Another Visitor at our Vigil

A young student from the University of Michigan stopped by and gave us support. Vigil supporter J attended Columbia University before transferring to UM and commented on the Jewish community’s domination of campus activities in New York. J now sees the same influence at UM, and since J grew up in Ann Arbor, and even attended Beth Israel Congregation a few times, felt our protest was entirely valid and necessary. We hope J can return soon, and join JWPF.

JWPF Supports Day of Al Quds in Detroit August 17

Although time constraints and some poor planning on this writer’s part prevented JWPF members from attending this year’s Al Quds Day protest in Detroit, we were able to loan them some signs and our anti-Israel flag for their event. Their report kindly mentions us:

The Al-Quds Committee commemorated the International Day of Al-Quds in metro Detroit, with an ‘Auto-Rally’ followed by a protest. A procession of about 60 vehicles followed a 26′ lead Truck, featuring four banners mounted on the sides and a huge flag of Palestine in the front. The procession drove from the city of Dearborn’s Hemlock Park to Hart Plaza (Downtown Detroit). Most cars drove with a window-flag of Palestine. A good number of the youth helped in handing out maps, flags to the participants of the Auto-Rally. The protest, held at Hart Plaza, had an estimated participation of above 200 individuals. Participants included a significant number of families and good representation of youth. They held up several banners, placards and signs, some of which were provided courtesy of the JWPF (Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends). The protest featured poetry recitation by two youth, a youth speaker, a speech by Abayomi Azikiwe (MECAWI – Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice), and recitation of the Al-Quds Committee’s Resolutions for this year. The event was well-received for the most part. Dearborn’s Police Dept. was on hand at Hemlock Park to manage local traffic, and the Detroit Police Dept. was present at Hart Plaza to minimize congestion.

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Eight vigilers
Israel: No Right to Exist
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Photo by joeskillet via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-2.0)

Most people recognize that the apartheid wall Israel has been building for the past ten years will one day be removed. But few have given serious consideration to how best to recycle hundreds of miles of this “separation barrier.”

Now RighteousJews.org, Gilad Atzmon, and several human rights organizations are offering a significant prize for the best proposal of how to recycle the concrete portion of this wall.

Prize: The initial prize is $1,000, but as paid sponsors are added the prize is expected to increase to $25,000.

Judges: Submissions will be judged by the Board of Advisers of Deir Yassin Remembered, a “balanced” group of human rights advocates, Palestinians, Jews, and others.

How to Apply: Written submissions can be sent to Deir Yassin Remembered, c/o Daniel McGowan, 9 One Mile Point, Geneva, New York 14456 (USA) along with a $25 submission fee, which will be waived if the submitter comes from the West Bank or Gaza.

Deadline: All submissions must be received by January 31, 2014. The winner will be announced the following Deir Yassin Day, April 9, 2014. Read more »

Vigilers Receive Surprise Visit

Two brothers (one from Pennsylvania, the other from Vermont) were visiting their Ann Arbor former home and noticed our vigil. They stopped and enjoyed speaking with protesters; at least one held a sign. From his home he writes:

My brother and I were on the way to visit our childhood home at [address deleted] when we happened upon the most welcome vigil. Since I’ve been worked up about the issue of our country (or at least everything inside the beltway) being a puppet of Israel’s AIPAC, I was keen to stop and see this most welcome and unusual show of reality…

If my wife weren’t a (untenured) professor I’d be out there again with your message and more real history. I don’t mind taking flak from the unwashed/brainwashed, but it would probably end her career at the university.

Keep up the good work!

We find his last statement interesting, and wonder how many more protesters the movement would have, were it not for the threat of the powerful and vindictive Jewish community ruining careers.

JWPF Makes International News

Canadian David Greenfield asks “Can you feel the hate?” in an article published by the Canada Free Press this week.

A great deal of attention has been paid to hate-filled protests in front of synagogues by the Westboro Baptist Church or school protests in Beit Shemesh, but in Ann Arbor hate-filled left-wing protests have taken place in front of a synagogue every Sabbath for a decade…

Much of Greenfield’s article seems to originate from The Herscovite BDS Movement, an article from the blog Divest This by Jon Haber. Haber’s article also focuses on the ad hominem attacks on our vigils and produces over 140 comments. Both scripts seem to rely heavily on the yellow journalism of Art Aisner and comments of Steven Pastner, two local Jews intent on obfuscating the issue of Jewish supremacism in Palestine and attempting to replace it with personal insult.

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Ten vigilers

Zionists Out of the Peace Movement!
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Jews Push America into Another War

Recent articles from The Washington Post and The New American highlight the small but powerful community which seeks to lead our country into yet another mid East fiasco with predictably deadly results. Zionist Jews Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Howard Berman and Chuck Schumer each place their tribal interests in supporting the Jewish state above the interests of the country they purportedly serve.

Nine years ago our friend Jeff Blankfort penned A War for Israel, describing how Jews heavily influenced the Bush administration’s decision to invade a foreign country. In this pamphlet he identified 28 individual Jews and eleven Jewish organizations who pushed strongly, and successfully, for nine years of brutality in Iraq. Eight years ago this writer attended an AIPAC conference in Chicago and found the Jewish community war drums – all blessed by rabbinical prayers – beating against Iran. Alison Weir informs us that this unwarranted focus on Iran dates back to the formation of Apartheid Israel. She now quotes an Israeli reporter, writing: “Israel and its lobby in the U.S. ‘have been leading the charge’ for an American war against Iran for years, Israeli journalist Larry Derfner reports, ‘and they’re hardly hiding it.’”

Ron Paul Speaks Out

The bill recently sponsored by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and passed overwhelmingly by the sheep in Congress was strongly opposed by Ron Paul. In an impassioned speech to Congress, with time yielded to him by Dennis Kucinich, called this bill by its true name. He said:

I think this bill would be better named if we called it “Obsession with Iran Act 2012″ because this is what we continue to be doing is [being] obsessed with Iran and the idea that Iran is a threat to our national security.
Iran happens to be a Third World nation; they have no significant Navy, Air Force, intercontinental ballistic missiles — the IAEA and the CIA said they’re not on the verge of a nuclear weapon.

It’s so similar to what we went through in the early part of this last decade when we were beating the war drums to go to war against Iraq, and it was all façade. There was no danger from Iraq.

When you put sanctions on a country, it’s an act of war, and that’s what this is all about. The first thing you do when war breaks out between two countries, is you put sanctions on a country, you blockade the country. So this is an act of war.

Mark Hannah Place Neighbors Seek City Assistance, Shun Reporter

This writer was informed that eleven days prior to receiving my response, at least two neighbors sent e-mail messages to the entire Ann Arbor City Council body, the Mayor, Chief of Police, City Attorney and City Administrator. The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office was also addressed. These messages identified “one Henry Herskovitz”, who pressed “hate speech” into his sidewalk, and

“…even more offensively, Mr. Herskovitz now has hung the flag of Israel with the red-circle-with-a-slash-through-it on his front lawn. I cannot begin to articulate how profoundly offensive and threatening I find this display. It is, quite simply, an overt and deeply unsettling display of hate and aggression…I want only a peaceful resolution to this situation, but I also must be able to live on a street where I do not feel threatened, menaced, and unsafe. I am urgently requesting your immediate response and action.”

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Mark Hannah Place “Hate Speech”

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/sidewalk.JPG

The Arab American News has run a follow-up article on its report of neighborhood reaction to an anti-Israel flag being flown in Ann Arbor. Like all good journalists, this reporter sought to hear the neighbors’ voices concerning the flag and the response it generated. To his chagrin, however, he did not get the information he was after; instead he had doors slammed in his face immediately after identifying himself as a reporter for TAAN and concluded:

The irony in all of this was that I originally wasn’t too sure about Herskovitz’s decision to display an anti-Israeli flag in front of his house, although I agree with his cause, because the move may have been too bold. I went to the neighborhood to hear the other side. But now it has become clearer to me why Herskovitz put the flag there in the first place. It was to open people’s minds to a serious issue (Israel’s continued occupation and brutal treatment of Palestinians), and also to build toward a much-needed dialogue with people like the residents who refused to speak with us this week.

Comments?

Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Challenging Jewish power for over eight years
Nine vigilers on July 14
Six vigilers on July 28
Ten vigilers on August 4

Response to Neighbors on Mark Hannah (St.)

Eleven households on Mark Hannah St. in Ann Arbor received my written response to the concerns raised in their letter of June 5, regarding the Israeli flag with an international “NO” sign on it in my front yard. The response attempted in part to describe the events leading to raising this flag, including a reference to our group’s decision to self-identify as an anti-Israeli peace group. See our vigil report of June 2 for more specifics about this decision. Also included in the response was a one-page letter to the neighbors from Vigiler Y, who now resides in her home in Gaza. Neighbors on Mark Hannah might remember her and her family as they frequently visited the block. Y writes:

Besides, I do not really understand how a flag of people who displaced and occupied another people’s land made you feel offended, while this apartheid Jewish country keep killing, confiscating our land, uprooting our trees, building a racist wall, which made our children in the West Bank walk miles; and consequently, they are exposed to danger when crossing the Israeli army checkpoints to reach their schools. Do not you think that our children have equal rights as yours in terms of safety at least! You know what! Given the fact that I have been to Mark Hanna place many times, I envy you and your children for living at Hanna Mark place, where there is no danger, no army around them, no killing! I wish my brother Mahmoud* would have a place like Mark Hanna to live in! Mahmoud was 2 years when the “Cast Lead Operation” against Gaza occurred in 2008-2009, and I still remember how he would be bursting into tears when hearing Israelis bomb, and I still remember how we carried him and ran from death in the streets of Gaza! Now when he hears bombing, he would close his eyes and put his hands on his ears!

Readers can view the entire response by clicking here.

Anti-Israel Flag in the News

A July 20, 2012 article in the Arab American News has drawn attention to our flag on Mark Hannah St.

ANN ARBOR — A neighborhood in Ann Arbor has worked together on an initiative to take down an anti-Israeli flag being demonstrated in front of another neighbor’s house. But the petition that has so far been signed by 11 households is not discouraging the man responsible for the display, as he has responded with a five-page letter defending his freedom of speech rights, asking his neighbors to re-consider their request. Article continued here

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* pseudonym used

Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
Speaking up for the censored for over eight years
Nine vigilers on July 14

Vote for Herskovitz

Tough times call for tough decisions and our tolerance of a war-mongering assassin who promised change, but has delivered nothing close to it, has run out. Instead, we have witnessed the creation of a police state to deal with peaceful protesters, Wall Street bailouts, continued disproportionate incarceration of minorities (mostly due to a misguided “war on drugs”), assassinations (while ostensibly peddling “democracy” in the world), and continuing the war-mongering spirit of his predecessor. So this writer’s name will appear on the state primary ballot August 7, in an attempt to rid the country of this Nobel peace prize recipient, war monger and assassin. Polls open at 7am!

PUBLIC BALLOT
State Primary
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Washtenaw County, Michigan
City of Ann Arbor, Ward 5 Precinct 4

REPUBLICAN DELEGATE TO COUNTY CONVENTION
Vote for not more than 2
Anne C. Cherney Republican
Henry Herskovitz Republican
Thomas James Republican

To view entire ballot, click here and select “Washtenaw” as County, “City of Ann Arbor” as Jurisdiction and “Ward 5 Precinct 4″ as “Precinct”

Magistrate Currie Plays it Safe

Ann Arbor Magistrate Margaret Currie delivered a two-page opinion, concluding “No cause of action” in May’s ‘Trial of the Century’. In her opinion, “Assuming that both parties were equally truthful, the fact that Mr. Herskovitz did not have a good look at the individual calls the weight of his testimony (and specifically not his truthfulness) into question enough that the Court cannot conclude that it is more likely than not that Mr. Levy stole the sign.”. Please click here for Currie’s full decision. JWPF’s legal team notes that Magistrate Currie declined to find the defendant “Not Guilty” as she could have done.

Mark Hannah (street) Neighbors Organize

The First Amendment had better watch out on this neighborhood street. The display of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends’ new flag depicting our anti-Israel position (see Report on Beth Israel vigil 06-02-12) has raised a few eyebrows. The neighbors have submitted a written request to have the flag removed, signed by eleven households. To view a copy of this request, with signatures, please click here. A response is in the works. Stay tuned.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Flag1-lg.jpg.JPG

Comments?

Henry Herskovitz
Nine vigilers
Saying No to Jewish supremacism in Palestine
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

JWPF Loses Founding Member

It is with feelings of great sadness and personal loss that we report the death of Sol Metz, a champion of justice and worker for the oppressed long before this writer got into the struggle for justice. Sol was a founder of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, and will be remembered as one who kept his good nature, even under very hot and trying circumstances. He could infuriate his opponents by shrugging off relevant facts, but never let his temper control his words. He faithfully kept true to the vigils, because he “could not think of a more appropriate way to spend my Saturday mornings”. He missed very few vigils and at the time of his untimely death was planning yet another visit to the voiceless Palestinians he so loved.

Well after this writer gave up on reaching Beth Israel congregants, Sol persisted in standing by the driveway, wishing individuals a good shabbos, and not responding to the often nasty comments he received. For many Saturdays in the future, JWPF members will crane their necks, looking in vain for the dark blue Prius, toot-tooting its horn as Sol announced his presence. He was the heart of our group, giving assurance to all JWPF members that our presence was indeed the necessary action needed to bring a message of freedom to the streets of Ann Arbor. When Sol arrived, we just knew that standing there was the right thing to do. Sol stood at Beth Israel for eight years because he knew what the Jewish state was doing to the people he loved.

Sol entered the University of Michigan hospital on June 15, where they discovered a large malignant tumor in the stomach. The type of cancer he had also contributed to the formation of blood clots, which eventually traveled to his heart and brought about his death on June 25. He was 69 years old. Sol is missed by those of us who knew him, worked with him and loved him.

Jewish Tradition of Justice ???

At Sol’s memorial service on June 29, at least three speakers (Quaker remembrances allow for individual expressions of sadness) raised the very doubtful claim that it was Sol’s Jewish upbringing and the “Jewish tradition of Justice” that led him to be the champion of justice he was. Many of us in JWPF question this assertion, and look to the almost total support Israel enjoys from the organized Jewish community world wide as the evidence which undermines the claim. Where, for instance, is this tradition of justice, when for the last 64 years the Jewish state has been committing horrendous acts of violence upon a defenseless people? What justice is there in flaunting even the International Court of Justice’s order to remover the apartheid wall, in flaunting over sixty UN resolutions designed to bring the Jewish state into a moral position? Why isn’t the world being pummeled by Jewish voices rising up to declare the immorality of a Jewish supremacist state imposed upon an unwilling and resilient population?

And does a “Jewish” tradition of justice trump a Muslim tradition of justice or a Christian tradition? Does a Hindu or atheist have no such tradition? Can we not see the arrogance and specious claim of superiority and chosen-ness held in this oft-repeated phrase? Is there a moral high ground that evades non-Jews? Are non-Jews just incapable of developing their own sense of justice? We don’t think so. And while we do not know what drove Sol into becoming the stalwart fighter for Palestinians and others, we refuse to have ill-thought-out platitudes jammed down our throats as an explanation.

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June 16: Seven vigilers
June 23: Eight vigilers
June 30: Fourteen vigilers
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends