Opinion Editorials, July 2012

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, July 23, 2012

The right wing Zionists keep **invoking** "anti-Semitism" and the events of WWII to try to deflect any legitimate criticism of their cherished idol:the apartheid state of Israel.  But this is no longer working.  The list below just gives a glimpse from the past few days.  Even puppets of the Israel lobby like Hilary Clinton gets pelted by shoes and tomatoes in Egypt! But Zionists are busy pushing for war on Iran, legalizing violations of International law, ignoring human rights violations in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain while exaggerating those happening in Syria, and celebrating the appointment of someone who happens to be Jewish as head of the Superior Court of Great Britain! (Imagine if I was to celebrate such achievements for Christians). Do we live in an Orwellian world.*
 
Response to university presidents visit to Israel Prominent scholars and human rights activists issued an open letter  to university presidents who participated in a recent tour (July 1-9, 2012) of Israel designed to bolster cooperation between US and Israeli universities sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, calling upon the university officials to “not…pursue institutional relationships between your universities and Israeli universities, and to discontinue any existing institutional relationships that might already exist.”

It is clear that oppressors spend an inordinate amount of time and resources to dehumanize their victims. But we humans spend an inordinate amount of time also trying to suppress our own humanity.  To dehumanize someone is to deprive them of essential human qualities such as compassion, individuality, love, and social contact.  Making a family line up in the sun for hours to cross a checkpoint is a form of dehumanizing. It is dehumanizing to deny medical care, to destroy means of livelihood, to take someone's land, to put someone in solitary confinement in jail for months and years, or to tell someone that she is not of God's chosen peopel so she has lless rights.

Dehumanizing makes it easier for the colonizers to not feel compassion for their victims as they rob them of their lands and natural resources.  In so doing the occupiers thus also dehumanize themselves because they have to desensitize themselves to human suffering. But the victims themselves can also internalize the dehumanization to think of themselves as somehow unworthy or that their life can only gain meaning if they emulate their oppressors and thus become oppressors themselves.  That is why abused children may sometimes grow up to abuse their own children.  This spiral of dehumanizing can and must be challenged and the obvious way to do it is via our efforts to humanize ourselves and others: show compassion, mercy, love, and connectedness.  The styruggle is mostly inward and it is our own negativism that must be challenged every day, nay every hour. That is the humanizing struggle that is the hardest struggle of all.

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 Below are items of interest: read and act on the ones you choose.

Army To Arrest, Deport, Internationals Living In The West Bank
http://www.imemc.org/article/63888

Action: Ask Clinton to Express Opposition to Legalization of Settlements
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5575/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11238

Action: Vote, like, share (buttons at bottom for facebook, twitter etc)
"They came in the morning" video was born from some of the footage shot over 5 critical years in the life of Bethlehem during the making of upcoming feature film "Operation Bethlehem".
http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/3242/they-came-in-the-morning

Church of England backs Palestine motion in spite of strong Israel lobby pressure
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white/church-england-backs-palestine-motion-spite-strong-israel-lobby-pressure

In BDS milestone, UK supermarket chain to boycott Israel firms doing business with settlements
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/bds-milestone-uk-supermarket-chain-boycott-israel-firms-doing-business

(important read) The Zionist-Nazi Collaboration by William James Martin, Dissident Voice.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/07/the-zionist-nazi-collaboration/

The Ramallah Fiasco Should Never Happen Again
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25000&CategoryId=3

Pro-Divestment Presbyterians Win By Losing
http://wallwritings.me/2012/07/07/pro-divestment-presbyterians-win-by-losing/

Palestine National Council Registration Campaign
http://www.pncregcampaign.org/index.php/en/

http://www.usacbi.org/2012/07/usacbi-issues-letter-to-university-presidents-after-israel-tour/
 
(the greatest allies of USA unopperialism, story not covered by the Western media because they support this cleptocracy and its torture and murder of dissidents and they are busy building revolution in Syria) Destroy all churches in the Arabian Peninsula – Saudi Grand Mufti http://www.rt.com/news/peninsula-saudi-grand-mufti-701/
 
 (Zionist) Birthright participant turns pro-Palestinian activist `I'm helping the Jews by being here,' says Laura Gordon, who has joined the International Solidarity Movement
http://www.haaretz.com/birthright-participant-turns-pro-palestinian-activist-1.9973
 
British government report finds wide spread human rights abuses of Palestinian Children
http://worldpressnetwork.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18513
 
Prominent U.K. jurist says boycott of West Bank settlement products is legal In his paper, James Crawford says that the ban was legal as the West Bank can not be seen as a part of Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/prominent-u-k-jurist-says-boycott-of-west-bank-settlement-products-is-legal-1.449870
 
A new study finds that most Germans who oppose Israel's Palestinian policies are not antisemitic, but pro-peace and human rights http://antisemitism.org.il/article/73108/new-study-finds-most-germans-who-oppose-israels-palestinian-policies-are-not-antisemit
 
Pro-Palestinian Ads Ignite Controversy
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/328442#ixzz20WRO5q97
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOxJF4dRHtw
 
Disney family member renounces her investments in Israel's Ahava Cosmetics http://www.councilforthenationalinterest.org/news/the-cost-of-israel-to-the-us/item/1809-disney-family-member-renounces-her-investments-in-israels-ahava-cosmetics
 
Report on outposts' legality states Israel isn't an occupying force in West Bank! (the emperor declares ghe is clothed afterall even when everyone sees he is naked)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-on-outposts-legality-states-israel-isn-t-an-occupying-force-in-west-bank.premium-1.449895
 
Legal experts respond to report published by Levy Committee on illegal outposts regarding West Bank construction; Talia Sasson: 'Israel in a dangerous position.'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/legal-expert-if-israel-isn-t-occupying-west-bank-it-must-give-up-land-held-by-idf-1.449909
 
(educational read) The Theft of the Nakba Narrative by the Israeli Academia. By Rahela Mizrahi http://www.leftcurve.org/LC36WebPages/Theft%20of%20the%20Nakba%20Narrative.pdf
 
Hillary Clinton motorcade pelted with tomatoes, shoes in Egypt http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1226803--hillary-clinton-motorcade-pelted-with-tomatoes-shoes-in-egypt
 
Palestinian reporters boycott Hilary Clinton's press conference after being asked to undergo strip search
http://www.imemc.org/article/63918
 
Nelson Mandela Foundation Calls For UN to Act on Israeli Violations
http://www.imemc.org/article/63914
 
Stay Human
 
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://www.imemc.org/
http://www.pcr.ps/
www.palestinejn.org 

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