In more than one country (including quite a few European ones unfortunately) there is strong movement of official, often state-sponsored bodies against Israel.
Often the members of such bodies say they are not Antisemitic but purely anti-Israeli, and anybody can criticize any country, isn't it so?
No, it isn't so obvious. Anybody can criticize any country (or rather its authorities) provided the facts are not distorted, the state is not singled out because of ethnicity/ religion, the boycott if one is proposed doesn't embrace all ideas/ products/ thoughts just because they are developed in this country, no matter what they present. And such is the case for Israel.
Last year the Scottish University of Dundee banned water from Eden
Springs on the campus, because - it claimed - “it steals water from the
Salukia spring in the occupied Syrian Golan, where it is bottled in the
illegal Israeli settlement of Katzrin”.
Another Scottish
provincial council near Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, in 2011 prohibited
the purchase of English translations of Israeli books and the
distribution of these books in public libraries throughout the council's
jurisdiction.
One's memory went back to the German spring of
1933, when students, professors and librarians worked on a list of
“degenerate” Jewish books. The list included Stefan Zweig, Erich Maria
Remarque, Thomas Mann and Heinrich Heine. In the largest event outside
Berlin, 18,000 Jewish books were destroyed
It is two years since
the Dunbartonshire Council prohibition made the headlines. What is the
current status of Israeli books in the Scottish libraries?
The
Dunbartonshire decision marks the first time that a region in Europe has
been cleansed of the presence of Israeli books. It does not matter what
ideas are contained in these books, it is the bare fact of their origin
which is enough for them to be banned. It seems that the
shocking announcement worked.
In the library’s catalogue, David
Grossman appears with just two titles, bought before the banning edict;
Amos Oz is present with two and Abraham Yehoshua with one, as are Nobel
Laureate Shai Agnon and Yoram Kaniuk.
There are no entries at all
for Batya Gur, Dorit Rabinyan, Sami Michael, Naomi Ragen (a U.S. born
writer who lives in Israel), Yehuda Amichai, Orly Castel-Bloom, Dan
Pagis, Emil Habibi and Michal Govrin.
I have already written about decision of Irish teachers' trade union to boycott Israel. Somebody might think there are no other countries for Scottish or Irish universities which may be problematic. They cooperate with China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran - no hard feeling, nice democratic countries, ain't they?
So how is it that so many countries may call themselves Muslim or Christian (till very recently Catholic teaching was law in Ireland) but the single one in the whole world, one of the smallest existing that calls herself Jewish is scolded for it?
So how is it that the only democracy in Middle East is shown as cruel state (having Arab scientists, judges - including in Supreme Court or doctors - including new medical director of Hadassa Medical Center)? And countries persecuting women, Christians, Jews (or any non-Muslims for that matter, try being Catholic or Scotch Protestant in Saudi Arabia for example), homosexuals and teaching their children hatred and preaching destruction of this only one Jewish state are nice partners for those unis? (Dublin based RCSI cooperates with Bahrain for years including time when authorities was shooting protesters in the streets 2 years ago)?
So how is it that no cultural boycott was ever in existence against culture of one country per se (including apartheid South Africa where it was limited to state sponsored activities and even them not totally, and boycott was based on the thought behind it and not the citizenship of the author)? And there is and never was anything like apartheid in Israel.
How is it that continent with such shameful record in persecution of Jews, where still are people remembering burning Jewish books, burning Jewish shops and synagogues, burning PEOPLE themselves now turns Antisemitic again?
As it is not anti-Israeli because of sth. It is Antisemitic!!!!! Killing Palestinians by Syrians is fine, killing Christians in Egypt is fine, as in Nigeria, genocides in Somalia and Darfur were fine, Tibetan suffering is sad, but Chine is oh so great (and may punish Europe banning export of socks) and one tiny, democratic nation is the world's (and Scottish and Irish unis) greatest problem as it is Jewish nation?
It is pure Antisemitism like in time of black death, like in time of nationalism being born, like in time of II WW, just redressed.
Thursday 25 April 2013
Wednesday 17 April 2013
Rising in Warsaw ghetto
Tomorrow will be the 70th anniversary of the beginning og Warsaw ghetto rising.
The handful of Jews left after the majority was taken into death camps decided they want to die fighting. For a month the group of people who emerged from ghetto's 3-years hell, saw their community murdered and desperately lacked in weaponry fought against exclusively well trained and equipped army.
The report by Jurgen Stroop to Nazi authorities after the end of the rising, which served as a proof at his trial (Stroop was sentenced to death and hanged in Warsaw prison in 1952) will be published shortly.
Main celebrations will take place this Friday to Sunday.
I want us all to remember heroes of the Warsaw ghetto rising.
The handful of Jews left after the majority was taken into death camps decided they want to die fighting. For a month the group of people who emerged from ghetto's 3-years hell, saw their community murdered and desperately lacked in weaponry fought against exclusively well trained and equipped army.
The report by Jurgen Stroop to Nazi authorities after the end of the rising, which served as a proof at his trial (Stroop was sentenced to death and hanged in Warsaw prison in 1952) will be published shortly.
Main celebrations will take place this Friday to Sunday.
I want us all to remember heroes of the Warsaw ghetto rising.
Terrorism
Today I want to share with you somewhat more general reflection.
It considers Israel and Jewish communities around the world, but it considers us all, no matter who or where.
As throughout the years I have heard some most ridiculous opinions about terrorists (always in connection to one chosen example) from otherwise nice, helpful people I want to share my opinion here.
I will start with general things and only at the end put more emphasis on connections to Israel and Jewish communities.
Terrorism is really not so young as most people tend to think, it is old but the form and the intensity of it evolve. It is also connected to a crime as old as humankind - blackmail. It is threat to something valuable to the person/ group targeted in order to force him/ her/ them to behave in certain way.
At least that is how it started as things got worse.
Let's look at terrorism in kind of 'rational' way (yes, decision makers do it or so I suppose) - people who really are targeted are meaningless, the aim is fear and terror among survivors and specially intended persons (kings/ presidents/ governments/ company chairmen/ public opinion - you name it) in order to provoke certain behavior. So it is for - say - external market. For internal one it is showing the force of one's group of criminals and making publicity for oneself.
For example - communist terrorists (and there were many throughout XX century) were using terror to: grab the power (revolution in Russia was in February 1917, in October /or according to our calender in November/ it was coup d'etat), force Western countries into certain decisions or force them not to make/ apply them and on internal market it was way to induce fear so deep it made people helpless - purges were not for dead, they were means to achieve goal - terror among living stopping them from any kind of activity. And this proved successful.
So it was with IRA, ETA, Che Guevara guerrillas, Black September, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban, you name it.
Beside this crazy 'rationality' there is also pure hatred. The mechanism of terror in some circumstances is easy to create, and may be thought as some kind of rational warfare. It is always hard, nearly impossible to stop. That is so desperate. Once we create irrational hatred, dehumanize enemy (invented or real doesn't really matter), raise children in hatred, teach it - it is impossible to say: OK, no we change as we achieved what we wanted/ circumstances changed/ some other paths are more profitable. Any terrorist organization that would try to do it would be the first victim of the policy change. So it has to be continued, for inventors there is no other way of keeping power and popularity and sometimes even life, for those who were raised in it and for it it is the way of living, and as often they see the world in one dimension (like the servants of North Korean regime) they won't even see any other option, thus the point is reached in which terrorism claimed hostages on both sides.
I tried to picture it theoretically, so it may sound to you here and there as if I was trying to understand. And in a way I try as to know your enemy is wise, but I can think of nothing more abominable than terrorism!!!!! As what it really shows - always, no matter who, on which side, with what point of view and so on - is hatred and contempt for people (ALL people) and liberty. And those are values I cherish the most!
Let's start with liberty: ANY terrorist organization, ANYWHERE in the world believes it has the one and only recipe for the world. Be it communism, divided Ireland, united Ireland, divided Spain, united Spain, Islamism, Wahhabi doesn't matter. The recipe is: you are with us or we will kill you (and sometimes or at later stages if you are with us but not radically enough we will kill you). Simple: you, human beings are but small parts in our worldview, of no value and certainly not suppose to have any choice as to beliefs, point of view, friendships, thoughts even. Theoretically the one who described it best was George Orwell in 1984, unfortunately in reality whole communities were and are subjected to living in the world without freedom, where freedom is the most dangerous crime! To show few examples (contemporary, the past and present lists are long) so live people in North Korea, Cuba, Gaza (because of Hamas, nothing to do with Israel). But there are more.
As for people: people for terrorists are things. They have nothing but contempt for them. Some are enemies (be it Americans, Israelis, Jews, Christians, unionists, Protestants, Catholics, any others). Others are expendable. To hide behind one's own women and children is to show them contempt (think: ammunition and weaponry magazines in hospitals, schools, houses, it has been done), to aim at random people in terrorist attacks is to show them contempt (think about hostages on planes, participants of sport events like in Boston, people who may be victims of rockets fired from Gaza - may be Jews, may be Palestinians, tourists or even Hamas supporters from abroad, it is indiscriminate, think about children at school in Bieslan or Ma'alot). To go with explosives on one's own body in order to die killing is to show contempt for oneself and to order it to show contempt for one's own people! (children included).
So there is nothing but hatred and contempt in terrorism.
Sometimes terrorists are talked about or even written about in media as liberty fighters gone wrong. They are as far from it as can be. They are anti-liberty fighters perfectly successful and on the right track (from their point of view).
Also there is nothing about being poor in terrorism, it is always ideological or political. Few words were so connected as multimillionaire Osama ben-Laden. War is expensive, it may deprive people around of their resources but terrorists are usually well financed.
Now, when terror strikes Israel or Jews around the world (as it often unfortunately does) it is more than even repeated that perpetrators are terrorists but at the same time some kind of liberty fighters gone wrong (they repeat the world Palestine over and over). Read above and think: striking Jewish children at French school, striking civilians, Arabs and Jews alike, tourists sometimes with rockets from Gaza, striking Olympic team (Munich), striking children at school (Ma'alot) or Holocaust survivors at religious feast (Netanya), killing older American invalid on chair as he happened to be a Jew (Achille Lauro) - is this the fight for anything (but just killing)? Does it show interest in fighting for something or just shows contempt for people and will to kill them, dispose of them (same spirit Nazis have shown).
Jews and Israelis are one of main victims of terrorist activities, though at the same time one of the most experienced fighters of terrorism (out of necessity). But think please about Bieslan children in Georgia, Israeli children in Ma'alot, Boston marathon victims, victims of IRA, victims of Burma's terror against Muslims (there they are targeted more than average) and please remember: nothing in terrorism is and never was or will be about freedom fighting - unless it is fighting AGAINST freedom of every single one of us.
It considers Israel and Jewish communities around the world, but it considers us all, no matter who or where.
As throughout the years I have heard some most ridiculous opinions about terrorists (always in connection to one chosen example) from otherwise nice, helpful people I want to share my opinion here.
I will start with general things and only at the end put more emphasis on connections to Israel and Jewish communities.
Terrorism is really not so young as most people tend to think, it is old but the form and the intensity of it evolve. It is also connected to a crime as old as humankind - blackmail. It is threat to something valuable to the person/ group targeted in order to force him/ her/ them to behave in certain way.
At least that is how it started as things got worse.
Let's look at terrorism in kind of 'rational' way (yes, decision makers do it or so I suppose) - people who really are targeted are meaningless, the aim is fear and terror among survivors and specially intended persons (kings/ presidents/ governments/ company chairmen/ public opinion - you name it) in order to provoke certain behavior. So it is for - say - external market. For internal one it is showing the force of one's group of criminals and making publicity for oneself.
For example - communist terrorists (and there were many throughout XX century) were using terror to: grab the power (revolution in Russia was in February 1917, in October /or according to our calender in November/ it was coup d'etat), force Western countries into certain decisions or force them not to make/ apply them and on internal market it was way to induce fear so deep it made people helpless - purges were not for dead, they were means to achieve goal - terror among living stopping them from any kind of activity. And this proved successful.
So it was with IRA, ETA, Che Guevara guerrillas, Black September, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban, you name it.
Beside this crazy 'rationality' there is also pure hatred. The mechanism of terror in some circumstances is easy to create, and may be thought as some kind of rational warfare. It is always hard, nearly impossible to stop. That is so desperate. Once we create irrational hatred, dehumanize enemy (invented or real doesn't really matter), raise children in hatred, teach it - it is impossible to say: OK, no we change as we achieved what we wanted/ circumstances changed/ some other paths are more profitable. Any terrorist organization that would try to do it would be the first victim of the policy change. So it has to be continued, for inventors there is no other way of keeping power and popularity and sometimes even life, for those who were raised in it and for it it is the way of living, and as often they see the world in one dimension (like the servants of North Korean regime) they won't even see any other option, thus the point is reached in which terrorism claimed hostages on both sides.
I tried to picture it theoretically, so it may sound to you here and there as if I was trying to understand. And in a way I try as to know your enemy is wise, but I can think of nothing more abominable than terrorism!!!!! As what it really shows - always, no matter who, on which side, with what point of view and so on - is hatred and contempt for people (ALL people) and liberty. And those are values I cherish the most!
Let's start with liberty: ANY terrorist organization, ANYWHERE in the world believes it has the one and only recipe for the world. Be it communism, divided Ireland, united Ireland, divided Spain, united Spain, Islamism, Wahhabi doesn't matter. The recipe is: you are with us or we will kill you (and sometimes or at later stages if you are with us but not radically enough we will kill you). Simple: you, human beings are but small parts in our worldview, of no value and certainly not suppose to have any choice as to beliefs, point of view, friendships, thoughts even. Theoretically the one who described it best was George Orwell in 1984, unfortunately in reality whole communities were and are subjected to living in the world without freedom, where freedom is the most dangerous crime! To show few examples (contemporary, the past and present lists are long) so live people in North Korea, Cuba, Gaza (because of Hamas, nothing to do with Israel). But there are more.
As for people: people for terrorists are things. They have nothing but contempt for them. Some are enemies (be it Americans, Israelis, Jews, Christians, unionists, Protestants, Catholics, any others). Others are expendable. To hide behind one's own women and children is to show them contempt (think: ammunition and weaponry magazines in hospitals, schools, houses, it has been done), to aim at random people in terrorist attacks is to show them contempt (think about hostages on planes, participants of sport events like in Boston, people who may be victims of rockets fired from Gaza - may be Jews, may be Palestinians, tourists or even Hamas supporters from abroad, it is indiscriminate, think about children at school in Bieslan or Ma'alot). To go with explosives on one's own body in order to die killing is to show contempt for oneself and to order it to show contempt for one's own people! (children included).
So there is nothing but hatred and contempt in terrorism.
Sometimes terrorists are talked about or even written about in media as liberty fighters gone wrong. They are as far from it as can be. They are anti-liberty fighters perfectly successful and on the right track (from their point of view).
Also there is nothing about being poor in terrorism, it is always ideological or political. Few words were so connected as multimillionaire Osama ben-Laden. War is expensive, it may deprive people around of their resources but terrorists are usually well financed.
Now, when terror strikes Israel or Jews around the world (as it often unfortunately does) it is more than even repeated that perpetrators are terrorists but at the same time some kind of liberty fighters gone wrong (they repeat the world Palestine over and over). Read above and think: striking Jewish children at French school, striking civilians, Arabs and Jews alike, tourists sometimes with rockets from Gaza, striking Olympic team (Munich), striking children at school (Ma'alot) or Holocaust survivors at religious feast (Netanya), killing older American invalid on chair as he happened to be a Jew (Achille Lauro) - is this the fight for anything (but just killing)? Does it show interest in fighting for something or just shows contempt for people and will to kill them, dispose of them (same spirit Nazis have shown).
Jews and Israelis are one of main victims of terrorist activities, though at the same time one of the most experienced fighters of terrorism (out of necessity). But think please about Bieslan children in Georgia, Israeli children in Ma'alot, Boston marathon victims, victims of IRA, victims of Burma's terror against Muslims (there they are targeted more than average) and please remember: nothing in terrorism is and never was or will be about freedom fighting - unless it is fighting AGAINST freedom of every single one of us.
Monday 15 April 2013
Jewish Motifs in Warsaw
From 23rd till 28th of April in Warsaw (cinema Muranow and the Museum of Polish Jews History) there will take place the 9th edition of Film Festival "Jewish Motifs".
Films which will be shown this year will be both fictional and documentary (among others the story of Hava Nagila song - on a lighter note or documentary about descendents of Nazi atrocities perpetrators on serious one).
Films will deal with history and contemporary live both in Israel and diaspora (showing e.g. Punk Jews - movie about punk subculture in Israel).
All the events are free of charge.
Welcome!
Films which will be shown this year will be both fictional and documentary (among others the story of Hava Nagila song - on a lighter note or documentary about descendents of Nazi atrocities perpetrators on serious one).
Films will deal with history and contemporary live both in Israel and diaspora (showing e.g. Punk Jews - movie about punk subculture in Israel).
All the events are free of charge.
Welcome!
Friday 12 April 2013
How to boyctt Israel - a guide
As so many insist on boycotting Israeli products (lately as I wrote Irish Teachers' Union called for one) here is a guide how to do it properly. Maybe boycotters will stop using laptops, mobile phones and many medicines - after all one needs to suffer a little for one's principals, doesn't he?
So, here's a guide how to do it:
properly
So, here's a guide how to do it:
properly
Tuesday 9 April 2013
The Teachers Union of Ireland propagates anti-Semitism
Teachers Union in Ireland support boycott of Israel regarding cultural and academic collaboration with Israel, including the exchange
of scientists, students and academic personalities, as well as all
cooperation in research programmes.
One could pile statistic upon statistic, but that would be a vain effort when it comes to minds like those of the members of the Teachers Union of Ireland, who voted unanimously on the boycott; not one soul had the wit or independence of mind to object or to question.
I am sorry about it as I loved Irish primary school which my son attended and he loved it too. But living in Dublin I could not help hearing antisemitic remarks in church (yes, I truly did, during the sermon!!!!!), seeing calling for boycott of Israel at the University, experiencing furious attacks on Israeli Film Festival (see my first entries)..... It was such a fresh air to be at Jewish Culture Festival in Kracow where everybody was having fun (the biggest one in Europe) or attending open lecture by professor Szewach Weiss in Warsaw, at street level, with open windows (summertime) while in Dublin I had to enter small festival through airport-like security (!!!!).
I met many fine people in Ireland, I spend few good years there so I'm even more sad reading it.
Mr. Roche, head of the union, pointed to the desperate situation of Palestinian education under occupation saying that: “Palestinians are struggling for the right to education under extremely difficult conditions. They are eager for it, as shown by the large numbers of students in third level education inside and outside the occupied Palestinian territories. Education has always been a target of the Israeli occupation….”A few facts. When Israel took over the West Bank in 1967 literacy was about 88 percent; now it is about 98 percent, according to UNICEF.
One could pile statistic upon statistic, but that would be a vain effort when it comes to minds like those of the members of the Teachers Union of Ireland, who voted unanimously on the boycott; not one soul had the wit or independence of mind to object or to question.
I am sorry about it as I loved Irish primary school which my son attended and he loved it too. But living in Dublin I could not help hearing antisemitic remarks in church (yes, I truly did, during the sermon!!!!!), seeing calling for boycott of Israel at the University, experiencing furious attacks on Israeli Film Festival (see my first entries)..... It was such a fresh air to be at Jewish Culture Festival in Kracow where everybody was having fun (the biggest one in Europe) or attending open lecture by professor Szewach Weiss in Warsaw, at street level, with open windows (summertime) while in Dublin I had to enter small festival through airport-like security (!!!!).
I met many fine people in Ireland, I spend few good years there so I'm even more sad reading it.
Sunday 7 April 2013
Yom HaShoah
Tomorrow is the day - 27th of Nissan - of remembrance of Shoah. Many will be remembering whole villages and towns that disappeared... 6 million perished, 98% of European Jewry. And today so many know little or next to nothing about that history and still dare to trivialize it by naming this or that pitiful but incomparable happening "new holocaust". Very few stories in the whole history of mankind (harsh and cruel as it often was and is) might be put in any proximity to this long-lasting, cold, cruel, industrial and planned in detail story of murdering one people.
Many perished during WW II and all should be remembered but there were many cruel wars in history and as cruel as it sounds many will come (most unfortunately). But this was different - it was no war really, it was decision put into effect to annihilate one people. So much so that - as we learn today - in one Nazi 'scientific' center in occupied France 86 bodies of Jews - murdered for that very purpose - were examined and preserved to conduct research about the non-existing race (as it was soon to be according to Nazi planners)!
Tomorrow there will be candle-lightning, prayers, poetry, remembering in all aspects.
In Israel all entertainment will be hold for a day and at 10 AM a siren will sound making everybody stop, people and cars (including on highways), drivers and passengers alike will stand by their vehicles to commemorate those murdered.
Let us never forget them!
Here are wonderful words for the day by Canadian PM
Many perished during WW II and all should be remembered but there were many cruel wars in history and as cruel as it sounds many will come (most unfortunately). But this was different - it was no war really, it was decision put into effect to annihilate one people. So much so that - as we learn today - in one Nazi 'scientific' center in occupied France 86 bodies of Jews - murdered for that very purpose - were examined and preserved to conduct research about the non-existing race (as it was soon to be according to Nazi planners)!
Tomorrow there will be candle-lightning, prayers, poetry, remembering in all aspects.
In Israel all entertainment will be hold for a day and at 10 AM a siren will sound making everybody stop, people and cars (including on highways), drivers and passengers alike will stand by their vehicles to commemorate those murdered.
Let us never forget them!
Here are wonderful words for the day by Canadian PM
Thursday 4 April 2013
Jobar synagogue has been destroyed
In Damascus, Syria, 3 days ago (I have been away for some time) an ancient, 2000 years old synagogue has been destroyed after being looted.
Of course that the most horrible in any war is evil and hurt done to people! But when we see (as with approximately the same age Buddha images destroyed by Taliban at the end of the last century) that places that survived hundreds and thousands years of viscous history (and for this synagogue built outside of borders of ancient Israel when her time before rebuilding in XX century was running short all the years have been viscous) and we witness their destruction in the time of - proclaimed, never really applied - respect for history, culture, architecture etc. it hurts!
Even more so when the object destroyed besides obvious for everybody historical and cultural value has religious value for many, has been approached with prayers in harts, with hopes of spiritual fulfilling, with feeling God inside.
Now it is gone and I may only share with you some pictures of the place nobody will ever see :(
Of course that the most horrible in any war is evil and hurt done to people! But when we see (as with approximately the same age Buddha images destroyed by Taliban at the end of the last century) that places that survived hundreds and thousands years of viscous history (and for this synagogue built outside of borders of ancient Israel when her time before rebuilding in XX century was running short all the years have been viscous) and we witness their destruction in the time of - proclaimed, never really applied - respect for history, culture, architecture etc. it hurts!
Even more so when the object destroyed besides obvious for everybody historical and cultural value has religious value for many, has been approached with prayers in harts, with hopes of spiritual fulfilling, with feeling God inside.
Now it is gone and I may only share with you some pictures of the place nobody will ever see :(
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