EDITOR: Some Israelis are not totally mad…

You don’t have to be the former head of the Mossad to realise that bombing Iran will not go unpunished, and that the attack on Israel will be vicious. But it seems he is quite lonely with this knowledge, not shared by either politicians or the public there – the agenda of attack on Iran seems to be universally accepted without doubt or hesitation.

Former Mossad chief: Israeli strike on Iran will lead to regional war: Haaretz

Meir Dagan said in a television interview that a military strike will result in massive rocket attacks from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan said in a television interview on Tuesday that if Israel attacks Iran, it will be dragged into a regional war.

According to Dagan, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas will respond with massive rocket attacks on Israel. In that scenario, Syria may join in the fray, Dagan said on the television program “Uvda”.

Dagan also followed up on recent public comments that he made on the topic, after which he was criticized for speaking out on, saying that the Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Finance Minister cannot prevent him from speaking his mind. “We are not living in an undemocratic country; in democratic countries, even people like me have the right to express their opinions,” Dagan said.

Dagan added that such a war would take a heavy toll in terms of loss of life and would paralyze life in Israel. These comments were in response to a recent remark by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in which he claimed that if a war breaks out between Israel and Iran, it would result in no more than 500 dead Israelis.

“A war is no picnic, but in any scenario there won’t be 50 thousand or 5,000 or even 500 dead,” Barak told Israel Radio in an interview three weeks ago, on November 8. Barak also attacked Dagan’s outspokenness on the Iran issue. “The way in which this discussion has taken place, by including those who previously held high positions, was sometimes despicable.”

Barak added, “When the head of the Mossad unprecedentedly brings journalists to Mossad headquarters and instructs them to oppose the prime minister… I think that is very serious behavior. I would have expected him to act intelligently, without manipulations.”

It was announced earlier on Tuesday that Dagan will lead a group that will endeavor to immediately alter the system of government in Israel.

Maariv reported Tuesday that the group is operating without much publicity, backed by a group of leaders in the fields of business, culture and law that has already begun to raise funds.

Former IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, businessman Gad Zeevi and Herliya Interdisciplinary Center President Professor Uriel Reichman have already joined the new group.

Iceland becomes first Western European country to recognize Palestinian state: Haaretz

Icelandic parliament approves measure on United Nations’ annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people; Palestinians reaffirm bid for UN membership.

Iceland’s parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of recognizing the Palestinian Territories as an independent state, the first Western European country to do so according Iceland’s foreign minister. The measure passed symbolically on the United Nation’s annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The vote paves the way for formal recognition by the small north Atlantic island, which led the way in recognizing the independence of the three Baltic states after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.

“Iceland is the first Western European country to take this step,” Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson told Icelandic state broadcaster RUV. “I now have the formal authority to declare our recognition of Palestine.”

Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour read a message from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at UN headquarters on the occasion of the day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. He reaffirmed the Palestinian’s bid for UN membership, saying it should complement peace negotiations, provided that Israel is prepared to negotiate on the basis of the 1967 borders.

Abbas said the Palestinians are not seeking “to delegitimize Israel” by applying to join the UN “but to delegitimize its settlement activities and the seizure of our occupied lands.” He added that sanctions imposed on them by Israel because the Palestinians won membership in UNESCO are “unjust” and that Israel has no right to withhold their customs and tax revenues.

The Icelandic parliament resolution allowing for the recognition of a Palestinian state within the pre-Six Day War borders of 1967 was decided by 38 votes in the 63-seat.

“At the same time, parliament urges Israelis and Palestinians to seek a peace agreement on the basis of international law and UN resolutions, which include the mutual recognition of the state of Israel and the state of Palestine,” said the resolution, proposed by the Icelandic foreign minister.

It also called on all sides to cease any violence and recalled the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Iceland’s recognition, however, is expected to amount to a little more than symbolic step as the Palestinian Authority strives to get United Nations recognition. Its quest for a seat at the international body has so far failed.

EDITOR: Israel and SCAF have a lot in common…

It is nice to find out that the gas canisters used to bamboozle the Cairo protesters have Hebrew markings…

Gassing the revolution: The US origins of Tahrir’s tears: Ahram online

The liberal use of US-manufactured tear gas on protesters in recent days has raised questions about its public health effects – and who is actually ordering its use
Ahmed Feteha, Michael Gunn, Thursday 24 Nov 2011

Egyptian security forces are digging deeper into their budget with each volley of increasingly fatal US-made tear gas they launch at demonstrators.
The human cost of the violent crackdown in central Cairo is increasingly clear — among the 39 fatalities reported to date, several are said to have died of asphyxiation caused by tear gas.

But the financial background to the use of crowd control weapons raises questions about the extent of Washington’s financial assistance to Egypt’s military and how this might filter down to the ministry of interior.

The USA is the biggest arms supplier to Egypt, providing an average of US$1.3 billion in military and law equipment every year since 2000.

Records from the US Department of State show the US supplied $1.7 million of “toxicological agents” — “including tear gases and riot control agents” — to Egypt in 2010.

This was the largest dispatch of such agents in at least 10 years.

In 2009, the US supplied 33,000 units of ‘tear gas and riot control agents’ worth $460,000. It did not supply in 2007 nor 2008, but gave 17,000 units worth $240,000 in 2006, documents show.

This assistance, however, was granted to the military, and it is not clear whether it was then channelled to the ministry of interior.

The Central Security Forces (CSF), Egypt’s riot control machine, is a division within the Ministry of Interior, but is closely tied to the armed forces, as its troops are conscripted through the military then transferred to CSF.

“The military’s arming includes tear gas and riot control weapons. The ministry of interior supposedly buys its own weaponry through other channels,” Mahmoud Kotri, a retired brigadier general who wrote a book suggesting radical police reforms, told Ahram Online.

Kotri confirmed that when the current minister of interior, Mansour El-Essawy, was appointed in March he issued explicit instructions to CSF not to carry live ammunition when confronting protesters.

This directive apparently included a ban on shotguns. Kotra explained these weapons were formerly used to fire tear gas canisters via an ad-hoc launcher. El-Essawy’s instructions probably forced CSF to acquire new types of gas bombs and new ways of launching them, says Kotri.

Nevertheless, doctors on Tahrir Square treating the injured say they have seen many protesters hit by live ammunition, including shotgun wounds.

Kotri believes that a third party might be involved in the shootings

“No MOI official in his right mind would order the use of live ammunition. Not after what happened in January and the former security leadership currently on trial for killing protesters — it just doesn’t add up,” he says.

Protesters and medical staff in Cairo have also expressed concern about the kind of gas being deployed by security forces.

Speaking to Ahram Online at the field hospital in Qasr El-Dobara church behind Tahrir Square on Monday night, volunteer doctor Lilian Sobhy said their improvised clinic had seen 290 patients in 24 hours, the majority with breathing problems.

“Some in contact with the gas are suffering from a severe burning sensation in the lungs,” Sobhy said. “This is not normal gas and these are not normal symptoms.”

Others, however, claim the symptoms — serious though they are — are no different from those caused by extreme exposure to CS gas in the past.

A former police officer told Ahram Online a colleague of his in the CSF was exposed to tear gas used by Egyptian border guards on Palestinians who broke through Rafah crossing in 2008.

He said the army’s gas was “unbearable and different from that used by CSF”.

Given the impressions above, many questions arise.

Is this a new kind of gas? If so, what is its nature? Is it designed use on civilians or is it a much more powerful assault tool used for military purposes? Who provided such weapons to the CSF? Was it the army, or did it get them through other channels?

For its part, the Armed Forced issued Communiqué’ no. 83 on their official Facebook page denying that it had used “gases” on protesters.

The 2010 supply of “Toxicological Agents, Including Chemical Agents, Biological Agents, and Associated Equipment”, which includes tear gas from the United States, which came under the auspices of ‘foreign defence assistance’, comprised 94,000 unspecified units.

Figures suggest the vast majority of these ‘units’ were tear gas canisters.

A crude calculation, made by dividing the aid sum by the number of units, shows the cost of a single tear gas canister may be around $18. Other, much-higher, figures have also been touted.

On Wednesday night, Amr El-Leithy, a prominent TV anchor, estimated the price of a single canister at $48, but did not give a source for this figure.

Eyewitnesses on the frontline in Cairo have reported hundreds of volleys of tear gas in the six days since the crackdown began.

Canisters found on the battle-scarred streets around Tahrir Square bear the manufacturing stamp of Combined Systems Inc (CSI), a US-based firm that provides equipment to military forces and law enforcement agencies around the world.

Among CSI’s investors is the Carlyle Group — an asset management firm which once counted former US President George Bush Snr among its advisors.

CSI produces its ‘riot control devices’ under its law enforcement brand name, Combined Tactical Systems (CTS), a firm headquartered in Jamestown, Pennsylvania.

CTS’s website — www.less-lethal.com — displays what it calls the company’s “full line of chemical irritant and smoke munitions”.

Demonstrators have gathered three common types of gas canister with the following serial numbers and catalogue descriptions:

#4230 – CS Smoke

#6230 – CS Smoke – marketed as an ‘outdoor grenade’

#3321 – Long-range CS Smoke – effective for 137 metres

A catalogue on the company’s website displays the latest devices, but the dates of manufacture and design of some of the canisters show Egypt’s Central Security Forces are using older, often-expired versions.

Instructions on gas canisters say they should not be used after expiry, which is five years after the manufacturing date. Some cans found near Tahrir have a manufacture date of 2001. The Minister of Interior has admitted using expired canisters but said this only means that they would be “less effective.”

All the canisters above unleash CS gas — a standard riot control agent — but CTS also makes canisters that use CN gas, a more toxic formulation that takes longer to disperse and can cause disorientation and fainting.

Other media have reported finding CR gas canisters around Tahrir — an agent that medical experts say can cause pulmonary, heart and lung problems among those subjected to intense exposure.

CR gas is banned for military use under the Paris Convention on Chemical Warfare of 1993 but several governments still use it against their own people and, allegedly, those under their military occupation. These governments include the United States, Sri Lanka and Israel, as well as Egypt.

Gas manufacturer CTS has been linked with the ‘non-lethal’ weapons used by Israeli forces that have been unleashed on Palestinian protesters, reportedly causing several deaths due to asphyxiation.

Its supply to the Israeli market might suggest why several canisters found in Cairo with CTS numbers and designs also have Hebrew markings.

 

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood facing compromises on its Islamist ideology: Haaretz

Even if all of Egypt’s Islamist factions were to join forces, the Muslim Brotherhood will need to find coalition partners, and compromise on Islamist ideology for the sake of political strength.
By Zvi Bar’el
“Islam is the answer,” was the slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood on the campaign trail during Egypt’s last election, a slogan which worried both the Mubarak regime and Egypt’s left-wing, liberal political parties.

Not only did the Muslim Brotherhood rally around this slogan, but so did anyone else who wanted to see a strong Islamist block in the Egyptian parliament, at a time when there was a ban on forming parties with a religious platform.

But even at the height of its powers, in the 2005 elections, the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters managed to get 88 of their representatives into the lower house of the Egyptian parliament, which was comprised of 454 representatives at the time – a total of around 20 percent.

In Monday’s elections, in which every Islamist faction has a party of its own, and in which the Muslim Brotherhood is internally divided, it is hard to predict how strong the Brotherhood will actually emerge.

The prediction is that the sum total of Egypt’s Islamist movements, including “Al Nour,” a Salafi party that does not see eye to eye with the Brotherhood over Egypt’s future, “Al Wasat,” a party that split off from the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1990’s over ideological differences, and the Brotherhood’s own “Freedom and Justice” party, will win a total 30 to 40 percent of the vote.

If this turns out to be true, and even if all the Islamist factions were to join forces, the Muslim Brotherhood will still need to find partners to form a coalition. That is, they will need to compromise on ideology for the sake of political strength.

The Islamists’ main problem, however, will not only be in terms of concentration of political power, but in terms of running of the country and control over the formulation of the constitution. Later, they will also need to decide who to support as candidate for the presidency.

The Brotherhood have said they do not want to put forward a candidate of their own for president. This decision has brought a sharp division within the movement, in addition to the already existing split between newer Brotherhood members and the older generation.

One of its senior members, Abd al-Minaam Abu al-Futuh, has already announced that he intends to run for president, a move that led to his expulsion from the Muslim Brotherhood.

The extent of their success at the polls this time will decide the size of their share of the future government, and the extent of their responsibility for solving the great difficulties that will face it.

With the Egyptian treasury set to empty, inflation already at 8 percent, millions of unemployed Egyptians threatening to go out into the streets after the elections, and foreign direct investment at almost non-existent levels, their organizational ability, and their talent for amassing international funds will face a decisive test.

For the Brotherhood – as for each one of the ten parties running in the elections that most stand out from the rest – it is absolutely clear that if the economic problems that Egypt faces are not dealt with immediately, they will find themselves in Tahrir Square again. Only this time, they will face 40 million citizens who live below the poverty line and earn less than two dollars a day.

The U.S. has already said that it will cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood if they are democratically elected to govern. American businessmen that met recently with the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were left with the impression that it is a rational and capitalist movement, a proponent of a free market economy that is looking for investment and commercial cooperation, and will even want to advance privatization.

As one of these American businessmen said of the Brotherhood, “This is a movement that will make any neo-liberal that believes in a market economy happy.”

If the economy turns out to be the main factor that causes the Muslim Brotherhood to show flexibility toward the U.S. and the West in general, on the home front there will be further obstacles.

One such factor, for example, is the approximately 10 million Coptic Christians who were an inseparable part of the revolution, and who, like the Brotherhood, managed to shed their fear of the regime. They have at least four political parties on their side, including one leftist party, the old Al Wafd party, the liberal “Justice Party” and the “Egyptian Democratic Party.” This latter one represents some of the revolutionary youth that will take part in the formulation of the constitution, and who will act to ensure that Egypt does not become a religious country.

Regarding Egypt’s international relations, particularly the relationship that is expected between the parliament and the next government with Israel, it would be a mistake to see only the Muslim Brotherhood as the source of hatred in Egypt for Israel. Left-wing activists “the Tahrir Youths,” members of which broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, and important liberal intellectuals such as the author Alaa Al Aswany, some of whom despise the ideology of the Brotherhood, are partners in an anti-Israel stance because of Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza, or because of the fact of Israel’s very existence in the Arab Middle East.

At the same time, in liberal and left-wing circles, and within the Muslim Brotherhood itself, there have been no demands to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, although there have been demands to change certain articles of the agreement related to issues affecting Egypt’s sovereignty, such as the demilitarization of Sinai.

EDITOR: Who is afraid of the Jewish Brotherhood…

Read below a perceptive analysis of the real danger in the Middle East, the Jewish Brotherhood of Israel, the extra-religious, right wing and maniacal but influential group. It affects most of Israel’s youth, so it has a larger sway than the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt! It is especially influential in the settlements and the IOF (Israel Occupation Forces).

A surefire way to keep Israeli Arabs from voting: Haaretz

Against the wave of anti-democratic legislation, the meaning of conservatism is turned around; refraining from action becomes active political cooperation with the trampling of democracy.
By Sefi Rachlevsky
Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman David Rotem’s description of Zahava Gal-On as “not even a beast” is, in his context, accurate. According to Rotem’s theology, and that of most Orthodox Jews in Israel, Gal-On is indeed barely a beast. You see, there’s a hierarchy. Everything living thing has a soul. Above that is the spirit, which is bestowed solely on Jewish men, but which enters the Jewish woman through a kosher union with her husband (which is why it is forbidden to marry a woman who was widowed three times; the assumption is that the spirit of her first husband is knocking off anyone else who enters ).

The highest essence of spirit, the neshama, is the privilege earned by Jewish men through the study of Torah. A heretical woman, who is a leader and who speaks out against religious extremism, is considered rabble and less than a “gentile” or a beast.

It’s not for nothing that several leading rabbis prefer a firing squad than hearing women sing. From the Shulhan Arukh code of Jewish law they draw the assertion that the most severe of all transgressions is the useless spilling of seed. This is compared to murdering one’s children, as it is written, “your hands become full of blood.” The demons responsible for tragedies are born from Jewish seed that was wasted. The Tikun Hatzot ritual of lamentation, a prayer recited after midnight, was created to combat them.

This is the reason for the hiding and silencing of women, so as not to excite the men, which might lead to improper ejaculation.

Those who believe this are not a fringe group. Nearly 53 percent of first-graders classified as Jews now study in religious and ultra-Orthodox schools, and the prevailing theology in most of them teach these things as fact. Just as the Jewish man is a human being, those women who make their voices heard are less than beasts.

Those who fear the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood – and certainly those who would celebrate the victory of political Islam as an excuse for maintaining the settlements – ought to look in the mirror. The conclusion from the increasing control exerted by religious radicalism in the region is simple. The primary power of the various “Brotherhoods” stems from the subsidized religious and educational autonomy that has fashioned what has become the obvious for millions. This is what makes Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein’s decision to grant immunity to racist incitement presented as theology and Jewish law so serious. This immunity enables the flow of billions to incitement-ridden rabbinic education, which fashions an “obvious” that permits the killing of non-Jews and the silencing of women.

The resemblance to the “Brotherhoods” continues when it comes to practical politics. The Brotherhoods are prepared to be elected, but don’t want to allow anyone to defeat them. That’s the way Rotem’s gang operates. They’re interested in changing the rules so that no one can replace them at the ballot box.

The crushing of substantive democracy is but one stage. The main thing is to change the election laws. It’s not for nothing that the gang is working to retroactively change the rules governing elections within the Israel Bar Association. It’s not “merely” an effort to gain control over the Judicial Appointments Committee; what’s important is to set a precedent of changing election rules.

The political leader of the Jewish Brotherhood, who goes by the catchy name of “Ketzaleh,” Yaakov Katz, has revealed his plan. The so-called Grunis law, which he initiated, was, by his own declaration, an important stage in gaining control of the Supreme Court, silencing “that miserable bunch who believe in the laws of the gentiles” on the court and legislating wild laws to impose halakha (Jewish religious law ) on the State of Israel.

There were three reasons why Justice Asher Grunis “merited” to serve this plan to gain control, firstly, because it’s important to prevent another woman from serving as Supreme Court president. Jewish law, which forbids hearing women sing, also forbids listening to anything of importance they have to say. A female court president is like an idol in the sanctuary.

Secondly, it’s important to them to show that it is possible to change the rules on an ad-hoc, personal basis, and have the Supreme Court reconcile itself to being prevented from choosing a female president and instead, crowning Ketzaleh’s choice. Thirdly, Grunis is considered an opponent of judicial activism.

Rotem’s gang intends to change the laws for electing the Knesset in a way that will keep them in power, just like the other “brothers” in the region. The plan includes invalidating Arab lists like Balad, while an anti-activist court will not intervene. In response, Israeli Arabs are likely to boycott the ballot, leaving the general election for Jews only.

Also on the way are changes to laws and regulations that would permit voting from abroad, which would add right-wing emigrants to the voting rolls and later allow Orthodox hordes to vote from Brooklyn and impose the Rotem gang on all the country’s beasts.

The Supreme Court ought not cooperate with Ketzaleh’s plan; it should avoid using laws passed for specific persons and allow Miriam Naor to become its president, with Grunis as her deputy.

Against the wave of anti-democratic legislation, the meaning of conservatism is turned around. Refraining from action becomes active political cooperation with the trampling of democracy.

Poland’s growing Palestine movement faces anti-Semitism smears: The Electronic Intifada

Ewa Jasiewicz 16 November 2011

Earlier this month, the Polish Nationwide Organization of Jewish Youth, known as ZOOM, withdrew from an alliance of anti-fascist groups and cited the participation of the Polish Campaign of Solidarity with Palestine in the 11 November Coalition as the reason.

The Polish 11 November Coalition was formed last year to oppose a march through Warsaw by the extreme right. Groups such as the Camp of Great Poland and the All-Poland Youth have expressed anti-Semitic and homophobic sentiments, and have been linked to neo-Nazi groups.

The extreme right in Poland pursues a political agenda of “Poland for Poles only,” to the exclusion of other ethnic and cultural groups in the country. Warsaw annually celebrates Polish independence day on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary of achieving independent statehood in 1918, after 123 years of partition and occupation by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

The coalition is comprised of more than fifty anti-fascist and anti-racist organizations, trade unions, anarchist collectives and groups campaigning for gay, lesbian and transgender rights.

Palestine solidarity smeared as “anti-Semitic”
ZOOM withdrew from the coalition, labeling the Kampania Palestyna, a network of Polish and Polish-Palestinian activists with experience of solidarity work in Palestine, as “anti-Semitic.” Its statement of resignation has now been withdrawn from its website and other Internet forums, possibly due to the fear of litigation under Poland’s stringent slander laws.

ZOOM is not the first Jewish organization to withdraw from the coalition and to cite the presence of a Palestinian human rights campaign group as the reason.

In January last year, Czulent, an association of Jewish youth, withdrew from the coalition, arguing that it should be “apolitical.” Czulent stated on their website, “We cannot be passive in the face of anti-Semitic views hiding under the banner of anti-Zionism” (“Withdrawal from the 11 November Coalition,” 22 January 2010 [Polish]).

Czulent alleged that the organization of meetings for Ben White, contributor to The Electronic Intifada and author of the book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide by Kampania Palestyna, amounted to the promotion of “hate speech” and “holocaust denial.”

Academics and writers who edit the Polish Jews Forum — a website set up in 2004 by “individuals who do not subscribe to any political organization” living in Poland, the US and Israel — released a statement on 8 November 2011 declaring, “it is with satisfaction that we learned that Jewish organizations, which last year supported or belonged to the 11 November Coalition, comprising amongst others leftist and anti-Israel organizations, will not be participating this year. It is good that the Jewish community does not want to ennoble its participation in a coalition which contains an organization which supports Arab terrorism” (“Polish Independence Day – Beware?”, Polish Forums, 10 November 2011). The inference is that Kampania Palestyna’s solidarity with the Palestinian right of resistance is tantamount to supporting terrorism.

Conflating far-left and far-right
The editors of the forum went on to say that they opposed both the fascists and the left-wingers out on the streets on 11 November.

“We are against both one and the other. We disagree with their views — racist, anti-capitalist, anarchist, nationalist — represented in their xenophobic forms — neo-communist, neo-fascist, left-wing and also anti-Semitic and anti-Israel,” the statement added.

In their effort to depict all “isms” as extreme, and conflate anarchists and left-wingers with neo-Nazis, the forum has attempted to depoliticize the coalition, and negate understanding and analysis of the conditions which generate racism and fascism. Denying the political nature of racism and fascism — and the need for an analysis that reveals the political interests and processes that enforce racism — provides cover for powerful organizations, institutions, states, lobbyists and groups. It also allows oppression to go unexamined.

The Kampania Palestyna has risen to public prominence since its inception in mid-2009 following Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s all-out attack on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09. Since then, it has organized protests, direct actions and public meetings with Palestinian, Israeli and international activists including Sahar Francis from the Palestinian political prisoners support group Addameer, Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and Yonatan Shapira from Boycott from Within.

Influencing coverage of Palestine
Despite the attacks and slander, the campaign is pushing ahead and is able to influence media coverage and popular education on Palestine.

Kampania Palestyna’s work has influenced prominent Polish journalists, including broadcaster and writer Roman Kurkiewicz (a passenger on this year’s thwarted Gaza Freedom Flotilla II).

Kurkiewicz wrote in the General Weekly magazine that it was meeting Israeli conscientious objector and BDS activist Yonatan Shapira and activists from the Kampania which propelled him to take action on Palestine, after having previously believed Israel was a beleaguered democracy.

Perhaps the greatest asset of the Kampania is the editor of the Polish edition of the monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, Przemyslaw Wielgosz. Le Monde Diplomatique publishes articles on Palestine every month and Wielgosz has repeatedly spoken for the campaign both in front of cameras and in theaters, universities and squatted social centers around Poland.

The Kampania has also undertaken cultural activities by organizing Palestinian film festivals around the country with Kino Palestyna (Cinema Palestine), and translating Alberto Arce and Mohammad Rujailah’s award-winning “To Shoot an Elephant” documentary film on Israel’s attacks on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09, showing it in more than twenty locations across Poland.

Changing the discourse
The campaign has inspired political discourse previously dominated by Israeli embassy spokespeople and pro-Israel journalists. Campaign activists are regularly called upon to comment in mainstream print and TV media. Israeli officials and pro-Israel reporters had previously enjoyed a monopoly on media stories due to the absence of a Palestine solidarity campaign in the country, a low level of human rights oriented and investigative journalism.

Israeli government press releases have been simply re-produced unchallenged in the media, which is due to historic guilt harbored by successive Polish governments over Polish complicity in anti-Semitic policies and practices over the past century, both prior to the Second World War — and also in 1968 when the ruling communist party ran a campaign targeting prominent Jewish dissident students and party members, purging them and forcing the exile of thousands of others, under an “anti-Zionist,” anti-Semitic banner.

Following the fall of the Iron Curtain and the implementation of a capitalist system in the country, US influence was hegemonic and government policies followed those of the US, including blind allegiance to Israel and a foreign policy benefiting Israeli interests.

The group’s activists come from social justice, environmental activism, anti-fascist, trade union and community organizing backgrounds and have spent time in occupied Palestine.

Taking its lead from the 2005 Palestinian grassroots call for a comprehensive campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), Kampania also locates itself in a wider struggle for systemic change and for genuine participatory democracy and social, environmental and economic justice.

As such, the Kampania has been a driving force within the anti-fascist 11 November coalition, linking the motivations, structures and processes that reproduce occupation, colonization and racism at home and around the world. This is something that should be welcomed, not smeared.

Ewa Jasieiwcz is an activist and writer and member of the Polish Campaign of Solidarity with Palestine (Kampania Palestyna).

MAD ISRAELIS: From the Horses’s Mouth!

Back by popular demand!

EDITOR: Now the enemy is Europe…

You would not have thought Israel is running out of enemies… but it seems some of the Israelis think that, and are looking for more and more enmies everywhere. Now it is Europe  they intend to defend against…

Protecting us from Europe: YNet

Op-ed: Law banning European funding of NGOs has strategic importance for Israel
Hanoch Daum
It is a pity that enlighten people (mostly in their own eyes) are resorting to exaggerated zeal and speaking out against the important bill proposed by Knesset Member Ofir Akunis that would ban donations from foreign states to Israeli non-governmental organizations.

This law can and should be polished and corrected, yet the essence is what’s important here.
Legal Offensive
Look at the Breaking the Silence organization, for example. What is the implication of the fact that this non-profit group lives off funds provided by European countries? Does it simply mean that Europe is helping an Israeli group? Not at all.

What this means is that Europe is lending a hand to smearing Israel in the world. It means that Europe is handing over large amounts of money to a bunch of Israelis who served in Hebron for a two and a half days during their military service, in order to provide them with an incentive, fund them, and make sure that they smear the actions of IDF troops in the most organized and methodical manner.

Notably, these IDF soldiers are undertaking their actions in order to safeguard the citizens of Israel.

And so, European states, via Breaking the Silence, Machsom Watch and other non-profit groups of this kind create a situation whereby it becomes impossible to understand the grave security reality in Israel, the distress of children in Sderot, and the Israeli fear of terror attacks.

Anyone who believes that such organized damage to Israel’s public relations effort constitutes anything less than a strategic blow, fails to understand the kind of world we live in.