TIME TO UNMASK THE OCCUPATION

It is no longer enough to criticize Israel only mildly, but to finally impose sanctions.

Un-Masked in the annexation 
By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

At the moment it seems as if there are only two “system-relevant” topics in the news and print media: Corona with the anti-corona demonstrations and football. In Germany, fortunately, the least affected country, one has the impression that the protests are the most shrill and effective here. How can it be that a few thousand demonstrators, among whom are a few radicals and esoterics, who are actually a tiny minority, are causing our country and some security agencies to get excited? Aren’t you giving these business-minded troublemakers and YouTube millionaires exactly what they crave to continue in a media glitz? Wasn’t it the same with the beginnings of Pegida and AfD? Where else did these right-wing extremists become known? If Imperial Citizens, AfD and neo-Nazis undermine demonstrations by citizens concerned about their fundamental rights and democracy. then one should support these citizens in their desire for transparency and the sense of certain government measures. Only truthfulness creates clarity, and that must be the strength of democracy that has to be conveyed.

Do not present corona protests as “anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic”!

But what should actually scare us is not only the populists who want to keep us away from masks and distance keeping with false claims like “vaccination obligation” and other nonsense. But the legitimate protest must not be misused as cheap propaganda by right-wing extremists. However, it is unacceptable if the Israel lobby tries to portray protests as “anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic” in order to deliberately distract them from the processes surrounding the formation of the new “emergency unity government” in the “Jewish state”. Which has worked quite well so far, since the media and citizens are only interested in what is happening in Palestine and the world. It seems that football has a much higher priority than political issues. The AfD has also managed to

Is it astonishing when large police forces are deployed against largely peaceful demonstrations that, on the other hand, are sorely missed in many German cities, especially in the new federal states? How can it be that in Brandenburg or Saxony, for example, hordes of neo-Nazis and right-wing radicals have brought entire counties, towns and villages under their brown rule, that sports clubs are infiltrated and that neither police nor politics intervene? These are conditions that have been observed for many years and that have intensified enormously. If that is supposed to be democracy, then it really is over there.

In the meantime, democracy has long been infiltrated by powerful lobbyists, who try with all their might to assert their interests. And of course that brings me back to my topic Palestine! 

Collaboration with Israel worse than feared

When the EU foreign ministers debated and wanted to vote on how to achieve their common stance on annexation of parts of the Palestinian West Bank announced by Israel, things got worse than feared. The EU did indeed issue a declaration that can hardly be beaten in shamefulness. It is committed to a dialogue with the new government in Israel. I rubbed my eyes: dialogue after decades of land grabbing and countless crimes under international law? They make “males” and do not want to prejudge and are happy about the new unity government with which they would like to work, said one of the foreign ministers. What should EU cooperation look like with a government that makes no secret of its annexation goals? During Russia, Turkey, Iran and Venezuela,

While the “Jewish state” is protected from sanctions in peace of mind, protected by the EU and the hypocritical community of states, the “two-state solution” (always refused by Israel) is buried and a “Jewish-Zionist apartheid unitary state” set up for eternity, politics and media are silent. The “Jewish state” was never a “normal” state because it was able to build up its expansion regime time and again with reference to the Holocaust and international guilt. How else would such an uninhibited brutal displacement and ethnic cleansing to drive the natives from Palestine out of their homeland would have been possible when the state was founded in 1948? Why is Israel still allowed today? to deny Palestinian displaced persons and refugees their right to return? If the “Jewish state” were a “normal” state like any other, all crimes would not have gone unpunished to this day. It was only through the benevolent international support and impunity that this “Jewish state” was able to expand and consolidate its dominant position, which was contrary to international law. Where’s the appropriate response to these crimes? How can you always rely on a dialogue with a regime that never made a secret of its goals? It was only through the benevolent international support and impunity that this “Jewish state” was able to expand and consolidate its dominant position, which was contrary to international law. Where’s the appropriate response to these crimes? How can you always rely on a dialogue with a regime that never made a secret of its goals? It was only through the benevolent international support and impunity that this “Jewish state” was able to expand and consolidate its dominant position, which was contrary to international law. Where’s the appropriate response to these crimes? How can you always rely on a dialogue with a regime that never made a secret of its goals?

The Gaza Strip, where a Zionist siege and siege has been taking place for the last 13 years, which is unique in the world under our eyes, with terrible attacks on a helpless and defenseless population who, according to the UN report, is living in unsustainable conditions, is now doomed to To make masks for their Jewish occupiers so as not to starve in Corona times. If there is a report from this area, it is not the military attacks of Israel that are of interest, but always the “missiles” of “militant-radical-Islamic Hamas”, which do nothing anyway. What a shameful one-sided report that negates the suffering of the Palestinians and emphasizes the “self-defense” of the Zionists without truthfully reporting the cause and effect. Nothing has happened,

Finally sanction Israel! 

It is no longer enough to criticize Israel only mildly, but to finally impose sanctions. However, the Israelis know that the toothless tiger EU does not really want to oppose and disagree with them. And that the Luxembourg Foreign Minister Asselborn compares the (non) “annexation” of Crimea with the actual one of the West Bank is more than inappropriate. If the annexation of the Jordan Valley and the 128 Jewish settlements were actually to begin on July 1, and this has no consequences for the Zionist regime, then the EU has finally lost the last values ​​and morality if it had ever had them.

This further theft of an additional 30 to 40 percent of the West Bank puts another end to all peaceful efforts to live together. How long can the massive “public relations work” = Hasbara of the Israel lobbyists disguise his crimes as “peaceful self-defense”? How long can such crimes be covered up unless the international community continues to justify Jewish victim status as a justification The lobby is betting on this joker and is playing well with it. There is only one hope in this gloomy forecast: the one-state solution – that is: a state for all its citizens, for all ethnic groups and religions remain pious wishful thinking,

How uncritically seen the establishment of the new and largest, greediest, most expensive and bloated Israeli “unity government” with 36 ministers and 16 deputies is shocking. Their post business led to the fact that the swearing in, which had been postponed several times, only took place on May 17. This is a cabinet of like-minded people, led by a prime minister – the prime minister who is on the brink of corruption and an “alternate” prime minister, the former opposition leader and chief of staff in the Gaza War and now “war minister”, who, like Netanyahu, was long before the international because of his war crimes Court of Justice in The Hague belonged rather than to a government. 

Finally the “Jewish State”

Netanyahu said in his inaugural speech: “The time has come for everyone who believes in the legitimacy of our claims in the land of Israel.” It is precisely this saying that the EU should heed: “The time has come for the” Jewish state “to be treated like everyone else.” 

It is to be hoped that the King of Jordan, Abdallah, who warned of the dangerous effects of annexation, will then hopefully be correct The so-called peace with Jordan and mutual relations are worse than ever before. As long as there is no Palestinian unity, nothing can be expected from this side.

When US Secretary of State Pompeo visited Jerusalem on May 13, Gantz hunched so low in front of him – a picture with terrible symbolism. After Pompeo had met with all important Israeli partners, from the Mossad chief to the designated foreign minister Ashkenazi, also to advance nuclear projects and preparations for war (?), He gave the Zionist friends once again the green light for their preparations for annexation, which are entirely in the “decision of Israel” lie. He also urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday that it was not qualified to investigate possible Israeli crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. 

No pact with the most dangerous anti-BDS agitators!

It also fits that one of the former government’s most dangerous agitators, Gilat Erdan, becomes the new Israeli UN ambassador to the United States. He, who as minister for public security was also a supporter of strengthening the alliance with the evangelical movement, together with the notorious former Minister of Justice and “Meuse friend” Ayelet Shaked, initiated the “Facebook law” that allowed Israel to publish content that to be considered as directed against the interests of the “national security” of Israel by Facebook and Google. It was also he who ordered in 2017 to install cameras at the entrance and exit of the Al-Aqsa mosque, which could be prevented after Palestinian protests. And in 2018, he called on Israel, the time when Trump is in power,

As future ambassador to the UN, he also made it clear that he did not respect international law and world opinion by saying: “We tell the world that it does not matter what the nations of the world say”.

Erdan launched the law against BDS and freedom of speech, which the Knesset approved with 72 million, with the creation of a database of BDS supporters, a black list of 20 organizations officially banned from entering Israel . He has managed to establish anti-BDS laws in 27 states and is the initiator of anti-BDS agitation and defamation against people and organizations, combined with Israel’s increasing interference in US and European politics with the aim of to delegitimize the BDS movement and to disparage it as anti-Semitic. 

The pitiful failure must end!

While this “national emergency government” with Netanyahu leads the “Jewish people” into the annexation and eternal judaism of Palestine, the European Community is committed to dialogue and constructive cooperation. Can one still speak of European values ​​when they fail so miserably? 

 

Originally published AT

“WHAT IS ISRAEL”? … OR PALESTINE??

This is outrageous. If “Israel” had been the answer, it would have been bad enough. But the fact that she gave “Palestine” as the… answer and was told it was wrong makes this an outrage & an insult to history, reality, the thousands of oppressed Palestinians of Bethlehem.

‘Jeopardy’ says Bethlehem is in Israel, and gets slammed everywhere

On Friday night the game show “Jeopardy” blew the Palestine question, badly; and it’s getting a lot of media play. In the category,”Where is that church?” one answer came with this clue, “Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity.” (Video here.)

Contestant Katie Needle answered, “What is Palestine?”

“No,” host Alex Trebek said, and contestant Jack McGuire said, “What is Israel?”

“That’s it,” Trebek said.

Scott Roth jumped on it immediately. “Omg fuck you @Jeopardy. The Church of the Nativity is in Bethlehem, which is Palestine, NOT Israel. The woman answered Palestine and you ruled her wrong.” Later Omar Baddar of the Arab American Institute explained, “Unacceptable!! Bethlehem is in the Palestinian territories which Israel illegally occupies (Katie Needle got the correct answer & was robbed). @Jeopardy owes an apology for endorsing Israel’s universally-condemned illegal takeover of Palestinian lands.”

Code Pink is seeking an apology from the game show, with smart graphics.

The good thing about the response is that the occupation is no longer obscure knowledge. The show is getting hammered on Twitter. Jamil Dakwar said,“Even Siri got it right!” Jim Zogby calls the exchange a double insult.

This is outrageous. If “Israel” had been the answer, it would have been bad enough. But the fact that she gave “Palestine” as the… answer and was told it was wrong makes this an outrage & an insult to history, reality, the thousands of oppressed Palestinians of Bethlehem

Supporters of Israeli occupation have been trying to justify Jeopardy’s answer. Roth responds, “Fine. In that case Israel isn’t a democracy since no one who lives in Bethlehem can vote in Israeli parliamentary elections. Or if it is a democracy, then it’s an apartheid state. Choose.”

 

AS THE OCCUPATION GROWS …… SO DO THE PROTESTS

Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli forces over plans for a new Israeli settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron.

ISRAELI SOLDIERS CELEBRATE ‘VICTORY’ OVER PALESTINE

Yesterday I posted about the latest in illegal home demolitions in Palestine by Israeli soldiers …. 

Click HERE to see post

Today I post the reactions of those soldiers as they celebrate their ‘victory’.

SHAME ON THEM!

 

DEMOLISHING HOMES INSTEAD OF WALLS

NOT HOMES!

Israeli forces began Monday demolishing buildings in an East Jerusalem neighborhood under the control of the Palestinian Authority, following a legal challenge to the Defense Ministry-issued order to evacuate apartments deemed too close to the West Bank separation barrier, which runs through the city.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion in 2004 that building the barrier on occupied territory was “contrary to international law.”

Israel Begins Demolition of 70 Homes in Palestinian-controlled East Jerusalem Neighborhood

Forces deploy at dawn days after top court approves order to evict Wadi Hummus residents, in a move activists are concerned sets a precedent to affect thousands

Israeli forces began Monday demolishing buildings in an East Jerusalem neighborhood under the control of the Palestinian Authority, following a legal challenge to the Defense Ministry-issued order to evacuate apartments deemed too close to the West Bank separation barrier, which runs through the city.

Israeli and international activists said Israeli forces deployed in the neighborhood at dawn, evacuating one family from one of the buildings, as well as activists who protested the move.

Two hours prior to the demolition, activists say they saw Israel Defense Forces‘ soldiers placing explosives in an eight-stories building set for demolition. Later, the forces removed furniture and vehicles that were parked next to the buildings.

Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher for the left-wing Ir Amim organization, blasted the move, saying: “In the name of the demographic war waged against East Jerusalem residents, the State of Israel is withholding approval of construction plans allowing those residents to legally build within the city.

“Residents who didn’t want to build without a permit, sought a creative solution and were granted construction permits from the Palestinian Authority to build in areas and A and B where Israel doesn’t have any authority concerning construction plans. The Israeli insistence to prevent this solution is a very cruel act,” Tatarsky added.

“I built this house stone by stone. It was my dream to live in this house. Now I am losing everything,” said Fadi al-Wahash, 37, his voice breaking as a bulldozer destroyed his unfinished three-floor house.

“I had a permit to build from the Palestinian Authority. I thought I was doing the right thing,” he said.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said 700 police and 200 soldiers were involved.

“Despite an order from the military commander, the residents there are making their own law, building. There are hundreds of illegal structures,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.

“To my regret there is no sufficient governance there. But it is not just that there are hundreds of structures there — several dozens of them sit almost on the route of the separation fence, endangering the security forces that operate there.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Palestinians would complain to the International Criminal Court about the demolitions in Sur Baher.

“The cabinet condemns this grave aggression. This is a continuation of the forced displacement of the people of Jerusalem from their homes and lands — a war crime and a crime against humanity,” Shtayyeh said.

In June, Israel’s High Court of Justice has ruled in favor of the demolition of 13 large buildings in the Wadi Hummus neighborhood, located on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

It is on the edge of the Palestinian village of Sur Baher, in southeast Jerusalem. Unlike the rest of the village, this neighborhood lies beyond the city’s municipal boundaries, in the West Bank. Most of the area it occupies is designated as part of Area A – i.e., under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Sur Baher residents say Wadi Hummus is the only area that remains for future expansion of the village, which is surrounded by the fence and Jewish neighborhoods.

The Defense Ministry instructed to demolish some 70 apartments, citing concerns over their proximity to the separation fence, which it said made them a security threat. Two out of the 13 buildings set for demolition are populated with some 17 residents.

Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, and other UN officials called on the Israeli authorities last week to halt the demolition plans. The European Union issued a statement saying: “The continuation of this policy undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for a lasting peace.”

On Sunday, the court rejected a petition to postpone the demolition, which Palestinian activsts are concerned sets a precedent that will enable the demolition of thousands of buildings across the West Bank, effectively annulling the legal protection residents of other PA-controlled areas have.

“Some families put everything they have to put a roof over their heads, and it’s all being ruined in front of their eyes in this despicable crime committed by Israel,” community organizer Hamada Hamada told Haaretz.

“large forces entered after 2:00 A.M. to the neighborhood, preventing any access to the homes and forcefully removing the residents as well as dozens of activists who were present at the scene, evacuating them while women and children were heard screaming in the background,” Hamada added.

Palestinian officials say some of the threatened structures lie within areas that they should control. The Palestine Liberation Organization issued a statement accusing the Israeli court of aiming “to set a precedent to enable the Israeli occupying forces to demolish numerous Palestinian buildings located in close proximity” to the barrier.

The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas released a statement saying that “Israel bears the full responsibility for the dangerous escalation in Sur Baher, which is part of the implementation of the “deal of the century” whose goal is to bury the Palestinian issue.”

According to the statement, Abbas has approached international and Arab officials in order to halt the demolitions.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said “We will not renounce our lands, and everything that was demolished will be rebuilt.”

“The demolition is an implementation of the Bahrain conference and we have thousands of documents and petitions filed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague against Israel,” he said in reference to the economic peace conference in Bahrain sponsored by the United States that took place in June.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said “The demolition of buildings in Sur Baher by the authorities of the occupation is a despicable crime, which is a direct result of the Bahrain Conference and the warm relationship between Israel and some Arab nations.”

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on Monday, but a statement last week by Israel’s military-run civil administration in the West Bank said enforcement would be pursuant to “operational considerations” and “state policy.”

The International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion in 2004 that building the barrier on occupied territory was “contrary to international law.”

Israel dismissed the non-binding decision as politically motivated and says the barrier played a key role in drastically reducing the number of attacks, which peaked in 2002 and 2003 during the Second Palestinian uprising known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

The West Bank separation barrier, which was being built since 2003, was intended to pass through Sur Baher, but its route was changed due to residents’ campaign.Thus Wadi Hummus ended up on the Israeli side of the barrier, although legally it part of the West Bank and under the PA’s authority.

Many buildings were erected in the neighborhood over the last decade or so, most occupied by young couples and families from the village. The buildings set for demolition have some 100 apartments, 20 of which are tenanted and the rest are under construction.

Building permits for the construction were issued by the PA’s planning ministry. However, seven years ago, the Israel Defense Forces Central Command issued an injunction banning construction of buildings within 250 meters of the separation barrier.

Locals say the order was not publicized and they had no knowledge of it, and that in any case, it is the PA that has planning authorization in the area.

More photos and videos at SOURCE

THE OCCUPATION SHOULD BE THE CRIME, NOT THE HEADGEAR

It’s not the Kippa (Yarmulke) that is the problem, but the head underneath!

Occupation Crime Under the Kippa

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

After the European elections, which clearly demonstrate that citizens are no longer prepared to vote for the “people’s parties”, but are protesting against the disrespect of the “people”, it is overdue to deal with this phenomenon. Right-wing parties across Europe have been given a terrible boost, not because they spread anti-Semitism, but because they know how to score with xenophobia and Islam hatred. In fact, the main problem is the right-wing radicalism and populist phrases-and-culture that have managed to get into parliaments and governments.

Why does the Bundestag willingly close its eyes to reality?

But we also experience in an unprecedented way how right-wing extremists, “Christian”, commoners, so-called liberals and leftists allied together to make Zionist crimes of international justice and to legalize them with the “Holocaust cloak” that is so infamous that it makes you speechless. How is it possible that almost the entire Bundestag could reach an “anti-BDS decision” criminalizing both Palestinian civil society and Jewish and non-Jewish citizens as anti-Semitic in support of the non-violent BDS campaign? What enables these “people’s representatives” to such a more than undemocratic decision? Why do you readily close your eyes to reality? What good are great celebrations for the foundation of the German constitution?

So it is for me also a consequence of the great dissatisfaction that these European elections set a sign that the citizens resist this kind of politics. From the climate catastrophe to the transatlantic friendship policy, many citizens are fed up, because they experience that all the current burning problems are neglected to please the US and the “Jewish state”. More and more armaments editions, more and more war missions and not to forget the controlled drone attacks from German soil, as well as the majority of Germans unwanted storage of nuclear weapons on German soil. Why are CDU, SPD and FDP and even left so unanimous? Why are the “green gardeners” suddenly so popular and why could a party like the AfD get so high? The Left also puts the “respect for international law” in its election program in the bin when it comes to claiming it also for the Palestinian people living under decades of occupation – and instead puffs the other parties after them to join them ALL in one Boat to sit when it comes to the “Jewish state”! Out of the “never war again”, after the Second World War and the horrible crimes of the Holocaust, the bad conscience of the generation of grandsons transfers to politics and has replaced anti-Semitism with unspeakable philosemitism. To demand this also for the Palestinian people living under decades of occupation – and instead pecking after the other parties in order to sit with them ALL in a boat when it comes to the “Jewish State”! Out of the “never war again”, after the Second World War and the horrible crimes of the Holocaust, the bad conscience of the generation of grandsons transfers to politics and has replaced anti-Semitism with unspeakable philosemitism. To demand this also for the Palestinian people living under decades of occupation – and instead pecking after the other parties in order to sit with them ALL in a boat when it comes to the “Jewish State”! Out of the “never war again”, after the Second World War and the horrible crimes of the Holocaust, the bad conscience of the generation of grandsons transfers to politics and has replaced anti-Semitism with unspeakable philosemitism.

With BDS against the Zionist occupation and international crimes

In the Bundestag, the Zionist occupation and international crimes of the apartheid state of Israel was not discussed, without which BDS can not understand at all, but they defame this movement, which has formed on the model of South Africa and quite successful attempts, the freedom of Palestine to reach.

Now a new concerted distraction action has been launched, a very typical hasbara method. It began last Saturday in newspapers of the Funke-Mediengruppe with statements by the anti-Semitism commissioner of the Federal Government when he recommended Jews in Germany not to wear a kippa (yarmulke) at any time throughout Germany. Klein justified this initiative with an “increasing, social disinhibition and brutalization”. The internet and social media have contributed greatly to this, “but also the continued attacks on our culture of remembrance”. Klein, when he mentions the culture of remembrance, should work to ensure that the Nakba, the memory of the catastrophe of the violent expulsion of the Palestinian people at the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, just as much a part of Germany as the memory of the Holocaust. The path of remembrance into the future begins with remembering, and that also applies to the Palestinians, because human rights are indivisible and also apply to the Palestinians.

Always up to date, this includes the statement of my father Heinz Galinski: “I did not survive Auschwitz, to silence to new injustice.”

Frontal attack against the Internet

So this was Klein’s frontal attack against the internet and social networking as it gets stronger and stronger. Just in this horn blew the CDU leader Kramp-Karrenbauer when she made a comparison on Monday evening the day after the European election, which proved that this woman is not suitable for this office. She actually asked what would have happened if there had been 79 newspaper offices two days before the election, and we make a joint appeal: please do not vote for CDU and SPD. That would have been a clear opinion before the election, said Kramp-Karrenbauer. In this sentence alone, Kramp-Karrenbauer not only proved her disturbed relationship to freedom of expression, to the Basic Law and to the Internet, no, she proved her desperation and helplessness over the CDU’s inability to score with proper topics. Instead of dealing with the election debacle in terms of content, it poisoned the climate. When rightly a “shitstorm” hit her from all sides, she could not think of anything better than feeling “misunderstood.”

In fact, the parties and their representatives are not misunderstood, but the citizens understand very well that politics no longer understands them. How else is it possible that the offices of the EU Council and President of the Commission are still “outfitted” in “backrooms” under Merkel and Co. instead of having them properly elected by the European Parliament? Where else on the internet is this diversity? Have not the “leading (d)” media “grasped it and put more and more emphasis on the internet and their digital appearances? With the more than poor politician appearances on the net, however, they have little to oppose, and they are becoming ever more painfully aware. Yes it hurts, for example after the Rezo YouTube video, which was clicked more than 10 million times, not to be able to keep up and to remain guilty of an answer. Rezo, one of the most talented influencers and you-tubers, was able to prove that it is not worth choosing CDU, SPD and AfD.

Media fully on “course” trimmed

Another example, where else, as on the Internet, is there still such a lively discussion about the “Jewish state” and its terrible crimes? Where else do we have such a variety of interesting articles? Where is the fate of the occupied Palestinians so blatantly demonstrated? Of course, the Israel lobby increasingly sees this as a threat, and especially German media and politicians and parties want to keep this topic under the table. I would like to distance myself explicitly from hate speech, hate and anonymous comments in the net. But where else are there such opportunities to inform and exchange information? Finally, it has been understood in Germany specifically, the entire mainstream press and public-legal media fully on “course” to trim. Just as Israel critics are marginalized by the media.

Another example: immediately after Klein’s statements, there was no medium that did not respond immediately and complained about the fate of the Jews in Germany. Likewise, of course, the Central Council President of the Jews, Schuster, and his predecessor Knobloch. They hurried to criticize Klein for his statement, because it would be an “indictment” if Jews could not move everywhere with the Kippa in Germany. Immediately, politicians like “Home Secretary” Seehofer rushed to assure the opposite and to provide appropriate countermeasures that need to be taken for this right is secured. Demands were made, such as training policemen to deal with anti-Semitism, as well as training teachers and lawyers. This topic was suddenly on everyone’s lips and seemed like a continuation of the debate in the Bundestag, in order to make this subsequently “kosher”. In fact, we are experiencing a completely unnecessary debate on anti-Semitism under the metaphor “Kippa”. Even when Israel’s President Rivlin reacted “dismayed” to the Kippa warning, the measure was full. I wondered if this president of the Jewish apartheid state should not first ensure that Muslim citizens are granted religious freedom in the “Jewish state” and not right-wing “Jewish temple builders and settler hordes” protected by soldiers of the Jewish “defensive army”. This right, as happened on the Haram-al-Sharif so often, is denied. What about the arbitrariness of the Zionist regime, that repeatedly refuse Muslim men the fundamental rights of religious worship? So who dares to oppose this Jewish Zionist influence?

Unbelievably hypocritical and embarrassing action

As well as an incredibly hypocritical and embarrassing action of the “cancerous ulcer” of the German press landscape, the “Springer-Image-Zeitung”, on Tuesday began by presenting a “picture-Kippa” with “Bastelanleitung”, with heads and representations of Politicians of all parties, led by the “Auschwitz Minister” Maas, Andreas Scheuer (CSU), Volker Bouffier (CDU), Bijan Dijr (FDP), Susan Chebli (SPD), who carries her kippa for her “Jewish friend”. Artists like the “black-brown hazelnut” Heino also wants to be there. Where were these “KippaträgerInnen” when it came to the headscarf and solidarity with Muslims? (1)

Is not the very background of this renewed concerted anti-Semitism action a deliberate distraction from the conditions in the “Jewish state”? All this in the important Nakba month of May and shortly before the demonstration next Saturday in Berlin on the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day. Berlin’s SPD Interior Minister Andreas Geisel finds the annual Al-Quds march unbearable, but a ban on the “anti-Israeli” demo is difficult. The Central Council of Jews now demands “strict conditions”.

Why? What’s so reprehensible on Al-Quds Day? What is criticized? Why should not participants and Iran call for the “conquest” of Jerusalem on this day, which is at the end of the Muslim month of fasting Ramadan? Especially after the unilateral conquest of Jerusalem by the USA and the “Jewish state” past international law as the “eternal undivided” capital of the “Jewish state”? What is so wrong with the term “child murderer Israel” when witnessing targeted attacks against children of the “most moral” of all Jewish “defense forces” in Gaza? And what about the Hezbollah flag, the Lebanese resistance organization, which also sits in the government in Lebanon, so reprehensible, while the Star of David flag, the symbol of the Zionist occupation and oppression, can be panned everywhere? Where were all the political “Kippa porters” to protest against the Dippel standards when it comes to the “Jewish state”? Ever tried to animate the population to wear “Kippa”.

Zionist weapon: Kippa

So let’s get to the new Zionist weapon, the Kippa or Yarmulke. Wearing a kippah is a religious symbol of an emotional expression that does not go back to a commandment. However, it says a lot about the political stance. In surveys in the “Jewish State”, 63% of the interviewed colorful Kippa Knitta wearers stated that they are religious Zionists who regard the “Jewish people” as a religiously legitimate territory in the region. In fact, the term “Kippa-sruga” (knitted cap) is used. These men agree in the majority of the statement: “Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel (65%) and peaceful coexistence for Israel and an independent Palestinian state is not possible and they feel that they belong to the political ‘right’.

All these Kippa bearers were given an upswing by the ever-increasing movement of settlers and the Judaisierung of the country. It has become the symbol of the most radical and extreme right-wing Jewish nationalism, a symbol without religious significance.

So it is a fact that as long as the German raison d’être remains for the security of the “Jewish state” without a raison d’être for Palestine, there will always be protests against Jews and Jewish institutions that are not concerned by international crimes and illegal Distance the crew.

Populist Kippatragen: the wrong sign

So the common populist Kippatragen is the wrong sign to show solidarity. (2) Where is the solidarity with the headscarf wearers? Both signs are justified by no religious background and no rule in public life. Let’s set the tone and do not wear Kippa this Saturday, out of solidarity with a liberated Palestine, so as not to support the occupation crimes under the Kippa.

Not the Kippa Yarmulke is the problem, but the head underneath!

footnotes

(1) https://www.bild.de/news/inland/politik-inland/von-bild-gabs-die-kippa-zum-selbstbasteln-wir-tragen-kippa-weil-62228990.bild.html

(2) https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/kippa-debatte-antisemitismus-beauftragter-ruft-zum-kippatragen-auf-62241888.bild.html

 

Originally appeared AT

STATEHOOD FOR PALESTINE, NOT BENJAMINS!

In addition to human rights, we speak of economic rights, too: our rights to our economic assets — land, water, natural gas wells, our Dead Sea and Mediterranean Sea shores, borders, and the like — and the ability to employ them within a Palestinian-defined economic development plan, free from Israeli or donor agendas. Dumping more humanitarian and developmental funds into Palestinian coffers will not solve the conflict.

Palestinians need a state, not a ‘business plan’

Jared Kushner believes the first stage to peace is investing capital in Gaza and the West Bank. But just how far can that investment go when Israel is determined to maintain full control of and exploit every aspect of the Palestinian economy?

By Sam Bahour

President Donald Trump is taking part in an all-out attempt to batter the Palestinians into political surrender, and his weapon of choice is money. In full coordination with the Israeli government, he is overseeing a global campaign to ensure funds supporting Palestinians are drying up. Everything from Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem to health care and education for Palestinian refugees are on the receiving end of the cuts. In the bullseye of this attack is the Palestinian government.

So when CNN reported on Sunday that the Trump administration would be hosting an “economic workshop” in Bahrain to encourage capital investment in the West Bank, Gaza, and the region — the first part of the president’s so-called “Deal of the Century” — it sounded like more of the same.

The plan is said to address four major components: infrastructure, industry, empowering and investing in people, and governance reforms “to make the area as investible as possible.” While on paper all of this sounds fine and well, it may very well be the first step in the collapse of Trump’s peace plan.

The unforeseen silver lining is that the U.S. has lost any remaining influence it had on Palestinian society. As the U.S.-monopolized peace process was driven to total collapse, past U.S. administrations understood that keeping USAID funds operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip gave the U.S. some sort of financial clout, after losing any semblance of political credibility. Now that Trump has closed the USAID mission in Tel Aviv, which previously served the West Bank, Palestinians are free to think without a noose of U.S. funding around their necks.

The Trump administration is not letting up. With its newly-announced workshop, it seems the White House will be dangling billions of dollars to get the Palestinians to accept the plan.

Speaking last week at the Washington Institute about the administration’s upcoming Middle East peace plan, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, said, “I think we developed a good business plan.” As someone who formulates real business plans for a living, I understand that if one works according to misguided assumptions, even the best of business plans will fall flat on their faces.

Kushner seems to be missing the point entirely: Israel is addicted to Palestine’s economy, and without overcoming that addiction, there is no chance for any grand “business plan” to succeed. Moreover, his “in-depth operational document,” which he calls “realistic, executable…and will lead to both sides being much better off” is borderline hallucinatory, given the fact that it dismisses the need for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s determination to maintain full control of the Palestinian economy for over five decades has become a major hurdle in getting it to realize that its occupation must come to an end. And like recovery from other addictions, this one will require external support. That support needs to be based on third states holding Israel accountable to save it from itself, rather than building a “business plan” to try and paint life under the boot of Israeli military occupation as somehow beautiful.

Here, in addition to human rights, we speak of economic rights, too: our rights to our economic assets — land, water, natural gas wells, our Dead Sea and Mediterranean Sea shores, borders, and the like — and the ability to employ them within a Palestinian-defined economic development plan, free from Israeli or donor agendas. Dumping more humanitarian and developmental funds into Palestinian coffers will not solve the conflict.

Structural dependency

From the start of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip 51 years ago, Israel systematically linked the territory’s economy to that of its own. Before the Oslo Accords, this forced linkage was most apparent in Israel’s restriction of Palestinian business and its control of the freedom of movement of Palestinian labor. For nearly a decade prior to Oslo, Israel issued work permits to tens of thousands of Palestinian workers to allow them to enter Israel to find work. Palestinian labor was found in Israeli construction, agriculture, hotels and the like.

Treated as a second-class labor force, Palestinian workers were exposed to conditions that allowed Israeli businesses to benefit from lower wages without being subject to Israeli labor law. Many Palestinian workers even found themselves building the illegal Israeli settlements that threaten the very existence of Palestinian communities. For Palestinians, being able to work — anywhere — while under Israeli occupation was a matter of survival. For many, it still is.

The Israeli occupation authorities also levied taxes on the occupied and used a portion of these taxes to flood the Palestinian areas with Israeli-made infrastructure and goods. This created further Palestinian dependence on the occupier’s economy.

The Oslo Accords were followed by an economic arrangement called the Protocol on Economic Relations, signed in Paris on May 4, 1994. Just as the Oslo agreement itself kept intact Israeli control over all key aspects of Palestinian life, the Paris Protocol institutionalized the occupier’s economic interest as part of what was meant to be a framework for a peace agreement.

Following the Oslo agreements, the role of state donors in funding Palestinian “development” turned into an international underwriting of the Israeli occupation, reducing and often removing the financial costs of military occupation. Knowingly or not, donor funding had an accomplice-type role in allowing the situation to reach the place it is in today.

Although donor money fueled the Palestinian economy, at no time did donors view the development of the private sector as the highest priority in building a viable Palestinian society. Donors assisted in the creation of sector trade associations and provided a certain level of assistance, but a strategic approach to the private sector, namely reducing structural dependency on Israel, never materialized.

Many in the international community were quick to criticize the growing number of Palestinian public sector workers, but few, if any, had the foresight to see that a strong Palestinian private sector was the only way to provide an alternative to public employment. Those who did realize this ignored it for the most part, since it would mean challenging the Israeli occupation and the restrictions placed on the Palestinian economy that come with it.

All the while, Israel was going forward with its unilateral settlement enterprise, which severely damaged the Palestinian private sector and left the Palestinian Authority playing catch up for its own survival. This left the Palestinian private sector to deal on its own with Israeli restrictions on Palestinian society.

After being structurally linked to the Israeli market for decades, Israel’s decision to unilaterally separate — or “disengage,” as it was called — from the Palestinians left the private sector with few options other than following the Israeli plans. Initially, Israel attempted to eliminate Palestinian labor employed in Israel, which increased the unemployment rate in the West Bank and Gaza overnight. After applying this shock to the marketplace, Israel decided to re-engage Palestinian labor and today issues as many permits as it had during the decade before Oslo, perhaps even more. All this in the service of the Israeli economy — not that of Palestine.

Furthermore, the separation wall’s land grab has separated Palestinian farmers from their lands, causing great pressure on Palestinian agriculture. Add this to the constant restrictions Israel has placed on land and water, the results of which can be seen in Palestine’s GDP, where agriculture has dropped from 12 percent prior to the Oslo Accords to below 5 percent today.

The foundation of a future state 

The viability of any future Palestinian economy must come within the context of a sustainable private sector, one that can create sustainable job opportunities and develop competitive products and services for the local market first, and then for export. The Palestinian private sector must be able to absorb Palestinian university graduates in a knowledge economy, while also absorbing the tens of thousands of construction workers who Israel uses to serve its economy. Similarly, a viable Palestinian economy must be able to feed itself, which requires land and water resources to be free from Israeli control.

The international community has a historic responsibility to Palestinians, especially after so many years of observing the Israeli occupation from afar, and a decade of footing the bill as Israeli violations continue unabated. The challenge today is to remove Israeli military occupation and allow the Palestinian private sector to assume its natural role of becoming the foundation of a future state.

Originally written FOR (More photos at source)

EVEN DEAD PALESTINIAN CHILDREN SUFFER UNDER THE OCCUPATION

No family, anywhere, should have to endure these horrors …

Sixteen year-old Samah Mubarak is laid to rest in Ramallah. Mubarak’s body was returned to her family on Friday after being held by the Israeli forces for over a month

THE WALLS CAME A TUMBLING DOWN IN PALESTINE

Mightier than Joshua

A part of the separation barrier in the Shoafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem collapsed on Wednesday due to stormy weather.

Jerusalem Separation Barrier Falls After Storm, Residents Celebrate

Residents of Shoafat refugee camp celebrated the incident, which happened in the same area last year and in 2013

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DON’T EVEN THINK OF MAKING MY HOUSE YOUR HOME!

Heartbreaking. “Get out of my house!” Palestinian woman after being expelled from her home by Israeli settlers in the Old City in occupied Jerusalem.

BLOCKING APARTHEID

While the Israeli lane allows settlers quick and easy access to the center of Jerusalem, the Palestinian lane is designed to separate Palestinians off through an underpass, diverging to different areas of the West Bank.

Protesters blockade the entrance to the ‘Apartheid Road’ in the West Bank on January 23, 2019 (Photo: PSCC, Facebook)

‘No to Apartheid’: Palestinian activists blockade entrance to Israel’s new ‘Apartheid Road’

Yumna Patel 

Over a dozen Palestinian activists, along with Israeli and international supporters, blockaded the entrance to Israel’s new ‘Apartheid Road’ in the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem on Wednesday morning.

The group of activists closed the gates to the newly opened road and formed a human chain, raising banners in Arabic, English, and Hebrew saying “No to Apartheid” and “No to Annexation.”

Israeli forces arrived to the scene, which is located adjacent to an Israeli military base, shortly after the activists closed the road and attempted to forcibly remove them.

Two protesters were arrested and at least four others were injured. One of the detained protesters was identified as Ibrahim Musalem, from the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Palestinian activist Munther Amira, who participated in the protest, said “any shame the [Israeli] Occupation may have had of its apartheid policies is now completely gone with this road. We must not and will not allow for their plan of ethnic cleansing in the outskirts of Jerusalem.”

Israeli authorities opened the ‘Apartheid Road’ or ‘Eastern Ring Road’ earlier this monthto widespread Palestinian and international criticisms.

The four-lane highway features two separate road divided by a concrete wall – one for Israeli settlers and the other for Palestinians.

While the Israeli lane allows settlers quick and easy access to the center of Jerusalem, the Palestinian lane is designed to separate Palestinians off through an underpass, diverging to different areas of the West Bank.

In a statement regarding the protest, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) criticized Israel’s plans to expand the road to the south, saying it would “further entrench the two separate and unequal systems of transportation in the West Bank.”

The road is a key infrastructural part of implementing Israel’s ‘Greater Jerusalem’ or ‘E1’ plan, which seeks the de facto annexation of the three settlement blocs adjacent to Jerusalem city – Gush Etzion to the South, Ma’ale Adumim/E-1 to the east and Givat Ze’ev to the north.

If implemented, the southern West Bank would be completely cut off from the north, making a future contiguous Palestinian state nearly impossible.

More photos at SOURCE 

RESISTANCE AS A SYMBOL OF LIBERATION

Is not the desperate struggle of many young Palestinians against the decades-long Zionist occupation of their country a symbol of resistance?

Resistance as a symbol of liberation

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

If the liberation of Auschwitz was thought of 74 years ago in the German Bundestag on January 31, one could also think about a changed commemoration owed to today’s politics. It would be a start if this year’s guest speaker, Prof. dr. Saul Friedländer, a Prague-born historian whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz, who survived the Holocaust hidden in France and who emigrated to Israel after the end of the war, would shed light on all facets of the symbol of “Auschwitz and Liberation”. Especially after the ceremony, an exhibition of the United States Holocaust Museum entitled “Some were neighbors” is opened.

Parallels from the Warsaw Ghetto to Gaza

 

Would not it be an important gesture, if Friedländer would dare, what would never come to mind German politicians and friends of Israel, namely parallels from the Warsaw Ghetto to Gaza or the illegal occupation of Palestine by Holocaust victims and their descendants?

2 million imprisoned people in the Gaza concentration camp accuse

 

Is not the desperate struggle of many young Palestinians against the decades-long Zionist occupation of their country a symbol of resistance?And why are they criminalizing this unequal and desperate struggle while Jewish resistance is being heroized? Is not it necessary to put an end to this kind of “Christian-Jewish values ​​alliance”? Do not nearly 2 million imprisoned people protest in the Gaza concentration camp, especially in memory of Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto? (1)

Is not the Warsaw Ghetto the symbol of Jewish resistance to German occupation 76 years ago on 19 April 1943?

Under unspeakable conditions, more than 380,000 Jews had to live in the Warsaw Ghetto since 1940, including my mother. On April 19, 1943, a few hundred of them opposed a superior force of two thousand German occupiers. They knew this fight was hopeless and impossible to win, but they wanted to resist, upright with the gun in hand.

If on January 15 on Arte and on January 22 in the ARD “The Secret Archive in the Warsaw Ghetto” TV premiere and worldwide film screenings in more than 200 locations around the world, u. A. is shown on big screens in Australia, Brazil, Nepal, South Africa and the USA and in various cities in Germany, this is a major project which is unparalleled.

“I did not survive Auschwitz to keep silent on new injustice”

 

And for me, the life motto of my father after his liberation by the Red Army was: “I did not survive Auschwitz to remain silent on new injustice”, always a drive, not to mention wrongly and to campaign for the freedom of Palestine.

Not in the name of “all Jews”

 

Therefore, I will never understand that German politicians are silent in the face of the crimes committed by the “Jewish State”! Especially those who repeatedly talk about Auschwitz as a symbol of politics should be ashamed.How cynical must one be to close one’s eyes to racism, apartheid, human and international crimes, all committed to the justification of the eternal role of victims and an infamous instrumentalization of the Holocaust, given the state of the “Jewish state” and the occupied territories certainly not in the name of “all Jews”!

“Apartheid Road” symbol of racism

 

Last Thursday, a new road was opened in the middle of the occupied West Bank, with an eight-meter-long wall separating Jewish and Palestinian people. This “Apartheid Road” connects the illegal Jewish Geva settlement, southeast of Ramallah, with Route 1, a major road that runs through the occupied West Bank and into occupied East Jerusalem. The occupiers are doing everything they can to make the Palestinians a normal daily life with checkpoints, controls and humiliations. There are already dozens of separate racist apartheid streets built only for Jewish settlers. However, Route 4370 is the first of its kind to have a special feature, namely a wall – half concrete, half fence – that separates Palestinians and Jewish Israelis. If that’s not a symbol of racism and apartheid, it’s even worse than it ever was in apartheid South Africa. Everything is done to cement the demographic demarcation so as to make the West Bank more and more economical and undermine the prospects for the Palestinians. So it goes on piece by piece on the way of expropriation and in the final solution of the Judaisierung. Everything is hoping for the “Greater Jerusalem”, the de facto annexation of the three large settlement blocks, adjacent to Jerusalem City – Gush Etzion in the south, Ma’ale Adumim / E-1 in the east and Givat Ze’ev in the north. Everything is done to facilitate the Jewish settlers free travel to the illegally occupied Jerusalem, claiming the claim to the whole of Jerusalem as an eternally undivided capital of the “Jewish state”.Everything presented by the Trump USA with the breach of international law of a move of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (2)

If implemented, the southern West Bank would be completely cut off from the north, making a future coherent and viable state of Palestine forever impossible, but would make it all belong to this Jewish territory from Jerusalem to the Jericho border. All of these plans are based on the ideas of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the notorious warmonger known as the Butcher of Lebanon.

Netanyahu’s visions of wall construction and apartheid streets

 

2.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank are faced with perfected facts by 500,000 Jewish settlers. These are the political visions of Netanyahu: Walling and apartheid streets, modeled after US friend Trump, who now holds large sections of US officials and workers willing in brutal hostage to enforce his construction of the wall to Mexico. This is what the ethnic cleansing of Palestine looks like – the German Foreign Minister, who has gone into politics because of “Auschwitz”, is silent on it!

Housing units on the site of the massacre of Deir Yassin

If soon plans are also enforced to let 2,300 residential units built just on the site of the massacre of Deir Yassin, then this is incredible and can not be beaten at tasteless Geschichtsklitterung! At the moment, the Jewish National Fund is grandly announcing how much it is doing to strengthen the ecology of Israeli forests. However, the sad truth is that with the green washing of the occupation and land expropriation everything is to be veiled, which reminds of the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland.

The illegal expropriation of Palestine by the JNF

Many of the forests originated only to cover the ruins of the Palestinian villages, which were destroyed and violently depopulated during the Nakba in 1948. According to Zochrot, an important and worthy non-profit Israeli organization committed to exposing and commemorating the Nakba crimes. Finally, among more than two-thirds of the forests and sites of KKL Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (the one with the blue can), as part of the JNF, 46 out of 68 forests are buried on the ruins of the former Palestinian demolished by the “Jewish State” villages. Thus, the illegal expropriation of Palestine by the JNF continues and is just the big illegal settlement blocs in Palestine to good. In this context, it is also particularly reprehensible when German politicians, from left-wing politicians Bartsch to Steinmeier and Nahles (SPD) plant again and again “German forests” on stolen land, mind you! (3) (4)

Speaking of Andrea Nahles, the former “Juso” blue shirt and Israel supporter has once again turned entirely to SPD-Art. The SPD leader said last November in a speech in Berlin, it was “likely” that the former SPD politician Gustav Noske (1868-1946) in the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg “his hands in the game” had. Now, however, as the anniversary approached the murder of her former party member, Nahles declined to take responsibility for the assassination of the future KPD co-founder Rosa Luxemburg, despite the call of the Luxembourg researcher Klaus Gietinger and other SPD left intellectual. No wonder,

Nahles anti-Semitic?

 

Rosa Luxemburg was a heroine, women’s rights activist, Jewish and martyr of the November Revolution. So is Nahles anti-Semitic even if she now rejects the responsibility and complicity of the SPD?

Terrifying SPD parallels

 

Frightening parallels can be drawn to this day: Rosa Luxemburg then founded an anti-war group on the attitude of the SPD in August 1914 and, in contrast to the “war-friendly” SPD, remained faithful to her pacifism until her assassination. (5)

What has the SPD to this day failed to adhere to its principles and to vote against arms and war missions? The radical decree and the NATO double decree are also no fame. (6)

Who betrayed us? Social Democrats!

Anyway, with this kind of politics, the SPD will not win votes. “Who betrayed us? Social Democrats, “is a saying that is undoubtedly underlined by a large number of former voters. Especially I would like to recommend the newly published Rosa Luxemburg biography of Ernst Piper. (7) (8) (9)

The freedom of dissenters, but was not in the GDR

 

But even the former GDR has certainly not acted in the sense of Rosa Luxemburg, if she took this woman for herself. Was not it precisely Rosa Luxemburg who demanded “the freedom of the dissident?” No wall construction and stasis methods. Were not GDR citizens, like the songwriter Stefan Krawczyk arrested and deported to the West, because they participated in a demonstration on January 17, 1988 “Liebknecht -Luxembourg”, which called for “freedom for dissenters”? (10) She was a woman of character and charisma, which is lacking today’s women politicians. It was good that many real leftists remembered them and the assassination of Karl Liebknecht and did not forget the Stalin victims. Again, the SPD has missed a chance of the historical work, which sadly connects them with the “Jewish state”, who does not want to know anything about Nakba history, except for his own Holocaust memory. Under these conditions, I plead for a memorial service in the German Bundestag in memory of the Nakba as a result of the Holocaust and the founding of the “Jewish State” on the backs of the Palestinians. As a speaker of the speech, the Israeli historian Prof. Ilan Papp would be considered, author of numerous groundbreaking books on this subject.

So we never forget the resistance as a symbol of liberation.

(1)https://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20181122_over_5800_palestinians_wounded_in_7_months_of_protests?fbclid=IwAR0lX6wRbKJkf8UIuNZMn8kSzIkx2ea9gp3kUjjUycJd0YyHnJBy-ta6U1o

(2) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/israel-opens-apartheid-road-occupied-west-bank-190110051605433.html

(3) https://www.jnf-kkl.de/d/spdwald.htm?neuer-spendenanlass-490

(4) http://www.taz.de/!5069433/

(5) https://www.zeit.de/2013/29/berufsverbote-radikaleerlass-1972/komplettansicht

(6) https://www.zeit.de/2013/29/berufsverbote-radikaleerlass-1972/komplettansicht

(7) https://www.zeit.de/2014/08/rosa-luxemburg-erster-weltkrieg-pazifismus?print

(8) https://www.zeit.de/2019/03/kpd-100-jahre-linke-spd

(9) https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/ernst-piper-ueber-seine-neue-rosa-luxemburg-biografie-yhre.2162.de.html?dram:article_id=438175

(10) https://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/luxemburg-demonstration100.html

WHEN APARTHEID IS NOT ENOUGH RACISM MUST BE INTENSIFIED

One of the most dangerous aspects about regimes of colonial oppression is that they strive to occupy the mind of the oppressed, not just their land.

Defying Racism: A Palestinian musician’s ordeal at Ben Gurion Airport

I left our family home on Monday January 7, 2019, at 9:30 am to be at Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, at 10:30 am to catch my 12:45 pm flight to Amsterdam, where I am currently pursuing my bachelor’s degree in music.

Before packing my suitcase the night before, I made a packing list to make sure I didn’t forget anything. I managed to cross everything off the list and be at the airport on time. But there was one thing I forgot to write down… one very important detail that I simply forgot to think about… I am Palestinian!

Like all Palestinians carrying Israeli citizenship and living under Israel’s regime of apartheid, I always have a bad feeling about going to the airport, and this time was no exception. The flu I caught a night before did not help either. My mother, who drove me to the airport, was really worried about a military checkpoint on the way that could make me miss my flight, but we got “lucky” this time.

A colonial military occupation, brutalizing you for so many years, can really mess up your expectations. Crossing a military roadblock starts giving you this strange feeling of achievement. Your basic human rights become a privilege rather than the norm, and that becomes the new norm.

One of the most dangerous aspects about regimes of colonial oppression is that they strive to occupy the mind of the oppressed, not just their land.

We arrived at the airport, and I was trying to convince my mother not to wait for me to finish the dehumanizing “security” check like she always does. While I always love to see her face at a distance, behind the thick glass, waiving her reassuring hand, I really hate to see her angrily but helplessly observe the racist Israeli security officials trying to humiliate me just because of who I am—a Palestinian. I begged her to leave, but she insisted: “I can’t just leave you in this horrible place. You never know what happens.” She was right!

My Arabic name on my passport immediately gave away my identity, inviting their “royal” treatment. When the security officer asked me whether I spoke Hebrew and I said no, her anger was visible. When she asked me what I was doing in Amsterdam and I answered that I was studying jazz, she could no longer contain her racist vibes. How could I so bluntly destroy her bigoted stereotype of “Arab women”? She told me I had to undergo an intrusive “body search.”

I immediately accused her of racism, of racial profiling and of being vengeful against me because of who I am and what I do. She shouted back that she was doing her job. I reminded her that many unspeakable crimes in history have been perpetrated under that immoral excuse.

She took her revenge by claiming that my laptop did not pass her security check and therefore cannot go with me on the plane. This is despite the fact that she asked me to open it and turn it on, which I did successfully. She said they would send it by mail to my address in Amsterdam. I laughed at her audacity and objected strongly. I know from my own experience, and from other Palestinians’ experiences, that leaving your laptop with Ben Gurion airport security invariably means it will be hacked, damaged or “lost.”

I told her that I cannot travel without my laptop as all my music and lecture notes are on it and without that I cannot go to any of my classes.

Her supervisor supported her vindictive decision, so I was forced to miss my flight. I took my laptop and walked out to where my mother was anxiously waiting. She greeted me with the warmest of hugs and a few tears and said, “Don’t worry about a thing, we’ll find a solution. I am so proud of you!”

The next day, she drove me to the land crossing with Jordan. After spending a lovely night with family in Amman, enjoying my great-aunt’s famous white cheese and spinach pies, I traveled through the welcoming Amman airport and arrived in Amsterdam safe, with my laptop and with my dignity intact.

As furious as I am at the Israeli security officer’s ugly racism and vengefulness, I felt slightly bad for her. Despite her best efforts to humiliate me, I shall go on resisting her state’s racism and apartheid with my music, and one day I may actually make a difference in my people’s struggle for liberation. She, however, will continue to search Palestinians’ underwear, to lie about our laptops not passing security checks, and to be an insignificant tool of a system of racist oppression.

As I was about to get out of the airport, I raised my voice to make sure my finale reaches as many people in the airport as possible. “You know what is very close to Amsterdam? The Hague. One day, you and your leaders will be prosecuted for crimes at the International Criminal Court there.”

She remained silent and looked down, and I walked out with a smile, my head held up high, and saw mama’s hand still waiving.

WHEN A DUTY IS NOT A CRIME

Images by Latuff

 

There are consequences if the duty is a challenge to zion …

Another victim of the Israel Lobby: Academic and activist Marc Lamont Hill was fired by CNN after making statements in support of Palestinian liberation at the UN.

IMAGE OF THE FIRST TASTE OF FREEDOM

Our dear heroine’s first taste of freedom …

A bittersweet moment in reality ….

After eight months in Israeli prison, 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi returned home on Sunday morning to a hero’s welcome in her village of Nabi Saleh, in the central occupied West Bank. Arm in arm with her father Bassem and mother Nariman, who was also released on Sunday along with her daughter, the teenager broke down in tears as she was embraced by her younger brothers, extended family, and fellow residents of Nabi Saleh.

 

 

2nd GROUP OF YOUNG JEWS REALISE WHAT ‘BIRTHRIGHT’ REALLY MEANS

Another group of young American Jews just walked off their Birthright trip, to meet with a Palestinian family and see the reality of the Occupation for themselves, a reality Birthright actively hides

8 left-wing activists stage 2nd Birthright walkout in less than a month

Participants affiliated with IfNotNow leave trip four days early to meet with Palestinian family whose home is slated for demolition in East Jerusalem

Birthright has refused to show us the truth about the occupation’s impact on Palestinians, instead asking us to visit a site operated by a far-right settlement organization. We’ve decided instead to go meet with the Sumarin family, a family that has lived in East Jerusalem under threat of eviction for years to learn from them and hear their story.

More HERE on FacBook page

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And HERE on Twitter

A FATHER SPEAKS ABOUT HIS IMPRISONED DAUGHTER >>> MUST WATCH VIDEO

‘Why Ahed slapped the soldier’ –an interview with Bassem Tamimi

This interview with Bassem Tamimi was recorded on May 4, 2018 in the occupied village of Nabi Saleh, by International Solidarity Movement activists.

His daughter Ahed Tamimi, 17, is serving an eight-month prison sentence for slapping an Israeli soldier on the family’s property on December 15 of last year, after Israeli soldiers shot her cousin in the face.

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IMAGE OF THE DAY … JERUSALEM DAY 51 YEARS ON

 

Jerusalem Day is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in the aftermath of the June 1967 Six-Day War. 

Celebrating the occupation in song and dance …

And the ‘dancing in the streets …

Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Jerusalem on Saturday, to demonstrate against the planned move of the US embassy to the city. Protesters also condemned the Jerusalem Day Flag March, scheduled for Sunday, commemorating the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City.

HOW TO PISS OFF THE FAR RIGHT IN ISRAEL

DesertPeace and Associates congratulates David Grossman on his receipt of the Israel Prize for 2018

While people can think and say what they like, not everyone deserves to be awarded the Israel Prize. It is not surprising when a Leftist writer rages against Israel at every opportunity and speaks disparagingly about Israel’s moral bankruptcy all over the world, but if a Rightest government in Israel  awards and praises him for it, that’s even more tragic.

David Grossman speaking at the Alternative Memorial Day event in Tel Aviv, April 17, 2018. credit Ofer Vaknin

Anti-Israel Prize

While people can think and say what they like, not everyone deserves to be awarded the Israel Prize.

This year, the Israel Prize for Literature was awarded to David Grossman, one of the heralded novelists of the Left, who has a long reputation for speaking out against the “occupation” of Palestinian land, against the “settlers’ and the “settlements”, and against the ideological decay and dying morality of the Israeli majority.

In the past, after the Gaza War, Grossman demanded an inquiry to investigate the IDF, Tzahal, which led to the infamous anti-Israel Goldstone Report. After the Flotilla Affair, he accused the IDF of acting like a “brigade of pirates.” When Tzahal was sent to clean out terrorist havens in Judea and Samaria, Grossman drove off to assist Palestinians with their olive harvest.

On Memorial Day, as a bereaved father whose son, sadly, was killed in the Second Lebanon War, he spoke in Tel Aviv at a controversial gathering of Arabs and Israelis who had lost children in battle. Among the Arabs were family members of terrorists. The Israel Defense Minister attempted to thwart the event, calling it a blatant affront to the feelings of the country on the Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and terror victims, but the Supreme Court insisted that the gathering be allowed.

Here are some excerpts from Grossman’s speech, as reported by the newspaper, Haaretz:

“Finally, we have come home. But when Israel occupies and oppresses another nation, for 51 years, and creates an apartheid reality in the occupied territories — it becomes a lot less of a home.

“And when Minister of Defense Lieberman decides to prevent peace-loving Palestinians from attending a gathering like ours, Israel is less of a home.

“When Israeli snipers kill dozens of Palestinian protesters, most of them civilians — Israel is less of a home.

“And when the Israeli government attempts to improvise questionable deals with Uganda and Rwanda, and is willing to endanger the lives of thousands of asylum seekers and expel them to the unknown — to me, it is less of a home.

“And when the Prime Minister defames and incites against human rights organizations, and when he is looking for ways to enact laws that bypass the High Court of Justice, and when democracy and the courts are constantly challenged, Israel becomes even a little less of a home —for everyone… It is a dysfunctional home.

“The people and organizations who are here today, Especially the Family Forum and Combatants for Peace, and many more like them, are perhaps the ones who contribute most to making Israel a home, in the fullest sense of the word.”

While people can think and say what they like, not everyone deserves to be awarded the Israel Prize. It is not surprising when a Leftist writer rages against Israel at every opportunity and speaks disparagingly about Israel’s moral bankruptcy all over the world, but if a Rightest government in Israel  awards and praises him for it, that’s even more tragic. Announcing that Grossman was this year’s recipient, Israel’s Education Minister, Naftali Bennet, declared:

“In his novels, books, essays, documentary writing, in his extensive creations for children, he presented a series of masterpieces that excel in rich imagination, deep wisdom, human sensitivity, a poignant moral stand and a unique and resonant language.”

Bennett defended giving the Israel Prize to a writer known for his opposition to the “settlements” and his support for European boycotts of products produced by the settlers, saying he has no regrets over his decision to award Grossman the acclaimed award.

The Israel Prize committee stated: “Since the early 1980s, David Grossman has taken his place at the center of Israeli culture, and he is one of the most profound, moving and influential voices in our literature… David Grossman is one of the most famous, admired and beloved Israeli writers in the world.”

Grossman is beloved around the world because of his unquestionable literary talent, but does this love also stem from his harsh and never-ending criticism of Israel?

Fortunately, we have the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism, which awards its prizes on a far healthier basis, to builders of the Nation and not to its detractors.

Here is Grossman’s speech (Click on link)

‘Israel Is a Fortress, but Not Yet a Home’: David Grossman’s Memorial Day Speech to Bereaved Israelis and Palestinians

HOW CAN I SUPPORT THAT?

URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT for all young Jews!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile in New York …..

THESE ARE   FOTOS FRM THE ANTI-ADELSTEIN & ANTI- ZIONIST BIRTHRIGHT PROGRAM EVENT ON 4/15.

Photos © by Bud Korotzer

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Related article ~~ Click on post

Dozens of American Jews arrested protesting Gaza violence

From Boston to San Francisco, young activists from IfNotNow demonstrate outside the offices of prominent Jewish institutions and senators, demanding they condemn Israel’s violence against Gaza protesters.

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