Hands Off Iberville

I got this e-mail today...

Dear Iberville Supporters,

The campaign grows to demand the Obama administration not approve a grant to demolish New Orleans Iberville Public Housing development.

Enclosed is the flier for the Saturday, December 18 press conference, march and rally to defend Iberville and demand a new massive direct government employment public words program to address the jobs, housing, health care and general social crisis confronting New Orleans’ and the US working class.

No Demolition!
Hands Off Iberville!

David Gilmore, the federally-imposed-administrator of the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and Mayor Mitch Landrieu, want to make life even more miserable for working class New Orleanians by demolishing the Iberville Public Housing development. To add insult to injury they have given the contract to greedy developer Pres Kabacoff, who drove hundreds of poor families from St. Thomas and still, a decade later, has not built the 100 off site apartment he promised. But, to carry out their crime, HANO, Landrieu, and Kabacoff need a multi-million dollar grant from the Department of Housing Urban Development. Join us Saturday, December 18 as we demand:
· No to a HUD Choice Neighborhood grant to demolish Iberville
· Yes to a massive public works program to rebuild Public Housing, Schools, Hospitals and Infrastructure


Press Conference, Rally and March
Saturday, December 18
12 Noon
Meet on neutral ground, corner of St Louis and Basin St.

Sponsor: Hands Off Iberville. For more information call 504-520-9521

The trip

My itinerary is starting to take shape!

15th-leave New Orleans
16th-arrive in Tel Aviv, explore the city
17th-meet up with brother, travel to Haifa, climb Mt. Carmel, explore
18th-Jerusalem-visit schools, organizations, shop at the shouk, hopefully get onto the Temple Mount, explore
19th-Cross border to Ramallah, meet my friend's son and learn about his work as a contractor for international building efforts in the West Bank
20th-(tentative) meet with leader of Al-Aqaba, drive to Area C
21st-Al-Aqaba-see the new kindergarten, co-op, teacher housing facility, learn about building projects

22nd-return to Ramallah
23rd-Ramallah
24th-Bethlehem, Jerusalem
25th-Jerusalem
26th
27th
28th
29th
30th-Tel Aviv, depart 11pm
31st-arrive in New Orleans 9:20am. Take a nap.

In those empty spaces I'll be visiting Nablus, Jenin, Jericho, Hebron, Beit Sahour, Bethany, to learn about schools, NGO's, grassroots movements, protests, settlements, etc. A few stops will be:

Tomorrow's Youth Organization, Nablus
Project Hope, Nablus
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land
Dar al Kalima College, Bethlehem
The Freedom Theatre, Jenin
The Friends School, Ramallah
Birzeit University, Birzeit
All Nations Cafe, Ein Heniya

Another reason to love Argentina.
Argentina Recognises Palestine

Israeli historian Ilan Pappe gave a talk in Stuttgart, Germany last week. He asserts that while Israeli pro-peace leaders are doing valuable work in challenging the occupation and recognizing the Nakba and using words like "ethnic cleansing" and "apartheid," they aren't doing enough because they often stop short of challenging Zionism as an ideology. This mindset, says Pappe, which has changed little since 1882, is all about ending up with as much of Palestine as possible, with as few Arabs as possible. In short, Zionism is antithetical to peace because it is inherently racist.

If you agree, if you disagree, if you don't even know where to begin, check out Professor Pappe's lecture. I like his style. He's good at bringing out the absurdity of it all. Like, it would be funny....if it weren't so horrendous...?

"Once you liberate yourself from a ideology that was sacred in your eyes, and made you do things that you regret, once you are on the other side of the mirror, you feel.…you almost feel fortunate to be able to experience such a journey."

Ilan Pappe Palestine Conference in Stuttgart 26. November 2010
- Watch more Politics Videos at Vodpod.

Ilan Pappe Palästinakonferenz in Stuttgart am 27. November 2010
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Brazil Recognizes Palestine

Israel has expressed disappointment at Brazil's decision to recognise a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, saying it flew in the face of efforts to negotiate a peace deal.

In a public letter addressed to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Friday, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, recognised Palestine as an independent state within the 1967 borders.

The decision came in response to a personal request made by Abbas on November 24, according to the letter published on the foreign ministry's website on Friday.

"Considering that the demand presented by his excellency [Abbas] is just and consistent with the principles upheld by Brazil with regard to the Palestinian issue, Brazil, through this letter, recognises a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders," it said.

The letter refers to the "legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people for a secure, united, democratic and economically viable state coexisting peacefully with Israel."

Israel anger

Israel has expressed disappointment at Brazil's decision to recognise a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, saying it flew in the face of efforts to negotiate a peace deal.

In a public letter addressed to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Friday, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, recognised Palestine as an independent state within the 1967 borders.

The decision came in response to a personal request made by Abbas on November 24, according to the letter published on the foreign ministry's website on Friday.

"Considering that the demand presented by his excellency [Abbas] is just and consistent with the principles upheld by Brazil with regard to the Palestinian issue, Brazil, through this letter, recognises a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders," it said.

The letter refers to the "legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people for a secure, united, democratic and economically viable state coexisting peacefully with Israel."

Al Jazeera Article

Addition: From JTA article:

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the incoming chairwoman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, also expressed her objections, as did Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the outgoing chairman of the Latin America subcommittee.

“Brazil’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state is regrettable and will only serve to undermine peace and security in the Middle East," Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement.

Engel blamed the decision on the leftward tilt of Brazil's outgoing government.

"Brazil's decision to recognize Palestine is severely misguided and represents a last gasp by a Lula-led foreign policy which was already substantially off track," Engel said in a statement. "One can only hope that the new leadership coming into Brazil will change course and understand that this is not the way to gain favor as an emerging power or to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council."

Miriam, Miriam

Gaza City, Skip Schiel


When I was in Jordan I bought a lot of pirated DVD's. After dinner I would avoid the awkwardness of trying to converse with my host family by jumping in bed with Across the Universe or No Country For Old Men or whatever had looked appealing at one of the myriad movie stores downtown. This was a pretty lame trend, as my Arabic will reflect, but moving on...one day I saw a movie called Imagining Argentina. It starred Antonio Banderas and my favorite actress, Emma Thompson. So I bought it for a dinar. Emma's Argentine accent wasn't the greatest, but I got it because it was about the dirty war in Argentina. Backtrack: When I was in Buenos Aires I went to see the "Madres de los Desaparecidos," the Mothers of the Disappeared who still march with photographs in La Plaza de Mayo every week. They're still looking for news of their children who were among the roughly 30,000 people who were "disappeared" by the government between 1976 and 1984. I researched the war out of morbid curiosity and found out that to this day the witnesses in these disappearance trials are disappearing themselves. So it was an interesting movie, but the only reason I'm grateful for having purchased it is the song at the end. It was a Portugese song, translated into Spanish by Mercedes Sosa, and covered by Antonio himself. It was gorgeous. I downloaded a fuzzy version off some obscure website and it took a few years of unproductive appreciation to sit down and translate it.


Maria, María
Es un don, es el sueño, el dolor
Y una fuerza que nos alerta
Una mujer que merece
Vivir y amar como otra mujer del planeta

Maria, María
Es el sol, es color, es sudor
Y una lagrima que corre lenta
De una gente que ríe
Cuando debe llorar
Y no vive, apenas aguanta.

Pero hace falta la fuerza
Hace falta la raza
Hacen falta las ganas, siempre
Dentro del cuerpo y las marcas
Maria, María
Confunde dolor y alegría.

Pero hace falta la maña
Hace falta la gracia
Hacen falta los sueños, siempre
Dentro la piel y esas marcas
Posee la extraña manía
De creer en la vida


Translation:

Maria, Maria,
She's a gift, she's the dream, the pain
A force that speaks to us
A woman who deserves to live and love
Just like any other

Maria, Maria,
She's the sun, she is heat, she is sweat,
And a tear that runs...slowly
Down a people who laugh when they should cry
And they don't live
They barely endure

But we are lacking in strength
Missing our people
Missing our dreams, always
Under the scars of the body,
Maria, Maria
Confuses her joy with her pain.

When our desires have gone,
With all our grace,
With all our ways of giving,
Under the scars of the body,
You carry the notion inside you,
That life is worth living.

This is what I think of when I read journal entries from delegations to Palestine. Everyone seems taken aback by the peacefulness of the people they meet, and how the most horrendous of circumstances can be explained with no trace of anger or hatred. It's a shame this side of Palestine isn't considered news-worthy, but it shows a vitality that I think would resonate with a lot of New Orleanians. As well as news of all the constructive responses taking place, since all we seem to hear about are the destructive ones.

The last bit is literally,
Under the skin and these scars,
You possess the strange notion
To believe in life.

Finally, a travel blog.

The flight is booked. I leave New Orleans for Tel Aviv on the 15th, get back on the 31st.

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A message from Americans for Peace Now

Peace is a Jewish Value
by Rabbi Michael Melchior
Former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister and 10-year Knesset Member

On one of my visits on Capitol Hill, I was invited to a debate with US legislators regarding the future of the Middle East. After having presented my case, one of the senators expressed his utter surprise that somebody who is an Orthodox rabbi, a staunch Zionist, and one who even looks like I look, could express views which he had always been told were a betrayal of "Judaism."

The truth is I should not have been shocked by his reaction. Over the past 40 years, the Torah, Judaism, Zionism, and at times even God Himself have been hijacked both in Israel and around the world, both by friends and foes, by religious Jews and evangelical Christians. They have been hijacked by an extreme messianic ideology, in order to advance a specific political agenda, which, if successful, I fear will mark the end of the Zionist dream and the Jewish State. My deep disagreement with these people is not about Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), the love of the land and the concern for its future (although I do not always understand why this love only concerns borders and not the environment inside these borders, or the dignity of the human beings living in this environment). Like them, I have a deep affiliation with, and affection for, all parts of the land. And like them, part of me will feel grief and sorrow the day we will have to give up Judea and Samaria.

My fundamental disagreement with them is about their interpretation of "Judaism." Judaism, like all religions, embodies a very delicate balance between the particular and the universal. When being faithful to this balance, we can contribute to a better world. But when distorting this balance, we will contribute to endangering the future and the hopes of humankind.

I believe that those who have created priorities where love of the land supersedes love of man and of peace are distorting the Torah. I believe that those who censor the Torah of such concepts as the natural morality of man, as the belief that God has created every human being in His image, and as the basic human right to respect and dignity which stems from this belief, are desecrating the Holy name of God. I believe in a Judaism which is great, broad, and inclusive. I am committed to the ruling of our great teacher the Rambam (Maimonides) who states, when it comes down to a conflict of priorities where saving human life is at stake, "and you shall observe my laws and my statutes, which when a man performs, he shall live by them (Leviticus 18, 4) - live and not die by them, because the statutes of the Torah are not vengeance in the world but mercy, loving kindness and peace." This is not an abstract principle meant for festive speeches at inter-religious gatherings but a binding legal and moral guideline, which has dominated Jewish thinking since we received the Torah at Mount Sinai.

I have often challenged my rabbinical colleagues to show me one single source from the "Jewish Bookshelf," the Bible, the Talmud, the Rambam, the Shulchan Aruch, or the immense traditional rabbinical literature, which rules that you cannot give up land in order to obtain peace. They have never been able to do so.

On the contrary, the Bible tells us that the builder of the first temple, King Solomon himself, gave up 20 cities in northern Israel to King Chiram of Zor. He did this as an act of appreciation for the cedar trees that Chiram contributed to the Temple. During the building of the second temple the immigrants from Babylon in the period of the great leaders Ezra and Nehemiah decided not to include many cities in the new sovereignty of the land. This was done so that the holiness of this sovereignty would not create an obstacle in facilitating charity extended to the needy receiving social gifts of crops in the sabbatical year. We see that the possession of the land was put aside not only to save lives but even for legitimate socioeconomic considerations. And there were no "orange" demonstrations against this "betrayal" of the land.

The prophets of Israel did not rally much support in their day, but still today inspire and enrich humankind, Jew and non-Jew alike. They knew how to stand up and talk truth to power and to kings. And what did they talk about? Did they talk about the borders of the land? Or did they talk about justice and compassion? They were very clear about Jewish priorities.

The right of the Jewish people to self determination in its ancient homeland, to live with recognized, secure borders, is one of the most just and moral causes in our time. However, to occupy and control the lives of millions of Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria, and to negate their right to create their own state and future in peace, side by side with the State of Israel, is not just, is not moral, and is not Judaism. There can be a legitimate disagreement about how peace is to be obtained and who is to be blamed for having missed opportunities in the past for reaching this peace. However, these disagreements have nothing to do with "Judaism" or the betrayal of "Judaism." Those on both sides of the debate, who are turning the conflict into an existential conflict of religion and theology, are doing so because they know that in doing this, they can prevent necessary compromise, or any solution at all for that matter. Because who is going to be willing to compromise on the totality of God?

We have reached a tragic situation where the dream of the great messianic peace has become the main threat to pragmatic and necessary agreements, which at least have the potential of providing a measure of peace and a future, which both sides deserve and which can certainly save many precious human lives.

I believe that if religion has a redeeming force for humankind, then religious teachers and leaders must be on the frontlines of the struggle to transform our conflicts and to work together for the greater good of our communities. The good news is that there actually are a growing number of impressive and courageous people, including Jewish, Christian, and Moslem leaders, who believe likewise - although their voices may still not be heard as loudly or as distinctly as the voices of the totalitarian extremists. These are leaders who, like me, will feel a profound measure of grief at having to give up and compromise on land that they believe is theirs. And yet this grief will be overridden by the joy of hope: The hope of building a future together, dominated not by fear and hatred but by optimism and commitment to the peace of Jerusalem.

All Jewish prayers ends with the beautiful prayer to God, that He who makes peace in His heavens, may assist us in making peace on earth. When we express this prayer, we withdraw three steps, symbolically saying to the Almighty that we cannot expect Him to intervene on our behalf if we are not willing to withdraw and leave room for the "other." Yes, this might be a naïve and romantic message but I know no better alternative than an uncompromising commitment to making this prayer our reality.

WikiLeaks

I've gotten a lot of e-mails this week, two of them inspired by the recent WikiLeaks....leaks...

Email from CODEPINK:

Dear Jessica,
The recently released Wikileaks diplomatic cables reveal that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu posited the Goldstone Report and a nuclear Iran as the main existential threats to his country, but that the real existential threat to Israel is its own policies.
On November 8, when I stood up in New Orleans at a large gathering of Jewish leaders to tell Netanyahu that illegal West Bank settlements betray Jewish values, I could not have predicted that these words would not only reverberate through the room, but would also shatter the "Israel barrier," the culture of silencing dissent towards Israel’s flagrant violations of international law that is so pervasive in my community. Supported by our allies at Jewish Voice for Peace, the five of us who disrupted Netanyahu's speech gave a name to the real cause of Israel’s delegitimization: Israeli policies such as the occupation, the siege of Gaza, the Loyalty Oath, and the silencing of dissent. The immediate response in the room was violent—I was actually put in a chokehold and pushed to the ground. But it was too late to silence us, and our message was soon circling the globe. The response to our actions was overwhelmingly positive.
Our young, Jewish, and proud voices join the chorus rising from the West Bank, Gaza, Israel and around the world clamoring for justice.

Tonight Jews begin the ritual lighting of the Chanukah candles. We light eight candles to celebrate the miracle of fuel that lasted beyond all expectations, and a victory in the face of impossible odds. Today, we'd like to invite you to join us in illuminating a path forward towards true equality for all in Israel and Palestine by taking part in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.
Season’s greetings to you and yours and onwards for a brighter future in the Middle East,
Rae Abileah

The second e-mail was from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, linking an article from HuffPo:
...Cantor [House Majority Leader] would do well to read some of the 19 cables released so far by WikiLeaks from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, which shed important light on behind-the-scene tensions between Israel's quest for complete military dominance and U.S. attempts to militarize the Middle East, as evidenced by Gilad's admission. These documents display an incomplete, yet consistent, pattern of the United States saturating its allies with weapons while deflecting Israeli pressure not to do so....


As President Jimmy Carter once said, "We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war."

Middle East Film Fest!!!

Suheir Hammad rapping her poem "Of Refuge and Language," on dislocation from Palestine to New Orleans.




I went to two screenings this week. The first was a "Palestinian Lord of the Flies" (honestly, I was on the fence) called Secret World, where Ramallah children wake up one morning to find all the adults have disappeared. So they run around their school (an Evangelical school in Ramallah) and make their own little societies. The occupation isn't a major topic, but one girl wanders over to Jerusalem and back along the apartheid wall....I wouldn't call it an uplifting film, but it was fun for me to watch because the kids were around the ages of the kids I teach; I really have a soft spot for middle schoolers now. It was fun to imagine how they would all get along, and what they would find in common.

The second screening was footage from a Suheir Hammad poetry reading and interview. Audience member: how do you reach diverse audiences?
Suheir: When you can talk to a grandmother, and talk to a grandchild, and know that they understand your message, you're on the right track...

When she performs for incarcerated youths she encorporates modern hip hop into her routine. I've been thinking the same thought today, after our history teacher asked the class what a "boo purse" was. Everyone erupted, because they knew that Lil Wayne raps about hiding a gun in his "boo purse," his girlfriend's purse. I need to do a little homework and start turning on the radio, if anything to understand why they have trouble with the possessive.

This common ground thing also applies to the Palestine project. New Orleans is so diverse, my own community so diverse, that I can't approach this issue in the same way when I talk to my church, my school, my co-workers, my co-volunteers, my Kappa sisters, my relatives, fellow activists...I'd say the most enjoyable would be strangers on the streetcar or at a bar...it's so easy to pretend that the Pro-Palestine movement is mainstream and see how they react. One time the groom at a bachelor party argued with me over Israel's security needs for an hour then confessed to having played the "devil's advocate," he actually thought it was all bullshit. It was exhausting, but I appreciated the practice.

Anyways, I made a great contact at the second screening, a rep from LifeSource, which works for Palestinian water rights in Ramallah. Hoping to pay a visit while I'm over there....