Israel’s 60th Birthday

More people celebrating the 60th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Top Israeli singer Noa to headline

Noa, known in Israel as Achinoam Nini, is a leading international concert and recording artist who has been called the Israeli Celine Dion. She will perform in concert for Kaleidoscope Israel@60, Tuesday, May 13, at 7 p.m., at the Blanche Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, according to an announcement by the chairs of the Kaleidoscope Israel Committee, Diane and Paul Gallant, their children Steve and Amy Gallant and grandsons Richie and Tommy Gallant. (more…)

The only Israeli writer to boycott the Paris book fair explains why.

Silvia Cattori & Aharon Shabtaï

26 February, 2008
Countercurrents.org

An Interview with Aharon Shabtaï

When the announcement that Israel would attend the “Fiera del libro” of Turin, (*) came out, an immediate wave of protest arose in Italy; and many personalities supported the boycott call, made by the Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian Writers’ Associations (**). In France, strangely enough, the same invitation, to the “Salon du livre” of Paris, did not make much noise. Alone, the Israeli poet Aharon Shabtaï has refused to participate in these events, contrary to the 39 Israeli writers who accepted to be part of the Israeli delegation to these two exhibitions. Aharon Shabtaï explains here why these events –which he qualifies as “promotion of propaganda” for Israel-, must be boycotted, as well as any cultural event where this apartheid State is celebrated.

Silvia Cattori: In December 2007, learning that your name was among 40 Israeli writers invited at the “Salon du livre” of Paris where Israel is the “guest of honour”, you declared that it is not possible to participate in an event where Israel, which commits daily crimes against civilians, is invited. Apparently, 39 Israeli writers do not see any problem in participating!?

Aharon Shabtaï [1]: This event will be opened by the French president Sarkozy and the Israeli president Shimon Perès. Given this situation, going to the “Salon du livre” of Paris as a writer, with the Israeli delegation, means that you are going dressed with the colour of the Israeli flag. Every day, Israel commits war crimes and imposes collective punishments on the Palestinians. There is no reason to celebrate anything. (more…)

“At the end of June, London’s first ever street parade for Israel.” JC

First London parade celebrating ethnic cleansing, illegal occupation, war crimes and racism! Will peace activists mobilise, protest and make it the last?

* The following is amended new information from comments

There are two parades mentioned on the Israel at 60 UK site.

One in Manchester and one undisclosed - presumably the London one. Perhaps they’re yet to recieve permission? Both are for 29th June.

• Manchester Salute to Israel Parade
• Salute to Israel Parade

Windsor Castle and the Royal Family excellently exposed for celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary by wake from your slumber.

To think that they claim being “peace mediators”… I wonder if Tony Blair, the “Middle East envoy” will also be celebrating the elimination of Palestine in Windsor Castle??

Common friends… be good sports and let us all celebrate the rape of International Law, of UN resolutions, of the International Court of Justice, of the Geneva Convention and of the Charter of Human Rights! Let us all celebrate illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, illegal possession and development of nuclear weapons, illegal possession and development of chemical and biological weapons, assassination of political leaders without accountability, practice of apartheid and racism, the jailing of 11 thousand people without due process of law, the jailing of children and the daily murder and torture of innocent civilians.

Let us celebrate the dropping of 4.6 million cluster bombs/bomblets over Lebanon during the 2006 war or the deliberate targeting of Lebanon’s infrastructure and even UN buildings. Let us celebrate the Israeli siege on Gaza and the deliberate deprivation of 1.5 million innocent civilians of medical treatment and food or the spraying of Palestinians and their crops with poisonous gas in order to ethnically cleanse them. (more…)

Peoples Geography: Having first indicated Egypt as their choice, organisers of the Turin Book Fair postponed having Egypt as their international Guest of Honour for 2009. One would consider that in 2008, inviting Palestine as Guest of Honour would have been inspired, a powerful symbolic gesture to a peoples who have not experienced any let-up in blocked efforts towards justice.

Instead, the organisers chose Israel as book fair guest this year. This decision is coupled with the choice of Israel as guest of honour for the Paris Book Fair and is ill-considered, coinciding as it does with the 60th Anniversary of the Naqba and the founding of the state of Israel, and at a time when the Israeli military occupation has only worsened.

Italian and international protests and calls for boycott have ensued, protesting the organisers decision that would serve to “commemorate” the Israeli occupation state and and its repressive policies in the OPT. The protest organisers are “appalled to see the world of culture take the side of those who methodically operate to annihilate Palestine and the Palestinians”.

One of the invited Israeli writers, poet Aaron Shabtai, applied his conscience when he rsvp’ed the organisers. Here is his note to Edna Degon of the organising committee (from Tlaxcala):

Dear Edna,
Thank you for your letter.
I do not believe that a State that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural week. That is, it is anti-cultural; it is a barbarian act masked as culture in the most cynical way. It manifests support for Israel, and even to France that sustains the occupation. And I do not want to participate.
Kind regards,
Aharon Shabtai
7 December, 2007

The poor Queen had the recent misfortune to meet Ron Prosor Israel’s Hasbara propaganda officer / ambassador. Apparently he has invited her to come to Israel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ethnic cleaning of Palestine. It seems he didn’t get a direct answer saying the balls in her court. How does one politely tell Ron that no one is interested in coming to his party?  Has anyone he’s asked said yes? Most are never likely to say yes anyway - he’s asking them to generate news that associates Israel with legitimising top brands. He must know, for example, that Prince Charles has already refused to visit Israel “because of concerns the trip would be used to bolster the country’s international image.”

JP: Israel’s new ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.

Prosor, who is the 14th Israeli ambassador to the UK, told the queen: “It is an honor for me to present my credentials to the queen in the year that Israel celebrates its 60th year of independence.”

Totally Jewish: They discussed the importance of relations between Israel and Britain and spoke about Holocaust survivors and similarities between rockets falling on Sderot and the Queen’s experiences in London during the Second World War.

I hardly think a few amatuer rockets can be compared to the Nazi Blitz of London. I imagine the Queen spat out her tea in surprise when he mentioned it! The Blitz had more in common with Israel’s bombing of Lebanon in 2006. See here, here, here and here

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It seems obvious why people want to boycott a book fair honouring Israel’s 60th birthday. For one, its now accepted that in 1948 Israel ethnically cleansed most of the local population of Palestine in order to create a predominantly Jewish State. To celebrate the birthday is also to celebrate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Secondly since 1967 Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip against the UN plan for peace, resolution 242, which has overwhelming international support.

These are just two examples on a long list of criminal behaviour - but of course all that goes down Orwell’s memory hole and we are expected to believe the boycott is “a new aspect of an ancient hatred and it is very disturbing.” Time and again this claim of anti-Semitism is used without justification. This claim was at its most ridiculous during the 2006 Lebanon war where the motives of peace activists were similarly questioned. The hypocrisy was obvious - you cannot kill Arabs and cry anti-Semitism.

Hopefully the boycott will help raise these issues to the public and encourage Israel to follow international consensus and implement the UN peace plan.
Tariq Ali explains why he will boycott the event.

(more…)

Fury over plans to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in Italy.  The Italian Government has now felt the need to write and appologise to Israel.

ROME: The decision to select Israel as guest of honor at this spring’s International Book Fair in Turin has set off a furious debate among Italian, Israeli and Arab authors and intellectuals, including calls to boycott the event.

Critics of the choice say that offering such an honor at the opening of the fair in May, when Israel will celebrate its 60th anniversary as a nation, ignores its policies toward the Palestinians.

“A prestigious event like the book fair can’t pretend it doesn’t know what’s happening in that part of the Middle East,” said Vincenzo Chieppa, a local leader of the Italian Communist Party, who was the first to raise objections.

The calls to boycott the fair - coming both from far leftist political activists and prominent Italian and Arab intellectuals and authors - have produced a wave of newspaper articles, some raising concerns about censorship, others extolling the need to place art above politics.

“The aim of culture and literature is not to build barriers among people, but to open up to others,” wrote the novelist and playwright A. B. Yehoshua in the Turin daily newspaper La Stampa.

On Thursday, three dozen members of the Italian Parliament drafted a letter of apology to the state of Israel, and invited Israeli authors to visit Turin, “a tolerant and open city.” President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy is scheduled to inaugurate the fair on May 8.

(more…)