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A Quantum of Racism

Two young Palestinian Israeli citizens who came second in an international Physics Competition in Warsaw are omitted conspicuously in a racist report on the winners in Israel Hayom. It is notable that of all the Israeli winners, only ONE won a prize in the 24th European Union Contest for Young Scientists, and it was the Palestinian Israeli, Alfarook Abu Alhassan, who won the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility GmbH Prize.

*Even when you excel and you are an Arab, you remain invisible.

* Israel came first in an international physics competition, and it is trying to reach the same benchmark in racism.

First published: 1/10/2012 11:30:27am

On 20 September 2012 Israel Hayom published an article under the headline Quantum of success. It highlighted the success of the Israeli delegation from Ilan Ramon Centre at Ben-Gurion University in a competition held at the Institute of Physics in Warsaw.

The article contained the names of the winners, but not all of them…

It mentioned the first prize winner (Yuval Katznelson) and one of third prize winners (May Alon). The article quotes Professor Victor Malamud, head of the Ilan Ramon Centre at BGU, which coordinates efforts for the competition as saying that “We succeeded in showing the world the potential of the Jewish mind.”

On the surface, a cause for Jewish pride, indeed..

But what about the second place getter in the competition? The two second place winners, Magd Alfrawona and Alfarook Abu Alhassan were not mentioned at all. Probably because they don’t have a Jewish mind, or because they are Arabs …

What is the message that such articles give to the general public? What is the message that head of the program is providing to the students?

The conclusion is inescapable, instead of being proud of all those who represented the country and impel them further forward, there is a very clear delineation between the Arab and Jewish participants. This is not all that far from our reality which is full of physical and virtual fences marking the separation between the two peoples.

This statement is racist for several reasons: it ignores some of the delegation’s winners, solely because cultural/social/national differences. This statement tries to establish the superiority of some participants over others on the sole basis of their national affiliation. In addition to all this, the article tries to obliterate the Arab presence in the delegation, and their success. This is despite the writers being aware of a different picture being presented on the university’s English-language website (there the two Arab winners are mentioned, and they also appear in the team photo published in the newspaper).

It is a pity that a lecturer in such a distinguished university professor chose to speak in such a racist fashion as he died. We hope he’ll get his comeuppance when the university launches an inquiry and takes disciplinary proceedings against him, and those responsible for this letdown.

This article proves once again that academia is not free of racism …

Names of participants Winners: http://in.bgu.ac.il/ilanramon/Pages/FIRST%20STEP%20TO%20NOBEL%20PRIZE%20IN%20PHYSICS.aspx

Israel Hayom article:

English: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=5841

Hebrew: http://www.israelhayom.co.il/site/newsletter_article.php?id=21508&hp=1&newsletter=20.09.2012

Translated by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service Melbourne, Australia

Hebrew original: http://fightracism.org/Article.asp?aid=328

Related Links
High on positivism
The French Political Science Association: A sanction that appears to be based on political grounds
Ha’aretz editorial: CHE’s recommendation stems from desire to punish faculty who dared offer their students a critical viewpoint
Netanyahu’s Likud party and its nationalist ally, Yisrael Beiteinu, have been cracking down on dissenters for months. It would seem that cowing the academy is one of their objectives. Of the current academic situation in Israel, Lustick told me, “there’s a real witch-hunt.”

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Shedding a Light on US and UN Complicity with Israel’s Crimes at the Russell Tribunal

Roger Waters: ‘Bertrand Russell believed that there was a logical connection between the rule of law and a natural law of human kindness.’

‘The Russell Tribunal is about shedding a light about what is going on in the Occupied Territories in order that we can lend weight to the argument that the Palestinian people should be treated with respect.’

After the Russell Tribunal sessions in Barcelona, focusing on EU complicity, London on Corporate Complicity, and Cape Town, on the crime of Apartheid, the New York Tribunal will examine UN and US responsibility in the denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination.

As the US is currently blackmailing the EU in the UN to prevent Palestinians obtaining a higher ‘non-member’ status in the UN, the Russell Tribunal hearings in New York have contemporary relevance. Neither the US nor Israel wish for Palestinian statehood – the US stymies Palestinians at every turn enabling Israel to pretend to be pursuing two states even as it makes this outcome impossible through its ongoing rapacious, criminal land and resource theft. The status quo of ongoing Israeli appropriation of Palestinian land and resources is the preferred option of both the exploitative neoliberal empire and its racist crony which poses duplicitously as an oxymoronic ‘Jewish democracy’ surrounded by hostile hordes.

Watch the New York Russell Tribunal hearings live on October 6th and 7th, 2012.

Related Links

Gaza youth commend Mahmoud’s Sarsak for not Normalising with Apartheid Israel
‘Al-Sarsak said he would “refuse coexistence and normalization with occupation.”

“I respect Barcelona’s invitation, but I have to avoid angering the Palestinian people and their supporters as well as all those who supported me during my hunger strike. ‘
Love for Palestinian footballer and hunger striker Mahmoud Sarsak
Kudos to Palestinian footballer and hunger striker hero, Mahmoud Sarsak for refusing to normalise Israeli oppression
Infected with zionist lies, the BBC displays brazen contempt for international law.
Support amongst British adults for BDS by British artists of apartheid Israel at 27% in the UK, with 36% don’t knows. BDS has room to grow 🙂
Palestinian Authority: Running Israel’s Guantanamo

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa is calling for nations to consider reviewing diplomatic ties with Israel and boycotting its products in solidarity with Palestine.

Marty acknowledged that the situation in the occupied territories had gro
wn unfavorable following unilateral Israeli moves.

“There is an unbalanced situation and Israel should bear responsibility for the failure of peace negotiations,” Marty said on the sidelines of the 67th UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

The foreign minister was commenting on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s pessimistic assessment of the peace process. “The door may be closing, for good, on a two-state solution,” Ban said in his speech to the assembly.’

All harpists from all nations are being asked to boycott the International Harp Contest in Israel.

Israeli harpists are also being asked to boycott the contest.

Many other harp competitions exist. We believe it is not considered an ho
nor to participate or to place in the Israeli contest. It is an indication that the harpist ignored the call to boycott, and chose to stand instead on the side of the oppressor. The level of the music may be sublime, and that is all the more reason not to validate Israel’s cruel apartheid government by participating. Such beautiful music should be used to promote justice, not to enable and legitimize occupation and segregation.

For the Zionists, the failure to organise resistance grew out of the political history of their movement. Their focus had never been on the fight against anti-Semitism.

Lessons from South Africa : ‘One of the most diabolical aspects of racist repression was the regime’s ability to outsource that repression to puppet regimes like those of Matanzima, Oupa Gqozo and other “homeland leaders”.’ This is a terrific article covering sexism, racism and the ongoing role of capitalism/neoliberalism.

One of my favourite political scientists, and expert on fascism, Prof Robert Paxton, comments on the CHE subcommittee decision
CAIRO HELD its first official boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) event in Egypt at the independent media center Mosireen on August 27, a critical first step in challenging the government’s continuing economic relations with Israel and building solidarity with Palestine.

The rate of asylum seekers receiving refugee status in Israel IS THE LOWEST IN THE WORLD.
Australian activist workshops discussed the four national BDS campaigns: Bin Veolia (referring to the French multinational that provides discriminatory transport services to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank); boycotting Dead Sea minerals (this includes Israeli companies such as Seacret, which steal Palestinian resources); academic boycotts; and truth in labelling.

‘In his presentation at this weekend’s conference, Miko Peled, the Israeli-born anti-Zionist and advocate of equal rights and decolonization in a single state, made the observation that every cause of social justice in history that has been worth fighting for was divisive in its time

Inshallah: a virtual tour of the Gaza Strip

Scenes from yesterday’s demo at the Tower of London

where De Beers put on display a Forevermark Steinmetz diamond in honor of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The Steinmetz Foundation funded and supported the war criminals of the Givati Brigade
, responsible for the massacre of the Samouni family in Gaza during the Israeli assault in the winter of 2008/2009.

The trade in Israeli blood diamonds goes on unseen and unnoticed on the high streets of every city. Jewellers must be asked to end the trade in Israeli diamonds which are funding the proliferation of nuclear arms and war crimes in the Middle East.

“Right and wrong, justice and injustice, do not wear ethnic badges or wave national flags.”

Australia Links

Victory in Queensland against the neolib machine! Queensland construction workers win!
Jones only has an audience because Australian society is a cesspit of racism, bigotry and violence. Jones distills and spouts what is already there. In a just society he would not have a job because he wouldn’t have an audience. But to rise up against him because he’s offended a pollies’ propriety? this is hypocrisy of the highest order.

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Free Noosa – De-amalgamate!

Noosa from National ParkThe Free Noosa submission for de-amalgamation is now available – it is sustainable, green, sensible and financial!

Here’s my poem inspired by our community’s principled move toward de-amalgamation.

De-Amalgamation, At Last

Since the last election,
Oh Blight of all our lives,
the developers lament
for she was their delight.
Devine Homes perched upon the Board
which pulled our grassroots out,
Has she learnt her lesson?
The people showed their clout.
Who wants concrete wall to wall
as far as eye can see,
Who wins the real benefit?
not our community.

She thought of what to sell
We knew her plot too well
She and those dirty mates
wouldn’t share our living hell.
Where she saw dollars we see sense,
the rich gobble their swill at our expense,
when all we wanted
was to present pristine
environment in perpetuity,
sustainable and green.

What use covetous sanctimony,
preaching economic productivity?
In the dark with greedy mates
they signed away our dear shire’s fate,
stole our savings and overrated
was that the plan when she amalgamated?
Is it true democracy
that promotes developers’ profligacy?
Privatising neoliberalism
seems to lack a solid vision,
hollow perish or populate
with rabbit warrens all over the state,
since when was overpopulation
any habitat’s salvation?

She slunk away and we prevailed
She wouldn’t listen to our tale,
‘We must have progress’
she sighed and bleated,
too late, Blight,
you’re gone, unseated!

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Apartheid Israel’s Abuse of Palestinian Children Prisoners

Human rights organisations have highlighted Said’s treatment by Israel because they say it is extreme. And it is. Please watch this video.

Every year, according to Defence for Children International, around 700 Palestinian minors between the ages of 12 and 17 are arrested in the West Bank and are tried in Israeli Military Courts.

Detention Bulletin – Issue 32 – August 2012

In this issue: 195 children held in Israeli military detention at the end of August 2012; new military order (1685) affecting children still not translated into Arabic; former Israeli soldiers break the silence about the treatment of Palestinian children during military operations – testimonies disclose a pattern of beatings and intimidation.

Palestinian children are also targets for violence by Israeli settler terrorists.

On 26 August 2012, three Israeli settler children, aged between 12 and 13 years, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack. One boy was conditionally released by a civilian judge on 29 August, and the other two were conditionally released the following day. This case highlights the discriminatory nature of the legal systems applied by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank. Whilst settler children are processed through Israel’s juvenile justice system and generally released on bail, Palestinian children accused of similar offences are prosecuted in military courts which deny children bail in at least 87 percent of cases, and have a conviction rate of 99.74 percent.

Palestine / Israel Links

This is the disgusting reality of Israel’s sickening apartheid: ‘The IDF’s Civil Administration is preventing the Palestinian Authority from laying a water pipe that would alleviate the acute water shortage for more than 600,000 Palestinian
s in the West Bank.

The reason given for preventing the pipe’s construction is that a section of less than two kilometers of it, laid on the margins of Route 50, would disrupt Jewish passenger traffic on the road.’