How to Become an Anti-Semite - and the Antidote

If you are not Jewish, and you listen to what Israel says about itself, and see what it does to Palestinians, you can easily become an anti-Semite.  Israel says it is a Jewish state and speaks for all Jews everywhere. It says that the Jewish state is for Jews only, and passes laws that are meant to restrict Palestinian citizens of Israel from equal access to education and housing.  It places military controls all over the West Bank and East Jerusalem to check the IDs of every Palestinian, search them if they want, deny them passage if they want, and keep them off roads that are for Jews only.

They allow Jewish settlers to confiscate Palestinian land, attack Palestinian farmers, burn their olive trees,  throw stones at their children.  They demolish Palestinian homes and charge them the cost of the demolition. They put Gaza in a genocidal grip fenced in and without enough clean water, electricity or medicine to survive. The abuses are too many to list here, but each one is a painful violation of human rights and/or international law.

Seeing all this, why would you like Jews?  Indeed, you might think Israel wants to create anti-Semites, maybe to maintain its image as a persecuted victim that requires maximum security measures for its survival.

How to escape this push toward rejection of an entire ethnic group and its religion?  The antidote is to substitute the word ZIONIST for ISRAEL and JEW. Zionists have created this system of inequality and injustice.

 Zionism began as a Jewish secular, colonial project to take over the entire area of Palestine (from the river to the sea).  Zionists worked to empty the land that they wanted for a Jewish state of all of its native inhabitants - the Palestinians.  Their methods were the methods of war:  to kill, to terrorize, to dispossess, to remove by any means necessary. The objective was to colonize, to possess, and then to create a message to the rest of the world that would defend what they had done.   Many Jews worldwide opposed this Zionist project for various reasons such as foreseeing how it would be divisive, not wanting to leave the countries in which they had grown up, or understanding that it would be unjust to the native population.

But Zionists  became excellent ambassadors for their project, especially among Jews who were discriminated against in their home countries like Russia or Eastern Europe, and Nazi Germany.  They created phrases like , “A land without a people for a people without a land,” as if no one lived in Palestine.  Or, “We will make the desert bloom,” as if Palestinians had never planted olive trees, almond and citrus groves, vegetables and native herbs.  To this day Zionists can justify the military occupation of Palestine, with an infrastructure that not only controls the movement of Palestinians, but how much water they can drink and which roads they can drive on, where or if they can build a house. Palestinian daily life  is an arduous experience, meant to wear them down until they leave.

And occupation slowly erodes civil society, fostering corruption in high places, deception and mistrust among the general populace, and a vast network of collaborators.  The latter are cultivated by Israel to undermine community life. One example: A sick person in Gaza may seek a permit to be treated inside Israel. The permit is granted, and the sick person goes to the checkpoint at the “border”.  The soldier there asks the sick person if he/she could name a neighbor who is a member of Hamas. Just one name, and no further requests will be made.  “Only one name and I am free to go?” thinks the sick person, who is desperately ill. “Yes,” comes the lie. Because it will not be the last time the sick person’s vulnerability will be tapped.

This is Zionism.  For this I encourage you to be anti-Zionist, never anti-Semitic.

A Few Things I Have Learned

A  few things I have learned in the last two days. 

At the 4-day conference that the City of Bethlehem has organized for Latin American-Palestinians living in the diaspora— “The Second Diaspora Convention”— I learned that the theft of Palestinian heritage via archeological digs and the  confiscation of ancient artifacts started back in the 1920’s under British military control. In other words, Britain encouraged and supported the early Zionists’ efforts to prove that they were the original (and only?) inhabitants of Palestine.  This they did under their Internationally sanctioned  colonization of the area in the post-WWI “British Mandate.”

I have known about the more recent Israeli excavations, especially under the Old City of East Jerusalem, seeking thereby to prove Jewish historical ownership of everything from the river to the sea. Likewise, in the Northern West Bank town of Sebastia there is a well-preserved Roman amphitheater where settlers try to fly the Israeli flag. This is the Zionist dream that Israel is now pushing into reality. Their digging under the Old City is causing the Palestinian houses above ground to crack.  Some families have had to evacuate their homes which are no longer safe.  Thus Israel kills two birds with one stone: they get their stolen proof, and  the Palestinians leave.

Do I sound cynical?  I am not.  It is not my nature.  I am telling the truth according to reports from professional Israeli archeologists who question the methods being used by these opportunistic diggers, and reports of Palestinian journalists who have interviewed the dispossessed families.  That is enough proof for me.

Another thing I learned is that the CIA has about 60 employees in none other than the city of Ramallah, the Palestinian equivalent of Washington DC..   Ramallah is a West Bank city, supposedly under Palestinian control. The CIA is there to advise the Palestinians on how to do security cooperation with Israel. Do you smell a rat? The Guardian newspaper reported in 2009 that half the PA’s budget is from international donors, and at least a quarter of that goes to security, which includes a force of about 7,500 security personnel - police, etc— trained by US, British, Canadian and Turkish army officers under the command of a US. General. (The Guardian, Dec, 17, 2009)

I could have researched this before now, because it is documented on the CIA website. But that is not a website I am accustomed to visiting!

  

   

Hello from Palestine Museum of Natural History

Wow! It is noisy in the Museum garden today because the campers, ages 13-15, boys and girls, are screaming in delight as they compete in the treasure hunt planned  by the staff. These happy sounds are in such sharp contrast to the lives these kids live on a usual day. The staff is cheering them on with even greater enthusiasm, and their lives aren’t any easier.  For them to get to work they must be prepared to be stopped anywhere along the way by young Israeli soldiers who start with an attitude of disdain for every Palestinian.

Thus our staff, university graduates, masters and doctoral candidates, skillful in running the Museum and the Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability, are confronted  by a high school graduate with an automatic weapon and an attitude. There is no telling where this confrontation will end, because the soldier does not need any excuse to arrest a Palestinian who is on his/her way to work.

Yet the staff arrive in good humor and dedication to our research, field work, and expansion of the botanical garden.

And the kids can forget about how the soldiers invaded a neighbor’s apartment during the night to arrest a 12 year old boy they accuse of “throwing stones”.  It’s true that lots of kids, especially in poor neighborhoods throw stones at soldiers who are trespassing. But there is absolutely no proof that THIS child threw stones.  Nevertheless, they take him from his bed at 2 or 3 a.m., forbid his parents from coming with him, take him somewhere in a jeep where he is pushed onto the floor under the soldiers’ boots, and interrogate him.

This is what these summer campers get to forget about, and to fill the air with their seemingly innocent laughter.

Ah, a staffer just brought me a popsicle like the ones he just distributed to the kids.  I check the label to be sure it is a Palestinian-made treat, a habit I have from being in East Jerusalem where Israel prohibits most products made in Palestine.  Of course, I needn’t have checked.

Jessie then instructs me to wash and save the popsicle stick, for not a single thing gets thrown away that might some day find another use. Recycle, upcycle, reuse, repurpose, and always remember to Respect the environment!

A Day in Hebron

A Day in Hebron - July 7, 2019

If you have ever been in Hebron, West Bank, Palestine, you think you know what I am going to tell you.  You have seen how the extreme, violent settlers who live there have driven out the Palestinians from their shops and even their homes.  You have seen how the shopkeepers in the Old City, already lacking what used to be a thriving tourist trade, have to protect their displays with overhead wire netting and plastic sheeting because the setters throw down their garbage, and worse, from their apartments above the shops.  You have seen the permanently shuttered shops along Shuhada Street where settler moms push strollers, secure in their belief that they will not have to lay eyes on a Palestinian mom.

But I am going to tell you about a young man who just opened a hostel on the forth floor of a building in the commercial district.  His name is Ghassan. He has a vision which requires tourists to come to Hebron, the city where he was born.  He has a passion which is for tourists to learn the truth about Palestine.  He is not naive; he spent two years in Europe experiencing freedom of movement before coming home.  He knows first hand how the Hebron settlers are vicious in their hatred towards the likes of him. This very morning I watched a film made by the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) that documents that hatred, showing how settler children are encouraged to throw stones at Palestinian children. “Children here don’t know what a “human right” is. You ask them and they don’t know.”

So Ghassan speaks from his own life experience.  “The Palestinian Authority has done nothing for me.  There are no benefits, no free health care. They cooperate with Israel. They have money; where does it go?” Then, “The Jews will never give up this land, and Palestinians won’t give up this land.  So the only solution is to share the land.” We think this sounds like the “one state solution”, but he disagrees, fearing that would lead to more violence. He has seen people killed right in front of him. “I don’t want to see blood.”

All these thoughts were shared with 5 women “tourists” in the hostel’s attractive sitting and dining area before we set out on a walking tour.  Our first stop was at a checkpoint separating downtown from the Tel Rumeida neighborhood.  I had been here 3 years ago, and notice that the checkpoint has been greatly reinforced.  Ghassan was not sure the soldiers would let him through as he is not an official resident of Tel Rumeida. Without that specific ID, a Palestinian cannot pass, cannot visit a relative, cannot use this shorter route to get to another street. This unique discrimination is due to the activist resistance of this neighborhood and the fact that the settlers want it.  The effect is that one can barely remember that this is one city, and it is a Palestinian city, not an Israeli city. One can barely remember that there was wholeness here until 1994. But that is another story.

Helping Ghassan guide us was Talal, an older man, father of 2 children, an unemployed mechanical engineer.  As we walked through the streets, Talal said, “You know about Palestinians?  We cannot think in terms of Future.” He explained, “We depend on help from powerful countries, and we have no power. We do not control what happens to us. Even the two major parties, Fatah and Hamas, have been driven apart by the Mossad ( Israeli intelligence). I thanked Talil for sharing his views with me.

That was my day in Hebron, if I don’t count the pottery shop that served us all hot tea while the owner hand painted the pottery he was selling.  Or the craft shop in the old city that wouldn’t let me pay for the beaded Palestinian bracelets that I wanted to bring home to my Arabic teacher.  Wouldn’t you like to be a tourist in Hebron?

Just Arrived and Already...

I arrived in East Jerusalem yesterday, about noon, tired but pleased to get through the airport without difficulty.  As I lugged my too-heavy suitcase and carry-on into the Old City, I noticed the changes since I was here in the Fall of 2017.  At the top of the stairs leading to the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City was a new structure, an army guard post staffed with Israeli soldiers.

 The plaza below, which I remember as bursting with activity of vendors and people, was empty.  Nevertheless, there were more soldiers posted there, and more just inside the Gate. This Gate leads to the Muslim Quarter  and the many Palestinian shops that give the Old City its flavor. It used to be fairly free of Israeli intrusions. Now, along with the soldiers, there are many Zionist Jews choosing this entrance in order to get to the Western Wall, or to their settler apartments scattered throughout the Old City.

My next observation, was the shock of seeing a large Israeli flag covering the wall space allotted to a new juice stand along the Palestinian market street leading to my hostel.   It is catering to the greatly increased traffic of Jews coming into the Old City from Damascus Gate, thus laying claim to "their" city. Israel invaded and annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, and has since treated it as its territory, in spite of condemnation by the rest of the world. Then Mr. Trump moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem to support Israel's annexation and to destroy Palestinian ownership of half of the city.

When I reached the entrance to my hostel,  which is on the corner where the Via Dolorosa bisects the market street,  I saw that there is now a permanent army post right across the street from it.  (Sigh, more soldiers.)  Later, on my way back to the hostel after doing my initial errands like changing money and activating my local cell phone, the way was blocked by a phalanx of soldiers stopping all Palestinian pedestrian traffic while allowing Jews to pass by.  For a moment I thought of trying to pass as well, which I am quite sure would have been allowed.  But I quickly realized this would be using my White (non-Arab) Privilege to go where Palestinian (Arabs) could not go. Instead I took a picture of this demonstration of Apartheid at work.

This morning, leaving my hostel, I stopped to buy a bracelet with the colors of the Palestinian flag, like I wear at home but could not wear going through the Israeli airport.  No sooner I made the purchase, than a young woman in a hijab, also buying souvenirs,  greeted me in American English:  "Where are you from?" she asked.  I answered, "U.S." ( remembering not to say "America" as if the U.S. was all of America). She smiled and said she was from Kentucky, (!) and staying with her Palestinian aunt who lives in Ramallah. Her aunt was standing right there, and joined in our conversation.  The aunt had not been to Jerusalem for seven years because Israel requires a permit for West Bankers to enter their own city of Jerusalem.  However, she had managed to get the permit this time to accompany her niece on her first visit to Palestine. The aunt told me what I already knew, "It is easier for you to come to Jerusalem than for me."

I have been here less than 24 hours, and already apartheid Israel raises its ugly head. But by contrast, the Palestinian owners of the wonderful Educational Bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem spent 2 hours helping me with a technological snafu that wouldn't allow me to access a list with all my Palestine contacts. I would have been lost without it, so I almost panicked, but the help of strangers (plus the Skyping help of my U.S.-based computer guru) got around Google's protective reach.  I am grateful to be here, learning from the Palestinians how to dodge the restrictions placed on daily life.

Guantanamo, 2019: Who Are We?

Who Are We?

How old were you 17 years ago? Please, stop and do the math.  What has your life contained in those years?  What if, instead, in 2002, you had been abducted without given warning or reason, and taken 8000 miles away from your family and country?  And left there. And tortured for information you didn’t have.  What if that had been your life for the last 17 years?  Do you think your captors should be held responsible for your misery?

This is the reality for 40 exclusively Muslim men still being held by our government, without charges, at Guantanamo Bay prison, outside U.S. borders and outside U.S. laws, built and maintained in order to tell the world that torture is O.K., indefinite detention is O.K., but Muslims are not O.K..  This disgrace should have been front-page news on January 11, the 17^thanniversary of the first men brought to Guantanamo.

If you are wondering, as I was, what are the conditions in this prison, the true answer lies in the suffering of indefinite detention.  Not one of the 779 men ever held there, has been given a real trial, read the charges against him, allowed to confront  his accuser or present his defense.  Even without that, all but 40 were released because they were found not to be a threat to the security of the United States.  And 5 of the 40 have also been cleared for release, but their freedom is blocked by Trump.  What of the other 35?  Like the rest, they are human beings.

Because these 40 humans are still kept at Guantanamo with not one day of seeing and touching a family member or friend, I joined Witness Against Torture for a week-long fast for justice in Washington, D.C..  And in an effort to bring attention to this gross violation of human rights, I was arrested with four others on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.  We civilian citizens were holding a banner that read, “We target, We torture, We terrify. Who Are We?”  I endured 4 hours of booking and being stripped down to one layer of clothing,  12 hours in a roach-infested cell on a metal slab without mattress or pillow, and 12 hours more of waiting to be processed in a cold, crowded room with 17 other women. Fourteen of those women had been arrested for minor offenses during the night and brought to the same cell block where I and my co-defendants were held.  During this ordeal, which was not easy, I had these thoughts:

I have not been abducted, chained, tortured, hooded and diapered to be flown in disgusting conditions far from my home.  I have not been force-fed with a tube down my throat while strapped to a chair.  I have not lost my entire youth without comfort of mother or father.  I have not been separated from my young children who have grown up without me.

Trump has said he would re-fill Guantanamo, which has the capacity for 2,000 captives. Meanwhile, he has eliminated the government office that was a liaison with the prison, so there can be no movement of anyone’s case, nor can the U.S. track former detainees to know if they present a current threat to U.S. security. (So far the rate of “recidivism” is a very low 4.6%.) But Trump wants those men there where the U.S. legal system can’t reach them and where we citizens can’t remember them.

My response, your response, our response must be to acknowledge the humanity of these 40 remaining detainees and demand due process according to our own laws, according to the basic values of every religion, and according to human rights.  Please ask Congress to hold hearings on Guantanamo. It is not the price tag, ($10 million/year/per prisoner), it is the human tag.   Our humanity requires us not to forget these men. Close Guantanamo. End torture.  (www.witnessagainsttorture.com)

Grieving for Palestine

GRIEVING FOR PALESTINE

I am grieving and finding it hard to find words to fit the cause of my grief: Israel’s official murder of Palestinians in Gaza and U.S. support for that murder. 

Because I have been to Palestine’s West Bank multiple times (though not to Gaza), I can picture this slaughter and help you to picture it also. 

Picture a large auditorium in your town, and see it full to overflowing with townspeople - some are your neighbors and some you never met. You have come to this place to seek safety from a storm raging outside. But after a few hours the electricity is cut. The toilets stop working and the tap water turns brown. There is no drinkable water. When night comes, it is cold, and there is no heat.  You don’t know why but suddenly there are armed guards at the doors, and In the balcony there are snipers.

You are not allowed out. Days pass. Supplies that arrive are meager; there is not enough food, water or blankets. Babies cry.  Shots ring out.  Someone near you drops and blood comes from their body.  The snipers are aiming at random individuals! Another shot, and the target is the person who was trying to call for calm and for a plan to escape from this place.  Some people walk toward the armed guards to demand they open the doors.  They are shot also.  

Outside the auditorium, there are news reports about what Is happening. Officials say that the people trapped inside are terrorists because they approached the guards and the guards felt threatened.  While some outside people question the use of snipers, they think the people inside must have done something wrong for this to be happening to them.  Towns farther away hear about this catastrophe and they speak out against it, but they don’t do anything to free the people still inside the auditorium.

This is what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza.  Seventy years after being driven off their land, and 22 years since Israel completed a fortified fence around them with just a few gates controlled by Israeli soldiers, and eleven years after being cut off from enough supplies to make life livable, and a year since electricity was cut to 2 to 6 hours a day, the people of Gaza, adopting non-violent tactics, marched towards their jailors and demanded to return to the land that was stolen from them. (Their right to return was established by U.N. Resolution 194 in 1948.)

Israel said it was threatened, that the terrorists were going to breach the fence and start killing Jews. Israel put snipers on their side of the fence and ordered them to shoot into the crowds, sometimes selecting leaders, or press, or medics. You may have read the statistics: over 100 killed, over 7,000 injured in seven weeks. You may not have read that much of the live ammunition used against the unarmed protesters was a new type of bullet that explodes inside the body causing extensive damage, if not death.  

You may not know that in between the weekly demonstrations, many families camped out near the border fence and celebrated their traditional ways of cooking, dancing, singing and reading their literature and history.. They are proud of their heritage.

I have friends in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They too are proud, they too are trapped; they too are grieving.  My friends in the West Bank are barred from visiting Jerusalem unless granted a permit by the Israeli military - even if they have family there, or need specialized medical attention, or want to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or al-Aqsa Mosque.

My friends in East Jerusalem cannot repair or expand their cramped residences because their homes will be demolished for lack of building permits which are almost never granted.  My Palestinian friends who are citizens of Israel are not allowed to visit relatives in the West Bank.  That last one is a mind-twister unless you know that 20% of the population of Israel is Arab Palestinian, also perceived as a demographic threat to Jewish Israel.

Enough injustice. Palestinians are human beings.   Jewish Israelis are human beings also. As such they have a moral obligation to recognize the humanity of Palestinians. Locking them into Gaza and shooting at them for wanting to get out is wrong.  Our government paying Israel for brutalizing Palestinians is also wrong.  The U.S. gives $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel every year.  Broken down by state, Massachusetts gives Israel $128,495,047 a year.

Palestinians have rights under international law. One of those rights is the Right of Return.  That is what Gaza has been marching for and dying for. They want their rights recognized and negotiated. We in the U.S. are complicit in denying Palestinians their rights.  Let us admit it and work to change our policies. Our own humanity is at stake.