Black Balloons and Protests all over Israel

I while ago I passed on a message about 21,915 black balloons flying over Jerusalem and now I have pictures as well as other pictures of the protest held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and at the The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I will caption some of the important ones, enjoy!
An Israeli Police office attempting to take a flag away from students at the Hebrew University

The same office grabbing the face of one of the protesters (All Israeli citizens)

Another angle

The balloons being released

There is that officer again, this time hitting a Jewish student

Students outside the university

 

My day trip to the Deir Yassin Memorial

And its a sad fact that it was a day trip. Barely an hour from where I live and work and yet its a 13 hour plane ride from where the massacre actually happened.  There is no memorial at the site of Deir Yassin, there is simply a mental hospital and security guards preventing people from coming to close or taking pictures. Here are my pictures from a little town in Central New York on possibly the most profound day in my life so far.

The wonderful people who donated their time and money have their names on the back of the granite pedestal

The front of the pedestal

The bronze uprooted olive tree created by Bendib

A close up of the wreathe recognizing the 60th anniversary of the massacre last week

And the train tracks leading away from the memorial.

Its a shame that it is so hidden. The memorial is on private property, but the owners don’t seem to mind us. It’s down a little side road wide enough for only one vehicle. We parked in a makeshift parking lot at the end of the dead-end street. I encourage any and all people who appreciate peace and humanity to visit the memorial. It can be our own little Yad Vashem

I still can’t understand why people feel that the murder of women and children was justified. I commented that it was like visiting our grandfathers grave to which my brother remarked “but its not his grave.”

It might as well be.

Birthright Palestine

Birthright Israel Palestine has finally been created. What better way to reconnect with your roots than to spend 1-3 months living with a family in the West Bank and witnessing life as they know it.

A project of the Palestine Center for National Strategic Studies, Birthright Palestine “is meant to gather first generation, westernborn Palestinians (over the age of 18+ years old) in their ancestral homeland, so that they can reunite and witness firsthand how their brethren are living under illegal Israeli military occupation.”

The program is made-up of four major components, education, tourism, hospitality, and volunteering, and was created to maintain Palestinian unity on an international level and to make foreign-born Palestinians feel at home in their homeland.

The average day is spent volunteering in the morning, arabic class in the afternoon with evenings free to go to cultural events or socialize. On Fridays there is a trip to another town and saturday is a day to do whatever you like.

The most important part is that the money spent goes directly to the Palestinian economy, every taxi ride you take, every meal you purchase goes to help another Palestinian family. The hose family also get a portion of the program cost and coupled with your volunteer work it can take a family from the brink of poverty into a sustainable livelyhood. Students are also welcome to get Palestinian I.D. cards to further add to the registered refugee count and garauntee your right of return.

10 Reasons to Join
Still not convinced that a trip to Palestine is for you? Here are ten reasons why you should join Birthright Palestine this summer.
1. Reconnect With Your Roots: You will have the opportunity to meet with important public/political figures, participate in informative workshops, celebrate cultural events, and have the chance to see all the major population centers of Historic Palestine, as well as areas of importance, such as unrecognized villages in your ancestral homeland.
2. Live With a Local Host-Family: You will be adopted by a local refugee family that will care for you as if you are their son/daughter while you stay in Palestine. Your hostfamily will feed you at least three meals a day; although, Arab hospitality usually warrants over-feeding. They will allow you to penetrate the local social-life by inviting you to family events, such as weddings, funerals, clan meetings, family-visits, etc. They will help you improve your Arabic language skills through daily practical use, and
accommodate your every need.

If you would prefer to live alone, you may also stay in a private guest house.
3. Returning as a Means of Resistance: David Ben Gurion, Zionist pioneer and the founder of ‘Israel’, said in 1949, “We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinians] never do return… The old will die and the young will forget.” Thus, simply coming back to visit the land that your parents or grandparents were forced to flee from, is a form of active
non-violent resistance against the illegal Israeli occupation. This is because this simple act opposes everything that the ‘State of Israel’ was founded on (the idea to ethnically cleanse the Holy Land/Palestine of all Arabs, so as to create a purely Jewish State).
4. Develop Everlasting Relationships: You will meet other first-generation western-born Palestinians; thus making the Palestinian Diaspora a more closely knit community. In addition, you will surely develop social bonds with those that you live with, work with, study with and meet during your stay in Palestine.
5. Contribute to the Palestinian Economy: A portion of your program fees will serve as rent, which will be paid to your host families - serving as a rare opportunity for a steady income in a devastated economy, where about 20% of the population of the West Bank lives below the international poverty line. Moreover, every time you buy a bite to eat,
hop in a cab, or buy something, you are putting food on a Palestinian family’s table.
6. Learn Arabic: There is no better place to learn Arabic than in an Arabic-speaking country. This is because when you are out of class, you will be forced to use your language skills almost everywhere you go. This urgency to learn will surely motivate you to make the best use of class.
7. Gain Vital Work Experience: Your internship will be geared towards your individual field of concentration or interest, so that you may hone your skills and put your classroom knowledge to practice. Moreover, the international experience that this program offers is definitely noteworthy for your resume/CV and can help you become more networked in the international business, non-profit, NGO, relief and development sectors. Also, PCNSS is always ready to provide its Alumni with letters of  recommendation.
8. Gain College Credits: Many colleges and universities often request as core requirements that their students (usually undergraduates) complete 6 credit hours of language studies in addition to an internship that applies to their field of study - this program fulfills both of those requirements while bringing you back to your roots and letting you see firsthand how your brethren are living in Palestine under illegal military occupation.
9. Share Your Experience With Others: Upon witnessing the situation in Palestine and completing the program, you will become an ambassador for the Palestinian Cause - your cause, and convince other Diaspora Palestinians to return to their homeland so that our nation can continue to survive in exile until the day that we are able all return home permanently.
10. Apply for Palestinian Citizenship: When you arrive, you may apply for “Lem Shaml” (Government Term for National Reunion in Arabic) - or - Palestinian Citizenship (in addition to your foreign citizenship - not in place of) at the Interior Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA); thus, formally requesting your right to return (Haq Al-Awda).

I am Palestinian

My family’s story

Many years ago racist invaders occupied my family’s country, my people were subject to brutality, dispossession, torture and killing - several hundred thousand of my people died out of a population of the order of a million. Our homes and lands were taken so that, even if permitted to return, refugees would have nothing to return to. Several years ago the European Union approved our dispossession.

My family was Palestinian, you say?

No. In 1944 the German Nazis invaded Hungary, 0.2 million out of 0.7 million Jewish Hungarians were killed and many of the survivors fled immediately after 1945 or during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. In 2004 Hungary entered the EU with the EU approval of the permanent dispossession of Jewish Hungarian victims of Nazism and thence Communism. Our lands and homes have been simply given to others. Indeed a relative reported visiting one such property in the heart of Budapest – it was converted into 4 apartments decorated with paintings and photographs of our family members for the amusement of total strangers.

Comparison of the Palestinian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust in Hungary is appropriate. The Jewish Holocaust occurring in Hungary in 1944 -1945 killed 0.2 million out of a total Jewish Hungarian population of 0.7 million (see: Gilbert, M. (1969), Jewish History Atlas (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London).

Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London). The survivors who fled as refugees remain permanently dispossessed with EU, UK and US approval.

The Palestinian Genocide involved invasion, occupation, disempowerment, dispossession, violence, ethnic cleansing and (within the Holy Land) post-1967 excess deaths totalling 0.3 million out of an average 1967-2008 Occupied Palestinian territory population of 1.8 million. The survivors who fled as refugees remain permanently dispossessed with EU, US, UK and US-lackey Australian approval.

Whereas the Jewish Holocaust involved rapid, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic , race-based extermination for Nazi and Nazi collaborator benefit and gratification, the Palestinian Genocide has involved slow, anti-Arab anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing for Zionist lebensraum .

The fundamental message from the Holocaust AND from the Palestinian Genocide is zero tolerance for racism. You can understand why – apart from being an anti-racist humanitarian – it is impossible for me to be actively or passively complicit in any racist agenda and why I am obligated to oppose the horrendous treatment of the Palestinian People by Zionist-run Apartheid Israel.

 The story of Zionism & Apartheid Israel

I am an anti-racist, humanitarian, agnostic, Humanist scientist whose family has suffered racist genocide, dispossession and exile. In my view the Zionist colonization of Palestine should never have happened but it has. The State of Israel is recognized by the UN and 5 million Jewish Israelis (all “existential Zionists” but unfortunately still ruled in an Apartheid State by Zionists) Must make peace - with equity, justice and reconciliation - with 5.5 million Subject Indigenous Palestinians in the Holy Land and millions more forbidden by Racist Zionists from returning to their stolen homeland. With mandatory non-racism such Peace with equity, justice and reconciliation is possible now.

The fundamental message of the Holocaust is zero tolerance for racism - and I am obliged as a decent human being (and one whose family was decimated by the racist Nazis) to oppose Racist Zionists.

The complete article by Gideon Polya can be read here

*all illustration are the works of Carlo Latuff. http://latuff2.deviantart.com/