EDITOR: It’s that man again…
Yes, the Nobel Peace Laureatte, Mr. Shimon Peres, the man responsible for more wars in the Middle East that anyone else alive, and also responsible for Israel’s covert nuclear programme, and for producing more than 300 nuclear devices (isn’t this a bit over the top, Shimon?) is now baying under the moon against the Iranian non-existing nuclear weapons. The main principle of Israeli diplomacy, seems to be blaming others for your own sins, attacking and bombing them. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sickeningly sad.
Peres: Iran’s ‘evil’ leaders must not be allowed to gain nuclear weapons: Haaretz
Speaking at Herzliya Conference, President urges resumption of peace talks with Palestinians, saying talks are the only way to end the Mideast conflict.
Iran’s “evil” leaders cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, President Shimon Peres said on Tuesday, calling the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions the world’s single most important issue.
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Peres’ comments came at the opening of the Herzliya Conference, which was attended by World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, and former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.
Referring to Iran’s contentious nuclear program, the president called the issue “ours and the world’s central problem at this time, accusing Iran of attempting to achieve regional and “even global hegemony.”
“Nuclear weapons mustn’t be allowed to fall into the hands of Iran’s Ayatollah regime,” Peres said, calling Iran’s religious leadership the “most morally corrupt regime in the world.”
Hinting at the possibility of a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president reiterated the Israeli stance, according to which “no option should be ruled out in our dealing with the Iranian danger. This is an existential threat.”
“It is the duty of the international community to prevent evil and nuclear [weapons] from coming together. That is the obligations of most of the leaders of the free world, one which they must meet,” Peres said.
On what he called “the moral significance of this battle,” the president spoke of an Iranian regime which “executes people for their views. It funds, trains, and guides terrorists to spread terror and murder across the globe.”
“This is a way of operation that must be condemned by everyone everywhere,” Peres said, adding that, “eventually, the current Iranian leadership offers the future only destruction. It threatens human rights and the peace of nations.”
In his address to the Herzliya Conference, president Peres also spoke of the necessity to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians, saying that ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the only way to ensure Israel isn’t made into the scapegoat of a rapidly changing Middle East.
If peace is not advanced, the president said, religious extremism could gain control of the region, “an extremism which Iran attempts to lead using its two proxies: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, as well as other extensions throughout the region.”
“The terror organizations are trying to drag Israel into an Arab internal struggle so they can direct the masses’ rage against us. They have no rehabilitation plans, only incitement habits,” Peres added.
The only way to prevent this takeover of extremism, then, is “to put an end to the conflict between us and the Palestinians, similarly to the agreements with Egypt and Jordan.”
“When I say we must, I say so because I believe ending the conflict is possible. I’ve known the people heading the Palestinian Authority for decades,” Peres said, adding that he believed “[Palestinian] President Mahmoud Abbas and [Palestinian] Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are worthy partners who do not wish to see the conflict go further.”
Speaking of the reasons for the recent inability to restart peace talks, the president said that the two issues mainly holding up negotiations were “borders and security.”
“The borders must be set as to determine the security arrangements, and must be set soon. This kind of negotiations must take place outside the box, and away from the headlines. Through it both sides will achieve something which cannot be achieved without talks – an end to the conflict,” Peres added.
The president’s comments came after, on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that peace prospects with the Palestinians were looking poor.
“As things stand now, according to what happened over the past few days – when the Palestinians refused even to discuss Israel’s security needs with us – the signs are not particularly good,” he told his cabinet in public remarks.
Netanyahu’s remarks came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Ramallah on Saturday that Israel was to blame for the failure of the recent round of talks to relaunch direct talks.
Abbas claimed that during talks mediated by Jordan in recent weeks, Israel had presented an unclear position on security matters and on the question of borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Palestinian sources said Israel’s border proposal would have prevented the establishment a Palestinian state.
Palestinian officials said last week an Israeli negotiator’s verbal presentation on Wednesday of ideas for borders and security arrangements of a future Palestinian state was a non-starter, envisaging a fenced-off territory of cantons that would preserve most Jewish settlements.
Netanyahu said he still hoped the Palestinians would “come to their senses and continue the talks so that we can move on to real negotiations.”
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held five rounds of exploratory talks in Jordan, part of a push by international mediators to revive negotiations suspended in 2010 in a dispute over Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has no right to censor an artist over his politics: Haaretz
It is not legitimate to question whether Bakri – or anyone else whose opinions are considered by someone in power to be unacceptable – can perform in a play put on by a theater that receives funding from the Culture and Sports Ministry.
Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat’s implied support for keeping “Jenin, Jenin” director Mohammed Bakri off the Israeli stage must be condemned.
Livnat was responding to a request by right-wing organization Im Tirtzu, which is calling on Livnat and the Tzavta Theater in Tel Aviv “not to grant a forum to this inciter, who defames Israel Defense Forces soldiers.” Barki, a Palestinian director and actor, is scheduled to act in the Tzavta Theater’s upcoming production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba.”
But the High Court of Justice ruled in a petition seeking to ban the 2003 movie “Jenin, Jenin” – about the April 2002 battle between IDF soldiers and Palestinian militants in the West Bank refugee camp – that although the film is full of lies that tarnish the image of the state and the IDF, it does not harm the reputation of any soldiers because it does not reveal their identities.
Bakri has never been charged with any offense related to the movie, and he was determined to have been within his legal rights in making it. His opinions may make a lot of people angry, but he is an actor, director and artist whose skills any cultural institution would be lucky to have at its disposal.
It is not legitimate to question whether Bakri – or anyone else whose opinions are considered by someone in power to be unacceptable – can perform in a play put on by a theater that receives funding from the Culture and Sports Ministry, and it is certainly none of the culture minister’s business. Actors should be chosen only for artistic reasons. Such decisions are supposed to be made by the individual theaters or any other artistic body, as long as they are made completely freely and autonomously.
The fact that a theater gets funding from the Culture and Sports Ministry does not give the ministry, the minister who heads it, or any other bureaucrat involved in the budget allocation the right to intervene politically or in any other way.
The ministry did state that Livnat “expects the Tzavta administration to independently reconsider” whether Bakri should be hired, which seemingly lays the responsibility for ousting him at the theater’s feet, but the comment does contain more than the hint of a threat. In addition, the statement clearly shows that Livnat does not understand that getting involved is an abrasive departure from her real job.
Perhaps Livnat should watch “The House of Bernarda Alba,” about the forced imposition of rigid conservative norms and the violent infringement of freedom and human dignity. Then maybe she should independently reconsider.
New book by Nur Masalha: Zedbooks
2012 marks the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba – the most traumatic catastrophe that ever befell Palestinians. This book explores new ways of remembering and commemorating the Nakba. In the context of Palestinian oral history, it explores ‘social history from below’, subaltern narratives of memory and the formation of collective identity. Masalha argues that to write more truthfully about the Nakba is not just to practise a professional historiography but an ethical imperative. The struggles of ordinary refugees to recover and publicly assert the truth about the Nakba is a vital way of protecting their rights and keeping the hope for peace with justice alive.
This book is essential for understanding the place of the Palestine Nakba at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the vital role of memory in narratives of truth and reconciliation.
Reviews
‘As a meticulous scholar, historian and above all Palestinian, Nur Masalha is eminently suited to write this excellent book. He has produced a marvellous history of the Nakba which should be essential reading for all those concerned with the origins of the conflict over Palestine.’
Ghada Karmi, author of ‘Married to Another Man: Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine’
‘Nur Masalha has a distiguished and deserved reputation for scholarship on the Nakba and Palestinian refugees. Now, with his latest book, his searching analysis of past and present makes for a powerful combination of remembrance and resistance.’
Ben White, journalist and author of ‘Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide’
‘Nur Masalha’s ‘The Palestinian Nakba’ is a tour de force examining the process of transformation of Palestine over the last century. One outstanding feature of this study is the systematic manner in which it investigates the accumulated scholarship on the erasure of Palestinian society and culture, including a critical assessment of the work of the new historians. In what he calls ‘reclaiming the memory’ he goes on to survey and build on a an emergent narrative. Masalha’s work is essential and crucial for any scholar seeking this alternate narrative.’
Salim Tamari, Visiting Professor of History, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University
‘This book is the most comprehensive and pentrating analysis available of the catastophe that befell Arab Palestine and its people in 1948, known as the nakba. It shows how the expulsion and physical obliteration of the material traces of a people was followed by what Masalha calls ‘memoricide’: the effacement of their history, their archives, and their place-names, and a denial that they had ever existed.’
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies Department of History, Columbia University
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Zionism and European Settler-Colonialism
2. The Memoricide of the Nakba: Zionist-Hebrew Toponymy and the De-Arabisation of Palestine
3. Fashioning a European Landscape, Erasure and Amnesia: The Jewish National Fund, Afforestation, and Green-washing the Nakba
4. Appropriating History: The Looting of Palestinian Records, Archives and Library Collections (1948-2011)
5. New History, Post-Zionism, the Liberal Coloniser and Hegemonic Narratives: A Critique of the Israeli ‘New Historians’
6. Decolonising History and Narrating the Subaltern: Palestinian Oral History, Indigenous and Gendered Memories
7. Resisting Memoricide and Reclaiming Memory: The Politics of Nakba Commemoration among Palestinians inside Israel
Epilogue: The Continuity of Trauma
About the Author:
Nur Masalha is Professor of Religion and Politics and Director of the Centre for Religion and History at St. Mary’s University College, UK. He is also Editor of ‘Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal’ (published by Edinburgh University Press).
Jewish Voice for Peace statement on BDS: BDSMovement
29 JANUARY 2012
By Jewish Voice for Peace, BDS Movement – 24 Jan 2012
Summary: JVP has grown dramatically in size and influence in the past two years. As part of the ongoing assessment sparked by this growth, JVP reviewed its BDS policy. On the basis of an organization-wide conversation about BDS, we have refined our position while maintaining our strategy. JVP shares the aims of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee — ending the occupation, achieving equality for Palestinians now living in Israel, and recognizing Palestinian refugees’ right of return. JVP focuses our efforts on boycott and divestment campaigns that directly target Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and its blockade of the Gaza Strip. We believe this to be the most effective way for JVP to help bring about the aims we share with the Palestinian BDS call.
JVP is dedicated to promoting full equality and democracy for all Israelis and Palestinians. We believe that an enduring peace will remain out of reach until Palestinians as well as Israelis can negotiate from positions of strength. This requires a shift from the prevailing imbalance of power. JVP fully endorses the use of nonviolent strategies to achieve this shift. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, of which JVP is a part, plays a central role in this work.
Palestinian activists have long engaged in non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation and to Israel’s institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against its Palestinian citizens, but they have been subjected to repressive measures by Israel, and in the past, the impact of their actions has been diminished by the international media’s focus on violent resistance.
Since 2005, Palestinians, Israeli allies and hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide have been mobilized in response to the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns. These campaigns include: economic, cultural and academic boycotts of West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements, and of Israel itself; divestment from companies that profit from Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights; and calls for economic sanctions against Israel.
The Palestinian civil society BDS call, now led by the Palestinian Boycott National Committee on behalf of its constituent organizations and unions, which represent the majority of Palestinian civil society, has three stated goals:
an end to the occupation;
equality for Palestinians now living in Israel; and
recognition of Palestinian refugees’ right of return.
We share these aims, and believe that they can and must, in the end, be achieved in mutually-agreed ways that uphold the well-being of Palestinians and Israelis alike.
As a force of U.S.-based Jews and allies, JVP has considered the full range of BDS campaigns, and has chosen to focus our efforts on boycott and divestment campaigns that directly target Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and its blockade of the Gaza Strip. We believe this to be the most effective way for JVP to help bring about the aims we share with the Palestinian BDS call.
In solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott National Committee and other Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations, JVP has initiated and sustained the largest divestment campaign mounted in the United States for Palestinian human rights -– the growing movement to induce investment giant TIAA-CREF to divest of its holdings in companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and its blockade of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Boycott National Committee stands fully behind the JVP-initiated TIAA-CREF campaign, and has urged “all groups working on boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns in the U.S., especially on university campuses, to endorse this campaign and join it, whenever possible, to amplify its reach and impact across the U.S.”
JVP has issued guidelines to support our chapters in engaging in BDS campaigns at a local level through work with coalitions of concerned activists.
JVP rejects the assertion that BDS is inherently anti-Semitic. We will defend activists around the world who employ the full range of BDS tactics when they are demonized or wrongly accused of anti-Semitism.
After strategic and ethical analysis and organization-wide deliberation among our members, JVP affirms our role in the larger BDS movement. We are committed to a continuing review of our role that takes into account the evolving political situation, the growing BDS movement, and the responses of JVP’s constituency and the people to whom we speak.
Original Link: http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/content/jvp-issues#1