When your argument’s been lost, just give it one more toss
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.
If the ‘terrorists’ produce inconvenient facts and you’re feeling that familiar lack
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.
So your logic’s in a knot and lies are all you’ve got
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.
Nothing thrills like raw hate, you can never underrate
The benefits of the hasbara stash and Khhhhammmmass, Khhhhammasss, Khammmasss.
The problem is all theirs, so please remember in your prayers
The goddamn, nasty, convenient stash of Khhaammmmass, Khhhhammmass, Khhammmass.
A view (above) of the Israel side of the wall, notice the olive trees illegally annexed, and the attempt to "pretty" it up with a round-a-bout.A new facebook page has been launched, “Don’t Play Tel Aviv White City – It’s Today’s Sun City.” The creators are rallying for support to ask a number of international artists to boycott the Tel Aviv White City music festival, which is sponsored by the Israeli government. Just a few of the artists who are being asked to boycott include Bobby McFerrin, Courtney Pine, Oi Va Voi, Regina Carter and the Indian group Rajasthan Josh.
The facebook page states:
“In respect of the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel, we ask musicians of conscience to boycott the Tel Aviv White City Music Festival.”
The cultural boycott is a very important aspect the BDS movement. The cultural boycott is evidenced as being so very important because of the vast amount of money Israel spends specifically to counteract that aspect of the boycott.
It appears artists are often told by their Israeli booking agents that music brings people together, and that BDS builds walls. Recently an artist wrote that he would not boycott his Israeli fans. The UK group Younger Brother insisted that their concert would help bring peace through music, and that their Israeli fans were all about peace.
International artists that participate in Israeli government supported festivals are participating in an insidious effort by the powerful oppressive state of Israel to “normalize” the settler-colonial policies. There is nothing normal about extreme racism, the crushing oppression of education and the illegal apartheid wall. It is so ironic, then, when artists who break the boycott say that BDS builds walls. These is no wall that stands out on the face of this planet that is used like the wall Israel has created. The wall illegally annexes Palestinian land, cuts off families, schools, and access to jobs. It erases views of the sunrise and sunset, and is strewn with trash, dotted with sniper towers, and dehumazing checkpoints. Even cattle are treated better than some Palestinians who wait for hours in the heat or cold only to be buzzed through a checkpoint with an automated program, controlled remotely.
Money is liberally invested in festivals that are designed to create the illusion for the Israeli population that their state is normal. They are created to convince the international community that Israel is not only normal but endowed with beautiful tourist sites and a vibrant artistic community. Vast amounts of money are poured into festivals and contests such as the Israeli International Oud Festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival, PIC.NIC music festival, the International Harp Contest in Israel, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, the “Israel Festival,”and more, like the upcoming Tel Aviv White City Music Festival. A view of the wall as it comes right up near a home, and cuts a Palestinian village in half.
The Holon Woman’s Festival, billed as a showcase of women’s artistic achievements was to feature US Jazz artist Cassandra Wilson. Cassandra became aware of the cultural boycott and despite the media blackout on the truth about how Palestinians are treated in Israel, she became aware of their plight. This caused her to cancel her performances at the Holon Woman’s Festival. Cassandra joins a list of many artists who have chosen to side with justice. Among those are Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, over forty actors, directors and writers in the UK, Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, John Berger and 93 other artists, and many more.
For a full listing of artists who are booked to play White City, see http://www.tlv-music.com/en/Artists. One artist recently stated via twitter, “You’re right, I was unaware of any cultural boycott, although certainly aware of the situation.” (Rock musician Scott McCaughey on twitter on 1 April). If McCaughey had been aware of the boycott, he may have been much less willing to play in Israel. No artist of conscience should desire to be a part of the strategy by Israel to normalize what can never be sustained. Apartheid.
As part of the Global March to Jerusalem to support Palestinian Land Day, Australians turned out to protest in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for justice, rights and freedom, The protesters marched to BDS (boycott, divestments and sanctions) target, Max Brenner, in Sydney. Max Brenner is owned by the Israeli Strauss group which supports the apartheid Israeli regime, in particular the IDF Golani and Givati brigades which are responsible for numerous atrocities against oppressed, occupied indigenous Palestinians.
In Melbourne, hundreds of protesters marched for Palestinians, also to Max Brenner and its apartheid-sweetener coffee shop.
This year on Land Day, which commemorates Israel’s cold-blooded murder of six unarmed Palestinian Israelis in a 1976 demonstration and strikes held to protest against a massive outrageous land grab, Israel spilt yet more Palestinian blood on Palestinian soil, murdering 20 year old Mahmud Zakut near the border fence with the apartheid entity at Beit Hanoun. Hundreds of Palestinians protesting for their birthright on Land Day were injured by the criminal Occupier.
Deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme, Ann Harrison said:
“News that Israeli forces are firing live ammunition on Land Day demonstrators near the Erez Crossing in Gaza, and that scores have been injured in protests in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem is extremely worrying, particularly in the light of frequent and persistent use of excessive force against Palestinian protesters.
“We are also concerned at reports that Palestinian Authority security forces have tried to prevent protests in areas under their control, while Hamas security forces have beaten protesters in Gaza. All those involved in policing demonstrations should respect freedom of assembly and must adhere to international policing standards.”
‘the BDS protesters held leaves to symbolize Palestinian orchards and wore costumes made from painted cardboard boxes to represent houses. They then held a painted cardboard cut-out of a bulldozer and “bulldozed” the houses and trees to the ground.
“We have to bring what happens every day under the watch of the JNF … to the streets of Philadelphia,” said College freshman and PennBDS member Sahir Doshi with a megaphone. “They have not made the desert bloom, they have made the desert bleed.”’
A recent report by the United Nations concluded that Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories ‘exhibit features of colonialism and apartheid’. B’Tasleem, Israel’s leading human rights organization, published in its report Land Grab that Israel ‘has created a system of legally sanctioned separation based on discrimination that has, perhaps, no parallel any where in the world since the apartheid regime of South Africa’. The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa also concluded in its legal study that Israel is guilty of apartheid crimes.
Hanaa Al-Shalabi is a Palestinian political prisoner of apartheid Israel. She was released from over two years in administrative detention on 18 October 2011, as part of the prisoner exchange deal. She was re-arrested less than four months later on 16 February 2012, and she immediately began a hunger strike in protest of her detention without trial or charge.
Hana has now been on hunger strike for 41 days and her appeal for release has been rejected by Israel’s military courts.
“Cultivate Hope”, a poem written on day 40 of Hanaa Al-Shalabi’s hunger strike, is by Rafeef Ziadah with music by Phil Monsour.
Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine — We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Israeli war crimes committed against our people in the Gaza Strip. We call on the international community and the Arab and Islamic worlds to take up their responsibility to protect the Palestinian people from this heinous aggression and immediately terminate the continuing Israeli policy of collective punishment.
Since June, 2007 Israel has adopted a continuous series of measures harming the civilian population. In September,2007 Gaza was declared “an enemy entity,” and imports were restricted to 9 basic materials. Prohibited have been such items as certain medicines, furniture, electrical appliances, cows and cigarettes, and decreased amounts of such basic foods as fruits, milk and dairy products. Fuel and electricity supplies have also been cut. Gaza used to depend 100% on Israel for its fuels and close to 60% for its electricity. Gazans, however, resorted to digging tunnels on the Egyptian borders with Palestine in order to get fuel, medicine and other necessities. The Mubarak regime took every possible step to tighten the siege and destroy the tunnels. The ousting of Mubarak should have meant the end of the deadly siege imposed on Gaza. This has not happened yet, one year after the great Egyptian revolution! The Rafah crossing is still “partially” open; supply of fuel through tunnels has completely stopped, and the electricity ration is only for 6 hours a day! Hospital generators have stopped!
Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into the largest concentration camp with the largest population of prisoners in the world. The international conspiracy of silence towards the slow genocide taking place against the 1.5 million civilians in Gaza indicates complicity in these war crimes.
According to UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
We, therefore, call upon the international community to demand that the rogue State of Israel end its siege and compensate for the destruction of life and infrastructure that it has visited upon the Palestinian people. We also call upon all Palestine solidarity groups and all international civil society organizations to demand:
– An end to the siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
– The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law such as The Fourth Geneva Convention (to which Israel itself is a signatory.)
– Immediate opening of the Rafah Crossing (24/7) and the flow of goods, fuel and medicine.
– That Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip be provided with financial and material support to cope with the immense hardship that they are experiencing
– An end to occupation, Apartheid and other war crimes.
– Immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Gaza Strip.
Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine
One Democratic State Group
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
