My right and my moral responsibility

Now that the House of Representatives has decided that boycotting Israel is antisemitic, it is time that I confess my various crimes. 

I have indeed been boycotting products. I refuse to do business with Airbnb because the company makes money renting apartments and houses in the illegal settlements. Palestinian homes get demolished and Jewish only settlement blocks are built, then rented out by Airbnb. 

I also would never buy or sell my house using RE/MAX, another company profiting from the settlements. RE/MAX buys and sells apartments and homes there, but of course not to everyone. Only to those with the right ethnic and religious backgrounds need apply.

I refuse to buy a Volvo because the car company makes heavy equipment used to destroy Palestinian homes. HP will never get my business because of the work they do computerizing the checkpoints and surveillance systems in the West Bank. I wouldn't use HSBC Bank because it loans money to companies that arm the occupation. 

If I were a gambler, I would boycott the Sands Hotels because they are owned by Israeli/American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who buys support for Israel by donating tens of millions to Trump and the Republican Party. If I had young children, I wouldn't let them watch Fox Kids or Power Rangers because they belong to Israeli/American billionaire Haim Saban, who ensures support for the occupation by paying millions in bribes to the Democratic Party. 

Boycotting is both my right and my moral responsibility. 

Fred Nagel

Needed to bring a just and lasting peace

Following is the LTE by Joey Naham and Jim Brown published Sunday, August 25th in Newsday,  concerning the BDS Issue:

Letter to the Editor, Newsday, published August 25, 2019.

"The controversy over Israel’s refusal to allow an official visit by two members of Congress highlights the negative effects of a misguided bipartisan attempt by representatives of both major political parties to attack and smear the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights and freedom. By an overwhelming margin in July, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution to condemn the BDS movement and to endorse an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution. Legislatures in more than two dozen U.S. states have passed measures condemning the BDS movement or banning contracts with businesses involved with it.

Such undemocratic action is divisive and violates free-speech rights. It is outrageous that lawmakers have supported legislation to penalize or vilify anyone who advocates a boycott of Israel for its oppressive treatment of Palestinians under a decades-old occupation.
BDS is a peaceful approach to change — part of the process of negotiation, now stalled — that is desperately needed to bring a just and lasting peace to Israel and Palestine."
Joseph Naham and Jim Brown,

Editor’s note: The writers are chair and secretary, respectively, of the Green Party of Nassau County.

Last night I had the strangest dream

Last night I had the strangest dream. My country had turned into a Christian nation, and everybody who wasn't part of the church, lost most of their rights. 

Suddenly, only Christians could drive on our nation's major highways. Only Christians could buy property. Our legal system had split into two forms of justice, one for Christians and one for the nonbelievers. In fact, nonbelievers were put under military justice, with few rights and long prison terms for being another religion. Even their children were routinely rounded up and sent to jail.

Some of the prisons for the nonbelievers were immense open air camps behind barbed wire. Christians could shoot into such camps at will, often killing men, women and children. Their fields were destroyed and we cut their food supply to keep them all at the brink of starvation. We didn't let them fish in international waters and routinely shot at their boats. Life for millions of non-Christians was made short and brutish, a sort of punishment for not being of the right faith. 

A funny thing had happened to my Christianity. I knew my religion was full of wise teachings, but I couldn't remember any of them. Now my beliefs were nothing but love for my country and hatred for all non-Christians. I didn't allow anyone to challenge my beliefs either. To me, anyone who questioned what my country had become were simply anti-Christians. 

Last night I dreamed my country had turned into Israel. 

Fred Nagel

BDS will end Israeli apartheid

To the Editor:

Israel is a rogue nation which repeatedly violates international law,  UN resolutions, and the human rights of Palestinians and Bedouins.   This outlaw and criminal  behavior  would not be possible without the  support of the United States and our taxpayer dollars ( $3.8 billion per year).  Since 1967 Israel has demolished 55,000 Palestinian homes - in 1948 Israel demolished 60,000 homes and terrorized  850,000 Palestinians into abandoning their land and homes.  Since 1967 the Israeli army (IDF) has militarily occupied  Gaza and the West Bank, and imposed a brutal blockade on Gaza,  intentionally causing shortages of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies.  This  year peaceful, non-violent  border protests by desperate Palestinians  were met with Israeli army sniper fire that killed over 200 Palestinians  including journalists,  medics, and  disabled demonstrators  in wheelchairs - IDF snipers  severely wounded  more than 20,000 protesters! 

With the relentless, violent and illegal theft of occupied Palestinian lands, homes, and farms  to build apartheid, Jewish only settlements  there are now over 500,000 Jewish settlers occupying over 200 settlements, outposts, and neighborhoods.   Israel has been condemned widely by the international community for it’s brutal ethnic cleansing and creation of an apartheid state where only Jews have full citizenship and rights.  

The non-violent BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions)  movement is attempting to pressure Israel to end it’s military occupation, secure equal rights for all (Jews and Arabs), and to allow Palestinians to return to their  stolen lands.  A boycott ended South African apartheid - hopefully, BDS will end Israeli apartheid. 

Eli Kassirer

New Paltz, NY

Comments to the Dutchess County Legislature

Greetings to the Dutchess County Legislature.  I’m Gregory DeSylva from Clinton. My comments are about the County partnering with Israel.  I’m leaving copies with documentation here for you.

In 1944, Palestinian Arabs were 69% of the population of the Holy Land [1] and they owned 9 times more of the land than Jews [2].  

This changed radically around 1948, when the creators of the Jewish state ethnically cleansed 711,000 [3] Arabs from the 78% of the Holy Land that became Israel.   According to Ilan Pappe, Israeli Historian, they achieved this through at least 31 massacres of Arabs [4] – sometimes including women and children - terrorizing hundreds of thousands more into fleeing their villages. They then destroyed 418 of these villages [5] to keep the Arabs from returning to them and shot dead a great number unarmed Arabs who still tried to return home [6].

Due to this ethnic cleansing, in 1949 the new Jewish state contained only 14% Arabs [7].  Today, about 20% of Israelis are Arabs, but they’re second-class in terms of where they can own property, education, jobs, and in other regards.

In 1967, Israel extended its reach to the last 22% of the Holy Land through its military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, where many of the 1948 refugees had taken refuge.  Subsequently, it has destroyed 49,320 Arab houses [8] and other structures in the West Bank, creating over 300,000 more refugees [9].  Quickly, Israel began colonizing these remnants of the Holy Land in defiance of international law [10].  Today, over 600,000 Jewish settlers illegally live there [11], and Israel keeps building settlements for more.  To make room, it destroys the homes and livelihoods of the remaining Palestinians, squeezes them into virtual ghettos, and dominates them with an iron fist. Yes, apartheid has come to the Holy Land! 

Dutchess County should not ignore these gross injustices. It should not put business before human rights. It should not partner with Israel until the Palestinians have equal rights to, and in, the Holy Land.

[1] based on Survey of Palestine, Chapter VI, Table 1    

[2] based on The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappe, Table 1, p. 295

[3] United Nations Conciliation Commission Report of Oct. 23, 1950

[4] The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, p. 258

[5] Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return, by Naseer Aruji, p. 50.

[6] Foreign Affairs, Vol. 32, July 1954, p. 556 

[7] Israeli Central Bur. Of Statistics “Statistical Abstract of Israel No. 55”2004

[8] ICAHD.org home page: estimate based on UN OCHA data.

[9] Palestinian Refugees: Mythology, Identity & the Search for Peace, by Robert Bowker  

[10] 4^th Geneva Convention Article 49: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” 

[11] Human Rights Watch.org “Israel and Palestine Events 2018”

U.S. Vets Expose Irish Govt Complicity In War Crimes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlOioJoxO9o


Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers are two US Army Veterans and members of US Vets for Peace who felt called to come to Ireland to help expose the Irish Governments complicity in US led war crimes in the Middle East and North Africa. They were imprisoned for 13 days without bail and their passports were taken off them affectively holding them hostage in Ireland pending a trial. This legal action is in stark contrast to the treatment Clare Daly and Mick Wallace TD's got for essentially the same crime (both spending only 2 hours in a cell). Please show solidarity and help to spread the word about this hypocrisy. Go to www.afri.ie or www.shannonwatch.org for more information about upcoming fund raising events, trial dates or vigils.

Israel is a rogue nation

To the Editor:

Israel is a rogue nation which repeatedly violates international law, UN resolutions, and the human rights of Palestinians and Bedouins. This outlaw and criminal behavior would not be possible without the support of the United States and our taxpayer dollars ( $3.8 billion per year). Since 1967 Israel has demolished 55,000 Palestinian homes - in 1948 Israel demolished 60,000 homes and terrorized 850,000 Palestinians into abandoning their land and homes. Since 1967 the Israeli army (IDF) has militarily occupied Gaza and the West Bank, and imposed a brutal blockade on Gaza, intentionally causing shortages of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies. This year peaceful, non-violent border protests by desperate Palestinians were met with Israeli army sniper fire that killed over 200 Palestinians including journalists, medics, and disabled demonstrators in wheelchairs - IDF snipers severely wounded more than 20,000 protesters! 

With the relentless, violent and illegal theft of occupied Palestinian lands, homes, and farms to build apartheid, Jewish only settlements there are now over 500,000 Jewish settlers occupying over 200 settlements, outposts, and neighborhoods. Israel has been condemned widely by the international community for it’s brutal ethnic cleansing and creation of an apartheid state where only Jews have full citizenship and rights.  

The non-violent BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement is attempting to pressure Israel to end it’s military occupation, secure equal rights for all (Jews and Arabs), and to allow Palestinians to return to their stolen lands. A boycott ended South African apartheid - hopefully, BDS will end Israeli apartheid. 

Eli Kassirer