Sounding out for solid solidarity in Cincinnati for Palestine. I have included a new category on billziegler1947: cincy4palestine. You can reference existing content on Palestinian independence and human rights by clicking it. CPSC recognizes the need to act locally as we join in solidarity with a purpose.
CPSC is obtaining visibility in greater Cincinnati and the greater world. It began last year with a teach in at the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, a second at the University of Cincinnati, a third at the Clifton Mosque, a fourth at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church and we are working on a fifth teach-in.
We are raising our visibility and are joining other like-minded souls in supporting BDS.
At the same time we have sponsored film screenings at several locations to shine truth on a deferred dream and a half century of occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, funded by the monetary and military power of the United States.
We believe that many small voices speaking truth will bring down the Apartheid Wall and end the occupation.
The Oslo Accords of 1993 are dead. 500,000 stakes were driven through its heart by a half-million settlers. These settlers, many of them truculent and militant, live in modern super gateway communities subsidized by the United States. It’s a divide and conquer strategy.
The United States government transfers $10,000,000 per day to Israel ($0 per day for Palestine) as well as the highest tech military support systems. These preserve a lucrative status quo for Israel and for those corporations making a killing from it.
Meanwhile Palestinians’ birthright is reported throughout US media as “stones, knives and poorly guided mortar fire.” Informed readers have to go offshore for the headlines that are ignored in our corporate or corporate-sponsored media.
The Apartheid Wall looms above a complex of modern fenced highways leading to each former Palestinian village and renamed in Hebrew from the original Arabic. Fences and security stations are everywhere. The reason: humiliation and eventual ethnic cleansing for a “greater” Israel.
When the sun set on the British Empire, Palestine bordered the priceless Mediterranean Sea.
Today this beach, re-named Gordon Beach is just one of the brilliantly beautiful beaches seized in the Nakba. The following link provides poignant photographs from 1948: From eminence to ethnic cleansing.
Shaking off the yoke of empire is always the dream of the colonized. The Arabic expression for shaking off a yoke is “انتفاضة intifada.” An obvious and overdue response to colonialism? Yes, of course, but, what if the land is stolen out from under you? As clever a crime as a Moriarty might craft:
Picture to yourself the pilot fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion—anything that is insignificant in companionship with what is formidable: not only formidable, Watson, but sinister—in the highest degree sinister. That is where he comes within my purview. ‘You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?’
‘The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks -‘
‘My blushes, Watson!’ Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice.
‘I was about to say, “as he is unknown to the public”.’
‘A touch! A distinct touch!’ cried Holmes. ‘You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law…
— A. Conan Doyle, “The Valley of Fear.”
Speaking of uttering libel in the eyes of the law:
Israel and America conjoin to bomb the Palestinians back to the stone age.
The sun set on the Mediterranean Sea (literally the Sea at the Middle of the Earth) on the day of Nakba.
Many brought their house keys with them. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights assures the right of return. So it’s prudent to bring the house keys when driven from your home. Don’t forget the keys.
1948: 700,000 unarmed Philistines were forced out of their homes and out of their homeland by well armed militants. They brought only what they could carry.
The right to return is encapsulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
A land for me but not for thee. In 1948 another tribe lived under the same Mandate for Palestine. Empire-speak: promise the same thing to the divided and conquered. Lord Balfour was a functionary of the conquerers write the history, but when they write about it, truth is strictly optional.
Arabic cities with long histories got a facelift by the new boss (same as the old boss). The cities were renamed in Hebrew.
What was destroyed? Palestinian culture, traditions, culture, family, livelihoods, fashions, ethnic recipes, hectic markets, crowded schools, incomparable coastlines. The Mediterranean Sea was at the middle of the known world conquered by earlier empires, but the Palestinians abide.
New keys on old doors for new “settlers.” Demolish some more, build some more, grow some more, have children, grandchildren. To the victor goes the spoils.
Pave Paradise, Occupy Palestine.
We can do whatever we want, whenever we want. Get used to it loser. Signed: just another hasbara troll. get used to it loser. Ever heard of survival of the fittest Loser? Huh, ever heard of it? We won. You lost. Go back to Gaza and blank your mother.
Refugees ended up in an open-air prison (Gaza) or on the West Bank of the Jordan River — or all over the Earth.
The beautiful Mediterranean Coast out of sight but not out of mind after 1948. So they were shoved away in 1948, but at least they were not occupied. 1967 changed even that. There began a war of swift occupation with tanks, planes, assault rifles, white phosphorous, etc. Decades go by. An endless list of IDF “Operations” routinely bomb the open-air prison: GAZA.
Birthright (aliyah) tours available if your mother is related to Isaac. Youth are sold on something called a once in a lifetime $10,000 Birthright Tour. The trip itinerary does not include a visit to the West Bank or Gaza. Who wants to visit a prison while on vacation?
There are also opportunities called Hasbara Fellowships: something to sell the brand.
“There were Arabs selling rosaries and holy water. Why are they doing that? I don’t know. I just don’t trust them, you know.”
It’s getting a little crowded in the old promised land. I mean, who can afford to live with rents so high. And all that land on the West Bank is wasted on the Arabs. I mean, it’s all G-d gave us and it’s already too small.
No, there is no low to which many won’t go.
Demolish homes upon whim, build gated communities and connect them with modern highways, all fenced along each shoulder to keep things nice and safe. .
West Bank settlers spray graffiti on the outside walls of Palestinian homes they destroy. “Kill them All” is another.
Ironically 700,000 Palestinians were exiled in 1948. 70 years later 700,000 settlers live in the West Bank.
Download the App buycott on your iPhone or on whatever app supports it to scan bar codes while shopping
BDS Movement Full List: here is an up-to-date and handy reference to the players: who they are, where they are and why they matter. Their game is gaining your participation through witting or unwitting complicity.
BDS Marin: here is one of the many local groups thinking global. The list above does not include Nestle among boycotted products but this Marin County movement does include them. So it’s good to cross compare.
BDS Movement on Twitter: here is another social media avenue for learning, teaching or contributing. I’ve just received an article that delves into the HP security matrix. Life is an ongoing dystopia for Palestinians. HP has really earned it’s place on the BDS list. I’m looking into their other products but do not want to make it overly complex, or less focussed, at this moment.
Please feel free to contact me (ziegler.bill@gmail.com) or leave a comment on this post. Truth and accuracy are important, let me know if something isn’t correct. Participation is vital.
Yesterday I attended a screening of Ghost Town – The Story of Hebron. A well attended event successfully delivered by the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition. A fellow supporter of the Palestinian cause noted that I had a bottle of Tradewinds Tea in front of me. Nestle, a Swiss company of notable size, owns Tradewinds: they have plants in the West Bank.
We are presently working on a locally based BDS Movement for the Cincinnati area. Look for us at local businesses that unknowingly contribute to the massive human rights violations in territories occupied by Israel since 1967: the Naksa.
I was a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati at the time of the Six Day War, working on my B.A. in Geography: it was a subject topic in Human Geography that became the stuff of current events in the classroom. In 1971 I completed my M.A. in the same field at Kansas State University. I was born 8 months before the Nakba, so my personal hallmarks coincide in memory with the hallmarks of Palestine these 68 years now. A difference: I have never been a refugee but 6 million Palestinians from Palestine still are. BDS helps everyone.
No time is a good time to support an Apartheid state. I am personally complicit in supporting Apartheid by continuing my American citizenship. Rather than renouncing my home land I am at this moment exercising First Amendment rights, rights that are not available in the State of Israel. Lucas Koerner learned firsthand what may occur if you stand on a public square in Jerusalem. No one should feel discomfort at taking a stand, whether by #StandWithIsrael or #StandWithPalestine.
The First Amendment is one resilient set of words. I like its resonance. It’s available to the most marginalized people. Majority rule makes the world safe for the already comfortable. The Tyranny of the majority (dated 23 February) seeks to restrict basic human rights that already belong to the marginalized, on those less powerful. Just keep repeating this lie: “Majority Rules” from the playground to adulthood and you’ll think it’s truth.
Meanwhile, in this age of one dollar one vote you can still use the dollars at your discretion to cast a BDS vote.See you in the marketplace.
Israel insists that it is still the underdog in the Middle East. Danny Ayalon, well known for his video series The Truth about Israel, is a familiar countenance on the pro-Israeli internet. He explains Underdogland with familiar maps and graphics, available at the click (such as the link above). The presentation has high production qualities, the music is rousing and the end-tone is dramatic. Favored mightily by those who like echo-chamber metaphors.
Wie weit zur Heimat?
Something happened at Harvard and Microsoft recently: two prestigious shakers and movers (lifelong Zionists) endorsed a boycott of Israel, a ‘single state.’ It became the most read article on the Washington Post. This does not mean that they have joined the BDS Movement but it’s a step.
Consider diaspora: the Syrians these last five years, the Palestinians these last sixty-seven years? To be ousted from ancestral lands along the Mediterranean and shoved to the east. Then, in 1967 (Naksa) occupied by the same people who shoved you eastward in 1948: (Nakba).
But what about Lebensraum for the people of choice?
Perhaps a current dweller thinks “The Mediterranean coast is beautiful, but we need more living space for more living rooms. May the houses all look like the ones in California where the climate is the same.”
Descendants of Abraham: Ishmael and Isaac. A great lesson learned from those who occupied all of Palestine, the British and their Empire. A semantic sleight of hand and, magically, the Palestinians no longer exist. But a magician’s trick does not stay a secret forever. It turns out Palestinians were there all along with a history, a culture, families, friends, acquaintances, businesses, interests, festivals, religions, works of literature, restaurants, theaters, tourist trade, traditions…and tragedies.
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)
At present, a two-state solution (State of Israel/State of Palestine) remains challenged by Realpolitik.
Immigration, emigration, visiting exiled family in other climes. Travel back and forth between Gaza and the West Bank? It’s onerous. The two territories are not contiguous. It is also expensive, time-consuming and dangerous.
I’ll be home for…you can plan on me…
Did you know that most Israelis are not interested in visiting the occupied territories? To go through generations without once meeting the “other.” Believing only their own propaganda.
Palestinians are also de facto victims of extrajudicial executions. There are no Palestinian soldiers, there is no Palestinian military force. Israeli soldiers know they can simply attack fellow humans using their own judgment, without disciplinary action. Did you know that records detailing criminal acts are sometimes lost by the authorities entrusted with preserving them? I’ve hear that it happens.
Highways connecting settlements are modern and rimmed with security. Fences built to complement the security wall lengthen.
Existing Palestinian homes are demolished daily, reason optional. Unemployment is so high in the occupied sectors that many Palestinians work as domestic help in the very homes they lost to “settlers”. Yes, this is humiliating, but those who humiliate know that a mean-spirited, tough, single-minded determination and persistence may bring blossoms of fear and submission. The New York Times and NPR do not remove bias from their reporting. Both news giants are either corporations or corporately funded.
What happens when Rupert Murdock purchases media? The Wall Street Journal was once a newspaper of integrity, now it’s a tabloid. National Geographic was an institution and cultural icon. Guess who owns NG now. Readers and listeners are left to wonder: just who are these tattered keffiyeh-sporting angry people in the street, those with weapons slightly more modern than those of the Ottoman Empire, with knives and stones: stones right at-hand, produced from rubble left by incendiary bombs equipped with the latest technology, dropped on civilians (collaterals) by the fourth largest military on our planet.
![Israel vê a ONU como território hostil. Por isso manda embaixadores militantes da anexação, cuja resposta-padrão a qualquer crítica é a acusação de ‘antissemitismo’ – diz Vijay Prashad.O governo de Israel não aprecia a ONU. Cartaz frequente nas ocupações de colonos ilegais é “UNwelcome” [ONU não é bem-vinda].](https://billziegler1947.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/usa-ref-world-isr-pal.jpg?w=300&h=141)
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