Protesters show their support of Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike

Philadelphians lined up along 19th Street and JFK Boulevard to bring attention to inhumane detention practices in Israel. It’s been used by occupiers, people who are anti-abortion, tea partiers and slut walkers: Their right to

CommunityCoverage_ManveerSereh_01
Courtesy Manveera Serah Philadelphia residents protest along 19th Street and JFK Boulevard. They hope to bring awareness to Philadelphia concerning conflict on the Gaza Strip.

Philadelphians lined up along 19th Street and JFK Boulevard to bring attention to inhumane detention practices in Israel.

It’s been used by occupiers, people who are anti-abortion, tea partiers and slut walkers: Their right to freedom of speech. This fundamental principle in American democracy allows for any person’s opinions, concerns and thoughts to be heard. Resting on this standard, members and supporters of the Palestinian community gathered at 19th Street and JFK Boulevard on Friday, Feb. 17 to protest the Israeli detention of Palestinian prisoners.

“[They were] bringing specific attention to Khader Adnan, the Palestinian man on a [hunger strike] against being arrested without being charged,” junior broadcast journalism major and rally attendee Wafai Dias said.

Adnan, 33-year-old was arrested on Dec. 17, 2011 and has yet to be charged or tried. Since his arrest, he has been on a hunger strike, which amounts to more than 60 days.

“We’re here to show him that people all over the world, in Philadelphia, are thinking of him,” said Kaheema Abusaab, a first year generation Palestinian living in Philadelphia.

Adnan, who is refusing to eat in order to send a message to the Israeli people and to take a stand for the rights of his people, has been examined by doctors, sent from the Israeli branch of the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights. Doctors have said that without proper    nutrition within the next few days, Adnan will die. His family and friends have petitioned for his release, but the Israeli detention has denied the requests and still refuses to charge or try him.

“He’s just one of thousands,” Philadelphian protester Betsy Piette said.

Unfortunately, the case of Adnan is not rare. In the throes of the Israeli blockade of Gaza and occupation of Palestine, unjust arrests and imprisonments have become all too common. Worse still, the Israeli atrocities against Palestinians do not end there.

“[There was] this kid, 11 or 12, they broke his legs because he was too close to the walls,” Piette said.

“It’s their broken bone policy,” said Joe Piette, Betsy’s husband and protestor.

Joe Piette said that, in order to control Palestinians, Israeli soldiers take the ends of their guns and slam it into the legs of the “criminals,” breaking the bones and making it impossible for them to run.

Abusaab said it is for Khader Adnan and the millions of other innocent civilians of Palestine that Philadelphians march.

Sarah Elizabeth Guy can be reached at sarah.elizabeth.guy@temple.edu.

8 Comments

  1. Wowww I can not believe that the University I ve graduated from publishes articles that are so biased and taking a non objective look at the situation, totally on the palestinian side, quoting lies…this is a propaganda

    I wish that people look further than what the medias will show them with these kinds of articles
    And I wish that this Temple News will give me its so desired freedom of speech by publishing this

    First where is the inhuman treatment, this guy is totaly clean? NO he s been holding a role with the islamic jihad, he s been arrested and even though he hasnt received his trial he received visits from his lawyer and doctors, and the only torture is the one he chose to cause to himself by not eating… Just one exemple: did the two reserve israeli soldier (meaning anybody between 25 and 50 in Israel) totured and killed by palestinian “civilians” in Hebron enjoyed the same rights? Did Gilad Shalit receive any visit?

    Second talking about human rights violation and the other lies: If they are so important for you why nobody spoke about the sudanese refugees that egyptian soldier would shoot on sight for not letting them in, that the UN didnt do anything for them, and that are now in security in what you could call the “apartheid Zionist entity slaughtering the pooor palestinians” or something of this kind.

    Why dont you talk more and act about what happens in a lot of arab countries, right now especialy in Syria where people die by the hundreds, because even though you always try to accuse Israel of all kinds of crimes, the innocent arab killers are nothing else than other arabs…

    Finaly to sum up with a slightly different version than yours, I ll remind you that the country doing the “atrocities” according to you, Israel has signed, maintained and gave up important price for peace with the Egyptians, with Jordan and even with the palestinians (yes even though your memory quickly forgets): during the Oslo agreements, Israel agreed to transfer territories in progressive steps and giving weapons to the palestinian police for security and peace…..What happened since then? The same weapons have been used for terror attacks among the israeli population by groups such as the one Adnan is linked to…

    Meditate over that

  2. Nathan,
    Talk about biased opinions! You can wine about Khader’s ties to Islamic Jihad till the cows come home but that doesn’t change the fact that what Israel is doing to him is completely illegal. If there is actual evidence of these ties, Israel needs to present it and proceed with his detention and trial in proper legal fashion. To do otherwise would undermine their own democracy. I would like to say that what happened to those Israelis you mentioned is horrible and I will in no way delegitimize that. It does not, however, justify illegal detainments. This practice of illegal detainments actually makes Israelis less safe by inciting legitimate anger towards their government.
    Second, the human rights violations of the state of Israel are not lies. You are either lying or you are ignorant of them. I will provide you with a few links to back this up.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/23/israel-committed-human-ri_n_178159.html
    http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/israel-and-occupied-territories
    Finding those took me only thirty seconds, so I’m sure with some real digging will find you much more.
    The thing is, I know some of the students who went to this protest. They do protest to raise awareness about human rights violations in places like the Congo. They raise money on campus for Syrian refugees. They stand in solidarity with the people struggling for freedom in Egypt and in Iran as well. Some of these students are Palestinian. That’s right, they really exist! They are our neighbors! They are real people with real feelings! They deserve respect and self-autonomy, and they stand up for the rights of people outside of their own group because they realize the freedom of every human being is interconnected.
    So, Mr. Bloch, I have a question for you to meditate over. Do you write to articles and publications criticizing people who post about human rights violations in Congo, Egypt, Syria, or any other country? Or, do you simply reserve that nastiness for human rights violations in Israel against Palestinians?

  3. Nathaniel, as a member of Students for Justice in Palestine I take offense at your assumption that we only focus on the injustices committed by Israel. While we primarily focus on the plight of the Palestinian people, we at Temple SJP speak out against oppression of all forms. In the fall semester we raised money for the Middle East Children’s Alliance, a charity which not only gets aid to Gaza but also to children in Iraq. We screened a documentary called Cultures of Resistance which focused on nonviolent resistance through the arts on each continent; this event was co-sponsored by a Caribbean and Latin@ student organizations, with whom we had a lively dialogue after the film. We hosted two teach-ins about Iraq and Pakistan. It is important for us to stand against any oppression anywhere, and we make it a point to work with other student organizations on campus. Next Friday we’re hosting an event with the Queer Student Union. Our members regularly attend events held by the Black Student Union, Muslim Student Alliance, Asian Student Alliance, Turkish Student Alliance, Temple Italian Club etc. One of our members is working with a group dedicated to the crisis in the Congo, and we have been promoting their events. We do not regularly associate with Temple Students for Israel and other Zionist groups on campus (though they are always welcome to our events), but we have worked with and will continue to work with Jewish organizations such as Jewish Voices for Peace, and regularly feature Jewish speakers at our events. Furthemore our membership is extremely diverse, ethnically, religiously, politically, and socioeconomically.

    Your assumption that we don’t care about Israeli’s human rights is not only inaccurate, as we promote non-violent resistance, but is also a way of derailing very important conversations about Palestinian human rights. Human life is human life, and Palestinian life is not more important than an Israeli life. However, Palestinian deaths greatly outnumber Israeli deaths. Palestinians do not have freedom of movement, access to electric and water supply, are prevented from making livings for themselves and their families, and in summation, do not have the right to self-determination. The purpose of our organizaton is to work towards peace, which will not come without justice. Secondly, we reject the idea that the situation in Palestine is a conflict between two sides with equal amounts of power. The Palestinian people are occupied by Israel, a country recognized by the UN and most Western nations with an aggressive military, and receives billions of dollars in aid each year from the United States government. Therefore when groups like Hamas send rockets into Israel, loss of Israeli lives is just as tragic, but the power that Hamas has is in no way comparable to that held by the Israeli government and the IDF. That being said I would like to emphasize again that SJP supports NONviolent forms of resistance.

    Furthermore, Khader Adnan’s guilt or innocence and his affiliation with Islamic Jihad is irrelevant. First of all, the Israeli government brought no charges against Adnan. He was arrested in the middle of the night, not informed why, and deprived of a trial. A country which prides itself on being a democracy should not illegally detain people just because of their political affiliations, no matter how radical. The United States is guilty of this in Guantanamo Bay, and we at Temple SJP are equally as critical. Second of all, Khader Adnan is not the only one in administrative detention. There are about 300 Palestinians in administrative detention, some of whom are minors. I don’t know if I’m allowed to link articles here, so I suggest that you (and other readers) look up Amnesty International’s petition demanding Israel to stop the use of administrative detention.

    Finally, I’d like to thank the Temple News for covering this story to begin with. In light of recent student media coverage of Pro-Palestine organizations, such as the articles in the Daily Pennsylvanian which included authors calling student organizers from Penn BDS “kapos”, we appreciate what we feel to be a balanced portrayal of our organization. Additionally, thank you for your acknowledging Khader Adnan, which most mainstream media outlets have not been brave enough to do. Despite some claims by supporters of Israel, Palestinian voices are almost nonexistent. We were all so excited to see this article!

  4. These are the words of Simon Deng, a former Muslim slave from Sudan.
    ^^^^^
    “I want to thank the organizers of this conference, The Perils of Global Intolerance. It is a great honor for me and it is a privilege really to be among today’s distinguished speakers.”
    “I came here as a friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. – I came to protest this Durban conference which is based on a set of lies. It is organized by nations who are themselves guilty of the worst kinds of oppression.

    It will not help the victims of racism. It will only isolate and target the Jewish state. It is a tool of the enemies of Israel. The UN has itself become a tool against Israel. For over 50 years, 82 percent of the UN General Assembly emergency meetings have been about condemning one state – Israel. Hitler couldn’t have been made happier.

    The Durban Conference is an outrage. All decent people will know that.

    But friends, I come here today with a radical idea. I come to tell you that there are peoples who suffer from theUN’s anti-Israelism even morethan the Israelis. I belong to one of those people.

    Please hear me out.

    By exaggerating Palestinian suffering, and by blaming the Jews for it, the UN has muffled the cries of those who suffer on a far larger scale.

    For over fifty years the indigenous black population of Sudan — Christians and Muslims alike — has been the victim of the brutal, racist Arab Muslim regimes in Khartoum.

    In South Sudan, my homeland, about 4 million innocent men, women and children were slaughtered from 1955 to 2005. Seven million were ethnically cleansed and they became the largest refugee group since World War II.

    The UN is concerned about the so-called Palestinian refugees. They dedicated a separate agency for them. and they are treated with a special privilege.

    Meanwhile, my people, ethnically cleansed, murdered and enslaved, are relatively ignored. The UN refuses to tell the world the truth about the real causes of Sudan’s conflicts. Who knows really what is happening in Darfur? It is not a “tribal conflict.” It is a conflict rooted in Arab colonialism well known in north Africa. In Darfur, a region in the Western Sudan, everybody is Muslim. Everybody is Muslim because the Arabs invaded the North of Africa and converted the indigenous people to Islam. In the eyes of the Islamists in Khartoum, the Darfuris are not Muslim enough. And the Darfuris do not want to be Arabized. They love their own African languages and dress and customs. The Arab response is genocide! But nobody at the UN tells the truth about Darfur.

    In the NubaMountains, another region of Sudan, genocide is taking place as I speak. The Islamist regime in Khartoum is targeting the black Africans – Muslims and Christians. Nobody at the UN has told the truth about the Nuba Mountains.

    Do you hear the UN condemn Arab racism against blacks?

    What you find on the pages of the New York Times, or in the record of the UN condemnations is “Israeli crimes” and Palestinian suffering. My people have been driven off thefront pages because of the exaggerations about Palestinian suffering. What Israel does is portrayed as a Western sin. But the truth is that the real sin happens when the West abandons us: the victims of Arab/Islamic apartheid.

    Chattel slavery was practiced for centuries in Sudan. It was revived as a tool of war in the early 90s. Khartoum declared jihad against my people and this legitimized taking slaves as war booty. Arab militias were sent to destroy Southern villages and were encouraged to take African women and children as slaves. We believe that up to 200,000 were kidnapped, brought to the North and sold into slavery.

    I am a living proof of this crime against humanity.

    I don’t like talking about my experience as a slave, but I do it because it is important for the world toknow that slavery exists even today.

    I was only nine years old when an Arab neighbor named Abdullahi tricked me into following him to a boat. The boat wound up in Northern Sudan where he gave me as a gift to his family. For three and a half years I was their slave going through something that no child should ever go through: brutal beatings and humiliations; working around the clock; sleeping on the ground with animals;eating the family’s left-overs. During those three years I was unable to say the word “no.” All I could say was “yes,” “yes,” “yes.”

    The United Nations knew about the enslavement of South Sudanese by the Arabs. Their own staff reported it. It took UNICEF – under pressure from the Jewish –led American Anti-Slavery Group — sixteen years to acknowledge what was happening. I want to publicly thank my friend Dr. Charles Jacobs for leading the anti-slaveryfight.

    But the Sudanese government and the Arab League pressured UNICEF, and UNICEF backtracked, and started to criticize those who worked to liberate Sudanese slaves. In 1998, Dr. Gaspar Biro, the courageous UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan who reported on slavery, resigned in protest of the UN’s actions.

    My friends, today, tens of thousands of black South Sudanese still serve their masters in the North and the UN is silent about that. It would offend the OIC and the Arab League.

    As a former slave and a victim of the worst sort of racism, allow me to explain why I think calling Israel a racist state is absolutely absurd and immoral.

    I have been to Israel five times visiting the Sudanese refugees. Let me tell you how they ended up there. These are Sudanese who fled Arab racism, hoping to find shelter in Egypt. They were wrong. When Egyptian security forces slaughtered twenty six black refugees in Cairo who were protesting Egyptian racism, the Sudanese realized that the Arab racism is the same in Khartoum or Cairo. They needed shelter and they found it in Israel. Dodging the bullets of the Egyptian border patrols and walking for very long distances, the refugees’ only hope was to reach Israel’s side of the fence, where they knew they would be safe.

    Black Muslims from Darfur chose Israel above all the other Arab-Muslim states of the area. Do you know what this means!!!?? And the Arabs say Israel is racist!!!?

    In Israel, black Sudanese, Christian and Muslim were welcomed and treated like human beings. Just go and ask them, like I have done. They told me that compared to the situation in Egypt, Israel is “heaven.”

    Is Israel a racist state? To my people, the people who know racism – the answer is absolutely not. Israel is a state of people who are the colors of the rainbow. Jews themselves come in all colors, even black. I met with Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Beautiful black Jews.

    So, yes … I came here today to tell you that the people who suffer most from the UN anti-Israel policy are not the Israelis but all those people who the UN ignores in order to tell its big lie against Israel: we, the victims of Arab/Muslim abuse: women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, homosexuals, in the Arab/Muslim world. These are the biggest victims of UN Israel hatred.

    Look at the situation of the Copts in Egypt, the Christians in Iraq, and Nigeria, and Iran, the Hindus and Bahais who suffer from Islamic oppression. The Sikhs. We – a rainbow coalition of victims and targets of Jihadis — all suffer. We are ignored, we are abandoned. So that the big lie against the Jews can go forward.

    In 2005, I visited one of the refugee camps in South Sudan. I met a twelve year old girl who told me about her dream. In a dream she wanted to go to school to become a doctor. And then, she wanted to visit Israel. I was shocked. How could this refugee girl who spent most of her life in the North know about Israel? When I asked why she wanted to visit Israel, she said: “This is our people.” I was never able to find an answer to my question.

    On January 9 of 2011 South Sudan became an independent state. For South Sudanese, that means continuation of oppression, brutalization, demonization, Islamization, Arabization and enslavement.

    In a similar manner, the Arabs continue denying Jews their right for sovereignty in their homeland and the Durban III conference continues denying Israel’s legitimacy.

    As a friend of Israel, I bring you the news that my President, the President of the Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir — publicly stated that the South Sudan embassy in Israel will be built— not in Tel Aviv, but in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

    I also want to assure you that my own new nation, and all of its peoples, will oppose racist forums like the Durban III. We will oppose it by simply telling the truth. Our truth.

    My Jewish friends taught me something I now want to say with you.

    AM YISROEL CHAI!

    The people of Israel lives!

  5. Is SJP affiliated with the MSA?

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    “We reject the U.N., reject America, reject all law and order. Don’t lobby Congress or protest because we don’t recognize Congress. The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it. . . . Eventually there will be a Muslim in the White House dictating the laws of Shariah.” — Muhammad Faheed, Muslim Students Association meeting, Queensborough Community College

  6. Could Sam P. explain this conundrum for me?

    Why is it Muslims are free to violently conquer lands anywhere and everywhere without a word of protest from American Muslims, or any Muslims for that matter, but if Jews have a legally established homeland Muslims will never stop protesting against it? Why is this do you suppose? What explanation can be given other than as the Qur’an states repeatedly that Islam’s goal is to establish a worldwide caliphate in which all non-Muslims are subjugated.

    For instance, Mohammed was born around 571 AD thousands and thousands of years after Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism existed. But within a few centuries of Mohammed’s birth Islam had violently conquered vast sections of Asia, all of North Africa and smaller sections of Southern Europe.

    Now Muslims tell us that all this land belongs to them even though, for instance, in Afghanistan they killed every last Buddhist who once lived there. According to Muslim logic per Israel shouldn’t this land belong to the Buddhists?

    Or in North Africa all the Berbers have been forcibly converted to Islam or have been killed and now we’re told all this vast landmass belongs to Islam. That’s interesting, if not completely hypocritical. And what about Southern Thailand. Did anyone know that in the last several years something like 5,000 Buddhists have been killed by Muslims because, or so we’re told, the land the Buddhists are on belongs to Islam. And Southern Russia? Muslims are relentlessly waging a slow reign of terror in Russia because, you guessed it, Russians are treating Muslims poorly and they should give up the Southern section of that country to Muslims.

    Or, let’s take Sudan as another example. How many millions have been killed in Sudan? How many babies and children have starved in Sudan while Islamists steal the food from aid compounds? How many women have Muslims gang-raped in Sudan all because that land belongs to Muslims and only Muslims. All other people can go somewhere else to live, I guess.

    And Kashmir? The same. Despite Hindus having lived there for 5,000 years – something like 4,000+ years before Mohammed was born – Muslims tell us Kashmir belongs to them. Amazing logic isn’t it?

    And that brings us to Israel. Israel also belongs to Islam. Did you know that? It’s true. Even though it’s no bigger than a small pimple on the caliphate’s ass it is still their land and they will fight to the death to prove their point.

    Doesn’t the logic here make a lot of sense. Isn’t it as clear as day? Of course it is. The world belongs to Islam and we’re mere players on their stage.

  7. Sam

    I m sure you re exited by this article as it is more than totaly going into the pro palestinian way, could if not as already been written by one of those organisation protesters with all the wrong information presented in a such way to present Israel as the worst thing ever while the palestinian side has nothing to feel guilty about.
    So one of the main reason you re giving is that Israel has superior military power and they re more deaths on the palestinian side? This is how reason and truth are explained? Should we be guilty of being able to defend ourselves?
    Do you really think that the relatively lower number of israeli deaths reflects that such groups as the jihad fatah hamas and others have dropped arms and terror and are looking for a peace…Israel has devellopped a security so advanced that it prevents almost all if them
    I know everything is not perfect and it is a situation of war, so even if the IDF is doing its best to reduce the innocent deaths to a minimum by risking its soldiers lives in more risky types of mission. the thing is that the ennemy is not an army, they are terrorist specificaly targeting civilians and trying to kill as many by suicide bombings or operating from within the rest of the population, but where is your criticism of that? If the palestinians would come to the negociation table and negociate with the israelis on a realistic peace agreement dont you think that not only they would get their state with territories that Israel would give but also there would be no more need for checkpoint, military operations and the rest? but this is not happening…and this will not happen because the part of the palestinians who would be ready for that can not speak up against the other part who s only waiting to push the jews to the sea
    Even if you think Israel is the worst, let me tell you that if any other country would be in its position, the situation of the palestinians would bevery different, not in a good way
    And talking about the valu of life, What about when some parents have many kids so they can send some shaheeds to go blow up themselves?
    Anyway I m done with that article and will not waste more time on it as anyway those who will want to seek the info to make a just opinion for themselves will and those who are ancred in their hatred will remain so

    To Arafat

    This is a text read on a french radio back in the 70s , have a look it s as true as it used to be

    November 11, 1975

    Last Night, I was in the subway when I heard two ladies say:

    “Did you see these Jews with their stories at the U.N.? What jerks! ”

    It’s true. We are jerks. For centuries we have been the world’s jerks. It’s in our nature, what can you do?

    Abraham with his single God, Moses with his 10 Commandments, Jesus with his second cheek always available for a second slap, then Freud, Marx, Einstein, all were intruders, revolutionaries, enemies of the Order.

    Why?

    Because no order, whatever the century, could satisfy them – since they were always excluded. To call everything in question, to see further, changing the world to change their destiny, such was the destiny of my Ancestors.

    This is why the defenders of all established orders hate them.

    – The anti-Semite of the right blames the Jews for having executed the Bolshevik revolution. It’s true: there were many of them, in 1917.
    – The anti-Semite of the left blames the Jews for owning Manhattan. It’s true: there are many Jewish capitalists.

    The reason is simple: religion, culture, and the revolutionary ideal on the one hand, stocks and banks on the other, are the only transportable values, the only possible country for those that do not have a country.

    And now that there is a country, Anti-Semitism reappears from its ashes… – Sorry! From OUR ashes – and it’s called anti-Zionism! It used to be applied only to individuals; it is now applied to a country.

    Israel is a ghetto – Jerusalem is Warsaw… The Nazis who besiege us speak Arabic! And if their crescent is sometimes disguised in a sickle, that’s simply for better trapping the liberal leftists of the world.

    I, who am a Jew of the left, I don’t care about a certain left that wants to free all men of the world at the expense of some of them – because I am precisely one of these!

    I support class struggle, but I also support the right to be different. If the left wants to count me among its members, it cannot exclude my problem.

    And my problem is that since the Roman deportations of the 1st century after Jesus-Christ, everywhere we went we were expelled, dishonored, banished, tracked, denounced, crushed, burned and converted by force!

    Why?

    Because our religion – i.e. our culture was dangerous. Some examples:

    · Judaism was the first to create the Shabbath, the day of God, i.e. the day of weekly mandatory rest. You imagine the joy of the Pharoes, always late in building the next pyramid.

    · Judaism prohibits slavery. You can imagine the sympathy of the Romans, the most significant wholesalers of free labor of the Antiquity.

    · It is said in the Bible: “The earth does not belong to man, but to God.” From this sentence a law is created, the automatic handing-over of real-estate every 49 years. You imagine the effect of such a law on the Popes of the Middle Ages and the builders of empires during the Renaissance.

    It was imperative that the people do not learn the truth.

    They started by banishing the Bible, then were the libels: walls of defamation that became walls of stone that were called ghettos.

    Then it was the Inquisition, the flames and later the yellow stars.

    Auschwitz is only an industrial example of genocide, but there were thousands of hand-made genocides. It would take me three days only to name all the pogroms of Spain, Russia, Poland and North Africa.

    By continuing to flee and to move, the Jew went everywhere. One extrapolates: he ends up being from nowhere.

    We are among the people like the welfare child. I don’t want to be adopted any more. I don’t want for my life to depend on my owners’ mood any more. I don’t want to be a “citizen-renter” any more.

    I have enough of knocking at History’s doors and waiting until I’m told: “Enter”. I enter and I yell! I am at home on earth and on earth I have my land: she was promised to me, she will be mine!

    What is Zionism? It’s reduced to a simple sentence: “Next year in Jerusalem.”

    No, it’s not a slogan of the Club Med. It’s written in the Bible, the book that has sold more copies and has been misunderstood more than any other book in the world.

    And this prayer became a roar, a roar that is over 2000 years old, and the fathers of Columbus, Kafka, Proust, Chagall, Marx, Einstein, and even Mr. Kissinger, repeated this sentence, this roar, at least once a year, on Passover.

    Then, is Zionism equal to Racism? Don’t make me laugh! Is “Soft France, dear country of my childhood” (“Douce France, cher pays de mon enfance”) a racist anthem? Zionism is the name of a struggle for freedom!

    In the world, everybody has its Jews. The French have theirs: they are the Breton, Occitans, Corsicans, and the immigrant workers. The Italians have Sicilians; the Americans have their Blacks; the Spaniards their Basques.

    We, we are EVERYBODY’S Jews.

    To those that tell me: “And the Palestinians?”, I answer: “I am a 2000 year-old Palestinian. I am the oldest oppressed man in the world.”

    I will negotiate with them, but I will not yield my place to them. There’s enough space there for two people and two nations. The borders are to be determined together. But the existence of one country cannot in any case exclude the existence of the other. And the political options of a government never called into question the existence of a nation, whatever the nation.

    Then why Israel?

    When Israel is out of danger, I will choose among Jews and my Arab neighbors,
    those who are my brothers by ideas.

    Today, I must be united with all of my people, even those whom I hate, in the name of this insurmountable enemy: RACISM.

    Descartes was wrong: “I think, therefore I am” doesn’t mean anything. We have been thinking for 5000 years, and we still don’t exist!

    I defend myself, therefore I am!

    Herbert Pagani, 11/11/1975

  8. Nathaniel,
    I would like to point out that this is an opinion article, not a news or factual article.

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