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You have a really great style Shereen. I really hope to see more of your writing. You have a lot of courage, and I can relate to this "going undercover" and being in disbelief feeling. Good Work
The other parts of being a progressive are wearing an Obama t shirt and smoking marlboro lights while wearing sandles
Go back to "My Holocaust Education" and read my comments from the comments section and that will explain everything.
This is really good Phil. Thank you so much. Especially the part about the shock treatment; I'm surprised I never that analogy before, because it's so striking and perfectly suited to describe this. "Ignore the children dead in Gaza, ignore that the Palestinians can't pray in Jerusalem. Keep turning the dial."
yeah i noticed the same thing. what the hell happened? he has a new book coming out
Are you stupid? The American government "purchased" land from the Native Americans under the barrel of a gun. Does that make it legitimate? Mexico "surrendered" half of their country to the US in a "treaty" after the US invaded and stole it. Does that make it legitimate? I'm sick of your idiocy, think things through before you post them for once.
If we were occupying Iraq and Afghanistan for decades, then yes they deserve the right to vote in the government which rules their lives. This is basic self determination and no taxation without representation. This is precisely why Puerto Ricans having American citizenship or full independence is so big on the agenda right now. PS: There's no such thing as an "Afghani" it's called Afghan.
I'll grow up and accept that Israel has the right to steal land and kill people (is it really more complicated than that?), you're totally right. And Stahl presenting any context is indeed biased so you're right. Maybe you should interview a Palestinian woman who lost her baby stillborn because she wasn't allowed through a checkpoint.
I think you are asking a stupid question which is supposed to distract from the fact that Israel denies 5.5 million people the right to vote for the government which rules their lives. Stop trying to turn the tables and make Israel the victim, it's a sad game.
its too late for the "first step". Palestinians can't wait for their anymore. It's been 62 years, and the paradigm 60 Minutes represented in that piece will only perpetuate Palestinian disenfranchisement. So, let's say you're right and American average people see this and think the Israeli settlement is wrong and it's blocking peace. What then? The entire segment is about 2 state solution as the solution that these mean religious kooks are ruining. But what does that mean? Is it a just peace? not 1% is it just. So, is it a victory to get Americans to fight for permanent apartheid for Palestinians in the guise of a fake state?
Yeah exactly. She ignores so many pressing issues and focuses on one which is not even controversial. No one in their right mind in any mainstream media will say the City of David colony is ok. But, mainstream American Jews are backing Mamila so it's off limits. The part that got me the most mad was how she just showed East Jerusalem as a slum right when he called it a slum. With no explanation as to why it's run down. Palestinians used to be rich, they had the best land but they didn't have good PR or good guns so they lost it to zionists
Thanks Chu. It is quite an insidious piece of propaganda, and it will undoubtedly, in my opinion, fool many friends of Palestine into thinking this is something it's not. It is very good though, better than most at concealing the hidden aim.
lol. so predictable! did israel host johnny who fell down the well, yet?
Thank you for this. The article really touched me. I remember doing SJP work at my undergrad the Israel Club (paid standwithus and aipac interns) would always bring up this one. How Hamas mickey mouse teaches children about jihad. Read the Israel Project global language guide or whatever it's called. It's right in there over and over. They think dehumanizing Palestinian children is the winning message.
I don't think I've ever said this before and I might not ever say this again but this is a good and positive comment by Witty
this is excellent work, thanks finkelstein
Thanks for your thought provoking comments. You make some good points and I am going to think about all this stuff some more and see where things up
I think we should encourage rather than detract from WJ, because it seems he is open minded enough, based on his experiences, to accept a one state if he felt he wouldnt be endangered. Honestly, this is progress and it seems as though those aggressively questioning his use of the term "arab/palestinian" are sort of just looking to pick a fight.
If we are ever going to get the one state up and running, we're going to need people in the middle like WJ. The extreme racists are a different story and the real leftists also have their minds made up. I don't know how much of Israeli society is moderate maybe 20 or 30% but it should be cultivated not cut down.
This is so sad but I know how you feel. I was in Jordan last summer and was rejected at the Israeli border after being held for 8 hours there. Words can't express that feeling. I felt like my soul was crushed. But, like you, I'm going to try again, when you care as much as we do there's just no giving up.
Phil: your wife is the shit. She has a great way of describing things and summing it all up. I really think she has potential to be a talented writer on this stuff
Great stuff Phil. Someone from the outside can really see things and feel things we forget about or take for granted. I wonder if your wife would ever consider writing something for mondoweiss
Very interesting article. I particularly liked learning about those Cyprus cases which I didn't know about before at all.
Well, I agree that it's fine. But, it's not outside criticism we're talking about; we're talking about spending our time criticizing ourselves and the occupied people we're supposed to be defending. I still think it's just a matter of priorities: there's a hundred unjustified things happening in the middle east right now, if 80 of them are done by Israelis and 20 done by Palestinians; I'm going to spend my time on the 80%. We can condemn it, fine, but if we do, will that really convince anyone who thinks we suck to support us; or alternately convince any Hamas member that this is unjustified?
Thanks. So, I think it's good that this community does care about the moral issues involved. And I've appreciated many of the things you've written on this. So, it's fine to debate whether settlers are civilians or not, I can see both sides of this argument. But, at a certain point it becomes a self indulgent philosophical exercise when there's real people suffering that need our voices to speak up on their behalf.
I thought about this actually. I know we all basically accept the same premise about Israeli violence, so it's a fair point. The only thing I'm saying is we only have so many hours in the day to condemn and mourn; and my few hours are going to be spent feeling bad for the Palestinian victims living under a military dictatorship. For me it's just a question of priorities.
lol I like how the old cell phone picture says "BANG-ON" on it.
Hope your travels are safe, fun and informative. Good luck Phil! I know some great writing is going to come out of your upcoming experiences.
This is the kind of stuff I was confronted with constantly during my undergrad. It's hard to respond to such lunacy and generalizations without any facts when you're a fact providing normal person. I'm starting to think formulating stereotypical one-liners about Israel in return is the only way to deal with such people. Logic doesn't work with the brainwashed.
The Judaization of Jerusalem in the long run doesn't matter in a single state because those segregated neighborhoods we call settlements would be integrated under the law. Think of it as the end of redlining. Israel is a haven to Jews in the world, but how does their plight compare to current Palestinian refugees living in ghettos in Lebanon? Who is more in need of a haven? If the haven only applies to Jews but not the owners of the land themselves, than it's just racism.
Why don't you become a solidarity activist and move in to a family's house in the old city of Hebron and see just for one day how they live? Otherwise I think you should not tell people who have suffered in this cruel occupation how to feel, what to do, and what to think.
When it comes to violence: it's not fair to hold occupied people to a higher standard than their occupiers.
Yeah. I mean let's get real here. It takes a lot of nerve to say Hamas has a "murderous predisposition". This sounds racist Orientalism. It's in their very nature to murder...come on man take another look at reality please
That's what scared me when I was writing it. The pictures of the "characters" are all from major news stories. It took barely any work to turn this into a tv farce, it came so naturally
lol. I just did a good image search for Angela Merkel and when that one came up I couldn't believe it either, and I knew I had to use it.
"Even after the 2006 election, Hamas declared that it did authorize Abbas and the PA to negotiate on the behalf of Palestine, as Palestine’s representative."
This authorization was contingent upon a UNITY COALITION government which Hamas was to lead. So, it's bizarre to think it has any validity when Fatah is running an unelected police state in the West Bank.
"To advocate for the demand of maximalist right of return for example, is to advocate for a hundred-years war. "
Tell Anas from my previous post in Jordan as well as the suffering Palestinians in Chatilla camp in Lebanon that their right to return home is a "maximalist" demand. You, nor Abu Mazen, nor Obama have the right to sign away those refugees rights.
This is a great point. Are we talking about representatives of Palestinians in part of the West Bank only but not East Jerusalem, Gaza, refugees in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere and the rest of the diaspora? If so, that's Abu Mazen and I don't think he's very representative of the Palestinian people as a whole. None of the Palestinians I know in SoCal like him at all.
Awesome letter Howard. I just wrote a long report on the Palestinian right of return, which also included this history of the establishment of Israel and the UN stuff. I remember reading over the same committees you cited here, and it's so good to see the simple facts of the historical record being stated.
You take perfectly stated facts drawn strictly from the record of the UN and you make a mockery of them with hearsay and ethnic stereotypes. Who are you man?
beautiful, brilliant post
I think it's also starting in Los Angeles soon. Any info anyone has on that would be appreciated. Good job getting the word out there Pamela, this is important work you're doing, humanizing the dehumanized Palestinian image in America is crucial to achieving justice.
Oh man, I know it! These were gonna be the next "rescued Jews" to make aliyah to Israel! In the grand tradition of the Peruvian Jews, the Indian Jews, and of course the Chinese Jews, the Havana Cuban Jews escaping the evil dictator to freedom in Israel was gonna be a hasbara show stopper. I'm being serious, I really think this was the plan.
"Maybe it IS something about the way Jews treat people and manipulate their political systems that causes people to be resentful of Jews."
This is like the textbook example of anti-Semitism.
"I suggest a “two stage solution” to head off a destructive conflict between Americans and Jews:"
This is a disgusting old anti semitic (not to mention used against the Palestinian refugees and any other "other") trope. That Jews and Americans are two different things. As if Jews aren't Americans.
Honestly, even if you don't think you're wrong, you should know that this stuff looks really really bad. And it makes supporters of Palestinians look bad, and that hurts Palestinians. So, if you do care about Palestinian rights, you should stop writing stuff like this.
Phil: that's a good point. Was Jewish donation money to Columbia University at play in Bollinger's tolerance of the harassment of Joseph Massad?
Really great video. This is the kind of stuff we can show our children about when this movement began to really take off.
The idiocy you write is not worth responding to. The only thing to say is that you are just an impossible to please stick in the mud.
What's sort of funny is that this is the exact same type of line Zionists are instructed to use according to GOP pollster Frank Luntz's Israel Project Global Language Dictionary 2009. link to australiansforpalestine.com
"“As a matter of principle, children should not be raised to want to kill others or themselves. Yet, day after day, Palestinian leadership pushes a culture of hate that encourages even small children to become suicide bombers. Iran-backed Hamas’s public television in Gaza uses Sesame Street–type programming to glorify suicide bombers. As a matter of principle, no child should be abused in such a way. Palestinian children deserve better.” (pg. 5)
In contrast to those in the Middle East who indoctrinate their children to become hate-mongers and suicide bombers, Israel educates their children to strive for progress and peace. Israel is the one place in the Middle East where a young girl can grow up to be anything she wants—from a doctor to a mommy, to a businessperson and even to be prime minister! (pg. 11)
“There is no reason whatsoever why Palestinian children sitting in schools today should STILL be exposed to the same vicious indoctrination against Jews and Israelis, the same hero worship for suicide bombings." (pg. 84)
and the references go on and on throughout. this is really the best they can do.
Foxman is just a bizarre man. Watch the documentary film Defamation and you get an insight into his twisted thinking
Wow, your post tugged at my heart. It reminded me of my own precious memories from my 2 days in Gaza last December. How I long to return...you are very lucky and I wish you the very best
South African Zionists (not all South African Jews are Zionists - Ronnie Karlis) are really among the worst. Growing up in one white settler colony to defending another comes fairly naturally I would assume.
According to Ben Ami's logic the proper way to help an alcoholic is by treating him very nicely and gently coaxing him to quit drinking. Threatening to separate from the alcoholic if he doesn't get sober will only cause him to get "more dug in" and "round the wagons". You must also affirm and reaffirm the alcoholic's right to exist as an alcoholic before any progress can be made.
Another analogy would be a spoiled child. Just give the child whatever they want and ask them to please do their homework. Instead of giving them any consequences for their bad behavior, Ben Ami would prefer to give the child some chocolate and ask nicely again.
God forbid you upset the spoiled child.
Nice story Pamela!
this is amazing, its just like jim crow. if a white woman was caught having sex with a black man it must have been rape!
I was just in the Dead Sea on the Jordan side and I smeared the mud all over my body. It didn't do anything that I noticed. I think the healing power of it is bullshit.
Ben: I give you a lot of credit for writing this and your previous articles. Although I definitely find some sticking points in regards to your take on the refugee issue; I think it's terribly important to start having these discussions and conversations. We are all stakeholders in the future of Israel and the Palestinians, so we must take responsbility in formulating a positive future vision.
I think you make an excellent suggestion, and it's something I've thought of before. It's Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza simply demanding voting rights. Anything that recalls the African American Civil Rights Movement has powerful overtones and can be incredibly effective.
What if Palestinians flood the checkpoints separating the West Bank from Israel and show up at voting booths or registration offices and demand their right to vote for the leaders who rule over them?
So, I agree with you on the need for action which makes a difference right now, while also pursuing the long term approaches of BDS and human rights monitoring and reporting groups like B'tselem.
I think there are definitely many creative and attention getting means of resistance: such as the flotillas.
Hi Matthew: a few quick points:
1.) I don't care about what people think Ghandi would or wouldn't do. But, If anyone should be preached to about Ghandi it's the IDF not the Palestinians.
2.) I don't care what nonviolent scholars debate about. Maybe they should get off their asses and get teargassed in the West Bank or get shot at challenging the buffer zone in Gaza, before they challenge the Palestinians with a stone-throwing purity test.
3.) I don't care about stone-throwing. If I was there protesting and I saw a youth stonethrowing I would probably advise them to stop. But it's not as if I would spend all my time telling them what to do. You seem very concerned with one Israeli troop who lost his eye due to a stone. What about the Jewish girl from New York, Emily, who lost her eye protesting in the West Bank? It's as if you have this value for Israeli life that you don't seem to see in Palestinians or their supporters.
Witty: I really wish you would stop posting on this site because you have become an embarassment to humanity
In an Israeli Prison is the B Side to Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. Good eye egbert, way to catch that one.
Thanks chu. Also "No Partner for Peace" has been on vinyl and 8 track for a long time. Maybe you can find it in a used record store like Amoeba, it's kinda hard to find these days it's so retro
I'm afraid you're living in a world based on hypotheticals and nice speeches rather than the world of reality and facts on the ground. You now admit that you're ok with the president unilaterally disregarding the constitution and removing civil liberties from some people.
The what's the difference "nonsense" as you call it is anything but. Nader was right in 2000, 2004, 2008 and whenever he speaks about the two party system. It's been perfectly proven. It's not theory. Obama has indeed proven a Democrat can murder Muslims as vociferously if not more so than Bush or a Republican. The easy thing to do is to call Republicans stupid and make fun and seem so superior as a Democrat. But, here's the point: when the actions are the same: killing Muslims, supporting Israel, attacking whistleblowers, etc. does it matter if the person doing so has an R or a D next to their name?
I feel you are entrenched and enmeshed into the system, so you can't dare criticize it. But, I can. The system in American politics is broken. Try reading A People's History of the United States to see how bottom up, irrespective of politicians, the people can make a difference.
Stop relying on a powerful messiah savior to change the world. It's up to you and me to do it.
Jerome: You say the Republicans are yahoos and reptilian. Fine. But what makes Obama and the Democrats anything but the same thing? Are you judging him by his actions or his rhetoric? His actions are more anti Palestinian anti Muslim and anti Arab than Bush's ever could be. Stop justifying anything the Democrats do by saying "oh the Republicans would be worse, we have no choice!". When one acts like a reader of teen bop who doesnt hold their elected leaders responsible for the promises they make and the expectations you have of them, you only perpetuate the problem and have only yourself to blame for Obama's lack of progressive politics.
Since when is it your job to make excuses for the most powerful person on the planet? This type of stuff is as embarrassing as it is destructive.
Witty: this is like saying all the white, Latino, and other non-black Americans are denied self determination and "self-governance" because there's a black president. Do you believe this to be the case?
Samud: I really like and agree with your response. A binational reality in one state with democracy is only revisiting the past; the not so distant past. A past seen under the Ottoman Empire where Jews, Muslims, and Christians were equals and normal people living normal lives.
But in this case, it would be as if Obama won Texas, and Obama refused to meet 3 conditions set by outside powers, and the rest of the sequence you described then happened.
I remember Glen Greenwald wrote a story about his establishment genuflection, and posted youtube clips of Friedman saying "Suck on this" and also the clip you mention attacking Amy Goodman. I watch all his interviews with Middle East leaders (for some reason he does these a lot). Erdogan, Ahmadinejad, Assad and more. He always completely ignores everything they say which is valid and he only repeats zionist and Washington establishment (is there any difference between the two) talking points.
Thanks to the two commentators who responded to this. This map should be useful for Mr. Witty: link to upload.wikimedia.org
It shows that Fatah only won Jericho (1 seat), split Jenin, won Qalqilya and won Rafah. Every other governate (the other 12) were won by Hamas. I don't see how I can make it any clearer.
Let's be accurate about things. No one in Israel ever promised a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem. According to the official Israeli government line, all of Jerusalem including parts conquered in 1967 are part of Israel. So, why would they (from their perspective) not build homes in part of their country? So, let's just be straight forward. They are not violating any of their promises by building in E. Jerusalem. They are however, the only country in the world which recognizes the annexation of E. Jerusalem and are in violation of a million and a half war crimes.
Greenwald is so good. I love when he calls such people "Israel Obsessives"
We also call the NBA title the "World Champions". Bottom line is Americans don't give a shit about soccer, because we see it as an export from other countries. Just like our foreign policy and geography, soccer is foreign and strange to us, and we just don't like it.
That's what I think is beautiful about naming the ship after Virgin Mary. It shows the Muslim and Christian embrace of Mary, and makes her a worldwide symbol for liberation and justice. As you say, this creates a horrible image to the world for Israel to massacre or manhandle this boat.
Thanks Pam for pointing this out. The first one was issued in 2002, but it was not the complete huge one, but I decided to use the earlier one just to be on the safe side! But believe me I'm ecstatic too about the 4 years mark
I think you have a personal issue with "foreigners" (as if you aren't one) "flitting in and out" and disagreeing with you about Ramallah. I'll be in the West Bank in like 2 weeks, so maybe you can give me a personal tour of the "real Ramallah". Find me on facebook.
I spent like 3 days in Ramallah, but I guess I missed the air conditioned buses and the mansions you speak about. I also didn't run into the swimming pools gyms or tennis courts.
I didn't say Ramallah is just garbage heaps, but most of the people who enjoy the higher end lifestyle with internet in the home and swimming pools etc are PA employees or expatriates or business men; is this incorrect?
I don't care or criticize if you're happy there. All I'm saying is that it is a fake capital of a fake state with a fake government. If the international donors withdraw funds it would like Hebron or any other West Bank city. It is a mirage. I'm sorry if you don't accept this basic point.
You completely missed the point of what I was saying. Do you think my point was to say Amman and Tel Aviv are awesome and Ramallah sucks?
Everything I wrote about Ramallah is to show it is a fraud to say how great it is and that Palestinians aren't really under occupation there as the NY times and other outlets would love people to think.
Ramallah is a fake tourist city built by a fake and unelected "Prime Minister" from a fake state the Israelis and many people would like to pass off as a peachy reality.
I've also taken the servees vans you are talking about from Ramallah to Hebron. The road is so bumpy and wind-ey because it goes all the way around Jerusalem, due to Israeli land theft and occupation. It is very hard not to throw up on this bus trip, which I almost did.
If there are nice air conditioned vans I didn't see myself, where do you think the money for them comes from? Is it an organic Palestinian economy? No, it's extortion funds from the IMF and the "international community" to be a "carrot" to show that collaborating with Israel pays off. In other words: fake.
Stars and Bucks has more than 5 items on the menu, I wasn't trying to be exact. The point is to say it's not a hustling bustling fun capital city restaurant.
I met a waiter from a coffee shop last night I was there, Roger. He sat with me and talked to me for a good 2 hours. He wasn't happy and he didn't feel much hope.
Life in Ramallah is sad for most of the Palestinians who live there, despite your experience of enjoying the air conditioned vans.
Are you trying to prove how good life is under occupation? I don't understand what point you're trying to make?
How many people get to live in these "gracious" homes in the "nice" neighborhood who don't work for the Palestinian Authority and who aren't expatriates?
How many Ramallans let alone Palestinians living in other cities get to enjoy these gyms, swimming pools, tennis courts and swimming pools?
There is not much that is authentically Palestinian in Salam Fayyad's fake state capital in Ramallah. Have you been anywhere else in the West Bank or Jerusalem? Have you seen what the rest of Palestine looks like?
And I also went to that Stars and Bucks. They have about 5 items on the menu and everything is over-priced. When you go to Ramallah you can tell it is a 100% fake show
I was in Ramallah in January, and I can tell you there's NOTHING there. You have to be on more crack than Rick James before he overdosed to compare Ramallah to Tel Aviv with a straight face.
Ramallah will never be the capital of Palestine. It will always be Jerusalem.
"Some residents say the scene is an undiscovered challenge to what Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Amman, Jordan — each a few miles but a psychological world away — offer young people in the Middle East."
Who are these "residents", do they have names, and are they on more crack than the author herself? Ramallah has big piles of trash everywhere, most people don't have internet in their homes, there's no bus system. I don't know how anyone can compare it to Amman Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Do they think Palestinians and the world are that stupid?
Yeah, Ramallah is liberal which is great, but how liberal can you be under occupation? Thanks for pointing this out. You are right, this article is more disgusting than the usual Salam Fayyad Palestinian state in 2 years, things are great in the West Bank article.
this is an excellent point: the water.
great article Alex. The only problem "Israeli Jews who live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are stealing Palestinian land, period. They are living on land that is not theirs". That describes every square inch of land Israeli Jews live on. So, it is difficult to make this argument. It's saying "They're living on stolen Palestinian land, they need to live in their own land that's not stolen...wait a second! dammit! it's all stolen!"
Great article Phil. Herzl was wrong.
Thank you Mr. Maher for your article. It makes good sense and shows the rubbish that is the idea that the US is being controlled by Israel. That proposition is foolish, immature, and wishful thinking. I also think it has anti-semitic roots. Why is it so hard to accept that we as Americans are the biggest assholes in the world and that we would do a CIA assassination of any Israeli PM who tried to offer real justice to Palestinians?
Your welcome. It's from "The Warsaw Ghetto in Photographs". link to amazon.com
Palestinians of West Bank descent living abroad have the yellow Jordanian passports. My friend's family is from Beit Jala, and they got Jordanian citizenship. However, she lives here in America because her father got a work permit. They have a green card application but it takes up to 6 months. She can't leave the country without the temporary American travel document. If she gets that by the end of the Summer, she can then worry about the Jordanians. She has to update her "family book" for them to even let her into Jordan. For this, her mother has to fly with her to Amman.
Witty: maybe you can pitch in the money for the extra flight since you think it's so free and fun? And this is no guarantee she can even get into the West Bank, because Israel controls the crossing over the Allenby Bridge. What's partially inaccurate about this terrible situation?
I'm half Jewish, and for the record I've been called a Nazi and anti-Semite numerous times for my articles.
Citizen: I'm 25, and I'm simply telling my experience. I don't watch TV so I don't know about this cable channel special. I went to school in Orange County, California. If you think I'm lying about this there's nothing I can do.
lol I'm scratching my head over several extraordinary attempts on these comments.
West Bank Palestinians with Jordanian passports are yellow passports which differentiate them from regular Jordanian passports. The requirements to travel with it renders it almost unusable. It is really a fantasy to suggest Palestinians who have Jordanian citizenship have freedom to travel internationally.
Thank you everyone for your comments. This seems to be a popular sentiment on the comments, "They do have Holocaust education in schools, but they need Nakba education in schools".
Obviously, I agree that Nakba education needs to be in the schools here, but I took it for granted that the readers would assume I thought that. I'm speaking about my experience, which is I didn't learn anything about the Holocaust or anti-semitic laws in Europe or pogroms in my entire public or private school education; aside from watching Schindler's List in Junior High or maybe it was high school.
I also learned nothing of Cesar Chavez and I still don't among other crucial subjects.
Also, I should explain my thinking in teaching Palestinian Holocaust history. I think it would empower them to combat Israeli propaganda, because they would be able to much more powerful advocates for their rights if they knew the full history of Jewish suffering. It effectively neutralizes the "holocaust card" from being used against them. It also de-Zionizes anti-semitism, which is something very important for all of us, in my opinion.
Good looking out Phil. Glad you ran into this stuff. One thing: why do you always watch Hardball ; ) lol
This is really great stuff. Thank you so much for writing it. This is the kind of thoughtful and in-depth analysis we need. Sometimes the bullshit comes so fast in these types of things it's hard to keep up with and break down how truly ridiculous it is
I love the sarcastic and funny tone of the article about Joe Biden "getting ready to rock". I always make fun of the CSUN campus zionist hasbara lobbyists by saying they went into their "greatest hits". So true. Sometimes humour is the only way to describe some of the madness!
It's because Matthews and Bronner know the simple fact that Jordan is the Palestinian state!
BTW: Did anyone catch Matthews' casual use of the word "population bomb" in reference to "Arabs" ending Israel's "Jewish Democracy" (in the words of Bronner)?
SICK!
Qadir: well done, and although I wasn't there I know from experience what you're advocating works, and the emotional back and forth doesn't.
First of all: someone is "new to the issue" shouldn't be put up on stage in the first place. This is a tactical mistake, big time.
When the David Project person said "It's Judea not Palestine", the person on stage should've said, "Whether it's called Judea or Palestine, the people living in that land deserve to have equal rights and their human rights. For 42 years, one group of people has been dictating and controlling every aspect of another people's lives. Each and every one of the 500,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under the Geneva Conventions. They are subject to a separate set of laws then than the Palestinians. In fact Nelson Mandela and the former Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond Tutu have deemed this system "apartheid"."
You have to know ahead of time how the lobbyist crowd think and talk. Their talking points are right on their websites. It's very easy to spend a few hours reading them and preparing proper responses to them which reframe the issue to human rights and away from back and forth emotional finger pointing.
If you're speaking in front of an audience, there's nothing wrong with having notes you glance at when needed. Why not include a bulleted list of facts which are important? Also, why not hand this "fact sheet" out to the entire audience?
At our outreach table for SJP at CSUN, we made posters of some of the photos I took from my trip over there in December/January. One of the posters is of the Qalandia checkpoint. I show it to people, and I say, "Imagine what it would be like to be stuck in this LAX airport security for hours, possibly not ever being allowed to pass, just in going from Northridge to Woodland Hills or Van Nuys to North Hollywood? What if you had to study for a test and you were stuck in a checkpoint? What if you had a job interview that you missed because of the checkpoint wait?" Then I say, "I'm an American with a passport, and a Jewish last name. If they made me wait 2 and a half hours in this cage, what do you think it is like for Arab Palestinians?"
I've found that checkpoints are the most effective way to explain to people the situation. People think "oh god more poor people killed by war what can I do" when you bring up the Israeli attacks at first. People relate more to every day things like not being to study for a test because of a checkpoint. They can understand a water shortage and not being able to take showers. That is what freaks people out. Only after they already understand the basics of the matrix of control: the checkpoints, the separation wall, THEN the settlements, emotional appeals, and talk about the war dead will be effective.
Then, I bring up divestment. I don't talk about boycott really, because we don't have much power over that on a college campus, and if you say to people we're going to end this oppression by boycotting Israel it seems outlandish to them.
Divestment is effective with people. I say, "This is how the apartheid in South Africa was ended, one college at a time took their investments out of the country. When it cost more to keep the apartheid going than it would to end it was when things changed and Mandela was released from prison."
Then, "This is what we can do right now. We are organizing and raising awareness on this campus. It is totally possible in the near future to organize a resolution to be passed which will take CSUN's investments out of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. There are movements like this already at San Diego State, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, USC, etc."
It makes people feel like they're not alone on the issue. I always try to remind people that SJP is national and international, and if each school does their part, we can divest from Israel and make a change.
It's not about what amke
Well, supposedly Ahmadinejad calls for the destruction of Israel (they never get used to attributing that line to everyone from Hamas to Ahmdinejad to Hezbollah and pretty soon abu Mazen if he doesn't play nice), while Israel has literally caused the destruction of Palestine every day for the last 62 years, not just talked about it!
also BTW: Myself and my group have fallen victim last semester to "StandWithUs" at the Shministim event we hosted at CSUN. The embarrassment and shame we suffered motivated me to never let that happen again. We have all been through this mess. Unless you are prepared in advance, there's no way to not be blindsided and frozen by these bizarre attacks.
I would suggest familiarizing yourself with these groups talking points in advance, they are all pretty much working off the same script: link to points.stand4facts.org
Regarding human shields, the exact opposite is true. When they say Palestinians used Palestinians as human shields, ask them for the evidence. There is none. The most they can do is quote the Israeli government.
If they quote Israel government, ask if there is any other human rights source in the world like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, United Nations which backs up these claims. They'll probably say, "No, but that's because those groups like Amnesty International and UN have a known anti-Israel bias", you then won.
You just forced them into admitting no respectable group in the wold backs this up, and in fact you made them look ridiculous to the general audience by forcing them to assert universally respected bodies like Amnesty International are "biased" and "anti-Israel".
You can say something like, "So Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'tselem, and Richard Goldstone: who is a Jewish Zionist who's spent much of his life in Israel; all are wrong and are all "anti-Israel" liars, and the Israeli government is the only one telling the truth!?"
Then, I would mention the people by name who were in fact used by Israel as human shields.
IDF in Operation Cast Lead used Palestinians human shields: the story of Majdi Abd Rabbo has to be read to be believed...It's on page 219 of the Goldstone Report (link to www2.ohchr.org) starting with paragraph 1033
"He then called his daughter, aged 14, who was told to press
her clothes to her body and turn around. His wife, who was holding their baby daughter, was also told to press her clothes to her body, and then to take the baby’s trousers off.
1037. Majdi Abd Rabbo stated that the soldiers then forced him to walk in front of them as they searched the house, room by room, holding a firearm to his head."
Also, the use of human shields is documented in this Amnesty International report (link to amnesty.org) starting on page 48.
This is a tough struggle to stay calm and respond to their "out there" arguments. Always reframe and refocus the issue to current human rights violations, and if possible use Jewish sources like B'tselem or Richard Goldstone. Getting caught up in arguments about Phillistine/Palestine, Judea/Jewish are distractions and losing battles because the Zionist people know more about minutia that has no significance, so if the audience sees you lose a battle about minutia they think Palestinians seeking human rights are universally wrong! Don't get caught up in that game!
You can find me on facebook under my name, email me on there and I will get the fact sheet and tip sheet to you via email!
I forget to mention the sources....I've found the best ones are B'tselem, Peace Now, and the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions. Then the human rights groups: Goldstone Report, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United Nations reports, etc
Thanks Qadir for some great points. I too believe self criticism is the way to go to improve in this arena. My club, Students for Justice in Palestine at Cal State Northridge, designed fact sheets breaking down the apartheid. In fact, we use almost exclusively Israeli Jewish sources, which are cited on the paper, to give us the maximum cover possible for anything we say.
If a Zionist comes up to our info table and tries to argue with us, we say something like, "Look, this is what Israeli Jews say about their own society, because they want it to improve and they believe the most Jewish thing you can do is guarantee human rights to everyone including Palestinians"
This is a winning message. Not getting into emotional arguments. We stick to the human rights message. When people ask what is the solution you're for, one state or two state solution? We say, "the human rights solution". When we get stuck in arguments about what was wrong about this war in 1967 or do the Jews have a right to a Jewish State, etc. it plays right into their hands. They do that to distract from the real issues of the crimes right now. Let's contantly reframe and refocus the discussion to current injustices on a mass scale: checkpoints, settlements, the separation wall, the blockade of Gaza, etc.
Once they are interested in learning more, and you see you "have them", then it's time to talk about Nakba, refugees, etc. But, if you start out with that stuff first, people think "God, who cares about what happened in 1948, boring!" We've learned through trial and error that the most important thing is to start in the present and work backwards.
great article alex, thanks
I took out some of the other stuff around it for space considerations, but he was definitely referring to Palestinians.
Thanks. Not that it seems to do any good....
Yes. Was the Boston Tea Party REALLY non-violent? Jaron's title may have been "Boston Tea Spectacle".