Democracy Now! “Stop the Violence from Ferguson to Gaza: 90-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Arrested in St. Louis”

Just days after her 90th birthday, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein was arrested Monday in St. Louis when she was part of a protest outside Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s office. Epstein was born in Germany and left in 1939 on a Kindertransport to England. Her parents died in Auschwitz. Epstein is a co-founder of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and St. Louis branch of Jewish Voice for Peace. In 2011, she was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and was a passenger on the U.S.-flagged ship, The Audacity of Hope. Over the years, she has made many solidarity trips to the West Bank. Epstein criticizes the police handling of protests in Ferguson. “It’s the same kind of violence that I’ve observed when I was in the Israeli-occupied Palestine,” Epstein says. “I know what it feels like to be discriminated against, to be oppressed, and I can’t stand idly by when I see there are problems.”

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We end today’s show with Hedy Epstein. She is a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who was arrested on Monday in St. Louis when she was part of a protest outside of Governor Jay Nixon’s office. Hedy Epstein is co-founder of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and St. Louis branch of Jewish Voice for Peace. In 2011, she was part of the Gaza freedom flotilla and was a passenger on the U.S.-flagged ship, The Audacity of Hope. Over the years, she has made many solidarity trips to the West Bank. She joins us here now in Ferguson.

Hedy Epstein, welcome back to Democracy Now!

HEDY EPSTEIN: Good morning, Amy, and thank you for having me on your program.

AMY GOODMAN: We speak to you as tear gas has been in the streets of Ferguson and the Israeli assault on Gaza has just resumed. Your feelings today? And talk about why you got arrested on Monday.

HEDY EPSTEIN: On Monday, several of us gathered downtown, and then we marched to the Wainwright Building, where the office of Governor Nixon is. And we wanted to speak to him and ask him to de-escalate the violence that’s going on in Ferguson. And there were police and security people in front of the building, and they would not let us in. There is a large plaza in front of the building, and so we congregated there. There were some people speaking about their experiences. And at one point, a police lieutenant informed us that the governor is not there—I just learned that he was at the fair—and that his staff is not there, and asked us to disperse. And when we didn’t disperse, within seconds almost, the police arrested those of us who refused to disperse. There were nine of us. I was one of them. We were handcuffed, taken to the paddy wagon and to the nearest police substation.

AMY GOODMAN: What concerns you most about what’s happening here?

HEDY EPSTEIN: The ongoing violence and the ongoing oppression that has been taking place in Ferguson of the African-American community. And that has to end. The whole structure of oppression there has to end. And right now, that’s the long-range problem. But at present now, the violence has to de-escalate. Instead of it, it’s being escalated. And the police chief of Ferguson has been trained in Israel how to mishandle, I’m sorry to have to say—

AMY GOODMAN: You’re saying Police Chief Jackson?

HEDY EPSTEIN: Right, how to mishandle a large group of people. And this is what he’s doing. And it’s the same kind of violence that I’ve observed when I was in the Israeli-occupied Palestine. It’s just abominable, what’s happening.

AMY GOODMAN: Where were you born?

HEDY EPSTEIN: I was born in Germany, and I left in May 1939 on a Kindertransport, or Children’s Transport, to England. I came to this country in May 1948.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what fuels you, keeps you going? By the way, happy birthday. You just celebrated your 90th birthday.

HEDY EPSTEIN: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re wearing a black T-shirt with white letters that say, “STAYHUMAN.” What fuels you in your activism, from Gaza and the West Bank to Ferguson, Missouri?

HEDY EPSTEIN: I know what it feels like to be discriminated against, to be oppressed, and I can’t stand idly by when I see there are problems. I can’t solve every problem, I probably can’t solve any problem, but I have to do whatever it is possible for me to do. I just cannot stand idly by, because if I did—and anyone that stand idly by becomes complicit in what is going on.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you have a message, as you stand here in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

HEDY EPSTEIN: Stop the violence. Go to the table and honestly discuss what might happen, that it’s—if peace ever can be there in that area. That violence there has to end. I mean, it’s terrible, what’s been going on there. Not just now, but it’s been an ongoing thing. But Netanyahu has no intention, really. He talks about peace, but he doesn’t really want peace.

AMY GOODMAN: And a message for your own president here, President Obama, who’s been dealing both with Ferguson, Missouri, and what’s happened in Israel and Palestine?

HEDY EPSTEIN: I know he’s on vacation right now, but come here to Ferguson. Show your face. Talk to the people here. Talk to the young people here. They need you.

AMY GOODMAN: Hedy Epstein, I want to say thank you so much for being with us, our last guest today here in Ferguson, Missouri, as we broadcast each day the voices of people in the streets, and we’ll continue to do so…

 –Democracy Now!, August 20, 2014

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/20/stop_the_violence_from_ferguson_to#

 

IJAN: “Over 300 Survivors and Descendants of Survivors and Victims of the Nazi Genocide Condemn Israel’s Assault on Gaza”

327 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide have signed this letter written in response to Elie Wiesel’s manipulation of the Nazi Genocide to attempt to justify the attacks on Gaza.

 

Click here to view the press release from signatories to the letter.

 

Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza

As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.

 

We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.

 

Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.

 

We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. We call for an immediate end to the siege against and blockade of Gaza. We call for the full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. “Never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!

 

Signed,

 

Survivors:

 

1. Hajo Meyer, survivor of Auschwitz, The Netherlands.
2. Henri Wajnblum, survivor and son of a victim of Auschwitz from Lodz, Poland. Lives in Belgium.
3. Renate Bridenthal, child refugee from Hitler, granddaughter of Auschwitz victim, United States.
4. Marianka Ehrlich Ross, survivor of Nazi ethnic cleansing in Vienna, Austria. Now lives in United States.
5. Irena Klepfisz, child survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto, Poland. Now lives in United States.
6. Hedy Epstein, her parents & other family members were deported to Camp de Gurs & subsequently all perished in Auschwitz. Now lives in United States.
7. Lillian Rosengarten, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
8. Suzanne Weiss, survived in hiding in France, and daughter of a mother who was murdered in Auschwitz. Now lives in Canada.
9. H. Richard Leuchtag, survivor, United States.
10. Ervin Somogyi, survivor and son of survivors, United States.
11. Ilse Hadda, survivor on Kindertransport to England. Now lives in United States.
12. Jacques Glaser, survivor, France.
13. Eva Naylor, surivor, New Zealand.
14. Suzanne Ross, child refugee from Nazi occupation in Belgium, two thirds of family perished in the Lodz Ghetto, in Auschwitz, and other Camps, United States.
15. Bernard Swierszcz, Polish survivor, lost relatives in Majdanek concentration camp. Now lives in the United States.
16. Joseph Klinkov, hidden child in Poland. Lives in the United States.
17. Nicole Milner, survivor from Belgium. Now lives in United States.
18. Hedi Saraf, child survivor and daughter of survivor of Dachau, United States.
19. Michael Rice, child survivor, son and grandson of survivor, aunt and cousin murderd, ALL 14 remaining Jewish children in my Dutch boarding school were murdered in concentration camps, United States.
20. Barbara Roose, survivor from Germany, half-sister killed in Auschwitz, United States.
21. Sonia Herzbrun, survivor of Nazi genocide, France.
22. Ivan Huber, survivor with my parents, but 3 of 4 grandparents murdered, United States.
23. Altman Janina, survivor of Janowski concentration camp, Lvov. Lives in Israel.
24. Leibu Strul Zalman, survivor from Vaslui Romania. Lives in Jerusalem, Palestine.
25. Miriam Almeleh, survivor, United States.
26. George Bartenieff, child survivor from Germany and son of survivors, United States.
27. Margarete Liebstaedter, survivor, hidden by Christian people in Holland. Lives in Belgium.
28. Edith Bell, survivor of Westerbork, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Kurzbach. Lives in United States.
29. Janine Euvrard, survivor, France.
30. Harry Halbreich, survivor, Germany.
31. Ruth Kupferschmidt, survivor, spent five years hiding, The Netherlands.
32. Annette Herskovits, hidden child and daughter of victims deported to Auschwitz from France. Lives in the United States.
33. Felicia Langer, survivor from Germany. Lives in Germany.
34. Moshe Langer, survivor from Germany, Moshe survived 5 concentration camps, family members were exterminated. Lives in Germany.
35. Adam Policzer, hidden child from Hungary. Now lives in Canada.
36. Juliane Biro, survivor via the Kindertransport to England, daughter of survivors, niece of victims, United States.
37. Edith Rubinstein, child refugee, granddaughter of 3 victims, many other family members were victims, Belgium.
38. Jacques Bude, survivor, mother and father murdered in Auschwitz, Belgium.
39. Nicole Kahn, survivor, France.
40. Shimon Schwarzschild, survivor from Germany, United States.

 

Children of survivors:

 

41. Liliana Kaczerginski, daughter of Vilna ghetto resistance fighter and granddaughter of murdered in Ponary woods, Lithuania. Now lives in France.
42. Jean-Claude Meyer, son of Marcel, shot as a hostage by the Nazis, whose sister and parents died in Auschwitz. Now lives in France.
43. Chava Finkler, daughter of survivor of Starachovice labour camp, Poland. Now lives in Canada.
44. Micah Bazant, child of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
45. Sylvia Schwarz, daughter and granddaughter of survivors and granddaughter of victims of the Nazi genocide, United States.
46. Margot Goldstein, daughter and granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
47. Ellen Schwarz Wasfi, daughter of survivors from Vienna, Austria. Now lives in United States.
48. Lisa Kosowski, daughter of survivor and granddaughter of Auschwitz victims, United States.
49. Daniel Strum, son of a refugee from Vienna, who, with his parents were forced to flee in 1939, his maternal grand-parents were lost, United States.
50. Bruce Ballin, son of survivors, some relatives of parents died in camps, one relative beheaded for being in the Baum Resistance Group, United States.
51. Rachel Duell, daughter of survivors from Germany and Poland, United States.
52. Tom Mayer, son of survivor and grandson of victims, United States.
53. Alex Nissen, daughter of survivors who escaped but lost family in the Holocaust, Australia.
54. Mark Aleshnick, son of survivor who lost most of her family in Nazi genocide, United States.
55. Prof. Haim Bresheeth, son of two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen, London.
56. Todd Michael Edelman, son and grandson of survivors and great-grandson of victims of the Nazi genocide in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, United States.
57. Tim Naylor, son of survivor, New Zealand.
58. Victor Nepomnyashchy, son and grandson of survivors and grandson and relative of many victims, United States.
59. Tanya Ury, daughter of parents who fled Nazi Germany, granddaughter, great granddaugher and niece of survivors and those who died in concentration camps, Germany.
60. Rachel Giora, daughter of Polish Jews who fled Poland, Israel.
61. Jane Hirschmann, daughter of survivors, United States.
62. Jenny Heinz, daughter of survivor, United States.
63. Miranda Pinch, daughter of Beate Sommer who was a Czeck refugee along with her father Ernst Sommer, UK.
64. Elsa Auerbach, daughter of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, United States.
65. Julian Clegg, son and grandson of Austrian refugees, relative of Austrian and Hungarian concentration camp victims, Taiwan.
66. David Mizner, son of a survivor, relative of people who died in the Holocaust, United States.
67. Jeffrey J. Westcott, son and grandson of Holocaust survivors from Germany, United States.
68. Susan K. Jacoby, daughter of parents who were refugees from Nazi Germany, granddaughter of survivor of Buchenwald, United States.
69. Audrey Bomse, daughter of a survivor of Nazi ethnic cleansing in Vienna, lives in United States.
70. Daniel Gottschalk, son and grandson of refugees from the Holocaust, relative to various family members who died in the Holocaust, United States.
71. Barbara Grossman, daughter of survivors, granddaughter of Holocaust victims, United States.
72. Abraham Weizfeld PhD, son of survivorswho escaped Warsaw (Jewish Bundist) and Lublin ghettos, Canada.
73. David Rohrlich, son of refugees from Vienna, grandson of victim, United States.
74. Walter Ballin, son of holocaust survivors, United States.
75. Fritzi Ross, daughter of survivor, granddaughter of Dachau survivor Hugo Rosenbaum, great-granddaughter and great-niece of victims, United States.
76. Reuben Roth, son of survivors who fled from Poland in 1939, Canada.
77. Tony Iltis, father fled from Czechoslovakia and grandmother murdered in Auschwitz, Australia.
78. Anne Hudes, daughter and granddaughter of survivors from Vienna, Austria, great-granddaughter of victims who perished in Auschwitz, United States.
79. Mateo Nube, son of survivor from Berlin, Germany. Lives in United States.
80. John Mifsud, son of survivors from Malta, United States.
81. Mike Okrent, son of two holocaust / concentration camp survivors, United States.
82. Susan Bailey, daughter of survivor and niece of victims, UK.
83. Brenda Lewis, child of Kindertransport survivor, parent’s family died in Auschwitz and Terezin. Lives in Canada.
84. Patricia Rincon-Mautner, daughter of survivor and granddaughter of survivor, Colombia.
85. Barak Michèle, daughter and grand-daughter of a survivor, many members of family were killed in Auschwitz or Bessarabia. Lives in Germany.
86. Jessica Blatt, daughter of child refugee survivor, both grandparents’ entire families killed in Poland. Lives in United States
87. Maia Ettinger, daughter & granddaughter of survivors, United States.
88. Ammiel Alcalay, child of survivors from then Yugoslavia. Lives in United States.
89. Julie Deborah Kosowski, daughter of hidden child survivor, grandparents did not return from Auschwitz, United States.
90. Julia Shpirt, daughter of survivor, United States.
91. Ruben Rosenberg Colorni, grandson and son of survivors, The Netherlands.
92. Victor Ginsburgh, son of survivors, Belgium.
93. Arianne Sved, daughter of a survivor and granddaughter of victim, Spain.
94. Rolf Verleger, son of survivors, father survived Auschwitz, mother survived deportation from Berlin to Estonia, other family did not survive. Lives in Germany.
95. Euvrard Janine, daughter of survivors, France.
96. H. Fleishon, daughter of survivors, United States.
97. Barbara Meyer, daughter of survivor in Polish concentration camps. Lives in Italy.
98. Susan Heuman, child of survivors and granddaughter of two grandparents murdered in a forest in Minsk. Lives in United States.
99. Rami Heled, son of survivors, all grandparents and family killed by the Germans in Treblinka, Oswiecim and Russia. Lives in Israel.
100. Eitan Altman, son of survivor, France.
101. Jorge Sved, son of survivor and grandson of victim, United Kingdom
102. Maria Kruczkowska, daughter of Lea Horowicz who survived the holocaust in Poland. Lives in Poland.
103. Sarah Lanzman, daughter of survivor of Auschwitz, United States.
104. Cheryl W, daughter, granddaughter and nieces of survivors, grandfather was a member of the Dutch Underground (Eindhoven). Lives in Australia.
105. Chris Holmquist, son of survivor, UK.
106. Beverly Stuart, daughter and granddaughter of survivors from Romania and Poland. Lives in United States.
107. Peter Truskier, son and grandson of survivors, United States.
108. Karen Bermann, daughter of a child refugee from Vienna. Lives in United States.
109. Rebecca Weston, daughter and granddaughter of survivor, Spain.
110. Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky, daughter of Holocaust survivors, London, UK.
111. Marion Geller, daughter and granddaughter of those who escaped, great-granddaughter and relative of many who died in the camps, UK.
112. Susan Slyomovics, daughter and granddaughter of survivors of Auschwitz, Plaszow, Markleeberg and Ghetto Mateszalka, United States.
113. Helga Fischer Mankovitz, daughter, niece and cousin of refugees who fled from Austria, niece of victim who perished, Canada.
114. Michael Wischnia, son of survivors and relative of many who perished, United States.
115. Arthur Graaff, son of decorated Dutch resistance member and nazi victim, The Netherlands.
116. Yael Kahn, daughter of survivors who escaped Nazi Germany, many relatives that perished, UK.
117. Pierre Stambul, son of French resistance fighters, father deported to Buchenwalk, grandparents disapeared in Bessarabia, France.
118. Georges Gumpel, son of a deportee who died at Melk, Austria (subcamp of Mauthausen), France.
119. Emma Kronberg, daughter of survivor Buchenwald, United States.
120. Hannah Schwarzschild, daughter of a refugee who escaped Nazi Germany after experiencing Kristallnacht, United States.
121. Rubin Kantorovich, son of a survivor, Canada.
122. Daniele Armaleo, son of German refugee, grandparents perished in Theresienstadt, United States.
123. Aminda Stern Baird, daughter of survivor, United States.
124. Ana Policzer, daughter of hidden child, granddaughter of victim, niece/grandniece of four victims and two survivors, Canada.
125. Sara Castaldo, daughter of survivors, United States.
126. Pablo Policzer, son of a survivor, Canada.
127. Gail Nestel, daughter of survivors who lost brothers, sisters, parents and cousins, Canada.
128. Elizabeth Heineman, daughter and niece of unaccompanied child refugees, granddaughter of survivors, great-granddaughter and grand-niece of victims, United States.
129. Lainie Magidsohn, daughter of child survivor and numerous other relatives from Czestochowa, Poland. Lives in Canada.
130. Doris Gelbman, daughter and granddaughter of survivors, granddaughter and niece of many who perished, United States.
131. Erna Lund, daughter of survivor, Norway.
132. Rayah Feldman, daughter of refugees, granddaughter and niece of victims and survivors, UK.
133. Hadas Rivera-Weiss, daughter of survivors from Hungary, mother Ruchel Weiss née Abramovich and father Shaya Weiss, United States.
134. Pedro Tabensky, son of survivor of the Budapest Ghetto, South Africa.
135. Allan Kolski Horwitz, son of a survivor; descendant of many, many victims, South Africa.
136. Monique Mojica, child of survivor, relative to many victims murdered in Auschwitz. Canada.
137. Mike Brecher, son of a Kindertransport survivor and grandson of two who did not survive. UK.
138. Nomi Yah Gardiner, daughter and granddaughter of survivors, relative of victims, United States.
139. Marianne van Leeuw Koplewicz, daughter of deported parents, grand-daughter and niece of victims, Belgium.
140. Alfred Gluecksmann, son of survivors of Germany, United States.
141. Smadar Carmon, daughter of survivor, Canada.

 

Grandchildren of survivors

 

142. Raphael Cohen, grandson of Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
143. Emma Rubin, granddaughter of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
144. Alex Safron, grandson of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
145. Danielle Feris, grandchild of a Polish grandmother whose whole family died in the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
146. Jesse Strauss, grandson of Polish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
147. Anna Baltzer, granddaughter of survivors whose family members perished in Auschwitz (others were members of the Belgian Resistance), United States.
148. Abigail Harms, granddaughter of Holocaust survivor from Austria, Now lives in United States.
149. Tessa Strauss, granddaughter of Polish Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
150. Caroline Picker, granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
151. Amalle Dublon, grandchild and great-grandchild of survivors of the Nazi holocaust, United States.
152. Antonie Kaufmann Churg, 3rd cousin of Ann Frank and grand-daughter of NON-survivors, United States.
153. Aliza Shvarts, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
154. Linda Mamoun, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
155. Abby Okrent, granddaughter of survivors of the Auschwitz, Dachau, Stuttgart, and the Lodz Ghetto, United States.
156. Ted Auerbach, grandson of survivor whose whole family died in the Holocaust, United States.
157. Beth Bruch, grandchild of German Jews who fled to US and great-grandchild of Nazi holocaust survivor, United States.
158. Bob Wilson, grandson of a survivor, United States.
159. Katharine Wallerstein, granddaughter of survivors and relative of many who perished, United States.
160. Sylvia Finzi, granddaughter and niece of Holocaust victims murdered in Auschwitz, London.
161. Esteban Schmelz, grandson of KZ-Theresienstadt victim, Mexico City.
162. Françoise Basch, grand daughter of Victor and Ilona Basch murdered by the Gestapo and the French Milice, France.
163. Gabriel Alkon, grandson of Holocaust survivors, Untied States.
164. Nirit Ben-Ari, grandchild of Polish grandparents from both sides whose entire family was killed in the Nazi Holocaust, United States.
165. Heike Schotten, granddaughter of refugees from Nazi Germany who escaped the genocide, United States.
166. Ike af Carlstèn, grandson of survivor, Norway.
167. Elias Lazarus, grandson of Holocaust refugees from Dresden, United States and Australia.
168. Laura Mandelberg, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, United States.
169. Josh Ruebner, grandson of Nazi Holocaust survivors, United States.
170. Shirley Feldman, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
171. Nuno Cesar Ferreira, grandson of survivor, Brazil.
172. Andrea Land, granddaugher of survivors who fled programs in Poland, all European relatives died in German and Polish concentration camps, United States.
173. Sarah Goldman, granddaughter of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
174. Baruch Wolski, grandson of survivors, Austria.
175. Frank Amahran, grandson of survivor, United States.
176. Eve Spangler, granddaughter of Holocaust NON-survivor, United States.
177. Gil Medovoy, grandchild of Fela Hornstein who lost her enitre family in Poland during the Nazi genocide, United States.
178. Michael Hoffman, grandson of survivors, rest of family killed in Poland during Holocaust, live in El Salvador.
179. Sarah Hogarth, granddaughter of a survivor whose entire family was killed at Auschwitz, United States.
180. Tibby Brooks, granddaughter, niece, and cousin of victims of Nazis in Ukraine. Lives in United States.
181. Dan Berger, grandson of survivor, United States.
182. Dani Baurer, granddaughter of Baruch Pollack, survivor of Auschwitz. Lives in United States.
183. Talia Baurer, granddaughter of a survivor, United States.
184. Evan Cofsky, grandson of survivor, UK.
185. Annie Sicherman, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
186. Anna Heyman, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
187. Maya Ober, granddaughter of survivor and relative of deceased in Teresienstadt and Auschwitz, Tel Aviv.
188. Anne Haan, granddaughter of Joseph Slagter, survivor of Auschwitz. Lives in The Netherlands.
189. Oliver Ginsberg, grandson of victim, Germany.
190. Alexia Zdral, granddaughter of Polish survivors, United States.
191. Mitchel Bollag, grandson of Stanislaus Eisner, who was living in Czechoslovakia before being sent to a concentration camp. United States.
192. Vivienne Porzsolt, granddaughter of victims of Nazi genocide, Australia.
193. Lisa Nessan, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
194. Kally Alexandrou, granddaughter of survivors, Australia.
195. Laura Ostrow, granddaughter of survivors, United States
196. Anette Jacobson, granddaughter of relatives killed, town of Kamen Kashirsk, Poland. Lives in United States.
197. Tamar Yaron (Teresa Werner), granddaughter and niece of victims of the Nazi genocide in Poland, Israel.
198. Antonio Roman-Alcalá, grandson of survivor, United States.
199. Jeremy Luban, grandson of survivor, United States.
200. Heather West, granddaughter of survivors and relative of other victims, United States.
201. Jeff Ethan Au Green, grandson of survivor who escaped from a Nazi work camp and hid in the Polish-Ukranian forest, United States.
202. Johanna Haan, daughter and granddaughter of victims in the Netherlands. Lives in the Netherlands.
203. Aron Ben Miriam, son of and nephew of survivors from Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Salzwedel, Lodz ghetto. Lives in United States.
204. Noa Shaindlinger, granddaughter of four holocaust survivors, Canada.
205. Merilyn Moos, granddaughter, cousin and niece murdered victims, UK.
206. Ruth Tenne, granddaughter and relative of those who perished in Warsaw Ghetto, London.
207. Craig Berman, grandson of Holocaust survivors, UK.
208. Nell Hirschmann-Levy, granddaughter of survivors from Germany. Lives in United States.
209. Osha Neumann, grandson of Gertrud Neumann who died in Theresienstadt. Lives in United States.
210. Georg Frankl, Grandson of survivor Ernst-Immo Frankl who survived German work camp. Lives in Germany.
211. Julian Drix, grandson of two survivors from Poland, including survivor and escapee from liquidated Janowska concentration camp in Lwow, Poland. Lives in United States.
212. Katrina Mayer, grandson and relative of victims, UK.
213. Avigail Abarbanel, granddaughter of survivors, Scotland.
214. Denni Turp, granddaughter of Michael Prooth, survivor, UK.
215. Fenya Fischler, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
216. Yakira Teitel, granddaughter of German Jewish refugees, great-granddaughter of survivor, United States.
217. Susan Koppelman, granddaughter of survivor, United States
218. Hana Umeda, granddaughter of survivor, Warsaw.
219. Jordan Silverstein, grandson of two survivors, Canada.
220. Daniela Petuchowski, granddaughter of survivors, United States.
221. Aaron Lerner, grandson of survivors, United States.
222. Judith Bernstein, granddaughter of Holocaust victims in Auschwitz, Germany.
223. Samantha Wischnia, granddaughter and great niece of survivors from Poland, United States.
224. Elizabeth Wischnia, granddaughter and grand niece of three holocaust survivors, great aunt worked for Schindler, United States.
225. Daniel Waterman, grandson of survivor, The Netherlands.
226. Elana Baurer, granddaughter of survivor, United States.
227. Pablo Roman-Alcala, grandson of participant in the kindertransport and survivor, Germany.
228. Karine Abdel Malek, grandchild of survivor, Henri Waisman, Morocco.
229. Elana Baurer, granddaughter of survivor, United States.
230. Lillian Brown, granddaughter of survivor, United States.
231. Devin Cahn, grandson of survivors, United States.
232. Daniel Lévyne, grandson of a deportee, France.
233. Emilie Ferreira, granddaughter of survivors, Switzerland.
234. Chaim Neslen, grandchild of many victims and friend of many survivors, UK.
235. Ann Jungmann, granddaughter to three victims, UK.
236. Ellie Schling, granddaughter of a survivor, UK.
237. Danny Katch, grandson of a survivor, United States.
238. Karen Pomer, granddaughter of Henri B. van Leeuwen, member of Dutch resistance and survivor of Bergen Belsen, United States.
239. Gilda Mitchell Katz, granddaughter of survivors, uncle and aunt killed In Dombrova, Canada.
240. Dana Newfield, granddaughter of survivor and relative of many murdered, United States.
241. Ilana Guslits, granddaughter of two Polish survivors, Canada.
242. Gerald Coles-Kolsky, grandson of victims in Poland and France, United States.
243. Lesley Swain, granddaughter and cousin of survivors, UK.
244. Myera Waese, granddaughter of survivors of Bergen Belsen, Canada.
245. Ronni Seidman, grandchild of survivors. United States.
246. Mike Shatzkin, grandchild of survivors, some family members murdered and some who died in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. United States.
247. Nance Shatzkin, grandchild of survivors, some family members murdered and some who died in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. United States.
248. Karen Shatzkin, grandchild of survivors, some family members murdered and some who died in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. United States.
249. Myriam Burger, granddaughter of survivor. United States.
250. Andre Burger, grandson of survivor Myriam Cohn, great-grandson of Sylvia Cohn and great-nephew of Esther Lore Cohn, both murdered in Auschwitz, United States.
251. Sara Ayech, granddaughter of Gisela and Max Roth, survivors who lost many family members, UK.
252. Monika Vykoukal, granddaughter of survivor, France.
253. Patricia Reinheimer, grandaugther of survivors, Brazil.
254. Nancy Patchell, granddaughter of resistance fighters, grandfather was caught and died in a concentration camp, Canada.
255. Jaclyn Pryor, granddaughter of survivors from Czestochowa Ghetto, Poland; great-grandchild, niece, and cousin to many who perished, United States.
256. Steven Rosenthal, grandson of survivor, Chile.
257. Alfredo Hilt, grandson of victim, Germany.
258. Arturo Desimone, grandson of a survivor of the ghetto of Çzestochowa, The Netherlands.
259. Lazer Lederhendler, grandson of victims whose seven siblings also perished in the Warsaw Ghetto and Treblinka. Lives in Canada.

 

Great-grandchildren of survivors

 

261. Natalie Rothman, great granddaughter of Holocaust victims in Warsaw. Now lives in Canada.
262. Yotam Amit, great-grandson of Polish Jew who fled Poland, United States.
263. Daniel Boyarin, great grandson of victims of the Nazi genocide, United States.
264. Maria Luban, great-granddaughter of survivors of the Holocaust, United States.
265. Mimi Erlich, great-granddaughter of Holocaust victim, United States.
266. Olivia Kraus, great-grandaughter of victims, granddaughter and daughter of family that fled Austria and Czechoslovakia. Lives in United States.
267. Emily (Chisefsky) Alma, great granddaughter and great grandniece of victims in Bialystok, Poland, United States.
268. Inbal Amin, great-granddaughter of a mother and son that escaped and related to plenty that didn’t, United States.
269. Matteo Luban, great-granddaughter of survivors, United States.
270. Saira Weiner, greatgranddaughter and niece of those murdered in the Holocaust, granddaughter of survivors, UK.
271. Andrea Isaak, great-granddaughter of survivor, Canada.
272. Alan Lott, great-grandson of a number of relatives lost, United States.
273. Sara Wines, great-granddaughter of a survivor and great-great granddaughter of victims, United States.

 

Other relatives of survivors

 

274. Terri Ginsberg, niece of a survivor of the Nazi genocide, United States.
275. Nathan Pollack, relative of Holocaust survivors and victims, United States.
276. Marcy Winograd, relatives of victims, United States.
277. Rabbi Borukh Goldberg, relative of many victims, United States.
278. Martin Davidson, great-nephew of victims who lived in the Netherlands, Spain.
279. Miriam Pickens, relative of survivors, United States.
280. Dorothy Werner, spouse of survivor, United States.
281. Hyman and Hazel Rochman, relatives of Holocaust victims, United States.
282. Rich Siegel, cousin of victims who were rounded up and shot in town square of Czestochowa, Poland. Lives in United States.
283. Ignacio Israel Cruz-Lara, relative of survivor, Mexico.
284. Debra Stuckgold, relative of survivors, United States.
285. Joel Kovel, relatives killed at Babi Yar, United States.
286. Carol Krauthamer Smith, niece of survivors of the Nazi genocide, United States.
287. Chandra Ahuva Hauptman, relatives from grandfather’s family died in Lodz ghetto, one survivor cousin and many deceased from Auschwitz, United States.
288. Shelly Weiss, relative of Holocaust victims, United States.
289. Carol Sanders, niece and cousin of victims of Holocaust in Poland, United States.
290. Sandra Rosen, great-niece and cousin of survivors, United States.
291. Raquel Hiller, relative of victims in Poland. Now lives in Mexico.
292. Alex Kantrowitz, most of father’s family murdered Nesvizh, Belarus 1941. Lives in United States.
293. Michael Steven Smith, many relatives were killed in Hungary. Lives in United States.
294. Linda Moore, relative of survivors and victims, United States.
295. Juliet VanEenwyk, niece and cousin of Hungarian survivors, United States.
296. Anya Achtenberg, grand niece, niece, cousin of victims tortured and murdered in Ukraine. Lives in United States.
297. Betsy Wolf-Graves, great niece of uncle who shot himself as he was about to be arrested by Nazis, United States.
298. Abecassis Pierre, grand-uncle died in concentration camp, France.
299. Robert Rosenthal, great-nephew and cousin of survivors from Poland. Lives in United States.
300. Régine Bohar, relative of victims sent to Auschwitz, Canada.
301. Denise Rickles, relative of survivors and victims in Poland. Lives in United States.
302. Louis Hirsch, relative of victims, United States.
303. Concepción Marcos, relative of victim, Spain.
304. George Sved, relative of victim, Spain.
305. Judith Berlowitz, relative of victims and survivors, United States.
306. Rebecca Sturgeon, descendant of Holocaust survivor from Amsterdam. Lives in UK.
307. Justin Levy, relative of victims and survivors, Ireland.
308. Sam Semoff, relative of survivors and victims, UK.
309. Leah Brown Klein, daughter-in-law of survivors Miki and Etu Fixler Klein, United States
310. Karen Malpede, spouse of hidden child who then fled Germany. Lives in United States
311. Michel Euvrard, husband of survivor, France.
312. Walter Ebmeyer, grandnephew of three Auschwitz victims and one survivor now living in Jerusalem, United States.
313. Garrett Wright, relative of victims and survivors, United States.
314. Lynne Lopez-Salzedo, descendant of three Auschwitz victims, United States.
315. Renee Leavy, 86 victims in my mother’s family, United States.
316. Steven Kohn, 182 victims in my grandparents’ families, United States.
317. Dorah Rosen Shuey, relative of many victims and 4 survivors, United States.
318. Carol Lipton, cousin of survivors, United States.
319. Catherine Bruckner, descendent of Czech Jewish victims of the holocaust, UK.
320. Susan Rae Goldstein, carrying the name of my great-aunt Rose Frankel, from Poland and murdered along with many other family members, Canada.
321. Jordan Elgrably, nephew of Marcelle Elgrably, killed in Auschwitz, United States.
322. Olivia M Hudis, relative of Auschwitz victims, United States.
323. Peter Finkelstein, relative of victims and survivors, Germany.
324. Colin Merrin, descendant of Polish and Belarusian Jewish victims, UK.
325. Howard Swerdloff, most of my family died in the Shoah, United States.
326. Margarita E Freund, descendant of Breslau and Ukrainian Jewish victims, United States.
327. Marsha Goldberg, relative of victims in Poland, United States.

–International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, 25 August, 2014

http://ijsn.net/gaza/survivors-and-descendants-letter

 

Alternet: 3 Ways America Enables Slaughter in Gaza

American debate on the hundreds of civilian deaths in Gaza and the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict is polarized between feelings of sympathy with civilian victims on either side and mutual vilification of the Likud-led government of Israel and the Hamas-led government in Gaza.  But it may be more constructive for Americans to think about the role that the U.S. government plays in perpetuating this never-ending and heart-rending conflict.

Opinion polling during a crisis tends to reflect the passions of the moment, but Americans have told pollsters for decades that we want our government to take an even-handed position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  A Chicago Council Global Views survey in 2012 found that 65% of Americans want the U.S. to “not take either side”, while only 30% want it to “take Israel’s side”. That majority rose to 74% vs 17% at the height of the U.S. war in Iraq in 2004.

But despite decades of presenting itself as an “honest broker” for Middle East peace, there are three ways that the U.S. unequivocally takes the Israeli side in the conflict and effectively supports the Israeli occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) with all it entails, from illegal settlement building to horrific violence:

1. Military aid. The U.S. has provided Israel with at least $73 billion in military aid and currently gives it $3.1 billion per year.  Under the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) and Arms Export Control Act (AECA), the U.S. is obliged to suspend or terminate military aid when U.S. weapons are used against civilians or in other ways that violate international humanitarian law, but these provisions have not been invoked or enforced in the case of Israel since 1982.  After resupplying the Israelis with ammunition during the Gaza crisis, the Obama administration has finally begun reviewing Israeli arms requests on a case-by-case basis and is witholding a new shipment of Hellfire missiles. Compliance with the FAA and AECA would require a suspension of military aid until recent alleged violations of U.S. law have been fully investigated, and stricter compliance could justify ending all military aid until a permanent peace settlement is reached and the occupation is ended.

2. Diplomatic cover. Since 1966, the U.S. has used its UN Security Council veto 83 times, more than the other four Permanent Members combined.  Forty-two of those vetoes have served to kill resolutions on Israel and Palestine, effectively shielding Israel from accountability under international law.  Israel has taken advantage of this effective immunity from the rule of law to violate the Geneva Conventions and other human rights laws, to continually expand its illegal settlements in the OPT and to ignore UN Security Council resolutions that require it to withdraw from the OPT.  The U.S. also uses its diplomatic, military and economic power in other ways to shield Israel from international accountability.  This extraordinary use of the U.S.veto and American power to shield a foreign state from the rule of law must end, before it further undermines a fragile system of international law that has already been badly damaged and weakened by the U.S.’s own illegal actions since 2001.

3. Moral support.  Israel is now a wealthy, developed country with an advanced weapons industry, so it could adapt to even a complete cut-off of U.S. military aid.  But U.S. diplomatic and Congressional support is critical to the Israeli government’s ability to ignore otherwise universal condemnation of its illegal settlement building, human rights abuses and failure to end the occupation.  The UN General Assembly passed 21 resolutions on Israel-Palestine in 2013, mostly by at least 165-6, with the US and Israel in the minority. But U.S. support confers a false sense of legitimacy on Israeli policies.  Unconditional moral support encourages the Israeli government to press ahead with an illegal territorial expansion that the world will never recognize, leading only to endless conflict and growing international isolation for Israel itself.

These three elements of U.S. policy form a stable tripod, a three-legged stool upon which this otherwise unacceptable state of conflict grinds away without end and regularly flares up in horrific slaughter and mass destruction.

Decades of UN resolutions require Israel to end its occupation of the OPT, to dismantle illegal settlements in the OPT and to treat Palestinians, both in Israel and in the OPT, according to the rights guaranteed to people everywhere by international humanitarian law.  The U.S. officially stands with the rest of the world on the fundamental questions, that the occupation must end, that Israel’s international borders are the ones recognized by the UN in 1949, and on the protections guaranteed to civilians living under occupation by the 4th Geneva Convention.

President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry adopted a public posture of “getting tough” with the Netanyahu government over negotiations and settlement-building.  But the unwavering U.S. commitment to its three pillars of unconditional support for the Israeli occupation sent Netanyahu an unmistakable message that he could safely ignore Obama’s and Kerry’s “get tough” posture.  This left them looking impotent and more than a little naive, and it emboldened Netanyahu to launch the deadliest and most destructive assault yet on Gaza.  The Israelis seem to have achieved their goal of tightening the blockade by destroying the tunnels that were Gaza’s only lifeline to the world, but this has only hardened the determination of Palestinians in Gaza to resist the even more restricted future the Israelis are seeking to impose on them.

Will Americans keep pretending that our government has been an “honest broker” in its efforts to end this horrific conflict?  Or will we finally demand real changes in the three aspects of U.S. policy that perpetuate war and occupation and deny peace to innocent civilians on both sides?

Nicolas J. S. Davies is the author of “Blood On Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.” Davies also wrote the chapter on “Obama At War” for the book, “Grading the 44th President: A Report Card on Barack Obama’s First Term as a Progressive Leader.”

 

–Alternet, 20 August, 2014

 

http://www.alternet.org/world/3-ways-america-enables-slaughter-gaza?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

How Israel Used Its Own Civilians as Human Shields While Assaulting Gaza

Throughout the ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, perhaps no phrase has featured as prominently or persistently in the lexicon of Israeli propaganda as “human shields.” Repeated in stentorian fashion by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a heavily regimented army of 10,000 public relations flacks, the phrase has been ruthlessly deployed [3] to shield Israel from responsibility for the bloodbath it has caused in Gaza. Israel has killed 1,800 civilians in a matter of weeks, including some 430 children, but it was Hamas that forced them to do it.

Like so many Zionist accusations against Palestinian society (“They only understand force,” “They teach their children to hate,” “They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”) the human shields slander is a projection. Israel is the most militarized society on earth, with soldiers and military installations honeycombed throughout its civil society. With full military conscription for all men and women and reserve duty required for all Jews until they reach their 40s, Jewish Israelis alternate constantly between the role of civilian and soldier, blurring the line between the two.

Within one of Tel Aviv’s most densely populated neighborhoods sits Ha’Kirya, the army’s headquarters, a gigantic complex of monolithic buildings that house the offices where attacks on Gaza are planned. The uniformed officers and soldiers who work inside take lunch in the cafes and shop in the malls surrounding their offices, embedding themselves among the civilian population. A military base is nestled [4] in the middle of the campus of Haifa University while Hebrew and Tel Aviv Universities offer military officers free tuition, encouraging their enrollment and allowing them to carry weapons on campus. It is hard to find a henhouse, flophouse, or fieldhouse anywhere in Israel without some kind of military presence.

In an editorial [5] for the Israeli daily, Yedioth Aharonot, veteran Israeli military advisor Giora Eiland argued in favor of collectively punishing Gaza’s civilian population. “In order to guarantee our interests versus the other side’s demands, we must avoid the artificial, wrong and dangerous distinction between the Hamas people, who are ‘the bad guys,’ and Gaza’s residents, which are allegedly ‘the good guys.’”

Naturally, Eiland failed to consider the terrible implications of eliminating the distinction between civilians and the armed factions that move among them: If his logic were inverted to apply to Israeli society, where civilians are soldiers and soldiers are civilians, almost every Jewish Israeli citizen could be considered a legitimate target.

Most vulnerable among the Jewish Israeli public are residents of the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. Many of these working class development towns and kibbutzim were planted during the 1950s in place of the Palestinians who had just been forcibly expelled. In al-Majdal Asqalan, now known as Ashkelon, Jewish immigrants from the Middle East were literally trucked in to replace the Palestinians who had been held within a barbed wire enclosure before being outcasted to Gaza. Today, these largely neglected communities form a human wall against the demographic threat tucked behind a high-tech cordon sanitaire just to their south.

Not only do Israel’s southern communities exist under the threat of rocket and mortar attacks from those they displaced, they are routinely used as shelters and temporary bases by the Israeli army.

Renan Raz, a 26-year-old waiter and anti-occupation activist now living in Tel Aviv, remembers the anguish he experienced when the army arrived in Dorot, the southern kibbutz where he was born and raised. It was the height of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli assault that left over 1400 Palestinian Gazans dead, mostly civilians, between December 2008 and January 2009.

“Most of the days soldiers were fighting in the Gaza Strip in the morning and in the evening they were coming back to our kibbutz, bringing their weapons there, they were sleeping there, and sometimes they were practicing [military drills] in the fields, in the kibbutz grass — they were hiding there and making plans,” Raz told me. “The way I saw it, they were using us as human shields.”

Raz recalled, “We were right on the border of the Gaza Strip and they were practicing in the fields with weaponry, whether it’s with their rifle or armored vehicles. I could hear explosions [from the fields] while they were practicing and maybe even shooting things into Gaza.”

“We are a sick military society,” he continued. “You can’t say Hamas is using their civilians as a human shield when it’s obvious that our army is using all of us as human shields. And those of us who live near the Gaza Strip are definitely the biggest human shields.”

Raz remembers being almost alone in raising questions about the presence of the soldiers. “People were so happy, they were really proud of them. Each day after they came out of the Gaza Strip, in the [kibbutz] dining room, if it was lunch or dinner, there was food waiting for them,” he said. “They came into our houses and used our showers and relaxed there. People wrote letters to them after they left the kibbutz thanking them for risking their lives for us. Not only in the kibbutz but all over Israel they are seen as the most sacred thing. People treat them as angels, as people who put their own lives at risk so civilians can live at peace.”

Having already refused army service in defiance of his country’s militarist ethos, Raz turned solidly against the attack on Gaza. “Whenever there was a rocket alarm, all the people around me were shouting, Death to leftists! and Death to Arabs! And I just wanted to have a better life for everyone. I don’t want to be intimidated by the rockets but I also don’t want the people in Gaza to be bombed and massacred for no reason. I realized that this is the oppressed and the oppressor — it wasn’t self-defense.”

During the current assault on Gaza, Israeli forces have returned to the communities surrounding Gaza to bivouac and stage attacks. However, the fear of “terror tunnels” and rockets has led many of the local residents to flee, leaving virtual ghost towns in their wake.

In a recorded message broadcast on July 29 by al-Aqsa television, Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades general commander Mohammad Daif declared [6] that Gaza fighters were exclusively targeting active duty Israeli military personnel and avoiding attacks on civilians. So far, the Qassam Brigades have killed 65 Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians, one Thai worker, and wounded a kibbutz owl. [7]

 

–Alternet, August 6th, 2014

 

http://www.alternet.org/world/how-israel-used-its-own-civilians-human-shields-while-assaulting-gaza?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Alternet: “Joan Rivers Tells Reporter Palestinians Deserve To Be Dead”

Joan Rivers is known for her scathing sharp tongue, and yet her take on the Isaeli-Gaza crisis is one of her most controversial views to date. When told by a TMZ [3] reporter than almost 2,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, she raised her hands in mock shock.

“Oh my God! Tell that to the people in Hiroshima,” she says. “Good. Good. When you declare war, you declare war. They started it. We now don’t count who’s dead. You’re dead, you deserve to be dead. Don’t you dare make me feel bad about that.”

“They were told to get out. They didn’t get out. You don’t get out, you are an idiot. At least the ones that were killed were the ones with low IQs.”

She goes onto describe Gaza’s Hamas government as “terrorists.”

“They were re-elected by a lot of very stupid people who don’t even own a pencil,” she said.

The comedian—who has defended Israel previously [4]—has since claimed her opinions were taken out of context (although they were made on camera), publishing a statement on her official Facebook page [5], in which she says she is “praying for peace.”

“I am both saddened and disappointed that my statement about the tragedy of civilian casualties was totally taken out of context,” she wrote.

“What I said and stand behind is, war is hell and unfortunately civilians are victims of political conflicts. We, the United States, certainly know this as 69 years later we still feel the guilt of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“The media, as usual, has decided to only quote the most out of context and inflammatory non sequitur rather than giving an accurate account of what my intentions were behind the statement.”

 

—Alternet, August 8th, 2014

 

http://www.alternet.org/print/news-amp-politics/joan-rivers-tells-reporter-palestinians-deserve-be-dead

Noam Chomsky on the “Nightmare in Gaza”–Alternet

Amid all the horrors unfolding in the latest Israeli offensive in Gaza, Israel’s goal is simple: quiet-for-quiet, a return to the norm.

For the West Bank, the norm is that Israel continues its illegal construction of settlements and infrastructure so that it can integrate into Israel whatever might be of value, meanwhile consigning Palestinians to unviable cantons and subjecting them to repression and violence.

For Gaza, the norm is a miserable existence under a cruel and destructive siege that Israel administers to permit bare survival but nothing more.

The latest Israeli rampage was set off by the brutal murder of three Israeli boys from a settler community in the occupied West Bank. A month before, two Palestinian boys were shot dead in the West Bank city of Ramallah. That elicited little attention, which is understandable, since it is routine.

“The institutionalized disregard for Palestinian life in the West helps explain not only why Palestinians resort to violence,” Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani reports, “but also Israel’s latest assault on the Gaza Strip.”

In an interview, human rights lawyer Raji Sourani, who has remained in Gaza through years of Israeli brutality and terror, said, “The most common sentence I heard when people began to talk about cease-fire: Everybody says it’s better for all of us to die and not go back to the situation we used to have before this war. We don’t want that again. We have no dignity, no pride; we are just soft targets, and we are very cheap. Either this situation really improves or it is better to just die. I am talking about intellectuals, academics, ordinary people: Everybody is saying that.”

In January 2006, Palestinians committed a major crime: They voted the wrong way in a carefully monitored free election, handing control of Parliament to Hamas.

The media constantly intone that Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. In reality, Hamas leaders have repeatedly made it clear that Hamas would accept a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus that has been blocked by the U.S. and Israel for 40 years.

In contrast, Israel is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, apart from some occasional meaningless words, and is implementing that commitment.

The crime of the Palestinians in January 2006 was punished at once. The U.S. and Israel, with Europe shamefully trailing behind, imposed harsh sanctions on the errant population and Israel stepped up its violence.

The U.S. and Israel quickly initiated plans for a military coup to overthrow the elected government. When Hamas had the effrontery to foil the plans, the Israeli assaults and the siege became far more severe.

There should be no need to review again the dismal record since. The relentless siege and savage attacks are punctuated by episodes of “mowing the lawn,” to borrow Israel’s cheery expression for its periodic exercises in shooting fish in a pond as part of what it calls a “war of defense.”

Once the lawn is mowed and the desperate population seeks to rebuild somehow from the devastation and the murders, there is a cease-fire agreement. The most recent cease-fire was established after Israel’s October 2012 assault, called Operation Pillar of Defense.

Though Israel maintained its siege, Hamas observed the cease-fire, as Israel concedes. Matters changed in April of this year when Fatah and Hamas forged a unity agreement that established a new government of technocrats unaffiliated with either party.

Israel was naturally furious, all the more so when even the Obama administration joined the West in signaling approval. The unity agreement not only undercuts Israel’s claim that it cannot negotiate with a divided Palestine but also threatens the long-term goal of dividing Gaza from the West Bank and pursuing its destructive policies in both regions.

Something had to be done, and an occasion arose on June 12, when the three Israeli boys were murdered in the West Bank. Early on, the Netanyahu government knew that they were dead, but pretended otherwise, which provided the opportunity to launch a rampage in the West Bank, targeting Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have certain knowledge that Hamas was responsible. That too was a lie.

One of Israel’s leading authorities on Hamas, Shlomi Eldar, reported almost at once that the killers very likely came from a dissident clan in Hebron that has long been a thorn in the side of Hamas. Eldar added that “I’m sure they didn’t get any green light from the leadership of Hamas, they just thought it was the right time to act.”

The 18-day rampage after the kidnapping, however, succeeded in undermining the feared unity government, and sharply increasing Israeli repression. Israel also conducted dozens of attacks in Gaza, killing five Hamas members on July 7.

Hamas finally reacted with its first rockets in 19 months, providing Israel with the pretext for Operation Protective Edge on July 8.

By July 31, around 1,400 Palestinians had been killed, mostly civilians, including hundreds of women and children. And three Israeli civilians. Large areas of Gaza had been turned into rubble. Four hospitals had been attacked, each another war crime.

Israeli officials laud the humanity of what it calls “the most moral army in the world,” which informs residents that their homes will be bombed. The practice is “sadism, sanctimoniously disguising itself as mercy,” in the words of Israeli journalist Amira Hass: “A recorded message demanding hundreds of thousands of people leave their already targeted homes, for another place, equally dangerous, 10 kilometers away.”

In fact, there is no place in the prison of Gaza safe from Israeli sadism, which may even exceed the terrible crimes of Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009.

The hideous revelations elicited the usual reaction from the most moral president in the world, Barack Obama: great sympathy for Israelis, bitter condemnation of Hamas and calls for moderation on both sides.

When the current attacks are called off, Israel hopes to be free to pursue its criminal policies in the occupied territories without interference, and with the U.S. support it has enjoyed in the past.

Gazans will be free to return to the norm in their Israeli-run prison, while in the West Bank, Palestinians can watch in peace as Israel dismantles what remains of their possessions.

That is the likely outcome if the U.S. maintains its decisive and virtually unilateral support for Israeli crimes and its rejection of the long-standing international consensus on diplomatic settlement. But the future will be quite different if the U.S. withdraws that support.

In that case it would be possible to move toward the “enduring solution” in Gaza that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for, eliciting hysterical condemnation in Israel because the phrase could be interpreted as calling for an end to Israel’s siege and regular attacks. And — horror of horrors — the phrase might even be interpreted as calling for implementation of international law in the rest of the occupied territories.

Forty years ago Israel made the fateful decision to choose expansion over security, rejecting a full peace treaty offered by Egypt in return for evacuation from the occupied Egyptian Sinai, where Israel was initiating extensive settlement and development projects. Israel has adhered to that policy ever since.

If the U.S. decided to join the world, the impact would be great. Over and over, Israel has abandoned cherished plans when Washington has so demanded. Such are the relations of power between them.

Furthermore, Israel by now has little recourse, after having adopted policies that turned it from a country that was greatly admired to one that is feared and despised, policies it is pursuing with blind determination today in its march toward moral deterioration and possible ultimate destruction.

Could U.S. policy change? It’s not impossible. Public opinion has shifted considerably in recent years, particularly among the young, and it cannot be completely ignored.

For some years there has been a good basis for public demands that Washington observe its own laws and cut off military aid to Israel. U.S. law requires that “no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

Israel most certainly is guilty of this consistent pattern, and has been for many years.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, author of this provision of the law, has brought up its potential applicability to Israel in specific cases, and with a well-conducted educational, organizational and activist effort such initiatives could be pursued successively.

That could have a very significant impact in itself, while also providing a springboard for further actions to compel Washington to become part of “the international community” and to observe international law and norms.

Nothing could be more significant for the tragic Palestinian victims of many years of violence and repression.

 

–Noam Chomsky, Alternet, August 7, 2014

 

http://www.alternet.org/world/noam-chomsky-nightmare-gaza?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Who Are the Real Terrorists?

As of August 3, 2014, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) lists the following “Facts and Figures” on the current Israeli invasion and bombardment of  Gaza.

Palestinian Casualities

1717, “including at least 1,176 civilians, of whom 377 are children and 196 are women.”

This means that at least 68% of Palestinian casualties are civilians.

Israeli Casualties

67, “including 64 soldiers, two civilians, and one foreign national.”

This means that only about 4.5 percent of Israeli casualties are civilians.

These statistics force a rational observer to ask the following questions:

Which side is conducting a “just war”?

Which side is exercising proportionate violence?

Which side is engaging in terrorism?

 

Source: OCHA, August 3rd, 2014

http://www.ochaopt.org/content.aspx?id=1010361