Posts tagged Israel

UN documents, Passover, Peace

April 8, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , ,

I havn’t written here in awhile. I have been caught up with school and life and the likes….BUT, in doing some research I found a website that has access to documents and correspodance dealing with Palestine since the British Mandate period after WWI.

Here is the UN page dealing with Palestine

and here is the page with documents predating the state of Israel (pre 1948)

If you are interested in the peace process (and you shoudl be) I encourage you to thumb through these websites. I am definitly sick of relying on news media sources, even progressive ones. I think they are good in exposing stories and circulating them, but the people really involved in creating a peace in Palestine are working through governmental agencies and not just news outlets.

Here is an exerpt from a PLO official letter dated from Febuary of this year:

In this regard, in follow-up to my previous letters to you regarding Israel’s illegal colonization activities, I regret to inform you of the demolition and eviction orders recently issued by Israel, the occupying Power, in Palestinian neighbourhoods of Occupied East Jerusalem. In the past week, the occupying Power ordered the eviction of dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the centre of East Jerusalem by ordering the evacuation of 27 homes there. This was followed by a decision during the current week to order the eviction of 1,500 Palestinians from their homes in the Al-Bustan neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

Contrary to the false, empty pretext given by Israel, the orders clearly aim at the illegal confiscation of Palestinian property and land and the forced displacement of more Palestinian civilians from East Jerusalem. These unlawful and provocative orders by the occupying Power have stoked already heightened tensions, threatening to further destabilize the fragile situation on the ground and, moreover, have been thoroughly rejected by the Palestinian people and their leadership.

As we have repeatedly warned, the direct and deliberate intent of all of these illegal colonization measures is to entrench Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to facilitate its attempts to illegally acquire and de facto annex even more Palestinian land. Such destructive, racist and colonial policies and measures constitute grave violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, and the Security Council has, in numerous resolutions, clearly declared the illegality and invalidity of such measures by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

These unlawful measures are seriously undermining the contiguity, integrity, viability and unity of the Palestinian Territory. Moreover, as has been widely recognized, this relentless land grab is gravely jeopardizing — if not completely destroying — the prospect for physically realizing the two-State solution for peace, on which there exists an international consensus.

The international community, including the Security Council, must act to address these dangerous developments. Israel, the occupying Power, cannot be permitted to continue to so flagrantly and grossly breach international law without consequence. The international community must demand Israel’s compliance with all of its obligations under international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, by which it is bound as the occupying Power, and demand the cessation of all of its illegal policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

Hope and belief in the potential for making peace a reality are rapidly diminishing in the face of such incessant Israeli breaches of international law and violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people under its occupation since 1967. Peace and security in the Middle East can never be achieved by colonization, displacement, disenfranchisement, collective punishment and oppression; it can only be achieved by respect for international law, human rights and United Nations resolutions. Urgent action is thus required by the international community, including all relevant United Nations bodies, to stop this illegal behaviour by Israel, which runs totally contrary to and is destroying the purpose, spirit and goals of the peace process, to the irreversibility of which the Security Council declared its commitment in resolution 1850 (2008).

 

This was written by the permanent observer  to Palestine, Riyad Mansour. He is right, peace and security cannot and will never come from colonization, collective punishment, and displacement. Which is exactly the policy of Israel towards Palestine. The settlements in Palestine and the demolition of Palesitinian homes is the current day colonization.  When Jews all over the world celebrate Passover tonight and the important fight against oppression, I hope they remember who are the oppressors now.  Israel, the Jewish Nationalist State has taken the star of David and made it into a flag of oppression and war. I hope Jews who are global citizens and care about all human beings will sit down to the cedar tonight and vow to fight Israel and its present administration. They have almost irrevovably hurt Judaism and it is up to us to reclaim Judaism to stand for a peaceful philosophy, not a nationalist and militarist state.

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RIP Natasha Richardson

March 19, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , , , , , ,

I was so saddened to hear of Natasha Richardson‘s tragic death today. I cried for her and her family, and it really reminded me that each day has to be lived fully with integrity. In reading about Natasha’s life, I read about her mother Vanessa Redgrave.

Vanessa Redrave has been a radical activist for most of her life. Her outspokenness is inspirational. In 1977 she won an oscar for her role in Julia which was about the terror of the Nazi regime against Jews. Because she had also produced and narrated a documentary about the plight of the Palestinian people, many people in the Zionist propaganda machine tried to block her nomination. In her acceptance speech for Julia, she addressed and thanked the Academy for not being swayed by the “Zionist hoodlums.” I personally think this is great. Later a Jewish screenwriter broke from the script and stated how much he hated people using the Oscars to spout their politics.

Here is the clip of both:

This reminds me that I should not shy away from being outspoken and opinionated regardless of the feelings I might hurt or the attacks I might receive. 

What I admire most about Redgrave’s politics is that she felt so deeply for both the Jewish people’s suffering and that of the Palestinians. She understands the difference between Jews and Zionists. I want to contribute to teaching people about the difference. I want more and more Jews to stand up against Zionist Israel. 

Israel is becoming more and more isolated according to a new york times article. The world public opinion is turning away from them as the truth of their expansionism and militarism is becoming more widespread. It is an interesting article, I suggest you take the time to read it. It talks about the new public imaging and rebranding that Israel is going to implement. I think it will be pretty hard to rebrand after the last 60 years of war. The only rebranding they can do is to seriously embark on a peace process, which the new Bibi administration says is not on their priority list!

Anyway, back to the Natasha Richardson. I truly pray for your family right now. Just in a few days these peoples lives have been changed. When celebrities die it impacts us because we felt we sort of knew them. But it reminds me that so many nameless people are dying, not by tragic accidental deaths, but by preventable violent acts of war. The tragedy of one mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend dying can impact people exponentially, and for the rest of their lives. Imagine the rage, shock, and horror when this is not an accident, but the result of a process of occupation and violence. 

I pray for Tristan Anderson who is has also is suffering from a head injury. He will hopefully pull through, but his injury was not a ski accident, but the Israeli Military firing a high velocity tear gas canister into his head. 

I recently had to write a paper on my personal philosophy of history. I wrote about radical history, and the practice of history for the goal of social change. Radical history is not always popular, but it is important. The radical element in the way I practice history will probably marginalize my audience, but it is still important to speak the unpopular truths.

Anyway, this has been a sort of incoherent blogpost…but thats okay…I just thought the clip of Vanessa Redgrave was pretty great, and I wanted to say how sad and affected I am by Natasha’s death.

Its just so sad:

 

Rest in Peace Natasha…

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Outrage

March 15, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , , ,

Almost 6 years to the day after American activist Rachel Corrie was murdered by IDF forces another American activist is critically injured. Tristan Anderson, a bay are activist was shot with a high-speed tear gas bullet in the head while he demonstrated the devastation of Palestinian homes by Israel’s military. They are trying to demolish a whole village in order to continue building their partitioning wall of apartheid.

 

I am so angry. Here is an article where the witness says that the hole in Tristan’s head was so deep you could see his brain.

And here is Rachel Corrie, murdered March 16, 2003.

A video interview two days before  Rachel was killed

 

And finally, Rachel Corrie’s body shrouded in the American Flag:

 

When is this going to stop?

When are people going to rise up against the American-Israeli lobby and stop this?

And these are just 2 victims, there are thousands of others, who are not American, not white.

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Israel’s blockade

March 7, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged

The amorality of a modern day blockade is fairly obvious. People should be granted the freedom of movement. The walls and blockades that divide the Palestinian people would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world or by any other country than Israel.

Here is a video made by the director of Waltz with Bashir, about the physical blockade of the Palestinian people and the barrier that the blockade enacts on the peace process.

Also, here is an article written on the huffingtonpost by a Palestinian American and his experience with the blockade and his maltreatment in Israel.

And finally, here is a link to the news article about the member of the Alvin Ailey dance company that was taken into a security room and questioned on his identity and intentions because of his Muslim name. He was forced to dance in the airport to prove his identity. As this is not an isolated event in humiliating a profiled muslim person trying to enter Israel, a man was forced to play a violin to prove it was not filled with explosives. 

These incidents illustrate the unfair and policed state of Israel’s blockade. The reality of an American whose country pours tax dollars into Israel getting harassed due to a Muslim name or a Palestinian ethnic identity is a but a minor result of Israel’s heavy hand. 

If I go to Israel this summer (which I might) I will not be questioned in this way. I do not have a muslim name or any reason for them to question my intentions. In fact, I can even apply for citizenship as a Jew. In fact, I can even go to Israel for free paid for by the American Zionist machine that pushes North American (Canadian and American) Jews to connect politically and ideologically  with Zionist Israel. 

Hopefully they don’t find out about my blog. I don’t think the Birthright movement would approve of my message of condemning Zionism and the Israeli Occupation.

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Israel Plans to Expand West Bank Settlements (again)

February 18, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , ,

UGHH! This is probably the worst news to come out of Israel in the most recent weeks when bad news has been coming out of Israel exponentially. 

The settlements themselves stand as the most stubborn blockers of peace in the Middle East. And the expansion of them is a slap in the face to everyone who is trying to promote peace.

There has to be something we can do. MJ Rosenberg of the Israel Policy Forum tells us that Silence =Death.

He also says that the settlements will be the death of Israel. As long as the people of Israel tacitly or explicitly support the expansion of the settlements, or even just the existence of the settlements there will be no peace.

Here is a good video on the issue of the settlements in the peace process. This is from last summer, and the fact that the settlements continue to plan huge growth is extremely disconcerting.

Here is a video on what is happening now

The settlers will only be moved by force, will this ever happen?

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Israel’s covert actions undermine their safety

February 17, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , ,

Read this: Israel’s covert war against Iran

How well do covert operations work against ‘hostile’ governments? Ask America. America’s history of covert operations especially in Iran and Guatemala did not end to pretty. The 1953 coup in Iran and the 1954 coup in Guatemala both set in motion a history of oppressive governments and revolutions.

Interventionism does not work and it undermines the sovereignty of other nations, which the people of these nations resent. Which sets in motion a domino effect on foreign affairs that might take decades to repair, if it can be repaired at all. (i.e. Iran)

Israel is making the mistakes of America, but doing so from an much more vulnerable position. Israel answers to nobody and run around the world with their ruthless Mossad agents. See my earlier post on what the Mossad did in Norway.

It frustrates me to see the same mistakes being made over and over again, and the blowback from this not really covert action presently in Iran might prove to be an even bigger disaster than inaction.

Israel needs a revolution. Their system of democracy or government or whatever you want to call it is not working for its people and for the people of the middle east and for the people of the world.

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Rabbis against the occupation

February 16, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

 

I really believe it is the job of Jewish Americans to stand up against Zionist aggression and crimes committed by the Israeli government and the IDF.

This along with many other organizations are beginning to expose the truth of what Israel stands for, and these organizations are making it possible for Jews to reclaim their reputations in international community. Protesting Israel is not anti-Semitism. Protesting Israel is standing up for human rights which is the concern of not just Jews but all people.

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When do we start the clock?

February 8, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , , ,

Here is a very good video of Phyllis Bennis, a peace activist talking about historical amnesia and Gaza. She asks a very important question on how history plays a vital role in understanding the conflict in Gaza today. When you start the story of  the current conflict, gives you a different story. People can decide what it just and unjust by when they begin the story. And people will choose the history they wish in order to prove the point they want to make. Whether it is a Zionist American Jew trying to convince you that everything Israel does is justifiable, or a American Leftist who wants to convince you that Israel is breaking international laws and has been for years and years, people will use history for their own arguments and agendas.

I am obviously not excluded from this. I got a comment on my last blog entry about how I need to go back to ancient Israel in order to understand the current situation, and that might be entirely true, but I am not. A historian has to choose their focus, their time frame, and it is by individual historians looking in, that creates the picture one gets by looking out. What I do on this blog is not formal history. I don’t footnote and the writing style is very different. This is a casual endeavor and outlet for me to talk about things that I ponder, one of which is the larger problems of how history effects the present. No one historian has all the information or all the answers. No one person will ever be able to right a TOTAL history of the world. And if they could, no one would read it. What historians do is add small pieces of work to a collective pool of knowledge in the hopes that the sum will be greater than the parts.

Historians have often strived to be objective and tell the historical truth without any bias or taint. This has largely been a complete failure. If history were about a play by play of events it would be pretty meaningless, at least to me. Historians have the job to take information and evidence and make an argument. Historians do not write encyclopedias, they write academic and intellectual works that provide historical truth, not historical fact. Events and facts are interpreted and put together by the historian in order to submit an understanding of something the historian thinks is important. It is the job of the reader or the audience to decide if the argument is compelling or not. 

Back to Phyllis Bennis, she is a bold, opinionated, well-informed asset to the current peace movement and I think she does a good job of delivering her sense of what has happened in Gaza recently. This video is from the beginning of January, pre-Obama inaguaration and pre ceasefire.

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And yet more musings on Israel, Holocaust, Zionism, and world peace

February 7, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , , ,

So I think that I might be loosing my sensitivity about the Holocaust.  I need to check that, because I do not want to come across as someone who doesn’t understand how truly awful the deliberate and scientific persecution of Jews (and gypsys and gays) was.

But, I keep thinking about trying to value all life equally, and that the way we (the generations since the Holocaust) think about the Holocaust is too singular. Meaning, that we need to be more angry about current genocidal practices than past ones. When I say we should move towards forgiveness, I by no means think that we should forget the Holocaust. I mean, I am a historian so I obviously think it is incredibly important to remember our shared past, which includes some of the darkest acts possible by fellow human beings. In stead of talking about the politics of how we remember the Holocaust, maybe we should learn from it. And by learning from it I don’t mean perpetuating the idea that there is evil in this world and that Jews are not safe unless they are armed with nuclear weapons. I don’t mean that Anti-Semitism in our  (global) history is too omnipresent for there ever to be an era of newfound good feelings and mutual respect among religions and ethnicities. I just am looking towards the perhaps unrealistic idea that there can be a new world order with mutual respect amongst everyone. 

 

The situation in the Middle East is intolerable, just as the situation in Germany and greater Europe in the 1930s and 40s. We (global community) did not do enough then. Maybe back then the answer would have been more public outcry, less appeasement and isolationism, and yes perhaps more military action against Nazi aggression. Today, I do not think that the answer is in military action. The threat of nuclear and biochemical weapons is too great, we cannot afford to use violence to solve any problems anymore. 

So what does that leave us? Diplomacy, World Courts and International Laws, and Education. I think the lesson of Vietnam can be that you cannot win over hearts and minds with nepalm. The lesson of Iraq is that preemptive war does not bring peace, and the lesson of Iran is that interventionism has blowback effects and that when there are countries that have paternalistic and imperialistic ideas on how to run the world, the people of the world suffer.

The situation in Gaza right now is a tragedy, and not just for those living there, but for Jews all over the world. The Jewish identity is being dragged into a war that MANY do not support. By doing research, one can find countless groups of Jews who organize with each other and with Muslim groups to advocate for the end of the occupation. By doing even more research one can find evidence of the contraversy over the Zionist state in Israel. It was not supported by all Jews and a incredible propaganda movement was unleashed to convert American Jews to the idea that there had to be a Jewish state in the land of Israel.

The history of the modern world has unfolded often tragically, especially for the Jewish people. But now that Jews have a degree of political and economic power, it is time to show the world what good they can do for world peace. 

May an era of forgiveness, justice, and peace be in our future.

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Just a quickie… What is Zionism?

February 4, 2009 · Filed under History · Tagged , , , ,

My answer when asked that question the other day was simple at first: Jewish Nationalism.

The problematic part of this definition is the Nationalism part. 

Inherent in all nationalisms is a sense of shared history, claim to a land, and a call for unification and defense against aggressive ‘others.’ 

I learned more about the rise of Nazism today. Some of the basic reasons were the punitive nature of the Versailles Treaty put Germans in an economic and political situation and the anti-semitism that blamed Jews for Socialism. If Nazism was Nationalist Socialism, Zionism in many ways is also. The first blueprints for Israel was to make it a Nationalist Socialist society.

And now the parallels with expelling populations and committing humanitarian crimes in order to achieve political and military agendas make the comparisons even more plenty.

I know how terrible it is for Jews to be compared to Nazis. Nazis were part of one of the worst ethnic cleansing plots in World History. But the collaborators and appeasements of the 1930s by other European nations bare some of the responsibility for the magnitude of the Holocaust. Likewise, nations that do not speak out against both Palestinian and Israeli atrocities and do what they can to stop the crisis in Israel and Palestine also bare some of the responsibility. 

Here is my point: Zionism does share historical similarities to Nazism. 

And another point is this: the death and destruction of World War II goes far beyond the 6 million Jews killed by Nazis. Estimations are that the lowest that probably perished in just the Soviet Union is 50 million, and that is just one country. Everybody suffered during the war, not just Jews. If we are to avoid the total war of last century, we need to thwart the power and rise of extreme nationalist movements, of which Zionism is one. Militant and Pan-Islam is another. I do not suggest we do this with war or violence, but with open and honest negotiations and diplomacy that I think can arise out of nations such as Israel and America becoming right sized and humble in the UN and become willing to give up their monopoly on International “moral” superiority, and listen to the UN when they say for instance, don’t invade Iraq or lets try in court countries who commit war crimes, even if those countries are Israel and America.

But here is a question for you…what does zionism mean to you?

I’m tired…just some thoughts for today 🙂

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