Yearly Archives: 2005
NEW BARK BUT OLD BITE FOR ISRAEL’S SHARON
GEORGE ARIDA, Madison.com, Dec 9, 2005
Despite appearances to the contrary, Ariel Sharon is one of the true constants of Israeli politics.
Although he remains uncompromising in his ideology and consistent in his methods, he periodically redefines his political identity to serve his underlying agenda.
This week the mainstream Western media carried characteristically misleading headlines of his latest bold initiative: “Sharon Bolts Likud to Form Centrist Party” and “Israel’s Sharon unleashes political earthquake.”
As absurd as it seems at first to see the word “centrist” to describe Sharon or his new party, on reflection it may be an accurate term after all, given the spectrum of Israeli mainstream politics.
The sad truth is that “mainstream” Israeli politics occupies a narrow space, and Sharon’s new identity as a “centrist” is a reflection of the disturbing state of the Israeli body politic rather than any sign of change in Sharon’s stripes.
The left-to-right spectrum in Israel ranges from a kinder and gentler vision of “separate and unequal” (Labor, Meretz and the mainstream “left”) to a “banish-or-kill-em-all” vision of ethnic and religious superiority disturbingly reminiscent of some of Europe’s and America’s darker moments (elements of Likud, National Union, the National Religious Party, Kach, etc.)
Sharon’s heart is in the latter camp. In a global sense, he sits in a place of prominence among heads of government in terms of his open bigotry, enthusiastic use of overwhelming violence and enforcement of a brutal form of apartheid against an entire society, not to mention his personal record of atrocities.
But he is a master political pragmatist. Nothing demonstrates this better than his removal of 8,000 illegal Jewish settlers from Gaza to consolidate the grip of 250,000 of those same settlers over much more valuable Palestinian West Bank land. His reincarnation as a “centrist” is the next step in breaking the shackles of ideologically-blinded Likud rivals like Benjamin Netanyahu, who still balk at giving up a mole hill to save a mountain.
More importantly, Sharon is taking a pre-emptive swipe at the new leader of the Labor Party, Amir Peretz. Having toppled the fossilized Shimon Peres on a stridently anti-settlement, pro-working class platform, Peretz promises to negotiate peace with Palestinian partners who Sharon has consistently claimed are nowhere to be found. With his roots in Likud’s traditional base — Israel’s “second-class,” non-European Jewish population — Peretz could be a real rival.
It remains to be seen whether Peretz represents something new in Israeli politics. But clearly, Sharon does not. One need only realize that on the day Sharon declared his new party, his government began a mass demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem to use up this year’s demolition budget. For the scores of Arab families now homeless in the cold, it was still politics as usual.
Arida is a co-founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.
Re Isthmus article on Camp Shalom
Kathy Walsh, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, December 5, 2005
Regarding Robert Ablove’s letter about the Isthmus article on Camp Shalom (“Ain’t Gonna Study War No More,” 9/2/05):
My daughter and I visited Israel/Palestine last winter. While we were there, there were no suicide/homicide bombings by Palestinians. But while we were there a 10 year old girl was shot and killed, and a 7 year old girl was injured. They were Palestinian schoolchildren in the yard of their UN school. The shots came from an Israeli sniper tower and were presumably fired by an Israeli soldier. These are hardly isolated incidents.
I will refer to statistics posted by Remember These Children. Since September of 2000, 123 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians. During this time 704 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis, most by Israeli soldiers. For 2005 the numbers are 7 Israeli children versus 57 Palestinian children killed. Since the publication of the article on Camp Shalom one Israeli child and 11 Palestinian children have been killed. I ask Robert Ablove who are the more succesful terrorists? Whose parents should be more afraid?
University of Wisconsin Regents Urged To Divest From Israel
Aaron Nathans,The Capital Times, November 11, 2005
Protesters packed a hearing Thursday on the University of Wisconsin’s investment portfolio, encouraging the Board of Regents to divest from Israel.
Many held Palestinian flags, as speaker after speaker called for the university to divest from companies that do business with the Israeli military. They argued, for example, that Caterpillar makes bulldozers that are used to knock down houses of families of suspected Palestinian terrorists. And Lockheed Martin supplies the Israeli Air Force.
“As a mother, my heart goes out to the mothers of Palestine,” said Rae Vogeler, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. She brought along her 8-year-old son. “Do we want to be investing in machines that kill?”
But local supporters of Israel said the effort had nothing to do with changing its military, and was instead part of a sustained campaign on American campuses to delegitimize the Jewish state.
The UW Board of Regents’ Business and Finance Committee held its annual forum on trust funds at Grainger Hall, with committee members, as usual, sitting quietly at a table in front while members of the public said their piece. The event, usually a tepid and sparsely attended affair, is designed to allow people to comment on the university’s investment choices. About 70 attended on Thursday.
Occasionally, the Board of Regents has taken action, such as two years ago, when it briefly divested in Tyson Foods bonds to show solidarity with striking workers at the plant in Jefferson.
Mohammed Abed of the University of Wisconsin Divest From Israel Campaign said Israel should be the board’s next target. He said the Jewish peoples’ history of suffering does not justify keeping the Palestinian people down.
“Is it not substantial personal injury when a person’s home is demolished, and they have nowhere else to live?” Abed said. “People come along and say, why Israel? That is not the real question. The real question is, why not Israel?”
Ken Goldstein, a UW-Madison political science professor, was one of the few pro-Israel speakers to attend the event. He said everyone knows that the best solution is Israeli and Palestinian states living side by side. The Palestinians have yet to control their radical elements and take risks for peace, he said.
Referring to Vogeler, he said: “When a Palestinian mother loves her child as much as that woman loves her child, and does not encourage 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds to strap bombs onto their body and blow up Israeli -3, 4-, 5-year-olds at a pizzeria, then we’ll have a two-state solution,” Goldstein said.
“This terrorism is not about a two-state solution,” Goldstein said. “This is about driving the Israelis into the sea.”
On another topic, freshman Molly Glasgow said the university should divest from Abercrombie & Fitch because, she said, it has factories in nations where labor is treated unfairly.
Re: Regents urged to divest from Israel
Kathy Walsh, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, November 11, 2005
In the Capital Times article on the divestment debate at UW you quote Professor Ken Goldstein:
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“When a Palestinian woman loves her child, and does not encourage 14-, 15-, and 16-year olds to strap bombs onto their body and blow up Israeli 3-, 4- and 5-, year olds at a pizzeria, then we’ll have a two-state solution.”
I was in Rafah (a city in the Gaza strip) when a 10-year-old girl was killed by Israeli sniper fire while standing in line outside her school. I saw the mother. She was beyond herself in grief. Her child may be considered a martyr, but her mother was NOT celebrating her martyrdom, but grieving it, as I know Jewish mothers and Christian mothers and even atheist mothers like myself would do. And I don’t think it was because her daughter was killed before she had a chance to be a bomb. The child’s name was Norhan, from “no’or” which means light in Arabic. She was a light extinguished for no reason.
I believe this mother loved her child as much as I love my daughter who was traveling with me, as much as Rae Vogeler loves her son, and presumably as much as Professor Goldstein loves his daughter. I know I would give my life to protect either of my daughters.
I want to ask who encouraged the soldier to pull the trigger and open fire on a schoolyard. I also must comment that many Israeli soldiers refuse to participate in such carnage and many Jews are horrified by such acts.
I want to encourage everyone to look up the statistics on who is killing whom. They can be found at Remember These Children, B’Tselem, or even the Israeli Defense Force websites. As of November 9, 2005 the totals for Israeli children killed by Palestinians since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000 is 123. In this same time period, Israelis have killed 704 Palestinian children.
Two children have been killed since November first, both Palestinians. They are Mohammad Hamdi Abu Salha, 15, of Nablus, and Ahmed Ismail Khatib, 12, of Jenin. Both were shot by Israeli soldiers. Ahmed’s father donated his organs to several Israeli children and one Israeli woman. That is just one example of the hatred that Palestinians teach their children. I want to ask Professor Goldstein how he teaches his daughter to love, or hate.
If we reversed the nationalities in Professor Goldstein’s statements, they would be seen for what they are, a veil of language, very racist language, used to obscure the truth. Yet in our society it is those who claim that Palestinians are full members of the human race, deserving of the same basic human rights as all other humans, who are usually labeled “racists.”
I do not hate the people that disagree with me. Yet since I have become involved in this issue I have had people spit in my face, call me hateful names, and drop me as friends. One of my friends in this struggle has received death threats, for herself and her child, whom she also loves more than life itself. Yet we are considered the “racists” and “hatemongers.” I do not hate those who disagree with me, but I am angry. And I want the people at my University, in my city, in my state, and in my world to see through the veil and view the anti-Palestinian rhetoric for what it is.
November 3, 2005
Ibdaa Dance Troupe in Madison
We are excited to announce that on Thursday November 3 the world-renowned Ibdaa Children’s Dance Troupe will perform for the first time in Madison at 7:30 pm in the UW Union Theater.
This group of 10 boys and 10 girls between the ages of 10 and 13 is touring major cities in the U.S. under the sponsorship of the San Francisco-based Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA). The dancers combine traditional “debke” dance and brilliant costumes with a modern narrative about their experiences as Palestinian refugees growing up and living in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. The Ibdaa children’s troupes have performed all over the world to great acclaim.
The Madison performance will be free and open to the public. It is sponsored by MRSCP, the Arab Student Association, and Al-Awda Wisconsin. For more information e-mail rafahsistercity@yahoo.com or asomadison@yahoo.com.
NATIONAL TOUR:
Albuquerque, NM, Amherst, MA, Austin, TX, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Detroit, MI, Houston, TX, Keene, NH, Los Angeles, CA, Minneapolis, MN, Sacramento, CA, , Santa Fe, NM, Seattle, WA
For venues, and information: events@mecaforpeace.org
Tawfiq Nasser: Palestinian Doctor Tells Of Life Under Occupation
Samara Kalk Derby, The Capital Times, October 10, 2005
To get to work each day, Tawfiq Nasser needs a green card, known as a “dirty ID.” He also needs what is called a magnetic card to show that he is not a terrorist or security threat.
On top of that, he must carry two permits, both of which have to be renewed every few months.
Nasser is one of the lucky ones. As director and CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem, the Palestinian doctor moves about the city and the rest of Israel with some aggravation and complication.
“This is a privilege, a real privilege,” he told an audience of about 40 Sunday afternoon at Memorial United Church of Christ in Fitchburg.
Nasser, who has studied and worked in the U.S., was in Madison to give a presentation, “A View From Jerusalem: Challenges for Palestinian Health Care.” He also spoke at St. Stephens Lutheran Church in Monona. His appearances were co-sponsored by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.
“I am not angry,” said Nasser, 40, noting that he makes a good living and has a driver to help navigate the checkpoints.
But with its 52 permanent and 60 “flying” or mobile checkpoints, and now its security fence almost half complete, the Israeli government punishes the whole Palestinian population for the crimes of a few, creating “more anger, polarization and radicalization,” he said.
Suicide bombers — whom Nasser calls creative and “literally crazy” — will plan their attacks close to the wall to make holes in it, he said: “Just to signify to the world that we need a way out. We can’t just be prisoners.”
Israel contends that its controversial 435-mile security barrier — a mixture of concrete, razor wire, ditches and electronic fence – is crucial in keeping out Palestinian suicide bombers.
Hundreds of Israeli civilians have been killed and injured in suicide attacks in the last five years. Israel maintains that the wall has cut attacks significantly.
The U.S. administration is talking about a viable Palestinian state, Nasser said.
“We appreciate Bush saying it,” he said. “We just don’t know if he meant it. Like when he said we are in a ‘crusade’ in the Middle East. Whoops!”
October 9, 2005
Dr. Tawfiq Nasser in Madison
A View From Jerusalem – Challenges for Palestinian Health Care
Dr. Tawfiq Nasser, CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital, Jerusalem
St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church
5700 Pheasant Hill Rd., Monona
Dr. Nasser will preach at 8:00 & 10:00 Worship
and make a presentation beginning at 9:10
Memorial United Church of Christ
5705 Lacey Rd., Fitchburg
Dr. Nasser will speak from 4:30 – 5:30
Evening Reception of Hospitality and Conversation
At the home of Rev. Bruce Burnside
1109 Gilbert Rd., Madison
RSVP Requested to Rev. Burnside (see below)
The public is invited to any and all events of the day. For Information or directions please contact Rev Bruce Burnside, 608-222-1241 or revbhb@tds.net.
AUGUSTA VICTORIA HOSPITAL stands atop the Mt. Of Olives in East Jerusalem where for over 50 years it has, as a project of Lutheran World Federation, provided exceptional health care to Palestinian people, primarily from East Jerusalem, many refugee camps and villages in the West Bank. Numerous challenges have threatened the work of the hospital, its staff and patients over the years, but none, perhaps, as great as those now being faced because of the Israeli “Security Wall” and an Israeli tax decision. A great deal of the hospital’s care is provided on a charitable basis.
The Director of the hospital DR. TAWFIQ NASSER grew up in Ramallah and Jerusalem and now lives in Ramallah with his wife and children. Nasser is a Palestinian Christian in the Anglican tradition. His work as CEO of the hospital is characterized by tremendous resourcefulness, amazing stamina and noble dedication. Under his leadership the hospital has developed a first class pediatrics dialysis department, has recently opened an enviable radiation oncology unit and has developed a series of mobile clinics to travel into the West Bank to provide medical care for Palestinians who no longer have access to the hospital because of closures, checkpoints and the “Security Wall” which cuts the hospital off from the West Bank. While bureaucracy, economic hardship and movement restrictions plague the hospital, Dr. Nasser continues to break new ground as a visionary and man of compassion.
An articulate and energetic speaker, Tawfiq Nasser will inspire you with stories and challenge you to support the cause of justice and peace.
Co-sponsored by St. Stephens Lutheran Church, Memorial United Church of Christ, and the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.
September 22 – December 1, 2005
Film Series: “Finding Hope in Unexpected Places”
A Community Film Series
September 22 – Uncovered: The War on Iraq
October 20 – Rana’s Wedding
November 10 – Hidden in Plain Sight
December 1 – Until When . . .
Edgewood College, Predolin Humanities Center, Anderson Auditorium
7:00 pm for all showings
“The Arts Go to War”, an Edgewood human issues class; the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, and the School of the Americas Watch — Madison join forces to bring you four thought-provoking, disturbing, and enlightening films. An audience discussion will follow each film. All films are free and open to the public.
September 22 – Uncovered: The War on Iraq
Documentary; Director: Robert Greenwald; 2004; 87 minutes
Filmmaker Robert Greenwald chronicles the Bush Administration’s case to invade Iraq following Sept. 11, 2001. The film examines the administration’s argument for war through interviews with U.S intelligence and defense officials, foreign service experts and U.N. weapons inspectors — including a former CIA director, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and President Bush’s Secretary of the Army.
“When the Bush Administration’s case for war in Iraq shifted from the existence of weapons of mass destruction to the existence of ‘weapons of mass destruction-related activities’, director Robert Greenwald got angry. Uncovered: The War On Iraq is his response; a powerful, well-constructed and sober documentary that – via a dense collection of interviews with intelligence experts, diplomats, weapons inspectors, and politicians – painstakingly and ruthlessly takes apart the American government’s changing arguments for invasion.” – Jonathan Trout, BBC
October 20 – Rana’s Wedding
Feature; Director: Hany Abu-Assad; 2002; 90 minutes
Shot on location in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, and checkpoints in between, Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad sees the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the eyes of a young woman who, with only ten hours to marry, must negotiate her way around roadblocks, soldiers, stonethrowers, overworked officials and into the heart of an elusive lover.
Roger Ebert says Rana’s Wedding is ” . . . fascinating as a document. It gives a more complete visual picture of the borders, the Palestinian settlements and the streets of Jerusalem than we ever see on the news . . .” Phil Hall of Film Threat says Rana’s Wedding is “among the finest films made in the Middle East.”
November 10 – Hidden in Plain Sight
Documentary; Director: John H. Smihula; 2003; 90 minutes
Hidden in Plain Sight is a feature-length documentary that looks at the nature of U.S. policy in Latin America through the prism of the School of the Americas (renamed, in January of 2001, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the controversial military school that trains Latin American soldiers in the USA.
Demonstrators denounce the SOA as a “School of Assassins,” but Army officials argue that the school has played a crucial role in bringing democracy and stability to Latin America. On this issue, the U.S. Congress is sharply divided. Enter noted scholars Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Christopher Hitchens, and Michael Parenti, who broaden the debate to include such subjects as militarism, globalization, national security, and international terrorism. Personal accounts from victims of the violence and repression in Latin America raise questions and concerns about the true aims of U.S. foreign policy.
Informative and provocative, this documentary presents different points of view which illuminate the turbulent reality of Latin America, demystify the policy-making process, and shed light on some of the most complex and urgent problems facing U.S. citizens today.
December 1 – Until When . . .
Documentary; Director: Dahna Abourahme; 2004; 76 minutes
Until When . . . explores the lives of four Palestinian families who live in Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. People share their experiences with the Israeli occupation and how it affects their lives. Director Dahna Abourahme integrates archival photographs, map animations, and informational text into the film’s historical journey. The personal stories convey sadness, frustration and nostalgia for absent family members. However, they live and marry, so the families dance and ululate when they celebrate momentous occasions.
Sonia Nettnin writes in Scoop: “Palestinians affirm their human rights to freedom from oppression now and for future generations. Their shared feelings weave a narrative thread that leads to hope.”
Contacts:
Sr. Maureen McDonnell, mcdonnel at edgewood.edu
RafahSisterCity at yahoo.com
Ain’t gonna study war no more
Bill Lueders, Isthmus, September 1, 2005
Camp Shalom had children pretend to be Israeli soldiers
It was the face paint that tipped Tsele Barr off. Early this summer, she was picking up her two sons from Camp Shalom, a day camp run by the Madison Jewish Community Council, and noticed that some of the children had paint on their faces. She asked her youngest son, Izak, what this was about and he explained, “We were playing Israeli army.”
This, Barr learned from Izak, involved “doing drills and such.” Then her older son, Jasper, told her that similar training was part of his camp experience the summer before, and had included shooting make-believe guns.
Barr, a freelance graphic designer, was deeply troubled by this news and placed some calls to other parents. She also spoke to the camp director, Lynn Kaplan, and to Shirin Ezekial, a cultural ambassador from Israel who led the children in this activity.
“Although they listened to my concerns, I got the impression that they didn’t see what the big deal was,” relates Barr. “I really think it’s appalling that a camp that calls itself Camp Shalom [the word means peace] would glorify the Israeli army” — which, she says, “repeatedly commits human-rights abuses.”
Other parents also contacted Kaplan. Susan Cook, a professor at the UW-Madison School of Music, says her son reported that, during this year’s simulation, he raised his hand to ask a question, only to be told: “Soldiers don’t ask questions, they follow orders.”
“That is something I do not teach my children — to blindly follow orders,” says Cook. She thought Kaplan was initially defensive but ultimately seemed to grasp the reasons for her discomfit: “I came away feeling very good about her response.”
Both parents stress that Camp Shalom is an excellent camp and that they have no problem with a component that teaches children about life in Israel. But they object to what Cook calls “inculcating militaristic beliefs.”
So do others in the community. “I just feel really outraged that at Camp Peace, the kids were playing Israeli army,” says Jennifer Loewenstein, the founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister-City Project. “When I heard about it, I was just livid.”
George Arida, an Arab American member of Loewenstein’s group (whose efforts to establish a formal sister-city link were voraciously opposed by the Madison Jewish Community Council), has this to say: “If there was an Islamic kids’ camp and it had even a hint of playing Islamic war games, there would be a huge public outcry and rightly so.”
Kaplan, in a brief phone interview, disputed an overview of the parents’ accounts (without giving any specifics) but admitted they “did raise a concern and it was a very valid concern” about a camp “activity.” Kaplan, saying she was too busy to talk, promised to call back later but never did, ignoring a follow-up message.
Marc Rosenthal, whose son attended a subsequent session of Camp Shalom, says the Israel soldier role-playing was apparently not repeated. Which is fine by him. “This is not what we want our kids doing. This is not what Camp Shalom is all about.”
Barr, for her part, vows to remain vigilant: “We’ll see what happens next year.”