Shame on Israel for exploiting the Holocaust to justify genocide
My grandparents’ story of surviving the Holocaust taught me what genocide is, and it is how I know to condemn what Israel is doing to Gaza right now. How dare Israel exploit my family’s suffering to try to justify its genocide in Gaza.
#history#reference / Peretz, Dekel. 2022. Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine. De Gruyter.
Introducion: Zionism for the Diaspora: Bridging the Gap between German
and Zionist Historical Narratives [p. 6]
An important step towards interlinking these narratives is to contextualize Oppenheimer and like-minded Zionists in a period when Germany’s colonial and imperial aspirations were peaking. It seems to go without saying that historical research needs to consider contemporaneous geographical, political and intellectual conditions. Yet this basic staple of the historian has been often neglected by researchers of German colonialism and of German Zionism in respect to the correlation between these two coetaneous affairs. It is not the purpose of this book to examine the causes of this neglect. Nevertheless, I would like to make some hypothetical suggestions.
First, Germany did not have a long-established colonial apparatus of the size and quality of France and England. There were certainly fewer Jews active within the German colonial service and, apart from a few prominent protagonists mentioned in this book, research into this matter is sparse. However, the lack of active service within the colonial bureaucracy alone is not indicative of the level of enthusiasm and advocacy of German colonial ambitions among German Jewry. There were other spheres in which support for colonial undertakings could manifest themselves
Second, due to the racialist and outright racist aspects of colonialism as well as the ultimate devastation that German colonial and imperial ambitions brought on the Jews during the Second World War and the Holocaust, it retroactively seems unfathomable that Jews could have ever been involved in any way with
German colonialism.
Third, the Zionist narrative is shaped by a teleological perspective. The focus of Zionist historiography on the contributions made to building the state of Israel, together with the ideology of diaspora negation¹⁷ – preaching total separation and distancing from Europe – blurred out conceptions of Zionism in which the establishment of Jewish sovereignty did not contradict a continued Jewish life in Europe or even envisioned realizing this sovereignty in places other than Palestine. During the First World War, Oppenheimer and his Zionist contemporaries proposed the establishment of Jewish cultural sovereignty or autonomy within (Eastern) Europe, in remarkable affinity with the anti-Zionist Bundism prevalent in Eastern Europe, revealing the diversity of opinions within early German Zionism. Furthermore, the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent British endorsement of Zionism overshadowed earlier attempts by German Zionists to integrate
Zionism into a broader German colonial scheme.
Fourth, further clouding the vision is the tension in Zionist historiography between the depiction of the intellectual origins of the Zionist movement within the context of European nationalism on the one hand, and the conceptualizing of Zionism as an anomaly of nationalism with independent roots in the ethnic, messianic character of Judaism on the other. The international nature of the movement makes it from the start a difficult object for comprehensive study.¹⁸ Finally, and probably most importantly, the negative association of colonialism with violent subjugation, foreign transgression, and unjustifiable occupation made it an unlikely candidate for integration by a Zionist historiography charged with constructing the national narrative of a Jewish state in a long-running conflict with indigenous and neighboring populations.
#hisotry#reference / Between Prague and Jerusalem : the idea of a binational state in Palestine. Dimitry Shumsky (2010). [Hebrew; German edition 2013]
Prof. Dimitri Shumsky, a Russian-born historian at Hebrew University, argues that the Zionist vision prior to 1948 was for a bi-national political entity in Israel/Palestine, not an ethnic Jewish nation-state as exists today.
Most early Zionist thinkers and leaders, across ideological camps, advocated some form of bi-national framework that would provide collective rights for both Jews and Palestinian Arabs. This view changed drastically after 1948.
Shumsky says the bi-national vision broke down due to the Holocaust, World War II, and the 1948 war, which led to Jewish sovereignty and control rather than a power-sharing agreement.
He sees reviving the civic currents in Zionist thought as a way to "re-Zionize" and make more inclusive the Israeli state today, though he recognizes the challenges given dominant Zionist nationalism that resists such change.
Shumsky situates himself as trying to uncover suppressed Zionist intellectual streams that were responsive to the reality of a land shared by two peoples, not just idealistic notions. Bringing these to light can impact views today.
We Stand Divided
The Rift Between American Jews and Israel
From National Jewish Book Award winner and author of Israel, a bold reevaluation of the tensions between American and Israeli Jews that reinterprets the past and reimagines the future of Jewish life.
'From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine collects personal testimonies from within Gaza and the West Bank, along with essays and interviews that collectively provide crucial histories and analyses to help us understand how we got to the nightmarish present. Taken together, the texts comprising this collection provide important grounding for the urgent discussions taking place across the Palestine solidarity movement.
A collaboration between Haymarket and Verso Books, From the River to the Sea is now available to download as a FREE Ebook.
With contributions from: Reda Abu Assi, Asmaa Abu Mezied, Tawfiq Abu Shomer, Khalil Abu Yahia, Dunia Aburahma, Spencer Ackerman, Hil Aked, Yousef Al-Akkad, Jamie Allinson, Hammam Alloh, Riya Al’Sanah, Soheir Asaad, Tareq Baconi, Rana Barakat, Omar Barghouti, Sara Besaiso, Ashley Bohrer, Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, Nihal El Aasar, Mohammed El-Kurd, Sai Englert, Noura Erakat, Samera Esmeir, Rebecca Ruth Gould, Toufic Haddad, Adam Hanieh, Khaled Hroub, Rashid Khalidi, Noah Kulwin, Saree Makdisi, Ghassan Najjar, Samar Saeed, Reema Saleh, Alberto Toscano, and Eyal Weizman, alongside a number of Palestinian writers published pseudonymously.'
The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul
A rich, wide-ranging portrait of the divisions among Israelis today, at a critical juncture in their country’s history, by a veteran New York Times correspondent who has spent decades working in Israel.
"a conversation to help teachers, at the K–12 & college levels, develop strategies to teach the #Palestine – #Israel conflict & many of the attendant sensitive historical topics it entails. It might seem that this history is a minefield worth avoiding, but thoughtful & engaged teachers have been teaching such difficult topics in a civil & empathetic way for decades"
The terrible human toll in Gaza has many causes.
A chilling investigation by +972 highlights efficiency:
An engineer: “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed.”
An AI outputs "100 targets a day". Like a factory with murder delivery:
"According to the investigation, another reason for the large number of targets, and the extensive harm to civilian life in Gaza, is the widespread use of a system called “Habsora” (“The Gospel”), which is largely built on artificial intelligence and can “generate” targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible. This AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory.”"
"The third is “power targets,” which includes high-rises and residential towers in the heart of cities, and public buildings such as universities, banks, and government offices."
#AI#Habsora estimates in advance the number of innocents killed for each "generated" bombing target:
"Five different sources confirmed that the number of civilians who may be killed in attacks on private residences is known in advance to Israeli intelligence, and appears clearly in the target file under the category of “collateral damage.”
According to these sources, there are degrees of collateral damage, according to which the army determines whether it is possible to attack a target inside a private residence. “When the general directive becomes ‘Collateral Damage 5,’ that means we are authorized to strike all targets that will kill five or less civilians — we can act on all target files that are five or less,” said one of the sources."
A person who took part in previous Israeli offensives in Gaza said:
“If they would tell the whole world that the [Islamic Jihad] offices on the 10th floor are not important as a target, but that its existence is a justification to bring down the entire high-rise with the aim of pressuring civilian families who live in it in order to put pressure on terrorist organizations, this would itself be seen as terrorism. So they do not say it.”
#IDI stands for the Intelligence Division of the Israel army. Here is some praise of technology usage:
May 2021 "is the first time that the intelligence services have played such a transformative role at the tactical level.
This is the result of a strategic shift made by the IDI [in] recent years. Revisiting its role in military operations, it established a comprehensive, “one-stop-shop” intelligence war machine, gathering all relevant players in intelligence planning and direction, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, and dissemination process (PCPAD)".
Behind any aircraft that takes off for an attack, there are thousands of soldiers, men and women, who make the information accessible to the pilot. "They produce the targets and make the targets accessible. To set a target, it’s a process with lots of factors that need to be approved. The achievement, the collateral damage and the level of accuracy. For that, you have to interconnect intelligence, (weapon) fire, C4I [an integrated military communications system, including the interaction of troops, intelligence and communication equipment] and more," said Nati Cohen, currently a reservist in the Exercises Division of the C4I Division of the army.
"Bombing of Gaza has damaged or destroyed more than 100 heritage sites, NGO report reveals" by Sarvy Geranpayeh (The Art Newspaper).
"The human cost of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip in the war with Israel is well documented. What is less well known is how many historic buildings and sites have also been destroyed."
"Several of Gaza’s museums have also been destroyed or damaged. Rafah Museum, located in southern Gaza, published two videos on its Facebook page showing that the building has partially collapsed. Yasin says Palestinian officials have also received reports of significant damage caused to Al Qarara Cultural Museum and Deir Al Balah museum."
OHF WEEKLY, Vol. 5 No. 39 including—
💛 Editor’s Letter by @sherrykappel
💛 “Gun Violence Comes from Mob Rule” by R Wayne Branch, PhD
💛 “Losing a White Friend Due to His Racism” by @williamfspivey
💛 “All Bigotry Is Ignorance, But Not All Ignorance Is Bigotry” by Walter Rhein
💛 and a quote by Dorothy Height.
The Impossibility of Palestine
History, Geography, and the Road Ahead
A controversial and exhaustively researched work on the much-touted “two-state solution”
The “two-state solution” is the official policy of Israel, the United States, the United Nations, and the Palestinian Authority alike.
Apartheid Clyde wanted to feel some childhood nostalgia so he made a trip to Israel to pal around with Zionists for a day.
Last year he turned off Starlink access for Ukraine in key areas after speaking to Russian officials. Now he’s letting Israel’s far-right government decide whether human rights and medical groups in Gaza should have access to it.
OHF WEEKLY, Vol. 5 No. 39 including—
💛 Editor’s Letter by @sherrykappel
💛 “Gun Violence Comes from Mob Rule” by R Wayne Branch, PhD
💛 “Losing a White Friend Due to His Racism” by @williamfspivey
💛 “All Bigotry Is Ignorance, But Not All Ignorance Is Bigotry” by Walter Rhein
💛 and a quote by Dorothy Height.
#antisemitism vs #apartheid "The academic world is rising up against us": Hidden boycott threatens Israeli scientific research
Last week, a Zoom meeting was held with senior members of Israel's academia and young researchers. The senior academics expressed concern about what is happening and conveyed a sense of emergency. The President of the University of Haifa, Prof. Ron Rubin, recounted in a conversation that he visited the US during the war and felt manifestations of antisemitism "seeping into places where they have never been before. There is a hostile attitude towards Israelis even in places like medical schools. It is terrifying to the nth degree. In the past, the problem was focused on faculties for the humanities and social sciences, but the phenomenon is spreading to additional fields."
The missing word in this article must be #aprtheid... I do see #BDS and antisemitism mentioned, many times, but not a word about the fact the USA and European boycott of Israeli academia is a refusal to cooperate with a perceived apartheid regime.
Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians
There is one title that always works: "The current crisis in the Middle East." One can't predict exactly what the crisis will be far down the road, but that there will be one is a fairly safe prediction. That will continue to be the case as long as basic problems of the region are not addressed.
OHF WEEKLY, Vol. 5 No. 39 including—
💛 Editor’s Letter by @sherrykappel
💛 “Gun Violence Comes from Mob Rule” by R Wayne Branch, PhD
💛 “Losing a White Friend Due to His Racism” by @williamfspivey
💛 “All Bigotry Is Ignorance, But Not All Ignorance Is Bigotry” by Walter Rhein
💛 and a quote by Dorothy Height.
1/2 Enraged Israeli spokes people are a very common sight on Western TV these days, but this exchange between Sky's Kay Burley and Israel's Eylon Levy seem to set a new low.
Speaking to Levy about Israel's decision to handover 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 50 Israeli children and babies, Burley said she had spoken “to a hostage negotiator” about the discrepancy in the numbers. He made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas has promised to release as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians and Israel has said that it will release, [...] Does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?"
#BanalityOfEvil [repost] “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story”
About the Palestinian children Israel sent to jail. An edited extract from “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story”, which was recently published by Allen Lane.
“In her work as a doctor with #UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for Palestinian refugees, Huda saw things that made her afraid for her sons. She had witnessed a soldier shoot a boy who threw a stone at a tank. The soldiers stopped her from going to help him as he fell to the ground. At home in Sawahre, listening to the nightly news of West Bank killings and closures, she had trouble sleeping. She knew Hadi was out throwing stones.”
This seems like a new low, in my lifetime at least. A regime carries out ethnic cleansing in full view of the world - broadcasting its intentions in barely coded language - while our governments affirm their full support. The US sends aircraft carriers, vetoes calls for a ceasefire #Palestine#Israel (1/7)
They had been overflown by an Israeli helicopter and drones. After broadcasting a live feed for 45 minutes, the Reuters, AFP and Al Jazeera teams turned their cameras to show an Israeli outpost from where tanks were firing. Within 90 seconds a tank round hit them. #Palestine#gaza#Lebanon#Israel