Gila Svirsky--God Bliss

Gaza/Palestine, Human Rights, Israel, Militarism, Peace Comments Off
Jan 252010

God Bliss by Gila Svirsky

We have a weekend home in the sweetest little town in Israel – Nahariya. This small, northern town caresses the Mediterranean at a particularly picturesque location, and from our balcony we can watch the sailboats skimming along the placid sea. In the early morning, we see the fishing boats go out, a spotter aloft in the prow scanning the azure waters for fishy schools below, and in the evening we take drinks on that balcony (verbena tea for me) and watch the sun lower itself from a swirly pink sky and sizzle out into the sea. And then the dog has her last outing for the day, and we settle down to dinner and a good movie on TV. It could be bliss.

Last night I watched a popular weekly TV satire called “A Wonderful Country”, reprising Israel’s good deeds in sending a field hospital and PR team to Haiti. PR team? Yes, and well worth it, with the Israeli doctors saving lives and delivering babies enough to warrant many press releases. “Good job, good job, Israelis!” gush the patients. From under the rubble, one Hatian peers out and moans, “It was almost worth having an earthquake to meet all you wonderful folks from Israel.”

It’s hard work transforming international public opinion after the Israeli bombardment of Gaza one year ago, which played out so poorly in the Goldstone Report and European capitals. But in Israel, there’s no need to shift public opinion at all, after that very popular war. “What blockade? There’s no blockade of Gaza,” said my cousins in Jerusalem, who are as well informed as most Israelis. If you place a million people under siege and the local media are not there to cover it, does the siege exist?

And does protest exist, when the police crack down on peaceful demonstrators exercising their right to disagree with state policies? Over 700 protesters were arrested during the Gaza War for trying to make anti-war statements. Nonviolent demonstrators who march every Friday in Palestinian villages where the Separation Barrier is being erected have experienced live fire, stun grenades, tear gas, and new forms of crowd control – the “skunk guns” that smelled so bad even the police were forced to stop using them. These methods have already caused deaths and injuries. Ongoing protests in East Jerusalem against the eviction of Palestinians from their homes to make room for settlers have met with more arrests and brutality. Last week, to the misfortune of the police, they also arrested the director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a bad way to improve relations with civil society.

So is it all about image? Inside Israel, it’s about no image. Israeli media carried no reporting whatsoever from inside Gaza during the bombardment, and it was considered subversive during the fighting to listen to reports from CNN, the BBC or, God forbid, al-Jazeera. It is still forbidden for Israeli journalists to enter Gaza and report how families are bearing up in homes with gaping holes in their roofs because Israel does not allow construction materials to be brought in. Now if the Gazans only lived in Haiti… As for the West Bank, why should the journalists bother? Brutality by the army is not new and hence not newsworthy. To catch anybody’s attention, human rights organizations like B’Tselem have to resort to teaser headlines, smart animations, and videos of Gaza rappers (full disclosure, I’m affiliated with B’Tselem).

So here’s what grabbed the headlines in Israel all week: Sarah Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, was accused of underpaying and overworking the cleaning lady. If you’re out and about in Israel, you better have a clear opinion about this: Is it true, or just a plot to undermine the peace plan that our Prime Minister is eager to launch? Here’s a hint: Riding by our demonstration for economic justice several years ago, Sarah Netanyahu got out of her chauffeur-driven car to share her views with us: “If I get along on minimum wage,” said Sarah, “anyone can.” One hardly knows where to begin.

There is a country full of people on this beautiful Saturday afternoon watching the sailboats skim by, driving out to catch the fields full of red poppies after the heavy winter rains, or walking their dogs through daffodils. But they won’t be crossing the Separation Barrier anytime soon to witness the horrors on the other side, and the news on TV in the evening won’t bring that horror into their homes. “What occupation?” is now the most common reaction of passersby to our Women in Black vigil in Jerusalem. For the young, it’s an honest question; for the older, it’s a smirk and walk on.

———-

Cross-posted with Gila Svirsky’s kind permission.

Posted by Fempeace at 5:18 pm

Israel Detains Nobel Peace Laureate And Other Human Rights Activists

Gaza/Palestine, Human Rights, Israel, Militarism, Sheroes, U.S. Politics, Uncategorized Comments Off
Jun 302009

Via The Nobel Women’s Initiative:

The Nobel Women’s Initiative is deeply concerned by the detention of Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and other human rights activists on the Free Gaza Movement mission to deliver aid to the people of Gaza by boat.  Israeli naval forces forcibly boarded the Free Gaza boat and detained the human rights workers late this afternoon, 23 miles off the coast of Gaza.  Earlier in the day, the Israeli Naval Forces ordered the boat—at gun-point—to turn back.

Maguire is traveling on the Free Gaza fishing boat, accompanied by a sister boat called the Spirit of Humanity.  The boats are carrying construction materials, three tons of medical supplies, and suitcases full of children’s toys—all items banned by the Israeli government.

The approximately 30 activists on board include a former Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, as well as envoys from Gulf nations. This is the eighth mission of the Free Gaza Movement, an international human rights group formed in 2006 to bring attention to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.  Past mission participants have included parliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries./p>

Before embarking on the journey, Maguire said:  “We sail to Gaza to break this cruel siege of Gaza by the Israeli Government,and to show the people of Gaza that the world does care what is happening to them.”

“It is appalling that in this the 2lst century, the Israeli government is allowed to carry out its policy of collective punishment of an entire people [by continuing] to keep borders closed and refuse the people of Gaza basic necessities for living – food, medicines, cement, and building materials.”

Posted by Fempeace at 9:06 pm

Arrest of Members of Feminist New Profile in Israel Ironic Example of Undue Militarism That The Group Is Working To End

Feminism, Feminist, Israel, Militarism, Peace, Uncategorized Comments Off
Apr 272009

As the statement below received via e-mail from New Profile(Movement for the Civilization of Israeli Society) points out in the last paragraph, the arrest of members of this feminist anti-militarism organization in Israel proves the point that the group is making, namely that militarism is a threat to “the sacred principles of democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of political association” of all:

This morning the Israeli police descended upon the homes of political activists, members of the feminist movement New Profile, which acts for the civilization of society in Israel and against the undue influence of the military on life in the country.

The police demanded that the activists turn over the computers located in their homes, and among other things took the computers of partners of the detainees and in one case also the computer of a fourth grade pupil, the daughter of one of those interrogated. The computers of family members were returned after the activists were released on bail.

All five were interrogated in the Ramat Hachiyal station in the Yarkon Region of the police. At the conclusion of the interrogation they were released on bail and under limitng conditions, and all were told that during the next 30 days they are forbidden to contact other members of the movement.

The New Profile Movement expressed rage over the interrogation and the demand to not have contact with other members, which means a partial paralysis of the activities of this important organization in civil society in Israel.

Attorney Smadar Ben Nathan, who is representing New Profile, said that the investigation of the police is focusing on the website of New Profile, which has links to other sites on the internet. Ben Nathan added that the New Profile Movement is a recognized non-profit association which acts openly and publicly, in accordance with the law, and the use of a criminal investigation in this context is invalid and exaggerated, and stands in opposition to freedom of expression.

New Profile is a feminist movement established ten years ago. The movement has been warning for years of the exaggerated and destructive influence of Israeli militarism on civilian life, and provides legal aid and social support to young people desiring not to do military service, both for political and personal reasons.

The New Profile Movement noted today: “These recent acts confirm what we have been contending for many years: the militarism of society in Israel harms the sacred principles of democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of political association. One who believed that until now criminal files were conjured up “only” for Arab citizens of Israel saw this morning that none of us can be certain that s/he can freely express an opinion concerning the failures of society and rule in Israel.”

Posted by Fempeace at 8:17 am

"1 Shot, 2 Kills" T-Shirt Showing Pregnant Woman With Bullseye On Her Belly Popular With Israeli Soldiers

Atrocities, Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Israel, Militarism, Misogyny, Uncategorized, Violence Against Women 2 Responses »
Mar 242009

In a blog post last week, I wrote that  sexual assault in the U.S. military was effectively an intractable problem because rape and sexual assault have always been de-facto weapons of war.  This isn’t just true in our military of course, in recent times the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Balkans provide gruesome examples that this is so.

It is in that context that the recent report of violently misogynist and genocidal t-shirts being commissioned by Israeli soldiers, horrendous as it is, is hardly surprising.  According to Haaretz,

Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children’s graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques – these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription “Better use Durex,” next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter’s T-shirt from the Givati Brigade’s Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull’s-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, “1 shot, 2 kills.” A “graduation” shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, “No matter how it begins, we’ll put an end to it.”

There are also plenty of shirts with blatant sexual messages. For example, the Lavi battalion produced a shirt featuring a drawing of a soldier next to a young woman with bruises, and the slogan, “Bet you got raped!” A few of the images underscore actions whose existence the army officially denies – such as “confirming the kill” (shooting a bullet into an enemy victim’s head from close range, to ensure he is dead), or harming religious sites, or female or child non-combatants. 

The slogan “Let every Arab mother know that her son’s fate is in my hands!” had previously been banned for use on another infantry unit’s shirt. A Givati soldier said this week, however, that at the end of last year, his platoon printed up dozens of shirts, fleece jackets and pants bearing this slogan.

“It has a drawing depicting a soldier as the Angel of Death, next to a gun and an Arab town,” he explains. “The text was very powerful. The funniest part was that when our soldier came to get the shirts, the man who printed them was an Arab, and the soldier felt so bad that he told the girl at the counter to bring them to him.”

Funny?  Not perhaps the word most of us would choose. And while the article specifically quotes the IDF as condemning the t-shirts and promising to take action to discourage them, as one soldier who was interviewed makes clear, the t-shirts are being approved by officers, not just enlisted personnel:

Does the design go to the commanders for approval?

The Givati soldier: “Usually the shirts undergo a selection process by some officer, but in this case, they were approved at the level of platoon sergeant. 

And what do the t-shirts mean to the soldiers:

G., a soldier in an elite unit who has done a snipers course, explained that, “it’s a type of bonding process, and also it’s well known that anyone who is a sniper is messed up in the head. Our shirts have a lot of double entendres, for example: ‘Bad people with good aims.’ Every group that finishes a course puts out stuff like that.”

Of the shirt depicting a bull’s-eye on a pregnant woman, he said: “There are people who think it’s not right, and I think so as well, but it doesn’t really mean anything. I mean it’s not like someone is gonna go and shoot a pregnant woman.”

Oh really?

Israeli troops at a checkpoint shot and wounded a pregnant Palestinian woman in labor and killed her husband today as the couple tried to reach a hospital – a day after another pregnant woman was shot in an almost identical case at the same West Bank roadblock, Palestinians said.

Sociologist Dr. Orna Sasson-Levy, of Bar-Ilan University, author of “Identities in Uniform: Masculinities and Femininities in the Israeli Military, puts it this way,

There is a perception that the Palestinian is not a person, a human being entitled to basic rights, and therefore anything may be done to him.”

Could the printing of clothing be viewed also as a means of venting aggression?

Sasson-Levy: “No. I think it strengthens and stimulates aggression and legitimizes it. What disturbs me is that a shirt is something that has permanence. The soldiers later wear it in civilian life; their girlfriends wear it afterward. It is not a statement, but rather something physical that remains, that is out there in the world. Beyond that, I think the link made between sexist views and nationalist views, as in the ‘Screw Haniyeh’ shirt, is interesting. National chauvinism and gender chauvinism combine and strengthen one another. It establishes a masculinity shaped by violent aggression toward women and Arabs; a masculinity that considers it legitimate to speak in a crude and violent manner toward women and Arabs.”  

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Posted by Fempeace at 6:40 am

In Israel, Women Lead The Way In Protesting Gaza Violence

Feminism, Feminist, Gaza/Palestine, Israel, Militarism, U.S. Politics, Uncategorized Comments Off
Feb 112009
Women Leading Protest from Within
Stop the Massacre in Gaza

Received from the Coalition of Women for Peace:

Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza started on Saturday, December 27th 2008, after three years of strangling siege. Within a few hours, the Coalition of Women for Peace organized various peace groups and more than 1,500 women and men in a protest to stop the war immediately. The demonstrators marched to the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, where the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held his press conference to justify the bombardment and mass-killings by the Israeli Air Forces.

In the following days, which turned into weeks, thousands of others joined the protest. True, this struggle did not stop the attack and its dreadful war crimes. However, we have tried, with all of our efforts, to bring the voice of resistance to the Israeli public and the international community. This brief report aims to shed some light on the process of organizing the struggle against the war in Israel. These are just a few examples of a desperate cry of thousands of Israeli citizens to stop the massacre in Gaza.

What We Did:

1. Set the Coalition against the War in Motion. CWP has re-organized the wide coalition of organizations against the siege, which has been functioning with medium to low energy in the last few months. This action brought together more than 30  organizations, big and small, from the peace movement and the Left in Israel (including Hadash, Balad and Ra’am-Ta’al parties). The Coalition against the War gathered on the third day of the war to finalize messages and activities, in order to organize the first mass demonstration. By the end of the first week of the war, more than 10,000 people took to the streets to protest the killing in Gaza. On the last Saturday of the attack, we again organized a mass rally, this time in Jaffa, with again more than 10,000 demonstrators.

2. Cross-Movement Coordination. A smaller team was built out of CWP in order to coordinate the ongoing daily protests around the country. This team helped dozens of groups to reach the media, gain exposure and receive legal aid as needed (unfortunately often, as we helped more than 100 activists harassed by the police and arrested in peaceful protests). The team also provided other help in logistics and coordination and regularly published a digest of the events on the left bulletins and mailing lists. The formation of the team allowed more people to take part in the actions against the war ˆ first and foremost because they could feel a part of a committed movement which shares resources, knowledge and experience. For many peace activists, it was the sense of community and solidarity across various organizations that motivated them to continue protesting despite exhaustion, despair, exposure to violence, threats and political persecution.

3. Media Work. The Media Team informed the press about events and protests on a daily basis. Before mass-demonstrations, we also initiated meetings and consultations about media strategy. The “patriotic” media either dismissed voices against the war in Gaza, or presented them as dangerous and treacherous. With persistence and commitment, the team succeeded in bringing the voice of protest into the Israeli and international media, as well as promoting several stories about the systematic repression of the protest by the police, the secret service (Shabak) and the outrageous governmental policies.

4. International Advocacy. Understanding that challenging the Israeli consensus is not enough, international advocacy became a major priority. A group of CWP activists organized as an “International Team” and worked on coordinating our actions with peace and women’s groups and movements around the world. The group focused on providing information, political analysis, statements and calls to action to these groups, as well as writing appeals and letters to political leadership of the European Union and the U.S.A.

5. Legal Action. Following the instructions of Israel’s Attorney General, the police attempted to limit the protest by imposing impossible restrictions on the mass-demonstration in Tel Aviv. For instance, they demanded that the organizers will personally guarantee that none of the 10,000 protestors will wave a Palestinian flag. Eilat Maoz, CWP General Coordinator, and Haggai Mater, an activist, petitioned the Supreme Court and succeeded in canceling this impossible limitation.

Guiding Principles:

1. The Expanding Circle. Our main strategic decision was to organize the protest based on the concept of “expanding circles.” This concept stresses the need to mobilize more and more audiences against Israeli aggression by building a pluralistic front, in which various voices and political programs can find their place.
This is also why one of our first decisions was to “agree not to agree” on the political solution, but rather to allow each group to express its messages in the coordinated actions. In university campuses, for example, large groups of Arab and Jewish students never active before began joining the protests. Women without previous experience in political work joined the Coalition of Women for Peace and became active in our ad-hoc action teams.

2. Arab-Jewish Partnership and Local Struggles. CWP had a very clear stand inside the Coalition against the War regarding the importance of maintaining ongoing coordination between the peace organizations, the Left parties and the Palestinian civil society in Israel. We insisted on the importance, especially in times of severe racist propaganda, of standing together and calling: “Arabs and Jews refuse to be enemies.” Another important feature stressed by CWP was the strengthening local protests across Israel. CWP activities expanded from Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Jerusalem to Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Sachnin and other areas. (Slogan in manifestation: Women against War; Stop the War; the Occupation is Killing Us All)

3. Feminist Agenda and Women’s Action for Peace. CWP was the leading force in the Coalition against the War. At the same time, we worked on building another coalition ˆ a coalition of feminist organizations against the war. We organized several women’s protests ˆ in Haifa and Tel Aviv, gathering hundreds of Arab and Jewish women. Perhaps most critical were the activities lead by a group of CWP activists in the south of Israel. This group organized several feminist protests in Be’er Sheva and in Sderot (both in the rockets’ zones) and a successful conference in Sapir college in Sderot. Coming from the towns and cities that the Israeli government presented as completely pro-war, their voices were very strong and important ones in the overall protest movement. The statement signed by women’s organizations in Israel was translated into various languages and endorsed by organizations world-wide. Women’s Peace Coalition in Serbia, the Organization for Women’s Liberation ˆ Iran, Women in Black world-wide, and women’s organizations from Sudan, Canada, Australia, U.S.A and European countries sent us words of solidarity, organized actions and pressured their governments to break the international silent support for this war.

Thank you!

Socio-Political Context: Political Persecution, Biased Media and Right-Wing Incitement:

1.  What did it mean to be active against the war during the 21 days of Israel’s military attack on Gaza? While the majority of peace activists and anti-war demonstrators faced various forms of silencing, persecution and social exclusion, Palestinian citizens of Israel were the main target for repression and silencing.

2.  Legal persecution: More than 550 people were arrested in peaceful protests against the war, and over 200 have yet to be released. The vast majority of the arrestees are Palestinian citizens of Israel. Israel’s Attorney General instructed the State Prosecutors to request arrest until the end of legal proceedings for each person arrested during the protests.

3.  Right-wing anti-democratic incitement: Leading politicians in Israel voiced inciting expressions against people opposing or skeptical about the war, including threats of citizenship deprivation and labeling them as traitors and alleys of Hamas. The former Prime Minister and a leading candidate in the upcoming
elections, Binyamin Netanyahu, declared in the Knesset: “We require every citizen to be loyal and we will act harshly against the collaborators of Hamas from within.”

4.  Fascist violence: Demonstrations and rallies were regularly assaulted by rightwing people and crowds. Life threats on key activists were not uncommon. In the mass demonstration in Tel Aviv, for example, several activists were assaulted and injured by counter-demonstrators.

5.  Police violence and persecution: We often had to deal with police aggression and persecution. Many key activists were taken by the police and/or the security services (Shabak) to interrogations, where they were threatened and pressure to maintain a low profile.

6.  Biased media: The Israeli media remained, throughout the war, extremely biased and hardly open to inform the public of the horrors in Gaza. We did succeed to bring the voices opposing to the war into the media, yet it was difficult to challenge the public consensus and justifications for the attack.

The CWP Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza continues with all its strength. Now the international key players are entering the Gaza strip. It is critical to ensure that their presence will make a real difference. That it will protect people’s right to life, dignity and freedom, rather than normalize the current state of siege and occupation de-facto.

See the CWP website for updates and further information.

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Posted by Fempeace at 7:09 am