How obsession with “nonviolence” harms the Palestinian cause – As Lina says: ‘Oppressed people do not and should not have to explain their oppression to their oppressor, nor tailor their resistance to the comfort of the oppressors and their supporters.’
Yet Lina is noticing that Palestinian participation and leadership is limited by the current PSCC model, despite it being effective in terms of international awareness, and is funded inadequately by Fayyad who has his own dubious neoliberal, collaborator agenda, and foreign NGOs with their agendas. So how can this really be ‘popular’ resistance? instead, it can look more like normalisation – including with Fayyad’s neoliberalism. For a popular movement there has to be mobilisation.
Would it not be more ingenious to develop a movie satirising Israel’s desperate attempts to obscure its crimes against humanity? Many human rights activists would be happy to lend their assistance and resources to such a worthy project for free. Noa Tishby can perform as herself, Mark Regev can be played by a real Australian Taipan and the IDF Spokesperson could be played by a Dalek.
Mark Regev demonstrates his natural ability for satire:
The Civil Administration is supposed to take care of the people’s needs. But it does not stop at the most despicable measure – depriving people and livestock of water in the scathing summer heat – to implement Israel’s strategic goal: to drive them from their lands and purge the valley of its non-Jewish residents.
…
Last week I saw the people whose water container Avi had confiscated, leaving them thirsty. Newborn babies, a handicapped little girl, a small boy post-surgery, women and old folks, and, of course, the sheep – the only source of income here. Denizens with no water – in Israel, not in Africa. Water for one nation only – in Israel, not in South Africa.
…
Amjad Zahawa, a 2-day-old infant, passed his third day under the hot sun, with no shelter over his head. Greetings, Amjad; welcome to the reality of your life.
Palestinian civil society has requested that artists refrain from appearing in Israel until it respects international law, ends its colonialism and apartheid, delivers equal rights for Palestinian Israelis and recognises the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their lands.
Please, Woody, respect the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.
UPDATE 12/7/12
According to JJ Goldberg’s translation of a Yediot print interview with him in Paris last week, Woody is an Israelophile who intends taking his children to apartheid, oppressive Israel to explore their father’s “Jewish culture” as if that’s only available in the settler colonial zionist entity, a secular fascist state.
Coincidentally, we don’t need to guess any longer about Allen’s feelings toward Israel. He discusses them — passionately — in an interview with Yediot Ahronot Paris correspondent Yaniv Halili, published last Friday (in Hebrew) in Yediot’s increasingly readable weekend entertainment supplement, 7 Nights. Most of it is about growing old (he hates it), the Soon-Yi scandal (the public never got it, he doesn’t read the tabloids), his non-relationship with his son and his work habits. Israel only comes up at the end, but he goes at it with gusto. I don’t have time to translate the whole thing (and it’s not online even in Hebrew, alas), but here’s the part about Israel, Jewish identity and, intriguingly, the dilemmas of his half-Jewish children’s Jewish identity:
Unlike every mother and daughter, he doesn’t light Sabbath candles. “I grew up in a Jewish atmosphere (al birkei ha-yahadut) and they made me a bar mitzvah, so clearly it’s an element that will remain in my life permanently, just like the songs I listened to on the radio when I was a child. But I don’t believe in organized religions. Most of them exploit people, and I think these clubs have nothing to do with God. Today I feel Jewish mainly when people attack me because of my being Jewish.”
About Israel, on the other hand, he has only good things to say. In practice, when Allen starts talking about Israel it’s hard to stop him. So hard that even his assertive, energetic publicist merited only a dismissive wave of the hand, indicating that she should wait until he was finished gushing about his love. “I support Israel and I’ve supported it since the day it was founded. Israel’s neighbors have treated it badly, cruelly, instead of embracing it and making it part of the Middle East family of nations. Over the years Israel has responded to these attacks in various ways, some of which I approved of and some less so. I understand that Israelis have been through hard times, I don’t expect Israel to react perfectly every time and that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a wonderful, marvelous country. I’m just worried about the rise of fundamentalism in Israel, which I think damages its interests. I also have questions about your leadership, which doesn’t always act in Israel’s best interests. But even my criticism of Israel comes from a place of love, just like when I criticize the United States. It would be a mistake not to say something if you think a country you love makes a mistake and could hurt itself.”
Then why have you never visited Israel?
“I’m not a tourist. I travel regularly to three cities that I know and love — Paris, London and Rome — and that’s it. I don’t like to leave home because I’m a bit neurotic, and when I do leave home, it’s mostly for work. I don’t like flying and I don’t consider myself a curious person who wants to see new places. There are many states in the United States that I’ve never visited. My wife is of Korean origin and she’s been trying for years to convince me to go to South Korea with her — so far, unsuccessfully. She’s also very curious about Israel and wants to go there with the girls, so they can see and understand their father’s Jewish culture. I assume we’ll go and visit Israel soon. There’s no way around it.”
Perhaps Woody’s girls will find out in Israel that they are not regarded as Jewish and even if they were born in Israel, they would be deported as happened recently to this 6 year old Asian girl.
UPDATE 17/7/12
Is the Woody Allen Israel movie a done deal? Jerusalem ‘Mayor’ Barkat met with him months ago, Peres got in a word as well recently. Beware orchestrated hasbara campaigns.
A Jerusalem municipality spokesman told Haaretz that several months ago, while on a fund-raising tour, Barkat met with Allen and Diane Keaton in a Manhattan restaurant. Barkat invited Allen to visit the capital and consider shooting a film there.
“Allen replied that he would seriously consider it,” the spokesman said. “Barkat plans to meet with Allen again during his next visit to the U.S.”
Tel Aviv made a similar offer, but Allen has not yet responded. “The Tel Aviv municipality is leading a move to position the city in the international arena,” Mayor Ron Huldai told Haaretz.
“Obviously, a film taking place in Tel Aviv would be a vehicle to promote the city abroad, and we have constant and close contacts with leading figures in Hollywood, with the government and with Israel’s cinema community, hoping that such a move will materialize.”
“The Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership was the flagship project of [The Jewish Agency for Israel’s] Partnership 2000, and people sort of took it for granted that it was smooth sailing and very effective,” said Gidi Grinstein, president of the Reut Institute, a Tel Aviv strategy group that conducted a study of the Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership in 2010.
Tel-Aviv – Los Angeles Partnership [as part of Partnership 2Gether] adopts the recommendations of the Reut Institute report – Following a comprehensive evaluation of the untapped potential of the Tel Aviv – Los Angeles Partnership 2Gether (P2G) project, to serve as a platform for direct links between the Jewish communities of Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, the Jewish World taskforce presented the LA Federation with a report. This report outlines criteria for a leading and innovative 21st century model partnership, including specific recommendations for leveraging the unique assets of the TLV-LA partnership. In recent months, members of the Los Angeles Federation arrived in Israel and elected to adopt the findings and recommendations of the report, marking a new and promising chapter in the partnership. The taskforce also launched a document outlining the elements of a generic model partnership.
The Jewish Agency’s deputy chairperson of the Executive, partners with the Reut Institute on how to leverage JAFI’s new strategic plan – Against the backdrop of JAFI’s recently updated strategic plan, the Reut Institute was invited to facilitate a series of strategic discussions on the unique value and assets that JAFI’s Deputy Chairperson of the Executive can leverage in order to promote the two main drivers of JAFI’s strategic plan: Israel experiences and social activism.
Israel Leadership Council (ILC) of Los Angeles partners with the taskforce – As part of its current strategic re-visioning effort, the ILC invited the taskforce to think about its potential leadership role. In this context, a report was written and presented to ILC board members in Israel. The report includes both a theoretical framework describing the fledgling phenomenon called the organized Israeli Diaspora, as well as guidelines for how the ILC can best fit into this emerging reality. The report aimed to address the following question: How can the ILC leverage the Israeli Diaspora in the US?
Much love for Professor Peter Higgs, namesake of the Higgs boson, firm evidence for which was announced by scientists at CERN this week, and who ‘shares his views on the occupation in every forum and encourages the academic boycott of Israel.’ In the Israeli Physical Society Journal, it’s noted that:
“Although the British scientist Peter Higgs gave his name to the Higgs field and Higgs particle, at least two other physicists, François Englert and Robert Brout, had a part in the discovery. All three were awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize by Israel’s Knesset in 2004. Higgs boycotted the ceremony for political reasons.”
In an appeal to Indian academics this week, INCACBI, the Indian chapter of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel emphasised:
The Israeli state daily tramples on the academic freedom and cultural life of the Palestinian people, and continued association with the instruments of such a state is unconscionable. We believe that academic life is rooted in the values of democracy, equality and justice. The pursuit of excellence in the fields we work in has meaning only if imbued with conscience. When Palestinian students and teachers are not allowed to reach their universities because of permit laws and checkpoints, universities and schools are leveled by bombs and tanks, food, textbooks, and medical supplies are prohibited from entering Gaza, and artistic events are closed down in Jerusalem, none of the foundational principles on which academic and cultural contact are based can ever be fulfilled.
Boycott, divestment and sanctions are a legitimate means called for by Palestinian civil society for individuals and organisations to apply punitive action on the criminal Israeli regime when governments have refused or been unable to act.
We (Don’t Play Apartheid Israel) heard that you plan to perform before a segregated audience in Eilat on August 1 and 2. This is your opportunity to refuse this invitation to play for an Israeli government sponsored event and to support human rights. Among the nearly 6 million Palestinians who are subject to racism and segregation by Israel, there is at least one young Beah Richards whom you have the opportunity to ‘lift up’ by standing up for equal rights and justice.
In our minds, the film about the late Beah Richards, who was empowered by the strength of Paul Robeson, is intertwined with your piano notes. Had it not been for Paul Robeson’s firm refusal to perform before segregated audiences, Richards would have never been inspired to write her poem, then later become the strong woman who fought for human rights for African Americans through her leadership and role as a great actress.
Less than two years ago, a group of young, bright students at the University of Michigan staged a silent walk-out protest when two Israeli soldiers who falsely claimed that Israel does not harm civilians, spoke. The courage of these students who wore the names of Palestinian children whose lives were ended by Israel’s ferocious military power (the 4th largest in the world) moved many people to support justice and human rights for Palestinians. Please watch “Students Protest IDF Soldiers Campus Visit – OFFICIAL”:
In February, Robin D. G. Kelley, the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA and prize-winning author endorsed the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. He stated:
“We went to Hebron, and visited and talked to Palestinian merchants, and witnessed a level of racist violence that I hadn’t even seen growing up as a black person here in the States, I have to say, and I’ve been beat by the cops.”
In March, organizations from around the world applauded Cassandra Wilson’s choice to refuse to headline a women’s empowerment festival in Holon, Israel. The festival was, as is the Red Sea Jazz Festival, not something Palestinians under occupation could attend. Wilson said:
“As a human rights activist, I identify with the cultural boycott of Israel.”
“Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.”
Palestinian Civil Society has called for a cultural boycott of Israel and many musicians support it, including 230 Irish artists and 150 Swiss artists, who have signed up to respect the boycott, stating “We note that the non-violent boycott, when it gains wide popular support, is an effective means of putting pressure on those in power.” Endorsements for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel from colleagues at American institutions now number 690.
The choice is yours to stand with those who are oppressed, or to stand with the oppressors. Are your two gigs really worth it? By cancelling, you might inspire a young person like Paul Robeson did. What better way to do this than by endorsing the cultural boycott? If you play, however, you set a grim example for your young students and diminish Robeson’s legacy. We are hoping you choose to stand with integrity, justice and human rights, with Paul Robeson and many others who have played a vital part in challenging racism and brutal oppression.
Beah said “With those words, that man lifted me.” When Richards met Robeson as an adult, she recited the poem she wrote as a teenager:
But, most all your songs have
taught me how to fight
To speak out, stand up for what
is right.
So now I say NO to those who
clasp unseemly silence
on your golden tongue,
who dare obscure the light
of life . . . .
Paul Robeson must speak
for Dan
for me
for us
Even yet. Today.
London, Ireland, Australia, USA
We are a collective of over 900 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.
Israeli Committee against House Demolitions Mr. Itay Epstein, Interactive Dialogue with: – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 A/HRC/20/32 . Item 7: Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories – 25th Plenary Meeting. 20th Session of the Human Rights Council. HRC Extranet.
It was Shamir who taught Bibi the method of pushing off the risk of concession without saying “no” to the Americans and inventing preconditions for the political process that the Arabs would undoubtedly reject. Shamir demanded that the PLO not be invited to the Madrid Conference that the administration of Bush senior convened at the end of 1991. Shamir demanded the Palestinian delegation be part of the Jordanian one and not include any representative from East Jerusalem. And just to be sure, he also demanded that every Arab nation, especially Syria, show up in Madrid.
To Shamir’s great surprise, the Palestinians agreed to all the conditions and found indirect stratagem that made a laughingstock out of Israel, such as finding East Jerusalem representatives who also happened to have addresses is Ramallah. I remember the panic in the Prime Minister’s Office after its staff read a piece I published in this newspaper about an American congressman who had visited Damascus bearing the message that Hafez Assad had decided to dispatch his foreign minister to the Madrid Conference. When I met Shamir a few days later, I couldn’t resist, and said to him, “You’re right, Mr. Prime Minister, you just can’t trust those Arabs.” Shamir, knowing what I meant, didn’t laugh. He was not amused.
Netanyahu’s policy on the settlements and his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people demonstrate that Netanyahu is Shamir without the mustache.
Geri Allen