Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC
Hi All,
6 items below.
1a is all that I found till now in the Israeli press about Ian McEwan’s speech, which was tonight rather than last night, as I mistakenly thought. 1b is a more detailed report on what he said. I have not changed my mind since yesterday: He could have made exactly the same points from abroad while boycotting Israel rather than coming here to accept the prize. Nevertheless, I suppose some slight credit is due him that at least he did go to see for himself a small portion of what is occurring in East Jerusalem, and did criticize. He could have avoided doing both.
Item 2 reports that Omar Barghouti has not been issued a visa for a planned book tour trip to the United States. Is the U.S. now adopting Israel’s tactics, except that Barghouti’s criticism is not of the U.S. but of Israel, so that if he is kept out this step must be politically motivated.
Item 3, ‘Molding fascists, one student at a time’ is Zvi Bar’el’s commentary on the Israeli Minister of Education’s program of sending classes of pupils to Hebron to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Interesting argument, which he ends by stating that what needs to be gotten rid of is the present Minister of Education, with which I agree. As for the tomb, I believe that
Bar’el is too optimistic that teachers would properly prepare their pupils for such a tour. Some, as he says, would probably be instead a very few.
Item 4. “Mideast can go to hell” is an interesting speculation about what at present moves Obama’s acts. Who knows. Perhaps the writer is correct, that Obama has indeed given up on the Palestine-Israel affair, and is now doing only what internal opinion tells him to do.
Item 5 tells us that 3000 Palestinians demonstrated and why.
Renowned British novelist Ian McEwan has accepted an Israeli literary prize in Jerusalem with harsh criticism of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
At an acceptance ceremony for the Jerusalem Prize, McEwan praised Israel’s technological and artistic advances but asked: “Where is Israel’s political creativity?” (AP)
English author Ian McEwan speaks at the awarding ceremony of the Jerusalem Prize, Israel’s highest literary honor for foreign writers, at the Jerusalem International book fair in Jerusalem, Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011. McEwan has accepted an Israeli literary prize in Jerusalem with harsh criticism of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
JERUSALEM — Renowned British novelist Ian McEwan accepted an Israeli literary prize in Jerusalem Sunday with harsh criticism of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, after British writers called on the author to stay home because of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians.
At an acceptance ceremony for the Jerusalem Prize, McEwan praised Israel’s technological and artistic advances but asked, “Where is Israel’s political creativity?”
The novelist rebuked the “nihilism” of the Islamic militant Hamas, which has called for the destruction of Israel and has fired rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns. He also criticized Israel with the same term, saying “it is nihilism to make a long-term prison camp of the Gaza Strip.”
Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of the seaside Palestinian territory since Hamas took over the enclave by force in 2007. Israel, the U.S. and EU consider Hamas a terror organization.
McEwan, author of works including the best-selling book “Atonement,” has won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics’ Circle Fiction Award, among other literary prizes.
The Jerusalem Prize, Israel’s most prestigious award for foreign writers, is awarded biannually. Other authors who have received the Jerusalem Prize include Simone de Beauvoir, Milan Kundera, Arthur Miller and Haruki Murakami.
A jury selected McEwan “for his love of people and concern for their right to self-realization,” said jury chairman Menahem Ben-Sasson, president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
McEwan told a Jerusalem audience, including Israeli President Shimon Peres and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, that the “distinguished judges” of the jury “seem to be demanding that I mention, and I must oblige, the continued evictions and demolitions and relentless purchases of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem.”
Except for one man who booed the novelist as he delivered his speech, the audience warmly applauded McEwan.
The author was under pressure by a group of British writers not to travel to Israel and to reject the prize because of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians.
The writers urged McEwan to join an international movement advocating a boycott of Israel.
In response, McEwan wrote that he is concerned about the situation of the Palestinians but said he supported “dialogue, engagement, and looking for ways in which literature, especially fiction, with its impulse to enter other minds, can reach across political divides.”
On Friday, McEwan attended a weekly protest against Jewish settlers who bought a building and evicted longtime Arab residents of an east Jerusalem neighborhood.
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2. [forwarded by Ofer N]
Palestinian Author Kept from Entering U.S. for “BDS” Speaking Tour
Omar Barghouti, Leading Spokesperson of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) Campaign Against Israel, Kept from Entering U.S. for Book Release Tour
Despite Obama Administration’s Promise to Not Engage in “Ideological Exclusion” Prevalent in Bush Era
CHICAGO, IL – February 18 – Effectively canceling a planned speaking tour, the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem has inexplicably delayed the granting of a visa for Omar Barghouti, founding member of the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) campaign, due to tour the United States this April for the release of his new book, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.
Nobel Peace Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called the book “lucid and morally compelling… perfectly timed to make a major contribution to this urgently needed global campaign for justice, freedom and peace.” Former President of the UN General Assembly, Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann called it “timely and responsibly written by a man who understands that creative nonviolence is the only way out of the dire situation in Palestine.””
In recent years, numerous foreign scholars and experts have been subject to visa delays and denials that have prohibited them from speaking and teaching in the U.S.—a process the American Civil Liberties Union describes as “Ideological Exclusion,” which they say violates Americans’ First Amendment right to hear constitutionally protected speech by denying foreign scholars, artists, politicians and others entry to the United States. Foreign nationals who have recently been denied visas include Fulbright scholar Marixa Lasso; Iraqi doctor Riyadh Lafta, who disputed the official Iraqi civilian death numbers in the respected British medical journal The Lancet; respected South African scholar and vocal Iraq War critic Dr. Adam Habib, and Oxford’s Tariq Ramadan, who have both recently received visas to speak in the United States after many years of delays and denials.
For the release of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, Barghouti has standing invitations for events in New York City, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Brandeis University, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. Barghouti studied, lived and worked in the United States for 11 years before permanently relocating to Jerusalem. He attended Columbia University, receiving both Bachelors and Masters degrees from the school. His U.S. born child, whom he needs a visa to visit, currently attends college in Indiana. Between 2005-2010, Barghouti visited the U.S. extensively without incident, on a 5 year visa, which only recently expired.
Barghouti’s publisher, Anthony Arnove of Haymarket Books, stated that “It’s essential authors be able to travel to promote their books and ideas, and as publishers we believe the free exchange of ideas is vital to a democratic culture. We find it frustrating that Omar’s visa is being delayed and potentially denied for political reasons.”
Barghouti tour sponsors are calling on supporters to contact the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem and the Department of State to ask them to fulfill the promise from the Obama Administration of “promoting the global marketplace of ideas” and grant Barghouti’s visa immediately.
Omar Barghouti is available for interview. To arrange, contact Sarah Macaraeg at sarah@haymarketbooks.org, 312-315-8476. Barghouti is the author of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, releasing from Haymarket Books April 1, 2011.
On Facebook: Join the group “Let Omar Barghouti Be Heard” and invite your friends
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3. Haaretz,
February 20, 2011
Israeli education: Molding fascists, one student at a time
The call to oppose the visit to the Tomb of the Patriarchs is a blatant expression of the public’s frustration with the galloping takeover by racist and fascist ideas, thought up by right-wing politicians.
Dread of the Tomb of the Patriarchs has come over us. Innocent and pure Israeli students will fall victim to a cunning ploy by the education minister. They will be “forced” to see the Tomb of the Patriarchs with their own eyes. That’s it. The days are over when students were introduced to the tomb only via naive, heartwarming drawings from the 19th century that added Arab peasants and maybe a palm tree.
The students’ fresh innocence will be crushed violently when they see Jews praying near the tombs of the patriarchs and the matriarchs. They will not know how the tomb was conquered by these Jews, and God forbid they may think that the tomb is an Israeli asset, part of the imaginary sovereignty that Israel has imposed on the occupied territories.
Let them go and see the tomb, and then Hebron’s Beit Hadassah compound, its Avraham Avinu neighborhood, and then on to Kiryat Arba. These aren’t pornographic sites children should be warned about. Because what are we thinking – that if they don’t see them, nationalism will be eradicated? That fascism will dissolve? Let them go and see. Because next to the Tomb of the Patriarchs they will also pass – there is no way to avoid it – the separation fence that surrounds Bethlehem on your way to Hebron. And near the lines at the checkpoints, they will see the shops in the Hebron market that were closed down because the settlers demanded it.
After all, what do they know about Hebron? Anyone who believes that Kiryat Arba and its invasive satellites are part of the State of Israel will not alter his opinion because of the trip. And anyone who does not recognize this deadly infection caused by the Jewish settlement in the heart of an Arab city will not be able to recognize it any better because of what his teachers tell him, because they haven’t bothered to tell him about it yet. Students will continue to think that the Tomb of the Patriarchs is the holiest of holies, and only when they grow up will they be able to go there on their own, perhaps with their military unit, and see the site for the first time. And what then? Will they be less nationalist or less nationalist as adults?
Let them travel to see the real-estate atrocity that is known as Har Homa, Efrat and Tekoa, Nokdim and Gush Etzion. Let them understand that that same Gush Etzion is not a handful of homes that can be removed with a bulldozer but a huge complex whose future will depend, in a few years, on these young visitors. Because neither the Tomb of the Patriarchs nor Gush Etzion will cease to be part of their lives in the near future. It will no longer be possible to cheat students with ideas of magic solutions, whether from the right or left.
The call to prevent visits to the Tomb of the Patriarchs is strange because it’s like encouraging ignorance. The damage caused by the education minister and those like him in the government is much greater in the classrooms, the ones that can’t be penetrated by a debate of ideas. These classrooms can’t be penetrated by what the eyes see – something that could stir, even in a single student, puzzlement and perhaps even criticism.
True, there are serious concerns that the students will only hear the nationalist narrative when they visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs and will only learn about the Jewish monopoly on historical justice. But there is also the chance that one of the teachers will know enough to present them with a different truth. Perhaps someone there will make them ask their guide a few questions; for example, why can’t Muslims always pray near Abraham’s tomb; isn’t Abraham also considered an Arab “patriarch,” not just a Jewish one? Why are there no Arabs near the Tomb of the Patriarchs? And maybe some of the teachers will properly prepare their students for such a visit.
The wish to prevent the pupils from visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs is about as strange as wanting to prevent American pupils from visiting Native American reservations, lest their guides explain that this is the humanitarian lifestyle that white Americans have granted them. The call to oppose the visit to the tomb, in addition to its patronizing attitude toward students, is a blatant expression of the public’s frustration with the galloping takeover by racist and fascist ideas, thought up by right-wing politicians.
So let them travel to the tomb to see. Let them wrap themselves in an Israeli flag, sing Hatikva, spit on an Arab passing by and avenge the blood of Baruch Goldstein. Fascism can’t be kept at home. Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar must be removed, not the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
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4, Ynet,
February 20, 2011
American Policy
Mideast can go to hell
Op-ed: Following midterm elections defeat, Obama’s foreign policy dictated by domestic voices
The American veto in the United Nations Security Council over the weekend is prompting Israel’s leaders to shut off their ears and mind. They insist on not understanding the message arriving from Washington: The Middle East can go to hell; the only thing that matters today is the presidential elections.
The American veto was meant to appease the domestic needs of President Obama. The veto does not carry any positive message for the region. The opposite is true. And so, status quo fans in Israel, as well as Arab objectors to the diplomatic process, can rub their hands with glee. They win. The impasse shall persist. The Americans gave up on us. Should the diplomatic process resume, it will only happen after the next presidential elections, or after another wave of bloodshed in the region. Depends what come first.
Congress was the one behind the White House order to impose a veto on the Security Council decision to condemn Israel in the face of ongoing construction in the territories. When word got out regarding the upcoming condemnation, letters and calls were directed at the president and secretary of state by senior legislators from both parties. The letter urging the administration to impose a veto was signed within 10 hours by 100 legislators from both parties.
With this letter on his desk, the president engaged in a 50-minute conversation with Mahmoud Abbas, in an attempt to convince him to withdraw the condemnation proposal. However, Abbas was already trapped by his own decisions – he submitted the proposal, failed, and grew weaker.
In the second half of his term in office, Obama chose a new strategy. From the moment he discovered the extent of the midterm election failure, he has done everything in order to counterbalance the hostility against his policy. He went ahead with personnel changes meant to remove the most blatant and staunch ideologists among his loyalists. He set a new agenda: The era of clashes with the republicans is over. This is true both for domestic issues such as the budget and economy, and also in respect to matters of foreign policy such as the Middle East.
Clinging to diplomatic impasse
This is also the explanation for the American position vis-à-vis Mubarak in the first days of the Egypt uprising. There was no strategy, but rather, it was all about listening to domestic voices, from within the US. The left wing of the Democratic Party and the conservative camps in the Republican Party – each for different ideological reasons – view the democratic process as the solution to all global problems. With people domestically screaming democracy for the Arab world, Barack Obama told him Mideast experts to throw their papers to the garbage. For me, domestic politics is more important than Mubarak’s future, he said.
The same is true for the veto. The US did not impose a veto because it supports Israel’s policy. The House wanted to prevent the condemnation, and Obama sought to appease the House. Moreover, at this time the White House says that with this bunch of loonies in the Middle East, the diplomatic process will not be going anywhere regardless.
When Defense Minister Ehud Barak was meeting with the secretary of state, the national security advisor, and American defense minister last week, they expressed deep frustration. Yet today, given the new policy, they can no longer exert pressure.
Nonetheless, they fail to understand the Israeli indifference, which clings to the diplomatic impasse precisely now when the entire Mideast is in turmoil. You and us have a joint interest, they told Barak; propose a credible diplomatic plan for regional peace. That will save Abbas, it will save Jordanian King Abdullah, and it will remove the radical Islamist threat in Egypt ahead of the September elections. When the world around you shakes, don’t let the vacuum take over – because hostile elements will come in.
If the Palestinians don’t show up, it’s their problem. Yet you, Israel, would be able to at least minimize the de-legitimization wave against you in the world, the Americans said.
Barak brought this message back to Israel, and officials in Jerusalem added another layer of cement to their brains.
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5. Haaretz,
February 20, 2011
Nearly 3,000 Palestinians rally against U.S. veto on settlement resolution
Mass demonstration in Ramallah backed by members of Abbas’ Fatah faction; Palestinian PM decries Obama’s defense of the veto as ‘offensive’, offers concessions to Hamas in apparent show of frustration over U.S. policy.
Nearly 3,000 Palestinians demonstrated Sunday in the West Bank city of Ramallah to protest at the United States veto of a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian media reported.
Some of the demonstrators chanted “Get Out, Obama!” in the Al Manara main square of the city. Their protests were backed by members of Fatah, the party of the Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.
Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Alul called the veto an expression “against the Palestinian people and its freedom, and it supports Israeli injustice, oppression and occupation,” according to Palestinian news agency Maan.
The U.S. voted Friday against a resolution at the United Nations Security Council which condemned Israeli settlements, describing them as illegal, and called on Israel to stop all building activities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The other 14 Security Council members voted in favor.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Fayyad angrily denounced the U.S. veto earlier Sunday. “The Americans have chosen to be alone in disrupting the internationally backed Palestinian efforts,” Fayyad said.
Palestinian officials quoted President Barack Obama as telling them that if he had gone forward with the measure, Israel’s supporters in Congress had threatened to withhold financial aid to the Palestinians.
“I found this offensive,” Fayyad said. “We are not willing to compromise our national enterprise for a fistful of dollars, however big or small.”
The Palestinians receive more than $200 million a year in direct financial assistance from the U.S., making Washington the largest individual donor to Fayyad’s government.
Also on Sunday, the Palestinian prime minister appealed to the rival Hamas group to join him in a united government, offering to allow the Islamic militants to retain security control of the Gaza Strip until elections later this year.
Fayyad’s proposal to his Islamic militant rivals reflected the Palestinians’ deep frustration over Washington’s handling of Mideast peace efforts.
Any partnership with the anti-Israel Hamas would likely draw international criticism and all but rule out hopes of reviving negotiations. The U.S., EU and Israel shun Hamas as a terror organization.
But with peace talks stalled for nearly four months and few hopes for getting them back on track, Fayyad’s Western-backed government in the West Bank is now turning its focus to internal politics.
The Palestinian areas have been divided between two rival governments since Hamas violently seized control of Gaza nearly four years ago. Reunification is essential for the Palestinians, who hope to establish a state that includes both areas.
Fayyad told The Associated Press in an interview that the split has gone on too long. “We need to move to end the split,” he said during a tour of the northern West Bank, where he inaugurated new schools and roads and condemned Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes it says are illegally built.
President Mahmoud Abbas announced earlier this month that he would hold long overdue parliamentary and presidential elections in September.
The move appeared to be motivated by pro-democracy protests erupting throughout the Middle East as well as the leak of secret negotiating documents to the Al-Jazeera TV station. Those documents showed that Abbas had offered generous concessions to Israel during past rounds of peace talks. The disclosures embarrassed Palestinian leaders.
Hamas has said it would boycott the elections unless there is reconciliation first. Abbas has since taken the view that elections could not be held without Gaza.
Fayyad, a U.S.-educated economist who enjoys international respect, refused to say whether elections would be canceled. Instead, he said his focus is to work with Hamas to make the elections take place.
Fayyad acknowledged that many details need to be worked out, but he said that as long as Hamas continues to respect a cease-fire with Israel, all other areas of disagreement could be bridged.
Published today (updated) 20/02/2011 17:36 NABLUS (Ma’an) — A mob of extremist settlers stormed Palestinian farmland and uprooted olive trees near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
Residents of an an illegal outpost “waged war on olive trees uprooting 270 using chainsaws and other means,” in Duma and Qusra villages, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank.
Of the trees uprooted, 100 belonged to Abdul-Razzaq Dawabsha, 100 to Muhammad and Shahada Dawabsha and 70 to Sabir Dawabsha, Daghlas said.
On Tuesday, settlers shot a Palestinian teenager in his abdomen as he worked on his land near Jalud village, west of Qusra, Daglas said.
Wa’el Mahmud Ayed, 17, was transferred to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.
On Monday, the outgoing director of UNRWA operations Barbara Shenstone planted olive tree saplings on land slated for confiscation in Burin, south of Nablus.
Shenstone said “planting olive trees was a way to protect Palestinian lands from confiscation” by Israeli settlers.