Today is the 12th day of Israel's murderous attacks on Gaza.
The Palestinian body count is 336, 70 of whom are kids. This has become a murderous spree of killing for the zionist terrorist army, supported by government of this racist colonial entity and by their people , many of whom have been turning increasingly into blood thirsty mobs urging the murder of Palestinian
On the eve of Abu Khudair’s lynching, Member of Knesset (Israel’s parliament) and government faction whip Ayelet Shaked issued a call over Facebook to ethnically cleanse the land, declaring “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy.” She advocated their complete destruction, “including its elderly and its women,” adding that these must be slaughtered, otherwise they might give birth to more “little snakes.”
... Since the beginning of July, raging crowds of Jewish Israelis just like these have marched through Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Beer Sheva, chanting “Death to Arabs” and “Death to Leftists,” swarming and attacking vulnerable victims. While a tiny contingent of radical Israelis have formed a loose “anti-fascist” network that tries to patrol city streets and prevent additional lynchings, they are extremely few in numbers and cannot be everywhere at all times.
While Israeli leaders unleash conscripted soldiers to bombard Gaza, they dispatch ultra-nationalist vigilantes to conquer cities inside Israel. With the incitement to murder Palestinians (and the few Israeli allies they have) continue unabated, it seems to be only a matter of time before the bubbling bloodlust boils overs into a bloodbath.
I am sure that you, the people behind Archinect, are well aware of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, this racist colonial entity that has been described by Moshé Machover as being far worse than the south african apartheid system: "talk of Israeli ‘apartheid’ serves to divert attention from much greater dangers. For, as far as most Palestinians are concerned, the Zionist policy is far worse than apartheid. Apartheid can be reversed. Ethnic cleansing is immeasurably harder to reverse; at least not in the short or medium term."
The global BDS movement is a peaceful movement that has been, in the face of Israeli racist, oppressive and genocidal policies against the Palestinians, garnering great traction around the world as people everywhere are increasingly grasping the nature of the Zionist establishment that is called Israel. Through a deliberate, effective boycotting Israeli products, academics, businesses, items of interest, the movement contributes to the economic and moral isolation of Israel.
“In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions..."
I notice that there are Israeli businesses being hosted within Archinect's firm listings (for example). As are listings of Israeli universities within the academic section. I highly urge Archinect, the people behind it, Paul, the editors, the writers....to desist from ignoring your responsibilities apropos taking a stand against this racist entity and to remove all Israeli related material from Archinect. You, like everyone else has that responsibility, because you have the knowledge and you have the right of choice. To ignore this is to be complacent and to be regressive.
As a virtual space that spans the social, the professional and the academic, as a gathering of professionals including architects, designers, artists, engineers and others, as a gathering of minds that by implication suggests a progressive humanist endeavor, please instate an anti-zionist, anti-israeli policy (that covers israeli academics, businesses, media, etc) in the spirit of the BDS movement.
Israel is distinguished from other nations in the following ways that justify a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign:
a) Israel is the largest recipient of US aid and weapons, receiving currently about $3 billion per year. It uses US weapons and aid in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including not only the use of weapons like white phosphorous or cluster bombs against civilians, as in Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 and in Gaza in 2009, but also such daily offenses as collective punishment, systematic torture, and, indeed, the extended occupation of Palestinian territory.
b) Israel has violated more United Nations resolutions than any other country in the world, and has been consistently protected by the US’s Security Council veto power from any attempt to enforce those resolutions.
c) Israel is institutionally racist. It engages in ethnic cleansing or “population transfer” and policies that conform to international definitions of apartheid for the sake of territorial expansion. In practical terms, “Jewishness” is a racial identification in Israel. Israel defines “Jewishness” partially in genetic terms: a person is legally Jewish if his or her mother is Jewish, regardless of place of birth or religious belief. Its “Basic Law” recognizes two categories, citizenship (ezrahut), which is available to Jews and non-Jews, and “nationality” (le’om), which is only available to those of Jewish descent. It is nationality that guarantees innumerable discriminatory laws that benefit Jewish Israelis and disadvantage Arabs. Zionism is a program of supposed or purported racial purity and territorial acquisition. It is a nineteenth century nationalist ideology, analogous to the 19th century US ideology of Manifest Destiny, as a program for territorial acquisition by the white “Christian nation.” Insofar as it underlies a racially discriminatory system of rule, Zionism should not be accepted by the rest of the world as a legitimate form of social organization.
d) Criticism and open discussion of Israel in the US is suppressed, and critics are aggressively silenced and censored. Public servants and politicians who criticize Israel are subject to virtual witch-hunts by what Charles Freeman has described as “a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East” and whose tactics “include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.” Academics who attempt criticism of Israel face similar campaigns of distortion, intimidation, and threats of termination, and/or denial or loss of tenure. Israel is the ONLY country that cannot be criticized openly in the US and on university campuses without dire consequences. A boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign is a logical response to censorship and a nonviolent form of opposition to the lock-down on open discussion of Israel and Palestine in the United States.
CD.Arch : To compare Israel to the apartheid is ridiculous. '
According to the activist Moshé Machover, you may be correct CD.Arch. Its worse. To (re)quote:
"talk of Israeli ‘apartheid’ serves to divert attention from much greater dangers. For, as far as most Palestinians are concerned, the Zionist policy is far worse than apartheid. Apartheid can be reversed. Ethnic cleansing is immeasurably harder to reverse; at least not in the short or medium term."
This situation is worse IMO because its far more militarized and its far more of an international entanglement than the apartheid was. The apartheid was horrible but this is more like a drawn out version of the Jewish ghetto.
Actually, the forum includes a section titled "Politics" under which this post has been filed prior to my submission. So if you have an issue with politics being discussed on this forum, go take it up with Archinect - which dedicates a space specifically for politics.
Secondly, everyone, all professionals, all intellectuals, all consumers, all civilian orders, and groups of people - classified by profession or otherwise- have a political role to play and have a voice. The single stupidest thing is to assume that politics is left to politicians - this is when your state starts to run you like lab rats.
If Archinect takes this step (removing all Israeli material off its site) , it will matter, especially given Archinect's nature as an established virtual network , this will be one more establishment that raises its voice up against colonialism, racism, organized oppression and the mass massacre and displacement of innocents, all combined.
I'm just saying that your post isn't going to change anything. Have fun sitting behind your computer buying in to your media and doing nothing productive besides trying to convince a bunch of people who want to come here for architecture to "boycott" Israel. Also you have to expect people to challenge you other wise you go no where with a debate.
There's a little thing called freedom of speech... Which also pertains to freedom if press... Archinect can post whatever they want without any need to boycott certain topics just because it's something you don't want to read. If you don't want to see anything about Israel, don't read about Israel. You didn't have to post this in the forum. Email Archinect directly. You were searching the topic out rather than trying to get rid of it.
Good luck with your political movement and fear of confrontation. I'm simply challenging your reasons. Taking Israel related content off of this site is just as bad as taking away "your freedom of speech"
apapaz, if the topic doesnt interest you, then thats up to you. but your advise to me is less productive than however unproductive you imagine my post to be like. iand anyway, if you're going to start judging what posts constitutes a loss of time according to your perception ...well, you'll find a flood of this in this forum. The question is why would you target this one specifically? Why mock via this waste-of-time comment of yours "have fin sitting...etc"?
Yes, Archinect includes listings of Israeli firms and universities. It CAN do something productive by removing them from its listings. and it should...keeping them here means that it encourages academic and professional engagement with the institutions and economy of state that is racist by policy and by action.
you yourself might not care but i do. so, please keep your waste-of-time advice and petty mockery to yourself. And debate is certainly not what you're after, just a little bit of a waste-of-time hating.
LITS4FormZ, you must be as vile as your comment and your suggestion. I am calling for a boycott, why do you suggest suicide bombing? Because you know or suspect I'm an Arab? Or because you associate anti-Israel to suicide bombing...ie to Arabs? How racist and vile you are.
Andreas, its not about just about being "bothered" from my end. its about encouraging action (however small you may see this to be, it would be joining a long list of establishments that boycott israel) from Archinect's end. I repeat:
Yes, Archinect includes listings of Israeli firms and universities. It CAN do something productive by removing them from its listings. and it should...keeping them here means that it encourages academic and professional engagement with the institutions and economy of state that is racist by policy and by action.
Please read the boycott website prior to resorting to cliches and turning this into what i would like or would not like to read. this is not about me, it is a question about engaging with a racist system, with its institutions, businesses and so on, be they governmental or civilian.
i think there would be a consensus here that the boycotting of the Apartheid system, its businesses, its institutions is now looked upon as having been the right and valourous thing to have been done when it was still up and running, correct? the Zionist system is indeed worse, it operated on a policy of deportation and ethnic cleansing.
There is a great hypocrisy in those people who declaim the Apartheid and look upon the boycott against it as a valuable and valid means of bringing it down...and yet who overlook (or, indeed, justify) the evils of Zionism and ignore, trivialize, refuse to join, or even condemn the boycott against Israel.
Insituating that I am anti-jewish because i am anti-israel/anti-zionist is a petty zionist card used to denigrate, vilify and force misrepresentations onto someone. No, to me there is no difference between jewish, christian, muslim, buddhist, atheists...i could care less. Your accusations and suggestions are out of place and petty hasbara. You are the vile racist schmuck by reverting to certain associations (the virgins and so on) and stereotyping.
A: JVP rejects the assertion that BDS is inherently anti-Semitic. We will defend activists around the world who employ the full range of BDS tactics when they are demonized or wrongly accused of anti-Semitism.
After strategic and ethical analysis and organization-wide deliberation among our members, JVP affirms our role in the larger BDS movement. We are committed to a continuing review of our role that takes into account the evolving political situation, the growing BDS movement, and the responses of JVP’s constituency and the people to whom we speak. Click here to read our full statement on BDS.
Do not disclaim that this is about what you want and do not want to read, or else there would be no problem. There is no one here saying anything more hateful and racist than you right now. That's hypocrisy.
A couple of weeks ago Jerusalem-based think-tank, the Jewish People Policy Institute, released the findings from its study “Jewish & Democratic: Perspectives from World Jewry”. The key findings demonstrate a growing trend towards a concern for the current Zionist policies of the Jewish state from the core of its international supporters—Jews themselves. This reveals a more critical portrayal of Israel’s “implementation of Jewishness” than ever before, including a growing tension associated with the idea of a state that is both a “Jewish” and “democratic”. Participants of the study said that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and “the
...The growing support from Jews internationally for the BDS call and the boycott of Israel shows that the landscape of the debate around BDS and broader peace process in Israel-Palestine is shifting. Increasingly the question is no longer whether or not to boycott, but rather to what extent do we boycott? The emerging local and international constituency of Israeli Jews and the Jewish Diaspora, and their adoption and promotion of a range of methods that fall within the scope of the BDS campaign is significant. On the surface, this wide-ranging support of course reminds us of how non-sensical and futile it is to deploy classic anti-Semitic imagery in an attempt to delegitimize what is a growing international movement for human rights and legal equality.
Listen. I knows there's no reasoning with you and you truly believe you're right. No number of links to hate-filled sites and unending copy/paste of borderline terrorist rhetoric will change anyone's perspective.
Meanwhile, 300 people were shot down in a failed attempt on Putin's life that would have caused WWIII.
what borderline terrorist rhetoric and what hate-filled sites?
to call for a peaceful boycott is terrorist? you consider Mondoweiss or Jewish voice for peace or US Campaign for the the Academic & Cultural boycott of Israel hate filled sites? They're calling for boycotts against the Israeli racist regime, one based on ethnic purism and running on policies of deporting and oppressing another people. Is that, this invitation to boycott, filled with hate? Or is it this entity and its apologists and defenders - which you come across as being, with your irrelevant misrepresenting accusations- full of hate for others?
it is obvious that you, LITS4FormZ , are a liar and wish only to twist things around, not having taken anything I say into account...resorting to insipid tired suggestions of being a terrorist and anti-semitic. Sorry to burst your bubble, but i have no preference or antipathy against any religion as long as they don't take it upon themselves to oppress other people. And you usage of the term "terrorism" has ridiculously rid the word of any meaning. Now calling for boycotting a racist regime is tantamount to being "borderline terrorist". Look, you just said something stupid, so you're a terrorist. My dog gnawed in my shoe, terrorist dog.
"Criticism and open discussion of Israel in the US is suppressed, and critics are aggressively silenced and censored. Public servants and politicians who criticize Israel are subject to virtual witch-hunts by what Charles Freeman has described as “a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East” and whose tactics “include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.” Academics who attempt criticism of Israel face similar campaigns of distortion, intimidation, and threats of termination, and/or denial or loss of tenure. Israel is the ONLY country that cannot be criticized openly in the US and on university campuses without dire consequences. A boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign is a logical response to censorship and a nonviolent form of opposition to the lock-down on open discussion of Israel and Palestine in the United States."
You sure are repetitive and dull. LITS4Formz, hilarious. And t a m m u z, you are super judgemental.
#dontcrapyourselfromfrustration
#suchanger
#gohomenobodyslistening
tammuz is posting intelligent debate with resources for further study here. S/he is (relative to his/her generally densely-packed posts) speaking unusually clearly to get his/her point across. The topic is filed correctly to only draw interest by those who want political discussion. And it's a larger question than just whether Archinect should post information from a specific political entity - all international websites should be asking themselves this question right now.
Stop attacking him/her, please.
In my opinion the comparison to South Africa is a good one - the question of whether to boycott SA in the 80s was, I remember, a thorny issue, playing out publicly in the entertainment and pop culture world, that ultimately pushed along change there. Many of us Archinecters likely aren't old enough to remember this, but having lived through it, as well as through Solidarnosc in Poland, I think it's a very apt comparison. It's at least worth talking about, and talking about seriously.
I come to archinect to talk about architecture with people who are involved in architecture and have experience talking about architecture and can contribute intelligently to a discussion on architecture. If this were a discussion on how architects and architecture could contribute to resolving a political situation you might have a real debate here, instead we have amateur politicians and journalists yelling at each other like a craigslist/facebook/myspace/twitter forum or something - you know a place where a bunch of morons express expert opinions anonymously.
On a related subject, I look at IsraelSupporter as a spammer. Rather than selling a product, he is selling an ideology. If that ideology had something to do with architecture, it's appropriateness to the forum would at least be debatable. But it is not, and as IsraelSupporter is anonymous, he could easily be an instrument of a state propaganda / disinformation campaign. and I find his participation here counter to the purpose of these forums. As such, I suggest the banning of members - especially those without a track record of architecture-related posts here - who bomb the forums with such non-related material (SPAM).
As to Archinect boycotting Israel, I don't see it as "doing business" with Israel, except possibly for allowing the kind of ideological spam described above to exist here.
Donna, I'm glad you're taking this as it was intended. Yes, the boycott against the Apartheid was valuable, justified and effective. There is just as much reason - and maybe it is more urgent given the ongoing ethnic cleansing- that the same be weilded against the racist state of Israel.
The despicable attacks by the likes of LITS4Formz, who suggested I blow myself up (possibly knowing that I am an Arab and that I side against the racist state of Israel) only go to underline to what pathetic and overtly hateful extent these Zionist defenders are ready to go to in order to defend a state that practices racism as state policy; we are not talking about spurious events, or a part of Israeli society, or erratic politics or current leaders of Israeli....it is a rational policy of exterminating the existence of Palestinians in their country, on their lands.
Even progressive Israeli intellectuals can no longer deny this:
As for the individuals complaining about discussions that have nothing to do with Architecture (which is not false, this is a call for architects, as a body of professionals, including all other members of Archinect and, at the level of a virtual institution, Archinect to boycott Israel), please go ask that Thread Central be taken down and indeed each and every post that doesn't explicitly tackle architecture.
Miles, Archinect lists Israeli firms and universities here. This in itself encourages normalcy with the institutions of Israel. Archinect also allows them to publish their work here, this encouraging commercial engagement.
One may well state that featuring Israeli academics's papers on whatever topic does not constitute "doing business" ..but, that is not the opinion of movements such as the US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural boycott of Israel. "Doing business" is doing cultural business, economic business, publicity business (listing them here)..etc. This is not a personal attack against any of the Israelis -- but a boycott is not personal, it recognizes that the institutions of a state, public or private, its commercial infrastructure, feeds the overarching racist state of Israel.
It's interesting how tammuz specifically separates gov't actions from the people if Israel, yet still most posters here assume that this is racist. I think it perfectly proves tammuz's point in that we (westerners?) are culturally overly sensitive to any criticism whatsoever regarding anything even tenuously related to zionism. It's as if we're afraid to have mature and open debate for fear of being painted as anti-semitic. These issues are related but not one and the same.
nobody is forced to read any of this, let alone comment. Please keep this in mind so as to not purposefullly devolve this conversation any more than it has.
exactly bowling_ball, also the boycott is a peaceful way of fighting Israeli racism. I am aware that anti-semitism is well and alive in the world...anti-semites are as bad as zionists; all racism is to be condemned.
actually, the most effective members of the boycott and the most demonstrative part of western societies that has been standing up to Zionism have been jewish people.
as for these people devolving this conversation, it is their deliberate intention to do so. they use misdirection and vilifying the other side, thus suggesting that the other side deserves being exterminated. Why else would LITS4Forms bring up the upsurge of honour killing in Gaza? What relevance does it bare here? What LITS4Formz is saying, in a way of responding to my concern over the killing of Palestinian people by the Israeli terrorist army, she or he is saying: "well, look at how bad they, Palestinian, are, so they deserve to be killed".
Not only is this twisted (il)logic based on racism and vilification of the Palestinian people owing to some lunny bins (an equivalent would be me saying that the US deserves to perish because of an upsurge of killing sprees committed by students in schools) , there is absolutely no relevance to the topic here..which concerns a State that is colonial, racist, murderous..by policy, by law and by the acts of its government, local authorities, security and army.
LITS4Formz is racist, so its not a surprise that she uses every tactic she or he is aware of in order to devolve the discussion in support of a racist idelology. Bowling-ball, your post is very rational...but for those who adhere to Zionist racism, their tactics are also ikewise conceived rationally (within their perverse and twisted world view). Their likes wish to derail and devolve any rational discussion of the racism of Israel...from wrongfully accusing someone of being anti-semitic...to trying to represent arabs as violent, uncivilized and therefore suggesting that its the arabs fault that they're being eradicated from the lands of occupied Palestine.
Not only is this entity racist within the boundaries of occupied Palestine (there is and should not be a country called Israel, as a Zionist establishment) but the existence of this Zionist establishment, the state of Israel, along with the overt backing by this state by the likes of the US, has been phenomenally destructive to the region...and most problems can be traced back to it.
Movements boycotting Israel will become more and more popular; it is unreasonable that the world accepts any State that carries out the deportation, incarceration and murder of residents in the name of a racist ethnic purism and population substitution. The state of Israel must and will fall, exactly as did the Apartheid state...Jews, Moslems, Christians and all others must live in a land that treats them equally.
We have no place in the Middle East in the future since we made ourselves detestable to it, after we have stressed day and night that it is detestable to us. So very detestable. If we do not find a solution besides the machine gun and the tank – which we have already seen to be helpless against a barefoot child with a stone in his hand – we may lose it all. The State of Israel is liable to become a passing phenomenon like the First Temple and the Second Temple.
The fact that there are firms that build and universities that promote the building of developments which encroach upon and act to confine and oppress an entire people, makes this topic and this proposed boycott completely relevant to architecture. It is certainly as relevant as any discussion on gentrification or on any other urban matter. The conflict is political and spatial. Actually id bet Tammuz can point out many instances where architectural/urban/infrastructural tactics have been used as tools of oppression in the area. I remember recently debating about a 2000 unit development that encroached on the Palestinians.
As far as a boycott goes... It's a very effective tool for peaceful protest. MLK used it during civil rights...using boycott is the very opposite of violence IMO. To say that rejecting the violent actions of Israel (actions that have resulted in many deaths of civilians) by using non violent tactics like boycott is violent is completely ridiculous. Not boycotting in this case is more an act of violence since it adds to the complacency that allows this state to feel above the law.
jla-x, :a ctually id bet Tammuz can point out many instances where architectural/urban/infrastructural tactics have been used as tools of oppression in the area.
Jla-x, its far from being "many instances". The very foundation and development of the state of Israel was at the expense of the Palestinians and is a history of oppression. Israel is a geography of oppression and not a geography where occasionally oppression occurs. Swiftly:
the segregation wall, the settlement colonies, the tradition of demolishing palestinian homes in order to replace then with homes for settlers, the eviction of urban palestinian families from their houses and their replacement with israeli jewish families, destruction of palestinian heritage and religious areas, depriving palestinians of water sources in order to ensure a surplus of water for the usage of jewish israelis, the confiscation of lands that have belonged to palestinian families for generations, destruction of their olive oil industry (uprooting olive trees), the checkpoints that cut off townsand villages from each other, ritually humiliate Palestinians. About these checkpoints:
Extensive evidence indicates that whether or not a Palestinian is allowed to pass through a checkpoint is often arbitrary. Journalists and other eyewitnesses report that Palestinians have been denied access because they are smiling, or are deemed ugly, or simply because the soldiers don’t feel like letting them pass.
Human Rights workers have documented cases where Palestinian men and boys are detained at checkpoints without food, water, or protection from the elements for hours. In some cases, they are held in metal cages or required to strip to their underwear, in many cases, they are blindfolded and their hands are tied with plastic ties that cut deeply into their wrists.
Economic Devastation
According to the World Bank, the combination of checkpoints, the separation barrier through the West Bank, and other closures – all of which greatly limit the movement of workers and goods – has caused the Palestinian people to suffer “one of the worst recessions in modern history,” with approximately 50% of the Palestinian population now living in poverty. Illness and malnutrition have risen with this economic devastation.
“Without major changes in this closure regime, [...] the Palestinian economy will not revive, [and] poverty and alienation will deepen.” says a June 2004 World Bank press release.
Just as their parents have trouble getting to their workplaces, children and young adults are frequently denied their right to education. They are forced to take dangerous routes to their schools and universities. Hundreds of students have been detained, shot or injured on their way to school. In addition, Israeli forces sometimes order schools to be temporarily closed – occasionally these closures have lasted for a year or longer.
The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.
The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24 hour shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!
Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!).
My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace - but we cannot afford that, nor can they.
Ashy grey faces - Oh NO! Not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding, we still have lakes of blood on the floor in the ER, piles of dripping, blood-soaked bandages to clear out - oh - the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shovelling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes,cannulas - the leftovers from death - all taken away ... to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More then 100 cases came to Shifa in the last 24 hrs. Enough for a large well trained hospital with everything, but here - almost nothing: no electricity, water, disposables, drugs, OR-tables, instruments, monitors - all rusted and as if taken from museums of yesterday's hospitals. But they do not complain, these heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, head on, enormously resolute.
And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening!
An then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again, just now: salvos of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic 'Zennanis', the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches. So much made in and paid by the US.
Mr. Obama - do you have a heart?
I invite you - spend one night - just one night - with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe.
I am convinced, 100%, it would change history.
Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people.
But the heartless and merciless have done their calculations and planned another "dahyia" onslaught on Gaza.
The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death.
Please. Do what you can. This, THIS cannot continue.
this topic really has no place here. i just come hear to read about people discussing architecture. take your one-sided political crap elsewhere.
also, has anyone else had enough of this "they don't agree with me politically so we should try to hurt them in areas that don't even relate to the issue" trend that's been so popular lately?
2013 was record year in new settlement construction, and the 2014 rate is already higher, seeing the construction of 2534 housing projects, with over 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile Palestinian live in tightly controlled enclaves enclosed by the illegal Separation Wall and segregated roads, denied permission to build and instead having their houses taken over or demolished -all reminiscent of Apartheid South Africa.
Not to have acted would have made the RIBA silent and condoning this grave misconduct of their professional associates. By sending a clear message to the IAUA, and UIA, the RIBA and the RIAS strike a blow for the integrity and ethical practice of our profession, and supports the Palestinian civil society call for sanctions against the impunity of Israel.
It's really easy to be dismissive and indifferent. But Archinect has a long history of discussions about politics and war - especially when it pertains to the US interest (which, arguably, almost all major wars do). Politics should involve architects. We're kidding ourselves for being on the sideline just watching and building while every other major professions are taking it to the street.
LITS4FormZ, I usually see you to be very level headed, why this time? Tammuz is laying out all the facts. If you have any issue you should challenge tammuz instead of ridiculing him/her. I actually look forward to see an Israel supporter (if you are one) on a forum that does not belong to #hasbaratrolls.
The murder and persecution of the Jewish people has been WELL documented.
Not once has the OP acknowledged the role that the TERRORIST organization, HAMAS, has played in this conflict. The hypocrisy is DISGUSTING. HAMAS fires rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. They carry out cowardly suicide bomb attacks killing innocents, not militants.
NOT ONCE HAS THIS BEEN MENTIONED OR ALLUDED TO BY THE OP. HAMAS is the provocator, not the palestinian people. This really needs to be pointed out? HAMAS hides behind religion and human shields.
The OP cannot be reasoned with and cannot acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a nation.
This conflict is a predictable response to the slaughter of Israeli innocents. The bloodshed is a result of the defending and harboring of HAMAS in Palestine. Israel agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and HAMAS' response was to escalate the conflict...
LITS4FormZ, come on. Hamas is not all Palestinians, any more than that dingbat that killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School represents all American gun owners.
Snoopy, I think tammuz's initial intent is far more interesting than this discussion has manifested. Archinect can't do anything about Ukraine or downed airplanes. But if a critical mass of entities - websites, entertainers, scholars, researchers - boycott Israel (or any entity) it leads toward awareness and change.
Yeah, tammuz, that other thread bugs me. It was made specifically to be provocative, not to engender discussion. This happens around US election time, too.
Archinect, please boycott Israel (its about time!)
Today is the 12th day of Israel's murderous attacks on Gaza.
The Palestinian body count is 336, 70 of whom are kids. This has become a murderous spree of killing for the zionist terrorist army, supported by government of this racist colonial entity and by their people , many of whom have been turning increasingly into blood thirsty mobs urging the murder of Palestinian
........................................................................................................
From Israeli calls for Palestinian blood ring at fever pitch :
On the eve of Abu Khudair’s lynching, Member of Knesset (Israel’s parliament) and government faction whip Ayelet Shaked issued a call over Facebook to ethnically cleanse the land, declaring “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy.” She advocated their complete destruction, “including its elderly and its women,” adding that these must be slaughtered, otherwise they might give birth to more “little snakes.”
... Since the beginning of July, raging crowds of Jewish Israelis just like these have marched through Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Beer Sheva, chanting “Death to Arabs” and “Death to Leftists,” swarming and attacking vulnerable victims. While a tiny contingent of radical Israelis have formed a loose “anti-fascist” network that tries to patrol city streets and prevent additional lynchings, they are extremely few in numbers and cannot be everywhere at all times.
While Israeli leaders unleash conscripted soldiers to bombard Gaza, they dispatch ultra-nationalist vigilantes to conquer cities inside Israel. With the incitement to murder Palestinians (and the few Israeli allies they have) continue unabated, it seems to be only a matter of time before the bubbling bloodlust boils overs into a bloodbath.
............................................................................................................
I am sure that you, the people behind Archinect, are well aware of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, this racist colonial entity that has been described by Moshé Machover as being far worse than the south african apartheid system: "talk of Israeli ‘apartheid’ serves to divert attention from much greater dangers. For, as far as most Palestinians are concerned, the Zionist policy is far worse than apartheid. Apartheid can be reversed. Ethnic cleansing is immeasurably harder to reverse; at least not in the short or medium term."
The global BDS movement is a peaceful movement that has been, in the face of Israeli racist, oppressive and genocidal policies against the Palestinians, garnering great traction around the world as people everywhere are increasingly grasping the nature of the Zionist establishment that is called Israel. Through a deliberate, effective boycotting Israeli products, academics, businesses, items of interest, the movement contributes to the economic and moral isolation of Israel.
As you might know, there is also the US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel , whose mission statement states the following:
“In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions..."
I notice that there are Israeli businesses being hosted within Archinect's firm listings (for example). As are listings of Israeli universities within the academic section. I highly urge Archinect, the people behind it, Paul, the editors, the writers....to desist from ignoring your responsibilities apropos taking a stand against this racist entity and to remove all Israeli related material from Archinect. You, like everyone else has that responsibility, because you have the knowledge and you have the right of choice. To ignore this is to be complacent and to be regressive.
As a virtual space that spans the social, the professional and the academic, as a gathering of professionals including architects, designers, artists, engineers and others, as a gathering of minds that by implication suggests a progressive humanist endeavor, please instate an anti-zionist, anti-israeli policy (that covers israeli academics, businesses, media, etc) in the spirit of the BDS movement.
Further from the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel :
Why boycott Israel?
Israel is distinguished from other nations in the following ways that justify a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign:
a) Israel is the largest recipient of US aid and weapons, receiving currently about $3 billion per year. It uses US weapons and aid in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including not only the use of weapons like white phosphorous or cluster bombs against civilians, as in Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 and in Gaza in 2009, but also such daily offenses as collective punishment, systematic torture, and, indeed, the extended occupation of Palestinian territory.
b) Israel has violated more United Nations resolutions than any other country in the world, and has been consistently protected by the US’s Security Council veto power from any attempt to enforce those resolutions.
c) Israel is institutionally racist. It engages in ethnic cleansing or “population transfer” and policies that conform to international definitions of apartheid for the sake of territorial expansion. In practical terms, “Jewishness” is a racial identification in Israel. Israel defines “Jewishness” partially in genetic terms: a person is legally Jewish if his or her mother is Jewish, regardless of place of birth or religious belief. Its “Basic Law” recognizes two categories, citizenship (ezrahut), which is available to Jews and non-Jews, and “nationality” (le’om), which is only available to those of Jewish descent. It is nationality that guarantees innumerable discriminatory laws that benefit Jewish Israelis and disadvantage Arabs. Zionism is a program of supposed or purported racial purity and territorial acquisition. It is a nineteenth century nationalist ideology, analogous to the 19th century US ideology of Manifest Destiny, as a program for territorial acquisition by the white “Christian nation.” Insofar as it underlies a racially discriminatory system of rule, Zionism should not be accepted by the rest of the world as a legitimate form of social organization.
d) Criticism and open discussion of Israel in the US is suppressed, and critics are aggressively silenced and censored. Public servants and politicians who criticize Israel are subject to virtual witch-hunts by what Charles Freeman has described as “a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East” and whose tactics “include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.” Academics who attempt criticism of Israel face similar campaigns of distortion, intimidation, and threats of termination, and/or denial or loss of tenure. Israel is the ONLY country that cannot be criticized openly in the US and on university campuses without dire consequences. A boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign is a logical response to censorship and a nonviolent form of opposition to the lock-down on open discussion of Israel and Palestine in the United States.
The laws that enshrine Israel as a racist state
CD.Arch : To compare Israel to the apartheid is ridiculous. '
According to the activist Moshé Machover, you may be correct CD.Arch. Its worse. To (re)quote:
"talk of Israeli ‘apartheid’ serves to divert attention from much greater dangers. For, as far as most Palestinians are concerned, the Zionist policy is far worse than apartheid. Apartheid can be reversed. Ethnic cleansing is immeasurably harder to reverse; at least not in the short or medium term."
This situation is worse IMO because its far more militarized and its far more of an international entanglement than the apartheid was. The apartheid was horrible but this is more like a drawn out version of the Jewish ghetto.
Actually, the forum includes a section titled "Politics" under which this post has been filed prior to my submission. So if you have an issue with politics being discussed on this forum, go take it up with Archinect - which dedicates a space specifically for politics.
Secondly, everyone, all professionals, all intellectuals, all consumers, all civilian orders, and groups of people - classified by profession or otherwise- have a political role to play and have a voice. The single stupidest thing is to assume that politics is left to politicians - this is when your state starts to run you like lab rats.
If Archinect takes this step (removing all Israeli material off its site) , it will matter, especially given Archinect's nature as an established virtual network , this will be one more establishment that raises its voice up against colonialism, racism, organized oppression and the mass massacre and displacement of innocents, all combined.
Psssssst, I know a way you can defeat the zionists and earn yourself 72 virgins.
Face it, you want to do more than wipe Israel off of Archinect...
apapaz, if the topic doesnt interest you, then thats up to you. but your advise to me is less productive than however unproductive you imagine my post to be like. iand anyway, if you're going to start judging what posts constitutes a loss of time according to your perception ...well, you'll find a flood of this in this forum. The question is why would you target this one specifically? Why mock via this waste-of-time comment of yours "have fin sitting...etc"?
Yes, Archinect includes listings of Israeli firms and universities. It CAN do something productive by removing them from its listings. and it should...keeping them here means that it encourages academic and professional engagement with the institutions and economy of state that is racist by policy and by action.
you yourself might not care but i do. so, please keep your waste-of-time advice and petty mockery to yourself. And debate is certainly not what you're after, just a little bit of a waste-of-time hating.
LITS4FormZ, you must be as vile as your comment and your suggestion. I am calling for a boycott, why do you suggest suicide bombing? Because you know or suspect I'm an Arab? Or because you associate anti-Israel to suicide bombing...ie to Arabs? How racist and vile you are.
Andreas, its not about just about being "bothered" from my end. its about encouraging action (however small you may see this to be, it would be joining a long list of establishments that boycott israel) from Archinect's end. I repeat:
Yes, Archinect includes listings of Israeli firms and universities. It CAN do something productive by removing them from its listings. and it should...keeping them here means that it encourages academic and professional engagement with the institutions and economy of state that is racist by policy and by action.
Hashtivism (hashtag activism) is so hot right now
#banisrael #erasethejews
Sounds like a good place to start.
Too bad there's no section on archinect for hate speech.
Please read the boycott website prior to resorting to cliches and turning this into what i would like or would not like to read. this is not about me, it is a question about engaging with a racist system, with its institutions, businesses and so on, be they governmental or civilian.
i think there would be a consensus here that the boycotting of the Apartheid system, its businesses, its institutions is now looked upon as having been the right and valourous thing to have been done when it was still up and running, correct? the Zionist system is indeed worse, it operated on a policy of deportation and ethnic cleansing.
There is a great hypocrisy in those people who declaim the Apartheid and look upon the boycott against it as a valuable and valid means of bringing it down...and yet who overlook (or, indeed, justify) the evils of Zionism and ignore, trivialize, refuse to join, or even condemn the boycott against Israel.
To LITS4Formz;
Insituating that I am anti-jewish because i am anti-israel/anti-zionist is a petty zionist card used to denigrate, vilify and force misrepresentations onto someone. No, to me there is no difference between jewish, christian, muslim, buddhist, atheists...i could care less. Your accusations and suggestions are out of place and petty hasbara. You are the vile racist schmuck by reverting to certain associations (the virgins and so on) and stereotyping.
From the Jewish Voice for Peace:
Q: Do you support boycotts, divestments, and sanctions?
A: JVP rejects the assertion that BDS is inherently anti-Semitic. We will defend activists around the world who employ the full range of BDS tactics when they are demonized or wrongly accused of anti-Semitism.
After strategic and ethical analysis and organization-wide deliberation among our members, JVP affirms our role in the larger BDS movement. We are committed to a continuing review of our role that takes into account the evolving political situation, the growing BDS movement, and the responses of JVP’s constituency and the people to whom we speak. Click here to read our full statement on BDS.
Must be nice to be such a cynic.
#thisboycottsucks
#debateswag
#thehilarity!
and (for LITS4Fromz) more "anti-Semitic" Semites ...
Growing Jewish support for boycott and the changing landscape of the BDS debate
A couple of weeks ago Jerusalem-based think-tank, the Jewish People Policy Institute, released the findings from its study “Jewish & Democratic: Perspectives from World Jewry”. The key findings demonstrate a growing trend towards a concern for the current Zionist policies of the Jewish state from the core of its international supporters—Jews themselves. This reveals a more critical portrayal of Israel’s “implementation of Jewishness” than ever before, including a growing tension associated with the idea of a state that is both a “Jewish” and “democratic”. Participants of the study said that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and “the
...The growing support from Jews internationally for the BDS call and the boycott of Israel shows that the landscape of the debate around BDS and broader peace process in Israel-Palestine is shifting. Increasingly the question is no longer whether or not to boycott, but rather to what extent do we boycott? The emerging local and international constituency of Israeli Jews and the Jewish Diaspora, and their adoption and promotion of a range of methods that fall within the scope of the BDS campaign is significant. On the surface, this wide-ranging support of course reminds us of how non-sensical and futile it is to deploy classic anti-Semitic imagery in an attempt to delegitimize what is a growing international movement for human rights and legal equality.
#hatersgonnahate
#whoseriouslyhastimeforthis
#aintnobodygottimeforthis
#antisemeticsemites
#tammuzisablastatdinnerparties
#digitalgenocide
#deleteisrael
Listen. I knows there's no reasoning with you and you truly believe you're right. No number of links to hate-filled sites and unending copy/paste of borderline terrorist rhetoric will change anyone's perspective.
Meanwhile, 300 people were shot down in a failed attempt on Putin's life that would have caused WWIII.
what borderline terrorist rhetoric and what hate-filled sites?
to call for a peaceful boycott is terrorist? you consider Mondoweiss or Jewish voice for peace or US Campaign for the the Academic & Cultural boycott of Israel hate filled sites? They're calling for boycotts against the Israeli racist regime, one based on ethnic purism and running on policies of deporting and oppressing another people. Is that, this invitation to boycott, filled with hate? Or is it this entity and its apologists and defenders - which you come across as being, with your irrelevant misrepresenting accusations- full of hate for others?
it is obvious that you, LITS4FormZ , are a liar and wish only to twist things around, not having taken anything I say into account...resorting to insipid tired suggestions of being a terrorist and anti-semitic. Sorry to burst your bubble, but i have no preference or antipathy against any religion as long as they don't take it upon themselves to oppress other people. And you usage of the term "terrorism" has ridiculously rid the word of any meaning. Now calling for boycotting a racist regime is tantamount to being "borderline terrorist". Look, you just said something stupid, so you're a terrorist. My dog gnawed in my shoe, terrorist dog.
Again:
"Criticism and open discussion of Israel in the US is suppressed, and critics are aggressively silenced and censored. Public servants and politicians who criticize Israel are subject to virtual witch-hunts by what Charles Freeman has described as “a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East” and whose tactics “include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.” Academics who attempt criticism of Israel face similar campaigns of distortion, intimidation, and threats of termination, and/or denial or loss of tenure. Israel is the ONLY country that cannot be criticized openly in the US and on university campuses without dire consequences. A boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign is a logical response to censorship and a nonviolent form of opposition to the lock-down on open discussion of Israel and Palestine in the United States."
#dontcrapyourselfromfrustration
#suchanger
#gohomenobodyslistening
thats fine CD.Arch, you can hashtag yourself out of here if you're not interested in the topic.
"Boycott Israeli apartheid" -South African leader Desmond Tutu
Israeli Apartheid exposed by South African leader (Desmond Tutu)
Ronnie Kasrils, former Minister in the government of South Africa and anti-apartheid activist talks about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
#goodbye
tammuz is posting intelligent debate with resources for further study here. S/he is (relative to his/her generally densely-packed posts) speaking unusually clearly to get his/her point across. The topic is filed correctly to only draw interest by those who want political discussion. And it's a larger question than just whether Archinect should post information from a specific political entity - all international websites should be asking themselves this question right now.
Stop attacking him/her, please.
In my opinion the comparison to South Africa is a good one - the question of whether to boycott SA in the 80s was, I remember, a thorny issue, playing out publicly in the entertainment and pop culture world, that ultimately pushed along change there. Many of us Archinecters likely aren't old enough to remember this, but having lived through it, as well as through Solidarnosc in Poland, I think it's a very apt comparison. It's at least worth talking about, and talking about seriously.
Yes, defend the group that mutilates, rapes, stones and beheads women in lawless honor killings.
Everyone loves an underdog. Holy shit.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/honor-killing-palestinians-women-rights.html#
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/154185#.U8vdxPldXuU
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/upsurge-palestinian-honour-killings-gaza-201432372831899701.html
anyone have any architectural solutions?
I come to archinect to talk about architecture with people who are involved in architecture and have experience talking about architecture and can contribute intelligently to a discussion on architecture. If this were a discussion on how architects and architecture could contribute to resolving a political situation you might have a real debate here, instead we have amateur politicians and journalists yelling at each other like a craigslist/facebook/myspace/twitter forum or something - you know a place where a bunch of morons express expert opinions anonymously.
On a related subject, I look at IsraelSupporter as a spammer. Rather than selling a product, he is selling an ideology. If that ideology had something to do with architecture, it's appropriateness to the forum would at least be debatable. But it is not, and as IsraelSupporter is anonymous, he could easily be an instrument of a state propaganda / disinformation campaign. and I find his participation here counter to the purpose of these forums. As such, I suggest the banning of members - especially those without a track record of architecture-related posts here - who bomb the forums with such non-related material (SPAM).
As to Archinect boycotting Israel, I don't see it as "doing business" with Israel, except possibly for allowing the kind of ideological spam described above to exist here.
Donna, I'm glad you're taking this as it was intended. Yes, the boycott against the Apartheid was valuable, justified and effective. There is just as much reason - and maybe it is more urgent given the ongoing ethnic cleansing- that the same be weilded against the racist state of Israel.
The despicable attacks by the likes of LITS4Formz, who suggested I blow myself up (possibly knowing that I am an Arab and that I side against the racist state of Israel) only go to underline to what pathetic and overtly hateful extent these Zionist defenders are ready to go to in order to defend a state that practices racism as state policy; we are not talking about spurious events, or a part of Israeli society, or erratic politics or current leaders of Israeli....it is a rational policy of exterminating the existence of Palestinians in their country, on their lands.
Even progressive Israeli intellectuals can no longer deny this:
Sami Michael: 'Israel - Most racist state in the industrialized world'
As for the individuals complaining about discussions that have nothing to do with Architecture (which is not false, this is a call for architects, as a body of professionals, including all other members of Archinect and, at the level of a virtual institution, Archinect to boycott Israel), please go ask that Thread Central be taken down and indeed each and every post that doesn't explicitly tackle architecture.
Miles, Archinect lists Israeli firms and universities here. This in itself encourages normalcy with the institutions of Israel. Archinect also allows them to publish their work here, this encouraging commercial engagement.
One may well state that featuring Israeli academics's papers on whatever topic does not constitute "doing business" ..but, that is not the opinion of movements such as the US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural boycott of Israel. "Doing business" is doing cultural business, economic business, publicity business (listing them here)..etc. This is not a personal attack against any of the Israelis -- but a boycott is not personal, it recognizes that the institutions of a state, public or private, its commercial infrastructure, feeds the overarching racist state of Israel.
It's interesting how tammuz specifically separates gov't actions from the people if Israel, yet still most posters here assume that this is racist. I think it perfectly proves tammuz's point in that we (westerners?) are culturally overly sensitive to any criticism whatsoever regarding anything even tenuously related to zionism. It's as if we're afraid to have mature and open debate for fear of being painted as anti-semitic. These issues are related but not one and the same.
nobody is forced to read any of this, let alone comment. Please keep this in mind so as to not purposefullly devolve this conversation any more than it has.
exactly bowling_ball, also the boycott is a peaceful way of fighting Israeli racism. I am aware that anti-semitism is well and alive in the world...anti-semites are as bad as zionists; all racism is to be condemned.
actually, the most effective members of the boycott and the most demonstrative part of western societies that has been standing up to Zionism have been jewish people.
as for these people devolving this conversation, it is their deliberate intention to do so. they use misdirection and vilifying the other side, thus suggesting that the other side deserves being exterminated. Why else would LITS4Forms bring up the upsurge of honour killing in Gaza? What relevance does it bare here? What LITS4Formz is saying, in a way of responding to my concern over the killing of Palestinian people by the Israeli terrorist army, she or he is saying: "well, look at how bad they, Palestinian, are, so they deserve to be killed".
Not only is this twisted (il)logic based on racism and vilification of the Palestinian people owing to some lunny bins (an equivalent would be me saying that the US deserves to perish because of an upsurge of killing sprees committed by students in schools) , there is absolutely no relevance to the topic here..which concerns a State that is colonial, racist, murderous..by policy, by law and by the acts of its government, local authorities, security and army.
LITS4Formz is racist, so its not a surprise that she uses every tactic she or he is aware of in order to devolve the discussion in support of a racist idelology. Bowling-ball, your post is very rational...but for those who adhere to Zionist racism, their tactics are also ikewise conceived rationally (within their perverse and twisted world view). Their likes wish to derail and devolve any rational discussion of the racism of Israel...from wrongfully accusing someone of being anti-semitic...to trying to represent arabs as violent, uncivilized and therefore suggesting that its the arabs fault that they're being eradicated from the lands of occupied Palestine.
Not only is this entity racist within the boundaries of occupied Palestine (there is and should not be a country called Israel, as a Zionist establishment) but the existence of this Zionist establishment, the state of Israel, along with the overt backing by this state by the likes of the US, has been phenomenally destructive to the region...and most problems can be traced back to it.
Movements boycotting Israel will become more and more popular; it is unreasonable that the world accepts any State that carries out the deportation, incarceration and murder of residents in the name of a racist ethnic purism and population substitution. The state of Israel must and will fall, exactly as did the Apartheid state...Jews, Moslems, Christians and all others must live in a land that treats them equally.
Again, Sami Michael:
We have no place in the Middle East in the future since we made ourselves detestable to it, after we have stressed day and night that it is detestable to us. So very detestable. If we do not find a solution besides the machine gun and the tank – which we have already seen to be helpless against a barefoot child with a stone in his hand – we may lose it all. The State of Israel is liable to become a passing phenomenon like the First Temple and the Second Temple.
The fact that there are firms that build and universities that promote the building of developments which encroach upon and act to confine and oppress an entire people, makes this topic and this proposed boycott completely relevant to architecture. It is certainly as relevant as any discussion on gentrification or on any other urban matter. The conflict is political and spatial. Actually id bet Tammuz can point out many instances where architectural/urban/infrastructural tactics have been used as tools of oppression in the area. I remember recently debating about a 2000 unit development that encroached on the Palestinians.
As far as a boycott goes... It's a very effective tool for peaceful protest. MLK used it during civil rights...using boycott is the very opposite of violence IMO. To say that rejecting the violent actions of Israel (actions that have resulted in many deaths of civilians) by using non violent tactics like boycott is violent is completely ridiculous. Not boycotting in this case is more an act of violence since it adds to the complacency that allows this state to feel above the law.
jla-x, :a ctually id bet Tammuz can point out many instances where architectural/urban/infrastructural tactics have been used as tools of oppression in the area.
Jla-x, its far from being "many instances". The very foundation and development of the state of Israel was at the expense of the Palestinians and is a history of oppression. Israel is a geography of oppression and not a geography where occasionally oppression occurs. Swiftly:
the segregation wall, the settlement colonies, the tradition of demolishing palestinian homes in order to replace then with homes for settlers, the eviction of urban palestinian families from their houses and their replacement with israeli jewish families, destruction of palestinian heritage and religious areas, depriving palestinians of water sources in order to ensure a surplus of water for the usage of jewish israelis, the confiscation of lands that have belonged to palestinian families for generations, destruction of their olive oil industry (uprooting olive trees), the checkpoints that cut off townsand villages from each other, ritually humiliate Palestinians. About these checkpoints:
Harassment, Humiliation, and Death
Extensive evidence indicates that whether or not a Palestinian is allowed to pass through a checkpoint is often arbitrary. Journalists and other eyewitnesses report that Palestinians have been denied access because they are smiling, or are deemed ugly, or simply because the soldiers don’t feel like letting them pass.
Human Rights workers have documented cases where Palestinian men and boys are detained at checkpoints without food, water, or protection from the elements for hours. In some cases, they are held in metal cages or required to strip to their underwear, in many cases, they are blindfolded and their hands are tied with plastic ties that cut deeply into their wrists.
Economic Devastation
According to the World Bank, the combination of checkpoints, the separation barrier through the West Bank, and other closures – all of which greatly limit the movement of workers and goods – has caused the Palestinian people to suffer “one of the worst recessions in modern history,” with approximately 50% of the Palestinian population now living in poverty. Illness and malnutrition have risen with this economic devastation.
“Without major changes in this closure regime, [...] the Palestinian economy will not revive, [and] poverty and alienation will deepen.” says a June 2004 World Bank press release.
Just as their parents have trouble getting to their workplaces, children and young adults are frequently denied their right to education. They are forced to take dangerous routes to their schools and universities. Hundreds of students have been detained, shot or injured on their way to school. In addition, Israeli forces sometimes order schools to be temporarily closed – occasionally these closures have lasted for a year or longer.
.................
Letter from Gaza by a Norwegian doctor
Mads Gilbert
Sunday, 20 July 2014 11:06
Mads Frederick Gilbert
Dearest friends,
The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.
The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24 hour shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!
Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!).
My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace - but we cannot afford that, nor can they.
Ashy grey faces - Oh NO! Not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding, we still have lakes of blood on the floor in the ER, piles of dripping, blood-soaked bandages to clear out - oh - the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shovelling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes,cannulas - the leftovers from death - all taken away ... to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More then 100 cases came to Shifa in the last 24 hrs. Enough for a large well trained hospital with everything, but here - almost nothing: no electricity, water, disposables, drugs, OR-tables, instruments, monitors - all rusted and as if taken from museums of yesterday's hospitals. But they do not complain, these heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, head on, enormously resolute.
And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening!
An then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again, just now: salvos of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic 'Zennanis', the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches. So much made in and paid by the US.
Mr. Obama - do you have a heart?
I invite you - spend one night - just one night - with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe.
I am convinced, 100%, it would change history.
Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people.
But the heartless and merciless have done their calculations and planned another "dahyia" onslaught on Gaza.
The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death.
Please. Do what you can. This, THIS cannot continue.
Mads Gilbert MD PhD
Professor and Clinical Head
Clinic of Emergency Medicine
University Hospital of North Norway
- See more at: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/12920-letter-from-gaza-by-a-norwegian-doctor#sthash.9KOgM0NC.gYK4eBcP.dpuf
Moslem McCarthyism at it's finest, too bad this isn't the Huffington Post.
Have you ever "won" a political/social argument? Or do you just keep screaming lies?
CD.Arch, the scariest thing about this whole thread is tammuz is an actual human.
this topic really has no place here. i just come hear to read about people discussing architecture. take your one-sided political crap elsewhere.
also, has anyone else had enough of this "they don't agree with me politically so we should try to hurt them in areas that don't even relate to the issue" trend that's been so popular lately?
tammuz should boycott Archinect.
I do every now and then, didn't you notice?
From Royal Institute of British Architects backs Israel boycott motion :
2013 was record year in new settlement construction, and the 2014 rate is already higher, seeing the construction of 2534 housing projects, with over 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile Palestinian live in tightly controlled enclaves enclosed by the illegal Separation Wall and segregated roads, denied permission to build and instead having their houses taken over or demolished -all reminiscent of Apartheid South Africa.
Not to have acted would have made the RIBA silent and condoning this grave misconduct of their professional associates. By sending a clear message to the IAUA, and UIA, the RIBA and the RIAS strike a blow for the integrity and ethical practice of our profession, and supports the Palestinian civil society call for sanctions against the impunity of Israel.
It's really easy to be dismissive and indifferent. But Archinect has a long history of discussions about politics and war - especially when it pertains to the US interest (which, arguably, almost all major wars do). Politics should involve architects. We're kidding ourselves for being on the sideline just watching and building while every other major professions are taking it to the street.
LITS4FormZ, I usually see you to be very level headed, why this time? Tammuz is laying out all the facts. If you have any issue you should challenge tammuz instead of ridiculing him/her. I actually look forward to see an Israel supporter (if you are one) on a forum that does not belong to #hasbaratrolls.
If you want architecture: To start with, here's an article by Eyal Weizman, Professor Goldsmith University and the head of Forensic Architecture. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/gaza-attacks-lethal-warnings-2014713162312604305.html
i'm standing with tammuz on this, we may not see eye to eye, but i'm tired of the idea that ANY discussion around BDS is somehow anti-Semitic. tired.
The murder and persecution of the Jewish people has been WELL documented.
Not once has the OP acknowledged the role that the TERRORIST organization, HAMAS, has played in this conflict. The hypocrisy is DISGUSTING. HAMAS fires rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. They carry out cowardly suicide bomb attacks killing innocents, not militants.
NOT ONCE HAS THIS BEEN MENTIONED OR ALLUDED TO BY THE OP. HAMAS is the provocator, not the palestinian people. This really needs to be pointed out? HAMAS hides behind religion and human shields.
The OP cannot be reasoned with and cannot acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a nation.
This conflict is a predictable response to the slaughter of Israeli innocents. The bloodshed is a result of the defending and harboring of HAMAS in Palestine. Israel agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and HAMAS' response was to escalate the conflict...
Since everyone loves links...here you go...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_suicide_attacks
http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/WATCH-Hamas-steps-up-psychological-warfare-threatens-suicide-attacks-rockets-in-Hebrew-362235
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/hamas-rocket-attacks-provoked-israels-ground-offensive-into-gaza-strip-20140720-zuysx.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2695540/Israel-Hamas-agree-five-hour-ceasefire-brokered-UN-Israeli-strike-kills-four-children-Gaza-beach.html
http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/02/03/hamas-launched-28-rocket-attacks-on-israel-in-january/
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israelis-palestinians-cease-fire-20140714-story.html
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LITS4FormZ, come on. Hamas is not all Palestinians, any more than that dingbat that killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School represents all American gun owners.
Donna, about the Hamas issue, please read my reply within the Hamas post.
What are we going to discuss next? Flight MH17 and the Russian backed Rebels?
Snoopy, I think tammuz's initial intent is far more interesting than this discussion has manifested. Archinect can't do anything about Ukraine or downed airplanes. But if a critical mass of entities - websites, entertainers, scholars, researchers - boycott Israel (or any entity) it leads toward awareness and change.
Yeah, tammuz, that other thread bugs me. It was made specifically to be provocative, not to engender discussion. This happens around US election time, too.
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