The Latest from Mondoweiss for 09/17/2010

 

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Here are the headlines from Mondoweiss for 09/17/2010: Feeling the loyalty to the Jewish state Pressure grows on Harvard to cancel Peretz honor Rejecting the 'self-hatred' label Shining a light on the settlements The Search for 1948 Amira Hass: Israelis 'are incapable of imagining themselves departing from the privileges that this system confers' Harvard distances itself from Peretz, but event is still on A joke about Jewish exceptionalism When settlers attack Feeling the loyalty to the Jewish state Sep 16, 2010 06:30 pm | Max Blumenthal and Joseph Dana The Israeli Knesset is debating a bill proposed by David Rotem of the extreme right Yisrael Beiteinu party that would require all Israeli citizens to swear loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state." This bill is targeted at increasing pressure on the twenty percent of Israelis who are Palestinian citizens while forcing the ultra Orthodox Jewish minority who reject the legitimacy of any state not based on Jewish biblical law to accept Zionism. If passed in its proposed form, citizens unwilling to take the loyalty oath would be at risk of losing citizenship. Israeli leaders committed to a classic secular political Zionist platform have always fought at all costs to guard Israel's "Jewish character," even while they reveal their inability to properly define exactly what it is. The loyalty oath and push for a two-state solution are the most profound examples of the insecurity that has roiled beneath the surface in Jewish Israeli society since the state's inception. Without a Jewish majority exhibiting clear legal and political dominance over the non-Jewish or non-Zionist minority, the Zionist movement becomes meaningless. So as the Palestinian-Israeli minority actively resists its dispossession and the ultra-Orthodox stubbornly reject the concept of a Jewish state, the Israeli establishment feels increasingly compelled to seek draconian measures to salvage its vision of Zionism. The loyalty oath was one of the main platform issues for Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's far right Yisrael Beitenu party when it campaigned in 2009. "No citizenship without loyalty," was among Lieberman's most effective campaign slogans (his other slogan: "Only Lieberman speaks Arabic"), helping guide his party to an astonishing third place, with 15 of the 120 seats in Israeli Parliament. The draft bill currently debated in the Parliament would allow the Interior Ministry to strip even native Israelis of their nationality if they refused to swear allegiance to the Jewish state and "its symbols and values," and failed to profess their willingness to perform military service. Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, has explicitly endorsed the bill. After the proposed law failed its first reading in the Knesset due to opposition from a handful of liberal members of the ruling Likud party, Yisrael Beiteinu released the following statement: "Yisrael Beitenu will continue to act for Israel's basis as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state and will fight against disloyalty and the negative exploitation of Israeli democracy." In July, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet has approved a similar bill requiring all new citizens to take an oath of loyalty to the Jewish state. The measure would make attaining citizenship nearly impossible for Palestinians residing inside Israel. The following month, we met the loyalty bill's author, David Rotem, at his home in the illegal West Bank settlement of Efrat. A self-described "very Zionistic" politician with a hulking frame and a pronounced limp resulting from a bout of polio, Rotem described in a gravely voice his vision of Israeli democracy. "Tyranny of the majority is the heart of democracy," he declared. "Call it what you want but democracy is the rule of the majority. And it's not a tyranny if the majority decides against the minorities." Besides the loyalty oath bill, political factions ranging from far-right settler parties to opposition leader Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima Party have proposed no less than 14 pieces of legislation this year which the Association for Civil Rights in Israel defines as anti-democratic. (Rotem is the author of six of the bills). They include laws that would send citizens to jail for encouraging the rejection of Israel as a Jewish state, strip filmmakers of state funding if their work was deemed anti-Israel, and prosecute any Israeli who publishes material calling for a boycott of Israel. Other lesser-publicized bills have been introduced to block Palestinian residents of Israel from returning to confiscated land or from reuniting with family members from the West Bank or Gaza. While leftist Israelis chant, "Fascism will not pass!" at demonstrations in East Jerusalem, former Knesset member and commentator Yossi Sarid entitled a recent column, "Fascism is already here." Citing the swath of anti-democratic bills being debated in the Knesset, the support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet have offered for most of them, and the near total lack of opposition from the Israeli mainstream, Sarid remarked, "Israeli democracy is mainly for decoration, like a tree grown for its beauty, not to bear fruit. Few people actually use it or the rights it affords." Of all the anti-democratic bills recently introduced in the Knesset, Rotem's loyalty law carries the most disturbing undertones, recalling some of the darkest periods in recent history. Well before the Nazi government initiated its campaign of genocide against Germany's Jewish minority, its political leadership introduced the "stab-in-the-back" legend, accusing Jews in a virtual mantra of disloyalty to the German army and a general lack of patriotism. During the anticommunist furor of America's McCarthy era, teachers and lawmakers in several states were forced to sign loyalty oaths to prove they were not "subversive," prompting a crackdown on public servants, including a disproportionate number of Jews, who believed their constitutional rights were being violated. In Israel, a right-wing student group called Im Tirtzu which has gained endorsements from Netanyahu and his education minister Gideon Saar has demanded a purge of all "post-Zionist and anti-Zionist" professors from the university system. To support Im Tirtzu's campaign, a popular Israeli singer named Amir Benayoun recorded a song hectoring Israeli leftists and Arabs for "knifing" Israel in the back. It contained the following lyrics: After they failed to kill me from the outside You come and kill me from inside I always charge forward with my back to you But you sharpen the knife An Experiment In Fascism With a fascist mood permeating Israeli government and society, we set out into the streets of central Jerusalem to engage young revelers on the issue of loyalty. Because Israel is debating legislation claiming that it is alone the Jewish sovereign state and has the authority to speak in the name of the "Jewish people," we thought that the opinions of supporters of Israel from the Jewish diaspora were an essential element in any discussion about the proposed loyalty bill. Given the already simmering controversy over 'dual loyalty' in the United States, the topic needed to be explored thoroughly and unflinchingly. Did the Zionist loyalty oath represent a fulcrum point in the 'dual loyalty' debate for diaspora Jews? Would diaspora Jews have any objection to taking an oath to defend the Jewish state? If so, did that put their allegiance to their country of residence in question? Ultimately, we sought to determine the extent to which the Jewish public in Israel and abroad was ready to accept fascism in any form. To get a better sense of public opinion -- an incomplete snapshot, but a sense nonetheless -- we asked interview subjects if they would swear before our camera an oath of loyalty to the Jewish state. Our oath was deliberately crafted with the most provocative language possible, based almost word-for-word on the Führereid, or the oath that Wehrmacht soldiers had to swear to Adolph Hitler from 1934 to 1945. The Wehrmacht oath read as follows: I swear by God this holy oath, that I want to offer unconditional obedience to the Fuhrer of the German Empire and people, Adolf Hitler, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, and be prepared as a brave soldier to risk my life for this oath at any time. And here is the oath of loyalty to the Jewish state that our interview subjects read on camera: I swear by Hashem [the Jewish God] that I want to offer unconditional loyalty to the Jewish state of Israel, to its leaders and the commanders of its Jewish army. I am prepared as a loyal supporter of the Jewish state to risk my life for this oath at any time. Were we suggesting that the Jewish state of Israel represented a new incarnation of Hitler's Third Reich? Of course not. We repudiate sweeping comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany as shallow and ahistorical. Instead, we imagined our video project as a version of the "Third Wave" experiment undertaken by history teacher Ron Jones at Cubberly High School in Southern California in 1967. Seeking to demonstrate the susceptibility of average citizens to fascism, Jones ordered his students to accept a regimen of strict discipline and community including sig heil salutes, responding to questions while standing and in three words or less, and carrying membership cards at all times. "Strength through discipline," was the motto of the movement Jones claimed to be promoting. By the fourth day of the experiment, the students' enthusiasm for the project had spread to other classes throughout the school. Finally, Jones ordered his students to attend a rally where a presidential candidate from their "Third Wave" movement would announce his candidacy. When the students arrived, however, Jones revealed to them that they had been subjects in an experiment about the appeal of fascism, and that they had eagerly replicated the structure of Nazi German society. Our own experiment exposed an equally disturbing trend among the young Israelis and Jewish supporters of Israel we spoke to. In some cases, our interview subjects eagerly requested to read the loyalty oath on camera without any prompting, and added their own personal touch to it -- usually they emphasized phrases like "Jewish state" and "Jewish army." These subjects were generally new immigrants who had left their families behind in order to join the army and a brand new life in Israel. Jewish internationals (most were studying at Jerusalem-area yeshivas for the year) who took the oath defended it on the basis that Israel was a state for the Jews, and therefore did not have to comply with the regulations of normal Western democracies. Only two interviewees refused to take the oath. Though they based their refusal on the possibility that Israel might commit grave human rights crimes in the distant future, they were admittedly unable to define the nature of the abuses that would turn them against the state. If our interviews demonstrated anything, it is that anyone in any country can fall prey to the psychological lures of fascism. Jews are no exception. This article originally appeared on Alternet. Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author based in New York City. Joseph Dana is a writer and filmmaker living in Jerusalem. Comment on this article > Pressure grows on Harvard to cancel Peretz honor Sep 16, 2010 06:28 pm | Adam Horowitz The Harvard Social Studies Committee is meeting tomorrow to make a final decision on whether to move forward with their event planned to honor Marty Peretz. A source at Harvard tells me, "there is a LOT of internal dissent on this." One sign of that dissent is this open letter that is ciruclating from "concerned members of the Social Studies Community and others at Harvard." The letter reads: Dear organizers of the Social Studies 50th anniversary commemoration:  As members of the Social Studies community, we strongly oppose the decision to feature Martin Peretz as a speaker at the 50th anniversary of Social Studies, as well as the reported creation of a fund for undergraduate research in his name.  As you know, Peretz has publicly aligned himself with the xenophobic campaign against the proposed Islamic cultural center in Manhattan, lauding it as "the closest thing we've had to a genuinely grass roots effort against the casual and elitist First Amendment fundamentalists." He insists as "a statement of fact, not value" that "Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims."  These remarks cannot be dismissed as an aberration.  Peretz has a long and sordid public record of racist statements directed against various groups.  He has described "Arab society" as "hidebound and backward" and claimed (in an article later removed from The New Republic website) that "We have higher standards of civilization than [Arabs] do."  He has opined that "Latin societ[ies]" enjoy "characteristic deficiencies" such as "congenital corruption" and "near-tropical work habits."  Peretz has declared that "So many in the black population are afflicted by cultural deficiencies" and that "in the ghetto a lot of mothers don't appreciate the importance of schooling."1  Peretz' belated attempt to "apologize" for a portion of a recent blog posting about Muslims – prompted only by condemnation in The New York Times – does not erase this legacy of bigotry.  We are aware that on this occasion some may prefer to ignore Peretz' vitriol and instead focus purely on his role in the Social Studies program.  We also understand the appeal of accepting donations that would support student research.  There are, however, larger concerns at stake that call for a principled stand at this moment.  Social Studies describes itself as a community of independent thinkers "who share not only a fascination with social science research and theory but also concerns about pressing social, political, and economic problems facing contemporary societies." Today in the United States there is an unmistakable and alarming resurgence of the open expression of racist and xenophobic attitudes, in this case directed against Muslims.  We cannot ignore the historical moment in which we live.  And we can be sure that history will not ignore a decision to publicly honor Martin Peretz. You can read and sign the open letter here. Comment on this article > Rejecting the 'self-hatred' label Sep 16, 2010 01:51 pm | Lillian Rosengarten Lillian Rosengarten is due to set out soon on the Jewish boat for Gaza. Within the context of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the charge of "self-hating Jew" or "Jewish anti-Semite" can only be understood as an ugly way to strike back at those Jews who speak out in protest against the Israeli government's continuing and brazen violations of the human rights of the Palestinian population. The insulting accusation "Self-hating Jew" is intended by intolerant dogmatists to undermine and intimidate those of us who speak and act in defiance of the Zionists' embrace of nationalism and militarism, and the decades of suppression and hatred toward the Palestinians. Those who invoke the label are desperate to quell opposition to the continuing oppression, and occupation of Palestinian lands. By building a psychological wall against their critics, they hope to justify their policies to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this includes those members of AIPAC and many of those who so far have been unwilling to face the painful truths. But the fact is that extreme Jewish nationalists have shattered the once-beautiful dream of Israel as a beacon of hope and light for the rest of the world to appreciate and admire. Try to imagine what would have happened if the new state of Israel had reached out to embrace their neighbors in a spirit of peace and conciliation. Can anyone imagine the beauty of Israel if compassion and an open heart had healed the hate and fear that marked the Holocaust years? Instead, it seems to me that today's Israeli agenda is based on a desire for a Zionist Jewish state that diminishes the aspirations of all other populations who claim any right to the land in which they lived for so long. But when land is taken and occupied, when populations are under siege, and there is no attempt at genuine reconciliation, there can be no peace, only a perpetuation of hate. From this perspective, it is the accused who becomes righteous and the accuser who is demonized as "Self–hating Jew." I ache for Israel and its path of blind destruction. I ache for the displaced and brutalized Palestinians who suffer under the hands of their oppressors. But it is not easy for Jewish dissenters to speak out. They are made outcasts within the Jewish communities. They are not supported even by some progressive Jews, who take a hard line position in support of the Israeli government or are too intimidated to speak out. My disillusionment has been devastating as I have watched how the scalding memory of the Holocaust is now misused to justify and defend appalling acts of injustice, the occupation, the military might, the prisons, the destruction of homes, the containment of the water supply, the wars against Lebanon and the inhabitants of Gaza, the threats of bombing Iran. How can we accept the loss of the human spirit and of hope for generations of displaced Palestinian families? How can we forget the children, born into hate, living still in crowded camps, breeding grounds for endless terrorism and further conflict. It was difficult for me to observe the demonization of Judge Richard Goldstone, a jurist and South African proud Jew who set out to investigate human rights and international humanitarian human rights violations during the Gaza conflict last year. He concluded that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes. Here was an opportunity to reflect and discuss, to have debates and engage in further investigations on both sides. Shockingly, his findings were met with labels of "self-hating Jew". It is a complicated question, how a hunted people became the hunters, how the victims became the victimizers. It may well be that it is the Israelis who feel the most persecuted; many of them still carry generations of hatred inflicted on them and surely it has shaped the direction of their society. In my view, this hatred has been projected onto the "other"-- be it Palestinian or Bedouin, Muslim or dissenting Jew. In order to change the cycle of endless suffering for Jews and Palestinians, the Israeli powers that be can only benefit from self -examination, and honest and open dialogue which includes the "enemy." The goal must be mutual commonality and an end to demonizing the other. Left unexamined, the projection of hate onto those with other views and with diverse political persuasions succeeds only in perpetuating endless suffering and further hatred that festers, destroys and grows more virulent with each new generation. Comment on this article > Shining a light on the settlements Sep 16, 2010 12:54 pm | Adam Horowitz Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon have an article on The Nation website in support of the Israeli actors boycott of the new performing center in the West Bank settlement Ariel. They write that part of the power of the action is that it brings attention to the reality of life in the occupied territories, which is often ignored. From An Unsettling Protest in Israel: Ariel, with a population of about 18,000, is one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Already extending twelve miles past the Green Line, Ariel continues to grow. In January Israel announced the development of the Ariel University Center, with plans to triple the size of the campus of a local college and to build a neighborhood for housing the new faculty and staff. The settlement is one of the sites of the expansion criticized by President Obama last year, when he pushed Israel to adopt a freeze in new settlement construction as a step toward renewing peace negotiations (as every American president since settlements began in 1967 has had occasion to do). Ariel cuts deep into the West Bank, blocking off villages from one another, forcing Palestinians to travel extra-long distances around the settlement to reach the area's commercial center of Salfit. Villages to the north are cut off from Salfit altogether by Ariel's bypass road. Salfit itself has no room to expand for economic development or population growth because Israel has claimed every bit of land around it, and a few years ago the Israeli army prevented the town from building a water-treatment plant. Meanwhile, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, Ariel's sewage runs down into the Palestinians' agricultural valleys – a blatant metaphor for the way settlers' privileges come at the cost of Palestinian human rights. You can drive easily from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem onto the four-lane settlement road and arrive in this Jews-only bedroom community of pretty, red-roofed houses and suburban shopping centers – and the John Hagee Sports Center, named after the Texas televangelist who has donated millions of dollars to the settlement – and not notice that you've actually left Israel. The theater artists who will not play in Ariel are refusing because they want to break through this carefully constructed illusion of seamlessness to shine their spotlights on the true nature of such places.   Comment on this article > The Search for 1948 Sep 16, 2010 11:39 am | Hannah Mermelstein The following is a chapter from the important new book Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation. From the book's website, "Shifting Sands brings to life the Jewish anti-occupation perspective through personal stories by activists such as Starhawk, Anna Baltzer, Jen Marlowe, Alice Rothchild, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein (of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla) and others." The book also includes introductory material from Cindy Sheehan and Amira Hass. Shifting Sands is available on Amazon.com. "Where do you want to go?" asked the taxi driver, expecting to give me a short ride and collect a few shekels. "Baqa'a," I replied, "but it's a bit of a project." The West Jerusalem neighborhood of Baqa'a was only a ten-minute drive from our location in East Jerusalem. The "project" was that the house I was looking for had existed 60 years ago, and time travel takes somewhat more detective work than the simple recitation of an address. "I'm looking for a house from 1948," I told the driver, who introduced himself as Abed. I handed him Munir's diagram of a house that looked similar to hundreds of other old homes in the Jerusalem area. "Is it yours?" he asked. "No, a friend's." I had recently discovered that my friend Munir, whom I know from Boston and had always known as Lebanese, had actually been born in Jerusalem. In 1948, at the age of four, he and his family, along with 800,000 Palestinian people, were forced out of their home by pre-Israeli forces. The family fled to Lebanon, where Munir's father, Najeeb Jirmanus, had lived before moving to Jerusalem 20 years earlier. Nobody in the family had been back to Palestine since 1948, so I asked Munir if, on my next trip to Jerusalem, he would like me to try and find his house. He gathered some information, including a few nearby landmarks and a diagram of the house, which Abed was now studying. Abed agreed to help. I sat quietly, hoping he knew the neighborhoods well enough to help me. I had planned to seek out an older taxi driver, possibly someone who spoke English so I could make sure to communicate every detail I knew. Abed was a young man who spoke very little English, but he seemed interested in and moved by the project. He immediately began to call all the older people he knew. "Do you know where the Jordanian embassy was before 1948?" he would ask, offering up our major landmark. "Yes," one man told him, "but it wasn't in Baqa'a." "No," said another, "there was barely a Jordan at that time. How could there be a Jordanian embassy?" So we began to drive, looking for the other smaller landmarks or for people who might recognize Munir's father's name. Abed would pull over next to every older person he saw (Palestinian or Israeli), and ask about the Ummah school, the Jordanian embassy, and the British army women's headquarters. Some people were vaguely helpful, some not. A few informed us in a slightly insulted tone that they were not yet born in 1948. We left Baqa'a and crossed the street to another, mostly Palestinian neighborhood. We thought we would have a better chance of finding people who wanted to and could actually help, having perhaps been in the neighborhood before 1948. Not two minutes later, we passed an old man and Abed stopped. We got out of the car, said hello, and explained what we were doing. "You're in luck," said the man, "I know more about these neighborhoods than anyone else in the area." Before I knew it, his wife was serving me coffee in the middle of the street. The man suggested she and his daughters go ahead without him, as he would join us in the taxi in exchange for a ride home afterwards. We drove for half an hour with little success, and then the man suggested we stop at an old house on the corner. We knocked on the door, and an old Israeli man answered. He took one look at the three of us and asked, "Are you looking for someone who used to live here?" He opened the door and let us in. "You're in luck," he said, "I know more about these neighborhoods than anyone else in the area." So here I was inside a house with Abed the taxi driver and two older men, one Palestinian and one Israeli, who said they knew everything there was to know about this part of Jerusalem. They talked for a few minutes and argued amicably for a few more in a combination of Hebrew, Arabic, and English. The interaction had an air of pre-Zionism to it that is difficult to explain. They used language of "Arab" and "Jew" instead of "Palestinian" and "Israeli," which many people do, but it seemed more appropriate in this situation than usual. As though nationalism and the way it has played out could not taint this simple human search for an old home. I had started the trip late in the day. By this time it was getting dark, and I was running late for a meeting. We had gathered some information that might help us for next time, and I had a few questions to ask Munir. We took our leave, after writing down the name and phone number of the Israeli man so we could try again another day. *** Two weeks later, with semi-clear skies above after a week of nonstop rain, I made plans to meet Abed in Jerusalem. This time, I was armed with more precise directions from Munir, including names of other people who lived and worked in the area and, most importantly, a photograph taken from their front yard in 1940. Abed met me and excitedly said he knew where the house was, that he had gone back there after our last search. I showed him the photograph and we drove towards the area. We parked and began to walk around, holding up the photograph to each gate and entrance. We found one house that looked similar; however, there was a huge construction project under way directly on top of it. We approached and asked the Palestinian construction workers what they knew about the house, which wasn't much. We were stopped on the way out by an Israeli manager. Abed explained in Hebrew that we were trying to find a house. The man glanced at the photo and said, "Yes, this looks like the house." Another manager came out and ordered us off the property. "This isn't the house," he said. "There was nothing here before 1948." Feeling torn, we stood outside for a few minutes and looked around. "We need to find an Israeli to help us," said Abed finally. "They think you and I are here to claim the house because I'm Arab and you have papers in your hand. They don't know we're only here to look and photograph." "We should take the house," I replied, only half joking. At this point, we realized this was probably not the house. The gate looked the same but we couldn't figure out the angles in the photograph and it just didn't seem right. Another older Israeli man on the street asked if he could help. Abed explained that we were searching for a house, and the man joined us for the next 20 minutes as we walked around the neighborhood. We kept finding similar sights, but none of them fit together. Finally he asked, "Are you sure the house is in the German Colony?" "No," I replied, "it's in Baqa'a." Apparently, the older Israeli man who had helped us the first time had convinced Abed to come to this area and I, unfamiliar with West Jerusalem's neighborhoods, had gone along for the ride. Realizing we were in the wrong neighborhood, we got back into the car and headed to the Israeli man's house, where we had paused our search two weeks earlier. He answered the door and I shared my new information with him. The house we were searching for was near the Trans-Jordanian consulate, I told him, not the Jordanian embassy, and there was a road that went down from the main street towards their house. These two pieces of information were all he needed. He followed me out to the street, pointed, and said, "Go two more traffic lights. The Allenby building is probably what you mean, and that's on your left. There's a street that goes down from there on the right." We quickly drove those two blocks, turned right, parked, and started walking down. The streets were different than they were described to me, and the building supposedly on the corner wasn't there. But sure enough, after a few minutes of meandering, I found myself in front of the large building that was in the background of the photo I was holding. I positioned myself exactly at the angle that the photo was taken from, and looked around. One street continued to go down, so I took it. To my right was a synagogue that I guessed was either Munir's property or their neighbor's. I hoped it was not his, that I would not have to tell him his house had been completely destroyed and replaced by a synagogue. We passed the synagogue and stopped in front of the gate to the next house. This was it. Different from the photo, but with the same dimensions, and seemingly the right distance from the larger building up the street. We entered and found ourselves on the stone path described in the e-mail I had in my hand from Munir's older brother: "…continue along the stone-paved path… some 8 meters, you reach the level of the house… Move some 10 more meters and you will have the six stone steps (to the left) that lead up to the veranda and you will then be facing the main door, entrance to the house." I was facing the main door, the entrance to the house. I thought about knocking on the door, but (in case we didn't get a warm reception here either) wanted to take in as much as possible first. As I walked around the perimeter of the house, I wondered which plants and trees had been there when Munir was a child. Finally, Abed knocked. No answer. We waited a few minutes and then left. About five minutes later, I came back alone to take more photos, and the door to the house was open. I walked to the entrance, knocked, and said "hello?" A man appeared. "My name is Hannah, I'm from the United States, and I have a friend who I think used to live in this house before 1948. Can I come in and look?" He hesitated, then let me in, introducing himself as Israel. When I asked if I could photograph inside, he hesitated, but again agreed. I asked how long he had been living there, and he replied that it had only been a few years. He said he rented the place from a French Israeli man who has owned it for about five years. Before that, he said, the building was owned by a Moroccan Israeli family. "Since 1948?" I asked. "Well, the government probably had it first and then gave it to them, but yes, for a long time." I kept photographing, staying quiet as I worried he might change his mind. As I was putting my gear away and getting ready to leave, Israel turned to me as though he had something to say. "The reason I let you in," he said, "is that one time my sister went back to Morocco to find our family house. The man currently living there wouldn't let her in. She cried and cried, and finally he let her in, but he wouldn't let her photograph. This is why I let you in and let you photograph." Seeing this as an opening, I asked, "Would you want to return to Morocco?" "No," he replied, almost laughing at the suggestion. "If the situation changed?" "No, Morocco is for the Moroccans and Israel is for the Israelis." "What about the Palestinians?" I replied. "We were here first," he said, "thousands of years ago. This is our land; it says so in the bible." I had noticed all the Torahs and other religious texts in the house, so it did not surprise me that he was religious. "Sixty years ago my friend was living here," I said. "History doesn't start in 1948," he answered. I briefly considered sharing with him something my Palestinian friend from Hebron often says: "It's written in the Torah that Abraham came here to Hebron and bought a cave, right? Well, who did he buy that cave from? My great, great, great… grandfather!" Knowing, though, that this Israeli man's argument was not rooted in, or concerned with, reliable historic analysis, I decided there was no use arguing with religion. We said an awkward goodbye (saying "thank you" did not seem appropriate in this situation), and I left. My search for 1948 was almost over. But not quite yet… *** After receiving the photographs I sent, Munir and his brother were thrilled to confirm that this was indeed their house and asked if I might be able to find any legal documentation to corroborate this. Not knowing where to start, I turned to a Canadian-Israeli friend, who agreed to help track down whatever she could. She visited the local Registry of Deeds in Jerusalem, which manages land deeds for the municipality. After being sent from office to office and compiling information about the current address and plot number (according to Israeli zoning laws, not the memories of the prior owners), she finally had the information she needed. She returned to the Registry of Deeds. The clerk looked at the address and block number and said they had no record of the property before 1992. When she protested, he sent her to the microfilm, saying she could search through it all she wanted. So she did. After almost giving up, she came upon a document that seemed to be for the right property. The document was from the British Mandate period, and was thus written in English. She scanned the paper: 672 square meters, original owners' names… and then, finally, proof of sale of the property in whole on January 6, 1932, to one Najeeb Jirmanus. *** There is something about finding the land registry hidden in the microfilm of Israel's archives (after being told in effect that the property did not exist before 1992) that reminds me that nothing lies too deep under the surface in this part of the world. Beneath every Israeli road lies the dirt of an agricultural path from centuries before. Below every kibbutz field lie the remains of a destroyed Palestinian village. Under all the modern-day addresses and block numbers in the Registry of Deeds office live the memories of a people who cannot forget an old front gate, the very number of steps to their front door, the views from their porch, the place that—despite Israel's refusal to implement the right of return for more than 60 years—many still call home. Hannah Mermelstein is an activist and aspiring radical librarian based in Brooklyn, NY. She has lived in Palestine for more than two of the past six years, and is co-creator of Birthright Unplugged and Re-Plugged, Needle in the Groove, and Students Boycott Apartheid. In Brooklyn, Hannah works primarily with the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI) and the Palestine Education Project (PEP). She hopes to use library and archives skills to continue the search for 1948 and support the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Comment on this article > Amira Hass: Israelis 'are incapable of imagining themselves departing from the privileges that this system confers' Sep 16, 2010 11:28 am | Seham And other news from Today in Palestine: Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing Sources: No compromise on settlements RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- American mediators may step in and offer a solution to the settlements issue, an informed source told Ma'an on Wednesday.  Citing what the source called precedents in the talks in both Washington and Egypt, the source said that on a growing number of occasions mediators had intervened during crisis points, and offered median solutions to the issues at hand. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315252 Abbas warns settlement building will end talks: Palestinians (AFP) AFP - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned new settlement construction would end peace talks after the Israeli premier told him on Wednesday building will continue, a senior Palestinian official said. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100915/wl_afp/israelpalestinianspeaceusdiplomacyabbas PM to Abbas: We'll continue building in settlements During talks in Jerusalem, Netanyahu tells Palestinian president his stance on West Bank construction has not changed. PMO: No compromises on Israel's security needs. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3954938,00.html EU to call on Israel to extend settlement halt Draft of conclusions from EU summit calls on Israel, Palestinians 'to observe calm and restraint,' avoid moves that could strain negotiation process. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3954952,00.html Homes For 27,000 Constructed During Israeli Settlements Freeze The so-called settlement freeze in the Palestinian territories is a myth. No freeze has ever been implemented, in fact the settlements have been expanding dramatically during the moratorium. Additionally, another 13,000 homes have been approved for the West Bank, together with two new colonies near Nablus and the Jordan Valley. http://story.philippinetimes.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/0267775d6f1c3971/id/685191/cs/1/ Israeli Settlers Take Over Palestinian Farm Lands Near Nablus Nablus – PNN – a group of Israeli settlers took over on Thursday more Palestinian farm lands near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The 30 Donoms of land ( 7.5 acres ) belongs to farmers from the village of  Jaloud near Nablus, local sources said that this is the second time the settlers take over villagers lands. Earlier in the month settlers took over 3 acres of villagers lands.  Settler's attacks increased in the past two week after Palestinian fighters killed four of them and injured two others in two different attacks near West Bank settlements earlier in the month.  Since May of this year Israeli settlers and military attacks on Palestinian communities in Gaza and the West Bank has left 14 civilians killed. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8780&Itemid=64 Israeli authorities demolish four Palestinian homes in Negev Israeli municipal authorities razed four Palestinian homes on Wednesday in the Negev villages of Fara'a, Tel Arad, Bani Yacaba and Al-Sayyad, local sources reported.  [Hamas website, may not be accessible to all] http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz Israeli air raid destroys soap factory in southern Gaza Israeli air raids at dawn Thursday blasted a soap factory in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, and deserted land causing severe material damage to the factory.  [Hamas website, may not be accessible to all] http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx Settlers make renewed attempt on Jlem home JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Jerusalem's Qeresh family said friends and neighbors helped them resist what witnesses described as an attempted home take over on Wednesday.  The event reportedly began in the early morning in the As-Sa'diyah neighborhood in the old city of Jerusalem, as Israeli settlers entered a wing of the family home and allegedly began removing furniture. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315362 How Israeli-Palestinian battle for Jerusalem plays out in one neighborhood The Israeli-Palestinian battle for Jerusalem is playing out in Silwan between Arab residents, religious Jews, and a municipality looking to revitalize its storied global brand. http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/iqrOKkGc4ws/How-Israeli-Palestinian-battle-for-Jerusalem-plays-out-in-one-neighborhood Top 5 reasons Jerusalem is such a thorny issue Jerusalem is considered by many to be the trickiest issue to resolve in a two-state solution to Middle East peace. Israelis see the city as their "undivided and eternal capital" but Palestinians also seek to put their future capital in East Jerusalem, which is predominantly Arab. http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/62EeM17OyV0/Top-5-reasons-Jerusalem-is-such-a-thorny-issue The pharaoh of Jerusalem, Philip Weiss In the last two days two guides have taken me through the geography of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, and I'm staggered. I wonder why this monstrous structure is not better known, even to people like me, who study the conflict. I wonder how it is that American reporters are not describing the racist devouring of Jerusalem every day in our newspapers and showing it every night on our television news. I wonder why our politicians, or our liberal Democratic ones anyway, are not holding angry press conferences in front of the repulsive separation wall as it lunges to separate a Palestinian village from virtually all its connections to the outside world, so as to privilege the lifestyle, and short commute, of Jews in the new development on the hilltop above them. http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/the-pharaoh-of-jerusalem.html Where has the hypocrisy gone?, Amira Hass Lieberman the non-hypocrite knows what he's talking about when he says no peace agreement will be signed, even in another generation. A peace agreement is not a business contract. It requires a change of values of a kind that does not exist within the vocabulary of the democratic Jewish state, which elevates the system of double standards to a level of virtuosity. The people of this state are incapable of imagining themselves departing from the privileges that this system confers. And who cares if the flip side of those privileges is dispossession, suppression of freedoms and the risk of regional conflagration? http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/where-has-the-hypocrisy-gone-1.313887 Plastic flowers, Gideon Levy Yes, the settlements are no more than plastic flowers - wedged into foreign soil and never producing anything but their own ugliness. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/plastic-flowers-1.314086 West Bank settlers indignant over Obama's pressure GEVA BINYAMIN // Penina Abitbul, a Jewish settler in the West Bank, is fed up with the United States telling her country what to do.  "The policy of Israel is whatever America says," claimed Mrs Abitbul, who moved to this hilltop settlement 19 years ago. "But America isn't on the right side." The "right" side for her, she quickly added, is "Israel's side".  What has arroused her ire and that of many other settlers this week is the increasing pressure from Washington on Israel to extend a 10-month moratorium on settlement building due to expire at the end of the month. http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100916/FOREIGN/709159787/1135 Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment Military Prosecution Demands More Than Two Years Imprisonment for Bil'in's Abdallah Abu Rahmah The sentencing phase in the trial of Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, began yesterday at the Ofer Military Court. Abu Rahmah was convicted of organizing illegal marches and of incitement last month, but cleared of the violence charges he was indicted for – stone-throwing and a vindictive arms-possession charge for collecting used tear-gas projectiles and displaying them.  The prosecution demanded Abu Rahmah will be sent to prison for a period exceeding two years, saying that as an organizer, a harsh sentence is required to serve as a deterrence not only for Abu Rahmah himself, but to others who may follow in his footsteps as well. This statement by the prosecution affirms the political motivation behind the indictment, and the concern raised by EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, that "the possible imprisonment of Mr Abu Rahma is intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the separation barriers in a non violent manner." http://palsolidarity.org/2010/09/14590/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29 Jamal Juma: The real obstacle to peace in the Levant is the presence of a criminal, racist state Illegal settlements on Palestinian land are one of the biggest stumbling blocks for these talks. The Palestinians have warned that they will walk out of talks if a freeze on settlement construction, which is set to expire at the end of the month, is not extended. http://pulsemedia.org/2010/09/15/jamal-juma-the-real-obstacle-to-peace-is-the-apartheid-state-of-israel/ Protests in Nablus against return to talks NABLUS (Ma'an) -- More than 100 Palestinians demonstrated in Nablus Wednesday, protesting the return of Palestinian negotiators to talks with Israel.  Organized by leftist factions including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestine People's Party and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the protests were the first in Nablus, and followed a series of calls against a return to talks hosted in Ramallah. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315351 Seven Million Back Biggest British Boycott At their annual conference this week the TUC, Britain's all-encompassing trade union coalition, announced their most comprehensive boycott policy yet. It targets settlement goods as well as companies profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. The motion to boycott and disinvest from these companies passed unanimously on behalf of the TUC's seven million members. The announcement will increase pressure on British retailers to cut ties with suspect suppliers. http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1539 Help Mondoweiss continue to grow – give a tax deductible donation today Mondoweiss is growing - we've had over 700,000 unique visitors and 1.2 million page views in the past three months alone. This traffic is being driven by our coverage of the stories that matter to you: the Eden Abergil Facebook scandal, the recent anti-Semitism conference at Yale University, the rising tide of Islamophobia in the US and daily news from Israel/Palestine. Our work is getting noticed, but we need your support to help this to continue. http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/help-mondoweiss-continue-to-grow-%e2%80%93-give-a-tax-deductible-donation-today.html Viva Palestina; A Global Lifeline To Gaza To Launch September 18 "The convoy will be headed by former UK legislator, George Galloway, and will start its trip in front of the British parliament." http://www.imemc.org/article/59422 On Gaza, Artists Speak Out Terry Jones, Annie Lennox, Thandie Newton, Alexei Sayle, Mike Figgis, Katharine Hamnett and Jason Flemyng, voice their support for Amnesty International's ongoing efforts to secure justice for both Palestinians and Israelis and make an impassioned plea for Israel to cease its illegal siege of Gaza. http://pulsemedia.org/2010/09/16/on-gaza-artists-speak-out/ Anti Former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar launches pro-Israel initiative As the Obama administration tries to negotiate peace between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East, back here in Washington a group of international figures convened at the Ritz Carlton Tuesday night under the banner of a new group, the "Friends of Israel Initiative." http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/15/former_spanish_prime_minister_jose_maria_aznar_launches_pro_israel_initiative Another great reason to boycott Walmart:  Real estate company looking to bring Wal-Mart to Israel Minrav is not looking to hold a franchise. Rather, it wants to build stores that would meet Wal-Mart's needs and then lease or sell them outright to the company. http://www.haaretz.com/business/real-estate-company-looking-to-bring-wal-mart-to-israel-1.313881?localLinksEnabled=false Israeli intel firm behind Pennsylvania's 'terror' bulletins on peace, environment, LGBT groups, Ali Abunimah What AP does not say is that ITRR is an Israeli "security" and "anti-terrorism" company -- and like most of such companies has close ties to Israeli military and intelligence. According to ITRR's website, the group describes itself as "the preeminent Israeli/American security firm providing training, intelligence and education to clients across the globe." http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/israeli-intel-firm-behind-pennsylvanias-terror-bulletins-on-peace-environment-lgbt-groups.html The Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Humanitarian/Restriction of Movement/Human Rights/Racism Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (08-15 September 2010) http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MDCS-89CGZ6?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P High Court: Tax benefits inequitable, discriminate against Arabs High Court decision follows petition alleging that provision of substantial benefits without evident criteria contravenes the right to equality. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/high-court-tax-benefits-inequitable-discriminate-against-arabs-1.314039?localLinksEnabled=false Israeli discrimination drives kids from school Due to the endemic poverty in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank, hundreds of Palestinian children are forced on to the streets by parents who are living below the poverty level in a desperate bid to eke out a few extra dollars to help their families survive. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11520 Children of the gravel On Saturday, May 22, 2010, Hasan, 17, was shot in the leg in the now-defunct Erez industrial area in the northern Gaza Strip: "I was collecting gravel with the other workers, when one of the Israeli soldiers in the watchtower fired a shot which hit me in the right leg. I immediately fell to the ground in great pain. Everyone started running away, except for one youngster who I didn't know, who came and tried to help me, but he couldn't lift me". In the meantime, the soldiers kept firing and the boy who came to help Hasan also had to run away. Finally, Hasan was rushed to hospital. "My leg was in a cast for two months, and now I still can't walk properly and feel pain whenever I move it. I don't know when I will be able to walk again, even though my family needs the money, and there are no other alternatives". http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/09/children-of-the-gravel/ There Is No Care Here For Our Daughter At All WHO – PNN - Eight and a half year old Ala' Zahwahri is mentally and physically handicapped. Living in a house trapped between Har Homa settlement and the Barrier, her parents are obliged to take her on an arduous journey to Bethlehem, or Beit Sahur, each time they need to access medical services. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8777&Itemid=56 'Our situation worsens every day' Palestinians in the West Bank's Dheisheh refugee camp explain why they have little faith in the talks. Uruknet September 14, 2010 - A second round of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are taking place under the auspices of Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Washington says it hopes the talks will lead to an agreement within a year. http://uruknet.info/?p=m69778&hd=&size=1&l=e Palestinian sues Israeli firm over 8.7 shekel hourly salary West Bank resident Nazar Fukra says he was paid less than half the minimum wage and no social benefits from Solor Gas Industries. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestinian-sues-israeli-firm-over-8-7-shekel-hourly-salary-1.314056?localLinksEnabled=false Violence/Aggression & Provocations Israeli police reportedly assault 2 Jerusalem residents JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli police reportedly assaulted two Palestinians from the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem, a source said.  The source said Khaled Walid Sarhan, 50, was transferred to the Hadasah Hospital in Jerusalem for fracture wounds, while his 24-year-old son, Nidal, sustained bruises to his head and back.  Nidal was taken to the Russian compound for interrogation, according to the source, and later released the same evening.  Islamic and national factions denounced the assault, fearing further "acts against the Palestinian residents of Silwan."  A spokesman for Israel's National Police said he would look into the report. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315176 Israeli jets hit Gaza tunnels Fighters launch "phosphorous bombs" at Israel, IDF says, as Israeli missile kills one Palestinian. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/20109151393302881.html Rights group condemns 3 Gaza killings GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A rights group on Wednesday called on the international community to protect Palestinian civilians after Israeli forces killed three farmers Sunday in northern Gaza.  On Sunday night Israeli forces fired shells at a 91-year-old man and two 16-year-olds as they grazed sheep in their land. Medical teams found the dead body of one of the teenagers and took it to hospital, but his head was not found until the next day. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315198 IDF to open probe into shooting deaths of two Palestinian farmers in West Bank State tells court family petition to investigate incident unnecessary, as probe into whether shooting was justified already scheduled to begin next month. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-to-open-probe-into-shooting-deaths-of-two-palestinian-farmers-in-west-bank-1.314008?localLinksEnabled=false Court Says Criminal Probe Into Fatal Shooting Of Two Palestinians "Unnecessary" The Israeli High Court Of Justice had decided that a petition demanding a full investigation into the fatal shooting of two Palestinians in Awarta village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, is "unnecessary" as the Israeli army had already ordered an investigation. http://www.imemc.org/article/59420 Detainees Israel detains 7 'wanted' Palestinians overnight HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Palestinian security officials said five Palestinians were detained overnight by Israeli forces in the Nablus and Hebron areas, while an Israeli military spokeswoman said there were at least seven taken for questioning.  Between Wednesday night and Thursday morning three men, identified as Mustafa Kamel Shawer, 48, Sufian Hamhum, 39, and Marwan Sarsour, 34, were detained from Hebron. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315340 Center: Detainees beaten over cell phones RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Detainees Center said Wednesday that a special unit raided the Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, beating detainees, a statement read.  The center said the unit opened fire at prisoners and deployed tear-gas, with several younger detainees suffering respiratory problems as a result. According to the center's lawyer, the detainees were beaten after cell phones were found in their possession. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315243 Prisoner released in exchange for Shalit video remains in solitary confinement Linan Abu Ghalma, 28, has been kept in solitary confinement and exposed to other inhumane treatment in the Hasharon prison since her arrest two months back, human rights sources said Wednesday. [Hamas website, may not be accessible to all] http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz Administrative detention of Hamas officials Nasif and Asfour extended The international Tadamon foundation said that the Israeli military court of Ofer extended the administrative detention of Hamas leaders Ra'fat Nasif and Adnan Asfour for six months.  [Hamas website, may not be accessible to all] http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz Retaliation?  Hard to say, these are the people that claimed that the sporks found on the Mavi Marmara were lethal... 'We used phosphorus fired in Gaza war' Member of one of Palestinian groups says bombs fired on Israel contained material collected from shells which hit Strip during Operation Cast Lead. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3955304,00.html Hamas denies Israel's claims about firing phosphorous shells at Negev region Hamas categorically denied claims about firing phosphorus shells or any rockets at Negev region, warning that Israel fabricates such lies in order to justify a new military action against Gaza. [Hamas website, may not be accessible to all] http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz Israel's Arab Helpers Political Arrests Continue in the West Bank The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the continued arbitrary political arrests carried out by Palestinian security services in the West Bank targeting members of Hamas, who are subjected to detention and maltreatment in violation of the law. http://www.imemc.org/article/59417 Campaigns of Political Arrests Continue in the West Bank; Detainees Include a Woman and Two Human Rights Defenders Uruknet September 15, 2010 - The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the continued arbitrary political arrests carried out by Palestinian security services in the West Bank targeting members of Hamas, who are subjected to detention and maltreatment in violation of the law. http://uruknet.info/?p=m69788&hd=&size=1&l=e Egyptian police: Bombed tunnel for sugar transport AL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities said officers seized three smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border on Thursday morning, in addition to several tons of sugar prepared for transport into the coastal enclave.  One of the three tunnels seized, Egyptian sources added, was bombed a day earlier by the Israeli airforce. The tunnel emerged in Egypt's As-Sarsourya area in Rafah. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315396 Egyptian coastguards fire at Palestinian fishing boat Egyptian coastguards opened fire at a Palestinian fishing boat that was fishing near the Egyptian marine borders on Wednesday morning, Palestinian fishermen said.  [Hamas website, may not be accessible to all] http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz "Peace" Talks/Political Developments Abbas, Bibi meet in Jerusalem Palestinian leader signs guestbook, says he hopes to bring 'eternal peace' to region. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3954897,00.html Abbas: No alternative to peace talks, we will continue efforts Palestinian President speaks at ceremony welcoming U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the West Bank. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/abbas-no-alternative-to-peace-talks-we-will-continue-efforts-1.314177?localLinksEnabled=false Mitchell: Obama seeks Mideast normalization JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- US envoy to the Mideast peace process George Mitchell said Wednesday that Palestinian and Israeli leaders were tackling the tough issues up front during talks in Jerusalem.  Mitchell spoke with reporters following a trilateral meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mitchell himself. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315337 Other News First Gaza flotilla report sent to UN chief (AFP) AFP - An inquiry panel on Wednesday handed over a preliminary report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Israel's assault on a Turkish activist ship taking aid supplies to Gaza, which left nine dead and scores wounded, a UN spokesman said. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100915/wl_mideast_afp/israelconflictgazaprobeun IDF chief: Next wars will not be easier Ashkenazi tells military academy cadets delegitimization of Israel around the world unjustified because 'our army, more than any other, protects civilians not involved in fighting'. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3954934,00.html 'Israelis unconcerned with rise in religious IDF officers' Jeruslalem Post 15 Sep 2010 - Survey finds public not so bothered about growing number of IDF commanders and officers who stem from the national-religious camp. http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=188139&R=R2 Haredi MK: We'll stop paying taxes Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni lashes out at Supreme Court following another ruling in Emmanuel affair, compared it to Russian czar. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3955181,00.html Hamas enforces ban on women smoking water pipes GAZA, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Hamas police ordered a Gaza hotel restaurant closed on Wednesday for allowing a woman to smoke a water pipe on its premises, one of its owners said.  It was believed to be the first time that Hamas Islamists who run the Gaza Strip have enforced their ban, announced in July, on women smoking the traditional tobacco-infused pipes in public. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE68E1NN.htm Students meet Hamas and Hizbollah for education beyond the classroom The National 15 Sep 2010 - Two-week summer programme in Damascus, run by a Beirut news translation service, offers a rapid immersion in Middle East politics. http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100916/FOREIGN/709159861/1011/rss Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest Gaza left out in the cold, Laila El-Haddad Ask any resident of Gaza what their thoughts are on the US-sponsored "direct talks" between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas's Ramallah government, and you're likely to hear one of three responses:  1) Surely, you jest;  2) Something's rotten in Ramallah;  3) Negotiations? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/16/gaza-israel-palestinians-talks-abbas When settlers attack, Adam Horowitz Yesterday, the Palestine Center hosted an event When Settlers Attack: Understanding Settler Violence against Palestine's Civilians. The description was as follows: The Palestine Center presents an analysis of settler violence in the West Bank. We ask what type of violence occurs, who is most vulnerable and most targeted, where the violence is concentrated and what motivates it. We will present the results of an analysis spanning over 1000 events of settler violence, as well as trends in the violence over time, to better understand how these attacks affect Palestinians.  Luckily it was recorded, you can watch Yousef Munayyer's entire presentation: And here's a copy of the powerpoint presentation if you want a closer look... http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/when-settlers-attack.html Jeff Goldberg [and Andrew Sullivan] defend Marty Peretz, MJ Rosenberg But here's the thing. Peretz didn't slip up once or twice and spout bigotry against Muslims and Arabs. He does it several times a week. Hating Arabs and Muslims is primarily what he is about. How can that be forgivable?  Now, I don't know if Sullivan defended Helen Thomas who once, once, made an offensive statement about Israel and Zionism and that one statement cost her a job, a career and a reputation. This despite the fact that no one has ever accused Helen Thomas of having personal animus to Jews. She just doesn't like Israel, a foreign country,and she gave voice to that feeling. She did not attack American Jews as Peretz attacked American Muslims.  Here is Goldberg on Thomas. Suffice it to say, he did not defend her in any way, shape or form. http://palestinenote.com/cs/blogs/blogs/archive/2010/09/15/jeff-goldberg-defends-marty-peretz-but-not-that-bigot-helen-thomas.aspx Duss 1, Oren 0, Adam Horowitz Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren has an op-ed in today's Los Angeles Times responding to the Time magazine article last week on whether Israelis care about peace with the Palestinians or not. He uses the occasion to pretty much just repeat every Israeli cliche on the peace process we've heard for the past several years. http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/duss-1-oren-0.html Washington peace talks: democracy need not apply The image of the five men attending peace talks at the White House can easily be dissected as the following: a dictator, a monarch, a puppet and two heads of state responsible for the region's only military occupations -- not the best ingredients for making world peace. Matthew Cassel comments. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11521.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29 Israel: Where Choosing Your Identity is an Act of Resistance, Nijim Dabbour for MIFTAH  One of the most contentious issues for Palestinians in this conflict is identity, how a person sees him or herself in relation to society and the world. This is especially true for Palestinian Arabs living within Israel, holding Israeli citizenship. They must decide whether to be Israeli Arabs, Arabs living in Israel, Palestinians living in Israel, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, 1948 Arabs, 1948 Palestinians… Each has a slightly different connotation and all are politically charged. The main division, no matter the label, is whether to take part in the Israeli system or to boycott it; to be an Israeli or a Palestinian. http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22578&CategoryId=13 Palestinians Must Start again, Stuart Littlewood – London So criminal within itself, it flinches from upholding the rule of international law. So corrupt, it happily outsources its foreign policy to terrorists in Tel Aviv. The idea that America acts as an honest broker for peace between its fellow cut-throat Israel and their victim, Palestine, on whose neck the Zionist jackboot is firmly planted, is a joke that is only funny in the hysterical sense. http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16268 The Tides of September,  George S. Hishmeh – Washington, D.C. For many Christians and Muslims, whether American or Arab, particularly Palestinian, the month of September brings back depressing memories that have affected their lives and regrettably shaped their attitudes toward each other, drastically and often negatively.  Even Israelis or Jews were equally marred by the actions of their extremists, if not their government. http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16270 America's 'Freeze' Still Favors Israel, James Gundun - Washington, D.C. At first glance Washington's sudden support for extending Israel's settlement 'freeze' in the West Bank appears to be typical 11th hour positioning at Sharm el-Sheikh. Having delayed until the final moments in hope of reaching a compromise with the Palestinian Authority (PA), US officials must now rush to strike a deal before September 26th, when the "freeze" expires and direct negotiations between Israel and the PA potentially collapse. http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16271 Cartoon:  Abbas's Negotiations, Fahd Bahady http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/bahady150910.html Lebanon Hezbollah prints playing cards of top Israeli officials targeted for revenge The militant group has vowed to avenge the 2008 assassination of one of its senior members, Imad Mughniyah. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hezbollah-prints-playing-cards-of-top-israeli-officials-targeted-for-revenge-1.314017 Army launches mine, cluster-bomb awareness efforts BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army launched a campaign Wednesday to raise awareness about the dangers of land mines and cluster bombs in south Lebanon. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=119336 Plastic surgery taking off in Beirut Plastic surgery is booming in Lebanon, where some tourism companies are arranging 'cosmetic surgery tours' to accommodate demand from inside and from outside the country. http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/rKzeeF7fCak/Plastic-surgery-taking-off-in-Beirut Iraq Kurdish reporter killed by Islamic militants: investigators (AFP) AFP - A journalist killed in May after writing a scathing article about the alleged corruption of Kurdish leaders was murdered by militants, authorities in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said Wednesday. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100915/wl_mideast_afp/iraqkurdsmediarights Family slam ruling on Iraq Kurd reporter's murder (AFP) AFP - Relatives of a journalist killed in May after he alleged corruption among Iraqi Kurdish leaders reacted angrily on Thursday to an official probe that ruled he was shot by Islamic militants. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100916/wl_mideast_afp/iraqkurdsmediarights U.S. and Other World News Turkey's PM tells businessmen to boost Iran trade ISTANBUL, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Turkey wants to triple its trade volume with Iran within five years, Turkey's prime minister told businessmen on Thursday, at a time when sanctions are scaring off Western investors from the Islamic Republic.  Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi oversaw the meeting which brought together over a hundred businessmen, including Turkish investors eager to buy into Iran's mostly government-owned textile, machinery and automotive industries. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE68F18F20100916 Turks cool to EU membership Turkish enthusiasm for joining the European Union is waning as the country is increasingly looking east, a report shows. http://english.aljazeera.net//news/europe/2010/09/201091694436906760.html Ahmadinejad: Iran can survive without the aid of U.S. and its allies In interview with NBC, Ahmadinejad 'flatly rejects' IAEA demand to let nuclear inspectors into Iran. http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/ahmadinejad-iran-can-survive-without-the-aid-of-u-s-and-its-allies-1.314107?localLinksEnabled=false One killed as thousands Of Afghans Stage Anti - U.S. Protest In Kabul Police fired into the air to disperse thousands of anti-American protesters in Afghanistan's capital on Wednesday, witnesses and police said, with one person killed and at least five wounded. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/09/15/world/international-uk-afghanistan-protests.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss New light shed on US's night raids Official figures on night raids carried out by Special Operations Forces units in Afghanistan indicate they have been successful in killing or capturing thousands of Taliban. A sharp fall-off in the proportion of improvised explosive devices being turned in by the local population suggests the raids have backfired badly. - Gareth Porter http://192.168.10.250/atimes/South_Asia/LI17Df03.html 'Death to America, death to Obama' As Wikileaks prepares to unveil a second batch of "Afghan War Diary" documents, a deeper dig into the first cache unveils the real secret story of the war - the hardships of ordinary Afghans living under foreign occupation. From insights into the vibrant local protest movement to locals' reactions to American military methods and cultural faux pas, much remains to be learned. http://192.168.10.250/atimes/South_Asia/LI17Df01.html US: time may come for special nuke probe of Syria (AP) AP - A U.S. envoy on Thursday suggested time was running out for Syria to cooperate with a U.N. atomic agency probe of alleged secret nuclear activities before the agency invokes its seldom-used authority to call for a special inspection — a possible prelude to U.N. Security Council involvement. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100916/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nuclear_agency_mideast Under IAEA pressure, Syria and Iran point to Israel (Reuters) Reuters - Western powers pressed Syria to give U.N. inspectors access to the remains of a suspected nuclear site in the desert, but Damascus and its ally Iran said the focus should be on Israel, which bombed it to rubble. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100916/wl_nm/us_nuclear_syria_iaea Israel set to build wings for some 800 F-35s Israel is in talks to build the wings for about a quarter of the United States's new F-35 stealth fighter aircraft, an Israeli official said on Monday. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67T2JX20100830 U.S. holding 324 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium, report says The Obama administration, which is urging other nations to reduce their stores of the material, should declare part of the U.S. inventory surplus, a watchdog group says. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-uranium-20100914,0,7187215.story New Statesman Interview with Noam Chomsky:  Noam Chomsky: "President Obama is Involved in War Crimes Right Now" It's imperial doctrine. Stability is when the UK and US invade a country and impose the regime of their choice. But if Iran tries to interfere, that's destabilising. http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2010/09/war-crimes-interview-obama Blair Should Take a Journey to Jail, Jodie Evans I leapt up with handcuffs held high above my head. "You Liar. I was in Iraq and met with weapons inspectors before we invaded and they said they had found no WMDs. You are a War CRIMINAL! LIAR!" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26368.htm War Crimes: Codepink Attempts Citizen Arrest of Karl Rove in DC : Video With handcuffs raised, they called for a citizen's arrest and read the charges against him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7HiZlbBxM&feature=player_embedded#%21 War crimes: Group offers $100,000 for 'information leading to the arrest and conviction of Karl Rove' American Crossroads" groups known to many as the "shadow RNC," an activist organization declared that it would give $100,000 to any person who comes forward with "information leading to the arrest and conviction of Karl Rove." http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/group-offers-100000-information-leading-arrest-conviction-karl-rove/ We Are Living Through an Exceptional Moment in Human History,  Fidel Castro We feel astonished by the images we see from the Middle East, where Palestinians are deprived from their lands, their homes are demolished by gigantic equipment, and men, women and children are bombed with white phosphorus and other extermination means http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26369.htm The regime can fix the elections – but it can't fix the Egyptian people | Ahdaf Soueif Against a background of fraud and thuggery, opposition is mounting. And our anger can defeat our divided rulers.  As Egypt moves towards its parliamentary elections in November, each day brings fresh evidence of the profound problems now endemic in our political life. Adorning Egyptian newsstands morning was the photograph of the MP Mohamed Abdel Alim Daoud holding his right shoe up to the cameras with the caption: "My shoe is more honourable than any accusation (sic) the National Democratic party or any government official can aim at me". Daoud is accused (with 15 others) of the misuse of 1.5bn Egyptian pounds and illegal trading in state-funded medical treatment. He claims he's being scapegoated for tabling a question in parliament last year that implicated the health minister, Hatem al-Gabali (owner of some of the biggest hospitals and health centres in Egypt), in the scandal. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/15/egypt-elections-regime-boycott-mobilise Islam in the West Burned Quran Found Outside Muslim Community Center In Chicago A burned copy of Islam's holy book was found in front of a Muslim center in Chicago last weekend.  The charred Quran was discovered outside of the Muslim Community Center on the city's northwest side, just one day after the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Chicago Tribune reports. That anniversary was also proclaimed "Burn a Quran Day" by a preacher in Florida.  Rev. Terry Jones ultimately didn't go through with his plans to hold a mass burning of Qurans at his church in Gainesville, but it appears that someone in Chicago followed his lead. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/15/burned-quran-found-outsid_n_718194.html The Hate Mongers Among Us, Jeff Gates Hate we're told is the face of evil seen in plumes of smoke and ash on 911. Yet hate also serves a purpose for those adept at catalyzing conflicts. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26372.htm www.TheHeadlines.org Comment on this article > Harvard distances itself from Peretz, but event is still on Sep 16, 2010 09:46 am | Adam Horowitz Benjamin Sarlin follows up on the ongoing Marty Peretz controversy for the Daily Beast. He reports: Robert Paul Wolff, a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who is being honored at the same event as Peretz, joined in the criticism. He "thought seriously about canceling," he wrote in a blog post, deciding to attend only after the organizer agreed not to seat him next to Peretz. Pretty juicy stuff. Harvard has also been forced to deal with the situation head on and has released a statement. It reads: As an institution of research and teaching, we are dedicated to the proposition that all people, regardless of color or creed, deserve equal opportunities, equal respect, and equal protection under the law. The recent assertions by Dr. Peretz are therefore distressing to many members of our community, and understandably so. It is central to the mission of a university to protect and affirm free speech, including the rights of Dr. Peretz, as well as those who disagree with him, to express their views. We are ultimately stronger as a university when we maintain our commitment to the most basic freedoms that enable the robust exchange of ideas. The undergraduate research fund donated by friends, former students, and colleagues of Dr. Peretz was established earlier this year to recognize his teaching and scholarship as well as his stewardship of the social studies program from its inception in the 1960s through the 1990s. The fund will enable undergraduates to undertake significant research experiences as part of the social sciences curriculum and strengthen our commitment to rigorous intellectual inquiry. When asked by Sarlin to respond to the growing criticism of his bigoted remarks Peretz simply said, "The notion that after teaching 45 years at Harvard and people giving money in my honor that I have to defend myself—please." Just as a point of reference, here are the people giving the money in his honor. I wonder if Al Gore, EJ Dionne and the rest think he should defend himself? Comment on this article > A joke about Jewish exceptionalism Sep 16, 2010 08:53 am | Philip Weiss My wife met some pilgrims from England the other day in the Old City of Jerusalem, three serious women in their 60s, and they invited her to do the Stations of the Cross yesterday. I went along. The last three stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We were standing near a sunken chamber a few feet away from the mobs of other pilgrims when an older guy with a mane of silver hair gave me an elbow. "What happened here?" I said, "Ask Margaret." Margaret told him that this was a Byzantine shrine to the spot where the Resurrection "possibly took place." "Possibly?" he said with a slightly satirical tone. "Well I believe in my heart in the Resurrection," she said, unbaited, "but I am saying that this is one of the sites it possibly occurred." The old guy gave me a look and walked away. I was sure he was Jewish. I saw him later near the holy sepulchre, which is a large wooden structure in the middle of an ancient rotunda. The room was thronged with European pilgrims, some praying, some taking pictures, some singing or reading Scripture, some filing into the tomb, lighting tapers and snuffing them, to be brought back home as sacred objects. My guy stood back, wearing a neat dress shirt. I said to him, "Are you from the States?" "Yes. Where are you from?" "New York," I said. "And you?"   "Los Angeles." He gave me a sly look. "And what are you--- are you a Christian, Muslim or Jew?" "One of the three," I said. He got his satirical smile. "But you're not going to tell me." "Jewish." "I thought so," he said. "And you?" "Jewish Jewish Jewish," he declared. We smiled at one another, with that look of tribal recognition. Then he touched me on the shoulder and gestured toward the spectacle. "And just look what one Jew accomplished." Comment on this article > When settlers attack Sep 16, 2010 07:59 am | Adam Horowitz Yesterday, the Palestine Center hosted an event When Settlers Attack: Understanding Settler Violence against Palestine's Civilians. The description was as follows: The Palestine Center presents an analysis of settler violence in the West Bank. We ask what type of violence occurs, who is most vulnerable and most targeted, where the violence is concentrated and what motivates it. We will present the results of an analysis spanning over 1000 events of settler violence, as well as trends in the violence over time, to better understand how these attacks affect Palestinians. Luckily it was recorded, you can watch Yousef Munayyer's entire presentation: And here's a copy of the powerpoint presentation if you want a closer look: When settlers attack View more presentations from yousefmunayyer. Finally, if you're in the DC area, I'll be speaking at the Palestine Center next week on the panel The New Media & the Palestine Question: Blogging Out of Conflict along with Jerome Slater, MJ Rosenberg and Stephen Walt. Please come check it out. Comment on this article > Your donation to Mondoweiss ensures we will continue to cover the most important issues surrounding Israel/Palestine and US foreign policy. Please donate today.   Follow Mondoweiss on Twitter and Facebook   Upcoming Events Thurs, September 23 The Palestine Center Washington, DC Symposium : The New Media & the Palestine Question: Blogging Out of Conflict Tues, September 28 Alwan for the Arts New York, NY Book Reading & Discussion: Moustafa Bayoumi, Max Blumenthal, Arun Gupta, Rashid Khalidi, Philip Weiss & Adam Horowitz on the Impact of Gaza Freedom Flotilla

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Being happy–is it good for the Jews? "Before Professor Dershowitz accused me of being an anti-Semite (news to me), I was a happy person. Since then, I'm still a happy person". –Michael Santomauro

An antisemite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an antisemite.--Michael Santomauro

Most of us are mentally trapped to think Jewish.

Actually, it is safe to say that virtually every mainstream publication or or other type of media organ is "nothing more than a screen to present chosen views." The great battle over the last century has been a battle for the mind of the Western peoples, i.e., non-Jewish Euros. The chosen won it by acquiring control over essentially the complete mainstream news, information, education and entertainment media of every type, and using that control to infuse and disseminate their message, agenda and worldview, their way of thinking, or rather the way they want us to think. Since at least the 1960s this campaign has been effectively complete. Since then they have shaped and controlled the minds of all but a seeming few of us in varying degree with almost no opposition or competition from any alternative worldview. So now most of us are mentally trapped in the box the chosen have made for us, which we have lived in all our lives. Only a few have managed to avoid it or escape it, or to even sometimes see outside of it, and so actually "think outside of the (Jewish) box." --Michael Santomauro

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