antichrist

Hopefully they will send you over with the money as a suicide bomber

Axiom

__________________
"Sometimes the obligation of the intelligent is to restate the obvious. None more important than emphatically stating that there is a : ' Naked Emperor Elephant in the Room' " Axiom

Iconoclast

A hundred years ago, corporations were given the rights of "person hood." Since then, corporations have gained even greater rights than people. They have limited liability, eternal life and cannot be gaoled. Now they own people as debt slaves.

Suggesting that a country has rights and bestowing rights upon them is a parallel mistake. Nations make you cannon fodder.

As for Israel, the best thing for that nation is obliteration.

__________________
The individual is hopeless without the group.
The group is hopeless without its individuals.

Axiom

I agree with this , except at least national boundaries can act as some sort of a firewall from budding tyrannies, lest you be a supporter of a one world government ?

And as for Israel ,their grossly disproportional political influence on western governments should alone be a signal to the dumbed down uninformed electorates of the west that they in fact do not have representative governments .

__________________
"Sometimes the obligation of the intelligent is to restate the obvious. None more important than emphatically stating that there is a : ' Naked Emperor Elephant in the Room' " Axiom

Iconoclast

Yes, boundaries do act as firewalls to tyrannies. However, they can also act as firewalls to justice.

War can be wagged from anywhere (now) on anyone. The physical boundaries of rivers, ocean, mountain ranges and climate no longer work to to impede conquest. In deed, the notion of geography as a protection is quaint. Now we need to acknowledge that "the enemy" is among us and is often simply our own people and corporations.

Consequently, I no longer see the USA as a nation-state, so much as a cluster of corporate interests with an army. R.I.P USA. So, Axiom, stop flogging that dead horse and look to the future where your passport has become a company swipe card.



True. .......... Ummm ........... So now what? You are fighting against actively sought, self imposed ignorance - an almighty foe. I suggest you settle down with a G&T and a good book at the beach.

__________________
The individual is hopeless without the group.
The group is hopeless without its individuals.

Just2Good

Please elaborate on what you mean with this statement?

__________________
.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

~ Buckminster Fuller ~

Axiom

OK,..

__________________
"Sometimes the obligation of the intelligent is to restate the obvious. None more important than emphatically stating that there is a : ' Naked Emperor Elephant in the Room' " Axiom

antichrist

1950–1951 Baghdad bombings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Naeim Giladi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Naeim Giladi
Born 1929
Hillah, Iraq
Died March 6, 2010 [1]
Queens, New York
Spouse(s) Rachael
Naeim Giladi (Hebrew: נעים גלעדי‎) (Arabic: نعيم جلعادي‎) (born 1929, Iraq, as Naeim Khalaschi, died 2010) was an Anti-Zionist, and author of an autobiographical article and historical analysis entitled The Jews of Iraq.[2] The article later formed the basis for his originally self-published book Ben Gurion's Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews.


[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life in Iraq
Giladi was born in 1929 to an Iraqi Jewish family and later lived in Israel and the United States.[3] Giladi describes his family as, "a large and important" family named "Haroon" who had settled in Iraq after the Babylonian exile. According to Giladi his family had owned, 50,000 acres (200 km²) devoted to rice, dates and Arab horses. They were later involved in gold purchase and purification, and were therefore given the name, 'Khalaschi', meaning 'Makers of Pure' by the Turks who occupied Iraq at the time.[2]

He states that he joined the underground Zionist movement at age 14 without his parent's knowledge and was involved in underground activities. He was arrested and jailed by the Iraqi government at the age of 17 in 1947.[2] During his two years in the prison of Abu Ghraib, he was expecting to be sentenced to death for smuggling Iraqi Jews out of the country to Iran, where they were then taken to Israel. He managed to escape from prison and travel to Israel, arriving in May 1950.

[edit] Experiences in Israel
Giladi reports that upon entering Israel in 1950, he was "asked where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do," and that he volunteered to go to Dafna a farming kibbutz in the Galilee. He relates that he lasted only a few weeks because, "the new immigrants were given the worst of everything…the food was the same, but that was the only thing everyone had in common. For the immigrants, bad cigarettes, even bath toothpaste. Everything. I left."[2]

After leaving Dafna, Giladi went to the Jewish Agency to seek reassignment. He says he was told to go to al-Mejdil, an Arab town about 9 miles from Gaza, and now a part of Ashkelon, that was to be transformed into a farming community. When the officials at the Labor Office there discovered that he was fluent in Arabic, he relates that they encouraged him to seek employment with the Military Governor's office. He says he was assigned the task of procuring the signatures of the Palestinian inhabitants of al-Mejdil on a set of government forms that stated that they were willingly giving up their lands to go to Gaza, at the time under Egyptian occupation. He relates how he realised in short time that those Palestinians signing such documents were doing so under duress. He argues that they were denied the right to access their agricultural lands and penned up in a small area and so some signed simply to end their agony. He wrote, "Those Palestinians who didn’t sign up for transfers were taken by force — just put in trucks and dumped in Gaza."[2] He left the job disgusted and attempted to procure government work elsewhere.
Giladi states he subsequently had difficulty finding employment because of discrimination against Arab Jews. He recalls that when he arrived in Israel, in May 1950, his Iraqi passport had his name as written in Arabic and transliterated using the Latin alphabet. Giladi states that because, "the English couldn't capture the "kh" sound…it was rendered simply as Klaski." At the border, Israeli immigration officials applied what he calls the "English" version of his name, which had an Eastern European, Ashkenazi sound to it. Giladi writes that “in one way, this ‘mistake’ was my key to discovering very soon just how the Israeli caste system worked [2]. After leaving al-Mejdil, he reports that he wrote letters trying to get a government job elsewhere and got many interviews, but when it was discovered that his face didn't match his Polish/Ashkenazi name, he was rebuffed, advised time and again that "we'll give you a call." Eventually, he changed his name to "Giladi", which he writes was "close to the code name, Gilad, that he had in the Zionist underground."[2]

While living in Israel, his views of Zionism changed. He writes that, he "was disillusioned personally, disillusioned at the institutionalized racism, disillusioned at what I was beginning to learn about Zionism's cruelties. The principal interest Israel had in Jews from Islamic countries was as a supply of cheap labor, especially for the farm work that was beneath the urbanized Eastern European Jews. Ben Gurion needed the "Oriental" Jews to farm the thousands of acres of land left by Palestinians who were driven out by Israeli forces in 1948".[2]
Giladi relates that he became politicized after an experience at the Socialist/Zionist party headquarters. He had received a letter asking for help with their Arabic newspaper, and when he showed up at the headquarters and tried to show them the letter, he was dismissively told to report to the "Department for Jews from Islamic Countries" by many people who had not even looked at his letter to see why he had been invited. He says that he "was disgusted and angry. Either I am a member of the party or I'm not. Do I have a different ideology or different politics because I am an Arab Jew? It's segregation, I thought, just like a Negroes' Department. I turned around and walked out. That was the start of my open protests. That same year I organized a demonstration in Ashkelon against Ben Gurion's racist policies and 10,000 people turned out."[2]
After serving in the Israeli Army between 1967-1970, Giladi was active in the Israeli Black Panthers movement.

[edit] Life in the United States
In the 1980s, he left Israel for New York, renouncing his Israeli citizenship. [4] In the US, he wrote about an autobiographical account and historical analysis of Zionist misdeeds in Iraq, Palestine, and later Israel in an article entitled The Jews of Iraq [2] The article later formed the basis for his originally self-published book Ben Gurion's Scandal: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews.

He passed away on March 6, 2010, in a rehabilitation center in New York after battling a lengthy illness, and was buried in the Jewish tradition by the Hebrew Free Burial Association.[1]

[edit] Controversy
[edit] Anti-Zionism
Giladi has strong views on Zionism and its negative effects and his article begins with the following passage: "I write this article for the same reason I wrote my book: to tell the American people, and especially American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called 'cruel Zionism'. I write about it because I was part of it."

Giladi's position that the 1950-1951 Baghdad bombings were "perpetrated by Zionist agents in order to cause fear amongst the Jews, and so promote their exodus to Israel" is shared by a number of anti-Zionist authors, including the Israeli Black Panthers (1975), David Hirst (1977), Wilbur Crane Eveland (1980), Uri Avnery (1988), Ella Shohat (1986), Abbas Shiblak (1986), Marion Wolfsohn (1980), and Rafael Shapiro (1984).[5] In his article, Giladi notes that this was also the conclusion of Wilbur Crane Eveland, a former senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who outlined that allegation in his book "Ropes of Sand" [2].
Alternatively, historian Moshe Gat argues that there was little direct connection between the bombings and the exodus of Jewish refugees. Gat questions the guilt of the alleged Jewish bombthrowers who were found guilty in an Iraqi court of having perpetrated one of the bombings. He cites a rumour that a Christian Iraqi army officer "known for his anti-Jewish views", was initially arrested for the crime, but was evidently not charged despite the large number of explosive materials matching those used in an earlier synagogue bombing that were allegedly found in his home. He further cites a long history of anti-Jewish bomb-throwing incidents in Iraq.[5]

Israeli officials of the time and in particular Mordechai Ben Porat and Shlomo Hillel, prominent figures at the Iraqi Zionist underground, vehemently deny the charges. An internal investigation conducted in Israel in 1960 found no proof of an order to execute such an attack. More possible responsible parties have been suggested, such as the Iraqi CID and the Muslim Brotherhood.

There is however, little in the way of completely definitive evidence either way. Jewish studies scholar, Philip Mendes suggests that, "It therefore remains an open question as to who was responsible for the bombings," claiming that "memories and interpretations of the events have further been influenced and distorted by the unfortunate discrimination which many Iraqi Jews experienced on their arrival in Israel (Black Panthers 1975:132-133; Shohat 1988; Swirski 1989; Massad 1996)." He does say, however, that Gat argues "convincingly" that there was "was little direct connection between the bombings and exodus." [5].

Historian Dr. Yosef Meir, a noted Iraqi Zionist underground operative, argues in a rebuttal article that while there is a direct connection, the culprits are the Iraqi government or Arab nationalists. He points to the fact that the bombings in question occurred after the Citizenship relinquishment act of 1950 had already expired and therefore no Jews could register for exit. He also notes that the two zionist operatives hanged were never charged with the masouda shem-tov bombing, but rather three unrelated bombings which occurred later. On the other hand, he lists the motives of the government and the pressure it exerted on "Near-East" (the company performing the airlifts). Yosef Meir's criticism points to circumstantial evidence that the Zionist movement had no motive while the Iraqi government and Arab nationalists did, and accuses Giladi of withholding this information on purpose, calling it "an obvious attempt to mislead readers."[6]

Giladi also mentions Mordechai Ben Porat, a former Israeli Member of the Knesset, and a Cabinet minister, who was a key figure in the Zionist underground, as having been cited as one the figures responsible for the bombings by one of the Iraqi investigators into the bombings, in a book entitled "Venom of the Zionist Viper". Ben-Porat was one of several Israeli undercover Mossad agents arrested in Baghdad after the explosion; he was able to skip bail and flee to Israel.[7] Mordechai Ben-Porat has vigorously denied this allegation, which he characterizes as akin to "blood libel", and which prompted him to write his 1998 book, "To Baghdad and Back".[8] In it, Mordechai contends that the false charge against him was conceived at Iraq police headquarters.[8] The affair has also been the subject of an anti-libel lawsuit by Ben Porat against a journalist who published Giladi's accusations. The lawsuit has been settled out of court with the journalist publishing an apology.[9]

For his 2006 book Occupied Minds, British journalist Arthur Neslen interviewed Yehuda Tajar, a Mossad agent who spent ten years of a 25-year prison sentence in Iraq, after being convicted for the explosions. Tajar insists that, although his undercover cell was prepared to carry out such acts, they did not in fact do so. The actual explosions, he claims, were the work of the Muslim Brotherhood. After several members of the cell were arrested, however, those still at liberty carried out other grenade attacks, in an attempt to show the innocence of those arrested. [10]

Giladi's article is regularly cited by anti-Zionists, including Jewish anti-Zionists, who claim that Zionism has a negative effect for Jews.[11]

Giladi also maintains a controversial stance regarding the Farhud, alleging that the British bear the bulk of responsibility as they instigated the event to blacken the image of the Rashid Ali government.[2]

[edit] Cover Banner: "This book banned in Israel and United States"

Cover of Giladi's book.In 2003, Dandelion Books published a second edition of Gilad's book. The book is marked with a banner that reads, "Banned in Israel and the United States". The press release accompanying the book reads, "Banned in Israel and the United States…Dandelion Books, rapidly becoming known for its 'uncensored books and unfettered fiction' has just released a revised edition of this highly controversial book.[12] The details of a direct ban enacted by either the American or Israeli governments are not supplied by the author or publisher.[citation needed]

In the foreword of the book, Giladi writes that he did not submit a manuscript in Israel for fear of retribution. "Before," he wrote, "one can publish a book in Israel, permission had to be granted by the censors...When I was contemplating writing and publishing this book, two of my colleagues and well known Israeli journalists (Maxim Gilan and Samuel Mour) were arrested and put in jail for exposing the involvement of the Israeli secret police ...in the kidnapping in Paris of Mehdi Ben Barka..., charged with crimes against national security and ...locked up for six months. Moreover, the Israeli media were gagged and not even allowed to mention that the two journalists had been arrested. If the authorities had wished, the two men would have been kept in jail for the rest of their lives."[13] [14]

Also in the foreword, Giladi writes that upon emigrating to the United States in 1980, he found several publishers interested in publishing his work. He says he declined to publish because all interested publishers wanted to reserve the right of editorial control over the finished manuscript and he did not want to agree to this. AC
Of course I cannot vouch for the above contents and hope they are not true but can only consider on face value. When considering there were a number of other Jews of the same opinon it becomes a distinct possibility. Of course neither side is lily white on this issue. After the creation of Israel Arab governments were afraid of Jewish traitors amongst their populations etc. And also because of Israeli expulsion of Palestinians Arab governments took the same course with Jewish populations.

Just2Good

How about you summarize this in one or two sentences please?

__________________
.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

~ Buckminster Fuller ~

Axiom

how about two words : False Flag

__________________
"Sometimes the obligation of the intelligent is to restate the obvious. None more important than emphatically stating that there is a : ' Naked Emperor Elephant in the Room' " Axiom

antichrist

Because the Jews ïllegally imported weapons (from Poland I think or South Africa) when there was weapons embargo from 1948 they always had superior weaponry. As well their soldiers fought along British soliders in Europe during WW2 so they were hardened and experienced fighters. Whereas the Arabs had WW1 weaponry with very little training if any.

Then Israel developed nuke weapons, but the Arabs had already declared the M/E a nuclear free weapons zone.

I just hope the Biblical quote is correct - "those who livith by the sword will perish by the sword"", but I tend not to think so.

60 years after the separation and look at what position Israel is at - at war and hated by all it's neighbours. This was predicted by journalists when the State of Israel was first declared. Because the manner in which it was created.

antichrist

Morally it is coz Australia was quite instrumental in getting approval for the State being set up, via Doc Evatt, who even may have moved the motion in the UN. Australia has accepted the injustice of the situation by subsiding refugees from the conflict for generations.

The Zionists were offered land in Australia for their state but they insisted in Israel, even though it meant demolishing hundreds of Palestinian towns and villeges

antichrist

Never Again For Anyone : Auschwitz to Gaza

this site shows that there are even Jewish anti-Zionist groups completely against what Israel is doing

antichrist

NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE
Hajo Meyer: survived Auschwitz
Haidar Eid: is surviving Gaza
Both United for Palestinian Freedom

Speaking tour organised by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
& Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

26th January 2010, Goldsmiths - University of London



On January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, leading politicians from the U.S. and Europe will join in honoring the memory of Jews killed in the Nazi genocide. Yet the immensity of that tragedy is dishonored by the hypocrisy of the ceremonies: those who pay homage to the victims of yesterday's silence are silent about today's inhumanity. We say, "Never again!" For anyone. Never again for the people of Gaza. Never again for all those struggling against dehumanization, racism and genocide everywhere, every day.
In January 2010, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)and the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign organised a speaking tour featuring Auschwitz survivor and advocate of Palestinian freedom, Dr Hajo Meyer. It was designed to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day to expose how the Holocaust is exploited and misused to further Zionist political ambitions and to provide cover for Israel's crimes. The tour featured ten venues in England, Scotland and Ireland. This report is of the presentation at Goldsmiths, University of London on 26th January.
Speakers

Dr. Hajo G. Meyer was born in 1924 in Bielefeld, Germany. Not allowed to attend school there after November 1938, he fled to the Netherlands, alone. In I944, after a year in the underground, he was caught and subsequently survived 10 months at Auschwitz. He lives in the Netherlands, where he works as publicist and essayist. A member of IJAN, Hajo Meyer is on the board of the Dutch group "A Different Jewish Voice", part of the coalition of European Jews for Just Peace. He is the author of three books, on Judaism, Holocaust and Zionism.
"My great lesson from Auschwitz is: whoever wants to dehumanise any other, must first be dehumanised himself. The oppressors are no longer really human whatever uniform they wear."
Dr. Haidar Eid is a refugee whose parents were expelled from the Zarnouqa village in 1948. Dr. Eid is a member of the PACBI Steering Committee and a co-founder of the One Democratic State Group. He currently lives in Gaza, where he is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Al-Aqsa University.
"Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.' The UN, EU, Arab League and the international community by and large remained silent in the face of the atrocities committed by Apartheid Israel. They are therefore on the side of Israel."
The speeches were followed by a lively question and answer session. Streaming video and mp3 podcast of the 2 hour programme is included below.


International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network banner


Selma James chairs the event

Selma James - Chair


The event was chaired on behalf of IJAN by Selma James. Selma James is a world renowned women's rights, and anti-racism campaigner, activist and author. Her work in the anti-Zionist movement has had less coverage than her other activism, yet her background gives her a unique perspective which the movement could so greatly benefit from. It would have been wonderful to have heard more from her, unfortunately having responsibility of chair meant she didn't get the opportunity to share her own views. Hopefully IJAN will take the hint and in the future treat us with 'a conversation with Selma James on Palestine' event. (For those that can't wait, here's[1] a 7 minute video of the closing remarks by Selma James of a 2008 conference on 'International Resistance to Zionism'.)



First speaker, Dr. Haidar Eid (video from Gaza)

Dr. Haidar Eid


The first speaker was Dr. Haidar Eid. Dr. Haidar Eid is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, and is on the Steering Committee of the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). Prevented by Israel from leaving the Gaza Strip, his speech had to be pre-recorded and shown as a video presentation. This didn't retract from its content, a truly moving speech, Dr. Haidar Eid talked of the international communities complicity - starting with the Arab League, in the genocide in Gaza, of leaving Palestinians to die.
".. confronted with the usual conspiratorial international indifference, after 22 long days and dark nights, during which we Gazaans - Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza were left alone to face the fourth strongest army in the world. an army that has more than 450 nuclear warheads, an army that has Merkava tanks, that has F16s, Apache helicopters, naval gunships, and phosphorus bombs made in the factories of the United States of America."


Dr.Haidar Eid speaking from Gaza
He talked of the EU giving a green light to Israel after its 2008 attack on Gaza when Gaza was threatened by a greater Shoah (holocaust) by the then deputy minister of war Matan Vilnai. That green light by the EU, in the form of rewards to upgrade the EU's trade agreement with Israel, resulted in the slaughter of 2009.
"March 2008 was then a rehearsal, a prelude for Gaza 2009. Israel knew then that it could go on committing war crimes and crimes against humanity fully equipped with an international conspiracy of silence. The international community did not react in March 2008, why would it do otherwise in 2009? The international community did not react in 2009, why will it react in 2010? That's why we in Gaza are bracing ourselves for worse days to come while the international community will be standing idol, standing by silent, watching us being killed in broad daylight.."
His sober conclusion:
"If there is something to learn from Gaza 2009, it is that the world was absolutely wrong to think that Nazism was defeated in 1945. Nazism has won because it has finally managed to Nazify the consciousness of its own victims.."
For more, see Dr Haidar Eid's paper on "Promoting a Culture of Resistance" presented at the 4th Bil'in International Conference on Grassroots Popular Resistance.



Dr. Hajo G. Meyer

Dr. Hajo G. Meyer


Dr Hajo Meyer is a Holocaust survivor, he survived 10 months at Auschwitz after being captured by the Nazis whilst serving in the underground. His talk was on "the misuse of the Holocaust for political purposes".
He explained that Zionism today being xenophobic, colonialistic, nationalistic and racist is the antipode of Judaism.
"I don't know how you are aware, but I can tell you that in Europe, hardly any of the victims in central Europe had any sympathy for Zionism. But what is more important, Zionism had no sympathy what so ever for the victims during and after the Holocaust. The founder of the so-called democratic Jewish state used literally the words "these people who come from the camps are useless human material". And here I stand, a 'useless human material' and tell you what the truth is!"
He talked at length about the history of anti-Semitism and the emergence of Zionism and how eventually "Judaism in Israel has been substituted by the Holocaust Religion whose high priest is Elie Wesel'. Elie Wesel having literally said that 'Auschwitz is comparable only to the Sinai experience' [when Moses was given the 10 commandments by God - the very basis of Judaism].
"Its content [Holocaust Religion] is that 'we Jews have the monopoly on suffering', 'nobody has suffered or ever will suffer like the Jews have therefor what ever we do to the Palestinians is less than what we suffered , and can be done without feeling guilty'"
Hajo Meyer then explained his own personal interpretation of Auschwitz, based on what he saw during the 10 months he survived there, which is that:
"only those who are themselves dehumanized can attempt to dehumanize others, I personally NEVER ever want to afflict suffering to anybody because I want to remain human"
He then went to explain how dehumanisation of German society occurred in preparation for Auschwitz - different laws for Jews and Aryans, arrests without warrant, systematic indoctrination through propaganda - school books, comparison with insects, etc. He then showed how Israel is following the same course, the dehumanisation by Zionists in preparation for the slaughter in Gaza..


Dr. Hajo G. Meyer

Dr Hajo Meyer's Slides




Tracing the history of Zionism that leads to the emergence of the 'Holocaust Religion'



How Zionist's are misusing the Holocaust for their own political purposes



A personal insight of what this Auschwitz survivor learnt from his experience



How the Nazi's prepared the foundations for Auschwitz through discrimination and dehumanisation of the Jews



How the Zionists are systematically discriminating and dehumanising Palestinians in the same way the Nazis had done to the Jews


End of Judaism: An Ethical Tradition Betrayed
by Hajo G. Meyer




End of Judaism: An Ethical Tradition Betrayed
by Hajo G. Meyer
Auschwitz survivor Hajo G Meyer expresses in impassioned terms his dismay at what he sees as the moral collapse of contemporary Israeli society and the world-wide Jewish community as a whole. Meyer is a member of "A Different Jewish Voice," a Dutch-based, secular Jewish movement that dares to openly criticise Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. In his observations, deeply coloured by his personal experiences during the Holocaust, Meyer compares Israel's current policies with the early stages of the Nazis' persecution of the German Jews.He clearly explains that he is in no way seeking to draw a parallel between the current policies of Israel and the Nazis' endgame, which resulted in the mass murder of six million innocent people. He is merely trying to point out the slippery slope that eventually led to this catastrophe, and the necessity of foreseeing the possible consequences of a policy that oppresses and marginalises the Palestinians in their own homeland. As a result of his experiences in Auschwitz, Hajo Meyer claims to have learned one fundamental lesson: that his moral duty as a human being was to never become like his oppressors. "The End of Judaism" is the outcry of a dissident Jew who is not afraid of standing up to entrenched ways of thinking about history and particularly about the Palestinian conflict, which is one of the most intractable social and political problems in the world today.



Sameh Akram Habeeb, journalist working for Gaza based Palestinian Telegraph

Sameh Habeeb


Sameh Habeeb is the founder-editor of the Palestine Telegraph, a unique English language media outlet based in Gaza.
Sameh Habeeb started his talk by giving a brief outline of recent Palestinian history from 2000 to the present day explaining the background to the siege of Gaza, how over 400 people have died simply because Israel has not allowed them to leave the Gaza Strip for urgent medical treatment. At the same time Israel has prevented medical supplies from entering Gaza.


6 month old Firas Mazloum died after Israel
prevented him from leaving Gaza for medical treatment

He gave the example of 6 month old Firas Mazloum who needed urgent medical care, his application to leave Gaza was rejected by Israel many, many times and finally when he was granted permission he died before he could reach the crossing.
He explained that more than 85% of Gazaans are forced to live below the poverty line due to the siege. The lack of fuel means school children having to walk for miles to get to school, he gave the personal example of friends having to walk everyday from Rafah to Gaza City where the universities are located (a distance of around 30km). Constant power cuts, are all examples of the everyday hardships Gazaans suffer due to the siege.
He then went on to describe how during the war, when he was reporting for many news outlets including the BBC, SKY, Channel 4, CNN and ABC, the reports would be censored. They would try to limit what he could say telling him specifically 'do not mention this, do not mention that' and when he sent some photos for Sky News they deleted most of them.
Sameh Habeeb's talk was unfortunately badly savaged with constant interruptions from zionists in the audience. Within seconds of him starting, interruptions from members of the Zionist Federation and Board of Deputies of Jews began. Due to these disruptions we could not include the video of his talk.
The hecking by pro-Israelis had began whilst 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer was speaking. It continued through Sameh Habeeb's talk, and in to the question answer session. Essentially the Zionist Federation had decided to silence an Auschwitz survivor because he saw parallels between his tormentors, the Nazis, and Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.
When that didn't work, the vice-chair of the Zionist Federation went to work hurling insults at Dr Hajo Meyer, in an article calling him a 'performing bear': "Like some grotesque, ungainly performing bear in the circus, Meyer is dancing willingly to his ringmaster's tune, saying that Israel’s actions are the same as those of the Nazis". IJAN responded "According to Hoffman, Meyer, author of three books about the subject, cannot possibly have formed his own opinions in light of his own personal experience, including his time in Auschwitz. He must be manipulated by his 'ringmasters.' We are unforunately not shocked by Hoffman's disrespect of a holocaust survivor's right to his own experience. This is what we'd come to expect from the apparatchiks of Zionism."
The Holocaust Memorial Trust , which exists to give voice to the survivors of the Holocaust, was no better. It refused to allow this speaking tour of a Holocaust survivor to be listed on the official Holocaust Memorial Trust website events list. IJAN tried three times with no success, and have now launched a petition in response to the banning.


Sarah Kershnar, founder of IJAN

Sarah Kershnar


After a riveting 40 minutes of questions and answers, Sarah Kershnar, founding member of IJAN, rounded the evening of with a few words.
Yesterday at our presentation there was a woman from Rwanda, and she described her own experience of genocide, one of the things she said that was very important is that denial of genocide is one of the precursors to future genocide. It is so important that we are able to speak about what is happening in Gaza and Palestine, because denying what's happening continues to move it, to move this slow motion genocide towards genocide. It was the Nazis who said no one remembers the Armenian genocide - no one will remember what we do. So with that what we are saying with 'Never Again' is that its not enough to say 'Never Again' - we have to act.. some of the ways we do that is certainly by supporting Boycott Divestment and Sanctions..
She also spoke of one of the campaigns IJAN is working on:


JNF's Canada Park built on the ethnically
cleansed and destroyed villages of
'Imwas, Yalu, and Bayt Nuba
We are working on a campaign against the Jewish National Fund. As some of you will know the Jewish national Fund was one of the original colonising organisations of Palestine, it had bought up as well as confiscated Palestinian land and holds it in reserve for Jews who live anywhere in the world and explicitly disallows the purchasing or even renting of land and property in Palestine to Palestinians.

We are organising a campaign because this organisation claims to be, as many Zionist organisations do, a Jewish community organisation but really exists for the sole purpose of getting resources to Israel, which includes resources to settlements. It is a parastatal organisation, meaning it can represent Israel in meetings of the United Nations and it has charity status as a parastatal organisation - it's in its constitution.
Video:


The video is in 12 parts (1h 56mins), you can either let it play in order or jump to a particular speaker.


MP3 Podcast

Never Again - For Anyone (MP3) (dur:1h 56min, 57Mb)
( NB: There is a 20sec silence in the MP3 file around 1:04:55 corresponding to
the notice on the video of Zionist disruption of Sameh Habeeb's speech)

The Seeing

Druids used a magic wand made out of wood to cast their spells on the people. Funny, that wood was hollywood.

Wouldn't you know they'd put this stuff right in front of our faces.