End Israeli Apartheid – Support the Right of Return and BDS - UN Anti--Racism Day Meeting

Scrap the IHRA Misdefinition of ‘Anti-Semitism’ Whose Only Purpose is to Chill Free Speech on Palestine and Zionism

Please register here

https://tinyurl.com/2wmuj3w8

In 1966 the United Nations called for an International Day of remembrance for the 69 Africans who were killed and the 189 injured by the Apartheid Police in Sharpeville, South Africa. The Police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid "pass laws" on March 21 1960.

The Sharpeville Massacre

The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959, organized a countrywide demonstration for March 21, 1960, for the abolition of South Africa’s pass laws. Participants were instructed to surrender their passes and invite arrest. Some 20,000 Blacks gathered near a police station at Sharpeville, located about 30 miles south of Johannesburg. The police opened fire on them with submachine guns without warning.

Among the rioters on Capitol Hill in 2021 were Zionists with the Israel flag and this specimen with '6 million is not enough'

Following the dismantling of apartheid, South African President Nelson Mandela chose Sharpeville as the site at which, on December 10, 1996, he signed into law the country’s new constitution.

Since then, the Apartheid System in South Africa has been dismantled but Apartheid in Israel has only been strengthened. In 2018 Israel officially declared itself an Apartheid State with the passage of the Jewish Nation State Law which removed Arabic as an official language and designated ‘Jewish Settlement’ as a national goal.

Israel's best friends today are fascists and neo-Nazis

Although Israel’s propagandists describe accusations of apartheid as ‘anti-Semitic’ this charge has now become accepted. 25% of American Jews believe that Israel is an apartheid state, a figure that rises to nearly 40% among young Jews.

After an interview in which the openly fascist Israeli ‘Culture’ Minister Miri Regev warned that if Benny Gantz was elected he would form a government with Arabs, actress Rotem Sela wrote on social media that Israel is a country of all its citizens. She continued:

and what's the problem with Arabs???' Oh my god, there are also Arab citizens in this country. When the hell will someone in this government broadcast to the public that Israel is a country for all its citizens.

This was too much for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who wrote in response that:

"Dear Rotem, an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People - and them alone.

What happened at Sharpeville, horrific though it was, pales into comparison with the thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered for the crime of being Palestinian. In 2018 Israeli troops shot thousands of Palestinians, deliberately disabling peaceful protestors at the Gaza fence and killing hundreds in the process.

In the past year three major human rights organisations have declared that Israel is an Apartheid State. The first was B’Tselem which, on January 12 2021, declared that:

The Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls… an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.

The next human rights organisation to describe Israel as an apartheid state was Human Rights Watch in April 2021. It declared that:

For the past 54 years, Israeli authorities have facilitated the transfer of Jewish Israelis to the OPT and granted them a superior status under the law as compared to Palestinians living in the same territory when it comes to civil rights, access to land, and freedom to move, build, and confer residency rights to close relatives.

HRW described Israeli Apartheid as a crime against humanity ‘which stands among the most odious crimes in international law.’

The third organisation to describe Israel was Amnesty International this January. It described Israeli apartheid as ‘a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity.’

Yet despite this, in Scotland for 3 years the Confederation of Friends of Israel Scotland and Glasgow Friends of Israel, two far-Right Zionist organisations which have worked with fascists, have been allowed to take part in the annual Stand Up To Racism march. A wide variety of organisations such as Scotland Against Criminalising Communities condemned SUTR’s willingness to welcome them taking part in their march.

The Socialist Labour Network is therefore holding a Public Zoom Meeting this Saturday March 19^th at 6.30 p.m. with a number of distinguished speakers. Please register here. The speakers are:

Ramzy Baroud is editor of the Palestine Chronicle. Ramzy has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist and author of several books. His latest book is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons

Professor David Miller until his recent sacking by the University of Bristol, which resulted from an outrageous censorship campaign led by the UK's Israel lobby, taught political sociology. He also set up the UK’s lobbying watchdog, Spinwatch, which has tracked corporate power for 15 years.

Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner is Israeli and a filmmaker and photographer and Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is the co-author of The Holocaust for Beginners and his latest book is An Army Like No Other for Verso.

Huda Ammori needs no introduction (but I’ll give one anyway!).  She is of Palestinian and Iraqi descent, and an active campaigner against the military industrial complex and Israel’s apartheid regime. She is a co-founder of Palestine Action, a direct action network targeting Israel’s largest private arms company, Elbit Systems.

Professor Farid Esack is a South African Muslim scholar, writer, and political activist known for his opposition to apartheid. He was appointed by Nelson Mandela as a gender equity commissioner, and his work for inter-religious dialogue. He is a member of Africa for Palestine.

Tony Greenstein is the first Jewish person to be expelled as part of the 'antisemitism' witchhunt, a member of the Steering Committee of the SLN and a co-founder of PSC. He is bringing out a new book Zionism During the Holocaust which has already been condemned as ‘anti-Semitic’ without the Zionists having read a word!

Tony Greenstein

Should we set fire to churches (& mosques)? This is burning religious issue in Israel

Israel destroyed the Notre Dame of Gaza – but there was only silence from the West

As Yossi Gurvitz explained, the fire at Notre Dame has caused an argument within Israeli Orthodox circles.

Rabbi Shlomo Avineir of the Beit El settlement in the West Bank (the one that US Ambassador David Friedman has helped raise funds for) suggested that the fire at Notre Dame was divine punishment for the burning of the Talmud in France in the 13^th century! God has, it would seem, a very long memory and clearly is not only a vengeful god but spiteful too as it is not clear what responsibility the French have for what happened 800 years ago.

But what is not in doubt is that since 2009 53 mosques and churches have been vandalised or set fire to in Israel. As is normally the case with attacks on non-Jews, the Israeli Police have not exerted themselves. Only 9 indictments to date have been filed by the police.

What makes this worse is that there are sections of Israeli society who openly justify the destruction of churches and mosques on religious grounds.

The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on fire, April 15, 2019. (Photo: LeLaisserPasserA38/Wikimedia)

Rabbi Benzi Gopstein, the head of the anti-miscegenation organisation Lehava in a panel discussion in 2015, in answer to a question as to whether he supported the burning of churches, referred to the teachings of the famous Spanish Jewish philosopher Maimonedes . Gopstein was asked by Benny Rabinowitz, a writer for an ultra-Orthodox newspaper, "Do you support burning churches in Israel, yes or no?" Gopstein, citing a Maimonides ruling that churches should be burned responded "Are you for Maimonides or against him?"

Gopstein's answer ‘shocked the attendees’ who asked "Benzti are you for burning or not?" "Of course I am," Bentzi replied "It’s Maimonides. Simply yes, what is there to question?"

This prompted the Vatican to call for Gopstein’s prosecution and the Police did call him in for interrogation. However Gopstein wasn’t an Arab who had justified the burning down of synagogues.  That would have merited a hefty prison sentence. The Attorney General refused to prosecute because in Israel racial hatred or discrimination on the grounds of religion is not a criminal offence.

FATHER NIKODEMUS SCHNABEL inspects the damage at Capernaum’s Church of the Loaves and Fishes caused by an arson attack. (photo credit: BEN HARTMAN)

However there was no such inhibition when it came to prosecuting Raed Salah, the leader of the Northern Islamic League for allegedly referring to the medieval blood libel about baking bread with the blood of non-Jewish children when opposing Israeli attacks on the worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque. Even though Salah denied having made any such statement and an examination of his remarks confirms that he made no mention of Jews (he maintained he had been referring to the Spanish Inquisition) he was convicted and sentenced to 9 months. For a thorough investigation of the affair see the Sheik Raed Affair and May warned of weak case against Sheikh Raed Salah and Jonathan Cook’s The real preachers of hate: Britain’s arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah

Bentzi Gophstein

Prominent settler Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, ruled that burning churches outside of the Land of Israel “isn’t our job for now”, but in Israel “the issue is more complicated”.

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (Photo: Wikimedia)

Avineir is a state official and draws a public salary as the rabbi of a major settlement Beit El. He is also the rabbi of a prominent settler Yeshiva (Ateret Yerushaliam, formerly Ateret Cohanim), ‘He  is considered to be one most important rabbis of the religious nationalist sector.’

After the fire in Notre Dame Cathedral, Aviner was asked:

“The great Christian Church in Paris is on fire. Should we feel sorry for that, or should we rejoice, as it [the cathedral] is idolatry, which is a mitzvah to burn?”

Aviner replied:

“This isn’t our job for now. There is no mitzvah [a religious commandment] to seek out churches abroad and burn them down. In our holy land, however, the issue is more complicated. Indeed, the Satmar Rabbi noted one of his arguments against immigrating to Israel, that here it is indeed a mitzvah to burn churches; and by not doing so, those [immigrating to Israel] are committing a sin.’

The problem is further compounded by the fact that if Jews do burn down churches ‘we’ll have to rebuild, and it’s a greater sin to rebuild [a church] than leave it standing.’

Gurvitz commented wryly:

‘(Oh, yes: American Jewish readers, I probably need to stress this – this is not a parody or a satire. This is actual rabbinical discourse in 2019 Israel.).’

Screenshot of Aviner’s opinion re church fires.

The point however is that many churches (and mosques) have been burnt in Israel in the last few years, and the police have been disinterested in capturing the arsonists. In several cases, the arson was accompanied by slogans familiar from ‘price tag’ attacks in the West Bank (mostly along the lines of Jewish vengeance). 

Gurvitz writes that:

‘Several immensely important rabbinic rulers, most prominent among them Maimonides, ruled that churches are places of idolatry and ought to be destroyed. The rulings are very clear. However, to support those rulings today would lead to violence, probably to a rise in anti-Semitism, and will jeopardize the alliance between the settler movement and the evangelical movement. There is also a chance of getting prosecuted for incitement for hatred, which is a crime in Israel – but then again, the law has a special exemption for “religious studies”, and the prosecution has been very leery of prosecuting rabbis for hate speech, making “religious discussions” the prime way of legally-protected incitement.’

Below is an article on the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s mosques by the Israeli military in the course of successive attacks on Gaza from 2008-2014 in Operations Protective Edge, Cast Lead and Pillar of Defence and the hypocrisy of Western indifference to this compared to the tears over Notre Dame.

Notre Dame of Gaza: our mosques and churches are also burning

Ramzy Baroud April 25, 2019

Palestinians walk past a mosque which witnesses said was destroyed by an Israel air strike during the offensive, on the second day of a five-day ceasefire, in Gaza City on August 15, 2014. (Photo: Ezz Zanoun/APA Images)

As the 300-foot spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris tragically came tumbling down on live television, my thoughts ventured to Nuseirat Refugee Camp, my childhood home in the Gaza Strip.

Then, also on television, I watched as a small bulldozer hopelessly clawed through the rubble of my neighborhood mosque. I grew up around that mosque. I spent many hours there with my grandfather, Mohammed, a refugee from historic Palestine. Before grandpa became a refugee, he was a young Imam in a small mosque in his long-destroyed village of Beit Daras.

Mohammed and many in his generation took solace in erecting their own mosque in the refugee camp as soon as they arrived to the Gaza Strip in late 1948. The new mosque was first made of hardened mud, but was eventually remade with bricks, and later concrete. He spent much of his time there, and when he died, his old, frail body was taken to the same mosque for a final prayer, before being buried in the adjacent Martyrs Graveyard. When I was still a child, he used to hold my hand as we walked together to the mosque during prayer times. When he aged, and could barely walk, I, in turn, held his hand.

But al-Masjid al-Kabir – the Great Mosque, later renamed al-Omari mosque – was completely pulverized by Israeli missiles during the summer war on Gaza, starting July 8, 2014.

Hundreds of Palestinian houses of worship were targeted by the Israeli military in previous wars, most notably in 2008-9 and 2012. But the 2014 war was the most brutal and most destructive yet. Thousands were killed and more injured. Nothing was immune to Israeli bombs. According to Palestine Liberation Organization records, 63 mosques were completely destroyed and 150 damaged in that war alone, oftentimes with people seeking shelter inside. In the case of my mosque, two bodies were recovered after a long, agonizing search. They had no chance of being rescued. If they survived the deadly explosives, they were crushed by the massive slabs of concrete.

In truth, concrete, cements, bricks and physical structures don’t carry much meaning on their own. We give them meaning. Our collective experiences, our pains, joys, hopes and faith make a house of worship what it is.

Many generations of French Catholics have assigned the Notre Dame Cathedral with its layered meanings and symbolism since the 12th century.

While the fire consumed the oak roof and much of the structure, French citizens and many around the world watched in awe. It is as if the memories, prayers and hopes of a nation that is rooted in time were suddenly revealed, rising, all at once, with the pillars of smoke and fire.

But the very media that covered the news of the Notre Dame fire seemed oblivious to the obliteration of everything we hold sacred in Palestine as, day after day, Israeli war machinery continues to blow up, bulldoze and desecrate.

Palestinians and Palestinian security forces inspect the damage inside a mosque torched and vandalized by arsonists in the West Bank village of Qusra, near Nablus, Monday, Sept. 5, 2011. Arsonists tossed two tires into the first floor study hall of the mosque. (Photo: Wagdi Eshtayah/APA Images)

It is as if our religions are not worthy of respect, despite the fact that Christianity was born in Palestine. It was there that Jesus roamed the hills and valleys of our historic homeland teaching people about peace, love and justice. Palestine is also central to Islam. Haram al-Sharif, where Al-Aqsa mosque and The Dome of the Rock are kept, is the third holiest site for Muslims everywhere. Yet Christian and Muslim holy sites are besieged, often raided and shut down per military diktats. Moreover, the Israeli army-protected messianic Jewish extremists want to demolish Al-Aqsa and the Israeli government has been digging underneath its foundation for many years.

Although none of this is done in secret; international outrage remains muted. In fact, many find Israel’s actions justified. Some have bought into the ridiculous explanation offered by the Israeli military that bombing mosques is a necessary security measure. Others are motivated by dark religious prophecies of their own.

Palestine, though, is only a microcosm of the whole region. Many of us are familiar with the horrific destruction carried out by fringe militant groups against world cultural heritage in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Most memorable among these are the destruction of Palmyra in Syria, Buddhas of Bamyan in Afghanistan and the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul.

Nothing however can possibly be compared to what the invading US army has done to Iraq. Not only did the invaders desecrate a sovereign country and brutalize her people, they also devastated her culture that goes back to the start of human civilization. Just the immediate aftermath of the invasion alone resulted in the looting of over 15,000 Iraqi antiquities, including the Lady of Warka, also known as the Mona Lisa of Mesopotamia, a Sumerian artifact whose history goes back to 3100 BC.

A Palestinian protester holds a cross during a demonstration against acts of vandalism on Christian sites including smashing headstones in a Christian cemetery in Israel and the occupied West Bank, outside Jerusalem’s Old City October 6, 2013. (Photo: Saeed Qaq/APA Images)

I had the privilege of seeing many of these artifacts in a visit to the Iraq Museum only a few years before it was looted when US forces failed to protect the site. At the time, Iraqi curators had thousands of precious pieces hidden in a basement in anticipation of a US bombing campaign. But nothing could prepare the museum for the savagery unleashed by the ground invasion. Since then, Iraqi culture has largely been reduced to items on the black market of the very western invaders that have torn that country apart. The valiant work of Iraqi cultural warriors and their colleagues around the world have managed to restore some of that stolen dignity, but it will take many years for the cradle of human civilization to redeem its vanquished honor.

Every mosque, every church, every graveyard, every piece of art and every artifact is significant because it is laden with meaning, the meaning bestowed on them by those who have built or sought in them an escape, a moment of solace, hope, faith and peace.

On August 2, 2014 the Israeli army bombed the historic al-Omari Mosque in northern Gaza. The ancient mosque dates back to the 7th century and has since served as a symbol of resilience and faith for the people of Gaza.

As Notre Dame burned, I thought of al-Omari too. While the fire at the French cathedral was likely accidental, destroyed Palestinian houses of worship were intentionally targeted. The Israeli culprits are yet to be held accountable.

I also thought of my grandfather, Mohammed, the kindly Imam with the handsome, small white beard. His mosque served as his only escape from a difficult existence, an exile that only ended with his own death.

Gilad Atzmon Comes Out - Now an open anti-Semite

I am not a Jew anymore.  I despise the Jew in me. I absolutely detest the Jew in you.

This blog was set up in 2007 to combat the pernicious influence of Gilad Atzmon, who operated on the fringes of the Palestine solidarity campaign.  To me and others anti-Zionist Jews it was clear that Atzmon was, without doubt, anti-Semitic.  Unfortunately this wasn’t at all clear to many others in the movement.

The Socialist Workers Party in particular couldn’t see the light and for a long time defended Atzmon.   See for example Time to say goodbye Why does the SWP not break its links withholocaust-denier Gilad Atzmon? 

The anti-Semitic Jazzman

What was decisive in breaking the influence of Atzmon over many in the Palestine solidarity movement was the joint call by Ali Abunimah, Omar Barghouti, Joseph Massad and other Palestinians for the movement to dissociate itself from Atzmon.  Granting NoQuarter: A Call for the Disavowal of the Racism and Antisemitism of GiladAtzmon

I had many long arguments with many people who just didn’t seem to get it.  Not just common and garden fools like Roy Ratcliffe of Exeter PSC, who composed lengthy treaties proving that the Eart was flat and Atzmon was an anti-racist  but people who had a much higher intellectual calibre.

For example Richard Falk, the distinguished professor and UN representative in Gaza, provided a  blurb for Atzmon’s book The Wandering Who.  In an email to me of 18 December 2011 Richard wrote ‘I appreciate some of the points and arguments that are made. Nevertheless, having re-read Atzmon's book and his responses to comparable lines of criticism I am not prepared to alter, much less renounce, my endorsement…. Atzmon may have pushed his basic argument too far, but it seems to me a valid inquiry that can lead to debate and discussion, but is not appropriate to denounce, and to go further, and denounce those who endorsed the reading of the book.’  

I found it frustrating that people like Richard Falk could not see what was in front of their eyes, but he was not alone.  The primary reason for the difficulty in persuading people that Atzmon was an anti-Semite was because of the determined efforts of the Zionist movement to equate all support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism as anti-Semitic.  It had indeed blurred the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, such that people could no longer tell the difference between the two.

As I wrote at the height of the controversy in Seamy Side of Solidarity 'Like the boy who cried wolf, the charge of "anti-semitism" has been made so often against critics of Zionism and the Israeli state that people now have difficulty recognising the genuine article.'

Falk had written that Atzmon’s book was "A transformative story told with unflinching integrity that all (especially Jews) who care about real peace, as well as their own identity, should not only read, but reflect upon and discuss widely."

Ramzy Baroud, Editor of the Palestine Chronicle wrote in the blurb of Atzmon's book, The Wandering Who that “Gilad Atzmon decided to open Pandora’s Box, and ignite a debate that has been frustratingly dormant for too long. His experiences are most authentic, views are hard-hitting, and, at times, provocative. It must be read and discussed.”  Ramzy Baroud is not stupid yet he too did not get it.

Professor John J. Mearsheimer of The Israel Lobby saw The Wandering Who as ‘Essential to an understanding of Jewish identity politics and the role they play on the world stage.’

The idiotic Dr. Samir Abed-Rabbo splutterd that Atzmon’s book was "A pioneering work that deserves to be read and Gilad Atzmon is brave to write this book!"

Lauren Booth, Cherie Blair’s brain dead sister-in-law, wrote that “It is more than an academic exercise. It is a revelation!” Booth is clearly easily satisfied!

Eric Walberg of Al Aharam Weekly believed that ‘'In his inimitable deadpan style, Atzmon identifies the abscess in the Jewish wisdom tooth – exilic tribalism – and pulls it out. Ouch!” 

Jeff Blankfort an anti-Semite from the USA who used to be on the left, described Atzmon’s  book as "A brilliant analysis that makes what appear to be contradictions in Jewish identity based political behavior not only comprehensible but predictable."

One suspects Blankfort would have difficulty predicting a restaurant menu.

And Professor James Petras, who believes that the Israeli tail wages the American dog,  wittered on about how "Atzmon has the courage - so profoundly lacking among Western intellectuals"

Karl Sabbagh wrote that ‘Atzmon’s insight into the organism created by the Zionist movement is explosive.’  Quite how a vacuum can be explosive is best left to better minds than Sabbagh.

The unknown and best forgotten academic Dr. Makram Khoury-Machool wrote that  “Having known Gilad for 25 years, I read the book in English, I heard it in Hebrew and reflected on it in Arabic. Gilad Atzmon is astonishingly courageous” Makram Khoury-Machool has the ability to speak and read in 3 languages yet he is incapable of thinking in even one of them.

To the Israeli lecturer Oren Ben Dor, for whom the Holocaust is god's just revenge on the Jews, preordained in the thicket of his academic prose, Atzmon’s book was ‘A fascinating achievement”.

To Kim Petersen of the anti-Semitic Dissident Voice “Gilad Atzmon is someone who encompasses what it means to be an intellectual.” Thus demonstrating above all that she is no intellectual.

For Dr. Kevin Barrett “Gilad Atzmon is the Moses of our time” in other words another false Messiah.

What these and other eulogies to the Atzmon's ego demonstrate is not merely the stupidity of so many academics, whose use of long words and complicated phrases is designed to mask their own superficiality, but how Atzmon managed to pull the wool over peoples’ eyes.

It was that which I found most frustrating.

David Taube of Harry's Place and Mike Ezra excuse Atzmon's anti-SemitismMany Zionists too were fascinated by Atzmon because he was repeating many of their tropes, not least that Zionism and Judaism were inextricably linked.   People like Mikey Ezra and David Taube of Harry’s Place were fascinated.  Taube described a jaunt that he and Mikey Ezra had gone on with Atzmon:

'Last week, Mikey invited me for a drink with Gilad Atzmon.  Mikey’s thoughts on Gilad and his worldview follow, below. 

‘Gilad was, I have to say, utterly charming and a delightful drinking companion....
Is Gilad Atzmon a racist? Not in the narrow sense of being preoccupied by genetic differences between people certainly. He is rather, I think, a ‘cultural essentialist’: if such a term exists.'  

You get that?  A cultural essentialist, not a racist!

But with his latest tweet, there can be no doubt about Atzmon’s anti-Semitism.

‘1.        I am not a Jew anymore.  2.  I indeed despise the Jew in me (whatever is left).  3.  I absolutely detest the Jew in you.’

Arthur Topham - holocaust denier for whom Atzmon gave 'expert' evidence - KKK leader David Duke who wanted to give evidence was refused entry  into Canada

Last November Atzmon gave expert witness testimony (!) on behalf of Arthur Topham, an anti-Semite and holocaust denier, to a Canadian court.   Despite this Topham was convicted of racial hatred and is awaiting sentence.  

I have previously posted a compendium of Atzmon’s anti-Semitic sayings.  It can be found at:  A Guide to the Sayings of Gilad Atzmon, the anti-Semitic jazzman.  According to Atzmon, I am a Zionist because he too, like the Zionists, argues that any Jew who is politically active as a Jew must be a Zionist.

It is somewhat ironic that Atzmon is a fierce opponent of BDS.  For him it is a Jewish enterprise.  Atzmon makes a nasty, vicious attack on Omar Barghouti, who is facing the possibility of Israeli reprisals and deportation, despite being a long-standing Israeli resident.  In Omar Accomplished His Job, Omar Is Free To Go Atzmon says that 

'BDS was an Israeli controlled opposition maneuver.  For Israel, BDS presented the ideal front on which to fight. Instead of battling for a Palestinian Right Of Return, that is ethically solid and backed by UN resolutions, the solidarity movement was reduced to an internal Jewish debate over the “Right to BDS.”    

I just hope that Ramzy Baroud, Karl Sabbagh and co. have the honesty to admit that they made a mistake.