OPEN LETTER TO FEDERAL FINANCE MINISTER OF GERMANY

This letter is to political groups in the Bundestag, to the media and to the circles of friends been conducted.

Esther Bejarano, 2017 (Photo: arbeiterfotografie.com)

Open Letter to Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz because of the withdrawal of charitable status for the VVN / BdA, Nov. 25, 2019 
What is a charitable organization? 
By Esther Bejarano

Dear Minister Scholz, Since 2008, I am the honorary chairman of the VVN-BdA, the non-profit organization of the persecuted of the Nazi regime – Confederation of anti-fascists, founded in 1947 by survivors of concentration camps and Nazi persecuted. The work of Antifa, the work of anti-fascist associations is still – today – still badly needed. It is unbearable for us survivors to see Nazi slogans roaring again today, attacking Jewish people and synagogues, chasing and threatening people through the streets, circulating death lists, and not even shying away from attacks on state officials. 

Where is the Federal Republic heading?

The house burns – and you lock out the fire !, want to make the work impossible for the largest and oldest anti-fascist association in the country? This devaluation of our work is a serious offense for all of us. 

“The Federal Republic has become another, better Germany,” my friends had assured me, before I returned with my family from Israel to Germany almost 60 years ago. Nevertheless, I met old and new Nazis here. But here I have found reliable friends, people who fought in opposition to National Socialism, the anti-fascists and anti-fascists. Only I could trust them.

We survivors of the Shoah are the uncomfortable admonishers, but we have not lost our hope for a better and peaceful world. For this we and the many who think like us need help! We need organizations that support and coordinate this work. 

I have never imagined that the charitable nature of our work could be questioned or denied! That I have to experience this today! Have those already won, who want to distort the history of our country, who want to rewrite and overwrite it? Who speak of memorial sites ‘as a monument of shame’ and describe the Nazi state and its murder machine as a ‘bird’s nest in German history’?

In the past decades, I have received many awards and honors, now just again by the Hamburg Senate a commemorative gold medal. My second Federal Cross of Merit, the Great, was presented to me personally in 2012, a tribute for outstanding services to the common good, it said. In 2008, the Federal President had attached the Federal Cross of Merit 1st class to me. I am glad about that, because every single honor stands for recognition of my – our – work against forgetting, for a “never again war – never again fascism”, for our fight against old and new Nazis. 

But who awards medals to Shoah survivors, also assumes an obligation. A commitment to the common NEVER AGAIN that underlies our work.

And now I ask you: what can be more charitable than to lead this fight? In this country actually decides a tax authority on the existence of an association of survivors of the Nazi crimes? 

As the responsible Minister of Finance, I urge you to do everything possible to reverse this untold and unjust decision to withdraw the charitable status of the VVN-BdA and to propose appropriate legislative changes.

We survivors have to fulfill a mission given to us by the millions murdered and tortured in the concentration camps and Nazi prisons. Many friends and friends, the antifascists help us out of love for humanity! Do not allow this work to be made even more difficult by additional tax burdens. 

Yours sincerely, 
Esther Bejarano 
Chairwoman Auschwitz Committee in the Federal Republic of Germany 
Honorary Chairman of the Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime – Association of Anti-Fascists

 

Auschwitz Committee in the Federal Republic of Germany 
www.auschwitz-komitee.de

openPetion “The VVN-BdA must remain charitable!” 
https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/die-vvn-bda-muss-gemeinnuetzig-bleiben-deutschland 

WHO WILL SAVE PALESTINE?

It is only a matter of time before the next terrible massacre in Gaza or elsewhere in illegally occupied Palestine will take place. The Zionist regime needs wars both internally and externally to survive. 

Who will save Palestine? 

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

 

It is only a matter of time before the next terrible massacre in Gaza or elsewhere in illegally occupied Palestine will take place. The Zionist regime needs wars both internally and externally to survive. Only leaders with blood on their hands are able to be chosen and recognized by this “chosen people”. Decades of hasbara (propaganda) has trimmed brains for superiority of the “Jewish people” over the hostile Palestinian Arab Muslims considered inferior. It is this supposed strength and the arrogant sense of superiority that characterized this apartheid occupation state from the beginning. All this was only possible because the international community supported and made possible this ominous policy. For the Jewish inhabitants of this state, With only their own good at heart, attacks and wars against the Palestinians were always “normal”, and they felt no remorse for war crimes and bloodiest massacres. Why? Governments have always told them that only they alone have the right to own the land of Palestine-Israel for over 2000 years.

The future is in the untrustworthy “David stars”

As if not enough blood was spilled, the corruption-prone Trump favorite and deadly “regime leader” Netanyahu never missed an opportunity to rush against “infiltrants” and “Arab Israelis” as enemies of the country’s security , He left no stone unturned to save his skin at the expense of his country. He even sensed a “coup attempt” instead of confronting the accusations of Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who accused him in his charges of fraud, infidelity and corruption.

For a long time, Mandelblit and his investigators, now under police protection, waited for the indictment to be filed. The Likud party is still behind its “King Bibi” and even called to demonstrate in front of the house Mandelblits. In the “Jewish state” polarization has always been very high. After all, it was the far-right parties that promoted them. The rabble-rousing slogans that they repeatedly release against the Palestinians meanwhile do not stop at political opponents. One should not be surprised if another political murder happens as after the murder of Rabin.

Netanyahu has refused to resign and despite more than 50% of Jewish citizens advocating his resignation, he wants to remain in office until a conviction is reached, but he does not expect it, and he has an immunity law that protects him , wants to prevent. That he succeeds, seems less and less likely, since it now looks as if his Likud is no longer closed behind him and wants to get rid of him. Whether this will really be so, is in the “David stars”, and they are not trustworthy.

Prospects for Palestine bleak as US policy and its dubious “peace plans”

A fellow Israeli peace activist once told me that there is no other country in the world that has so many corrupt politicians at the head of the state and government, as in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Netanyahu is so ruthless that he could even try to start a civil war in order to maintain his power. It would be the first time that an incumbent Prime Minister has been charged, because when his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, was charged with corruption, he resigned. There is currently a law in the “Jewish State” stating that an incumbent Prime Minister may remain in office until sentenced, and Netanyahu will fully enjoy that if he is not overthrown before.

Now, Haaretz asks if he can even be regarded as fully in office, as he is only a transitional prime minister who has not been successful in creating a government. Therefore, he is to be regarded as a “simple” Knesset member. But since it must be assumed that in the known Israeli legal situation and deportation, a start of the process could be delayed for years, Bibi plays for time. So he will try by all means to reach new elections against all odds. Finally, his challenger Benny Gantz has failed in the formation of a government and reacts out of weakness with offers and other polarizations. So the prospects for Palestine are as gloomy as the US policy and its dubious “peace plans”.

It would be a small piece of hope if there were a trial of both before the International Court of Justice in The Hague – for war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war. Dutch Palestinian Ismail Ziada seeks civil action against former Israeli Air Force chief Amir Eshel and Benny Gantz as responsible for the bombing of a house where six of his family members, his mother, three brothers, a sister-in-law and his 12-year-old nephew were murdered. Gantz then took the lead in Israel’s notorious Operation Protective Edge, which brutally murdered more than 2,000 Gaza residents. While Ziada demands justice, Gantz did not think of a better way as the “Jewish Defense Army” once again praising the world’s most moral army and expressing its pride in having served it for almost 40 years. At that time, Netanyahu was already Prime Minister and leader of the regime, which had ordered this terrible war, as so many others had done before. Sadly, only the Dutch court provides the legal opportunity for Ziada’s indictment, as the Israeli judicial system is closed to Palestinians. Special attention was given to the terrible murders of this Palestinian family only because a relative of Ziada, a certain Henk Zanoli, returned in protest over his Dutch wife his tribute to Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations” to the Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands. The “Righteous Among the Nations” is a special term for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust. Zanoli and his mother hid a Jewish boy from the Nazis during the Second World War.

The glorification of the “Jewish people” is no compensation

The Israeli political brutality is quite similar to the new rights in Europe, except that it never got the due attention it deserves. After all, the glorification of the “Jewish people” as reparation is and was so great that this trauma, especially in Germany, is increasingly effective. Influenced by immigration and the creation of an enemy, the Muslim and Islam / Islamism became the new common battlefield of the philosemitic Germans and the evangelical movement worldwide.

So it is to be feared that even with a new regime in the “Jewish state” nothing will change. The unacceptable conditions in Gaza, in this concentration camp with about 2 million imprisoned people, are now almost completely disappeared from the media. So these desperate people are left with only depression, sinking into ever-deepening poverty and waiting in vain for the promised help and reconstruction and for a next massacre. One wonders: was this proud Palestinian people actually created to be occupied, colonized, oppressed, humiliated, dispossessed, judaized or, in the worst case, murdered by the “Jewish people”? How can Palestinians escape this fate? With legal resistance that is wrongly condemned internationally as terror.

Instead of the hypocritical community of nations, which so far has done nothing at all, finally thinking of preventing the decades-long Zionist war of annihilation against the Palestinian people, on the contrary it has allowed more and more Jewish settlements to develop in occupied Palestine. How can one end this international complicity with the “Jewish state”? By finally stopping the hypocritical community of nations from watching the slow dying of this courageous people in its criminal lethargy, and finally putting pressure on Israel to comply with international law and finally recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.

After bitter decades with BDS to bring about a free, decent life!

Has not the international community forfeited any right to criticize the Palestinian people? Nothing was done to end the Israeli crimes. In any case, for us citizens, it is only support for the BDS campaign, solidarity with the Palestinians, who fight against oppression, and the support of their resistance. It is time to force the Israeli regime to sanction and withdraw its support for its crimes against humanity in order to allow a free Palestine, without warmongering and massacres of the civilian population.

It is precisely our moral obligation to end the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, to save the country and its people, and to allow them, after bitter decades of occupation, a free, decent life!

 

Originally posted AT

GLOBAL SILENCE IS THE GREEN LIGHT FOR ISRAELI CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

The “Jewish state” is one of the world’s most brutal apartheid and occupation regimes, which has never shied away from ethnic cleansing, Judaization and genocide. Why? This state can continue to present itself as a victim and thus justify any kind of criminal activity. The so-called “community of values” is silent on this.

Global Destabilization through Western Influence

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

What we are currently experiencing in the global Western creation of enemy images is beyond anything that began after the event of September 11, 2001. Again and again we should be made aware of the “threat of Islam”, of course especially by “the” Muslims. Everything is permissible when it comes to the “clean” fight of Western states against the Islamist threat. It is suggested that we are dealing with only one enemy worldwide, the “Islamist terror”, without, however, differentiating by taking “the Muslims” as a whole in charge. It is always WE, the Western “democracies”, led by the US, who lead us into this crusade. This merciless hunt for fictional enemies, of course Muslims, Islamists,

With a fictitious threat to the “right-wing warfare”

So you could kill two birds with one stone, namely to eliminate the enemies from the outside and inside. How better than under this lied rhetoric could one hide the strategic and economic motives for wars and state infiltration. With the popular phrases of the “self-defense” and of the “human rights” one could sell these preventive wars as just, with purely humanitarian claim!

Meanwhile, this type of war policy is also internalized by the media, which always support in anticipatory obedience this dirty policy exactly as desired by the States involved. Thus, the fight against the allegedly threatening terrorism became an integral part of the war propaganda. The fact that the media are not afraid to operate with targeted misinformation, even from more than dubious government or intelligence sources that are difficult to verify, makes things even more unappetizing. Everything that is accused to the Internet with hate speech, hate comments and targeted false information that democracy is “eroded”, but above all, it is due to the fact that this type of communication is precisely worked to us as citizens on the To bring “right course of war”.

It used to be “the Russian”, who was just around the corner as enemy number one, and more and more Muslims, Islam and the “Turks” are joining. Thus, under the leadership of the US, NATO and the “Jewish State”, the West has managed to portray these “enemies of America” ​​and of the “Jewish people” and Zionists everywhere as a lurking danger. Even a supposedly “Muslim anti-Semitism” is painted as a dangerous phenomenon on the wall.

“Defense” of the most brutal apartheid and occupation regime worldwide

What the “Jewish state” has been staging as a threat policy ever since the state was founded is now being copied by all western “democracies”. This representation of the enemy justifies all means for the “Jewish State”, supported by the community of states, which represents the occupation state of Israel as a democratic rock in the Middle Eastern surf, in the sense of fighting the “Islamic” and “Palestinian” terror. Thus, supported by “Western democracies”, any kind of criminal Zionist oppression, occupation and attack policy can be seen as a just fight against terror and thus as an act of “self-defense”.

The “Jewish state” is one of the world’s most brutal apartheid and occupation regimes, which has never shied away from ethnic cleansing, Judaization and genocide. Why? This state can continue to present itself as a victim and thus justify any kind of criminal activity. The so-called “community of values” is silent on this.

When on Monday, 18.11.2019, one last taboo of US policy on Palestine fell, namely the announcement by Foreign Minister Pompeo that Israeli settlements were no longer in violation of international law, this was clearly a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention , which sees settlement construction as a violation of international law – a convention that the “Jewish state” has been trying to undermine for decades. After the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the “Jewish state” and the legitimacy of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, this was the end of all communication with the Palestinians. It was a gift to Netanyahu and the approximately 600,000 settlers in the more than 200 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, the annexed East Jerusalem, along with three million Palestinians. Netanyahu already sees himself and his regime confirmed and is pleased about the “correction of a historical decision”. Benny Gantz, the adversary and “opposition leader,” also welcomed the Trump government’s decision. Israeli Foreign Minister Katz blended his praise on the EU and once again criticized the decision of the European Court of Justice to demand the labeling of Jewish settlement products.

Anti-Semitism through criminal acts of the “Jewish state”

Although the EU and its foreign policy chief Mogherini affirmed their clear position that all settlement activities are illegal under international law and undermine the viability of the two-state solution, that sounds good, but is in fact irrelevant as long as there is no change in policy towards Israel. Similarly, the criticism of UN Secretary General Guterres almost helpless. When the Jordanian Foreign Minister warns of “dangerous consequences”, one wonders how well they look if the international community does not intervene with all consistency and reacts with sanctions and isolation of the “Jewish state”. After all, the Trump government’s policy on the Middle East is consistently setting itself apart from the course of international “partners,” even as opposed to the US position of previous governments.

Especially in Germany, we experience a kind of support that has nothing to do with reality anymore. Neither the murders without trial (so-called “targeted killings”), nor the occupation policy are questioned. Everything is justified by the “special responsibility for the” Jewish state “and leads to ever closer proximity to Israel.

It is no longer the “Jewish state” that is condemned as the power of occupation and expansion, but Iran, Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, whose religious fundamentalist ideology is being fought and demonized, while the Judaistic ideology is considered normal and compatible with our values is supported. How else can one explain that, despite UN condemnation and international criticism, international and human rights crimes committed by the Zionist regime remain sanctioned, while Russia and Iran are being punished with more and more sanctions and Turkey is being threatened with sanctions? This totally implausible, one-sidedly exalting Judaism and supporting Zionism policies can only lead to anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism, which has nothing in common with the “original Christian form”, but today based on the “Jewish state” and its criminal acts. Far-right anti-Semitism has long since shifted dangerously to Islam hatred and xenophobia in general.

Islamophobia and philosemitism spread throughout the world as a religious virus

Islamophobia and philo-Semitism are today blended into a symbiosis of Christian-evangelical politics, a powerful force, especially in the US, that spreads across the world like a religious virus. These new evangelical friends of the “Jewish state” and the Jews are also driving forces in the fight against Islam and Muslims.

An interesting aspect in this context is the Israel support of the new right and parties such as the AfD in Germany. They outdo each other in their Israeli and Jewish affiliations and combine their Islam aversions with the alleged threat to the Jews, the “Jewish state” and Western civilization. So, if Israel and the Central Council warn the Jews against the AfD and condemn their policies, they should ask themselves how far they are not themselves pursuing exactly the same policies they accuse the right-wing parties.

The German government should finally free itself from its blind subservience to Israel, which is just not a democratic state, as we are repeatedly told. And no, responsibility from the past must not blind Germany to new crimes. Responsibility also means being responsible for what happens to the Palestinians under illegal Jewish-Zionist responsibility. This responsibility also means implementing the judgment of the European Court of Justice and marking goods from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as non-Israeli. This is only a minimal implementation of the BDS requirement, which wants to achieve a boycott of all goods from occupied Palestine.

“Western Christian-Jewish alliance” removed from all values

That only 70 years after the Holocaust German and Jewish “defense soldiers” and Eurofighter with the “Iron Cross”, as well as Israeli jets with the “Star of David” in a joint maneuver in the Negev desert “learn from each other” should not pride us, but to meet with disgust! When in occupied Palestine, soldiers and fighter jets from the NATO countries USA, Italy and Greece practice together with the “Jewish occupying state”, this only shows how far this “Western Christian-Jewish alliance” distances itself from all values Has.

For the Jewish “defense soldier” the past no longer plays a role, in contrast to the German colleague, who is pleased about the “positive mood” and the good relationship with the Israeli friends. But he does not even mention the Palestinians. So one is in agreement in the “common” goals. And there we are once again on Islam and combating terrorism.

The fact that neither Gaza nor the murdered members of a whole family are and were topics, is not surprising, but fits exactly to the mendacious German “Merkel-Staatsräson” policy. Even if the new Secretary of War Kramp-Karrenbauer, who indulges in dreams of foreign missions and mixes economic interests with war aims, which contradicts any German foreign policy, this fits in exactly with this pattern.

Endless list of destabilization by Western influence

And that leads me to the title of this commentary, the destabilization of Western influence. While Ukraine was “liberated” by the democratically elected President Yanukovych thanks to the US, and under Poroshenko even under US President Obama was replaced by a right-wing, western-oriented corrupt system, Russia has been isolated from Ukraine and thus initiated a “NATO Easter crept” , which leads to ever new distortions, war and hatred.

While Iran is suffering massively under US sanctions, the country is supposed to be brought to regime change with possibly undermined demonstrations, as so often tried and supported by the US.

In Egypt, the elected President Morsi was first disempowered by the “coup Pharaoh” al-Sisi and then driven to death, all with Western support.

Now, in Hong Kong, we are witnessing a violence of such brutal proportions that China will respond even more than mildly. If China were to act like the “Jewish state,” then there would certainly be air strikes on Hong Kong, of course without regard to civilians. While the legal resistance of the Palestinians against the illegal occupation is condemned as terror, oppositionists and demonstrators in Hong Kong, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela are seen as “benevolent”. The massive infiltration of Chinese, Russian, Turkish or Venezuelan demonstrators can only be guessed at!

In India, Muslims are persecuted by Hindus, and in Burma, Muslim Rohingya are expelled and persecuted by the “oh-so-peaceful” Buddhist majority.

Venezuela was and will be destabilized by the US, with special interference by the German Foreign Minister Maas, and is said to be brought to the regime change and overthrow of the elected President Maduro with a shortage, which fortunately failed.

Bolivia was also destabilized and its elected President Morales was exiled. As Chile suffers from demonstrations, Mexico is threatened with a Trump US Wall, and all of Central and South America has been disturbed, crowned with the election of a fascist in Brazil, Africa is becoming ever more civilized with weapons from Israel and the US brought. And although the German Federal Armed Forces are doing “peace work” in Mali and Afghanistan, the destabilization of Western influence is in full swing.

This list of infinite stories reads like a perpetual motion machine. But for me, the achievement of such political destabilization would only be achieved if it reached Palestine and the “Jewish state” so that the occupation ends and Palestine is finally free.

STILL KNEELING AND REFUSING TO BEND

It is crystal clear after last Saturday in Atlanta that the reason Colin Kaepernick does not play in the NFL has nothing to do with ability.

Colin Kaepernick Refused to Bend to Roger Goodell’s Will

The quarterback remade the NFL’s hastily called league-wide tryout and demanded transparency.

“I’ve been ready for three years. I’ve been denied for three years. We all know why.”

Colin Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL for three years because he dared to say that black lives matter in a league that treats black bodies as disposable. He dared take a league that uses patriotism, nationalism, and militarism as marketing, and turn that stage on its head. He dared to be a free man in a league that preaches obedience.

It is crystal clear after last Saturday in Atlanta that the reason Colin Kaepernick does not play in the NFL has nothing to do with ability.

In a workout session that started as a hastily assembled circus of the NFL’s making, Kaepernick threw a serious of high-velocity darts and 50-plus yard bombs with the flick of his wrist. At age 32 and visibly in the best shape of his life, he clearly has the ability and desire to compete. What he doesn’t want is to play as a broken person for a league determined to break him. Roger Goodell and the NFL tried to bend Kaepernick to their will this week. They scheduled him for a tryout with only three days’ notice. They insisted he come to Atlanta and work with a coach not of his choosing at the Falcons’ headquarters. They told him that it would be on a Saturday, when coaches and top scouts are busy either preparing for Sunday games or analyzing college contests. They did not tell him who the receivers he would work with would be. They wanted him to sign a “non-standard injury waiver” that have would prevented Kaepernick from suing the league for collusion in the future. Most egregiously, they insisted that the workout not be open to the press. Roger Goodell wanted all the positive public relations for “ending the collusion” against Kaepernick and none of the transparency.

Kaepernick then committed a grave sin in the eyes of not only the NFL but also a pathetic coterie of members of the sports media who also work for broadcast partners with the league. He showed up in Atlanta and refused to work out at the Falcons facility under the watchful eye of an NFL chosen coach. He instead went to a high school an hour away with his own receivers. He kept it open to the press, several of whom live-streamed the workout over social media, preventing the NFL from spinning the event as if he no longer had the goods. Kaepernick wore a shirt that said “Kunta Kinte,” a reference to LeVar Burton’s African name in the miniseries Roots, a name Burton’s character clung to even as he was whipped to accept that his new name would be Toby.

Of the reported 24 team reps that showed up at the Falcons headquarters only a handful had the courage to get in their cars and follow Kaepernick and the assembled media to his tryout. Then Kaepernick, as expected, balled out and said to everyone, “I’ve been ready for three years. I’ve been denied for three years. We all know why. I came out there and showed it today in front of everybody.” Kaepernick then thanked scouts who were there from Washington, New York (the Jets), and Kansas City, and said, “When you go back, tell your owners to stop being scared.”

Immediately afterward, the NFL’s media prizefighters put the day’s tomfoolery on Kaepernick’s shoulders, as if he was the one who set this dumpster on fire. This is a gaslighting, Bizarro World analysis, and should be recognized as such. These journalists—who really want you to sign up for Disney Plus—are doing little more than sucking up to the multibillion-dollar teat of a league dependent on a compliant media’s using Kaepernick as a negative object lesson for any other player who might try to flex their personal or political will. Then, as if by clockwork, Jay-Z, who is being paid handsomely to be Roger Goodell’s racial justice whisperer, let it leak that he was “disappointed with Colin’s actions and believes he turned a legitimate workout into a publicity stunt.” But it’s the NFL that staged a publicity stunt. All Kaepernick did was refuse to play their game.

Now that the spectacle in Atlanta is over, we are actually back where we started. Everyone knows that Kaepernick has the ability to play. Everyone knows that he is only being kept out for political and PR reasons. The question will be whether there is one team that is willing to put their team’s success over their political prejudices. This is where we have been for three years, and this is where we remain.

PHOTO ESSAY ~~NEW YORKERS MARCH TO STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH GAZA

Hundreds in New York march to stand with Gaza, Palestinian resistance

Photo: Joe Catron
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Times Square in New York City on Friday, 15 November to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and support the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

*

Photo: Joe Catron
The protest came as part of the call for an international day of solidarity with Palestinian resistance issued from Gaza after Israeli assassinations and bombing raids over two days of attacks killed 34 Palestinians, including eight members of one family, and injured 111 more.

*

Photo: Joe Catron
Organizers of the protest included Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as well as Al-Awda New York, Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, the NY4Palestine Coalition, Labor for Palestine, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, CODEPINK, International Action Center and Struggle – La Lucha.

*

Photo: Joe Catron
Demonstrators gathered for brief speeches and ongoing chanting in solidarity with Palestine.

*

Photo: Joe Catron
Demonstrators marched through Times Square to Herald Square, chanting the entire route and calling for the boycott of Israel and a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea.

*

The protest ended with a strong call for further actions from Nerdeen Kiswani of Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine.

Photo: Joe Catron
Joe Catron, U.S. coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, said that the demonstration was the largest and most enthusiastic action for Palestine in New York since December 2017, when Donald Trump announced that the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

*

Photo: Joe Catron
He emphasized the importance of continuing these activities against Zionist occupation, apartheid and colonization and in support of the Palestinian resistance.

Catron noted that these are especially important in the U.S., which exercises its full imperial power in support of the Zionist colonization of Palestine, including through the provision of $3.8 billion annually in military aid.

*

Photo: Joe Catron

*

Photo: Joe Catron

More photos at SOURCE

NETANYAHU’S LAST ATTEMPT TO STAY IN POWER ~~ BOMB GAZA!

Benjamin Netanyahu’s motivation in killing a Palestinian commander in Gaza was partly political, a former Israeli negotiator said today: Netanyahu aims to show that his chief rival to be prime minister, Benny Gantz, cannot be counted on to provide security to the country.

In the battle between Netanyahu and Gantz, Gaza pays the price. (Cartoon: Carlos Latuff)

Netanyahu’s Gaza attack targeted political foes Gantz and Joint List, says Israeli negotiator

Benjamin Netanyahu’s motivation in killing a Palestinian commander in Gaza was partly political, a former Israeli negotiator said today: Netanyahu aims to show that his chief rival to be prime minister, Benny Gantz, cannot be counted on to provide security to the country. In the wake of the attack, a “convoy” of Netanyahu’s political allies in the Likud party have issued statements that Gantz is not trustworthy because he will depend on the Joint List of Palestinian parties in order to become prime minister, the negotiator said.

Moty Cristal, a former peace negotiator and lt. colonel in the Israeli army, spoke on i24 News today and said that the timing of the attack was not “purely taking advantage of the window of opportunity” to kill Baha Abu al-Ata, the leader of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. In fact, Cristal said, Avigdor Lieberman has said that when he was Defense Minister (2016-2018), Netanyahu rejected his recommendation that Israel kill Abu al-Ata. Islamic Jihad reportedly attacked Israel in September — when Netanyahu was forced off a stage in Ashkelon out of concern that he was within range.

Cristal said there was likely a “strong combination” of political motives in Netanyahu’s decision to attack, in the form of Gantz’s “ticking clock.” Gantz has eight days to form a new government in a charge from the Israeli president. One of his only ways to do so is to form a tenuous “minority” governing coalition with the 44 members of his party and other center-left Jewish parties and the outside support of the 13 members of the Israeli parliament from the Joint List of largely-Arab parties.

Israeli rightwingers have repeatedly smeared the Joint List in recent months as a fifth column on which the center-left is dependent. Netanyahu also went in for fearful race-baiting against Arabs in the recent campaign. saying they want to “annihilate” Jewish Israelis. Gantz and center-right kingmaker Lieberman have promised that they would never include the Joint List in a coalition government.

The accusations against Gantz and the Joint List have been repeated by Netanyahu Likud Party loyalists in the last day, Cristal said. These politicians are part of Netanyahu’s personal firewall: a potential governing coalition that will guarantee him immunity from prosecution on corruption charges that are expected to be filed against him in coming weeks.

The assassination in Gaza led to scores of rockets from Islamic Jihad and then Israeli attacks killing seven inside Gaza; and the hostilities have thrown Israel into considerable fear. Schools and businesses in Israel were shut down today; and i24 News anchors reflected worry over what will happen tomorrow.

The crisis has also highlighted tensions with Iran that may serve Netanyahu politically. Iran is in the headlines as the supporter of Palestinian resistance forces including Islamic Jihad. Yossi Alpher at Peace Now says that Netanyahu may see political advantage in leveraging tensions with Iran to show that he is Israel’s necessary leader, or to get Donald Trump to support him more visibly. Michael Oren’s article in the Atlantic warning of a war with Iran must be seen as a communique from Oren’s former boss, Netanyahu, Alpher says– possibly “to generate a Trump campaign to influence Israeli public opinion in Netanyahu’s favor, either during the final month of coalition maneuvering or during a third round of elections early in 2020.”

There is also a chance, Alpher says, that hostilities with Iranian proxies would “hasten formation of an emergency national-unity government,” uniting Gantz and Netanyahu, in which Gantz would have to drop his insistence that he would not serve with a prime minister under investigation.

 

THE STAR OF DAVID AS A SYMBOL OF OPPRESSION

The Holocaust seems to justify all means and overrides human rights and international law when it comes to the “Jewish state”.

The Flag as a Symbol of Oppression and Exclusion

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

 

It is to be thanked for the criticism of the left-wing town councilor Simon Aulepp that finally a dispute and a basis for discussion arise in Germany. Who is Jewish and what does Judaism mean in Germany? (1) He asks the legitimate question of whether the city council would raise the flag of Saudi Arabia at the town hall, if Muslims were killed in an attack in Germany? However, in this context, Saudi Arabia seems unhelpful. I would find Turkey the right state in this context when it comes to expressing sympathy in racist murders. After all, about 3.5 million Turkish citizens live in Germany.

 

No solidarity with an army that shows “hatred and joy in killing”!

 

While protests are made when Turkish footballers salute, it is happily accepted that German citizens volunteer for the Jewish “Defense Army” and thus support an army that secures the illegal occupation of Palestine by all means contrary to international law, an army that According to own soldiers who broke their silence, “shows hatred and joy of killing”. (2) (3) (4)

 

What are these double standards. It seems that when it comes to Muslims and Turks, you feel the Islamophobia that has seized Germany and Europe. Has Germany, the German Federal Government, ever thought of hoisting the Turkish flag as a sign of mourning or sympathy after the NSU murders of Turkish-born people? Never would this gesture have been considered. Yes, the Holocaust remains unforgotten forever, but gives no right to instrumentalize it unilaterally.

 

The question that Aulepp posed to the mayor of Kassel, Christian Geselle, was polemically exaggerated, but absolutely justified. The David Star flag has nothing to do with the failed attack of a far-right culprit in the synagogue in Halle. It would have been right, and I fully agree with Aulepp to set the German flag at half-mast in order to demonstrate German sympathy. After all, it was not an attack on the “Jewish state” but an act against a religious community. However, one already wonders in view of the answer of the OB journeyman, which faith does he actually have? When asked by the press, he did mean that the hoisting of the Israeli flag should be seen as a “clear sign of solidarity with the people of the Jewish faith.” And:

 

Do not abuse anti-Semitism to cover up the politics of Israel!

 

The same is true in the Jewish community and was pleased that the flag hung in front of the town hall. Since one wonders how it can be that Jewish citizens are pleased about this Flag Hissung, they only show that all criticism of Jews is justified, if they are behind the “Jewish State” and solidarisieren with this. Even if the Chairman of the German-Israeli Society thinks that “Judaism and the State of Israel can not be separated”, this is a sign of a false understanding. As long as Jews in the diaspora do not clearly separate state and religion, there will never be a “normal” coexistence. It seems to me that the “Jewish State” and its lobby are very convenient, when you use anti-Semitism and can cover up the politics of Israel with it, and to avoid criticism of this at all. Likewise, the “Jewish state” finds it very convenient if Diaspora Jews are scared, insecurity is created, so that they increasingly emigrate to Israel. A dangerous kind of politics that generates anti-Semitism.

 

Of course that brings us to the topic of instrumentalizing a religion. There is no “Jewish people” but only a Jewish religious community, see also Schlomo Sand. (5) (6) Ever since the claim of recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state” began, this amalgamation of Judaism and politics began as a model of domination and oppression. Israel is a state that has established itself in the land of Palestine and has systematically displaced approximately 750,000 Palestinians since its founding in 1948, the Nakba disaster. This expulsion must not be remembered, because one fears the exposure. For this reason, one tries again and again to insist on the “recognition of the right to exist, which now belongs to the” German state reason “. A completely absurd concern to recognize a state which has neither fixed limits nor a constitution. Especially in Germany one tries again and again to discredit and prevent the Nakba exhibition from the Israel lobby. (7) (8)

 

This illegal land grab is known worldwide, criticized, condemned by UN decisions, but never sanctioned or sanctioned. Any measures that the Western “community of values” can so easily impose or threaten against Russia, Iran, Turkey and other states do not come into effect in the “Jewish state”.

 

Do not abuse the Holocaust to override human and international law!

 

The Holocaust seems to justify all means and overrides human rights and international law when it comes to the “Jewish state”. This affects Germany of course extremely, due to the perpetrator’s past. But this philo-Semitic policy is in no way justifiable, but on the contrary creates a defense. If, as has happened so often, Chancellor Merkel warrants all wars of aggression, ethnic cleansing or preventive murder with “self-defense”, this can never be reconciled with “German-Christian values”.

 

German Jews, who profess to Judaism as a denomination, pay the same religious tax as Christian “brothers in faith” to the German state. Now is the question to ask, does the Jewish religious tax go partly or entirely to the “Jewish state”? If you look at the behavior of German politics in their behavior towards Jews and Israel, then you have to deal with this topic. Do German citizens of Jewish faith have a German or an Israeli passport?

 

If then also the SPD leader of the SPD party accused parts of the left to question the right of existence of Israel, then this is an embarrassing distraction maneuver of this incident. Israel’s right to exist depends solely on that state, and is neither legitimate nor secure unless this state gives up the illegal occupation of Palestine, does not stop aggressive policies against its neighbors, and decides not to live in peace with its environment. (9) (10)

 

No special role, for NOTHING and NOBODY!

 

The “Jewish State” was designed from the ground up to occupy a land for Jewish citizens alone, and from the beginning, all the claims of the indigenous peoples were concluded with the words “given by God” and “return to the 2,000-year-old homeland of the Jewish people.” Palestine, the Palestinian. It has come a long way with this policy. The legal right of return, which the UN affirms by resolution, is denied by the “community of values”, while Israel’s claim to Palestine is reiterated as a violation of international law. Everything is supported by a guilty conscience, traumatization of guilt after the Holocaust. This special philosemitic German policy leads us directly into new guilt and anti-Semitism, which does not stop at critical Jews.

 

Influenced by the Central Council of Jews and other international Jewish organizations, it has managed to put the bond between diaspora Jews and the “Jewish State” on a dangerous pedestal, which should be strictly separated in reality. As long as Jewish citizens do not clearly decide whether they feel like German citizens with all their rights and duties, or as Israeli citizens who are in doubt about their true identity, there can never be the desired and so important normality in living together. It seems to me, despite all the testimonies of German Jewish officials, this “normality” is not wanted. Only by this abnormal special position and exaggeration can be pointed to the constant threat of the “Jewish state”,

 

Can Jewish citizens really run into this trap? Do they want to be recognized as fully fledged citizens or as “protected” exotics? It is particularly bad when the newly created Office of the Federal Government, the “Anti-Semitism Commissioner”, constantly emphasizes this role. Although we have a flood of this new “professional group”, we do need a racist commissioner who puts the attacks on Muslims and mosques and refugee homes on the same level as anti-Semitism attacks. No special role, for NOTHING and NOBODY!

 

The Star of David flag is the symbol of oppression and exclusion!

 

 

footnotes:

 

(1) https://www.hna.de/kassel/mitte-kassel-ort248256/nach-anschlag-auf-synagoge-in-halle-debatte-ueber-gedenken-in-kassel-13196576.html

(2) https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/debatte-um-salutgruss-in-der-tuerkei-niemand-wird-beleidigt.1346.de.html?dram:article_id=461428

(3) https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/krisen/id_19431610/israels-soldaten-brechen-ihal-schweigen.html

(4) https://www.bild.de/regional/thueringen/thueringen-aktuell/ivo-dierbach-aus-erfurt-in-einem-urlaub-dient-er-israel-65958846.bild.html

(5) https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/es-gibt-kein-juedisches-volk-aber-ein-israelisches-1.18215814

(6) https://www.heise.de/tp/news/Es-gibt-kein-israelisches-Volk-2017088.html

(7) https://www.nzz.ch/unerwuenschte_palaestina-ausstellung-1.10402907

(8) https://taz.de/Palaestinaausstellung-und-Antisemitismus/!5631151/

(9) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/03/comment.israelandthepalestinians

(10) https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2019/03/15/why-israel-has-no-right-to-exist/

Originally posted AT

A POEM TO STOP THE HATE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

Stop the Hate
by Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh
*
Stop the racism, stop the hate
Start with your heart – never too late
*
At a world in turmoil we sadly wonder
Our duty and responsibility we ponder
*
Through experience we know
Life is the energy good or bad that flow
*
Until our death when we are no more
And only our deeds tell our lore
*
Some of us were taught at schools
To remember the golden rules
*
Not only that we do to others what we hope for ourselves
But that there is a price or a prize for acts themselves
*
That everything we do we get back
A good or a bad deed even a smile or a crack
*
“God give them what they wish for me”
actually, what I do comes back to me
*
what I did yesterday
comes back to me today
*
You cannot make war for peace and security
Any more than you can have sex for virginity
*
Stop the racism, stop the hate
Start with your heart – never too late
*
Positive energy begets positive
Selfish thought begets negative
*
Choose Justice, kindness, and humanism
not Cruelty, greed, and racism
*
You can’t take money to your grave
Only bad deeds and good deeds left to save
*
Let this simple fact not get blurred
Save a child, a plant, a friend, or a bird
*
Worry about your spirit,
Of all pollution do clear it
*
The tranquil is not the hawk but the dove
You cannot conquer the hate except by the love
*
Take a deep breath in and gently breathe out
Meditate and you will find that winning route
*
Ponder how the soft conquers the hard
And why the evil deeds are marred
*
The roads of the wise are like the water steams
hard stones dissipate in its way like dreams
*
The key is time which is patience realized
The door is kindness we must have utilized
*
Stop the racism, stop the hate
Start with your heart – never too late

FASCISM 101 (ISRAELI STYLE)

“This is what fascism looks like.”

‘What Fascism Looks Like’: Israeli High Court Upholds Expulsion of Human Rights Watch Director Omar Shakir Over Alleged BDS Support

“The perpetuation of the occupation continues to mean the silencing of criticism.”

The Israeli Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the deportation and permanent expulsion of Omar Shakir, the Human Rights Watch representative in Israel and Palestine, over Shakir’s alleged support of the Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions movement, a move that drew criticism from peace advocates and progressives around the world.

“This is what fascism looks like,” tweeted Palestinian rights advocate Diana Buttu.

The court gave Shakir 20 days to leave the country.

As Common Dreams reported, Interior Minister Arye Dery decided in April to expel Shakir, a U.S. citizen, from Israel over Shakir’s alleged support of the BDS movement.

The high court on Tuesday ruled that decision was legal due to a controversial 2017 Israeli law banning proponents of the boycott movement from entering or remaining in Israel. Dery said the ruling affirms his position that “anyone who works against the state should know that we will not allow him to live or work here.”

Shakir’s attorney Michael Sfard told Haaretz that the ruling made clear Israel is joining what he described as other repressive regimes in barring those who would expose misbehavior from their countries.

“Today, the State of Israel joined the list of countries like Syria, Iran, and North Korea, which have expelled Human Rights Watch representatives in an attempt to silence criticism of human rights violations taking place within their borders,” said Sfard.

But, according to The New York Times, Human Rights Watch believes Shakir was expelled for his work against Israeli settlements in the West Bank rather than any advocacy in favor of BDS:

Human Rights Watch says neither it nor Shakir has called for an outright boycott of Israel and says that Shakir, who is a U.S. citizen, is being targeted for the rights group’s opposition to Israel’s West Bank Jewish settlements and its calls for companies to stop working with the settlements.

Critics of the move sounded off on social media.

“The perpetuation of the occupation continues to mean the silencing of criticism,” liberal U.S. Israeli advocacy group J-Street said on Twitter. “Democracies should not expel human rights organizers.”

Amnesty International

@amnesty

Today’s decision from Israel’s Supreme Court to uphold the deportation of @hrw director @OmarSShakir is a cowardly move that confirms Israel’s oppressive intent on silencing independent human rights organizations at any cost. http://amn.st/60191z6bb 

Israeli Supreme Court Decision to deport HRW Director

The decision to uphold Omar Shakir’s deportation order is a crushing blow for freedom of expression

amnesty.org

In a statement, Amnesty International deputy Middle East and North Africa director Saleh Higazi said the decision made it “explicitly clear that those who dare to speak out about human rights violations by the Israeli authorities will be treated as enemies of the state.”

“Human rights defenders play an essential role in exposing the government’s wrongdoing and fostering public debate,” said Higazi. “Today’s decision is a cowardly move that confirms Israel’s oppressive intent on silencing independent human rights organizations at any cost.”

“The world must not stay silent in the face of this travesty of justice,” Higazi added. “The international community, including Israel’s allies such as the U.S.A., have a responsibility to press Israel to reverse this reprehensible decision and make clear to them that this kind of blatant repression is completely unacceptable and will have consequences.”

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad said that while the expulsion was personally shocking, the decision by the high court was in line with Israeli efforts to restrict dissent over the occupation.

“From a personal perspective, it’s shocking and unsettling, to see Omar ordered to leave within 20 days,” said El-Ad. “But from a professional/legal perspective, there’s nothing in the ruling which isn’t in line with earlier rulings by Israel’s HCJ. The only novelty is the application of current Israeli legal dogma in order to deport Omar.”

“Israel, by definition, isn’t a democracy,” El-Ad continued, adding that he hoped the decision would make that clearer to the international community.

“Either way,” said El-Ad, “the fight continues.”

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Vs XENOPHOBIA

Once upon a time 30 years ago, when the Berlin Wall fell, the wall of xenophobia began to build up.

Brown Philo-Semitic Spirits, Freedom of Expression and Xenophobia

 Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

 

Once upon a time 30 years ago, when the Berlin Wall fell, the wall of xenophobia began to build up. I too was euphoric when I saw the cheering people at the Brandenburg Gate rejoice and breathed the air of freedom. As beautiful as this new freedom and the end of separation and the fall of the wall were, so bitter was the awakening. The GDR was a state of injustice and oppressed and spied on the citizens. Many who today have something to say at the forefront of German politics were, unlike they always try to portray, not victims of the system, but perpetrators. Did not we Germans like that before? When, after 1945, many Nazis were given back their old posts, while emigrants were defamed as traitors, it was the Cold War, Western allies and an ideological education that further spread the brown stink. The old parties became new and did not want to have anything to do with the past. But the past has not passed, it remains as a monument and is not possible without remembering.

Without Russia, no merger to a Germany

When the GDR was actually finished, it was Gorbachev’s merit to jump over the shadow of certain half-baked East German politicians and open the wall. This process testifies to its size. Without Russia, the GDR would never have become free and merged into a Germany. Even today, the differences are still large, but most former GDR citizens have now joined with the Federal Republic. Of course, there are many bitter and abandoned people, but are not they also in the West? It probably takes another generation to make this connection normal.

I have been dealing with this topic since my youth, but in Berlin I experienced the parallels, how the Cold War and the Springer press poisoned the “Berliner Luft”, until today.

Yes, the 9th of November: a day so historic in Germany must continue to be remembered as the commemoration day of the Pogrom Night in 1938, in the East as in the West. But what prevents us from celebrating November as the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and to regard this fall of the Wall as a reminder and as an incentive to think of the apartheid wall in Palestine and demand its fall in this context. After all, these data and walls are so closely linked.

Pro-Israeli attitudes conceal the ethnic-anti-Semitic attitude of the AfD

Equally connected are right-wing populism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. The AfD, the party that shows its discomfiture in the politics of remembrance so openly, has nothing to do with this “bird’s throats of history”, wants to be associated with the “memorial of shame” quite differently than Democrats imagine understands masterly, by their pro-Jewish and pro-Israeli attitude, their true völkisch anti-Semitic attitude to disguise. It is all the more reprehensible, if there is a group of Jews in this party, who feel that they belong to this right-wing extremist thinking and have integrated themselves into this “alternative for Germany”. On the other hand, it does not seem outlandish.

This is exactly what fits it, when AfD defense politician Gerold Otten calls for the deployment of the Bundeswehr at the German border, in order to protect them from refugees. The AfD floats a 50,000 strong reserve corps to reinforce 230,000 soldiers. There will certainly be discussions of a constitutional nature, as Otten said. All of this has been practiced by the Zionist regime for years and so is directed against Palestinians and “infiltrants”. Perhaps these German politicians also favors that Israeli colleagues participate as expert advisers in such missions. Especially since the German Air Force has participated in the International Exercise “Blue Flag” in the Negev Desert since Sunday, November 14, with about 130 soldiers and six Eurofighters of squadron 71 “Richthofen”. The Israel Defense Forces said the exercise was of “utmost strategic importance” in training various combat scenarios and techniques. Incidentally, the USA, Italy and Greece are among them! And so-called Israeli “anti-terrorist specialists” guard image newspaper already Jewish objects in Germany. Why is there no constitutional debate on this topic?

Not only does the Bundeswehr have many admirers in the “Jewish state”, it is also the AfD, which was praised by the Israeli newspaper Israel-Hayom for its Israeli friendliness. In fact, the similarity to Likud or other governing parties of the far-right Israeli spectrum can not be overlooked. (1)

A hateful, xenophobic offensive that is well received in the East

That the AfD is experiencing such a rise, especially in the East German states, the former GDR, should make us all think. After all, the strategy of national identity and migration, as well as the radical rejection of migration, Muslims and strangers, is so fertile that it should frighten us. In fact, many of these voters and Easterners have a xenophobia without strangers. Built on social envy, rejection of multi-cultural and immigration, the AfD was able to win more and more voters. The “Autumn Offensive” campaign quickly became a one-sidedly hateful and xenophobic offensive, and unfortunately that seems to be a good thing, especially in the East. This AfD has moved more and more in the direction of Björn Höcke, the differences are only marginal – between Gauland, Weidel, Meuthen and Beatrix v. Stork or Erika Steinbach, who is not (yet) an AfD member (but she is the director of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Foundation), as well as the right-wing “Axis of the Good” publicist Vera Lengsfeld, be it a member or only “related”. But basically, everyone fits in a brown AFD bag. (2)

Thus one can observe the dangerous European phenomenon that the parties of the right-wing radicalism show a clearly pro-Israeli-Jewish attitude, so together with the “Jewish state” as a bulwark of the Christian-Jewish Western fight against Islam = terror and Palestinians = terrorists occur. In addition, an alleged Islamic anti-Semitism and a left-wing “anti-imperialist” anti-Semitism as a common enemy will be fought. Let us not forget that the President of the Central Committee, Schuster, was one of the first to demand an “upper limit” in 2015 after the first refugee reception of Syrian refugees. (3)

So we have almost identical demands – if Jewish organizations like the Zionist Gaza massacre demanded more solidarity with Israel, much like positions on the “Patriotic Platform,” which hopefully has now dissolved. This does not change the danger of the AfD and does not excuse any voter who chooses this party! (4)

It is 5 past 12

If now in Thuringia after the election 17 CDU politicians demand “open-ended” talks and the Thuringian parliamentary leader Michael Heym with (jealous!) Looking at the AFD election result of 23.4% and then says “You do not do democracy a favor if you beat up a quarter of the electorate “, then it’s 5 to 12! What about the three-quarters of the rest of the electorate? This disproves any democratic insight that I suspected even in the CDU. If Chancellor Merkel and CDU leader Kramp-Karrenbauer do not intervene here and try to save the last bit of CDU decency, then I see black and brown for this CDU. If CDU General Secretary Ziemiak can not think of anything better than the term “crazy”, then that’s crazy! As on election night after the disastrous CDU result of 21, 8% of the top candidate Möhring of course announced talks with the election winner and left Prime Minister Ramelow, he was immediately repulsed by the Berlin CDU party headquarters. If the CDU continues to move in that direction, it seems to me time to think about whether this chancellor and party is still governing. The SPD would be well advised to finally free themselves from “left animosity” against the left as a partner – even in the Bund – and to think about new strategies and alliances, instead of becoming more and more a CDU light. Otherwise, you will end up only a “self-employment” as a single-digit “splinter party”. he was immediately repulsed by the Berlin CDU party headquarters. If the CDU continues to move in that direction, it seems to me time to think about whether this chancellor and party is still governing. The SPD would be well advised to finally free themselves from “left animosity” against the left as a partner – also in the Bund – and to think about new strategies and alliances, instead of becoming more and more a CDU light. Otherwise, you will end up only a “self-employment” as a single-digit “splinter party”. he was immediately repulsed by the Berlin CDU party headquarters. If the CDU continues to move in that direction, it seems to me time to think about whether this chancellor and party is still governing. The SPD would be well advised to finally free themselves from “left animosity” against the left as a partner – even in the Bund – and to think about new strategies and alliances, instead of becoming more and more a CDU light. Otherwise, you will end up only a “self-employment” as a single-digit “splinter party”. to finally free themselves from “left animosity” against the left as a partner – also in the federation – and to think about new strategies and alliances, instead of becoming more and more a CDU light. Otherwise, you will end up only a “self-employment” as a single-digit “splinter party”. to finally free themselves from “left animosity” against the left as a partner – also in the federation – and to think about new strategies and alliances, instead of becoming more and more a CDU light. Otherwise, you will end up only a “self-employment” as a single-digit “splinter party”.

The AfD party has set off an avalanche and set the inhibition threshold of hate especially against Islam and Muslims in motion, the spiritual political arsonists and media also kindled, but were still outdated by the AfD. It is a rendition of rhetoric and deeds – like the murders of the NSU – that has not been taken seriously for a long time. Only the attack against the synagogue in Halle caused international attention. However, such far-right “individual perpetrators” have their spiritual helpers and cronies everywhere and pose a terrible threat to ALL of us, but of course more to hate objects such as Muslims and Jews. While the NSU murders were not taken seriously at the beginning, the grave desecration of the grave of my father Heinz Galinski is still unresolved, The state is now becoming ever more attentive when it comes to its politicians. After the terrible murder of the local politician Lübcke they thought about what a danger, especially since the politicians felt particularly affected. In the ominous extreme right-wing threatening letters to the Greens Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir the excitement is great, the state is now “woken up”. This excitement I would have liked in the threatening letters against the Frankfurt-based lawyer with Turkish roots, Seda Basay-Yildiz, which she got from a group NSU2.O, she was one of the co-plaintiff representatives in the NSU trial. In the ominous extreme right-wing threatening letters to the Greens Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir the excitement is great, the state is now “woken up”. This excitement I would have liked in the threatening letters against the Frankfurt-based lawyer with Turkish roots, Seda Basay-Yildiz, which she got from a group NSU2.O, she was one of the co-plaintiff representatives in the NSU trial. In the ominous extreme right-wing threatening letters to the Greens Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir the excitement is great, the state is now “woken up”. This excitement I would have liked in the threatening letters against the Frankfurt-based lawyer with Turkish roots, Seda Basay-Yildiz, which she got from a group NSU2.O, she was one of the co-plaintiff representatives in the NSU trial.

Here avenged the German well-known policy, which always understood only the left as an enemy and who always regarded the rights with benevolent gaze. While the KPD was banned and the Radikaleerlass suffered much under the Willy Brandt government in 1972, many left-leaning careers were destroyed – in line with the motto “Left out and Nazis in” – the Republicans and the NPD were not banned , (5) (6)

What we do not need are walls and politicians on the leash of secretly governing Lobbyists

Like the left, Islam has a hard time in Germany. As in the Western media against Muslims, Turkey and Islam stir up the prejudices, the Islamophobia in the population has been scarily promoted. Only in this way could right-wing populism and the AfD increase in this way. The demonization of Iran and Islam by Hamas, Hezbollah at the instigation of the US and the Israel lobby has taken on alarming proportions with slogans such as “Iranian Holocaust”, “backwardness, misogyny and honor killings in Islam, Muslim anti-Semitism, the Koran as a dangerous book: Sure for surah “, to list only a few Hetzbeispiele.

Is not there an increasing instrumentalization of religions in the “Jewish state” and in Christian evangelicals, who act as great “friends of the Jews”? Why then point to Islam and defame it? Through this dangerous development, Western society has become complicit in ever-increasing Islam hatred. (7)

What we need is a tolerant and open society that lives together free of ideologies in a multicultural Germany and Europe without prejudice. That is possible and will soon be desired. In fact, we need about 400,000 workers in Germany who can dignify and grow old with dignity and alms. But what we do not need are walls and self-serving politicians who do not think about the country and us citizens, but only to the lobbyists, the secret rulers.

The problem is the brown spirits and xenophobia

What we do not need at all is a constant armament increase and an increase in the defense budget. Equally, there must be an end to Russia’s and Turkey’s hostile foreign policy. No war missions and interference in foreign conflicts. We do not need a raison d’être for the “Jewish state” and support for its anti-settlements policy of settlement and expulsion.

Not the anti-Semitism and its definition – with more than questionable conclusions – are the problem, but it is the brown spirits and xenophobia. False philosemitic Israeli friends saw the foundations of democracy. Freedom of expression also applies to BDS supporters and critics of Israel and is a high good worth defending. It is worth arguing for that. (8) (9)

We do not need brown philo-Semitic spirits that undermine freedom of expression and fuel xenophobia!

footnotes:

 

(1) https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/israel-und-europas-rechtspopulisten-verbuende-gegen-islam-und-islamismus/23938578.html

(2) https://www.br.de/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/analyse-sind-afd-politiker-geistige-brandstifter,ReyGTZT

(3) https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fluechtlinge-zentralrat-der-juden-fordern-obergrenze-a-1064054.html

(4) https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/afd-nahe-patriotische-plattform-will-aufloesen-15799687.html

(5) https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/historiker-kritisiert-das-kpd-verbot-des-bundesverfassungsgerichts-a-1172072.html

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

(7) https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2016-12/islam-verstaendnis-medien-berichterstattung-populismus-gefahr

(8) https://taz.de/Debatte-about-the-BDS-Bewegung/!5631712/

(9) https://taz.de/Experte-ueber-Antisemitismusdefinitions/!5635028/

 

Originally posted AT

 

PALESTINOPHOBIA … THE LATEST FROM JARED KUSHNER

Judging by the way he has been ranting about brown, native Palestinians, he must have had similar views of the likes of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Obviously his role models are Hendrik Verwoerd, P. W. Botha, Ariel Sharon, Menachem Begin—to mention but a few fanatical defenders of racism and settler-colonialism. 

On Jared Kushner’s Palestinophobia

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s Middle East adviser and son-in-law is at it again. In June, he cast doubt about the ability of the Palestinian people to govern themselves. And, as if that was not enough, he made it absolutely clear this week that Israel is not responsible for Palestinian hardship.

“Israel is not the cause of all the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Kushner told the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. He went on: “If you want to go and invest in the West Bank or Gaza, the issue that’s holding you back is the fear of terrorism and that your investment could be destroyed.”

In my response to his previous racist remarks, I argued that it was racism 101. His biologist approach to race and ethnicity cannot be separated from the orientalist ideology that drove the classical colonialism of the 19th century. Here you have a colonial envoy, not unlike the British and French envoys of the heydays of colonialism, blaming the victims, as Edward Said would put it. Brown, native Palestinians are backward so much so that they should be appreciative of the generosity of apartheid Israel and Zionism and welcome Israeli peaceful soldiers with open arms. Any act of resistance on their side is deemed to failure and amounts to a form of terrorism that destroys any investment made by foreign businesses.

Forget about Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, forget about the more than 600 military checkpoints slicing what remains of the West Bank, and the more than 60 discriminatory laws against Israel’s Palestinian citizens. Forget about the blockade of Gaza described as “incremental genocide” by Ilan Pappe, and the fact that Gaza, according to a UN report, will become “unlivable” by 2020. Forget about the thousands of deaths in three genocidal wars described by mainstream human rights organizations and UN fact-finding missions as “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” carried out by the Israeli military against the 2 million civilians of Gaza within a period of six years. Forget about 71 years of dispossession and ethnic cleansing and the fact that there are 7 million Palestinian refugees entitled to their right of return in accordance with UN resolution 194. And of course you have to forget about the increasing number of Jewish-only settlements, that all come with the unconditional support of the United States of America.

But doesn’t Mr. Kushner know this?

What did he think of the white rule of South Africa under the apartheid regime? Did he also think that “black terrorism” was responsible for the suffering of the majority of the population there? That Africans were to blame for their own suffering?

But you don’t even have to leave the United States. What did he think of the suffering of African Americans under the Jim Crow laws? Judging by the way he has been ranting about brown, native Palestinians, he must have had similar views of the likes of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Obviously his role models are Hendrik Verwoerd, P. W. Botha, Ariel Sharon, Menachem Begin—to mention but a few fanatical defenders of racism and settler-colonialism.

Actually, I imagine Mr. Kushner claims to respect Mandela, King, and even Mahatma Gandhi. And that leaves us Palestinians in a completely separate category where our non-violent, peaceful resistance to occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism is considered a form of terrorism. Any act of defiance on our part is rejected outright. Unlike Mandela and King, we are Palestinian Arabs with an intrinsic tendency for terrorism. And this, in short, exemplifies Jared Kushner’s Palestinophobia, a combination of racism, orientalism, and colonialism directed toward Palestinians who, for him, should not have been there from the beginning.

LOVE IN JERUSALEM CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Israeli occupation forces brutally beating number of Palestinians in Al wad road in the old city of Jerusalem