I have a question?

Have you ever been accused of being brain-washed, having voiced an "unpopular" position or opinion?

I always find that kind of response to be such a cop-out from actually giving any thought to an opinion that doesn't fit the general consensus.
I mean if what I have to say causes you such insecurity maybe one should think about why and not just accept what you think as The Way Things Are.

A smart person told me that there are no facts, there are only opinions. I have to say, coming from this person I found it odd that they would have such a post-modern way of thinking (post-modern, because it basically says that there is no such thing as empirical data that can be trusted), and I agree with them... it's true. Facts have very little bearing on opinion and opinion in general is what accumulates fact.
Makes the little adage "Don't confuse me with your facts", so funny.

In any event, while "empirical data" is often skewed and changed to fit an agenda - Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics - material reality is something you can't change. It's representation in the world, yes. What actually happens... not so much.

Over the past months I've been called "brain-washed", "extreme", "strange", "provocative", "sitting in an ivory-tower", "out of touch" etc. etc.

All I can think when I hear those words thrown at me is: "I can't believe how much people refuse to look, listen and learn outside what we're spoon fed".
And then I *sigh* and shut up, listen to what's being said, what isn't being said and continue to feel confident in the security that my opinions can take the beatings the general consensus throws at them.

Here's for some ( mainstream media madness )

Here is some more information. Skewed though it may be.
Israeli Commitee Against House Demolitions.

I've been a busy bee these past few days.
I had a fairly large exam today and handed in the paper I stayed up all night doing (same course, BTW). If I never touch this material again it will be too soon.

In two weeks the second semester exam season is to commence.
*glomps*

Monday and Tuesday there was a bunch of activity on campus planned and arranged by the Student Coalition (with your truly being one part of the planning and arranging team. Yes, I'm touting my own horn) regarding the Occupation, as June marked 41 years of the Occupation in Gaza and the West Bank).

On Monday we arranged an open discussion regarding the One State Solution and the Two State solution. It was great, as a whole bunch of opinions were heard and discussed.
The majority were Leftists, obviously - though the posters and fliers were worded to not be too demagogic or partial, we wanted the Mainstream student body to come a listen - of which there a few but out of thirty or so people that quickly dwindled to twenty to fifteen there weren't a whole lot of Liberals, though those that were there spiced things us a bit.There were no outright Rightists, as they know us and hate us... that's okay, we don't like them much either.

On Tuesday we had a myth busting session; an ICAHD activist gave a hugely informative lecture about the population control that goes on in the West Bank (specifically East Jerusalem, which is a world in and of itself within the Occupation discourse) under the guise of Security and how that word is used as a motivation for a whole slew of attacks against civilians in the West Bank (these attacks include House Demolitions, "Check Points", the Separation Wall etc. etc.).
After the ensuing discussion and break we had MBC reporter Qasem Hatib who came to talk to us about the "No Palestinian Partner" myth and discourse. We discussed how that particular discourse became prevalent in the Barak and Camp David years (and following) and how it has been used since then as a political tool by Israel to keep the status quo (not what he said, but what I gleaned from his very cynical journalistic words - such a pessimist, made us idealists all sad... kidding, I don't think I've ever met a bigger bunch of cynics than those in the Coalition).

Very successful half week so far, I'd say.

So it was a good, if stressful week on campus.
Wednesday was a bad day for Jerusalem.
A man went on a killing spree on a tractor. ( Read more about it, there is a plethora of links to be found behind )

The two alleged violent offenders that were arrested today.
Have been remanded to house arrest for three days.

A truce between Israel and Hamas is just two days away so I've been informed by Ha'aretz and Al-Jazeera.
These announcements were made just a few hours before six Palestinian militants were killed by IAF forces.
None the less, despite the ongoing carnage being pelted at Gaza and the Western Negev, a simultaneous and mutual truce is set to commence on Thursday at six of the AM.
Leaving another 36 hours in which each side can do as much damage as possible.

Oh, I'm optimistic.

What is that you say? I didn't hear you because my cynicism is laughing in the background.

Sometimes I just feel old.

The Israeli Jews living in Hebron are such charming fella's.
So charming that at one of them poured boiling water over a Meretz member on a "Break the Silence" tour through the city.
This of course comes after yesterday's News in which Hebron police department released to the medias that Leftist activities are deliberately provocative and that "Break the Silence" "Bnei Avraham", "B'Tselem" and other organizations go there for the express purpose of causing trouble.

It's nice to know which side the police takes in that area of Hell.

As for the claims of the activities being provocative; anything that goes into an intense area like Hebron with an agenda that wants to show that the Status Quo is really not of the good is going to be considered provocative.
The less legitimacy the Settlers have for what goes on there and what the IDF has to to in order to "protect" the Settlers from their Palestinian neighbors (though more often than not, the soldiers have to restrain the Settlers and protect the Palestinians), the better.

To this kind of News I can only go *snort*.
No, seriously.
I snorted so hard when I read this that I scared my cat.

This gem from Madam Secretary Rice:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Jewish settlement building "a problem" on Saturday and said Israel had not done enough to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"Look, it's a problem and I think it's a problem that we're going to address with the Israelis," Rice said of recent Israeli settlement construction announcements as she flew to Tel Aviv on her sixth trip this year to try to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Annapolis was less than six months ago and the Settlement growth, which was supposed to cease and desist just continued. With an explicit governmental Carte Blanche I might add.

Eight years in which the only interest Uncle Sam had of this little Hell Hole was that of Israeli weapons capabilities (kudos to us in that regard) and deterrence capabilities with said weapons (we fucked that one up).
So while the Bush is limping around Europe like the lame duck that he is and sending Ms. Rice to run his dirty errands... which here are many and have been neglected.

I'm cynical.
I want this to work out.
I really, really do.
But when only now Hamas and Fatah are talking to each other.
When Hamas fires over fifty rockets into Israel and Israel is constantly retaliating which causes retaliation from Hamas.
There are so many other factors which are just too long to go into, because it's late in the day and I just get depressed when I think about it in a way that isn't in the back of my mind.

Fuck it.

There's something fun about writing in the Uni computer room.
It's a bit like spending time in the library, only instead of people breathing and pushing papers there's a clickety-clack of key boards.

I just had the most fascinating lecture about the Canaanite movement; how they were secular and wanted to create a new nation separate from Judaism which would bring together the different groups in the Middle East (the movement opposed Zionism and Pan-Arabism, as their goal was to create a nation based on the view that Jews (in the jargon, the "Hebrews") and the Arabs in the Levant were descendants of the ancient Canaanite people.

It's pretty neat, in a Nationalist way I suppose.

They opposed the Partition Plan, regarding it as a total disaster to the whole ethos of a united land and new nation, as it created an even greater rift between the local Arabs and the immigrant Jews.

It's an interesting History which had a great impact on Israeli and Hebrew culture after the formation of the state. It had a lot of potential, but it neglected to take Arab culture, history and language into account, which I think would have proved just a hindrance just as powerful as Judaism and the British mandate were in the formative years of the movement.

The lecture was specifically about Aharon Amir one of the ideologues of the movement who died (at 85) just a few months ago, because he was a writer and poet who, though not a recruited author, was quite clear in his ideology in his writing.

I think the nucleus of the idea, a new nation separate from the authority of religion and based on the land and territory, is still powerful. Because of the greater rift that is occurring between Israel and the (American) Diaspora (and other various socio-political reasons), it seems that there will be no other choice, eventually, to somehow create an alternative nationality that will incorporate all the multi-cultures that are found in this tiny stretch of sand.

Reading headlines and articles like like this one, proves, that in a way, these people are so incredibly obtuse as to be considered actually stupid.

Just the headline of the linked article: Olmert: Next U.S. administration may not be as accommodating.

Accommodating to what, pray tell? Protecting Israel from the consequences of its destructive policies. Demand actual fucking change to the way Israel has been treating it's minorities within Israel proper and the role of the IDF in the Occupied Territories!

Fuck it, this article just pissed me off.

The presumption, Olmert's arrogance, the assumption that any administration will actually do anything to anger AIPAC.

I can't really analyze this at the moment, because I'm just going on my gut feeling here; but something is off here and I don't know what.

Thoughts?

Body of the text for the linkphobic:
( Olmert: Next U.S. administration may not be as accommodating )

Because of the holiday I had a very long weekend in which I managed to actually meet friends, earn some money, write a short paper for Lit. (about Foucault, don't tell me that takes five minutes, because I will have to kill you).

There's a lot in the News about stuff that may or may not go on in Gaza, which is worrying, because that means a whole lot of dead people.
Always a negative.
A positive is that the Shalit family have received a letter.

Another plus is that Hamas and Fatah are communicating. Yes, actual communication between the Palestinian factions which makes me feel optimistic, though again, my cynicism is getting the best of me and I have the feeling they're just doing it for show in order to try and get more sympathy from governments while leaving the actual people to rot in Gaza and the West Bank.

Leadership in these parts is quite nauseating.

I was discussing with a friend of mine who we were going to vote for in the elections, which have yet to be confirmed, but with the way things are looking it's not a long shot that Israel will be having elections not too long after good ole Uncle Sam.

Who are my options do I hear you ask; well it looks like every time I think about I can't help but shudder. The only person I wouldn't "mind" so to speak, out of the big three (Netanyahu, Barak and Livni) is Livni. I would never vote for Kadimah as it lacks any kind of moral or social fiber and stands on a platform of "security".

Axing the top three of Labour *snort*, Likud *vomit* and Kadimah *aforementioned above*, I'm left with Meretz (social-democrats), Hadash (communists) and the Green party (yes, the environmentalists).
I'm leaning towards the greens, as they've yet to get any seat in the Knesset and haven't been corrupted beyond recognition.

Ach, this is very frustrating!

I think I need to go back to Foucault and read about how as a Subject my identity is established by language and that if I'm not in the discourse I cease to exist.
Neato!

In October 2000 there was a lynch. It was all over the News. It isn't easily forgotten, especially not with images as iconic as this.

It took me no time to find these links.
The only link I could find of this disgusting story, beyond the blogosphere, was in Ha'aretz weekend supplement (printed edition) in Hebrew. Today I got an RSS feed of the story translated into English. Unlike the Hebrew article, which has markup errors and is thus basically unreadable on-line, the English edition doesn't have pictures and I have not been able to find any other photos of the lynching. A group of dozens Jewish boys between the ages of 15-18 from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev assaulted and almost murdered two Palestinian teens from Shu'fat, which is just a stone throw away form that Jewish neighborhood.

The lynching took place on the 30th of April (yes, a month ago) and it was only brought to the media this past week.
What is even more disgusting is that the 30th of April this year was National Holocaust Memorial Day, obviously the date was not chosen for the hell of it, especially because Palestinians come to Pisgat Ze'ev Mall often enough for them to be familiar to Jewish population.

The article is a horrifying and illuminating read. I must be growing cynical in my old age as I was not surprised at all that something like this happened. The fact that I share with those "good Jewish boys" an iota of commonality is sickening.

Did I mention there was a book burning as well? Oh, and that Israel is the 4th largest arms dealer in the world.

I end this extremely depressing entry with the hope that someday lynches, burnings and profiteering through the suffering of others will be shocking and nauseating.

I am not shocked and nauseated that these things happen in the country in which I live.
That is the saddest thing of all.

I just got this notice from my Student Coalition for Action mailing list:
Controversial and noted Historian and critic of Zionism and the Israeli Occupation is the Territories was arrested at Ben-Gurion Air Port, he is now in the hands of the ministry of the interior and the שב"כ (Shin-Bet) and banned from entering Israel for the next ten years!

This is absolutely outrageous, creepy and Orwellian. Censorship and the detaining of civilians for their thoughts and opinions should not and cannot be tolerated!

I urge all of you, who value free speech and human fucking decency to write, email, fax and phone Israeli authorities and demand the immediate release of Dr. Finkelstein.

Israeli interior ministry
+972 2 670 1501
Fax: + 972 2 6701572
Email: SAR@moin.gov.il - Israel's ministery of the Interior
pniot@moin.gov.il
dover@moin.gov.il - the ministry's spoker
dover@moin.gov.il - in charge of "freedom of information"

Minister of Interior Mr. Meir SHEETRIT
Israeli Ministry of the Interior
2 Kaplan St., Qiryat Ben-Gurion
P.O. Box 6158, 91061 Jerusalem
Tel. +972-2-670-1411 / +972-2-629-4722
Fax: +972-2-670-1628

or

Mr. Meir SHEETRIT's numbers at the Knesset
Telephone 1: +972-2-640-8410
Telephone 2: +972-2- 640-8409
Fax: +972-2- 640-8920
Email: mshitrit@knesset.gov.il

In Israel:
Foreign Minister's office - sar@mfa.gov.il
Director General's office - mankal@mfa.gov.il
Public Relations - pniot@mfa.gov.il

Ministry Address:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
9 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd.
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91035
Tel. 972-2-5303111
Fax 972-2-5303367

From Democracy Now!:

Israel Arrests Outspoken Academic Norman Finkelstein
And the American academic Norman Finkelstein has been arrested and ordered deported from Israel. Finkelstein arrived in Tel Aviv earlier today on his way to the Occupied Territories. He was immediately detained and told he is banned from Israel for ten years. He’s expected to be deported tomorrow. Finkelstein is known one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Edited to Add: The Ministry will be closed through Saturday for the Jewish Sabbath. Thus, if you are in the US please call your congressman and senator NOW and advise them a Jewish American U.S. citizen is being denied access to Israel!!

If you are an Israeli start working the phones...this denial of entry is all being done in our name and that is unacceptable!

My big bro suggested that I translate my previous entry as would be of interest to my f-list that doesn't read Hebrew.
I though about and so here is the translation. I hope I manage to put some of the metaphors and idioms forth strongly enough, as the entry contains quite strong language.

---

As it's said: You don't say!*
Our foreign minister, "suggested" that there may not be a peace agreement with the Palestinians by the end of 2008.

Did it actually cross somebody's (anybody's) mind that there would be the slimmest of chances to reach an agreement by the end of this year?
With the detention, the siege, the dis-communication between the Palestinian factions and the building of settlements and outposts in the West Bank. Was there any kind of hope, that even if Abu-Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] had some kind of political clout, that something would come out of it? In any event he's in Israel's pocket which in the USA's pocket, for the next ten years at the very least. Israel, that doesn't give a toss out of its National Erection about the residents of Sderot and the Kibbutzim that surround Gaza, isn't even interested in the Palestinians because, Oy Vavoi, Iran is threatening us, with A-Bombs! A-Bombs they will develop in the next decade, five years, next year! רחמנא לצלן [GD forbid].
Never mind that the USA has a clear economic interest in Iran (and is using Israel as the ultimate weapon against, well, anyone they want), after they lost the country following the Islamic Revolution (and all its wonderful oilfields which are nationalised and can't be invested through the Free market, sanctions or not).

Of course there won't be an agreement, not this year, not next year and not in two years time (I'm willing to pay money to whoever bets against me and wins) because Israel isn't interested in changing the status quo - so rockets are falling in Sderot, so what? It strengthens the citizens and they are a good example to the state of Israel.
Who cares about a few Towel-heads swimming in sewage, they're future terrorists any way, we don't need no agreement with them! Gilad Shalit? Yeah, sounds familiar. So do Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, aren't they overseas?

The war in Lebanon wasn't Entebbe 2 like Halutz, Olmert and probably Peretz as well, hoped for. Gilad Shalit will remain as Ron Arad 2 for a little longer.

An agreement with the Palestinians, yeah right! At least minister Livni gave a proper disclosure... with suggestions and guesswork, but c'mon... it was clear from Annapolis, wasn't it?

*It's important to note, that the Hebrew news update was much shorter and didn't mention the French foreign minister, Hamas, Haim Ramon or anything other than what Ms. Livni said to Ms. Pelosi.

---

I suggest you read the comments from my previous post, as the discussion between me and hemlock_sholes is not badly written: here.

A day of honey, a day of onions (euphemism for tears, of course).

I went to the fireworks and watched Machina play for 45 minutes.
It was fun.
I had a great time listening to the music and seeing the fireworks with my family and singing along with the hundreds (maybe thousands) of my towns people to the songs which have become a part of the soundtrack of our lives.
Kind of like U2.

Elsewhere there are "alternative" ceremonies in which Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs are participating together talking about what this day means to each.
There are also ceremonies commemorating a calamity. Period.

Last year I went to a demo about a homophobic musician.
This year I'm going to South Africa and actually missing the brouhaha that will now doubt erupt while I'm gone at least by the 15th of May.

In any event, no matter what you are celebrating, commemorating or just having a weekly Wednesday night (or morning and day depending on the time zones) make it a good one and make it count.

יום עצמאות שמח!

Happy Yom Azmaut!

זיכרו את הנכבה!

Remember the Nakba!

Another day of memorial, this one is present and thus, to me, much less poignant than Yom Ha'Shoah was last week, for some reason.
Dead soldiers and dead civilian victims, killed in War and Terror.

My feelings are mixed.
Last year I was depressed and the whole thing washed over me and was dimmed into the background of my own personal self pity and pain, to do with the war I participated in.
Now everything feels sharp, not the pain, but the facade of the (necessary and important) ceremonies in which the names of the dead will be spoken and candles will be lit, is so much more clear to me.
The ceremonies seem like theatrics to me. But I'll go to my elementary school where every year, younger and younger (because every year I get older) children stand on the grass slope where they will sing the same songs as last year, recite the same poems and maybe the choreography of the dance will be different, though I doubt it.
I'll go because dead men and women need to be remembered and at this point this is what we have.

Tomorrow is Independence Day, always after Memorial Day, so that we know what those dead men and women fought, lived and died for.

Korin Alal (though Ehud Manor wrote it) puts into words the way I feel best on these days... even if they are mixed:

I have no other land
Even if the ground is burning
Only a word in Hebrew, penetrating
Into my veins, my soul
In an aching body,
In a hungering heart.
Here is my home

I will not be silent, for my land
Changed her face
I will not concede to her
I will sing in her ear
Until she opens her eyes

I'm tired.
I'm never taking a course that requires me to wake up at six AM.
Or alternately I could start going to sleep at reasonable hours...
But fuck that right?

But the fact that I'm tired won't stop me from reporting this shit, that went down in the beginning of last weekend and which may or may not be resolved.
It pissed me off royally.
Beyond the tragic and cruel nature of these invalidated conversions, it spotlights a grave and important matter about the relationship of religion and state in Israel.
That it is rotten.

I got into an argument about what is acceptable involvement of religious establishment in the state.
Personally, I think they can fuck off, since these establishments are chauvinistic, sexist and racist.

There is no civil marriage in Israel, the closest we have is common-law unions which were established so that "un-marriageable" couples could have legal standing.
Who are the "un-marriageable" you ask - they are members of the population that cannot get married through the Rabbanut. The system was initially built for couples who according to Halakha couldn't marry each other: Cohens and divorces mainly. But this also includes Mamzerim (bastards) who cannot marry through the Rabbanut, Jews cannot marry Muslims or Christians, nor can Muslims and Christians marry each other, there is no same-sex marriage either.
This, is of course easily solved by marrying elsewhere; Cyprus, Canada, the USA, Anywhere that allows foreign nationals to marry.

And after marriage (which brings great civil benefits) comes divorce (more and more these days and don't let anyone tell you otherwise).
It's a great invention, Jews are practical that way.
Of course it is the Husband that must grant the Wife the Get (divorce), she can "choose" whether to accept it or not. Not that the man would give a shit, all he needs in order to have a Halachikly legal family (while not divorced to his first wife) is something like a 100 signatures from 100 Rabbis and he can marry and have (halachicly)legal children - bigamy and polygamy are illegal in Israel - so he can ignore with impunity the pleas his Wife makes so that they can be rid of each other. There are sanctions, monetary usually, but go beg a Yeshivah Bochur to pay alimony when he can't sustain himself without a wife, or just a run of the mill asshole who doesn't want to pay alimony and that putting him in jail only postpones the writ of execution of whatever he owes his wife, his lawer and his children should he have any. The wife, due to all this, is now an Aguna - another side effect of the Rabbis revocation of the conversions - there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Agunot women in Israel.

My side of the argument was that we either take the anti-patriarchy hammer and bash the Rabbanut until nothing is left of that racist, sexist establishment, or have the state acknowledge the fact that there is more to Judaism than Orthodoxy so that that the pluralism we pretend to have in Israel have some basis in reality.

A mixture of reform and revolution - I'm more keen on rebuilding from the grassroots, but others kind of like the way things are... or at the very least don't mind the way things are; seeing as the privilege of being born Jewish has the added bonus that no one will be nosing around our private life and checking to see if we're actually being Jewish.

It makes me sick.

I've heard people say it takes time for these things to change, after all blacks in the USA only got civil rights in the 60's of the 20th century and the women only got the vote less than a hundred years ago.
Change is slow but it happens.

Yes, change is slow... when those in power have no incentive to change, when the atrocities that these establishments perpetrate don't touch their lives, then change can be slow.
When the status quo is just fine and dandy to The Man, then change can be slow.

Classical liberal* bullshit.

*No offense to any liberals who may be reading this.

The Israeli papers are rife with Holocaust related News and most of it is very boring, but this, this takes the cake and I just have to share.
I'm really interested to know what you all think of it.

The authors of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion would have gotten a kick out of this.

Hamas TV claims 'Satanic Jews' planned, perpetrated Holocaust
By Anat Rosenberg

Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV aired a documentary on April 18 claiming that Jews planned and perpetrated the Holocaust in order to rid the nation of the "burden" of the weak and disabled.

Palestinian Media Watch, a group that monitors Palestinian Arabic language media and schoolbooks, uploaded part of the program onto YouTube in a segment called "Hamas Holocaust Perversion: Jews Planned Holocaust to Kill Handicapped Jews."

The Al-Aqsa TV clip edits together footage from the World War II Nazi Genocide, showing Jews being rounded up and taken to a train as well as emaciated corpses lying in a pile, alongside images of Israeli leaders David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir.

The accompanying commentary claims that Ben Gurion said "the disabled and handicapped are a heavy burden on the state." To rid them of that scourge, the video claims, Ben Gurion and "the Satanic Jews thought up an evil plot to be rid of the burden of disable and handicapped in twisted criminal ways."

The video also claims that Jews made up the Holocaust and blamed the Nazis for it in order to "benefit from international sympathy."

The Holocaust "was a joke, and part of the perfect show that Ben Gurion put on," said Amin Dabur, head of the Palestinian Center for Strategic Research organization, in the video.

Dabur added that the "Jewish plan" focused on developing "strong and energetic youth [for Israel]," and that the figure of six million Jewish victims is mere propaganda.

Despite (or maybe because of) yesterday's raid which resulted in the death of a mother and her four children in Beit Hanoun; it seems the infighting between the different Palestinian factions has been put on hold in order to secure a truce with Israel - even with conditions which I doubt Israel will accept.

Pity the reps didn't tell their people to lay off on the Qassam rockets which were being fired into the Negev at approximately the same time.
I doubt the Security Cabinet will accept any kind of agreement from the groups, because they will demand an end to the rockets before they lift the siege.

When I read the headlines I was really pleased, seriously, it seemed as though things are/were moving in the right direction, until I read the headline about the Qassams being fired during the meeting in Cairo and the continuous raids by the IAF.

Is it so hard to just Shut the Fuck Up! Put down your Guns! And listen to what The Other is saying!?

Sometimes when I read the News and manage to not be connected to what I'm reading I feel like I'm reading a running commentary between two Gangs of adolescent children where one comes from the Slums and the other comes from the High Rises that surround said Slums.
It's so frustrating I can even explain this.

Consider this the sequel entry to my previous one.

It was brought to my attention that my previous post was lacking.
Lacking in what?
Lacking in actual testimony. I hadn't thought of putting any of the things I'd read here, because I trusted in people's curiosity to go a read the testimonies soldiers.
Kind of silly of me, because I know very well that's it's easy to ignore the links offered and then you need to open the .PDF files and scroll down and actually be really interested in what these boys (and some girls) have to say.

So I give a few and like before, I urge you to go and read the rest in Hebrew if you can, and in English, which is available.


***
Testimony 5, Hebron
I remember the first time I was really screwed up in Hebron, opening some street corner
or house on one of my first patrols, you know you really are in shock. I was sure that
any moment now I’d be shot. So you stare at every window, turn every corner really
stressed out. Then you become indifferent. Yes. But in the beginning… I remember I
took a corner and my rifle was pointing at this little child. I had a really hard time with this
one. He burst out crying and ran away. Things like that. Or say I remember once, you
know the patrol moves in two lines, so these two children passed along in between, an
older and a younger brother. The older brother held the younger close and they hurried
along. This picture won’t leave me. Later, after becoming indifferent, I remember I took
a corner once and saw some Arab looking at me through the window. Then just like
that, I have no idea why I did this – I pointed my gun at him, and he closed the door
and ran. And I went – “Wow, I’m really losing it. Really.” That’s how we all felt, it was like
- feels like talking to a shrink now – but you just say, “man, I’ve really been screwed.”
You keep talking about burnout all the time, all this shit and stuff. But it’s a real horror.
You keep getting under their skin. At first you’re really scared, then you allow yourself
some humane feelings, and then you just don’t give a damn. It’s like that everywhere in
the Occupied Territories, but particularly so in Hebron.
After how long?
Next to nothing. Two weeks maybe.
***

***
Testimony 17, Hebron
Being a TIPH (Temporary International Presence at Hebron) observer is really a bad
scene. Here’s another classic example of having a shitty time in Hebron. TIPH regularly
get a ‘warm reception’. Whenever they come down from Abu Sneina (neighborhood),
they are target for a stone or two at their car. Extra-special.
By the settlers?
Sure. Simply for being TIPH.
And what do you do about it?
I can just repeat what I told one of them. I’ll do it in Hebrew. He goes: “Stones have
just now been thrown at me.”
Where do you meet him?
He shows up. Comes back to Gross (outpost). I go, “Yes, I know. That’s why I was
summoned here.” Then I tell him, “Listen, you know that these are kids under the
age of 14 so there’s nothing I can do.” And the, in these very words: “I know, I just
wanted you to realize that.” Like, he already knows and there’s nothing to do about
it, absolutely nothing.
So what are the procedures you’re given, genearlly, regarding the settlers?
Nothing. Ask my deputy company commander, who’s really dying to do something
about them, what the procedures really are…
… Any time TIPH or CPT (Christian Peacemaking Teams) activists approach me
– before we absolutely prohibited any leftist or such activists enter Avraham Avinu
settlers, once they went in there and I told them: “Do me a favor, don’t. I can’t be
responsible for what could happen to you in there.” The funniest incident was when
this group, I mean all of the CPT activists came through, twenty of them, and I was
commander at Gross and I go: “What are you doing here?” You can’t mistake them,
with their CPT and those awful red caps they have, so “What are you doing here?” and
they go, “Why, is there a problem?” I ask them, “Did you coordinate this with anyone?
Did you inform anyone you were walking around here?” A huge group, I mean you
can’t really hide such a thing.
I was really concerned about their safety.
Where were they walking, at the wholesale market?
No, just plainly no the ‘David Route’ which you know as Shuhada Street.
Are there any special instructions regarding the Bnei Avraham tour groups?
Bnei Avraham (a group of activists that conducts guided tours in Hebron) arrive, and
they are not supposed to enter anywhere in Avraham Avinu neighborhood settlement.
I’m dying to know how we got to the point where a Jew is not allowed to walk around
Jewish public space. For leftists…
There’s an instruction forbidding them to enter Avraham Avinu?
Yes. There’s an explicit instruction forbidding leftist activists and international
organizations from entering Beit Hadassah, Avraham Avinu and other such
settlements.
***

This year marks 60 years of Independence for the State of Israel and 60 years to the Palestinian Expulsion from what is now Israel proper, commonly known as al-Nakba (the Catastrophe).

I won't be here to do anything about those dates, as I am leaving for SA in early May and will likely be missing the brouhaha that will no doubt commence.

I've spoken about this organisation before, but I'll mention them again.

Just before Pesach Breaking the Silence published, online, IDF soldiers testimonies of serving in Hebron in the years 2005-2007.

I'm really not sure what to say other than to urge you all to read them. All of them. Take your time, but read them.
These brave boys (and that really is what they are at this age) are doing something which, if I'm not mistaken, no other country even acknowledges and that is talking about the fact that what goes on in the Occupied Territories is... Well... there ain't no place like Hebron.

The Testimonies - in Hebrew.
The Testimonies - in English.

Cognitive dissonance can easily be described as the opposite of doublethink.
It can also easily describe what is happening today in this lovely blood soaked land o'mine.

A quick news recap to ease your jonseing for Israel-Palestinian updates.
Let us begin:

In case someone missed it, a few days ago there was a skirmish on the Gaza-Israel border at the fuel station of Nahal Oz. Gaza, as we know, is low on fuel for their basic needs and having gotten nowhere with Egypt concerning shifting the economic dependency from Israel to Egypt, like Hamas hinted at after the border breech in January Israel had planned on renewing fuel supply on Sunday, but got round to doing it today.
All hell broke loose and so far there are three dead soldiers and approx. nine dead Palestinians, though some have reported twelve.

At the same time Mr Blair, Former British PM and Current Quartet Ambassador has said: "It is true that the weight of the occupation is very heavy" (understatement of the effing century!) he urges foreign investment in Palestinian economy - because like everyone knows, there's no labour like cheap labour, especially cheap labour that has no freedom of movement, no other viable economy and no other prospects.
Can't wait to see the kind of investors that come to the West Bank.

And last but not least, let us hope that the Dove does indeed overcome the Hawk, or even makes a chirp in the background.
Yep J Street has finally been launched as a counter point to AIPAC. Though obviously it doesn't say that anywhere, but everybody knows it.

Check their nifty campaign video ( here. )

And in with all this going Israel is preparing to celebrate 60 years of independance with a budget so enormous 100 million NIS which is approx. 28 million US$.
Yeah.
For some reason I thought it was less despite having signed the petition against the hugeness of the budget.
It is also the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe in Arabic) which is commemorated on the 15th of May (Israel's Independence Day is celebrated according to the Hebrew Calendar on 5th of Iyar and changes over the 19 year cycle, the Gregorian date is the 14th of May).
Like me, not many are in the "Celebratory" mood.
I thankfully will be in South Africa over a portion of the month of May, hopefully I'll bypass the riots, violence and sheer insanity that will consume the country.

And thus I conclude this recap, hope your jones has lessened and that your head is not bleeding from it's repetitive meetings with the desk.