This morning students at Columbia put up 1000 posters, each bearing the name of one of 418 villages wiped out in the Nakba. Says Saif Ammous: "It is vital to inform our fellow studentsof the roots of today's conflict, since it is the Nakba that has defined the history of the Palestinian and Israeli people until today....the Nakba is not merely a historic event, buta continuing reality that persists every day, inevery refugee camp, at every check point, withevery Palestinian home destroyed and land confis-cated by Israel. Only when the root injustice at the heart of this conflict is addressed can there be hopeof a peaceful solution."
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How is it presented?
Either/or, or witness?
Maybe it is time for Germans to forget the Holocaust and embrace the NakbaCaust for a change.
Curly Headed West Bank Savages Attack German MP's…IDF Stands By Scratching War Criminal Asses
link to homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com
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"How is it presented? Either/or, or witness?"
Excuse me, but … what ARE you talking about?
As the linked photographs show, some students have posted the names of disappeared Palestinian villages, along with maps and population figures.
I'm afraid this is one of those concrete, unambiguous actions which just doesn't fit into your obfuscationist program of kicking up blinding clouds of deconstructionist bafflegab to obliterate all meaning. They just posted the names of some lost villages; deal with it.
The northeast U.S. is dotted with Native American place names. It never occurred to anyone to deny their former presence. So why did Arab place names get wiped off the map in Israel? To retroactively buttress the central Zionist Big Lie: that Palestine was a land without people for a people without land.
Please stop your harrassment Jim.
Its an important tactical question. I support education about the nakba. I just find it ineffective if it alienates, and forces people into a "which side are you on" status, rather than "how can we reconcile fairly and confidently?" status.
Richard,
Your claim to find Nakba education ineffective is some of the most interesting form of Zionist obfuscation I've seen in a while–which is saying something.
These are the clear unambiguous undisputed facts. Exposing them can only possibly be a good thing. If you see those facts and decide to become alienated, then that's simply because your delusions and biases make you averse to reality, and you prefer to continue to operate in your bubble of Zionist nonsense.
It is amazing how of all the great tragedies of the 20th century, only when talking of Nakba do you ever get seemingly normal adults actually have the gall to say that educating about the tragedy can be bad.
You and your Zionist friends need to continue to believe meaningless lies in order to continue justifying your belief in Zionist bul1sh1t. In America, you've succeeded in propagating these lies for quite a while, but now you've given up on these lies, and have instead resorted to pathetic moral relativism and deconstructionist nonsense. The good news is that this is the end of the very long tether of Zionist lies.
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"I support education about the nakba. I just find it ineffective if it alienates, and forces people into a "which side are you on" status, rather than "how can we reconcile fairly and confidently?" status."
So, is posting the names of disappeared Palestinian villages alienating or reconciling? My intent was not to harass you, but to solicit a straightforward opinion.
My view is that presenting some factual but little-known history is a fair tactic. If some viewers get alienated, that's their problem, wouldn't you say?
Richard,
Your claim to find Nakba education ineffective is some of the most interesting form of Zionist obfuscation I've seen in a while–which is saying something.
These are the clear unambiguous undisputed facts. Exposing them can only possibly be a good thing. If you see those facts and decide to become alienated, then that's simply because your delusions and biases make you averse to reality, and you prefer to continue to operate in your bubble of Zionist nonsense.
It is amazing how of all the great tragedies of the 20th century, only when talking of Nakba do you ever get seemingly normal adults actually have the gall to say that educating about the tragedy can be bad.
You and your Zionist friends need to continue to believe meaningless lies in order to continue justifying your belief in Zionist bul1sh1t. In America, you've succeeded in propagating these lies for quite a while, but now you've given up on these lies, and have instead resorted to pathetic moral relativism and deconstructionist nonsense. The good news is that this is the end of the very long tether of Zionist lies.
It can only get better from here.
Those villages were erased.
There it is.
Some Americans think we should continue in Iraq as is, and go farther, to Iran, considering its geographical location, a peace advocate for its modern history.
How zealous are you? Where do you live in your heart?
Highest number of Jewish American youths enlist in IDF this year with Israeli officials describing them as 'most enthusiastic'
Saif,
You didn't read my posts. Don't let yourself be so stimulated to reaction only.
And you haven't bothered to actually dialog with me personally.
I said that nakba education is necessary, if it is education and not brow-beating.
Take it in. You will end up talking to mostly yourself if you browbeat.
You say you want a civil single state, then work for it. If you want a single Palestinian dominated single state (with a close majority/minority relationship say 52/48, you will end up oppressing 48%, unless you establish the CIVIL as the link, rather than the national and rather than the rhetorical).
I DON'T want a civil Israeli dominated single state, partially because I don't want to oppress the current 47% (LARGE) Palestinian minority from the river to the sea.
The geography of the politics is that Zionism WAS necessary for Jews' cultural survival, and appears to still be given the degree of hostility that is willingly expressed as murderous violence towards Israeli civilians.
If you can argue successfully and accurately that Zionism is no longer necessary (by facts on the ground), that would be a good in the world.
Currently, we can form common cause around opposition to intra-Palestine roadblocks, settlement expansion, anti-civil law in Israel (marriages, prejudicial building permitting, etc.), even to 67 borders (if that is a desire of yours at all).
We won't form common cause around brow-beating, as obvious as the "facts" seem to you.
And, as I and other Zionists regard our assertion of national aspiration as a good, we won't be able to find common cause around anything that resembles the generalized slogan "Zionism is racism".
As a compassionate person, I'd rather hear witness, than rhetoric. Even witness to anger, but NOT conclusions born of anger stated as objective fact.
I don't bear a collective guilt. I bear a mix of determination for the Jewish community, and compassion for the Palestinian people.
I prefer NOT to regard the Jewish youth or the non-Jewish youth of America as fodder for a fight between xenophobic form of Zionism, and reactionary "progressive" anti-Zionism.
I will treat them as human beings, NOT as propaganda targets.
Charles,
Most often when people take quotes out of context, they do so to editorialize, to unfairly paint a picture of the other, to condemn the other, rather than to understand.
In this case, I LIKE your selection of my quotes.
I think that the US is too militarily oriented. If you are sincere in your respect for Ron Paul's stated orientation to reduce America's military adventurism and instead adopt a strictly and limited defensive military, then you would agree that the US military is too powerful and too unaccountable an institution in the US.
The US military need NOT be as domineering as it is.
In contrast, even with the imagined negation of the settlements, the Israeli military will still be needed to be far far more prominent in Israeli politics, as it does have enemies, physically close ones.
While too large a portion of Israeli military is committed to defending settlers and expansion, it is FAR more defensive in orientation than the US military.
I believe that the Israeli people are my people (as well as the American, but in different ways), and my son definitely regards his Jewish and prospective Israeli identity as important. For me thankfully, he does not feel motivated to serve in either.
I don't know if you regard Michael Lerner positively. He is the publisher of Tikkun magazine, a dissenting publication. He informed me that his son joined the Israeli paratroopers, which I'm sure caused him great confusion and potential embarrassment.
As a political statement, even as I value the spirit and commitment to public service of many of the people in the American military, I regard the identity of the American military stated politically, as excessive and confuses the sense of honor that that service would otherwise afford.
Richard, I agree with your take on the US military and the IDF.