#hanan ashrawi

[garadinervi]

Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi (حنان داود ميخائيل عشراوي), Economics, in Women of the Fertile Crescent. An Anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women, Edited with Translations by Kamal Boullata, Three Continents Press, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 143

[eretzyisrael]

By  Kassy Akiva

Birzeit University, located just outside of Ramallah in the West Bank, is home to an overwhelmingly Hamas-affiliated student government that holds on-campus terrorist parades. It also has relationships with some of America’s most prestigious universities, despite the fact that its leadership and faculty openly harbor pro-terrorist and anti-American sentiments.

The chairwoman of Birzeit’s Board of Trustees denied Hamas’s brutality and rape on October 7, and the school’s official account called for “glory to the martyrs” days after the attack. Yet its relationships in the United States remain largely intact — it has active relationships with Harvard University, Rutgers University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and others across the country.

Harvard University is set to host a “Palestine Social Medicine Course” next month at Birzeit, where students will learn about “settler colonialism.” Rutgers University affirmed its relationship with Birzeit in May amid student encampment protests and William Paterson University entered into an agreement with the Hamas-run university in 2022 for exchange programs, sharing curricula and joint degree programs. Other schools, such as MIT, have recently co-hosted conferences, invited Birzeit professors for speaking events, or had student groups visit its campus.

Experts say the university has “gone off the deep-end” since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, with leadership openly defending the actions and broadcasting lies about the conflict.

Birzeit’s Terrorist-Sympathizing Leadership

Hanan Ashrawi, the chairwoman of Birzeit University’s Board of Trustees, has denied Hamas committed sexual assault on Israeli civilians during its October 7 massacre, endorsed the lynching of Israeli soldiers, and defended Hezbollah, according to CAMERA UK.

On October 11, Ashrawi wrote that Israel’s “spin machine” was “manufacturing horrific lies in an orchestrated smear campaign claiming rape, slaughtering babies, beheadings, burnings alive” and that the Western media “immediately swallowed & regurgitated such vile slander.” Ashrawi doubled down on sexual assault denial in March, calling a UN report finding grounds that Hamas committed sexual violence invalid because it included mostly interviews with Israelis.

Jonathan Schanzer, Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he is not surprised that Birzeit’s radical views are expressed at the highest levels.

“Ashrawi has had a forked tongue for decades,” Schanzer told the Daily Wire, pointing out that she was once part of the Oslo Accords. “While she was once seen as a woman of peace, that ship sailed a long time ago and she has since been a mouthpiece for radicalism for the better part of a decade.”

In a January 2, 2024 post on X, Ashrawi voiced her frustration with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killing Saleh al-Arourui, the founding commander of Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam brigades, who she labeled a “Palestinian leader.”

Hanan Ashrawi, the chairwoman of Birzeit University’s Board of Trustees, has denied Hamas committed sexual assault on Israeli civilians during its October 7 massacre.

“The long-distance assassination by drone of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri is a typical Israeli pattern of murdering Palestinian leaders of all factions. Not only does it not bring security or capitulation, it provokes & produces a serious escalation with long-term ramifications,” Ashrawi wrote.

Ashrawi also sat on the Honorary Editorial Board of the Palestinian Chronicle, the U.S.-based non-profit that employed Abdallah Aljamal, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in June as three hostages held prisoner in his home were rescued.

Previously a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, she was also a founding member of Miftah, an organization with a history of anti-Ssemitism, including publishing an article claiming Jews use Christian blood to make matzah for Passover before apologizing, according to the Times of Israel. Ashrawi was denied a visa to the United States in 2019, according to her Twitter though it is unclear if she was given one in the following years for trips. 

“I think it is quite revealing that she has been supportive of Hamas and other extremist groups after being part of the peace process for so many years,” Schanzer said. “I think she has gone well past the tipping point and there is no return for her. I suspect she knows that.”

[i-am-aprl]

Hanan Ashrawi shut down the double standards of the western media.

[agentfascinateur]

More truth, from the great dame of Palestinians Dr Ashrawi

And considering Biden's "our" military operation remark, the dehumanization of Palestinians is intended to reach extinction. It's not right. "Do unto others"...

[tieflingkisser]

Israel’s primary objective is to destroy ‘all of Palestine’: Activist

Hanan Ashrawi, veteran Palestinian activist and former member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, says, “We are in the midst of a genocide” in Gaza. “Israel is hellbent on taking it a notch up … having treated the Palestinians like herds of cattle where they shift them from one place to the other carrying out demographic engineering … now they are destroying the last refuge that they have,” she told Al Jazeera. “Everybody knows that there are no limits to Israeli depravity, to Israeli blood thirst, to the use of massacres and carnage to achieve we don’t know what ends, because they don’t know what ends. They cannot destroy Hamas … so in a way it is a willful infliction of pain, death and destruction without any accountability,” Ashrawi said. “The primary objective is to destroy not just the Palestinians of Gaza but all of Palestine,” she concluded.

[fspgrad]

Palestinian Icon Destroys Western Complicity - w/ Hanan Ashrawi

Excellent interview worth listening to.

[translations2]

네살이 다 되어가는 아이의 일기, 하난 아슈라위

From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old

- Hanan Ashrawi

- In A Map of Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Writing on the Nakba, Edited by Atef Alshaer

Tomorrow, the bandages

will come off. I wonder

will I see half an orange,

half an apple, half my

mother’s face

with my one remaining eye?

I did not see the bullet

but felt its pain

exploding in my head.

His image did not

vanish, the soldier

with a big gun, unsteady

hands, and look in

his eyes

I could not understand

I can see him so clearly

with my eyes closed,

it could be that inside our heads

we each have one spare set

of eyes

to make up for the ones we lose

Next month, on my birthday,

I’ll have a brand new glass eye,

maybe things will look round

and fat in the middle—

I’ve gazed through all my marbles,

they made the world look strange.

I hear a nine-month old

has also lost an eye,

I wonder if my soldier

shot her too—a soldier

looking for little girls who

look him in the eye—

I’m old enough , almost four,

I’ve seen enough of life,

but she’s just a baby

who didn’t know any better.

_

네살이 다 되어가는 아이의 일기

- 하난 아슈라위

- A Map of Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Writing on the Nakba (편집자: Atef Alshaer) 에서 발췌

내일 반창고를 뗀다.

오렌지도

사과도

엄마 얼굴도 반만 보일까

눈이 하나만 남았으니까?

총알은 못 봤는데

내 머리 속에서 터지는 것 같았다

아팠다.

계속 보인다

그 군인이

큰 총을 들고, 팔을

휘청거렸다. 나를 쳐다보는

눈이

왜 그렇게 나를 보는지 모르겠다

눈을 감으면,

그 군인이 너무 또렷하게 보인다

어쩌면 우리는 머리 속에

눈이 한 쌍 더 있어서

그 눈으로

우리가 잃는 사람들을 대신하는지도 모른다

다음 달 내 생일에,

새 유리 눈알을 받을거다

그러면 세상이 동그랗고

가운데는 납작해 보일지도 모른다

내가 가진 구슬들 사이로 다 봐봤는데

세상이 이상해 보인다.

9개월 아가가

눈을 잃었다고 한다

나한테 그런 군인이

그 아가도 쏜걸까? 자기랑 눈이 마주치는

여자아이들을 찾아다니는

군인인지도 모른다

나는 나이가 많은데. 네 살이 다 되어가니까

살만큼 살아봤다.

그런데 아가는

아무것도 몰라서 그런건데.

_

이스라엘 군에 의한 팔레스타인 사람들에 대한 집단학살 52일째. 이스라엘과 하마스는 24일 금요일 아침부터 나흘간의 휴전에 합의했다. 어제까지의 기록에 따르면 20,031명의 팔레스타인 사람들이 이스라엘 군에 의해 죽임을 당했고, 그 중 팔레타인 아동은 8176명이다. 1,700,000명의 팔레스타인 사람들이 이스라엘 군의 집단학살로 인해 살 곳을 잃었다.

[mothgenes]

My self-directed final for my digital illustration class, an illustration of this poem by Hanan Mikha'il Ashrawi. Free Palestine.

Alt text underneath the cut.

Alt text: First image: This is an illustration contained in a white boarder with an uneven frayed appearance. In a war-torn scene absent of human life, streams of missile smoke rise from behind the central figure against a red sky that grows increasingly yellow towards the center immediately behind the central figure. The central figure is an Israeli Occupation Forces operative with his Israeli flag patch visible and a single blue eye with a white Star of David to reflect the flag inside it, the other eye consumed in shadow. The face is devoid of all visible expression, and a crack is visible coming from the shadowed eye over the clay-like skin of the soldier, meant to reference the concept of the IOF as a golem. The IOF officer raises a smoking automatic rifle and gazes down the composition with a lack of feeling. He stares down a little girl with long hair blowing in the wind who's back is to the viewer, with a bleeding crosshairs over half of her face where her eye would be. She wears a Palestinian flag over her shoulders that is also blowing in the wind, and the red triangle moves beyond its borders through the bloodstains that are on it. In the wreckage visible around the soldier, there is a fallen cross visible, close to the subtle shadow of a human hand, and destroyed buildings, bringing to mind the common lie that it is a religious conflict by reminding the viewer that churches and Palestinian Christians are also being murdered and struck with missiles. In the center of the image there is white handwritten text, of the first verse of the poem "From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old" by Hanan Mikha'il Ashrawi. It reads, "Tomorrow, the bandages will come off. I wonder will I see half an orange, half an apple, half my mother's face with my one remaining eye?" Page 2 alt text: The background is black with a trail of red smoke crossing the composition from the bottom right up and over to the top left in an uneven organic curve. At the bottom right there is the shattered clay head of a golem in a broken army-green helmet. One eye has been shattered and most of the face has been destroyed. There is a smear of blood over a shatter mark on our left's side of the forehead of the golem, as though made by a stone from a sling intended to subtly reference David and Goliath, with the IOF as Goliath. The smear of blood covers the first of three characters that make up the text usually down on the foreheads of golems. In folktales, the way to deactivate a golem is to wipe away the first character of their text, which normally reads "emét", which is truth in Hebrew. Removing the first character makes it say "mét", which means death. This calls for the retirement of the IOF as an entity as it does not help anything- only harms. White text is the main focus of this piece. The white text reads: From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old" by Hanan Mikha'il Ashrawi Tomorrow, the bandages will come off. I wonder will I see half an orange, half an apple, half my mother's face with my one remaining eye?

I did not see the bullet but felt its pain exploding in my head. His image did not vanish, the soldier with a big gun, unsteady hands, and look in his eyes I could not understand

I can see him so clearly with my eyes closed, it could be that inside our heads we each have one spare set of eyes to make up for the ones we lose

Next month, on my birthday, I'll have a brand new glass eye, maybe things will look round and fat in the middle— I've gazed through all my marbles, they made the world look strange.

I hear a nine-month old has also lost an eye, I wonder if my soldier shot her too—a soldier looking for little girls who look him in the eye— I’m old enough , almost four, I've seen enough of life, but she's just a baby who didn't know any better.

[terrible-eel]

I know the topic of "What if kamala Harris is elected? what will she do for Palestine has been a circulating topic. I just want to point out: What will be the alternative?

Trump has been quoted saying "Israel should finish the job"

But lets look at his track record regarding Palestine.

Here is an article from 2018

Trump cuts more than $200 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians

excepts from the article include:

"The announcement came at a time when the Palestinian leadership has angered the White House by boycotting its peace efforts since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the embassy there, reversing decades of U.S. policy."

"The status of Jerusalem - home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions - is one of the biggest obstacles to any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians."

"The State Department cited the Islamist militant group Hamas' control of Gaza as part of its justification for reallocating the funds. The United States and Israel designate Hamas as a terrorist group."

"The decision is almost certain to exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. More than 2 million Palestinians are packed into the Gaza Strip, which suffers deep economic hardship."

"The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion," she said."

"Ambassador Husam Zomlot, head of the PLO General Delegation to the United States, said in a statement: "Weaponizing humanitarian and developmental aid as political blackmail does not work."

"Jordan, which hosts the largest number of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East outside Palestinian territories, warned this month that a severe financial shortfall facing UNRWA could have a “catastrophic” impact on the lives of millions of refugees in the region."

"U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, criticized the Trump administration's decision.

“Inhabitants of Gaza are already suffering severe hardships under the tyranny of Hamas and border restrictions imposed by Israel. It is the Palestinian people, virtual prisoners in an increasingly volatile conflict, who will most directly suffer the consequences of this callous and ill-advised attempt to respond to Israel’s security concerns.”

J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, called the Trump administration’s move a “moral outrage and a major strategic blunder.”

Here is an article from 2021

Trump-era spike in Israeli settlement growth has only begun

"EFRAT, West Bank (AP) — An aggressive Israeli settlement spree during the Trump era pushed deeper than ever into the occupied West Bank — territory the Palestinians seek for a state — with over 9,000 homes built and thousands more in the pipeline, an AP investigation showed."

"Satellite images and data obtained by The Associated Press document for the first time the full impact of the policies of then-President Donald Trump, who abandoned decades-long U.S. opposition to the settlements and proposed a Mideast plan that would have allowed Israel to keep them all — even those deep inside the West Bank."

"Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian spokeswoman, called the Trump administration a “partner in crime” with Netanyahu. She said Biden would have to go beyond traditional condemnations and take “very serious steps of accountability” to make a difference."

"According to Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, Israel built over 9,200 new homes in the West Bank during the Trump presidency. On an annual average, that was roughly a 28% increase over the level of construction during the Obama administration, which pressed Israel to rein in building."

"Perhaps even more significant was the location of the construction. According to Peace Now, 63% of the homes built last year were in outlying settlements that would likely be evacuated in any peace agreement. Over 10% of the construction in recent years took place in isolated outposts that are not officially authorized, but quietly encouraged by the Israeli government."

“What we’re seeing is the ongoing policy of de facto annexation,” said Hagit Ofran, a Peace Now researcher. “Israel is doing its utmost to annex the West Bank and to treat it as if it’s part of Israel without leaving a scope for a Palestinian state.”

“2020 was really the first year where everything that was being built was more or less because of what was approved at the beginning of the Trump presidency,” said Peace Now spokesman Brian Reeves. “It’s the settlement approvals that are actually more important than construction.”

"Israel went on an aggressive settlement spree during the Trump era, according to an AP investigation, pushing deeper into the occupied West Bank than ever before and putting the Biden administration into a bind as it seeks to revive Mideast peace efforts."

Here is an article from 2023

Trump vows to expand Muslim ban and bar Gaza refugees if he wins presidency

"Monday vowed to bar refugees from Gaza and immediately expand his first-term Muslim travel ban if he wins a second term following the deadly attack on Israel last week."

"Trump pledged to bar the entry of refugees from Gaza fleeing Israel’s retaliatory strikes after the surprise 7 October attack, just as he tried to bar citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries during his first term with an executive order. The executive order, however, was met with fierce opposition and was fought all the way to the US supreme court. The high court eventually upheld a third version of the ban, which included travelers from North Korea and some from Venezuela."

"The ex-president and 2024 Republican frontrunner also said he would aggressively deport resident aliens with “jihadist sympathies” and send immigration agents to “pro-jihadist demonstrations” to identify violators."

“In the wake of the attacks on Israel, Americans have been disgusted to see the open support for terrorists among the legions of foreign nationals on college campuses. They’re teaching your children hate,” he said. “Under the Trump administration, we will revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners at our colleges and universities and we will send them straight back home.”

Kamala Harris does need to fight harder for Palestine, but keep in mind, she has been actually seeking peace deals. The Biden administration has not been doing everything I want them to do, but at least they are not an active hate group with their leader saying "Finish the job" when referring to the Palestinian genocide led by Israel.

Sometimes decisions come between doing some amount of good and being complacent in a genocide. Personally, I would rather someone in office who can be reasoned with and who has been quoted saying "I believe a two-state solution can be reached" on multiple occasions than someone who actively shows support for genocide.

[garadinervi]

Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi (حنان داود ميخائيل عشراوي), Demonstration, in Women of the Fertile Crescent. An Anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women, Edited with Translations by Kamal Boullata, Three Continents Press, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 144

[postgameroutesix]

“From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old”

Palestinian poet Hanan Mikha’il Ashrawi, 1988

Tomorrow, the bandages

will come off. I wonder

will I see half an orange,

half an apple, half my

mother’s face

with my one remaining eye?

I did not see the bullet

but felt its pain

exploding in my head.

His image did not

vanish, the soldier

with a big gun, unsteady

hands, and look in

his eyes

I could not understand

I can see him so clearly

with my eyes closed,

it could be that inside our heads

we each have one spare set

of eyes

to make up for the ones we lose

Next month, on my birthday,

I’ll have a brand new glass eye,

maybe things will look round

and fat in the middle—

I’ve gazed through all my marbles,

they made the world look strange.

I hear a nine-month old

has also lost an eye,

I wonder if my soldier

shot her too—a soldier

looking for little girls who

look him in the eye—

I’m old enough , almost four,

I’ve seen enough of life,

but she’s just a baby

who didn’t know any better.

[soon-palestine]

“We are the only people on earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupiers. Israel is the the only country on earth that asks its victims to defend it.”-Hanan Ashrawi

[agentfascinateur]

👏🏼👏🏼

#more like schizo

#unholy alliance

[opencommunion]

The Israeli occupation has also hijacked the concept of security rendering it applicable only to Israelis while depriving the Palestinians of every aspect of personal, political, legal, territorial, historical, cultural, economic, and even human security. As a blanket cover for its systematic abuses, Israel has also abused the essence of the concept, exploiting it for the sake of eradicating any mention of the occupation, and claiming the illogical right to have a secure or even a safe and pleasant military occupation that is in itself the very antithesis of peace, security, and human rights. As the world watches, Israel has succeeded in evolving and imposing another grand deception in the form of an official spin that not only dehumanizes and demonizes the Palestinians, but is also an attempt at blaming the victim and resuscitating labels that represent us as subhuman species, and genetically violent terrorists, hence undeserving of any human treatment. At best, a false symmetry is manufactured between occupier and occupied, oppressor and oppressed (as in the call on both sides to stop the violence), serving to eradicate the full horror of the occupation while depriving the victims of their right to resist. Given the disequilibrium of power, the American insistence on a bilateral solution only serves to give Israel license to exploit the asymmetry of power and to pursue its policies of subjugating a whole nation and imposing a unilateral and unjust solution.

Hanan Ashrawi, 2001

[curiositasmundi]

Congratulazioni e un sentito ringraziamento per essere qui – nonostante le minacce, nonostante la polizia fuori da questa sede, nonostante la panoplia della stampa tedesca, nonostante lo Stato tedesco, nonostante il sistema politico tedesco che vi demonizza per essere qui.

«Perché un congresso palestinese, signor Varoufakis?», mi ha chiesto di recente un giornalista tedesco. Perché, come ha detto una volta Hanan Ashrawi, «non possiamo contare sul fatto che i silenziosi raccontino le loro sofferenze». Oggi, la ragione di Ashrawi si è rafforzata in modo deprimente, perché non possiamo contare sul fatto che i silenziosi, che sono anche massacrati e affamati, ci raccontino dei massacri e della fame.

Ma c’è anche un’altra ragione: perché un popolo fiero e dignitoso, il popolo tedesco, viene condotto su una strada pericolosa verso una società senza cuore, facendosi associare a un altro genocidio compiuto in suo nome, con la sua complicità.

Non sono né ebreo né palestinese. Ma sono incredibilmente orgoglioso di essere qui tra ebrei e palestinesi – di fondere la mia voce per la pace e i diritti umani universali con le voci ebraiche per la pace e i diritti umani universali, con le voci palestinesi per la pace e i diritti umani universali. Essere qui insieme oggi è la prova che la coesistenza non solo è possibile, ma che è già tra noi.

«Perché non un congresso ebraico, signor Varoufakis?», mi ha chiesto lo stesso giornalista tedesco, immaginando di fare il furbo. Ho accolto con favore la sua domanda. Perché se un solo ebreo viene minacciato, ovunque, per il solo fatto di essere ebreo, porterò la Stella di David sul bavero della giacca e offrirò la mia solidarietà, a qualunque costo, in ogni modo. Quindi lasciatemi esser chiaro: se gli ebrei fossero sotto attacco, in qualsiasi parte del mondo, sarei il primo a chiedere un congresso ebraico in cui esprimere la nostra solidarietà.

Allo stesso modo, quando i palestinesi vengono massacrati perché sono palestinesi – secondo il dogma che per essere morti e palestinesi devono essere di Hamas – indosserò la mia kefiah e offrirò la mia solidarietà a qualunque costo, in qualunque modo. I diritti umani universali o sono universali o non significano nulla.

Tenendo presente questo, ho risposto alla domanda del giornalista tedesco con alcune domande da parte mia: 

Esistono due milioni di ebrei israeliani, che sono stati cacciati dalle loro case e messi in una prigione a cielo aperto ottant’anni fa, sono ancora tenuti in quella prigione a cielo aperto, senza accesso al mondo esterno, con cibo e acqua minimi, senza possibilità di una vita normale o di viaggiare da nessuna parte, e che in questi ottant’anni vengono periodicamente bombardati? No.

Gli ebrei israeliani vengono affamati intenzionalmente da un esercito di occupazione, con i loro bambini che si contorcono sul pavimento e urlano per la fame? No.

Ci sono migliaia di bambini ebrei feriti, senza genitori superstiti, che strisciano tra le macerie di quelle che erano le loro case? No.

Gli ebrei israeliani vengono bombardati dagli aerei e dalle bombe più sofisticate del mondo? No.

Gli ebrei israeliani stanno subendo il completo ecocidio di quel poco di terra che possono ancora chiamare propria, senza che sia rimasto un solo albero sotto cui cercare ombra o di cui possano gustare i frutti? No.

Oggi i bambini ebrei israeliani vengono uccisi dai cecchini per ordine di uno Stato membro delle Nazioni Unite? No.

Oggi gli ebrei israeliani vengono cacciati dalle loro case da bande armate? No.

Oggi Israele sta combattendo per la sua esistenza? No.

Se la risposta a una di queste domande fosse sì, oggi parteciperei a un congresso di solidarietà ebraica.

Oggi ci sarebbe piaciuto avere un dibattito decente, democratico e reciprocamente rispettoso su come portare la pace e i diritti umani universali a tutti – ebrei e palestinesi, beduini e cristiani – dal fiume Giordano al Mar Mediterraneo con persone che la pensano diversamente da noi. Purtroppo, l’intero sistema politico tedesco ha deciso di non permetterlo. In una dichiarazione congiunta che comprende non solo la Cdu-Csu (Unione cristiano-democratica-Unione cristiano-sociale in Baviera) e l’Fdp (Partito liberale democratico), ma anche l’Spd (Partito socialdemocratico), i Verdi e, cosa notevole, due leader di Die Linke (La Sinistra), lo spettro politico tedesco ha unito le forze per garantire che un dibattito così civile, in cui possiamo essere in disaccordo, non abbia mai luogo in Germania.

Dico loro: volete metterci a tacere, vietarci, demonizzarci, accusarci. Pertanto non ci lasciate altra scelta che rispondere alle vostre ridicole accuse con le nostre accuse razionali. Siete voi a scegliere questo, non noi. Voi ci accusate di odio antisemita. Noi vi accusiamo di essere i migliori amici degli antisemiti, equiparando il diritto di Israele a commettere crimini di guerra con il diritto degli ebrei israeliani a difendersi. Ci accusate di sostenere il terrorismo. Noi vi accusiamo di equiparare la legittima resistenza a uno Stato di apartheid con le atrocità contro i civili, che ho sempre condannato e sempre condannerò, chiunque le commetta – palestinesi, coloni ebrei, la mia stessa famiglia, chiunque. Vi accusiamo di non riconoscere il dovere del popolo di Gaza di abbattere il muro della prigione a cielo aperto in cui è stato rinchiuso per ottant’anni, e di equiparare questo atto di abbattimento del muro della vergogna, che non è più difendibile di quanto lo fosse il muro di Berlino, ad atti di terrore.

Voi ci accusate di banalizzare il terrore del 7 ottobre di Hamas. Noi vi accusiamo di banalizzare gli ottant’anni di pulizia etnica dei palestinesi da parte di Israele e l’erezione di un ferreo sistema di apartheid in tutta Israele-Palestina. Vi accusiamo di banalizzare il sostegno a lungo termine di Benjamin Netanyahu ad Hamas come mezzo per distruggere la soluzione dei due Stati che dite di favorire. Vi accusiamo di banalizzare il terrore senza precedenti scatenato dall’esercito israeliano sulla popolazione di Gaza, Cisgiordania e Gerusalemme Est.

Accusate gli organizzatori del congresso di oggi di essere, cito, «non interessati a parlare delle possibilità di coesistenza pacifica in Medio Oriente sullo sfondo della guerra a Gaza». Dite sul serio? Siete fuori di senno?

Vi accusiamo di sostenere uno Stato tedesco che è, dopo gli Stati uniti, il maggior fornitore di armi che il governo Netanyahu usa per massacrare i palestinesi come parte di un grande piano per rendere impossibile la soluzione dei due Stati e la coesistenza pacifica tra ebrei e palestinesi. Vi accusiamo di non aver mai risposto alla precisa domanda cui ogni tedesco deve rispondere: quanto sangue palestinese deve scorrere prima che il vostro giustificato senso di colpa per l’Olocausto venga lavato via?

Quindi di nuovo vogliamo esser chiari: siamo qui a Berlino con il nostro congresso palestinese perché, a differenza del sistema politico e dei media tedeschi, condanniamo il genocidio e i crimini di guerra indipendentemente da chi li commette. Perché ci opponiamo all’apartheid nella terra di Israele-Palestina, a prescindere da chi abbia il coltello dalla parte del manico, proprio come ci siamo opposti all’apartheid nel Sudamerica o in Sudafrica. Perché siamo a favore dei diritti umani universali, della libertà e dell’uguaglianza tra ebrei, palestinesi, beduini e cristiani nell’antica terra di Palestina.

E per essere ancora più chiari sulle domande, legittime e maligne, a cui dobbiamo sempre essere pronti a rispondere:

Condanno le atrocità di Hamas?

Condanno ogni singola atrocità, chiunque sia l’autore o la vittima. Quello che non condanno è la resistenza armata a un sistema di apartheid concepito come parte di un lento ma inesorabile programma di pulizia etnica. In altre parole, condanno ogni attacco ai civili e, allo stesso tempo, festeggio chiunque rischi la vita per abbattere il muro.

Israele non è forse impegnato in una guerra per la sua stessa esistenza?

No, non lo è. Israele è uno Stato dotato di armi nucleari, con l’esercito forse più tecnologicamente avanzato del mondo e la panoplia della macchina militare statunitense alle sue spalle. Non c’è simmetria con Hamas, un gruppo che può causare gravi danni agli israeliani ma non ha alcuna capacità di sconfiggere l’esercito israeliano, né di impedire a Israele di continuare a mettere in atto il lento genocidio dei palestinesi sotto il sistema di apartheid che è stato eretto con il sostegno di lunga data degli Stati uniti e dell’Unione europea.

Gli israeliani non hanno forse ragione di temere che Hamas voglia sterminarli?

Certo che sì! Gli ebrei hanno subìto un Olocausto che è stato preceduto da pogrom e da un profondo antisemitismo che ha permeato l’Europa e le Americhe per secoli. È naturale che gli israeliani vivano nel timore di un nuovo pogrom se l’esercito israeliano cede. Tuttavia, imponendo l’apartheid ai propri vicini e trattandoli come subumani, lo Stato israeliano alimenta il fuoco dell’antisemitismo e rafforza quei palestinesi e israeliani che vogliono solo annientarsi a vicenda. Alla fine, le sue azioni contribuiscono alla terribile insicurezza che consuma gli ebrei in Israele e nella diaspora. L’apartheid contro i palestinesi è la peggiore autodifesa degli israeliani.

E l’antisemitismo?

È sempre un pericolo chiaro e presente. E deve essere sradicato, soprattutto tra i ranghi della sinistra globale e dei palestinesi che lottano per le libertà civili dei palestinesi in tutto il mondo.

Perché i palestinesi non perseguono i loro obiettivi con mezzi pacifici?

Lo hanno fatto. L’Olp (Organizzazione per la Liberazione della Palestina) ha riconosciuto Israele e ha rinunciato alla lotta armata. E cosa ha ottenuto in cambio? Umiliazione assoluta e pulizia etnica sistematica. Questo è ciò che ha alimentato Hamas e lo ha issato agli occhi di molti palestinesi quale unica alternativa a un lento genocidio sotto l’apartheid di Israele.

Cosa si dovrebbe fare ora? Cosa potrebbe portare la pace in Israele-Palestina?

Un cessate il fuoco immediato. Il rilascio di tutti gli ostaggi – quelli di Hamas e le migliaia trattenuti da Israele. Un processo di pace, sotto l’egida delle Nazioni Unite, sostenuto da un impegno della comunità internazionale a porre fine all’apartheid e a salvaguardare uguali libertà civili per tutti.

Per quanto riguarda ciò che deve sostituire l’apartheid, spetta a israeliani e palestinesi decidere tra la soluzione dei due Stati e quella di un unico Stato federale laico.

Amici, siamo qui perché la vendetta è una forma pigra di dolore. Siamo qui per promuovere non la vendetta, ma la pace e la coesistenza in Israele-Palestina. Siamo qui per dire ai democratici tedeschi, compresi i nostri ex compagni di Die Linke, che si sono coperti di vergogna abbastanza a lungo, che due torti non fanno una ragione e che permettere a Israele di farla franca con i crimini di guerra non migliorerà l’eredità dei crimini della Germania contro il popolo ebraico.

Al di là del congresso di oggi, in Germania abbiamo il dovere di cambiare il discorso pubblico. Abbiamo il dovere di convincere la grande maggioranza dei tedeschi onesti che i diritti umani universali sono ciò che conta. Che «mai più» significa «mai più per nessuno». Ebrei, palestinesi, ucraini, russi, yemeniti, sudanesi, ruandesi – per tutti, ovunque.

In questo contesto, sono lieto di annunciare che il partito politico tedesco Mera25 di DiEM25 sarà sulla scheda elettorale per le elezioni del Parlamento europeo del prossimo giugno, cercando il voto degli umanisti tedeschi che desiderano un membro del Parlamento europeo che rappresenti la Germania e che denunci la complicità dell’Ue nel genocidio, una complicità che è il più grande regalo dell’Europa agli antisemiti in Europa e oltre.

Vi saluto tutti e vi suggerisco di non dimenticare mai che nessuno di noi è libero se uno di noi resta in catene.

[nivenus]

Nations, States, and People

Hey all!

So, since November, I've been a member of the Libertarian Socialists of Portland, an affiliated group of the Democratic Socialists of America, Portland. I've been in charge of writing newsletters, but when I wrote this last one, I was unable to reach consensus on the subject matter I chose to talk about, Israel and Palestine.

Nonetheless, I felt it was important to share so while i've removed the editorial from this month's newsletter for the group, I'm sharing it here. Please note all opinions expressed below are my own:

It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to talk about for this editorial, but my mind kept coming back to one topic, over and over: the current disaster in Gaza. I think I avoided the subject on first impulse because of how fraught it is. But I also think it’s an important one to discuss.

With that in mind, let me make me clear that I speak only for myself on this subject, not for anyone else in the Libertarian Socialists of Portland or Democratic Socialists of America. I also would like to make it clear, first and foremost, that Israel is an apartheid state and that the occupation of West Bank and Gaza is immoral, illegal, and inhuman.

Nonetheless, whenever I think about Israel and Palestine, I’m reminded of how it is a good example of how few conflicts are cut and dry, especially when states are involved. The dishonest, skewed framing of left-wing protesters as pro-Hamas by centrist and right-wing media is a perfect case of this, as is the German government’s severe crackdown on pro-Palestinian groups. But this tendency towards binary thinking can also be seen among many of us on the left, where some have either disregarded the suffering of Israeli victims on October 6 or the wave of anti-Semitism many Jews in the West have experienced during the ongoing war.

This is not to say that Israelis or Jews have suffered more than Palestinians or Muslims. Over 1,000 Israelis died on October 6, but since then almost 20 times as many Palestinians have been killed. In both cases, the majority have been civilians. The truth is both Muslims and Jews, Arabs and Israelis, have suffered enormously and peace would be beneficial to both sides. Which brings me to what I really want to talk about: the distinction between nation-states and people.

Part of the issue, I feel, with many narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to talk about Israel and Palestine each as if they are uniform entities. When commentators talk about Israel, they often mean all Israelis (or worse than that, all Jews). When people talk about Palestine, they often mean all Palestinians (or worse, all Arabs or Muslims). This results not just in a skewed view of reality but unconscionable acts of violence and hate speech toward people who have nothing to do with the war aside from faith they practice or the language they speak, something that has happened repeatedly since this war began in multiple countries.

Israel and Palestine are not uniform. Israel is composed not only of people like Benjamin Netanyahu or Itamar Ben-Gvir, but also of people like Arik Ascherman, who has defended Palestinians in the West Bank against Israeli settlers, or Vivian Silver, who was tragically killed during the October 6 attacks. Palestine is not Hamas, but also Ali Abu Awwad, a nonviolent activist committed to peace between Jews and Arabs, and Hanan Ashrawi, a woman awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2003 for her work toward resolving the conflict. Although many Israelis support the occupation of the West Bank, many others do not. Although many Palestinians support Hamas, many others do not. Nations are not monolithic.

This doesn’t mean that both sides in the conflict are “equally wrong.” As I noted before, Palestinians have suffered far, far more in this conflict than Israelis have. Nor does it mean that the virtues of some can wash out the crimes of others. But it does mean that we should remember the essential humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians. There is no such thing as a victimless killing. There is no such thing as a war that does not engender cruelty and wickedness. And there is no such thing as a people who are all good or all bad.

This binary way of thinking, where we think one group is all the same, is not worthy of socialism. And it is certainly not what libertarian socialism should be. I think of Abdullah Ocalan’s words in his manifesto of democratic confederalism, the ideology of Rojava: “Diversity and plurality [have] to be fought, an approach that [leads] into assimilation and genocide… [the state] aims at creating a single national culture, a single national identity, and a single unified religious community. Thus it also enforces a homogeneous citizenship. The notion of citizen has been created as a result of the quest for such a homogeneity.” If the libertarian socialist fighters of Syria recognize that ethnonationalism is a trap, how can we, who do not face the same challenges and moral dilemmas as them, not be equally clear minded?

The state and the people it governs are not identical. Are all Americans guilty of the Bush administration’s crimes? Did the citizens of Japan deserve to have the atomic bomb dropped on them as punishment for the Rape of Nanking? Do all Russians in all countries deserve to be treated with contempt because of Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine?

Such narratives can even be counterproductive towards the ones they mean to protect. Consider the case of modern Germany, where Germany’s historic (and in many ways commemorable) institutional memory of the Holocaust has led the state to declare Israel the German state’s “reason to exist.” This in turn has led Germany not only to persecute Palestinian activists but Jewish ones who criticize Israel’s policies! As Deborah Feldman, a German Jewish activist for Palestine said, the German government must now decide between Israel and Jews. Because they are not the same thing.

When we advocate for peace (and advocate for peace we must), I ask us all to do just one thing, which is to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, to think about the Gaza War not as an ideological cause celebre or a metric by which we measure our own righteousness, but as what it is: a calamitous conflict that has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and continues to bring suffering to millions.

Arthur Niven