RetroVigil

For those old enough to remember Burma-Shave signs on our nation’s highways, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends unites past and present with our new offering, unveiled at Beth Israel last week:

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

Ira Levy Steals sign, Gets away with it

An eight-page police report issued by the Ann Arbor Police Department Detective Bureau implicates Ira Levy of Ann Arbor as the likely culprit in the crime of the century.

As we were peacefully protesting on February 4th, this writer noticed a man removing one of our signs (“Zionism: Kosher Apartheid”) from the windshield of a vigiler’s car. He placed the sign into his car and as he was getting into the driver’s seat, I approached from the passenger side and asked him eot return our sign. He said, “You’re not getting the sign back.” We call the cops with license plate number and car description; they came out and made a report. One month later I select the thief from a photo lineup, who, as of March 12th was the registered owner of the license plate reported to the AAPD. According to the report his name is Ira Levy and lives at 4770 Northgate Dr. (Loch Alpine area).

Unfortunately, City Attorney Bob West didn’t see this clear-cut crime as we do, and has elected NOT to prosecute. If anyone sees Mr. Levy, please ask him to return the sign he stole from us.

RSVP? Not So Fast …

According to a Wednesday article in AnnArbor.com, the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor will sponsor a program on Christian-Jewish relations in the Holy Land. The article identifies Hannah Bendcowsky as the guest speaker and requests RSVP’s be sent to David Shtulman, Executive Director of the Federation. Wasting no time, this writer responded to david@jewishannarbor.org, complying with the article’s request. Also wasting no time was David’s response: “You will be invited when you stop picketing synagogues. Until that time stay away from the JCC. You are welcome to picket outside.”

We hope our community’s Christian leaders will step up to the plate. Vigil supporter M. reminds us of the words of Jewish theologian Marc H. Ellis, who says, under the terms of the “ecumenical deal … the main energy of ecumenical gatherings is spent on diverting the question that hovers over all discussions of Jews and Christians: the oppression of the Palestinian people by Jewish Israelis with the support, by commission or omission, of Jewish and Christian partners in the ecumenical dialogue.” Or as Christian theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether states:

“… [Western] Christians evade knowing and hence having to speak about [Palestinians] in order not to be denounced as anti-Semitic by those Jews with whom they wish to cultivate ‘ecumenical relations.’

“Christian repentance for the Holocaust and anti-Semitism have been effectively distorted into a silencing of Western Christians in regard to Palestinian human and civil rights, a view carefully nurtured and reinforced by the Jewish establishment, especially in North America.”

Ref: http://zionistsout.blogspot.com/2009/05/op-ed-on-morikawa-conference.html

Billboard Update

Starting Monday, April 2, the billboard financed by Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, IfAmericansKnew, and Deir Yassin Remembered will greet eastbound traffic on Interstate 94, just downstream from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which boasts some three-million passengers a year. Some of those passengers will see “$8 Million/Day to Israel? 1-855-ITS-OUR-MONEY”. Tax deductible contributions to maintain this billboard are accepted at IfAmericansKnew.org and deiryassin.org. Please note “Billboard Project” with your donations.

Comments? https://blog.deiryassin.org/2012/03/31/report-on- beth-israel-vigil-03-24-12

Eight Vigilers
Carrying the Torch of Justice and Peace
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Billboard Update

Starting Monday, March 26, the billboard financed by Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, IfAmericansKnew, and Deir Yassin Remembered will move to the western edge of the Detroit metropolitan area on Interstate 96 about a half-mile east of the Wixom Road exit, facing westbound traffic. This billboard continues to ask: “$8 Million/Day to Israel? 1-855-ITS-OUR-MONEY”. Tax deductible contributions to maintain this billboard are accepted at IfAmericansKnew.org and deiryassin.org. Please note “Billboard Project” with your donations.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/pp.jpg

Low Cost Advertising?

A meeting was held in Dearborn, Michigan at an undisclosed location to discuss the possibility of making use of abandoned factory buildings to rent sign space on the outside walls of these facilities. We are hoping for local support for this project. Interested folks may contact this writer directly.

Ask The Question

JWPF encourage readers to participate in local discussions concerning Palestine liberation and suggest that audience members question speakers as to their possible allegiance to Apartheid Israel. So during the Q&A following most speeches, ask the presenter whether he/she supports Israel’s claimed right to exist as a Jewish state, i.e. ask, “Does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state, and if so, please tell us why?”

This will enable audiences to distinguish between the Norman Finkelsteins, who cannot divorce themselves from their support of Jewish supremacism in Palestine, and activists who recognize that maintenance of a Jewish state and a just peace are incompatible.

In this video clip Norman calls the BDS movement “silliness, childishness, and a lot of leftist posturing”. And by doing so appears to out himself as a Jew who supports Israel as a Jewish state. He should have been vetted long ago, saving many of us the time and trouble to recognize his position as one of Gilad Atzmon’s “third category Jews”. In his book The Wandering Who: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics, Gilad separates Jews into three categories: those who follow Judaism, those who are human beings and happen to be Jewish by birth, and those who put their Jewish-ness over and above all their other traits.

Ann Arbor Chronicle Reports

Our Ann Arbor City Council presentation was covered by the Ann Arbor Chronicle. Link and text provided after signature.

Nine Vigilers
Checking out Gilad Atzmon’s web site
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

http://annarborchronicle.com/2012/03/11/ann-arbor-takes-late-bus-to-transit-accord/

Comm/Comm: Israel, Palestine

Henry Herskovitz told the council that his friend Herman had called him to say he’d heard on talk radio that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had welcomed Obama’s statements on Israel’s right to self-defense. Herskovitz called that political code language for giving Israel the green light to attack Iran preemptively.

Herskovitz’s friend told him he’d heard on the radio that Israel is a small country, and being threatened by a neighbor, and that gives it the right to self-defense. Herskovitz said he’d asked his friend, a black man living in Detroit, how he’d feel if whites living in Grosse Pointe had evicted him in an attempt to transform Detroit to a white city. His friend had replied that he’d fight to the end to defend his right to live in his home. Herskovitz then drew an analogy from that to the history of the Middle East.

Herskovitz said that attacking Iran is nothing new for Israel. Eight years ago the drums were also being beaten for Iran.

Gilad Atzmon’s Third Rail

Two members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends traveled to Geneva, New York to hear Gilad Atzmon and Rich Siegel showcase their musical and political talents at the Cracker Factory on Tuesday evening (3/13). Gilad just might be the only true philosopher our generation has ever created and it was a pleasure to hear him discuss some of the topics contained in his new book, The Wandering Who: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics. We were also privileged to enjoy some “down time” with him, Rich and Dan McGowan, executive director of Deir Yassin Remembered. We are pictured at breakfast below, just prior to Gilad’s flight to Washington, DC.

Rich Siegel, Dan McGown, Vigil Member L, the writer, Gilad Atzmon
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Gilad1.jpg

Many Jews like Alan Dershowitz are completely upset with Gilad’s work, which should come as no surprise, but what is revealing is how many peace activist Jews have signed onto a document calling for his expulsion from the Palestine solidarity community. Their unstated reason: Gilad has the temerity to examine the cultural and ideological roots of Jewish behavior, and that is a colossal no-no. He forgets that it’s only acceptable the other way around: Jews may examine other groups’ behaviors, but NONE SHALL EXAMINE JEWISH COMMUNAL BEHAVIOR AND IDEOLOGY (except perhaps to praise its superiority), especially when it relates to crimes against humanity committed by the Jewish state. Got it?

Raising the hackles of Jews like Stan Heller, David Finkel, Lenni Brenner, Joel Beinen, and too many to list here, a statement was crafted – “Not Quite ‘Ordinary Human Beings’­Anti-imperialism and the anti-humanist rhetoric of Gilad Atzmon”. What’s particularly discouraging, however is the appearance of Asad AbuKhalil’s (aka the Angry Arab) signature on this document. And Ali Abunimah (The Electronic Intifada) wasn’t content merely to sign, and crafted an Arab/Muslim version of the same criticism, calling for a “disavowal” of Atzmon, but gathering few signatures in the process. Gilad, in his response, quips that his book “has managed to unite Alan Dershowitz and Abe Foxman with Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal. That is pretty encouraging: it means that peace may prevail after all.”

This is sad commentary indeed, but one our armchair psychologists have latched onto. It appears that being beaten down so long by his Zionist (and “anti-Zionist”) Jewish opponents, Mr. Abunimah has adopted Malcolm X’s “house slave” mentality, and now asks “We sick, Massa?”, as he cares more for his oppressors than he does his own people.

Nahida Izaat – the Uprooted Palestinian – speaks to this internalized oppression in an earlier work, and now offers sharp criticism for Mr. Abunimah’s attempt to censor debate on a needed issue. She asks, for example, “What is it that makes them so desperate to conceal from our eyes, and to stop us from discussing the disturbing reality and to ignore the ugly fact that 70% of “Israeli” Jews believe that they are the “chosen”?

She goes on: “Furthermore, why is it that Ali Abunimah and his mentors want to prevent us from looking at, analysing and understanding the level of influence exerted by the Jewish-Zionist lobby, how it is organized and how does it function to acquires such high levels of control and malignant influence?”

Correction

Last week we wrote about a presentation in front of Ann Arbor City Council, where we claimed that the Jewish community has been banging the war drums for an invasion of Iran since their AIPAC meeting in 2004. Ms. Alison Weir has presented us with an article from CNI which documents this threat against the country of Iran originating in 1948.

Billboard Changes Locations

We will be changing the location of the billboards ($18 Million/Day to Israel?) every week; currently, it is located on Interstate 75, near the Outer Drive exit in Lincoln Park, facing north-bound traffic. Please consider making donations to www.IfAmericansKnew.org and www.deiryassin.org to keep this billboard project ongoing.

On the ADL’s Radar

A blog maintained by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – “News and views from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism and Research Center” issues the bulletin, “Anti-Israel Billboards Surface in Denver and Detroit”. They write, “Last week, three anti-Israel organizations – If American Knew, Deir Yassin Remembered and Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends – responded to a pro-Israel billboard in Detroit by securing billboard space of their own with the message, “$8 million/ Day to Israel? Our money is needed in America!”

Seven Vigilers
We Remember Rachel Corrie – Killed by the Jewish State nine years ago
Henry Herskovitz
The views expressed in this report are those of the writer and may not reflect the beliefs of the entire membership of JWPF

Our Billboards Receive National Attention

United Press International has picked up the story that was published by the Bay City Times covering the billboard sponsored by IfAmericansKnew.org, Deir Yassin Remembered and Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends. Since this publication we have issued a press release which readers can download and disseminate to their local papers. The UPI article reads:

BAY CITY, Mich., March 8 (UPI) — A Tea Party group said it placed a billboard supporting Israel on Interstate 75 in Saginaw County, Mich., prompting an opposing billboard.

The billboard paid for by the mid-Michigan Tea Party group reads “Stand with Israeli our Friend and Ally” while opponents put up a billboard reading “$8 million/day to Israel? Our Money is needed in America,” The Bay City Times reported Thursday.

The opposition billboard, paid for by several political groups, is visible from the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 in the Detroit area.

A spokeswoman for the pro-Israel Tea Party group, We the People of Mid-Michigan, said their advertisement was prompted by fears the Obama administration is backpedaling on its support of Israel.

Henry Herskovitz of Ann Arbor, Mich., said after seeing the We the People billboard his group, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, partnered with two other groups to fund their own billboard opposing aid to Israel.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Design%2003-02-12.jpg

JWPF at Ann Arbor City Council

This writer spoke about “Carts and Horses” at this week’s Ann Arbor City Council meeting. See video by advancing to 00:25:15. Text follows signature.

Guess Who’s Not Invited to Dinner

Glancing over the list of US sycophants invited to the AIPAC gathering in Washington, DC this past week, we note one exception: the one man who pledges to terminate financial aid to Apartheid Israel, Ron Paul. Check out the obsequiousness issued from the Commander in Chief:

“When the Goldstone report unfairly singled out Israel for criticism, we challenged it,” Obama continued. “When Israel was isolated in the aftermath of the flotilla incident, we supported them. When the Durban conference was commemorated, we boycotted it, and we will always reject the notion that Zionism is racism. When one-sided resolutions are brought up at the Human Rights Council, we oppose them. When Israeli diplomats feared for their lives in Cairo, we intervened to help save them. When there are efforts to boycott or divest from Israel, we will stand against them. And whenever an effort is made to de-legitimize the state of Israel, my administration has opposed them. So there should not be a shred of doubt by now: when the chips are down, I have Israel’s back.”

As Mazin Qumsiyeh noted, “Too bad he doesn’t have America’s back!”

Five Vigilers
Speaking the Truth for Eight Years
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Speech to City Council

March 5, 2012 “Carts and horses”
[379 words]
Good Evening,
I’d like to address Council on a matter of getting the horse in front of the cart, for so often the media has it turned around. My friend Herman called me last night and said he heard on Talk Radio that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomed President Obama’s statements on Israel’s right to self-defense. That – as we all know – is political code language, giving Israel the green light to preemptively attack Iran.

Herman relayed to me what he heard on the radio: that Israel was a small country, and being threatened by a neighbor gave it – in his view – a right to defend itself. I told my friend that the talk radio people had positioned the cart AHEAD of the horse. I asked Herman how he – a black man living in Detroit – would feel if Whites from Grosse Ponte forcibly evicted him from his neighborhood in their attempt to convert Detroit to become a White City. He replied instantly that he would fight to the end to protect his right to live in his city, his home.

I then explained the true initiation of events in Palestine was Zionist Jews from Europe invading and massacring the people living there in their effort to create a Jewish state. And they attempted to legitimize this theft claiming a false interpretation of biblical reading: Historians now – even Jewish historians like Ilan Pappe and Shlomo Sand – will tell you that Ashkenazi Jews like myself have no relationship to the Jews of biblical times. Arab historians have been trying to tell us this for decades.

Conversely and notably, no Palestinians ever invaded Poland and forcibly massacred the Jews living there to create an Islamic state, based on a similarly misconstrued version of the Qu’ran.

It was the other way around, and even Professor Victor Lieberman of the University of Michigan, who teaches a course on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, agreed with me on this point at his presentation at Washtenaw Community College on November 17th of last year.

In closing, I’d like to remind Council that attacking Iran is nothing new to the Jewish community. I hold in my hand a 8-year-old brochure produced by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee beating the war drums on Iran at their meeting in Chicago, February 2004.

Thank you

Meeting with Ed Pinkney

Four members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended an impromptu meeting with the Rev. Ed Pinkney of Benton Harbor, which has been under assault by the Whirlpool Corporation. In one of his first acts, newly installed, state-appointed Emergency Finance Manager Joseph Harris exercised his authority to suspend the powers of elected officials. As a gesture of feigned magnanimity, he will not dissolve the City Commission, but only allows them to call meetings to order, adjourn them and approve minutes.

The Rev. Pinkney is calling for support to stage a protest this summer against the 2012 Senior PGA Championship golf tournament in Benton Harbor. Although GOLF Magazine has ranked this new, Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course No. 3 on its 2010 list of Best New Courses You Can Play, what they don’t tell you is that three holes of this course were developed on stolen land — land which was gifted in perpetuity to the people of Benton Harbor. And that is the reason for the protest: a beautiful landscape symbolic of theft and racism right here at home.

Please join Pinkney as we Occupy the PGA May 23-27, 2012 with the “big day” scheduled for Saturday, May 26th. More information will be passed along as the week approaches.

Detroit Billboard Project

Harnessing the power of 21st century technology, our billboard has changed locations and will continue to rotate throughout Detroit’s digital billboard network. Currently our location is visible by southbound traffic on Interstate 75 at the Six Mile Road exit. We have also added a toll-free number to call (1-855-ITS-OUR_MONEY) to collect donations to extend the life of this project beyond the April 29th contract deadline. See newly designed billboard below:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Design%2003-02-12.jpg

Please consider making a donation; this might be the only billboard in the US critical of the Jewish State. You can click on either website to make a donation

http://ifamericansknew.org/

https://www.deiryassin.org/

Ron Paul

This writer attended the Ron Paul speech in East Lansing, Michigan this past Monday. He addressed a packed, 4,000 seat auditorium with young folks standing and sitting the aisles. It occurred to this writer that – differences with Ron aside – he remains the ONLY candidate who is willing to address eliminating our foreign aid to Israel, and that anyone who refers to him/herself as a Palestine solidarity activist should be championing this man. Eliminating financial support to Apartheid Israel is crucial to bringing justice to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. And peace activists in general should be supporting Paul for he appears to be the only ANTI-WAR candidate in the running.

Fed Will Celebrate Israel; We Will Be There

We had to clear our calendars for the upcoming “Celebrate Israel” Day, sponsored by our friends at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor. Please clear your calendars as well, by making plans to join us in protesting the Jewish community’s annual celebration of the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. We will be on location at noon, Sunday, May 20, at the Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Dr. Ann Arbor, MI.

Seven Vigilers
Challenging Jewish Power
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Internationally acclaimed jazz musician and author Gilad Atzmon returns to Geneva, NY on Tuesday, March 13, 2012, for an evening presentation with special guest Rich Siegel to help raise funds for the Deir Yassin Remembered Scholarship program. The goal of the scholarship is to provide financial aid to the young people of Palestine and Israel who wish to pursue a college or university education and since its inception eight students have been assisted. For details see below or download the event flyer (PDF). If you cannot attend then please consider making a donation for this worthy cause.