Here we go again…

Everyone should boycott Israeli Academia. Uh... except for me.

Our previous example of Israeli apartheid told of a non-Jewish Arab Israeli citizen with full voting rights in Israel who was a member of the same fitness club as Israel’s IDF Chief of Staff who is Jewish. In South Africa’s apartheid regime, a black and a white couldn’t share the same bus, get married, or have the black person vote for the country’s government, and they definitely did not share fitness facilities. Obviously Israel has much to learn about apartheid.

However, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Ronnie Kasrils have all compared Israel to an apartheid regime and in light of that we at Jewlicious.com have a responsibility to update our readers with as many examples of Israeli apartheid as we can find. Today’s example is the ongoing education of Omar Barghouti.

Omar Barghouti first came to my attention as a speaker at the York University Let’s-Make-Israel-A-Single-State conference a few months ago. There he spoke about settlers and indigenous people, without differentiating whether the “settlers” were inside or outside the Green Line. I didn’t hear his talk but in the abstract of his presentation at York University, he proposed a system that works quite well in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Iran and Libya:

…Addressing the basic requirements of justice, the secular democratic state model has the best chance to ethically de-dichotomize and decolonize, or de-zionize, Palestine, thereby leading to a just and lasting peace that is anchored in international law and universal human rights and is conducive to ethical coexistence. Such a process of non-violent transformation requires a revitalized, democratized Palestinian civil resistance movement with a clear vision for a shared, just society and international support for Palestinian rights and for ending all forms of Zionist apartheid and colonial rule, mainly through boycott, divestment and sanctions, BDS, campaigns.

Just as a side note, Omar Barghouti was permitted to present at the York conference although he has no Ph.D. and isn’t an academic. His bio at the conference stated that he is:

…A founding member of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to uphold international law and universal human rights…He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.

Using those standards, it’s surprising that the York conference didn’t invite me to give a talk about Zionism and justice, but what can you expect when the conference itself was organized by another fella, Mazen Masri, who didn’t have a doctorate. Master’s degrees are apparently excellent degrees – and in fact all you need – to possess when decrying Israeli apartheid.

An interesting omission on the conference’s bio of Omar Barghouti is that he is currently studying for a doctorate at an Israeli university – Tel Aviv University. Of course, Mazen Masri, the conference’s co-organizer, earned one of his degrees, a law degree, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. APARTHEID!!

Just in case this isn’t fully clear, allow me to explain. The apartheid state of Israel funds its public universities with taxpayer funds. Needless to say, these are the taxes paid primarily, though not solely, by the apartheid-monster-like secular and modern Orthodox Jewish Israelis to the apartheid state of Israel (there are serious tax collection problems in the Haredi and Arab sectors because of poverty rates and rejection of the authority of the state). Then, these apartheid-funded apartheid universities allow non-Jewish Palestinian Arabs (or Israeli-Arabs if you prefer) to study within them at apartheid-taxpayer subsidized rates. True success is measured by the urgency and vigor of the graduate’s attacks on Israel. Mr. Masri and Mr. Barghouti are indeed poster children for how efficiently and effectively this system works.

In fact, it works so well that Mr. Barghouti decided to stick it out after his master’s and go for the doctorate.

Now, you may be thinking in your little apartheid-loving mind that somebody should try to get Barghouti out of Tel Aviv University since the tax dollars could go to another student who might decide to, you know, practice apartheid instead of decry apartheid. Well, you apartheid-junkie, you think just like a colonizing settler who is victimizing the indigenous Barghoutis! In fact, some of them wrote letters and put out a petition addressed to TAU complaining that apartheid regimes don’t subsidize their enemies.

Go and tell that to the apartheid President of Tel Aviv University:

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
May 3, 2009
Dear Governors and Friends,
I am writing to you to clarify the University’s standing on the recent debate regarding Omar Barghouti, a Tel Aviv University master’s student of philosophy. Mr. Barghouti is leading an international campaign to boycott Israeli universities, despite being a student at one of those universities.
A university campus should be a place that encourages and tolerates free speech, no matter how offensive the expressed opinions may be to the majority of students and faculty at that institution, or indeed to the public at large. Our university has adopted a similar policy also in previous occasions. Moreover, if legal issues are involved, a university does not have the authority to prosecute individuals. Rather, such a matter should be pursued by the State through legal channels.
In response, therefore, to the petition calling for the expulsion of Mr. Barghouti that will be submitted to us in the near future, the University cannot and will not expel this student based on his political views or actions. He will be assessed only on the basis of his academic achievements and excellence.

Yours faithfully,
Prof. Zvi Galil

It is easy to understand why the world needs a boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and its apartheid policies, isn’t it?

By the way, when a Forward reporter asked Barghouti about his subsidized Israeli education, Barghouti said that he “wouldn’t discuss his personal life.”

Of course not. Who has time when one is fighting apartheid?

Trader Joe’s in San Francisco being vandalized. Will TJ’s press charges? Should they draw more attention to these folks or should they let this fade away.

It is surprising that the store employees didn’t defend their products. These hooligans march into their store and the employees sit so passively as if it was normal. Can you imagine if these product progromists walked into a Chaldean owned 7/11 in Detroit and pulled this stunt? They would be crushed by baseball bats.

Can you imagine if they walked into a mom and pop store selling Israeli oranges in Koreatown in LA? They would be running for cover from shotgun blasts.

I guess in SF the store employees were alerted to be passive and not risk anything. Basically they were doing what they were told.

But why didn’t anyone else do anything? If they marched into our TJ’s first off they would have to deal with Dale, who would have punched out their lights. Then they would have had to deal with shopping carts whizzing in their direction being flung by angry grandmas. Perhaps a rack of cereal might have accidently fallen on their heads?

Not that I am in any way at all advocating any violence. I am just saying that this was a shocking assault and these product progromists picked their TJ target very well. If they had pulled this vandalism somewhere else, they would not have such pretty pictures, the camera would likely have been smashed.

Hat tip to Scott Jacobs

Say NO! to meaningless sloganeering and empty gestures!

From Amazon.com: Multinational corporations have many enemies but few as creative and funny as the Yes Men. In 1993, Mike Bonanno made news by switching the voice boxes of Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls and returning them to store shelves. In 1996, Andy Bichlbaum made a splash by programming kissing, swimsuit-clad men into 80,000 copies of an action video game. When the two met, a collaboration was born. In 1999, they created a Web site parodying that of the World Trade Organization (WTO).Though the WTO denounced the spoof site, and though its creators felt the satire was self-evident, legitimate speaking invitations began arriving by e-mail. Undaunted, the Yes Men donned thrift-store suits and went where they’d been asked, posing as WTO spokemen and making outrageously callous statements. Their audiences were unfazed, prompting the Yes Men to raise the stakes again and again.

In 2008, the Yes Men premiered The Yes Men Fix the World at Sundance, a movie which follows the two as they infiltrate the world of big business and pull off outrageous pranks that highlight the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet. Invited to present their film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, they originally agreed and then pulled out, citing their adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Asked why they don’t boycott the Congo or the US, Andy Bichlbaum said that “we haven’t been invited to the Kinshasa Film Festival (and we wouldn’t have been able to afford the private security force if we had been). More importantly, changing U.S. policy (and the direct and indirect results of that policy, e.g. in the Congo) is going to take a lot more than a boycott—whereas in Israel, a boycott could actually work.” Given that the bulk of their revenue comes from the US, one can’t help note that that sure is a convenient answer.

The duo then wrote an open letter to the organizers of the Jerusalem Film Festival articulating the reasons for their decision not to present their film there. I in turn decided to write an open letter to Andy and Mike expressing why I will no longer pay to see their films or buy their books. Read it after the bump!

Dear Yes Men,
I regret to say that I have taken the hard decision to not pay to watch your film “The Yes Men Fix the World,” in solidarity with intelligent and caring people who recognize that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (http://www.bdsmovement.net/), in whose name you withdrew from the Jerusalem Film Festival, is a misguided and malicious effort whose aim is more to harm and libel Israel than it is to actually further peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.

This decision does not come easily as for years I have enjoyed and felt a strong affinity with your antics aimed at exposing greed, stupidity and corruption, in both the corporate and governmental sectors. I’ve lived in New Orleans and even returned last year for two weeks of volunteer humanitarian work. While rebuilding homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, I couldn’t help but recall your HUD prank that highlighted the destruction of 500 undamaged public housing units in New Orleans. I too am horrified by the actions of corporations like Exxon and Dow who cause death and destruction with relative impunity.

But despite the appreciation I have for your work, I cannot abandon my common sense and decency. Your comparison of Apartheid era South Africa to Israel is simply false and totally inaccurate. Palestinian civil society has had ample opportunity to live in peace with Israel, but these opportunities have been continuously stymied by their government’s rejectionism. If peace and compliance with International norms of conduct is what you want, you’d have more success boycotting the Palestine Authority and Hamas.

It is painful to do this, but I am left with no choice when you lend credence to marginal ignoramuses in Israel and around the world who revoltingly use the term “fascist” to describe Israeli policies. In doing so you trivialize the crimes committed by actual fascists and dishonor the memories of their many, many victims. More importantly, you do nothing to advance the cause of peace. I know what I’m talking about and it’s painful to think about just how wrong you are in this case.

Of course things in Israel are less than ideal, when are they ever ideal when one lives in a perpetual state of conflict? When rockets rain on your countrymen? When the possibility of random terrorist attacks against civilians is a daily reality? When world leaders wish you and yours to be wiped off the face of the earth? When your country is singled out as the worst abuser of human rights truly while genocidal maniacs defiantly visit world capitals unhindered?

Is it Anti-Zionism or merely age old Antisemitism rearing its ugly head again less than 70 years after the fires of Auschwitz were finally put out? And what of the Jews that lend succor and support to our enemies? Is it self hatred or merely survival instinct that motivates their deeds? Whatever words are applied to such actions, our entertainment dollars mustn’t help lend an aura of normalcy to individuals that make these decisions. For me, that’s the bottom line.

There is certainly another way to do things in Israel/Palestine, and that is what we must fight for, however difficult our task. We must eschew the otherwise well intentioned simple minded sloganeering and empty gestures of the Yes Men and the self righteous fools behind the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. We must appeal to the Palestinians to seek the way of a negotiated peace and to elevate new leaders that will unite them for a better future for them, for us and for all our children.

As for the Yes Men film, there is another way for it to be seen in Israel… and in Palestine, and anywhere else, so that the people most in need of comic relief, who would never have been able to see it at the Jerusalem Film Festival anyhow, will be able to see it too, and for free. It’s called Bit Torrent and the film is already available there, free of charge for anyone with a Bit Torrent client like uTorrent. Why reward a bad decision with your hard earned money? Folks like you have to learn that there are repercussions to their decisions. I’m not suggesting a boycott of the Yes Men, let each be guided by his or her conscience. But I’ll be damned if you see a nickel of my hard earned money. Unless you eventually reconsider and figure out more productive ways to advance peace in the Middle East.

L’shanah haba’ah beyerushalayim Andy and Mike you shmendricks!

You will never work in this town again.

Loach wants to Boycott Israel? Ok, Let’s boycott Ken Loach. Boycott his new film Looking For Eric. Boycott his old films. Post negative reviews of his films on Amazon, Netflix, on DVD sites. Let Ken Loach’s films rot on the shelves. Don’t fund his future films. Does he have a star on the Walk of Fame? Does anyone know?

Cultural terrorist Ken Loach needs to see that “every action has a reaction,” as Bob Marley ZZ”L has said.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday returned a 300-pound grant from the Israeli embassy, after bowing to pressure from director Ken Loach, the British Times reported on Wednesday.

The grant was intended to enable Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film, Surrogate.

According to the Times, Ezer’s film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic, and makes no reference to war or politics. It recently won the award for best film at an international women’s film festival in Israel.

Loach on Monday urged film goers to boycott the festival after pro-Palestinian activists protested the grant for the Israeli film. Loach has long been an outspoken critic of Israel and its actions in Gaza and Lebanon.

“The massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make this money unacceptable,” the Times quoted Loach as saying. “With regret, I must urge all who might consider visiting the festival to show their support for the Palestinian nation and stay away.”

Watch this video where he initiates a tribunal against Israel.

Protesters from Answer-LA and CSU Long Beach's Muslim Student Association staged a series of protests in February. Jewish and israel students were taunted, harrassed and verbally assaulted.

On March 18th, Zo Farooqui, an assimilated Muslim student senator (whose Facebook page features the quote “Kiss French. Wear Italian. Drive German. Drink Russian.”) submitted a sophisticated, albeit totally false set of accusations against Israel, and nearly got the Student Senate to pass the resolution.

Title: Resolution in Support of the Call for the Immediate End to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza and a Boycott of Goods and Services that Maintain Business Relations with Israel

Sponsored by: Senator Zo Farooqui

Date Submitted: March 18, 2009

WHERAS from December 27, 2008 to January 22, 2009 attacks launched by the Israeli government on Gaza have resulted in over 1,300 deaths and 5,300 injuries, with more than 60 percent of the victims consisting of women and children;1

WHEREAS schools, mosques, hospitals, ambulances, civilian infrastructure, and UN compounds have been targeted; (read the whole resolution below)

Thanks to some quick thinking Senators, they did not let their campus be a tool in the hands of the MSA – and the effort failed on the second reading.

Jewish students alerted to the issue rallied at the meeting for Israel. Community members sent dozens of letters within hours to the Senators when the word went out about the boycott effort.

Farooqui attempted to change the resolution to only target future contracts with Motorola and Caterpillar – when faced with the charge by Student Senate Treasurer, Brian Troutner, that breaking the existing contracts would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Senator Everett Bryan of the College of Engineering spoke up and said that asking the school to boycott companies won’t have an impact on the situation in Israel, and instead there are financial side effects and social side effects. The Associated Students can’t take a side on a conflict between two groups because it is a student organization which represents both groups. The negative effect of the boycott will be felt on students, not companies. He was also bothered that there was no end-date, doesn’t think resolution is humanitarian based, instead it’s politically charged, and recommended rejection. He suggested that the MSA and Hillel to write a resolution together that isn’t a boycott and addresses loss of civillian life. (notes courtesy of Sheryl Cohen)

Congress passed a law in 1977 creating the Office of Antiboycott Compliance within the Department of Commerce, in response to the Arab boycott of Israel. It specifically makes illegal agreements to refuse or actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.

If there is a nationwide effort among Muslim Student groups, part of the larger boycott movement against Israel, they might be breaking the law. If they are going across state lines with communications that in effect commit a crime, they can be guilty of some other nasty stuff.

And more so, if they conspire together to deprive Israel and Israelis of certain rights in the US, be they business dealings or any other, they may be guilty of racketeering and conspiracy charges too

Title: Resolution in Support of the Call for the Immediate End to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza and a Boycott of Goods and Services that Maintain Business Relations with Israel

Sponsored by: Senator Zo Farooqui

Date Submitted: March 18, 2009

WHERAS from December 27, 2008 to January 22, 2009 attacks launched by the Israeli government on Gaza have resulted in over 1,300 deaths and 5,300 injuries, with more than 60 percent of the victims consisting of women and children;1

WHEREAS schools, mosques, hospitals, ambulances, civilian infrastructure, and UN compounds have been targeted;

WHEREAS this recent act of blatant violence contributes to the 18-month blockade enforced by the Israeli government on the Gaza strip through strict patrol of its borders. The aforementioned act has resulted in the devastation of Gaza’s infrastructure up to and including the collapse of its economy, causing 80 percent of the population to rely on international aid for the basic means of survival;2

WHEREAS Israeli occupation forces have demolished electricity, gas, and water resources of the region, leaving half of the Gaza population consisting of children in an open-air prison with no option of becoming refugees;3

WHEREAS Israel’s continuous denial of medical supplies in the region constitutes a violation of their signatory obligation to the First Geneva Convention, and causes an inability to treat the wounded, resulting in otherwise preventable deaths;4

WHEREAS Human Rights Watch has found that the Israeli government has used the controversial chemical weapon white phosphorus which “sticks to human skin and will burn right through to the bone” in areas of high civilian density;5

WHEREAS the Fourth Geneva convention renders Israel’s actions a war crime based on its intent and grotesque disproportionate use of military action;6

WHEREAS arbitrary damage of property, denial of rest areas (shelters), and discrimination based on political ideology and other actions put the Israeli Government in direct violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 5, 12, 13, 15, 17, 21 and 24; be it

RESOLVED that the Associated Students of California State University, Long Beach stand in solidarity to condemn all violence against civilians in the region and demand the removal of the blockade on Gaza, including the opening of its borders, while condemning Israel’s disproportionate aggression toward the Palestinian people; be it further

RESOLVED that ASI participates in a boycott of companies that have any economic ties to the Israeli state, be it finally

RESOLVED that ASI urges California State University, Long Beach, its foundation and its auxiliary to end all business action, including investments, and procurement with companies that maintain business with the state of Israel.

Dear President McCormick:

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein
Campus Rabbi, Long Beach Hillel
Associate Rabbi, UC Irvine Interfaith Center
Director, Jewlicious Festivals

Feel free to voice your own concerns in a civil manner to President McCormickTelephone: 732-932-7454 • Fax: 732-932-8060.

Photo from Facebook group

Facebook never dreamed it could become another battleground in the war of ideas, words, and politics that surround the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When Facebook abruptly changed the country of people who live over the green-line to “Palestine” from “Israel”, Israelis were pissed off. Not wanting to be in their shoes for a second, I can understand why Facebook did a 180 so fast. I mean who wants to be in the way of a group of angry Israelis who found themselves virtually living outside of Israel, even as their government discusses keeping them out of a future Israel.

For their part, Palestinians of the West Bank are threatening to leave Facebook if this compromise reached — that allows Israelis living in major Israeli cities to keep their country as Israel—takes place. The ever pro-Arab Reuters reports:

“Facebook users in the Israeli West Bank settlements of Maale Adumim, Beitar Illit, and Ariel can now choose between Israel and Palestine,” Barker said last week in an email to Reuters….

“We also offer Hebron in both Israel and Palestine,” Barker said… about 18 West Bank settlements were currently listed on Facebook and that many more would be added in the future, giving users the option of choosing Israel or Palestine.

This virtual war within the world of Facebook has been continuing for a while, ever since groups for and against listing Palestine and Israel popped up. Various anti-Israel groups think Israel should not be listed, and some groups want to see the label Palestine disappear too.

Palestinian users have set up their own Facebook group whose members threatened to cancel their accounts if Palestine was removed from the site. Called “If Palestine is removed from Facebook… I am closing my account,” the group has over 4,700 members. [ED: This group does exist but has 4,398 members]

“We created this group to let our voices be heard not only among Facebook’s management but all the users, and to tell everyone that Palestine is and will always be a country,” Saif Qadoumi, the group’s 20-year-old founder, told Reuters.

Those familiar with Facebook realize that these members threatening to leave can come from any place, and that 4,700 out of over 15,000,000+ users is nothing for Facebook to loose, well, uhm face, over. And since this group was created by students from Dalhousie University, it seems even further proof that no one in the West Bank is being disenfranchised Facebook-wise.

And the last bit of irony – if Hamas succeeds in capturing the West Bank, those users can kiss Facebook goodbye anyway, because it will be banned as it is in Syria, Burma, Bhutan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Iran.

ed note: Gawker calls Facebook’s solution “appeasement”