IT’S OFFICIAL ~~ ‘ISRAEL IS THE WORST APARTHEID REGIME EVER’

November 30, 2017 at 10:39 (Apartheid, Israel, Palestine, South Africa)

“The settlements I saw here [in the West Bank] reminded me of what we had suffered in South Africa because we also were surrounded by many settlements and were not allowed to move from one place to another freely.

Palestinians are being subjected to the worst version of apartheid.”

Image by Latuff

MANDELA’S GRANDSON ON VISIT: ‘ISRAEL IS THE WORST APARTHEID REGIME’

“The settlements I saw here [in the West Bank] reminded me of what we had suffered in South Africa…”

The grandson of the late anti-apartheid hero, former South African president Nelson Mandela, is on a “historic visit” to Israel though it seems he will not meet with Israeli officials.

A statement said Mandla Mandela, a staunch Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) supporter and member of parliament, would “hold several meetings with Palestinian leaders” but made no mention of Israeli counterparts. The Foreign Ministry appeared to corroborate the statement by saying, “We have no information on the visit.”

During a joint press conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Monday, Mandela said: “The settlements I saw here [in the West Bank] reminded me of what we had suffered in South Africa because we also were surrounded by many settlements and were not allowed to move from one place to another freely.

Palestinians are being subjected to the worst version of apartheid.”

He added: “Israel is the worst apartheid regime” and called for the continued support of BDS and for South Africa to cut all ties with “apartheid Israel.”

While meeting with Mandela in Ramallah, Hamdallah highlighted the inspiring legacy of the younger Mandela’s late grandfather.

He also stressed the strength of bilateral ties between the Palestinian Authority and South Africa and the historic relationship formed between the late presidents Yasser Arafat and Nelson Mandela. He also praised South Africa’s position in supporting the Palestinian people and championing their cause in the international arena.

Hamdallah briefed the South African MP on Israel’s so-called “violations against the Palestinians, including settlement expansion and displacement projects that constitute a major obstacle to realizing the dream of establishing a Palestinian state.”

The two politicians also discussed ways to strengthen their cooperation and advance bilateral relations.

“What we have experienced in South Africa is a fraction of what the Palestinians are experiencing,” Mandela said in an interview with Royal News English on Sunday. “We were oppressed in order to serve the white minority. The Palestinians are being eliminated off their land and brought out of their territories, and this is a total human-rights violations. I think it is a total disgrace that the world is able to sit back while such atrocities are being carried out by apartheid Israel.”

Mandela is scheduled to meet with 83-year-old PA President Mahmoud Abbas as well as with other Palestinian officials during his visit. He also will visit Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Arafat’s mausoleum Arafat in Ramallah.

Close to the mausoleum is a six-meter high, bronze statue of Nelson Mandela, who is famous among Palestinians for saying: “We know all too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

People cheer in front of a Mandela statue during the inauguration of Nelson Mandela Square in the West Bank city of Ramallah April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Mandela will be in the country until Wednesday.

Prior to the four-day visit, he met with Palestinian leader and BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti in Amman.

In the past, Mandela has made several calls for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to South Africa and has continuously supported the cutting of ties between the two countries.

In August, he applauded the South Africa parliament’s decision to shun a delegation of Israeli MKs who were visiting the country.

During an anti-Israel march in July, he demanded “that all ties be cut with Israel… no trade ties, no cultural ties and no travel! We demand that Israel complies with International law and demand the return of six million Palestinian refugees driven from the land of their birth. We demand that all occupied land be returned, and we condemn the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.”

He continued: “Today, we stand to salute the brave and fearless Palestinian people who are facing the brutal might of the Israeli Army to defend al-Aksa with their bare hands. We demand that all occupied land be returned. Madiba [Nelson Mandela’s clan name] reminded us that our freedom is incomplete until Palestine is free.”

Although Nelson Mandela was critical of “the occupation,” he fully supported Israel’s right to exist.

SOURCE

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ETHNIC CLEANSING / GENOCIDE … ONE IN THE SAME

November 29, 2017 at 11:06 (Corrupt Politics, Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide, Israel, Palestine)

Recently declassified cabinet meeting transcripts show that top Israeli officials discussed ethnic cleansing tactics to deal with Six-Day War fallout.

Image by Carlos Latuff

Declassified Israeli Transcripts Discuss Ethnic Cleansing

eclassified cabinet meeting minutes show that top Israeli cabinet officials contemplated an ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip and Galilee, rewriting history textbooks in favor of a pro-Zionist version of history, and censoring political speech in newspapers to deal with the fallout of the Six-Day War in 1967.

The material posted to the Israeli archives website shows hundreds of pages of previously classified cabinet meeting minutes, including those between August and December of 1967, which followed closely after the Six-Day War in June. From this archive, Israeli officials demonstrated a lack of direction following the war in which the Israeli military conquered and illegally occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula.

Officials initially contemplated the difficulties of administering the illegally occupied lands.

“At some point we will have to decide. There are 600,000 Arabs in these territories now. What will be the status of these 600,000 Arabs?” Prime Minister Levi Eshkol asked.

“I suggest that we don’t come to a vote or a decision today; there’s time to deal with this joy, or better put, there’s time to deal with this trouble,” he said. “But for the record I’m prepared to say this: There’s no reason for the government to determine its position on the future of the West Bank right now. We’ve been through three wars in 20 years; we can go another 20 years without a decision.”

Later documents show that Eshkol felt the pressure of ethnic diversity in the occupied lands which were under the illegal administration of the ethnocentric occupying forces.

“The strip of this country is like a miserable, threatening neck for us, literally stretched out for slaughter,” he said. “I cannot imagine it — how we will organize life in this country when we have 1.4 million Arabs and we are 2.4 million, with 400,000 Arabs already in the country?”

Eshkol and his cabinet later floated a covert ethnic cleansing policy by “working on the establishment of a unit or office that will engage in encouraging Arab emigration.” The prime minister added, “We should deal with this issue quietly, calmly and covertly, and we should work on finding a way from them to emigrate to other countries and not just over the Jordan [River].”

Eventually the cabinet discussed more extreme plans.

“Perhaps if we don’t give them enough water they won’t have a choice, because the orchards will yellow and wither,” Eshkol said in one meeting. The prime minister also discussed the idea of initiating a war of aggression against Palestinians to force them to leave their ancestral lands.

“Perhaps we can expect another war and then this problem will be solved. But that’s a type of ‘luxury,’ an unexpected solution.”

Realizing the optics of the illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing, Education Minister Zalman Aranne remarked:

“I do not for one minute accept the idea that the world outside will look at the fact that we’re taking everything for ourselves and will say, ‘Bon Appetit,’” he said. “After all in another year or half a year the world will wake up; there’s a world out there and it will ask questions.”

After 50 years, Israel has instituted a “apartheid regime” in Palestine, according to a landmark United Nations report that has since been retracted following political backlash.

Rima Khalaf, the former UN Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary, affirmed the report’s findings by saying that the report “clearly and frankly concludes that Israel is a racist state that has established an apartheid system that persecutes the Palestinian people”.

SOURCE OF REPORT

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ROGER WATERS IS PUTTING HIS MONEY WHERE HIS MOUTH IS … WILL SERENADE IN PALESTINE FOR CHRISTMAS

November 29, 2017 at 09:41 (Activism, Boycott Israel, Entertainment)

Now THIS is a man of conviction!

The results are starting to pour in starting with THIS …

Roger Waters broadcasts cancelled in Germany over support for Israel boycott

Decision not to air Ex-Pink Floyd member’s concerts due to his support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement branded ‘ridiculous’

German public broadcasters have dropped plans to air concerts next year by ex-Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters, citing what they call “accusations of antisemitism against him”.

Waters, part of one of the world’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful rock bands from 1965 to 1985 before going solo, is a member of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) that targets Israel over its occupation of territories where Palestinians seek statehood.

Five state television and radio affiliates of the national ARD network have pulled out of broadcasting concerts by the 74-year-old Waters in Berlin and Cologne scheduled next summer “in reaction to anti-Semitism accusations against him”, Berlin and Brandenburg public radio (RBB) said.

RBB, part of the ARD network, said it wanted to send a message to other artists who, heeding the BDS, refused to perform in Israel. Waters joined the movement in 2011.

“Taking a clear position here is an important signal for RBB to the Jewish communities in Berlin and Brandenburg,” RBB director Patricia Schlesinger said in a statement.

“The quick and decisive reaction by the broadcasters … is an important signal that rampant antisemitism against Israel has no place in Germany,” said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

Marek Lieberberg, Waters’s tour director, said German Jews were right to be concerned about “clearly visible and growing antisemitism” in Germany – alluding to the far right’s surge in recent German elections – but the broadcasters’ decision was “absolutely ridiculous”.

Lieberberg, the son of Holocaust survivors, told the Mannheimer Morgen daily that while he rejected the BDS, he separated personal opinions from work. “I cannot and do not want to deny [Waters] his right to freedom of opinion,” he said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing government has long campaigned against the BDS, describing it as antisemitic and an attempt to erase Israel’s legitimacy.

The movement – launched in 2005 as a non-violent campaign to press Israel to heed international law and end its occupation of territory held since a 1967 war – has gathered momentum in recent years even if its economic impact remains negligible.

Germany has long sought to distance itself from the Nazi Holocaust and become one of Israel’s closest allies.

Source

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING ….. IF YOU DARE

November 23, 2017 at 13:17 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Holidays)

Can you remember the times
That you have held your head high
and told all your friends of your Indian claim
Proud good lady and proud good man
Some great great grandfather from Indian blood came
and you feel in your heart for these ones

Oh it’s written in books and in song
that we’ve been mistreated and wronged
Well over and over I hear those same words
from you good lady and you good man
Well listen to me if you care where we stand
and you feel you’re a part of these ones

When a war between nations is lost
the loser we know pays the cost
but even when Germany fell to your hands
consider dear lady, consider dear man
you left them their pride and you left them their land
and what have you done to these ones

Has a change come about my dear man
or are you still taking our lands
A treaty forever your senators sign
They do dear lady, they do dear man
and the treaties are broken again and again
and what will you do for these ones

Oh it’s all in the past you can say
but it’s still going on here today
The governments now want the Navaho land
that of the Inuit and the Cheyenne
It’s here and it’s now you can help us dear man
Now that the buffalo’s gone.

After watching this you might consider roasting a duck this year 🙂

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YET ANOTHER PALESTINIAN VILLAGE TO BE ERASED BY ZION

November 22, 2017 at 14:31 (Collective Punishment, Israel, Land Theft, Ongoing Nakba, Palestine)

And Abbas remains silent ….

Image by Latuff

Historical village perched in Jerusalem’s hills may soon vanish

Lifta residents protest government plans to build villas, hotels, in historical village.

A small but picturesque village on Jerusalem’s hillside may soon be transformed forever.

Lifta, an historic village in a bucolic spot at the entrance to Jerusalem, is at the center of a preservation fight over an Israeli plan to build villas there.

The village, located on the outskirts of Jerusalem, is on a tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the World Monuments Fund organization has put it on its list of sites under threat.

Lifta (Flash 90)

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ARAB COMPLICITY IN THE LIQUIDATION OF PALESTINE

November 22, 2017 at 14:28 (Associate Post, Complicity, Corrupt Politics, Israel, Palestine)

If you do not want to read and consider difficult political issues, please
ignore this post (it is merely an opinion which you may not share).
*

Will Palestine be liquidated with Arab complicity?

By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Zionism is a colonial movement invented in the 19th century to transform a multi-religious Palestine to the apartheid “Jewish state of Israel”. It was to be “a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism” (Herzl in the Jews’ State). This colonial racist idea remained unchanged since founding of the “Jewish Colonization Association” in 1891 and the World Zionist Congress in 1897. Like all colonial movements, it focuses on the dual task of destroying native life and creating new exclusivist racist regimes and it gets support from empires and from complicity.

Britain put the Al-Saud family in charge of the area of Hijaz (which was to become the kleptocracy of “Saudi Arabia”). Abdul Aziz Al-Saud responded in 1915 to British requests by writing in his own hand: “I the Sultan Abdel Aziz Bin Abdel Alrahman Al-Faysal Al-Saud decide and acknowledge a thousand times to Sir Percy Cox the representative of Great Britain that I have no objection to give Palestine to the poor Jews or to others as seen [fit] by Britain that I would not go outside [disobey] its opinion until the hour of calling [end of the world].” The good relations at the expense of Palestinians by the Saud ruling family remained to this day with a brief period when Arab nationalism was strong and the Royal family suspended oil shipments to the US in the October 1973 war.

The PLO began its long process of “compromise” with colonizers in 1974. Israel then signed a “peace treaty” with Egypt in and had good working relations including cooperation in crimes against humanity in isolating and besieging the Gaza strip. There was a brief period when Morsi was elected President of Egypt when there was the potential of relieving the blockade but that soon ended when the military retook power in Egypt. Egypt is however trying to play a role in mediation between Hamas and Fatah now which could help end the blockade and may help reclaim a liberation struggle.

Israel has maintained efforts to break-up the (already fragmented) Arab world for example in developing proxy militias and aligning with extremist right wing Christian leaders in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s. Working through proxies or directly, Israel and its Arab stooges committed massacres such as at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. “Israel” maintained good relations with separatist movements in Northern Iraq and in South Sudan and helped arm the South Sudanese army. Israel’s relationship to Barazani and attempts to break-up Iraq is now well known. In the 1990s at the behest of the Israel lobby, Iraq was subjected to sanctions led by the US and Arab regimes that resulted in the death of one million Iraqis half of them children. At the same behest, the US attacked Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen (see http://qumsiyeh.org/connectingthedotsiraqpalestine/).

In 1986, King Hassan II of Morocco invited the Israeli Prime Minister for talks and following the Oslo disastrous accords, Morocco accelerated its economic ties and political contacts with Israel opening of bilateral liaison offices in 1994. As the late Edward Said showed eloquently that the Oslo Accords were a second Nakba for the Palestinian creating a Palestinian authority whose task was designated as protecting the occupiers from resistance and normalizing the occupation. After Arafat and Abbas signed these surrender treaties, Israel’s economy and its foreign recognition grew rapidly. The agreements also gave the occupying power the green light to grow its illegal activities in the occupied areas not turned over to the Palestinian authority (area C is the majority of the land).

Economic relations existed between Qatar and “Israel” between 1996 and 2000. In 2005, Saudi Arabia announced the end of its ban on Israeli goods and services. Diplomatic and other ties between Tunisia and Israel fluctuated between strong ones in the 1990s to weaker ones during 2000-2005 to pick up again until the Tunisian revolution. In 1919 King Faisal Al-Hussain (Hashemite leader) signed an agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann but one of his sons was later removed (by France) from power in Syria because of his opposition to Zionism. Israel signed a “peace treaty” with Jordan in 1994. However public sentiment in Jordan (among Jordanians of Palestinian or of Trans-Jordan heritage) remains strongly opposed to normalization efforts including in saddling Jordan with huge debts that serve Israeli interests (e.g. of the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal).

The CIA and the British intelligence services toppled the elected Mosaddaq government in Iran in 1953 to bring a more Israel friendly regime. This lasted until the Iranian revolution ended the Pahlavi criminal regime in 1979. Israel had good working and cooperation with Turkey from 1949 to 2011 when Israeli leaders engaged in a series of affronts and blunders including murdering Turkish citizens on the Mavi Marmara ship in International waters.

In 2015 Israel opened a diplomatic mission with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has helped Saudi Arabia and the UAE launch the war on Yemen in order to control the strategic Bab Al Mandeb strait (Red Sea to Indian Ocean). Egypt has also agreed to give two of its Islands in the Strait of Tiran to Saudi Arabia on Israel’s behest.

The above is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of Zionist collusion with Arab leaders to destroy Palestine. Much remains hidden. Yet, understanding this history helps understand why rulers of “Saudi Arabia” and the UAE and others are colluding with Israel and the USA in a feverish attack on resistance forces in the Arab and Islamic world. While such collusion with colonialism is common in all parts of the world, the collaborators fail to read history to understand the fate of all tools of colonialism. They will face the same fate as other collaborators. As tools of colonialism, they are discarded as soon as they fulfil their designated roles.

Much of the developments after 1973 would not have happened had the PLO remained true to its principles. This is indeed a historic moment in our part of the world. Zionists feel emboldened like never before and intend on ending the Palestine question once and for all with collusion especially the key issue of refugees (would be forced to settle outside of Palestine). Developments in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and the rest of our region need to be watched in the context of this struggle and with the centrality of the issue of Palestine since it is the reason for all this. It is a struggle between those who think they can guarantee their thrones and positions by dong Zionist bidding and those who challenge colonialism. The choice is between mayhem that will spare no one (including those who collaborate) or rejection of division and then unity to fight imperialism, colonialism, and Zionism. Palestine remains the litmus test, the Achille’s heel of imperialism, and the key to peace. Each of us should take a clear stand. I am optimistic because 12.7 million Palestinians and hundreds of millions of others who follow their conscience will not let Zionism (and its complicit Arab and American rulers) liquidate the most just cause in human history. It is wise of complicity leaders to rethink their positions if for nothing else than for their own interests since colonial powers use tools and discard them and are never true to their words to those that do not belong to their “tribe”. This is amply illustrated with history of Israel itself and its collaborators (e.g. in Lebanon in the 1980s). Now we need to all work together towards a peace with justice, the inevitable outcome.

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ROGER WATERS RESPONDS TO NICK CAVE ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS

November 21, 2017 at 16:46 (Boycott Israel, Entertainment, Human Rights)

Roger Waters responded to criticism from Australian singer Nick Cave over the former Pink Floyd frontman’s prominent advocacy of an artists’ boycott of Israel, telling him it “isn’t about music – it’s about human rights.”

Image by Carlos Latuff

If you respect our peaceful BDS picket line, you will be in the excellent company of fellow celebrated musicians like Elvis Costello, Lauryn Hill, the late Gil Scott-Heron and Tunde Adebimpe

Roger Waters responds to Aussie singer: Boycott of Israel ‘isn’t about music – it’s about human rights’

Cave and his band, The Bad Seeds, played to sold-out crowds on Sunday and Monday in Tel Aviv.

Prior to his concerts, Cave told a news conference that he was performing in Israel to take a stand against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS.

He took a dig at Waters, saying, “If you play Israel, you have to go through a sort of public humiliation from Roger Waters and Co., and no one wants to be publicly shamed. It’s the thing we fear the most, in a way, to be publicly humiliated.”

Waters has been active in urging fellow artists to boycott performing in the country.

“Nick thinks this is about censorship of his music? What?” Waters wrote in a statement following Cave’s concerts in Israel. “Nick, with all due respect, your music is irrelevant to this issue. So is mine, so is Brian Eno’s, so is Beethoven’s. This isn’t about music – it’s about human rights.

“We hurl our glasses into the fire of your arrogant unconcern, and smash our bracelets on the rock of your implacable indifference,” Waters also wrote, adding that “if at some point in the future you want to climb out of the dark, all you have to do is open your eyes, we, in BDS will be here to welcome you into the light.”

Eno, a British musician, also commented in a statement posted with Waters’ on the website of the Artists for Palestine organization.

“I admire Nick Cave as an artist and I know he has been generous in his support for Palestinian humanitarian causes. I think he has every right to come to his own conclusions about whether or not he supports BDS,” Eno wrote. “However, I think I also have the right to present him with another side to this argument.”

SOURCE

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TOOSDAY’S TOON ~~ PUNISHING PALESTINE FOR ISRAEL’S CRIMES

November 21, 2017 at 10:41 (Associate Post, Cartoons, Collective Punishment, Corrupt Politics, Palestine)

The State Department threatened to close the Palestinians’ Washington office unless they enter into direct negotiations with Israel, and drop requests to ICC to prosecute Israelis for crimes against Palestinians.

Image by Carlos Latuff

More here (Click on link)

Trump administration threatens to close Palestinians’ office in Washington DC

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EVERY NACHT IS KRISTALLNACHT IN PALESTINE

November 20, 2017 at 11:21 (Associate Post, Corrupt Politics, Germany, Occupation, Palestine)

On 9 November for the 78^th time we commemorate the Kristallnacht and German politicians, together with Jewish officials, repeat slogans like “Never again” . . . “The Holocaust is unique” . . . and “Against Oblivion”, then this remembrance is meaningless because for the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem it is “Kristallnacht” almost every night!

Image by Carlos Latuff

There is Nothing to Celebrate

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, English translation by Milena Rampoldi

How can we celebrate this remembrance day without thinking about the actual illegal situation in Palestine? How is it possible that in German education we correctly talk about the Holocaust as one of the greatest crimes of humanity and then completely ignore the crimes committed in Palestine? Nothing is further from my intentions than the relativisation of Nazi crimes, but it takes the breath out of me, when I see how the descendants of the victims of this Shoah crime justify today’s injustice with the injustice of that time. Injustice can never be justified, and there is no excuse for this behaviour.

I can only repeat myself and say that I cannot keep silent in the face of this injustice, and this is what I learnt from my father who is an Auschwitz survivor. When he decided to come back to Berlin to re-build Jewish life in Germany, he was opposed to Israel. And his life’s motto also became the motivating force of my actions: “I have not survived Auschwitz to keep silent about new injustice.” I do not keep silent about the crimes committed today by a “Jewish State” that justifies them with the Holocaust.

And what is even worse: Germany is driven by a misunderstood feelings of guilt and solidarises with these crimes. And this way the old guilt just becomes a new guilt they will never be able to make amends for.

The old German Republic of Adenauer, Oberländer, and Globke, the “commentator” of the race and aryanization laws, and the epoch of the “nice, brown” FDP Meinde were interfused by old Nazis, who were appointed as officials because they were needed, and then influenced the country until the 1970s. They had taken back their official positions thanks to an “anti-nazifization certificate” issued by the Allies. I remember my father struggling for his recognition as persecuted person first and then as Jewish official to be heard by German politicians and media.

It was also at that time that the USA was involved in the War in Korea and the Germans were used as a constant bulwark during the Cold War, a situation that has remained unchanged to today.

I still remember very well how in 1947 my father helped to accommodate former KZ prisoners and Jewish repatriates in empty houses. This very day, this motivated the “steel helmet Jew,” the former Bundeswehr Professor Michael Wolffsohn to persecute Heinz Galinski by his “romanticised” grandfather and home owners in various books with “hate over generations.” Wolffsohn tried anything to discredit my father, but fortunately he did not succeed.

I also felt attracted by the so called 68s, and turned away from the mendacity of certain politicians and parties. For me, the ‘German Autumn’ was the dawning of a new age. In particular in Berlin this sentiment was a glimmer of hope in times of “Springer’s incitement press.” Rudi Dutschke was a stroke of luck for us even if he had no idea against this system. And I was also attracted by young engaged people interested in Palestine turning away from the guilt-ridden solidarity with Israel. Yes, we rose up and did not want to be involved in the Nazi-guilt anymore while old Nazis were still present at universities and in ministries.

In fact, Yassir Arafat was a hero for me and is a hero up to now, as opposed to his actual successors like President Abbas.

On 2 November, when the British Prime Minister May and her colleague Netanyahu celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration during a festive dinner, you could only feel disgusted by these celebrations. The leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn did the only right thing and refused to participate by declining the invitation. It is a sad fact that in Great Britain and in the “Jewish State” the foundation of a national home for the Jewish people was celebrated, while the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland and the actual misery of millions of Palestinians were simply ignored. And this event was the foundation of the myth of the “Jewish people” by declaring that the religious Jewish community is a Jewish “people” to legitimise the “national Jewish home.” This way also the horrifying dream of the Jewish State of Theodor Herzl and the “modern” solution of the Jewish question were realised.

Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, the Zionist poster child of Great Britain, praised the agreement as the “greatest event” in the Jewish history of the last 1800 years. Did Rothschild buy his political future thanks to the support by Balfour and was the declaration the reward?

While the Arabs trusted in the British promise of 1915 as bulwark against the Ottoman Empire, and hoped to be awarded with a national Arab state, the Balfour Declaration gave Palestine to Zionism as a national home for the Jews. Today we have the same phenomenon: the “Jewish State” is the bulwark of the West in the Middle East which should defend the “Jewish-Christian values” against Islam.

The Balfour Declaration consisted of only 67 words, and their woolly formulation left room for Zionist interpretations resulting in the actual illegal occupation, ethnical cleansing, and the “modern final solution” of the Palestine question. From the beginning, the rights of the “existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” were violated. In the end, the British colonialists had exactly the same ideas like the Jewish colonialists. These Zionists should get the chance to “civilise” the Arab population. I experienced this attitude myself during my visits in Israel, when Jewish guides or friends spoke disparagingly of the “dirty Arabs.” It was that Jewish disrespect towards the Palestinians I started to hate at that time.

Great Britain should apologise for this disaster, instead of celebrating it. In fact, the Balfour Declaration became the foundation of the ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation of Palestine. Lord Balfour, the former British Foreign Minister, is present everywhere in the “Jewish State.” Almost all former Palestinian villages, located in the illegally occupied Palestine, have their Balfour Square or Street, while the original Arabic names were effaced by the Zionists. So there was not just a physical, but also a cultural and ethnic cleansing, increasing up to now. In fact, the Netanyahu regime also tries to upstage the Arabic language.

The false promises contrived in the secret Sykes Picot Agreement by the British and French were reinforced in the Balfour Declaration. However, today the decisive sentence is simply ignored: “It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.“

All events after the Holocaust are inseparably linked to the foundation of the “Jewish State” in 1948. The Balfour Declaration was the beginning of the Nakba, the catastrophe for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have never been compensated up to now for the crimes of the displacement and confiscation of their property and lands. The “Jewish State” has proven to be totally incapable of living in peace, supported by the hypocritical community of states. An apology for the injustice would be a small, first step on the path to the recognition of Palestine within 1967-borders. However, these steps seem to be as far away as peace. So what remains is only the hope for a future justice in a common state of Palestine for all its inhabitants, ethnic and religious groups.

This should not be forgotten during the celebration of the 78th anniversary of the Kristallnacht and the Balfour Declaration of 100 years ago. A memory without these thoughts would be an empty ritual which is not in keeping with the times!

Until then there will be nothing to CELEBRATE!

Originally posted AT

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POETIC TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND RICKY EISENBERG

November 20, 2017 at 09:14 (Activism, Celebration of Life, DesertPeace Exclusive, In Memoriam)

Earlier in the year one of my oldest and dearest friends passed away. This past Saturday a memorial was held for him in New York City. Here is a report of the event written by another dear friend, Matt Weinstein…

Hundreds filed into the Church of the Redeemer on West 83rd Street for a fitting tribute and memorial to Ricky Eisenberg who died on February 3, 2017 after doing battle with a protracted illness.

The hundreds included friends, old and new, fellow activists and comrades, beloved family members and others who came into contact with Ricky through the years. Dedicated to a better world, one free of war and injustice, Ricky Eisenberg fought his entire life with a passion and a principled, uncompromising determination to forge change for his fellow human beings.

The afternoon was presided over by Rickly’s sister Nora who introducted us to speaker after speaker who regaled the gathering with anecdotes and stories of their relationship with the man. Daughters brought Ricky to life in front of our eyes by recounting his great humor (which we all knew and loved), his caricatures of multitude personalities, his love of music and food (pastrami was most often noted) and more .

We were treated to performances that inspired us. Particularly moving were the several pieces by the great NYC Labor Chorus, including John Lennon’s Imagine. That was especially relevant to this memorial because it envisioned a new world, something that Ricky stood and fought for. A newly-formed group of young girls, the Riverdale Youth Chorus, were also wonderful and they brought down the house with a charming performance of one of Ricky’s favorites: Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?

Later we heard from the family: both daughters joined with granddaughter Grace to perform a song she had written. Though the program ran on for several hours, we were entranced throughout because Ricky was such an important part of our lives and because he was truly “larger than life” as was said in one of the speeches. This was a moving memorial to a man who had an impact on everyone who knew him. We then celebrated Ricky’s love of good food by repairing to another room for sandwiches, wine and dessert. A great way to finish the day. Ricky—we love you and will not forget you. This we promise.

And finally a poetic tribute to Ricky written by my dearest friend, Tom Karlson…

Ricky
73 years, a life
too short
two years of war,
every day a battle
the weapons, laughter and courage
Gracie, Jackson, Annie, Julie, Sara, Nora, and Katie
and a battalion of family, friends, and comrades
life lengthened and sweetened by that great thirst
to right all things wrong
with eye and brain and heart and body
to do wht must be done

it is late August 1960
West Harlem CCNY Convent Avenue 133st
meeting of the Marxist Discussion Club
we Don Quixotes are declaring war
war on the ban against communist speakers
STRIKE!
and strike we did
10,000 students on the street
a call for Ban the Ban
a call for Free Speach
Ben Davis and Herbert Aptheker came to speak

this, the beginning
marches, demonstrations, strikes, meets, Mayday

our position no tuition
Hands off Cuba, Cuba Si Yankee No
and when the CIA murdered Lumumba, Congo prime minister
down to the UN we went
chanting who’s the man who’s got to, go Dag Hammarskjold

a bus ride to Washington
to support Cuba
a time for song story and joke
a time where
art politics struggle mate gyrate
a time of incubation
when Cuba, antiwar’ civil rights,
student’s rights, labor’s rights, women’s rights
set the stage for a half a century
of friendship, food, love, and class war

Here is a photo of Tom reciting the poem at the memorial

Photo by Matt Weinstein

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ACTIONS AND REALITY

November 19, 2017 at 16:36 (Activism, Associate Post, Rights of The Child)

Compiled by Mazin Qumsiyeh

"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become
actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they
become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." Lao
Tzu

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is
it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks
the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a
position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take
it because it is right. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A scholar without activism is only a mercenary of knowledge. An activist
without knowledge is just a mercenary of charity. Beware, it is neither
knowledge nor charity, but justice that brings the kingdom." Santiago
Slabodsky

Corollary: Action without rational thought based on critical thinking can
be dangerous, but education, rational thought, and spoken words remain
sterile without ACTION  (my words)
*
And the reality of what has to be changed ..... (Click on link to see photos)

16 children – 16 photos

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THE ROOTS OF THANKSGIVING

November 17, 2017 at 10:17 (Holidays)

After watching this you might consider roasting a duck this year 🙂

2 Comments

JUST WHO WON WW2?

November 16, 2017 at 12:57 (Irony, United Nations)

One can’t help but wonder …

The US plans to vote against a yearly resolution at the United Nations that condemns the glorification of Nazism, State Department officials said Wednesday.

Thank you America for letting my message live on

Click on link to read full report

US opposes Nazi speech, but will vote no at UN to banning it

As it does every year, Washington will have to vote against resolution introduced by Russia as it calls for restrictions on speech and assembly, which are protected by the First Amendment; US also reportedly pressured Israel to vote ‘no’ or at least abstain this year.

2 Comments

NEW ZIO APP VIRTUALLY DESTROYS THE DOME OF THE ROCK IN JERUSALEM

November 15, 2017 at 14:42 (Chutzpah, Israel's Shame, Just Plain Disgusting, zionist harassment)

A smartphone app promoted by a Zionist organization allows visitors to Jerusalem to virtually destroy the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque and replace them with a Jewish temple.

Funded by Israel

New zio-app virtually destroys Al Aqsa Mosque

Israeli-funded app “destroys” Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque

Ali Abunimah

A smartphone app promoted by a Zionist organization allows visitors to Jerusalem to virtually destroy the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque and replace them with a Jewish temple.

The app is offered as part of an Israeli government-funded exhibit that advances the agenda of destroying the Muslim holy sites at the al-Aqsa compound.

The site in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem is revered by Muslims all over the world and known to Jews as Temple Mount.

Last month, Rabbi Steven Burg tweeted an image of how the app visually transforms the site, erasing the existing buildings altogether. “One day soon …” he added, indicating he wants the image to become reality.

Burg is the director of Aish HaTorah, the Zionist religious group sponsoring the “Western Wall Experience” exhibit.

He is also a former director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Los Angeles-based Israel lobby group notoriousfor building a “Museum of Tolerance” on top of one of Jerusalem’s oldest Muslim cemeteries.

As part of the Western Wall Experience exhibit, people can download an “augmented reality” smartphone app. When pointed towards the al-Aqsa mosque compound, it makes the Dome of the Rock disappear and replaces it with an image of a Jewish temple standing in its place.

This allows visitors to “to pose for a souvenir photograph” in an imagined landscape where the Muslim holy sites have been destroyed.

Wiping out churches and mosques

This fits into the broader agenda promoted by many senior Israeli politicians and clerics who advocate the construction of a Jewish temple in the place where the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock have stood for more than 1,000 years.

The chief rabbi of this so-called Temple movement is Yisrael Ariel, a religious extremist who has called for the wholesale destruction of churches and mosques unless Muslims and Christians “raise the flag of [surrender] and say, ‘From now on, there is no more Christianity and no more Islam,’ and the mosques and Christian spires come down.”

But it also includes government ministers and lawmakers from Israel’s ruling Likud and other parties.

Prominent among these is Likud lawmaker Yehuda Glick, who has forged a political alliance with neo-Nazi parties that have gained seats in recent elections in Germany and Austria.

Funded by Israel

Israeli government-funded extremist groups have already made detailed blueprints – complete with 3D computer animations – of what the new temple will look like once the Muslim holy sites have been destroyed.

Similarly, the ultimate aim of the designers of the Western Wall Experience is barely concealed: its website calls for “Laying the foundation” – presumably for the temple.

And Aish HaTorah also makes it clear that its indoctrination is not its initiative alone.

“The ministry of tourism and the State of Israel are significant funding partners for the construction of the Western Wall Experience,” the group states. “They will be making the Western Wall Experience a mandatory must-see for all visiting dignitaries to Israel, and will play an active role in raising awareness of the Experience.”

The al-Aqsa mosque compound is one of the most sensitive political and religious sites in Palestine. Israel has advanced false claims about the site at the UN cultural body UNESCO in an effort to secure international recognition for its occupation of Jerusalem.

Over the summer, Palestinians staged weeks of nonviolent civil disobedience against an Israeli effort to impose tighter controls on entry to the compound.

Despite Israel’s violent reaction to the peaceful protests, Palestinians prevailed, forcing the military occupier into a humiliating retreat.

See Tweets at SOURCE

4 Comments

IN PHOTOS ~~ ‘NO TO ANTI SEMITISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY’

November 15, 2017 at 13:07 (Activism, Associate Post, DesertPeace Exclusive, Photography, zionist created anti_Semitism)

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

The mainly youth group of “if not now” met at the 42^nd St. NYC library and paraded to the hotel where the ZOA (zionist org. of America) was holding its gala dinner and had as its guests extreme rightists. As the group paraded their chanting was heard through the streets. At the hotel the chanting grew even louder as they stayed for over an hour lambasting the ZOA for inviting Anti-Semites and white supremacists.

Related report (Click on link)

ZOA Rolled Out The Red Carpet For Steve Bannon — And It Backfired

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TOONS FOR INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY

November 14, 2017 at 13:15 (Associate Post, Cartoons, Israel's Shame, Palestine, Rights of The Child)

Images by Carlos Latuff

1 Comment

IN PHOTOS ~~ VETERANS’ DAY IN NEW YORK

November 14, 2017 at 13:01 (Activism, Associate Post, Current Affairs, DesertPeace Exclusive, Peace, Photography)

On November 11^th, Veterans Day thousands of people marched up Manhattan’s 5^th Avenue. Many shouldered rifles and represented the militaristic attitude so prevalent in the United States. But there was one contingent, a hundred people strong: The Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against War, the Granny Peace Brigade, The Raging Grannies (a singing group who sang peace songs all along 5^th Avenue) and other individuals who joined and also marched as the voice for peace.

2 Comments

LATEST ACTION OF THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION

November 13, 2017 at 13:50 (Collective Punishment, Corrupt Politics, Israel's Shame, Land Theft, Occupation)

WHO IS THE CRIMINAL?

Illegal Arab neighborhood to be leveled – with explosives

Six illegal Arab high-rise buildings in Jerusalem to be demolished in controlled explosion.

The City of Jerusalem, in conjunction with Israeli security forces, is planning a massive demolition operation against an illegal neighborhood on the northern edge of the city.

According to a report by Kan 11 Sunday night, the Jerusalem municipality is taking aim at six illegally-built high-rise apartment buildings in the village of Kafr Aqab, which sits inside the municipal boundaries of the capital.

Kafr Aqab, while under full Israeli sovereignty and nominally under the authority of the City of Jerusalem, is outside of the security fence around the city and remains largely beyond the reach of Israeli law enforcement officials. Building violations are common in Kafr Aqab, and city officials say the six-building neighborhood targeted for demolition was built with no authorization whatsoever.

The six apartment buildings slated for demolition are all six stories or taller, and include a mosque built housed in a unit of one of the buildings.

The demolition will be carried out in a joint operation between city officials, Israel Police, the IDF, and the Shin Bet internal security agency. The buildings are slated to be levelled in a series of controlled explosions so powerful, hundreds of residents of other buildings in the area will have be evacuated as a security precaution.

Sources told Kan 11 that the plan has been promoted by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

A spokesperson from the mayor’s office noted that “The demolition orders were issued months ago against [the buildings] which had been built illegally and without building permits and which had no residents [when the orders were issued] and which today are still largely empty. Time and again, the courts, including the Jerusalem District Court and the Israeli Supreme Court, issued [demolition] orders.”

According to the mayor’s office, the demolitions will pave the way for a new highway which will benefit reisdents of Kafr Aqab.

“Demolition of the illegal buildings will enable the City of Jerusalem to pave a highway, improving the lives of tens of thousands of residents. The new road is absolutely necessary, and it will benefit all of the residents of Kafr Aqab.”

At least one coalition member, however, condemned the plan, calling it a political ploy to gain support from the right.

“Nir Barkat has been mayor for nine years, and nothing like this was ever done,” said Rachel Azariya (Kulanu), a former Jerusalem city council member from the Yerushalmim (“Jerusalemites”) faction.

“He knows that he is playing with fire by pursuing this. No one argues with the fact that illegal construction in Jerusalem is a problem that must be dealt with, especially in eastern Jerusalem. But a show of force like this will lead to a dangerous confrontation.”

Home demolitions of illegal Arab structures in Jerusalem were few and far between during the President Obama’s eight years in office, owing in part to the administration’s opposition to such demolitions.

Following President Trump’s election last November, however, the left-wing Ir Amim organization measured a significant increase in the number of illegal Arab buildings demolished.

Source

1 Comment

IMAGE OF THE DAY ~~ MAKING AMERICA DEAD AGAIN

November 12, 2017 at 11:00 (Associate Post, Cartoons, Corrupt Politics)

Image by Carlos Latuff

1 Comment

IN PHOTOS ~~ SEVEN JEWS ARRESTED AT PEACEFUL ANTI ADL DEMO

November 11, 2017 at 18:29 (Activism, ADL Hatemongering, Associate Post, DesertPeace Exclusive, Photography)

Nearly 100 activists with the New York City chapter of grassroots organization Jewish Voice for Peace attempted Wednesday night to deliver a petition to the New York headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), calling for an end to ADL sponsorship of annual tactical, policy and technology exchanges between law enforcement in the U.S. and Israel.