This evening’s 8 items are a mixed bag—some good some bad, mostly the latter. Actually only items 1 and 8 can be classified as positive, 8 being a request.
The worst for today is item 7 which relates that 4 Israelis were killed by a drive-by gunner or gunners. Hamas has taken the credit. The event is not good—not for the 4 Israelis who were killed, not for Palestinians, surely not for those Palestinians who believe in non-violent opposition, some of whom have paid with their lives. This event won’t make any difference in the ‘talks.’ Few people believe that they will succeed anyhow. But Palestinian villages in the area of the shootings will undoubtedly witness IOF nightly invasions until the IOF believes that it has found the perpetrators. Many innocent people will pay for the crime of a few. Sad.
Item 1 reveals that by this morning 150 academics, artists, authors had opted to stand with the actors who refuse to act in the colonies. May their numbers increase by leaps and bounds. Perhaps if they become sufficiently numerous, then the government will think twice before punishing them. But this is not certain.
Item 2 justifiably comments on the vulgarity of responses that our public figures utter.
Items 3 and 4 are about education. 3 is an Haaretz editorial that reveals that in Israel education is indoctrination rather than education. This has always been the case, only now it is more blatant.
The title of item 4 reveals the essence: of 290 students in a school, 289 are black. Racism? In Israel? If not, why, then, did all the white children leave? The single white child is not a holdover from those who left. He is the son of a wise and decent human being, who happens to be a rabbi.
Item 5 reports on Haneen Zuabi’s testimony before a UN panel probing Israel’s commando raid of the Mavi Marmara. Tonight’s TV news reported that some of Zuabi’s Knesset compatriots are demanding that the government revoke her citizenship. It will not surprise me if this happens.
Item 6 is merely a headline. The link is there in case you wish to read, but the headline says it all: the US might give Israel arms in exchange for concessions. Arms? How many more does Israel need? Have they given Israelis an iota of security? No. But they have killed large numbers of Palestinians, Lebanese, and others. And the use of arms in wars and even in training have killed not a few Israelis.
In item 7 BBC relates that the 4 who were killed tonight included a husband and wife, and another couple.
Item 8 is, as I have said, a request for financial help—not for huge sums, just for whatever you can give. The money is to enable Palestinian prisoners to purchase food and other goods from the canteen, If you can help, even if only with a small sum, please do.
Thanks,
Dorothy
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1. Haaaretz Tuesday,
August 31, 2010
150 academics, artists back actors’ boycott of settlement arts center
Last week nearly 60 theater professionals announced they would refuse to perform at new cultural center built in West Bank settlement of Ariel.
The actors’ boycott of the new Ariel cultural center received a boost yesterday with over 150 academics and several dozen authors and artists signing letters in their support.
In the academics’ letter, released yesterday, over 150 faculty members from universities across the country vowed not to lecture or participate in any discussions in settlements, and voiced support for the theater artists who have said they would refuse to perform in the West Bank city. “We will not take part in any kind of cultural activity beyond the Green Line, take part in discussions and seminars, or lecture in any kind of academic setting in these settlements,” the academics wrote.
“We support the theater artists refusing to play in Ariel, express our appreciation of their public courage and thank them for bringing the debate on settlements back into the headlines,” the petition said. “We’d like to remind the Israeli public that like all settlements, Ariel is also in occupied territory. If a future peace agreement with the Palestinian authorities puts Ariel within Israel’s borders, then it will be treated like any other Israeli town.”
Signatories of the academic petition included Zeev Sternhell and Yael Sternhell, Nissim Calderon, Anat Biletzki, Ziva Ben-Porat, Yaron Ezrachi, Aeyal Gross, Shlomo Sand, Dan Rabinowitz, Neve Gordon and Oren Yiftachel.
A separate letter, signed by a number of well-known authors and artists, is expected to be published in the coming days. Signatories already include writers David Grossman, A.B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz; writer and editor Ilana Hammerman; sculptor Dani Caravan; poet Dori Manor; filmmakers Hagai Levi and Ibtisam Mara’ana; and actress Orly Silbersatz.
“We, the undersigned, express our support and solidarity with the theater artists refusing to perform in Ariel. Freedom of creation and freedom of opinion are the cornerstones of a free and democratic society. Not too long ago, we marked the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation. Legitimization and acceptance of the settler enterprise cause critical damage to Israel’s chances of achieving a peace accord with its Palestinian neighbors.”
Novelist A.B. Yehoshua told Haaretz that the boycott was “not of the residents of Ariel, but of the city, located in the heart of Palestinian territory. If they’d invite me to lecture there, I wouldn’t have come. It’s been a while since I went there except for political discussions. I wouldn’t go there to entertain people.”
Ariel mayor Ron Nachman said that just as he opposed the boycott threats by the Im Tirtzu against Ben-Gurion University for its alleged leftist bias, he equally rejected the scholars’ petition. “When faculty members in universities supported by the state sign a petition to boycott Ariel, it’s no longer my problem, but the problem of the education minister, the Knesset Education Committee, and the entire political system. It’s not about academic freedom. There’s no difference between Prof. Sternhell and Im Tirtzu. Their calls for boycott are tantamount to incitement to rebellion.”
Yigal Cohen-Orgad, chancellor of the Ariel University Center, said that “stupid behavior seems to attract academic stupidity. Just last week we had an international scientific conference [at Ariel] with scientists from 34 states. If there’s a vocal minority stupid enough to say it won’t cooperate with us, they are quite welcome.”
Meanwhile, some 300 persons gathered yesterday outside the Habimah Theater in Tel Aviv to protest its decision to perform in Ariel when its new cultural center opens this November.
Participating in the protest were MKs Dov Khenin (Hadash ), Nitzan Horowitz and Haim Oron (Meretz ), actors Hana Meron, Oded Kotler, playwright Yehoshua Sobol, former MKs Yael Dayan and Zahava Gal-On, and former editor-in-chief of Maariv Doron Galezer.
“We are here not only to bolster those actors [who said they will refuse to perform beyond the Green Line], but to support the right of people to express their opinion, not to take part in the occupation festival. We will not participate in the festivities of Ariel,” said Yariv Oppenheimer, head of Peace Now.
Yehoshual Sobol said: “When society attacks artists, it is a symptom of its unwillingness to look at the mirror. They say we receive money from the government. The truth be said, the portion of the government [funding] is minimal. If they threaten us with budgetary cuts, then take a look at how much they give. The theater will not collapse, but will become healthier.
A counter-demonstration of about 15 persons held up signs announcing: “You are Traitors.”
A few dozen writers and actors signed a petition urging artists not to appear in the new Ariel performing arts center, and created an uproar: The culture and finance ministers sprang to the defense of the rights of residents of the capital of Samaria, and on the way they taught the rebels a lesson. It cannot be, said Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, that Mr. Artist will say, Tel Aviv yes, and Ariel no. Culture Minister Limor Livnat proposed leaving the political debate outside the life of culture and the arts (which is like separating thought from the mind ). The prime minister was quick to react this time, and set the price for protest. The government, said Benjamin Netanyahu, does not have to fund those who are trying to promote a boycott from within.
This is an issue that causes discomfort. It has little to do with the cultural welfare of residents of Ariel, which might be harmed, and more to do with the vulgarity that is customary here, and especially with the reminder that breathing down the neck of every apparently restrained minister is a political interest group more determined than he is.
“Go perform in Gaza, traitors!” cried the Our Land of Israel movement, (composed of Baruch Marzel and Michael Ben-Ari ) to the actors and playwrights who served notice that the occupation continues and that Ariel is not part of the State of Israel.
“Get out of there,” screamed Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi to those gathered at Aviva and Noam Shalit’s protest tent around the corner from home of the prime minister, his brother-in-law. “These people think only of themselves. There’s no people of Israel. No one else. Only their son. Something so egoistic and contemptible should be shunned.”
“May our enemies and haters be wiped out,” was Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s blessing for the new year. Abu Mazen and all those wicked people should perish from the earth. Let the Almighty strike them with a plague, along with all those Palestinians. What a wonderful spiritual revival campaign.
The greatest vulgarity belongs to Hagai Ben-Artzi. The foolishness to Livnat and Steinitz, the disgrace to the rabbi, and the disregard to Netanyahu, as always. That’s what happens when alongside the established right there is an unfettered, wild right, when there is no opposition (and MKs Ronit Tirosh and Otniel Schneller of Kadima are silent ), and the ongoing occupation is accompanied by deceit and euphemism. We are fortunate that at least the Americans protested the words of the patron of Interior Minister Eli Yishai and the Shas party.
That is how we start anew. The new year and the negotiations with the Palestinians are cursed by the rabbi, and all is quiet. We’ll welcome the 26th of September, the end of the settlement building freeze, by denouncing the defeatists from the theater and sending them to Hamas. That’s because the Likud is not facing forward but toward the party central committee and the settlers. Whoever expected that Netanyahu would become more moderate, would restrain his brother-in-law and protest the words of Rabbi Yosef, expected in vain. And whoever pinned his hopes on Netanyahu’s ministers had it coming.
Ariel was once “five minutes from Kfar Sava.” Today it is the consensus. That’s a fact. Pablo Rosenberg said so. And if a judge on “A Star is Born” said so, why look it up in the map of settlement blocs? Even Yitzhak Rabin has been recruited to the Ariel consensus. A bit of archival work, and his quote that Ariel does not contribute a gram to security leaps out. But Ariel has a college and a performing arts center. Just like Netivot and Yeruham, Dimona and Kiryat Shmona. And we have the leadership of Livnat and Steinitz, who are responsible for culture and philosophy.
“Families, when a child is born / Want it to be intelligent. / I, through intelligence, / Having wrecked my whole life, / Only hope the baby will prove Ignorant and stupid. / Then he will crown a tranquil life / By becoming a Cabinet Minister.” Bertold Brecht. Playwright.
This story is by: Niva Lanir
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3. Haaretz Editoral, Tuesday,
August 31, 2010
Educating toward indoctrination
The minister’s claims of liberalism are disingenuous; under his watch, the national curriculum is whitewashed.
The frequent changes the Education Ministry makes to school curricula share one common denominator. Each smells of the same kind of crass, shallow patriotism that glosses over any complicated issue, forcing students to swallow the same rote, sanitized version of the multifaceted, paradoxical Israeli story and silences all critical thought.
The history books have already been rewritten. The Palestinian perspective of the Nakba – which is apparently at odds with the sterile Israeli narrative offered by Dr. Zvi Zameret, chair of the ministry’s Pedagogic Secretariat – has been censored, leaving only hollow praise for the state’s establishment. The Oslo Accords have been erased, and Holocaust studies have been expanded to “strengthen Jewish identity,” while any reference to the wider context of the rise of European fascism has been omitted.
Now the school system’s main civics textbook will also be modified, because it states that “since its establishment, the State of Israel has engaged in a policy of discrimination against its Arab citizens.” It seems Zameret and his staff do not understand the meaning of civics which, apart from imparting the basics of government and democracy, is meant to offer tools for understanding conflicts within society and nurturing critical thought among citizens.
But like the Institute for Zionist Strategies (where Zameret has been active), the head of the ministry’s pedagogic secretariat is trying to do away with 50 years of open, critical study of Zionism, the state’s history and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead, students are given a patronizing version of the past, one that insults their intelligence and diminishes their ability to understand complex historical developments and identify with the society in which they live, despite its many problems.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar says he would never intervene in course curricula, but these changes conform snugly to his world view. Sa’ar presents himself as a liberal to whom freedom of expression is dear, but he remains convinced that students must be inculcated with “national values.” In light of the indoctrination championed by his ministry, it seems he and his staff are less interested in promoting free expression than narrow-minded, isolationist nationalism.
Haaretz Editorial
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4. Haaretz Tuesday,
August 31, 2010
A school of 290 students, 289 of them black
Petah Tikvah city hall won’t let Ethiopian kids transfer out of elementary school.
Dozens of parents of Ethiopian origin have been blocked by the Petah Tikva municipality from moving their children from the majority-Ethiopian religious Ner Etzion elementary school to other schools in the city.
Most of the requests were based on the parents’ desire not to have their children studying in a school whose student population was nearly exclusively Ethiopian. The municipality, backed by the Education Ministry, rejected most of the requests, saying that it could not force the other religious schools, private and public, to accept a large group of Ethiopian students.
“The arrangement with the schools is based on the assumption that each religious school takes only a small group of Ethiopian students. Taking several dozen such children is out of the question,” a source with close knowledge of the Petah Tikva education system told Haaretz.
Of the 290 students expected to attend Ner Etzion this year, only one, first-grader Ran Keinan, is not of Ethiopian origin. The process by which the Ethiopian students became the school’s majority took place over a period of years, and is due to the large number of Ethiopian families in the underprivileged neighborhoods for whom this is their default school, and partly because the parents not of Ethiopian background removed their children from the school.
While some moved their children to independent Orthodox schools (most of them associated with Shas), while others moved their children to other state-religious schools, with the approval of the municipality.
Another source said that Ner Etzion provided a convenient solution for everyone involved – everyone, that is, except the parents who wanted to move their children to a different school. “The existence of a school that contains nearly 300 children of Ethiopian background means other schools don’t need to take them,” the source said.
Young Ran Keinan comes to the school from a “Shuvu” network kindergarden, where most children are from families with their origins in the former Soviet Union. “Ran had a great time in the kindergarten, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t get along fine in Ner Etzion, even if he is the only ‘white’ kid in the school,” said Ran’s father, Rabbi Amiel Keinan. He said that the mass exodus of veteran Israelis from the increasingly Ethiopian-majority school was “utterly shameful. It’s a phenomenon that disgusts me.”
Rabbi Keinan teaches in a yeshiva in Petah Tikva, which includes students with special needs. “It’s all about values,” he says. “Integration and equality are very important in our yeshiva, so I thought, why not do the same at home. In the class I teach in the yeshiva there are recent immigrants from Ethiopia, France and the United States, as well as native Israelis. And it’s fine. Why can’t the same be happening in first grade? This was the background for my decision to register Ran at Ner Etzion.”
Sources in the municipality stressed to Haaretz that the students at Nir Etzion “get special assistance not enjoyed by any other schools. They get longer schooldays, up to 4 P.M., a hot meal and hundreds of hours of extra classes [schoolwide] each week. Students who didn’t read Hebrew a year ago have acquired the language, test results are excellent, and graduates are accepted into the best yeshivas.”
One municipality source said: “With all due respect to the parents, in other schools these kids wouldn’t get the same attention.” The sources also stressed that all transfer requests to secular schools were confirmed.
The Education Ministry said in a statement that student registration falls under the responsibility of the local authority, but decisions made at the local authority level can be appealed to the district director at the ministry. “No appeals hav been received so far,” the ministry said, noting it ran support programs in schools with high percentages of recent immigrants.
Children in the largely Ethiopian neighborhood were divided on the issue, with some saying they’d like to have some “white” friends and other saying caucasian Israelis shunned them at school and called them “Negroes.”
This story is by:
Or Kashti
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5. Haaretz Tuesday,
August 31, 2010
Israeli Arab MK Zuabi: IDF boarded Gaza flotilla ships with intent to kill
Zuabi testified before UN panel probing Israeli naval commando raid that left nine Turkish citizens dead on May 31.
Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zuabi testified before a United Nations panel probing Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May, telling the panel that commandos who boarded the ships intended to kill, Army Radio reported on Tuesday.
A UN inquiry team began hearings on Monday with Jordanian activists about the May 31 Israeli raid on a Turkish ship trying to break an Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish activists were killed in the raid.
So far, Israeli Knesset member Zuabi and six others have been interviewed.
“It was evident from the beginning that the commandoes viewed all of us activists as terrorists, Zuabi told The Associated Press after her testimony before a three-member UN team headed by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Israel’s use of large numbers of elite troops with sophisticated weaponry showed it intended to kill the passengers, added the lawmaker, who was aboard the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, where the killing took place.
“We were very peaceful activists, but the commandoes came to kill,” she said.
Israel has refused to cooperate with this probe, accusing the UN Human Rights Council of bias. But it is working with a separate UN group led by New Zealand’s ex-Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia’s ex-President Alvaro Uribe that is examining the legal ramifications of the incident.
Israel’s military has already wrapped up its own investigation, finding that intelligence failed to predict the violent response but troops acted properly under the circumstances.
The panel is due to report back to the UN Human Rights Council during its next session, between September 13 and October 11.
The Knesset in mid-July voted to revoke three parliamentary privileges from Zuabi (Balad) due to her participation in the aid flotilla that sailed to Gaza.
Thirty-four lawmakers voted in favor of stripping Zuabi’s privileges and 16 voted against, after a heated debate, in which Zuabi accused her fellow lawmakers of punishing her out of vengeance.
Zuabi responded to the Knesset vote by saying, “It’s not surprising that a country that strips the fundamental rights of its Arab citizens would revoke the privileges of a Knesset member who loyally represents her electorate.”
The UN fact-finding mission is chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former judge of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Israel has refused cooperation with the team, claiming it lacks neutrality.
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6. Jerusalem Post Tuesday,
August 31, 2010
US may give Israel arms in exchange for concessions
Collecting donations for Canteen accounts of the popular struggle prisoners
As we all know, in addition to the hard running violence in
demonstrations against the occupation, one of the key tools of
repression against the popular movement is the mass arrests – along
with bogus trials that lead to long periods of confinement in prisons
in the West Bank and Israel.
Nearly a 100 of Bil’in residents were jailed for various periods of
time since 2005. In Ni’lin alone, more than 120 people were detained
since the beginning of the struggle in May 2008. During the months in
which the people of An Nabi-Salih, Karawat Bnei-Zeid, Beit Rima and
Kufer Ein dared to protest more than 40 of them were arrested.
These arrests, mostly operated as a military invasion in the middle of
the night, are based almost entirely on general incriminations that
were forced out of arrestees after pulled from their bed and
interrogated without presence of their parents or a lawyer even though
many of them are under aged. “the Legal rule” in the military court
system is such that even one incrimination on throwing one stone can
lead to being arrested until the end of the proceedings. The
“proceedings”, in most cases, will take more than a year so the
defendant has no choice but to admit a plea bargain on an offense not
committed by him in order to cut the period of time of his
imprisonment.
Today, there are close to forty prisoners\detainees awaiting long
prison terms. Most of them are youths aged 16-30, some of them being
the only breadwinners of their families. Between them are two members
of the Bil’in popular committee, and three members of the Ni’lin
popular committee.
Canteen accounts are available to inmates in prisons which allow
purchasing limited amounts of basic products, somewhat easing prison
life. Most of the families of prisoners – even those that are not
dependent on the prisoner as the only breadwinner, or that their
agricultural livelihoods weren’t stolen by the fence, or have not been
denied their work permits in Israel for their participation in
demonstrations – find it hard to put even the smallest amounts
required.
Support prisoners through a donation to their canteen accounts may
facilitate their time in prison and is an act of critical solidarity
for those who pay the highest price for their partnership in the
struggle.
Local donations can be transferred to the following bank account:
Shai Gorsky
Bank Hapoalim (12)
Account number: 306029
Branch number: 694 (please specify in comments “Canteen”)
It is also possible to bring a donation to one of the weekly
demonstrations and we will take care of the depositing.
Donations from abroad can be transferred to the following bank account:
ACCOUNT HOLDER: FRANCHASKA KATZ
ISRAEL POSTAL BANK
SWIFT CODE: IPOAILIJ
BANK ACCOUNT: 7125479
IBAN: IL430090010000007125479
Any donation should be followed by sending an email as a confirmation
to: freedom.canteen@yahoo.com
For further information:
Shai – 052-3727602
Chaska – 050-2167583
