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POPS'Worse than apartheid' Nablus is closed off by six checkpoints. Until 2005, one of them was open. "The checkpoints are supposedly for security purposes, but anyone who wants to perpetrate an attack can pay NIS 10 for a taxi and travel by bypass roads, or walk through the hills. The real purpose is to make life hard for the inhabitants. The civilian population suffers," says Said Abu Hijla, a lecturer at Al-Najah University in the city. In the bus I get acquainted with my two neighbours: Andrew Feinstein, a son of Holocaust survivors who is married to a Muslim woman from Bangladesh and served six years as an MP for the ANC ; and Nathan Gefen, who has a male Muslim partner and was a member of the right-wing Betar movement in his youth. Gefen is active on the Committee against AIDS in his AIDS-ravaged country.
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POPSWhy Israel fits in with the West
"It is possible that war is the only way out of the situation created by Zionism. I leave it to others to find cause for rejoicing in this. But if there is any chance of some day seeing a peaceful solution, it will not be achieved by telling the Arabs that it is their duty to applaud their conquerors because they are Europeans or are in the process of becoming Europeanized, because they are 'advanced,' because they are revolutionary or (almost) socialist and, even less, simply because they are Jews! The most that can be asked of the Arabs is that they resign themselves to a disagreeable situation, and that in resigning themselves they make the best of their resignation. It is not easy to get a conquered person to resign himself to defeat, and it is not made any easier by loudly proclaiming how right it was that he was soundly beaten. It is generally wiser to offer him compensation. And those who have not suffered from the fight can (and, I believe, even must) recommend forgiveness ...
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POPSTurning Israeli Soldiers into Animals: by Israeli Soldiers A force for justice Breaking the Silence was formed four years ago by a group of ex-soldiers, most of whom had served in Israel Defence Forces combat units in Hebron. Many of the soldiers do reserve duty in the military each year. It has collected some 500 testimonies from former soldiers who served in the West Bank and Gaza. Its first public exposure was with an exhibition of photographs by soldiers serving in Hebron and the organisation also runs regular tours of Hebron for Israeli students and diplomats. It receives funding from groups as diverse as the Jewish philanthropic Moriah Fund, the New Israel Fund, the British embassy in Tel Aviv and the EU.
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POPSJews against Zionism I have clipped this not to promote a point of view but to offer those who care to know the many strands of perspectives on Israel an opportunity to go and look at some sites that explain that by no means all Jews support the state of Israel or its Zionist ideology.
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POPSTel Aviv 10th international doc. Film Festival "In Israel we are at a crossroads between East and west, between different religions; we have issues like immigration and inter-marriage," said Tsur. "Young filmmakers are looking at Israel from a different angle."
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POPSUseful Background to One State Solution This is a particularly thorough wiki page which introduces an overview of the one state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli situation, and has many links to detailed advocates and critics. From mainstream mass media one would be totally unaware of the many initiatives and ideas for peace by actual Palestinians and Israelis who do not follow the agenda set by the dominant powers.
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POPSPalestine and Israel: one state Beneath the binary hatreds of commentators, much work goes on between those Palestinians and Israelis who reject the imposed two-state solution.
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POPSFreedom of Speech - Al Jazeera banned in Baharain There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind – are always attained by giving them to someone else. PEYTON CONWAY MARCH (1864-1955 an American chief of staff)
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POPS"Shahida – Brides of Allah". An Israeli View of Female Palestinian Terrorists
Die israelische Regisseurin Natalie Assouline hat über zwei Jahre Palästinenserinnen begleitet, die nach gescheiterten Selbstmordanschlägen in Israel inhaftiert wurden. Entstanden ist ein aufwühlender Film voller Widersprüche. Als sie mit Sehnsucht über ihre Kinder sprechen, die sie nur durch die Gitter sehen können, empfindet man Mitleid mit ihnen. Als in einer Szene die 30-jährige Kahira endlich ihre vier Kinder umarmen darf, kommen dem Zuschauer Tränen in die Augen. Und das, obwohl er weiß, dass diese Mutter eine Mörderin ist. Die israelische Regisseurin Natalie Assouline porträtiert in ihrem Debütfilm palästinensische Terroristinnen. Dabei lässt sie die Zuschauer immer wieder in der Spannung zwischen Mitgefühl und Verurteilung. Der bedrückende Dokumentarfilm heißt "Shahida", auf Arabisch "die Heilige", und als Heilige sehen sich diese Gefangenen. Das ist Teil ihrer Selbsttäuschung. ( Deutscher Originalartikel )
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POPSAnt-Zionist Jews and The Tyranny of Israel That there are many, many enlightened Jews against the the tyranny of a nation operating under a fanatical ideology is a glimmer of hope that one day polarised hatreds will cease in the tragic region of Palestine
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POPSMicha Brumlik's Critique of Zionism - In Order to be a Realist, You Must Believe in Miracles
Die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Zionismus spitzt sich oftmals polemisch zu, so dass eine nüchterne Diskussion nicht immer leicht ist. Umso erfreulicher, dass der Frankfurter Erziehungswissenschafter Micha Brumlik sich an eine Kritik wagt, die auf billige Polemik verzichtet. Ausgangspunkt ist die gegenwärtige innerjüdische Debatte um die Legitimität des Staates Israel. Brumliks Essay ist die erste systematische deutsch-jüdische Antwort auf die vereinzelten, sich starker Publizität erfreuenden israelkritischen Stimmen amerikanischer, britischer und französischer Juden, die in den letzten beiden Jahren zu hören waren. Obwohl der Autor kein Blatt vor den Mund nimmt, wenn es um die Siedlungspolitik Israels sowie um Menschenrechtsverletzungen geht, distanziert er sich doch klar von der Ablehnung Israels durch anerkannte Intellektuelle wie Tony Judt oder Alfred Grosser. Brumlik nimmt auch eindeutig Stellung gegen "Schalom 5767".
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POPSPalestine: how a battle for land became religious Article is brief and needs reading in its entirety to consider its overview of how a minority of religionists have turned a secular struggle into a religious one, a trend which is not completed but, the author feels, becoming increasingly dangerous.