Category: israel

Maps as Propaganda Tools for Large Lies

Nota bene. Lisa has noted under separate cover that a logical argument based on (anti)Semitism is wrong in every respect since both people share the common patriarch Abraham. In 2016 we’re still talking about his two sons: Ishmael and Isaac, brothers where the branches of the Semitic tree meet. Oz & Nichols.

1500 BC, Old Testament prophet Abraham banishes Hagar and her son Ishmael into the wilderness after the birth of Isaac to his aged, barren wife Sarah. Genesis, chapter 16. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1500 BC, Old Testament prophet Abraham banishes Hagar and her son Ishmael into the wilderness after the birth of Isaac to his aged, barren wife Sarah. Genesis, chapter 16. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Today’s question: is it possible to use maps as propaganda (הַסְבָּרָה‎)?

Does a Mercator projection misrepresent land area?

On your next tour of the “Holy Land” bring home souvenir maps that follow guidelines for “Public Diplomacy: Israel.”

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An excerpt from a recent Haaretz article describing the brochure below:

“The only Muslim site listed is the Dome of the Rock. It’s clear that the map’s editors took pains to omit the Arabic names of sites in the Old City. For example, it uses the terms “Har Habait,” “Temple Mt.” and “Mt. Moriah” for the Temple Mount area, but omits what most Old City residents call it – Haram al-Sharif, or Al-Aqsa. In fact, the Al-Aqsa Mosque is illustrated but not named; the area east of it is marked as Solomon’s Stables.”

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Actually I remember Dr. Laurence G. Wolf once mentioning this topic around 1967 in a geography class at the University of Cincinnati. It was the year of the 1967 War, when Israel occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. Now in 2016 Israel has only returned the Sinai Peninsula (to Egypt), but no land ever to a single Palestinian: the original residents of Palestine. Before May 14, 1948 most Palestinians lived near the Mediterranean Coast

I haven’t yet found examples for the Czech map mentioned in that class but I do remember that it depicted the Sudetenland as a range of sharp teeth about to champ on a tasty morsel. The German cartographers fashioned maps to represent a clear and present danger: militant Polish horse-powered troops getting ready to thrust their force into 1939 Germany.

 

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Looks like Prague could devastate the German Reich, quick as a snap.

 

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A knife to the soft underbelly of Greater Germany, or bloody teeth? Your guess or mine I guess.

BDS and the Blacklisting of Pro-Palestinian Activists

Yesterday I learned about a pro-Israel operation you might be interested in. Propaganda online real time: Canary Mission

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It comes complete with rapid-fire context-insensitive propaganda video:

Canary Mission: Radicals Exposed

One of the links on their website takes you to organizations that pro-Israel movements view as threats. Among them BDS, Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Obviously the  links do not take you to the activist website but rather to an internal link. Here is what happens when you click the Canary resource for BDS.

Canary is not about freedom, justice or equality. It’s about learning from Senator Joseph McCarthy.

BDS Movement (this site is about Freedom/Justice/Equality)

 

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Canary uses a dark agenda funded by a secret sponsor seeking to remove the privacy of innumerable activists and destroy their futures, i.e. a cleansing.

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Hasbara works by achieving a deft balance between information availability and media participation. It helps to have billions of dollars available to combat free and open society. Success depends upon promoting democratic principles on the de jure side while using fascist techniques on the de facto side. Then to proclaim that they continue the good fight as the only democracy in the Middle East: one protected by the most moral army in the world.

Corporate ownership (NYT, Time) and corporate sponsorship (NPR, PBS) permits bias to enter the news. The big lie requires billions of dollars to grow but it has shallow roots.

 

 

 

At Ariel University a Boycott Begins

What good may a boycott bring? It can expose human rights violations otherwise ignored. Many members of academia are joining together, bringing attention to a little-known school via a boycott.  This past Monday (14 March 2016) a thousand protesting professors announced their stand on Ariel University

In all fairness though I am providing an opposing viewpoint for your convenience,  Anne’s Opinions: a WordPress site that explains every Israeli human rights abuse as somehow explicable. See if Anne adopts a certain insular perspective.

https://boycottzionism.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/carlos-latuff-images-for-bds-activists/Does Anne know that her society lives and thrives on Palestinian soil? Is Ariel a university of Israel? Or is it another foothold in Occupied Palestine? Does it benefit Palestine or does it serve the 500,000 settlers on occupied land?

Anne’s blog post on the Ariel action: Let’s see you boycott this, idiots.

Just for the record, Ariel University is not in Israel.

At Ariel University, only Zionists need apply
Professors Amir Hetsroni (pictured) and Steve Salaita have much in common.

Here is a different perspective on Ariel:

At Ariel University, only Zionists need apply

The list of reasons for this BDS action: Israeli Academics for Peace.

CINCY 4 PALESTINE EVENTS

Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition: Upcoming Events. Unfortunately there are no events to announce right now (30 January 2017).

cpsc.background

The Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition is a group worth following, now you can do that right here on billziegler1947. CPSC is speaking with a peaceful voice,  in solidarity with everyone who finds hope in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed in 1948: proclaimed in the same year as the Nakba.

A good starting point is the CPSC Facebook page, it’s worth visiting even if you are not anywhere near the southwest corner of Ohio. And here is a shout-out of appreciation to readers every continent: 53 countries in 2016 so far.  The idea is to make ideas available and not to impose them upon people.

(Already Happened) March 27 (Tuesday) to April 3 (Sunday) marks Israeli Apartheid Week in the U.S. Israeli Apartheid Week 2016

(Already Happened) March 16 (Wednesday) Poetry Night with Remi Kanazi takes place at the University of Dayton this Wednesday March 16 at 8:00 PM. Event link here.

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Remi Kanazi

(Already happened) March 20 (Sunday) Support Palestine: Protest AIPAC

A protest timed to coincide with a large AIPAC conference in Washington DC. CSPC is participating with a contingent. Timing is also critical since AIPAC can no longer depend on an automatic lockstep bipartisan support of Israel, dependable as clockwork.

Why Peter F. Cohen is Going to DC on March 20. On Mondoweiss.

(Already happened) March 29 (Tuesday) A teach-in on Rasmea Odeh takes place March 29. Details to follow. Here is a picture of Rasmea marching for another people who share her experience. In solidarity.

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(Already happened) March 31 (Thursday) The fifth of five teach-ins is on March 31 at the Clifton Mosque.  The theme: economic and military ties between the U.S. and Israel.

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(Already happened)  3 (SUNDAY) 1:30 to 4:00 at the Clifton Mosque. An event sponsored by CPSC and Black Lives Matter Cincinnati (BLM:C)

When I see THEM I see US

when.i.see.them.i.see.us

 

May 11 (WEDNESDAY) World Keffiyeh Day. Another creative way to celebrate Palestine. #KeffiyehDay

May 14 (SATURDAY) North America Nakba Tour.

CPSC Facebook Event Page has up-to-date information.

I also have a post on the NAKBA Tour on billziegler1947

This group is including Cincinnati on its itinerary. From their website:

“Mariam, now 85 years old and respectfully known as Umm Akram, has spent the last 68 years in crowded, makeshift refugee camps in Lebanon.  She has raised three generations in the same camps, all waiting to return to their home in Palestine. She has lived through five Israeli invasions of Lebanon, as well as the 1976 Tel al-Zaatar camp massacre that killed more than 2000 of the refugees there.”

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May 18 (WEDNESDAY) Jeff Halper Presentation

Following are the latest Details from the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition

 Taft Research Center, University of Cincinnati, Edwards One, 45-51 Cory Boulevard, Cincinnati, OH 45221
A Presentation by Dr. Jeff Halper about Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification. In the wake of the publication of his latest book, War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification (Pluto Press/University of Chicago, 2015), Jeff Halper is embarking on a five-week tour of the US. The tour is sponsored by The People Yes! Network (TPYN), a new initiative with which he is involved, which seeks to advance critical political analysis, combine campaigns across the range of global issues and generate effective political advocacy. Jeff continues to be a leading member of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). His talks address the situation in Israel/Palestine and the possibilities of a one-state solution. But as his new book indicates, Jeff is also moving on to what he calls “global Palestine,” a wide range of global issues including Israel and Palestine.
I am reading his latest book War against the People, just published in 2015. One very clear mark of genuine scholarship: the notes section at the back of the book is 44 pages long!

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Halper is well known internationally for his ardent work on the difficult but important task of stopping home demolitions in the occupied territories. Synchronicity is best enjoyed when unexpected, we both graduated from college in the same year: 1969.