Thursday 28 June 2012

Once and for All


By Nahida the exiled Palestinian


Yitzchak Ginsburgh


Under the pretext of a "chosen people and promised land":

They have invaded and colonized Palestine for decades causing and continue to cause unimaginable suffering to indigenous Palestinians for many generation.

They have caused the destruction of 531 (five hundred and thirty one) Biblical villages of World Heritage and still continue their destruction.

They have ethnically cleansed more than 70% of native Palestinians, throwing them into the cruelty of refugee camps or the Chilliness of Diaspora.



Under the pretext of "security" and "war on terror":

They have promoted Islamophobia and through their media outlet continued to incite hatred, fear and suspicion against Islam and against its almost two billion adherent Muslims.

They have designed the war on Afghanistan causing millions of some of the poorest nations on Earth to suffer for more than a decade.

They have pushed for the war on Iraq, and have already succeeded in destroying one of the world oldest civilizations.

Not yet satisfied, they continue to "teach" and "train" Americans the "art of war", and continue pushing and planning for a new war on Iran and fantasizing and drooling over yet another war on Egypt.

The boil that festers underneath all this aggression and destruction appears to have stemmed from one misperceived misconceived word which turned sour, nay, in the eyes of the nations it looks atrociously hideous, and on their tongues it tastes awfully bitter: CHOSENNESS

This one word, a taboo not to be mentioned, uttered or discussed, seems to be the engine behind what we see in the arrogant behaviour of Jewish-Zionist colonizers in Palestine and the contempt they exhibit when dealing with Palestinians, the "unchallengeable" sense of entitlement: to world leadership, divine ownership and uncontrollable drive for power and control.

Once and for all, let us poke that boil, before it burst into a global catastrophe, dragging the entire world into a nuclear biocidal war causing the destruction of all what we cherish in our beautiful planet and what humanity has achieved throughout its history.

In the subsequent two articles quoted towards the end, we get a glimpse into the mind and psychological state of two people who were religiously educated and indoctrinated with that concept.
The first being Dina Avramson, we feel her agony struggling to reconcile her intrinsic egalitarian humanity with such indoctrinated irrational supremacy, as she explains: "I would laugh if it wasn’t so sad the self-conviction that Jews possess all that is pure and noble and maintain a constant connection to divinity and to infinite light, while all other nations of the world are overcome by promiscuity, lust and robbery. We are holy, yet they are filled with darkness and spiritual impurity."

Then she goes on to say: " As a graduate of religious Jewish education, I notice that to this day I face a mental-psychological barrier when facing non-Jews. I discover that deep within me I believe that I am nobler than them and I stutter when I need to explain why I cannot marry a gentile. What can I tell them, that a Jew must not mix in with a gentile soul because it is of lower strata? When I search for the word “soul” online, I find explanations on religious websites noting that Jews have two souls, a beastly one and a divine one, while non-Jews only have one, beastly soul."

The following links give an introductory taster to that misperceived concept of CHOSENNESS.


“70 % "Israeli Jews believe they are the chosen”

"We are the Chosen"

"If you are chosen, act it"


"Safed rabbi: Gentiles jealous of chosen people"


Palestinians are the prime victims of this "Chosenness"
 
Secular manifestation of chosen-ness: "elitism and specialness"

 Other manifestations: "tribal loyalty and exclusivity"

  "A chosen people that believes in its God. That is Israel, circa 2012. God have mercy on us"
 
The first article:

Chosen people? Not quite 

Op-ed: Dina Avramson says Jews should dispose of notion that they are superior to other people
Dina Avramson
Published: 05.28.12, 10:02 / Israel Opinion
On the eve of Shavuot I dressed up in white; they say it’s the wedding day of God and His people, so I was ready for it. I prepared all the requirements: Plants to adorn the table and a cold cheese cake in the fridge. All that was left was to clarify the essence of this prominent day, decide to again assume the Torah’s burden upon myself, and read it the whole night as one reads love letters; to recall how God chose us from all the nations and what this really means.

He chose us? From all nations? Really? I read online one story of how God went from one nation to another and offered His holy Torah, yet no one wanted it. The Ishmaelites wanted to keep murdering, the Edomites wanted to keep committing adultery, and only the righteous and pure Israelites, who never murder and never commit adultery, told God: “We shall do and hear.”

Stalled Promise?

Why won’t God reveal himself again? / Rabbi Levi Brackman

According to tradition, collective transcendence above ego was key for revelation
Full story

Religious singer Avraham Fried went even further. Instead of singing about Ishmaelites and Edomites, he sang about adulterous French, greedy Brits, Americans who don’t know how to honor their father and mother, and thieving Arabs. Yet only the Jew with the prayer shawl is the righteous hero and is given the Torah. We’re so lucky.
I would laugh if it wasn’t so sad – the self-conviction that Jews possess all that is pure and noble and maintain a constant connection to divinity and to infinite light, while all other nations of the world are overcome by promiscuity, lust and robbery. We are holy, yet they are filled with darkness and spiritual impurity.
So is that the case? No, would say those in the know. It’s not about us being above them; we are simply like an elite unit. We chose to assume the burden for the sake of the others. We took upon ourselves tougher missions in order to lead the world to a better place. I may be able to accept this explanation – the understanding that we chose strict laws in order to achieve lofty goals – yet I most certainly cannot accept the distinction between us and the rest of the world, as if we are the chosen son.
Does God love them less? Based on my limited knowledge, I believe that every nation has its way of connecting to God. The Indians, who hail from the element of wind, do well with lengthy meditations, while Islam, which hails from the fire element, is required to assume great modesty. The Sufis connect via dance and song, and native Americans who come from the element of earth drink a muddy beverage that that leads them to divinity.

Does God love them less? Does He appreciate their work less? Is a Buddhist monk who sits in a cave for three years less connected than me?
As a graduate of religious Jewish education, I notice that to this day I face a mental-psychological barrier when facing non-Jews. I discover that deep within me I believe that I am nobler than them and I stutter when I need to explain why I cannot marry a gentile. What can I tell them, that a Jew must not mix in with a gentile soul because it is of lower strata? When I search for the word “soul” online, I find explanations on religious websites noting that Jews have two souls, a beastly one and a divine one, while non-Jews only have one, beastly soul.
 
I realize that my knowledge is only akin to a drop in the ocean and that had I immersed myself in studies I would be able to understand the issues more thoroughly. However, most people do not spend hours upon hours studying and are therefore left with the superficial knowledge of the chosen people’s superiority. Only this week I received an invitation on Facebook to join a group called “Let’s show the Sudanese that we rule!” This is what happens when you think you’re better than someone else.
Perhaps the time has come to leave behind this flawed way of thinking, as though we are favored and better understand what’s right for the world, as though our Torah is the exclusive truth across the universe and there are no other ways to experience a revelation, and as though any foreigner who wishes to live in our country is a threat.
So on the eve of Shavuot I got dressed in white and headed to the synagogue to read, with love, the words of the Torah. I know that for me this is the most suitable way to connect to the infinite light, but I also know that somewhere on the other side of the planet there are different people who connect to it in a different way, and they are considered no less precious children.
END QUOTE
The second article:

Exclusive: Hate All Non-Jews,

QUOTES
"A recently published book written by a Skver hasidic rabbi and endorsed by the Skvere Rebbe himself tells Skvere hasidim and other Jews to hate all gentiles. Gentiles are wholly evil, the book says. They spiritually pollute the world, and even looking at their faces is harmful."
 "However, to separate with a million degrees of separation, a gentile is an impure thing.  The entire essence of the gentile is evil and impure.  Even if he occasionally does good deeds he does not thereby become good."
"As is also well known, even educated gentiles who guarded themselves because of their clear understanding of what is right, nonetheless failed when they were tested, because a gentile has no power for goodness within him."

"On the contrary, the evil thoughts of gentiles contaminate the world’s atmosphere and create ordeals for Jewish children. As the Remnant for Pinchos {i.e., the author of the book Sheairit L’Pinchas} says, the thoughts of gentiles, even when they are dead, still linger in and contaminate the atmosphere."
"He says that to be protected from this there is only one solution; to completely despise the thoughts of gentiles and to realize that all their thoughts are only evil. (Hate doesn’t mean wanting to do something to a gentile, but it means not being able to tolerate him, not being able to stand him, because of his great impurity, especially when one realizes how harmful this {impurity} is {to Jews and to the world}.) Understandably, loving a gentile is the exact opposite of this."

 "So also the Holy Light of Life {i.e., the author of the book Ohr HaHayyim} writes, in the portion of Vayigash {in his book entitled Oh HaHayyim}, that the nature of the righteous ones is to hate gentiles."
"the nature of the righteous ones is to hate gentiles."
Armed French citizens responded to the call of Jewish Defence League and came to lend a hand to their brethren 
QUOTE
"The second point is; one is not to concentrate on the face of a gentile. As the Willows of the Valley {the author of the book Arvei Nahal} writes on the Talmudic passage, “it is forbidden to look upon the face of an evildoer”, because the other side [the devil] {the sitra achra} cloaks himself in the guise of an evildoer and it is a danger to look at him. This passage refers to a Jew who has, God forbid, become an evildoer. Certainly, beyond any doubt, a gentile whose whole nature is essentially evil, looking at his appearance is defiling."

"one is not to concentrate on the face of a gentile... it is forbidden to look upon the face of an evildoer...even looking at their faces is harmful."

 You can even find this troubling concept mentioned on Wikipedia:
Distinction between Jews and non-Jews
A number of medieval Kabbalistic sources contain statements to the effect that the Jewish soul is ontologically different from the soul of non-Jews; for example, it is held by some that Jews have three levels of soul, nefesh, ruach and neshamah while non-Jews have only nefesh. The Zohar comments on the Biblical verse which states "Let the waters teem with swarms of creatures that have a living soul" as follows: "The verse 'creatures that have a living soul,' pertains to the Jews, for they are the children of God, and from God come their holy souls....And the souls of the other nations, from where do they come? Rabbi Elazar says that they have souls from the impure left side, and therefore they are all impure, defiling anyone who comes near them" (Zohar commentary on Genesis).

Some later Kabbalistic works build and elaborate on these ideas. One point of view is represented by the Hasidic work Tanya (1797), in order to argue that Jews have a different character of soul: while a non-Jew, according to the author Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (b. 1745), can achieve a high level of spiritually, similar to an angel, his soul is still fundamentally different in character, but not value, from a Jewish one.[49] A similar view is found in early medieval philosophical book Kuzari, by Yehuda Halevi (1075-1141 AD).


Another prominent Habad Rabbi, Abraham Yehudah Khein (b. 1878), believed that spiritually elevated Gentiles have essentially Jewish souls, "who just lack the formal conversion to Judaism", and that unspiritual Jews are "Jewish merely by their birth documents".[51] The great 20th century Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag viewed the terms "Jews" and "Gentile" as different levels of perception, available to every human soul.


Racism, supremacy, specialness, entitlement, arrogance and tribal elitism are an inevitable outcome cultivated and nurtured from that one seed of chosenness.

The burden of challenging and fighting that concept to the point of total defeat lies within the Jewish communities themselves. It is of no good to keep denying the existence of this elephant in the room... It is of no good to keep pointing fingers and screaming "ANTI-SEMITE", at gentiles who feel extremely alarmed and distressed with that concept. Fair minded and principled people from Jewish background should take it upon themselves to go inside their communities and convince them to abandon that concept and pull it out from its roots.

Failing to do so, will no doubt have dire consequences not only on Palestinians and other gentiles who feel the brunt of this racist ideology but also on decent Jews who with all their heart reject this concept and feel ashamed and shackled by it.

 As long as the concept of chosenness is not challenged and eradicated, once and for all, it is not possible to dream of a just world or imagine an egalitarian society built on brotherhood and equality.

Get rid of the CHOSENNESS in theory and practice, and watch Anti-semitism shrivel away.

Monday 25 June 2012

A Palestinian Stone Speaks out



Nahida the exiled Palestinian

His small swift hand, 
Picked me up 
And the soft, gentle palm
 Gave me a cuddle 
Warm, safe and secure 
He made me feel.. 

He said no words
 He shed no tears
 YET… 
His long lasting pain
 I couldn’t ignore
 Bulldozers.. tanks and F16s
 With evil colours
 Evil sights
 Evil touch 
And evil sounds
  Surrounded his tiny frame 
Proclaiming 
The evil war of “Absolutely No Shame” 
 He squeezed me hard 
Knowing it’s good-bye 
“Just throw me 
As hard as you can”
 I whispered… 
“Together ...
We’ll be fine !!” 
And just for a moment I felt eternity 
Only for a moment I touched infinity… 
When “Brave-Heart” boy 
Feels so strong 
And there he stands 
All… alone
 Facing evil armies.. 
Only with a stone 

The evil bullet was faster
 Than his little hand
His frail... pale body 
Falls to the ground 


With a beautiful smile 
He says his good-bye 
His soft gentle palm 
Gave my soul 
Its peaceful eternal hug!


With a scorching tear 
and heartfelt cry
I proclaimed
YOU Palestinian,
My beloved child
A teacher of dignity 
to all mankind





Sunday 24 June 2012

Childhood Friends



Trembling,  my hands over my heart
Walking towards them, thinking:
All those years, they haven't changed a bit!

Do you remember me?
I whispered

I used to play here
long time ago

Do you remember the girl who used to arrive to school at dawn
while people still asleep

Yes it's me
The girl who tiptoed her way in
not to disturb the melody of birds singing their morning prayer


The girl who used to tell you stories
about her lucent wings which could only open
when no one is looking


The girl who used to dream of her home in heaven
its rainbow staircase and windows of stars
her bed of roses
blanket of jasmine and pillow of clouds



The girl who used to tell you stories
about her doll who could read and write
but who could only talk
 at the stillness of the night

The girl with a wooden horse
 who could only fly
when children lay in bed and close their eyes

The girl who adored her doll's family
who lived far away but could only visit
when boys and girls cross the line into dreamland


Do you remember me?
I used to play here
long time ago
Heart pounding, I whispered

Blushing, they turned their heads, looked at me- 

Faces beaming, they nodded

 and smiled


Poppies in my grandmother's olive grove, on my way to school, Bayt Iksa, Palestine, April 2012


Saturday 23 June 2012

The Journey


Nahida the exiled Palestinian


Where can the river go
But to the ocean?
Would the ocean turn it away?
Will the stream lose its way
While making its journey
Into the sea?
Can the water droplet
Ever escape
The globe?
East… west 
North or south
Up… down
Turn all around
What ever direction
You choose to take
You’re always there
Forever travelling
Constantly arriving
Don’t keep trying to flee
Embrace your destiny
Enjoy the voyage 
With open arms
Run to the Source
No other way

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Violence of the "Chosen" is a "virtue" and a "moral value"



Now, you can close your eyes and sleep serene, your are in carefully "chosen" safe hands

The involvement and support of global Jewish communities in "Israeli" TERROR



     Summer camp, warfare style:
   "Like a frozen turkey plunged into boiling oil, a group of American tourists descend from an air-conditioned van into the scorching heat of the West Bank. Flashing smiles all around, they march into Caliber 3, a local shooting range."

"Move it!" the Israeli guide suddenly yells. "Destroy that terrorist," he orders them, and they charge, guns loaded, at cardboard targets.


Three seconds to take terrorist down (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Jewish-Zionist terrorist flood from all over the world to learn how to KILL

Five-year-old sniper

Michel Brown, 40, a Miami banker, chose to take his wife and three children to the range with the purpose of  "teaching them values."

They should know where they come from (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
"five-year-old, Tamara, is holding a gun and shooting clay bullets like a pro."
 
"Upon entering the range, his five-year-old daughter, Tamara, bursts into tears. A half hour later, she is holding a gun and shooting clay bullets like a pro."

"This is part of their education," Michel says as he proudly watches his daughter. "They should know where they come from and also feel some action."
Sharon Gat, the range's manager, says all the instructors at the site have served in elite IDF units.
"This is a special program created due to popular demand," he says. "Travelers from all over the world come here to meet former combat troops and hear stories about elite units. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
"We heard on the news about shootings in the West Bank," the mother, Olga, says. "We came to see it in person."
Her son, Jacob, 24, puts down his rifle and exclaims: "This is an awesome experience. I learned how to stop a terrorist and how to rescue hostages. Now, when I find myself in distress, I will know how to deal."
Davidi Pearl, who heads the Gush Etzion Regional Council, notes that this kind of experience turns the district into a world-famous "tourist gem."

At the end of the thrill-filled day, the tourists get a diploma indicating they "completed a basic shooting course in Israel."
"Boom, boom," the 13-year-old Riley mutters on the way out of the range.
"Boom, boom!" Jacob responds, knowingly.


Does it it get any worse? Oh yes it does:

 FBI morphs into a "charity", and hosts a Family Activity Day for the Chabad community in Crown Heights ( how moving ! how beautiful !!)