Living Islam - Islamic Tradition - Islam is a worldview, a best practice

It Was Not an ‘antisemitic’ Graduation Speech

By w3admin in Uncategorized
2023-06-01

1. Instead a beautiful, principled speech

…it was a beautiful, principled speech. @m7mdkurd

Today the message is to "Stand with Palestine activists who courageously speak up for Justice." @sumayaawad

This is the "hate speech" that CUNY is throwing this woman (Fatima Mohammed) under the bus for: entirely true facts about the genocidal settler state of Israel. Shameful. @BadEmpanada

2. A brain-dead statement from CUNY

This is the full statement from the CUNY (The City University of New York) Board of Trustees and @ChancellorCUNY

3. Comments on this statement by CUNY

3.1

This is a very disappointing and dangerous statement by @CUNY
They should be standing up for their students and protecting them. All of them. As a proud CUNY alumn I loathe to see the day when our Universities are not a place for diversity of thought and learning. Yuh-Line Niou @yuhline

3.2

Despicable statement by CUNY, as they throw a student-selected speaker at their graduation under the bus for speaking out in defense of human rights and calling out those who commit and support violations of them. #Israel gets its own standard. #Palestine #apartheid Mitchell Plitnick @MJPlitnick

3.3

The brazen Islamophobia and bullying tactics of the Murdoch-owned media, whether in the UK or here in the U.S., the way in which they love to kick down and target women and minorities, will never cease to disgust me. Mehdi Hasan@mehdirhasan

4. How the Murdoch Press Distorts the Message

5. More Comments

Reaction by an American Zionist
Raging antisemitism has fully consumed the City University of New York. Until the administration is overhauled and all Jewish students and faculty are welcome again, taxpayer funding must be immediately halted. Lee Zeldin @LeeMZeldin

→ Re: "until … all Jewish students and faculty are welcome again" see below (Jewish student organizations support her speech. → Ch. 8)

– 5.1 Condemning war crimes is not anti semitism. JORDΛN⁶ @JMoneyBag_ May 29, 2023
– 5.2 Thats the Point! How can it be antisemitic to condemn behaviour which goes against international law? vinzentwallner @vinzent_wallner

6. Video

Here is her courageous, clear speech. (You can start at 3:00) (Sky Star News: CUNY law school graduate’s controversial graduation speech)

6.1 Comment by Shabana Chaudhry

– Very impressive and courageous. She is too young to jeopardize her career like this =} but then every movement needs sacrifices . Hopefully she stands her ground and doesn’t deter. All the power to her parents who raised an independent thinker in the day and age where everyone just mimics whatever they see in social media ={ Shabana Chaudhry

6.2 More Comments to her speech

– It’s been quite a while not having such a brave voice screaming eloquently: I see the Emperor Naked. Very powerful voice of truth calling to fight for justice and humanity for all humanity, much a la Malcolm X, and the 60’s. A voice sorely missed in the domesticated mass media…Kudos to her, and God bless her parents for bringing up such a brave fighter for justice. osman bakhach

– That’s what happens when you educate people, they become smart and speak the truth. Rachel Corrie

– My blood boils when they say ‘you are anti-Semitic’ for calling out Israeli crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine. CobaltBomba

– I was questioning the same but found the answers in her speech. We brought wars in several countries particularly in the Middle East and deported their people out of their lands as one of the aspects of the war is the population change, Palestine for example. Brought in war and then settlers and put the Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemen, Libya etc etc in diaspora. Marie Antoinette V

– What a Queen, so so proud of her, I see a leader with a great future ahead. Star69

7. CUNY must recant their most recent statement

From their post:
*Read our full statement and sign on as an org or individual at http://wolpalestine.com/defendfatima

*Email CUNY demanding they recant their most recent statement and protect Fatima and all students, faculty, and alumni facing repression for organizing for Palestine (template on our website) Within Our Lifetime @WOLPalestine

8. Jewish Law Students Association Statement

CUNY Jewish Law Students Association released a strong statement in support of the student who criticized Israel in a graduation speech: "If CUNY Law wants to show it cares for its Jewish students, it can do so by showing it cares for Fatima." Peter Sterne @petersterne

Excerpt:
The CUNY School of Law Jewish Law Students Association stands in solidarity with our friend and classmate Fatima, who is currently being targeted by a racist hate campaign from external organizations after delivering a commencement speech that addressed the struggle for Palestinian freedom. Our class, including its members in the Jewish Law Students Association, proudly chose Fatima as CUNY Law’s commencement speaker.

For years, Zionist organizations have been enacting targeted harassment campaigns against Palestinian and Muslim law students at the CUNY School of Law. As a public-interest focused law school, we have a duty to stand with Palestinians against zionist oppression, as Fatima has done. …

9. Links

– The Hateful Slander of CUNY Law Graduate Fatima Mohammed
– Tsedek – collectif juifs décolonial (Collective of decolonial Jews)
– Jewish Law Students Association in support of Fatima Mohammed’s speech

This a very racist, idiotic EU message

By w3admin in colonialism, Deutsch, Palestine-ZionistIsrael
2023-04-27

1. Praises Land Thieves, Child Killers

Ursula v. d. Leyen representing the EU elites praises land thieves, child killers and agents of incremental genocide!

Now it’s not enough for the EU to be silent about the 1000s of daily abuses, the harrassment, the many killings and the structural, intentional cruelty by the Israel colonialist settler regime against the original people of Palestine, the Palestinians, but now the EU, Germany and other racists have to sing praises to the racist entity of the Zionists, which by the way does not represent the Jews.

This shows that the EU elites see themselves in need to double down on their support of Israel, no matter what. They feel forced to do it because the resistance against Zionism is increasing all over the world and that the truth of the matter – about the Israel state policies (continuing the Nakba) – is getting more apparent.

2. Response to her speech by Jehad Abusalim جهاد أبو سليم @JehadAbusalim, 2023-04-26

Let’s break down this repulsive message from Ursula von der Leyen, word by word.

Nothing to celebrate!

Israel did not achieve "independence" in 1948. What occurred was a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians, aimed at re-engineering the demographics and geography of Palestine from an Arab-majority nation to a Jewish-majority one.
Palestinians refer to the process of ethnic cleansing and displacement by Israel in 1948 as the "Nakba." Today, this continues through land seizure, settlement, and colonization, with explicit threats of a second Nakba from Israeli leaders.
Ursula von der Leyen calls the Holocaust the greatest tragedy in history but fails to mention who committed it and where. She also neglects to acknowledge how European racism and violence, alongside colonial attitudes towards minorities, enabled the Holocaust.
Ursula von der Leyen talks about ‘the promised land’ like it’s a real estate deal. When did Europeans start believing in fairy tales again? We were told Europeans were all about reason and rationality. But I guess if colonialism and imperialism are involved, any excuse will do.
Ursula von der Leyen claims the EU celebrates 75 years of vibrant democracy in the Middle East. Really? Millions of people controlled by the Israeli state can’t even vote, while the state itself consolidates power and overhauls laws. What a vibrant mess!
You have ‘literally made the desert bloom’? Spare us the colonial rhetoric! It’s like Lord Balfour himself is speaking. Europe’s attitude towards the ‘Orient’ remains unchanged. Even Israeli historians have exposed these myths, but the power of racism prevails.
Von der Leyen’s talk of "75 years of friendship" is laughable. She speaks of shared culture and values, but as a Palestinian scholar pointed out, Europe only accepts Jews as Europeans if they leave Europe. Von der Leyen’s statement reflects this, even if she’s not aware of it.

Jehad Abusalim جهاد أبو سليم @JehadAbusalim
twitter.com > JehadAbusalim > status > 1651245994191855616
(replace the > with / , no spaces → for the url)

v d Leyen in original
twitter.com > EUinIsrael > status > 1651088583644594177
(replace the > with / , no spaces → for the url)

3a. How EU-elites strive to be the most racist, and ignorant people!

214

3b. EU’s/ Germany’s excellent relations child-murderers, corrupt and evil!

213

Ursula, what happened to your humanity, where is your conscience?

4. 2023 Marks the 75th Anniversary of the Mass Displacement of Palestinians

From the UN Palestinian Rights Committee @UNISPAL
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the mass displacement of Palestinians known as “Nakba” or “the Catastrophe”. For the first time in the UN history, this anniversary will be commemorated by @UNISPAL pursuant to the UNGA 🇺🇳 mandate (A/RES/77/23).

Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at UN Headquarters in New York 15 May

Commemoration-of-75th-anniversary-of-Nakb

5. Other Responses to this Demeaning Speech

– German EU chief downplays Holocaust while spouting "infamous Zionist lie" | The Electronic Intifada
– EU’s ‘Israeli independence’ message rebuked in Palestine | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

6. Related

Free Palestine from the evil of Zionism: bit.ly/_free-pal
( https://www.livingislam.org/v/free-palestine_e.php )

Shorturl of this page: wp3.livingislam.org/unjust

“We should not give up on Germany”

By w3admin in colonialism, Palestine-ZionistIsrael
2023-04-09

An Excerpt from an interview with Israeli historian Ilan Pappe on 75 years Nakba, (the new Israeli protest movement, and discussing Palestine in Germany)

[This twitter image was not part of the article.]

Question:
One of the tragedies for me about the Nakba is that the people who were doing the ethnic cleansing and creating refugees, were themselves refugees. People fleeing Nazi Germany, obviously didn’t want to stay in Germany, but they were also being largely denied access to the UK or the US. Did European Jews have any alternative to fleeing to Palestine?

The people who devised and oversaw the ethnic cleansing arrived in Palestine, much earlier – before the Holocaust. And when they arrived in Palestine in the 1920s, they still had options to go elsewhere.

It is absolutely true that since the rise of Nazism and fascism, Britain and the United States closed their doors, and quite a lot of the Jews who came from Central Europe and from areas that the Nazis occupied, had very few options. Palestine was one of the only places they could go to, but they were not the main force that decided on, and or perpetrated the ethnic cleansing. Most of the crimes committed in 1948 were committed by Zionists, many of whom, such as Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Alon or Moshe Dayan, had been born in Palestine.

But definitely, one of the reasons that Jews came in large numbers in the 1930s to Palestine was that the West closed its gates for Jews who escaped from Europe. But I don’t think that most of the people who perpetrated this ethnic cleansing, were themselves victims of Nazi or fascist oppression.

Question:
Who were the people coming to Palestine? The Left was excited about communal Kibbutzim. After the Soviet Union was the first country to recognize Israel, many felt that there was something socialist about young Israel. How accurate was that belief?

The early Zionists were people came from Eastern Europe. And some of them were definitely inspired not only by the ideas of nationalism and colonialism, but also by the ideas of socialism and communism.

We know for example about the most important group that came to Palestine in the 1920s. This core group went on to grow the leadership of the Zionist community until the 1970s, and they were part of a more international socialist movement. Some of them even took part in the 1905 attempt to overthrow the Tsarist regime in Russia.

So yes, it was a fusion of three or four elements. One was socialism. The second was a nationalism which defined Judaism not as a religion but as a national identity. Thirdly, modernism. It was very important for them to build the idea of the modern Jew. No less important was colonialism – the idea that you are entitled to take any part of the world outside of Europe, regardless of who lives there.

…

I think the most important thing was that they really believed–albeit wrongly–was that universal ideologies such as communism, and socialism, did not contradict settler colonialism. But of course, these two perspectives on life do not go together. One cannot be a socialist colonizer. … And actually, you’re much worse in your criminal attitude because you are trying to use enlightened ideas to justify the actions on the ground.

…

Question:
Our problem is not just the Bundestag resolution, but a self-censorship and lack of self confidence amongst the German Left regarding Palestine. How important you think is it to talk raise the issue of Palestine with a German audience?

Very, very important. Germany plays a very important role in this whole question. Germany’s justified guilt is manipulated in order to immunise Israel. Germany is an extremely critical political force in Europe. But it does not dare to take any bold actions as a political system, that would benefit the Palestinians and alleviate their suffering under Israeli oppression.

It’s very important to find a way of convincing the German public that they should not be intimidated. I come from a German Jewish family. I know very well what happened in Germany. We should not be intimidated by that particular chapter in history. On the contrary, that chapter means the Germans should be even more sensitive to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Germany should not deny the past, but instead say that this past requires a moral position on Palestine, not just on Israel. The Palestinians are a link in the victimisation chain that began in 1933. People in Germany who produce knowledge about Palestine–academics, journalists pundits, and definitely politicians–cannot act like they are part of the Israeli propaganda.

I know they are intelligent scholars, journalists, and politicians. It really breaks my heart to see them saying things that they know are not correct. The only reason they’re saying it is because of political, academic, or journalistic utility. They don’t want to be condemned as antisemites. This is more important in Germany than in any other country.

We have a great assignment of convincing them that, supporting the Palestinians is being anti-racist and anti-colonialist, and therefore cannot be an antisemitic act based on the mistaken belief that antisemitism is racism. This is easier said than done. But I think that academics should play a very important role here–in being accurate, in being accurate professional, in not abusing what they do as academics.

Germany always respected its academics, journalists, writers, intellectuals–but when it comes to Palestine, they behave like people with no backbone avoiding the desire to seek out the truth. And this is something that I think they should contemplate. Hopefully we can help them in this process.

Question:
We’re nearly out of time. Is there anything you’d like to say before we finish?

We should not give up on Germany. I’m beginning to give up on on the chances of changing Israeli society, but I’m not giving up on the younger German generation. We should still look at Germany as a place where there are processes that have not yet matured. And Germany’s is building itself all the time.

[Emphasis by webadmin]

Source: “We should not give up on Germany” – The Left Berlin