A Freedom Charter or A Second Nakba? By Kenneth O'Keefe

Imagine this, imagine that Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress negotiated a deal with the South African Apartheid regime and settled for a “two-state solution.”  Imagine Mandela negotiating with the Apartheid regime a land deal in which less than 15% of current day South Africa went to the black South Africans, the remaining 85% to the inherently racist Apartheid government and its people.

With that in mind, I ask, is there any real difference between that scenario and the idea of a “two-state solution” today?  I am happy to know that ever-increasing numbers of people inside and outside of Palestine see what I see, the so-called two-state solution is in truth the two-state disaster, the second Nakba.

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“By way of deception, thou shalt make love”

Gilad Atzmon: As we know the Mossad’s motto  is ‘by way of deception, thou shalt do war.' However,  as far as Palestinians are concerned, fibbing is not allowed . The Guardian reported today that a Palestinian was found  guilty of rape after ‘consensual sex with Jew”

Read for yourself:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/21/arab-guilty-rape-consensual-sex-jew

A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.

Sabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after the court ruled that he was guilty of rape by deception. According to the complaint filed by the woman with the Jerusalem district court, the two met in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008 where Kashur, an Arab from East Jerusalem, introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The two then had consensual sex in a nearby building before Kashur left.

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On The Israeli Right's New 'Peace' Agenda by Gilad Atzmon

As the Israelis are becoming conscious of their inevitable tragic circumstances, a final desperate attempt to rescue the Zionist project has come to life. Astonishingly enough it is the Israeli right that is now pushing for ‘one binational State.’ It is pretty staggering to find out that while the Israeli so-called ‘left’ is locked within the 1967 territorial paradigm that is fueled by Judeo centric racial ideology, it is actually the hawkish Zionist thinkers who are willing to move the discourse forward.

In a mind provoking piece Noam Sheizaf outlines in Haaretz the new revolutionary Israeli idea. However, I will maintain at this stage that the new Zionist call for ‘one binational state’ suggests that Zionist ideology is on its last leg. Israel has come to realise its inevitable end. And amidst its terminal conditions Israel tries to buy time.

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Strictly Dancing by Gilad Atzmon

Some Jews and Israelis seem to be rather jolly lately.

We recently encountered a glimpse of a Jewish family celebrating their survival of the Holocaust by exploring some different disco manoeuvres with the landscape of Auschwitz in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GIuv2PRjEU

I honestly think that nothing is categorically wrong about it. At the end of the day, Jews found many ways to deal with their past. Dancing is no doubt preferable to killing in the name of Jewish suffering.

IDF soldiers are also finding the time to dance when they are not murdering in the name of ‘Israeli security’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIrVofeRh0g

In fact, one possible interpretation is that the IDF’s dance routine was a form of protest against their army and terrorist state. I guess that we would all prefer Israeli soldiers to dance than kill. Regardless, if Israelis feel the urge to boogie they better do it in their own streets.

Yet,  Kosher Bollywood may be the way forward for the contemporary Jewish dancer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktQOLO4U5iQ

 

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Community Ramadan football tournament to take place in Gaza

http://www.gazalife.org/

What: A community football tournament at the Unity Youth Field in the Yebna neighborhood of Rafah, Gaza.

Why: Cut off from the world by a brutal siege the people of the Gaza strip live with hunger, massive unemployment and frequent attacks by the Israeli army. Extreme vulnerability and insecurity, coupled with bleak prospects for the future, feed hopelessness and rage with the youth being particularly vulnerable. This innovative, community-developed football tournament gives neighbors a chance to strengthen bonds and relieve the stress caused by the dire situation.

When: The month of Ramadan, the 11th of August through the 9th of September.

Fundraiser Target: $10,000 U.S.

Fundraiser Ends: August 15th

 

For more info:

http://www.gazalife.org/

Gilad Atzmon: British Jews Support Israeli War Crimes

The Jewish community in Britain seems to be over the moon. A survey that was published a few days ago suggests that British Jews are nothing but  ‘peace lovers’. The Guardian was also quick to report that  77% of “British Jews favour a 'two-state solution' in Israel”.

In practice, this actually means that at least 77% of British Jews believe that millions of dispossessed Palestinians should continue to dwell in refugee camps and never be allowed to their  homes, cities, and villages. I am actually far from impressed with British Jewry’s inclination towards peace. 

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Give History a Chance by Gilad Atzmon

A talk given at the "Debunking the War on Terror" Symposium on July 14th

The War on Terror Within

1 The more pain we inflict on others the more we become familiar with evil, aggression and brutality. 

1.1  The more cruel we are towards others, the more devastated we are by the possibility that  the subjects of our brutality may also be as nasty as we happen to be.

1.2   According to Freud this is what projection is all about.

1.2.1 Otto Weininger refines it, ‘we hate in others, that which we don’t like in ourselves’ he says.

1.3  As it happens, the dynamic of projection is amplified once the subject of our terror is hopeless and defenseless.

1.3.1 The reason is obvious. The more hopeless the subject of our terror is, the more we are inclined to face our relentless viciousness first hand.

2      Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is a devastating example of the above. The more hopeless and defenseless the Palestinians are, the more vicious the Israeli becomes.

2.1   And yet, the more vicious the Israeli is, the more he or she is horrified by ‘terror’.

3      In reality, the Israelis are actually horrified by their own cruelty which they project onto others.

4      The recent cold-blooded murder of 11 peace activists in the high seas by Israeli Navy commandos was nothing but a shocking exposure of that lethal dynamic. The more ethically transparent, innocent and harmless the humanitarian mission to Gaza is, the more lethal the Israeli becomes.

 

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Each village is a reminder by Brian Lenzo

After his Rochester performance, Atzmon sat down with Brian Lenzo to discuss music, politics and his thoughts on the future of peace in the region.

The Palestinian refugee community of Shu'afat sits behind Israel's  separation wall, cut off from other Palestinian neighborhoods in  Jerusalem (Jeremy Price)The Palestinian refugee community of Shu'afat sits behind Israel's separation wall, cut off from other Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem (Jeremy Price)

YOU GREW up in Israel, right when the Palestinian National movement had come on to the scene. Were you aware of it? What was it like growing up in Israel at that time?

THIS IS a very interesting question. When you read what Jews have written about their suffering, the philosophers and historians, they always talk about the magmatic effect of irrational hatred. About the Germans: "It was madness." Now the Turkish: 'They are mad!" And the Palestinians. We asked, "Why do they want to come here? There are so many Arab places to go?"

As kids, we thought, "Everybody is mad!" The mentality was--and still is--us versus them. The Jewish world is divided into a binary opposition of us and them. This was my vision of the Palestinians.

We were shocked to wake up in the morning and find out there was a 'terror' attack, then another terror attack. It took me years to understand that these were people who were fighting for their land--land that belongs to them and them alone.

It took me some time before I realized that the Qassam rockets are a love letter from the Palestinian's stolen land. The Palestinian movement is a poetic movement. And it's through the poets that they will be able not just to liberate their land, but to liberate all of us.

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Gilad Atzmon discusses Tolerance, History and Revisionism on Aspen GrassRoots TV

This  set of six video clips covers an almost taboo controversy to do with freedom of speech.  In the discussion,  I stress the ethical and logical need for history to be open to revision.

Participants, left to right:  Gilad Atzmon  —  Harvie Branscome (Moderator) — Steve Kaufman (founder director of Access Roaring Fork ( http://www.accessrf.org/ ) — Michael Conniff of KUUR-FM Aspen, Colorado

Please note:  The original program was just under one hour, and has been edited into six parts, and a few pauses, repetitions and hesitations have been removed.  The editing has not in any way changed the sense of what any of the speakers said, and the original program can be viewed here:  
http://vod.grassrootstv.org/vodcontent/9202-1.wmv

A special thanks to Anthony Lawson for editing the program  and posting it.

 

Pt.1

Pt.2

Pt.3

Pt.4

Pt.5

Pt.6

CNN editor fired after tweeting 'respect for Hezbollah giant'

Octavia Nasr, a 20-year CNN veteran based in Atlanta, wrote on Twitter that she respected the Grand Ayatollah Mohaamed Hussein Fadlallah, who died in Beirut on Sunday.

CNN has fired a senior editor for Middle East news after she published a Twitter message that said she respected a Lebanese Shi'ite cleric branded a terrorist by the United States, U.S. and British media said on Thursday.

The Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, one of Shi'ite Islam's highest religious authorities and an early mentor of the militant group Hezbollah, died in Beirut on Sunday.

Octavia Nasr, a 20-year CNN veteran based in Atlanta, wrote on Twitter: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah ... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot," the New York Times reported.
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Two State Hypocrisy by Daniel McGowan

Historical Palestine (or Israel within the borders it now controls including pre-1967 Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights) is one country with one water system, one electrical grid, one powerful military to defend and define its external borders, one monetary system, one telephone system, and one postal system.  It is already one state, although half the population has lesser rights or none at all.

The current argument for creating two states is simply another attempt to carve out a Jewish state, called Israel, where Jews have by law superior rights to non-Jews.  It involves ethnic cleansing, segregation, and racism; it is definitely not a formula for lasting peace.
American support of a racist, apartheid state is contrary to what we Americans profess to believe.  Yet we overwhelmingly endorse the idea of a Jewish state and ignore the basic human rights of half the population that is not “chosen.”

Americans claim to endorse equal rights of citizenship everywhere in the world, except Israel.  We do so both out of conviction and out of fear of being smeared with the anti-Semitic tar brush.  We are loath to even discuss Jewish power that compels us to deny self determination and equal rights for Palestinians.

Our government supports the ghettoization of Gaza and other Palestinian enclaves; it ignores Israeli concentration camps like Ketziot; it supports the building of illegal settlements in occupied territory; it turns a blind eye to nuclear proliferation by Israel; it defends a Jewish attack on an unarmed humanitarian flotilla, and it sends our military to fight wars demanded by Israel.

It is time for all Americans to support the de facto One State of Israel/Palestine and to demand that it treat all of its inhabitants as citizens with equal rights, regardless of religion or ethnicity.

Daniel McGowan
Professor Emeritus

Atzmon and Siegel in Rochester and Geneva by Dan McGowan

“Within the borders controlled today by Israel (that is, all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River) there already exists a single state.  It has one electrical grid, one road system, one monetary authority, one postal authority, one water system, etc.” Dan McGowan

Following is Dan McGowan’s report of  my first two public engagements  in the  USA (Rochester and Geneva). In these two meetings I shared platform with Rich Siegel, an incredible musician, a genuine humanist and a friend.  In recent years Rich made an unusual journey. He drifted away from Zionism. He is now engaged in the deepest level of  Palestinian solidarity activism. His voice is invaluable.

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Debunking the War on Terror!!!


Four of the West's Boldest Dissidents Gather in London for July 14th "Debunking the War on Terror" Symposium 

The forthcoming "Debunking the War on Terror" symposium in London brings together four of the most outspoken and eloquent challengers to the Zio-American imperial order that has emerged post-September 11th. While most of the left and antiwar movements have chosen to remain "loyal opposition," each of these four individuals has gone one step further, by challenging the very roots of the mainstream Western consensus and accepting the physical, professional or intellectual exile that ensues. If the consensus is starting to shift, it is due in large part to such bold challenges as these.

Kenneth O'Keefe, the symposium's Master of Ceremonies, renounced his US citizenship and left the USA after the events of September 11th and the ensuing US wars of aggression. He organized the human shield project, an attempt to prevent Bush's attack on Iraq by placing US and European volunteers beside likely bombing targets. More recently, he has gained broad media exposure for his defense of the humanitarian aid ship the Mavi Marmara--he was "directly involved in disarming two Israeli commandos" on that ship--and subsequent brutalization by Israeli authorities.

Gilad Atzmon, who will be speaking on "From Promised Land to Promised Planet: Zionism and Neoconservatism," is an outspoken opponent of Zionism and highly critical voice of Jewish identity politics. An Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, his album "Exile" was the BBC's "jazz album of the year" in 2003. He is also an acclaimed novelist and political essayist whose views on Zionism, empire and resistance provocatively challenge the boundaries of what passes for polite Western discourse.

Dr. Kevin Barrett, one of America's best-known critics of the "war on terror," has been blacklisted by the University of Wisconsin since 2007 due to his political views. A Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, he is the author of Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and of Questioning the War on Terror (2009/2010) as well as the lead editor (with theologian John Cobb and Jewish Studies professor Sandra Lubarsky) of 9/11 & American Empire Vol. II: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out (2007; Arabic version 2009). He will address, "Islam, Neoconservatism, and the Unwarranted 'War on Terror'".

Dr. James Fetzer, Distinguished McKnight Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a non-partisan association of faculty, students, and scholars, in fields as diverse as history, science, military affairs, psychology, and philosophy, dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11. Scholars was the first 9/11 research society to make an impact on public discussion about the events of 9/11. The Scholars' first book, The 9/11 Conspiracy (2007) and DVD, The Science and Politics of 9/11 (2007), provide evidence of a conspiracy and cover-up, which was designed and executed to manipulate the American people into supporting illegal wars and unconstitutional measures out of the fear those atrocities induced. He will address, "Are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan justified by 9/11?"

* * *

Please come and participate and forward to all:

RE:  "Debunking the 'War on Terror':  Three Perspectives”
        14th July 2010, 6:30-9:30 PM, Friends House, Euston Road opposite Euston Station

 Participants will analyze three different rationales that have been advanced to justify wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan to ascertain whether they are true or false.

The event will be held in The Large Meeting Hall of Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London.  Friends House is on the south side of Euston Road directly opposite Euston Station (BR main line, Victoria and Northern underground lines).  The doors will open at 6 PM.  Admission is £5 on the door.

For more information, visit http://rediscover911.com/DWT/DebunkingWT.htm.  You may also contact Declan and Lola Heavey dheavy@gmail.com, in London.
Source: http://truthjihad.blogspot.com/2010/07/zio-american-exiles-speak-out.html



In Case You Are Around

 

Hello everybody, I am in the USA at the moment.

I will be very busy meeting friends, activists and journalists.

Some of the meetings are open to the public. In case you happen to be around here is the list:

29.6     7 PM Flying Squirrel Community Space 285 Clarissa St. Rochester, NY 

30.6  7 PM Billsboro Winery 4760 West Lake Road Geneva, New York.  The event is orgenised by Deir Yassin Remembered.

1.7 7PM  Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street,  Denver Colorado

2.7 6 PM   Aspen Community Church, 200 East Bleeker Street Aspen, Colorado

03.07   7:30 PM  Plaza Americas - Houston, Texas (Sponsors: Al-Awda, Houston and KPFT -Radio For Peace. Co-sponsors: Arab American Cultural Center (PACC) and Palestinians for Peace and Democracy (P4PD)

06.07   6:00 PM  University of Texas - Austin Texas (Sponsor: Al-Awda)

In case you want to schedule an interview with me, please contact me via the sidebar contact box.

Peace Gilad