Come to Israel, grab its stupid leadership by the throat and take its foot off the neck of another people. Come and force us to do what is clear, and written, and fitting, and necessary, come and get us out of the Territories, if necessary do it with a smile that reveals million-dollar teeth. If necessary bare your teeth and force us to do it.

Make it so that I don't have to get up in the morning – I who hate to get up early, to go to the checkpoints, to watch and to weep. Make it so I will not have to see 19-year-old children who have been duped into believing that they are defending the home front by pointing rifles at five-year-old children.

Make it so that when my daughters take a shower for half an hour I don't have to think about Ayad's family from Awarta that puts buckets under all the washbasins in order to reuse the water which is more precious than gold. Because the settlements need the West Bank's water more than the Palestinians do.

Make it so that when I sit in a traffic jam I don't have to think about the vast numbers of cars that are standing at the entrance to Tul Karem while each one is checked by soldiers and dogs because there has been a warning that they're about to blow up Tul Karem.

Make it so that when my sister urgently rushes to the hospital to give birth and when I rush my husband to the hospital practically with red lights flashing, I don't have to think about the women giving birth and the heart patients and the wounded people who are stopped at the entrance to Nablus because their vehicle has no permit to enter.

Make it so that when I see a soldier in uniform on the street I do not wonder what he did last night. What house he entered in a "Straw Widow procedure",* what boy he beat up in the alleys of Hawara because he smiled the wrong way.

Make it so that in the morning I don't hear the satisfaction in the voice of the radio newsreader who relates that the IDF has killed six terrorists.

Obama my dear, this autumn I did not go to the olive harvest. It didn't work out. Please make it so that I will not suffer from pangs of conscience because I am not doing enough. That I am living my own good life, pursuing my career, while for the other people just to get home safely is a career in itself.

Please relieve me of this pain that I have all the time deep in my belly. It never lets up, I can never really enjoy life, children, friends or work, because my mind is preoccupied with the image of the shepherd in Baq'a standing by the locked gate and shivering with cold because the redhead with the key has not showed up, and the bound blindfolded boy, and the three-year-old girl who got hit on the head by the carousel at the checkpoint, and the barriers of dirt and the concrete blocks that stop the lives of so many people from flowing smoothly.

Come, Obama, come and save us from ourselves.

And if that is what they mean when they say you are not a friend of Israel, then don't be a friend. We have already had friends who arm us and justify every horror we carry out and save us from the international courts. Be a true friend. Save us from ourselves. And don't do it for the world, do it only for me, so I can have peace. You owe it to me. I do not believe in God but still I prayed for you.

*The IDF practice of forcibly occupying private Palestinian homes temporarily, for tactical purposes – translator

MLK Beyond Vietnam

Martin Luther King Jr.

Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence

On April 4, 1967 MLK gave this historic speech which is unfortunately not very well known or referred to in the US either in the media, or in schools. In this speech MLK ties the struggle for civil rights with that of peace and anti-war activism. He ties the struggle for freedom within the US to that of freedom from foreign intervention, occupation, colonialism and imperialism.

It is indeed time to break the silence and to demand from the new president to embark on the road to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; to engage in constructive diplomacy with the rest of the world; to put an end to blind support for Israel and its policies especially that Obama knows very well the situation on the ground and the history.

It is time, Mr. President, to "Break Silence" and to work for peace and prosperity for all. It is time that the words of MLK are not only heard but put into practice.

Mr. President you claim the heritage of MLK and his leadership in the struggle for equality and for freedom. Would you heed the words and act based on the spirit which inspired the words of this monumental speech?

www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

Obama picks pro-Israel hardliner for top post
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 5 November 2008

Senator Barack Obama greets Representative Rahm Emanuel at the Illinois Delegation party at a restaurant in Boston on the eve of the Democratic National Convention 2004. (Tom Williams)

During the United States election campaign, racists and pro-Israel hardliners tried to make an issue out of President-elect Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein. Such people might take comfort in another middle name, that of Obama's pick for White House Chief of Staff: Rahm Israel Emanuel.

Emanuel is Obama's first high-level appointment and it's one likely to disappointment those who hoped the president-elect would break with the George W. Bush Administration's pro-Israel policies. White House Chief of Staff is often considered the most powerful office in the executive branch, next to the president. Obama has offered Emanuel the position according to Democratic party sources cited by media including Reuters and The New York Times. While Emanuel is expected to accept the post, that had not been confirmed by Wednesday evening the day after the election.

Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1959, the son of Benjamin Emanuel, a pediatrician who helped smuggle weapons to the Irgun, the Zionist militia of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, in the 1940s. The Irgun carried out numerous terrorist attacks on Palestinian civilians including the bombing of Jerusalem's King David Hotel in 1946.

Emanuel continued his father's tradition of active support for Israel; during the 1991 Gulf War he volunteered to help maintain Israeli army vehicles near the Lebanon border when southern Lebanon was still occupied by Israeli forces.

As White House political director in the first Clinton administration, Emanuel orchestrated the famous 1993 signing ceremony of the "Declaration of Principles" between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Emanuel was elected to Congress representing a north Chicago district in 2002 and he is credited with a key role in delivering a Democratic majority in the 2006 mid-term elections. He has been a prominent supporter of neoliberal economic policies on free trade and welfare reform.

One of the most influential politicians and fundraisers in his party, Emanuel accompanied Obama to a meeting of AIPAC's executive board just after the Illinois senator had addressed the pro-Israel lobby's conference last June.

In Congress, Emanuel has been a consistent and vocal pro-Israel hardliner, sometimes more so than President Bush. In June 2003, for example, he signed a letter criticizing Bush for being insufficiently supportive of Israel. "We were deeply dismayed to hear your criticism of Israel for fighting acts of terror," Emanuel, along with 33 other Democrats wrote to Bush. The letter said that Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian political leaders "was clearly justified as an application of Israel's right to self-defense" ("Pelosi supports Israel's attacks on Hamas group," San Francisco Chronicle, 14 June 2003).

In July 2006, Emanuel was one of several members who called for the cancellation of a speech to Congress by visiting Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki because al-Maliki had criticized Israel's bombing of Lebanon. Emanuel called the Lebanese and Palestinian governments "totalitarian entities with militias and terrorists acting as democracies" in a 19 July 2006 speech supporting a House resolution backing Israel's bombing of both countries that caused thousands of civilian victims.

Emanuel has sometimes posed as a defender of Palestinian lives, though never from the constant Israeli violence that is responsible for the vast majority of deaths and injuries. On 14 June 2007 he wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "on behalf of students in the Gaza Strip whose future is threatened by the ongoing fighting there" which he blamed on "the violence and militancy of their elders." In fact, the fighting between members of Hamas and Fatah, which claimed dozens of lives, was the result of a failed scheme by US-backed militias to violently overthrow the elected Hamas-led national unity government. Emanuel's letter urged Rice "to work with allies in the region, such as Egypt and Jordan, to either find a secure location in Gaza for these students, or to transport them to a neighboring country where they can study and take their exams in peace." Palestinians often view such proposals as a pretext to permanently "transfer" them from their country, as many Israeli leaders have threatened. Emanuel has never said anything in support of millions of Palestinian children whose education has been disrupted by Israeli occupation, closures and blockades.

Emanuel has also used his position to explicitly push Israel's interests in normalizing relations with Arab states and isolating Hamas. In 2006 he initiated a letter to President Bush opposing United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Dubai Ports World's attempt to buy the management business of six US seaports. The letter, signed by dozens of other lawmakers, stated that "The UAE has pledged to provide financial support to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority and openly participates in the Arab League boycott against Israel." It argued that allowing the deal to go through "not only could place the safety and security of US ports at risk, but enhance the ability of the UAE to bolster the Hamas regime and its efforts to promote terrorism and violence against Israel" ("Dems Tie Israel, Ports," Forward, 10 March 2006).

Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, told Fox News that picking Emanuel is "just another indication that despite the attempts to imply that Obama would somehow appoint the wrong person or listen to the wrong people when it comes to the US-Israel relationship ... that was never true."

Over the course of the campaign, Obama publicly distanced himself from friends and advisers suspected or accused of having "pro-Palestinian" sympathies. There are no early indications of a more balanced course.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli- Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006)

Source electronicintifada.net/v2/article9939.shtml

Greens respond to a slanderous attack by lawyer Alan Dershowitz

against the Green Party and its position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:

Monday, October 27, 2008

Contacts:

Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator

202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org

Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator

916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

WASHINGTON, DC -- The co-chairs of the Green Party's International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl) have responded to an attack by Alan Dershowitz against the Green Party and its position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The text of the response follows below

On October 12, Mr. Dershowitz, a prominent attorney, published an op-ed column in The Daily News (New York) titled "Both Barack Obama and John McCain are true friends of Israel ..." ( http://tinyurl.com/4b42hv ).

In his column, Mr. Dershowitz accused the Green Party and Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney of anti-Semitism and endorsed elections limited to two political parties.

Greens noted that Mr. Dershowitz has promoted 'torture warrants' to permit torture of individuals when a threat to US is detected, a position he shares with the Israeli government. The use of torture has been categorically rejected by numerous military, intelligence, and legal experts because of humane concerns, international laws and treaties, unreliability as a method for obtaining information, and because torture would place US military personnel and other Americans at risk of similar treatment in retaliation.

Justine McCabe and Julia Willebrand submitted the Green response to the Daily News' editorial department, which declined to publish it. The response was embargoed until last week to give the Daily News first right of publication.

It Isn't Easy Being Green

By Justine McCabe and Julia Willebrand

Co-Chairs, International Committee, Green Party of the United States

http://www.gp.org/committees/intl/

http://www.gp.org

Presidential election years aren't easy for those of us in parties outside the Democratic and Republican mainstream. Shut out of the national debates and most media coverage, our ideas seldom get a fair hearing, even though most Americans agree with us. But worse than no coverage is when our policies are dismissed, not on their merit or the facts, but by slander.

Case in point: a recent Daily News column by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Known for his unwavering support of Israel, Dershowitz isn't merely content to ban Palestinians from the public discussion on the Middle East conflict. He uses name-calling to drown out any voices in this election except those of the established parties -- the two parties whose foreign policies have led to international animosity against the US.

Dershowitz epitomizes those who believe that any criticism of the state of Israel or its actions constitutes anti-Semitism. What they call anti-Semitism in the Green Party's national platform is actually adherence to international law, observance of human rights for all Palestinians and Israelis, and support for a nonviolent negotiated resolution to the conflict (www.gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#310677)

The Green Party takes no campaign contributions from AIPAC, its rightwing allies, or the oil industry. Unlike Democrats and Republicans, who accept such money, Greens condemn all violence against unarmed civilians, whether by Palestinians or Israelis, whether through the use of American-made F-16's or Caterpillar bulldozers. We oppose military aid to Israel and Arab countries. Unlike Barack Obama and John McCain, Greens have deplored Israel's violation of over 60 UN Security Council resolutions against collective punishment, confiscation of Palestinian land and illegal settlement by 400,000 Israeli colonists, and demolition of over 10,000 Palestinian homes. We continue to oppose Israel's violations of human rights that are recognized as universal by the international community: the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and the right of self-determination.

Ironically, unlike the Israeli press, the US media have tolerated little discussion on the issue. Otherwise, Americans would know that the Green position is shared by people like South Africa's Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Irish public sector union IMPACT, the British National Union of Journalists--all of whom recognize the apartheid-like conditions in Israel and the Occupied Territories and have endorsed a boycott to insist that Israel dismantle them (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_11_28.shtml).

Dershowitz repeats accusations, lies, and distortions that have been leveled against former Democratic congresswoman and now Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney because of her principled positions and her refusal to take orders from AIPAC -- a lobby for a foreign government -- and its allies. However, he gets one thing correct: Obama and McCain have expressed the same uncritical support for the government of Israel and its actions, which guarantees no hope of peaceful resolution in the next administration, regardless of which candidate wins the White House. Why not just toss a coin instead of holding an election?

In the end, so eager are apologists like Dershowitz to shut down real debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other vital topics that they would limit the political field and banish "extremist" alternative parties. In fact, alternative parties have introduced such extremist ideas as abolition of slavery, women's right to vote, the 8-hour workday, and Social Security. The Green Party is here to remind Americans that unequivocal support for Israel's actions is a corruption of American values like justice and equality before the law -- values that most Americans still hold dear.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org

Press Release

Gaza Welcomes SS Dignity

29.10.2008

Once again, 27 activists from 13 nations-- including doctors, lawyers, teachers, and human rights advocates-- have arrived in Gaza from Cyprus, united in their determination to break the criminal Israeli siege and shed light on the suffering of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. They intend to deliver medical supplies, meet with civil society organizations, and volunteer in hospitals.

The One Democratic State Group commends this courageous step taken by the Free Gaza Movement and extends an open invitation to Amre Mousa, the Secretary General of the Arab League, to join the next trip to Gaza.

One passenger, Mairead Maguire, the winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, stated: "The people of Gaza are part of our human family. The Israeli government cannot cut off Gaza forever. We will come again and again until we reach our family. We go to visit our family, and the Israeli government has no right to stop us."The UN has called the situation in Gaza a humanitarian disaster, but the inhumanity goes on. More than 255 terminally ill people have already died as a result of this medieval siege imposed on 1.5 million civilians.

We in Gaza and the One Democratic State group take heart from this courageous mission by ordinary people from all corners of the globe. Dr. Haidar Eid from Gaza stated 'Their brave and direct action will remind the world of our incarceration and force the eyes of the world to look in our direction once more. We were happy at their safe arrival and thank them for their amazing action."

Once again, we reiterate our call on international civil society organizations to take similar actions as governments and multilateral organizations have stood by silently, and worse, even supported the barbaric Israeli siege on Gaza's 1.5 million people. We know that if we remain steadfast - and with the support of freedom loving - some day soon, thousands of boats will reach our shores.

The One Democratic State Group

www.odsg.org/co

onedemocraticstategroup@gmail.com

Every time that I make the statement that I do not support either Obama or McCain, people look at me somewhat puzzled and then comes the question: "Are you gonna vote?"

Of course I am going to vote. I am just not going to vote for either Obama or McCain. Some would say "you are throwing your vote away" because only one of the two will win and therefore any vote cast for somebody else is a waste. I am sorry to offend anyone who thinks this way but this is sheer stupidity. Voting is not a game that we get to play in November. Our votes have real impact on our lives and should not be taken lightly. If we are disenchanted with the reality of the political system then it is our responsibility to do everything we can to change it. We do not change it by accepting the canard that the two parties want us to believe. They are the ones who have been in power for so very long and who have lead us to the reality of today.

Our responsibility as voters if we want our democracy to work is first of all to get informed and to think critically by questionning those who are in power and who come to us during election times to request our votes. We have to realize that we are the ones who decide and we are the ones who actually hold the power because we are the ones who actually get to cast the vote. Unfortunately in the US we have an ignorant electorate (no offence intended I use ignorant not as an insult but in the sense of uninformed or misinformed). The coporate media holds the key when we solely rely on information provided by the handful of corporations which control all of the major media outlets in this country. Their interests are not generally consistent with the demands of a true democracy and dissemination of truthful information. Their interests are in maximizing profit and getting an ever increasing share of the market and therefore any action which does not serve this purpose is simply not undertaken or even contemplated. Those corporations will only serve a system which allows them to realize their fundamental purpose "the bottom line". If the voters are looking for real information on TV or by reading mainstream newspapers they are getting only a partial picture and often a distorted one. Getting informed requires going beyond the headlines, reading between the lines and seeking alternative sources, Democracy is hard work.

After getting informed, our responsibilty as voters is to choose what is best--or we think is best--for our country. We should cast our votes for those who we think will help us, the people as individuals and collectively, realize our potential and our hopes in leading a decent prosperous life for ourselves and future generations. The choices offered to us during election times should be real choices and our votes should be votes we actually whoheartedly defend and be proud of. The choice should not be one of choosing the lesser of two evils. Our vote should not be a negative one as in voting against a candidate but a positive one as in voting for someone or something. This is a vote that actually counts in my view, all the others are wasted because they do not contribute to bringing change on the contrary, they only perpetuate the negativity and maintain the status quo.

Yes I am going to vote like I always do. However, I am not going to hold my nose and cast a ballot for someone I do not agree with when there is a candidate on the ballot who I happen to agree with wholeheartedly. I will not vote the two party system when I believe that such a system leads to corruption and to the abuse of power.

Yes I am going to vote for Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente the Green Party candidates. Among those candidates on the ballot, they and the party platform are the closest to my true beliefs. They are the alternative and the real change from politics as usual. They are the antidote to the status quo of corporate dominated political system--otherwise known as fascism. They are the real voice for true change not just a facelift.

www.mckinney2008.com/PRESIDENT
gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#310677
votetruth08.com/index.php/learn/mckinney-truth-squad

Some of you may already know that I do not support either of the main presidential canditates. I would have been inclined to support Obama. His message of hope and change gave me hope initially that things might change under his leadership. After all he is young and well educated and has been a community activist. I thought that he would actually bring the change--or at least put the country on the right track. I was disappointed when he went grovelling to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee otherwise known as the Israel Lobby or "The Lobby") to express his unconditional support for Israel and then selecting Biden to be his running mate. Biden in a TV interview boasted of being a "Zionist". "I am a Zionist" he said,"you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."

Here's the Biden interview.

As the campaign progressed, I became certain that it is politics as usual. The same corporations contribute to both. The same show and the same lack of allowing "outsiders" in the debate all point to one certainty that change will be minimal if at all forthcoming.

Having said that, McCain and his bimbo mate for VP are much worse. It is forgone conclusion that I never even thought of voting for him. A vote for McCain is a vote for the continuation of the disastrous policies of W. McCain's advisor on the economy is Phil Gramm the same Phil Gramm who authored and pushed legislation which allowed the financial debacle that we have witnessed in the last few weeks. As for Palin everything is the will of god. A pipeline through Alaska, a war in Iraq, a war on Iran or even Russia is the will of god. Scary thought.

However, whatever veil of decency McCain was wearing fell off during a campaign meeting recently. In response to a woman who said that she did not trust Obama because he is Arab McCain had this to say: "No ma'am he is not. He is a decent family man"

There you have it folks you can be Arab or a decent family man but not both. Fanning the flames of racism and hatred among the ingnorant has been the strategy of the right wing neocons. They feed the fear and transform it into pure racism and vile hatred.

In America and to some extent in some European countries it has become open season on Arabs and Muslims. Haven't we learned anything? WWII and the Nazi holocaust are not that far into the past. Are we going to allow this to happen again? Remember, the holocaust did not start with the gas chambers.

The right answer would have been: No ma'am he is not Arab he is an American citizen. If you mean by Arab being Muslim well what difference does it make. America includes many different religions and there are people who don't believe in any religion. Just because one is not Christian does not mean that he or she is not trustworthy or cannot become president of the United States of America.

That would have been the right answer not because it is politically correct but because it is the correct one which is true to the constitution of this country.

Here's a good article I recommend.

www.juancole.com/2008/10/mccain-obama-decent-no-arab.html

A very touching article about Mahmoud Darwish in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Mahmoud Darwish, 1941-2008

He wrote for us too

By Yael Lerer

I consider myself privileged to have taken part in the effort to translate Mahmoud Darwish into Hebrew. This undertaking was carried out, for the most part, by the gifted Muhammad Hamza Ghaneim, who also passed away before his time, four years ago. Four volumes in Ghaneim's wonderful translation have been published in Hebrew: "Bed of a Stranger" (Babel Publishers, 2000); and "Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?" (2000), "State of Siege" (2003) and "Mural" (2006), all published by Andalus.

In early 2000, when the country was in an uproar over a proposal by then education minister Yossi Sarid to include two of Darwish's poems as optional items in the high-school literary syllabus, not a single volume by the poet could be found in Israeli bookstores. Many of Darwish's poems had appeared throughout the years in literary journals and newspaper literary sections. Salman Masalha also translated Darwish's "Memory for Forgetfulness," a book of prose (Schocken, 1989), and Hannah Amit-Kochavi translated the correspondence between Darwish and poet Samih al-Qasim ("Between Two Halves of the Orange," Mifras Publishing House, 1991). But not one volume of poetry was available.

Then Ghaneim, one of the more important contributors to Andalus Publishing, which was then being founded, pulled from his drawer the Hebrew translation of "Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?", a masterpiece by Darwish offering a poetic reflection on childhood realms and their loss; in a matter of weeks we had published the book. When it reached stores everyone kept quiet: the petty politicians, poets, columnists-all those who vehemently argued over Darwish's poetry without having read it. I would have liked to think it was his poetry that muted everyone, leaving the bickerers at a loss for words. But sadly I discovered that Darwish was also right in saying more than once that Hebrew readers didn't really take notice of his poetry.

Darwish also wrote for us. Many of his poems address us-Jewish Israelis-directly. The poem "State of Siege" (translated by Ghaneim and edited by Anton Shammas) reads in Hebrew as if it was written in the language, and the first to call this to my attention was Darwish himself. In January 2002, at the height of Israel's siege of the West Bank, when tanks were plowing the streets of Ramallah, and shortly after Israeli soldiers wreaked destruction, firing at pictures in the gallery of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, which housed Darwish's office, and raided his desk drawers, Darwish wrote about what was happening. In this beautiful poem he writes of destruction, death; but also of peace, of the shared future that we try so hard to thwart, of possibility. From amidst the devastation he seeks to "cultivate hope," and invites us-the destroyers and murderers-to come in and drink some coffee, but to "get out of our mornings." He turns to us, but we don?t want to listen.

We aren't able to extricate ourselves from a colonizer mentality that sees natives as "uncultured," or relegates native culture to the level of folklore, and which at best finds interest in their work, as Darwish repeatedly said, "in order to know the enemy or to make peace with him." And so, although the historical and moving evening held in honor of the poet by Masharef magazine in Haifa a year ago did attract the attention of the Israeli media, the extensive daily coverage it received appeared only in the news pages. It was coverage that for the most part overlooked Darwish's texts and the works that had been translated into Hebrew. Our sales that month accurately reflect the gap between the apparent "media interest" and the interest in the poetry: seven copies of "Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?", seven of "State of Siege," 15 of "Mural," which had come out less than a year earlier.

Darwish wrote "Mural" ("Jidariyya" in Arabic, "Tziyur Lelo Kir" in Hebrew) in 1999, after surviving clinical death, which had resulted from surgery that ultimately granted him another 10 years of life and creativity. In this breathtaking and difficult poem he talks to death, negotiates with it, asks it to wait for him (at least "until I finish my talk with what's left of my life"), and waits for it to return. "This poem by Mahmoud Darwish is too big and profound to be interpreted by a single review," is what was written in Haaretz. A few months later, in neighboring pages, a writer criticized the fact that al-Hakawati Palestinian National Theater didn't stage the (wonderful) play "Jidariyya"in Israel. Since the writer noted that "after the premiere in Jerusalem, the play was subsequently staged in Ramallah, at the al-Midan Theater in Haifa, in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Acre," I assume that she was referring to the fact that it wasn't staged in Hebrew, or for Hebrew speakers. All the while, she used the Arabic title, ignoring the existence of a Hebrew translation. Again, the same unbearable gap between boisterous criticism on the one hand and evident lack of interest on the other.

The shy, quiet man, perplexed by the audience of thousands that gathered before him, found it difficult to refuse permission to translate his work into Hebrew, even though in his final years-as with anyone who desires a life in this country founded on justice and equality-his despair was profound, and he wasn't successful in cultivating hope. "What is the point of doing it now, it's still early, they won't read it," he said when we asked to publish "Mural" in Hebrew. Ultimately, however, he couldn't refuse and was satisfied with the finished product. I am glad that we won his trust, and hope that our translations are indeed worthy of it.

The volumes we have published comprise a small portion of Darwish's oeuvre, and despite everything I have said here, I wish that we had had the means to complete the translation project, filling Hebrew bookshelves with more loving, complete translations like those of Ghaneim.

Yael Lerer is the founder of Andalus Publishing, an independent publishing house that specializes in the translation of Arabic literature into Hebrew.

Source: www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1019889.html

American performer: Israeli security made me dance

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/israel_airport_dance

CALL:

The Israeli

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Tel. +972 2 530 3111

The British Embassy in Tel Aviv

+972 3 725 1222

The US Embassy in Tel Aviv

+972 2 625 5755

________________________________________________________________________

Vittorio's account of shooting:

Vittorio Arrigoni's Account of the Israeli Shooting
Date : 09-01-2008

Below is an article I have published in the local newspaper some 5 years ago. The debate is more relevant today than it was then.

Israel Palestine: Toward Separation or Integration?

by Aref Nammari

Special to the Daily Times-Call (published May 25, 2003)

As a mode of thinking, separation has dominated all discourse on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at the exclusion of all other possibilities. Ten years after the now-dead and buried Oslo Peace Process, yet another peace initiative, the "Road Map," is in the works. My belief is that it will find its place among the numerous other failed attempts at peace through separation. Establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is not a central issue, nor is it a prerequisite for peace. The roots of the conflict lie elsewhere.

The overriding approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been "two peoples, two states." This thinking stems from the irreconcilable differences between Zionist and Palestinian claims and narratives. On one hand, political Zionists start with the premise that Jews constitute a separate and distinct people, and given their long history of being the subject of hatred and persecution, they are entitled to live in peace and freedom in their own country between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. On the other hand Palestinian Arabs see this same land as their home. Their ancestors have lived there for centuries. Accepting the Zionist claim meant they had to give up their land, which has shaped their identity and culture.

From the very beginning, then, the idea of saving the Jews of Europe from persecution and maintaining the Palestinian Arab identity were on a collision course. Achieving one meant the exclusion of the other. Separation and exclusion of the other were central to the fulfillment of each of the party's dreams, national identities and aspirations. Separation would have been easy if there was a clear way to divide the land. But the fact is, there isn't. Dividing the land means injustice and unfairness.

The 1947 Partition Plan gave the Jewish state 52 percent of Palestine, which at the time was a British protectorate won from the Ottoman Empire in World War I. At the time, Jewish ownership did not exceed six or seven percent. Palestinians asked: Why should we concede the majority of our land to a minority of the population? The post-war partition plan reinforced among the Palestinian Arabs the notion that they were viewed as a people possessing no political rights. The notion was reinforced by the Balfour Declaration in 1917, in which the British government endorsed the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The declaration referred only to the Palestinians' "civil and religious rights," failing to address their legal and political rights. A deep sense of betrayal, of injustice and of victimhood took root among the Palestinians.

Despite the myth that Palestine was "a land with no people, "the leaders knew well that Palestine was not a vacant land. The realization of the Zionist dream meant confronting the fact that Palestine was already inhabited. The idea of a Jewish state rests on the principle of separation and exclusion: Jews cannot be free from persecution unless they form a homeland for the benefit of all Jews. Consequently, the indigenous Palestinian population is relegated to an inferior status. This view spells disaster not only for Jews, but also for Palestinians. It is a path leading to certain confrontation and conflict.

This was predicted by Jewish thinkers such as Martin Buber, Judah Magness and Hannah Arendt. They were right. The military conflict in 1948 led to the defeat of the Arabs, the dispossession of Palestinians and the creation of the state of Israel on 78 percent of Palestine.

During the war, about 750,000 Palestinians were either expelled or fled their homes. Those Palestinian refugees and their descendents have ever since been denied the right to return to their homes, while Jews worldwide were granted unrestricted immigration and citizenship rights.

Palestinians cannot comprehend why a Jew born in Russia, Poland or Germany has the right to settle in Palestine while they, who have lived there for centuries, are denied that right. After the second Arab-Israeli war in 1967, the situation was exacerbated by years of military occupation and humiliation of Palestinians, which bred more anger and hostility.

In 1993, Israeli and Palestinian leaders met quietly in Oslo, Norway, to craft a long-term peace plan. The Oslo agreement was "based on the principle of separation between Jews and others", the raison d'etre of Israel. An important requirement of Israel and Oslo was for the Palestinians to renounce the historic loss: to forget the past and to be content with 20 percent of their homeland. Israel went into Oslo with the intent of transforming the Palestinians into guarantors of Israel's security while offering only a semblance of sovereignty over a disjointed and dismembered territory.

Those same principles are now being emphasized by the "road map" proposed by the Bush Administration. Oslo and the road map do not address the central question, which is how to reconcile the claims of both Israelis and Palestinians to the same piece of land. The question is, can we accept in today's world of supra-national globalization the notion of a state for the exclusive benefit of a particular ethnic or religious group? The reality of the situation is that the lives of Israelis and Palestinians have become so intertwined, despite their inequality and asymmetry of power, that a clean separation is not a feasible or a viable long-term solution.

It is time for both Israelis and Palestinians to start speaking about sharing the land and of living together in a truly democratic and secular society with equal rights of citizenship. This idea does not mean diminishing Jewish life or surrendering Palestinian aspirations and


identity. It does mean, though, that neither party can claim exclusivity to the land and both must give up ideas of special status based on ethnic or religious criteria.

Many Israelis and Palestinians, frustrated with the realities of the present, call for the emergence of a new kind of thinking that is both innovative and daring to go beyond stalemate, exclusion and rejection. The starting point of such thinking is the assertion and the acknowledgement of the other as an equal. Once this first step is taken, the rest becomes possible. The vision of a new reality becomes attractive and a real alternative to the reality of the present.

However, this first step is not easy to take. The feelings of persecution, suffering and victimhood are so deeply rooted that it is very hard, almost impossible, to accept any ideas that hold Israelis and Palestinians to the same principles of equality. Nonetheless, we need to start. Both peoples need to acknowledge the extent to which our suffering is intertwined. We cannot allow the suffering and the tragedies of one to justify the infliction of suffering on the other. Neither of the two peoples have the monopoly of suffering - we both are victims and we both have suffered. It is time to say enough.

It is incumbent upon us, ordinary people, Palestinians and Israelis, to start talking to each other beyond the simple, recriminating, us-versus-them rhetoric. We have to engage in a public debate and dialogue to challenge the ideas of blind nationalism which is the real obstacle to true reconciliation. We must take this first step, because the alternative is the sad continuation of war and bloodshed.

Both Palestinians and Israelis are there to stay and ,consequently, in the words of respected Columbia University professor Edward Said, the only possible conclusion must be to find ways for "coexistence and genuine reconciliation." This is, I believe, the only possible way to redress injustice.

The boats made it to Gaza. They broke the siege.

"We've entered Gazan waters!" Yvonne Ridley Date : 08-23-2008

A Message to All from the SS Liberty: "We've entered Gazan waters. We're flying the Palestinian flag, and we now believe that we're going to reach the shores of Gaza very soon. I missed the start of the Berlin Wall coming down by just a few days, but now I know how people felt when they tore down those first few bricks. Today is a huge victory of people over power." --Yvonne Ridley, abord the SS Liberty, bound for Gaza, 23 Aug. 2008

Update:

FREE GAZA BOATS ARRIVE IN GAZA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date : 08-23-2008

Let this be a lesson to all. A small group of determined, committed and well organized ordinary people engaging in non-violent action can achieve results that governments are incapable or are unwilling to achieve. Would this be an embarrassment to Mubarak, the dictator of Egypt puppet of the US? Would he feel the shame and feel compelled to open the border and allow food and medicine to cross into Gaza? I hope against hope that would be the case.

Surrealism is a cultural movement best known for producing visual and written works juxtaposing unexpected elements and non sequitur sometimes bordering on the absurd. Often surrealism taps into the subconscious and the world of dreams and of the imagination.

This story was published in a report by the B’Tselem--The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. The reporters were the field observers of Machsom Watch--an Israeli organization that monitors the checkpoints.

“What can I do with all this cheese in the sun? Come on soldier, let me pass the cheese. Look it’s getting ruined.”

“You can’t take your car into Nablus [a town in the West Bank]” said the soldier. “You don’t have a permit for the car.”

“I don’t have a permit for the car? But, you can see for yourself, I have a permit from the…ministry of agriculture…I am allowed to pass my cheese, I have sheep, I make cheese from them and sell it in Ramallah [another town in the West Bank] where they use it for knafeh [a pastry filled with cheese]. Every week I transfer the cheese in my car to Nablus, from Nablus I go to Huwara checkpoint and then I head to Ramallah. And now you, a bunch of new soldiers, tell me that I need a permit to enter with my car into Nablus. If you would let me I would bypass it, I don’t even want to enter Nablus, I just want to get to Ramallah. How do you want me to pass all this cheese, on my back?” said the cheese man and pointed at the buckets that were full of hard salty cheese.

“I don’t care how you pass it, get into your car and drive away, I don’t want to see you here again without a permit for your car.”

The cheese man sighed in desperation and turned around to look for a car that had a permit to enter Nablus.

After half an hour the cheese man found a car with a permit to enter Nablus. It took another thirty minutes to transfer the buckets from one car to the other, and another thirty minutes waiting in line. The soldier inspected the car for five minutes and sent them back to Beit Furik [a small town in the West Bank].

“What’s the matter,” we asked the soldier, “This [sic] car has a permit to enter Nablus.”

“Yes it does,” the soldier said, “but the permit allows the car to enter empty, it hasn’t got a permit to transfer merchandise.”

After twenty minutes he [the cheese man] found a car with a permit to enter Nablus and to transfer merchandise. It took twenty minutes to move the buckets from one car to the other (by then they have become experts in this) and thank god the car passed the checkpoint and entered Nablus.

After an hour we left to Huwara checkpoint. We parked at the faraway parking lot and walked to the checkpoint. From afar we saw buckets of cheese being moved from one car to the other.

…We came close. It was the same man that was at Beit Furik. He passed the checkpoint into Nablus, but the car he was in didn’t have a permit to exit from Nablus, he started moving the cheese to another car that had a permit to transfer merchandise from Nablus through Huwara and head to Ramallah, so at the exit from Nablus, he started moving the cheese to another car that had a perm,it to transfer merchandise from Nablus through Huwara. He got out of Nablus and then had to move the cheese again from one car to the other.

“What’s the matter,” we asked, “doesn’t this car have a permit to transfer merchandise?”

“Yes it has,” said the cheese man, “it has a permit to transfer merchandise.”

“So why are you moving the cheese from one car to the other all over again?” we asked.

“It doesn’t have a permit to pass through Za’atara. I’m swapping it with a car that has a permit to pass through Za’atara in the direction of Ramallah.

Although this story has some elements of surrealism, it is not a work of fiction. It is not the fruit of a vivid and creative imagination, and it is not a dream lodged deep in the subconscious. It is a typical story of the daily experience of millions of people throughout the West Bank. A trip that normally should take thirty or forty five minutes can take up to two or three hours. Sometimes people have to turn around and go home without completing the trip, only to try again the next day.

One has to wonder about the purpose of this seemingly bizarre and arbitrary situation which makes an otherwise surreal and perhaps even comical episode to become a common, sad and humiliating experience.

We are constantly told by the apologists of the occupation that the checkpoints are for security reasons. We are told that Israel has an obligation to protect its citizens against “terrorists” bent of destroying lives as well as the state of Israel. Never mind the fact that Israel boasts of the fourth strongest military in the world.

Is the cheese is a security threat? Is the only way this threat can be eliminated is by finding the right car with the right permit to transport it? Obviously, the concern is not about security. It is clear that the purpose of these checkpoints, located deep inside the West Bank, is to harass and humiliate the Palestinians and to disrupt any semblance of a normal life. The checkpoints are there to demonstrate who is in control: that the Israeli authorities and military can do anything they please whenever they please.

In the West Bank and Gaza, surrealism has become a way of life, but the result is not meant to be a work of artistic expression but rather a means of doling out misery, poverty, anger and violence.

This is an article I recently wrote for a local publication--an alternative publication still struggling to see the day.

Israel says it will prevent peace protest boats

reaching Gaza Strip

Total of 46 activists seek to challenge economic blockade and deliver aid

Source: The Guardian newspaper www.guardian.co.uk

Saturday Aug. 23, 2008

Update:

NEWS

A Statement from the International Human Rights Workers Aboard the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty, Sailing to Gaza For Immediate Release Date : 08-23-2008 (10am, 23 August, 2008) At 10am this morning, the Cyprus team of the Free Gaza Movement was able to briefly speak with our people on board the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty. They are all fine, and they asked us to release the following statement: "The electronic systems which guarantee our safety aboard the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty have been jammed and scrambled. Both ships are flying Greek flags, and are in international waters. We are the victims of electronic piracy. We are currently in GMS P area A2 and we are relying on our satellite communications equipment to make a distress call, if needed. We are civilians from 17 nations and are on this project to break the siege of Gaza. We are not experienced sailors. As a result, there is concern about the health and safety of the people on board such an emergency develop. We are currently experiencing rough sea conditions, and we call on the Greek government and the international community to meet their responsibilities and protect the civilians on board our two ships in international waters."

While the governments of the world collude if only by their inaction to the starving of Gaza population--a criminal act by any standard--two boats, full of human rights activits, set out from Cyprus today to try to break the blocade imposed by Israel on Gaza and its people. The people on the boat exemplify principles of commitment to human rights. They also exemplify courage: faced with all sorts of threats to their lives they set off. Hats off to all those decent human beings on these two boats. Hats off to the authorities in Cyprus which facilitated the mission and did all they could to ensure the safety of the boats and the activists while on Cypriote territory.

This is the kind of action that will bring freedom to the opressed not government hot air rhetoric. This is the kind of challenge that needs to happen to bring dignity to all human beings.

Here is a link to the free Gaza movement site where you can get more information www.freegaza.org

Please visit the site and help in whichever way you can.

Here are some fantastic photos from Mars. The images were selected and presented for their aesthetic appeal. Enjoy.

 

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/Mars_as_art/index_noaccess.html

From One Bereaved Palestinian Father to Another by Bassam Aramin

Author: Miriam (Egypt/Israel/USA) - August 2, 2008

 

http://www.mideastyouth.com/2008/08/02/from-one-bereaved-palestinian-father-to-another-by-bassam-aramin/

 

From One Bereaved Palestinian Father to Another
An open letter by Bassam Aramin, co-founder of Combatants for Peace
Translated from the Arabic by Miriam Asnes

 

Dear Hussam, father of Ahmed, may he rest in peace,

 

I learned of the death of your son, Ahmed Musa, through a one-sentence newsflash on the Palestinian news station Ma’an last Tuesday: “Ahmed Musa, a young boy, was killed by a bullet of the occupying forces in Nil’in.” I was immediately overcome with shock and grief and bitter tears. And above all, that relentless feeling of powerlessness that I know too well. We Palestinians cannot protect our children from being killed. Not because they are soldiers on the battlefield, but because we cannot imprison them in our homes. They must live their lives, play outside the house, go to school. We tell ourselves that there must be in our land a safe place to protect our little ones. Should not our villages be safe? Should not the courtyards of our homes be safe? And the safest place of all—should this not be the schoolyard?

 

But our children are still murdered in cold blood in front of our homes, in the heart of our villages and in our schools. For on another black Tuesday a year and a half ago, soldiers of the occupation killed my own beloved ten-year-old daughter. Abir Aramin was shot in the head in front of her school in the village of Anata on January 16th, 2007. Ahmed and Abir passed on the same day of the week, at the same age; both were shot in the head by the same kind of killer: one of the Israeli border patrol guards.

The moment I heard the news of your son’s death, I found myself speaking aloud to him. “Ya Ahmed, please give my regards and my love to Abir. Your two pure souls will meet in paradise. Go in peace, beloved, do not fear for you are not alone—there are others there waiting for you. Ready to greet you are more than a thousand Palestinian children who have been killed since the year 2000. And though I hope with all my heart, Ahmed, that you will be the last victim of these legitimized Israeli war crimes, I cannot help but wonder—who will be killed next?”

 

We Palestinian parents—are we not fully responsible for what happens to our children? For why do we allow our children to go out into the streets in the light of day? Why do we permit them play outside the house? Why do we not only let them, but actually encourage them to go to school and be educated? And even more importantly, I place the blame our martyred children—how dare you let your heads get in the way of the Israeli sharpshooters? Let’s try to be reasonable: the soldiers of the occupation don’t really want to kill our children, it can’t be a deliberate policy of intimidation and violence—they are simply trying to help us keep our children in a safe place. And clearly they believe that the safest place for our children to be, where no one can harm them, is in their graves.

 

When I heard what happened to Ahmed, I was in the middle of reading a book about international human rights and the specific laws pertaining to children in times of war and armed struggle. Every Palestinian should read these laws until he knows his rights, and every Israeli should read these same laws until he understands the enormity of the criminal and fascist practices of the Israeli army against the Palestinian people.

 

Major General Gabi Ashkenazi, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Occupation Forces, has said that “My greatest fear is the loss of humanity [among Israeli troops] because of the ongoing warfare.” I must inform the distinguished General that he lost his humanity a long time ago. He and his army should fear for their loss of humanity, for under his leadership the Israeli army killed Ahmed Musa. And if he doesn’t care about Ahmed because he is a Palestinian, General Ashkenazi should at least be afraid that his army has lost its humanity in its treatment of Israelis as well. We have all seen how Israeli soldiers treat their own people who join us Palestinians in peaceful protest in Bil’in and Nil’in and Artash and in the Galilee and in Tulkarem. Did the General see when soldiers fired rubber bullets at Dr. Tsfiyah Shapira and her son Itamar, who were participating in a peaceful march in the village of Shufa near Tulkarem alongside many peace activists? I’m guessing that he did witness this, in fact I would guess that General Ashkenazi ordered this operation and the many others like it. Look closely, General, and you will find the source of your fear.

 

Hussam, Ahmed and Abir have gone to the hereafter, and I promise you that in eternity they will outlive their murderers. Our children are the epitome of innocent humanity, and their killers are the most despicable of criminals. But while such ruthless men exist as part of the occupying army, please know that there are thousands of Israelis who refuse to participate in these crimes, who are ashamed at the bloody stains that soak the uniform of the Israeli army and all those who would call its conduct moral or democratic. There are Israelis like Tsfiya and Itamar who feel it is their moral, and human, duty to stand with us.

 

They have killed our children, Hussam. What can we do but fight on? We will never lay down our arms. For despite the advanced military technology and deadly force that we face, it is we who posses the most dangerous weapons of all. These are the weapons of morality and justice. We will not surrender these in the face of brutality, and we will be steadfast in demanding justice for our children. Ahmed and Abir’s murderers must be judged and sentenced as criminals. Let me be clear: we do not seek revenge. Justice for our beloved, dead children will not be served by the murder of a young Israeli girl in front of her school, or by the murder of a young Israeli boy by a bullet to the head. We will refuse to mirror the violent means of the occupation. You and I, and every Palestinian, must let our morals and our humanity and the teachings of our great faith be our guides.

 

Yours in bereavement and steadfastness,
Bassam Aramin

Please allow me to shemlessly promote my new website. Please visit and have a look. For now you will see the same photos as I have here but soon new ones will make their appearance on the site only. I will keep posting here though--no worries.