishisation of international law and UN resolutions. He ends up with a ‘realist’ rejection of the RoR on the grounds that its full implementation is ‘unrealistic’, and then ends up effectively justifying  this by the argument that Israel exists as a state and all states have the right in international law to control their own immigration policies.

I don’t think his position has any consistency. Frankly I think his experiences and his isolation have turned his mind a bit and he resents the fact that a movement he isn’t part of is now making the running. I think there is an element of injured ego in it, though I don’t normally like explaining political disagreements by psychology.

See this is the big contradiction.  He demolishes zionism with his intellect and then rebuilds it with his ludicrous insistence on two states and his fetishisation, not so much of international law, but of the UN. And this is down to "injured ego"?  I wish someone would injure his ego.

De Klerk ought to know that apartheid is not simply about numbers

But apparently Mr De Klerk doesn't know that if this Jewish Telegraphic Agency headline is anything to go by:

De Klerk: Israel not an apartheid state, but could become one

We know where this is going but let's take a look anyway:

Israel could become an apartheid state without the creation of a Palestinian state, former South African leader F.W. de Klerk said on Israeli television.

 De Klerk, the last president in his country under apartheid, said in an interview Tuesday on Israel’s Channel 2 that it was “unfair” to call Israel an apartheid state now.

In Israel to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa, de Klerk said Israel may have to contend with one state for two peoples.

“The test will be does everybody living then in such a unitary state, will everybody have full political rights?” he said. “Will everybody enjoy their full human rights? If they will, it’s not an apartheid state.

So far, so bad.  Palestinian Arabs within Israel's pre-67 boundaries do not have the same rights as Jews in a variety of areas.  And even if they did, the Palestinians under occupation have endured their inferior status for nearly fifty years now. What will happen in the future to make that apartheid that hasn't been happening these last almost five decades.

And then there's the major issue of the people of Palestine who have been forced to leave their homeland since 1947.  Jews from all around the world have more right, under Israel's racist laws, to live in Palestine than the native non-Jewish population who have been forced to leave.  And if we do choose to live there we have more rights there than those who have managed to remain.

Many aspects of Israel's governance within its pre-1967 boundaries qualify for the apartheid label since apartheid is not about the quantity of the unjustly governed but the quality of the governance.  But of course it's chutzpah to describe Palestinians simply as a minority.  Taking all of them together, West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza, the bits in between and those in exile, Palestinians are a majority and zionists subject them to minority rule.

Having said all that, the apartheid label has its limitations.  I already mentioned something far worse: it's the ethnic cleansing, stupid!

So what really happened to FUCU II?

I've just found another JC article about the aborted Moty Cristol against Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust case.

It was again by Martin Bright and significantly it was written before the disastrous outcome of Mr R Fraser v University and College Union.

So let's have a look at the article from the Jewish Chronicle dated, November 15, 2012:

Across the country, strikes are being organised in the heath service by public sector union Unison. Just this week, the union described plans to cut 50 per cent of nursing staff at NHS Direct as a “disaster”. The Department of Health and Unison are effectively at war. All the more bizarre then, that they are united in their fight against Moty Cristal, an Israeli conflict resolution expert, whose invitation to run a workshop at Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust was withdrawn in May.

There's a point to this in an article that has nothing to do with strikes or austerity:

I have tried this week to discover why Unison and the Trust have decided to prioritise fighting an expensive legal case during such straitened times. Neither was prepared to comment while the case was ongoing. This is patent nonsense: this is not a criminal trial and there is no jury to prejudice. But I can understand their reticence. It must be extremely embarrassing that a rare point of common ground between NHS managers and Unison is their determination to justify boycotting a respected international expert, simply for being an Israeli. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and ministers have thus far refused to intervene for fear of further inflaming Unison. 

Actually, it wasn't the union that decided to prioritise the case, it was Moty Cristol, the conflict resolution advisor.  He wasn't boycotted for "simply for being Israeli".  An explanation for his disinvitation was already reported in the JC back in April 2012 thus:

"It was considered that the decision to invite a prominent Israeli negotiator would be unacceptable given UNISON and TUC policy on the Middle East conflict, the irrelevance of the speaker to working relationships within a local NHS Trust and the inappropriateness of funding an international speaker at times of such austerity, when front line staff in the trust are at risk of redundancy."

In more recent articles the JC lets on that Moty Cristol was seeking £26.5 k.  Now in the name of fighting austerity, Martin Bright is suggesting that Unison should simply roll over and pay Moty Cristol £26.5.  He is further arguing that in these "times of such austerity" the health trust should simply have proceeded with an event the union deemed irrelevant and costly.  A bit of a logic fail there.

Further, the union's refusal to comment "while the case was ongoing" seems perfectly reasonable, especially given, that there was another ongoing case at the time.  Yes, the FUCU case linked above.

Whilst trying to pull together the various JC articles on this case I noticed one by Marcus Dysch dated August 30, 2013 announcing the scheduling of the trial:

A trial is due to begin at Central London County Court on September 11 [2013]and to last three days. He is expected to be represented by lawyers from the Mishcon de Reya law firm.

So did it happen?  Again Marcus Dysch reports (September 17, 2013):

Judge David Mitchell told Central London County Court that the complexity of the case meant its future in the courts was unclear.....

Following three days of legal arguments.....
Judge Mitchell told Dinah Rose QC, acting for Prof Cristal, that he was “not against” her, but that he was “concerned” by the number of legal issues the sides were debating and feared the case would “simply mushroom into a huge series of issues”.

The judge added a further warning that with appeals likely from both sides, it may end with the case going as far as the Supreme Court.........

He pledged to publish a judgement “as soon as I can”..........

The court had earlier heard that the Trust’s lawyers would argue that Prof Cristal’s claim was “trivial” and that the cost of the litigation was out of proportion with the benefits that he could gain.

So did the judge publish a judgement?  Did the Jewish Leadership Council threaten to withdraw their support.  Did partners in Mishcon de Reya warn any of their over enthusiastic hasbaristas of the dangers of another costly humiliation?

Its a funny old thing but in his article denouncing Unison and the health trust, Martin Bright called on  the government health minister, Jeremy Hunt,  and the then head of the Trades Union Congress, Brendan Barber to force Unison and the health trust to capitulate.  Look at what turned out to be some major hostages to fortune:

like Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Mr Barber has decided to keep his head down over Moty Cristal. Perhaps they think if they avoid the issue it will just go away, or that it is an obscure matter unworthy of their attention. But their hand may yet be forced when the case comes to court. Moty Cristal is by profession a skilled negotiator and, as such, he knows his demands must be very clear and very reasonable. All he wants is an admission of wrongdoing from the health trust and the union and an assurance that it won’t happen again. This will cost them nothing. The alternative is potentially very expensive indeed in terms of hard cash and reputations.

Well the issue did just go away and Cristol wasn't just seeking an apology, he was seeking money too.  But if Martin Bright didn't want the case simply to go away he certainly wanted it to go one way:

Messrs Hunt and Barber could stop this nonsense now.

In the event it was Moty Cristol who stopped this nonsense but who blinked out of his own side, Mishcon le Reya, the Jewish Leadership Council or Moty Cristol himself or indeed all three?

Another FUCU Case Averted?

Well it certainly looks like it.

A couple of years ago, almost exactly, Moty Cristol, according to Martin Bright in The Jewish Chronicle (August 23, 2012):

an Israeli conflict resolution expert and peace activist with a track record of negotiating at a high level with Jordanian and Palestinian officials, was due to speak at an NHS conference in Manchester to advise health service managers and trade union officials.

However his invitation was revoked following objections from the trade union, Unison.  Closer to the time, ie, April 2012, the Anshell Pfeffer reported in the JC (April 30, 2012) Unison's explanation for the decision:

Explaining the decision, Mr Nelson said: "It was considered that the decision to invite a prominent Israeli negotiator would be unacceptable given UNISON and TUC policy on the Middle East conflict, the irrelevance of the speaker to working relationships within a local NHS Trust and the inappropriateness of funding an international speaker at times of such austerity, when front line staff in the trust are at risk of redundancy."

By November of 2012 Martin Bright in was reporting in the JC (November 8, 2012) that:

Unison, the partner organisation for the seminar, told the NHS Trust that its members would not take part in anything run by the Israeli academic

and that Mr Cristol would now be suing Manchester Health Trust:

Prof Cristal flew to London to talk to lawyers about taking legal action. It now looks likely that the case against Manchester NHS Trust and Unison will be heard in a county court.

Prof Cristal told reporters: “I came here to assess the legal situation. Now I am even more convinced that I am going to pursue the action in the county court.

Significantly it didn't report in that piece on the explanation given by Unison for the disinvitation.  It did however state what it was that Moty Cristol wanted to achieve from his action:

“It is the right thing to do to fight the delegitimisation movement. I was boycotted because I am an Israeli. As a negotiator, I will pursue the action until a decent offer is put on the table”.

He wanted two things, he said: “Public acknowledgement of the wrongdoing of discrimination against me as an Israeli — and the public assurance that this will not be repeated.”

It appears he wasn't boycotted for being an Israeli.  Rather it appears he was boycotted because he is a high profile representative of the Israeli state, now in academia.  And note he is not simply claiming to seek a remedy for anything he has lost but to "fight the delegitimisation movement".  Some people make bones over this.  Some say you can't delegitimise an illegitimate state others say we must deligitimise a state that does after all have international recognition via the UN.  Still others, say we mustn't try or even give the impression that want to delegitimise Israel because its status at the UN is sacrosanct.  I'm with the bunch that says Israel's has no legitimacy but just in case it has then delegitimisation is a perfectly, well, legitimate goal.

But note also that he is saying he wants the Manchester Health Trust to say it did wrong and that it won't do it again.  Note further there is no mention of money.

Anyway, now (today, May 29, 2014) the JC's Marcus Dysch is reporting that Mr Cristol has dropped his action against the Manchester Health Trust:

An Israeli conflict resolution expert has dropped his legal case against a health trust which he claimed had discriminated against him.

Moty Cristal had been seeking damages totalling £26,500 and an apology from Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust after it cancelled a workshop he was due to run for its staff in 2012.

So he wanted £26,500 and a sorry from the aforementioned Trust. I wonder where Dysch got his information from.  Clearly, sensibly, he doesn't rely on the JC.  The article sets out why the case has been dropped:

He [Moty Cristol] said: "I made this decision since the goals that I first set out to achieve have broadly been met. My primary goal was to establish that I had been unfairly treated and discriminated against as an Israeli negotiator."

He said he had received a letter from the health trust’s chief executive apologising for cancelling the lecture. But he originally said he wanted “Public acknowledgement of the wrongdoing of discrimination against me as an Israeli — and the public assurance that this will not be repeated.”  Remember?  He didn't get either of those.  Nor did he get that £26.5 k.

But a more significant aspect might be this:

The JC understands his supporters — including the Jewish Leadership Council — had been prepared to continue backing him, but the court’s initial warnings relating to costs and the likelihood of success had eventually led to his decision to withdraw.

So the JLC was going to continue backing him in his pursuit of public redress plus £26.5 k but he had the magnanimity to withdraw because he didn't want the JLC being stung for costs?  That really doesn't seem likely.  It seems more likely that the JLC told him his cause was hopeless and they were damned if they were picking up the tab especially with the costs of the FUCU disaster possibly still hanging over them.  Or it could be that the JLC really was going to pick up the tab in another fruitless cause but Moty Cristol didn't want to waste his time and face the same humiliation that Ronnie Fraser has gone through.

But Marcus Dysch's conclusion is both interesting and encouraging to those of us who support BDS:

His move also appears to support the belief within the community that the JLC and other organisations will take a new approach to countering boycotters and groups opposed to Israel, using discourse rather than legal process.

 So it appears that lawfare is being quietly dropped and BDS is going from strength to strength.