1 September 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
Sygmunt Bauman says Israel 'terrified of peace' and 'taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts,' in interview with Polish weekly 'Politika.'
By Roman Frister
Sygmunt Bauman, the Jewish sociologist and one of the greatest philosophers of our time, castigated Israel harshly this week, saying it did not want peace and was afraid of it.
Bauman said Israel was "taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts," and compared the separation fence to the walls surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the Holocaust.
In a long interview to the important Polish weekly "Politika," Bauman said Israel was not interested in peace. "Israeli politicians are terrified of peace, they tremble with fear from the possibility of peace, because without war and without general mobilization they don't know how to live," he said.
"Israel does not see the missiles falling on communities along the border as a bad thing. On the contrary, they would be worried and even alarmed were it not for this fire," the Polish-British sociologist said.
Bauman, who lived in Israel briefly, referred to an article he wrote in Haaretz, in which he expressed concern that the younger Israeli generation was being raised on the understanding that the state of war and military alert were natural and unavoidable.
The Polish public has not heard such a diatribe against Zionism and Israel since the anti-Semitic propaganda campaign the Communist regime conducted after the Six-Day War.
Not surprisingly, leading Jewish figures came out against it.
"Politika" published the criticism alongside the letter of Israeli ambassador in Warsaw Zvi Bar, who rejected Bauman's "half truths" and "groundless generalizations."
Bauman, who was born in Poland in 1925, has been living in England since he left his lecturer's chair at Tel Aviv University in 1971.
He is seen as one of the greatest sociologists of our time and has dealt extensively with the ties between the Holocaust and modernism, globalization and consumer culture in the postmodern era.
Some of his books have been translated into Hebrew, including "Liquid Love."
His grandson is attorney Michael Sfard, of the human rights group Yesh Din.
Mostrando postagens com marcador Yesh Din. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Yesh Din. Mostrar todas as postagens
quinta-feira, 1 de setembro de 2011
quarta-feira, 20 de julho de 2011
YES MR. LIEBERMAN, I'M A PROUD JEWISH TERRORIST
19 July 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)
The foreign minister says Yesh Din, the organization of whose public council I am a member, is a terrorist organization - 69 years after the British Mandatory government defined me as a terrorist.
By Shlomo Gazit*
In 1942, as a young boy, a high school student in Tel Aviv, I joined the Haganah (the main pre-state underground Jewish militia ). The British Mandatory government considered me, and others who did as I did, to be members of an illegal organization. Two years later I enlisted in the Palmach, the elite strike force of the Haganah, and during my period of activity in the framework of the Jewish resistance movement the British government considered me a "terrorist." Afterwards I fought in the War of Independence and spent another 32 years in the Israel Defense Forces as a career soldier.
Today I consider the continuation of our occupation rule in Judea and Samaria an existential danger. As I see it, this situation is threatening the main achievement to which I contributed 70 years ago: the establishment of a sovereign and democratic Jewish state. If we don't separate as soon as possible from the Palestinian population on the ground, Jewish and democratic Israel will be unable to survive.
A few years ago I became a member of the public council of Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights. I can't influence Israel's diplomatic decisions, but I saw it as my duty to contribute to upholding the law in the occupied under our control. I believe that the Israeli government, the Knesset and the vast majority of the people want the law to be enforced in the area east of the Green Line, just as they want it to be enforced to the west of it. But in the present situation, unfortunately, there is no equal treatment for Jews and Arabs when it comes to law enforcement. The legal system that enforces the law in a discriminatory way on the basis of national identity, is actually maintaining an apartheid regime. And I wanted to prevent that with my activity and contribution as a member of the council of Yesh Din.
The Palestinian resident in the occupied territory is unable in most cases to stand up for his rights and to find his way in the State of Israel's civil and military bureaucratic maze. The group of researchers and volunteers (mainly female ) of Yesh Din serve as his mouthpiece. We do not presume to decide who is right in each and every instance. Our job is only to learn about all the details of the complaint and to bring it to the authorities.
The Israeli administration in the area, the IDF and the Israel Police, don't like our activity. They feel uncomfortable dealing with the complaints that we place before them. But none of them claims that our activity is unnecessary, unacceptable or subversive.
Yesterday something shocking happened. A respectable minister in the Israeli government, the foreign minister, the man who heads the Yisrael Beitenu party, called the organization of whose public council I am a member, Yesh Din, a terrorist organization - 69 years after the British Mandatory government defined me as a terrorist.
At the time I considered the epithet attached to me by the Mandatory government a badge of honor. Today I see the same title, which this time was attached to me by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, as a new badge of honor. I believe that the activity of Yesh Din deserves a medal. I see our activity as a crucial attempt to save the State of Israel from becoming an apartheid regime.
The foreign minister should have been the first to understand that. Doesn't he understand that a person who condemns the activity of Yesh Din is in effect announcing a deliberate intention to maintain a miscarriage of justice, a deliberate intention to maintain separate systems of law and justice for Jews and Arabs? Under these circumstances, Mr. Lieberman, I'm proud to be called a "terrorist" by you.
--------------
Shalom 1492 (From Wikipedia, 20 July 2011): *Shlomo Gazit (born Shlomo Weinstein, in 1926) is a retired Major General in the Israel Defense Forces and was in the past head of the intelligence service of the Israeli army, 1974–1978.
Gazit was born in 1926 in Istanbul, Turkey, to a family of Ukrainian Jews. He served as the head of the assessment department in IDF intelligence before the Six Day War, but then took leave to study for a Master degree in history. Gazit's studies were interrupted in the summer of 1967, when he was appointed by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to be in charge of a committee tasked with running the political, security, and later economic affairs in the newly captured territories. This group would later be renamed "The Unit for the Coordination of Operations in the Territories".
After seven years, Gazit was promoted to head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, a position he held from 1974 to 1978.
Upon his retirement from the IDF, he served as President of the Ben Gurion University in Beersheba for two four-year terms. Since 1988 he is a member of the staff of Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at the Tel Aviv University.
[edit] Books authored
• The Middle East Military Balance, 1988-1989: A Comprehensive Data Base & In-Depth Analysis of Regional Strategic Issues, Westview Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8133-0961-1
• The Middle East Military Balance, 1990-91, Westview Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8133-1413-5
• The Middle East Military Balance 1992-1993, Westview Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8133-2218-9
• The Middle East Military Balance 1993-1994, Westview Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8133-2658-3
• The Palestinian refugee problem, Tel Aviv University, 1995. ISBN 965-459-016-6
• The Carrot and the Stick: Israel's Policy in Judaea and Samaria, 1967-68 , B'nai B'rith Book Service, 1995. ISBN 0-910250-29-4
• Trapped Fools; Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories, Frank Cass, 2003. ISBN 0-7146-8390-6
• The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East, Vintage, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-7963-2
The foreign minister says Yesh Din, the organization of whose public council I am a member, is a terrorist organization - 69 years after the British Mandatory government defined me as a terrorist.
By Shlomo Gazit*
In 1942, as a young boy, a high school student in Tel Aviv, I joined the Haganah (the main pre-state underground Jewish militia ). The British Mandatory government considered me, and others who did as I did, to be members of an illegal organization. Two years later I enlisted in the Palmach, the elite strike force of the Haganah, and during my period of activity in the framework of the Jewish resistance movement the British government considered me a "terrorist." Afterwards I fought in the War of Independence and spent another 32 years in the Israel Defense Forces as a career soldier.
Today I consider the continuation of our occupation rule in Judea and Samaria an existential danger. As I see it, this situation is threatening the main achievement to which I contributed 70 years ago: the establishment of a sovereign and democratic Jewish state. If we don't separate as soon as possible from the Palestinian population on the ground, Jewish and democratic Israel will be unable to survive.
A few years ago I became a member of the public council of Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights. I can't influence Israel's diplomatic decisions, but I saw it as my duty to contribute to upholding the law in the occupied under our control. I believe that the Israeli government, the Knesset and the vast majority of the people want the law to be enforced in the area east of the Green Line, just as they want it to be enforced to the west of it. But in the present situation, unfortunately, there is no equal treatment for Jews and Arabs when it comes to law enforcement. The legal system that enforces the law in a discriminatory way on the basis of national identity, is actually maintaining an apartheid regime. And I wanted to prevent that with my activity and contribution as a member of the council of Yesh Din.
The Palestinian resident in the occupied territory is unable in most cases to stand up for his rights and to find his way in the State of Israel's civil and military bureaucratic maze. The group of researchers and volunteers (mainly female ) of Yesh Din serve as his mouthpiece. We do not presume to decide who is right in each and every instance. Our job is only to learn about all the details of the complaint and to bring it to the authorities.
The Israeli administration in the area, the IDF and the Israel Police, don't like our activity. They feel uncomfortable dealing with the complaints that we place before them. But none of them claims that our activity is unnecessary, unacceptable or subversive.
Yesterday something shocking happened. A respectable minister in the Israeli government, the foreign minister, the man who heads the Yisrael Beitenu party, called the organization of whose public council I am a member, Yesh Din, a terrorist organization - 69 years after the British Mandatory government defined me as a terrorist.
At the time I considered the epithet attached to me by the Mandatory government a badge of honor. Today I see the same title, which this time was attached to me by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, as a new badge of honor. I believe that the activity of Yesh Din deserves a medal. I see our activity as a crucial attempt to save the State of Israel from becoming an apartheid regime.
The foreign minister should have been the first to understand that. Doesn't he understand that a person who condemns the activity of Yesh Din is in effect announcing a deliberate intention to maintain a miscarriage of justice, a deliberate intention to maintain separate systems of law and justice for Jews and Arabs? Under these circumstances, Mr. Lieberman, I'm proud to be called a "terrorist" by you.
--------------
Shalom 1492 (From Wikipedia, 20 July 2011): *Shlomo Gazit (born Shlomo Weinstein, in 1926) is a retired Major General in the Israel Defense Forces and was in the past head of the intelligence service of the Israeli army, 1974–1978.
Gazit was born in 1926 in Istanbul, Turkey, to a family of Ukrainian Jews. He served as the head of the assessment department in IDF intelligence before the Six Day War, but then took leave to study for a Master degree in history. Gazit's studies were interrupted in the summer of 1967, when he was appointed by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to be in charge of a committee tasked with running the political, security, and later economic affairs in the newly captured territories. This group would later be renamed "The Unit for the Coordination of Operations in the Territories".
After seven years, Gazit was promoted to head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, a position he held from 1974 to 1978.
Upon his retirement from the IDF, he served as President of the Ben Gurion University in Beersheba for two four-year terms. Since 1988 he is a member of the staff of Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at the Tel Aviv University.
[edit] Books authored
• The Middle East Military Balance, 1988-1989: A Comprehensive Data Base & In-Depth Analysis of Regional Strategic Issues, Westview Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8133-0961-1
• The Middle East Military Balance, 1990-91, Westview Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8133-1413-5
• The Middle East Military Balance 1992-1993, Westview Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8133-2218-9
• The Middle East Military Balance 1993-1994, Westview Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8133-2658-3
• The Palestinian refugee problem, Tel Aviv University, 1995. ISBN 965-459-016-6
• The Carrot and the Stick: Israel's Policy in Judaea and Samaria, 1967-68 , B'nai B'rith Book Service, 1995. ISBN 0-910250-29-4
• Trapped Fools; Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories, Frank Cass, 2003. ISBN 0-7146-8390-6
• The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East, Vintage, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-7963-2
Assinar:
Postagens (Atom)