The great Uri Avnery has published portions of a letter from an old Israeli friend…
Dear Leonard Cohen,
I realize that via your manager you have received numerous requests not to appear in Israel. This is not such a letter, even though I do agree with the requests and the principles of the boycott. Still, you are an adult and must come to your own conclusions.
However, your decision should be grounded on facts, as, for instance the cost of Israel’s occupation and colonization to Jewish Israelis.
I do not want to only write about the injustice and tragedy that Palestinians have suffered. I am sure that you have had more than enough of that in other letters. Again, I by no means imply symmetry between Palestinian suffering and Israeli when I claim that Israeli Jews pay a high price for occupation.
Still, that price exists, and you should be aware of it. It can be stated in a single phrase: the devaluation of human life, Jewish as well as Palestinian. This devaluation is due to the policies of expansion and ethnic cleansing common to all Israel’s governments.
Last week I posted on an exciting new campaign that Gush Shalom is kicking off to cut off funding from the US for Israeli settlements. Now we have more information on the campaign directly from Gush Shalom itself, and the campaign is focused much more broadly than just money to the settlements.
The organization was kind enough to share more details on the campaign, which I’ve included below. In addition to targeting US-based non profit organizations which serve as financial conduits to the settlers, and larger Jewish charities, such as Nefesh B’Nefesh and the Jewish National Fund, that support projects in the occupied Palestinian territories, Gush Shalom is also going after “those supporting policies enabling illegal settlement activity through propaganda campaigns” such as StandWithUs and The Israel Project. Great work.
From Israel National News, a rightwing service: A new survey conducted by Israel Democracy Institute…
Shafiq Al-Hut, journalist, one of the founders of the PLO, and long-time director of the PLO office in Lebanon, died in Beirut on Sunday. He was 77.
Al-Hut’s death will most likely get cursory mention at best in the U.S. and international press (as of this writing, the New York Times and BBC websites still don’t have anything up on him). This is not surprising, and I will tell you why.
I had the privilege of meeting him on a study abroad trip during my junior year in university, to research the role of the Palestinians in inter-Arab politics. I’ll be honest – I don’t remember a lot of what was said in that smoke-filled room (the man loved his cigarettes and drink), but what I do remember is meeting one of the most eloquent, moving raconteurs of the humanity and plight of the Palestinians.