#and apply these lessons to the israeli occupation

[heritageposts]

Ask an older generation of white South Africans when they first felt the bite of anti-apartheid sanctions, and some point to the moment in 1968 when their prime minister, BJ Vorster, banned a tour by the England cricket team because it included a mixed-race player, Basil D’Oliveira. After that, South Africa was excluded from international cricket until Nelson Mandela walked free from prison 22 years later. The D’Oliveira affair, as it became known, proved a watershed in drumming up popular support for the sporting boycott that eventually saw the country excluded from most international competition including rugby, the great passion of the white Afrikaners who were the base of the ruling Nationalist party and who bitterly resented being cast out. For others, the moment of reckoning came years later, in 1985 when foreign banks called in South Africa’s loans. It was a clear sign that the country’s economy was going to pay an ever higher price for apartheid. Neither of those events was decisive in bringing down South Africa’s regime. Far more credit lies with the black schoolchildren who took to the streets of Soweto in 1976 and kicked off years of unrest and civil disobedience that made the country increasingly ungovernable until changing global politics, and the collapse of communism, played its part. But the rise of the popular anti-apartheid boycott over nearly 30 years made its mark on South Africans who were increasingly confronted by a repudiation of their system. Ordinary Europeans pressured supermarkets to stop selling South African products. British students forced Barclays Bank to pull out of the apartheid state. The refusal of a Dublin shop worker to ring up a Cape grapefruit led to a strike and then a total ban on South African imports by the Irish government. By the mid-1980s, one in four Britons said they were boycotting South African goods – a testament to the reach of the anti-apartheid campaign. . . . The musicians union blocked South African artists from playing on the BBC, and the cultural boycott saw most performers refusing to play in the apartheid state, although some, including Elton John and Queen, infamously put on concerts at Sun City in the Bophuthatswana homeland. The US didn’t have the same sporting or cultural ties, and imported far fewer South African products, but the mobilisation against apartheid in universities, churches and through local coalitions in the 1980s was instrumental in forcing the hand of American politicians and big business in favour of financial sanctions and divestment. By the time President FW de Klerk was ready to release Mandela and negotiate an end to apartheid, a big selling point for part of the white population was an end to boycotts and isolation. Twenty-seven years after the end of white rule, some see the boycott campaign against South Africa as a guide to mobilising popular support against what is increasingly condemned as Israel’s own brand of apartheid.

. . . continues at the guardian (21 May, 2021)

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Barry Shaw

This brainwashing is being introduced into high schools and even into the elementary educational system in America.

One example, quoted in a Jerusalem Post article on June 7, 2024, titled ‘Portland’s teacher union creates anti-Israel program,” reported that the Portland Association of Teachers are promoting an indoctrination program for children as early as pre-kindergarten to high school in which the next generation of Americans will be brainwashed to delegitimize Israel, describing it as an “illegitimate settler-colonial state.”

American children are being taught to participate in Palestinian protests turning them into anti-Israel activists.

Together with a group known as Oregon Educators for Palestine (OGP) they have created a curriculum that includes courses such as “Know your Rights in Teaching,” “Organizing for Palestine within Portland Public Schools,” and “Teach Palestine! Resources for Portland Public Schools” lesson guide.

Their document provides counter definitions to reduce the legitimacy of Israel by using key terms. For example, they deduce Anti-Semitism as being a “European Christian phenomenon” and Zionism as “a settler colonial political ideology and movement.”

Their guide recommends teachers to have the academic freedom (restriction) to select (reduce) writings on Palestine only to that written by Palestinian authors, as they put it, “to offer content and context based on the authors backgrounds and opinions.”

Part of their indoctrination removes words such as “terrorism” particularly when applied to acts of Palestinian terrorism.  Instead, they replace it with the word “resist.”

Everything is wrapped around concepts such as “Occupation” even if that applies to areas from which Israel withdrew its citizens in the search for peace.

Based on that novel concept, the barbarous attacks of Oct. 7, or mass killing by Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen, can be translated into acts of “resistance to the occupation,” even when committed by Palestinians emerging out of their self-governing territories to kill thousands of Israelis in their hometowns inside Israel.

I know. I became one of the members of the Netanya Terror Victims Association after a procession of suicide bombers and gunman targeted my hometown that hugs the clifftops of the Mediterranean, the sea defined by their slogan of a Palestine “from the River to the Sea.”  

In the quest for this homeland, they murdered dozens of Netanya folk, some of whom I knew.

Now social studies lessons for grades 3-5 in America will include a week-long curriculum on “settler colonization and Palestine.”

The Portland Association of Teachers represents over 4,500 educators. In their description of the events of Oct. 7, we can clearly define what they consider progressive to be utterly regressive.

PAT educators handed out documents claiming that the horrendous massacres, tortures, rapes, and hostage-taking were, in the words of PAT, justified “resistance.”

In May, Mosaic magazine featured an article entitled “Anti-Israel Indoctrination Starts in Elementary Schools.”

This is the opening phase of a Jihadi education in America. One that accurately copies Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad brainwashing.

There is a battle going on in the California school system. Last September, a law suit claimed that a California school district tried to impose an anti-Israel curricula.

[dartxo]

"Resistance"

2023

It has been a maddening, miserable three months.

When last I posted about Palestine, the death toll in Gaza had just about leveled with the dead count in Israel. Some people may have called that justice; an eye for an eye, and all. Yet as I knew would happen, as any person with sense knew would happen, the state of Israel has dropped any pretense of seeking justice and gone full force on a savage, genocidal campaign. I can't put into words how demoralizing it has been to watch a tragedy of this scope unfold in real time on our screens; how infuriating to witness people and institutions that profess loving diversity and human rights back openly and shamelessly a fascist ethnostate. The world, and more concretely the western world, has utterly set aside the lessons of the War on Terror and slid back into a miasma of Islamophobic hysteria and lust for blood.

I've lost count of all the times that the state of Israel and their enablers have lied. Zionist discourse around this topic is rife with misinformation, unconfirmed rumors, and just plain, willful dishonesty. I take hope in knowing that more and more people, all over the world but especially so in the Global South, are less and less willing to believe the propaganda. Zionists wouldn't be as hysterical as they are if they didn't feel their wall of lies was crumbling. Nevertheless, here are some of the facts:

- Israel is an ethnocratic, settler-colonial state. This is not me saying it; the ideologues and pioneers of Zionism themselves described their project as colonial. From the very beginning, their stated aims have been control and subjugation, not coexistence. Only in later decades, with colonialism taking a bad connotation, did Israel rebrand itself as some sort of indigenous rights movement (an idea that is too absurd for words). But early Zionists were remarkably honest about who they were and what they wanted. The facts on the ground now, with the actions and rhetoric surrounding Gaza and with the encroachment of illegal settlements on the West Bank, all but confirm Israel's colonial aspirations.

If you're unconvinced, consider this: people in the Global South, people who know all too well what colonialism looks like, are far more likely to sympathize with Palestine than with Israel. And who supports Israel, then? Former and current colonial powers. Does it seem at all likely that countries like the United States and Britain would ever back indigenous national aspirations? I think not.

- Israel enforces a system of apartheid against Palestinians under their control. Again, this isn't me saying it; Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and even Israeli human rights organizations like B'tselem have confirmed this and published reports about it. Google and read them for yourselves, by all means.

And if you're still unconvinced, consider this: black people in South Africa, including Nelson Mandela himself, have always sympathized with Palestine, and have also drawn parallels between the apartheid they lived through and what Israel does. Do you really think you have any moral or intellectual authority to tell those people that they don't know what they're talking about? Because you don't.

- Under international law, an occupied people has the right to resist their occupiers. An occupying entity however does not have the right of self defense against the people it occupies. You can say that killing civilians is not legitimate resistance. That's fine. But then I expect you to apply that same principle to Israel and their indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. I also expect you to ponder wether Hamas targeting only military personnel would have made any difference in how you feel about the attacks. I know for a fact that even when only their soldiers are attacked, Israeli reprisals have always been savage, disproportionate, and deadly.

And if you're one of those (deluded) people who insists there's no occupation, I will say only this: when this started, Israeli officials stated loud and clear their intent to cut all electricity, fuel, food and water to the Gaza Strip, and then did just so. What kind of country has that amount of power over another? An occupier, that's who.

- Hamas was founded in 1987, and came to power in 2006 with 44.45% of voter support. That makes 36 years since its founding, and 17 years governing Gaza (note: Gaza. They do not govern the West Bank). Given these facts, you cannot possibly claim that the problems in the region start and end with Hamas, and you also cannot claim that Gazans collectively are to blame for their own destruction, what with half the population on the Strip being underage and all. If you insist on this, then I expect you to apply that same reasoning to Israelis. Netanyahu is the longest serving prime minister in his country's history, and has repeatedly been voted into power despite mounting evidence of corruption and war-mongering. Israelis are also required to serve in the military, and there isn't really a big movement to end it (those few that do refuse the draft are hella brave, by the way, and heroes in my book). Still, the majority of Israelis are, have been, or will be a part of their country's war machine at some point in their lives. I'd say that makes their society complicit, at least much more so than Palestinians are. Would you say that a people who consistently vote for the same war-mongers and that stand unconditionally with their military deserve to be blown to smithereens? I mean...that's your argument, dears, not mine.

I would also note that Netanyahu himself was caught on mic admitting to have propped up Hamas to thwart any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. So...make of that what you will. It isn't the first time a colonial power props up radical militants to undermine secular, more moderate groups.

- And while we're on the subject of reasonability and compromise: in their 2017 charter, Hamas states its willingness to compromise on a temporary two-state solution. In the past, they have suggested long-term truces in exchange of assurances. Hell, last month's temporary ceasefire shows that they are a party that can be reasoned and negotiated with. But compromise and negotiation are not in the interest of the Israeli State. Since the earliest beginnings of the Zionist movement, total control over the land of Palestine has been their ultimate goal. And that goal has often come at the expense not only of Palestinians, but of their own people as well, as recent events showcase perfectly.

I know many of you are only too willing to believe that Muslim militants have no motives other than hatred, and no tools other than wanton violence. But whatever they may be, whatever we may think of them, the truth is that Hamas has been the more flexible party. They have concrete political aims, some of which are not that unreasonable. If Israel and the West refuse outright to even consider any of their terms, then perhaps the world ought to reconsider who the rash, irrational party is in this scenario.

- On the subject of violence: that story of the forty beheaded babies was a ruse; as in, there's no evidence for it. None. But again, don't take my word for it! The IDF, the White House, mainstream media outlets and the Israeli press, all of which amplified and spread this rumor and none of which are particularly sympathetic to Palestinians, they all walked back on their claims. You might want to consider what made you so willing to believe this lie, and maybe why you continue to believe it even after the people who first told you about it have said it's not true. It isn't the first time the state of Israel has made wild claims with either insufficient or non-existent evidence to support them.

That's not all. Mounting evidence, published by the Israeli press no less, shows that at least some Israeli civilians were killed in the crossfire between the IDF and Hamas. Hell, there is also evidence, provided by survivors, that the IDF may have killed its own citizens deliberately in an effort to wipe out the Hamas militants that held them hostage. The Israeli government have also revised their casualty numbers from 1400 to less than 1200, and it wouldn't surprise me if that number were to get lower still.

Regardless of wether Hamas killed all those people or not, the truth is this: there are at least 21,822 people killed in Gaza. That's over eighteen times the total Israeli death count. 8,800 of those killed are children. That's more than two hundred times the number of fake beheaded babies. The death toll and displacement have reached historic proportions, surpassing even the Nakba of 1948. Yet by all accounts, no more Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian militants since the first days of the escalation, that is, unless any hostages in Gaza have been executed (though they have more likely been killed by the Israeli military itself, as has indeed been proven to be the case). It is Palestinians who are dying now, and who have been dying over these months, over this year, and over these decades. I don't want to see you shed crocodile tears over civilian deaths if the only time you bother to turn your attention to this conflict is when Israelis die. You have no business pointing fingers at me if you support Israel's colonial, genocidal enterprise. As for me, I know where I stand. I regret all civilian loss of life, but if I am made to choose between colonizer and colonized, between oppressor and oppressed, between the people who are busy making TikToks and the people who are busy dying, my choice will always be clear.  

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

[ahaura]

i agree with your post with the three bullet points and it's something a lot of people from my community need to be hearing. but there's one bit im having a hard time with due to things i've seen online.

specifically the "the idea that palestinian liberation = carrying out a genocide on israelis is nothing more than baseless, racist, orientalist fearmongering" bit. the issue is that i keep seeing people online effectively calling for this or an ethnic cleansing of people who have already been refugees, saying they wouldn't blame palestinians if they forced everyone off the land / that all israelis must unhouse themselves or be complicit in genocide / that what happened on october 7th isn't a tragedy in any way, shape or form.

im leaning into antizionism more and more and undoing the rhetoric i was raised with, but that last bit gets me. i know people, people very dear to me, who easily could've died that day.

do you really think the liberation of palestine as led by hamas wouldn't necessitate a massacre dwarfing oct 7th, and would end with a state where people of all religions can actually live side by side without intimidation or violence? if so, id really want to hear how/why you think that's possible. this isn't meant to bait you - i really do want to understand some of the povs im having more trouble with and grow from it. thanks, and take care of yourself.

hi, i addressed many of these points here.

+ there is this from Mohammed Zraiy from Dispactches from Gaza:

MZ: We are human—we don’t want to kill, we don’t want to die, we just want to live. Destiny so willed it that when deciding which land to colonize (to use Herzl’s frame), the early Zionist fathers chose Palestine instead of the other lands they were considering stealing (to use Ben-Gurion’s frame). For 75 years, agents of this settler colonial project have been working to ethnically cleanse us from our lands, and couldn’t care less even about international law that is biased in Zionism’s favor, let alone about human rights (or, as the colony’s government described us, “animal” rights). A people under occupation has only three options: To resist, to resist, and to resist. It’s the settler colonization of Palestine that I wish had never happened, not our reaction to it.

MZ: Unlike what they’ve been told, we’ve never had a problem with Jews. Jews have been part of the fabric of our society way before the establishment of Israel. In fact, Jews escaping European persecution found refuge in Palestine. Gaza had a Jewish quarter. They were living peacefully, not with Arabs but as Arabs, right up until 1948. The establishment of Israel didn’t protect Jews; it caused the divide and danger. The solution is to roll back and dismantle the colony. My message to the colonizers who left their home countries to occupy our lands is simply to go back home. As for those who were born here, my message is: You are secondary victims of this colonial project. You are being used to occupy other people’s lands, and your Jewishness is being politicized for colonial means. Meditate carefully on the examples of South Africa, Angola, Algeria—they may not apply wholesale to the settler colonization of Palestine, but they hold lessons for you. Today you must make a choice: Either support this deadly colonial project, or side against it by supporting the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a democratic state that liberates Palestinians, as well as Jews, from Zionism. A state that will honor the right of Palestinian refugees to return and compensation and that will welcome and protect its Jews as citizens of Palestine. This transition from Zionism to democracy will not cost anyone’s life; it will cost you your colonial privileges, and will free you—and us, its primary victims—from colonialism.

[pisswizzard]

Given barely 20 minutes passed between my post and your response, I don't believe you gave those sources (all from reputable places and primarily from prior to Oct.7th) more than a cursory glance.

I did watch the video in it’s entirety and it uses a lot of loaded language, leaves out a lot of relevant information, and the entire thing seems to revolve around the notion that Israel as a country has a claim to Palestinian land that supersedes that of Palestine itself and i do not agree. (And i get the sense that you and I disagree on this as well and if so then that’s just the way things are. I’m not here to try and change your mind, only to respond to your direct critique) Additionally the video is a general history lesson on political relationships of the broader area as a whole; it hardly mentions Palestine at all other than referring to it as territory belonging to Israel that should be treated better.

To be candid, I am not denying that I support a peaceful dismantlement of Israel. That is indeed my stance, one I hold equally for the USA. Both nations were established only via atrocity and injustice, and the only chance of fixing anything and healing as a society requires unequivocal land back and restoration of sovereignty to the original stewards of those lands. And as i said before, I also support Israeli residents having the option of remaining in Palestine, as it is their home too, and for international aid to help make that happen. None of that has to require violence or death, and I'd much rather it didn't. Everyone could theoretically just agree to cease the violence and then actually do so. Peace and harmonious cohabitation can be possible.

I do see your point about renaming but Israeli Defense Force is a title, not a collective naming of an identity. The soldiers as a group are Israeli. Being a soldier is not who they are; it’s what they do. And yes there’s a lot of folks on some major bullshit with terms like “isn’trael,” which I absolutely agree is completely inappropriate and feels like folks are trying to be witty about this situation. However the replacing of “Defense” with “Occupational” serves a distinct purpose of acknowledging that Israel does not have an internationally recognized legal right to “self defense” against the people under it’s own illegal occupation. Here is an Al Jazeera article that discusses this pretty thoroughly. There are rules of engagement that Israel has agreed to that are not being abided. Just as the word apartheid has a specific meaning, one also accurately applied to this situation, an occupation is a specific thing and what Israel is doing is occupying Palestine.

People, specifically non-Palestinian leftists and particularly the white, goyish folks (like myself) who genuinely want to be effective activists, have got to stop referring to the IOF/IDF as demons or demonic. I’m serious. I abhore them and everything they are doing but we all know that calling Jewish folks demons is like old school antisemitism, right? It’s so important that folks are careful to avoid dehumanizing these people. There’s a difference in actions being inhumane vs inhuman. You can’t let dehumanization be something your brain deems acceptable in any situation. Ever. Once you decide that it’s okay to dehumanize one group of people, you are much more susceptible to doing so again. Even terrible people are people, and it’s not acceptable to dehumanize anyone. Y’all have got to be able to fight for Palestinian rights without being antisemitic. It’s not hard; there’s endless shit to criticize Israel for.

[fernreads]

For those of us who have advocated for the use of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions as tools to advance Palestinian rights only to be told that they are illegitimate, the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlights Western governments’ willingness to embrace these tactics when policymakers identify with the victims of a crisis. In the three weeks since the war began, 46 countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, and a broad range of corporate entities have moved to divest from the country or suspend operations there. Netflix paused its service; Starbucks shuttered its coffee shops; American, Delta, and United Airlines canceled their flights; energy giant Shell severed its partnership with the Russian Gazprom; financial entities from Deutsche Bank to Goldman Sachs announced they were “winding down” their business in the country. Meanwhile, impromptu boycotts of Russian products, or products perceived to be Russian, have swept Western nations: Americans have sought to show solidarity with Ukraine by dumping bottles of vodka and boycotting small businesses whose Russian-speaking owners may in fact be, say, Latvian, or Estonian, or even Ukrainian.

Some of these boycotts targeting Russia or Russians are misplaced, sloppy, ineffective, and even downright unethical. But that doesn’t mean that BDS tools shouldn’t be deployed in Russia, Palestine, or elsewhere. If anything, the BDS campaign that has emerged from a call by Palestinian civil society is a model of what it means to use boycotts, divestment, and sanctions in a careful and purposeful way. By analyzing the routinely maligned Palestinian call for BDS, we can derive lessons about the right and wrong way to employ these strategies.

The Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions was launched in 2005, decades after the Nakba of 1948—in which a significant majority of Palestine’s native inhabitants fled or were expelled from their homes by Zionist forces—and the military occupation of 1967. During this time, Palestinians witnessed two things: Israel’s continued campaign of expropriation and displacement in the entirety of the land between the river and the sea, and the complicity of the international state system in Israel’s crimes. Not only do the United States and its allies provide economic and military support for Israel ($4 billion in military financing annually from Washington alone), but Western nations led by the US have also prevented international institutions from seeking accountability for Israeli crimes. The BDS call was a direct response to the failure of the international system to deliver justice—a plea for solidarity from civil society, precisely because states had shut their ears to Palestinian cries. Organizers hoped this call and the resulting actions would begin to reshape politics so that one day state-level action could be possible.

Their approach speaks to a specific strategic interplay between the “B,” the “D,” and the “S” in the BDS call. Roughly speaking, boycotts are in the realm of individual action, divestment is in the realm of corporations or institutions, and sanctions are the domain of governments and policy makers. In a context where states are adversarial to accountability for Israel’s human rights violations, it is civil society that has the most room to create change, applying pressure using the tools of boycott and divestment. At the same time, the “B” and the “D” are far less likely than the “S” to impose significant costs. It is really when states enter the ring with comprehensive sanctions that the most meaningful pressure can be applied. That doesn’t mean that boycott and divestment are unimportant, but rather that we should think a bit differently about the role they play in the overall strategy.

Over years of following boycott and divestment efforts, I have observed that their impact far exceeds the dollars and cents they extract in lost revenue. Instead, the greatest contribution of these initiatives is that they force a conversation about accountability in spaces where those conversations would otherwise be absent, moving people to take action. I often think about the many churches that have passed divestment resolutions in some form, including the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. These decisions followed debates about Israel/Palestine at various national convenings often spread over the course of many years. How many people, places, and institutions engaged in thinking about Palestinians and their rights throughout this process? Whether a resolution ultimately passes or fails, the political education that takes place in the process of debating the issue would not be happening without these efforts. The same can be said for similar processes taking place on campuses and in private sector companies. Though those that call for BDS in American institutional life still face smears and backlash, the hope is that over time, these efforts can catalyze a broad-based shift in popular opinion that might force a conversation about accountability among government policymakers. In other words, the “B” and the “D” help make the “S” possible down the line.

All of this is fundamentally different from the dynamic that characterizes boycott, divestment, and sanctions related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. States already had several economic penalties against Russia on the books dating back to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. When this most recent invasion began, greater sanctions were announced from all corners of the globe. Over the course of the invasion, the White House has issued statements listing a range of steps it has taken, along with European partners, to sanction Russia: Russian banks were cut off from the international financial system. Russia’s ability to import and export goods was severely curtailed. Russia’s military and its military industry was hit with sanctions, as were individual Russian elites and their families. As a result, Russia’s currency tanked, interest rates and consumer prices skyrocketed, financial transactions became increasingly impossible, and many foreign goods began to disappear from the market. The boycott and divestment efforts we are seeing toward Russia today on the part of individuals and other non-state actors didn’t help make these state-level actions possible but rather followed robust state action triggered by the invasion itself. In other words, instead of being pulled by civil society, the states are leading the way in applying pressure. That makes much of the civil society action we are seeing in response to Russia seem extraneous—and often misguided to boot.

A closer look at some recent cases reveals their questionable logic. The European Film Academy boycotted all Russian films. Universities are cutting ties with Russian centers and scholars. An Australian University, for example, announced it was suspending all ties with Russian universities—presumably simply because they were Russian and not due to any connection to the government or the war. Entertainment giants have stopped movies from being released on their platforms in Russia. Russian restaurants, some owned by Ukrainians, have been the target of boycotts and even vandalism. Vodka boycotts and deshelving have also become common, and have affected brands that are not even Russian. Some particularly egregious cases take the question of who or what constitutes a target to ridiculous places. Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky, both dead for half a century before Putin was born, were the targets of boycotts in England and Italy. The International Cat Federation even banned Russian cats, perhaps because they failed to speak out against the Russian president.

As one headline after another streamed through my timeline over the last few weeks, each one announcing a different boycott effort, I realized that this is what it actually looks like when boycotts are motivated by a haphazard, irrational animus that targets an entire people because of who they are. Ironically, this is a charge routinely leveled by supporters of Israeli apartheid against the Palestinian rights movement for using BDS. The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, has insisted that BDS is “a continuation, a modern version if you will, of an irrational hatred of the Jewish people.” But the contrast between the efforts to hold Israel accountable and the gratuitous pile-on against anything Russian, even after economically devastating sanctions have been implemented, demonstrates just how unfounded that charge is.

The Palestinian BDS campaign has stressed the importance of not targeting individuals but rather focusing on institutional complicity with the State of Israel, which is responsible for carrying out human rights abuses against Palestinians. “BDS has consistently targeted corporations and institutions based on their complicity, not identity,” reads a March 15th statement on the movement website. “BDS does not target ordinary individuals, even if affiliated to [sic]—as opposed to representing—complicit institutions.” Take, for example, the recent boycott campaign of the 2022 Sydney Festival in Australia. The festival took Israeli government sponsorship to fund a performance by the Sydney Dance Company of an Israeli company’s choreography. The call to boycott was launched in December only after the festival refused to sever financial ties with the Israeli Embassy, and focused on the institutional connection between the festival and the government rather than targeting individual artists. Despite the material connection between the festival and the Israeli government, the boycott effort was predictably slammed by local Israel supporters as—in the words of one Australian legislator—part of the “long and ugly history” of boycotts of Jews. Links to government funding or profiteering from Israel’s human rights abuses are often downplayed or omitted in coverage of boycotts of Israeli artists, which Israel’s supporters hope to reduce to simple antisemitism.

In some of the boycotts of Russia, it has been difficult to connect the target of the boycott to complicity with the actions of the Russian government. What’s more, state-level sanctions were adopted so fast that coordinated campaigns were scarcely necessary. There was no noticeable debate, discussion, or education around government complicity (which existed in some cases and not others) because no such debate was deemed necessary. If it was Russian—or perceived to be—it wasn’t welcome.

Those behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an act of aggression and a blatant violation of international law, should be held accountable, and there is a role for various social actors to play in doing so. But how it is done matters. The point of BDS efforts is to try to create change, and this requires targeting government complicity, not an entire people or a culture. BDS campaigns for Palestinian rights work to point out how targets are complicit in violations either by being tied to the government of Israel or by otherwise profiting from its human rights violations. Despite this clear contrast, the use of BDS tactics for Palestinian rights has been met with significant repression. Smear campaigns tar students or human rights activists as antisemites for calling out Israeli apartheid. Legislation advanced at the state or federal level aims to restrict the First Amendment right to boycott, or to make the IHRA definition of antisemitism—which casts some legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic—legally binding. Israel advocates wage lawfare, using legal action or the threat of it to intimidate, silence, or tie up in legal defense the activists and organizations working for justice. These efforts are spearheaded by a significant, well-resourced collection of interest groups—in many cases, directly supported by the Israeli government—working to shield Israel from any form of accountability in the corridors of power.

There is nothing comparable when it comes to Russia here in the West, which helps to explain why Americans are cheering on sloppy efforts to target Russian actors while ethical BDS efforts for Palestinian rights are being repressed. Perhaps just as significant, the United States is itself deeply complicit in the crimes being committed against Palestinians by Israel; it is far easier to point the finger at others than to look in the mirror. This is an important reason why US sanctions on Israel would be so effective, perhaps even more so than US sanctions on Russia. Russia expects US sanctions for its behavior while Israel has been conditioned to expect only US support. Criticism from adversaries is much easier to dismiss than criticism from friends.

The ease with which Americans have joined the pile-on against anything perceived to be Russian demonstrates the difference between performative outrage and solidarity. Solidarity requires sacrifice—never as significant as the sacrifices of those you are in solidarity with, but sacrifice nonetheless. It is not supposed to be easy. If it were, it wouldn’t be necessary. The Palestinian call for international solidarity comes directly from Palestinian civil society to international civil society, so that people and institutions might push the international state system to provide justice for a population living under Israeli apartheid. Who, exactly, has asked you to boycott Russian cats—and to what end?

[chiseler]

A Palestinian Guide to Surviving a Quarantine: On Faith, Humor and ‘Dutch Candy’

Call it a ‘quarantine’, a ‘shelter-in-place’, a ‘lockdown’ or a ‘curfew’, we Palestinians have experienced them all, though not at all voluntarily.

Personally, the first 23 years of my life were lived in virtual ‘lockdown’. My father’s ‘quarantine’ was experienced much earlier, as did his father’s ‘shelter-in-place’ before him. They both died and were buried in Gaza’s cemeteries without ever experiencing true freedom outside of their refugee camp in Gaza.

Currently in Gaza, the quarantine has a different name. We call it ‘siege’, also known as ‘blockade’.

In fact, all of Palestine has been in a state of ‘lockdown’ since the late 1940s when Israel became a state and the Palestinian homeland was erased by Zionist colonialists with the support of their Western benefactors.

That lockdown intensified in 1967 when Israel, now a powerful state with a large army and strong allies, occupied the remaining parts of Palestine - East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Under this lockdown, the Palestinian freedom of movement was curtailed

to the extent that Palestinians required permits from the Israeli military to leave the Occupied Territories or to return home, to move about from one town to the other, and, at times, to cross a single Israeli military checkpoint or a fortified wall.

In Palestine, we don’t call our imprisonment a lockdown, but a ‘military occupation’ and ‘apartheid’.

As for ‘shelter-in-place’, in Palestine, we have a different name for it. We call it a ‘military curfew’.

Since I was a child, I learned to listen intently to orders barked out by Israeli military officers as they swept through our refugee camp in Gaza declaring or easing military curfews. This ritual often happened late at night.

“People of Nuseirat, per orders of the Israeli military you are now under curfew. Anyone who violates orders will be shot immediately,” the terrifying words, always communicated through a loudspeaker in broken Arabic, were a staple during the First Palestinian Uprising (Intifada) of 1987.

The period between 1987 to 1993 was a virtual ‘lockdown’. Thousands of people, mostly children, were killed for failing to respect the rules of their collective imprisonment.

In Gaza, even when a full military curfew was not in place, we rarely left our small and crowded neighborhoods, let alone our refugee camps. We were all haunted by the fear that we may not be able to make it home by 8p.m., the time designated by the Israeli military for all of us to return home.

Every day, ten or fifteen minutes after the nightly curfew set in, we would hear the crackling and hissing of bullets as they whistled through the air from various distances. Automatically, we would conclude that some poor soul - a worker, a teacher, or a rowdy teenager - missed his chance by a few minutes, and paid a price for it.

Now that nearly half of the population of planet Earth are experiencing some form of ‘curfew’ or another, I would like to share a few suggestions on how to survive the prolonged confinement, the Palestinian way.

Think Ahead

Since we knew that a complete lockdown, or a military curfew, was always pending, we tried to anticipate the intensity and duration of it and prepare accordingly.

For example, when the Israeli army killed one or more refugees, we knew in advance that mass protests would follow, thus more killings. In these situations, a curfew was imminent.

Number one priority was to ensure that all family members congregated at home or stayed within close proximity so that they could rush in as fast as possible when the caravan of Israeli military jeeps and tanks came thundering, opening fire at anyone or anything within sight.

Lesson number one: Always think ahead and prepare for a longer lockdown than the initial one declared by your city or state.

Stay Calm

My father had a bad temper, although a very kind heart. When curfews were about to start, he would enter into a near-panic state. A chain smoker with obsessive, although rational fear that one of his five boys would eventually be killed, he would walk around the house in a useless rush, not knowing what to do next.

Typically, my mother would come in, rational and calculating. She would storm the kitchen to assess what basic supplies were missing, starting with the flour, sugar and olive oil.

Knowing that the first crackdown by the Israelis would be on water supplies and electricity, she would fill several plastic containers of water, designating some for tea, coffee and cooking, and others for dishes and washing clothes.

Per her orders, we would rush to the nearby stores to make small but necessary purchases - batteries for the flashlight and the transistor radio, cigarettes for my dad, and a few VHS videotapes which we would watch over and again, whether the curfew lasted for a few days or a few weeks.

Lesson number two: Take control of the situation - do not panic - and assign specific responsibilities to every family member. This strengthens the family unit and sets the stage for collective solidarity desperately required under these circumstances.

Preserve Your Water

I cannot emphasize this enough. Even if you think that a water crisis is not impending, do not take chances.

It is easy to feel invincible and fully prepared on the first day of quarantine - or military curfew. Many times, we lived to regret that false sense of readiness, as we drank too much tea or squandered our dishwashing water supplies too quickly.

In this case, you have a serious problem, especially during the summer months when you cannot count on rainwater to make up for the deficit.

Years after the end of the Intifada, my father revealed to us that many a time, him and mom used the rainwater they collected in buckets throughout the house, including the leaked roofs for our drinking supplies, even when there was no electricity or gas to boil the water beforehand.

In retrospect, this explains the many bouts of diarrhea we experienced, despite his assurances that they had painstakingly removed all bird droppings from the salvaged water.

Lesson number three: Cautiously use your water supplies during a quarantine, and never, under any circumstance, drink rainwater or, at least, keep diarrhea pills handy.

Ration Your Food

The same logic that applies to water applies to food. It goes without saying that any acquired food would have to cover the basics first. For example, flour, which we used to make bread, comes before bananas, and sugar, which we consumed abundantly with tea, comes before Dutch candy.

I made that mistake more than once, not because of my love for the imported Dutch candy which we purchased from Abu Sa’dad’s store, located in the center of the camp. The truth is, my brothers and I played a strange form of candy poker which kept us entertained for many hours. I dreaded running out of my precious supplies before the curfew was over, thus subjugating myself to potential humiliation of having to auction everything else I owned - including my small radio - to stay in the game.

My poor mother was devastated numerous times by the horrible choices we made when we rushed to buy ‘essentials’.

Lesson number four: Agree in advance on what classifies as ‘essential food’, and consume your food in a rational way. Also, if you are lucky enough to locate Dutch candy in whatever version of the Abu Sa’dad’s store, in your town, do not gamble it all in one day.

Find Sources of Entertainment

If electricity is still available, then you still have the option of watching television. For us, Indian movies, especially those starring Amitabh Bachchan, were the number one option. Imagine my disappointment when our beloved movie star, who helped us through numerous military curfews in Gaza, was photographed grinning with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter’s visit to India in 2018.

If electricity is cut off, be ready with alternative options: books, free wrestling, living-room soccer (with the ball preferably made from stuffed-up socks contributed by all family members), and, of course, candy poker.

Lesson number five: The key is to have more than one form of entertainment and to be prepared for every eventuality, including power outages as a form of collective punishment.  

Find the Humor in Grim Situations

Don’t focus on the negatives; there is no point or wisdom in that. Emphasizing the grimness of a situation can only contribute to the feeling of defeat and powerlessness that are already generated by the lockdown. There will be plenty of time in which you can look back, reflect, and even bemoan your unfortunate circumstance.

But, during the curfew itself is when you actually need your sense of humor most. Take things lightly - laugh at your miserable situation, if you must. Forgive yourself for not being perfect, for panicking when you should have been composed, or for forcing your younger brother to gamble his underwear when he runs out of Dutch candy.

Difficult situations can offer the kind of scenarios that can be interpreted in two extreme ways: either extremely tragic or extremely funny; opt for the latter whenever you can, because as long as you laugh, as long as your spirit remains unbroken, your humanity remains intact.

Lesson number six: Be funny, don’t take life too seriously, share a laugh with others, and let humor inject hope in every hour and every day of your quarantine.

Hold Tighter to Your Faith

Whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or any other faith; whether you are an atheist, agnostic, or practice any form of spirituality, philosophy or belief system, find comfort in your faith and beliefs.

Since all mosques in our refugee camp were shut down, if not raided during a military curfew, the call for prayer, which we heard five times during each day, was permanently silenced.

To keep the call for prayer going, we would sneak to the roof of our houses, carefully scan the area for any Israeli soldiers, and collectively make the call for prayer whenever it was required. Volunteers included my English teacher, who was communist and claimed that he did not believe in God, myself, and Nabil, the neighbor boy with the massive head and the most unpleasant voice.

In curfews, we developed a different relationship with God: He became a personal and more intimate companion, as we often prayed in total darkness, whispered our verses so very cautiously as not to be heard by pesky soldiers. And, even those who hardly prayed before the curfew kept up with all five prayers during the lockdown.

Lesson number seven: Let your values guide you during your hours of loneliness. And if you volunteer to make a call for prayer (or recite your religious hymns) please be honest with yourself: if you have no sense of rhythm or if your voice has the pitch of an angry alley cat, for God’s sake, leave the job to someone else.

In Conclusion ..

I hope that under no circumstances you will ever hear these ominous words: “You are now under curfew. Anyone who violates orders will be shot immediately.” I also hope that this COVID-19 quarantine will make us kinder to each other and will make us emerge from our homes better people, ready to take on global challenges while united in our common faith, collective pain and a renewed sense of love for our environment.

And when it’s all over, think of Palestine, for her people have been ‘quarantined’ for 71 years and counting.

by Ramzy Baroud

[anon-sequitur]

Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel stated in 2018 that “when the generation that survived the war is no longer here, we’ll find out whether we have learned from history.” As a Polish Jew born in 1925, who survived the Warsaw ghetto, lost my family in the Holocaust, served in a special operations unit of the Polish underground, the Home Army, and fought in the Warsaw uprising of 1944, I know what it means to be at the sharp end of European history – and I fear that the battle to draw the right lessons from that time is in danger of being lost.        

               Now 93 years old and living in Tel Aviv, I have watched from afar in recent years as armchair patriots in my native Poland have sought to exploit and manipulate the memories and experiences of my generation. They may think they are promoting “national dignity” or instilling “pride” in today’s young people, but in reality they are threatening to raise future generations in darkness, ignorant of the war’s complexity and doomed to repeat the mistakes for which we paid such a high price.        

               But this is not just a Polish phenomenon: it is happening in many parts of Europe, and our experiences hold lessons for the whole continent.        

               Given what I’ve learned over my lifetime I would, first, urge future generations of Europeans to remember my generation as we really were, not as they may wish us to have been. We had all the same vices and weaknesses as today’s young people do: most of us were neither heroes nor monsters.        

               Of course, many people did extraordinary things, but in most cases only because they were forced to by extreme circumstances, and even then, true heroes were very few and far between: I do not count myself among them.        

               The same applies to those who failed in their moral obligations during that time. Of course, there were many who committed unspeakable, unforgivable crimes. But it is nonetheless important to understand that we were a generation living in fear, and fear makes people do terrible things. Unless you have felt it, you cannot truly understand it.        

               Second, just as there is no such thing as a “heroic generation”, there is no such thing as a “heroic nation” – or indeed an inherently malign or evil nation either. I must confess that for much of my life, I maintained the view that it was important for Poles to feel pride in their wartime record – leading me, when recounting my experiences serving in the Home Army in Warsaw under Nazi occupation, to omit certain examples of indifference and uncooperativeness on behalf of my fellow Poles. It is only in recent years, as I have seen that pride turn into self-righteousness, and that self-righteousness into self-pity and aggression, that I have realised just how wrong it was not to be completely open about the failings I witnessed.        

               The truth is that, as a Pole and as a Jew, as a soldier and as a refugee, I experienced a wide spectrum of behaviour at the hands of Poles – from those who sheltered me at risk to their own lives, to those who sought to take advantage of my vulnerability, and all possible shades of concern and indifference in between.        

               And although the Third Reich destroyed my world, it was a German woman who saved my life by introducing me to the men who would recruit me into the Polish underground. No nation has a monopoly on virtue – something that many people, including many of my fellow Israeli citizens, still struggle to understand.        

               Third, do not underestimate the destructive power of lies. When the war broke out in 1939, my family fled east and settled for a couple of years in Soviet-occupied Lwów (now Lviv in western Ukraine). The city was full of refugees, and rumours were swirling about mass deportations to gulags in Siberia and Kazakhstan. To calm the situation, a Soviet official gave a speech declaring that the rumours were false – nowadays they would be called “fake news” – and that anyone spreading them would be arrested. Two days later, the deportations to the gulags began, with thousands sent to their deaths.        

               Those people and millions of others, including my immediate family, were killed by lies. My country and much of the continent was destroyed by lies. And now lies threaten not only the memory of those times, but also the achievements that have been made since. Today’s generation doesn’t have the luxury of being able to argue that it was never warned or did not understand the consequences of where lies will take you.        

               Confronting lies sometimes means confronting difficult truths about one’s self and one’s own country. It is much easier to forgive yourself and condemn another, than the other way round; but this is something that everyone must do. I have made my peace with modern Germany, and hope that all Europeans can do the same.        

               Finally, do not ever imagine that your world cannot collapse, as ours did. This may seem the most obvious lesson to be passed down, but only because it is the most important. One moment I was enjoying an idyllic adolescence in my home city of Lodz, and the next we were on the run. I would only return to my empty home five years later, no longer a carefree boy but a Holocaust survivor and Home Army veteran living in fear of Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD. I ended up moving to what was then the British mandate of Palestine, fighting in a war of independence for a Jewish homeland I didn’t even know I had.        

               Perhaps it is because I was only a child that I did not notice the storm clouds that were gathering, but I believe that many who were older and wiser than me at that time also shared my childlike state.        

               If disaster comes, you will find that all the myths you once cherished are of no use to you. You will see what it is like to live in a society where morality has collapsed, causing all your assumptions and prejudices to crumble before your eyes. And after it’s all over, you will watch as, slowly but surely, these harshest of lessons are forgotten as the witnesses pass on and new myths take their place.        

• Stanisław Aronson took part in the Polish resistance under Nazi occupation. He lives in Israel

[antisemitism-eu]

Europe: What a strange idea for Israel to invite European leaders to Yad Vashem to denounce the rejuvenation of anti-Semitism

Shmuel Trigano @ Israel Hayom:

What a strange idea it was for President Reuven Rivlin to invite European leaders to Yad Vashem to denounce the rejuvenation of anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe. Despite the political importance of the event, the entire endeavor reflects the degree to which Israelis are deluding themselves in relation to the Old Continent. The notion that the memory of the Holocaust needs to be refreshed in order to fight modern anti-Semitism is pointless, as Israel itself is now accused of turning the Holocaust and its memory into a tool with which to achieve its goals, while the anti-Zionists alter its "lesson" to benefit the Palestinian cause – by equating it to the Nakba (the Palestinian national "catastrophe" caused by Israel's creation). It is a strategic mistake to view the anti-Semitism of our time as an extension of the anti-Semitism of 30 years ago. To be sure, it still exists among the classical far-right; but is blossoming primarily in the form of anti-Zionism within Muslim and far-left post-colonialist circles. The deeper problem is turning the "lessons of the Holocaust" into the moral basis for fighting anti-Semitism. As an explanation, it favors victimhood over the political: Jewish suffering is put on display as a call to end hatred, instead of presenting Israel's status as a sovereign country as a counterweight to the new anti-Zionistic anti-Semitism. When the justification for Israel's existence is predicated on the memory of victimhood, Europe can view the state as a type of humanitarian tent for Jews, and less as a sovereign country. Consequently, Israel is not permitted, in the eyes of Europe, to realize its legitimate right to self-defense. The moment the Israeli soldier ceases being the emaciated extermination camp survivor, he morphs into a monster in the eyes of the Europeans. European recognition of Israel is based, therefore, on feelings of guilt toward the Jews – implying that the same guilt applies to the Palestinians. Europe turns a blind eye to Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism – which is the main source of modern anti-Semitism – in the belief that the Arab world is not responsible for the Holocaust, and that Europe oppressed the Palestinians by contributing to the establishment of the Jewish state. Isn't it only natural, therefore, that some of the participants of the Yad Vashem will visit Ramallah immediately after it ends? The reliance on the Holocaust in this regard means strengthening even further the myths that breed the new anti-Semitism – Nakba, occupation, original sin.

read more The New Antisemite: https://ift.tt/2NInutl

[acuppellarp]

Welcome to A Cup-pella, Lina! We’re excited to have you and Brodie Weston in the game! Please go through the checklist to make sure you’re ready to go and send in your account within the next 24 hours. 

OOC INFO

Name + pronouns: Lina Age: 27 Timezone: EST Ships: Chemistry Anti-Ships: No Chemistry

IC INFO

Full Name: Brodie Isla Weston Face Claim: Jade Tailor Age/Birthday: 27/April 18th Occupation:  Actress/Singer, Zatanna on a DC Universe original series Personality: perfectionistic, big-headed, guarded, artistic, sensitive Hometown: Detroit, Michigan

Bio: Nothing about Brodie’s life really screamed “struggle.” Her father came from old money and was a well-known successful businessman in the Detroit area in his own right. Her mother was an Israeli American model turned career socialite. She made a name for herself being the face Weston & Son marketing and public relations firm. Shira was the perfect wife, and she expected the same level of perfection from her children, Donnie and Brodie. From academics to athletics, Isla expected the best from her children while Donovan was the workaholic ever-missing presence in his children’s lives. For the most part, Brodie was accustomed to it and did what she could to please her parents. She hid under the guise of not caring, but the pressure was building an egotistical neurotic and anxious mess who knew better than to talk about her feelings.  

When the time came for high school, a 13-year-old Brodie begged her parents to be put her into a local Detroit boarding school with her 17-year-old cousin, Brandy. Her parents didn’t argue as it meant they would get more time to themselves and for their own projects. Brodie fully flourished without her parents. Under Brandy’s wing, Brodie came out as bisexual, ran her way through the cheerleading and football teams (respectively), and completely came out of her shell (a.k.a. her mother’s shadow).

Being without her mother’s constant criticism and her father’s negligence, Brodie was able to freely seek attention from anyone she saw fit. In a world of vanity where she was more of a trophy to her parents than anything else, a young Brodie had two escapes in this world: music and Dash. Her brother was 8 years older than Brodie, so they never seemed to really get along well or see eye-to-eye. For the majority of her adolescence, she felt alone. Rita, her childhood nanny, was the only real escape and refuge Brodie had in the Weston household. Rita handled the majority of Brodie’s upbringing, and she made sure that the girl knew one thing: music was everything. Rita loved music and made sure every minute was filled with it. From Etta James to Janis Joplin, Rita played everything for Brodie and encouraged her to use music as a way to express herself. Rita even managed to convince Brodie’s parents to allow her to attend music and dance lessons in addition to her forced modeling gigs, athletics, and other extracurricular activities. With a growing love for music, pursuing a career as a singer only seemed right.

Brodie’s second escape was Dash. Dashiel “Dash” Sloane-Delaney was the daughter of a partner at Weston & Sons. During their sixth grade year, Dash and Brodie met at a company picnic and were inseparable from that moment on. Dash taught Brodie how to dress. Brodie tried to teach Dash to sing, but even some missions are too impossible for a Weston. Dash encouraged Brodie to apply to the Berklee College of Music alongside the Ivy League schools her parents had picked out. When an aspiring actress Dash and aspiring musician Brodie got their acceptance letters together, there were no questions about being Boston-bound. During their junior year at Berklee, Brodie and Dash were somewhere in the realm of falling into a relationship. They clearly had chemistry and, even though Brodie hated the idea of commitment, she found herself thinking about Dash and the possibilities every now and again. That is until Brodie met a freshman by the name of Rachel Berry.

Brodie was pretty much infatuated with Rachel from the very beginning. With an undeniable Weston charm, it wasn’t long before they entered into an on-and-off friend with benefits style arrangement. The whole interaction solidified something for Dash and Brodie. Brodie wasn’t going to be someone who settled down. She was always going to be the thrill-seeker, trying to find the next most exciting challenge. Brodie was terrified of commitment, and that would never change. At least, this was the case at the time.

At the age of 26 and after only 8 months of dating, Brodie married Ainsley Walton. It was a blissful 9 months before Brodie realized she was being cheated on. Finally earning herself a few notable roles and being cast as Zatanna in the newest DC Universe Streaming Service original, Shadowcrest: Tales of the Zatara, the cheating scandal was uncomfortably public and brought an embarrassment to the level of hurt Brodie was experiencing at the time that she could not have fathomed before. The public attention on her pending divorce has gotten somewhat better, but the whole thing has left Brodie dismissive of relationships and avoidant of anything even somewhat commitment related. As far as she is concerned, this is the perfect time to dive into and disappear into her work.

Pets: Brodie likes her pets like she likes her children: made/managed by her friends and up for being babysat.

Relationships

Rachel Berry: If you ask Brodie, she would say she set eyes on Rachel and pretty much went for it. Rachel might say something different. Regardless, Rachel’s fierce nature and unbelievable talent still has Brodie smitten to this day. With her pending divorce, she has been shameless in blatantly flirting with her ex-FWB/friend. Before coming to New York, Brodie had kept in touch with Rachel, so they never really lost touch.

Reagan Lane: Brodie and Reagan had simple beginnings. She needed a roommate and so did Brodie. She only recently moved in, but they seem to be getting along fairly well.

April’s Showers team: Brodie is one of the newest midfielders for the April’s Showers. She was an athlete throughout her school career and stays in shape now for filming, so adjusting to the team hasn’t been difficult on the field. However, she hasn’t opened up much to her teammates.

Dash Delaney: Brodie and Dash were childhood best friends with sexual tension that grows the older they get. Dash accepts Brodie and all of her philandering ways, but Brodie is fairly certain that Dash believes she can commit if she sets her heart on it. Brodie just isn’t sure she’s ready for that, especially now that they will be working together on their new show.

Extra Info

BroWest / @takeawestonbrodie /  twenty-seven. Detroit native turned New Yorker. Berklee alum. singer/actress. DC-approved magician. Top hat enthusiast.

Five latest tweets:

@bostonbornbrodie: PL would do even better at #acupbotb if they showed a little more leg. Just throwing that out there.

@bostonbornbrodie: Filming in New York involves a crap ton of reshooting scenes because of noise volume. #stfupls #upsince2am

@bostonbornbrodie: I sat down to watch an episode of Umbrella Academy and got up ten episodes later… #netflixblackhole

@bostonbornbrodie: I want to be upset about this chick having an entire show about tidying up but her voice is so soothing

@bostonbornbrodie: You should never mix dark and light liquors… Unless it’s free. Then yolo.

[nataliesnews]

a boy from gaza

During one of Israel’s attacks on Gaza a young boy suffered very grievous burns to both his legs. He could not stand. I only saw him in a wheelchair.  Because Israel had been to blame he was brought to the Alyn children’s hospital to be rehabilitated. Zvia  in Machsomwatch asked  Jerusalemites to visit the boy and his father. Only his father received a permit to be with him and they, of course, knew no one in Israel. I began to go there once or twice a week to encourage them.   A friend angrily asked me if I also visited soldiers and others who were  in hospital as a result of attacks by Palestinians. I explained to her politely that Israelis needed no permits for friends and family to visit them whenever they wanted to. If I remember correctly, it was only once that his mother and siblings received a permit to come and see him. I also asked my Arabic teacher and friend, Suha, if she could visit them. The boy and his father went back to Gaza at one stage and Suha stayed in touch with them and told me that their house had been destroyed in an Israeli attack. Yesterday at a lesson she said that she was in touch with the Israeli family who had helped him in the beginning and that his stay in the hospital had had a great affect on him as he saw there that one did not have to live in a prison as he had been living in Gaza. With the help of the Zvia’s family and others he had made his way alone to Turkey and they are now working on a visa for him to Canada . To me it was a light in the darkness. Zvia and her sons are now trying to raise money so as to have him moved up in the list at Canada. She gave me his phone number and I have been in contact with him but he says he was  in such pain at the time that he does not remember me…which is OK by me

One story I remember was that one day I was there when they were serving him his lunch and he asked if he could have a glass of milk. The nurse explained that because of our dietary laws she could not give it to him but the other nurse said to her……He is a moslem and our laws don’t apply to him…and went off and brought him back some milk.

 At Balfour a man came up to me and said that they had heard of the two incidents at the demonstration of Nofim and that on Saturday some of them would come from Haifa and stand with us here at Nofim. Which is fine. But then I got a call  from channel 12 of the radio. They want to come to Balfour tomorrow night and film and interview me, also while I am walking. I cannot say that I am happy about it as it was  one thing when they interviewed Yehudit and myself at the Monster but another thing in a square full of people. They want to interview older people who come to the demonstrations and I said to them that there are people much older than I am but I guess most of them go straight to Balfour and do not walk with them. I said to them that once I am walking I do not have much breathe or anything else and have to concentrate on the walking.  But the weather is really bad and I actually will be rather happy if tomorrow night the whole thing is called off.

 ‘HUMILIATION AND ABSURDITY’ : THE ISRAELI WOMEN BEARING  WITNESS TO THE OCCUPATION  Ben Winsor - J Street - J Street is committed to a shared vision of freedom,  safety and equality for every Israeli and every Palestinian and works to  secure Israel’s long-term future as a truly democratic homeland for the  Jewish people.//A Palestinian man is denied access to a field he has owned  and plowed for decades. A bride-to-be is refused passage to a visa  appointment to travel to her wedding in America. Palestinians are handcuffed  and left to wait hours in the heat so soldiers can run checks which only take  minutes. An Israeli soldier bursts out laughing after he destroys a gift  given to an older Palestinian man by letting it fall off the end of an x-ray  conveyor belt. These are among the thousands of humiliations meticulously  documented by MachsomWatch: Women Against the Occupation and for Human Rights  — also known as Checkpoint Watch — an Israeli organization dedicated to  observing, addressing and reporting on the indignities inflicted upon  Palestinians not just at checkpoints but, throughout the occupied West Bank. (rh)

 The young men  came on Saturday. This is a photo of me with one of them. Their organization  which they are trying to build is called “Protect my brother” and they made a  video of me explaining what had happened to us and telling people about their  group and that they are prepared to go to any area where there are attacks.  After that they gave me a lift to the bridge  and they went off to walk  with the rubber submarines. They were soaked

  I was very tired …I think part of it tension because the night before I kept worrying that I would say the right things and both the  leaders of the demonstration of the black flags had asked me to give them space and Machsomwatch and the new grpoup….being interviewed for the television and then the one man Mosco interviewed me at the bridge. They filmed me. That was OK. And I felt I spoke well and mentioned all the various groups.

 But then we started walking and there were all three of them motioning people out of the way and walking backwards. I have enough trouble walking frontwards and then suddenly there were also all sorts of other photographers and it was very nerve-wracking and embarrassing.  Tali Wolf again walked with me and it is a help. Then Mosco who is from the tv came up and said that they were not happy about the recordings and would I do it while walking and I think then, I was already very tired and my leg was bad I think because of the cold and I made such a mess of it that I did not sleep the whole night with being upset. I am not good at putting what I think across then I am tired.  But because I was tired I saved myself and Tali as we took the shorter route to Balfour. The others went on and I was lucky as the police turned the water cannons on them and some people were hurt. I think I will walk in future with my old glasses as I have not finished paying for the new ones and it has taken me a year. My four guys were soaked. It is very nerve wracking to the photographed so much . I cant’ understand people wo enjoy it

 Mosco said that they would let me know when it will be broadcasted but I don’t I will watch. Maybe they won’t even think that it is worth it, I am glad that it is over. I hope tonight I will sleep,

  But some cute I hope pictures,,,sittng next to the little ones the father said that they were probably the youngest and I the oldest  there . and they were not impressed by the sandwiches their mother had made them. I said their parents would have to try harded to satisfy the young gormets….. Part of it for me is tension on the days before ….being interviewed for the television and then the one man Mosco interviewed me at the bridge. They filmed me. That was OK. But then we started walking and there were all three of them motioning people out of the way and walking backwards. I have enough trouble walking frontwards and then suddenly there were also all sorts of other photographers

 and it was very nerve-wracking and embarrassing.  Tali Wolf walked with me and gave me more confidence. But this is the first time in my lift that I have been pushed forward and I find it very nerve wracking

 I received this photos from pictures which had been taken of me and friends sent me

      was very tired …I think part of it tension….being interviewed for the television and then the one man Mosco interviewed me at the bridge. They filmed me. That was OK. But then we started walking and there were all three of them motioning people out of the way and walking backwards. I have enough trouble walking frontwards and then suddenly there were also all sorts of other photographers and it was very nerve-wracking and embarrassing.  Tali Wolf again walked with me and it is a help.

 I am in the background

[shoshiegherts]

Art Therapy in Schools

Reflecting on my placement this year at a Primary School, I decided I would like to research about an Art Therapist’s place in a school setting. I am a teacher in a SEN primary school in Brent and we are in constant contact with the therapy team to incorporate the childrens’ OT (Occupational Therapy) and SLT (Speech & Language) targets into our lessons so that the children can access their learning whilst also developing their weaker skills. I discovered this paper: ‘Art Therapy in Schools: The Therapist’s Perspective’ written by Regev, Green-Orlovich and Snir. I have read two of their other papers on the matter of silence in Art Therapy sessions which I will write a blog post about soon.

‘Art Therapy in Schools’ discusses not only the impact that Art Therapy has on people at school age, but also the advantages and disadvantages of it being incorporated into the school system. This paper was written in Israel and therefore is based on the Israeli school system. Schools hiring Art Therapists has become increasingly popular as schools are seeing the advantages of art therapy for children that attend that school. Some of the advantages discussed in the paper are that unlike external therapists, the art therapist has access to teachers, parents and other therapists within the school. “Studies have found that art therapy in the school framework helps pupils resolve emotional problems” (Gersch & Goncalves, 2006) “and can assist children at risk and children with learning disabilities to adapt to the school system” (Freilich & Shechtman, 2010; Spier 2010). A definite advantage is that the Art Therapist can have constant communication with the child’s parents, school teachers and other therapists to ensure that all targets and aims are being met. In my placement, the teacher was required to fill in a CQR for the child that would be a client of mine and I had to set targets for the child e.g. for the child to use art to emotionally regulate, the child to be able to express themselves sufficiently.

As positive as the advantages sound, there are some disadvantages of having art therapy integrated into the school system. This would be if there was any tension between the therapy team and then communication wouldn’t be as fluid between the staff to discuss important matters on the client. Another reasons is that the art therapy sessions reduce the classroom time and therefore the child might have to miss crucial lessons in order to have art therapy sessions. I have experienced in my art therapy sessions that it is crucial to have a safe space where other staff members and children cannot intrude or disturb the therapist and client. This can be quite difficult to do in a smaller school where there are no designated therapy rooms. I am lucky that in the school where I am placed at, there is a dedicated art therapy room for me. However, it’s a very clinical room and the art supplies are hidden in a cupboard. It has the atmosphere of an office, however I plan to make it more atmospheric by adding a ‘how are you feeling?’ display and perhaps some other inspirational quotes around the room.

The findings of these interviews show that all of the art therapists interviewed thought that working in conjuncture with the school and the staffing body within it was advantageous when it comes to working with a child/client. The therapist can feel less alone as they are surrounded by a team of other staff who perhaps know the child and have consistent daily contact with them. They can then be there to help if the therapist needs to know a missing piece of information, elements of their behaviour plan, and can give the therapist advice on the child. Having art therapy in school is also beneficial to the child as they can learn to transition from lesson to therapy whilst feeling relaxed, feel safer at school and take what they have reflected on from their therapy sessions and apply what they have learnt to their lives immediately. Other advantages that are mentioned are that therapists “can get to know their clients better” (Regev, Green-Orlovich and Snir, 2015) and become more familiar with their routine/behaviour.

The paper goes on to list more difficulties than advantages. These include issues with the therapy room and its privacy, limitations of art materials provided, the school calendar conflict between staff and the unpaid extra work outside the school day. These are all difficulties listed by most of the art therapists interviewed. As mentioned before, designating a room in a school for art therapy can be difficult due to the size of the school and also due to pupils and other staff knocking on the door and possibly interrupting a session. Whilst this may be done unintentionally, this is not what art therapists working in a private sector are used to. Perhaps training other staff members during an inset would be a solution to the problem as it solves 2 issues at hand - one being staff knowing not to disturb a therapy session and two, having staff trained to the basics of art therapy and being able to spot if a child would benefit from art therapy. Before I started my sessions with clients, I checked in the art supplies cupboard to see what other supplies I could ask the school for so that the children could benefit more from better art materials. A lot of schools have the issue of funding art therapy materials for clients to use. Some schools let the therapists take art supplies from the art rooms however some art therapists must buy the materials from their own money. This can be extremely expensive as art supplies cost a lot of money. More schools need to include art therapy art materials into their budgeting as if they’re invested in helping their students by referring them to art therapy, the students need these art materials to help them communicate and express how they are feeling to the full extent they can. The school calendar is listed as a difficulty to some therapists. However, in my weekly therapy with my art therapist, her holidays usually coincide with the school calendar. Working in a school as a teacher and being placed in a school as an art therapist gives me the advantage that all my term dates correspond with each other. This paper states that having art therapy sessions during the school calendar can be inconsistent, however I beg to differ. I would think that the children being in school and knowing when they’re in school and on holiday alongside having art therapy sessions internally would be more comforting as they know when they are at school, they’ll have sessions, and when it’s school holiday they will not. Some private art therapists will take annual leave outside of school holiday dates therefore arguably making external art therapy sessions more inconsistent than school sessions as having 2 calendars for a child can be confusing and conflicting for them.

Whilst there are these disadvantages, I feel as if there are resolutions for each of these problems such as the school providing a therapy room for therapy, the art therapist running a training for the staff about art therapy, asking the school to provide more art materials and giving the student/client a visual calendar of sessions for the year for them to take home or keep at school.

My two younger siblings are diagnosed with ASD. My younger brother was diagnosed very young in 1999 and there was not any kind of therapy available at his primary school and therefore my parents took him to therapy externally. This meant that they have to take me with them or find childcare which some parents would find extremely difficult to do financially or logistically. My sister’s primary school specialised in SEN and could provide her with OT and SLT. This was integrated into her timetable with 1:1 sessions and class sessions for life skills learning. Her experience of this therapy integration made it seem more “normal” that these were her lessons and that she had private sessions building her OT and language skills.

Overall, I feel strongly that Art Therapists should be more integrated in schools and should come to an agreement with the school and leadership team of the boundaries of sessions with children and how they could enrich the children’s opportunity to help themselves with this incredible expressive art therapy experience.

Bibliography/References:

Freilich, R., & Shechtman, Z. (2010). The contribution of art therapy to the social, emotional, and academic adjustment of children with learning disabilities. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 37, 97-105.

Gersch, I., & Goncalves, S. S. J. (2006). Creative arts therapies and educational psychology: Let’s get together. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 11(1), 22-32.

Sunderland, M., 2015. Conversations That Matter: Talking With Children And Teenagers In Ways That Help. 1st ed. Great Britain: TJ International Ltd.

Regev, D., Green-Orlovich, A. and Snir, S., 2015. Art therapy in schools – The therapist's perspective. The Arts in Psychotherapy, [online] 45, pp.47-55. Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282289568_Art_Therapy_in_Schools-The_Therapist's_Perspective> [Accessed 27 December 2020].

[lindawfowler101010]

Can/Will Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Win?

On June 26, 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a landslide democratic primary against the longtime incumbent, Joe Crowley, despite being far behind in the polls. Crowley was seen as the heir apparent to Nancy Pelosi as future Democratic House leader. In November 2018, she'll face off against her Republican counterpart for the Senate seat (New York Congressional District 14). While independent left-wing media outlets have been largely gushing with excitement, right-wing media outlets have been criticizing Cortez nonstop, and her early gaffes have certainly given them some ammunition.

Conventional Political Wisdom suggests Ocasio-Cortez has little/no chance

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is only 28-year-old, has no political experience, and dubs herself a democratic socialist. Furthermore, the word “socialism” carries with it much baggage. While it's true that younger voters understand that its modern usage refers to the sort of economic models we find in Canada, the UK, France, and various Nordic countries, outlets like Fox News will continue to insist that she means Venezuela, and they will continue to pretend that this is what she means (and they'll continue to ignore the ongoing economic sanctions as a potential contributor to Venezuela's economic troubles). These arguments no doubt work with voters within the Republican base, it remains to be seen if they will work with swing and independent voters, who are more likely to understand the difference.

The Changing Political Landscape

There is growing indication that the old political calculus is fast becoming obsolete (if it hasn't already). We saw indications of this with President trump's victory, which flew in the face of contemporary polls, including Nate Silver's model which proved far more effective than traditional polling methods during the 2012 Presidential election. The percentage of disaffected voters continues to grow, and candidates are finding ways to motivate those outside of the “likely voter” pool.

Untapped voters

Why did Ocasio-Cortez win such a landslide victory despite being so far behind in the polls? Simple: The polls measure likely voters. Cortez appealed to, visited and motivated people outside that pool. The effect here cannot be understated. Studies have shown that voters below the poverty line (those more likely to vote for left-leaning policies) are far less likely to vote. Cortez was able to inspire votes from this demographic.

To a certain degree, President Donald Trump was able to do this as well with disaffected voters. While the POTUS' detractors are busy expressing incredulity that so many people could vote for someone with his less-than-appealing qualities, they are missing the point. There are many disaffected voters who voted for him because the ongoing political back-and-forth was still leaving them without work. Trump, for all of his dislikable qualities, represented the chance of something different for people who felt they had nothing to lose at this point. Ocasio-Cortez offers a similar platform.

Socialism isn't such a dirty word anymore

The application of the word socialism has changed over time. While many from older generations still insist that it refers to the actual lack of private sector, younger generations understand in terms of how the word has actually been used in the last decade or so. Industrialized nations have strong social safety nets and public programs, and some of them more than others. Yet, these economies are still capitalist. Socialism, as used in a modern context refers to this model. In this regard, the United States is already socialist (but less so than its Canadian and European counterparts) given programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The use of the word “socialist” by Ocasio-Cortez and other Justice Democrats does seem to further split the Democratic Party.  This is likely due to the historical baggage tied to the word, and the fact that older voters may very well still associate the word with its cold war usage.   On the other hand, the Republican Party and right-wing media outlets have been referring to people like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as socialists for years now.  The attack may no longer be very effective (for comparison, many Democrats have accused Republican presidents and other officials of racism for so long, that it no held much weight when they applied to Donald Trump).

Furthermore, Bernie Sanders has openly used the word socialism and he is currently the most popular politician in the United States.

Policy and Platitudes

What Cortez is proposing is a step further in this direction, with programs like Single Payer Healthcare (which is essentially Medicare for everyone), tax-funded college/trade school and more investment in green technologies.

This is where the information silo that not exists results in a rift over how these policies are perceived. Those within the Fox News-to-Info Wars distribution will be sold the idea that these are radical policies that will take the United States into uncharted waters.  These outlets will mostly ignore the actual pertinent economics models (Canada, Scandinavia, Norway, The UK, etc) and constantly mention Venezuela (blaming socialism for its economic troubles and ignoring the effects of US-imposed sanctions).

More informed voters will realize that there is nothing radical about this. The US healthcare industry is already largely socialized. Single payer would simply expand Medicare to all individuals. Taxes would increase to pay for this, but those taxes would simply be replacing premiums being paid to private insurers. Free college sounds radical but it was once free (rising costs have simply outpaced the rise in tax finding). The green new deal is not much different than the federal investment into the auto industry during World War II. Furthermore, we have finally reached the threshold where the green sector is not only a viable job creator, but renewable energy is now on par with fossil fuels.

 The “excellent economy”

There is a growing gap between the published monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 report, and what many Americans are experiencing in terms of economic hardship. The U-6 measures employment rates among those actively seeking employment, meaning it simply ignores those who've given up looking for work. Furthermore, the jobs being created are increasingly lower paying. This is in part why, despite the twenty months of month-over-month job creation and dropping unemployment rates during Barack Obama's time in office, countless disaffected voters felt disenfranchised.

This schism between the published U-6 numbers (and for that matter, rising stock market and GDP, both of which have also been growing since 2009), and what millions of Americans are experiencing economically make traditional economic indicators less and less effective for predictive models. Furthermore, income inequality has continued to grow.

The point: The fact that traditional metrics are largely positive masks the pain being felt by a large percentage of the population, especially those living in poverty (which, as mentioned earlier, appear to be motivated by the policies being espoused by Ocasio-Cortez).  Hence, don't expect the positive metrics to play the same role they would have in the past when these indicators were more in line with whatever voters were experiencing.

The Israel Occupation statement (”gaffe”)

In a recent interview, Cortex referred to the “Israeli Occupation.” When pressed on what she meant, she mentioned the settlements, backpedaled a bit, then stated that she is not the expert on foreign policy. Right-wing media has had a field day with this. This is an interesting situation because it's clear that she is actually correct, but simply lost confidence in her assertion and backpedaled. Right-wing pundits are essentially criticizing her for her intellectual honesty, and not pretending to be certain on something she wasn't actually certain of (the take-home lesson being, that pretending to know what you don't know is actually a virtue).

Under the traditional political calculus, this is certainly a “mistake” and perhaps it will prove to be even under the new paradigm. However, it may not be. Something has shifted, and it's difficult to describe. Many of the old rules are becoming less pervasive. This may very well be the influence of the Internet and streaming video, where long-form interviews are shedding light on the inadequacy of the old, structured television format, where debates are won by who sounds the more self-assured, and who has the most clever things to say (facts and honesty being a tertiary consideration). Furthermore, the growing distrust of “politics as usual” could mean that the sort of candidness of intellectual honesty is seen as a strength, not a weakness.

At this point, she is running for Senate in NY CD 14, not for POTUS.  Hence, some of her early gaffes may not be so detrimental for this campaign.

We'll know in November.

 The post Can/Will Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Win? appeared first on Fact and Myth.

[palestine]

14 years ago today, Israeli bulldozers killed ISM activist Rachel Corrie in Gaza

PNN/ Gaza/

Today marks the anniversary of the Israeli killing of Rachel Corrie in Rafah, southern Gaza strip, 14 years ago.

On March 16, 2003, Rachel was killed by an Israel Occupation Force (IOF) armored bulldozer in Rafah during the second Palestinian intifada.

Rachel had come to Gaza to try and establish a sister city project between her hometown Olympia, Washington and Rafah, Gaza. She was a peace activist connected to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who tried to prevent the demolition of Palestinian houses which were being carried out by the Israeli army.

After a three hour long confrontation between ISM activists and the Israeli army’s demolition forces, she was killed, less than two months after arriving in Gaza.

Israel claims that the driver of the bulldozer could not see Rachel because of the limited field of view from within the bulldozer. Humans rights groups claim that the driver had seen her and deliberately continued driving, disregarding her fellow activists who were shouting and waving their arms, which resulted in Rachel’s death.

The Israeli army’s investigation of the incident concluded that the death was an accident because the driver of the bulldozer had limited visibility and therefore couldn’t see Rachel. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations criticized the military investigation, claiming that it was not transparent, credible or thorough enough.

In 2006 Bradley Burston, Haaretz columnist said “We should have saved Rachel Corrie’s life that day… Right now, somewhere in the West Bank, there’s an eight-year-old whose life could be saved next week, if we’ve managed to learn the lesson are resourceful enough to know how to apply it.”

In 2005 a one-woman drama called ”My Name Is Rachel Corrie” ran at London’s Royal Court Theater, and received a warm reception. In April 2015, the drama was staged Off Broadway in the East Village in New York.

Two years ago a symbolic gravestone with her name was installed in Tehran cemetary in Iran, alongside twelve other symbolic gravestones.

There is a street named after Rachel Corrie in Ramallah, West Bank.

Via PNN http://bit.ly/2m6IiPq

[kawaiipizzawonderland]

NY Mysteries May 15, 2020

FREE FREE PALESTINE!

Nakba Day was held yesterday, May 15. it commemorates the 1948 Israeli expulsion of the Palestinians from their ancestral land. The 2020 rally was carried on Facebook and sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK/ the BDS Movement/ the South African BDS Coalition/ Jewish Voice for Peace. It celebrates Palestinian solidarity through native speakers and performers of all ages. Ben Jamal and Stefanie Fox were the narrators. Jamal is of Palestinian descent and an English citizen. Fox is the Jewish Voice for Peace Director. Several young Palestinians spoke about their grandparents recalling May 15, 1948 when over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled and hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed. Yara Hawari speaking from Nabi Saleh, Palestine, talked about the ongoing control of her people and the annexation of their land. Ghada Karmi described being kicked out of their  Palestinian house in 1948. Her family fled to England where she was raised on her grandmother’s talks about England being the country that allowed the takeover. Janna Jihad, a very young Palestinian, likes to listen to her elders dreaming of going back to their land. She has never been to the sea and can’t go there because of the occupation. Remi Kanazi talks about his grandmother in 1948, seven months pregnant, being ordered and forced out of her house. Diana Buttu described her blindfolded father being driven from his home. Two years later Diana and her family fled to Lebanon. When they returned to Palestine their land had been confiscated. Their lease was not honored.

Nakba 2020

William Shoki, a South African student, spoke about similar treatment of black south Africans. They too were disenfranchised in 1948. The Israeli leader, Arial Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister, approved and aided in establishing the South African apartheid. Shaki proclaimed that the young will never forget. Chief Zwelivelle Mandella of South Africa spoke of his support for the Palestinians. Stefanie Fox talked about being taught as a young Jew that the Palestinians were driving the Israelis into the sea. She discovered it’s the reverse:  Israelis  were and are driving Palestinians off their land. She  Invited her fellow Jews to support the Palestinian movement. 

Nakba 2020

Nakba, 2020

  Henco Espag, Judson’s Musical Director posted this message on 3/27/20. Working with Henco is heavenly. Grab this opportunity. 

Hallooo Judson,

We are putting together a Judson Quarantine Artbook to feature creations inspired by our shared social distancing experience both for our virtual services and in a live in-person concert once we are all back together again.

Below is the website link to the contest and the full submission guidelines pasted in as well.  Please share this with everyone!!!!

We already received submissions within 10 minutes of posting.

Thank you!

Henco

https://www.judson.org/quarantine-artbook-contest

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

[thetruthseekerway]

Quarantine: A Palestinian Guide to Survival

New Post has been published on https://www.truth-seeker.info/quran-science-2/quarantine-a-palestinian-guide-to-survival/

Quarantine: A Palestinian Guide to Survival

By Ramzy Baroud

Quarantine: A Palestinian Guide to Survival

Call it a ‘quarantine’, a ‘shelter-in-place’, a ‘lockdown’ or a ‘curfew’, we Palestinians have experienced them all, though not at all voluntarily.

Personally, the first 23 years of my life were lived in virtual ‘lockdown’. My father’s ‘quarantine’ was experienced much earlier, as did his father’s ‘shelter-in-place’ before him. They both died and were buried in Gaza’s cemeteries without ever experiencing true freedom outside of their refugee camp in Gaza.

Currently in Gaza, the quarantine has a different name. We call it ‘siege’, also known as ‘blockade’.

In fact, all of Palestine has been in a state of ‘lockdown’ since the late 1940s when Israel became a state and the Palestinian homeland was erased by Zionist colonialists with the support of their Western benefactors.

That lockdown intensified in 1967 when Israel, now a powerful state with a large army and strong allies, occupied the remaining parts of Palestine – East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Under this lockdown, the Palestinian freedom of movement was curtailed to the extent that Palestinians required permits from the Israeli military to leave the Occupied Territories or to return home, to move about from one town to the other, and, at times, to cross a single Israeli military checkpoint or a fortified wall.

In Palestine, we don’t call our imprisonment a lockdown, but a ‘military occupation’ and ‘apartheid’.

As for ‘shelter-in-place’, in Palestine, we have a different name for it. We call it a ‘military curfew’.

Since I was a child, I learned to listen intently to orders barked out by Israeli military officers as they swept through our refugee camp in Gaza declaring or easing military curfews. This ritual often happened late at night.

“People of Nuseirat, per orders of the Israeli military you are now under curfew. Anyone who violates orders will be shot immediately,” the terrifying words, always communicated through a loudspeaker in broken Arabic, were a staple during the First Palestinian Uprising (Intifada) of 1987.

The period between 1987 to 1993 was a virtual ‘lockdown’. Thousands of people, mostly children, were killed for failing to respect the rules of their collective imprisonment.

In Gaza, even when a full military curfew was not in place, we rarely left our small and crowded neighborhoods, let alone our refugee camps. We were all haunted by the fear that we may not be able to make it home by 8p.m., the time designated by the Israeli military for all of us to return home.

Every day, ten or fifteen minutes after the nightly curfew set in, we would hear the crackling and hissing of bullets as they whistled through the air from various distances. Automatically, we would conclude that some poor soul – a worker, a teacher, or a rowdy teenager – missed his chance by a few minutes, and paid a price for it.

Now that nearly half of the population of planet Earth are experiencing some form of ‘curfew’ or another, I would like to share a few suggestions on how to survive the prolonged confinement, the Palestinian way.

Think Ahead

Since we knew that a complete lockdown, or a military curfew, was always pending, we tried to anticipate the intensity and duration of it and prepare accordingly.

For example, when the Israeli army killed one or more refugees, we knew in advance that mass protests would follow, thus more killings. In these situations, a curfew was imminent.

Number one priority was to ensure that all family members congregated at home or stayed within close proximity so that they could rush in as fast as possible when the caravan of Israeli military jeeps and tanks came thundering, opening fire at anyone or anything within sight.

Lesson number one: Always think ahead and prepare for a longer lockdown than the initial one declared by your city or state.

Stay Calm

My father had a bad temper, although a very kind heart. When curfews were about to start, he would enter into a near-panic state. A chain smoker with obsessive, although rational fear that one of his five boys would eventually be killed, he would walk around the house in a useless rush, not knowing what to do next.

Typically, my mother would come in, rational and calculating. She would storm the kitchen to assess what basic supplies were missing, starting with the flour, sugar and olive oil.

Knowing that the first crackdown by the Israelis would be on water supplies and electricity, she would fill several plastic containers of water, designating some for tea, coffee and cooking, and others for dishes and washing clothes.

Per her orders, we would rush to the nearby stores to make small but necessary purchases – batteries for the flashlight and the transistor radio, cigarettes for my dad, and a few VHS videotapes which we would watch over and again, whether the curfew lasted for a few days or a few weeks.

Lesson number two: Take control of the situation – do not panic – and assign specific responsibilities to every family member. This strengthens the family unit and sets the stage for collective solidarity desperately required under these circumstances.

Preserve Your Water

I cannot emphasize this enough. Even if you think that a water crisis is not impending, do not take chances.

It is easy to feel invincible and fully prepared on the first day of quarantine – or military curfew. Many times, we lived to regret that false sense of readiness, as we drank too much tea or squandered our dishwashing water supplies too quickly.

In this case, you have a serious problem, especially during the summer months when you cannot count on rainwater to make up for the deficit.

Years after the end of the Intifada, my father revealed to us that many a time, him and mom used the rainwater they collected in buckets throughout the house, including the leaked roofs for our drinking supplies, even when there was no electricity or gas to boil the water beforehand.

In retrospect, this explains the many bouts of diarrhea we experienced, despite his assurances that they had painstakingly removed all bird droppings from the salvaged water.

Lesson number three: Cautiously use your water supplies during a quarantine, and never, under any circumstance, drink rainwater or, at least, keep diarrhea pills handy.

Ration Your Food

The same logic that applies to water applies to food. It goes without saying that any acquired food would have to cover the basics first. For example, flour, which we used to make bread, comes before bananas, and sugar, which we consumed abundantly with tea, comes before Dutch candy.

I made that mistake more than once, not because of my love for the imported Dutch candy which we purchased from Abu Sa’dad’s store, located in the center of the camp. The truth is, my brothers and I played a strange form of candy poker which kept us entertained for many hours. I dreaded running out of my precious supplies before the curfew was over, thus subjugating myself to potential humiliation of having to auction everything else I owned – including my small radio – to stay in the game.

My poor mother was devastated numerous times by the horrible choices we made when we rushed to buy ‘essentials’.

Lesson number four: Agree in advance on what classifies as ‘essential food’, and consume your food in a rational way. Also, if you are lucky enough to locate Dutch candy in whatever version of the Abu Sa’dad’s store, in your town, do not gamble it all in one day.

Find Sources of Entertainment

If electricity is still available, then you still have the option of watching television. For us, Indian movies, especially those starring Amitabh Bachchan, were the number one option. Imagine my disappointment when our beloved movie star, who helped us through numerous military curfews in Gaza, was photographed grinning with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter’s visit to India in 2018.

If electricity is cut off, be ready with alternative options: books, free wrestling, living-room soccer (with the ball preferably made from stuffed-up socks contributed by all family members), and, of course, candy poker.

Lesson number five: The key is to have more than one form of entertainment and to be prepared for every eventuality, including power outages as a form of collective punishment.

Find the Humor in Grim Situations

Don’t focus on the negatives; there is no point or wisdom in that. Emphasizing the grimness of a situation can only contribute to the feeling of defeat and powerlessness that are already generated by the lockdown. There will be plenty of time in which you can look back, reflect, and even bemoan your unfortunate circumstance.

But, during the curfew itself is when you actually need your sense of humor most. Take things lightly – laugh at your miserable situation, if you must. Forgive yourself for not being perfect, for panicking when you should have been composed, or for forcing your younger brother to gamble his underwear when he runs out of Dutch candy.

Difficult situations can offer the kind of scenarios that can be interpreted in two extreme ways: either extremely tragic or extremely funny; opt for the latter whenever you can, because as long as you laugh, as long as your spirit remains unbroken, your humanity remains intact.

Lesson number six: Be funny, don’t take life too seriously, share a laugh with others, and let humor inject hope in every hour and every day of your quarantine.

Hold Tighter to Your Faith

Whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or any other faith; whether you are an atheist, agnostic, or practice any form of spirituality, philosophy or belief system, find comfort in your faith and beliefs.

Since all mosques in our refugee camp were shut down, if not raided during a military curfew, the call for prayer, which we heard five times during each day, was permanently silenced.

To keep the call for prayer going, we would sneak to the roof of our houses, carefully scan the area for any Israeli soldiers, and collectively make the call for prayer whenever it was required. Volunteers included my English teacher, who was communist and claimed that he did not believe in God, myself, and Nabil, the neighbor boy with the massive head and the most unpleasant voice.

In curfews, we developed a different relationship with God: He became a personal and more intimate companion, as we often prayed in total darkness, whispered our verses so very cautiously as not to be heard by pesky soldiers. And, even those who hardly prayed before the curfew kept up with all five prayers during the lockdown.

Lesson number seven: Let your values guide you during your hours of loneliness. And if you volunteer to make a call for prayer (or recite your religious hymns) please be honest with yourself: if you have no sense of rhythm or if your voice has the pitch of an angry alley cat, for God’s sake, leave the job to someone else.

In Conclusion

I hope that under no circumstances you will ever hear these ominous words: “You are now under curfew. Anyone who violates orders will be shot immediately.” I also hope that this COVID-19 quarantine will make us kinder to each other and will make us emerge from our homes better people, ready to take on global challenges while united in our common faith, collective pain and a renewed sense of love for our environment.

And when it’s all over, think of Palestine, for her people have been ‘quarantined’ for 71 years and counting.

———-

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU).

His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.