Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

The Torah begins with the world being created by words. Let there be is the recurring refrain. God names each item Light. Day. Night. Darkness. Earth. Sea. Heaven. From this emerges the concept that words can build or destroy.

Words matter. Every letter in the Torah is believed to have significance, and every word is essential. There are no errors. The idea of precision is so important in the Jewish origin story that we have pages of commentaries, stories, explanations and laws when an extra letter is added onto a phrase. While some critical readers of the Torah define extra letters, words and redundancy as scribal errors, there is a deep spiritual practice in combing through phrases, repetitions and words. We find meaning to justify each phrase; each phrase justifies its meaning.

It is difficult to reconcile this deep relationship between word and meaning with a 21st-century culture of using words as if they do not matter. Last week the Jewish world erupted after Whoopi Goldberg, a co-host of The View, used ill-informed words on the show to describe the Holocaust, saying the genocide was not about race and was, instead, essentially a case of infighting between two groups of white people. A flurry of conversations, articles and rage emerged in response. The words evoked fear and reflections on antisemitism, and revealed ignorance of the history of race (and genocide).

The Talmud teaches, The world exists only in the merit of the person who restrains him or herself at the time of an argument (Chullin 89a). Words create narratives. Words have the ability to disrupt, provoke and uproot, and in a world that is divided, they can cause terrible harm. Building false narratives about Jews or any other group for that matter can destroy. In Nazi Germany, Jews were dehumanized first by words as they were described as rats, defiling society. Dehumanizing another by using words can help categorize a people as less than, thus normalizing horrific acts. Of course Jews are not the only people to have been leveled by words. Indeed throughout history, efforts to separate cultural, religious, ethnic or racial groups from one another consider Rwanda or the Balkans have often begun with dehumanizing descriptions and unraveled from there. Words can highlight vulnerability and trigger attack.

Though Ms. Goldberg had no intent to deny the Holocaust, the gaps in knowledge she was forced to reconcile exposed a different lack of understanding: the degree of trauma Jews carry around all the time.

Since the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018, the need for heightened security has increased the feeling among Jews that we are in existential danger. We have a history as a people of not being fully accepted into the places we call home. There is a weariness and a wariness in the Jewish community; much like for other minority groups, there is a feeling of never quite being able to rest.

How can we? Just two weeks ago a man walked into a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, and terrorized a rabbi and three congregants for 11 hours. The next week, in Washington, D.C., the city where I live and worship, the citys landmark train station was defaced by swastikas, and two Chicago synagogues and a Jewish high school were vandalized. Each incident pulls us back, echoing darkly for us the racist narratives that targeted Jews through history, and in the not-so-distant past, causing us, at various times, to lose our right to citizenship, our right to work and finally our right to live. This year the Church of England has promised that a formal apology is forthcoming to the Jews for the medieval antisemitic laws that led to their expulsion in 1290. Groups in Britain say the history of antisemitism in that country, set in motion 800 years ago, cast a shadow to this day.

Let me be clear: We are, thank God, certainly not in a time resembling 1937 Germany or medieval England. But there is good reason our community has never quite been able to calm our instinct toward fight or flight. That is why moments of misunderstanding projected from a national platform let alone having synagogues terrorized are never just about that one incident. They evoke a traumatized past that has never healed.

Jews care about not just the words that hurt, but also those meant to mollify. Ms. Goldbergs apology I said the Holocaust wasnt about race and was instead about mans inhumanity to man. But it is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race has itself been dissected and analyzed. Has it gone far enough? Had her original words had more impact than her apology could? Did it represent real teshuvah, a real desire to atone, through understanding? I believe it did. I believe there needs to be a space for error and apology in our society.

Teshuvah is the process of regretting, renouncing, confessing, reconciling and making amends. Ms. Goldberg regretted her words, renounced what she said, confessed in public, reconciled by educating herself on national television and sought to make amends. Teshuvah shleimah a complete teshuvah is when we are in the same situation again and we choose to act differently. Then we know that our internal work has taken effect.

The Jewish tradition asks me to guard my tongue, to be careful of what I say, of promises I make. If these promises are said with Gods name, I must carry out the actions promised by my words. In this time of social platforms that influence millions, pausing before we speak and taking words seriously might not be such a bad thing. Indeed it might do the work of repairing the world.

Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt is a co-senior rabbi at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C.

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Opinion | In the Jewish Tradition, the Words We Choose Matter - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

NINETEENTH-CENTURY RABBI Simcha Bunim of Peshischa told one of his followers to transcribe a quotation from the Talmud The world was created for me onto a slip of paper to keep in his right pocket. Whenever he felt sad or distraught, the man could pull out the words to remind himself that his life was of boundless value. When he was feeling powerful or important, he should instead read the words in his left pocket I am nothing but dust and ashes which would point out the humbleness of his true state. By reading these reminders, suggested the rabbi, human beings can maintain balance in their daily lives. While there are times when people might need one particular message more than the other, fundamentally both truths are always in our pockets: we are everything and we are nothing, at the same moment.

In her new book Lost & Found, Pulitzer Prizewinning essayist Kathryn Schulz comes to an understanding similar to the rabbis: the experience of grief and sadness and the experience of love and joy always happen at the same time, even when we are not fully aware of how much they are connected. In her lyrical and deeply thoughtful memoir, Schulz recounts the emotional confluence of grieving for her father following his death and falling in love with a woman, whom she soon married.

Schulzs title, Lost & Found, establishes the structure of the three-part memoir. In Lost, the books first section, the author expresses her resistance to euphemisms for dying such as passing away. Such metaphoric language, she feels, turns away from deaths shocking bluntness and instead chooses the safe and familiar over the beautiful or evocative. Despite her rejection of such evasive language, she finds herself turning to one particular phrase after her father dies: I have lost my father. The idea of losing a loved one rang true to Schulz. As she writes, these particular words seemed plain, plaintive, and lonely, like grief itself.

Schulz spends much of the Lost section exploring not the details of her fathers death or her own grieving, but the multiple meanings of the word lost. She first recounts its etymology, discovering that the word emerged from the Old English verb meaning to perish. For Shulz, to lose has its taproot sunk in sorrow. Over time, the word lost began to take on a wider variety of usages. We can lose our keys or lose a game. We can be lost in thought, or lost in a book. And we can lose our minds and lose our hearts.

As Schulz begins her intensely logical analysis of the words implications in various circumstances, the reader might be tempted to wonder if the authors riff into these abstractions is simply its own kind of evasiveness another way of looking away rather than reading the words in the pocket filled with grief. But Schulzs intellectual meditation on the language of loss is not an effort to pivot away from pain. Instead, it is an effort to open grief up to a larger and deeper kind of engagement.

Schulz returns to her familys story with a broadened perspective. Long after the familys decision to stop treatment and begin hospice, Schulz comes to the awareness that part of her loss was that everything that happened in my life from that point on would be something else my father would not see. That is, the loss she felt most acutely was that she knew she and her father would no longer be able to share in an ongoing life together. He would not see whatever might be newly found.

Schulz experienced intense grief at the loss of her father, but one thing above all others made it bearable, she says: [T]he year before he died, I fell in love. So begins the early pages of the books second section, Found, which details how Schulz initially fell in love with C. and how their relationship grew. These scenes are full of sweet romance, starting with the story of how, shortly after their first meeting, her mind underwent a life-altering reorganization as she imagined their future together. Next, she gives her account of an evening stroll during an early date: I can still remember the exact route we took, writes Schulz, and also the wending way we walked, now closer and now farther, the shifting amount of space between us suddenly uppermost in my mind. She recounts the magic of making pancakes together in the middle of the night, and the mornings reality of seeing her new partner settling down with a mug of coffee and a legal pad to start her work day. In its own way, this everyday scene was equally magical: [T]here she was, going about her life in my home, realizes Schulz, going about her life in my life.

Just as Schulz does in the previous section, in Found she considers the variety of meanings and usages of the word that makes up the sections title. She analyzes the difference between finding that is recovery and finding that is discovery. Recovery essentially reverses the impact of loss. It is a return to the status quo, a restoration of order to our world, she explains. Discovery, by contrast, changes our world. Instead of giving something back to us, it gives us something new.

Unlike in the first section, however, in the books second part Schulz has a constant awareness of how grief is always waiting for her in her other pocket. Lost and found are opposing concepts, just as grieving and falling in love are, yet both change our perception of our place in the world: What an astonishing thing it is to find someone. Loss may alter our sense of scale, reminding us that the world is overwhelmingly large while we are incredibly tiny, writes Schulz. But finding does the same; the only difference is that it makes us marvel rather than despair.

The stunning final section of the memoir is a description of what lies for Schulz between grief and joy, between what is lost and what is found: the symbol of union the author uses in the middle of her title, &. She points out that until almost the 20th century, the end of the English alphabet was not the letter Z but the ampersand symbol. When schoolchildren recited the alphabet, it was the last symbol they pronounced. And is not an ending, writes Schulz; it is a word that leaves us hanging, waiting for what is yet to come.

Schulz finds a series of deeply touching ways to honor and celebrate both the conjunction and continuity that her entwined experiences of losing and finding love have shown her. Life, she realizes, is clearest in the forward-moving union that and promises: that moment when were alive with both grief and joy, both the knowledge that we are nothing and the awareness that the world is waiting for us. This gorgeous memoir is heartbreaking and restorative all at once.

Hannah Joyner is a freelance critic and an independent historian. She is the author of Unspeakable(with Susan Burch) andFrom Pity to Pride.

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Written in the Book of Life: On Kathryn Schulz's Lost & Found - lareviewofbooks

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

TheTorah columnis supported by a generous donation from Eve Gordon-Ramek in memory of Kenneth Gordon.TetzavehExodus 27:2030:10

The beginning of this weeks Torah portion deals almost exclusively with the vestments of the Cohen Gadol, or High Priest.

We get elaborate descriptions of each article of clothing that was worn during the service in the Temple, as well as the outfits of the other Cohanim (Priests). And the parashah concludes with a description of the golden incense altar that stood just before the screen at the entrance of the Holy of Holies.

The Book of Exodus has many chapters dedicated to the Tabernacle and its construction, including the uniforms of its central players. There is, however, another subject that is discussed in detail in this weeks parashah. That is the offerings that become the function of the Tabernacle.

There is a continual offering that is brought twice a day. In fact, the verse states: The first sheep should be done [as an offering] in the morning and second sheep should be done [as an offering] in the afternoon.

We learn that these two sacrifices serve as bookends surrounding all the other sacrifices that are brought. If one were to bring a voluntary offering or a free-will offering, it would have to be after the mornings daily offering and before the afternoons daily offering. That sounds straightforward enough.

Fascinatingly, our verse regarding the sheep finds itself in the middle of a dispute amongst the Sages of the Talmud. There is a Midrash that discusses what is considered the most important verse in the entire Torah. Our Sages bring the conversation in a Braita in the Midrash of Torat Kohanim (Chapter 4, Midrash 12).

Rabbi Akiva suggests that the central verse in the Torah is You should love your neighbor as you love yourself (Leviticus 19:18). Ben Azai says, These are the chronicles of the generations of Adam on the day that God created man, He made him in His Image (Genesis 5:1) is a greater principle than that. Both statements are quite general and all-encompassing. One can understand why they would be selected as the foundational verses in the Torah.

The Maharal of Prague (1525-1609), in his work Netivot Olam brings an addition to this Midrash, which was cited first by the author of Ein Yaakov, Rabbi Yaakov Ben Haviv (1460-1516), in his introduction.

Ben Zoma says: We have found a more inclusive verse and it is Shema Yisrael Hear Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Ben Nanas says we have found a more inclusive verse than that, and it is Love your fellow as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)

Rabbi Shimon Ben Pazi says we have found a more inclusive verse than that, and it is The first sheep should be done [as an offering] in the morning and second sheep should be done [as an offering] in the afternoon. (Exodus 29:39 and Numbers 28:4)

Rabbi Ploni stood up and said that the halachah is in accordance with Ben Pazi, as it is written, Like all that I show you, the structure of the Tabernacle and all its vessels: so shall you do. (Exodus 25:9)

Not only is the verse part of the competition, but it is awarded the deciding vote by Rabbi Ploni. Ploni is usually associated as the name of an anonymous character, which seems to indicate here that it was not just another opinion, but the majority opinion.

What was Rabbi Shimon Ben Pazi trying to communicate with this commandment to bring daily offerings?

It can be understood as a fundamental of Judaism that there must be consistency in our service of God.

There are plenty of mitzvot (commandments) that are performed on occasion and in a particular context. These commandments are often inspiring and uplifting because of their infrequency. People are motivated to eat matzah at Passover time or to shake a lulav on Sukkot.

What is central to Judaism, however, is the continual effort in maintaining a relationship with our Creator. Each and every day, we are told to bring two sheep to represent the entire community of Israel. Day in and day out. It seems to be a lesson that extends well beyond our relationship with Temple service.

Today we replace those offerings with prayers that are meant to be regular and regulated as our service of God.

In fact, in our relationships with others, we should also remind ourselves that they take constant effort and attention. It is noble to do some kind of heroic act for someone we love every so often, but true love requires a relationship that is constant and consistent. The requirement to demonstrate consistency in our service should be a rejoinder to all aspects of our lives.

Shabbat Shalom.

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Why the Torah cares so much about these two little sheep J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

We live in a world of colors, even though we know that colors are in fact an illusion. Interestingly, in Hebrew, the word for color is tzeva, which comes from the same root that means hypocrite, or false. In Parshat Tetzaveh, we read about the clothes of the high priest in the Tabernacle, or Miskhan, in detail, including their colors and the materials they were made from. All of that detail suggests that these colors have a deeper significance beyond making the high priests clothes look special and royal. How, then, are we to understand the role and of colors in the high priests clothes? What is their significance?

They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen, worked into designs. (Exodus 27,6)

The most dramatic garment, the ephod, is made of three materials (gold, yarn, and linen) and four colors (blue, purple, crimson and gold). These materials and colors appear many times as the building of the Mishkan is described, as well as in other places in the Bible.

Lets start with the colors:

The techelet, or blue, is famous as the color of the tzitzit strings. According to Rabbi Meir in the Talmud (Menachot 43, 2), techelet is the color of the sea, reflected in the sky, and it is similar to Gods throne, as described in both Exodus and Ezekiel as the color of sapphires. Because blue is connected to the Divine and also to the basics of the world experience (sea and sky), it can be said to represent Gods presence in our world.

The argaman, purple is used in royal clothing, as mentioned in multiple sources (Jeremiah 10:9, Esther 8:15, Proverbs 31:22). The fact that it is designated as special in this way suggests that it represents the ability of people to go beyond the physical, and combine their cognitive and spiritual abilities in order to come as close to God as possible.

Shani, or bright red, is the color of blood. In other words, adom (red) comes from the same root as the Hebrew for man, or humanity: Adam. This affiliation indicates the strong life force and desires that all living creatures share, as represented in the Mishkans red.

Now to the materials:

The garments are made from materials that represent our world, with the sheeps wool of the yarn signifying animals, and the linen made from the flax plant representing plants. Gold is a pure metal that is mentioned many times in the building of the Tabernacle. The menorah, ark, and altar all are gold. As a stable metal with a high value, gold speaks to truth and morality. It is the light of the Divine, as it shines and guides our world with purity and ideal moral values.

The colors have a deep meaning but they are also an illusion mere refractions of light. And just as the clothes simply cover the body, the physical world is no more than a reflection of the real world of that is Gods. The high priest carries with him this symbolism as he approaches the Divine. The colors and materials in the high priests clothes represent true values, as they are mixed with the physical confinements of our world. Thus, the high priest strives to connect Gods unreachable world to ours.

Like the high priest, we need to understand the difference between the illusions in our lives and the real goals and values. We need to take in account our limitations, and at the same time do our best to make the connection between heaven and earth, between the outer layers of our existence and internal real workings of our souls.

Meirav Kravetz is an experienced Hebrew teacher and a high school department chair of World Languages. Meirav coaches and trains teachers in the US and Latin America. She leads workshops and seminars, face to face and online, and directs collaborative and expert webinars. Meirav Kravetz was born and raised in Israel and lives today in Florida. She holds a master degree in education and speaks Hebrew, English, Spanish, French and Italian.

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True colors | Meirav Kravetz | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

This op-ed was first published on eJewishPhilanthropy.com.

Last week, a 26-year-old Jewish educator named Jessie Sander filed a lawsuit against her former employer, a flagship Reform synagogue, claiming she was fired because of her anti-Zionist beliefs, in violation of New York State law.

While I cannot speak to the legal claim, I have been thinking about the value of inclusivity which many Jewish organizations espouse. Lately, one would be hard pressed to find a synagogue, JCC or federation whose mission statement does not include words like welcoming, inclusive, everyone. Westchester Reform Temple itself, the synagogue that dismissed Sander, expresses on its website its intent to create a warm and welcoming community.

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I believe our institutions are sincere in wanting to create a community where diverse kinds of people feel included. Many of our communal organizations welcome with open arms a full spectrum of people with various racial or gender identities, sexual orientations, religious practices or beliefs. Many of these organizations proport but one acceptable form of ostracism, and that is toward those who express anti-Zionist viewpoints.

The number of Jews who think like Sander is not insignificant. A June 2021 poll by the Jewish Electoral Institute found that 34% of American Jews agreed that Israels treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the United States, 25% agreed that Israel is an apartheid state and 22% agreed that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. The percentages are even higher when you isolate adults under age 30.

The above data should give us pause. Across our communal landscape, donor bases of legacy institutions are shrinking. Synagogue membership is dwindling. Is it wise to shun Jews like Sander, at a time when Jewish affiliation and literacy are at an all-time low?

To be sure, opposition to Israel can sometimes overlap with antisemitism. But the profile of anti-Zionist Jews is not uniform, and some participate actively in Jewish life. They can be found devoting significant hours to Talmud study (at yeshivot like SVARA), to social justice learning (at organizations like Repair the World), and to training for the rabbinate (at several seminaries). They can also be found in some Haredi communities. Jessie Sander appears to be passionate about Judaism. She is pursuing a masters degree in Jewish professional studies. She is a co-founder of the startup Making Mensches, whose goal is to create Jewish communities that explore Jewish values within the context of our daily lives. Jews like Sander find inspiration from Jewish heritage and teachings. In fact, they approach the ethical questions of Israel/Palestine through the lens of the very Jewish values they were taught at our schools, camps and JCCs .

Of course, our synagogues and organizations are fully entitled to hold Zionism and support for Israel as core values. Millions of Jewish philanthropic dollars go to support The Jewish Agency for Israel, along with a variety of social service programs within the state. Jewish educational institutions from day schools to youth groups to camps highlight Zionism in their curricula. We cannot expect our institutions to abandon their core principles. But neither should we keep all anti-Zionist Jews outside the tent, while at the same time claiming to be inclusive and welcoming.

In the Talmud we learn that Jews who have been excommunicated cannot cut their hair or launder their clothes. Nor can their relatives perform acts of mourning after they die. But excommunicated Jews are allowed to teach Torah (Moed Katan 15b). Even though they are shunned in several ways for their wrongdoing, they are nevertheless permitted to teach Torah to others, and we are permitted to learn from them.

Our institutions have to wrestle with the reality that increasing numbers of passionate Jews do not support the State of Israel. Is it in our best long-term interest to be welcoming to everyone but them? I propose that we spend less time labeling all anti-Zionist Jews as antisemitic, and more time figuring out how to be truly inclusive. PJC

Amy Bardack is a rabbi in Pittsburgh. The views expressed here are her own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

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How inclusive are we willing to be? | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

Yossi Beilin, a former senior Israeli official and peace negotiator who co-founded the Geneva Initiative, poses for a photo at his house in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Feb. 6. Israeli and Palestinian public figures, including Beilin and Hiba Husseini, a former legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team, have drawn up a new proposal for a two-state confederation. Tsafrir Abayov/AP hide caption

Yossi Beilin, a former senior Israeli official and peace negotiator who co-founded the Geneva Initiative, poses for a photo at his house in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Feb. 6. Israeli and Palestinian public figures, including Beilin and Hiba Husseini, a former legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team, have drawn up a new proposal for a two-state confederation.

JERUSALEM Israeli and Palestinian public figures have drawn up a new proposal for a two-state confederation that they hope will offer a way forward after a decade-long stalemate in Mideast peace efforts.

The plan includes several controversial proposals, and it's unclear if it has any support among leaders on either side. But it could help shape the debate over the conflict and will be presented to a senior U.S. official and the U.N. secretary general this week.

The plan calls for an independent state of Palestine in most of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel and Palestine would have separate governments but coordinate at a very high level on security, infrastructure and other issues that affect both populations.

The plan would allow the nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain there, with large settlements near the border annexed to Israel in a one-to-one land swap.

Settlers living deep inside the West Bank would be given the option of relocating or becoming permanent residents in the state of Palestine. The same number of Palestinians likely refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation would be allowed to relocate to Israel as citizens of Palestine with permanent residency in Israel.

The initiative is largely based on the Geneva Accord, a detailed, comprehensive peace plan drawn up in 2003 by prominent Israelis and Palestinians, including former officials. The nearly 100-page confederation plan includes new, detailed recommendations for how to address core issues.

Yossi Beilin, a former senior Israeli official and peace negotiator who co-founded the Geneva Initiative, said that by taking the mass evacuation of settlers off the table, the plan could be more amenable to them.

An aerial view shows the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Efrayim in the Jordan Valley, in June 2020. Oded Balilty/AP hide caption

An aerial view shows the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Efrayim in the Jordan Valley, in June 2020.

Israel's political system is dominated by the settlers and their supporters, who view the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people and an integral part of Israel.

The Palestinians view the settlements as the main obstacle to peace, and most of the international community considers them illegal. The settlers living deep inside the West Bank who would likely end up within the borders of a future Palestinian state are among the most radical and tend to oppose any territorial partition.

"We believe that if there is no threat of confrontations with the settlers it would be much easier for those who want to have a two-state solution," Beilin said. The idea has been discussed before, but he said a confederation would make it more "feasible."

Numerous other sticking points remain, including security, freedom of movement and perhaps most critically after years of violence and failed negotiations, lack of trust.

Israel's Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian Authority declined to comment.

The main Palestinian figure behind the initiative is Hiba Husseini, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team going back to 1994 who hails from a prominent Jerusalem family.

She acknowledged that the proposal regarding the settlers is "very controversial" but said the overall plan would fulfill the Palestinians' core aspiration for a state of their own.

"It's not going to be easy," she added. "To achieve statehood and to achieve the desired right of self-determination that we have been working on since 1948, really we have to make some compromises."

Thorny issues like the conflicting claims to Jerusalem, final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees could be easier to address by two states in the context of a confederation, rather than the traditional approach of trying to work out all the details ahead of a final agreement.

"We're reversing the process and starting with recognition," Husseini said.

It's been nearly three decades since Israeli and Palestinian leaders gathered on the White House lawn to sign the Oslo accords, launching the peace process.

Several rounds of talks over the years, punctuated by outbursts of violence, failed to yield a final agreement, and there have been no serious or substantive negotiations in more than a decade.

Israel's current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is a former settler leader opposed to Palestinian statehood. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who is set to take over as prime minister in 2023 under a rotation agreement, supports an eventual two-state solution.

But neither is likely to be able to launch any major initiatives because they head a narrow coalition spanning the political spectrum from hard-line nationalist factions to a small Arab party.

On the Palestinian side, President Mahmoud Abbas' authority is confined to parts of the occupied West Bank, with the Islamic militant group Hamas which doesn't accept Israel's existence ruling Gaza. Abbas' presidential term expired in 2009 and his popularity has plummeted in recent years, meaning he is unlikely to be able to make any historic compromises.

The idea of the two-state solution was to give the Palestinians an independent state, while allowing Israel to exist as a democracy with a strong Jewish majority. Israel's continued expansion of settlements, the absence of any peace process and repeated rounds of violence, however, have greatly complicated hopes of partitioning the land.

The international community still views a two-state solution as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.

But the ground is shifting, particularly among young Palestinians, who increasingly view the conflict as a struggle for equal rights under what they and three prominent human rights groups say is an apartheid regime.

Israel vehemently rejects those allegations, viewing them as an antisemitic attack on its right to exist. Lapid has suggested that reviving a political process with the Palestinians would help Israel resist any efforts to brand it an apartheid state in world bodies.

Next week, Beilin and Husseini will present their plan to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Beilin says they have already shared drafts with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Beilin said he sent it to people who he knew would not reject it out of hand. "Nobody rejected it. It doesn't mean that they embrace it."

"I didn't send it to Hamas," he added, joking. "I don't know their address."

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Independent state of Palestine is part of a new proposal by former officials - NPR

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

THE University and College Union (UCU) and the National Union of Students (NUS) condemned Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi today for threatening the preservation of democratic freedoms over his comments about Palestinian supporters.

In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Mr Zahawi called for students who chant in solidarity with Palestinians to be reported to the police.

He was referring to the slogan from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, which is widely used by protesters, incorrectly claiming thatthe chant supported Hamas.

In a joint statement, the UCU and NUS called on him to immediately withdraw his comments.

The statement said: These comments should deeply alarm not only all those concerned with the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom, justice, and equality, but anyone who wishes to preserve democratic freedoms from authoritarian encroachment.

Zahawis demonisation of the phrase denies the legitimacy of the Palestinian call for liberation from all aspects of this system of racial domination.

His rhetoric must therefore be understood as part and parcel of a wider attempt to silence and erase activism for Palestinian rights through the creation of a chilling effect.

The statement referred to Amnesty Internationals recent report warning that Israels crime of apartheid, and a report by Israeli human rights organisation BTselem, which stated that Israel has established one regime between theJordan river and the Mediterranean sea and we must see it for what it is: apartheid.

NUS national president Larissa Kennedy said Mr Zahawi was seeking to conflate a chant chosen by Palestinian people to fight their oppression with something more sinister, and called the comments dangerous and wrong.

She said: [The comment] is a further demonstration of this governments authoritarian intentions and their disregard for human rights.

Palestinians have made clear that this chant speaks to the reality of living under a system of apartheid which denies basic rights.

It is unconscionable that the secretary of state would suggest otherwise.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: The Education Secretary casually suggesting that a university should refer members of their community engaging in legitimate protest to the police is alarming and a dereliction of his responsibility to ensure universities are spaces which protect academic freedom and freedom of expression.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: Hamas is a terrorist organisation and proscribed as such by the UK Government.

Freedom of speech does not include unlawful bullying, harassment and intimidation which have no place on our university campuses. The right to protest is a freedom which must be protected but it is not acceptable if the effect is to shut down debate in an unlawful manner or if it unlawfully infringes other peoples rights.

Statistics published today show an increase in antisemitic incidents at campus last year and is exactly why we hosted a summit with vice chancellors and leading Jewish groups, to discuss measures and commitments to eradicate antisemitic abuse.

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Nadhim Zahawi condemned for saying Palestine rights activists should be reported to the police - Morning Star Online

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

Turkey normalizing relations with Israel would not mean a change in Ankara's Palestine policy, Foreign Minister Mevlt avuolu said Thursday.

Speaking to public broadcaster TRT Haber, avuolu drew attention to comments he made earlier this week that Turkey will not turn its back on its commitment to a Palestinian state in order to broker closer ties with Israel.

Mentioning that a fresh dialogue has started with the new government in Israel, avuolu stated that the new foreign minister, who is also the head of the party with the most seats in the Parliament, also said that he believes in a two-state solution.

avuolu underlined that the steps taken regarding the new dialogue process with Israel do not mean "giving up on the Palestinian cause".

"Normalizing our relations with Israel does not mean giving up on fundamental issues such as the Jerusalem cause and the Palestinian cause," avuolu said:

"We will not normalize our relations at the expense of the Palestinian cause. Israel knows this very well. Can we now say 'yes' to the occupation and destruction of Palestinian homes there? No, our policy on this issue is very clear. As a country that has contact with both sides on the path to a two-state solution, we can contribute as we did in the past."

"Any step we take with Israel regarding our relations, any normalization, will not be at the expense of the Palestinian cause, like some other countries," avuolu earlier this week told reporters in Ankara, referring to the rapprochement between Israel and some Gulf countries that has angered Turkey.

"Our position there is always clear," he added. "These ties normalizing a bit more may increase Turkey's role regarding a two-state solution as well, as a country that will be in touch with both countries, but we will never turn back on our core principles."

Gulf states that have established ties with Israel have sought to reassure Palestinians that their countries are not abandoning the quest for statehood, despite Palestinian leaders having decried the deals as a betrayal of their cause.

Ties between Turkey and Israel froze over after the death of 10 civilians in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in 2010. The two countries once again expelled their ambassadors in 2018 after another bitter falling-out and relations since remained tense. In recent months, however, the two countries have been working on a rapprochement.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoan recently said Israeli President Isaac Herzog would visit Turkey in mid-March, the first such trip in years, adding the two countries could discuss energy cooperation.

Erdoan said last month in an interview with Turkey's NTV channel that "This visit could open a new chapter in relations between Turkey and Israel and that he was "ready to take steps in Israel's direction in all areas, including natural gas."

Despite the recent rapprochement, Turkish officials continue to criticize Israels policies targeting Palestinians, including the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Known for its unbreakable solidarity with the Palestinians, Turkey has been voicing support for the Palestinian cause in the international realm for decades. Turkish authorities emphasize that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the Middle East is through a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue within the framework of international law and United Nations resolutions.

While Erdoan has communicated with Herzog before amid the tensions, the Israeli presidency is a largely ceremonial role. In November, he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the first such call in years.

Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kaln said on Monday there was a "positive approach" from Israel since the formation of their new government, while Bennett told reporters "things are happening very slowly and gradually" when asked about the possible visit to Turkey.

Turkey is making an effort to mend its frayed ties through intensified diplomacy with regional powers, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, after years of tensions. Erdoan earlier reiterated that Turkey hopes to maximize cooperation with Egypt and Gulf nations "on a win-win basis."

avuolu also criticized Greece for militarizing islands close to Turkey's mainland. "If Greece does not give up on this (armament of the islands), the sovereignty of these islands will be discussed," he said.

Reminding that Turkey sent two letters to the United Nations because Greece violated the status of the demilitarized islands in the Aegean, avuolu stated that they would follow up on this matter.

avuolu emphasized that these islands were given to Greece with the Lausanne and Paris Peace Agreements on condition that they would be disarmed, and underlined that Greece began to violate this in the 1960s.

When asked whether Turkey would open the sovereignty of the islands to discussion if there was no response from the U.N. to Turkey's letter and if Greece continued to violate it, avuolu said, "Of course, we will. There are parties to these agreements. Lausanne Agreement, Paris Peace Agreement... Of course, we will start this discussion on the international platform."

The two neighbors, allies in NATO, are at odds over a number of issues such as competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, air space, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus and the status of islands in the Aegean Sea.

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Israel normalization will not alter Turkey's stance on Palestine: FM | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

PALESTINE Head coach J.J. Johnson reached his 300th career win Tuesday night following their 62-59 win over the Jasper Bulldogs.

During their district opener win over Center earlier this season, Johnson said it would be amazing if he got his 300th win en route to a playoff appearance. Tuesdays milestone win did a lot to help accomplish that as they currently sit third in District 17-4A with a two-game lead over fifth-place Jasper.

I thought it never would come, head coach J.J. Johnson said. When you think about when you first started and all the great teams you get to coach its special. Ive coached some great kids. When you finally get it you take time to soak it in. I didnt celebrate my 100th or 200th win, but these milestones tell a lot about what youve been through.

The Wildcats were forced to show resiliency early against a Jasper team fighting for their playoff lives. Dreyon Barrett opened the game with a fast break 360-dunk, which sent the crowd into a frenzy. However, Jasper quickly defused all momentum when they responded with an 11-1 run over the next four minutes of the game time. A quick timeout allowed Palestine to regain focus as they only needed the next 1:30 to reduce their deficit to just two points. However, Jasper remained poised and conclude the quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 19-11 lead into the second.

Though the Wildcats trailed by eight entering the second quarter, it wasnt due to a lack of open looks. The Wildcats began to see those shots start falling as Elijah Cook scored their first six points of the quarter. Jasper put a hold on Palestines run with their first three of the quarter. Carlton Wiggins immediately shot back with his first make from behind the arc. Back-to-back baskets from TajShawn Wilson eventually gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game since Barretts opening dunk.

A trend that remained consistent throughout the night was Wilsons ability to drive the lane and finish or get to the free-throw line. He went 4-of-4 down the stretch to help Palestine maintain a 28-27 lead at the half.

Gerlle Abrams opened the third with his first three of the ball game. However, Palestine was unable to completely shake loose of Jasper as their 5-0 run put them back in front 32-31. A rebound and put back from Cook, who has lived on the glass all season, regained the lead for Palestine.

Both sides continued to trade blows for the next two minutes of the quarter, but it was Palestine who owned the final 2:30 minutes of the third. Trailing 42-41, Wiggins cashed in on his second three of the quarter to push them back in front 44-42. Barrett scored the final four points of the quarter as the Wildcats boasted an 8-2 run to end the period.

It was the final time Jasper held the lead in the game. The fourth quarter proved to be the Wilson and Barrett show as they were the only ones to score for Palestine. Wilson went 8-of-10 from the charity stripe in the fourth as he finished with a game-high of 22 points. Barrett added 19 to the box score, while Cook rounded out the group with 10.

Weve been learning how to win all year long, Johnson said. Early, it seemed nothing was going right for us. Turnovers plagued us, but in the end, we found a way to win. We made some big shots when it counted. Thats all that matters.

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High school basketball: Palestine's Johnson reaches 300th win Tuesday night - Palestine Herald Press

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Posted By admin on February 11, 2022

The Palestinian village of Tantura before the 1948 massacre. (Photo: Matson collection, via Wikimedia Commons)

By Ramzy Baroud

A succession of events in recent weeks all points to the inescapable fact that nearly 75 years of Israels painstaking efforts aimed at hiding the truth about its origins and its current racially-driven apartheid regime are miserably failing. The world is finally waking up, and Israel is losing ground much faster than its ability to gain new supporters or to whitewash its past or ongoing crimes.

First, there was Tantura, a peaceful Palestinian village whose inhabitants were exterminated by Israels Alexandroni Brigade on May 23, 1948. Like many other massacres committed against unarmed Palestinians throughout the years, the massacre of Tantura was mostly remembered by the villages survivors, by ordinary Palestinians and by Palestinian historians. The mere attempt in 1998 by an Israeli graduate student, Theodore Katz, to shed light on that bloody event ignited a legal, media, and academic war, forcing him to retract his findings altogether.

In a recent social media post, Israeli Professor Ilan Papp revealed the reasons why, in 2007, he had to resign his position at Haifa University. One of my crimes was insisting that there was a massacre in the village of Tantura in 1948 as was exposed by MA student, Teddy Katz, Papp wrote.

Now, some Alexandroni Brigade veterans have finally decided to confess to the crimes in Tantura.

They silenced it. It mustnt be told, it could cause a whole scandal. I dont want to talk about it, but it happened. What can you do? It happened. These were the words of one Moshe Diamant, a former member of the Alexandroni Brigade, who, with other veterans, revealed in the documentary Tantura by Alon Schwarz the gory details and the horrific crimes that transpired in the Palestinian village.

An officer killed one Arab after another with his pistol, Micha Vitkon, a former soldier, said.

They put them into a barrel and shot them in the barrel. I remember the blood in the barrel, another explained.

I was a murderer. I didnt take prisoners, Amitzur Cohen admitted.

Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Tantura in cold blood. They were buried in mass graves, the largest of which is believed to be under a parking lot at the Dor beach, which is flocked by Israeli families on a daily basis.

The Tantura massacre and its aftermath is arguably the most glaring representation of Israeli criminality: the mass murder, the cover-up, and the dancing on the graves of the victims.

But this is not the story of Tantura alone. The latter is a representation of something much bigger, of mass-scale ethnic cleansing, of forceful evictions, and of mass killing. Thankfully, much truth is being unearthed.

In 1951, the Israeli army launched a full-scale military operation that ethnically cleansed Palestinian Bedouins from the Naqab. The tragic scenes of entire communities being uprooted from their ancestral homes were justified with the typical Israeli explanation that the terrible deed had to be done for security reasons. In 1953, Israel passed the so-called Land Acquisition Law, which turned what was supposedly a temporary situation into a permanent one. By then, Israel had unlawfully expropriated 247,000 dunums in the Naqab, with 66,000 remaining unutilized. The remaining land is currently the epicenter of an ongoing fight between Palestinian Bedouin communities and Israel, which argues that the land is essential for Israels development needs.

But according to recently-revealed documents, uncovered by extensive research conducted by Professor Gadi Algazi, Israels version of the truth in Naqab was a complete fabrication. According to numerous uncovered documents, Moshe Dayan, then the head of the Israeli army Southern Command, was at the center of an Israeli government and military ploy to evict the Bedouin population and to revoke their rights as landowners, per the conveniently created Israeli law, which allowed the government to lease the land as of its own.

There was an organized transfer of Bedouin citizens from the northwestern Negev eastward to barren areas, with the goal of taking over their lands. They carried out this operation using a mix of threats, violence, bribery and fraud, Algazi told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The entire scheme was organized in such a way as to provide the claim that the Palestinians had moved voluntarily, despite their legendary resistance and the stubbornness with which they tried to hold onto their land, even at the cost of hunger and thirst, not to mention the armys threats and violence.

More still. A newly-released volume by French historian Vincent Lemire has entirely dismissed Israels official version of how the Moroccan Quarters of Jerusalem were demolished in June 1967. Though Palestinian and Arab historians have long argued that the destruction of the neighborhood 135 homes, two mosques and more was done per the order of the Israeli government through the then-Jewish mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek, Israel has long denied that version. According to the official Israeli account, the demolition of the neighborhood was carried out by 15 private Jewish contractors (who) destroyed the neighborhood to make space for the Western Wall plaza.

In an interview with Agence France Press (AFP), Lemire stated that his book offers definitive, written proof on the premeditation, planning and coordination of this operation, and that includes official meetings between Kollek, the commander of the Israeli army, and other top government officials.

The story goes on; more heartbreaking revelations and a well-integrated version of the truth are exposing long-hidden or denied facts. And the days of Israel getting away with these crimes seem to be behind us. A case in point is Amnesty Internationals recent report, Israels Apartheid against Palestinians: A Look into Decades of Oppression and Domination.

Amnestys 280 pages of damning evidence of Israels racism and apartheid did not shy away from connecting Israels violent present with its equally bloody past. It did not borrow from Israels deceptive language and self-serving division of Palestinians into disconnected communities, each with a different claim and a different status. For Amnesty, as was the case with Human Rights Watchs report in April 2021, Israeli injustices against the Palestinians must be recognized and duly condemned in their entirety.

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while minimizing the number of Palestinians and restricting their rights and obstructing their ability to challenge this dispossession, the report stated.

And that could only happen through mass killing, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, from Tantura, to the Naqab, to the Moroccan Quarters, to Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah.

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'The Blood in the Barrel': Decades of Israeli Propaganda are Faltering - Palestine Chronicle

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