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.
The future of Gaza is still uncertain. Even when you reach agreement with Israel (or with Egypt) there is no guarantee that it will be honored, as happened with the agreements after the previous (2012) war and with the 2011 prisoners’ exchange. Yet Gaza is fighting for liberty…
There are many reasons why I didn’t write any political analysis at the time of this bloody war.
One reason is that I only wanted the war to be over, to stop the bloodshed, while I knew that the longer Gaza can stand in the face of the Israeli genocidal rampage, the better the chance that the aggressors will not get what they want and that the siege of Gaza, which, in the long term, is even more destructive to Human lives and development, will be lifted.
But the best excuse is that throughout this war the monstrous Israeli war machine seemed clumsy and clueless, while the Gaza resistance seemed to keep cool and know what they are doing.
I preferred to keep quiet and do my small thing by demonstrating against the aggression.
Now, that the war is over, what can we learn from it politically? I will try to do it short, going over many different aspects of this war, hoping to write in more details about some of them soon.
Who Won The Military Confrontation?
Great wars end with the winning side conquering territory or even with the loser signing his surrender.
The Israelis say they could conquer Gaza, but they didn’t do it. In fact, they already did it twice, in 1956 and in 1967. When they withdrew from Gaza in 2005 it was without agreement, after they paid a heavy price in two Palestinian intifadas. The fact that Gaza was not occupied again is the combine result of the expected resistance to the act of occupation and the memories of the resistance over 38 years of continued occupation. Any way you count it, the resistance is what keeps Gaza free of direct occupation.
Without gaining land or surrender, isn’t war all about killing people and destructing their livelihood? The Israeli officers, politicians and experts run to the judge of history crying: “We killed more than 2,000 people; we destroyed the homes of almost half a million Gazans, what they did to us is nothing to compare. You must declare us winners!”
But this is not the way the war is decided. We live in the world of expectations. Everybody knew that Israel has the military firepower to destroy Gaza. If the war is not for total annihilation of the other side, then it is fought to prove something about the relationship of forces.
Like Lebanon’s Hezbollah in summer 2006, the Palestinian resistance in summer 2014, led by the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, surprised Israel both with their technical preparations and with their fighting power.
Missiles and mortars – The previous Israeli onslaught on Gaza, just in November 2012, ended with a few rockets that reached the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area, where most of the Israelis live. Now, for the first time, Tel Aviv was systematically targeted, putting in doubt the Israeli assumption that it can wage its wars on other people’s lands without being targeted. From the first days of the confrontation, as they had no effective way to stop the rockets flying, the Israeli military commanders claimed that the resistance is running out of ammunition. By the end of the first week they declared that a third of the missiles were already used. After 51 days of war the only possible conclusion is that they didn’t have any idea how many rockets there were. The only bright side for the Israelis was the development of the anti-rocket systems, which limited the practical damage they suffered. It is still an open question how much of this is real technological success and how much is the weakness of the new Palestinian rockets. Yet, you should remember that many of the people in Gaza that were launching these rockets spent their summers as kids throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. They have many reasons to feel that they are making progress.
The Tunnels – In this war the Palestinian resistance gave a new dimension to the old notion of Underground movement. It compensated for the overwhelming Israeli firepower and Israel’s full control of the air and the sea with this simple, old technological solution. The tunnels that went under the fence and behind Israeli lines where only a small addition. The Israeli fixation with “destroying the tunnels” (whether real or simulated) enabled the resistance to kill many more soldiers inside Gaza than those killed by attacks through the tunnels.
Endurance – Israel was not prepared for a long confrontation. In the end it was the longest war of its kind. Typically the Israeli political thinking was that they should buy as much as possible political time in order to let the army do its thing (They call it “Let the IDF win” – even though they don’t even remember when they last won, nor have any idea what such a win should be…) On the other side the Hamas leadership made an up-hill job during the long days of fighting and negotiations to improve the functioning of the new Palestinian unity and heal some of the breaches in the Arab solidarity. In the end news of rockets in Tel Aviv fell on the Western news somewhere between car bombs in Baghdad and an earthquake in Iceland – not a ranking that the Zionist state, as the spoiled child of the world’s top powers, can let themselves be in.
For all these reasons, this military confrontation created some shift in the completely imbalanced balance of power in favor of the Palestinians.
The Politics of the War
The military confrontation is just the tip of the iceberg of a much wider confrontation between political entities, societies and economies. Each side in our days is deeply dependant on a supportive “camp” of states, people and cultures.
Israel started this war at what seemed like an optimal combination of political circumstances. The suffering of the Palestinian people tends be shadowed by the bloody mayhem in Syria, Iraq, Libya and other Arab countries. The Western powers have lost any purpose or semblance of direction in handling the conflict in Palestine and their attitude is defined by their prejudice against Palestiniansas “terrorists” and by the mantra about “Israel’s right to defend itself”, no matter what any of the two sides is doing.
The Palestinian resistance entered this war in the worst regional conditions. It has never been more isolated. The Egyptian state is now controlled by a boiling counter-revolution that regards Hamas as an extension of its main enemy, the Muslim Brothers. The traditional supporters of the resistance in Iran and Syria are busy putting down the insurrection by the Syrian people and didn’t forget Hamas’ taking sides with the revolt against Bashar. So the resistance in Gaza was left with only Qatar and Turkey as active political backers for its aspiration to break the siege.
In these conditions, developments throughout the war didn’t bring any massive breakthrough but did help gradually to tilt the edge toward the resistance’s side.
In the beginning of the war Israel was exited by its own unity around the sacred cause. This wall to wall unity is typical to the settlers’ community in Israel at the beginning of any war and is held together by complete disregard to the Palestinians as Human beings and by the long practiced rituals of self-victimization. But recent developments in the Israeli society meant that racist extremism, the logical conclusion of the settler mentality, took control of politics, the street and the media. Before the end of the war most of the ruling coalition and half of the war cabinet turned to “talkback attacks” on the government and the military leadership for failing to satisfy their militarist dreams. The atmosphere of internal terror against any opposition to the war helped to silence political opponents but didn’t make the “internal front” much stronger.
On the other side the Palestinians entered this war with a newly established “unity government” that started its period by the PA President Abbas declaring that security cooperation with the occupation is “sacred” and failing to transfer wages to tens of thousands of government employees in Gaza. The Israelis hoped to use Abbas to add pressure on the Hamas-led resistance in Gaza.
As the attack on Gaza enraged Palestinians elsewhere, there was a massive popular mobilization – most significantly in Al-Quds, where there was a local Intifada after the burning to death of Muhammad Abu Khdeir. In the 1948-occupied territories Palestinian youth held the widest confrontations with the police since October 2000, in which more than a thousand were detained. In the West Bank there were several mass demonstrations and several demonstrators were shot dead by the Israeli army.
In the end it was the Palestinians that played the unity card, succeeded to form a united list of Palestinian demands and a united negotiating team. Israeli and Egyptian “achievements” like letting Abbas’ men control the border crossings are no more than face saving for them to cover their agreement to relieve the siege. What extra “security” for them will the Palestinian guards give as anything that goes through the crossings is already scrutinized by the Israelis or the Egyptians?
On the Arab level Hamas made the best in the worst conditions. For some time the Palestinian cause was again at the center of attention. There were demonstrations in many places, massive ones in Jordan, some even in Haleb (Allepo) in spite of continuous bombing by the regime. In these conditions every Arab government felt obliged to pay some lips’ service to show support for the Palestinians. Even the Egyptian government had to temper down its instinctive hostility.
Throughout the world there was a wave of activity and support for the Palestinian cause. Naturally “Stop the War” was accompanied by “Lift the Siege”, “BDS” and “Free Palestine”. The Latin American left, which took control of most of the state in South America over the last decade, gave important moral support, led by Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first Indian and Socialist president, whoendorsed BDS and declared Israel a terrorist state.
Public opinion in the Arab World and the West also forced some rethinking in the ruling imperialist circles. It mostly came in two waves: First the temporary suspension of air travel to Tel Aviv, later re-examination of some weapons’ supply by the US, Britain and Spain. This doesn’t mean that the Western powers overcame their racist instinct – we have seen, for example, the European initiative toward the end of the war to re-condition the lifting of the siege of Gaza on its demilitarization – just as the Israelis themselves all but dropped this condition. But Israel is not as high as it used to be in the imperialist agenda – it is just another source of problems. Its imperialist masters have almost forgotten when was the last time that it served their interests in any effective way.
What Next?
The future of Gaza is still uncertain. Even when you reach agreement with Israel (or with Egypt) there is no guarantee that it will be honored, as happened with the agreements after the previous (2012) war and with the 2011 prisoners’ exchange. Yet Gaza is fighting for liberty…
It required one intifada to bring in the PLO and another intifada to throw away the Israeli army and settlers. The Israeli withdrawal in 2005 enabled the relatively free 2006 elections and the establishment of the Hamas government. By 2007 Hamas succeeded to implement the elections result and take full control after aborting an attempted coup by a US trained militia led by Dahlan.
Gaza became the first (and till now only) part of Palestine under Palestinian control. Since then Israel makes everything it can to make this experience at Palestinian independence painful. In the last years its official policy is “differentiation” – to prove that lives under the occupation and Abbas in the West Bank is better than independence (and siege) under Hamas. Being loath to give anything to the Palestinians and driven by uncontrollable desire for settlements and land grab, it concentrated its effort on making life in Gaza a hell.
Gaza became stronger in spite of the siege and consecutive attacks. In the last war, for the first time, Gaza fought like a state, mostly by organized armed forces under central command. In the middle of the war Hamas’ leader, Khaled Mashaal, boasted that the resistance is killing soldiers while the Israelis are killing civilians. By the end of the war most Palestinian leaders agreed that the guarantee for their achievements is not any agreement but the power of the resistance.
But the struggle is not about Gaza – it is about the future of Palestine. And Palestine could not be freed while much of the rest of the Arab world is deteriorating into a bloody civil war. The heroic standing of the Palestinian during the latest assault on Gaza was an important reminder to the Arab people everywhere that the fight for freedom requires unity in the face of the oppressors and that it can be won even at the harshest conditions.
See for yourself: Aerial and panoramic views show devastation in Gaza
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The video above, published by the Gaza-based video production company MediaTown, shows an aerial view of the devastated Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.
On 20 July, the area was subjected to indiscriminate artillery bombardment by Israel that was so intense that it shocked even US military officers.
Such images help us to understand the reality behind the shocking statistics about the physical destruction: 108,000 people have had their homes destroyed or severely damaged and will need permanent rehousing, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).
As the ceasefire allows for more in-depth assessments “it is clear that the scale of damage is unprecedented, with approximately 13 percent of the housing stock affected,” UN OCHA says. “Five percent of the housing stock is uninhabitable – an estimated 18,000 housing units have been either destroyed or severely damaged.”
This on top of a shortage of 71,000 housing units before the Israeli attack.
Since there is no functioning airport in Gaza and Israel controls the skies, many people have wondered how the aerial video was taken.
Another video published by MediaTown in March shows the company’s crew demonstrating their use of a quadcopter remote control aircraft similar to this one to make a video:
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The notes to that video state that the company had recently succeeded in bringing the first such such quadcopter into Gaza, allowing them to shoot aerial video and still images. In May they published a video showing Gaza’s seaport from the sky.
Panoramic views
The photojournalist Lewis Whyld created the “The Gaza War Map,” a website that allows the viewer to see panoramic scenes of various places in Gaza.
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A screenshot from “The Gaza War Map,” photojournalist Lewis Whyld’s website giving 360-degree views of areas devastated in Israeli attacks.
The viewer can select and virtually stand in any of 20 sites in Gaza from Rafah in the south to Beit Hanoun in the north and see a 360-degree view of the destruction all around.
Short of being in Gaza it is an effective way to get a sense of the scale of devastation Israeli bombing has caused. Try it yourself.
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has published a series of satellite images showing areas of Gaza before and after the Israeli bombardment. Such maps are used by international agencies to make overall damage assessments.
For instance, using satellite images, the UN estimated that as of 25 July, the Israeli bombardment had completely destroyed 700 structures and severely damaged 316 others in (a “structure” might be an individual house or an entire apartment block with a number of individual units) in the eastern Gaza City districts of Shujaiya, Tuffah and Shaaf (see the PDF below).
Gaza Crisis Atlas
UN OCHA has published another invaluable resource, the Gaza Crisis Atlas.
Viewable online, it contains numerous maps and satellite images with neighborhood-by-neighborhood information about the destruction in Gaza.
It’s one thing for an Israeli soldier to post his venom on FaceBook or Instagram …. BUT when a Palestinian speaks his piece, that’s a different story …
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An Israeli court in Petah Tikva extended the detention of Suhaib Zahida, 31, until Sept. 4, after he was arrested on Thursday for creating a page on Facebook called “the Intifada of Hebron” in addition to leading a campaign for the boycott of Israeli products.
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Israel extends detention of Palestinian for Facebook posts
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(MaanImages/file)
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HEBRON (Ma’an) — An Israeli court on Friday extended the detention of a Palestinian activist who was detained for political activities on Facebook for a week, a Ma’an reporter said on Saturday.
An Israeli court in Petah Tikva extended the detention of Suhaib Zahida, 31, until Sept. 4, after he was arrested on Thursday for creating a page on Facebook called “the Intifada of Hebron” in addition to leading a campaign for the boycott of Israeli products.
Zahida had previously participated in several nonviolent campaigns opposing the Israeli occupation and was an active member of groups working to oppose the recruitment of Palestinian citizens of Israel to the Israeli military.
Palestinians inside Israel have been previously detained for short periods of time and questioned regarding their political activities on Facebook, but such arrests rarely occur in the West Bank.
In October, Israeli authorities arrested Palestinian citizen of Israel Razi al-Nabulsi, 23, for a week as a result of Facebook posts they argued constituted “incitement.”
… Resident Michael Leon Urinating On The Grave of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in St. Mary’s Cemetery In Violation of the Appleton Municipal Code Sec. 10-45
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“I was made out to be a monster, and I did nothing wrong,” Moskowitz told Law Journal affiliate Am Law Daily. “All I want is to clear my name before it’s too late.”
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98-Year-Old Fights to Clear McCarthy-Era Felony Stigma
Miriam Moskowitz and Abraham Brothman are taken from federal court on Nov. 28, 1950, in a prison van after being sentenced for conspiring to obstruct a grand jury investigating atomic spying. She said in a recent interview that she is sometimes embarrassed to be smiling in photographs taken then, explaining that she was trying to “exude confidence.” The photo at right shows the cover of the New York Daily News on July 30, 1950. Leon Hoffman/AP; New York Daily News2 of 2
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Miriam Moskowitz and her attorney, Guy Eddon, an associate at Baker Botts NYLJ/Rick Kopstein1 of 2
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The 98-year-old retired math teacher who walked into the Manhattan federal courthouse on Monday says she has never forgotten that she is a convicted felon.
Unjustly so, she insists. She believes that she may be the last living victim of the “hysteria” produced by Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against communism.
And she is determined to prove—64 years after her conviction for conspiracy to obstruct a grand jury’s investigation of atomic espionage—that she is innocent. Her pro bono attorneys from Baker Botts have reached deep into the lawyer’s toolkit for what they call an “exceptional” petition they hope will persuade Southern District Judge Alvin Hellerstein (See Profile) to vacate her conviction.
Miriam Moskowitz, of Washington Township, N.J. was a secretary to chemical engineer Abraham Brothman, who was suspected of passing documents to the Soviets, when they were arrested in 1950.
Along with her photo, a front-page New York Daily News headline read on July 30, 1950, “REDS SMASH ON IN FLANK ATTACK, Nab Man, Woman in Spy Plot.
“I was made out to be a monster, and I did nothing wrong,” Moskowitz told Law Journal affiliate Am Law Daily. “All I want is to clear my name before it’s too late.”
Robert Maier, a partner at Baker Botts in New York, along with associates Guy Eddon and Joseph Perry are representing Moskowitz pro bono in her long-shot crusade.
“Our goal is to see that justice is done in a pretty unusual case,” said Eddon, an intellectual property attorney.
The arrest of Moskowitz and Brothman came 11 months after the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb. Moskowitz said many Americans were “hoodwinked” into believing that traitors had stolen the ultimate weapons and handed it to our enemies—only a few years after the Soviets were our admired allies and played the crucial role in defeating the Nazis in World War II.
Moskowitz said the allegations were “nonsensical.” The bomb was so complex that “you couldn’t steal [it] if you wanted to.” She credits Soviet physicists, “among the most respected in the world,” with getting the bomb. “They did it themselves,” she said in an interview with the Law Journal in her lawyers’ Rockefeller Center offices.
In any case, neither Moskowitz nor Brothman were charged with espionage. Brothman was charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice because he and his associate, Harry Gold, an acknowledged courier for Soviet spy rings, discussed how to keep their stories straight before the grand jury. Moskowitz was charged with conspiracy for allegedly being present and failing to notify the government about their plans.
Moskowitz denies the accusation; she says that Gold hated her and lied at her trial—changing the story he had told only four months before—to escape punishment for his own activities. She scoffed that the government went after her because “I was a woman. They wanted a Mata Hari.”
Moskowitz did not testify before the grand jury or at trial because she said she was having an affair with Brothman and was afraid that information would come out.
With the paranoia of the McCarthy era seeping into the courtroom, the jury convicted both Moskowitz, then 34, and Brothman of the charges against them. Gold was the only witness against Moskowitz.
Only a few months after Moskowitz’s arrest, the government began its prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage, which ended in their executions. Then-Southern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Roy Cohn said in his autobiography that the cases of Moskowitz and Brothman were a “dry run” for the later case—with the same judge, Southern District Judge Irving Kaufman; the same head prosecutor, Irving Saypol, who was assisted by Cohen; and many of the same witnesses.
‘I Survived’
Moskowitz served two years in the Federal Reformatory for Women in Alderson, W. Va., and paid a $10,000 fine, roughly equivalent to $100,000 today.
“I survived,” Moskowitz said of her prison experience. “I knew it wasn’t going to last forever.”
However, she said in a book written recently that she had to tread carefully because there was an “undertone of hostility” toward her on the part of guards. “I was that insufferable, quintessential outsider, a Jew,” and a disloyal one at that.
However, she said the prison routine became more bearable when the officer in charge of the prison’s music program loaned her a violin.
Meanwhile, she composed detailed letters to relatives about what was happening to her. She thought she would need the information she included to research a book she planned to write.
Away from Brothman, she said she could “think clearly and make a decision.” She realized their relationship was “evil and wrong, and it was what upended my life.”
When she was released, Moskowitz got a job in public relations. But she said that FBI harassment and her own notoriety cut short that career. Falling back on her degree from City College of New York, she became a teacher.
“The entire course of my life has been affected by my conviction,” said Moskowitz, who never married or had children.
For years, she did not talk about her past; “it lay buried.” She put the book project aside because teaching was a demanding job and took up a lot of time. What time was left, she spent on her music.
She took up her book project again when she retired and her deteriorating eyesight made it hard to read musical notes.
The book, which was published as “Phantom Spies, Phantom Justice” in 2010, took 10 years to write. During that time she obtained FBI reports and secret grand jury testimony, disclosing that Gold gave a very different account than in his trial testimony.
A transcript of grand jury testimony in the Brothman-Moskowitz case was unsealed in 2008 by Hellerstein, part of a larger trove of documents sought by National Security Archive of the George Washington University, several organizations of historians and New York Times reporter Sam Roberts.
Moskowitz hoped that “Phantom Spies” would “do something, but “it’s a book, nothing more than a book. It doesn’t get into court. It doesn’t get into the hands of a judge.”
Enter Baker Botts
Eddon met Moskowitz more than 20 years ago in New Jersey, when he played the cello and the viola in a local ensemble. He didn’t know anything about her past until 2010 when he read a blurb about her book in The New Yorker.
Earlier this year, he read about a rare form of legal relief—a writ of error coram nobis—granted by Eastern District Judge I. Leo Glasser (NYLJ, July 7). Eddon thought the device offered hope of vindication for Moskowitz, and Baker Botts agreed to represent her.
Having never filed this type of request, Eddon has logged roughly 75 hours since early July exploring the case law, reading FBI reports and transcripts and searching for original documents stored in Washington, D.C., and the Columbia Law School library.
“[Guy] personally cares about the results of this petition,” said Maier, who has logged nearly 20 hours. “He has a stake in it and he’s trying to right a wrong … all that makes it more compelling.”
A petitioner for coram relief must show 1) that under the circumstances it is necessary to achieve justice; 2) sound reasons exist for failure to seek appropriate relief earlier; and 3) the petitioner continues to suffer legal consequences from her conviction that may be alleviated by the granting of the writ. Foont v. United States, 93 F.3d 76 (2nd Cir. 1996).
On Aug. 11, only a few months after Baker Botts had taken on Moskowitz as a client, her legal team filed a coram petition, branding her conviction as a “profound injustice” and a “fundamental error,”Moskowitz v. United States of America, 14 cv 6389.
“She’s 98 years old,” said Eddson. “We didn’t want to waste any time.”
The filing states that, based on evidence hidden from the defense for more than 60 years, both Brothman and Gold told FBI agents and the grand jury that Moskowitz was never part of a conspiracy to lie to the grand jury.
The petition argues that had the jury known about this previous testimony, “no reasonable jury could have believed Gold’s later testimony against Moskowitz.”
Further, the petition states, “Throughout the trial, in myriad ways that would be unfathomable today, the judge and the prosecutors revealed their political bias and motivation.”
During voir dire, Kaufman asked potential jurors whether any were prejudiced against the House Un-American Activities Committee or supported the Communist Party.
Kaufman allowed the prosecution to read large swaths of Gold’s grand jury into evidence, over defense attorney William Kleinman’s protest that he had been given no opportunity to review it.
Prosecutor Saypol said in his closing statement that the obstruction of justice at issue “was perpetrated to retard an investigation of espionage to conceal the activities of these parties on behalf of the Soviet Union.”
Kaufman thanked the jurors for their verdict against defendants he suggested had attempted “to undermine the very backbone of our country.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Brothman’s conviction on the substantive obstruction charge while upholding the conspiracy convictions of him and Moskowitz. United States v. Brothman, 191 F.2d 70.
“As it stands, Miriam Moskowitz is a convicted felon, while the criminality of the underlying conduct has been strongly challenged” her filing says.
Eddon acknowledged in an interview that obtaining coram relief “always is a tough road to climb.”
A Lexis search of 51 coram decisions within the last two years in federal courts nationwide found only three instances in which petitions had been granted. The Glasser decision is being appealed by the Eastern District U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Eddon said that he has explained the odds to his client frankly, but she remains optimistic.
A ruling in her favor “is inevitable if I get a judge who is sympathetic and has read the trial record and says, ‘I can’t believe this happened. ‘I can’t believe Judge Kaufman allowed this. I can’t believe the prosecutor'” made the prejudicial comments that he did, she said.
Moskowitz’s trip to federal court Monday was her first in more than 64 years.
“I have to confess that I have the same butterflies today that I had the last time,” she said. “That feeling of, ‘What are these people talking about? What are they saying?’ The routine [of the court proceedings] was so prescribed and orderly that it never seemed like it was really happening until we got further into the trial.”
During the brief conference, Hellerstein jokingly referred to a Jewish tradition that holds no one can aspire to more than 120 years of life because that’s how long Moses lived.
However, Hellerstein said several times that he wanted to move quickly, establishing a schedule under which the government’s response is due Oct. 1, Moskowitz’s reply is due Oct. 14 and a hearing will be held Nov. 4.
Southern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Allen told the judge that, “It’s still [too] early” to say how the government will respond to the petition. But he added that the U.S. Attorney’s Office will not need any witness testimony, and no facts are in dispute, so they don’t anticipate a need for discovery.
Sitting with her lawyers, Moskowitz watched the proceedings attentively but had trouble hearing. Hellerstein stopped every few minutes to allow Eddon to lean over and loudly explain what was happening. The judge said a real time transcriptionist would be on hand for the next hearing to allow her to follow on a screen.
Kaufman died in 1992, and Moskowitz watched from across the street as his body was carried into the synagogue for a funeral.
She recounts in her book how, seizing the chance to confront her nemesis, she improvised a lengthy silent curse in which she said that his name “is etched on the tablets of history by the acid of your inhumanity. It has become the vilest of curses, and anathema, an execration for the ages.”
Decades later, Moskowitz said she is not bitter, but “I am still angry.”
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It’s still happening …. Read about The New McCarthyism HERE
Despite Israel’s denials (and fears) the BDS Movement is gaining momentum in Europe
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The war in Gaza and its aftermath have inflamed opinion in Europe and, experts and analysts say, are likely to increase support for the movement to boycott, disinvest from and sanction Israel, known as BDS.
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With Gaza War, Movement to Boycott Israel Gains Momentum in Europe
LONDON — A branch of Sainsbury’s grocery store removed kosher products from its shelves, it said, to prevent anti-Israel demonstrations. The Tricycle Theater in north London, after hosting a Jewish film festival for eight years, demanded to vet the content of any film made with arts funding from the Israeli government. George Galloway, a member of Parliament known for his vehement criticism of Israel, declared Bradford, England, an “Israel-free zone.”
Mr. Galloway, in comments being investigated by the police, said, “We don’t want any Israeli goods; we don’t want any Israeli services; we don’t want any Israeli academics coming to the university or college; we don’t even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford.”
The war in Gaza and its aftermath have inflamed opinion in Europe and, experts and analysts say, are likely to increase support for the movement to boycott, disinvest from and sanction Israel, known as BDS.
“We entered this war in Gaza with the perception that the Israeli government is not interested in reaching peace with the Palestinians,” said Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a private university. “Now, after the casualties and the destruction, I’m very worried about the impact this could have on Israel. It could make it very easy for the BDS campaign to isolate Israel and call for more boycotts.”
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Demonstrators in London this month protesting Israel’s operations in the Gaza Strip. Emotions are running high.CreditJustin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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Gilead Sher and Einav Yogev, in a paper for the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, warn that Gaza means Israel pays “a much heavier price in public opinion and in erosion of support for its positions in negotiations with the Palestinians.”
Along with reports of “familiar anti-Semitic attacks on Jews,” they said, “the movement to boycott Israel is expanding politically and among the public.”
Daniel Levy of the European Council on Foreign Relations points to the debate over halting arms exports to Israel, which has been given new momentum in Britain and Spain by the asymmetry of the Gaza war.
“You’re beginning to see the translation of public sympathy into something politically meaningful,” he said. He noted two tracks — the governmental one, which distinguishes between Israel and the occupied territories, and the social one of academic, commercial and artistic boycotts.
But for all the new attention around the BDS movement, the economic impact has been small, experts say. The European Union, which has been looked to for leadership on the issue, does not support the idea.
Instead, the Europeans are drawing a legal distinction between Israel within its 1967 boundaries and Israeli towns and settlements that are beyond them in occupied land. Brussels regards all Israelis living beyond the 1967 lines, including those in East Jerusalem, as settlers living in illegal communities whose status can be regulated only through a negotiated peace agreement with the Palestinians.
In matters such as scientific cooperation, funding for research, import duties and labeling requirements, Brussels has sought a strong relationship with pre-1967 Israel, while demanding a different status for institutions and products from beyond the Green Line, the armistice lines that ended the 1967 fighting but did not fix borders or create a Palestinian state.
Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said before the Gaza conflict that “there is no boycott” of Israel by the European Union, citing trade and scientific cooperation. “The European Union defends the right of existence of Israel with all its means,” he said. “The view that the Europeans are against Israel, I repeat it, is wrong.”
Some members of the 28-nation European Union are closer to Israel than others, but the bloc is united on Israel within its 1967 boundaries.
“Our relationship with Israel is close and one of the best we have in the region, but only with Israel in its 1967 lines unless there is a peace agreement,” said a senior European Union official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol. “We are clear, however, that what came under Israeli control in 1967 is not a part of Israel, so the settlements are illegal under international law and not helpful in the peace process.”
To that end, the European Union has demanded that all products produced by Israelis beyond the 1967 lines be labeled differently, and they are excluded from the duty-free trade agreement the bloc has with Israel proper. Goods from settlements are imported, but under different labels and tariffs. “There is no question of a boycott,” the European official said.
In an agreement last December on scientific exchanges and funding, known as Horizon 2020, Brussels insisted, despite fierce opposition from the Israeli government, on keeping Israeli institutions in the West Bank, like Ariel University, out of the deal. Since European funding is so important to Israeli academic institutions, the Israeli government gave in, attaching a legally meaningless appendix opposing the distinctions.
While some Israeli companies label goods produced in the West Bank as Israeli, the Europeans have tried to crack down, insisting that permits have a physical address attached and not simply an Israeli post office box. Goods can be labeled “West Bank” or as coming from a particular place, but cannot say “Made in Israel.”
The European Union has gone considerably further than the United States, declaring that Israeli settlements over the Green Line are “illegal” under international law; the United States simply calls them “illegitimate” and “obstacles to peace.”
Israel says its settlement activity is consistent with international law, although it accepts that some settlements are built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land and says that all will be resolved as part of a final deal with the Palestinians.
The United States also has no regulations requiring separate labeling of products from Israeli-occupied land.
The recent fuss over SodaStream and one of its spokeswomen, the actress Scarlett Johansson, was indicative of the passions raised. Oxfam insisted she quit SodaStream, which has a factory in the large West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, or quit her work with Oxfam; Ms. Johansson chose to quit Oxfam. SodaStream defended itself by citing the number of jobs it was providing for Palestinians, who were being paid the same wages as Israeli workers.
The debate was indicative of shifting attitudes. During the period around the Oslo Accords, in the early 1990s, when peace seemed close and economic cooperation between Israel and the new, interim Palestinian Authority was considered an important part of a future relationship built on mutual dependency and confidence, factories in occupied territory were praised.
With the failure of Oslo to produce a Palestinian state, the tone has changed, and companies once seen by many as in the forefront of economic cooperation are now being seen by some as colonial occupiers undermining a future Palestinian state.
But the interconnection of Israel with the settlements is difficult to untie — every major Israeli bank has a branch in the settlements.
Some countries, like Britain, have gone further. Britain issued voluntary labeling guidelines in December 2009 “to enable consumers to make a more fully informed decision concerning the products they buy,” according to the UK Trade and Investment agency, because “we understand the concerns of people who do not wish to purchase goods exported from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
More troubling to Israel, in December the agency warned companies and citizens to be “aware of the potential reputational implications” of investments in settlement areas. “We do not encourage or offer support to such activities,” it said.
But even these concerns should be distinguished from the organized BDS campaign against the state of Israel itself. Begun in 2005, the campaign is supposed to last, the Palestinian BDS National Committee says, until Israel “complies with international law and Palestinian rights.”
Its three goals are “the end of Israeli occupation and colonization of Arab land and dismantling the Wall,” “full equality” for “Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel,” and respect for the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Israelis see the first two as compatible with two states, but the third as the end of the Jewish state.
Then there is the associated effort at an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, which has attracted well-known figures like Stephen Hawking and Sinead O’Connor. Others defend artistic freedom or the unifying nature of culture, or believe, as the writer Ian McEwan said, “If I only went to countries I approve of, I probably would never get out of bed.”
Still, the persistent false narrative that military strikes by either the United States or Israel may follow any potential failure to reach a deal continues to be repeated in the press. Of course, the fact that any such attack would be unequivocally illegal under international law is rarely noted in these assessments.
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The Forever Threat: The Imminent Attack on Iran That Will Never Happen
After insisting it is “time to cut off every dime of American money going to anyone who has any kind of relationship with Hamas or those killing in the Middle East, and especially in Israel,” Gohmert added, “It is time to bomb Iran’s nuclear capabilities. It is time for the United States, if we are not going to stop Iran’s nukes, then let Israel do it. A friend will not put another friend in this kind of jeopardy.”
Still, the persistent false narrative that military strikes by either the United States or Israel may follow any potential failure to reach a deal continues to be repeated in the press. Of course, the fact that any such attack would be unequivocally illegal under international law is rarely noted in these assessments.
Over twenty years ago, a report in the Independent (UK) published on June 23, 1994 revealed that the Pentagon had inked a deal to provide Israel with advanced F-15I fighter jets, designed to “enable the Israelis to carry out strikes deep into Iraq and Iran without refuelling.”
Three years later, on December 9, 1997, a The Times of London headline screamed, “Israel steps up plans for air attacks on Iran.” The article, written by Christopher Walker, reported on the myriad “options” Israel had in confronting what it deemed “Iran’s Russian-backed missile and nuclear weapon programme.”
Such reports have been published ever since. Of course, neither the United States nor Israel will attack Iran, regardless of the success or failure of negotiations, but such reports (often the result of strategically timed “leaks” by anonymous government officials) serve to not only to intentionallytorpedo diplomacy but also mislead the public into believing the absurdly false narrative surrounding the Iranian nuclear program; that is, either Iran must be bombed or it will acquire a nuclear arsenal. This is nonsense.
Below are some of the constant headlines we’ve seen over the past dozen years promoting such propaganda. When will this madness – this pathological obsession with the false necessity of dropping bombs and the righteous inevitability of killing people – stop?
The mayor of the beleaguered city said “an absurd situation has been created. All over the world they are talking about the rehabilitation of Gaza, about salaries for Palestinians, about the openings of the border crossings and the transfer of cement to the Strip, but what about the rehabilitation of southern Israel?”
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Local leaders doubt Netanyahu’s commitment to southern residents
Ashkelon mayor says whole world talking about Gaza reconstruction, but Israeli government is not discussing rehabilitation of southern communities.
Ilana Curiel IN
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Be’er Sheva on Thursday to meet with the heads of the local authorities in southern Israel and Gaza-border communities, two days after the start of a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Merhavim Regional Council chief Shai Hajaj said after the meeting that the local leaders were assured the government would provide financial assistance not only to the Gaza-border area, but also to cities and towns up to 40 km from the Strip.
At the meeting, Netanyahu said that “on Sunday we will announce a very generous aid package to Gaza-border residents and later on we will also announce assistance for the entire south.”
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting Sderot
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Netanyahu told the local leaders that Hamas received a harsh blow; the southern representatives told Netanyahu that they hope the government follows through on its promises to severely respond to any fire from Gaza.
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Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with southern leaders (Photo: Haim Zach, GPO)
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The Merhavim council chief added: “I received the impression that the prime minister received positive feedback on the war’s management during Operation Protective Edge. There was anger towards the cabinet ministers who dallied with the press while soldiers were fighting in the Strip.”
Ashkelon mayor Itamar Shimoni boycotted the event because no concrete plan to rehabilitate the south had been presented. Shimoni said his city suffered major losses during the operation.
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Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni (Photo: Moti Kimchi)
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“In our annual budget the Ashkelon municipality had allocated for additional revenue of 150 million shekels by selling 80 property deeds – not one contractor bid on the tenders and now the project is frozen,” he said.
Shimoni stressed that “it’s a significant loss; these funds were allocated to developing the city, but were lost because of the operation. Who will compensate us for that?”
The mayor of the beleaguered city said “an absurd situation has been created. All over the world they are talking about the rehabilitation of Gaza, about salaries for Palestinians, about the openings of the border crossings and the transfer of cement to the Strip, but what about the rehabilitation of southern Israel?”
In a clear indictment of the Netanyahu administration, Shimoni answered the question. “No one is talking about that, and no one is doing anything either.”
Shimoni criticized the administration for turning a blind eye to the needs of southern residents. “The response of the Israeli government to southern residents who have lived under fire for two months must be a wide-reaching rehabilitation of the south. We need national investment in infrastructure, to bridge the gaps, so that we may better prepare the population for the next campaign.”
“Unfortunately, in this country, just the opposite is happening,” he said.
With the Gaza ‘conflict’ seemingly on hold for the time being, Israel can now once again concentrate on their ‘other’ enemy …. HUMANITY.
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Staying away from McDonald’s, IBM, Estee Lauder, Soda Stream, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Siemens, Danone, Kimberly-Clark, Intel, Timberland, Caterpillar, Victoria’s Secret, Revlon and many other companies blacklisted by the organizers of boycott is not really possible for the ordinary consumer.
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OH YES IT IS!
AND IT’S OBVIOUSLY WORKING!
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Who’s afraid of the big, bad boycott?
Anyone seriously seeking to boycott Israeli products would have a hard time finding a real target on supermarket and drugstore shelves.
Adam Reuter IN *
Let’s start with the conclusion: Israeli exports are not affected by the present economic boycott, nor will they be affected in the future. This is not because certain European consumer groups and the like are not trying – it is because the unique nature of Israel’s exports simply does not allow for it. It’s a logical concept on paper, but simply does not hold water in reality.
The most obvious example of how the boycott concept is unsustainable is Israel’s trade relations with Turkey. In 2010, after Cast Lead, and the Mavi Marmara incident in particular, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who is now trying to change the laws in his country in order to become something akin to a sultan) demanded a boycott of Israel at every opportunity.
And lo and behold – just the opposite has happened. Trade relations with Turkey, both exports and imports, have jumped dramatically and are now at the highest level – and almost 100% rise since 2009, long before the Mavi Marmara. *
Anti-Israel protest in Madrid, August 2014 (Photo: AFP)
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No interest in Gaza
Israel’s exports are driven by thousands of companies of all kinds, with the most diverse ownership and in a wide variety of markets, albeit with a low international profile. There is no Israeli company that is considered a global brand, and hence could be used as a clear indicator.
Many Israeli companies operate in niche areas, as an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or as subsidiaries of foreign multinationals.
In addition, Israeli exports are almost never sold to the end consumer. In fact, this is the case for about 95 percent of Israel’s exports, almost all of which are involved in business-to-business (B2B) trade with the large international corporations who are only interested in the best product or service at the most competitive price.
With all due respect to what is happening there, the attacks in Gaza are not a consideration in the cold world of business, nor is really of any interest.
Tough task
Staying away from McDonald’s, IBM, Estee Lauder, Soda Stream, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Siemens, Danone, Kimberly-Clark, Intel, Timberland, Caterpillar, Victoria’s Secret, Revlon and many other companies blacklisted by the organizers of boycott is not really possible for the ordinary consumer.
An exploration of the websites of these companies reveals the names of very few Israeli exporters, and a multitude of huge multinationals. Israel boycotters will struggle to find products in the supermarket or drugstore, given the sheer number of massive international companies that do business with Israel.
Some of Israel’s farmers who export to Europe are in the boycotters’ crosshairs, yet agricultural produce only constitutes about 2 percent of Israeli exports. They are now experiencing some difficulties, but know from experience that life will return to normal once the conflict is over.
It may be possible to reduce the existing damage somewhat by diverting goods to Russia, which is currently boycotting the entry of agricultural products from Europe.
Most of the impact is felt in the factories of Ariel and Ma’aleh Adumim, both viewed as problematic by in the EU due to their location beyond the Green Line.
It is extremely unfortunate that these companies are forced to endure such censure, but the scope of their activity, in relation to Israel’s overall exports, is minute, and does not constitute even one thousandth of Israel’s total GDP. Looking at it on the macroeconomic level, the damage of boycotting these factories is negligible to the overall Israeli economy.
It’s time to calm down and free ourselves of this blind hysteria that is being promulgated, most likely for some political end or other.
Haniyeh hails Palestinian resistance ‘victory’ in massive Gaza rally
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Palestinians flash the sign of victory atop a vehicle, as people celebrate
a deal reached between Hamas and Israel for a long-term end to fighting
in the Gaza Strip, Aug. 26, 2014, in Gaza City (AFP Mahmud Hams)
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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh greeted thousands of Palestinians in a central Gaza square on Wednesday in a massive victory rally following the signing of a long-term ceasefire that concluded 50 days of intense conflict with Israel.
The speech followed the release of polls earlier in the day showing widespread belief in Gaza that the Palestinian military resistance had increased its deterrence capacity and overwhelming support for the firing of rockets into Israel.
In his speech, Haniyeh hailed the people of Gaza and the resistance forces for their steadfastness in the fight against Israel, which claimed the lives of more than 2,100 Palestinians — the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians — and left 64 Israeli soldiers dead, in addition to six civilians in Israel.
“Those whose blood was spilled and the martyrs were the fuel of this victory,” Haniyeh said during the rally, emphasizing to the crowd of thousands that the resistance had been preparing for the battle for years.
“It is not possible to express this victory with words and speeches,” he added.
“The victory is beyond the limits of time and place. This battle is a war that lacks a precedent in the history of conflict with the enemy,” he said, stressing that the group was preparing for the “ultimate battle” for the liberation of Palestine.
“The war began with fire on Haifa and ended with fire on Haifa,” he told the crowd, highlighting the fact that Hamas had managed to fight throughout the seven-week Israeli assault and emerged with its military strength intact.
“The Palestinians who couldn’t celebrate Eid al-Fitr because of the fighting and because they were on the battlefield, today celebrate the celebration of victory.”
Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida also gave a speech in Gaza on Wednesday night, arguing that the conflict had shown the need to “completely revise the methods of national struggle.”
“Negotiations are not enough with these occupiers,” he told a large crowd gathered in Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiyya neighborhood, which was devastated during the Israeli ground assault.
“Resistance unified the people, and that is our big achievement,” he added. “We will not return to divisions or disputes.”
“The resistance forced the ceasefire out of its enemy and did not allow them any strategic or tactical achievements,” he continued. “It crushed its pride that has been fabricated for decades through media outlets, and laboratories of psychological warfare.”
He also stressed that his was not a “victory speech,” adding: “Our appointment with the victory speech will be in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem). This is merely an inevitable step along the way.”
Hamas has hailed the conflict with Israel as a victory for the group and the Palestinian resistance more broadly, stressing that Gaza is coming out of the battle having gained concessions from Israel while Israel has not managed to dent its military power.
Israeli authorities said at the beginning of the assault that their goals were to end rocket fire and later added the destruction of tunnels underneath Gaza that it said would be used to launch attacks into Israel.
Although the Israeli government says it destroyed all the tunnels, Palestinian militant groups dispute this. Rocket fire, meanwhile, continued into Israel until the final moments of the conflict.
The long-term ceasefire agreement, meanwhile, promises a gradual easing of the Israeli-imposed economic blockade of Gaza, which Israel has maintained with Egyptian support since 2007.
Although the Palestinian delegation team stressed the need for the re-opening of the airport and seaport in Gaza, these demands will be discussed further in a new round of talks next month.
Israel’s primary demand — for a disarmament of Gaza militant groups — has not been realized.
(AFP/Diane Desobeau)
* Strong belief in increased deterrence
The speeches come hours after an opinions poll released by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion showed a widespread belief in Gaza the deterrence capacity of the Palestinian resistance groups following the conflict.
More than 75 percent of Palestinians surveyed in the poll, which was conducted from August 14-19 among 1,000 adult respondents across Gaza, thought that as a result of the conflict Palestinian militant groups had an increased deterrence capability.
This belief was reinforced by a tremendous rise in support for the firing of rockets into Israel, which the poll showed was supported by an overwhelming 88.9 percent of respondents, a nearly 100 percent increase over a Jan. 2013 poll which showed only 49 percent support.
Israel’s military strategy toward Gaza has relied on the use of massive military force to cow the population at large and diminish support for Hamas, but the poll results suggest that the Palestinian population has instead rallied around the armed resistance groups.
Despite the heavy civilian casualties suffered in Gaza — the UN estimates that 70 percent of the more than 2,100 dead have been civilians — many Palestinians were surprised by the effectiveness of Hamas fighting capabilities during the seven-week long conflict.
The Israeli military suffered its highest casualty rate since it attempted to invade Lebanon in 2006, while Hamas launched cross-border raids targeting military sites in addition to firing rockets into distant cities like Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa on a regular basis.
The poll also showed mild support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s performance during the operation, with 54 percent saying they approved while more than 38 percent expressing disapproval.
Although Abbas was criticized for failing to act in the early weeks of the bombardment, the PA’s involvement in indirect long-term negotiations with Israel in Cairo provides a possible explanation for the general approval.
The United Nations Relief and Work Agency, which offered refuge to around 485,000 Palestinians displaced by the fighting, also enjoyed widespread approval, with more than 71 percent saying the agency had done a “good” job.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, however, came out of the conflict with extremely low levels of approval, with nearly 65 percent rating his performance negative, 17 percent positive, and 13.5 percent “balanced.”
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall …
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Netanyahu: Hamas won none of its demands in Gaza truce
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on August 24, 2014 at the
Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv (AFP/File Gali Tibbon)
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JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Hamas had achieved none of its demands in a truce ending 50 days of deadly conflict in Gaza.
“Hamas was hit hard and got none of its demands,” Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem, his first comments since the ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday evening.
“Hamas wanted a port and airport in Gaza, the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, the mediation of Qatar and Turkey and the payment of salaries for its employees.
“But it got nothing.”
The seven-week conflict claimed the lives of at least 2,140 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them civilians according to the United Nations, and 64 soldiers and six civilians on the Israeli side.
“Hamas has not suffered such a defeat since its creation. We destroyed attack tunnels, killed nearly 1,000 enemy combatants, including senior officials in the movement, destroyed thousands of rockets and hundreds of command posts,” Netanyahu said.
Both sides’ guns fell silent on Tuesday, with Israel agreeing to ease restrictions on the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza, and allow fishing boats up to six nautical miles offshore.
The sides have yet to agree on other issues, such as the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for militants handing over the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting.
Negotiations are also yet to take place on Hamas’ key demand for a Gaza seaport and airport.
“We have agreed to help reconstruct the territory for humanitarian reasons, but only under our control,” Netanyahu said.
“It’s still too early to know if the calm has returned in the long term,” he warned.
“We won’t tolerate any firing on Israel, and our response will be even stronger.”
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So, WHO WON?
Comments Off on #OperationCeasefire ~~ THE ‘VICTORY’ ON BOTH SIDES OF THE WALL
Martin Luther King’s dream has turned into a nightmare …. but the Palestinian dream is still waiting to happen.
51 YEARS AGO TODAY
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AP PHOTOS ~~ PALESTINIAN EXILES DREAM OF RETURN
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In this Sunday, June 15, 2014 photo, Palestinian refugee Sabhah Abu Latifah, 85, poses for a picture in front of a wall painted with a mural depicting prisoners jailed in Israel in Kalandia refugee camp between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, were she has lived with her family since they fled during the war over Israel’s 1948 creation. She was 19 years old.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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In this Wednesday, June 18, 2014 photo, Palestinian refugee Layla Afaneh, 67, poses for a picture in front of a wall painted with a mural in the Kalandia refugee camp between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah. Layla was a year and a half old when she and seven other members of her family were forced to leave their village of Barfeelia, near the central Israeli town of Ramla, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out their homes in the Mideast war over Israel’s 1948 creation.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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In this Wednesday, June 18, 2014 photo, Palestinian refugee Mohammed Emtair, 85, poses for a picture in front of a mural depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the Kalandia refugee camp between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah. The United Nations refugee agency says that at the end of last year, more than 50 million people have been forced from their homes worldwide, the highest figure of displaced since World War II. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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In this Tuesday, June 17, 2014 photo, Palestinian refugee Jamilah Shalabi, 70, poses for a picture in front of a wall painted with a mural in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, where she has lived since she was 4 years old when she and her parents were forced to leave their home in Zarin village, near the in the northern Israeli town of Beit Shean. More than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out in the 1948 Mideast war, according to U.N. figures. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Some wars are recorded in the annals of history, the last Israeli incursion into Gaza will definitely go down in its anus.
Both sides claim victory, yet there is no victor.
Gaza lost over 2,000 innocent civilians including over 250 children. Neighbourhoods, schools, hospitals were totally destroyed by Israel’s indiscriminate bombings. Israel (re)gained complete control of the Strip by giving legitimacy to the illegitimate Mahmoud Abbas.
Where I come from, THAT IS NOT A VICTORY!
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Israel, on the other hand, lost 65 of its soldiers, 2 innocent civilians including a four-year old child.
Israel lost whatever International prestige it might have had by its actions. Tens of thousands of Jews throughout the world demonstrated daily against the atrocities committed by them. Even the likes of Norman Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky woke up briefly from their comas to speak their piece. So called investigations are under way via the United Nations which will surely end with a condemnation of Israeli actions.
That too IS NOT A VICTORY!
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Gideon Levy hits the nail on the head with his column in HaAretz today
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This was the most brutal war Israel has ever waged, and it ended on Tuesday exactly where it started. En route, it inflicted countless wounds. Those of the Palestinians bleed more, but those of the Israelis are deeper. The 50-day war ended with no victors, but only Gaza celebrated last night, and with some degree of justice.
* Lessons from the futile Gaza war
Over the past 50 days, Gaza has told Netanyahu that Israel can no longer live by the sword. By Gideon Levy
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Israel Defense Forces soldiers train near the border with the Gaza Strip, Aug. 19, 2014.Photo by Ilan Assayag
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This was the most brutal war Israel has ever waged, and it ended on Tuesday exactly where it started. En route, it inflicted countless wounds. Those of the Palestinians bleed more, but those of the Israelis are deeper. The 50-day war ended with no victors, but only Gaza celebrated last night, and with some degree of justice.
There was no justice in this war; both sides committed war crimes. Nevertheless, its first lesson must not be forgotten: the limits of (military) power. Our smart bombs and our hundreds of planes didn’t help us. They didn’t win the war, and couldn’t have won it. The brilliant Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday, “When an army reaches the point of destroying apartment buildings as if it were a municipal engineer, it can no longer be considered a serious army.”
Hamas grew stronger, despite Israeli propagandists’ pathetic attempts to deny this. And (decimated) Gaza also grew stronger: Its fate, at least for a time, will now preoccupy Israel and the world; had it not been for its rockets, nobody would have bothered with it.
Gaza paid with much blood. Israel also bled, though less. But Israel’s debit sheet also includes a further decline in its international standing, and even worse, open wounds to its weakening democratic regime, which won’t heal quickly. Hamas has become a representative organization, even to Israel, and an exemplar of steadfast resistance, at least to its own people.
But the test of this war is still before us. This useless war might yet produce benefits, if wars ever can produce benefits, if Israel learns its lessons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who lost popular support in this war, will deserve history’s admiration: Unlike his colleagues, he at least knew when to end this horror, and he did so last night, displaying impressive leadership. Perhaps he’ll learn that he not only has the power to end wars, but to turn over a new leaf.
Israel can win this war only by complying with its enemy’s just demands: truly opening Gaza to the world and beginning negotiations over the future of the occupied territories. No more “understandings” that will quickly bring the next “operation,” but a new approach to Gaza, Hamas and the entire Palestinian people. No more photo ops with Mahmoud Abbas, but serious negotiations aimed at making peace with the Palestinian unity government.
It’s doubtful Netanyahu either can or wants to do this. But over the past 50 days, the Western and Arab worlds have both told him this is the only way; there is no other. Over the past 50 days, Gaza has told him Israel can no longer live eternally by the sword.
Over the last 50 days, cemeteries filled with bodies and hospitals overflowed with wounded. Rubble piled up and hatred and fear overflowed their banks on both sides. But this cloud could yet have a silver lining: Perhaps Israel, for the first time in its history, will fundamentally change its approach.
It sounds ridiculous now. But how is it possible to end this cursed war without at least envisioning hope?
Although they have only finished about 1/3 of our representations of the children murdered in Gaza the Granny Peace Brigade brought them to a demonstration organized by Jews Say No at the subway station on W. 96th St. and Broadway yesterday. Jews Say No does this regularly in an effort to engage with the community and discuss what is happening in Israel/Palestine. The reaction to the Gaza children representations was very strong. Many people gave the Grannies a thumbs-up or came over to speak saying they were glad to see them there. Several others were very passionate in their condemnation, screaming, calling the Grannies ignorant and anti-semites, and accusing them of pandering to people’s feelings. For the most part the demonstrators didn’t respond to the attacks. When there is one representation for each murdered child they will be taken to public places around the city and displayed.
As a sidenote, Palestinian children throughout Israel and the West Bank have been sending their ‘Eid Gifts’ to help the ‘little people’ still suffering in Gaza’s hospitals.
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday declared a long-term ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip.In a short televised address, Abbas said the agreement would go into effect at 7 p.m.For his part, deputy chief of Hamas’ politburo Mousa Abu Marzouq wrote on his Twitter account that “talks have ended. We have reached understandings crowning our people’s steadfastness and our resistance’s triumph. We are awaiting a statement setting the zero point and end to the aggression.”
A well-placed Palestinian source confirmed that Gaza border crossings would be open in tandem with an extended ceasefire.
The source explained that Egypt would issue a statement calling for a comprehensive and mutual ceasefire together with opening Gaza’s crossings for the entry of construction material.
The Gaza fishing zone will also be increased.
In addition, the source said, Israel has pledged to stop targeted assassinations against Palestinian resistance activists and faction leaders.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that a round of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would start in Cairo a month later to discuss unresolved issues.
Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have accepted the newly reached ceasefire agreement which Israel also accepted, the source highlighted.
Spokesman of the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees Abu Mujahid also told Ma’an that a permanent ceasefire agreement would go into effect this evening.
He said the agreement would be based on the 2012 truce and would include opening Gaza crossing points permanently.
He said opening crossings would mean an end to the Gaza siege, reconstruction of the enclave, removing the “no-go zone” and enlarging the Gaza fishing zone.
Israel’s Channel 10 TV quoted Israeli officials as saying they agreed to a ceasefire.
Current Israeli law borrows from legislation from the British Mandate period, under which the government and local authorities must publish all announcements and forms in Arabic. The new bill would annul this stipulation, as well as the use of Arabic at government ministries and in the courts.
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Right-wing MKs aim to make Hebrew Israel’s only official language
The legislators say such a law would ‘foster mutual trust in society and preserve the values of democracy.’
Road sign to Yitzhar settlement. Arabic blackened, “revenge” sprayed in Hebrew instead.Photo by Adar Cohen
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Knesset members from Yisrael Beiteinu, Likud and Habayit Hayehudi are pushing a bill to make Hebrew the only official language of the State of Israel.
Current Israeli law borrows from legislation from the British Mandate period, under which the government and local authorities must publish all announcements and forms in Arabic. The new bill would annul this stipulation, as well as the use of Arabic at government ministries and in the courts.
According to the bill, highway signs would still have Arabic, “and everyone has the freedom to use other languages in the private and public domains, to nurture them and teach them.”
The bill was initiated by MK Shimon Ohayon (Yisrael Beiteinu) and has been signed by two members of his party — David Rotem and Hamad Amar. High-profile right-wing MKs Moshe Feiglin (Likud) and Orit Strock (Habayit Hayehudi) are also on board.
“In most countries around the world the language of the country is the language spoken by the majority of the population. Therefore, in the State of Israel the Hebrew language has the status of the language of the country, which should be enshrined in legislation,” the MKs said in a statement.
They said such a law would “contribute to social solidarity” and help “build the collective identity necessary for fostering mutual trust in society and preserving the values of democracy.”
AIDS and Ebola VirusesWere “Man-Made:”Expert Shocks National Radio Audience
San Francisco – AIDS and Ebola viruses did not originate from monkeys left alone in the wild – they were bioengineered in American laboratories. So says an internationally known public health authority with Harvard credentials, Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, based on a review of more than 2,500 government documents and scientific reports, some gained through the Freedom of Information Act and never before revealed to the general public. “The Gary Null” show, originating in New York on WBAI radio, syndicated in 20 cities and heard by more than a million people, will air this information, and more, during a one hour interview with Dr. Horowitz beginning on Tuesday, April 23, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM e.s.t., and later in the week throughout the country. Listeners will learn that HIV-1, and its parent, HIV-2, have been traced to National Cancer Institute (NCI) and military funded cancer virus experiments which used infected African green monkeys to produce vaccines intended to prevent hepatitis, leukemia, and other cancers.
The documented evidence revealed in Dr. Horowitz’s new book, Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola – Nature, Accident or Genocide? (Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 1996), shows that NCI researchers, during the 1960’s, mixed viral genes from different animals to produce leukemia, sarcoma, general wasting, and death. This provided the “cancer models” used to study human cancer and begin human vaccine trials. The book, described as the first in-depth exploration into the origins of AIDS and Ebola, and its controversial conclusions, have offended many top AIDS researchers, and been hailed by numerous others who have long questioned the green monkey theory, or feared disease outbreaks from viral vaccine experiments.
Reconciling the origin of AIDS and Ebola, as Dr. Horowitz has now done, is important for several reasons: First, many feel that victims of AIDS should not be blamed for starting the epidemic. With this evidence, those living with HIV/AIDS may now be freed from the stigma, shame, and guilt associated with the infection – a boost to their natural immunity. Second, new therapies might be developed from a better understanding of HIV’s origin. third, the events precipitating such epidemics should never be allowed to happen again. It is ethically important to understand, and therefore prevent, future outbreaks. Finally, those directly implicated in HIV’s development and transmission are the same individuals and institutions capitalizing on the epidemic and humanity’s suffering. Though many might consider this preposterous, as one Emerging Viruses review recently cautioned, “withhold any out-of-hand dismissal until you read this book,” or tune into Dr. Null’s extraordinary program.
In a statement, the network said the letter was written in response to an ad campaign in which Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate, compares the murder of children during the Holocaust to Hamas’ actions in Gaza.
“We are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water,” the letter reads.
It concludes: “’Never again’ must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE.”
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40 Holocaust Survivors Condemn Israel for Gaza War (Signatories below)
Some 40 Jewish Holocaust survivors and more than 200 direct descendants of survivors signed a public letter condemning Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
“As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine,” reads the letter, which was published Saturday in The New York Times as an advertisement. “We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.”
The signatories come from 26 countries representing four generations of survivors.
About 50 other relatives of survivors also signed the letter, which was sponsored by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. The network calls for the “liberation of the Palestinian people and land,” as well as “an end to U.S. economic and military dominance in the region, in which Israel plays a crucial part.”
In a statement, the network said the letter was written in response to an ad campaign in which Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate, compares the murder of children during the Holocaust to Hamas’ actions in Gaza.
“We are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water,” the letter reads.
It concludes: “’Never again’ must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE.”
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The signatories …
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Jewish survivors and descendents of survivors of Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza
Survivors
Hajo Meyer, survivor of Auschwitz, The Netherlands.
Henri Wajnblum, survivor and son of a victim of Auschwitz from Lodz, Poland. Lives in Belgium.
Renate Bridenthal, child refugee from Hitler, granddaughter of Auschwitz victim, United States.
Marianka Ehrlich Ross, survivor of Nazi ethnic cleansing in Vienna, Austria. Now lives in United States.
Irena Klepfisz, child survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto, Poland. Now lives in United States.
Karen Pomer, granddaughter of member of Dutch resistance and survivor of Bergen Belsen. Now lives in the United States.
Hedy Epstein, her parents & other family members were deported to Camp de Gurs & subsequently all perished in Auschwitz. Now lives in United States.
Lillian Rosengarten, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
Suzanne Weiss, survived in hiding in France, and daughter of a mother who was murdered in Auschwitz. Now lives in Canada.
H. Richard Leuchtag, survivor, United States.
Ervin Somogyi, survivor and son of survivors, United States.
Ilse Hadda, survivor on Kindertransport to England. Now lives in United States.
Jacques Glaser, survivor, France.
Norbert Hirschhorn, refugee of Nazi genocide and grandson of three grandparents who died in the Shoah, London.
Eva Naylor, surivor, New Zealand.
Suzanne Ross, child refugee from Nazi occupation in Belgium, two thirds of family perished in the Lodz Ghetto, in Auschwitz, and other Camps, United States.
Bernard Swierszcz, Polish survivor, lost relatives in Majdanek concentration camp. Now lives in the United States.
Joseph Klinkov, hidden child in Poland, still lives in Poland.
Nicole Milner, survivor from Belgium. Now lives in United States.
Hedi Saraf, child survivor and daughter of survivor of Dachau, United States.
Michael Rice, child survivor and son and grandson of survivor, aunt died in Auschwitz and cousin in concentration camp, ALL 14 remaining Jewish children in my Dutch boarding school were murdered in concentration camps, United States.
Barbara Roose, survivor from Germany, half-sister killed in Auschwitz, United States.
Sonia Herzbrun, survivor of Nazi genocide, France.
Ivan Huber, survivor with my parents, but 3 of 4 grandparents murdered, United States.
Altman Janina, survivor of Janowski concentration camp, Lvov. Lives in Israel.
Leibu Strul Zalman, survivor from Vaslui Romania. Lives in Jerusalem, Palestine.
Miriam Almeleh, survivor, United States.
George Bartenieff, child survivor from Germany and son of survivors, United States.
Margarete Liebstaedter, survivor, hidden by Christian people in Holland. Lives in Belgium.
Edith Bell, survivor of Westerbork, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Kurzbach. Lives in United States.
Janine Euvrard, survivor, France.
Harry Halbreich, survivor, German.
Ruth Kupferschmidt, survivor, spent five years hiding, The Netherlands.
Children of survivors
Liliana Kaczerginski, daughter of Vilna ghetto resistance fighter and granddaughter of murdered in Ponary woods, Lithuania. Now lives in France.
Jean-Claude Meyer, son of Marcel, shot as a hostage by the Nazis, whose sister and parents died in Auschwitz. Now lives in France.
Chava Finkler, daughter of survivor of Starachovice labour camp, Poland. Now lives in Canada.
Micah Bazant, child of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Sylvia Schwarz, daughter and granddaughter of survivors and granddaughter of victims of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Margot Goldstein, daughter and granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Ellen Schwarz Wasfi, daughter of survivors from Vienna, Austria. Now lives in United States.
Lisa Kosowski, daughter of survivor and granddaughter of Auschwitz victims, United States.
Daniel Strum, son of a refugee from Vienna, who, with his parents were forced to flee in 1939, his maternal grand-parents were lost, United States.
Bruce Ballin, son of survivors, some relatives of parents died in camps, one relative beheaded for being in the Baum Resistance Group, United States.
Rachel Duell, daughter of survivors from Germany and Poland, United States.
Tom Mayer, son of survivor and grandson of victims, United States.
Alex Nissen, daughter of survivors who escaped but lost family in the Holocaust, United States.
Mark Aleshnick, son of survivor who lost most of her family in Nazi genocide, United States.
Prof. Haim Bresheeth, son of two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen, London.
Todd Michael Edelman, son and grandson of survivors and great-grandson of victims of the Nazi genocide in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, United States.
Tim Naylor, son of survivor, New Zealand.
Victor Nepomnyashchy, son and grandson of survivors and grandson and relative of many victims, United States.
Tanya Ury, daughter of parents who fled Nazi Germany, granddaughter, great granddaugher and niece of survivors and those who died in concentration camps, Germany.
Rachel Giora, daughter of Polish Jews who fled Poland, Israel.
Jane Hirschmann, daughter of survivors, United States.
Jenny Heinz, daughter of survivor, United States.
Jaap Hamburger, son of survivors and grandchild of 4 grandparents murdered in Auschwitz, The Netherlands.
Elsa Auerbach, daughter of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, United States.
Julian Clegg, son and grandson of Austrian refugees, relative of Austrian and Hungarian concentration camp victims, Taiwan.
David Mizner, son of a survivor, relative of people who died in the Holocaust, United States.
Jeffrey J. Westcott, son and grandson of Holocaust survivors from Germany, United States.
Susan K. Jacoby, daughter of parents who were refugees from Nazi Germany, granddaughter of survivor of Buchenwald, United States.
Audrey Bomse, daughter of a survivor of Nazi ethnic cleansing in Vienna, lives in United States.
Daniel Gottschalk, son and grandson of refugees from the Holocaust, relative to various family members who died in the Holocaust, United States.
Barbara Grossman, daughter of survivors, granddaughter of Holocaust victims, United States.
Abraham Weizfeld PhD, son of survivorswho escaped Warsaw (Jewish Bundist) and Lublin ghettos, Canada.
David Rohrlich, son of refugees from Vienna, grandson of victim, United States.
Walter Ballin, son of holocaust survivors, United States.
Fritzi Ross, daughter of survivor, granddaughter of Dachau survivor Hugo Rosenbaum, great-granddaughter and great-niece of victims, United States.
Reuben Roth, son of survivors who fled from Poland in 1939, Canada.
Tony Iltis, father fled from Czechoslovakia and grandmother murdered in Auschwitz, Australia.
Anne Hudes, daughter and granddaughter of survivors from Vienna, Austria, great-granddaughter of victims who perished in Auschwitz, United States.
Mateo Nube, son of survivor from Berlin, Germany. Lives in United States.
John Mifsud, son of survivors from Malta, United States.
Mike Okrent, son of two holocaust / concentration camp survivors, United States.
Susan Bailey, daughter of survivor and niece of victims, UK.
Brenda Lewis, child of Kindertransport survivor, parent’s family died in Auschwitz and Terezin. Lives in Canada.
Patricia Rincon-Mautner, daughter of survivor and granddaughter of survivor, Colombia.
Barak Michèle, daughter and grand-daughter of a survivor, many members of family were killed in Auschwitz or Bessarabia. Lives in Germany.
Jessica Blatt, daughter of child refugee survivor, both grandparents’ entire families killed in Poland. Lives in United States
Maia Ettinger, daughter & granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Ammiel Alcalay, child of survivors from then Yugoslavia. Lives in United States.
Julie Deborah Kosowski, daughter of hidden child survivor, grandparents did not return from Auschwitz, United States.
Julia Shpirt, daughter of survivor, United States.
Ruben Rosenberg Colorni, grandson and son of survivors, The Netherlands.
Victor Ginsburgh, son of survivors, Belgium.
Arianne Sved, daughter of a survivor and granddaughter of victim, Spain.
Rolf Verleger, son of survivors, father survived Auschwitz, mother survived deportation from Berlin to Estonia, other family did not survive. Lives in Germany.
Euvrard Janine, daughter of survivors, France.
H. Fleishon, daughter of survivors, United States.
Barbara Meyer, daughter of survivor in Polish concentration camps. Lives in Italy.
Susan Heuman, child of survivors and granddaughter of two grandparents murdered in a forest in Minsk. Lives in United States.
Rami Heled, son of survivors, all grandparents and family killed by the Germans in Treblinka, Oswiecim and Russia. Lives in Israel.
Eitan Altman, son of survivor, France.
Jorge Sved, son of survivor and grandson of victim, United Kingdom
Maria Kruczkowska, daughter of Lea Horowicz who survived the holocaust in Poland. Lives in Poland.
Sarah Lanzman, daughter of survivor of Auschwitz, United States.
Cheryl W, daughter, granddaughter and nieces of survivors, grandfather was a member of the Dutch Underground (Eindhoven). Lives in Australia.
Chris Holmquist, son of survivor, UK.
Beverly Stuart, daughter and granddaughter of survivors from Romania and Poland. Lives in United States.
Peter Truskier, son and grandson of survivors, United States.
Karen Bermann, daughter of a child refugee from Vienna. Lives in United States.
Rebecca Weston, daughter and granddaughter of survivor, Spain.
Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky, daughter of Holocaust survivors, London, UK.
Marion Geller, daughter and granddaughter of those who escaped, great-granddaughter and relative of many who died in the camps, UK.
Susan Slyomovics, daughter and granddaughter of survivors of Auschwitz, Plaszow, Markleeberg and Ghetto Mateszalka, United States.
Helga Fischer Mankovitz, daughter, niece and cousin of refugees who fled from Austria, niece of victim who perished, Canada.
Steinberg, daughter of survivors and grand daughter of victim killed in Auschwitz as well as all his family of Poland, France.
Michael Wischnia, son of survivors and relative of many who perished, United States.
Arthur Graaff, son of decorated Dutch resistance member and nazi victim, The Netherlands.
Johanna Haan, daughter and granddaughter of victims in the Netherlands. Lives in the Netherlands.
Aron Ben Miriam, son of and nephew of survivors from Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Salzwedel, Lodz ghetto. Lives in United States.
Grandchildren of survivors
Raphael Cohen, grandson of Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Emma Rubin, granddaughter of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Alex Safron, grandson of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Danielle Feris, grandchild of a Polish grandmother whose whole family died in the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
Jesse Strauss, grandson of Polish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Anna Baltzer, granddaughter of survivors whose family members perished in Auschwitz (others were members of the Belgian Resistance), United States.
Abigail Harms, granddaughter of Holocaust survivor from Austria, Now lives in United States.
Tessa Strauss, granddaughter of Polish Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Caroline Picker, granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Amalle Dublon, grandchild and great-grandchild of survivors of the Nazi holocaust, United States.
Antonie Kaufmann Churg, 3rd cousin of Ann Frank and grand-daughter of NON-survivors, United States.
Aliza Shvarts, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Linda Mamoun, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Abby Okrent, granddaughter of survivors of the Auschwitz, Dachau, Stuttgart, and the Lodz Ghetto, United States.
Ted Auerbach, grandson of survivor whose whole family died in the Holocaust, United States.
Beth Bruch, grandchild of German Jews who fled to US and great-grandchild of Nazi holocaust survivor, United States.
Bob Wilson, grandson of a survivor, United States.
Katharine Wallerstein, granddaughter of survivors and relative of many who perished, United States.
Sylvia Finzi, granddaughter and niece of Holocaust victims murdered in Auschwitz, London and Berlin. Now lives in London.
Esteban Schmelz, grandson of KZ-Theresienstadt victim, Mexico City.
Françoise Basch, grand daughter of Victor and Ilona Basch murdered by the Gestapo and the French Milice, France.
Gabriel Alkon, grandson of Holocaust survivors, Untied States.
Nirit Ben-Ari, grandchild of Polish grandparents from both sides whose entire family was killed in the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
Heike Schotten, granddaughter of refugees from Nazi Germany who escaped the genocide, United States.
Ike af Carlstèn, grandson of survivor, Norway.
Elias Lazarus, grandson of Holocaust refugees from Dresden, United States and Australia.
Laura Mandelberg, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, United States.
Josh Ruebner, grandson of Nazi Holocaust survivors, United States.
Shirley Feldman, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Nuno Cesar Ferreira, grandson of survivor, Brazil.
Andrea Land, granddaugher of survivors who fled programs in Poland, all European relatives died in German and Polish concentration camps, United States.
Sarah Goldman, granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Baruch Wolski, grandson of survivors, Austria.
Frank Amahran, grandson of survivor, United States.
Eve Spangler, granddaughter of Holocaust NON-survivor, United States.
Gil Medovoy, grandchild of Fela Hornstein who lost her enitre family in Poland during the Nazi genocide, United States.
Michael Hoffman, grandson of survivors, rest of family killed in Poland during Holocaust, live in El Salvador.
Sarah Hogarth, granddaughter of a survivor whose entire family was killed at Auschwitz, United States.
Tibby Brooks, granddaughter, niece, and cousin of victims of Nazis in Ukraine. Lives in United States.
Dan Berger, grandson of survivor, United States.
Dani Baurer, granddaughter of Baruch Pollack, survivor of Auschwitz. Lives in United States.
Talia Baurer, granddaughter of a survivor, United States.
Evan Cofsky, grandson of survivor, UK.
Annie Sicherman, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Anna Heyman, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
Maya Ober, granddaughter of survivor and relative of deceased in Teresienstadt and Auschwitz, Tel Aviv.
Anne Haan, granddaughter of Joseph Slagter, survivor of Auschwitz. Lives in The Netherlands.
Oliver Ginsberg, grandson of victim, Germany.
Alexia Zdral, granddaughter of Polish survivors, United States.
Mitchel Bollag, grandson of Stanislaus Eisner, who was living in Czechoslovakia before being sent to a concentration camp. United States.
Vivienne Porzsolt, granddaughter of victims of Nazi genocide, Australia.
Lisa Nessan, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Kally Alexandrou, granddaughter of survivors, Australia.
Laura Ostrow, granddaughter of survivors, United States
Anette Jacobson, granddaughter of relatives killed, town of Kamen Kashirsk, Poland. Lives in United States.
Tamar Yaron (Teresa Werner), granddaughter and niece of victims of the Nazi genocide in Poland, Israel.
Antonio Roman-Alcalá, grandson of survivor, United States.
Jeremy Luban, grandson of survivor, United States.
Heather West, granddaughter of survivors and relative of other victims, United States.
Jeff Ethan Au Green, grandson of survivor who escaped from a Nazi work camp and hid in the Polish-Ukranian forest, United States.
Noa Shaindlinger, granddaughter of four holocaust survivors, Canada.
Merilyn Moos, granddaughter, cousin and niece murdered victims, UK.
Ruth Tenne, granddaughter and relative of those who perished in Warsaw Ghetto, London.
Craig Berman, grandson of Holocaust survivors, UK.
Nell Hirschmann-Levy, granddaughter of survivors from Germany. Lives in United States.
Osha Neumann, grandson of Gertrud Neumann who died in Theresienstadt. Lives in United States.
Georg Frankl, Grandson of survivor Ernst-Immo Frankl who survived German work camp. Lives in Germany.
Julian Drix, grandson of two survivors from Poland, including survivor and escapee from liquidated Janowska concentration camp in Lwow, Poland. Lives in United States.
Katrina Mayer, grandson and relative of victims, UK.
Avigail Abarbanel, granddaughter of survivors, Scotland.
Denni Turp, granddaughter of Michael Prooth, survivor, UK.
Fenya Fischler, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
Yakira Teitel, granddaughter of German Jewish refugees, great-granddaughter of survivor, United States.
Sarah, granddaughter of survivor, the Netherlands.
Susan Koppelman, granddaughter of survivor, United States
Hana Umeda, granddaughter of survivor, Warsaw.
Jordan Silverstein, grandson of two survivors, Canada.
Daniela Petuchowski, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Aaron Lerner, grandson of survivors, United States.
Judith Bernstein, granddaughter of Holocaust victims in Auschwitz, Germany.
Samantha Wischnia, granddaughter and great niece of survivors from Poland, United States.
Elizabeth Wischnia, granddaughter and grand niece of three holocaust survivors, great aunt worked for Schindler, United States.
Daniel Waterman, grandson of survivor, The Netherlands.
Elana Baurer, granddaughter of survivor, United States.
Pablo Roman-Alcala, grandson of participant in the kindertransport and survivor, Germany.
Great grandchildren of survivors
Natalie Rothman, great granddaughter of Holocaust victims in Warsaw. Now lives in Canada.
Yotam Amit, great-grandson of Polish Jew who fled Poland, United States.
Daniel Boyarin, great grandson of victims of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Maria Luban, great-granddaughter of survivors of the Holocaust, United States.
Mimi Erlich, great-granddaughter of Holocaust victim, United States.
Olivia Kraus, great-grandaughter of victims, granddaughter and daughter of family that fled Austria and Czechoslovakia. Lives in United States.
Emily (Chisefsky) Alma, great granddaughter and great grandniece of victims in Bialystok, Poland, United States.
Inbal Amin, great-granddaughter of a mother and son that escaped and related to plenty that didn’t, United States.
Matteo Luban, great-granddaughter of survivors, United States.
Saira Weiner, greatgranddaughter and niece of those murdered in the Holocaust, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
Andrea Isaak, great-granddaughter of survivor, Canada.
Other relatives of survivors
Terri Ginsberg, niece of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Nathan Pollack, relative of Holocaust survivors and victims, United States.
Marcy Winograd, relative of victims, United States.
Rabbi Borukh Goldberg, relative of many victims, United States.
Martin Davidson, great-nephew of victims who lived in the Netherlands, Spain.
Miriam Pickens, relative of survivors, United States.
Dorothy Werner, spouse of survivor, United States.
Hyman and Hazel Rochman, relatives of Holocaust victims, United States.
Rich Siegel, cousin of victims who were rounded up and shot in town square of Czestochowa, Poland. Lives in United States.
Ignacio Israel Cruz-Lara, relative of survivor, Mexico.
Debra Stuckgold, relative of survivors, United States.
Joel Kovel, relatives killed at Babi Yar, United States.
Carol Krauthamer Smith, niece of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
Chandra Ahuva Hauptman, relatives from grandfather’s family died in Lodz ghetto, one survivor cousin and many deceased from Auschwitz, United States.
Shelly Weiss, relative of Holocaust victims, United States.
Carol Sanders, niece and cousin of victims of Holocaust in Poland, United States.
Sandra Rosen, great-niece and cousin of survivors, United States.
Raquel Hiller, relative of victims in Poland. Now lives in Mexico.
Alex Kantrowitz, most of father’s family murdered Nesvizh, Belarus 1941. Lives in United States.
Michael Steven Smith, many relatives were killed in Hungary. Lives in United States.
Linda Moore, relative of survivors and victims, United States.
Juliet VanEenwyk, niece and cousin of Hungarian survivors, United States.
Anya Achtenberg, grand niece, niece, cousin of victims tortured and murdered in Ukraine. Lives in United States.
Betsy Wolf-Graves, great niece of uncle who shot himself as he was about to be arrested by Nazis, United States.
Abecassis Pierre, grand-uncle died in concentration camp, France.
Robert Rosenthal, great-nephew and cousin of survivors from Poland. Lives in United States.
Régine Bohar, relative of victims sent to Auschwitz, Canada.
Denise Rickles, relative of survivors and victims in Poland. Lives in United States.
Louis Hirsch, relative of victims, United States.
Concepción Marcos, relative of victim, Spain.
George Sved, relative of victim, Spain.
Judith Berlowitz, relative of victims and survivors, United States.
Rebecca Sturgeon, descendant of Holocaust survivor from Amsterdam. Lives in UK.
Justin Levy, relative of victims and survivors, Ireland.
Sam Semoff, relative of survivors and victims, UK.
Leah Brown Klein, daughter-in-law of survivors Miki and Etu Fixler Klein, United States
Karen Malpede, spouse of hidden child who then fled Germany. Lives in United States
Michel Euvrard, husband of survivor, France.
Walter Ebmeyer, grandnephew of three Auschwitz victims and one survivor now living in Jerusalem, United States.
Garrett Wright, relative of victims and survivors, United States.
“For me, personally, Arabs are something I can’t look at and can’t stand,” a 10th-grade girl from a high school in the central part of the country says in abominable Hebrew. “I am tremendously racist. I come from a racist home. If I get the chance in the army to shoot one of them, I won’t think twice. I’m ready to kill someone with my hands, and it’s an Arab. In my education I learned that … their education is to be terrorists, and there is no belief in them. I live in an area of Arabs, and every day I see these Ishmaelites, who pass by the [bus] station and whistle. I wish them death.”
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Israeli Teens Gripped by Virulent Racism
Book Details Spread of Anti-Arab Hatred in Schools
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HAARETZ
By Or Kashti
(Haaretz) (VIA)— “For me, personally, Arabs are something I can’t look at and can’t stand,” a 10th-grade girl from a high school in the central part of the country says in abominable Hebrew. “I am tremendously racist. I come from a racist home. If I get the chance in the army to shoot one of them, I won’t think twice. I’m ready to kill someone with my hands, and it’s an Arab. In my education I learned that … their education is to be terrorists, and there is no belief in them. I live in an area of Arabs, and every day I see these Ishmaelites, who pass by the [bus] station and whistle. I wish them death.”
The student’s comments appear in a chapter devoted to ethnicity and racism among youth from a forthcoming book, “Scenes from School Life” (in Hebrew) by Idan Yaron and Yoram Harpaz. The book is based on anthropological observations made by Dr. Yaron, a sociologist, over the course of three years in a six-year, secular high school in the Israeli heartland – “the most average school we could find,” says Harpaz, a professor of education.
The book is nothing short of a page-turner, especially now, following the overt displays of racism and hatred of the Other that have been revealed in the country in the past month or so. Maybe “revealed” isn’t the right word, as it suggests surprise at the intensity of the phenomenon. But Yaron’s descriptions of what he saw at the school show that such hatred is a basic everyday element among youth, and a key component of their identity. Yaron portrays the hatred without rose-colored glasses or any attempt to present it as a sign of social “unity.” What he observed is unfiltered hatred. One conclusion that arises from the text is how little the education system is able – or wants – to deal with the racism problem.
Not all educators are indifferent or ineffective. There are, of course, teachers and others in the realm of education who adopt a different approach, who dare to try and take on the system. But they are a minority. The system’s internal logic operates differently.
Much of the chapter on racism revolves around the Bible lessons in a ninth-grade class, whose theme was revenge. “The class starts, and the students’ suggestions of examples of revenge are written on the blackboard,” the teacher told Yaron. A student named Yoav “insists that revenge is an important emotion. He utilizes the material being studied to hammer home his semi-covert message: All the Arabs should be killed. The class goes into an uproar. Five students agree with Yoav and say openly: The Arabs should be killed.”
One student relates that he heard in the synagogue on Shabbat that “Aravim zeh erev rav” [“Arabs are a rabble,” in a play on words], and also Amalek, and there is a commandment to kill them all,” a reference to the prototypical biblical enemy of the Children of Israel. Another student says he would take revenge on anyone who murdered his family, but would not kill them all.
“Some of the other students are outraged by this [softer stance],” the teacher reported. “The student then makes it clear that he has no love for Arabs and that he is not a leftist.”
Another student, Michal, says she is shocked by what she is hearing. She believes that the desire for revenge will only foment a cycle of blood; not all Arabs are bad, she adds, and certainly they don’t all deserve to die. “People who decree the fate of others so easily are not worthy of life,” she says.
Yoav himself claims to have heard Michal say: “Too bad you weren’t killed in a terrorist attack.”
“The students all start shouting,” the teacher says, according to Yaron. “Some are personally insulted, others are up in arms, and Michal finds herself alone and absorbing all the fire – ‘Arab lover,’ ‘leftist.’ I try to calm things down. The class is too distraught to move on to the biblical story. The bell rings. I let them out and suggest that they be more tolerant of one another.”
In the corridor during the break, the teacher notices that a crowd has gathered from all the ninth-grade classes. They have formed a human chain and are taunting Michal: “Fie, fie, fie, the Arabs will die.” The teacher: “I contemplated for five seconds whether to respond or keep going down the corridor. Finally I dispersed the gathering and insisted that Michal accompany me to the teachers’ room. She was in a state of shock, reeling under the insult, with tears to come instantly.”
Six students are suspended for two days. The teacher reports on his conversation with Michal: “She continues to be laconic. This is what always happens, she says. The opinions are racist, and her only regret is speaking out. I just want to hug her and say I’m sorry I put her through this trauma. I envy her courage to say aloud things that I sometimes am incapable of saying.”
Leftists as ‘Israel-haters’
In his research, Yaron spoke with Michal and Yoav, with other students in the class and with the homeroom teacher and the principal. The multiplicity of versions of the goings-on that emerge suggest a deep conflict and a lack of trust between the educators and the pupils. Each world functions separately, with the adults exercising little if any influence on the youngsters. It’s hard to believe that the suspension, or the punishment inflicted on some of the students – for example, to prepare a presentation for the ninth-grade classes on the subject of racism – changed anyone’s opinion.
The same goes for the principal’s unequivocal declaration that, “There will be no racist comments in our school.” Even the essay Michal was asked to write on the subject was soon forgotten. “The intention was to launch an educational program, but in the meantime it was postponed,” the homeroom teacher admits.
A year later, however, the incident itself was still remembered in the school. The same student who told Yaron that she won’t think twice if she gets the opportunity “to shoot one of them” when she serves in the army, also said, “As soon as I heard about the quarrel with that leftist girl [Michal], I was ready to throw a brick at her head and kill her. In my opinion, all the leftists are Israel-haters. I personally find it very painful. Those people have no place in our country – both the Arabs and the leftists.”
Anyone who imagines this as a local, passing outburst is wrong. As was the case with the girl from the ORT network vocational school who alleged earlier this year that her teacher had expressed “left-wing views” in the classroom – in this case too a student related that he cursed and shouted at a teacher who “justified the Arabs.” The students say that workshops to combat racism, which are run by an outside organization, leave little impression. “Racism is part of our life, no matter how much people say it’s bad,” a student said.
In the concluding discussion in just one such workshop, the moderator asked the students how they thought racism might eradicated. “Thin out the Arabs,” was the immediate reply. “I want you to leave here with the knowledge that the phenomenon exists, for you to be self-critical, and then maybe you will prevent it,” the moderator said. To which one student shot back, “If we’re not racist, that makes us leftists.”
The moderator, in a tone of despair: “I’d like it if you took at least something small from this workshop.” A student responds to the challenge: “That everyone should live the way he wants, that if he thinks he’s racist, let him think what he wants, and that’s all.”
As an adjunct of racism and hatred, ethnic identities – Mizrahi (Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries) and Ashkenazi – are also flourishing. Yoav believes that there is “discrimination between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim. We were severely punished for the incident [with Michal], but if it were the other way around, that wouldn’t have happened.” Yoav later told Yaron that he found the common saying, “What’s this, an [open-air] market?” offensive, because his whole family works in the local produce market.
“Our business has existed since the state was established,” he said. “I am proud of my father, who is a man of the market. What are they trying to say, that my father isn’t cultured? When people say something about ‘Arabs,’ it’s considered a generalization, but when they say ‘market,’ that’s alright. When people say ‘market,’ they are actually talking about Mizrahim. We need to change the prejudices about the market and about the Mizrahim. People say I am a racist, but it’s just the opposite.”
“There is no discussion about the topic of racism in the school and there probably will not be,” the principal admits. “We are not prepared for the deep, long-term process that’s necessary. Even though I am constantly aware of the problem, it is far from being dealt with. It stems in the first place from the home, the community and the society, and it’s hard for us to cope with it. You have to remember that another reason it’s hard to deal with the problem is that it also exists among the teachers. Issues such as ‘human dignity’ or ‘humanism’ are in any case considered left-wing, and anyone who addresses them is considered tainted.”
Threat of noise
Prof. Yoram Harpaz is a senior lecturer at Beit Berl Teachers College and the editor of Hed Hahinuch, a major educational journal. Recalling the recent promise of Education Minister Shay Piron that classes in the first two weeks of the coming school year will be devoted to “emotional and social aspects of the summer’s events,” including “manifestations of racism and incitement,” Harpaz observes that schools in their present format “are incapable of dealing with the racist personality and identity.”
He adds: “The schools are not geared for this. They can only impart basic knowledge and skills, hold examinations on them and grade the students. In fact, they have a hard time doing even that. In classes of 40 students, with a strict curriculum and exams that have to be held, it is impossible to engage in values-based education.”
Yaron, a senior lecturer in sociology at Ashkelon Academic College, emphasizes how important teachers and the principal (and the education system in general) feel it is to stick to the curriculum and the lessons schedule – two islands of quiet amid a risk-laden reality.
“Doing this makes it possible for the teachers not to enter a dynamic sphere, which obligates openness and is liable to open a Pandora’s box, too,” he notes. “The greatest threat to the teacher is that there will be noise – that someone will complain, that an argument will break out, etc. That danger looms especially large in subjects that interest young people, such as sexuality, ethnicity, violence and racism. Teachers lack the tools to cope with these issues, so they are outsourced, which only emasculates educational personnel even more.”
The demand for quiet in the schools is not only an instrumental matter, deriving from the difficulty of keeping order in the classroom. There is also an ideological aspect involved. In general, there is a whole series of subjects that are not recommended for discussion in schools, such as the Nakba (or “catastrophe,” the term used by Palestinians to denote the establishment of the State of Israel), human rights and the morality of Israeli army operations. This was one of the reasons for the warnings issued by Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev during the fighting in the Gaza Strip about “extreme and offensive remarks.”
Harpaz: “In Israel, the most political country there is, political education has not been developed as a discipline in which high-school students are taught how to think critically about political attitudes, or the fact that those attitudes are always dependent on a particular viewpoint and on vested interests.”
What, then, can be done? According to Harpaz, the solution will not be found in discussions between the homeroom teacher and the students. Nor is a condemnation, however late, by the education minister sufficient. A more radical change is needed.
“Values and outlooks are acquired in a lengthy process of identification with ‘significant others,’ such as teachers,” Harpaz explains. “This means that every aspect of the schools – patterns of teaching, evaluation methods, curricula, the physical structure and the cultural climate – has to change in the direction of becoming far more dialogical and democratic.”
And he has one more recommendation: not to flee from political and moral dilemmas, or from possible criticism. “Our leaders are so fearful of criticism, but they don’t understand that critical education is what generates close ties and caring. We get angry at those we love.”
In his compelling new video Gazonto, Canadian filmmaker John Greyson reimagines Israel’s massive bombardment of the Israeli-occupied and besieged Gaza Strip as if it were an attack on his home city Toronto.
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Short film “Gazonto” by John Greyson imagines Toronto bombed like Gaza
In his compelling new video Gazonto, Canadian filmmaker John Greyson reimagines Israel’s massive bombardment of the Israeli-occupied and besieged Gaza Strip as if it were an attack on his home city Toronto.
Greyson imagines specific attacks on Palestinian homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and other institutions that Israel perpetrated since 7 July as if they had occurred on real-life Toronto sites including a well-known café, CBC TV, the University of Toronto and the Scarborough Injury Rehab Centre.
The film uses the device of a simulated video game to show how the horrifying effects of Israeli violence against Palestinians are rendered distant or invisible while the violence itself is celebrated.
The “video game” wherein the viewer is addressed as if they are the “player” also forces us to think about complicity and what those of us in Canada, the United States and other countries arming and supporting Israel can do to end such lethal intervention.
Gazonto asks viewers a simple question: what would happen to Toronto, or to your city, if, like Gaza, six thousand places had been heavily bombed in just a few weeks?
Obliterated
Since Israel’s bombardment began, its attacks have killed 2,127 Palestinians, including 512 children, according to the latest count from Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
On Saturday, Israeli warplanes completely obliterated a 12-story apartment building “without giving any specific explanation that can be verified,” Al Mezan said.
“Al Mezan’s investigations indicate that no military activities took place in or around it. Hundreds of its residents, most of whom are families headed by employees of the Palestinian Authority, were displaced,” Al Mezan added.
Israeli occupation forces “also destroyed a large shopping mall in Rafah and caused damages to dozens of homes in the Rafah refugee camp,” according to the group.
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Unfortunately, not every Canadian thinks like John Greyson does ….
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Various Canadian organizations have long supported the Israeli military and individuals from this country have directly participated in its violence. At least 25 volunteers from the Greater Toronto Area fought in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, the three-week assault in late 2008 and early 2009, which left some 1,400 Palestinians dead.
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Canada’s tax-deductible support for Israel’s crimes
The Israeli army which caused this scene of destruction in Gaza includes more than 100 soldiers from Canada. (Ezz Al-Zanoon / APA images)
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When is a Canadian who leaves this country to join a foreign military force and participate in the killing of innocent civilians, including children, called a “terror tourist” and sent to jail? The answer is: only when that person joins a military force the Conservative government disagrees with.
Numerous ministers in the current federal government have loudly denounced the radicalization of Canadian youth in foreign wars. Last year, the Conservatives passed a law that sets a maximum fifteen year prison sentence for “leaving or attempting to leaveCanada” to commit terrorism. Jason Kenney, the minister for multiculturalism, recently saidthe government is trying “to monitor networks that recruit and radicalize youth.”
Last month, Somali-Canadian Mohamed Hersi was sentenced to ten years in prison for attempting to join the al-Shabab militia in Somalia. Arrested at Toronto’s Pearson airport before leaving, Hersi was not found guilty of committing or plotting a specific act of violence, but according to the presiding judge, was “poised to become a terror tourist.”
Yet our government does nothing to hundreds of other Canadians who join a different foreign military force which daily terrorizes millions of people and often uses explosives to kill thousands — most of whom are civilians.
It’s unknown exactly how many Canadians are participating in Israel’s ongoing attacks onGaza but an Israeli military spokesperson has said there were 139 Canadians in the Israeli military in 2013. The Nefesh B’Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program, an organization supporting the Israeli military, has referred to 145 Canadians in the Israeli military. That figure, however, only refers to what the organization calls Canadian “lone soldiers” — soldiers without family in Israel.
“Respectable” criminals
Breaking the stereotype of radicalized youth who join terror groups, recent media reports suggest that most of the Canadians joining the Israeli military are children of lawyers, doctors and other professionals. When thirty individuals attended the 2012 launch of a Toronto support group for Parents of Lone Soldiers, it took place at the home of Perla and Ron Riesenbach. The latter is a vice-president at the University of Toronto’s Baycrest Health Sciences Centre.
Earlier this month the French language website La Pressequoted a McGill University law student, Menachem Freedman, who recently completed a stint with the Israeli military and now does legal work for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
A partner in a Toronto law firm, Audrey Shecter has two kids with Israeli military experience. According to the National Post, Shecter’s son completed 27 months with the Israeli military in February and her daughter, Orli Broer, currently serves on a base in the illegally occupiedWest Bank.
Broer, a 19-year-old Torontonian, who is in a unit that processes visas and other paperwork, helps to deny Palestinians freedom of movement in their own homeland. “It’s my home and I have to protect my home,” the Canadian born and raised Broer told theNational Post.
While the Foreign Enlistment Act technically prohibits Canadians from recruiting for a foreign army, there are a number of organizations that help individuals enlist in the Israeli military. At its Toronto office, the Friends of Israeli Scouts’ Garin Tzabar program provides Hebrew lessons and support services, as well as help with transport and accommodation in Israel, for twenty-five to thirty Canadian “lone soldiers” each year.
According to a Garin Tzabar spokesperson who spoke to La Presse, the recent killing and destruction in Gaza has prompted a flood of inquiries about joining the Israeli military.
Part of the tab for lone soldier support services is picked up by Canadian taxpayers through tax credits for “charitable” donations. The Israel-based Lone Soldier Center has Canadian charitable status through the Ne’eman Foundation. So does the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, which has, according to its website, sponsored “fun activities” for “lone soldiers.”
Business support
Financial backing for lone soldiers reaches the top echelons of the Canadian business world. Billionaire Toronto couple Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman created the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers. Reisman and Schwartz provide up to $3 million per year for post-military scholarships for these non-Israeli soldiers.
Members of the Israeli high command — Heseg’s board has included a number of generals and a former head of the secret service Mossad — say “lone soldiers” are of value beyond their military capacities. Foreigners volunteering to fight for Israel are a powerful symbol to reassure Israelis weary of their country’s violent behavior. Schwartz and Reisman’s support for Heseg has spurred a campaign to boycott the Indigo, Chapters and Cole bookstore chain they own.
Canadians in the Israeli military benefit from various Canadian-financed support programs and may also find other Canadians stocking their equipment. Approximately 150 Canadians serve as volunteers on Israeli army supply bases each year through the Zionist organization Sar-El. That organization takes out ads in the Canadian Jewish News calling on individuals to “Express your Zionism by serving as a civilian volunteer on an Israeli army supply base.”
There are a number of other registered Canadian “charities” that aid the Israeli army. Money sent to Disabled Veterans of Israel or Beit Halochem (Canada) and Canadian Magen David Adom for Israel support the Israeli military in different ways. Established in 1971, the Association for the Soldiers of Israel – Canada, which gives tax receipts through the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association, provides financial and “moral” support to active duty soldiers.
Various Canadian organizations have long supported the Israeli military and individuals from this country have directly participated in its violence. At least 25 volunteers from the Greater Toronto Area fought in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, the three-week assault in late 2008 and early 2009, which left some 1,400 Palestinians dead.
History of complicity
Canada’s military contribution to the conquest of Palestine predates the creation of Israel.
During the First World War, Québec City-born Lieutenant General Sir Charles MacPherson Dobell, fresh from leading the Anglo-French conquest of German West Africa, was given a command position in the 1917 Egyptian expeditionary force sent to seize Gaza from the Ottomans. Additionally, as many as four hundred Canadians (approximately half recruited specifically for the task) fought in British General Edmund Allenby’s Jewish Legion that helped conquer Palestine.
A number of Canadians, with at least tacit support from the Ottawa authorities, played a direct role in “de-Arabizing” Palestine in 1947 and 1948. Representatives from theHaganah, the primary Zionist military force behind the Nakba — the ethnic cleansingleading to Israel’s foundation — recruited three hundred experienced Canadian soldiers.
The heir to the menswear firm Tip Top Tailors, Ben Dunkelman, was Haganah’s main recruiter in Canada. He claimed that “about 1,000” Canadians “fought to establish Israel.” During the Nakba, Israel’s small air force was almost entirely foreign, with at least 53 Canadians, including 15 non-Jews, enlisted.
Double standard
Given this country’s past, perhaps today’s double standard about “terror tourism” is not surprising. But those of us who want a just Canadian foreign policy must nonetheless expose our government’s hypocrisy.
While al-Shabab has committed many reprehensible acts and espouses a terribly repressive ideology, the group’s growth and radicalization is largely a response to the 2006 US-sponsored foreign invasion of Somalia that has left tens of thousands of Somalis dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
On the other hand, it’s as if the Canadians fighting with Israel are unsatisfied with their and their ancestors’ dispossession of First Nations in North America and now want to help colonize yet another indigenous people.
The double standard is extreme. It is illegal for Somali Canadians to fight in that country but it is okay for Canadian Jews to kill Palestinians in Gaza. And the government will give you a charitable tax credit if you give money to support the latter.
Some have suggested another solution. Eminent Canadian historian Jack Granatstein recently said: “In my view, no one who is a Canadian should be able to enlist in some other country’s military and keep his Canadian citizenship.”
Canadians of good conscience must at least insist upon fairness and an end to an outrageous double standard.
*Yves Engler is the author of Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy.
Thousands marched in Staten Island today. They were protesting police brutality and abuse. They were demanding justice for the victims of that abuse. Eric Garner was placed in an illegal choke hold by a NYPD office several weeks ago. His crime? Selling illegal cigarettes. Despite his protestations and his repeated plea of “I can’t breathe,” despite the fact that he was already subdued, despite the fact that he was surround by cops, the officer continued to choke Mr. Garner. The result? Eric Garner died on the sidewalk, a victim, like so many others, of out-of-control police brutality. These police crimes are then followed by a disturbing lack of transparency and a failure of the justice system to indict, try and convict. Victims are invariably people of color. The time has come for civilian control of the police forces and an end to the militarization of police departments around the country. The sight of tanks and long rifles being aimed at American citizens in American towns like Ferguson, Missouri by a police department in camouflage and armed with military weapons should frighten and anger everybody.
The thousands marching in Staten Island today were saying “Enough!” and demanding that democratic control of police become a reality.
Desertpeace 