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Mohammad Said Kalash, "Offering Reconciliation" exhibit (photo: Ilan Amihai)

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David Grossman

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from documentary, Promises

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Posts Tagged ‘israeli-occupation’

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Larry Derfner Fired by Jerusalem Post

Monday, August 29th, 2011

The subtitle of this post should be: “And then there was one.”   A year ago or so, the Jerusalem Post fired one its few liberal commentators, Naomi Chazan, when the paper ran a disgusting Im Tirzu ad caricaturing her with a rhino horn bursting forth from her forehead.  She threatened to sue the paper and they canned her.  That left only Larry Derfner and Gershon Baskin as the remaining progressives.  And now there is only a single one left.

I just heard a piece of terrible news, which unfortunately doesn’t shock me.  Today, the Jerusalem Post fired one of its only two remaining liberal columnists, Larry Derfner.  He’d written a post in his private blog, unassociated with the paper, about the Eilat terror attacks which expressed understanding for the Palestinian impulse to violence against Israel. This so angered the newspaper’s far-right audience that hundreds cancelled their subscriptions in anger.  And the Post, being that bastion of free speech and journalistic integrity of course fired him to pacify the baying wolves.

I’d suggest people cancel their subscriptions, but who subscribes to that shmateh, anyway?  What, do you do so in order to read the pearls of Shmu Rosner?  Or Caroline Glick?  Or Isi Liebler?  A zoch in vay!  Nonetheless, this day should live in infamy.  Call it the Pearl Habor Day of an Israeli free press.

Aside from the political content of what Larry wrote, there is an extremely important issue related to his being fired for writing a blog post.  While some may argue that what one writes on a private blog when one is a public figure reflects on one’s employer or career, I reject the notion that a blog post should be the cause of a journalist’s firing unless he’s advocated committing a crime or something of that order.

Here are the “offending” passages from Larry’s original column:

I think a lot of people who realize that the occupation is wrong also realize that the Palestinians have the right to resist it – to use violence against Israelis, even to kill Israelis, especially when Israel is showing zero willingness to end the occupation…

This unwillingness to say outright that Palestinians have the right to fight the occupation, especially now, inadvertently helps keep the occupation going.

… If we were to say very forthrightly what many of us believe and the rest of us suspect – that the Palestinians, like every nation living under hostile rule, have the right to fight back, that their terrorism, especially in the face of a rejectionist Israeli government, is justified – what effect would that have? A powerful one, I think, because the truth is powerful.

…We are compelling them [Palestinians] to engage in terrorism.  The blood of Israeli victims is ultimately on our hands, and…it’s up to us to stop provoking our own people’s murder by ending the occupation. And so long as we who oppose the occupation keep pretending that the Palestinians don’t have the right to resist it, we tacitly encourage Israelis to go on blindly killing and dying in defense of an unholy cause.

And by tacitly encouraging Israelis in their blindness, I think we endanger their lives and ours, their country and ours, much more than if we told the truth…

Whoever the Palestinians were who killed the eight Israelis near Eilat last week, however vile their ideology was, they were justified to attack. They had the same right to fight for their freedom as any other unfree nation in history ever had. And just like every harsh, unjust government in history bears the blame for the deaths of its own people at the hands of rebels, so Israel, which rules the Palestinians harshly and unjustly, is to blame for those eight Israeli deaths – as well as for every other Israeli death that occurred when this country was offering the Palestinians no other way to freedom.

Writing this is not treason. It is an attempt at patriotism.

Here Larry further clarifies his position, but alas, the damage has been done (from a right-wing vantage point):

…While I think the Palestinians have the right to use terrorism against us, I don’t want them to use it, I don’t want to see Israelis killed, and as an Israeli, I would do whatever was necessary to stop a Palestinian, oppressed or not, from killing one of my countrymen. (I also think Palestinian terrorism backfires, it turns people away from them and generates sympathy for Israel and the occupation, so I’m against terrorism on a practical level, too, but that’s besides the point.)

Though some of you, had you written this column might’ve written it differently, especially considering your audience, the plain fact of the matter is that no matter how controversial this statement might be for an Israeli Jew, it’s an unpopular view that should be heard in a democracy.  A view that should be published by a free press (if there is one).  What Larry was doing was provoking debate and thought, even uncomfortable debate and thought.  The plain fact of the matter is that as long as Israel refuses to settle the conflict there will be violence against it by Palestinians.  That nothing short of a settlement will stop that violence.  And that, by God, if you don’t realize that Israelis are gonna be killed because of that then you have your head buried in the sand.  And that the only way to stop Israelis being killed is to make a deal.  What’s so controversial about that?  Of course, it will be for the rightists.  But for the pragmatists among us, what’s the big deal?

It should also be noted that Larry took down his column from his blog (which I wouldn’t have done, but he’s entitled) and wrote an apology which was to have run in the Post before they decided to fire him.  In his apology he clarified what he meant by his statement.  But as far as the right was concerned the damage was done and he was toast.

On a personal note, I owe Larry an apology.  Recently, a reader informed me that Larry’s remarks about the dissolution of our blogging partnership were featured on a number of right-wing pro-Israel websites.  This angered me as I felt his words were being used to further tarnish my reputation.  Larry didn’t see it that way.  We had words, harsh words.  I want him to know if he reads this that while we may have had, and still have political disagreements (one of the major reasons our project together broke up), that my portion of yesterday’s interchange was wrong, especially given the context, and I hope he’ll accept my apology.

The Jerusalem Post doesn’t deserve Larry Derfner.  I hope that Aluf Benn, Haaretz’s incoming managing editor has already been on the phone offering Larry his own column there.

 

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David Grossman on J14

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Thanks to Sol Salbe for translating David Grossman‘s magnificent meditation on the meaning of the J14 movement.  It is titled Window on a New Future (Hebrew) published in Yediot on August 5th:

Last Saturday night, at the Jerusalem demonstration, I looked around and saw a human tidal wave flowing in the streets. Thousands of people were there, people who for years have not spoken out, having lost all hope for a change. Instead they had cloistered themselves within their own troubles and despair.

It wasn’t easy for them to join the roar of the youngsters with the megaphones. Maybe it was the discomfiture of those who are not used to speaking out, and are afraid to scream out. They were even more reluctant to roar out in unison. At times I felt that we, the marchers, were looking at ourselves in astonishment and a tinge of doubt, not really totally believing in ourselves. We were not quite sure of what was emanating from within us: Are we really that kind of angry mob, waving their fists in the air, as we have seen in similar demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt, Syria and Greece? Do we really want to be such a mob? Do we seriously mean it when we scream out to a drumbeat: “R-e-v-o-l-u-t-i-o-n!?!”  What if the bolts that hold this fragile state snap open and crack? What if the protest and fervour is “too successful” and turn into anarchy?

But after we take a few steps something happens, and gets into our bloodstream: The pace, swing, and togetherness. Not the kind of threatening “togetherness” that wipes out individual identity, but a different kind of togetherness: a heterogeneous chaotic, familial medley. It is combined with strong sense of here and now, we are doing the right thing, finally doing the right thing.

And then there’s the shock: where were we until today? How did we let this come about?  How did we acquiesce when the governments that we had elected turned our health, and our children’s education, into luxuries? How did it happen that we did not rush to the social workers’ aid when Treasury officials crushed them? And before them, how could we have acquiesced when the same treatment was meted out to the disabled, and Holocaust survivors, and the elderly and the pensioners? How did we forsake the hungry and poor over the years, abandoning them in soup kitchens, and in the care of charity organisations, setting them up for a lifetime of humiliation? How did we abandon foreign workers in the face of their hunters and persecutors, accepting the slave trade and trafficking in women? How do we put up with the ruthless march of  privatisation thereby diminishing the value of everything we hold dear – solidarity, and responsibility, and mutual aid, and a sense of belonging to a single people?

We all know that there were many reasons for this indifference. But to me the deep schism over the issue of the Occupation is the most significant factor that devastated our society’s early warning and control systems. The flawed and unhealthy aspects of society were able to float to the surface. And we, perhaps because we feared facing the full reality of our lives, enthusiastically gave in, throwing ourselves into various opiates which dulled the sense of reality. Sometimes we looked at ourselves: some of us really liked a lot what he saw, while others disliked it and flinched. But even those who flinched, accepted it as the way things are, and called it “the situation” as if it was a matter of fate or a decree from heaven. In addition, we have let the commercial TV channels fill in most of the space in our collective consciousness, seeing ourselves in terms of struggles for survival and predation, pitting us against each other, and making us despise all those who are weaker than us, and different from us, and who are not “beautiful” or witty, or rich. And for many years now we have stopped talking to each other, and we have certainly stopped listening. It stands to reason that when the prevailing ambience is that of “grab what you can,” you cannot help but disparage the other and rob each other blind. For that is the way they demonstrate to us and remind us at every opportunity: it’s every person for themselves and their fate.

The more we exhausted ourselves through this non-stop squabbling, the more malleable we became so we could be bewildered, controlled, and manipulated, allowing ourselves to fall victims to an invisible but effective “divide and rule” syndrome. And so, discussion of important questions trickled down from capital to regime to media, steadily getting shallower. It made us bicker about “who loves the country” and who hates it; who is loyal to the country and who betrays it, who is a “good Jew” and who “forgot what it was like to be a Jew”. Every rational discussion was smothered in a melange of sentimental, patriotic, and nationalistic kitsch whipped up with self-righteousness and victimhood.  Slowly but surely, the possibility of sober criticism of what has been happening here was stifled. Eventually, Israel found itself acting and behaving towards its own citizens in total contrast to the values and world-views that were once its essence and uniqueness.

But now, suddenly, and against all expectations, something has arisen; people are waking up. They are opening up to something, even though it is not quite clear what it is and where it is heading. There are no words to describe it accurately, or to understand it fully. But that thing is becoming clearer and it crystallises as we read the slogans: The clichés are breaking out of their casings and turning into a living, breathing emotion, “the people demand social justice”!  ”The people want Tsedek (justice) and not Tsedaka (charity)!” There are more such words and such slogans that are harking back to different eras. And every so often the air carries with it hints of a possible revitalisation and repair. That forgotten concept of self-respect, both on an individual basis, and for Israel as a whole, has returned.

That awakening has tremendous, albeit intoxicating and deceptive, power. It is tempting to get carried away by the euphoria and the youthful renewal that the new upheaval has created. It is easy to delude oneself that here we are again destroying the old world to the core. But that’s not quite right: the old world was not all bad. It also included some great achievements, which among other things, would actually enable us to bring some of the protest movement’s demands to fruition. The old world has also given us the freedom to express our demands. Therefore, this struggle has to speak a language different to those of previous struggles. Above all, it must be based on dialogue, which is inclusive rather than exclusive; which is principled, rather than one based on opportunism and sectoral interests. This is no time to be divided into our individual camps. That’s the only way the protest movement can hang on to the tremendous public support it currently enjoys.

It is the very ambiguity of this particular protest movement which allows each group to hold different political opinions and mutually contradictory beliefs, and yet recognise – for the first time in decades – a shared common civil and humanistic platform. It even provides a degree of pride in belonging to this community. Who in Israel can afford to give up such a rare resource as that?

This protest movement and its accompanying pressure waves provide an opportunity for communication between those who for decades have not communicated: between different, and disconnected, social strata; between the religious and secular, and between Arabs and Jews. This process of identifying what is common and attainable can open up dialogue between the Right and the Left, introducing a more realistic and empathetic discourse. For example, it can take up the Left’s indifference to those who were displaced from Gush Katif. This remains a festering wound for the settlers. Inclusive speech here may salvage whatever it is possible to save of the sense of mutual responsibility that a country in our situation can ill-afford to give up. In other words, if the spirit of the movement can indeed be found in the words of Amir Gilboa’s poem quoted everywhere, “Suddenly a man wakes up in the morning. He feels he is a nation and begins to walk”. Then we must continue with the next line: “And to all he meets on his way he calls out ‘Shalom!’”

It is easy to criticise the nascent movement, question its moves and doubt it. Indeed it’s always easier to find reasons why not to do something decisive and courageous. But whoever listens to the groan of the demonstrators, not only at Rothschild Boulevard, but also in Tel Aviv’s southern suburbs and the poorer neighbourhoods of Jerusalem and Ashdod and Haifa and Ma’alot-Tarshiha – would understand that maybe we have opened a window to a different future. The time is ripe for such a move, and surprisingly we also have, at last, the troops. Maybe that’s what the young woman meant who came up to me at a demonstration in Jerusalem and said: “Look, the leadership is still hollow, but the people are not.”

I hope and expect we can have a dialogue and debate in the comment thread about what is good or wanting in this essay.

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IDF Arrests Jenin Freedom Theater Actor, Audience Now Awaits Godot…and Pozzo

Sunday, August 7th, 2011
rami hwayel

Rami Hwayel, arrested Freedom Theater actor playing Pozo in Waiting for Godot (Freedom Theater)

The Jenin Freedom Theater, whose founder Juliano Mer-Khamis was murdered several months ago, is about to perform Waiting for Godot under famed Israeli director and human rights activist, Udi Aloni.  But after arrest of one of the production’s leading actors, it will now be waiting for Pozzo as well.  Over the past week, the IDF has arrested the Theater’s manager, the board chair, and now one of its young actors.  Today’s arrest of 20 year-old Rami Awni Hwayel at a West Bank checkpoint, indicates that Israeli authorities are less interested in finding Mer-Khamis’ killer/s than they are in destroying the Theater itself.

The Theater released this statement:

Today at approximately 15:00 hrs one of the third-year graduating students at The Freedom Theatre was taken by the Israeli army at the Shave Shomeron checkpoint between the Palestinian cities, Jenin and Nablus. The student’s name is Rami Awni Hwayel, age 20. He was travelling from Ramallah to Jenin together with his fellow students.

Batool Taleb, one of the female acting students who was in the car with Rami describes what happened: “When they got to our car, they took all our IDs and when they saw Rami’s ID they told him to get out of the car.  Once he was out they immediately handcuffed and blindfolded him and put him in the army jeep.”

The students had been rehearsing for their final graduation project directed by the Israeli-American Director Udi Aloni in Ramallah.

“This is devastating.  Rami is playing the main role in ‘Waiting for Godot’ and doing an amazing job, he’s so dedicated to the work. He just left rehearsals today for the weekend to see his family for Ramadan.

It’s terrible, we want our Pozzo back!”, says Udi Aloni.

Rami is the third member of The Freedom Theatre taken by the Israeli army recently. On the 27th of July at 3:00AM the Head Technician, Adnan Naghnaghiye and the Chairperson, Bilal Saadi, were captured by a large group of Israeli soldiers.

The consequences of these actions only result in more damage to The Freedom Theatre. The theatre once again calls on its friends and supporters around the world to act in order to stop this outrageous harassment by the Israeli army against a cultural establishment.

When I heard of the arrests last week, I didn’t know what to think.  But I presumed that they might have something to do with finding Mer-Khamis’ killer.  But with the arrest of the leading actor of the ensemble’s current production it’s becoming clearer that there is no urgency or even interest on the Israeli side in solving the crime.  This is no longer a homicide investigation if it ever was one.  It has become a campaign of sabotage against the fierce artistic resistance to Occupation represented by Mer-Khamis and his Theater.

In fact, one has to begin to wonder whether given the army’s interest in undermining everything the Theater represents, that his murder might have been commissioned or approved by the Shabak.  To those who scoff at this notion I say: much stranger things have happened.  To this I also add, that authorities who seek to solve a murder do not harass the victims of the crime, as the IDF is doing.  They only do this if they believe the victims themselves are calling too much attention to the inadequacy of the police or the investigation; or that they stand in the way of the army’s maintenance of Occupation itself.

When I heard that Mer-Khamis’ nanny, who witnessed the killing, had been whisked to Israel in order to protect her from the alleged Palestinian killers, I felt some comfort that she was being protected.  But now this news becomes more ominous.  What if Israel had spirited her out of the country to their jurisdiction to influence her testimony against those it sought to railroad for the crime?  If you doubt this possibility then you simply know very little about the Shabak and how it operates.

Add to all this, that the IDF has placed the news of Hwayel’s arrest under strict gag and Israeli media may not report it.  This has to be the worst kept gag order in Israeli history as Israeli journalists and activists have been posting Facebook updates and tweeting about it for hours.

The world must demand of the IDF: what are you doing and why are you doing it?  Solve the crime and if you can’t do that–hands off the Freedom Theater.  FREE Rami Hwayel!  Find the telephone number of the nearest Israeli consulate or embassy and call them demanding Rami’s freedom.  It’s bad enough that Freedom Theater will never see Godot in this production.  Let them at least see their Pozzo.

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J14 Tent Protest Movement Israel’s Wave of Future?

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

NOTE: Thanks to readers who’ve expressed concern about not hearing from me for the past week.  No fear.  My family went away for a week to the Oregon high desert where we enjoyed a rafting trip, hiking, and swimming near Bend.  I found it too difficult to both enjoy a vacation and give the undivided attention that is necessary in writing blog posts.  Not to mention that it’s frustrating trying to use an iPad to do all the technical things you must do when you blog.  The world seems to have muddled along while I was away.  But there are important issues to talk about and so I return to the fray.

*  *

For decades I have thought (along with a number of other observers of Israeli society) that the impact of the existential threat faced by Israel in its battle with its neighbors has created an artificial sense of unity within the country.  The result is that citizens who might ordinarily have little in common politically, band together out of a sense of national solidarity.  This distracts the populace from the profound inequities and flaws that lie at the heart of the country’s identity.  As long as there is a perceived security threat, most Israelis are content to ignore the nation’s flawed democratic system, the oppression faced by Israeli Palestinians, the huge income gaps between the wealthiest and poorest, and the ethnic tension between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews.

I’ve always believed (and indeed feared) that Israel could never resolve the social, economic and political problems with which it is riven until it could make peace.  It’s one of the reasons I’ve always supported the peace movement.  It’s also one of the reasons I’ve always despaired that the most basic of Israel’s problems might ever be addressed because the chance of making peace has always seemed impossibly remote.

j14 tent protest movement

Israel's J14 tent protest movement which began on Tel Aviv's chic Rothschild Blvd. (Uriel Sinai/Getty)

That’s why the J14 tent protest movement that began last month in Tel Aviv and spread to all of Israel’s major cities and towns has given me renewed hope.  Not that I believe all the issues of social justice it reflects (decline in standard of living, education and health, high housing costs, poverty, etc.) will necessarily be resolved by this protest; but rather that Israel’s young people who started this movement influenced by the Egyptian youth of Tahrir Square, understand too that their country needs justice internally for its citizens as much as it needs peace externally with its neighbors.

It has “only” taken the foreign media a month to begin to sense to importance of the J14 phenomenon.  Dimi Reider and Aziz Abu Sarah achieved a breakthrough, publishing an op-ed in the NY Times a few days ago, which was the first murmur from the Gray Lady on the issue.  This too stirred the Great Leviathan, Ethan Bronner from his slumbers, impelling him to write a story about the movement in today’s paper.  As usual, his report veers every which way and never provides a coherent narrative framework within which to understand the social movement.  But at least he’s made a foray, no matter how flawed it may be.

All of this, reinforces how critical it is that Israel proceed on a path that addresses both a domestic social agenda and one that achieves long-term peace and security.  As long as there is a threat from the outside, there can never be peace inside.  Once there is peace, there must be a profound examination of the meaning of the State: what is its purpose?  Who does it serve?  How does it operate?  If we think that the violence Israel faces in its battles with its enemies is great, this may be dwarfed by the monumental struggle that is bound to take place inside Israel over the shape of the future state after peace.

I hope against hope that this great struggle to re-define Israel will result in a democratic state which embraces all its citizens equally regardless of ethnicity, religion or class.  This is more or less what happened in the U.S. during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.  It moved a country that was mired in Jim Crow, segregation, poverty and injustice and transformed it into one that began to transcend the barriers of race.  It was Martin Luther King who helped make American a more democratic and more just society.

Unfortunately, in Israel similar leaders face even greater forces of reaction and repression.  Azmi Bishara, one of the most formidable leaders of the Israeli-Palestinian community was hounded out of the country by the Shabak on trumped-up charges which were never proven.  Whenever a leader arises who might take on a mantle close to the one worn by MLK, the security forces find ways to sabotage him or her.  In a way, this is what the FBI tried to do against King and Malcolm X.  But the Shabak seems far better at the job perhaps because it faces fewer obstacles in the form of democratic guarantees and civil rights.

One senses that Israel’s leaders like Bibi Netanyahu understand the danger they face in retaining power, which is why they would rather fight wars with Arabs than address the domestic ills which lurk just beneath the surface and threaten something like a civil war when they finally are addressed.

Conversely, the leadership of the tent protests senses perhaps unconsciously how fraught the national security issue is and so far has been content to allow it to sit on the periphery of consciousness.  The injustice of Occupation, the enormous economic burden it places on the Israeli economy, settlements, ultra-Orthodox entitlements, all these issues are present but not central to this social justice movement.  For this reason, J14 leaves some Israeli progressives a bit discomfited.  They realize that a movement that addresses only one of these issues and ignores the other, is doing a grave disservice to political reality.  But many of these same progressives also realize that a movement that blazes away at both issues simultaneously might sentence itself to political oblivion.  It’s a very fine line you walk in Israeli politics.

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Maariv Political Correspondent Warns of ‘Military Adventure’ to Distract from Tent Protest Movement

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

In the past week, Israel has witnessed the largest mass social protest movement in decades. 150,000 demonstrated a few nights ago in cities and towns throughout Israel against the rising cost of living and deterioration in virtually every aspect of Israeli quality of life including massive cuts to health care and education; and massive increases in housing costs. What is different from previous political protests is that this is a middle class uprising against the government and its social and economic policies.

This movement has also been heavily influenced by the social protests of the Arab Spring. Demonstrators’ slogans have made pointed reference to Tahrir Square and the fact that “it can happen here” too. Social media are playing a similar role in helping organize the events just as they did elsewhere in the Middle East. As much as some might wish Israel to be an island apart in this region, it is very much a part of it. And to the extent that this continues there is hope that Israel will eventually succeed at integrating itself.

Israel’s loudest supporters don’t hesitate to remind the world of the success of the “Israeli Tiger” in all manner of fields of economic endeavor. But what is left out is the massive discrepancy between Israeli haves and have-nots. The fact that one-quarter of Israelis live beneath the poverty line. That one-half of children do as well. The disparities in relative wealth between the richest and poorest are among the highest in the world.

This is now coming back to haunt Bibi Netanyahu, a politician who made his reputation spouting Friedman economic slogans and giving the cold shoulder to anyone who shed tears for the under class. Now hundreds of thousands are turning a cold shoulder to Bibi’s economic theories.

It is ironic and unfortunate that this movement seems to have little awareness of the financial price to be paid by Israel for the burden of Occupation and military budgets which contribute to the impoverishment of Israelis, whether rich or poor (except perhaps those on the defense industry gravy train). Likewise, there is no awareness of the injustice of Occupation or the fact that justice for Palestine would also enable Israel to pursue new economic and social initiatives.

Regardless of all this, the tent protest movement has the very real chance of toppling this benighted government. Now, I have little belief that a new government would do a much better job of addressing these same issues. But just about anything (except a Yisrael Beitenu government) would be better than what now governs the country.

All that being said, it is important to note the very real possibility that Bibi will seek a military distraction to relieve the pressure generated by the social protest movement. In fact, Maariv political correspondent Shalom Yerushalmi writes in today’s edition that Bibi may be contemplating doing just that:

Don’t Mount a Military Initiative

We warn [you] of dubious military threats. The nation boils and Knesset is in recess.

Our politicians are cynical enough to initiate a political or security initiative designed to destroy the protests threatening to overturn them. We are here to restrain them from pursuing this.

Every such proposal must be examined by seven sets of eyes (a reference to the senior ministerial committee which approves all major government initiatives), my friends. Every unnecessary heating up at the borders will arouse immediate fears. Every military threat which they devise for us will be examined by those seven sets of eyes. Every military initiative will be approached will skeptically, especially at this moment. The people are no fools and have proved it in the past few weeks.

Do you harbor doubts about Yerushalmi’s warning? You need look no farther than recent news from Lebanon, which tells us that someone (and who might that be??) may’ve planted a bomb in the Hezbollah compound in Dachiyeh, which wounded Samir Kuntar. He is the notorious (to Israelis) terrorist who several decades ago participated in the attack which brought the death of five Israeli civilians, including two small children.

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IDF War Against Palestinian Theater

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
freedom theater jenin

Freedom Theater, Jenin

Not content to wage war on armed militants (of whom there are very few these days in the West Bank), earlier today the famed special forces of the Israeli army staged a daring raid on Jenin’s Freedom Theater.  In a bold tactical stroke, they woke up a night watchman at 3:30AM by throwing hunks of concrete at the theater entrance.  They then strip searched him and made him afraid for his life.  Those bold national heroes then arrested a Theater board member and abused the theater general manager, a British citizen.  When he called the Israeli civil administration, which has sometimes been known to intercede in the most egregious situations, they hung up on him.

I can’t figure out what’s so dangerous about the Theater’s work.  Perhaps the performances of Orwell’s Animal Farm in France?  Or The Magic Flute?  Is there a message of subversion and a call for insurrection I missed in them?  Or perhaps they didn’t like the message of support for the Gaza flotilla on its website?

Given that the founder of Freedom Theater, Juliano Mer-Khamis was assassinated outside the venue a few months ago, this comes as a brutish insult from the Israeli authorities.  First the Occupation criminalizes resistance through violence.  Then resistance through non-violence.  Then they criminalize art and expression.

Everyday Israelis believe that somehow these acts of oppression are located far from them.  What they don’t understand is that this rot infects from the outside and works its way in.  There will come a time, and not very long, when they’ll criminalize artistic expression inside Israel and Israeli Jewish theater managers will be arrested for expressing themselves.  That is, if Israeli cultural institutions haven’t become so co-opted that they no longer offer an alternative to the prevailing nationalist consensus.

H/t George Hale, Jared Maslin, Suzysauce.

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Palestinian Entrepreneur Key to Hamas-Fatah Unity Deal, Talks Tough in Maariv Interview

Sunday, June 12th, 2011
munib al masri

Munib al-Masri, Palestinian entrepreneur instrumental in orchestrating Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, stands before his Venetian-style villa on Mt. Gerizim (Reuven Castro)

Robert Fisk has penned a major story about billionaire businessman Munib al-Masri, the wealthiest Palestinian perhaps in the Middle East, who played a key role in bringing together Hamas and Fatah for the unity deal which they signed last month in Egypt.  What’s especially interesting about this is that al-Masri provides his gloss on the meaning of the agreement for Israeli-Palestinian relations, and he reveals just how many separate power centers, nations and political-intelligence operatives were consulted to make the deal happen.

When you finish reading this (most of you anyway) will want to tip your hat to a man who pulled off one of the greatest deals of the past decade, at least, in Palestinian politics.  He did all this from a base he himself created called the Palestine Forum, a group of distinguished Palestinian independents interested in bridging the gaps between the two warring parties.  The Forum worked intensively and diligently for four years to bring this about.  Partially through its own creativity and perseverance, partially through the parties coming to realize that an agreement lay in their own interest, and perhaps most important of all due to the propitious events of the Arab Spring which worked in their favor–they created a Palestinian political miracle.

The following is part of the conversation with Khaled Meshal that preceded the final acceptance of the agreement:

We told him the government has to be of national unity — on the agreement that we would be able to carry out elections and lift the embargo on Gaza and reconstruct Gaza, that we have to abide by international law, by the UN Charter and UN resolutions…He agreed that resistance must only be ‘in the national interest of the country’ – it would have to be ‘aqlaqi’ – ethical. There would be no more rocket attacks on civilians. In other words, no more rocket attacks from Gaza.”…Hamas agreed on the 1967 border, effectively acknowledging Israel’s existence, and to the reference to the ‘resistance.’

Then al-Masri summarizes his own understanding of the agreement, and the reason why it finessed the question of Hamas participation in a government by appointing a transitional one that would not include Fatah or Hamas affiliated members:

If Hamas was in the government, it would have to recognise the State of Israel. But if they were not, they would not recognise anything. “It’s not fair to say ‘Hamas must do the following’, Masri says…”As long as they are not in the Palestinian government, Hamas are just a political party and can say anything they want. So America should be prepared to see Hamas agreeing on the formation of the government. That government will abide by UN resolutions – and international law. It’s got to be mutual. Both sides realised they might miss the boat of the Arab spring. It wasn’t me who did this – it was a compilation of many efforts. If it was not for Egypt and the willingness of the two Palestinian groups, this would not have happened.” In the aftermath of the agreement, Hamas and Abbas’ loyalists agreed to stop arresting members of each side.

…1967 borders means that Hamas is accepting Israel and the ‘resistance’ initiative means an end to Gaza rockets on Israel. International law and UN resolutions mean peace can be completed and a Palestinian state brought into being.

Ben Caspit has written his own Hebrew version of this article, which includes a searing interview with the Palestine businessman and supporter of the Palestinian national movement.  I find this  interesting, because Caspit is a generally a supporter of Israel’s far right.  It’s hard for me to understand Caspit’s interest in profiling the Fatah-Hamas unity deal in a positive light given the Israeli government’s absolutely allergic reaction to it.  But hey, perhaps Caspit’s changing his tune politically or his intelligence sources are finding more to like in the deal than we realize.  Whatever the reason, it is a positive development that Caspit is conveying to his readers the thoughts of a major Palestinian figure who explains that Hamas, while not necessarily Israel’s friend, is not the demon it’s made out to be by Bibi & Co.  This is an important message for Israelis to here.

But al-Masri was not kind or diplomatic in his words.  When Caspi asked why Israelis should believe there can be peace with Palestinians when they had just entered into an agreement with a movement sworn to destroy Israel, al-Masri replied:

This is foolishness.  You disappoint me every time anew.  You’re simply unwilling to listen to the other side, only to yourselves.  You go to Washington and persuade members of Congress, make a big show of it, instead of quieting down and listening.  If you really listened to Khaled Meshal’s speech at the reconciliation ceremony in Egypt you would’ve heard three fundamental principles. These are the three principles which we worked on with Hamas and for which we achieved recognition.

Hamas agreed to the 67 lines as a basis for a settlement.  It gave Abu Mazen the credit [if he succeeds] and opportunity to continue the peace process.  And Hamas agreed that resistance could only happen in a national context [as part of a process worked out among the parties].  No longer would every armed group carry out its own military attacks.

These are three enormous achievements.  Similarly, they agreed to stop rocket fire from Gaza.  So tell me, what’s so bad about this for starters?  Why do you have to respond in a panic as you have done?

Hasn’t the time come for you to understand what Palestinians want?  They want something simple.  The 22% of the territory of Palestine about which we’ve agreed to compromise [67 borders].  What was agreed in Oslo.  Our share of Jerusalem [East Jerusalem].  The creation of two states in harmony and friendship.  Palestinians want to end the Occupation.  Believe me that I’m realistic and know what I’m talking about.  This isn’t propaganda.  These are facts.

You talk about peace.  But you don’t really want peace.  Look, almost every one of your senior intelligence officials when the leave their positions all of a sudden become men of peace.  I ask myself: why doesn’t this happen when they’re still serving?  And what happens to them when they come into government [that they oppose peace]?

Caspit continues with a bit of sophistry in questioning al-Masri, claiming that Israelis have learned to believe Arabs when they say the “unpleasant things” they do against Israel,  and that these words are not a basis of negotiation but of continuing war.  To which the Palestinian replies:

Not true.  You see what’s convenient for you to see.  You tell me what’s wrong with the Palestinian people uniting in one leadership?  It’s good for us and good for you and good for the peace process.  How can it be since the split between Hamas and Fatah, that you can claim it’s impossible to negotiate with Palestinians since you don’t know who you should be talking with, and suddenly when we do unite you say [to Fatah]: “It’s either them or us.”

You have a lot of nerve.  We united in order to show that there was a real Palestinian partner, that there is a real chance for peace.  And after we achieve such monumental things, you respond by disseminating such twisted facts.

…You simply cannot create a Palestinian state without such a unity deal.  So we united.  And what do you do?  Shut the door instead of pouncing on the opportunity.

Among the other interesting things revealed in Caspit’s story is that al-Masri’s grandson, who was named after him, was severely wounded by an IDF bullet in the Nakba Day protests along the border with Southern Lebanon.    He dropped everything and flew to Beirut to sit by his bedside.  Though he’d lost many friends to the Intifada and other military operations, the injury to his grandson was especially hard because the latter represented to him the future.  The boy had been 15-20 meters inside Lebanese territory when he took a sniper’s bullet in the back.  He lost a kidney and his spleen, his spinal cord is severed.  He lost a great deal of blood.  He took a dum-dum bullet which caused grave damage.

Caspit is so tone-deaf that he asks al-Masri why a boy who has everything in life including great wealth would take part in an assault on the Israeli fence.  To which the long-time supporter of the Palestinian national resistance replies:

Because he is a member of a generation which does not forget.  Golda and Ben Gurion, your leaders, said that the old would die and the young forget and so the problem of the refugees would be solved.  But the young haven’t forgotten.  He’s already the third generation.  And he still wants to return to his homeland.  He still dreams about it.  You don’t understand this.  You think that if you refuse to acknowledge it, it will go away.  But it won’t.  It’s a problem that must be solved.

Caspit asks, again cluelessly, whether the boy regrets what he did.  To which the grandfather says:

No, he plans to return along with his friends.  They will not give up.

…You cannot force people to give up their aspirations to return to their homes.  It’s a natural wish.  You also cannot dodge the moral and human problem resulting from the creation of the State of Israel and its decision to come [to this region].  The only way to solve this is the sit down and talk.  The 2002 Arab peace initiative is a good basis to start.  But to my sadness, you Israelis are boors.  You don’t want to hear about such things.  You only want to think your distorted thoughts which aren’t based on real recognition of us, but rather on narrow-mindedness, boorishness and prejudice.

What are you afraid of?  The Arab Initiative says the refugee problem has to be resolved in a way that is just and mutually agreed.  That means that you will have to agree to the solution as well [or it won't work].  But Bibi first must recognize that there is a problem.  And he must say to himself: it was caused because of our actions.  And we have a moral and national obligation [to solve it].  First admit that you have a problem, and then we can talk about solving it with the help of all the nations, even the Arab world, all of us together…

I am sure that we can come up with a solution acceptable to the refugess and to you.  But it’s necessary to be creative and flexible.  It is possible.  Why not try?

Caspit, again naïvely, asks why then the Palestinians won’t return to the negotiating table when Bibi has called upon them to do so many times.  Al-Masri responds:

Bibi first tells us “No.” Count the number of rejections in his Washington speech: No to 67 borders, no to Jerusalem, no to refugees.  No, no, no.  You want to talk and in the meantime you continue to build.  Since Rabin’s murder do you know how many houses you built in the Territories and in Jerusalem?  And you want us to sit back and clap our hands?  It’s not fair.  You are pigs.  You want to swallow everything, eat the entire cake, and then you want peace as well.  You have quite a healthy appetite.  You on the one hand want peace and on the other want to continue what you’ve been doing.

…If you don’t stop, you’ll turn into South Africa.  It will go in the direction of a single state.  You’ll regret you didn’t accept Nelson Mandela.  You’ll long for a two state solution.  Why don’t you see this?

When the Maariv reporter asks whether al-Masri doesn’t think Israel has a right to fear the consequences of paying the price for peace given its history, the Palestinian says:

No, you have a Shoah mentality.  Leave the ghetto.  God Almighty, enough already.  You talk about the price of peace?  What about us?  We’ve lost the right to 78% of our lands.  Most of our people live as refugees in other lands.  And you want to talk about the price YOU pay?

The entire interview is worth reading.  I’ve translated most of it, but the man is so smart, so sensible and Caspit is so damn, well you heard the man, boorish.  It’s a perfect exemplar of the mess we face.  But at least you’ll read the ideas of a Palestinian who see clearly and is far-sighted.  Would that there was an Israeli leader who saw as clearly.

Caspit also notes that al-Masri may be a candidate for a major position in the transitional government since he is not affiliated with either side directly and so would be eligible for participation.  At the age of 75, he may be willing to answer the call of his people to broker and ensure the success of this unity deal.

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Former Israeli Defense Minister Warns of BDS, Sanctions

Thursday, June 9th, 2011
benyamin ben eliezer

MK Benyamin Ben Eliezer, quoth the raven, "BDS"

Usually in mainstream Israeli political discourse, BDS is the “love” that dare not speak its name.  If the Knesset is seeking to pass a law to criminalize references to the Nakba, all the more so references to the terrible act of ‘delegitimization’ (what an ugly, ungainly word) that is BDS.  It’s simply treif in polite political discourse.  Which is why comments made this week in the Knesset by Labor MK Benyamin Ben Eliezer in retort to Bibi Netanyayhu’s triumphalizing about his recent hero’s welcome in Washington, DC, are all the more shocking.

Ben Elizezer, a former IDF commander and defense minister, wasn’t shy about telling this emperor he had no clothes:

“Listen, Bibi,” MK Benjamin Ben-Eliezer growled, “I congratulate you on your hug from Congress, but it will not take us off the path to confrontation. Our situation in Europe is very bad. President Obama said everything we wanted him to say. Now you have to announce that Israel will vote for a Palestinian state in the UN this September … As a former industry and trade minister, I tell you: The markets are closing. We will suffer a devastating economic blow.”

I asked Ben-Eliezer how Netanyahu, who likes him, reacted to his tough talk. “He nodded his head,” Ben-Eliezer said.

While Bibi’s supporters may respond that this is much ado about nothing as Israel’s economy seems to be chugging along just fine, it is true that markets are closing just as Ben Elizer said.  And they will continue to close.  Israel’s multi-national conglomerates which depend on international markets will gradually see those markets become hostile to them as Israel continues to defy the international community regarding the Occupation.  Eventually, Israel will find itself in a situation like that of South Africa.

What Israelis–who sometimes remind me of teenagers by tending to see themselves as invincible–don’t realize is that they, like Blanche DuBois, depend on the kindness of strangers.  That is, Israeli companies market themselves to the world and the success of the export economy is what powers the engine of Israeli growth.  What Israelis further don’t realize, is that while Israeli products are useful and even important in some fields, the world can survive without them.  There is no Google or Facebook or even Microsoft among Israeli companies.  The world economy will not come to an end if there is a massive international boycott of Israeli companies or products.

So Fuad is warning Israel that come September, when Palestine is recognized by the General Assembly, and Obama’s friendly veto in the Security Council is for naught, and Palestine begins to clamor for sanctions against Israel because it retains the territory of a fellow UN member, the body will eventually have to act.  It may not happen immediately.  It may even take months or a year.  But eventually, sanctions will take hold as a viable political concept regardless of how Israel acts to defend itself or repeal the assault.

The former Israeli trade minister is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.  He’s warning Bibi & Co. what’s ahead as they maintain the same posture of rejectionism and intransigence which have stood them in such good stead till now.  It won’t be so easy down the road.  There will be a price to pay just as South African paid a price.  Unfortunately, I don’t see an Israeli deKlerk waiting in the wings to rescue Israel from pariah status and being blackballed among the nations.

If we wait another three years, and Meir Dagan continues speaking truth to power, then perhaps he has the pragmatism.  But three years is a long time in the Middle East and in Israeli politics, an eternity.

 

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