person:nelson mandela

  • Refugee, volunteer, prisoner: #Sarah_Mardini and Europe’s hardening line on migration

    Early last August, Sarah Mardini sat on a balcony on the Greek island of Lesvos. As the sun started to fade, a summer breeze rose off the Aegean Sea. She leaned back in her chair and relaxed, while the Turkish coastline, only 16 kilometres away, formed a silhouette behind her.

    Three years before, Mardini had arrived on this island from Syria – a dramatic journey that made international headlines. Now she was volunteering her time helping other refugees. She didn’t know it yet, but in a few weeks that work would land her in prison.

    Mardini had crossed the narrow stretch of water from Turkey in August 2015, landing on Lesvos after fleeing her home in Damascus to escape the Syrian civil war. On the way, she almost drowned when the engine of the inflatable dinghy she was travelling in broke down.

    More than 800,000 people followed a similar route from the Turkish coast to the Greek Islands that year. Almost 800 of them are now dead or missing.

    As the boat Mardini was in pitched and spun, she slipped overboard and struggled to hold it steady in the violent waves. Her sister, Yusra, three years younger, soon joined. Both girls were swimmers, and their act of heroism likely saved the 18 other people on board. They eventually made it to Germany and received asylum. Yusra went on to compete in the 2016 Olympics for the first ever Refugee Olympic Team. Sarah, held back from swimming by an injury, returned to Lesvos to help other refugees.

    On the balcony, Mardini, 23, was enjoying a rare moment of respite from long days spent working in the squalid Moria refugee camp. For the first time in a long time, she was looking forward to the future. After years spent between Lesvos and Berlin, she had decided to return to her university studies in Germany.

    But when she went to the airport to leave, shortly after The New Humanitarian visited her, Mardini was arrested. Along with several other volunteers from Emergency Response Centre International, or ERCI, the Greek non-profit where she volunteered, Mardini was charged with belonging to a criminal organisation, people smuggling, money laundering, and espionage.

    According to watchdog groups, the case against Mardini is not an isolated incident. Amnesty International says it is part of a broader trend of European governments taking a harder line on immigration and using anti-smuggling laws to de-legitimise humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants.

    Far-right Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini recently pushed through legislation that ends humanitarian protection for migrants and asylum seekers, while Italy and Greece have ramped up pressure on maritime search and rescue NGOs, forcing them to shutter operations. At the end of March, the EU ended naval patrols in the Mediterranean that had saved the lives of thousands of migrants.

    In 2016, five other international volunteers were arrested on Lesvos on similar charges to Mardini. They were eventually acquitted, but dozens of other cases across Europe fit a similar pattern: from Denmark to France, people have been arrested, charged, and sometimes successfully prosecuted under anti-smuggling regulations based on actions they took to assist migrants.

    Late last month, Salam Kamal-Aldeen, a Danish national who founded the rescue non-governmental organisation Team Humanity, filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights, challenging what he says is a Greek crackdown on lifesaving activities.

    According to Maria Serrano, senior campaigner on migration at Amnesty International, collectively the cases have done tremendous damage in terms of public perception of humanitarian work in Europe. “The atmosphere… is very hostile for anyone that is trying to help, and this [has a] chilling effect on other people that want to help,” she said.

    As for the case against Mardini and the other ERCI volunteers, Human Rights Watch concluded that the accusations are baseless. “It seems like a bad joke, and a scary one as well because of what the implications are for humanitarian activists and NGOs just trying to save people’s lives,” said Bill Van Esveld, who researched the case for HRW.

    While the Lesvos prosecutor could not be reached for comment, the Greek police said in a statement after Mardini’s arrest that she and other aid workers were “active in the systematic facilitation of illegal entrance of foreigners” – a violation of the country’s Migration Code.

    Mardini spent 108 days in pre-trial detention before being released on bail at the beginning of December. The case against her is still open. Her lawyer expects news on what will happen next in June or July. If convicted, Mardini could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.

    “It seems like a bad joke, and a scary one as well because of what the implications are for humanitarian activists and NGOs just trying to save people’s lives.”

    Return to Lesvos

    The arrest and pending trial are the latest in a series of events, starting with the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, that have disrupted any sense of normalcy in Mardini’s life.

    Even after making it to Germany in 2015, Mardini never really settled in. She was 20 years old and in an unfamiliar city. The secure world she grew up in had been destroyed, and the future felt like a blank and confusing canvas. “I missed Syria and Damascus and just this warmness in everything,” she said.

    While wading through these emotions, Mardini received a Facebook message in 2016 from an ERCI volunteer. The swimming sisters from Syria who saved a boat full of refugees were an inspiration. Volunteers on Lesvos told their story to children on the island to give them hope for the future, the volunteer said, inviting Mardini to visit. “It totally touched my heart,” Mardini recalled. “Somebody saw me as a hope… and there is somebody asking for my help.”

    So Mardini flew back to Lesvos in August 2016. Just one year earlier she had nearly died trying to reach the island, before enduring a journey across the Balkans that involved hiding from police officers in forests, narrowly escaping being kidnapped, sneaking across tightly controlled borders, and spending a night in police custody in a barn. Now, all it took was a flight to retrace the route.

    Her first day on the island, Mardini was trained to help refugees disembark safely when their boats reached the shores. By nighttime, she was sitting on the beach watching for approaching vessels. It was past midnight, and the sea was calm. Lights from the Turkish coastline twinkled serenely across the water. After about half an hour, a walkie talkie crackled. The Greek Coast Guard had spotted a boat.

    Volunteers switched on the headlights of their cars, giving the refugees something to aim for. Thin lines of silver from the reflective strips on the refugees’ life jackets glinted in the darkness, and the rumble of a motor and chatter of voices drifted across the water. As the boat came into view, volunteers yelled: “You are in Greece. You are safe. Turn the engine off.”

    Mardini was in the water again, holding the boat steady, helping people disembark. When the rush of activity ended, a feeling of guilt washed over her. “I felt it was unfair that they were on a refugee boat and I’m a rescuer,” she said.

    But Mardini was hooked. She spent the next two weeks assisting with boat landings and teaching swimming lessons to the kids who idolised her and her sister. Even after returning to Germany, she couldn’t stop thinking about Lesvos. “I decided to come back for one month,” she said, “and I never left.”
    Moria camp

    The island became the centre of Mardini’s life. She put her studies at Bard College Berlin on hold to spend more time in Greece. “I found what I love,” she explained.

    Meanwhile, the situation on the Greek islands was changing. In 2017, just under 30,000 people crossed the Aegean Sea to Greece, compared to some 850,000 in 2015. There were fewer arrivals, but those who did come were spending more time in camps with dismal conditions.

    “You have people who are dying and living in a four-metre tent with seven relatives. They have limited access to water. Hygiene is zero. Privacy is zero. Security: zero. Children’s rights: zero. Human rights: zero… You feel useless. You feel very useless.”

    The volunteer response shifted accordingly, towards the camps, and when TNH visited Mardini she moved around the island with a sense of purpose and familiarity, joking with other volunteers and greeting refugees she knew from her work in the streets.

    Much of her time was spent as a translator for ERCI’s medical team in Moria. The camp, the main one on Lesvos, was built to accommodate around 3,000 people, but by 2018 housed close to 9,000. Streams of sewage ran between tents. People were forced to stand in line for hours for food. The wait to see a doctor could take months, and conditions were causing intense psychological strain. Self-harm and suicide attempts were increasing, especially among children, and sexual and gender-based violence were commonplace.

    Mardini was on the front lines. “What we do in Moria is fighting the fire,” she said. “You have people who are dying and living in a four-metre tent with seven relatives. They have limited access to water. Hygiene is zero. Privacy is zero. Security: zero. Children’s rights: zero. Human rights: zero… You feel useless. You feel very useless.”

    By then, Mardini had been on Lesvos almost continuously for nine months, and it was taking a toll. She seemed to be weighed down, slipping into long moments of silence. “I’m taking in. I’m taking in. I’m taking in. But it’s going to come out at some point,” she said.

    It was time for a break. Mardini had decided to return to Berlin at the end of the month to resume her studies and make an effort to invest in her life there. But she planned to remain connected to Lesvos. “I love this island… the sad thing is that it’s not nice for everybody. Others see it as just a jail.”
    Investigation and Arrest

    The airport on Lesvos is on the shoreline close to where Mardini helped with the boat landing her first night as a volunteer. On 21 August, when she went to check in for her flight to Berlin, she was surrounded by five Greek police officers. “They kind of circled around me, and they said that I should come with [them],” Mardini recalled.

    Mardini knew that the police on Lesvos had been investigating her and some of the other volunteers from ERCI, but at first she still didn’t realise what was happening. Seven months earlier, in February 2018, she was briefly detained with a volunteer named Sean Binder, a German national. They had been driving one of ERCI’s 4X4s when police stopped them, searched the vehicle, and found Greek military license plates hidden under the civilian plates.

    When Mardini was arrested at the airport, Binder turned himself in too, and the police released a statement saying they were investigating 30 people – six Greeks and 24 foreigners – for involvement in “organised migrant trafficking rings”. Two Greek nationals, including ERCI’s founder, were also arrested at the time.

    While it is still not clear what the plates were doing on the vehicle, according Van Esveld from HRW, “it does seem clear… neither Sarah or Sean had any idea that these plates were [there]”.

    The felony charges against Mardini and Binder were ultimately unconnected to the plates, and HRW’s Van Esveld said the police work appears to either have been appallingly shoddy or done in bad faith. HRW took the unusual step of commenting on the ongoing case because it appeared authorities were “literally just [taking] a humanitarian activity and labelling it as a crime”, he added.
    Detention

    After two weeks in a cell on Lesvos, Mardini was sent to a prison in Athens. On the ferry ride to the mainland, her hands were shackled. That’s when it sank in: “Ok, it’s official,” she thought. “They’re transferring me to jail.”

    In prison, Mardini was locked in a cell with eight other women from 8pm to 8am. During the day, she would go to Greek classes and art classes, drink coffee with other prisoners, and watch the news.

    She was able to make phone calls, and her mother, who was also granted asylum in Germany, came to visit a number of times. “The first time we saw each other we just broke down in tears,” Mardini recalled. It had been months since they’d seen each other, and now they could only speak for 20 minutes, separated by a plastic barrier.

    Most of the time, Mardini just read, finishing more than 40 books, including Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, which helped her come to terms with her situation. “I decided this is my life right now, and I need to get something out of it,” she explained. “I just accepted what’s going on.”

    People can be held in pre-trial detention for up to 18 months in Greece. But at the beginning of December, a judge accepted Mardini’s lawyer’s request for bail. Binder was released the same day.
    Lingering fear

    On Lesvos, where everyone in the volunteer community knows each other, the case came as a shock. “People started to be... scared,” said Claudia Drost, a 23-year-old from the Netherlands and close friend of Mardini’s who started volunteering on the island in 2016. “There was a feeling of fear that if the police… put [Mardini] in prison, they can put anyone in prison.”

    “We are standing [up] for what we are doing because we are saving people and we are helping people.”

    That feeling was heightened by the knowledge that humanitarians across Europe were being charged with crimes for helping refugees and migrants.

    During the height of the migration crisis in Europe, between the fall of 2015 and winter 2016, some 300 people were arrested in Denmark on charges related to helping refugees. In August 2016, French farmer Cédric Herrou was arrested for helping migrants and asylum seekers cross the French-Italian border. In October 2017, 12 people were charged with facilitating illegal migration in Belgium for letting asylum seekers stay in their homes and use their cellphones. And last June, the captain of a search and rescue boat belonging to the German NGO Mission Lifeline was arrested in Malta and charged with operating the vessel without proper registration or license.

    Drost said that after Mardini was released the fear faded a bit, but still lingers. There is also a sense of defiance. “We are standing [up] for what we are doing because we are saving people and we are helping people,” Drost said.

    As for Mardini, the charges have forced her to disengage from humanitarian work on Lesvos, at least until the case is over. She is back in Berlin and has started university again. “I think because I’m not in Lesvos anymore I’m just finding it very good to be here,” she said. “I’m kind of in a stable moment just to reflect about my life and what I want to do.”

    But she also knows the stability could very well be fleeting. With the prospect of more time in prison hanging over her, the future is still a blank canvas. People often ask if she is optimistic about the case. “No,” she said. “In the first place, they put me in… jail.”

    https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2019/05/02/refugee-volunteer-prisoner-sarah-mardini-and-europe-s-hardening-
    #criminalisation #délit_de_solidarité #asile #migrations #solidarité #réfugiés #Grèce #Lesbos #Moria #camps_de_réfugiés #Europe

    Avec une frise chronologique:

    ping @reka

    • Demand the charges against Sarah and Seán are dropped

      In Greece, you can go to jail for trying to save a life. It happened to Seán Binder, 25, and Sarah Mardini, 24, when they helped to spot refugee boats in distress. They risk facing up to 25 years in prison.

      Sarah and Seán met when they volunteered together as trained rescue workers in Lesvos, Greece. Sarah is a refugee from Syria. Her journey to Europe made international news - she and her sister saved 18 people by dragging their drowning boat to safety. Seán Binder is a son of a Vietnamese refugee. They couldn’t watch refugees drown and do nothing.

      Their humanitarian work saved lives, but like many others across Europe, they are being criminalised for helping refugees. The pair risk facing up to 25 years in prison on ‘people smuggling’ charges. They already spent more than 100 days in prison before being released on bail in December 2018.

      “Humanitarian work isn’t criminal, nor is it heroic. Helping others should be normal. The real people who are suffering and dying are those already fleeing persecution." Seán Binder

      Criminalising humanitarian workers and abandoning refugees at sea won’t stop refugees crossing the sea, but it will cause many more deaths.

      Solidarity is not a crime. Call on the Greek authorities to:

      Drop the charges against Sarah Mardini and Seán Binder
      Publicly acknowledge the legitimacy of humanitarian work which supports refugee and migrant rights

      https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/write-for-rights/?viewCampaign=48221

  • Fixed point math in Solidity
    https://hackernoon.com/fixed-point-math-in-solidity-616f4508c6e8?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3---4

    It always seems impossible until it’s done. — Nelson MandelaIntroductionAny financial application with a minimum of complexity will need some decimal support and multiplications to calculate things like interest. In the case of CementDAO we needed logarithms to implement the transaction fee curve that steers its cryptocurrency basket towards the desired configuration.Solidity supports integers but no decimals, so we coded a fixed point arithmetic contract, made it safe against overflow, and tested it extensively. It underpins the CementDAO deployment in Ropsten.The Fixidity contract is available from the CementDAO github with a MIT license, please feel free to use it and build upon it.ImplementationIn order to code this we went from the simplest to the most complex arithmetic functions, (...)

    #blockchain #mathematics #ethereum #software-development #open-source

  • Vienna museum cancels Palestine event with leader of South African anti-apartheid struggle
    March 21, 2019 / By Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
    https://bdsmovement.net/news/vienna-museum-cancels-palestine-event-leader-south-african-anti-aparthe
    https://bdsmovement.net/sites/default/files/Ronnie+3_0.png

    March 21, 2019 — A Vienna museum, Volkskundemuseum, has cancelled an event on Palestinian rights where former minister in Nelson Mandela’s government Ronnie Kasrils was scheduled to speak (Video by Ronnie Kasrils). Kasrils is a renowned South African anti-apartheid activist of Jewish descent, and his address was scheduled for the March 29 event as part of the annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). Human rights advocates immediately condemned the cancellation, and called for the event to be reinstated.

    The museum caved to pressure from Austria’s Israel lobby. The cancellation comes amid Israel’s ongoing repression of the peaceful Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. Two IAW events scheduled in France this week were also canceled.

    More than 80 IAW events in 40 cities across Europe, North America and Palestine have been scheduled to date. With events still to be finalized in Asia, Africa and Latin America, IAW is expected to be held in more than 200 cities worldwide this year. (...)

    #BDS #censure #Ronnie_Kasrils

  • Israeli Arab slate, far-left candidate banned from election hours after Kahanist leader allowed to run
    Jonathan Lis and Jack Khoury Mar 07, 2019 7:07 AM
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-far-left-lawmaker-banned-from-israeli-election-for-supporting-terr

    Arab political sources say the move is evidence of racism and the delegitimization of Arab society in Israel, accusing Netanyahu’s Likud party of anti-Arab incitement

    The Central Election Committee disqualified the Arab joint slate Balad-United Arab List and Ofer Cassif, a member of politicial alliance Hadash-Ta’al, from running in the election on Wednesday, opposing the opinion of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit.

    Michael Ben Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir from the Kahanist, far-right Otzma Yehudit party had petitioned against both lists. The committee approved Ben Air to run in the election earlier Wednesday.

    The decisions will be referred to the Supreme Court on Sunday for approval. A ban against a party slate may be appealed in the Supreme Court, which holds a special “election appeals” process, while a ban on an individual candidate automatically requires approval by the Supreme Court if it is to take effect.

    Arab political sources described the disqualification of the Balad-United Arab List slate as evidence of racism and the delegitimization of Arab society in Israel and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party of anti-Arab incitement.

    MK David Bitan petitioned on behalf of Likud against Balad-United Arab List, and Yisrael Beitenu chairman Avigdor Lieberman petitioned against Cassif. Petitioners claimed both lists and Cassif supported terror and ruled out Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and Democratic state. Mendelblit said he opposed all the petitions.

    Ben-Gvir presented the committee with findings he claimed should disqualify the Hadash-Ta’al slate. He mentioned a call from Ta’al chairman Ahmed Tibi to annul the Declaration of Independence, and quoted a Facebook post by Ayman Odeh, the head of Hadash.

    In the post, written following a meeting with Fatah member Marwan Barghouti at an Israeli prison, Odeh compared Barghouti to Nelson Mandela. “The meeting was moving, as well as speaking to a leader who shares my political stances.” Ben-Gvir noted Odeh defined Ahed Tamimi as an “excellent girl,” and said she showed “legitimate resistance.” Tamimi, a Palestinian teenage girl, served time in prison for slapping an Israeli soldier in 2018.

    Cassif was accused of equating Israel and the Israel Defense Forces with the Nazi regime, and it was noted that he called to fight “Judeo-Nazism,” expressed support for changing the anthem, and called Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked “Neo-Nazi scum.” He did not attend the session, but was called after committee chairman Justice Hanan Melcer insisted on his presence.

    “I come from an academic background, and my area of expertise is among other things the subject of Fascism, Nazis and nationalism in general,” said Cassif, explaining his comments. “When I speak to a friend or write a post as a private person, I use metaphors. When I used the aforementioned terms – they were metaphors.”

    In an interview last month, Cassif said Israel conducts a “creeping genocide” against the Palestinian people.

    The top candidate on the slate, Mansour Abbas, said he had expected that most of the representatives of the Zionist parties on the election committee would support the move to disqualify the slate, but added: “We are a democratic Arab list that is seeking to represent Arab society with dignity and responsibility.”

    Commenting on Benny Gantz, the leader of Kahol Lavan, which is ahead of Likud in recent polls, Abbas said: “There’s no difference between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benjamin Gantz.”

    Mtanes Shehadeh, who is No. 2 on the Balad-United Arab list slate said the decision to disqualify his slate was expected because he said the Central Election Committee has a right-wing majority and “is also controlled by a fascist, right-wing ideology.”

    His Balad faction, Shehadeh said, “presents a challenge to democracy in Israel” and challenges what he called “the right-wing regime that is controlling the country.”

    Sources from the Balad-United Arab list slate said there is in an urgent need to strip the Central Election Committee of the authority to disqualify candidates and parties from running in elections. The considerations that go into the decision are purely political, the sources said.

    Balad chairman Jamal Zahalka said the decision to disqualify the slate sends a “hostile message to the Arab public” in the country. “We will petition the High Court of Justice against the decision and in any event, we will not change our position, even if we are disqualified.”

    Earlier Wednesday, the Central Elections Committee approved Ben Ari, the chairman of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, to run for the Knesset.

    Meretz, Stav Shaffir (Labor) and the Reform Movement, who filed the petition to the Central Elections Committee to ban Ben Ari from running for Knesset, all said they would file a petition with the High Court of Justice against the committee’s decision.

    Prior to deliberations, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit submitted his opinion to the comittee, stating he was in favor of disqualifying Ben Ari from running for Knesset on the grounds of incitement to racism.

    In November 2017, for instance, at an annual memorial for Rabbi Meir Kahane, Ben Ari gave a speech in which he said of Israeli Arabs, “Let’s give them another 100,000 dunams [of land] and affirmative action, maybe they’ll love us. In the end, yes, they’ll love us when we’re slaughtered.”

    In May 2018, Ben Ari gave another speech in which he said, “The Arabs of Haifa aren’t different in any way from the Arabs of Gaza. How are they different? In that they’re here, enemies from within. They’re waging war against us here, within the state. And this is called – it has a name – it’s called a fifth column. We need to call the dog by its name. They’re our enemies. They want to destroy us. Of course there are loyal Arabs, but you can count them – one percent or less than one percent.”

    #Hadash

    • Outlaw Israel’s Arabs
      They are already regarded as illegitimate citizens. Why not just say so and anchor it in law?
      Gideon Levy | Mar 10, 2019 3:15 AM
      https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-outlaw-israel-s-arabs-1.7003010

      The time has come to put an end to the stammering and going around in circles: Outlaw the Arabs, all of them. Make them all illegal dwellers in their land and have the Border Police hunt them down like animals, as they know how to do. They are already regarded as illegitimate citizens. It’s time to say so and to anchor it in law.

      Discerning the differences among them is artificial: What’s the difference between the United Arab List–Balad ticket and between the Hadash–Ta’al ticket (acronyms for the Arab political parties)? Why is only the first one on this list being disqualified? And what is the difference between the Palestinians who are Israeli citizens and those living under occupation?

      Why does one group have rights while the others don’t? The time has come to rectify the situation: Ta’al should be treated like Balad; citizens of the state should be treated like those under occupation. Anything less is like paying lip service to the guardians of political correctness, to a supposed semblance of fairness, to a deceptive image of democracy. Outlawing all the Arabs is the way to ensure you have a Jewish state. Who’s against that?

      Whoever thinks what I’ve written is wrong or an exaggeration isn’t reading reality. Disqualifying the Arabs is the issue that has the broadest consensus of the current election campaign. “I’ll put it simply,” Yair Lapid, the democrat, said. “We won’t form a blocking majority with the Arabs. Period.”

      Now I, will humbly put it simply, too: This is a revolting display of racism. Period. More than the torture of the residents of Gaza and the West Bank under the guise of security concerns, in this we see a broader Israeli racism in all its glory: Pure, unadulterated and acceptable racism. It’s not Balad, but the Arabs who are being disqualified. It’s not Ofer Kassif but the left that’s being disqualified. It’s a step-by-step slide down the slope and we can no longer shut our eyes to it.

      If this discourse delegitimizing our Arab citizens isn’t driving Israeli democrats mad – then there is no democracy. We don’t need any studies or institutes: A regime that disqualifies voters and elected officials because of their blood and nationality is not a democracy.

      You don’t need to cite the occupation to expose the lie of democracy – now it’s also apparent at home, within. From Benny Gantz to Bezalel Smotrich – all of them are Ben-Zion Gopsteins. The laws against racism and all the rest are only lip service. The Israeli Knesset has 107 lawmakers; thirteen of them, most of them among the best there are, are outside the game, they have less say than the ushers.

      Now we must try to imagine what they’re going through. They hear everyone trying to distance themselves from them, as though they’re a contagious disease, and they’re silent. They hear nobody seeking to get near them as though their bodies stink, and they avoid comment. The Knesset is like a bus that has segregated its Jewish and Arab passengers, an arena of political apartheid, not yet officially so, which declares from the outset that the Arabs are disqualified.

      Why even bother participating in this game that’s already been decided? The response should have been to boycott the elections. If you don’t want us, we don’t want you. The fig leaf is torn and has long been full of holes. But this is exactly what Israel wants: A country only for Jews. Therefore Arab citizens must not play this game and must head in their masses to the polling stations, just like the prime minister said, to poke Israeli racism painfully in the eye.

      For avowed racists, it’s all very clear. They say what they think: The Jews are a supreme race, the recipients of a divine promise, they have rights to this land, the Arabs are, at best, fleeting guests.

      The problem is with the racists in masquerade like Gantz and Lapid. I have a question for them: Why are Hadash and Ta’al not eligible to be part of a bloc? Why can’t you rely on their votes and why shouldn’t their representatives belong to the government? Would Ayman Odeh be any worse a culture minister than Miri Regev? Would Ahmad Tibi be any less skillful a health minister than Yaakov Litzman? The truth is this: The center-left is as racist as the right.

      Let’s hope no Gantz-Lapid government can be formed, just because of the Arab votes that it fails to have. That would be the sweetest revenge for racism.

    • La Cour suprême israélienne invalide la candidature d’un leader d’extrême droite
      La justice a interdit la candidature du chef d’Otzma Yehudit. Elle a approuvé la liste arabe, les présences d’un candidat juif d’extrême gauche et de Ben Gvir d’Otzma Yehudit
      Par Times of Israel Staff 18 mars 2019,
      https://fr.timesofisrael.com/la-cour-supreme-israelienne-invalide-la-candidature-dun-leader-dex

      (...) Les juges ont en revanche fait savoir que Itamar Ben Gvir, qui appartient également à la formation d’extrême-droite, est autorisé à se présenter.

      Ils ont aussi donné le feu vert à une participation au scrutin du 9 avril à Ofer Kassif ainsi qu’aux factions de Balad-Raam. Kassif est le seul candidat juif à figurer que la liste Hadash-Taal et il avait été disqualifié par la commission centrale électorale en raison de déclarations controversées faites dans le passé, notamment une dans laquelle il avait qualifié la ministre de la Justice Ayelet Shaked de « racaille néo-nazie ». (...)

      #Ofer_Kassif

  • Video | The 2019 Amsterdam Nelson Mandela Lecture - ZAM
    https://zammagazine.com/mandela-100/blog100/825-sisonke-msimang-live-stream
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WPnQGQAUW8

    Watch the South African writer and opinionista Sisonke Msimang lecture. Introduction by Adriaan van Dis. Performances by Faso Danse Théâtre, Nora El Koussour, Jeangu Macrooy and ZO! Gospel Choir.

    À propos du génie politique de Mandela, et contre l’image de « prophète du pardon » qui lui est faite maintenant.

    #histoire #Afrique_du_Sud avec un peu de #Zwarte_Piet aussi puisque ça se passe à Amsterdam

  • The Knesset candidate who says Zionism encourages anti-Semitism and calls Netanyahu ’arch-murderer’ - Israel Election 2019 - Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium.MAGAZINE-knesset-candidate-netanyahu-is-an-arch-murderer-zionism-e

    Few Israelis have heard of Dr. Ofer Cassif, the Jewish representative on the far-leftist Hadash party’s Knesset slate. On April 9, that will change
    By Ravit Hecht Feb 16, 2019

    Ofer Cassif is fire and brimstone. Not even the flu he’s suffering from today can contain his bursting energy. His words are blazing, and he bounds through his modest apartment, searching frenetically for books by Karl Marx and Primo Levi in order to find quotations to back up his ideas. Only occasional sips from a cup of maté bring his impassioned delivery to a momentary halt. The South American drink is meant to help fight his illness, he explains.

    Cassif is third on the slate of Knesset candidates in Hadash (the Hebrew acronym for the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), the successor to Israel’s Communist Party. He holds the party’s “Jewish slot,” replacing MK Dov Khenin. Cassif is likely to draw fire from opponents and be a conspicuous figure in the next Knesset, following the April 9 election.

    Indeed, the assault on him began as soon as he was selected by the party’s convention. The media pursued him; a columnist in the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Ben-Dror Yemini, called for him to be disqualified from running for the Knesset. It would be naive to say that this was unexpected. Cassif, who was one of the first Israeli soldiers to refuse to serve in the territories, in 1987, gained fame thanks to a number of provocative statements. The best known is his branding of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked as “neo-Nazi scum.” On another occasion, he characterized Jews who visit the Temple Mount as “cancer with metastases that have to be eradicated.”

    On his alternate Facebook page, launched after repeated blockages of his original account by a blitz of posts from right-wing activists, he asserted that Culture Minister Miri Regev is “repulsive gutter contamination,” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an “arch-murderer” and that the new Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, is a “war criminal.”

    Do you regret making those remarks?

    Cassif: “‘Regret’ is a word of emotion. Those statements were made against a background of particular events: the fence in Gaza, horrible legislation, and the wild antics of Im Tirtzu [an ultranationalist organization] on campus. That’s what I had to say at the time. I didn’t count on being in the Knesset. That wasn’t part of my plan. But it’s clear to me that as a public personality, I would not have made those comments.”

    Is Netanyahu an arch-murderer?

    “Yes. I wrote it in the specific context of a particular day in the Gaza Strip. A massacre of innocent people was perpetrated there, and no one’s going to persuade me that those people were endangering anyone. It’s a concentration camp. Not a ‘concentration camp’ in the sense of Bergen-Belsen; I am absolutely not comparing the Holocaust to what’s happening.”

    You term what Israel is doing to the Palestinians “genocide.”

    “I call it ‘creeping genocide.’ Genocide is not only a matter of taking people to gas chambers. When Yeshayahu Leibowitz used the term ‘Judeo-Nazis,’ people asked him, ‘How can you say that? Are we about to build gas chambers?’ To that, he had two things to say. First, if the whole difference between us and the Nazis boils down to the fact that we’re not building gas chambers, we’re already in trouble. And second, maybe we won’t use gas chambers, but the mentality that exists today in Israel – and he said this 40 years ago – would allow it. I’m afraid that today, after four years of such an extreme government, it possesses even greater legitimacy.

    “But you know what, put aside ‘genocide’ – ethnic cleansing is taking place there. And that ethnic cleansing is also being carried out by means of killing, although mainly by way of humiliation and of making life intolerable. The trampling of human dignity. It reminds me of Primo Levi’s ‘If This Is a Man.’”

    You say you’re not comparing, but you repeatedly come back to Holocaust references. On Facebook, you also uploaded the scene from “Schindler’s List” in which the SS commander Amon Goeth picks off Jews with his rifle from the balcony of his quarters in the camp. You compared that to what was taking place along the border fence in the Gaza Strip.

    “Today, I would find different comparisons. In the past I wrote an article titled, ‘On Holocaust and on Other Crimes.’ It’s online [in Hebrew]. I wrote there that anyone who compares Israel to the Holocaust is cheapening the Holocaust. My comparison between here and what happened in the early 1930s [in Germany] is a very different matter.”

    Clarity vs. crudity

    Given Cassif’s style, not everyone in Hadash was happy with his election, particularly when it comes to the Jewish members of the predominantly Arab party. Dov Khenin, for example, declined to be interviewed and say what he thinks of his parliamentary successor. According to a veteran party figure, “From the conversations I had, it turns out that almost none of the Jewish delegates – who make up about 100 of the party’s 940 delegates – supported his candidacy.

    “He is perceived, and rightly so,” the party veteran continues, “as someone who closes doors to Hadash activity within Israeli society. Each of the other Jewish candidates presented a record of action and of struggles they spearheaded. What does he do? Curses right-wing politicians on Facebook. Why did the party leadership throw the full force of its weight behind him? In a continuation of the [trend exemplified by] its becoming part of the Joint List, Ofer’s election reflects insularity and an ongoing retreat from the historical goal of implementing change in Israeli society.”

    At the same time, as his selection by a 60 percent majority shows, many in the party believe that it’s time to change course. “Israeli society is moving rightward, and what’s perceived as Dov’s [Khenin] more gentle style didn’t generate any great breakthrough on the Jewish street,” a senior source in Hadash notes.

    “It’s not a question of the tension between extremism and moderation, but of how to signpost an alternative that will develop over time. Clarity, which is sometimes called crudity, never interfered with cooperation between Arabs and Jews. On the contrary. Ofer says things that we all agreed with but didn’t so much say, and of course that’s going to rile the right wing. And a good thing, too.”

    Hadash chairman MK Ayman Odeh also says he’s pleased with the choice, though sources in the party claim that Odeh is apprehensive about Cassif’s style and that he actually supported a different candidate. “Dov went for the widest possible alliances in order to wield influence,” says Odeh. “Ofer will go for very sharp positions at the expense of the breadth of the alliance. But his sharp statements could have a large impact.”

    Khenin was deeply esteemed by everyone. When he ran for mayor of Tel Aviv in 2008, some 35 percent of the electorate voted for him, because he was able to touch people who weren’t only from his political milieu.

    Odeh: “No one has a higher regard for Dov than I do. But just to remind you, we are not a regular opposition, we are beyond the pale. And there are all kinds of styles. Influence can be wielded through comments that are vexatious the first time but which people get used to the second time. When an Arab speaks about the Nakba and about the massacre in Kafr Kassem [an Israeli Arab village, in 1956], it will be taken in a particular way, but when uttered by a Jew it takes on special importance.”

    He will be the cause of many attacks on the party.

    “Ahlan wa sahlan – welcome.”

    Cassif will be the first to tell you that, with all due respect for the approach pursued by Khenin and by his predecessor in the Jewish slot, Tamar Gozansky, he will be something completely different. “I totally admire what Tamar and Dov did – nothing less than that,” he says, while adding, “But my agenda will be different. The three immediate dangers to Israeli society are the occupation, racism and the diminishment of the democratic space to the point of liquidation. That’s the agenda that has to be the hub of the struggle, as long as Israel rules over millions of people who have no rights, enters [people’s houses] in the middle of the night, arrests minors on a daily basis and shoots people in the back.

    "Israel commits murder on a daily basis. When you murder one Palestinian, you’re called Elor Azaria [the IDF soldier convicted and jailed for killing an incapacitated Palestinian assailant]; when you murder and oppress thousands of Palestinians, you’re called the State of Israel.”

    So you plan to be the provocateur in the next Knesset?

    “It’s not my intention to be a provocateur, to stand there and scream and revile people. Even on Facebook I was compelled to stop that. But I definitely intend to challenge the dialogue in terms of the content, and mainly with a type of sarcasm.”

    ’Bags of blood’

    Cassif, 54, who holds a doctorate in political philosophy from the London School of Economics, teaches political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sapir Academic College in Sderot and at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo. He lives in Rehovot, is married and is the father of a 19-year-old son. He’s been active in Hadash for three decades and has held a number of posts in the party.

    As a lecturer, he stands out for his boldness and fierce rhetoric, which draws students of all stripes. He even hangs out with some of his Haredi students, one of whom wrote a post on the eve of the Hadash primary urging the delegates to choose him. After his election, a student from a settlement in the territories wrote to him, “You are a determined and industrious person, and for that I hold you in high regard. Hoping we will meet on the field of action and growth for the success of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state (I felt obliged to add a small touch of irony in conclusion).”

    Cassif grew up in a home that supported Mapai, forerunner of Labor, in Rishon Letzion. He was an only child; his father was an accountant, his mother held a variety of jobs. He was a news hound from an early age, and at 12 ran for the student council in school. He veered sharply to the left in his teens, becoming a keen follower of Marx and socialism.

    Following military service in the IDF’s Nahal brigade and a period in the airborne Nahal, Cassif entered the Hebrew University. There his political career moved one step forward, and there he also forsook the Zionist left permanently. His first position was as a parliamentary aide to the secretary general of the Communist Party, Meir Wilner.

    “At first I was closer to Mapam [the United Workers Party, which was Zionist], and then I refused to serve in the territories. I was the first refusenik in the first intifada to be jailed. I didn’t get support from Mapam, I got support from the people of Hadash, and I drew close to them. I was later jailed three more times for refusing to serve in the territories.”

    His rivals in the student organizations at the Hebrew University remember him as the epitome of the extreme left.

    “Even in the Arab-Jewish student association, Cassif was considered off-the-wall,” says Motti Ohana, who was chairman of Likud’s student association and active in the Student Union at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s. “One time I got into a brawl with him. It was during the first intifada, when he brought two bags of blood, emptied them out in the university’s corridors and declared, ‘There is no difference between Jewish and Arab blood,’ likening Israeli soldiers to terrorists. The custom on campus was that we would quarrel, left-right, Arabs-Jews, and after that we would sit together, have a coffee and talk. But not Cassif.”

    According to Ohana, today a member of the Likud central committee, the right-wing activists knew that, “You could count on Ofer to fall into every trap. There was one event at the Hebrew University that was a kind of political Hyde Park. The right wanted to boot the left out of there, so we hung up the flag. It was obvious that Ofer would react, and in fact he tore the flag, and in the wake of the ruckus that developed, political activity was stopped for good.”

    Replacing the anthem

    Cassif voices clearly and cogently positions that challenge the public discourse in Israel, and does so with ardor and charisma. Four candidates vied for Hadash’s Jewish slot, and they all delivered speeches at the convention. The three candidates who lost to him – Efraim Davidi, Yaela Raanan and the head of the party’s Tel Aviv branch, Noa Levy – described their activity and their guiding principles. When they spoke, there was the regular buzz of an audience that’s waiting for lunch. But when Cassif took the stage, the effect was magnetic.

    “Peace will not be established without a correction of the crimes of the Nakba and [recognition of] the right of return,” he shouted, and the crowd cheered him. As one senior party figure put it, “Efraim talked about workers’ rights, Yaela about the Negev, Noa about activity in Tel Aviv – and Ofer was Ofer.”

    What do you mean by “right of return”?

    Cassif: “The first thing is the actual recognition of the Nakba and of the wrong done by Israel. Compare it to the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, if you like, or with the commissions in Chile after Pinochet. Israel must recognize the wrong it committed. Now, recognition of the wrong also includes recognition of the right of return. The question is how it’s implemented. It has to be done by agreement. I can’t say that tomorrow Tel Aviv University has to be dismantled and that Sheikh Munis [the Arab village on whose ruins the university stands] has to be rebuilt there. The possibility can be examined of giving compensation in place of return, for example.”

    But what is the just solution, in your opinion?

    “For the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.”

    That means there will be Jews who will have to leave their home.

    “In some places, unequivocally, yes. People will have to be told: ‘You must evacuate your places.’ The classic example is Ikrit and Biram [Christian-Arab villages in Galilee whose residents were promised – untruly – by the Israeli authorities in 1948 that they would be able to return, and whose lands were turned over to Jewish communities]. But there are places where there is certainly greater difficulty. You don’t right one wrong with another.”

    What about the public space in Israel? What should it look like?

    “The public space has to change, to belong to all the state’s residents. I dispute the conception of ‘Jewish publicness.’”

    How should that be realized?

    “For example, by changing the national symbols, changing the national anthem. [Former Hadash MK] Mohammed Barakeh once suggested ‘I Believe’ [‘Sahki, Sahki’] by [Shaul] Tchernichovsky – a poem that is not exactly an expression of Palestinian nationalism. He chose it because of the line, ‘For in mankind I’ll believe.’ What does it mean to believe in mankind? It’s not a Jew, or a Palestinian, or a Frenchman, or I don’t know what.”

    What’s the difference between you and the [Arab] Balad party? Both parties overall want two states – a state “of all its citizens” and a Palestinian state.

    “In the big picture, yes. But Balad puts identity first on the agenda. We are not nationalists. We do not espouse nationalism as a supreme value. For us, self-determination is a means. We are engaged in class politics. By the way, Balad [the National Democratic Assembly] and Ta’al [MK Ahmad Tibi’s Arab Movement for Renewal] took the idea of a state of all its citizens from us, from Hadash. We’ve been talking about it for ages.”

    If you were a Palestinian, what would you do today?

    “In Israel, what my Palestinian friends are doing, and I with them – [wage] a parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggle.”

    And what about the Palestinians in the territories?

    “We have always been against harming innocent civilians. Always. In all our demonstrations, one of our leading slogans was: ‘In Gaza and in Sderot, children want to live.’ With all my criticism of the settlers, to enter a house and slaughter children, as in the case of the Fogel family [who were murdered in their beds in the settlement of Itamar in 2011], is intolerable. You have to be a human being and reject that.”

    And attacks on soldiers?

    “An attack on soldiers is not terrorism. Even Netanyahu, in his book about terrorism, explicitly categorizes attacks on soldiers or on the security forces as guerrilla warfare. It’s perfectly legitimate, according to every moral criterion – and, by the way, in international law. At the same time, I am not saying it’s something wonderful, joyful or desirable. The party’s Haifa office is on Ben-Gurion Street, and suddenly, after years, I noticed a memorial plaque there for a fighter in Lehi [pre-state underground militia, also known as the Stern Gang] who assassinated a British officer. Wherever there has been a struggle for liberation from oppression, there are national heroes, who in 90 percent of the cases carried out some operations that were unlawful. Nelson Mandela is today considered a hero, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but according to the conventional definition, he was a terrorist. Most of the victims of the ANC [African National Congress] were civilians.”

    In other words, today’s Hamas commanders who are carrying out attacks on soldiers will be heroes of the future Palestinian state?

    “Of course.”

    Anti-Zionist identity

    Cassif terms himself an explicit anti-Zionist. “There are three reasons for that,” he says. “To begin with, Zionism is a colonialist movement, and as a socialist, I am against colonialism. Second, as far as I am concerned, Zionism is racist in ideology and in practice. I am not referring to the definition of race theory – even though there are also some who impute that to the Zionist movement – but to what I call Jewish supremacy. No socialist can accept that. My supreme value is equality, and I can’t abide any supremacy – Jewish or Arab. The third thing is that Zionism, like other ethno-nationalistic movements, splits the working class and all weakened groups. Instead of uniting them in a struggle for social justice, for equality, for democracy, it divides the exploited classes and the enfeebled groups, and by that means strengthens the rule of capital.”

    He continues, “Zionism also sustains anti-Semitism. I don’t say it does so deliberately – even though I have no doubt that there are some who do it deliberately, like Netanyahu, who is connected to people like the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, and the leader of the far right in Austria, Hans Christian Strache.”

    Did Mapai-style Zionism also encourage anti-Semitism?

    “The phenomenon was very striking in Mapai. Think about it for a minute, not only historically, but logically. If the goal of political and practical Zionism is really the establishment of a Jewish state containing a Jewish majority, and for Diaspora Jewry to settle there, nothing serves them better than anti-Semitism.”

    What in their actions encouraged anti-Semitism?

    “The very appeal to Jews throughout the world – the very fact of treating them as belonging to the same nation, when they were living among other nations. The whole old ‘dual loyalty’ story – Zionism actually encouraged that. Therefore, I maintain that anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are not the same thing, but are precisely opposites. That doesn’t mean, of course, that there are no anti-Zionists who are also anti-Semites. Most of the BDS people are of course anti-Zionists, but they are in no way anti-Semites. But there are anti-Semites there, too.”

    Do you support BDS?

    “It’s too complex a subject for a yes or no answer; there are aspects I don’t support.”

    Do you think that the Jews deserve a national home in the Land of Israel?

    “I don’t know what you mean by ‘national home.’ It’s very amorphous. We in Hadash say explicitly that Israel has a right to exist as a sovereign state. Our struggle is not against the state’s existence, but over its character.”

    But that state is the product of the actions of the Zionist movement, which you say has been colonialist and criminal from day one.

    “That’s true, but the circumstances have changed. That’s the reason that the majority of the members of the Communist Party accepted the [1947] partition agreement at the time. They recognized that the circumstances had changed. I think that one of the traits that sets communist thought apart, and makes it more apt, is the understanding and the attempt to strike the proper balance between what should be, and reality. So it’s true that Zionism started as colonialism, but what do you do with the people who were already born here? What do you tell them? Because your grandparents committed a crime, you have to leave? The question is how you transform the situation that’s been created into one that’s just, democratic and equal.”

    So, a person who survived a death camp and came here is a criminal?

    “The individual person, of course not. I’m in favor of taking in refugees in distress, no matter who or what they are. I am against Zionism’s cynical use of Jews in distress, including the refugees from the Holocaust. I have a problem with the fact that the natives whose homeland this is cannot return, while people for whom it’s not their homeland, can, because they supposedly have some sort of blood tie and an ‘imaginary friend’ promised them the land.”

    I understand that you are in favor of the annulment of the Law of Return?

    “Yes. Definitely.”

    But you are in favor of the Palestinian right of return.

    “There’s no comparison. There’s no symmetry here at all. Jerry Seinfeld was by chance born to a Jewish family. What’s his connection to this place? Why should he have preference over a refugee from Sabra or Chatila, or Edward Said, who did well in the United States? They are the true refugees. This is their homeland. Not Seinfeld’s.”

    Are you critical of the Arabs, too?

    “Certainly. One criticism is of their cooperation with imperialism – take the case of today’s Saudi Arabia, Qatar and so on. Another, from the past, relates to the reactionary forces that did not accept that the Jews have a right to live here.”

    Hadash refrained from criticizing the Assad regime even as it was massacring civilians in Syria. The party even torpedoed a condemnation of Assad after the chemical attack. Do you identify with that approach?

    “Hadash was critical of the Assad regime – father and son – for years, so we can’t be accused in any way of supporting Assad or Hezbollah. We are not Ba’ath, we are not Islamists. We are communists. But as I said earlier, the struggle, unfortunately, is generally not between the ideal and what exists in practice, but many times between two evils. And then you have to ask yourself which is the lesser evil. The Syrian constellation is extremely complicated. On the one hand, there is the United States, which is intervening, and despite all the pretense of being against ISIS, supported ISIS and made it possible for ISIS to sprout.

    "I remind you that ISIS started from the occupation of Iraq. And ideologically and practically, ISIS is definitely a thousand times worse than the Assad regime, which is at base also a secular regime. Our position was and is against the countries that pose the greatest danger to regional peace, which above all are Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and the United States, which supports them. That doesn’t mean that we support Assad.”

    Wrong language

    Cassif’s economic views are almost as far from the consensus as his political ideas. He lives modestly in an apartment that’s furnished like a young couple’s first home. You won’t find an espresso maker or unnecessary products of convenience in his place. To his credit, it can be said that he extracts the maximum from Elite instant coffee.

    What is your utopian vision – to nationalize Israel’s conglomerates, such as Cellcom, the telecommunications company, or Osem, the food manufacturer and distributor?

    “The bottom line is yes. How exactly will it be done? That’s an excellent question, which I can’t answer. Perhaps by transferring ownership to the state or to the workers, with democratic tools. And there are other alternatives. But certainly, I would like it if a large part of the resources were not in private hands, as was the case before the big privatizations. It’s true that it won’t be socialism, because, again, there can be no such thing as Zionist socialism, but there won’t be privatization like we have today. What is the result of capitalism in Israel? The collapse of the health system, the absence of a social-welfare system, a high cost of living and of housing, the elderly and the disabled in a terrible situation.”

    Does any private sector have the right to exist?

    “Look, the question is what you mean by ‘private sector.’ If we’re talking about huge concerns that the owners of capital control completely through their wealth, then no.”

    What growth was there in the communist countries? How can anyone support communism, in light of the grim experience wherever it was tried?

    “It’s true, we know that in the absolute majority of societies where an attempt was made to implement socialism, there was no growth or prosperity, and we need to ask ourselves why, and how to avoid that. When I talk about communism, I’m not talking about Stalin and all the crimes that were committed in the name of the communist idea. Communism is not North Korea and it is not Pol Pot in Cambodia. Heaven forbid.”

    And what about Venezuela?

    “Venezuela is not communism. In fact, they didn’t go far enough in the direction of socialism.”

    Chavez was not enough of a socialist?

    “Chavez, but in particular Maduro. The Communist Party is critical of the regime. They support it because the main enemy is truly American imperialism and its handmaidens. Let’s look at what the U.S. did over the years. At how many times it invaded and employed bullying, fascist forces. Not only in Latin America, its backyard, but everywhere.”

    Venezuela is falling apart, people there don’t have anything to eat, there’s no medicine, everyone who can flees – and it’s the fault of the United States?

    “You can’t deny that the regime has made mistakes. It’s not ideal. But basically, it is the result of American imperialism and its lackeys. After all, the masses voted for Chavez and for Maduro not because things were good for them. But because American corporations stole the country’s resources and filled their own pockets. I wouldn’t make Chavez into an icon, but he did some excellent things.”

    Then how do you generate individual wealth within the method you’re proposing? I understand that I am now talking to you capitalistically, but the reality is that people see the accumulation of assets as an expression of progress in life.

    “Your question is indeed framed in capitalist language, which simply departs from what I believe in. Because you are actually asking me how the distribution of resources is supposed to occur within the capitalist framework. And I say no, I am not talking about resource distribution within a capitalist framework.”

    Gantz vs. Netanyahu

    Cassif was chosen as the polls showed Meretz and Labor, the representatives of the Zionist left, barely scraping through into the next Knesset and in fact facing a serious possibility of electoral extinction. The critique of both parties from the radical left is sometimes more acerbic than from the right.

    Would you like to see the Labor Party disappear?

    “No. I think that what’s happening at the moment with Labor and with Meretz is extremely dangerous. I speak about them as collectives, because they contain individuals with whom I see no possibility of engaging in a dialogue. But I think that they absolutely must be in the Knesset.”

    Is a left-winger who defines himself as a Zionist your partner in any way?

    “Yes. We need partners. We can’t be picky. Certainly we will cooperate with liberals and Zionists on such issues as combating violence against women or the battle to rescue the health system. Maybe even in putting an end to the occupation.”

    I’ll put a scenario to you: Benny Gantz does really well in the election and somehow overcomes Netanyahu. Do you support the person who led Operation Protective Edge in Gaza when he was chief of staff?

    “Heaven forbid. But we don’t reject people, we reject policy. I remind you that it was [then-defense minister] Yitzhak Rabin who led the most violent tendency in the first intifada, with his ‘Break their bones.’ But when he came to the Oslo Accords, it was Hadash and the Arab parties that gave him, from outside the coalition, an insurmountable bloc. I can’t speak for the party, but if there is ever a government whose policy is one that we agree with – eliminating the occupation, combating racism, abolishing the nation-state law – I believe we will give our support in one way or another.”

    And if Gantz doesn’t declare his intention to eliminate the occupation, he isn’t preferable to Netanyahu in any case?

    “If so, why should we recommend him [to the president to form the next government]? After the clips he posted boasting about how many people he killed and how he hurled Gaza back into the Stone Age, I’m far from certain that he’s better.”

    #Hadash

    • traduction d’un extrait [ d’actualité ]

      Le candidat à la Knesset dit que le sionisme encourage l’antisémitisme et qualifie Netanyahu de « meurtrier »
      Peu d’Israéliens ont entendu parler de M. Ofer Cassif, représentant juif de la liste de la Knesset du parti d’extrême gauche Hadash. Le 9 avril, cela changera.
      Par Ravit Hecht 16 février 2019 – Haaretz

      (…) Identité antisioniste
      Cassif se dit un antisioniste explicite. « Il y a trois raisons à cela », dit-il. « Pour commencer, le sionisme est un mouvement colonialiste et, en tant que socialiste, je suis contre le colonialisme. Deuxièmement, en ce qui me concerne, le sionisme est raciste d’idéologie et de pratique. Je ne fais pas référence à la définition de la théorie de la race - même si certains l’imputent également au mouvement sioniste - mais à ce que j’appelle la suprématie juive. Aucun socialiste ne peut accepter cela. Ma valeur suprême est l’égalité et je ne peux supporter aucune suprématie - juive ou arabe. La troisième chose est que le sionisme, comme d’autres mouvements ethno-nationalistes, divise la classe ouvrière et tous les groupes sont affaiblis. Au lieu de les unir dans une lutte pour la justice sociale, l’égalité, la démocratie, il divise les classes exploitées et affaiblit les groupes, renforçant ainsi le pouvoir du capital. "
      Il poursuit : « Le sionisme soutient également l’antisémitisme. Je ne dis pas qu’il le fait délibérément - même si je ne doute pas qu’il y en a qui le font délibérément, comme Netanyahu, qui est connecté à des gens comme le Premier ministre de la Hongrie, Viktor Orban, et le chef de l’extrême droite. en Autriche, Hans Christian Strache. ”

      Le sionisme type-Mapaï a-t-il également encouragé l’antisémitisme ?
      « Le phénomène était très frappant au Mapai. Pensez-y une minute, non seulement historiquement, mais logiquement. Si l’objectif du sionisme politique et pratique est en réalité de créer un État juif contenant une majorité juive et de permettre à la communauté juive de la diaspora de s’y installer, rien ne leur sert mieux que l’antisémitisme. "

      Qu’est-ce qui, dans leurs actions, a encouragé l’antisémitisme ?
      « L’appel même aux Juifs du monde entier - le fait même de les traiter comme appartenant à la même nation, alors qu’ils vivaient parmi d’autres nations. Toute la vieille histoire de « double loyauté » - le sionisme a en fait encouragé cela. Par conséquent, j’affirme que l’antisémitisme et l’antisionisme ne sont pas la même chose, mais sont précisément des contraires. Bien entendu, cela ne signifie pas qu’il n’y ait pas d’antisionistes qui soient aussi antisémites. La plupart des membres du BDS sont bien sûr antisionistes, mais ils ne sont en aucun cas antisémites. Mais il y a aussi des antisémites.

  • Montblanc Meisterstück Fountain Pens — Gentleman’s Gazette
    https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/montblanc-meisterstuck-fountain-pen


    Montblanc 142 (pour les petites mains) avec plume gravée

    Dans cet article on apprend que pour les grands hommes il y a l’équivalent de la grosse bagnole pour les petits. Le numéro « 9 » dans le nom du stylo-plume Meisterstück 149 signifie que ce stylo est équipé de la plume la plus large et du corps le plus gros. Voilà.

    Montblanc Meisterstück Series

    The Meisterstück, likely Montblanc’s most popular pen, was introduced in 1952. It suceeded the Meisterstück 139 and had a much more streamlined shape. Although you may read, on occasion, that the Meisterstück 149 is produced in the same way since its introduction, there have been a number of modifications. Originally, it was made of a celluloid shaft, a brass telescope piston mechanism, and a gold nib. Today, it is made of resin and a plastic mechanism, but still with a gold nib. Moreover, its former shape and mass was shorter, slimmer, and heavier than current models.

    As a side note, the number 149 was not chosen randomly. ‘1’ indicated that it was a Meisterstück, whereas 2 and 3 represented models of lower quality. The ‘4’ stood for the telescope piston mechanism and ‘9’ for the size of the nib (with 1 being the smallest). People with smaller hands, for example, would be better suited to the Montblanc Meisterstück 142 or 144. The 146 was a medium sized pen, and if you wanted to spend a little less, you might buy a 234.

    Despite the fact that the Meisterstück 149 has deteriorated in quality over time, it is still an iconic pen that has been used by many ranging from Konrad Adenauer to Nelson Mandela, from John F. Kennedy, to the Pope.

    De l’intérêt d’acheter un stylo-plume à € 650,00

    See How Montblanc Makes Its Famous Pens - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-05/see-how-montblanc-makes-its-famous-pens

    By Jack Forster - My first Montblanc was a grad school graduation gift from my wife – a Meisterstück 149, which is as iconic a pen in the world of writing instruments, as, say, the Royal Oak or Submariner are in the world of watches or a 911 in the automotive realm. The only time it’s been out of sight is when I was careless enough to drop it, uncapped, a meter and a half onto asphalt; it landed point down, and the nib got badly bent. Montblanc’s New York boutique sent it back to Hamburg for repair and I got it back in a week, working just fine, no charge (watch companies, take note).

    #écriture

  • Four more ways the #CIA has meddled in Africa - BBC News
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36303327

    Article de 2017

    The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has a long history of involvement in African affairs, so Sunday’s reports that the 1962 arrest of Nelson Mandela came following a CIA tip-off don’t come as a huge surprise.

    #Afrique #Etats-Unis

  • L’impact de BDS en 2018
    BDS National Committee, le 29 novembre 2018
    https://www.bdsfrance.org/limpact-de-bds-en-2018

    -Juste la semaine dernière, Airbnb a décidé de ne plus profiter des colonies israéliennes tout à fait illégales sur la terre volée aux Palestiniens. Ceci faisait suite à une campagne internationale menée par la coalition d’organisations #StolenHomes (maisons volées), affiliée au mouvement BDS pour les droits des Palestiniens, et des organisations de défense des droits de l’Homme.
    -Plus tôt ce mois-ci, Ilhan Omar est entrée dans l’histoire en devenant le premier membre du Congrès américain à souscrire publiquement à BDS en séance.
    -Rashida Tlaib, première femme palestino-américaine élue au Congrès, a fait l’éloge du mouvement BDS et a soutenu la réduction de l’aide militaire américaine à Israël.
    -Des mobilisations à travers le monde ont convaincu l’équipe nationale de football d’Argentine, menée par son capitaine Lionel Messi, à annuler sa rencontre amicale avec Israël.
    -La chanteuse vedette Lana Del Rey est devenue l’une des 19 artistes à se retirer du Festival Meteor d’Israël, après que des milliers de fans et de militants du monde entier l’ait exhortée à respecter l’appel au boycott des Palestiniens. Shakira et Lorde font partie des autres grandes artistes qui ont annulé leurs concerts cette année en Israël. Plus de 100 DJ et artistes de musique électronique ont rejoint le boycott culturel sous le #DjsForPalestine.
    -D’importantes organisations du mouvement des femmes indiennes, qui représentent plus de 10 millions de femmes, ont souscrit au mouvement BDS et réclamé la libération de tous les enfants palestiniens prisonniers.
    -Amnesty International a appelé à un embargo sur les armes pour Israël. Elle a dénoncé les États Unis et l’Union Européenne pour leurs accords militaires avec Israël et les a tenus pour responsables de « l’alimentation de violations massives » des droits fondamentaux des Palestiniens.
    -Le Parti Travailliste britannique a récemment voté le gel des ventes d’armes à Israël. En Irlande, un ministre d’État et 50 députés irlandais ont appelé l’Irlande à cesser de fournir des armes à Israël. Plus tôt, Dublin est devenue la première capitale européenne à souscrire à BDS pour les droits des Palestiniens.
    -Des parlementaires d’Espagne et du Portugal ont pris position pour les droits des Palestiniens et ont dénoncé les crimes de guerre d’Israël et sa loi raciste « d’État-nation du peuple juif ». Plusieurs villes d’Italie et l’État espagnol ont appelé à un embargo des armes sur Israël.
    -Le Mouvement Black lives matter a émis une vigoureuse déclaration de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien et a appelé les États Unis à mettre fin à son aide militaire annuelle de 38 milliards de dollars à Israël.
    -40 organisations internationales juives pour la justice sociale reconnaissent que le mouvement BDS a un engagement reconnu dans le « combat contre l’antisémitisme et toutes les formes de racisme et de fanatisme ». Elles condamnent les tentatives pour étouffer la critique de la politique israélienne.
    -Le Prix Nobel 2018 de Chimie, le professeur George P. Smith, a exprimé son soutien au mouvement BDS et à la baisse de l’aide militaire américaine à Israël.
    -Adidas a cessé de parrainer l’Association de Football d’Israël (IFA), qui comprend des équipes basées dans les colonies illégales construites sur la terre volée aux Palestiniens, à la suite d’appels venus de plus de 130 clubs de sport palestiniens.
    -Des syndicalistes et des militants des droits de l’Homme de Tunisie et du monde arabe ont obligé la compagnie maritime israélienne Zim à suspendre ses trajets vers la Tunisie.
    -La Fédération Canadienne des Étudiants, qui représente plus de 500.000 étudiants, vient de voter à son Assemblée Générale annuelle le soutien au mouvement BDS.
    -Leeds est devenue la première université britannique à se désinvestir de sociétés impliquées dans le commerce des armes avec Israël, suivant ainsi une campagne BDS par des militants de la solidarité avec la Palestine. L’université a désinvesti plus de 1.2 million de dollars d’avoirs de corporations qui font du commerce de matériel militaire avec Israël.
    -Les Quakers sont devenus la première église du Royaume Uni à dire qu’elle « n’investira dans aucune société qui profite de l’occupation [militaire israélienne] ». Récemment, plusieurs églises américaines ont elles aussi voté le désinvestissement des sociétés israéliennes et internationales complices des violations des droits fondamentaux des Palestiniens par Israël.
    -Depuis l’Afrique du Sud,Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, membre du parlement et petit-fils de Nelson Mandela, a affirmé le rôle essentiel joué par BDS pour mettre fin à l’apartheid israélien.

    #Palestine #BDS #bilan

  • V’la t’y pas que l’Ukraine part en morceau par l’autre bout : #Ruthénie_transcarpatique ou #Ruthénie_subcarpathique
    (avec ou sans h, sub ou trans selon votre position par rapport aux Carpathes) #Moukatchevo / #Moukatcheve / #Munkács
    (accord de Munich, 1938 et, surtout, leur violation impunément en mars 1939…)

    UAWire - Ukrainian Foreign Minister warns of Russian hybrid threat in #Transcarpathia
    https://www.uawire.org/klimkin-warned-of-a-russian-hybrid-threat-in-transcarpathia

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin stated in an interview with Radio NV that Transcarpathia is a high-risk region in terms of hybrid threats from neighboring countries. “I believe that Transcarpathia is a high-risk region in terms of hybrid methods. We must invest in it [to counter hybrid threats], otherwise we will create a situation that will cost us more,” said Klimkin.

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that it was necessary to resolutely develop the appropriate policy for dealing with national minorities in Transcarpathia. He added that this was an important task that should be done in other regions of Ukraine with national minorities because Russia could exploit them.

    There are other regions where we have national minorities: Romanian, Bulgarian. We understand very well how Russia works with the Romanian and Bulgarian minorities. It can and will improve in applying hybrid methods. Every region needs a consistent and clear policy,” said Klimkin.

    • Il semblerait que ce discours accompagne des actions policières intenses après le jet de grenade dans la cour d’une conseillère municipale de Vinogradov / Vynohradiv.

      In Transcarpathia in the yard of the Deputy threw a grenade media – Ukrop News 24
      https://ukropnews24.com/in-transcarpathia-in-the-yard-of-the-deputy-threw-a-grenade-media

      In the night of Saturday, September 22, in the yard of the Deputy Vinogradov, Transcarpathian region ELISA Seda threw the grenade. About it reports a local site of sevliush info with reference to the Deputy.

      It is noted that a grenade was thrown by an unknown man at 4 in the morning.

      Now at the scene working police officers headed by chief of the regional police and the bomb squad.

      According to the Deputy, the grenade could throw for her citizenship, or messages in social networks, where she criticized local and regional authorities.

    • Le député local, Viktor Baloha de l’oblast de Transcarpatie, ancien gouverneur et ancien maire de Moukatchevo appelle à la démission de P. Klimkin et décrit une région abandonnée et en proie aux trafics.

      Pour corser l’affaire, le consul hongrois de Beregovo distribuerait libéralement – avec consignes de discrétion – des passeports hongrois.

      Enfin, on rappellera qu’#Oujgorod / #Oujhorod est un nœud crucial du réseau de #gazoducs d’Europe orientale…

      In the Parliament proposed to dismiss Klimkin for the words of Transcarpathia – Russia news today
      https://chelorg.com/2018/09/22/in-the-parliament-proposed-to-dismiss-klimkin-for-the-words-of-transcarpath

      Balogh noted that «the appropriate people» associated with the Carpathians, the European life-style, dozens of companies, working for export, as well as sanatoriums and mineral water. As for the authorities, they, in his opinion, talk about the region «as a hole».

      «And it says the power that for 2 years and are unable to restore the #Uzhgorod airport. Which is not repairing roads. Put the contraband on stream. Which merged with the bandits and knocks the Transcarpathian forest. Will not allow anyone to offend the Carpathians! Let Klimkin at least agree with the Slovaks about the renew of work of our airport, and then let says, what did we do to him», — said the MP.

      Earlier it became known that the Consulate of Hungary in Beregovo, Transcarpathian region issues living in the region Ukrainians passports of their country. It was reported that the documents were accompanied by recommendations not to notify the authorities of Ukraine. Pavlo Klimkin called Consul of Hungary «cog in this whole diplomatic structure» and promised to expel him from the country.

    • Le site #Myrotvorets qui se consacre à la chasse des ennemis de l’Ukraine publie les données personnelles des bénéficiaires des passeports hongrois distribués…
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrotvorets

      #Tout_va_bien

      The Terroristic « Mirotvorets » Website Started to Pursue the Owners of Hungarian Passports in Transcarpathia • СТАЛКЕР/ZONE
      http://www.stalkerzone.org/the-terroristic-mirotvorets-website-started-to-pursue-the-owners-of-hun

      After the scandal with the issuance of Hungarian passports [by the Hungarian embassy – ed] to Transcarpathia, Ukrainians who obtained Hungarian citizenship are now being entered into the database of the scandalous “#Mirotvorets“ website. This was reported on Facebook by “°Myrotvorets News°”.

      The first five violators of the Constitution and Law of Ukraine on nationality has been recorded in Purgatory. All data about the specified citizens of Ukraine having illegal Hungarian citizenship is confirmed,” it is said in the message.

      The website also published the names of these people, along with their photograph.

    • Peter Szijjarto, ministre des Affaires étrangères hongrois affirme que la délivrance des passeports par le consul de Beregovo était parfaitement légale et dénonce l’utilisation d’une caméra cachée. L’affaire est suivie de près par les voisins roumains…

      Szijjarto : Ceremonia de depunere a jurământului la Consulatul din Beregovo a fost desfășurată în mod legal | Libertatea Cuvântului (Cernăuți)
      http://lyberti.com/szijjarto-ceremonia-de-depunere-a-juramantului-a-fost-desfasurata-in-mod-le

      Szijjarto: Ceremonia de depunere a jurământului la Consulatul din Beregovo a fost desfășurată în mod legal

    • Government - Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade - News
      http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-foreign-affairs-and-trade/news/europe-and-the-world-must-take-action-against-the-security-risks-posed-by-th

      “A totally new world order is in development, and this is bringing with it new security risks, against which Europe and indeed the whole world must take action”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in Monday in New York with relation to the fact that a separate meeting will be held on this issue during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, which is being held this week.

      At the world peace summit named after anti-Apartheid fighter and former South African President Nelson Mandela, we must identify the factors that represent the greatest danger to world peace and security”, the Minister said at the press conference.

      He explained that there are three such factors relating to Europe: one is illegal migration, with relation to which a particular risk is posed by the fact that “Europe is still incapable of speaking honestly and clearly, and of making it clear that Europe can only be entered legally”.

      The other is action against minorities, from which Hungary is also suffering in view of the fact that Hungarians in Transcarpathia are being systematically intimidated and the Ukrainian state wants to take away the rights of the Hungarian minority. “_The approach according to which national minorities are not viewed as a resource, but as a potential source of conflict, exists all over the world”, Mr, Szijjártó added.

      The Minister cited religious persecution as the third security risk, and said it is particularly sad that Christianity has become the world’s most persecuted religion.

      note : je poste ici à cause de la référence faite aux persécutions de la minorité hongroise en Ukraine occidentale (pour l’instant, les (micro) événements passent complètement sous le radar de la presse occidentale) ; le premier point et la partition qu’y joue la Hongrie est nettement plus visible.
      @cdb_77

    • Présentation des faits par le Visegrád Post, partenaire de TV Libertés, bien marquée à l’extrême-droite. L’article reprend d’ailleurs l’intégralité du «  trombinoscope  » des 5 bénéficiaires de passeport hongrois, tel que publié par le site terroriste d’extrême-droite ukrainien.

      Nouvelles tensions entre la Hongrie et l’Ukraine et menaces sur la minorité hongroise de Subcarpatie | Visegrád Post
      https://visegradpost.com/fr/2018/09/24/nouvelles-tensions-entre-la-hongrie-et-lukraine-et-menaces-sur-la-mino

      Ukraine – Menaces d’expulsion du consul de Hongrie de Berehove (Ukraine) et nouvelles tensions diplomatiques entre Budapest et Kiev.

      Les tensions diplomatiques entre Budapest et Kiev sont récurrentes depuis septembre 2017, lorsque les autorités ukrainiennes ont entrepris de mener une réforme du système éducatif visant à supprimer toutes les langues minoritaires (russe en premier lieu, mais aussi polonais, roumain, hongrois ou bulgare). Cela avait amené la Hongrie a opposer son véto à la présence de l’Ukraine lors d’un sommet de l’OTAN pour protester contre les conséquences de cette loi pour la minorité hongroise de Subcarpatie. L’incendie en février 2018 du centre culturel hongrois d’Oujhorod (en hongrois : Ungvár) avait également ravivé ces tensions.

      Ce vendredi 21 septembre 2018, le ministre des Affaires étrangères ukrainien Pavlo Klimkin a déclaré que l’Ukraine était prête à expulser le Consul de Hongrie en poste à Berehove (en hongrois : Beregszász) si Budapest ne le rappelait pas.

      Cette déclaration fait suite à une vidéo dans laquelle des Hongrois d’Ukraine participent à une courte cérémonie durant laquelle il se voient attribuer la citoyenneté hongroise. À la fin de cette vidéo, on peut entendre une personne signaler qu’il ne faut pas utiliser le passeport hongrois à la frontière ukrainienne, mais uniquement le passeport ukrainien.

    • Tiens, la République tchèque se souvient que la Transcarpathie était tchécoslovaque avant 1944 (en droit, au moins, parce que depuis 1939, elle ne l’était plus de fait) et pourrait se mettre à son tour à délivrer des passeports tchèques. D’après le gouverneur de la région de Transcarpathie qui déclare, par ailleurs, que la Hongrie « n’accorde » pas la nationalité, mais la « restitue »…

      Ще одна країна ЄС може почати видачу своїх паспортів українцям на Закарпатті - 24 Канал
      https://24tv.ua/shhe_odna_krayina_yes_mozhe_pochati_vidachu_svoyih_pasportiv_ukrayintsyam_na_za

      Услід за отриманням українцями угорських паспортів на Закарпатті може виникнути нова проблема. Так, Чехія також розглядає питання надання громадянства жителям регіону.

      Про це заявив голова Закарпатської ОДА Геннадій Москаль в ефірі “112 Каналу”.

      Чиновник нагадав, що до 1944 року територія Закарпаття входила у склад спершу Чехословаччини, а потім Угорщини.

      Він зазначив, що після приходу радянської влади багато жителів регіону зберегли чехословацькі й угорські паспорти.

      Окрім того, на його думку, та ж Угорщина не “надає” своє громадянство, а “повертає” його етнічним угорцям за спадковою ознакою.

  • « Emma Watson et le féminisme : son discours pourrait convaincre le pire des machos »

    https://enuncombatdouteux.blogspot.com/2018/08/emma-watson-et-le-feminisme-son.html

    « C’est une question de liberté.Je veux que les hommes prennent le flambeau. Afin que leurs filles, sœurs et mères puissent être libres de tout préjugé,

    mais qu’aussi leurs fils aient la permission d’être vulnérables et humains – réclamant ces parties d’eux-mêmes qu’ils ont abandonnées, et ce faisant, devenant une version plus complète et vraie d’eux-mêmes. »

    https://youtu.be/YXyv32RRGgk

    Les esprits à conquérir sont ceux des hommes. Il ne sert à rien de les culpabiliser, cela ne servirait qu’à leur faire peur. Et à activer leurs défenses.

    Emma Watson adopte une stratégie beaucoup plus fine : les rassurer. Je suis avec vous :

    « Je suis ambassadrice depuis 6 mois. Plus j’ai parlé de féminisme, plus j’ai réalisé que la lutte pour les droits des femmes est trop souvent devenu synonyme de haine des hommes. Et s’il y a une chose dont je suis certaine, c’est que cela doit cesser. »

    Pour dire la conviction, la diction vient à l’appui des mots, lente, scandée : « ce-la-doit-ces-ser ».

    Elle rappelle la définition du féminisme :

    « La croyance que les hommes et les femmes doivent jouir des mêmes droits et des mêmes opportunités. »

    Elle adopte la même stratégie – la seule payante à vrai dire – que les grands avocats de la cause des noirs, confrontés au même type de peur, celle des blancs, qu’il fallait rassurer avant de poser l’exigence d’égalité.

    Nelson Mandela, 1964 :

    « Je me suis battu contre la domination blanche. Je me suis battu contre la domination noire. »

    Elle sait et dit que le mot est « impopulaire ». Alors elle, elle continue de tendre la main même à ceux que son plaidoyer pour le féminisme n’aurait pas convaincus :

    « Et si vous détestez toujours le mot, dites-vous que ce n’est pas le mot qui est important, mais l’idée et l’ambition derrière lui. »

    Mais si, les mots comptent et agissent sur le réel. Emma Watson le sait si bien qu’en réalité, elle vient d’attribuer au mot « féminisme » la place d’honneur d’une grande campagne consensuelle de l’ONU.

    Par ce mot, prononcé par une jeune actrice universellement admirée, répété à une tribune universelle, elle a fait franchir un nouveau pas à la cause des femmes.

  • Ca y est, j’ai résumé tout ça dans ma chronique hebdomadaire :

    ELO#336 - Queen of Soul Forever
    Dror, Entre Les Oreilles, le 22 août 2018
    http://entrelesoreilles.blogspot.com/2018/08/elo336-queen-of-soul-forever.html

    Par rapport à tout ce que j’ai déjà raconté ici, pas grand chose de neuf si ce n’est une meilleure mise en page, quelques mp3 et quelques liens en plus...

    #Aretha_Franklin #Musique #Soul #mort_en_2018

  • The Islamic fundamentalist Jeremy Corbyn should be ashamed of himself – if only he’d behaved more like Margaret Thatcher | The Independent
    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-islam-jewish-antisemitism-israel-labour-party-margaret-

    Un peu d’humour (anglais) ne fait jamais de mal en politique.

    It gets worse and worse for Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. There’s a rumour that photos have emerged of a courgette grown on his allotment which is a similar shape to a rocket propeller used by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

    This comes on top of revelations that he has a beard, much like Palestinian terrorists, and his constituency is Islington, which starts with IS, or Islamic State. As a vegetarian he doesn’t eat pork, his friend John McDonnell’s initials are JM – that stands for Jihadist Muslim – and he travels on underground trains, that are under the ground, just like the basements in which Isis make their little films.

    The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and various others have also published a photo of him folding his thumb while holding up his fingers, in a way they describe as a salute to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. That settles it. If you don’t constantly check the shape of your thumb to make sure it’s not folded in a way similar to the way it’s folded by Muslim groups in Egypt, you might as well strap Semtex to your chest and get a bus to Syria.

    Thankfully there are some brave journalists who discovered the truth: that Corbyn laid a wreath in Tunisia at a memorial for civilians who were bombed, but also buried in that cemetery are the “Munich terrorists”. It turned out that the terrorists are not buried there at all, as they’re buried in Libya, but you can’t expect those journalists to get bogged down in insignificant details like that.

    We’ve all turned up for a funeral to be told we’re in the wrong country. “I’m afraid the service for your Uncle Derek is in Eltham Crematorium,” we’re told, “and you’ve come to Argentina.” It doesn’t make any difference to the overall story.

    Because there are Palestinian leaders who may have been terrorists in that cemetery. And when you attend a memorial service, you are clearly commemorating everyone in the cemetery, and the fact that you’ve probably never heard of most of them is no excuse.
    Corbyn takes on Margaret Thatcher over homelessness in Parliament in 1990

    If it’s possible to bring comfort to all those shocked by this outrage, it may be worth recalling that one of the first scandals about Corbyn after he became leader was that he wasn’t dressed smartly enough when he laid a wreath at the Cenotaph, which was an insult to our war dead. He’s just as scruffy in the pictures from Tunisia, so perhaps what he’s actually doing is insulting the terrorists, by laying a wreath near them while his coat is rumpled.

    I suppose it may just be possible that the wreath he laid at an event organised to mark the bombing of civilians in 1985 was actually put there to mark the bombing of civilians in 1985.

    But it’s much more likely that secretly, Jeremy Corbyn supports Palestinian terrorists who murder athletes. You may think that if you hold such an unusual point of view, it might have slipped out in conversation here and there. But the fact he’s never said or done anything to suggest he backs the brutal murder of civilians only shows how clever he is at hiding his true thoughts.

    This must be why he’s always been a keen supporter of causes beloved by Islamic jihadists, such as gay rights. For example, Jeremy Corbyn was a passionate opponent of Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 law that banned the mention of homosexuality in schools. He supported every gay rights campaign at a time when it was considered extremist to do so. And the way he managed to be an extremist Islamic fundamentalist and an extremist gay rights fanatic at the same time only shows how dangerous he is.

    One person who appears especially upset by all this is Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it’s always distressing when someone that sensitive gets dragged into an issue.

    Sadly he’s going to be even more aghast when he reads about another event in which wreaths were laid for terrorists. Because a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the King David Hotel, in which 91 people died, mostly civilians and 28 of them British. This was carried out by the Irgun, an Israeli terror gang, and one man, who by coincidence was also called Benjamin Netanyahu, declared the bombing was “a legitimate act with a military target”.
    The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn
    He called Hezbollah and Hamas ‘friends’
    ‘Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy’
    He is ‘haunted’ by the legacy of his ‘evil’ great-great-grandfather
    Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about ‘pigeon bombs’ in Parliament

    When Benjamin Netanyahu hears about this other Benjamin Netanyahu he’ll be furious.

    The Labour MPs who pine for Tony Blair are even more enraged, and you have to sympathise. Because when Blair supported murderers, such as Gaddafi and Asad, he did it while they were still alive, which is much more acceptable.

    So you can see why Conservative politicians and newspapers are so disgusted. If you subjected the Conservative Party to a similar level of scrutiny, you’d find nothing comparable. There might be the odd link to torturers, such as their ex-leader Margaret Thatcher describing General Pinochet, who herded opponents into a football stadium and had them shot, as a close and dear friend. Or supporting apartheid because “Nelson Mandela is a terrorist”. But she was only being polite.

    We can only guess what the next revelation will be. My guess is “Corbyn supported snakes against iguanas in Attenborough’s film. Footage has emerged of the Labour leader speaking alongside a snake, and praising his efforts to catch the iguana and poison and swallow him. One iguana said he was ‘shocked and horrified’ at the story, told in this 340-page special edition, and one anti-Corbyn Labour MP said, ‘I don’t know anything about this whatsoever, which is why I call on Mr Corbyn to do the decent thing and kill himself.’”

    #Jeremy_Corbin #Fake_news #Calomnies #Violence

  • The Islamic fundamentalist Jeremy Corbyn should be ashamed of himself – if only he’d behaved more like Margaret Thatcher | The Independent
    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-islam-jewish-antisemitism-israel-labour-party-margaret-

    It gets worse and worse for Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. There’s a rumour that photos have emerged of a courgette grown on his allotment which is a similar shape to a rocket propeller used by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

    This comes on top of revelations that he has a beard, much like Palestinian terrorists, and his constituency is Islington, which starts with IS, or Islamic State. As a vegetarian he doesn’t eat pork, his friend John McDonnell’s initials are JM – that stands for Jihadist Muslim – and he travels on underground trains, that are under the ground, just like the basements in which Isis make their little films.

    The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and various others have also published a photo of him folding his thumb while holding up his fingers, in a way they describe as a salute to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. That settles it. If you don’t constantly check the shape of your thumb to make sure it’s not folded in a way similar to the way it’s folded by Muslim groups in Egypt, you might as well strap Semtex to your chest and get a bus to Syria.

    Thankfully there are some brave journalists who discovered the truth: that Corbyn laid a wreath in Tunisia at a memorial for civilians who were bombed, but also buried in that cemetery are the “Munich terrorists”. It turned out that the terrorists are not buried there at all, as they’re buried in Libya, but you can’t expect those journalists to get bogged down in insignificant details like that.

    We’ve all turned up for a funeral to be told we’re in the wrong country. “I’m afraid the service for your Uncle Derek is in Eltham Crematorium,” we’re told, “and you’ve come to Argentina.” It doesn’t make any difference to the overall story.

    Because there are Palestinian leaders who may have been terrorists in that cemetery. And when you attend a memorial service, you are clearly commemorating everyone in the cemetery, and the fact that you’ve probably never heard of most of them is no excuse.
    Corbyn takes on Margaret Thatcher over homelessness in Parliament in 1990

    If it’s possible to bring comfort to all those shocked by this outrage, it may be worth recalling that one of the first scandals about Corbyn after he became leader was that he wasn’t dressed smartly enough when he laid a wreath at the Cenotaph, which was an insult to our war dead. He’s just as scruffy in the pictures from Tunisia, so perhaps what he’s actually doing is insulting the terrorists, by laying a wreath near them while his coat is rumpled.
    British Expats: Discover How the UK Pension Refor…Abbey Wealth
    Propriétaire en Occitanie ? N’acheter pas vos …Eco-Astuce.com
    Prostate : ces 5 actifs améliorent drastiquement vos…Laboratoire Cell’innov

    by Taboola
    Sponsored Links

    I suppose it may just be possible that the wreath he laid at an event organised to mark the bombing of civilians in 1985 was actually put there to mark the bombing of civilians in 1985.

    But it’s much more likely that secretly, Jeremy Corbyn supports Palestinian terrorists who murder athletes. You may think that if you hold such an unusual point of view, it might have slipped out in conversation here and there. But the fact he’s never said or done anything to suggest he backs the brutal murder of civilians only shows how clever he is at hiding his true thoughts.

    This must be why he’s always been a keen supporter of causes beloved by Islamic jihadists, such as gay rights. For example, Jeremy Corbyn was a passionate opponent of Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 law that banned the mention of homosexuality in schools. He supported every gay rights campaign at a time when it was considered extremist to do so. And the way he managed to be an extremist Islamic fundamentalist and an extremist gay rights fanatic at the same time only shows how dangerous he is.

    One person who appears especially upset by all this is Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it’s always distressing when someone that sensitive gets dragged into an issue.

    Sadly he’s going to be even more aghast when he reads about another event in which wreaths were laid for terrorists. Because a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the King David Hotel, in which 91 people died, mostly civilians and 28 of them British. This was carried out by the Irgun, an Israeli terror gang, and one man, who by coincidence was also called Benjamin Netanyahu, declared the bombing was “a legitimate act with a military target”.
    The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn
    He called Hezbollah and Hamas ‘friends’
    ‘Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy’
    He is ‘haunted’ by the legacy of his ‘evil’ great-great-grandfather
    Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about ‘pigeon bombs’ in Parliament

    When Benjamin Netanyahu hears about this other Benjamin Netanyahu he’ll be furious.

    The Labour MPs who pine for Tony Blair are even more enraged, and you have to sympathise. Because when Blair supported murderers, such as Gaddafi and Asad, he did it while they were still alive, which is much more acceptable.

    So you can see why Conservative politicians and newspapers are so disgusted. If you subjected the Conservative Party to a similar level of scrutiny, you’d find nothing comparable. There might be the odd link to torturers, such as their ex-leader Margaret Thatcher describing General Pinochet, who herded opponents into a football stadium and had them shot, as a close and dear friend. Or supporting apartheid because “Nelson Mandela is a terrorist”. But she was only being polite.

    We can only guess what the next revelation will be. My guess is “Corbyn supported snakes against iguanas in Attenborough’s film. Footage has emerged of the Labour leader speaking alongside a snake, and praising his efforts to catch the iguana and poison and swallow him. One iguana said he was ‘shocked and horrified’ at the story, told in this 340-page special edition, and one anti-Corbyn Labour MP said, ‘I don’t know anything about this whatsoever, which is why I call on Mr Corbyn to do the decent thing and kill himself.’”

  • For these underprivileged young women in France, rugby provides strength, resilience and empowerment
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2018/08/01/for-these-underprivileged-french-young-women-rugby-provides-strength

    Camilo Leon-Quijano is a Colombian-born photographer based in Paris. He is also a PhD Fellow in Sociology and a lecturer at the Gender Studies department of the EHESS of Paris (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences). Leon-Quijano uses photography as a way to understand urban spaces. In Sight is sharing a project he did on the women rugby players in a suburb north of Paris. He told In Sight the following about the project:

    In January 2017, I started following a group of #rugby players from the #Chantereine High School of #Sarcelles, a stigmatized “banlieue” in the north of Paris. Banlieue is a French word to designate a suburb. The banlieues are often socially and politically dismissed by the state. Sarcelles is one of the most impoverished and stigmatized cities in the country, and a significant part of its population has an immigrant background.


    The team trains in the mud on the “Nelson Mandela” rugby field in Sarcelles. (Camilo Leon-Quijano)
    #photographie

  • Et si la non-violence n’était pas efficace ?
    https://reporterre.net/Et-si-la-non-violence-n-etait-pas-efficace

    Loin de faire l’apologie d’une violence irraisonnée, « Comment la #non-violence protège l’État », de Peter Gelderloos, déboulonne l’argumentaire fallacieux de ceux qui affirment que la non-violence est la seule méthode acceptable de lutte face à la violence du #capitalisme et de l’État.

    Présentation du #livre par son éditeur :

    Parlons franchement, au vu de la situation, la grande majorité des mouvements sociaux et écologistes échouent lamentablement, depuis des décennies, ne serait-ce qu’à freiner la catastrophe sociale et écologique en cours (de la sixième extinction de masse aux inégalités économiques phénoménales et croissantes qui caractérisent notre temps).

    La plupart de ces mouvements se targuent de respecter scrupuleusement les principes de la non-violence, qu’ils considèrent comme la seule méthode de lutte acceptable. Et pourtant, ainsi que Peter Gelderloos l’expose brillamment dans ce livre, cette adhérence dogmatique au concept de la non-violence est injustifiée et injustifiable. En outre, il s’agit d’une des principales raisons pour lesquelles ils sont inefficaces.

    En démystifiant les figures historiques inexorablement citées par la majorité de ceux qui défendent la non-violence comme un absolu — Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela —, en exposant les réalités complexes derrière leurs accomplissements (souvent réduites à des simplismes mensongers), et en exposant les nombreux problèmes d’#éthique qui découlent de l’absolutisation de la non-violence, Gelderloos nous offre ici un ouvrage essentiel qui devrait nous aider à sortir de l’impasse manifeste dans laquelle s’enlisent les mouvements militants.

    Loin de faire l’apologie d’une violence irraisonnée, ce livre déboulonne l’argumentaire fallacieux de ceux qui affirment que la non-violence est la seule méthode acceptable de lutte face à la violence du capitalisme et de l’État.

    • Comment la non-violence protège l’État : Essai sur l’inefficacité des mouvements sociaux - Débat EHESS, 25 mai
      https://paris-luttes.info/debat-ehess-comment-la-non-10295

      À l’occasion de la sortie du livre « Comment la non-violence protège l’État : Essai sur l’inefficacité des mouvements sociaux » de Peter Gelderloos, nous vous proposons une conférence-débat en présence de l’auteur.

      Quand ? vendredi 25 mai à 18h00
      Où ça ? à l’EHESS (École des hautes études en sciences sociales) Salle Lombard. Entrée : 96 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris.

      Déroulé :
      18h00 à 19h15 : Projection du documentaire End:Civ de Franklin Lopez
      19h30 à 21h30 : Conf débat avec Peter Gelderloos, auteur de Comment la non-violence protège l’État
      21h30 : Repas partagé

      Pour info, le cadre ne sera ni neutre ni universitaire
      Communiqué des occupant.e.s de l’EHESS
      https://paris-luttes.info/communique-des-occupant-e-s-de-l-10116

    • L’écologie va-t-en-guerre, un égarement. Une critique du bouquin par #Vincent_Cheynet dans le n° 151 de la Décroissance.

      La civilisation industrielle détruit la nature ? Il suffit donc de la démanteler en engageant une « guerre écologique décisive » qui hâtera son effondrement. C’est ce que prône un mouvement venu d’outre-Atlantique, la Deep Green Resistance qui s’organise sur les réseaux clandestins de Facebook et Youtube.
      Objecteurs de croissance influencés par des Tolstoï et des Gandhi et partisans d’une action politique non-violente, vous êtes considérés comme « inefficaces » voire complices de l’ennemi.

      [ "... La terre est ce qui importe. Elle est primordiale. Elle est notre maison. Elle est tout"_ . C’est aussi infantile que du Aymeric Caron. Nous passerons sur le reste de l’argumentaire, d’une teneur intellectuelle tout aussi indigente : des grands méchants - l’Etat, les multinationales et leurs affidés - mèneraient une guerre délibérée contre les populations dont ils ne seraient à aucun stade les émanations (il suffit de voir l’activisme de la DGR sur l’internet et sur les réseaux des multinationales Facebook et Google pour en douter) Le capitalisme ne serait pas un fait social total, il suffirait d’abattre quelques « puissants » pour tout résoudre. ...]

      http://www.decroissance.org

      Partez devant les gars, je vous rejoins à reculons.