HOW PALESTINIANS DON’T CELEBRATE PASSOVER

March 31, 2013 at 14:21 (Apartheid, Collective Punishment, Ethnic Cleansing, Holidays, Illegal Settlements, Israel, Oppression, Palestine)

Historically, Passover is a holiday that Hebron settlers regularly exploit for expansionist purposes. In 1969, a small group of settlers led by a hard-line rabbi established the first illegal settlement in the city without the Israeli government’s permission. The settlement in a hotel in Hebron was evacuated, but the settlers moved to a former military base nearby and established what became the Kiryat Arba settlement. The move was carried out with the agreement of the Israeli government, which at the time was led by the Labor Party.

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Not a happy Passover for Hebron’s Palestinians

by Allison Deger and Alex Kane
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Palestinian youth stops in front of road closure to Shuhada Street in Hebron.

Hundreds of Israelis traveled over the Green Line to observe Passover in Hebron this week at a carnival-like event as Israeli officials closed the Ibrahimi Mosque to Palestinians in the West Bank’s largest city.

Since at least the mid-1990s, settlers and religious Jews have flocked to the Herodian-era site around the Cave of the Patriarchs for the holy week, which ordinarily is partitioned by religion between Jews and Muslims—or Israelis and Palestinians. But on Wednesday and Thursday, with an increased border police presence, the tombs of the monotheistic forefathers and mothers were only opened to the busloads of Jewish tourists.

The contrasts between the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish areas were stark. While most Palestinians closed up shop in Hebron’s Old City due to the threat of settler harassment, Israeli Jews marked Passover by dancing in the streets, surrounded by high-flying Israeli flags and armed soldiers.

The annual occasion was also marked by clashes between soldiers and Palestinians.Ma’an News reported that a twelve-year old was in “critical condition” after Israeli soldiers fired a rubber bullet in his head during the clashes. Hebron residents told us that the clashes began after the settlers made their way through a Palestinian area. 

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Nawal Slemiah at Women in Hebron shop.

“If the mosque is closed nobody will come,” said Nawal Slemiah, the founder of Women in Hebron, an embroidery collective. “Last year when they came, more that 8,000 people”–Israelis–walked through the Palestinian neighborhoods of Hebron. Most shops closed this year to avoid the possibility of tensions with the Israelis, but each year Slemiah keeps the women’s collective open. “They took things from outside,” she said, explaining the scene last year. “Some of them they steal things.”

Slemiah’s shop in the historic district of Hebron is full of hand-made Palestinian embroidery garments. Outside the door frame of her one-room shop are two racks of brightly colored taubes, or traditional Palestinian dresses. There is a particular pattern of stitching for each Palestinian city. Slemiah showed us a black and a whitetaube with big flowers over the breast of the dress, indicating the design of Hebron. She said that last year, when Israelis marched through the old city, they dumped her dresses on the ground and stomped on them.

A short walk from Slemiah’s store is Hebron’s Bab al-Zawiya neighborhood. This year it was the site where Israelis marched through Palestinian streets adjacent to Shuhada Street, a downtown road that is closed off to most Palestinians by a checkpoint at its entrance and exit. The march set off the clashes that injured the 12-year-old Palestinian boy. The injury, along with the economic impact that settler harassment has on Palestinian shops, is only the latest example of the hardships Palestinians face in Hebron.

Shuhada Street used to be the central market for Hebron’s Palestinians. But that all changed as a result of the 1994 massacre in the Ibrahimi Mosque, when Baruch Goldstein, a militant Israeli-American, killed 29 Palestinian worshipers. In response to that act, the Israeli military imposed restrictions on Palestinian movement, and forbade Palestinian traffic on parts of the main street. The restrictions on Palestinian movement were made worse by the Israeli military after the Second Intifada, and led to severe economic deterioration in the city. B’Tselem reports that “304 shops and warehouses along Shuhada Street closed down” since these restrictions were imposed. “Most of the properties on or adjacent to Shuhada Street, including homes and businesses, had been abandoned or had been closed by military order,” the Israeli human rights group stated in 2011.

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Israeli Passover party in front of Cave of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque.

 

Unlike the desolate Palestinian area of Hebron, during Passover the plaza in front of the Cave of the Patriarchs couldn’t have been a happier scene. Inside of H2, we walked past scores of border police and Israeli security, as a Hebraicized version of Akon’s “Right Now”bumped from two speakers mounted to roof racks on a van. Once we reached the festivities, mostly religious Israelis enjoyed popcorn and pastel cotton candy swirled up by an Orthodox youth. Others who belong to the Na Nach movement, a Hasidic sect known for dancing like in the time of King David to bring on the era of the messiah, bounced to boom boxes. Brief discussions with some of the festival-goers revealed that some of them had come from outside Hebron. Tour buses lined up outside the festival to take people home, with most of the destination signs reading “Yerushalayim” in Hebrew.

Historically, Passover is a holiday that Hebron settlers regularly exploit for expansionist purposes. In 1969, a small group of settlers led by a hard-line rabbi established the first illegal settlement in the city without the Israeli government’s permission. The settlement in a hotel in Hebron was evacuated, but the settlers moved to a former military base nearby and established what became the Kiryat Arba settlement. The move was carried out with the agreement of the Israeli government, which at the time was led by the Labor Party.

Last year, in an action also timed to Passover, settlers again tried to establish a new colony without the permission of the Israeli government. This time, they were evacuated and no new settlement was established in Hebron. Shortly after the Hebron evacuation, though, new construction in Jerusalem-area settlements was announced.

Settler activity in Hebron around the Jewish holiday of Passover is so routine that many Palestinians in the area expect harassment—and are also familiar with the traditional Passover greeting.

“In English I don’t know how to say…” contemplated Mohammed, a teenage unofficial tour guide who regularly stops by the Women in Hebron store. With a smile on his face he continued, “‘happy holidays,’ ‘chag sameach.’”

All photographs were taken by Allison Deger.

Written FOR

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FOUR QUESTIONS THE ZIONISTS DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ON PASSOVER

March 26, 2013 at 18:55 (Holidays, Irony, Israel, Palestine)

pesach four questions.pdf

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FOUR QUESTIONS… 
 

A Passover Seder is a service held at home

as part of the Passover celebration of liberation,

to share the Passover story together in order

to recognize peoples’ right to freedom.

 

During the evening, as part of the Passover

Seder, four questions are asked, traditionally

by the youngest child, to teach the next

generation to question as a way to learn.

 

The idea of Passover is also about becoming

free personally from our internal

constraints. Asking questions makes manifest

that quest and shows our courage to exercise

our freedom.

 

On Passover we learn that when people

without their freedom question authority, they

are at great risk.

 

It is therefore essential for those with privilege

to question, to wonder aloud. We ask these

four questions on behalf of people in struggle

for their liberation and right to freedom.

 

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How can a Jewish State be a democracy?

 

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Can the Jewish people know true liberation while a “Jewish” state deprives the Palestinian people of their freedom?

 

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How can we pass over the occupation of Palestine while we tell the story of the liberation of the Jewish people?

 

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When you say “next year in Jerusalem” who is it that you imagine has a right to return?

 

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WE WILL NOT BE SILENT is an artist/activist collective that has been in existence

since 2006. Through the creative use of

language embodied on shirts and at times emboldened on signs held up in public spaces,

we respond to current social justice issues, encouraging creative, direct public-actions

where many people can participate.

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TIME TO RID ISRAEL OF BREAD AND ARABS

March 19, 2013 at 12:57 (Apartheid, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Complicity, DesertPeace Editorial, Hasbara, Holidays, Israel, Palestine)

no-bread
Passover comes early this year, starting a week from today. Observant households are in a frenzy of ridding their homes of all forms of leaven, in some cases even rice and legumes.
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The new Israeli government is also in a frenzy as to when to ‘lock the gates’ closing off all of Israel to its Palestinian residents for the duration of the 8 day holiday. President Obama’s visit to the region makes that a bit awkward, but the timing is perfect as he will be leaving a few days before the holiday actually starts as not to witness the true meaning of apartheid.
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Latuff”s view of the settlement’s new government …
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The Jewish ‘Festival of Freedom’ means that Palestinians lose whatever vestiges of  freedom they might have. They will be unable to go to work, unable to visit friends and family, unable to live, period! All in the name of ‘Freedom’ …. (sic)
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The following rap song appears on the FaceBook page of the US Consul General in Jerusalem … The US is obviously aware of the situation but chooses to be silent about it. ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, Freedom ain’t worth nothing but it’s free’ … Yup, it’s free until you don’t have it!
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Below is a repost of my annual Passover message, unfortunately still valid today …
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CLEANSING THE LAND OF BREAD AND ARABS

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My maternal grandmother was a simple Shtetel Jew. She came from a place not much different from the small town portrayed in Fiddler on The Roof.
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Traditionally the womenfolk from those areas were uneducated in matters of anything other than home making and child raising, while the menfolk studied their Holy Books for hours on end. Life was simple for them, and they themselves were basically a very simple folk.
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I remember my grandmother going through the frenzy of cleaning the house this time of year…. the traditional Passover cleaning. All traces of leaven had to be removed from the home before the start of the Holiday. To her, that process included the removal of any trace of dust or smears on the window panes. The house sparkled when she was finished. Most of our non-Jewish neighbours were going through the same process, but simply called it ’spring cleaning’, ridding the house of all unwanted matter, including broken furniture and junk.
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I remember asking my grandmother why she was going through such a frenzy…. her answer was simple and to the point…. “If a Jew eats bread during Passover he will die!” That was what she was taught, that’s what she taught us….
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In Israel today, things are not much different from life in the Shtetel when it comes to Passover preparations. But today there is a growing number of non observant Jews as well as a growing number of non Jews. This is a threat to the lifestyle of the self-imposed Shtetel Jew living here today.
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Christian Pilgrims from abroad, as well as local Christians are denied access to their Holy Sites. Where is the uproar against this?
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Where is the uproar against the Neanderthal rabbis that have recently called for the expulsion or the genocide of the Palestinians? WHERE??? As in previous years, the Palestinians living on the ‘other side’ of the great wall of apartheid will be sealed in for the duration of the Holiday (8 days), literally making the State of Israel Arabrein for that period of time. Where is the uproar against this? WHERE???
Israel does need a cleansing… a good one; not only of bread during the Holiday season but also of hatred. Both are violations of the Holy Teachings.
 

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THIS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY LET’S END THE WAR ON WOMEN

March 8, 2013 at 07:10 (History, Holidays, International Women's Day)

End Patriarchy!
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Source of image
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THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

In 1869 British MP John Stuart Mill was the first person in Parliament to call for women’s right to vote. On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. Women in other countries did not enjoy this equality and campaigned for justice for many years.

In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin’s suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women’s Day was the result.

The very first International Women’s Day was launched the following year by Clara Zetkin on 19 March (not 8 March). The date was chosen because on 19 March in the year of the 1848 revolution, the Prussian king recognized for the first time the strength of the armed people and gave way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many promise he made, which he later failed to keep, was the introduction of votes for women.

Plans for the first International Women’s Day demonstration were spread by word of mouth and in the press. During the week before International Women’s Day two journals appeared: The Vote for Women in Germany and Women’s Day in Austria. Various articles were devoted to International Women’s Day: ‘Women and Parliament’, ‘The Working Women and Municipal Affairs’, ‘What Has the Housewife got to do with Politics?’, etc. The articles thoroughly analyzed the question of the equality of women in the government and in society. All articles emphasized the same point that it was absolutely necessary to make parliament more democratic by extending the franchise to women.

Success of the first International Women’s Day in 1911 exceeded all expectation.

Meetings were organized everywhere in small towns and even the villages halls were packed so full that male workers were asked to give up their places for women.

Men stayed at home with their children for a change, and their wives, the captive housewives, went to meetings.

During the largest street demonstration of 30,000 women, the police decided to remove the demonstrators’ banners so the women workers made a stand. In the scuffle that followed, bloodshed was averted only with the help of the socialist deputies in Parliament.

In 1913 International Women’s Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Women’s Day ever since.

During International Women’s Year in 1975, IWD was given official recognition by the United Nations and was taken up by many governments. International Women’s Day is marked by a national holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Source

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HOLIDAY TIMES IN ISRAEL SIGNAL THE START OF DAYS OF TERROR IN PALESTINE

February 27, 2013 at 14:01 (Collective Punishment, Extremism, Holidays, Israel, Just Plain Disgusting, Palestine, Photography, Settler Violence, zionist harassment)

For some reason, the Jewish festival of Purim signals the beginning of a day of terror against Palestinians. Following are photos of this year’s ‘festivities’ …
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Photos: Settlers mock Palestinian hunger strikers and Israeli soldiers dress up as Palestinian fighters

 by Ali Abunimah

In a screenshot, anti-Arab activist Itamar Ben-Gvir (right) impersonates a Palestinian prisoner, as the man next to him wears a “Kach” T-shirt.

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron celebrated the Jewish festival of Purim by mocking Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for their rights in Israel’s jails.

Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier has posted images online of himself and his comrades dressed up as Palestinian resistance fighters and as Gilad Shalit, the occupation soldier captured by Hamas fighters in 2006 and held as a prisoner of war in Gaza for five years.

Hebron parade mocks Palestinian prisoners, glorifies banned violent, racist group

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A video of the Purim parade in Hebron was posted on YouTube, as Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have intesified protests in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners after the death of Arafat Jaradat in Israeli custody and amid the ongoing struggles of hunger strikers.

In the video, Israeli far-right anti-Arab activist Itamar Ben-Gvir is dressed up as a “Palestinian prisoner” and has this brief exchange of words:

Ben-Gvir: If we don’t get more kibbeh, there will be an Intifada. More kibbeh. We want more kibbeh.

Off-screen voice: But how many tires do you have to burn? How many tires?

Ben-Gvir: Don’t worry about it. Only kibbeh!

As Ben-Gvir speaks, a man standing next to him is wearing a T-shirt bearing the name and logo of Kach, the violent anti-Arab organization founded by Meir Kahane that is even banned in Israel. Kach and its offshoot Kahane Chai have been designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the US State Department since 1997.

Ben-Gvir has been arrested dozens of times by Israeli authorities on charges of rioting, destruction of property, possessing propaganda for a terrorist organization, and with incitement to racism and support of a terrorist organization.

But while Ben-Gvir roams free, many of the Palestinian prisoners he mocks have been held for extended periods without charge or trial.

Ben-Gvir is a former aide to Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari who has led anti-African pogroms in the streets of Tel Aviv.

In the rest of the 10-minute long video, Israeli settlers, some drinking heavily from bottles of wines and spirits, can be seen dancing and reveling through the streets of occupied Hebron, which are devoid of Palestinians, as Israeli occupation soldiers provide an escort.

Israeli soldiers dress up as Palestinian fighters and Gilad Shalit

Israeli occupation soldiers dressed as Palestinian fighters surround a man with a paper on his chest that says “Gilad Shalit captured again” (Source).

Meanwhile Israeli soldier Idan Levi posted these images to Instagram which show him and members of his unit dressed up as Palestinian resistance fighters. The man in the middle of the photo above has a sign on his chest that says “Gilad Shalit – captured again.”

Israeli occupation soldiers dressed as Palestinian resistance fighters (Source).

Levi is a member of the 51st Battalion of the Golani brigade. As part of the occupation army, the Golani brigade has invaded Palestinian cities and terrorized Palestinian communities for years, although the unit suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Lebanese resistance during Israel’s disastrous 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

Golani brigade member Idan Levi (right) with a comrade dressed up as Palestinian resistance fighters (Source).

In one image, Levi appears in a T-shirt of the football team Beitar Jerusalem whose ultra-racist fans are notorious for violent rampages and chanting “Death to the Arabs.”

Israeli occupation soldier Idan Levi in a T-shirt of the notoriously racist Beitar Jerusalem football team (Source).

Idan Levi holding a banner with the symbol of the 51st Battalion of the Golani brigade (Source).

With thanks to Dena Shunra.

 

Written FOR

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SPECIAL IMAGE IN HONOUR OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. AND INAUGURATION DAY

January 21, 2013 at 08:29 (Civil Rights, History, Holidays, War Crimes)

 MLK vs BHO
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dreamdrone350

1 Comment

AN ISLAMOPHOBIC CHRISTMAS GREETING FROM ISRAEL

December 26, 2012 at 12:53 (Extremism, Holidays, Islamophobia, Israel, Palestine, zionist harassment)

Christmas is officially here, so is Islamophobia!
See and hear for yourselves in his own words…
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Full text of message
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Today, Christian communities throughout the Middle East are shrinking, and many of them are endangered. This is, of course, not true in Israel. Here there is a strong and growing Christian community that participates fully in the life of our country. Israel is proud of its record of religious tolerance and pluralism, and Israel will continue to protect freedom of religion for all. And we will continue to safeguard places of Christian worship throughout our country. We will not tolerate any acts of violence or discrimination against any place of worship. This is not our way, and this is something we cannot accept.

So as you celebrate Christmas and your holy holidays, we hope that you will recall the places where Judaism and Christianity emerged, and then come see our ancient land with your own eyes: visit Nazareth and Bethlehem, wade into the Jordan River, stand on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
And next year, come visit our eternal capital, Jerusalem.

Happy holidays to all of you. May you all be blessed with a year of security, prosperity and peace.

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ISRAEL DECLARES WAR ON CHRISTMAS

December 26, 2012 at 11:07 (Believe it or not, Extremism, Hasbara, Holidays, Israel, Palestine, zionist harassment)

 Here’s the latest ‘exhibit’ in Israel’s ‘Museum of Tolerance’
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Forbidden to celebrate: Israel’s war on Christmas continues despite Netanyahu’s claim of tolerance

Submitted by Ali Abunimah 

Palestinian children play outside Deir Latin church in Gaza City on Christmas Eve 2012.

 (Ezz Al-Zanoon /APA images)

In his Christmas greeting video, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of Israel’s supposed religious tolerance.

“Today Christian communities around the Middle East are shrinking and in danger. This is of course not true in Israel. Here there’s a strong, growing Christian community that participates fully in the life of our country,” Netanyahu said.

Vowing to “continue to protect freedom of religion and thought,” Netanyahu also promised “to safeguard Christian places of worship throughout our country” and not to “tolerate any acts of violence or discrimination against any place of worship.”

Making a pitch for Christian Zionist tourism he urged listeners to “Come see our ancient land with your own eyes. Visit Nazareth and Bethlehem, wade in the Jordan River, stand on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and next year come visit our eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

His inclusion of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, as well as the banks of the Jordan River, can be taken as another affirmation that Israel, despite its rhetoric, has no interest in a “two-state solution” and intends to absorb all of historic Palestine as an exclusively “Jewish state.”

Disappearing Christmas trees

Netanyahu’s professions of tolerance would have come as news to Palestinian Christian students at Safad Academic College in the Galilee. There, students who could not get home for the holidays bought a Christmas tree and set it up outside their dorm.

But in the evening when they got back from class, they found the tree was gone, Israel’sWalla! News reported.

“This is the saddest Christmas,” said Gabriel Mansour, 24, a third-year political science student, identified by Walla! as a representative of Arab students. “All we wanted to do was provide some good cheer for all the students who remained alone in the dorms, and who were unable to go home to their families.”

When Mansour investigated, he was told by college officials that the tree had been hidden lest it spark riots among the Jewish students.

“I was angry to hear this,” said Mansour of the claim that the tree might spark riots among Jewish students and residents of Safad. “Unfortunately they don’t respect our holidays. We fully respect all Israeli holidays. Why can no one respect our traditions? Why can’t we put up a Christmas tree?”

“I do not think Christmas should be marked with such ostentation,” Walla! quoted an unnamed Jewish student saying. “The college has a distinctly Jewish character. It’s not healthy for anyone to be able to do whatever he wants.”

And there was a mini-scandal when the girlfriend of Yair Netanyahu, the son of the Israeli prime minister, posted a photo of the youth wearing a Santa hat and posing next to a Christmas tree, on Facebook. Under the photo was the caption “My Christian boy.”

The prime minister’s office was forced to issue a statement that the image was a joke and that Yair had been attending a party hosted by “Christian Zionists who love Israel, and whose children served in the IDF,” Israel’s Channel 2 reported. Nevertheless the photo was removed from Facebook.

State rabbis order bans on Christmas

The ban on Christmas at Safad college is no isolated incident. For several years, Shimon Gapso, the notoriously racist mayor of the Israeli settlement of “Upper Nazareth” in the Galilee, has banned Christmas trees, calling them a provocation. “Nazareth Illit [Upper Nazareth] is a Jewish city and it will not happen – not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor,” Gapso said.

According to journalist Jonathan Cook in Nazareth, such bans continue and are widespread this year with Israel’s state-financed rabbis warning hotels and restaurants that they will lose their kosher certifications if they put up trees or other Christmas decorations or hold Christmas events.

“In other words,” Cook says, “the rabbinate has been quietly terrorising Israeli hotel owners into ignoring Christmas by threatening to use its powers to put them out of business. Denying a hotel its kashrut (kosher) certificate would lose it most of its Israeli and foreign Jewish clientele.”

Publicly visible Christmas tree could “injure the souls of Jews”

When the Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem this year put up a small Christmas tree near the Jaffa Gate, there were strong protests from rabbis. Occupation municipality city council member Rabbi Shmuel Yitzhaki told settler news website Arutz 7 that the display was a “desecration” and a “grave offense against the Jewish people” and that it was “inconceivable” that a Christmas tree should be allowed in a “public place” where it might be seen by Jews on their way to pray at the Western Wall in eastern occupied Jerusalem.

Mina Fenton, a former city council member, said, “There’s a Christian Quarter. They can put it [the tree] up there,” where it couldn’t “injure the souls of Jews.”

Christmas trees as propaganda for ethnic cleansing group JNF

While Israel’s official rabbis, colleges and municipalities discourage or ban displays of Christmas trees, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the racist state-backed agency actively engaged in ethnically cleansing Palestinians and stealing their land for exclusive use by Jews, has found a way to use Christmas trees to paint a false image of itself as a promoter of multicultural harmony.

The JNF, which misrepresents itself as an environmental charity, now gives away some trees and felled branches particularly to foreign embassies, for use as Christmas trees in private homes, and markets the initiative as outreach to maintain “good relations between religions.” Against the background of the JNF’s true activities, such cynical propaganda should convince no one. But it might be useful in raising donations from Christian Zionists.

Discrimination against Christianity inherent in Israel’s “Law of Return”

The efforts by Netanyahu and the JNF to present Israel as tolerant and friendly to Christians are important to maintain external, especially Christian Zionist support, and to hide a much uglier reality.

Israel claims to be a “Jewish state.” Its blatantly discriminatory “Law of Return” grants the automatic right to those it recognizes as Jews from anywhere in the world to emigrate and receive citizenship even if they have no connection to the country. At the same time, Israel prevents indigenous Palestinian refugees, including those born there, from returning home just because they are not Jews.

But according to the US State Department in its 2011 report on religious freedom around the world, Israel specifically applies a blatantly anti-Christian test in applying this bigoted law:

The question of whether one believes Jesus is the Jewish Messiah has been used to determine whether a Jew was qualified to immigrate. The [Israeli] Supreme Court repeatedly has upheld the right, however, of Israeli Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah to retain their citizenship. The immigration exclusion was routinely applied only against Messianic Jews, whereas Jews who were atheists were accepted, and Jews who chose to believe in other religions, including Hindus and Buddhists, were not screened out.

In other words a “Jew” can be an atheist, Hindu, or Buddhist – anything at all – and be granted citizenship by Israeli authorities. It is only a belief in Jesus that disqualifies them.

Attacks on Christian holy sites

As for Netanyahu’s promise that Christian holy sites would be protected, he failed to mention that in recent months, Israeli settlers, acting with the collusion of Israeli authorities, have stepped up so-called “price tag” attacks on Christian holy sites.

Meanwhile, Christmas celebrations proceeded this year in Gaza and in Iran, where municipal authorities in Tehran have in recent years put up banners celebrating the birth of Jesus on many main streets. Both Iran and Gaza re Muslim-majority places that Israeli propaganda loves to paint as particularly intolerant of religious minorities.

Few countries live up to their own claims about religious freedom and tolerance and many must do better. But selling Israel in particular, whose whole raison d’être is to privilege Jews qua Jews over the indigenous Palestinian population of any religion, as a paragon of tolerance and pluralism is patently absurd.

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Written FOR

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CHRISTMAS CHEER FROM PALESTINE, BIRTHPLACE OF JESUS

December 25, 2012 at 13:57 (Associate Post, Culture, Holidays, Palestine)

BethlehemPeace
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Bethlehem (Aramaic for House of Laham, the Canaanitic God of Sustenance) area is decked in colors and the best and most beautiful lights are the smiles on the faces of our children.  On Saturday evening, we attended a Christian service that was a joint service with the National Cathedral in Washington DC. The Palestinian children bell choir was uplifting.   Children led the lighting of the candles at churches, the singing, and the choirs and they outnumbered adults in most activities.  We were blessed by visited homes of poor children of different faiths. On Monday 3500 members of marching bands/scouts (most youth under 18) led parades near the apartheid wall separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem towards the Nativity square. Some of the marching youth were Muslims.  The marching band from Gaza (Christian and Muslim) was not allowed to participate by the Israeli occupation authorities.  Earlier in the day, children in the square formed a large peace symbol and the words “LOVE ALL” with their bodies in front of the massive Christmas tree in the square.  The United Nations Work and Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) had banners asking people to remember the suffering children in Gaza and Syria. 
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Above text written by Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

4 Comments

WISHING YOU AND YOURS A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

December 24, 2012 at 15:06 (Holidays, Israel, Oppression, Palestine)

Can you see what’s wrong with this image?
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SMALL_WRHChristmasCardv2 (1)
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The three Wise Men from the East saw a star and followed it.  Instead of a guiding star, today’s skies in the East (from Gaza to Afghanistan and Pakistan) are crowded with a constellation of drones, the modern day aerial assault rifles that rain hell-fires to incinerate innocent civilians and children. Do you suppose that the holiday shoppers in America and the Western world have ever thought of the slaughter of innocents (with American made weapons) in Gaza, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan? Yes, today’s skies in the aforementioned light up with effervescent phosphorous bombs..
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This is what the first Christmas would look like if it took place today …
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Refugees in Their Own Land
by RAOUF J. HALABY*

In Early November a colleague requested that I compose a few thoughts for our church’s Advent 2012 booklet. I selected the Luke 2: 1-7 text for reasons personal, professional, and textual. What follows (with additional poignant comments) was printed for the December 20, 2012, Advent reading.

My family resided in a West Jerusalem suburb (just off the centuries-old Jerusalem-  Bethlehem Road) and some 11 miles from the historic city of Bethlehem, the place natal of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. This road is believed to be the path that Joseph and Mary negotiated on their way to Bethlehem.  And, of all the Bible nativity narratives, Luke’s narrative is my favorite. This was the same road on which I traversed, on foot, to attend school, church, visit friends, and go to the YMCA, an internationally renowned West Jerusalem landmark.

Born in Antakia (Antioch), not too far from Aleppo (Halab, the city from where my ancestors migrated in the 15th century and a city decimated by civil war), Lukas, whose Anglicized name is Luke, is believed to have been of Greek origin.  Imbued with the Hellenistic spirit, he was a well-travelled and erudite man. While he was sometimes referred to as a physician, scholars have observed that, because of his ability to write in a lucid and informative manner, he was a historian who proclaimed the Good News in an objective, straight forward, and intellectual manner.  Some scholars have even declared him a historian in the manner of the Thucydides.

In late December of 1957 a group of American pilgrims/tourists with broadcasting connections visited Jerusalem to transmit to the United States a live Christmas radio program from Jerusalem. When they heard that a few Christian Palestinian families resided in West Jerusalem (yes, prior to their being ethnically cleansed by the Israelis in 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinian Christians lived in Jerusalem and Palestine), they decided to interview a Palestinian family so as to give the program a measure of National Geographic local flavor. My twin brother and I were selected to read Bible passages, and to this day I remember that textual materials from Chapters 1 & 2 of the Gospel of Lukas were selected; today’s advent passage is that same passage that I read   55 years ago this December.  And it is the same passage that my paternal grandmother (the daughter of Greek immigrants to Palestine) read to her grandchildren from her Greek Bible.

As an Art Historian, I have become very fond of Luke because he inspired Byzantine, Eastern and Russian Orthodox, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque artists both stylistically and thematically.  Since the fourth century artists have depicted Luke not only as one of the four evangelists whose canonical gospels are foundational textual materials for the New Testament,  but also as an artist positioned in front of  and in the act of painting Mary and the infant Jesus. This portrait within a portrait of Mary became an iconic theme in Eastern and Western Europe, including the Near East.  Some scholars have opined that the depiction of Mary as Theotokos (God Bearer) was a theme first articulated by Luke.  I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to view such portraits at St. Katherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai, several churches in occupied Jerusalem, The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, and St. Marco in Venice, Italy.  Dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries, this depiction of Mary became the prototype for a large body of mosaics and paintings culminating in the Russian Vladmir Virgin icon.  Replicas of this portrait grace churches across Asia Minor and the Near East and are displayed in homes. Christian Taxi drivers in the Arab World, Greece and Eastern Europe have been known to hang an icon of this art work from their rear view mirrors. And in 1982 Lebanese Phalange Christian forces glued similar images on the butts of the machine guns they used to murder defenseless Palestinians, including scores of innocent children.

While the Eastern Rites made Mary and Jesus the focal point of their paintings, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch artists included Luke as an active participant in their depictions of Mary and Jesus.   Guercino, El Greco, Vasari, and Bouts, to name but a few of the Western European artists, portrayed Luke in the act of painting Mary and using a variety of mediums, including encaustic (wax and pigments), egg tempera, silverpoint,  and oil compositions either on wood panels or canvases.  Because of its iconic symbolism and visually powerful associations, the artists’ guilds designated Luke as their patron saint.

After reading the Gospel of Luke, one is struck by Luke’s lucid prose and by his ability to utilize historical events in a most skillful narrative style,  and it becomes obvious that he loved the poor, that he was very inclusive and strongly believed that the Kingdom of God was for everyone, regardless  of creed, class, or background, that he respected women, that he saw hope in God’s Mercy, and that he preached forgiveness  — themes that should resonate even to this day in what I fear to be a world  plagued with wars, violence, corporate greed, corrupt politicians, and a lack of respect for and stewardship of the environment. Cha- Ching, Cha-Ching  clamors the NRA and its dealers throughout this nation, and please don’t mess with my 2ndAmendment. And, since that infamous Friday, December 14, 2012 massacre of the innocents, the sale of assault rifles has never been any better.  Cha- Ching goes the arms industry; Cha Ching  go the politicians who sell the weapons to dictators and thugs around the world.

The three Wise Men from the East saw a star and followed it.  Instead of a guiding star, today’s skies in the East (from Gaza to Afghanistan and Pakistan) are crowded with a constellation of drones, the modern day aerial assault rifles that rain hell-fires to incinerate innocent civilians and children. Do you suppose that the holiday shoppers in America and the Western world have ever thought of the slaughter of innocents (with American made weapons) in Gaza, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan? Yes, today’s skies in the aforementioned light up with effervescent phosphorous bombs.

Refugees in their own land with no accommodations and about to have a child, Joseph and Mary are not unlike the poor, down and out disenfranchised people in our own midst, including the refugees of Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria.  In verse 7 Luke sums it up thusly:  “She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”  While the Prince of Peace encountered a NO VACANCY sign at the moment of his birth, his life, ministry, and his message of Peace on Earth is a much needed clarion in our own times, whether at home or around the world. Are there any leaders willing to step up? Or, are they too busy peddling and gift wrapping tanks, guided missiles, jet fighters, and drones as Cha-Ching gifts from a country that clamors American exceptionalism yet does not practice it?

*Raouf J. Halaby is a Professor of English and Art at a private Liberal Arts university in Arkansas. 

 

Written FOR

5 Comments

CHRISTMAS WITHOUT JESUS

December 9, 2012 at 11:40 (Action Alert, Holidays, Israel, Occupation, Palestine, zionist harassment)

 What if ….
Joseph and Mary were not allowed to enter Bethlehem?
What would the narrative look like today??
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The artist Banksky sees it like this in his annual Christmas card …
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banksyx-mas
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Text on Card:

The people of Bethlehem are asking for our help.

Towering walls and militarized fences now encircle Bethlehem, turning the 4,000-year-old city into a virtual prison for its Palestinian Christian and Muslim citizens. Bethlehem has only three gates to the outside world, all tightly controlled by Israeli occupation forces.

Israel has confiscated almost all the agricultural land in the area for illegal settlements, making it impossible for many Palestinian farmers to continue tending their land. Outside the town, the fields where shepherds once watched their flocks are being filled by Israeli housing blocs and roads barred to the descendants of those shepherds.

“It is unconscionable that Bethlehem should be allowed to die slowly from strangulation,” says South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Bethlehem’s residents increasingly are fleeing Israel’s confining walls, and soon the city, home to the oldest Christian community in the world, will have little left of its Christian history but the cold stones of empty churches.

Though most Americans don’t know it, we are directly involved in Israel’s strangulation of Bethlehem. Fortune Magazine and other analysts consistently rank the Israel lobby as one of the most effective special interests in Washington; Americans give Israel over $8 million per day. In its just over 60 years of existence, Israel has received more US tax money than any other nation.

As we seek peace and joy for the world, it is time to reconsider an expenditure that perpetuates injustice, tragic violence, and conflict. Please help.
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The card can be ordered FROM

6 Comments

ON THANKSGIVING; LOOKING AT TRUCES AND TREATIES

November 22, 2012 at 06:46 (Corrupt Politics, DesertPeace Exclusive, Gaza, History, History In The Making, Holidays, Israel, Palestine, Peace)

 CanandaiguaTreaty
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Hopefully the truce  declared between Israel and Gaza will last longer than THIS one did ….
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Article 4. The United States having thus described and acknowledged that lands belong to the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and engaged never to claim the same, nor to disturb them, or any of the Six Nations, or their Indian friends residing thereon, and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof; now, the Six Nations, and each of them, hereby engage that they will never claim any other lands within the boundaries of the United States, nor ever disturb the people of the United States in the free use and enjoyment thereof.
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The reality was …..
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Thanks Giving .. A poem by Tom Karlson

“I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the western view of the Indian. I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indian is the dead Indian, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”

Teddy Roosevelt

 

 

 

That original sin

Our original sin

Not a talking snake sin

No Adam or Eve sin

 

This original sin

This first holocaust sin

This First Nation

60 million

Double helixed

Chromosome

Long gone sin

200 languages silenced sin

This good, dead, jailed, Indian sin

 

as

 

310 million All-Americans

Sit at the table

Football and eats

Giving thanks

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And a parody written by Michael Rivero of WRH

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Types With Tired Fingers

I have recently had a religious epiphany. I have decided to convert to the Sun Dance faith. This is a religion practiced by many of the North American native people for thousands of years. It’s easy to be a Sun Dancer; you can see the Sun! That’s a definite plus compared to religions relying on that imaginary playmate in the sky.I have long felt a kinship with my newly adopted religion and people as you can see in this photo of myself and my wife from the early 1990s.

  

In the spirit of traditional naming custom I have taken an aspect of my life as a blogger and adopted my new Native American name, “Types With Tired Fingers.” Because I am now religiously connected with the original people of the North American continent, who have been there for thousands of years, I hereby call on the United States Government to withdraw and return this land to its rightful traditional owners, myself included. After all, “We” were here first!

Sounds silly, doesn’t it?

And it is. My actual ancestry is a blend of Sephardic, French, and English. There is a family legend regarding a teensy bit of Huron blood, but no real documentation to support it. I am not actually a Native American. And pretending to their religion does not make me one.

Yet this very same silliness underlies the Israeli claim to Palestine. The Jews who migrated to Palestine after World War 2 are not descendants of the Hebrews you read about in the Bible. They are descended from Khazars in central Asia, near present-day Russian Georgia, who converted to Judaism in 800AD. Khazaria fell a century later and the descendants of the converted Jews migrated northward into Russia and west into Europe. This group of Jews, called Ashkenazi, are not descended from any of the 12 tribes described in the Bible. DNA tests confirm this, as does their pale skin that makes it clear they are not originally from the Middle East.

Thus, Israel’s claim to the lands of Palestine rests solely on the fact that they have adopted the religion of a people who lived on that land thousands of years ago. One might just as easily adopt the religion of Ra and on that basis lay claim to Egypt.

Of course, common sense says that simply adopting the religion of the Sun Dance does not give me a claim to the lands of the United States. Were I to worship Ra (or Aten), likewise does not give me a claim to the lands of Egypt. Worshipping Sol Invictus does not give me claim to Italy.

And worshipping Yahweh does not give the Khazars any real right to Palestine.

Just something to think about.

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EID AL ADHA 2012 ~~ PALESTINE, THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB

October 25, 2012 at 08:33 (Activism, Collective Punishment, DesertPeace Editorial, Dictatorship, Ethnic Cleansing, Extremism, Hasbara, Holidays, Israel, Oppression, Palestine, zionist harassment)

 
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The Muslim Festival, Eid Al-Adha will start tonight at sundown. It is a celebration to remember the willingness of ʾIbrāhīm (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismā’īl (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep to sacrifice instead.
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If we look at the reality of the Middle East today, we see that it is not a sheep that is being sacrificed, but rather the entire nation of Palestine. It is not Ibrahim that stands at the alter today, but rather it is the zionist entity called Israel that thinks it is fulfilling its obedience to God, in their chosen role of the Chosen People.
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It is no longer a three day celebration, but rather an ongoing one for over 60 years. Below are just a few of the latest examples describing the situation in Israel/Palestine today, examples which should shame any supporter of zionism throughout the world. But first, allow me to wish all of my Muslim Brothers and Sisters
Eid Al-Adha Mubarek!
May we very soon see a free Palestine!!
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Palestinians beaten, arrested during protest at settlement supermarket

By Mya Guarnieri

Approximately 100 Palestinians and a handful of international activists entered the Rami Levy supermarket in the West Bank settlement of Sha’ar Binyamin Wednesday morning to ‘protest occupation and settler terror’ and to call for the boycott of ‘the occupation and its products.’ Two Palestinians and two internationals were beaten and arrested. 

Activists in Rami Levy supermarket in Shaar Binyamin settlement (photo: flickr/Activestills)

Palestinian and international activists were unarmed. Carrying flags and signs, they entered the supermarket, chanting for freedom. They say that the Israeli police used excessive force to disperse the nonviolent protest.

Activist Abir Kopty, who was at the scene, reported that “as activists exited the building, about forty policemen and soldiers were waiting outside, they attacked physically the demonstrators and fired stun grenades at them, causing several injuries, two of which were taken by ambulance to the hospital.”

Bassem Tamimi, head of Nabi Saleh’s Popular Committee, was among the injured. He reportedly suffered broken ribs as a result of being beaten by Israeli forces as he was arrested.

This protest emphasizes, according to Kopty, that “as long as there is no justice to Palestinians, Israeli and settler daily life can’t continue on as normal.”

Bassem Tamimi being arrested in the Shaar Binyamin settlement today (photo: flickr/Activestills)

Last week also saw a protest that disrupted the flow of Israelis and settlers everyday life when a group of 50 Palestinian activists blocked Route 443 for half an hour. The road is built on occupied Palestinian land and connects settlements, which the international community considers illegal, to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. To an Israeli driver, Route 443 essentially erases the Green Line and gives the impression that the occupied West Bank is part of the country. The action of blocking the road may have reminded the Israelis who use it that the land 443 runs through is, indeed, occupied.

Source

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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And from Gideon Levy;

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Meet the Israelis

One-third of Israelis want to deny Arab citizens the right to vote; about half of Israelis favor a policy of ‘transferring’ Arabs out of the country; and a majority says there is apartheid here. We need to finally give up on the hope that things will get better.

By Gideon Levy 

Nice to make your acquaintance, we’re racist and pro-apartheid. The poll whose results were published in Haaretz on Tuesday, conducted by Dialog and commissioned by the Yisraela Goldblum Fund, proved what we always knew, if not so bluntly. It’s important to recognize the truth that has been thrown in our faces and those of the world (where the survey is making waves ). But it’s even more important to draw the necessary conclusions from it.

Given the current reality, making peace would be an almost anti-democratic act: Most Israelis don’t want it. A just, egalitarian society would also violate the wishes of most Israelis: That, too, is something they don’t want. They’re satisfied with the racism, comfortable with the occupation, pleased with the apartheid; things are very good for them in this country. That’s what they told the pollsters.

Until a courageous leadership arises here, the kind that appears only rarely in history, and tries to change this nationalist, racist mood, there’s no point in hoping for change to come from below. It won’t come; indeed, it can’t come, because it is contrary to the desires of most Israelis. This fact must be recognized.

The world must also recognize this. Those who long to reach an agreement and draw up periodic peace plans must finally recognize that Israelis are plainly telling them, “No thanks, we’re not interested.” The Arab world must similarly recognize that this survey (and others like it ) is Israel’s real Bar-Ilan speech.

It’s hard to blame Israelis. Years of brainwashing; the demonization and dehumanization of Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular; coupled with years of vicious terror, have left their scars. What, for heaven’s sake, do you want from Israelis, who are exposed daily to the media telling them, for instance, that the recent visit to the Gaza Strip by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who came to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to build roads, is “Qatar for terror” (as the lead headline in yesterday’s Hebrew edition of Israel Hayom put it )? Why would they want to make peace with those who for decades have been systematically portrayed to them seeking only to annihilate them?

Why would the average Israeli agree to have an Arab student in his child’s class or an Arab family in his apartment building if he has never met an Arab and knows of them only as terrorists, criminals or primitive people – the only images of Arabs to which he has been exposed? Why would he think that discrimination against Arabs by government ministries is a bad thing if the only reality he knows is one where Arabs are sewer workers or street sweepers, and he doesn’t know that Arabs are capable of more than that?

After all, even secular Israelis, who displayed the most tolerant views in the survey, don’t actually know who they’re talking about. When have they ever met an Arab? When have their children met one? And if they have, what kind of Arab have they met besides the delivery boy from the grocery store, the owner of the neighborhood greengrocer, the car-wash employee, Ahmed the plasterer or scaffolding builder? And that’s without even talking about Palestinians: The last time (and also the first ) they met a Palestinian, if ever, was during their army service, through the sight of a rifle, as a suspicious and dangerous object.

Nevertheless, this brainwashing doesn’t absolve Israelis of responsibility. It’s true that the education system, and even more so the media, incite and inflame, sow hatred and fear. But they do so to conform to their audience’s tastes. It’s a depressingly vicious circle, in which it isn’t clear which came first.

After all, if the Israeli media thought their brainwashing was repulsive to its customers they would long since have abandoned it. But it knows its customers’ hearts. The political establishment, too, understands the nature of the beast. That’s why we are now caught in a mad, dizzying race to the right: Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid is vying with Labor Party leader Shelly Yacimovich over who is more right-wing.

Thus the situation can’t be excused on the grounds of incitement: Israelis are always happy to be incited against the Arab from Baka or the Palestinian from the casbah. Ratings-conscious media and politicians facing primary battles are only hitching a ride on them.

One-third of Israelis want to deny Arab citizens the right to vote; about half of Israelis favor a policy of “transferring” Arabs out of the country; and a majority says there is apartheid here. We need to finally give up on the hope that things will get better.

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HOLIDAYS: A TIME TO LOVE OR TO HATE

September 27, 2012 at 16:03 (DesertPeace Editorial, Flashback.... from the archives, Holidays, Israel)

Preparations are underway to usher in a week long holiday in Israel. It is called Succot, or The Feast of the Tabernacles. We eat all of our meals in little booths and the ceilings are usually made of tree branches, allowing the sky to be visible. It is a reminder of the 40 years we roamed in the desert and dwelled in such structures. It is actually quite a fun holiday and a very community oriented one, it is one of my favourites.
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A non Jewish visitor to Jerusalem this week might get the impression that the entire city stands in solidarity with the homeless Palestinians illegally evicted from their homes by settlers. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Tents have appeared (actually booths) in preparation of the Festival
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Family homes were STOLEN, many families have been living in makeshift tents for over three years…. and neither the Municipality of Jerusalem nor the Palestinian Authority gives a damn. As winter approaches, a new meaning is given to the term ‘settlement freeze’ as these homeless literally freeze in their abodes.
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I had some flashbacks this morning to my Succot celebrations in Brooklyn as a child, they were much different than here. Here there is a Jewish community and an Arab community. In the neighbourhood I grew up in, there was a Eastern European Jewish Community (Ashkenazi) and a community made up of Spanish Jews and Jews from Northern Africa (Sephardi). Both communities had their own traditions and practices, but basically both were members of the same religion. One of the major differences between the two communities at the time were language, the Ashkenazi Jews spoke Yiddish; a language with Germanic roots, while the Sephardi Jews spoke a language called Ladino; a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish.
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What I remembered this morning was the following;The Synagogue of the Sephardi community was situated very close to the home of my grandparents. They used to build a large enough booth to accommodate their entire congregation. As a child, I used to help them with the preparations. I remembered my grandmother screaming at me from her window to get away from them, not to play with their kids…. I could never understand why. It seemed that part of her ghetto mentality was to distrust anyone that was in any way different. These people were different than we were, as mentioned; they spoke a different language and, for the most part, had darker skins than the Ashkenazi Jews. The younger generation, like myself did not see these differences as our common language was English and skin colour was never an issue with me or my immediate family. I therefore could never understand my grandmother’s logic, or lack of…. So I secretly maintained my friendships with the kids there.
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Today, I started thinking about prejudice, why it exists, how to overcome it…. It seems to exist because of ignorance and fear, two very real factors. How to overcome it? Learn about each other and the fear factor will be eliminated. Very simple! It worked in my case.Things are different today, in Israel at least. The Jewish community celebrates together. We have a common language, Hebrew. There are still some remnants of the old world prejudice, but for the most part it’s gone. Now to overcome the prejudices between the Jewish and Arab communities here. My way is to open my booth, as well as my home, to ALL members of the community, both Arab and Jew.  It’s the only way to guarantee an end to the hatred… live together! So, instead of fearing the differences of the others, my philosophy is to say
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VIVA LA DIFFERENCE!
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Let us all live together as neighbours and brothers.Shalom-Salaam!

4 Comments

SHANA TOVA ~~ HAPPY NEW YEAR

September 16, 2012 at 21:41 (Holidays)

 May this Rosh HaShana usher in a year of peace and progress for all of humanity.
A year without wars or walls!
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DesertPeace and Associates wishes all of our Jewish readers and friends the best for the New Year!
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Shana Tova!
A Gut Yohr!!
Happy New Year!!!                           
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Shana Metukah!
A Zis Yohr!!
A Sweet Year!!!                                   
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Shana Im Briyut!
A Gezint Yohr!!
A Healthy Year!!!
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Shana Im Shalom!
A Yohr Mit Shalom!!
A Year of PEACE!!!

 Enjoy

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1 Comment

ON LABOUR DAY, AND EVERY OTHER DAY, LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL

September 2, 2012 at 10:49 (Activism, Class Struggle, Economy, Holidays)

 
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Don’t Just Look for Union Label

On Labor Day, Time To Rethink Old Progressive Mantra

By Ari Paul*

Labor Day has arrived, and families across the country will be getting their backyards ready for barbecues. In progressive circles, a familiar message is making the rounds: Buy union. Make sure your grill is a Weber or Thermador, made by union hands. Eat Butterball and Hebrew National franks. A list of brands has been circulating on social media sites with the goal of urging pro-labor consumers to support members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and other food sector and manufacturing unions.


Trade unionists encourage each other to “buy union” not only to show solidarity, but also to prop up unionized businesses. After all, nonunion competitors can afford to mark down their products, so it is up to us to keep union jobs alive. And we can punish anti-union companies by not giving them our business. The idea of letting your social conscience guide your purchases — whether it be boycotting or gorging on Chick-fil-A — is a familiar and popular American concept.

But at a time when a movement like Occupy Wall Street is proposing a new economic approach that isn’t based simply on stimulating consumer spending, perhaps this is the wrong approach. At the very least, we should examine at it a bit more critically.

I should make it known that I avoid anti-union FedEx. I don’t set foot in a Walmart unless I’m stranded in the middle of a highway in America with no other option. On more than one occasion, I’ve defended my preference for plebeian Budweiser or Miller High Life over more sophisticated micro-brews by pointing to the union label.

But this assumes that the benefits union workers have at these companies are the result not of collective action, which forced the employer to comply with worker demands, but of consumers lining the pockets of the bosses. Through active consumerism, the “buy union” narrative shifts the power to driving change from worker struggle. Furthermore, there is something terribly Reagan-istic about assuming that making bosses at unionized firms even richer will allow the wealth to trickle down to Joe Sixpack.

In fact, it often doesn’t. Many of the major strikes and lockouts in this country over the past several years — at Verizon, Sotheby’s, Mott’s (which is on the Labor Day BBQ list) and Caterpillar — involved companies demanding draconian wage and benefit concessions from workers not because of increased competition or falling revenues, but despite whopping profits.

Think of it this way: If I send a package via UPS (where workers are represented by the Teamsters) and my patronage helps keep the parcel company in the black, how can I expect the surplus to be used? Will it be voluntarily invested in a new safety program for workers or through increased pension contributions? Or will it go to corporate lawyers and public relations hacks to help fight the union in the next round of contract talks?

Also, if you look at the list of Labor Day “union” items, you see a lot of odious actors. Though its workers are unionized, Smithfield has been condemned by both labor groups and by animal rights activists for its atrocious slaughterhouse conditions. The list urges people to buy Coca-Cola products even though many unionists are boycotting the company for its connection to violence against labor organizers in Colombia. Hormel Red Franks is also on the list; in the mid-80s the company fought against its meatpackers and were successful in the campaign, which, along with Ronald Reagan’s firing of air traffic controllers. marked the decline of the American labor movement.

Of course, when it is feasible and ethical to buy union, there’s not a problem with that. And there’s a sense that buying union proves to free-market advocates that it is possible for companies to invest more in employees and remain competitive. But the fact is, buying union is a kind of “least I can do” approach. It isn’t clear that shopping at Costco, which has union-represented locations and pays its employees above the industry standards according to labor groups, will change Walmart’s ways anytime soon. America can’t buy its way to labor reform; that will take massive legal changes and, most of all, grassroots organizing among workers, not patting employers on the back for not having broken the union at their place of business.

Things such as green products thrive because a lot of people demand them. Sadly, union membership is at less than 15% in the United States, and that’s not enough people to move markets — or company ethics.

*Ari Paul has written for The Nation, the Guardian, Z Magazine and Al Jazeera English. He is a dues-paying member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Written FOR

 The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

1 Comment

CELEBRATING EID AL FITR AROUND THE WORLD

August 20, 2012 at 08:30 (DesertPeace Editorial, Holidays, Israel, Palestine)

Eid Mubarak!
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During the Holy month of Ramadan I was awakened by calls from the local mosque every morning at 4 A.M. …. I named that particular call the Jewish Mother Wakeup Call …. GET UP AND EAT!!!!!
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Ramadan falling during the hot months of summer is literally no picnic … no drinking from sunrise to sunset …. the pre dawn meal is a must for those that partake in the fast.
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So, we had a month of ‘wakeup calls’ at 4… they each lasted for less than a minute.
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Then …. finally yesterday morning the call came at 20 minutes to 6 … it lasted till 10 to 7! Ramadan was finally over and Eid Al Fitr has arrived.
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Needless to say, there are some that find these calls annoying. Personally, I find those very people annoying!
Netanyahu is one of them as can be seen below….
All I can say to him is what Helen Thomas already said, ‘GO BACK TO POLAND IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT HERE’!
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Netanyahu backs law to ban loudspeakers at mosques

‘There’s no need to be more liberal than Europe,’ PM says of move that would ban loudspeakers in calls to prayer.

Report HERE
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A mosque in Kafr Azarya next to the Maaleh Adumim settlement.   Photo by Emil Salman

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EID AL FITR MUBARAK

August 17, 2012 at 12:35 (Collective Punishment, DesertPeace Editorial, Holidays, Israel, Palestine, Religion, zionist harassment)

 
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The Glorious Holy Month of Ramadan will be coming to an end some time tomorrow… ushering in the wonderful feast days of Eid-al-Fitr. A time for joyous celebrations with families, a time to feel completely renewed and refreshed.

That’s how it’s spelled out in the books…

Unfortunately in Palestine the book is written differently… families are divided, family members are denied entry to join in the celebrations, families are mourning their loved ones killed by Israeli forces.
It’s time for all to celebrate! It’s time for all families to be together!

Damn those that won’t let this be!!

Let us hope that soon the situation will be different and we can all be together… secure in our own Homeland…. secure with a Right of Return… and THE RIGHT TO STAY!
In the meantime…. AL-EID-MUBARAK!!! Make the best of it and try to enjoy.

Never give up the dream and hope that all will be good one day…
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From the archives, a timely essay written by our Associate Khalid Amayreh. It was written three years ago, but nothing has changed since.

15 Comments

RAMADAN KAREEM ~~ 1433 (2012)

July 19, 2012 at 06:55 (Holidays)

To all of my Muslim Brothers and Sisters….
May this year’s Ramadan usher in a new era of Peace and Hope….
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Ramadan Kareem!

7 Comments

IN MEMORY OF MEMORIAL DAY

May 26, 2012 at 11:05 (Guest Post, History, Holidays, Poetry)

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  Memorial Days

By Tom Karlson

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they sang and prayed,

naming that day in May,

257 Union men captured, starved

mass-graved, bodies twisted,

joined at hip arm and head, this

Charleston South Carolina

Babi Yar Confederate style burial

re-interred with honor and memory

by 10,000 Freedmen

in 1866 that first day of mourning

the first Memorial Day

*

today we are at Jones beach

it is Memorial Day

we are fifty souls

remembering our dead, the dead

hundreds of Long Islanders

thousands of North Americans

a million Iraqis and Afghanis

*

families stroll past

some look, others visionless

all have come to eat, drink,

and salute that insatiable war-beast

they watch the Blue Angles

spin, flip, dive, and swoop,

aging chicken hawks

beg boys and girls to sign up for

the navy, the marines, the air force

*

I am also remembering other Memorial Days

2010,

the Turkish flotilla

bringing aid to Gaza

the Israeli attack,

nine dead

*

1937,

steelworkers are on  strike at Little Steel,

families march

police-guards-scabs open fire

ten dead

thirty shot

one hundred clubbed

*

let us remember our Memorial Days

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