Joseph Dana shot this video on July 4 outside Tuba, a village near a settlement called Maon in the occupied West Bank. It is a grisly scene: Palestinian shepherds are forced off their lands when Israeli soldiers show up and declare it a "military zone" for no reason at all.
The video is also inspiring. First, because you see an American volunteer from Christian Peacemakers Teams trying to protect the right of the villagers to graze their sheep on the land. And then–when the Israeli soldiers arrive to declare the lands a military zone– for the appearance of a wiry middle-aged Israeli activist. This Israeli gets in the Israeli commander's face. He badgers him in Hebrew to state the reason why he is pushing the Palestinians off their land.
The activist is filled with passion and upset, and his heart is in his mouth. "You have to give a reason," he says. "I think more than anything you owe it to yourself."
At last the impenetrable commander says, "I have no intention of explaining this to you."
I know my klezmer performances put off some visitors to this site, but boy does my Jewish heart leap up when I hear an Israeli taking on authority with such passion. Israeli Jews also have universalist dreams; the world can be saved, and the Jews are not lost. Let this man find a legion of followers! I asked Dana who my hero is, and he indicated it is Amiel Vardi, a professor of Classics at Hebrew University.
Jewish, Israeli born and speaking Hebrew. He is an amazing guy indeed. One of the driving people in Ta'ayush from the beginning.
While there is no major 'violence' in the film it is quite reflective
of some of what we are doing in the West Bank. Asking soldiers to think
about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Forcing commanders
to take some responsibility in front of their soldiers. I feel that we
do make a difference with some of the soldiers. At least to give them
pause for a moment. The clip captures an example of a conversation that
we have with soldiers almost every time we are in the West Bank.
These are staged events. They wouldn't be there if the Western dupes with cameras weren't there. It is not their land either, they have no title to it and are merely using public land, which they could just as easily use somewhere else away from the Jewish communities. They do it to create an incident and terrorist enablers like Dana White are largely responsible for the consequences.
This reminds me of those lunch counter sit-ins in the old South in the USA. Perhaps the analogy is not on all four legs, but it sure has the flavor. Before they arrested them or forced the sitters out often there would be a few moments where the cops would try to talk the sitters out of their chair, and out the door. Those arabs are trying to eek out a living on their own land, not even trying to eat at some jewish lunch counter.
When is this race of religous internationalists going to realize that colonization ended with the British empire? The fact that so much of this is covered up by international news organizations is fraud. Israel is an enemy of human rights. Why did Germany want to get rid of the Jews? I understand why the Arabs do.
Your post makes no sense. It's an Israeli Jew who's standing up to the soldiers.
Livni: Netanyahu doesn't really believe in two-state solution Jul. 6, 2009 JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't really believe in the two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite statements to the contrary at Sunday's cabinet meeting and in his recent Bar Ilan policy speech, opposition leader Tzipi Livni said Monday. Speaking in the Knesset as a no-confidence motion was filed against the government, Livni said, "The prime minister still doesn't really and deeply believe that this [the two-state solution] is the right thing for Israel, but he understands that it's the right thing to say." "He thinks, 'The world is making demands so I need to say something," she continued. "That's what he has said to members of his faction." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=124644...
thank you phil. the work you are doing here is immeasurable.
"Israeli Jews also have universalist dreams; the world can be saved, and the Jews are not lost." What does that mean? Does that mean that if Jews get their collective act together, they can shove "universalism" on the rest of us? Is that what "saving the world" means?
Of course he doesn't…still playing the same old stall game. As for Amiel Vardi, what Israel is lacking is enough people with his conscience and guts. You would think 90% of the Jewish Israelis would be up in ams and have thrown an Iran style revolt long ago over I-P. It's not like trying to stage a revolt in the US or RussiaI, Israel is tiny, more a community than a nation, they could make a large wave if they wanted to. I don't get it ,will never get how the majorty of the holocuast people, who lay the blame for their disaster on the world "doing nothing to help them" can stand by and watch this and " do nothing"..uless they riddled with the ilogical revenge syndrome. Avsolutely don't get it.
I don't get the constant comparisons between Blacks in the South to Palsetinians. My claim isn't that Blacks were treated well in the South, but there is a difference between being a second-class citizen, and being on the receiving end of war. The point in most of America was always to keep Blacks happily in an inferior position if possible, not to destroy them or drive them off their land. And what is the alternative to tribalism? From what I can see, universalists and multiculturalists have no problem designating victims and trampling their rights while remaining smug themselves.
Israel deports activists detained going to Gaza http://dictionary.reference.com/ deport: to expel (an alien) from a country; banish. Here is another example of ridiculous spin from mulletheads (Matti Friedman, AP) in the MSM. Is 'deportation' really the most accurate description of the process by which a government's operatives release a captive seized in international waters, having brought them into their government's national territory against their will?
Israeli to 'Spirit of Humanity' captive being released from Israeli prison: I know I forced you into my country at gunpoint and that you never had any intention of coming here and don't want to be here and have repeatedly asked to be released, but I'm not just going to let you go… I'm kicking you out! You don't belong here! Get out! How dare you be in my country without proper documentation? You don't have a visa?!? Who the frak do you think you are flouting our law so brazenly?
I shudder to think of the declining quality of America's schools exemplified by Matti Friedman's inability to use a dictionary to look up the difference between 'deport' and 'release'. Perhaps if we weren't spending all of our tax dollars paying for wars to make the Middle East a safer place for Israeli creeping ethnic cleansing and colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and subsidizing it with direct handouts, we could have afforded to better educate poor deprived Ms. Friedman. I guess the best we can do now is to introduce her to one of the internet's nice free resources: Dictionary.com link to dictionary.reference.com .
RE: "Watching Israeli Amiel Vardi confront a stonefaced commander…" A SOMEWHAT RELATED ARTICLE – "Israeli Court Rebukes Military", by Uri Avnery, 07/06/09 (EXCERPT) …The incident in question took place in Ni’alin, a village which has been robbed of a great part of its land by the Separation Fence. Like their neighbors in Bilin, the villagers demonstrate every week against the Fence. Generally, the army’s reactions in Ni’alin are even more violent than in Bilin. Four protesters have already been killed there. In this particular incident, Lt. Col. Omri Borberg took a Palestinian demonstrator, who was sitting on the ground, handcuffed and blindfolded, and suggested to one of his soldiers "let’s go aside and give him a rubber." He ordered the soldier to shoot a rubber bullet, point blank. For those who do not know: "rubber bullets" are steel bullets coated with rubber. From a distance, they cause painful injuries. At short range, they can be fatal. Officially, soldiers are allowed to use them at a minimum range of 40 meters. Without hesitating, the soldier shot the prisoner in the foot, although this was a "manifestly illegal order," which a soldier is obliged by army law to disobey… ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://original.antiwar.com/avnery/2009/07/05/isr...
RE: "…I want to do klezmer all night long…" Klezmer – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (EXCERPT) Klezmer (from Yiddish כּלי־זמיר, kley — instrument and zemer — song; etymologically from Hebrew k'li zemer כְּלִי זֶמֶר, "musical instrument") is a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism. Around the 15th century, a tradition of secular (non-liturgical) Jewish music was developed by musicians called klezmorim or kleyzmurim. They draw on devotional traditions extending back into Biblical times, and their musical legacy of klezmer continues to evolve today. The repertoire is largely dance songs for weddings and other celebrations. Due to the Ashkenazi lineage of this music, the lyrics, terminology and song titles are typically in Yiddish… ENTIRE ENTRY – link to en.wikipedia.org
to address your question. blacks continued to live in an untenable environment even 100 years after the civil war lacking basic human rights. somehow someway there was a tipping point during the civil rights movement. everything isn't perfect and we still have racism but the times have changed dramatically over the last 50 years. the constant comparison is made because once again the tipping point is nearing. this will not go on forever and justice will prevail.
The domestic conviction is that some groups of people deserve empathy and other do not. Obama believes this, as does his pick for the US Supreme Court. Remember what he said about lower class whites with their guns, and what she said via direct implication about white male judges? White fireman are expendable in their view. The controlling factor depends on whether or not you a member of one of the designated victim groups, or not. Hence all white males and some white male females (e.g., Sarah Palen, Anne Coulter), David Koresh's followers, all Palestinians, are not a triple protected subspecies. Hate Speech does not cover those groups, and neither do most federal funds.
And to state the obvious, Jews always deserve extra protection and funding. Look at where the Homeland Security money has been going. And, on the other side of the earth, note that the money the Obama regime gave to Palestinians for reconstruction and humanitarian relief is sitting in banks because Israel told Obama they don't want the Pals to get it, while Israel simultaneously demanded more money for Israel–not a few noodles as for the Pals, but ever more oodles of US taxpayer cash in blank check form. Which Israel got with our usual congressional efficiency. This despite Israel giving the finger to Obama's meek bleating about the settlements.
You've hear on MSM TV about those two US women reporters kidnapped by N Korea than you've heard about Cynthia McKinney because she's been given no coverage at all in that media even though she's a former Presidential candidate and congress person. Speaks volumes, no?
Further, those two women, however unwittingly purposefully crossed into N Korean land, while in comparison, McKinney and her fellow travelers never tried to enter Israel, and had no intent to go there. How can Israel "deport" someone that they kidnapped from international waters and took to Israel against their will? You'd think one MSM news program would bring this glaring issue up. Fat chance… And the USA is not a client state of Israel? LOL
Maybe LeaNder can tell you. And she can compare that with the Arabs, and with all the countries over history that booted out their Jews. Hopefully she will not limit her motives to scapegoat theory and antisemitism as a mental disease.
Must really annoy the Israelis that they can't circumcise the Muslims because they religiously are, though they can make them eat pork but that might hit to close to home psychology.
They can dance Cossack style to it, and do. No irony there.
RE: "…I want to do klezmer all night long…" FROM 'PEACE NOW' (07/06/09): " Peace Now activists assaulted on video", posted by Noam Shelef (EXCERPT) Some stunning footage just became available of a settler attacking a team of Peace Now activists who were surveying West Bank settlement construction. The assault took place at the settlement of Dolev. The incident was captured on video and reported by Israel’s Channel 2 Television, whose news team was documenting Peace Now’s work, and was also assaulted…. ENTIRE POST & VIDEO – link to peacenowconversation.org PS. Aren't you getting a little too old to be doing "klezmer" all night long, Phil? Remember what happened to Nelson Rockefeller!
Yes it does, Yes it does… You heard not a tweet (tweet-tweet) about PNAC documents on any major news station in the USA from 2000 to today. What an operation! There are the good media that get to tan on the lawn, and the other media that get to wait at the bustop! USA USA !!!
"You would think 90% of the Jewish Israelis would be up in arms and have thrown an Iran style revolt long ago over I-P. " It's different when the founding of your country is based on victimhood! It's almost a punditry sport to see which news organization can deny the problem the longest!!!
My intent isn't to defend what was done to Blacks, but to point out that what was done to Blacks does not compare to what has been to to the Palestinians by Israel. Occasional mob justice and a second-class legal status doesn't compare to being a non-entity who can be pushed off land and destroyed at will. Blacks never faced napalm, f-16s, tanks, Apache gunships, hostile troops naval blockade, shelling or any sort of military action.
Blacks also never hijacked planes, fired rockets, detonated themselves in malls and on buses packed with women and children, all with the explicit goal of killing as many white civilians as possible.
Don't tell me that the Israelis didn't kill children, women and elderly in its last massacre on the Gazans. Your compassion for the women and children is admirable indeed,……. NOT!!
"Why did Germany want to get rid of the Jews? I understand why the Arabs do." How can I be the only one in this forum to respond to this racist person? If you will not condem "graham" you are as racist as he is.
Would you have preferred it if they'd achieved those ends with F-16 fighters, the way Israel have? The IDF after all., use children for target practice and as Ze'ev Shiff (Israeli journalist and military correspondent for Ha'aretz) said: "The Israeli army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously. The army has never distinguished civilian from military targets, but has purposely attacked civilian targets."
Physical violence was a frequent experience for individual Blacks in the US. Perhaps you've never read about the tar and feathering, the lynchings, the burning of homes and even, on at least one occasion, the destruction of an entire town. But those events took place in the US during the 20th century, and they were a part of the impetus driving the nation as a whole toward change. The economic and social consequences of racial discrimination still being played out in courts and corporations and in the lives of us all are but an echo of how bad it used to be.
The Black people of the US were not kept penned up in small areas, subject to military attack which regularly killed large number of their children, and political assassination of their elected representatives. The violence experienced by Israeli society is, in degree, considerably less than that inflicted in the name of Israeli society. Why do you expect the Israelis to be held harmless for harm done?
Amir, you have not condemned him, merely chided others for not doing so. It's good to be able to share the burden of responding to those who are racist, or who express other manners of adverse discrimination – but for response to be meaningful, it really needs to be directed toward the person who is speaking.
Todd, multicultural means people of many different cultures are able to exist peacefully together, as opposed to losing the ethnocultural part of oneself in order to fit in a world where everyone is expected to be the same. Universal human rights mean that everyone has rights as human beings, no matter what culture or nation they live in. We aren't anywhere near there yet.
I was pointing out that the analogy between the Palestinians and Blacks in the US is not only misguided because the Blacks didn't face the same conditions, but also because the whites in the US did not suffer from horrific violence against civilians. How is your reply related?
Margaret, Unfortunately, I don't believe that we will ever reach a state where culture, race, ethnicity, religion or ideology don't divide people, or where all innocent people are safe and enjoy standard legal rights and protections. I don't even trust most of the peope who talk multiculturalism or universal rights, since most have some group that is designated to take a backseat to those who are oppressed–and it's always some other group or people. I guess I'm just a cynic. : )
The test of virtue is power. I will leave it to you and other readers here to decide which group of people in the world have given Margaret599's good vision the most effort in support in world history to date.
BTW, Margaret, why would you suspect that I wouldn't understand what multiculturalism is supposed to be, or what universal human rights are?
Living now in accord with such principles is worthwhile because of the benefits such actions bring now. Groups form because individuals share in action and beliefs. Social change comes from the united effort of individuals – bottom up, not top down.
What you've said about both didn't agree with what I thought the two ideas meant.
I don't recall commenting on universal human rights. I'm not a multiculturalist because I don't think such a system will ever work, and I don't believe that many people who talk multiculturalism mean what they say. I'd bet that most tyrants talk some form of human rights before gaining power, as well. Idealists and pacifists don't usually gain power. Social change comes from those with the power to cement change. Sometimes change comes from the top, and sometimes from the bottom and middle. I have to disagree with your view of group formation. Most people aren't ideologues, and group along cultural or kinship lines, which is why I have no faith in multiculturalism, or in the ability to even establish or enforce universal human rights.
Yes – I realized I didn't remember anything specific to human rights.
Well under the Obama regime it looks like the white males are expendable, increasingly so by law. Especially if some of Obama's regime with its 60% majority gets its way, which will happen. The only area of exception to this general rule is if the white males are part of Wall Street. Shows you which way the wind is blowing.
Well, with some people it mostly comes neither way, e.g., Shia (top down) and Sunni (bottom up).
stop wasting the armies time. Provocateurs!