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Jewish dissent

The excommunication of Judge Goldstone

Vicious, vicious, vicious attacks on Goldstone from his South African Jewish community at forecast highs. Don’t worry, judge, you are a great Jew, they did this kind of thing to Spinoza.

This Yom Kippur, had Judge Richard Goldstone asked for forgiveness, which he didn’t, [how do you know what he did on Yom Kippur, you spiritual thug?] he would have found that even the most virtuous members of his old community [oh now you can sort out the virtuous?] could not bring themselves to grant it. From their golden boy, he has gone to being the wicked son.

There is palpable anger at Goldstone within the mainstream South African Jewish community; a feeling that one of their own has betrayed them, sold them out.

read on

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From Jewish voice for peace

On Thursday, August 20 the LA Times published an op-ed in which Ben Gurion University Professor Neve Gordon, a prominent political scientist and long-time peace activist, wrote that the question that kept him up at night, both as a parent and as an Israeli citizen, was how to ensure that his two children as well as the children of his Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime. His pained conclusion is that the only strategy left is “massive international pressure” in the form of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). He therefore endorses the Palestinian BDS campaign proposed by a wide swath of Palestinian civil society.(1)

Following the publication of the article there has been a vehement and aggressive attack against Gordon in Israel that calls into serious question Israel’s committment to academic freedom and the democratic right to free speech.

We now believe that “massive international pressure” will be needed to keep him from being fired from his job.

Tell Ben Gurion University and the Israeli Minister of Education to defend academic freedom.

Prof. Gordon’s endorsement of economic pressure offers what Naomi Klein termed “the most effective tools in the nonviolent arsenal” to address the Israeli occupation (2).

And yet, Prof. Rivka Carmi, the President of Ben Gurion University, was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying that the “university may no longer be interested in his services.” She added that “Academics who feel this way about their country, are welcome to search for a personal and professional home elsewhere.” (3)

Is Prof. Carmi really calling on Prof. Gordon to leave his country?

Several Knesset members from the right called upon Carmi and the Minister of Education to sack Neve Gordon, while Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the article “repugnant and deplorable.”(4) In the thousands of talkbacks generated by articles in Israel, hundreds of angry readers have called Gordon a traitor, a virus, cancerous, and have threatened to expel him from Israel and some have even called for his execution. Unsurprisingly Israeli rights-abusive policies, the occupation and how one might resolve the conflict are side-stepped, and the central issue becomes how to do away with the messenger.

In Prof. Gordon’ words: “From the responses to the article it seems most people don’t have the courage to discuss the main issues: Is Israel an apartheid state? How can the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be resolved? Is the settlement project good for Israel or will it cause the state’s destruction? It’s easy to criticize me while evading the tough and important questions.” (5)

The dismaying response to Prof. Gordon’s article is but the latest manifestation of attempts to silence dissent within Israel. In only the last six months, activists from New Profile have been arrested and investigated, Ezra Nawi is in danger of going to jail for non-violently defending the destruction of a Palestinian home, and just last week the Vice Prime Minister called Peace Now “a virus.” Are these the actions of a democracy?

BDS is a legitimate non-violent strategy with a storied history, most famously in South Africa. It deserves honest, thoughtful appraisal, such as Dr. Gordon offered in his recent article. By supporting Professor Gordon, we are protecting the ability to talk openly about the Israeli occupation and about nonviolent options to address it, including boycott, divestment, and sanctions.

Write a letter to the President of Ben Gurion University and to the Ministry of Education in Israel to defend Dr. Neve Gordon’s, and every Israeli’s, ability to discuss political issues without fear of losing their jobs.
Notes
(1) http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gordon20-2009aug20,0,1126906.story

(2) http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2009/01/israel-boycott-divest-sanction

(3) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418674692&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

(4) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109492.html

(5) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3765612,00.html

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Comment on Obama’s speech in Cairo

From Jewish Voice for Peace

Dear annie,

We’ve asked Prof. Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Middle East History at Stanford University, to give us his impression on President Obama’s speech in Cairo today. We’re sharing his response with you.

An articulate and charismatic President of the United States named Barack Hussein Obama giving a speech at Cairo University co-sponsored by al-Azhar, the most eminent institution of Muslim learning – now that’s a new picture. Its enormous symbolic value is President Obama’s biggest asset as he implements policy on the entire range of difficult issues he mentioned.

The President stated, “Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail.” This is an excellent basis for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The President did not provide details on how the conflict should be resolved beyond general support for “two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.” But the meaning of this formulation is now contested due to its empty repetition by presidents and prime ministers whose actions and inactions have undermined it. Instead President Obama emphasized U.S. rejection of “the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” saying nothing about the future of those settlements already existing and their nearly 500,000 inhabitants. By limiting himself to an apparently pragmatic “first step,” President Obama may have made his task harder. If he does not produce concrete results very soon on this limited, albeit it absolutely necessary, measure, then the potential value of his fine words in Cairo will soon diminish.

Joel Beinin

June 4, 2009
Stanford, CA

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Hollywood Holocausts

Carlos Latuff
Carlos Latuff

Sunday, 5 April 2009

From Aunt Ziona

This is what I call Jewish Power! Look at this meshigine ferukter.

Why do you need Palestinians? Our Holocaust is much nicer!

United Against other people’s pain

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‘7 Jewish Children’ has its first reading at the New York Theatre Workshop

From Mondoweiss

For a brief moment last night, I had a sense of what it would be like to be on the other side of my issue.

The evening was coming to an end, at the New York Theatre Workshop– a reading and discussion of Caryl Churchill’s very short, Gaza-inspired play, “Seven Jewish Children”– and for the second time the play was read, this time by Andre Gregory, the aristocratic actor/director of social/religious engagement. He stood near the front of the stage pouring out anger against the ways of formation of Jewish identity.

I applauded, as did most of the other 300 people in the house, and two seats away I could see the hands of a Zionist clasped in his lap, as he grumbled to his stony-faced girlfriend. You can listen to a recording of the play here [bandannie cannot link you to it but go to the Mondoweis site to download it; after the reading there is an interesting discussion]and read it here.

For the rest of the night I could not get that picture out of my head. An important stage in New York, an elite workshop space that is contested ground: three years ago the writings of an idealistic young woman who was killed by the Israeli occupation could not even be performed here, because of the “sensitivity” of Jews, the cultural importance of Jews.

But even Rachel Corrie’s piece was not directed against the springs of Jewish identity, as Churchill’s piece is, and here it was uncensored–swaddled of course in Context, a whole evening of discussion rather than just the thing itself– but here it was, and Laura Flanders, the very appealing host of Grit TV, wearing black boots and a dark jacket, had begun the evening by invoking Corrie’s name, and the evening now ended with Andre Gregory spitting out anger, which I applauded.

READ ON

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