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 …
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.
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.’
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.’
Last Saturday, August 25 the first Brisbane Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Walking Tour was held, successfully highlighting a number of stores in the Brisbane CBD that profit from the products of Israeli apartheid. The Tour spent around ten minutes outside the Children of the Revolution store where a speech was given about the Naot brand of shoes. A letter was delivered to the store management by two BDS activists, after which the tour moved on (see speech and letter below). The tour also visited David Jones which stocks Soda Stream products, Woolworths which sell Eskal products and more, Myer centre which has a Seacret Dead Sea cosmetics stall and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The BDS Movement is a non-violent campaign of civil disobedience aiming to bring Israel to account for its apartheid policies and occupation of Palestinian land. The BDS call was launched in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organisations and demands an end to the occupation of all Arab lands and the dismantling of the apartheid wall; equal rights for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel and the recognition and promotion of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return home.
The Australian newspaper has used to occasion of the successful BDS Walking Tour to publish the latest installment in their campaign against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. In an August 30 article by Christian Kerr in the Murdoch newspaper, BDS activists are portrayed as bullies and stand over merchants. In the face of the BDS Movement’s consistent exposure of the injustices perpetrated by Israeli apartheid, the campaign of lies by opponents of the BDS, like The Australian, is not surprising. They have to resort to lies and distortions because the truth is on our side – it is impossible to honestly defend apartheid and occupation and it is impossible to justify profiting from such inhumanity.
Justice for Palestine, Brisbane will proudly hold further BDS Walking Tours to expose those that profit from apartheid and occupation.
SPEECH GIVEN AT ‘CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION’, BRISBANE, 25TH, AUGUST, 2012
Here we are ‘Children of the Revolution’. Unfortunately, there’s nothing revolutionary about this shop. In fact, its most popular brand is Naot Shoes, an Israeli company that actively supports the Israeli brand of apartheid.
According to its website, ‘Children of the Revolution’ is “dedicated to sourcing and providing the most progressively fashionable and functional footwear from around the world.”
Since when is apartheid fashionable or functional?
Since when is trampling on the human rights of an oppressed people fashionable or functional?
Well, at ‘Children of the Revolution’ it seems!
Naot Shoes was founded in 1942 at Kibbutz Neot Mordecai and is now one of Israel’s most successful exporter of shoes. 80% are distributed internationally, especially to the USA, Canada and Australia.
What is even more disturbing is that 66% of Naot Shoes is owned by Shamrock Holdings, the investment branch of Disney enterprises which is committed to Israel’s growth and expansion. It is involved in a number of illegal Israeli colonies and also invests in the construction of Israel’s wall which has had huge and negative repercussions on the humanitarian welfare of Palestinians and which was wholeheartedly condemned by the International Court of Justice in 2004.
Naot Shoes has a large factory outlet in the illegal Gush Etzion colony on occupied Palestinian Territory between Jerusalem and Hebron on the West Bank. The Gush Etzion block is occupied illegally by 70,000 colonists on land legally allocated to the Palestinian people in 1947.
The factory outlet store plays a role in strengthening and legitimising the Gush Etzion colony, providing employment for the residents of the colony and attracting both Israeli customers and international tourists alike to the area.
The systematic oppression of the Palestinian people relies on companies such as Naot and Disney. This apartheid regime – based on race and religion – forces Palestinians to live in small, prison-like areas divided by walls, military checkpoints and Israeli only roads. This, in turn, leads to poverty and a massive health crisis.
This does not sound to me to be “progressive and functional”.
In the 70s and 80s no-one who supported human rights or opposed racism, no-one with a conscience would have bought products from South Africa. And this boycott helped to bring about the end of the apartheid regime there.
We are in the middle of a similar campaign now – a campaign to end apartheid in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
Palestinian people are asking us to boycott Israeli products such as Naot shoes – just as the oppressed people of South Africa asked us to boycott South African products. As people of conscience we should listen to them.
When you walk in Naot shoes you walk on the rights of Palestinian people.
When you sell Naot shoes you profit from the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people.
Letter delivered to stores stocking Israeli Goods as part of the first Brisbane BDS Walking Tour, 25 August 2012.
To whom it may concern
Your business has been identified as stocking goods that are under international boycott because they were made in Israel or in illegal Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territories.
You may, or may not, have heard of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the State of Israel. The boycott call was issued on July 9th in 2005 by over 171 Palestinian civil-society organisations, who called on the international community to implement the BDS campaign against Israel. Inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the Palestinian-initiated BDS campaign is conducted in a similar framework of international solidarity and resistance to injustice and oppression and calls for popular resistance through the BDS campaign until Israel complies with international law and meets its obligations towards the Palestinian people.
The international BDS campaign movement is committed to international law and human rights and demands that Israel:
Ends its occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands and dismantles the separation Wall, considered illegal by the International Court of Justice;
Recognises the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
Accepts the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
Since the beginning of the BDS campaign many businesses around the world have decided to support the boycott and remove Israeli goods from their shelves. National, State and local governments, church groups and community organisations have divested from Israeli business interests and international corporations that support illegal actions by Israel, such as the building of settlements and infrastructure on or through Palestinian land.
The treatment of Palestinians by Israel has been likened to the former apartheid regime in South Africa by respected former activists who were involved in the South African anti-apartheid movement (including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela).
In 1973, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the international Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which holds that apartheid is a crime against humanity. The word apartheid means separation. Apartheid is defined by the U.N. as “a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group over another and systematically oppressing them by, among other things, creating ghettos; land confiscations; illegal arrests and detentions; bans on freedom of movement and speech and prohibiting mixed marriages.
We consider the actions of the State of Israeli meet this definition of apartheid, as do many other organisations around the world today.
We therefore respectfully ask you to stop importing and selling goods from Israel.
We are committed to ongoing mobilised non-violent action to support the boycott.
We have attached some information on the apartheid system in Israel and encourage you to read it and join us in acting in solidarity with the people of Palestine and supporting their legal and human rights.
The Israeli military commander in southern Gaza at the time was Colonel Pinhas “Pinky” Zuaretz. A few weeks after Corrie’s death, I (as the Guardian’s correspondent in Israel) spoke to him about how it was that so many children were shot by Israeli soldiers at times when there was no combat. His explanation was chilling.
At that point, three years into the second intifada, more than 400 children had been killed by the Israeli army. Nearly half were in Rafah and neighbouring Khan Yunis. One in four were under the age of 12.
I focussed on the deaths of six children in a 10-week period, all in circumstances far from combat. The dead included a 12-year-old girl, Haneen Abu Sitta, killed in Rafah as she walked home from school near a security fence around one of the fortified Jewish settlements in Gaza at the time. The army made up an explanation by falsely claiming Haneen was killed during a gun battle between Israeli forces and Palestinians.
Zuaretz conceded to me that there was no battle and that the girl was shot by a soldier who had no business opening fire. It was the same with the killings of some of the other children. The colonel was fleetingly remorseful.
“Every name of a child here, it makes me feel bad because it’s the fault of my soldiers. I need to learn and see the mistakes of my troops,” he said. But Zuaretz was not going to do anything about it; and by the end of the interview, he was casting the killings as an unfortunate part of the struggle for Israel’s very survival.
“I remember the Holocaust. We have a choice, to fight the terrorists or to face being consumed by the flames again,” he said.
In court, Zuaretz said the whole of southern Gaza was a combat zone and anyone who entered parts of it had made themselves a target. But those parts included houses where Palestinians built walls within walls in their homes to protect themselves from Israeli bullets.
In that context, covering up the truth about the killings of innocents, including Corrie, became an important part of the survival strategy because of the damage the truth could do to the military’s standing, not only in the rest of the world but also among Israelis.
It is impossible to watch the jubilant wave of the bulldozer driver after he killed Rachel Corrie without longing that the murderous, racist state of Israel collapses under the weight of its contradictions and is transformed as soon as possible into a state with equality for all its citizens, its hideous Occupation of Indigenous Palestinians ended, and rights of Palestinians to return to their lands recognised. A state which grants impunity for such a war crime, let alone the manifold other war crimes and crimes against humanity of which the apartheid zionist entity is guilty, invites its own demise.
By disregarding international law and granting Israeli war criminals impunity Judge Gershon’s verdict exemplifies the fact that Israel’s legal system cannot be trusted to administer justice according to international standards.The ISM calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable by supporting the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and continuing to join the Palestinian struggle in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“This latest Israeli mockery of justice underlines what the Golds
tone Report had proven after the Israeli massacre in Gaza in 2008-09. Referring to “structural flaws” in the so-called Israeli justice system, the report concluded that Israel cannot be trusted to administer justice according to international standards”.
…
“This should also convince anyone who still needed to be convinced that without effective BDS against Israel it will never comply with international law. This is the lesson of South Africa”.
If you’re a performer, cultural worker, writer or academic, please contact PACBI with a statement about why you support boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel, if you haven’t already done so. Do it for the Palestinian Nasrullah family whom Rachel Corrie protected, do it for justice, do it for Rachel, just do it and help end Israel’s impunity.
Related Links
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed an unmanned version for the D9 bulldozer to be used in Gaza.
QUESTION: Thank you. Now that an Israeli court has —
MS. NULAND: It takes two of you to cover for Matt and for – (laughter) – anyway, sorry.
QUESTION: No problem.
MS. NULAND: I couldn’t resist.
QUESTION: An Israeli court today ruled against the family of Rachel Corrie, the American who was killed by a bulldozer in Gaza. Is the U.S. satisfied with that investigation, and is the U.S. disappointed that the Israeli military hasn’t taken responsibility for her death?
MS. NULAND: Well, first of all, we reiterate our condolences to the Corrie family on the tragic death of their daughter, Rachel. As you know, we’ve worked with the family all through this process, and we will continue to provide consular support. We understand the family’s disappointment with the outcome of the trial. Under Israeli law, the family has the right to appeal the verdict, and we’ve seen reports that they are considering doing that. So we will see how this proceeds going forward.
Please.
QUESTION: Can I follow up on that?
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION: There are reports that her family at a press conference said that Ambassador Dan Shapiro told them that he found the – he was finding the investigation not to be transparent. Do you have any comment on that?
MS. NULAND: I was asked this question earlier this week. Beyond saying that we have met with the family regularly, that we have provided consular support, I’m not going to get into our private discussions with the family.
‘Palestinians and Israel human rights activists have learned that justice cannot be obtained through the Israeli judicial system. The Haifa District Court, in which the trial was held, could not have ruled other than how the state wanted. For the past 45 years of Israeli occupation, the Supreme Court has excluded from its rulings all reference to international humanitarian law and to the Fourth Geneva Convention in particular, which protects civilians living in conflict situations and under occupation. Only Israeli law applies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – military law and orders – and the courts have restricted even that form of law by declaring that in instances of “security,” they defer to the military. As in Rachel’s case, the IDF thus has carte blanche to commit war crimes with impunity, with no fear of accountability or punishment.’
Ramzy Baroud, on vicious zionist attitudes to the murder of peace activists:
Writing in The Jewish Chronicle, historian Geoffrey Alderman stated: “Few events – not even the execution of Osama bin Laden – have caused me greater pleasure in recent weeks than news of the death of the Italian so-called ‘peace activist’ Vittorio Arrigoni” (as quoted in The Guardian blog “View from Jerusalem with Harriet Sherwood” on May 18, 2011). While Sherwood found the comments “shocking”, pleasure at the killing of a peace activist is fully consistent with Israel’s ceaseless efforts at “discouraging” international activists from showing solidarity to Palestinians.
The Israeli courts are to announce the verdict of the civil lawsuit against the Israeli Ministry of Defence initiated by Rachel Corrie’s parents this Tuesday, August 28th. Around the world, humanitarians will protest in solidarity with the Corrie family and with all Palestinian families who have had their homes demolished by Caterpillar bulldozers as part of apartheid Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinian people.
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death March 16, 2003, by an Israeli military Caterpillar D9-R bulldozer while nonviolently protesting demolition of Palestinian civilian homes in Rafah, Gaza.
They hope Tuesday’s court decision will conclude a case that’s turned their daughter into a rallying cry for pro-Palestinian activists, taken years of their life and drained their savings.
“We are here with a great deal of anticipation for Tuesday,” said Corrie’s mother, Cindy, 64, a homemaker and musician from Olympia, Washington. “We are hoping for some accountability here for what happened to Rachel.”
Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist, was 23 when she was killed in March 2003 while she and other activists sought to block an Israeli military bulldozer they believed was about to demolish Palestinian homes in the Gaza border town of Rafah. The driver has said he didn’t see Corrie, and the death was accidental.
The Israeli army had been undertaking systematic house demotions in the densely populated border area, trying to halt shooting and mortar attacks against soldiers and Jewish settlers who used the route. The house destruction sparked international condemnation at the time.
…
They hope the court will apportion blame to the bulldozer driver and his superiors, who have all been cleared of wrongdoing in a military court.
The Corries are seeking a symbolic $1 in damages, along with compensation for the money they’ve spent bringing the case to trial.
The Corries said their case underscored how difficult it was for families to pursue justice for loved ones killed by Israeli forces.
Criminal convictions of soldiers, who are tried in military courts, are rare. In one case, an Israeli military court in 2005 convicted a former soldier of manslaughter in the shooting of a British activist, Tom Hurndall.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem said in 304 cases where soldiers killed Palestinians, only nine indictments were filed. Another 27 cases were awaiting a decision of the military advocate general and 14 cases were under investigation.
While the US government’s position on the investigation was not news to the Corrie family, attorneys said that hearing the ambassador’s statement shortly before the verdict was “important and encouraging.”
“This trial is an attempt to hold accountable not only those who failed to protect Rachel’s life but also the flawed system of military investigations which is neither impartial nor thorough,” the family’s attorney said. “Under international law, Israel is obliged to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians from the dangers of military operations. The Israeli military flagrantly violated this principle in the killing of Rachel Corrie.”
Corrie’s father called the lawsuit “a small step in our family’s nearly decade-long search for truth and justice.”
Regardless of how the judge rules, the US government will demand a full account from Israel about Corrie’s death.
To help demand justice for Rachel Corrie and her parents online and to highlight Israel’s horrendous collective punishment of Palestinian people, tweet #RememberRachel and follow @RCFoundation for updates.
Support oppressed Palestinian people and their struggle for justice, support Rachel Corrie’s parents and her cause, support boycott, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel!
