Category: Racism

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A Spell to Decontaminate White Supremacism

Zigging and Zogging

torah or talmud, who needs books,
you just have to take a look
at all the media run by da jooos
holed up in hollywood
with their sneaky moves

and in the big banks
plotting 9/11
when they’re not sellin crack
to the poor black bums

payola to pollies
so they run the whole show
it’s a global conspiracy
don’t yah know

reptilian illuminati
and protocols malign
freemasons and aliens
blame it on zion!

it ain’t my fault
my daddy was rich
my ma was good lookin,
and you’re from the ditch,

it wasn’t my choice
that i was born white
must have been somethin’
da jooos did, right?

Sylvia Posadas August 2012

Written for my dear friend, poet and critic Emma Rosenthal, on the occasion of yet another act of cowardice by a white supremacist.

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Palestinians Reject All Racism and Bigotry

An important and timely affirmation from Palestinian people, published on Electronic Intifada:

The struggle for Palestinian rights is incompatible with any form of racism or bigotry: a statement by Palestinians

We the undersigned, as Palestinians living in historic Palestine and the diaspora, in the spirit of past statements, and in light of recent controversies, write to reaffirm a key principle of our movement for freedom, justice, and equality: The struggle for our inalienable rights is one opposed to all forms of racism and bigotry, including, but not limited to, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Zionism, and other forms of bigotry directed at anyone, and in particular people of color and indigenous peoples everywhere.

We oppose the cynical and baseless use of the term anti-Semitism as a tool for stifling criticism of Israel or opposition to Zionism, as this assumes simply because someone is Jewish, they support Zionism or the colonial and apartheid policies of the state of Israel – a false generalization.

Our struggle is anchored in universal human rights and international law in opposition to military occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, something people of conscience of all ethnicities, races, and religions can support.

Finally, we call on people around the world to join us in a morally consistent stance that opposes racism and bigotry in all forms. An ethical struggle for justice and equal rights in any context entails zero tolerance for racial discrimination and racism anywhere.

Signed (in order of signature):

  1. Abir Kopty
  2. Danya Mustafa
  3. Nadia Hijab
  4. Shirien Damra
  5. Omar Barghouti
  6. Noura Erakat
  7. Remi Kanazi
  8. Andrew Kadi
  9. Dina Omar
  10. Sandra Tamari
  11. Maath Musleh
  12. Suleiman Hodali
  13. Dana Saifan
  14. Jess Ghannam
  15. Sami Kishawi
  16. Dalia Almarina
  17. Haidar Eid
  18. Samee Sulaiman
  19. Lubna Hammad
  20. Issa Mikel
  21. Dina Zbidat
  22. Esmat Elhalaby
  23. Linah Alsaafin
  24. Ramzi Jaber
  25. Randa May Wahbe
  26. Hilda Massoud
  27. Falastine Dwikat
  28. Jamil Sbitan
  29. Beesan Ramadan
  30. Alaa Milbes
  31. Tanya Keilani
  32. Adam Akkad
  33. Budour Hassan
  34. Ahmad Nimer
  35. Fajr Harb
  36. Susan Abulhawa
  37. Amira Dasouqi
  38. Lubna Alzaroo
  39. Samah Sabawi
  40. Ismail Khalidi
  41. Annemarie Jacir
  42. George E. Bisharat
  43. Sara Jawhari
  44. Amin Abbas
  45. Ali Abunimah
  46. Camillia Shoufani
  47. Dena Qaddumi
  48. Ramzi Kanazi
  49. Alaa Yousef
  50. Najwa Doughman
  51. Amal Atieh Jubran
  52. Mahdi Sabbagh
  53. Rania Jubran
  54. Amar Husain
  55. Omar H. Rahman
  56. Yazeed Ibrahim
  57. Zachariah Barghouti
  58. Nadine Darwish
  59. Rinad Abdulla
  60. Sana Ibrahim
  61. Rana Libdeh
  62. Huwaida Arraf
  63. Basil Farraj
  64. Riham Barghouti
  65. Jalal Abukhater
  66. Grace Said
  67. Wafai Dias
  68. Huda Asfour
  69. Musa Al-Hindi
  70. Halla Shoaibi
  71. Nada Elia
  72. Shafeka Hashash
  73. Linda Sarsour
  74. Nour Joudah
  75. Fadi Quran
  76. Rafeef Ziadah
  77. Muhammad Jabali
  78. Haneen Maikey
  79. Diana Alzeer
  80. Mouin Rabbani
  81. Zaid Shuaibi
  82. Sari Harb
  83. Suzy Salamy
  84. Diana Buttu
  85. Maryam Zohny
  86. Vivien Sansour
  87. Noor Fawzy
  88. Jackie Salloum
  89. Hatem Bazian
  90. Awad Hamdan
  91. Ahmed Moor
  92. Zahi Damuni
  93. Irene Nasser
  94. Sanah Yassin
  95. Sumia Ibrahim
  96. Hazem Jamjoum

Related Links

Granting No Quarter: A Call for the Disavowal of the Racism and Antisemitism of Gilad Atzmon

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Confronting Islamophobic Propaganda on Muslim Rage

Elise Hendrick [@translator_eli] takes a satirical look at the duplicitous efforts of mainstream privileged white media to promote bigotry and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s islamophobic, faux-feminist views.

Newsweek Muslim Rage

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Films Don’t Start Riots
Did Police Use ‘Proportionate Force’ On Film Protesters?

Tired of the violence and stupidity
Jeff Sparrow on the neoliberalism of ruling elites who denigrate democratic protest.

In Australia, neoliberalism is understood largely as an economic model, characterised by the sweeping privatisations that Carr championed in NSW. But, actually, it’s more than that. Neoliberalism differs from a classical free market orientation precisely because it extends beyond the economy to embrace the entire social world, which it then recasts on market lines. The neoliberal project doesn’t just assign to the market those roles previously understood as quintessentially responsibilities of government (such as, say, the provision of utilities); rather, it recasts governance itself as an entrepreneurial project, with productivity and profit increasingly normalised as the criteria to judge success and failure.

In other words, neoliberalism effects a thoroughgoing depoliticisation. Most obviously, this manifests itself in a belief, now shared by almost all mainstream politicians, that government should not intervene in the market. This conviction – a consensus about the role of politicians as simply economic caretakers – already renders out of bounds most of the policies that previous generations of social democrats would have taken for granted.

More importantly, neoliberalism also recasts governance and the democratic process in market terms. The resulting political culture casts citizens as autonomous economic agents, relating to each other and to the state as individual entrepreneurs. The politician no longer appeals to party members, unionists, religious believers or specific communities; instead, he or she addresses individual consumers, touting for their business in much the same way as any other corporation.

In the neoliberal polity, it makes no more sense for citizens to rally than in does for, say, users of Apple computers to hold a march. In both cases, their role is simply to consume, with the ballot box understood as an extension of the cash register. If the latest iPhone is a dud, buy an Android; if the Labor Party’s been in power too long, vote Liberal.

Because democracy is understood as a market, rallies, protests, demonstrations and strikes seem, to the neoliberal, not as expressions of the popular will but as outrageous assaults on the democratic system.

To be clear, we’re not seeing the end of the right to protest, so much as its hollowing out. In the neoliberal era, tightly-controlled top-down events are still considered legitimate – witness the staged spectacles at the recent Republican and Democratic conventions in the US.

He’s my brother – why angry Muslim youth are protesting in Sydney
13 Powerful Images of Muslim Rage
Newsweek’s ‘Muslim Rage’ Cover Mocked Online
White Australia – Nation of Bigoted Climate Savers
Offending Muslims is different: on the Sydney protests

Upcoming Events

Challenging anti Muslim Bigotry: Why the left needs to defend the Muslim protests
Anti-Muslim Racism, Police Brutality and Imperialism: Why we stand with Muslim protesters: Including EYEWITNESS accounts of what ACTUALLY happened at the demonstration
Stand up to Racism and Rally Against Islamophobia

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On Co-Resistance: Sahar Vardi and MIcha Kurz in Australia

Israeli activists, Sahar Vardi and MIcha Kurz recently completed a speaking tour of Australia. Sahar and Micha are among a growing number of young Israelis who are taking an active stand against their government’s occupation and policies of oppression against the Palestinian people.

Packed meeting to hear Vardi and Kurz
Some notes:

Kurz on Israeli politicians: ‘They are not interested in a peace resolution’.

Kurz: ‘Making up 40% of the population, Palestinian Jerusalemites are not allowed to vote’.

Vardi: ‘There’s a huge bigger picture there which has to do with foreign investment and who makes a profit out of this at the end of the line – definitely not Palestinians, but not necessarily Israeli citizens either. Israel’s biggest import today is arms, military technology – Israel can sell this stuff because it can prove it works. Israel builds the wall and they have the security systems set up, then when the US wants to build a wall between Mexico and the US it uses Israeli technology because it knows it works.’
Micha speaking
Kurz: ‘We saw G4S stickers all round Melbourne today. G4S runs the largest prison camp in the occupied territories … runs the largest private military in the world. They are active in other areas of urban warfare, in western cities everywhere. The question always has to be who is making a profit … that keeps it away from fear or anything to do with antisemitism or security, it has everything to do with global profit. What inspires me about the BDS movement is it has managed to suggest a grassroots movement where politicians have failed and has united people from the grassroots up … it’s something Israelis can support. I support the BDS movement.’

Kurz: ‘We work for justice and human rights … When I hear ‘peace’ I hear agreement between two equal parties. There are no two equal parties here. There is an Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people.’

Kurz: ‘I’ve given up on politicians. What it comes down to is strategically building a grassroots movements, both global and local. The global movement is growing and succeeding despite the mass media – we know not to trust them anyway. I’ve witnessed firsthand how things are succeeding.’

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Jesus and Mary Chain – Don’t Play Apartheid

Jesus & Mary Chain: Have You Heard About the Boycott?

Dear Jim Reid, William Reid, Phil King, Loz Colbert and Mark Crozer (The Jesus and Mary Chain),

We are a group of over 900 people from all over the world who are united in support of human rights, justice and freedom for the Palestinian people. Some of our members have been fans of The Jesus and Mary Chain since the 1980s. We are asking you to refrain from playing in Israel.

Don't Play Apartheid Jesus and Mary ChainThe recent findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine verify that Israel is an apartheid state. Here is an excerpt, from last November. Read the entire findings at http://bit.ly/svjpBT :

“The Tribunal finds that Israel subjects the Palestinian people to an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law. This discriminatory regime manifests in varying intensity and forms against different categories of Palestinians depending on their location. The Palestinians living under colonial military rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are subject to a particularly aggravated form of apartheid. Palestinian citizens of Israel, while entitled to vote, are not part of the Jewish nation as defined by Israeli law and are therefore excluded from the benefits of Jewish nationality and subject to systematic discrimination across the broad spectrum of recognised human rights. Irrespective of such differences, the Tribunal concludes that Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid.”

Music plays a very political role in the case of Israel because of the global BDS movement. The PACBI, (Palestinian Call for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) has, since 2005, asked musicians to refrain from playing in Israel, and their call, representing Palestinian civil society, has become a global movement. Many people have already joined a new Facebook page titled: “Jesus and Mary Chain, No Reverence for Apartheid. Don’t Play Israel.”

When a band agrees to play in Israel and breaks the picket line, whether they intend to or not, they are making a political statement. In 2005 an Israeli spokesman asserted that: “We see culture as a propaganda tool of the first rank, and…do not differentiate between propaganda and culture.” [Ha’aretz, September 2005] Your performances on 18 and 19 October will place you on the side of injustice and oppression, we are asking you to stand with the oppressed instead .

Many other musicians have chosen to respect the boycott and equal rights for Palestinians, among them, Roger Waters. You might like to read Waters’ words in last year’s Guardian in “Tear down this Israeli wall”, where he says:
“This is, however, a plea to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott.” [1]

Please read about Israel’s apartheid in the letter that was written to French philosopher and prominent intellectual, Jacques Rancière, Professor emeritus, University Paris 8, by the PACBI. Jacques Rancière subsequently chose to cancel his planned lecture at the Minerva Humanities Center at Tel Aviv University earlier this year.[3]

This year artists Cassandra Wilson, tUnE-yArDs, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Cat Power have chosen to cancel their planned gigs in respect of the boycott, and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice. Also among the growing list of artists that have cancelled concerts and events in Israel are the late Gil Scott-Heron, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Mike Leigh, Klaxons, Gorillaz Sound System and many more.[4]

We hope that you will choose to respect the boycott.

Warm Regards,

Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI)


Notes
[1] Tear down this Israeli wall, I want the music industry to support Palestinians’ rights and oppose this inhumane barrier
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/11/cultural-boycott-west-bank-wall
[2] International Star Natacha Atlas announces Israel boycott http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/international-star-natacha-atlas-announces-israel-boycott
[3] (See http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1793)
[4] 2011 Summary of the Cultural Boycott of Israel http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1788

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