Jewish Peace News: April 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011

Young Mizrahi Israelis' Open Letter to Arab Peers / 972mag.com

Young Israelis of Mizrahi descent (that is: of North African and Middle Eastern origin) write an open letter to their Arab peers, calling for an opening of a dialog and evoking
a past in which Jews, Muslims and Christians were all part of a thriving Arab culture.

They acknowledge the need to move Israel towards real democracy: "We believe that, as Mizrahi Jews in Israel, our struggle for economic, social, and cultural rights rests on the understanding that political change cannot depend on the Western powers who have exploited our region and its residents for many generations. True change can only come from an intra-regional and inter-religious dialog that is in connection with the different struggles and movements currently active in the Arab world. Specifically, we must be in dialog and solidarity with struggles of the Palestinians citizens of Israel who are fighting for equal political and economic rights and for the termination of racist laws, and the struggle of the Palestinian people living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and in Gaza in their demand to end the occupation and to gain Palestinian national independence."

Her/his place (or places) of origin follows each person's signature. This highlights the connection felt to places and cultures that the Zionist narrative has attempted to erase.

Ofer Neiman recommends Orly Noy's excellent take on the Amos Oz - Barghouti affair, which is on a related subject. (Noy is one of the signatories on the open letter.) See Ofer's translation from Hebrew below the letter.)

Racheli Gai

http://972mag.com/young-mizrahi-israelis-open-letter-to-arab-peers/

Sunday, April 24 2011|+972blog
Young Mizrahi Israelis' open letter to Arab peers
Translated from Hebrew by Chana Morgenstern | Arabic version here
In a letter titled "Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011," young Jewish descendants of the Arab and Islamic world living in Israel write to their peers in the Middle East and North Africa
We, as the descendents of the Jewish communities of the Arab and Muslim world, the Middle East and the Maghreb, and as the second and third generation of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, are watching with great excitement and curiosity the major role that the men and women of our generation are playing so courageously in the demonstrations for freedom and change across the Arab world. We identify with you and are extremely hopeful for the future of the revolutions that have already succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt. We are equally pained and worried at the great loss of life in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and many other places in the region.
Our generation's protest against repression and oppressive and abusive regimes, and its call for change, freedom, and the establishment of democratic governments that foster citizen participation in the political process, marks a dramatic moment in the history of the Middle East and North Africa, a region which has for generations been torn between various forces, internal and external, and whose leaders have often trampled the political, economic, and cultural rights of its citizens.
We are Israelis, the children and grandchildren of Jews who lived in the Middle East and North Africa for hundreds and thousands of years. Our forefathers and mothers contributed to the development of this region's culture, and were part and parcel of it. Thus the culture of the Islamic world and the multigenerational connection and identification with this region is an inseparable part of our own identity.
We are a part of the religious, cultural, and linguistic history of the Middle East and North Africa, although it seems that we are the forgotten children of its history: First in Israel, which imagines itself and its culture to be somewhere between continental Europe and North America. Then in the Arab world, which often accepts the dichotomy of Jews and Arabs and the imagined view of all Jews as Europeans, and has preferred to repress the history of the Arab-Jews as a minor or even nonexistent chapter in its history; and finally within the Mizrahi communities themselves, who in the wake of Western colonialism, Jewish nationalism and Arab nationalism, became ashamed of their past in the Arab world.
Consequently we often tried to blend into the mainstream of society while erasing or minimizing our own past. The mutual influences and relationships between Jewish and Arab cultures were subjected to forceful attempts at erasure in recent generations, but evidence of them can still be found in many spheres of our lives, including music, prayer, language, and literature.
We wish to express our identification with and hopes for this stage of generational transition in the history of the Middle East and North Africa, and we hope that it will open the gates to freedom and justice and a fair distribution of the region's resources.
We turn to you, our generational peers in the Arab and Muslim world, striving for an honest dialog which will include us in the history and culture of the region. We looked enviously at the pictures from Tunisia and from Al-Tahrir square, admiring your ability to bring forth and organize a nonviolent civil resistance that has brought hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets and the squares, and finally forced your rulers to step down.
We, too, live in a regime that in reality—despite its pretensions to being "enlightened" and "democratic"—does not represent large sections of its actual population in the Occupied Territories and inside of the Green Line border(s). This regime tramples the economic and social rights of most of its citizens, is in an ongoing process of minimizing democratic liberties, and constructs racist barriers against Arab-Jews, the Arab people, and Arabic culture. Unlike the citizens of Tunisia and Egypt, we are still a long way from the capacity to build the kind of solidarity between various groups that we see in these countries, a solidarity movement that would allow us to unite and march together–all who reside here–into the public squares, to demand a civil regime that is culturally, socially, and economically just and inclusive.
We believe that, as Mizrahi Jews in Israel, our struggle for economic, social, and cultural rights rests on the understanding that political change cannot depend on the Western powers who have exploited our region and its residents for many generations. True change can only come from an intra-regional and inter-religious dialog that is in connection with the different struggles and movements currently active in the Arab world. Specifically, we must be in dialog and solidarity with struggles of the Palestinians citizens of Israel who are fighting for equal political and economic rights and for the termination of racist laws, and the struggle of the Palestinian people living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and in Gaza in their demand to end the occupation and to gain Palestinian national independence.
In our previous letter written following Obama's Cairo speech in 2009, we called for the rise of the democratic Middle Eastern identity and for our inclusion in such an identity. We now express the hope that our generation – throughout the Arab, Muslim, and Jewish world – will be a generation of renewed bridges that will leap over the walls and hostility created by previous generations and will renew the deep human dialog without which we cannot understand ourselves: between Jews, Sunnis, Shias, and Christians, between Kurds, Berbers, Turks, and Persians, between Mizrahis and Ashkenazis, and between Palestinians and Israelis. We draw on our shared past in order to look forward hopefully towards a shared future.
We have faith in intra-regional dialog—whose purpose is to repair and rehabilitate what was destroyed in recent generations—as a catalyst towards renewing the Andalusian model of Muslim-Jewish-Christian partnership, God willing, Insha'Allah, and as a pathway to a cultural and historical golden era for our countries. This golden era cannot come to pass without equal, democratic citizenship, equal distribution of resources, opportunities, and education, equality between women and men, and the acceptance of all people regardless of faith, race, status, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic affiliation. All of these rights play equal parts in constructing the new society to which we aspire. We are committed to achieving these goals within a process of dialog between all of the people of Middle East and North Africa, as well as a dialog we will undertake with different Jewish communities in Israel and around the world.
We, the undersigned:
Shva Salhoov (Libya), Naama Gershy (Serbia, Yemen), Yael Ben-Yefet (Iraq, Aden), Leah Aini (Greece, Turkey), Yael Berda (Tunisia), Aharon Shem-Tov (Iraq, Iranian Kurdistan), Yosi Ohana (born in Morocco), Yali Hashash (Libya, Yemen), Yonit Naaman (Yemen, Turkey), Orly Noy (born in Iran), Gadi Alghazi (Yugoslavia, Egypt), Mati Shemoelof (Iran, Iraq, Syria), Eliana Almog (Yemen, Germany), Yuval Evri ((Iraq), Ophir Tubul (Morocco, Algeria), Moti Gigi (Morocco), Shlomit Lir (Iran), Ezra Nawi (Iraq), Hedva Eyal (Iran), Eyal Ben-Moshe (Yemen), Shlomit Binyamin (Cuba, Syria, Turkey), Yael Israel (Turkey, Iran), Benny Nuriely (Tunisia), Ariel Galili (Iran), Natalie Ohana Evry (Morocco, Britain), Itamar Toby Taharlev (Morocco, Jerusalem, Egypt), Ofer Namimi (Iraq, Morocco), Amir Banbaji (Syria), Naftali Shem-Tov (Iraq, Iranian Kurdistan), Mois Benarroch (born in Morocco), Yosi David (Tunisia Iran), Shalom Zarbib (Algeria), Yardena Hamo (Iraqi Kurdistan), Aviv Deri (Morocco) Menny Aka (
Iraq),
Tom Fogel (Yemen, Poland), Eran Efrati (Iraq), Dan Weksler Daniel (Syria, Poland, Ukraine), Yael Gidnian (Iran), Elyakim Nitzani (Lebanon, Iran, Italy), Shelly Horesh-Segel (Morocco), Yoni Mizrahi (Kurdistan), Betty Benbenishti (Turkey), Chen Misgav (Iraq, Poland), Moshe Balmas (Morocco), Tom Cohen (Iraq, Poland, England), Ofir Itah (Morocco), Shirley Karavani (Tunisia, Libya, Yemen), Lorena Atrakzy (Argentina, Iraq), Asaf Abutbul (Poland, Russia, Morocco), Avi Yehudai (Iran), Diana Ahdut (Iran, Jerusalem), Maya Peretz (Nicaragua, Morocco), Yariv Moher (Morocco, Germany), Tami Katzbian (Iran), Oshra Lerer (Iraq, Morocco), Nitzan Manjam (Yemen, Germany, Finland), Rivka Gilad (Iran, Iraq, India), Oshrat Rotem (Morocco), Naava Mashiah (Iraq), Zamira Ron David (Iraq) Omer Avital (Morocco, Yemen), Vered Madar (Yemen), Ziva Atar (Morocco), Yossi Alfi (born in Iraq), Amira Hess (born in Iraq), Navit Barel (Libya), Almog Behar (Iraq, Turkey, Germany)

Amos Oz's Blindness
by Orly Noy

The Israeli left rushed to the defense of Amos Oz, who only wanted Marwan Barghouti to understand "our story". But its acceptance of the "our" bit is the real problem here.

The eternal candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Amos Oz, has created a storm in a teapot, by sending a copy of his book "A Tale of Love and Darkness" to imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, with the dedication "This story is our story, and I hope you read it and come to understand us better". When the news of his "bold, subversive" act broke, there were those who protested Oz's planned participation at a gathering in honor of outstanding physicians at "Assaf Harofe" hospital, and the event was canceled as a result.

Prima facie, all this might seem like yet another negligible tale of a writer with perennial pretensions to have a meaningful say in politics, the same writer who has never uttered a word to which he did not receive the blessing of all the Labor Party's elders. Well, it's Amos Oz; even the right wing's knee-jerk enlistment against this pseudo-leftist was embarrassingly predictable. What did disappoint me somewhat, and this reaction seems quite naïve and childish in retrospect, was Gideon Levy's Haaretz article on the affair:

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/who-is-sick-enough-to-censor-amos-oz-1.352008

Levy protests the persecution of Oz ("witch hunt"), and he is appalled precisely because Oz is a devout Zionist and a committed patriot. He recognizes the fact that Oz has never been a radical, and he even mentions the latter's shameful support for Operation Cast Lead. However, the only point which somehow eludes Levy's critical scrutiny is Oz's mere pretension – pompous, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal – to portray his book as "our story". OUR story. Whose exactly? I cannot speak for Levy, but my grandmother never beat her bed sheets every morning to shake off the Levant; members of my family never lived on streets that would eventually be named after them, and no, even our relation to this region has not been derived from the Holocaust trauma, and from the havoc it wrought on the souls of the survivors.

All this comes as no surprise, of course, regarding Oz himself; his literary work has consistently reflected his scorn towards Arabs and Mizrahi Jews. It is Levy's response which embodies the most important aspect of this affair: The absolutist tribalism of the Israeli left. Oz's nationalist, sanctimonious conformism will not stand in Levy's way, even though the latter is a genuinely critical person, and it will not prevent him from adopting Oz's story as "our story", out of utter blindness towards the fact that about half of the Jewish population in Israel has been totally left out of this story. After all, and more than anything, Oz and Levy share a common story which is THE official narrative of this country

This is also the message conveyed to our Palestinian neighbors: if you wish to figure out what's going on here, whom you're dealing with, and who holds the keys to your case, you must study "our story". And this message, as it turns out, runs deep: "A Tale of Love and Darkness" was translated into Arabic thanks to the initiative and financial support of Adv. Elias Khouri, a dear man and a bereaved father who dedicated the project to the memory of his son, also with the belief that the book would constitute a key to the understanding of "their story"; an Arabic translation of a Hebrew book which cries out in Yiddish.

Hebrew original:

http://www.haokets.org/2011/03/28/%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%95%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9F-2/

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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Ofer Neiman
Lincoln Z. Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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Jewish Peace News sends its news clippings only to subscribers. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage your subscription, go to http://www.jewishpeacenews.net

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Daniel Breslau: A leftist has been murdered: Attack the left! / ZNet

For "Israeli mainstream, the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis is the perfect parable: naive leftist meets his death at the hands of the inherently hateful Palestinians whose dark side he willfully denied. The Palestinians are evil and the left is in denial. What better way to justify continued oppression of four million than to hold that they are undeserving of human rights and that those who advocate for them are hopelessly deluded?"

Racheli Gai.

Ofer Neiman adds: Following the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza, we should brace ourselves for another round of selective sanctimonious lecturing. The lecturers will surely ignore the tremendous outcry of grief, anger and condemnation coming out of Palestinian society. Instead they will teach us that the Salafist groups in Gaza are a significant and representative Palestinian voice.

About the Salafi, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafist_jihadism
Also, below Breslau's piece find a post from the International Crisis Group, including a link to their full report about radical Islam in Gaza.

[As of today, April 16, some Salafi groups in Gaza denied a role in the murder of Arrigoni. - RG]

A leftist has been murdered: attack the left!
By: Daniel Breslau
Znet
13 April 2011

http://www.zcommunications.org/a-leftist-has-been-murdered-attack-the-left-by-daniel-breslau

When a unique figure in the struggle for Palestinian rights, a unique kind of leftist, was gunned down in Jenin, most commentators pointed out the senselessness of the crime. Ha`aretz colmnist Ari Shavit saw the tragedy as a wonderful opportunity to attack the left (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-left-needs-to-wise-up-to-middle-east-reality-1.354548

Of course Israeli pundits can find in any death, or even unseasonable weather, an occasion to bash the left. But how was Shavit provoked by the assassination of Juliano Mer-Khamis to write a piece that would make Avigdor Lieberman proud, attacking a group of his fellow citizens?

With no evidence, Shavit claims the left has fallen silent, overcome with moral confusion, in the face of the murder in Jenin. Leftists can only conceive of evil emanating from Israel or Western forces. So when a `peace hero` is murdered by Palestinians, their brains short circuit. This invention launches Shavit into a tirade on the left`s selective morality and denial of `the forces of evil in the Arab-Muslim world.`

But Shavit has fabricated a description of `the left`s` behavior in order to support his attacks. Any quick survey of responses to the murder will show that his charge of confusion and silence is ridiculous. Mer was `killed in cold blood` (Combatants for peace - Hebrew), his murder was `a crime against humanity` and the result of `religious fanaticism` (The Left Bank - Hebrew), and these poignant words from his friend, Natan Zahavi (Hebrew):

`Juliano was murdered by cowardly maniacs beside the theater that he founded for the children of the refugee camp, `Freedom Theater` he called it. Five bullets made orphans of the 150 children of the theater, as they lost the man who tried to teach them the word`s most original form of warfare, war on the stage without bloodshed. Blessed be his memory.`

Some clues to Shavit`s animus can be found in other comments that make the same point without Shavit`s vagueness and code words. Less diplomatic was Asaf Golan (Hebrew) in the right-wing Makor Rishon (the online paper that brags that it is `unbiased, and unabashedly Jewish and Zionist.`):

`This disturbing and simple truth is hard for many students of the western liberal school to digest, as they try in various ways to please the Islamic demon, in order to open up a dialogue with him. However, in practice this approach only strengthens the darkest dictatorships in the world, and produces tragicomic situations, in which a moral army like the IDF is presented as war criminals, while hideous murderers like Moamar Gaddafi, Bashar Al-Asad, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are presented as exemplary human beings.`

Still more direct was a publicist named Yehuda Drori (Hebrew), who gives us a full translation of Shavit`s thesis into plain language:

`I have no doubt that Juliano Mer fell victim to murderers representing the very group of people that he was trying to help. But in plain terms, he lived among snakes, and one of them killed him with its bite. … Now I believe that Juliano Mer is of greater value in death than in life, because he proves to us once more that there is no one to talk to, there`s no one there to work with toward `peace` and we must be extremely wary of them, and of all the do-gooders who believe that it is possible to build a bridge to peace with that rabble.`

If you find this message is still too subtle, here`s self-styled journalist Dudu Cohen on Mako (Hebrew), the website of Israel`s commercial channel 2, finally doing away with niceties:

`Not that I didn`t already know this, but the barbaric murder of Juliano Mer just reminded me of whom we are dealing with. ... The murder of Juliano Mer demonstrates that opposite us stand human animals. A civilized people that seeks peace? Don`t make me laugh. A poor oppressed people that just wants to live with us in peace beneath the olive trees? Get real. A moral, kind, and humane people that is only looking for a chance to make the world a better place? Yeah, right. What is funny is that many among us Israelis, particularly from the liberal-humanist department, paint the Palestinians with such flattering colors. The Palestinians themselves refuse to fit that image, and are driven mostly by hatred of others, discrimination against women, lack of democracy, and values that are completely opposed to those of the world of humane values.`

In all of these comments racism is tightly coupled with attacks on the left. The belief that the Palestinians suffer from inherent moral and cultural deficiencies, and that the left makes things worse by ignoring this self-evident fact, are two sides of a single discourse. From this outlook, which is that of the Israeli mainstream, the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis is the perfect parable: naive leftist meets his death at the hands of the inherently hateful Palestinians whose dark side he willfully denied.The Palestinians are evil and the left is in denial. What better way to justify continued oppression of four million than to hold that they are undeserving of human rights and that those who advocate for them are hopelessly deluded?

Political repression, violent Islamic political movements, oppression of women: are these phenomena better understood by those who insist they be denounced as `forces of evil` or by those who see them as having historical causes, as not inherent to a race, religion, or culture? Which of these demonstrates an `ability to see historic reality as a whole, in all its complexity`? There are countless studies, essays, and commentaries by people on the left that relate the rise of Islamic violent movements to a set of historical circumstances that include autocratic regimes, Western imperialism, the distortion of the political space by autocrats and occupiers, and the repression of secular alternatives, among other factors.

But Juliano Mer himself is perhaps the best refutation of the slander of Shavit and his more straight-talking allies. This fighter for Palestinian rights knew he was simultaneously fighting religious and political repression in Palestinian society. Those who use such phenomena to confirm their sense of superiority and to blame the victims of oppression cannot claim to understand the problems of that society better than Juliano Mer.

An International Crisis Group's post about the Salafi from 6 weeks ago w/ a link to their report:

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/israel-palestine/104-radical-islam-in-gaza.aspx

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT

Radical Islam in Gaza

Ramallah/Jerusalem/Brussels, 29 March 2011: The dangerous escalation between Israel and Hamas demonstrates once more the need for both a fresh approach toward Gaza and a better understanding of Hamas's relationship with rival Islamist groups.

Radical Islam in Gaza, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the impact of Salafi-Jihadi groups in Gaza. Adhering to a more militant brand of Sunni Islam than Hamas, these groups pose both a practical and an ideological threat to the movement. As progress toward normalising life, engaging the world or achieving a prisoner exchange stalls, the uncompromising outlook of the Salafi-Jihadis becomes more appealing to militants.

"These groups are comprised mostly of former members of Hamas and other established factions. Many of their recruits are disaffected younger activists who see Hamas as compromising with Israel while getting very little in return", said Nathan Thrall, Crisis Group's Middle East Analyst.

Local Salafi-Jihadi groups emerged primarily after Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and expanded their activities during the subsequent fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Over time, Hamas's relationship with them has shifted from cooperation to antagonism: since taking over Gaza, Hamas has limited their freedom of manoeuvre. Clashes with Hamas security forces killed dozens and, in one case, in effect wiped out one of the largest groups.

The influence of Salafi-Jihadis is not preponderant, but nor is it negligible. Although their numbers are few, they are responsible for a significant proportion of rockets fired at Israel. Moreover, they accuse Hamas of laxity in enforcing religious mores, a charge that resonates with many movement supporters and leads the government to greater zeal in applying Islamic law.

"The policy of isolating Gaza and ignoring Hamas has only exacerbated the problem", said Robert Malley, Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa Program Director. "As the international community seeks a new way to address political Islam in the wake of the Arab upheaval, Gaza would be a good place to start".

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Goldstone op-ed in the Washington Post and its aftermath

Goldstone's op-ed in the Washington Post, and its aftermath.

Last Friday (April 1) an op-ed piece by Judge Goldstone appeared in the Washington Post. It was titled "Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and War Crimes". An avalanche of responses followed. Israeli leaders saw it as a complete overturn of the Goldstone Report, and suggested that the UN should retract it, others saw it as indicating a minor change, and others worried what any change might mean in terms of Israeli actions on the ground.

Below you'll find a link for the op-ed itself; a link to a piece by PHCR (The Palestinian Center for Human Rights) - indicating the various issues brought up by the Goldstone Report, as well as by various other reports issued by human rights organizations.
The article in the Huffington Post by MJ Rosenberg points out that nothing of real substance has really changed as a result of the "rethink", however both Jonathan Cook's piece, and the letter issued by the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace underline the fact that lots of damage can result from it, regardless of what it exactly means by way of its substance. Cook's article also contains criticism of the Goldstone's piece at the level of accuracy (as does a Democracy Now! segment containing an interview with Adam Horowitz and Lizzy Ratner: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/4/judge_goldstone_retracts_part_of_his).

Last but not least: A piece by Jerry Haber that appeared today on his blog,
The Magnes Zionist, titled: "Judge Goldstone to the Associated Press: The Goldstone Report Stands as Written."

One would hope that the last interview will bring to an end the revisionist efforts by Israel and its followers, but I think it's safe to doubt this...

Racheli Gai.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html

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http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7355:pchr-highlight-key-issues-relating-to-report-of-un-fact-finding-mission-on-gaza-conflict-the-goldstone-report-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194

PCHR Highlight Key Issues Relating to Report of UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza Conflict (the 'Goldstone Report)

===========================

M J Rosenberg:
Goldstone's Edit Changes Nothing

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/goldstones-edit-changes-n_b_844573.html

==============================

Jonathan Cook: Goldstone's Rethink
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2011-04-05/jonathan-cook-goldstones-rethink/

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Letter to Goldstone from Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel)

http://www.facebook.com/notes/matan-cohen/letter-to-goldstone-from-coalition-of-women-for-peace-israel/10150554356610175

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http://www.jeremiahhaber.com/2011/04/judge-goldstone-to-associated-press.html

Judge Goldstone to Associated Press: The Goldstone Report Stands as Written
Posted: 06 Apr 2011
After two days of misrepresentations in the press, and after a conversation between Minister of Interior and Eli Yishai was grossly misunderstood by the latter, Judge Goldstone had to break the silence that he had decreed on himself since the publication of his Washington Post Op-Ed and speak with an Associated Press reporter

"As appears from the Washington Post article, information subsequent to publication of the report did meet with the view that one correction should be made with regard to intentionality on the part of Israel," the judge said. "Further information as a result of domestic investigations could lead to further reconsideration, but as presently advised I have no reason to believe any part of the report needs to be reconsidered at this time."

To sum up how things stand now:

Judge Goldstone stands behind a report that found Israel guilty of war crimes. After two years he has not changed his mind on that charge.

Judge Goldstone is less inclined to believe that Israel was guilty of crimes against humanity. But since that was presented as a possible finding in the report itself, there is no need to revise that finding either.

Judge Goldstone, therefore, has not expressed regret, apology, nor has he recanted the report.

He wrote an op-ed with a conciliatory tone. He now has an invitation to visit Israel. Let's hope he comes.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Gideon Levy remembers Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was murdered yesterday / Ha' aretz

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/gideon-levy-remembers-juliano-mer-khamis-an-arab-a-jew-a-human-being-1.354100

"Juliano Mer-Khamis was one of the most talented theater actors to ever emerge here was also the most courageous of them."

Gideon Levy remembers Juliano Mer-Khamis: An Arab, a Jew, a human being

A little over a month ago, Juliano Mer-Khamis stood on the stage of his Freedom Theater at the edge of the Jenin refugee camp.

Directing his remarks at the young, noisy group of children making its first-ever visit to a theater, he said: "This is a dangerous show, with subversive messages. Whoever talks will be thrown out of the hall."
Juliano Mer-Khamis March 29, 2006.

Juliano Mer-Khamis in Tel Aviv, March 29, 2006.
Photo by: Daniel Tchetchik

A hush came over the audience. For the next 75 minutes, I watched one of the loveliest, most stylish, political plays I had ever seen.

None of the children interrupted the show, with the exception of one infant who burst into tears at the sight of the servant hanging on a rope.

The Freedom Theater presents "Alice in Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll. Directed by Juliano Mer-Khamis, with Udi Aloni as playwright.

I first saw Mer-Khamis in another time and another place. It was in the late 1980s, when he stood for a number of days in the front yard of the Israel Fringe Theater festival in Acre, his naked body dipped with oil as part of a one-man show that knew no end. Years later I caught "Arna's Children," a brilliant film which he co-directed with his dying mother, Arna Mer, the founder of the theatre in Jenin and the daughter of the doctor who cured malaria in Rosh Pina. It is arguably the most moving film ever created about the Israeli occupation.

Since then, I have met him on numerous occasions, always in the camp. This tall, strapping, handsome man who oozed charisma, a Jew and an Arab on account of his parents - perhaps a Jew in the eyes of the Arabs and an Arab in the eyes of the Jews - decided to devote his life to Jenin, where he lived as an Israeli and as a human being. One of the most talented theater actors to ever emerge here was also the most courageous of them.

The seven bullets extinguished the light of courage that he radiated. "Jule was murdered," a trembling voice belonging to a refugee camp resident on the other end of the phone told me. My voice also trembled.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Implicated and Enraged: Nathan Schneider interviews Judith Butler

An interview with Judith Butler, published in The Immanent Frame.

A partial description of The Immanent Frame, taken from its website:
"The Immanent Frame publishes interdisciplinary perspectives on secularism, religion, and the public sphere. TIF serves as a forum for ongoing exchanges among leading thinkers across the social sciences and humanities, featuring invited contributions and original essays that have not been previously published in print or online.

Founded in October of 2007 in conjunction with the Social Science Research Council's program on Religion and the Public Sphere, The Immanent Frame was named an official honoree by the Webby Awards and a "favorite new religion site, egghead division" by The Revealer."
See more at http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/about/

The interview looks, among other things, at different ways that the secular/religious distinction is used, both in relation to the present ongoing uprisings in the Middle East, as well as in the case of Israel/Palestine.

Here is one of many interesting exchanges:
"NS: Why do you turn to Jewish sources like Benjamin and Arendt to criticize Israeli militarism? Why not appeal to something more universal?

JB: One doesn't need to turn to Jewish sources, and I've never argued that one should. One could criticize not only present-day Israeli militarism but the occupation, the history of land confiscation, or even Zionism itself, without any recourse at all to Jewish sources. One could do it on the basis of universal rights, human rights, a history and critique of settler colonialism, a politics of nonviolence, a left understanding of revolutionary struggle on the part of the stateless, legal rights of refugees and the occupied, liberal democracy, or radical democracy. In fact, if one only used Jewish sources for the critique of Israeli state violence, then one would be unwittingly establishing the Jewish framework, again, as the framework of reference and valuation for adjudicating the competing claims of the region. And even if such a framework were Jewish anti-Zionism, it would turn out to be effectively Zionist, producing a Zionist effect, since it would tacitly hold to th
e
proposition that the Jewish framework must remain dominant."

Happy reading!
Racheli Gai.

Implicated and enraged: Nathan Schneider interviews Judith Butler

NS: Some commentators have said that the uprisings now taking place are remarkable for being secular in nature. Do you think it's helpful to speak of them that way?

JB: Well, I am not at all sure why they're saying that. In Cairo, it was clearly the case that secular, Christian, and Muslim people were in the square, and that it was an impressive mixture. I would be interested to know who has access to the groups involved in Libya to know with certainty that they are secular. Perhaps some of us impose our ideological dreams on concrete situations that we either fail to investigate or have trouble finding out about.

NS: How relevant are these ideological dreams? Do you think that the question of whether these movements are secular is worth caring about?

JB: I myself do not care, and I wonder why people do. It seems to me that the secular/religious debate has not been at the forefront of these uprisings. They have been against censorship, military control, graft, and outrageous class differences, and they have been for various kinds of democratization. And we have seen women in these movements, veiled and unveiled, working together. It is clear that demands for democratization of various kinds are articulated through religious and secular discourses and practices, and sometimes a combination of the two.

NS: But isn't that precisely what seems so secular about these events? That those religious divisions are no longer the central issue?

JB: Well, you could say that religious difference is not central, or you could say that religious difference is ever-present. Perhaps both are true.

NS: Let's take a specific example. Would the revolution be "betrayed," in your view, if, say, the Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Egypt? Or if something comparable to the regime in Iran were to emerge?

JB: If the Muslim Brotherhood is elected to positions in government, and the elections are free and unconstrained, then that is a democratic outcome. Whether or not one wishes for that outcome, it cannot be contested as undemocratic if it follows from open and free elections. Democracy often means living with results that we find difficult, if not abhorrent. But I have been somewhat shocked that, in the face of this most impressive of uprisings, the "specter" of the Muslim Brotherhood is raised time and again as a way of diminishing and doubting the importance of this mass movement and revolutionary action. I think those biased against Islam will have to get used to the idea that demands for democratization can and do emerge within Muslim lexicons and practice, and that democratic polities can and must be composed of various groups, religious and not. Islam is clearly part of the mix.

To read the rest, go to http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2011/04/01/implicated-and-enraged-an-interview-with-judith-butler/

Friday, April 1, 2011

Panel video: How Now BDS? Media, Politics, and Queer Activism / pinkwatchingisrael.com

http://www.pinkwatchingisrael.com/how-now-bds/

Panel Video: How Now BDS? Media, Politics, and Queer Activism

A conversation with John Greyson and Judith Butler, moderated by Jasbir Puar.

This event, organized by Adalah-NY, was held on March 11 at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, as part of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) in NYC. John Greyson, Judith Butler and Jasbir Puar discussed new forms of activism in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, focusing on both the cultural and academic boycott and the importance of queer BDS activism in Palestine and elsewhere. "How Now BDS" centered on how BDS is done now, and what must still be done. The panelists also discussed the NYC LGBT Center's controversial decision to cancel the IAW event "Party to End Apartheid," and to ban the event organizers Siegebusters from holding its meetings there.

Judith Butler is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, and numerous other works. She is also active in gender and sexual politics and human rights, anti-war politics, and Jewish Voice for Peace.

John Greyson is a Toronto video artist/filmmaker whose features, shorts and installations include Fig Trees, Proteus, and Lilies. He is an associate professor in Film at York University.

Jasbir Puar is professor of Women's & Gender Studies at Rutgers University, the author of Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times , and a board member of the Audre Lorde Project. She has written on Israel's strategy of "pinkwashing," exploiting Israel's gay community to improve Israel's international image.

This year marked the 7th Annual International Israeli Apartheid Week and the 5th year that IAW was held in NYC.

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