Goldstone barred from grandson’s bar mitzvah
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- Written by JTA JTA
- Published: 15 April 2010 15 April 2010
- Hits: 3098 3098
Following negotiations between the South African Zionist Federation and the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol in Sandton, an affluent suburb of Johannesburg where the event is due to take place, an agreement has been reached with the family. As a result, Goldstone will not be attending the synagogue service, scheduled for early next month.
Goldstone was the head of a United Nations-appointed commission that investigated last winter's Gaza war. The commission's final report accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and said there may be evidence of crimes against humanity.
Some of the role-players were tight-lipped when contacted by JTA, with Avrom Krengel, chairman of the SAZF, saying: “We understand that there’s a bar mitzvah boy involved – we’re very sensitive to the issues and at this stage there’s nothing further to say.”
Jewish groups had planned to organize a protest outside of the synagogue if Goldstone was in attendance, according to reports.
Reached in Washington where he is currently based, Goldstone was reluctant to comment save to say: “In the interests of my grandson, I’ve decided not to attend the ceremony at the synagogue.”
Retired chief justice of South Africa Arthur Chaskalson said it was “disgraceful” to put pressure on a grandfather not to attend his grandson’s bar mitzvah. “If it is correct that this has the blessing of the leadership of the Jewish community in South Africa, it reflects on them rather than Judge Goldstone. They should hang their heads in shame.”
SUMMER CAMP TO CHANGE YOU AND THE WORLD: AN INVITATION FROM ICAHD and AUPHR
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- Written by AUPHR AUPHR
- Published: 14 April 2010 14 April 2010
- Hits: 2981 2981
Please read the description of this great opportunity for students in Oregon to volunteer in the West Bank this summer. If anyone is interested please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
SUMMER CAMP TO CHANGE YOU AND THE WORLD
AN INVITATION FROM ISRAELI COMMITTEE AGAINST HOUSE DEMOLITION (ICAHD) AND AMERICANS UNITED FOR PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS (AUPHR)
If you're a student, understand that injustices in Palestine/Israel destabilize the whole world, want to witness the situation on the ground, want to work with internationals to be part of a just solution, want to equip yourself for advocacy, and are free July 19-August 2, 2010.....
ICAHD invites you to apply for the camping experience of a lifetime. Based in Anata, East Jerusalem, campers
· rebuild a demolished Palestinian home along with Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals
· meet and learn from activists, artists, scholars, intellectuals, and leaders vested in non-violent resistance to occupation
· witness occupation
o the separation wall
o settlements
o demolitions and evictions
o checkpoints
o bypass roads
o security zones
· learn how to educate and engage their communities at home
AUPHR invites you to compete for
· $1,500 payment of camp fees (excludes airfare)
· fundraising support
· assistance in applying for academic credit
Obligations for scholarship recipients on their return include
· help in recruiting students for ICAHD summer camp 2011
· meeting with local legislators (when meetings can be arranged)
· two-three presentations and/or articles for publication
To learn more about the summer camp experience, visit icahdusa.org/projects/summer-camp and/or contact Esther Nelson This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 503 341-2755
To apply for AUPHR support
· download and complete the application (icahdusa.org/projects/summer-camp)
· submit the application to AUPHR by May 15, 2010: AUPHR, PO Box 12054, Portland, OR 97212
The applicant(s) selected for AUPHR support will be notified and the application will be forwarded to ICAHD.
Wael Elasady
Co-founder of SUPER
Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights - SUPER
114 Smith Memorial Student Union
1825 SW Broadway St.
Phone: 602-446-9444
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
‘The Nakba was our doing’
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- Written by Susan Landau Susan Landau
- Published: 13 April 2010 13 April 2010
- Hits: 2988 2988
Several years ago, I introduced the idea of a Nakba commemoration to my progressive synagogue in Philadelphia. The response was a stunning barometer of the work ahead. “It’s too bad the Nakba has to fall on Israel Independence Day. That’s The Day for celebrating the Jewish state. It’s not a day to talk about Palestinians.” Fast forward six years: an orange flier neatly tucked inside this month’s synagogue newsletter is headlined “Yom Ha’Atzma-ut al Naqba Commemoration” on April 16, 2010.
The winds are shifting, but the sailing is by no means smooth. Just yesterday attending a congregational bat mitzvah, I inadvertently seated myself among the pro-Israel camp. Greetings were strained. I like these people. Prior to my coming-out as an anti-Zionist, they liked me too. Now I am seen as one of “those people” who insists on bringing up the “N” word each year as we plan for Yom Ha’Atzmuut (Israel Independence Day).
Like many Jews, even within the progressive community, my co-congregants may know but refuse to talk about the “N” word. The Nakba, or “catastrophe,” names the Palestinian experience in 1948. Expulsion and transfer from their homes in historic Palestine allowed for the creation of Israel as a Jewish state. Simply put, the Nakba was and is the dark side of Jewish statehood.
Nakbaphobia – Jewish fear of acknowledging and taking responsibility for the irrefutable historical record of the Palestinian experience in 1948 - must be confronted. As victims of historic injustice, Jews resist seeing ourselves as perpetrators and oppressors. Our post-holocaust mantra “Never again,” has emboldened Israeli militarism while numbing our senses, blinding much of the Jewish community to the ethical tradition of Judaism as well as the humanity of Palestinians.
read more on MondoWiess . . .
Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, & Palestine/Israel
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- Written by Alice Walker Alice Walker
- Published: 13 April 2010 13 April 2010
- Hits: 3117 3117
Overcoming Speechlessness
A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel
In 2006 Alice Walker, working with Women for Women International, visited Rwanda and the eastern Congo to witness the aftermath of the genocide in Kigali. Invited by Code Pink, an antiwar group working to end the Iraq War, Walker traveled to Palestine/Israel three years later to view the devastation on the Gaza Strip. Here is her testimony.
Bearing witness to the depravity and cruelty, she presents the stories of the individuals who crossed her path and shared their tales of suffering and courage. Part of what has happened to human beings over the last century, she believes, is that we have been rendered speechless by unusually barbaric behavior that devalues human life. We have no words to describe what we witness. Self-imposed silence has slowed our response to the plight of those who most need us, often women and children, but also men of conscience who resist evil but are outnumbered by those around them who have fallen victim to a belief in weapons, male or ethnic dominance, and greed.
“Perhaps ordinary language cannot convey adequately the horrors of our time. Perhaps it takes a poet to reach into her own heart and into ours, to break out of silence and despair, to speak the unspeakable truth. Alice Walker, a poet who does more than write, declares, by her words and by her actions, that she will not, that we must not, let this go on. She insists, in this poetic, powerful essay, that we will reach out to one another, across all boundaries, to create a better world.”
—Howard Zinn
“Alice Walker’s Overcoming Speechlessness leaves me breathless. She shocks us with stories of the most horrifying human interactions then pulls us out of despair with the most tender stories of compassion. She weaves the far-flung nightmares of Rwanda, Congo, and Palestine with the victories of the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements. She bears witness but steps in as an activist, acknowledging that as global citizens, ‘allowing freedom to others brings freedom to ourselves.’ Read Overcoming Speechlessness to overcome despair.”
—Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Global Exchange
“Few books convey such a generosity of spirit, and such a commitment to the idea of sharing, in pain as in love. And even fewer express so eloquently the idea that a true peace can only be built on justice.“
—Saree Makdisi, author of Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
Israelis and Palestinians marking Memorial Day together, April 18th
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- Written by Combatants For Peace Combatants For Peace
- Published: 13 April 2010 13 April 2010
- Hits: 2922 2922
Combatants for Peace:
Remembering the Victims,
Working Together for Peace
Israelis and Palestinians marking Memorial Day together.
The fifth annual alternative joint ceremony will take place
on the eve of Israel's Memorial Day,
Sunday, April 18, at Tmu-Na Theater, 8 Soncino St., Tel Aviv.
The ceremony will feature Palestinian and Israeli bereaved families, and the artists Amir Lev, Miriam Toukan, The Shirana Choir, Naftali Alter, Maya Bejerano and Miri Hanoch
Combatants for Peace is a movement founded by Palestinians and Israelis who had taken an active part in the cycle of violence--and now work together to break it. Members of Combatants for Peace act upon the belief that only by joining Israeli and Palestinian forces will it be possible to realize the vision of ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. We work together in Israel, the West Bank and worldwide to promote reconciliation and nonviolent struggle, as well as battle the alienation and suspicion which separates the two nations.
For more information: www.combatantsforpeace.org www.tmu-na.org.il