Happy Mother's Day

Three small kids bury their mother today in Gaza. They spent the better part of last night locked into a room together, just after they saw the explosion of their front door that killed their mother, and observing soldiers cover her body with a rug. At 11 pm, after six and a half hours of taking care of her younger siblings in a locked room, the 12-year-old daughter Samira was let out and ran next door for help.

Ironically, I read Julia Ward Howe's "Mother's Day Proclamation" immediately after reading about Samira and her mother, Majdi Abd al-Raziq al-Daghma. Mother's Day was meant to be a call for peace, for pacifism and laying down of arms:

The "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.

Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.

When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Originally the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, this building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become.

Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

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After Egypt, Jordan...

...bans any event commemorating the Nakba. For the sake of "public security", I presume?

Tarboush tip: Angry Arab

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Nakba Demonstration in Safuria Attacked

**Please click here for video from www.panet.co.il.
***What happened to the people of Safuria?

Thousands of people converged Thursday on the land of Safuria to mark the anniversary of the Nakba and to demonstrate for the right of return of the refugees. The crowd included mainly Palestinian citizens of Israel, and some Jewish citizens. Chants included "Long live Palestine," "Gaza is Palestinian and Golan is Syrian," and "We are all one people" invoking the West Bank, Gaza and Arab countries along with the people of the Galilee, and "The White House is the biggest terrorist." Some people released hundreds of black balloons into the sky to fly over the 60th Birthday of Israel celebrations and barbecues to remind them of those who were forced out 60 years ago.

Safuria was a town that was cleared of its residents and destroyed in 1948. It was larger than Nazareth at the time of its destruction. Many of the descendants of the former residents of Safuria now live in nearby Nazareth, while others fled to refugee camps in the West Bank and surrounding countries. The Jewish community that now lives on the land of Safuria is called Tsippuri. Each year for the last ten years, these Nakba commemoration demonstrations in the Galilee have been at the site of a different destroyed village.

When I left the demo, I saw riot police waiting across the street. However they seemed relaxed and simply there to make sure no confrontations took place with the Jewish people celebrating in the field on the other side. Then, the next morning, I saw this image of Member of Knesset Wasel Taha:

I learned that after a couple hours of the demonstration, the police moved in, some on horseback, and attacked people with tear gas and sound bombs, brilliantly setting the fields on fire. My coworker was there with her small girls still at the time the police and army came into the crowd.

My older daughter was so afraid. She never wants to go again, though I told her no, the police are just trying to make us afraid. There were people with blood, and smoke and bombs and gas. We are not used to this and we didn't expect anything like it. There had been no problem- the police and the army came in and made the problem.

Six youth were arrested, and more were injured at the close of what was an otherwise peaceful demonstration attended by whole families with small children:

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Egyptian State Goons Want People to Forget the Nakba

They indirectly intervened to cancel the events of Nakba week, and interestingly enough the event at Townhouse gallery (which I live very close to) was ignored by them because it doesn't have much of a popular Egyptian crowd that frequents it. This is the same Egyptian state that likes to delude itself that it achieved a glorious victory over Israel in 1973 (and then went promptly and made "peace" in 1978). AUC professor Jalal Amin the other day said that in his daughter's junior high school exam around that time, all the questions in the Arabic comprehension section had sentences about the gloriousness of peace in it.

Tarboush tip: Electronic Intifada and Serene Assir

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60 Years Later, Nakba Front Page News

Israel is today celebrating it's 60th anniversary. I was surprised and pleased to see this article on the front page of the International Herald Tribune yesterday: After 60 Years, Arabs in Israel Are Outsiders, complete with pictures and video.

Then I read the first paragraph. The author feels the needs to qualify from the start the Palestinian discontent inside of Israel:

As Israel toasts its 60th anniversary in the coming weeks, rejoicing in Jewish national rebirth and democratic values, the Arabs who make up 20 percent of its citizens will not be celebrating. Better off and better integrated than ever in their history, freer than a vast majority of other Arabs, Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens are still far less well off than Israeli Jews and feel increasingly unwanted.

Why? The first thing the author points out is to the effect of, 'You should thank your lucky stars that you're living here in a westernized civilized society, and not with those backwards barbarians we're surrounded by.' And does he really believe that they are freer than other Arabs? If he's talking about ability to get a visa to the US, ok. If he's talking about freedom from harassment by intelligence and police, freedom from state oppression, freedom from discrimination, the right to hold property without anyone taking it from you arbitrarily, or freedom of the press, he's got some research to do.

The article also curiously ignores the Bedouin, who have the worst living situation and rights abuses inside of Israel's self-chosen borders not including Jerusalem. The article ignores the situation of Jerusalem residents, who have lived under Israeli governance since 1967 yet who do not have Israeli citizenship and hence have a different, lesser set of rights. While I understand the purpose of focusing on Palestinian citizens of Israel, which does not include the Golan or Jerusalem, I find that simply mentioning their plight in the consideration of Israel's treatment of the native population within what it considers its borders demonstrates the nature of the colonial settlement and ethnic cleansing that has been ongoing for 60 years. It gives some context to the 'freedoms' the author cites, that these apparently civilized barbarians should be thankful that they've been enlightened with.

Despite my criticisms, however, the Nakba on the front page is a positive step.

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The Palestine Literary Festival!

Here.



Tarboush tip: Rockslinga

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Electricity, Police and Oslo

Guess what! Fayyad's village has electricity 24 hours a day now! His family gave me a birthday party a year and a half ago in darkness. While the lack of electric lighting creates a romantic atmosphere for candle-blowing, and kerosene lamps may seem like a creative throwback, it gets old very quickly. Try washing dishes by kerosene lantern. Try studying. Try washing the clothes of your whole family by hand- it makes your fingers bleed. Using the bathroom in the pitch-blackness, I accidentally once discovered that my longjohns made light when you rub two parts together!! "Lack of electricity makes everyone a discoverer," said my host.

If you look out from the upper story windows, or go for a walk, you get a distinct and revealing view of the differential between the villages and the settlements, the West Bank and Israel. The settlement lights are ordered in rows, are bright yellow and light up the night, and have clear perimeters. The village lights, if they have lights, are dim, whiter, and scattered. The Apartheid Wall actually is visible in the darkness: there is bright light on one side from the bordering villages (also Palestinian Arab), and darkness on the other. You can actually see it follow a line.

Even when they had electricity for a few hours a day in the village, they paid several times more for it than I do to enjoy 24 hours of service inside Israel. Now, the solution that has brought back the convenience we take for granted, and the absorbing lure of the TV as well as the global gateway of internet, is an agreement with Israel to bring the Israeli lines to the village. In this arrangement, the electricity-controlling station, for lack of the correct word, is a little hut near the wall where the Israelis hold the key to one half of the hut, which is divided by a wall down the middle, and the Palestinians hold the key to the other half. Talk about a tiny analogy.

Apart from the romantically dim candle-blowing ceremony, on that visit I had the pleasure of witnessing Oslo-era maintenance of public order. One afternoon, it was announced from the mosque that something had happened in the next village over involving an argument between residents, and the accidental shooting of a woman. From the roof, we watched private car after private car carrying anyone who had anything to do with anything in the next village over there, in case there was anything they could do to help. Fifteen minutes after that, unmarked Palestinian police cars went by, on their way to do their duty. Then a full half hour AFTER that, and perhaps nearly an hour after everyone with any relation whatsoever had certainly made it to the scene of the event, the marked Palestinian police cars went by.

The police need to take permission from the Israelis before they can go to another village, traveling through Areas B and C (shared and Israeli control). Note that in this case, the police were going from Palestinian area to Palestinian area, through Palestinian areas. But they still needed to wait for radioed permission to move in their official capacity.

I can only imagine the scene when they actually got there. What do you do as a citizen in a situation like that? Wait for the police? They may never come and tensions may rise out of any control before that. So you can see that, in the absence of an effective police response outside of the major cities, justice has resorted to traditional ways of resolving conflicts like this- meaning exile of the perpetrator until the family of the victim agrees to blood money or retribution. This isn't something people should have to do! These aren't people in a midieval village we're talking about, this is 2008 in a place surrounded by people living in modernity (or post-modernity perhaps, except that it has many aspects of colonialism still- whats correct oh humanities gradschoolers?). They're just cut off by the Wall and in addition, and purposefully, from all of the aspects of life that the rest of the world takes for granted.

There seems to be a trend going on. 470 additional police were recently deployed in Jenin, approved first by Israel of course. A similar gaining of control over Nablus by police is ongoing from last year. You can see the police out in force in Ramallah regularly, usually stopping cars and checking the registration, searching for ones reported stolen from Israelis.

And yet, in the villages in all the areas surrounding the major cities, the Israeli army polices. In the village of Azzoun near Qalqilya, the army surrounded a high school after a few attendees were accused of stonethrowing. (Can you imagine? Try for just a second to imagine yourself sitting in ninth grade English, while a foreign ARMY surrounds the perimeter of your school. Imagine being a parent of those kids.)

What is the point of having a police force, if they aren't allowed to police? The Israeli army maintains all control over the West Bank, except for that little bit of Jenin, the little bit of Nablus that you can only enter from two places that the Israelis control anyway, that little bit of Ramallah... And then they seem to be used mainly as traffic directors, finders of stolen vehicles, and Abbas henchmen/arresters of Hamsawis. (also crushers of general public demonstrations) The Israeli army enters these towns and tears them up with their tanks regularly. With the Palestinian police deployments, the Israeli army seems able to simply save themselves the cost of regular day-to-day policing.

Unfortunately I am unable to find an uploaded version of the story I saw on Al Jazeera about the policemen in Gaza making themselves useful to the citizenry, using their cars to transport people around, as they're the only ones with any fuel. However I did find this:



And here's another consequence of blockade and no fuel: burning chicks...

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Photojournal: the Galilee

The hummos not yet appropriated by the white man.



Good Friday in Shefa Amr.


Plaque in Haifa's German Colony: "In the middle of a sparsely populated and largely barren land..."


Jabal Al-Sheikh on a clear day from Haifa. This peak is visible from Lebanon, Syria, and the Galilee. It is impossible for anyone actually from these countries, to see it from all three.


"Martyrs of Racism" poster showing the faces of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed in October 2000 and the Shefa Amr Massacre, among other events.


Road sign for Jenin. The sign was good a few years ago but is now obsolete. All roads lead to the Wall.

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LIVNI LA VIDA LOCA: Spitfire-side Chat

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, seen here raising a finger during her April visit to Qatar, may have used her visit to stick up for Shimon Peres' hurt feelings. (What kind of a weird flicking-off that is, and more significantly why the AFP posted this as their main closeup of Livni is beyond me.)


There are other possibilities though. Livni may also have been aiming the sentiment at Hamas, which is "controlling Gaza by weapons, training and money," apparently from Iran. (Of course not because they won the last election fair and square-- democracy anyone?) Or she was giving it to all the Gulf people who would rather excuse themselves to go barf than see formal ties, or worse, sit in a room with Israeli government officials.

The following is an internal discussion on the significance of the Qatari and Omani reception of Livni. As Chaim protested, "Why do you D-bags host these conversations on this listserv, take it to the blog!"

MHMD: Hey what do you guys make of this? Well, there really isn't much to make of it, I'm not surprised-but is there anything left to say about the Qataris and Omanis meeting so openly with Livni?

Emily: I had an argument with a friend recently. He's from Bahrain and was thinking of coming to Jordan, and I suggested that we meet there. I also said oh maybe I'll bring my friend along from Shefa Amr! She's never been to Jordan!

At which point he seriously took the conversation off the record and was like "wait... she's... israeli?" He didn't want to hang out with her in Jordan (a Muslim Arab Palestinian citizen of Israel) because of her Israeli passport. He was like, there's a boycott. I have to stick to my principles.

I think I spent a half an hour typing like a madwoman about all of the violations against Palestinians in Israel even though they are "Israeli." And furthermore pulled up the call for boycott and sanctions and sent him the actual text of it- 'institutional boycott' etc etc.

Anyway I'd like to post about this and the context of Livni's visit. I thought Qatar was like the rest of the Gulf states in that people with Israeli passports can't travel there? Or is it the one exception or something?

MHMD: Well, Qatar's always been the most openly friendly Gulf state with Israel-if I recall correctly they were the first to allow an Israeli Trade Office to open there. As far as I know, the ban on Israeli passport holders in the gulf is one bigass myth-Israelis travel freely to the UAE and Qatar, and I'm sure they do to Bahrain and Oman too. The Omani FM said one of the purposes of his meeting with Livni was to discuss the reopening of the Israeli Trade Office in Muscat.

Furthermore, I recently saw a news report on MBC quoting several Israeli and US studies that reveal there are up to 220 Israeli companies active in Iraq now. The Arab boycott is just one big joke.

Chaim: Why do you D-bags host these conversations on this listserv, take it to the blog! And use my title: LIVNI LAVIDA LOCA... I just wanna see it in print cause I'm so proud of it :) Or do a round-table burn... KABOBfest hasn't done one of those in a great long while.

Emily: Maybe it can be on what constitutes a violation of the boycott: Qatar and the gulf countries giving Israeli businessmen free reign when there's a boycott going on, or me working for a Palestinian org that is actually an Israeli org inside of Israel, or just talking to Palestinian citizens of Israel (as many regular gulfi people seem to think- I have more examples)

Is my working in Israel a violation of the boycott of Israel for all people of conscience?

Does the boycott include the exclusion of Palestinian people with Israeli passports otherwise known as Arab ISRAELIS?

I'm pretty sure we all agree that Qatar talking to Livni is hypocrisy... or do we?

MHMD: Livni accuses MP Tibi of trying to sabotage two-state solution That should be useful too.

Nimr: I strongly disagree, actually. I hate it when US pundits blast Obama for saying he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Hammas, Venezuela, N. Korea or whoever (well, I actually think there should be "high level" conversations first. Meeting the pres. should be the carrot for substantive talks). I feel I would be the hypocrite to criticize Qatar for talking with Livni.

I see no harm with welcoming and meeting with Livni. It's not like they are going to let Israel bury nuclear waste there (see: Mauritania). For the record, I think the academic boycott is dumb and counterproductive too. Heck, I think the travel restrictions in general are silly as well. If any Americans are going to boycott Israel, you better be ready to get your ass boycotted 300x over by the rest of the world too.

Also, let's be clear. As Mohammed pointed out, the rules about travel prohibitions are not universally followed. UAE "unofficially" lets all kinds of people who visit Israel and/or are Israeli citizens come there for business (lots of diamond, tech and finance). That might be open for criticism. Alternately, Yemen allows their own Jewish citizens to visit Israel for family and/or religious reasons, they just do it super on the DL. I applaud that. Syria might not have suffered the loss of its Jewish population if they could have come and gone as they pleased.

Lastly, to put the visit in context, Qatar is very much trying to position themselves as players on the international stage. This kinda thing is probably more about them posturing as players than caring so much about Israel, Palestine or the peace process.

The boycotts and restrictions ultimately do much more to hurt "us", financially, culturally, symbolically and politically than them.

My 2 cents

Emily: So are you against boycott, academic institutional etc? What about monetary divestment campaigns? I really don't think any boycott, academic or institutional, would cause much actual harm to the boycotting organization itself unless it depends on funds from Zionist orgs or people.

That's a really good point about Syria and Yemen. It's stupid to not let people travel. It's just dumb.

I think that boycott is in fact a decent tool to get Israeli organizations and institutions to take notice of what is happening. I'm here and I don't see people really having to notice much in their everyday lives. Life goes on as usual while 10 minutes away people are under occupation. I think that for many educated people who want to be part of the global community (Tel Aviv University, for example), if they got responses when they tried to make a conference saying people won't participate because of the occupation, it would make them have to notice. I've heard Pappe stand on a podium, spread his arms, and say "please! boycott me!"

But the way it happens, it is carried out all wrong. people are not allowed to travel. That is stupid. Businessmen instead make a ton of valuable connections over everyone else's heads, and don't feel a thing even though there's a 'boycott'.

Fadi: I think isolation will work. I think boycott, whether academic, cultural, or economic, advances such isolation. Whether doing away with a certain type of boycott (such as academic) will harm the mission of isolating Israel, I don't know. Maybe the academic boycott is not necessary. Maybe it is. I think the reward (saving Palestinian - and Israeli - lives) is worth the risk. I think isolation will work. I understand the arguments against its practicality, or that it harms civilian infrastructure. I'm fairly certain that refusing to publish papers by Israeli academics, or cutting off grants or joint research (much of it on military and arms research) is not going to starve Israelis to death. I think isolation will work, this has been empirically established (for example, South
Africa). Those willing to argue against boycott of Israel, I think, must also argue against the boycott of Apartheid South Africa. If you're not willing to do that, then there's a double standard being applied.

Nimr: I would be interested to see any empirical data on isolation working as a strategy. Most of the data I have seen shows, 1) isolating other countries rarely works and 2) the connection between isolating S. Africa and the end of apartheid is anecdotal, and most probably part of a matrix of many other factors (which may or may not exist in Palestine).

Andrew Mack and Asif Khan have analyzed UN sanctions and their conclusion is that results have been mixed at best. They point out that sanctions work well as a tool of policy, but not as a policy. Look at the disaster of isolating Iraq under sanctions, Cuba, Hammas, Burma, Iran etc. Attempts to isolate them failed, and tended to strengthen the targeted elements, not weaken them. Also, it is almost impossible to isolate any country, this didn't even work with S. Africa (otherwise DeBeers would not be facing anti-trust issues in the USA). Israel and others kept strong relations with apartheid S. Africa.

This is further complicated by the particular governmental structure of Israel where small fanatical parties have disproportionate influence (domestically and in the USA). Attempts to isolate Israel will only strengthen their power and influence, as it will prove their narrative. (which would lead to more death and land appropriation)

I think the more apt analogy for Israel is the United States, not S. Africa. Like I said if we expect people to start boycotting Israel, culturally, politically, economically and/or academically, we must be prepared to suffer the same treatment in spades. As an American, I feel that the actions of my gov't do not represent my values. In spite of that lots of people die directly and indirectly from my gov't's actions. The same could be said of countless Israelis.

It gets complicated really quickly too. The US allowed black S. Africans to come to the US to attend college for instance. Should we not allow Arab-Palestinians? If we do, should we not allow progressive Israelis? If we do....

I think the divestment campaign makes sense, but only so long as this is on an org by org, individual by individual basis and not gov't policy. I am all for not collaborating with Israel on any research that has military focus and/or biased scholarship (i.e. propaganda), but a sweeping boycott is counterproductive. Some of the best most critical scholarship of Israeli policy comes from Israel.

Specific targeted sanctions (high tech, weapons, etc) are vital parts of foreign policy, but isolating countries/groups seems to have a fairly dismal track record.

Will: I saw this research a long time ago... I think they also argued that if it does not work at the stage of threats, it won't work. Also, democracies are much more responsive to the threats of isolation, theoretically. Hard empirical analysis would be hard to do because the sample size is probably pretty damn small.

We can assume sanctions against Israel would work if the whole world stood behind them. So we should ask, how realistic is this, on what basis, and would do the prospects of good relations with the Arab world mean?

I would not say Qatar is hypocritical, since they have not exactly been touting anything but a soft position, anyways. I do not think the Arab boycott has truly existed since Egypt got off board in the late 1970s. So asking if it is legitimate is hypothetical. If it existed, it would be, though.

In principle, I am against normalizing Israel until it has clearly defined borders, a clear demarcation of its polity, and lives up to its obligations under international law -- in the context of a just and viable solution with the Palestinians. Until then, recognizing Israel without its recognition of the Palestinians is one-sided and
legitimizing criminality.

I do not see how accomodationism could bring about peace. Eretz Yisrael is a non-negotiable ideological strain, first, and the settlements are internalized in the Israeli public's worldview. Accommodation means accepting these fundamentals, which strike at the heart of Palestinian rights.

Emily: What about the fact that Palestinian civil society has called for boycott/divestment/sanctions? I for one think that we should be listening to what they are saying, and doing our best to implement where we can, for the mere fact that they are the ones calling for it. This probably does not translate to the govenrnmental level, at least not at this juncture. However there are many areas where resolutions can be passed and where choices not to participate/invite/invest can be made and publicized.

That said, I am working in Israel. Does this violate what I'm saying above?

Fadi: That's right, I think sanctioning dictatorships (eg. Iraq, Cuba) or populations that were never in a position of prosperity to revert to (HAMAS) is clearly different from boycotting governments that are accountable to a people that are benefactors of a system that oppresses others. The Apartheid regime in South Africa, like that in Israel, does have a population that it is accountable to. I'm not sure why you would bring up Iraq or Cuba, I think we can agree that their dictators don't care about their constituents and are not accountable to their constituents - so there's a good chance isolation will not work there. Despite your opposition to boycotting Apartheid South Africa, you can't dismiss the isolation of South Africa that led whites there to realize that "ok, we can no longer benefit from Apartheid, let's choose a new path." If we can agree on isolating Israel as a means to liberate Palestinians, then we can discuss the
details (such as travel restrictions on Palestinian citizens of Israel).

But i do think that Qatar and other Arab states are hypocritical. If there are no official policies on boycott in a certain Arab state, I do think these dictators do frequently evoke the Palestinian cause, and express support for Palestinians, to their people. They do not support the Palestinian people, they exploit the Palestinian people. The regimes care about filling their pockets and insulating themselves (e.g.., by strengthening themselves politically in the global arena);
engaging in economic deals with Israel is not something done out of necessity - or at least a morally pure necessity (maybe they think they need to do it in order to retain their authoritarian rule). I would not see them as hypocrites if they normalized relations with Israel while not pretending to be strong supporters of the Palestinian struggle.

Maybe some disagree, but I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. policy of sanctioning HAMAS and punishing the civilian population will lead to some shift in the next election, if there ever is one. That is, I wouldn't be surprised if that policy works. It's a disgusting policy, and it's a much different situation, and certainly isolating Israel will not lead to a humanitarian crisis such as that which exists in Gaza (and existed in Gaza before Hamas, before Fatah, before the PLO) or that which existed under Iraq's dictatorship during the sanctions.

CLICK HERE FOR:

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

Palestine BDS Campaign

Divestment Support Committee

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Self-Hating Jews

From the Guardian, these Jews hate themselves because they believe in equality between Arabs and Jews. I mean, how dare they talk about Plan Dalet and the Yitzhak Rabin-admitted ethnic cleansing of Lydda and Ramleh as bad things:

"In May, Jewish organisations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians.

In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa's market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorised the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state. We will not be celebrating.

In July 1948, 70,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in Lydda and Ramleh in the heat of the summer with no food or water. Hundreds died. It was known as the Death March. We will not be celebrating.

In all, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. Some 400 villages were wiped off the map. That did not end the ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Palestinians (Israeli citizens) were expelled from the Galilee in 1956. Many thousands more when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Under international law and sanctioned by UN resolution 194, refugees from war have a right to return or compensation. Israel has never accepted that right. We will not be celebrating.

We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.

We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East."

click on the link to see the list of signers

(Tarboush Tip: Tammy)

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Existential Anxiety

While Reverend Wright's timing is opportunistic and his motives are egotistical and narcissistic, his remarks on the United States are not terribly off mark. The United States support of dictators in the Middle East for the last 60 years, along with its sanctions against 5 Muslim countries did have alot to do with the September 11 attacks. Our abandonment of Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviets was cowardly and has come back to haunt us. The toppling of an Iranian democracy, the support of the Shah and countless other monarchs and dictators surely has raised the ire of the current Islamist groups. Finally, our blind support of Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza and our blind eye to Palestinian refugees and their suffering have exposed us to the most violent currents of Pan-Arabism, Islamism, Arab Nationalism, Palestinian Nationalism and Secular Militarism.

Our treatment of African Americans in the past, including Slavery and Jim Crow Laws, coupled with regretful events such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the high number of African American inmates, the high penalty for crack cocaine as opposed to powder cocaine, the endless stream of fatal police brutality and the small number of African American college graduates have all contributed to an atmosphere of suspicion and cynicism in the African-American community, of which Reverend Wright is merely a symptom.

We have to confront these subjects head on and address them fairly. Obama's presidency and Reverend Wright's sometimes shameful rants have exposed a tremendous fault line as well as a golden opportunity to begin to understand, and see from, the other's perspective. As much as Obama's candidacy has made us feel proud and optimistic about our nation's transcendence of race, Reverend Wright's sermons will make us recoil from our ugly reflection in the mirror. But both images are true.

We must begin to answer the questions that are implicit in these infamous sermons. Was September 11 a response to our own actions abroad or did they attack us because we are a beacon of liberty as president Bush would have us believe? Do we owe the African-American community an apology as a nation; do we owe them a museum? Where is the National Museum of the African-American Slave? It doesn't exist but the National Holocaust Museum (a memorial of a crime not perpetrated in US soil) is in Washington, DC.

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Palestinian deaths, the Sean Bell verdict, and Desentization-The Spitfire-side Chats

As one Kabob-er noted, sometimes our internal conversations on the listserv are more interesting than our actual posts. The following is a conversation between Kabob-ers regarding the "Wiping out a family is how Israel says 'no'" post written by Mohammad:

Excen-Tarik: I started to write (about the story) and I was too tired to be as angry as I wanted to be.

Emily: The really sad thing that I thought when I first saw this email is that it becomes difficult to muster enough energy to be sufficiently sad and angry over tragedies like this. It becomes just one more.

Makes it even more important to blog about it I suppose.

Excen-Tarik: It really does. I was gonna write within the context of the Israeli army spokeswoman Avital Lieberman's callous denial of having anything to do with it... something along the lines of "sorry, but you have to realize that they died because of the terrorists, not because the tank shell hit them..." you know? hella ironic and cynical as fuck...

Mohammad: I think you should still go through with that. The other Israeli explanation i heard was that they targeted two militants, and that their missile set off the explosives carried by the militants; and it was those explosives that killed the family. Then of course you realize the only other person killed near the home was a 17 year old schoolboy, so the Israeli army says 'he might have been a militant.'

Excen-Tarik: I know right? Thats what I was talking about: the fact that they said it was "bags" full of explosives that killed them. Does it really make a difference when a TANK SHELL is fired at them? I mean, c'mon... bags of explosives and according to al-jazeera international 4 tank shells were fired- one of which landed 10 meters from the house they were in. The "militants" were reportedly over 100 meters away from the house- and NO ONE has witnessed these "bags" or anything like that- only the shells being fired on 2 younger palestinians. AND there was shrapnel from the shells all over the fucking kitchen they were eating in. You can't fit a qassam in a "bag" man- you know? Fuck.... im so pissed about it. For real.

I'm sure we're all hurting right now- sorry about my emotional shit...

Mohammad: What pisses me off the most (and its sad to say this because i've become almost desensitized to the idea of Palestinian families being wiped out) is how Israel can get away with shit like this with the weakest explanations. I mean, their excuses don't hold any water at all, and yet people take their word as fact when the most basic armchair investigation disproves everything they say. Why is it more believable to so many that Palestinians are responsible for their own deaths, even in the midst of israeli attacks?

Excen-Tarik: seriously, habibi. well said. its such a fucking shame.

Maytha: It kinda parallels how an unarmed black man can be shot 50 times by three cops (including one who reloaded his gun) the night before his wedding, and the cops who weren't forced to face a jury (only a judge), could be acquitted on ALL counts-blemish-free! And there is NO outrage on TV, in newspapers, on the radio, and some have sheik even had the never to say, "well we have to have compassion for the cops, and realize the kinda of stress they might be facing that contributed to this." The world has become so desensitized to the brutal and senseless slaughter of black people as it has to Palestinian families murdered in cold blood (and used pathetic excuses to cover it up).

I think we need to start making these kind of connections, like that of Sean Bell, to take the consciousness about and active support for Palestine a reality outside our circles. Because, when we post stories like these, who really becomes shocked? It's people already aware of the immoral conduct of the Zionist state and its mis-writting of history who read the stories that we post on Palestine.

QuiQui: Hear hear.

Mohammad: I completely agree with Maytha. I think this is an aspect of Zionut assholism that has been neglected by activists for decades-facing their untruths head on and disproving them. They've managed to discredit us-its sad we've let them become the trusted source for anything to do with Palestine.
And connecting it to stuff like Sean Bell's murder is important-back in my younger days, in the 60's and 70's, I remember how popular the Palestinian cause was because it was linked to social justice and independence movements worldwide.

QuiQui: Maybe it's just because I'm from L.A., but I swear I thought NYC would riot after I heard about the aquittal. But nothing. There's not enough outrage. Neither civil disobedience nor uncivil disobedience. Isn't the always looming threat of outrage precisely what is supposed to keep democracy in check? Hmmm.

"We might fight with each other
but I promise you this
we will burn this shit down -- get us pissed"
-- Tupac Shakur, To Live & Die in LA

Mohammad: Can't remember where I read about that-that they managed to avoid the rioting because the 'police had made inroads into the community' or some
bullshit like that.

Fadi: I think they might just support police killing black men out there... I think NYC might just be whack, i had an mp3 of Bruce Springstein singing his song "American Skin (41 shots)" about Amidou Diallo in NYC and you can hear the crowd is booing him for some odd reason, and then I remember reading how the head of the NYC chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police called Springstein a "Faggot" because he wrote this song that has such contentious (sarcasm) lyrics as "is it a gun, is it a knife, is it a wallet, this is your life, it ain't no secret, you can get killed just for livin in ur american skin" or something like that. What's up New York!

QuiQui: I wouldn't be surprised if it's those effing community organizations that, under the guises of cultural centers, are de facto front groups for the government. They're kept operating through funding from the State and municipal governments and exist to monitor and collect data on the marginalized communities they pretend to serve. As history has shown, you always gotta have a ripe set of collaborators to help do the bidding of the oppressor.

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Clergy Brawl Reveals Architectural Flaw

The Orthodox Easter ends today after a week of tense negotiations between Armenian and Greek Orthodox. The fights which broke out on Palm Sunday a week and a day ago included pushing priests to the ground, kicking them, and beating one another with palm fronds.

I would just like to point out that this all could be avoided were the architecture inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre rearranged to coincide with the structural changes taking over the rest of the Holy Land. The Holy Sepulchre is currently in the shape of a large underground circle- to get from one place to the other, you have to walk through all areas in between. It could simply be rearranged (destroying all natural contiguity of the cave structure, but what the hell- the Apartheid Wall and settlement roads already destroys all natural contiguity of the land above ground.) Might I suggest that the natural cave be divided by a series of floor-to-ceiling concrete walls, and that separate entrances be constructed where the guards question your knowledge of either Armenian, Greek, Latin, Episcopalian, Unitarian, Methodist, Maronite, or other group tradition. You must pass this test, which also determines your identity, to gain entry to your respective position (Unitarian will have an excess of the rejects from other sections). Entrants will enter and leave without ever seeing each other. Separation is clearly the only way to solve this.

Tarboush Tip: Fayyad

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Palestine, According to Bush

Bush plans on visiting Israel next month to celebrate the catastrophe that drove much of the Palestinian population into exile, robbed their homeland, and subjugated them to generations of humiliation and oppression, and, if time allows, give Israel a whipping for spying on its biggest ally. Try to stop this one, Olympic flame dousers.

Needless to say, a meeting with any Palestinian leaders on said trip would be... Awkward. But have no fear; you can always remedy that with a consolation-prize meeting with Palestinian Authority chairman Abbashole in the divine oval office. Still, Abbashole apparently loves awkward.

During the meeting, Bush expressed confidence that Palestinian and Israeli leaders could reach an agreement on the definition of a Palestinian state before the end of the year. That's a one hell of a drop in expectations from the begining of the year when he though they could reach a peace deal in the same time frame, almost as steep of a drop as the one the US economy took.

Anyway, during the meeting, Bush laid out some signs of his vision for a Palestinian state: It should not be a "Swiss cheese" arrangement of land, the Decider anounced. While it was the first time president Bush publicly made such declaration, it was nothing new. KABOBfest’s special investigator Chaim Sugarman has recently uncovered memo that Bush had sent formerly Israel’s prim minister, and currently fuckin’ amazingly scary ghost, Ariel Sharon, that outlined the Top 10 Things A Palestinian State Should NOT Be:

SECRET LETTER: WHAT THE PALESTINESE STATE SHOULD NOT BE
From: George W. Bush
To: President Ariel Sharon

10. Swiss cheese.. or cheddar. It should be American... heh heh heh.
9. A hemorrhoid in the butt for us or y'all's.
8. A signer of the Kyoto agreement or the International Criminal Court.
7. A safe haven for Mormons, democrats, Gays, or Palestinians.
6. Named after the great town of Palestine, Texas.
5. A Democracy (unless pro-US politicians win the elections)
4. A junior member of the Axis of Evil.
3. Whatever AIPAC says it shouldn't be.
2. Too hard to obliterate if it attacks Israel.
1. Located in Eretz Y'Israel.

[Tarboush tip: Will, as he drowns in take-home exams]

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CORRUPT

In case you haven't heard: "President" Abbas will be visiting the White House once again. His visit will take place on April 24th.
Abbas travels to Washington amid an all-time low in popular support. According to a survey by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, Abbas's current popularity rests at 11.7%.

Why the low popularity? Maybe because whenever he opens his mouth he shows how corrupt he is. When asked about the purpose of his visit to the White House, Abbas, in his true politically corrupt fashion said, " "We will tell the Americans we don't expect them to pressure Israel, but we want them to be fair," Abbas (aka Mr. Corrupt) said. Hmmmm....Isn't the whole point of the trip to demand that the US pressure Israel to finally free the Palestinians?

Mr. Corrupt's "chief" Saeb Erekat - he likes the way "chief" rolls off the tongue - added, "President Abbas is not going to Washington to complain but to review the talks five months after Annapolis and to see how things can be moved forward." Duh? Have you looked around lately? Haven't you seen that HUNDREDS of Palestinians have been killed since Annacrapolis? Have you missed the colony expansion on Jebel Abu Ghnaim? Ras al-Amud? Ma'ale Adumim? the Old City?

When asked whether he thinks that an "agreement" (a fancy term for a piece of paper that sits on a shelf) will be reached, an ever-so-patriotic Abbas responded, "I'm not saying we will end up with agreement but we will try to meet the target date of having a deal by the end of this year." He "warned" against missing this "window of opportunity". What? Abbas is actually going to come up with a strategy? He will declare an end to the negotiations? Think again. Abbas's response: "if this year ends without an agreement, we will face very difficult times." Wow. Way to sock to 'em Mr. Corrupt.

Mr. Corrupt and his Cronies - including "chief" will be staying at the Ritz Carlton in Georgetown where rooms run a cool $2000+ per night ($5000 for his suite).

Incidentally, for those Salam Fayyad fans out there (including the Facebook group that consists of his nephews, nieces, kids and a few groveling Palestinian Republicans), Fayyad's government is seen by 64.5% of Palestinians as "as corrupt" or "more corrupt" than previous governments. Way to go, assholes.

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