Appeal for Arab railway workers

This blog had earlier noted the racist practices of Israel Railways, which has fired 40+ Arab employees. Now an appeal in solidarity with the discharged workers has been issue, it can be found here.

"IDF is the most moral army in the world"

If you believe the above statement is true, you really ought to read this article.

Blogs: Anna W, Esbati, Ung Vänster, Jinge, Moments of Gaza, Clipmarks, Tikun Olam
News links: Dagbladet, Telegraaf , DN

On racism and apartheid in Israel

Clearly there is no full legal equality between all citizens of the State of Israel. And when Israeli progressives and Arab citizens of Israel raise demands equality for all citizens, the Zionist rightwing comes out in protest. See video below;


Quote of the commentary of one of the demonstrators interviewed,

"Israel is a Jewish state, not a dual national state, not a state of all its citizens"

Likud-Lieberman deal signed - one concrete step towards an Israeli rightwing govt

Yesterday, after weeks of wrangling negotiations, the first concrete step towards the formation of a new Israeli cabinet was taken. A deal on forming a coalition government was signed between the rightwing Likud of Benyamin Netanyahu and the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu of Avidgor Lieberman.

According to the deal, Yisrael Beiteinu will get the Foreign Affairs, Tourism, National Infrastructure, Absorption (i.e. integration of Jews migrating to Israel) and Public Security portfolios. The political maverick Avigdor Lieberman himself will become the next Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel. Notably, some political circles are a bit worried of the potential PR catastrophy of having the Zhirnovskyesque brute Lieberman as the face of Israel towards the international community. The fact that Lieberman was able to win that particular cabinet post, and that a party collegue of his will be in charge of 'Public Security', is a clear indication of the position of strength of Lieberman in the coalition talks. Lieberman's ascent to power denotes a marked shift of paradigms in Israeli politics, a testament of the increasingly intolerant and xenophobic mainstream Israeli polity.

Like many European counterparts, Lieberman seeks to redefine citizenship, arguing that citizenship should be revoked from 'illoyal' subjects. The idea that all citizens have to undertake patriotic pledges is also increasingly popular amongst West European politicians (in countries such as Sweden, with demands of mandatory language tests as a precondition for citizenship) who wish to benefit from xenophobic vote-banks.

Some commentators, hasbara bloggers and random political analysts, are quick to state that Lieberman doesn't represent the traditional Israeli far right and that labels such as 'ultranationalist' or 'fascist' are misleading. Lieberman is hated by sectors of West Bank settlers and disliked by some extreme rightist parties (see National Union smear-campaign video below) for his secularist positions. He supports many causes traditionally identified with liberals or leftists in Israeli politics. One such issue is the establishment of secular civil marriage unions, and demand partly met by Likud in the pre-coalition talks.


Lieberman and his party are part of an international phenomenon, an ongoing transformation and renewal of far-right politics. He is part of the same trend as Pim Fortyn in the Netherlands, the Norwegian Progress Party and the Austrian Jörg Haider. A shedding of skin of the far right could be one way to describe the process. Lieberman succesfully combines the core agenda of the far right (xenophobia) with a wide package of symbolic positionings against the traditional concept of rightwing extremism (allowing pork sales, supporting transports on the Sabbath, willingness to accept a two-state solution, willingness to concede lands to the Palestinians and withdrawing settlements, calling for Arabs to be drafted to the IOF). Thus many voters who would never think of touching a the far-right ballot can be mobilized, an the xenophobic agenda becomes part of the mainstream.

Before the elections, the pseudo-leftist Meretz had stated that they would urge international protests against a Lieberman government, similar to those directed against Austria after Jörg Haider's ascent to power in 2000. Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi has called for an 'international boycott' of Lieberman, stating that "No minister should meet him, especially no Arab minister".

But the Likud-Lieberman deal does not conclude the ordeal of securing an Israeli rightwing cabinet. The parties still stretch out a discrete olive branch to Livni's Kadima in order to form a broader unity cabinet (something Livni has rejected). Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu has 42 mandates together in the Knesset. They need another 19 to form a majority coalition. Talks are on with various ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties who are likely to join the cabinet. But there are various bones of contention between Lieberman and these parties. The criticism of the National Union (which has 4 seats) was noted above. Ultra-Orthodox forces like UTJ and Shas had campaigned with anti-Lieberman slogans, UTJ had called Lieberman a 'racist' whilst the Shas spiritual leader had stated that a vote for Lieberman was a satanic sin. Now they are likely to sit in the same cabinet. UTJ has rejected offers to get the Health or Social Affairs portfolios, stating that they demand to get the Construction portfolio (a portfolio also claimed by the National Union).

In short, the precarious game of coalition-building is far from over. But whoever wins in the end, the Palestinian people will suffer. Both Netanyahu and Lieberman promised the people of Gaza further bloodshed in the election campaign, and at this point there is no reason to doubt their intentions.

News links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Blogging: Mikael W, Jinge, DK, Huffington Post, Actualidad 2.0, Xavier, Kildén & Åsman, Yonne, Melin, Dr. Nasir Khan, Svensson, annarkia, Tidens tecken, Ernst Klein
See also: Patriarchy strikes back, moralist spying on female IOF draftees

British Medical Journal on hasbara and orquestrated hate-campaigns

We all know it. Anyone who has even published a journalistic article, a book, made a public statement or even done the most mundane act of starting a blog, and has combined this act with even the most discrete criticism of Israel will probably experience the opening of floods of hate-mails and accusations. They wary from attempts to remove guilt from the Israeli government by blaming others (Hamas, Iran, the Bogeyman or anyone else) to outright racist diatribes against Palestinians and Muslims in general. I have tons of unpublished racist, pro-Israeli comments sent to this blog. We know that these comments and letters are part of coordinated campaigns, in which the Israeli state itself takes part. This mechanism is known as 'hasbara'.

Fiona Godlee and Tony Delamothe, editor and deputy editor of BMJ, writes that

"And it’s not only the small fry who are cowed. John Kampfner, chief executive of Index of Censorship, detected signs of caution in the BBC’s recent coverage of the Gaza conflict following earlier criticisms of pro-Palestinian bias10 (and this before the corporation refused to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee’s fundraising appeal for Gaza11).

Avoiding topics where medicine and politics collide is not an option for the BMJ. It’s not possible to remove medicine from politics or politics from medicine.12 Nor is this what our readers want. In an online poll on bmj.com less than a quarter of respondents wanted less space devoted to political issues in the BMJ.13

Oxfam was describing conditions in Gaza as a "humanitarian crisis" a year ago.14 Since then Israel’s invasion of the Gaza strip has left 1300 Palestinians dead, 5500 injured, and much of Gaza in ruins. The journal cannot avert its gaze from the health and human rights consequences of this catastrophe, no matter how "political" the issue."

"The best way to blunt the effectiveness of this type of bullying, counsels O’Donnell, is to expose it to public scrutiny. We have taken his advice and will try to follow Freedland’s too—to grow a thicker skin. We’ll give future orchestrated email campaigns as much credence as film producer Sam Goldwyn gave verbal contracts. He famously dismissed these as "not worth the paper they’re written on.""

Read the full article at the BMJ website. BMJ also carries articles by Karl Sabbagh on 'Perils of criticising Israel' (with samples of hate-mail sent to BMJ and a historical background on how the Israel lobby ganged up against the magazine World Medicine in 1981, after having reported on the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre) and by Micheal O'Donnell on 'Standing up for free speech'.

Blogs: Vindskupan, Jinge, Motbilder, Tikun Olam, Beyond the Fringe, Jews sans frontiers, Wadström, BRV
Articles in Jerusalem Post on Hasbara: 1, 2
Articles on 'Norwegian anti-semitism' accusations: 1, 2, 3, 4

Bedouin houses destroyed by Israeli authorities in Negev

Maan News Agency reports that four houses belonging to Bedouin families in the Negev have been destroyed by Israeli authorities. The authorities have cited lack of building permits as the reason behind the demolition.

As part of the Apartheid policies of the Israeli state, obtaining building permits is virtually impossible for Arab inhabitants of Israel. Thus most houses built by Arabs are subject to demolition at any point, enabling the authorities to blackmail entire communities. In this cases, the Bedouins of the southern town of Bir Hadaj claim that the demolition was ordered as negotiations on grazing rights for the Bedouins' sheep herds have broken down.

News links on Israel: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Zionist parties seek to disrupt voting in Arab areas

The National Democratic Assembly (Balad) election committee in Baqa al-Gharibiya has stated that polling agents of Zionist parties have tried to disrupt the voting there, reports Ynet. Amongst other things, Zionist polling agents have tried to minimize the number of Arab voters by refusing voters with slightly torn ID cards to vote.

This is reminicent of how white polling officers in southern U.S. used to try to bar black voters from voting by citing all kinds of formal hindrances.

News links on elections: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Daily Apartheid: Arab journalists barred from Lieberman's campaign meet

Haaretz reports that at a campaign meet on Sunday, Arab journalists working for the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation were refused entry to a campaign meet of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party. Officially they were refused entry on the grounds of lacking invitations, but at the scene Jewish and foreign journalists were allowed to enter without showing invitations. When questioned, Yisrael Beiteinu workers claimed that their action was due to the attitudes of Arabs towards party leader Lieberman.

More news on today's election: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Blogs: Anna W, UFH, Reza, Roya, Jinge, Bildt, TN, Judaistik

"we are against racism and for the Torah" - Israeli Orthodox parties stretches out olive branches to Arabs ahead of elections

In the wake of the increasingly racist political climate in Israel (with the openly racist Avigdor Lieberman advancing in opinion polls), parties representing ultra-Orthodox Jews have sought to differentiate themselves by reaching out to Arab citizens of Israel. Ynet reports on the campaign of United Torah Judaism in Arabic communities, spreading leaflets (see picture) stating "Lieberman = Racism" and calling for Haredis and Arabs to fight racism jointly.

In a comment, UTJ MK Moshe Gafni stated that "we are against racism and for the Torah, and the Torah clearly says 'Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.'" (a bit odd to call the indigenous Arab population 'aliens', huh?) Rabbi Obadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of another ultra-Orthodox party (Shas), has stated that the act of voting for Lieberman is an eternal sin and dubbed Lieberman's followers as 'supporters of Satan'.

However, whilst Arab votes for parties like Labour is likely to evaporate completly in these elections, there are few signs that the positions of the ultra-Orthodox parties would mobilize any major number of Arabs to vote for them. The ultra-Orthodox parties retain a hawkisk approach to negotiations with Palestinians. Both UTJ and Shas strongly support expanding settlements on occupied Palestians territories. During the Gaza massacre, Shas distributed thousands of leaflets calling for prayers in favour of IOF soldiers. And both UTJ and Shas are likely to support a Likud government.

News links on the elections: 1, 2, 3, Blogs: Anna W, UFH, Reza, Roya, Jinge, Bildt, TN, Judaistik, Rooieravotr

"One down, 999,999 to go" - Racism in practice

I have previously posted a note on how Gazans returning to their homes have found them vandalized by occupation forces. Ynet has an article published today, on the racist slurs left behind by IOF soldiers. Amongst the houses affected by IOF graffiti were the ruins of the Samouni family residence, a family which was targetted in the massacre and lost several of its members. According to Ynet, slurs found in Zeitoun include "Die you all," Make war not peace," "Death to Arabs", "Arabs must die" and "One down, 999,999 to go."

IOF officials have now initiated a probe into the matter.

One-sided?

Some might argue that this blog is one-sided. In order to face such accusations preemptively, i present the following must-see video from NY (thanks to esbati.blogspot.com for the tip);


se också, artikel i Dagen.se.