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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted with approval for saying that it is "time for someone to ask Hamas: what exactly are YOU doing to bring prosperity to your people". The hypocrisy of this beggars belief: it is the seven-year-old Israeli economic siege that has reduced the Gaza to poverty and misery.
On every occasion, the presentation of events by Israeli spokesmen is geared to giving Americans and Europeans the impression that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians and is prepared to compromise to achieve this, when all the evidence is that it does not. Though it was not intended as such, few more revealing studies have been written about modern Israel in times of war and peace.
chatter of clouds
Aug 7, 14 10:56 pm
...
curtkram
Aug 7, 14 11:01 pm
if 78% of american's support a 2-state solution, that's might give you a fair shot at getting the international community to buy in and force a 2-state solution. developing propaganda or whatever else to encourage (win hearts and minds) israeli's to elect a centrist government and sincerely work with palestinians towards peace (which would also require the palestinians to sincerely work towards peace) would, imho, give you better results than what bombs have done so far.
a single state that encompasses both israeli and palestinian people would really require palestinians and israelis to see each other as equals and work with each other and respect each other. i don't think that's viable for either side.
i can't see what would cause israel to decide to just up and leave. that's the problem i see with a 1-state solution, which maybe you guys have worked out better than me. even if US dropped all foreign aid, they'd be fine. on that note, i don't know why we're supporting them as much as we do, and if i was given the opportunity to relax that aspect, i would, but as it is i'm not sure there is much i can do.
as it is, it's just a question of who's going to end who first, which really doesn't look good for the palestinians. i think americans want the 2-state solution because it seems to be the only path that has a chance, that will allow the palestinians to live in peace.
Over the course of Israel’s latest brutal attack on the besieged Gaza Strip this past month, a recurring narrative peddling the notion of genocide as a tactic to be used against the Palestinians has become prevalent, indicating a significant shift of extremist rhetoric from the fringes of society to its mainstream.
Orhan Ayyüce
Aug 7, 14 11:51 pm
it was a simply a spelling error. like you called britain britian. like everything else and like your record here, you went ahead and and wrote this whole scenario,
it's curtkram. not curtcrum. you can see it printed right there. i'm sure that was a typo since most 6 year olds have enough maturity to refrain from that sort of attempt at name-calling,
if i really meant it i am skillful enough with words to call you curtcrumb like the dirt crumb for crumbing around with your small talk and always inventing personal attacks and ad hominem. this is different than one of your stupid friends calling me "organ" and letting me know he intended that right here on this thread.
i can't see what would cause israel to decide to just up and leave.
i didn't say israel should leave. just leave the territories and pull back pre 67 borders. simply return the stolen and occupied land. here is this now famous map again, you surely don't think israel gained this territory with legal purchases or any legal agreement with palestinians do you?
Miko Peled is a peace activist who dares to say in public what others still choose to deny. Born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well known Zionist family, his grandfather, Dr. Avraham Katsnelson was a Zionist leader and signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His Father, Matti Peled, was a young officer in the war of 1948 and a general in the war of 1967 when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai. Miko's unlikely opinions reflect his father's legacy. General Peled was a war hero turned peacemaker. Miko grew up in Jerusalem, a multi-ethnic city, but had to leave Israel before he made his first Palestinian friend, the result of his participation in a dialogue group in California. He was 39. On September 4, 1997 the beloved Smadar, 13, the daughter of Miko's sister Nurit and her husband Rami Elhanan was killed in a suicide attack. Peled insists that Israel/Palestine is one state—the separation wall notwithstanding, massive investment in infrastructure, towns and highways that bisect and connect settlements on the West Bank, have destroyed the possibility for a viable Palestinian state. The result, Peled says is that Israelis and Palestinians are governed by the same government but live under different sets of laws. At the heart of Peled's conclusion lies the realization that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace as equals in their shared homeland.
Abu Saleem, 56, a resident of Khuza’a echoed Abu Toaimah, “Israelis claim that Hamas is using us as human shields– how? This is a lie, we do not see fighters in the streets. It’s them, the Israelis who used us as human shields in Khuza’a andShuja’iyeh. They turned our houses into military posts, terrified residents in the houses. They attacked innocent civilians with their bombs, and missiles, they attacked chicken farms, they burned our crops, they have no mercy.”
What happened in Khuza’a was a massacre. Civilians were killed in their homes and while they were fleeing. Even ambulances were not immune. Paramedics report that Israeli forces stopped ambulances that were trying to reach casualties and tried to arrest a number of wounded. Ambulances came under fire despite the coordination by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Scenes of dead bodies scattered in the streets reminiscent of the Sabra and Shatila massacre that took place in two Palestinian refugee camps in 1982 have begun to leak out of the village.
Child killed as Israel resumes airstrikes across Gaza
Published today (updated) 08/08/2014 14:45
An emergency worker carries a child wounded in an Israeli air strike on the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City, as he arrives at the city's Al-Shifa hospital, on August 8, 2014 (AFP/Mohammed Abed)
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli warplanes struck multiple targets across the Gaza Strip on Friday after a 72-hour ceasefire agreement ended at 8 a.m, killing a child and injuring 11 Palestinians.
Non Sequitur
Aug 8, 14 9:36 am
My coffee cup is empty... oh the horror! Those racist greedy Alpaca south-eastern farmers have robbed me of my precious black gold. I'd post pictures but this type of carnage is not for the weak of stomach so here is a squirrel water skiing instead:
Visit scenic holy land Israel! I hear it is beautiful this time of year.
chigurh
Aug 8, 14 9:54 am
Ha! jdparnell, I would love to visit, but I worry about the palestinian terrorists.
Orhan Ayyüce
Aug 8, 14 10:13 am
Visit scenic holy land Israel! I hear it is beautiful this time of year.
Israel Based & Family Owned,
We Love Our Clients!
And we love our enemies even more!
Orhan Ayyüce
Aug 8, 14 10:29 am
I quoted Adorno's "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric" via Hamid Dabashi the other day. Now Mr. Dabashi has written a follow up article on that quote in Aljazeera I would like to link here for the record.
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
Just out on Aljazeera --my mournful meditation on Adorno's prophetic soul that "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric"--what could he mean by that? I ponder that question in the aftermath of Gaza: Is writing poetry after the carnage in Gaza also barbaric? From Adorno to Benjamin to Agamben I have sought to find a language to come to terms with the slaughter in Palestinians--framing the thinking in between two tragic souls: "Between Walter Benjamin's suicide in 1940 on the border between France and Spain, running away from the banality of Nazi evil, and Khalil Hawi's suicide in 1982, in protest against the Zionist invasion and occupation of his homeland, the fate of all our metaphors and allegories after Gaza was written and sealed." . . . "But the terror of that barbaric poetry is heavy. After Gaza, not a single living Israeli can utter the word "Auschwitz" without it sounding like "Gaza". Auschwitz as a historical fact is now archival. Auschwitz as a metaphor is now Palestinian."
The cease fire that Hamas accepted was the exact same deal they turned down weeks ago. How many lives could have been saved if they took it the first time? Israel isn't blameless, but the Hamas regime in Palestine isn't innocent either.
Non Sequitur
Aug 8, 14 12:29 pm
In all (semi) seriousness, this best explains the ideal situation for this conflict:
"The heart of the Earth beats in Gaza now. It bleeds, but it beats,” says Dr. Mads Gilbert.
“The Palestinian people’s resistance in Gaza today is admirable, it is fair and it is a struggle for all of us. We do not want a world where raw power can be abused, to kill those who struggle for justice,” he states.
According to information received by B'Tselem, at approximately 7:30 A.M on the morning of 29 July 2014, the Israeli Air Force bombed a four-story apartment building in downtown Khan Yunis. The building collapsed, burying its occupants. Thirty-five people were killed and 27 injured (see below for the names of the fatalities).
The building was owned by a man by the name of Karem a-Dali and it was rented out to five families, totaling roughly 50 individuals. At the time of the airstrike a few of the families were hosting relatives who had fled homes located in areas considered more dangerous. To the best of B'Tselem’s knowledge, no advance warning was given before the building was bombed. The building was completely demolished and nearby homes were badly damaged. Rescue teams worked up to the morning of 30 July 2014. They retrieved the bodies of 35 people and extricated 27 people who had been injured, including some seriously injured.
Articulate, intelligent, involved, knows "both sides of the story" and above all humane.
chatter of clouds
Aug 8, 14 9:06 pm
Dear Archinect,
By listing Israeli establishments here on Archinect, you encourage the cultural and economic normalization with the colonial state of terror and oppression that calls itself Israel; directly or indirectly, your willingness to accommodate these commercial, academic and cultural enterprises that form the cultural and economic backbone of a regime of racism and state terrorism gives it support and renders you complicit in its murderous sprees against the Palestinian people and their children, in its theft of land, in its eviction and displacement of the Palestinian people, destruction and theft of homes, usurpation and annihilation of an indigenous culture and people,etc.
Please follow the lead of Desmond Tutu who has recently urged the International Union of Architects to suspend (therefore boycott) the Israeli architects association.
News: social rights activist and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has used his closing message at the International World Union of Architects Congress to call for the suspension of the Israeli architects association.
"As you have gathered in Durban this week, the world news has been dominated by the carnage in Gaza," said Tutu. "I have condemned those Palestinians responsible for firing rockets at Israel, for violence is not the solution to human crises. The disproportionality of Israel's response, however, has been utterly horrendous."
"I believe it would be appropriate for the UIA to send a clear message of support for justice in Palestine and Israel by suspending the Israeli Architect's Association from the world body," said Tutu.
Tutu said that architects, as part of "civil society", had to step into a void created by politicians and diplomats, in order to persuade Israel to find a peaceful solution that is acceptable to both Israelis and Palestinians.
He also called on Israeli architects to "actively disassociate" themselves from the design and construction of "infrastructure related to perpetuating injustice, including the separation wall, the security terminals and checkpoints, and the settlements built on occupied Palestinian land."
Tutu, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work in Africa during apartheid, was named patron of the 25th triennial meeting of the international architecture body earlier this year.
This image: Israeli settlement construction courtesy of Shutterstock. Main image: portrait of Desmond Tutu by Dale Frost
The debate began in March, before the latest round of hostilities in Gaza, when the RIBA's council voted to request the suspension of the IAUI from the UIA, on the grounds that members were complicit in construction of controversial settlements on "illegally-occupied land".
backbay
Aug 8, 14 11:30 pm
ah, i see that we have all boycotted israel. job well done.
that'll teach 'em, i tell you, because now they won't be able to read about us bitching about our profession on the internet. i bet you they'll give the palestinians some land now, thanks to this.
...the Holocaust was critical, not just for the obvious reasons that the genocide generated global indignation and sympathy for the plight of Jews and justified Zionist arguments for a homeland, but because, as Aime Cesaire argued in Discourse on Colonialism (1950) (before Hannah Arendt), the Holocaust itself was a manifestation of colonial violence. Therefore, in 1948, Israel comes into being as a nation identified as victims of colonial/racist violence, through armed insurrection against British imperialism. It is a narrative that renders invisible the core violence of ethnic cleansing, the Nakba, resulting in the destruction of some 380 Palestinian towns and villages, producing the massive refugee population that settles in the Gaza strip. The myth of Israel’s heroic war of liberation against the British convinced even the most anti-colonial intellectuals to link Israel’s independence with African independence and Third World liberation (and at some point, even Israel’s ruling labor party pursued alliances with newly independent African nations under the guise that they, too, were part of the non-aligned movement).This began to change in the early 1960s, when Israel had become cozy allies with apartheid South Africa under Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd–who observed in 1961, that, “Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.” Verwoerd was right. After the Nakba expelled about 700,000 Palestinians, Israel passed The Absentees’ Property Law (1950), effectively transferring all property owned or used by Palestinian refugees to the state, and then denied their right to return or reclaim their losses. The land grab continued after the 1967 war and military occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s right to exist may be inscribed in law, but it functions as a rogue state, one of the last nakedly colonial outposts operating above the protocols of international law and human rights. Its lawlessness is enabled by the United States. A complete end to the blockade is but one small step in a protracted struggle to bring Israel into compliance—and that is still not the entire task before us. Even after the bombing stops and the smoke clears, we must continue to build the BDS campaign; ramp up our opposition to racism (including the assault on African immigrants and asylum seekers in Israel); support an embattled Israeli and Palestinian Left; demand that Israel’s war crimes be prosecuted and U.S. complicity in such crimes rendered visible; fight for an arms embargo on Israel; oppose the ongoing dispossession and home demolitions in the West Bank, the use of administrative detention, jailing of minors, and political repression; and demand the right of return and for just compensation for one of the great colonial crimes of the last half century.
Zionism and Judaism are contrary to each other. Because Judaism is universal and humane, and Zionism is exactly the opposite. It is very narrow, very nationalistic, racist, colonialist, and all this. There is no “National Judaism.” There is Zionism and there is Judaism, and they are completely different.
chatter of clouds
Aug 9, 14 7:17 pm
you know, although Israel has been a curse to , first and foremost, Palestinians and other Arabs, it has also helped other totalitarian and murderous regimes in their attacks against indigenous people...yes indeed, it was a regime that drew itself close to the likes of the Apartheid regime. This is because Israel is a throwback to colonialism, Eurocentric racism and racial nationalism, like many of these regimes which it joined hands with in order to beat down, oppress and exterminate indigenous people.
When it, Israel says it is a democracy, it lies. There is no such thing as a democratic Jewish state in Palestine, a historic country that includes Palestinians from all religions ...exactly as there is no white--only colony in south Africa could pretend to be a democracy. Israel is not a country, the country is Palestine and it is occupied. Israel = Occupied Palestine. All this 1967 nonsense is nonsense...Israel, every inch of land Israel finds itself on in Palestine and is stolen land.
Now, to go back to the original point of this specific post, you may recall the Guatemala genocide? Do you know that Israel - with the urging and contribution of the US- was a major contributor to the genocide committed by the Guatemalan regime against the Mayan people?
1. Some background: (source): "The Guatemalan government, using the Guatemalan Army and its counter-insurgency force (whose members defined themselves as 'killing machines'), began a systematic campaign of repressions and suppression against the Mayan Indians, whom they claimed were working towards an communist coup. Their 2-year series of atrocities is sometimes called 'The Silent Holocaust'. In the words of the 1999 UN-sponsored report on the civil war: 'The Army's perception of Mayan communities as natural allies of the guerrillas contributed to increasing and aggravating the human rights violations perpetrated against them, demonstrating an aggressive racist component of extreme cruelty that led to extermination en masse of defenceless Mayan communities, including children, women and the elderly, through methods whose cruelty has outraged the moral conscience of the civilised world."
2. US involvement (same source as above) : "Throughout the period of the genocide, the USA continued to provide military support to the Guatemalan government, mainly in the form of arms and equipment. The infamous guerrilla training school, the School of the Americas in Georgia USA, continued to train Guatemalan officers notorious for human rights abuses; the CIA worked with Guatemalan intelligence officers, some of whom were on the CIA payroll despite known human rights violations. US involvement was understood to be strategic - or, put another way, indifferent to the fate of a bunch of Indians - in the wider context of the Cold War and anti-Communist action"
3. Israeli involvement (source): The accused, General Efraín Ríos Montt, was one of the most vicious mass killers the United States—or Israel—ever produced.
Known as “Brother Efraín,” a fundamentalist convert of the California-based “Church of the Word” (Verbo), Rios Montt thanked his God in heaven for anointing him as Guatemala’s president, but on earth he thanked Israel for establishing his March 1982 military coup. Israeli press reported that 300 Israeli advisors helped execute the coup, which succeeded so smoothly, Brother Efraín told an ABC News reporter, “because many of our soldiers were trained by Israelis.” Through the height of la violencia (“the violence”) or desencarnacíon (“loss of flesh, loss of being”), between the late 1970s to early 1980s, Israel assisted every facet of attack on the Guatemalan people. Largely taking over for the United States on the ground in Guatemala (with Washington retaining its role as paymaster, while also maintaining a crucial presence in the country), Israel had become the successive governments’ main provider of counterinsurgency training, light and heavy arsenals of weaponry, aircraft, state-of-the-art intelligence technology and infrastructure, and other vital assistance.
snooker-doodle-dandy
Aug 9, 14 10:46 pm
War is never good...but man is determined to be at war. Please find resolution! A tit for a tat is kids play. Be adults and think this thing thru. Both sides need to come to some resolution of meaning. Conflict is conflict war is war!
CD.Arch
Aug 9, 14 11:57 pm
Do NOT avoid this question by insulting my intelligence like you have done to Curtkram and others, or saying " can't you read?" Or other such nonsense because you have dodged this question from the beginning. What is your end result? What would be your ideal ending to this conflict? You have already stated that you believe Israel has no right to exist, yet you say we are hateful? Those of us who would like a peaceful resolution?
chatter of clouds
Aug 10, 14 1:36 am
snooker-doodle-dandy, seriously? how can you equate a racist colony the likes of the south African apartheid regime, Israel, and so on to their victims? how can a policy of oppression and dehumanization on side be simply a "tit" and a resistance against it be simply a "tat"? One of the illusions propagated by much of the mainstream media is that this is a war between two sides. This is a fallacy. Zionism stole another people's lands. Palestinians did not, they were the victims of this. Zionists terrorized and murdered in a rational program of racial purification - Palestinians did not, they were the victims of this. Zionism deprives the indigenous people of water, food, building supplies, you name it - Palestnians don't do that, they're the victims of this. Zionists have a long list of massacres committed against Palestinians (and other Arabs); Palestinians don't, they're the victims of this. Zionism is a colonial oppressive violating force; Palestinian counter with resistance.
.....
And you would blame them for a "tat"? Palestinians have all the right to resist this colonial racist cancer that took over their country that was rightfully theirs. This no one can deprive them of and anyone who trivializes or demonizes their resistance might as well be joining in with the violator, the rapist, the murderer. If we apply your idiotic equation of "tit for tat" to everyday justice, we would be telling the woman who got raped that her attempts at resisting are nothing but a "tat" for a "tit" (and I seriously don't intend any stupid sexist double entendres here even if it happens without volition).
Now, it should be clear by now to those who really have not been blinded by brainwashed expectations -or their having taken upon themselves to obfuscate others here to drown out any anti-Zionist criticism- that I am not anti-Semite (I am more Semitic than a neighbourhood full of Ashkenazi Jews - and, in fact, in so concerns jewish people, I am balled over by the bravery and fairness of many Jews who have stood up for Palestinians and equally repelled and disgusted by the Arabs who have been complicit in the suffering of the Palestinians) , I am anti-Zionist because Zionism is a hateful racist colonial ideology. I am not with the abolition and destruction of Israelis, I am with the abolition and dismantlement of Israel. I am with the right of return of all Palestinians around the world and I am with the right of Jews, Moslems and Christians, secularists to remain in Palestine with equal rights. Above all, until this dismantlement occurs, I am with the right of self-defense of Palestinians as long as Israel, this Zionist Jewish-state, exists because Israel directly and inherently implies the denigration, oppression and extinction of Palestinians on their homelands. Israel means the violent expulsion of Palestinians through war, through Israeli law, Israeli bureaucracy Israeli planning policies, etc. I am with the external peaceful boycotting of Israel in recognition of its abhorrent colonial nature that can no longer be concealed.
Not once has anyone here properly responded to the plethora of evidence linked in these posts showing the true ugly face of Israel. All I got in response were mocking crows, ugly comments, twisted accusations, islamophobic slurs, perverse lack of logic in equating the perpetrator of a crime with the victim of the crime (you know, like: "she was asking for it") ...all for what? To protect a state whose policy is the elimination of another indigenous people in order to replace it with yet another "white man" colony that happens to be jewish? Hasn't the world moved on for fuck's sake? Get over it, a white man or woman is the equal to a black or brown man or woman. A European jew is not better than an Arab Palestinian and there is absolutely no right in kicking the Palestinian out of his homeland in order to house the European jew ..and the Holocaust is not a reason to commit another genocide somewhere else!
CD.Arch
Aug 10, 14 1:57 am
You have partially answered my question, Tammuz. I thank you for that. However, I still believe that you seem to be missing the point that almost nobody here is pushing for the death of Palestinians. Some, such as Snook, Curt and I want a peaceful resolution. Something that does not completely dismantle an entire civilization, either of them. Dismantling Israel is not a viable answer, either is dismantling Palestine. That's my opinion. Thank you Tammuz, you have really challenged me. I apologize for my rude comments earlier towards you, I understand that you are simply passionate about your cause, just as I am passionate about my opinions as well. Thanks, best regards.
chatter of clouds
Aug 10, 14 2:25 am
CD.Arch, thanks for the apology. No problemo about that. My intentions are not to launch personal attacks.
I'm not saying that you or someone else here was calling for the death of Palestinians; I'm saying that Israel = the death of Palestinians, either literally or culturally/nationally. To equate Israel, Zionism, the racist policy of colonizing another people to take over their land and kick them out or exterminate them with the resistance of a people being exterminated, literally or culturally, to see them both as equally culpable. This is the darkest pits of injustice.
This has nothing to do about a fight between two people, two religions, two gods...as its been framed all too often by politically self-involved mainstream media with their ulterior motives in order to obfuscate the disproportion of reason and to give a misrepresentation of equal culpability (with a typical bias for Israel).
This is the story, simply, of an outsider aggressor and a colonizer against an indigenous people (muslim, Christian and jewish) who belong to the land, continuously, historically. This has to end, like the apartheid ended in South Africa, like colonialism in India and elsewhere. There is no Israel vs Palestine or Palestine vs Israel. Israel is built on stolen Palestinian land, massacres committed against Palestinian innocents and deportation of Palestinians. Its, Israel's, very foundation is a grave injustice. Israel = Occupied Palestine. There is no country, really, that is Israel (it does not even have official boundaries that it declares because of Zionism's intentions to swallow up more land). The country is Palestine ...and it is occupied, by a racist ideology driven into the heads of Russians, Europeans, Americans who happen to be Jewish and who happen to fall for the religious myth that this land was promised to them by God and that they were destined to "return to" (whatever that nonsense means - and its more Christian evangelical nonsense than actually Jewish) and that the Palestinians, with their true continuous existence on the land, their cultivation of it, their ownership over it, were nothing but subhuman obstacles to be shooed away or killed.
At the same time, I don't believe that someone who grew up in what is now called "Israel" should leave. That land is generous and bountiful. There is space for the returning Palestinians and for what we now call "ISraelis". It is this apartheid system that should be dismantled...the concept that the land is only for any specific religion, be it Jewish, Christian or Islamic. This is Zionism: the belief that Palestine should only be owned by Jews and everyone else should be kicked out or live as a second class citizen with lesser rights and shut up and accept the status quo.
When you make no distinction between oppressors and victims, in all your statements,
When you name Palestinian combatants as perpetrators of violations and war crimes while you ignore naming Israel, as you used to do in referring to specific actions,
When you avoid codifying Israeli actions that amount to war crimes, while you insist on prescribing Palestinian reactions as grave breaches of international humanitarian law,
When you always advocate unlawfully the Israel right to self-defense, while having not pointed out the Palestinians legitimate and legal right to resist occupation, colonization and institutionalized discrimination,
When you adopt and advocate Israeli false stories, while not mentioning Palestinians’ narrative,
When you disregard facts on grounds clearly resulting from Israeli attacks, while you seek the immediate and unconditional release of a falsely captured soldier who was in the battle field,
You do not maintain peace and security; nor do you ensure human rights.
By reviewing yours statements, it becomes evident you have not been fulfilling your mandate. In contrary, your statements have not only allowed the continuance of Israel’s killing our people, but also, encouraged States to continue providing Israel with impunity.
As you cannot say the truth, we advise you to either drastically change your positioning — not only in words, but also in your efforts to, through the UN, effectively end the current conflict — or to resign. For us, if you continue playing this role, you prove what our people feel, that you are a partner in, or at least an enabler of, the ongoing violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel against our families, children, women, elders – against our people."
The 72-hour ceasefire had barely expired when Israeli airstrikes on Gaza resumed on Friday.
As Israel claimed it is targeting “terror sites,” its first victim was a 10-year-old child in Gaza City. Ibrahim Dawawsa, 10, was killed while playing with some friends in the yard of a mosque close to his home, when a missile ended his life and injured his two young friends.
During the nearly month-long military offensive on Gaza prior to the short ceasefire, Israel killed 448 children and injured 2,502, according to United Nations’ estimates. As of 8 August, the death toll in Gaza had reached 1,922.
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- A 12-year old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while playing in front of his home in al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron in the southern West Bank early Sunday, medics told Ma'an.
Palestinian medical sources at Hebron's al-Ahli Hospital told Ma'an that Khalil Muhammad Ahmad al-Anati arrived at the hospital after being shot in the back.
They said that the gunshot entered through the victim's lower abdomen and exited through his groin.
Doctors tried their best to resuscitate the boy and stop severe bleeding, but they announced his death shortly after he arrived in the emergency room.
Locals told Ma'an that shortly before the boy was killed an Israeli military force escorted Israeli engineers into a neighborhood known as Nabat al-Haffara for unknown reasons.
"We don't know what they (the Israelis) were doing," Yussef al-Anati told AFP, crying, his shirt soaked in blood after carrying his nephew to hospital.
"Khalil was playing in front of the house, then we heard gunfire. The kid was screaming and fell down," he said. "He was shot in the back and the bullet exited through his stomach."
Video: Al Quds Jerusalem: Ethnic cleansing and denial of the Palestinian identity.
Al Quds, Jerusalem is the main target of the ethnic cleansing: Palestinian families evicted, house demolitions, Arab neighbourhoods totally besieged by Jewish settlements, construction of the tramway of Apartheid, excavations under the Al Aqsa mosque... Video: 10 min, produced in support of the BDS campaign (boycott, disinvestment, sanctions) Production: Mireille Court and Chris Den Hond Filmed in April 2009.
"Hamas cannot be wished away, nor will it cooperate in its own demise. Only by recognizing its legitimacy as a political actor - one that represents a substantial portion of the Palestinian people - can the West begin to provide the right incentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons."
In his op-ed, the former president accuses Israel of "deliberate attacks on civilians," saying these are war crimes.
chatter of clouds
Aug 10, 14 4:29 pm
More on Banana Kiwi Moon (info going back to Israel's previous murderous war on Gaza circa 2008).
Wikileaks: Ban Ki-Moon Worked with Israel to Undermine UN Report
UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon (Photo: Reuters).
Published 9 August 2014
The General Secretary of United Nations (UN) Ban Ki-Moon collaborated in secret with Israel and the United States to weaken the effects of a Board of Inquiry's report accusing Israel of human rights violations in Gaza in Dec. 2008 – Jan. 2009.
Wikileaks released documents on Friday that revealed that Ban wrote a letter to the UN Security Council asking its members not to take recommendations by the UN Board of Inquiry about Israeli bombings in Gaza into account.
The report demonstrated that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) had a direct role in seven of the nine attacks against buildings of the UN in Gaza strip, and accused Israel of having breached the inviolability and immunity of UN premises.
This video captures the moment an Israeli sniper shot a bullet into the heart of Nader Mohammad Edrees, 40, during a protest in the Bab az-Zaweya area of Hebron on Friday. Doctors performed heart surgery but were unable to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead hours later.
The video appears to show that Edrees posed no risk at all to occupying Israeli forces. Also note the brave older man near the end of the video waving a green cardboard rocket on his arm, in apparent support for Hamas’s actions in Gaza, right in front of soldiers’ guns.
The United Kingdom’s largest demonstration for Gaza has just made history. Not only was it the biggest protest in solidarity with Gazan civilians in the UK, but it was also the largest in the world, at any time in history.
So many people turned up that when the front of the march reached Hyde Park, the back still had not left the BBC. We marched to demand an end to Israel’s barbaric assault on Gaza, to call on the British government to implement an immediate embargo on arms sales to Israel, and to show Palestinians facing Israel’s war crimes that they are not alone.
chatter of clouds
Aug 10, 14 4:56 pm
This is Apartheid:
Orhan Ayyüce
Aug 10, 14 7:38 pm
As the more "critical of Israel media" is becoming main stream, finally the world is given a choice of understanding the never ending chokehold of Palestinians. Down to the detailed accounts of a particular 21st century colonialism and its "systematic" operation under apartheid.
February 2006, the BBC reportedthat because the farmers could not get their produce through the crossing, trucks were dumping perfect, ripe produce onto a wasteland to be eaten by goats. Bassil Jabir joked that because cows were eating their strawberries after they had rotted in the harsh sun next to the checkpoint, they had developed perfectly natural strawberry-flavored milk. According to Special Envoy Wolfensohn, “Instead of hope, the Palestinians saw that they were put back in prison.”
“We are a sick military society,” he continued. “You can’t say Hamas is using their civilians as a human shield when it’s obvious that our army is using all of us as human shields. And those of us who live near the Gaza Strip are definitely the biggest human shields.”
As I have argued earlier, the Jewish State subjects non-Jews to "veritable apartheid treatment." As long ago as 2006, former US President Jimmy Carter stated that when "Israel does occupy ... territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the [then] 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa." The West Bank barrier that Israel started erecting in 2002 is a stark physical manifestation of the enforcement of policies of separation and apartheid that Israel is pursuing.
The recent Israeli attack on Gaza seems like a natural consequence of this policy, given that the wanton destruction of Palestinian lives and property in the Strip really seems tantamount to an act of genocide, the ultimate result of an exercise in ethnic cleansing that the IDF has actively applied over the past weeks and the State of Israel over the past years in the whole of the Occupied Territories. In fact, the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe spoke of an “incremental genocide” with regard to these policies in 2006, while the current operation Protective Edge has merely replaced the adjective "incremental" with "actual" in specific reference to the Gaza Strip – the ever-inventive Pepe Escobar even speaking of "Operation Kill Women and Children in Gaza" on social media.
"As Israel's treacherous actions remain unabated, the burden falls upon us, now more than ever to put pressure on Israeli's economy and let them know that we will not stand by this genocide."I Boycott Israel
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
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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.
The study admits that the Israeli government does not really want a two-state solution, but says this should be masked because 78 per cent of Americans do. Hopes for the economic betterment of Palestinians should be emphasised.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted with approval for saying that it is "time for someone to ask Hamas: what exactly are YOU doing to bring prosperity to your people". The hypocrisy of this beggars belief: it is the seven-year-old Israeli economic siege that has reduced the Gaza to poverty and misery.
On every occasion, the presentation of events by Israeli spokesmen is geared to giving Americans and Europeans the impression that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians and is prepared to compromise to achieve this, when all the evidence is that it does not. Though it was not intended as such, few more revealing studies have been written about modern Israel in times of war and peace.
if 78% of american's support a 2-state solution, that's might give you a fair shot at getting the international community to buy in and force a 2-state solution. developing propaganda or whatever else to encourage (win hearts and minds) israeli's to elect a centrist government and sincerely work with palestinians towards peace (which would also require the palestinians to sincerely work towards peace) would, imho, give you better results than what bombs have done so far.
a single state that encompasses both israeli and palestinian people would really require palestinians and israelis to see each other as equals and work with each other and respect each other. i don't think that's viable for either side.
i can't see what would cause israel to decide to just up and leave. that's the problem i see with a 1-state solution, which maybe you guys have worked out better than me. even if US dropped all foreign aid, they'd be fine. on that note, i don't know why we're supporting them as much as we do, and if i was given the opportunity to relax that aspect, i would, but as it is i'm not sure there is much i can do.
as it is, it's just a question of who's going to end who first, which really doesn't look good for the palestinians. i think americans want the 2-state solution because it seems to be the only path that has a chance, that will allow the palestinians to live in peace.
Genocide becomes mainstream in Israeli discourse
Over the course of Israel’s latest brutal attack on the besieged Gaza Strip this past month, a recurring narrative peddling the notion of genocide as a tactic to be used against the Palestinians has become prevalent, indicating a significant shift of extremist rhetoric from the fringes of society to its mainstream.
it was a simply a spelling error. like you called britain britian. like everything else and like your record here, you went ahead and and wrote this whole scenario,
it's curtkram. not curtcrum. you can see it printed right there. i'm sure that was a typo since most 6 year olds have enough maturity to refrain from that sort of attempt at name-calling,
if i really meant it i am skillful enough with words to call you curtcrumb like the dirt crumb for crumbing around with your small talk and always inventing personal attacks and ad hominem. this is different than one of your stupid friends calling me "organ" and letting me know he intended that right here on this thread.
i can't see what would cause israel to decide to just up and leave.
i didn't say israel should leave. just leave the territories and pull back pre 67 borders. simply return the stolen and occupied land. here is this now famous map again, you surely don't think israel gained this territory with legal purchases or any legal agreement with palestinians do you?
THE GENERAL'S SON (please watch this video)
Miko Peled is a peace activist who dares to say in public what others still choose to deny. Born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well known Zionist family, his grandfather, Dr. Avraham Katsnelson was a Zionist leader and signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His Father, Matti Peled, was a young officer in the war of 1948 and a general in the war of 1967 when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai.
Miko's unlikely opinions reflect his father's legacy. General Peled was a war hero turned peacemaker.
Miko grew up in Jerusalem, a multi-ethnic city, but had to leave Israel before he made his first Palestinian friend, the result of his participation in a dialogue group in California. He was 39.
On September 4, 1997 the beloved Smadar, 13, the daughter of Miko's sister Nurit and her husband Rami Elhanan was killed in a suicide attack.
Peled insists that Israel/Palestine is one state—the separation wall notwithstanding, massive investment in infrastructure, towns and highways that bisect and connect settlements on the West Bank, have destroyed the possibility for a viable Palestinian state. The result, Peled says is that Israelis and Palestinians are governed by the same government but live under different sets of laws.
At the heart of Peled's conclusion lies the realization that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace as equals in their shared homeland.
Gaza Ghetto
From Survivors of massacre in Khuza’a say Israeli forces used Palestinians as human shields :
Abu Saleem, 56, a resident of Khuza’a echoed Abu Toaimah, “Israelis claim that Hamas is using us as human shields– how? This is a lie, we do not see fighters in the streets. It’s them, the Israelis who used us as human shields in Khuza’a andShuja’iyeh. They turned our houses into military posts, terrified residents in the houses. They attacked innocent civilians with their bombs, and missiles, they attacked chicken farms, they burned our crops, they have no mercy.”
What happened in Khuza’a was a massacre. Civilians were killed in their homes and while they were fleeing. Even ambulances were not immune. Paramedics report that Israeli forces stopped ambulances that were trying to reach casualties and tried to arrest a number of wounded. Ambulances came under fire despite the coordination by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Scenes of dead bodies scattered in the streets reminiscent of the Sabra and Shatila massacre that took place in two Palestinian refugee camps in 1982 have begun to leak out of the village.
The Child Murdering Army of Israel is at it again
Child killed as Israel resumes airstrikes across Gaza
Published today (updated) 08/08/2014 14:45
An emergency worker carries a child wounded in an Israeli air
strike on the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City, as he arrives
at the city's Al-Shifa hospital, on August 8, 2014
(AFP/Mohammed Abed)
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli warplanes struck multiple targets across the Gaza Strip on Friday after a 72-hour ceasefire agreement ended at 8 a.m, killing a child and injuring 11 Palestinians.
My coffee cup is empty... oh the horror! Those racist greedy Alpaca south-eastern farmers have robbed me of my precious black gold. I'd post pictures but this type of carnage is not for the weak of stomach so here is a squirrel water skiing instead:
you're all very welcome.
http://shalomisraeltours.com/
Visit scenic holy land Israel! I hear it is beautiful this time of year.
Ha! jdparnell, I would love to visit, but I worry about the palestinian terrorists.
Visit scenic holy land Israel! I hear it is beautiful this time of year.
Israel Based & Family Owned,
We Love Our Clients!
And we love our enemies even more!
I quoted Adorno's "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric" via Hamid Dabashi the other day. Now Mr. Dabashi has written a follow up article on that quote in Aljazeera I would like to link here for the record.
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
Just out on Aljazeera --my mournful meditation on Adorno's prophetic soul that "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric"--what could he mean by that? I ponder that question in the aftermath of Gaza: Is writing poetry after the carnage in Gaza also barbaric? From Adorno to Benjamin to Agamben I have sought to find a language to come to terms with the slaughter in Palestinians--framing the thinking in between two tragic souls: "Between Walter Benjamin's suicide in 1940 on the border between France and Spain, running away from the banality of Nazi evil, and Khalil Hawi's suicide in 1982, in protest against the Zionist invasion and occupation of his homeland, the fate of all our metaphors and allegories after Gaza was written and sealed." . . . "But the terror of that barbaric poetry is heavy. After Gaza, not a single living Israeli can utter the word "Auschwitz" without it sounding like "Gaza". Auschwitz as a historical fact is now archival. Auschwitz as a metaphor is now Palestinian."
Link:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/08/gaza-poetry-after-auschwitz-201487153418967371.html
http://thehill.com/policy/international/214501-netanyahu-offers-firm-defense-of-israeli-offensive
The cease fire that Hamas accepted was the exact same deal they turned down weeks ago. How many lives could have been saved if they took it the first time? Israel isn't blameless, but the Hamas regime in Palestine isn't innocent either.
In all (semi) seriousness, this best explains the ideal situation for this conflict:
http://explosm.net/comics/3645/
Cynide and Happiness is always great.
Video: Palestinian resistance in Gaza is “fighting for all of us,” says Dr. Mads Gilbert
"The heart of the Earth beats in Gaza now. It bleeds, but it beats,” says Dr. Mads Gilbert.
“The Palestinian people’s resistance in Gaza today is admirable, it is fair and it is a struggle for all of us. We do not want a world where raw power can be abused, to kill those who struggle for justice,” he states.
From Preliminary investigation: Apparently without warning, four-story building bombed while its residents were home, killing 35 and injuring 27 :
According to information received by B'Tselem, at approximately 7:30 A.M on the morning of 29 July 2014, the Israeli Air Force bombed a four-story apartment building in downtown Khan Yunis. The building collapsed, burying its occupants. Thirty-five people were killed and 27 injured (see below for the names of the fatalities).
The building was owned by a man by the name of Karem a-Dali and it was rented out to five families, totaling roughly 50 individuals. At the time of the airstrike a few of the families were hosting relatives who had fled homes located in areas considered more dangerous. To the best of B'Tselem’s knowledge, no advance warning was given before the building was bombed. The building was completely demolished and nearby homes were badly damaged. Rescue teams worked up to the morning of 30 July 2014. They retrieved the bodies of 35 people and extricated 27 people who had been injured, including some seriously injured.
More Miko Peled: The General's Son - Geneva
Articulate, intelligent, involved, knows "both sides of the story" and above all humane.
Dear Archinect,
By listing Israeli establishments here on Archinect, you encourage the cultural and economic normalization with the colonial state of terror and oppression that calls itself Israel; directly or indirectly, your willingness to accommodate these commercial, academic and cultural enterprises that form the cultural and economic backbone of a regime of racism and state terrorism gives it support and renders you complicit in its murderous sprees against the Palestinian people and their children, in its theft of land, in its eviction and displacement of the Palestinian people, destruction and theft of homes, usurpation and annihilation of an indigenous culture and people,etc.
Please follow the lead of Desmond Tutu who has recently urged the International Union of Architects to suspend (therefore boycott) the Israeli architects association.
Desmond Tutu calls for the suspension of Israel from the international architectural body
News: social rights activist and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has used his closing message at the International World Union of Architects Congress to call for the suspension of the Israeli architects association.
In a message delivered at the 25th meeting of the International Union of Architects (UIA) today in South Africa, Tutu said he believed a suspension of the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) would be an "appropriate" message of support for justice in both Israel and Palestine.
"As you have gathered in Durban this week, the world news has been dominated by the carnage in Gaza," said Tutu. "I have condemned those Palestinians responsible for firing rockets at Israel, for violence is not the solution to human crises. The disproportionality of Israel's response, however, has been utterly horrendous."
"I believe it would be appropriate for the UIA to send a clear message of support for justice in Palestine and Israel by suspending the Israeli Architect's Association from the world body," said Tutu.
Related story: Libeskind and Meier attack UK architects over Israel boycott
Tutu said that architects, as part of "civil society", had to step into a void created by politicians and diplomats, in order to persuade Israel to find a peaceful solution that is acceptable to both Israelis and Palestinians.
He also called on Israeli architects to "actively disassociate" themselves from the design and construction of "infrastructure related to perpetuating injustice, including the separation wall, the security terminals and checkpoints, and the settlements built on occupied Palestinian land."
Tutu, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work in Africa during apartheid, was named patron of the 25th triennial meeting of the international architecture body earlier this year.
His comments come in the wake of a row triggered by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) over whether to consider the suspension of its Israeli equivalent from architecture's international governing body.
This image: Israeli settlement construction courtesy of Shutterstock. Main image: portrait of Desmond Tutu by Dale Frost
The debate began in March, before the latest round of hostilities in Gaza, when the RIBA's council voted to request the suspension of the IAUI from the UIA, on the grounds that members were complicit in construction of controversial settlements on "illegally-occupied land".
ah, i see that we have all boycotted israel. job well done.
that'll teach 'em, i tell you, because now they won't be able to read about us bitching about our profession on the internet. i bet you they'll give the palestinians some land now, thanks to this.
Please listen to the lady in the video
‘I was a Zionist till I was 64. I want to hit myself’
From When the smoke clears in Gaza
...the Holocaust was critical, not just for the obvious reasons that the genocide generated global indignation and sympathy for the plight of Jews and justified Zionist arguments for a homeland, but because, as Aime Cesaire argued in Discourse on Colonialism (1950) (before Hannah Arendt), the Holocaust itself was a manifestation of colonial violence. Therefore, in 1948, Israel comes into being as a nation identified as victims of colonial/racist violence, through armed insurrection against British imperialism. It is a narrative that renders invisible the core violence of ethnic cleansing, the Nakba, resulting in the destruction of some 380 Palestinian towns and villages, producing the massive refugee population that settles in the Gaza strip. The myth of Israel’s heroic war of liberation against the British convinced even the most anti-colonial intellectuals to link Israel’s independence with African independence and Third World liberation (and at some point, even Israel’s ruling labor party pursued alliances with newly independent African nations under the guise that they, too, were part of the non-aligned movement). This began to change in the early 1960s, when Israel had become cozy allies with apartheid South Africa under Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd–who observed in 1961, that, “Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.” Verwoerd was right. After the Nakba expelled about 700,000 Palestinians, Israel passed The Absentees’ Property Law (1950), effectively transferring all property owned or used by Palestinian refugees to the state, and then denied their right to return or reclaim their losses. The land grab continued after the 1967 war and military occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s right to exist may be inscribed in law, but it functions as a rogue state, one of the last nakedly colonial outposts operating above the protocols of international law and human rights. Its lawlessness is enabled by the United States. A complete end to the blockade is but one small step in a protracted struggle to bring Israel into compliance—and that is still not the entire task before us. Even after the bombing stops and the smoke clears, we must continue to build the BDS campaign; ramp up our opposition to racism (including the assault on African immigrants and asylum seekers in Israel); support an embattled Israeli and Palestinian Left; demand that Israel’s war crimes be prosecuted and U.S. complicity in such crimes rendered visible; fight for an arms embargo on Israel; oppose the ongoing dispossession and home demolitions in the West Bank, the use of administrative detention, jailing of minors, and political repression; and demand the right of return and for just compensation for one of the great colonial crimes of the last half century.
Zionism Has Nothing to do With Judaism’ – Holocaust Survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer
Zionism and Judaism are contrary to each other. Because Judaism is universal and humane, and Zionism is exactly the opposite. It is very narrow, very nationalistic, racist, colonialist, and all this. There is no “National Judaism.” There is Zionism and there is Judaism, and they are completely different.
you know, although Israel has been a curse to , first and foremost, Palestinians and other Arabs, it has also helped other totalitarian and murderous regimes in their attacks against indigenous people...yes indeed, it was a regime that drew itself close to the likes of the Apartheid regime. This is because Israel is a throwback to colonialism, Eurocentric racism and racial nationalism, like many of these regimes which it joined hands with in order to beat down, oppress and exterminate indigenous people.
When it, Israel says it is a democracy, it lies. There is no such thing as a democratic Jewish state in Palestine, a historic country that includes Palestinians from all religions ...exactly as there is no white--only colony in south Africa could pretend to be a democracy. Israel is not a country, the country is Palestine and it is occupied. Israel = Occupied Palestine. All this 1967 nonsense is nonsense...Israel, every inch of land Israel finds itself on in Palestine and is stolen land.
Now, to go back to the original point of this specific post, you may recall the Guatemala genocide? Do you know that Israel - with the urging and contribution of the US- was a major contributor to the genocide committed by the Guatemalan regime against the Mayan people?
1. Some background: (source): "The Guatemalan government, using the Guatemalan Army and its counter-insurgency force (whose members defined themselves as 'killing machines'), began a systematic campaign of repressions and suppression against the Mayan Indians, whom they claimed were working towards an communist coup.
Their 2-year series of atrocities is sometimes called 'The Silent Holocaust'.
In the words of the 1999 UN-sponsored report on the civil war: 'The Army's perception of Mayan communities as natural allies of the guerrillas contributed to increasing and aggravating the human rights violations perpetrated against them, demonstrating an aggressive racist component of extreme cruelty that led to extermination en masse of defenceless Mayan communities, including children, women and the elderly, through methods whose cruelty has outraged the moral conscience of the civilised world."
2. US involvement (same source as above) : "Throughout the period of the genocide, the USA continued to provide military support to the Guatemalan government, mainly in the form of arms and equipment. The infamous guerrilla training school, the School of the Americas in Georgia USA, continued to train Guatemalan officers notorious for human rights abuses; the CIA worked with Guatemalan intelligence officers, some of whom were on the CIA payroll despite known human rights violations. US involvement was understood to be strategic - or, put another way, indifferent to the fate of a bunch of Indians - in the wider context of the Cold War and anti-Communist action"
3. Israeli involvement (source): The accused, General Efraín Ríos Montt, was one of the most vicious mass killers the United States—or Israel—ever produced.
Known as “Brother Efraín,” a fundamentalist convert of the California-based “Church of the Word” (Verbo), Rios Montt thanked his God in heaven for anointing him as Guatemala’s president, but on earth he thanked Israel for establishing his March 1982 military coup. Israeli press reported that 300 Israeli advisors helped execute the coup, which succeeded so smoothly, Brother Efraín told an ABC News reporter, “because many of our soldiers were trained by Israelis.” Through the height of la violencia (“the violence”) or desencarnacíon (“loss of flesh, loss of being”), between the late 1970s to early 1980s, Israel assisted every facet of attack on the Guatemalan people. Largely taking over for the United States on the ground in Guatemala (with Washington retaining its role as paymaster, while also maintaining a crucial presence in the country), Israel had become the successive governments’ main provider of counterinsurgency training, light and heavy arsenals of weaponry, aircraft, state-of-the-art intelligence technology and infrastructure, and other vital assistance.
War is never good...but man is determined to be at war. Please find resolution! A tit for a tat is kids play. Be adults and think this thing thru. Both sides need to come to some resolution of meaning. Conflict is conflict war is war!
Do NOT avoid this question by insulting my intelligence like you have done to Curtkram and others, or saying " can't you read?" Or other such nonsense because you have dodged this question from the beginning. What is your end result? What would be your ideal ending to this conflict? You have already stated that you believe Israel has no right to exist, yet you say we are hateful? Those of us who would like a peaceful resolution?
snooker-doodle-dandy, seriously? how can you equate a racist colony the likes of the south African apartheid regime, Israel, and so on to their victims? how can a policy of oppression and dehumanization on side be simply a "tit" and a resistance against it be simply a "tat"? One of the illusions propagated by much of the mainstream media is that this is a war between two sides. This is a fallacy. Zionism stole another people's lands. Palestinians did not, they were the victims of this. Zionists terrorized and murdered in a rational program of racial purification - Palestinians did not, they were the victims of this. Zionism deprives the indigenous people of water, food, building supplies, you name it - Palestnians don't do that, they're the victims of this. Zionists have a long list of massacres committed against Palestinians (and other Arabs); Palestinians don't, they're the victims of this. Zionism is a colonial oppressive violating force; Palestinian counter with resistance.
.....
And you would blame them for a "tat"? Palestinians have all the right to resist this colonial racist cancer that took over their country that was rightfully theirs. This no one can deprive them of and anyone who trivializes or demonizes their resistance might as well be joining in with the violator, the rapist, the murderer. If we apply your idiotic equation of "tit for tat" to everyday justice, we would be telling the woman who got raped that her attempts at resisting are nothing but a "tat" for a "tit" (and I seriously don't intend any stupid sexist double entendres here even if it happens without volition).
Now, it should be clear by now to those who really have not been blinded by brainwashed expectations -or their having taken upon themselves to obfuscate others here to drown out any anti-Zionist criticism- that I am not anti-Semite (I am more Semitic than a neighbourhood full of Ashkenazi Jews - and, in fact, in so concerns jewish people, I am balled over by the bravery and fairness of many Jews who have stood up for Palestinians and equally repelled and disgusted by the Arabs who have been complicit in the suffering of the Palestinians) , I am anti-Zionist because Zionism is a hateful racist colonial ideology. I am not with the abolition and destruction of Israelis, I am with the abolition and dismantlement of Israel. I am with the right of return of all Palestinians around the world and I am with the right of Jews, Moslems and Christians, secularists to remain in Palestine with equal rights. Above all, until this dismantlement occurs, I am with the right of self-defense of Palestinians as long as Israel, this Zionist Jewish-state, exists because Israel directly and inherently implies the denigration, oppression and extinction of Palestinians on their homelands. Israel means the violent expulsion of Palestinians through war, through Israeli law, Israeli bureaucracy Israeli planning policies, etc. I am with the external peaceful boycotting of Israel in recognition of its abhorrent colonial nature that can no longer be concealed.
Not once has anyone here properly responded to the plethora of evidence linked in these posts showing the true ugly face of Israel. All I got in response were mocking crows, ugly comments, twisted accusations, islamophobic slurs, perverse lack of logic in equating the perpetrator of a crime with the victim of the crime (you know, like: "she was asking for it") ...all for what? To protect a state whose policy is the elimination of another indigenous people in order to replace it with yet another "white man" colony that happens to be jewish? Hasn't the world moved on for fuck's sake? Get over it, a white man or woman is the equal to a black or brown man or woman. A European jew is not better than an Arab Palestinian and there is absolutely no right in kicking the Palestinian out of his homeland in order to house the European jew ..and the Holocaust is not a reason to commit another genocide somewhere else!
You have partially answered my question, Tammuz. I thank you for that. However, I still believe that you seem to be missing the point that almost nobody here is pushing for the death of Palestinians. Some, such as Snook, Curt and I want a peaceful resolution. Something that does not completely dismantle an entire civilization, either of them. Dismantling Israel is not a viable answer, either is dismantling Palestine. That's my opinion. Thank you Tammuz, you have really challenged me. I apologize for my rude comments earlier towards you, I understand that you are simply passionate about your cause, just as I am passionate about my opinions as well. Thanks, best regards.
CD.Arch, thanks for the apology. No problemo about that. My intentions are not to launch personal attacks.
I'm not saying that you or someone else here was calling for the death of Palestinians; I'm saying that Israel = the death of Palestinians, either literally or culturally/nationally. To equate Israel, Zionism, the racist policy of colonizing another people to take over their land and kick them out or exterminate them with the resistance of a people being exterminated, literally or culturally, to see them both as equally culpable. This is the darkest pits of injustice.
This has nothing to do about a fight between two people, two religions, two gods...as its been framed all too often by politically self-involved mainstream media with their ulterior motives in order to obfuscate the disproportion of reason and to give a misrepresentation of equal culpability (with a typical bias for Israel).
This is the story, simply, of an outsider aggressor and a colonizer against an indigenous people (muslim, Christian and jewish) who belong to the land, continuously, historically. This has to end, like the apartheid ended in South Africa, like colonialism in India and elsewhere. There is no Israel vs Palestine or Palestine vs Israel. Israel is built on stolen Palestinian land, massacres committed against Palestinian innocents and deportation of Palestinians. Its, Israel's, very foundation is a grave injustice. Israel = Occupied Palestine. There is no country, really, that is Israel (it does not even have official boundaries that it declares because of Zionism's intentions to swallow up more land). The country is Palestine ...and it is occupied, by a racist ideology driven into the heads of Russians, Europeans, Americans who happen to be Jewish and who happen to fall for the religious myth that this land was promised to them by God and that they were destined to "return to" (whatever that nonsense means - and its more Christian evangelical nonsense than actually Jewish) and that the Palestinians, with their true continuous existence on the land, their cultivation of it, their ownership over it, were nothing but subhuman obstacles to be shooed away or killed.
At the same time, I don't believe that someone who grew up in what is now called "Israel" should leave. That land is generous and bountiful. There is space for the returning Palestinians and for what we now call "ISraelis". It is this apartheid system that should be dismantled...the concept that the land is only for any specific religion, be it Jewish, Christian or Islamic. This is Zionism: the belief that Palestine should only be owned by Jews and everyone else should be kicked out or live as a second class citizen with lesser rights and shut up and accept the status quo.
From UN’s Ban Ki-moon is a partner in Israel’s crimes(full letter)
"...Mr. Secretary-General,
When you make no distinction between oppressors and victims, in all your statements,
When you name Palestinian combatants as perpetrators of violations and war crimes while you ignore naming Israel, as you used to do in referring to specific actions,
When you avoid codifying Israeli actions that amount to war crimes, while you insist on prescribing Palestinian reactions as grave breaches of international humanitarian law,
When you always advocate unlawfully the Israel right to self-defense, while having not pointed out the Palestinians legitimate and legal right to resist occupation, colonization and institutionalized discrimination,
When you adopt and advocate Israeli false stories, while not mentioning Palestinians’ narrative,
When you disregard facts on grounds clearly resulting from Israeli attacks, while you seek the immediate and unconditional release of a falsely captured soldier who was in the battle field,
You do not maintain peace and security; nor do you ensure human rights.
By reviewing yours statements, it becomes evident you have not been fulfilling your mandate. In contrary, your statements have not only allowed the continuance of Israel’s killing our people, but also, encouraged States to continue providing Israel with impunity.
As you cannot say the truth, we advise you to either drastically change your positioning — not only in words, but also in your efforts to, through the UN, effectively end the current conflict — or to resign. For us, if you continue playing this role, you prove what our people feel, that you are a partner in, or at least an enabler of, the ongoing violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel against our families, children, women, elders – against our people."
448 children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, UN says
The 72-hour ceasefire had barely expired when Israeli airstrikes on Gaza resumed on Friday.
As Israel claimed it is targeting “terror sites,” its first victim was a 10-year-old child in Gaza City. Ibrahim Dawawsa, 10, was killed while playing with some friends in the yard of a mosque close to his home, when a missile ended his life and injured his two young friends.
During the nearly month-long military offensive on Gaza prior to the short ceasefire, Israel killed 448 children and injured 2,502, according to United Nations’ estimates. As of 8 August, the death toll in Gaza had reached 1,922.
Israeli forces shoot, kill 12-year-old Palestinian boy near Hebron
Published today (updated) 10/08/2014 16:03
(MaanImages)
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- A 12-year old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while playing in front of his home in al-Fawwar refugee camp south of Hebron in the southern West Bank early Sunday, medics told Ma'an.
Palestinian medical sources at Hebron's al-Ahli Hospital told Ma'an that Khalil Muhammad Ahmad al-Anati arrived at the hospital after being shot in the back.
They said that the gunshot entered through the victim's lower abdomen and exited through his groin.
Doctors tried their best to resuscitate the boy and stop severe bleeding, but they announced his death shortly after he arrived in the emergency room.
Locals told Ma'an that shortly before the boy was killed an Israeli military force escorted Israeli engineers into a neighborhood known as Nabat al-Haffara for unknown reasons.
"We don't know what they (the Israelis) were doing," Yussef al-Anati told AFP, crying, his shirt soaked in blood after carrying his nephew to hospital.
"Khalil was playing in front of the house, then we heard gunfire. The kid was screaming and fell down," he said. "He was shot in the back and the bullet exited through his stomach."
Al Quds-Jerusalem: ethnic cleansing
Video: Al Quds Jerusalem: Ethnic cleansing and denial of the Palestinian identity.
Al Quds, Jerusalem is the main target of the ethnic cleansing: Palestinian families evicted, house demolitions, Arab neighbourhoods totally besieged by Jewish settlements, construction of the tramway of Apartheid, excavations under the Al Aqsa mosque...
Video: 10 min, produced in support of the BDS campaign (boycott, disinvestment, sanctions)
Production: Mireille Court and Chris Den Hond
Filmed in April 2009.
Jimmy Carter calls on US, EU to recognize Hamas -ynet
"Hamas cannot be wished away, nor will it cooperate in its own demise. Only by recognizing its legitimacy as a political actor - one that represents a substantial portion of the Palestinian people - can the West begin to provide the right incentives for Hamas to lay down its weapons."
In his op-ed, the former president accuses Israel of "deliberate attacks on civilians," saying these are war crimes.
More on Banana Kiwi Moon (info going back to Israel's previous murderous war on Gaza circa 2008).
Wikileaks: Ban Ki-Moon Worked with Israel to Undermine UN Report
UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon (Photo: Reuters).
Published 9 August 2014
The General Secretary of United Nations (UN) Ban Ki-Moon collaborated in secret with Israel and the United States to weaken the effects of a Board of Inquiry's report accusing Israel of human rights violations in Gaza in Dec. 2008 – Jan. 2009.
Wikileaks released documents on Friday that revealed that Ban wrote a letter to the UN Security Council asking its members not to take recommendations by the UN Board of Inquiry about Israeli bombings in Gaza into account.
The report demonstrated that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) had a direct role in seven of the nine attacks against buildings of the UN in Gaza strip, and accused Israel of having breached the inviolability and immunity of UN premises.
From Video: Israeli sniper kills Palestinian protester in Hebron :
This video captures the moment an Israeli sniper shot a bullet into the heart of Nader Mohammad Edrees, 40, during a protest in the Bab az-Zaweya area of Hebron on Friday. Doctors performed heart surgery but were unable to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead hours later.
The video appears to show that Edrees posed no risk at all to occupying Israeli forces. Also note the brave older man near the end of the video waving a green cardboard rocket on his arm, in apparent support for Hamas’s actions in Gaza, right in front of soldiers’ guns.
From Largest Pro-Gaza Protest In History Just Reached 150,000
August 9, 2014 9:11 pm·
The United Kingdom’s largest demonstration for Gaza has just made history. Not only was it the biggest protest in solidarity with Gazan civilians in the UK, but it was also the largest in the world, at any time in history.
So many people turned up that when the front of the march reached Hyde Park, the back still had not left the BBC. We marched to demand an end to Israel’s barbaric assault on Gaza, to call on the British government to implement an immediate embargo on arms sales to Israel, and to show Palestinians facing Israel’s war crimes that they are not alone.
This is Apartheid:
As the more "critical of Israel media" is becoming main stream, finally the world is given a choice of understanding the never ending chokehold of Palestinians. Down to the detailed accounts of a particular 21st century colonialism and its "systematic" operation under apartheid.
The Greenhouse propaganda—How Gazan history is being rewritten to dehumanize Palestinians
February 2006, the BBC reported that because the farmers could not get their produce through the crossing, trucks were dumping perfect, ripe produce onto a wasteland to be eaten by goats. Bassil Jabir joked that because cows were eating their strawberries after they had rotted in the harsh sun next to the checkpoint, they had developed perfectly natural strawberry-flavored milk. According to Special Envoy Wolfensohn, “Instead of hope, the Palestinians saw that they were put back in prison.”
Well, we learn something new everyday
How Israel Used Its Own Civilians as Human Shields While Assaulting Gaza
“We are a sick military society,” he continued. “You can’t say Hamas is using their civilians as a human shield when it’s obvious that our army is using all of us as human shields. And those of us who live near the Gaza Strip are definitely the biggest human shields.”
From Operation Protective Edge, ethnic cleansing and the issue of genocide
As I have argued earlier, the Jewish State subjects non-Jews to "veritable apartheid treatment." As long ago as 2006, former US President Jimmy Carter stated that when "Israel does occupy ... territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the [then] 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa." The West Bank barrier that Israel started erecting in 2002 is a stark physical manifestation of the enforcement of policies of separation and apartheid that Israel is pursuing.
The recent Israeli attack on Gaza seems like a natural consequence of this policy, given that the wanton destruction of Palestinian lives and property in the Strip really seems tantamount to an act of genocide, the ultimate result of an exercise in ethnic cleansing that the IDF has actively applied over the past weeks and the State of Israel over the past years in the whole of the Occupied Territories. In fact, the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe spoke of an “incremental genocide” with regard to these policies in 2006, while the current operation Protective Edge has merely replaced the adjective "incremental" with "actual" in specific reference to the Gaza Strip – the ever-inventive Pepe Escobar even speaking of "Operation Kill Women and Children in Gaza" on social media.
Edward Said on being Palestinian, on Palestine and its usurpation by Zionism
"Sadistic & Grotesque": Noam Chomsky on How Israel Limits Food & Medicine in Occupied Gaza
"As Israel's treacherous actions remain unabated, the burden falls upon us, now more than ever to put pressure on Israeli's economy and let them know that we will not stand by this genocide." I Boycott Israel
Barnaby Raine | Jewish Bloc | End Siege On #Gaza9 Demo | London