[antiwar-van] Is Israel Jewish?

Sat Nov 13 21:48:04 PST 2004

More indignation from Israeli Jews about the disgraceful behaviours of the
Zionist supremacists.
Again you will not find such reports in the North American media.
Hanna

-----Original Message-----
From: Gush Shalom [mailto:otherisr at actcom.co.il]
Sent: November 13, 2004 5:59 PM
To: sample press-n
Subject: [GushShalom] Eyewitness funeral report + Avnery article &
interview + ad

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033  www.gush-shalom.org/

1] Rejoice not..
2] The vitality of the source
   eyewitness report from the funeral
3] Missing Arafat
   Avnery interviewed by Ari Shavit
4] Gush ad in Ha'aretz
 					~~~
1] Rejoice not..

Uri Avnery
13.11.04

http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article330.html
òáøéú/ Hebrew
http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article330_heb.html

      "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be
glad when he stumbleth, Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him." This
biblical injunction (Proverbs 24:17) is one of the most profound Jewish
moral tenets.
     In this connection, Israel is very far from being a "Jewish State",
as it likes to define itself. The disgusting filth poured out over Yasser
Arafat during the last few days in practically all the Israeli media
makes one ashamed to be an Israeli.
     The demonization of the Palestinian national leader, which has been
the center-piece of Israeli propaganda for decades, continues even after
his death. It seems that 37 years as occupiers have bestialized our
society and left it bereft even of common decency. Ministers and
fishmongers, TV icons and university professors, "leftists" and outright
fascists tried to outdo each other in utter vulgarity.
     Never was the huge gap in the perceptions of the two peoples more
striking than on the day of Arafat's funeral. While Israeli commentators
and "experts on Arab affairs" - almost all of them veterans of the
various intelligence agencies - described the late leader as a veritable
monster, the epitome of cruelty, viciousness and corruption - a hundred
thousand grief-stricken mourners in Ramallah exploded in a burst of
emotions that nearly threw the funeral into pandemonium. If the Israeli
army had not surrounded and isolated all Palestinian towns that day, more
than a million people would have been there.
     Gush Shalom, the only Israeli organization that openly mourned
alongside the Palestinian people, decided to send a delegation to the
funeral. All of us activists, women and men, wore on our breast a big
sticker displaying the Israeli and Palestinian flags. The sheer pressure
of the multitude split us up among the crowd. Throughout the hours of the
funeral, we felt completely safe, even when thousands of shots were fired
around us into the air to express grief and bereavement. We encountered
hundreds of expressions of gratitude and friendship from Palestinians of
all ages and stations in life.
     I was in the middle of the melee when the helicopter bearing the
coffin arrived from Cairo. Standing beside the grave among the
Palestinian ministers, religious dignitaries and diplomats, I was vividly
aware of the intense emotions of the huge crowd around us when the
helicopter touched down. I remembered the scene of Gamal Abd-al-Nasser's
funeral in 1970, when the masses surged forward and literally captured
the body of their beloved leader from the soldiers, and felt that this
was going to happen here at any moment. And it did.
     No Arab leader - and very few world leaders - evoke such profound
love and admiration among their people as this man, whom Israelis
consider a veritable monster in human form. The Palestinians trusted him,
relied on him, let him make all the big decisions that demanded courage,
derived from him the strength to defy the intolerable conditions under a
brutal occupation. Now, suddenly, incredibly, they found themselves
alone, like orphaned waifs, in a world changed by the death of a man who
left a huge gap behind him.
     What will happen now? Arafat has brought his people from the edge of
oblivion to the threshold of independence. But the battle for liberation
is still far from over. The new leadership will have to face all the
problems that confronted Arafat, without the towering authority of
Arafat.
     Abu Mazen, Abu-Ala and their colleagues are upright, decent people.
I have known them for years, mostly from meetings with Arafat. But they
have no deep roots in their people. It may be years before a strong
leadership emerges.
     At the moment, the Palestinians are united in their resolve to show
the world that they can overcome this crisis in a civilized and
responsible manner. This could have been a chance for Israel (and the
United States, of course) to open a new chapter in relations with the
Palestinian people.
     What could have been done? Well, there should have been a show of
goodwill with such gestures as the mass release of Palestinian prisoners,
including the much respected Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been
sentenced to serve five consecutive life sentences. Sieges should have
been lifted and army operations at least reduced. Peace negotiations
should have been announced for the near future.
     The first test was, of course, the funeral itself. Arafat should
have been buried in Jerusalem, according to his wishes. His interment in
Ramallah will only strengthen the resolve of the Palestinians to fight
until they are able to re-bury him there. The Minister of Justice, Tommy
Lapid, an extreme rightist posing as a liberal, reached new heights of
vulgarity when he declared that "Jewish Kings, not Arab terrorists, are
buried in Jerusalem". Well, Menachem Begin, a terrorist who became a
"king" and was buried in Jerusalem, could have served as a precedent.
     But the most important thing is to enable the Palestinians to hold
elections within 60 days of the death of the President, as their
constitution demands. Actually, my last conversation with Arafat, a few
weeks ago (when, by the way, he looked quite healthy) concerned
elections. We agreed that they are impracticable while the Israeli army
routinely assassinates potential candidates and makes movement between
towns and villages almost impossible. How will candidates - if they
remain alive - canvass their voters? How will they distribute material,
hold meetings and debate policies, with tanks in the background and
helicopter gunships hovering overhead?
     This situation must be changed at once. All troops must be withdrawn
at least from the areas under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian
Authority (so-called Areas A and B, according to the Oslo agreements),
freedom of movement restored, the assassination campaign stopped and,
most importantly, international observers invited .
     Will this happen? Probably not. Ariel Sharon has absolutely no
interest in sitting opposite a democratically elected leadership enjoying
international legitimacy and respect, perhaps even weakening his control
over President Bush and obstructing his plan for the annexation of most
of the West Bank . He will do everything to prevent elections, and, of
course, blame the Palestinians.
     As always, it is advisable to ignore what Sharon says - and pay
close attention to what he does
					~~~

2] The vitality of the source - eyewitness report from the funeral

http://www.geocities.com/keller_adam/gu_no_linebreaks.html

Going to Ramallah through the Bitunya Checkpoint gives the clear feeling
of entering a prison. We had to go by foot through a complicated system
of high walls, barriers and security checks. At least this day we were
not refused entry altogether, as we had become used to in the past years.

The soldiers looked at us with a kind of grudging respect as we lined up
to sign the legal waiver. ("Knowing the dangers I declare that from my
own free will I take all risks upon myself, and give up any claims
whatsoever towards the state of Israel, the Ministry of Defence and their
employees and soldiers in connection with any bodily damage or death,
caused by my presence in the closed area.") Activist Edith Ohri took the
soldiers by surprise by adding "except if I am shot at by the Israeli
army" in a handwritten reservation.

We were through but without means of transport - the Gush Shalom bus from
Tel-Aviv and the bus with Jerusalem activists had to be left behind at
the military parking lot. But a phonecall to our Palestinian contacts
soon brought a convoy of vans, bearing posters of Arafat and the
inscription "official delegation" taking us and a group of Arab
dignitaries from the Galilee to Ramallah's city center.

Nearly every passing car sported an Arafat poster, and the small children
at the street corners were selling them: Arafat smiling, Arafat saluting,
Arafat and the Jerusalem mosques, Arafat with president Chirac and the
crossed flags of Palestine and France...

On the radio, we heard reports from Cairo, where diplomats and world
leaders were paying hommage to Arafat in a rather sterile ceremony.
At the gates of the Muqata - a place well-known to us from our visits to
the beleaguered Arafat - there had already gathered a considerable crowd,
though it was still hours before the helicopter could be expected.
Our identity as Israelis was manifest from the round two-flag stickers we
all wore, and which were very much sought after by the Palestinian
youths; we were prepared for that and distributed quite a lot.

We were treated as VIPs, and the Palestinian police made valiant efforts
to let us in, through the narrowly opened gate, while keeping the rest of
the crowd out. The youths around us would have none of that, and that the
fact that so many of them wore our stickers made it difficult for the
police to distinguish. The crowding became unbearable; some of us had
gotten in, others decided to give up the privilege and stay outside. The
youngsters however were relentless. Some started climbing  over the gate
itself, others made risky acrobatic feats of clambering via the half-
ruined buildings (reminders of Israeli bulldozers). It became a wild
melee between police on the one side and the ever increasing number of
Palestinian youngsters trying to get in. Outnumbered and not using other
means than their bare hands the police were eventually unable to prevent
the gate from being forced open.

"With our blood and souls we'll redeem you Abu Ammar!" chanted the crowd
pouring in. Palestinian national flags were waved in enormous profusion,
among them a French and a Canadian flag of international volunteers and
the banner of an Italian trade-union. Women in traditional clothes, who
were there too, were seen crying. Forward we marched through past the
multi-storey Arafat banners covering all buildings. The grave had been
dug at the far end of an open space within the compound - all buildings
which had been there having been razed to the ground by the IDF in 2002.
Now this space, the size of several stadiums, was filled to the absolute
limit. People were clinging to the tops of trees, and every building all
around was covered with swarms of onlookers. Suddenly, fingers were
pointing into the blue sky, where some had already discerned approaching
black dots: "He is coming! He is coming!" It was a surrealistic moment,
the helicopters bringing Arafat's coffin down from heaven. "Yasser,
Yasser", came the cry from tens of thousands of throats. A lot of
shooting in the air, and the smell of cordite. Though not fond of this
ritual, we realized its meaning after two years in which the Israeli army
adopted the habit of shooting to death any Palestinian seen with a gun.

The people who saw it on live broadcast saw it better than we: the crowds
surging to the opening helicopter doors, straining to touch the coffin.
But the emotional spontaneity did not become chaos, and some time later
a car with the coffin and green-uniform exultant police sitting on top
passed near where we stood.

Indeed, some of the planned ceremony did not take place, but we have
witnessed something much more meaningful: the vitality of the source upon
which Arafat's leadership drew, the love of an oppressed people for the
symbol of their struggle to be free. Without grassroots struggle there
would never have been the Palestinian Authority, and the people now in
charge know that for a new mandate, that is where they have to turn.

Adam Keller & Beate Zilversmidt

photos
http://www.gush-shalom.org/actions/action12-11-2004.html
òáøéú/ Hebrew
http://www.gush-shalom.org/actions/action12-11-2004-heb.html
				~~~

3] Missing Arafat, Avnery interviewed by Ari Shavit

Uri Avnery is unshaken in his belief that Yasser Arafat was a giant, and
a partner for Israel - its only opportunity, in fact, which Israel
missed. The angry young men in Jenin don't care about Abu Ala or Abu
Mazen. In effect, Sharon and Bush have left the field to bin Laden.
[Opening caption by Ha'aretz].

Read the full text in
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/500556.html
Hebrew
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=499977
					~~~

4] Gush ad in Ha'aretz

òáøéú áàúø / Hebrew on the website
www.gush-shalom.org

Gush Shalom shares the mourning

Of the Palestinian people

Upon the passing away of

 Yasser Arafat
 Father of the Oslo agreement

Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Partner in the peace that was missed

[published as ad in Ha'aretz, Nov. 12]

--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/russian/ (Russian site started with flash
presentation)

with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more

N.B.:
On the Gush Shalom website links for
Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish

In order to receive Gush Shalom's Hebrew-language
press releases mail to:
pressheb-subscribe at gush-shalom.org

If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece
of paper to:

Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel

or ask us for charities in your country which receive
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom

Please, add your email address where to send our
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at
request only.