The “Other Israel Film Festival” in Manhattan chose films that related the stories of minorities in Israel. These perspectives and backgrounds rarely receive attention in the popular media. “The Promise,” or at least the first part of a four-part series, is a dramatic historical-fiction that introduces Israel/Palestine and the conflict to foreigners of the land.

When the characters speak in Hebrew or Arabic there are no subtitles; just as there are no shortcuts to understanding the complex dynamics of Israel/Palestine. The audience is limited by their individual understandings of the local cultures, the histories, and yes, even the languages.

Israel’s newspaper Haaretz has declared that “democracy in Israel is under attack,” citing legislative measures limiting freedom of the press as one of the most troubling symptoms of this assault by hawkish lawmakers.

On Sunday, for the first time ever, many of Israel’s most influential journalists and media personalities gathered for an emergency conference in Tel Aviv to discuss alarming attempts by conservative lawmakers to silence dissenting, critical voices in the press.

One of the issues about which journalists are apoplectic is a current amendment – pending legislative approval – which would effectively allow anyone to lob charges of libel or slander against journalists with laughably low burdens of proof. The amendment, approved last month by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, would create a chilling legislative precedent clearly aimed at silencing left-leaning and critical voices in the media.

Journalists also discussed a number of politically-motivated actions taken against critical journalists. From Haaretz:

In addition to amendments and legislation being tossed around in the Knesset, recent action taken against journalists seen as highly critical of the government has caused many to fear an organized silencing of dissenting voices.

Keren Neubach was dismissed from her position as anchorwoman of “Mabat Sheni” (Second Glance), Channel One’s news magazine show. Neubach who held the position for three years, is considered highly critical of the government, and many view her dismissal as politically motivated.

Channel 2 News anchor Yair Lapid warned: “An incontinent government is silencing dissenting voices.”

A Palestinian child in Gaza City sits beside the wreckage of a building destroyed in Israel's 2008/2009 assault on Gaza. / Photo Courtesy of Andreas Lunde

Former Judge Richard Goldstone has recently published in the New York Times a very disappointing apology to the Israeli regime titled “Israel and the Apartheid Slander.” His famous report on the Gaza events made him a genuine hero in the eyes of many Jews including myself. His devotion to truth and justice and his courage to confront power resonated with all the values that I believe are the spirit of Judaism. In his article my Jewish hero vanished: no truth, no justice, and reverence to those in power.

I must begin with a clear statement. I don’t think the Israeli regime is Apartheid, and I strongly believe that the comparison to Apartheid is a factual and political mistake. However, in his apologetic article, Goldstone not only states that Israel is not like the South African Apartheid regime, but presents Israel as a democracy and neglects the military occupation. Goldstone makes an appropriate distinction between the Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in the “West Bank and Gaza areas,” but the words “military” and “occupation” are not part of his vocabulary.

What is happening between Iran and the West? And what is going to happen. Clearly we see increased sabre-rattling, warnings of war, mutual bellicosity. But why now? Who gets served by this? Is it likely that there actually will be some further military action? There’s already been a surprising amount. What does this look like from the points of view of Iran, the US, and Israel? And if push comes to fire, who wins?

There has been a huge push in Western media to demonize Iran. First we had last months farcical false flag fiasco, which claimed that Iranian secret service had hired an almost blind alcoholic and lover of prostitutes in Texas to hire a Mexican drug cartel to kill a Saudi Ambassador in Washington. As Stephen Walt correctly questioned, “If you are going to attack a target in the United States, wouldn’t you send your A Team, instead of Mr. Magoo?” It does continue, as Glen Greenwald noted “the FBI’s record-settingundefeated streak of heroically saving us from the plots they enable.” That issue seems to have gotten dropped quickly, but it’s worth noting that it came just before the publication of a UN report on Iranian progress towards nuclear weapon.

We call for young Jews and allies nationwide to join in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and with our Palestinian siblings living under their own form of occupation. Let us stand up to the 1% in our own community – the powerful institutions that support Israel’s corporate-backed military control of the Palestinian people and act as the gatekeepers for our community.

Throughout history, Jews have been persecuted as the scapegoats for powerful financiers, thus bearing the brunt of economic hardship on multiple fronts. This collective memory instills us with the responsibility to speak out against corporate exploitation and human rights violations, such as the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, which has politically and economically disenfranchised over nine million people in the name of Jewish statehood.

The starting point for the conflict was material, the land both groups wanted as living place. But in addition to living place, for both groups the same land had special meaning. For Jews, it was the land they prayed to return to for two thousand years, and also the land on which they believed they could avoid the persecution they have suffered for many centuries, culminating in the Holocaust, the murder of about 6 million Jews in Nazi Europe. For Palestinians it was the land on which they have lived for a long time, on which they suffered repressive rule by various countries – Turkey, England, then Israel– the land that has been their home. The same land is not only needed as living place but is central to the identity of both groups.

My self-discovery occurred on a drive to Austin two years ago. (It also occurred during my teenage years, but that’s a story for a different and possibly older audience.) After listening to a deeply unproductive discussion between several Palestinians and Israelis on a local radio station, one that was more the equivalent of a wrestling match than a debate, I had an epiphany.

Well two epiphanies: My tire was definitely flat and I was going to need to summon my “inner mechanic” along the side of the freeway. Plus, several minutes after the tire epiphany, while contemplating what to do about AAA’s two hour wait time, my mind wandered — in an intellectual not an Alzheimer’s sense — to a recent conversation with a local Jewish organizational official. Not because he promised that he could change my tire whenever I needed him to, although offering to fix flats might be an ingenious way for Jewish organizations to get a few extra bucks, but because his wait time was similar to AAA’s, if only I added two more zeroes and substituted years for hours: Fixing my tire might be possible in two hours andIsrael-Palestine peace might be possible in 200 years. I didn’t like either set of odds.

Why wait?

Palestinian activists in the West Bank are expanding their nonviolent protest efforts against civil and human rights abuses with a new campaign set to launch next week.

As Noam Sheizaf reports in +972 Magazine:

Palestinian activists are increasing their efforts to expose Israel’s segregation policy in the West Bank, as well as violations on their civil and human rights. In a message to the press, the Popular Struggle Committee announced that on November 15, Palestinian activists “will reenact the US Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides to the American South by boarding segregated Israeli public buses in the West Bank to travel to occupied East Jerusalem.”

Palestinians in the West Bank have lived under Israeli military control since 1967. Among other restrictions, they can only vote in elections to the Palestinian Authority, which has very limited power on the ground. They cannot travel out of the West Bank or receive visitors without Israeli permits, and they are tried in military courts, which curtail the rights of defendants. Jews living in the West Bank enjoy full citizenship rights.

While I was reporting from Gaza for five months in 2010, I met a 67-year-old filmmaker who produced a riveting video tour of Gaza called Inshallah. Maurice is now working on a courageous new film called Mohammed’s Cry. Please read his reflections, spread the word, and (if you can), help him raise the funds he needs to draw attention to the ongoing suffering of Gazan civilians.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hold a press conference at the Capitol on May 17, 2009. / Photo Courtesy of Talk Media News

David Harris heads the American Jewish Committee, and in between conducting its affairs, he likes to blog. A lot. Much of what he has to say is well written. Much of what he has to say is topical. Much of what he says is red meat to battle hardened pro-Israel troops.

His latest blog is written in response to concerns he and the Anti-Defamation League share over the issue of civility and bipartisanship among groups, likeThe Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), that claim their primary focus is supporting Israel. ECI published an ad that seemed to position support for Israel as a Republican versus Democratic battle. In ECI’s view, conservatives (read Republicans) are the real Israel supporters.

No, check that.

In ECI’s view, positioning Republicans as the defenders of Israel is good for Republican politics and Israel is just a convenient vehicle to use to accomplish their purpose. That approach is one that gives Harris and Abe Foxman, the head of the ADL, a severe case of shpilkes. As it should.

The last thing the traditional Jewish organizational supporters of Israel want, and this also includes AIPAC, is to wage a battle where Israel becomes a partisan pinata. In their view, that ultimately weakens overall support for Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has just made a significant stride toward reaching out for peace with Israel. As reported in thisHa’aretz newspaper column by Carlo Strenger (“Mahmoud Abbas’ crucial message to Israel”), and almost as if he’s directly responding to the columnist’s recent appeal for such an effort, Pres. Abbas has owned up to some important historical truths in an interview aired both on Israeli and Palestinian television. This is the core of Strenger’s new piece:

What’s the connection between the “Occupy” movement and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What positions are Jewish activists in particular taking on this issue? In this video report, activists from “Occupy Oakland” – a rabbi, a queer Muslim, a Palestinian refugee, a Gaza Freedom March participant, and others – share their stories and perspectives.

UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, where the Palestinians were granted full membership on Monday, allowing them to register important sites on the World Heritage List. Photo by Matthias Ripp.

On Monday, the United States earned two dubious distinctions. First, it became one of only 14 nations (out of 173) to vote against Palestinian admission into UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Second, it became one of only two nations (Canada being the other) to vindictively punish UNESCO for admitting Palestine as a full member by immediately cutting off U.S. funding, which comprises 22 percent of the organization’s budget, or $70 million annually.

This funding cut was made due to U.S. legislation, over 15 years old, mandating a “complete cutoff of American financing to any United Nations agency that accepts the Palestinians as a full member.” However, those who have attempted to defend America’s move based upon a 15-year-old legal trigger – particularly when new legislation can always be written – fail to acknowledge the damage America is inflicting upon itself as it presses forward with an unbalanced foreign policy approach via-a-vis the Israelis and Palestinians.

As Daniel Levy notes in Foreign Policy:

America’s objections to the Palestinian move ring hollow across much of the world, and especially the strategically vital Middle East region. Its withholding of UN payments…is nothing short of a combination of the absurd and the vindictive. As former Senator Tim Wirth has pointed out this will be sapping to America’s soft power capacity. And if it continues, there may be more practical consequences, for instance, in regards to loss of American influence at the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

With the Knesset set to reconvene, and with the Occupy Wall Street protests reverberating from America, tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities across Israel, reigniting their struggle for social and economic justice.

Over 20,000 gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to demand social and economic justice, with many echoing refrains now heard at Occupy Wall Street protests.

Protesters railed against a host of social and economic injustices, including the growing gap between the rich and poor in Israel, with many protesters echoing refrains now heard at Occupy Wall Street protests in America. Many held signs that read “We are the 99 percent,” and several protesters mirrored the occupation language that has become synonymous with Occupy Wall Street. One particularly poignant sign read “Occupy Tel Aviv, Not Palestine.”

The rallies across Israel were held against the backdrop of tragic escalations of violence in the southern portion of the country. Rockets fired by Islamic Jihad in Gaza struck several southern cities, killing one Israeli civilian, and an Israeli bombing raid in Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians. In spite of the intense security situation, remarkably, approximately 20,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv, another 5,000 in Jerusalem and thousands more in locations across the country.

In the midst of such a tragic and emotional security event, these types of numbers would not have showed up for a protest of this nature in the past. The security situation – rockets falling in southern Israel – would have likely trumped all else. However, as is the case in countries throughout the world, difficult economic conditions precipitated by government corruption and corporate greed are changing the game.

In downtown Ramallah it may look like business is thriving, but it isn't.

For Thaer, this past month has been hard. He works in downtown Ramallah, in one of the tall, maze-like shopping centers here. The building is five stories high and it has a creaky elevator. Thaer tells me business has been bad.

“Everything is slow in Ramallah these days,” he says. “You might be fooled if you looked at the city because it looks busy.” But Thaer says that he’s been struggling to bring home the money that his family needs.

He and his wife Rula have two daughters together. They live on the outskirts of Ramallah, next to a big, domed mosque and not far from Jerusalem. From his roof, you can see Israel’s Security Wall.

Over lunch, Thaer tells me that his wife is pregnant. She smiles and nods from across the table. Because of health complications from past pregnancies, she’s going to need regular checkups from the doctor, Thaer tells me. She may also need surgery.

Rula has cooked lamb and rice for lunch. She’s also prepared a spinach soup, served with warm bread. After we’ve eaten, washed our hands and sat down for tea, Thaer tells me something else.

“I may go work for Israel,” he says quietly and nods. “I’ve applied for my permit and I should know in a few weeks whether it has been approved. The money will be a lot better there.”

We sip our tea. “I have a clean record. The Israelis can look at everything I’ve done. There has been no political involvement,” he tells me. Thaer moved to Ramallah from his hometown, a small, poor village to the north.

Gilad Shalit reunites with his father after five years in Hamas captivity. / Photo Courtesy of Israeli Defense Forces

What are the lessons to be learned from the deal to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for more than one thousand Palestinian prisoners?

It took only a few days for the Palestinian and Israeli role players and tactic leaders to get into their costumes and (depending on their assigned parts) either beat the justification or criticism drums. Self-reflection on the timing was as missing as Shalit was for five years. Why not just put away the talking points and revel in the fact that, after a heart-wrenching absence, a son of Israel’s extended family was finally coming home?

Here are some of the most frequently cited lessons, along with some of my thoughts on the teachers and their resource materials:

Cecilie Surasky’s name was withdrawn from the Jewish Federation’s "heroes" contest for her support of boycott, divestment, and sanctions. Rabbi Friedman, who advocates the killing of Palestinian children, remains on the list. / Photo Courtesy of JVP

by Sydney Levy

Who is your Jewish hero? That’s the question that the Jewish Federation of North America (JFNA) has been asking recently. They are holding a contest, which they bill as the largest social media initiative in the Jewish community. To date, more than 147,000 ballots have been cast for 329 nominees. There were more candidates – but at least one was disqualified.

We are talking about my Jewish hero, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Deputy Director Cecilie Surasky. She was running in ninth place and was on her way to make it to the semi-finals, but the JFNA changed its rules half-way through the contest just so that they could boot her out.

Why was she not deemed Jewish hero material? JFNA spokesman Joe Berkofsky argued that it was because of Cecilie’s association with JVP: “The rules [of the contest] expressly state that the people and the project have to support the mission of the federations. It can’t be something that goes against that. JVP very clearly supports BDS.” Case closed.

Demonstrators in Haifa, Israel protest Ittijah Director Ameer Makhoul's detention without access to a lawyer in May 2010. Makhoul is serving a nine-year sentence for spying and likely will not be released as part of the prisoner swap. / Oren Ziv

Reading about the suicide bombings and other massacres committed by many of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners being exchanged for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, it’s easy to feel convinced of Israel’s singular victimhood.

Mainstream news reports of the prisoner swap have focused overwhelmingly on the humanity of Gilad Shalit (who suffered a horrific and harrowing ordeal, to be sure). Implicitly, however, these reports deny the humanity of Palestinian prisoners and leave Western audiences with the mistaken impression that Palestinians are imprisoned only for egregious crimes.

Since 1967, about 20 percent of the Palestinian population have served time in jail. According to Israeli prison statistics published by B’tselem, in August of this year, 272 of the 5,206 Palestinian prisoners were held without trial, 176 were children under 18, and 31 were 16 years old or younger. The majority of these people were not murderers or would-be murderers. Rather, it has become a norm in the Israeli security forces to make politically-charged arrests with questionable evidence.