The following is reposted from the Deir Yassin Remembered Facebook page:

In the wake of the recent events in the synagogue at Har Nof, Uri Avnery has written an article which you can read here. Like all his work, Avner[y]’s article is informative, original and beautifully written. But it has a glaring omission.

Here, Dan McGowan fills him in:

Dear Uri:

I know that you realize that the Har Nof neighborhood in West Jerusalem, where four rabbis and a police officer were recently murdered, is built on the lands of Deir Yassin, the Arab village which no longer exists, that was the site of the 1948 massacre, which according to Menachem Begin, was pivotal to the founding of the Jewish state. This was an early massacre in the Nakba; there were many more to follow, but it struck fear among Palestinians, causing many to flee, also giving the Jews an angle for campaigns of terror, which they visited on other Palestinian villages, basically “Get out or we’ll do to you what we did in Deir Yassin.”

It is interesting to ask why the media, which has been all over this synagogue massacre, mentions nothing about what happened on this site on April 9, 1948?

Why does Wikipedia fail to even cite Deir Yassin in its history of Har Nof?

The attached picture of Har Nof [see below] is taken from Yad Vashem, the most prestigous Holocaust memorial. The water tower at the top right is next to the main buildings of Deir Yassin, which today serves as a mental hospital, mostly for those suffering with too much religion, an affliction also known as “The Jerusalem Syndrome.”

At Yad Vashem all visitors, and especially American politicians, are repeatedly told to “Never forget.” At Deir Yassin the message is “Never mind.” There is not even a signpost among the old Arab buildings to indicate that it was once a prosperous Arab village of about 750 people.

In building the Har Nof settlement much of the Deir Yassin cemetery was destroyed. The rest is littered with trash and condoms. Har Nof children have been seen digging up the Arab graves. (Imagine the outcry had they been desecrating Jewish graves.) Apartment buildings of Har Nof are literally built on the old quarry where villagers were executed and their bodies dumped and burned on April 10, 1948.

The ironies are breathtaking. But some of us still remember.

Daniel McGowan
Professor Emeritus, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Local Jews Get the Heebie-Jeebies

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends are not united in their perception of the effectiveness of the BDS campaign, waged since 2005, but one thing appears certain: the local Jewish community is very nervous about this non-violent campaign strategy. So nervous, in fact, that they called in the Doctor on this one: University of Illinois Professor Cary Nelson has made a reputation for himself as a one-man attack dog on the BDS movement, and came to Eastern Michigan University to attempt to smooth the ruffled feathers of local Jews.

This guy is one smooth operator, and judges himself highly by his observation that since he irritates both sides – the Right Zionists and the Left – he must be promoting justice. As a JWPF supporter stood throughout his talk with her “Boycott Israel” shirt, Mr. Nelson told the audience that he actually approves of such displays of free speech. Nice guy. Both sides. Right.

His talk was titled “Bait and Switch: The Purpose of the Movement to Boycott Israel”, and he spent much of his talk personally ridiculing BDS leaders Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti, pointing out alleged technical flaws in the Call, and suggesting that there be not drama in this debate; Cary supports “cold reason”.

And he attempts – if anyone was really listening – to defeat the peace movement mentally right out of the starting gate. He assured his audience that the idea that Israel will cease to exist as a Jewish state “ain’t gonna happen”. And for those who didn’t hear his catchy phrase, he repeated it again by saying if folks think that Israeli Jews will just pack their bags and move to Germany or Poland, well, that just “ain’t gonna happen”. Some of us remember former Israeli tank commander Itzik Henig telling local Jews in 2006 that “Israel is an irreversible reality” at the beginning of each of his presentations. Although ”waves” of Israeli Jews are actually moving to Germany, this strategy of whistling past the graveyard has apparently not gone out of vogue.

Nelson called on this writer – clad in my “No Jewish State” t-shirt – to ask the first question. Prefacing the question with facts like Ashkenazi Jews did not reside in, nor were they historically expelled from Palestine, and that at the time world Zionists conveyed their first international conference Adolf Hitler was merely eight years old, I asked if Israel had a right to exist as a Jewish state and if so, by what right?

His answer was three-fold: the Balfour Declaration and its claimed support in the international community, the UN partition plan, and yes, Henry, the Holocaust did play a part in the guilty world community supporting Jewish “return” to Palestine. When I requested follow up questions on each of his three answers, angry cries of “no, you can’t”, and “you’ve spoken enough” rang from the audience. Magnanimous Nelson said we would return to my follow up questions, but of course ran out of time.

Icy Conditions at JWPF Vigils

A pre-winter icy rain left a sheet of ice and water covering many of Ann Arbor streets and sidewalks just prior to our November 22 vigil. In spite of these challenges six members of JWPF – including a surprise visit from professional photographer Skip Schiels – held down the fort.

Comments?

Nov. 15 – six vigilers
Israel Out of Palestine
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

JWPF Supports Rev. Pinkney

Four members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends traveled to Benton Harbor, Michigan to witness part of the 6-day trial of our friend and supporter, Rev. Ed Pinkney. He has been waging a decade-long campaign against corruption, corporate control, and an attempt to gentrify his town, which is 96% Black. For his efforts to recall Mayor James Hightower from office for his collaboration with corporate interests, Ed – himself black – was found guilty by an all-White 12-member jury guilty of making changes to the dates on recall petitions he helped circulate.

The evidence presented by Prosecutor Mike Sepic, however, seemed to play more into the hands of the defendant than for the “People”: a Michigan State Police forensic expert testified that while chemical analysis showed that changes to petitions were made, sometimes with different ink, he could not determine when these changes were made or by whom. Rejecting the jury’s decision, Ed writes “Rev Pinkney will not accept the verdict by an all white jury, who were motivated by something other than the truth.” See the press release from BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization) here, and an excellent news article here.

Politically Correct Commissars – Part Deux

Our last report detailed our friend Michael’s run-in with those politically correct and oh-so-sensitive leaders who determined that his sign “Jews killed thousands (in Gaza)” was so “offensive” that they had him jostled and his sign snatched and destroyed. This week we encountered another Jewish activist, David Smokler of Detroit, who went from nice guy to name caller in less than two minutes. We encountered him at a lunch break during Ed Pinkney’s trial, and responded to his questions re: my “End ‘Israel'” hat. Asked does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state, he muddled an answer, but drew the line about suggestions of Jewish power in media, banking, and Hollywood and blamed US imperialism as the force behind the Jewish state’s aggressiveness. When asked to produce a single US governmental document that supported the creation and/or maintenance of a Jewish state in Palestine as part of US interests, I was labeled “narrow” and “xenophobic”, although in 68 years I’ve yet to express any fear of the end of the alphabet (or of Xenia, Ohio for that matter.)

The irony in this brief conversation was that he writes for a publication called The People’s Tribune whose editorial staff features Sandra Reid, who promised this writer no coverage of Palestine (yet alone Israel’s crimes, nor massive Jewish support for same) in the paper. So while Smokler (himself a contributing writer to the Tribune) denied Jewish control or domination in the media, he and Sandra present as prima facie evidence of such control. If it walks like a duck …

Comments?

Nov. 1 – 8 vigilers
Nov. 8 – 7 vigilers
Zionists out of the Peace Movement
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Liberal Ann Arbor Celebrates a Weakened Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Here’s the bottom line: the Ann Arbor Jewish community, embarrassed in a court show-down with activist/doctor Catherine Wilkerson, and frustrated in their attempts to stop her protests with Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends in front of Beth Israel Congregation, got her fired from her job as a physician at the Packard Community Clinic. They did this in the usual gangster fashion: Warn the Clinic that they could expect drastically reduced funding and other support from the Jewish community if they didn’t get rid of her, and the rest is history: they cried “Thank you sir”, and Catherine was gone.

About that time (2008) members of the Committee to Defend Catherine Wilkerson, with the support of the local ACLU, appealed to Ann Arbor’s Human Right Committee (HRC), which now hosts a founding member of Michigan Friends of the Israeli “Defense” Forces as one of its seven commissioners. How’s that for an expression of Human Rights? This was the same Human Rights Commission that was eviscerated by Mayor John Hieftje after they unanimously passed a resolution in 2003 calling for a cessation of military aid to Israel. (Note: after the practicing commissioners were eliminated from their posts, a new batch overturned – again by a unanimous vote in 2007 – the resolution passed by their predecessors.)

Our appeal was for the HRC to fight for practitioners of the First Amendment and not let an employee’s political activities OUTSIDE the workplace property and OUTSIDE working hours allow an employer to terminate that individual. We recognize that the HRC did in fact make an effort to correct this violation of one’s 1A rights, but feel they didn’t go far enough, and took their time doing it. This writer spoke at the Council meeting where the new ordinance replaced the old, and outlined some of the deficiencies contained therein (text below signature.)

Question for Josh Ruebner

Josh’s group, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, is now bonding with those in support of Ferguson, with their Palestine2Ferguson campaign, “as part of our commitment to confronting racism and bigotry in all its forms.” Yet, under its “US Campaign Anti-Racism Principles”, Zionism is not listed with other forms of racism and bigotry. We remind Josh that the United Nations General Assembly found Zionism to be a form of racism in 1975 and we ask him: Why doesn’t the US Campaign list Zionism as racism, while claiming anti-Semitism is?

Politically Correct Commissars Say ‘Nyet’ to Criticism of Jews

Our friend Michael has not only stood vigil with JWPF, but has held his own vigil in front of Temple Bonai Shalom in Boulder Colorado. He participated in a “block the boat” action in Oakland, California this weekend and carried his sign pictured below. For those who cannot upload the photo below, it reads “Gaza? Jews killed thousands! End Israel” and contained a hand sketch of an anti-Israel flag.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/michael%20at%20block%20the%20boat.jpg

For this open expression of opinion, Michael was treated to a woman’s outrage who said “That’s really offensive. We don’t want you to show that. You should take it down”. When Michael stated that he preferred to carry it, he was “ambushed” by two men, who pushed him, stole his sign and destroyed it. As British friend F commented: “No one has any difficulty saying ‘the Jews’ are particularly talented, intelligent, compassionate, musical etc, or that they have disproportionately contributed to Western civilisation. But if you say anything negative about Jews, woe betide you.” A second Brit, G, chimed in with “if a Zionist is a Jew, it is anti-Semitic to mention that; if an anti-Zionist is a Jew, it is mandatory to point it out.”

Isn’t it time to stand up against this outrageous behavior of those Jewish leaders who censor others while demanding their own voices be heard, those gate keepers who bring hidden agendas to the game, and those who lament a false victim status but secretly campaign for the continued existence of a Jewish supremacist state? Michael allows us to see this Trojan horse “leadership” and we say to him: Good Job!

Comments?

Oct. 18 – Seven vigilers
Oct. 25 – Seven vigilers

We support the full and immediate Right of Return for Palestinians.
Does JVP?
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Ann Arbor City Council Meeting
October 20, 2014 [392 words]
Agenda Item PH-1 Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Good evening,

Six years ago the Committee to Defend Catherine Wilkerson went to the Human Right Commission with a complaint. It is our understanding that Ms. Wilkerson was fired from her job as a physician at the Packard Community Clinic in part because of her off-work political protests with those of us advocating for Palestinian rights. Our complaint to the Human Rights Commission was to address the mistreatment Ms. Wilkerson suffered as well as the chilling effect her firing had upon other members of our group.

Although the Commission had started to reflect upon possible changes to the Non-Discrimination ordinance, I believe it was our request that gave the impetus to the changes before Council tonight. While we are pleased that the ordinance has language that makes it more difficult for an employer to dismiss an employee for issues concerning that employee’s political beliefs, we feel it necessary to highlight possible loopholes which could permit another Wilkerson firing.

To recap quickly: a new work contract in February 2007 was suddenly presented to Ms. Wilkerson which she was asked to sign. The new contract stipulated she would not join in political protests either on or off work time, on or off work property. When she refused to sign the document she was fired. When I tell that story to friends they almost all say “that cannot happen; we have laws protecting employees”.

But happen it did, and that’s why we took the issue to the Human Rights Commission. I would like to raise a few points in regard to the language contained in this proposal.

First, I would note that of all the 29 characteristics that the ordinance addresses, only one is singled out for exclusion, and that one is political beliefs. The proposed wording states that “With regard to employment, an individual’s political beliefs that interfere or threaten to interfere with his or her job performance are specifically excluded from this protection.”

Secondly, while although an employer might find it slightly more difficult to dismiss an employee based on this revised ordinance, he/she need only convince an arbiter that the employee’s off-the-job political activities merely “threaten” their job performance. We would hope that a final draft of this ordinance would clearly support the rights of employees to freely engage in lawful political expression and other lawful conduct that does not interfere with job performance.

Thank you

“You Don’t Need to [attend] Synagogue to be a Jew”

The fifth annual Bill Henry Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day found this writer attending the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The wearing of the colors (see below) extracted a support-to-disapproval ratio of about 4:1. The first day’s count showed 18 supportive comments and 4 negative ones. The second day – aka Bill Henry Day or Yom Kippur to tribal members – exposed the racism of a small group of college students, who in turn exposed their middle fingers in our direction (my girlfriend wore her anti-Israel pin). I asked the young woman if she was a Jew and she replied yes. I then asked why she wasn’t in the synagogue, because “today is Yom Kippur”. She said “You don’t need to be in the synagogue to be a Jew”.

Now we never know if a statement like that BEGS the question or ASKS the question, but the question of “What, then, is a Jew?” certainly follows. The woman considers herself to be a Jew and no one disputes it. But by her own admission, she is not a religious Jew. So there doesn’t seem to be a link between her and her God, because on the supposedly holiest day of the year she’d rather smoke a little pot with her Jewish friends in a crowded park than to atone with them at a house of worship. If worship has nothing to do with it, if there is no “belief” in a supreme being worthy of worship, no “faith”, then what does it mean to be a Jew? We put the question to Paul Eisen, hero and mentor to many. His response (“Nobody knows what it is”) leaves us to fend for ourselves. And our best guess is that being a Jew means finding oneself in an unselected, exclusive – and rather mean-spirited if you read Goliath by Max Blumenthal – club. Is that all there is?

Comments?
Oct. 4 – Seven vigilers
Oct. 11 – Five vigilers

End “Israel”; For the Jews …
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

Seattle Panel

This writer introduced the topic of Jewish Power at a panel presentation and discussion in Seattle September 20th. I was joined on the stage by Greg Felton and Gilad Atzmon. Greg followed with a factual explanation of the crimes of the Jewish state, and Gilad finished with a slide show presenting new theories of Jewish domination of the peace movement.

Afterwards a lengthy Q&A ensued, with an unsigned letter distributed by Matt in the audience. This letter was highly critical of Gilad, but was filled with errors and distortions. Gilad’s response to this letter can be found here, and the letter itself here. Moral Politics TV will be releasing the video of this presentation from the campus of the University of Washington soon.

Eat-a-Cheeseburger Day

We remind readers to join JWPF Oct. 4 as the group gathers once again in front of Beth Israel Congregation to remind worshippers and passersby alike of the crimes being committed in the name of Jews everywhere. This celebrant plans to enjoy his cheeseburger in the City by the Bay. Wherever you are, hoist a burger in the name of Bill Henry. See his story here.

Sept. 20 – 5 vigilers
Sept. 27 – 9 vigilers

End “Israel”; Now, more than ever.
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#