Goldberg and Solomon wrote some remarkable operas, but none more remarkable than the infamously famous "MEKANDO", published only a short time ago and playing to booked out capacity houses in the nation's capitol Canburyitall.
[Sung by COOKED IT UP:]
As some day it will happen that a victim has been found
We've got a little list - we've got a little list
Of political offenders who have been well underground
And who never have been missed - who've never ever been missed!
There's the pestilential nuisances who want all policies changed -
All people who have flabby minds and pathetic allied friends -
All failures in their 'rithmetic and leave you stricken dumb -
All persons who with shaking hands, shake hands with you like that -
And all third parties who spoiling fun insist -
They'd none of them be missed - they'd none of them be missed!
[Chorus]
We've got 'em on our list - we've got 'em on our list
And they'll all of them be gone - they'll all of them be gone
[COOKED IT UP]
There's the siren song soprano and the others of her ilk
And the yes-people chorus - we've got them on our list!
And the people who smoke weed and blow it in your face
They'll all be sadly missed - they certainly will be missed!
Then the morons all who praise, with pathetic monotone
All decades gone but this and their country barring all;
And the pollies from the provinces, who can't see beyond their nose
And who do rain dances, but the moisture will not fall;
And that singular anomaly, the polly from outfield -
They'll certainly not be missed - they'll certainly not be missed!
[Chorus]
We've got 'em on our list - we've got 'em on our list
And they'll all of them be gone - they'll all of them be gone
[COOKED IT UP]
And that Nisi Prius nuisance, who just now is rather rife
The Judicial humorist - we've got them on our list!
All funny fellows, comic folks, and clowns of private life -
They'll none of them be missed - they'll none of them be missed
And pathetic so-called statesmen all of compromising kind
Such as - what d'ye call them - thing'em bob, and likewise -
Never-mind
And 'St- 'st- 'st - and What's-their-name, and also You-know-who -
The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you
But it really doesn't matter whom you put upon the list
For they'll none of them be missed - they'll none of them be missed!
[Chorus]
You may put 'em on the list - you may put 'em on the list;
And they'll none of 'em be missed - they'll none of them be missed!
HUMAN RIGHTS & EQUALITY FOR ALL,FREEDOM & JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE, ZIMBABWE, BURMA, EVERY COUNTRY SUFFERING FROM WARS, DROUGHTS, STARVATION, MILITARY ADVENTURES, DICTATORSHIPS, POLICE STATES, RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION, HOMOPHOBIA, CENSORSHIP & OTHER OBSCENITIES.INTERNATIONAL ASYLUM SEEKER SUPPORT
A BLOG SITE, "BLOGNOW" COLLAPSED IN 2009, SO USE THE GOOGLE SITE SEARCH ENGINE
26 August 2018
30 July 2018
OCASIO-CORTEZ, PALESTINE AND OCCUPATION
From CounterPunch 27 July 2018
Ocasio-Cortez, Palestine and Occupation
A slight glimmer of hope appeared on the dismal Democratic Party
horizon in June when newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated ten-term
Congressman Joe Crowley in New York’s fourteenth Congressional
district. Outspent but not out-maneuvered, Ocasio-Cortez won the primary
in a landslide.
Unlike her AIPAC (American Israel Political Affairs Committee)-owned primary opponent, Ocasio-Cortez has been critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestine and Palestinians. For generations this has been a complete no-no within Democratic Party circles (as unqualified support for that apartheid nations remains an article of faith for the Republican Party), but the last several months have seen cracks in the Israeli veneer. Yet Ocasio-Cortez has been the strongest in her condemnation.
In an interview following her victory, Ocasio-Cortez was taken to task for referring to the situation in Palestine as an occupation. Her questioner demanded to know just what she meant. Admitting that she wasn’t an expert on the topic, she referred to the illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Well! One would think she committed the worst kind of blasphemy known to man. Zionists everywhere are condemning her use of the vile word ‘occupation’ to describe Israel’s actions in Palestine. She is being pilloried for conceding that she wasn’t an expert on every topic under the sun, unlike so many politicians who are willing to wax eloquently and endlessly on topics about which they know nothing. And this very topic, the brutal occupation of Palestine by Israel, is one on which many of them know very little, their knowledge colored by how much AIPAC donates to them, and about which they feel free to speak.
It seems that Israel and its many Zionist (read: racist) followers are now trying to deny reality; this isn’t surprising, since U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are best buds, and Trump barely has a nodding acquaintance with reality, and Netanyahu is happy to take whatever advantage he can of Trump and the U.S. It seems that now Israel is denying that it occupies Palestine.
Let us look at the situation in the context of international law. Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Regulations states the following: “a territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.”
Now we will look at the situation in Palestine. Israel’s army controls every aspect of life in the West Bank. Palestinians have their movements restricted; they cannot farm their fields without Israel permission, go to work without Israeli permission, attend school, visit family or friends, or generally move about without Israeli permission. Palestinians are subject to arrest and detention without charge at the whim of Israel soldiers/terrorists.
The Gaza Strip, separated from the West Bank, is completely controlled by the hostile Israeli army. It is blockaded on all sides by land, sea and air. Imports and exports are heavily restricted by Israel. It is extremely rare for a resident of Gaza to be able to leave the strip, even to visit family or friends in the West Bank.
Does this not, even to the untrained eye, look like occupation?
As long as we are looking at ugly concepts, let’s chat for a moment about apartheid. The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid describes these conditions as constituting that particular crime: “… inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” We will look at some of the specifics from the International Convention, and comment on them in relation to Israel and Palestine. While this is only a partial list, a review of the complete list would only enhance one’s belief that Israel is an apartheid regime.
“Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of Person.”
Israeli soldiers and settlers, living illegally on stolen Palestinian land, routinely kill Palestinians. Palestinians have been shot in the back, run over by vehicles, shot while attending the wounded or reporting on Israel’s actions. Palestinians are routinely arrested and held indefinitely, often without charge.
“By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Where does one start? Palestinian children report physical and sexual abuse in Israel’s prisons, where they should never be in the first place. Farmers are often only granted permission to plant or harvest crops, long after the season for planting or harvesting has passed. Palestinian homes in the West Bank are raided in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers, with the houses ransacked, valuable goods within them stolen, and any and all males over the age of 12 taken in to custody.
“Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part.”
In the West Bank, Palestinians are driven from their homes to make room for illegal, Israeli-only housing settlements. In the Gaza Strip, food is restricted such that Palestinians live just above starvation. Import and export restrictions cause severe unemployment, and lack of medical supplies. Periodic bombing of the Gaza Strip leaves tens of thousands of people homeless, and Israel forbids the importing of construction materials, so Palestinians are unable to rebuild.
“Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country.”
Israel recently passed a law declaring it a Jewish state; proposals to ensure equal rights for others living within its borders were defeated. Arabs and people of African descent living within Jerusalem are discriminated against in housing, education and employment.
“The deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
Most of these have been covered earlier, but we will comment here on “the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association”. Starting in March, Palestinians peacefully protested at Israel’s border, demanding the internationally-granted right of return. Hundreds of demonstrators, including medics and members of the press, have been killed by Israeli snipers.
Perhaps Ocasio-Cortez isn’t an expert on the situation in Palestine, but that need not prevent her from speaking out against the injustices that she clearly sees. Neither should it prevent anyone from opposing arbitrary arrests of men, women and children without charge; land theft; killing with impunity and the many other crimes against humanity of which Israel is guilty.
As more and more organizations, including churches, businesses and labor unions, shun dealing with Israel; as more nations take action against its crimes, and as the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement chalks up success after success, Israel and its Zionist supports are desperate to retake the narrative that they controlled for so long. It isn’t working. Truth, justice, international law and human rights have been ignored by Israel and its U.S. sponsor for too long. The ‘alternate facts’ that Trump, Netanyahu and others of their ilk would have us hear are simply no longer acceptable.
Unlike her AIPAC (American Israel Political Affairs Committee)-owned primary opponent, Ocasio-Cortez has been critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestine and Palestinians. For generations this has been a complete no-no within Democratic Party circles (as unqualified support for that apartheid nations remains an article of faith for the Republican Party), but the last several months have seen cracks in the Israeli veneer. Yet Ocasio-Cortez has been the strongest in her condemnation.
In an interview following her victory, Ocasio-Cortez was taken to task for referring to the situation in Palestine as an occupation. Her questioner demanded to know just what she meant. Admitting that she wasn’t an expert on the topic, she referred to the illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Well! One would think she committed the worst kind of blasphemy known to man. Zionists everywhere are condemning her use of the vile word ‘occupation’ to describe Israel’s actions in Palestine. She is being pilloried for conceding that she wasn’t an expert on every topic under the sun, unlike so many politicians who are willing to wax eloquently and endlessly on topics about which they know nothing. And this very topic, the brutal occupation of Palestine by Israel, is one on which many of them know very little, their knowledge colored by how much AIPAC donates to them, and about which they feel free to speak.
It seems that Israel and its many Zionist (read: racist) followers are now trying to deny reality; this isn’t surprising, since U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are best buds, and Trump barely has a nodding acquaintance with reality, and Netanyahu is happy to take whatever advantage he can of Trump and the U.S. It seems that now Israel is denying that it occupies Palestine.
Let us look at the situation in the context of international law. Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Regulations states the following: “a territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.”
Now we will look at the situation in Palestine. Israel’s army controls every aspect of life in the West Bank. Palestinians have their movements restricted; they cannot farm their fields without Israel permission, go to work without Israeli permission, attend school, visit family or friends, or generally move about without Israeli permission. Palestinians are subject to arrest and detention without charge at the whim of Israel soldiers/terrorists.
The Gaza Strip, separated from the West Bank, is completely controlled by the hostile Israeli army. It is blockaded on all sides by land, sea and air. Imports and exports are heavily restricted by Israel. It is extremely rare for a resident of Gaza to be able to leave the strip, even to visit family or friends in the West Bank.
Does this not, even to the untrained eye, look like occupation?
As long as we are looking at ugly concepts, let’s chat for a moment about apartheid. The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid describes these conditions as constituting that particular crime: “… inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” We will look at some of the specifics from the International Convention, and comment on them in relation to Israel and Palestine. While this is only a partial list, a review of the complete list would only enhance one’s belief that Israel is an apartheid regime.
“Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of Person.”
Israeli soldiers and settlers, living illegally on stolen Palestinian land, routinely kill Palestinians. Palestinians have been shot in the back, run over by vehicles, shot while attending the wounded or reporting on Israel’s actions. Palestinians are routinely arrested and held indefinitely, often without charge.
“By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Where does one start? Palestinian children report physical and sexual abuse in Israel’s prisons, where they should never be in the first place. Farmers are often only granted permission to plant or harvest crops, long after the season for planting or harvesting has passed. Palestinian homes in the West Bank are raided in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers, with the houses ransacked, valuable goods within them stolen, and any and all males over the age of 12 taken in to custody.
“Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part.”
In the West Bank, Palestinians are driven from their homes to make room for illegal, Israeli-only housing settlements. In the Gaza Strip, food is restricted such that Palestinians live just above starvation. Import and export restrictions cause severe unemployment, and lack of medical supplies. Periodic bombing of the Gaza Strip leaves tens of thousands of people homeless, and Israel forbids the importing of construction materials, so Palestinians are unable to rebuild.
“Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country.”
Israel recently passed a law declaring it a Jewish state; proposals to ensure equal rights for others living within its borders were defeated. Arabs and people of African descent living within Jerusalem are discriminated against in housing, education and employment.
“The deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
Most of these have been covered earlier, but we will comment here on “the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association”. Starting in March, Palestinians peacefully protested at Israel’s border, demanding the internationally-granted right of return. Hundreds of demonstrators, including medics and members of the press, have been killed by Israeli snipers.
Perhaps Ocasio-Cortez isn’t an expert on the situation in Palestine, but that need not prevent her from speaking out against the injustices that she clearly sees. Neither should it prevent anyone from opposing arbitrary arrests of men, women and children without charge; land theft; killing with impunity and the many other crimes against humanity of which Israel is guilty.
As more and more organizations, including churches, businesses and labor unions, shun dealing with Israel; as more nations take action against its crimes, and as the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement chalks up success after success, Israel and its Zionist supports are desperate to retake the narrative that they controlled for so long. It isn’t working. Truth, justice, international law and human rights have been ignored by Israel and its U.S. sponsor for too long. The ‘alternate facts’ that Trump, Netanyahu and others of their ilk would have us hear are simply no longer acceptable.
27 July 2018
BRISBANE WRITERS FESTIVAL CENSORSHIP - BACK TO JOH'S GLORY DAYS OF THOUGHT CONTROL!
The following report is from the Guardian of 25 JULY 2018:
Brisbane writers' festival under fire after Germaine Greer and Bob Carr 'disinvited'
Event disputes accusations by Melbourne University Press that dropping the pair from its program was an attack on free speech
Former NSW premier Bob Carr and outspoken feminist Germaine Greer have been dropped from September’s Brisbane writers’ festival program. Composite: Imagechina/Ken McCay/Rex/Shutterstoc
The Brisbane writers’ festival has disputed accusations by the publisher of Germaine Greer and Bob Carr that the decision to “disinvite” the pair from this year’s event was an attack on free speech.
Melbourne University Press publisher Louise Adler said dropping the controversial feminist and the outspoken former New South Wales premier from the September program “seems counter to the ethos of freedom of speech”.
The festival claimed it was merely trying to ensure a balance within the program in one case, and responding to the decisions of a partner organisation in another.
The spat has raised questions about the politics of festival programming, highlighting the conflicting desires of authors who want to talk about and sell their books, the independent artistic priorities of literary festivals, and their desire to cater to the expectations of their audiences.
Carr told Guardian Australia he was “surprised” by the festival’s response to his new political memoir, Run for Your Life.
“I thought writers’ festivals embraced controversy,” he said, adding he understood his book didn’t “accord with [the festival’s] values” particularly because it argued for lower immigration, discussed the recent “China panic” in the Australian media and “my encounters with the pro-Israel lobby”.
The festival issued a statement on Wednesday, saying: “Brisbane writers’ festival does not shy away from controversy or challenging ideas, but as all festival organisers know, it’s invariably difficult to choose between the many authors currently promoting books and the need to provide engaging choices for our audience along a curatorial theme. In trying to achieve that balance, we decided in early June not to proceed with including Bob Carr on this year’s program and MUP were advised at that time.”
The Brisbane writers’ festival acting chief executive, Ann McLean, told the Australian there were concerns Carr would not keep discussion to the topic he had been programmed to discuss.
Referring to Greer, the festival’s statement said: “Germaine had not been invited to take part in this year’s program – we’d been asked by a local bookstore to assist with the marketing of an event planned by them for within the dates of the festival. However, when the bookstore decided not to proceed we decided not to host the event alone as it was being held offsite away from the festival hub and (more importantly) it did not fit within the rest of the program.”
Greer, who is lauded for her early feminist writing but has fallen out of favour with the left in recent years, in part for her inflammatory comments about trans women and her recent comments on rape, told the Australian: “The Brisbane writers’ festival is very hard work. So, to be uninvited to what is possibly the dreariest literary festival in the world, with zero hospitality and no fun at all, is a great relief.”
Australian writers’ festivals have come under fire a number of times in recent years for programming choices. In 2016, Brisbane writers’ festival generated international backlash after a keynote speech from We Need to Talk About Kevin author Lionel Shriver, in which Shriver argued that identity politics stifled fiction, and said she hoped the concept of cultural appropriation was “a passing fad”.
In 2015, Mark Latham set Twitter feeds on fire after an appearance at Melbourne writers’ festival in which he verbally attacked his interviewer, ABC’s Jonathan Green. He called Green an “ABC wanker”, engaged in heated exchanges with members of the audience and let off strings of expletives, prompting audience walkouts and complaints. Melbourne writers’ festival later said it was “disappointed” with Latham’s appearance and it was “not the respectful conversation we value”.
It’s also not the first time a well-known writer has been disinvited from a major festival. Last year, Richard Flanagan aired his disappointment at an invitation to the Perth writers’ festival being rescinded due to a bookshop hosting “a competing event” with the Man Booker prize winner.
Melbourne University Press have now organised an independent event in Brisbane with Greer and Carr on 7 September.
23 July 2018
ISRAEL DECLARES ITSELF AS A THEOCRACY
Israel has finally come out as an ethno-religious state.
The only thing left for Palestinians to do is fight for one state espousing democracy and secularism.
by Haidar Eid![Knesset member Oren Hazan takes a selfie with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a Knesset session that passed the 'nation-state' bill in Jerusalem on July 19 [AP Photo/Olivier Fitoussi]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/7/22/c95b6863ab74459989b9388a61b6ba9b_18.jpg "Israel has finally come out as an ethno-religious state")
In Palestine,
we are dealing with a complex situation: We have a settler-colonial
project that denies its colonialism and argues it is a democracy and we
have its victims whose victimisation has been dismissed for decades and
whose national liberation struggle has been defamed.
The colonisers have been successful in manipulating the narrative on what is going on, rewriting history and whitewashing their crimes. Various countries around the world have bought into their lies and kept a "neutral" stance, claiming their positions are "balanced".
What is there to balance, when one side has one of the most advanced armies in the world, financed and supplied by an allied superpower, and the other side has been altogether abandoned by allies and well-wishers and has only the determination and strength of its people to rely on?
But these claims of "neutrality" and "balance" are no longer tenable. Israel has stopped playing the democracy pretence game and has revealed itself for what it really is: an apartheid state. On July 19, the Israeli Knesset voted to pass the so-called "nation-state law" which declares Israel "the national home of the Jewish people". It is now officially an exclusive ethno-religious state.
Inevitably, the expropriation of land went hand-in-hand with the violation of rights of the Palestinian majority. Zionists have always looked at Palestinians as invisible if not absent, or rather "present absentees". The identity of those who remained within the boundaries of what was to become Israel was erased through the term "Israeli Arab" and their rights curbed by a myriad of laws ("the nation-state law" being just the latest iteration).
This is because, contrary to modern liberal thinking, in Israel, citizenship and nationality are two separate, independent concepts. In other words, Israel is not the state of its citizens, but the state of the Jewish people. Thus Palestinians in Israel have Israeli passports but they do not have rights equal to those of Jewish citizens.
With the new "nation-state law", Palestinians in Israel are now considered "native aliens" or foreigners in their own homeland, because Israel is defined by its law as " the historical homeland of the Jewish people" i.e. not the state of all of its citizens. This is the direct result of Zionism and its ideology of racism.
It is also the direct result of prevailing undemocratic sentiments among Israel's Jews. The contradiction between professed ideals and actual behaviour, which has been the engine of political change in many places around the world, does not exist in Israel because the democratic creed, or civic democracy, is absent in Israeli society.
There is no promise of equality for all citizens in Israeli political culture and praxis. And there is no tradition of civil liberties in Israel because such a tradition is incompatible with Zionism.
Hence, one can understand the antagonism of the establishment to calls for the creation of one state for Palestinians and Jews, one secular democratic state run by parliamentary elections and majority rule in historical Palestine. This idea has been rejected outright by Israeli Jewish society because it would effectively mean the end of Zionism.
And as Israel effectively turns into an exclusive ethno-religious state, we have to ask uncomfortable questions: does this mean that Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, etc can also be the basis of modern states? And if we still insist that religion should be separate from state, then where is the international outrage? Why isn't mainstream media obsessing about the Jewish state, the way it was about the "Islamic state"? How is Israel different from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant that sought to establish a state for Muslims only through violence and dispossession?
Just as apartheid South Africa gave citizenship to white South Africans and relegated blacks to "independent homelands", Zionism gives all Jews the right to citizenship in the state of Israel, while denying citizenship to Palestinians - its indigenous inhabitants.
While South Africa's apartheid used race to determine citizenship, the state of Israel uses religious identification to determine citizenship. Just as apartheid South Africa made laws criminalising free movement of blacks on their ancestral land, Israel controls every aspect of Palestinians' lives through a military occupation infrastructure composed of checkpoints, Jewish-only settlements and roads, and the Wall, combined with a web of legal regulations.
The parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa are infinite. And probably the only major difference between the two is that Israel gets away with its crimes with unprecedented impunity, as evidenced by its latest war crimes in Gaza.
So what is left for the Palestinian people after the approval of this blatantly racist bill? Well, we definitely are not foolish enough to expect anything from the so-called "international community".
Years of "negotiations" created only bantustans in the West Bank and a concentration camp in Gaza.
Palestinians are still at the receiving end of merciless assaults by racist Israeli troops hidden in their US-made helicopters and F16's.
What all US envoys to the region have been trying to do is reach a "solution" in accordance with Israeli conditions, disregarding Security Council resolutions and international law. Neither the current US right-wing administration nor the spineless EU has a fair plan for how to resolve the crisis in Palestine.
The only thing that we, Palestinians, can count on is the power of people, just as South Africans did when, through a sustained global campaign, they forced governments to boycott their apartheid regime.
We will continue to expand the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and will continue marching to the fence in Gaza until we bring this madness to an end. We will also continue working on an alternative model, both democratic and secular, which guarantees equality and abolishes apartheid, bantustans and separation in Palestine altogether. We will not give up the fight.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
The colonisers have been successful in manipulating the narrative on what is going on, rewriting history and whitewashing their crimes. Various countries around the world have bought into their lies and kept a "neutral" stance, claiming their positions are "balanced".
What is there to balance, when one side has one of the most advanced armies in the world, financed and supplied by an allied superpower, and the other side has been altogether abandoned by allies and well-wishers and has only the determination and strength of its people to rely on?
But these claims of "neutrality" and "balance" are no longer tenable. Israel has stopped playing the democracy pretence game and has revealed itself for what it really is: an apartheid state. On July 19, the Israeli Knesset voted to pass the so-called "nation-state law" which declares Israel "the national home of the Jewish people". It is now officially an exclusive ethno-religious state.
Unveiling the ethno-religious state of Israel
For us Palestinians, this law reiterates the obvious: namely, that the Zionist ideology is inherently racist and undemocratic.
The political goal of Zionism was to engineer a demographic
shift in Palestine, making the minority Jewish population (which was
just 7.6 percent in 1914) a majority through massive Jewish immigration
and settlement building and expulsion of the Palestinians.
AL JAZEERA WORLD: Against the Wall - activists using non-violent resistance to oppose the construction of Israel's wall (47:31)
AL JAZEERA WORLD: Against the Wall - activists using non-violent resistance to oppose the construction of Israel's wall (47:31)
Inevitably, the expropriation of land went hand-in-hand with the violation of rights of the Palestinian majority. Zionists have always looked at Palestinians as invisible if not absent, or rather "present absentees". The identity of those who remained within the boundaries of what was to become Israel was erased through the term "Israeli Arab" and their rights curbed by a myriad of laws ("the nation-state law" being just the latest iteration).
This is because, contrary to modern liberal thinking, in Israel, citizenship and nationality are two separate, independent concepts. In other words, Israel is not the state of its citizens, but the state of the Jewish people. Thus Palestinians in Israel have Israeli passports but they do not have rights equal to those of Jewish citizens.
With the new "nation-state law", Palestinians in Israel are now considered "native aliens" or foreigners in their own homeland, because Israel is defined by its law as " the historical homeland of the Jewish people" i.e. not the state of all of its citizens. This is the direct result of Zionism and its ideology of racism.
It is also the direct result of prevailing undemocratic sentiments among Israel's Jews. The contradiction between professed ideals and actual behaviour, which has been the engine of political change in many places around the world, does not exist in Israel because the democratic creed, or civic democracy, is absent in Israeli society.
There is no promise of equality for all citizens in Israeli political culture and praxis. And there is no tradition of civil liberties in Israel because such a tradition is incompatible with Zionism.
Hence, one can understand the antagonism of the establishment to calls for the creation of one state for Palestinians and Jews, one secular democratic state run by parliamentary elections and majority rule in historical Palestine. This idea has been rejected outright by Israeli Jewish society because it would effectively mean the end of Zionism.
And as Israel effectively turns into an exclusive ethno-religious state, we have to ask uncomfortable questions: does this mean that Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, etc can also be the basis of modern states? And if we still insist that religion should be separate from state, then where is the international outrage? Why isn't mainstream media obsessing about the Jewish state, the way it was about the "Islamic state"? How is Israel different from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant that sought to establish a state for Muslims only through violence and dispossession?
The fight against apartheid is on
The passing of the "nation-state law" should eliminate whatever doubt there still is among "neutral" observers that Israel is, in fact, an apartheid state.Just as apartheid South Africa gave citizenship to white South Africans and relegated blacks to "independent homelands", Zionism gives all Jews the right to citizenship in the state of Israel, while denying citizenship to Palestinians - its indigenous inhabitants.
While South Africa's apartheid used race to determine citizenship, the state of Israel uses religious identification to determine citizenship. Just as apartheid South Africa made laws criminalising free movement of blacks on their ancestral land, Israel controls every aspect of Palestinians' lives through a military occupation infrastructure composed of checkpoints, Jewish-only settlements and roads, and the Wall, combined with a web of legal regulations.
The parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa are infinite. And probably the only major difference between the two is that Israel gets away with its crimes with unprecedented impunity, as evidenced by its latest war crimes in Gaza.
So what is left for the Palestinian people after the approval of this blatantly racist bill? Well, we definitely are not foolish enough to expect anything from the so-called "international community".
Years of "negotiations" created only bantustans in the West Bank and a concentration camp in Gaza.
Palestinians are still at the receiving end of merciless assaults by racist Israeli troops hidden in their US-made helicopters and F16's.
What all US envoys to the region have been trying to do is reach a "solution" in accordance with Israeli conditions, disregarding Security Council resolutions and international law. Neither the current US right-wing administration nor the spineless EU has a fair plan for how to resolve the crisis in Palestine.
The only thing that we, Palestinians, can count on is the power of people, just as South Africans did when, through a sustained global campaign, they forced governments to boycott their apartheid regime.
We will continue to expand the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and will continue marching to the fence in Gaza until we bring this madness to an end. We will also continue working on an alternative model, both democratic and secular, which guarantees equality and abolishes apartheid, bantustans and separation in Palestine altogether. We will not give up the fight.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
19 July 2018
ELLEN FANNING'S DISGRACEFUL INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE ACTU MICHELE O'NEIL
I have seen and heard some interviews on the 7.30 pm ABC programme for many years, and one of the most disgraceful ever was the short - and extremely rude - interview of the new ACTU president Michele O'Neil on the 19 JULY 2018 programme.
It was so repulsive that I am wondering if I will ever be able to watch the programme again, no matter who is presenting it.
Where did Ellen Fanning learn her politics, her interview technique, her arrogance, and her intolerance and complete lack of understanding? Watch Fanning's "body language" during the whole of her brief interview - if you can bear it!
For those of us fighting for increased funding for the ABC and a removal of goverenment control over the so-called "independent" ABC, we have a long way to go to achieve anything with this sort of approach.
Does Fanning believe that her rudeness to the head of an organisation such as the large ACTU organisation won't go unnoticed by those many thousands of union members? Does Fanning think that she can take as her example a few of the CFMEU's members who are not role models and discount thousands of others?
Just because she is anti-union does not give her the right, on the national public broadcaster, to behave as if she is the controller of right-wing union organisations and assume that no one else has any rights.
It was such a disgusting display, so abruptly concluded, that is incumbent on the ABC to ensure that it never happens again.
I am not holding my breath for Michelle Guthrie to take action.
It was so repulsive that I am wondering if I will ever be able to watch the programme again, no matter who is presenting it.
Where did Ellen Fanning learn her politics, her interview technique, her arrogance, and her intolerance and complete lack of understanding? Watch Fanning's "body language" during the whole of her brief interview - if you can bear it!
For those of us fighting for increased funding for the ABC and a removal of goverenment control over the so-called "independent" ABC, we have a long way to go to achieve anything with this sort of approach.
Does Fanning believe that her rudeness to the head of an organisation such as the large ACTU organisation won't go unnoticed by those many thousands of union members? Does Fanning think that she can take as her example a few of the CFMEU's members who are not role models and discount thousands of others?
Just because she is anti-union does not give her the right, on the national public broadcaster, to behave as if she is the controller of right-wing union organisations and assume that no one else has any rights.
It was such a disgusting display, so abruptly concluded, that is incumbent on the ABC to ensure that it never happens again.
I am not holding my breath for Michelle Guthrie to take action.
18 July 2018
MALCOLM TURNBULL AND ALL HIS POLITICAL ALLIES ARE EXTREMIST WHITE RACISTS WHO SHOULD BY NOW HAVE HEARD OF APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA, THE POLICE STATE
The longer I live in Australia, already 40 years, after living in the South African apartheid police state for 50 years, the longer I have to despair at the racism so inherent in the country I am confined to living in to the end of my days.
At 91 those days can't be far off but the longer I live the more I despair of any sign of democracy and increasing signs of authoritarian racist police state behaviour.
Most Australian politicians seem to have inherited the British racism which has existed for so long and is still in evidence in the UK of today, 2018.
The expression of racism to help win elections at all costs is an ugliness which seems to get worse as the years roll by.
Malcolm Turnbull and his cronies are determined to make race an issue in the 2018 Victorian state election by attacking "black gangs who make the streets of Melbourne unsafe and a danger to its citizens."
The trouble is that people remain gullible and believe the crap that pours out of the mouths of so many of Australia's politicians.
It is an agony for those of us who can see through the nonsense and can do nothing about it except write protest blogs to get it off our chests and know we are powerless to be able to effect change.
Racism has always been inherent in Australian society, but with Abbott and Turnbull and Dutton and several others in parliament in Canberra as well as in most of the states, the white Australian male diktat is rearing its ugly head more and more.
Poor Malcolm, my partner is 95 and I am 91 and we would be happy to go out for dinner anywhere if we were still able to, and the fact that the federal government is doing its best to support the racist opposition in Victoria to help it get elected in November 2018 is probably going to have the opposite effect.
At 91 those days can't be far off but the longer I live the more I despair of any sign of democracy and increasing signs of authoritarian racist police state behaviour.
Most Australian politicians seem to have inherited the British racism which has existed for so long and is still in evidence in the UK of today, 2018.
The expression of racism to help win elections at all costs is an ugliness which seems to get worse as the years roll by.
Malcolm Turnbull and his cronies are determined to make race an issue in the 2018 Victorian state election by attacking "black gangs who make the streets of Melbourne unsafe and a danger to its citizens."
The trouble is that people remain gullible and believe the crap that pours out of the mouths of so many of Australia's politicians.
It is an agony for those of us who can see through the nonsense and can do nothing about it except write protest blogs to get it off our chests and know we are powerless to be able to effect change.
Racism has always been inherent in Australian society, but with Abbott and Turnbull and Dutton and several others in parliament in Canberra as well as in most of the states, the white Australian male diktat is rearing its ugly head more and more.
Poor Malcolm, my partner is 95 and I am 91 and we would be happy to go out for dinner anywhere if we were still able to, and the fact that the federal government is doing its best to support the racist opposition in Victoria to help it get elected in November 2018 is probably going to have the opposite effect.
26 June 2018
WHISTLEBLOWERS WHO BLOW WHISTLES FOR PROTECTION AND SECURITY
In the 1980s and 1990s, Gays, Lesbians, Transgenders, HIV/AIDS people, of all genders, were being bashed, assaulted, abused in any way homophobes could work out, and murdered, at a rapid rate.
The murdered were mostly gay males as can be seen on our web pages in http://www.josken.net
The New South Wales police were complicit in some of those crimes and have never been brought to book.
In 2018, in Melbourne, women are being assaulted, abused, verbally and physically, and murdered in unprecedented numbers.
In Sydney, in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the plans for protection was to carry a whistle that was easily accessible and could mostly be held in the hand out of sight of possible attackers. This is obviously not a be-all and end-all protection, but it may well have helped save lives.
We all carried them in those days and perhaps it helped to protect us but the number of murders did reduce.
The situation as it stands is very complex and needs to start with education at a basic level while children are in their early classes at school where they need to respect other humans and not be taught that they are entitled to behave in ways threatening the safety of other human beings.
The murdered were mostly gay males as can be seen on our web pages in http://www.josken.net
The New South Wales police were complicit in some of those crimes and have never been brought to book.
In 2018, in Melbourne, women are being assaulted, abused, verbally and physically, and murdered in unprecedented numbers.
In Sydney, in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the plans for protection was to carry a whistle that was easily accessible and could mostly be held in the hand out of sight of possible attackers. This is obviously not a be-all and end-all protection, but it may well have helped save lives.
We all carried them in those days and perhaps it helped to protect us but the number of murders did reduce.
The situation as it stands is very complex and needs to start with education at a basic level while children are in their early classes at school where they need to respect other humans and not be taught that they are entitled to behave in ways threatening the safety of other human beings.
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About Me
- Mannie De Saxe
- Preston, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- 90 years old, political gay activist, hosting two web sites, one personal: http://www.red-jos.net
one shared with my partner, 94-year-old Ken Lovett: http://www.josken.net
and also this blog. The blog now has an alphabetical index: http://www.red-jos.net/alpha3.htm