There has been a flood of new laws, practices and rules of apartheid in Israel. Sometimes many of us feel paralyzed because of the racist manifestations in the judiciary, legislature and executive and don’t know where to start fighting. Yet when those laws begin to destroy the lives of close friends, we know this is a good place to start.

On January 12th, 2012 the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a ruling allowing Israel to prevent Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, who marry Israelis, to reside with their spouses in Israel. This law further permits the deportation of Palestinians who are currently living with their families in Israel.

I remember a year ago when I wrote against the collaboration of the Supreme Court of Israel with the apartheid regime within the ’48 borders of the State. Some of my colleagues claimed that we were pushing it too far. While they all agreed that the Supreme Court collaborates with the occupation, they stilled maintained the belief that within Israel there exists equality before the law.

Taiseer Khatib, his wife Lana and their two children, Yusra (3) and Adnan (4).

Yet on January 12th, 2012 the Supreme Court proved otherwise by allowing “the only democracy in the Middle East” to destroy the basic human right of Palestinian citizens of Israel to maintain a family unit, just because they are Arab.

Some of you have probably already heard about the horrific decision of the Supreme Court, but I would like to introduce you to the story of my good friend, Taiseer, and how this new decision can rupture the life of his family just because they are not Jews.

I am asking for your help to disseminate his story to the world and to be in contact with him (email) to enhance the campaign against the new discriminatory rule of the Supreme Court.

Taiseer Khatib is not only a friend, but a colleague of mine from the Freedom Theatre in the Jenin Refugee camp. He began working there six years ago, teaching creative writing and helping to establish the multi-media division at the Theatre.

The January 12th ruling has paved the way for the impending deportation of Taiseer’s wife Lana, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Jenin, who has been living with him in Israel since their marriage six years ago. The couple lives in Acre and have two children together – Adnan, 4, and Yusra, 3. Currently, the family is terrified of what might happen if Lana is deported, breaking their family apart.

Taiseer’s case is just one of thousands, but I believe that through supporting him we can combat this ruling. It would mean a lot to me if you could contact Taiseer to try to help the cause in any way possible.

I believe that today, pressure from outside of Israel is the only way to reduce the damages of the racist flood, at least until the time comes when the entire ideological structure of the racist ideology that mobilizes Israel will fall apart.

Please contactTaiseer Khatib for more information about the ruling.

The first court session in Amal’s trial took place Sunday, Jabuary 15th 2012, at the military court and prison base of Ofer, in the West Bank north of Jerusalem. Charges pressed by the military prosecution against Amal include throwing water and spitting at a soldier, and swearing at the security forces. The defense, by Amal’s attorney Neri Ramati (a Jewish Israeli lawyer, partner at the Gabi Lasky law firm), decided to admit pouring water on the soldier, and reject the allegations of spitting and swearing.

On the day of the arrest, while in transit to the Kiryat Arba police station, Amal was sexually harassed by one of the soldiers sitting with her in the army jeep. At the police station, the interrogators took advantage of her inexperience and lack of access to counsel (martial law is *very* convenient for interrogators and prosecutors), and managed to make her confess to throwing water at a soldier during the demolition. The next court session in Amal’s trial has been scheduled for February 5th, 2012.

It should be noted that in our experience, it is very rare to arrest and charge women in this context of protesting or resisting demolition of their homes (such protesting commonly occurs, it is a natural reaction when seeing one’s home demolished). At first we had thought these arrests were a random local initiative by the IDF officers at the site. Whether or not this is true, the fact is that now the military prosecution has stepped up and decided to throw the book, or rather, invent a book from thin air in order to intimidate these young women. This might be related to the intesification of the Occupation’s general campaign to intimidate West Bank “Area C” residents in the hope of driving many of them out and eventually annexing their land to Israel. This campaign has finally caught some mainstream attention due to a recent European Union report (see, e.g., this story from The Independent). We have been witnessing this creeping ethnic-cleansing campaign, and trying to stop it on the ground for years.

Below are two photos of Amal and her family, taken by Efrat Nakash during our visit at the family cave in Mufakarah, last Thursday.

On Wednesday, December 28th 2011, at Beit Ha’am on Rothshild Blvd. in Tel Aviv, an evening program of solidarity with Amal and Sausan was held, attended by about 150 people. This event was initiated by a group of activists in Israel’s massive social-justice movement, that uses Beit Ha’am as one of its activity centers. Among the evening’s organizers were Galia Tanai, Shelly Ben Shahar and Shani Solomon (who also visited Amal and Sausan in Mufakarah). The program, held in cooperation with Rabbis for Human Rights and the Villages Group, included a video interview with Sausan (at that time we still thought Amal’s charges would be dropped).

Activists of both organizations spoke and reviewed several aspects of reality in the South Hebron Hills in general, and Mufakarah in particular. Musicians Rona Kenan and Ruth Dolores Weiss gave a voluntary performance, one song of which is shown in the video in this link. The proceeds will go to help cover Amal and Sausan’s legal defense.

Ehud Krinis and Assaf Oron
The Villages Group

(crossposted from the Villages Group blog)

Who’s Afraid of Women’s Song?

The following is a testimony of one of the women, out of the 23 activists, who were arrested in this week’s Nabi Saleh demonstration (above video). This demonstration was the first after Mustafa Tamimi’s murder. It was extremely brutal, which is a relative term, considering the continuous repression that the demonstrations against the apartheid wall face, and the village of Nabi Saleh in particular.

Out of the 23 activists, many were physically assaulted while handcuffed behind their backs, as Mohammed Khatib, one of the leaders of the Bil’in popular committee, describes in his own testimony. Mustafa Tamimi’s sister, Ola, who was prevented from being with her brother as he took his last breaths, was pepper sprayed in the eyes, from a few centimeters away. And another handcuffed woman was slapped with the back of the hand of a passing male settler, when she expressed objection to him assaulting Khatib and taking pictures. These are just a few of the testimonies that were published and taped, we still don’t have a complete story of this particular demonstration, and many other stories will be lost in the clouds of gas.

Testimony of Sahar M. Vardi:

A few minutes before I was arrested in Nabi Saleh on Friday, we walked next to the soldiers. I walked pretty close to them as they progressed in the direction of the road, mostly because I knew that the other soldiers won’t fire tear gas near these soldiers- a sort of reversed “Neighbor Procedure“. In short, I walked, and I don’t remember if at this point I was talking with them, or not. I think I was. I think I asked them why they’re there? And if they feel they’re protecting anything, or anyone, or me? And then one of the soldiers turned to me and asked: “How big is the Arab cock you’re getting?”

Answers were running in my head, some, if not all, we’re at the levels of his question. And no, I don’t answer, and it’s better not to answer. I have nothing to gain from it, I’ll speak only with myself, if I say anything at all.

So this is what peeved me so much. That with one sentence, and without even thinking about it, this soldier put me back in the place of the object without will, other than his sexuality. An object that must be his property, or an instrument of his occupation. Of course size will determine what this instrument will be, and all its thoughts, ideas and acts- at the end of it all- are determined by one thing: Cock.

Last thought: Though Sahar describes what she went through as “sexual harassment”, I contend that because the man who had harassed her was holding a gun, this is in fact “sexual assault.” This is a common occurrence for women facing soldiers in demonstrations and should be called by its name.

Originally posted by Tali Shapiro on the Pulsemedia website

The destruction was perpetrated on November 24 by Israeli civilian contractors (see here for a brief report in Ha’aretz). They were hired by the deceptively named “Civil Administration” – an arm of Israel’s military Occupation apparatus which poses as a legitimate governing body. The name “Civil Administration” was invented deliberately in the 1980′s by then-defense minister Ariel Sharon, in order to confuse and confound people about this body’s true nature. Its main business these days seems to be to harass, refuse permits, and eventually destroy property belonging to Palestinians, in order to “clear” them out of West Bank areas that Israel wants to eventually annex.

The civilian contractors and deceptively-named “Civil Administration” thugs were accompanied by ordinary IDF soldiers. As can be seen in the video below, throughout the demolition neither contractors, nor CA thugs, nor IDF soldiers, acted or looked like people under any form of threat or duress.

That did not stop them from arresting and carting off two female Palestinian youth: 21-year-old Sausan Hamamdeh and her 17-year-old cousin Amal. Some of the events around and immediately after their arrest are in the video, around minutes 1:30-3:00. The video was filmed by Guy Batavia, activist with Ta’ayush and Rabbis for Human Rights.

watch?v=w71Wr8IIC0s

Amal and Rasha (Sausan’s sister) gave us a detailed account of the arrest: during the demolition Sausan was stressed, realizing her home was about to be demolished without the women of the family having a chance to remove its contents. According to the present Israeli procedure of house demolitions, the removal of the house contents is carried out only by a contractor’s firm hired for this purpose. Sausan’s attempt to force her way into her home to clear out belongings led to her being pepper-sprayed in the eyes by one of the soldiers, and to her arrest.

Amal was arrested as she tried to provide Sausan a water bottle to relieve the stinging in her eyes. Water from the bottle squirted out and wet the soldier who was preventing Amal from giving Sausan the bottle, and that was the reason for Amal’s arrest.

Sausan (image on right) and Amal were then taken by army jeep to the police station at Kiryat Arba settlement. During the ride one of the soldiers in the jeep tried to sexually harass Amal and also kicked her in the belly.

After the interrogation at the Kiryat Arba police station, Sausan and Amal were driven to Jerusalem where they were placed in detention at the infamous “Russian Compound” detention center. Conditions at the facility (which they shared with another inmate) were very severe – it was a very cold week in Jerusalem and the room had an air conditioner that was cooling rather than heating the place.

Repeated requests by the women to turn it off were refused by their jailers. Amal’s stay in this room lasted five days, whereas Sausan spent a whole week there (she said it felt like a year).

On November 28th the two youngsters appeared at the Occupation’s kangaroo military court in the Ofer base. We have a full account of the proceedings, thanks to a Machsom Watch volunteer being present. Here are a few excerpts:

…the charge [for both girls] is: attacking a soldier. While the representatives of the Civil Administration, together with soldiers and Border Police came to demolish her house, Sausan picked up a stone [later described as a ‘rock’] and hit a BP officer on the hand. Sausan was arrested. Then Amal came on the scene and poured water on the officer.

This is the prosecution’s version. A CPT observer who was on the scene issued quite a different report (.doc file):

The second family’s [whose home was destroyed] 21-year-old daughter confronted the Israeli soldiers when they marched into their home and began throwing the bedding outside. When she asked what they were doing, one soldier said, “Get out of my sight.” The daughter refused; in response, the soldier threatened, “If you don’t move, we will do even more,” and sprayed her in the face with tear gas. The other solders began kicking her as she fell to the ground.

…The 21-year-old’s cousin, who is 17, tried to bring her water to soothe her eyes. The soldiers arrested them both…

The Machsom Watch account continues:

The prosecution agreed to Amal’s release that day (perhaps because she is a minor, or because squirting a soldier with water is not such a serious violation) in return for a 4000 shekel deposit. The defense explained that Amal cannot afford to pay such a sum: she is the daughter of a destitute shepherd, and besides, her house has been destroyed.

The judge’s decision: He’s willing to consider reduced bail, plus third person Israeli guarantor (me) to insure that the defendant shows up for a hearing, should one take place on 21.12.11. …The judge also ordered the Prison Authorities to provide Sausan with a coat, after seeing the girls shiver, since they were wearing the same clothes they were arrested in 4 days earlier.

I wondered how the released underage girl was going to get home that day, with no money and no proper clothes. My concern proved well founded: She was released from the Russian Compound detention center in the evening. An Israeli friend of the family who inquired where he could pick her up was told to wait for her at Qalandiya Checkpoint [north of Jerusalem]. The man waited for 5 hours only to learn later that the girl had been released at Bethlehem Checkpoint [south of Jerusalem]. Amal reached home at 10 PM.

In the end, Sausan was released on Thursday evening [Dec. 1]. This time two activists waited for her at Bethlehem Checkpoint to drive her home. But they waited in vain, because she was released at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem (thus turning her into an “Illegal infiltrator” into Israel). A taxi driver took her home.

Today, Monday December 19, Sausan’s case reached a verdict. As usual in the Occupation’s kangaroo-court system, it is based on a plea bargain, whose terms are negotiated based on whatever confessions or negative testimonies the interrogators managed to get out of the defendant, vs. the level of success by the defense to demonstrate how ridiculous the original charges were (Occupation charge-sheets are invariably inflated). In Sausan’s case, the overall balance yielded a relatively mild outcome. Ehud just emailed me the verdict (pdf file, Hebrew).

I sentence the defendant to:

A. 8 days arrest, as many as she had already spent imprisoned.
B. One month arrest in the event she repeats the offense within two years.
C. A monetary fine of NIS 3,000, to be taken out of the bail posted on behalf of the defendant…

So Sausan is back home. A proper court would have thrown out the case, based on abuse in custody, lack of access to legal counsel when a (partially retracted) confession was elicited from the defendant, conflicting testimonies of the event, and several other reasons. The heavy-handedness in treating Sausan and Amal stands in glaring contradiction to the numerous assaults on soldiers by the Israeli settlers whose interests these soldiers serve – assaults that usually go unpunished. We should also call out the routine dirty trick of over-arresting and over-charging Palestinians, which then helps the judges of these kangaroo courts appear enlightened when they encourage more lenient plea bargains – when in fact, the judges have not lifted a finger towards carrying out their duties of overseeing true justice and guiding a search for the truth about events.

The fine, and the lawyer’s fees, are a very steep sum for the Hamamdeh family to pay. But at least Sausan is home and facing a relatively benign fine. Moreover, the charges against her 17-year old Amal are now almost certain to be dropped.

Finally: this story has struck a chord among people in Israel’s social-justice activism community, shinining a light upon the woeful injustice in Occupation in general and South Hebron Hills in particular, and inspiring solidarity action among female activists. Last week, after reading Ehud’s account of Sausan and Amal’s arrest on the Rabbis for Human Rights website, several organizers of this summer’s mass rallies in Israel for social justice visited the region with Villages Group activists. They filmed an interview with Sausan, and decided to take further action.

These activists are organizing a fundraising concert on Sausan’s behalf, on December 28 2011, 8:30 PM, at Beit Ha’am, in Rotschild Avenue Tel Aviv – the epicenter of the summer’s protests and the resulting movement. Top-notch Israeli Singer-songwriter Rona Keinan, a consistently brave and outspoken voice for justice and human rights in Israel-Palestine, has already pledged to appear. Emerging musician Ruth Dolores-Weiss will also appear. We will post an update about the event within a few days.

(crossposted from the Villages Group blog)

To add insult to injury, Occupation forces arrested two young women for passive nonviolent resistance (see the video below). This is not your vanilla American “Occupy” arrest-and-release, get lawyer-and-defendant-rights arrest. The girls were entered into a sealed military vehicle and carted off to an unknown location (which eventually turned out to be an Israeli jail some 3 hours drive away), without any means – or rights – to defend their obvious innocence.

On that very auspicious day, the Occupation goons also handed out demolition orders to an impoverished village’s schoolhouse. Yes, that is the very same, one-year-old school whose pictures we brought to you in the last Villages Group blog post.

Now look.

Many people are unnerved, confused, even offended, hearing the terms “apartheid” or “ethnic cleansing” with regards to Israel, or even only with regards to the Occupation dictatorship Israel insists to continue running in its backyard.

I understand.

But I also know that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. This is beyond disgusting. This is beyond apartheid and ethnic cleansing and squabbling over terminology.

In its actions, especially in “Area C” that comprises 60% of the West Bank, Israel’s government is trying to murder the soul of a people and wipe it out as a nation – leaving only “human dust” that can be blown hither and thither and molded into whatever shape its rulers feel like.

And you know what I, personally as an Israeli, find MOST insulting? Two things.

1. That all this outrage is carried out mainly in order to safeguard the petty thievery of some scraps of land and property belonging to people far poorer and less privileged than ourselves. While we have more than enough to live on, and enough places to live. A “luxury robbery”, if you will. And
2. That all the while, two generations and counting, mainstream Israel pretends that this kind of stuff is not happening on a daily basis, brushes it off, explains it away, lies about it with a straight face – and continues to maintain the ridiculous charade of cultural and moral “superiority” over the Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.

If you are Jewish, and/or hold Israel dear, and/or don’t like reading this, WAKE UP. This is not about a specific politician, and certainly not about me or my choice of words. The actions described below are those of a fine-tuned machinery in operation for decades. It is ruthless, it is reckless, it is remorseless and it is soulless – and unless it is stopped, it will eventually leave nothing worth saving in Israel-Palestine, on all sides of whatever lines you choose to draw on that suffering land. So if you read this, you can say many things – but don’t say you haven’t been warned. Multiple times.

We will try and engage larger organizations for action on these matters. Meanwhile, you can start protesting this outrage with an email to Israel’s defense minister, sar@mod.gov.il or pniot@mod.gov.il, fax +972 3 6976711 (they are said to hate faxes), or the ministry’s US outlet (info@goimod.com, fax 212-551-0264). Besides the demolitions that already took place, don’t forget to mention the school that was just served with a demolition order.

The pretext for demolishing the school (“without permit”, of course – see above and below for the non-permit regime in Area C), is that it is claimed to be some 100 meters, maybe less, inside Area C, bordering on Area B. In Area B, the deceptively named “Civil Administration” has zero formal jurisdiction (don’t worry, then the Occupation’s other arms can come and carry out “security” demolitions if push comes to shove). In Area C, Israel is carrying out its newest social experiment and innovative contribution to the region in its role as “The Only Democracy”(TM): full control with zero accountability, with a generous helping of taxation-and-demolition without representation to the local Arabs. And of course, forget about building permits in Area C. Those are for Jews only.

I end my personal rant, and here is the report from Ehud, followed by some more background information for those interested and/or those in deep-freeze denial, who for some indecipherable reason still bother themselves with reading this.

Some of the events of the day have been filmed and uploaded to Youtube by Israeli activist Guy Batavia. Please watch it. There are more segments on his Youtube channel.

watch?v=w71Wr8IIC0s

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The demolitions that the Israeli Occupation forces carried out in the the same day in South Hebron Hills (Thursday, 24.11.11) show that the duration of the bureaucracy leading up to the demolition itself changes from case to case: in the instance of Muhammad Mussa Mu’ghanem from Susya it was over within a few weeks. Without legal defense , no more than two months passed from the date the orders were issued to stop the works until Thursday, 24.11 when the bulldozer, escorted by army and police forces, arrived and demolished the two temporary structures that had served the Mughanem family in the past months.

On the other hand, in the case of the cave-dweller hamlet of Umm Fakra (sometimes spelled “Umm Faghara”), the same bureaucratic process leading up to the demolition has lasted much longer: in spring 2000, the inhabitants returned to their hamlet from which they had been expelled in winter 1999. According to a High Court of Justice ruling enabling their return, they were prevented from any construction work until the final ruling in their case. The years went by and the final ruling was not given. The freeze preventing any possible development at Umm Fakra (including the forbidden connection to the power grid) became a permanent fact.

About 4 years ago, the inhabitants of Umm Fakra began to breach this freezing order and dared build a small stone mosque for their own use. At the same time, the village elder, Mahmoud Hamamde, put up a structure with two dwelling rooms on top of his cave, for the use of his growing family. The following years saw some more structures built in Umm Fakra.

The Occupation’s deceptively named “Civil Administration” has issued work cessation orders against all of these additions, shortly after their construction. The lawyers hired by the owners managed to delay the Occupation bureaucracy’s inevitable action for several years, until last Thursday (24.11.11): two bulldozers arrived at the hamlet, escorted by Occupation agents, soldiers and policemen, and completely demolished the village mosque and the living structure of the Hamamde family that served as a rabbit pen. Only one of the two rabbits at the time survived, the other died in the process. While demolishing at Umm Fakra, the Occupation forces arrested two young women of the hamlet – the mukhtar’s daughter, Sausan Hamamda, a 21-year old student, and her 17-year old relative, Amal Hamamda. The two were taken to Tel Mond prison inside Israel.

From the little information we have at this point, apparently the Israeli police intends to accuse these two young women (whose professional and academic studies we have been supporting) of serious offenses, as might cause their relatively long incarceration.

Ehud Krinis
The Villages Group

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International scholar and Taayush activist David Shulman also posted a piece earlier this month – not on these specific actions, but on the South Hebron Hills regime in general:

The senior commander from the [deceptively named] Civil Administration turned up to inspect us, together with thirteen bored, awkward soldiers. He’s the same guy I met at [Israeli outpost] Avigayil last month– easy-going, fluent in Arabic, all charm and good nature; the one who put an end to the Jibrin family’s plowing that day. He’s done it again this morning, when the Jibrin farmers attempted once more to plow near the ugly outpost.

In fact, this pattern is now well established. They manage to plow for a few minutes, the settlers come out, then the army arrives, and the cheerful man from the [deceptively named] Civil Administration plays his inevitable role. The courts have confirmed that the land belongs to the Jibrin, but they only manage to plow it bit by bit, stolen moments before the machine stirs, an ungainly beast, and drives them away.

…I suppose we should be grateful. You get used to the whole lunatic business. It even begins to seem normal, the normalcy of the Pax Israelica in the territories. That is: you become habituated to a world dominated by outright theft and all that derives from this single, organizing principle.

…One can dither about whether the term “apartheid” is appropriate for the reality of the Occupation… But can Palestinians get on an Israeli bus passing their homes in the West Bank? Can Palestinian drivers use the roads built for settlers and settlers only? Can Palestinians get a permit to add a room to their house if it’s in Area C, or even to put up a tent or an outhouse? Can they graze their sheep on their own lands without being driven off at gunpoint by settlers or soldiers or both? Can they put down a gravel road that traverses their fields without the [deceptively named] Civil Administration stopping the work and impounding their tractors? Do they enjoy even the most minimal of civil liberties? Do they have legal recourse in the not uncommon event that they are suddenly stripped of their land, their possessions, and their freedom?

Regarding Area C in general, earlier this year Amira Hass reported that in 2010, demolitions of Palestinian structures in this region had tripled.

The UN OCHA wrote about the Area C no-permit-for-Palestinians regime,

In area C, a building permit from the Israeli Civil Administration is required for all types of construction including rudimentary dwellings, pit-latrines and even fences. According to OCHA, Palestinian construction is effectively prohibited in 70% of area C, while in the remaining 30% there is a range of restrictions and administrative requisites that greatly reduce the possibility of obtaining a permit. Given the difficulties in obtaining construction permits, many Palestinians living in area C take the risk to build without a permit, therefore facing the threat of administrative demolition by the Israeli Authorities.

There’s a wealth of information all over the Web – for example, a recent Btselem report about disposession in the predominantly-Area-C Jordan Valley.

Keep in mind that Area C was conceived under Oslo as a temporary staging ground, to be rather quickly transfered to Palestinian control – pending final outline of borders on the ground (those famous elusive few-percent “land swaps”). As such, the jurisdiction of any Israeli body to tell any Palestinian what to build in Area C, where and how, is extremely questionable.

Instead, when the process faltered, Israel started behaving as if the area was its own to keep. Except, well, the democracy, basic decency and rule-of-law parts of governing. Among other things.

The thick irony is that the knee-jerk reaction in Israel to any story of such demolitions is “What do you want? The Law must be upheld!” This stupid response would have been funny, if the reality they help hide wasn’t so sad and revolting.

Please help us stop this ugly, corrupt-to-the-core madness. Thank you.

PS: In case this is the first time you read of such illegal demolitions by the deceptively named “Civil Administration”, or have a short memory –

then just here on the Villages Group, just with respect to South Hebron Hills, we reported about such vandalism (demolitions, road blockages, and other “contributions” to culture and society)
here (2008 road blockage) and
here (2008 demolition orders to the mosque that was eventually destroyed last week) and
here (home demolitions, 2008) and
here (blocking roads again, preventing water supply) and
here (building settler-only roads that blocks and damages wells and shepherding) and
here (soldier idly watch as settlers attack people and vandalizes property) and
here (another demolition order, Umm Al-Kheir 2009) and
here (Palestinians finally return under court-order to a village that was ethnically cleansed, to see the scale of destruction there) and
here (student from A-Tuwani arrested, tortured, released) and
here (play-by-play description from Prof. Shulman, of how soldiers issue an illegal “Closed Military Zone” order to drive sheperds off their legally-owned land) and
here (soldiers try to halt public work that did have a permit; fortunately Israeli activists were present and prevented the stoppage) and
here (another Shulman description of the military harrassment sheperds undergo, after a new illegal settler outpost had been set up on their land) and
here (2010 demolition of water cisterns, some of them ancient) and
here (home demolitions, Umm Al-Kheir, 2 months ago) and
here (destruction of line connecting village to Palestinian power grid, see pic).

These reports come only from a tiny sparsely-inhabited piece of land. There are many, many more such “cultural activities” carried by the Israel government, showering freedom, democracy and progress on the Palestinian residents under its total control, all across Area C.

Also, I found some more phone and fax numbers for the Ministry of Defense. Phone: +972 3 6975349 Fax: +972 3 6976218 /691 6940 / 696 2757 / 691 7915/

About one month ago we reported to you on the state of the local schoolhouse in Palestinian Susiya as its second school year opened. Visiting the school on Thursday November 2nd, 2011, we witnessed an impressive development in the construction of the school’s permanent building. These works are undertaken as a joint initiative of the NGO Action Against Hunger/ ACF International, and the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees.

For our modest part, we brought the school a laptop computer that will serve the teachers from now on (we would be grateful to receive and bring the teaching staff additional laptops). We hope that soon we shall be able to meet the teachers’ request to receive Hebrew language lessons – Erella, of our group, is considering taking this task upon herself and we hope that within a few weeks we can report to you that a weekly Hebrew course for the school teachers is already under way.

A little while before arriving at the Susiya school, we learned of yet another act of destruction inflicted by the Israeli Military Occupation’s “Civil Administration” arm. A bulldozer destroyed the power pylons that have lately been installed between the village of Al-Tuwani and the cave hamlet of Umm Faqara, as part of the infrastructure that was to connect Umm Faqara with the regional power grid. This act of destruction by the “Civil Administration” is perfectly consistent with the long-term policy exerted by the Israeli Occupation authorities, in order to prevent the connection of the cave hamlets in the South Hebron Hills to infrastructure such as water and power. The motivation underlying this policy is to deny the legitimacy of these Palestinian communities and to eventually eliminate their existence.

Ehud Krinis

First, we had user “soysauce” in a brilliant rec-list diary, countering the Bibi government’s slogan that it isn’t enough for Palestinians to recognize Israel – they need to recognize it as a Jewish state. To my understanding, the 2 main reasons soysauce cited against doing this, were 1. Discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and 2. Relinquishing the Right of Return.

Then we had an impassioned defense by fizziks, countering that 1. Israel can be Jewish just like Italy is italian, etc., while not harming its Palestinian citizens, and 2. Palestinian right of return is equivalent to rolling history backwards, and we should instead look forward, let bygones be bygones, and craft solutions for the future.

To which soysauce already replied, regarding right of return, detailing the plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and explaining why it is both a moral and practical imperative to include their problem and their voices in any future “final” I-P arrangement.

Now here’s the (meta) deal. As is often seen in I-P pages, all 3 diaries are followed by long and passionate threads. But unlike the past, nearly the entire threads argue about the issues, rather than devolve into personal trashing. It’s not perfect, but that’s most of what I’ve seen. In the past, typically, a response diary like fizziks’ would not even appear. Trashing the threads would have been considered an adequate “defense strategy” for one’s positions – rather than state them clearly in a diary of your own. So thanks again to kos, and thanks to (nearly) everyone for trying to play by the new rules.

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Now to the issue itself. I too will deal with right of return. Unfortunately, the “let bygones be bygones” line on Palestinian return is shared not just by mainstream Israelis and Diaspora Jews – but by nearly the entire Western elite, from Rick Perry (duh) through Tony Blair, all the way to Jimmy Carter (he states this rather baldly in his “Peace or Apartheid” book). Since Israel *does* have a vigorously-subsidized Jewish right of return in its laws, respected by the entire West, this means that the Western elites continue to tolerate and endorse absurdities like these:

Let us not fudge the point: by continuing to endorse Jewish return and Palestinian un-return, Western governments agree to their citizens being treated at different classes, whenever they want to travel or move to Israel-Palestine.

But this goes deeper. Because contrary to how fizziks opened his diary:

The same reason that Italy should be an Italian state,…

Israel is *by no means* “Jewish just like Italy is Italian.” I will leave aside the very interesting point fizziks alluded to later on: the quest to understand Jewish peoplehood, and whether current Jewish-Israeli identity (Modern-Hebrew speaking, military-dominated society, mostly secular and increasingly ignorant of Judaism, etc. etc.) can be seen as the chief, natural and inevitable incarnation of “Jewish peoplehood”, authorized to speak in its name through its nation-state political organs – as implied by the term “Jewish state” (short answer: no).

There’s a bigger, disturbingly farcical self-contradiction in the 1-2 punch of “Israel’s Jewish like Italy’s Italian, let bygones be bygones on Palestinian refugees”. Even if present-day Israel is the natural and inevitable culmination of Jewish Peoplehood, the fact remains that as recently as the mid-19th Century, less than 1% of the world’s Jews lived in what is now Israel-Palestine. And even this small population did not speak one single language or see itself as the seed of a modern nation. btw, they were also a small fraction (<5%) of I-P's overall population.

No, I am not opening a Pandora's box of "what if" or "who did what to whom" regarding the history of Zionism. Please don't open it in the thread. There is a much bigger point hiding here right in front of our eyes.

In order to reach from that point some 150 years ago, to us sitting today with nearly half the world’s Jews forming a 75% majority in Israel and settling beyond its borders, and us arguing whether “Israel is Jewish like Italy is Italian”, a lot of movin’ and shakin’ needed to take place. One part of that, as soysauce reminded, was the movin’ of some Palestinians out of the picture. But the other part was the moving in of Jews, whose only prior connection to the land was, um, yes, religion and collective memory, rather than any direct personal relationship to anyone present in the country in living memory.

We were made to feel that this radical transformation of world Jewry, its language and its self-identity has been normal and natural and legitimate – because of the sanctity of Jewish collective memory.

Now, the very same “enlightened” West who celebrates the amazing transformation of 2000-year-old collective Jewish memory into a cool modern nation-state, turns around and tells Palestinians: no, your 60-year old living memory of personal and collective exile and destruction, simply doesn’t count. Scrap it. It is bothersome and pestful. Just move on, will ya?

No one is telling Jews that hey, these Judeans in Roman times, they were fanatic extremists. Why couldn’t they read the political map and realize that the vassal-state arrangement offered by the Empire, with some tolerance of other gods being worshipped here and there (big deal! And what did Jews do during Bible times, according to the complaints of the prophets themselves?) ?? No, they had to go on a bloody rebellion, and then an even more fanatic, more bloody rebellion – and get themselves exiled. No one is telling Jews coming to claim their lost land 2000 years later, “hey, you had your chance and blew it. You brought it upon yourselves. And besides, the political shelf life for your claim is long expired.”

( to forestall any flames and false accusations in the thread – the paragraph above is a snark, a counter-factual to illustrate the point, if you will )

Unbelieveable.

Everyone who matters in the West accepts the Jewish 2000-year memory and return as a natural order of things. Then the very same people kick the 60-year Palestinian refugee problem – which the West itself is the prime culprit for creating in the first place! – kick it in the butt, and treat it like a pest.

Sorry. As a fully-privileged Israeli Jew this is probably against my narrow material interests, but I’m with the Palestinians on this one. I know what it’s like to be treated by the West like a pest; why, this is precisely how they treated Jews until not so long ago. So I’d rather resolve it with the Palestinians the way we should have done from the start: honorably and collaboratively.

With the refugee problem solidly on the table.

And practically speaking, continuing to suppress the issue (as soysauce wrote) would be suicidal in the long run.

Because the West can scream with its hypocritical sanctimony until it gets blue in the face – but the Palestinians will not forget. Nor will the rest of the Arab world.

We Jews should know. After all, we are from the Middle East, and we haven’t forgotten either.

Happy New Jewish Year.

The residents of Umm-Al-Kheir – situated in the West Bank, roughly 8km north of its southernmost border – are Bedouins, originally living on land that became part of Israel. They were driven out following the 1948 war (see more details here), and in the 1950s purchased the land on which they live, which was then under Jordanian rule.

the 1980s the nearby Karmel settlement was established and subsidized by the Israeli government. Like all settlements, Karmel continues to expand and encroach on more and more Umm-Al-Kheir lands. The “Civil Administration” – which, on land matters, is little more than the executive arm of the settler movement despite being formally part of the IDF – always does the settlers’ bidding. Controlling the vast “Area C”, about half of the West Bank, it issues virtually no building permits to any Palestinian. And for Umm-Al-Kheir, like in other places, this “Administration” has done nothing except to inflict repeated rounds of destruction – in 2007, in 2008, and a demolition order the residents have been fighting since 2009 – which is apparently the legalistic pretext for the current destruction.

The damage done this time around: an outhouse

(see the linked story, for a poignant description of what happens after Karmel settlers succeed in depriving their neighbors of their sanitation infrastructure)

A family’s living tent (note the Karmel settlement’s houses in the background)

And a tin shack that was home to ten souls.

The state-employed vandals notified residents that they will be back in two weeks to destroy some more. Following yesterday’s demolition, the same crew attempted to destroy a nearby power line installed by a Palestinian company. In the process, one of the vandals fell off the electric pole and he is now fighting for his life at the Beersheva hospital.

Please write to the Israeli Ministry of Defense – either directly (pniot@mod.gov.il, fax +972 3 6976711) or to its Mission office in the US (info@goimod.com, fax 212-551-0264).

Ask them to stop these criminal, indefensible demolitions, and to compensate the victims.

Thank you.

(crossposted from the Villages Group blog)

So it was nearly 2 weeks late that I received the meta “headline news”: an Antisemitism epidemic was diagnosed at Daily Kos. The list of symptoms was detailed in a public letter, with dozens of examples from diaries and comments. The good citizens of this progressive-liberal community were called upon to take action, to eradicate the disease from among us – because at other times when good citizens looked the other way, such talk had “led to expulsions and mass murders of Jews” (direct quote). This time around, the damage from Antisemitism so far has been limited to “many Jewish bloggers” feeling “unwelcome” and leaving; but as the diary’s title exhorts us, we must not “turn away” lest things might get far worse. This urgent call was eventually signed by dozens and dozens of members, and – needless to say – made a strong showing on the rec list.

That show of solidarity was apparently insufficient for the letter authors, since they have continued to issue diaries exhorting site admins and the general community to show more vigilance, implement aggressive enforcement and eradicate the disease. The admins, it seems, are heeding the call. The violators called out by these diaries are banned swiftly and with little deliberation.

As you might guess, being Jewish myself I have an opinion on the matter, and I respectfully – but totally – disagree with the “Antisemitism epidemic” diagnosis. I do sympathize with the heartfelt distress with which it was presented. In general I am not a fan of site meta. Moreover, I have avoided to voice my opinions about the trials and tribulations of present-day Diaspora Jews, since even though I am Jewish and live in the Diaspora I consider myself mostly Israeli, and was not raised in a Jewish minority surrounded by a non-Jewish culture – which is the setting in which genuine Antisemitism and Antisemitism-fears develop.
But I think it is high time to break my silence, at least to the 3.5 Kossacks venturing to read this diary in its entirety.

I would like to offer my view of what’s actually going on. This will take (I think) 2-3 diaries, so don’t say you haven’t been warned. If you are a headlines-only person, then please take home the 2 messages that:

1. The issue of Antisemitic and Antisemitic-sounding expressions on Daily Kos is a problem almost exclusively confined to Israel-Palestine debates, and therefore any attempt to deal with it without addressing the entire I-P thread culture, which is exactly what is being done now (e.g., the “Antisemitism letter” and its sequels were published without the “Israel”, “Palestine” tags) – any such attempt is narrow-minded, tainted and eventually doomed to failure in the broader scheme of things. This will be the theme of the 3rd diary. And

2. That this is not a simple uni-directional problem of “more enforcement is good, less enformcement is bad”. There is more here than meets the unitiated eye. Sometimes ovezealous enforcement can turn into persecution. Or even worse: sometimes bigots can use a “pro-enforcement” atmosphere to further their twisted agenda. I know this from my own, real (not meta, not virtual) experience, and will talk about it right now.

So I begin with a side trip down my personal, tortured memory lane. The intersection, if you will, between virtual life and real life. Please follow me…

In the spring of 2009 I submitted a formal application for a tenure-track job at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel. I had some prior informal back-and-forths with that department, and in fall 2008 was snubbed by them, became frustated and thought it’s better for me not to deal with them anymore. But now the opening was public and official. So to shut up my own conscience about trying my best to return to Israel (we’ve been living in Seattle since fall 2002), while remaining in the profession I had just spent years to acquire – I submitted a formal application, expecting a formal repeat of the informal snub.

It was therefore a bit of a surprise, when in summer 2009 BGU replied expressing strong interest. In fact, the senior statistician in the department told me in no uncertain terms that I am their leading candidate; they have no other viable candidate. By that time I had accepted a full-time job offer at UW (my current job). It is not tenure-track, but professionally very promising and challenging, and paying a living wage; not something to scoff at during the Great Recession. I informed the BGU statistician of that, but still expressed my interest in proceeding. When can I come give a job talk? She asked. Our next family visit to Israel was scheduled for spring 2010; but if BGU is interested, they can buy me a ticket and I can perhaps come around Thanksgiving without missing too much work time. “No”, she said, “We don’t have the budget for this; we’ll wait.”

Her demeanor was strange; on one hand, she was very clear about their dire need for another stat professor ASAP, and of my clear position as the sole adequate candidate for their post. On the other hand, she sounded as “enthusiastic”, as we say in Hebrew, as someone who had just swallowed a whole herring. Anyone even vaguely familiar with academia knows that the accepted practice is for inviting departments to pay a faculty candidate on their shortlist her/his travel expenses, and that there are budgets set aside for this when an official search is opened.

About the same time, a department colleague of hers, an applied mathematician, sounded far more friendly when he called my home. He was visiting the East Coast, and took advantage of the opportunity to introduce himself and have a lengthy phone chat with me. I decided there was something unclear in the whole affair, and started poking around with friends and acquaintances at BGU, to see whether if someone can help me figure out what the heck is up. There was no clear explanation to the department’s ambivalence; all my BGU sources agreed it seems strange. So I put the matter aside and concentrated on summer and on starting my job.

In September 2009, a couple of weeks into my new job, I get a call from my friend Yigal, a high-school buddy and fellow activist. “Haven’t you read the article?”, he asks. “What article?” He sent me the link. It was an article on Globes, (Hebrew link), Israel’s analogue to the Wall Street Journal – but without the national-politics angle. Well, almost without. Here are excerpts from the opening passage (translation mine with my comments in brackets and italics):

Israeli Lecturer Supporting the Comparison of Territories Policies to Nazis to Arrive in Israel?

by Ro’ee Goldenberg

Only two weeks ago, BGU was scandalized by a faculty member [Neve Gordon] publishing a LA Times editorial condemning Israel, and now a new scandal is about to erupt….

In recent months, BGU is considering bringing Dr. Assaf Oron, a statistics lecturer at the University of Washington, who has published in recent years several articles calling for organized refusal to serve in the IDF, and criticizing Israel’s policies in the Territories. Oron even edited, wrote and translated articles for the website of “Courage to Refuse” (where writings by Dr. Gordon were also published – RG)… among Oron’s writings, linked to his personal webpage on the UW site, he expresses support in comparing Israel’s activities in the Territories to the Nazis (“Does Israel have a monopoly on labeling its enemies and Nazis, while everyone else must shut up even when reality speaks for itself?”)…

During discussions at the search committee, some members alerted the department chair and the dean regarding the problematic nature of employing Oron in view of his opinions. One of them even declared he will work vigorously to convince his colleagues to vote, when the day comes, against granting Oron tenure at BGU. The chair and dean refused to address this issue, and even begged the committee member to resign because he places political considerations above academic ones…

My brain turned into a giant flashing red WTF? sign. I mean, beyond anything else, what the fuck kind of crap journalism is that? Where’s the story here? The public interest? Some idiot tries to bring politics into an appointment committee and is promptly told off, and everyone involved has zero name recognition, simply private citizens who happen to work in academia and perhaps blog their opinions from time to time. What about basic confidentiality of personnel matters? And this, in a paper that deals almost strictly with business. Since when has this become “business news”?

Well, if they made the story about politization of academia, maybe. But they did the opposite: the “big scandal” was the university’s apparent refusal to politicize a purely scientific appointment. And what about contacting the article’s victim – that would be yours truly? They contacted the university, this crapload of a reporter looked up my UW website – where, incidentally, my email address is posted in plain sight – but he could not bring himself to write me an email before publishing this on Israel’s most widely-read business paper. Where’s the editor in this story? Is there an editor in the house?

So my first impulse was to send a cease-and-desist style email to the editors. Relax, said Yigal, and said also Neve Gordon, who felt quite guilty about this story coming out as it was clearly related to his above-mentioned op-ed. Neve had good evidence to back his advice: he himself had spent a good few years fighting a libel suit against a far-right American-born jerk of a professor, Steven Plaut, who called him a “kapo” (Neve, btw, is a decorated IDF veteran wounded in combat stopping a terrorist boat on the Lebanese border). Neve won the “kapo” libel suit, then part of it got reversed on appeal, then he re-appealed… who knows how it ends? It wasn’t worth it. The best thing for me right now, they said, is to lie low. Besides, they know how it all started, because the idiot who started it is already bragging about it on listservs. He is one Professor Israel David, the very member from the appointment committee who protested my imminent appointment. Apparently he had some insider connection to Globes, and that’s how he got the story in there. “You are right”, they told me. “There is no genuine story or media interest in this, so just let it blow.” Unless – that is – unless I am interested in this particular BGU job and want to fight for it.

Well, I’d be a complete idiot on insisting to get into that position now, wouldn’t I? I know enough about academia, and what chances has a beginning assistant prof whose arrival has already caused such hostility and conflict among tenured faculty, and who has no real ally in there? Not to mention that from a professional standpoint, this particular department has the smallest and least-established stat team among all Israeli university. Moreover, I had to consider to fallout onto my brand-new job, if I get embroiled in a highly visible political scandal back home.

So I lied low. And indeed, the story wasn’t picked up anywhere else. Which caused the said Israel David some frustration, as well. So he went to a Matt-Drudge-style online news site, and penned a story spilling it all out, titled “About Satan-Talkers and Transparency in Academia”
(Hebrew link, translation mine).
He starts by mentioning Neve Gordon, and continues…

…and now, Globes published an article about another “Tsorer” [a term used traditionally for someone persecuting Jews with a genocidal intent, quotes in the original] who is a candidate… Dr. Assaf Oron, a statistics lecturer… whose Sitna [literally "Satan-talk", meaning rabid incitement] against Israel is even worse than [Gordon]: he calls for an organized refusal to serve in the IDF (a criminal charge that in some societies might carry the death penalty under certain circumtances, a mutiny), he systematically compares IDF soldiers and commanders to Nazis, and other “gems” anyone can read on his personal university website.

…Dear readers, … I myself is “that member” [of the appointment committee]…during the specific debate about Oron’s appointment on July 1, after indeed one member mentioned Oron’s activity against Israel and the IDF… the Chair went online to look at the texts himself. Then various opinions were voiced, with the Chair at first arguing that Oron might be an asset to the department because of his “social sensitivity” demonstrated when “helping the children of Nablus”. The Chair summarized that Dr. Oron might be adequate for our professional needs, but he suffers from “personality problems”; this appears in the official meeting protocol! The committee decided to ask a senior professor who was about to visit the US in the summer, to talk with Dr. Oron and ask whether he’d agree to keep his activism out of sight in case he is accepted at our department [that explains that phone call mentioned above; to his credit, that other professor did not mention politics in one word during our talk].

The article ends with Prof. David arguing against the confidentiality of committee protocols, trying to cast himself as a Wikileaks-style hero, rather than a wingnug McCarthyist jerk. This article made me mad at BGU. Sure, David is not the perfect reliable witness about the committee’s discussion, but he sounded pretty confident about the shameful direction that discussion took. In any case, the least they could do at that point was contact me and apologize, or something. I never heard from them.

A few months pass, and David went on to submit… a libel suit against the department Chair, because removing him from the committee hurt his good name! The suit ( .doc link, Hebrew) is one long libellous incitement against… me of course. I contacted Advocate Michael Sfard, asking whether I could/should join as a side in the suit or make a counter-libel suit. Just like Neve, he strongly advised against. I lied low again.

Only on the next round of Assaf-bashing did I finally break my silence. This happened in June 2010; I suddenly got several emails from people, some of whom I barely knew. One demanded to know if I supported academic boycott of Israel. Another (a former fellow activist) alerted me that David is again slandering me, this time on a social-sciences listserv whose messages reach the inbox of 3000 Israeli academics. Soon the listserv manager himself contacted me and suggested that I reply. Yigal and Neve were still opposed; they thought I might burn all my chances for an academic career in Israel. But I made the opposite calculation: when someone repeats the same lie about you with enough volume and conviction, it sticks. David was about to etch my image in the minds of Israeli academia, and not in a flattering manner. On the other hand, if I intervene I would not only foil his efforts, but also have a chance to become someone other academics might identify with and want to help. Moreover, I have to think of others who might find myself in my situation. Speaking out – when I have so little to lose now – will help them.

So I wrote the listserv ending with the message that this is not really about politics, but about whether or not society lets bullies dictate the rules. It was generally well received, and a couple of junior academics who encountered similar treatment wrote to thank me personally. Meanwhile, I interested the Seattle blogger Richard Silverstein (who just shortly before that became world-famous with the Anat Kam scoop) in the affair and he wrote a story, followed by Ha’aretz; so you can read all about it in English.

Whew !

Now I know why I’ve never blogged about this sorry story before. It is too long.

Make no mistake: I was not a random victim for some deranged head-case. Yes, Prof. David is a strange figure with some sad personal story. After I finally spoke out, he sent me a couple of direct emails – something he’d never done before – treating me almost as a friend, the way only a bully fully attached to his faovrite victim does, I guess – and sharing more insider information and observations from the department.

But as I wrote to the listserv, this is not about politics, but about bully-victim dynamics. In particular, it is about group patterns of bullying, or in other words bigotry and prejudice. Because without the prejudice, without the rest of society (including, say, the department faculty) accepting that I deserved to be treated as less than human, Prof. David could not have gotten that far. So what kind of bigotry is this? It is the bigotry by mainstream Jews against dissident Jews who challenge the “Israel good, Arabs bad” dogma. In the mainstream Israeli (and older generation Disapora-Jewish) psyche there is a red line, usually referred to in Israel as a social-mental “Fence”, separating, supposedly, “legitimate” criticism and activism – but really demarcating tribal solidarity – from crossing over to become one of “them”.

Anyone who walks outside the Fence becomes immediately guilty until otherwise proven. You are disloyal, you are not a “true Israeli”, your mind is sick, your soul is sick, and you are fair game. You are a “Hamas fan” who “supports terrorism”, even if you have dedicated all your adult life to nonviolence (except for military service, unfortunately). The most lenient verdict on you is probably that you have fallen prey to your naive kindness and ignorance. Several times over the past few years, other Israelis have called me a “fanatic disciple” (disciple of what? Of whom?) or “brainwash victim”.

But wait;

Maybe I am guilty as charged? Maybe I am this dangerous monster described in the Globes article, maybe according to the facts I did do these things? Here are the main wedge issues Prof. David used against me, as he lays them bare in his op-ed.

A. Supporting organized refusal to serve in the IDF, to the point of a mutiny: in January 2002 I was part of a group of combat reserve IDF soldiers who placed an ad in Haaretz declaring that the government’s actions and instructions to the military are not for defense, but for perpetuating the Occupation and settlement project. We pledged to stop serving that Occupation, or in our words (here’s the original link; the posted English translation is mine):

We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.

The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.

Pretty darn clear, no? This erstwhile group known as “Courage to Refuse” pledged selective refusal, not a total one. I neither judge nor condemn youngsters who now, for similar reasons to ours, decide to refuse to even enlist. I was fortunate to enlist in 1985, perhaps a more naive stage in Israeli history. But the fact of the matter is that I have never pledged nor organized outright refusal. Moreover, all the Israeli CO-support groups I’ve been in have never actively tried to recruit objectors. Conscientious objection and its consequences is a decision one has to actively choose, not be sold upon like a toothpaste. This is a matter of principle and despite some voices calling for it on the fringes, no Israeli CO-support group has ever tried to call for a mutiny.

What about that other, more prominent charge featured in the original Globes story headline? Do I
B. “systematically compare IDF soldiers and commanders to the Nazis”? Well, from early 2002 through the present I have written countless articles, blogposts, comments, etc. etc. Barely a handful of times, maybe even less, did I make any sort of reference, direct or indirect, that might be interpreted as saying that the Israelis are present-day Nazis. The lighting-rod passage David has built his entire thesis upon, was in fact a meta discussion of the game which I will now define as …. (drumroll….)

Nazi Gotcha.

Americans are probably well aware of a related, but much simpler, game called “N-Word Gotcha”: non-Black people can never say any variant of the word “Nigger” lest they immediately be labeled as racists. On the other hand, African-Americans can usually get away with it, especially when they say it in an ironic manner.

[ an aside: I don't object to the "N-Word Gotcha" game itself; even though it often seems to me that this rhetorical abstention white Americans have undertaken is really a cheap lip-service; that even African-Americans would actually much, much prefer if they did hear the N-word once in a while, but in return would also see Whites once and forall dismantle the racist policies and socioeconomic structures that still systematically send Black men to the jailhouse and Black families to the poorhouse. ]

In any case, as we Jews are smarter than anyone else, we have created our own far more sophisticated version of the game. Here are the rules of “Nazi Gotcha”, as far as I’ve managed to understand them:

1. Anyone, at any time, can compare Israel’s current and past enemies to the Nazis – and we are even encouraged to do so.

2. No one, at no time, can compare Israel’s current or past actions to the Nazis. This is an immediate red card.

3. It is completely okay for Jews criticizing other Jews from the right to the left (e.g., the right criticizing the center, the center criticizing the left, etc.), to compare their criticism’s target to the Nazis. For example, in 1995 during the Oslo process a center-right commentator said to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to his face on prime-time live broadcast, that he is a member of a “Judenrat Government”. That commentator, Tommy Lapid, later became a political star and even served under Sharon as a senior cabinet minister alongside Peres.

4. It is completely not okay, for Jews criticizing other Jews from the left towards the right, to use similar imagery. Never. Barring highly exceptional circumstances, this offense also carries an immediate and irrevocable red card.

5. In other cases, we will send the “jury” (composed always of center and right nationalist Jews) out to deliberation, but in general if you are Jewish and not suspected of “anti-Israelism”, it is okay. For example, I don’t think Jerry Seinfeld paid any penalty for introducing the term “Soup Nazi” to English language and American pop-culture.

6. The meaning of a red card. If you were unfortunate to be issued a red card under rules 2, 4 and possibly 5 – then you are forever marked as someone “beyond the pale”, an “Antisemite”, a “self-hater”, or even worse. Pretty much nothing you will do can undo this verdict.

7. (almost) Finally…. any nationalist Jew is authorized to issue the red card to Jews on his left, or to non-Jews, upon witnessing an offense.

We are almost done. The last and trickiest rule will be demonstrated via the way in which I had fallen prey to “Nazi Gotcha”, and was issued – by the unquestioned authority of Professor Israel David – the red card. It is all due to an email I sent in March 2002 called “an open letter to Jewish Americans and other friends of Israel”. Why did I write it?

Our Courage To Refuse ad a couple of months earlier, well-timed with media articles about us, generated a political storm in Israel. The initial gut response of then-IDF chief of staff was to condemn and persecute us. But our numbers mushroomed from 50 to 100 to 200 over two weeks, and a lot of public voices expressed support either for our stand, or at least for our right to take it. So for a while, we were affecting the mainstream Israeli debate. Meanwhile, among Disapora Jews we were met with stony hostile silence. The only existing group finally coming out in our support was Tikkun. They published an ad in the New York Times, including a cartoon of a soldier with a statement like “Don’t say you were only following orders.”

Ha! Automatic Red Card by Rule #2. “Following Orders” can be read as an allusion to Nazi times. Tikkun were caught in “Nazi Gotcha”, and were verbally lynched across the American-Jewish world. Their board members were resigning one by one. Frantically, Rabbi Lerner emailed those among Courage to Refuse he could find their email addresses, an urgent plea along the lines “We helped you out, can you give us a hand here?” I was a direct recipient, but I was also not in Courage to Refuse’s inner circle. In that circle they decided to turn a cold shoulder towards Lerner. Their target was the mainstream Israeli audience, and the last thing they wanted was a “Nazi Gotcha” red card. Because, you see, the last and strongest rule of the game is:

8. If you happen to address a case when someone else was issued a red card, the only permissible response is to further condemn, denigrate, ostracize, denounce, renounce and cut all contact from the red-cardee. Any other response will make you automatically liable to being issued a red card yourself.

I, naive and idiotic that I am and ever have been, felt anger at the raw hate and rank hypocrisy that Tikkun had been served by their fellow American Jews in return for supporting us. So I sat down to write about it, and immediately sent it as an email to the Tikkun board members (whose addresses Rabbi Lerner had provided). In so doing, I violated Rule #8 and have been forever branded.

Want to hear something funny? Rabbi Lerner thanked me profusely, and then Tikkun went on to circulate my text. But not before they watered it down and removed the passage discussing Nazi references and allusions. See, they had already learned their lessons; while I who was stupid enough to try and save them from “Nazi Gotcha”, had my words return to bite me in the ass on national Israeli media some 7.5 years later.

Gradually…Connecting…the…Dots…

Even though to me the connection is very clear between my story and the “Antisemitism eradication festival” currently raging on Daily Kos site pages, I have learned from experience that it is better to visibly connect the dots.

The question whether charges of Antisemitism and Nazi allusions are used to police and shut down I-P debate and/or inflame emotions on all sides, is a well-trodden often-debated one. But this is not what I’m talking about here.

I am talking about the use of this charged atmosphere, in order to isolate, demonize, dehumanize and persecute individuals. All of us write all kinds of stuff over the years, and we produce a range of expressions, reactions, contexts, etc. Hardly anyone would approve of every single thing someone else has written. Hardly any political blogger, esp. in I-P, has managed to avoid stepping on some verbal landmines, while still writing texts worth reading.

Calling people out when they overstep red lines, helping them understand what’s wrong with what they wrote, is one thing. But by letting games like “Nazi Gotcha” set the tone, we are allowing bigots to fish for expressions they can take out of context, and then aid and abet them in persecuting whoever made these expressions. So the community ends up engaging in de-facto bigotry, while feeling very self-righteous and morally justified.

I wrote about my experience, as an Israeli dissident, of having a mention of Nazism taken out of context and used as a rhetorical hatchet to persecute me. Nazi allusions are a favorite tool against people on the Left in intra-Jewish politics.
For non-Jewish targets, it might be easier to just smear them as “Antisemites”; exhibit A for this tactic would probably be what has been done over the years to poor Jimmy Carter – who, ironically enough, during his time in office has arguably contributed to Israel’s long-term strategic standing more than any other President.

Getting…Closer…

Unfortunately, there is a direct path leading from the “Nazi Gotcha” games to physical violence. Accusing someone, like was done to me, of comparing Israel to the Nazis is bad enough. But even worse is the free-for-all license this game hands over to the Right to do the exact same thing that the Left is forbidden to do: namely, to use Nazi terms to slander their opponents, whether Arabs, Jews or other. It is a very dangerous license, and practically no one is standing guard against it.

In 1995, a few months after Tommy Lapid called then-foreign minister Peres “Judenrat” to his face, a heated demonstration against the Oslo process took place in downtown Jerusalem. In the crowd circulated flyers with Prime Minister Rabin wearing an SS uniform. A few weeks later, Rabin was almost mobbed by right-wingers as he attended a public ceremony. His bodyguards barely saved him. Another week passed, and he was murdered by a Jewish wingnut.

[btw, for years my own image appeared on the Kahanist "masada2000" website, holding a sign whose original inscription was photoshopped to read "Judenrat"]

Bringing it closer in time and space: Rabbi Lerner, the very same Tikkun leader I tried to help and cost me my job prospects at an Israeli university, had his home vandalized 3 times this past year by right-wing Jewish hate groups.

Vandals plastered posters on the garage door of Rabbi Michael Lerner’s Cragmont Avenue home Tuesday night, according to Berkeley police. The posters depicted pictures of a Nazi carrying away a Jew….Lerner’s name is put on one of the Nazis and ‘Islamic extremists’ is written on the other Nazi…

Inventing Nazi slurs for people is a very dangerous game, indeed. Especially among Jews.

But this is precisely what is happening right now, right here at Daily Kos. And it is happening under the banner of “fighting Antisemitism”.

There is a site called Mondoweiss, started by progressive, Anti-Zionist Jewish journalist Phil Weiss and dealing primarily with Israel-Palestine and related Diaspora-Jewish politics. In the latest move of “enforcement”, this site was banned from being a source for Daily Kos diaries. I am not discussing the ban here. For those not in the know, Weiss was accused of occasionally entertaining Antisemites on his site, but – more centrally – of irritatingly engaging in chronic “Jew Counting”. There are legitimate reasons for other Jews to feel offended and angry by some of the stuff posted on the Mondoweiss site. I will not delve further into details here.

However.

The banning was preceded via a series of diaries attacking that site, with the diarist inventing a nickname for Mondoweiss: “Mondofront”. This is a (very tasteless, needless to say) pun on the Stormfront site, the English blogsphere’s premier Neo-Nazi, white-supremacist outlet. All these diaries were tipped and recc’ed by pretty much everyone involved in the present Antisemitism-eradication effort.

Whatever might be said about Weiss, I am well-informed enough to confidently state that he is neither a Nazi nor an ally of neo-Nazis. This “clever” invention of a Nazi slur-nickname for him is a slippery slope. If here on a liberal site people call Weiss “Mondofront” and it becomes accepted and condoned, then next week on a right-wing site someone will call him Goebbels, and in the not-so-far future, some other bigoted idiot might physically attack him or his co-editor Adam Horowitz.

This stuff does happen. And it often begins in this way, too. Violence on the fringes is often egged on by extreme and violent rhetoric coming from the Center.

Please. If you preach highly to a large audience about bigotry and Antisemitism and their dangers, if you stake a claim to moral authority, please also make sure to clean up your own act. This behavior is disgraceful to our site. And yes, I am honestly afraid that you might be placing your target in physical danger.

Besides, if I am not mistaken the site I-P rules (if they are still in effect) in fact forbid anyone from using Nazi slurs.

So please stop.

ok, Enough with this inside-Jewish-Baseball !

The Elephant in the Meta Room we’re in is of course anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bigotry. As I hinted in the intro, a quick check of the “Antisemitism letter” diary’s links reveals that most examples there come from I-P related threads and arguments (you are welcome to check yourselves). Alongside the problematic comments about Jews occasionally appearing on I-P threads, those other types of racism have a strong presence as well (to put it mildly).

As a dissident Jew I personally have encountered over the years a handful of hate-speech anti-dissident diaries and comments here on Daily Kos, from people considering themselves “better Jews” (i.e., “more pro-Israel”) than myself. More often, it was “dog whistles” insinuating that I am not a genuine Israeli or don’t show enough empathy to my compatriots; or innocently asking me how come 95% of the Israelis they know think I’m a nutcase; so maybe they are right and what do I have to say for myself?

But relatively speaking, I’ve been treated with kid gloves. Most of the pie-fights I’ve gotten into happened while trying to help out other members – usually Arab – who were being attacked far more savagely. Or while calling out ugly bigoted comments about Arabs in general or Palestinians in particular.

So the two problems are intimately interlinked. It is totally counterproductive to jump all over one, demanding constant attention from site admins, while completely ignoring the other. Anti-Muslim/Arab/Palestinian racism didn’t even make it into the list of “other types of racism” mentioned in the “Antisemitism letter” diary. I voiced this concern as soon as I’d heard about the “Antisemitism letter”, and the letter’s formal lead author quickly replied to me – along the lines of “this is none of our business, it is totally unrelated, if Arab diarists want to write a similar letter about anti-Arab bigotry they should go do it themselves”.

Excuse me, but this is an extremely childish, disingenious and irresponsible response. You call a community of over 100,000 bloggers up in arms against one type of bigotry, and conveniently neglect to even mention that other type of bigotry, its present-day mirror image that goes hand-in-hand, tit-for-tat with it? Why? Where’s the good faith? What’s the goal?

Final Words:

If we are to eradicate bigotry, we should approach the task with an open heart, an open mind and a generous dose of humility.

With a willingness to be educated while educating others.

With a readiness to acknowledge faults while finding them in others.

With a sensitivity to others’ vulnerabilities and fears, even as we share our own.

With a broad and inclusive perspective, rather than a narrow and self-serving one.

With a willingness to forgive and engage, rather than to demonize and persecute.

All this is sorely missing from the present campaign against Antisemitism on the site.

The strategy chosen might be great for scoring some meaningless meta points in the short term. But it harms the fabric of this community, and threatens the good name of those leading the campaign as true liberals and progressives. I implore them to change the approach they have taken thus far.

And I ask site administration to show better judgment, rather than be suckered into playing twisted Gotcha games that do not befit a progressive, reality-based community, and that could themselves easily turn into shameful displays of bigotry.

Thank you.

(crossposted from Daily Kos)

, this development reminds us of the other inequalities in Israeli society. While not the keystone oppression like that of Palestinians, conditions for women seem to be worsening, as they often do in both situations of conquest and religious fundamentalism. It is also worth noting that defenders of Israel often criticize gender relations in Arab societies as if it was a problem unique to them.

Frances Raday covers the conference  for Ha’aretz and notes the participation of officials of the same government that passed the anti-boycott law. She also cites the traditinon of female breadwinners in traditional Judaism, freeing men up for study. (I don’t know if this unique to Judaism as she claims, but it is certainly distinctive.) She predicts that this will lead to increased segregation of the labor sector to allow for more men’s participation.

[Jerusalem Mayor] Steinitz and [Finance Minister] Barkat’s participation in the conference follows this pattern of political endorsement. What is new here is the exclusion of women from participation in the economic sphere.

Ultra-Orthodox women are often the family breadwinners, a phenomenon unique to Judaism. This is not equality, but simply a way to let men pursue the more important goal of studying and praying.

The new departure is an indication of shifting values in the Orthodox community, which is now beginning to understand the importance of economic activity. Leaving aside internal community politics, the result is devastating for a liberal economy.

There are clear indicators that women need to be full participants in the economy in order for it to flourish. The prime minister has indeed remarked that it takes two working parents to keep a family out of poverty. In Israel, the low participation rate of Arab women (and Haredi men ) in the workforce is a central factor impeding economic growth.

The men-only economic conference at Binyanei Ha’uma promises to put Jewish women outside the labor market, too. The growing segregation of women in Israel will affect not only Orthodox women. Men who insist on segregation in the army, in class and in political parties are not going to cooperate with women in the workplace.

The more the ultra-Orthodox enter the workforce, the more women are going to find themselves marginalized and excluded. The solution has to be clearly conditioning the use of public resources, public spaces and the political arena on equal access and participation for all Israelis, including women. The lack of political will evinced by the Knesset and the government will no doubt once again leave the Supreme Court as Israel’s only guardian of liberal democracy.

Here’s hoping for increasing alliances of all those excluded by this government, from Palestinians to Israeli women.