Last week, I received an invitation from the Palestine-Israel Journal (PIJ) to attend an event on the impact of the Arab Spring on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, a couple of days later I was notified that the event was canceled due to threats by anti-normalization activists against the hotel hosting the event. Below is an letter of explanation I received from the co-editors of PIJ, Ziad Abu Zayyad and Hillel Schenker:
We regret being unable to convene the Meeting which was planned for today, December 20, 2011, focusing on the Impact of the Arab Spring on the Palestinian Israeli Conflict. We invested a tremendous effort in preparations, to guarantee appropriate speakers and audience, and to promote the new issue of the Palestine Israel Journal (PIJ) devoted to The Arab Spring.
Many of you wrote to us, or called asking what happened. And we believe that we owe you an explanation.
On the evening of Dec. 18 someone called Ziad AbuZayyad and drew his attention to a campaign on the Facebook against the meeting accusing it of being part of normalization with the occupation. Ziad spent more than five hours on the Facebook sending messages and posts and responding to what was written or posted and trying to explain the nature and importance of the event.
On Dec. 19 we were called by the Legacy Hotel and informed by its Manager that he decided to cancel our reservation and they will not host the Conference. Later we received a fax from the Hotel confirming the decision of its administration. At the same time Ziad checked with the Hotel why they canceled the meeting and urged them to change their decision but they said that they were threatened by telephone calls and asked not to host the meeting. The owner said that he cares about his business and does not want any political involvement.
Ziad met with some of those who were campaigning against the meeting but others refused to come and meet him and continued inciting against the meeting. The message was clear that they are willing to continue their protest and will come to the Hotel to prevent the convening of the meeting.
From my contacts and conversations with the protesters I can say that the protest is not specifically against the PIJ but stems from the overall situation in the city. There are a number of burning spots in the city as a result of continued settlements activities and attacks by settlers against the Palestinians mainly in Silwan and Ras el Amood. There are increasing activities of house demolitions and the imposing fines on “illegal building”, and recently the activation of Shu’fat passage which excluded the whole neighborhood of Shu’fat refugee camp from Jerusalem and as such making their access to their work, schools, relatives and other interests in the city subjected to restrictions and humiliation on the passage.
There is a strong and increasing political, emotional and militant congestion in the city against the Israeli practices accompanied by a bitter feeling that no one cares for the sufferings of Arabs in Jerusalem, including the PA which is also held responsible for letting down the Palestinians of Jerusalem.
In this congestion, frustration and despair, extremism reigns and logic disappears.
We are unhappy with this situation and will keep going on the path that we believe in and have chosen for our selves. And we’ll continue our efforts to resolve this problem which threatens all joint activities in Jerusalem by all of the civil society organizations. We will continue our efforts to speak with relevant Palestinian parties to change this situation,
BUT no one should ignore the suffering and frustration of the Palestinians in Jerusalem as a result of the Israeli policy and settlers. This policy must come to an end, settlement activities in Jerusalem should stop, and attacks and provocations against Palestinians in the city must be ended to help to change the general climate in the city.
We hope that this explanation will be up to your satisfaction, and thanks for your understanding.
December 24, 2011
3:16 pm
p.s. The Arava also has a public, written statement about their funding from the JNF and how they do not support all JNF activities. However, the statement is vague regarding those activities, which I find objectionable and I’m going to tell them so.
December 24, 2011
3:54 pm
Bosko,
Justice for Palestinians and justice for Israelis are not mutually exclusive, and I do believe that everybody’s needs can best be served by a single state.
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As I wrote in the rest of my comment, I’ve become quite familiar with the fears that people hold, and I think that a truly just solution would relieve Israelis of those anxieties. I do not believe that my friends’ lives are enhanced or their interests served by fear of going into East Jerusalem on their own. As separating people seems to generate fear and distrust rather than remedying them (pretty naturally, as people inevitably end up afraid of what they don’t know) I can’t see a solution that involves separation as just. I have a friend from Qatamon who will not visit me in my home; she is too scared. She would rather wait three hours in front of the Rachel’s Tomb machsom to pick me up from there than drive fifteen minutes to my house. The irony is that while Israeli Jews enjoy freedom of movement in the legal sense, they often lack freedom in a much more fundamental respect. A just answer to the conflict would hopefully fix that.
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As Sinjim pointed out, nobody is saying that this can be achieved a month from tomorrow. It does take time. All healing does. But the process has already begun. The story I gave you about Sylvana and her baby – there are thousands more stories like that. Not far from Bethlehem there is a farm called Tent of Nations. It is run by a Palestinian family who have been fighting land confiscation for decades. Any Israeli is welcome there, including settlers – and some settlers have actually accepted the invitation and gone to visit. This sort of thing is far more real to me than the idea of one state plunging everybody into civil war, because this is happening now, five miles down the road from me, whereas the violence that you’re afraid of is hypothetical.
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I tend to feel more pessimistic and cynical about the situation in Palestine/Israel when I’m in the UK than when I’m in Bethlehem, because when my main exposure to the conflict is through the media I get a lot of politics and no ordinary life. Ordinary life is where the hope is. The one-state solution looks a lot better when viewed from a street in Bethlehem than from the pages of a newspaper.
December 24, 2011
4:45 pm
exactly this, from Vicky: Ordinary life is where the hope is. The one-state solution looks a lot better when viewed from a street in Bethlehem than from the pages of a newspaper.
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also from a street in the Negev.
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Thanks so much for this last post, Vicky. It’s bedtime, here, in the Holy Land. ‘night.
December 24, 2011
6:25 pm
Vicky: “Justice for Palestinians and justice for Israelis are not mutually exclusive, and I do believe that everybody’s needs can best be served by a single state”
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I have no problems with the “CAN” bit. It is theory and I agree with you that in theory at least, both peoples can have justice in one state. However, in practice, I am sceptical (maybe I am just a cynic). Once again, I presented a realistic scenario earlier on this thread which explained the reason for my scepticism. Please help me to dispel that scenario …
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By the way, I applaud you for your efforts to bring reconciliation for the two peoples (Jewish Palestinians – now Israelis and Arab Palestinians – some of whom are also Israelis). Please keep up that good work even though it will take generations to reverse the hatreds and prejudices that have been built up by both sides over the last 100 years.
December 24, 2011
10:44 pm
@aristeides – so how do you reconcile? why don’t you leave? why are you staying there one more minute?
December 25, 2011
5:55 am
(1) It was “progressive prophet” Abe Burg that told Israelis to get foreign passports long before I suggested that those who can’t stand the situation here might consider leaving.
(2) Note how “Kibbutznik” stated not just that I am an “immigrant”, but rather an “American Immigrant”. It is no secret that “progressive” Israelis have special resentment of American olim. Why? Possibly because we have more experience of democracy and freedom of speech than they have and thus we don’t “toe the line” as much. But I think a bigger reason is this: Had these “progressive” Israelis parents or grandparents gone to the US of A instead of Israel, they woulnd’t have to torment themselves about how they have supposedly “usurped” the Palestinians, as Ami frets, and they could be as assimilated a Jew as they may want. To have an American Jew give up that paradise to come to Israel must be a sign of a special mental disturbance.
December 25, 2011
6:11 am
@BI – 1) so now you’re taking examples from “progressives”?
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2) Speak for yourself. If I do resent American Olim, it’s people like you who have gone to the settlements to steal land.
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Practice what you preach before you tell me to leave. YOU LEAVE! The sooner the better. The audacity you have to tell me to leave is typical of settler mentality like yours. Any one who doesn’t toe YOUR line should go.
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Any normal person would have apologoized to me for what you said.
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Mental disturbance indeed. You’re the perfect example. And next time you tell me to leave the place where I took my first breath will be the last time you comment on this site. Trust me.
December 25, 2011
6:12 am
If Aristeides is saying that being born somewhere doesn’t necessarily confer any rights in “progressive” circles, that is correct. Ian Smith and other white Rhodesian farmers had their property confiscated and were more or less forced to leave Zimbabwe and no one had any problem with that.
Jews born in Egypt (and others as well) were expelled in 1956 by the “progressive”, tolerant Arab/Muslim Nasser regime. I have never heard anyone in Egypt or other Arab/Muslim states say that that was a gross violation of human rights of native born people. In “tolerant” Muslim Pakistan, millions of native-born Hindus were expelled AFTER the upheaval of partition. Again, no one seems to have any problem with that.
December 25, 2011
7:55 am
Ami – Our Knesset is sitting on stolen Arab land, as the Palestinians see it. So is “progressive” Tel Aviv University. So is Shimon Peres’ house in Ramat Aviv. So is the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University.
Many of the “progressive” MAPAM-Kibbutz Artzi kibbutzim are sitting on stolen Arab land.
Actually, I wasn’t telling you or anyone to leave, nor do I want you or anyone else to leave. I didn’t mention your name there, but obviously I didn’t express myself very well.
On Friday, I came across Joseph Dana’s praise for murderer Marwan Barghouti and then I see you and others throwing up their hands in defeat and I felt despair at what is going on here at 972.
I do apologize because I did not mean to offend you. I was and am quite upset that you and others have given up on Zionism. If all you can do is prophecy a major disaster then I am afraid despair like that can spread quickly.
As you well know I have been saying for a long time that there is no possibility of there being a negotiated peace and yet I am OPTIMISTIC about the future. Once everyone realizes that the peace process has no future (and the victory of the Islamic parties) and the Arab side realizes the cost of getting rid of us is prohibited, then we can work on getting an unofficial MODUS-VIVENDI which I am certain is in the works.
However, I stand by what I said about “stolen Arab land”. If a Jew has a right to live in Tel Aviv, then he has a right to live in Hevron, and if a Jew has no right to live in Hevron then he has no right to live in Tel Aviv.
December 25, 2011
8:20 am
@BI – allow me to use your ever so present quotation marks and say: “apology” “accepted”.
December 25, 2011
8:34 am
Ben Israel
I agree with the theoretical right of Jews to live in Hebron. After all, till the 1929 massacre of Hebron’s Jews by Arabs, there has been a Jesish community living there for thousands of years continuously.
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Having said that, I also believe in pragmatism. And my pragmatism tells me that now is not the time to insist on Jewish rights to live in Hebron. It is too far an enclave into the West Bank and the protection of the small number of Jews of Hebron is too costly both financially and politically.
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Anyway, that’s just my opinion and I am more of a right winger than a “progressive”. Having said that, I don’t agree with the “progressives” who advocate a hands off policy for Israel from the old city of Jerusalem. It is my opinion that Israel has the right to build Jewish homes there and it is defendible.
Not only is it defendible but we should vigorously challenge everyone who insists that Israel has no right to be there.
December 25, 2011
8:34 am
This is an important issue, and it would be productive to discuss it without childish namecalling and threats. There can be no doubt that Israel wouldn’t exist if people hadn’t left the places where they drew their first breaths, whether voluntarily or forcibly.
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Ami – I seriously consider it. I certainly don’t consider it an absurb or illogical question. I think a lot of pro-Zionists ask it as such, but I take it seriously.
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Ben I – you make ridiculous statments that diminish your credibility. Of course people have profound problems with the ethnic cleansing during the Indo/Pak partition. It’s not an issue for “progressives,” which you seem to have substituted for “leftists.” It’s a problem for everyone, everywhere.
December 25, 2011
8:38 am
@BenIsrael–I am lucky that the phone rang when I was about to comment back and pretty much completely write you off, which, in turn, gave you time to post this more recent comment, where, at least, you are speaking of your own despair, and not ranting delusionally about why Israelis don’t like American Immigrants. When I read these comments from you, I seriously wonder something that I remember asking you way back: do you KNOW any Israeli-born Israelis? Not your friends’ children… Because you really do sound like you live in such a bubble, BI, of like-minded ideologues. Honestly. And I do not make that assumption about all settlers. I’m telling you: this is how you sound, starting with your online name.
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I believe that you feel despair. Your vision is strong. I also believe that your vision–and your ideas about what stands in the way of that vision and what needs to transpire before things can change–is wholly detached from reality. You are not alone; we could all get more real, by knowing more about what is happening right now, right here. I’ve had so many veils lifted that I know for sure there are more to come.
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But rest assured, BI. I love this land. Unlike many people here, I actually feel a biblical connection to this land. I just don’t know what book you’re reading. I won’t speak for Ami, but I will say that Israelis generally loves this land (maybe like family you wouldn’t choose, or have a big conflict with, but like family nonetheless), in ways that I can’t even begin to imagine (not because of the degree of love, but because of the complexity and ingrained nature of it). My Sabra friends–the ones who are true, close friends–are all liberal in their politics, yet I constantly worry that I could hurt their feelings when I say certain things about this place; it’s very personal, and I have not walked in their shoes. And after 25 years and milluim and etc., neither have you. They care about Israel in ways that Aristeides can’t even imagine; his comparisons to his relationship to the U.S. are absurd.
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The thing is: we think (I can’t speak for Ami–but I can speak for many people with my political leanings) that you and yours are the reason for despair. I am not saying that the settlements are the beginning and the end of our problems here. But the repercussions of the settlements, and the attitudes that you, Ben Israel, espouse here, make me feel despair.
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One reason I like the OSS, BI, is that many Jews who care about living here or there in Judea-Sumaria can do so. The idea of so many people, under so many different circumstances, having to uproot from places they care about for whatever reason sounds really painful to me, and that’s how I imagine the TSS. I have other reasons for not liking the TSS, but that is one.
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But you are detached from the reality of Israel (I remember when you didn’t believe that the average Israeli was happy about Gilad Schalit’s release) not to mention the daily lives of Palestinians, and the reasons for their circumstances, and what they really want and fear and hope. And you’re detached from the effects of your life on the lives of others.
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What if you could live here, in relative peace, on the part of the land you want to live on, and do your thing. Could we have one state, for all her people, then?
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sorry–i cant bear to re-read and shorten and proof this. forgive me, everyone. I’m getting bleary-eyed.
December 25, 2011
8:49 am
” Note how “Kibbutznik” stated not just that I am an “immigrant”, but rather an “American Immigrant”. It is no secret that “progressive” Israelis have special resentment of American olim. ”
But you are a “American Immigrant” are you not ?
I have no problem with left wing American olim. I have a huge problem with your politics and with you telling Ami he should leave but now you have apologised I will leave you in peace to your bashing of us ” progressives ” on a daily basis .
December 25, 2011
8:55 am
Imagine if in America, someone from Japan who became a naturalized American citizen who lived in America for 25 years was referred to as the “Japanese immigrant” or was told that he will never really be a “true American”. This would be rightly referred to as xenophobia and racism.
December 25, 2011
9:06 am
Sorry Mitchell Cohen cant imagine it , have never lived in America only here .
December 25, 2011
9:09 am
@Mitchell–you’re not wrong, and I’ve made that same argument to Ariestedes when he argued that some (he said most; he was wrong) of the journalists here were American immigrants to Israel. Of course, they write in English here, even though they can read and write fluently in Hebrew, and he doesn’t read them in Hebrew, which makes them seem more American, probably… but anyway, I hear you. and yet. Do *you* have sabra friends? Because I don’t care if you’ve been here 50 years; you are not Israeli like an Israeli-born Israeli. You must know this. I’m not making a value judgment (of rights or loyalty or anything–they don’t get more loyal than Ben Israel
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December 25, 2011
9:11 am
Kibutznik: “I have a huge problem with your politics and with you telling Ami he should leave”
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Aristeides too told Ami he should leave. You don’t seem to have too much of a problem with him. How come?
December 25, 2011
9:11 am
@aristeides – you asked me how i reconcile with it. As if saying, “how do you justify this sin?” Your answer is evasive, since you did not ask yourself the same question apparently. I don’t want to know that the issue “bothers” you or not – I want to know how you rationalize staying put where you are right now? This minute? What is your practical reasoning for not packing your bags as we speak?
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When you get that answer, tell me. My hunch is that it’ll probably be the same for me, or similar.
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And as for your “Israel wouldn’t exist” ridiculous statement – I can list you dozens of countries for which that statement is true. Stop using it (if you want to refrain from “childish” behavior, as you claim).
December 25, 2011
9:13 am
“Sorry Mitchell Cohen cant imagine it , have never lived in America only here”
Well, Kibbutznik, you learn something new every day, heh?
December 25, 2011
9:15 am
@Aziz–sorry. I guess that since anti-normalization is something that some of us believe keeps people from dialogue, we could say that all dialogue–even this kind–is important toward conflict resolution, and 972 provides a government-free zone? That, or we’ve simply digressed.
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@Ami–you have to find Chris Farley’s Saturday Night Live sketch where he uses air quotes. People don’t like me because I’m not “normal”. Just because I don’t “shower regularly”, or “use deodorant”….
December 25, 2011
9:15 am
“Aristeides too told Ami he should leave. You don’t seem to have too much of a problem with him. How come?”
answered him to Bosko , go look .
December 25, 2011
9:20 am
Seems to me you have just as big a problem with us Sabras as we do with you Mitchell Cohen, hey
December 25, 2011
9:21 am
wait, Bosko wants me to leave too?
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Sheesh, you guys are precious.
December 25, 2011
9:24 am
Ayla, I am not naive. I agree that I can live here 50 years and will never be in the same mentality of native born Israelis, never lose my accent, etc. There will ALWAYS be differences that won’t go away. I already notice them when I compare myself to my Israeli-born kids (can’t seem to stop them from jumping on the couch no matter how hard I try
) To answer your ?, yes I do have native Israeli friends (from all phases of my life in Israel). What I do have a problem with is when someone dismisses my views because I am “that American immigrant” or because of my “accented Hebrew” or because I wasn’t born here. I’m sorry, but that is a crock of [self-censored]. If you (not you, Ayla, but you know what I mean) disagree with my politics/views, then disagree with my politics/views, but don’t throw around the “immigrant” status at me to brush off my views. When I rode buses or went to a mall during the 2nd intifada, there wasn’t less of a chance of me being blown up because of my accent.
December 25, 2011
9:28 am
FWIW, Ami, I don’t want you to leave, although you probably wouldn’t exactly want to send me a Happy Birthday present (which, incidentally was the second night of Hanukkah
) due to my address….
December 25, 2011
9:41 am
@mitchell – friends are friends, regardless of addresses
December 25, 2011
11:29 am
maybe we’ll just all vote each other off the island; that’s one way to end the conflict. Some academic should use this comment thread to study… something.
December 25, 2011
11:31 am
Also, this is what we did on Christmas
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December 25, 2011
12:36 pm
Ami – of course there are many other countries that might not now exist if history had gone differently. I believe that I mentioned this myself.
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The point is that to hypothesize the non-existence of Israel is not reason to go run in circles screaming. History is full of contingencies.
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Why I don’t leave right this minute? I have no passport at right this minute. But that’s a trivial reason, isn’t it? The real question is the one you don’t seem to find important: How do we reconcile the contradiction?
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But also that I don’t find the need to run in circles screaming at the suggestion, that I take it seriously.
December 25, 2011
12:57 pm
Ami: “wait, Bosko wants me to leave too?
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Sheesh, you guys are precious.”
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Where did that come from? Where exactly did I say that I want you to leave Ami? Oh, I know … You must be living in Hebron, right?
December 25, 2011
1:13 pm
@aristeides – oh, i see. so, it’s a passport issue. well, surely when you get that sorted out, you’ll leave, right? And, if it’s so important to you, as you have pointed out it is, I’m sure you’ll get it sorted as quickly as possible. True?
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(i’ve never heard such a lame excuse in my life).
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btw, if you do in fact stay true to your values and leave the U.S. – where will you head to? Just curious.
December 25, 2011
1:59 pm
@Ami–you forgot to say “check mate”.
December 25, 2011
2:08 pm
It’s a lame answer, Ami, as you recall that I said, because it’s a lame question.
December 25, 2011
2:10 pm
# In The Mood for Polemic, tonight
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The trouble with Ultra-Zionist American settlers is that they believe they are more Israeli than the Sabras BECAUSE THEY ARE ULTRA-ZIONISTS.
By the way, they are also Ultra-Anti-Normalization, Sinjim and others.
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For them, Israel is first and last their Ultra-Zionist ideology; they don’t get Israel the country with its multi-ethnical roots and they don’t know what to do with the Israeli people, i.e the unrecognized Israeli melting pot.
They are stuck in their Jewish cowboys vs Arab indians ideological delirium, and their Hilltop Youth fight boredom dressing and acting like Ultra-Orthodox Hooligan Punks.
Unfortunately for Palestinians, they have to do something to prove they are Israelis.
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Yeah,these Born-Again Hardcore Puritan Zionist Newcomers act and speak – just like new religious converts, I would say – with far too much zeal, violence & intolerance, just to prove their missionary legitimacy, believing they have to be more Zionist than native Israelis, which is absurd considering the fact Israel is not anymore a dream but a country, a powerful state & economy.
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And it doesn’t help if one choose humbly as pen name Ben Israel, I would say too…
Ok, our own Benny Hilltop is probably not an Ultra-Orthodox extremist, but sometimes he writes under his pen name appalling things, and I don’t like to read these appalling things under the banner Ben Israel.
Being a French guy, I imagine some Sabras could be inclined to suggest Uncle Ben as a better pen name.
Maybe we could launch a competition, Ami: which pen name would suit better our Beniz?
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For instance, personally I can’t stand anymore, Benny, the way you often justify the Settler Movement’s racist goals pretending settlers are like the Israeli soldiers who died for Israel during the War of Independence.
I think and I believe it’s obscene and immoral to compare true heroes and extremist goons, and to use the worst Anti-Israel rhetoric about the “stolen land” to promote the illegal colonization of Palestinian territories.
I write this without denying the fact the war of 1948 resulted in a disaster for the Palestinian people, but it was a war, a bloody dirty war, and Israeli soldiers didn’t fight to steal Palestinian land and houses, they gave rheir lives to defend their newborn country, freedom & independence.
I don’t ask Palestinian commenters to agree with my viewpoint, I ask you, Benny, to respect Israeli soldiers who died for Israel and to stop to depict them as burglars & looters.
December 25, 2011
2:12 pm
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anyway, i do hope you’ll be able to fix the trivial passport issue soon. god forbid you stay one more second in that place!
December 25, 2011
5:23 pm
Way to evade the issue, Ami.
December 25, 2011
9:58 pm
I did no evading whatsoever. It was you with the “passport issues” who is evading. Aristedieds, do me a favor. Just take it like a man. You’ve been owned. It’s time to, excuse my French, shut up.
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Oh, and I’m leaving this thread. Feel free to add more loser comments when I’m gone
December 26, 2011
5:45 pm
To Ben Israel: Wish I could read your answer to my objection to your ideological re-writing of the War of Independence.