TAKING A KNEE FOR FREEDOM

June 10, 2020 at 13:40 (Activism, Racism, Sports)

Take the knee to show Donald Trump and the world that you will not be divided. Take the knee as a way to say once and for all that black lives do in fact matter

It’s Time for White NFL Players to Take the Knee

It’s an unmistakable gesture, one that would show that the recent anti-racist statements by white NFL players are not just talk.

By Dave Zirin

The NFL season, come pandemic or revolution, will almost certainly begin this fall—and it is going to be “put up or shut up” time for the league’s white players. Here’s the reality: Many black players will be taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence and racial inequity. After a remarkable video made by black NFL playerscondemning the league’s tepid support for the Black Lives Matter protests, Roger Goodell said in a video statement, among other things, “We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.”

Whether Goodell made this speech to head off a players’ revolt in a league that is 70 percent black or for some other reason is an interesting query. But whatever you make of Goodell’s sincerity, there is no mistaking his intention: to admit that there should be no punitive or even rhetorical action condemning players for taking that knee in the future. Even if you are as put off as I am with Goodell’s inability to admit that Colin Kaepernick was forced out of the league and denied the ability to earn a living because of his protest, the line the NFL commissioner is drawing is clear: No longer will he cower behind the shield, caring more about Donald Trump’s Twitter finger than the demands of the league’s players to dissent.

Sure enough, Trump—always seeking an opportunity to use the NFL as his own personal racist and nationalistic football—put out a tweet saying:

Could it be even remotely possible that in Roger Goodell’s rather interesting statement of peace and reconciliation, he was intimating that it would now be O.K. for the players to KNEEL, or not to stand, for the National Anthem, thereby disrespecting our Country & our Flag?

The answer is that Goodell was more than intimating. He was giving Trump a tentative, quivering middle finger, yet a middle finger nonetheless. Now, pardon the sports mixed metaphor, the ball is in the player’s court. To put a finer point on it, it is in the white players’ court.

In 2016 and ’17 many white players made clear that they did not believe people should “disrespect the flag” during the anthem, as if that is what Kaepernick was doing. Only after Trump called the protesting players “sons of bitches” who should be kicked out of the sport did we see white players kneel, and that was done with the approval of ownership. It was staged, and it had far more to do with standing up to Trump than solidarity with black lives taken by police violence or allyship with their black teammates.

This is a far different moment. White players like Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz have made eloquent statements in support of their black teammates while recognizing their own privilege. Other white NFL players have made their own statements of solidarity. The Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars teams and coaches even marched in the protests. But the proof of the pudding is going to be whether their knees hit the ground the first time that anthem plays. No hands on shoulders, no linked arms, no raised fists, but actually taking the weight and scrutiny off their black teammates by taking a knee.

As Full Dissidence author Howard Bryant said to me, “The kneeling gesture is the spot where America comes apart, where all the post-9/11 pro-police messaging and militarism at sporting events collides with the reality of the cops and military. In no other element of our culture is there such a clear and defiant single gesture like taking a knee. Where else are we allowed the space to say we disagree with our police? Where else can we register with one gesture, dissent with the alleged ideals of this country? America is getting called out with this one gesture and they are determined to punish anyone using it.”

Take the knee, white players. That will show that this is more than just performative anti-racism, more than just tweets and Instagram statements, more than just fear of alienating your teammates. It’s time to show true allyship and demonstrate in practice that all the rhetoric about a football team’s being family isn’t bullshit. Take the knee to show Donald Trump and the world that you will not be divided. Take the knee as a way to say once and for all that black lives do in fact matter.

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MY TWO CENTS!

June 7, 2020 at 12:09 (Associate Post, Collective Punishment, Racism)

African-Americans in the US as well as the Palestinians in their country suffer from racism, exclusion and oppression.

A mural of George Floyd in the besieged Gaza Strip

I’m butting in!

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

After reading the “Foreign Feathers” in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung with the title “Get involved” by Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the fight against anti-Semitism, I knew that I was on the right side stand and will interfere.

Unnecessary and most abused office

In the meantime, countless excellent publications have grappled with and dismantled Klein, leaving little of this superfluous and most abused office in this republic. One of the most appropriate and best formulations seemed to me that of the chief correspondent of the DLR in the Berlin capital office, Stephan Detjen, who titled Klein as “Discursive Barrier Guard”.

What Klein does to freedom of expression exceeds everything that Germany and the German constitution stand for. Klein probably thinks that in the current corona pandemic, alleged conspiracy theories have to be used to swing around and lump everything together, the persecution of Jews in times of plague and in the Middle Ages, the “Holocaust deniers”, anti-vaccinations, right-wing extremists and Mossad to pick out just a few examples of his indictment. What does Klein want to tell us? That anti-Semitism has now become so powerful in Germany that its office is justified? When he proves exactly the opposite.

Small spread the dangerous virus of racism

In fact, right-wing extremism has become a massive problem for decades, with little attention paid to German politics and right-wing extremist murder of the government president Walter Lübcke from Kassel. What did Klein do about it? Where was he when it was only by luck that the massacre in the synagogue in Halle did not happen? Wouldn’t it have been his job to ensure that synagogues like those in Halle were protected? If he is responsible for “Jewish life”, one should ask how is Jewish life to be reconciled with an office that has much more to do with defending the “Jewish state” and its criminal occupation policy and doing nothing shrinks to defame criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, BDS supporters and Hezbollah sympathizers, and as last happened, the philosopher, historian Achille Mbembe, wanted to “ban him” and used his government office to remove this recognized scientist from any discourse, according to the Israel lobby. One wonders, why was this completely unnecessary office created?To finally nip any legitimate criticism and opposition to the “Jewish state” forever? In fact, that seems to be his main concern, because with his “hate postings” he does exactly the opposite. There will be more and more resistance against him and his office. Unfortunately, you have to repeat it all the time: Klein scatters the dangerous virus of racism when he unconditionally supports one of the most racist countries in the world. It not only supports racism and colonialism, but also promotes the pandemic of hatred. Although he invokes cohesion in times of crisis, he does exactly the opposite with these accusations, slanders and attacks against freedom of expression. Why is he not concerned with the dangerous phenomenon that the “Jewish state” in particular is not so unconditionally supported by extreme right-wing politicians and parties like the AfD?

“The good” Jews are sent to “philosemic quarantine”

African-Americans in the US as well as the Palestinians in their country suffer from racism, exclusion and oppression. Where’s Klein’s empathy for these unsustainable conditions in Palestine and the United States? This is one more reason that Klein and his office are so unnecessary and have long since been abolished. We need, and that is not to be repeated often enough, finally we need a racism officer who does exactly what Klein fails to do: turn against everyday racism in Germany and the “Jewish occupying state”. Only then will Jewish life finally become normal. But does Klein want “normality” at all? When “the good” Jews are repeatedly sent into a “philosemic quarantine” with a matter of course that creates precisely the prejudices that mean exclusion. If the “Jewish state” incites the Palestinians, that is to be condemned most sharply, but it seems to me that Klein wants to cover up this topic by distracting from it. A more than pitiful attempt that has now turned out to be an own goal. After the attacks on Mbembe, more and more intellectuals and scientists are calling for Klein’s resignation as a symbol of the state representative of a prescribed attack on democratic rules. When it comes to “criticism of Israel”, we have to remain silent and not to interfere. After the attacks on Mbembe, more and more intellectuals and scientists are calling for Klein’s resignation as a symbol of the state representative of a prescribed attack on democratic rules. When it comes to “criticism of Israel”, we have to remain silent and not to interfere. After the attacks on Mbembe, more and more intellectuals and scientists are calling for Klein’s resignation as a symbol of the state representative of a prescribed attack on democratic rules. When it comes to “criticism of Israel”, we have to remain silent and not to interfere.

Stirrups of the Israel lobby

We are accustomed to the fact that the FAZ is once again acting as a stirrup holder in the Israel lobby with these “foreign feathers”. Every now and then an alibi article, that must be enough. In fact, it’s enough for me. As a critical “meddler”, I’m tired of being informed by various media only as I please. It is the duty of the relevant media to inform us, the consumers, about critical issues in the “Jewish state” and in illegally occupied Palestine. If Jewish and Israeli intellectuals use solidarity addresses to ensure that the fight against anti-Semitism is not achieved by depriving freedom of speech and silence on criticism of Israel, then that is an important concern. Where were the FAZ and other media to publish these calls and open letters?Aren’t these Jewish intellectuals as important as former political officials with their published calls? Isn’t that part of the “new” anti-Semitism that is still being promoted by the Federal Government’s Anti-Semitism Officer?

Redirecting diversions to specifically target Muslim offenders

Yes, Mr. Klein “everyone” counts in this fight for freedom of expression and against the virus of philosemitism, which should publicly criticize Zionist-Jewish occupation crimes. I have also noticed several times how they never “forget” to point out “anti-Semitic crimes by Arab-born perpetrators” and question their share in politically motivated crime, official statistics. It seems to me to be a diversion, how they want to draw attention to specifically Muslim perpetrators. Is that the task of an anti-Semitism officer? (1)

Icon of the “Israel Lobby”

In the same issue of FAZ, Lea Rosh, the “Chair of the Support Group for Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Germany”, was able to work for Felix Klein with an article “He is our guardian and he has to stay”. This Lea Rosh, who tries with all her might to act as “Jewish as possible” as a non-Jew, was already getting on my father’s nerves with his penetrative advocacy for the construction of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin because of him it put it, “of her totally psychopathic nature”. Especially since my father pleaded for it at the time and only wanted to agree to the construction if this memorial was to be built not only “for the European Jews” but for all groups of victims, which thanks to Lea Rosh did not come about. Ms. Rosh also has the “chutzpah”, To view the “clashes” between Israelis and Palestinians and the annexation plans of the Israeli government as critical, and wants to work to “contain” anti-Semitism as well as to relax Israeli-Palestinian relations. Ms. Rosh seems to me to be more than unsuitable for this, as she is at the forefront of one of the icons of the Israel lobby, who consistently support the “Jewish state” with vehemence. It is rather doubtful that she has ever dealt with the Palestinian or colonial suffering of the Arab or African countries, as she writes. and wants to work to “contain” anti-Semitism as well as to relax Israeli-Palestinian relations. Ms. Rosh seems to me to be more than unsuitable for this, as she is at the forefront of one of the icons of the Israel lobby, who consistently support the “Jewish state” with vehemence. It is rather doubtful that she has ever dealt with the Palestinian or colonial suffering of the Arab or African countries, as she writes. and wants to work to “contain” anti-Semitism as well as to relax Israeli-Palestinian relations. Ms. Rosh seems to me to be more than unsuitable for this, as she is at the forefront of one of the icons of the Israel lobby, who consistently support the “Jewish state” with vehemence. It is rather doubtful that she has ever dealt with the Palestinian or colonial suffering of the Arab or African countries, as she writes.

What all these protagonists lack is a look at the sad reality of racism. The injustices suffered by both African-Americans and Palestinians are unprecedented. Two brutal events last week are exemplary of this: in Minneapolis, an African-American citizen was killed by a white U.S. police officer, and at almost the same time, an unarmed, autistic young Palestinian near the old city in occupied East Jerusalem became a coward murdered by a Jewish occupation policeman. This racist brutality is stunned and should encourage all of us to “interfere” in the struggle for justice and freedom in Palestine.

When, if not now, is the right time for the BDS movement (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and the “Black Lives Matter” movement to jointly unmask the lying democracies and the ugly face that is actually hidden behind it, to expose. The importance and resilience of these two important movements, given the obvious dehumanization, is an incentive to oppose and interfere.

Power-preserving election propaganda

For more than seventy years, the Palestinians have suffered from the Jewish Zionist occupation, settler colonialism and the apartheid regime.The situation for the black Americans is almost identical, they have been and are being discriminated against, and they have been denied their constitutional right to protest against these brutal conditions. This extraordinary racism has always been present in US society and has been accepted more or less as a “normal state”. But as long as there is no broad movement that also campaigns for a reform of the police and weapons system and improves the social divide and the education system for all population groups, nothing will ever change. Certainly not with this president, who is trampling on the constitution,

Both states, the Jewish and the United States, are unwilling to tolerate peaceful protests themselves. I still remember Jewish racism in the USA too well when my Jewish host parents, concentration camp and Holocaust survivors, prohibited me from bringing a black classmate from my college home, which made me stunned and so angry that afterwards our relationship was destroyed forever. I also had experience with everyday racism in Israel shortly after 1967, coupled with arrogance, which led me to avoid this “Jewish state”.

Unwanted people in the White House

I also remember all too well the occasional solidarity of many Muslim athletes and soccer players during the “Gaza attack” genocide, which the DFB immediately banned with the threat of punitive measures. In the meantime, the times under the new DFB boss Keller seem to have changed. For me it was a déjà – vu,when there were expressions of solidarity and protests such as kneeling down against the murder of George Floyd, referring to the year 2016 when Colin Kaepernick showed the way with his knee as a symbol against racism. The entire Liverpool team under Jürgen Klopp also followed this peaceful and impressive protest. US President Trump acknowledged these protests by declaring Kaepernick an “unwanted” person, and he, the president who promoted splitting and racism, has now become a symbol of destruction. It is hoped that he, like his son-in-law Kushner, the string puller in the background, will soon become unwanted people in the White House and be punished by the voters. (2) (3)

Demonization as anti-Semites and terrorists

Thanks to courageous athletes like Kaepernick, kneeling has become a preferred means of protest in the fight to support racism everywhere, just not yet in the “Jewish state”, where Palestinians and supporters of the BDS movement are demonized as “terrorists” and “anti-Semites” . We also experience this demonization in Germany, the effects of which have serious consequences for people and organizations.

“Take your knees out of your neck”

In the past six years, more than 7,000 people with a disproportionate number of African-American citizens have been killed by US police officers, according to the US media. Black Americans are two and a half times more likely to be killed than whites. Fortunately, the brutal murder of George Floyd, as well as that of Eric Garner in 2014, was filmed. Floyd’s last desperate cry, “I can’t breathe,” has also become the battle cry of demonstrators worldwide against brutality, racism, helplessness, and injustice. It was poignant to hear the speech in Minneapolis of the well-known civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who denounced the centuries-old oppression of blacks in the USA and said, “Whites have always pressed her knees on our necks, it’s time that we get up in George’s name and say, “Take your knees off our necks.” After this impressive speech, the ceremony participants paused for exactly eight minutes and 46 seconds – that was how long the white policeman Derek Chauvin had pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck. (4) (5)

In contrast, the “Jewish state” murdered and wounded hundreds of thousands of unarmed and helpless Palestinians. We still have fresh memories of the terrible images of the “March of Return” at the illegal border to the Gaza concentration camp in 2018. In the illegally occupied West Bank and in the inhuman sealing off of Gaza, Palestinians are murdered or injured almost daily by Zionist occupation forces. They are at the mercy of the criminal arbitrariness of Jewish settlers who not only rob their land with the help of the Israeli occupying army IDF, but also defend it with murderous violence. Others are deported or their houses are demolished. With kinship and collective punishments, such as raids and curfews, they are kept away from Haram al-Sharif, depending on the occasion.

Black Live Matters and the BDS movement showed solidarity

These crimes of the Zionist occupation forces and the Jewish settlers, like the crimes of the US police, are only possible through the silence of the international community. Another reason to get involved when these fundamental rights are violently violated. So it is to be welcomed that the BDS movement has announced a statement with unwavering solidarity and support for the “Black Lives Matter” protests. The “Black Lives Matter” movement was already exemplary in 2016 when it accused the “Jewish state” of “genocide” of the Palestinians and also solidarized with the BDS movement and an end to US support for the apartheid occupation state demanded. This statement was written by more than 50 organizations and formed the vision of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. This vision should finally be followed by our government, which is committed to democracy and human rights, and to the repeatedly praised “values”. However, this cannot be assumed. Talking about it full-bodied is cheap – acting according to the “values” is the order of the day! (6)

Just as South Africa overcame apartheid and the racist system, all political movements should fight against Zionist racism, illegal occupation and brutal US oppression of black citizens. “Black Lives Matter” and the Palestinian Freedom Movements are a powerful force that we must all support together.

We get involved!

 

Footnotes

(1) https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/verfassungsschutz-judenhass-islamisten-akte-1.4925890

(2) https://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/bundesliga-protest-thuram-floyd-1.4923967

(2) https://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/nfl-protest-rassismus-kaepernick-1.4924932

(3) https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2020/05/mapping-police-killings-black-americans-200531105741757.html

(4) https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/palestinians-offer-solidarity-with-black-america-s-struggle-for-justice-36884

(5) https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/george-floyd-buergerrechtler-al-sharpton-haelt-emotionale-trauerrede-in-minneapolis-a-622a483e-7be0-4f59-a99b-85d4b60b2cad

(6) https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/palestinians-offer-solidarity-with-black-america-s-struggle-for-justice-36884

 

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THE VIRUS OF RACISM IS SPREADING

March 11, 2020 at 13:20 (Associate Post, Corrupt Politics, DesertPeace Exclusive, Racism)

Racism virus: an epidemic that is spreading ever faster

Image result for virus of racism

The virus conspiracy

by Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

Since the corona virus infected thousands of people worldwide, it has rightly been in turmoil. However, we should watch carefully what dramatic political consequences this can have for us. Germany has long since become one of the most powerful arms suppliers and is now in fourth place behind the USA, Russia and France, delivering the weapons that the refugees are creating, which are now to be displaced again at the EU’s external borders and repelled militarily . However, the “Christian values” of the EU and the Merkel government, which it now wants to demonstrate by taking in around 1,500 children from Greek camps, do not apply to the misery of Yemeni or Gaza children, which remains unheeded. This hypocrisy affects and should put us all on the barricades. No, we don’t want NATO membership and war maneuvers that only serve to deter our Russian neighbors. No more drone shooting by Ramstein and the storage of nuclear weapons on German soil, as well as cooperation and training with other armies such as the supposedly “most moral” of all “Jewish occupying armies”! (1)

Prime examples of the double standard

Erdogan and Putin will once again be punished as scapegoats, while the “arms profiteers” Saudi Arabia and the “Jewish state” will go unpunished and will be spared the threat of sanctions. They are prime examples of the double standard with which Zionists and Gulf states are treated. Here we see how the power of the United States and the Israel lobby affects. A distinction is made between the “useful” and hostile states for the West.

What would the left, the greens and the right do in particular if there were not the “enemy images” of Erdogan and Putin? It is not Turkey and Erdogan that are to blame for the refugee misery that we are experiencing again, but it is the entire western “community of values ​​that is basking in its hypocrisy. With false and unfulfilled promises, such as EU membership, visa-free travel, and much more, Turkey was lured and left alone, while the Greeks were “rewarded” for their false promises, arms purchases, and US affiliation as an EU member. When Merkel signed the refugee agreement with Erdogan – after going it alone in 2015 and its aftermath – she was glad that she had one problem less. What Turkey did with the effort to take in about 4 million Syrian refugees is admirable and deserves our recognition. It has to be remembered time and again that it was also Turkey that sheltered Jews and the persecuted after fleeing Nazi Germany. Certain political groups are already trying to portray the attempted coup against Erdogan as propaganda, which is an infamous infamity and was probably put into circulation by the same groups that granted asylum to Gülen and his followers. (2) who granted asylum to Gülen and his followers. (2) who granted asylum to Gülen and his followers. (2)

We should always remember this fact, as well as the suffering we inflicted on Russia and the other Soviet peoples in World War II with more than 27 million victims of war. Especially since Germany, in its eternal traumatization, never frees itself from the completely uncritical support of the “Jewish state” due to the crimes of the Holocaust. While one overlooks everything that Jewish perpetrators of the most brutal post-war occupation regime do against the Palestinian people, and for decades before ethnic cleansing, violations of international and human rights, expropriation and disenfranchisement, eyes are being closed to Russia and Turkey other standards.

Racism virus: an epidemic that is spreading ever faster

Russia is being sanctioned and constantly threatened because of the Crimea’s accession to the Russian Federation through a referendum – propagandistically called “annexation of Crimea”. Turkey is constantly accused of undemocratic behavior, which seems to be more than a lie in view of the behavior towards the “only” democracy in the Middle East, the “Jewish apartheid state”. This occupation regime is as little a democracy as India, which regards itself as the “largest” democracy in the world. Both countries have unrestrained racism against Muslims. While the Hindus, like the Jews, see themselves as “chosen” and feel like the “rightful” rulers of their country, Muslims / Palestinians are persecuted as intruders. We also experience the same phenomenon in China, where the Muslim Uighurs, and in Myanmar, where it hits the Rohingyas. This racism virus, like the corona virus, is an increasingly rapid epidemic.

The isolation and state of emergency in the occupied Palestinian Territories once again unite the Palestinian collaborator, President Mahmoud Abbas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is charged with corruption. (3) (4)

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the Zionist occupation regime and the Palestinian Authority are working together to fight and seal off. In fact, they share a political interest in an actionism to distract from their own problems. So in the first place it is not about containing a danger, but about your own interests.

United in the nirvana of the farce of peace negotiations

While the “Jewish state” immediately sealed itself off, restricted flights to and from abroad in which the corona virus was widespread and recommended hygienic measures, there was no order to close Israeli universities, schools and kindergartens.

Abbas, to whom the virus fit his political stuff, is quite different. So it seemed useful to curb the strike by Palestinian doctors in the occupied West Bank. Right from the start, he had described this strike as “detestable” and once again put himself on the political sidelines. When he called for an end, he had received criticism from his own officials, such as Husum Khader, one of the Nablus MPs, who had accused Abbas of “ill-treatment of doctors” and his inability to hold the presidency, which had struck a nerve and the support of the Palestinians received in and around Nablus. And the President’s answer? He had him brutally thrown into jail! (5)

We are already seeing how Fatah representatives meet again with Zionist occupiers and continue negotiations where they have been so often, namely in the nirvana of the farce of peace negotiations, in view of the fact that the occupiers have just announced the construction of thousands of new settlements and the construction of new apartheid streets for Jewish settlers. Everything points to an eternal Judaization of Palestine, in which a Palestinian authority and its representatives themselves play a major role, at the expense of the Palestinian people. (6)

What a waste of resources!

Just as Netanyahu leaves no stone unturned to secure his power by all means, Abbas has used every opportunity to rule without regard to the people living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. Without the collaboration with the “Jewish occupying state” he would never have succeeded.

So it is only astonishing to see that conferences are still being planned in Germany that are still the “two-state solution” – despite a decidedly Israeli refusal! – have on the subject and discuss alternatives and perspectives that will never happen. What a waste of resources!

As long as German Muslims, Germans with a migrant background and migrants in Germany do not feel recognized and do not feel equal and have to live with the fear of being targeted by right-wing extremists and haters of foreigners, we not only have the Corona virus, but also the virus of racism, against which there is unfortunately no vaccination. That is why Muslims and mosques must receive the same protection as Jews and synagogues. And finally there must be a racism officer instead of an anti-Semitism officer!

There is still a lot to do in the fight against viruses!

As long as the vulnerable themselves have to point out that they are German and want to belong like any other German, as long as the NSU files are not released, as long as the implications of the protection of the constitution are not completely cleared up and the indifference of the majority society affects these citizens twice as long the AfD and certain politicians are voting for racism and populism, as long as there is still a lot to do in the fight against viruses. (7)

Footnotes

(1) https://www.aufschrei-waffenhandel.de/daten-fakten/informationen/

(2) https://www.trtdeutsch.com/meinung/die-turkei-ist-wichtig-fur-deutschland-131589

(3) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200306-corrupt-israel-has-re-elected-a-prime-minister-charged-with-corruption/

(4) https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/internationale-politik/id_87486260/israel-netanjahu-beanierter-verschieb-von-prozessbeginn-.html

(5) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200309-abbas-has-enlisted-the-coronavirus-in-the-battle-against-his-political-opponents/

(6) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200309-the-pa-is-provoking-the-palestinians-with-its-israel-normalisation-meetings/

(7) https://taz.de/Muslime-in-Angst/!5665892/

 

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A BRILLIANT MOVIE NOT TO BE MISSED

July 15, 2019 at 13:58 (Cinema, DesertPeace Exclusive, Racism)

Last night I watched a brilliant movie that must be seen by all of you ….. BLACKkKLANSMAN
It is timely, it is funny but worse of all, it’s true.
So download it, rent it, buy it but DO watch it. You won’t regret it.
Here’s the trailer …

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AFTER YOU READ THIS YOU WILL HAVE NO DOUBTS THAT ZIONISM IS RACISM

May 1, 2019 at 16:58 (Israel, Racism, zionist Slander)

“Yes, we’re racists. We believe in racism… There are races in the world and peoples have genetic traits, and that requires us to try to help them,” he said. “The Jews are a more successful race.”

Embracing racism, rabbis at pre-army yeshiva laud Hitler, urge enslaving Arabs

Recordings show instructors at settlement academy openly promoting Jewish supremacy; principal says Arabs want to live under Israeli occupation due to their genetic inferiority

By TAMAR PILEGGI

Two rabbis at a pre-military religious academy in a West Bank settlement were recorded making derogatory and racist comments about Arabs, defending Adolf Hitler’s worldview, and openly promoting Jewish supremacy.

In a series of undated recordings published by Channel 13 news on Monday, Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel, the head of the Bnei David academy in Eli, can be heard calling for the enslavement of the “stupid and violent” non-Jews due to their genetic inferiority.

“All around us, we are surrounded by peoples with genetic problems. Ask a simple Arab ‘where do you want to be?’ He wants to be under the occupation. Why? Because they have genetic problems, they don’t know how to run a country, they don’t know how to do anything. Look at them.”

In the lecture, Kashtiel goes on to embrace racism against non-Jews.

“Yes, we’re racists. We believe in racism… There are races in the world and peoples have genetic traits, and that requires us to try to help them,” he said. “The Jews are a more successful race.”

In another clip from the Bnei David Yeshiva published by Channel 13, Rabbi Giora Redler can be heard praising Hilter’s ideology during a lesson about the Holocaust.

“Let’s just start with whether Hitler was right or not,” he told students. “He was the most correct person there ever was, and was correct in every word he said… he was just on the wrong side.”

Redler goes on to say that pluralism is the “real” genocide being perpetrated against the Jewish people, not Nazi Germany’s Final Solution.

“The real Holocaust was not when they murdered the Jews, that’s not it. All these excuses — that it was ideological or systematic — are nonsense,” he said. “Humanism, and the secular culture of ‘We believe in man,’ that’s the Holocaust.”

The comments drew wide condemnation from opposition lawmakers who called for pulling all state funding to the Eli-based academy over Kashtiel’s and Redler’s remarks.

“This is not Judaism, and these are not our values,” Blue and White MK Yair Lapid said in a statement. “People who talk this way are not worthy of calling themselves rabbis… the state needs to stop funding this program until the racist rabbis are removed.”

More photos at the SOURCE

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TIME ONCE AGAIN TO CLEANSE THE LAND OF BREAD AND ARABS

April 11, 2019 at 12:49 (Collective Punishment, DesertPeace Editorial, Flashback.... from the archives, Holidays, Racism)

… Most significant considering the election results …
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Jewish mothers used to go into a cleaning frenzie a week or so before the Festival of Passover. All traces of leaven (chametz) had to be removed from the home before the onset of the holiday.
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Modern folk have determined that dust is not chametz, so there is less madness involved in the cleaning process, but Israel has added a new dimension to the situation; Arabs must be removed as well as the leaven.
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IMG_1880
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Following this report dealing with the realities of Apartheid you will find a post from the archives that I reblog every Passover eve…
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Just  one of many attempts to cleanse the land of Arabs ….
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Here is how Palestinians ‘celebrate’ the holiday … it’s Bibi’s Two State Solution, with one behind locked gates.
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                                                      (Click on link)

West Bank closure goes into effect for Passover 

These 'enemies' must be locked out!

These ‘enemies’ must be locked out!

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CLEANSING THE LAND OF BREAD AND ARABS

My maternal grandmother was a simple Shtetel Jew. She came from a place not much different than the small town portrayed in Fiddler on The Roof.
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Traditionally the womenfolk from those areas were uneducated in matters of anything other than home making and child raising, while the menfolk studied their Holy Books for hours on end. Life was simple for them, and they themselves were basically a very simple folk.
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I remember my grandmother going through the frenzie of cleaning the house this time of year…. the traditional Passover cleaning. All traces of leaven had to be removed from the home before the start of the Holiday. To her, that process included the removal of any trace of dust or smears on the window panes. The house sparkled when she was finished. Most of our non Jewish neighbours were going through the same process, but simply called it ’spring cleaning’, ridding the house of all unwanted matter, including broken furniture and junk.
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I remember asking my grandmother why she was going through such a frenzie…. her answer was simple and to the point…. “If a Jew eats bread during Passover he will die!” That was what she was taught, that’s what she taught us….
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In Israel today, things are not much different than life in the Shtetel when it comes to Passover preparations. But today there is a growing number of non observant Jews as well as a growing number of non Jews. This is a threat to the lifestyle of the self imposed Shtetel Jew living here today.
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Christian Pilgrims from abroad, as well as local Christians are denied access to their Holy Sites. Where is the uproar against this?
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Where is the uproar against the Neanderthal rabbis that have recently called for the expulsion or the genocide of the Palestinians? WHERE??? As in previous years, the Palestinians living on the ‘other side’ of the great wall of apartheid will be sealed in for the duration of the Holiday (8 days), literally making the State of Israel Arabrein for that period of time. Where is the uproar against this? WHERE???
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Israel does need a cleansing… a good one; not only of bread during the Holiday season but also of hatred. Both are violations of the Holy Teachings.

2 Comments

WHEN APARTHEID IS NOT ENOUGH RACISM MUST BE INTENSIFIED

January 15, 2019 at 14:16 (Apartheid, Israel, Occupation, Palestine, Racism)

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

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

Nai Barghouti

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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ANOTHER RACIST MOVING TO ISRAEL

September 3, 2018 at 08:52 (Israel, Racism)

Roseanne Barr coming to Israel

Fresh off racism controversy, the comedian says she will move to Israel for a few months in order to study with a Rabbi.

Roseanne Barr

Watch this short video to see the rabbi in question’s own racism ….

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach tells crowd: Down with the Palestinians

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Fresh off a racism controversy that got her fired from hr award-winning television show, comedian Roseanne Barr says that she will travel to Israel in order to study with a Rabbi.

‘I have an opportunity to go to Israel for a few months and study with my favorite teachers over there, and that’s where I’m going to go and probably move somewhere there and study with my favorite teachers,’ Roseanne, 65, said on a recent podcast with celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

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55 YEARS OF DREAMING

August 28, 2018 at 15:54 (Activism, DesertPeace Exclusive, History, Racism)

WE HAD A BEAUTIFUL DREAM …

… BUT IT TURNED INTO AN UGLY NIGHTMARE

It was 55 years ago today that Martin Luther King delivered his famous ‘I Have A Dream Speech’ at the Great March on Washington for Peace and Freedom. 

I was there along with a quarter of a million fellow Americans. It was the most gratifying day of my life as I was on the organising committee for that March the entire summer. To witness such a success was most rewarding. To hear the words of the great Dr. King, spoken live, were most encouraging. The last paragraph of his speech is the part that has stayed with me every day of my life since then…

“And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

‘DEEP IN MY HEART, I DO BELIEVE, WE SHALL OVERCOME ONE DAY.’

(From Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Concert (Clearwater Concert), Madison Square Garden, 5/3/09. Featuring: Pete Seeger, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Toshi Reagon, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Billy Bragg, Keller Williams, Ani DiFranco, Ruby Dee, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, New York City Labor Choir.)

1 Comment

THERE IS NOTHING NEW ABOUT ROSEANNE’S RACISM

June 3, 2018 at 09:42 (Islamophobia, Just Plain Disgusting, Racism)

Many have pointed out, Barr has a long history of hateful speech about Palestinians and Muslims, and of describing supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) aimed at Israel as Nazis. And she did not suffer career-wise for those comments.

Roseanne Barr’s emoticons, by Katie Miranda.

Roseanne Barr talked trash about Palestinians and Muslims for years, without regrets

Mondoweiss Editors

Roseanne Barr lost her popular show on ABC two days ago after she tweeted a racist and Islamophobic comment about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett. The network’s response was fairly instant, and Barr launched into apology mode.

But as many have pointed out, Barr has a long history of hateful speech about Palestinians and Muslims, and of describing supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) aimed at Israel as Nazis. And she did not suffer career-wise for those comments.

This comment from Barr, about putting Palestinians in ovens, is particularly repugnant.

Barr was referring to a photo shoot in which she played Hitler, for Heeb magazine in 2009. Richard Silverstein capsulizes:

Roseanne volunteered for an inexplicably offensive photo shoot/article for Heeb Magazine titled, That Oven Feelin’, which featured her dressed as Adolf Hitler with moustache and Nazi armband. Pictures from the session show her eating burned “Jew cookies” fresh from the oven. Though both she and the magazine initially defended the tasteless stunt, the article no longer appears on the Heeb site.

She also called financier George Soros,a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, a Nazi collaborator.

Many leftwingers on twitter got angry tongue-lashings from Barr. Glenn Greenwald described the exception for hate speech against Arabs on Democracy Now!

I had a very vitriolic exchange, in fact several of them, with Roseanne, several years ago about Israel. She has become a very fanatical defender of Israel. And in the course of defending Israel, she often spewed some of the most grotesque and overt naked racism against Arabs and Palestinians that you’ll hear from any public figure this side of, say, David Duke. She deleted a lot of those tweets but I do remember them because some of the exchanges are still online, in which she was talking about Arabs and Palestinians being inferior, being prone to violence, deserving to be slaughtered and killed.

She had previously said similar things about Susan Rice that she said about Valerie Jarrett. So obviously her comments yesterday received a lot of attention because she now has a show and they were so grotesque—just viscerally grotesque and racist to any person with a conscience–that ABC had no choice. But it wasn’t like this was something new for Roseanne. This is stuff that she has been saying about lots of different groups, including African Americans, but especially Arabs and Palestinians, for a long time. It’s just that Arabs and Palestinians, racism towards them tends to be more acceptable.

Barr had an anti-Zionist phase. Silverstein on Barr’s previous statements about Israel:

In 2009, the Jerusalem Post quoted Barr as calling Israel a “Nazi state.” On Kathleen Wells’ radio show in 2011, she called Israel a “brutal and undemocratic theocracy…which has the world’s fourth largest army.” In the same interview, she decried the 2009 Israeli invasion, Operation Cast Lead, as “terrible crimes against humanity” that made her “weep and sweat at night.”…

She praised the courage of Rachel Corrie, who died defending Palestinian homes in Gaza,  and she hailed the Gaza flotilla that broke the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

Then Barr converted to right wing Zionism in 2013. She said Barack Obama was anti-Israel, attacked the Labor Zionist leader Isaac Herzog as a puppet of Obama, started calling supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Nazis. She also posted many Islamophobic comments, including a graphic likening Islam to Nazism. Silverstein:

Perhaps her most infamous and outrageous public statement came after the UC Davis student government voted to endorse BDS.  She posted to her social media account, “I hope all the jews leave UC Davis & it then it gets nuked.” After deleting that tweet, she followed with, “Nuke all UC Davis Jew-Haters.” She falsely accused Davis students supporting BDS of receiving “terror funding” from King Salman of Saudi Arabia.

Barr unleashed a stream of vitriol at students supporting BDS, in tweets that Ali Abunimah saved.

In 2014, she wrote:

“If israel doesn’t nuke iran, then nothing makes sense anymore,”

This spring when the actress Natalie Portman refused to attend a ceremony with the Israeli prime minister at which she was to receive the Genesis Prize, Barr called Portman a nincompoop and said she wanted to move to Israel herself and run for prime minister. She endorsed Zionism as rooted in Torah, and said that the presence of Jewish activists in the BDS movement “threatens our existence.”

“Jews who are against other Jews is always been our problem since the first story in Torah. So maybe this time we could do something about it. And change it. We need to love each other. Jews need to love each other.”

Ron Fox, a longtime peace activist in the Boston area, writes to us that he had unpleasant exchanges with Barr on line.

In late 2015 and early 2016, while tweeting about, as usual, the oppression and brutality of Israel’s occupation, I was suddenly faced with tweets that were vicious, insulting, hateful and racist from @therealroseanne.

For a short period  of time, I was unsure that this was actually Roseanne Barr but, for some reason, with a little research, I was convinced that it was she.

I apologize that I cannot recapture her actual tweets.

However, I did find tweets from some of the other trolls that joined her in basically overwhelming my tweet account for about 10 days.

The routine was that @therealroseanne would tweet something offensive and @EternallyJewish and/or @RisingRedStorm would then support her by Replying to @therealroseanne but directing their comments to @ronfox

It was unnerving, to say the least….What is disturbing is how many have been enablers of her during these many years she has been an extremist, a racist and a proponent of conspiracy theories.

3 Comments

ISRAELI RACISTS LAUD TRUMP

May 22, 2018 at 15:43 (Israel, Racism, Sports)

“I think it’s quite fitting for a racist soccer team to give homage to a man who encapsulates what Israel has embodied under the cover of liberalism, namely a self-righteous and violent goal of establishing a racial and religious supremacy. This is not just about his embassy move, this is about a shared—and destructive—vision for the world.”

Beitar soccer fans march in Jerusalem chanting racist slogans

Israel’s Most Racist Soccer Club Renames Itself After Donald Trump

If there were ever two entities that deserve each other, it’s Beitar Jerusalem and Donald Trump.

By Dave Zirin

Jerusalem’s most successful soccer team, Beitar Jerusalem, has announced—in celebration of the US embassy relocation to Jerusalem and assumedly in triumph following the massacre of 60 Palestinians in Gaza who were protesting the move—that they are now naming themselves after Donald Trump. In a message posted on their Facebook page, the soccer club wrote, “For 70 years has Jerusalem been awaiting international recognition, until President Donald Trump, in a courageous move, recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel.”

If there were ever two entities that deserve each other, it is Beitar Jerusalem and Donald Trump. Just as Trump has a 45-year documented past of racism, the latest chapter being his statement that undocumented immigrants are “animals” (no, he wasn’t just referring to MS-13), Beitar Jerusalem shares a similar history and similar rhetoric. They are known internationally less for their on-field success than their anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hiring practices and fan supporters who engage in racist violence.

It was in the 1990s when this club, whose supporters had always rooted themselves in the hard-right, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim politics of “revisionism,” formed ”hooligan” clubs modeled after the violent skinhead soccer fan formations in Western Europe. (Their admiration for groups that were openly sympathetic to Nazi tells a story all its own.)

It was also in the 1990s when the these “fan clubs” particularly the one most known for racist violence, called La Familia, adopted the slogan and chant, “Death to the Arabs.” Their abuse of Arabs and Muslims was not confined to players on other teams. The club signed black, Muslim Nigerian defender Ibrahim Ndala in 2004. As Samirian Mishra wrote on the Football in Paradise blog, Ndala “left the club after just five games because of the torrent of abuse he received from his own fans.”

Mishra quotes Ndala saying,

“I left Betar because the fans abused me…. It was a bitter experience for me. They sang to me ‘son of a bitch,’ ‘Arab, go home.’ In Nigeria, I did not experience this kind of behaviour in my life, and it happened to me only in Beitar, and from the country, I came from, the rivalry was neither political nor ethnic, and because I was a Muslim I could not play Beitar.”

When the team, in 2013, signed two Muslim players, Zaur Sadayev and Dzhabrail Kadiyev, their “fans” set fire to a team office and Sadayev was met with boos and fan walk-outs when he scored a goal. When a fan favorite, captain and goalkeeper Ariel Harush, put his arm around Sadayev and Kadiyev on the field, in a show of support, he became an object of scorn. When Harush spoke out against racism and posted messages of solidarity toward Sadayev and Kadiyev, he was threatened with violence. This continued for several years, and Harush was booed every time he touched the ball. Both Muslim players left after the end of the season. Harush eventually was driven from the team as well.

Fans also chanted anti-Arab chants at Naala, Sadayev, and Kadiyev, which was bizarre, since none were Arab and the club refuses to sign Arab players. This is why Newsweek wrote about the team with the sub-headline, “Jerusalem’s favorite football team has hiring policies reminiscent of Apartheid and Jim Crow.”

Then there was the infamous moment in March of 2012 when hundreds of Beitar “fans” rushed a West Jerusalem mall, chanting “Death to Arabs,” and assaulted the Palestinian custodians who were there to clean up their trash. Mohammed Yusef, one of the cleaners, called it “a mass lynching attempt.” The headline in Haaretz was, “Hundreds of Beitar Jerusalem fans beat up Arab workers in mall; no arrests.”

This is the team now named after the president of the United States of America. I reached out to human-rights attorney and assistant professor at George Mason University Noura Erakat for her response to the conjoining of Beitar Jerusalem and Donald Trump. She said,

“I think it’s quite fitting for a racist soccer team to give homage to a man who encapsulates what Israel has embodied under the cover of liberalism, namely a self-righteous and violent goal of establishing a racial and religious supremacy. This is not just about his embassy move, this is about a shared—and destructive—vision for the world.”

We have seen in other countries the ways that soccer-fan clubs can easily become shock troops of ethnic cleansing. This is Beitar Jerusalem, and they are getting further inspiration from the actions and rhetoric of the president of the United States. They deserve each other, but neither the Palestinian people nor the people of this country deserve either of them.

1 Comment

RACISM GONE VIRAL …. A MUST WATCH VIDEO

May 3, 2018 at 08:27 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Israel's Shame, Racism)

This actually happened in Israel this past week ….

Be sure to share this if you are outraged

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RELATED POST (click on link)

Photos of ‘migrants’ humiliated in Tel Aviv cause outrage

1 Comment

JOINT MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE ….. THIS IS WHAT WE SHALL REMEMBER

April 20, 2018 at 11:25 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Israel's Shame, Palestine, Racism)

This is what a Joint Memorial  Day Service turned into …. surely something we shall remember;

“Death to the Arabs, death to the Arabs!” were the screams of the far-right Israeli protesters.

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RABBINICAL RACISM CONDEMNED BY ADL

March 21, 2018 at 15:59 (Israel's Shame, Racism)

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

3 Comments

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

March 20, 2018 at 14:57 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Intolerance, Israel's Shame, Racism)

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?

 

4 Comments

MUST SEE VIDEO ~~ INDEX OF RACISM

March 7, 2018 at 09:03 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Israel, Palestine, Racism)

This index was developed by monitoring violent and inciting rhetoric according to a list of 100 keywords of expressions, names and personalities in Hebrew with the aim of measuring the level of violent rhetoric and hate speech at the hands of Israeli social media users. Interestingly, the results indicate that the level of Israeli violence on social media has decreased from 2016 but increased from 2015.

More HERE

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Despite it all, there IS hope!

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WHO WAS IT THAT SAID ZIONISM IS RACISM?

February 7, 2018 at 09:47 (Collective Punishment, Israel's Shame, Racism)

Whoever it was, they were RIGHT!

Israel kicks off deportation of African migrants

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Just where does zion get it’s ideas from?

1 Comment

TO SAY TRUMP IS NOT A RACIST IS LIKE SAYING A ROSE IS NOT A FLOWER

January 17, 2018 at 08:27 (Associate Post, Corrupt Politics, Racism)

A reader, apparently a Trump’s fan, has voiced consternation at my description of the American President as racist following his scandalous remarks about African countries and Haiti last week. See THIS post …

Mr. Trump: you are a cancer upon the conscience of Christ
By Khalid Amayreh
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“There are many things about Trump that I don’t like, but to call him a racist is stupid and dishonest,” wrote the reader.
 
Well, I would like to say to the esteemed reader that I am not particularly eager to call people, even those who disagree with me, bad names and epithets.  People might thoughtfully and sincerely hold different views, even sharply different, views, without being racist or bigoted.
 
In many countries, including the U.S, even voicing manifestly-racist speech is not illegal.    
 
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of speech and expression from government interference. However, constitutional protection of “hate or racist” speech expires once that kind of speech crosses the verbal sphere, the ultimate red line!
 As a Muslim, I am against giving legal protection for hate speech this is because words can kill and do kill.  Bloodshed, even genocide, originates in the verbal sphere.
 
As to Trump, I wouldn’t call him “racist” solely because of the S-hole gaffe, even though what he said seems to epitomize his entire mindset. It is very hard for me to give him the benefit of the doubt. There are actually prima facie evidence that would incriminate and criminalize Trump as well as virtually all American presidents I know.  
 
In fact, Trump is more than just racist. He is a murderer who carries on his hands the blood of so many innocent people from many parts of the world, including my own country.
 
Don’t raise your eye-brows in disbelief. When a person, let alone the President of a powerful country like the United States,  helps, enables, encourages or abets a murderer to murder an innocent victim, the helper, enabler or a bettor is treated as murderer or co-murderer, and rightly so.
 
True, apologetics might cite certain “extenuating” circumstances such as non-awareness to mitigate the gravity of he crime… But can any honest person under the sun argue that Trump is not aware  that innocent people, including hundreds of children, have been killed and are being killed as a direct result of his ignorant policies and ignorant decisions.
 
In Palestine, my country, Israel, the brazenly racist military  occupier Trump embraces “soul and heart,” trigger happy-Israeli soldiers have murdered and maimed hundreds of Palestinians since his  scandalously short-sighted decision to recognize Jerusalem as Capital of the apartheid state of Israel several weeks ago.
 
The same story of death and maiming is repeated, almost on a daily basis, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and other Muslim countries America is hell-bent on destroying under the false rubric of fighting terror.
 
Don’t tell me Trump could have done nothing to stop the rampant murder. He could have but he chose not to because the lives of Muslims, Christians and others who dare say “No” to America’s hegemony and imperialism apparently  have no sanctity and mean very little to him and his administration. Which prompts me to ask: what sort of a Christian is he and what sort of Bible and Ten Commandments does he follow?
 
Mr.  Trump: you are a cancer upon the conscience of Christ.
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3 Comments

MASS DEPORTATIONS OF AFRICAN REFUGEES FROM ISRAEL

December 17, 2017 at 13:41 (Africa, Collective Punishment, Deportations, Israel's Shame, Racism)

“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt”.

Image by Carlos Latuff

Israel passes ‘anti-infiltration law’ to speed up the deportation of African refugees

Jonathan Ofir 

On Monday, the Israeli parliament, Knesset, passed an amendment to the ‘Prevention of Infiltration Act’, aimed at African refugees from mainly Eritrea and Sudan, so that it could continue to coerce African refugees to be deported to a third country, against the threat of indefinite incarceration. The law was promoted after the Supreme Court criticized the state practice of incarcerating refugees for indefinite periods, in attempt to coerce them to leave to a third country. “We’ll have to enact new laws that will enable us … to send the illegal infiltrators out of our country”, said Prime Minister Netanyahu three months ago, on his “mission to give back south Tel Aviv to the Israeli residents” (from the African ‘infiltrators’ who had supposedly taken it over).

What we are seeing here is not really new legislation. The state is simply bent upon deporting the African refugees, and if it can make ‘new legislation’ and enact immediate deportation it might get away with it before in a race against the courts. The state had already declared a week ago, even before the passing of the law, that it will be enacting the deportations within the next few weeks, as Haaretz reported. Netanyahu has also reportedly cut a deal with Rwanda, wherein also refugees deported against their will would be taken by Rwanda. 

The bill passed in second and third readings on a count of 71-41 (out of 120 Knesset members).

Some of the Labor lawmakers, whom were forced to support the bill’s first reading by their leader Avi Gabbay, had apparently made some rebellion in the ranks, and were permitted to vote ‘according to conscience’ in the final readings, as reported in Kan and Israel Hayom (Hebrew).

The law entails a closing of the desert detention facility Holot within three months, and yet, with its closing, the detained refugees will face two ‘options’ – indefinite detention, or deportation to a third African country. In other words, the state is simply continuing its policy.

The law was sponsored by Minister of Interior Arye Deri and Minister of Public Security and Hasbara Gilad Erdan.

Deri said when submitting the bill:

“As I had promised the residents of south Tel Aviv and the rest of the neighborhoods and cities where infiltrators reside, it is in my intention to increase by any possible means the pace of exit to a third country and to not further offer infiltrators the comfort of the Holot staying facility”.

The “comfort” of the Holot detention facility was succinctly described by Deri’s predecessor, Eli Yishai, when he said that its purpose was “to make the lives of its detainees so miserable that they would voluntarily leave the country”.

The blatant disregard for African refugees, who are generally framed as ‘infiltrators’, the policy entailing sending them to torture and death at sea, has been articulated by deputy Defense Minster Eli Ben Dahan, who last year said that

“they don’t need to be extended a helping hand or be pulled out of the sea and saved from drowning.”  

Sadly, this does not seem to be making big headlines in Israel, nor elsewhere for that matter. Liberal Israelis are marching in the streets against governmental corruption involving Netanyahu and others (involving the ‘recommendations bill’ to limit police involvement in corruption cases), but these protests do not even touch the institutionalized corruption of such matters as this one. Israeli Haaretz journalist Gidon Levy wrote last week a scathing critique of these ‘Rothchild protests’, a piece titled “We’re Fed Up With Your Protests”:

“It would also be proper to demonstrate Saturday night against the plan to send tens of thousands of African asylum seekers to their deaths. Against the evil of those who are sending them. In your dreams. We have the recommendations bill to protest.”  

In an earlier amendment vote concerning this law, back in 2014, Erdan said that “the argument here is between two political groups: Between those who see Israel first and foremost as the one and only state of the Jewish people, and the left bloc which to my regret is willing to endanger this” (Mako, Hebrew).

In 2011, the mentioned former Interior Minister Eli Yishai said that the mere presence of the refugees is an “existential threat”, and vowed to defend the “Jewish majority”. “Each and every one of them will return to their countries”, he said. 

So you see, it really is all about the Jewish State, the Zionist notion which informs each and every detail of Israel’s policy.

“And you are to love those who are foreigners!”,

shouted lawmaker Dov Khenin of the Joint List, four times, at the end of his speech at the plenum on Monday, quoting Deuteronomy 10:19, finally providing the full quote:

“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt”.

Khenin was perhaps petitioning to the ‘Jewish compassion’, but the Orthodox Jewish ministers mentioned – Yishai, Ben Dahan – they voice the most murderous expressions of hate towards these ‘foreigners’. Khenin’s pleas fall on deaf ears. And not many in Israel even want to hear about this anyway.

Today, Gideon Levy, once again on the beat of highly moral matters, shouts as voice in the wilderness:

“Israeli Pilots Must Refuse to Fly Expelled Asylum Seekers Toward Their Deaths” (the title of his piece). But he is not optimistic regarding the “best of the bunch at El Al, Arkia and Israir, veterans of the Israel Air Force, the destruction in Gaza and the flattening of Dahieh”. He still wonders whether “any of them stand up and say no, not us, not in this country of refugees?”

But the “Jewish state” doesn’t think of itself a s a country of refugees. It thinks of itself as a country of Jews who have ‘returned’. And the ‘others’? They can go to Rwanda, or drown at sea for all we care…

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RACISM HAS BECOME AMERICA’S GREATEST EXPORT

September 15, 2017 at 12:05 (Civil Rights, Ethnic Cleansing, Israel's Shame, Occupied West Bank, Palestine, Racism)

Ben Packer, a US-born rabbi, is helping to push Palestinians out of their homes.

US-born rabbi aids East Jerusalem eviction

Michael F. Brown

Ben Packer, a US-born rabbi, is helping to push Palestinians out of their homes.

Last week, the Shamasneh family was evicted from a house where family members had lived for more than 50 years in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

Packer, who runs a hostel in Jerusalem’s Old City, swiftly welcomed the eviction. Writing on Facebook, he statedthat “our guys were there to help move out the Arabs’ stuff and are now helping to guard the property.”

Packer did not respond to a request asking what he meant by the phrase “our guys” and if staff or residents in his hostel – the Jerusalem Heritage House – had assisted the eviction.

Notorious political activist Arieh King – who sits on the Israeli-run Jerusalem City Council – was instrumental in securing the eviction. King regards Palestinians as “squatters” in Jerusalem and, backed by US donors, has been trying to force their removal. The settlement activities which he undertakes are all illegal under international law.

Applauds ethnic cleansing

Ben Packer is an enthusiastic supporter of King’s work.

Another Facebook posting shows Packer applauding Israeli settlers as he marched with them through the Silwanneighborhood of East Jerusalem in August. Among them is Arieh King.

Both Packer and King were celebrating the placing of a new Torah in a synagogue. The synagogue is located in a building that had been seized two years ago from a Palestinian family. Proponents of the seizure argue that Jews owned the property decades ago. Israeli law, however, prohibits Palestinians who similarly own properties in West Jerusalem and elsewhere from returning to them.

This instance of dispossessing Palestinians was by no means isolated. The day after Packer posted his videos, the Israeli authorities instructed several Palestinian families in the Silwan area to collect demolition orders on their homes.

Packer is an admirer of Donald Trump, another man keen to pursue ethnic cleansing. When Trump was elected US president last year, Packer argued that Israel should “fire up the bulldozers” and build more settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Packer has claimed to be a friend of Stephen Miller, now a senior policy adviser to Trump and an instigator of the attempt to stop people from six largely Muslim countries from entering the US. A decade ago, Packer took Miller on a guided tour of Jerusalem and Hebron.

The two men – Packer and Miller – appear to have similar political views.

Miller has a history of coded racism. Many comments he has made since taking up his current job can be considered as sympathetic to white supremacists.

Soft spot for KKK?

Packer’s response to last month’s violence in his home state of Virginia suggests he may have a soft spot for the Ku Klux Klan.

His first posting on Facebook after the clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascists in Charlottesvillewas to claim that “both sides there hate Jews.” That remark was made one day after Heather Heyer was killedwhen a car was driven into a protest against the far-right demonstration.

There is no evidence that Heyer hated Jews. On the contrary, there are numerous character references indicating she was a strong proponent of equal rights for all.

In subsequent postings, Packer gave succor to white supremacists in an apparent reference to neo-Nazis and the KKK.

“These people have no real record of terrorism or anything else,” he argued.

That profoundly ignorant remark was made during a Facebook discussion prompted by Packer’s sharing an article with a headline about how one Orthodox Jew in Israel was “standing with the KKK on Charlottesville.”

Falsehood

In a further falsehood about white supremacist protesters, Packer claimed, “There was no indication of violence by the protesters, only by the counter-protesters and that does not justify preventing their ‘rally.’”

He defended his views by noting, “I’m from the South, I think I know a thing or two.”

His high school civics classes in Virginia must have been woefully inadequate or non-existent.

Any adult who has lived in the South in the last 60 years is aware of the history of racial terror spread by the Klan.

Packer’s comments bear more than a passing resemblance to those of Yair Netanyahu. A son of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, Yair alleged that the anti-fascists in Charlottesville are worse than the neo-Nazis.

The prime minister’s son thinks campaigners against fascism and activists in the Black Lives Matter are getting stronger while the neo-Nazis are “dying out.” Unrebuked by his father, Yair was unable to distinguish between groups supporting equal rights and those who prefer states led by racist supremacists.

Yair has subsequently circulated a cartoon that recycles anti-Semitic tropes. The cartoon suggested that George Soros, a Jewish billionaire, was a puppet-master of Ehud Barak, a long-time rival to Benjamin Netanyahu – and, in effect, controls the world.

The few public figures who defended Yair over the cartoon included the former KKK leader David Duke and Ben Packer. Benjamin Netanyahu, ever-quick to assign anti-Semitic motivations to leftists for speaking on behalf of Palestinian rights, has remained silent on the matter.

It is disturbing that a rabbi would endorse an attempt to score political points by approving an age-old conspiracy theory about Jewish domination.

It is equally disturbing that Packer would indulge the extremists in Charlottesville who chanted “Jews will not replace us.”

Yet the depravity of the relationship between alt-right American racists and alt-right Israeli racists is becoming clearer in the Trump/Netanyahu era with supremacists such as Richard Spencer – a Duke University friend of Miller’s – referring to his pursuit of a “sort of white Zionism.”

In a recent article for the Israeli settler publication Arutz Sheva, Packer wrote about wishing to “send a message.” Opposition to settlement activities in East Jerusalem, he argued, should be “punished” by the building of more settlements.

What that means in practice is that Packer wants to uproot Palestinians and deny their basic rights. Is it any wonder that someone with such an extremist attitude would indulge the KKK?

Having urged supporters to help “work in the Yemenite Village (right outside the Old City),” Packer was recently asked by a Facebook correspondent: “How about you hit up the KKK? You seem to be buddies with them.”

In an unguarded moment, Packer responded: “They’d probably be more helpful than all the liberal losers out there. Let’s be honest.”

Of course, the saddest aspect of Packer’s comment is that both racists on the far right and many “liberals” – particularly in the US Congress – are doing their utmost to dispossess Palestinians.

Packer calls criticism directed at him “fake news” but he has yet to separate himself explicitly from both the racism and the anti-Semitism of the KKK. Like Trump, Packer often appears to be winking at the racist right in the US.

He claims, “Nobody that knows me at all would ever think I support Nazis or any other Jew haters.” That’s his strongest statement to date but it fails to address directly his position on the KKK and it underestimates the disturbing nature of his other posts downplaying the dangers of white supremacists.

Additional research by David Cronin

Israeli settler leader Arieh King observes protests against an eviction he pushed for in occupied East Jerusalem; Ben Packer supported that eviction. (Oren Ziv /ActiveStills)

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