Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Joseph Massad: The rights of Israel / english.aljazeera.net

Joseph Massad: The rights of Israel
May 6, 2011

Israel's "lawfare" against the Palestinian people is rooted in a ficticious narrative of having a "right" to exist.


Israel's "right to exist", and lately its "right to exist as a Jewish state" and the lack of commitment by Palestinians to this basic "right", is a major reason (if not the major one) used by Israel to deny Palestinians the rights accorded to them by international law. Joseph Massad provides excellent analysis around this issue and related ones.

He writes, in part:

"...one of the strongest and persistent arguments that the Zionist movement and Israel have deployed since 1948 in defence of the establishment of Israel and its subsequent policies is the invocation of the rights of Israel, which are not based on international law or UN resolutions. This is a crucial distinction to be made between the Palestinian and Israeli claims to possession of "rights." While the Palestinians invoke rights that are internationally recognised, Israel invokes rights that are solely recognised at the national level by the Israeli state itself. For Zionism, this was a novel mode of argumentation as, in deploying it, Israel invokes not only juridical principles but also moral ones.

In this realm, Israel has argued over the years that Jews have a right to establish a state in Palestine, that they have a right to establish a "Jewish" state in Palestine, that this state has a "right to exist," and that it has a "right to defend itself", which includes its subsidiary right to be the only country in the region to possess nuclear weapons, that it has the "right" to inherit all the biblical land that the Jewish God promised it, and a "right" to enact laws that are racially and religiously discriminatory in order to preserve the Jewish character of the state, otherwise articulated in the more recent formula of "a Jewish and democratic state". Israel has also insisted that its enemies, including the Palestinian people, whom it dispossesses, colonises, occupies, and discriminates against, must recognise all these rights, foremost among them its "right to exist as a Jewish state", as a condition for and a precursor to peace."


To read the full article, go to http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115684218533873.html

Racheli Gai.


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

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Sara Roy: The Impossible Union of Arab and Jew: Reflections on Dissent, Remembrance and redemption

An amazing lecture by Sara Roy. To my mind, a good piece to read (or re-read) during the week when the occupation began, 44 years ago. This is the Edward Said memorial talk, which was given in Adelaide, Australia, roughly 3 years ago. I'll also be thinking about Said a lot this week. He had such a huge influence on me, and is missed, constantly.

Here are a couple of quotes from the lecture:
"Why is it so difficult, even impossible to incorporate Palestinians and other Arab peoples into the Jewish understanding of history? Why is there so little perceived need to question our own narrative (for want of a better word) and the one we have given others, preferring instead to cherish beliefs and sentiments that remain impenetrable? Within the organized Jewish community especially, it has always been unacceptable to claim that Arabs, Palestinians especially, are like us, that they, too, possess an essential humanity
and must be included within our moral boundaries, ceasing to be "a kind of solution," a useful, hostile "other" to borrow from Edward [Said]. That any attempt at separation is artificial, an abstraction. We withhold mutuality and codify difference. Why is it virtually mandatory among Jewish intellectuals to oppose racism, repression and injustice almost anywhere in the world and unacceptable—indeed, for some, an act of heresy—to oppose it when Israel is the oppressor, choosing concealment over exposure? For many
among us history and memory adhere to preclude reflection and tolerance."

And another:

"I have come to accept that Jewish power and sovereignty and Jewish ethics and
spiritual integrity are, in the absence of reform, incompatible, unable to coexist or be reconciled. For if speaking out against the wanton murder of children is considered an act of disloyalty and betrayal rather than a legitimate and needed act of dissent, and where dissent is so ineffective and reviled, a choice is ultimately forced upon us between Zionism and Judaism."

Racheli Gai.


SARA ROY: THE IMPOSSIBLE UNION OF ARAB AND JEW: REFLECTIONS ON DISSENT, REMEMBRANCE AND REDEMPTION


http://www.adelaide.edu.au/esml/transcripts/2008/ESML-BY-Sara-ROY-2008.pdf
www.adelaide.edu.au

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

Sunday, June 5, 2011

War Zone Qalandiya - by Leehee Rothschild

"Two little girls half-fainted from the gas. In their tears the gas and fear mix together. I hug one of them as I put an alcohol pad to her face. Her mother and her sister are on the floor, on the other side of the room. Someone is taking care of them. Several moments go by. They sit and hug, leaning against the wall, trying to breathe, together"

(Leehee Rothschild)


5/6/2011 - Today is Naksa day, and reports are coming in about Israeli forces shooting and killing possibly tens of demonstrators on the Syrian side of the Golan border (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/20116591150521659.html).
According to journalist Joseph Dana, the Israeli army is also shooting civilians in Qalandiya, between Jerusalem and Ramallah (http://twitpic.com/57f6vp).

Israeli mainstream media's coverage of Palestinian civilian casualties caused by Israeli fire is very laconic. Minor headlines, no photos, no names, and often with the disclaimer of sorts "According to Palestinian sources...".

Would Israeli public opinion change to some extent, if Israelis saw what "riot dispersion" (alternative term - "apartheid enforcement") looks like from the viewpoint of Palestinian girls?

Leehee Rothschild, a young Israeli activist, spent Nakba day (15/5/2011) in Qalandiya, near Jerusalem. Her report, about the suffering of real people, with names and faces, follows.

Ofer Neiman

radicallyblonde.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/war-zone-qalandyia/

War Zone Qalandiya

It is Sunday morning, and I am at the Nakba Day protest in Qalandyia refugee camp. The long and beautiful march with the songs, slogans and high spirit has been dispersed quickly with massive shooting of tear-gas, and all attempts to resume the march have been dispersed as well, with ever growing violence.

I am running away from another salvo as I spot five adolescents carrying someone who was injured. No paramedic can be found in the area, so I run after them, my first aid kit on my back, hoping that I can be of some assistance. They bring him to a room that is open to the street, in a side alley. An ambulance is parked at the entrance, from which two other wounded people are being removed. Five or six paramedics and a single doctor are running around between several people, only thin blankets separating them from the floor, trying, at the very same time, to wave away the people crowding outside, waiting to find out about the condition of the friends that they have carried in earlier. I address the doctor, telling him I have got some basic first aid training, and offer my help. He gives me some instructions, shows me were the equipment lies, and tells me to care for the next wounded person that will be brought in.

The wounded are streaming in incessantly. Every minute, or two, three at most, an ambulance stops by the entrance, and three paramedics rush to it asking "Mutauta" or "Raz"? (Rubber bullets or gas?) While the injured are being carried off. Those in severe condition are carried in on a stretcher, which doesn't leave much space in the narrow room. Then they are clumsily taken off the stretcher. There is not enough time to follow the right procedure of carrying someone who has been wounded. The rest of them are carried in by paramedics and friends, who grab their legs and hands, and more often then not forget to support their heads, and place them on the floor, as close to the wall as possible, to make room for the wounded who are yet to arrive.

At these scarce and numbered moments of recess in the stream of wounded ones, we cut onions, reorganize the room and the equipment table. Piling gauze pads and bandages on one side, alcohol and cotton wool on the other, shaking and straightening blankets, and sweeping away all the onion leftovers that fall from them.

Most of the wounded people fainted from an overdose inhalation of tear-gas. Breathing some fresh air, an open shirt, a fresh onion scale leaf, and some light slapping usually suffice to help them regain consciousness. In the worst cases we bring the oxygen balloon. They lie and sit all around, gasping, coughing, taking short breaths, their eyes shut tightly against the pain, as the tears stream down their cheeks, and we gently try to lift the upper lid, and absorb the remnants of the gas. Others were directly hit by gas canisters and rubber bullets, and as time goes by we see more and more of these injuries.

At some point, we run out of oxygen, not metaphorically speaking. The last balloon is empty, and a guy is choking in our hands, and all we can offer him are a piece of onion, cotton wool, an encouraging touch, and the fear that is written all over our faces, that this time it will not suffice.

Scattered pictures… I am rolling a white bandage around Huria's head. She was hit by a rubber bullet in her temple. She is surrounded by friends, holding her and supporting her… Someone was directly hit by a gas canister in his chest. Luckily, the canister did not break the skin. Nonetheless there are some hectic moments. We can't find the stethoscope, or the blood pressure monitor. He will be fine… Two little girls half-fainted from the gas. In their tears the gas and fear mix together. I hug one of them as I put an alcohol pad to her face. Her mother and her sister are on the floor, on the other side of the room. Someone is taking care of them. Several moments go by. They sit and hug, leaning against the wall, trying to breathe, together. I give them one last look. There are many others that need my caring…. In a sideway look I spot a guy leaning against the wall. None of us has paid any attention to him, because he had already been treated. His head drops, his hand
becomes
limp, I run over to him, hold his hand, and start calling him "Mumtaz, Mumtaz". I am having a basic conversation, using my poor Arabic, trying to make him stay with me, so that he will not lose consciousness. So that we will not lose him… More, and more, and more.

After an hour, and dozens, if not more than that, of injured people taken care of, the improvised medical clinic is moving to a different location. I follow the paramedics down the street, as I spot someone falling, I rush over to take care of him. In all the turmoil I lose the others, so I rejoin the demonstration that goes on and on.

And all of that happened before they started shooting LIVE ammunition.

---

(Photos and video available at

radicallyblonde.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/war-zone-qalandyia/ )


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