Saturday, February 16, 2008
Fact Checking on Greenstein, Mission: Impossible
My article published on AMIN (Arabic Media Internet Network) http://www.amin.org/look/amin/en.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=7&NrArticle=44670&NrIssue=1&NrSection=3 By the way, there are many comments that have been sent, and they will be posted in a few days! Busy over here!! BUT, thanks to everyone who signed. It is greatly appreciated!!!
Fact checking on Greenstein, Mission: impossible
By: Mary Rizzo
One would think that if there were an article with my name in it, I would be more than a little interested in reading it. But, to be honest, it's been happening on a daily basis, and by one author alone, one Mr Tony Greenstein, that I can't bring myself to do anything more than give it a gliss reading, my “vanity” hasn’t gotten to extreme levels yet, and I have better things to be doing. But, considering the author, even by virtue of a skim, it is impossible not to constantly bang into a thick wall of lies so big that they quite simply jump straight out.
Not wanting to belabour anyone much longer, because 200 names, including some who have activist history spanning decades, academics, writers, bloggers, philosophers, editors, people from every continent and many religious, political, ethnic and economic backgrounds and yes... even a survivor of Holocaust, have signed their names to an open letter, http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2008/02/petition-for-two-activists-that-you.html calling for Tony Greenstein to stop abusing his "air time" by engaging in character assassination of two activists for Palestine, especially by use of distortion and fabrication. Rather than accept their plea, or listen to them, he has decided to increase his daily output and actually double it. So far, his echo chamber has been an obscure blog in the UK with maybe 50 readers, and one that’s been created ad hoc for it, judging by the comments, maybe it has two. It seems that it’s important for him to focus on three names he doesn’t like, but quite ignores that all the top bloggers are there. I wonder why this is? But now, Amin has published his reply to the article in question. Amin has quite a few more readers, so I believe it is essential to at least address some of the content within, given that I am called in cause. I do apologise, but I simply cannot bear to read the entire article, so I am not focusing on deconstructing the entire sandcastle that it obviously is. I will only focus on several key points that I am especially qualified to respond to.
Number 1) Greenstein writes:
"Rooij uses the adjective vile no less than four times. Ive written a vile article about him and made vile accusations of anti-Semitism against Atzmon and Rizzo [AR]."
Answer: What is so glaring here is that De Rooij does not once mention my name in the piece! How can we believe the rest of this paper the author simply is incapable of identifying who is involved? Yet, I already failed to mention that he gets the name of the author wrong as well. Last week, he said he had never heard of the chap. Strange... for a man who claims to be very active (and I have no doubt that he is, for all the time he spends on line) to never have encountered even one of the writings of Paul De Rooij. I remember widely circulating his Dictionary of the Occupation, almost every activist I know has read and greatly appreciated it. It was on Counterpunch, not some obscure UK socialist blog that mostly Zionists contribute to. Greenstein is simply doing a knee-jerk act of smear campaigning.
Number 2) Greenstein writes:
"But again, what has this to do with the Palestinians? Atzmon distributes Eisens pamphlets and now signs up to all the above nonsense. Read Gilad Atzmon Now an Open Holocaust Denier."
Answer: Calling other people's writing pamphlets can be overlooked, but then again, are they pamphlets because of their political orientation? If that is true, the very article Greenstein cites, another of his Socialist Unity smearfests, takes its information from two sources that are far from objective news sources, The Adelaide Institute, (a Holocaust Revisionist site), and Press TV, an Iranian site that seems to quite frequently print news that is inaccurate or outright disinformation, according to journalists who fact check their material. Once it had been established that Tony's sources (which make HIM a distributor of material from a Revisionist site) had actually used misquotes and disinformation, taken information from one trial and shifted it to another that had nothing to do with it, this did not cause him to wonder if his haste was not to be in some way suspect, and his opinion amended. No, he does not take any of this into account, and is still, on this date, distributing false material as if it were accurate! Another reason vile is an appropriate word to describe the attacks. And why is it vile? To quote Tony Greenstein: What has this to do with the Palestinians?
Number 3) Greenstein writes:
"Rooij describes me on the Cork PSC article as close to the anti-boycott Engage. But that is ironic since I have campaigned ceaselessly to support boycott. Unison, the second largest union in Britain voted to support boycott last summer. I spoke in favour of that position, as a Jewish member of the union, and it was passed by at least 80%. For that I am some form of racial segregationist?!! Get real Rooij."
Answer: The fact that Greenstein still circulates the lie that I am against the boycott, when he himself encouraged me to break it, is quite rich. But, let me mention another item that sticks out at me, UNISON. As a matter of fact, given that Redress, a UK site dedicated to the Palestinian cause, managed by Palestinians, had published the open letter, was cause for Tony to write this:
"Yes an excellent idea this petition. I'm so glad you included the following paragraph: We also take the opportunity to condemn the strangling siege that is being imposed over the Gaza Strip in particular and the West Bank and the rest of the Palestinian Arab people in general to complete their ethnic cleansing from their historic homeland.
It's quite important you know, pity that it was an afterthought to the 'defend Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon' campaign because of course they are the people who matter most.
http://redressnewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/petition-in-support-of-pro-palestinian.html
Since it is published on redress I am asking my own union UNISON to remove all references to Redress from its sites and I will contact the TUC and SERTUC, of which I am a trades council delegate, to ask that they contact all unions and ask them to have nothing to do with Redress on their websites or any similar anti-semitic web site since it is clear that they are part of this.
Perhaps you could ask Atzmon what he means by this statement?
'I do not wish to enter the debate regarding the truth of the Holocaust'. Does he believe there is a debate about the 'truth' of the holocaust? And about whether the earth is flat?
http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/gatzmon29.htm
It seems Atzmon's lies are catching him out now that we all know that he has signed up as a holocaust denier.
It would appear that those whom the gods seek to destroy they first drive mad.
Tony Greenstein”
He proudly announces that they have done so. This is lobbying ad personam. The unions do his personal bidding, and he expects them to.
Number 4) Greenstein writes:
"Ironically, at the same time, Atzmon was denouncing the academic boycott as book burning (and here)."
Answer: This famous misrepresentation and distortion of the opinion of someone is PURE MacCarthyism. What did Gilad Atzmon say to me in the interview? Let's look (and to avoid any accusations of manipulative editing, I am quoting the response in full):
“Gilad: Boycott is a real complicated issue. For years we’ve been arguing in favour of divestment and boycott. At the time I supported any form of boycott in Israel, its products and its culture.
There are some elements in the boycott that are obviously very welcome. For instance, the fact that UK unions are standing up against Zionist evil is a major shift in the very right direction. The Boycott is certainly bad news for Israel and this is wonderful news in itself. Yesterday, I went to a reading of a play, it was actually a theatrical adaptation my latest book. The producer is Jewish, and at a certain stage when we were discussing the meaning of the play he stood up and said. You see, we had a Jewish State, it is now sixty years later, and it is a very horrible place, it is so horrible that it has now been boycotted. And this is there to make us think, where did it go wrong? This is the most positive impact of the boycott. It makes people reflect.
Yet, I have some serious reservations, which I am inclined to mention. One, I see a tremendous difference between banning an avocado and a book. I would welcome any form of financial restrictions on Israel and its supportive bodies yet, I truly believe in freedom of speech and oppose any form of Maccarthyism or intellectual censorship of any sort. Thus, interfering with academic freedom isnt exactly something I can blindly advocate. Unlike some of my best enlightened friends, I am against any form of gatekeeping or book burning. But it goes further, I actually want to hear what Israelis and Zionists have to say. I want to read their books. I want to confront their academics. If justice is on our side we should be able to confront them.
Mary: Of course, they wont stop writing or proposing their ideas, and actually, they might become more reactionary in the process.
Gilad: Actually, I do not think that they can become any more reactionary. The second point is, to impose a boycott is to employ a boycotter. When it comes to an academic boycott I would expect the inquisitor in charge to be a scholar of great esteem. This isn’t the case obviously. The reason is simple. As it naturally happens, major intellectuals are engaged in scholarship rather than in union politics, working class and proletarian activity. Seemingly, it isn’t the leading minds in British academic life and ethical thinking who are leading the Boycott. In fact it is the other way around, the boycott is led by some minor academics with very little to say about ethics and even less to say about the specific conflict. This fact is actually repeatedly exposed in televised debates. The anti-Zionist movement in Britain has yet to find the appropriate eloquent answer to the Dershowitzes of this world.
Three, when it comes to the Palestinian solidarity discourse I can identify two modes of discussion: the ethical and political. The ethical mode is obviously evoked by a natural humanist reaction to the endless flood of images of Israeli criminal activity. The political discourse, on the other hand, is pretty much autonomous and detached from the conflict. It has a lot to do with maintenance of some particular decaying old-school socialists within the fading progressive Western discourse. It has very little to do with Palestine and the transitions within the Palestinian struggle. When it comes to the current boycott we are unfortunately operating within a political mode rather than an ethical one. I say unfortunately, because Palestinian reality is neither an isolated event in history nor it is isolated in the region. Had the academics been ethically orientated, they would have to ask themselves what they, their unions and Universities have been doing to stop the ongoing slaughter in Iraq. What do they do to oppose the British Government that is engaged in crimes not different from Israel’s? What are the British academics doing now to stop the British value system from a total collapse? I am very sad and ashamed to say that as far as State terrorism is concerned Blair and Olmert are pretty much an equal match. If this isn’t enough, Brown Launch is not very promising either. Yet, British academics expect the Israelis to do something they fail to do.
However, as I said before, I am in favour of any form of restrictions on Israel, on its financial sectors, yet, by behaving politically while avoiding an ethical debate we are actually losing to the Israelis and to their lobbies.
Most importantly, if we decide to go for an academic Boycott, if we decide to burn books or to silence other peoples thoughts, then I really want to know why do we stop with Israeli academics or institutes? Shouldn’t we really ban any possible contact with any Zionists, people and institutes who openly support the idea of a racist State? As you certainly realise, unlike South Africa, Zionism, the ideological core behind Israel, is a global movement. Shouldn’t we ban as well any form of racially orientated activity? Shouldn’t we stop academic as well as smear campaigner David Hirsh and his racially orientated cohorts and then later continue with Jewish Socialists (being a racially oriented progressive group)? Where do we draw the line? I do not know the answers, instead I believe that the best way around it is to support freedom of speech categorically, whether it is David Irving, David Hirsh or even Tony Greenstein.
Mary: OK, so you fully support any kind of instrument that puts pressure and pulls the economic rug out from under Israel, but you have some reservations about the academic boycott against Israeli universities, because of the nature of the boycott being restricting academic freedom.
Gilad: I would even just call it intellectual freedom. I do love diversity. To impose a single narrative is in itself a Talmudic approach and I have to resist it. Being trained as a continental philosopher, I know very well that the proponents of the most enlightening ideas in the late 19th century and pre WWII 20th century were not exactly progressive. How to say it, Heidegger was a Nazi at least for a while and as it seems, both Levinas and Leo Strauss were courageous enough to admit that the man may be the greatest thinker of our millennium.”
I myself would add that if Tony Greenstein actually articulated an argument, rather than smear and engage strictly in character assassination, I would not have to waste so much time exposing some of his lies, and mind, I am ignoring the bulk of the others due to time constrictions. But it seems he does not produce anything but texts using character assassination, not against Zionists, but against people who denounce Zionism on a constant and daily basis, and therefore, I believe that the letter Palestinians and activists wrote is a step in the right direction. If he wants to participate in the discourse, he should, and as a matter of fact, while he is calling for us to be excluded and silenced, based on a series of smears and distortions, we are calling on him to focus on Palestinians rather than on two European Palestinian activists who are quite well-circulated. But rather than address the content in any meaningful way of the material others write and distribute, he comes out with a lie and distortion to smear the author. It is just what Dershowitz does.
Number 5) Greenstein writes:
"The one semi-sensible question Rooij asks is what in American society produces support for Zionism. But the only answer his friends provide is the Jews. Apart from ignoring the much more numerous Christians for Zionism they totally fail to even begin to answer it. Yet it is not difficult to understand why the USA projects its power in the way it does economic, military, imperial reasons oil for example. But this means having an analysis of class society and imperialism, something Atzmon and friends explicitly reject."
Answer: Now, this in itself is quite interesting. On my blog, I have dozens of articles denouncing Christian Zionists. I have never seen a single thing written or circulated on the argument by Greenstein, ever. I have, on the other hand, seen him say he is "thrilled" that Zunes "demolished Walt and Mearsheimer". You see, differently from almost all the major scholars and researchers, not to mention activists, Tony doesn't think there's a lobby. And, where does he get the idea Atzmon and his friends reject the discussion of class society and imperialism!? Again, Atzmon rejects imperialism quite often in his writing. He may not be quoting Gramsci, but his thesis is about hegemony and consensus by the super powers in order to restrict the narrative and allow the powers to maintain dominance. I myself have so many articles against imperialism on the blog alone, I can't begin to see where he finds a rejection of this concept.
Number 6) Greenstein writes:
"There are a number of errors in Rooijs article, eg. That I sent defamatory letters to the venue where Atzmon was due to speak. Not true. I sent no letters. It was an article in the local press that alerted them to the meeting. Nor was it a church hall. But it is this attention to detail that marks out Rooij as the quality journalist that he is."
Answer: No, he may not have sent defamatory letters. He merely plastered the walls with flyers. Indeed, the venue was a church. This is a letter the organiser wrote to Tony, which was published on my blog:
"The immediate reason that I withdrew from the Brighthelm, Tony, was that you had, without permission, started pasting notices on the premises opposing the meeting and this notice included a copy of the Calder article. These notices were bound to be a major embarrassment to the church. Moreover by the manner in which you acted, the manager was bound to deduce that further such behaviour was likely. Indeed you were announcing your picket. To say, therefore, that you did not put pressure on the Brighthelm is disingenuous. It is ironic that you take me to task for damaging the Palestine solidarity movement in holding this meeting when your actions do precisely that - and I, of course do not accept that the Gilad Meeting does anyway. I do not believe for a moment that you thought it unfortunate that the manager of the Centre caught you in the act of putting up these posters. Certainly he was affected by the grossly distorted view of Gilad Atzmon given in the article - that was precisely your intention. He hadn't got the time to investigate what, at your instigation I'm sure, Jean Calder had written. When he called me to discuss the matter I relieved him of any further embarrassment by withdrawing."
Cheers,
Francis
Number 7) Greenstein writes:
"Yes Sue Blackwell, who led the academic boycott is my comrade. But surprising as it may seem, I am not responsible for her web site! This is what is usually called guilt by association. McCarthyism in other words."
Answer: It is strange he says this! I am held responsible for things that I have not written, and for websites I have nothing to do with. As a matter of fact, by way of his accusations, Greenstein habitually quotes commenters from my blog posts. Not my own comments, and he attributes them to me. He also is now going through the names with a nit comb (as if my friend who has compiled and thought of the list is supposed to filter people who sign, we are in a free society, still, aren’t we? And, I wonder, has petitions he has signed had only names he knows and swears bonafides on?) This is usually called guilt by association. MacCarthyism, in other words." If the mirror fits….. Oh, not to mention, I keep getting harassed now to chop this name or that name off the list. Well, that will still leave a few hundred people who said “enough”. There are many other inaccuracies and insinuations from Tony that are not verified, as well as his opinion bandied as fact and truth. I don't care to address them now. I am sure that just this small sampling is sufficient to give an idea of who we are dealing with. And, to close, I would like to mention that the top Palestinian bloggers, well-known and respected activists and writers have signed the open letter, many with comments stating their total solidarity with Gilad and I, and stating that his campaigns were obscene and must end. In five days, 200 people have signed. In five days, I have not seen a single Palestinian, or anyone else, for that matter, come out in solidarity or defence of Tony Greenstein. He himself has to write his own harangue and defence, while spamming sites and even my own inbox with more bald-faced lies that he is unable to substantiate. These are the people and groups that have asked for him to stop it.
Adib S. Kawar, Nazareth, Palestine - Beirut, Lebanon, Activist, writer and translator
Walid Halabi, France-Italy
Arab Abdel-Hadi PMWATCH, Ansar Al-Quds. LEBANONVIEW, Free Palestine and others
Malak Abdel-Hadi, Palestinian living in Dubai
Shahira Mehrez, Egyptian living in Cairo, Egypt
Paola Pisi, Italy, http://uruknet.info/
Ismail Zayid, Canada, http://izayid.tripod.com/
Nizar Issa, London, UK , Musician
Nadia Hasan, Chile, http://palestinaresiste2.blogspot.com/
Dr Sadek Pharaon MD, Syria
Oren Ben Dor, UK
Manuel Talens, Spain, http://www.manueltalens.com/
Dima Hamdan, London, UK, Journalist
Iqbal Tamimi, Exiled Journalist Network UK, A Palestinian journalist and poet, http://palestinian.ning.com/
Samir Daoud - Akka Palestine - residence: Beirut Lebanon
Nadia Daoud - Akka Palestine - Residence: Beirut Lebanon
Hala Kawar Nazareth, Palestine - Residence - Beirut Lebanon
Wajih Freij Jerusalem, Palestine - Residence: Beirut Lebanon
Lamia Kawar Nazareth, Palestine - Residence - Beirut - Lebanon
Ibrahim Kawar Nazareth, Palestine - Residence - Beirut - Lebanon
Fausto Giudice, Zapatist Alliance for Social Liberation, France, http://azls.blogspot.com/
Ginette Hess Skandrani, Zapatist Alliance for Social Liberation, France, http://azls.blogspot.com/
Wael Al Saad, Dusseldorf-Germany. PYN Coordinator-Germany Palestinian Community Dusseldorf Board, http://www.anis-online.de/1/rooms/wael/
Dr Hajo G. Meyer, Heiloo, the Netherlands, survivor of Auschwitz, writer, physicist, lute maker
Mauro Manno, Italy , professor, writer, translator
Manuela Vittorelli, Italy, http://mirumir.blogspot.com/
Diego Traversa, Italy, writer, translator
Vicente Romano, Spain, writer
Carlos Sanchis, Spain
Nancy Harb Almendras, United States, Germany http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/
Zuhair Nafa, Palestine
Raja Chemayel, The Hague, Netherlands, http://frustratedarabdiary.blogspot.com/
Theodore D. Turner, Brooklyn, New York
Kristoffer Larsson, Sweden, http://altahrir.blogspot.com/
Ellen Rohlfs, Germany, German-Palestinian Society and Gush Shalom
Hergen Matussik, Germany
Benedetta Scardovi-Mounier, USA/Italy
Cristina Santos, London, UK
Rocio Anguiano, Spain
Sigge Andersson, pre-med student, Sweden
Guenter Schenk, France/Germany, Aktionsbndnis fr einen gerechten Frieden in Palstina
LanceThruster, LA, CA, USA
Mary Sparrowdancer, Tallahassee, FL, USA, http://www.sparrowdancer.com/
Birgit Jdahl, Sweden
Miguel Martinz, Florence, Italy, http://kelebek.splinder.com/
Susanne Scheidt, Al-Awda Italia
Jean-Marie Flemal, writer and translator, WPB (Workers' Party of Belgium), Charleroi, Belgium
Edna Spennato, South Africa-Brazil, Earth Heal Geoharmonic Research Project
Abdullah Husain, Palestine by birth, KSA, India by life accident
Wendy Campbell, California, USA, MarWen Media, http://www.marwenmedia.com/
Peter Brooke, UK, www.peterbrooke.org.uk
Daniel McGowan, Geneva, NY, Exec. Director, Deir Yassin Remembered, http://www.deiryassin.org/
Debbie Brown, Hacienda Heights, California USA
Kenneth Rasmusson, Sweden
Redress Information & Analysis, London, UK
Schuyler Ebbets, USA, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/
Ragnar B. Johannessen, Norway, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/
Annie Selden Annab, USA, http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/
Jim Leven, UK, PSC member
Javier Fernndez Retenaga, Spain
Shaukat Khawja, Toronto, Canada Profession: Engineer
Volker M., Canada
Lina Abu Baker, London, UK, Poet
Brenda Heard, UK, Friends of Lebanon, http://www.friendsoflebanon.org/
Letizia Tessicini, Orte, Italy
Simon R-Levin, Manchester, UK
Paloma Valverde, Spain, member of CEOSI
Sarah Stevens, UK
Ralph Pinner, UK
Inge Soder, Germany
Sarah Gillespie, London, UK, musician
Raja Ibrahim, Pistoia, Italy, ASSOCIAZIONE AMICIZIA ITALO - PALESTINESE, www.amiciziaitalo-palestinese.org/
Adriano Mencarelli, Roma - Italy
Diego Ianiro - Caserta, Italy, of Khalas Napoli - khalasnews.splinder.com
Francesca Longhi- Bergamo, Italia
Antonio Corraine - Aosta, Italy
Stuart Cary Welch - USA
Haitham Sabbah, Tulkarm, Palestine/Bahrain, blogger, http://sabbah.biz/
Latuff, Rio De Janiero, Brazil, Cartoonist, http://latuff.blogspot.com/
Nureddin Sabir, London, UK, Editor of Redress Information & Analysis
Steve Amsel, Jerusalem-Al Quds, blogger, http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/
Lasse Wilhelmson, Sweden
Richard Jones, Swansea, Wales, http://a-fistful-of-poetry.blogspot.com/
Einar Schlereth, Sweden, Journalist
Karaiskos Kostas, Komotini, Greece, ANTIFONITIS director, http://www26.brinkster.com/karaiskos/
Adeline Rec, N/A
Alex Tarradellas, Catalonia
Nuria lvarez, Spain
Guillermo F. Parodi, Paraguay, Universitary Professor
Dennis Zackrisson, Uppsala, Sweden
Mark Roland, Eugene Oregon, USA
Robert Wagner, Italy
Graham Derrick, West Yorkshire, UK
Gabriele Repaci, Milano, university student
Emmanuel St John, London, UK
Sami Joseph, UK
Ernesto Paramo, Mexico/UK
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, Glasgow, Scotland, blogger, http://fanonite.org/
Jeffrey Blankfort, California, USA
David Baldinger, USA, Cartoonist, http://www.dbaldinger.com/
Olivia Zémor, Paris, France, cofounder CAPJPO (Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient)
Ana Cleja, France
John W. Blalock, N/A
Maryam Husain and Children, Displaced Palestinian/KSA/Italy/India currently
Emanuela Borrelli, Italy
Rachel Bridgeland, UK
Maria Ingrosso, Lecce, Italy
Riccardo Di Vito, Roma, Italia - Campo Antimperialista, http://www.antiimperialista.org/
Wilhelm Langthaler, Vienna, Austria, Anti-imperalist Camp, http://www.antiimperialista.org
Camilla Rahm, Gothenburg, Sweden
Nahida Izzat,Palestine/ Jerusalem Poetry for Palestine, http://poetryforpalestine.spaces.live.com/
Maurizio Neri, Rome, Italy, Editor Magazine of Politics and Philosophy, "Comunismo e Comunit"
Nicolas A. Sayegh - Laval, Quebec, Canada, Columnist
Asad Khan, Manchester, UK: doctor and blogger, http://chestdocinpalestine.blogspot.com/
Ali Mallah, Canadian Peace Alliance, Canadian Arab Federation, http://www.caf.ca/HomePage.aspx
Khaled Mouammar, Toronto, Canada, National President, Canadian Arab Federation, http://www.caf.ca/HomePage.aspx
Gonzalo Barona, Caceres, Espana
Nicole Hille-Priebe, Germany
Randa Farah, Canada
Felisa Sastre, Espana
Caty R., Spain
Christine Mihil Sharp - London, UK; www.Red-DesertProductions.com
Emanuela Di Piramo, Italia
Dr Raymond Deane, Dublin, Ireland
Katherine Eilbeck, Glais, Swansea, Wales
Katie Murphy, UK
Samira Rantisi, Italy
Sergio I. Moya Mena, Costa Rica, http://wiphala.org/
Paul Eisen - Director (UK) Deir Yassin Remembered
Akram Awad, Palestinian blogger in the UK, www.akramawad.com/
Daniel Alba, writer/musician, USA http://detainthis.wordpress.com
Gunvant Govindjee, South Africa
Agustin Velloso, Madrid - Spain
William Buttrey, Southern California, USA
Gilberto Jordan, Professsor de Histria, Brazil
Mireille RUMEAU, from ISM-France
Colin Pritchard, UK
kim petersen, korea, co-editor, http://www.dissidentvoice.org
Juan-Antonio Julin, Bruselas
Mahmud Said Hamad - Italy
Arlene L. Johnson, Publisher/Author http://www.truedemocracy.net
Jeff Spencer, Bristol, UK, Musician
Agostino Sanfratello, Beyrouth, Lebanon
Karin Maria Friedemann, Boston, Massachusetts,Editor, World View News Service, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
Gianfranco La Grassa, Conegliano, Italy, Economist
Mondher Sfar, Collectif de la Communaut Tunisienne en Europe, Paris, France
Mireille Delamarre http://www.planetenonviolence.org/
Ann El Khoury; Sydney, Australia, http://peoplesgeography.com/
Razan Ghazzawi, Damascus, Syria, blogger of Decentering Damascus, http://www.ya-ashrafe-nnas.blogspot.com/ member of Free Tariq Campaign
Maher Osseiran, Arab-American investigative reporter, http://www.mydemocracy.net/
Marion SOLITAIRE, Firminy, France
Hala Abou-Zaki, Paris, France
Khadidja ATTOU, Montpellier-France
Joe Fallisi, Baranzate (Milano), Italy, Tenor, http://www.nelvento.net/
Antonia Cilla Ortega, Spain
Djamal BENMERAD, Bruxelles, Journaliste, écrivain (Journalist, writer)
Abdelfattah Abu-Srour, PhD. Director of Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center, Bethlehem - Palestine, http://alrowwad.virtualactivism.net/
Aymen JEMNI, Engineer and PhD Student - Barcelona - Spain
Chafik HBILA, doctorant en sociologie, France
Atenea Acevedo, Interpreter, translator, activist, Active member of Babels, Tlaxcala and Rebelin, Mexico City, Mexico http://mujerypalabra.com/ http://my.opera.com/mujerypalabra/blog
Sandrine Corten, Bruxelles, Bloggeuse : http://acteursdeterrain.canalblog.com/
Charles Beillard, France, http://www.enfantsdepalestine.org/
Alan 'Masher1' Reid, USA, Wake up from your Slumbers Blog, Melted238
Nadjiam Saoudi, France
Ada KRONFLI, Adhrente ; 1. Association France Palestine Solidarit, ( France), 2. Association des Palestiniens en France (France), 3. CAPJPO- EURO PALESTINE ( France)Catherine de Crombrugghe, Charleroi, Belgium Djanet Mokrani, France
Anika Persiani, Firenze, biologa, "Sumud"
Frédric Herr, Strasbourg, France, etudiant
Dr Francis Clark-Lowes, founder and organiser of Invitation to Learn, member and ex-chair of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and member United National Association (UK)
Sami Sabaana, Switzerland
Safia FARHAT, TUNISIE
Boualem SNAOUI, Paris France
Paul de Rooij, writer/economist, London
Sarah Marshall, N/A
Thomas Bischoff, Strasbourg, France www.thomasbischoff.fr
Saidi Nordine, Mouvement Citoyen Palestine, Bruxelles - Belgique, http://mcpalestine.canalblog.com/
William Ross, Canada
Snorre Lindquist, Architect, Sweden
Ben Heine http://www.benjaminheine.blogspot.com/
Franck Hirsbein, France http://groups.google.com/group/lesamisdelaroutedelissa
Sabina Paolini, Abruzzo, Italy
Moura Nouara, Caen (FRANCE), association Kultures
Elisa Davinca - Vienna/Austria - http://anotherworldispossiblenow.blogspot.com/ - http://refusetokill.blogspot.com/
Leonardo Mazzei, Italy, Gaza Vivrà www.gazavive.com
veronique roudil, marseille, france
Nadim Mahjoub, London, http://middleeastpanorama.blogspot.com/
Rubén Kotler - Historiador, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, De Igual A Igual http://www.deigualaigual.net/
Simone Maggiolo, Italy
Julieta Obedman, Argentina
Palestinian Refugee Portal http://palref.net/
Dr Yassar NAFA, Doctor, UK
Lydia Lauks, political communication officer, UK
Keny Arkana, Marseille - France, Collectif AASV
Omar Khamoun, New Zealand
Raymond Richa, France
Toni Solo, Nicaragua
Reham Alhelsi, Jerusalem, Palestine
David Nir, Israel
Maria Grazia Da Costa Lucca, Italy, Campo Antimperialista
this Petition is also on:Rebelion Redress, Uruknet here and here, Arab News, Friends of Lebanon
Tlaxcala, Kelebek, The People's Voice Sabbah's Blog Desert Peace Umma, Asherah's Journal, Palestine Blogs "The Gazette", Window into Palestine , Detain ThisAlterinfo (in French)Basta!
Fact checking on Greenstein, Mission: impossible
By: Mary Rizzo
One would think that if there were an article with my name in it, I would be more than a little interested in reading it. But, to be honest, it's been happening on a daily basis, and by one author alone, one Mr Tony Greenstein, that I can't bring myself to do anything more than give it a gliss reading, my “vanity” hasn’t gotten to extreme levels yet, and I have better things to be doing. But, considering the author, even by virtue of a skim, it is impossible not to constantly bang into a thick wall of lies so big that they quite simply jump straight out.
Not wanting to belabour anyone much longer, because 200 names, including some who have activist history spanning decades, academics, writers, bloggers, philosophers, editors, people from every continent and many religious, political, ethnic and economic backgrounds and yes... even a survivor of Holocaust, have signed their names to an open letter, http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2008/02/petition-for-two-activists-that-you.html calling for Tony Greenstein to stop abusing his "air time" by engaging in character assassination of two activists for Palestine, especially by use of distortion and fabrication. Rather than accept their plea, or listen to them, he has decided to increase his daily output and actually double it. So far, his echo chamber has been an obscure blog in the UK with maybe 50 readers, and one that’s been created ad hoc for it, judging by the comments, maybe it has two. It seems that it’s important for him to focus on three names he doesn’t like, but quite ignores that all the top bloggers are there. I wonder why this is? But now, Amin has published his reply to the article in question. Amin has quite a few more readers, so I believe it is essential to at least address some of the content within, given that I am called in cause. I do apologise, but I simply cannot bear to read the entire article, so I am not focusing on deconstructing the entire sandcastle that it obviously is. I will only focus on several key points that I am especially qualified to respond to.
Number 1) Greenstein writes:
"Rooij uses the adjective vile no less than four times. Ive written a vile article about him and made vile accusations of anti-Semitism against Atzmon and Rizzo [AR]."
Answer: What is so glaring here is that De Rooij does not once mention my name in the piece! How can we believe the rest of this paper the author simply is incapable of identifying who is involved? Yet, I already failed to mention that he gets the name of the author wrong as well. Last week, he said he had never heard of the chap. Strange... for a man who claims to be very active (and I have no doubt that he is, for all the time he spends on line) to never have encountered even one of the writings of Paul De Rooij. I remember widely circulating his Dictionary of the Occupation, almost every activist I know has read and greatly appreciated it. It was on Counterpunch, not some obscure UK socialist blog that mostly Zionists contribute to. Greenstein is simply doing a knee-jerk act of smear campaigning.
Number 2) Greenstein writes:
"But again, what has this to do with the Palestinians? Atzmon distributes Eisens pamphlets and now signs up to all the above nonsense. Read Gilad Atzmon Now an Open Holocaust Denier."
Answer: Calling other people's writing pamphlets can be overlooked, but then again, are they pamphlets because of their political orientation? If that is true, the very article Greenstein cites, another of his Socialist Unity smearfests, takes its information from two sources that are far from objective news sources, The Adelaide Institute, (a Holocaust Revisionist site), and Press TV, an Iranian site that seems to quite frequently print news that is inaccurate or outright disinformation, according to journalists who fact check their material. Once it had been established that Tony's sources (which make HIM a distributor of material from a Revisionist site) had actually used misquotes and disinformation, taken information from one trial and shifted it to another that had nothing to do with it, this did not cause him to wonder if his haste was not to be in some way suspect, and his opinion amended. No, he does not take any of this into account, and is still, on this date, distributing false material as if it were accurate! Another reason vile is an appropriate word to describe the attacks. And why is it vile? To quote Tony Greenstein: What has this to do with the Palestinians?
Number 3) Greenstein writes:
"Rooij describes me on the Cork PSC article as close to the anti-boycott Engage. But that is ironic since I have campaigned ceaselessly to support boycott. Unison, the second largest union in Britain voted to support boycott last summer. I spoke in favour of that position, as a Jewish member of the union, and it was passed by at least 80%. For that I am some form of racial segregationist?!! Get real Rooij."
Answer: The fact that Greenstein still circulates the lie that I am against the boycott, when he himself encouraged me to break it, is quite rich. But, let me mention another item that sticks out at me, UNISON. As a matter of fact, given that Redress, a UK site dedicated to the Palestinian cause, managed by Palestinians, had published the open letter, was cause for Tony to write this:
"Yes an excellent idea this petition. I'm so glad you included the following paragraph: We also take the opportunity to condemn the strangling siege that is being imposed over the Gaza Strip in particular and the West Bank and the rest of the Palestinian Arab people in general to complete their ethnic cleansing from their historic homeland.
It's quite important you know, pity that it was an afterthought to the 'defend Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon' campaign because of course they are the people who matter most.
http://redressnewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/petition-in-support-of-pro-palestinian.html
Since it is published on redress I am asking my own union UNISON to remove all references to Redress from its sites and I will contact the TUC and SERTUC, of which I am a trades council delegate, to ask that they contact all unions and ask them to have nothing to do with Redress on their websites or any similar anti-semitic web site since it is clear that they are part of this.
Perhaps you could ask Atzmon what he means by this statement?
'I do not wish to enter the debate regarding the truth of the Holocaust'. Does he believe there is a debate about the 'truth' of the holocaust? And about whether the earth is flat?
http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/gatzmon29.htm
It seems Atzmon's lies are catching him out now that we all know that he has signed up as a holocaust denier.
It would appear that those whom the gods seek to destroy they first drive mad.
Tony Greenstein”
He proudly announces that they have done so. This is lobbying ad personam. The unions do his personal bidding, and he expects them to.
Number 4) Greenstein writes:
"Ironically, at the same time, Atzmon was denouncing the academic boycott as book burning (and here)."
Answer: This famous misrepresentation and distortion of the opinion of someone is PURE MacCarthyism. What did Gilad Atzmon say to me in the interview? Let's look (and to avoid any accusations of manipulative editing, I am quoting the response in full):
“Gilad: Boycott is a real complicated issue. For years we’ve been arguing in favour of divestment and boycott. At the time I supported any form of boycott in Israel, its products and its culture.
There are some elements in the boycott that are obviously very welcome. For instance, the fact that UK unions are standing up against Zionist evil is a major shift in the very right direction. The Boycott is certainly bad news for Israel and this is wonderful news in itself. Yesterday, I went to a reading of a play, it was actually a theatrical adaptation my latest book. The producer is Jewish, and at a certain stage when we were discussing the meaning of the play he stood up and said. You see, we had a Jewish State, it is now sixty years later, and it is a very horrible place, it is so horrible that it has now been boycotted. And this is there to make us think, where did it go wrong? This is the most positive impact of the boycott. It makes people reflect.
Yet, I have some serious reservations, which I am inclined to mention. One, I see a tremendous difference between banning an avocado and a book. I would welcome any form of financial restrictions on Israel and its supportive bodies yet, I truly believe in freedom of speech and oppose any form of Maccarthyism or intellectual censorship of any sort. Thus, interfering with academic freedom isnt exactly something I can blindly advocate. Unlike some of my best enlightened friends, I am against any form of gatekeeping or book burning. But it goes further, I actually want to hear what Israelis and Zionists have to say. I want to read their books. I want to confront their academics. If justice is on our side we should be able to confront them.
Mary: Of course, they wont stop writing or proposing their ideas, and actually, they might become more reactionary in the process.
Gilad: Actually, I do not think that they can become any more reactionary. The second point is, to impose a boycott is to employ a boycotter. When it comes to an academic boycott I would expect the inquisitor in charge to be a scholar of great esteem. This isn’t the case obviously. The reason is simple. As it naturally happens, major intellectuals are engaged in scholarship rather than in union politics, working class and proletarian activity. Seemingly, it isn’t the leading minds in British academic life and ethical thinking who are leading the Boycott. In fact it is the other way around, the boycott is led by some minor academics with very little to say about ethics and even less to say about the specific conflict. This fact is actually repeatedly exposed in televised debates. The anti-Zionist movement in Britain has yet to find the appropriate eloquent answer to the Dershowitzes of this world.
Three, when it comes to the Palestinian solidarity discourse I can identify two modes of discussion: the ethical and political. The ethical mode is obviously evoked by a natural humanist reaction to the endless flood of images of Israeli criminal activity. The political discourse, on the other hand, is pretty much autonomous and detached from the conflict. It has a lot to do with maintenance of some particular decaying old-school socialists within the fading progressive Western discourse. It has very little to do with Palestine and the transitions within the Palestinian struggle. When it comes to the current boycott we are unfortunately operating within a political mode rather than an ethical one. I say unfortunately, because Palestinian reality is neither an isolated event in history nor it is isolated in the region. Had the academics been ethically orientated, they would have to ask themselves what they, their unions and Universities have been doing to stop the ongoing slaughter in Iraq. What do they do to oppose the British Government that is engaged in crimes not different from Israel’s? What are the British academics doing now to stop the British value system from a total collapse? I am very sad and ashamed to say that as far as State terrorism is concerned Blair and Olmert are pretty much an equal match. If this isn’t enough, Brown Launch is not very promising either. Yet, British academics expect the Israelis to do something they fail to do.
However, as I said before, I am in favour of any form of restrictions on Israel, on its financial sectors, yet, by behaving politically while avoiding an ethical debate we are actually losing to the Israelis and to their lobbies.
Most importantly, if we decide to go for an academic Boycott, if we decide to burn books or to silence other peoples thoughts, then I really want to know why do we stop with Israeli academics or institutes? Shouldn’t we really ban any possible contact with any Zionists, people and institutes who openly support the idea of a racist State? As you certainly realise, unlike South Africa, Zionism, the ideological core behind Israel, is a global movement. Shouldn’t we ban as well any form of racially orientated activity? Shouldn’t we stop academic as well as smear campaigner David Hirsh and his racially orientated cohorts and then later continue with Jewish Socialists (being a racially oriented progressive group)? Where do we draw the line? I do not know the answers, instead I believe that the best way around it is to support freedom of speech categorically, whether it is David Irving, David Hirsh or even Tony Greenstein.
Mary: OK, so you fully support any kind of instrument that puts pressure and pulls the economic rug out from under Israel, but you have some reservations about the academic boycott against Israeli universities, because of the nature of the boycott being restricting academic freedom.
Gilad: I would even just call it intellectual freedom. I do love diversity. To impose a single narrative is in itself a Talmudic approach and I have to resist it. Being trained as a continental philosopher, I know very well that the proponents of the most enlightening ideas in the late 19th century and pre WWII 20th century were not exactly progressive. How to say it, Heidegger was a Nazi at least for a while and as it seems, both Levinas and Leo Strauss were courageous enough to admit that the man may be the greatest thinker of our millennium.”
I myself would add that if Tony Greenstein actually articulated an argument, rather than smear and engage strictly in character assassination, I would not have to waste so much time exposing some of his lies, and mind, I am ignoring the bulk of the others due to time constrictions. But it seems he does not produce anything but texts using character assassination, not against Zionists, but against people who denounce Zionism on a constant and daily basis, and therefore, I believe that the letter Palestinians and activists wrote is a step in the right direction. If he wants to participate in the discourse, he should, and as a matter of fact, while he is calling for us to be excluded and silenced, based on a series of smears and distortions, we are calling on him to focus on Palestinians rather than on two European Palestinian activists who are quite well-circulated. But rather than address the content in any meaningful way of the material others write and distribute, he comes out with a lie and distortion to smear the author. It is just what Dershowitz does.
Number 5) Greenstein writes:
"The one semi-sensible question Rooij asks is what in American society produces support for Zionism. But the only answer his friends provide is the Jews. Apart from ignoring the much more numerous Christians for Zionism they totally fail to even begin to answer it. Yet it is not difficult to understand why the USA projects its power in the way it does economic, military, imperial reasons oil for example. But this means having an analysis of class society and imperialism, something Atzmon and friends explicitly reject."
Answer: Now, this in itself is quite interesting. On my blog, I have dozens of articles denouncing Christian Zionists. I have never seen a single thing written or circulated on the argument by Greenstein, ever. I have, on the other hand, seen him say he is "thrilled" that Zunes "demolished Walt and Mearsheimer". You see, differently from almost all the major scholars and researchers, not to mention activists, Tony doesn't think there's a lobby. And, where does he get the idea Atzmon and his friends reject the discussion of class society and imperialism!? Again, Atzmon rejects imperialism quite often in his writing. He may not be quoting Gramsci, but his thesis is about hegemony and consensus by the super powers in order to restrict the narrative and allow the powers to maintain dominance. I myself have so many articles against imperialism on the blog alone, I can't begin to see where he finds a rejection of this concept.
Number 6) Greenstein writes:
"There are a number of errors in Rooijs article, eg. That I sent defamatory letters to the venue where Atzmon was due to speak. Not true. I sent no letters. It was an article in the local press that alerted them to the meeting. Nor was it a church hall. But it is this attention to detail that marks out Rooij as the quality journalist that he is."
Answer: No, he may not have sent defamatory letters. He merely plastered the walls with flyers. Indeed, the venue was a church. This is a letter the organiser wrote to Tony, which was published on my blog:
"The immediate reason that I withdrew from the Brighthelm, Tony, was that you had, without permission, started pasting notices on the premises opposing the meeting and this notice included a copy of the Calder article. These notices were bound to be a major embarrassment to the church. Moreover by the manner in which you acted, the manager was bound to deduce that further such behaviour was likely. Indeed you were announcing your picket. To say, therefore, that you did not put pressure on the Brighthelm is disingenuous. It is ironic that you take me to task for damaging the Palestine solidarity movement in holding this meeting when your actions do precisely that - and I, of course do not accept that the Gilad Meeting does anyway. I do not believe for a moment that you thought it unfortunate that the manager of the Centre caught you in the act of putting up these posters. Certainly he was affected by the grossly distorted view of Gilad Atzmon given in the article - that was precisely your intention. He hadn't got the time to investigate what, at your instigation I'm sure, Jean Calder had written. When he called me to discuss the matter I relieved him of any further embarrassment by withdrawing."
Cheers,
Francis
Number 7) Greenstein writes:
"Yes Sue Blackwell, who led the academic boycott is my comrade. But surprising as it may seem, I am not responsible for her web site! This is what is usually called guilt by association. McCarthyism in other words."
Answer: It is strange he says this! I am held responsible for things that I have not written, and for websites I have nothing to do with. As a matter of fact, by way of his accusations, Greenstein habitually quotes commenters from my blog posts. Not my own comments, and he attributes them to me. He also is now going through the names with a nit comb (as if my friend who has compiled and thought of the list is supposed to filter people who sign, we are in a free society, still, aren’t we? And, I wonder, has petitions he has signed had only names he knows and swears bonafides on?) This is usually called guilt by association. MacCarthyism, in other words." If the mirror fits….. Oh, not to mention, I keep getting harassed now to chop this name or that name off the list. Well, that will still leave a few hundred people who said “enough”. There are many other inaccuracies and insinuations from Tony that are not verified, as well as his opinion bandied as fact and truth. I don't care to address them now. I am sure that just this small sampling is sufficient to give an idea of who we are dealing with. And, to close, I would like to mention that the top Palestinian bloggers, well-known and respected activists and writers have signed the open letter, many with comments stating their total solidarity with Gilad and I, and stating that his campaigns were obscene and must end. In five days, 200 people have signed. In five days, I have not seen a single Palestinian, or anyone else, for that matter, come out in solidarity or defence of Tony Greenstein. He himself has to write his own harangue and defence, while spamming sites and even my own inbox with more bald-faced lies that he is unable to substantiate. These are the people and groups that have asked for him to stop it.
Adib S. Kawar, Nazareth, Palestine - Beirut, Lebanon, Activist, writer and translator
Walid Halabi, France-Italy
Arab Abdel-Hadi PMWATCH, Ansar Al-Quds. LEBANONVIEW, Free Palestine and others
Malak Abdel-Hadi, Palestinian living in Dubai
Shahira Mehrez, Egyptian living in Cairo, Egypt
Paola Pisi, Italy, http://uruknet.info/
Ismail Zayid, Canada, http://izayid.tripod.com/
Nizar Issa, London, UK , Musician
Nadia Hasan, Chile, http://palestinaresiste2.blogspot.com/
Dr Sadek Pharaon MD, Syria
Oren Ben Dor, UK
Manuel Talens, Spain, http://www.manueltalens.com/
Dima Hamdan, London, UK, Journalist
Iqbal Tamimi, Exiled Journalist Network UK, A Palestinian journalist and poet, http://palestinian.ning.com/
Samir Daoud - Akka Palestine - residence: Beirut Lebanon
Nadia Daoud - Akka Palestine - Residence: Beirut Lebanon
Hala Kawar Nazareth, Palestine - Residence - Beirut Lebanon
Wajih Freij Jerusalem, Palestine - Residence: Beirut Lebanon
Lamia Kawar Nazareth, Palestine - Residence - Beirut - Lebanon
Ibrahim Kawar Nazareth, Palestine - Residence - Beirut - Lebanon
Fausto Giudice, Zapatist Alliance for Social Liberation, France, http://azls.blogspot.com/
Ginette Hess Skandrani, Zapatist Alliance for Social Liberation, France, http://azls.blogspot.com/
Wael Al Saad, Dusseldorf-Germany. PYN Coordinator-Germany Palestinian Community Dusseldorf Board, http://www.anis-online.de/1/rooms/wael/
Dr Hajo G. Meyer, Heiloo, the Netherlands, survivor of Auschwitz, writer, physicist, lute maker
Mauro Manno, Italy , professor, writer, translator
Manuela Vittorelli, Italy, http://mirumir.blogspot.com/
Diego Traversa, Italy, writer, translator
Vicente Romano, Spain, writer
Carlos Sanchis, Spain
Nancy Harb Almendras, United States, Germany http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/
Zuhair Nafa, Palestine
Raja Chemayel, The Hague, Netherlands, http://frustratedarabdiary.blogspot.com/
Theodore D. Turner, Brooklyn, New York
Kristoffer Larsson, Sweden, http://altahrir.blogspot.com/
Ellen Rohlfs, Germany, German-Palestinian Society and Gush Shalom
Hergen Matussik, Germany
Benedetta Scardovi-Mounier, USA/Italy
Cristina Santos, London, UK
Rocio Anguiano, Spain
Sigge Andersson, pre-med student, Sweden
Guenter Schenk, France/Germany, Aktionsbndnis fr einen gerechten Frieden in Palstina
LanceThruster, LA, CA, USA
Mary Sparrowdancer, Tallahassee, FL, USA, http://www.sparrowdancer.com/
Birgit Jdahl, Sweden
Miguel Martinz, Florence, Italy, http://kelebek.splinder.com/
Susanne Scheidt, Al-Awda Italia
Jean-Marie Flemal, writer and translator, WPB (Workers' Party of Belgium), Charleroi, Belgium
Edna Spennato, South Africa-Brazil, Earth Heal Geoharmonic Research Project
Abdullah Husain, Palestine by birth, KSA, India by life accident
Wendy Campbell, California, USA, MarWen Media, http://www.marwenmedia.com/
Peter Brooke, UK, www.peterbrooke.org.uk
Daniel McGowan, Geneva, NY, Exec. Director, Deir Yassin Remembered, http://www.deiryassin.org/
Debbie Brown, Hacienda Heights, California USA
Kenneth Rasmusson, Sweden
Redress Information & Analysis, London, UK
Schuyler Ebbets, USA, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/
Ragnar B. Johannessen, Norway, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/
Annie Selden Annab, USA, http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/
Jim Leven, UK, PSC member
Javier Fernndez Retenaga, Spain
Shaukat Khawja, Toronto, Canada Profession: Engineer
Volker M., Canada
Lina Abu Baker, London, UK, Poet
Brenda Heard, UK, Friends of Lebanon, http://www.friendsoflebanon.org/
Letizia Tessicini, Orte, Italy
Simon R-Levin, Manchester, UK
Paloma Valverde, Spain, member of CEOSI
Sarah Stevens, UK
Ralph Pinner, UK
Inge Soder, Germany
Sarah Gillespie, London, UK, musician
Raja Ibrahim, Pistoia, Italy, ASSOCIAZIONE AMICIZIA ITALO - PALESTINESE, www.amiciziaitalo-palestinese.org/
Adriano Mencarelli, Roma - Italy
Diego Ianiro - Caserta, Italy, of Khalas Napoli - khalasnews.splinder.com
Francesca Longhi- Bergamo, Italia
Antonio Corraine - Aosta, Italy
Stuart Cary Welch - USA
Haitham Sabbah, Tulkarm, Palestine/Bahrain, blogger, http://sabbah.biz/
Latuff, Rio De Janiero, Brazil, Cartoonist, http://latuff.blogspot.com/
Nureddin Sabir, London, UK, Editor of Redress Information & Analysis
Steve Amsel, Jerusalem-Al Quds, blogger, http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/
Lasse Wilhelmson, Sweden
Richard Jones, Swansea, Wales, http://a-fistful-of-poetry.blogspot.com/
Einar Schlereth, Sweden, Journalist
Karaiskos Kostas, Komotini, Greece, ANTIFONITIS director, http://www26.brinkster.com/karaiskos/
Adeline Rec, N/A
Alex Tarradellas, Catalonia
Nuria lvarez, Spain
Guillermo F. Parodi, Paraguay, Universitary Professor
Dennis Zackrisson, Uppsala, Sweden
Mark Roland, Eugene Oregon, USA
Robert Wagner, Italy
Graham Derrick, West Yorkshire, UK
Gabriele Repaci, Milano, university student
Emmanuel St John, London, UK
Sami Joseph, UK
Ernesto Paramo, Mexico/UK
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, Glasgow, Scotland, blogger, http://fanonite.org/
Jeffrey Blankfort, California, USA
David Baldinger, USA, Cartoonist, http://www.dbaldinger.com/
Olivia Zémor, Paris, France, cofounder CAPJPO (Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient)
Ana Cleja, France
John W. Blalock, N/A
Maryam Husain and Children, Displaced Palestinian/KSA/Italy/India currently
Emanuela Borrelli, Italy
Rachel Bridgeland, UK
Maria Ingrosso, Lecce, Italy
Riccardo Di Vito, Roma, Italia - Campo Antimperialista, http://www.antiimperialista.org/
Wilhelm Langthaler, Vienna, Austria, Anti-imperalist Camp, http://www.antiimperialista.org
Camilla Rahm, Gothenburg, Sweden
Nahida Izzat,Palestine/ Jerusalem Poetry for Palestine, http://poetryforpalestine.spaces.live.com/
Maurizio Neri, Rome, Italy, Editor Magazine of Politics and Philosophy, "Comunismo e Comunit"
Nicolas A. Sayegh - Laval, Quebec, Canada, Columnist
Asad Khan, Manchester, UK: doctor and blogger, http://chestdocinpalestine.blogspot.com/
Ali Mallah, Canadian Peace Alliance, Canadian Arab Federation, http://www.caf.ca/HomePage.aspx
Khaled Mouammar, Toronto, Canada, National President, Canadian Arab Federation, http://www.caf.ca/HomePage.aspx
Gonzalo Barona, Caceres, Espana
Nicole Hille-Priebe, Germany
Randa Farah, Canada
Felisa Sastre, Espana
Caty R., Spain
Christine Mihil Sharp - London, UK; www.Red-DesertProductions.com
Emanuela Di Piramo, Italia
Dr Raymond Deane, Dublin, Ireland
Katherine Eilbeck, Glais, Swansea, Wales
Katie Murphy, UK
Samira Rantisi, Italy
Sergio I. Moya Mena, Costa Rica, http://wiphala.org/
Paul Eisen - Director (UK) Deir Yassin Remembered
Akram Awad, Palestinian blogger in the UK, www.akramawad.com/
Daniel Alba, writer/musician, USA http://detainthis.wordpress.com
Gunvant Govindjee, South Africa
Agustin Velloso, Madrid - Spain
William Buttrey, Southern California, USA
Gilberto Jordan, Professsor de Histria, Brazil
Mireille RUMEAU, from ISM-France
Colin Pritchard, UK
kim petersen, korea, co-editor, http://www.dissidentvoice.org
Juan-Antonio Julin, Bruselas
Mahmud Said Hamad - Italy
Arlene L. Johnson, Publisher/Author http://www.truedemocracy.net
Jeff Spencer, Bristol, UK, Musician
Agostino Sanfratello, Beyrouth, Lebanon
Karin Maria Friedemann, Boston, Massachusetts,Editor, World View News Service, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
Gianfranco La Grassa, Conegliano, Italy, Economist
Mondher Sfar, Collectif de la Communaut Tunisienne en Europe, Paris, France
Mireille Delamarre http://www.planetenonviolence.org/
Ann El Khoury; Sydney, Australia, http://peoplesgeography.com/
Razan Ghazzawi, Damascus, Syria, blogger of Decentering Damascus, http://www.ya-ashrafe-nnas.blogspot.com/ member of Free Tariq Campaign
Maher Osseiran, Arab-American investigative reporter, http://www.mydemocracy.net/
Marion SOLITAIRE, Firminy, France
Hala Abou-Zaki, Paris, France
Khadidja ATTOU, Montpellier-France
Joe Fallisi, Baranzate (Milano), Italy, Tenor, http://www.nelvento.net/
Antonia Cilla Ortega, Spain
Djamal BENMERAD, Bruxelles, Journaliste, écrivain (Journalist, writer)
Abdelfattah Abu-Srour, PhD. Director of Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center, Bethlehem - Palestine, http://alrowwad.virtualactivism.net/
Aymen JEMNI, Engineer and PhD Student - Barcelona - Spain
Chafik HBILA, doctorant en sociologie, France
Atenea Acevedo, Interpreter, translator, activist, Active member of Babels, Tlaxcala and Rebelin, Mexico City, Mexico http://mujerypalabra.com/ http://my.opera.com/mujerypalabra/blog
Sandrine Corten, Bruxelles, Bloggeuse : http://acteursdeterrain.canalblog.com/
Charles Beillard, France, http://www.enfantsdepalestine.org/
Alan 'Masher1' Reid, USA, Wake up from your Slumbers Blog, Melted238
Nadjiam Saoudi, France
Ada KRONFLI, Adhrente ; 1. Association France Palestine Solidarit, ( France), 2. Association des Palestiniens en France (France), 3. CAPJPO- EURO PALESTINE ( France)Catherine de Crombrugghe, Charleroi, Belgium Djanet Mokrani, France
Anika Persiani, Firenze, biologa, "Sumud"
Frédric Herr, Strasbourg, France, etudiant
Dr Francis Clark-Lowes, founder and organiser of Invitation to Learn, member and ex-chair of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and member United National Association (UK)
Sami Sabaana, Switzerland
Safia FARHAT, TUNISIE
Boualem SNAOUI, Paris France
Paul de Rooij, writer/economist, London
Sarah Marshall, N/A
Thomas Bischoff, Strasbourg, France www.thomasbischoff.fr
Saidi Nordine, Mouvement Citoyen Palestine, Bruxelles - Belgique, http://mcpalestine.canalblog.com/
William Ross, Canada
Snorre Lindquist, Architect, Sweden
Ben Heine http://www.benjaminheine.blogspot.com/
Franck Hirsbein, France http://groups.google.com/group/lesamisdelaroutedelissa
Sabina Paolini, Abruzzo, Italy
Moura Nouara, Caen (FRANCE), association Kultures
Elisa Davinca - Vienna/Austria - http://anotherworldispossiblenow.blogspot.com/ - http://refusetokill.blogspot.com/
Leonardo Mazzei, Italy, Gaza Vivrà www.gazavive.com
veronique roudil, marseille, france
Nadim Mahjoub, London, http://middleeastpanorama.blogspot.com/
Rubén Kotler - Historiador, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, De Igual A Igual http://www.deigualaigual.net/
Simone Maggiolo, Italy
Julieta Obedman, Argentina
Palestinian Refugee Portal http://palref.net/
Dr Yassar NAFA, Doctor, UK
Lydia Lauks, political communication officer, UK
Keny Arkana, Marseille - France, Collectif AASV
Omar Khamoun, New Zealand
Raymond Richa, France
Toni Solo, Nicaragua
Reham Alhelsi, Jerusalem, Palestine
David Nir, Israel
Maria Grazia Da Costa Lucca, Italy, Campo Antimperialista
this Petition is also on:Rebelion Redress, Uruknet here and here, Arab News, Friends of Lebanon
Tlaxcala, Kelebek, The People's Voice Sabbah's Blog Desert Peace Umma, Asherah's Journal, Palestine Blogs "The Gazette", Window into Palestine , Detain ThisAlterinfo (in French)Basta!
Labels: activism, Atzmon, documents, friends, gatekeeping, journalism, Tlaxcala, UK
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Miguel Martinez - Looking for the King of Copy and Paste
Translated by Ernesto Páramo. Revised by author
Two days after the FARC guerrillas delivered two kidnapped parliamentarians to president Chávez of Venezuela, the Spanish newspaper El Pais followed by many other mass media outlets everywhere, was determined to confuse its readership and nip in the bud all reports of a significant news item which could have given us hope for the future. This event was, however, against their political editorial line, so they replaced it with a pseudo-report entitled " Are Hugo Chávez and Naomi Campbell engaged?"
In Italy, the press behaved in a similar fashion. Israel managed to snatch the role of guest of honour at the Turin Book Fair away from Egypt, to whom the event had been solemnly promised: thus, in the sixtieth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, two of the three great publishing events (Turin and Paris) are both dedicated to Israel this year (Frankfurt was dedicated to Israel in 2005). Repubblica, the leading Italian daily close to the centre-left, replied by devoting its front page and two full pages inside to a weird and unknown blog which had copied a list of signatories to a pro-Israel petition that had been in the public domain for months: La Repubblica pretended that the appearance of this list on the blog was a clear sign of a dangerous anti-Semitic revival.
Note from the Spanish translator Juan Vivanco
In Italy there are probably at least half a million, perhaps a million blogs.
Because of inevitable statistical constraints, we have to assume that a small proportion of these blogs – which still could amount to something like 10.000 - are written by mad people.
Now, “Mad“ is a strictly scientific term, which does not refer to the contents, but to a series of unequivocal psychoelectronic indicators. For example, the random use of capital letters (known as CapsLock syndrome).
Among these mad characters, there is one that likes to be known as KING SHAULOS II, and up to yesterday, His Majesty had a blog covered with banners reading “ NO TO TURKEY IN EUROPE ”. Actually he does not use random capital letters: he uses nothing but capital letters.
And he proclaims to be the only sovereign of THE CHRISTIAN WEST, clearly under “JESUS VINCIT-REGNAT-IMPERAT IN LISBON AND IN SAINT PETERSBURG, THERE IS ONLY ONE KING – THE KING OF KINGS”.
On the pages of his blog we can also see the image of the Three Kings, and more significantly, a True Portrait of His Majesty SHAULOS in person:
The blog is also full of useful advice:
“THE INSTANT THAT SYNCHRONIZES THE PRESENT IS THE WILL OF GOD, KING SHAULOS II”
His political program is very clear:
ELECTIONS:
“LET'S ADOPT ISRAELI ELECTORAL LAW –
LET'S PRESERVE THE ITALIAN CHARACTER OF DEMOCRACY,
LET'S PREVENT THE CONTAMINATION OF ITALIAN IDENTITY BY ISLAM AND JUDAISM”
In short, he is as twisted as the late Oriana Fallaci, with the difference that he adds Judaism to his pet hates (…).
I have seen the King's blog a couple of times, and it has given me some cheerful laughs (I know, we should not laugh at mad people, but I have never claimed to be politically correct).
However, this morning I saw him again.
On the front page of Repubblica. Plus, they dedicated the whole of pages 10 and 11 to him.
Just a question… how much would it cost a run of the mill blogger to buy all that newspaper space?
The headlines are simply fantastic:
Black list of Jews “return to fascism”
On the Net, the black list of Jewish teachers
Amato [ Interior Minister]: An offense against the law and against civilization
The blog closed, the hunt is on for the author. "We will get him”
Public derision, just as during fascism
Memory must be studied at University to put a stop to hate
Too dangerous a climate, according to the University's point of view.
Code name H5N1, a year of poison sown in the internet
The alarm of the Department of the Interior …Anti-Semitism is reborn in Italy in this way
As you get your breath back, let's try to understand exactly what His Majesty did. First, what is all that about a “Jews black list”?
Very simple. It is the list of signatories of an appeal “against anti-Semitism ” that has been in the public domain for a long time.
If you read the petition, you will see that it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, and everything to do with the State of Israel (yes, the usual, "those who fight on behalf of the native Palestinians population are anti-Semitic”).
So public was the petition that the promoters bought space in the newspaper Corriere della Sera to publish it, on 14th May 2005.
The space was not bought by the Neonazi International but by “Luzzato Amos, President of the Union of Jewish Italian Communities”. This means, that those on the list paid to publish their full names in a newspaper that sells a million copies a day, if my memory serves me right.
Three months ago (15.11.2007) [1] His Majesty King Shaulos II, with a simple copy and paste job, took the list from a Jewish web-page and put it on his blog (ten readers a day?) with this presentation:
“THIS IS A LIST OF THE JEWISH UNIVERSITY PROFESORS WHO DECLARE OPENLY THEIR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL”
A piece of nonsense, since the majority of the professors on the list are right wing extremists, racial segregation fanatics and genocide apologists, they are anything, but Jewish.
On the other hand, no one has said that Shaulos II was a wise king.
As it happens, he did not compile the “black list” himself.
The supposedly black-listed put it together themselves (…).
However, now His Majesty King Shaulos II will have to face the Jewish community who call him “ a cancer that can propagate and affect anyone ”, the Chancellor of Rome's University says “ it is an unacceptable act of intolerance ”, the Chancellor of the other Roman university of Tor Vergata, Alessandro Agro, calls for the King to be jailed (being a King, I suppose to be guillottined). ” And also, he will have to face the whole Italian people, as Walter Veltroni, leader of the centre-left (and the enemy and scourge of gypsies) assures us.
Ready for the fight, the Minister of the University said his whole ministry would “pursue charges in court against the the authors of the list”.
The authors of the list, let us not forget, are Amos Luzzato and the Corriere della Sera.
Soon, Shaulos II will have to face scores of accusations from all the interested parties. The newspaper La Repubblica assures us that the professors are going to take him to court for libel.
Let’s see. The blogger has said (erroneously) that all those on the list are Jewish and (correctly) that they are all apologists of Israel.
Wonder which of the two statements they will sue him for.
Note:
[1] In other words, both I and those “included on the black list ” have had time to find that the list existed. After all, something called Google exists.
This means these people kept silent until the scandal of how Israel stole from Egypt the place of honor at the Turin Book Fair blew up in their faces. (see the document in Italian).
Source: http://kelebek.splinder.com/post/15873818/ Original article published on 9th February, 2008
About the author Miguel Martínez and Ernesto Páramo are members of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and reviser are cited.
URL of this article on Tlaxcala: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=4646&lg=en
French Spanish Italian
Two days after the FARC guerrillas delivered two kidnapped parliamentarians to president Chávez of Venezuela, the Spanish newspaper El Pais followed by many other mass media outlets everywhere, was determined to confuse its readership and nip in the bud all reports of a significant news item which could have given us hope for the future. This event was, however, against their political editorial line, so they replaced it with a pseudo-report entitled " Are Hugo Chávez and Naomi Campbell engaged?"
In Italy, the press behaved in a similar fashion. Israel managed to snatch the role of guest of honour at the Turin Book Fair away from Egypt, to whom the event had been solemnly promised: thus, in the sixtieth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, two of the three great publishing events (Turin and Paris) are both dedicated to Israel this year (Frankfurt was dedicated to Israel in 2005). Repubblica, the leading Italian daily close to the centre-left, replied by devoting its front page and two full pages inside to a weird and unknown blog which had copied a list of signatories to a pro-Israel petition that had been in the public domain for months: La Repubblica pretended that the appearance of this list on the blog was a clear sign of a dangerous anti-Semitic revival.
Note from the Spanish translator Juan Vivanco
In Italy there are probably at least half a million, perhaps a million blogs.
Because of inevitable statistical constraints, we have to assume that a small proportion of these blogs – which still could amount to something like 10.000 - are written by mad people.
Now, “Mad“ is a strictly scientific term, which does not refer to the contents, but to a series of unequivocal psychoelectronic indicators. For example, the random use of capital letters (known as CapsLock syndrome).
Among these mad characters, there is one that likes to be known as KING SHAULOS II, and up to yesterday, His Majesty had a blog covered with banners reading “ NO TO TURKEY IN EUROPE ”. Actually he does not use random capital letters: he uses nothing but capital letters.
And he proclaims to be the only sovereign of THE CHRISTIAN WEST, clearly under “JESUS VINCIT-REGNAT-IMPERAT IN LISBON AND IN SAINT PETERSBURG, THERE IS ONLY ONE KING – THE KING OF KINGS”.
On the pages of his blog we can also see the image of the Three Kings, and more significantly, a True Portrait of His Majesty SHAULOS in person:
The blog is also full of useful advice:“THE INSTANT THAT SYNCHRONIZES THE PRESENT IS THE WILL OF GOD, KING SHAULOS II”
His political program is very clear:
ELECTIONS:
“LET'S ADOPT ISRAELI ELECTORAL LAW –
LET'S PRESERVE THE ITALIAN CHARACTER OF DEMOCRACY,
LET'S PREVENT THE CONTAMINATION OF ITALIAN IDENTITY BY ISLAM AND JUDAISM”
In short, he is as twisted as the late Oriana Fallaci, with the difference that he adds Judaism to his pet hates (…).
I have seen the King's blog a couple of times, and it has given me some cheerful laughs (I know, we should not laugh at mad people, but I have never claimed to be politically correct).
However, this morning I saw him again.
On the front page of Repubblica. Plus, they dedicated the whole of pages 10 and 11 to him.
Just a question… how much would it cost a run of the mill blogger to buy all that newspaper space?
The headlines are simply fantastic:
Black list of Jews “return to fascism”
On the Net, the black list of Jewish teachers
Amato [ Interior Minister]: An offense against the law and against civilization
The blog closed, the hunt is on for the author. "We will get him”
Public derision, just as during fascism
Memory must be studied at University to put a stop to hate
Too dangerous a climate, according to the University's point of view.
Code name H5N1, a year of poison sown in the internet
The alarm of the Department of the Interior …Anti-Semitism is reborn in Italy in this way
As you get your breath back, let's try to understand exactly what His Majesty did. First, what is all that about a “Jews black list”?
Very simple. It is the list of signatories of an appeal “against anti-Semitism ” that has been in the public domain for a long time.
If you read the petition, you will see that it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, and everything to do with the State of Israel (yes, the usual, "those who fight on behalf of the native Palestinians population are anti-Semitic”).
So public was the petition that the promoters bought space in the newspaper Corriere della Sera to publish it, on 14th May 2005.
The space was not bought by the Neonazi International but by “Luzzato Amos, President of the Union of Jewish Italian Communities”. This means, that those on the list paid to publish their full names in a newspaper that sells a million copies a day, if my memory serves me right.
Three months ago (15.11.2007) [1] His Majesty King Shaulos II, with a simple copy and paste job, took the list from a Jewish web-page and put it on his blog (ten readers a day?) with this presentation:
“THIS IS A LIST OF THE JEWISH UNIVERSITY PROFESORS WHO DECLARE OPENLY THEIR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL”
A piece of nonsense, since the majority of the professors on the list are right wing extremists, racial segregation fanatics and genocide apologists, they are anything, but Jewish.
On the other hand, no one has said that Shaulos II was a wise king.
As it happens, he did not compile the “black list” himself.
The supposedly black-listed put it together themselves (…).
However, now His Majesty King Shaulos II will have to face the Jewish community who call him “ a cancer that can propagate and affect anyone ”, the Chancellor of Rome's University says “ it is an unacceptable act of intolerance ”, the Chancellor of the other Roman university of Tor Vergata, Alessandro Agro, calls for the King to be jailed (being a King, I suppose to be guillottined). ” And also, he will have to face the whole Italian people, as Walter Veltroni, leader of the centre-left (and the enemy and scourge of gypsies) assures us.
Ready for the fight, the Minister of the University said his whole ministry would “pursue charges in court against the the authors of the list”.
The authors of the list, let us not forget, are Amos Luzzato and the Corriere della Sera.
Soon, Shaulos II will have to face scores of accusations from all the interested parties. The newspaper La Repubblica assures us that the professors are going to take him to court for libel.
Let’s see. The blogger has said (erroneously) that all those on the list are Jewish and (correctly) that they are all apologists of Israel.
Wonder which of the two statements they will sue him for.
Note:
[1] In other words, both I and those “included on the black list ” have had time to find that the list existed. After all, something called Google exists.
This means these people kept silent until the scandal of how Israel stole from Egypt the place of honor at the Turin Book Fair blew up in their faces. (see the document in Italian).
Source: http://kelebek.splinder.com/post/15873818/ Original article published on 9th February, 2008
About the author Miguel Martínez and Ernesto Páramo are members of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and reviser are cited.
URL of this article on Tlaxcala: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=4646&lg=en
French Spanish Italian
Labels: absolute madness, anti-Semitism, documents, hasbara, Israel, Italy, journalism, propaganda, Tlaxcala
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Gilad Atzmon - The Tzabar and the Sabbar: A Refection on Memory and Nostalgia
Illustration “The Memory of Land” by Juan Kalvellido for Tlaxcala and PeacepalestineZionism is a total disaster. It is a colonial, expansionist, nationalist philosophy based on racial chauvinism. Those who take its precepts to the letter have been robbing the land of the indigenous Palestinian people in the name of the Jewish people. It is regarded by many of us as a major threat to world peace. Its devoted supportive lobbies around the world call for more and more bloodshed in the name of ‘liberalism’, ‘democracy’, 'freedom’ and even in the name of the ‘Judeo-Christian’ alliance. Yet, Zionism, and we better admit it, has managed to do something that even God has failed to do: it united the Jews. Zionism has become the Jewish symbolic identifier.
In a recent paper of mine, The Politics Of Anti-Semitism, I explored the role of Zionism as the cultural identifier of the contemporary Diaspora Jew. I argued that Zionism has managed to win its ideological foes by offering a transparent collective structural set of symbolic identifiers. Rather than ideology and politics, it was a Zionist fetish and Hebraic paraphernalia that made Zionism into a success story. Accordingly, it established a language (Hebrew), it provided the Jew with a concrete geographical orientation (Eretz Israel), it conveyed an image of a culture (the new Hebraic folklore), it even managed to present a false image of political and ethical polarity (left and right). If the founders of Zionism set about to save the Diaspora Jew from his anomalous condition, we then have to confess that it has fulfilled its mission. Zionism’s success has nothing to do with its ideology, politics or even with its devastating practices. Clearly, not many Jews understand what Zionism stands for (ideologically, politically, ethically and practically). Not many Diaspora Jews openly succumb to the Zionist school of thought nor to its non-ethical praxis. Instead, they subscribe to ‘Israeli folklore’, the odd Hebrew word, the falafel and the humus which they mistakenly identify with Israel (rather than Palestine). They sing along to Israeli music whether it is Hava Nagila, Yafa Yarkoni or Yeuda Poliker. For those who fail to see it, ‘Israeli culture’ is a direct product of the Zionist project. Clearly, modern Hebraic culture has managed to hijack the world of Jewish symbolism. Zionism established a new form of Jewish tribal belonging.
Yet, as much as Zionism conveys a cultural success story within the Jewish Diaspora discourse, it is rather meaningless as far as Israelis are concerned. The Tzabar, native-born Israeli Jew, does not benefit at all from Zionism being a structural set of symbolic identifiers. In fact, the Tzabar doesn’t need to identify with any symbolic structure based on geographical aspiration. He or she is born into a self-sufficient brand i.e., Israeliness. Similarly, the Tzabars do not need the Hebrew language as a means of identification, they use it as a means of communication. Nor does the Tzabar need a geographical orientation, he or she is orientated by birth. The Tzabar doesn’t even subscribe to Israeli folklore, in fact, most Israelis can’t stand Israeli folklore and they by far prefer foreign pop, rock, Turkish and Greek music and even some wild free jazz.
As funny as it may sound, that which is taken by the Diaspora Jew as a structural symbolic identifier, i.e., the Hebraic fetish, means very little to the Israelis. By the same token, as much as the Diaspora Jew subscribes to ‘Israeliness’, that very ‘Israeliness’ means very little to the Israelis. This shouldn’t take us very much by surprise: the notion of ‘Americanism’ means far more to non-Americans than it does to Americans. Similarly, the tendency to drop the odd French word, a habit that is apparently so common amongst British or American pseudo-intellectuals, is a reflection of a similar fetish. ‘Frenchness’ attributes very unique meaning to those who know only very little about France. Yet, not a single French person thinks that speaking French is something astonishingly clever. Likewise, the Diaspora Jew may use the odd Hebrew word to ascertain his tribal belonging, however, it would take more than just a single Hebrew word for the Israelis to feel at home on a stolen land, namely Palestine.
Memory and Nostalgia
"I am a human being, I am a Jew and I am an Israeli. Zionism was an instrument to move me from the Jewish state of being to the Israeli state of being. I think it was Ben-Gurion who said that the Zionist movement was the scaffolding to build the home, and that after the state's establishment it should be dismantled." Ari Shavit’s interview with Avrum Burg Interview: Leaving the Zionist Ghetto, Haaretz.
What is left for the Tzabar to identify with? Not much, so it seems: the land on which he lives belongs to some other people. The food which makes him feel at home (humus and falafel) is hijacked from those same other people, i.e., the Palestinians. The language which he employs when he is emotionally moved (either very happy or very angry) is Arabic and it is borrowed again from - guess who? - the very same ‘other people’, the Palestinians. The home in which he dwells was built by those other people…I think you know who they are, yes, the Palestinians.
It is rather apparent that the core of the Hebraic cultural realty, the slang, the food, the blue sky, the sea, the desert, the spring and the autumn, the hills and the valleys, the olive trees… all belong to the land (Palestine) rather than the swelling apartheid State that seized it momentarily (Israel).
What could the Israelis do to escape their fragmented unauthentic reality in which everything that may look like ‘home’ actually belongs to those ‘other people’?
Those who visit Israel learn the answer just a few minutes after they land in Tel Aviv: cosmopolitanism and Western liberal glamour is the Israeli answer. The Israelis deal with their hopeless craving for authenticity by multiplying the symptoms of their inherent detachment.
New visitors to Tel Aviv are occasionally astonished by the cultural multiple choice the town is there to offer. Tel Aviv is indeed one of the most ‘open’ cities in the world. You can find every Western fashion brand and American food chain there. Every rock star and pop act integrates Israel into its world tour schedule. In some of Tel Aviv’s leading restaurants you can have Sushi for a starter, Hungarian Goulash as a secondo, French entrecote for the main course and Baklava for desert. I learned recently that Tel Aviv is not only a ‘sex attraction’ but as well the next “gay capital of the world”. This is indeed very encouraging to learn that in between the humus and the falafel the Tzabar can grab a sashimi and indulge in some highly advanced socio-erotic activity according to his very personal choice. This may as well be the ultimate form of freedom that the ‘Jews-only State’ can offer: cosmopolitanism soaked in some advanced Western libidinal liberalism.
Yet, Israel, the libidinal, liberal, ‘only democracy in the Middle East’ is engaged as well in some very different sinister practices. In spite of the Israelis embodying the ultimate manifestation of Western broadmindedness, in spite of their ‘culinary openness’, they are also starving millions of human beings to death, namely the Palestinian people. In spite of the fact that the Israelis invested some real effort into turning Tel Aviv, their cultural capital, into a ‘town with no boundaries’, Gaza City is a now a boundary with no town. It is a huge concentration camp, held back by repeated curfews and shattered by constant artillery barrages and military raids. Israel has turned Palestinian towns into large urban prisons that are surrounded by barbed wire, watchtowers and guard posts.
We are left to ask ourselves, how is it that the people who are so immersed in ‘cosmopolitanism’, ‘multi-culturalism’ and Western liberal ideology are so sinister towards the indigenous population of the land? How should we fit the exclusive inclination towards segregation reflected by a gigantic apartheid wall together with the liberal self-image peppered with ‘culinary openness’? How do we fit the devious tactics employed against the Palestinians together with the poetic Israeli self-image of being an enlightened humanist nation? How do we fit the ‘Israeli Shalom seeking’ together with ‘security walls’?
We may have to admit that we are dealing here with a severe form of fragmentation that is on the verge of collective Schizophrenia. I would argue that here we are confronting an inevitable collision between ‘Memory’ and ‘Nostalgia’.
Memory is realised as the ability to store, retain and retrieve information. Memory refers to the factual recognised past and its actual interpretation. Nostalgia, on the other hand, is the wish of returning to the ‘native land’. Nostalgia is usually accompanied by the fear of never seeing it again. To a certain extent, Nostalgia is the yearning for the unfulfilled past.
The clash between Memory and Nostalgia is of the essence of the Israeli fragmented reality. The Tzabar is torn between the inclination to see himself as the protagonist in the serial episode of “Sex and the City”, as much as his memory takes him to his last visit to London, Paris, New York and Tokyo. Nostalgically, he is back in the Ghetto, surrounded by ‘security walls’ and soaked in chicken soup.
The yearning for the Ghetto could be explored in what the Israelis regard as ‘Shalom seeking’. Though Shalom is often translated into ‘peace’, it has almost nothing in common with peace. When Israelis talk about ‘Shalom’ they do not refer to reconciliation, harmony or the transformation of their society into an ecumenical community based on universal values. When Israelis seek ‘Shalom’ what they mean is (their) ‘security’. This is why Israelis and their supporters in the West interpret ‘unilateral disengagement’ as a ‘Shalom seeking’ move. While peace refers to the genuine search for love, harmony and brotherhood, Shalom means pretty much the opposite: separation and segregation. While peace means coming out of one’s shell and opening one’s heart to one’s neighbour, Shalom means the erection of a ‘security fence’ and the emergence of some deep collective loathing towards the rest of the universe.
Yet, this bizarre Hebraic interpretation of the notion of Shalom is far from being an Israeli creation. As I mentioned before, Shalom expresses the nostalgic yearning for the European Ghetto.
Already in 1897, in his famous speech to the First Zionist Congress, Max Nordau conveyed some real explicit longing for the ‘long lost Ghetto’:
“The Ghetto…was for the Jew of the past not a prison, but a refuge. …In the Ghetto, the Jew had his own world; it was to him the sure refuge which had for him the spiritual and moral value of a parental home. Here were associates by whom one wished to be valued, and also could be valued; here was the public opinion to be acknowledged by which was the aim of the Jew's ambition….Here all specific Jewish qualities were esteemed, and through their special development that admiration was to be obtained which is the sharpest spur to the human mind. ….The opinion of the outside world had no influence, because it was the opinion of ignorant enemies. One tried to please one's co-religionists, and their applause was the worthy contentment of his life. So did the Ghetto Jews live, in a moral respect, in a real full life. Their external situation was insecure, often seriously endangered. But internally they achieved a complete development of their specific qualities. They were human beings in harmony, who were not in want of the elements of normal social life. They also felt instinctively the whole importance of the Ghetto for their inner life, and therefore, they had the one sole care: to make its existence secure through invisible walls which were much thicker and higher than the stone walls that visibly shut them in. All Jewish buildings and habits unconsciously pursued only one purpose: to keep up Judaism by separation from the other people and to make the individual Jew constantly aware of the fact that he was lost and would perish if he gave up his specific character.”
Clearly, this old speech expresses the current Israeli innermost desire.
For the Israeli, living within ‘security walls’ is “not a prison, but a refuge”. …In Israel, the Tzabar has “his own world”. In Israel, the opinion of the “outside world” has “no influence”, because it is the “opinion of ignorant enemies”. Nordau expresses the exact spirit that led Ben-Gurion half a century later to say “It doesn’t matter what the Gentiles say, what matters is what the Jews do.”
In his speech, Nordau speaks about the spiritual asset of the Ghetto, which makes Jew feel “secure through invisible walls which were much thicker and higher than the stone walls that visibly shut them in.” May I suggest here that it is this very insight that explains the astonishing physical measures of the Israeli ‘apartheid wall’? Yet, while Nordau referrers to ‘invisible’ walls, the Israeli ‘defence wall’ is rather visible and it is made out of grey reinforced concrete.
As much as the Israeli craves celebrating his imaginary cosmopolitan liberal reality, as much as he wants to enjoy sex in a big city by recalling his short-term memory, the nostalgic yearning drops him back into a bowl of steaming ‘chicken soup’ in a very small Shtetl. He is longing for a ‘secure’ Jewish life and it is this yearning that transforms the ‘Jews-only State’ into an inflammatory Ghetto. Yet, unlike the old European Ghetto, where Jews were rather timid, our contemporary Israeli Shtetl is a belligerent, expansionist, nuclear superpower.
We may also have to admit that the Tzabar has failed to generate a homogeneous reality in which a new civilized being is reclaiming his place in humanity based on harmony and peace. As much as Zionism was there to create a new authentic Jew, it led to the emergence of a commune of fragmented beings shattered by the inevitable collision between the short-term cosmopolitan memory and the tribal clannish nostalgia.
The Tzabar and the Sabbar
A friend who returned from Palestine a few weeks ago was kind enough to share his impressions with me. On his journey from Jerusalem to Ramallah he noticed that the Israelis invested some real effort into turning the Israeli side the wall into an ‘architectural feature’. In places it was largely tiled and decorated with Jerusalem stone and with flowers, in other parts artists created some pastoral imagery of landscapes, lakes and olive trees. The Israelis also raised the ground near to the wall on their side just to make the wall look smaller and friendly. However, once my friend crossed the checkpoint towards the Palestinian side, the full disturbing physical scale of the wall was impossible to ignore. He saw a gigantic grey concrete wall measuring eight to ten meters high now invading the skyline of what is left of Palestine.
I thought about it for a while. I basically reflected about Nordau’s notion of the Ghetto and his duality between ‘prison’ and ‘refuge’. And I grasped that as much as the Israelis are inclined to lock the Palestinians behind walls, the Israeli apartheid wall was also nothing less than a self-inflicted imprisonment that the Jewish State imposed upon itself. Within the Zio-centric discourse set by Nordau: prison equals refuge.
Consequently, the Tzabar is nothing less than a tragedy. He was doomed to failure. The Tzabar was there to erect the new Hebraic Ghetto, he was there to repair the trauma of abandonment of the old Jewish Ghetto which was a result of European enlightenment and the trend towards Jewish emancipation. The Tzabar was set to become a new ‘civilized being’. Indeed mission impossible, it aimed simultaneously towards two polar opposites: universalism as well hardcore tribalism. Apparently, the seeds of the Israeli apartheid and the foundations of the ‘security wall’ were established already in the First Zionist Congress.
However, as much as the Tzabar exposes himself as an aggressor and as a self-inflicted historical tragic entity, it is pretty clear that not many people fully understand the conceptual and ideological depth behind that deeply charged word, namely Tzabar. The Hebrew word tzabar is derived from the Arabic word Sabbar, which is the name for the "prickly pear" cactus that is scattered all over rural Palestine. The allusion is to a tenacious, thorny desert plant with a thick hide that conceals a sweet, softer juicy and tasty interior. Israeli-born Jews who call themselves Tzabars are there to insist upon regarding themselves as ‘tough on the outside, yet sweet and tender on the inside’.
The Memory of Land
This very image of the Israeli native Jew as a duality between ‘toughness’ and ‘sweetness’ is now reflected in the topography of the region. The prickly walls that shred Palestine into Bantustans are there to protect the sweet juicy image of ‘cosmopolitan’ Tel Aviv. Tragically, the landscape of shredded Palestine is now a reflection of the Tzabar self-image and an extension of his identity. Israeli aggression towards its neighbours together with self-proclaimed righteousness is nothing but a reflection of the ‘tough and the sweet’ fantasy.
Seemingly, Israelis insist upon regarding themselves as ‘sweet and juicy’. At the end of the day, self-loving has made it into the Jewish common stereotype more than a while ago (as opposed to self-hating, a quality that is attributed solely to the odd Jewish humanists and thinkers). Yet, out of Israel, some people share some serious doubts regarding the sweetness and the juiciness of the Israeli and the Tzabar. We have recently learned that Israeli ministers and IDF officers are now formally advised to refrain from making overseas journeys just to avoid arrests for crimes against humanity.
However, there is something that even the majority of the Tzabars don’t know. It is all about the symbolism of the cactus they are so happy to be called after. This very prickly pear cactus, actually symbolises the Israeli robbery of Palestine.
The Sabbar cactus is actually one of the last remnants of old Palestine on the ground. The Sabbar cactus grows in proximity to areas of human settlement, it is nourished by human waste. The Sabbar was an integral part of the Palestinian villages’ rustic landscape. It was an inherent part of the Palestinian life cycle. Though Israel has managed to erase the traces of the entirety of pre-1948 Palestinian villages and rural life, the Sabbars came back soon after. Wherever you see a cactus in this land, you are more than entitled to deduce that a Palestinian village, farm or a house had been wiped out. The Sabbars are indeed prickly. Yet, their spikes are pointing at the Tzabars who colonise the land and erased its history in the name of Jewish history.
For Palestine (the Land) and Palestinians (the People), the Sabbars are far from being nostalgia, they are subject to short memory and a lively present. They are there on the stolen land craving for the Palestinian Falahs who nourished them all throughout history. They are there on the land maintaining the history of the Palestinian villages. They are there loaded with fruit, awaiting Palestinian kids to come and grab their pears.
As much as the Tzabar proclaims to be ‘tough and sweet’, the Sabbar is there to depict the facts on the ground:
Palestine is a piece of Land, Israel and the Tzabar are just another passing moment in a phantasmic Jewish heroic phase. This phase is now entering its final stage and it will be coming to an end very soon.
The musician, writer and activist, Israeli-born Gilad Atzmon, lives permanently in Great Britain, where he defends the cause of the liberation of the Palestinian people. His most recent novel is My One and Only Love and his most recent recording is Refuge. His site is http://www.gilad.co.uk.
The illustrator of “The Memory of Land”, Spanish-born Juan Kalvellido is a member of Cubadebate, Rebelión and Tlaxcala. His site is http://www.kalvellido.net.
This article is also available on Tlaxcala in an Italian translation by Diego Traversa and a Spanish translation by Manuel Talens also on Rebelion.
SEE GILAD SPEAK ON MONDAY! http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2008/01/gilad-atzmon-event-doesnt-cave-in-just.html
Labels: Atzmon, Israel, jewish identity politics, occupation, Palestine, Tlaxcala, Wall, Zionism
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Ilan Pappe interviewed in Italy
ETHNIC CLEANSING GOES ON AND ISRAEL WANTS YOU TO ACCEPT ITIlan Pappe: the peace process means what piece of Palestine Israel is supposed to annex and what Bantustan is supposed to be given to the Arabs
By Emanuela Irace from il manifesto 23/12/07
Ilan Pappe arrived in Italy without causing any sensational uproar. He is IEMASVO’s guest [1], at the ISIAO’s Roman venue [2], for a conference over Israel-Palestine. Title: “One land, two peoples”.
After having denounced in recent months the impossibility of working peacefully in a hostile milieu, namely at Haifa University, Pappe moved to Britain where he now teaches at Exeter University. Historian of dissent, “revisionist”, born in 1954 in Israel, son of Jews who fled from the Germany of the ‘30s, he has published a half dozen books. Amongst the most recent works there is “The ethnic cleansing of Palestine”, not yet translated into Italian. The core of the exploration by the great historian is the Zionist policy comprised of deportations and compulsory expulsions carried out against the Palestinians during and after the 1948 war, when some 400 villages were evacuated, razed and destroyed in the space of five years.
Professor Pappe, you write of ethnic cleansing, in 1948, as the foundational moment of Israel. In this way you shatter the “topos” of the voluntary exile of the Palestinians.
“The Palestinians were driven out in 1947-48, even though the official historical record speaks about pressure from the Arab leaders who ostensibly persuaded them to flee. The idea of finding a refuge for the Jewish community, persecuted in Europe and annihilated by Nazism, clashed with a native population who was in a phase of redefining itself. A colonial project that practiced ethnic cleansing, tackling the demographic problem beforehand: the existence of 600 thousand Jews against one million Palestinians. In February 1948, before the Arabs decided to oppose it in a military manner, the Israelis had already expelled over 300 thousand native people.”
How was the ethnic cleansing carried out and why had everyone kept silent?
“It lasted eight months and only in October 1948 did the Palestinians start to defend themselves in any serious way. The Zionists’ response to this were the slaughters in the province of Galilee, the confiscation of houses, of bank accounts, of lands. The Israelis erased a people and its culture. Nobody denounced the situation because the World War had just ended. The UN couldn’t admit that one of their resolutions (note of the author: the resolution 181, about Palestine’s partition) was ending up with ethnic cleansing. The Red Cross had already been accused of not having impartially reported what happened in the Nazi concentration camps and the most important media wanted to avoid a clash with the Jews.”
A guilt complex and “diplomacy” in the governments’ actions: and what were the consequences?
“During the Holocaust, the countries that are today criticizing Israel, either were accomplices or they kept silent. These are the reasons why the international community has renounced its right to judge us. It bears guilt which it can no longer find a remedy for. Thus losing, still today, the right to criticize Israel’s government. The consequence is that when the state of Israel was established, nobody blamed it for the ethnic cleansing which it had been founded on, a crime against humanity carried out by those who planned and fulfilled it. From that time on, ethnic cleansing has become an ideology, an infrastructural decoration of the state. A matter that is still topical, since Israel’s primary target is demographic: to seize as much territory as possible with the least number of Arabs living in it as possible.”
By what forms and means does the ethnic cleansing go on?
“Through ‘cleaner and more presentable’ systems. The Minister of Justice has been trying for a month to legitimize the illegal settlements by leaving the outposts in place. We’ve learnt that the High Court of Justice is pondering whether to authorize the government to make a cut-down on fuel supplies, thus leaving Gaza without electricity, where there are a million Palestinians who would find themselves in the situation of not being able to have access to drinking water, since the water-bearing stratum is polluted with sewage and people can drink it only if there is an electrical water purification system. Yet, there are many other ways and examples to annihilate the Palestinians, in primis the Wall, accepted by the US and the EU.”
What is Israel asking from its allies?
“It wants them to accept its model as such. During the 1967 war, 300 thousand Palestinians were expelled from the West Bank, in the last seven years ethnic cleansing has become ‘building the Wall’, that pushes the Palestinians back towards the desert, outside the area of Greater Jerusalem reserved for them. The problem is that the Israeli leadership thinks of its own state by ethnic, racial yardsticks and therefore it is racist by all means. All of this is perceived by the Palestinians and this fact embodies the biggest hindrance to peace between Palestine and Israel. The so-called ’peace process’ is thus reduced to deciding what part of Palestine has to again be annexed by Israel and what tiny part can perhaps be given to the Palestinian population.”
What can be done to reverse this process?
“First of all, we have to change our terminologies. It’s not about a clash between Jews and Palestinians. It’s matter of colonialism. It’s incredible how a colonialist policy can be still accepted in the 21st century. We have to force Israel to comply with the same measures that were imposed on racist South Africa in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. Today there are opinion movements of young Jews, in Europe and in the US, who point the finger at Israel’s colonialist policies and accuse it as a colonialist and racist state, not because it is a state founded by Jews.”
In France and in other European countries there are laws that place restrictions on the right to express “revisionist” opinions towards Israel, yet there are no steps taken against the continuous violation of the UN resolutions.
“I underwent such an experience about two years ago. One of my lectures was interrupted by a group of extremists, composed of Jews like me, who prevented me from continuing. The police came in, to protect rather than to accuse me. As to keeping silent, it’s by far easier for people to think in a conventional manner. One has to have a lot of energy and originality to act in non-conformist ways. For instance, UN Resolution 194 states that the Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their land. Yet it’s much easier to do nothing and keep thinking in the usual identical formula.”
Are these the very reasons why the Italian left goes on proposing the “two peoples, two states” model?
“Certainly, the Italian left isn’t courageous. Yet it has no choice but to change, since the situation on the ground is becoming catastrophic. If Israel invades Gaza, as it’s quite likely to do, many Palestinians will be killed and yet the situation won’t change. Gaza is a big prison, and what might happen, just as in many prison uprisings, is: the army will restore the ’law and order’ by beating and killing. It’s bound to be a slaughterhouse but as soon as they leave the situation will remain exactly the same.”
What would the outcome of a “two peoples, one state” formula be instead?
“It’s necessary that the populations accept one another, that the Jews acknowledge their Arab neighbours and brothers and vice-versa. Not before they both recognize history for what it has been and only after they both shoulder their own responsibilities. Recognition, responsibility and mutual acceptance. Only by following this way a single state may be fulfilled, one depending on the “one person, one vote” principle and where citizens, in spite of not loving each other, may coexist. It’s a project that can be achieved if we are allowed to continue to criticise and prevent the crimes Israel is continuously carrying out and if the disinvestment campaign goes on being applied as was done with South Africa.”
Translated by Diego Traversa and revised by Mary Rizzo, members of Tlaxcala , network of translators for linguistic diversity.
Italian version at:
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/23-Dicembre-2007/art36.html
notes:
1) IEMASVO: Enrico Mattei Institute of High Studies on Mid-East
2) ISIAO: Italian Institute for Africa and East
Labels: "transfer", boycott, human rights violations, Israel, Italy, journalism, Nakba, occupation, Palestine, Tlaxcala, Zionism
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Szavanna, African Blog Carnival and Misc.....
Today is a slight diversion from the usual post.... I would like to highlight a wonderful blog that celebrates the best of Africa, its music, its genial people and its vitality. Szavanna blog is worth a visit. Read, enjoy and check out the great videos the charming and creative webmaster finds for our pleasure.
The African Blog Carnival is also a wonderful place to visit, and it seeks contributions for the next issue, coming up soon.
Misc: Yes, Tlaxcala had some technical difficulties, but it is back online, and at the start of the coming week will have dozens of new articles in many languages to check out. Some good stuff there, things you simply can't find anywhere else (unless you read ten languages.) We find and translate it for you!! We always seek dedicated volunteers to join us, as translators or revisors or (usually) both.
Comments on this blog: Yes. I took the comments down, because there were a few spammers and people with psychological problems who were using it to vent their disturbed minds by harassing, threatening and insulting others here and especially they were using the nicknames of others to hurt those they disagreed with, which is worse than infantile. I got about 15 requests to put the comments back up, but if people want to comment, they now must sign up for the Peacepalestine Forum, where users are moderated and those who abuse the forum will not be allowed to continue. Yes, I know that the signup is in Italian, but the procedure is quite simple, and there is also a post on this blog with instructions if people have difficulty. Everyone is welcome, as long as they respect the others. It will take just one or two minutes to register, so anyone missing the banter here, which will probably not reappear for some time, will have to get used to going to another page for it. I tried to find a compromise, and Blogger and Haloscan do not guarantee real time security of Identities, so this was the only choice I had.
Labels: activism, Africa, friends, good news, journalism, Tlaxcala
Friday, August 3, 2007
Translators against imperialism! This is a call-up!
510 days, going strong..... Tlaxcala!
On this 16 July, 2007, Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity, comes to its 510th day of existence. During our first 509 days of activity, we have published and disseminated more than 3,000 articles, essentially translated by us, into 10 languages. Each day, an average of 5,000 people visit our website and many thousands of others read the translations on the sites and blogs that our friends kindly publish.
Our adventure is an experience that is, if not unique, rare, and as such, deserves some reflection: in our first 500 days of life, we can already make these observations:
Yes, it is possible to create independent media without capital. Yes, it is possible to create tools of communication, information and exchange that escape the control of all power groups, be they political or financial. Yes, it is possible to cross borders and to make cracks in the walls that divide.
Yes, it is possible for people of completely different backgrounds, characters, interests, ages, projects and experiences to cooperate with one another, to establish creative synergy.
Yes, it is possible to work charitably (without financial retribution) and to at the same time do work of high professional quality.
No, we are not the best, and we still have much work to do so that we can improve, no, we are not in competition with others.
What are our aspirations?
We aim to extend the existing free zones in the cyber-world and in the material world.
We aim to be able to translate and give voice to thought in a growing number of languages.
Currently, we translate into a dozen languages, but in the entire world, more than 5,000 of them are spoken. The road that stretches before us, therefore is still quite long, if we wish to put in contact with one another, all people who fight for freedom and justice, wherever they are: from Chile to China, from Nunavuk to Mozambique, from Greenland to the Tierra del Fuego.
We are dreaming of (and shaping) a new figure of translator.
In Tlaxcala, we are not only translators. We are also writers, militants, detectives, journalists, artists. The youngest among us is 22, and the oldest is 77. Through the daily practice of our work, we are constantly learning. Slowly, but certainly, each one of us is transforming him- and herself into a polyvalent activist, discovering new information, new approaches, new techniques, and especially, new horizons.
We aspire to be a school for one another. We believe that our experience can be useful to the numerous human collectives in the resistance movements throughout the world.
Tlaxcala is a network of translators for linguistic diversity. Each one of these words is important:
Network: this stands for a form of horizontal democracy without hierarchies, without central direction, without “up” and “down”, where each person is free to take his or her own initiative and to associate with the others. It doesn’t need directors, but simple coordinators.
Translators: each one of us masters at least two languages, and understands some others. We can consider ourselves a sort of peddlers, contrabandists, transgressors, agents of what José Marti called transthinking* , bridge-builders, throwers of bottles to the sea, with messages that we hope will reach some destination, emitters-receptors-disseminators.
Diversity: acting in favour of linguistic diversity, but not only linguistic, also cultural, philosophical, political, we are firmly convinced that the tendency towards one-language, one-way of thinking, one-art, one-party, one-faith, and so on, damages mankind as much as pesticides or genetically modified organisms threatens life.
Linguistic: it is through language that the human is fully human.
In a word, Tlaxcala struggles for “a world containing all other worlds”, to rephrase the wonderful Zapatista expression.
On our 510th day of our existence, we ask for all of those who are reading this message to reflect upon the manner that they may be able to contribute to rendering our project better, stronger, more effective, more useful, more attractive. We are still young and we have great ambition and great needs.
*"Yo creo que traducir es transpensar ... traducir es pensar en español lo que en su idioma ellos (los autores) pensaron ... traducir es estudiar, analizar, ahondar." “I think that translating is transthinking… translating is thinking in Spanish what they (the authors) thought in their own language… translating is studying, analysing, digging” (José Marti, combatant, poet, journalist and… translator!)
Source: Tlaxcala
Original article published on 16 July 2007
Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This article may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source and author are cited.URL of this article on Tlaxcala: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=3436&lg=en
Labels: activism, call to action, friends, good news, journalism, Tlaxcala
