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Saturday, December 31, 2005

 

New Year's Resolution: Implement 194!



Ghassan Kanafani was born in Akka on April 9, 1936. He became a refugee in 1948.
He "was blown up in a car explosion, which also killed his niece, on July 1972. Amid the wreckage a scrap of paper from the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen was found, a reminder of the fate awaiting those who fought Israel."

Jaffa: Land of oranges
By Ghassan Kanafani

When we had to leave Jaffa for Acre there was no sense of tragedy. It felt like an annual trip to spend the feast in another city. Our days in Acre did not seem unusual: perhaps, being young, I was even enjoying myself since the move exempted me from school... Whatever, on the night of the big attack on Acre the picture was becoming clearer. That was, I think, a cruel night, passed between the stern silence of the men and the invocations of the women. My peers, you and I, were too young to understand what the whole story was about. On that night, though, certain threads of that story became clearer. In the morning, and as the Jews withdrew threatening and fulminating, a big truck was standing in front of our door. Light things, mainly sleeping items, were being chucked into the truck swiftly and hysterically.
As I stood leaning against the ancient wall of the house I saw your mother getting into the truck, then your aunt, then the young ones, then your father began to chuck you and your siblings into the car and on top of the luggage. Then he snatched me from the corner, where I was standing and, lifting me on top of his head, he put me into the cage-like metal luggage compartment above the driver's cabin, where I found my brother Riad sitting quietly. The vehicle drove off before I could settle into a comfortable position. Acre was disappearing bit by bit in the folds of the up-hill roads leading to Rass El-Naqoura [Lebanon].

It was somewhat cloudy and a sense of coldness was seeping into my body. Riad, with his back propped against the luggage and his legs on the edge of the metal compartment, was sitting very quietly, gazing into the distance. I was sitting silently with my chin between my knees and my arms folded over them. One after the other, orange orchards streamed past, and the vehicle was panting upward on a wet earth... In the distance the sound of gun-shots sounded like a farewell salute.

Rass El-Naqoura loomed on the horizon, wrapped in a blue haze, and the vehicle suddenly stopped. The women emerged from amid the luggage, stepped down and went over to an orange vendor sitting by the wayside. As the women walked back with the oranges, the sound of their sobs reached us. Only then did oranges seem to me something dear, that each of these big, clean fruits was something to be cherished. Your father alighted from beside the driver, took an orange, gazed at it silently, then began to weep like a helpless child.

In Rass El-Naqoura our vehicle stood beside many similar vehicles. The men began to hand in their weapons to the policemen who were there for that purpose. Then it was our turn. I saw pistols and machine guns thrown onto a big table, saw the long line of big vehicles coming into Lebanon, leaving the winding roads of the land of oranges far behind, and then I too cried bitterly. Your mother was still silently gazing at the oranges, and all the orange trees your father had left behind to the Jews glowed in his eyes... As if all those clean trees which he had bought one by one were mirrored in his face. And in his eyes tears, which he could not help hiding in front of the officer at the police station, were shining.

When in the afternoon we reached Sidon we had become refugees.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

 

What Spielberg Left Out, Said Reveals: Putting Kamal Nasir in Context


In Stephen Spielberg's Munich, according to As'ad Abukhalil "Israeli killers are conscientious and humane people, while Palestinians are no matter what--killers."

Did Stephen Spielberg's "soulful" movie assassins murder the poet Kamal Nasir as Edward Said tells it?

Sina Rahmani reviewing Edward Said's film The Last Interview comments on Edward Said's account of his friend Kamal Nasir's death:

"Another saddening story he [Said] tells is that of the death of PLO spokesmen Kamal Nasir. Nasir was babysitting for a relative of Said who had gone with Said to Jordan to bury an aunt who had recently passed away. That very night that the two of them had left for Jordan, Nasir was assassinated by an Israeli strike team lead by Ehud Barak, who would become Prime Minister more than two decades later. Exemplifying the vindictiveness of the Israeli attitude towards Palestinians, the eloquent poet and writer Nasir was found riddled with bullets in his mouth and his right hand."

Abukhalil goes on: "This movie could easily have been a paid Israeli advertisement for its killing machine. In fact, it could be a recruitment movie for Israeli killing squads. I mean that. In fact, it is a celebretary movie of Israeli murder of Palestinians. Israel killing is always moral, and always careful, and always on target."

According to Abukhalil, "Do you know that not a single Palestinian in the movie appeared unarmed? They all were terrorists, and their murder had to be justified, and Spielberg did a great service for the state of Israel in that regard."

"This story is personal for me, of course. I see them as human beings, and not as armed and vengeful characters that they appear in Spielberg’s movie."

Several years ago I asked my father about Mahmoud Darwish. He had not heard of him. I was pretty hard on my dad. "Have you heard of Kamal Nasir?" he retorted. "He was a friend of mine. He was a poet gunned down in front of his wife in his apartment in Beirut by Ehud Barak dressed up like a woman." If I recall, my father seemed to put particular emphasis on "in front of his wife."

Abukhalil asks, "Why is Munich more famous than the savage bombardment of Palestinian refugee camps back in February prior to Munich? And why did the letter bombs to three Palestinian writers not get any world attention? Why did American liberals and PEN not notice it back then?"

Some of the people that Israeli assassins killed were three PLO officials, again one of whom was the poet and PLO spokesman Kamil Nasser, who had nothing to do with the what occurred in Munich [I will be providing portraits of some of the others in later posts]. The Nassers are known throughout Palestine as academics; Kamal's cousin, Hanna, president of Bir Zeit University, was illegally deported from his homeland, and spent nineteen years in exile.

To put Kamal Nasir in context for the few readers of this blog; lamentably this won't reach the millions that will be taken in by Spielberg's humanisation of the assassins and his dehumanisation of Palestinians, his poetry:

From the poem "Letter to Fadwa"

If my songs should reach you
despite the narrow skies around me,
remember that I will return to life,
to the quest for liberty,
remember that my people may call on my soul
and feel it rising again from the folds of the earth.


and from "Kamel Nasir's Last Poem," translated by Abdel Wahab Elmesseri

Beloved, if perchance word of my death reaches you
As, alone, you fondle my only child
Eagerly awaiting my return,
Shed no tears in sorrow for me
For in my homeland
Life is degradation and wounds
And in my eyes the call of danger rings.
Beloved, if word of my death reaches you
And the lovers cry out:
The loyal one has departed, his visage gone forever,
And fragrance has died within the bosom of the flower
Shed no tears...smile on life
And tell my only one, my loved one,
The dark recesses of your father's being
Have been touched by visions of his people.
Splintered thoughts bestowed his path
As he witnessed the wounds of oppression.
In revolt, he set himself a goal
He became a martyr, sublimated his being
even changed his prayers
Deepened their features and improvised
And in the long struggle his blood flowed
His lofty vision unfolded shaking even destiny.
If news reaches you, and friends come to you,
Their eyes filled with cautious concern
Smile to them in kindness
For my death will bring life to all;
My people's dreams are my shrine
at which I pray, for which I live.
The ecstacy of creation warms my being, shouting of joy,
Filling me with love, as day follows day,
Enveloping my struggling soul and body.
Immortalized am I in the hearts of friends
I live only in others' thoughts and memories.
Beloved, if word reaches you and you fear for me
Should you shudder and your cheeks grow pale
As pale as the face of the moon,
Allow it not to look upon you, nor
feast on the beauty of your gaze
For I am jealous of the light of the moon.
Tell my only one, for I love him,
That I have tasted the joy of giving
And my heart relishes the wounds of sacrifice.
There is nothing left for him
Save the sighs from my song...Save the remnants of my lute
Lying piled and scattered in our house.
Tell my only one if he ever visits my grave
And yearns for my memory,
Tell him one day that I shall return
--to pick the fruits.


Rahmani, Sina "Edward Said: The Last Interview, and: Selves and Others: A Portrait of Edward Said, and: The Battle of Algiers (review)"
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East - Volume 25, Number 2, 2005, pp. 512-514
Duke University Press

 

Ethnic Cleansers From North America Arrived Yesterday



Many ethnic cleansers (see photo) hailing from North America arrived in historic Palestine yesterday, Wednesday, December 28, while Kevin Sites writes about the indigenous people in refugee camps in Lebanon who, in violation of UN Resolution 194, are not permitted by Israel to return to their ancestral homes.

Sites' account is pretty good about life in the Lebanese refugee camps although the only context he provides for Israel's killing of upwards of 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians during their invasions is that it was in retaliation for attacks across the Lebanese border.

And while gaggles of yuppie ethnic cleansers make their "aliyah" one wonders, will they settle in Israel "proper," i.e., the term that Paul de Rooij so accurately deconstructs here, in "A Glossary of Dispossesion," the lands that were stolen in 1948, or in what the ethnic cleansers refer to obscenely as "disputed" territories, land illegally colonised by Israel since 1967.

And the ethnic cleansing goes on as in what in any other society would be termed "juvenile delinquency," Zionist youth as I write (see photo) steal more land that it not theirs while the US Congress continues to blithely condone every atrocity; read Amira Haas' account here of the "fun and games" that the soldiers, those soldiers whose indiscriminate killings of Palestinians are often expiated by Zionist apologists as shooting due to "jumpiness," or "fear," seem to have no problem ordering Palestinian kids to "sit," not stand, but sit, for hours in the mud.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

 

As'ad Abukahlil's Brilliant Review of Munich

Read right now As'ad Abukahlil's review of Stephen Spielberg's Munich. It is brilliant.

 

Congress Enables Delusional, Hateful Ethnic Cleanser's Aliyah


My fellow Americans:

Did you know that your Congress which gives almost one hundred percent support to Israel enables this racist American advocate of ethnic cleansing's "aliyah" to Palestine today, December 27?

In "Let Them Leave," this American writes:

Arutz Sheva today reports that “31 percent of Arabs in the PA think about living permanently in another country”

That is wonderful news
.

Today he quotes one Yashiko Sagimori who was printed in a reactionary illegal colonists' (oh, excuse me, "Jewish neighborhood") publication, Arutz-Sheva and challenges readers of my blog to answer 14 questions.

Sagamori includes the following hate speech in his screed:

If the people you mistakenly call “Palestinians” are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over - or thrown out of - the Arab world,

along with

Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal through military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it “the Palestinian people” and installed it in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria

The conclusion of this hate-filled article that Aliyah boy posts:

In fact, there is only one way to achieve piece in the Middle East. Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side, should pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited upon it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and acceptance of Israel’s ancient sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.

That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?


I will not waste time and effort answering the racist inspired questionaire; I will resolve to expose these hate-filled delusional fanatical religious freaks to my congressman and to US citizens, however, and I suggest that readers of this blog do the same.

Monday, December 26, 2005

 

New Year's Resolutions Time



I love this man; his picture is reprised to give us all resolve and strength for the coming year.

One of my resolutions is to, at least once a day, do something "proactive" for justice for Palestinians. Today a leading worker for justice for Palestinians, Anne Seldon Annab, had a letter published in the Chicago Tribune Web log.

This is what she wrote in response to "If I Could Give Anything For A Gift At Christmas":

Hearts and souls

A gift of peace

I would give the people in the Holy Land the gift of real justice and a lasting peace. I’d insist that everyone acknowledge the very real plight of the Palestinian people by fully and completely respecting—and implementing—the Palestinian refugees’ inalienable right of return.

And I’d plant a garden of hope in the Holy Land, encouraging real reconciliation and respect for all God’s children


She prefaced the letter that was forwarded to a listserv "maybe if enough people send positive feedback they'll publish more in support of a just and lasting peace."

It took just a few moments for me to write the following:

Dear Editor,

Thank you for printing Anne Seldon Annab's response to "If You Could Give Any Gift, What Would it Be?" Ms. Annab's desire for peace in the Middle East and her emphasis on the right of return for the Palestinians is based upon international law. I totally concur with Ms. Annab and believe that peace between Israel-Palestine will come when this inalienable right of the dispossessed Palestinians is implemented. This may not sit well with Zionists who are concerned about maintaining a Jewish demographic majority, but it is right and it is just.


I have heard that even if our letters don't get published, they are still an indication to the editors about the public's views.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

 

More Messages of Inspiration and Sumud



In Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity today.

From Joe90 in Scotland: "I have just been watching a midnight mass from Paisley Abbey and an address live on BBCTV from the Lutheran Church in little Bethlehem. The good pastor in Bethelehem said that 'Jesus was sent to representthe fact that there are no walls between humanity and each other' and went on to hope for peace, reconciliation, and justice. There was a cat's choir of Palestinian childrend singing some Christmas hymms--brilliant, what more could I ask for at Christmas time.

From Sam in Ramallah: Dear friends,


Not to ruin your holiday spirts, but the two news items below, both written by Israeli journalists and published in the Israeli newspapers are worth sharing. Both are exemplary of brave journalism.


As many in the world celebrate the Holy Land tonight, few, sadly, are aware of the reality of the people of the Holy Land. Few will be praying for the 6 children of Mr. Shawara. Few care to remember that Bethlehem is separated from Jerusalem by US-backed Israeli soldiers. Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Holy Land, to most, have lost any real meaning...they are only to be recited in chorus with no emotions or conscious.


Drink, be happy, be marry...when you're done we will still be here...struggling to end what has become a globally-sanctioned occupation.


Wondering of the power of religion, when stripped of human meaning,
Sam

Sam sent along the following stories by Gideon Levy and Amira Haas.

http://www.haaretz.com//hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=661473

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=657521

 

From Aboud: Another Message of Inspiration and Sumud






http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051223/news_lz1e23aridah.html

Excerpts from Father Firis in Aboud:

"While decorating our church for the joyous birth of Our Lord, we also prepare banners for the next protest against the wall that Israel began to build on our village's land one month ago.

"Aboud is nestled among terraced olive groves in the West Bank west of the city of Ramallah. The village has 2,200 residents. Nine hundred of them are Christian. Within the village are seven ancient churches. The oldest dates to the third century.

"With signs, songs and prayers, our village has been protesting against Israel's apartheid wall every week. Through peaceful demonstrations and the planting of olive trees, we want to tell the Israelis and the international community that we are against Israel taking our lands. We are working for peace here, but still the Israeli soldiers have attacked our peaceful protests with clubs, sound bombs, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets."

Father Firis quotes Patriarch Sabbah who visited Aboud on December 11:

"Our hearts are filled with love, and no hatred for anybody. With our faith and love, we demand the removal of this wall. We affirm that it is a mistake and an attack against our lands and our properties, and an attack against friendly relationships between the two people.

"In your faith and your love you shall find a guide for your political action and your resistance against every oppression. You may say that love is an unknown language to politics, but love is possible in spite of all the evil we experience. We shall make it possible!"


Father Firis closes his story: "We have here good Jewish people, good Muslims and good Christians. We can live together. This is the Holy Land.

"If we in Aboud can send a message to the world this Christmas, it is that Jews, Christians and Muslims have to live together in peace."

 

Messages of Inspiration and Sumud (steadfastness) From the Holy Land


I will update with more messages if time permits. Will start with excerpts from Roman Catholic Patriarch Michael Sabbah's Christmas message and an excerpt from an account of Scot Andrew McDonald's act of resistance against the occupation authority.

May the joy, which comes with God's grace fill your hearts as you endure so many sufferings. To all our faithful, to all those who are afraid, those who have among the family members a prisoner or someone under torture, to those who had to face death and to all those who are inclined to fill their hearts with hatred, we say: Purify your hearts; let the joy of Christmas renew your whole life.

Andrew McDonald, ISM activist:

Andrew Macdonald, a 31-year-old Glasgow native, has
spent the past three weeks in a detention center in
the south awaiting deportation. Police confirmed on
Wednesday that they were unable to deport Macdonald
due to his refusal to board a Scotland-bound plane and
his alleged threats to disrupt the flight.

Macdonald, who is currently being held in the
Immigration Police Tzohar Detention Center, was
arrested on November 3 with two other ISM activists
after allegedly assaulting a group of soldiers
standing at an IDF roadblock in the Tel Rumeida
neighborhood in Hebron. Macdonald was eventually
released but was arrested again in Hebron on November
24 after he was caught in the West Bank city with an
expired visa. Three weeks ago, police escorted
Macdonald to an airplane at Ben Gurion Airport but he
refused to board and according to police threatened to
disrupt the flight.

 
Photo by Nayef Hashlamoun, baby in the grotto, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.

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The Defiant Spirit of Christmas

The Defiant Spirit of Christmas

Some of our people ask how can we celebrate Christmas
with all the closures and checkpoints,
with all the injustice and oppression,
with all the violations of human rights,
with the presence of a wall that separates families and friends,
and a multitude of hardships that the occupation imposes to make people's lives miserable,
how can we speak of love, peace and joy when most of our people and millions of others around the world do not experience liberty and peace?

The questions are legitimate. Yet Christmas and New Year must be a time of renewal, of hope and anticipation, of determination and zeal to work for a better world where people can experience these essential qualities of life. Therefore, wherever empire exists and the powers that be are in control through domination, there is a greater responsibility for all of us to take a stand against all that dehumanizes people and to work for their liberation.

The Christmas story is a story of a liberating God who comes to join an oppressed people in the work of liberation. God's message through the angels is a message of defiance. In spite of the presence of empire, human arrogance, and oppression, God is announcing peace and goodwill. This is God's agenda. Glory belongs to God and not to the emperor nor to the powers. Once that is genuinely acknowledged, peace is not far away.

It is in the midst of the Roman occupation that the Incarnation took place; it is in spite of the occupation that Mary and Joseph found joy and love in the birth of Jesus; it is in spite of the occupation and in the midst of economic hardships that the shepherds came to visit a family of modest means and discovered great joy and peace; it is in spite of the occupation that the Magi came to offer their gifts to the child.

We celebrate in the midst of the occupation and in spite of it. Through our celebration we defy the occupation;
we defy the injustice;
we defy the oppressors;
we defy the powers.

They do not possess the last word,
they can build high walls, but they cannot take away our hope,
they can put us in jail, but they cannot take away our joy,
they can prevent us from visiting family, but they cannot take away our love,
they can stop us at checkpoints and impose all kinds of restrictions, but
they cannot take away our pursuit of freedom and liberation,
they can prevent us from going to Bethlehem, but they cannot prevent the
spirit of Bethlehem from reaching us,
they can treat us as nonhumans, but they cannot crush our spirit nor can
they take away our God-given human worth and dignity,
they can act with hate and disgust but, by the grace of God, we can always
refuse to stoop to the level of hate and maintain our love of God and
neighbor that includes them.

Therefore Christmas makes us defiant.
We defy the evildoers because we believe in the goodness which they are
capable of doing,
we defy hate because we believe in the power of love and forgiveness,
we defy despair because we believe in life and hope,
we defy violence and terror - both state and individual - because we
believe in the power of peace and nonviolence,
we defy war and the occupation of other people's lands because we believe
in the power of peaceful methods based on international law and legitimacy,
we defy and challenge those who humiliate and degrade others because we
believe in the dignity of every human being.

The Incarnation took place when God took on our humanity, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This happened in Palestine under Roman occupation. Then as now and in spite of all the hardships, we celebrate Christ's birth, Emmanuel, God with us, giving us hope, joy, peace, and love.

We are defiant. We are full of hope. We will continue to work for peace through justice.

Naim Ateek
Sabeel, Jerusalem
December 14, 2004
www.sabeel.org

Friday, December 23, 2005

 

Attallah: 'Israel: state of terror...without any ethics'




Bethlehem: Old Bethlehem.

Two residents leaving their compound face a wall instead of the town of Bethlehem.

'Silence regarding Israeli measures is tantamount to consent.'

The Archmandrate of the Greek Orthodox Church, Attallah Hanna, interviewed by Maan Independent News Agency "criticized Israeli measures imposed on the West Bank, and particularly Bethlehem, during the Christmas season.

"'Israel raises the slogan of democracy and justice, but at the same time, they build the Wall.'" He also said that "Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza reflect the true face of Israel."

According to Archmandrate Atallah Israel is a "state of terror and discrimination without any ethics."

He unequivocally states to Maan "the message of Christmas is to take steps to secure holy places" and to "awaken the sleeping conscious of the world." He continued "The world must awake to learn of the 'catastrophe'[to] holy sites and the entire Palestinian people."

According to Maan "He warned that silence regarding Israeli measures is tantamount to consent."

Maan further states: "Hanna accused Israel of targeting every Palestinian living in the city of Jerusalem. He said that the Holy Sepulchre, the site believed by many Christians to be the site of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, is under an equal amount of threat as the Al Aqsa Mosque. He said that the importance of both sites to Palestinians is the same. He pledged support to Muslims and with their desire to protect Islamic sites in Jerusalem.

"Hanna called for all Christians to stand with their 'brothers in Palestine and all over the world.'"

Regarding Amnir Peretz and Ariel Sharon: "Both men, he said, 'are educated in the culture of Zionism and both adopt policies of racism and hatred against the Arabs.'

"Reacting to speculation that Sharon may withdrawal from areas of the West Bank if reelected to the office of Prime Minister, Hanna said "Sharon has nothing to offer Palestinians except more racism, suffering and deception.'

"About the Palestinian state: 'Israel wants us to dream, but I say the Palestinian state is not a dream, it is a reality, it is a thing we hope and want. The history of our people is here, we did not come from abroad, so we will defeat the occupation. We are not calling for the impossible, just the liberation of Jerusalem and Palestinian lands.'"

Thursday, December 22, 2005

 
Christmas in Palestine, 2005

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'Painfully' Beautiful Story About Bethlehem

One perceptive reader describes Mike Odetalla's "For Palestinians in Bethlehem, season offers little to celebrate," as "painfully beautiful," and that it is.

Christmas is fast approaching and the birth of Jesus will be joyously celebrated by over a billion Christians around the globe, gathering with family and friends in prayer, joy and reflection. Christmas trees will be adorned and festively wrapped gifts will tease children. The story of the Nativity will be retold thousands of times, scenes of the humble birth will be recreated in endless displays and Christmas pageants will commemorate the blessed event around the world.

Although a Muslim, I, too, participate in the beautiful festivities of Christmas. In elementary school in America, I sang carols with the school choir, performed in concerts and joined the annual visit to Dearborn's historic Greenfield Village that depicts American life in centuries gone by. One of my favorite carols since that time is Silent Night, which captures the atmosphere at the time of Christ's birth and reflects the true spirit of Christmas.

While I happily participated in these activities, my teachers, and the world, did not acknowledge the Palestinian connection to this blessed holiday. There I was, a Palestinian, born in Jerusalem, a few miles from Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Singing to people with no knowledge of Palestinians and our link to Bethlehem and Jesus always seemed very strange and still does.

For our audiences, it was always about Israel: "How nice a visit to the Israeli town of Bethlehem would be," people said, ignoring the fact that Bethlehem is a Palestinian town where Palestinian Christians and Muslims live, tormented and imprisoned under Israel's brutal military occupation.

We were singing O Little Town of Bethlehem to people who had absolutely no idea that thousands of desperate people live in Bethlehem's refugee camps. To our audience, Bethlehem was the idyllic scene found on Christmas cards.

I knew the truth: Palestinians in Bethlehem's refugee camps have lived in abject poverty ever since being expelled from their homes in 1948 during the creation of the state of Israel. Today, ringed by Jewish settlements and the 30-foot high concrete wall that strangles Palestinian cities and villages, Bethlehem is virtually cut off from the rest of Palestine, its lands, water and other resources expropriated by Israel in a relentless effort to make life ever more unbearable for the Palestinians who call it home.

How fitting that the Virgin Mary, seeking refuge from the mighty Roman army and a safe place to give birth, came to this town.

Today, pregnant Palestinian women must endure the degrading Israeli checkpoints in order to reach a hospital. While the Virgin Mary found refuge in a humble stable, many contemporary mothers-to-be are forced to stand endless hours at checkpoints manned by teenage soldiers who couldn't care less about a woman in labor. Many have given birth in taxis or in streets choked with dust in summer and swimming with mud in winter, waiting at checkpoints for a soldier to arbitrarily decide whether they "look pregnant or only fat." And many children and mothers have died when not allowed to pass in time.

The birth of a human being is a momentous and joyous occasion for the parents, even those who suffer the pain and anxiety of checkpoint deliveries. Still, a growing number of Palestinian infants are named "Hajez" (from the Arabic for "checkpoint") as a bitter reminder of their birthplace.

I fail to grasp what benefit such inhumanity bestows upon the Jewish state. The bitter truth is that 2,000 years after Mary gave birth to Jesus under Roman occupation, Palestinian mothers in Bethlehem and elsewhere in occupied Palestine still seek safe refuge to deliver their infants.

So, when you hear O Little Town of Bethlehem this Christmas, pause to remember the Palestinians for whom this town is home. The Christian and Muslim children of Palestine will observe Christmas this year, but they will have little to celebrate behind the high concrete walls that imprison them.

Fear and hunger will keep them awake through the night, not the anticipation of gifts as in other lands. While the rest of the world celebrates, Bethlehem's children, like all Palestinian children, will pray for some brief respite from the fright of the killings, abuse and destruction that is life in Palestine.

Mike Odetalla emigrated from the Middle East in 1969 when he was 8 years old, following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. He returns to the Middle East every summer to visit with relatives. He has lived in Canton for 27 years.

Originally published December 22, 2005

http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051222/OPINION01/512220400/1192/NEWS03

 

Kamal Boulatta: 'Gannit Ankori Plagiarized From Hard Won Research'

I was taken in. The story regarding Gannit Ankori's book on the History of Palestinian art and interview appeared here in Al-Jazeera, and I excerpted from it here, with the title, 'Gannit Ankori, An Israeli Who Gets It.' Well, evidently, Ankori doesn't get it. This is Kamal Boulatta's response:


December 16, 2004


To Al-Jazeera Website


"Book Records Palestinian Art History" by Ismail Elmokadem


Dear Mr. Elmokadem,


I just learnt from a friend about your interview on al-Jazeera website with Israeli "art historian" Gannit Ankori who is publishing a book on Palestinian art. I am sure she did not mention to you that the core of her thesis on the history of Palestinian art (the initial 3 chapters in her book) has been plagiarized from hard-won research I conducted and published over the last 35 years. Some of these writings appeared in Arabic and in Hebrew translations as well as in a wide range of exhibition catalogs in French and English and in periodicals including the Journal of Palestine Studies and in the Encyclopedia of the Palestinians.


Having been one of those artists she interviewed for her book, I insisted that she sends me her page proofs to review before she goes to press. After reading the chapters she sent and realized the extent of her piracy, I wrote to her and to her London publisher and included an 11-page report that specifies in some detail the means Ankori employed to pass off her thesis, arguments and whole passages of paraphrased text as if they were the result of her own pioneering and personal research. I have also included to her publisher all the reprints of my original text from which she expropriated her text and I highlighted all relevant sections in both documents to facilitate the examination and comparison of both texts.


As a result, her publisher who had announced that the book was scheduled to appear last October postponed the book's publication to March 2006. During this period the publisher promised me that Ankori would redress the serious issues I raised but never provided me with any guarantees or further clarifications as to how these issues would be addressed.


It is sad to see that al-Jazeera website would rush to publish something about an Israeli who had appropriated her thesis on the history of Palestinian art without even checking or posing any question regarding the cultural and political ramifications of this matter. As you well know, in any civilized society that follows a code of ethics the way al-Jazeera does, the appropriation of intellectual property in the academic field is equivalent to the appropriation of land and territory in the world of power and political domination. The audacity by which Gannit Ankori appropriated her information and called it her own follows the very same pattern that one can trace throughout the history of Israeli culture.


Having said that, I hope you would consider updating your story with a more objective view that allows your readers to see for themselves the makings of that book on Palestinian art by an Israeli woman. I am sure you agree with me that al-Jazeera's audience deserves at least to hear the two sides of a story. If you send me your email address I will be glad to provide you with an attachment containing the 11-page report that covers this whole matter in more detail.


After you read the documented material I send, I will be glad to send you any other you may need as I will be glad to answer any question you may have regarding this matter.


Looking forward to hear from you.


Kamal Boullata

 

Kern Greens Taken in by Mayor of Jerusalem's Message of Peace



While I am a strong advocate for peace education, in fact my professional growth plan is to further my studies in this area, as an English teacher I am attune to the universal theme of "appearance versus reality," which is why a message that I received from the Kern County Greens regarding "Minute for Peace Day," December 22, spurred me to send off a little reply.

Excerpts from the Kern County Greens message:

Jerusalem Mayor wishes Merry Christmas, offers Peace2005 Christmas Trees

The mayor of Jerusalem wishes a year of peace, tolerance and brotherhood

The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolinaksi, wishes a Merry Christmas
to the Christian residents of Jerusalem and a year of peace,
tolerance and brotherhood. The mayor invites people from
all religions to come and visit Jerusalem, the capital of Israel


Get a small tree to carry on the walk as a symbolic interfaith prayer
gesture from the Jerusalem Municipality for the Jerusalem Peacewalk
from Bethlehem on Christmas?

Such a Christmas Tree of Love and Peace
could symbolically center the circles and [be] carried on the walk?


And my message to the Kern Greens...

"In Jerusalem, Occupation Forces began to destroy a sacred graveyard containing remains which are hundreds of centuries old. Maman Allah is the biggest Muslim graveyard in Jerusalem and is located in the western part of the city, 2 km away from Khalili Gate. The destruction of the holy site is part of Jerusalem’s Judaization and will be followed by the construction of a new Zionist museum in its place." http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1065.shtml

Hardly seems in keeping with the day's events. Nice of the mayor to distribute Christmas trees although they won't replace the hundreds of olive trees, some a thousand years old, uprooted by occupation forces.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

 

Gissin: Just Lay Back and Enjoy It


According to the Jewish Telegraph, when an aide to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, John Kennedy said that Zionism was a religious issue and refused to take a position on an "Old Testament Mandate," Raanan Gissin, an aide to Sharon got really mad.

Whenever I see Raanan Gissin on television, my children inevitably get the opportunity to gloat, "Mommy said the "f" word. Since Gissin hasn't been successful in controlling the thought of the Irish, he compared them to Iran's president.

Gissin is pissed that the Irish government won't acknowledge that Jews have an "historical" claim to the land.

"We are lifting the lid on these explosive comments after Mr Ahern refused to go on the record to denounce claims by former Irish minister Justin Keating that Jews have mounted a 'self-serving and untruthful Zionist myth' to lay claim to Israel."

Gissin says further, "There is a culture of hatred that says the Jews have no right to live here as an entity. We are here as our birthright not as a conqueror."

And he states: "If you don't support Zionism ipso facto you are actually saying, in the logical progression, we don't support the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own, in their own ancestral homeland.

"That is the problem with the Arabs, they recognise the entity of Israel, but don't recognise the fact that they have an inherent right to a homeland."

So, if one thinks that it is an outrage that the Palestinians, an amalgamation of all of the groups who have been through Palestine, of which the Jews weren't the first, were dispossessed, then one is part of a "culture of hatred."

I think that it is an outrage that raped Palestinians and those who don't let Zionists control their thought are accused of being part of a "culture of hate" for not acknowledging the rapist his "inherent right" to rape them.

Saying it does not make it so, Mr. Gissin. There are a few souls out here who think.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

 

Unlock yourself and free Palestine




didn't they know
we'd grow
with the struggle

adapt

find ways to free ourselves
finding Palestine

didn't they know
we'd grow
with the struggle

learn who to trust most
who to help

find our own heroes
and friends
sharpening wits

those who touch our hearts
make us tremble with truth

those who touch our minds
make us think- and dream

those who are strong
make us stronger

didn't they know
we'd grow
with the struggle

hearts and minds hitting
that horrible Zio-Nazi wall of hate
world wide

teaching
our children
to look at what is
and know what always was

teaching our children to dance
with keys

Love and you will be loved
Hate and you will be hated

unlock yourself
and free Palestine

bell

 

You might be a Jewish Princess if . . .

Zionists love to argue about details since they don't have any argument to stand on regarding the deleterious effects of Zionism on the indigenous population of Palestine. Arguing over details is a way to put an end to discourse that challenges the Zionist narrative. Some Palestinian bloggers turn off their comments rather than waste time countering the incessant and baseless comments from Zionist apologists.

And, yes I use the generalization Zionist and am no more concerned if it puts people off than I am concerned about antagonizing proponents of apartheid, slavery, or racism.

So some of the people at the something something blog are having a field day calling me anti-Semitic for using the term "Jewish American Princess" in this post. The use of the term "anti-Semitic" is used by Zionists to steer discourse in another direction entirely and to deflect from the real issue. I certainly don't intend to be distracted by such a trivial matter.

A couple of the comments:

"zio-light princess has a narrower range of recipients and really is distastful."

"Your friend Umkhalil's post was what put ppl over the edge and caused tempers to flare, as it (though now revised) called Lisa a 'ziolite jewish princess'. I don't fling around anti-semite as a term very often, but that was hateful."

Please. This term is no more offensive than "valley girl." And evidently, this gal at the

Official Jewish American Princess Home Page

doesn't think so either. Nor do the many women who sign her guestbook and contribute jokes to the site:

You Might Be a Jewish American Princess if:

Neiman Marcus is #2 on your cellular's speed dial.
You've had diamond studs soldered into your earlobes.
You actually know the difference between carats and karats.
You hire an architect to design your new house in Alpha World.
Your dog owns more clothing and toys than your neighbor's children.
Your favorite wine is: "I wanna go to Miami!!!" (Joan S., Dallas, TX)
The only thing you know how to make for dinner is reservations. (Pam K., FL)
You decorate a Chanukah Bush and insist upon eight gifts to get you in the mood!

 

I have come to learn to fear the night...

Vladimir Tamari's Christ in Palestine


Let every human being realize that their primary call is not to
launch war, erect walls, infringe upon the properties of others, or
to establish life and rights at the expense of others' lives and
others' rights.


God sends His messengers to preach to the poor, as well as to the
marginalized, the infirm, and the oppressed. At the same time, the
message is also addressed to the powerful and dominant; to he who
causes pain and suffering upon others.


Father Michael Sabbah in Aboud

I have come to learn to fear the night. I am a grown adult. I am a mother. But yesterday, I am not ashamed to say, I had my mother sleep with me in bed, and we clung to each other like frightened children as Israeli F-16s once again shook the earth we live on. Laila

Laila sickened
and shocked
by sonic booms

speaks of Israeli weaponry

her gentle words and wondering
whisper sing
working their way world wide

weaving into conversations

leaving strangers wondering
and whisper singing

her words
and her wondering

whisper singing
to seize hearts

pull passion right out of thin air

resistance is whisper singing
everywhere

while some hot shot Israeli pilot
well decorated with Zio-nazi praise
swaggers around like a cowboy
convinced
he's the one in power

bell

By not surrendering to weakness and
humiliation; and by remaining spiritually strong, calling for
justice, and for the love of God, we shall achieve our vision.
God's message to us, all of us humans, all Palestinians, as well as
all Israelis, is a message to every grieved person, a message to
every political prisoner; as well as to every prisoner of the base
self and ego, it is greed and the base self that produces oppression
and tyranny towards others
Father Sabbah

Monday, December 19, 2005

 

Bishara: 'We are original inhabitants of Palestine, not ‘those who came from Poland, Russia' or Boston




Teens preparing to make aliyah to Israel and serve in the Army celebrate at the Israel Aliyah Center's Farewell Reception last Wednesday. A record number of Boston-area people are moving to Israel this year.

"I've had my picture taken with Arafat, Abu
Mazen, Kofi Annan, and even Clinton himself. But
it's made a dime's worth of difference. I told
Kofi last time he came through here that its
time he shut down his charitable society [The
United Nations]. The whole world enjoys human
rights except the Palestinian people. In America
they even fight for the rights of animals. But
here we are less than animals.... And you
reporters - when we hold a vigil, or decide to
go on hunger strike, you ignore us and only show
up when the big shots come by to have their
picture taken with us. Even when you do
interviews with us you never broadcast what we
say."

-- Um Ibrahim, the mother of a Palestinian
prisoner, speaking after she and several other
women seized the microphone at a Palestinian
Authority press conference on Gaza
"disengagement" (The Electronic Intifada, 22
August 2005)

Make way for ducklings
choosing to be chosen

quack quack your allegiance
to the very pointy star
of IS-real

just don't expect
that you'll ever
grow up to be a swan.

you'll always be
THE
Zio-Nazi brat from Boston
that happily volunteered-
even helped build
a murderously ugly
monstrously cruel
Wall of Hate
on the Holy Land

you'll always be
THE
Zio-Nazi brat from Boston
that uprooted living trees
and tried to kill Palestine

all for the delusions of IS-real
when it never really was

bell

 

Aliyah...privileged fools and idiots


Aliyah Blog
Send some of these comments you may access from the link to your congressman; our money goes to fund haters like this guy who will make his colonial racist move when he makes his "aliyah" to Israel December 27:

He thinks that it's "wonderful news that...31 percent of Arabs in the PA think about living permanently in another country...Especially when considered in conjunction with the erstwhile arab demographic threat, we are definitely moving in the right direction," and his comments to the post are even worse. Sweet lil' ol' Yael from the US, who accuses me of violence, intolerance, and hatred welcomes him to Israel:

Yael Says:

December 10th, 2005 at 6:57
Yippeee!!! You are almost here!! This week will doubtless be one of the most tiring and stressful as you get packed up and ready to go (it certainly was for me) but the end is in sight Listen if you guys need anything when you get here don’t hesitate to give me a call or drop me a line –my number is xxxxxxxx. Bhatzlacha!!

Yael

And a word from sweet Bell

IS-real
colonialists
clutch guns
and lies
to shape IS-real

IS-real
colonists
forge laws
into farce
to shape IS-really "democracy"

finding temporary fellowship
with privileged fools and idiots
all fantasizing themselves as heroic fighters
for IS-real.

Try to force ideas
on free minds

rebellion becomes
logic

whisper sing
resistance

guns and lies
and ill gotten gains
define IS-real

walls of hate
shape IS-real

isn't it obvious yet

bell



 

Arabic knows..the true text of Aliyah


Aliyah
is taking faith,
nationality,
AND creed
plus personal greed

to advocate hatred,
violence,
AND intolerance
plus personal greed
all for IS-real IS-real IS-real

Arabic shaped the land
explained our heritage
no matter who we are

and Aliyah brought in bullets
and bombs

Homegrown Arabic
tended the olive trees
and the herbs
sheparding sheep and goats
for generations
roots entwined
naming villages and flowers and children
generations of life and loving

and Aliyah's boycott of all things Palestinian
brought in bigotry
and prison camps

Arabic knows the real story
the true text
of Aliyah

The poisoned wells
The checkpoints, the curfews and the closures.
The armored tanks and bulldozers
The wall of hate... and the ruined homes
the many ways
Aliyah has become human ugliness
made manifest

Adam & Eve leave the garden of Eden
and forget that they can not own God

and microchips made in IS-real help make drones
and drones
help make a mess of targeted killings
ricocheting world wide
into terror everywhere

it didn't have to be this way
but pretending it isn't only makes it worse.

Bell

Palestinian mother crying over the body of her baby girl. Gharam Menaa 18 months old baby was "gased" to death. The Israeli army was enforcing a curfew in the city of Hebron using concentrated tear gas. The highly toxic tear gas resulted in death of Gharam, hospitals officials said.

 

What is the Greater Evil?



What is the greater evil?

Posting a picture of a young girl from the US or South American who made "aliyah" to Israel, juxtaposed with pictures of the dispossessed that the creation of Israel engendered in hopes that the young people might question the justice of their action? The girls demanded that I take their pictures down and my action engendered a lot of hateful spew.

Or this?


The General Director of Reception and Emergency in the Palestinian Health Ministry, Dr Mauia Hassanin, declared that four sick Palestinians died on Sunday 18the December due to Israeli sound-bombs and shelling in Southern Gaza.

Or this?

From Ariel Blum, a South African young person who is continuing the colonisation of Palestine:

“My favorite things have been the jumps course, flying in a Blackhawk helicopter and, during a training exercise, picking up my Negev machine gun, charging up a hill and shooting 1000 bullets.”

Or this?

The Israeli army also fired at ambulance teams and policemen trying to reach the injured. Dr Hassani calls for international intervention to help Palestinian people as they are being deprived of basic humanitarian aid.

What is the Greater Evil?

Umkahlil's alleged impropriety which included

Writing a story in my best Lord Byron manner in which I refer to a Canadian who recently continued the colonisation of Palestine as a Zio-lite princess (and for which I was predictably referred as an anti-Semite by this anonymous commenter; and the commenter inserted 'jewish' in the quote by the way)?

Your friend Umkhalil's post was what put ppl over the edge and caused tempers to flare, as it (though now revised) called Lisa a 'ziolite jewish princess'. I don't fling around anti-semite as a term very often, but that was hateful. Umkhalil has continued a stream of very personal attacks against bloggers that lisa links to - naturally, I assume she seeks to intimidate and insult everyone involved - attacking people is a whole different ballpark than attacking ideas.

Or this?

Yesterday the Israeli Housing Ministry announced its plan to build 350 additional illegal housing units in the Ma'ale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim is one of the most controversial of Israel's illegal West Bank settlements because its location, and the Wall being built around it, effectively severs the northern West Bank from the southern West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. It is also the largest Israeli settlement with a population of around 30,000.

Pray tell me, gentle reader.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

 

Colonial Boston Kids Go to Israel to Join Israel's Occupation Army




"I will never recognize Zionism even if all Arabs do. I will never concede Palestine. The battle is still long.

"We are the original residents of Palestine, not those who came from Poland and Russia.

"Why does one of the Arab countries provide a home for (Foreign Minister) Silvan Shalom, while the army destroys homes in Palestine on a daily basis?" he said, referring to the foreign minister's recent visit to his birth county of Tunisia. "If you want to surrender, do it, but don't force us to give in." Azmi Bishara

Pictured are some Boston kids who are going to join the rest of the racist colonists in Israel. Why? Because they can. They are going with the intention of joining Israel's occupation army.

These kids from Boston are part of a delusional psychosis spurred and maintained by over fifty years of disinformation and misinformation from Zionist hasbarists. They think that they have a "right" to someone else's land. Now, anyone who was brought up with any ethical education or even with a modicum of interest in human and civil rights would know that one just doesn't traipse on over to someone else's land and dispossess the indigenous people. That your ancestors may have passed through thousands of years ago? Is that a justification? The Turks have been through; one doesn't see the Turks claiming the land for their own; Egyptians, Seljuks, Hittites...to name a few, have all been through Palestine. So why are Jews so special they can dispossess the people who have lived and worked the land for thousands of years?

 

resistance is whisper singing...


resistance is whisper singing
everywhere

even in your own Zionist mind

digging through the bravado
and the story lines passed around so many times

resistance is whisper singing
everywhere

creeping up through every crack
like flowers in the spring

bell

Saturday, December 17, 2005

 

'The Horror, The Horror': Laila Provides Concrete Details

Another sad post from Laila about the daily horrors of occupation.

It is time to admit, before it is too late, that Zionism has succeeded at the price of both inflicting a calamity, catastrophe, Nakba, on another People, preventing just restitution, and maintaining systematic daily legal oppression and domination. It is time to admit that Zionism is an ethical failure, as well as the recipe for the persistence of such failure. As such Zionism should be declared illegal as the root cause for unethical practices of everyday life in Palestine. Dr. Oren Ben Dor

 

Postscript for North American Aliyah (Colonist Babes) and Their Supporters



By the way, Katieyael, who had this to say about me

Unfortunately, I do not thank you Umkahlil. Please remove my photo from your website. I do not allow and in no way authorize use of my image on any blog that advocates hate and intolerance. I'm not providing a link to your blog above because I don't link to blogs, of any faith, nationality or creed that advocate hatred, violence, or intolerance.

links and posts comments on this ethnic cleanser's blog, who will make his Aliyah (statement in support of racist colonialism) on December 27.

Her fellow blogger writes:

Arutz Sheva today reports that “31 percent of Arabs in the PA think about living permanently in another country”

That is wonderful news. Especially when considered in conjunction with the erstwhile arab demographic threat, we are definitely moving in the right direction.

And Katieyael comments on another of his posts:

Yael Says:

December 10th, 2005 at 6:57

Yippeee!!! You are almost here!! This week will doubtless be one of the most tiring and stressful as you get packed up and ready to go (it certainly was for me) but the end is in sight Listen if you guys need anything when you get here don’t hesitate to give me a call or drop me a line –my number is [umkahlil edited out number]. Bhatzlacha!!

Yael

But we are "good" people, huh Katieyael?

"Don't let her get to you (easier said than done, I know), and know that you are a good person," writes She of the above comment, who also writes about Palestinians who do not let Zionists set the parameters of discourse [she came to Princess Lisa's aid when Lisa was aflutter about Pal supporters commenting on her "story" blog; Lisa links to her here and says

"Some bloggers (1, 2, 3) stepped up to bat for me at a time when I was pretty anguished, and I thank them both so, so much for their support."

And this is what that benevelent soul who stepped up to the plate for Katieyael and Lisa said:

"I am sadly awed by their hatred, their rudeness, the lengths to which they will go in order to publicize their own agendas even in the most incorrect of forums. It is clearly not enough for these individuals to promote their twisted cause [umkahlil's emphasis] via their own sites, as they purposely seek out other forums simply to create a furor, hijacking the blogs of others and sprinkling them with noxious comments in order to do so."

 

Close Encounters of the Zio-lite Princess Kind: Revised and Reprised

Prisons within prisons within prisons- and the biggest prison of all is Zionist thought Anne Selden Annab

Related posts:Another Reprise: Judge Judy, Solomonia, and the Princess, Judge Judy Advises Pals to Look to Scion of Zion Ben Gurion for Moral Edification

Twenty years ago I met a well known Palestinian artist from Yaffa. I had gone to the PLO Office in Tokyo and was told that a man from Ramallah also lived in the area and a meeting was arranged. Turned out that he'd attended the Friends School in Ramallah with my aunts and uncles. He and his distinguished family became refugees from Yaffa in 1948 and relocated to Ramallah.

When I called my father to tell him that I'd met someone from Ramallah, my father replied, "He's not from Ramallah; he's from Yaffa." Well, of course he wasn't originally from Ramallah. Being in Ramallah for thirty-two years still didn't mean my new friend was from Ramallah. I wonder how many recent Jewish arrivals can pinpoint their origins in Palestine and the origins of other Jews. Rhetorical question. None. It's not difficult for Palestinians.

My first husband, my oldest daughter, and I drove from Yokosuka every Sunday and attended the famous Nikoleido Japanese Orthodox Church to join Farid and his family. He, his Japanese wife, and his two little girls and my family usually went to eat after church. Anyway, Farid has had a profound influence on me. One time he told me that he didn't live in Ramallah anymore because he did not want to live under Israeli subjugation.

In Tokyo, Zionist subjugation is not as oppressive as it is in the West. Lately, as I've been in and out of the Zionist blogosphere, I and other Palestinian and Palestinian supporters, who refuse to accept Zionist parameters for discourse, have felt the long arm of the condescending Zionist blogsphere. Let me explain.

Recently, a Canadian posted a story on her blog about a journalism conference she'd attended in Amman. She wrote that a Palestinian cameraman had witnessed an execution of a teenage collaborator, who was denied, despite pleas, "one phone call" to his mother to tell her that he loved her. The cameraman managed to film all of this undetected. Lisa, the Canadian, in a comment claims she saw the footage later in Ramallah.

I first heard about Lisa from Canada through Mobius from the US. Both have recently made what the Zionists call "Aliyah" to Israel. We Palestinians have another name for it--colonial racism. Mobius took it upon himself to smear Haitham Sabbah, a Palestinian blogger. Lisa commented about all the "hateful" comments to Mobius' post about Haitham, and Mobius then, out of deference to Lisa's tender Zio-lite sensibilites deleted all the "denigrating" comments that ensued about Lisa, including mine regarding the fact that she was a Canadian who could go to Palestine and be granted instant citizenship although my friends like Farid indigenous to Yaffa couldn't be buried in the town of their birth. Both Mobius and Lisa set the parameters for what constitutes a "good" Palestinian. Zionists like to do that. Sort of nervy, if you ask me. I mean go insert yourself on someone else's land because maybe one of your ancestors belonged to a tribe (one of many) that passed through Palestine a couple thousand years ago and then start setting the parameters for how the indigenous people may relate to you.

Anyway, I don't have the energy to deal with Mobius in this post. The Ziolite Princess Lisa and her admiring commenter and fellow blogger, Judy, will suffice for now. Sister Adina also comprises Princess Lisa's court.

One reads a lot about getting to know the "other" on Lisa's site and, as mentioned, in addition to Judy, she has a little sister attending upon her, Adina, who rebukes anyone who she feels isn't "nice" to Lisa. Here's Adina in response to an inquiry regarding the veracity of the post. The commenter, cutter, found her comment later deleted for claiming that the story sounded hoakey.

It is not Palestians or Right-wingers (or anyone else who has absurdly
shouted conspiracy that Lisa is "censoring" when she removes comments), but
the tedious mouth breathers who have an agenda they want to impose at the
first mention of Israel/Palestine on a personal blog. Just sit back and read the stories about a person's life for once. I
might be biases, as I am her sister, but I think this is some great writing!

In other words, "Shut up and just sit back and disregard any political implications of a story about a teenager whose pleas for one last phone call to his mother to tell her that he loved her before he was shot through the back of the head were disregarded by heartless Palestinians goons." Nothing political there, Adina.

There's also the aforementioned condescending (to Palestinians) Judy who comments on Lisa's sweetness and light blog. Judy's one of Lisa's main admirers. Judy loves to quibble about Palestinian deaths. There's nothing Zio-lite about ol' Judy who extolls the virtues of Jewishness at every opportunity. Judy is quick with an obtuse comment when Lisa posts about her mother admonishing the young Lisa for taking one piece of candy from the store (I guess it's OK to steal someone else's country).

I think your mother most likely was brought up with the Jewish values of honesty, integrity and awareness of the need to treat others how we would want to be treated. And the belief that you can and should explain and teach them to your children from their earliest years, not resort to punishing them when they do something they don't know they shouldn't.

"Maybe she did know some Kant, and maybe not. But those values were there long before Kant was born, and I imagine that's where she got them from.

All honour to her, and to you for acknowledging what you learnt from her."

Here's Judge Judy on "good" Palestinians, and how Lisa may encourage them to shake off their chains [in reference to the alleged cameraman who witnessed the alleged summary execution and who allegedly did nothing with the film he shot].

There are a few brave Palestinians who are beginning to reject the suppression of such "realities" in the name of loyalty to the Palestinian cause. I hope your story will add to their number and encourage them.

Certainly, huge numbers of Israelis, faced with an atrocity like this done by Israelis to Palestinians, would not have hesitated to publicise it, and to ensure it reached the wider world.

But of course. Israelis are taught by their mothers, in Kantian fashion, not to steal candy from grocery stores.

To Lisa and Judy there are myriads of ways Palestinians and their supporters may be bad. One way is to not acknowledge the good that Lisa is doing in the world. A "good" Palestinian or supporter of Palestinians, doesn't question the veracity of a Zionist's posts. Actually, I brought the story to the big, bad cutter's attention. Her use of the word "hoaky" regarding Lisa's "story" brought abuse upon her from the "nice" folks who comment at Lisa's blog; I mentioned earlier that her comments were deleted, and then she was subsequently banned, not fit to mingle with the Zio-lites, unabashed Zios, and their "house" Palestinians.

Back to the story. It just doesn't wash.

The boy was crying. He begged the militants to allow him one phone call; he wanted to call his mother to tell her he loved her.

The militants refused and prepared to shoot the boy in the back of the head. Just as they aimed their guns, the crying boy screamed out, "Mom, I love you!"

Then they shot him.

I was surprised that I hadn't heard about it before; after all Palestine Center for Human Rights catalogs meticulously both Palestinian and Israeli acts of violence. Contrary to know-it-all Zionists, Palestinian news organizations and NGO's do publicize Palestinian violence and are prone to self-criticism, just like any other group of people.

It also struck me as odd that a teenage boy's last words would be "I love you, Mother." "Ya ima," yes; that's plausible, but "I love you,mother"? The posting of the story is calculated to present Palestinians in the worst possible light in the guise of empathising with the other; in this case concerned Israeli sincerely presenting "conflicted" Palestinian cameraman with a conscience who did nothing because of the big bad national movement, concern for his family, etc. Pretty crafty Zionistic hasbara.

Yet, "Lisa just writes her stories," sister Adina said, and if we want to be a courtier we must accept them as such or else "off with their comments." Just as Cutter was banned for her "political" agenda, another pal of mine, nony, a Palestinian, was deleted for the rather innocuous comment:

I am happy you have settled in Tel Aviv, looks like you get around...
What is the point of your post?
you portray this incident through a narrow lens

Well, the not-so-nice Zionist in Lisa comes out when Pals don't fall in line with her Zio-lite ways:

"To be perfectly blunt, you are simply not welcome here anymore," she commented to cutter.

And I leave you with one last comment from the Zionist gatekeeper, our lovely Princess Lisa, to an inquiry regarding the event at which the cameraman allegedly told his story:

... given the kind of readers this blog has been attracting lately I'd better not put the organization at risk by mentioning its name here...

That's very "nice" of you, Lisa. Enjoy your little sojourn in occupied Palestine. Your last little vestige of colonial racism is at risk despite the slick hasbara you propagate.

 

Another Reprise: Solomonia, Judge Judy, and the Princess

I had posted three stories related to this post from the On the Face blog. I deleted them not because of any pressure from anyone; I never heard from this woman, yet she claims she dealt with me in a comment she posted on this blog

Dear Yael

If you would like to email me from my blog site, I would like to let you know how I dealt successfully with attacks on Lisa and myself (and others) by Umkhalil. She was forced to remove the offending pages. It is also a decisive way of dealing with offensive commenters. Please do get in touch. And my sympathy and best wishes. Abuse has no place on the internet,but unfortunately there are too many people who think it does.

Shabbat Shalom
Judy Homepage 12.16.05 - 6:21 am #


My offense was posting the picture of Yael, which everyone may see at her paen to colonisation blog here. This sweet young thing was spurred to write the following:
Unfortunately, I do not thank you Umkahlil. Please remove my photo from your website. I do not allow and in no way authorize use of my image on any blog that advocates hate and intolerance. I'm not providing a link to your blog above because I don't link to blogs, of any faith, nationality or creed that advocate hatred, violence, or intolerance

Well, here is another reprise [slightly edited] from the archives of Umkahlil, who the Zionists have stuck with the following appellations: "anti-Semite," "racist," "hater"; and my favorite--"stuck in the seventies."

Unholy Trinity: Solomonia, Judge Judy, and the Princess

I see that the Ueberzionist, Solomonia, has linked to Judge Judy via Princess Lisa. Now if I had to walk by Solomonia, I'd want at least two members of Christian Peacemakers by my side or, on second thought, I might just opt for homeschooling. If Princess Lisa is Zio-lite, Solomonia is rotgut. I wouldn't be surprised if Little Green Footballs and FrontPage will have picked up the alleged story about the allegedly conflicted Palestinian cameraman who spilled his guts about witnessing an execution of a teenage collaborator to Israeli journalists, among them, our Princess of the Zio-lites, Lisa.

These wyrd sisters and their brother Solomonia are keeping me up late. This is better than when the Village Voice, The New York Sun, and the Daily News were all taking on Professor Joseph Massad. And this, boys and girls of the United States of America, is how the Zionist Hasbara works through the media. For further details on smearing of critics, echo chamber effect, and other time honored Zionist Hasbara methods check out Paul de Rooij's excellent analysis here and here.

Princess Lisa is just incensed that it's not all om-like over at her blog. The Palestinians and their supporters are just determined to infiltrate her ashram, and Lisa is having none of it. Lisa has admonished her courtiers NOT to feed the trolls:

"Meanwhile: Please, please do not feed the trolls. Resist the temptation! Let them hear the echo of their words. If they have a conscience, they will feel shame. If they do not, then it is impossible to reason with them - so why bother?"

That's a little over the top. Lisa is starting to sound like my parody of her. For some reason, I have an image of Princess Lisa saying this while jumping up and down on her big ol' bed like the little eleven year old Queen Isabella in Amistad. She was so cute one was almost rooting for the Africans to lose their trial and to be shipped right on over to Spain.

One daring young commenter wrote something to the effect that "Israel was the one that should feel shame." This was taking the discourse dangerously into the realm of politics, which Lisa eschews, and the comment was deleted rapidly by a justifiably piqued Princess.

Now, our Princess, who has a penchant for group hugs, does not tolerate any meandering into politics on her blog. So, I am assuming that she did not know that Gilo, to which she refers with the best of the hasbarists as a "Jewish neighborhood," was stolen from the residents of Beit Jala after 1967. She writes in "How Lisa Came to Israel":

For the first six months of the intifida, daily life in Tel Aviv wasn’t really affected. This was not the case for Jerusalem. Gilo, a Jerusalem residential neighbourhood, was shot at by Palestinian fighters in bordering Beit Jala throughout the month of December. Residents of apartments facing Beit Jala put sandbags in their windows, kept the lights turned off at night, and crouched low when they moved from room to room.

Now she probably doesn't know that it is considered an illegal colony according to international law. So, probably, since Princess Lisa prides herself on refraining from politics in her blog she should delete herself.

One comment that won't be deleted and which has some veracity, "You do a wonderful job of putting a human face on the Israeli-Palestine conflict."

Exactly. Most people are not knowledgeable about Palestine and Lisa is determined to keep it that way under the guise of "no politics." So, in one breath talking about her "cathartic two-hour walk" with a Palestinian in London in the next she smears those as trolls who make comments like the following: "Lisa is all smoke & mirrors, always hiding the truth. What a truthful post about Isreal scares you Miss Lisa? Who feels shame? OH I think its you, thats why you delete any posts that may expose what you are all about. Shame on you Lisa." [Postscript: Princess Lisa has duly deleted the comment]

So while any one with a modicum of knowledge about Palestine recoils at rotgut Solomonia as a hater with moonshine Judy ever so slightly diluted, Zio-lite Lisa, the chardonnay of the Zionistas comes off as the one who puts a "human face" on the conflict, which evidently gives her license to smear with authority anyone who doesn't go along with her fantasy that she's apolitical. She has spoken to a real Palestinian so don't question her intentions. Sort of like the liberal Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice dissing Joseph Massad.

Lisa is the latest in a long line of shills for the Zionist state. She gushes over a story from a Palestinian journalist who advises his three sisters in Jordan not to "hate," to get over it. In true racist fashion, she only tolerates "house" Palestinians and quickly deletes anyone who doesn't let her set the parameters of discourse. These days people believe and incorporate what they hear over and over. Zionists keep repeating that Jews have a right to Israel and that one who questions that right is anti-Semitic. Those of us unwilling to compromise on UN Resolutions and international law are thus portrayed as radicals and unreasonable, and what's worse, unfit to hold court with Princess Zio-lite.

And to all deleted commenters: "Shame on You! Hear the echo of your words, listen to your conscience, and be ashamed," thus spake the Princess. If you curtsey, Princess Lisa might pardon you. You might even get to carry the luggage of this benefactress of the tired and poor, who as one of her courtiers says "anyone who reads you regularly knows that you are probably the Israeli blogger who most humanizes the Palestinians." The commenter goes on "Oh, and next time you go to London, can I carry your luggage?"

 

The Shame of it All





Recent Colonists from New York. Palestinian Inmates.

The toppling of an entire regime in Iraq was realistic. The overturn of the
apartheid system in South-Africa was realistic. Entire empires crumble --
that is obvious and therefore realistic. But to touch one hair on the head
of Israel's major settlements or of its occupation of Jerusalem, or to bring
up the subject of the Palestinian right of return, even as stated under
international law and resolutions -- well, that's plainly unrealistic.
Azmi Bishara

Friday, December 16, 2005

 

Judge Judy Advises Pals to Look to Scion of Zion Ben-Gurion For Moral Edification: The Reprise

This comment below which appeared on recent North American immigrant to Israel, Yael's blog is just too rich. It is also blatantly untrue since Judy never contacted me, and as far as I know it is perfectly within the scope of blogging to deconstruct bull, which I did when I deconstructed her effort to make out ethnic cleanser David Ben Gurion as some sort of moral pillar and moral light unto the Palestinians (would that be a night light?).

To show just how unintimidated I am by arch Zionist Judy, I will reprise my entry about her Ode to Ben-Gurion, which follows her comment. Of course, Zionists go to great lengths to stifle Palestinians and their supporters, one need only read former Congressman Paul Findley's They Dare to Speak Out for a myriad of examples.

And to save all the smear artists the trouble, suffice it to say, as another "builder of bridges" said in Yael's blog about me "Ignore her, she is stuck somewhere in the 1970s. Took a look at her blog and boy, just when you have some hope for the future, you read something like that and get depressed. She wakes up hating and goes to sleep hating, and she is jealous of people that don't. No point in even arguing with someone like that, she is too bigoted and consumed with hatred and self-loathing for a failed life. The best revenge is staying happy and making a great life here in Israel."

O.K., Zionists so take a breather and spare me the accolades since it's already been said that I'm a hater and I loathe myself for a failed life; the commenter left out "racist," and "anti-Semite," so those two appellations are still open.

Judy's baseless comment:

Dear Yael

If you would like to email me from my blog site, I would like to let you know how I dealt successfully with attacks on Lisa and myself (and others) by Umkhalil. She was forced to remove the offending pages. It is also a decisive way of dealing with offensive commenters. Please do get in touch. And my sympathy and best wishes. Abuse has no place on the internet,but unfortunately there are too many people who think it does.

Shabbat Shalom
Judy Homepage 12.16.05 - 6:21 am #

And my post about Judy reprised:


Judge Judy Advises Pals to Look to Scion of Zion Ben-Gurion for Moral Edification


My journey through the Zio-hasbara-blogosphere led me to Judge Judy's admonishment to the savage Palestinians to look to David Ben Gurion, the scion of Zion, for edification. Judge Judy was so impressed with Princess Lisa's story that in "A tale of shame and darkness" the venerable old gal quotes Ben-Gurion liberally and ponders why Palestinians haven't produced a leader of such calibre to speak out unequivocably against "gangsterism" in Palestinian society. There are numerous bodies and leaders in Palestinian society who do criticise elements of Palestinan society; certainly the oppressor is in no moral position to preach to Palestinians in this regard.

Now this is for all those in the West who might be taken in by Judy's hasbara, rather blatant, on a relative scale, but since according to Kathleen Christinson, eighty-five percent of Americans think that Palestine occupies Israel, Judy's playing for a gullible audience. Judge Judy, the savior of the Palestinian people, prefaces her moral edification tale by likening Israel's decimation of Palestine's infrastructure in 2002 to an "Israeli anti-terrorist action on the West Bank, following a whole series of suicide bombs that had rocked Israel and murdered hundreds."

Then she proceeds to rehash the story that Lisa allegedly heard from a Palestinian cameraman in regard to his witnessing of an execution of a Palestinian teenager by a militant Palestinian group. But let's let Judge Judy tell the story:

It seems from the post that the Palestinian journalists, including the cameraman, did not find it a simple issue of loyalty, since they chose to share with a group of Israeli journalists what is after all a shameful story of the vicious and heartless murder of a teenager .

Then Judge Judy not missing a beat offers: "Think of the hundreds of articles and web pages that have appeared on the subject of the killing of Mohammed al-Dura. Which seems to be a story which has now had the greatest doubt cast on it."

Oh, the "slings and arrows" of Israeli hasbarists in the guise of advisor to the Palestinians.

Well, maybe, Judge Judy, Palestinians don't look to David Gruen aka Ben-Gurion as their moral savior because he ever so politely advocated their ethnic cleansing:

"With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement] .... I support compulsory transfer. I don't see anything immoral in it." as quoted by Israeli historian Benny Morris in Righteous Victims.

And speaking of children's deaths. Defence for Children International, as of December 6, 2005 reports that 728 Palestinian children under the age of 18 have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since September 2000, and 320 are currently in detention. Do the scions of Zion have any advice for that?

 

'It is time to admit...Zionism is an ethical failure'




Abu Labeed Darwish stands in front of a Zionist's house built on top of his father's house in K'afr Ana

North American Jews "return" to Israel.

It is time to admit, before it is too late, that Zionism has succeeded at the price of both inflicting a calamity, catastrophe, Nakba, on another People, preventing just restitution, and maintaining systematic daily legal oppression and domination. It is time to admit that Zionism is an ethical failure, as well as the recipe for the persistence of such failure. As such Zionism should be declared illegal as the root cause for unethical practices of everyday life in Palestine. Dr. Oren Ben Dor

 

Paradise Now: Contradictions on Many Levels

I wrote about Paradise Now last spring when I saw it at the Frankfurt Film Festival. Director Hany Abu Assad was present and took questions from the audience.

Here is an interesting take on Paradise Now by Bassem Khader, who recently saw the film.

I have just come from seeing the Palestinian-produced movie, Paradise Now, and would loke to share some impressions with you.

It is probably well-known by now what the main theme of the movie is -- suicide bombing. But what makes the film a masterful piece of art are the contradictions juxtaposed next to each other, which come across as sub-themes. Consider first the title: Paradise Now and compare that to the Hell Now that is the occupation. Second, for those who understand Arabic, the choice of the Palestinian vernacular used, particularly by the would-be bombers Said and Khaled, is significant. It is the language used by the fellaheen and the working classes. Compare that to the language used by Suha, the daughter of Abu Azzam a member of the elite. You could tell she was educated in foregin institutions: her Arabic is heavily accented. She is also the one that argues against suicide bombing, not unlike some of the Palestinian 'intellectuals' who took an ad in the papers some time ago also to argue along the same lines. The implication there is that those people are somewhat divorced from the masses.

The contradiction between physical conditions in Palestinian areas and Israel could not be starker. The refugee camp, just outside Nablus, is like a prison with deteriorated facilities and destruction all over. Everywhere you try to go, there is a checkpoint. Israel on the other hand has its wide boulevards and manicured parks and beaches.

Yet another sub-theme of contradictions is: collaboration on the part of the occupied matched by corruption on the part of the occupier. "How could 'they' be the oppressive occupiers and convince the whole world they are the victims?" wonders one of the would-be suicide bombers aloud.

The film captures life under the occupation poignantly, and also portrays Palestinian generosity of spirit, hospitality and sense of community. The scenes in the car repair shop, coffee house, and homes are true to life. The movie is not without its moments of humour -- they come early o, before the tension mounts. But they are best left for you to discover and savor.

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