Y.M.C.A. - 'Christian' Partners in the Murder of 3 Asylum Seekers

Maybe it’s unsurprising but even Britain’s 2 most liberal dailies, the Guardian and Independent, have not covered the triple suicide of the Serkhi family in Glasgow last week. A Russian family, they threw themselves to their deaths from a 15^th floor flat in Glasgow, the highest such flats in Europe and as you can see from the pictures, slum dwellings par excellence.

As Immigration Officers were banging on the door and the YMCA were preparing to evict them, the family who were escaping from the attentions of the Russian Secret Police, decided to end it all. In any other situation this would be a situation where charges of manslaughter or muder were brought. As it is nothing has been done nor will it be done legally by those responsible for the Serhki's deaths.

What makes this worse is that the YMCA, a ‘Christian’ organisation, was a partner in this murder. And murder it certainly was. This was no assisted suicide. The family was forced into taking their lives because their situation was, as seen by them, so hopeless.

Of course one doesn’t expect newspapers like the Express and Daily Hate Mail to print stories about how successful their campaign against bogus asylum seekers is, but one would expect the ‘anti-racist’ Guardian and Indie to have something to say, although to be fair the Indie has an excellent reputation for hard hitting coverage.

The YMCA though should hold its head in shame. It apparently has a ‘no eviction’ policy towards asylum seekers. This ‘policy’ was demonstrated to be observed in the breach when a young Afghani asylum seeker from the same block of flats came to the demonstration by local residents and refugees in memory of the Serkhi family. As he was at the demonstration, the YMCA ordered its cleaners into his room and dumped his belongings in the nearest rubbish bin.

As the excellent Robina Quereshi, from Positive Action in Housing, one of the few charities who have been wholly anti-racist and supportive of asylum speakers, said in the letter below, you wouldn’t treat an animal like this. Yet Joe Connolly and his fellow administrators at YMCA are more attracted by the money they screw from the British state to ‘house’ asylum seekers than they are by the idea that they might be helping the most wretched on this earth.

The YMCA has long form on this. They have collaborated with the State repeatedly over workfare schemes. Their only principle is to make as much money out of the poor as possible. As for their ‘Christianity’ we shouldn’t be too critical. After all they come in a long tradition. In 1933 the Protestant Church split with the majority at first going into what was known as the Reich Church led by a Hitler supporter, Bishop Muller. It found scriptural authority in the Bible for Hitler’s biological racism, in much the same way as the Orange Free Church in South Africa found justification in the Bible (the story of Ham) for Apartheid. Or just as the leader of the Southern Baptists in the US, John Hagee (who is visiting Britain soon) believes that the holocaust is god’s work and just as Zionists agree with him, both on this and the biblical right they have to take over and steal other peoples’ land and farms.

It will be interesting to see if the Church of England has anything to say about one of the main ‘Christian’ charities in Britain. Another good article is on Socialist Unity.

Tony Greenstein

10th March 2010

FAO Joe Connolly

YMCA Glasgow

William Harthouse

25 Daba Street

Glasgow G51 2JA

Dear Mr. Connelly,

TREATMENT OF ASYLUM SEEKERS AT YMCA ACCOMMODATION

Last night, while attending a candlelit vigil in memory of the Serkhi family alongside over 200 residents of the Red road flats, myself and representatives from the Scottish Afghan Association, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees were approached by a young Afghan man, Saeed. He explained that he had left his YMCA flat on the 21st floor to join the other residents at the vigil.

After about an hour, he returned to the flat whereupon he found that his room completely cleared of his belongings and was told by the YMCA staff cleaning out his room that his stuff was gone and he couldn’t return to the flat because the room was “for someone else” He asked us for help and was clearly distressed. When we were approached by the young man, a crowd of people gathered round around 25 to 30 who were clearly distressed and upset and angry for the young man. There was a small police presence of around three officers and we were in a potentially flammatory situation. We took him aside and went with him to his flat. It was empty as if he had never been there. The cleaners hoover and cleaning materials were in the flat. He looked in cupboards, drawers, all his things were gone. We witnessed this first hand and were quite shocked and went with him to speak to your staff at reception. Saeed was casually told that his belongings were in the bin. Saeed was stood before us at eight o clock in the evening with a set of keys he could no longer use, the clothes he was wearing, and a letter from the YMCA telling him to leave. All his papers and personal belongings were ‘probably in the bin’. He had no money, papers, clothes and no means to support himself. This man was treated worse than an animal. For someone to just come into his flat and throw out all his personal belongings while he steps out for a few minutes displays a complete lack of respect, compassion or humanity, and particularly at such a sensitive time in the Red Road community.

It is my understanding that Strathclyde Police deliberately reduced the numbers of police officers to ease tensions within the community and particularly amongst vulnerable people in the depths of despair about their asylum cases. If this is the YMCA’s standard practice when treating asylum seekers, then it is nothing short of flammatory to the Red road community and a disgrace to civilized society.

On a separate note, we would be grateful to know the following:

1. What level of cooperation does the YMCA afford to the UKBA enforcement removal team

seeking to remove asylum seekers from the YMCA flats?

2. How much money does the YMCA receive per asylum seeker for its UKBA contract at the Red

Road flats?

3. We suspect many asylum seekers are being driven to desperation by the combination of

inhumane practices being perpetrated by the UKBA and the YMCA to the point they have said

firsthand that they fully understand why the Serkhi family threw themselves from the 15th floor

of one of your flats. Will the YMCA be evicting any more asylum seekers during this troubled

time at the Red Road when so many people are in the depths of despair and hopelessness?

I would be extremely grateful for an immediate response.

Yours sincerely,

Robina Qureshi

DIRECTOR

Cc: Various

VIGIL AND PRESS CONFERENCE

11 AM FRIDAY 19 MARCH 2010

UKBA, BRAND STREET REPORTING CENTRE

200 BRAND STREET, GOVAN, GLASGOW

PLEASE ATTEND A VIGIL AND PRESS CONFERENCE IN SUPPORT OF 18 YEAR OLD SAEED, WHOSE BELONGINGS AND ROOM WAS CLEARED OUT BY THE YMCA ON THE NIGHT OF THE VIGIL FOR THE SEHRYK FAMILY AT THE RED ROAD FLATS. WE ARE CONCERNED THAT SAEED MAY BE DETAINED AND ASK SUPPORTERS TO COME ALONG AND SUPPORT SAEED AT BRAND STREET REPORTING CENTRE AT 11.00 AM AT BRAND STREET . A HIGH LEVEL OF SUPPORT AND PRESS COVERAGE IS ANTICIPATED.

Many people will be aware of the story of the asylum seeker whose belongings were cleared out of his room at the Red Road flats by the YMCA while he was at a candlelit vigil for the Sehryk Family alongside 250 other residents at 63 Petershill Drive , Glasgow on Tuesday 9^th March 2010. Saeed had received a letter from the YMCA telling him to leave his flat but he has nowhere else to go.

There was clearly a lot of tensions and sadness following the Red road suicides and for this to happen at all, never mind on the night of the vigil, showed, in our view a clear lack of humanity or compassion. Tensions could have flared as 25-30 people gathered round to see what the young man was upset about.

People were clearly distressed and upset and angry for the young man, especially after what had happened to the Sehryk family, clearly there was an incredulity in the air about the depths to which our “civilised” society could sink at a time of such despair and hopelessness in this community.

To calm things, we went with the young man, Saeed, to his flat. The events were filmed. The flat was indeed completely cleared out except for the cleaner’s Hoover (marked Cynthia) and cleaner’s trolley. We followed Saeed and a representative of the Scottish Afghan Society, Mohammad Asif, spoke to the staff at reception, two men. The two men rummaged amongst bags of other people’s clothes and called out names to Saeed. These were clearly not his. They then told Saeed in the presence of six witnesses that his stuff was probably thrown out or in the bin. Saeed was stood before us in the clothes he wore, with a pair of keys and a letter from the YMCA telling him to leave. (See attached).

On Wednesday 10^th March, we sent a letter to the YMCA by email dated Wed 10/03/2010 18:46 expressing our shock at the way this young man was treated. We made it clear that if this is the YMCA’s standard practice when treating asylum seekers, then it is nothing short of flammatory to the Red road community and a disgrace to civilized society.

In a reply to Positive Action in Housing dated Thursday 11 March 2010, the YMCA’s Chief Executive Joe Connoly denied receiving our correspondence and stated that our account of events were “defamatory and offensive”. Mr Connoly went onto state that YMCA Glasgow has a “no eviction” policy.

This does not tie in with Saeed’s experience or those who witnessed what happened to him. If you get a letter telling you to leave by the YMCA and then find that all your belongings have been cleared out, then in our estimation, Saeed was evicted.

We should make it clear that we have filmed evidence of the events that unfolded on the night of Tuesday 9 March 2010 and sworn statements from Saeed and other witnesses. Furthermore, we have other service users who have received letters telling them to vacate YMCA accommodation. Yet they have nowhere to go.

In a separate piece of correspondence on Thursday 11 March 2010, the YMCA stated:

“The person [Saeed] is with his belongings, accommodated by YMCA Glasgow and, in accordance with our no eviction policy, will remain so until the Scottish Refugee Council are able to provide him with the assistance he requires”.

According to Saeed, this is simply not true. On Wednesday 10 March, he stayed at another asylum seekers flat, sleeping on the sofa. The following day, Thursday 11 March, a YMCA staff member searched for and found Saeed at the other asylum seeker’s flat, and hurriedly reinstated him in his original room that had been cleared out. The YMCA staff member then handed him a bag of dirty, scorched clothes, and told him, "Your problem is over". His dead family's photographs are still missing.

Unfortunately it was not over, for two reasons. Firstly, the bin bag of clothes that Saeed was given were not his. In fact, to add insult to injury, the clothes he received back were dirty, scorched and not even his size or style. Secondly, the following day, Friday 12 March, Saeed went to report at the UKBA Brand Street Reporting Centre. UKBA staff told him that he must report every week instead of the usual fortnightly reporting. Saeed is very worried about this sudden change in frequency of reporting, and thinks it is because he has attracted attention by talking about the way he was treated.

On Tuesday 16 March, Positive Action in Housing gave Saeed a little bit of money from our hardship fund to buy food as he has no other means of support. Yesterday, Wednesday 17 March, Saeed's lawyer advised him to report the missing belongings to the Police. We contacted Strathclyde Police who spoke to the YMCA. Today, Thursday 18 March, Saeed informed us that a YMCA member of staff visited him to find out what was missing and to begin a search of his missing belongings. As yet, Saeed’s belongings remain missing.

At 11 am, tomorrow, Friday 19 March, Saeed will attend a press conference prior to going into Brand Street to sign. The conference will provide an update to Saeed's extraordinary circumstances.

Saeed fled Afghanistan to escape the Taleban because they were forcing young men and boys in his neighbourhood to become suicide bombers.

This is not the first time that the treatment of asylum seekers by the YMCA has come under public scrutiny. As early as June 2000, the Sunday Herald reported that:

“More than 20 representatives of a group of 102 asylum-seekers housed in the YMCA building in Springburn said they were living in fear, being supplied with inadequate food and were discriminated against by the building's staff, who would not allow visitors. Ola Adewale said he arrived in Britain two months ago. He fled his Nigerian home in fear of his life, after earlier being detained and tortured by security services for speaking out against the government. He told the Sunday Herald he had been victimised by senior members of the YMCA's staff. "Up until last week, most of them were not treating us like human beings," he said. "I was in the building's reception and I picked up a magazine to read. A senior staff member said, 'Get away from that place, it is not for asylum seekers'.

In July 2000, the Herald newspaper reported that :

“Asylum seekers called on MSPs to take action over conditions in their temporary accommodation which make them feel like 'prisoners'. Seven Glasgow-based refugees met the politicians to give them accounts of their difficulties and submitted a 70-signature petition describing their 'deplorable' conditions. The refugees, who were mostly professionals in their home countries, spoke of their fear and anxiety living at the YMCA centre in Sighthill, and said they had been attacked in their rooms and in the street. Their 'plea for support' expressed gratitude for 'providing us with a safe place in which to hide after our escape from almost certain death, torture and other forms of persecution'. It added that Glaswegians had 'consistently shown us a lot of love and a spirit of friendliness which we have found astonishing'. However, it went on to say that the YMCA accommodation was 'ridden with problems' because of inappropriate diet and meal times, and many asylum seekers were suffering weight loss problems. The petition accused the YMCA of treating the refugees like 'prisoners', although it conceded that they were at least now allowed visitors. It described as 'incomprehensible' the decision to place four women - including one who is pregnant - and two children, aged eight and nine, among 90 men in what could be a tense and aggressive atmosphere.”

Amnesty International - DON'T SUPPORT ERIC LEE

Eric Lee’s Scab Campaign Against Amnesty International

Who you might ask is Eric Lee? Well there is a web site that supposedly supports workers of the world in their struggles. It is run by an Israeli reserve officer Eric Lee. Nothing wrong with that you might say and of course you are right. Plenty of Israelis are active in solidarity organisations of one form and another.

But Lee is made from an entirely different metal. He wastes no opportunity to support the Israeli state against the Palestinians. He has already been refused £2,000 by my union, UNISON, because of his and LabourStart’s support for Zionism and Israel. Laborstart consistently and consciously refuses to cover Histadrut’s treatment of the Palestinians. Histadrut is the Israeli settler union that steals 11% of Palestinian wages of those from the West Bank whilst refusing to give them any support or representation inside Israel. Histadrut is the ‘union’ that built the early settlements on the West Bank and although it has now agreed to recruit migrant workers, in practice it is their union subs. that it is after. Histadrut has lost 2/3 of its members in the past 20 years. That is why Histadrut has consistently supported the deportation of migrant labour from Israel (to reduce Israeli Jewish unemployment) and last year, when Israel Rail tried to sack 100 Arab Israeli workers to replace them with Jewish workers [the pretext for this was that only those who’d served in the army, i.e. Jews, could serve on the railways!].

Eric Lee distinguished himself last year by coming out in support of the War Against Gaza and the murder of 400 innocent children, the use of cluster bombs, fleychettes and white phosphorous. Not a word of criticism emanated from his mouth because attacking civilians with chemical weapons was ‘self defence’ in this twisted mind.

Lee is now waging another ugly campaign. This time inside Amnesty International. Amnesty was the first organisation, back in the 1970’s which exposed the Israeli practice of torturing Palestinian detainees. Today it helps expose the continuing violations of Palestinian rights. And what is Lee’s objection? That Amnesty spends too much time on Israel! Well, as Mandy Rice-Davies says, ‘he would say that, wouldn’t he.’

He has also waged an ugly racist campaign in support of a staff member who has falsely branded Binyamin Mohammed, who was severely tortured through British complicity and American ‘extraordinary rendition’, as an Al Quaeda supporter.

Lee seeks to cover himself by saying he is a supporter of 2 States and not a supporter of Netanyahu. But in Israel 'left' and 'right' don't have the same meaning. The Zionist consensus operates to the exclusion of all else. Netanyahy supports a Jewish State hence why the Israeli Labour Party, at the urging of of Histadrut,

As Lee writes on his blog:

‘I need Amnesty Members who support it to second the motion. Please print out the text of the emergency resolution above, write that you second this resolution, sign it, and send this with your full name and postal address to Eric Lee, 4 Alexandra Park Road, London N10 2AA.

And below is his campaign to get elected:

Amnesty has lost its way.

I write that in sadness — because I believe in Amnesty International.

This is an organisation that has for nearly half a century represented the very best values. It deservedly won the Nobel Peace Prize. It has captured the hearts of millions. In Britain alone, more than a quarter of a million people count itself among its members, donating money to the cause, participating in its campaigns.

I am proud to be one of them.

When Amnesty campaigns to release prisoners of conscience, I am with them. When they fight against the death penalty, I support them. When they campaign against torture, they have my backing.

But when they get it wrong, someone has to tell them.

And recently, Amnesty has gotten it very wrong on the question of Israel and Palestine.

Before saying another word, I should be clear about where I stand.

Not that it matters — I could have no view at all about the Israelis and Palestinians and still could have valid things to say about Amnesty on this question.

But I want to tell you who I am and what I believe.

I support a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side with secure and recognized borders. I support a withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. I support a negotiated settlement regarding Jerusalem, one which gives both Israelis and Palestinians the right to call that city their capital. And I oppose those on each side who work to undermine any chance at peace and reconciliation — including the West Bank Israeli settlements, which I want to close down because they are an obstacle to peace.

I am not a supporter of the Netanyahu government; I do not believe that violence is the way to solve conflicts; I do not accept any side’s claim to a God-given right to the land.

Having said that, I do believe that all peoples have a right to self determination, and that includes a right to self-defense. I believe that it is right for Israel to use its military might to defend the country.

And now we come back to Amnesty.

I guess the best way would be to illustrate, perhaps just with one example, what has gone wrong.

• government.
• Page 30 gives a couple of examples. There are other examples in the articles below, but here’s just one.

  Take the most recent issue of the Amnesty magazine, which is sent to all members and supporters of the organisation. I’m talking about its January/February 2010 issue.

  The magazine is only 40 pages long.

• Two-thirds of page 4 is taken up with an article about Gaza, about the Israeli blockade. It does not once mention the fact that Egypt too shares a border with Gaza, and that it — like the international community — enforces strict border controls because a terrorist organization, Hamas, has seized control of the territory. (There is no such blockade of the West Bank, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority.)
• Page 8 makes the top ‘what you can do’ item an appeal to the UK government to lift the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
• Page 22 is a feature on the use of cluster bombs. It is illustrated with a photo of young girl injured by Israeli cluster bombs used in Lebanon.
• Israel is named as a country that produced cluster munitions on page 23.
• Page 28 has an ‘Action update’ focussing on the denial of clean water to Palestinians by the Israeli government, part of a policy, Amnesty says, “to drive Palestinians from their homs to make way for further illegal Israeli settlements”. No mention of the Israeli settlement freeze announced by the Netanyahu
• les of feedback the organisation receives — and the first one condemns Amnesty for “calling for an arms embargo” on Gaza. The writer, presumably, supports the import of arms into Gaza where they can be used by Hamas to attack Israel.
• Page 33 has ‘Appeals updates’ and the first one is about a Palestinian, jailed by Israel, who was released and “is now at home with his family and plans to resume his studies”. There is no mention of what he was jailed for — presumably, links to a terrorist organization.
• Page 34 lists upcoming events. One lecture includes Gaza in the title. Another is a dramatised reading about a family in Gaza.
• Page 37 runs a letter from a reader protesting Israel’s treatment of convicted spy Mordecai Vanunu.
• Another letter defends Israel on the water policy stuff, but gets a repy from Amnesty — the only editorial reply to any letter in the magazine — saying simply that AI “wrote to Israel’s Water Authority before the report was published but received no response.”

That’s 10 or 11 references to Israel in a 40 page magazine.

And to put things in perspective, do you know how many times Amnesty mentions, for example, North Korea — probably the most repressive regime on earth, in the same magazine?

I won’t add any more you get the message. Now North Korea might not be the most pleasant place to live, I grant you, but it’s not the most repressive regime on earth unless you are a CIA stooge. Burma and Indonesia come to mind as does Uzbekistan.

Tony Greenstein

European Court of Justice ruling blow for Settlement Goods

From little acorns, oak trees grow.
Tony Greenstein

Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) welcomes landmark EU court ruling, calls for intensifying grassroots BDS

Palestine- 15 March:

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC) welcomes the long overdue ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that Israeli products originating from Israel's colonial settlements built on Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) do not qualify for preferential customs treatment under the EC-Israel trade agreement [1]. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, all Israeli colonies are illegal and constitute war crimes. The BNC calls on all 27 member states of the European Union to implement the court's findings in full and without delay, as a first step towards a full ban on Israeli colonies' products. We also urge the citizens and civil society groups of European Union member states to pressure their respective governments and the EU leadership to abide by this landmark decision and enforce its implementation.

In response to an appeal lodged by German drinks firm Brita, who were asked to pay full EU import duties when importing supplies manufactured in the OPT by the Israeli company Soda-Club Ltd, Europe's highest court ruled that Israeli products originating in the West Bank do not fall within the territorial scope of the EC-Israel Agreement and therefore do not qualify for preferential treatment under that agreement. The court also ruled that Israeli companies operating in the OPT are "third parties" and cannot benefit from the terms of a separate EC-PLO trade agreement.

Worth €12 billion to the Israeli economy, the European Union is Israel's second largest export market after the United States; an estimated one-third of these exports are fully or partially manufactured in Israel's colonies [2]. On top of this, a large number of Israeli companies are providing products and services to the settlements, profiting from them, or rendering them sustainable in other ways. Illegal settlements in the OPT are an integral and significant part of the Israeli economy.

Allowing Israeli goods illegally produced on Palestinian territory to be imported under the terms of an EC-Israel trade agreement effectively constitutes a giant subsidy for Israel's brutal and ever-expanding military occupation and colonization of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. As with all forms of colonialism, the Israeli occupation is motivated by a combination of political ideology and economic self-interest. This subsidy greatly increases the economic incentive for occupation and is funding the systematic denial of the rights of Palestinians.

Additionally, the BNC would like to highlight the obstructiveness of Israeli export authorities. The court ruling observed that "despite a specific request...they [the firms involved and the Israeli export authorities] did not reply to the question whether the products had been manufactured in Israeli-occupied settlements in Palestinian territory". We call upon member states to hold Israel to what the court described as its obligation to "provide sufficient information to enable the real origin of products to be determined". EU member states should be wary of the likelihood that Israel may react to this ruling by adopting further measures designed to conceal the true origin of many Israeli exports.

In principle, the European Union refuses to recognize Israeli colonies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as part of the State of Israel. While welcoming this stance, the BNC wishes to remind EU member states that their official position in this regard is undermined by welcoming Israeli products manufactured on Occupied Palestinian Territory into their vast markets. We hope that this new Court of Justice ruling will give member states the confidence and legal basis, assuming they have the will, to impose full import duties on Israeli settlement goods as a precursor to an eventual ban on such illegally produced imports. In fact, upholding international law as well as its own laws would obligate the EU to end its entire Association Agreement with Israel. The EU's lucrative trade with Israel despite its ongoing occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people not only violates the human rights clauses in the EC-Israel Association Agreement; it makes a mockery of international law and human rights treaties and indicates complicity in maintaining Israel's system of injustice.

As we await confirmation from the 27 member states of the European Union that they intend to implement the ruling of the EU Court of Justice, the BNC reiterates its call for the suspension of the Trade Association Agreement with Israel and for all forms of civil society-led boycotts and divestment initiatives against Israel until it ends it fully abides by its obligations under international law and respects the rights of the Palestinian people.

Is Zionism Racist? Half of Israeli High School Students Oppose Equal Rights for Israeli Arab

Jewish Group Urges Israeli Model Bar Refaeli not to marry Leonardo DiCaprio and dilute the Jewish race

Is Zionism racist? Of course not. It’s just a gentle Jewish cultural and spiritual association of like-minded thinkers! And pigs (kosher of course) can fly. In most countries you will find clubs and societies which are allied with church or synagogue and which are only for those who are of a particular brand of religion or creed. There is nothing racist in this because racism comes from power, the power to determine others' lives.

It is when a State is aligned to a particular religion and becomes a state of a particular religion, with the purpose of making that state as ‘pure’ as possible in respect of other religions, it is not a religious but a racial state. In that sense there is no difference in principle between the State of the Aryans in Nazi Germany and the State of the Jews in Israel. There may be differences in degree, method, power etc. but the underlying philosophy is the same.

What you may ask about an Islamic state? Well there are a few of them and they are not States of Islamic privilege. In Iran you don’t gain any particular rights or privileges because you are Islamic. Jews are not discriminated against by the state in Iran because they are Jewish. Islam, in short, becomes a means of legitimising repression against other Iranians who are deemed Islamic. Likewise in Saudi Arabia, which officially bars non-Muslims from the country, the ruling Saud family, uses the Wahhabite offshoot from Islam to repress other Muslims.

Britain is formally Christian but the only privilege that this carries is that of the right of succession to the present Royal incumbent. Only Protestants of the Church of England can become King or Queen. Not a deprivation that blights too many lives although there is widespread consensus that this is anachronistic, although some of us would say the monarchy itself is what is anachronistic! But you don’t get higher welfare benefits or gain access to state lands or jobs etc. because you are Christian here. On the contrary there are laws against that type of thing.

So it’s no surprise that we find that nearly 50% of Israel’s Jewish secondary schools don’t believe in equal rights for Israeli Arabs. These students are, of course, educated in a strictly segregated system of education, though like in northern Ireland that is more a symptom than a cause.

No wonder that Professor Daniel Bar Tal of Tel Aviv University can state the bleeding obvious, namely that ‘"Jewish youth have not internalized basic democratic values.’ And why? Maybe it has something to do with a Jewish state? The need for Judaification of areas of the country where Arabs predominate or are in large minority, such as Jerusalem or the Galilee or Negev? Maybe it is also something to do with having a party of the far-right Avigdor Liebermann in power, whose followers chant regularly ‘death to the Arabs’ or whose leader expresses the desire to drown thousands of Palestinian ‘terrorists’ in the Dead Sea?

Note that whereas 49.5% of youth are opposed to granting equal rights to Arabs, among the growing religious and orthodox sector this shoots up to over 80%. Proving how correct I am to have focussed on Israeli’s neo-Nazi rabbis.

Indeed it seems that over half are opposed to equal rights because 56% are opposed to Arabs being able to run for office. Of course this won’t happen, at least not yet, because the ability of Arabs to formally take part in the political process is a major component of the propaganda that declares Israel to be a democratic state. Indeed Israel is what should be known as a democratic police state for Arabs.

The article beneath that is about an openly racist Zionist group that has petitioned Bar Refaeli not to marry her boyfriend Leonardo DiCaprio ‘because it would dilute the Jewish race’. Now the only reason I include this article from Ha’aretz is because what they are calling for is actually part of mainstream Zionist discourse. It was Netanyahu who said at the 2003 Herzliya Conference who termed Israeli Arabs a ‘demographic problem’. As Haaretz of 17.12.03. reported:

‘the finance minister blamed Israeli Arabs for tilting Israel's demographic balance, and said if the percentage of Arab citizens rises above its current level of about 20 percent, Israel will not be able to remain both Jewish and democratic. "If there is a demographic problem, and there is, it is with the Israeli Arabs who will remain Israeli citizens," Netanyahu said…’

Indeed opposition to ‘assimilation’ or marrying-out was converted from a religious injunction into a racial prerequisite when Zionism sought to create a state that was Jewish. Just as the Nazis transformed anti-semitism from a religious to racial persecution, so too in Israel. Indeed in the latest controversy over conversion to being Jewish in Israel, it is Liebermann’s Yisrael Beteinu is in the forefront of calling for mass conversions and a liberalisation of the existing order (because one-third million Russians in Israel are not Jewish).


Poll: Half of Israeli high schoolers oppose equal rights for Arabs
Friday March 12 2010

By Or Kashti

Nearly half of Israel's high school students do not believe that Israeli-Arabs are entitled to the same rights as Jews in Israel, according to the results of a new survey released yesterday. The same poll revealed that more than half the students would deny Arabs the right to be elected to the Knesset.

The survey, which was administered to teenagers at various Israeli high schools, also found that close to half of all respondents - 48 percent - said that they would refuse orders to evacuate outposts and settlements in the Palestinian territories.

Nearly one-third - 31 percent - said they would refuse military service beyond the Green Line.

The complete results of the poll will be presented today during an academic discussion hosted jointly by Tel Aviv University's School of Education and the Citizens' Empowerment Center in Israel. The symposium will focus on various aspects of civic education in the country.

"Jewish youth have not internalized basic democratic values," said Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal, one of the conference organizers.

The poll was commissioned last month by Maagar Mochot, an Israeli research institution, under the supervision of Prof. Yitzhak Katz. It took a sampling of 536 Jewish and Arab respondents between the ages of 15-18.

The survey sought to gauge youth attitudes toward the State of Israel; their perspective on new immigrants and the state's Arab citizens; and their political stances.

The results paint a picture of youth leaning toward political philosophies that fall outside the mainstream.

In response to the question of whether Arab citizens should be granted rights equal to that of Jews, 49.5 percent answered in the negative. The issue highlighted the deep fault lines separating religious and secular youths, with 82 percent of religious students saying they opposed equal rights for Arabs while just 39 percent of secular students echoed that sentiment.

The secular-religious gap was also present when students were faced with the question of whether Arabs should be eligible to run for office in the Knesset. While 82 percent of those with religious tendencies answered in the negative, 47 percent of secular teens agreed. In total, 56 percent said Arabs should be denied this right altogether.

The survey also delved into the issue of military service and following orders that are deemed politically divisive.

While an overwhelming majority (91 percent) expressed a desire to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces, 48 percent said they would not obey an order to evacuate outposts and settlements in the West Bank.

Here, too, researchers note the religious nexus. Of those who would refuse evacuation orders, 81 percent categorize themselves as religious as opposed to 36 percent who are secular.

"This poll shows findings which place a huge warning signal in light of the strengthening trends of extremist views among the youth," said an Education Ministry official.

The survey, which also revealed that a relatively high number of youth plan on voting and that democracy is still the preferred system of government, indicates "a gap between the consensus on formal democracy and the principles of essential democracy, which forbid the denial of rights to the Arab population," the official said.

"The differences in positions between secular and religious youth, which are only growing sharper from a demographic standpoint, need to be of concern to all of us because this will be the face of the state in another 20-30 years," said Bar-Tal. "There is a combination of fundamentalism, nationalism, and racism in the worldview of religious youth."

See also

Jewish extremists to model Bar Refaeli: Don't marry DiCaprio

Jewish extremists have urged supermodel Bar Refaeli not to marry her actor boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio, because it would dilute the Jewish race, according to media reports.

In a letter to Refaeli, far-rightist Baruch Marzel wrote on behalf of nationalist group Lehava, which aims to fight assimilation among Jews: "It is not by chance that you were born Jewish.
"Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their descendants would one day remove the family's future generations from the Jewish people," the letter continued. "Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies of the Jewish people."

Lehava in Hebrew means "flame" but it is also an acronym for "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land." According to the group's Facebook page, it aims to provde assistance to Jewish girls in relationships with non-Jews, and especially Arabs.

Marzel told Refaeli that he "has nothing against Mr. DiCaprio, who I have no doubt is a talented actor." Still, he urged Refaeli: "Come to your senses, look forward and back too - and not only the present. Don't marry Leonardo DiCaprio, don't harm the future generations."

Harvard University Defends neo-Nazi Academic Martin Kramer

First Dershowitz now Kramer - Harvard University Just Loves Academic Racists

There must be something about the air in Massachusetts these days. They’ve just gone and elected a Republican Senator in a State where a donkey could get elected if it wore the Democratic colours (some say it has already!). Now it’s flagship University, Harvard, seems intent on defending a foreign affairs policy wonk, Martin Kramer, who’s long established a reputation as a hard-line Zionist.

Harvard is, of course, the almer mata of another serial racist and by all accounts wife batterer, one Professor Alan Dershowitz whose book The Case for Israel plagiarised a book, Joan Peter’s From Time Immemorial, that was itself guilty of plagiarism and large-scale falsehoods.

Kramer however, who was been involved in the McCarthyite Campus Watch (like the Nazis, he doesn’t like dissident academics who speak out on Palestine) went one further at a conference in Herzliya recently, where he applauded the starvation siege of Gaza on account of the fact that it would reduce the birthrate and population of Gaza.

Such views are eugenicist. They are also the basis of Nazi race ‘science’. Selective breeding or birth control to eliminate the poor and feckless was the life blood of the American Eugenicist movement in the early part of the 20^th Century. Some 66,000 forcible sterilisations were carried out in the United States between 1908 and the 1960’s.

One-third of these forcible sterilisations were carried out in California alone. Famous Supreme Court Judge Oliver Wendell Holme lent his support to the movement declaring in 1927 that :

‘It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes... Holmes concluded his argument with the infamous phrase "Three generations of imbeciles are enough"

Martin Kramer comes in a long-line of Eugenicists and it is therefore no surprise that he turns his attentions to the Palestinians. Every racist crank and cookie these days signs up to Zionism’s anti-Islamic racism and its hatred of the Palestinians. Policies to stop Palestinians breed are but a logical extension of the need for a racially pure Jewish state.

The Weatherhead Centre describes itself as ‘the largest international research center within Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.’

It would seem that under the guise of ‘academic freedom’ [which only ever applies to far-right and Zionist ideas, as opposition to Zionism in this Orwellian world is ‘hate speech’) Harvard is fully intent on defending the neo-Nazi outpourings of this racist ‘scholar’.

Below is a joint letter from students at Harvard who are concerned about the company their university is keeping.

Tony Greenstein

On Kramer’s Statements

By John F. Bowman, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, and Abdelnasser A. Rashid

Published: Thursday, March 11, 2010

We address this op-ed to Beth Simmons (Director, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs), Jeffry Frieden and James Robinson (Acting Directors, WCIA), and Drew Faust (President, Harvard University).

We write as gravely concerned students and student group leaders representing over 16 groups throughout Harvard University. Our entire constituency can be viewed online.

We are disturbed by the racist and inhumane comments of Martin Kramer, Visiting Scholar at the National Security Studies Program at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. We have become even more alarmed that rather than taking a dissociating or even strictly neutral stance against such extremist and hateful statements, the Weatherhead Center issued a defensive response.

At the Herzliya Conference in Israel last month, Mr. Kramer, who in his own words provides advice on “U.S. policy options in the Middle East,” advocated measures to diminish Palestinian birth rates as a means of population control. Mr. Kramer stated that Israel’s siege on Gaza, which prohibits the entry of crucial humanitarian supplies, helps “break Gaza’s runaway population growth and there is some evidence that they have.” He suggests that this phenomenon “may begin to crack the culture of martyrdom, which demands a constant supply of superfluous young men.” Mr. Kramer’s public call to halt food, medicine, and humanitarian aid—which he calls “pro-natal subsidies”—would read as a cruel joke if it did not so egregiously violate the most basic norms of human decency. Such statements have been echoed by people in power and have even been directed at Israel’s Palestinian citizens: At the same conference in 2003, Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Palestinian citizens of Israel a “demographic threat.”

Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt commented, “What if a prominent academic at Harvard declared that the United States had to make food scarcer for Hispanics so that they would have fewer children? Or what if someone at a prominent think tank noted that black Americans have higher crime rates than some other groups, and therefore it made good sense to put an end to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other welfare programs, because that would discourage African Americans from reproducing and thus constitute an effective anti-crime program?”

Had Mr. Kramer’s comments been directed at any other marginalized or minority groups—leaving aside the enormous challenge faced by Palestinians living in the impoverished enclosure of Gaza—we believe that the Weatherhead Center would not have hesitated to classify them as racist and hateful. It has described Mr. Kramer’s proclamations as “controversial,” an alarming position since less than a century ago similar remarks were made against African Americans and Jews. The characterization of his statements as merely “controversial” is offensive and dismisses their deeply racist nature.

Since the Weatherhead Center provides Mr. Kramer with a legitimizing and prominent public platform, we wonder whether it views any policy call as ethically disgraceful. We are troubled that the center has presented little to no diversity of viewpoints on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The only notable statements on the conflict emerging from the center are Mr. Kramer’s.

However, we believe that the Weatherhead Center has an opportunity to rectify the damage caused by Mr. Kramer’s repugnant statements and redeem its esteem with the student body. First, we ask that the Weatherhead Center not renew Mr. Kramer’s fellowship or affiliation with the NSSP. Second, we call on the center to establish a committee of faculty and students to recommend the adoption of a set of vetting practices for incoming fellows that uphold a set of principles unified on non-racism, in concert with Harvard University’s own commitment to non-discriminatory practices and diversity of viewpoints. We are concerned that the defense of Mr. Kramer’s statement reflects a violation of basic principles to which the Weatherhead Center and Harvard University claim to adhere. The above measures are an effective way for the center and the University to make amends.

Johnny F. Bowman ’11 is president of the Undergraduate Council and a sociology concentrator in Pforzheimer House. Maryam Monalisa Gharavi is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature and co-founder of GSAS Capoeira Angola. Abdelnasser A. Rashid ’11 is president of the Harvard Islamic Society, board member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, and a social studies concentrator in Dunster House.

Israeli Military Raids Home of Palestinian Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh in Early Hours of Morning

‘The Only Democracy in the Middle East’ Attacks Another Human Rights Activist
Despite its pretended opposition to terrorism (apart from its own of course), what Israel most fears is a mass non-violent peaceful protest by Palestinians. Palestinian ‘terrorism’ is easy to deal with since Israel is far more powerful than its adversaries and terrorism has always been the last resort of the weak. What it finds more difficult to deal with are those who don’t use violence. Hence why Israel has followed a concerted strategy of trying to conflate peaceful protest with ‘terrorism’.

The International Solidarity Movement, which takes as an article of faith, the need for all protest to be non-violent, has been demonised by Israel because it has met with people who are classified as ‘terrorists.’ Rachel Corrie, who tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home by standing in front of a bulldozer was deliberately run over and killed. Tom Hurndell and many other peaceful protesters have also been killed, thus giving the lie to the argument that Israel is interested in a peaceful settlement.

Israel was born in violence and it knows no other response than to baton, torture and imprison its opponents. It is a state based on the deepest racism, an inversion of the values of Nazi Germany. Whereas Jews were the victims 70 years ago today it is non-Jews who are the untermenschen.

As you can read below, Professor Qumsiyeh’s home was raided by the Israeli military at 1.30 a.m. in the morning. Like the German they favour raiding homes when children and families are asleep. Unfortunately for the barbarians on this particular mission, their quarry had escaped them – he was abroad. But the soldiers of the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’ left their calling card.

Below is Professor Qumsiyeh's description of what happened and other articles of interest. It is essential that as big a protest as possible is raised to prevent the imprisonment and torture of Professor Qumsiyeh when he returns to Israel.

Tony Greenstein

What Happened When the Israeli Army Came Calling

The Israeli army invaded our neighborhood at 1:30 AM Tuesday morning waking up my mother, wife and sister. Heavily-armed soldiers blocked roads during "the operation". When my family opened the door, they demanded to see me. They were told I have already left to the US.

After many more questions, they left a paper that states I am to appear at the military liaison office next Monday. My sister and wife told them I will not be back by then. Clearly the warning from that military officer at Ush Ghrab that I mentioned in my last email, was based on knowledge of this. I guess I am a wanted man now for engaging in nonviolent protest! Those who were at that event and have video, please contact me.

What disturbs me is not the risk to me; any action against oppression is taken knowing there are personal risks. What disturbs me is that this has an effect on my family and thousands of friends around the world who care (and some of it unpredictable). My 76 year old mother asks on the phone that I not go back and that I work in the US for a while, a very painful suggestion for a mother to make about her only remaining son near her! I try to assure her that I have done nothing wrong and will not leave her…but she brings up many examples of people who also did not do any violence and were arrested, imprisoned, and their families had to go through a lot.

friend who heard about this stated I have nothing to worry about, that this was to hassle me to get us to stop being active. Another lost sleep trying to figure out what we can do. I assure her that I will carry on with my speaking tour as planned and that this will blow over one day. (the song “we shall overcome someday” comes to mind). But I am not different from hundreds of others. Israel is cracking down on all popular/civil resistance activities in Palestine because: 1) there is no armed resistance now, and 2) Civil resistance is escalating and portending a new powerful uprising. Israel’s repression of dissent reinforces in our minds the importance of civil resistance and that there is a price to pay for it. Over 30 activists were arrested in Bilin over the past year, many others in Ni’lin, Al-Ma’sara and elsewhere.

The repression reveals the bankruptcy of the Zionist regime and its excessive paranoia that will IMHO eventually lead to its demise. It is paranoia inherent in the philosophical underpinnings of the ideology. That ideology embraced by a subset of Jews (Zionism) simply teaches that “we are God’s chosen people, He gave us this land, we cannot go wrong when behaving against the Goyim especially those who happen to be here when we arrived to reclaim and cleanse our lands, and International law and human rights laws do not apply to us.”

It is self-destructive delusions that are inculcated during early education and perpetuate the myths of uniqueness. It leads to the kind of behaviors that are now difficult to hide (the ethnic cleansing of 1948 was only a beginning). But even some Israelis are shedding these mythologies and joining the struggle. In the end, we will live together despite all this repression. I have to consider various options in terms of responding to this particular event. If you have any advice, I would appreciate it. My initial thought is that we should intensify our work for peace and human rights in this critical and historic period: write to the media, the politicians, neighbors and anyone who would listen. Below is an action call for March 30th (Land Day) which I urge you to heed. We can’t be neutral on a moving train and there are times whether in the US in the 1950s and 1960s or in South Africa under apartheid, when silence was indeed complicity in crime.

“We can’t be neutral on a moving train and there are times whether in the US in the 1950s and 1960s or in South Africa under apartheid, when silence was indeed complicity in crime.”

We hear most of Professor Qumsiyeh's talk given last week at St. John's Methodist Church in Watertown, MA. As he explains, an IDF soldier warned him, two days before, to cancel his entire trip to the US and stay home in the West Bank. After he departed on the trip, his house was surrounded by a garrison of IDF soldiers, and his fate upon return is uncertain.

Qumsiyeh's subject: Israeli Apartheid and Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance. He also lays out some of the sordid history of the Zionist movement, which was born back in the 1880s. Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches genetics and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He previously served on the faculties of Yale and Duke Universities and the University of Tennessee. He is currently the president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People and the coordinator of the Popular Committee to Defend Ush Ghrab (PCDUG). He is an author, blogger, tireless Palestinian human rights activist, and a co-founder of Wheels of Justice Bus Tour.

He authored the acclaimed "Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle"; has published over 200 letters to the editor and 100 op-ed pieces and has been interviewed extensively on local, national and international TV and radio. Appearances in national media included the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He regularly lectures on issues of human rights and international law and is currently finishing a book on the history of Palestinian civil resistance.

The event was sponsored by Tri-Town Alliance of Watertown, Newton and Waltham; United for Justice with Peace; Sabeel; and Living Stones Ministry, Church of the Good Shepherd, Watertown. Links: Links

In the Birth Pangs of a New Uprising

Below is an update including action calls, interviews by several languages, and more videos of civil resistance actions being persecuted by occupation authorities. Many people have been injured and killed in the past few weeks as both the local population and the occupation authorities realize we are in the birth pangs of a new uprising against the occupation focused on civil resistance in villages and towns impacted by the colonization policies. A 14-year-old Ehab Afdal Barghouthi was critically injured after Israeli occupation soldiers shot him in the head earlier this week during one of these demonstrations.

The concern that hundreds of you showed to my situation with a potential arrest upon return home moved me. Of course, I am more protected and privileged than most Palestinians who engage in civil resistance and we must not forget about them. But in discussion with many hundreds of friends via my appearances in the US in the last few days and via the internet, we come to the conclusion that it might be good to use my story as a way to draw attention to these other cases.

If the Israeli army is allowed to persecute a Palestinian American academic and professor who always advocated civil and nonviolent resistance, then obviously they would have more freedom to do far more against others. And not being able to intimidate me might give more courage to other Palestinians from exile to return and struggle in our homeland. So with those ideas in mind, I contracted with the law offices of Jonathan Kuttab (famous Palestinian civil resister himself) to represent me upon my return. We will also wage a media and other campaigns as the need arise. I thus spoke strongly against repression in several venues in the past few days including Bradeiss, Brown, UMAss, and Northeastern Universities. I will also be speaking March 10th at Noon at Graduate Student Lounge (just behind Au Bon Pain), Rutgers Student Center, 126 College Avenue, New Brunswick Directions:

Sponsored by the Emeriti Assembly of the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT.

Chapters Supporters of freedom have also took initiatives to act on their own. Some started a petition to describes the situation surrounding the threats by the Israeli Army: And some American professors and representatives have already expressed support: Others have continued to put videos on Youtube showing indeed who the aggressors are.

A Call to Action

Other peace and justice groups have asked for action. For example Palestine Action Group wrote to their supporters: This is a call for action on behalf of our friend, Dr Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, whom we know as a tireless advocate for human rights and justice.

Mazin is a Palestinian American citizen who lived in the US for 29 years before returning to Palestine nearly two years ago. He received his higher education in the US and served as a faculty member in schools of medicine at the Universities of Tennessee, Duke and Yale. He has also written several books, the most recent of which is Hope and Empowerment: A History of Popular Resistance in Palestine. Israel receives billions of our tax money, and carries out its targeting of nonviolent peace activists, like Mazin, with the tacit complicity of the US government. Please join us in writing to Israelis officials (that we are aware of Mazin's situation and concerned for his safety) and US officials (asking that they use their influence on Mazin's behalf).

Below are the addresses, and thanks for any attention you can bring to his case.

Israeli Embassy in US: Ambassador Michael Oren, Embassy of Israel, 3514 International Drive, NW, Washington DC 20008 Telephone: (202) 364-5500 Fax: (202) 364-5423 E-mail: info@israelemb.org

Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, 456 Montgomery St, Suite 2100, San Francisco, CA 94104 Telephone: 415-844-7500 Fax: 415-844-7555 E-mail: sf@israelconsulate.org

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php or Secretary@state.gov U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520, Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000 / Comment Line: 202-647-6575 or 202-647-5291

US Embassy in Israel: U.S. Embassy, Israel 71 Hayarkon Street, Tel Aviv amctelaviv@state.gov

Israeli minister of justice: Min. of Justice Yaakov NEEMAN, Salah -a - Din 29 P.O.Box 49029 Jerusalem 91490 ISRAEL *

Interview of Mazin Qumsiyeh by Silvia Cattori*

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2010/03/03/israeli-repression-in-palestine-is-escal

http://imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=58126

http://net-news-global.com/index.php?lang=en&PHPSESSID=b36244cd870f8b700667b6a5023e5eb0

http://www.profi-reporte.de/php/pr/include.php?path=content/articles.php&contentid=4180&PHPKITSID=960f46979538b1afd93c1e1af66dc423

http://www.dynastie-schubach.ch/de/press/index.php4

http://www.blogfrommiddleeast.com/?new=63886

http://intifada-palestine.com/2010/03/09/keep-mazin-qumsiyeh-free-organize-to-challenge-aid-to-israel-on-tax-day/