Transformation. Fabulous video of the strong young artist Emily Henochowicz singing an anthem to Palestine she wrote for her friend. A lot of great rage here, toward the state that destroyed her eye during a demonstration on May 31. Some of the lyrics, about 2-1/2 minutes in:
In Palestine, oh I miss you Palestine.
And you know I think back to the memory of my grandparents in Poland
And I think of what they suffered through in Europe. It makes me sad
I think they would be sad how all those Jews who died in the Holocaust would be so very sad
If they knew that this is how their memory was being used
Oh-oh, in Palestine
It’s fascist what they’re doing
It is ethnic cleansing what they’re doing
It is just as bad as what had happened to them
Don’t they see?
Don’t they see?
If they don’t want people to be anti-Semitic, then they better act like good Jews!
They can’t say that they are moral when this is what they do!
In Palestine
Whoa, in Palestine
May it go platinum!
oh my god! this girl is rockin’ my world..
tears in the mornin’ never expected this much beauty today.
Potsherd and Annie, I feel just the same and woke this morning compelled to add:
Emily Henochowicz Sings Us to–Wake
I’m humbled: the brilliant artist who “gave you [oh, Palestine] my eye” still hopes so passionately for her friends there. She croons a tribute to them and to Palestine, “Oh I wish I was with you.” She prophesies that “it can get better if people open their eyes, open their eyes.”
She hymns that “Because I changed, people can change,” others can, too, and “I’ll be back with you some day, Palestine, and I believe that there will be peace, I believe that you can be free.”
She shows us in a self-portrait the cost that Israel extracted of her change, of her freshly open eyes, of opening spirit: literally extracting the eye that had lifted its veil. She tints the empty–meaning-full–opening in red against the sepia pen and ink of a gripping self-portrait. link to flickr.com
link to thirstypixels.blogspot.com
Emily Henochowicz asks of Israel and of us, “Don’t they SEE? Don’t they SEE?,” for, “Oh, those people are so fine. Oh I miss you. Palestine.
How inspiring, too, the way Henochowicz composed this song,
“The week I got home, I got my energy back, and I was giddy with the joy of being alive.”
Emily dwells in elation, not self-pity, and I love to imagine that her valor comes from respect for her Palestinian mates, who–when terribly injured–would have been held up at a “death-point,” and might not have survived.
i’ve been humming it all day..whoa palestine whoooooa palestine…!!!
If I want to summrise the issue within some words,,,
I may say ” We are the victims of the victims”
still, I am thinking of the reason that pushes a victim to cause the same experience to other people the latter, I mean the the Palestinians, had no direct or indirect relation to the suffering of thier victimizers, the Israelis in this case!
Yosef
It’s the same phenomenon as with the guy who beats his wife or his children because his boss gives him hell at the office..
Oh, wow. She is so beautiful in every single way.
A beautiful song.
You can contact her at Thirsty Pixels. She asks for critique of her video and otherwise, only for important stuff. Go Emily! What strength in your fragility, you move me.
It’s just so telling “If you don’t want anti-semitism” “act like a good Jew”
“if you don’t want to be hurt, murdered, terrorised, blown up” then be a good Jew.
In her mind a good Jew leaves his home and destroys it on the way out.
In her mind a good Jew forsakes his ancestral homeland
In her mind a good Jew is one that fights against his own people to support the very enemy who is bent on his destruction
There is so much poetry out there, beautiful prose leading to calamity and disaster upon the people of Israel
I seem to recall that Emily specifically mentioned Poland in her lyrics.
“In her mind a good Jew forsakes his ancestral homeland”
In Australia we have quite a few Jews who forsook their ancestral homeland of Poland and came to live here.
Bad Jews! Baaad Jews!
MaximalistFiction
Are you a settler? Are you of the ideological variety? You sound like one.
A good Jew is not afraid to be in the minority – even among Jews. A good Jew is willing to risk her life for her convictions. A good Jew is compassionate and generous. A good Jew does not believe that her blood is redder than anyone else’s. A good Jew seeks justice and understands the historical lessons of racism and discrimination. A good Jew is Emily Henochowicz.
That’s only in your estimation Shmuel and other Anti-Zionists. You have no empathy for whom you’ve labeled “the wrong Jews” Those that exercise their moral, legal, and inalienable right to live as sovereign in any part of Palestine
You have no empathy for … Jews … that exercise their moral, legal, and inalienable right to live as sovereign in any part of Palestine”
You’re kidding, right?
And that’s precisely because she sees herself as a human being first; the zionists have opted to copy Hitler’s take on the world.
No a good “Jew” is one who fires a tear gas canister at a fellow “Jew” you schmuck.
It is hard to criticize a woman who lost an eye to a tear gas canister fired straight at her. But her rhetoric is not a rhetoric of peace by any means. Above Yousef M. Ajamal poses the question reasonably: How is it that victims victimize others? But Emily H. does not pose the question reasonably. Nor would I expect the victim who just lost an eye to a tear gas canister to pose reasonable questions.
Peace is a long shot, whether two states or one state. Emily H.’s song does not shorten the odds.
WJ
I believe the Palestinians are genuinely seeking peace but most importantly they’re seeking justice..I doubt there’ll be peace without justice..
I know this won’t clear moderation, but…
[removed]
Okay, sorry to make you guys back there read that but it was either that or throw something through a window here in real life. I can’t imagine what sort of hell it must be for you guys, having schmucks like WJ as relatives.
“having schmucks like WJ as relatives.”
Chaos, WJ is not married. He has no relatives.
The more precise question is: How is it that predators victimize others as they proclaim they are the victims and act in the name of victims? Emily H knows the circumstances surrounding her ancestors in Poland. She is standing up for the only principle that if it had been implemented would have saved them from their plight. She doesn’t want them to have died so unjustly and in vain. This is not rhetoric. Would you kill or starve an innocent to save your own life? Well then, I won’t a shed tear if the same happens to you.
Citizen, if there is one thing I find gratifying about this it’s watching Zionist-shills screaming like stuck pigs when the same techniques they have been using for a hundred (aprox.) years are used on them.
It never occurred to them this would happen, or was accusations of “anti-Semitism” the shibboleth which nothing could conquer?
“It is hard to criticize a woman who lost an eye to a tear gas canister fired straight at her. But her rhetoric is not a rhetoric of peace by any means.”
Unlike the soldier who fired right into her eye, who is of course, above any criticism, and in fact should be lauded for his aim?
“Peace is a long shot, whether two states or one state. Emily H.’s song does not shorten the odds.”
Unlike the tear-gas cannister, fired at a woman’s face, which brought peace so much nearer!
you can bet this sensitive, creative, warm-hearted person is prominent on israel’s enemies list … the fascists are spinning out-of-control in the Monster state
Max, WJ, Shwartzman, I don’t want you guys to get discouraged cause this one didn’t get killed, and can still talk (or sing, or draw) back. Don’t let that stop you! You can give her the full Rachel Corrie treatment if you just work yourselves up to it. Why, I bet if you just apply some ziocaine to your wonderful passive-aggressive methods (just remember that poisonous food, and the dinky portions) you should be able to exceed what you did with Ms. Corrie.
Jeez, Wonderful Jew, how did you manage to leave out the penultimate line in your screed, the one accusing her of tunnel vision. Oh wait, since you actually didn’t say that, let me put it in quotes “tunnel vision”.
I think comparing the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians to what the Nazis did to the Jews is plain stupid. Because Emily H. was cruelly attacked, therefore Phil Weiss sees fit to include her stupid statement.
“her stupid statement”
I thought it was an improvised song. You see all the problems I have when I try to fit words to music in a hurry. I’m not saying “I Enjoy Being A Jew”, “Brush Up Your Yiddish” or “Hasbara!” (sung to the tune of “Chicago” are great, but you have got to start somewhere.
What’s a matter, did it fall a little flat for you? Whoops, there I go again, remembering all the Zionist “statements” about Ms. Corrie. But don’t worry, like I said, I bet, especially considering the palpable desperation of the Zionist narrative these days, that you can do better.
Just remember WJ, in a kingdom (or even the Middle East’s only democracy) of blind men…..
“Because Emily H. was cruelly attacked, therefore Phil Weiss sees fit to include her stupid statement.”
Do you know how many times I have heard people say that the fact that Hitler was able to kill a lot of Jews proved their inferiority? A lot. so you are in good company.
For God’s sake, WJ, see your local Shadchen!
Mooser- please desist from personal comments.
I don’t see how my statement regarding Emily H. is comparable to the “fact that Hitler was able to kill a lot of Jews proved their inferiority” that you’ve heard so many times.
“Mooser- please desist from personal comments”
How are they “personal”? I don’t know you, never met you all I know about you is what you say about yourself here.
But thanks for telling me I am substantially right about you. Otherwise, it’d hardly be “personal”, would it?
If you don’t want some aspect of yourself discussed, don’t bring it up, okay?
“I don’t see how my statement regarding Emily H. is comparable….”
Of course you don’t, chump, but others do, and that’s what matters. My mail, phone calls and e-mail is running about 68-77% positive.
The idea of the victim as inferior is a Social Darwinist trope. I don’t know if there are any unabashed Social Darwinists round here.
I think Emily is saying that every country from the Holy Land to Poland and in all directions from there should give equal status to all without regard to race or religion. She says that if equal status is denied to others by those of one race or religion then the others will hate those who victimise them and that the hatred will come to take a racial or religious form. As with Larry Derfner there’s some ambiguity about whether she’s talking about causation or about justification but she’s not saying anything obviously false.
Who the hell are you to tell me how I should greet Finklestein!