Dorothy Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Dear Friends,

The first is an instance of brain washing by means of propaganda.  Whoever instigates these trips of taking Israelis to the West Bank to show off its beautiful colonies and historic place (Jewish of course) and natural beauty, the government surely approves.  The religious-idealists (many of whom are fundamentalists) colonists know how to get a message across and do the job that the government wants, namely encouraging Israelis to move to the West Bank.  These visitors do not see Palestinians or their villages or the roads that they have to drive on.  These visitors do not see the conditions under which Palestinians live.  Clever, but malicious.

Item 2 came out this evening. The former head of the Mossad says that for Israel to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities is stupid.  I hope that Israel’s leaders listen and pay attention to the reasons why.  As September nears, and the threat of a Palestinian state emerging comes closer, Israel’s leaders might well decide to derail by beginning a war.  Hope I’m wrong. Hope with all my heart, but I don’t trust a single one of them.

Item 3 is a report about a new Palestinian youth movement that is not restricted to the West Bank and Gaza, but is apparently world-wide, that is wherever Palestinians are found.  Sounds promising, at least to me.

Item 4 on the other hand is a bit less happy—it says that the drive for Palestinian unity exposes a fractured society.  This is undoubtedly not far off the mark.  Israel certainly helped create this situation.  But it need not remain so.  If the unity government holds out, and if the world will give Palestine a chance, then should the Palestinians have a brighter future to look to, the wounds will heal, and along with them the fractures.  I still prefer the single secular state with equal rights for all its citizens, who ever they might be, but if the world brings a Palestinian one into being, it might anyhow lead eventually to a single state.  Most important is to get Israel off the backs of the Palestinians, and to end colonization and ethnic cleansing.

The 5^th item consists of a few brief reports of recent events in the oPt.  For more details please see www.TheHeadlines.org–‘Today in Palestine’

The 6^th item is Mordechai Vanunu’s request to revoke his Israeli citizenship and to allow him to leave the country that has criminalized him, that has imprisoned him for 18 years, and after letting him leave prison continues to imprison him in effect in Israel.

The final item is good news.  Tony Kushner will, finally, receive his honorary degree from CUNY.  The whole affair was scandalous.  I therefore after the good news include an analysis-commentary on what happened as a whole.  So glad to be able to bring some good news tonight.

May the day come soon when we can have good news about the situation in our part of the world, here in Israel-Palestine.

Dorothy

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1. Haaretz Friday, May 6, 2011

Seeing the West Bank for the first time, in a tour bus

Settlers are promoting tourism to draw Israelis who might otherwise never set foot in the West Bank, an occupied area Palestinians want as part of a future state.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/seeing-the-west-bank-for-the-first-time-in-a-tour-bus-1.360201

By The Associated Press

Tags: Israel news West Bank

Perched atop a West Bank hill, the Binyamin region visitors center invites travelers to look past the military jeeps patrolling the surrounding area and enjoy nature, archaeological sites and bucolic vineyards.

Settlers are promoting tourism to draw Israelis who might otherwise never set foot in the West Bank, an occupied area Palestinians want as part of a future state.

Proponents hope that drawing visitors will help increase support for retaining the territory, while critics say the tourism campaign, like Jewish settlements, is a foothold that stands in the way of making peace.

The Binyamin region—named for the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin, thought to have lived here in biblical times—is a short drive from population centers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; its boosters call it “the heart of Israel.” Ancient ruins and wine routes line the roads here leading to the Jewish settlements and Palestinian villages that exist, uneasily, side by side.

The visitors center was established last August in response to an increase in visitors to the region and with hopes of drawing more, manager Yaela Briner said. Since then, Briner said some 5,000 tourists have passed through, half of them Israelis.

Some of the 300,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank are looking to tourism as a way to help normalize Israel’s hold on the territory it captured in 1967. They tout the region’s proximity to urban centers, its biblical history and its idyllic scenery as a way to paint a positive picture for Israelis who might frown upon Israel’s settlement enterprise, the country’s most divisive political issue.

“We have a moral interest for Judea and Samaria to be toured by Israelis who for various reasons still don’t see it as a place to tour,” said Dani Dayan, head of a settler umbrella group, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.

Attacks against Israelis still occur in the West Bank. Most recently, Palestinian militants stabbed five family members to death in their homes in an isolated settlement.

Still, the relative calm of recent years has made tourism a possibility. The area offers a plethora of sites, many of them of biblical significance. The settlement of Shilo, for instance, was a stopping point for the biblical Tabernacle before it went to Jerusalem.

Natural springs and reserves dot the region and boutique wineries are popping up, attracting both religious and secular Jews. While no records are kept as to how many Israelis visit the West Bank, settlers say the numbers are growing, spurred by an aggressive marketing campaign.

Settler representatives attend tourism fairs and extol the wonders of the region to travel agents. They have launched campaigns targeting Israelis, appealing to the West Bank’s Jewish history. One project titled “Every Jew’s Story” had billboards up in cities across Israel, depicting grinning children dressed as famous biblical characters, urging Israelis to return to their roots with a visit to the West Bank. offering tours to different sites.

For those Israelis uninspired by the biblical connection, settlers have appealed to adventure-seekers by installing a 400-meter-long zipline, or to nature-lovers with greater access to springs. The Binyamin visitors center tailors its tours to the interests of the traveler, focusing on history, wine or nature.

The settlers might be inspired by the example of the Golan Heights, an area Israel captured from Syria in 1967. The nature reserves and wineries of the Golan have made it a major tourist draw, and polls show a majority of Israelis oppose a withdrawal there.

The Golan has been largely quiet for the past four decades, but the volatile West Bank does not occupy a similar place in the Israeli consensus. Polls show a majority of Israelis would cede most or all the area in return for peace.

The Israeli government has also taken steps to promote tourism in the West Bank, offering to protect certain historical sites there and pledging to send schoolchildren on field trips to a disputed holy site in Hebron, one of the West Bank’s most explosive flashpoints.

“They want people to think it’s normal there, that it’s legitimate to travel there,” said Hagit Ofran, of the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now. “They want people to think that those areas are part of Israel,” though it has never annexed the West Bank.

On a recent rainy morning, a handful of Israeli visitors meandered around the Inn of the Good Samaritan, a museum housing dozens of archaeological artifacts from around the West Bank.

Shoshi Leibovich, a secular Jew visiting from nearby Jerusalem, said she seldom travels to the West Bank but was drawn by its tourist attractions.

“Judea and Samaria is where our forefathers lived. It’s interesting. It doesn’t need to be political,” she said, peering at a mosaic extracted from an ancient synagogue floor.

Tourist infrastructure has expanded in order to accommodate those visitors, said Dror Etkes, an anti-settlement activist, pointing to a soon to be opened holistic healing retreat nestled between desert hills near the biblical town of Jericho. Alongside the red-tiled roofs of scattered West Bank settlements are a growing number of inns and restaurants—all which eat into land desired by the Palestinians as part of a future state.

Palestinians say promoting tourism in the West Bank complicates any future peace making.

“It consolidates the occupation and consolidates settler presence in the West Bank,” said Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khattib.

The Israeli Tourism Ministry said it doesn’t actively promote the West Bank region as a tourist destination for Israelis, though Christian pilgrims around the world frequently head to the Jordan River for baptism ceremonies.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel supports maintaining historical sites in the West Bank because “irrespective of one’s political perspective, the fact is these are sites that are of great importance historically and culturally.”

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2.  Haaretz Saturday, May 07, 2011

Former Mossad chief: Israel air strike on Iran ‘stupidest thing I have ever heard’

In first public appearance since leaving post as Mossad chief, Meir Dagan warns of regional war if Iran is attacked; says fall of Assad regime would benefit Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-mossad-chief-israel-air-strike-on-iran-stupidest-thing-i-have-ever-heard-1.360367

By Yossi Melman

Tags: Iran Iran nuclear

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan referred to the possibility a future Israeli Air Force attack on Iranian nuclear facilities as “the stupidest thing I have ever heard” during a conference held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Friday.

Dagan’s presentation during a senior faculty conference was his first public appearance since leaving his former role as chief of the Mossad at the end of September 2010.

Dagan said that Iran has a clandestine nuclear infrastructure which functions alongside its legitimate, civil infrastructure. It is the legitimate infrastructure, he said, that is under international supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Any strike on this legitimate infrastructure would be “patently illegal under international law,” according to Dagan.

Dagan emphasized that attacking Iran would be different than Israel’s successful air strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981. Iran has scattered its nuclear facilities in different places around the country, he said, which would make it difficult for Israel to launch an effective attack.

According to Dagan, there is proof that Iran has the capability to divert its nuclear activities from place to place in order to take them out of the watchful eye of international supervision and intelligence agencies. No one in Iran would have any problems in building a centrifuge system in a school basement if they wished to, he said.

The IAF’s abilities are not in doubt, Dagan emphasized, but the doubts relate to the possibilities of completing the mission and reaching all targets.

When asked about what would happen in the aftermath of an Israeli attack Dagan said that: “It will be followed by a war with Iran. It is the kind of thing where we know how it starts, but not how it will end.”

The Iranians have the capability to fire rockets at Israel for a period of months, and Hizbollah could fire tens of thousands of grad rockets and hundreds of long-range missiles, he said.

At the same time, Tehran can activate Hamas, and there is also a danger that Syria will join the war, Dagan added.

The former Mossad chief expressed disagreement with the opinions of pundits regarding the uprisings across the Middle East since the beginning of 2011 saying that “there is no tsunami of change in the Middle East.” He added that events “historical schisms within Arab society.”

What sparked the Egyptian people to mass protest on the street was not an “internet revolution,” especially considering the fact that most Egyptians do not have computers. In Eygpt, there was no revolution, but regime change, according to Dagan, and he is convinced that there is no chance that the Muslim Brotherhood will gain power because of fears that their taking power will damage the Egyptian economy, particularly income from tourism and U.S. aid.

It will be better for Israel if Syrian President Bashar Assad is removed from power because this will stop help to Hizbollah, and weaken Iranian influence, Dagan said in regards to the situation in Syria. It will also strengthen the Sunni camp in Syria and in the Arab world in general, and these things will be good for Israel strategically, he added.

Dagan believes that Assad will fight to the end. “He has no alternative. It’s victory or death,” Dagan stated.

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3. Al Jazeera May 4, 2011

Palestinian youth: New movement, new borders

Palestinian unity agreement only first step in long-term movement, according to Palestinian youth.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/05/201153101231834961.html

Noura Erakat Last Modified: 04 May 2011 08:47

Palestinian youth in the West Bank, Gaza and the diaspora are looking to unify and strengthen their identity [GALLO/GETTY]

Reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah may present the first victory of a nascent Palestinian youth movement, which earned its moniker, the March 15th movement, from the first day of its mass protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Only one day after the launch of their movement demanding an end to the four-year internecine conflict that also divided the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced his willingness to travel to Gaza to engage in unity talks, while other leading Fatah members, aware of the youths’ potential force, opened twitter accounts just to follow the pulse of the movement.

Arguably, the unity government is a preemptive tactic to thwart rising Palestinian discontent, and the increasing relevance of youth protests, in a broader Arab Spring. In fact, on the day of its announcement, Hamas security forces violently dispersed nearly 100 jubilant youth celebrating in Unknown Soldier Square in Gaza for failure to obtain prior approval to congregate. Ibrahim Shikaki, a recent UC Berkeley graduate and Ramallah-based youth organiser comments that Hamas and Fatah have tried to undermine the organisers’ efforts by inhibiting media coverage, accusing its leaders of receiving foreign funding and shifting the focus of the protests to the factional division for fear of “losing grip over power and authority”. In that case, thawed relations alone will not suffice to quell the budding movement.

According to youth leaders, reconciliation is only the first of many demands. The movement which transcends borders, and in some cases, the bounds of qualifying youth age, has its eyes set on rehabilitating the scattered Palestinian national body by holding Palestinian National Council elections that include all Palestinians, regardless of geographic location and circumstance. Its ultimate goal: to reconstruct a Palestinian national programme based upon a comprehensive resistance platform.

Palestinian youth’s Arab Spring

The movement’s horizon may render existing political parties meaningless as invigorated youth activists search for creative ways to shatter the stagnation of their domestic condition in an effort to buttress their ongoing struggle against Israeli colonisation. As put by Khaled Entabwe, a Palestinian-Israeli youth leader in Haifa and a coordinator with Baladna, the Association for Arab Youth: “Our new modes of organising include a direct challenge to entrenched institutional power. We do not want to just memorialise the past, but also to demand a new future.”

Well before the call for the March 15th day of action, Palestinian youth, inspired by revolutionary protests in North Africa, had begun to organise themselves in the global diaspora. In late January, Palestinian students in the UK staged a sit-in in the Palestinian embassy in London and demanded that they, along with all Palestinians wherever they live, “in the homeland, the shatat, in the prisons, and the camps of refuge” be included in an election of a resuscitated Palestinian National Council (PNC).

The students deliberately organised themselves as the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in order to evoke a bygone era of national cohesiveness and, more importantly perhaps, transnational membership in a representative body.

According to Rafeef Ziadah, a doctoral candidate and one of the leading organizers of the UK action:

Where in the past, Palestinian students would belong to Palestinian political factions and organise within the structures of the General Union of Palestinian Students, these structures are nothing but empty shells today. That is why when we did hold the sit-in at the Palestinian embassy in the UK we insisted on using the name GUPS to take back those institutions meant to represent us.

Ziadah explains that the protesters’ demands for the inclusion of a global Palestinian national body in an accountable PNC reflects an inevitable moment catalysed by the revelation of the Palestine Papers, coupled with the revolutionary fervour of an Arab Spring. She comments that for several years, Palestinian activists in diaspora had been “wondering what our role is in Palestinian politics beyond solidarity actions”.

Across the Atlantic, similar discussions instigated the formation of the US Palestinian Community Network in 2006. Established with the aim of empowering the US-based Palestinian community, unifying its voice, and affirming “the right of Palestinians in the Shatat (exile) to participate fully in shaping of [their] joint destiny,” the loose national network comprised of nearly a dozen local chapters and an inclusive and fluid leadership, has organised two national popular conferences to date. In its most recent conference in October 2010, the USPCN explicitly encouraged the formation of popular associations, reflecting an effort to revive long-defunct models that had once been the organisational cornerstone of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

Factional discord vs unity

In late February, the USPCN’s DC Chapter staged a protest in front of the PLO General Delegation Office – not just to demand inclusion in a revived PNC election, but for the annulment of Oslo and the termination of the Palestinian Authority (PA), among a longer list of pointed demands. The protesters presented the PA with a pink slip for “failure to uphold its duties as a governing body” and for “acting without proper delegation” in the course of its negotiations with Israel.

Reem El-Khatib, a leading member of the USPCN-DC and a communications specialist, acknowledges that while the US-based call is more radical than its counterparts in the OPT and elsewhere, demands for unity and termination of the PA are not in conflict because, “so long as there is corruption in a political representative body, there cannot be a unified stance. Once those who are not truly working for the Palestinian people are dismissed, unity among those who are sincerely working for progress can happen”.

Organisers from Gaza and the West Bank do not agree – or at least they cannot for localised and pragmatic considerations. Mohammed Majdalawi, an aspiring filmmaker and youth activist from Gaza City notes that factional discord has impeded his group’s ability to make more radical demands.

Majdalawi explains:

Our roof is the occupation and our floor, the political factions. In Gaza, nearly all political demands have been associated with one party or the other. If you demand elections you are accused of supporting Fatah and if you support ending Oslo you appear to be supporting Hamas. So, in order to maintain neutrality and establish a popular position, we have demanded an end to the division.

In the West Bank, Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and leading member of the Free Gaza Movement, agrees that factional strife has politicised nearly all demands beyond those for unity. She adds that in the West Bank, where the termination of the PA would impact the source of income for thousands of Palestinian families, limiting the movement’s demands is a tactical decision. Arraf explains, “in order to generate unity and to rehabilitate trust amongst Palestinians, it makes more sense to forcefully challenge the Israeli occupation to heighten your representative status. So rather than say ‘screw you, PA’ you are saying ‘you’ve tried, thank you, now follow us’.”

Youth activists within Israel are doing precisely that. Entabwe points out that within Israel, the annual commemoration of Land Day had become like a wedding ceremony where demonstrators “come to see and be seen, to offer gifts, and go home”. This year youth organisers insisted on different tactics and urged responsible political parties to hold the demonstrations in Lydd or the Negev, where Jewish colonial settlement is ongoing, as opposed to its traditional site in Sakhnin. The group could not reach consensus and the idea was scrapped.

The youth organised their protest anyway and did so on March 29th so as to avoid overlap with traditional Land Day events on March 30th. Entabwe explains that the independent youth organisers successfully drew thousands of people forcing the resistant Palestinian political parties to join them but that, “not a single political party gave a speech that day which created quite a buzz among political circles”.

‘Between continents and countries’

For Entabwe and his counterparts, limiting the role of traditional political parties is the first of their three agreements, as the youth group has yet to agree on a set of demands. Entabwe elaborates: “We have a new conviction that, this time more than any other, that our work should not be based on party lines – and even if parties are involved, their agendas should be taken out of the meetings and everyone present will participate as an individual. Therefore, all decisions can and will be made at the meetings. We are ending the practice of taking positions ‘back to the party’.”

In Lebanon, Palestinian youth are building a movement that similarly responds to their local context as much as it does to their international condition. Rabih Salah, a youth leader and athletics coach who grew up between Ein El Hilweh, Beirut and Yarmouk, describes a four-pronged political program that predominantly responds to local conditions: 1) an end to the siege of the camps; 2) greater civil and political rights, primarily the right to work; 3) more representative Palestinian leaders of unions, parties, and institutions within Lebanon; and 4) the right to return. Salah explains: “We would like to create a national movement in Lebanon so that we can establish more representative bodies. Within Lebanon, we need to be able to elect local representatives that can represent us internationally. If we don’t have locals making the demands for us we won’t be able to make any demands at all.”

While demands and tactics vary between continents and countries, the nascent and global Palestinian youth movement agrees on one thing thus far. As articulated by Shikaki, they seek to hold PNC elections to establish “a body that represents all 10 million Palestinians around the world, and [can] create a national Palestinian strategy”.

In the immediate short-term, youth organisers globally are preparing for Nakba commemorations on May 15th. In the medium short-term, youth are preparing to respond to the proclamation of a Palestinian state. While those plans are not determined yet, most organisers, such as Arraf – who fear that the two-state frame may confine broader calls for human rights, are skeptical of the statehood strategy all together. In the long-term, the scattered youth groupings seek to meet one another and to build a collective vision.

In the words of Entabwe: “I refuse to become a piece of Israeli society with a different path…I am part of the Palestinian solution and my fate is part of a collective fate. We need a representative government to represent all of us.”

Noura Erekat is a Palestinian human rights attorney and activist. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Georgetown University. She is also a co-editor of Jadaliyya.com.

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4.  NY Times May 6, 2011

Drive for Palestinian Unity Exposes Fractured Society

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/middleeast/07hebron.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast

By ISABEL KERSHNER

HEBRON, West Bank — Louai Faisal, 27, a Palestinian resident of this West Bank city long considered a Hamas stronghold, has spent three periods in Israeli prisons, starting in 2003 when he was sentenced to two and a half years as a would-be suicide bomber for Hamas.

More recently, he has spent three terms in Palestinian Authority prisons in the West Bank, arrested each time by a different security apparatus, he said, and interrogated because he was suspected of belonging to Hamas. The latest detention lasted six weeks and ended in March.

Mr. Faisal said he was never tortured in Israel, only in the Palestinian Authority prisons, where the treatment, he said, was “much worse.”

This week, a reconciliation pact was signed in Cairo by the leaders of the rival Palestinian factions — Hamas, the Islamic militant group that governs Gaza, and Fatah, the mainstream secularist party led by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, whose security forces operate in the West Bank.

Human rights groups have reported detentions, torture and abuse of political opponents by both sides in recent years, underlining the obvious difficulty in turning bitter enemies into political partners overnight.

Asked if he could forgive his Palestinian jailers, Mr. Faisal, who works as a florist, using skills he learned in Israeli prisons, said: “It is hard for me. I have suffered. It will be up to God to help.”

The unity deal is intended, among other things, to strengthen the Palestinian leadership that is pursuing recognition for a Palestinian state — not half a state or two separate states — at the United Nations in September. But the quest for unity has exposed a fractured society that remains geographically separated and still largely controlled by Israel.

Palestinian independents who helped mediate between Fatah and Hamas say that the recent upheavals in the region and other factors have led Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by much of the West, to become more pragmatic.

“If I read history carefully,” said Mahdi Abdul Hadi, a Palestinian analyst and one of the independent mediators, “this is the end of an era and a new beginning for Palestine.”

Many Palestinians said they hoped this was the case, but they were far from convinced that the two parties could put the past behind them and share authority on the ground.

The simmering rivalry between Hamas and Fatah worsened after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. It turned into a deep schism a year later, when Hamas routed the pro-Abbas forces in Gaza after a brief but bloody factional war.

The preliminary deal that was signed on Wednesday essentially leaves the rival forces in control of their respective areas until joint committees can work out formulas for sharing government functions and security control.

“Personally, I do not believe there will be healing,” said Dr. Khaled al-Hilo, the director of a clinic in the Amari refugee camp, abutting the city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority has its headquarters in the West Bank. “They have two different visions.”

In the alleyways of the camp, which looks today like a poor neighborhood of the city, Fatah is still popular. This week, residents of the camp recalled the anger they felt when Hamas took over Gaza.

“If someone slaps you in the face, you will never forget that,” said Ali Hussein, 67, who became a refugee with his family when Israel was established in 1948. His original home was in Malha, which is now an upscale Jewish neighborhood of West Jerusalem. Referring to the Palestinian infighting, he noted, “People here said, ‘If you are so powerful, fight to liberate our land first and then fight with each other.’ ”

One of Mr. Hussein’s sons was paralyzed by an Israeli soldier’s bullet during the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s. Another son, Abed, 25, was recently released from an Israeli jail, where he served two and a half years for dealing weapons for Fatah.

After the West Bank-Gaza split, said Abed Hussein, Hamas asked for its prisoners to be separated from the Fatah inmates in the Israeli jails.

In the West Bank, Hamas activists were maintaining a low profile this week, uncertain of what lay ahead. Even if they were no longer at risk of arrest by the Palestinian Authority, there was still the risk of being arrested by Israel.

“We have become accustomed to this,” said Aziz Dweik, the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament, long defunct, that is supposed to be revived under the new accord. Mr. Dweik was himself released from an Israeli prison in 2009 after serving nearly three years for belonging to an illegal organization.

Mr. Dweik, a resident of Hebron, added that he was “very concerned about the two parties who rejected the reconciliation agreement: the occupation, which can do what it wants, and the United States, which also expressed concern.”

But he said of the Palestinians, “United we stand, divided we fall.”

Muhammad Nasser, a retired Fatah fighter who lives in Ramallah, came from Baghdad to the Palestinian territories in the mid-1990s with the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat.

“We are one family,” he said. “In the same family, you have Hamas and Fatah.”

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5.  Forwarded by Adam Keller

From: spiro <spiro@bezeqint.net>

Date: 2011/5/6

Hebrew follows the English

The Israeli Committee for

A Middle East Free of

Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms

Press release, May 7, 2011

Morderchai Vanunu demands to apply a recently passed law and revoke his Israeli citizenship. “I have no interest in Israeli citienship, I don’t want to go on living here”.

To Mr. Eli Yishai, Minister of the Interior, 2 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Jerusalem

Re: Revocation of Citizenship

I am Mordechai Vanunu, who was kidnapped in Rome on September 30, 1986, by the security services of Israel.

I was tried by the Jerusalem District Court, convicted of espionage, treason and assistance to the enemy and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment, following a newspaper interview to the London “Sunday Times” where I told of the production of materials for nuclear arms in Israel.

I have enacted the democratic principle of the public’s right to know.

I have spent 18 years at the Ashkelon Prison, mostly under conditions of complete isolation. On April 21, 2004 I was released, under severe restrictions.

Seven years have passed and the restrictions are renewed again and again, every year, on the basis of the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations. Now these restrictions are about to be renewed for yet another year.

Since my release I lived for six years in East Jerusalem. Since September 2010 I have lived in Tel Aviv.

On June 1986 I have converted to Anglican Christianity.

Recently, the Knesset passed a law authorizing the revocation of Israeli citizenship for those convicted of espionage and treason.

For 25 years I am waiting and demanding the restoration of my complete freedom.

I am asking the State of Israel to revoke my citizenship.

This wish for revocation of citizenship is neither new nor recent.

Now, however, it is supported by the new Citizenship Revocation Law, passed on March 28, 2011.

I am asking and expecting that this law be enforced to the letter, and that my citizenship be revoked here and now, under the spirit of the law.

I have no other citizenship, but I can easily get one, even during my enforced sojourn in Israel, and certainly if I leave the country.

After the treatment and “care” which I got from this country and its citizens, I cannot feel myself a wanted citizen here.

In the Israeli media and on the Israeli streets I am called “The Atomic Spy” and “A traitor”, harassed and persecuted as an Enemy of the State for 25 years.

I feel myself still imprisoned, still a prisoner of war and a hostage, held by the state and the government.

After 25 years of getting various harsh penalties from the state, I would like to see an end to punishments and the realization of my basic human right to freedom.

I wish to exercise my right to the Freedom of Conscience and the Freedom of Choice, by choosing not to be a citizen of Israel.

I have no interest in Israeli citizenship, I do not want to live here.

I ask that you revoke my citizenship here and now.

I request that you set me free of Israel, since Israel does not want me nor do I want Israel.

All that I knew I told, already in 1986, to the English newspaper. I have no further confidential information.

The time has come to let me leave Israel, after 25 years of imprisonment, a full quarter of a century!

Mordechai Vanunu

(c/o Att. Avigdor Feldman, 10 Huberman Street, Tel Aviv)

Copies: The President, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister and Justice Minister

http://www.youtube.com/user/vanunuvmjc?feature=mhum

http://www.vanunu.com/

Facebook    Vanunu Mordechai.

Email. vanunuvmjc@gmail.com

Mobile +9 7 2 (0)  5 2 3 7 4 4 5 6 9.

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הוועד הישראלי למען

מזרח תיכון חופשי מנשק אטומי, ביולוגי וכימי .

מרדכי ואנונו דורש להחיל עליו חוק שעבר בכנסת ולבטל את אזרחותו

” אין לי עניין באזרחות ישראלית, אינני רוצה לחיות כאן “

לכבוד:  אלי ישי, שר הפנים, רחוב קפלן 2, הקריה, ירושלים

הנדון: ביטול  אזרחות

אני, מרדכי ואנונו שנחטף ברומא ב-30  בספטמבר 1986 על ידי שירותי הביטחון של מדינת ישראל.

הועמדתי לדין בבית המשפט המחוזי בירושלים, הורשעתי בריגול, בגידה  וסיוע לאויב ונידונתי ל-18 שנות מאסר בעקבות ראיון עדות  לעיתון “לונדון סנדיי טיימס”  על ייצור חומרים לנשק גרעיני בישראל.

מימשתי את העיקרון הדמוקרטי של זכות הציבור לדעת.

ריציתי  18 שנים בכלא אשקלון, רובן בבידוד מוחלט. ב-21 באפריל 2004 שוחררתי עם הגבלות חמורות.

7 שנים חלפו וההגבלות מתחדשות שוב ושוב, מתוקף תקנות ההגנה (שעת חירום), 1945 , ועתה עומדים לחדשן לעוד שנה.

מאז שחרורי חייתי 6 שנים במזרח ירושלים והחל מספטמבר 2010 אני חי בתל אביב.

ביוני 1986 אני עברתי לדת הנוצרית אנגליקנית.

לאחרונה קיבלה הכנסת חוק לפיו ניתן לבטל אזרחות למי שהורשע בריגול ובבגידה.

25 שנה אני דורש וממתין להשבת חירותי המלאה.

אני מבקש ממדינת ישראל לבטל את אזרחותי.

רצון זה, לביטול אזרחות, אינו חדש ואינו מהזמן האחרון. אבל עכשיו הוא נתמך על ידי החוק החדש לשלילת אזרחות (2011 .28.3).

אני מצפה ומבקש לאכוף את החוק כלשונו ולבטל את אזרחותי כאן ועכשיו על פי רוח החוק.

אין לי אזרחות אחרת, אולם אוכל בנקל לקבל כזו, גם תוך כדי שהותי הכפויה בישראל, בודאי אם אעזוב אותה.

אחרי כל היחס ו”הטיפול” שקיבלתי מהמדינה הזו ואזרחיה איני יכול להרגיש  כאן אזרח רצוי.

בתקשורת הישראלית וברחוב הישראלי אני מכונה “מרגל האטום”   ו”בוגד”,  מוטרד ונרדף כאויב המדינה זה 25 שנה.

אני מרגיש עדיין בכלא , עדיין שבוי, בן ערובה של המדינה וממשלתה.

אחרי 25 שנה של עונשים רבים וקשים מידי המדינה, אני מבקש סיומם ומימוש זכותי האנושית הבסיסית לחופש האדם.

אני מבקש לממש את הזכות לחופש המצפון והזכות לחופש בחירה  לא להיות אזרח במדינת ישראל.

אין לי עניין באזרחות ישראלית, אינני רוצה לחיות כאן.

אני מבקש כי  תבטל את אזרחותי כאן ועכשיו.

בקשתי  כי תשחרר אותי מישראל, שהרי היא אינה רוצה בי ואני לא בה!

כל מה שידעתי מסרתי ב-1986 לעיתון האנגלי. אין בידי מידע סודי.

הגיעה העת לאפשר לי לעזוב את ישראל לאחר תקופת מאסר בת 25 שנה, רבע מאה!!!

מרדכי ואנונו  Vanunu  Mordechai

(אצל עו”ד אביגדור פלדמן רחוב הוברמן 10 תל אביב)

העתקים: נשיא המדינה, ראש הממשלה, שר הביטחון, שר החוץ ושר המשפטים.

לפרטים נוספים:

מרדכי ואנונו 3744569- 052

גדעון ספירו, הוועד הישראלי למען מזרח תיכון חופשי מנשק אטומי, ביולוגי וכימי 03-5238584

=================================

5.  Events in the West Bank

Palestine News and Info Agency WAFA Saturday, May 07, 2011

Israeli Military Demolishes, then Evacuates Village of Amniyr Date : 7/5/2011   Time : 14:34

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16066

HEBRON, May 7, 2011 (WAFA) – The Israeli army Friday declared the area of Amniyr, a Palestinian village south of Yatta, in the Hebron region, a closed military zone and chased away the families who own the land, after demolishing structures and trees on the land the day before, according to an international peace group.

The army destroyed six shacks and uprooted 150 olive trees in Amniyr early Thursday, said Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

On Friday, the Palestinians of Amniyr had returned to the land and hung six tarps to create makeshift tents. However, the Israeli army quickly issued a “closed military zone” order on the area and dispatched seven military jeeps to the area to evict the residents, who had only one minute to leave, said the group.

Using sound bombs and tear gas, the soldiers and police forced off the land all the Palestinians present—about 30 adults, many of them elderly, and 10 children—as well as accompanying internationals. One woman passed out due to the bombs and required medical attention.

Later that evening, four military jeeps returned to Amniyr and destroyed the tarps and what had been left standing in the area.

This is the third time in 10 weeks that the military has destroyed trees, tents, dwellings and other structures on the land of Amniyr, effectively demolishing the entire village and affecting six families.

Although Amniyr is Palestinian-owned private property, Israel has declared it “state land” and prohibits the people of Amniyr from building any structures or using the land.

A local Palestinian leader has told CPT that he believes Israel is trying to confiscate the land of Amniyr because of its proximity to the Israeli settlement of Susiya.

M.A.

—————————–

Jalloud Council Told to Remove Power Lines Date : 7/5/2011   Time : 13:30

——————————————————————————–

RAMALLAH, May 7, 2011 (WAFA) – The Israeli authorities informed Jalloud local council to remove a power line that supplies seven houses south of Jalloud, southwest of Nablus, with electricity.

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16065

Abdullah Mohammad, head of Jalloud local council, told WAFA on Saturday that Israeli civil administration officials handed him a notice issued by the higher planning council to demolish one kilometer of electricity line that supplies a number of houses in the village.

The Israelis told him he can object to this decision to the civil administration headquarters in Beit El, near Ramallah.

This step is part of Israeli measures and policy against village residents, he said.

Israeli forces and settlers prohibit Palestinians from entering that area. Last month, soldiers opened fire at a Palestinian who entered the seized land, he added.

Mohammad said that the measures against the village started in 1975 when Israel settlers established a military base on village land then established the settlements of Shilo and Shavut Rachel.

M.H/M.A.

—————————

West Bank Weekly Anti-Fence Protests Celebrate Reconciliation Date : 6/5/2011   Time : 21:24

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16061

RAMALLAH, May 6, 2011 (WAFA) – The weekly anti-fence protests in several West Bank villages Friday celebrated reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, officially concluded in Cairo on Wednesday.

In Ramallah, several hundred Palestinian supporters of Hamas freely marched following the Friday prayers in the city center for the first time in four years raising Palestinian flags as well as Fatah’s yellow and Hamas’ green flags. The participants were celebrating the reconciliation and marched in support of it.

Similar marches took place in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where Fatah supporters were also able for the first time in four years to march in the streets raising Fatah’s flags.

In the West Bank village of Bilin, residents marched with their Israeli and international supporters through the village streets raising banners supporting the reconciliation.

A large Israeli force was waiting for the protestors when they reached the gate at the fence separating them from the rest of their village’s agricultural land. However, before the protestors reached the gate, the soldiers showered them with dirty water and tear gas causing several cases of suffocation. One person was hit by a tear gas canister in the foot, which required hospitalization.

Similar protest in nearby Nilin was also broken up by force when Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at the protestors when they reached the fence taking away most of the agricultural land.

Anti-fence, anti-settlements protests were also reported in Nabi Saleh, also in the Ramallah area, and al-Ma’sara, in the Bethlehem area.

M.A.

————————

Palestine Telegraph Saturday, May 07, 2011

West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)- Israeli occupation forces invaded on Saturday the east part of Nablus city and Azzoun village, in the east of Qalqilya city, in the occupied West Bank.

http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/9101-israeli-forces-storm-villages-in-wb.html

Witnesses told SAFA News Agency that Israeli forces stormed today at dawn neighborhoods of Balata town, and Askar camp; no detentions were reported.

Witnesses added that Israeli forces conducted searching operations to a number of Palestinian houses before their withdrawal.

In Azoun village, Israeli forces detained two Palestinian citizens after raiding and searching their houses.

Local sources confirmed that the detainees identified as Luay Hamza Hussein,19, and Abdallah Umran Hussain, 17, were sent to unknown destinations for interrogation.

Israeli military troops raided the village of Azzoun  today at dawn amidst massive gunfire, terrifying hundreds of citizens, sources added.

=========================

6.  From: spiro <spiro@bezeqint.net>

Date: 2011/5/6

Hebrew follows the English

The Israeli Committee for

A Middle East Free of

Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms

Press release, May 7, 2011

Morderchai Vanunu demands to apply a recently passed law and revoke his Israeli citizenship. “I have no interest in Israeli citienship, I don’t want to go on living here”.

To Mr. Eli Yishai, Minister of the Interior, 2 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Jerusalem

Re: Revocation of Citizenship

I am Mordechai Vanunu, who was kidnapped in Rome on September 30, 1986, by the security services of Israel.

I was tried by the Jerusalem District Court, convicted of espionage, treason and assistance to the enemy and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment, following a newspaper interview to the London “Sunday Times” where I told of the production of materials for nuclear arms in Israel.

I have enacted the democratic principle of the public’s right to know.

I have spent 18 years at the Ashkelon Prison, mostly under conditions of complete isolation. On April 21, 2004 I was released, under severe restrictions.

Seven years have passed and the restrictions are renewed again and again, every year, on the basis of the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations. Now these restrictions are about to be renewed for yet another year.

Since my release I lived for six years in East Jerusalem. Since September 2010 I have lived in Tel Aviv.

On June 1986 I have converted to Anglican Christianity.

Recently, the Knesset passed a law authorizing the revocation of Israeli citizenship for those convicted of espionage and treason.

For 25 years I am waiting and demanding the restoration of my complete freedom.

I am asking the State of Israel to revoke my citizenship.

This wish for revocation of citizenship is neither new nor recent.

Now, however, it is supported by the new Citizenship Revocation Law, passed on March 28, 2011.

I am asking and expecting that this law be enforced to the letter, and that my citizenship be revoked here and now, under the spirit of the law.

I have no other citizenship, but I can easily get one, even during my enforced sojourn in Israel, and certainly if I leave the country.

After the treatment and “care” which I got from this country and its citizens, I cannot feel myself a wanted citizen here.

In the Israeli media and on the Israeli streets I am called “The Atomic Spy” and “A traitor”, harassed and persecuted as an Enemy of the State for 25 years.

I feel myself still imprisoned, still a prisoner of war and a hostage, held by the state and the government.

After 25 years of getting various harsh penalties from the state, I would like to see an end to punishments and the realization of my basic human right to freedom.

I wish to exercise my right to the Freedom of Conscience and the Freedom of Choice, by choosing not to be a citizen of Israel.

I have no interest in Israeli citizenship, I do not want to live here.

I ask that you revoke my citizenship here and now.

I request that you set me free of Israel, since Israel does not want me nor do I want Israel.

All that I knew I told, already in 1986, to the English newspaper. I have no further confidential information.

The time has come to let me leave Israel, after 25 years of imprisonment, a full quarter of a century!

Mordechai Vanunu

(c/o Att. Avigdor Feldman, 10 Huberman Street, Tel Aviv)

Copies: The President, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister and Justice Minister

http://www.youtube.com/user/vanunuvmjc?feature=mhum

http://www.vanunu.com/

Facebook    Vanunu Mordechai.

Email. vanunuvmjc@gmail.com

Mobile +9 7 2 (0)  5 2 3 7 4 4 5 6 9.

=================================================

הוועד הישראלי למען

מזרח תיכון חופשי מנשק אטומי, ביולוגי וכימי .

מרדכי ואנונו דורש להחיל עליו חוק שעבר בכנסת ולבטל את אזרחותו

” אין לי עניין באזרחות ישראלית, אינני רוצה לחיות כאן “

לכבוד:  אלי ישי, שר הפנים, רחוב קפלן 2, הקריה, ירושלים

הנדון: ביטול  אזרחות

אני, מרדכי ואנונו שנחטף ברומא ב-30  בספטמבר 1986 על ידי שירותי הביטחון של מדינת ישראל.

הועמדתי לדין בבית המשפט המחוזי בירושלים, הורשעתי בריגול, בגידה  וסיוע לאויב ונידונתי ל-18 שנות מאסר בעקבות ראיון עדות  לעיתון “לונדון סנדיי טיימס”  על ייצור חומרים לנשק גרעיני בישראל.

מימשתי את העיקרון הדמוקרטי של זכות הציבור לדעת.

ריציתי  18 שנים בכלא אשקלון, רובן בבידוד מוחלט. ב-21 באפריל 2004 שוחררתי עם הגבלות חמורות.

7 שנים חלפו וההגבלות מתחדשות שוב ושוב, מתוקף תקנות ההגנה (שעת חירום), 1945 , ועתה עומדים לחדשן לעוד שנה.

מאז שחרורי חייתי 6 שנים במזרח ירושלים והחל מספטמבר 2010 אני חי בתל אביב.

ביוני 1986 אני עברתי לדת הנוצרית אנגליקנית.

לאחרונה קיבלה הכנסת חוק לפיו ניתן לבטל אזרחות למי שהורשע בריגול ובבגידה.

25 שנה אני דורש וממתין להשבת חירותי המלאה.

אני מבקש ממדינת ישראל לבטל את אזרחותי.

רצון זה, לביטול אזרחות, אינו חדש ואינו מהזמן האחרון. אבל עכשיו הוא נתמך על ידי החוק החדש לשלילת אזרחות (2011 .28.3).

אני מצפה ומבקש לאכוף את החוק כלשונו ולבטל את אזרחותי כאן ועכשיו על פי רוח החוק.

אין לי אזרחות אחרת, אולם אוכל בנקל לקבל כזו, גם תוך כדי שהותי הכפויה בישראל, בודאי אם אעזוב אותה.

אחרי כל היחס ו”הטיפול” שקיבלתי מהמדינה הזו ואזרחיה איני יכול להרגיש  כאן אזרח רצוי.

בתקשורת הישראלית וברחוב הישראלי אני מכונה “מרגל האטום”   ו”בוגד”,  מוטרד ונרדף כאויב המדינה זה 25 שנה.

אני מרגיש עדיין בכלא , עדיין שבוי, בן ערובה של המדינה וממשלתה.

אחרי 25 שנה של עונשים רבים וקשים מידי המדינה, אני מבקש סיומם ומימוש זכותי האנושית הבסיסית לחופש האדם.

אני מבקש לממש את הזכות לחופש המצפון והזכות לחופש בחירה  לא להיות אזרח במדינת ישראל.

אין לי עניין באזרחות ישראלית, אינני רוצה לחיות כאן.

אני מבקש כי  תבטל את אזרחותי כאן ועכשיו.

בקשתי  כי תשחרר אותי מישראל, שהרי היא אינה רוצה בי ואני לא בה!

כל מה שידעתי מסרתי ב-1986 לעיתון האנגלי. אין בידי מידע סודי.

הגיעה העת לאפשר לי לעזוב את ישראל לאחר תקופת מאסר בת 25 שנה, רבע מאה!!!

מרדכי ואנונו  Vanunu  Mordechai

(אצל עו”ד אביגדור פלדמן רחוב הוברמן 10 תל אביב)

העתקים: נשיא המדינה, ראש הממשלה, שר הביטחון, שר החוץ ושר המשפטים.

לפרטים נוספים:

מרדכי ואנונו 3744569- 052

גדעון ספירו, הוועד הישראלי למען מזרח תיכון חופשי מנשק אטומי, ביולוגי וכימי 03-5238584

======================

Haaretz Saturday, May 07, 2011

Report: CUNY to reverse decision to withhold honor from Kushner over anti-Israel views

Following backlash, executive committee of CUNY board will nix earlier decision and grant honorary degree to playwright Tony Kushner, the New York Times reports.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/report-cuny-to-reverse-decision-to-withhold-honor-from-kushner-over-anti-israel-views-1.360375

By Haaretz Service

On Friday, the board of trustees of the City University of New York moved to reverse its earlier decision to not grant an honorary degree to playwright Tony Kushner over his views on Israel, the New York Times reported.

The New York Time report quoted CUNY board chairman Benno C. Schmidt Jr. as saying that he believed that the board had “made a mistake of principle, and not merely of policy” in the decision to withhold the degree.

According to the report, a meeting of the board’s executive committee, which has the power to change board decisions, has been scheduled for Monday.

“Freedom of thought and expression is the bedrock of any university worthy of the name,” Schmidt was quoted as saying. “But it is not right for the board to consider politics in connection with the award of honorary degrees except in extreme cases not presented by the facts here.”

Kushner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has condemned Israel’s policies against Palestinians, accusing Israel of engaging in ethnic cleansing. The playwright was also quoted saying that it would be better if Israel did not exist.

The New York Times report said that the CUNY board had faced a wave of backlash following the decision to withhold the degree from Kushner.

Left-wing Israel advocacy group J Street had condemned the board of trustees’ decision in a statement, saying it was an infringement upon Kushner’s right to free speech, calling it a “political witch-hunt”.

————

The Guardian Friday 6 May 2011 15.15 BST

America –The malaise behind CUNY’s affront to Tony Kushner

CUNY’s withdrawal of Kushner’s honorary degree exposes the widening rift within American Jewry over attitudes to Israel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/06/tony-kushner-israel

Sarah Wildman

Jewish playwright Tony Kushner’s honorary degree from City University of New York has been blocked by pro-Israeli activist Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a university trustee. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Tony Kushner may be many things. An American playwright. An instigator. A prodder. A gay man. A Jew. What he is not is an antisemite. What he is not is an Israel-basher. Does he question Israeli policy? He does. And in the new Jew v Jew world of American Jewish discourse, those questions are tantamount to dismissing the state in its entirety. As a result, a reputation has been slandered and all nuance in this conversation has, yet again, has been set aside.

On 2 May, the City University of New York’s board of trustees voted not to proceed with the award of an honorary degree to Kushner – an honorific that was to be given during this month’s commencement address at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It was the first time in 50 years that CUNY had chosen to withhold a degree from a candidate whose name had come before the board. At issue was not Kushner’s long list of accomplishments – the playwright who penned the Pulitzer Prize winning Angels in America, Perestroika and Homebody Kabul, among many, many others, is more than worthy. Instead, the concern raised, and flamed, by one trustee – Jeffrey S Weisenfeld – came regarding Kushner’s position on Israel. Weisenfeld stated that Kushner had called Israel’s Palestinian policy in the 1948 war as one of “ethnic cleansing”, claimed the playwright had supported a boycott of Israel, declared he had criticised the Israeli defence force. In an open letter to the university board of trustees, Kushner called Weisenfeld’s successful attack a “grotesque caricature” of his position “concocted out of three contextless quotes”.

And then, as only he can, Kushner took apart their criticism. (He was not, he has repeatedly pointed out, invited to defend his case before the board).

“My questions and reservations regarding the founding of the state of Israel are connected to my conviction, drawn from my reading of American history, that democratic government must be free of ethnic or religious affiliation, and that the solution to the problems of oppressed minorities are to be found in pluralist democracy. I am very proud of being Jewish, and discussing this issue publicly has been hard; but I believe in the absolute good of public debate, and I feel that silence on the part of Jews who have questions is injurious to the life of the Jewish people. My opinion about the wisdom of the creation of a Jewish state has never been expressed in any form without a strong statement of support for Israel’s right to exist, and my ardent wish that it continue to do so, something Mr Weisenfeld conveniently left out of his remarks.”

He went on to say that his position regarding the forced removal of Palestinians in 1948 was formed by reading renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris, and that:

“My outrage, my grief, my terror, my moments of despair – regarding the ongoing horror in the Middle East, the brunt of which has been born by the Palestinian people, but which has also cost Israelis dearly and which endangers their existence, are shared by many Jews, in Israel, in the US and around the world. My despair is kept in check by my ongoing belief in and commitment to a negotiated conclusion to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.”

Like many American Jews, Kushner is in the midst of a process, and is engaged in a thoughtful, nuanced, painful conversation with his colleagues, his family, his friends about the nature of democracy, the future of Zionism, and the context in which the state of Israel might finally make peace with the Palestinians. He is affiliated with a half dozen Jewish organisations in New York. He is on the advisory board of the Jewish Voices for Peace; but while some on the board have called for a boycott of Israel, he has not, and he does not believe in disinvestment.

And yet, the very fact that he has had to spell this out is a travesty. Is Jewish heritage and fealty to the Jewish state a monolith? Is there one means of living Jewishly in diaspora? One means of respecting the state of Israel? The idea that one’s relationship to Israel must be uniformly unquestioning is in and of itself the gravest of errors; it is one that will further marginalise and divide a community that is increasingly at war with itself.

Like Peter Beinart’s seminal essay in the New York Review of Books, which pointed out to Jewish leadership that the youth of the Jewish community is betwixt and between, bothered and confused, nurtured with beliefs in social justice but encouraged not to question Israel, and thus were turning away from the state, the disenchantment of Tony Kushner will be seen as another deep fissure in an increasingly fractured community. Rather than embracing debate on the future of the state of Israel, there are those in the community who would like to shut down conversation. These are the same voices that have pointed fingers at J Street, the new Jewish pro-Israel lobbying organisation that questions the actions of Israel with regard to the Arab minority – and which has called this week’s decision of CUNY’s board of trustees “misguided”.

And yet the oddest, most disturbing, aspect of this tempest in a Manhattan teapot, is that CUNY isn’t, ostensibly, a Jewish institution. It is a centre for higher learning, a place for debate, for raising consciousness, not for dictating the terms of discourse. Division of opinion, one might think, should be debated, if not celebrated, as opposed to quashed. Thirty years ago, CUNY finally apologised to faculty dismissed during the McCarthy era. Will they be forced to do the same for Tony Kushner?