There is no Israel; only Palestine
This week is "Palestine Awareness Week" at UCSC, and already things are getting spicy... And Abdul Malik hasn't even shown up yet! Today, CJP and their cronies had a whole demonstration at the Baytree Bookstore Plaza, acting out the "Jenin massacre." Funny they chose that one in particular to re-enact instead of one of the many real massacres that have occurred over there. I personally would have liked to have seen the Hebron Massacre of 1929, when the Jews of Hebron were massacred by Arabs and the city was left Judenfrei for the first time in at least a few thousand years. But I wasn't involved in the planning, so what can you do?
Also, the following is the account of a student who attended Monday night's talk by Elias Rishmawi. Down with Israel!!!this Thursday night Thursday the 18th at 8pm in Stevenson 150, in case anyone wants some real information about the Middle East. But we still need other forms of action.
Also, the following is the account of a student who attended Monday night's talk by Elias Rishmawi. Down with Israel!!!
Tonight I went to the talk by Elias Rishmawi, CJP's speaker. It was absolutely unbelievable to say the least! He is on the National Steering Committee for International ANSWER, the National Coordinator for the Free Palestine Alliance, and he is on the National Council of Arab Americans. The program said that CJP gives special thanks to Scott Kennedy at RCNV, Sammi Abed and Family, the ISO, the MSA, Juliano Mer Khamis, and Lee Maranto at SOAR.Good times, good times. Let's get some action coordinated for the rest of the days, please. And, fyi, the Chabad Student Club is showing Middle East, the Movie
Elias Rishmawi did not mention Israel in his talk, he called it the Zionist colony. He was not just referring to settlements when he said "The Zionist Colony", he was talking about all of Israel. His talk was titled "Sharon's Legacy and the future of Palestine." He gave the whole history about how the Zionist colony was created to oppress the Palestinians, and he went through his history of Israel, repeating how Sharon led the slaughter of innocent Palestinians in '48, '56, '67, the '70's, '82, etc. He gave the Palestinian narrative that Sharon was such a war criminal because he killed so many people. He made his comments about Gaza being occupied, the people there not being free, since the Israelis have a fence around it and guns at the entrance so no Palestinians can come out. He said that the Palestinians are still here because they resisted. When Israelis had tanks, they picked up rocks and threw rocks and the Palestinians have created an international symbol of resistance by that image. They will fight until they get their homes back in Tel Aviv and Haifa.
One student who was sitting in the front asked Elias, "What is your solution for peace between Israel and Palestine?" Elias got really angry right up to his face and said, "THERE IS NO ISRAEL! It's the Zionist colony!" He said, "I'm going to convince you here my solution is right. What do you think about letting all the Palestinians come back to their homes?"... The guy stared at him, he was quiet, he was like in his face, "What do you think?" The student said, "It depends on where their homes are." Elias said, "They deserve to go back to their homes. I would take down the wall, I would end the colonialist mentality of the Israelis colonizing the Palestinians, I would end the racism, and stop the land taking." Then he walked over to this same poor student and took his bag with his school books and notes in it. He said, "I'll take your bag and exchange it with my bag, you won't be needing this... How would you like that? You would not like that; I know you would not like that, and I can see from your eyes that when I'm done with this talk you will advocate for the end of this mentality by the Zionist colonizers!" And then he put his bag back.
posted by G-D SQUAD at 6:02 PM
11 Comments:
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Malik is a racist. No doubt he's brilliant, just like Goebbels. By bringing him, CJP, you are endorsing racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. How low you stoop!
COEXISTENCE?
He calls for the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF JEWS! He calls for a "Jewish right of return" - to Germany and Russia. Nevermind that half of world Jewry is Mizrachi and Sephardi. Nevermind Jewish history. Nevermind that Arabs invaded in 634 CE, long after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and 2nd exile of Israelites/Jews in 70 CE. Who is indigenous?
COEXISTENCE?
He accuses Zionists of pushing an anti-affirmative action and anti-reparation agenda in the US. His evidence - well, the same of Goebbels, namely a conviction to hate.
COEXISTENCE?
He reiterates classic anti-Semitic canards: The JOOZ control the media, the JOOZ dictate US foreign policy, the JOOZ (the Zionist JOOZ, that is) are agents of oppression. How utterly un-original.
COEXISTENCE?
Those damned Zionist JOOZ blew up the WTC, caused the Danish cartoon "controversy" (what controversy? - FREE SPEECH, REMEMBER?), and do all that they can to tarnish the image of Islam. And they framed the Muslims. Because they have nothing better to do.
What vile filth! What putrid stench!
Malik's quotes aren't "TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT." Just watch ANY video. Nothing is out of context. His hatred speaks for itself.
Shame on your organization, shame on SOAR, shame on all people as racist and hateful as Malik.
http://www.standwithus.com/UCI_incitement2005.asp
Kol Hakavod.. applaud
Wow, that's kind of exciting that someone who supports CJP found the JewniProj. I want to start by saying thank you, Mahmoud, for your calm and controlled response.
Yes, unfortunately, I am biased--towards the truth. You said:
In the view of the CJP, any life lost is one too many - and the point of our die-in today was to raise awareness of the massacures that occured on the Palestinian side that, to this very day, have been ignored.
First of all, I hope you meant "massacre" and not "massacure," because "massacure" has certain connotations that I don't think you intended. Second, there were many violent massacres and pogroms waged by Palestinian Arabs against Jews throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century (1920, 1929, 2003, just to name very few). Did you know that? Probably not. And you probably don't care that most people don't know about those massacres because they were instigated by Arabs against Jews, and that doesn't really help CJP acquire support.
But we don't dwell on those massacres. Instead, the Israeli government is currently being forced to ghetto-ize the whole country to keep Arab terrorists out.
Certainly, there have been many deaths on both sides, I can't deny that. But the fact that anti-Semitism plays an integral part of many Arabs' anti-Zionism is clear. In fact, during WWII, the uncontested leader of Palestinian Muslims, Haj Amin al-Husseini, spent the war in Berlin conspiring with Hitler to cleanse Palestine of its Jewish population.
Abdul Malik is anti-Semitic--you shouldn't deny it. It's understandable, because Palestinian nationalism has been tied to xenophobia and anti-Semitism since its origins, and some would even say, Palestinian nationalism is itself strictly a reaction to Zionism.
I myself, a Jew, lived in East Jerusalem for a year from 2004-2005. On numerous occasions, as I was just walking down the street literally minding my own business, Arabs either threw trash at me or, on one occasion, pelted me with stones--that's Palestinian nationalism. I even had the unique experience of hearing a woman suicide bomber blow herself up from my dorm room! Can you even imagine that, Mahmoud, my friend? To be sitting in your dorm room, say, here in Santa Cruz and you hear a suicide bomber as she blows herself up and takes the lives of innocent Israelis with her? No. But you can lay down in the Bookstore Plaza and make all these poor naive UCSC students believe there is some grand Zionist conspiracy to commit genocide against Arabs.
I have to go study for a middy right now, so I'll continue this later. I plan on starting by exposing the falsehood of the sources that you provided regarding the Daniel Pipes and Flemming Rose issue.
Mahmoud, I want to second Uriel's warm remarks, thanking you for a calm and controlled response. I'm hoping that this conversation stays that way from both sides.
As someone who would prefer to see no hateful or initimidating remarks from either side of our campus' debate on this topic, and as a Hillel employee, I would also like to encourage both sides to put this energy towards some sort of dialogue event in person, not just limiting it to the anonymity and sometimes confusing realm of blog comments (e.g, no tone of voice).
Mahmoud, the consensus amongst the Jewish student community is that Abdul Malik's words are not taken out of context. Much of what he says, however, are Anti-Semitic remarks disguised as Anti-Zionism (and sometimes not disguised at all). We sent an invitation to CJP through Lee from SOAR to have you come watch his 2002 SFSU talk in our Hillel, and haven't heard back from anyone. The invitation is still open, especially if Abdul-Malik doesn't say anything Anti-Semitic tomorrow, so that you can see why people are so upset about his presence on our campus tomorrow.
A few thoughts:
Uriel: you wrote: "Let's get some action coordinated for the rest of the days"
The JSU, SCIAC, and Hillel have done just that. Through student planning meetings (that were advertised on here; thanks!) and last night's anti-Semitism training, a clear and calm, response has been created including an Open Letter to the CJP and Chancellor Denton written by students, staffed information tables at the event with hate bias reports, core council refund forms, information about Israel, etc. The event will be filmed, campus security and administration will be present, and there have been many lengthy discussions involved with creating this organized student response that Hillel is supporting. I urge people interested in this to contact Josh at the JSU, Tamar at SCIAC, or myself at Hillel.
General blog comment: These are emotional and very difficult issues. There are people who would like to engage in dialogue and respectful discussion and others that tend towards more hurtful forms of expression. I am sad by the tone of some of the postings I have just read.
Last "two cents": I have heard Abdul Malik speak on the campus in 2002. He was very fierce in his attacks on Israel, Zionism, and Jews. He implied that the Mossad was behind 9/11 to make Moslems look bad and denied Jewish history when he said we "have to go back to where we came from: Germany and Poland". He denied that Jews are among the indigineous peoples of the Middle East. He painted the conflict as white colonialism against the native people of color. He denied that more than 50% of Israelis are people of color from the Middle East. The list of his hurtful statements goes on and on.
Despite this "proof" that he espoused racism and anti-Semitism, I want to remind everyone that the most effective way to respond tomorrow is to keep in mind that many in the Quarry Plaza will be passing their judgement not on what he has said in the past, but on only on what he says tomorrow and how we, as Jews, react. Are we responding because it feels good in the moment, or because we want to educate and impact the campus?
Be strong, and calm. Be determined, and respectful. Be upset, and be clear at what exactly you are upset with. Be proud and feel the support of the Jewish community around you. Feel your power as part of a determined, proactive, moral, respectful group response. Malik will leave the campus; the reactions to him and our response will remain.
Kol tuv,
-Shalom
Rabbi Shalom Bochner
Director of Jewish Campus Life
Santa Cruz Hillel
www.santacruzhillel.org
shalom@santacruzhillel.org
Mahmoud, I noticed that you're Jordanian.
As long as we're talking history, I'm genuinely curious what you thought about Jordan conspiring with the "Zionist colonizers" to sell-out the Palestinian Arabs in the '48 war, and then conquering and occupying the West Bank and leaving Palestinian Arabs to rot in refugee camps... (during which time "Palestinian Arabs"* constitued 1/3 of the Jordanian population).
I'm wondering what narrative your parents passed on to you about that...
*I put Palestinian Arabs in quotes, because they were Jordanian citizens at that time.
"I hope that readers of this blog are intellectually skilled enough to be able to question the information that they receive. This entry is, in my opinion, very bias [sic]
[...]
"We are not about anti-Semitism nor are we about hate-speech. We are about bringing to light the suffering of the Palestinian people and propose[sic] a solution to the madness that is plauging[sic] our two peoples to this very day.
Well, the readers of this blog certainly are intellectually skilled enough to use Google.
It appears that this Mahmoud is Mahmoud Fadli of the MSA; he is an occasional contributor to CHP and a poet to boot!
His note at the bottom of one of his 2005 poems reads: "1948; a reflection of feelings that the displaced, indigenous peoples of Palestine felt when forced to leave their lands."
If I didn't see the number "1948" there, I totally would have thought this was a reference to Psalm 137, as the Jews wept by the rivers of Babylon over their expulsion from their homeland.
But no, apparently the poem is about the Arabs in 1948 who viewed the new Zionist State with such contempt that they refused to let it exist.
In Mahmoud's profile, he says the following:
"Yes – I fly – and I know, not the best thing for an Arab Muslim to be doing, especially during these times when we have puppets in the White House."
Oh, and there are puppets in the White House?! Puppets controlled by the Jews, no doubt.
Well, I guess we all have our own "solution to the madness that is plauging[sic] our two peoples to this very day," even if that solution includes the destruction of the Zionist State.
I'm just wondering if this topic is worth debating anymore. With absolutely no offense intended, none of you are going to solve the problem. At least not this way. Not arguing like this. Not sending loaded questions towards each other. I see the same thing on Pro-Palestinian websites. The one who takes his brother as an enemy, is truly lost. And both the Arabs and the Israelis are taking each other as enemies for the utmost injudicious reasons. And as a result, debates over the matter have grown increasingly vapid.
If my assumption is correct, and the owner of this blog, as well as those who post on it, are under the age of 60, then I am extremely disappointed in my generation and those preceding. The crimes committed against the Jewish People, those who were massacred as a result, and those who propagated the policy of genocide against them, are dead or dying as we speak. And unless you live in the Holy Land, and exist in the chaos that has overtaken the land of milk and honey, where brother is pitted against brother in a war, the beginnings of which seem so distant, so as to appear ancient, without an end in sight, then stop being so vested in the propaganda campaign of both sides.
There exist people in the world who capitalize on conflict and war, and until we realize that, we will continue to fill their pockets with our lives. Tears come to my eyes every time I think of an innocent Israel child and an equally innocent Palestinian child who face the torment of a harrowing conflict, and are unable to stop it, due to their immersion in a seemingly never-ending race to the death of two societies.
This conflict isn't about you, and I wish that someone here would realize that. You (as well as many others) personalize it far too much. Even if harm was done unto your aunt or uncle, it isn't you. The conflict arose between them and their offender, and should die with them and their offender. It's the only way we move on. It's a shame and a disgrace to our evolution as a people, as a global community, when we allow ourselves to get stuck in conflict. We are no longer children of this planet. We've spent far too much time learning, and surely should've graduated by now. Peace isn't a mirage. It's within our grasp, and yet we turn our backs towards it, in order to devolve. Why? If you can answer that, then begin to solve our problems.
Would it be possible to remove this post?
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