About Me
- Hussam Ayloush
- Hussam has been a lifelong human rights activist who is passionate about promoting democratic societies, in the US and worldwide, in which all people, including immigrants, workers, minorities, and the poor enjoy freedom, justice, economic justice, respect, and equality. Mr. Ayloush frequently lectures on Islam, media relations, civil rights, hate crimes and international affairs. He has consistently appeared in local, national, and international media. Full biography at: http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2006/08/biography-of-hussam-ayloush.html
Showing posts with label gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaza. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, June 14, 2010
Israel’s Greatest Loss: Its Moral Imagination (Haaretz)
Former head of one of the most pro-Israel organizations(American Jewish Congress) writes in Israel's leading English newspaper:
"A million and a half civilians have been forced to live in an open-air prison in inhuman conditions for over three years now, but unlike the Hitler years, they are not Jews but Palestinians. Th...eir jailers, incredibly, are survivors of the Holocaust, or their descendants."See More
Read full article:
Published 6/11/2010
Israel’s Greatest Loss: Its Moral Imagination
If a people who so recently experienced such unspeakable inhumanities cannot understand the injustice and suffering its territorial ambitions are inflicting, what hope is there for the rest of us?
By Henry Siegman
Following Israel’s bloody interdiction of the Gaza Flotilla, I called a life-long friend in Israel to inquire about the mood of the country. My friend, an intellectual and a kind and generous man, has nevertheless long sided with Israeli hardliners. Still, I was entirely unprepared for his response. He told me—in a voice trembling with emotion—that the world’s outpouring of condemnation of Israel is reminiscent of the dark period of the Hitler era...
When I managed to get over the shock of that exchange, it struck me that the invocation of the Hitler era was actually a frighteningly apt and searing analogy, although not the one my friend intended. A million and a half civilians have been forced to live in an open-air prison in inhuman conditions for over three years now, but unlike the Hitler years, they are not Jews but Palestinians. Their jailers, incredibly, are survivors of the Holocaust, or their descendants. Of course, the inmates of Gaza are not destined for gas chambers, as the Jews were, but they have been reduced to a debased and hopeless existence.
Fully 80% of Gaza’s population lives on the edge of malnutrition, depending on international charities for their daily nourishment. According to the UN and World Health authorities, Gaza’s children suffer from dramatically increased morbidity that will affect and shorten the lives of many of them. This obscenity is a consequence of a deliberate and carefully calculated Israeli policy aimed at de-developing Gaza by destroying not only its economy but its physical and social infrastructure while sealing it hermitically from the outside world.
Particularly appalling is that this policy has been the source of amusement for some Israeli leaders, who according to Israeli press reports have jokingly described it as “putting Palestinians on a diet.” That, too, is reminiscent of the Hitler years, when Jewish suffering amused the Nazis...
---
Henry Siegman, director of the U.S./Middle East Project, is a visiting research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a former Senior Fellow on the Middle East at the Council on Foreign Relations and, before that, was national director of the American Jewish Congress from 1978 to 1994.
"A million and a half civilians have been forced to live in an open-air prison in inhuman conditions for over three years now, but unlike the Hitler years, they are not Jews but Palestinians. Th...eir jailers, incredibly, are survivors of the Holocaust, or their descendants."See More
Read full article:
Published 6/11/2010
Israel’s Greatest Loss: Its Moral Imagination
If a people who so recently experienced such unspeakable inhumanities cannot understand the injustice and suffering its territorial ambitions are inflicting, what hope is there for the rest of us?
By Henry Siegman
Following Israel’s bloody interdiction of the Gaza Flotilla, I called a life-long friend in Israel to inquire about the mood of the country. My friend, an intellectual and a kind and generous man, has nevertheless long sided with Israeli hardliners. Still, I was entirely unprepared for his response. He told me—in a voice trembling with emotion—that the world’s outpouring of condemnation of Israel is reminiscent of the dark period of the Hitler era...
When I managed to get over the shock of that exchange, it struck me that the invocation of the Hitler era was actually a frighteningly apt and searing analogy, although not the one my friend intended. A million and a half civilians have been forced to live in an open-air prison in inhuman conditions for over three years now, but unlike the Hitler years, they are not Jews but Palestinians. Their jailers, incredibly, are survivors of the Holocaust, or their descendants. Of course, the inmates of Gaza are not destined for gas chambers, as the Jews were, but they have been reduced to a debased and hopeless existence.
Fully 80% of Gaza’s population lives on the edge of malnutrition, depending on international charities for their daily nourishment. According to the UN and World Health authorities, Gaza’s children suffer from dramatically increased morbidity that will affect and shorten the lives of many of them. This obscenity is a consequence of a deliberate and carefully calculated Israeli policy aimed at de-developing Gaza by destroying not only its economy but its physical and social infrastructure while sealing it hermitically from the outside world.
Particularly appalling is that this policy has been the source of amusement for some Israeli leaders, who according to Israeli press reports have jokingly described it as “putting Palestinians on a diet.” That, too, is reminiscent of the Hitler years, when Jewish suffering amused the Nazis...
---
Henry Siegman, director of the U.S./Middle East Project, is a visiting research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a former Senior Fellow on the Middle East at the Council on Foreign Relations and, before that, was national director of the American Jewish Congress from 1978 to 1994.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Haaretz Editorial: Hamas 1, Netanyahu 0
Don't expect such an honest analysis from our US media. Sadly, it is safer for newspaper editors to honestly debate and criticize Israeli policies in Israel than here in the US.
---
The Gaza-bound aid flotilla achieved its goal - the hermetic blockade of Gaza has been ripped wide open and Israel has been the target of massive international criticism and demands for an investigation.
Haaretz Editorial
6/10/2010
The Gaza-bound aid flotilla has achieved its goal, albeit at the bloody price of nine dead and dozens wounded. A week after the Israel Navy intercepted the ships, the hermetic blockade of Gaza has been ripped wide open, while Israel has been the target of massive international criticism and demands for an investigation.
The blockade dissolved with Egypt's announcement on Tuesday that the Rafah border crossing will remain permanently open. Though Palestinians still cannot traverse it freely, the sweeping exit ban that Israel and Egypt had imposed for the last few years on Gaza's 1.5 million residents has ended.
As in a commercial market, the moment Israel lost its monopoly over the gateways to Gaza, the consumers benefited from competition. Amira Hass reports in today's Haaretz that the list of goods that Israel allows into the Strip has been expanded, and from now on, Gaza residents will be able to spice their food with coriander (though only the seeds, not the leaves ), which had previously been off-limits to them. All it took was an alternative entryway, through Egypt, for the Israeli gateway to Gaza to be opened wider as well.
The Israeli blockade of Gaza and all it entailed - the goods forbidden entry, the lies about how there was no humanitarian crisis there - was a form of collective punishment against an impoverished and oppressed population that cast a moral stain on Israeli democracy. Nor did this blockade achieve its promised goals. The Hamas government did not fall, Gaza residents did not rise up against it, and Gilad Shalit is still in captivity.
But even if the blockade should have been lifted, the manner in which this happened reflects a lack of understanding and faulty judgment on the part of the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. Instead of working to ease the blockade, limiting it to justified efforts to prevent arms smuggling, Israel tried to maintain a complete closure - and then lost control because of the botched raid. In attempting to show the whole world how "strong" he is, Netanyahu ended up handing victory to Hamas and its Turkish supporters.
It is not too late to minimize the damage. The government must remove the last remnants of the blockade and replace it with an inspection and enforcement regime governing maritime traffic to Gaza, with international participation, to prevent rockets and other arms from entering in the guise of humanitarian aid shipments. The situation that existed before the flotilla failure does not exist any longer, and any attempt to resuscitate it will only cause Israel additional damage.
---
The Gaza-bound aid flotilla achieved its goal - the hermetic blockade of Gaza has been ripped wide open and Israel has been the target of massive international criticism and demands for an investigation.
Haaretz Editorial
6/10/2010
The Gaza-bound aid flotilla has achieved its goal, albeit at the bloody price of nine dead and dozens wounded. A week after the Israel Navy intercepted the ships, the hermetic blockade of Gaza has been ripped wide open, while Israel has been the target of massive international criticism and demands for an investigation.
The blockade dissolved with Egypt's announcement on Tuesday that the Rafah border crossing will remain permanently open. Though Palestinians still cannot traverse it freely, the sweeping exit ban that Israel and Egypt had imposed for the last few years on Gaza's 1.5 million residents has ended.
As in a commercial market, the moment Israel lost its monopoly over the gateways to Gaza, the consumers benefited from competition. Amira Hass reports in today's Haaretz that the list of goods that Israel allows into the Strip has been expanded, and from now on, Gaza residents will be able to spice their food with coriander (though only the seeds, not the leaves ), which had previously been off-limits to them. All it took was an alternative entryway, through Egypt, for the Israeli gateway to Gaza to be opened wider as well.
The Israeli blockade of Gaza and all it entailed - the goods forbidden entry, the lies about how there was no humanitarian crisis there - was a form of collective punishment against an impoverished and oppressed population that cast a moral stain on Israeli democracy. Nor did this blockade achieve its promised goals. The Hamas government did not fall, Gaza residents did not rise up against it, and Gilad Shalit is still in captivity.
But even if the blockade should have been lifted, the manner in which this happened reflects a lack of understanding and faulty judgment on the part of the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. Instead of working to ease the blockade, limiting it to justified efforts to prevent arms smuggling, Israel tried to maintain a complete closure - and then lost control because of the botched raid. In attempting to show the whole world how "strong" he is, Netanyahu ended up handing victory to Hamas and its Turkish supporters.
It is not too late to minimize the damage. The government must remove the last remnants of the blockade and replace it with an inspection and enforcement regime governing maritime traffic to Gaza, with international participation, to prevent rockets and other arms from entering in the guise of humanitarian aid shipments. The situation that existed before the flotilla failure does not exist any longer, and any attempt to resuscitate it will only cause Israel additional damage.
Jew vs. Jew; Levy vs. Levy: Gideon Levy exposes Bernard-Henri Levy
Gideon Levy is one of my top living heroes and one of my favorite journalists. He is one of Israel's and possibly our world's leading commentators on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. His courage, intelligence, and passion for justice have inspired me for so many years. Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) would be proud to see his teachings on justice applied in the writings of Gideon Levy.
Gideon, please be safe. I pray that you and Amira Hass be safe. Judaism is fortunate to have people like you.
---
In response to Bernard-Henri Levy
Demonization? Perhaps, but the way to fight that is by imposing a siege on its arsenal. Were it not for the blockade on Gaza, were it not for the occupation, there would be no cause for demonization. Was it too much to expect of you, once the voice of conscience, to understand that?
By Gideon Levy
6/10/2010 - Haaretz
I deeply admire prominent intellectuals like yourself, who make a point of visiting the killing fields and speaking out. Your attempt to protect Israel, as demonstrated by your article in Haaretz on Tuesday ("It's time to stop demonizing Israel"), pleased many Israelis, who were yearning for a good word about their country, a very rare commodity these days.
I won't spoil their pleasure. But in the name of your call to end the disinformation, I wish to draw your attention to information that may have slipped your memory.
One may hazard a guess that in your younger days you would have joined the flotilla. A blockade of more than four years on 1.5 million people in those days would have awakened a moral urge driving you to join the protest. But today, as far as you and most Israelis are concerned, there is no blockade on Gaza.
Talking about it in your view is "disinformation."
By the way, since you were here already, why didn't you pop into Gaza, as your friend Mario Vargas Llosa did, to see with your own eyes whether there's a blockade? The doctors in Shifa Hospital, for example, would have told you about their dead due to the non-blockade.
True, nobody is dying of hunger. Yet the Gisha organization for freedom of movement released a report this week saying Israel today allows 97 items to be brought into Gaza, compared to 4,000 before the siege. Is that not a blockade?
A large Israeli supermarket holds 10,000-15,000 items; in Paris there are surely more. Yet Gaza is allowed 97. One would expect greater understanding for gastronomic needs from a refined bon vivant such as yourself, of all people.
You mention, as though you were the IDF spokesman, that Israel permits 100-125 trucks into Gaza a day. A hundred trucks for 1.5 million people ¬ is that not a "merciless siege" as the Liberation newspaper you castigated called it?
Eighty percent of Gaza's residents subsist on aid; 90 percent of its factories are shut down or runing below capacity. Really, Bernard-Henri, isn't that a blockade? Shouldn't a great intellectual like you, of all people, be expected to know that people, including Gazans, need more than bread and water?
Let's leave statistics alone, after all, philosophers don't deal with numbers.
You write that Israel has been named as responsible for the blockade "ad
nauseum" and that this is a blockade - suddenly even you call it a blockade imposed by both Israel and Egypt.
Correct. Egypt's participation is indeed outrageous and inexplicable, but
Egypt and Israel should not be judged in the same way. The occupation in Gaza is not over, it has merely moved, to the occupier's convenience, but Israel is still responsible.
The legal currency in Gaza is the shekel, the population registration is carried out by Israel, which also monitors anyone entering the strip. Decades
of occupation have made Gaza dependent on Israel and Israel cannot shake it off merely by "disengaging."
But let's put the blockade aside, whether you deny or justify it. How can you ignore the context? There have been 43 years of occupation and despair for millions of people, some of whom may wish to become Bernard-Henri Levy, and not just pass their lives in a battle for survival.
What are the chances a young Palestinian will achieve something in his life?
Look at the pictures of the Gazans crowding the Rafah border pass yesterday and see their expressions.
Surely you've heard of freedom. You cannot blame the occupation on anyone but us, the Israelis. There are many excuses for it, but they don't change the ultimate fact - Israel is an occupier. This is the root of all evil and this is what you have concealed. Not a word about it.
Israel may have the right to prevent arms supplies from entering Gaza, but you don't have the right to ignore what has turned Gaza into a desperate refugee region.
True, Bernard-Henri, the world demands more of Israel than of dictatorships. This is not the "confusion of an era," as you put it, but a new (and just) era, in which the world demands Israel pay a price for its conduct as a democracy.
Demonization? Perhaps, but the way to fight that is by imposing a siege on its arsenal. Were it not for the blockade on Gaza, were it not for the occupation, there would be no cause for demonization. Was it too much to expect of you, once the voice of conscience, to understand that?
Gideon, please be safe. I pray that you and Amira Hass be safe. Judaism is fortunate to have people like you.
---
In response to Bernard-Henri Levy
Demonization? Perhaps, but the way to fight that is by imposing a siege on its arsenal. Were it not for the blockade on Gaza, were it not for the occupation, there would be no cause for demonization. Was it too much to expect of you, once the voice of conscience, to understand that?
By Gideon Levy
6/10/2010 - Haaretz
I deeply admire prominent intellectuals like yourself, who make a point of visiting the killing fields and speaking out. Your attempt to protect Israel, as demonstrated by your article in Haaretz on Tuesday ("It's time to stop demonizing Israel"), pleased many Israelis, who were yearning for a good word about their country, a very rare commodity these days.
I won't spoil their pleasure. But in the name of your call to end the disinformation, I wish to draw your attention to information that may have slipped your memory.
One may hazard a guess that in your younger days you would have joined the flotilla. A blockade of more than four years on 1.5 million people in those days would have awakened a moral urge driving you to join the protest. But today, as far as you and most Israelis are concerned, there is no blockade on Gaza.
Talking about it in your view is "disinformation."
By the way, since you were here already, why didn't you pop into Gaza, as your friend Mario Vargas Llosa did, to see with your own eyes whether there's a blockade? The doctors in Shifa Hospital, for example, would have told you about their dead due to the non-blockade.
True, nobody is dying of hunger. Yet the Gisha organization for freedom of movement released a report this week saying Israel today allows 97 items to be brought into Gaza, compared to 4,000 before the siege. Is that not a blockade?
A large Israeli supermarket holds 10,000-15,000 items; in Paris there are surely more. Yet Gaza is allowed 97. One would expect greater understanding for gastronomic needs from a refined bon vivant such as yourself, of all people.
You mention, as though you were the IDF spokesman, that Israel permits 100-125 trucks into Gaza a day. A hundred trucks for 1.5 million people ¬ is that not a "merciless siege" as the Liberation newspaper you castigated called it?
Eighty percent of Gaza's residents subsist on aid; 90 percent of its factories are shut down or runing below capacity. Really, Bernard-Henri, isn't that a blockade? Shouldn't a great intellectual like you, of all people, be expected to know that people, including Gazans, need more than bread and water?
Let's leave statistics alone, after all, philosophers don't deal with numbers.
You write that Israel has been named as responsible for the blockade "ad
nauseum" and that this is a blockade - suddenly even you call it a blockade imposed by both Israel and Egypt.
Correct. Egypt's participation is indeed outrageous and inexplicable, but
Egypt and Israel should not be judged in the same way. The occupation in Gaza is not over, it has merely moved, to the occupier's convenience, but Israel is still responsible.
The legal currency in Gaza is the shekel, the population registration is carried out by Israel, which also monitors anyone entering the strip. Decades
of occupation have made Gaza dependent on Israel and Israel cannot shake it off merely by "disengaging."
But let's put the blockade aside, whether you deny or justify it. How can you ignore the context? There have been 43 years of occupation and despair for millions of people, some of whom may wish to become Bernard-Henri Levy, and not just pass their lives in a battle for survival.
What are the chances a young Palestinian will achieve something in his life?
Look at the pictures of the Gazans crowding the Rafah border pass yesterday and see their expressions.
Surely you've heard of freedom. You cannot blame the occupation on anyone but us, the Israelis. There are many excuses for it, but they don't change the ultimate fact - Israel is an occupier. This is the root of all evil and this is what you have concealed. Not a word about it.
Israel may have the right to prevent arms supplies from entering Gaza, but you don't have the right to ignore what has turned Gaza into a desperate refugee region.
True, Bernard-Henri, the world demands more of Israel than of dictatorships. This is not the "confusion of an era," as you put it, but a new (and just) era, in which the world demands Israel pay a price for its conduct as a democracy.
Demonization? Perhaps, but the way to fight that is by imposing a siege on its arsenal. Were it not for the blockade on Gaza, were it not for the occupation, there would be no cause for demonization. Was it too much to expect of you, once the voice of conscience, to understand that?
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Open the Gates: A Rabbinical Response to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Tragedy
The silent majority is speaking out.
This is taken from the website of "The Jewish Fast for Gaza" which is an ad hoc group of rabbis, Jews, and people of conscience who have committed to undertake a monthly daytime fast in support of the following goals:
1. To call for a lifting of the blockade that prevents the entry of civilian goods and services into Gaza;
2. To provide humanitarian and developmental aid to the people of Gaza;
3. To call upon Israel, the US, and the international community to engage in negotiations without pre-conditions with all relevant Palestinian parties - including Hamas - in order to end the blockade;
4. To encourage the American government to vigorously engage both Israelis and Palestinians toward a just and peaceful settlement of the conflict.
---
Here is an open letter from so many heroic rabbis. I am proud to count many of them as personal friends and mentors who have inspired my social justice activism.
God bless them.
---
Open the Gates: A Rabbinical Response to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Tragedy
Dear Friends,
In the wake of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla tragedy, we once again feel the need to raise our voices as rabbis in the Jewish community.
According to press reports, we now know that at least 9 people have been killed and many more have been injured when Israeli Navy Seals boarded a boat that held 600 people in the middle of the night – conducting a military operation against civilian activists in the midst of international waters.
We also know that the essential aim of the Freedom Flotilla was to carry humanitarian aid to those who have been severely suffering under the effects of Israel’s crushing blockade of Gaza. We call upon our community not to turn away in denial or blame those of good will and good purpose who risked their lives to relieve the beleaguered people of the Gaza strip.
We lift up our voices and call upon Israel to conduct an independent, transparent, and credible investigation of this incident. We also call upon the government of Israel to open the gates of compassion and allow these ships to dock so that they may deliver humanitarian aid to the 1.5 million citizens of Gaza. In so doing, we note the overall context of oppression in which this incident has occurred and call upon the government of Israel to turn away from the policies of occupation, siege and indifference to international law.
Our silence now is an act of betrayal to the values we purport to live by and to the words of the prophet we read every Yom Kippur:
Is this the fast I desire? A day for people to starve
their bodies? Or bow their heads like a bulrush
or wear sackcloth and smear oneself with ashes...
No! This is the fast the Lord desires:
Unlock the fetters of oppression
Untie the cords of the yoke
Let the exploited go free, break off every chain.
share your bread with the hungry,
Shelter the poor in your own house
clothe the naked and do not ignore your own kin.
As rabbis, we believe all human beings are our kin. We cannot abide the suffering inflicted upon the people of Gaza.
We lift up our voices and say: Unlock the fetters of oppression. Untie the cords of the yoke. Open the gates.
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Brian Walt
Rabbi Alissa Wise
Rabbi Rebecca Alpert
Rabbi Marjorie Berman
Rabbi JB Sacks
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rabbi David Mivasair
Rabbi Chava Bahle
Rabbi Eyal Levinson
Rabbi Nina Mandel
Rabbi Margaret Holub
Rabbi Rebecca Lillian
Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill
Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Rabbi Naomi Steinberg
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Rabbi Victor H. Reinstein
Rabbi Phyllis Berman
Rabbi Linda Holtzman
Rabbi Andrew Gold
Rabbi Michael Feinberg
(List in formation)
This is taken from the website of "The Jewish Fast for Gaza" which is an ad hoc group of rabbis, Jews, and people of conscience who have committed to undertake a monthly daytime fast in support of the following goals:
1. To call for a lifting of the blockade that prevents the entry of civilian goods and services into Gaza;2. To provide humanitarian and developmental aid to the people of Gaza;
3. To call upon Israel, the US, and the international community to engage in negotiations without pre-conditions with all relevant Palestinian parties - including Hamas - in order to end the blockade;
4. To encourage the American government to vigorously engage both Israelis and Palestinians toward a just and peaceful settlement of the conflict.
---
Here is an open letter from so many heroic rabbis. I am proud to count many of them as personal friends and mentors who have inspired my social justice activism.
God bless them.
---
Open the Gates: A Rabbinical Response to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Tragedy
Dear Friends,
In the wake of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla tragedy, we once again feel the need to raise our voices as rabbis in the Jewish community.
According to press reports, we now know that at least 9 people have been killed and many more have been injured when Israeli Navy Seals boarded a boat that held 600 people in the middle of the night – conducting a military operation against civilian activists in the midst of international waters.
We also know that the essential aim of the Freedom Flotilla was to carry humanitarian aid to those who have been severely suffering under the effects of Israel’s crushing blockade of Gaza. We call upon our community not to turn away in denial or blame those of good will and good purpose who risked their lives to relieve the beleaguered people of the Gaza strip.
We lift up our voices and call upon Israel to conduct an independent, transparent, and credible investigation of this incident. We also call upon the government of Israel to open the gates of compassion and allow these ships to dock so that they may deliver humanitarian aid to the 1.5 million citizens of Gaza. In so doing, we note the overall context of oppression in which this incident has occurred and call upon the government of Israel to turn away from the policies of occupation, siege and indifference to international law.
Our silence now is an act of betrayal to the values we purport to live by and to the words of the prophet we read every Yom Kippur:
Is this the fast I desire? A day for people to starve
their bodies? Or bow their heads like a bulrush
or wear sackcloth and smear oneself with ashes...
No! This is the fast the Lord desires:
Unlock the fetters of oppression
Untie the cords of the yoke
Let the exploited go free, break off every chain.
share your bread with the hungry,
Shelter the poor in your own house
clothe the naked and do not ignore your own kin.
As rabbis, we believe all human beings are our kin. We cannot abide the suffering inflicted upon the people of Gaza.
We lift up our voices and say: Unlock the fetters of oppression. Untie the cords of the yoke. Open the gates.
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Brian Walt
Rabbi Alissa Wise
Rabbi Rebecca Alpert
Rabbi Marjorie Berman
Rabbi JB Sacks
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rabbi David Mivasair
Rabbi Chava Bahle
Rabbi Eyal Levinson
Rabbi Nina Mandel
Rabbi Margaret Holub
Rabbi Rebecca Lillian
Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill
Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Rabbi Naomi Steinberg
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Rabbi Victor H. Reinstein
Rabbi Phyllis Berman
Rabbi Linda Holtzman
Rabbi Andrew Gold
Rabbi Michael Feinberg
(List in formation)
The silent Jewish majority
By Marwan Bishara, June 2nd, 2010
Aljazeera English
Read full article
Marwan Bishara asks if those in whose name Israel commits its crimes are going to act and speak out against it.
---
The Israeli military operation against the humanitarian Gaza convoy has provoked an outcry around the world and within Israel itself...
An increasing number of Jewish activists in Europe and the US are expressing their displeasure - and even anger - over the way in which Israel has evolved in recent years. Some have joined - and even led - solidarity initiatives that aim to lift the siege of Gaza and to end the occupation of Palestine.
But as Israelis begin to question, criticise and even condemn wrong headed Israeli policies, one wonders: Where is the silent Jewish majority in whose name Israel acts?
...A recent article in the New York Review of Books has shed more light on the increased detachment of the influential international Jewish community from Israel and its alienation from the unconditionally pro-Israeli Jewish establishment.
However, the majority of Jews remain silent about the "controversial" policies Israel carries out in their name as a self-declared "state of the Jewish people"...
To gain the moral high ground, Israeli leaders consistently defended their state's "humane" and "democratic" nature.
The best expression of Israel's 'surplus morality' reached the heights of chutzpah when late prime minister Golda Meir defended Israeli crimes by blaming them on the Arabs: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children ... we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."
But colonial Zionism's attempt to monopolise Judaism and claim its humanism was exposed by some of the most authoritative religious Jewish voices in the country.
The most outspoken critic of Israel, its values and polices was the late Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz. A deeply religious man, he staunchly condemned the Israeli occupation and reportedly accused Israeli soldiers of possessing a Nazi-like mentality.
Avraham Burg, an observant religious Jew who was the head the Jewish Agency and the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has also emerged as a bold critic of destructive or the "eschatological" form of Zionism, suggesting in his eye-opening book, The Holocaust Is Over, that Jews must now rise from its ashes...
Recent events in Israel/Palestine magnified the difference, even the contradiction, between Jewish intellectuals inside and outside of Israel...
Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Laureate along with his close friends Peres and Henry Kissinger, and Bernard Henri Levi, the French 'philosopher', have been vocal in expressing their "love" for Israel and "attachment" to Jerusalem.
They generally defend the practices of the Israeli military in the occupied territories as a "democratic army" who attaches great importance to "purity of arms".
Four decades of military occupation, tens of massacres and tens of thousands of killed Palestinians have done little to dissuade them.
Henri-Levi has been particularly vocal in defence of Israeli and US policies since he became the laughing stock of the Paris intellectual community for his gaffs, not to say hoax as an "impostor". His flip flops in Tel Aviv this week were quite telling.
Likewise, Wiesel, who one Israeli intellectual referred to as the "Holocauster" - the guru of the Holocaust industry - has been staunchly - some say blindly -supporting illegal and bloody Israeli practices in the occupied territories, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem.
Interestingly, the sharpest criticism of the resident New Yorker Wiesel came from Jewish residents of Jerusalem...
Diametrically opposed stand the universalists. Richard Falk is a professor of international law and the UN's special rapporteur on Palestine and eminent philosopher Noam Chomsky is considered to be one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century.
(Photo: Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor, was part of the recent Gaza flotilla)
Both have consistently stood up and spoken against war crimes everywhere, regardless of the identity of their perpetrators. And they have not shied away from taking a moral stand when that concerns Israel or the US.
They are two of the most vocal liberal humanist voices in the West, indeed the world, condemning the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as Israel's wars in Lebanon and Palestine.
Wiesel and Henri-Levi have consistently emphasised their Jewish and Zionist credentials, while Falk and Chomsky uncompromisingly underline their liberal humanism and opposition to colonial Zionism.
Most interestingly, while Wiesel and Henri-Levi get the VIP treatment in Israel, Falk and Chomsky were both denied entry into the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories!
The contrast could not be sharper for the silent and not so silent Jewish majority and, indeed, Western and international public opinion.
Not in our name!
I heard a young Jewish woman activist yesterday on Al Jazeera saying that Israel should no longer be allowed to carry on with its crimes in the name of the Jewish people.
True. What about the silent and alienated Jewish majority!
Many Jews do not want their identity, politics or worldview limited to or identified strictly with their religion and rightly so, especially when they are secular or unbelievers.
But that leaves the door open for those who underline their Jewishness and Zionism as one and the same to be more vocal "representatives" of the Jewish people on Israel.
Remember, just as there is nothing Muslim about terrorism and nothing Christian about genocide, there is also nothing Jewish about colonialism. All religions and peoples should, first and foremost, stand against all crimes carried out in their name.
So once again, where is the silent Jewish majority around the world in whose name Israel commits war crimes and who have a great contribution to make to bringing peace and justice to Israel/Palestine - indeed to the Middle East region?
Also Read:
Message to Muslims and Jews: Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
US progressive Jews condemn Gaza war
Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli occupation?
Is criticism of Zionism and Israel equivalent to anti-Semitism?
Aljazeera English
Read full article
Marwan Bishara asks if those in whose name Israel commits its crimes are going to act and speak out against it.
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The Israeli military operation against the humanitarian Gaza convoy has provoked an outcry around the world and within Israel itself...
An increasing number of Jewish activists in Europe and the US are expressing their displeasure - and even anger - over the way in which Israel has evolved in recent years. Some have joined - and even led - solidarity initiatives that aim to lift the siege of Gaza and to end the occupation of Palestine.But as Israelis begin to question, criticise and even condemn wrong headed Israeli policies, one wonders: Where is the silent Jewish majority in whose name Israel acts?
...A recent article in the New York Review of Books has shed more light on the increased detachment of the influential international Jewish community from Israel and its alienation from the unconditionally pro-Israeli Jewish establishment.
However, the majority of Jews remain silent about the "controversial" policies Israel carries out in their name as a self-declared "state of the Jewish people"...
To gain the moral high ground, Israeli leaders consistently defended their state's "humane" and "democratic" nature.
The best expression of Israel's 'surplus morality' reached the heights of chutzpah when late prime minister Golda Meir defended Israeli crimes by blaming them on the Arabs: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children ... we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."
But colonial Zionism's attempt to monopolise Judaism and claim its humanism was exposed by some of the most authoritative religious Jewish voices in the country.
The most outspoken critic of Israel, its values and polices was the late Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz. A deeply religious man, he staunchly condemned the Israeli occupation and reportedly accused Israeli soldiers of possessing a Nazi-like mentality.
Avraham Burg, an observant religious Jew who was the head the Jewish Agency and the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has also emerged as a bold critic of destructive or the "eschatological" form of Zionism, suggesting in his eye-opening book, The Holocaust Is Over, that Jews must now rise from its ashes...
Recent events in Israel/Palestine magnified the difference, even the contradiction, between Jewish intellectuals inside and outside of Israel...
Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Laureate along with his close friends Peres and Henry Kissinger, and Bernard Henri Levi, the French 'philosopher', have been vocal in expressing their "love" for Israel and "attachment" to Jerusalem.
They generally defend the practices of the Israeli military in the occupied territories as a "democratic army" who attaches great importance to "purity of arms".
Four decades of military occupation, tens of massacres and tens of thousands of killed Palestinians have done little to dissuade them.
Henri-Levi has been particularly vocal in defence of Israeli and US policies since he became the laughing stock of the Paris intellectual community for his gaffs, not to say hoax as an "impostor". His flip flops in Tel Aviv this week were quite telling.
Likewise, Wiesel, who one Israeli intellectual referred to as the "Holocauster" - the guru of the Holocaust industry - has been staunchly - some say blindly -supporting illegal and bloody Israeli practices in the occupied territories, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem.
Interestingly, the sharpest criticism of the resident New Yorker Wiesel came from Jewish residents of Jerusalem...
Diametrically opposed stand the universalists. Richard Falk is a professor of international law and the UN's special rapporteur on Palestine and eminent philosopher Noam Chomsky is considered to be one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century.
(Photo: Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor, was part of the recent Gaza flotilla)Both have consistently stood up and spoken against war crimes everywhere, regardless of the identity of their perpetrators. And they have not shied away from taking a moral stand when that concerns Israel or the US.
They are two of the most vocal liberal humanist voices in the West, indeed the world, condemning the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as Israel's wars in Lebanon and Palestine.
Wiesel and Henri-Levi have consistently emphasised their Jewish and Zionist credentials, while Falk and Chomsky uncompromisingly underline their liberal humanism and opposition to colonial Zionism.
Most interestingly, while Wiesel and Henri-Levi get the VIP treatment in Israel, Falk and Chomsky were both denied entry into the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories!
The contrast could not be sharper for the silent and not so silent Jewish majority and, indeed, Western and international public opinion.
Not in our name!
I heard a young Jewish woman activist yesterday on Al Jazeera saying that Israel should no longer be allowed to carry on with its crimes in the name of the Jewish people.
True. What about the silent and alienated Jewish majority!
Many Jews do not want their identity, politics or worldview limited to or identified strictly with their religion and rightly so, especially when they are secular or unbelievers.
But that leaves the door open for those who underline their Jewishness and Zionism as one and the same to be more vocal "representatives" of the Jewish people on Israel.
Remember, just as there is nothing Muslim about terrorism and nothing Christian about genocide, there is also nothing Jewish about colonialism. All religions and peoples should, first and foremost, stand against all crimes carried out in their name.
So once again, where is the silent Jewish majority around the world in whose name Israel commits war crimes and who have a great contribution to make to bringing peace and justice to Israel/Palestine - indeed to the Middle East region?
Also Read:
Message to Muslims and Jews: Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
US progressive Jews condemn Gaza war
Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli occupation?
Is criticism of Zionism and Israel equivalent to anti-Semitism?
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Flotilla and the Israeli madness - A quick overview and background info
While this new massacre is not the first in Israel's history and possibly not going to be the last, it still indicates a growing Israeli arrogance, carelessness, and disregard for the world's reaction or to the sanctity of the lives of those who disagree with its policies.
Unfortunately, this only indicates that we possibly are heading for a more brutal and a bloodier Israel. This is a scary though considering Israel's military might and nuclear capabilities.
To better understand the context of the Israeli killing of the humanitarian activists on the Flotilla boats, here are a few shorts articles and videos.
First, a short video on the goals behind the flotilla trip, by one of its organizers.
Gaza flotilla drives Israel into a sea of stupidity - By Gideon Levy (a day or two before the deadly raid)
...The chorus has been singing songs of falsehood and lies. We are all in the chorus saying there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We are all part of the chorus claiming the occupation of Gaza has ended, and that the flotilla is a violent attack on Israeli sovereignty - the cement is for building bunkers and the convoy is being funded by the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood. The Israeli siege of Gaza will topple Hamas and free Gilad Shalit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy, one of the most ridiculous of the propagandists, outdid himself when he unblinkingly proclaimed that the aid convoy headed toward Gaza was a violation of international law. Right. Exactly...
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Israel's Attack on Us All
By JONATHAN COOK
...So before we get swamped by Israeli hasbara let’s reiterate a few simple facts:
* Israeli soldiers invaded these ships in international waters, breaking international law, and, in killing civilians, committed a war crime. The counter-claim by Israeli commanders that their soldiers responded to an imminent “lynch” by civilians should be dismissed with the loud contempt it deserves...
* Israel has no right to control Gaza’s sea as its own territorial waters and to stop aid convoys arriving that way. In doing so, it proves that it is still in belligerent occupation of the enclave and its 1.5 million inhabitants. And if it is occupying Gaza, then under international law Israel is responsible for the welfare of the Strip’s inhabitants...
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Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives
...It was people – ordinary people, Europeans, Americans, Holocaust survivors – yes, for heaven's sake, survivors of the Nazis – who took the decision to go to Gaza because their politicians and their statesmen had failed them...
But it is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events. Our politicians are too spineless, too cowardly, to take decisions to save lives. Why is this? Why didn't we hear courageous words from Messrs Cameron and Clegg yesterday?
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World condemns Israel aid ship raid (video)
Unfortunately, this only indicates that we possibly are heading for a more brutal and a bloodier Israel. This is a scary though considering Israel's military might and nuclear capabilities.
To better understand the context of the Israeli killing of the humanitarian activists on the Flotilla boats, here are a few shorts articles and videos.
First, a short video on the goals behind the flotilla trip, by one of its organizers.
Gaza flotilla drives Israel into a sea of stupidity - By Gideon Levy (a day or two before the deadly raid)
...The chorus has been singing songs of falsehood and lies. We are all in the chorus saying there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We are all part of the chorus claiming the occupation of Gaza has ended, and that the flotilla is a violent attack on Israeli sovereignty - the cement is for building bunkers and the convoy is being funded by the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood. The Israeli siege of Gaza will topple Hamas and free Gilad Shalit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy, one of the most ridiculous of the propagandists, outdid himself when he unblinkingly proclaimed that the aid convoy headed toward Gaza was a violation of international law. Right. Exactly...
-----
Israel's Attack on Us All
By JONATHAN COOK
...So before we get swamped by Israeli hasbara let’s reiterate a few simple facts:
* Israeli soldiers invaded these ships in international waters, breaking international law, and, in killing civilians, committed a war crime. The counter-claim by Israeli commanders that their soldiers responded to an imminent “lynch” by civilians should be dismissed with the loud contempt it deserves...
* Israel has no right to control Gaza’s sea as its own territorial waters and to stop aid convoys arriving that way. In doing so, it proves that it is still in belligerent occupation of the enclave and its 1.5 million inhabitants. And if it is occupying Gaza, then under international law Israel is responsible for the welfare of the Strip’s inhabitants...
-----
Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives
...It was people – ordinary people, Europeans, Americans, Holocaust survivors – yes, for heaven's sake, survivors of the Nazis – who took the decision to go to Gaza because their politicians and their statesmen had failed them...
But it is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events. Our politicians are too spineless, too cowardly, to take decisions to save lives. Why is this? Why didn't we hear courageous words from Messrs Cameron and Clegg yesterday?
-----
World condemns Israel aid ship raid (video)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Silence of a Nation - By Chris Hedges (A MUST WATCH)
Chris Hedges spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in Israel’s attack on the innocent men, women and children of GAZA and the West Bank.
Chris Hedges graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School and was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for the New York Times and other publications. He shared the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. In his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Public Affairs, 2002), Hedges gives an account of the “intoxication” of war, which he covered in regions around the world, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation Books, 2009).
Chris Hedges graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School and was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for the New York Times and other publications. He shared the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. In his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Public Affairs, 2002), Hedges gives an account of the “intoxication” of war, which he covered in regions around the world, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation Books, 2009).
Thursday, March 11, 2010
A MUST Watch: Najla Said, Edward Said's daughter, reads of her teenage visit to Gaza
Najla Said, reads from her play, of her life changing visit to Gaza as a teenager, with her Palestinian activist father, the late Edward Said, after he learned he had leukemia.
Watch it. It will shake you.
Watch it. It will shake you.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Inspiring news: Gaza collects Haiti aid, says it was similarly shaken by Israel
Gaza women collecting donations for victims of the Haiti earthquake in the International Red Cross building in Gaza City on Monday. (AP)Gaza collects Haiti aid, says it was similarly shaken by Israel
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz
1/18/2010
Palestinians in Gaza are offering donations and financial support for the victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake at the Strip's Red Cross headquarters, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported on Monday.
The Ma'an reported said that Gazan family members of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel also participated in the effort, offering financial donations and goods such as blankets and covers, as well as food and milk for children...
Head of the Committee to Break the Siege Jamal Al-Khudary said "people may be astonished at our ability to collect donations from our people [in Gaza]; we tell them that this is a humanitarian campaign and our people love life and peace ?"
"We are here today supporting the victims of Haiti ? we feel for them the most because we were exposed to our own earthquake during Israel?s war on Gaza."...
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Contrary to Mubarak, Congressmen Baird and Ellison fight to lift Israeli blockade on Gaza
Al Jazeera's Todd Baer caught up with two US Democratic congressmen, Ellison and Baird, whose efforts to lift the Israeli blockade on Gaza are being met with stiff resistance.
(In the meanwhile, Egypt's Mubarak implements harsher measures to strangle the people of Gaza)
(In the meanwhile, Egypt's Mubarak implements harsher measures to strangle the people of Gaza)
Monday, December 28, 2009
85 year old Holocaust Survivor Hedy Epstein Begins Hunger Strike to Open Gaza Borders
85 year old Holocaust Survivor Hedy Epstein Begins Hunger Strike to Open Gaza Borders12/28/2009
Hedy Epstein, the 85 year old Holocaust survivor and peace activist, announced that she will begin a hunger strike today as a response to the Egyptian government’s refusal to allow the Gaza Freedom March participants into Gaza.
Ms. Epstein was part of a delegation with participants from 43 countries that were to join Palestinians in a non-violent march from Northern Gaza towards the Erez border with Israel calling for the end of the illegal siege. Egypt is preventing the marchers from leaving Cairo, forcing them to search for alternative ways to make their voices heard.
Ms. Epstein will remain outside the UN building at the World Trade Center (Cairo) - 1191 Cornish al-Nil, throughout today, accompanied by other hunger strikers. "It is important to let the besieged Gazan people know they are not alone. I want to tell the people I meet in Gaza that I am a representative of many people in my city and in other places in the US who are outraged at what the US, Israeli and European governments are doing to the Palestinians and that our numbers are growing," Epstein said.
In 1939, when Epstein was just 14, her parents found a way for her to escape the persecution, sending her on the Kindertransport to England. Epstein never saw her parents again; they perished in Auschwitz in 1942. After World War II, Epstein worked as a research analyst at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi doctors who performed medical experiments on concentration camp inmates.
After moving to the US, Epstein became an activist for peace and social justice causes. Unlike most Holocaust survivors, one of the causes she has taken up is that of the Palestinian people. She has traveled to the West Bank, collected material aid and now she hopes to enter Gaza.
GFM Hunger strikers names:
- Hedy Epstein, 85
- John Dear, 50
- Teresa Sala Faine, 63
- Father Louie Vitale, 77
- Mary Hughes, 76 from Los Angeles, CA USA
- Charling Tao, 64
- Joe Fallisi,
- J'ann Schoonmaker Alan, 64
- Sandra Tamari, 40
- Pat Chaffee
- Nomusa Taylor-Dube, 23
Contact: Hedy Epstein
hedy@hedyepstein.com
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Join the Jewish Fast For Gaza
The Torah teaches,
"Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s blood is being spilled" (Leviticus 19:16).
The Jewish Fast for Gaza is an ad hoc group of rabbis, Jews, and people of conscience who have committed to undertake a monthly daytime fast in support of the following goals:
1. To call for a lifting of the blockade that prevents the entry of civilian goods and services into Gaza;
2. To provide humanitarian and developmental aid to the people of Gaza;
3. To call upon Israel, the US, and the international community to engage in negotiations without pre-conditions with all relevant Palestinian parties - including Hamas - in order to end the blockade;
4. To encourage the American government to vigorously engage both Israelis and Palestinians toward a just and peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
American Jewish Professor Cleared of Anti-Semitism Charges!
What? I know, that sounds absurd.
How can a Jewish professor be accused of anti-Semitism for criticizing Israel's brutal actions in Gaza? Can I or other Arab Muslims be accused of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bigotry for continuously criticizing Egypt's shameful role in the inhumane siege on Gaza. Can Archbishop Desmond Tutu be accused of being anti-Christian for speaking out against the Apartheid that was then practiced by the South African rulers?
Such charges are nothing short of an attempt to defame and silence those who challenge injustice. This is not just a matter of free speech; it is about speaking and acting for peace, liberty and justice for all people.
May Allah/God bless those brave people, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or whatever they claim to be.
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U.S. professor cleared over comparison of Gaza war to Holocaust
By Cnaan Liphshiz,
Haarez and The Associated Press
A committee at a California university has cleared a professor who sent an e-mail comparing Israel's policies in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Officials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sent a letter Wednesday to sociology professor William I. Robinson saying the committee had closed the matter.
In January, Robinson offended some students and others with an e-mail to his "Sociology of Globalization" class that juxtaposed grisly photos from the Nazi era with a recent Gaza offensive. (The link I am providing as FYI possibly shows those images in the e-mail. Those images were sent over many e-mails during Israel's onslaught on Gaza.)
Jewish groups called the e-mail "hate spam" and claimed Robinson violated university policies barring professors from intimidating students and using campus resources for political reasons.
A leading pro-Israel student group blasted the move on Wednesday. "[The university] has blurred the lines between education and peddling of propaganda," the L.A.-based Israel advocacy group StandWithUs told Haaretz.
The affair was exposed by Santa Barbara student Leah Yadegar ? a graduate of the StandWithUs Emerson Fellowship program, which trains students in campuses in "response techniques" to anti-Israel efforts on campus.
"We are surprised and disappointed that the university chose not to uphold their standards for professional conduct," said Roz Rothstein, director and founder of StandWithUs, which filed the original complaint against Robinson.
"It is unfortunate that students will continue to be victims of partisan indoctrination and misinformation."
Robinson, who is Jewish, has said his justified criticism of Israel's policies should not be confused as anti-Semitism. Before the ruling, he had circulated a petition rallying colleagues and supporters against the internal probe into his actions.
How can a Jewish professor be accused of anti-Semitism for criticizing Israel's brutal actions in Gaza? Can I or other Arab Muslims be accused of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bigotry for continuously criticizing Egypt's shameful role in the inhumane siege on Gaza. Can Archbishop Desmond Tutu be accused of being anti-Christian for speaking out against the Apartheid that was then practiced by the South African rulers?
Such charges are nothing short of an attempt to defame and silence those who challenge injustice. This is not just a matter of free speech; it is about speaking and acting for peace, liberty and justice for all people.
May Allah/God bless those brave people, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or whatever they claim to be.
---
U.S. professor cleared over comparison of Gaza war to Holocaust
By Cnaan Liphshiz,
Haarez and The Associated Press
A committee at a California university has cleared a professor who sent an e-mail comparing Israel's policies in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Officials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sent a letter Wednesday to sociology professor William I. Robinson saying the committee had closed the matter.
In January, Robinson offended some students and others with an e-mail to his "Sociology of Globalization" class that juxtaposed grisly photos from the Nazi era with a recent Gaza offensive. (The link I am providing as FYI possibly shows those images in the e-mail. Those images were sent over many e-mails during Israel's onslaught on Gaza.)
Jewish groups called the e-mail "hate spam" and claimed Robinson violated university policies barring professors from intimidating students and using campus resources for political reasons.A leading pro-Israel student group blasted the move on Wednesday. "[The university] has blurred the lines between education and peddling of propaganda," the L.A.-based Israel advocacy group StandWithUs told Haaretz.
The affair was exposed by Santa Barbara student Leah Yadegar ? a graduate of the StandWithUs Emerson Fellowship program, which trains students in campuses in "response techniques" to anti-Israel efforts on campus."We are surprised and disappointed that the university chose not to uphold their standards for professional conduct," said Roz Rothstein, director and founder of StandWithUs, which filed the original complaint against Robinson.
"It is unfortunate that students will continue to be victims of partisan indoctrination and misinformation."
Robinson, who is Jewish, has said his justified criticism of Israel's policies should not be confused as anti-Semitism. Before the ruling, he had circulated a petition rallying colleagues and supporters against the internal probe into his actions.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Carter: Gazans Treated "Like Animals"
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"Tragically, the international community too often ignores the cries for help and the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings," Carter said as he toured the blockaded enclave, reported Agence France Presse (AFP). Carter, who arrived in Gaza early in the morning coming from Israel and the West Bank, denounced the two-year Israeli siege of the Hamas-ruled strip for starving and deliberately depriving Palestinians from the necessities of life."Never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then denied the means to repair itself."Israel has been closing Gaza's six crossings since Hamas took over control in 2007, leaving its 1.6 million population without food, water, power and sewage services. Carter was also “distressed” to observe the destruction inflicted upon Gaza during the 22-day assault Israel unleashed last December. "I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wracked against your people," Carter said as he stood at the ruins of the American School in Gaza, damaged in the offensive. Carter decried the fact that the school was "deliberately destroyed” by bombs from F16s made back in the United States. "I feel partially responsible for this as must all Americans and Israelis,” the veteran politician said. “It's very distressing to me." More than 1,350 Gazans, including 437 children, were killed and 5,450 wounded in three weeks of air, sea and land attacks. The deadly onslaught left a trail of destruction with figures showing that 21,100 homes, 1,500 factories, 25 mosques, 31 government buildings and scores of schools were damaged by the Israeli war machine. Meeting Hamas Following his tour in the ravaged enclave, Carter held groundbreaking talks with Hamas leadership."This is holy land for us all and my hope is that we can have peace,” he said at a joint news conference with Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government in the Palestinian enclave. Carter is the one of the most senior western figures to meet the Hamas leadership in Gaza in recent years. The winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace prize and the architect of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty has long advocated engagement with the Hamas movement as crucial for progress on peace. He has braved US and Israeli critics last year to hold a meeting with two Hamas officials in Cairo. Last month in Damascus he met Khaled Meshal, head of Hamas political bureau. Carter was expected to pass on to Hamas officials a letter to Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was taken prisoner by Palestinian resistance groups in 2006. He accepted the letter from the soldier's parents Friday during his meeting with Israeli government officials, and promised to deliver it to Hamas, Israel’s daily Maariv reported. Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar told Israel Radio Tuesday that the movement would pass on the letter to Shalit. Zahar, however, refused to say whether they would give Carter a letter from Shalit, adding that if Israel is interested in ending the file of Shalit, then it should go ahead with the prisoner-swap deal to free him. Corporal Shalit was taken prisoner by three Palestinian resistance groups in a daring operation that killed two other soldiers. The groups want to trade him for some of the nearly 11,000 Palestinian detainees, including women and minors, in Israeli jails. Hamas has always maintained that the release of Shalit be negotiated as part of a separate prisoner exchange involving hundreds of people held in Israeli jails. However, the right-wing Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Hamas demands to free 450 long-term prisoners in exchange for the Israeli corporal. |
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
IDF probing whether troops forced Gaza man to drink urine
By Anshel Pfeffer
Haaretz, May 13, 2009
The Military Police are investigating allegations that Israel Defense Forces soldiers assaulted, abused and stole from a Palestinian man detained during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. The police are investigating a number of complaints of thefts from Palestinians during the recent war...
It states that Qanoa, from the Atatara neighborhood of Gaza City, was detained by the IDF on January 4, along with family members. They were released the following day, but he was transported, bound and blindfolded, to another location, where he was kept for two more days. During that time, he said soldiers denied him water, beat and kicked him, and on three occasions forced him to drink urine.
He says soldiers also stole his cell phone as well as $1,000 and NIS 2,500 in cash. He also said he was forced to tell an individual presented as a foreign journalist that he was being treated well...
Last weekend, two soldiers from the Givati reconnaisance unit were arrested on suspiciion of stealing a credit card from a home in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza and using it to withdraw NIS 1,600 in central Israel. One of the two confessed on Tuesday and was remanded for six days. The other was released.
Haaretz, May 13, 2009
The Military Police are investigating allegations that Israel Defense Forces soldiers assaulted, abused and stole from a Palestinian man detained during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. The police are investigating a number of complaints of thefts from Palestinians during the recent war...
It states that Qanoa, from the Atatara neighborhood of Gaza City, was detained by the IDF on January 4, along with family members. They were released the following day, but he was transported, bound and blindfolded, to another location, where he was kept for two more days. During that time, he said soldiers denied him water, beat and kicked him, and on three occasions forced him to drink urine.
He says soldiers also stole his cell phone as well as $1,000 and NIS 2,500 in cash. He also said he was forced to tell an individual presented as a foreign journalist that he was being treated well...
Last weekend, two soldiers from the Givati reconnaisance unit were arrested on suspiciion of stealing a credit card from a home in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza and using it to withdraw NIS 1,600 in central Israel. One of the two confessed on Tuesday and was remanded for six days. The other was released.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
UN envoy: Gaza op seems to be war crime of greatest magnitude
Haaretz Newspaper, 3/19/2009
A United Nations human rights investigator said on Thursday that Israel's offensive against Hamas in densely populated Gaza appeared to constitute a war crime of the "greatest magnitude."
Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the Geneva Conventions required warring forces to distinguish between military targets and surrounding civilians.
"If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law," Falk said.
"On the basis of the preliminary evidence available, there is reason to reach this conclusion," he wrote in an annual report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Falk called for an independent experts group to be set up to probe possible war crimes committed by both Israeli forces and Hamas.
Violations included Israel's alleged "targeting of schools, mosques and ambulances" during the December 27-January 18 offensive and its use of weapons including white phosphorus, as well as Hamas firing of rockets at civilian targets in southern Israel.
Falk said that Israel's blockade of the coastal strip of 1.5 million people violated the Geneva Conventions, which he said suggested further war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
The aggression was not legally justified and may represent a "crime against peace" - a principle established at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi criminals, according to the American law professor who serves as the Human Rights Council's independent investigator.
He further suggested that the Security Council might set up an ad hoc criminal tribunal to establish accountability for war crimes in Gaza, noting Israel has not signed the Rome statutes establishing the International Criminal Court.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Message to Muslims and Jews: Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
By Hussam Ayloush
Jewish Journal, January 29, 2009
In face of Israel’s latest killing spree in Gaza, the Muslim community has made sure to steadfastly and unequivocally condemn even the slightest attempts at defaming, demeaning or blaming Judaism or its followers for Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza.
Islam not only denounces, in the strongest manner possible, all forms of bigotry, but specifically teaches Muslims to revere and follow all Hebrew prophets who are praised in the Quran. Actually, those Hebrew prophets and their followers are considered to be the early Muslims, according to Islamic theology.
Muslims are touched and inspired by many of the protests and vigils in the United States and Israel on Gaza’s devastation that were led by strong Jewish voices critical of Israel’s barbaric actions. Thousands of Israeli and American Jews spoke out against the killings and destruction in Gaza. Those courageous voices include those of Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar, Jeff Halper (the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions), LA Jews for Peace, and Jewish Voice for Peace, among thousands others.
As is the case in large protests, one cannot control every person’s shout or sign – although organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago made hundreds of signs that featured political and non-religious, nonviolent messages – in keeping with the Islamic spirit. We additionally took care to promptly remove the few individuals who did not share our respectful messages.
I am sure Rabbi Abraham Cooper does not want us believing that every Jewish protester in support of Israel harbors anti-Islam bigotry as expressed by several protesters in New York and documented in many online videos.
It is ironic that the day we read this column by the leaders of the so-called Museum of Tolerance, Israel’s leading English newspaper published two news reports: one in which Israeli soldiers were accused of writing racist graffiti (“Arabs need 2 die,“ “Make war not peace”, and “1 is down, 999,999 to go”), and another report on Israeli soldiers being distributed pamphlets by Jewish extremists, urging them to show “no mercy” toward Palestinians in Gaza and stating “this is a war on murderers.”
I wonder if such hateful language constitutes intolerance worth denouncing by the Museum of Tolerance. I will surely not be holding my breath.
Of all those who speak out on intolerance and hate, the Wiesenthal Center should be the last to speak on this matter, considering its outrageous involvement in the desecration of one of the largest historic Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem, where it is building a “Museum of Tolerance” over Muslim graves and removing dead bodies, against the overwhelming objections and pleas of Muslim and Jewish religious leaders in Israel. Such desecration of Muslim graves continues as the Wiesenthal Center marks the liberation of Auschwitz – the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.
These ironies have earned the Wiesenthal Center the dubious name of “Museum of Selective Tolerance.”
It is clear that Rabbi Cooper has other objectives in penning his op-ed.
First, Rabbi Cooper and his organization seek to silence any legitimate criticism of Israel by wrongly equating such criticism with anti-Semitism. We can freely criticize any policy of the U.S. government any time but that’s not the case with Israel.
Second, by taking isolated and publicly-condemned incidents of anti-Semitism worldwide, the Wiesenthal Center insists on promoting paranoia and victimization in the Jewish community for cheap, selfish goals of shoring up support for extremist groups such as Mr. Cooper’s.
We must respect that many Muslims and Jews will continue to disagree politically but we must also be vigilant about and reject extremist voices amongst us who engage in bigotry, fear and the demonization of the other.
Jewish Journal, January 29, 2009
On January 27, the Jewish Journal published a commentary by Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein. The commentary, entitled "Upgrade to Holocaust 2.0", states, in part, "the ceasefire in Gaza seems to be holding, but on the streets of Los Angeles, Paris, London, Chicago –wherever Jews live – a new front has opened up. The battle against openly voiced hatred of the Jewish people and calls to annihilate us is just beginning."
I suggest that you read the whole piece to better understand the rabbis' disingenuous arguments.
The following is my rebuttal which was published today by the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. I thank the Journal for allowing me the chance to address the Los Angeles Jewish community.
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Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
Hussam Ayloush is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations for the Greater Los Angeles area.
While the conflict in the Middle East generally sparks a lot of passions, including religious and national, let us remember that it remains a political conflict – not a religious one. In face of Israel’s latest killing spree in Gaza, the Muslim community has made sure to steadfastly and unequivocally condemn even the slightest attempts at defaming, demeaning or blaming Judaism or its followers for Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza.
Islam not only denounces, in the strongest manner possible, all forms of bigotry, but specifically teaches Muslims to revere and follow all Hebrew prophets who are praised in the Quran. Actually, those Hebrew prophets and their followers are considered to be the early Muslims, according to Islamic theology.
Muslims are touched and inspired by many of the protests and vigils in the United States and Israel on Gaza’s devastation that were led by strong Jewish voices critical of Israel’s barbaric actions. Thousands of Israeli and American Jews spoke out against the killings and destruction in Gaza. Those courageous voices include those of Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar, Jeff Halper (the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions), LA Jews for Peace, and Jewish Voice for Peace, among thousands others.
As is the case in large protests, one cannot control every person’s shout or sign – although organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago made hundreds of signs that featured political and non-religious, nonviolent messages – in keeping with the Islamic spirit. We additionally took care to promptly remove the few individuals who did not share our respectful messages.
I am sure Rabbi Abraham Cooper does not want us believing that every Jewish protester in support of Israel harbors anti-Islam bigotry as expressed by several protesters in New York and documented in many online videos.
It is ironic that the day we read this column by the leaders of the so-called Museum of Tolerance, Israel’s leading English newspaper published two news reports: one in which Israeli soldiers were accused of writing racist graffiti (“Arabs need 2 die,“ “Make war not peace”, and “1 is down, 999,999 to go”), and another report on Israeli soldiers being distributed pamphlets by Jewish extremists, urging them to show “no mercy” toward Palestinians in Gaza and stating “this is a war on murderers.”
I wonder if such hateful language constitutes intolerance worth denouncing by the Museum of Tolerance. I will surely not be holding my breath.
Of all those who speak out on intolerance and hate, the Wiesenthal Center should be the last to speak on this matter, considering its outrageous involvement in the desecration of one of the largest historic Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem, where it is building a “Museum of Tolerance” over Muslim graves and removing dead bodies, against the overwhelming objections and pleas of Muslim and Jewish religious leaders in Israel. Such desecration of Muslim graves continues as the Wiesenthal Center marks the liberation of Auschwitz – the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.
These ironies have earned the Wiesenthal Center the dubious name of “Museum of Selective Tolerance.”
It is clear that Rabbi Cooper has other objectives in penning his op-ed.
First, Rabbi Cooper and his organization seek to silence any legitimate criticism of Israel by wrongly equating such criticism with anti-Semitism. We can freely criticize any policy of the U.S. government any time but that’s not the case with Israel.
Second, by taking isolated and publicly-condemned incidents of anti-Semitism worldwide, the Wiesenthal Center insists on promoting paranoia and victimization in the Jewish community for cheap, selfish goals of shoring up support for extremist groups such as Mr. Cooper’s.
We must respect that many Muslims and Jews will continue to disagree politically but we must also be vigilant about and reject extremist voices amongst us who engage in bigotry, fear and the demonization of the other.
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