Not Anonymous

Comsi Comsa

2009-12-21T09:19:21Z

I was wondering if I should do a recap of 2009.

It is soon to end and thank god for that.

It would appear that 2009 was, collectively, a crap year all around the world. I suppose I should have realised it wasn't going to be good when it started with a war.

I don't know about you, but my 2009 included cancer, a war, homophobia and a death in the family. It also included a wedding and my first long-term relationship.
Not all was bad.
Just compounded with the bad stuff.

Maybe there will be more of this to come, in which case I don't know if I want to be involved in 2010.
Maybe it's the decade giving us a jolly fare-well and our Teens will see a better world.

It's been a hard year friends.
A decade I'm glad to see over.

Just before the end, The Arbeit Macht Frei sign was found. I didn't write about when it was stolen, because I had no doubt that it either never be found or would be found quickly.
Symbols are often deemed more important to find than actual perpetrators of crime.

There was outrage in Israel when the sign was stolen.
The shooter at the gay youth club hasn't been found yet, nor will he ever, I despair.
The POW/Hostage (depending who you talk to) Gilad Shalit has yet to be released along with the other Palestinian Political/Security (again, depends who you're referring to) which are used as a bargaining chip.
A piece of scrap metal bearing words in German was found and returned over the weekend.

The world fucking sucks.

Good morning.

Talk to y'all later.

My Life According To... Buffy The Vampire Slayer!

2009-12-19T18:44:29Z

From all over the F-List:

How to do this meme: Using only EPISODE names from ONE TV SHOW, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat an episode title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My life according to (show)".

Describe yourself: Flooded
How do you feel?: Tabula Rasa
Describe where you live: Welcome to the Hellmouth
If you could go anyway where would you go?: Into the Woods
Your favourite form of transport: Dead Things
Your Best Friend is: Older and Far Away (not really :P)
What's the Weather like: The Dark Age
Favourite Time of Day: Bring on the Night
If your life was a tv show, it would be called: Normal Again
What is life to you: Choices
Your Fear: Helpless
What is the best advice you have to give: As You Were
Thought of the Day: Entropy
How I would like to die: Surprise
My Soul's present condition: Some Assembly Required
My Motto: Once More, With Feeling

Pseudo-Spiritual Navel Gazing

2009-12-18T12:49:08Z

I was looking through my tags this winter morning, it is raining buckets and I'm all nice and cosy in front of the radiator and the cat is purring next to me shedding hair on my black track suit pants and sweatshirt.

I was looking through my tags, specifically the spirituality one and I sometimes wonder if I'm right in the head. Well, ha, if you read this post you know I'm a bit wonky when it comes to my brain.

After the Lebanon war I had a crisis of faith, not surprising, I wanted something to believe in. As a teen I had been interested in paganism and even did a few rituals and all that, but comic books and the philosophy of Belief being the basis of Faith and not the other way around kind of ruined me for religion.

Not that I was ever really big on it. My family is a bit odd when it comes down to it. I mean, we're all sceptics and doubters, but we light candles for Shabbat and perform Kiddush on Friday night supper.
And we (well some of us) go to shul on the High Holidays.
I find going to shul tedious, always have, even as a child, I did my best to get out of the bencsh and go play outside - it helped that the shul we go to is egalitarian and there are no Women's section or Men's section and I could just run down the minyan and begone from the Bimah!

Is the Jewish jargon a bit much?

It's been years since I've gone more than once a year (on Yom Kippur), maybe for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah... but I try to get out of those as much as possible as well.
Belief is the basis of Faith.
If you don't have belief, there's not much faith can do for you.

The rituals I mention above are nice. I enjoy them to a certain extent. My Nephews insists I wear a kipah along with all the other boys when we all do Kiddush togehter - that's because I'm a "girl-daddy" you see - kids are so perceptive.
The holidays are always fun, families get together, we eat a lot, sing songs and yadda-yadda-yadda.
God is not there.
In name, of course, in the liturgy, no doubt.
I doubt, that for me, god ever was.

When I was a teenager I got involved with a bunch of other kids my age and we were all interested in witchcraft, wicca, paganism, what-have-you.
Ten, five, three years of perspective enable me to view those instances of hypocritical pretend on my part.
I was a weird kid who thought stories, myths and legends were "real" and here were a bunch of other kids who thought the same!
I just wanted to have friends.
And I did, even when my interest in practising religion waned - I still continued to "pretend" that I wanted to be a "Wise Woman". It basically became an elaborate role-playing game for me. Even when I was travelling with a friend and our brains somehow cross-wired we ended up doing a small "energy-raising" thing to counter act what was thought to be a kind of spiritual sabotage - when really, we were just stupid and we refused to see what was right in front of us - like the fact that were going in the wrong direction.

As I mentioned, it was during my very difficult year of 2007 that any last inklings of what I thought was belief just... went away.
I thought that with religion I could heal myself, but religion Judaism carries far too much negative baggage and I'm really much more of a cultural Jew, being Israeli.

The group of friends with whom I considered my "energy" activities as more play-acting than anything became a place in which I felt I couldn't be myself - I'm close friends with three people from that group that is no longer a group - I'm afraid the falling out I had with the de facto leader basically caused the whole thing to fall apart. Or as far as I'm aware, to re-organise without me, but I really have no idea as it's been nearly two and half years since I bothered thinking about the group as it was.

Once I was out of that group and no longer needing to play-act in order to interact with them, the whole notion of magic kind of died in me. I felt silly for pretending to be that kind of person.
I don't think there's anything wrong with being that person who raises energy and believes they do something with it.
It's just... not me.
I mean I was basically sitting around these people pretending I was one of them, when in reality I was more like Charles Dicketns in the Doctor Who episode The Unquiet Dead:

At 0:07 you can see him rolling his eyes spectacularly... the whole scene is good of course, 'cause it ain't spiritual!.

I'm quite sure that my close friends from that group reading this are not surprised. But maybe they are, I dunno.

And so I was finally free to say that I'm an Agnostic Jewish person who has issues with organised religion and really like the concept of Witchcraft and of being a Witch, but I can only be those things if I pretend.

I'd also like to specify that ghosts, spirits and other things that cause "paranormal" phenomena are not something I completely discount. I've experienced waaaaay to many things in my life to say with confidence: "There's no such thing as [insert paranormal creature]". I'm quite certain science will eventually evolve to being able to explain them and stop the con-people from taking our money in way.

BTW as a tarot card reader, it's not a spiritual thing, is a symbol thing. I've managed to crack huge amounts of baggage (for me and others) by using tarot and figuring out what resonate and what doesn't.

I conduct my life as a Jewish Atheist. I love my holidays, they hold no religious significance to me. The history of my people is an interesting and brutal one, the stories in the Bible of my mythology along with the Odyssey and The Sandman.

Were I able to, I'd rather go through my life not needing to explain all this to people and make myself out as an Aggressive Atheist rather than the Apathetic Agnostic that I am.

Religion is used in far too many ways to excuse bad behaviour, from Creationism to Terrorism, from Occupation to Jihad, from Misogyny to Transphobia.

In the words of Eddie Izzard (who paraphrased Martin Luther):
Ein Minuten, Bitte. Ich habe einen kleinen problemo avec diese religione.

"Spontaneous" Gender Change in Gaza

2009-12-17T22:08:04Z

What could possibly be the most obscure story regarding Gaza to hit the News like ever, is this:
Rare gender identity defect hits Gaza families.

Rare gender identity defect hits Gaza families
By Ivan Watson

Gaza City (CNN) -- Two Palestinian teenagers stroll amid the mounds of rubble left by last year's Israeli military offensive, listening to the tinny beat of a Turkish pop song playing on a cell phone.

Nadir Mohammed Saleh and Ahmed Fayiz Abed Rabo are cousins and next-door neighbors. With their gelled hair, buttoned-down shirts and jeans, they look much like any other 16-year-old Palestinian boy. But looks, Ahmed says, can be deceiving.

"Only my appearance, my haircut and clothing, makes me look like a boy," Ahmed says, gesturing with his hands across his face. "Inside, I am like a female. I am a girl."

Until last summer, both Nadir and Ahmed were -- for all intents and purposes -- girls. They wore female headscarves, attended girls' school and even answered to the female first names Navin and Ola.

Both Nadir and Ahmed were born with a rare birth defect called male pseudohermaphrodism.

Deficiency of the hormone 17-B-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17-B-HSD) during pregnancy left their male reproductive organs deformed and buried deep within their abdomens.

At birth, doctors identified Nadir and Ahmed as girls, because they appeared to have female genitalia.

As a result, they spent the first 16 years of their lives dressing and acting like girls. It was a role that grew increasingly difficult to play, as they hit puberty and their bodies began generating testosterone, resulting in facial hair and increasingly masculine features.

"They used to travel by car to girls' school and back," says Nadir's father Mohammed Sadih Ahmed Saleh. "Because of their facial hair, it was difficult for them to go out into the street. Psychologically they were distressed."

Finally, on June 22, with the support of their families, both Nadir and Ahmed transformed themselves into boys.

"They transferred on the same day," Saleh says. "Clothing, they switched to the other [boys'] school on the same day. They cut their hair on the same day. Both of them helped each other get through this crisis."

There are an unusually high number of male pseudohermaphrodite births in the Gaza neighborhood of Jabalya, where Nadir and Ahmed live.

Dr. Jehad Abudaia, a Canadian-Palestinian pediatrician and urologist practicing in Gaza, says he has diagnosed nearly 80 cases like Nadir's and Ahmed's in the last seven years.

"It is astonishing that we have [so] many cases with this defect, which is very rare all over the world," Abudaia says. He attributes the high frequency of this birth defect to "consanguinity," or in-breeding.

"If you want to go to the root of the problem, this problem runs in families in the genes." Abudaia says. "They want to get married to cousins... they don't go to another family. This is a problem."

In Western, more developed countries, doctors typically identify and then operate to correct disorders of sex differentiation at birth. But in war-torn Gaza, which has a lower standard of medical care, the birth defect can go undetected for years.

"Some of them unfortunately will be discovered late, when they are more than 14 years [old]. When they have been living as a female and they don't have menstruation, then they will go to the gynecologist," Abudaia says.

Abudaia's first advice to patients with the disorder is to immediately adopt male clothing and hair cuts, and then to plan for a sex-change operation.

This unusual ritual has been performed several times in the extended family of Nadir and Ahmed, where sex differentiation is a recurring disorder.

Nadir's 21-year-old brother Midyam and his 32-year-old cousin Ameen Abd Hamed share the same condition of male pseudohermaphrodism. As adolescents, they too underwent the gender identity transformation process the family refers to as "the transfer."

The traumatizing experience is all the more difficult because Gaza is a socially-conservative society, where there is a fair amount of segregation between males and females.

"I sat down with Nadir and explained to him how to adapt to the street, how to sit with the guys and talk to them... because at the beginning his mental state was bad, just like what happened to me," Ameen says.

"We did not understand what to do," says Ahmed, one of the 16-year-olds. "It was a new life for us, as if we were born again."

Though Nadir and Ahmed clearly have the love and support of their family, they say that is not enough. They are appealing to the international community to help them get the expensive and complicated sex-change operations they say they need to live normal lives.

"It's the only obstacle and the source of all the problems," Nadir says.

Until the sex-change operation is completed, Palestinian officials won't change the gender on their identity cards to "male," thus restricting their access to higher education.

In addition, Nadir and Ahmed complain of health problems like kidney infections due to complications resulting from the disfigurement of their genitalia.

"This is 100 percent a humanitarian issue," says Nadir's father, Mohammed. "There are four conditions in the same [extended] family. If we propose conducting the same operation on all four of them, the cost would be $30,000. We don't have $30,000 and there is no advanced medicine in Gaza."

Until then, these troubled Palestinians say their genders and their identities will remain in conflict, much like the land around them.

The tone and much of the article is problematic in the extreme.

Gaza is very isolated due to the siege and the communities themselves live under a barrage of religious fanaticism from the civic branches of Hamas. There has been number of reports about "modesty patrols" scouting the streets of Gaza City.

There's a huge amount of trauma related to gender and it not not fitting in the exact box that it's supposed to fit in.
I find it irritating that the article would emphasise the "traditional" society in which these boys live is any less forgiving than our "modern" Western culture.
It seems to me, that despite the trauma of transition¹ the families and neighbourhoods are trying to get these kids and young people integrate their changing identities and aren't, you know, murdering them for being gender deviant.

Something to think about.

Also, this closing sentence:
"Until [there is more funding for advanced medicine], these troubled Palestinians say their genders and their identities will remain in conflict, much like the land around them."

*vomits* Seriously? That's the correlation you came up with? Well done, CNN.
Bravo.

Notes
(1) What they've nicknames "The Transfer", an awful pun relating to Palestinian population relocation (against their will, usually) history and policy by Israel) - by the way, the wiki article that links to the "Palestinian Exodus" - actually refers to the Nakba, the Disaster as the creation of the state is called - Just FYI.
Back to text.

No, LJ No!

2009-12-15T08:14:52Z

*Sigh* via synechdochic:

* Gender will be a mandatory field at account creation, ~~and it will be able to appear public on one's profile. (I can't tell if people with existing gender specification will be defaulted to "nobody can see it" or "everybody can see it".)~~ (Subsequent changelog reading indicates that the public specificity has since been removed. It is unknown whether this is to require public specificity in the future or if it will remain private.)

* LiveJournal is removing the Unspecified option for the gender field. That's right: you get to be male or female. Period. That's it. (Source)

If this pisses you off as much as it pisses me off, go to Edit Profile and select Unspecified for your gender option. Then, go to http://www.livejournal.com/contact/?dept=feedback and politely register your displeasure. (The people who read and process Feedback are not the people who make the decisions. They are often the people who are yelling internally about the decisions.)

(This will likely take place at the next code push, which given LJ's history will be either this Thursday or next, so spread the word fast, especially to the genderqueer community. After that point, you will no longer be able to pick "Unspecified" as your gender.)

This is the letter synecdochic wrote for the feedback:

Hi there,

I read http://community.livejournal.com/changelog/7932846.html and subsequent commits with dismay, particularly the part where gender is now a) a required field and b) a binary option. Gender is not a binary; there are many people who do not identify as either male or female.

LiveJournal always received high marks from the transgender and genderqueer community because it didn't require people to specify, and didn't require people to choose either/or, when it came to the gender field. LJ also received heavy pressure to offer an "Other" option in addition to the "Unspecified"; you can read the early history of the "gender_petition" community for details. (http://community.livejournal.com/gender_petition/38651.html and earlier entries)

I am particularly dismayed by this change, because LiveJournal under both Danga and Six Apart said, repeatedly, that a). the Gender field would never be a mandatory field to fill out, and b). if it became so, the options would be expanded to include "Other". (http://community.livejournal.com/feedback/9967.html)

A simple interest search on "transgender" or "genderqueer" will illustrate how many people are aware of this issue, and you can review suggestions going back to 2001 (http://community.livejournal.com/suggestions/36453.html) about it.

Transgender and genderqueer individuals experience discrimination every day when they are forced to identify themselves with the gender binary when it doesn't apply to them. Please do not contribute to this oppression.

Please keep the "Unspecified" option for gender, and add an "Other" option, if you are making the gender field mandatory. Please do not contribute to the oppression of others. While I recognize that having a user's gender makes advertisers happier, collecting revenue at the expense of human suffering is not the action of a company I want to do business with.

Best,
[Your name here]

To also reach someone who's higher up the food chain than the poor staff members who have to read and reply to Feedback, also email anjelika@livejournalinc.com who is Anjelika, GM of US operations.

Livejournal has done some bad coding shit over the past four years that I've been using - I was here for ~~strikthrough~~, boldthrough, the breast feeding icon fiasco and probably more but I don't recall.
In all those instances I've seen LJ users come together and fight and WIN.
I have a Dreamwidth account, if this gender crap passes I'll not be renewing any payments to Livejournal and making it my business to monetarily support Dreamwidth.

This is being done for advertising purposes (most likely) and it keeps on confirming that ads, advertising and the whole copy-writing industry is evil.
Just my opinion of course.

This is my letter, written in my own words and inspired by the the letter posted above:

Hello,

I've just read http://community.livejournal.com/changelog/7932846.html and subsequent commits with dismay, particularly the part where gender is now a required field and binary option. Gender is not a binary; there are many people who do not identify as either male or female.

Many (including myself) feel that that having a binary field is discriminatory. LJ has a huge amount of Transgender and Genderqueer people (and communities) who would feel this requirement is a violation of privacy and self-identification.

A large portion of women do not specify their gender because the Internet is no in fact a safe place in which to "be out" as a woman for many.
Sexism is still something we all have to live with and automatic assumptions regarding one's gender abounds.

It is my understanding that previous management of Livejournal has stated that the gender field would not be mandatory and should it become so the option of "Other" would be added.
Why is current management ignoring this?

This may not seem like a big deal, but for many people the requirement of the specification of gender is oppressive and damaging.
Livejournal is a space of expression and disseminating of content that we, your users, create.
Please, don't make this platform another oppressive place for Trangender and Genderqueer people.

Thank you,
Mel.

I'm Feeling You Up For Your Good!

2009-12-14T09:52:47Z

I saw this yesterday, Touch yourself, otherwise I own those babies! Oh, and I'll grope you, harass you and sexually assault you!

Yeah.

Breast cancer awareness never "felt" so good.

This, sibs, is what rape culture looks like!

Hey grope-promoting ass-holes, how about on Prostate Cancer awareness month I wear a shirt that promotes awareness by saying "Lube up and spread 'em for your own good!".

Feel good to you?!

A Story in Which the Pain is Real

2009-12-13T14:52:16Z

Arachne Jericho wrote a series of blog posts titled Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Fiction (Broken into one, two, three and four parts).

It is a really good series. Trauma and the dealing with it can be a deal breaker for me when it comes to fiction.
I happen to have PTSD.
It's not something I talk about often because I'm in a good place in my life.
The latter part of 2006 and the majority of 2007 sucked, sucked, sucked. Most of 2008 was okay and improved as I realised what I needed to do in order to be able to function. I was in therapy from April 2007 'til January 2009.
That's a year and eight months.
I was never on any medication.
In 2006 and 2007 I had a few panic attacks, I've had one full blown flashback once in my entire life - I hope I never ever have one again, but really that's not up to me.

Briefly, for those who were not reading me during 2007 and/or 2008 and joined after Jan 2009, I participated in the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, the war changed me - I think for the better - and also left a scratch in my brain.
I've been told that I shouldn't make myself out to be a victim, that other soldiers during the war, those who were on the front line and actually fought and didn't just watch the fighting on a big screen and count the rockets as they fell (which is what I did).

Perspective is great. It doesn't lessen my own pain. Making fun of myself and calling myself a whiny self-pitying ass does, though!
My therapist at some point said I use self-deprecation as a way to deflect.

Jericho gives an excellent over-view of what PTSD is and what it isn't and the way it is depicted in fiction - I think there's a unanimous agreement that The West Wing Christmas episode Noel is the best ever on television.

PTSD is a subtle disorder for many, including me. One friend nagged me gently to get help, because she could see that I wasn't "myself".
For a while I was unable to watch the News on teevee for fear that they would show aerial footage from a war plane - those images are still triggers for me and I can get very tense and, ha, stressed. Most war movies have become no-no's, but not good ole' Action films (I'm so glad I didn't lost James Bond).

It took me a while to want to get help, because damn it I'm not weak! Not to mention, in my mind you can't get PTSD by watching a television screen and seeing things blow up! I see that in movies all the time!
Except I was hearing the crackling voices of people telling me co-ordinates of rockets that were being fired from Lebanon.
Trees became targets.
A man who fired one those rockets died on July 26th 2006, it was a Wednesday, he was blown to smithereens.
I saw it happen.
People clapped for a job well done.
That night I broke down and the paradigm of my conciousness was altered - for the better and also with a few hiccups.

PTSD doesn't happen to people who sit in HQ. It also only happen to War Poets, to people who aren't really hurt.

I was told I take things too hard. That I'm too sensitive. That I need "to get over it". Well, I did... that's why I have PTSD and a good year, instead of... something else entirely.

Go read that series of posts and know that PTSD is hard to write, is often not named (I'm not sure it needs to be, every time or all the time) and I'll think about why I love the characters I love and identify with more than I did before the war.

I'm watching Twilight...

2009-12-12T21:56:57Z

...as I write this.

I'm not ashamed.

I decided to watch it, so that I could pin-point my hate of this franchise. Yes, I went into it knowing that I'd hate it.
Twihards, I know Good Vs Bad is hard to resist. I also know that reading about a girl who could be you (because you can transplant your personality onto her) being with a handsome boy who isn't all about the sex (though it really is) is compelling.

But let's get one thing straight; abusive relationships are not romantic. Thinking your boyfriend is a predator is not sexy. Stalking is a crime.

Also, my god she could be replaced by a blow-up doll and it have the same effect on plot, narrative and her personality.

That's great female role-modelling you've got there.

WTF! Sparkles?!

*sigh* I'm disappointed in literature sometimes, and thus the human race.

Related to this, I've taken to reading fandomsecrets. It's very fascinating, what anonymity enables us to say and do. Most of what's written there is quite common and a large amount of the secrets repeat each other in variations.
By reading F!S I can also tell which Fandom is bigger than others.

Today, this secret appeared:

.
You can read the comments here.

I'm not planning on commenting.
Mainly because I find the "secret" a fascinating one. To me it reads as someone who possibly enjoys reading fiction that they are ashamed of.
Fiction and possibly fanfiction because it is de facto unedited by an outside reader and usually Beta readers (the editors of the Fanfic world) encourage the writers to go beyond what they consider their limits - you can read that often when authors thank their Beta readers.
The all encompassing offence of this "secret" is just incredible.

The way I see it, fiction gives us the ability to discuss all the "offensive exploitation and glorification of real issues" - humanity is not really good with dealing with things head on. We do truly horrible things to each other.

The monsters of fiction (Vampires and Werewolves and Zombies... whatever) are yet to have been verified by science - but we all know those people who suck the life out of us, those people who can be the sweetest people one second and then without warning can make you cry from the violent cruelty they impose and who hasn't met those people who just wander through life without passion and want nothing but to take the passion out of others.

Most of life's bad things are not actually spoken about. We do not talk about torture or how sexual it is. We do not speak about the fact that rape is a crime against humanity and that it is committed against 1 in 4 women, 1 in 10 men, 1 in 6 children of any gender - usually by someone they knew.
That incest is far more common than we want to imagine.
Fiction is able to present us with a disturbing, yet palpable picture of the world.

The "secret" is obviously accusatory, but I think it's more inward than anything else. The person who wrote the "secret" most likely has read a bunch of fiction that "offensive" and "glorified violence", enjoyed it and was ashamed of pursuing the stories that were gritty, disturbing, kinky and fantastic (= fantasy, not "amazing").

I say, if we can't discuss, talk, explore and live fictional lives how can we do the same for non-fictional lives - in which we hide, repress, suppress and oppress so much more?

As I finish writing this, the credits of Twilight are rolling. A more boring movie I can't remember seeing. Disturbing gender, race and class relations abound.
This is fiction that many find meaning in. It is bad, it glorifies behaviour that in our world can get you killed, relationships that can wreak emotional havoc and personalities I hope one day get help to sustain healthier lives.

If we can't say that on a world found in books, how will we ever be able to say it about the world that exists at the end of our nose?

Human Wrongs, You're Doing it Right

2009-12-12T11:16:11Z

It was actually "Hoomin Rongs, Ur Doin it Right".

That's what happens when a bunch of geeks who have just come from a Human Rights March and speak fluent LOLcat say to each other.

Yesterday was a busy day.

On the day of Israel's first Human Rights March; 21 activists were arrested in East Jerusalem for demonstrating against the eviction of Arab families in the Sheik Jarrah neighbourhood and bringing in Jewish families in their stead; Settlers vandalised a Mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf, burning Korans and spraying graffiti to prayer rugs.

Just to contextualise the day for y'all.

My day was much better.

I got up early-ish in order to get to Tel-Aviv by 11 AM because that's when all the people were supposed to be gathering at Rabin square.
At first there were no contingencies I knew or felt a part of were there, so I was all awkward and just standing there.
Luckily a friend - who for the sake of this post I'll call "Phill" - arrived and he was also very surprised that our contingencies were lacking.

Then at around a quarter past 11 I suddenly saw multiple rainbow flags which made me happy, but they went to stand next to Meretz¹, the Party I felt utterly and completely sold out their voters in order to widen their base and get more supporters.

Yes, we're all very factional... well, at least I am.

Then a few minutes later more friends of mine from campus arrived along with the red flags, yep, I stuck around in my "This is what a feminist looks like" tank top, my Keffiya and picked up a red flag!
I'm happy to march with the Socialists and Communists. I feel that most Anarchist orgs in Israel are focused almost exclusively on the Occupation, but Hadash² and Maki³ talk about society at large and seem to have practical solutions for the fact that my country is not really a democracy - despite the voting of a new government every two or three years (not bad for a Banana Republic!) we don't actually have that much of a choice when it comes to "mainstream" leaders who ever since Rabin appear to all fall under the thrall of neo-liberalism and the ever creeping fascism.
Hadash is very much a fringe party and has never had a huge amount of representation in the Knesset - the reason Meretz lost most of it's power is because, as I said, they sold out.

At around half past a friend with whom I hang out with at Uni - we'll call him "Jon" - arrived and I was so happy to discover that he brought his Pride Flag with him!
Some ass told him to not wave it around because there were other contingencies (that Hadash might not identify with) were also waving around rainbow flags.
"Jon" looked at him as though he's grown another head.
I snorted loudly.

It so happened that I ended up carrying the Pride flag because "Jon" ended up carrying a huge banner with another person and I handed the red flag I'd been carrying to a future Member of the Party (some eight year old kid, I'd say) and "Jon" and I ended up marching the whole way together.

Someone brought a solar powered boom-box and there was music in the streets!

Well you know what's attributed to Emma Goldman, right? A Revolution without dancing and a Revolution not worth having!, or rather: If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.
Same-Same...

We finally got to the plaza outside the Tel-Aviv Museum - which right across the street from the IDF HQ (I laughed, it's just too sad) and there were huge amounts of people that joined for the speeches.
It was vast.

Then the speeches began and everyone who came to march was acknowledged, all the different organisation - for gay rights, refugee rights, women's rights, immigrant worker rights, anti-racism, rights of the people who are occupied... just, huge amounts of people.

The Association of Civil Rights in Israel was the one who organised this march and also gave out the annual Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award - the awards were established in 1981 and were renamed after the murder of Peace Activist Emil Grunzweig in 1983.
This year's award were given to Ruth and Paul Keidar of Yesh Din (There is Law) which provides legal assistance to Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories.
The award was also given to Nir Katz (z"l - rip) who was murdered at the gay youth club in August for his work as a volunteer and educator.
His mother came to accept the award in his name and her speech was just so moving I started to cry - as you know, I took the shooting quite hard and "Jon" was very sweet, holding me close as she spoke. I felt a bit guilty for crying because I didn't actually know Nir Katz, I know people who knew him... just, it very personal when it's a Hate crime.

Then there was music, more speeches, even more music, I found some geek friends, we ate doughnuts because it is Hannukah and we began to LOLcat.

Footnotes
(1) Meretz is what is considered, in the mainstream, the most Left you can go and still be a Zionist. I disagree, but that's beyond the point. Point is, is factionally speaking, you go more Left you risk de-legitimisation. Last year during the assault on Gaza they supported the attack and caused a bit of a crisis (I think, I was no longer following the internal politics when the Chairman decided to make the party about the white intellectual menz).
Back to text.
(2) Hadash - al Jabha is the acronym for the front for The Democratic Front for Peace and Eqaulity and is in fact a coalition of political and social organisations that try to co-operate to create a more equal and just society.
Back to text.
(3) Maki is the Israeli Communist Party and makes up the largest member base of Hadash.
Back to text.

Back from the March

2009-12-11T17:20:36Z

It was amazing.

We were about 5000 people all in all.

I don't have time to report on it all, I may do so tomorrow.

All I can say is that it was awesome, I cried and I got a T-Shirt.

Happy Hannukah!

"Dancing in the Streets"

2009-12-11T07:26:30Z

Hey, did you know that Yesterday was International Human Rights Day?

No?

I'm not surprised.

I mean, Human Rights, those are for people who aren't ME, right?

I'm being facetious but you have to admit that that seems to be the attitude.

Over the past few months The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has been working on, planning and today will finally be executing Israel's first Human Rights March.

I've marched for human rights multiple times over the years, but they always seemed to have a different moniker like: anti-war, anti-poverty, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, anti-occupation, pro-immigrant rights and more.

Today, it's All Of That.

I wonder... is anyone going to care this time as well?

Quoted and copied from Coterest: News, Analysis and Opinion from the Israeli Hebrew print and electronic media:
[Under the cut] is a rush translation of Ha’ir’s ("The City", a local urban mag that covers Tel-Aviv happenings) cover story.
No complicated conspiracy theories. Only a long catalogue of de-legitimization.

So here is one, small ask, do what progressives are the best at. Communicate. Get this story out.

“Anti-Semites”

How human rights activists became public enemies

Their families disown them, the universities persecute them, the Shabak wiretaps them, police harass them and the Knesset curtails them. Who will take care of the human rights of the human rights activists?

Shai Greenberg and Neta Ahituv, Ha’ir [Haaretz Tel-Aviv weekly], December 11 2009 [cover story]

A month and a half ago, Noa Kaufman, an activist for the organization Israeli Children, fighting to regulate the status of the children of migrant workers, was woken by the ring of her cell phone at 4 a.m.. On the other end of the line was a male voice: “the public is not against the expulsion, you bitch.” He hung up. He called again, and when she didn’t answer he left a message: “you filthy Ashkenazi bitch, too bad Hitler didn’t finish you off. Come to the Shapira neighborhood and just watch what we do to you. We’re going to catch you tomorrow and kill you.”

Another recipient of that kind of invective is Tel Aviv Council member Yael Ben Yefet, who acted in City Hall against arresting the children and banishing them from central Israel. Ben Yefet, who is also the director of Hakeshet Hademocratit Hamizrahit, received an anonymous fax to her office saying: “if you knew what was going on these days in the southern neighborhoods, you would be ashamed of yourselves, you token Sephardic ass kissers of the Ashkenazi racists who hate you. We are talking to you too, Yefet, you wimp. It is nice and warm in the Ashkenazis’ butts, but doesn’t it stink?”

Eitan Bronstein, CEO of the Zochrot organization, also received death threats. “We called on the public to join a march of commemoration of the Nakba and I received an anonymous phone call: ‘by April 17 you will no longer be alive. We are going to make sure of that.’ Then there were other calls, to my cell phone and the office.” Bronstein is already used to being cursed on the phone. In the last year he was interviewed a few times on Shmuel Plato Sharon’s program on Radio Radius. “Plato, who has very nationalist opinions, called me throughout the interview ‘murderer,’ ‘anti-Semite,’ and he even said: ‘I hope they throw you out of the country.’”

It looks as if that kind of talk has become legitimate in Israel, 2009, as long as it is aimed at human rights activists, of course. There is a consensus that it is okay to abuse them with violent talkbacks, rabid radio programs, graffiti polluting the public thoroughfares and of course also personally, individually, as shall be demonstrated below. The truth is we should not be surprised by that vulgar treatment. Recently several official parties have given support to the delegitimization of those organizations. The Interior Ministry spokesperson, Sabine Hadad, for example, who in an opinion piece she published on the Walla website last August called the demonstrators against expelling migrant workers “precious children who do not understand the reality of life but insist on calling themselves human rights activists;” or the official Yitzhak Drexler, head of the guarantees unit in the Interior Ministry, who wrote in his answer to a request by the Elem organization on behalf of the son of a migrant worker: “try not to defend criminals and attach them to our people and the Land of Israel.” The same Drexler wrote to the Hotline for Migrant Workers that they “represent criminals and help them extinguish morality from the Land of Israel.”

It is quite possible that those two Interior Ministry officials were inspired by their minister Eli Yishai, who called the migrant worker and refugee aid organizations “a threat to the Zionist enterprise.” By the way, Yishai was speaking in defense of Tziki Sela, the former commander of the Oz unit, who himself called the organizations in an interview with Maariv, “anarchists who want to destroy Israel.”

This week 11 human and civil rights organizations wrote a letter to the president, the prime minister and the Knesset speaker, asking for a meeting to discuss the delegitimization of their groups. Simultaneously, tomorrow (Friday) 40 organizations will hold the first human rights march in Israel, leaving Rabin Square at 11 and ending at the Cinematheque. Among the performers will be the Dag Nachash group and Alma Zohar. The purpose of the event is to protest against the poor state of human rights in Israel, as reflected in a report published this week by ACRI, about the deterioration of democracy in Israel. But right before the organizations unite to protest the injustice caused to all of the disempowered groups in Israel and the occupied territories, it is worth aiming the spotlight at the organizations themselves — another sector that has been excluded from society.

In the family: daughter, I’m glad the Shabak is on to you

Ruth, an activist for the Gisha organization that defends the Palestinians’ right of movement, this week described how she broke up with her partner, a high-tech worker, after his family constantly criticized her occupation: “It is a family from Ra’anana, educated people, middle class, mainstream, but they were hostile about my work in a human rights organization that defends Palestinian rights. They said things like ‘that is not Zionist,’ ‘charity begins at home,’ ‘they are to blame for their situation,’ and the most lethal statement of all, especially coming from a family that called itself leftist: “Better 100 (dead) Palestinian children than one Israeli soldier.’”

What bothered them most, says Ruth, were concerns about the family’s economic and social future. Statements like “it could threaten ours son’s career, inhibit his promotion,” or “you have to think of the children you are going to have. This work can put you at risk. What will happen when she takes them to a demonstration at Bil’in?” “What do I have to do with Bil’in?” protests Ruth. “Our work is on a different level, it is legal work on the basis of international human rights laws, representing people whose freedom of movement has been violated. Their reactions, and reactions from society in general, show that what is important is to protect Jewish rights. The suffering of others is not perceived as something we need to care about. It was very hard to penetrate that exhausting conversation and finally we broke up.”

Vered Cohen Barzilai, Amnesty spokeswoman and a former crime, law and health reporter for Channel 10, had similar experiences: “I come from a right wing home and six years ago, when I made a career change from journalism to human rights, I parted with many friends, including my best friend. When I told her I work for Amnesty she spat on the floor three times and threw me out of her office saying: ‘what do you think, that if you make friends with Arabs you will be safe from terrorist attacks?’”

Many of the activists we talked to cited their families’ attitudes as the hardest thing for them to deal with. One activist said that his family’s excommunication reached cyberspace: “When my father realized I talk about work on Facebook, he unfriended me.” Another activist, who asked not to reveal her name or the name of the organization where she volunteers, tells of a conversation she had with her father a year ago after he decided to cancel his subscription to the New York Times, after he read that the US wiretaps terrorists, undermining the security agencies’ ability to act against them. “Do you know that the Israeli security agencies, especially the Shabak, listen to my calls too?” asked the daughter, and was astonished when her father answered: “okay, I think they want to make sure you are not going too far.”

At the University: what are the lecturers afraid of?

University lecturers also say they are being silenced. It is done by the website of an organization called Israel Academia Monitor, which systematically documents every academic, from students to professors, who the website operators believe “undermines Jewish Zionist interests,” including signing petitions, attending conferences, speaking to the media and writing articles that criticize government policy towards the Palestinians. “Based on that monitoring, the organization submits an annual report to the various universities’ boards of trustees, with the warning ‘this is what people do with your money,’” says Dr. Amiel Vardi, a lecturer in classical studies at Hebrew University and an activist in Ta’ayush.

“Yes, we definitely monitor academics who want to destroy Israel,” confirms site editor Dana Barnet, “based on what they write or say at international conferences or interviews to the media. Academics who call at international conferences to boycott Israel, or cooperate with pro-Arab organizations such as Adala and B’Tselem, we all have to know what they are doing. We definitely think that just because of our monitoring those academics curtailed their activities.”

Prof. David Newman from the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University has already experienced persecution by the Board of Trustees of the institution where he teaches. A month ago he received an angry e-mail from Michael Gross,, who sits on the University’s Board of Trustees, following an appearance on the British Channel 4 television. In the e-mail, Gross threatens to use all of his influence to fire Newman. He uses very strong language, to the point of death wishes

Members of the faculty of humanities at the university are organizing a petition that will be sent to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Roy Zuckerberg, who lives in New York, to protest Gross’s e-mails. “It is an example of how a university donor who lives abroad (Gross lives in England) is trying to take over the university’s agenda,” said a faculty member. Newman would only say this week: “Others are fighting for me, not I for others, and I prefer not to talk about it.”

On the ground: what does the public care?

An important part of the prosecution of human rights activists is their harassment by security forces. They say it got much worse after the latest operation in Gaza. Dafna Banai, of MachsomWatch (and the wife of the actor Gavri Banai), says that “at the demonstration that took place at that time against the operation in Gaza, people hit my friend and spit in her face, and members of the police anti-terror unit just sat around laughing. When we wanted to file a complaint the police prevented us from reaching the assailant. When we asked them to arrest him they stood between us and him, pulled him over and asked him to leave. We have the feeling nobody is defending us. Soldiers too. Lots of times they stand around and encourage the settlers to attack us. They say ‘yeah, good, go on,’ or just stand and watch and start laughing when older women are attacked by thugs.”

In one case, half a year ago, Banai received a traffic ticket for “something crazy that never happened,” she claims. “A policeman threw up a wildcat checkpoint on a road in the territories,” she says, “and when we (the MachsomWatch women) see a thing like that we stop to film it. I stood on a side road and the policeman got angry that we were standing there and watching him. He claimed I was standing on a white stripe on an intercity highway, that I wasn’t wearing a shiny vest and that I drove in reverse without another person guiding me. None of it is true, I filmed everything. He gave me a 250 shekel fine just because he didn’t want us to stop there.”

Leah Shakdiel, a religious feminist from Yeroham, who works without an organizational framework, tells of an incident that happened to her about a year ago: “On January 14 I joined a protest vigil in Beersheva of the Jewish-Arab Darom Shalom group. A protest vigil, by law, does not need a police license. It is a group of people standing in one place, not disturbing traffic, not marching and just holding signs. But the police decided to interrupt us actively. Police came to the corner where we were standing, at a pretty central location, stopped traffic and created chaos. The officer pulled out a megaphone and said it was an illegal demonstration, that we had 15 minutes to disperse and that if we didn’t there would be arrests. Three minutes later the police were dragging people into patrol cars. I innocently thought they asked us to disperse because our gathering was dangerous in terms of Qassams. I thought the police were really worried about our safety. But then the police ganged up on somebody standing next to me to take his camera away and dragged me with him to the patrol car. There were six of us who were arrested. We were released to alternative arrest at 10 p.m., to house arrest. I received a restraining order from Beersheva for two weeks. The police told me ‘demonstrate in Yeroham, not here.’

“The whole business was unprofessional and irresponsible. We were charged with unruly behavior and an illegal demonstration but we were neither unruly nor anything. While we were under arrest they didn’t tell us we have the right to a lawyer. They yelled at me that if I did not sign on to alternative arrest without a lawyer, as I asked, they would leave me at the police station all night. I was under house arrest for five days. It harmed my ability to make a living as a lecturer on Judaism and feminism at pre-military seminars and the Sapir College. Since indictments were served, we have access to the evidence material against us, and we have a copy of the film the police itself made, that shows we were standing on the sidewalk quietly, holding signs in Arabic and Hebrew. In the end the charges against most of us were dropped out of lack of public interest. They weren’t dropped for lack of evidence because they want to continue harassing the photographer who was arrested with us and who still has a charge sheet pending against him. I know the police saw him at another demonstration and looked for an opportunity to harass him.”

In opposite cases, activists say, when they are the ones who file complaints for harassment, the police move very slowly. “In August 2008 settlers slashed my tires near an illegal outpost,” says Dafna Banai, “and broke my MachsomWatch flag that was attached to the car. When I got back a week later, I saw the flag hanging on their tent. I complained to the police and was answered that there is no public interest. One of our drivers had his jaw broken by settlers who punched him with fists. Then too we complained to the police and nothing came of it. There is never public interest. There is never proof. There were cases when our women were attacked and in the end the police took our identity cards and let the settlers watch.”

In the investigation rooms: closed cases only

The institutional harassment of the organizations does not stop at the level of the foot soldier. In many cases the order is given at the highest level. In May 2007 it was reported that the Shabak uses surveillance when there is “subversive activity against the state’s Jewish character,” even if it is legal activity. The head of the Shabak Yuval Diskin declared at the time that that authority “is important to Israeli democracy,” and many activists say they feel it on their persons and on their cell phone lines. But the Shabak doesn’t only eavesdrop. In June 2008 Salah Hajj Yihya, head of the Physicians for Human Rights mobile unit, was taken to a Shabak investigation into the organization’s activities. In the investigation he was asked what the budget is, who the donors are, how they go into the territories and transport patients from Gaza to Israel and whether they had met Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. “I prefer not to bring that up all over again,” he asked this week. “They claimed we exploit humanitarian activity for political activity. Nonsense.”

And speaking of PHR, in a phone call last year between Dr. Yoram Snir, a department head at Soroka and a senior figure in the hospital, and Anat Litvin, head of the organization’s detainee department, Snir called it “an organization of enemies of Israel” and hung up. This week the CEO of Adala received a phone call from a man who threatened his life. “We’re used to it,” they explain indifferently.

Three months after the investigation of Salah Hajj Yihya, in September 2008, a police investigation opened against the organization New Profile, with the approval of the attorney general and state attorney. The police suspected the organization was helping youth dodge military service. On the eve of last Memorial Day it raided activists’ homes at 7 a.m., confiscated their personal computers and forbade them from talking to each other. “They even took my nine-year-old daughter’s computer,” said Miriam Hadar, the organization’s chairman, “and since I work from home I was stuck with my work as editor and translator of articles on psychoanalysis and gender theory at the university.”

Last November the investigation closed after lasting almost a year. The files against the activists closed on grounds of lack of evidence and lack of guilt. To the public they are still enemies, apparently. Just last week two organization activists were prevented from distributing flyers at a conference organized by Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi for high school principals at Binyanei Hauma. “We went to Jerusalem, two middle-aged women, we got there half an hour before the conference to give out flyers,” says New Profile’s current chairman, Rivka Sue (?). “Two guards came up to us and clung to us and made us back up to the gate. The female guard called a policeman and he asked us if we have a license to demonstrate. I asked ‘what demonstration?’ He sighed and said: ‘what do you care? Go.’”

Three months ago it was three members of Yesh Gvul who were called in for a police investigation. Police entered the offices of Hamoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual, looking for a computer somebody from New Profile used to work on, didn’t find it and left. The joke going around the organizations this week was that at the entrance to the rally they are planning tomorrow the police will throw up checkpoints and take fingerprints for the biometric database, that was approved by the Knesset this week.

____

An escalation in the silencing process

It seems as if last week the attempt to silence the organizations and close down their funding escalated. It happened at a special conference at the Knesset called by NGO Monitor with the Institute for Zionist Strategy. The goal: to discuss the “transparency” of the donations the organizations receive from abroad. “Even though foreign funding for organizations in Israel is labeled as aid to ‘civil society,’ that is an erroneous definition,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, CEO of NGO Monitor, at the conference. “Organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights, B’Tselem and Hamoked cannot claim they are at the center of Israeli civil society and at the same time be directly funded by the Swedish government.”

The minister for improving service to the public, Michael Eitan, and MK Ze’ev Elkin, who moderated the conference, initiated a draft law demanding that every document issued by the organization be obligated to mention all of the donors connected to it, even on the nametags activists wear at conferences. The law says severely that if they do not do so they will bear personal responsibility carrying a sanction of up to three years in prison. “We assume this will cause the foreign governments not to transfer the money because they have domestic opposition, too, and the taxpaying public will not accept the fact that their government is involved in the domestic affairs of another country,” Minister Eitan explained to the conference, attended mostly by American Jewish men in skullcaps.

The organizations were invited to the conference but chose to avoid it. Instead of coming they published a joint response: “We practice that principle in our own behavior,” they write, but we have “the blunt impression that under the banner of’ ‘transparency,’ there are some who wish to further different goals: that the conference you have undertaken to lead is meant first of all to delegitimize human rights and social change organizations in Israel.” B’Tselem spokesman Sarit Michael adds that funding of the organizations is only half a percentage of the total amount the EU devotes to various activities in Israel. “In 2007 the EU allocated €261 million, of which €241 million went to universities and researchers. If Israel wants to disconnect its human rights community from European funding, it should take into account that universities, hospitals and other research institutions will have to give up the funding they receive from Europe.”

The Binyanei Hauma management says in reaction: “The Binyanei Hauma Congress Center is a large complex that rents its grounds to events meant for the invitees of the organizers and them only. As such, the Congress Center has to maintain security services, who are responsible for the safety of conference attendees, and are also instructed to prevent private marketing activity without prior approval on the complex grounds. An inquiry we made following your question showed that in the incident in question there was an event for school principals with the minister of education and the Chief of Staff. The event was secured in coordination with the unit for the protection of VIPs and the Israel Police, which were present. People came to the event and began distributing fliers. The security detail told them that the northern plaza and parking lots are part of the grounds of the event and that they must not distribute flyers on the grounds. The security team also told them politely that if they are invited to the event they can continue attending it but without distributing flyers or alternatively they can leave the grounds and give the flyers out on Shazar street outside of Binyanei Hauma. When a few women refused to cooperate with the guards, in order to prevent a provocation, a policeman was asked to intervene.”

Ben Gurion University did not respond by the time of closing.

Warning Label Meme

2009-12-10T09:51:53Z

I think this is probably one of the funnest memes I've seen recently!

Please comment to tell me, If I came with a warning label, what would it say?

Writer's Block: Go it alone

2009-12-09T12:32:39Z

Do you think society puts too much pressure on people to be in relationships and/or have children? Do you think this ostracizes people who would be perfectly content to remain single and/or child-free? Is this pressure worse around the holidays?

View Answers

Yes.

Very obvious and self-explanatory question.

If you don't have children you're not a "real woman".
You have to be a "real woman" in order to be a Mother.
If you're single, you're a failure anyway.

Being child-free is a kind of scarlet letter on your social standing - you're refusing to contribute to the human race, refusing to be a responsible adult and all that junk.

*sigh*

The answer to all those questions (thought the holiday part is ambiguous) is "Yes".

In the land of perpetual war...

2009-12-08T07:02:11Z

War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.

Consent is coercion.

"Knesset passes biometric database bill"

Two-year trial period to test database before it becomes mandatory for all Israeli citizens.

The Knesset on Monday adopted a bill establishing a biometric database in Israel, which will eventually lead to the replacement of regular identification with electronic IDs. Forty Mks supported the bill, 11 opposed it, and three abstained.

In addition to identification cards and passports, the database will also be designed to hold the fingerprints and visual scans of every citizen of Israel.

So...
Any body got a couch I can crash on other than tempestbreaker?

"All Suffering SOON TO END!"

2009-12-07T18:25:32Z

I've obviously lived a very sheltered life.

There was a buzz at the door and my Mom went to answer. A minute or so later, she calls me and tells me to come see what she was given.

A pamphlet. The front cover of which is a pastoral picture of a field with a cabin, a moose, pumpkins, apples and a man and a woman of unknown non-white origin (they could be African, South East Asian, Aborigine... it's a tad inconclusive).
Emblozened on this pretty if somewhat saccharine scene are the words:
All Suffering
SOOM TO END!

I turn it over, not bothering to open to read any of the content, and in a bright yellow box on the bottom of the page it says:

Would you welcome more information?
Write Jehovah's Witnesses at the appropriate address below.
[Various addresses in various countries - Israel is not among them]
www.watchtower.org

Inside are various unrelated quotes from from the Christian Bible (the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures edition) regarding the End.

I'm genuinely stoked! I've never seen a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet before. Most of the Jews for Jesus stuff that I've gotten over the years looked pretty haphazard and not really serious.

My Mom says that in South Africa she's get knocks on her door every week!

Proselyting is forbidden in the Jewish faith, it's all about strengthening the faith in those who are already Jewish!
But it never hurts to be available if you do want to convert I guess.

This is just special.

The two women who came to the door were Philippine, Israel has many a work immigrant from that part of the world.
Philippines work in care-taking - my great aunt and uncle have a woman who lives with them, she has a degree in computer science.
Thai people work in agriculture and the Chinese work in construction.

I'm sliding to a subject that has nothing to do with the entertainment value of getting a pamphlet of this kind.

I'm skimming through it and I can understand why so many seem to go to religion, any religion.
I'm not judging anyone's faith, I'm deeply critical of religious institutions, is what I'm going for - because I know I have some people of faith on my f-list and who may be lurking around.

Having all the answers, or at the very least know that someone or something has all the answers is incredibly comforting.

Judaism is a religion of question and debate and interpretation, but I've always understood that doubting the authority of the Torah, the other Books and the other scriptures: Talmud, Mishna, Etcetera.

I suppose being Jewish gives me that edge on the whole "special snow-flakeyness", being an Agnosto-Atheist I can't help but think it's all too ridiculous.

A Vestige of the Vox Populi

2009-12-06T15:22:27Z

Sometimes I wonder if we're too frightened to see the bushfire.

Recently I watched V for Vendetta for what is possibly the 10th time and I couldn't help but think that the movie wasn't actually US-Centric, but was actually telling the story of the future of my own country.

Very allegorical, perhaps taking it a bit too far, but I read the News and I follow the trends and I know that the danger isn't the fact that Iran wants us dead (I'm quite sure that just as we scapegoat them, they scapegoat us - they have far bigger problems and so do we), it's that we are in great danger of becoming Iran.

It scares the shit out of me, because the Occupation will eventually end - it's a question of how much more blood shed it's going to take - but it will end, because it just is not sustainable and no matter how much we economically rely on keeping the Palestinian people subjugated, it's only a matter of time when that economic power will collapse.

Theocracy scares me a whole lot more than a bi-national democracy.

I mentioned the pro-natalist ideology that dominates my country; this shows itself not only as free fertility treatment for all women (single and not), but also in rewarding large families - giving automatic child benefits to large families.
Ostensibly, this is a good thing, I think poor people should get as much help as they can from the government that doesn't actually do much to make sure the economy to keep a quarter of population out of poverty.

The government, the representatives of the poorer sections of society - the Haredim (themselves a vilified and discriminated minority) - seem keen on keeping them poor and breeding and in separate education systems; the Haredi children do not study for matriculation; they study the Holy Scriptures.
Thus, the cycle of poverty, no sex-ed and breeding for G-d and Country.

In 10, 15 or 20 years there will be a Revolutionary Guard made up of these people and the National-Religious people who believe that it is their Duty under G-d to conquer the Land for the Kingdom of Israel.

I am so not kidding.

The Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has published it's annual Human Rights Status Report.
The report in Hebrew and in English.
Big surprise, we are not doing well.
As these rights are in fact considered privileges, more to the point they are "conditional" as Ha'aretz writes.

Some highlights from the report:

Delegitimisation of Human Rights Defenders and Activists: Decision-makers and senior officials within the Israeli government have worked to silence activists and members of social change organizations, whose messages do not correspond to their own. This included aggressive media campaigns, demonization, the diffusion of false information, and attempts to sabotage their funding. Earlier this year, for example, the IDF Spokesperson savagely attacked “Breaking the Silence,” a group which collects testimonies from soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories. In another instance among many, Interior Ministry Eli Yishai called organizations defending migrant workers’ rights a “threat to the Zionist enterprise.”

How, exactly, are we better than all the other countries in the Levant. We fit right in! I dunno what the problem is, for realz.

Increased Racism among Different Groups: A survey in the daily Haaretz reported a high level of intolerance of, and among, virtually all sub-groups in Israeli society. These include: Arabs, Israelis of Russian and Ethiopian origin, Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and settlers. The horrifying attack on the “Barnoar” gay and lesbian youth club in Tel Aviv elicited widespread condemnation by public officials, but Web forums and talkbacks revealed deep-rooted hatred and disgust for the homosexual community among the general public.

Well, all those disenfranchised people do is complain! They're not beneficial to the society at large, of course.

Other highlights include; Freedom of Expression - "If they like what you say", Arab Citizens of Israel - "Rights, if you are loyal", The Right to Adequate Housing - If you are "one of us", The Right to Health Care - "If you can pay", Occupied Territories - "Rights, if you are Israeli" and finally, "The Deterioration of Democracy".

It's a running joke among certain factions of the Left that Israel was a Democracy for seven months. From November 1966 when the Martial Law placed on the Arab population in Israel and until the Six-Day in June 1967 in which Israel annexed Jerusalem, Sinai and Golan Heights.

I think I can say without a doubt that 2009 has been the year of utter Fail. This year has been the proof to me that the Personal is Political and just wow.
Wow.

How has your year been?

Things I Find Disturbing:

2009-12-05T20:47:14Z

She's a Combat Soldier - no more, no less.

It disturbs me to read about these "extraordinary" women for two reasons: #1 it implies that Feminism has succeeded and that we are now free to rest on our laurels and #2 that joining the "boy's club" is a feminist action.

The IDF is possibly one of the most sexist institutions in the country - women officers are not rare, but it's certainly not a 50-50 split when it comes to gender demographics (I do not want to even get into the ethnicity issue, yowza!).
First of all, it's a hierarchical institution that relies on forced labour.
Second of all, like in most major institutions the farther up you go, the less women there are.
Third of all, implying that women are treated exactly the same as men in combat units is a blatant lie. Women conform to the macho ethos of the combat unit. I'm not kidding, those young women are probably the most sexist I've ever met - do I blame them? About as much as I blame the men who enforce that ethos on everyone.
It's the military.
That's how it works.

Also, when it comes down to it; the only places I've heard of a guy being a receptionist, admin assistant or social work officer has been in the Ultra Orthodox units in which women are verboten - yes, there are units in which women are verboten.
A great feminist paradise the IDF is.

When I read this:

According to Boldesko, many girls know that the integrating into field positions will advance their development in the military. "There is no competition of who is better and who isn't. Today a girl enlists into a combat unit and knows that all the options are open to her, even in commanding combat battalions. There are no easy breaks. In the field, we all get dusty, get wet in the rain, and get full of mud and grease.

Emphasis mine

Bull. Shit.
I'm positive she believes this. She wouldn't say it if she didn't. Honestly, more power to her for finding herself successful in a cesspool of corrupting power and questionable ethics.
Regardless, no, the field is not an even level, there are not that many women where she is to begin with - in order for her to garner as much authority over the soldiers she does have to prove that she is as good as a man.
That's the standard.

When the issue of draft dodging^* kept making its way into headlines, it was difficult not to bring up the issue. "The IDF is the best school for civilian life. You can always delay studying, a trip abroad, or other things. The experience of military service is not forgotten by any young man or woman.

Emphasis mine.

I feel like bashing my head when I read or hear these idiotic, semi-pedagogical, ideology-spewing nonsense.
I served my two years and learned a lot about how to get what I wanted - be loud, obnoxious, nagging and if you want to stay out of trouble, lie low.

I find the callous use of a success story that promotes the false idea of gender equality in this country, while at the same time vilifying "draft dodgers" the majority of them women - utterly utterly disgusting and disturbing.

The other thing I find disturbing is this:
Fundamentalists Tied to Uganda's Antigay Law.
Uganda’s Radical Anti-Gay Measure and the American Religious Right.
Anti-Gay Ugandan Bill Set to Pass. Warren Silent.

Honestly? Is there anything I need to say that makes this picture any clearer.
American Pastors are calling for a genocide of gays in Uganda.
No.
I'm not exaggerating.

These are things I find disturbing.
Do you?

Footnotes
* There's a huge moral panic about the fact that huge swathes of the population are not being drafted. The majority of those not drafted are actually simply rejected by the IDF for various reasons - they are then persecuted for not being "decent citizens" for not serving their time for the country - forced labour, I mention.
Back to text.

Entering the Tribe

2009-12-02T20:31:19Z

Two interesting and related stories showed themselves to me in my News Reader this week:

"Israel moves toward allowing egg donations among lesbian couples" and "Health Ministry mulls letting gay couples use surrogate mothers".

I have a few friends who are Lesbian mothers, both biological and not. Every one of them that has spoken to me on the issue, told me that with becoming a mother, they feel that they have become more accepted as people and specifically as women.

A good friend of mine is a self-identified Butch Lesbian, as such she's dealt with a whole lot of prejudice, been threatened with violence and has had to force herself to conform to certain gender norms in order to retain her job - now that her hair is longer, she doesn't have to work as hard as she once did.
A couple of years ago she and her partner had a baby and she said that she finally felt that she got a validation of womanhood.
By becoming a mother, she finally became - somewhat - of an insider.

Israel is a hugely and somewhat aggressively, pro-natalist country. We have, what is called, a "demographic issue" - we have to keep the Jewish Majority, otherwise we risk ruination. So goes the ideology.

Same-Sex couples have lots of privileges in Israel, due to common-law partnership agreements that were originally drafted for "un-marriageble" couples (like a Cohen and a Divorcee, or a Bastard who wants to marry anyone), not to mention that all marriages are religious (as in a Jewish person can only marry another Jewish person, a Muslim person can only marry another Muslim person - pardon the gender neutrality, I'm just used to writing that way, obviously it is also a marriage between a man and a woman).

Like most trends, the "Gayby" Boom arrived 15 years after the rest of the world to Israel and over the past half-decade I've seen huge amounts of Queer women become mothers.

Once you're a parent, you gain legitimacy for your existence.

One of the things often hurled at queers as a fault is our "hedonistic" Lifstyle^tm. We're nothing but bodies having sex, of course.
If you have a baby, you're a help to the nation.

Beyond the fact that women, once again, are made to be incubators for future soldiers, I'm not convinced this assimilationist strategy is the way to go - because it is assimilationist. Gays are not going to be accepted via marriage, might as well make babies and be accepted that way!

I mean, beyond the fact that the non-biological parents are going to have to go through the adoption process in any case, I don't think this is going to bring about more acceptance of queers - we're having kids in any case - but it is buying into the nations demographic paranoia.

You know that HIV can be found in tears

2009-11-30T15:02:55Z

But in very small amounts.

I was watching the first part of Stephen Fry's documentary HIV and Me (2007).

During this episode he goes to South Africa (which still has the most appalling policy when it comes to HIV/AIDS even though over 25% of the population is infected - the majority of infections pass through unprotected heterosexual sexual encounters. In South Africa this it's not a "Gay Disease" and never was - but the stigma remains.

While there, Stephen Fry meets journalist and AIDS activist Lucky Mazibuko who takes him on an excursion to a school in which he gives an informative lecture to little kids.

On the wall of their class there were two slogans:
Being HIV positive is not a curse.

Being HIV positive is normal

As I watched I felt very moved by the sight of these kids speaking so candidly about safe sex and how you can't HIV/AIDS from touching someone, kissing someone, sharing food with someone, etc.

And then Mr. Mazimbuko brings out a t-shirt that says: I am leading the way to an AIDS free world, referring of course, to these well-informed kids who live the reality of the disease along with Mr. Mazimbuko.

I promptly burst into tears.

How pathetic am I?

You can find the documentary in very good quality on YouTube, link to the first part of the first episode (out of two) here.

Yesterday, I had an on-line discussion about my paranoia about getting pregnant due to the truly woman un-friendly procedures pregnant women have to go through in order to obtain a legal abortion.
STD's were never something I was concerned about because every sexual encounter I ever had been with a condom (if it were with a man) and knowing my partner's history (if I were with a woman - yeah, those were not always as safe as they should be).
Lesbian sex has the lowest risk factor when it comes to contracting HIV/AIDS - that doesn't mean you are safe - especially if you have sores on your genitalia, mouth or a cut on your hands or some such.

Dental dams are not as available as they should be (which is bloody irritating) - and they're not just for Dykes y'all!

Any way. AIDS is a year round issue, not just Documentaries, Movies and Stories. It's an epidemic that is constantly on the rise.

The Israel AIDS Task Force says the number of infected in 2009 is expected to rise - currently there are an estimated 6,275 infected people some of whom are unaware of their status.
Number of people with HIV reaches all-time high in 2009.

On a less preachy note; I remember hearing about AIDS for the first time when I heard that Tom Hanks won the Oscar for his performance in Philadelphia.
That was 1993, I was 8.
I did not understand what AIDS was until I was in the 10th grade (I was 15 and the year was 2000) in which we had a sex-ed class and were were given little notes that has + and - written on them.
We were told to walk around the class in a random way, to keep one note and give out a note to other kids that we randomly encountered.
After that we sat down and the sex-ed educator asked everyone who had a + note to stand up. I and a great many other kids stood up and were told that we were now infected with HIV.

The sex-ed classes were pretty good in explaining how to have safe-sex, that a condom fits everyone and a boy who says the rubber "doesn't fit" is lying - which was hilarious to see all those cocky boys squirm in their seats.
That little experiment left a sour taste in my mouth as it could have been any STD, which is was the educator said, but the example used was AIDS.

In this same class (we had about three, if I recall correctly) there was talk about homosexuality which made me so freakin' uncomfortable. Homophobia was rampant and I was 15 and just realising I was "not like everybody else".
The fact that everyone was saying that AIDS could only occur between two men and all that, which the educator contradicted expertly I must add, but that didn't stop the crass homophobia after class.
It was depressing.

I wish I knew what the state of sex-education in high schools are today - ten years down the line - I can't think it's much changed.

I'm not judging, it's just my opinion

2009-11-28T22:50:43Z

I am in the opinion that Patriarchy and its siblings Heteronormativity and White supremacy are the roots of evil in our times.

Just in case any of you had any doubt about that.

I just came back from the "Stop Violence Against Women" march and it was good.
We were not that many, because this is a chauvinist country.
The speeches after were very inspiring.

I and a few others then went to get some supper at a pizza place. There was a whole lot of talk about political theory, uni studies, feminism etc.

In the end there appeared to be some kind of combat between neo-Marxist thought and Post-Modernism (of which there was a gross misunderstanding). It was very Bubbly in the sense that "we are living in a bubble", which I'm cool with seeing as us "bubble people" actually went to the march in order to raise awareness that violence against women - it happens, it's societal disease and it needs to be stopped.

There was also talk about Politically Correctness, a term and though process I abhor and how, even as an ally, I really shouldn't use words that do not belong to me. Call me old-fashioned.

Also, there's really no shame in admitting you're bourgeoisie if you, ya know, living that lifestyle. My politics are radical, but my life is liberal, that's the way it is, why should I hide it or be ashamed of it?

One of the girls we sat with had to catch the same bus as me and we continued to talk and oh my god it was awful.
Just so you know, she irritated me.
A lot.

I have a button (I have many) on my bag that reads "Sex is the Question - sex is not the answer - "Yes" is the Answer" (yes I know it's a play on the Nickleback lyrics) which to me is a sex-positive slogan akin to "Yes is Yes" which is just as valid as "No is No".
Anyway, this girl asked me about it and I told her the above and she said:
"You need to be careful with that term [pro-sex], it can be taken to mean you're pro prostitution and stuff like that"
I replied: "Well, I am pro-sex work and pro-porn"
And OMG!
I had never heard such cookie cutter Second Wave Paternalistic bullshit come out of someone younger than me - pardon the ageism, but that's impressive in a horrifying way!
I tried to say that sex-work isn't just human trafficking and crack whores and pimped women.
Her reply: It's all False Conciousness.
In my head I'm going - OMG!
I say: There's queer and alt porn.
She goes: It reproduces the same oppressive mechanism as mainstream porn. It's the same objectification.
I say: There's BDSM that enables you to play with the oppressive power structure and have a good time at the same time.
She goes: BDSM reproduces the power structure, why would you want to do something that humiliates you?

I wanted to kill her and myself.

I really couldn't talk to her any more, because really, it showed such a lack of understanding of what a power structure actually is, that hierarchy is a daily and hourly thing we live and work with our entire lives and that kink does not mean there isn't an actual partnership or that an unequal partnership automatically means there isn't consent!

Because that's what bothers me the most about the Dworkin and MacKinnon types - I really like the way they theorised Patriarchy and Phallocentrism, the tools they offer are awesome, also MacKinno is a brilliant speaker - but if you take their entire thesis you end up saying: women have no ability to consent in the system that we currently live, because there's nothing but False Conciousness.

Yeah, no thanks.

Last night I was everything I'm not

2009-11-28T12:17:26Z

Last night was a big mess when it came to be trying to deflect racism, homophobia and sexism.

I dunno what was in the air, but it was irritating.

I had to tell people to stop codifying Islam with "terrorism". I had to tell people that gay people in the States do not want "special rights" when it comes to same-sex marriage. I had to defend this "assimilationist" strategy - when I personally would like to see marriage abolished - because the "LGBT Community" isn't campaigning for separating the 1000+ rights automatically given with marriage and would rather just reproduce straight ideals - this is all coming from straight people by the way.
I had to tell people to stop using racial slurs when describing a black service person - and then went on to "Politically Correct" the language by instead of using racial slurs to say "African" in a very un-ambiguous way while looking at me in irritation.

Thank you for being an asshole.

Someone tried to convince themselves that going to a strip club wasn't contributing to the sex industry in the same way going to a prostitute.
I was shot down time after time when I tried to explain that the only thing you're doing by not going to a prostitute is not paying for sex with a prostitute. Going to a strip club is still contributing to the industry.

Then I'm told that some women chose to work in the sex industry.

I did not mention anything about who chooses to do what! Honestly, sex-work is real work! Just because I'd rather see it sans exploitation and sans human trafficking doesn't mean I am anti-sex work or anti-sex workers!

I think the main issue isn't the fact that women chose to do sex-work (and should be paid accordingly), but the fact that the sex-industry is so bloody duplicitous when it comes to what is legal and what isn't - more accurately, the law regarding the sex-industry is so duplicitous and because there is such a problem of comprehending the difference between legalisation (which often causes just as many problems as it being illegal) and decriminalisation.

Actual sex workers have better and more info on the subject.

All in all, it was an irritating evening in which my family and friends made me feel like a bloody fuddy-duddy, a Politically Correctness-Fiend and an anti pro-sex advocate!
Arrrgh!
But there's no doubt in anyone's mind that I'm pro-porn (which I am, though I'd rather, like other sections of the sex-industry, had a little more respect for its workers and consumers).

*sigh*

Such is the life of the pro-sex, anti-racist, queer feminist student of Literary Theory and Women's studies, I suppose.

"There's something wrong with this picture"

2009-11-27T14:27:51Z

On Wednesday the 25th, Bibi offered a 10 month settlement freeze.

This morning I read that Israel okays the building of 28 new houses in the Settlements.

Its so ridiculous I'd laugh. Alas, it's just too tragic for words.

This in itself isn't surprising seeing as in the "freeze" announcement itself (in the article linked above) East Jerusalem isn't included in the areas in which construction is to be frozen. In case you didn't know, there have been multiple cases of evictions of Palestinian families from the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem approx. since August of this year - well, this has been going on for a while, except the families in question put up a fight - there is still no clear outcome.

Anyway, it's no surprise that East Jerusalem isn't included, seeing as Israel is very keen on keeping the "United City" (fuck that's ironic) as, um, homogeneous - is that a good word for this? - as possible.

The 28 new homes - all for the Israeli Jews' "natural growth" of course - while at the same time meandering in evicting six settlements.
After they were court ordered to get a move on in that department.

Did you know that since 1948 there have been no new Arab towns and that the existing ones have not been expanded with the help of the government and municipal funds like the rest of the Israeli towns and cities - and every new building and/or addition to an existing building is of course by default illegal and thus torn down.
Unrecognised villages, means that these already disenfranchised people get absolutely nothing for, you know, being citizens of this country..

This isn't in the West Bank.

And I don't even want to get started on the huge amount of destroyed, re-named and re-settled villages that existed prior to the State's existence.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture.

The hypocrisy is just too much sometimes.

The Meme That is Everywhere!

2009-11-25T04:59:28Z

This is like the convergence of all things good in pop-culture.
My hope in people has been momentarily restored.

Oh Kermit... *sigh*

And yes, when I was little my brother used to call me Miss Piggy *HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH*

Exclusion in the name of "the general public"

2009-11-23T10:41:44Z

If you are an Israeli gay guy; Independence Park in Tel Aviv will resonate in you in a way that doesn't for other people.
It is a large patch of greenery on near the beach, it's benches, trees and bushes.

The first time I ever went there, I was about 15 and scared out of my mind, there are barely any street lamps and I was pretty much thought I was going to be assaulted.
Luckily I was with a bunch of friends who told me, with a bit of humour, that I would not be approached by any man in this park.

The penny dropped.

Independence Park has a huge amount of baggage when it comes to queer culture - so much that a book has been written about it.

Now the #1 "unofficial" cruising spot is being yoinked from our hands:

T.A. gay community says city trying to evict them from cruising site
[...]
Now, community members say, the Tel Aviv municipality is trying to evict them from the park - installing stronger lighting, getting rid of bushes and trees, and increasing harassment by municipal patrols.

Visitors say that for the last two months, city inspectors have been blocking them from entering areas with shrubbery.

Harassment, by the way, is nothing new.
Obviously, this is not a place for queer women to go cruising, but I know from my gay men friends who have been harassed more often than not by police, that they've often been caught "with their pants down" though they're usually just been shoved around and not arrested for indecency or something like that.
The uprooting of trees and bushes is not something I'd heard of before and I find this worrying. I've always been comforted by the fact the the majority if litter found in the park (and the University parking lot) are used condoms - safe sex is awesome you guys!

The article continues:

The new policy is divisive even within the LGBT community itself, as some of its leaders sided with city hall. Yaniv Weizmann, founder of the Proud Youth organization and a city council member, told Haaretz that the park's historic role was over.

"The community has matured," he said. "We can walk around in broad daylight in Tel Aviv. Something that was relevant when we were a persecuted and oppressed community is no longer relevant today."

Emphasis mine.

What utter, utter bullshit.
I love it how cis gay men in positions of power presume to tell other queers what it means to persecuted and oppressed now.
Especially when we've just had Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Maybe you can walk in broad daylight mister city council member - a bunch of kids who part of your Proud Youth org cannot.

Others see establishment leaders like Weizmann as traitors to the cause.

"There's a coalition of homophobic straights and lush, fat, bourgeois gays who forget where they come from," said Lior Kay, who heads Hadash's Red-Pink forum. "They forgot how they, as petrified teenagers, would sneak off to Independence Park.

"If Weizmann wants to be a representative, he should be representing all of us, not just people who stepped out of the closet and into a penthouse," he said.

I'm glad they put both "sides" in this teeny-tiny article that no one but us queers are going to read about and actually give a damn.
Most straight people will not even realise what this means.
I'll tell you what it means, it means more persecution of gay people, restricting the movement and historical accessibility of gay people and basically policing gay people's behaviour into what is believed to be for the benefit of the "general public".
'Cause gays, obviously, are NOT a part of the general public and why should they (we) even think of retaining some kind of cultural history, am I right?

Director Zohar Kaniel, who frequents the park, believes the municipality's measures will not deter people.

"I don't want to go and pay money to meet people in some club or sauna. As a cruising spot, this place predates the state itself. You have parks like this one even in the most retrograde of countries. When I see a straight couple making out I don't bother them, so why should anyone bother me?"

Emphasis mine.

Israel has been showing a great regression when it comes to tolerating sexual minorities - not that I think we've ever been that great, but really this is plain ridiculous.
Especially in Tel-Aviv which has had a bad few months when it comes to its queer citizens.

Tel Aviv municipality said, "Over the last week, we witnessed activity in the park that appears to be illegal. Law enforcement authorities were instructed to take care of that activity, to allow the entire public to enjoy the park. We should stress there's no policy of driving away the gay community, but merely maintaining the park, just like all other parks in the city."

It just so happens that, de facto, the Tel-Aviv municipality is enacting homophobic legislation.
God, why is the city I plan to live in one day - at least for a bit - deciding to suck so hard?

This Art is for Buying!

2009-11-22T21:07:29Z

My dear friend tamara_russo has opened up an Etsy Store: The Seagull's Aery.

It's her beautiful mixed media canvas art and photography.

In addition, if you do chose to love her art as much as I do and have the funds (which I don't) to buy her art you'll be supporting one of the best people on Earth.
Go check it out!