An increased number of American children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors have applied in recent years for the German citizenship stripped from their family members by the Nazis....The stats raise more questions then they answer and the answers aren't in the article. I'd be interested to know why there were so many more applications from Israelis of German descent than Americans. Is it because life is better in America than Israel? Is it because more holocaust survivors went to Israel? I doubt if it's that latter.
Under Article 116 of Germany's constitution, known as the Basic Law, anyone who had their citizenship revoked during the Nazi regime for "political, racist, or religious reasons" is eligible to reapply for German citizenship. The provision also makes allowances for the descendants of Nazi victims, and does not require them to give up the citizenship of their new home countries......
It's been an option for American Jews with German roots for years, but the number of applicants nearly doubled from 2007 to 2008 and has remained high, according to statistics from the German Federal Office of Administration in Cologne. In 2010, there were 815 such applications from the US. There were more applicants from Israel, but the number has steadily declined -- from 3,505 in 2003 to 1,459 last year.
My book is out on the streets, and the book launch is next Tuesday - October 25th in SOAS (not the main campus). Anyone in London is invited along where I'll be discussing the book with the audience, and especially with Richard Kuper, the former head of JfJfP. All the info is below
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
SOAS Palestine Society
London Middle East Institute
invite you to the book launch of
Jewish Identity and Palestinian Rights
Diaspora Jewish Opposition to Israel
David Landy in conversation with
Richard Kuper, former Chair of JfJfP
Tuesday, October 25, 7pm
V211, School of Oriental and African Studies
Vernon Square, Penton Rise, London WC1X 9EW
Diaspora Jews are increasingly likely to criticise Israel and support Palestinian rights. In most Western societies, Jewish organisations have sprung up to oppose Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, facing harsh criticism from fellow Jews for their actions.
Jewish Identity and Palestinian Rights is a groundbreaking study of this growing worldwide social movement, examining how it challenges traditional Jewish representations of itself. It looks at why people join this movement; and questions how they relate to the Palestinians and their struggle.
David Landy is an Irish-Jewish academic, active in the Palestine solidarity movement. Formerly chair and currently national organiser of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, he is based in Dublin where he lectures sociology in Trinity College Dublin.
Ahmad Sa’adat, a Palestinian national leader and the General Secretary of the PFLP, who has been imprisoned since March 2006 and, since winter 2009, has been held in solitary confinement following his call to resist the Israeli military attacks on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009 (Operation Cast Lead). (AIC)The Hamas prisoners swap deal has been criticized for, among other issues, accepting some of Israel's conditions, including exile for many of the released, and for the poor timing that is shadowing the ongoing resistance in the prisons. The prisoners strike is getting growing support internationally and should get more, especially in the US, the world leader in incarceration and the slow and systemic torture of prisoners. Meanwhile, Ahmad Saadat's conditions deteriorated and he has been hospitalized.
Hamas was remarkably successfully in forcing Israel to release large numbers of prisoners with high prison sentences. In fact, 315 of the 477 prisoners released in the first major round have life sentences (310 men, five women); 144 prisoners have sentences longer than ten years; only nine prisoners have sentences less than ten years...
The impressive depth of this deal is best illustrated by adding up the total number of years erased by the deal, at least on paper...If an Israeli civil court understanding for a life sentence (twenty-five years) is nonetheless applied to the number of Palestinians sentenced to life in prison, we arrive at the figure of 23,150 years negated through this deal...In addition to those serving life sentences, however, the total number of years of those serving high but non-life prison sentences totals just over 4,585 years...If both figures are added together, a staggering 27,735 years are technically negated by the deal. All this from less than half the total number of prisoners released (roughly 45 percent). Jedaliyya
Another point that Haddad makes forcefully, and that keeps being lost on the imperial media:
...for any political strategy pursued by Palestinians and their allies to succeed, the enormous disparity in the “valuation” between Palestinian and Israeli people and prisoners of war needs to end. That one single Israeli soldier could be negotiated for more than one thousand Palestinians gives pause to question how a situation arose locally and internationally where such disparity of value became possible.
To illustrate this disparity, suffice it to say that twenty-six Palestinian prisoners in the Shalit deal were already in prison before Gilad Shalit was even born, with the longest amongst them—Nael Barghouti–having served thirty-four years in prison. In fact, ten Palestinian prisoners expected to be freed in this deal spent more time in Israeli prison than Nelson Mandela spent on Robben Island, although not one of them is known to non-Arabic-speaking publics. Not one of them—Sami Yunis, Fuad al-Razem, Uthman Musalah, Hasan Salama, Akram Mansour, Fakhri Barghouti, Ibrahim Jaber, Muhammad Abu Hud'a, Nael Barghouti, and Salim Kiyal—is the subject of a Wikipedia entry, for example. In contrast, Gilad Shalit, who has spent five years in captivity, is a household name in many western countries, holds honorary citizenship in three countries, and has Wikipedia pages translated into twenty-three languages. The disparity in perception, organization and financing between Zionist propaganda and Palestinian organizing is obvious, shocking and humbling. This is the legacy of entrenched racism, complicit media practices, sustained dehumanization campaigns, asymmetrical colonial and global power dynamics, disorganized or incompetent political projects and priorities. Whatever the cause, the disparity must be eradicated, and fast.
RAMALLAH, October 17, 2011 (WAFA) – Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails on hunger strike for three weeks Monday suspended their strike after reaching an agreement with the prison administration to end the solitary confinement punishment, according to Minister of Prisoners Issa Qaraqi. (Wafa , Hat tip to Mondoweiss)
An undated photograph of Younis.Younis, almost 80 years old, is believed to be the oldest Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails; has spent nearly one-third of his life behind bars.
He was born in 1932 in the village of Arara, near Umm al-Fahm, and worked as a taxi driver.
He was arrested in 1983; after several months in detention, he was charged with involvement in the kidnap and murder of Avi Bromberg, an Israeli soldier who was killed in 1980.
Younis was initially given a death sentence, which was reduced on appeal to life imprisonment.
Younis says he was tortured during the months he was detained and interrogated before his trial. He also reportedly has suffered several medical ailments while in prison, including a heart attack.
In an interview earlier this year with the Ahrar Centre, a Palestinian prisoners' group, his daughter Kauthar expressed her hope that her father would be included in a future prisoner swap.
"My father has been frustrated by talk of previous deals because the prisoners from inside Israel itself have been excluded," she said. "Now he hopes that the resistance groups will include them in any future deal and not exclude them under pressure from the Israelis."
Barghouti in an undated photo released by his family.Fifty-four-year-old Nael Barghouti is the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israel: he has spent 33 years, nearly his entire adult life, inside an Israeli prison.
Barghouti was arrested in April of 1978 and charged with taking part in a "commando operation" which killed one Israeli near the West Bank settlement of Halamish.
Both of Barghouti's parents died during his time in prison, and his sister has been banned from visiting him for the last two years, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.
"After 30 years in captivity, we are just soldiers returning to our bases," he told the Palestinian newspaper Falastin.
Barghouti's cousin, Faher, was arrested in June 1978 - two months after Nael - and has been in prison ever since.
He is also scheduled for release. Faher's son Hadi was born after his arrest, and the two have only met behind bars, according to an interview in Haaretz.
By the time letters protesting the Council's decision were being published in the IT the same paper was reporting that the UK Education Minister and "proud Zionist", Michael Gove, had lobbied against schools participating in the event.A ROW has erupted between Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and a senior Town Hall official over advice warning primary schools against taking part in a Palestinian literature festival.Former children’s laureate Michael Rosen is among those taking part in the event, organised by Haringey Justice for Palestine group, which runs from September 29 to October 2.Mr Rosen is also angry about the advice that schools should not become involved. He said: “It’s very disappointing and a rather strange way to behave by Islington Council. Instead of entering into a conversation with the organisers they have simply taken the word of someone and then taken this somewhat draconian step to advise people not to take part.”The advice came from the Labour-controlled council’s corporate director of children’s services, Eleanor Schooling, who warned that the “political” nature of the event might contravene the 1996 Education Act.Two schools, including Duncombe Primary in Upper Holloway, were due to take part in the Tottenham Palestinian Literature Festival. Both have since reluctantly withdrawn from the event.However, it appears that Ms Schooling had been advised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who had expressed concerns.
Good letter! A report, a complaint and a call to action.
IT was rather misleading for the Board of Deputies of British Jews to claim it represents all British Jews.I and other Jews living in Islington would have nothing to do with this partisan, sectarian and Israeli-apologist body.Having left Israel because of the apartheid against Palestinians, it is important for me to work with those objecting to racism of all forms.One such group is the No to Veolia Action Group and if you are appalled by the Israeli illegal settlements then you can join us at 7.30pm on Monday, October 24, at the Regent pub in Liverpool Road.YAEL KAHN
N1
I must say that David Rosenberg deserves special credit for wading through a mountain of Jewish Chronicles from the time when they were advising Jews to not be so Jewish and to stay at home and ignore those nasty fascists.
Battle for the East End: Jewish responses to fascism in the 1930s
268pp ISBN: 978 1907869181 Five Leaves Publications, 2011, £9.99
What’s the book about?
During the 1930s, Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts intensified their campaign against the Jewish community, particularly in London’s East End. As that campaign became more overtly antisemitic, and more physically intimidating, Jewish groups debated how to deal with the Fascist threat, ultimately building their own defence organisations, and forging alliances with other campaigners. The simmering tensions in East London culminated in the Battle of Cable Street, when more than 100,000 people, especially from the local Jewish and Irish communities, prevented Mosley’s troops from marching through the East End.
In Battle for the East End, David Rosenberg charts the changing nature of the British Union of Fascists’ ideas about Jews and describes the growing rifts between the official leaders of the Jewish community and those who wanted to mount an active resistance to the fascists.
“Battle for the East End is written by an anti-fascist activist with a real feel and connection both to the politics and the geographical area he writes about. For anyone who wants to understand the political, historical and cultural context in which the Battle of Cable Street took place then Battle for the East End is a must for the bookshelf.” Searchlight Educational Trust“The Battle of Cable Street is one of the most celebrated moments in Anglo-Jewish history and, in Battle for the East End, David Rosenberg gives a compelling account of the context and controversies that surrounded it, made even more vivid by eye-witness testimony.” Nadia Valman, Jewish ChronicleContents of the book
Preface
Introduction
1. Britain’s Jews
2. How Jews were viewed
3. The rise of Mosley’s movement
4. Antisemitism and the British Union of Fascists
5. How Jewish leaders perceived the threat
6. Battle for the East End
7. Divided on defence: the grassroots rebellion
8. Rally to Aldgate and Cable Street
9. Antisemitism, fascism and the state
Conclusion
Order it online
To purchase the book online go to:http://inpressbooks.co.uk/battle_for_the_east_end_jewish_responses_to_fascism_in_the_1930s_david_rosenberg_i022676.aspx
Battle for the East End is one of five publications that Five Leaves are publishing to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. To see the other titles visit: http://www.fiveleaves.co.uk/
Come to a reading/discussion from David’s book
Wednesday 12th October, 7.30pm Reading/discussion at England’s Lane Bookshop, NW3 4YD
Thursday 13th October, 5.30pm, illustrated talk on Cable Street with book excerpts, in Small Hall Cinema, Goldsmiths College, SE14 6NW
Thursday 20th October 6.30pm Brick Lane bookshop, 166 Brick Lane E1 reading/discussion (jointly with Roger Mills)
Saturday 22nd October, 11am, illustrated talk on Cable Street with book excerpts, at the Anarchist Bookfair (room 319), Queen Mary College, E1
On Thursday Palestinians are protesting about the latest instance of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government. In the Beer Sheba (Beer es Saba) region of southern Israel about 30,000 inhabitants are about to be driven from their homes.Their villages have been designated "unrecognised" for more than 60 years, making their lands easy prey for confiscation. And while they are refused the same rights as other Israeli citizens to facilities such as running water, schools and hospitals, the Israeli state demands their taxes.The British government must condemn any move to evict the Palestinian citizens of Israel from their lands, which were documented under the British Mandate as privately owned Palestinian land – not ownerless as the Israeli state now claims.
Geoffrey Bindman QC
Victoria Brittain
William Dalrymple
Ken Loach
Tony Benn
Ahdaf Soueif
Miriam Margolyes
Caryl Churchill
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Linda Riordan MP
Bob Russell MP
Martin Caton MP
Katy Clark MP
Alex Cunningham MP
Julie Hilling MP
John McDonnell MP
Andy Slaughter MP
Dame Jenny Tonge
John Pilger
Leila Sansour
Ghada Karmi
Ilan Pappe
Dr Salman Abu Sitta
Prof Steven Rose
Prof Hilary Rose
Louise Christian
Rodney Bickerstaffe
Bruce Kent
Reem Kelani
Lowkey
Kika Markham
Michael Rosen
Leon Rosselson
Alexei Sayle
Jeremy Hardy
Hugh Lanning, Chair PSC
Keith Sonnet
John Austin
Canon Garth Hewitt
Andy de la Tour
• Those who lead European football must respond to an appeal from Palestinians dismayed at the prospect of Israel hosting Uefa's under-21 tournament in 2013. A state that uses military might to hold sway over land it illegally occupies and exploits, flouts international law and ignores UN resolutions surely forfeits the right to be treated as a member of the community of nations. But western powers continue to embrace Israel as an ally.During the 2011 under-21 tournament in Denmark in June, 42 Gazan football clubs, backed by many sporting bodies, wrote to Uefa president Michel Platini calling on his organisation not "to reward Israel for its violent repression of Palestinian rights". We ask Uefa to respond positively to this plea.Stephane Hessel diplomat
Ken Loach filmmaker
Michael Mansfield barrister
Miriam Margolyes actor
Nurit Peled Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought joint winner 2001
John Pilger journalist and filmmaker,
Ahdaf Soueif novelist and political and cultural commentator
Jean Ziegler vice-president, advisory committee of the UN human rights council
• The government changes the law and brings out the red carpet to allow alleged Israeli war criminals into the UK (Former Israeli minister to visit UK after change in arrest law, 4 October) but changes the rules to arrest visiting Palestinians whose only "crime" is to campaign for their rights (Palestinian activist was held unlawfully, says high court, 1 October). The Goldstone report, which has been endorsed at the UN general assembly, provides clear evidence of how in its 2008-09 attack on Gaza, Israel was responsible for attacks on children, use of human shields, and use of phosphorous bombs and flachettes in civilian areas. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also documented serious cases of abuse. For William Hague to invite to the UK Israeli leaders who were in government at the time these alleged crimes were committed is a slap in the face for relatives of the 1,400 dead, the 5,000 injured and the many others who suffered due to Israel's Cast Lead attack on Gaza.
Dr Stephen Leah
York
