Ghada Karmi and Ellen Siegel protesting in front of the Israeli Consulate in London, 1973.
Walking around campus these past few weeks, I couldn't help but notice advertisements outside of Warren Towers and the Hillel House telling students to go register for Taglit-Birthright's free 10-day trip to Israel that is happening this summer.
Birthright Israel is a program that is designed to take Jewish young adults on exclusive free trips to Israel through which, according to its website, it seeks to build a bond between the "land and the people of Israel," among other things. The Israeli government, and other organizations and individual funders sponsor the program.
Birthright, although sounds like a harmless free trip, actually has stark similarity to the state it seeks to cement a bond with: one of maintaining ethnoreligious supremacy and settler-colonial apartheid. Indeed, the trip sounds similar to a hypothetical scenario, in which Apartheid South Africa is funding exclusive trips for young whites to go visit the country's white enclaves, while denying its history of colonialism and its then-present apartheid structure.
In light of the political motives of these trips, my friend Francesca Contreras, a Mexican- American Jew who is active in the Palestine Solidarity Movement, and I decided to go to Hillel and see what they would tell us, a Palestinian and a Jew, ostensibly expressing interest in going on the trip.
Speaking to the representative, we quickly realized how naive she was about the historical context and the current situation in Israel-Palestine, and noted certain borderline racist things she said.
Taglit-Birthright participants, 2009 (Photo: Chelsey Lichtman)
With an Israeli flag draped in her background, she spoke to us for about twenty minutes and explained, according to her, what the trip is about. She said the trip begins in the (occupied) Golan Heights and Tiberias, and then they would go to Jerusalem, hike Masada, go to the Dead Sea, among other activities. She essentially painted a beautiful image of a country I had long heard about in stories, seen in pictures and in films but never been to due to a political reality. I wondered how my grandmother would feel about this program. I remembered the often-recounted story of when her and her family visited their stolen home in the village of Ramle a while after the creation of the State of Israel. The feeling of loss embodied in the key her mother held, while looking at her home now occupied by settlers epitomizes the type of privilege and supremacy this colonial project has created.
"What are the requirements?" Francesca asked.
The Birthright Coordinator confirmed our biases; she said the requirements are to have at least one Jewish grandparent and to consider oneself Jewish (without practicing any other religions), and having not gone on any previous peer-organized trips to Israel. She told Francesca (although having lived in Israel for three years when she was younger) that she is still eligible to go.
Jamil Sbitan: "So, what about non-Jews? Why are they not allowed to go?"
Birthright Coordinator: "The whole premise of this trip is connecting Jewish young adults to the land of Israel, to their heritage, to the Jewish state."
I asked her why they don't go to the West Bank on this trip, and she replied that they do. I was skeptical, so I rephrased my question. I then asked her if they go to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and she said that they don't.
JS: "So, where would you go usually?"
BC: "The person who runs the organization, the trip organizer, they live in the West Bank in a settlement. So, he usually invites us over for dinner. It's really pretty, you can see Jordan from there. It's really cool."
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are continuously eating up Palestinian land, are considered illegal, not "cool," under international law. This, along with the fact that she informed us that eight Israeli soldiers take time off of facilitating continuous colonization and enforcement of apartheid to vacation with them, further confirms the fact that this trip is designed to create unconditional support for Israel and to sugarcoat its atrocities.
I asked whether she felt it important that Palestinians connect with their heritage and culture. She said that she does, but doesn't know what their "communities provide for them." This said, despite the fact that Israel ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians to create a majority-Jewish state in 1948, and barred them from returning to their homes, in violation of UN resolution 194, which guarantees their right to return.
Jamil: "It just seems really unfair that people who are raised in other countries and have no connection to the land other than a religious one, can go and tour for free, whereas there are Palestinians who are living in refugee camps that are barred from entering or returning to their homes."
BC: "Unfortunately, that's the reality because of terrorism."
The BC also said that there are Palestinians who claim to be Palestinian but are originally from Egypt and Jordan, denied the existence of historic Palestine, and said that land was offered to the Palestinians in 1948 but "they didn't want to make peace, they didn't want to have a state."
Contrary to her orientalist use of the red herring word "terrorism," the refugees were denied their return simply because they were not Jewish. Indeed, this is the nature of Israeli Apartheid. In order to maintain a Jewish state, the demographic within the country needs to maintain a Jewish majority, and separate laws are created for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, as are discriminatory laws targeting the Palestinian minority in Israel created to choke the Palestinians' lives and pressure them to leave.
Juxtaposed, the image of young white Americans roaming wildly between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea, while Palestinian refugees wait in ghettos of refugee camps longing to return, is sickening. Just recently, a thirty-year old Palestinian friend from the West Bank told me of how liberating it was when he finally visited the sea in Jaffa for the first time, solely because Israel had granted him an entry permit to apply for a visa at the U.S. embassy. He said that he had been to the sea before when he traveled to Europe, but not in his historic homeland. And Palestinians living in the diaspora have recounted to me their horrifying experiences being racially profiled, strip searched and interrogated for hours while trying to visit the country.
Birthright embodies this exclusive apartheid nature of the state, which Israel is and continues to be. The fact that Israel practices apartheid has been articulated by figures like former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and renowned South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu. The Palestinians are engaged in a justified anti-apartheid movement for equality, self-determination and human rights, and those supporting ethno-religious supremacy and colonialism are on the wrong side of history.
Francesca: "So I'll apply [to Birthright], and he won't?"
BC: "Okay."
All this complaining. Let the Arab community in the United States organize whatever trips they want, and let them pay insurance for their kids to tour the West Bank and Gaza and wherever else they want to go.
This is, as usual, an example of the pro-Palestinian community criticizing an idea for success rather than ideology. Go find a few rich Arab-American donors (there are plenty) and get funding.
This isn’t even the issue, you troll.
The issue is the power dynamic of colonizer and colonized.
Nope the issue is as always two conflicting national movements.
The Palestinians nurture the national identity in their youths
we are in our’s.
For now we have more political and military power then they do.
You can argue that we abuse this power and this is something that we can
talk about and even find points of agreement.
But when the argument is presented in absolute terms from the perspective of only one narrative like in this
article then there is no point in any dialog.
You believe that Zionism is the root of all evil.
Fine.
You call making your youths man sniper posts and check points “nurturing” them? You’re not new Israel, you’re new Sparta.
“This is, as usual, an example of the pro-Palestinian community criticizing an idea for success rather than ideology.”
Nonsense, the idea of getting Jewish teens and early twenty-something from some indoctrination (and sex, let’s face facts…) on behalf of an evil ideology is objectionable regardless of whether it is successful or not.
Hophmi you really are clueless. Israel does not welcome Palestinian Americans coming for a visit.
Palestinians do have a homeland trip for youth, called Go Palestine, but of course it’s different from Birthright because it’s not free, it does not glamorize the military (the Palestinian trip does not include any meetings with military personnel, or straddling military equipment), and it is not ethnically pure (the program is designed for Palestinian youth, but anyone with an interest can attend, even if they’re not from a Palestinian family).
My daughter attended last year and met other Palestinian kids from all over the world and in spite of her U.S. passport and her young age, experienced her first Israeli interrogation. Just to get over the border from Jordan to Palestine, she was interrogated for about 40 minutes by Israelis who grilled her about all her previous international travel, her family’s history, her father’s life history, job, and career, telephone numbers for everyone in her family, etc. Quite an experience for a high school girl who previously had only traveled with her family.
She had some amazing experiences, including helping to rebuild a Palestinian family’s home (which was later re-demolished by Israelis), living with a local Ramallah-area family, and touring Hebron and Bethlehem, as well as other towns. They even went to Jerusalem and were allowed into Israel for a day trip, where they were denied entry to a public beach (but they got in anyway).
I recommend the trip, which is online at summerinpalestine.org
Reply hophmi?
What reply would you like? I’m all for Palestinian kids having their own trip, as I said. I think it should be free like Birthright is, if someone if willing to pay for it. After all, I’m in favor of a Palestinian state. Why shouldn’t I be in favor of Palestinian kids in the diaspora visiting it?
just not in palastine right?
You have your narrative we have ours.
you have your narrative we have ours
There is only one truth
The Zionist narrative is very fragile in many places.
OlegR said:
Then why are you commenting on an issue as polarizing and contentious as the Israel-Palestine conflict? And on an anti-Zionist blog?
LOL
/There is only one truth/
Agreed, but no narrative holds the whole of it.
I’ve been grilled, strip searched and ‘interrogated’ by Israeli airport security and I’m Jewish (but with an anglicized surname).
Waaaaahhhhh!!!!
At least I was secure in the knowledge that there were no troublemakers allowed on the plane with me.
You have never been strip searched and interrogated by the Israeli airport officials, you liar.
LOL
I have been by Russian / Italian /Spanish ones.
And yes as long as we are in a National conflict with the Palestinian
Arabs and given it’s history yes Arab nationals will receive more scrutiny
then everybody else entering the country.
The possible repercussions of a mistake should this scrutiny
not be implemented (As demonstrated in the recent American history)
outweigh the temporary discomfort any Arab feels while flying through
BGU.
The classic example of choosing the lesser evil.
>> The classic example of choosing the lesser evil.
And quite a contrast to the classic example of Zionists choosing the greater evils of terrorism, ethnic cleansing, the establishment of a religion-supremacist state and the execution of an ON-GOING and offensive (i.e., not defensive) campaign of aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction and murder.
Chocopie, that was interesting. And it blew Hophmi’s silliness out of the water.
I think I’ll recommend the Go Palestine trip to the Jewish kids I know. The trip your daughter took last year has all the advantages that Birthright lacks:
1) anti-war
2) in solidarity with an oppressed people
3) early education in the realities of colonizer/colonized relationship
4) a controlled exposure to risk. Teaching how one navigates between one’s privileged (American) status and one’s unprivileged identity (Palestinian or pro-Palestinian).
Of course, the Israelis could crack down on the American kids on Go Palestine at any time. The US Embassy in Tel Aviv will know what to do. Look the other way. They have got far more important people to take care of, such as the tens of thousands of American Jewish settlers on the West Bank, including those leading Birthright tours.
Ya’teek at afya Jamil.
The whole thing is so ludicrous.
Ashkenazi Jews should really go on discovery trips to places like Lvov and Vilnius to connect with their heritage.
If I were Jewish I would go to places associated with the Baal Shem Tov. That is real Jewish history. Zionist history is a fairytale.
You are so right.
Thanks, Seafoid, for bringing some reality in here.
“Ashkenazi Jews should really go on discovery trips to places like Lvov and Vilnius to connect with their heritage.”
Unfortunately, the Lvov, Vilnius and European chapters of Jewish history did end up so well for Jews.
“Zionist history is a fairytale.”
Zionism is about having a state of the Jewish people. That’s it. Surely you’d agree that Jews are entitled to their own state?
In any event, the argument is moot. Jews in Israel are not going anywhere. You should work towards peace. Fighting for Israel’s destruction will only result in further misery for the people who are living in this tiny stretch of land.
“Zionism is about having a state of the Jewish people. That’s it”
States need common understandings of the past. They need narratives. Israel’s historical narrative is bullshit.
Israel history AD 70- 1850
Nothing happened
“Surely you’d agree that Jews are entitled to their own state?”
They got their state in 1948. It wasn’t good enough for them
Enjoy it while it lasts.
“Israel’s historical narrative is bullshit.”
Well, I guess that settles it then. I’m off to pack my bags.
“They got their state in 1948. It wasn’t good enough for them
Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Thanks, I intend to do so.
@seafoid: Remember the Palestinians were also granted a state in 1948. Israelis moved on and built a state based on an extraordinary historical legacy; the Palestinians became intransigent and recalcitrant, unwilling to accept the new world politik and Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
retconing is for video games not reality
Why would anyone accept the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish State? That means they relinquish their RoR and accept second-class status for the Palestinians in Israel.
That means they accept the legitimacy of their ethnic cleansing and suffering at the hands of Zionism.
They will never accept this and no other people would as well.
“Why would anyone accept the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish State?”
Countries are formed around a common nationality. Israel is the home of the Jewish nationality.
“That means they relinquish their RoR”
Yes. RoR is not an option. Compensations are.
“and accept second-class status for the Palestinians in Israel.”
Israeli Arabs are not second class citizens. They are equal citizens.
Israeli Arabs are second class citizens. They are not equal citizens.
link to adalah.org
There is no such thing a s Jewish nationality. There are Jews who do not have Israeli citizenship.
There is only Israeli nationality – which privileges Jews over non-Jews.
Furthermore, you didn’t address the point I made.
Why would anyone accept the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish State?
Self-determination does not belong to religions. It belongs to the people of the land.
‘Jews’ as a collective have no right to any land on Earth except the land which they have physical ties to. A Muslim by virtue of being Muslim has no claim to Israel-Palestine. Neither does a Christian.
Why do Jews get special privilege over Christianity or Islam?
The United States is not a Christian State. The United States is not an ethno-religious-nationalist State. It is a State for it’s citizens.
Israel is not a State for it’s citizens.
The RoR may not be an option and that is why Palestinians do not accept Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish State.
Accepting the legitimacy of a Jewish State means giving up the legitimacy (in partial or in total) of Palestinian identity and history.
Palestinians were the majority in the land. They owned the majority of the land. Zionist Jews did not own more than 6% of the land and were a minority.
No one would accept these conditions. It is only in retrospect after all the suffering Zionism has inflicted on the Palestinians, that as a matter of lesser Evil, would the acceptance of Partition been a good idea (but it would, in the context of the time, also been calling the Zionists bluff).
/There is no such thing a s Jewish nationality. There are Jews who do not have Israeli citizenship.
There is only Israeli nationality – which privileges Jews over non-Jews./
Are you by any chance claiming that being a Jew only has meaning in
the religious context ?
I think Phil might disagree with you on that one.
/Why do Jews get special privilege over Christianity or Islam?/
Wrong comparison ,
Hamas likes to make that claim that Jews
are not people but a religion , Ultra Orthodox Jews believe that obviously,
but that doesn’t mean that Liberals such as yourself should take their point
of view just because it suits your political goals.
/There are Jews who do not have Israeli citizenship./
There are Irish who never set foot on Ireland.
Italians that have never been to Italy.
The list goes on.
/Israeli Arabs are second class citizens. They are not equal citizens./
They are according to the Law. Is their status perfect, no.
Should we do better , yes.
Are we working on it , yes.
Is it enough , not at the moment.
BTW is everything peachy with African Americans or Latinos (is it PC to say
Latinos) in the US ?
Does it mean they are second class citizens?
How about the Native Americans?
“Israeli Arabs are not second class citizens.”
LOL. You can’t even use their own prefered label for themselves, substituting your colonialist name.
” They are equal citizens.”
Please, izzy, I was born at night, but not last night.
They live in a state which subjects them to penalites and withholds benefits according to their nationality. That makes their treatment unequal. You might buy that “equal citizenship” lie, but don’t think so poorly of us that you think that we might buy it.
Unless everyone under the control of the Israelis state was treated absolutely equally, without regard to ethnicity, nationality or religion, and each given an equal say in their government, then you have second-class status.
>> Israel is the home of the Jewish nationality.
Jewish is not a nationality. It is a religious designation that can only be acquired through religious conversion. Israeli, on the other hand, is a nationality.
>> Israeli Arabs are not second class citizens. They are equal citizens.
In a religion-supremacist “Jewish state”, non-Jewish citizens cannot be equal.
BTW is everything peachy with African Americans or Latinos (is it PC to say Latinos) in the US ?
Well, we have a constitution that is the basis for US law.
Oleg, when do you believe Israel will work on a Constitution?
Is there any plan that has ever been discussed in recent history?
Mayhem – I’m a bit confused here. I thought that there were several strains of Judaism. I wasn’t aware that all Jews were the same and spoke with one voice. Jewish state? … Really?
I see you believe in punishing Palestinians because of their ethnicity. Do you think that the intransigent and recalcitrant nature is in their blood? Do you think I can judge all Jews based on your behaviour?
There are a lot of anti-zionist Jews these days. I think that intransigent and recalcitrant may be quite good adjectives in describing them too. Perhaps we should punish all Jews for their intransigent and recalcitrant behavior because of the actions of the anti-zionist Jews.
The issue is – are we talking about individuals or are we talking about races? You have framed the discussion in terms of the denial of the individual in favour of the group. Judiam is no longer an individual choice, but an obligation to the greater glory of the state. One true religion. One true state. One true people. Palestinians have no rights as individuals, but shall be judged and punished as a race, and more so – punished for failure to know their place amongst their betters.
Yes the debate about the need of a constitution
is ongoing so far the religious parties has effectively blocked all
attempts at legislation of a formal constitution.
BTW this has nothing to do with the Israeli Arabs.
Our law system currently have a number of Basic Laws
that effectively act as a protoconstitution.
Obviously this is not enough.
link to en.wikipedia.org
specifically look into the
link to en.wikipedia.org
Uh, no.
People can be Jewish (ethno-religious identity) and not be Israeli citizens.
Izik said:
“Countries are formed around a common nationality. Israel is the home of the Jewish nationality.”
I said, my country – the US – is not a Christian nation w/ a Christian nationality.
There is a separation of church and State. Furthermore, Christians are not privileged over non-Christians. Whether it be Christianity as a religion solely or as an ethnoreligious identity (i.e., Christian culture and Christian communities that remain closely insulated from non-Christians, and have laws that benefit them like the Christian Law of Return).
Whereas in Israel, there are several racist laws that privileges Jews (ie the Jewish law of Return where is you are Jewish or of a Jewish family and have not converted, you may gain Israeli citizenship).
No there aren’t.
There are Americans who are of Irish descent. Meaning, they have family who come from Ireland perhaps.
I am not a citizen of India. I am a citizen of America. I am not a Hindu or a Muslim. I am an atheist.
I am thus, an American of Indian descent. Even if one were to label me an ‘Indian-American’, the component, ‘Indian’ in that label is to denote my ethnicity and not nationalistic identity.
Likewise, a person who is Jewish and born in America is not an Israeli citizen. They are an American.
They have no inherent (in other words, by definition) Israeli identity whatsoever. Whereas, I am an Indian and my family descends from India. Jews can descend from all sorts of countries, including Israel.
And if they were from Germany, they would be German Jews. If their parents were from Germany, they would be American Jews of German descent (if their family descended from the community of German Jewry).
There is nothing about Jewish identity that says it is intrinsically related to Israeli identity.
And there has always been, since Israel’s founding, a non-Jewish demographic. What does ‘Jewish nationality’ mean to them?
LOL
“its complicated”
It’s far from ‘should we do better, yes’ – it’s institutional discrimination on a much more severe scale. It is inherent to the ideology of Zionism to discriminate against the Arab minority.
Arabs in Israel will never EVER – as a distinct ethno-religious identity from Israeli Jews – attain equality in Israel such as it is.
Never.
The racist laws in Israel are meant to keep the Arab minority inconsequential to the thrust of Zionist ideology (Jews over non-Jews within the confines of a more or less democratic construct).
So you don’t want to be a dungeon. You want to be a democracy that discriminates. It’s better for the Arabs in Israel than in X, Y and Z regional countries but it will NEVER be as good as it is for ME (an Indian) or an Arab or Muslim in the United States.
So I would say, according to the only relevant standard – that is, to the ideals of a ‘Western’ style democracy and not the the standard of regional dictatorships – Israel will never be a true democracy like the United States.
So long as Zionism informs and sets the parameters for how democractic Israel’s democracy will be – it will always discriminate against the Israeli Arabs.
African-Americans are not living in comparable conditions to that of Israeli Arabs.
That is not to say they aren’t facing their own internal problems due to institutional problems in the US. It means that the United States will not keep African Americans marginalized as a matter of it’s core existence.
Israel would cease to exist (abstract) as a ‘Jewish State’ if the Israeli Arabs were given the same kind of rights.
For example, if an Israeli Arab were to marry a Palestinian from the OT – the Palestinian could not live in Israel w/ his or her spouse.
The defenders of Zionist racism frame this as maintaining Israel’s ‘Jewish character’.
“BTW this has nothing to do with the Israeli Arabs.”
They’re called “Palestinians.”
Also, it doesn’t have to do with them, it has everything to do with the inherent bigotry of Zionism. Nothing would prevent the Jewish population of Israel (indeed, even a minority of them, in concert with the Palestinian citizens of Israel) passing a law which read, basically, “no right, benefit, privilege or other advantage under the law or in society which is permitted under the law may be withheld from any other person on account of nationality, religion, or race.”
The problem is that the vast majority of Israeli Jews simply don’t believe in equality.
Yes the debate about the need of a constitution is ongoing so far the religious parties has effectively blocked all attempts at legislation of a formal constitution.
BTW this has nothing to do with the Israeli Arabs.
LOL! Here is an article which explains that the lack of a constitution has everything to do with denial of equality to Israel’s non-Jewish citizens:
“MKs debate protection of ‘equality’ in future constitution”, link to haaretz.com
You cited the wrong Wikipedia articles. Here are portions of other Wikipedia articles which explain that the situation has everything to do with Israel’s religious and ethnic minority populations:
link to en.wikipedia.org
link to en.wikipedia.org
FYI, during the Eichmann trial Hannah Arendt wrote that Israeli officials agreed outside the courtroom upon the undesirability of a written constitution in which the basis of the many racially discriminatory laws would embarrassingly have to be spelled out. — See Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil, Penguin, 1992, page 7
“Jewish is not a nationality. It is a religious designation”
I am an atheist. A Jewish atheist. The founders of Israel were non-religious as well. Zionism was founded by Herzel (non-religious) to provide a homeland for Jews and protect them from persecution.
“In a religion-supremacist “Jewish state”, non-Jewish citizens cannot be equal.”
Israel is a secular country.
Come and see for yourself.
>> I am an atheist. A Jewish atheist.
But you were not born in “Jewish-land”, where the secular and bureaucratic nationality of people is Jewish. Some progenitor of yours underwent a religious conversion to Judaism, and the religious designation of Jewish was passed down to you. You embraced it and, despite abandoning the religion, you chose to retain it.
>> Israel is a secular country.
Israel promotes and conducts itself as a religion-supremacist “Jewish state”.
“Jewish is not a nationality. It is a religious designation”
I am an atheist. A Jewish atheist. The founders of Israel were non-religious as well.
Actually I’ve commented elsewhere that there were three major responses to the European Enlightenment: the Haskalah; the rise of Jewish Religious Orthodoxy; and the rise of Zionist-Nationalism. Speaking in very general terms, Israel was founded by the latter two groups and opposed by the former.
If ROR isn’t an option Israel better damn well figure out a way to make. it is a legal right if Israel doesn’t like it tough they should have thought of that before committing their war crimes
“Yes the debate about the need of a constitution
is ongoing so far the religious parties has effectively blocked all
attempts at legislation of a formal constitution.”
I assume you mean the Jewish “religious parties, right? What have you got against Jews, Oleg? Why wouldn’t you honor the wishes of the most Jewish, the most religious, of all Israelis?
You know what? I think you are anti-Semitic! Yup, actual, real, old-fashioned, just-like-mother-circumcised Jews aren’t good enough for you, are they? Are they too old-fashioned? Do they pray too loud, and embarrass you?
Don’t you think those religious Jews know what God wants?
Some Jewish state! Maybe Israel is the Jewish State for Atheist Jews in which religious Jews should be treated like Arabs?
‘Israel promotes and conducts itself as a religion-supremacist “Jewish state”.’
No, that is a lie.
‘Israel promotes and conducts itself as a religion-supremacist “Jewish state”.’ No, that is a lie.
MKs debate protection of ‘equality’ in future constitution – Haaretz
Religious and secular MKs participating in a meeting of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee:
“There cannot be a constitution in a Jewish and democratic state if it does not defend the unequal values of Judaism – and they are unequal,” MK Yitzhak Levy (NRP) said. “Equality in fact will close the rabbinical courts,” a contingency he was not prepared to allow for. “If you want equality in the constitution, it must be limited. We cannot write off the entire Jewish aspect of the country because, in the end, Judaism will be nothing more than eating a donut during Hanukkah.”
MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said he was in favor of a constitution, on principle, but only on condition that equality is carefully defined.
“I am among those who want a constitution,” MK Gafni said: “[But] we must decide what the word ‘equality’ entails. [Does it relate to] marriage and divorce? Yeshiva students? Laws of kashrut?” He said that if equality means the cancellation of those things, then it would “cancel the idea of Israel as a Jewish state.”
Toward the end of the hearing, Levy suggested the clause on equality read simply, “Love thy neighbor.”
“I cannot commit to that,” Beilin replied, while Gafni jokingly agreed to the proposal on condition that the clause be waived with regard to Knesset members.
“I’m sorry to spoil to party,” Levy told them: “But if there’s no constitution and no equality, then that’s a good option.”
link to haaretz.com
The PLO formally recognized the State of Israel in the exchange of letters of 9 September 1993 between Mr. Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Mr. Yitzhak Rabin, lsraeli Prime Minister. See the observation of the International Court of Justice in that connection in paragraph 118 of the 2004 Advisory Opinion. Nonetheless, the Netanyahu government has attempted, through the good offices of the United States, to get the Middle East Quartet to adopt recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state” as one of the terms of reference for resuming negotiations. link to jpost.com
>> No, that is a lie.
No, that is the truth.
Theater of the absurd springs to mind “Cliff”.
No, it’s the truth.
Izik
The Shoah is a fact. It doesn’t erase Jewish history.
Jews didn’t live en masse in Israel. They lived elsewhere.
Indoctrinating Israeli kids about Masada is pathetic.
As are the efforts of the Israeli archaeological authorities. Inventing history.
And look at all the trouble it has brought.
“And look at all the trouble it has brought.”
I fail to see how Massada or Israeli archaeology have anything to do with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
“Jews didn’t live en masse in Israel”
The deep Jewish connection with Israel is a fact.
So deep, Jews were a minority in the territory for thousands of years. Why didn’t Jews go to Palestine en masse before? Why were they in Europe or in America or even the surrounding Arab territories?
The deep catholic connection with Rome is a fact. But that doesn’t entitle Chicago catholics to ownership of Rome.
“So deep”
Yes. Deep. Jerusalem and Israel appear in almost every religious and traditional Jewish text.
The deep Jewish connection with Israel is a fact.
So was the Crusaders’ deep connection to the Holy Land – and Jerusalem, in particular.
Jerusalem and Israel appear in almost every religious and traditional Jewish text.
And in Christian religious and religiously-inspired texts. Have you ever heard of Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, or Blake’s “And did those feet in ancient time”?
“Yes. Deep. Jerusalem and Israel appear in almost every religious and traditional Jewish text.”
So what? That does not, even in the slightest bit, justify the theft of that land from another people.
Jerusalem and Israel appear in almost every religious and traditional Jewish text.
Except of course for the Torah, which doesn’t contain a single explicit reference to Jerusalem.
If you’re going to use your claims to ancient heritage as a pretext for crimes against humanity, Izik, the rest of the world is going to be forced to expunge those claims. For our own safety.
I fail to see how Massada or Israeli archaeology have anything to do with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
According to the accounts of both the Jewish Sages of the Talmud (e.g.) and the Jewish historian Josephus the efforts of the Zealots (Sacarii or Biryonim) who ended up defending Massada were responsible for Jerusalem being plowed like a field, the Temple being burned and leveled, and the Jews being exiled from the land. link to halakhah.com
Nowadays the Zionists have stood history on its head and made heroes out of those same bigoted, malevolent, jackasses.
“Biblical archeology” has always been a somewhat unscientific exercise based upon a priori assumptions, but the State of Israel’s Antiquities Authority, the Knesset, and the Eldad association are using it as a tourist gimmick which promotes the Judaization of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem in order to turn them into private parks.
Religious and/or cultural connection meant nothing to Jews for thousands of years apparently.
Thats why they didn’t live en masse in Palestine.
I am alive today because my forefathers on my mother’s side left Vilnius and emigrated to Jerusalem, now Israel, two hundred years ago. I am alive today because my paternal forefathers left Dembitz, Poland and emigrated to New York.
My distant relative who remained in Vilnius and Dembitz were sent to the concentration camps.
Really. Seafoid. Who’s dreaming?
I am alive today because my forefathers on my mother’s side left Vilnius and emigrated to Jerusalem, now Israel, two hundred years ago.
Plenty of Jews from all over Lithuania emigrated to the United States instead. BTW, most other countries still do not recognize Jerusalem as being a city located in Israel.
@seafoid: you have the chutzpah to claim you are entitled to define my Zionism. I don’t need to listen to your wishful claptrap . You complain about Zionism because it has interfered with your game plan. I became a Zionist when I realized that the self determination of my people was crucial. Zionism is no fantasy for me and I don’t need to listen to your pyrotechnics and glib pontifications on my identity as a Jew. “If I am not for myself who will be for me?” – Hillel
Your Zionism is defined by the actions and choices you’ve taken in its name: plunder, pillaging, murder and theft. Are you in the US, Mayhem? Are you really going to spit in the face of America by suggesting that you have no self-determination here?
“I became a Zionist when I realized that the self determination of my people was crucial. ”
Self deterministic Zionism is a contradiction. If Zionism was self determining it wouldn’t need to buy Congress. It wouldn’t need AIPAC. It wouldn’t be lobbying for a war with Iran.
Hey Mayhem,
You are not complex and your Zionism is not either.
You said that the Palestinian children’s art exhibit was propaganda w/ a political agenda.
That is all any sane person (meaning not Islamophobic, not a mendacious ethno-nationalist, not a Christian fundamentalist, not a Jewish settler and certainly not a Zionist) needs to know about your Zionism.
You quote Hillel. Here’s another one:
“…That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it.”
link to jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Combining the two, it would seem that Rabbi Hillel would have people stand up for themselves in ways that are not “despicable.”
“Go learn it,” indeed.
Mayhem says: “I became a Zionist when I realized that the self determination of my people was crucial.”
There you have the rascism of Zionism in a nutshell. It put’s self determination for his people above the self determination of others.
“It put’s self determination for his people above the self determination of others.”
Not exactly. Don’t forget that Zionism also privileges Zionist Jews above other Jews, and claims the right to use, and dispose of the lives and property of Jews as they see fit.
It is a criminal cabal which hijacked Judaism during a period of extreme weakness and stress.
What people your magical made up jewish one? jews are a religion which does not have self determination. Israel has nothing to do with self determination. forgien born people invading and taking over a country so other of their clique can come live in other people’s houses isn’t self determination it is theft, conquest, and illegal.
Crack a book, Sea.
The Jewish heritage of Lvov and Vilnius went up the concentration camp smokestacks.
“The Jewish heritage of Lvov and Vilnius went up the concentration camp smokestacks.”
Right now in Israel Haredi rabbis are judging family cases based on decisions made in the pale of Settlement in the 1700s.
Right now in Israel and elsewhere the descendants of Polish and Ukrainian Jews are having sex. That’s heritage too. Ashkenazia lives.
Zionist history is bullshit.
Hasbara is bullshit
/If I were Jewish I would go to places associated with the Baal Shem Tov. That is real Jewish history. Zionist history is a fairytale./
Jews your home is Europe where you have magically appeared a few centuries
ago.
link to mondoweiss.net
Chaos, I think this MUST mean that there is a town in Israel called “Soviet Union.” That’s the only explanation I can think of.
LOL
Bravo Jamil!
Ghada Karmi is a real star
Ah how happy I am to see this picture at the top. The lady on the right, Ellen Siegel, did much more than appear in this famous picture. She later served as a nurse at Sabra Shatilla and was eyewitness to the massacres in 1982 and was almost shot herself by the Phalangists. She testified at the Kahan commission.
A year or so I read an article in which an Israeli was arguing that they shouldn’t be so quick to dispossess Palestinians as so many of them were of Jewish origin, some clans having converted as recently as two centuries a ago. Anyone remember it or have a link to the subject?
I have recently discovered Abayudaya, a small tribe of Ugandans who practice Orthodox Judaism. They do not claim descent from any lost tribes or from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. They have converted over the past century. Could someone elaborate on their birthrights and property rights in Palestine, especially in the context of Palestinian Jews who have converted to Islam or Christianity and been dispossessed?