This photo of Ezra Nawi, the Israeli human-rights activist, appears at Jesse Hochheiser's blog here. What a beautiful man. He's about to be sentenced this week for trying to stop a house demolition in the West Bank two years ago. Here's video of the amazing incident:
And Jesse Hochheiser has these inspiring quotes from Nawi that explain how he can be smiling when he's challenging persecution:
“If you can see what is going on there (in the Palestinian Territories), you have to get involved.” Ezra believes that if people ‘realized the price and the pain’ that comes from Israel’s actions in the territories, they would want to change the status quo. He says that A large problem of the occupation comes from its less visible elements. For example, “The dehumanization of Arabs and increase in Israeli nationalism.”
Ezra exclaims “Jews have been leaders in liberation and rights movements all over the world, in Russia, Iraq, apartheid South Africa and in the United States. How come here (in Israel) this hardly exists?”
Despite the setbacks and overwhelming odds, Ezra says, “There is no reason to be depressed or ashamed about the situation. Only the people who do nothing should feel that way.”
And Ethan Bronner (whom I criticize all the time here) did a really wonderful job on Nawi in yesterday's Times. (Marred slightly by a classist statement about Nawi's being a plumber,) Bronner showed that Nawi's natural connection with Palestinians has fed his activism and made him a moving role model for the rest of us. Bronner:
Mr. Nawi attributes his activism to two things: as a teenager, his family lived next door to the leader of Israel’s Communist Party, Reuven Kaminer, who influenced him. And he is gay.
“Being gay has made me understand what it is like to be a despised minority,” Mr. Nawi said.
Several years ago, he had a relationship with a Palestinian from the West Bank and ended up being convicted on charges of allowing his companion to live illegally in Israel. His companion was jailed for months.
Mr. Nawi said harassment against him had come in many forms. Settlers shout vicious antigay epithets. His plumbing business has been audited, and he was handed a huge tax bill that he said he did not deserve. He is certain that his phone calls are monitored. And those army jeeps are never far behind.
Related posts:
- Israeli activist Ezra Nawi sentenced to one month for protesting the occupation
- Ezra Nawi in ‘The Nation’: As a human rights activist ‘I am considered a provocateur. I can only say that I am proud to be a provoker.’
- ‘All that will be left here is hatred’– modern Israeli prophet
- WSJ scoops the Times: Hamas is ‘Israel’s creation’
- On the verge of Lebanese elections, Nasrallah defies Obama and Israel
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RE: "He's about to be sentenced this week for trying to stop a house demolition in the West Bank two years ago." *FROM JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE: “Tell Israel not to jail Ezra Nawi” Join Naomi Klein, Neve Gordon, Noam Chomsky and thousands of others and tell Israel not to jail Ezra Nawi, one of Israel’s most courageous human rights activists. His crime? He tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region. Nawi, a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent, is a threat to the settlers and the Israeli government because he has brought international attention to efforts to illegally remove Palestinians from the Hebron region. He will be sentenced in July. *TAKE ACTION – http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/9462/c...
RE: “Being gay has made me understand what it is like to be a despised minority,” Mr. Nawi said. RELATED POST – "In June, the lobby turns to LGBT issues to rebrand Israel", Mondoweiss, 06/25/09 LINK – http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/06/san...
Do not tell Israel to stop house demolitions or to not jail rights activists. Israel is unable to take advice. Suspend all US aid to Israel. Sanction Israel. Boycott Israel. Investigate, prosecute and then imprison Americans found guilty of being involved with Israeli settlements in occupied territories outside the Green Line. When, and until, these things are done, Israel might consider ending its hostilities and acquisitions, and will be in a less powerful position to continue carrying them out. Israel and its American supporters prefer verbal and written admonitions because they allow for the continuation of present policies without consequences to their subsidy. Americans must begin imitating Iranians to put political pressure on the administration and Congress to end the US subsidy of Israeli aggression. Subsidy of Israel has become institutional and cannot be broken unless popular will to end it is expressed powerfully.
Of course tommy, Israel isn't responsible for what it does with the money and support the U.S gives it. It's the U.S fault for being generous. Israel is really the victim here. And if American Jews only felt secure in America then they wouldn't feel the need to support and lobby for aid to Israel. It all boils down to gentile antisemitism as the cause of Israeli actions. More opportunities need to be opened up to American Jews so that they feel safe here in America. Every religious board (Christian, Muslim, Hindu etc.) ought to have at least one Jewish person on it . And perhaps we should outlaw Christmas. That might help Jews feel safe.
It's hard for any birth member of the status quo to see or feel the other side, whether it's due to wealth and/or ethnicity or race, sex or sexual inclination. Ditto, if one is by birth not sentenced but privileged to be a birth member of the status quo. Actually both set of circumstances are a sentence of the spirit. It's the nurture thing, which quickly evolves into the nature thing since few humans are born and bred on a small island or in a remote cave, even less so, brought up feral by, say, wolves. The whole point of being Jewish is to be reared with the POV of being the outsider, even if living the life of an elite compared to the serfs. You get to have your cake and eat it too. You don't identify with the upper class nor the lower class, though you experience some aspects of both. Being Jewish in this sense is like being lower middle class. The lower to middle-middle class is key in all revolutions and reactionary movements. The rest is taking advantage of career opportunities–with the advantage of religious or secular religion righteousness.
Israel has done exactly what the U.S. wanted it to do. Generosity had nothing to do with it. If anything Israel has been shortchanged.
Typical meaningless anti Jewish psycho babble. The Jews take advantage of career opportunities because they work harder and many times smarter than their competitors. Study and work harder and maybe some day you will be able to compete with them.
So what you're telling me is Israel isn't a sovereign state? It's a U.S. protectorate? You can't have your cake and eat it too, Sweetie. Time to grow up and take responsibility.
For once I agree with thedhimmi who's not really a dhimmi. Jews get to where they are not by having Jewish connections or whatever, they get there by working hard just like the rest of us. You also get normal middle class Jews and you get working class ones (though not many), not just in Israel but all over the world.
I agree, wonderful man.
Phil has admitted to preferring to hire Jew on the basis that they are Jews because he is a Jew. Not because they work harder, or better or longer. If Phil admits to this how much so would other Jews who's tribe instincts are even stronger? I'm not judging this right or wrong, I am saying this is reality.
Great criticism of the Bronner article in the times. I agree! Bronner marginalizes the activist movement, suggesting that they are a bunch of idealists out of touch with the real situation. Read it , it's right on! http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/ Bronner Sticks His Foot in It Again June 27th, 2009 I don’t know what it is with Ethan Bronner, the NY Times’ Israel correspondent. He’s clearly intelligent. He knows the issues fairly well. But his problem is he’s conflict about the politics of the Middle East. With a child in the IDF and married to an Israeli it’s almost as if he has to pull his punches.
Oh sure. A talentless lout like Adam Sandler is famous because of his "hard work." Bernie Madoff got rich from his "brains' and "industriousness" What crap. For every smart and decent jew, there are 10,000 mayer lanskys, alan filthowitzes and ariel sharons
"thedhimmi who's not really a dhimmi. " Since dhimmi is an archaic term for an archaic concept that lost its significance a very long time ago, no one is a dhimmi in this day and age, the uneducated anti-Islam propaganda crowd notwithstanding.
LOL thedhimmi is dimmer than any non-jew I've even met; he's a racist to boot.
Jews get to where they are by having Jewish connections or whever and working hard. A quite irrelevant comment in terms of understanding the depth of jewish power and and it's malignant offspring, jewish supremacy….
Racist
Israel is most certainly a sovereign state. The problem is that the USA is a BIGGER sovereign state. Israel can't do things without Washington's permission. Period. Are you starting to understand?
dope
"thedhimmi who's not really a dhimmi. " There have been no dhimmis for a very long time. The concept, and therefore the word, is archaic, belonging to a time and a world long past. And in any case, neither the concept nor the word was as it is represented by today's Islamophobes, who got it from one of the numerous and growing anti-Islam websites, and who are desperately proud that they know a couple of Arabic words (the second being jihad, of course), although they have no idea what they mean or how to pronounce them properly.
Actually, "archaic" and "lost significance a very long time ago" fit fairly well for thedhimmi's points…
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