Category: Nakba

Stanley Cohen in THE SHADOW

In America principles are goods placed on sale to the highest bidder. Career paths are paved with bricks forged by selling yourself out at every opportunity.

Cash in your chips at the next square and move on to another chance for a sell-out.

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Guardians of integrity are rare beasts on our fruited plain. Experience has taught me that wealth management is incompatible with free and open society. But weapons of wealth management are the coin of our realm.

A kind and gentle hint: the system is gamed.

Marking my 50th post on this blog, I leverage what goes for my political capital (49 previous articles) by suggesting that

STANLEY COHEN UN-CAGED AND STILL UN-DAUNTED

become essential reading for billziegler1947 readers.

THE SHADOW is the sole remaining underground newspaper in New York, the home of Stanley Cohen and the only living boy in New York. Mr. Cohen is following the same principled path he began in 1969 and his principles are not for sale.

Imagine that you are looking for a source for truth on Palestine. It’s right here on @StanleyCohenLaw all day long.

But if you need an additional source for truth on that occupied land, consider the words of anthropologist Jeff Halper. He graduated from Hebrew Union College in 1969, the same year I graduated from another Cincinnati institution on Clifton Avenue. I am presently reading and recommending his

War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification

Jerry Rubin is best known as one of the Chicago 7 of ’68, he was also a fellow University of Cincinnati alumnus who decided that selling stock portfolios was the new revolutionary act.  Rubin gave an address in Cincinnati the late 60’s. That was before joining the “revolution” on Wall Street as the Reagan era began.

I was still at U.C. during Naksa (’67 War) learning  geography from Laurence G. Wolf.

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Today, speaking truth to power is the best way I know to find yourself in a Gulag.

Israel is a state recognized completely and thoroughly by the United States and a few South-Pacific island territory/nations. The prisons in Israel are legally available for detaining pre-teen Palestinians, indefinitely. Not the vision evoked by Leon Uris’ Exodus, more like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

But if you are looking for an investment opportunity for idle dollars, prisons are wise investments. Billions of dollars accrete to a single individual. It’s where the smart money goes.

Good luck on your career path.

Alea jacta est.

 

 

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.

The Ties that Bind America and Israel

Where a half-truth is a full-lie and a decimated truth is an epic.

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The AIPAC Conference in Washington D.C. this week demonstrates that America is not only shoulder-to-shoulder in the ties that bind. America and Israel are shoulder-to-shoulder at both shoulders now. It’s beginning to resemble that iconic Brezhnev/Honecker image burned into my, and now your, memory.

Perhaps Banksy might paint a similar theme on the Apartheid Wall.
Perhaps Banksy might paint a similar theme on the Apartheid Wall.

Wealth is publicly flaunted in 2016. The party of the big tent is becoming the party of the wide wallet. Before AIPAC met I held slight hopes that despite Clinton’s roots in political dynasty and Realpolitik she might take note of Palestine on Monday. Not a hint. Without Bernie Sanders it is the party of little hope for 2017.

I wonder if the New York Times would reject my headline suggestion:

“PACers pleased at remaining appeased.”

Just wondering.

Meanwhile 2.5 million Palestinians living in Palestine and 3.5 million Palestinians in diaspora live without independence but with a stolen homeland. Palestine was around a hundred years ago. Israel was not.

Photographs and films from 1948. Traditions, culture, family, livelihoods, fashions, ethnic recipes, hectic markets, crowded schools, beautiful sea of middle earth. Literally the middle of the known world during another failed empire: Roman Empire.
Photographs, films. traditions, culture, family, livelihoods, fashions, art, authentic cuisine, markets, schools, beautiful sea for beach lovers of Jaffa (renamed Tel-Aviv) Unfortunately it was Paradise (Mahmoud Darwish)

 

The Palestinian Authority directs attention from the sleight of hand played by Israel. Abbas is useful for diverting your eye from everyday ethnic cleansing.

The parties at the Oslo Accords of 1993 let pass a largely unknown legal restriction: requiring the labelling of goods manufactured in the West Bank, the occupied territories. A small negotiating point and legally binding, but the powers that be know the difference between de jure and de facto. Some negotiator did not recognize that BDS would happen.

The Gaza Strip is the most densely populated political unit on Earth. I wonder where the Palestinians now living in Gaza lived before they lived in Gaza?

It’s not a trick question. They lived in Palestine.

Here is where they used to live before the Nakba of 1948:

 

Refugee genesis and exodus.
Refugee genesis and exodus. From Visualizing Palestine

The rocks thrown by Palestinian youth are Made in the USA: created with weapons of modern technology. On July 12, 2014 Israelis showed up with lawn chairs (and a sofa) to witness rock manufacturing.

Israeli residents, mostly from the southern Israeli city of Sderot, sit on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip, on July 12, 2014, to watch the fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants. The world implored Israel and Hamas on July 12 to end hostilities as warplanes pounded Gaza for a fifth straight day, killing at least 30 Palestinians, and militants replied with rockets. AFP PHOTO / MENAHEM KAHANA (Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images)
Israeli residents, mostly from the southern Israeli city of Sderot, sit on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip, on July 12, 2014,

Bonus dollars for the military-industrial complex: an exploded bomb no longer exists after the explosion and must be replaced by an unexploded bomb. The destroyed homes are not replaced. But if they are replaced bombs are available to destroy them again.

Operation Protective Edge was just the most recent of many catastrophic assaults on Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel’s Justice System imprisons 12-year-old rock throwers. Death by sniper on Palestinians of any age thought to hold a knife. Actual knife-wielding/rock throwing optional.

The common response in the USA: shrug that shoulder.

Another lucrative industry for Israel: prisons. It’s where 12-year-olds are sent for throwing rocks, where they are housed. During a daily patrol IDF soldiers follow “suspected” youth to their homes. They enter homes at will and locate the suspect’s bedroom. At 2:00 in the morning a knock comes on the bedroom door. Bedwetting is common. I wonder why.

It’s called Stone Cold Justice. The unemployment rate in Gaza is +40%. Disaffected youth talk to their grandparents about memories of life before Nakba. My two grandchildren are not disaffected youth without hope. They have a grandfather who was born 8 months before Nakba. Their grandfather was not born in Jaffa.

Maybe we can look to the Ministry of Justice in Israel for justice, so let’s check there. Ayelet Shaked is Justice Minister.

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How it feels.

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What it’s like.

 

CINCY 4 PALESTINE EVENTS

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

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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

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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.