The Deir Yassin Remembered Blog

Report on Beth Israel vigil 09-01-12

Posted on September 9th, 2012 at 9:13 pm by

Rachel Corrie and the Ku Klux Klan

Who is really shocked by the decision of the Jewish judge who ruled that Rachel Corrie was responsible for her own death? Certainly not Vigil Supporter E, who suggests a comparable situation where a white man, tried by members of the Ku Klux Klan for the lynching of a black man, is found not guilty and the black man’s family is found responsible for him stretching the rope.

This legal decision should remind all involved how empty the moral cabinet is of this “shitty little country Israel.”= There never was a moral compass in the decision to claim a land for the “chosen” people at the cost of others’ lives and homes. And it’s about time we asked our Jewish cousins in the peace movement where they stand on the Jewish state’s claimed right to exist.

Roll Call for Jews in the Palestine Solidarity Movement

So what’s it gonna be, Anna Baltzer, will you make more flash mob videos calling for boycotts only of settler-made products, or demand the end of Israel as a Jewish state? Medea Benjamin, will you tell us if Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, and if so, by what right? Jeff Halper: why don’t you show us and the world some real moral fiber and move back to Hibbing Minnesota where you were born and raised? Barbara Harvey, will you place a call to Right-Zionist Don Cohen, with whom you once debated, and his Bnai Brith International Detroit chapter and tell him that there is no possible moral reason for Jews to invade a foreign land, kill and rape its inhabitants, and coerce and bribe the US Congress into funding such a diabolical enterprise? Alice Rothchild, given this Orwellian verdict handed down by an “Israeli” court, will you now join Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends outside Beth Israel, or in any way hold your own community accountable for its overwhelming support of such a barbaric ideology? Mark Braverman, do you still “love Israel” and “think it’s a terrific place”? Or will you demand its peaceful dismantling? Josh Ruebner, isn’t it clear that the moral travesties that Israel commits are driven by specious claims to a right that doesn’t exist? Why doesn’t your organization speak to this core cause and expose the rest of the crimes as flowing from this flawed Zionist enterprise, instead of hiding behind some claims for justice in *only* the so-called occupied areas of Palestine? Will you all hold yourselves to yet another Jewish myth, that of Jewish “purity”? Will you pretend to demand “justice” while demanding that others genuflect at the alter of exclusive Jewish suffering *before* they defend Palestinian rights?

Another Game in Town

A group of conscientious and courageous folks have initiated a weekly protest on the steps of the University of Michigan’s student union. Following their protest, they attend the Michigan Student Government meeting and ask for a resolution to boycott “Israel”. Youth Against Normalization covers the event here.

JWPF Meets with Mayor, Clergy

At the request of Pastor James Rhodenhiser (St. Clare’s Episcopal Church), two members of JWPF met with him, Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, and Senior Pastor Ken Wilson (Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor). At issue was a sense of perceived “bullying” at our vigils: some folk in Ann Arbor think that our appearance every Saturday morning at only one location “picks on” Beth Israel, where the blame for Israel’s crimes should be spread out at other locations. It was agreed that we all paid taxes for US support of the Jewish state. Mayor Hieftje wasn’t certain that JWPF knew the pain some of the congregants have expressed to him, especially the older ones whose memories of the holocaust remain. We responded by reminding him that the tears shed by our Palestinian friends in Gaza are happening from current Jewish assaults, and not from 70-year-old memories. Jewish support for the violent displacement, oppression and exile of millions of Palestinians makes a mockery of any claims to moral high ground based on past Jewish suffering. In any case, the tone of the meeting was upbeat and friendly, and after some clarifying requests are responded to, JWPF will issue a response to these gentlemen.

Comments?

Eight vigilers
Do Jews have a special obligation to hold Israel accountable?
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

2 Responses to “Report on Beth Israel vigil 09-01-12”

  1. breakingthesilence

    You are a breath of fresh air! What is needed is the full truth: that the entire state of Israel, every square inch, was stolen from its rightful owners, the Palestinian people. Israel, the racist Jewish state, has no right to exist. It is ALL occupied territory. Scores of books about the Palestinian issue will give anyone who wishes the horrifying details of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing and theft, but few US citizens dare say aloud the obvious truth: that the entire country was stolen & its inhabitants sent fleeing into refugee camps, penniless and homeless. Again, your stand is the only genuinely ethical and fully honest one. My thanks.

  2. AnnArborCitizen

    The first thing I did after 9/11 was look into the history of modern Israel. I figured why not look into what ‘al-qaeda’ claims as it’s grievance against the U.S. (i.e. support for Israel). I read Thomas Mallison’s book “The Palestine Problem in International Law and World Order” which is a juridical analysis of the negotiations surrounding the formation of the Balfour Declaration. I guess I wasn’t really shocked to find that the Arabs have a reason to be upset, Israel was formed from a planned and maliciously intended, prescribed ethnic cleansing. The U.S. is under international obligation to end the experiment at this point from the words of the Declaration itself but the zionist infiltration of our entire system is sickening. It is almost fair to say at this point that since 9/11 the United States has ceased to exist as anything but Israel’s bumbling, idiot big brother who happens to posses unnaturally large muscles. I have my doubts at this point to the real existence of any global ‘terrorist’ threat after reading about the Lavon affair and U.S.S. Liberty fiascoes. Mallison does an excellent job of defining the important difference between Zionism and Judaism. I am very proud of my Jewish friend Mr. Herskovitz. One day the world will recognize his efforts and courage.

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