NOVANEWS
09/26/2010
- A ‘party for Marty’ greets Peretz at Harvard
- UN: Two men killed on ‘Mavi Marmara’ were holding cameras when they were shot
- The legend of the Silwad sniper
- He willed it but it’s still a dream
- Two conversations with Europeans in Jordan touch on Jewish fears re anti-Semitism
A ‘party for Marty’ greets Peretz at Harvard
Sep 25, 2010
Adam Horowitz
The following was sent out by the organizers of the “Party for Marty”:
Over 100 members of the Harvard community and others “welcomed” New Republic editor and the university administration’s favorite racist, Martin Peretz, at the 50th anniversary of Harvard’s Social Studies program with a combination of protests, walk-outs, and probing questions.
Demonstrators at the event confronted Peretz outside Harvard’s Science Center—which was held in part to launch a $650,000 research fund in his name—and followed him for several minutes while chanting slogans rejecting his racist stances.
“Just because President Faust wants to honor a longtime public bigot doesn’t mean that the Harvard community does,” said senior Abdelnasser Rashid, a social studies concentrator. “We’ve billed this demonstration as a ‘Party for Marty’ to show how absurd Harvard’s decision to celebrate Peretz is.”
Peretz attempted to sneak out of the Science Center’s back entrance around noontime but was quickly spotted and surrounded by Harvard students chanting “Harvard University will not stand bigotry” and “Harvard Harvard shame on you, for honoring a racist fool” as he walked aross campus.
The protest continued outside of the Adams House dining hall, where Peretz was honored at a Social Studies luncheon. During his talk, around 10 faculty and staff walked out in protest.
“It’s Marty’s party and he can cry if he wants to,” said Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, a graduate student in comparative literature. “But the rest of us are here to remind him that we’re not going to stand by while the Harvard administration overlooks his 25-year career in spewing hatred and bigotry. He has a right to free speech, not a right to be honored.”
Protesters had gathered in the morning outside the Science Center, brandishing signs with some of Peretz’ most memorable quotes from his long career of spouting racism. Peretz has described “Arab society” as “hidebound and backward”; declared that “many in the black population are afflicted by cultural deficiencies”; and described Latin American societies as “congenitally corrupt” with “near-tropical work habits.”
Peretz was roundly criticized during the Social Studies celebration itself. During the event’s morning panel, Berkeley economist Brad DeLong cited Peretz’s recent statements about Muslims and argued that the only “appropriate response” was “What the frackity frack is going on here?”
During the afternoon panel, several Social Studies alumni and current students challenged Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick and Princeton professor Michael Walzer over their support for the Peretz Fund during a question and answer period. Students remarked on the irony of the session’s title, “Social Studies and Social change,” and asked the panelists how they managed to overlook a career of bigotry spanning decades.
The demonstrators joined the over 600 people, nearly all Harvard affiliates or alumni, who signed an open letter this week calling upon Harvard to reverse its decision to honor Peretz and establish a fund in his name. Separately, several Harvard student groups representing Arab, African-American, Muslim, and Latino students jointly signed letters condemning the decision to honor Peretz.
Harvard administrators have cited Peretz’ recent attempt to apologize for a few of his most recent remarks after they drew nationwide condemnation; but these half-hearted and belated remarks do not address the many racist statements he has made over the past few decades.
“The Harvard administration has no right to accept to absolve Martin Peretz of his racism on behalf of students of color and others who oppose racism,” Rashid said.
UN: Two men killed on ‘Mavi Marmara’ were holding cameras when they were shot
Sep 25, 2010
Philip Weiss
We’ve failed to post anything on the United Nations Human Rights Council’s report issued three days ago on the Israeli raid on the Gaza flotilla last May that found that Israel had committed grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law. But big deal we’re late–the mainstream media have largely ignored the report.
I have to read the report through. But here’s the UN link. I see that the report describes the operation as disproportionate, with “unnecessary and incredible” violence, and “an unacceptable level of brutality.”
And glancing at the narrative, the report finds that two of the 9 men killed in the raid, including American Furkan Dogan, were holding cameras and using them to film the Israeli invaders when they were shot. Additionally– despite the sticks and catapults that some passengers used on the commandos– the four people killed on the lower, bridge deck were not posing any physical threat to the raiders, who were then on the top deck, and in fact were trying to get out of the way.
Also notice the description of Gaza conditions as an unacceptable disgrace in the 21st century and the poetical language about Jewish victimhood (as I read it anyway) near the end– Jews must find the strength to pluck from their memory rooted sorrows. Excerpts:
The Mission does not find it plausible that soldiers were holding their weapons and firing as they descended on the rope [from the helicopter]. However, it has concluded that live ammunition was used from the helicopter onto the top deck prior to the descent of the soldiers…. Further, the Mission finds that the Israeli accounts so inconsistent and contradictory with regard to evidence of alleged firearms injuries to Israeli soldiers that it has to reject it..
At least one of those killed [on the top deck, American Furkan Dogan] was using a video camera and not involved in any of the fighting with the soldiers….
Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition both from the top deck at passengers on the bridge deck below and after they had moved down to the bridge deck. At least four passengers were killed,73 and at least nine injured (five with firearms injuries) during this phase. None of the four passengers who were killed, including a photographer who at the time of being shot was engaged in taking photographs [Cevdet Kiliclar] and was shot by an Israeli soldier positioned on the top deck above, posed any threat to the Israeli forces. There was considerable live fire from Israeli soldiers on the top deck and a number of passengers were injured or killed whilst trying to take refuge inside the door or assisting other to do so…
The Mission is not alone in finding that a deplorable situation exists in Gaza. It has been characterized as ‘unsustainable’. This is totally intolerable and unacceptable in the 21st Century. It is amazing that anyone could characterise the condition of the people there as satisfying the most basic of acceptable standards. The parties and the international community are urged to find the solution that will address all legitimate security concern of
both Israel and the people of Palestine both of whom are equally entitled to “their place under the heavens”. The apparent dichotomy in this case between the competing right of security and the right to a decent living can only be resolved if old antagonisms are subordinated to a sense of justice and fair play. One has to find the strength to pluck from the memory rooted sorrows and to move on….It is hoped that there will be swift action by the Government of Israel. This will go a long way to reversing the regrettable reputation which that country has for impunity and intransigence in international affairs.
The legend of the Silwad sniper
Sep 25, 2010
Philip Weiss
Last week a group of Palestinian fitness junkies no different from any group of hikers or bikers or joggers in the U.S. went for a hike in the hills of the occupied West Bank. I went along, and when we came to this ridge, an older man said we were looking down at the scene of a legend in Palestinian history: the Silwad sniper.
Down in the notch in the middle ground, you can see the Nablus road, going from north to south (left to right), and making a junction with a road from the east. A flagship Israeli settlement called Ofra is straight ahead. There used to be an Israeli checkpoint at the junction, protecting the settlers.
Then early one morning in March 2002, during the second intifadah, a young man from the village on the hill at the right, Silwad, crept down into the rocks and trees above the checkpoint with his grandfather’s archaic WW2 rifle and 30 rounds, and as the sun rose he picked off Israeli soldiers. He killed 10 of them, and one settler. The echoes in the ravine kept the Israelis from knowing where the sniper was. When he had fired all his rounds, he crept back to the village.
Weeks went by, and then the sniper made a mistake. He told one man what he’d done. That person told someone else, and before long the Israelis arrested him. Today he is serving many life sentences.
As we walked away, I asked a Palestinian friend how many Palestinians regard the sniper as heroic. “Oh– everyone. Except maybe Abu Mazen.”
After the hike I learned more about the sniper’s legend. His name is Thaer Hamad. His father is interviewed by Europeans here, who give him the hero treatment. The Boston Globe covered the case; his feat is debated among war fans; and Debka file argues that he can’t have acted alone. You’ll see that the facts are different in each version.
The terrain in the story reminds me of western legend, the mountains of the Spanish civil war. The Spanish Republicans’ resistance to Franco’s nationalists in the ’30s is heroic. Think of the movie Pan’s Labyrinth or the Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. In Hemingway’s novel, the brave peasant guerrillas make raids on soldiers on the road. There is no question whose side we’re on; though yes, Hemingway lets us know how questionable violence is in Pilar’s beautiful monologue about the civilian massacre in her village. All the fascists the republicans could get their hands on were mercilessly slaughtered, pushed off a cliff.
A modern Hemingway could never write For Whom the Bell Tolls about the Silwad sniper who made the mistake of opening his mouth. And Guillermo del Toro could never direct a Pan’s Labyrinth about Palestinian resistance. Because mainstream western culture has so far only humanized one side in this struggle: the Israeli victims of the second intifadah–most of them civilians– whose government is colonizing Palestinian land.
If you wrote an article or novel about the Silwad sniper who made the mistake of opening his mouth, a mainstream editor would demand that you humanize his victims, and tell their story too.
Obama’s speech the other day to the U.N. General Assembly shows how limited the American view is of this struggle. He assailed Palestinians who resort to violence, but he did not address real Palestinian conditions. He did not acknowledge the chief cause of violence: occupation.
He spoke several times about Palestinian “dignity” but did not criticize the Israeli assaults on their dignity. And while he attacked Palestinian “rejectionists” and others who would “tear down” Israel, he did not mention the main reason people want to tear down Israel– the occupation, its endless humiliation and dispossession of Palestinians.
I’m in Jordan, and I can tell you that people here scoff at Obama’s demand that the Arab states normalize relations with Israel. They won’t do so until it ceases its occupation, the militarized seizure of land and water. Arabs know all the latest news from the occupation, in which Palestinian babies die and armed settlers rampage through Palestinian villages. That killing in occupied East Jerusalem the other day was on the front page of the Jordan Times.
I’m against violence as much as anyone on this site. But the Silwad sniper and Pan’s Labyrinth and For Whom the Bell Tolls remind us that human beings resort to violence when they don’t have freedom.
Under occupation, Palestinians live in a kind of prison; and our elected leaders have failed to acknowledge these conditions, and the New York Times and the nightly news do a lousy job of giving Americans half the info that the Arab world gets.
That is why the nonviolent BDS movement seems so urgent to me. The only way to honor Palestinian dignity is to take real action to lift the occupation. Without such action, we know what people are likely to do.
He willed it but it’s still a dream
Sep 25, 2010
Philip Weiss
From The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, the Austrian writer/statesman who founded the movement for political Zionism. August 6, 1999, Vienna.
My testament for the Jewish people:
Make your State in such a way that the stranger will feel comfortable among you.
