4 july 2018
Painful separation
Sadness and pain of departure befell the human rights activist who won the Right Livelihood award, known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ for her exemplary courage in her struggle for the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.
The role of Langer and her interaction with the Palestinian cause and the peaceful and legal struggle of the Palestinians marked a major milestone because she is an Israeli whose Jewish parents survived the Nazi Holocaust.
Tirelessly, Langer defended the arrest of Palestinians and the administrative detention orders against them, as well as the torture of Palestinian prisoners, challenging expulsion orders, demolition of houses and confiscation of lands of Palestinian citizens. By doing so, Langer expressed humanitarian positions in a battle that lasted for more than a quarter of a century.
Immortal diary
Langer, born in Poland in 1930, earned her law degree from the Hebrew University in 1965, chose to be a legal advocate for Palestinian human rights against the repressive practices of the Israeli occupation.
In her memoirs entitled Anger and Hope: The March of the Palestinian People under Occupation, the Jewish lawyer exposed the Israeli occupation and its crimes against Palestinian prisoners, inspired by her experience in defending Palestinian prisoners.
In her book, Langer documented her observations and memoirs before Israeli military courts, where she spent 25 years defending Palestinian prisoners, waging a legal and political war to refute injustice inflicted on prisoners in their cells.
‘Hajja Fola’
During the course of her struggle for human rights, ‘Hajja Fola’, as Palestinian prisoners called her – has defended hundreds of them, rejecting unfair Israeli judicial procedures, and fighting against the Israeli army and intelligence.
Speaking of this, she said: “I am with justice and against anyone who believes that the result of the Holocaust is hatred, cruelty and insensitivity.”
After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Langer founded a law firm in occupied Jerusalem, through which she became a trusted authority to human rights institutions in the world, documenting Israeli violations against Palestinians.
In 2017, she appealed to the international community to save the lives of Palestinian prisoners who engaged in a 47-day-long open-ended hunger strike, saying: “I appeal to you not to remain silent on this ongoing repression, otherwise you will be part of these crimes.”
Humanitarian model
Writer Nasri Haggaj said that Palestinians have lost a humanitarian model that is rarely found in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Nasri, who met with Langer at human rights seminars, said that she refused to live in Israel and sympathized with the Palestinian people.
The head of the PA prisoners’ affairs authority, Issa Qaraqi, mourned Langer, saying: “She has documented the facts about the Israeli occupation in her famous book in which she said: I saw the crimes and torture on the bodies of the detainees.”
He added, “She saw how the (Israeli) occupation government violates international and humanitarian laws, where no international law prevails in Israel’s prisons, courts and interrogation cells, and where systematic disregard for human justice is prevailing.”
Palestinian NGOs and official bodies mourned Felicia Langer for her role in defending the rights of the Palestinians and her struggle to confront Israeli injustice.
Sadness and pain of departure befell the human rights activist who won the Right Livelihood award, known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ for her exemplary courage in her struggle for the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.
The role of Langer and her interaction with the Palestinian cause and the peaceful and legal struggle of the Palestinians marked a major milestone because she is an Israeli whose Jewish parents survived the Nazi Holocaust.
Tirelessly, Langer defended the arrest of Palestinians and the administrative detention orders against them, as well as the torture of Palestinian prisoners, challenging expulsion orders, demolition of houses and confiscation of lands of Palestinian citizens. By doing so, Langer expressed humanitarian positions in a battle that lasted for more than a quarter of a century.
Immortal diary
Langer, born in Poland in 1930, earned her law degree from the Hebrew University in 1965, chose to be a legal advocate for Palestinian human rights against the repressive practices of the Israeli occupation.
In her memoirs entitled Anger and Hope: The March of the Palestinian People under Occupation, the Jewish lawyer exposed the Israeli occupation and its crimes against Palestinian prisoners, inspired by her experience in defending Palestinian prisoners.
In her book, Langer documented her observations and memoirs before Israeli military courts, where she spent 25 years defending Palestinian prisoners, waging a legal and political war to refute injustice inflicted on prisoners in their cells.
‘Hajja Fola’
During the course of her struggle for human rights, ‘Hajja Fola’, as Palestinian prisoners called her – has defended hundreds of them, rejecting unfair Israeli judicial procedures, and fighting against the Israeli army and intelligence.
Speaking of this, she said: “I am with justice and against anyone who believes that the result of the Holocaust is hatred, cruelty and insensitivity.”
After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Langer founded a law firm in occupied Jerusalem, through which she became a trusted authority to human rights institutions in the world, documenting Israeli violations against Palestinians.
In 2017, she appealed to the international community to save the lives of Palestinian prisoners who engaged in a 47-day-long open-ended hunger strike, saying: “I appeal to you not to remain silent on this ongoing repression, otherwise you will be part of these crimes.”
Humanitarian model
Writer Nasri Haggaj said that Palestinians have lost a humanitarian model that is rarely found in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Nasri, who met with Langer at human rights seminars, said that she refused to live in Israel and sympathized with the Palestinian people.
The head of the PA prisoners’ affairs authority, Issa Qaraqi, mourned Langer, saying: “She has documented the facts about the Israeli occupation in her famous book in which she said: I saw the crimes and torture on the bodies of the detainees.”
He added, “She saw how the (Israeli) occupation government violates international and humanitarian laws, where no international law prevails in Israel’s prisons, courts and interrogation cells, and where systematic disregard for human justice is prevailing.”
Palestinian NGOs and official bodies mourned Felicia Langer for her role in defending the rights of the Palestinians and her struggle to confront Israeli injustice.
3 july 2018
Ariel Gold, a member of Code Pink for Peace and an outspoken proponent of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the U.S., was detained at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel on Sunday, and was denied entry and sent back to the U.S.
The movement that Gold is a part of, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, is aimed at pressuring Israel economically to get the government of Israel to adhere to its obligations under international law and signed agreements.
She has been a prominent and outspoken proponent of Palestinian rights, and despite her deep ancestral connection to Judaism – her family can trace its lineage back to 16th-century Rabbi Yosef Caro, author of the “Shulchan Aruch” (the codification of Jewish religious law), who is buried in Safed, Israel – the Israeli government has deemed Gold to be a ‘security threat’.
Though she has never broken Israeli law, and is steadfastly committed to nonviolence, the Israeli government considers her political views to be a threat – essentially charging her with a ‘thought crime’ for critiquing Israel’s policies.
Gold had been told the last time she left Israel that she would need to notify the Israeli Ministry of the Interior the next time she came to Israel. She obtained a student visa to study Jewish Studies at Hebrew University, and notified the Ministry of Interior as they requested.
But despite that fact, she was deported and her passport stamped with a denial of entry, after 8 hours of interrogation and detention at the Ben Gurion Airport.
Her student visa was canceled and the Minister of Interior Arye Deri weighed in on the case personally, stating, “Gold has distributed videos on social networks, in which she harasses IDF soldiers and Border Police officers in Hebron, accusing the soldiers of apartheid and oppression, and that their actions do not conform to Jewish values”.
With this statement, the Interior Ministry made clear that the reason Gold was denied entry was the ‘thought crime’ of criticizing Israeli policies and practices.
Gold stated that the Israeli officials who denied her entry gave her only one reason for her denial of entry, that she “lied about her reason for entry”.
Gold adamantly denied that claim, saying that she was planning to participate in a course at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on “collective memory in Israel.”
The Israeli Minister of the Interior stated, “I am again using my authority to prevent the entry into Israel of a woman who came to act against Israel and call for its boycott. This is a Jew who tried to abuse this fact. Those boycott activists must understand that the rules of the game have changed. [They] will no longer be allowed to enter the country to harm the state and its residents.”
The Minister’s statement continued, “The policy I have set is clear: Whoever consistently acts to boycott Israel will not enter here. The rules have changed, and the State of Israel will not restrain itself against those who try to harm it.”
The movement that Gold is a part of, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, is aimed at pressuring Israel economically to get the government of Israel to adhere to its obligations under international law and signed agreements.
She has been a prominent and outspoken proponent of Palestinian rights, and despite her deep ancestral connection to Judaism – her family can trace its lineage back to 16th-century Rabbi Yosef Caro, author of the “Shulchan Aruch” (the codification of Jewish religious law), who is buried in Safed, Israel – the Israeli government has deemed Gold to be a ‘security threat’.
Though she has never broken Israeli law, and is steadfastly committed to nonviolence, the Israeli government considers her political views to be a threat – essentially charging her with a ‘thought crime’ for critiquing Israel’s policies.
Gold had been told the last time she left Israel that she would need to notify the Israeli Ministry of the Interior the next time she came to Israel. She obtained a student visa to study Jewish Studies at Hebrew University, and notified the Ministry of Interior as they requested.
But despite that fact, she was deported and her passport stamped with a denial of entry, after 8 hours of interrogation and detention at the Ben Gurion Airport.
Her student visa was canceled and the Minister of Interior Arye Deri weighed in on the case personally, stating, “Gold has distributed videos on social networks, in which she harasses IDF soldiers and Border Police officers in Hebron, accusing the soldiers of apartheid and oppression, and that their actions do not conform to Jewish values”.
With this statement, the Interior Ministry made clear that the reason Gold was denied entry was the ‘thought crime’ of criticizing Israeli policies and practices.
Gold stated that the Israeli officials who denied her entry gave her only one reason for her denial of entry, that she “lied about her reason for entry”.
Gold adamantly denied that claim, saying that she was planning to participate in a course at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on “collective memory in Israel.”
The Israeli Minister of the Interior stated, “I am again using my authority to prevent the entry into Israel of a woman who came to act against Israel and call for its boycott. This is a Jew who tried to abuse this fact. Those boycott activists must understand that the rules of the game have changed. [They] will no longer be allowed to enter the country to harm the state and its residents.”
The Minister’s statement continued, “The policy I have set is clear: Whoever consistently acts to boycott Israel will not enter here. The rules have changed, and the State of Israel will not restrain itself against those who try to harm it.”
29 june 2018
Five young Jewish-American women stage walkout on free Birthright trip of Israel, saying Birthright 'erased the effects of the occupation or spun things in a way that we felt were extremely biased'; instead, they joined Breaking the Silence for a tour of Hebron. video
Five young Jewish American women staged a walkout Thursday on a trip organized by Taglit-Birthright Israel, claiming they did not receive real education about the "occupation," and instead joined a Breaking the Silence tour in Hebron.
The five broadcast their departure live on Facebook. This is the first time Birthright participants walk out on the program.
The five young women, who are affiliated with the extreme-left Jewish American organization IfNotNow, said they each separately joined the tour with Taglit-Birthright, an organization that brings thousands of Jewish youth from all over the world to Israel on free trips, trying to "engage deeply and honestly" with the tour guide and other participants.
"We came with questions about what's happening in the occupied territories and wanted to engage with new perspectives," the five wrote in a joint statement. "But what became clear over the course of ten days was that Birthright did not want to truthfully engage with our questions. It's clear that young Jews who have critical questions about Israel are not welcome on Birthright."
On Thursday, the trip's last day, the young women announced they decided to leave the group to go on a trip with Breaking the Silence "to learn about the occupation from the perspective of Palestinians and IDF soldiers."
The group's Israeli tour guide, Golan, was upset by the walkout, and told the young women they had to sign a waiver as Birthright requires participants to remain with the group for the entire duration of the trip.
"You came here with a clear agenda from the beginning. You did not come to learn about Israel, you came to learn about Palestine," the tour guide told them. "You don't have an open mind. You have a clear agenda against Israel."
Other members of the group were enraged by the five's decision, accusing them of intentionally causing provocation.
When the group arrived for a tour of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Breaking the Silence activists, including spokesman Dean Issacharoff, were waiting for the five young women.
"I think you did something incredibly brave. You refused to cooperate with the silence that is protecting the violent and immoral military regime that we're enforcing on millions of Palestinians," Issacharoff told them. "It's amazing. I'm sure you guys are the first. It's just indicative of the growing gap between your values and the occupation's values. And the fact that you're not willing to compromise on your Jewish values is amazing."
On their Facebook page, IfNotNow praised the five women: "Wow. These Birthright participants just walked off their trip and onto a Breaking the Silence tour to Hebron. They are refusing to continue to engage in a biased Israel education that omits and obscures the Occupation, and are going to see and wrestle with the truth themselves. This is an inspiring, courageous, and brave act of resistance to the Occupation. This is why IfNotNow launched its #NotJustAFreeTrip campaign this week, because we can no longer allow a free trip that hides the truth about the Occupation be synonymous with being a young Jewish person in America."
Sophie Lasoff, 24, one of the young women who walked out on the trip, said she and the other four "have been really disappointed on a number of occasions about the way that Birthright has completely erased the effects of the occupation or avoided our questions, or spun things in a way that we felt were extremely biased."
"We came all the way across the world in order to see what they keep telling us is our homeland. And to me, grappling with what a homeland means to me, means grappling with it in all of its complexity, and they haven't allowed us to do that," she added.
Taglit: We reject manipulation attempts or provocations
Amit Deri, founder and CEO of Reservists on Duty, said in response: “In recent months, we have been following with concern the attempt made by radical organizations in Israel and in the US to turn young Jews against Israel. Today, for the first time, we saw that infiltration and intentional disruption of a consensus organization (Taglit), aimed at bringing Jews around the world closer together, has become a legitimate tool.
“Reservists on Duty will keep monitoring and exposing these phenomena and working to brings US Jews closer to Israel, focusing on the young generation,” Deri added. “Breaking the Silence are continuing their attempt to harm the delicate fabric between the Diaspora Jewry and the State of Israel. I find it amazing that Issacharoff, who was deemed a liar by the State Attorney’s Office, is leading this move and keeps spreading false propaganda to these young people.”
The Taglit organization offered the following comment: “Taglit, an apolitical project and the leading educational initiative in the world, has connected some 650,000 young Jews to Israel and to the Jewish people so far. As we respect the participants’ ability to form their own opinions, we reject the advancement of any agenda, manipulation attempts or provocations—from any political side.”
Issacharoff offered the following comment: “While the right-wing government is crushing Israel’s connection to the Diaspora Jewry, we are building new bridges based on values of equality and democracy. Anyone who thinks of demanding that millions of liberal Jews blindly support the occupation policy will wake up in panic when an entire generation of young Jews, who are unprepared to give up their values to cooperation with the concealment of the occupation in programs like Taglit, slam the door.
“We gladly accepted the participants’ initiative and we invite anyone coming to Israel to join us on a tour of the places in which we served in the territories to discover the reality of the occupation.”
Five young Jewish American women staged a walkout Thursday on a trip organized by Taglit-Birthright Israel, claiming they did not receive real education about the "occupation," and instead joined a Breaking the Silence tour in Hebron.
The five broadcast their departure live on Facebook. This is the first time Birthright participants walk out on the program.
The five young women, who are affiliated with the extreme-left Jewish American organization IfNotNow, said they each separately joined the tour with Taglit-Birthright, an organization that brings thousands of Jewish youth from all over the world to Israel on free trips, trying to "engage deeply and honestly" with the tour guide and other participants.
"We came with questions about what's happening in the occupied territories and wanted to engage with new perspectives," the five wrote in a joint statement. "But what became clear over the course of ten days was that Birthright did not want to truthfully engage with our questions. It's clear that young Jews who have critical questions about Israel are not welcome on Birthright."
On Thursday, the trip's last day, the young women announced they decided to leave the group to go on a trip with Breaking the Silence "to learn about the occupation from the perspective of Palestinians and IDF soldiers."
The group's Israeli tour guide, Golan, was upset by the walkout, and told the young women they had to sign a waiver as Birthright requires participants to remain with the group for the entire duration of the trip.
"You came here with a clear agenda from the beginning. You did not come to learn about Israel, you came to learn about Palestine," the tour guide told them. "You don't have an open mind. You have a clear agenda against Israel."
Other members of the group were enraged by the five's decision, accusing them of intentionally causing provocation.
When the group arrived for a tour of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Breaking the Silence activists, including spokesman Dean Issacharoff, were waiting for the five young women.
"I think you did something incredibly brave. You refused to cooperate with the silence that is protecting the violent and immoral military regime that we're enforcing on millions of Palestinians," Issacharoff told them. "It's amazing. I'm sure you guys are the first. It's just indicative of the growing gap between your values and the occupation's values. And the fact that you're not willing to compromise on your Jewish values is amazing."
On their Facebook page, IfNotNow praised the five women: "Wow. These Birthright participants just walked off their trip and onto a Breaking the Silence tour to Hebron. They are refusing to continue to engage in a biased Israel education that omits and obscures the Occupation, and are going to see and wrestle with the truth themselves. This is an inspiring, courageous, and brave act of resistance to the Occupation. This is why IfNotNow launched its #NotJustAFreeTrip campaign this week, because we can no longer allow a free trip that hides the truth about the Occupation be synonymous with being a young Jewish person in America."
Sophie Lasoff, 24, one of the young women who walked out on the trip, said she and the other four "have been really disappointed on a number of occasions about the way that Birthright has completely erased the effects of the occupation or avoided our questions, or spun things in a way that we felt were extremely biased."
"We came all the way across the world in order to see what they keep telling us is our homeland. And to me, grappling with what a homeland means to me, means grappling with it in all of its complexity, and they haven't allowed us to do that," she added.
Taglit: We reject manipulation attempts or provocations
Amit Deri, founder and CEO of Reservists on Duty, said in response: “In recent months, we have been following with concern the attempt made by radical organizations in Israel and in the US to turn young Jews against Israel. Today, for the first time, we saw that infiltration and intentional disruption of a consensus organization (Taglit), aimed at bringing Jews around the world closer together, has become a legitimate tool.
“Reservists on Duty will keep monitoring and exposing these phenomena and working to brings US Jews closer to Israel, focusing on the young generation,” Deri added. “Breaking the Silence are continuing their attempt to harm the delicate fabric between the Diaspora Jewry and the State of Israel. I find it amazing that Issacharoff, who was deemed a liar by the State Attorney’s Office, is leading this move and keeps spreading false propaganda to these young people.”
The Taglit organization offered the following comment: “Taglit, an apolitical project and the leading educational initiative in the world, has connected some 650,000 young Jews to Israel and to the Jewish people so far. As we respect the participants’ ability to form their own opinions, we reject the advancement of any agenda, manipulation attempts or provocations—from any political side.”
Issacharoff offered the following comment: “While the right-wing government is crushing Israel’s connection to the Diaspora Jewry, we are building new bridges based on values of equality and democracy. Anyone who thinks of demanding that millions of liberal Jews blindly support the occupation policy will wake up in panic when an entire generation of young Jews, who are unprepared to give up their values to cooperation with the concealment of the occupation in programs like Taglit, slam the door.
“We gladly accepted the participants’ initiative and we invite anyone coming to Israel to join us on a tour of the places in which we served in the territories to discover the reality of the occupation.”
26 june 2018
|
CODEPINK organizer Ariel Gold discusses with TRNN’s Ben Norton why she supports BDS and the movement for Palestinian rights: “The actions of the state of Israel do not represent my values as an American Jew.”
|
24 may 2018
Seventy-six Members of the US Congress have co-signed a letter to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to end the demolitions and evictions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
According to J Street, a Washington DC-based liberal Zionist pressure group, “the letter notes that the destruction and displacement of these communities pose a serious threat to the human rights of Palestinians, to the prospects for a two-state solution and to Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.”
“This is the latest sign that US lawmakers are increasingly concerned by the alarming consequences of the Israeli government’s policies in the West Bank,” said Dylan Williams, J Street’s Vice President of Government Affairs.
In the letter, the members write: “The forcible eviction of Palestinian communities and the expansion of settlements in areas of the West Bank, which would become part of a future Palestinian state, abandon our two countries’ shared values of justice and respect for human rights.”
The letter also “cites over 300 rabbis, organized by J Street and other American Jewish groups, who wrote to Netanyahu in January opposing demolitions”.
According to J Street, a Washington DC-based liberal Zionist pressure group, “the letter notes that the destruction and displacement of these communities pose a serious threat to the human rights of Palestinians, to the prospects for a two-state solution and to Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.”
“This is the latest sign that US lawmakers are increasingly concerned by the alarming consequences of the Israeli government’s policies in the West Bank,” said Dylan Williams, J Street’s Vice President of Government Affairs.
In the letter, the members write: “The forcible eviction of Palestinian communities and the expansion of settlements in areas of the West Bank, which would become part of a future Palestinian state, abandon our two countries’ shared values of justice and respect for human rights.”
The letter also “cites over 300 rabbis, organized by J Street and other American Jewish groups, who wrote to Netanyahu in January opposing demolitions”.