We made a short video of the small but persistent demonstration in front of the UN Egyptian Mission in NYC today, but unfortunately we do not seem to yet have the hang of posting the flip videos on the blog. (This, of course, should be our biggest challenge in life.)
So tomorrow is it - the next time we talk, I will be in Israel/Palestine. I have wanted to do this trip for so long, its hard to believe this is it. I will try to share each of my experiences with you and I hope that you will open yourselves up to what I think we are about to see and to the people we will meet.
I only ask one thing of you. Well, o.k., really two. First, that you read the blog.
The second thing I ask of you is related to a question that a very young Tibetan posed at a conference I recently attended. The conference was hosted by the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, an international network of which I am a part. Each year, we come together in New York to discuss the role of humiliation in human conflict, from personal conflict to armed, national and international conflict. At the conference, we heard from, among others, survivors of a bomb in Iraq, impassioned young lawyers seeking justice for wrongly imprisoned Guantanamo detainees, and two children of Holocaust survivors, both teachers. The first, my dear friend Grace, researched and wrote a book about the amazing Palestinian/Israeli school where Israeli and Palestinian children learn together, learn their own and each others' histories, languages and cultures. The second teacher we heard from teaches hand in hand each summer in Austria with children of Nazis. She spoke of her personal challenge to get by the mythology of hatred with which she was raised.
At the end of the conference, the young Tibetan stood up and asked us what would happen if instead of reacting when we felt humiliated by another human being, we took a moment to take a breath.
I have myself often wondered what would have happened if on September 11, 2001 (or any other explosive time in history), we had had a person in the White House who, instead of seeking revenge and cowboy justice and inciting hatred, had held our hands and told us to breath, who had explained that revenge and bombs only lead to more revenge and bombs; who was not interested in using our shock and grief to justify a power grab but who instead had helped us grieve and open our eyes to peace, nonviolent responses and justice consistent with our Constitution.
So here is my second request of you: when you read something here that makes you feel angry or humiliated or ashamed or disbelief, when you would rather walk away than continue to read, I am asking that you take the time to take a breath (or two). And after you have taken a breath, ask yourself if you can respond with peace and dignity. And then remind yourself that our only chance for peace is to demand the immediate cessation of never-ending cycles of revenge, of shrugging off the deaths of innocents as collateral damage, of allowing genocide, oppression, rape and destruction as the necessities of war, of using war and religion as pretenses to seek oil, power, diamonds or empire.
Peace and see you from Israel/Palestine. Wish me happy hummus munching and olive-oil dipping :).
PS: here is the website for Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. I highly recommend it. In addition to Evelin's amazing presentations and a plethora of moving papers, I have two papers posted that I presented at various conferences, Relevance of Sexual Violence Against Female Noncombatant Victims of Destructive Conflict in the Study of Humiliation; and Terrorism and Humiliation. Happy Reading!
www.humiliationstudies.org
Thursday, December 31, 2009
More Must Reads
I realize that parts of this may be difficult for some of you to read/listen to but I urge you to stay with it. He makes important points and gives explanations that you likely have never heard before. I have included the sites of both the written speech and the YouTube video. I found I liked having both available. Please read/listen!!
http://www.revcom.us/a/153/goodman_speech-en.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzoCr5DcVig
And here is the Hudson Valley contingent's report on what happened in Cairo on the day the Gaza Freedom March was to occur:
http://hudsontogaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/not-quite-in-gaza.html
And from the Michigan Peace Team (yeah Michigan!), some of whom were among those trapped in their hotel rooms this morning by Egyptian police to prevent participation in the demonstration in Cairo(explains why there were not the 1300 demonstrators):
http://mptingaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/stuck-on-8th-floor-december-31-2009.html
http://www.revcom.us/a/153/goodman_speech-en.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzoCr5DcVig
And here is the Hudson Valley contingent's report on what happened in Cairo on the day the Gaza Freedom March was to occur:
http://hudsontogaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/not-quite-in-gaza.html
And from the Michigan Peace Team (yeah Michigan!), some of whom were among those trapped in their hotel rooms this morning by Egyptian police to prevent participation in the demonstration in Cairo(explains why there were not the 1300 demonstrators):
http://mptingaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/stuck-on-8th-floor-december-31-2009.html
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
2 Questions: "Where do you start?" and "Can you bomb your way to peace?"
This is from the Real News and is in itself quite an education on Gaza. I would highly recommend you watch if you have questions or confusion about what has gone on here. Its an interview with Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw9cv2RKUTs&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw9cv2RKUTs&NR=1
Solidarity Actions Around the Globe
Truly amazing:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=548
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=548
Gaza Update
Confusing reports on blogs about whether or not the 100 marchers, of the close to 1400 in Cairo, have decided to go or not go in protest of this restriction. It appears, though, that after wrenching and emotional struggles, some went, some refused, and more refused specifically after the Egyptian Foreign Minister referred to the marchers as "hooligans," except for the "chosen" 100, as if the Egyptian government had chosen the 100. The reality is that the marchers themselves chose the 100 and this was a sticking point.
Kudos to Amy Goodman, as usual one of the few in the US covering Gaza. Here's a link to today's show, where she interviews Ali Abunimah, author of the incredible book "One Country," (on the bibliography I circulated), who is in Cairo, shows a clip of Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd notoriety) and a clip of an interview with the spokesperson for the international red cross, Iyad Nasr. Amy's show is typically available on most cable services and is well worth the effort to find her:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/30/cairo_protests
A recent blog with important information:
http://lauraontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2009/12/gaza-freedom-march-dec-30.html
The following post is also important in that it connects President Obama's speech in Cairo, where he refers specifically to Gaza and nonviolent actions, to the inaction on the part of the American government with respect to the nonviolent Gaza Freedom March:
http://gazafreedommarch.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/gaza-freedom-march-letter-three%e2%80%94december-29/
There are solidarity actions planned for tomorrow, including 1 in New York that I will likely attend. It will be a good place to check out my new Flip video camera and, hopefully, share the protest with you.
Kudos to Amy Goodman, as usual one of the few in the US covering Gaza. Here's a link to today's show, where she interviews Ali Abunimah, author of the incredible book "One Country," (on the bibliography I circulated), who is in Cairo, shows a clip of Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd notoriety) and a clip of an interview with the spokesperson for the international red cross, Iyad Nasr. Amy's show is typically available on most cable services and is well worth the effort to find her:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/30/cairo_protests
A recent blog with important information:
http://lauraontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2009/12/gaza-freedom-march-dec-30.html
The following post is also important in that it connects President Obama's speech in Cairo, where he refers specifically to Gaza and nonviolent actions, to the inaction on the part of the American government with respect to the nonviolent Gaza Freedom March:
http://gazafreedommarch.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/gaza-freedom-march-letter-three%e2%80%94december-29/
There are solidarity actions planned for tomorrow, including 1 in New York that I will likely attend. It will be a good place to check out my new Flip video camera and, hopefully, share the protest with you.
A Must Read
After a night long vigil of determining whether or not to accept Egypt's offer of 100marchers being allowed into Gaza, the march decided to do so. The last post below, however, contains their regrets. Incidentally, that offer was made by Suzanne Mubarak, the Egyptial "first lady" (I really hate that term), after representatives of the marchers met with her. In the meantime, with no relief in site for the Gazans, the US press is filled with reports on Mubarak's meeting with Netanyahu on yet another peace "summit." What does that mean when people are starving, dying and locked in a ghetto??
Lets make this relevant to us. My Zadie once told me he survived the pograms by hiding in the oven in his shack in the shtetl in Russia. I wonder what I would think if the Czar (who we know was encouraging, if not inciting the pograms) was busy hopping around the glob attending peace summits while the pograms were raging and my Zadie was hiding in his oven? Outrage is the first emotion that comes up. How about you?
The Youtube post here is a moving summary of the situation in Gaza. Note when the people ask "how can this be happening and the whole world stands by and does nothing?" Sound familiar? I think we asked ourselves that question about, oh, 60 years ago or so. As I said yesterday, when I think of Jewish, I do not think of BEING the oppressors. I think of being disproprotionately represented in, say, the Civil Rights Movement or the early American Communist Party or the protests on behalf of Darfur or, well you name it, any social action/civil rights movement. I think of the "never again" chant. Did we mean only never again for us? Or did we mean never again? And do we not carry a responsibility, as survivors of genocide, never to commit any sort of oppression ourselves?
http://alanxgoodman.blogspot.com/2009/12/sleeping-giant.html#comment-form
http://starhawksblog.org/?p=297
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=2779&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+http%2Fwwwmaxajlcom%2Ffeedrss2+%28Jewbonics%29
http://footsteps4gaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/100-to-go-to-gaza.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7_LqN1ICew
http://husseini.posterous.com/
Lets make this relevant to us. My Zadie once told me he survived the pograms by hiding in the oven in his shack in the shtetl in Russia. I wonder what I would think if the Czar (who we know was encouraging, if not inciting the pograms) was busy hopping around the glob attending peace summits while the pograms were raging and my Zadie was hiding in his oven? Outrage is the first emotion that comes up. How about you?
The Youtube post here is a moving summary of the situation in Gaza. Note when the people ask "how can this be happening and the whole world stands by and does nothing?" Sound familiar? I think we asked ourselves that question about, oh, 60 years ago or so. As I said yesterday, when I think of Jewish, I do not think of BEING the oppressors. I think of being disproprotionately represented in, say, the Civil Rights Movement or the early American Communist Party or the protests on behalf of Darfur or, well you name it, any social action/civil rights movement. I think of the "never again" chant. Did we mean only never again for us? Or did we mean never again? And do we not carry a responsibility, as survivors of genocide, never to commit any sort of oppression ourselves?
http://alanxgoodman.blogspot.com/2009/12/sleeping-giant.html#comment-form
http://starhawksblog.org/?p=297
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=2779&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+http%2Fwwwmaxajlcom%2Ffeedrss2+%28Jewbonics%29
http://footsteps4gaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/100-to-go-to-gaza.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7_LqN1ICew
http://husseini.posterous.com/
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
So far 100 allowed to go to Gaza
http://www.indypendent.org/2009/12/29/gaza-freedom-march-egyptian-government-allows-100-to-go-to-gaza/
And read the article about the 85 y.o. hunger-striking bubie!
http://www.indypendent.org/2009/12/29/gaza-freedom-march-%ef%bb%bf%e2%80%98you-have-to-put-your-own-life-on-the-line%e2%80%99-an-interview-with-hedy-epstein/
And read the article about the 85 y.o. hunger-striking bubie!
http://www.indypendent.org/2009/12/29/gaza-freedom-march-%ef%bb%bf%e2%80%98you-have-to-put-your-own-life-on-the-line%e2%80%99-an-interview-with-hedy-epstein/
Our Young People are So Impressive!!
You really do get more with honey than lemon:
http://www.sendstudentstogaza.com/
It also looks like a small contingency may be allowed in - but I cannot confirm this yet.
http://www.sendstudentstogaza.com/
It also looks like a small contingency may be allowed in - but I cannot confirm this yet.
Ta'anit Tzedek - Jewish Fast for Gaza: Rabbis, Cantors, and Rabbinical Students Join Hunger Strike
Here is a list of Rabbis, Cantors and Rabbinical students who have joined the Ta'anit Tzedek - Jewish Fast for Gaza!!!!! Its the political activism and humanitarian concern and outrage for violations of human rights that I think of when I think of "Jewish."
Project Coordinators:
Rabbi Brant Rosen (Evanston, IL)
Rabbi Brian Walt (West Tisbury, MA)
Web Developer:
Rabbi Shai Gluskin (Philadelphia, PA)
Rabbinical Minyan:
1. Rabbi Rebecca Alpert (Philadelphia, PA)
2. Rabbi Leonard Beerman (Los Angeles, CA)
3. Rabbi Haim Beliak (Los Angeles, CA)
4. Rabbi Tirzah Firestone (Boulder, CO)
5. Rabbi Everett Gendler (Great Barrington, MA)
6. Rabbi Linda Holtzman (Philadelphia, PA)
7. Rabbi Steven Jacobs (Los Angeles, CA)
8. Rabbi Ellen Lippmann (Brooklyn, NY)
9. Rabbi Arthur Waskow (Philadelphia, PA)
10. Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman (Madison, WI)
Rabbinical Supporters
(list in development):
11. Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer (Philadelphia, PA)
12. Rabbi Lew Weiss (Indianapolis, IN)
13. Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom (Berlin/Jerusalem)
14. Rabbi Howard Cohen (Greensboro, NC)
15. Rabbi Alissa Wise (Brooklyn, NY)
16. Rabbi David Brusin (Whitefish Bay, WI)
17. Rabbi Jarah Greenfield (Philadelphia, PA)
18. Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton (Baltimore, MD)
19. Rabbi Zalman Hiyya Schachter-Shalomi (Boulder CO)
20. Rabbi Devra Noily (Oakland, CA)
21. Rabbi Arthur Segal (Hilton Head, SC)
22. Rabbi Michael Feinberg (New York, NY)
23. Rabbi Benjamin Barnett (Corvallis, OR)
24. Rabbi Leila Gal Berner (Rockville, MD)
25. Rabbi Art Donsky (Pittsburgh, PA)
26. Rabbi Mordechai Liebling (Philadelphia, PA)
27. Rabbi David Shneyer (Rockville, MD)
28. Rabbi Karen Landy (Brookline, MA)
29. Rabbi Mark Hurvitz (New York, NY)
30. Rabbi Gerald Serrota (Chevy Chase, MD)
31. Rabbi Tzipi Radonsky (West Palm Beach, FLA)
32. Rabbi Lev Baesh (Lexington, MA)
33. Rabbi Paula Marcus (Santa Cruz, CA)
34. Rabbi David J. Cooper (Piedmont, CA)
35. Rabbi Naomi Steinberg (Carlotta, CA)
36. Rabbi Margaret Holub (Albion, CA)
37. Rabbi Marjorie Berman (Philadelphia, PA)
38. Rabbi Nina Madel (Sunbury, PA)
39. Rabbi Pamela Frdyman Baugh (San Francisco, CA)
40. Rabbi Zev-Hayyim Feyer (Claremont, CA)
41. Rabbi Jefferey Marker (Brooklyn, NY)
42. Rabbi Michael Lerner (San Francisco, CA)
43. Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill (El Cerrito, CA)
44. Rabbi Chava Bahle (Suttons Bay, MI)
45. Rabbi Phyllis Berman (Philadelphia, PA)
46. Rabbi Philip M. Posner (Ajijic, Jalisco Mexico)
47. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb (Berkeley, CA)
48. Rabbi Paul J. Joseph (Long Beach, NY)
49. Rabbi John Friedman (Durham, NC)
50. Rabbi Jefferey Schein (Cleveland, OH)
51. Rabbi Sarra Lev (Philadelphia, PA)
52. Rabbi Steven Nathan (Amherst, MA)
53. Rabbi Alan Lapayover (Philadelphia, PA)
54. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum (New York, NY)
55. Rabbi Benjamin Arnold (Evergreen, CO)
56. Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy (Newtown, PA)
57. Rabbi Toba Spitzer (Newton, MA)
58. Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell (Philadelphia, PA)
59. Rabbi Stephen Booth-Nadav (Denver, CO)
60. Rabbi Elyse Wechterman (Attleboro, MA)
61. Rabbi Julie Greeenberg (Philadelphia, PA)
62. Rabbi Renee Bauer (Madison, WI)
63. Rabbi Sheila Weinberg (Amherst, MA)
64. Rabbi Meryl Crean (Media, PA)
65. Rabbi Ayelet Cohen (New York, NY)
66. Rabbi Michael Rothbaum (Nyack, NY)
67. Rabbi J.B. Sacks (Los Angeles, CA)
68. Rabbi Isaac Serotta (Highland Park, IL)
69. Rabbi Erin Hirsch (Glenside, PA)
70. Rabbi Shaul Magid (Bloomington, IN)
71. Rabbi Raquel S. Kosovske (Northampton, MA)
72. Rabbi Yitzhak Nates (Narberth, PA)
73. Rabbi Victor Reinstein (Boston, MA)
74. Rabbi Marc Gopin (Silver Spring, MD)
75. Rabbi Karen Sussan (Suffern, NY)
Cantorial Supporters
(list in development):
1. Cantor Steven Puzarne (Los Angeles, CA)
2. Cantor Michael Davis (Highland Park, IL)
Rabbinical Student Supporters
(list in development):
1.Rachel Barenblat (Lanesboro, MA)
2. Ari Lev Fornari (Boston, MA)
3. Joseph Berman (Jamaica Plain, MA)
4. Michael Ross (Phoenixville, PA)
5. Ilanit Goldberg (Philadelphia, PA)
6. Diana Miller (Philadelphia, PA)
7. Michael Ramberg (Philadelphia, PA)
8. Shoshana Friedman (Boston, PA)
9. Alana Alpert (Boston, MA)
10. Seth Wax (Brookline, MA)
11. Simcha Daniel Burstyn (Kibbutz Lotan, Israel)
12. Suzie Schwartz (Brighton, MA)
Yeah, Michigan!!
http://mptingaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/many-now-join-fast-information-from.html
http://alanxgoodman.blogspot.com/2009/12/tues-day-of-protests.html
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=2772&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+http%2Fwwwmaxajlcom%2Ffeedrss2+%28Jewbonics%29
Project Coordinators:
Rabbi Brant Rosen (Evanston, IL)
Rabbi Brian Walt (West Tisbury, MA)
Web Developer:
Rabbi Shai Gluskin (Philadelphia, PA)
Rabbinical Minyan:
1. Rabbi Rebecca Alpert (Philadelphia, PA)
2. Rabbi Leonard Beerman (Los Angeles, CA)
3. Rabbi Haim Beliak (Los Angeles, CA)
4. Rabbi Tirzah Firestone (Boulder, CO)
5. Rabbi Everett Gendler (Great Barrington, MA)
6. Rabbi Linda Holtzman (Philadelphia, PA)
7. Rabbi Steven Jacobs (Los Angeles, CA)
8. Rabbi Ellen Lippmann (Brooklyn, NY)
9. Rabbi Arthur Waskow (Philadelphia, PA)
10. Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman (Madison, WI)
Rabbinical Supporters
(list in development):
11. Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer (Philadelphia, PA)
12. Rabbi Lew Weiss (Indianapolis, IN)
13. Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom (Berlin/Jerusalem)
14. Rabbi Howard Cohen (Greensboro, NC)
15. Rabbi Alissa Wise (Brooklyn, NY)
16. Rabbi David Brusin (Whitefish Bay, WI)
17. Rabbi Jarah Greenfield (Philadelphia, PA)
18. Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton (Baltimore, MD)
19. Rabbi Zalman Hiyya Schachter-Shalomi (Boulder CO)
20. Rabbi Devra Noily (Oakland, CA)
21. Rabbi Arthur Segal (Hilton Head, SC)
22. Rabbi Michael Feinberg (New York, NY)
23. Rabbi Benjamin Barnett (Corvallis, OR)
24. Rabbi Leila Gal Berner (Rockville, MD)
25. Rabbi Art Donsky (Pittsburgh, PA)
26. Rabbi Mordechai Liebling (Philadelphia, PA)
27. Rabbi David Shneyer (Rockville, MD)
28. Rabbi Karen Landy (Brookline, MA)
29. Rabbi Mark Hurvitz (New York, NY)
30. Rabbi Gerald Serrota (Chevy Chase, MD)
31. Rabbi Tzipi Radonsky (West Palm Beach, FLA)
32. Rabbi Lev Baesh (Lexington, MA)
33. Rabbi Paula Marcus (Santa Cruz, CA)
34. Rabbi David J. Cooper (Piedmont, CA)
35. Rabbi Naomi Steinberg (Carlotta, CA)
36. Rabbi Margaret Holub (Albion, CA)
37. Rabbi Marjorie Berman (Philadelphia, PA)
38. Rabbi Nina Madel (Sunbury, PA)
39. Rabbi Pamela Frdyman Baugh (San Francisco, CA)
40. Rabbi Zev-Hayyim Feyer (Claremont, CA)
41. Rabbi Jefferey Marker (Brooklyn, NY)
42. Rabbi Michael Lerner (San Francisco, CA)
43. Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill (El Cerrito, CA)
44. Rabbi Chava Bahle (Suttons Bay, MI)
45. Rabbi Phyllis Berman (Philadelphia, PA)
46. Rabbi Philip M. Posner (Ajijic, Jalisco Mexico)
47. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb (Berkeley, CA)
48. Rabbi Paul J. Joseph (Long Beach, NY)
49. Rabbi John Friedman (Durham, NC)
50. Rabbi Jefferey Schein (Cleveland, OH)
51. Rabbi Sarra Lev (Philadelphia, PA)
52. Rabbi Steven Nathan (Amherst, MA)
53. Rabbi Alan Lapayover (Philadelphia, PA)
54. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum (New York, NY)
55. Rabbi Benjamin Arnold (Evergreen, CO)
56. Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy (Newtown, PA)
57. Rabbi Toba Spitzer (Newton, MA)
58. Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell (Philadelphia, PA)
59. Rabbi Stephen Booth-Nadav (Denver, CO)
60. Rabbi Elyse Wechterman (Attleboro, MA)
61. Rabbi Julie Greeenberg (Philadelphia, PA)
62. Rabbi Renee Bauer (Madison, WI)
63. Rabbi Sheila Weinberg (Amherst, MA)
64. Rabbi Meryl Crean (Media, PA)
65. Rabbi Ayelet Cohen (New York, NY)
66. Rabbi Michael Rothbaum (Nyack, NY)
67. Rabbi J.B. Sacks (Los Angeles, CA)
68. Rabbi Isaac Serotta (Highland Park, IL)
69. Rabbi Erin Hirsch (Glenside, PA)
70. Rabbi Shaul Magid (Bloomington, IN)
71. Rabbi Raquel S. Kosovske (Northampton, MA)
72. Rabbi Yitzhak Nates (Narberth, PA)
73. Rabbi Victor Reinstein (Boston, MA)
74. Rabbi Marc Gopin (Silver Spring, MD)
75. Rabbi Karen Sussan (Suffern, NY)
Cantorial Supporters
(list in development):
1. Cantor Steven Puzarne (Los Angeles, CA)
2. Cantor Michael Davis (Highland Park, IL)
Rabbinical Student Supporters
(list in development):
1.Rachel Barenblat (Lanesboro, MA)
2. Ari Lev Fornari (Boston, MA)
3. Joseph Berman (Jamaica Plain, MA)
4. Michael Ross (Phoenixville, PA)
5. Ilanit Goldberg (Philadelphia, PA)
6. Diana Miller (Philadelphia, PA)
7. Michael Ramberg (Philadelphia, PA)
8. Shoshana Friedman (Boston, PA)
9. Alana Alpert (Boston, MA)
10. Seth Wax (Brookline, MA)
11. Simcha Daniel Burstyn (Kibbutz Lotan, Israel)
12. Suzie Schwartz (Brighton, MA)
Yeah, Michigan!!
http://mptingaza.blogspot.com/2009/12/many-now-join-fast-information-from.html
http://alanxgoodman.blogspot.com/2009/12/tues-day-of-protests.html
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=2772&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+http%2Fwwwmaxajlcom%2Ffeedrss2+%28Jewbonics%29
And more
http://gazafreedommarch.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/update-gaza-freedom-march/
Note the 85 y.o. Holocaust survivor leading a hunger strike, originally of grandmothers but sounds like others have now joined her.
Note the 85 y.o. Holocaust survivor leading a hunger strike, originally of grandmothers but sounds like others have now joined her.
Update on Gaza
Plus a little on what is happening in the West Bank. This is the blog from the New York/Hudson Valley group in Gaza. News disheartening.
http://hudsontogaza.blogspot.com/
http://hudsontogaza.blogspot.com/
Monday, December 28, 2009
Avigdor’s Ascent, by Alice Rothchild, May 2009
http://www.labourfriendsofpalestine.co.uk/articles_13.html
The ascension of Avigdor Leiberman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s overtly racist foreign minister, is not only disastrous in its own right, but also represents a culmination of longstanding Israeli policies. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who represent almost 20 percent of the Israeli population, have over 60 years of experience with Israeli-style discrimination.
Take for example Sami Abu Shehade, a postgraduate student at Tel Aviv University and community organizer from the “mixed city” of Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv. I joined his “alternative tour’ of Jaffa in late October 2008; Sami began by explaining that the Old City of Jaffa is thousands of years old. It was a natural port located high on a hill, surrounded by fertile agriculture land, and occupied over 30 times, dating back to ancient Canaanites, up through the Ottomans and British. By the end of the nineteenth century, the thriving city of 50,000 was the cultural and commercial center of Palestine, exporting millions of famed Jaffa oranges and importing foreign laborers from all over the Arab world to work the orchards, vineyards, sugar cane and tobacco fields. In 1909 Tel Aviv was established with 60 Jewish families as two small northern neighborhoods, with the intention to build the first modern Hebrew city. By 1948, Tel Aviv, with a population of 200,000, was the biggest city in Mandate Palestine.
After years of attacks and counteracts, political betrayals among Arab forces, mostly youthful resistance, and civilian massacres by the Stern Gang, with the departure of British Mandate forces in May of 1948, armed Zionist forces occupied Jaffa and the population shrank from 100,000 to 4,000. Entire neighborhoods, families, and human connections were destroyed as Palestinians fled, some dying during the expulsion. Sami notes that the psychological trauma of this catastrophe lasted for decades, but the “Second Nakba” occurred in 1949 with the Absentee Property Law instituted by the new “very Jewish democratic” Israeli government. The Palestinians who stayed in the “mixed cities” were under military control, herded into barbed wired neighborhoods referred to as “ghettos” by the Jewish soldiers in command. The Jaffans were forced into an area called al-‘Ajami, guarded by solders and dogs, while officials surveyed their forcibly abandoned properties, declared the owners “present absentees,” laid claim to the properties, and gave the homes complete with furniture to olim, desperate new Jewish immigrants. Most of the Arabs still in Israel remained under military control until 1966, living in constant fear of the Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service.
Sami explains that the “Third Nakba is what is called coexistence, bringing Arabs and Jews to live together.” He notes that the Palestinians not only lost their property to the new Jewish immigrants, but frequently the Palestinians were hired to work in their former orchards as laborers, or as factory workers in businesses they once owned. They would visit their pre-1948 homes and bargain with immigrants from Bulgaria in an effort to retrieve some of their family possessions. Sometimes Arab houses were subdivided, so a home might be partitioned, one room to a Moroccan family, one room to a Rumanian, and one room to the original Arab owner. These families shared one kitchen, one toilet, and no common language or culture. Sami explains that many Palestinian men, dispossessed, humiliated, and depressed, turned to alcohol, opium, and criminal activities. Thus his grandfather’s generation lost its family, its property and its pride as Palestinians, the Arab neighborhoods became increasingly marginal, and the population was blamed for its own downfall. In 1950 Jaffa became part of the Tel Aviv-Jafo municipality. Tel Aviv has never built an Arab neighborhood, school, or mosque.
For Jaffa, the Judaizing of the city meant changing the names of the streets as well as expunging the history; Israeli textbooks do not mention the legacy and losses of the indigenous Arab population. Avenues that were once named after rich Palestinian families were changed to biblical miracles or Zionist leaders who “liberated” or “ethnically cleansed” Jaffa. Luxurious homes overlooking the Mediterranean, built by wealthy Palestinians before 1948, are now Jewish mansions or rented to the Danish ambassador. Additionally, the descendants of the 4,000 Palestinians who were forcibly brought to the al-‘Ajami neighborhood, legally do not own their apartments; they are owned by the State according to Absentee Law. The State is now using legal action against the tenants because sometime in the past 60 years, the inhabitants built a balcony or added a room and thus violated the contract and can legally be evacuated. Although the al-‘Ajami neighborhood is socially and economically depressed, its northern area is one of the most expensive real estate ventures in Israel, so there is tremendous investing, building, and renting to high-end clientele, at the expense of the local Palestinians. Sami notes that the Israeli architect, Ilan Pivko, easily obtains building licenses, but, “If you are an Arab in al-‘Ajami and close your balcony they will destroy it in 24 hours.”
Ironically, the al-‘Ajami neighborhood started in the early nineteenth century when Persian Sheik Ibrahim el Ajami, came to Jaffa and built a mosque. To be blessed, people built homes surrounding his grave and the al-‘Ajami neighborhood grew up around the mosque. After the ghettoization in 1948, the area also fell victim to urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s, with destruction of whole neighborhoods and neglect and lack of services in the Arab areas. In the ensuing decades, this also became a “frozen zone” in terms of building permits for the local population, with plans on paper to build fancy beach hotels and neighborhood villas. As the neighborhoods were neglected, Jews moved to nicer areas and the Palestinians stayed. The Tel Aviv municipality destroyed more than 3,000 apartments and allowed the demolitions to be buried on the al-‘Ajami shore. “All people began to throw all their garbage on our beach, now it is called the garbage mountain.” Sami remembers a sign warning children not to swim in the waters off of the garbage area. Adjacent to the garbage dump was an old neglected cemetery; because the Tel Aviv municipality did not rebuild a wall, the sea gradually eroded the soil and graves began falling into the see. “So for kids, it was much more traumatic to swim with bones than garbage.”
Sami notes that the current plague is “gentrification,” what some perceive as an apolitical force involving the private market rather than politics. “What can you do? Poor Jews can’t compete either.” The problem with this argument is that al-‘Ajami Arabs who are able to sell their homes, cannot buy a home in Tel Aviv. Also all Arab families have legal problems due to earlier renovations and Sami cites some “500 families have orders for demolition or eviction. When they brought us coexistence in 1950, if you owned your house, they divided it and gave part of it to the Bulgarian family. When the Bulgarian family left, the Arab family gave them money to leave and then they destroyed the wall and regained the house. But the Israeli government didn’t recognize this, so you also have to buy the house from the Israel government… If you are very close to the sea, they say you had a loan from 1960, then compound interest, now you owe millions to the government.” This is the “new liberal mentality, most planners are upper middle class, know nothing about poverty. If you are poor it is your fault.” So in the Tel Aviv municipality, nearly 40% of the Palestinians living in the al-‘Ajami neighborhood are living on welfare in extreme poverty and owe the State millions. “So we are stuck. This is the private market, supply and demand, ‘nothing to do with Arabs.’ The problem is that the Arabs in al-‘Ajami have no choice to live elsewhere.”
Sami takes us to an old Jaffa synagogue, Or Yisrael, Light of Israel, empty for decades and now under renovation. He notes that a number of NGOs are bringing rightwing Jewish settlers from Gaza and the West Bank into “mixed cities” to “Judaize the area.” In the midst of this secular neighborhood, a group of Jewish settlers, the “most extreme and violent soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force,” have already increased tensions. Two weeks ago, Sami recounts, they yelled “Death to the Arabs” to a group of teenagers who responded violently, were arrested, and “disappeared” in the hands of the police for two days. “They are small in number. In one to two years, they will be much stronger, and if an Arab opens his mouth it will be very dangerous. How the West was won.” An NGO, Harosh Yehudi, the Jewish Head, is now looking for 200 empty apartments for extremist Jewish families to strengthen the Jewish, “suffering in Jaffa from Arab violence and racism. This is the language.” David, an Israeli activist, comments, the problem is that, “we are not dealing with a bunch of racists. The problem is that the vast majority of the Jewish population believes in this settler discourse and agrees.”
Sami sees the long-term consequences of this psychological, political, and economic divide: a sense of internal
defeat. “So the high aspirations for Arabs here are to sell humus to the Jews, prepare their cars, sell falafel, give them services….people are used to being on the margins…When you tell them why not an Arab mayor, they think you are crazy. They don’t dream for equality.” Ultimately, he argues, this is about racism. Israeli universities are filled with research on demographics and the devastating consequences of an Arab majority in Israel. Then the discourse turns to transfer and land exchange, or liberals dream of educating Arab women so they will marry later and have fewer children. “You hear this as legitimate news.” He adds that Arabs are welcome in Israel, if they “are willing to serve but do not expect equality. If we continue doing the construction, the restaurants, they will be democratic and nice to us. But don’t tell us democracy, or marry their daughters.”
These political contradictions and ethical challenges are seriously problematic for a country that purports to be a democracy. One can certainly argue that Leiberman lifts the mask from the myth that a country that privileges Jews over Arabs can also be a land where all if its citizens find justice and equal opportunity. Perhaps it is time to have an honest conversation. How can a country demand civil loyalty when it cannot guarantee civil rights? What are the long-term consequences of this potent mix of exclusion, paternalism, discrimination, poverty, and alienation? How can Palestinians reconcile the painful contradiction that the Peres Peace Center was built on confiscated Jaffa refugee property? Perhaps when Jewish Israelis proudly sing their national anthem, Hatikvah, with the stirring lines, “Our hope is not yet lost, The hope of two thousand years, To be a free people in our land, The land of Zion and Jerusalem,” they need to imagine how these words sound to 20 percent of their fellow citizens who still remember the glory days of Jaffa, “The Bride of Palestine.” Avigdor Leiberman is not an aberration; he is saying out loud what his fellow citizens have thought and done for more than 60 years.
The ascension of Avigdor Leiberman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s overtly racist foreign minister, is not only disastrous in its own right, but also represents a culmination of longstanding Israeli policies. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who represent almost 20 percent of the Israeli population, have over 60 years of experience with Israeli-style discrimination.
Take for example Sami Abu Shehade, a postgraduate student at Tel Aviv University and community organizer from the “mixed city” of Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv. I joined his “alternative tour’ of Jaffa in late October 2008; Sami began by explaining that the Old City of Jaffa is thousands of years old. It was a natural port located high on a hill, surrounded by fertile agriculture land, and occupied over 30 times, dating back to ancient Canaanites, up through the Ottomans and British. By the end of the nineteenth century, the thriving city of 50,000 was the cultural and commercial center of Palestine, exporting millions of famed Jaffa oranges and importing foreign laborers from all over the Arab world to work the orchards, vineyards, sugar cane and tobacco fields. In 1909 Tel Aviv was established with 60 Jewish families as two small northern neighborhoods, with the intention to build the first modern Hebrew city. By 1948, Tel Aviv, with a population of 200,000, was the biggest city in Mandate Palestine.
After years of attacks and counteracts, political betrayals among Arab forces, mostly youthful resistance, and civilian massacres by the Stern Gang, with the departure of British Mandate forces in May of 1948, armed Zionist forces occupied Jaffa and the population shrank from 100,000 to 4,000. Entire neighborhoods, families, and human connections were destroyed as Palestinians fled, some dying during the expulsion. Sami notes that the psychological trauma of this catastrophe lasted for decades, but the “Second Nakba” occurred in 1949 with the Absentee Property Law instituted by the new “very Jewish democratic” Israeli government. The Palestinians who stayed in the “mixed cities” were under military control, herded into barbed wired neighborhoods referred to as “ghettos” by the Jewish soldiers in command. The Jaffans were forced into an area called al-‘Ajami, guarded by solders and dogs, while officials surveyed their forcibly abandoned properties, declared the owners “present absentees,” laid claim to the properties, and gave the homes complete with furniture to olim, desperate new Jewish immigrants. Most of the Arabs still in Israel remained under military control until 1966, living in constant fear of the Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service.
Sami explains that the “Third Nakba is what is called coexistence, bringing Arabs and Jews to live together.” He notes that the Palestinians not only lost their property to the new Jewish immigrants, but frequently the Palestinians were hired to work in their former orchards as laborers, or as factory workers in businesses they once owned. They would visit their pre-1948 homes and bargain with immigrants from Bulgaria in an effort to retrieve some of their family possessions. Sometimes Arab houses were subdivided, so a home might be partitioned, one room to a Moroccan family, one room to a Rumanian, and one room to the original Arab owner. These families shared one kitchen, one toilet, and no common language or culture. Sami explains that many Palestinian men, dispossessed, humiliated, and depressed, turned to alcohol, opium, and criminal activities. Thus his grandfather’s generation lost its family, its property and its pride as Palestinians, the Arab neighborhoods became increasingly marginal, and the population was blamed for its own downfall. In 1950 Jaffa became part of the Tel Aviv-Jafo municipality. Tel Aviv has never built an Arab neighborhood, school, or mosque.
For Jaffa, the Judaizing of the city meant changing the names of the streets as well as expunging the history; Israeli textbooks do not mention the legacy and losses of the indigenous Arab population. Avenues that were once named after rich Palestinian families were changed to biblical miracles or Zionist leaders who “liberated” or “ethnically cleansed” Jaffa. Luxurious homes overlooking the Mediterranean, built by wealthy Palestinians before 1948, are now Jewish mansions or rented to the Danish ambassador. Additionally, the descendants of the 4,000 Palestinians who were forcibly brought to the al-‘Ajami neighborhood, legally do not own their apartments; they are owned by the State according to Absentee Law. The State is now using legal action against the tenants because sometime in the past 60 years, the inhabitants built a balcony or added a room and thus violated the contract and can legally be evacuated. Although the al-‘Ajami neighborhood is socially and economically depressed, its northern area is one of the most expensive real estate ventures in Israel, so there is tremendous investing, building, and renting to high-end clientele, at the expense of the local Palestinians. Sami notes that the Israeli architect, Ilan Pivko, easily obtains building licenses, but, “If you are an Arab in al-‘Ajami and close your balcony they will destroy it in 24 hours.”
Ironically, the al-‘Ajami neighborhood started in the early nineteenth century when Persian Sheik Ibrahim el Ajami, came to Jaffa and built a mosque. To be blessed, people built homes surrounding his grave and the al-‘Ajami neighborhood grew up around the mosque. After the ghettoization in 1948, the area also fell victim to urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s, with destruction of whole neighborhoods and neglect and lack of services in the Arab areas. In the ensuing decades, this also became a “frozen zone” in terms of building permits for the local population, with plans on paper to build fancy beach hotels and neighborhood villas. As the neighborhoods were neglected, Jews moved to nicer areas and the Palestinians stayed. The Tel Aviv municipality destroyed more than 3,000 apartments and allowed the demolitions to be buried on the al-‘Ajami shore. “All people began to throw all their garbage on our beach, now it is called the garbage mountain.” Sami remembers a sign warning children not to swim in the waters off of the garbage area. Adjacent to the garbage dump was an old neglected cemetery; because the Tel Aviv municipality did not rebuild a wall, the sea gradually eroded the soil and graves began falling into the see. “So for kids, it was much more traumatic to swim with bones than garbage.”
Sami notes that the current plague is “gentrification,” what some perceive as an apolitical force involving the private market rather than politics. “What can you do? Poor Jews can’t compete either.” The problem with this argument is that al-‘Ajami Arabs who are able to sell their homes, cannot buy a home in Tel Aviv. Also all Arab families have legal problems due to earlier renovations and Sami cites some “500 families have orders for demolition or eviction. When they brought us coexistence in 1950, if you owned your house, they divided it and gave part of it to the Bulgarian family. When the Bulgarian family left, the Arab family gave them money to leave and then they destroyed the wall and regained the house. But the Israeli government didn’t recognize this, so you also have to buy the house from the Israel government… If you are very close to the sea, they say you had a loan from 1960, then compound interest, now you owe millions to the government.” This is the “new liberal mentality, most planners are upper middle class, know nothing about poverty. If you are poor it is your fault.” So in the Tel Aviv municipality, nearly 40% of the Palestinians living in the al-‘Ajami neighborhood are living on welfare in extreme poverty and owe the State millions. “So we are stuck. This is the private market, supply and demand, ‘nothing to do with Arabs.’ The problem is that the Arabs in al-‘Ajami have no choice to live elsewhere.”
Sami takes us to an old Jaffa synagogue, Or Yisrael, Light of Israel, empty for decades and now under renovation. He notes that a number of NGOs are bringing rightwing Jewish settlers from Gaza and the West Bank into “mixed cities” to “Judaize the area.” In the midst of this secular neighborhood, a group of Jewish settlers, the “most extreme and violent soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force,” have already increased tensions. Two weeks ago, Sami recounts, they yelled “Death to the Arabs” to a group of teenagers who responded violently, were arrested, and “disappeared” in the hands of the police for two days. “They are small in number. In one to two years, they will be much stronger, and if an Arab opens his mouth it will be very dangerous. How the West was won.” An NGO, Harosh Yehudi, the Jewish Head, is now looking for 200 empty apartments for extremist Jewish families to strengthen the Jewish, “suffering in Jaffa from Arab violence and racism. This is the language.” David, an Israeli activist, comments, the problem is that, “we are not dealing with a bunch of racists. The problem is that the vast majority of the Jewish population believes in this settler discourse and agrees.”
Sami sees the long-term consequences of this psychological, political, and economic divide: a sense of internal
defeat. “So the high aspirations for Arabs here are to sell humus to the Jews, prepare their cars, sell falafel, give them services….people are used to being on the margins…When you tell them why not an Arab mayor, they think you are crazy. They don’t dream for equality.” Ultimately, he argues, this is about racism. Israeli universities are filled with research on demographics and the devastating consequences of an Arab majority in Israel. Then the discourse turns to transfer and land exchange, or liberals dream of educating Arab women so they will marry later and have fewer children. “You hear this as legitimate news.” He adds that Arabs are welcome in Israel, if they “are willing to serve but do not expect equality. If we continue doing the construction, the restaurants, they will be democratic and nice to us. But don’t tell us democracy, or marry their daughters.”
These political contradictions and ethical challenges are seriously problematic for a country that purports to be a democracy. One can certainly argue that Leiberman lifts the mask from the myth that a country that privileges Jews over Arabs can also be a land where all if its citizens find justice and equal opportunity. Perhaps it is time to have an honest conversation. How can a country demand civil loyalty when it cannot guarantee civil rights? What are the long-term consequences of this potent mix of exclusion, paternalism, discrimination, poverty, and alienation? How can Palestinians reconcile the painful contradiction that the Peres Peace Center was built on confiscated Jaffa refugee property? Perhaps when Jewish Israelis proudly sing their national anthem, Hatikvah, with the stirring lines, “Our hope is not yet lost, The hope of two thousand years, To be a free people in our land, The land of Zion and Jerusalem,” they need to imagine how these words sound to 20 percent of their fellow citizens who still remember the glory days of Jaffa, “The Bride of Palestine.” Avigdor Leiberman is not an aberration; he is saying out loud what his fellow citizens have thought and done for more than 60 years.
To date, no entry into Gaza
This is a link (hopefully) to Starhawk's blog - the most recent post I could find, posted almost 2 hours ago (its 8:09 pm ET now). So far, although she notes that the French delegates held their embassy through the night, they have not been allowed entry. CodePink, one of the sponsors of the march, is pretty good at getting in so all is not lost yet, but still.
For those of you who do not know Starhawk, she's a Jewish woman, about my age, whose real name, coincidentally, is Miriam. I don't know the story of her name change but she has been an activist for a very long time (notwithstanding the fact that if she is my age, she must be about 35 :)). She has spent the last few years, in part, training activists around the world in response to globalization and recently published a book well worth the read on, among other things, the struggle and meaning of violent and nonviolent actions. Her book is called "Webs of Power."
-------------------
This morning on the bus I finished reading the packet for our trip. There are articles that are written by several of the activists, authors, journalists, etc. with whom we are meeting. They are fairly short in length and well worth the read. I will post each as we hear the speaker but to get started, the next post is the article by one of the founders of our project, Dr. Alice Rothchild. Dr. Rothchild is an ob/gyn in Boston (the link is no longer available). She goes on this trip every year, seeing patients with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and the Physicians for human rights. Dr. Rothchild has also written a book, on the bibliography I sent out with the email, entitled "Broken Promises, Broken Dreams." Its a beautiful story about a Jewish woman's struggle with Israeli treatment of Palestinians, with what she hears from the Israelis with whom she speaks, and of her trips.
This article is called "Avigdor's Ascent," and is about Avigdor Leiberman, PM Netanyahu's foreign minister and talks about Jaffa.
For those of you who do not know Starhawk, she's a Jewish woman, about my age, whose real name, coincidentally, is Miriam. I don't know the story of her name change but she has been an activist for a very long time (notwithstanding the fact that if she is my age, she must be about 35 :)). She has spent the last few years, in part, training activists around the world in response to globalization and recently published a book well worth the read on, among other things, the struggle and meaning of violent and nonviolent actions. Her book is called "Webs of Power."
-------------------
This morning on the bus I finished reading the packet for our trip. There are articles that are written by several of the activists, authors, journalists, etc. with whom we are meeting. They are fairly short in length and well worth the read. I will post each as we hear the speaker but to get started, the next post is the article by one of the founders of our project, Dr. Alice Rothchild. Dr. Rothchild is an ob/gyn in Boston (the link is no longer available). She goes on this trip every year, seeing patients with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and the Physicians for human rights. Dr. Rothchild has also written a book, on the bibliography I sent out with the email, entitled "Broken Promises, Broken Dreams." Its a beautiful story about a Jewish woman's struggle with Israeli treatment of Palestinians, with what she hears from the Israelis with whom she speaks, and of her trips.
This article is called "Avigdor's Ascent," and is about Avigdor Leiberman, PM Netanyahu's foreign minister and talks about Jaffa.
More on Gaza March
Below are websites of various postings on the status in Egypt. Also, in the "This is what a siege looks like page," take a look at the link "Fool you four times" posting by Behind Blue Eyes. Have we been fooled again?
http://open.salon.com/blog/booknut/2009/12/27/this_is_what_a_siege_looks_like
http://alanxgoodman.blogspot.com/2009/12/egyptian-authorities-stop-gaza-freedom.html
http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=2763
http://open.salon.com/blog/booknut/2009/12/27/this_is_what_a_siege_looks_like
http://alanxgoodman.blogspot.com/2009/12/egyptian-authorities-stop-gaza-freedom.html
http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=2763
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Update on Gaza Freedom March
BTW, for those of you following or trying to get updates on the Gaza march, latest word is that the Egyptian government (which kept changing its mind about whether or not to let the 1300 plus marchers in to Gaza), has now placed some of the marchers on house arrest. I have now opened a "twitter" account to try to follow what is happening there. Some of my group is going to go to the Israeli/Gaza border to show solidarity, although they will not be allowed to enter Gaza (which remains sealed off from the world, at the expense of more Palestinian lives).
For those of you who do not know about the Gaza march, it is being organized as a nonviolent demonstration to commemorate the year anniversary of the Israeli military action in Gaza in which numerous Palestinian civilians were killed. The last count was that over 1300 people from all over the world were traveling to Cairo to march to Gaza through the Egyptian border. Over the last month, the organizers had to turn applicants away. Notorious participants include poet/author Alice Walker, 85 y.o. Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Starhawk and Ann Wright, retired US army colonel. The website for the march is at http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?id=5022.
For those of you who do not know about the Gaza march, it is being organized as a nonviolent demonstration to commemorate the year anniversary of the Israeli military action in Gaza in which numerous Palestinian civilians were killed. The last count was that over 1300 people from all over the world were traveling to Cairo to march to Gaza through the Egyptian border. Over the last month, the organizers had to turn applicants away. Notorious participants include poet/author Alice Walker, 85 y.o. Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Starhawk and Ann Wright, retired US army colonel. The website for the march is at http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?id=5022.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Posting No. 1
For the last few months, I have been immersed in the writings of Israeli and Palestinian historians, poets, reporters and autobiographers. Now that the trip is only 6 days away, I am trying to shift to some guide books as, with my impaired sense of geography, I would like to understand where I am when I am there.
Typical of me, while people are telling me to stay safe or be careful, my anxiety comes not from potential danger but from direction: how WILL I find my way from Tel Aviv to my hotel in Jerusalem? I was told to have the cheap ($12) public bus drop me off at the Damascus Gate and walk "oh just down the road" to the hotel. Hmm. Sounds very mysterious. With no internal directional radar, this will be the first adventure.
Option 2 is to pay Moshe the Taxi $110 USD to get me door to door (extra $10 because its Saturday) but think of the beautiful bracelets or yummy olive oil that would buy!
Typical of me, while people are telling me to stay safe or be careful, my anxiety comes not from potential danger but from direction: how WILL I find my way from Tel Aviv to my hotel in Jerusalem? I was told to have the cheap ($12) public bus drop me off at the Damascus Gate and walk "oh just down the road" to the hotel. Hmm. Sounds very mysterious. With no internal directional radar, this will be the first adventure.
Option 2 is to pay Moshe the Taxi $110 USD to get me door to door (extra $10 because its Saturday) but think of the beautiful bracelets or yummy olive oil that would buy!
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