Genocide Joe has sent his billion dollar arms gift to Israel back to congress for review, having admitted the true purpose of the two thousand pound city destroying bombs, but seems to imagine the tanks as defensive weapons, having forgotten the Blitzkrieg.
This as Israel invades Rafah in defiance of his Red Line against sending aid for the mass murders of the Palestinian refugees Israel has herded there, while in America the brutal repression of dissent on universities by student peace and divestiture protesters unfolds as state terror in recapitulation of the Vietnam War, though as yet we have no parallel with the Kent State Massacre.
If nothing else, the atrocities of the Gaza War have exposed the truths and monstrosities behind America’s historical role as patron of Israel’s imperial conquest and dominion of Palestine and its seventy years of genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and the unchecked power of a rapacious and kleptocratic state of theocracy and racism which we have authorized.
America Falls with our failure of empathy, abandonment of our universal human rights, cowardice in confronting evil, and complicity in genocide.
As Tolstoy and Lenin asked with such very different results, What is to be done?
As written by Osita Nwanevu in The Guardian, in an article entitled US students, once again, have led the way. Now we must all stand up for Palestinians: Campus protests in solidarity with the people of Gaza have braved abuse and police raids but history will be kinder; “he student left is the most reliably correct constituency in America. Over the past 60 years, it has passed every great moral test American foreign policy has forced upon the public, including the Vietnam war, the question of relations with apartheid South Africa, and the Iraq war. Student activists were at the heart of the black civil rights movement from the very beginning. To much derision and abuse, they pushed for more rights, protections and respect for women and queer people on their campuses than the wider world was long willing to provide. And over the past 20 years in particular, policymakers have arrived belatedly to stances on economic inequality, climate change, drug policy and criminal justice that putative radicals on campus took up long before them.
They have not always been right; even when right, their prescriptions for the problems they’ve identified and their means of directing attention to them have not always been prudent. But time and time and time again, the student left in America has squarely faced and expressed truths our politicians and all the eminent and eloquent voices of moderation in the press, in all of their supposed wisdom and good sense, have been unable or unwilling to see. Straining against an ancient and immortal prejudice against youth, it has made a habit of telling the American people, in tones that discomfit, what they need to hear before they are ready to hear it.
Only later, after the teargas clears and the leering and laughter subside, do we sit puzzled, in the filth of our own entirely avoidable mistakes, and look regretfully backward. Books are written. Documentaries are made. Plaques are installed. At Kent State, a plaza overlooking the university’s commons was constructed to honor the four students the Ohio national guard killed there in 1970. It’s bounded, the university’s website says, by “a jagged, abstract border symbolic of disruptions and the conflict of ideas.” There are daffodils. “Inquire, Learn, Reflect,” an inscription reads. One thing visitors might reflect on is that a Gallup poll taken not long after the shootings found that 58% of Americans believed that anti-war activists had, perhaps in the unrest of the preceding days, brought the deaths at Kent State upon themselves. Today, more than half a century after the fact, we mourn them. We have regrets.
What will we regret the most about the last few weeks? Which responses to the Gaza protests will linger the longest in our minds? CNN’s comparison of the campus protests to the persecution of Jews “during the 1930s in Europe”, perhaps? The University of Virginia changing its policy on tents to justify the deployment of more force against its students than it called for against the actual Nazis who marched on its campus and killed a woman seven years ago? The New York police department presenting to the press, as proof that outside agitators had organized the occupation of a building at Columbia, a book about the causes of terrorism written by a historian and a bike chain Columbia had been selling to its students? The outside funding actually raised by pro-Israel counter-protesters at UCLA who beat up and threw fireworks at students and faculty as campus and LAPD officers stood by?
Whenever all of this ends – whenever we find ourselves ready to survey what’s left of Gaza and its people and ask whether we could have done more to prevent the use of our weapons and our money in their destruction – what will we have to say for ourselves? When the talking heads are assembled to offer voiceovers atop footage of police grappling and tackling students and faculty whose voices, it will be painfully obvious to most by then, should have been heeded, what words of useless contrition will be offered?
There have been real instances of antisemitism on campuses since the protests began; here and there we’ve seen real instances of malevolence and idiocy. But to believe, on the basis of anecdata, that hatred and ignorance have motivated the vast majority of students who’ve set up encampments and other pro-Palestinian protests over the last month – in their many thousands at well over 100 colleges and universities in all but four states – is to believe what can only be described as an extraordinary propaganda campaign, one pushed by critics in the press and in office who can’t seem to agree on what the protesters are like. These students, we’ve been told, are both popular and unpopular among their peers. They are both ugly and chic. They are fragile and cold-blooded, pathetically soft and remarkably violent. They hate Jews. They are Jews who hate themselves. They’ve exercised both too little message discipline and too much caution with the press at demonstrations that are both laughably chaotic and suspiciously organized. And whoever they are and whatever’s spurred them into action, the students are, clearly, in need of either a good sock to the mouth or a good lay – the better to focus their attention away from politics and on their studies, on political matters close to home rather than halfway across the world, or political matters halfway across the world more deserving of their attention, like the plight of the suffering in China, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Iran or Azerbaijan.
No one with their eyes on Gaza denies that there are many bad things happening in the world at any given time. None of those who’ve troubled law- and opinion-makers so with their insistence that the Palestinians are people would argue that the Palestinians are the only suffering people on the globe. But they are suffering largely as a consequence of American foreign policy. On Wednesday, President Biden announced that the United States will freeze the supply of offensive weaponry to Israel if it continues with the full invasion of Rafah, an announcement that follows admissions that the campaign being waged in Gaza, with our bombs, has thus far been waged with dubious military objectives and with insufficient regard for civilian life.
The guilty parties here include not only our political leaders but our private institutions, our colleges among them
What the White House has yet to admit, though, is that the nearly 35,000 Palestinians who have been killed and the 1.9 million Palestinians who have been displaced over the last seven months are the victims not only of this particular war and the logic of collective responsibility for the massacres of 7 October being deployed by Israeli leaders, but the willingness of this country to sanction Israel’s denial of Palestinian human rights for decades. And the guilty parties here include not only our political leaders but our private institutions, our colleges among them, which, through the investments they have sustained in Israel and the arms manufacturers supplying its war, have rendered themselves complicit in wrongs that should trouble us as deeply as apartheid in South Africa now does. Nothing should surprise us about the fact that Israel now faces similar divestment campaigns; after weeks of moaning and groaning that the demands of student protesters have been unexpressed, unclear or impossible to meet, multiple colleges have, in fact, made certain concessions to them and announced plans to take further demands into consideration. Encampments at Brown, Northwestern, Rutgers and the University of Minnesota were voluntarily disbanded on that basis.
But it should also be unsurprising that far more colleges have responded to student demonstrators by calling in the authorities – an authorization of force prefigured by the remarkable crackdowns on pro-Palestinian speech we’ve seen at institutions across the country since October. One of the perversities of the situation is that despite all this, we probably haven’t heard the last about our “woke universities” – as they have for more than a hundred years, the right and centrists who share their contempt for college students will, against all available evidence, continue insisting that American campuses have been ideologically captured by the very people we’ve just witnessed campus administrators go to war against. They will do all they can to obscure it, but it should be plain now that all the shallow representation most visible to pundits – the diversity and equity teams, the minorities in high positions – hasn’t changed the fact that the majority of American universities are largely beholden to donors, trustees and, increasingly, politicians, well to the right of the most progressive voices on campus.
In the months ahead, many on the left will surely call upon universities to hold true to their commitments to open discourse and redress the censorship and harassment of Israel’s critics. They should. But we should also resist the flight to abstraction – dishwatery invocations of free speech, murky and lukewarm, that no one ever seems to really mean and that function chiefly as bulwarks against substantive debate. The dignity of the Palestinian people and their right to resist their oppression plainly aren’t chief among the dangerous and controversial ideas we’ve heard so much about protecting over the last decade; we cannot rely upon the putatively neutral authorities and institutions that have done so much to suppress them to act now in their defense on abstract grounds. So it goes. The job now, as the Israelis press into Rafah, is to change public opinion on the actual matter at hand – to make urgent arguments to the American public not about the plight of Palestine’s defenders on campus but the plight of the Palestinians. The students have done their part; they will be recognized in time. Now it’s up to the rest of us.”
US students, once again, have led the way. Now we must all stand up for Palestinians
14 مايو 2024 أمريكا تسقط بفشلنا في التعاطف، والتخلي عن حقوقنا الإنسانية العالمية، والجبن في مواجهة الشر، والتواطؤ في الإبادة الجماعية: بدء الهجوم الإسرائيلي على رفح
أرسل جو هدية الأسلحة التي تبلغ قيمتها مليار دولار إلى إسرائيل إلى الكونجرس لمراجعتها، بعد أن اعترف بالغرض الحقيقي لتدمير القنابل في المدينة التي يبلغ وزنها ألفي رطل، ولكن يبدو أنه يتخيل الدبابات كأسلحة دفاعية، بعد أن نسي الحرب الخاطفة.
يأتي هذا في الوقت الذي تغزو فيه إسرائيل رفح في تحدٍ لخطه الأحمر ضد إرسال المساعدات لعمليات القتل الجماعي للاجئين الفلسطينيين الذين تحشدهم إسرائيل هناك، بينما يتكشف في أمريكا القمع الوحشي للمعارضة في الجامعات من خلال السلام الطلابي والمتظاهرين على سحب الاستثمارات باعتباره إرهاب دولة في تلخيص لإسرائيل. حرب فيتنام، على الرغم من أنه ليس لدينا حتى الآن أي تشابه مع مذبحة ولاية كينت.
إذا لم يكن هناك شيء آخر، فقد كشفت الفظائع التي ارتكبت في حرب غزة عن الحقائق والفظائع الكامنة وراء الدور التاريخي الذي لعبته أمريكا كراعية للغزو الإمبريالي الإسرائيلي لفلسطين وهيمنتها وسبعين عامًا من الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي والجرائم ضد الإنسانية، والقوة غير المقيدة لإسرائيل. حالة الثيوقراطية والعنصرية الجشعة والكلبتوقراطية التي سمحنا بها.
إن أميركا تسقط بفشلنا في التعاطف، والتخلي عن حقوقنا الإنسانية العالمية، والجبن في مواجهة الشر، والتواطؤ في الإبادة الجماعية.
وكما تساءل تولستوي ولينين بنتائج مختلفة تمامًا، ما الذي يجب فعله؟
Hebrew
14 במאי 2024 אמריקה נופלת עם כישלוננו באמפתיה, נטישת זכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו, פחדנות בהתמודדות עם הרוע ושותפות ברצח עם: התקפת ישראל ברפיח מתחילה
רצח העם ג’ו שלח את מתנת הנשק שלו של מיליארד דולר לישראל בחזרה לביקורת בקונגרס, לאחר שהודה במטרה האמיתית של עיריית אלפיים לירות השמדת פצצות, אבל נראה שהוא מדמיין את הטנקים כנשק הגנתי, לאחר ששכח את הבליצקריג.
זאת כאשר ישראל פולשת לרפיח בהתרסה לקו האדום שלו נגד שליחת סיוע לרציחות ההמוניות של הפליטים הפלסטינים שישראל עדרה שם, בעוד שבאמריקה הדיכוי האכזרי של מחלוקות על האוניברסיטאות על ידי מפגיני שלום סטודנטים ומפגיני ביטול ביטול מתגלה כטרור ממלכתי בסיכום של מלחמת וייטנאם, אם כי עדיין אין לנו מקבילה לטבח במדינת קנט.
אם שום דבר אחר, הזוועות של מלחמת עזה חשפו את האמיתות והמפלצות שמאחורי תפקידה ההיסטורי של אמריקה כפטרונית של הכיבוש הקיסרי והשליטה של ישראל על פלסטין ושבעים שנות רצח עם, טיהור אתני, פשעים נגד האנושות והכוח הבלתי מבוקש של מצב דורס וקלפטוקרטי של תיאוקרטיה וגזענות שאישרנו.
אמריקה נופלת עם כישלון האמפתיה שלנו, נטישת זכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו, פחדנות בהתמודדות עם הרוע ושותפות ברצח עם. כפי ששאלו טולסטוי ולנין בתוצאות כה שונות, מה יש לעשו
On this anniversary of the assassination of beloved journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, possibly as our devils whisper by a sniper belonging to a rogue black ops unit of IDF Reconnaissance in Gaza, Sayaret Haruv, refounded under the command of Lt. Col. Yaniv Barut, Kfir Brigade, and operating in coordination with elements of the infamous Duvdevan, Counter Terrorism Unit 217 of the 89th Commando Brigade, whose history has been fictionalized in the Israeli telenovela Fauda available on Netflix, other special operations agents and most importantly the deniable paramilitary assets and settler militias which now threaten to wag the dog and seize power from the civilian government of Israel, let us bring a Reckoning.
For many years teaching high school my mother would hold up the crooked finger broken by a nun with a ruler to silence her questions as a child, whereupon she walked out of the school and the Catholic Church and never looked back, and announce to the class her first principle of action and of education; “We are not silent.”
Our best reply to the murder of a journalist by any state is to ask questions and speak in witness, and to do so together as mass action and solidarity across all divisions of faith, race, gender, and national identity as liberation struggle. This is how we set each other free; by truths which delegitimize authority, by solidarity of action which forges a United Humankind, and by seizures of power.
In the context of the Israeli Occupation and the campaign of terror against the people of Palestine, a friend has offered her witness of history as to why she no longer wears the Star of David in the wake of the 1967 Six Day War, and wrote of the 1995 assassination of Rabin, who like Gandhi was killed by an ultranationalist in the first action of the capture of the state by a totalitarian and imperial colonialist regime, as a lost hope of democracy in Israel.
To this I have replied; Yes, but remember always my friend, that though the state of Israel now unfolds from its unique history, its failures are not those of Jewish identity or faith but universal to humankind. Tyranny is a predictable phase of anticolonial struggle, and determined by its imposed conditions. So seductive, to be the arbiter of virtue in pursuit of security. But security is an illusion, and use of social force subversive to democracy and the values and goals of a society in which we are each other’s guarantors of universal human rights, and not our jailors.
My friends and I fought for a long time for the freedom to wear the Star of David without fear; seize and own it as a power paid for in blood. One day the citizens of Israel will liberate themselves; until then all I can do is try to buy time for that future to unfold, and shield those I can from its costs as tyranny and terror. I offer for your consideration the premise that Rabin was among the 36 Good Men upon whom the fate of the world depends, and the hope that we may live up to his example.
Cede nothing to the enemy; not symbols or histories, nor abandon anything to capture and subversion of meaning in service to power and authorized identities as falsification. Identity is a ground of struggle, where liberty or tyranny begin.
Always there remains the struggle between the masks others make for us and those we make for ourselves. This is the first revolution in which we all must fight; the seizure of power as ownership of ourselves.
As written by Bethan McKernan in The Guardian, in an article entitled Shireen Abu Akleh: friends and family call for justice on anniversary of killing:
Israeli forces admit ‘high possibility’ Al Jazeera reporter was shot by sniper at West Bank refugee camp; “Family members, friends and colleagues of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was almost certainly fatally shot by an Israeli sniper, have renewed calls for justice on the first anniversary of her killing, during a week of memorials and events celebrating her life.
Abu Akleh, a household name in the Arab world who worked for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, was shot in the head in the slumlike refugee camp on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on 11 May last year while covering an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid. International outrage at the reporter’s death was fuelled by scenes of violence at her funeral in Jerusalem, when Israeli police attacked pallbearers, almost causing them to drop the coffin.
The IDF eventually admitted there was a “high possibility” Abu Akleh was killed by a soldier, but maintains the shooting was accidental and a criminal investigation is not warranted.
In the year since, international efforts at accountability have moved painfully slowly. But at a concert honouring the Jerusalemite in Ramallah earlier this week, hundreds of people gathered to remember a remarkable trailblazer and her legacy.
“Years of seeing justice not being served for Palestinians tells me we shouldn’t expect much [from officials]. But if we focus on whatever silver lining there is, I’d never seen anything like the turnout at her funeral … It showed how loved and respected she was,” said Dalia Hatuqa, Abu Akleh’s friend and former colleague.
“Shireen has inspired a whole generation of young women and men who admire her and her work and want to follow in her footsteps.”
Tributes from Abu Akleh’s family and colleagues at Tuesday’s concert spoke of her dedication to showing the world the harsh realities of Israeli occupation, as well as moments of happiness and resilience. A Jerusalem girls’ choir, and young women from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, performed several pieces composed in her memory.
A raft of universities have announced awards and scholarships in Abu Akleh’s name, a street in Ramallah has been renamed after her, and her name will also live on in the form of a media museum scheduled to open in the city in 2025.
For Palestinians, and much of the rest of the world, it is clear who bears responsibility for Abu Akleh’s death. Several journalistic investigations as well as a UN probe have concluded that Israeli forces killed the well-known journalist. Some findings suggest the small group of journalists she was with were deliberately targeted, even though they were wearing helmets and protective vests clearly marked “Press”.
While the Biden administration has largely embraced Israel’s version of events, and resisted launching an independent investigation into the killing of a US citizen, pressure from Congress forced it to agree to an FBI inquiry last November, which for now appears to be the most promising avenue for justice – although Israel has said it will not cooperate. Abu Akleh’s family and Al Jazeera have also referred the case to the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, but proceedings typically take years, and Israel is not a member.
Abu Akleh is far from the only Palestinian journalist killed in recent years whose death has gone unpunished. A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), released this week to coincide with the anniversary of Abu Akleh’s death, found that Israel has never charged or found any soldier accountable for the killings of at least 20 journalists, 18 of whom were Palestinian, since 2001.
“Israeli officials discount evidence and witness claims, often appearing to clear soldiers for the killings while inquiries are still in progress … When probes do take place, the Israeli military often takes months or years to investigate killings and families of the mostly Palestinian journalists have little recourse inside Israel to pursue justice,” the report said.
In the year that has passed since the reporter’s death, violence in the region has risen substantially. Tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have soared over the past year: more than 116 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in 2023 so far, leading to fears of a return to full-scale fighting.
About half of this year’s Palestinian death toll are civilians, according to media tallies. But according to army data analysed by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation, the IDF has near-total impunity from prosecution in cases in which Palestinians and their property were harmed by soldiers.
Between 2017 and 2021, only 21.4% of complaints led to an investigation – and of the 248 investigations, just 11 resulted in an indictment, making the rate 0.87%.
The IDF says it opens initial operational investigations in all cases in the West Bank in which a Palestinian is killed, unless the death occurred in a combat environment. Based on those findings, the military advocate decides whether a criminal investigation is merited.
“I thought when they killed Shireen, if they can kill her, then they can kill any of us,” said Amira, a 20-year-old student at the Ramallah concert. “But we need to continue resisting and we need to have hope.”
On this day two years ago I wrote; May 12 2022, Reflections of the Third Intifada Part 3: In the Shadow of the Israeli Assassination of Truthteller and Journalist Shireen Abu Aqla; During a military raid on the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp in which Israeli provocateurs created confusion and pretexts for the use of deadly force by the state, an Israeli sniper assassinated iconic and beloved Palestinian journalist and American citizen Shireen Abu Aqla, who was wearing her unmistakable blue press jacket, in order to silence her witness of history. Hers was a fearless and heroic life of truth telling, and she was a role model for a generation of women who grew up with the implicit understanding that silence is complicity.
Our world is a Wilderness of Mirrors, distorted funhouse images, rewritten histories, filled with surfaces which capture and reflect, in which the witness of history and the sacred calling to pursue the truth must be beyond the power of the state, the elite, or of anyone to silence and erase, or we become simulacra, forgeries of ourselves and shadow puppets of authority. Our authenticity and uniqueness, our ownership of ourselves, is put at risk and in question by propaganda and thought control, repression of dissent, dehumanization, and subjugation.
We need what Foucault called truth tellers, not merely as guarantors of our liberty, but also of our humanity and the inviolability of our souls.
Al Jazeera has written of this; “In a blatant murder, violating international laws and norms, the Israeli Occupation Forces assassinated in cold blood Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Palestine, Shireen Abu Aqla, targeting her with live fire early this morning… while conducting her journalistic duty.”
The network called on the international community to hold the Israeli government and military accountable for the “intentional targeting and killing” of a journalist.
Qatar – which funds Al Jazeera – said it considered the killing a “heinous crime and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a blatant infringement on freedom of media and expression”.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting of Abu Aqla and Samoudi and alleged that it was “part of the occupation’s policy of targeting journalists to obscure the truth and commit crimes silently”.
As I wrote in my post of January 16 2021, Silence Is Complicity: No One Gets to Sit This One Out; A post in which I quote Adam Parkhomenko elicited an interesting reaction from someone, one which makes me question how the rhetoric of fascist and racist privilege creates complicity; the quote is in reference to the massive responsibility avoidance and denial on the part of the Republican lawmakers who refuse to join the call impeach our Clown of Terror, Traitor Trump, and his rabble of murderous barbarians.
Here is the quotation; “I have a very simple message for Republicans calling for unity without accountability: the United States does not negotiate with terrorists.”
This was the reaction; first, repetition of the very call for unity without accountability, which I would characterize as granting permission through failure to consequent behaviors, which the quote calls out; “These words are just creating more divisions!”
Second, an attempt at silencing dissent; “Please Stop!”
Third, an attempt at blame shifting; “Whenever one person thinks they are right and everyone else is wrong you are the problem!”
And Fourth, the very worst of the apologetics of historical fascism, a claim of moral equivalence; “Everyone just needs to stop all of these posts because there are good people on both sides!”
And this last I cannot let pass, for on the last occasion of its general use this propagandistic lie and rhetorical device led directly to the Holocaust and the global devastation of total war.
I am unclear which good people she could be referring to; the ones who were going to capture and hang or guillotine members of Congress, the ones who murdered a police officer and attempted to bomb both the Democratic and Republican offices, the white supremacist terrorists who have rallied to the cause of treason and armed sedition, or the mad tyrant who commanded them?
To this I replied; You are wrong. Treason, terror, and the murder of police officers has no excuse. You are either with us as American patriots or against us; no one gets to sit this one out and be counted among the honorable, the moral, and the loyal.
Silence is complicity.
Such is the Talmudic principle, “Shtika Kehoda”, famously paraphrased by Einstein in his 1954 speech to the Chicago Decalogue Society as “If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity”, and referenced by Eli Weisel as “the opposite of love is not only hate, it is also indifference.”
Martin Luther King said it this way in Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story; “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
John Stuart Mill expressed a related idea in his 1867 Inaugural Address to the University of St. Andrews; “Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”
Leonardo da Vinci formulated it as resistance to tyranny, with which he was very familiar in the wars of dominion between the princes of Renaissance Italy; “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
Silence is complicity.
Should this concept require further clarification, please refer to the following recording and transcript of Elie Wiesel’s Millennium Lecture at the White House, on April 12 1999, hosted by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton:
Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, friends: Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe’s beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again.
Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion. Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know — that they, too, would remember, and bear witness.
And now, I stand before you, Mr. President — Commander-in-Chief of the army that freed me, and tens of thousands of others — and I am filled with a profound and abiding gratitude to the American people.
Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being. And I am grateful to you, Hillary — or Mrs. Clinton — for what you said, and for what you are doing for children in the world, for the homeless, for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society. And I thank all of you for being here.
We are on the threshold of a new century, a new millennium. What will the legacy of this vanishing century be? How will it be remembered in the new millennium? Surely it will be judged, and judged severely, in both moral and metaphysical terms. These failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity: two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of assassinations — Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin — bloodbaths in Cambodia and Nigeria, India and Pakistan, Ireland and Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Sarajevo and Kosovo; the inhumanity in the gulag and the tragedy of Hiroshima. And, on a different level, of course, Auschwitz and Treblinka. So much violence, so much indifference.
What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means “no difference.” A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.
What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Is it a philosophy? Is there a philosophy of indifference conceivable? Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one’s sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?
Of course, indifference can be tempting — more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.
Over there, behind the black gates of Auschwitz, the most tragic of all prisoners were the “Muselmanner,” as they were called. Wrapped in their torn blankets, they would sit or lie on the ground, staring vacantly into space, unaware of who or where they were, strangers to their surroundings. They no longer felt pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.
Rooted in our tradition, some of us felt that to be abandoned by humanity then was not the ultimate. We felt that to be abandoned by God was worse than to be punished by Him. Better an unjust God than an indifferent one. For us to be ignored by God was a harsher punishment than to be a victim of His anger. Man can live far from God — not outside God. God is wherever we are. Even in suffering? Even in suffering.
In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor — never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees — not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.
Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century’s wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.
In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps — and I’m glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance — but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.
And our only miserable consolation was that we believed that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire; that they had no knowledge of the war against the Jews that Hitler’s armies and their accomplices waged as part of the war against the Allies.
If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once.
And now we knew, we learned, we discovered that the Pentagon knew, the State Department knew. And the illustrious occupant of the White House then, who was a great leader — and I say it with some anguish and pain, because, today is exactly 54 years marking his death — Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April the 12th, 1945, so he is very much present to me and to us.
No doubt, he was a great leader. He mobilized the American people and the world, going into battle, bringing hundreds and thousands of valiant and brave soldiers in America to fight fascism, to fight dictatorship, to fight Hitler. And so many of the young people fell in battle. And, nevertheless, his image in Jewish history — I must say it — his image in Jewish history is flawed.
The depressing tale of the St. Louis is a case in point. Sixty years ago, its human cargo — maybe 1,000 Jews — was turned back to Nazi Germany. And that happened after the Kristallnacht, after the first state sponsored pogrom, with hundreds of Jewish shops destroyed, synagogues burned, thousands of people put in concentration camps. And that ship, which was already on the shores of the United States, was sent back.
I don’t understand. Roosevelt was a good man, with a heart. He understood those who needed help. Why didn’t he allow these refugees to disembark? A thousand people — in America, a great country, the greatest democracy, the most generous of all new nations in modern history. What happened? I don’t understand. Why the indifference, on the highest level, to the suffering of the victims?
But then, there were human beings who were sensitive to our tragedy. Those non-Jews, those Christians, that we called the “Righteous Gentiles,” whose selfless acts of heroism saved the honor of their faith. Why were they so few? Why was there a greater effort to save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war?
Why did some of America’s largest corporations continue to do business with Hitler’s Germany until 1942? It has been suggested, and it was documented, that the Wehrmacht could not have conducted its invasion of France without oil obtained from American sources. How is one to explain their indifference?
And yet, my friends, good things have also happened in this traumatic century: the defeat of Nazism, the collapse of communism, the rebirth of Israel on its ancestral soil, the demise of apartheid, Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt, the peace accord in Ireland. And let us remember the meeting, filled with drama and emotion, between Rabin and Arafat that you, Mr. President, convened in this very place. I was here and I will never forget it.
And then, of course, the joint decision of the United States and NATO to intervene in Kosovo and save those victims, those refugees, those who were uprooted by a man whom I believe that because of his crimes, should be charged with crimes against humanity. But this time, the world was not silent. This time, we do respond. This time, we intervene.
Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far? Is today’s justified intervention in Kosovo, led by you, Mr. President, a lasting warning that never again will the deportation, the terrorization of children and their parents be allowed anywhere in the world? Will it discourage other dictators in other lands to do the same?
What about the children? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the papers, and we do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine. Some of them — so many of them — could be saved.
And so, once again, I think of the young Jewish boy from the Carpathian Mountains. He has accompanied the old man I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.
Elie Wiesel – April 12, 1999”
As I wrote in my post of May 12 2021, Day Three of the Third Intifada: Israel Launches its Final Solution in a General Campaign Against the People of Palestine; As Hamas defends the people of Palestine in an exchange of rocket fire with Israel, Israel launches a general campaign of state terror in its Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem, unleashing the deniable assets of militarized hate groups with which it provoked this conflict in coordination with military conquest. This is a program of ethnic cleansing which echoes that of the Nakba, the 1948 expulsion and genocide of the Palestinians.
Fire, explosions, screams; the night is filled with the horror of erasure and annihilation, mass murder and the wailing of the families of the dead. Here is a hellscape out of Dante but for one thing; the victims are innocents, caught in the jaws of a fascist tyranny which denies their humanity.
And in America, President Joe Biden responds to the news of Israeli Blitzkrieg and Kristallnacht against Palestine, in which hundreds of civilian noncombatants are now dead including children, with the words; “Israel has the right to defend itself.”
Tell that to the dead children, America. Their blood is on your hands.
And the judgement of history will hold you responsible.
What of the right of Palestine to defend itself from Israeli terror and war?
There is no right of defense against a people you are Occupying.
Why does America subsidize a fascist tyranny of blood, faith, and soil in the state of Israel? This is about wealth and power, and oil as a strategic resource which confers it.
If the nations who own the oil unite in solidarity with the people of Palestine against the Israeli conquest and Occupation, America will have no choice but to disavow and abandon our colony and proxy state.
If we can expose the monster behind the Israeli mask of virtue conferred by its historical legacies of victimization, and hold America and its other sponsors and partner states complicit in its crimes against humanity as a rogue state, the community of nations will abandon their policies of collaboration.
Let us dream a new world, wherein all humankind are equal and the guarantee of universal human rights is real and not an illusion of lies which serve power.
In America we need only ask, do we really hold that all human beings are created equal, and endowed with equal and inalienable rights? If we answer yes, then we must repudiate and renounce the state of Israel, until it can be reimagined and transformed as a free society of equals.
We must pursue a policy of exposure of the state of Israel’s crimes against humanity, and unite as an international community in the Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanction of Israel and in political action in our respective nations.
And it is crucial to do so in partnership with the citizens of Israel who welcome their Palestinian brothers and sisters in a free society of equals, wherein divisions of faith, blood, language, and history are without meaning under the law.
We must forge a new Israel free of tyrannies of force and control and fascisms of blood, faith, and soil, free of its toxic military culture and carceral state, for along with the Palestinians who are enslaved under its Apartheid regime, its own citizens are also slaves of an unjust and unequal system.
Let us liberate Palestine and Israel, and let us liberate America from her complicity in evil.
12 במאי 2023 שירין אבו עקל’ה, שהיד בעדות ובעיתונות כקריאה קדושה במרדף אחר האמת
ביום השנה לרצח העיתונאית האהובה שירין אבו עקל’ה, אולי כשהשדים שלנו לוחשים על ידי צלף השייך ליחידת מבצעים שחורים נוכלים של סיירת צה”ל בעזה, סיירת חרוב, בפיקודו של סא”ל יניב בארות, כפיר. החטיבה, ופועלת בתיאום עם גורמי דובדבן הידועה לשמצה, יחידה 217 ללוחמה בטרור של חטיבת הקומנדו 89, שההיסטוריה שלה הומצאה בטלנובלה הישראלית “פאודה” הזמינה בנטפליקס, סוכני מבצעים מיוחדים אחרים והכי חשוב הנכסים החצי-צבאיים הניתנים להכחשה שכיום. לאיים לכשכש בכלב ולתפוס את השלטון מהממשלה האזרחית של ישראל, בואו נביא חשבון נפש.
במשך שנים רבות מלמדת תיכון אמי הייתה מרימה את האצבע העקומה שנשברה על ידי נזירה עם סרגל כדי להשתיק את שאלותיה בילדותה, ואז היא יצאה מבית הספר ומהכנסייה הקתולית ולא הביטה לאחור, והודיעה לכיתה עקרון הפעולה והחינוך הראשון שלה; “אנחנו לא שותקים.”
התשובה הטובה ביותר שלנו לרצח של עיתונאי על ידי כל מדינה היא לשאול שאלות ולדבר לעדות, ולעשות זאת יחד כפעולה המונית וסולידריות על פני כל חטיבות האמונה, הגזע, המגדר והזהות הלאומית כמאבק שחרור. כך אנו משחררים אחד את השני; על ידי אמיתות המוציאות דה-לגיטימציה לסמכות ולא בכוח.
רצח רבין ב-1995, שכמו גנדי נהרג על ידי אולטרה-לאומי בפעולה הראשונה של כיבוש המדינה על ידי משטר קולוניאליסטי טוטליטרי ואימפריאלי, כתקווה אבודה לדמוקרטיה בישראל.
על כך השבתי; כן, אבל זכור תמיד ידידי, שלמרות שמדינת ישראל מתגלה כעת מההיסטוריה הייחודית שלה, כישלונותיה אינם של זהות יהודית אלא אוניברסליים למין האנושי. עריצות היא שלב צפוי של מאבק אנטי-קולוניאלי, ונקבע על פי התנאים המוטלים עליו. כל כך מפתה, להיות פוסק המידות במרדף אחר הביטחון. אבל ביטחון הוא אשליה, ושימוש בכוח חברתי החתרן לדמוקרטיה ולערכים ולמטרות של חברה שבה אנחנו ערבים זה לזה לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות, ולא הסוהרים שלנו.
אני וחברי נלחמנו זמן רב למען החופש לענוד מגן דוד ללא חשש; לתפוס ולהחזיק בו ככוח ששולם בדם. יום אחד אזרחי ישראל ישחררו את עצמם; עד אז כל מה שאני יכול לעשות הוא לנסות לקנות זמן כדי שהעתיד הזה יתפתח, ולגונן על אלה שאני יכול מפני העלויות שלו כעריצות ואימה. אני מציע לשיקולך את הנחת היסוד שרבין היה בין 36 האנשים הטובים שגורל העולם תלוי בהם, ואת התקווה שנוכל לעמוד בדוגמה שלו.
לא לוותר דבר לאויב; לא סמלים או היסטוריות, ולא לנטוש שום דבר כדי ללכוד ולחתר את המשמעות בשירות לשלטון וזהויות מורשות כזיוף. זהות היא קרקע של מאבק, שבו מתחילות חירות או עריצות.
תמיד נשאר המאבק בין המסכות שאחרים עושים לנו לבין אלה שאנחנו עושים לעצמנו. זו המהפכה הראשונה שבה כולנו חייבים להילחם; תפיסת השלטון כבעלות על עצמנו.
Arabic
في هذه الذكرى السنوية لاغتيال الصحفية المحبوبة شيرين أبو عقله ، ربما بينما يهمس شياطيننا على يد قناص تابع لوحدة العمليات السوداء المارقة التابعة لوحدة الاستطلاع التابعة للجيش الإسرائيلي في غزة ، سيارت حاروف ، التي أعيد تأسيسها تحت قيادة المقدم يانيف باروت ، كفير. اللواء ، ويعمل بالتنسيق مع عناصر من Duvdevan سيئ السمعة ، وحدة مكافحة الإرهاب 217 من لواء الكوماندوز 89 ، الذي تم تخيل تاريخه في Telenovela Fauda الإسرائيلي المتاح على Netflix ، وعملاء العمليات الخاصة الآخرين ، والأهم من ذلك الأصول شبه العسكرية التي يمكن إنكارها والتي أصبحت الآن يهددون بهز الكلب والاستيلاء على السلطة من الحكومة المدنية لإسرائيل ، دعونا نجلب الحساب.
لسنوات عديدة أثناء التدريس في المدرسة الثانوية ، كانت والدتي ترفع إصبعها الملتوي المكسور بواسطة راهبة مع حاكم لإسكات أسئلتها عندما كانت طفلة ، وعندها خرجت من المدرسة والكنيسة الكاثوليكية ولم تنظر إلى الوراء أبدًا ، وتعلن للصف. مبدأها الأول في العمل والتعليم ؛ “نحن لسنا صامتين.”
أفضل رد لدينا على مقتل صحفي على يد أي دولة هو طرح الأسئلة والتحدث بشهادة ، والقيام بذلك معًا كعمل جماهيري وتضامن عبر جميع الانقسامات الدينية والعرقية والجنس والهوية الوطنية كنضال من أجل التحرر. هذه هي الطريقة التي نحرر بها بعضنا البعض. بالحقائق التي تنزع الشرعية عن السلطة وليس بالقوة.
في سياق الاحتلال الإسرائيلي وحملة الإرهاب ضد الشعب الفلسطيني ، قدّمت صديقة لها شهادتها في التاريخ حول سبب عدم ارتدائها لنجمة داود في أعقاب حرب الأيام الستة عام 1967 ، وكتبت عن اغتيال رابين عام 1995 ، الذي قُتل مثل غاندي على يد قوميين متطرفين في أول عمل للاستيلاء على الدولة من قبل نظام استعماري شمولي واستعماري ، كأمل ضائع في الديمقراطية في إسرائيل.
لقد أجبت على هذا. نعم ، لكن تذكر دائمًا يا صديقي ، أنه على الرغم من أن دولة إسرائيل تتكشف الآن من تاريخها الفريد ، فإن إخفاقاتها ليست فشل الهوية اليهودية بل عالمية للبشرية. الاستبداد هو مرحلة متوقعة من النضال المناهض للاستعمار ، وتحدده شروطه المفروضة. من المغري أن أكون حكم الفضيلة في السعي وراء الأمن. لكن الأمن وهم ، واستخدام القوة الاجتماعية المخربة للديمقراطية وقيم وأهداف مجتمع نكون فيه ضامنين لبعضنا البعض لحقوق الإنسان العالمية ، وليس سجناءنا.
كافحنا أنا وأصدقائي لفترة طويلة من أجل حرية ارتداء نجمة داود دون خوف. الاستيلاء عليها وامتلاكها كسلطة مدفوعة بالدم. في يوم من الأيام سيحرر مواطنو إسرائيل أنفسهم. حتى ذلك الحين ، كل ما يمكنني فعله هو محاولة كسب الوقت حتى يتكشف هذا المستقبل ، وحماية أولئك الذين أستطيع من تكاليفه مثل الاستبداد والرعب. أعرض عليكم فرضية أن رابين كان من بين 36 رجلاً صالحًا يعتمد عليهم مصير العالم ، ونأمل أن نرتقي إلى قدوته.
لا تتنازل عن أي شيء للعدو. لا رموز أو تواريخ ، ولا تتخلى عن أي شيء لالتقاط وتخريب المعنى في خدمة السلطة والهويات المصرح بها كتزوير. الهوية هي أرض الصراع ، حيث تبدأ الحرية أو الاستبداد.
لا يزال هناك دائمًا صراع بين الأقنعة التي يصنعها الآخرون لنا وتلك التي نصنعها لأنفسنا. هذه هي الثورة الأولى التي يجب أن نقاتل فيها جميعًا. الاستيلاء على السلطة كملكية لأنفسنا.
Both visitors to the Holy Land seeking signs of the Invisible manifest in its Disneyland of conflicted faiths and those trapped within its nightmare of walls, checkpoints, razor wire, pervasive surveillance, universalized violence, identitarian politics, and the tyranny and terror of one of our world’s most horrific regimes of force and control are here become the ghosts of the Holocaust; Israel echoes with the silent screams of stolen voices and the devouring shadows of a history weaponized in service to power as narratives of victimization and security as power, a strategy designed to first break our solidarity with division and fascisms of blood, faith, and soil as falsification and then dehumanize and subjugate us as masters and slaves and as genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Israel as a dream of refuge and of universal brotherhood and love has been betrayed and subverted by Israel as a xenophobic theocracy, military empire, and slave camp; here Auschwitz has been institutionalized on a national scale, its former prisoners now its guards.
Why would anyone choose to recreate a hell they had escaped from, even as its masters rather than its slaves?
I understand all too well the seduction of power as security in a world of hostile and chaotic forces, and how overwhelming and generalized fear can be shaped by authority to centralize power by offering us loaned power over Others as figures of existential threats; to be the arbiter of virtue through force and control. But security is an illusion, the state as embodied violence obeys Newton’s Third Law of Motion and creates its own Resistance, and our common pain unites us in ways which transcend the Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force, which only love can free us from.
Love as solidarity in action can redeem the flaws of our humanity and the brokenness of the world, Tikkun Olam in Hebrew, and liberate us to live as guarantors of each other’s humanity.
As I wrote on the first anniversary of the Third Intifada on this night two years ago; This must be the most written about, studied, debated, experimented with and fought over issue in global politics since the Second World War of which it is a result, this nation wherein one people are divided by history as Israelis and Palestinians, and a measure of our humanity, as the classic example of the double minority; what do you do with one city and one nation claimed by two historical communities, as a basis of identity as faith and nationality and the consequences and praxis of identity politics as violence?
Here a nation and a people are riven by dissociative identity disorder, conflicted and locked in titanic struggle as with the fragmentation of identity, memory, and consciousness of multiple personalities, madness on a national and civilizational scale born of the legacies of history and life disruptive events, epigenetic trauma, grief, terror, guilt, and despair.
In the duality of Israel and Palestine are made plain the origins of evil as violence and tyranny in the recursive and interdependent Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force, as overwhelming and generalized fear and existential threats are weaponized in service to power by authority, which forms carceral states of force and control as unequal power and embodied violence, through elite hierarchies and divisions of belonging and otherness and fascisms of blood, faith, and soil.
Here fascism as a systemic evil operates as possession and theft of the soul. What can we do about it? As Lenin asked in his essay of 1902; “What is to be done?” How free ourselves of the systemic forces of our subjugation to authority, elites, and those who would enslave us?
We must first recognize and be cautious of those who claim to speak for us and act in our name, for this is a primary strategy of fascism. To free ourselves of the lies and illusions, falsification and rewritten histories, conspiracy theories and alternate realities through which we become dehumanized, we must be truthtellers engaged in the pursuit of truth as a sacred calling, and perform the Four Primary Duties of a Citizen; Question Authority, Expose Authority, Mock Authority, and Challenge Authority.
We must second seize our self-ownership and autonomy in refusal to submit to authority, for the great secret of power is that it is empty and hollow, and is delegitimized through refusal to trust and believe authority, and of force that it is brittle and finds its limit at the point of disobedience. Simple acts, but also inherent powers of human being which cannot be taken from us; for who refuses to submit is free, and becomes Unconquerable.
Always there remains the struggle between the masks that others make for us, and those we make for ourselves. This is the first revolution in which we all must fight; the struggle for self-ownership and for freedom of identity.
There is no just authority.
Tonight I sit at home among the vast darkness of my hills, a night which follows days of rain and filled with the songs of frogs and birds, a serenity disturbed only by the chiaroscuro of my memories of this night one year ago, in the defense of al Aqsa. Like flashes of lightning, the hand of the past can bring the Chaos and reach out to seize and shake us, destabilizing us and our constructions of normality with unpredictable and sudden disruptive events unmoored from their anchorages in time.
But Chaos is also a measure of the adaptive range of a system, which brings both the terror of our nothingness and the joy of total freedom in our reimagination and transformative rebirth of ourselves and our limitless possibilities of becoming human.
Guillermo del Toro, in his magnificent epic of migration and racial equality Carnival Row, has a scene in which two young successors to leadership of traditionally rival factions find themselves in love and in need of allies in a subplot which reimages Romeo and Juliet; the rebellious hellion Jonah Breakspear asks his Machiavellian lover Sophie Longerbane, “Who is chaos good for?” To which she replies, “Chaos is good for us. Chaos is the great hope of the powerless.”
One may think of Bringing the Chaos in terms of the redemptive power of love, of solidarity, of our duty of care for others, of seizures of power as the restoration of balance, of Resistance and revolutionary struggle as placing our lives in the balance with those of the powerless and the dispossessed, the silenced and the erased, and as tikkun olam or healing the brokenness of the world.
In Jerusalem and al Quds, we are betrayed by the normality of submission to authority and the divisions of unequal power, dehumanized by those who commit atrocities in our name, and made complicit in crimes against humanity through narratives of victimization which as Voltaire teaches us permit anything.
Gott mitt uns; it is an ancient terror. And this we must resist.
Old myths, and old grievances, woven into the fabric of our psyche and our civilization. And like all history, memory, and authorized identity, mimetic forces from whose legacies we must emerge.
In this moment I turn once again to the brilliant diagnosis of the illness of power as captured identity as written by Alon Ben-Meirin in Huffpost, though his prescription of a two state system is debatable and for myself must be superseded in time with a secular state with one law for all and no official divisions of tribe, language, or faith, in an article entitled In The Grip Of Powerful Illusions; “The deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process appears to be illogical and unsettling as a majority of Israelis and Palestinians realize that coexistence, whether under conditions of enmity or friendship, is a fact that neither side can change short of a catastrophe.
The deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process appears to be illogical and unsettling as a majority of Israelis and Palestinians realize that coexistence, whether under conditions of enmity or friendship, is a fact that neither side can change short of a catastrophe. Both sides understand that the general parameters of a sustainable peace agreement must rest on a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with some land swaps. However, both sides choose to revel in illusions and live in defiance of time and circumstances. They seem to prefer continuing violent clashes and bloodshed over peaceful coexistence, while blaming each other for the unending destructive path that tragically both have chosen to travel.
There are fundamental imperatives, coupled with long-term mutual security measures, which represent what was on the negotiating table in 2000 at Camp David and in 2010/2011 and 2013/2014 under the Obama administration’s auspices in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Each round, with various degrees of progress, aimed at finalizing an agreement and yet ultimately failed to do so. The question is: why?
Biased and selective perceptions, reinforced by historical experiences, religion, and incompatible ideologies, have locked both sides into immobile positions. The factors that maintain and enhance these patterns include emotions such as fear, distrust, and insecurity. The psychological outcome is mutual denial of the narrative of the other and mutual delegitimization.
Put together, the operative result is stagnation and polarization. What is therefore needed is a consensus-oriented dialogue at the leadership level by both officials and non-officials, and people-to-people interactions, to resolve the issue of perception – a tall order given the current environment that buttresses rather than ameliorates prejudiced perceptions.
There are certain psychological concepts which are relevant to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the concept of illusion is an essential one. In The Future of an Illusion, Freud offers the following definition: “…we call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfillment is a prominent factor in its motivation, and in doing so we disregard its relations to reality, just as the illusion itself sets no store by verification.”
What is characteristic of illusions is that: 1) they are derived from deep human wishes, and 2) the belief is held (or would be held) in the absence of any compelling evidence, or good rational grounds, on its behalf.
It is impossible to deny that both Israelis and Palestinians are in the grip of very powerful illusions which only serve to prolong the conflict and prevent any mutual understanding. In particular, the belief shared by many Israelis that they have a biblical right to the land (including Judea and Samaria) and that God gave it to the Jews in perpetuity is undoubtedly an illusion of yesterday.
This belief is not affirmed because there is real evidence that God deemed it to be (although two Jewish kingdoms did exist–the first in the tenth century BCE and the second beginning in 539 BCE–on the same land), but because it satisfies a deep-seated psychological need for a God-given Jewish homeland.
The belief that by expanding the settlements Israel will augment its national security and maintain its hold on the entire land is an illusion of tomorrow, which generally ignores the presence of Muslims in the same land for more than 1,300 years.
It is important to note how these illusions sustain and reinforce one another, and constitute a psychological barrier which is much more impervious to critical reflection. Israel’s illusions have served to create the logic for occupation.
The Palestinians, for their part, are not without their own illusions. They also believe that God has reserved the land for them, and appeal to the fact that they had inhabited the land for centuries. From their perspective, the presence of the al-Aqsa Mosque, which was built in 705 AD in Jerusalem, attests to their historical and religious affinity to the Holy City.
They also cling to the idea that they will someday return to the land of their forbearers, as they have and continue to insist on the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, even though this has become a virtual impossibility.
The Palestinians hold fast to their illusions of yesterday and tomorrow just as blindly and desperately as the Israelis, which leads to resistance to and fear of change. As such, unless both sides change course and accept each other’s affinity to the same land, specifically because it is religiously-based, the situation is bound to lead to a catastrophe.
This has contributed to making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict both chronic and intractable, as the various illusions are continuously and consciously nurtured by daily hostile and often violent encounters between the two sides.
In seeking to bridge concepts that could link between the domains of psychology and politics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it could be proposed that a collective mutual resistance to change (both conscious and deliberate, and inner unconscious) protects a vulnerable identity.
Compared, for example, to the stable and mature political identities of the American, British, and French nations, the political identities of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples are, in a way, in their adolescence.
Identities in this setting are more vulnerable, and the protagonists are naturally more defensive and resistant to change. By its very nature, the players must find it difficult (if not impossible) to articulate this publicly, as to do so is to admit to this vulnerability.
The concept of psychological resistance to change may well affect the political setting in general and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular; it is closely connected to perceptions at many levels and provides protection for vulnerable identity formation.
It is this mindset, strengthened by historical experiences, which transcends the more than seven decades since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began. Individuals and groups, Israelis and Palestinians alike, have and continue to interpret the nature of the discord between them as “you versus me” in a prejudiced and selective way.
In turn, this has stifled any new information and enabled the continuing resistance to change, which could shed new light on the nature and substance of the conflict and help advance the peace process.
The concept of unconscious resistance to change in this setting links well to the view of perceptions driving the polarization in the conflict. Historical experience, which formulates perceptions, serves among other things to enhance the sense of identity of “who we really are,” a formative collective assumption that sits at the bedrock of both key players and drives functional and dysfunctional behavior.
In principle, such a mindset prevents either side from entertaining new ideas that might lead to compromises for a peaceful solution. The paradox here is that majorities on both sides do want and seek peace, knowing full well that this would require significant concessions, but are unable to reconcile the required concessions with imbedded perceptions that have precluded these compromises as a result of resistance to and fear of change.
Therefore, any framework for peace must include provisions that would dramatically increase the odds in favor of a solution. First, both sides need to commit to reaching an agreement based on a two-state solution out of the conviction that change, which translates to coexistence, is inevitable. Therefore, they ought to adjust to each other’s requirements, which of necessity requires them to make significant concessions.
Second, to facilitate that, they must undertake reconciliatory people-to-people social, economic, cultural, and security interactions to mitigate their resistance to change, which must begin, at a minimum, one year before the negotiations commence to create the psychological and political atmosphere to cultivate the trust necessary for substantive and successful peace negotiations.
The resumption of peace talks will go nowhere unless Israelis and Palestinians change their prejudiced perception and resistance to and fear of change, and finally come to the realization that their fate is intertwined and neither can live in peace and security without the other.
I feel compelled to conclude my last article for the year with a dire warning that both Israelis and Palestinians alike will do well to ponder upon as they approach the end of the seventh decade of their tragic conflict.
Every Israeli extremist and Palestinian militant, those who want it all must stop and think where Israel and the Palestinians will be in ten years if the current situation persists?
Your illusions of today will not become a reality of tomorrow, and what tomorrow will bring is nothing but more pain, tears, and agony.
Your conflict is evolving ever faster into a religious war. A Muslim-Jewish Armageddon is in the making that will set the whole region on unfathomable fire.
If you are true believers, dare not defy God’s will, for he has thrust you together to put you to the test–you must either live in peace and harmony, or you will be condemned to oblivion and despair.
You possess the power to choose your own destiny. Will it be self-destruction or will it be the fulfilment of a glorious dream?
Rise up and pass a legacy of hope to every Israeli and Palestinian child, for they have the God-given right to grow up and prosper and none should die for your illusions in vain.”
As I wrote in my post of November 9 2023, A Mirror of Our Darkness: Kristallnact; Israel is commemorating this tragedy which opened a door to an even greater tragedy in the Holocaust by doing exactly the same thing to the Palestinians, one people divided by history and faith weaponized in service to power. And this too will open doors to greater state terror and tyranny, unless both peoples can unite against authorities who commit atrocities in their name as a strategy of subjugation and liberate each other from those who would enslave them.
If you think of nations as children who are survivors of abuse, much becomes clear; for once they have seized power they are far more likely to become abusers themselves. This is how fear works, why it is the true basis of exchange, why politics is the Art of Fear, and why states are embodied violence. Both Israelis and Palestinians have been savaged by existential threats long before they began savaging, brutalizing, and dehumanizing each other.
That predatory regimes on both sides have used division and identity politics to centralize power and legitimize authoritarian dominion is a predictable phase of liberation struggle, especially of anti-colonial revolution.
The trick of becoming human, friends, is to embrace ones own darkness in struggle as well as one’s enemies, and emerge from the legacies of our history which shadow us like an invisible crocodile tail.
There is a line spoken by the villain in the series The Magicians, a survivor of childhood abuse and tyrant known as The Beast for his horrific crimes, once the powerless and terrified boy Martin Chatwin and now a monstrous god; “You know, when I was a boy, a man who was meant to care for me bent me over his desk and had me over and over every time I was alone with him. It helps me understand a truth. You’re powerful or you’re weak. “
Here is the original lie of the tyrant and the fascist in the apologetics, self-justification, and psychopathy of power; the lie that only power has meaning and is real, that there is no good or evil. How we use power is of equal importance as who holds it. Fear and force are a primary means of human exchange, but not the only means; love, membership, and belonging are as important.
It’s a line which captures perfectly the inherent contradictions of the Wagnerian Ring of fear, power, and force as an origin of evil; for the use of social force is subversive of its own values. Yet the imposed conditions of revolutionary struggle often require violence, and until the gods of law and order have been cast down from their thrones I must agree with the famous dictum of Sartre in his 1948 play Dirty Hands, quoted by Frantz Fanon in his 1960 speech Why We Use Violence, and made immortal by Malcolm X; “by any means necessary.”
As written by Walter Rodney in The Groundings with my Brothers; “We were told that violence in itself is evil, and that, whatever the cause, it is unjustified morally. By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master? By what standards can we equate the violence of blacks who have been oppressed, suppressed, depressed and repressed for four centuries with the violence of white fascists. Violence aimed at the recovery of human dignity and at equality cannot be judged by the same yardstick as violence aimed at maintenance of discrimination and oppression.”
And here is the passage he references from Leon Trotsky in Their Morals and Ours: The Class Foundations of Moral Practice; “A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains – let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!”
Yet in reflection I think of those great figures who have been both heroes of liberation and villains of tyranny; my teenage role model Napoleon, Washington who is central to our family history and coined the motto on our coat of arms in the passcode during the Battle of Trenton, Victory or Death, when the whole Revolution was wagered on a forlorn hope, of the tragic drama of fallen heroes like Robert Mugabe, the monstrous tyrants Stalin and Mao, the list is a near endless litany of woes and failures of vision wherein Brave New Worlds became hells and carceral states. In evidence I offer the American and Napoleonic Revolutions become Empires, the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist Party, India where the glory of liberation come hand in hand with the tragedy of Partition and is now under the boot of Hindu Nationalism, nearly all anticolonial revolutions which with the first period of liberty as new nations became dreadful tyrannies, and above all the state of Israel, a dream of refuge forged in the terror of the Holocaust whose victims learned the wrong lessons from the Nazis and assumed their role in the Occupation of Palestine. The dangers of Idealism are very real; but so are the dangers of submission to authority and the complicity of silence in the face of evil.
I am a hunter of fascists, and mine is a hunter’s morality. For me there is a simple test for the use of force; who holds power?
A great many wise people have written beautifully of the horrors of fascisms of blood, faith, and soil and of hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness, as does Paul Oestreicher in the article which follows; herein I wish only to signpost that the forces which lie both within us and without as social conditions and epigenetic trauma, of atavisms of barbarism and systems of oppression, are universal to human beings as imposed conditions of struggle and operate continually even when obscured from view, beyond the horror and abjection of points of fracture of the human soul like those of Kristallnacht and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
I write to you as one who has lived by the battle cry of Never Again! for over forty years now, and it is of deep and vital importance to apply this principle of action not only in Resistance to fascism as an intrusive enemy of all that is human in us, but also to ourselves and our own use of violence and social force toward others.
In the end, all that matters is what we do with our fear, and how we use our power.
No matter where you begin with divisions and hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness, you always end up at the gates of Auschwitz.
As Nietzsche teaches us in Beyond Good and Evil; “Those who hunt monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
In the dark mirror of Gaza, with its monstrous reflections of Kristallnacht and of Auschwitz, do you like what you see, O Israel?
As I wrote in my post of May 10 2021, The Defense of al Aqsa: Liberty versus Tyranny in Jerusalem; We may have witnessed the advent of a Third Intifada this night, in the Defense of al Aqsa and the street fighting in Gaza which followed, ignited by the perfidy and imperial conquest of a xenophobic and fascist state of Israel which regards no one but their own tribe and faith as truly human, and which has perpetrated an unprovoked and deadly attack as an act of state terror and a crime against humanity on the peaceful worshippers at one of the most sacred mosques in the Islamic world, a demonstration of power and dominion which follows weeks of provocations, assaults, and acts of propagandistic dehumanization against the people of Palestine.
Like the Second or al Aqsa Intifada which lasted four years from 28 September 2000 to 8 February 2005, unresolved issues of an Occupation now in its fifty fourth year since the June 7 1967 Conquest of Old Jerusalem by Israel, which the State of Israel celebrated according to the Hebrew calendar as Jerusalem Day today by attacking al Aqsa, and a Catastrophe ongoing now for seventy three years since Nakba Day May 15 1948, have coalesced around the symbolic value of al Aqsa, which has a contested dual identity as the Temple Mount in Judaism.
Chances of de-escalation and averting a war depend now not on local factors but on the response of the international community, for history has here become a trap which collapses to ensnare us in its jaws, and outside forces must liberate us from the failures of our system’s internal contradictions.
Will America disavow and renounce its colony of Israel, Queen of her imperial policy in the Middle East and control of the strategic resource of oil? Can international unity and the pressure of Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanction free us from the tyranny and terror of an Apartheid regime as it did in South Africa?
Or is war the only reckoning humankind can offer, or will accept?
As written by Ishaan Tharoor in The Washington Post; “On Monday night, militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military exchanged rocket fire and airstrikes amid a deadly escalation of violence. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, armed groups based in blockaded Gaza, launched a barrage of rockets that landed near Jerusalem and in parts of southern Israel, injuring at least one person. Israeli airstrikes in retaliation killed at least 20 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, including nine children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “terrorist groups” in Gaza had “crossed a red line” with their rocket attacks. But the latest explosion of hostilities has a long tail, following numerous aggressive actions by both Israeli security forces and far-right Jewish supremacist groups in Jerusalem. Two weeks ago, bands of Jewish extremists, including some settlers from the West Bank, marched through Palestinian-populated areas of the holy city, chanting “Death to Arabs,” attacking bystanders and damaging Palestinian property and homes. Israeli attempts to evict a number of Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah — a microcosm of what Palestinians view as part of a long history of dispossession and erasure at the hands of the Israeli state — had stirred Palestinian solidarity protests in various parts of the occupied territories and Israel proper.
It also raised tensions ahead of the commemoration of Jerusalem Day on Monday, an official Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of the city during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. A planned annual march by far-right ultranationalist Israelis was called off after authorities rerouted its path at the last minute. Large numbers still made their way to the Western Wall and sang an extremist vengeance song against Palestinians.
“The Hamas rocket attacks, which included the first strikes against Jerusalem in several years, came after running clashes among Israeli police, Palestinian protesters and far-right Jewish Israelis around the Old City,” my colleagues reported. “Among the hundreds injured were seven who were hospitalized in serious condition, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Video footage circulated on social media of Israeli police officers brutally beating a detained Palestinian man.”
How can America support the state of Israel in tyranny and terror, conquest and plunder? It’s a question asked in tones of outrage, sorrow, and bafflement since the advent of the Nakba on May 15 1948, the Day of Catastrophe which began the Occupation of Palestine and the systematic enslavement and genocide of its people in the wake of the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem. How is this legitimized?
A friend has recently reframed this question for me; “I loved and embraced the Jewish tradition, joining a synagogue and working alongside its Rabbi. When I witness the treatment of Palestinians by the Jewish government of Israel, I am overwhelmed by feelings of confusion and anger. Unable to reconcile this immorality, I question the very foundation of my faith. Where is the good and moral uprising of international Jewish voices condemning the government’s path? I’ve lost faith in being Jewish.”
What is clear to me is that this crisis of faith is also an existential crisis of identity, a situation of utmost gravity and danger which also holds the potential for reimagination and transformative rebirth, a personal echo of a parallel civilizational crisis from which humankind and the global community of nations must find a way to emerge and free ourselves of the legacies of our history. Here is my reply:
The state of Israel is not identical with the Jewish faith, though the fascist-imperialist faction which Netanyahu represents would like everyone to think so.
A nation based on the assignment of its citizens to a tribal identity, the sectarian weaponization of faith in service to power and an authorized national identity, a military society with universal compulsory service and a pervasive fetishization of myths of martial valor and its symbols including guns, and a reconstructed Hebrew language of national unity has used identity politics to subjugate its citizens to the centralized power of tyranny; Israel is a fascist state of blood, faith, and soil no less than that of the Nazis.
Add to this toxic mix a kleptocratic regime which has propagandized narratives of historical victimization to legitimize massive theft and imperial conquest of other people’s nations and one thing is clear; Israel has learned the wrong lessons from the Nazis.
You may know from my many references to the incident in my writing that I am an antifascist, sworn to the Oath of the Resistance by Jean Genet in 1982 in Beirut, during our fight against the Israeli invasion and siege. In the 39 years after, I have been a hunter of Nazis and a revolutionary of democracy engaged in struggle for the liberation of humankind against tyranny and authoritarian regimes of force and control.
A Palestinian homeland, and justice for its people, has been among my goals since that summer so long ago. Like the goal of liberation of Ireland from British colonial rule, it remains to be achieved. In question is the idea of freedom and citizenship as the sovereignty and independence of peoples from foreign colonialism and authoritarian tyranny, and the primacy of a nonsectarian state free from divisions and hierarchies of faith, for who stands between each of us and the Infinite serves neither.
I also support the idea of an Israeli homeland, and see no reason these two states, Palestine and Israeli, should be mutually exclusive or antagonistic. Some Israelis who would disagree with me on the question of Palestine and militarism in imperial conquest and regional dominion have been allies in the cause of hunting Nazis and fascists generally throughout the world, but are blind to their own complicity in this evil due to seeing themselves as victims rather than perpetrators of crimes against humanity. This is about fear, and the destructive cycle of abuse and violence.
When faith is appropriated by authority for legitimation in identity politics, identity itself becomes confused and ambiguous. To become free, we must seize ownership of ourselves as self-created and autonomous beings.
This is why the primary duties of a citizen are to question authority, expose authority, mock authority, and challenge authority.
Always there remains the struggle between the masks others make for us and those we make for ourselves; this is the first revolution in which we all must fight.
I think of the problem of human evil and its cycle of fear, power, and force in the case of states which become the tyrannies they fought to liberate themselves from, and this is true of anticolonial revolutionary states generally because of the historical legacies of victimization, in this way; victims often become abusers because their identity is organized around power as the only means of escape in a world wherein no one can be trusted.
When trust has been abrogated and proven empty and without meaning, when the capacity to bond with and feel the pain of others in empathy has been broken and one is without pity or remorse, when fear is overwhelming and generalized and has been shaped by authority to the service of power, victims learn that only power has meaning and is real. We must not allow our abusers to become our teachers.
While every such issue has its own unique origins and history, the problem itself is universal, and relates to what one fears, and how that fear is shaped by authority as identity. From our perspective as Americans interpreting events in the classic problem of the double minority typified by Israel and Palestine, how we perceive issues has much to do with how they are framed by our informing and motivating sources.
In the end we are defined by what we do with our fear, and how we use our power.
The first question to ask of any story, and the most important, is simple; whose story is this?
We are lost in a Wilderness of Mirrors, of lies and illusions, falsifications of ourselves, distorted images and reflections, echoes and authorized identities which disfigure, disempower, and steal our souls.
How shall we answer those who would enslave us? Our authenticity and autonomy is realized through seizure of power, and the reimagination and transformation of ourselves and humankind as a free society of equals.
We Americans tend to see things in terms of white hats and black hats, as in the Western films which serve as origin myths and archetypes of our national character. Once victim status has been conferred, such groups and persons become white hats and good guys, incapable of evil and diametrically opposed to whomever must then be black hats. It’s a terrible way of choosing national policy.
Sadly, we humans can be good and evil at once, the flaws of our humanity echo and reflect the brokenness of the world. It is a truth proven once again tonight in al Quds or Jerusalem depending on to whom one is speaking and in what language, as Gaza burns from the onslaught of an Israeli Defense Forces run amok much the same as the night almost four decades ago in Beirut when they tried to burn Genet and I alive in our café, as a dozen human beings from whom everything but hope has been stolen swear vows to each other to hold a position covering the escape of the women and children trapped by the Israeli attack until all are safe, in a final defense not of al Aqsa Mosque, magnificent and beautiful and filled with significance, monument to the human impulse to reach beyond ourselves and to the limitless possibilities of becoming human, a stage fit for the glorious deaths of heroes, but of the disembodied screams of strangers among the nameless warrens of a derelict antiquity.
Against the chasms of emptiness and nihilistic barbarism of a world of darkness and fire, of fear and force, I have only words to offer, and I write to you what I have said to my comrades who have chosen to stand with me; I’ve lost count of Last Stands, but I’ve risked everything against impossible odds and survived more times than I can remember, and all that matters is that we abandon neither ourselves nor one another, that we refuse to submit, for this is the moment of our freedom, and it can never be taken from us.
From this night, Palestine is free, for we can be killed, but we cannot be conquered.
On the Origins of Evil and Our Monstrosity: a portrait of Hitler and Netanyahu in the character of Martin Chatwin in The Magicians
Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, by Slavoj Žižek
10 مايو 2024 ذكرى الانتفاضة الثالثة لعام 2021، الجارية الآن في المسرح العاشر للحرب العالمية الثالثة التي تحتوي وتحل محل حرب غزة
يسعى كل من زوار الأرض المقدسة إلى ظهور علامات غير مرئية في ديزني لاند التي تضم أديانًا متضاربة وأولئك المحاصرين داخل كابوس الجدران ونقاط التفتيش والأسلاك الشائكة والمراقبة المنتشرة والعنف العالمي وسياسات الهوية والطغيان والإرهاب في أحد بلداننا. إن أفظع أنظمة القوة والسيطرة في العالم أصبحت هنا أشباح الهولوكوست؛ تردد صدى إسرائيل مع الصرخات الصامتة للأصوات المسروقة والظلال المفترسة لتاريخ تم تسليحه في خدمة السلطة كسرديات عن الإيذاء والأمن كقوة، وهي استراتيجية مصممة أولاً لكسر تضامننا مع الانقسام وفاشية الدم والعقيدة والتربة كما التزوير ومن ثم تجريدنا من إنسانيتنا وإخضاعنا كأسياد وعبيد وإبادة جماعية وتطهير عرقي.
لقد تعرضت إسرائيل، باعتبارها حلم اللجوء والأخوة والمحبة العالمية، للخيانة والتخريب من قبل إسرائيل باعتبارها دولة دينية كارهة للأجانب، وإمبراطورية عسكرية، ومعسكرًا للعبيد؛ وهنا تم إضفاء الطابع المؤسسي على أوشفيتز على نطاق وطني، وأصبح سجناؤه السابقون الآن حراسه.
لماذا يختار أي شخص إعادة خلق الجحيم الذي هرب منه، حتى لو كان أسياده وليس عبيده؟
إنني أفهم جيدًا إغراء القوة كأمن في عالم مليء بالقوى المعادية والفوضوية، وكيف يمكن تشكيل الخوف الساحق والمعمم من خلال السلطة لمركزية السلطة من خلال منحنا سلطة معارة على الآخرين كرموز للتهديدات الوجودية؛ ليكون حكم الفضيلة من خلال القوة والسيطرة. لكن الأمن وهم، والدولة كعنف متجسد تطيع قانون نيوتن الثالث للحركة وتخلق مقاومتها الخاصة، وألمنا المشترك يوحدنا بطرق تتجاوز حلقة فاغنر من الخوف والقوة والقوة، والتي لا يمكن أن يحررنا إلا الحب. من.
الحب كتضامن في العمل يمكن أن يخلص عيوب إنسانيتنا وانكسارات العالم، تيكون أولام بالعبرية، ويحررنا لنعيش كضامنين لإنسانية بعضنا البعض.
وكما كتبت في الذكرى الأولى للانتفاضة الثالثة في مثل هذه الليلة قبل عامين؛ يجب أن تكون هذه هي القضية الأكثر كتابةً ودراسةً ومناقشةً وتجريبًا وخوضًا حولها في السياسة العالمية منذ الحرب العالمية الثانية التي كانت نتيجة لها، هذه الأمة التي يقسم فيها التاريخ شعبًا واحدًا إلى إسرائيليين وفلسطينيين، ومقياسًا إنسانيتنا، كمثال كلاسيكي للأقلية المزدوجة؛ ماذا تفعل بمدينة واحدة وأمة واحدة يطالب بها مجتمعان تاريخيان، كأساس للهوية كإيمان وجنسية وعواقب وممارسة سياسات الهوية كعنف؟
هنا أمة وشعب يمزقهما اضطراب الهوية الانفصامية، متضاربان ومنغلقان في صراع هائل كما هو الحال مع تجزئة الهوية والذاكرة والوعي لشخصيات متعددة، والجنون على المستوى الوطني والحضاري المولود من تراث التاريخ ومعطل الحياة الأحداث، والصدمة اللاجينية، والحزن، والرعب، والشعور بالذنب، واليأس.
في ازدواجية إسرائيل وفلسطين، تتضح أصول الشر كالعنف والطغيان في حلقة فاغنري المتكررة والمترابطة من الخوف والقوة والقوة، حيث يتم استخدام الخوف الساحق والمعمم والتهديدات الوجودية كسلاح في خدمة السلطة عن طريق السلطة. والتي تشكل حالات القوة والسيطرة الجسيمية كقوة غير متكافئة وعنف متجسد، من خلال التسلسلات الهرمية النخبوية وتقسيمات الانتماء والغيرية وفاشية الدم والإيمان والتربة.
هنا الفاشية كشر نظامي تعمل كحيازة وسرقة للروح. مالذي يمكننا فعله حيال هذا؟ وكما سأل لينين في مقالته عام 1902؛ “ما الذي يجب عمله؟” كيف نحرر أنفسنا من القوى النظامية لخضوعنا للسلطة والنخب وأولئك الذين يريدون استعبادنا؟
يجب علينا أولاً أن ندرك ونحذر من أولئك الذين يدعون أنهم يتحدثون باسمنا ويتصرفون باسمنا، فهذه هي الإستراتيجية الأساسية للفاشية. لتحرير أنفسنا من الأكاذيب والأوهام، والتزييف وإعادة كتابة التاريخ، ونظريات المؤامرة والحقائق البديلة التي من خلالها نصبح مجردين من إنسانيتنا، يجب أن نكون رواة للحقيقة ونشارك في السعي وراء الحقيقة باعتبارها دعوة مقدسة، ونؤدي الواجبات الأساسية الأربعة للمواطن؛ سلطة السؤال، وسلطة الكشف، وسلطة المحاكاة، وسلطة التحدي.
يجب علينا ثانيًا أن نستغل ملكيتنا الذاتية واستقلالنا في رفض الخضوع للسلطة، لأن السر الأعظم للسلطة هو أنها فارغة وجوفاء، ويتم فقدان شرعيتها من خلال رفض الثقة في السلطة والتصديق بها، والقوة هي هشة وهشة. ويجد حدوده عند نقطة العصيان. أفعال بسيطة، ولكنها أيضًا قوى متأصلة في الإنسان لا يمكن أن تؤخذ منا؛ لأن من يرفض الخضوع فهو حر، ولا يُقهر.
دائمًا يبقى الصراع بين الأقنعة التي يصنعها الآخرون لنا، وتلك التي نصنعها لأنفسنا. هذه هي الثورة الأولى التي نحن جميعا فيها
جب أن يقاتل؛ النضال من أجل الملكية الذاتية وحرية الهوية.
لا توجد سلطة عادلة.
الليلة أجلس في منزلي وسط الظلام الدامس لتلالي، ليلة تتبع أيامًا من المطر ومليئة بأغاني الضفادع والطيور، هدوء لا يزعجه إلا ضوء الضوء في ذكرياتي عن هذه الليلة قبل عام، في الدفاع. الأقصى. مثل ومضات البرق، يمكن ليد الماضي أن تجلب الفوضى وتمتد لتسيطر علينا وتهزنا، وزعزعة استقرارنا واستقرارنا وبنياتنا الطبيعية من خلال أحداث مدمرة مفاجئة وغير متوقعة غير مربوطة بمرتكزاتها في الوقت المناسب.
لكن الفوضى هي أيضًا مقياس للمدى التكيفي للنظام، الذي يجلب كلاً من الرعب من عدمنا ومتعة الحرية الكاملة في إعادة تصورنا وإعادة ميلادنا التحويلي لأنفسنا وإمكانياتنا اللامحدودة في أن نصبح بشرًا.
لدى غييرمو ديل تورو، في ملحمته الرائعة عن الهجرة والمساواة العرقية كرنفال رو، مشهد يجد فيه شابان خلفاء لقيادة الفصائل المتنافسة تقليديًا نفسيهما في حالة حب وبحاجة إلى حلفاء في حبكة فرعية تعيد تصوير روميو وجولييت؛ يسأل الجحيم المتمرد جونا بريكسبير عشيقته المكيافيلية صوفي لونجيربان: “لمن تصلح الفوضى؟” فأجابت: “الفوضى جيدة لنا. الفوضى هي الأمل العظيم للضعفاء.”
قد يفكر المرء في جلب الفوضى من حيث القوة الخلاصية للحب، والتضامن، وواجبنا في رعاية الآخرين، والاستيلاء على السلطة كاستعادة للتوازن، والمقاومة والنضال الثوري كوضع حياتنا في التوازن مع أولئك الذين لا حول لهم ولا قوة والمحرومين، والمُسكتين والممحيين، وtikkun olam أو شفاء انكسار العالم.
في القدس والقدس، نتعرض للخيانة بسبب طبيعة الخضوع للسلطة والانقسامات غير المتكافئة للسلطة، ويتم تجريدنا من إنسانيتنا من قبل أولئك الذين يرتكبون الفظائع باسمنا، ويصبحون متواطئين في جرائم ضد الإنسانية من خلال روايات الإيذاء التي يسمح بها كما يعلمنا فولتير. أي شئ.
حصلت على قفاز غيرنا. إنه إرهاب قديم. وهذا يجب أن نقاومه.
الأساطير القديمة، والمظالم القديمة، منسوجة في نسيج نفسيتنا وحضارتنا. ومثل كل التاريخ والذاكرة والهوية المعتمدة، تحاكي القوى التي يجب أن نخرج من تراثها.
في هذه اللحظة، أعود مرة أخرى إلى التشخيص الرائع لمرض السلطة باعتبارها هوية مستولى عليها، كما كتب ألون بن ميرين في هافبوست، على الرغم من أن وصفه لنظام الدولتين مثير للنقاش، وبالنسبة لي يجب استبداله بمرور الوقت بنظام علماني. دولة بقانون واحد للجميع وبدون تقسيمات رسمية للقبيلة أو اللغة أو العقيدة، في مقال بعنوان “في قبضة الأوهام القوية”؛ “يبدو أن الطريق المسدود الذي وصلت إليه عملية السلام الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية غير منطقي ومثير للقلق، حيث أن غالبية الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين يدركون أن التعايش، سواء في ظل ظروف العداء أو الصداقة، هو حقيقة لا يمكن لأي من الطرفين تغييرها إلا بحدوث كارثة.
يبدو أن الطريق المسدود الذي وصلت إليه عملية السلام الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية غير منطقي ومثير للقلق، حيث أن أغلبية من الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين يدركون أن التعايش، سواء في ظل ظروف من العداء أو الصداقة، يشكل حقيقة لا يستطيع أي من الطرفين أن يغيرها إلا بالكارثة. ويدرك الجانبان أن المعايير العامة لاتفاق سلام مستدام يجب أن ترتكز على حل الدولتين على أساس حدود 1967 مع بعض تبادل الأراضي. لكن كلا الطرفين اختار الاستمتاع بالأوهام والعيش في تحدي الزمن والظروف. ويبدو أنهما يفضلان استمرار الاشتباكات العنيفة وإراقة الدماء على التعايش السلمي، في حين يلقي كل منهما اللوم على الآخر في المسار المدمر الذي لا ينتهي والذي اختار كل منهما أن يسلكه بشكل مأساوي.
هناك ضرورات أساسية، مقرونة بتدابير أمنية متبادلة طويلة الأمد، تمثل ما كان على طاولة المفاوضات في عام 2000 في كامب ديفيد وفي 2010/2011 و2013/2014 تحت رعاية إدارة أوباما في القدس ورام الله. وكانت كل جولة، بدرجات متفاوتة من التقدم، تهدف إلى وضع اللمسات النهائية على الاتفاق، لكنها فشلت في نهاية المطاف في القيام بذلك. السؤال هو: لماذا؟
وكانت التصورات المتحيزة والانتقائية، والتي عززتها التجارب التاريخية، والدين، والإيديولوجيات غير المتوافقة، سبباً في حبس كلا الجانبين في مواقف جامدة. وتشمل العوامل التي تحافظ على هذه الأنماط وتعززها المشاعر مثل الخوف وعدم الثقة وانعدام الأمن. والنتيجة النفسية هي الإنكار المتبادل لسردية الآخر ونزع الشرعية المتبادلة.
والنتيجة العملية مجتمعة هي الركود والاستقطاب. ولذلك فإن ما نحتاج إليه هو حوار موجه نحو الإجماع على مستوى القيادة بين المسؤولين وغير المسؤولين، والتفاعلات بين الناس، لحل مسألة التصور – وهي مهمة صعبة نظراً للبيئة الحالية التي تدعم التحيز بدلاً من تحسينه. التصورات.
هناك بعض المفاهيم النفسية ذات الصلة بفهم العلاقة الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية
فلكت؛ مفهوم الوهم هو مفهوم أساسي. في كتابه مستقبل الوهم، يقدم فرويد التعريف التالي: “… نحن نسمي الاعتقاد وهمًا عندما يكون تحقيق الرغبة عاملاً بارزًا في دوافعه، وبذلك نتجاهل علاقاته بالواقع، تمامًا كما الوهم في حد ذاته لا يشكل أي أهمية للتحقق.”
ما يميز الأوهام هو: 1) أنها مستمدة من رغبات إنسانية عميقة، و2) الاعتقاد قائم (أو سيتم الاعتقاد به) في غياب أي دليل مقنع، أو أسس عقلانية جيدة، لصالحه.
من المستحيل إنكار أن كلا من الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين يقعون في قبضة أوهام قوية للغاية لا تؤدي إلا إلى إطالة أمد الصراع ومنع أي تفاهم متبادل. وعلى وجه الخصوص، فإن الاعتقاد الذي يتقاسمه العديد من الإسرائيليين بأن لديهم حق كتابي في الأرض (بما في ذلك يهودا والسامرة)، وأن الله أعطاها لليهود إلى الأبد، هو بلا شك وهم من وهم الأمس.
لم يتم تأكيد هذا الاعتقاد لأن هناك دليل حقيقي على أن الله اعتبره كذلك (على الرغم من وجود مملكتين يهوديتين – الأولى في القرن العاشر قبل الميلاد والثانية في بداية عام 539 قبل الميلاد – على نفس الأرض)، ولكن لأنه يرضي حاجة نفسية عميقة الجذور لوطن يهودي وهبه الله.
والاعتقاد بأن إسرائيل من خلال توسيع المستوطنات سوف تعزز أمنها القومي وتحافظ على قبضتها على الأرض بالكامل هو وهم الغد، وهو وهم يتجاهل عموماً وجود المسلمين في نفس الأرض لأكثر من 1300 عام.
من المهم أن نلاحظ كيف تدعم هذه الأوهام وتعزز بعضها البعض، وتشكل حاجزًا نفسيًا أكثر مناعة للتفكير النقدي. لقد ساهمت أوهام إسرائيل في خلق منطق الاحتلال.
الفلسطينيون، من جانبهم، لا يخلو من أوهامهم. كما يعتقدون أن الله قد حفظ لهم الأرض، ويحتجون بحقيقة أنهم سكنوا الأرض لعدة قرون. ومن وجهة نظرهم فإن وجود المسجد الأقصى الذي بني عام 705م في القدس يشهد على ارتباطهم التاريخي والديني بالمدينة المقدسة.
كما أنهم يتمسكون بفكرة أنهم سيعودون يوماً ما إلى أرض أسلافهم، كما فعلوا وما زالوا يصرون على حق العودة للاجئين الفلسطينيين، على الرغم من أن ذلك أصبح مستحيلاً فعلياً.
يتمسك الفلسطينيون بأوهام الأمس والغد بشكل أعمى ويائس مثل الإسرائيليين، الأمر الذي يؤدي إلى مقاومة التغيير والخوف منه. وعلى هذا النحو، ما لم يغير الجانبان مسارهما ويقبلا انتماء كل منهما إلى نفس الأرض، خاصة لأنها قائمة على أساس ديني، فمن المحتم أن يؤدي الوضع إلى كارثة.
وقد ساهم ذلك في جعل الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني مزمناً وعصياً على الحل، حيث تتغذى الأوهام المختلفة بشكل مستمر وواعي من خلال المواجهات العدائية اليومية والعنيفة في كثير من الأحيان بين الجانبين.
في السعي إلى سد المفاهيم التي يمكن أن تربط بين مجالات علم النفس والسياسة في الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني، يمكن اقتراح أن المقاومة الجماعية المتبادلة للتغيير (سواء الواعي أو المتعمد، أو اللاوعي الداخلي) تحمي الهوية الضعيفة.
فمقارنة، على سبيل المثال، بالهويات السياسية المستقرة والناضجة للدول الأمريكية والبريطانية والفرنسية، فإن الهويات السياسية لكل من الشعبين الإسرائيلي والفلسطيني، بطريقة ما، في مرحلة المراهقة.
تكون الهويات في هذا السياق أكثر عرضة للخطر، والأبطال بطبيعة الحال أكثر دفاعية ومقاومة للتغيير. بحكم طبيعتها، يجب على اللاعبين أن يجدوا صعوبة (إن لم يكن من المستحيل) في التعبير عن ذلك علنًا، لأن القيام بذلك يعني الاعتراف بهذه الثغرة الأمنية.
إن مفهوم المقاومة النفسية للتغيير قد يؤثر على الوضع السياسي بشكل عام وعلى الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني بشكل خاص. فهو يرتبط ارتباطًا وثيقًا بالتصورات على العديد من المستويات ويوفر الحماية لتكوين الهوية الضعيفة.
وهذه العقلية، التي تعززها التجارب التاريخية، هي التي تتجاوز أكثر من سبعة عقود منذ بدأ الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني. وما زال الأفراد والجماعات، الإسرائيليون والفلسطينيون على حد سواء، يفسرون طبيعة الخلاف بينهم على أنه “أنت ضدي” بطريقة متحيزة وانتقائية.
وهذا بدوره أدى إلى خنق أي معلومات جديدة ومكن من استمرار مقاومة التغيير، الأمر الذي يمكن أن يلقي ضوءا جديدا على طبيعة وجوهر الصراع ويساعد في دفع عملية السلام.
يرتبط مفهوم المقاومة اللاواعية للتغيير في هذا الإطار جيدًا بوجهة نظر التصورات التي تحرك الاستقطاب في الصراع. إن الخبرة التاريخية، التي تصوغ التصورات، تعمل من بين أمور أخرى على تعزيز الإحساس بالهوية “من نحن حقًا”، وهو افتراض جماعي تكويني يقع في حجر الأساس لكل من اللاعبين الرئيسيين ويحرك السلوك الوظيفي والمختل.
ومن حيث المبدأ، فإن مثل هذه العقلية تمنع أياً من الطرفين من طرح أفكار جديدة قد تؤدي إلى تنازلات من أجل التوصل إلى حل سلمي. والمفارقة هنا هي أن الأغلبية على كلا الجانبين تريد السلام وتسعى إليه، وهي تعلم جيداً أن ذلك يتطلب تنازلات كبيرة، لكنها غير قادرة على التوفيق بين التنازلات المطلوبة والتصورات المتأصلة التي حالت دون هذه التنازلات نتيجة المقاومة والخوف من ذلك. يتغير.
ولذلك، فإن أي إطار للسلام يجب أن يتضمن بنوداً من شأنها أن تزيد بشكل كبير من احتمالات التوصل إلى حل. أولاً، يتعين على الجانبين الالتزام بالتوصل إلى اتفاق على أساس حل الدولتين انطلاقاً من الاقتناع بأن التغيير، الذي يترجم إلى التعايش، أمر لا مفر منه. ولذلك، يتعين عليهم أن يتكيفوا مع متطلبات بعضهم البعض، الأمر الذي يتطلب منهم بالضرورة تقديم تنازلات كبيرة.
ثانياً، لتسهيل ذلك، يجب عليهم إجراء تفاعلات تصالحية اجتماعية واقتصادية وثقافية وأمنية بين الناس للتخفيف من مقاومتهم للتغيير، والتي يجب أن تبدأ، على الأقل، قبل عام واحد من بدء المفاوضات لخلق الحالة النفسية والاجتماعية. مناخ سياسي لبناء الثقة اللازمة لمفاوضات سلام موضوعية وناجحة.
إن استئناف محادثات السلام لن يؤدي إلى أي نتيجة ما لم يغير الإسرائيليون والفلسطينيون تصوراتهم المتحيزة ومقاومتهم للتغيير وخوفهم منه، ثم يدركون أخيراً أن مصيرهم متشابك ولا يستطيع أي منهما أن يعيش في سلام وأمن دون الآخر.
أشعر بأنني مضطر إلى اختتام مقالتي الأخيرة لهذا العام بتحذير شديد من أنه من الأفضل للإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين على حد سواء أن يفكروا فيه مع اقترابهم من نهاية العقد السابع من صراعهم المأساوي.
يجب على كل متطرف إسرائيلي ومتشدد فلسطيني، أولئك الذين يريدون كل ذلك، أن يتوقفوا ويفكروا أين ستكون إسرائيل والفلسطينيون بعد عشر سنوات إذا استمر الوضع الحالي؟
أوهامك اليوم لن تصبح حقيقة غدًا، وما سيأتي به الغد ليس سوى المزيد من الألم والدموع والعذاب.
صراعكم يتطور بشكل أسرع من أي وقت مضى إلى حرب دينية. إن هرمجدون بين المسلمين واليهود يجري الإعداد له الآن، وهو ما من شأنه أن يشعل المنطقة بأكملها على نار لا يمكن تصورها.
إذا كنتم مؤمنين حقيقيين، فلا تجرؤوا على تحدي مشيئة الله، لأنه جمعكم معًا ليضعكم في الاختبار – يجب عليكم إما أن تعيشوا في سلام ووئام، أو سيحكم عليكم بالنسيان واليأس.
لديك القدرة على اختيار مصيرك. هل سيكون تدميرًا ذاتيًا أم سيكون تحقيقًا لحلم مجيد؟
انهضوا ومرروا إرثًا من الأمل لكل طفل إسرائيلي وفلسطيني، لأن لديهم الحق الذي منحه الله لهم في أن يكبروا ويزدهروا ولا ينبغي لأحد أن يموت من أجل أوهامكم عبثًا”.
كما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 9 نوفمبر 2023، مرآة ظلامنا: كريستالناكت؛ إن إسرائيل تحيي ذكرى هذه المأساة التي فتحت الباب أمام مأساة أكبر في المحرقة من خلال فعل الشيء نفسه بالضبط مع الفلسطينيين، شعب واحد منقسم بسبب التاريخ والدين الذي تم استخدامه كسلاح في خدمة السلطة. وهذا أيضاً سيفتح الأبواب أمام المزيد من إرهاب الدولة وطغيانها، ما لم يتمكن الشعبان من الاتحاد ضد السلطات التي ترتكب الفظائع باسمهما كإستراتيجية لإخضاع وتحرير بعضهما البعض من أولئك الذين يستعبدونهما.
إذا كنت تفكر في الأمم باعتبارها أطفالًا ناجين من سوء المعاملة، يصبح الكثير واضحًا؛ لأنه بمجرد استيلائهم على السلطة، فمن المرجح أن يصبحوا هم أنفسهم مسيئين. هذه هي الطريقة التي يعمل بها الخوف، ولماذا هو الأساس الحقيقي للتبادل، ولماذا السياسة هي فن الخوف، ولماذا تتجسد الدول في العنف. لقد تعرض كل من الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين للتهديدات الوجودية بوحشية قبل وقت طويل من بدء ممارسة الوحشية والوحشية وتجريد بعضهم البعض من إنسانيتهم.
إن استخدام الأنظمة المفترسة على كلا الجانبين لسياسات الانقسام والهوية لمركزية السلطة وإضفاء الشرعية على الهيمنة الاستبدادية هي مرحلة يمكن التنبؤ بها من النضال من أجل التحرير، وخاصة الثورة المناهضة للاستعمار.
إن الحيلة في أن نصبح بشرًا، وأصدقاء، هي أن نحتضن ظلامنا في النضال وكذلك أعداءنا، ونخرج من تراث تاريخنا الذي يظللنا مثل ذيل تمساح غير مرئي.
هناك سطر يتحدث به الشرير في مسلسل The Magicians، وهو أحد الناجين من إساءة معاملة الأطفال والطاغية المعروف باسم The Beast لجرائمه المروعة، وكان في السابق الصبي الضعيف والمرعوب مارتن شاتوين والآن إله وحشي؛ “كما تعلم، عندما كنت صبيًا، كان الرجل الذي كان من المفترض أن يعتني بي، يثنيني على مكتبه ويحتضنني مرارًا وتكرارًا في كل مرة كنت وحدي معه. إنه يساعدني على فهم الحقيقة. أنت قوي أو أنت ضعيف. “
وهنا تكمن الكذبة الأصلية للطاغية والفاشي في الدفاعيات وتبرير الذات وسيكوباتية السلطة؛ الكذبة القائلة بأن القوة وحدها هي التي لها معنى وهي حقيقية، وأنه لا يوجد خير أو شر. إن كيفية استخدامنا للسلطة لا تقل أهمية عن من يملكها. الخوف والقوة هما الوسيلة الأساسية للتبادل البشري، ولكن
ليست الوسيلة الوحيدة؛ الحب والعضوية والانتماء لا تقل أهمية.
إنه خط يجسد بشكل مثالي التناقضات المتأصلة في حلقة فاغنر من الخوف والقوة والقوة كأصل للشر؛ لأن استخدام القوة الاجتماعية هو أمر تخريبي لقيمه الخاصة. ومع ذلك، فإن الظروف المفروضة للنضال الثوري غالبا ما تتطلب العنف، وإلى أن يتم إسقاط آلهة القانون والنظام من عروشهم، يجب أن أتفق مع القول المأثور الشهير لسارتر في مسرحيته “الأيدي القذرة” عام 1948، والتي اقتبسها فرانتز فانون في خطابه عام 1960. لماذا نستخدم العنف، والذي جعله خالدًا مالكولم إكس؛ “بأي وسيلة ضرورية.”
كما كتب والتر رودني في The Groundings with my Brothers؛ “لقد قيل لنا أن العنف في حد ذاته شر، وأنه، مهما كان سببه، فهو غير مبرر أخلاقيا. بأي معيار أخلاقي يمكن اعتبار العنف الذي يستخدمه العبد لكسر أغلاله مثل عنف سيد العبد؟ بأي معايير يمكننا أن نساوي عنف السود الذين تعرضوا للاضطهاد والقمع والاكتئاب لمدة أربعة قرون مع عنف الفاشيين البيض. ولا يمكن الحكم على العنف الذي يهدف إلى استعادة الكرامة الإنسانية والمساواة بنفس مقياس العنف الذي يهدف إلى الحفاظ على التمييز والقمع.
وهذا هو المقطع الذي يشير إليه من ليون تروتسكي في كتابه “أخلاقهم وأخلاقنا: الأسس الطبقية للممارسة الأخلاقية”؛ “مالك العبيد الذي من خلال المكر والعنف يقيد عبدًا مقيدًا بالسلاسل، والعبد الذي يكسر القيود من خلال المكر أو العنف – لا تدع الخصيان المحتقرين يخبروننا أنهم متساوون أمام محكمة الأخلاق!”
ومع ذلك، أفكر في تلك الشخصيات العظيمة التي كانت أبطال التحرير وأشرار الطغيان؛ قدوتي المراهقة نابليون، واشنطن، الذي يعد محوريًا في تاريخ عائلتنا وصاغ الشعار على شعار النبالة الخاص بنا في رمز المرور خلال معركة ترينتون، النصر أو الموت، عندما كانت الثورة بأكملها تراهن على أمل بائس، من المأساوية دراما الأبطال الذين سقطوا مثل روبرت موغابي، والطغاة المتوحشين ستالين وماو، والقائمة عبارة عن سلسلة لا نهاية لها تقريبًا من الويلات وإخفاقات الرؤية حيث تحولت عوالم جديدة شجاعة إلى جحيم وحالات جنونية. في الدليل الذي أقدمه، أصبحت الثورات الأمريكية والنابليونية إمبراطوريات، والاتحاد السوفييتي، والحزب الشيوعي الصيني، والهند حيث يأتي مجد التحرير جنبًا إلى جنب مع مأساة التقسيم، وهي الآن تحت حذاء القومية الهندوسية، وجميع الثورات المناهضة للاستعمار تقريبًا. والتي أصبحت، مع الفترة الأولى من الحرية كأمم جديدة، أنظمة استبدادية مروعة، وقبل كل شيء دولة إسرائيل، حلم اللجوء الذي نشأ في إرهاب المحرقة التي تعلم ضحاياها الدروس الخاطئة من النازيين وتولوا دورهم في احتلال إسرائيل. فلسطين. إن مخاطر المثالية حقيقية للغاية؛ ولكن كذلك مخاطر الخضوع للسلطة والتواطؤ في الصمت في وجه الشر.
أنا صياد الفاشيين، وأخلاقي هي أخلاق الصياد. بالنسبة لي هناك اختبار بسيط لاستخدام القوة؛ من يملك السلطة؟
لقد كتب عدد كبير من الحكماء بشكل جميل عن أهوال فاشية الدم والإيمان والتربة والتسلسلات الهرمية للانتماء النخبوي والاختلاف الإقصائي، كما يفعل بول أوستريشر في المقالة التالية؛ أود هنا فقط أن أشير إلى أن القوى التي تكمن في داخلنا وخارجها، مثل الظروف الاجتماعية والصدمات اللاجينية، والحركات الرجعية للهمجية وأنظمة القمع، هي قوى عالمية بالنسبة للبشر كشروط مفروضة للنضال وتعمل باستمرار حتى عندما تكون محجوبة عن الأنظار. أبعد من الرعب والإذلال الناتج عن نقاط الانكسار في الروح الإنسانية مثل تلك التي حدثت في ليلة الكريستال والتطهير العرقي في غزة.
أكتب إليك كشخص عاش صرخة معركة “لن يحدث مرة أخرى أبدًا”! منذ أكثر من أربعين عامًا، ومن الأهمية العميقة والحيوية تطبيق مبدأ العمل هذا ليس فقط في مقاومة الفاشية كعدو متطفل على كل ما هو إنساني فينا، ولكن أيضًا على أنفسنا واستخدامنا للعنف والوسائل الاجتماعية. القوة تجاه الآخرين.
في النهاية، كل ما يهم هو ما نفعله بمخاوفنا، وكيف نستخدم قوتنا.
بغض النظر عن المكان الذي تبدأ فيه بالانقسامات والتسلسلات الهرمية للانتماء النخبوي والاختلاف الاستبعادي، فإنك دائمًا ينتهي بك الأمر عند أبواب أوشفيتز.
كما يعلمنا نيتشه في كتابه ما وراء الخير والشر؛ “أولئك الذين يصطادون الوحوش يجب أن ينتبهوا لئلا يصبح وحشًا. وإذا حدقت طويلا في الهاوية، فإن الهاوية ستحدق فيك أيضا.”
في مرآة غزة المظلمة، بانعكاساتها الوحشية على ليلة الكريستال وأوشفيتز، هل يعجبك ما تراه يا إسرائيل؟
وكما كتبت في رسالتي بتاريخ 10 مايو 2021، الدفاع عن الأقصى: الحرية مقابل الاستبداد في القدس؛ ربما شهدنا قدوم الانتفاضة الثالثة هذه الليلة، دفاعًا عن الأقصى ومعارك الشوارع في غزة التي أعقبت ذلك، والتي أشعلها الغدر والغزو الإمبراطوري لدولة إسرائيل الفاشية والكارهة للأجانب والتي لا تنظر إلا إلى أحد.
قبيلتهم ودينهم كإنسان حقيقي، والذي ارتكب هجومًا مميتًا غير مبرر كعمل من أعمال إرهاب الدولة وجريمة ضد الإنسانية على المصلين المسالمين في أحد أكثر المساجد قدسية في العالم الإسلامي، وهو استعراض للقوة والقوة. الهيمنة التي تأتي بعد أسابيع من الاستفزازات والاعتداءات وأعمال الدعاية التجريدية من الإنسانية ضد شعب فلسطين.
مثل انتفاضة الأقصى الثانية التي استمرت أربع سنوات من 28 سبتمبر 2000 إلى 8 فبراير 2005، فإن القضايا التي لم يتم حلها للاحتلال هي الآن في عامها الرابع والخمسين منذ احتلال إسرائيل للقدس القديمة في 7 يونيو 1967، والذي احتفلت به دولة إسرائيل وفقًا لـ إلى التقويم العبري باعتباره يوم القدس اليوم من خلال مهاجمة الأقصى، والكارثة المستمرة الآن منذ ثلاثة وسبعين عامًا منذ يوم النكبة في 15 مايو 1948، تضافرت حول القيمة الرمزية للأقصى، الذي له هوية مزدوجة متنازع عليها مثل جبل الهيكل في القدس. اليهودية.
إن فرص التهدئة وتجنب الحرب لا تعتمد الآن على العوامل المحلية، بل على استجابة المجتمع الدولي، لأن التاريخ هنا أصبح فخًا ينهار ليوقعنا في شركه، ويجب على القوى الخارجية أن تحررنا من إخفاقات الغرب. التناقضات الداخلية لنظامنا.
فهل ستتنصل أمريكا وتتخلى عن مستعمرتها إسرائيل، ملكة سياستها الإمبراطورية في الشرق الأوسط وسيطرتها على المورد الاستراتيجي للنفط؟ هل يمكن للوحدة الدولية وضغوط المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات وفرض العقوبات أن تحررنا من طغيان وإرهاب نظام الفصل العنصري كما حدث في جنوب أفريقيا؟
أم أن الحرب هي الحساب الوحيد الذي يمكن للبشرية تقديمه أو قبوله؟
كما كتب إيشان ثارور في صحيفة واشنطن بوست؛ ليلة الإثنين، تبادل المسلحون في قطاع غزة والجيش الإسرائيلي إطلاق الصواريخ والغارات الجوية وسط تصعيد مميت للعنف. أطلقت حماس والجهاد الإسلامي، الجماعتان المسلحتان المتمركزتان في غزة المحاصرة، وابلًا من الصواريخ التي سقطت بالقرب من القدس وفي أجزاء من جنوب إسرائيل، مما أدى إلى إصابة شخص واحد على الأقل. وأدت الغارات الجوية الإسرائيلية ردا على ذلك إلى مقتل ما لا يقل عن 20 شخصا في غزة، وفقا لوزارة الصحة في غزة، من بينهم تسعة أطفال.
وقال رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو إن “الجماعات الإرهابية” في غزة “تجاوزت الخط الأحمر” بهجماتها الصاروخية. لكن الانفجار الأخير للأعمال العدائية له ذيل طويل، في أعقاب العديد من الأعمال العدوانية التي قامت بها قوات الأمن الإسرائيلية والجماعات اليهودية اليمينية المتطرفة في القدس. قبل أسبوعين، قامت مجموعات من المتطرفين اليهود، بما في ذلك بعض المستوطنين من الضفة الغربية، بمسيرة عبر المناطق المأهولة بالسكان الفلسطينيين في المدينة المقدسة، وهم يهتفون “الموت للعرب”، وهاجموا المارة وألحقوا أضرارًا بالممتلكات والمنازل الفلسطينية. أثارت المحاولات الإسرائيلية لطرد عدد من العائلات الفلسطينية في حي الشيخ جراح بالقدس الشرقية – وهو نموذج مصغر لما يعتبره الفلسطينيون جزءًا من تاريخ طويل من السلب والمحو على يد الدولة الإسرائيلية – احتجاجات التضامن الفلسطيني في أجزاء مختلفة للأراضي المحتلة وإسرائيل.
كما أثارت التوترات قبيل إحياء يوم القدس يوم الاثنين، وهو يوم عطلة إسرائيلية رسمي يحتفل بالاستيلاء على المدينة خلال الحرب العربية الإسرائيلية عام 1967. تم إلغاء مسيرة سنوية كان من المقرر أن يقوم بها إسرائيليون من اليمين المتطرف بعد أن غيرت السلطات مسارها في اللحظة الأخيرة. ولا تزال أعداد كبيرة تشق طريقها إلى حائط المبكى وتغني أغنية انتقامية متطرفة ضد الفلسطينيين.
أفاد زملائي أن “هجمات حماس الصاروخية، والتي تضمنت الضربات الأولى ضد القدس منذ عدة سنوات، جاءت بعد اشتباكات بين الشرطة الإسرائيلية والمتظاهرين الفلسطينيين والإسرائيليين اليهود اليمينيين المتطرفين حول المدينة القديمة”. ومن بين مئات الجرحى سبعة نقلوا إلى المستشفى في حالة خطيرة، بحسب الهلال الأحمر الفلسطيني. وتم تداول مقطع فيديو على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي يظهر ضباط شرطة إسرائيليين يضربون بوحشية رجلاً فلسطينيًا معتقلًا.
فكيف يمكن لأمريكا أن تدعم دولة إسرائيل في الطغيان والإرهاب والغزو والنهب؟ إنه سؤال يُطرح بلهجة الغضب والأسى والحيرة منذ حلول النكبة في 15 مايو/أيار 1948، يوم النكبة التي بدأ فيها احتلال فلسطين والاستعباد الممنهج والإبادة الجماعية لشعبها في أعقاب الغزو الإسرائيلي. القدس. كيف يتم إضفاء الشرعية على هذا؟
لقد أعاد أحد الأصدقاء صياغة هذا السؤال لي مؤخرًا؛ “لقد أحببت التقليد اليهودي واعتنقته، وانضممت إلى كنيس يهودي وعملت جنبًا إلى جنب مع حاخامه. عندما أشاهد معاملة الحكومة اليهودية في إسرائيل للفلسطينيين، تغمرني مشاعر الارتباك والغضب. ولأنني غير قادر على التوفيق بين هذا الفجور، فإنني أشكك في أساس إيماني. أين الانتفاضة الطيبة والأخلاقية للأصوات اليهودية العالمية المنددة بمسار الحكومة؟ لقد فقدت الثقة في كوني يهودية”.
ما هو واضح بالنسبة لي هو أن أزمة الإيمان هذه هي أيضًا أزمة هوية وجودية
ن الوضع في غاية الخطورة والخطر والذي يحمل أيضًا إمكانية إعادة التصور والولادة التحويلية، وهو صدى شخصي لأزمة حضارية موازية يجب على البشرية والمجتمع العالمي للأمم أن يجدوا منها طريقة للخروج وتحرير أنفسنا من تراث الحضارة الإنسانية. تاريخنا. وهنا ردي:
دولة إسرائيل ليست متطابقة مع الديانة اليهودية، على الرغم من أن الفصيل الإمبريالي الفاشي الذي يمثله نتنياهو يرغب في أن يعتقد الجميع ذلك.
أمة تقوم على تخصيص مواطنيها لهوية قبلية، والتسليح الطائفي للعقيدة في خدمة السلطة والهوية الوطنية المصرح بها، ومجتمع عسكري مع خدمة إلزامية عالمية، وصنم منتشر لأساطير الشجاعة العسكرية ورموزها بما في ذلك البنادق. واستخدمت لغة الوحدة الوطنية العبرية المعاد بناؤها سياسات الهوية لإخضاع مواطنيها لسلطة الاستبداد المركزية؛ إسرائيل دولة فاشية من الدم والإيمان والأرض لا تقل عن دولة النازيين.
أضف إلى هذا المزيج السام النظام الكليبتوقراطي الذي روج لسرديات الإيذاء التاريخي لإضفاء الشرعية على السرقة الجماعية والغزو الإمبراطوري لشعوب أخرى، وهناك شيء واحد واضح؛ لقد تعلمت إسرائيل الدروس الخاطئة من النازيين.
ربما تعلمون من إشاراتي العديدة إلى الحادثة في كتاباتي أنني مناهض للفاشية، وقد أقسمت قسم المقاومة على يد جان جينيه عام 1982 في بيروت، أثناء معركتنا ضد الغزو والحصار الإسرائيلي. وفي الأعوام التسع والثلاثين التي تلت ذلك، كنت صائدًا للنازيين وثوريًا للديمقراطية منخرطًا في النضال من أجل تحرير البشرية ضد الطغيان والأنظمة الاستبدادية التي تعتمد على القوة والسيطرة.
لقد كان الوطن الفلسطيني، والعدالة لشعبه، من بين أهدافي منذ ذلك الصيف منذ فترة طويلة. ومثله كمثل هدف تحرير أيرلندا من الحكم الاستعماري البريطاني، فلا يزال يتعين تحقيقه. موضع التساؤل هو فكرة الحرية والمواطنة باعتبارها سيادة واستقلال الشعوب عن الاستعمار الأجنبي والطغيان الاستبدادي، وأولوية دولة غير طائفية خالية من الانقسامات والتسلسلات الهرمية للإيمان، لأن من يقف بين كل واحد منا وبين اللانهائي لا يخدم أيًا منهما. .
كما أنني أؤيد فكرة إقامة وطن إسرائيلي، ولا أرى أي سبب يجعل هاتين الدولتين، فلسطين وإسرائيل، متنافيتين أو متعارضتين. بعض الإسرائيليين الذين يختلفون معي حول قضية فلسطين والنزعة العسكرية في الغزو الإمبراطوري والسيطرة الإقليمية كانوا حلفاء في قضية مطاردة النازيين والفاشيين عمومًا في جميع أنحاء العالم، لكنهم غافلون عن تواطؤهم في هذا الشر بسبب رؤيتهم لأنفسهم. كضحايا وليس كمرتكبي جرائم ضد الإنسانية. يتعلق الأمر بالخوف والدورة المدمرة للإساءة والعنف.
عندما تستولي السلطة على الإيمان لإضفاء الشرعية على سياسات الهوية، تصبح الهوية نفسها مشوشة وغامضة. لكي نصبح أحرارًا، يجب علينا أن نمتلك ملكية أنفسنا ككائنات مخلوقة ذاتيًا ومستقلة.
ولهذا السبب فإن الواجبات الأساسية للمواطن هي مساءلة السلطة، وكشف السلطة، والسخرية من السلطة، وتحدي السلطة.
دائمًا يبقى الصراع بين الأقنعة التي يصنعها الآخرون لنا وتلك التي نصنعها لأنفسنا؛ هذه هي الثورة الأولى التي يجب علينا جميعا أن نقاتل فيها.
أفكر في مشكلة الشر البشري ودورة الخوف والقوة والقوة في حالة الدول التي أصبحت أنظمة استبدادية قاتلت من أجل تحرير نفسها منها، وهذا ينطبق على الدول الثورية المناهضة للاستعمار بشكل عام بسبب الموروثات التاريخية من الإيذاء. ، في هذا الطريق؛ غالبًا ما يصبح الضحايا مسيئين لأن هويتهم منظمة حول السلطة باعتبارها الوسيلة الوحيدة للهروب في عالم لا يمكن الوثوق فيه بأحد.
عندما يتم إلغاء الثقة وإثبات أنها فارغة وبلا معنى، عندما تنكسر القدرة على الارتباط بالآخرين والشعور بألمهم في التعاطف، ويصبح المرء بلا شفقة أو ندم، عندما يكون الخوف طاغيًا ومعممًا وتشكله السلطة على التعامل مع الآخرين. وفي خدمة السلطة، يتعلم الضحايا أن القوة وحدها هي التي لها معنى وهي حقيقية. يجب ألا نسمح للمسيئين أن يصبحوا معلمينا.
وفي حين أن كل قضية من هذا القبيل لها أصولها وتاريخها الفريد، فإن المشكلة في حد ذاتها عالمية، وتتعلق بما يخشاه المرء، وكيف يتشكل هذا الخوف من خلال السلطة كهوية. من وجهة نظرنا كأميركيين يفسرون الأحداث في المشكلة الكلاسيكية المتمثلة في الأقلية المزدوجة التي تمثلها إسرائيل وفلسطين، فإن كيفية إدراكنا للقضايا لها علاقة كبيرة بكيفية تأطيرها من خلال مصادرنا الإعلامية والمحفزة.
في النهاية، يتم تعريفنا بما نفعله بخوفنا، وكيف نستخدم قوتنا.
السؤال الأول الذي يجب طرحه في أي قصة، والأهم، هو سؤال بسيط؛ من هذه القصة؟
نحن ضائعون في برية المرايا، من الأكاذيب والأوهام، وتزييف أنفسنا، والصور والانعكاسات المشوهة، والأصداء والهويات المرخصة التي تشوه وتشوه.
مكين، وسرقة أرواحنا.
فكيف نجيب أولئك الذين يستعبدوننا؟ يتم تحقيق أصالتنا واستقلالنا من خلال الاستيلاء على السلطة، وإعادة تصور وتحويل أنفسنا والبشرية كمجتمع حر متساوين.
نحن الأمريكيون نميل إلى رؤية الأشياء من منظور القبعات البيضاء والقبعات السوداء، كما هو الحال في الأفلام الغربية التي تعتبر بمثابة أساطير أصلية ونماذج أولية لشخصيتنا الوطنية. بمجرد منح مكانة الضحية، تصبح هذه المجموعات والأشخاص من القبعات البيضاء والأخيار، غير قادرين على الشر ومعارضين تمامًا لأي شخص يجب أن يكون من القبعات السوداء. إنها طريقة فظيعة لاختيار السياسة الوطنية.
للأسف، نحن البشر يمكن أن نكون خيرًا وأشرارًا في الوقت نفسه، فعيوب إنسانيتنا تتردد وتعكس انكسار العالم. إنها حقيقة تم إثباتها مرة أخرى الليلة في القدس أو القدس اعتمادًا على من يتحدث وبأي لغة، بينما تحترق غزة من هجوم قوات الدفاع الإسرائيلية المسعورة تمامًا كما حدث في الليلة التي مضت قبل أربعة عقود تقريبًا في بيروت. عندما حاولوا حرقي أنا وجينيه أحياء في المقهى الخاص بنا، كعشرات البشر الذين سُرق منهم كل شيء ما عدا الأمل، أقسموا لبعضهم البعض أن يتخذوا موقعًا يغطي هروب النساء والأطفال المحاصرين بالهجوم الإسرائيلي حتى النهاية. نحن آمنون، في دفاع أخير ليس عن المسجد الأقصى، رائع وجميل ومليء بالأهمية، نصب تذكاري للدافع البشري للوصول إلى ما هو أبعد من أنفسنا والإمكانيات اللامحدودة لأن نصبح بشرًا، مرحلة مناسبة للموت المجيد للأبطال، ولكن من صرخات الغرباء بلا جسد بين المحاربين المجهولين في العصور القديمة المهجورة.
في مواجهة هوة الفراغ والهمجية العدمية في عالم من الظلام والنار، من الخوف والقوة، ليس لدي سوى الكلمات لأقدمها، وأنا أكتب إليكم ما قلته لرفاقي الذين اختاروا الوقوف معي؛ لقد فقدت عدد مرات الوقوف الأخيرة، لكنني خاطرت بكل شيء ضد احتمالات مستحيلة ونجوت مرات أكثر مما أستطيع أن أتذكر، وكل ما يهم هو أننا لا نتخلى عن أنفسنا ولا عن بعضنا البعض، وأن نرفض الاستسلام، لأن هذا هو لحظة حريتنا، ولا يمكن أن تؤخذ منا أبدا.
من هذه الليلة تتحرر فلسطين، يمكن أن نقتل ولكن لا يمكن أن نفتح.
Hebrew
10 במאי 2024 יום השנה לאינתיפאדה השלישית של 2021, מתקיים כעת בתיאטרון העשירי של מלחמת העולם השלישית המכיל ומחליף את מלחמת עזה
הן המבקרים בארץ הקודש המחפשים סימנים של הבלתי נראה המתגלים בדיסנילנד של אמונות מסוכסכות והן אלה שנלכדו בתוך הסיוט של חומות, מחסומים, תיל תער, מעקבים נרחבים, אלימות אוניברסלית, פוליטיקה זהותית, והעריצות והטרור של אחד מאיתנו. משטרי הכוח והשליטה הנוראיים ביותר בעולם הפכו כאן לרוחות הרפאים של השואה; ישראל מהדהדת עם הצרחות השקטות של הקולות הגנובים והצללים הטורפים של היסטוריה שנושקה בשירות לשלטון כנרטיבים של קורבנות וביטחון ככוח, אסטרטגיה שנועדה לשבור תחילה את הסולידריות שלנו עם פילוג ופשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה. זיוף ולאחר מכן דה-הומניזציה והכניעתנו כאדונים ועבדים וכרצח עם וטיהור אתני.
ישראל כחלום מקלט ושל אחווה ואהבה אוניברסליים נבגדה וחתרנה על ידי ישראל כתיאוקרטיה שנאת זרים, אימפריה צבאית ומחנה עבדים; כאן אושוויץ התמסד בקנה מידה לאומי, אסיריה לשעבר עכשיו השומרים שלה.
מדוע שמישהו יבחר לשחזר גיהנום ממנו נמלט, אפילו כאדוניו ולא כעבדיו?
אני מבין היטב את הפיתוי של כוח כביטחון בעולם של כוחות עוינים וכאוטיים, וכיצד ניתן לעצב פחד מוחץ ומוכלל על ידי סמכות לרכז כוח על ידי הצעת לנו כוח מושאל על אחרים כדמויות של איומים קיומיים; להיות פוסק המידות באמצעות כוח ושליטה. אבל ביטחון הוא אשליה, המדינה כאלימות מגולמת מצייתת לחוק התנועה השלישי של ניוטון ויוצרת התנגדות משלה, והכאב המשותף שלנו מאחד אותנו בדרכים שמתעלות מעל הטבעת הווגנרית של פחד, כוח וכוח, שרק אהבה יכולה לשחרר אותנו מ.
אהבה כסולידריות בעשייה יכולה לגאול את פגמי אנושיותנו ואת שברו של העולם, תיקון עולם בעברית, ולשחרר אותנו לחיות כערבים לאנושיותו של זה.
כפי שכתבתי ביום השנה הראשון לאינתיפאדה השלישית בלילה הזה לפני שנתיים; זה חייב להיות הנושא הנכתב ביותר, הנלמד, התווכח, התנסה בו ונלחם בנושא בפוליטיקה הגלובלית מאז מלחמת העולם השנייה שהוא תוצאה ממנה, העם הזה שבו עם אחד מחולק לפי ההיסטוריה כישראלים ופלסטינים, ומדד של האנושות שלנו, כדוגמה הקלאסית של המיעוט הכפול; מה עושים עם עיר אחת ואומה אחת שתיבעות על ידי שתי קהילות היסטוריות, כבסיס לזהות כאמונה ולאום וההשלכות והפרקסיס של פוליטיקת זהויות כאלימות?
כאן אומה ועם נקרעים על ידי הפרעת זהות דיסוציאטיבית, מסוכסכים ונעולים במאבק טיטאני כמו עם פיצול הזהות, הזיכרון והתודעה של מספר אישים, טירוף בקנה מידה לאומי וציוויליזציוני שנולד ממורשת ההיסטוריה והחיים משבשים אירועים, טראומה אפיגנטית, אבל, אימה, אשמה וייאוש.
בדואליות של ישראל ופלסטין מתבררים מקורות הרוע כאלימות ועריצות בטבעת הווגנרית הרקורסיבית והתלויה הדדית של פחד, כוח וכוח, כאשר פחד סוחף ומוכלל ואיומים קיומיים מופעלים בנשק בשירות לשלטון על ידי הסמכות. היוצר מצבי כוח ושליטה קרסראליים ככוח לא שוויוני ואלימות מגולמת, באמצעות היררכיות עילית וחלוקות של שייכות ואחרות ופשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה.
כאן פועל הפשיזם כרע מערכתי כהחזקה וגניבה של הנשמה. מה אנחנו יכולים לעשות לגבי זה? כפי ששאל לנין במאמרו משנת 1902; “מה יש לעשות?” איך להשתחרר מהכוחות המערכתיים של ההכנעה שלנו לסמכות, לאליטות ולאלה שישעבדו אותנו?
ראשית עלינו להכיר ולהיזהר מאלה המתיימרים לדבר בשמנו ולפעול בשמנו, שכן זוהי אסטרטגיה ראשית של הפשיזם. כדי לשחרר את עצמנו מהשקרים והאשליות, הזיוף וההיסטוריה המשוכתבת, תיאוריות הקונספירציה והמציאות החלופית שבאמצעותן אנו הופכים לדה-הומניזציה, עלינו להיות דוברי אמת העוסקים במרדף אחר האמת כקריאה קדושה, ולבצע את ארבע החובות העיקריות של אזרח; רשות שאלה, רשות חשיפה, רשות מדומה ורשות אתגר.
שנית עלינו לתפוס את הבעלות העצמית והאוטונומיה שלנו בסירוב להיכנע לסמכות, שכן הסוד הגדול של הכוח הוא שהוא ריק וחלול, והוא עובר דה-לגיטימציה דרך סירוב לסמוך ולהאמין בסמכות, ושל כוח שהוא שביר ו מוצא את הגבול שלו בנקודה של אי ציות. מעשים פשוטים, אבל גם כוחות טבועים של האדם שלא ניתן לקחת מאיתנו; שכן מי שמסרב להיכנע הוא חופשי, והופך לבלתי ניתן לכיבוש.
תמיד נשאר המאבק בין המסכות שאחרים עושים לנו, לבין אלה שאנחנו עושים לעצמנו. זו המהפכה הראשונה שבה כולנו
חייב להילחם; המאבק לבעלות עצמית ולחופש הזהות.
אין סמכות צודקת.
הלילה אני יושב בבית בין החושך העצום של גבעותיי, לילה שעוקב אחרי ימים של גשם ומלא בשירי צפרדעים וציפורים, שלווה המופרעת רק בגלל הכירוסקורו של זיכרונותיי מהלילה הזה לפני שנה, בהגנה. של אל אקצא. כמו הבזקים של ברק, יד העבר יכולה להביא את הכאוס ולהושיט יד לתפוס ולטלטל אותנו, ולערער אותנו ואת מבני הנורמליות שלנו עם אירועים בלתי צפויים ופתאומיים משבשים שנפרמו מעגןיהם בזמן.
אבל הכאוס הוא גם מדד לטווח ההסתגלותי של מערכת, שמביאה הן את אימת האין שלנו והן את השמחה על החופש המוחלט בדמיון המחודש שלנו והלידה מחדש המשנה של עצמנו ושל האפשרויות הבלתי מוגבלות שלנו להפוך לאנושות.
לגיירמו דל טורו, באפוס המפואר שלו של הגירה ושוויון גזעי קרנבל רואו, יש סצנה שבה שני ממשיכים צעירים להנהגה של פלגים יריבים מסורתיים מוצאים עצמם מאוהבים וזקוקים לבעלי ברית בעלילת משנה המדמה מחדש את רומיאו ויוליה; הגיהנום המורד, ג’ונה ברייקספיר, שואל את אהובתו המקיאוולית, סופי לונגרבין, “למי כאוס טוב?” על כך היא משיבה, “כאוס טוב לנו. כאוס הוא התקווה הגדולה של חסרי הכוח”.
אפשר לחשוב על הבאת הכאוס במונחים של כוח הגאולה של אהבה, של סולידריות, של חובת הדאגה שלנו לזולת, של תפיסות כוח כהחזרת האיזון, של התנגדות ומאבק מהפכני כמו העמדת חיינו באיזון עם אלה של חסרי הכוח והמנושלים, המושתקים והנמחקים, וכתיקון עולם או ריפוי שברו של העולם.
בירושלים ובאל קודס, אנו נבגדים על ידי הנורמליות של כניעה לסמכות וחלוקת הכוח הלא שוויוני, דה-הומניזציה על ידי אלה שמבצעים זוועות בשמנו, ונעשים שותפים לפשעים נגד האנושות באמצעות נרטיבים של קורבנות, כפי שוולטר מלמד אותנו מאפשרים. כל דבר.
Gott mitt uns; זה טרור עתיק יומין. ולכך עלינו להתנגד.
מיתוסים ישנים, ותלונות ישנות, שזורים במרקם הנפש שלנו והציוויליזציה שלנו. וכמו כל היסטוריה, זיכרון וזהות מורשית, כוחות מימטיים שממורשתם עלינו לצאת.
ברגע זה אני פונה שוב לאבחנה המבריקה של מחלת הכוח כזהות שנתפסה כפי שכתב אלון בן-מאירין בהאפפוסט, אם כי המרשם שלו למערכת שתי מדינות שנוי במחלוקת ובשבילי יש להחליפו בזמן עם חילוני. מדינה עם חוק אחד לכולם וללא חטיבות רשמיות של שבט, שפה או אמונה, במאמר שכותרתו In The Grip Of Powerful Illusions; “המבוי הסתום בתהליך השלום הישראלי-פלסטיני נראה לא הגיוני ומטריד, שכן רוב הישראלים והפלסטינים מבינים שדו-קיום, בין אם בתנאי איבה או ידידות, הוא עובדה שאף צד לא יכול להשתנות מלבד קטסטרופה.
המבוי הסתום בתהליך השלום הישראלי-פלסטיני נראה לא הגיוני ומטריד, שכן רוב הישראלים והפלסטינים מבינים שדו-קיום, בין אם בתנאי איבה ובין אם בתנאי ידידות, הוא עובדה שאף אחד מהצדדים אינו יכול להשתנות מלבד קטסטרופה. שני הצדדים מבינים שהפרמטרים הכלליים של הסכם שלום בר קיימא חייבים להישען על פתרון שתי מדינות המבוסס על גבולות 1967 עם כמה חילופי קרקעות. עם זאת, שני הצדדים בוחרים להתענג על אשליות ולחיות בהתרסה לזמן ולנסיבות. נראה שהם מעדיפים המשך התנגשויות אלימות ושפיכות דמים על פני דו-קיום שליו, תוך שהם מאשימים זה את זה בדרך ההרסנית הבלתי נגמרת, שבאופן טרגי שניהם בחרו לעבור.
ישנם ציווי יסוד, יחד עם אמצעי ביטחון הדדיים ארוכי טווח, המייצגים את מה שהיה על שולחן המשא ומתן בשנת 2000 בקמפ דיוויד ובשנים 2010/2011 ו-2013/2014 בחסות ממשל אובמה בירושלים וברמאללה. כל סבב, עם דרגות שונות של התקדמות, נועד להשלים הסכם ועם זאת בסופו של דבר לא הצליח לעשות זאת. השאלה היא: למה?
תפיסות מוטות וסלקטיביות, שמחוזקות על ידי חוויות היסטוריות, דת ואידיאולוגיות לא תואמות, נעלו את שני הצדדים בעמדות חסרות תנועה. הגורמים המשמרים ומעצימים דפוסים אלה כוללים רגשות כמו פחד, חוסר אמון וחוסר ביטחון. התוצאה הפסיכולוגית היא הכחשה הדדית של הנרטיב של האחר ודה-לגיטימציה הדדית.
ביחד, התוצאה האופרטיבית היא סטגנציה וקיטוב. לכן, מה שנדרש הוא דיאלוג מכוון קונצנזוס ברמת המנהיגות של פקידים ולא פקידים כאחד, ואינטראקציות בין אנשים, כדי לפתור את סוגיית התפיסה – סדר גבוה בהתחשב בסביבה הנוכחית שמתבססת ולא משפרת דעות קדומות. תפיסות.
ישנם מושגים פסיכולוגיים מסוימים הרלוונטיים להבנת השיתוף הישראלי-פלסטיני
מושג האשליה הוא מושג חיוני. ב”עתידה של אשליה”, פרויד מציע את ההגדרה הבאה: “…אנו קוראים לאמונה אשליה כאשר הגשמת משאלות היא גורם בולט במוטיבציה שלה, ובכך אנו מתעלמים מיחסיה למציאות, בדיוק כפי שה האשליה עצמה אינה מגדירה אימות”.
מה שמאפיין אשליות הוא ש: 1) הן נגזרות משאלות אנושיות עמוקות, ו-2) האמונה מוחזקת (או תוחזק) בהעדר כל ראיה משכנעת, או נימוקים רציונליים טובים, מטעמה.
אי אפשר להכחיש שהן הישראלים והן הפלסטינים נמצאים באחיזת אשליות חזקות מאוד שרק משמשות להארכת הסכסוך ולמנוע כל הבנה הדדית. בפרט, האמונה המשותפת לישראלים רבים שיש להם זכות מקראית על הארץ (כולל יהודה ושומרון) ושאלוהים נתן אותה ליהודים לנצח היא ללא ספק אשליה של אתמול.
אמונה זו אינה מאושרת משום שיש ראיות אמיתיות לכך שאלוהים ראה אותה (למרות ששתי ממלכות יהודיות אכן קיימות – הראשונה במאה העשירית לפנה”ס והשנייה החלה בשנת 539 לפנה”ס – על אותה אדמה), אלא משום שהיא מספק צורך פסיכולוגי עמוק במולדת יהודית שניתנת לאלוהים.
האמונה שבאמצעות הרחבת ההתנחלויות ישראל תגביר את ביטחונה הלאומי ותשמור על אחיזתה בכל הארץ היא אשליה של המחר, שמתעלמת בדרך כלל מנוכחותם של מוסלמים באותה אדמה במשך יותר מ-1,300 שנה.
חשוב לציין כיצד אשליות אלו מקיימות ומחזקות אחת את השנייה, ומהוות מחסום פסיכולוגי שהוא הרבה יותר אטום לרפלקציה ביקורתית. אשליותיה של ישראל שימשו ליצירת ההיגיון לכיבוש.
הפלסטינים, מצדם, אינם חפים מאשליות משלהם. הם גם מאמינים שאלוהים שמר להם את הארץ, ופונים לעובדה שהם ישבו את הארץ במשך מאות שנים. מנקודת המבט שלהם, נוכחותו של מסגד אל-אקצא, שנבנה בשנת 705 לספירה בירושלים, מעידה על זיקתם ההיסטורית והדתית לעיר הקודש.
הם גם נאחזים ברעיון שהם יחזרו מתישהו לאדמת אבותיהם, כפי שיש להם וממשיכים להתעקש על זכות השיבה של הפליטים הפלסטינים, למרות שזה הפך לבלתי אפשרי כמעט.
הפלסטינים נאחזים באשליותיהם מאתמול ומחר באותה עיוורון ונואש כמו הישראלים, מה שמוביל להתנגדות ופחד משינויים. ככזה, אלא אם שני הצדדים ישנו מסלול ויקבלו את הזיקה של זה לאותה ארץ, במיוחד בגלל שהיא מבוססת דתית, המצב צפוי להוביל לאסון.
זה תרם להפיכת הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני לכרוני ובלתי פתיר כאחד, שכן האשליות השונות ניזונות באופן רציף ומודע ממפגשים עוינים ולעתים קרובות אלימים בין שני הצדדים.
בניסיון לגשר בין מושגים שיכולים לקשר בין תחומי הפסיכולוגיה והפוליטיקה בסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני, ניתן להציע שהתנגדות הדדית קולקטיבית לשינוי (הן מודעת ומכוונת, והן בלתי מודעת פנימית) מגינה על זהות פגיעה.
בהשוואה, למשל, לזהות הפוליטית היציבה והבוגרת של האומות האמריקאיות, הבריטיות והצרפתיות, הזהות הפוליטית של העם הישראלי והפלסטיני כאחד נמצאת, במידה מסוימת, בגיל ההתבגרות.
זהויות בסביבה זו פגיעות יותר, והגיבורים באופן טבעי מתגוננים יותר ועמידים בפני שינויים. מעצם טבעו, על השחקנים להתקשות (אם לא בלתי אפשרי) לבטא זאת בפומבי, שכן לעשות זאת הוא להודות בפגיעות זו.
הרעיון של התנגדות פסיכולוגית לשינוי עשוי בהחלט להשפיע על המסגרת הפוליטית בכלל ועל הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני בפרט; הוא קשור קשר הדוק לתפיסות ברמות רבות ומספק הגנה על גיבוש זהות פגיעה.
הלך הרוח הזה, המחוזק על ידי חוויות היסטוריות, הוא שמתעלה על יותר משבעת העשורים מאז החל הסכסוך הישראלי-פלסטיני. ליחידים ולקבוצות, ישראלים ופלסטינים כאחד, יש וממשיכים לפרש את אופי המחלוקת ביניהם כ”אתה נגדי” בצורה דעות קדומות וסלקטיביות.
בתורו, זה חנק כל מידע חדש ואפשר את ההתנגדות המתמשכת לשינוי, מה שיכול לשפוך אור חדש על מהות הסכסוך ומהותו ולעזור לקדם את תהליך השלום.
הרעיון של התנגדות לא מודעת לשינוי במסגרת זו מתקשר היטב לתפיסה של תפיסות המניעות את הקיטוב בקונפליקט. התנסות היסטורית, המגבשת תפיסות, משמשת בין היתר להגברת תחושת הזהות של “מי שאנחנו באמת”, הנחה קולקטיבית מעצבת היושבת בסלע של שחקני מפתח כאחד ומניעה התנהגות תפקודית ולא מתפקדת.
באופן עקרוני, חשיבה כזו מונעת משני הצדדים לבדר רעיונות חדשים שעלולים להוביל לפשרות לפתרון של שלום. הפרדוקס כאן הוא שהרוב משני הצדדים אמנם רוצים ומחפשים שלום, ביודעים היטב שהדבר ידרוש ויתורים משמעותיים, אך אינם מסוגלים ליישב את הוויתורים הנדרשים עם תפיסות טבועות שמנעו את הפשרות הללו כתוצאה מהתנגדות וחשש מפני שינוי.
לכן, כל מסגרת לשלום חייבת לכלול הוראות שיגדילו באופן דרמטי את הסיכויים לטובת פתרון. ראשית, שני הצדדים צריכים להתחייב להגיע להסכם המבוסס על פתרון שתי מדינות מתוך אמונה ששינוי, שמתורגם לדו-קיום, הוא בלתי נמנע. לכן, עליהם להתאים את עצמם זה לדרישותיו של זה, מה שמחייב אותם בהכרח לעשות ויתורים משמעותיים.
שנית, כדי להקל על כך, עליהם לבצע אינטראקציות חברתיות, כלכליות, תרבותיות וביטחוניות פייסות בין אנשים, כדי למתן את התנגדותם לשינוי, אשר חייבת להתחיל, לפחות, שנה אחת לפני תחילת המשא ומתן ליצירת הפסיכולוגיות וה אווירה פוליטית כדי לטפח את האמון הדרוש למשא ומתן לשלום מהותי ומוצלח.
חידוש שיחות השלום לא יוביל לשום מקום אלא אם ישראלים ופלסטינים ישנו את תפיסתם הדעות הקדומות ואת התנגדותם לשינוי ופחדם משינוי, ולבסוף יגיעו להכרה שגורלם שזור זה בזה ואינם יכולים לחיות בשלום ובביטחון ללא השני.
אני מרגיש נאלץ לסיים את המאמר האחרון שלי לשנה באזהרה חמורה שישראלים ופלסטינים כאחד יעשו אם להרהר בה כאשר הם מתקרבים לסוף העשור השביעי לסכסוך הטראגי שלהם.
כל מיליטנט ישראלי קיצוני ופלסטיני, מי שרוצה הכל חייב לעצור ולחשוב היכן יהיו ישראל והפלסטינים בעוד עשר שנים אם המצב הנוכחי יימשך?
אשליותיך של היום לא יהפכו למציאות של מחר, ומה שהמחר יביא אינו אלא עוד כאב, דמעות ויסורים.
הסכסוך שלך מתפתח מהר יותר למלחמת דת. מתקיים ארמגדון מוסלמי-יהודי שיעלה את כל האזור באש בלתי נתפסת.
אם אתם מאמינים אמיתיים, אל תעזו להתריס נגד רצונו של אלוהים, כי הוא דחף אתכם יחד כדי להעמיד אתכם במבחן – עליכם לחיות בשלום ובהרמוניה, או שתיגזרו על שכחה וייאוש.
יש לך את הכוח לבחור את הגורל שלך. האם זה יהיה הרס עצמי או שזה יהיה הגשמת חלום מפואר?
קום והעביר מורשת של תקווה לכל ילד ישראלי ופלסטיני, כי יש להם את הזכות הנתונה מאלוהים לגדול ולשגשג ואף אחד לא צריך למות על האשליות שלך לשווא”.
כפי שכתבתי בפוסט שלי מ-9 בנובמבר 2023, מראה של החושך שלנו: בדולח; ישראל מנציחה את הטרגדיה הזו שפתחה דלת לטרגדיה גדולה עוד יותר בשואה בכך שהיא עושה בדיוק את אותו הדבר לפלסטינים, עם אחד המחולק על ידי ההיסטוריה והאמונה המזוהה עם נשק בשירות לשלטון. וגם זה יפתח דלתות לטרור ועריצות מדינות, אלא אם כן שני העמים יוכלו להתאחד נגד רשויות המבצעות זוועות בשמם כאסטרטגיה של הכנעה ולשחרר זה את זה מאלה שישעבדו אותם.
אם אתה חושב על עמים כילדים שהם ניצולי התעללות, הרבה מתברר; שכן ברגע שהם תפסו את השלטון יש סיכוי גבוה יותר שהם יהפכו למתעללים בעצמם. כך פועל הפחד, מדוע הוא הבסיס האמיתי לחילופי דברים, מדוע פוליטיקה היא אמנות הפחד, ומדוע מדינות מגולמות באלימות. הן הישראלים והן הפלסטינים נפגעו מהאיומים הקיומיים הרבה לפני שהחלו לחבל, להתאכזר ולעשות דה-הומניזציה אחד את השני.
העובדה שהמשטרים הדורסניים משני הצדדים השתמשו בפוליטיקת פילוג וזהות כדי לרכז כוח ולהעניק לגיטימציה לשליטה אוטוריטרית היא שלב צפוי של מאבק השחרור, במיוחד של מהפכה אנטי-קולוניאלית.
הטריק של להיות אנושי, חברים, הוא לאמץ את החושך של עצמך במאבק, כמו גם את אויביו, ולצאת מהמורשת של ההיסטוריה שלנו שמצלה עלינו כמו זנב תנין בלתי נראה.
יש קו שאמר הנבל בסדרה הקוסמים, ניצול של התעללות בילדות ועריץ הידוע בשם החיה על פשעיו הנוראיים, פעם הילד חסר הכוח והמבועת מרטין צ’טווין וכיום אל מפלצתי; “אתה יודע, כשהייתי ילד, גבר שנועד לטפל בי כופף אותי מעל השולחן שלו וקיבל אותי שוב ושוב בכל פעם שהייתי איתו לבד. זה עוזר לי להבין אמת. אתה חזק או שאתה חלש. “
הנה השקר המקורי של העריץ והפשיסט באפולוגטיקה, בהצדקה העצמית ובפסיכופתיה של הכוח; השקר שרק לכוח יש משמעות והוא אמיתי, שאין טוב או רע. אופן השימוש בכוח הוא בעל חשיבות שווה למי שמחזיק בו. פחד וכוח הם אמצעי עיקרי לחילופי בני אדם, אבל
לא האמצעי היחיד; אהבה, חברות ושייכות חשובים לא פחות.
זהו קו אשר לוכד בצורה מושלמת את הסתירות הטבועות בטבעת הוואגנרית של פחד, כוח וכוח כמקור של הרוע; שכן השימוש בכוח חברתי הוא חתרני לערכיו שלו. עם זאת, התנאים המוטלים של מאבק מהפכני מצריכים לעתים קרובות אלימות, ועד שאלי החוק והסדר יופלו מכסאותיהם אני חייב להסכים עם הכתבה המפורסמת של סארטר במחזהו “ידיים מלוכלכות” מ-1948, שצוטט על ידי פרנץ פאנון בנאומו מ-1960. למה אנחנו משתמשים באלימות, והפכו לאלמוות על ידי מלקולם אקס; “בכל דרך אפשרית.”
כפי שכתב וולטר רודני ב-The Groundings with my Brothers; “אמרו לנו שאלימות כשלעצמה היא רוע, ושלא משנה מה הסיבה, היא לא מוצדקת מבחינה מוסרית. לפי איזה סטנדרט של מוסר יכולה האלימות שבה משתמש עבד כדי לשבור את שלשלאותיו להיחשב זהה לאלימות של אדון עבדים? לפי אילו אמות מידה נוכל להשוות את האלימות של שחורים שדוכאו, מדוכאים, מדוכאים ומדוכאים במשך ארבע מאות שנים עם אלימותם של פאשיסטים לבנים. לא ניתן לשפוט אלימות שמטרתה החזרת כבוד האדם ושוויון לפי אותו קנה מידה כמו אלימות שמטרתה לשמור על אפליה ודיכוי”.
והנה הקטע שאליו הוא מתייחס מפי ליאון טרוצקי ב-Their Morals and Ours: The Class Foundations of Moral Practice; “בעל עבדים שבאמצעות ערמומיות ואלימות כובל עבד בשלשלאות, ועבד שבאמצעות ערמומיות או אלימות שובר את השלשלאות – שלא יאמרו לנו הסריסים הבזויים שהם שווים בפני בית דין מוסר!”
אולם בהשתקפות אני חושב על אותן דמויות גדולות שהיו גם גיבורי השחרור וגם נבלי העריצות; המודל לחיקוי בגיל ההתבגרות שלי נפוליאון, וושינגטון, שהוא מרכזי בהיסטוריה המשפחתית שלנו וטבע את המוטו על הסמל שלנו בקוד הסיסמה במהלך קרב טרנטון, ניצחון או מוות, כאשר המהפכה כולה התנהלה על תקווה עזובה, של הטרגי דרמה של גיבורים שנפלו כמו רוברט מוגאבה, העריצים המפלצתיים סטלין ומאו, הרשימה היא אוסף כמעט אינסופי של צרות וכישלונות חזון שבהם עולמות חדשים אמיצים הפכו לגיהנום ולמדינות קרסרליות. לראיה אני מציע למהפכות האמריקניות והנפוליאון להפוך לאימפריות, ברית המועצות, המפלגה הקומוניסטית הסינית, הודו, שם תהילת השחרור באה יד ביד עם הטרגדיה של החלוקה וכעת היא תחת מגף הלאומיות ההינדית, כמעט כל המהפכות האנטי-קולוניאליות. שעם תקופת החירות הראשונה כאומות חדשות הפכו לעריצות איומה, ובעיקר למדינת ישראל, לחלום מקלט שנרקם באימת השואה שקורבנותיו למדו את הלקחים הלא נכונים מהנאצים ונטלו על עצמם את תפקידם בכיבוש פלשתינה. הסכנות של האידיאליזם הן אמיתיות מאוד; אבל כך גם הסכנות שבכניעה לסמכות ובשותפות השתיקה מול הרוע.
אני צייד של פשיסטים, ושלי הוא מוסר של צייד. מבחינתי יש מבחן פשוט לשימוש בכוח; מי מחזיק בכוח
הרבה מאוד אנשים חכמים כתבו יפה על זוועות הפשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה ועל היררכיות של השתייכות עילית ואחרות מוציאה מהכלל, כפי שעושה פול אוסטרייכר במאמר שלאחר מכן; כאן ברצוני רק להצביע על כך שהכוחות הטמונים בתוכנו ובחוץ כתנאים חברתיים וטראומה אפיגנטית, של אטאביסטים של ברבריות ומערכות דיכוי, הם אוניברסליים לבני אדם כתנאי מאבק כפויים ופועלים ללא הרף גם כשהם מעורפלים מהעין. , מעבר לאימה ולמחסור של נקודות השבר של נפש האדם כמו אלו של ליל הבדולח והטיהור האתני של עזה.
אני כותב לך כמי שחיה לפי קריאת הקרב של לעולם לא שוב! כבר למעלה מארבעים שנה, ויש חשיבות עמוקה וחיונית ליישם את עקרון הפעולה הזה לא רק בהתנגדות לפשיזם כאויב חודרני של כל מה שאנושי בנו, אלא גם לעצמנו ולשימוש שלנו באלימות ובחברתי. כוח כלפי אחרים.
בסופו של דבר, כל מה שחשוב הוא מה אנחנו עושים עם הפחד שלנו, ואיך אנחנו משתמשים בכוח שלנו.
לא משנה היכן אתה מתחיל עם פילוגים והיררכיות של השתייכות עילית ואחרות מדריגה, אתה תמיד מגיע בשערי אושוויץ.
כפי שמלמד אותנו ניטשה במעבר לטוב ולרע; “מי שצד מפלצות עשוי לדאוג שלא יהפוך בכך למפלצת. ואם אתה מסתכל זמן רב לתוך תהום, התהום מביטה גם בך.”
במראה האפלה של עזה, עם ההשתקפויות המפלצתיות של ליל הבדולח ושל אושוויץ, אתה אוהב את מה שאתה רואה, הו ישראל?
כפי שכתבתי בפוסט שלי מ-10 במאי 2021, ההגנה על אל אקצא: חירות מול עריצות בירושלים; ייתכן שהיינו עדים להופעת האינתיפאדה השלישית הלילה, בהגנת אל-אקצא ובקרבות הרחוב בעזה שבאו בעקבותיה, שהוצתו בעקבות הבגידה והכיבוש האימפריאלי של מדינת ישראל שנאת זרים ופשיסטית שאינה מתייחסת לאיש מלבד
השבט והאמונה שלהם כאנושיים באמת, ואשר ביצעו מתקפה בלתי מעוררת וקטלנית כמעשה טרור ממלכתי ופשע נגד האנושות על המתפללים השלווים באחד המסגדים הקדושים ביותר בעולם האסלאמי, הפגנת כוח ו שלטון שבא בעקבות שבועות של פרובוקציות, תקיפות ופעולות של דה-הומניזציה תעמולתית נגד העם הפלסטיני.
כמו אינתיפאדת אל-אקצא השנייה או אל-אקצא שנמשכה ארבע שנים מה-28 בספטמבר 2000 עד ה-8 בפברואר 2005, נושאים לא פתורים של כיבוש שנמצא כעת בחמישים וארבעה שנים מאז כיבוש ירושלים העתיקה ב-7 ביוני 1967 על ידי ישראל, שמדינת ישראל חגגה על פי ללוח העברי כיום ירושלים היום על ידי תקיפת אל אקצא, ואסון הנמשך כבר שבעים ושלוש שנים מאז יום הנכבה ה-15 במאי 1948, התלכדו סביב הערך הסמלי של אל אקצא, בעל זהות כפולה שנויה במחלוקת כהר הבית ב. יַהֲדוּת.
סיכויי הסלמה ומניעת מלחמה תלויים כעת לא בגורמים מקומיים אלא בתגובת הקהילה הבינלאומית, שכן ההיסטוריה הפכה כאן למלכודת שמתמוטטת כדי ללכוד אותנו במלתעותיה, וכוחות חיצוניים חייבים לשחרר אותנו מהכישלונות של הסתירות הפנימיות של המערכת שלנו.
האם אמריקה תתנער ותתנער ממושבה ישראל, מלכת המדיניות האימפריאלית שלה במזרח התיכון והשליטה במשאב האסטרטגי של הנפט? האם האחדות הבינלאומית והלחץ של חרם, ביטול וסנקציה יכולים לשחרר אותנו מהעריצות והטרור של משטר אפרטהייד כפי שעשה בדרום אפריקה?
או שמא מלחמה היא ההתחשבנות היחידה שהמין האנושי יכול להציע או לקבל?
כפי שנכתב על ידי ישאן ת’ארור בוושינגטון פוסט; “ביום שני בלילה, חמושים ברצועת עזה והצבא הישראלי החליפו ירי רקטות ותקיפות אוויריות על רקע הסלמה קטלנית של האלימות. חמאס והג’יהאד האיסלאמי, ארגונים חמושים שבסיסם בעזה המצוררת, שיגרו מטח רקטות שנחתו ליד ירושלים ובחלקים מדרום ישראל, ופצעו לפחות אדם אחד. תקיפות אוויריות ישראליות בתגמול הרגו לפחות 20 בני אדם בעזה, לפי משרד הבריאות של עזה, כולל תשעה ילדים.
ראש ממשלת ישראל בנימין נתניהו אמר כי “קבוצות הטרור” בעזה “חצו קו אדום” עם התקפות הרקטות שלהם. אבל לפיצוץ הלחימה האחרון יש זנב ארוך, בעקבות פעולות תוקפניות רבות הן של כוחות הביטחון הישראליים והן של ארגוני עליונות יהודים מהימין הקיצוני בירושלים. לפני שבועיים צעדו להקות של קיצונים יהודים, כולל כמה מתנחלים מהגדה המערבית, דרך אזורים מאוכלסים בפלסטינים בעיר הקדושה, קראו “מוות לערבים”, תקפו עוברי אורח ופגעו ברכוש ובבתים פלסטינים. ניסיונות ישראלים לפנות מספר משפחות פלסטיניות בשכונת שייח ג’ראח במזרח ירושלים – מיקרוקוסמוס של מה שהפלסטינים רואים כחלק מהיסטוריה ארוכה של נישול ומחיקה בידי מדינת ישראל – עוררו מחאות סולידריות פלסטיניות בחלקים שונים. של השטחים הכבושים וישראל עצמה.
היא גם העלתה את המתיחות לקראת ציון יום ירושלים ביום שני, חג ישראלי רשמי שחוגג את כיבוש העיר במהלך מלחמת ערב-ישראל ב-1967. צעדה שנתית מתוכננת של ישראלים אולטרה-לאומיים מהימין הקיצוני בוטלה לאחר שהרשויות ניתבו את דרכה ברגע האחרון. מספרים גדולים עדיין עשו את דרכם לכותל ושרו שיר נקמה קיצוני נגד הפלסטינים.
“התקפות הרקטות של חמאס, שכללו את התקיפות הראשונות נגד ירושלים מזה מספר שנים, הגיעו לאחר עימותים בין משטרת ישראל, מפגינים פלסטינים וישראלים יהודים מהימין הקיצוני ברחבי העיר העתיקה”, דיווחו עמיתיי. “בין מאות הפצועים היו שבעה שאושפזו במצב קשה, כך לפי הסהר האדום הפלסטיני. קטעי וידאו שהופצו ברשתות החברתיות של שוטרים ישראלים מכים באכזריות גבר פלסטיני עצור”.
איך אמריקה יכולה לתמוך במדינת ישראל בעריצות ובטרור, בכיבוש ובגזל? זו שאלה שנשאלת בטונים של זעם, צער ותמיהה מאז הופעת הנכבה ב-15 במאי 1948, יום הקטסטרופה שהחל את כיבוש פלסטין והשעבוד השיטתי ורצח העם של אנשיה בעקבות הכיבוש הישראלי. של ירושלים. איך זה מקבל לגיטימציה?
חבר ניסח לי לאחרונה מחדש את השאלה הזו; “אהבתי ואימצתי את המסורת היהודית, הצטרפתי לבית כנסת ועבדתי לצד רבו. כשאני עד ליחס של ממשלת ישראל היהודית לפלסטינים, אני מוצף ברגשות של בלבול וכעס. אני לא מצליח ליישב את חוסר המוסריות הזה, אני מטיל ספק בעצם היסוד של אמונתי. היכן ההתקוממות הטובה והמוסרית של הקולות היהודיים הבינלאומיים המגנה את דרכה של הממשלה? איבדתי את האמון בלהיות יהודי”.
מה שברור לי הוא שמשבר האמונה הזה הוא גם משבר קיומי של זהות
מצב של כובד ראש וסכנה אשר טומן בחובו גם פוטנציאל לדמיון מחודש ולידה מחדש טרנספורמטיבית, הד אישי למשבר ציוויליזציוני מקביל ממנו על המין האנושי וקהילת האומות העולמית למצוא דרך לצאת ולשחרר את עצמנו מהמורשת של ההיסטוריה שלנו. הנה תשובתי:
מדינת ישראל אינה זהה לאמונה היהודית, אם כי הפלג הפשיסטי-אימפריאליסטי שנתניהו מייצג היה רוצה שכולם יחשבו כך.
אומה המבוססת על הקצאת אזרחיה לזהות שבטית, נשק עדתי של אמונה בשירות לשלטון וזהות לאומית מורשית, חברה צבאית עם שירות חובה אוניברסלי ופטישיזציה נרחבת של מיתוסים של חיל לחימה וסמליה כולל רובים , ושפה עברית משוחזרת של אחדות לאומית השתמשה בפוליטיקת זהויות כדי להכפיף את אזרחיה לכוח הריכוזי של העריצות; ישראל היא מדינה פשיסטית של דם, אמונה ואדמה לא פחות מזו של הנאצים.
הוסיפו לתמהיל הרעיל הזה משטר קלפטוקרטי שהפיץ נרטיבים של קורבנות היסטורית כדי לתת לגיטימציה לגניבה מסיבית וכיבוש אימפריאלי של מדינות אחרות ודבר אחד ברור; ישראל למדה את הלקחים הלא נכונים מהנאצים.
אתה אולי יודע מההתייחסויות הרבות שלי לתקרית בכתיבתי שאני אנטי-פשיסט, שנשבע לשבועת ההתנגדות על ידי ז’אן ז’נה ב-1982 בביירות, במהלך מאבקנו נגד הפלישה והמצור הישראלים. ב-39 השנים שאחרי, הייתי צייד נאצים ומהפכן של דמוקרטיה העסוק במאבק לשחרור המין האנושי נגד עריצות ומשטרים אוטוריטריים של כוח ושליטה.
מולדת פלסטינית, וצדק לאנשיה, היו בין המטרות שלי מאז אותו קיץ לפני כל כך הרבה זמן. כמו המטרה של שחרור אירלנד מהשלטון הקולוניאלי הבריטי, עוד נותרה להשיגה. מדובר ברעיון החירות והאזרחות כריבונות ועצמאות של עמים מקולוניאליזם זר ועריצות אוטוריטרית, והקדימות של מדינה לא-כתתית נקייה מפילוגים והיררכיות של אמונה, שכן מי שעומד בין כל אחד מאיתנו לבין האינסופי אינו משרת אף אחד מהם. .
אני גם תומך ברעיון של מולדת ישראלית, ולא רואה סיבה ששתי המדינות הללו, פלסטין וישראלית, יהיו סותרות זו את זו או אנטגוניסטיות. כמה ישראלים שלא יסכימו איתי בשאלת פלסטין ומיליטריזם בכיבוש אימפריאלי ובשליטה אזורית היו בעלי ברית במטרת ציד הנאצים והפשיסטים בדרך כלל ברחבי העולם, אבל הם עיוורים לשותפותם שלהם ברוע זה בגלל שהם רואים את עצמם כקורבנות ולא כמבצעי פשעים נגד האנושות. מדובר בפחד, ובמעגל ההרסני של התעללות ואלימות.
כאשר האמונה מנוכסת על ידי סמכות ללגיטימציה בפוליטיקת זהויות, הזהות עצמה הופכת מבולבלת ומעורפלת. כדי להיות חופשיים, עלינו לתפוס בעלות על עצמנו כיצורים שנוצרו בעצמנו ואוטונומיים.
זו הסיבה שהתפקידים העיקריים של האזרח הם להטיל ספק בסמכות, לחשוף סמכות, ללעוג לסמכות ולערער על סמכות.
תמיד נשאר המאבק בין המסכות שאחרים עושים לנו לבין אלה שאנחנו עושים לעצמנו; זו המהפכה הראשונה שבה כולנו צריכים להילחם.
אני חושב על בעיית הרוע האנושי ומעגל הפחד, הכוח והכוח שלו במקרה של מדינות שהופכות לעריצות מהן נלחמו כדי להשתחרר מהן, וזה נכון לגבי מדינות מהפכניות אנטי-קולוניאליות בדרך כלל בגלל המורשת ההיסטורית של הקורבנות , בדרך זו; קורבנות הופכים לעתים קרובות למתעללים מכיוון שזהותם מאורגנת סביב כוח כאמצעי המילוט היחיד בעולם שבו לא ניתן לסמוך על איש.
כאשר האמון בוטל והוכח כריק וללא משמעות, כאשר היכולת להתחבר ולהרגיש את כאבם של אחרים באמפתיה נשברה ואדם ללא רחמים או חרטה, כאשר הפחד הוא מכריע ומוכלל ועוצב על ידי סמכות בשירות הכוח, הקורבנות לומדים שרק לכוח יש משמעות והוא אמיתי. אסור לנו לאפשר למתעללים שלנו להפוך למורים שלנו.
בעוד שלכל נושא כזה יש מקורות והיסטוריה ייחודיים משלו, הבעיה עצמה היא אוניברסלית, וקשורה למה שחוששים, ואיך הפחד הזה מעוצב על ידי סמכות זהות. מנקודת המבט שלנו כאמריקאים המפרשים אירועים בבעיה הקלאסית של המיעוט הכפול האופיינית על ידי ישראל ופלסטין, האופן שבו אנו תופסים נושאים קשורים רבות לאופן שבו הם ממוסגרים על ידי מקורות המידע והמניעים שלנו.
בסופו של דבר אנחנו מוגדרים לפי מה אנחנו עושים עם הפחד שלנו, ואיך אנחנו משתמשים בכוח שלנו.
השאלה הראשונה שיש לשאול על כל סיפור, והחשובה ביותר, היא פשוטה; של מי הסיפור הזה
אנחנו אבודים במדבר של מראות, של שקרים ואשליות, זיופים של עצמנו, דימויים והשתקפויות מעוותים, הדים וזהויות מורשות שמעוותות, משבשות.
להעצים ולגנוב את נשמתנו.
איך נענה למי שישעבד אותנו? האותנטיות והאוטונומיה שלנו מתממשות באמצעות תפיסת כוח, ודמיון מחדש והפיכתנו של עצמנו ושל המין האנושי כחברה חופשית של שווים.
אנו האמריקאים נוטים לראות דברים במונחים של כובעים לבנים וכובעים שחורים, כמו בסרטי המערבון המשמשים כמיתוסים וארכיטיפים של המקור הלאומי שלנו. ברגע שהוענק מעמד של קורבן, קבוצות ואנשים כאלה הופכים לכובעים לבנים ולחבר’ה טובים, חסרי יכולת לרוע ומנוגדים בתכלית למי שחייבים להיות כובעים שחורים. זו דרך איומה לבחור במדיניות לאומית.
למרבה הצער, אנו בני האדם יכולים להיות טובים ורעים בבת אחת, פגמי האנושות שלנו מהדהדים ומשקפים את השבר של העולם. זו אמת שהוכחה שוב הלילה באל קודס או בירושלים תלוי למי מדברים ובאיזה שפה, בעוד עזה בוערת מהסתערות של צבא הגנה ישראלי משתוללת בדומה ללילה לפני כמעט ארבעה עשורים בביירות. כשניסו לשרוף את ג’נט ואני בחיים בבית הקפה שלנו, כתריסר בני אדם שנגנב מהם הכל מלבד התקווה נשבעים נדרים זה לזה להחזיק בתפקיד שיכסה את בריחת הנשים והילדים שנלכדו בתקיפה הישראלית עד שכל בטוחים, בהגנה סופית לא על מסגד אל אקצא, מפואר ויפה ומלא במשמעות, אנדרטה לדחף האנושי להגיע אל מעבר לעצמנו ולאפשרויות הבלתי מוגבלות להפוך לאנושיות, במה המתאימה למותם המפואר של גיבורים, אבל של צרחות חסרות גוף של זרים בין המלחמות חסרות השם של עתיקות נטושה.
אל מול תהום הריקנות והברבריות הניהיליסטית של עולם של חושך ואש, של פחד וכוח, יש לי רק מילים להציע, ואני כותב לך את מה שאמרתי לחבריי שבחרו לעמוד איתי; איבדתי את ספירת היציעים האחרונים, אבל סיכנתי הכל כנגד סיכויים בלתי אפשריים ושרדתי יותר פעמים ממה שאני יכול לזכור, וכל מה שחשוב הוא שאנחנו לא נוטשים לא את עצמנו ולא אחד את השני, שאנחנו מסרבים להיכנע, כי זה רגע החופש שלנו, ולעולם לא ניתן לקחת אותו מאיתנו.
מהלילה הזה, פלסטין חופשית, כי אנחנו יכולים להיהרג, אבל אי אפשר לכבוש אותנו.
Today we remember the horrific repression and mass murder by police which numbers among the most brutal and senseless crimes of state terror in our nation’s history, but also the valiant resistance of students throughout America to a government which was and yet remains an unjust and violent perpetrator of crimes against humanity both at home and abroad.
The national student strike which the massacre unleashed was a turning point for American involvement in Vietnam, and remains a model for mass action today. Its primary lesson is simple; to unite everyone, from all classes and stratum of society, in action against an existential threat said threat must be universal as well as clear and direct. Such a universal mass protest now unfolds in the shadow of the Israel Genocide of the Palestinians and the echoes and reflections of the Kent State Massacre.
A parallel student movement for peace and divestiture now engulfs our nation and our world, a clarion call for solidarity with the oppressed in the genocide of the Palestinians and the deaths of thousands of children and civilians paid for by our taxes, as our government and Genocide Joe abandon our ideas of universal human rights and the historic role of America as their guarantor state, and like university peace movement to end the Vietnam War is met not with celebration of our rights of free speech and the co-ownership of the state by all of its citizens, not with a President who joins the protests as the champion of democracy and our universal human rights, but with police terror and repression of dissent.
Our leaders have betrayed us, and in the abandonment of our human rights and of our rights as citizens Biden and the Democratic Party may have handed the next election to Trump and the Republican Party whose mission is the sabotage of democracy and its replacement by a theocratic tyranny of patriarchal and white supremacist terror. For if you sponsor and authorize genocide, I cannot vote for you, and I will fight you; and in this I am far from alone.
We are caught by the horns of a dilemma in this crucial election year, with liberty or tyranny at stake not merely for our nation but for the whole of humankind and throughout the coming millennia. We must bring our dog to heel through Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanction of Israel until the genocide and the Occupation end, and with it the Netanyahu settler regime of ethnic cleansing and theocratic terror. If we cannot, and choose instead to ally and identify our nation once again with imperial conquest and dominion, state terror and tyranny, and the sacrifice of others lives in service to our own power, those of us who remember what it means to be an American and a human being must refuse to vote for Biden, land Trump wins the Presidency; this is the true motive for Israel’s orchestration of the October 7 tragedy, in dual purpose with creating a casus belli for the Final Solution of the Palestinians and the conquest of the Middle East.
I ask you now, all of us; don’t let complicity in genocide be the reason democracy falls in America.
What lessons can we learn from the Kent State Massacre?
In the words of eyewitness Mike Alewitz writing in Counterpunch; “We were peacefully protesting the US invasion of Cambodia when the Ohio National Guard launched a teargas attack and then opened fire at us.
67 shots in 13 seconds left our campus strewn with dead and wounded. Four dead in Ohio – nine wounded, one paralyzed for life.
Ten days later, 75 Mississippi state police, armed with carbines, shotguns and submachine guns, fired 460 rounds into a dormitory at protesting students at Jackson State. The barrage left two dead and an unknown number of wounded.
And in between, rarely noted, was the largest black uprising in a southern city during the civil rights era.
On May 11, 1970, the black community in Augusta, Georgia rebelled, after the burned and tortured body of an incarcerated 16-year old retarded black youth was dumped by his jailers at a local hospital.
The rebellion left six African-American men dead – all shot in the back.
The invasion of Cambodia and killings at Kent sparked an unprecedented national student strike. Over 400 campuses were shut down and occupied by the students. Millions of people joined street demonstrations demanding an end to the war.
1970 marked a turning point in history as the majority of GIs came to recognize that Washington had knowingly sent them to die in a war that was unwinnable. Our movement became so powerful that, along with the determined resistance of the Vietnamese people, we forced the government to withdraw from Southeast Asia.
Ending the war, on the heels of the civil rights movement, was a tremendous victory for working people. The momentum gave rise to the rebirth of the women’s movement, the gay movement and other social movements that transformed the country.
Today we face an unprecedented medical, ecological, social and economic crisis. We cannot continue to pour trillions of dollars into an insatiable war machine while healthcare workers go begging for masks. While our schools and restaurants are closed. While millions are unemployed. While lines at food pantries stretch for miles.
The finances and resources of society must be changed to go towards healing our planet and ourselves. The memory of the martyrs of Kent and Jackson cries out for us to continue the struggle for which they gave their lives – to demand money for jobs and education, not for war; to put an end to all US wars and occupations and sanctions.”
As described by Steve Early in Jacobin; “In May 1970, 4 million students went on strike across the country, shutting down classes at hundreds of colleges, universities, and high schools and demanding an end to the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, their rebellion remains an inspiration, as radical student politics is back on the agenda.
Over the course of this unprecedented campus uprising, about two thousand students were arrested. After thirty buildings used by the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) were bombed or set on fire, heavily armed National Guards were deployed on twenty-one campuses in sixteen states.
On May 4, at Kent State University in Ohio, Guard members fresh from policing a Teamster wildcat strike shot and killed four students and wounded nine. Ten days later, Mississippi State Police opened fire on a women’s dormitory at Jackson State University, killing two more students”.
“The strike across campuses revealed the power of collective action. Born out of the shutdown, there was an explosion of activity by hundreds of thousands of students not previously engaged in anti-war activity, creating major political tremors across the country, including helping to curtail military intervention in Southeast Asia.”
“Nixon claimed to have a “secret plan” to bring peace to Vietnam and withdraw the five hundred thousand US troops still deployed there.
Once unveiled, Nixon’s plan turned out to be “Vietnamization” — shifting the combat burden to troops loyal to the US-backed government in Saigon, while conducting massive bombing of targets throughout Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. By April 30, 1970, the United States was sending ground troops into Cambodia as well.
Students at elite private institutions long associated with anti-war agitation were among the first to react. Protest strikes were quickly declared at Columbia, Princeton, Brandeis, and Yale, where many students had already voted to boycott class in support of the Black Panther Party, then on trial in New Haven.
Meanwhile, a Friday night riot outside student bars in downtown Kent, Ohio, was followed by the burning of a Kent State ROTC building over the weekend. Ohio governor James Rhodes ordered a thousand National Guard troops to occupy the campus and prevent rallies of any kind.
The Guard came geared with bayonets, tear gas grenades, shotguns, and M1s, a military rifle with long range and high velocity. Chasing a hostile but unarmed crowd of students across campus on May 4, one unit of weekend warriors suddenly wheeled and fired, killing four students.”
“The deaths of Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder had a powerful impact on hundreds of thousands of students at Kent State and beyond.”
“The resulting calls for campus shutdowns came from every direction. Students at MIT tracked which schools were on strike for a National Strike Information Center operating at Brandeis nearby. Soon the list was ten feet long. Despite its initial association with militant protest, most strike activity was peaceful and legal. It consisted of student assemblies taking strike votes, and then further mass meetings, speeches and lectures, vigils and memorial services, plus endless informal “rapping” about politics and the war.
The strike brought together a wide range of undergraduates, faculty members, and administrators — despite their past disagreements about on-campus protest activity. Thirty-four college and university presidents sent an open letter to Nixon calling for a speedy end to the war. The strike also united students from private and public colleges and local public high schools in working-class communities. On May 8, in Philadelphia, students from many different backgrounds and neighborhoods marched from five different directions to Independence Hall, where a crowd of one hundred thousand gathered outside. City high school attendance that day dropped to 10 percent, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.”
“In a Boston Globe interview on the thirtieth anniversary of this upsurge, Isserman argued that it was “the product of unique circumstances that, not surprisingly, provoked outrage from a generation of students already accustomed to protest and demonstration. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a movement quite like this again.”
“Yet over the past two decades, college and high-school students have walked out again, across the country, in highly visible and coordinated fashion. In March 2003, they poured out of 350 schools to protest the impending US invasion of Iraq. Fifteen years later, about 1 million students at 3,000 schools walked out to join a seventeen-minute vigil organized in response to the mass shooting at Parkland High School in Florida. And just last September, hundreds of thousands of students left school to join rallies and marches organized as part of a Global Climate Strike.
Universities and high schools are now experiencing a shutdown of their campuses, albeit of a very different kind. But when these institutions open back up, conditions will require a new set of political demands. A return to normal will not be good enough. When school is back in session, the history of a strike occurring after the shadow of death fell on campuses fifty years ago, thanks to Richard Nixon, may become more relevant to challenging “national policy”.
4 مايو 2024 ثمن السلام: ذكرى مذبحة ولاية كينت في ظل الإبادة الجماعية للفلسطينيين
إننا نتذكر اليوم القمع المروع والقتل الجماعي الذي ارتكبته الشرطة والذي يعد من بين أكثر جرائم إرهاب الدولة وحشية وحماقة في تاريخ أمتنا، ولكننا نتذكر أيضًا المقاومة الشجاعة للطلاب في جميع أنحاء أمريكا ضد الحكومة التي كانت ولا تزال مرتكبة ظالمة وعنيفة. الجرائم ضد الإنسانية في الداخل والخارج.
كان الإضراب الطلابي الوطني الذي أطلقته المذبحة بمثابة نقطة تحول في التدخل الأمريكي في فيتنام، ويظل نموذجًا للعمل الجماهيري حتى اليوم. الدرس الأساسي بسيط. لتوحيد الجميع، من جميع طبقات وطبقات المجتمع، في العمل ضد التهديد الوجودي، يجب أن يكون التهديد عالميًا وواضحًا ومباشرًا. إن مثل هذا الاحتجاج الجماهيري العالمي يتكشف الآن في ظل الإبادة الجماعية الإسرائيلية للفلسطينيين وأصداء وانعكاسات مذبحة ولاية كينت.
إن حركة طلابية موازية من أجل السلام وسحب الاستثمارات تجتاح الآن أمتنا وعالمنا، وهي دعوة واضحة للتضامن مع المضطهدين في الإبادة الجماعية للفلسطينيين ومقتل الآلاف من الأطفال والمدنيين الذين تدفع ثمنهم ضرائبنا، كما فعلت حكومتنا والإبادة الجماعية. يتخلى جو عن أفكارنا حول حقوق الإنسان العالمية والدور التاريخي لأمريكا كدولة ضامنة لها، ومثل حركة السلام الجامعية لإنهاء حرب فيتنام لا تقابل بالاحتفال بحقوقنا في حرية التعبير والملكية المشتركة للدولة من قبل الجميع. مواطنيها، ليس مع رئيس ينضم إلى الاحتجاجات باعتباره بطل الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان العالمية، ولكن مع إرهاب الشرطة وقمع المعارضة.
لقد خاننا قادتنا، وبالتخلي عن حقوقنا الإنسانية وحقوقنا كمواطنين، ربما يكون بايدن والحزب الديمقراطي قد سلموا الانتخابات المقبلة إلى ترامب والحزب الجمهوري الذي تتمثل مهمته في تخريب الديمقراطية واستبدالها بحكومة ثيوقراطية. طغيان الإرهاب الأبوي والعنصري الأبيض. لأنه إذا كنت ترعى وتأذن بالإبادة الجماعية، فلا أستطيع التصويت لك، وسوف أقاتلك؛ وفي هذا لست وحدي.
إننا نواجه معضلة في هذا العام الانتخابي الحاسم، حيث الحرية أو الاستبداد على المحك ليس فقط بالنسبة لأمتنا ولكن للبشرية جمعاء وعلى مدى آلاف السنين القادمة. يجب علينا أن نخضع كلبنا من خلال المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات وفرض العقوبات على إسرائيل حتى تنتهي الإبادة الجماعية والاحتلال، ومعها نظام نتنياهو الاستيطاني القائم على التطهير العرقي والإرهاب الثيوقراطي. إذا لم نتمكن من ذلك، واخترنا بدلاً من ذلك التحالف وتحديد هوية أمتنا مرة أخرى من خلال الغزو والسيطرة الإمبراطورية، وإرهاب الدولة والطغيان، وتضحيات الآخرين التي تعيش في خدمة قوتنا، فإن أولئك منا الذين يتذكرون ما يعنيه أن تكون دولة يجب على الأميركي والإنساني أن يرفضوا التصويت لبايدن، أرضاً يفوز ترامب بالرئاسة؛ هذا هو الدافع الحقيقي لتدبير إسرائيل لمأساة 7 أكتوبر، بهدف مزدوج مع خلق سبب للحرب من أجل الحل النهائي للفلسطينيين وغزو الشرق الأوسط.
أسألكم الآن جميعاً؛ لا تدع التواطؤ في الإبادة الجماعية يكون السبب وراء سقوط الديمقراطية في أمريكا.
Hebrew
4 במאי 2024 מחיר השלום: יום השנה לטבח במדינת קנט בצל רצח העם של הפלסטינים
היום אנו זוכרים את הדיכוי הנורא והרצח ההמוני על ידי המשטרה, שהם בין הפשעים האכזריים וחסרי ההיגיון של טרור המדינה בתולדות האומה שלנו, אבל גם את ההתנגדות האמיצה של סטודנטים ברחבי אמריקה לממשלה שהיתה ועדיין נותרה עבריין לא צודק ואלים של פשעים נגד האנושות הן בבית והן מחוצה לה.
שביתת הסטודנטים הלאומית שהטבח חולל הייתה נקודת מפנה למעורבות האמריקנית בווייטנאם, והיא נותרה מודל לפעולה המונית כיום. הלקח העיקרי שלה הוא פשוט; כדי לאחד את כולם, מכל המעמדות והשכבות של החברה, בפעולה נגד איום קיומי האיום האמור חייב להיות אוניברסלי וכן ברור וישיר. מחאה המונית אוניברסלית כזו מתרחשת כעת בצל רצח העם הישראלי של הפלסטינים וההדים וההרהורים של הטבח במדינת קנט.
תנועת סטודנטים מקבילה לשלום והסרה בולעת כעת את האומה שלנו ואת העולם שלנו, קריאה מובהקת לסולידריות עם המדוכאים ברצח העם של הפלסטינים ובמותם של אלפי ילדים ואזרחים המשולמים על ידי המסים שלנו, כממשלתנו ורצח העם. ג’ו נוטש את הרעיונות שלנו בדבר זכויות אדם אוניברסליות ותפקידה ההיסטורי של אמריקה כמדינה הערבית שלהם, וכמו תנועת השלום האוניברסיטאית לסיום מלחמת וייטנאם אינה זוכה לחגיגה של זכויות הביטוי שלנו והבעלות המשותפת על המדינה על ידי כולם של אזרחיה, לא עם נשיא שמצטרף להפגנות בתור אלוף הדמוקרטיה וזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו, אלא עם טרור משטרתי ודיכוי התנגדות.
המנהיגים שלנו בגדו בנו, ובנטישת זכויות האדם שלנו וזכויותינו כאזרחים, ייתכן שבידן והמפלגה הדמוקרטית העבירו את הבחירות הבאות לטראמפ ולמפלגה הרפובליקנית שמשימתן היא חבלה בדמוקרטיה והחלפתה בתאוקרטיה. עריצות של טרור פטריארכלי ולבן. כי אם אתה נותן חסות ותאשר רצח עם, אני לא יכול להצביע עבורך, ואני אלחם בך; ובזה אני רחוק מלהיות לבד.
אנו נלכדים בקרנות של דילמה בשנת בחירות מכרעת זו, עם חירות או עריצות על כף המאזניים לא רק עבור האומה שלנו אלא עבור המין האנושי כולו ולאורך אלפי השנים הקרובות. עלינו להביא את הכלב שלנו לעקב באמצעות חרם, ביטול וסנקציה של ישראל עד לסיום רצח העם והכיבוש, ואיתו משטר המתנחלים נתניהו של טיהור אתני וטרור תיאוקרטי. אם איננו יכולים, ובמקום זאת בוחרים ליצור ברית ולזהות את האומה שלנו שוב עם כיבוש ושליטה אימפריאלית, טרור מדינה ועריצות, והקרבת חיים של אחרים בשירות לכוחנו, אלו מאיתנו שזוכרים מה זה אומר להיות אמריקאי ובן אנוש חייבים לסרב להצביע עבור ביידן, קרקע שטראמפ יזכה בנשיאות; זהו המניע האמיתי לתזמור של ישראל את הטרגדיה של 7 באוקטובר, במטרה כפולה עם יצירת קאזוס באלי לפתרון הסופי של הפלסטינים ולכיבוש המזרח התיכון.
אני שואל אתכם עכשיו, כולנו; אל תתנו לשותפות ברצח עם להיות הסיבה שהדמוקרטיה נופלת באמריקה.
We celebrate this day a festival in Red and Green; socialism as labor solidarity and class struggle, and ecology as stewardship of our world. What unites these two origins and purposes of May Day is the idea of interconnectedness, mutualism, and interdependence in the social and natural worlds, and of our duty of care for each other and our fragile ark of life on our journey together through the unimaginable vastness of the cosmos.
This day also finds our universities embattled by forces of repression of dissent, as a new generation finds its heart and its voice in solidarity with the people of Palestine against genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity paid for by our taxes and authorized by Genocide Joe and the apparatus of state terror and tyranny he represents. We refuse to be made complicit by silence in the face of this historic abandonment of our universal human rights and the role of America as their guarantor throughout the world.
We have brought the war home. Now our universal human rights in the genocide of the Palestinians paid for by our taxes and our rights of dissent and co ownership of the state will be tested; has democracy become performative in America, or does it still stand and have meaning? This, friends, is the true reason the Netanyahu regime engineered October 7; to aide Trump in the subversion of democracy and to create a casus belli for the conquest of the Middle East and the Final Solution if the Palestinians.
The divestiture, peace, and Occupy movement and protests have gathered momentum as an unstoppable tide as did the Black Lives Matter wave of mass action, and to the tyrants of death and fascisms of blood, faith, and soil let us say with the Mockingbird; “If we burn, you burn with us.”
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.
I think now of the iconic May Day speech of Jean Genet for the Black Panthers at a university under siege by authorities to whom the function of universities is as a success filter which enforces elite hegemonies of wealth, power, and privilege and authorizes hierarchies and identities of reified membership and exclusionary otherness in terms of race, class, and gender.
Sadly, in this nothing has changed, which can be read all too clearly in the police terror and repression of dissent at the peace protests and encampments for divestiture throughout our nation’s universities. The struggle between conservative and revolutionary forces in universities reflects that of all our institutions and systems of oppression; states and the wealthy who operate and fund them understand universities as a success filter and intend to enforce and control membership in elite hegemonies of wealth, power, and privilege as class war, white supremacist tyranny, and theocratic patriarchal sexual terror, while universities are at the same time a forge of questioning and organizing for a true free society of equals, for seizures of power as class struggle, for the constitution of a revolutionary intelligentsia able to lead an engaged citizen electorate, and for change and liberation struggle of all kinds.
For many years as a Forensics teacher and debate coach whose methods centered Socratic dialog, I taught my students that the uniqueness of our civilization founded in the deimos of the Forum of Athens and in the Trial of Socrates was that it is a self-questioning system which totally rejects authority as a source of truth. This I call the Primary Duties of a Citizen; Question Authority, Expose Authority, Mock Authority, and Challenge Authority.
Education comes from the Greek educatus; to bring forth, not to stuff facts in; we must choose between training and education. The great question for us now regarding education at all levels is whether it serves tyranny and obedience to authority or democracy and the questioning of ourselves and of the world.
As written by Jacqueline Frost in Social Text, in an article entitled Jean Genet’s May Day Speech, 1970: “Your Real Life Depends on the Black Panther Party”; “In Genet’s final call to action, he asks white intellectuals to follow the directives of the BPP, even if this means “desert[ing] your universities” in order to support Bobby Seale. In a time of recession, which promises to be even more hostile to radical intellectuals, this call to desertion is one among many of the experiments in political inheritance that Genet’s example conjures. His desire to “destroy all the habitual reasons for living in order to discover others,” as recounted in his Thief’s Journal, reminds us to promote mischief in our intellectual comportments, the kind that existentially threatens “good student”-type university meritocrats.
More pressing however, is the experiment that Genet’s May Day Speech generates in the form of a question, a question which we cannot but feel as our own today: how will the whites, through the elaboration of solidarity and the relinquishment of power, destroy racism and salvage love?”
As I wrote in my post of May 1 2023, Socialism is Compassion in Action: On Compassion as a Defining Quality of Humankind; What is human? Of the transgression of our boundaries I have often written; it remains the primary act of individuation and the creation of identity as a seizure of power from Authority and from the Forbidden, but what quality defines us and sets humankind apart from beasts, from the artificial intelligences of the transhuman, and from the future possibilities of posthuman species?
To this role as a defining human quality I nominate love as altruism, compassion, and empathy; the ability to bond and connect with others as extensions of ourselves, to feel the pain of others and respond to our common needs and frailties, mercy and charity, and the whole spectrum of our emotional awareness which shapes, informs, and motivates us and which we recognize as forms of love.
As Wagner teaches us in Der Ring des Nibelungen, only those who renounce love may wield the Ring of Fear, Power, and Force. Those who would enslave us and claim power over others as tyrants in the theft of our souls must first dehumanize themselves. Against such tyranny we have inherent powers of hope as refusal to submit which confers autonomy and of love as solidarity of action.
Love defines what is human. That which is without love is wholly other.
To be human is to share a continuity of being which is transpersonal; love makes us greater than ourselves. Through love we transcend the limits of the flags of our skin, and the divisions and hierarchies of elite belonging and exclusionary otherness.
How then may we describe the action of this value in social relations and in political context? Love is mutable and a fulcrum of change, a process of transformation and redemption, embracing contradictions and filled with resonances and echoes, is at once immanent in nature and transcendent as the rapture and terror of our awareness of the Infinite. It is also the way in which we experience our connection and interdependence with others; Socialism is compassion in action, and it is this praxis and function of our humanity which I call to your attention as we celebrate May Day.
As Christina Feldman writes in Lions Roar; “In Buddhist iconography, compassion is embodied in the bodhisattva Kuan Yin, who is said to manifest wherever beings need help. Engendering such compassion is not only good for others, says Christina Feldman, it is also good for us. By putting others first, we loosen the bonds of our self-fixation, and in doing so, inch closer to our own liberation.
Compassion is no stranger to any of us: we know what it feels like to be deeply moved by the pain and suffering of others. All people receive their own measure of sorrow and struggle in this life. Bodies age, health becomes fragile, minds can be beset by confusion and obsession, hearts are broken. We see many people asked to bear the unbearable—starvation, tragedy, and hardship beyond our imagining. Our loved ones experience illness, pain, and heartache, and we long to ease their burden.
The human story is a story of love, redemption, kindness, and generosity. It is also a story of violence, division, neglect, and cruelty. Faced with all of this, we can soften, reach out, and do all we can to ease suffering. Or we can choose to live with fear and denial—doing all we can to guard our hearts from being touched, afraid of drowning in this ocean of sorrow.
Again and again we are asked to learn one of life’s clearest lessons: that to run from suffering—to harden our hearts, to turn away from pain—is to deny life and to live in fear. So, as difficult as it is to open our hearts toward suffering, doing so is the most direct path to transformation and liberation.
To discover an awakened heart within ourselves, it is crucial not to idealize or romanticize compassion. Our compassion simply grows out of our willingness to meet pain rather than to flee from it.”
How can we respond to the suffering that is woven into the very fabric of life? How can we discover a heart that is truly liberated from fear, anger, and alienation? Is there a way to discover a depth of wisdom and compassion that can genuinely make a difference in this confused and destructive world?
We may be tempted to see compassion as a feeling, an emotional response we occasionally experience when we are touched by an encounter with acute pain. In these moments of openness, the layers of our defenses crumble; intuitively we feel an immediacy of response and we glimpse the power of nonseparation. Milarepa, a great Tibetan sage, expressed this when he said, “Just as I instinctively reach out to touch and heal a wound in my leg as part of my own body, so too I reach out to touch and heal the pain in another as part of this body.” Too often these moments of profound compassion fade, and once more we find ourselves protecting, defending, and distancing ourselves from pain. Yet they are powerful glimpses that encourage us to question whether compassion can be something more than an accident we stumble across.
No matter how hard we try, we can’t make ourselves feel compassionate. But we can incline our hearts toward compassion. In one of the stories in the early Buddhist literature, the ascetic Sumedha reflects on the vast inner journey required to discover unshakeable wisdom and compassion. He describes compassion as a tapestry woven of many threads: generosity, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity. When we embody all of these in our lives, we develop the kind of compassion that has the power to heal suffering.
A few years ago, an elderly monk arrived in India after fleeing from prison in Tibet. Meeting with the Dalai Lama, he recounted the years he had been imprisoned, the hardship and beatings he had endured, the hunger and loneliness he had lived with, and the torture he had faced.
At one point the Dalai Lama asked him, “Was there ever a time you felt your life was truly in danger?”
The old monk answered, “In truth, the only time I truly felt at risk was when I felt in danger of losing compassion for my jailers.”
Hearing stories like this, we are often left feeling skeptical and bewildered. We may be tempted to idealize both those who are compassionate and the quality of compassion itself. We imagine these people as saints, possessed of powers inaccessible to us. Yet stories of great suffering are often stories of ordinary people who have found greatness of heart. To discover an awakened heart within ourselves, it is crucial not to idealize or romanticize compassion. Our compassion simply grows out of our willingness to meet pain rather than to flee from it.
We may never find ourselves in situations of such peril that our lives are endangered; yet anguish and pain are undeniable aspects of our lives. None of us can build walls around our hearts that are invulnerable to being breached by life. Facing the sorrow we meet in this life, we have a choice: Our hearts can close, our minds recoil, our bodies contract, and we can experience the heart that lives in a state of painful refusal. We can also dive deeply within ourselves to nurture the courage, balance, patience, and wisdom that enable us to care.
If we do so, we will find that compassion is not a state. It is a way of engaging with the fragile and unpredictable world. Its domain is not only the world of those you love and care for, but equally the world of those who threaten us, disturb us, and cause us harm. It is the world of the countless beings we never meet who are facing an unendurable life. The ultimate journey of a human being is to discover how much our hearts can encompass. Our capacity to cause suffering as well as to heal suffering live side by side within us. If we choose to develop the capacity to heal, which is the challenge of every human life, we will find our hearts can encompass a great deal, and we can learn to heal—rather than increase—the schisms that divide us from one another.
In the first century in northern India, probably in what is now part of Afghanistan, the Lotus Sutra was composed. One of the most powerful texts in the Buddhist tradition, it is a celebration of the liberated heart expressing itself in a powerful and boundless compassion, pervading all corners of the universe, relieving suffering wherever it finds it.
When the Lotus Sutra was translated into Chinese, Kuan Yin, the “one who hears the cries of the world,” emerged as an embodiment of compassion that has occupied a central place in Buddhist teaching and practice ever since. Over the centuries Kuan Yin has been portrayed in a variety of forms. At times she is depicted as a feminine presence, face serene, arms outstretched, and eyes open. At times she holds a willow branch, symbolizing her resilience—able to bend in the face of the most fierce storms without being broken. At other times she is portrayed with a thousand arms and hands, each with an open eye in its center, depicting her constant awareness of anguish and her all-embracing responsiveness. Sometimes she takes the form of a warrior armed with a multitude of weapons, embodying the fierce aspect of compassion committed to uprooting the causes of suffering. A protector and guardian, she is fully engaged with life.
To cultivate the willingness to listen deeply to sorrow wherever we meet it is to take the first step on the journey of compassion. Our capacity to listen follows on the heels of this willingness. We may make heroic efforts in our lives to shield ourselves from the anguish that can surround us and live within us, but in truth a life of avoidance and defense is one of anxiety and painful separation.
True compassion is not forged at a distance from pain but in its fires. We do not always have a solution for suffering. We cannot always fix pain. However, we can find the commitment to stay connected and to listen deeply. Compassion does not always demand heroic acts or great words. In the times of darkest distress, what is most deeply needed is the fearless presence of a person who can be wholeheartedly receptive.
It can seem to us that being aware and opening our hearts to sorrow makes us suffer more. It is true that awareness brings with it an increased sensitivity to our inner and outer worlds. Awareness opens our hearts and minds to a world of pain and distress that previously only glanced off the surface of consciousness, like a stone skipping across water. But awareness also teaches us to read between the lines and to see beneath the world of appearances. We begin to sense the loneliness, need, and fear in others that was previously invisible. Beneath words of anger, blame, and agitation we hear the fragility of another person’s heart. Awareness deepens because we hear more acutely the cries of the world. Each of those cries has written within it the plea to be received.
Awareness is born of intimacy. We can only fear and hate what we do not understand and what we perceive from a distance. We can only find compassion and freedom in intimacy. We can be afraid of intimacy with pain because we are afraid of helplessness; we fear that we don’t have the inner balance to embrace suffering without being overwhelmed. Yet each time we find the willingness to meet affliction, we discover we are not powerless. Awareness rescues us from helplessness, teaching us to be helpful through our kindness, patience, resilience, and courage. Awareness is the forerunner of understanding, and understanding is the prerequisite to bringing suffering to an end.
Shantideva, a deeply compassionate master who taught in India in the eighth century, said, “Whatever you are doing, be aware of the state of your mind. Accomplish good; this is the path of compassion.” How would our life be if we carried this commitment into all of our encounters? What if we asked ourselves what it is we are dedicated to when we meet a homeless person on the street, a child in tears, a person we have long struggled with, or someone who disappoints us? We cannot always change the heart or the life of another person, but we can always take care of the state of our own mind. Can we let go of our resistance, judgments, and fear? Can we listen wholeheartedly to understand another person’s world? Can we find the courage to remain present when we want to flee? Can we equally find the compassion to forgive our wish to disconnect? Compassion is a journey. Every step, every moment of cultivation, is a gesture of deep wisdom.”
“As the etymology of the word indicates, “compassion” is the ability to “feel with,” and that involves a leap of empathy and a willingness to go beyond the borders of our own experience and judgments. What would it mean to place myself in the heart of that begging child? What would it be like to never know if I will eat today, depending entirely on the handouts of strangers? Journeying beyond our familiar borders, our hearts can tremble; then, we have the possibility of accomplishing good.
Milarepa once said, “Long accustomed to contemplating compassion, I have forgotten all difference between self and other.” Genuine compassion is without boundaries or hierarchies. The smallest sorrow is as worthy of compassion as the greatest anguish. The heartache we experience in the face of betrayal asks as much for compassion as a person caught in the midst of tragedy. Those we love and those we disdain ask for compassion; those who are blameless and those who cause suffering are all enfolded in the tapestry of compassion. An old Zen monk once proclaimed, “O, that my monk’s robes were wide enough to gather up all of the suffering in this floating world.” Compassion is the liberated heart’s response to pain wherever it is met.
When we see those we love in pain, our compassion is instinctive. Our heart can be broken. It can also be broken open. We are most sorely tested when we are faced with a loved one’s pain that we cannot fix. We reach out to shield those we love from harm, but life continues to teach us that our power has limits. Wisdom tells us that to insist that impermanence and frailty should not touch those we love is to fall into the near enemy of compassion, which is attachment to result and the insistence that life must be other than it actually is.
Compassion means offering a refuge to those who have no refuge. The refuge is born of our willingness to bear what at times feels unbearable—to see a loved one suffer. The letting go of our insistence that those we love should not suffer is not a relinquishment of love but a release of illusion—the illusion that love can protect anyone from life’s natural rhythms. In the face of a loved one’s pain, we are asked to understand what it means to be steadfast and patient in the midst of our own fear. In our most intimate relationships, love and fear grow simultaneously. A compassionate heart knows this to be true and does not demand that fear disappear. It knows that only in the midst of fear can we begin to discover the fearlessness of compassion.
Some people, carrying long histories of a lack of self-worth or denial, find it most difficult to extend compassion toward themselves. Aware of the vastness of suffering in the world, they may feel it is self-indulgent to care for their aching body, their broken heart, or their confused mind. Yet this too is suffering, and genuine compassion makes no distinction between self and other. If we do not know how to embrace our own frailties and imperfections, how do we imagine we could find room in our heart for anyone else?
The Buddha once said that you could search the whole world and not find anyone more deserving of your love and compassion than yourself. Instead, too many people find themselves directing levels of harshness, demand, and judgment inward that they would never dream of directing toward another person, knowing the harm that would be incurred. They are willing to do to themselves what they would not do to others.
Anger can be the beginning of abandonment or the beginning of commitment to helping others.
In the pursuit of an idealized compassion, many people can neglect themselves. Compassion “listens to the cries of the world,” and we are part of that world. The path of compassion does not ask us to abandon ourselves on the altar of an idealized state of perfection. A path of healing makes no distinctions: within the sorrow of our own frustrations, disappointments, fears, and bitterness, we learn the lessons of patience, acceptance, generosity, and ultimately, compassion.
The deepest compassion is nurtured in the midst of the deepest suffering. Faced with the struggle of those we love or those who are blameless in this world, compassion arises instinctively. Faced with people who inflict pain upon others, we must dive deep within ourselves to find the steadfastness and understanding that enables us to remain open. Connecting with those who perpetrate harm is hard practice, yet compassion is somewhat shallow if it turns away those who—lost in ignorance, rage, and fear—harm others. The mountain of suffering in the world can never be lessened by adding yet more bitterness, resentment, rage, and blame to it.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the beloved Vietnamese teacher, said, “Anger and hatred are the materials from which hell is made.” It is not that the compassionate heart will never feel anger. Faced with the terrible injustice, oppression, and violence in our world, our hearts tremble not only with compassion but also with anger. A person without anger may be a person who has not been deeply touched by harmful acts that scar the lives of too many people. Anger can be the beginning of abandonment or the beginning of commitment to helping others.
We can be startled into wakefulness by exposure to suffering, and this wakefulness can become part of the fabric of our own rage, or part of the fabric of wise and compassionate action. If we align ourselves with hatred, we equally align ourselves with the perpetrators of harm. We can also align ourselves with a commitment to bringing to an end the causes of suffering. It is easy to forget the portrayal of Kuan Yin as an armed warrior, profoundly dedicated to protecting all beings, fearless and resolved to bring suffering to an end.
Rarely are words and acts of healing and reconciliation born of an agitated heart. One of the great arts in the cultivation of compassion is to ask if we can embrace anger without blame. Blame agitates our hearts, keeps them contracted, and ultimately leads to despair. To surrender blame is to maintain the discriminating wisdom that knows clearly what suffering is and what causes it. To surrender blame is to surrender the separation that makes compassion impossible.
Compassion is not a magical device that can instantly dispel all suffering. The path of compassion is altruistic but not idealistic. Walking this path we are not asked to lay down our life, find a solution for all of the struggles in this world, or immediately rescue all beings. We are asked to explore how we may transform our own hearts and minds in the moment. Can we understand the transparency of division and separation? Can we liberate our hearts from ill will, fear, and cruelty? Can we find the steadfastness, patience, generosity, and commitment not to abandon anyone or anything in this world? Can we learn how to listen deeply and discover the heart that trembles in the face of suffering?
The path of compassion is cultivated one step and one moment at a time. Each of those steps lessens the mountain of sorrow in the world.”
May Day remains an international celebration of the promise and triumph of socialism, labor organization, and mass action as a praxis or value in action of love, and it is this political and social context of revolutionary struggle that we think of it today throughout the world as a holiday for all humankind.
As written by Jonah Walters in Jacobin;’’ “The first May Day was celebrated in 1886, with a general strike of three hundred thousand workers at thirteen thousand businesses across the United States. It was a tremendous show of force for the American labor movement, which was among the most militant in the world.
Many of the striking workers — who numbered forty thousand in Chicago alone — rallied under the banners of anarchist and socialist organizations. Trade unionists from a variety of ethnic backgrounds — many of them recent immigrants — marched shoulder-to-shoulder, making a unified demand for the eight-hour day.
The movement to limit the workday posed a significant threat to American industrialists, who were accustomed to demanding much longer hours from their workers.
In the late nineteenth century, successive waves of immigration brought millions of immigrants to the United States, many of whom sought work in factories. Because unemployment was so high, employers could easily replace any worker who demanded better conditions or sufficient wages — so long as that worker acted alone. As individuals, workers were in no position to oppose the dehumanizing work their bosses expected of them.
But when workers acted together, they could exercise tremendous power over their employers and over society as a whole. Working-class radicals understood the unique power of collective action, fighting to ensure that the aggression of employers was often met by a groundswell of workers’ resistance.
For the last decades of the nineteenth century, industrial titans like Andrew Carnegie and George Pullman could get no peace. Periodic explosions of working-class activity provided a check on their power and prestige. But industrialists and their allies in government often responded with brutal force, quelling waves of worker militancy that demanded a fundamentally different kind of American prosperity, one in which the poor and downtrodden were included.
The movement for the eight-hour day was one such mass struggle. On May 1, 1886, workers all over the country took to the streets to demand a better life and a more just economy. The demonstrations lasted for days.
But this surge of working-class resistance ended in tragedy. In Chicago’s Haymarket Square, a police massacre claimed the lives of several workers after someone — likely a provocateur working for one of the city’s industrial barons — tossed a homemade bomb into the crowd. The Chicago authorities took the bombing as an opportunity to arrest and execute four of the movement’s most prominent leaders — including the anarchist and trade unionist August Spies.
It was a severe setback to the workers’ movement. But the repression wasn’t enough to douse the struggle for good. As August Spies said during his trial:
[I]f you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement — the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery, the wage slaves, expect salvation — if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere the flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you stand.
These words would prove prophetic. The next May Day, and every May Day since, workers across the world took to the streets to contest the terms of capitalist prosperity and gesture toward a fundamentally different world — a world in which production is motivated not by profit, but by human need.
Today, the power of the American labor movement is at a low. Many of its most important gains — including the right to the eight-hour day — have been dismantled by the anti-labor neoliberal consensus. But May Day still looms as a lasting legacy of the international movement for working-class liberation.
Obviously, a great deal has changed since those explosive decades at the end of the nineteenth century. The defeats suffered by the American workers’ movement may seem so profound that it can be tempting to regard the militancy that once rattled tycoons and presidents alike as nothing more than a piece of history.
But we don’t have to gaze so far into the past for inspiring examples of struggle. Far more recent May Days provide glimpses at the transformative potential of worker movements.
Just ten years ago, in 2006, immigrant workers across the country stood up to restrictive immigration laws and abusive labor practices, organizing a massive movement of undocumented laborers that culminated in the so-called Great American Boycott (El Gran Paro Estadounidense). On May Day of that year, immigrant organizations and some labor unions came together to organize a one-day withdrawal of immigrant labor — dubbed “A Day Without Immigrants” — to demonstrate the essential role of immigrant workers in American industry.
Protests began in March and continued for eight weeks. The numbers are staggering — 100,000 marchers in Chicago kicked off the wave of demonstrations, followed by half a million marchers in Los Angeles a few weeks later, and then a coordinated day of action on April 10, which saw demonstrations in 102 cities across the country, including a march of between 350,000 and 500,000 protesters in Dallas.
By May Day, the movement had gained momentum, winning popular support all over the United States and around the world. On May 1 of that year, more than a million took to the streets in Los Angeles, joined by 700,000 marchers in Chicago, 200,000 in New York, 70,000 in Milwaukee, and thousands more in cities across the country. In solidarity with Latin American immigrants in the United States, labor unions around the world celebrated “Nothing Gringo Day,” a one-day boycott of all American products.
Ever since, May Day has been recognized as a day of solidarity with undocumented immigrants — a fitting reminder of May Day’s origins in a movement that saw native-born and immigrant workers standing together to defend their common interests.
And this year, May Day presents us with more opportunities to mobilize support around an American labor movement showing signs of revitalization. This May Day, workers and activists across the country will stand in solidarity with the almost forty thousand striking Verizon workers, whose intransigent managers have thus far refused to bargain with the union in good faith.
This May Day we follow in the footsteps of generations of labor radicals. These radicals saw in capitalism the horrors of an unjust economy, but dared to dream of something different — a reimagined economy in which the fruits of prosperity could be shared equally, among all people, in a just and democratic society.
Despite the setbacks of the labor movement — at home and worldwide — that dream is still living. The struggle continues.
Happy May Day. Take to the streets.”
Yet there are other ideas of May Day, though interrelated; the Red and the Green, which reawakens our interdependence with nature and echoes the primordial celebration of May Day as a rite of renewal and of spring.
As written by Paul Street in 2020 in Counterpunch; “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
If the United States were not plagued by Orwellian, capital-induced amnesia regarding its own labor and sociopolitical history, much of the nation would have recoiled in historical disgust when Donald Trump designated May First – May Day – as the date for the premature “re-opening of America.”
It’s terrible that Trump wants to send tens of millions of Americans back to work before COVID-19 has ceased to pose grave health risks within and beyond workplaces and shopping centers.
Red May Day
Unbeknownst to Trump (in all likelihood), picking May First as his target added rich historical insult to injury. May Day has been the real international and American Labor and Working-Class holiday ever since the great U.S. Eight Hour strikes and marches of May 1st, 1886. Headquartered in industrial Chicago, the Eight Hour Movement was dedicated to the notion that working people need and deserve enough leisure beyond the supervision of their capitalist bosses to enjoy balanced and healthy lives and to participate meaningfully in the nation’s much ballyhooed “democracy.” The Eight Hour struggle’s leaders were radical militants who shared young Karl Marx and Frederick Engels’ idea that the capitalist profits system would either between overthrown and replaced with socialism by the proletariat or give rise to the “common ruin” of all.
The 1886 struggle ended with the Haymarket bomb, a giant wave of anti-union repression, and the brutal execution of four top radical leaders – the Haymarket Martyrs. May 1st been labor and the Left’s special historical day – celebrated by workers, radicals, and laborites the world over – ever since. It ought to be understood as deeply offensive for Trump to try to please his fellow right-wing capitalists and his deluded white-nationalist minions by trying to order millions of people back into hazardous working conditions on that day of the year.
Green May Day
But that’s not all. May Day has different and older, “green” roots in a time-honored pagan celebration of nature’s beauty and fertility amid spring’s full flowering in northern temperate zones. Dating to ancient Rome, this naturalist May Day is rooted in the seasonal rhythms of Mother Earth and agriculture. It reached across the Atlantic with the European conquest of what became known as the Americas. It is a day of leisure, to be spent outdoors, dancing and wearing flowers and soaking up the wind and sun. While rooted in custom, it was an official holiday in the British Tudor monarchy by at least the early 16th century. (The bourgeois-revolutionary Puritan Parliaments of 1649-1660 suspended the holiday, which was reinstated with the restoration of Charles II.)
Red and Green Common Ground
It is not hard to imagine the ancient green May Day merging with the modern red and proletarian May Day. “Eight Hours for What We Will,” union banners proclaimed in 1886. “For what we will” included time out of doors, in the free-flowing presence of nature, beyond the dirty, dangerous and depressing mills, mines and factories of Dickensian and Gilded Age capitalism—and away from the rigid “time-work discipline” (a term coined by British historian E.P. Thompson) imposed by despotic employers in what Marx called “the hidden abode of production.” It was an era when many, perhaps most, wage-earners retained connections to pre-industrial and more communalist and rural ways of life.
The workers’ movements of 19th century North America drew on the rolling, recurrently immigration-fed tension between the more naturally embedded and pre-industrial agricultural and artisanal ways of life on one hand and the authoritarian, speeded-up and nonstop “jungle” (detailed by American author Upton Sinclair) of industrial capitalist “modernity” on the other.
One delicious connection is that the eight-hour-day struggle in Chicago was particularly focused on the city’s McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. plant, manufacturer of a farm technology that famously displaced millions of laborers from agricultural work while helping industrialize the North American and global countryside.
Consistent with this melding of the red and green May Days, “modern” capitalism assaulted nature and created the wage-dependent proletariat at one and the same time through the long enclosure of “the commons.” The commons are the vast swaths of land, stream and forest in which pre-capitalist people found sustenance, insulating them from having to rent out their labor power to capitalists to garner the money required to purchase life’s necessities as commodities. As the brilliant left historian Peter Linebaugh notes in his book “Stop Thief!” “A single term, ‘the commons,’ expresses, first, that which the working class lost when subsistence resources were taken away, and, second, the idealized visions of liberté, egalité, fraternité,”
Rooted in a vast human history that long predated the ascendancy of “the commodity with its individualism and privatization,” the commons, Linebaugh writes, “is antithetical to capital.” The Protestant radical group known as Diggers and others with roots in the village commons who opposed capital’s rise to supremacy understood that “expropriation leads to exploitation, the Haves and the Have Nots.”
The Diggers, the first modern communists, were led by Gerrard Winstanley. They sought to pre-empt the coming new soulless wage, money and commodity slavery of the capitalist order (the bourgeois regime that Marx and Engels would justly accuse of “resolv[ing] personal worth into exchange value”) by claiming earth as “a common treasury for all.” Writing as England was becoming the first fully capitalist nation where most of the adult working-age population toiled for wages, Winstanley and his followers practiced what Linebaugh calls “commoning,” the merging of “labor” and “natural resources” in the spirit of “all for one and one for all.”
“The Most Dangerous Criminal in Human History”
Trump has insulted the green May Day as well the related red and proletarian one. His ruthless shredding of environmental regulations, recently escalated under the cover of COVID-19, is a frontal assault on livable ecology. The fossil-fuel-mad president of the United States seems hellbent on the doing everything he can to turn the planet to turn the planet into a giant Greenhouse Gas Chamber. In the name of economic recovery, Trump has granted American corporations an “open license to pollute.” As CBS reported three weeks ago, “The Trump administration introduced a sweeping relaxation of environmental laws and fines during the coronavirus pandemic. According to new guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), companies will largely be exempt from consequences for polluting the air or water during the outbreak.”
Last week, Trump’s EPA announced that it would weaken controls on the release of mercury and other toxic metals from oil and coal-powered plants.
It’s with Trump’s frankly ecocidal agenda in mind above all that our leading intellectual, Noam Chomsky has recently and properly identified Trump as “the most dangerous criminal in human history” – as a person wielding the most powerful office in world history to bring about the end of an decent and organized human existence. Adolph Hitler’s goal, Chomsky notes, “was to rid the German-run world of Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other ‘deviants,’ along with tens of millions of Slav ‘Untermenschen.’ But [unlike Trump,] Hitler was not dedicated with fervor to destroying the prospects of organized human life on Earth in the not-distant future [along with millions of other species.”
Mayday! Mayday!
The 20th Century brought a third meaning to the phrase “Mayday.” I am referring to what a pilot says into his radio as her plane plummets to earth: “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”
It is environmental “Mayday” indeed for humanity under the command of capital and far-right authoritarian lunatics like Trump and Jair Bolsonaro these days. “Spaceship Earth” is on exterminist path that is rapidly accelerating, as the latest findings on melting Arctic ice cover, rising global temperature, ocean acidification, species die-offs. and looming permafrost release regularly tell us. The capitalogenic COVID-19 crisis – a consequence of capital’s relentless quest for accumulation and profit – is just one among many eco-exterminist symptoms, many worse than even a virulent pandemic in the ever-shortening “long term.”
If the current environmental trajectory is not significantly reversed (and one silver lining in the COVID-19 nightmare is the drastic reduction of carbon emissions and other forms of capitalist pollution), the left’s long-standing struggle for equality and democracy is reduced to a debate over how to more equitably share a poisoned pie. Who wants to “turn the world upside down” (Winstanley’s phrase) only to find out that it is a steaming pile of overheated toxic and pathogen-ridden waste?
If the Earth celebrated by the Green May Day is irreversibly poisoned in a capital-imposed environmental and epidemiological Mayday!, then the radical social justice and democracy sought by friends of the Red May Day becomes sadly beside the point. The “common ruin of the contending classes” will have trumped the “revolutionary reconstitution of society-at-large,” rendering it obsolete.
Postscript
Here is one of the smartest calls to action I have ever read – from Cooperation Jackson last March 31st: “A Call to Action: Toward a May 1st General Strike to End the COVID 19 Crisis and Create a New World.” Please read it and then act on its call:
“We must stop the worst most deadly version of this pandemic from becoming a reality, and we have to ensure that we never return to the society that enabled this pandemic to emerge and have the impact it is having in the first place. We must do everything that we can to create a new, just, equitable and ecologically regenerative economy. “
“The question is how? To fight back we have to use the greatest power we have at our disposal – our collective labor. We can shut the system down to break the power of the state and capitalist class. We must send a clear message that things cannot and will not go back to normal. In order to do this, we need to call for collective work and shopping stoppages, leading to a general strike that is centered around clear, comprehensive demands. We must make demands that will transform our broken and inequitable society, and build a new society run by and for us – the working class, poor, oppressed majority. “
Rosa Luxemburg explains the history of May Day; “he happy idea of using a proletarian holiday celebration as a means to attain the eight-hour day was first born in Australia. The workers there decided in 1856 to organize a day of complete stoppage together with meetings and entertainment as a demonstration in favor of the eight-hour day.
The day of this celebration was to be April 21. At first, the Australian workers intended this only for the year 1856. But this first celebration had such a strong effect on the proletarian masses of Australia, enlivening them and leading to new agitation, that it was decided to repeat the celebration every year.
In fact, what could give the workers greater courage and faith in their own strength than a mass work stoppage which they had decided themselves? What could give more courage to the eternal slaves of the factories and the workshops than the mustering of their own troops? Thus, the idea of a proletarian celebration was quickly accepted and, from Australia, began to spread to other countries until finally it had conquered the whole proletarian world.
The first to follow the example of the Australian workers were the Americans. In 1886 they decided that May 1 should be the day of universal work stoppage. On this day two hundred thousand of them left their work and demanded the eight-hour day. Later, police and legal harassment prevented the workers for many years from repeating this [size of] demonstration. However in 1888 they renewed their decision and decided that the next celebration would be May 1, 1890.
In the meanwhile, the workers’ movement in Europe had grown strong and animated. The most powerful expression of this movement occurred at the International Workers’ Congress in 1889. At this congress, attended by four hundred delegates, it was decided that the eight-hour day must be the first demand. Whereupon the delegate of the French unions, the worker Lavigne from Bordeaux, moved that this demand be expressed in all countries through a universal work stoppage. The delegate of the American workers called attention to the decision of his comrades to strike on May 1, 1890, and the congress decided on this date for the universal proletarian celebration.
In this case, as thirty years before in Australia, the workers really thought only of a one-time demonstration. The congress decided that the workers of all lands would demonstrate together for the eight-hour day on May 1, 1890. No one spoke of a repetition of the holiday for the next years.
Naturally no one could predict the lightning-like way in which this idea would succeed and how quickly it would be adopted by the working classes. However, it was enough to celebrate the May Day simply one time in order that everyone understand and feel that May Day must be a yearly and continuing institution.
The first of May demanded the introduction of the eight-hour day. But even after this goal was reached, May Day was not given up. As long as the struggle of the workers against the bourgeoisie and the ruling class continues, as long as all demands are not met, May Day will be the yearly expression of these demands.
And, when better days dawn, when the working class of the world has won its deliverance then too humanity will probably celebrate May Day in honor of the bitter struggles and the many sufferings of the past.”
Here is the historic 1923 May Day speech of Eugene V. Debs, with a preface by Shawn Gude, published in Jacobin; “In 1923, Eugene V. Debs wrote a powerful May Day address for the black socialist magazine the Messenger that called for “the emancipation of all races from the oppressive and degrading yoke of wage slavery.” We republish it here in full, for the first time since it appeared 100 years ago.
In the spring of 1923, the black socialist magazine the Messenger published a May Day greeting from leading US socialist Eugene V. Debs.
The Harlem-based magazine had gotten its start in 1917. Edited by two young radicals, A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, it vehemently opposed World War I (both editors were briefly taken into police custody for polemicizing against the war) and relentlessly criticized the “Old Crowd” of moderate black leaders. In place of elite-led, accommodationist “racial uplift,” the Messenger proposed an unrelenting fight against Jim Crow, lynch law, and economic exploitation using the battering ram of mass organization.
Debs was an early friend of the Messenger, and he shared the magazine’s pro-labor, “New Negro” politics. Especially toward the end of his life (he died in 1926), Debs supported a militant struggle for racial equality as part of a broader struggle for worker emancipation. That socialist vision was on full display in his May Day remarks.
Racial domination had kept Africans Americans “in abject servitude beneath the iron heel of his exploiting master,” Debs declared. “But our black brother is beginning to awaken from his lethargy in spite of all the deadening influences that surround him . . . and he is coming to realize that his place is in the Socialist movement along with . . . the worker of every other race, creed and color.”
Jacobin is pleased to reprint Debs’s May Day remarks in full for the first time since they appeared in 1923.—Shawn Gude
“It is more than gratifying to me in looking over the current Messenger to note the high excellence of its contents as a literary periodical and as a propaganda publication. It is edited with marked ability and it contains a variety of matter that would do credit to any magazine in the land.
All my life I have been especially interested in the problem of the Negro race, and I have always had full sympathy with every effort put forth to encourage our colored fellow-workers to join the Socialist movement and to make common cause with all other workers in the international struggle for the overthrow of capitalist despotism and the emancipation of all races from the oppressive and degrading yoke of wage slavery.
Due to the ignorance, prejudice, and unreasoning hatred of the white race in relation to the Negro, the latter has fared cruelly indeed and he has had but little encouragement from the “superior” race to improve his economic, intellectual and moral condition, but on the contrary, almost everything has been done to discourage every tendency on the part of the Negro toward self-improvement and to keep him in abject servitude beneath the iron heel of his exploiting master.
But our black brother is beginning to awaken from his lethargy in spite of all the deadening influences that surround him; he has had his experience in the war and especially since the war, and he is coming to realize that his place is in the Socialist movement along with the white worker and the worker of every other race, creed and color, and the Messenger is doing its full share to spread the light in dark places and to arouse the Negro masses to the necessity of taking their place and doing their part in the great struggle that is to emancipate the workers of all races and all nations from the insufferable curse of industrial slavery and social degradation.
May Day is now dawning and its spirit prompts me to hail the Messenger as a herald of light and freedom.
On May Day the workers of the world celebrate the beginning of their international solidarity and register the high resolve to clasp hands all around the globe and to move forward in one solid phalanx toward the sunrise and the better day.
On that day we drink deeply at the fountain of proletarian inspiration; we know no nationality to the exclusion of any other, nor any creed, or any color, but we do know that we are all workers, that we are conscious of our interests and our power as a class, and we propose to develop and make use of that power in breaking our fetters and in rising from servitude to the mastery of the world.”
Police Clear Columbia Protest — Just As They Did On Same Day 56 Years Ago
On April 30, 1968, police flooded onto Columbia University’s campus to end a demonstration students had staged — a scene that was eerily repeated 56 years later.
(I am voting for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whether or not she runs for the Presidency. Give us a President with heart, moral vision, and the courage to speak truth to power.
To Biden whom I endorsed in the last election in a televised speech and the Democratic Party of which I am an elected precinct captain; If you sponsor genocide or other crimes against humanity, I cannot vote for you, and I will fight you.
Throughout America and the world courageous students protest and occupy their universities in refusal to be silenced or made complicit in genocide, either by institutional profiteering on crimes against humanity through investments or by state sponsorship of war, tyranny, and terror..
Much of this rage is directed at Genocide Joe, who has betrayed us and abandoned our ideals of universal human rights as our tax dollars buy the deaths of children and their families in Israel’s Gaza War and imperial conquest of her neighbors.
But American complicity in Israeli war crimes and state terror and tyranny did not begin with Biden’s sock puppet Netanyahu in games of imperial dominion with Iran and Russia; it began generations ago in the wake of the Holocaust at the founding of the nation which was intended to protect us all from fascism, and has now has come round to become all that it once feared, reproducing the conditions of Auschwitz and the concentration camps throughout Israel itself and wherever its power can reach.
Tonight at the White House Correspondent’s Ball the tyrant himself and his apologists of genocide and dehumanization will laugh and roast each other with clever jibes, while in Gaza real human beings will roast in cities become vast crematoriums.
In the words of the magnificent character of Lt Aldo Raine in Inglorious Basterds; “I can’t abide it. Can you abide it?”
Hope and a Prayer
This Passover, stand against genocide.
This Passover, stand with the children.
This Passover, turn not the Stranger from your door.
This Passover, chose love and not fear.
Can You Abide It? Inglorious Basterds final scene
Bernie Calls Out Netanyahu On Genocide
(In stark contrast with Genocide Joe, here is an American politician with heart, moral vision, and the courage to speak truth to power. Who will stand with us?)
Mr. Netanyahu, antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to millions.
Do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government. pic.twitter.com/CnM6oOrHKd
(I was nine years old, holding my mother’s hand in the front line of the divestiture protest against the Occupation of Palestine when Reagan ordered the police to open fire on the students on Bloody Thursday May 15 1969 in People’s Park Berkeley, the most terrible incident of state terror in American history since Wounded Knee.
Fifty five years, and we have learned nothing, changed nothing. There is but one rule in American politics; nobody messes with the grift.)
7 באפריל 2024 בפסח הזה, עמוד נגד רצח עם. בפסח הזה, עמוד עם הילדים: מחאות ועיסוקים של שלום פסח והסרה
ברחבי אמריקה והעולם סטודנטים אמיצים מוחים וכובשים את האוניברסיטאות שלהם בסירוב להשתיק או להיות שותפים לרצח עם, אם על ידי רווח ממוסד על פשעים נגד האנושות באמצעות השקעות או על ידי חסות מדינה למלחמה, עריצות וטרור.
חלק גדול מהזעם הזה מופנה לרצח העם ג’ו, שבגד בנו ונטש את האידיאלים שלנו לגבי זכויות אדם אוניברסליות, כאשר כספי המס שלנו קונים את מותם של ילדים ומשפחותיהם במלחמת עזה של ישראל ובכיבוש האימפריאלי של שכנותיה.
אבל שותפות אמריקאית בפשעי מלחמה ישראלים ובטרור המדינה ועריצות לא התחילה עם בובת הגרב של ביידן נתניהו במשחקי שליטה אימפריאלית עם איראן ורוסיה; זה התחיל לפני דורות בעקבות השואה עם הקמת האומה שנועדה להגן על כולנו מפני הפשיזם, וכעת הפך לכל מה שפחדה ממנו פעם, משחזר את תנאי אושוויץ ומחנות הריכוז לאורך כל הדרך. ישראל עצמה ולכל מקום שכוחה יכול להגיע.
הערב בנשף הכתב של הבית הלבן, העריץ עצמו ומתנצליו על רצח עם ודה-הומניזציה יצחקו ויצלו זה את זה בג’יבס חכם, בעוד שבעזה בני אדם אמיתיים יצלו בערים יהפכו למשרפות עצומות.
במילותיה של דמותו המפוארת של סגן אלדו ריין ב-Inglory Basterds; “אני לא יכול לעמוד בזה. אתה יכול לעמוד בזה?”
בפסח הזה, עמוד נגד רצח עם.
בפסח הזה, עמדו עם הילדים.
בפסח הזה, אל תפנו את הזר מדלתכם.
פסח זה, בחר באהבה ולא בפחד.
Arabic
27 أبريل 2024 في عيد الفصح هذا، قف ضد الإبادة الجماعية. في عيد الفصح هذا، قف مع الأطفال: سلام عيد الفصح واحتجاجات الاحتلال وسحب الاستثمارات
في جميع أنحاء أمريكا والعالم يحتج الطلاب الشجعان ويحتلون جامعاتهم رفضًا لإسكاتهم أو جعلهم متواطئين في الإبادة الجماعية، إما عن طريق التربح المؤسسي من الجرائم ضد الإنسانية من خلال الاستثمارات أو عن طريق رعاية الدولة للحرب والطغيان والإرهاب.
إن قسماً كبيراً من هذا الغضب موجه نحو منظمة الإبادة الجماعية جو، التي خانتنا وتخلت عن مُثُلنا بشأن حقوق الإنسان العالمية، بينما تشتري دولارات ضرائبنا وفاة الأطفال وأسرهم في حرب إسرائيل على غزة والغزو الإمبراطوري لجيرانها.
لكن التواطؤ الأميركي في جرائم الحرب الإسرائيلية وإرهاب الدولة وطغيانها لم يبدأ مع نتنياهو، دمية بايدن، في ألعاب الهيمنة الإمبريالية مع إيران وروسيا؛ لقد بدأت منذ أجيال في أعقاب الهولوكوست عند تأسيس الأمة التي كان الهدف منها حمايتنا جميعًا من الفاشية، وقد أصبحت الآن كل ما كانت تخشاه ذات يوم، وتعيد إنتاج ظروف أوشفيتز ومعسكرات الاعتقال في جميع أنحاء العالم. إسرائيل نفسها وأينما يمكن أن تصل قوتها.
الليلة في حفلة مراسلي البيت الأبيض، سوف يضحك الطاغية نفسه والمدافعون عنه عن الإبادة الجماعية والتجريد من الإنسانية ويشوون بعضهم البعض بسخرية ذكية، بينما في غزة، سيتم شواء البشر الحقيقيين في المدن ليصبحوا محارق جثث ضخمة.
على حد تعبير الشخصية الرائعة للملازم ألدو رين في فيلم Inglorious Basterds؛ “لا أستطيع تحمل ذلك. هل يمكنك تحمل ذلك؟”
In six months of Israel’s war of genocide and ethnic cleansing, both the state of Israel and the American Empire of which it is a proxy have become delegitimized and begun to unravel as complicity in crimes against humanity shadow our authority, and like the British Empire which fell with the repression of Gandhi’s Salt Tax Protest we lose the moral high ground and are left with mere force and control as brutality and state terror, which crumble to nothing when challenged by disobedience and disbelief.
There is a stain of cruelty on our shining armor, and it now stands exposed to the witness of history.
This I celebrate as a victory for all humankind, and a lever of change in liberation struggle for both Israeli and Palestinian peoples, though the cost in human life is unimaginably horrific and an atrocity beyond comprehension for which its perpetrators on all sides must one day face a Reckoning.
There are no good guys in this story, but sadly there are many innocent who bear the true costs of this war, for nearly all its victims have been noncombatants and civilian women and children, war crimes against all ideas of human rights. Our humanity is among the greatest of such costs; the degradation of who we are.
Why was such a war begun by Hamas, and waged by Israel as genocide and ethnic cleansing? Because Israelis and Palestinians were forging a new identity together as one people united as guarantors of each other’s universal human rights, which threatened the narratives of victimization, division, and national identity by which authority centralizes and enforces power, on both sides of this conflict and generally.
Netanyahu’s colonialist-imperial settler regime, subverted and corrupted by fascisms of blood, faith, and soil into a mirror image of the death camps Israel was long ago intended to protect us all from, collaborated with elements of Hamas and with an unknown third party in the design and operation of the October 7 atrocities.
In this there is nothing new; Israel, Hamas, and countless other entities have for generations now multiply infiltrated each other, and Israel has a recon unit which specializes in impersonating Islamic jihadists and committing atrocities against actual Islamic groups to sow division and prevent the people they are Occupying from creating a united front. On October 7, this Byzantine system of alliances and rivalries sabotaged itself and exploded in horrific violence and detestable crimes, much like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off World War One.
I say again; IDF and Israeli intelligence agencies have been infiltrated by more than one enemy, which worked to create October 7, and unrelated to this Israel created its own network within Hamas which planned October 7 as a just cause of war and a pretext for the Final Solution of the Palestinians.
Some of the Israeli hostages, though not all, are now captives of IDF soldiers masquerading as jihadists in quasi-independent networks within Hamas. This is why Netanyahu is not pursuing the rescue of hostages, nor even the capture of their abductors; it is by design in service to genocide and imperial conquest and dominion.
All of this is made complex, relative, and ambiguous in geopolitical terms because Iran, which controls five nations including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, and her international nonstate organization Hezbollah, reacted immediately with solidarity of action with the people of Palestine, which accelerated Israel’s timetable for the conquest of the whole Middle East in retaliation, and because Russia is Iran’s partner in the Assad regime of Syria, transformed a seventy year old regional sectarian conflict into a theatre of World War Three.
Where does this leave us now?
Humankind must choose between theocratic tyranny and secular democracy, imperial conquest and dominion and the sovereignty and independence of all nations and all human beings, between equality and subjugation to elite hegemonies of wealth, power, and privilege, and between fear and love.
Who do we want to become, we humans; masters and slaves, or a free society of equals?
The United Nations as our first world government and an emergent United Humankind must now act swiftly and decisively to bring respect for our universal human rights to the rogue state of Israel, and help her peoples to reimagine and transform their nation.
America has been made complicit in genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by our colony and proxy Israel, evils we must own as ours and take responsibility for, immediately in opening the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid and enforcing a total ceasefire, and ongoing in bringing regime change to Israel, a Reckoning to her war criminals, and restorative justice to her victims.
Gaza is in ruins and must be totally rebuilt; reparations and reconciliation process will consume a generation and define the ideas of Israel and Palestine for a century. Israel will never live this down and if Netanyahu’s criminal regime is not purged and a true democracy founded from the ashes of Zionism, the name of Israel will become a cautionary tale whispered in the darkness.
One people divided by history, Israel and Palestine; I hope that one day they may awaken from the lies of those who would enslave them, and become a free society of equals who are each other’s guarantors of our universal human rights.
ISRAEL RESPONDS TO HAMAS CRIMES BY ORDERING MASS WAR CRIMES IN GAZA: Years of impunity for Israeli crimes against civilians have bred a culture of disregard for international law./ The Intercept
أبريل 2024 الأمور تتداعى: ستة أشهر من الحرب في غزة
خلال ستة أشهر من حرب الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي التي شنتها إسرائيل، أصبحت كل من دولة إسرائيل والإمبراطورية الأمريكية التي تعمل بالوكالة عنها، غير شرعيتين وبدأتا في الانهيار حيث ظل التواطؤ في جرائم ضد الإنسانية يخيم على سلطتنا، ومثلما حدث مع الإمبراطورية البريطانية التي فعندما سقطنا مع قمع احتجاج غاندي على ضريبة الملح، فقدنا المكانة الأخلاقية العالية ولم يبق لنا سوى القوة والسيطرة مثل الوحشية وإرهاب الدولة، اللذين ينهاران إلى لا شيء عندما يتحدىهما العصيان والكفر.
إن هناك وصمة عار من القسوة على درعنا اللامع، وهي الآن مكشوفة أمام شهادة التاريخ.
إنني أحتفل بهذا باعتباره انتصارًا للبشرية جمعاء، ورافعة تغيير في النضال من أجل التحرير لكل من الشعبين الإسرائيلي والفلسطيني، على الرغم من أن التكلفة في حياة الإنسان مروعة بشكل لا يمكن تصوره وفظاعة تفوق الفهم يجب على مرتكبيها من جميع الأطراف أن يواجهوها يومًا ما. حساب.
لا يوجد أشخاص أخيار في هذه القصة، ولكن للأسف هناك العديد من الأبرياء الذين يتحملون التكاليف الحقيقية لهذه الحرب، لأن جميع ضحاياها تقريبًا كانوا من غير المقاتلين والمدنيين من النساء والأطفال، وهي جرائم حرب ضد جميع أفكار حقوق الإنسان. إن إنسانيتنا هي من بين أعظم هذه التكاليف؛ تدهور من نحن.
لماذا بدأت حماس حرباً كهذه، وشنّتها إسرائيل باعتبارها إبادة جماعية وتطهيراً عرقياً؟ لأن الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين كانوا يشكلون هوية جديدة معًا كشعب واحد متحد كضامنين لحقوق الإنسان العالمية لكل منهما، الأمر الذي هدد روايات الإيذاء والانقسام والهوية الوطنية التي من خلالها تقوم السلطة بمركزية السلطة وفرضها، على جانبي هذا الصراع و عمومًا.
إن نظام نتنياهو الاستيطاني الاستعماري الإمبراطوري، الذي تم تخريبه وإفساده بواسطة فاشية الدم والإيمان والتربة، وتحويله إلى صورة مرآة لمعسكرات الموت التي كانت إسرائيل تهدف منذ فترة طويلة إلى حمايتنا منها جميعاً، تعاون مع عناصر من حماس ومع طرف ثالث غير معروف في إسرائيل. تصميم وتنفيذ فظائع 7 أكتوبر.
وليس هناك جديد في هذا؛ لقد تسللت إسرائيل وحماس وعدد لا يحصى من الكيانات الأخرى على مدى أجيال إلى بعضها البعض، ولدى إسرائيل وحدة استطلاع متخصصة في انتحال شخصية الجهاديين الإسلاميين وارتكاب الفظائع ضد الجماعات الإسلامية الفعلية لزرع الفرقة ومنع الشعب الذي تحتله من إنشاء دولة موحدة. أمام. في 7 أكتوبر، خرب هذا النظام البيزنطي من التحالفات والمنافسات نفسه وانفجر في أعمال عنف مروعة وجرائم مقيتة، مثلما أدى اغتيال فرانز فرديناند إلى إشعال الحرب العالمية الأولى.
أقول مرة أخرى؛ لقد تم اختراق جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي وأجهزة المخابرات الإسرائيلية من قبل أكثر من عدو عمل على خلق 7 أكتوبر، وبعيداً عن ذلك أنشأت إسرائيل شبكتها الخاصة داخل حماس التي خططت لـ 7 أكتوبر كسبب عادل للحرب وذريعة للحل النهائي للقضية الفلسطينية. الفلسطينيين.
بعض الرهائن الإسرائيليين، ولكن ليس جميعهم، أصبحوا الآن أسرى لدى جنود من جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي يتنكرون في هيئة جهاديين في شبكات شبه مستقلة داخل حماس. ولهذا السبب لا يسعى نتنياهو إلى إنقاذ الرهائن، ولا حتى القبض على خاطفيهم؛ إنه عن قصد خدمة للإبادة الجماعية والغزو والهيمنة الإمبراطورية.
كل هذا أصبح معقداً ونسبياً وغامضاً من الناحية الجيوسياسية لأن إيران، التي تسيطر على خمس دول بما في ذلك العراق ولبنان وسوريا واليمن، ومنظمتها الدولية غير الحكومية حزب الله، ردت على الفور بالتضامن مع الشعب الفلسطيني. الأمر الذي أدى إلى تسريع الجدول الزمني لإسرائيل لغزو الشرق الأوسط بأكمله انتقاما، ولأن روسيا شريك إيران في نظام الأسد في سوريا، فقد حول الصراع الطائفي الإقليمي المستمر منذ سبعين عاما إلى مسرح للحرب العالمية الثالثة.
أين يتركنا هذا الآن؟
يجب على البشرية أن تختار بين الطغيان الثيوقراطي والديمقراطية العلمانية، والغزو الإمبراطوري والسيطرة وسيادة واستقلال جميع الأمم وجميع البشر، وبين المساواة والخضوع لهيمنة النخبة من الثروة والسلطة والامتياز، وبين الخوف والحب.
من نريد أن نصبح نحن البشر؟ السادة والعبيد أم مجتمع حر متساوٍ؟
يجب على الأمم المتحدة، باعتبارها أول حكومة عالمية لنا والبشرية المتحدة الناشئة، أن تتصرف الآن بسرعة وحسم لجلب الاحترام لحقوقنا الإنسانية العالمية إلى دولة إسرائيل المارقة، ومساعدة شعبها على إعادة تصور أمتهم وتحويلها.
لقد أصبحت أمريكا متواطئة في الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي وجرائم الحرب والجرائم ضد الإنسانية من قبل مستعمرتنا ووكيلنا إسرائيل، وهي شرور يجب أن نعتبرها شرورنا ونتحمل المسؤولية عنها، فور فتح الحصار الإسرائيلي للمساعدات الإنسانية وفرض وقف كامل لإطلاق النار. ، ومستمرة في تغيير النظام في إسرائيل، ومحاسبة مجرمي الحرب، وتحقيق العدالة التصالحية لضحاياها.
إن غزة في حالة خراب ويجب إعادة بنائها بالكامل؛ الجبر
وسوف تستهلك عملية المصالحة جيلاً كاملاً وستحدد أفكار إسرائيل وفلسطين لمدة قرن من الزمان. لن تتخلى إسرائيل عن هذا الأمر أبدًا، وإذا لم يتم تطهير نظام نتنياهو الإجرامي وتأسيس ديمقراطية حقيقية على رماد الصهيونية، فإن اسم إسرائيل سيصبح حكاية تحذيرية تهمس في الظلام.
شعب واحد قسمه التاريخ، إسرائيل وفلسطين؛ آمل أن يستيقظوا ذات يوم من أكاذيب أولئك الذين يريدون استعبادهم، وأن يصبحوا مجتمعًا حرًا من متساوين الذين يضمن كل منهم الآخر حقوق الإنسان العالمية.
Hebrew
7 באפריל 2024 דברים מתפרקים: שישה חודשים של מלחמה בעזה
בשישה חודשים של מלחמת רצח העם והטיהור האתני של ישראל, הן מדינת ישראל והן האימפריה האמריקנית שהיא נציגתה הפכו לדה-לגיטימציה והחלו להיפרם כששותפות לפשעים נגד האנושות מצילה על סמכותנו, וכמו האימפריה הבריטית אשר נפל עם הדיכוי של מחאת מס המלח של גנדי, אנו מאבדים את הקרקע המוסרית ונשארים עם כוח ושליטה בלבד כאכזריות וטרור ממלכתי, שמתפוררים לכלום כאשר מאותגרים על ידי אי ציות ואי אמון.
יש כתם של אכזריות על השריון הבוהק שלנו, והוא עומד כעת חשוף לעד ההיסטוריה.
את זה אני חוגג כניצחון לכל המין האנושי, וכמנוף של שינוי במאבק השחרור עבור עמים ישראלים ופלסטינים כאחד, אף על פי שהמחיר בחיי אדם הוא איום בצורה בלתי נתפסת וזוועה מעבר להבנה שבגינה ייאלצו מבצעיה מכל הצדדים להתמודד יום אחד. חשבון.
אין בחורים טובים בסיפור הזה, אבל למרבה הצער יש הרבה חפים מפשע שנושאים את המחיר האמיתי של המלחמה הזו, שכן כמעט כל קורבנותיה היו לא לוחמים ונשים וילדים אזרחיים, פשעי מלחמה נגד כל הרעיונות של זכויות אדם. האנושיות שלנו היא בין העלויות הגדולות ביותר; השפלה של מי שאנחנו.
מדוע החלה מלחמה כזו על ידי חמאס, וניהלה ישראל כרצח עם וטיהור אתני? מכיוון שישראלים ופלסטינים יצרו יחד זהות חדשה כעם אחד המאוחד כערבים זה לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות של זה, מה שאיים על הנרטיבים של קורבנות, פילוג וזהות לאומית שבאמצעותם הסמכות מרכזת ואוכפת את הכוח, משני הצדדים של הסכסוך הזה. בדרך כלל.
משטר המתנחלים הקולוניאליסטי-אימפריאלי של נתניהו, שהושחת והושחת על ידי פשיזם של דם, אמונה ואדמה לתמונת מראה של מחנות ההשמדה שישראל נועדה מזמן להגן על כולנו מפני, שיתף פעולה עם גורמי חמאס ועם צד שלישי לא ידוע. התכנון והתפעול של הזוועות ב-7 באוקטובר.
בזה אין שום דבר חדש; ישראל, חמאס ואינספור גופים אחרים הסתננו במשך דורות רבים זה לזה, ולישראל יש יחידת סיור המתמחה בהתחזות לג’יהאדיסטים איסלאמיים ובביצוע מעשי זוועה נגד קבוצות איסלאמיות בפועל כדי לזרוע פילוג ולמנוע מהעם שהם כובשים ליצור איחוד מאוחד. חֲזִית. ב-7 באוקטובר, המערכת הביזנטית הזו של בריתות ויריבויות חיבלה בעצמה והתפוצצה באלימות איומה ופשעים מתועבים, ממש כמו ההתנקשות בפרנץ פרדיננד שהחלה את מלחמת העולם הראשונה.
אני אומר שוב; לצה”ל ולסוכנויות המודיעין הישראליות הסתננו יותר מאויב אחד, שפעל ליצירת ה-7 באוקטובר, וללא קשר לכך ישראל יצרה רשת משלה בתוך חמאס שתכננה את ה-7 באוקטובר כעילה צודקת למלחמה ועילה לפתרון הסופי של הפלסטינים.
חלק מבני הערובה הישראלים, אם כי לא כולם, שבויים כעת של חיילי צה”ל המתחזות לג’יהאדיסטים ברשתות מעין עצמאיות בתוך חמאס. זו הסיבה שנתניהו לא רודף אחר חילוץ בני ערובה, ואפילו לא לכידת חוטפיהם; זה מתוכנן בשירות רצח עם וכיבוש אימפריאלי ושליטה.
כל זה נעשה מורכב, יחסי ומעורפל במונחים גיאופוליטיים מכיוון שאיראן, השולטת בחמש מדינות כולל עיראק, לבנון, סוריה ותימן, והארגון הבינלאומי הלא-מדינתי שלה חיזבאללה, הגיבה מיד בסולידריות של פעולה עם העם הפלסטיני. מה שהאיץ את לוח הזמנים של ישראל לכיבוש המזרח התיכון כולו כנקמה, ומכיוון שרוסיה היא שותפתה של איראן במשטר אסד בסוריה, הפך סכסוך עדתי אזורי בן שבעים שנה לתיאטרון של מלחמת העולם השלישית.
איפה זה משאיר אותנו עכשיו?
על המין האנושי לבחור בין עריצות תיאוקרטית ודמוקרטיה חילונית, כיבוש ושליטה אימפריאלית לבין ריבונות ועצמאות של כל העמים וכל בני האדם, בין שוויון וכפיפות להגמוניות עילית של עושר, כוח וזכות, ובין פחד ואהבה.
למי אנחנו רוצים להיות, אנחנו בני האדם; אדונים ועבדים, או חברה חופשית של שווים?
האומות המאוחדות כממשלת העולם הראשונה שלנו והמין האנושי המאוחד המתהווה חייבות כעת לפעול במהירות ובנחישות כדי להביא כבוד לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו למדינת ישראל הנוכלת, ולעזור לעמיה לדמיין מחדש ולשנות את האומה שלהם.
אמריקה נעשתה שותפה לרצח עם, טיהור אתני, פשעי מלחמה ופשעים נגד האנושות על ידי המושבה שלנו וישראל, הרשעים שאנו חייבים להיות שלנו ולקחת אחריות עליהם, מיד בפתיחת המצור הישראלי של סיוע הומניטרי ואכיפת הפסקת אש מוחלטת , ומתמשכת בהבאת שינוי המשטר לישראל, התחשבנות לפושעי המלחמה שלה, וצדק מחזיר לקורבנותיה.
עזה בהריסות ויש לבנות אותה מחדש לחלוטין; פיצוי
תהליך הפיוס ותכלס דור ויגדיר את הרעיונות של ישראל ופלסטין במשך מאה שנה. ישראל לעולם לא תחיה זאת, ואם משטר הפשע של נתניהו לא יטהר ודמוקרטיה אמיתית תקום מאפר הציונות, שמה של ישראל יהפוך לסיפור אזהרה שנלחש בחושך. עם אחד מחולק לפי היסטוריה, ישראל ופלסטין; אני מקווה שיום אחד הם יתעוררו מהשקרים של אלה שישעבדו אותם, ויהפכו לחברה חופשית של שווים שהם ערבים זה לזה לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו
Fast on the heels of the two week Israeli orgy of destruction of al Shifa hospital with its brutal murders, rapes, and torture of both doctors and patients, comes the twin horrors of Israel’s bombing of the World Central Kitchen food convoy and deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers and the bombing of a foreign consulate.
This is Israel’s response to our victorious Red Sea Campaign of counter-blockade versus the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which was a total failure for them both in military and political terms despite American drone bombings of liberation forces sites in Yemen.
Here Genocide Joe tried and failed to kill us in defense of Israel’s blockade and policy of using famine and denial of medical aide in this campaign of genocide and ethnic cleaning of Palestine.
This makes Biden the second American President who has tried to kill me personally, though Reagan was only Governor of California when he ordered the police to open fire on the students protesting the Occupation of Palestine and the University’s investments in Israel, Bloody Thursday May 15 1969 in People’s Park Berkeley.
Though the American airstrikes on our drone launch sites did nothing whatever to discourage us and destroyed abandoned and unmanned locations (you didn’t think I’d use the same trick twice now did you?), one did blow up a shed where some lads had stored the spray paints they’d been using to decorate the local urinals with images of Biden and Netanyahu. We know who the enemy is.
And because the enemies of humanity could not silence us and others who stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine as guarantors of our universal human rights, enemies who speak with the only language they understand, that of terror, cruelty, dehumanization, erasure, and brutal repression of dissent, they murdered a convoy of humanitarian aid workers bringing food to starving children. This was by design, and had the intended effect as World Central Kitchen has withdrawn from Gaza.
Where did Israel learn the use of such terror?
From Hitler and Franco, who tested and codified their new model of conquest named Total War and characterized by crimes against civilian populations in the destruction of Guernica, and both the Spanish Civil War and all the horrors that came afterward.
O Israel, is this how you bring Tikkun Olam, Repair of the World?
America, is this how we stand in solidarity and liberation struggle with the “huddled masses yearning to be free”?
As written by Sam Jones in The Guardian, in an article entitled Gaza aid convoy strike: what happened and who were the victims? Seven World Central Kitchen workers died after a strike on their vehicle in Deir al-Balah; “What do we know about what happened outside the Deir al-Balah warehouse in Gaza?
Seven aid workers trying to deliver much-needed food to Gaza were killed in an Israeli strike in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday night. The Israeli government confirmed its military had carried out “an unintended strike”, hours after World Central Kitchen (WCK), an international charity that has brought hundreds of tonnes of food aid into Gaza, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were responsible.
WCK said the workers – three Britons, a Palestinian, a US-Canadian dual citizen, a Pole and an Australian – had been travelling in two armoured cars bearing the charity’s logo, and a “soft-skin vehicle”.
“Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” the charity said in a statement.
Israeli defence sources told Haaretz that the aid workers’ vehicles had been hit three times by missiles fired from a drone because of erroneous suspicions that a terrorist was travelling with the convoy.
Haaretz also reported that some of the passengers left their vehicle after it was hit by the first missile and climbed into another car, which was then hit by a second missile. The third car in the convoy, which approached to pick up the occupants of the second car, was hit by a third missile. The strike killed all of the WCK workers in the convoy.
WCK has paused its operations in the region while it decides on future activities.
Who were the victims?
The Guardian understands two of the three British aid workers to be James Henderson, 33, from Penryn, Cornwall, and John Chapman, 57, who was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. The BBC reported the third Briton as James Kirby.
The Australian government named one of those killed as Zomi Frankcom, a 43-year-old Melbourne-born aid worker. It said it confirmed her death with “overwhelming sadness”, adding that “her tireless work to improve the lives of others should never have cost Ms Frankcom her own”.
Frankcom’s family described her as “a kind, selfless and outstanding human being [who] travelled the world helping others in their time of need”.
The Polish victim was named by the country’s foreign minister as Damian Sobol.
“Our brave compatriot, Damian Sobol from the city of Przemyśl helped those in need in Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis is taking place,” Radosław Sikorski said in a video published on X.
“He was killed in an attack for which the Israeli army claimed responsibility,” Sikorski added, saying he would hold a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz.
Saif Issam Abu Taha, 25, was identified by relatives and hospital workers as the Palestinian aid worker killed.
His brother, Ahmed Abu Taha, confirmed he had worked for World Central Kitchen as a driver since the beginning of the year. “He was a dedicated young man,” his brother said.
Another brother described Taha to the New York Times as an enterprising man who spoke good English and had worked in his father’s business.
The last time he saw his brother, he told the newspaper, he and others were so excited to about getting to unload the desperately needed food, it was “like they were going to a wedding.”
On Tuesday, WCK named US-Canada dual citizen Jacob Flickinger as the final member of the group who was killed in the attack.
What is World Central Kitchen and what has it been doing in Gaza?
WCK was founded by a Spanish-American chef, José Andrés, in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It has since grown into a global charity that has provided food to refugees at the US border as well as working in Venezuela and Ukraine.
Over the past few weeks, WCK has brought about 600 tonnes of food and aid to northern Gaza using a maritime aid corridor that was opened last month. The charity says it has so far provided Palestinians facing starvation with more than 43m meals that have been delivered by land, air and sea.
How bad is the aid situation for Palestinians in Gaza?
At the end of February, the UN said at least 576,000 people in Gaza – a quarter of its population – were “one step away from famine”. In mid-March, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification – a group that includes the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization – said 1.1 million people, half of Gaza’s population, were facing famine.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s top relief coordinator, said on X at the time: “The international community should hang its head in shame for failing to stop it … We know that once a famine is declared, it is way too late.”
Aid agencies’ efforts to get humanitarian assistance to where it is most needed have been severely hampered by a combination of logistical obstacles, a breakdown of public order and lengthy bureaucracy imposed by Israel. The number of aid trucks entering the territory by land over the past five months has been far below the 500 a day that entered before the war.
How have people reacted?
In a statement on Tuesday, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “Unfortunately over the last day there was a tragic incident of an unintended strike of our forces on innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” He continued: “This happens in wartime. We are thoroughly looking into it … and will do everything to ensure it does not happen again.”
The IDF said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident”.
Andrés said he was heartbroken by his colleagues’ death and called on the Israeli government to “stop this indiscriminate killing … [and] stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon”.
The British government summoned the Israeli ambassador over the deaths, which the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said were “completely unacceptable”.
Cameron added: “Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure safety of aid workers on the ground.”
The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the death of any aid worker was “outrageous and unacceptable” and said the government was seeking “a thorough and expeditious review” as well as “full accountability for these deaths” from the Israeli government.
The Polish foreign ministry expressed its condolences to Sobol’s family, adding: “Poland does not agree to the lack of compliance with international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said American diplomats had already spoken to the Israeli government and urged “a swift, thorough and impartial investigation to understand exactly what happened”.
Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, said she had been “horrified” to hear of the deaths, which included a dual Canadian-US citizen.
“Canada expects full accountability for these killings and we will convey this to the Israeli government directly,” she said. “Strikes on humanitarian personnel are absolutely unacceptable.”
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was appalled by the deaths and called on the Israeli government to “clarify the circumstances of this brutal attack as soon as possible”.
As written by Bethan McKernan in The Guardian, in an article entitled Israel accused of targeting aid convoy ‘car by car’ as pressure grows over Gaza tactics; “Israel is facing mounting international pressure to justify its conduct in the war in Gaza as the bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a drone attack were repatriated to their families.
Seven members of World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed when a drone repeatedly hit their convoy of three cars, which were clearly identified as belonging to the charity, after it left an aid warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Monday night.
WCK’s founder, the chef José Andrés, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had targeted the convoy “systematically, car by car”, even though they were in touch with WCK and were aware of the aid workers’ movements.
“This was not a bad luck situation where, ‘oops’, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” he told Reuters. “Even if we were not in coordination with the IDF, no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians.”
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the IDF have apologised for the killings, and said that an investigation was under way. Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Tuesday that Israel would open a “joint situation room” with international groups to enable better coordination of aid distribution.
The circumstances surrounding the killings have renewed scrutiny of Israel’s targeting methods and decision-making process in ordering air and drone strikes. According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the convoy did not contain any suspected militants and had been travelling along a route pre-approved and coordinated with the Israeli military.
More than 200 aid workers in the territory have been killed in nearly six months of conflict, along with scores of medical staff, journalists and civil response workers. The Guardian reported on Wednesday that IDF officials had permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed in “dumb” bomb strikes targeting even low-level Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants, based on what intelligence sources said was an AI-driven system that in many cases risked “attacking by mistake”.
The Palestinian death toll in the conflict reached 33,000 people on Wednesday, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. With many bodies still trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the true figure is likely to be higher.
WCK named the seven victims as the Palestinian driver Saif Issam Abu Taha, 25; Britons John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, who were working for the charity’s security team; and aid workers Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43, an Australian national; Jacob Flickinger, 33, a dual American-Canadian citizen; and Damian Sobol, 35, a Polish national.
Abu Taha’s remains were handed over to his family for burial in Gaza on Wednesday, and the other bodies were driven into Egypt through the Rafah crossing, now the Palestinian territory’s sole connection to the outside world, to be flown home.
The victims’ governments, as well as Palestinian officials and Spain, Andrés’s birthplace, have demanded a full and transparent investigation, with some voicing particular anger at Netanyahu’s explanation that “this happens in wartime’’.
All of the foreign victims come from countries friendly to Israel. WCK also deployed teams to help thousands of displaced Israelis in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted, triggering the war.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called Netanyahu’s remarks “unacceptable and insufficient”. He said: “We are awaiting a much stronger and more detailed clarification, after which we’ll see what action to take.”
Poland is understood to have launched its own investigation into Sobol’s death. Donald Tusk, the country’s prime minister, addressed Netanyahu and Yacov Livne, the Israeli ambassador to Poland, in a post on X, which said: “The vast majority of Poles showed full solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack (on Oct 7).
“Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test. The tragic attack on volunteers and your [Netanyahu’s] reaction arouse understandable anger.”
Joe Biden, who has provided strong diplomatic and military backing for Israel’s offensive, also offered a stern rebuke on Tuesday. The US president told reporters Israel had not done enough to protect aid workers and civilians.
US rhetoric on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has strengthened of late, but critics say Biden has opted not to use Washington’s leverage as Israel’s principal arms supplier and most important international ally to bring it to the negotiating table, or get it to increase the flow of aid to the territory’s desperate population of 2.3 million.
Famine is “projected and imminent” in the northern half of Gaza, a UN-backed report said last month, and according to Oxfam the number of people facing catastrophic levels of hunger across the territory as a whole has nearly doubled since December.
At least 27 children have died of malnutrition, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Getting assistance to where it is needed most, particularly the northern half of the territory, has been made difficult by damaged roads, a lack of fuel, a breakdown of public order and what aid agencies have described as unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles imposed by Israel. The number of aid trucks entering the territory by land over the past six months has been far below the 500 a day that entered before the conflict.
The UN said on Wednesday it had suspended movements at night in Gaza for at least 48 hours to evaluate security issues after the killing of the WCK staff.
Israel has barred Unrwa, the main UN agency in Gaza, from making deliveries to the north after claiming several of its employees were involved in the Hamas attack that triggered the war. Other aid groups say sending truck convoys north has been too dangerous because of the military’s failure to ensure safe passage.
Negotiations intended to establish a second truce and the release of the remaining hostages have faltered repeatedly since a week-long ceasefire at the end of November.
The UN’s human rights council is expected to consider a draft resolution on Friday calling for an arms embargo on Israel, citing the “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”. If adopted, it would mark the first time that the body has taken a position on the war.”
And this is not merely one atrocity among countless others wherein the idea of our universal human rights is degraded and subverted by state terror and tyranny, especially as imperial conquest and dominion as it is in the Occupation of Palestine in its entire seventy year history and in the horrific Gaza War now; for Israel has done this by taking mercy, compassion, our duty of care for others and the human element in decision making out of the loop in the Calculus of Fear that is war, and handed it over to artificial intelligences which are encumbered by none of these things, a glimpse of the world to come.
As written by Bethan McKernan Harry Davies in The Guardian, in an article entitled ‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets: Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants; “The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war.
In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict.
Their unusually candid testimony provides a rare glimpse into the first-hand experiences of Israeli intelligence officials who have been using machine-learning systems to help identify targets during the six-month war.
Israel’s use of powerful AI systems in its war on Hamas has entered uncharted territory for advanced warfare, raising a host of legal and moral questions, and transforming the relationship between military personnel and machines.
“This is unparalleled, in my memory,” said one intelligence officer who used Lavender, adding that they had more faith in a “statistical mechanism” than a grieving soldier. “Everyone there, including me, lost people on October 7. The machine did it coldly. And that made it easier.”
Another Lavender user questioned whether humans’ role in the selection process was meaningful. “I would invest 20 seconds for each target at this stage, and do dozens of them every day. I had zero added-value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval. It saved a lot of time.”
The testimony from the six intelligence officers, all who have been involved in using AI systems to identify Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets in the war, was given to the journalist Yuval Abraham for a report published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.
Their accounts were shared exclusively with the Guardian in advance of publication. All six said that Lavender had played a central role in the war, processing masses of data to rapidly identify potential “junior” operatives to target. Four of the sources said that, at one stage early in the war, Lavender listed as many as 37,000 Palestinian men who had been linked by the AI system to Hamas or PIJ.
Lavender was developed by the Israel Defense Forces’ elite intelligence division, Unit 8200, which is comparable to the US’s National Security Agency or GCHQ in the UK.
Several of the sources described how, for certain categories of targets, the IDF applied pre-authorised allowances for the estimated number of civilians who could be killed before a strike was authorised.
Two sources said that during the early weeks of the war they were permitted to kill 15 or 20 civilians during airstrikes on low-ranking militants. Attacks on such targets were typically carried out using unguided munitions known as “dumb bombs”, the sources said, destroying entire homes and killing all their occupants.
“You don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people – it’s very expensive for the country and there’s a shortage [of those bombs],” one intelligence officer said. Another said the principal question they were faced with was whether the “collateral damage” to civilians allowed for an attack.
“Because we usually carried out the attacks with dumb bombs, and that meant literally dropping the whole house on its occupants. But even if an attack is averted, you don’t care – you immediately move on to the next target. Because of the system, the targets never end. You have another 36,000 waiting.”
According to conflict experts, if Israel has been using dumb bombs to flatten the homes of thousands of Palestinians who were linked, with the assistance of AI, to militant groups in Gaza, that could help explain the shockingly high death toll in the war.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the past six months. UN data shows that in the first month of the war alone, 1,340 families suffered multiple losses, with 312 families losing more than 10 members.
Responding to the publication of the testimonies in +972 and Local Call, the IDF said in a statement that its operations were carried out in accordance with the rules of proportionality under international law. It said dumb bombs are “standard weaponry” that are used by IDF pilots in a manner that ensures “a high level of precision”.
The statement described Lavender as a database used “to cross-reference intelligence sources, in order to produce up-to-date layers of information on the military operatives of terrorist organisations. This is not a list of confirmed military operatives eligible to attack.
“The IDF does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist,” it added. “Information systems are merely tools for analysts in the target identification process.”
Lavender created a database of tens of thousands of individuals
In earlier military operations conducted by the IDF, producing human targets was often a more labour-intensive process. Multiple sources who described target development in previous wars to the Guardian, said the decision to “incriminate” an individual, or identify them as a legitimate target, would be discussed and then signed off by a legal adviser.
In the weeks and months after 7 October, this model for approving strikes on human targets was dramatically accelerated, according to the sources. As the IDF’s bombardment of Gaza intensified, they said, commanders demanded a continuous pipeline of targets.
“We were constantly being pressured: ‘Bring us more targets.’ They really shouted at us,” said one intelligence officer. “We were told: now we have to fuck up Hamas, no matter what the cost. Whatever you can, you bomb.”
To meet this demand, the IDF came to rely heavily on Lavender to generate a database of individuals judged to have the characteristics of a PIJ or Hamas militant.
Details about the specific kinds of data used to train Lavender’s algorithm, or how the programme reached its conclusions, are not included in the accounts published by +972 or Local Call. However, the sources said that during the first few weeks of the war, Unit 8200 refined Lavender’s algorithm and tweaked its search parameters.
After randomly sampling and cross-checking its predictions, the unit concluded Lavender had achieved a 90% accuracy rate, the sources said, leading the IDF to approve its sweeping use as a target recommendation tool.
Lavender created a database of tens of thousands of individuals who were marked as predominantly low-ranking members of Hamas’s military wing, they added. This was used alongside another AI-based decision support system, called the Gospel, which recommended buildings and structures as targets rather than individuals.
The accounts include first-hand testimony of how intelligence officers worked with Lavender and how the reach of its dragnet could be adjusted. “At its peak, the system managed to generate 37,000 people as potential human targets,” one of the sources said. “But the numbers changed all the time, because it depends on where you set the bar of what a Hamas operative is.”
They added: “There were times when a Hamas operative was defined more broadly, and then the machine started bringing us all kinds of civil defence personnel, police officers, on whom it would be a shame to waste bombs. They help the Hamas government, but they don’t really endanger soldiers.”
Before the war, US and Israeli estimated membership of Hamas’s military wing at approximately 25-30,000 people.
In the weeks after the Hamas-led 7 October assault on southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped about 240 people, the sources said there was a decision to treat Palestinian men linked to Hamas’s military wing as potential targets, regardless of their rank or importance.
The IDF’s targeting processes in the most intensive phase of the bombardment were also relaxed, they said. “There was a completely permissive policy regarding the casualties of [bombing] operations,” one source said. “A policy so permissive that in my opinion it had an element of revenge.”
Another source, who justified the use of Lavender to help identify low-ranking targets, said that “when it comes to a junior militant, you don’t want to invest manpower and time in it”. They said that in wartime there was insufficient time to carefully “incriminate every target”.
“So you’re willing to take the margin of error of using artificial intelligence, risking collateral damage and civilians dying, and risking attacking by mistake, and to live with it,” they added.
‘It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home’
The testimonies published by +972 and Local Call may explain how such a western military with such advanced capabilities, with weapons that can conduct highly surgical strikes, has conducted a war with such a vast human toll.
When it came to targeting low-ranking Hamas and PIJ suspects, they said, the preference was to attack when they were believed to be at home. “We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity,” one said. “It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”
Such a strategy risked higher numbers of civilian casualties, and the sources said the IDF imposed pre-authorised limits on the number of civilians it deemed acceptable to kill in a strike aimed at a single Hamas militant. The ratio was said to have changed over time, and varied according to the seniority of the target.
According to +972 and Local Call, the IDF judged it permissible to kill more than 100 civilians in attacks on a top-ranking Hamas officials. “We had a calculation for how many [civilians could be killed] for the brigade commander, how many [civilians] for a battalion commander, and so on,” one source said.
“There were regulations, but they were just very lenient,” another added. “We’ve killed people with collateral damage in the high double digits, if not low triple digits. These are things that haven’t happened before.” There appears to have been significant fluctuations in the figure that military commanders would tolerate at different stages of the war.
One source said that the limit on permitted civilian casualties “went up and down” over time, and at one point was as low as five. During the first week of the conflict, the source said, permission was given to kill 15 non-combatants to take out junior militants in Gaza. However, they said estimates of civilian casualties were imprecise, as it was not possible to know definitively how many people were in a building.
Another intelligence officer said that more recently in the conflict, the rate of permitted collateral damage was brought down again. But at one stage earlier in the war they were authorised to kill up to “20 uninvolved civilians” for a single operative, regardless of their rank, military importance, or age.
“It’s not just that you can kill any person who is a Hamas soldier, which is clearly permitted and legitimate in terms of international law,” they said. “But they directly tell you: ‘You are allowed to kill them along with many civilians.’ … In practice, the proportionality criterion did not exist.”
The IDF statement said its procedures “require conducting an individual assessment of the anticipated military advantage and collateral damage expected … The IDF does not carry out strikes when the expected collateral damage from the strike is excessive in relation to the military advantage.” It added: “The IDF outright rejects the claim regarding any policy to kill tens of thousands of people in their homes.”
Experts in international humanitarian law who spoke to the Guardian expressed alarm at accounts of the IDF accepting and pre-authorising collateral damage ratios as high as 20 civilians, particularly for lower-ranking militants. They said militaries must assess proportionality for each individual strike.
An international law expert at the US state department said they had “never remotely heard of a one to 15 ratio being deemed acceptable, especially for lower-level combatants. There’s a lot of leeway, but that strikes me as extreme”.
Sarah Harrison, a former lawyer at the US Department of Defense, now an analyst at Crisis Group, said: “While there may be certain occasions where 15 collateral civilian deaths could be proportionate, there are other times where it definitely wouldn’t be. You can’t just set a tolerable number for a category of targets and say that it’ll be lawfully proportionate in each case.”
Whatever the legal or moral justification for Israel’s bombing strategy, some of its intelligence officers appear now to be questioning the approach set by their commanders. “No one thought about what to do afterward, when the war is over, or how it will be possible to live in Gaza,” one said.
Another said that after the 7 October attacks by Hamas, the atmosphere in the IDF was “painful and vindictive”. “There was a dissonance: on the one hand, people here were frustrated that we were not attacking enough. On the other hand, you see at the end of the day that another thousand Gazans have died, most of them civilians.”
In Gaza, Israel has perfected the science of Total War by removing the human capacity for mercy and empathy from its cold equations in ways which their models Hitler and Franco could only have dreamed.
Gaza aid convoy strike: what happened and who were the victims?
‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets
Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants
3 באפריל 2024 הדים של גרניקה במלחמה הכוללת של ישראל: מקרה הפצצת עובד הסיוע
בעקבות אורגיית ההרס הישראלית לשבועיים של בית החולים אל שיפא עם רציחות אכזריות, אונס ועינויים של רופאים וחולים כאחד, מגיעות תאומי הזוועות של הפצצת ישראל על שיירת המזון המרכזית של המטבח העולמי ומותם של שבעה הומניטריים. עובדי סיוע והפצצת קונסוליה זרה.
זוהי תגובתה של ישראל לקמפיין המנצח שלנו בים סוף של מצור נגד מול המצור הישראלי של סיוע הומניטרי לעזה, שהיה כישלון מוחלט עבורם הן במונחים צבאיים והן במונחים פוליטיים למרות הפצצות המל”טים האמריקאיות על אתרי כוחות השחרור בתימן.
כאן רצח העם ג’ו ניסה ולא הצליח להרוג אותנו בהגנה על המצור והמדיניות של ישראל של שימוש ברעב ושלילת סיוע רפואי במסע הזה של רצח עם וניקוי אתני של פלסטין.
זה הופך את ביידן לנשיא האמריקני השני שניסה להרוג אותי באופן אישי, אם כי רייגן היה רק מושל קליפורניה כשהורה למשטרה לפתוח באש על הסטודנטים המוחים על כיבוש פלסטין וההשקעות של האוניברסיטה בישראל, יום חמישי הדמים 15 במאי 1969 בפארק העם בברקלי.
למרות שהתקיפות האוויריות האמריקניות על אתרי שיגור המל”טים שלנו לא עשו שום דבר כדי להרתיע אותנו והרסו מקומות נטושים ובלתי מאוישים (לא חשבת שאני אשתמש באותו טריק פעמיים, נכון?), אחת פוצצה סככה שבה כמה בחורים אחסנו את צבעי הריסוס שבהם השתמשו כדי לקשט את המשתנות המקומיות בתמונות של ביידן ונתניהו. אנחנו יודעים מי האויב.
ומכיוון שאויבי האנושות לא יכלו להשתיק אותנו ואחרים העומדים בסולידריות עם העם הפלסטיני כערבים לזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו, אויבים שמדברים בשפה היחידה שהם מבינים, זו של טרור, אכזריות, דה-הומניזציה, מחיקה, דיכוי אכזרי של התנגדות, הם רצחו שיירה של עובדי סיוע הומניטריים שהביאו מזון לילדים מורעבים. זה היה בתכנון, והיה לו את האפקט המיועד שכן World Central Kitchen נסוג מעזה.
היכן למדה ישראל את השימוש בטרור כזה?
מהיטלר ופרנקו, שבדקו ותיקדו את מודל הכיבוש החדש שלהם בשם Total War ומאופיין בפשעים נגד אוכלוסיות אזרחיות בהשמדת גרניקה, וגם במלחמת האזרחים בספרד וכל הזוועות שבאו לאחר מכן.
הו ישראל, ככה מביאים את תיקון עולם, תיקון עולם?
אמריקה, האם כך אנו עומדים במאבק סולידריות ושחרור עם “ההמונים המצטופפים המשתוקקים להיות חופשיים”?
וזו לא רק זוועה אחת בין אינספור אחרות שבה הרעיון של זכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו מושפל ומתערער על ידי טרור ועריצות המדינה, במיוחד כפי שהכיבוש והשליטה האימפריאלית היא בכיבוש פלסטין בכל שבעים שנות ההיסטוריה שלה וב. מלחמת עזה הנוראה עכשיו; שהרי ישראל עשתה זאת על ידי נטילת רחמים, חמלה, חובת הזהירות שלנו לזולת והיסוד האנושי בקבלת החלטות מחוץ ללולאה בחשבון הפחד שהיא מלחמה, ומסרה אותו לבינה מלאכותית שאף אחד מהם אינו משועבד לו. הדברים האלה, הצצה לעולם הבא.
בעזה, ישראל שיכללה את מדע המלחמה הטוטאלית על ידי הסרת היכולת האנושית לרחמים ואמפתיה מהמשוואות הקרות שלה בדרכים שהמודלים שלהם היטלר ופרנקו יכלו רק לחלום.
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3 أبريل 2024 أصداء غرنيكا في حرب إسرائيل الشاملة: حالة تفجير عمال الإغاثة
وفي أعقاب العربدة الإسرائيلية التي استمرت لمدة أسبوعين لتدمير مستشفى الشفاء، بما رافقها من عمليات قتل وحشية واغتصاب وتعذيب للأطباء والمرضى على حد سواء، تأتي الفظائع المزدوجة المتمثلة في قصف إسرائيل لقافلة الغذاء التابعة للمطبخ المركزي العالمي ومقتل سبعة من العاملين الإنسانيين. عمال الإغاثة وتفجير قنصلية أجنبية.
هذا هو رد إسرائيل على حملتنا المنتصرة في البحر الأحمر لمكافحة الحصار مقابل الحصار الإسرائيلي للمساعدات الإنسانية لغزة، والذي كان بمثابة فشل ذريع بالنسبة لهم من الناحيتين العسكرية والسياسية على الرغم من قصف الطائرات الأمريكية بدون طيار لمواقع قوات التحرير في اليمن.
هنا حاول جو الإبادة الجماعية وفشل في قتلنا دفاعًا عن الحصار الإسرائيلي وسياسة استخدام المجاعة والحرمان من المساعدات الطبية في حملة الإبادة الجماعية والتطهير العرقي لفلسطين.
وهذا يجعل بايدن ثاني رئيس أمريكي يحاول قتلي شخصيا، مع أن ريغان كان حاكما لولاية كاليفورنيا فقط عندما أمر الشرطة بفتح النار على الطلاب المحتجين على احتلال فلسطين واستثمارات الجامعة في إسرائيل، الخميس الدامي 15 مايو 1969. في بيبولز بارك بيركلي.
على الرغم من أن الغارات الجوية الأمريكية على مواقع إطلاق الطائرات بدون طيار لم تفعل شيئًا على الإطلاق لتثبيط عزيمتنا ودمرت المواقع المهجورة وغير المأهولة (لم تعتقد أنني سأستخدم نفس الخدعة مرتين الآن؟) قاموا بتخزين رذاذ الطلاء الذي كانوا يستخدمونه لتزيين المبولات المحلية بصور بايدن ونتنياهو. نحن نعرف من هو العدو.
ولأن أعداء الإنسانية لم يتمكنوا من إسكاتنا والآخرين الذين يتضامنون مع شعب فلسطين كضامنين لحقوقنا الإنسانية العالمية، الأعداء الذين يتحدثون باللغة الوحيدة التي يفهمونها، لغة الإرهاب والقسوة والتجريد من الإنسانية والمحو والإبادة. من خلال القمع الوحشي للمعارضة، قتلوا قافلة من عمال الإغاثة الإنسانية الذين كانوا ينقلون الطعام إلى الأطفال الذين يعانون من الجوع. لقد كان ذلك مقصودًا، وكان له التأثير المقصود حيث انسحب المطبخ المركزي العالمي من غزة.
ومن أين تعلمت إسرائيل استخدام هذا الإرهاب؟
من هتلر وفرانكو، اللذين اختبروا وقنّنوا نموذجهم الجديد للغزو المسمى “الحرب الشاملة” والذي اتسم بالجرائم ضد السكان المدنيين في تدمير غرنيكا، وكل من الحرب الأهلية الإسبانية وجميع الفظائع التي جاءت بعد ذلك.
يا إسرائيل، هل هذه هي الطريقة التي تحضر بها تيكون أولام، إصلاح العالم؟
أمريكا، هل هذه هي الطريقة التي نقف بها في النضال التضامني والتحرري مع “الجماهير المحتشدة التي تتوق إلى الحرية”؟
هذه ليست مجرد فظائع واحدة من بين فظائع أخرى لا تعد ولا تحصى، حيث يتم تدهور فكرة حقوق الإنسان العالمية وتخريبها من خلال إرهاب الدولة وطغيانها، لا سيما في ظل الغزو والهيمنة الإمبراطوريين كما هو الحال في احتلال فلسطين طوال تاريخه الذي يمتد لسبعين عامًا وفي حرب غزة المروعة الآن؛ لأن إسرائيل فعلت ذلك من خلال إخراج الرحمة والرأفة وواجبنا في رعاية الآخرين والعنصر البشري في صنع القرار من حلقة حساب التفاضل والتكامل للخوف الذي هو الحرب، وسلمتها إلى الذكاء الاصطناعي الذي لا يعيقه أي شيء. هذه الأشياء، لمحة عن العالم الآتي.
وفي غزة، أتقنت إسرائيل علم الحرب الشاملة من خلال إزالة القدرة البشرية على الرحمة والتعاطف من معادلاتها الباردة على نحو لم يكن لنموذجيهما هتلر وفرانكو إلا أن يحلموا به.
We celebrate today the beginning of the rebirth of America as a guarantor of our universal human rights and the Great Renunciation of our colonies and puppet tyrannies of force and control which are antithetical to all our principles of democracy and human being, meaning, and value, among these being the Netanyahu regime of Israel and its fascisms of blood, faith, and soil which have corrupted us and made us complicit in genocide and war crimes in Gaza and elsewhere.
Herein I abjure not the state of Israel as a sanctuary of Jewish peoples, but as an American colony and proxy of imperial dominion whose mission is to enforce our empire and protect our profits from oil as a strategic resource which confers supremacy and creates and maintains elite hegemonies of wealth, power, and privilege for whom our nation is a performative instrument of dominion.
The atrocities and horrors of the Gaza War have revealed the truths beneath our mask of illusions; how far from our values and ideals we have fallen, and the lines of fracture to which we must bring healing and change.
I find it hopeful that our institutions of government are capable of rapid change and adaptive growth in response to citizen activism and the will of the people; the victorious Uncommitted electoral campaign has made state tyranny and terror in the form of the Democratic Party blink with the stunning policy reversal of Chuck Schumer’s historic speech and Biden’s endorsement of it.
I dream of a future Israel which is a true democracy wherein all human beings are equal, of a future Palestine which is a sovereign and independent nation wherein no one need fear for the lives and those of their families on the basis of faith, race, or national identity, and of a future America in which imperial colonialism is abandoned and all human beings of whatever nation, faith, race or ethnicity share equally in our universal human rights to life, liberty, self determination of identity and the pursuit of happiness including that of faith, a free society of equals and a United Humankind wherein we are all of us guarantors of each other’s human rights.
We have far to go if we are to escape the legacies of our history, but in the renouncement of Israel’s Occupation and genocide of Palestine, America begins to find her heart.
As written by Chris Stein in The Guardian, in an article entitled Biden says Schumer made ‘good speech’ in breaking with Benjamin Netanyahu: President also condemns US surge in Islamophobia in comments that could portend broader shift in sentiment towards Gaza war; “Joe Biden on Friday said Senator Chuck Schumer made “a good speech” that reflected many Americans’ concerns when he publicly broke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over his handling of the war in Gaza.
While the US president announced no changes in his administration’s policy towards Israel, his views on the speech Schumer made Thursday from the floor of the US Senate, where the New York Democrat is the majority leader, could portend a broader shift in sentiment.
Tensions have been rising between senior members of the Biden administration, including the president and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, and rightwinger Netanyahu, in the continued absence of a ceasefire deal.
Schumer’s speech was a surprise to many and attracted criticism from US Republican lawmakers and Israel’s ruling party.
“I’m not going to elaborate on the speech. He made a good speech,” Biden said at the start of an Oval Office meeting with Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar , adding that he had been given advance notice of Schumer’s comments.
“I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans,” Biden said.
Varadkar also addressed the conflict, saying: “We need a ceasefire as soon as possible to get food and medicine in, to get the hostages out. We need to talk about how we can make that happen and move towards a two-state solution.”
Biden said he agreed with his comments.
Hamas, the Islamist militancy that controls Gaza, launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostages back into the Palestinian territory, where more than 100 are still being held. In response, Israel invaded and besieged Gaza and has so far killed at least 30,000 people in the coastal strip, and put some parts on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.
In a separate statement, the president marked the International Day to Combat Islamophobia by warning that prejudice against Muslims has seen an “ugly resurgence … in the wake of the devastating war in Gaza”.
“That includes right here at home. I’ve said it many times: Islamophobia has no place in our nation,” Biden said.
The US government has publicly supported Israel since the October attack. But on Thursday, Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US, called for new elections in the country, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”.
Schumer said Netanyahu, who has long opposed Palestinian statehood, was among several roadblocks to implementing the two-state solution supported by the United States, where Israel and a Palestinian state would exist in peace. He also blamed rightwing Israelis, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas.
“These are the four obstacles to peace, and if we fail to overcome them, then Israel and the West Bank and Gaza will be trapped in the same violent state of affairs they’ve experienced for the last 75 years,” Schumer said.
The Senate leader accused the prime minister of being “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”
The ruling Likud party responded to Schumer by defending the prime minister’s public support in the country and saying Israel was “not a banana republic”.
“Contrary to Schumer’s words, the Israeli public supports a total victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictates to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” it said in a statement.
The Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, struck a similar tone. “Israel is not a colony of America whose leaders serve at the pleasure of the party in power in Washington. Only Israel’s citizens should have a say in who runs their government,” he said from the chamber’s floor, shortly after Schumer spoke.
Congress is in the midst of a months-long deadlock over passing legislation to authorize military assistance for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. The bill has the support of Biden and passed the Democratic-led Senate, but the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has so far refused to put it to a vote in the Republican-controlled chamber.
Retired Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas told the New York Times it was significant that such a high-ranking US Jewish official would publicly take Netanyahu to task.
“For a Jewish senator from New York, the majority leader, a friend of Netanyahu who’s the most centrist possible Democrat and even leans hawkish on Israel, to voice criticism like this?” Pinkas told the New York Times. “If you’ve lost Chuck Schumer, you’ve lost America.”
The US sees Israel as its closest ally in the Middle East, and is a major supplier of its weapons. But concern has risen among Democrats over the death toll in Gaza.
Biden’s support for Israel has caused a domestic split, with pro-Palestine protesters disrupting his speeches and tens of thousands of people casting protest votes in the Democratic primaries, including in swing states that will be crucial to his re-election chances in November. Last week, Biden was overheard saying he needs to have a “come to Jesus meeting” with the Israeli prime minister as relations fray.
Netanyahu appears ready to press on with a fresh military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, though Biden has warned against doing so without a “credible” safety plan for the 1.3 million people sheltering there.
On Friday, the Times of Israel reported that the prime minister rejected as “ridiculous” a Hamas proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in exchange for Israel freeing between 700 and 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel nevertheless said it would send a delegation to Qatar for more talks.”
Biden says Schumer made ‘good speech’ in breaking with Benjamin Netanyahu
Full text of Senator Chuck Schumer’s speech: ‘Israeli elections are the only way’: Democratic majority leader says four obstacles preventing peace are Hamas, far-right Israelis, PA President Abbas — and Netanyahu /The Times of Israel
15 במרץ 2024 האמריקאית מתחילה למצוא את ליבה: נאום שומר והוויתור שלנו על ישראל
אנו חוגגים היום את תחילת הולדתה מחדש של אמריקה כערובה לזכויות האדם האוניברסאליות שלנו והוויתור הגדול על המושבות שלנו ועריצות הבובות שלנו של כוח ושליטה שהם מנוגדים לכל העקרונות שלנו של דמוקרטיה והוויה אנושית, משמעות וערך, בין אלה משטר נתניהו בישראל והפשיזם של הדם, האמונה והאדמה שלו שהשחיתו אותנו והפכו אותנו שותפים לרצח עם ופשעי מלחמה בעזה ובמקומות אחרים.
בזאת אינני מתכחש למדינת ישראל כמקום מקדש של עמים יהודים, אלא כמושבה אמריקאית ונציגה של שליטה אימפריאלית שתפקידה לאכוף את האימפריה שלנו ולהגן על רווחינו מנפט כמשאב אסטרטגי המעניק עליונות ויוצר ומקיים אליטה. הגמוניות של עושר, כוח וזכות שעבורן האומה שלנו היא מכשיר ביצועי של שליטה.
הזוועות והזוועות של מלחמת עזה חשפו את האמיתות שמתחת למסכת האשליות שלנו; כמה רחוק מהערכים והאידיאלים שלנו נפלנו, ומקווי השבר שאליהם עלינו להביא ריפוי ושינוי.
אני מוצא תקווה שמוסדות הממשל שלנו מסוגלים לשינוי מהיר וצמיחה מותאמת בתגובה לפעילות האזרחית ולרצון העם; מסע הבחירות הבלתי מחויב המנצח גרם לעריצות המדינה וטרור בדמות המפלגה הדמוקרטית למצמץ עם היפוך המדיניות המדהים של נאומו ההיסטורי של צ’אק שומר ואישורו של ביידן בו.
אני חולם על ישראל עתידית שהיא דמוקרטיה אמיתית שבה כל בני האדם שווים, על פלסטין עתידית שהיא אומה ריבונית ועצמאית שבה אף אחד לא צריך לחשוש לחייהם ושל משפחותיהם על בסיס אמונה, גזע, או זהות לאומית, ושל אמריקה עתידית שבה הקולוניאליזם האימפריאלי נטוש וכל בני האדם מכל אומה, אמונה, גזע או עדה שותפים באופן שווה בזכויות האדם האוניברסליות שלנו לחיים, לחירות, להגדרה עצמית של זהות ולרדיפה אחר האושר, כולל זו של אמונה, חברה חופשית של שווים ואנושיות מאוחדת שבה כולנו ערבים זה לזכויות האדם של זה.
יש לנו עוד רחוק ללכת אם ברצוננו לברוח מהמורשת של ההיסטוריה שלנו, אבל בוויתור על הכיבוש ורצח העם של ישראל בפלסטין, אמריקה מתחילה למצוא את ליבה.
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15 مارس 2024 أمريكا تبدأ في العثور على قلبها: خطاب شومر وتخلينا عن إسرائيل
نحتفل اليوم ببداية ولادة أمريكا من جديد كضامن لحقوق الإنسان العالمية لدينا والتخلي الكبير عن مستعمراتنا وطغاة القوة والسيطرة العميلة التي تتعارض مع جميع مبادئنا المتعلقة بالديمقراطية والإنسان والمعنى والقيمة. ومن بين هؤلاء نظام نتنياهو الإسرائيلي وفاشياته الدموية والإيمانية والأرضية التي أفسدتنا وجعلتنا متواطئين في الإبادة الجماعية وجرائم الحرب في غزة وأماكن أخرى.
أنا هنا لا أرفض دولة إسرائيل باعتبارها ملاذاً للشعوب اليهودية، بل كمستعمرة أمريكية ووكيل للسيطرة الإمبريالية التي تتمثل مهمتها في فرض إمبراطوريتنا وحماية أرباحنا من النفط كمورد استراتيجي يمنح التفوق ويخلق النخبة ويحافظ عليها. هيمنة الثروة والسلطة والامتيازات التي تعتبر أمتنا أداة أداء للهيمنة.
لقد كشفت الفظائع والفظائع التي ارتكبت في حرب غزة عن الحقائق الكامنة وراء قناع الأوهام لدينا؛ إلى أي مدى سقطنا عن قيمنا ومثلنا العليا، وخطوط الكسر التي يجب أن نصل إليها بالشفاء والتغيير.
أجد أنه من المأمول أن تكون مؤسساتنا الحكومية قادرة على التغيير السريع والنمو التكيفي استجابة لنشاط المواطنين وإرادة الشعب؛ لقد جعلت الحملة الانتخابية غير الملتزمة المنتصرة طغيان الدولة والإرهاب في شكل الحزب الديمقراطي يتضاءل مع الانقلاب السياسي المذهل لخطاب تشاك شومر التاريخي وتأييد بايدن له.
أحلم بإسرائيل المستقبلية التي تكون ديمقراطية حقيقية يتساوى فيها جميع البشر، وبفلسطين المستقبلية التي تكون أمة ذات سيادة ومستقلة حيث لا يحتاج أحد إلى الخوف على حياة وحياة أسره على أساس الإيمان أو العرق أو الدين. أو الهوية الوطنية، وأمريكا المستقبلية التي يتم فيها التخلي عن الاستعمار الإمبريالي ويتقاسم جميع البشر من أي أمة أو عقيدة أو عرق أو عرق بالتساوي في حقوق الإنسان العالمية في الحياة والحرية وتقرير المصير للهوية والسعي لتحقيق السعادة بما في ذلك الإيمان، ومجتمع حر متساوٍ، وإنسانية موحدة حيث نكون جميعًا ضامنين لحقوق الإنسان لبعضنا البعض.
لا يزال أمامنا الكثير لنقطعه إذا أردنا الهروب من تراث تاريخنا، ولكن في نبذ الاحتلال الإسرائيلي والإبادة الجماعية لفلسطين، بدأت أمريكا في العثور على قلبها.
In a mass protest of electoral political action, the people of Michigan have in their Democratic Party primary issued a signal rebuke and vote of no confidence to Biden, for his sponsorship of Israeli genocide and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians and war crimes in the Gaza War in which the refugees in Rafah now await Netanyahu’s Final Solution of the Palestinians.
This is not the first genocide authorized, orchestrated, and funded by an American President to whom no war crimes charges have been brought before the Hague; the Mayan Genocide of the 1980’s enacted by Ronald Reagan and his puppet tyrant Rios Montt is an example of the performative nature of our use of the idea of human rights.
Nor will it be the last, unless we the people begin to hold our leaders and the systems and institutions of our nation to moral standards of action applied equally and to all human beings everywhere as declared in the founding documents of our democracy and our civilization, the parallel and interdependent sets of rights in the American Bill of Rights of citizens and the 1789 universal Rights of Man of the French Revolution.
Until we begin to live as we have together sworn as citizens, and until our President ends the rain of death and terror in Gaza which makes us all complicit in genocide and other crimes, I must concur with the delightful and wickedly transgressive dance theatre of the Cheerleaders For Change flash mob ensembles now bringing chaos to school games and streets throughout our nation; “Hey hey, ho ho, Genocide Joe Has Got To Go.”
Let us perform the Four Primary Duties of a Citizen; Question Authority, Expose Authority, Mock Authority, and Challenge Authority.
If you commit genocide or crimes against humanity, I cannot vote for you, and I will fight you. This I say to President Biden and the Democratic Party, and also to all masters, lords, and tyrants in all lands and throughout all of time.
To refuse to submit is to become Unconquered and victorious in seizure of power over our own liberty and autonomy. This and more has been demonstrated to us once again in the glorious protest vote of the Michigan primary; the power of our voice and witness, the change potential of solidarity, the necessity of confronting evil and resisting those who would divide, dehumanize, and enslave us.
Because fascism and strategies of the centralization of power to a carceral state of force and control, of imperial conquest and dominion, and of the weaponization of fear in service to power which has been employed in Gaza by Israel and America are rooted in, instrumental to, and symptomatic of a far greater tidal force of history; the erosion of empathy and the degradation of our humanity which is essential to war and crimes of violence and control, and to this we have as Wagner teaches us one defining and inherent human capacity which can free us from the Ring of fear, power, and force; only love triumphs over fear, and solidarity triumphs over division. Such is the natural law beneath the surfaces of our universal human rights, and the driving force of revolutionary struggle as an inevitable principle of history.
In the long game democracy and the universalizing solidarity of our humanity will triumph over tyranny, and in the protest vote of Michigan we can see the future toward which we are moving, regardless of the horrors which lay directly in our path.
For we are many, we are watching, and we are the future.
Our 2024 elections; our hungry ghosts whisper from the darkness; “Set me free, and I’ll make you powerful.”
Biden wins Michigan primary but sheds support over Gaza
Torch of Liberty 