Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

When Lee Kofman was six years old, she moved from Siberia to Odessa, where her home was a hub for Jewish dissidents. When she was 12, the family moved to Israel and then at the age of 26, she moved to Australia on her own. Suffice to say, she has very interesting stories to share. And as an author, writing teacher and mentor, sharing stories is exactly what she does.

Her first three books, written in Hebrew, are fiction, and the remaining five, all written in English, are in the creative non-fiction genre.

Her latest book, The Writer Laid Bare: Mastering emotional honesty in a writers art, craft and life was influenced by several factors, one of which was severe writers block in her early thirties.

As both a practitioner and a teacher of creative writing, Ive been interested in how the creative process works for a very long time. My interest has derived also from personal circumstances: the fact that I write in two languages and neither is my mother tongue and my experience of a severe four-years-long writers block in my early thirties, she told The AJN.

These difficulties also prompted me to take a close interest in what it takes to live a productive creative life.

As she started to emerge from her writers block roughly a decade ago, Kofman decided the only way to inspire herself to keep going, was to write a blog about the difficulties and the joys of writing. The blog remains on her website today. It has also been the launchpad for other writers, with Kofman proudly explaining that a guest blogger received a publishing contract after a publisher read their post on her website.

In the same way, The Writer Laid Bare became a book.

My publisher, who also reads my blog, noticed that it was going well and offered me a contract in 2020 to write a book based on my blog, which I gladly accepted, she said.

For Kofman, The Writer Laid Bare is the book she wished she had in the four years she was suffering from writers block.

I lost touch with my viscera then and stopped believing in myself as a writer, she recalled. I strongly suspect timely advice would have spared me those years of wallowing in despair. If only someone back then pointed out that my difficulties werent a sign that I couldnt write; that struggling with authenticity, candour and self-understanding is something writers must do, often throughout their entire lives.

Go beyond the meaning of words and notice their textures, sounds and rhythms. Trust language that it will lead you to where you need to go in your work.

The Writer Laid Bare makes sure readers understand this. Kofman also provides practical strategies to make writing easier.

I explore many aspects of the writing practice creative process, craft matters, motivation and inspiration, and how to live a life conducive to your art but not subsumed by it, she explained.

There are three overarching and recurring messages throughout the book. First, that writing is meant to be difficult. Accepting this will make the process easier. Second, there is no right way to write, just an authentic way to write, and this is highly personal. And finally, creative writers need to look within themselves and study themselves what makes them tick, how do they perceive the world? This is what will help them be authentic writers.

There was a lot of research that went into the book for Kofman, expanding on the research that she had been undertaking for years, simply for her private interest but also for her teaching.

I used biographies and memoirs of writers, interviews with writers (particularly the amazing Paris Review interviews), other books on writing, and scientific studies of creativity I was especially interested in what neuroscience has to say about how the creative brain works, she said.

Kofman also credits the writers whose views and lives inspired her the most while writing The Writer Laid Bare. Specifically, she mentions Chekhov, Elena Ferrante, Amos Oz, David Grossman, Stephen King and Karl Ove Knausgaard.

As for some tips she can give to fellow writers, Kofman said its difficult to narrow them down. But she did come up with the goods, encouraging writers to: write only what is truly urgent to you, read as widely and ambitiously as you can and do so analytically, and develop a sensual, intimate relationship to language.

Go beyond the meaning of words and notice their textures, sounds and rhythms. Trust language that it will lead you to where you need to go in your work.

From someone who doesnt write in her mother tongue, it is some excellent advice.

The Writer Laid Bare is published by Ventura Press, $32.99 (rrp)

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The art of writing - Australian Jewish News

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

In a letter to Jewish House Democrats, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul OBrien apologized for representing the views of the Jewish people, responding to the members unanimous condemnation of his recent remarks that his gut tells him American Jews want a safe Jewish space rather than a Jewish state.

All 25 Jewish House Democrats came together earlier this month in a rare joint statement condemning OBriens comments at a Womans National Democratic Club event as patronizing, alarming, deeply offensive and antisemitic.

In his response letter, dated March 25 and obtained by Jewish Insider on Thursday, OBrien wrote, I regret representing the views of the Jewish people. What I should have said is that my understanding from having visited Israel often and listened to many Jewish American and Israeli human rights activists is that I share a commitment to human rights and social justice for all with Jewish Americans and Israelis.

In the letter, OBrien says he wants to provide context to comments to a JI reporter after the event. In those comments, OBrien said Israel shouldnt exist as a Jewish state. He claims his comments were in reference to Amnestys concerns about Israels 2018 Nation State Law. OBrien made no reference to the Nation State Law in the conversation with the reporter, but had mentioned it in an earlier part of the event.

During the course of the event, and at a number of times during the presentation, I stated that Amnesty takes no position on the legitimacy or existence of any state, including Israel, OBrien wrote. We have been engaging with the government of Israel for decades to uphold its human rights obligations and will continue to do so.

In comments during the event about the Nation State Law, OBrien appeared to express opposition to Israels existence as a Jewish state.

It is not Amnestys position, in fact we are opposed to the idea and this, I think, is an existential part of the debate that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people, he said at the time.

In the letter, OBrien also defends Amnesty Internationals report accusing Israel of apartheid, to which several of the lawmakers had objected, in part by attacking the Israeli government.

We recognize apartheid is a powerful word for a serious crime and we dont use it lightly, he said. In recent months, the Israeli government has intensified its efforts to censor and discredit anyone who uses the word apartheid, instead of engaging with the substance of our findings, and the findings of a number of Israeli and Palestinian groups.

OBriens response was accompanied on March 25 by a separate letter, also obtained by JI, from Amnesty International Secretary General Agns Callamard to 11 Jewish House Democrats who wrote separately to Callamard to express further concerns about OBriens remarks.

I write to reaffirm that Amnesty International recognises the right of Jewish people to self-determination. We do not take a position on the international political or legal arrangements that might be adopted to implement this right, she wrote. We have reaffirmed, including in the context of the launch of our report on Apartheid, that there is nothing under international law to prevent the state of Israel identifying itself as Jewish, as long as the government does not discriminate between its citizens on the grounds of religion or race.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke with Callamard earlier this month. A State Department spokesperson would not say whether Israel was discussed in the meeting.

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Amnesty's O'Brien responds to Jewish Dems: 'I regret representing the views of the Jewish people' - Jewish Insider

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

Shabbat Parashat HaChodesh is always the Shabbat on or just before the first of Nisan. It is the last of the four special parashiot that precede Pesach. This year it is actually Shabbat Rosh Chodesh.

Read from Shemot chapter 12, parashat HaChodesh contains the first mitzvah of the Torah given to all the people of Israel as a nation the commandment of a lunar based calendar with Chodesh HaAviv, the month of spring (Nisan) as its commencement. Moses was shown the new moon and told that it was the basis of the calendar.

This being the first mitzvah is significant because as the Jewish people use a lunar calendar, the declaration of a new moon is critical to determining the dates of all its associated holy periods including fasts and festivals. Without a calendar, we are simply bereft of the ability to celebrate the Torah and many mitzvot.

While today to welcome the new month, in synagogues around the world we simply bless and announce its advent on the preceding Shabbat and on the actual day(s) recite Hallel and musaf, historically Rosh Chodesh took on much greater significance.

Fasting and mourning were not permitted on Rosh Chodesh. Women enjoyed special privileges on this day. According to the Talmud (Megillah 22b) women were forbidden from performing any work on Rosh Chodesh. Rashi says this work referred to the labour undertaken by the women in the construction of the Mishkan including spinning, weaving, and sewing. To this day many women have special customs on Rosh Chodesh.

Interestingly, during the Hellenistic period, one in which the Jewish people were not free to practise their religion, the Greeks went to great lengths to ban Rosh Chodesh. They understood that without the ability to declare a new month the Jewish people were unable to set and observe their holy times.

Rosh Chodesh is subject to many technical rules as to how it can be declared. Before the calendar was fixed (by the Patriarch Hillel II in in 358 CE), the witnesses of the new moon fronted up to the Beth Din in Yerushalayim where they were subject to intense questioning and corroboration.

But the significance of Rosh Chodesh is deeper. Many mitzvot and Jewish times of worship are anchored around our collective understanding of time. From a Jewish perspective, time and the way we understand it is central to our festivities, our periods of mourning, and our worship.

The way in which our year is structured helps us experience the different emotions required to work on ourselves leading up to the new year. These landmarks, whether holidays or festivals themselves, such as Pesach or Shavuot, or time periods, such as Sefirat HaOmer or the Three Weeks, are metaphors for the inner journey that the soul goes through as it traverses the Jewish map of the year.

And it is not just the months and weeks of time that reflect inherent periods in our time-map.

Each week the Shabbat signifies a different type of time break, one in which we step back from our daily lives and rest. For the Jewish week is centred around Shabbat and a consciousness that while time may fly past, each week we are required to stop and reflect on the week that was.

Humans generally may perceive time in steps that take place day after day; certain periods may seem to have a distinct beginning, middle, and end that demonstrate a familiar linear pattern. But Jewish thought sees time differently.

And in that context Rosh Chodesh gives a deeper significance to our lives. It represents a time for renewal, as each month comes and goes. It is a metaphor for the Jewish peoples ability and strength to rise against challenges to revitalise ourselves again.

Each month as the moon grows from the tiniest sliver to a full shining orb, it parallels the fate of the Jewish people.

Though nations may come and rise up to destroy our people, from the ashes we renew and reform. Wishing you a Chodesh Tov!

Melbourne lawyer and writer Nomi Kaltmann is also the founder and inaugural president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia (JOFA).

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The significance and depth of Rosh Chodesh - Australian Jewish News

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

(JTA) Princeton University spent months planning an exhibit of 19th-century American Jewish art before cancelling the show because two of its featured artists had supported the Confederacy.

The cancellation has drawn criticism from the exhibits Jewish donors and consulting historians. They say the decision rewrites art history.

I was really stunned by the university taking this position, Leonard Milberg, the Jewish financial manager and art collector who funded the collection and whose name adorns the gallery where the exhibit was to be shown, told the Princeton student paper.

The exhibit was to feature the work of Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a renowned sculptor who also crafted the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and hung the Confederate battle flag in his Rome studio for his entire career, and painter Theodore Moise, who was a major in the Confederate Army, among other artists.

A famous Ezekiel sculpture known as Faith, an adaptation of an earlier work Religious Liberty commissioned by Bnai Brith that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and is currently displayed outside the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, was to be the exhibits centerpiece; another Ezekiel work was to feature a sculpture of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the founder of American Reform Judaism.

After first agreeing to organize the exhibition last summer, Princeton canceled the show in December. According to emails first obtained by Religion News Service, the universitys vice provost for institutional equity and diversity had expressed concerns over the Confederate links and had asked for Ezekiel and Moise to be substituted for other artists.

That decision didnt sit well with Milberg, the shows curator Samantha Baskind or the Jewish historians they consulted for the exhibit, Adam Mendelsohn and Jonathan Sarna, who argued that the exhibit as planned had addressed the artists Confederate associations in a thoughtful manner.

In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and other outlets, Princeton disputed the charge that the school itself had canceled the exhibit, saying it had in fact been canceled by the donor after they were unable to agree on the shows composition. University spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss added, The Librarian and her senior staff have a duty to ensure that any materials exhibited are presented, explained, and contextualized in a manner consistent with the Librarys educational and research mission.

That account was disputed by the shows curators.

The donor pulled out because Princeton canceled the art, Baskind told the Daily Princetonian, saying that the decision was an unfortunate anti-intellectual surrender to cancel culture.

She added, Removing the artists with Confederate ties rewrites art history. Art historians examine the meaning of art in its own time as well as how its perceived in the current moment. We need to inform and discuss the past, not bury it.

American institutions, including universities, have increasingly reevaluated whether and how to acknowledge racist figures in their past. That effort has included, at times, Jews with ties to the Confederacy: A Northern California synagogue, for example, has weighed whether to include Jewish Confederate leader Judah Benjamin in an engraved list of illustrious Jews.

In an op-ed, Milberg noted that he had previously sponsored Princeton exhibits spotlighting artists with antisemitic ties. I felt that I should not erase history but learn from it, he wrote.

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A Jewish art exhibit at Princeton was canceled over ties to the Confederacy. Jewish scholars are outraged. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

Bertie, our loveable dachshund, left us a couple of years ago. He was willful, stubborn, loving and adorable. He thought he was Jewish.

He got me to thinking. So, is there such a thing as a Jewish dog? Is it a Sadie or Schmaltsy or Nuddel? Not a Fido or Spot.

Every Friday night when I lit candles (no matter where we were), Bertie would suddenly show up from another room wagging his tail. He stuck around because he knew we were going to cut the challah at some point. There definitely was food in his future. And when we cut the challah, there he was again, wagging his tail waiting for the end piece that Michael, my husband, would cut off. He ate first. We followed.

While buying his dog food one day, I spied a yarmulke and tallit for a small dog. It was marked down the only one left. Should I or shouldnt I buy it for Bertie? He would never keep a sweater on he always managed to wriggle out of them. I was sure he would not tolerate the duo, but I bought it anyway.

It was Passover, and we were preparing for the seder. So, I put the yarmulke and tallit on him, and he loved it. He fell asleep with it on and didnt want to take it off. He even posed for pictures. Yes. He was definitely proud to be Jewish.

But to be sure, I had to do some research.

A Longtime Sabra?

I learned that there is a national dog of Israel: the Canaan dog. It apparently has survived in the desert regions of Israel for thousands of years. The Hebrews used the dog in biblical times as a guard dog, and it is still used by Bedouins and Druze today.

Professor Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman from Vanderbilt University Jewish studies writes the relationship between dogs and Jews has been a fraught and complicated one. Though dogs fared poorly in the Hebrew Bible, of late they have been honored as family pets and even granted bark mitzvahs.

We know people who have sent out printed invitations for their bark mitzvahs. No fountain pens needed unless theyre edible. After all, humans can have bnai mitzvahs, why not dogs?

A few years ago, we made a shiva call. A couple, a guy with his significant other, came in, sat down and joined in on the conversation. The significant other, who was not Jewish and had never been to a shiva before, was asking questions about the shiva rules and regulations. In the meantime, the family dog sauntered in wearing a cone on his head. He had just come from the vet.

Is that part of the shiva? the significant other asked. You could hear a pin drop. Then someone started to snicker. And another. And then the whole place was giggling. Obviously, the cone did not pass the test for being a Jewish dog.

Photos Sought

Did you know theres a website where you can send videos of your Jewish pooch at dogs@forward.com? They ask that you send your family photos or videos of your Jewish dog, and well feature our favorites on the site.

The site also says:

Jeff Goldblum in the 2008 film Adam Resurrected, plays a Holocaust victim walking the line between human and canine personalities.

In Exodus 11:7 it reads, no dog shall snarl at any of the Israelites. What could be more supportive of Gods plan to redeem the Israelites?

The protagonist of Nobel Prize-winner S.Y. Agnons novel Only Yesterday, Balak is the Hebrew word for dog spelled backwards.

The Canaan dog was recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1997, the creation of this breed was a natural part of the founding of the State of Israel.

Theres a charming book on Amazon (five stars) that seals the deal: How to Raise a Jewish Dog (Sept. 5, 2007) by the Rabbis of Boca Raton Theological Seminary.

The fictional rabbis delve into how specific sounds, TV preferences, tricks and food preferences prove your dog is Jewish, but the way they present the smell segment is the winner. They begin:

What self-respecting Jewish family would not, if given the choice, pick a Jewish dog? Yet one typically does not even give a thought about ones dogs religion. And even if one did, how could one possibly ensure that the dog youve chosen to invite into your home to become a treasured part of your Jewish family is, in fact, Jewish?

Worry about this no more, my beloved Judaic friends. For after years of study, research, interviews and consultations with experts, I am about to publish the only guide of its kind, How to Tell if Your Dog is Jewish. At long last, you can have peace of mind about at least this one small yet vital part of your familys life. Youre welcome.

The Smell Test

The rabbis continue: For a week, chart the things (and people) that your dog sniffs. Clothes may make the man, but smells make the dog, and in particular, the Jewish dog.

Do you find him primarily sniffing the pets of other Jewish pet owners? When you walk past a Jewish deli, do his nostrils go crazy as he makes a sharp turn to steer you toward the pastrami? And while were on the subject of Jewish meat, has your dog, after getting a whiff of your Shabbat brisket, jumped up on the table and gobbled it down while youre distracted lighting the candles?

And finally, the rabbis of Boca Raton tell us: Then again, ask yourself if it really matters if your dog is Jewish. If it does, perhaps thats a sign that your life is not Jewish enough to start with.

Because if theres enough Judaism in your life and in your relationships with others, you could have a Baptist dog, a Muslim dog or an Episcopalian dog and still live a pretty good and satisfyingly Jewish life, no? Then again, if youd truly prefer a Jewish dog, who am I to stop you?

I say the rabbis of Boca Raton are correct. Bertie would have loved them.

This column first appeared in The Detroit Jewish News and is reprinted with permission. Sandy Hermanoff is a Detroit-area public relations consultant who loves to cook and bake. She is founding chair of The Ohio State University School of Communication Advancement Board. She lives in Bingham Farms, Mich.

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Can your loving pet be a member of the tribe? - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

Moon Knight is an amalgamation of several aliases that exist because of the character's dissociative identity disorder. These monikers include the American mercenary Marc Spector, British gift-shop employee Steven Grant, the well-dressed Mr. Knight, and the titular superhero. However, as Oscar Isaac told USA Today, the real person is essentially a "Jewish Chicago guy who is enslaved to an Egyptian god," confirming that the MCU iteration of the character honors his Jewish legacy. Director Mohamed Diab also confirmed that the character's Jewish background is present in the Disney+ series in a recent tweet.

Of course, whether or not Moon Knight really is the first Jewish superhero in the MCU is up for debate. For instance, many people believe that Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is Jewish, even though this notion is more implied than factual (via STL Jewish Light). Wanda (Elisabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor Johnson), aka Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, also come from a Jewish background in the comics. However, their heritage is only acknowledged as Eastern European in the MCU, presumably due to Disney having to ignore their longstanding connection to Magneto, whose film rights were owned by 20th Century Fox prior to the studio's acquisition by Disney in 2019.

All in all, Moon Knight is the only outright confirmed Jewish superhero in the MCU as of this writing. At the same time, there is an argument to be made that he isn't the first due to the ambiguities surrounding other characters.

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Is Moon Knight The First Jewish Superhero In The MCU? - Looper

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

In Laughter, Max (the Caesar character) is given the grim news that his show is going to be cut to an hourly version for its next season and that appropriate personnel cuts will have to be made. With that additional pressure, Ben Ritchies Max goes into deep-mode, survival instinct, intent on maintaining the status quo not only for himself but also for his staff, whom he loves in a bizarre sort of way.

Coffields cast is expertly portrayed by all involved, with Ritchie anchoring the manic proceedings to optimal effect, alternating looks of bewilderment and crazed mania. Aaron Mermelstein has the cadence of senior writer Val Skolsky down to his delicious, immigrant accent, while Jacob Flekier shows the admiration, respect and innate talents of youthful Lucas, who gives as good as he gets from the likes of Milt Fields, the dapper (married) playboy portrayed to the whimsical hilt by Joel Moses.

De Broux sports a top-notch New York accent for Carol, as well as the acerbic wit of the sole female on the roster, bringing up the harsh realities of the outside world and the frightening scourge of Wisconsins U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and his communist-baiting congressional hearings.

As Kenny Franks, Michael Pierce contrasts expertly in his sartorial splendor with the rather ragtag appearance of John Wolbers as Brian Doyle, the lone gentile in this den of daffy but deft scribes. Wolbers plays Brians thick Irish brogue with amusing comic delivery, while Pierce crisply showcases Kennys savvy talents.

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Review: New Jewish Theatre Returns With Witty, Madcap Laughter on the 23rd Floor - Ladue News

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

On Monday, the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, joined the foreign ministers of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, and Morocco for a meeting at Sde Boker, the retirement kibbutz and burial place of David Ben-Gurion, the nations first Prime Minister. The meeting had been initiated by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, with encouragement from Blinken, whose main aim was to reassure the group that the United States is fixed in its commitment to deny Iran a nuclear weapon, and that the not-yet-consummated Iran nuclear deal is the best of available options to do that. The summit was to showcase a strategic alliance growing out of the Abraham Accords, the Israeli journalist Henrique Cymerman told me. To seed the formation of a kind of Middle Eastern NATO to contain Irandeal or no deal.

Israel and its Arab guests registered a certain discontent. No deal currently being negotiated contemplates constraints on the Iranian missile and drone programs. The leaders of the Gulf states have been increasingly chagrined by the lack of a U.S. response to the various attacks that Irans Houthi proxies in Yemen have made on the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia during the past few monthsincluding, most recently, a strike on a Saudi Aramco facility, on March 25th. Indeed, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were not represented in person at the summit, although their interests were. (The Saudis were the real enablers of the meeting, Cymerman said.) According to Axios, Blinken asked Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, at a pre-summit meeting on Sunday, what alternative Israel proposed to a new dealother than a U.S.-led, premptive strike, which Israel continues to prepare for but, particularly given the situation in Ukraine, the Biden Administration would not want to entertain. Bennett reportedly said that he believed Iran might be deterred from enriching uranium to weapons grade if it knew that the U.S. and European countries would intensify sanctions to the extreme levels they have placed on Russia. Since Israel has not joined in those sanctions, one can only wonder how Blinken received the suggestion.

In any event, Bennett had already stated that Israel did not see itself as a party to the Iran deal. Earlier in March, moreover, as if to prove some independence from Washington, the U.A.E. hosted a state visit by Syrias Bashar al-Assadwho remains in power thanks to brutality abetted by Iran and Russia. The chief U.S. negotiator on the Iran deal, Robert Malley, perhaps signalled acknowledgement of Israels developing partnership with the Gulf states when he announced in Doha, on Sunday, that Washington would not yet remove Irans Revolutionary Guards from the terrorism-sanctions list, and noted that the signing of the deal was not just around the corner.

Two other matters cast shadows on Blinkens trip: Israels occupation of Palestine, especially the continuing expansion of the settlements, and its quasi-neutrality on Ukraine, both of which are a source of tension between Jerusalem and Washington. They may seem unrelated, but each has rendered Israel a sort of outsider among democratic states at a decisive moment. And Blinken chose to finesse both. Bennett has made much of his attempts to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv, but, in addition to remaining aloof from sanctions against Russia, Israel refuses to supply Ukraine with war matrielin order to preserve, Lapid had said, Russian tolerance for its interdictions of Iranian-backed forces in Syria. Blinken, at a press conference with Bennett, tactfully praised Israel for the solidarity that it has shown with regards to Ukraine: joining the United Nations vote to condemn Vladimir Putins invasion; implementing new rules to prevent oligarchs from parking yachts and planesand fortunesin Israel (though Jewish oligarchs who are Israeli citizens, and have Israeli registered property, may well be able to elide them); setting up a field hospital in western Ukraine; and, last and apparently least, Bennetts mediation efforts.

The question of Palestine was largely sidelined at the Sde Boker summit, though few doubt that the Saudis and Jordanians made a show of boycotting it largely to avoid providing scenes of senior Arab and Israeli diplomats hobnobbing for the worlds press, while Israeli occupation forces defended the at times violent settler zealotswhich might have incited further violence in the West Bank and Amman, as Ramadan begins. Alas, that show seems to have been of little value. Eleven Israelis have been killed in three separate terror attacks during the past week. On Friday, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by soldiers in Hebron.

Blinken, apparently sensitive to this gap in the agenda, spent the afternoon before the summit with Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, who called the gathering a harsh attack on the Palestinian people, and decried a U.S. double standard: acting against Russias claims on the Ukraine, while tolerating Israels occupation of Palestinian territories. Jordans King Abdullah II visited Abbas in Ramallah, on Monday, as the summit was taking place. Benny Gantz, the moderate Israeli Defense Minister, wanted to join that meeting, but Bennett, the annexationist Prime Minister, nixed the idea. Blinken, for his part, simply restated his endorsement of a two-state solution, while acknowledging that is not imminent. In the triangular crisis of Ukraine, Iran, and Palestine, the last issue seems the most deferrable at present.

Or is it? The occupation exacerbates Israels hostility with Iran, and the desire to operate against Iran in Syria shapes its diplomacy with Russia. Leaders make strategic, not just transactional, decisions. Deliberately or by default, they define what a country stands for and set its course for a generation. And the leader who made this responsibility most vivid for the Israelis in recent days was not Blinken, or Bennett, but Ukraines President, Volodymyr Zelensky, who addressed the members of the Knesset, Israels parliament, in an impassioned speech delivered remotely on March 20th. Indifference kills. Calculation is often erroneous. And mediation can be between states, not between good and evil, he said. I am sure that every word of my address echoes with pain in your hearts. But he wanted to know why Israeli military help had not been forthcoming. What is it? Indifference? Political calculation? Mediation without choosing sides? Putins aggression, Zelensky said, had made the choice this stark. There is an urgency for democratic solidarity, he suggested, to valorizing a global order in which military power does not determine a neighbors fate.

He might have added that Ben-Gurion himself, in his Biltmore Declaration of 1942, envisioned a Jewish Commonwealth integrated in the structure of the new democratic world. But Zelensky, a Jew, couched his appeal in a way that he clearly thought would resonate with the leaders of a Jewish state. The Nazi Party raided Europe and wanted to destroy everything. Destroy everyone, he told them. Wanted to conquer the nations. And leave nothing from us, nothing from you. Then he said, They called it the final solution to the Jewish issue. You remember that. And Im sure you will never forget! But listen to what is sounding now in Moscow. Hear how these words are said again: final solution. But already in relation, so to speak, to us, to the Ukrainian issue.

Members of Bennetts inner circle responded furiously to the comparison. The Communications Minister, Yoaz Hendel, tweeted that the Nazis genocide of Jews was also carried out on Ukrainian land, implying Ukrainian sympathy for it, and said that the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the Final Solution is outrageous. The Interior Minister, Ayelet Shaked, went further, telling a conference sponsored by the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that, while some Ukrainians had behaved decently during the Second World War, Ukraine, as a whole, colluded with the Nazismay their name be cursedin the slaughter of the Jewish people. Bennett echoed Hendel and Shaked, albeit in a more compassionate tone. I cant imagine being in his shoes, Bennett said, of Zelensky, but added that the Holocaust should not be compared with anything, and that Zelenskys rhetoric was misplaced.

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Israel and the Triangular Crisis of Ukraine, Iran, and Palestine - The New Yorker

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

The environmental situation in Gaza is dire at the moment. (Photo: via ActiveStills.org)

By Benay Blend

As Spring approaches, along with Earth Day, thoughts turn to the environment. This year, because of the Russia/Ukraine war there is heightened concern over environmental destruction in that region. In an area rife with chemical plants, outworn mines, and nuclear power plants, there is good reason for apprehension.

For example, in an article in Grist, Diana Kruzman quotes an analyst from the UN Environment Programme who warns about the need for ecological monitoring to assess and minimize the environmental risks arising from the armed conflict.

No doubt this issue will be increasingly in the spotlight as Earth Day 2022 approaches, again on April 22 as it has been every year. The theme this year is Invest in Our Planet, a premise that plays into the hands of capitalist consumerism with its focus on individual consumption and a proper lifestyle.

Its true that the war could cost long-term damage in Ukraine, and environmental harm that will have repercussions beyond its borders. However, there is a question that has been repeated in the past few weeks: But what about Palestine? Surely its worth mentioning that its 74-year Occupation by the Israeli entity has resulted in tremendous suffering in the form of repeated targeting of the occupied population, crop destruction, and more.

As prominent human rights attorney Stanley Cohen has tweeted:

Memo to CongressPutin is doing nothing in Ukraine that Israel has not done and worse for 74 years against Palestinians funded by your checkbook.

The term greenwashing has lately seen renewed interest, partly because the Sierra Club is under fire for reversing its decision to cancel educational trips to Israel.

In February 2020 nine social justice groups wrote a letter to Dan Chu, the organizations Acting Executive Director, charging that their tours encourage a false image of Israel as environmentally-friendly, these trips erase both the existence of the Palestinian people and Israels systemic racism and discrimination against them, and greenwash Israels system of apartheid and its illegal colonization of occupied Palestinian and Syrian lands.

While the Sierra Club initially agreed to cancel, it soon reversed its decision under pressure from Zionist groups and pro-Israel organizations. In response, the coalition charged the group with ignoring the existence of Palestinian and Indigenous people.

As far back as 2010, Stephanie Westbrook documented Israels greenwashing of its Earth Day celebrations. On that day, dedicated to promoting an awareness of the need to conserve energy, the irony was not lost on Palestinians in Gaza who suffer from chronic power outages that have grown worse over the years.

As Ashraf Al-Mashharawy notes, blackouts affect every area of life in Gaza, from lack of clean water, food insecurity, to education and healthcare. All of this dates back to 2006, when Israeli airstrikes took out all of the transformers at Gazas sole power station. Since then, an Israeli blockade obstructs materials that could be used for reconstruction while periodic bombing makes the situation worse.

In 2010, Westbrook claims, Israeli officials boasted of planting thousands of trees as part of their environmental agenda, but at the same time, they were uprooting Palestinian olive tree saplings, planted by Palestinians for the same purpose.

In that year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Westbrook writes, awarded the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) units its top prize for its excellence in protecting the environment, environmental resources and the landscape. In particular, the IDF was recognized for its protection of water sources and water savings.

For Palestinians, this might have raised some questions. According to a 2010 report by the human rights group BTslem, nearly 95 percent of the water pumped in the Gaza Strip is polluted. Since 2007, Israel has blocked the entry of equipment and materials that could be used to rebuild the water-treatment systems in the Strip. The same holds true for the rest of Occupied Palestine. Since 1967, when Israel seized control over water rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, BTslem declares, Israel has denied Palestinians adequate water supplies, thus creating an artificial water shortage.

There is nothing green about occupation and colonization, Westbrook concludes, nothing ecological in violating human rights and dignity. Nothing much has changed since Earth Day 2010.

On Earth Day 2021, Israel announced the launch of a 30-year environmental plan designed to reduce greenhouse gases by 80% in 30 years. Among the sectors mentioned is solar energy in which it claims to be a leader. Nevertheless, Israel continues to confiscate and destroy solar panels belonging to Palestinians. For example, as the Irish Times reports in February 2021, among the childrens belongings, tents and solar panels, all destroyed by the Israeli regime, Irish AidGovernment of Ireland logos were clearly seen.

Further greenwashing the apartheid state, the report states that Israeli companies are committed to addressing water scarcity in the Middle East, developing new technologies that will tackle this issue over the next 30 years.

Indeed, that same year the Jerusalem Post revealed that the Navajo Nation has partnered with Israeli company Watergen to install a Gen-M water generator located in the Hard Rock Community as part of a pilot project to bring clean drinking water to Indigenous American communities.

Apparently, Israeli companies are eager to assist some Indigenous communities but not others, especially not that of Palestinians whose land they are currently occupying. As Dr. Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo explain, the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements are draining already exhausted Palestinian water supplies, a fact that further attests to the apartheid nature of the Zionist regime.

Reckless Israeli water consumption and erratic use of dams, conclude Baroud and Rubeo, have a vast and possibly irreversible environmental impact, fundamentally altering the aquatic ecosystem, a factor that has wreaked havoc for Palestinian farmers.

Finally, Israels Earth Day 2021 report describes how a Tel Aviv-based corporation utilizes machine-learning algorithms and botany to help farmers employ more efficient agricultural techniques.

Nevertheless, as Baroud and Rubeo note, this care for the land does not extend to Palestinian fields. In fact, the Israeli Army regularly destroys crops on the occupied land by spraying herbicide, usually glysophate, on border areas close to the separation fence. Not only do the chemicals destroy much-needed crops, but also the health of Palestinians living near their fields.

What is clear from all of these examples is that colonialism and environmentalism do not mix. No matter how green the former, Zionism prevails, write Baroud and Rubeo, as a racist, hegemonic and exploitative ideology.

In other countries, too, green colonialism is wreaking havoc on Indigenous lands. Defined by Kat Bohmback as exploiting the banner of ecology (while actually causing it harm), it varies from country to country but has several themes in common: mismanagement of land, destruction of ecosystems in the name of progress, and a general disrespect for the quality of life for indigenous communities.

In Norway, for example, wind farms on Sammi land endanger their herding way of life. Humans are born, and they die, but the mountains live forever, writes Heihka Kappfjell, a 53-year-old reindeer herder from Jillen Njaarke. What frightens me the most about the wind industry is that without the mountains there is nothing left for us Saami. Nothing that protects us, takes care of us and gives us comfort.

In North Africa, too, explains Hamza Hamouchene, green colonialism, in the form of renewable energy projects, has preserved the oppressive system but with a different source of energy: from fossil fuels to renewable energies while all the political, economic and social structures that generate inequality, impoverishment and dispossession remain untouched. While the same process of extraction and land-grabbing continues, North Africans are left out of the benefits from self-sufficient energy.

What to do? Bohmbach offers a solution: Ultimately, an end to green colonialism, like colonialism itself, will require concerted local will and a rising global consciousness.

In this vein, on Land Day 2022 Samidoun Albuquerque, along with various social justice groups, held a rally at Tiguez Park. Among the speakers from the Albuquerque Anti-War Coalition, All African Peoples Revolutionary Party-Southwest, KOwa Collective, Bernalillo County La Raza Unida, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Support Network and more, many struggles were highlighted but one message was clear: Palestine is the defining issue of our times and unites all anti-colonial movements in the fight to reclaim land.

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On Earth Day 2022, Where are the Palestinians? - Palestine Chronicle

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Posted By admin on April 3, 2022

QAMISHLI, Syria: Three years ago, the world watched as the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS battled the remnants of Daesh in the extremist groups last territorial holdout of Baghouz.

Having once controlled an area the size of England, the terror group had been forced to retreat into an area covering just a few hundred square meters, where they dug in behind razor wire, earthworks and fields laid with thousands of landmines.

When the fighting was finally over and the last Daesh positions had been cleared, SDF morale skyrocketed and there were days of celebrations across the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

But after the guns had fallen silent, the SDF and its international allies were left with the daunting task of clearing landmines and other unexploded ordnance from the battlefield so that families could return to their land.

Years later, the work continues, hampered by security threats posed by Daesh holdouts, a lack of funding from international aid agencies, and the political complexities of the region.

On Dec. 8, 2005, the UN General Assembly declared that an International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action would be observed on April 4 each year.

Since the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, opened for signatures in 1997, 164 countries have ratified or acceded to it. In 2014, the signatories agreed to the complete the clearance of all landmines by 2025. However, these indiscriminate weapons continue to be used by state and non-state actors alike in conflict zones.

From Daeshs final strongholds in Deir ez-Zor and its former de-facto capital of Raqqa, to areas such as Kobane, which was liberated as long ago as 2015, roads, fields and even residential buildings are still dotted with landmines that continue to claim lives and limbs.

The task of clearing these explosive remnants of war has fallen to the Roj Mine Control Organization, a non-governmental humanitarian organization working in coordination with the Northeast Syria Mine Action Center, the de-facto umbrella group for mine-clearing efforts in Syrias autonomous northeast.

Local and international agencies say they have collectively removed about 35,000 anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines throughout the region but thousands more remain.

At every checkpoint on the main highways between Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, signs are posted that show pictures of various types of mines and explosive ordnance alongside a message in giant red letters that warns: Danger! Stay away! Dont touch! Report quickly! Spread awareness! Protect yourself from the threat of mines, remnants of war, and suspicious and dangerous areas. Dont go exploring. If you see something suspicious, tell the concerned authorities.

From all accounts, such warnings are amply justified.

I was 9 or 10 years old, Omar Al-Omar, who is now 13, told Arab News at his home in Raqqa. I was playing in front of our house when a mine exploded. I was in the hospital for two months and 10 days. I was unable to move around.

FASTFACT

* International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, on April 4, aims to raise awareness about landmines and progress toward their eradication.

Both of Omars legs had to be amputated. He has regained some mobility thanks to prosthetic limbs that were provided by the Hope Makers Center in Raqqa, a charitable organization that has since had to suspend many of its services as a result of lack of funding. Someday, he said, he hopes to become a doctor.

The Social Affairs and Labor Committee of Raqqa Civil Council has documented about 2,500 individuals who, like Omar, were maimed by landmines in the city alone. Council worker Amira Hussein believes the true figure is much higher.

If you look around Raqqa, on every street you will see a man, woman or child with a missing limb, she told Arab News, scrolling through photos on her laptop of local children with missing limbs and scars from burns.

Even in 2022, the issue of mines is still relevant. People thought that once Raqqa was liberated their lives would return to normal. But when they went back, mines went off in their homes.

Much of the work carried out by local and international mine-disposal agencies has been focused on Raqqa, as the city was heavily mined during the years from 2014 to 2017 when it was under Daesh control.

Although crude improvised explosive devices left behind by retreating Daesh militants are still frequently discovered in the city, the bulk of the mine-disposal work is taking place in the countryside.

There were a lot of mine explosions in the beginning but now there are far fewer, Yusuf, a team administrator at the Raqqa Internal Security Forces Explosives Ordnance Disposal Unit, told Arab News.

We maybe see mines only 1 percent of the time. Our team has cleared 80 percent of the city of Raqqa of mines.

However, not all of the explosive devices cleared by the Raqqa EODU are remnants of the battle to liberate the city. Daesh sleeper cells continue to operate here, planting explosives along roadsides and in buildings.

The 60-member Raqqa EODU team can respond to a report of an explosive device in less than 10 minutes, said Yusuf. This efficiency and dedication comes at a cost, however: 19 of its members have been killed in the line of duty.

While clearly highly dangerous, mine-disposal work can also be tedious and time-consuming. An international aid agency operating in Raqqa, which asked not to be identified for security reasons, has been systematically clearing the Tal Othman to Jurniya road for months now, often progressing just a few meters each day.

Locals said they watched Daesh militants lay mines along the road for seven months before the area was finally liberated in 2017. After three weeks of painstaking work, mine-disposal experts were able to locate and destroy two anti-tank mines.

Rocks painted red, marking the boundaries of safe areas, line the edge of the road where the disposal crews work, while rocks painted white denote safe paths. Once the road has been made completely safe and repaved, communities in Raqqas western countryside will once again have access to markets in Manbij city.

We are making a sacrifice for the future, one foreign mine-disposal expert working at the site told Arab News, his face obscured by a protective visor. He cannot be named for security reasons.

The last time I went on holiday, two children died in Raqqa. This stays with you.

As is the case in Raqqa, parts of Deir ez-Zor in the east of the country are also plagued by the explosive remnants of Daeshs last stand. Here the groups sleeper cells, operating close to the border with Iraq, continue to pose a threat to landmine-disposal teams.

The Monitoring and Observation Desk, an independent conflict observatory in northeastern Syria, documented 15 attacks on local security forces by Daesh remnants in the Deir ez-Zor region in February alone, two of which were carried out using landmines.

Besides the difficult task of removing and destroying mines, local and international agencies operating in Deir ez-Zor also work to raise community awareness of the threat, erect warning signs, and distribute literature about the threats posed by explosive remnants and how people can stay safe.

Agencies such as the Roj Mine Control Organization work directly with farming communities and schools to teach agricultural workers and children two of the groups most at risk how to recognize explosive devices and what to do if they stumble upon one.

The RMCO said it has conducted more than 1,400 mine-awareness sessions, during which it has spoken to about 17,700 people across northern and eastern Syria. Meanwhile, its mine-clearance teams claim to have removed more than 19,000 devices.

Although the RMCO operatives work to established international standards, they often lack the heavy armored machinery and personal protective equipment used by better-funded foreign agencies, making their work slower and at times much more dangerous.

The same is true in the far north of Syria, close to the border with Turkey, where the countryside is still littered with landmines and other explosives left over from the battle to liberate Kobane in 2015.

In a small village to the west of the city, a pair of Russian helicopters buzz overhead. On the brow of a nearby hill, a Turkish military post looks down from the imposing border wall.

Mohammed Sheikhmous, a farmer who lives just 50 meters from the border, lost one of his sons to a landmine.

My son went out with the sheep and stepped on a mine, Sheikhmous told Arab News. There was nothing left of him. We had to gather his body parts.

Before that incident, another of his sons had suffered serious injuries from a landmine blast, he said, which put the boy in hospital for two months and left him with permanent scars on his arms and legs.

In 2021 alone, 12 people in villages around Kobane lost their lives to mines, half of them children.

Because of the political complexities in this part of Syria, it is difficult for landmine-clearance teams to get permission to gain access and work. Agencies must somehow find a way to coordinate with local militias, Syrian regime forces, and the Russian and Turkish forces that have jointly patrolled the countryside around Kobane since October 2019 as part of a de-escalation agreement.

Until such complexities are resolved, farming communities straddling the border wil be compelled to live with this invisible, yet lethal threat.

This is a burden that will never end, even with the end of the war, said Hussein, the Raqqa Civil Council worker. The mines that were planted are still there.

Many people are still facing these threats. They cant go home because they never know at what moment their lives will be threatened.

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Dinner tables turn green and white in Palestine on the first day of Ramadan - Arab News

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