There is something way too literal about Israel shooting out the eye of a witness to its crimes.
This photograph of Emily Henochowicz's bandaged face needs to be seen by the world.
Like many of us around the world, Henochowicz, a 21-year-old Cooper Union art student, joined protests on Monday against Israel’s outrageous attack on the humanitarian flotilla. But unfortunately, the protest Emily attended was in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and like so many protests in the West Bank, it was violently attacked by the IDF. According to a report from the International Solidarity Movement, Emily was “hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today.” Sören Johanssen, a Swedish activist standing beside Henochowicz, reported that, “They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.”
This courageous young woman is now the wrenching embodiment of a policy that systematically targets witnesses and human rights advocates -- from Stop the Wall's Mohammad Othman, arrested on his way back from a European speaking tour, to the vicious smear campaign waged against Justice Richard Goldstone.
Visiting Emily's homepage, I was struck that eyeballs are a recurring theme in her work. Not surprising, I suppose, for a visual artist. But an eyeball was how she chose to present herself to the world.
And there are eyeballs all over this beautiful piece:
That Mood (By Emily Henochowicz)
She devoted her life to seeing, to witnessing. And for this she lost her left eye.
We owe it to Emily to look at her tragedy -- both its physical and its metaphorical implications -- as hard as we possibly can.
Here is a comment actually posted on her page:
Shon And Sedona said…
Nothing like a tear gas can to the head lol. I see your face book page claimed you were from Ramallah, not NY? Do America a favor and stay in Ramallah as we have reached our quota on stupid people and don’t need you back here.
JUNE 2, 2010 11:37 AM
Zionism kills.
And Zionism blinds..
Zionism breeds hate.
Watch this CBC report on the Gaza bloodshed (June 1, 2010) which has been zapped from its site. See it before it goes:
link to youtube.com
Here is the link to the people who posted it:
link to blogger.com
This comment was written by Mr. Shon Fredrickson of Los Angeles. Sedona is his dog. Mr. Fredrickson is single, for some buffling reason.
“Mr Fredrickson is single”
Colour me shocked. What a brute.
It’s really amazing how callous some people can be. I’ve seen lots of comments writing this off by saying “She shouldn’t have been at an illegal protest anyway”. But remember, this is the only democracy in the Middle East!
I wouldn’t trust anyone called Shon. It’s either Sean or bugger off!
An object lesson in the sorts of minds we’re up against. There’s no middle ground with these types. It’s almost as though they were a different species.
“There’s no middle ground with these types.”
Hook ‘em up to a brain scan, EKG, make timed blood draws, and you’ll see: it’s not their species which changes, it’ll be their whole body chemistry. Unfortunately, some people find these changes, the shift to a sociopathic self-righteousness, so gratifying, so innately fulfilling, they become addicted to the process. And you can work up the exact state of maximum gratification even better if you have the luxury of vicariousness.
Thank you Naomi for the thoughts, and of course Emily for her courage.
Emily lost her eye, Furkan Dogan from New York got 4 bullets to the head. And yet, Obama shuts up like the good little slave he is. He should be impeached by the people.
And we have one cable TV hour each night lately in prime time, devoted by Beck to the idea that Obama and the Gaza “activists,” are all jew-hating socialist extremists hell-bent on fomenting anti-semitism and anti-capitalism–inspired by the Nazi likes of Goebbels and the “self-hating jew” Marx.
Did I mention Rachel Corry? The sailors of the USS Liberty?
The so called US Government does not care if the so called Jewish state murders its citizens.
Just compare how good Iran treated those six British soldiers. They didnt get 4 bullets to the head, didn’t they?
When was the last time an US citizen lost an eye protesting in Tehran against the Iranian government?
If Obama was a real president, he would send a nuclear aircraft carrier to secure the MV Rachel Corrie’s secure voyage to Gaza port.
Any idea about the whereabouts of the Rachel Corrie ship..No news anywhere!
TGIA – It went back to shore to get fitted with multiple video cameras and satellite feeds. Excellent idea!!
Thank you Oscar.
Silly me! I hadn’t noticed that a post was dedicated to this..
The zionists gloat and sneer “publicity stunt”. Wait’ll they get a load of what’s coming.
The Royal Navy sailors (sailors, not soldiers) were military personnel on a military craft, for military purposes (not delivering aid) and in an area which is at least arguably Iranian waters.
And all the Iranians did was capture them, feed them well, and give them a few presents when they released them.
Shows what a lot of incompetent pussies these Muslims are. They need to learn how to do these things properly.
It was an example of how rational people can behave, the low point I though was the boy whining about his Ipod, oh well, you’d never see SAS or Royal Marines crying about taking a couple of knock from a bunch of activists. There’s a schitzoid psyche going on that jumps between cry-baby and psycho; won’t see the contradiction, and yet expects the whole world to join the febrile hysteria.
I understand your frustration but if the US sent an aircraft carrier to the eastern Med Israel would just sink it. These days aircraft carriers only work against third world countries. I also hate to say it but I think Israeli pilots easily outclass ours. I remember about ten years ago a US aircraft carrier ran some war games with Israel. They “shot down” our planes with something like a 50 to one ratio.
Israel made an example of Emily to make clear what they will do to those willing to use non-violent resistance. Imagine how much worse it would have been if she had been a Palestinian.
Yeah, something blew by my monitor couple days ago. Apparently, some settlers on a proprietary road drove over a couple of car-less Palestinians, killing them. Only peep I heard. Did I imagine it in a conspiratorial daze?
link to news.xinhuanet.com
Kapok could be forgiven for believing he imagined this. The whole thing is like a nightmare you can’t wake up from.
People like Emily and Rachel Corrie are honorary Palestinians.
“Honorary Palestinian”
What a powerful phrase that has become!
Sorry about that user name… I tried to register as “BDS now” but failed.
The witnesses are not only blinded, they are silenced. Israel has confiscated all the evidence from the ships so they can cut and paste and back up their lies.
And the activists words are thus weakened. As the activists eventually return to their home countries and speak out about the issue, their dispersed nature and the confiscated evidence ensure that these voices will end up as being lone dissent. This is why Israel kept the activists in detention: their experiences will now be reduced to “claims,” as I realized when I read news in my local paper of activists being deliberately abused by the IDF. And the Israeli narrative (however untenable and unprecedentedly weak), with the advocacy of many Zionists embedded in the media and political world, will be the last word on the massacre. Simply because it had the first say in rationalizing the matter.
In hindsight, the activists should have re-grouped at a convenient location, perhaps Turkey or some nearby state, and held their own press conference detailing their experiences and version of events.
But then again, it just goes to show that the activists were never in it solely for the PR.
Maybe not. Too many of Israel’s lies have already been exposed. At some point, people have to realize that these guys are liars and nothing they say can be trusted.
Most Americans don’t even have the I-P conflict on their radar; at best they have a vague notion of the hasbara peddled constantly by nearly all US political “leaders.” or an even vaguer notion of two
biblical peoples fighting biblical wars until the end of time. They have no information regarding how biased their tax dollars have been all these years. Their concern is economic and only on a very local level.
When I listened to radio reports on the raid, the passengers interviewed kept on mentioning the USS Liberty attack.
For many people, this will be their first exposure to that attack on a US Naval vessel.
I’m glad they mention that, and hope more people will learn about it.
Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now this morning had a discussion of the attack on the USS Liberty and then an interview with Liberty survivor Joe Meadors, who was on the flotilla and then held and released by the Israelis.
Israel supporters have succeeded up to now in suppressing discussion among Americans of Israel’s attack on the Liberty. I think discussion of that outrageous incident is now going to open up, because it is so relevant to what Israel just did to the flotilla.
This is the epitome of poetic INjustice (if there is such a beast), a crime against an individual and a crime against humanity.
So when I can expect the non-Zionist controlled media to cover this fine young human being’s experience?
Israel takes out an eye, shoots 4 bullets in the head, burns a baby with White Phosphorus, all in a day’s work. Meanwhile, the United States, both people (the vast majority) and government alike, sit idly by and do NOTHING.
To the world community outside the United States, here’s the face of America and it’s no wonder that the US is further isolated by supporting Israel’s actions.
Feast your eyes on this America, your tax dollars and elected representatives made it all possible:
1
2
3
Thanks, Avi. You could’ve kept going too.
Americans generally have a difficult time walking outside of themselves to see what the world looks like form another perspective. Major hubris.
A significant cause of this apathy and willed ignorance is there is no military draft. This itself has been a silent revolution over the recent decades–especially for the lone superpower. The wallet may be empty,
but that includes no draft card to burn.
Horrible. This shows how easy non-violent ISN’T when it comes to Israel. Every non-violent protest I’ve been to in Palestine has been terrifying — tear gas canisters shot at us, a stun grenade hit me in the leg once even though I was way in the back and running away, and much worse. It made me deathly phobic of demonstrations for quite a while, I’m sorry to say.
The people who engage in these demonstrations, knowing the danger, should be carried proudly on the shoulders of mankind as the heroes they are. It’s not just courage they have, it’s an almost supernatural resolve. As Solzhenitsyn said, “When you have robbed a man of everything, he is no longer in your power. He is free again.”
And they will win.
Beautifully stated and we all salute the incredible courage of people like you.
Viva Palestine.
In recognition of the death of Furkan Dogan and the loss by Emily of her eye, I increased the amount of money given to Pacifica’s WBAI during its current fund raiser. Joining the march here in New York on Tuesday is a one time thing but donations of money can have a lasting effect.
But remember, Israel is your friend and ally.
“Israel is perhaps the single most reliable, capable, and willing friend of the United States in its region and in the world.”
Also, “it projects values that matter deeply to the American people.”
Eyes obviously don’t matter.
(Quotes from: link to tech.mit.edu)
This false talking point is endlessly repeated…endlessly. Many folks are not buying it.
Norman makes some interesting points
Norman Finkelstein “Israel is now a lunatic state”
link to creative-i.info
Finkelstein “What happened with the Gaza flotilla was not an accident. You have to remember that the Israeli cabinet metfor fully a week. All the cabinet members discussed and deliberated how they would handle the flotilla. There were numerous reports in the Israeli press, numerous suggestions, numerous recommendations about what to do.
At the end of the day they decided on a night time armed commando raid on a humanitarian convoy. Israel is now a lunatic state. It’s a lunatic state with between 2 and 300 nuclear devices. It is threatening war daily against Iran, and against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah in Lebanon has all ready stated on several occasions that if Israel attacks it will retaliate in kind. Things are getting out of control. We have to ask ourselves a simple basic fundamental question. Can a lunatic state like Israel be trusted with 2 to 300 nuclear devices, when it is now threatening its neighbors Iran and Lebanon with an attack? These are serious issues!”
————————————————————————-
Captured and detained by Israel, an American tells his story
link to salon.com
“When the Israeli forces picked him up, Larudee said, he was severely beaten and tied to a mast at the stern of their ship. His legs and hands were bound as he was subjected to the hot sun in wet soaking clothes for four hours. He said his body almost went into shock from the extreme hot and cold conditions.”
its heartbreaking to see these photos of her.
and this is what happens when people protest peacefully?!
so sad.
link to youtube.com!
Interview with Al Jazeera’s Jamal ElShayyal: One of the passengers on the Mavi Marmara
The Israelis have released some footage taken by onboard cameras in the minutes before they “innocently boarded”:
link to youtube.com
The captions they’ve added are so ridiculous they’re funny.
That didn’t work. I’ll try again.
link to youtube.com
My sincerest sympathies to Emily Henochowicz for this ghastly injury. As a talented artist, she is the last to deserve it.
But this, like Tristan Anderson’s injury, Furkan Dogan’s and Rachel Corrie’s deaths, will be ignored and soon forgotten by the US Government. It will mount no vigourous objections to these outrages against its citizens.
And like the cock-ups on the Mavi Marmara and Cast Lead, it is the result of the IDF’s super-militaristic and racist culture, where it doesn’t exercise discipline on its own goons, and allows them too many lethal weapons for policing operations.
Paint balls? These marine goons carried stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets, live ammunition, and wore armoured flak jackets and helmets.
Still no match, according to Ha’aretz, for the hastily-armed activists, who captured three of them.
link to haaretz.com
(Haaretz quotes a revealing statement: The navy admits that it trained mostly for “a Bil’in type of opposition, but there was no feeling that this was going to be a walk in the park.” He was referring to a village at the separation fence where demonstrations take place. )
England’s ‘bobbies’ never wore arms until recently, and if they beat up someone at a demo there was at least an enquiry. The Blair Peach incident was the last such incident I recall: (1979). After an extensive cover-up, the Metropolitan Police reports into the death of Blair Peach were made available to the public on 27 April 2010. He would have been nearly a pensioner, had he lived.
But he wasn’t killed in a shitty little Levantine country.
Britain set a precedent in 1850 with the Don Pacifico affair
link to en.wikipedia.org
It was called gunboat diplomacy, and it worked. But then, we didn’t have our Parliament suborned by the Greeks, and we had a Prime Minister who had some courage, and actually controlled his cabinet.
Princess Obama has no courage whatsoever, and can’t run his Secretary of State, let alone the rest of them.
“The blind bleeding us blind.”
Seriously, that is troubling to look at but cleary more troubling to have been on the receiving end. It’s as if every protest and protester warrants a death sentence, and Israel pretends to have taken the high moral ground each time someone, through the randomness of chance, doesn’t die.
They have set the bar ridiculously low as far as ethical self assessment goes.
When I saw Emily it reminded me of other atrocities I have read about, of those who who have been assaulted on their bodies where their artistic talent resides. With Emily it was her eyes, and as Phil said punished for what she saw and hence supported.
What comes to mind is a man who was known for his writing and speaking for the Palestinian cause, and wrote as a poet regarding their plight. Kamal Nasir. He was not a violent man, but the editor of the publication “The Palestinian Revolution.” A man of eloquence and elegance who never missed an opportunity to express his peoples desires and goals.
You have to remember that Israel never misses a beat banishing or destroying the thinkers and artists among the Palestinians, and it is also an equal opportunity for the supporters of the Palestinians.
I want to emphasize how he was killed, he was found with his hands stretched out, THERE WAS MULTIPLE BULLET WOUNDS IN HIS MOUTH AND IN THE HAND THAT HE WROTE WITH. WHICH CRUELLY AND UNMERCIFULLY SAID IF YOU SPEAK FOR THE PALESTINIANS AND WRITE ON THEIR BEHALF THIS WILL BE YOUR FATE. THIS IS THE SAME MAN WHO WROTE THIS FOLLOWING POEM OF MATCHLESS BEAUTY, ELEGANCE, AND COURAGE:
The Last Testimony
“Beloved, if perchance word of my death reaches you
As, alone, you fondle my only child
Eagerly awaiting my return,
Shed no tears in sorrow for me
For in my homeland
Life is degradation and wounds
And in my eyes the call of danger rings.
Beloved, if word of my death reaches you
And the lovers cry out:
The loyal one has departed, his visage gone forever,
And fragrance has died within the bosom of the flower
Shed no tears…smile on life
And tell my only one, my loved one,
The dark recesses of your father’s being
Have been touched by visions of his people.
Splintered thoughts bestowed his path
As he witnessed the wounds of oppression.
In revolt, he set himself a goal
He became a martyr, sublimated his being
even changed his prayers
Deepened their features and improvised
And in the long struggle his blood flowed
His lofty vision unfolded shaking even destiny.
If news reaches you, and friends come to you,
Their eyes filled with cautious concern
Smile to them in kindness
For my death will bring life to all;
My people’s dreams are my shrine
at which I pray, for which I live.
The ecstasy of creation warms my being, shouting of joy,
Filling me with love, as day follows day,
Enveloping my struggling soul and body.
Immortalized am I in the hearts of friends
I live only in others’ thoughts and memories.
Beloved, if word reaches you and you fear for me
Should you shudder and your cheeks grow pale
As pale as the face of the moon,
Allow it not to look upon you, nor
feast on the beauty of your gaze
For I am jealous of the light of the moon.
Tell my only one, for I love him,
That I have tasted the joy of giving
And my heart relishes the wounds of sacrifice.
There is nothing left for him
Save the sighs from my song…Save the remnants of my lute
Lying piled and scattered in our house.
Tell my only one if he ever visits my grave
And yearns for my memory,
Tell him one day that I shall return
–to pick the fruits.”
Kamal Nasir, translated by Abdel Wahab Elmesseri
It is atrocities like this, what happened to Emily, that brings these matters to mind and heart.
THE LAST TESTIMONY OF KAMAL NASIR
Kamal Nasir was murdered in an Israeli “commando raid” on Beirut on 10 April 1973, led by Ehud Barak. Nothing changes.
“Kamal Nasir was murdered in an Israeli “commando raid” on Beirut ”
Kamal Butros Nasir was a writer and a poet. After Ehud Barak himself shot him in the head he added a shot in his right hand, the one he writes with. To make a point..This is Israel for you..
OOPS! I did not see VR’s post..Geez!
MY, my, what a light to the Gentiles Israel is–Truman learned the truth–unfortunately, he only wrote it in his diary and we have to live with his decision to recognize Israel (although he crossed out the adjective “Jewish” referencing the new state). He was too dim to realize the Zionists would collapse the adjective Israeli into Jewish to have a shield nobody could penetrate without losing their reputation
as honorable.
That commando raid on Beirut is portrayed in Spielberg’s movie Munich.
Lysias, Barak was another in a line of terrorists that went on to become a leader of Israel. Other than the 1973 assassination in Beirut of Kamal Nasir by Barak disguised as a woman, he was the architect of the Israeli plan to have Palestinian terrorists hijack the plane to Entebbe and he was in on the raid in Tunis in 1988 to kill Abu Jihad. Still to be positively attributed to Israelis are the dozens of political assassinations that occurred in Beirut in the last 5 years to keep the country unstable. Was there an Israeli leader that did not have an early history of terrorism?
A bit more on Kamal Nasir from the Umkahlil Blog:
Kamal Nasir, Palestinian poet, killed by an Israeli death squad on April 10, 1973 during a time when 1570 Palestinian educators, doctors, and professionals were deported from their homeland as well as assasinated and maimed in botched assasinations. Their crimes: intellect, resistance, leadership This poem was written in 1961.
I will tell you a story
A story that lived in the dreams of people
A story that comes out of the world of tents
Was made by hunger and decorated in the dark nights
In my country, and my country is a handful of refugees
Every twenty of them have a pound of flour
And promises of a relief…gifts and parcels
It is the story of the suffering group
Who stood for ten years in hunger
In tears and agony
In hardship and yearning
It is a story of people who were misled
Who were thrown in the mazes of years
But they defied and stood
Disrobed and united
And went to light, from the tents
The revolution of return
in the world of darkness.
Not that it’s terribly important but somehow relevant, Kamal Nasir is/was a Christian Palestinian.
Thank you for posting this, VR. I had not heard about this man, nor read his poetry. It’s beautiful, but so terribly sad.
a little bit more on kamal:
link to thisweekinpalestine.com
VR,
Kamal Nasir’s poem reminds me that It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.
Some people go through life swindling others, preying on the weak and abusing the less fortunate as they accumulate their fortune and ascend to high positions, others like Furkan Dogan, live a mere 19 years on this earth, but in such a short period, they bring about hope and moral courage for decades to come; he will live in infamy, whereas leaders of the allegedly free-world and of the world’s greatest superpower will be relegated to the dustbin of history.
Aw come on, most Americans will never hear of Dogan, but all will remember Madoff–already a veritable American icon.
RE: “Blinding the witnesses” – Weiss
MY COMMENT: A/k/a “crowd dispersal” by the IDF!
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
A real eye for a painted one, a real tooth for a painted tooth. To Israel, the world is Deadwood.
What can the world do?
Interesting point by Dr. Alan Sabrosky:
There are two visible mechanisms for putting principles into action, neither of which is hostage to a US veto. One — often discussed but not yet done on this issue — is to invoke the “Uniting for Peace” Resolution in the UN General Assembly, which gives the UNGA the enforcement mechanisms available in other circumstances to the Security Council. My reading of the reaction to this incident is that at this time, there are more than enough votes in the UNGA to do this.
Remember that a resolution designed by the US to circumvent Soviet intransigence and vetoes in the Security Council of its day, can and should with equal justice be directed against the US for the same reasons today on this issue. All countries would not take all of the actions enumerated above, but enough would take some of them to make life very interesting for Israel and its minions in the USG.
Second, there is NATO itself. Turkey has said it would provide escort to future efforts at sending aid to Gaza, presumably on Turkish-flagged ships. It is a key regional player and has been a good ally for decades, and it should not be required to act alone on something that ought to have activated the collective defense provisions of the NATO treaty: between 9/11, used as a pretext for NATO to become engaged in Afghanistan, and the attack on the Turkish part of the Gaza aid flotilla, is a difference only of degree and not of kind.
A NATO multinational naval presence off the Gaza coast is just what is needed for openers, and if it is supplemented by another under UN auspices, so much the better. Indeed, even a single warship from any other country joining even one from Turkey to escort the next ship through Israel’s illegal blockade would send a much-needed and long overdue signal neither Israel nor the USG could ignore. Israeli arrogance has given the world an opportunity to change things, if it dares — and perhaps it will.
link to salem-news.com
My poor mother has been realizing enlightenment values the past couple of years. I sent her the story when it first broke, hoping she would pass it along to her network of WASP’s.
Has anyone seen the Ed Koch video as he mummbled and blabbered for 5 minutes, spewing all the talking points and showing the ugliest form of tribalism?
Well, if you haven’t, here it is:
link to youtube.com;
Why does an arrogant fool like that deserve air-time? It’s beyond me.
The first published videos of the aftermath of the vicious Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla –
FIRST VIDEOS PUBLISHED
The list is very long; Israel is founded and maintained by terrorism. No one can deny it. It’s a shame for those good Jews that are caught up in it or by it.
It seems that Jews end up blind thanks to Zionism, one way or another.
Just a few weeks ago there was another incident of an American activist hit in the face by the Israelis with a gas canister. The injury was just as horrific:
link to alarabiya.net
I think this could be another Israeli tactic being put to use, to cause dreadful injuries by something they can claim was an ‘accident’, as a deterrent to protesters, activists.
For all our friends in Sydney: Tomorrow Saturday June 5, 2 PM—Sydney Town Hall —Ralley End the Siege of Gaza/ Break Ties With Israel
link to coalitionforpalestine.org
TGIA, there’s a giant rally in support for the Palestinians and the Turkish victims tonight at 8:30 called by Hassan Nasrallah. This means anywhere between 500,000 and a million people.
Wouldn’t be able to make it, Walid. I live in Sydney.
Rachel Corrie To Arrive in Gaza Within 24 Hours
Palestine Monitor
4 June 2010
MV Corrie reported missing, en route, and sabotaged
04/06/2010 11:19
link to maannews.net
I read that what was sabotaged was the press ship that was tagging behind the Rachel Corrie
MV Rachel Corrie seems to still be heading to Gaza. They will arrive on Saturday morning.
See Free Gaza Movement Website
Rachel Corrie on Her Way
The Israelis seem intent on preventing journalistic witnesses from documenting what they see.
From Richard Silverstein’s latest item on Tikun Olam, Al Jazeera Cameraman’s Eyewitness Acccount of IDF Attack, link to richardsilverstein.com:
Plus, they tazered that Sydney Morning Herald photographer on a different boat.
Stories of assassination are on the rise. The story of what Israelis did is getting uglier by the day. I feel sorry for the Americans because their government knew in advance what would happen and did nothing to stop these maniacs and now it’s covering for them, as usual.
Obviously, our government endorsed what happened. Look up the filthy things Joe Biden said about this whole affair on Charlie Rose and how Israel had “every right.”
This is Obama’s “Gaza Bombshell” and it shows the rest of the world that Obama’s flowery speech in Cairo was nothing but hot air and snake oil.
Didn’t we have a discussion a few weeks back about another non-violent protester getting hit in the head with a tear gas can? I think soneone was arguing that it was unlikely the soldier was able to aim and hit the guy in a crowd and that the policy was to aim higher up.
Once, a possible accident. Twice, it looks like not so much…
I doubt my senator, Ben Cardin, will protest much about a fellow Marylander.
This piece is now on Huffington Post with credit to mondoweiss. Good work Naomi and Philip.