Showing posts with label anti-zionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anti-zionism. Show all posts

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Not Quite "Ordinary Human Beings"—Anti-imperialism and the anti-humanist rhetoric of Gilad Atzmon

[This is a statement signed by almost one hundred anti-imperialists and organizations denouncing the Israeli-born jazz musician Gilad Atzmon for his antisemitism, and asking our fellow progressives to not promote him or his works. The list of endorsements included here is accurate as of March 9, 2012; an updated list will be maintained on the Three Way Fight blog: http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/p/atzmon-critique_09.html]

Attempting to latch onto the just, vital, and growing movement in support of the Palestinian national liberation struggle, Gilad Atzmon is one of a very small and unrepresentative group of writers who have argued (in agreement with many Zionists) that there is no meaningful distinction to be made between Jews in general and Israeli atrocities. According to Atzmon, the latter are simply a manifestation of Jews’ historic relationship to gentiles, an authentic expression of an essentially racist, immoral, and anti-human “Jewish ideology.”

Atzmon’s statements, besides distorting the history of Jews and constituting a brazen justification for centuries of anti-Jewish behavior and beliefs, also downgrade anti-Zionism to a mere front in the broader (anti-Jewish) struggle. Atzmon has specifically described Zionism not as a form of colonialism or settlerism, but as a uniquely evil ideology unlike anything else in human history. In addition to any ethical problems, this line of argumentation actually strengthens Zionism’s grip and claim to be the authentic representative of Jews. It obscures the reality that Zionism is an imperialist and colonialist enemy of Jewish people and Palestinians, as well as the Arab people generally and all those oppressed and exploited by imperialism.

In his online attack on Moshe Machover, an Israeli socialist and founder of the anti-Zionist group Matzpen, Atzmon states:

Machover’s reading of Zionism is pretty trivial. “Israel,” he says, is a “settler state.” For Machover this is a necessary point of departure because it sets Zionism as a colonialist expansionist project. The reasoning behind such a lame intellectual spin is obvious. As long as Zionism is conveyed as a colonial project, Jews, as a people, should be seen as ordinary people. They are no different from the French and the English, they just happen to run their deadly colonial project in a different time.[1]

For Atzmon, such views are “pretty trivial” and “lame” because he holds that Jews are in fact radically different from the French and the English. Of the many quotes we could provide in this regard, here is a small sampling:[2]

In order to understand Israel’s unique condition we must ask, “who are the Jews? What is Judaism and what is Jewishness?”[3]

Zionism is a continuation of Jewish ideology.[4]

The never-ending robbery of Palestine by Israel in the name of the Jewish people establishes a devastating spiritual, ideological, cultural and, obviously, practical continuum between the Judaic Bible and the Zionist project. The crux of the matter is simple yet disturbing: Israel and Zionism are both successful political systems that put into devastating practice the plunder promised by the Judaic God in the Judaic holy scriptures.[5]

Sadly, we have to admit that hate-ridden plunder of other people’s possessions made it into the Jewish political discourse both on the left and right. The Jewish nationalist would rob Palestine in the name of the right of self-determination, the Jewish progressive is there to rob the ruling class and even international capital in the name of world working class revolution.[6]

Were Jewish Marxists and cosmopolitans open to the notion of brotherhood, they would have given up on their unique, exclusive banners and become ordinary human beings like the rest of us.[7]

I do not consider the Jews to be a race, and yet it is obvious that “Jewishness” clearly involves an ethno centric and racially supremacist, exclusivist point of view that is based on a sense of Jewish “chosen-ness.”[8]

At the most, Israel has managed to mimic some of the appearances of a Western civilisation, but it has clearly failed to internalise the meaning of tolerance and freedom. This should not take us by surprise: Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, and Jewishness is, sadly enough, inherently intolerant; indeed, it may be argued that Jewish intolerance is as old as the Jews themselves.[9]

Israel and Zionism then, has proved to be a short lived dream. It was initiated to civilise Jewish life, and to dismantle the Jewish self-destructive mode. It was there to move the Jew into the post-herem[10] phase. It vowed to make the Jew into a productive being. But as things turned out, neither the Zionists nor the “anti Zionists” managed to drift away from the disastrous herem culture. It seems that the entire world of Jewish identity politics is a matrix of herems and exclusion strategies. In order to be “a proper Jew,” all you have to do is to point out whom you oppose, hate, exclude or boycott.[11]

The conclusion to such views is not difficult to draw:

The endless trail of Jewish collective tragedies is there to teach us that Jews always pay eventually (and heavily) for Jewish power exercises. Yet, surprisingly (and tragically) enough, Jews somehow consistently fail to internalise and learn from that very lesson.[12]

More precisely, commenting on the climax of State violence directed at Jews in the 1930s, most famously by Germany, but also in most other European nations, Atzmon is clear:

The remarkable fact is they don't understand why the world is beginning to stand against them in the same way they didn't understand why the Europeans stood against them in the 1930s. Instead of asking why we are hated they continue to toss accusations on others.[13]

Within the discourse of Jewish politics and history there is no room for causality. There is no such a thing as a former and a latter. Within the Jewish tribal discourse every narrative starts to evolve when Jewish pain establishes itself. This obviously explains why Israelis and some Jews around the world can only think as far as “two state solution” within the framework of 1967 borders. It also explains why for most Jews the history of the holocaust starts in the gas chambers or with the rise of the Nazis. I have hardly seen any Israelis or Jews attempt to understand the circumstances that led to the clear resentment of Europeans towards their Jewish neighbors in the 1920’s-40’s.[14]

It is, as such, not surprising that Atzmon’s work has received enthusiastic reviews by such prominent members of the racist right as former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Kevin MacDonald of the Occidental Observer, David Icke, and Arthur Topham’s the Radical Press. It should not be surprising that Atzmon has distributed articles defending Holocaust deniers and those who write of “the Hitler we loved and why.”[15] These connections ultimately serve the interests of Zionism, which seeks to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Jewishness. Zionist agents have repeatedly attempted to ensnare and link Palestinian, Arab, and/or Muslim rights advocates to Neo-Nazism, through dirty tricks and outright lies.

It is more surprising and disappointing, then, that a small section of the left has opted to promote Atzmon and his works. In the UK, the Socialist Workers Party promoted Atzmon for several years before finally breaking with him; his latest book The Wandering Who? has been published by the left-wing Zero Books (a decision that elicited a letter of protest from several Zero authors).[16] In the United States, the widely-read Counterpunch website has repeatedly chosen to run articles by Atzmon. Currently, in February and March 2012, Atzmon is on tour in North America, where several of his speaking engagements are being organized by progressive anti-imperialists who we would normally like to consider our allies.

While perhaps well-meaning, operating under the assumption that any opposition to Zionism is to be welcomed, progressives who promote the work of Atzmon are in fact surrendering the moral high ground by encouraging a belief-system that simply mirrors that of the most racist section of Israeli society. Anti-racism is not a liability; on the contrary, it is a principle that makes our movements stronger in the long fight for a better tomorrow.

As political activists committed to resisting colonialism and imperialism—in North America and around the world—we recognize that there can be different interpretations of history, and we welcome exploring these. Without wishing to debate the question of whether far-right and racist ideologues should be censored, or how, we see no reason for progressive people to organize events to promote their works.

In our struggle against Zionism, racism, and all forms of colonialism and imperialism, there is no place for antisemitism or the vilification of Jews, Palestinians or any people based on their religions, cultures, nationalities, ethnicity or history. At this historic junction—when the need to struggle for the liberation of Palestine is more vital than ever and the fault lines of capitalist empire are becoming more widely exposed—no anti-oppressive revolution can be built with ultra-right allies or upon foundations friendly to creeping fascism.

As'ad AbuKhalil, The Angry Arab News Service, Turlock, CA
Suha Afyouni, solidarity activist, Beirut, LEBANON
Max Ajl, essayist, rabble-rouser, proprietor of Jewbonics blog site, Ithaca, NY
Haifaa Al-Moammar, activist, stay-at-home mom, and marathon walker, Los Angeles, CA
Electa Arenal, professor emerita, CUNY Graduate Center/Hispanic & Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Women's Studies, New York, NY
Gabriel Ash, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Geneva, SWITZERLAND
Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Dan Berger, Wild Poppies Collective, Philadelphia, PA
Chip Berlet, Boston, MA
Nazila Bettache, activist, Montréal, CANADA
Sam Bick, Tadamon!, Immigrant Workers Center, Montréal, Québec
Max Blumenthal, author; writing fellow, The Nation, New York, NY
Lenni Brenner, author, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators, New York, NY
Café Intifada
Paola Canarutto, Rete-ECO (Italian Network of Jews against the Occupation), Torino, ITALY
Paulette d’Auteuil, National Jericho Movement, Albuquerque, NM
Susie Day, Monthly Review, New York, NY
Ali Hocine Dimerdji, PhD student at The University of Nottingham, in Nottingham, UK
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, professor emerita, California State University
Todd Eaton, Park Slope Food Coop Members for Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions, Brooklyn, NY
S. EtShalom, registered nurse, Philadelphia, PA
Benjamin Evans, solidarity activist, Chicago, IL
First of May Anarchist Alliance
Sherna Berger Gluck, professor emerita, California State University/Israel Divestment Campaign, CA
Neta Golan, International Solidarity Movement
Tony Greenstein, Secretary Brighton Unemployed Centre/UNISON, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Brighton, UK
Andrew Griggs, Café Intifada, Los Angeles, CA
Jenny Grossbard, artist, designer, writer and fighter, New York, NY
Freda Guttman, activist, Montréal, CANADA
Adam Hanieh, lecturer, Department of Development Studies/SOAS, University of London, UK
Swaneagle Harijan, anti-racism, social justice activism, Seattle, WA
Sarah Hawas, researcher and solidarity activist, Cairo, EGYPT
Stanley Heller, "The Struggle" Video News, moderator "Jews Who Speak Out"
Mostafa Henaway, Tadamon!, Immigrant Workers Center, Montréal, CANADA
Elise Hendrick, Meldungen aus dem Exil/Noticias de una multipátrida, Cincinnati, OH
Doug Henwood, Left Business Observer, New York, NY
Ken Hiebert, activist, Ladysmith, CANADA
Elizabeth Horowitz, solidarity activist, New York, NY
Adam Hudson, writer/blogger, San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Dhruv Jain, Researcher at the Jan Van Eyck Academie and PhD student at York University, Paris, FRANCE
Tom Keefer, an editor of the journal Upping the Anti, Toronto, CANADA
Karl Kersplebedeb, Left Wing Books, Montréal, CANADA
Anne Key, Penrith, Cumbria, UK
Mark Klein, activist, Toronto, CANADA
Bill Koehnlein, Brecht Forum, New York, NY
L.A. Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee, Los Angeles, CA
Mark Lance, Georgetown University/Institute for Anarchist Studies, Washington, DC
David Landy, author, Jewish Identity and Palestinian Rights: Diaspora Jewish Opposition to Israel, Dublin, IRELAND
Bob Lederer, Pacifica/WBAI producer, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, New York, NY
Matthew Lyons, Three Way Fight, Philadelphia, PA
Karen MacRae, solidarity activist, Toronto, CANADA
Heba Farouk Mahfouz, student activist, blogger, Cairo, EGYPT
Marvin Mandell and Betty Reid Mandell, co-editors, New Politics, West Roxbury, MA
Ruth Sarah Berman McConnell, retired teacher, DeLand, FL
Kathleen McLeod, poet, Brisbane, Australia
Karrie Melendres, Los Angeles, CA
Matt Meyer, Resistance in Brooklyn, New York, NY
Amirah Mizrahi, poet and educator, New York, NY
mesha Monge-Irizarry, co-director of Education Not Incarceration; SF MOOC City commissioner, San Francisco, CA
Matthew Morgan-Brown, solidarity activist, Ottawa, CANADA
Michael Novick, People Against Racist Terror/Anti-Racist Action, Los Angeles, CA
Saffo Papantonopoulou, New School Students for Justice in Palestine, New York, NY
Susan Pashkoff, Jews Against Zionism, London, UK
Tom Pessah, UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine, Berkeley, CA
Marie-Claire Picher, Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB), New York, NY
Sylvia Posadas (Jinjirrie), Kadaitcha, Noosa, AUSTRALIA
Roland Rance, Jews Against Zionism, London, UK
Danielle Ratcliff, San Francisco, CA
Liz Roberts, War Resisters League, New York, NY
Emma Rosenthal, contributor, Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation, Los Angeles, CA
Penny Rosenwasser, PhD, Oakland, CA
Suzanne Ross, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, The Riverside Church Prison Ministry, New York, NY
Gabriel San Roman, Orange County Weekly, Orange County, CA
Ian Saville, performer and lecturer, London, UK
Joel Schwartz, CSEA retiree/AFSCME, New York, NY
Tali Shapiro, Anarchists Against the Wall, Boycott From Within, Tel Aviv, OCCUPIED PALESTINE
Simona Sharoni, SUNY, author, Gender & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Plattsburgh, NY
Jaggi Singh, No One Is Illegal-Montreal/Solidarity Across Borders, Montréal, CANADA
Michael S. Smith, board member, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, NY
Pierre Stambul, Union juive française pour la paix (French Jewish Union for Peace), Paris, FRANCE
Muffy Sunde, Los Angeles, CA
Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of Jacobin, Bronx, NY
Tadamon! (http://www.tadamon.ca/), Montréal, CANADA
Ian Trujillo, atheist, Los Angeles, CA
Gabriella Turek, PhD, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Henry Walton, SEIU, retired, Los Angeles, CA
Bill Weinberg, New Jewish Resistance, New York, NY
Abraham Weizfeld, author, The End of Zionism and the liberation of the Jewish People, Montreal, CANADA
Ben White, author, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination, and Democracy, Cambridge, UK
Laura Whitehorn, former political prisoner, NYS Task Force on Political Prisoners, New York, NY
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, founding member, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG)
Asa Winstanley, journalist for Electronic Intifada, Al-Akhbar and others, London, UK
Ziyaad Yousef, solidarity activist

* List in formation
* Organizations listed for identification purposes only
Postscript:

This text is not intended as a comprehensive critique of Gilad Atzmon's politics. It was written quickly by some North American anti-imperialists who learned of Atzmon's 2012 speaking tour just days before it was to begin in late February 2012. At first it was thought it would be signed by just a few people, but the initiative quickly took on a life of its own, being posted to the web and to multiple listservs, discussed via email and on Facebook, and elsewhere, even before the wording had been finalized or a decision had been made as to how to use it (the initial assumption had been that it would be passed on to organizers with far less fanfare). Instead of a few signatures, within a week there were dozens, and emails continue to arrive from people wishing to sign on. We believe that this speaks to the deep frustration that many of us feel when confronted with Atzmon's anti-Jewish beliefs, which constitute an affront to our anti-racist principles, as well as a distraction from the essential tasks of opposing colonialist genocide and Israeli apartheid. What this response makes clear is that for many anti-imperialists, opposing such racism remains essential to building a movement against imperialism and the myriad forms of oppression that both feed on and are fed by it.

Any subsequent news or information about this initiative will appear here on the Three Way Fight website (threewayfight.blogspot.com). Those wishing to endorse or discuss this initiative, or for more information, should email antiracistantizionist@yahoo.com. We wish to reiterate that we consider many of those promoting Atzmon's work to be allies, but would ask that they reconsider their decision to do so. This is not a call for censorship, but for consistency and accountability.


[1] Gilad Atzmon, "Tribal Marxism for Dummies," originally published in June 2009, republished on his Web site on April 24, 2011.
[2] Many more quotes like these could be provided, but we assume this is enough to show that these are not out-of-context or out-of-character remarks. If not, readers may wish to peruse the section of Atzmon’s website on “Jewishness” at <www.gilad.co.uk/writings/category/jewishness>.
[3] Gilad Atzmon, "Tribal Marxism for Dummies," Atlantic Free Press, July 2, 2009.
[4] Anayat Durrani, "Exposing Dangerous Myths," Interview with Gilad Atzmon, originally published in Al-Ahram Weekly (May 19-25, 2011), republished on Atzmon's Web site on May 19, 2011.
[5] Gilad Atzmon, "Swindler's List: Zionist Plunder and the Judaic Bible," Redress Information & Analysis, April 5, 2008.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Gilad Atzmon, "An Interesting Exchange With A Jewish Anti Zionist," Atzmon's Web site, August 17, 2011.
[9] Gilad Atzmon, "The Herem Law in the context of Jewish Past and Present," Atzmon's Web site, July 16, 2011.
[10] “Herem” is a Hebrew word that refers to banning or excluding someone, it is also the name of the repressive legislation Israel recently passed to enable punitive lawsuits against those calling for a boycott of the apartheid state. For Atzmon, this law is just one more example of Zionism’s Jewish uniqueness (guess he never heard of SLAPPs), as he concludes that “this is what Jews do best: destroying, excluding, excommunicating, silencing, boycotting, sanctioning. After all, Jews have been doing this for centuries.”
[11] Ibid.
[12] Gilad Atzmon, "A Warning From The Past," Atzmon's Web site, May 26, 2011.
[13] Quoted in Shabana Syed, "Time for World to Confront Israel: Gilad Atzmon," Arab News, June 14, 2010.
[14] Gilad Atzmon, "Jewish Ideology and World Peace," Atzmon's Web site, June 7, 2010.
[15] Tony Greenstein, "Bookmarks & Invitation to Gilad Atzmon & Holocaust Denial," JustPeaceUK, Yahoo! Groups, June 9, 2005.
[16] "Zero Authors' Statement on Gilad Atzmon," Lenin's Tomb, September 26, 2011.



Monday, November 16, 2009

Gilbert Achcar: Why Holocaust Denial Is on the Rise in the Arab World

The following from Gilbert Achcar:

What pushes Arabs to deny the existence of the Holocaust? How and why does Israel continue to instrumentalize the memory of the destruction of European Jewry? What was the attitude of Arab intellectuals during the Second World War? Why does Ahmadinejad incessantly brandish the denial weapon while Hamas and Hezbollah turn away from it? Mediapart published an exclusive extract from the book, "Les Arabes et la Shoah" [The Arabs and the Holocaust] (éditions Actes Sud/Sindbad, 2009), that came out Wednesday, October 14. [Metropolitan Books will be releasing an English version of the book in April 2010.]

The result of an unprecedented labor, the work of political scientist Gilbert Achcar -- professor at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) -- reviews over a century of history from the birth of Zionism to last winter's Israeli offensive against Gaza. Although he gives prominence to the political impasse constituted by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he indicates "new links" that today exist between Jews and Arabs. An Interview.

Pierre Puchot: Gilbert Achcar, your book's subtitle is: "The Israeli-Arab War of Narratives." What do you mean?

Gilbert Achcar: It's about the war that opposes two entirely symmetrical visions of the origins of the conflict. Specifically, I refer here to the notion of "narrative" as the recitation of history as developed by post-modernism. The Israeli narrative describes an Israel that emerges as a reaction to anti-Semitism, beside the "Biblical rights" invoked by religious Zionists. And its justification by European anti-Semitism is extended to Arabs, who are presented as accomplices to this paroxysm of anti-Semitism that was Nazism -- which would legitimate the birth of the State of Israel on lands conquered from the population of Arab descent. That's why the Israeli narrative insists to such a degree on Amin al-Husseini, this character, blown up out of all proportion, who became the ex-grand mufti of Jerusalem.

On the Arab side, the most rational narrative -- later we'll mention the denialist escalations that are on the rise at present -- may perhaps be summarized in these terms, "We had nothing to do with the Shoah. Anti-Semitism is not an established tradition for us, but a European phenomenon. Zionism is a colonial movement that really took off in Palestine under the British colonial mandate, even though there were earlier instances. In consequence, it's a colonial implantation in the Arab world, on the model of what was seen in South Africa and elsewhere." It's the war between these two narratives that I explore in this book.

Is there a dominant Arab reading of the Shoah? In what respects is it specific and how does it differ from those in Europe or the United States?

There's not a single Arab interpretation of the Shoah, just as there isn't a single European reading either, even though there's certainly more homogeneity in the perception of the Holocaust in Europe. However, even that is recent, since, as you know, the Shoah was not a very current theme in European news and education during the two decades that followed the end of the Second World War.

In the Arab world, the situation is far more diversified. That is chiefly the result of the existence of a great variety of political regimes in the Arab countries, with very different ideological legitimatizations. Similarly, very diverse -- and even broadly antithetical -- ideological currents traverse Arab public opinion.

In these last few years, there has been an escalation in the brutality of Israeli military operations -- which have gone from being wars that Israel could present as defensive to wars that could no longer be presented that way at all -- beginning with the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. That has been accompanied by an intensification of hatred in the Israeli-Arab conflict, notably because of the fate reserved for the Palestinians of the territories occupied since 1967.

In the face of growing criticism of Israel, including in the West, since 1982 especially, we have seen that state systematically resort to instrumentalization of the memory of the Shoah, beginning no later than the Eichmann trial in 1960. And that instrumentalization arouses, on the "opposing side," a knee-jerk reaction that sometimes goes so far as to deny the Holocaust. The best indicator of this reactive quality is the fact that the Arab population which has received the widest education on the memory of the Shoah, the population of Arab citizens of Israel, has been prone to an absolutely striking explosion of denial these last few years.

To my mind, that very clearly illustrates the fact that denial in these cases corresponds more to a "gut reaction" out of political rancor, than to a true denial of the Shoah as is seen in Europe or the United States, where the deniers spend their time devising historical theories that don't stand up to refute the existence of the gas chambers, etc.

Another indication of this difference is that within the Arab world where denial is riding high, there's not a single author who has produced anything original on that theme. All the Arab deniers do is pick up theories produced in the West.

The political instrumentalization of denial as formulated by Ahmadinejad today was not used before in the Arab world, in the time of Nasser, for example. What does this development tell us?

The Islamic fundamentalism that has developed over the most recent decades, from the perspective of the Israeli-Arab conflict, carries an essentialist vision, even though it is not anti-Semitic in the strict racial sense of the term. It's a vision that picks up the anti-Judaism that may be found in the Abrahamic religions that followed Judaism: Christianity and Islam. Those elements present in Islam are going to be pointed out to facilitate a convergence between this ideologically extreme current and Western denial.

What elements of Islam allow the realization of this anti-Judaism?

There are criticisms of Judaism within Islam and echoes of the conflict that arose between the Prophet of Islam and the Jewish tribes on the Arab peninsula. But it's a contradictory background: we find anti-Christian and anti-Jewish statements in Islamic scripture. But at the same time, Christians and Jews are considered "people of the book" and may in consequence enjoy privileged treatment compared to other populations in the countries Islam conquered, populations which were forced to convert. The people of the book were not forced to convert and their religions were considered legitimate. Consequently, there is tension between these two contradictory dispositions.

I show in my book how the man who may be considered the main founder of modern Islamic fundamentalism, Rachid Rida, switched from a pro-Jewish attitude due to anti-Christianity -- especially during the Dreyfus Affair, when he denounced anti-Judaism in Europe -- to an attitude that, towards the end of the 1920's, began to repeat an anti-Semitic discourse of Western inspiration, including the big Nazi anti-Semitic narrative attributing all kinds of things to the Jews in continuity with the fake Russian "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," including responsibility for the First World War. Then we see a graft occur between certain Western anti-Semitic discourse and Islamic fundamentalism which veers in that direction on this question because of what was happening in Palestine. Before the conflict turned ugly in Palestine, this same Rachid Rida tried to dialogue with representatives of the Zionist movement to convince them to form an alliance between Jews and Muslims to confront the Christian West as a colonial power. From that anti-colonialism that determines anti-Westernism, they were to move on to anti-Zionism, which, in the case of a fundamentalist religious mentality, combined very easily with anti-Semitism.

With that said, the signs of anti-Judaism that one finds in Islam, one finds a hundredfold in Christianity, and in Catholicism in particular, with the idea of the Jews as deicides, the Jews responsible for the death of Jesus, the son of God. This anti-Jewish charge contained in Christianity has, moreover, resulted in a persecution of the Jews in the history of the West incomparably worse than was the case in Islamic countries. We have seen, for example, how Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, fleeing the Christian Reconquista and the Inquisition, found refuge in the Muslim world, in North Africa, Turkey and elsewhere.

How have Hezbollah and Hamas used this rising tendency towards denial for political ends?

Rachid Rida's discourse, integral to their ideologies, was present from the outset in Hamas and Hezbollah. Much more, by the way, in Hamas, which is an emanation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. The founder of the Brotherhood, Hassan El-Banna, was largely inspired by Rachid Rida.

In the case of Hezbollah, the discourse is presented through the slant of what was to come from political Iran: in Shiite fundamentalism originally, there is no source for an anti-Judaic dimension comparable to the one developed by Rida. It was to be elaborated along with the Iranian regime's opposition to the West, to the United States and to Israel.

That said, what distinguishes Hamas as well as Hezbollah is that they're mass movements, and, as such, they have a pragmatic dimension. As much as it suits Ahmadinejad to perform denialist one-upsmanship for reasons of state policy, these movements have to a large extent reduced the anti-Semitic discourse they previously expressed and which proved to be counter-productive.

What I understand from your book is that Holocaust denial has become a political instrument per se in the Middle East, whether one chooses to use it or not. How was this instrument integral to the political foundation of the Palestinian movement, especially with respect to the PLO?

The PLO, ever since the armed Palestinian organizations got the upper hand within it after 1967, very quickly came to understand that anti-Semitic discourse is bad in itself and altogether contrary to the interests of the struggle of the Palestinian people. Hence the insistence on the distinction to be made between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, which was the issue in a political battle within the Palestinian movement.

Conversely, what are the mechanisms of what you call the "positive" instrumentalization of the Shoah, as it emanates from Israel?

What may be the legitimatizations for the State of Israel? I'm not talking about questioning its existence, but about examining the legitimatizations that it gives itself. One has to confess that, apart from religious Zionists, the Biblical legitimatization convinces very few people! As for the justification that we find in secular Zionism as expressed most notably by Theodore Herzl, it's a justification that does not take into account what is actually there where the "State of the Jews" is going to be created. The only justification he gives for that state is anti-Semitism in the West. He doesn't concern himself with what's already over there. Moreover, we know that at the outset the Zionist movement occasionally had very intense debates about the possible location for the Zionist state. Therefore, for the Zionist movement, it was a matter of inserting itself within a colonial undertaking and we find references to colonialism in Herzl's book, including the idea of embodying a rampart of civilization against barbarism.

Colonial ideology having expired globally, it was necessary to find an alternative legitimatization: that's when the instrumentalization of the Shoah began to intensify, especially from the beginning of the 1960's with the Eichmann trial. Excellent work has already been done on this subject, particularly that of Tom Segev. It's an absolutely remarkable work on the manner in which, within Israel itself, the question of the Shoah was to suddenly emerge and change character. The relationship to the Holocaust was to change from a relationship of contempt for the survivors to claiming that memory as a legitimatization for the State. Moreover, as a narrative, this legitimatization has been highly effective in the West on several levels, including in the relations maintained between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany at a time when the German administration was stuffed with former Nazis. People frequently obscure the absolutely significant role Germany played in strengthening the State of Israel, notably by the reparations Bonn dispensed, not to the victims of Nazism, to the survivors of the genocide, but to the State of Israel presented as the survivors' state. Consequently, this legitimatization of the State of Israel was to appear over time as a very high-value political instrument for that State, an instrument that today is overexploited.

The memory of the Shoah is invoked to counter every criticism. At times, this has reached the level of the grotesque as when Prime Minister Begin made his famous answer to Ronald Reagan during the siege of Beirut: Begin compared Arafat to Hitler then, at the very moment when it was the Israeli Army besieging Beirut and while many Israelis and other observers were instead finding parallels with the Warsaw Ghetto.

Does the parallel between the Nakba and the Shoah exist in the Middle East? In what respect does it reveal possible political developments?

At that level, there are two different aspects: the one that we've talked about, the war over the instrumentalization of the Holocaust, and there is what you could call the local version of competition between victims: "My tragedy is more important than yours." On the Palestinian side, one may often read statements that assert that the fate of the Palestinian people has been worse than that of the Jews under Nazism. These are obviously altogether outrageous and absurd exaggerations, but we can easily understand what drives them. Moreover, we find this victims' competition with respect to the Shoah in the case of other historical tragedies such as the Armenian genocide, for example.

At the same time, it is good to listen to former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg's remarks. He says out loud: "We are guilty of denying the genocides and the tragedies of others." Confronted with a situation, where, in Israel, they deny the Nakba -- and where it required the appearance of those who are called the "New Historians" and of post-Zionism for the official discourse of Nakba denial to be strongly questioned -- there is not only a development of Holocaust denial on the Arab side, but also an escalation in their claims about the scope and the drama of their own tragedy. That can often lead to contradictory statements: on the one hand, Holocaust denial, a minimization of the crimes of Nazism, and, on the other hand, a discourse accusing Israel of reproducing the crimes of Nazism ... It's perfectly clear that it's not logic that holds sway. It's an ideological war that proceeds more through feelings and passions than through rational discourse.

In your conclusion, you present a rather optimistic analysis: "The progress made between Arabs and Israelis is significant when one considers the virtual impossibility of communication between them in the first decades following the Nakba."

This progress has, in part, been a product of the PLO, which opened the way to a more rational attitude vis-à-vis the Shoah, the State of Israel and Israelis on the Arab side.

Connections between Arabs and Jews exist today and in the end must favor recognition of the Holocaust and of the Nakba. Israelis' recognition of the latter is more difficult because it implies recognition of their own responsibility, with the direct implications you can imagine, and which would lead to an attitude radically opposed to that of Israeli governments up to now. Yet that recognition of the Nakba by Israel is today an indispensable step towards achieving a true settlement of this conflict that has gone on for too long.



[Translation: by Truthout French Language Editor Leslie Thatcher, with the permission of Medipart.]



Thursday, April 09, 2009

[Montreal] Artists Against Apartheid VII



This Sunday at Montreal's Salla Rossa, the seventh concert in tadamon's Artists Against Apartheid series:
    SUNDAY APRIL 12th
    20h00 $5-10
    La Sala Rossa
    4848 St. Laurent
    Montreal, Quebec
Performing artists:

ADVAAR
Advaar is a celebrated Iranian music ensemble, the name is a Persian term meaning cycle, a notion found at the very heart in Persian art. Advaar is dedicated to building on the great Persian cultural heritage as well as composition and improvisation inspired by the landscape of learned and traditional repertoires.

KAIE KELLOUGH poet
Kaie Kellough is an acclaimed Montreal spoken-word poet and author celebrated across Canada for innovative and socially conscience poetry, Kellough is the author of lettricity (Cumulus Press) and is co-editor of talking book anthology (Cumulus Press).

MOLLY SWEENEY singer songwriter
Molly Sweeney is one of the most compelling new voices to emerge from the Montreal music scene, Sweeney’s percussive guitar, finespun lyrics and gossamer vocals evoke a world of rapturous melancholy, conjuring songs of exquisite love and unrequited dreams. In addition to solo work, Sweeney currently performs with Sam Shalabi’s Land of Kush both on-stage and on their critically acclaimed 2009 release Against the Day.

MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN and LORI FREEDMAN
Malcolm Goldstein, as composer/violinist, has been active in the presentation of new music and dance since the early 1960’s in New York City, as co-founder of the Tone Roads Ensemble and as participant in the Judson Dance Theater, the New York Festival of the Avant Garde and the Experimental Intermedia Foundation. His “soundings” improvisations have received international acclaim, while Goldstein has written extensively on improvisation and is the author of the book “Sounding the Full Circle ”. Lori Freedman is a Montreal-based bass clarinet player, composer, educator whose work travels internationally. Freedman stradles both worlds of contemporary and improvised music, has recorded more than 40 albums and travels widely playing with a huge variety of musicians such as Rohan de Saram, Frances-Marie Uitti, Joêlle Léandre and the late Steve Lacy.

BAX with Claude Maheu and Nicholas Calloia
Claude Maheu performs with flutes, saxophones, clarinets a multi instrumentalist and eclectic musician in Montreal. Nicholas Calloia is a celebrated contrabass player and is also a composer who is very active within the Jazz scene.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF on piano
Stefan Christoff is a community organizer, writer and piano player living in Montreal.

Artists Against Apartheid is the seventh concert occurring within the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid.

Tadamon!: Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid

Tadamon! Montreal
tel: 514 664 1036
email: info[at]tadamon.ca



Friday, March 20, 2009

[Montreal] Artists Against Apartheid



This Sunday:

Artists Against Apartheid VI
an evening featuring hip-hop, jazz and experimental music within the growing cultural movement in opposition to Israeli apartheid

---------------------------
SUNDAY MARCH 22nd
20h00 $5-10
La Sala Rossa
4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec
---------------------------

http://www.tadamon.ca/post/3276

A ground breaking cultural event celebrating artist/activist Freda Guttman's 75th birthday within the ongoing Artists Against Apartheid concert series...

performances from:

* Antoine Bustros piano, keyboard, with by Benoît Piché on trumpet and Greg Smith on sampler, accompanied by projected excerpts from 'Territories' a documentary film by Mary-Ellen Davis information at: www.antoinebustros.com

* Meryem Saci and Nantali Indongo the two women MCs from the celebrated Montreal hip-hop group Nomadic Massive information at: www.nomadicmassive.ca

* Karen Young, celebrated musician and vocalist joined by Éric Auclair, a duo performance entitled Electro Beatniks information at: www.karenyoung.org

* Banana & the Flying Colors, music from the edges of Montreal's experimental music scene, involving piano and keyboards, highlighted by live projections

* Freda Guttman, artist and activist will present a slide-show on Canada Park, a Canadian funded colonial park project administered by the Jewish National Fund, constructed over the destroyed Palestinian villages Imwas, Beit Nuba and Yalo, demolished by Israel after the 1967 which commenced Israel's ongoing occupation of the Palestinian West Bank.

An event occurring within the ongoing campaigns pushed forward by Tadamon! Montreal, a collective working to build solidarity between movements for social and economic justice from Montreal to the Middle East. Tadamon!'s ongoing political campaigns operating in Canada, including the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid.

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Tadamon! Montreal:
Internet : www.tadamon.ca
Tél. : 514 664 1036
Courriel : info[at]tadamon.ca



Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Israeli Apartheid Week in Montreal




BACKGROUND

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement. In Montreal, local solidarity groups and individuals are planning nine full days of awareness-raising events ranging from lectures and workshops to film screenings.

This year, marking its 5th anniversary, IAW is taking place in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault against the people of Gaza. Recently, across Montreal, and around the globe, thousands of people took to the streets to denounce the ongoing atrocities committed by Israel. The past few years have seen a sharp increase of literature and analysis that has sought to document and challenge Israeli apartheid, including reports issued by major international bodies and human rights organizations, and findings published by political leaders, thinkers, academics, and activists. Since the assaults on Gaza, these voices have grown stronger, louder, and have captured the world`s attention. The aim of IAW is to contribute to this chorus of international opposition to Israeli apartheid.

Join us in making 2009 a year of struggle against apartheid and for justice, equality, and peace.

CAMPUS EVENT LISTINGS
IAW McGill
IAW Concordia

HIGHLIGHTED EVENTS

SUNDAY MARCH 1st, 7pm
opening panel of Israeli Apartheid Week
APARTHEID IN CANADA: Frontline voices of Indigenous resistance on Turtle Island
a lecture featuring: Elizabeth Penashue, Judy Da Silva and Laith Marouf
Concordia University, Hall Building, Room H-110
1455 de Maisonneuve West, (métro Guy-Concordia)

MONDAY MARCH 2nd, 7pm
Prisoners of Apartheid: the struggle from behind bars
a lecture featuring: Soha Bechara
Cégep de St-Laurent, salle Émile-Legault
625 Avenue Sainte-Croix (métro Du collège)

**KEYNOTE SPEAKER**
WEDNESDAY MARCH 4th, 6:30pm
Boycott Israel: The Apartheid State
a lecture featuring: Ronnie Kasrils
McGill University, Shatner University Centre , Ballroom
3480 McTavish, North of Sherbrooke (métro Mcgill)

THURSDAY MARCH 5th, 6:30pm
Apartheid Israel: Democracy as an Existential Threat
a lecture featuring: Omar Barghouti
McGill University, STEWART Biology, Room S 1/4
1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, corner Drummond (métro Peel)

FRIDAY MARCH 6th, 6:30pm
A mother from Gaza: Surviving Under Seige
a lecture featuring: Laila El-haddad
Concordia University, Hall Building, Room H-937.
1455 Maisonneuve oust (métro Guy-Concordia)

SATURDAY MARCH 7th, 1pm
No Pride in Apartheid: Event featuring films and a discussion focussing on
queer struggles against Israeli occupation and apartheid.
“Black Laundry” and “Zero Degrees of Separation”
Cinema du Parc (3575 Parc Ave.)

SUNDAY MARCH 8th, 12pm
Demonstration: International Womens Day and Palestinian Block
WOMEN DEMAND A NEW WORLD ORDER: End Imperialism, Occupation, War, Exploitation and Repression!

carré Cabot corner St. Catherine | Atwater
(métro Atwater)

MONDAY MARCH 9th, 7PM
SLING SHOT HIP-HOP : Hip Hop against Apartheid
film screening co-presented with Cinema Politica
Concordia University, Hall Building, room H-110
1455 de Maisonneuve West, (métro Guy-Concordia)

Israeli Apartheid Week in Montreal is endorsed by the following groups:
L'Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiant (ASSÉ) * l'Association étudiante de la culture arabe de l'UQÀM * Association des Étudiants Musulmans de L'Université de Montréal * Bloquez l'empire-Montréal * Canadian Arab Federation * Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) * Le Centre Social Autogéré/Autonomous Social Center * Le Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP) * La coalition pour la justice en Palestine (UQÀM) * 8 March Coordination and Action Committee of Women of Diverse Origins * Immigrant Workers Center * Independent Jewish Voices * Iranian Women's Association * No One Is Illegal-Montréal * Opération Objection * La Otra Campaña de Montréal * McGill Arab Law Students Association * PINAY - The Filipino Women's Organization in Quebec * Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (PASC) * La Pointe Libertaire * Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG)-Concordia * Quebec Public Interest Research Group-McGill * Q-Team * Radlaw - McGill University Radical Law Community * Solidarity Across Borders * Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)-Concordia * Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)-McGill * Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)-National * Les Sorcières, collectif feministe * Tadamon * 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy

To ENDORSE Israeli Apartheid Week in Montreal, make a DONATION towards the fundraising efforts of Israeli Apartheid Week, or GET INVOLVED with organizing efforts, including promotion and publicity, get in touch with us by e-mail at iaw-mtl@riseup.net



Sunday, April 13, 2008

[Tadamon] Confronting Israeli Apartheid in Montreal: Activists disrupt Israeli Ambassador to Canada



The following from the tadamon blog:
Confronting Israeli Apartheid in Montreal: Activists disrupt Israeli Ambassador to Canada

Montreal, Wednesday, April 9th, 2008: Israel's Ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, was humiliated by demonstrators at the posh Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal.

Protestors successfully disrupted a lunch-in sponsored by the Quebec-Israel Committee, marking "60 years of relationship" between Canada and Israel. After effectively evading hotel security and the Montreal police, social justice activists burst into the appointed conference room, abruptly bringing to a halt the pro-apartheid discourse of Israel's ambassador to Canada.

Visibly stunned by the protests, Israel's Ambassador stood silent as protests chanted "fight the power, turn the tide; End Israeli Apartheid!" Throughout the disruption, over twelve thousand pieces of brightly colored protest-confetti were showered across the conference room and throughout the hallways of the Queen Elizabeth hotel, carrying a simple message: "60 years of Israeli Apartheid, 60 years of Palestinian dispossession; Boycott Israel!"

Thursday's action marked the 60th anniversary of the massacre at Deir Yassin. In 1948, the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin came under military siege; over two hundred Palestinian men, women and children were butchered by pro-Israeli forces. This crime took place just one month prior to Israel's unilateral declaration of independence at the expense of the Palestinian people.

In cynical disregard for Palestinian history, Israel's Ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, planned to celebrate Israel on the very anniversary of a horrific massacre.

This is the same Alan Baker who, at the height of Israel's attack on Lebanon in 2006, described "civilian establishments and civilian areas" in Lebanon as "legitimate targets." The military campaign eventually took the lives of over one thousand Lebanese civilians, and massively destroyed the country's infrastructure.

Social justice activists in Montreal from Block the Empire and Tadamon! successfully disrupted Baker's speech in support of a growing international campaign to impose boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel.

Israel is maintaining a military occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights. Within Israel's unilaterally declared borders of 1948, the 1.5 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship live as second-class citizens, under an apartheid-like system that accords them lesser economic, social and political rights.

Israel is in the process of constructing a massive separation wall, an eight meter high concrete barrier stretching over seven hundred kilometers of Palestinian territory, annexing significant parts of the West Bank and encircling Palestinian villages, towns and cities. Apartheid is an Israeli-enforced reality for the Palestinian people, a reality that has inspired a global movement for Palestinian liberation, with Nelson Mandela declaring; "our freedom [in South Africa] is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."



Wednesday, June 06, 2007

PFLP on the 40th Anniversary of the Naksah (Six Day War)




Source: http://www.pflp.ps/index.php?action=Details&id=1031

On the 40th anniversary of the ‘Naksah’ defeat, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls for the renewal of the effort of national resistance.

On the 40th anniversary of the 1967 defeat known as the “naksah,” the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for the renewal of the Palestinian national resistance effort, an effort that was born and grew up as a reaction to the defeat of the Arab regimes, and as a militant choice of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the Arab Nation in confrontation with settler colonialism and conquest, occupation, aggression, hegemony, and dependence.

The PFLP stated that the path of resistance is the only path guaranteed and tested and able to recover rights and honor and to safeguard identity – a fact that has been proven by the historic resistance of the Arab masses, and is being proven today by the resistance of the Iraqi masses in the Land of the Two Rivers, in addition to the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance that have established, in spite of all the difficult regional and international conditions, the ability of the Arab fighter and soldier to defeat the occupation army and “undefeatable” Zionist terror. Resistance has shattered the Zionists’ traditional strength and deterrent power and undermined their faith in the Zionist leadership, its army, and security agencies. At the same time it has exposed the reality of the war efforts of the Arab regimes, which, despite the triumphs of the Arab soldier, left 99 percent of the cards in the hands of America after having freed the Arab homeland of foreign control and external factors of manipulation and pressure.

The PFLP believes that the degeneration and decline from the slogans proclaimed at the Khartoum Summit after the 1967 defeat – “No peace accord, no recognition, no negotiations!” – to the total reversal of that position as expressed by the Riyadh Summit in March 2007 is proof of how far the official Arab level has declined, and of how far it is willing to go to deny the resistance and to try to circumvent it and undermine it, pursuing instead the policy of compliance, servility, and dependency on the colonial powers and American globalism.

The PFLP regards it as supremely ironic that 40 years of Zionist American arrogance and Arab degradation are still not enough to convince the official Arab regimes of the efficacy of the course of resistance, when in fact resistance is the only real strategic peace option.

Today we see the Zionist state of occupation and terror after 40 years of occupation of the West Bank and Gaza territories and 14 years after the Oslo Declarations is still establishing settlements and deploying settlers all over the lands of Jerusalem and the West Bank. There are now nearly half a million settlers there who have gobbled up nearly half of the land of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and who squander more than 80 percent of its water resources.

At the same time the Zionist state perpetrates the most atrocious violations, acts of piracy, abductions, war crimes, and blockades against the land and people with impunity and with absolute support from its strategic ally in Washington that controls the resources and markets of the Arabs, plants military bases on their soil, fills their waters with its naval fleets, carrying out open aggression while imposing its humiliating and repressive rule upon them.

The PFLP noted that in the 40 years that have passed, the Palestinian people have made legendary sacrifices, waged an armed revolution and successive intifadas, and carried on a continuous resistance, thereby reasserting their political identity and raising their national cause from an issue of refugees to the cause of a people struggling, under the banners of its militant vanguard and sole legal representative the Palestine Liberation Organization, for freedom, independence, the return, and self-determination, the same as the rest of the peoples of the Earth.

Today, after 40 years in the maws of a battle for national liberation and democracy, we see the struggle flaring up again between the course of steadfastness and resistance on the one hand and the course of Palestinian and Arab alienation and a vain chase after the mirage of empty American promises and peace plans on the other. Our people are threatened with the danger that their national cause will be eliminated by the replacement of the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state with the aim of a self-rule regime for the inhabitants, set up within temporary limits under the guard and at the mercy of the security of Israel and its economy, abandoning the right of return and relegating our people abroad to the fate of exclusion or dissolution and denationalization in other countries as we spin in an orbit around a phantom solution, engaged in impotent bilateral negotiations under American-Israel supervision. The home front is under attack in various ways and through numerous means of interference from abroad, when it should be uniting and strengthening its national ranks, embarking on the course of democracy and pluralistic participatory national politics which would in word and deed lay down the clear political basis on which national, popular, official, regional, and international forces could rally around the goals of the Palestinian people and their just, legitimate struggle.

On this occasion the PFLP warns that any call for a critical review of our situation loses its real value if it is not linked with national self criticism and critique of the course traversed by the revolution and all the organizations and social forces of the PLO, and a critique of the outcome of the negotiations that have been held and of the Oslo Agreements – the Palestinian people’s verdict on which has already been pronounced by the daily reality of intifada and at the election polls as well.

At this critical time, in which a national disaster and great calamity are threatening, the Popular Front appealed to the Fateh and Hamas movements to finally put an absolute end to solving differences within the national ranks by anything other than dialogue and democratic means, using reason and supreme national interests as their methodology, carrying on a comprehensive national dialogue among all the political and social forces on the basis of the Prisoners’ Document – the “National Accord” – that laid the firm programmatic foundation for reasserting the spirit of resistance, security, and stability, comprehensive democratic reform, national unity, and the activation and reconstruction of the PLO and its popular bases – from the bottom to the top – on democratic foundations through elections in accordance with the principle of total proportional representation in the framework of a clear time table, inasmuch as the PLO is the leader, authority, and sole legal representative of the Palestinian people wherever they are to be found.

Posted at 10:05 a.m. Palestine time, on 4 June 2007.



Friday, May 11, 2007

Confronting Heather Reisman



Nice to see Heather Reisman challenged for her financial support for terrorist attacks on Arab peoples in the Middle East. Watch the video and see members of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid confronting her at a Ralph Nader book-signing, over her financial support for Jews who volunteer to go to Israel to suppress, harass, beat and kill Palestinians.

In 2005 Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, the majority owners of Chapters Indigo Bookstores, established a program called the HESEG Foundation for lone soldiers. HESEG offers grants of financial support to former 'lone soldiers' in the Israeli military to pursue post secondary education in Israel. It aims to distribute $3M per year to provide scholarships and other support to former 'lone soldiers'. Scholarships are to be granted based on need and "military achievement".

Let's break this down.

A "lone soldier" is someone not from Israel, who chooses to go to that country in order to join the armed forces. These are young Jews from the diaspora who have bought into Zionist colonialism so deeply that they are willing to volunteer and go to serve in the Israeli "Defense" Forces. As such, they operate on the frontline of genocide in the Middle East, taking part in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The fact that Reisman and Schwartz can openly encourage Jewish youth to travel across continents in order to fight against Arab people is testimony not only to their own moral bankruptcy, but also to Canada's complicity in the oppression of the Palestinian people. Just as the Canadian State has participated in the economic blockade of Hamas and the criminalization of Hezbollah - both opponents, albeit reactionary ones, of Israeli aggression - so it gives a wink and a nod to programmes intended to aid and abet Israeli militarism.

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid has reiterated its demand that Chapters Indigo should be boycotted until Reisman and Schwartz publicly announce that they will cut all financial ties to Heseg. In regards to this recent action they state, "Reisman's refusal to answer the questions posed to her is absolutely unacceptable and indicates her culpability in Israeli apartheid. Her vocal support for Israeli war crimes will continue to be challenged whenever she appears publicly in Canada."

On June 9th 2007, Chapters Indigo stores will be picketed across Canada as part of the national campaign against their ties with Israeli apartheid. These pickets are part of the international week of action commemorating 40 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

To get involved email endapartheid@riseup.net



Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Estee Slaughter Kicked Out of LGBT Festival


QUIT! activists who formed the Estee Slaughter team at LGBT Freedom Day in San Francisco. (QUIT!)


The following article is just another reminder as to why i do not normally participate in Queer Pride events… the rightwards turn of the queer community over the past ten years just makes the experience alternately nauseating and painful.

The following report on an action against human rights abuses in Palestine which of course got kicked out of this year’s San Francisco Pride:
Estee Slaughter Kicked Out of LGBT Festival
QUIT!, 26 June 2006

2500 lucky festival-goers at today's Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Freedom Day celebration received samples of a hot new product from Estee Slaughter Inc. In the first appearance by the San Francisco-based cosmetics shrimp at the LGBTFD celebration (aka San Francisco Pride), volunteers distributed thousands of the "Realityfold TM" sleep mask. The black mask, tastefully emblazoned in gold with the ES logo and "Make the Occupation Disappear," bears this explanatory text on its flip side:

Going to Jerusalem for World Pride?

Worried the sight of so many Walls and Checkpoints will keep you from getting your beauty rest? Estee Slaughter's Realityfolds will protect you from the harsh glow of Occupation so you can party in virtual peace.

Estee Lauder heir Ron Lauder, the president of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) is a vocal supporter of illegal Zionist settlements on Palestinian land. The JNF was founded in 1901 to buy up Palestinian land for use by Jews only. Since 1948 it has partnered with the Israeli government to expel over 1,000,000 Palestinians from their land and deny the refugees their right to return.

World Pride will be held in Jerusalem in August 2006. 10 minutes away from the march site, Israeli bulldozers are demolishing Palestinian homes to expand the illegal settlement of Maaleh Adumim.


Distributors, wearing the ES logo on newly minted t-shirts, had scarcely begun the giveaway when parade security monitors descended and told them they could not distribute the masks at the festival because they had not paid for a booth. The Slaughter reps responded that this was free speech activity and that they were not disrupting the event. Soon thereafter, the police arrived and said that they work for the parade committee, that the parade committee, by acquiring a permit for the event, had managed to make the entire ten-block area of the festival "private property" and the unauthorized distribution had to stop.

Policewomen told one member of the group that the problem was that rival company, Estee Lauder had a booth at the event and festival organizers were afraid the similarity in products would cause some confusion.

The group eventually agreed to leave, because police were threatening to confiscate the remaining masks (handmade in a very labor-intensive process). They attempted to locate someone in charge of deciding which queers can hand out what literature at the festival, but never could get to talk to anyone. They were repeatedly told to go to the "free speech area," which they never were able to find.

"Do you think anyone at Stonewall paid for a permit?" one activist asked event staff.

Estee Slaughter is a division of Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!). QUIT! plans to challenge this ultraregulation of communication among queers in a variety of legal and grassroots ways.

QUIT! is a grassroots Bay Area queer direct action group challenging Israeli apartheid in creative ways. QUIT! has been around since early 2001, and initiated the call to boycott World Pride Jerusalem almost two years ago.

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