Welcome to Israel (No Blacks allowed)

For the past 60 years Israel has implemented the “Law of Return” which automatically grants citizenship to anyone of Jewish faith if they ask for it. This started and continues to be a way for Israel to keep its Religious purity over the god-forsaken Arabs who in the words of a former Prime Minister: “multiply like rabbits.”

 

At first all was good and well in the world, the Arabs were being moved out and Soviet Jews were moving in. Everyone was learning Hebrew together, growing together, ethnically cleansing together. Truly it was a sight to behold.

 

That is until a ‘lost’ tribe was found, no not the Jewish Population of China (which Israel does not recognize) but the long lost Ethiopian Jews. While over 80,000 Russians (formerly Soviet) become Israeli citizens each year only 80,000 Ethiopians have been granted citizenship in the past 30 years. That number will not go up anymore according to the Israeli government.

 

There reasoning is that these poor Ethiopians are not really Jewish. They cite “centuries of intermarriage” as one hindrance to proving someone’s faith.  The last time I checked racial background and who you marry has no affect on your own faith. Israel is beginning to argue that Africans cannot be Jewish because they are African.  

 

Sixty-six-year-old Tegabie Jember Zegeye’s application was rejected long ago, his links to Judaism deemed too remote. But he has been living with his wife and five children in a Gondar camp for 10 years. He wears a skullcap and attends daily prayers and religion classes.”

 

Not Jewish enough?

 

Israel’s Law of Return guarantees citizenship for any Jew in need, and these days the country is especially concerned about boosting its Jewish population to compete with the Arabs. Those lucky enough to be granted this “god given right” must undergo medical checkups and have their African surnames replaced by ‘Hebrew’ ones.

 

“I think Israel has an obligation to prove that it is not a racist state, If everyone was blond-haired and had blue eyes, they would bring them.” says Mazor Bahyna, an Ethiopian in the 120-member Knesset, or parliament.

 

Bahyna is right on point. Israel has had no issue with the millions of immigrants from Europe coming in and failing to assimilate yet they raise objections to this tribe who, for all intents and purposes, seem more religious than the majority of Israelis. It is racism in its purist form. Israel no longer reached for Religious purity but has moved on to Racial Purity (Didn’t a guy with a funny mustache say something like that?)

 

Israel was envisioned to be a haven for Jews from around the world. It has never been an option if you were Asian or African. Israel has consistently pushed laws to force out people of darker skin. Israel has deported people of Asian descent who were brought in feed the Israeli’s ever growing love of Sushi, ‘Chinese food’ and hookers(The hookers are still there).  Workers from the Philippines are brought in to clean houses for months at a time before being returned to their homeland. Ethiopians end up usually end up working janitorial jobs that once were worked by Yemeni Jews.

 

Israel has a problem, and it is not the immigrants.

Palestinian Olympics

Denied Fulbright Scholar speaks out

Blocking a Gazan’s path to San Diego

By Fidaa Abed
August 15, 2008

As a young Palestinian from Gaza, I had been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to study at the University of California San Diego on a Fulbright scholarship. The chance to escape Gaza’s confines and immerse myself in an American education was deeply thrilling. With Israel controlling Gaza’s border exits, air space and sea access – notwithstanding its “pullout” of 2005 – I imagined the long, open roads of the United States and its people’s unchallenged freedom of movement.

I love my people and my homeland, but a young person needs opportunities. These are far more abundant in the United States than in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Last week, I landed in Washington, D.C., brimming with optimism. Upon arrival, I was whisked into a separate room. An American official informed me that he had just received information about me that he could not reveal. However, it required him to put me on the next plane home. I was shocked. And I was taken aback at the cruelty of snatching away my educational dreams at the last possible moment.

My mistreatment was particularly unexpected because in late May, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice learned that I and six other Fulbright students were being stripped of our Fulbright scholarships, she leapt to our assistance. One by one, Israel let other Palestinians Fulbright scholars out of Gaza, and they made their way to American universities. Then I was mysteriously singled out for last-minute denial based on “secret evidence.” Two others had their visas canceled on account of secret evidence before they could even leave Gaza.

William J. Fulbright was the only U.S. senator to vote against funding for Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Un-American Activities Committee. It is ironic, then, that my remarkable educational opportunity is being stripped from me on the basis of the sort of secret – and fabricated – evidence that Fulbright opposed in the hands of McCarthy. Unopposed, McCarthy destroyed lives. I do hope the United States will side with the openness of Fulbright and not the fear-mongering of McCarthy.

Israel routinely locks up Palestinians based on secret charges. All sorts of outrageous claims can be leveled based on information that Israeli officials garner coercively. Could the secret evidence against me have been extracted through the torture of some young Palestinian? Was I even the one denounced, or someone with a similar name? Was my “crime” sharing a classroom or a lunchtime conversation with someone Israel believes poses a danger? I have no way of knowing, and thus no way of defending myself.

My education is my gateway to the future. The master’s degree I would have earned at UC San Diego in computer science certainly cannot be attained in Gaza. And I am not alone. Hundreds of Palestinian students with dreams of improving their lives are stagnating intellectually in Gaza. The doors to our open-air prison have largely been slammed shut.

Israel tightened economic restrictions in 2006 following the election victory of Hamas. Hoping to weaken Hamas, Israel has gradually tightened restrictions on freedom of goods and people from the Gaza Strip to the outside world, maintaining a near total blockade on some 1.5 million Palestinian civilians for more than a year.

Thankfully, I have received support from people around the world. Journalists have wanted to hear my story. The American officials who saw me in Amman and Jerusalem upon my return were friendly and seemed embarrassed by my predicament.

Despite my treatment, I know that most Americans are kind people who mean well. What happened to me runs contrary to the good will exhibited by the American people. Israeli policies that relegate Palestinians in Gaza to prison-like conditions and Palestinians in the West Bank to an apartheid-like existence do not advance the cause of peace. The United States should use its tremendous sway with Israel to advance the cause of freedom and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

We Palestinians have been stripped of our land for 60 years. But with educational opportunity we have persevered and made what we could of our lives. Limiting our educational prospects only perpetuates our status as a subordinate people. Nothing is served by confining our best and our brightest to Gaza. A better future for everyone lies in unlocking the gates to Gaza and allowing us to learn and gain exposure to the broader world – with all of the challenges, controversies and diverse perspectives it offers.

---

Abed, recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, lives in the Gaza Strip.

House of Saddam

Okay, I attempted to give this miniseries as chance. For those who don’t know: ‘House of Saddam is a 4 part miniseries created by the BBC and HBO that documents portions of Saddams reign and his removal by American forces at the end.

I began to watch the first episode and thought ” My father looks more like Saddam than this actor.” It was nice seeing a primarily Middle Eastern cast in such a landmark piece, but then again they all end up being characterized as sociopaths or terrorists in the end. I suppose I shouldn’t complain just yet due to the opportunity this gives us to see Arab actors speak english and not get shot within the first 4 minutes (I think the first set of murders/ executions happens about 6 minutes in).

Saddam is portrayed as a power hungry version of Vito Corleone. He lusts for power, trusts no one, and supposedly “know a traitor before he knows himself.” The difference is that people supported the Godfather while they are made to detest Saddam. There is brief mention of the US involvment in the war with Iran (at least they ellude to it) and a glance at Saddam’s attempt to gain favor on the international stage.

That is where the truth ends and the propaganda begins. What I at first had thought was an Arab cast became a lie. It wasn’t the actors names at the end of the show, it was their accents.  These were not Arab American actors or even Arab actors, they were (for the most part) Israeli. Saddam is played by Yigal Naor (yes he is of Iraqi descent but that makes no difference here),  Ali Hassan al-Majid is played by Uri Gavriel. There is only one actual Arab is the main cast and three others in supporting roles. There are Iranians, Cypriots and Israelis.

As much as I want to watch the final two episodes I simply cannot. I cannot watch a group of people pretend to be Arab. It has happened too many times and I must simply make a stand against it. There are Arab Actors, higher them. Use people who can actually speak Arabic.

I simply can’t take this miniseries seriously anymore. It is simply a tool to make people think they knew what happened and why they are justified in killing thousands of Iraqis. They only recreate the events that were most notorious. They focus in on the religious fault lines (even though Saddam was a secular man). Heck, they even throw in a light skinned blond woman for all the men to lust after. Truly this can be reduced to racial stereotypes and western misrepresentations of facts and culture.

I am no fan of Saddam, but even he deserved better than this.

Israel refuses to file charges in the murder of Fadel Shana

Reuters has said it is “deeply disturbed” that the Israeli military has decided the tank crew that killed one of the news agency’s cameramen and eight young bystanders in the Gaza Strip four months ago will not face legal action.

Israel’s senior military advocate-general told the London-based news agency in a letter sent on Tuesday that the official report into the incident concluded that troops could not see whether Reuters’ Fadal Shana, 24, was operating a camera or a weapon.

However, the official said reports found that the Israeli Defence Force tank crew were nonetheless justified in firing an airburst shell packed with flechettes - metal darts - that killed the Reuters cameraman and eight other Palestinians during fighting in the Gaza Strip on April 16.

The international news agency, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, issued a statement today saying it was “disappointed with and dissatisfied” by the Israeli military’s decision that the tank crew would not face legal action.

“Reuters is deeply disturbed by a conclusion that would severely curtail the freedom of the media to cover the conflict by effectively giving soldiers a free hand to kill without being sure that they were not firing on journalists,” the news agency said.

In a letter issued today to the IDF, Reuters responded to the report’s conclusions with a number of questions.

The agency asked the IDF why the soldiers ruled out the possibility that Shana was a cameraman, why his standing in full view of the tanks for several minutes did not suggest he had no hostile intent and why the crew, if concerned but unsure, did not simply reverse a few metres out of sight.

In the letter to Reuters, Brigadier General Avihai Mendelblit, the IDF’s advocate-general, wrote: “The tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an anti-tank missile, a mortar or a television camera.”

According to Reuters, Mendelblit also wrote in the letter: “In light of the reasonable conclusion reached by the tank crew and its superiors that the characters were hostile and were carrying an object most likely to be a weapon, the decision to fire at the targets … was sound.”

Reuters said the military lawyer cited an attack earlier in the day that killed three IDF soldiers, a separate grenade attack on a tank and the fact that Shana and his soundman were wearing body armour, “common to Palestinian terrorists”, as reasons for the tank crew being suspicious of his activities.

The Brigadier General went on to acknowledge that Shana’s death was a tragedy, but concluded that the evidence “did not suggest misconduct or criminal misbehaviour ” and decided that no further legal measures would be necessary.

“I’m extremely disappointed that this report condones a disproportionate use of deadly force in a situation the army itself admitted had not been analysed clearly,” said David Schlesinger, Reuters editor-in-chief.

“They would appear to take the view that any raising of a camera into position could garner a deadly response.”

Shana, a Palestinian, had previously been wounded in August 2006 when an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the vehicle he was travelling in.

He was killed on April 16 as he filmed two tanks positioned roughly a mile from where he was standing.

Shana had been filming the tanks for several minutes and his own footage captured the tank shot that killed him.

The final two seconds of the sobering pictures show a shell leaving the tank’s gun on a hillside in the background.

Reuters said x-rays showed several of the inch-long flechette darts were embedded in Shana’s chest and legs as well as his flak jacket.

Shana’s flak jacket was marked with a fluorescent “Press” sign and his car, which was not armoured and was set on fire in the incident, was marked Press and TV.

Article courtesy of Guardian.co.uk 8/13/08

One thousand words

Returning to his village

Two Jews and a Black man

Americans who watched  the 400 meter mens Olympic relay saw four talented athletes come together to break the world record and achieve golden victory. Israeli’s saw the headline “Two Jews and a Black man help Phelps fulfill Olympic dream” (Haaretz)

Indeed everything in Israeli society and life is first percieved through the spectrums of Religion and Race. It is a sad but expected bigotry.

Bigots paint the world black

I was hoping to have a few days of mourning for Darwish but recent blog postings have really bothered me.

Conservative and xenophobic blogs are reporting that Iranian clerics are angry about a woman from the Iranian delegation carrying their flag. They go on to make commentary about how “Muslims hate women” and “we can’t let sharia law win.”

Their proof of the outrage? One article written at http://www.adnkronos.com (In Italian)

I tried to find other articles, other blogs with citations. I even looked up some info in wikipedia. There is nothing, well nothing but proof of the contrary

Homa Hosseini (l) will carry IranÕs flag in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Homa Hosseini, the female Iranian rower will carry Iran’s national flag at the 2008 Olympic Games. According to ISNA, Hosseini won Iran’s first Olympic berth in rowing three months ago.
Executive board of Iran National Olympics Committee in Tehran chose Hosseini from amongst 52 Iranian athletes in 12 fields participating for the 2008 Olympics. Before that many believed Hercules Hossein Rezazadeh or Hadi Saei, two Iranian athletes who won gold for Iran in the Olympics carry the flag.
The 19-year-old is participating at U-23 rowing championship in Germany. She said in an interview with the agency, “I was so excited when I heard the news. For me it is a pleasure to carry our flag. I cannot express my feelings right now.“
Previously, Lida Fariman, in shooting with air rifle gained the Olympics berth and carried Iran flag in 1996 Atlanta games.
“I don’t think I deserve to carry the flag because it makes me more responsible for my country. But I am sure this will help me show my best performance at the games. I hope I can be a good representative for Iran’s sport,“ Hosseini added

That comes fron http://www.iran-daily.com/ and even mentions a previous woman who carried the flag. Honestly now.

I blame the bigots at the following websites for fabricating such heinous lies during this time of supposed international peace and solidarity. It is truly pathetic that these people would resort to this kind of smear campaign given the evidence. Homa Husseini was not the first woman to lead Iran and she will not be the last.

BIGOTS AND XENOPHOBES

http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/

http://boredmelo.wordpress.com/

http://www.weaselzippers.net/

http://www.jihadwatch.org/

When things go bad

I stayed awake last night to listen to the Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim rantings of Bob Costas during the Olympic ceremonies and I was going to rant about how he only made negative comments about Middle Eastern countries.

The sad fact is that I can’t. I can not go on because today we have lost so much more than could ever be quantified by prose or commentary.  The man from Al-Birwa , Mahmoud Darwish, is dead.
Last night we rejoiced at the sight of our Olympians walking hand in hand and today we mourn the loss of one of our greatest cultural resources.

Record !
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the nineth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?

Record !
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks…
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself
at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?

Record !
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew.

My father..
descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather..was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house
is like a watchman’s hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title !

Record !
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards
of my ancestors
And the land
which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks..
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!

Therefore !
Record on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper’s flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger
And my anger !

2008 Summer Olympics

Free Tibet