IN PHOTOS ~~ 5K RUN FOR GAZA

On Saturday morning, March 24th, under bright sunny skies that turned the scene technicolor, supporters of Palestine gathered in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, for the 4th annual UNRWA 5k run to raise money for mental health services for the children of Gaza.  In the past decade Gaza has suffered several major military attacks from Israel with thousands being murdered, both children and adults.  Their homes, schools, hospitals and water treatment facilities have been bombed turning their shore into an open sewer and making the water unsafe to drink.  Some babies are born blue, oxygen deprived, because of the nitrates in the water their mother has to drink.  They are being blocaded, not allowing essentials into the area.  Electricity has been cut to only a few hours a day making it impossible to keep food fresh or run necessary medical equipment. 

The number of runners has increased every year which is a likely indication that people are aware of the deterioration of life in Gaza and are determined to do what they can to help the children there.  The number of runners that volunteered has risen over the years to well over 1,000 and the money raised was about $350,000 – well over the amount raised in prior years.

When participants arrived they were treated to breakfast donated by several food shops and after greeting friends and checking in there was dabke dancing.  At 9:30 everyone lined up for the 5K run.  Many wore Palestinian flags around their shoulders like Superman capes.  The colors glowed in the sunlight.  Whole families, 3 generations, got into the line.  Most were on their feet but many were carried while others were in strollers, wheelchairs, or on scooters. The atmosphere was jubilant.  A little one in a stroller called out to her mother, “faster, faster”, as they approached the finish line.

The events of last Saturday morning made it crystal clear that there are people living very many miles away from Gaza who keep Gaza and Palestine in their hearts and they are teaching their children to do the same.  They know of the nakba and Palestine will not be forgotten or abandoned.

Photos © by Bud Korotzer

Commentary by Chippy Dee

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TWO VIDEOS THAT WILL MAKE YOU LOL TILL YOU FALL OFF YOUR CHAIR

In these troubled times we all need a good laugh …

The first one is a repeat …. but still has me laughing.

Here goes …

And the latest … Kitty watching horror movie …

PALESTINE’S SWEETEST VOICE HAS BEEN SILENCED

Rim Banna sang for Palestine, for resistance, for freedom, for resilience, for unity, for prisoners, for martyrs, for hope. Her body left us, but her soul, smile, words, songs will always live in our hearts..

Image by Carlos Latuff

 

She sang for freedom, revolutions, political prisoners and much more. She specialized in children’s songs, something that distinguished her remarkably. With three children’s albums, she has revived traditional children’s lullabies and, through them, became present in every Palestinian house and every child’s memories.  

She let everyone enter her life through her thoughts and photos on her active social media accounts. She shared her fears, her feelings, her wisdom and her optimism.

Rest in Peace dear Comrade

راحة في سلام عزيزي الرفيق

rahatan fi salam eazizii alrafiq

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD ALMIGHTY SHE’S FREE AT LAST (ALMOST, SORTA, HOPEFULLY)

Ahed Tamimi, the teenager from Nabi Saleh arrested after a video of her attempting to push two armed Israeli soldiers off of her family’s porch went viral, signed a plea deal in Israeli military court on Wednesday, and will serve eight months in prison including three months time served.

Ahed Tamimi to spend 8 months in prison in plea deal

The 17-year-old from Nabi Saleh filmed slapping an Israeli soldier has already been imprisoned for three months. Her mother and cousin also sign plea deals. Activist slaps prosecutor in court.

By +972 Magazine Staff

Ahed Tamimi, the teenager from Nabi Saleh arrested after a video of her attempting to push two armed Israeli soldiers off of her family’s porch went viral, signed a plea deal in Israeli military court on Wednesday, and will serve eight months in prison including three months time served.

Her mother, Nariman, and cousin, Nur, also signed plea deals. Nariman will serve eight months, and Nur was sentenced to time served.

The now-famous video of Ahed was filmed shortly after Israeli soldiers shot her cousin, Mohammed, in the head with a rubber-coated bullet and fractured his skull. An Israeli military court denied bail to Ahed and her mother, Nariman — the latter charged with incitement for livestreaming the video of Ahed and the soldiers — in January.

In court on Wednesday, an activist present during Nariman’s hearing slapped a military prosecutor and was arrested. The activist, an Israeli citizen, reportedly told the prosecutor after slapping him: “who are you to judge her.”

Nariman also signed a plea deal under which she will serve eight months.

Over 70 percent of juvenile defendants accept plea bargains in Israeli military juvenile courts, which have a startling conviction rate of more than 95 percent.

The practice of pre-conviction detention (denying bail) is the default in Israeli military courts. This means that Palestinian minors are faced with a choice of either fighting the charges and remaining in prison for the duration of their trial or signing a plea deal and receiving a reduced sentence.

Given the time spent in prison awaiting trial — Ahed, for example, has been imprisoned for three months already and her trial hasn’t even begun — even a defendant who is acquitted still might spend more time in prison that they would if they had agreed to sign a plea deal.

Ahed has become an international symbol of Palestinian resistance since her arrest, her picture appearing on posters and billboards around the world. Dozens of American cultural luminaires, including Alice Walker, Rosario Dawson, Cornel West, and Danny Glover called for Ahed’s release in February.

In late February, the army arrested Ahed’s cousin Mohammed Tamimi— still awaiting surgery to reconstruct the part of his skull that was removed—in a pre-dawn raid. He was interrogated without a lawyer or a parent present, and released a few hours later after being pressured to confess that his head injury was caused by falling off a bicycle — and not by an Israeli rubber-bullet, fragments of which were extracted from his skull.

Also see THIS on Twitter

RABBINICAL RACISM CONDEMNED BY ADL

First read THIS post from yesterday

ADL slams chief rabbi for likening black people to monkeys

Watchdog group says Yitzhak Yosef’s ‘racially charged comment’ in weekly sermon is ‘utterly unacceptable’

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Racist Yitzhak Yosef

The Anti-Defamation League slammed the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel on Tuesday after he likened black people born from white parents to “monkeys” during his weekly sermon on Saturday evening.

“Racially charged comment made by Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, comparing people of color to “monkeys”, is utterly unacceptable,” the Jewish civil rights organization posted in a tweet.

In a video, shared by Ynet news site, Yosef was addressing Jewish legal aspects of the blessing on seeing fruit trees blossoming, during the current Hebrew month of Nissan, and, specifically, whether one should bless one tree or at least two.

In that context, he discussed another blessing mentioned in the same section of the Talmud, which is recited upon seeing an “unusual creature.” The Talmud states that the blessing should be recited when seeing “a black person, a very red or very white person.”

Yosef explained that the Talmud is not referring to an African-American, but a black person born to two white parents. When referring to African-Americans he used the word “kushi” which is the word used by the Talmud but is a pejorative term in modern Hebrew. He then compared this black person to a monkey.

“You can’t make the blessing on every ‘kushi’ you see — in America you see one every five minutes, so you make it only on a person with a white father and mother,” the chief rabbi said.”How do would you know? Let’s say you know! So they had a monkey as a son, a son like this, so you say the blessing on him.”

In response, the rabbi’s office said that he was merely citing the Talmud, which states that the same blessing is recited upon seeing an elephant, a monkey or an ape.

Yosef has been known to court controversy in his sermons.

In a sermon delivered in May last year, he appeared to suggest during his weekly sermon that secular woman behave like animals because they dress immodestly.

In March 2016, Yosef was forced to retract a comment that non-Jews should not live in Israel, calling it “theoretical.”

He said non-Jews could live in Israel only if they observe the seven Noahide Laws, which are prohibitions against idolatry, blaspheming God, murder, forbidden sexual relations, stealing, and eating limbs off a live animal, and which prescribe the establishment of a legal system.

Non-Jews, Yosef said, are in Israel only to serve Jews.

Israel has two chief rabbis. Yosef represents those with origins in the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Middle East, and David Lau represents Ashkenazic Jews, with origins in European lands of the Roman Empire.

 

Source

SETTLER VIOLENCE CAUGHT ON VIDEO

Terrorist from Havat Mor outpost sicks attack dog on Palestinian herd of sheep

An Israeli settler from Havat Mor unleashes his dog to attack sheep being herded by Palestinians in the occupied South Hebron Hills. This kind of violence has a long history with settlers who for the most part are unpunished and even supported by Israeli soldiers.

 

IN PHOTOS ~~ TIME TO END THE ENDLESS WARS

 

Photos © by Bud Korotzer

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THE LATEST IN RACIST ‘LOGIC’ FROM THE SAGES OF ZION

Racism explained and justified by the Chief  Rabbi Racist of Israel

During lesson discussing blessing of trees and ‘strange creatures’, Sephardi chief rabbi offers Talmudic exceptional examples in which ‘Negroes’ should be blessed: ‘when their parents are both white and they have a monkey.’

 

Chief rabbi calls black people ‘monkeys’

The Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel called black people “monkeys” during his weekly sermon on Saturday evening.

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef was addressing Jewish legal aspects of the blessing on seeing fruit trees blossoming, during the current Hebrew month of Nissan, and, specifically, whether one should bless one tree or at least two.

In that context, he mentioned a blessing uttered upon seeing an “unusual creature,” citing the example of encountering a black person who has two white parents on the street in America.

In footage aired by the Ynet news site, Yosef could be seen referring to black people by the pejorative Hebrew word “kushi,” and then going on to term a black person a “monkey.”

His office told Ynet that the comparison was a quote from the Talmud.

Yosef has been known to court controversy in his sermons.

In a sermon delivered in May last year, he appeared to suggest during his weekly sermon that secular woman behave like animals because they dress immodestly.

In March 2016, Yosef was forced to retract a comment that non-Jews should not live in Israel, calling it “theoretical.”

He said non-Jews could live in Israel only if they observe the seven Noahide Laws, which are prohibitions against idolatry, blaspheming God, murder, forbidden sexual relations, stealing, and eating limbs off a live animal, and which prescribe the establishment of a legal system.

Non-Jews, Yosef said, are in Israel only to serve Jews.

Israel has two chief rabbis. Yosef represents those with origins in the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Middle East, and David Lau represents Ashkenazic Jews, with origins in European lands of the Roman Empire.

 

SOURCE

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Here is an example of the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi’s Racist’s ‘logic’ from a few years ago (Click on link)

DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE RACIST RABBI?

 

MUST SEE VIDEO ~~ ROGER WATERS ON ‘SUPREMACY’

Roger Waters releases ‘Supremacy’ in protest of US Jerusalem move
Waters reads out poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to music composed by Palestinian group Le Trio Joubran; ‘On the surface, it narrates the last speech of The Native American to The White Man, but it speaks also to Darwish’s beloved Palestine, and its indigenous people, in fact to all victims of settler colonialism everywhere, always,’ Waters says.
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Same struggle in Canada …

 

THE INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION OF ANTI SEMITISM

While I was browsing through my big collection of articles and images about the abuses of human rights and the denigrating Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians, I noticed this image which should go all around the world as symbol of dehumanization.

International Promotion of Antisemitism!

by Evelyn Hecht-Galinski,  English Translation by Milena Rampoldi

 

IDF-cruelties contribute to Antisemitism

When looking at this picture of 2016, taken in the illegally occupied Hebron, we have to ask ourselves what is going on in the heads of such soldiers. For me, the Nehal and Golani brigades which are known for their cruelty are the example of an inhibited desire to kill. They gloat over the misery and helplessness of their victims, the occupied Palestinians.

 

“Antisemitism” detracts from the crimes of the “Jewish States”

There are hundreds of pictures like this, but in the German “leading media” they are never shown. This is obvious as our leading media have been “leading” us into a certain political direction for decades now.

 

Human shields

It is also not openly reported that since the beginning of the illegal occupation of Palestine in 1967 the IDF has been using Palestinians as human shields to make risky action as safe as possible for the IDF soldiers. (2)

 

All these cruelties of the “most moral” of all “defence” armies of the world contribute to increasing Antisemitism. While looking at such pictures, every compassionate person asks itself how a state founded after the holocaust, constantly manipulating the holocaust, calling itself the “unique” democracy in the Middle East, and considering itself as “light of peoples”, can do such a dark occupation politics. How many innocent Palestinian women, children, and old people did die because of it? Since 2002, these tactics have been part of official military politics. There is nothing “funnier” for the occupation soldier than humiliating a helpless, frightened Palestinian.

 

All this is only possible because German and US politics consequently stand for this “Jewish State” and support its occupation crimes with arms deliveries and speeches of solidarity.

 

The totalitarian nature of Zionism

In Germany, the totalitarian nature of Zionism, based on the Judaization as reason of state, is supported by politicians of all parties. How can you defend the “right for existence” of an occupiers’ state, with an invented slogan of Hasbara ideologists, who constantly create flowery terms and metaphors for their illegal occupation crimes. The State of Israel is still without constitution and clear borders. It is continuously expanding by stealing Palestinian land.

 

All know about these crimes against international law, and the “Jewish State” is allowed a free hand to do whatever. How can it be that there are still people supporting this occupiers’ state? So, there are only people who are philosemites or Muslim haters.

 

Antisemitism caused by the Israel lobby

At the moment, the Israel lobby and its propaganda make of anti-Semitism one of the main problems in Germany and diffuse it in the main international media. However, the sad reality is another: While the number of arsons against mosques and refugee homes is increasing, Antisemitism is retreating.

 

Daily there are discussions about the nomination of a representative for Antisemitism on a regional and over-regional level in parliaments and the Bundestag, while the future “homeland minister of interior” Seehofer has already presented the more than dubious “master plan”, dreaming of expulsions, and offensively opposing to Muslim perpetuators and “potential attackers”. We have to ask who the real perpetuators and “potential attackers” are. How should this be decided, and who should decide? Perhaps in the near future the “steel helmet Jew” Wolffsohn, who has always been next to the CSU party, will become Bavarian minister of culture, or perhaps “IM Victoria” Anetta Kahane of the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung will search for “potential aggressors”, and H.M. Broder will play the role of the Antisemites’ inquisitor. Also, Volker Beck needs a new job, after having being refused as competent person for matters related to Antisemitism.

 

Deportation as “proven mean” with deterrent effect

While times are getting worse and worse for Muslims in Germany, Israel friends can be happy. The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany fuels prejudices against Muslim immigrants by repeating all the time that these visits to the concentration camps are a must (!) because Muslims have to internalize German history and recognise the right for existence of the “Jewish State” to avoid to be deported as Antisemites. It is disgusting that Schuster and political officials support this kind of deportation as “proven mean” with deterrent effect.

 

Of course, the “Jewish State” and its supporters do whatever to distract from the crimes in the Jewish occupiers’ state by talking about the so called “Anti-Semitism”. However, the truth cannot be hidden for ever, even if there is nothing Zionists fear more than the truth.

 

80 years from the “Crystal Night”

While synagogues, Jewish institutions and officials are protected, the protection of mosques and refugee homes does not suffice. And here immediate action is required because the situation is deteriorating. We have already noticed the negative results of islamophobia and the continuous rabble-rousing against Muslims. 80 years after the so called “Kristallnacht”  today, after the synagogues, mosques are burning. It might sound like a provocation: however, actual Muslims are the past Jews. Fortunately, we have not reached the situation of Nazi Germany, but there are Nazi voices and populists around using the same demagogic slogans against Muslim citizens. In the media and with our politicians of all parties constantly opposing to Turkey, Iran, and Russia we notice how quickly moods are created. One and the same media and politicians sweep the crimes committed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or the “Jewish State” under the philosemite carpet.

 

After that the Social Party has just ditched the only foreign minister candidate loved by the voters (although he was closed to the Israel lobby?), Heiko Maas will be his follower. He is the one who held a more than dubious conference with his Israeli colleague Ayaled Shaked with her internalised hatred against Palestinians she compared with snakes. His actual partner, the actress Natalia Wörner, has already played her role in diplomacy at the time when Steinmeier was foreign minister. Are these good perspectives for Palestine?

 

Israel is an “Apartheid State”

In this context, the “steel helmet Jew” Wolffsohn even wrote an inflammatory article against foreign minister Gabriel. In this article, you formally feel the hatred of the Israel lobby and its representatives who are all happy to have ditched Gabriel who was right when he called the “Jewish State” an “Apartheid State” and affirmed that it is a lie that “Arabs” have their full civil rights in Israel! The existence of the “Jewish State” is engendered by its own behaviour! In contrast to Wolffsohn, Gabriel has a pragmatic and supporting position towards Iran, Turkey, and Russia, trying to achieve normalised relations. If Wolffsohn calls Gabriel “Hamas Poster Boy”, should we call himself “figurehead of the Israeli war ministry”? The insinuation that Gabriel has deserved an “above-average” consultancy contract with the mullahs or President Erdogan is packed with wickedness. For sure this “steel helmet Jew” and passionate Israel expert is paid for his articles! It is a good thing that this more than controversial “Bundeswehr university professor” has been given his emeritus status and cannot poison other students! (3)

 

However, Gabriel has left a positive heritage: the German support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is guaranteed. So, Maas is confronted by the fait accompli that the Federal Government will continue the payment of 80 million of the year 2017.

 

In the end, it is also a German obligation to offer financial support to the people displaced because of the Nakba. The UN resolution 194 has not been implemented yet, and these people are still not granted their legal right to return to their homeland Palestine.

 

The recognition of the “right for existence” of Palestinian refugees

However, the director of the charity organisation Wadi is right when he says that this kind of refugee aid is co-responsible for Palestinian suffering. Instead of forcing the “Jewish State” to recognise the right for existence of Palestinian refugees and displaced people, the sad existence without rights of Palestinian refugees in the refugee camps is maintained. This way, the “Jewish State” finds an “elegant solution” to the problem and leaves the destiny of Palestinians as refugees for life to the hypocrite community of states!

 

As long as the “most moral” of all defences armies is allowed to oppress, torture, mistreat, and murder Palestinians with impunity, and to dominate them with such a brutality, in a land where the Jewish Israeli are immoral and united in their common hatred against Palestinians and in their blind support of these murderous soldiers, peace will never come to Palestine.

 

Extrajudicial executions, forced confessions, and blackmails are sadly part of daily life. In addition, there is the eternal blockade of the concentration camp in Gaza which will soon be an inhabitable strip of misery under perennial control, with an extremely high suicide rate. These “defence soldiers” are very good at concealing and deceiving, when it is about reversing the body of evidence which may charge the army.

 

Palestinians are the perpetuators and terrorists when they oppose to the illegal occupation. The “most moral” of all soldiers are always cooperative victims “defending” themselves from the “terrorists”!

 

The sympathy of the inhabitants of the “Jewish State” and its supporters is limited to their own interests. While Palestinian citizens are isolated and ghettoised in the “Jewish Apartheid State” and hold like prisoners in the occupied territories, no empathy can be developed, and this is exactly the goal of the hasbara.

 

Without any doubts, the politics of the “Jewish State” promote Antisemitism because as long as basic rights and values are denied, and the deep contempt of Jewish citizens against Palestinians is maintained, and finds its “expression” in occupation crimes, every German citizen and in particular every German Jew should ask herself/himself how much she/he contributes to the alleged increase of Antisemitism. Jewish citizens should not be surprised if they lose sympathy because instead of dissociating from the occupation crimes, they express their solidarity with the “Jewish State” by carrying the “David Star flag” for it.

 

Since the beginning of this year, almost every day innocent Palestinians, also young people, have been murdered by IDF soldiers. And all is hushed up. Why do Jewish women in Germany not engage for the liberation of Ahed Tamimi as US women in New York do during the international Women’s Day? (4)

 

As long as criticising and clearly talking about human rights violations in the “Jewish State” remain taboo, and it is forbidden to openly say that Israel should not be supported by Germany, and as long as Israel criticism, Antizionism, and BDS support are put on a level to avoid them, and as long as Jewish Israel reviewers are denied to hold a public speech in Germany, Germany will sink in a philosemite Antisemitism, led by the state.

 

The sad and informative interview with Ilan Pappe in 2016 leaves us in no doubt that Israel wants all but peace. Neither the one-state nor the two-state solution is an option for the colonialist occupiers. For Ilan Pappe what we have to support is a democratic state for all its citizens, even if we are far away from it. (5)

 

We have to diffuse pictures like the one of this article to show the world communities what really promotes international Antisemitism.

 

Originally posted AT

ODE TO SAINT PATRICK

 

San Patricos

© by Tom Karlson

 

But what of the patriots?

St. Patrick’s battalion

Organized by Irish Major Riley

500 redheads

500 Catholics

Irishmen fleeing

From the famine

From the terror

From the crown

To their new country

Army for quick citizenship

Shipped out to Texas, then Mexico

The Polk Scott Taylor war of empire

The 500

Refuse to bring famine, terror, and tin-crowns south

Refuse to be transplanted police

They become the patriots

St. Patrick’s battalion

Organized by Irish Major Riley

500 Blue-eyed new Mexicans battling rough and ready Taylor

Army, blockades, that future sea to sea colossus

With war loving congress

Manifest destiny

Pacifism be damned destiny

Abolitionism be damned destiny

Where Lee, Grant, Jeff Davis

West point officers

Fight on the same side

Invading, occupying

Driving the 500 over

Creating that St. Patrick’s battalion

Who fight and die

Hero to one and traitor to the other

Prologue that should be

He remembers Polk’s deception

He remembers the Maine 266 dead

American blood spilled on the left side of the Rio Grande

For 1,000,000 square miles of north Mexico

He remembers the Maine 266 dead

Pacific and Caribbean empire

The Texans lie called the Gulf of Tonkin incident

2,000,000 indo Chinese 56,000 us dead

He will remember the weapons of mass destruction

And that good 10 year 3 trillion dollar war, 2,000,000 dead 

REMEMBERING RACHEL CORRIE

March 16 marks 15 years since Rachel Corrie was killed. She died putting her body between a bulldozer and a home she was trying to protect in Gaza. She has inspired so many and we salute her and those who carry on her legacy.

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MUST WATCH VIDEO ~~ THE ZIONIST TANGO

The Zionist Tango: Step Left, Step Right

“Israel Lobby & American Policy” conference on March 2nd, 2018 at the National Press Club

Gideon Levy is a columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, which he joined in 1982. He spent four years as the newspaper’s deputy editor and is currently a member of its editorial board. He is widely considered the “dean” of Israeli journalism—as well as “the most hated man in Israel.” As Levy has written, “Treating the Palestinians as victims and the crimes perpetrated against them as crimes is considered treasonous.”

Levy writes the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 30 years, as well as political editorials for the newspaper. His columns about politics, money, how Israel’s military occupation is changing Israeli society and about U.S.-Israel relations are widely read and discussed around the world.

Levy was the recipient, with Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb, of the 2016 Olof Palme prize for their “fight against occupation and violence.” He has also received the Peace Through Media Award, at the 2012 International Media Awards; the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996.

His book, The Punishment of Gaza, was published in 2010 by Verso Publishing House in London and New York. Video of Levy’s presentation at our 2015 conference was translated into Arabic and has gone viral, receiving more than 200,000 views.

 

Related report HERE

ON VIDEO … STEPHEN HAWKING’S ‘SPECIAL’ RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL

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Stephen Hawking believed in Palestinians’ right of resistance and was the first scientist of his stature to boycott Israel

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New Image by Carlos Latuff

Stephen Hawking, a friend of Palestine

CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF STEPHEN HAWKING ~~ A FOND FAREWELL

British scientist Stephen Hawking dies at age 76

Despite his personal torment (or perhaps because of it) he cared about all those suffering throughout the world.

He will truly be missed.

Here is a photo of a young Stephen Hawking (with the canes) in London marching against the war in Vietnam in 1969.

 

More than 30 years later he spoke out fervently against the war in Iraq. He also joined the BDS movement against Israel, calling the situation “like that in South Africa before 1990. It cannot continue.”

He wasn’t just one of the most brilliant minds of our times, he was also someone with a social conscience and critical of capitalism, saying:

“If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.”


Rest in power, Stephen Hawking.

FROM

Carlos Latuff honoured this giant of a man with the following in 2013 …

Maximum respect to Stephen Hawking who in 2013 refused to participate of a conference in Israel to protest against the occupation of Palestine

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STRANGEST THING EVER …..

I always found this strange ….
Any movie you watch that might have an animal in it has a disclaimer that ‘no animal was harmed during the production of this film’.
Meanwhile, humans were shot to death, mangled or tortured in the same film ….. where is the disclaimer for them?

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A VIDEO TO HELP YOU GET TO KNOW THE BOYCOTT

Short video for those unfamiliar with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement

BIBI DOES BROADWAY

I thought I was viewing the Academy Awards. His acting was that stellar. His talk was like a sequel to his 2014 performance: The Shape of Warfare. He’d won the Oscar that year for demonizing Iran.

Bibi does Broadway

Sam Bahour 

I recently watched Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s AIPAC speech from my home in Palestine. For a moment, I thought I was viewing the Academy Awards. His acting was that stellar. His talk was like a sequel to his 2014 performance: The Shape of Warfare. He’d won the Oscar that year for demonizing Iran.

Normally I’d have been upset. I mean, how can anyone take such harrumphing hasbara seriously? Then it hit me: Bibi was doing standup! And his shtick was over-the-top.

The Prime Minister’s kvetching was truly primetime black comedy. He began by saying “the audience in this hall each year is getting bigger and bigger and bigger!” What consummate acting! He was emulating cartoon character Mr. Magoo, myopically missing the mounting opposition to his policies.

Under Bibi’s leadership—some Israelis would call it kingship—Israel is nothing if not rapidly becoming the modern day’s developed Western rogue state. It seems only curtailed from implementing its final solution to the Palestinian question by advent of smartphones and the Internet.

Bibi then bragged about Israel’s modernity and creativity, causing audiences to smile at his failure to note all the handouts it gets from the world. Bibi then claimed Abbas “pays about 350 million a year to terrorists and their families.” Holy moly, Batman! That caused another international guffaw since Israel (created and maintained by terror) gets 10 times that much each year just from the USA. And for what end, to maintain a 50-year military occupation which mandates Israel to have every Israeli high school graduate pick up a gun and point it at Palestinians!

To put that in perspective: once every blue moon the IRS returns American workers $300 atop their normal refund. Grateful citizens respond with joyous backflips. Yet, each year/every year, the USA gives every man-woman-child-baby in Israel $500…none of whom worked a minute for it, none of whom show any gratitude. Shouldn’t a 70-year-old nation, especially one whose leader brags of the strength of its globally-aligned economy, cut its own ice?

The prime minister was on a roll. The first thing he mentioned, after saying Israel wanted peace, was ‘Israel has never had a stronger military.” Imagine! He didn’t brag about its farms (many wrongfully acquired by military force), water resources (stolen from Palestinians), or nuclear weapons (stolen from America). No, he mentioned the IDF uber alles.

What a kidder!

He then tugged at heart-strings, citing Israel’s help during overseas natural disasters. Of course, he failed to mention all the IDF-created disasters in nearby Gaza, a modern-day Guernica.

He also lauded Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, David Freidman, the Zionist Three Stooges trying to broker a one-sided peace deal by forcing facts on the ground. What a hoot! It was like suggesting McCarthy, Duke, and Birch broker a truce with African Americans during their 1960s intifada.

Bibi also swore that “peace is Israel’s highest aspiration,” echoing another leader some 79 years ago. Time magazine noted in 1939 “Hitler’s hope that the nations of Europe could settle on a peace — but only a peace in which German demands would be met.”

He urged more pressure be put on Iran, but not by Israel. Like Tom Sawyer, he wants others to do the dirty work, whitewashing Israel’s instigations.

Jealous fits sometime threw off his timing. Like when he chided Iran for violating “multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” having “repeatedly lied to the international community,” and wanting nukes…just like Israel. He can’t stand challenges to Israel’s hegemony. Yet is he crazy? Mullahs aren’t muttonheads. They see how North Korea is treated versus Iraq.

It was obvious that Bibi not only knows how to pull the world’s leg, he studies movies. He changed The Eternal Jew into The Infernal Arab. What chutzpah! He’s certainly a savvy thespian who knows the power of media. Too bad he hasn’t watched Red Dawn, though. He’d know that Americans would fight their invaders/occupiers just like Palestinians do.

Bibi’s breathless Perils of Pauline routine continued. He clutched pearls mentioning “rockets, terrorists and missiles” drawing howls of laughter. Bibi has clearly become the poster child for war, oblivious to the very few steps that separate him from being imprisoned back in Israel for corruption.

I lost the “Phantom Thread” leading from his wanting peace to calling for war. He can’t understand that the world that loves The Diary of Anne Frank loathes the detention of Ahed Tamimi. That people who enjoy the wonders of Black Panther’s Wakanda are weary of the so-called Jewish State’s repeated motto: There Will Be Blood.

Moses, or at least Charlton Heston, told Pharaoh: “Let my people go!” Sane, decent, peace-loving people around the world say: “Let Palestinians free!”

Israel should heed the advice of Palestinians (echoing another Oscar winner) and just Get Out!

Still, it’s no laughing matter, no film fantasy. America is increasingly more diverse. Colonialism is outdated. And young Jews are less and less attached to Israel. So, unless the state Bibi heads mends its ways, it could soon be Gone with the Wind.

Written FOR

WOMEN’S DAY IN NEW YORK HIGHLIGHTS PALESTINIAN FREEDOM

Support for Ahed Tamimi was there in full force

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Here are scenes from the March in New York City

Photos © by Bud Korotzer

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HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

To the men out there too!

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Our Palestinian Heroine by Latuff

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A funny look at the day ….

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