Flyer Ready for April 17 Protest

The flyer for our April17 protest of “Celebrate Israel Day” festivities at the Michigan Theater is complete and can be downloaded here for printing and distribution. Please make plans to join us as we stand against 65 years (at least) of ethnic cleansing. Contact this writer for more details.

WHERE: The Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor

WHEN: Wednesday, April 17th, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

WHAT: We will protest the Jewish Federation’s celebration of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people.

WHY: In 2005, scores of Palestinian civil society groups called for a global campaign including “broad boycotts” of Israel (see bdsmovement.net). That call includes the boycott of cultural events such as the Federation’s celebration of “Israel Day”, featuring Israeli performer Achinoam “Noa” Nini.

A Comment Survives Local Media

Across our desk comes the announcement of a local Holocaust Memorial Day planned for Monday, April 8 at Ann Arbor’s Jewish Community Center. Spurred by the words of the Italian ambulance drive from our report of March 16,

“the more horrible things Israelis do, the more Holocaust Memorial Days they give us.”

we were moved to pen a reply to the article, which was taken down from the website almost as fast as it was put up. After a few emails and phone conversations with AnnArbor.com staff, we were able to offer a re-write which was accepted for publication. We argued that the comment below fulfilled their own “Conversation Guidelines”, specifically,

“The best comments and posts are those that add more information to the story, express a different viewpoint or help create intelligent debate.”

Our comment,

There are usually “The Five W’s” contained in every news story: Who, What, Where, Why and When. This story omits the important “Why?”. Why are crimes, which were committed in Europe almost 70 years ago, celebrated with such regularity in the United States? Why are there over thirty Holocaust museums in this country, yet no museums describing the horrors of the US slave trade in Europe, the same ocean away from where they were committed?

One answer to “Why?” can be found in The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. Author Norman Finkelstein raises the topic of using the Holocaust to serve political interests. He writes, “The Holocaust has proven to be an indispensable ideological weapon. Through its deployment, one of the world’s most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, has cast itself as a ‘victim’ state, and the most successful ethnic group in the United States has likewise acquired victim status.”

There exist political reasons that such remembrances are celebrated, and readers are cautioned to explore the political ramifications of such events as the one described in this article. Former Knesset member Shulamit Aloni captures this political intent succinctly. She said to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! “Well, it’s a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic.”

As people remember the fallen in any conflict, one should be aware of other agendas at play.

(1) The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. Author Norman Finkelstein, p. 3.
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDUJQvLTHog

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Eight Vigilers
Remember Deir Yassin April 9
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

#Go BLUE!

Max Blumenthal Shows His Stripes

Five members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended a panel presentation which showcased Ben White and Max Blumenthal, both signatories to an on-line document which attempts to marginalize and silence Gilad Atzmon. This document is entitled “Not Quite ‘Ordinary Human Beings’—Anti-imperialism and the anti-humanist rhetoric of Gilad Atzmon”, and prompted this writer to contact Gilad to ask him for a few questions of these gentlemen.

The student organization who hosted this event, SAFE (no acronym really necessary, because that’s how they want to play this game), threw the usual curveball: no live questions from the audience, just write your questions on a card and we will screen them. So that meant my question — Why will neither Mr. Blumenthal or Mr. White debate Gilad Atzmon? — was given the deep six and never saw light of day.

Now, running concurrent with this event was the Michigan v. Kansas NCAA basketball game, shown one flight down from the SAFE event. After the final seconds of the game ticked away, Max came down and was interested in its outcome. I invited him to our weekly vigil at Beth Israel, a mere twelve hours away and was told he had an early morning flight. Asking what time the flight departed got no response. Then

Me: I was wondering why you signed that document against Gilad Atzmon
Max: Are you a supporter of Gilad Atzmon?
Me: Yes, I’m his friend
Max: Then I have nothing to say to you

And with that, Max did a perfect imitation of Alice Rothschild, pirouetting on his heels and heading back upstairs for comfort. And all this to help keep the issue of Jewish identity politics from ever being openly discussed. Makes one think that Gilad and his book The Wandering Who: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics certainly has struck a nerve in the Jewish community. The same community it appears that Max and the 200 other gatekeepers on the list want to protect.

And, speaking of gatekeepers, our friends in Boulder call attention to Anna Baltzer’s recent attempts. Acting from her position as National Organizer for the Jewish-led “US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation”, she writes

I’ve heard only by chance about a number of Israeli Apartheid Week and Land Day activities by groups not in touch with IAW and the BNC so I wanted to send a little reminder: If you’re doing or have already done something for Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) or Land Day (March 30th) this month, please make sure to notify the coordinators (emphasis hers)

Now please imagine yourself in 1933 as the world-wide boycott against the National Socialist government of Germany was heating up (before Jewish Zionists signed a deal with the Reich and sabotaged it). Now further imagine that Germans captured leadership roles in the movement and wrote:

If you’re doing or have already done something for the Boycott of German goods this month, please make sure to notify the (German) coordinators:

Well, it just boggles this writer’s mind to imagine that world Jewry would allow any other group (let alone “the Germans”) to lead their struggle with the National Socialists. Something is drastically wrong with the Liberate Palestine movement that the reins of control seem to be firmly in the hands of members of the very ethnic/religious group that is oppressing the people we’re supposed to be liberating (as well as manipulating the US government.)

Reminder – Protest the Celebration of “Israel”

When: Wednesday, April 17, 6:00PM to 7:30PM
Where: Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St. Ann Arbor
What: Singer Achinoam Nini (aka Noa) will perform in celebration of “Israel” and hopes that her beauty and talent will be sufficient to mask the cruelty and violence of the Jewish state she calls home. We will be there to remind attendees to boycott entertainers from Apartheid “Israel”, in accordance with PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) requests. Please  join us.

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Seven Vigilers
Remember Deir Yassin April 9
Henry HerskovitzJewish
Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

oa – The Wolf’s Clothing

As JWPF prepares to protest a “celebration” of genocidal violence – aka the creation and continuation of the State of Israel – we notice how this wolf calls upon its Hasbara Queen to run cover. Mary Rizzo writes, ” Noa is called to the front lines each time there is a nasty bit of reality that involves her country, and this time [2009 Hanukkah Massacre …hh], she’s been a busy little bee and getting busier.”

Mary reminds us that “[Israel’s] performers, writers and ‘intellectuals’ know they are showcasing the political agenda of their country” and explains that “yes, reality and hasbara (Hebrew for propaganda) are worlds apart”. It is not surprising that the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor is showcasing this performer and hiding her Islamophobia and hate behind music and physical beauty.

So who is this Wizard of Oz, cautioning us to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain? The bio provided us by the Federation leaflet tells us that, although “her family is originally from Yemen”, they also inform us that “Noa lived in NYC from age 2 until her return to Israel alone at the age of 17.”

This dual identity allows Noa to write a letter to her Gazan Arab cousins, pleading with them to understand that the cruelty her Jewish state is dealing them is really for their own good, and that they need to separate themselves from the democratically elected Hamas government. She plays this divide-and-conquer ruse, and her identity as an Arab Jew putatively facilitates this gambit.

Then quickly she dons her Ashkenazi creds, and tightly associates herself with Zionist hasbara and focuses her language on the holocaust trump card. First, she describes Hamas and Hezbollah as “cruel, Nazi-like organizations”, and continues the myth that Nazi crimes against Jews were the supposed be-all and end-all of human evil. And after opening the Nazi door, she walks through with more platitudes:

“We Jews, traumatized by the Holocaust, who know what resisting evil is, have no choice but to fight for the tiny piece of land we call home. We are surrounded by millions of people who openly say that they want to kill us… Why, I ask, why this river of tears and blood???why this HATE?? Weren’t six million jews enough?”

Ignoring the findings of revisionist historians – and some mainstream scholars as Reitlinger and Hilberg – who question the six million figure as too high, she is willing to ply one highly questionable claim onto another, but never willing to hold the mirror of self-reflection to her face and ask difficult questions like “why did some Germans hate Jews?” Wouldn’t it be helpful to have Jewish leaders step back to analyze and deconstruct recent history? Yes, it would, but Noa appears only willing to jump on popular – but tragically misleading – bandwagons.

Noa’s tactics are becoming more visible to those paying attention. Rizzo quotes an Italian ambulance driver who reminds us of this favorite tool of Israeli apologists: “the more horrible things Israelis do, the more Holocaust Memorial Days they give us.”

And Mary Rizzo isn’t alone in her exposure of Noa. =Richard Silverstein= weighs in to realize, “… that Noa has done a “Benny Morris” on us. Like that New Historian and former progressive who turned against his former liberal beliefs to become as anti-Arab as the most noxious of Israeli politicians, Noa has taken leave of her intellect and her senses.”

So please join us on April 17 at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan campus. We will be there from 6 PM to 7:30 PM with signs and bullhorns. Boycott “Israel”.

Who is Watching Tears of Gaza?

Three members of JWPF attending a screening of the documentary Tears of Gaza this week, and wished that Barack Obama would watch this heart-wrenching expose of the violence and bloodshed the Jewish state committed against the people of Gaza during the Hanukkah Massacre of 2009, and then say with a straight face that “Israel” has a right to defend itself.

This film held nothing back, and showed scenes of pulling dead and mangled bodies from the wreckage of buildings in residential neighborhoods, deceased infants with bullet holes in their stomachs, and the fires caused by white phosphorus bombs. This writer could watch “Psycho” this week on DVD without averting his eyes, but could not do so watching this documentary. Mr. Obama: how can you possibly compliment this vicious, gangster state as you have done this week? Knowing what you do, how can you say those things and look at yourself in the mirror? I would much rather be Henry Herskovitz than to live in the shell of a human being that is Barack Obama.

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Seven Vigilers
“There is no anti-Semitism without Semitism” … Ernst Zundel
Henry HerskovitzJewish
Witnesses for Peace and Friends

#

Deir Yassin Day 2013

April 9th – Deir Yassin Day – The 2013 London Commemoration

Tuesday April 9th (Deir Yassin Day) at the St. John’s Wood Church NW8 (near the Central London Mosque). This central, prestigious and very beautiful church has long been a friend of Deir Yassin Remembered and has already hosted three commemorations in 2002, 2005 and 2007.

The commemoration is being directed by Justin Butcher and Ahmed Masoud

(Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea – London & Edinburgh 2009 & Escape from Gaza – BBC Radio 4 2011)

If you would like to attend this event, do contact us.

Deir Yassin Survivor to Visit the UK

Mr. Abdallah M. I. Eid, a survivor of Deir Yassin, will be coming from Palestine April 4th – April 18th

Mr. Eid was four years old at the time and lost his father and siblings in the massacre. He will be in the UK for 2 weeks and will attend all Deir Yassin commemorations.

Scotland’s Deir Yassin Commemoration

2013 is the 25th anniversary of the consecration of the first ever Deir Yassin memorial outside of Jerusalem. A commemoration, in the presence of Lord Provost of Glasgow, Councillor Sadie Docherty, will take place at the Deir Yassin memorial  in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow on Sunday, April 7th at 12 noon.

Commemorative Tour

To date, there are events at: Glasgow (April 7), Mere in Wiltshire (April 9), Wigan (April 11), Leicester (April 14), York Minster (April 16), and Brighton (April 17).

If you would like more information, to mount your own commemoration and/or to obtain materials and advice, go to our Resources for commemorations page and do contact us.

 For a rolling bulletin of updated information about these and further events visit:

http://www.deiryassinremembered.org/#/deir-yassin-day-2013/4573765037

www.deiryassinremembered.org

Email: deiryassinremembered@hotmail.co.uk

Celebrating “Israel” in Ann Arbor

As far as JWPF’s Social Calendar Committee (SCC) can determine, Ann Arbor’s Jewish community has no plans for a Celebrate “Israel” Day event in May, typically held at the JCC. See last year’s protest of that event here. Instead, however, they plan to bring in a professional “Israel'” singer named Noa (no ark) at an event to be held April 17 at the Michigan Theatre. Sixty five bucks gets you a reserved seat and an invite to “afterglow” with Noa following the performance.

Saying “Yes” to Politics at Synagogues

Also our SCC has noted that plans are underway to celebrate what Israel refers to as Yom Hazikaron, an annual holiday described as “Day of Remembrance for Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism”. And where do they plan to host this political event? Yep, at a “house of worship”, aka Beth Israel Congregation. We note that our critics often claim that our political protests at Beth Israel are inappropriate, since politics and religious services shouldn’t share the same bima. But they do and have been used for just such political purposes for decades. What’s good for this goose is apparently not good for the gander. Here is a photo from BIC’s 2011 Yom Hazikaron ceremony. We let readers determine its religious content.

Beth Israel isn’t alone in this shell game where the “house of worship” card is played to in an attempt to trump the “political venue” ace. Others beside JWPF see this — our friends in Boulder, Colorado continue to hold non-violent protests at Bonai Shalom synagogue there, and our Chicago-based friends send us a politically-based photo from Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston.

It is clear to members of JWPF that our opponents are not, then, holding our political presence at Beth Israel as the reason they attempt to marginalize us. They are rejecting the messages we bring to the same arena as their political actions. They are opposed to having their sacred skeletons snatched out of the closet and shoved into the harsh light of day. Genocide is not a nice thing to support – especially in a “house of worship” – and they know it.

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Nine Vigilers
With “Friends” like “Israel”, Who needs enemies?
Henry Herskovitz
* – Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Here’s an excerpt from a new article by British journalist Alan Hart:

I find myself wondering how many of our present day leaders, President Obama in particular, are aware of what happened in Palestine that became Israel on 10 March 65 years ago today.

On that day in 1948, two months before Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence in defiance of the will of the organized international community as it then was at the UN, Zionism’s in-Palestine political and military leaders met in Tel Aviv to formally adopt PLAN DALET, the blueprint with operational military orders for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

They did not and never would refer to the crime they authorised as ethnic cleansing. Their euphemism for it was “transfer”.

As noted in an excellent anniversary briefing paper by IMEU (the American-founded Institute for Middle East Understanding), from the earliest days of modern political Zionism its advocates grappled with the problem of creating a Jewish majority state in a part of the world where Palestinian Arabs were the overwhelming majority of the population.

The earliest insider information we have on Zionism’s thinking is from the diary of Theodor Herzl, the founding father of Zionism’s colonial-like enterprise. He wrote:

“We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country… expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”

Those words were committed to paper by Herzl in 1895 but they were not published (in other words they were suppressed) until 1962.

Read the rest of the article on the Deir Yassin Remembered site.

Wearing the Colors

Public displays of anti-Israel sentiments can often act as an invitation to conversation, a “fish hook”, so to speak. The T-shirt below and similar models are worn most places in Ann Arbor, and regularly at the YMCA in town. This past week the shirt drew a response there from a young, non-Jewish gentleman who was about take a Jewess for his bride. He initially expressed concern that the shirt’s message was a little extreme, and wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into by conversing with its wearer.

He was fairly knowledgeable about conditions in Palestine, and was open to discussing the path that leads one to the conclusion of demanding an end to Jewish supremacism in Palestine. He was just slightly uncomfortable with promoting the end to the Jewish state, and wondered how the issue would affect his upcoming marriage. He appeared to enjoy the conversation, and allowed that the reaction he received was not the reaction he assumed he would receive.
Both of us agreed that the t-shirt was provocative in the sense that its message provoked conversation and, hopefully, thought and reflection. He felt there might have been other messages that would be less extreme, yet produce conversation.
A good question. Do messages like “Free Palestine” initiate conversation anymore? Does someone run up to the car sporting the “Free Tibet” bumper sticker – almost ubiquitous in liberal Ann Arbor – and beg an explanation?
True, there are the negative reactions at Ann Arbor’s Y, which, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, has more Jews than you can shake a stick at, if that’s your idea of a good time. But these folk aren’t the target audience for t-shirts like this. There are more people out there who share the feeling that Israel is the problem than many Jews would like to admit. Like our presence at Beth Israel, they know the message is reaching more and more people every day. And they prefer to have their skeletons safely locked in the closet.
Want to stir up some discussion? Wear your colors!

Comments?

Eight Vigilers
Throw “Israel” Off the Fiscal Cliff
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends