In Praise of Emotion
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- Written by Uri Avnery Uri Avnery
- Published: 19 April 2013 19 April 2013
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IT WAS a moving experience. Moments that spoke not only to the mind, but also – and foremost – to the heart.
Last Sunday, on the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day for the fallen in our wars, I was invited to an event organized by the activist group Combatants for Peace and the Forum of Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Parents.
The first surprise was that it took place at all. In the general atmosphere of discouragement of the Israeli peace camp after the recent elections, when almost no one dared even to mention the word peace, such an event was heartening.
The second surprise was its size. It took place in one of the biggest halls in the country, Hangar 10 in Tel-Aviv’s fair grounds. It holds more than 2000 seats. A quarter of an hour before the starting time, attendance was depressingly sparse. Half an hour later, it was choke full. (Whatever the many virtues of the peace camp, punctuality is not among them.)
The third surprise was the composition of the audience. There were quite a lot of white-haired old-timers, including myself, but the great majority was composed of young people, at least half of them young women. Energetic, matter-of-fact youngsters, very Israeli.
I felt as if I was in a relay race. My generation passing the baton on to the next. The race continues.
BUT THE outstanding feature of the event was, of course, its content. Israelis and Palestinians were mourning together for their dead sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, victims of the conflict and wars, occupation and resistance (a.k.a. terror.)
An Arab villager spoke quietly of his daughter, killed by a soldier on her way to school. A Jewish mother spoke of her soldier son, killed in one of the wars. All in a subdued voice. Without pathos. Some spoke Hebrew, some Arabic.
They spoke of their first reaction after their loss, the feelings of hatred, the thirst for revenge. And then the slow change of heart. The understanding that the parents on the other side, the Enemy, felt exactly like them, that their loss, their mourning, their bereavement was exactly as their own.
For years now, bereaved parents of both sides have been meeting regularly to find solace in each other's company. Among all the peace groups acting in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they are, perhaps, the most heart-lifting.
IT WAS not easy for the Arab partners to get to this meeting. At first, they were denied permission by the army to enter Israel. Gabi Lasky, the indomitable advocate of many peace groups (including Gush Shalom), had to threaten with an application to the Supreme Court, just to obtain a limited concession: 45 Palestinians from the West Bank were allowed to attend.
(It is a routine measure of the occupation: before every Jewish holiday the West Bank is completely cut off from Israel – except for the settlers, of course. This is how most Palestinians become acquainted with Jewish holidays.)
What was so special about the event was that the Israeli-Arab fraternization took place on a purely human level, without political speeches, without the slogans which have become, frankly, a bit stale.
For two hours, we were all engulfed by human emotions, by a profound feeling for each other. And it felt good.
I AM writing this to make a point that I feel very strongly about: the importance of emotions in the struggle for peace.
I am not a very emotional person myself. But I am acutely conscious of the place of emotions in the political struggle. I am proud of having coined the phrase “In politics, it is irrational to ignore the irrational.” Or, if you prefer, “in politics, it is rational to accept the irrational.”
This is a major weakness of the Israeli peace movement. It is exceedingly rational – indeed, perhaps too rational. We can easily prove that Israel needs peace, that without peace we are doomed to become an apartheid state, if not worse.
All over the world, leftists are more sober than rightists. When the leftists are propounding a logical argument for peace, reconciliation with former enemies, social equality and help for the disadvantaged, the rightists answer with a volley of emotional and irrational slogans.
But masses of people are not moved by logic. They are moved by their feelings.
One expression of feelings – and a generator of feelings – is the language of songs. One can gauge the intensity of a movement by its melodies. Who can imagine the marches of Martin Luther King without “We shall overcome”? Who can think about the Irish struggle without its many beautiful songs? Or the October revolution without its host of rousing melodies?
The Israeli peace movement has produced one single song: a sad appeal of the dead to the living. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated within minutes of singing it, its blood-stained text found on his body. But all the many writers and composers of the peace movement have not produced one single rousing anthem – while the hate-mongers can draw on a wealth of religious and nationalist hymns.
IT IS said that one does not have to like one's adversary in order to make peace with them. One makes peace with the enemy, as we all have declaimed hundreds of times. The enemy is the person you hate.
I have never quite believed in that, and the older I get, the less I do.
True, one cannot expect millions of people on both sides to love each other. But the core of peace-makers, the pioneers, cannot fulfill their tasks if there is not an element of mutual sympathy between them.
A certain type of Israeli peace activist does not accept this truism. Sometimes one has the feeling that they truly want peace – but not really with the Arabs. They love peace, because they love themselves. They stand before a mirror and tell themselves: Look how wonderful I am! How humane! How moral!
I remember how much animosity I aroused in certain progressive circles when I created our peace symbol: the crossed flags of Israel and Palestine. When one of us raised this emblem at a Peace Now demonstration in the late eighties, it caused a scandal. He was rudely asked to leave, and the movement publicly apologized.
To give an impetus to a real peace movement, you have to imbue it with the spirit of empathy for the other side. You must have a feeling for their humanity, their culture, their narrative, their aspirations, their fears, their hopes. And that applies, of course, to both sides.
Nothing can be more damaging to the chances of peace than the activity of fanatical pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians abroad, who think that they are helping their preferred side by demonizing the other. You don’t make peace with demons.
FRATERNIZATION BETWEEN Palestinians and Israelis is a must. No peace movement can succeed without it.
And here we came to a painful paradox: the more this fraternization is needed, the less there is.
During the last few years, there has been a growing estrangement between the two sides. Yasser Arafat was very conscious of the need for contact, and did much to further it. (I constantly urged him to do more.) Since his death, this effort has receded.
On the Israeli side, peace efforts have become less and less popular. Fraternization takes place every week in Bil’in and on many other battlefields, but the major peace organizations are not too eager to meet.
On the Palestinian side there is a lot of resentment, a (justified) feeling that the Israeli peace movement has not delivered. Worse, that joint public meetings could be considered by the Palestinian masses as a form of “normalization” with Israel, something like collaboration with the enemy.
This must be changed. Only large-scale, public and heart-felt cooperation between the peace movements of the two sides can convince the public – on both sides – that peace is possible.
THESE THOUGHTS were running through my head as I listened to the simple words of Palestinians and Israelis in that big remembrance meeting.
It was all there: the spirit, the emotion, the empathy, the cooperation.
It was a human moment. That's how it all starts.
Barbara Boxer, AIPAC seek to codify Israel's right to discriminate against Americans
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- Written by Glenn Greenwald Glenn Greenwald
- Published: 19 April 2013 19 April 2013
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Barbara Boxer, AIPAC seek to codify Israel's right to discriminate against Americans
A bill introduced by the California Democrat would uniquely exempt Israel from long-standing requirements imposed on all other nations
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 13 April 2013 11.15 EDT
Barbara Boxer, the chair of the Senate environment and public works committee
Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer introduces an Aipac-favored bill that would allow Israel, uniquely among all countries, to discriminate against Americans of Arab descent Photograph: Joe Marquette/EPA
(updated below - Update II)
In order for the US to permit citizens of a foreign country to enter the US without a visa, that country must agree to certain conditions. Chief among them is reciprocity: that country must allow Americans to enter without a visa as well. There are 37 countries which have been permitted entrance into America's "visa waiver" program, and all of them - all 37 - reciprocate by allowing American citizens to enter their country without a visa.
The American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) is now pushing legislation that would allow Israel to enter this program, so that Israelis can enter the US without a visa. But as JTA's Ron Kampeas reports, there is one serious impediment: Israel has a practice of routinely refusing to allow Americans of Arab ethnicity or Muslim backgrounds to enter their country or the occupied territories it controls; it also bars those who are critical of Israeli actions or supportive of Palestinian rights. Israel refuses to relinquish this discriminatory practice of exclusion toward Americans, even as it seeks to enter the US's visa-free program for the benefit of Israeli citizens.
As a result, at the behest of Aipac, Democrat Barbara Boxer, joined by Republican Roy Blunt, has introduced a bill that would provide for Israel's membership in the program while vesting it with a right that no other country in this program has: namely, the right to exclude selected Americans from this visa-free right of entrance. In other words, the bill sponsored by these American senators would exempt Israel from a requirement that applies to every other nation on the planet, for no reason other than to allow the Israeli government to engage in racial, ethnic and religious discrimination against US citizens. As Lara Friedman explained when the Senate bill was first introduced, it "takes the extraordinary step of seeking to change the current US law to create a special and unique exception for Israel in US immigration law." In sum, it is as pure and blatant an example of prioritizing the interests of the Israeli government over the rights of US citizens as one can imagine, and it's being pushed by Aipac and a cast of bipartisan senators.
Israel's religious- and ethnicity-based entrance exclusions of American citizens are so well-documented and pervasive that even the US State Department provides an official warning about it in its official travel advisory for Israel, noting:
Some US citizens holding Israeli nationality, possessing a Palestinian identity card, or of Arab or Muslim origin have experienced significant difficulties in entering or exiting Israel or the West Bank."
Friedman notes that the bill is specifically designed to protect "Israel's regular and arbitrary denial of entry to US citizens . . . in particular US citizens of Arab descent or US citizens viewed as sympathetic to the Palestinians". As the former Director of the US Office of B'Tselem, Mitchell Plitnick, explained this week, concern over Israel's discriminatory exclusions was heightened by Israel's refusal this January to allow an American teacher of Palestinian descent, Nour Joudah, to enter Israel to teach English in the West Bank despite her holding a valid visa. As Plitnick noted, "Israel, undoubtedly, is concerned that a reciprocal agreement would compromise its ability to bar not only Palestinian-Americans, but also pro-Palestinian activists, from entering the country."
To accommodate this desire to discriminate, Boxer, Blunt and Aipac are now attempting to create a special exemption for Israel from the requirement to which all other countries are bound, and by which the US will be bound vis-a-vis Israelis. More amazingly, the only purpose of this exemption from these US senators would be to allow Israel to discriminate against the citizens of the country these senators are supposed to represent. As Mike Coogan of the US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation wrote in the Hill this week, "given that Israel views the mere existence of Palestinians as a threat, the [Boxer/Aipac bill] would essentially codify Israel's discrimination against Palestinian-, Muslim-, and Arab-Americans into US law." Indeed, Aipac is not even attempting to pretend this exemption has a non-discriminatory purpose. He further explained:
According to off the record accounts, AIPAC officials told members of Congress that there would need to be flexibility on this legal requirement to accommodate Israel's ongoing discrimination against Arab- and Muslim-Americans who attempt to travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories."
So brazen is this bill in the special favors it showers on Israel at the expense of American citizens that even normally loyal factions in Congress are balking. As Kampeas reported:
'It's stunning that you would give a green light to another country to violate the civil liberties of Americans traveling abroad,' said a staffer for one leading pro-Israel lawmaker in the US House of Representatives.
Stunning indeed, but unfortunately far from surprising. Coogan similarly reported:
"Numerous public reports and off-the-record accounts from legislators and staff signaled that the brazenness and late release of the Israel lobby's legislative demands blindsided both individual members and various committees. Provisions appeared tone deaf and legally problematic, even among Israel's strongest supporters. . . .
"Behind closed doors, members of Congress and legal counsel alike balked at the idea that Israel be allowed in the program but remain exempt from the reciprocity requirement. Attorneys for both individual members and committees privately advised that complying with the request would be a flagrant violation of certain US laws barring discrimination, and would undermine the US government's call for the equal protection of all its citizens traveling abroad."
Apparently, none of that is a concern for Barbara Boxer, Roy Blunt or Aipac. Protecting the equal rights of their own country's citizens quite obviously has little significance when weighed against the supreme mandate to serve the interests of the Israeli government. That's not hyperbole: how else can this bill be fairly described?
The bill, formally named the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2013, now has a total of 18 co-sponsors. That includes 9 Democrats and 9 Republicans, perfectly symbolizing how bipartisan is loyalty to Aipac on Capitol Hill. Besides Boxer, the bill's chief sponsor, that list of co-sponsors includes such progressive favorites as Ron Wyden, Amy Klobuchar, Richard Blumenthal, and Benjamin Cardin, as well as reflexive right-wing GOP Israel supporters such as John Cornyn and Saxby Chambliss. Perhaps most disgracefully, one of the co-sponsors is Democrat Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, whose state boasts a large Arab-American and Muslim-American population: exactly the people who would be targeted by this discrimination from a foreign government which she is seeking to legalize.
Coogan notes that, even with 18 co-sponsors in the Senate, the bill has attracted an unusually low level of support for an Aipac bill, which typically passes quickly and without much resistance. Plitnick says that "it certainly seems like AIPAC reached a little too far with this bill" and notes that Coogan's reporting suggests "this is a sign that AIPAC's grip on Congress might be weakening". This all follows an article in the Forward suggesting that Aipac's possible attempts to have Israeli aid uniquely protected from the budget cuts mandated by "sequestration" could "deprive aid to Israel of its broader support in the foreign aid community" by creating resentment in Congress and in the country generally.
Indeed, as AIPAC itself notes in touting Boxer's Senate bill, it includes numerous other provisions to further bolster Israel's special status vis-a-vis US policy. The bill begins by reciting the standard narrative favored by the Israeli government: "the Government of Iran continues to pose a grave threat to the region and the world at large with its reckless uranium enrichment program and defiance of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions." At a time when American citizens are facing severe budget cuts, the bill vows "to continue to provide Israel with robust security assistance". The bill accomplishes its pro-discrimination goal by mandating Israel's entrance into the visa-free program provided that Israel "has made every reasonable effort, without jeopardizing the security of the State of Israel, to ensure that reciprocal travel privileges are extended to all United States citizens'". That is the special exemption that no other country in the program is permitted: Israel, alone in the world, is not required to reciprocate for US citizens but merely will make "every reasonable effort, without jeopardizing the security of the State of Israel, to ensure that reciprocal travel privileges are extended to all United States citizens."
Despite the unusually tepid reaction in Congress, this fight is far from over. Aipac rarely if ever loses when it comes to bills they want Congress to enact. As Coogan notes, "even without a large number of co-sponsors, it could pass under unanimous consent or other rules used by members of Congress to stymie debate or give the impression that legislation has more support than is really the case."
Aipac and its supporters have long expressed righteous outrage at suggestions that they prioritize Israeli interests over US interests and those of American citizens. Yet it is hard to imagine a clearer or purer example of exactly that behavior than this pernicious bill. If you're a US politician finding yourself working to allow a foreign government to discriminate against your own fellow citizens - by vesting that foreign country with a right that no other country (including your own) has - then you're essentially broadcasting to the world that the interests of that foreign government take precedence over your own and over the equal rights of your own fellow citizens.
UPDATE
Somewhat ironically, as Kampeas notes, what long kept Israel out of the US's visa-free program were "concerns in Congress' Homeland Security and Intelligence Committees that granting visa-free access to Israel's Arab minority could pose a security risk to the United States." So what had previously prevented this deal was that the US was long driven by the same discriminatory mindset that is now driving Israel: we want to keep Arabs out of our country! Notably, the Boxer/Aipac bill accommodates only the Israeli concern about Arabs in their country, but not the identical US concern, as they provide this discriminatory exemption right only to Israel but not to their own country.
UPDATE II
To illustrate how central the concept of reciprocity is in foreign relations (and to seize the opportunity to highlight a story I love so very much): on Friday, the US announced it was banning 18 Russian officials from entering the US due to human rights violations; today, Russia, in response, announced a list of 18 US officials banned from entering Russia due to their participation in the US torture regime, including David Addington, John Yoo, and two former commanding generals at Guantanamo. The Russians did not hide the fact that they were driven by one consideration only: the principle of reciprocity.
In 2004, the US began photographing and fingerprinting upon entry to the country the citizens of various countries, including Brazil; in response, a Brazilian court ordered the Brazilian government to begin photographing and fingerprinting US citizens entering Brazil. I recall quite well that a separate line was then created at all Brazilian airports under a huge sign that read: "for US citizens", where all arriving Americans waited in a long line. It's likely that the Brazilian government - which had no real interest in fingerprinting people - threw the fingerprints and photographs away. They did it for one reason: reciprocity.
This is the crucial, central principle which Barbara Boxer, Aipac and friends are discarding in order to benefit Israel. And what's most amazing is that they are discarding it not to the benefit of their own country and its citizens, but rather to their disadvantage, in order to benefit a foreign country. What they are saying, in effect, is that they want to waive reciprocity so that Israeli citizens can be treated better than US citizens in relations between the two countries. It is hard to overstate just how extraordinary that is.
oPt: Fighting the scourge of open sewers in Gaza
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- Written by UNOCHA UNOCHA
- Published: 19 April 2013 19 April 2013
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On 6 December 2011, two children drowned in a sewage cesspool in the Qatatwa neighbourhood of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Wesam Abu Sahlouh, 4, and his sister Malek, 2, lived in a small refugee house nearby the cesspool. They managed to crawl through a hole in the fence surrounding the cesspool while playing outside. Their bodies were found by a relative several hours later.
Their deaths were a horrifying reminder of the conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, as they struggle to survive a blockade that denies them access to basic goods, and the wherewithal to create a healthy living environment.
Across Gaza, nearly a third of households are not connected to a sewage network, and they rely on self-installed and unregulated cesspits. Large amounts of partially treated sewage are discharged into the sea daily.
The Qatatwa neighbourhood, located in the area of a former Israeli settlement, forms an extension to a nearby refugee camp. It has expanded significantly over recent years, but a lack of infrastructure and construction materials means it has not been able to connect to the sanitation network.
Some residents have taken the initiative and installed their own sewage systems, which drain into a 2,500 m2 cesspool in the adjacent sand dunes. A weak fence had been installed around the cesspool, but it failed to stop children from getting inside. Another child had fallen into the cesspool in August, but was rescued.
Following the tragic deaths in December, OCHA visited the site with water and sanitation aid experts, and brought together community leaders to find a solution. A local Palestinian NGO has installed a new fence around the pool, but a longer-term solution is needed.
OCHA is working with health and sanitation organizations that form the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) Cluster. They will start a project with money from the Humanitarian Response Fund (HRF) to improve sanitation.
The sewage network in the Khan Younis governorate has the lowest coverage rate in the territory, connecting to only 40 per cent of households.
The region also depends entirely on a temporary wastewater plant installed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2007. But the plant is now at full capacity. The governorate is waiting for a more permanent UNDP project to be implemented.
Back in Qatatwa, Ahmed and Fidaa, the distraught parents of Wesam and Malek, said they had waited many years for children and underwent extensive treatment to fulfill their wish.
“Eleven years of pain and discomfort were wasted the minute I saw my children being pulled from the pool,” said Ahmed. He said he could not bring himself to sleep at home anymore, preferring to sleep nearby at his in-laws’ house.
“The children’s milk is still in the house.”
Local Groups and individuals write Open Letter to Jewish Federation and sponsors of Food For Thought Festival asking that the Celebration of Israeli Independence Day event be separated from Oregon Food Bank benefit.
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- Written by Peter Miller Peter Miller
- Published: 19 April 2013 19 April 2013
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local Groups and individuals write Open Letter to Jewish Federation and sponsors of Food For Thought Festival asking that the Celebration of Israeli Independence Day event be separated from Oregon Food Bank benefit.
PORTLAND, OR (April 18, 2013) - Seven Oregon religious and human rights organizations and seventy-nine individuals yesterday issued An Open Letter to the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland. The letter calls on the Federation to disassociate its planned Celebration of Israeli Independence Day from a four-day Food for Thought Event intended to raise food donations for the Oregon Food Bank. The letter applauds the Federation for taking action to address food insecurity in Oregon, but goes on to say: “We find it troubling, however, that the Food For Thought Festival culminates with a Celebration of Israeli Independence Day, because the Israeli government is responsible for serious food insecurity among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
The organizations signing the letter are: Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Cascadia Chapter of Pacific Green Party, Christ’s Way Church of Portland, Friends of Sabeel Portland Action Group, Jewish Voice for Peace – Portland, Oregon Muslim Citizens Association, Peace Action Group First Unitarian Church. The seventy-nine individuals include doctors, lawyers, and church leaders.
The letter notes that the Israeli government has imposed a siege on Gaza since 2005, resulting in an increase in malnutrition among children and causing food insecurity among two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million residents, according to the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Food. In view of this, the letter also requests sponsoring organizations of the food event to ask the Federation to disassociate the Food For Thought Festival from the Celebration of Israeli Independence Day.
PSU Conference: Palestine, Imperialism and the New Middle East: The Arab Spring Two Years On
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- Written by Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER)
- Published: 18 April 2013 18 April 2013
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PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER)
invites you to attend a two-day conference
Palestine, Imperialism and the New Middle East:
The Arab Spring Two Years On
April 27th and 28th, 2013
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
Smith Memorial Student Union, registration begins at 9am.
Room 333 (Saturday), Room 294 (Sunday)
The Arab Revolutions of 2011 rocked the world. Starting in Tunisia and Egypt and spreading to Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria, millions of ordinary people took to the streets and occupied their workplaces, challenging dictatorial regimes that had ruled for decades. The revolutions reshaped the geopolitics of the region, forcing the U.S. to adjust its strategy in an effort to maintain its hold and setting regional powers jostling for stronger positions in the emerging order. Democratic aspirations of the masses are reinforcing regional solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, setting Israel on edge. Successful boycott and divestment campaigns in the U.S. are changing the discourse surrounding Palestine. However, the conditions of Israeli occupation, apartheid and siege in the West Bank, Israel and Gaza continue to worsen.