I'm doing typical Independence Day stuff, but it is all keeping me away from the computer. So here's an open thread for the evening.
Inspiration from Rabbi Sacks for Shabbat HaGadol and Pesach
35 minutes ago
Elder of Ziyon"19 years after last visit, hair metal band plays songs from its long catalog for 10,000 fans"
“Documents seen by The Commentator have revealed disturbing attitudes towards the Israeli Prime Minister and the British Government’s analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”
“Philip Hollobone MP, the Member of Parliament for Kettering told The Commentator, “There is a growing body of well documented evidence that official Palestinian organisations – some funded by the UK, the EU and the UN – are promoting terrorism and martyrdom in an attempt to aid the Palestinian cause, and yet the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and DfID appear surprisingly slow to explore this evidence and condemn its perpetrators. Now we know why.”
"In this interview with David Frost, Israeli historian Benny Morris cites "the Arab mindset" that "Israel is illegitimate and shouldn't exist" as the major obstacle to peace. He thinks peace will not be forthcoming in his lifetime."
“The article describes a recent spate of assassinations of Palestinian officials in Syria. One victim was a Hamas official. Another was an officer in the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA).”
Elder of ZiyonWith the help of Israeli technology, the Louvre Museum in Paris will stay secure. Synel, an Israeli subsidiary company based in France has just been awarded a large contract at the Louvre Museum.---
As part of the major project, Synel France was contracted to install a comprehensive system for security access control combined with electronic attendance. The deal is estimated to reach millions of shekels within several years.
International communications giant British Telecom has chosen Israel's Cyber-Ark Software to monitor and secure its privileged accounts, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. The deal is estimated at several million shekels.--
As a large communications services company, providing a range of products to a vast number of business and consumer customers, BT’s infrastructure is complex and broad – covering numerous business units and many geographical regions. BT required a single solution, standardized across the global organization that could easily scale, as required.
This solution needed to complement BT’s existing security services, providing its rapidly expanding customer base with proven privileged access management.
Fattal Hotel Management Ltd. is expanding its European operations, with the signing of a contract to manage two hotels in Austria and Switzerland.
"It is with great pride that we see the Israeli flag flying over two more hotels in Europe. We have succeeded in creating a strong brand in Europe within just a few years, and we expect to have 60 hotels in Europe within three years, and 100 hotels in the Fattal chain altogether," Fattal Hotel Management CEO David Fattal said.
Elder of ZiyonAn UNRWA education system which develops the full potential of Palestine Refugees to enable them to be confident, innovative, questioning, thoughtful, tolerant and open minded, upholding human values and religious tolerance, proud of their Palestine identity and contributing positively to the development of their society and the global community.But UNRWA does not only teach secular subjects, as it implies. In Gaza at least, UNRWA teaches Islam.
It was narrated that Abu Abdul Rahman Abdullah bin Masood may Allah be pleased with him said: I asked the Prophet peace be upon him: which work does God prefer He answered: Saying prayers on time. I said: Then what? He said: honoring one's parents. I said: Then what? He said: Jihad in the way of Allah. Agreed.Here is a poem about how Zionists raped Palestine and how the author will return to Jaffa.
...You who sees what is happening to the Muslim Ummah everywhere .. I see the daily violations of the Muslims .. O of rending his heart when you hear the news of Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries of the Jihad .. you who wish to join the ranks of the Mujahideen and Jihad with them against the Jews and the Crusaders .. you who want to jihad hard but you can not ..
Elder of ZiyonFor the past year, a novel Israeli medical device has been changing the way American doctors remove fibro-adenoma tumors – benign breast lumps. Now an internationally renowned Japanese surgeon is testing IceSense3, made in Israel by IceCure Medical, to destroy small malignant tumors as well.
“This is the future,” CEO Hezi Himelfarb tells ISRAEL21c.
During an ultrasound-guided procedure, the IceSense3 probe penetrates the tumor and destroys it by engulfing it with ice. Needing only local anesthetic, the cryoablation process takes five or 10 minutes in a doctor’s office, clinic or breast center, and the patient can get up and leave afterward. No recovery period or post-care is necessary.
Dr. Eisuke Fukuma, chairman of the Breast Center at Kameda Medical Center in Kamogawa City, Japan, was so intrigued by IceSense3’s potential in this area that he flew all the way to IceCure’s Caesarea headquarters just for a four-hour meeting to lay the groundwork for clinical trials at his center.
On June 1, the first four patients in the trial had small tumors successfully destroyed with the device, and another 26 patients are scheduled.
“This procedure is an exciting step towards moving treatment of small, early-stage breast cancer tumors from open surgery to a minimally invasive cryoablation procedure,” Fukuma stated. “Cryoablation offers a much more comfortable and cosmetically appealing treatment option for small breast cancers.”
Elder of ZiyonHundreds of protesters demonstrated in Ramallah on Tuesday calling on the Palestinian Authority not to negotiate with Israel.Where are the pro-peace rallies in Ramallah?
Protesters gathered in Manara square, chanting "The people want to bring down Oslo," referring to the 1993 agreement that established the PA as a 5-year interim administration to govern until a final treaty was reached.
Demonstrators headed to President Mahmoud Abbas' headquarters, the Muqata, carrying Palestinian flags and denouncing talks with Israeli vice premier Shaul Mofaz.
Abbas had been scheduled to meet Mofaz in Ramallah, sparking protests on Saturday, but the meeting was canceled.
Elder of ZiyonEight years after his death, it remains a mystery exactly what killed the longtime Palestinian leader. Tests conducted in Paris found no obvious traces of poison in Arafat’s system. Rumors abound about what might have killed him – cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, even allegations that he was infected with HIV.The anti-Israel crowd is loving this, saying it "proves" that Israel assassinated Arafat.
A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera has revealed that none of those rumors were true: Arafat was in good health until he suddenly fell ill on October 12, 2004.
More importantly, tests reveal that Arafat’s final personal belongings – his clothes, his toothbrush, even his iconic kaffiyeh – contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. Those personal effects, which were analyzed at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, were variously stained with Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine. The tests carried out on those samples suggested that there was a high level of polonium inside his body when he died.
“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids,” said Dr. Francois Bochud, the director of the institute.
Darcy Christen, spokesman for the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, told Reuters on Tuesday it had found "surprisingly" high levels of polonium-210 in Arafat's belongings.Also not mentioned is that Al Jazeera itself once aired accusations that Mahmoud Abbas was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Arafat - and Abbas responded by shutting down the Al Jazeera offices in the West Bank!
But he stressed that clinical symptoms described in Arafat's medical reports were not consistent with polonium-210 and that conclusions could not be drawn as to whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned or not.
A rare and dangerous element, that has killed thousands of people, mostly in the Middle East #PLOniumPLOnium is much, much deadlier than polonium, but for some reason people think that it is inert - or even beneficial. And those who note how dangerous it is are outshouted by PLOnium's many supporters, who know it is deadly but think that it only has one target that they want to see killed as well.
Outbreaks of #PLOnium almost destroyed both Jordan and Lebanon a while back, but no one seems to remember that
A very unstable element, #PLOnium has been known to blow up airplanes and buses
#PLOnium has been known to even attack athletes, but only those from a single country exactly 40 years ago. Not worth remembering, though.
Despite similarities, #PLOnium does not mix well with its sister element, #Hamasium.
Even with its known dangers, some people like to be close with #PLOnium, thinking that it won't hurt them.
The country’s largest Presbyterian church has agreed to vote by week’s end on divesting its portfolio from three companies that it is says has resisted the request to stop providing services that aid Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.The reasons are the usual idiocy. As described in an email I received:
The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly’s Middle East Committee voted 36 to 11 with one abstention in favoring of divesting its portfolio from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. The Committee said the company’s [sic] helped “Israel’s use of their products in violations of Palestinian human rights.”
Hewlett-Packard is rated one of the top socially responsible investment companies, but that was never mentioned. Motorola Solutions is a new corporation, having been spun off from its parent company in 2011 - but its unresponsiveness to MRTI entreaties was explained only as indifference to the suffering of Palestinians. The main focus, though, was Caterpillar. No attention was given to the fact that the equipment in question was sold to the U.S. government in the same form as any other bulldozer. Or that the modifications to the equipment that occur after market do not bring the company any profit. Or that the MRTI engagement was done alongside groups that interrupt Caterpillar annual meetings - not groups that a company would recognize as interested in dialogue or engagement.But facts and logic are not on the radar of the divestment crowd, and this time it looks like they have enough followers who are swayed by emotional one-sided stories of Jewish brutality to win.
Elder of ZiyonWe all have dreams. Uncle Junior wanted to screw Angie Dickinson, my mother wants to work in a funeral home and Irena Wachendorff just wants to be Jewish and the daughter of Shoah-survivors so she can criticize Israel. Is that so wrong?JPost:
Up until now, Wachendorff has made a decent career of being an Alibijude, an alibi Jew. The job is easy: If someone is accused of anti-Semitism, alibi Jews are brought in as defending witnesses. It’s the old “some of my best friends are pantomimes” routine, with an added speaking part for friends. In a country like Germany, where the Jewish community is only sporadically visible, being an Alibijude can be a worthwhile endeavor.
If all anyone ever talks about is how Israel is the root of all global evil, people might start to ask questions. This is when the accused is able to point to the the supportive alibi Jew, who in turn is able to point to his or her family history or just basic Jewishness and say something like: “What the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is what the Nazis did to my parents.” Even better, you’re one yourself: Geert Wilders, famous for his vehement xenophobia and his stupid haircut, always likes to speculate about some Jewish heritage on his father’s side. Because then, you’re not a Nazi or a racist but a defender of Western values.
As an alibi Jew, Irena Wachendorff is the whole package (except for one simple fact.) Her mother was in Auschwitz—“I grew up with the number on her arm”—her father a tzadik who escaped to England. Irena herself was in the IDF during the Lebanon War. Today she’s a “German-Jewish poet” who lives in Israel six months every year to support an Arab-Jewish kindergarten. The rest of the year, she’s in Germany to act as the hazzan of her congregation and to send violins to Gaza.
Newspapers have written about her work as an activist and she’s been interviewed on local TV. She frequently talks to schoolchildren about her parents’ fate. Wachendorff is also quite active in discussions on the Facebook page of leading politician Ruprecht Polenz, chairman of the foreign council of the German parliament, who has come under attack for perceived “anti-Israel” feelings. Polenz often points to Wachendorff when he needs support, which she will gladly supply:
“I think I should only take seriously someone who 1) was in the IDF, 2) has lived in Israel for at least two years and 3) is even Jewish. Hello…anybody here???”
Anybody here indeed. Because Irena Wachendorff is none of those things. Via some genuine journalism, writer Jennifer Nathalie Pyka found out the true story .
The Post and Jennifer Pyka, a dogged investigative journalist in Munich, obtained evidence that contradicted Wachendorff’s alleged Jewish identity.But Wachendorff is not alone. It turns out there are plenty of gentile Israel-haters who love to pretend to be Jewish to make their arguments more emotionally compelling.
According to Pyka’s investigative essay, Wachendorff’s father, Raymund, served in the German Army during the Third Reich and her mother, Barbara, denies being incarcerated in Auschwitz.
Wachendorff admitted to the Post on Friday that her father was an officer in the Wehrmacht.
Elder of Ziyon“Today, at the United Nations, the Obama administration is turning its back on Israel. For the very first time, the U.N. Security Council has invited the U.N. high commissioner for human rights to “brief” the Council specifically on the subject of Israel and the commissioner’s list of trumped-up sins. Though the U.S. is a veto-holding power, the extraordinary move has full American approval, despite the fact that the global soapbox will be handed to Navi Pillay, a notorious anti-Israel partisan.
Moreover, the American-backed action exposes President Obama’s profound weakness on the international stage. It turns out that the deal to sponsor an Israel-bashing session at the highest levels was a trade-off for having the high commissioner brief the Council on the subject of Syria.”
"In an exclusive interview with Tazpit News Agency at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel, Sandys explains that Israel is one of the most suitable places in the world for such a sculpture. “Israel is at the forefront of women being treated equally, relative to other areas of the world.”
“There are shining examples of women advancing here, if you look at the army, politics—Prime Minister Golda Meir. The responsibilities that women have here are impressive. I look at Israel as a forward, progressive country which has done much in the advancement of women’s rights in all stations of life,” notes Sandys."
“Is it really going overboard to suggest this “activism” is simply a malicious expression of hatred packaged under the guise of Human Rights concerns rather than born out of a deep, genuine concern for the Palestinians? A convenient platform from which to launch a constant avalanche of de-legitimisation activities aimed at demonising Israel whilst accusing the more objective observers of every conceivable evil?”
“Journalist Yossi Klein Halevi (...)"Last year, I was part of a group of Israelis who met in Jerusalem with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Mr. Kerry had just come from Damascus with excellent news: Bashar al-Assad was ready for peace with Israel. When one of the participants mentioned that demonstrations had begun to challenge Mr. Assad’s legitimacy, Mr. Kerry’s response was: All the more reason to negotiate while he’s still in power. In other words: Israel had the golden opportunity to give up the strategic Golan Heights to a dictator who might be deposed by a popular revolution, which might or might not recognize whatever peace agreement he signed. That kind of wishful thinking has resulted in Western policy toward the Middle East that is strategically incoherent."
“A Ramallah protest got ugly yesterday when PA police started cracking skulls — including reporters. Maan News reports that several reporters were beaten up, had their cameras confiscated or destroyed, and that two journalists were even taken into custody.”
"Song dedicated to Palestinian prisoners honors arch-terrorists, on PA TV"
“Syrian president tells newspaper he regrets his forces blasted Turkish plane out of the sky last month”
“Timbuktu's cultural heritage is at risk of being lost forever at the hands of Islamist fighters”
Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani said some people who are tricked by or are partial to foreigners are trying to change society's religious appearance into one like that of "Western deceivers."But frogs are protected?
Elder of ZiyonTalks on the $70 billion a year global arms trade hit deadlock before starting Monday amid a diplomatic battle over Palestinian representation.
Arab demands that Palestinians be allowed to take part led to a threat of an Israeli walkout and a block on European Union presence at the conference, diplomats said. Even the Vatican has been drawn into the dispute.
“This chaotic start is a tragedy for this event, which is so important,” said a minister from a western nation who went to the U.N. headquarters for the start of the negotiations.
Talks among the 193 United Nations members were meant to have started on Monday morning and gone on until July 27 to come up with a draft arms trade treaty.
However, tense negotiations over the Palestinian representation came to a head in the hours before the start. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called off his opening speech and it was not clear when the talks would begin, according to AFP.
Arab nations have demanded that the Palestinians, who have been seeking to bolster their international presence, get a place at the conference.
The Arab group said the European Union should not be allowed at the talks if the Palestinians do not get a place, diplomats said. “The Egyptians, acting for the Arab group, have held up the conference. They insisted that the Palestinians take part,” said one Arab diplomat.
The Palestinians are observers at the U.N. and the European Union has super-observer status. The Vatican, which is also a U.N. observer, has said it should also take part if the Palestinians get their way, diplomats said.
“Certain states, fearing an arms trade treaty with strong human rights provisions, are exploiting the legitimate Palestinian cause by delaying what supporters of a strong treaty have been working towards for seven years,” said one Western diplomat condemning Egypt’s action.
“This is not about Palestine. It is actually a transparent attempt to use procedural delays in a battle which they know that they cannot win on the arguments alone,” the diplomat added.
Israel, a key arms manufacturer in the Middle East, said it would not take part in the talks if the Palestinians did get conference recognition, Arab and Israeli sources said.
While the Palestinians have sought to bolster their international presence by asking for full U.N. membership, some diplomats indicated the move could be a tactic by Egypt and others to weaken the treaty.
U.N. states have spent seven years preparing for the talks on how to regulate the arms trade.
Ahead of the negotiations at U.N. headquarters, the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany and Sweden’s trade minister called for a comprehensive treaty.
While acknowledging that their countries bear “a special responsibility” as leading exporters, they said a solid treaty was need to counter “a growing threat to humanity” because of the numbers killed in conflict each day.
They said any treaty should be legally binding, but nationally enforced.
Metalwashing?16 Israelis signed the letter? And they are bragging about it?
The trend to attract metal bands to play in Israel is not new. I’m going to take some credit for coining this little-known term. The concept was gleaned from the “pinkwashing” term, which has gone mainstream. Similar to “pinkwashing,” “metalwashing” is a way for Israel to gain acceptance through reaching out to metal fans. The number of heavy metal bands that have taken a liking to Israel and shut their eyes to Israel’s war crimes, human rights abuses, and violation of international law is growing. Apartheid Israel appears to have strong support from some metal bands. The question is, why? (I’ll leave you to ponder that)
The growing BDS movement continues to ask metal bands to cancel, and the Israeli-led co-resistance movement was prompted to write a letter entitled “A letter to all metal bands,” asking them to refrain from playing in the apartheid state. Sixteen Israelis signed the letter. The only metal band so far to cancel has been August Burns Red.
Here’s a partial list of bands whom have screamed, distorted their amps, and wore a lot of black for the stages of Tel Aviv:
Napalm Death, Metallica, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Lamb of God, Linkin Park, and Ozzy Osbourne.
Looking ahead, Guns N’ Roses, Scorpions, Opeth and Dark Tranquility plan to play this year and Lamb of God plans to return.
August Burns Red, a phenomenally popular Christian metalcore band, has just cancelled their June 9 concert in Israel. “They have no plans to reschedule,” says a reliabOKle source that must remain anonymous. They cancelled because they do not want to play in Israel.This comes as welcome news exactly a year to the date after the 2010 Israeli attack on civilians aboard the Freedom Flotilla, in which nine volunteers were killed execution style, and fifty others were seriously injured, one of which remains comatose.Only one problem: The band never said that they canceled because of BDS. And if they canceled because of the Mavi Marmara, then the other Middle Eastern country they canceled is most curious indeed. In the words of the band:
We are very sorry to announce that August Burns Red will be canceling our upcoming shows in Turkey and Tel Aviv due to commitments regarding out upcoming June 21st album release in the U.S.What this means is that despite organized campaigns, BDSers have not managed to convince a single metal band to boycott Israel.
Our apologies go out to all the awesome fans who were planning on coming to these shows and the many that already bought tickets, and to the promoters who worked so hard to make them happen.
We haven't canceled a show since 2005 so this has been a real hard thing for us to accept. We were really looking forward to these shows and plan on making it up to you as soon as possible.
Elder of ZiyonIn 1991, Prime Minister Shamir approved Operation Solomon which brought over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. On the day of his funeral, Ethiopian community leaders were in the last group to leave the Knesset grounds.Read the whole thing.
Seth Lipsky at the New York Sun concludes:
One of our favorite facts is that history doesn’t disclose her alternatives. The world will never know what would have happened had America and the other parties been held to the standards Shamir insisted on at Madrid. No doubt there are many who will scorn the very thought. But here we are a generation after Oslo, and the Iranians are building an a-bomb, the Arafat who was embraced at Oslo is gone without achievement, the Eyptians have just elected a president who will make it a priority to seek the release of the sheik who masterminded the first bombing of the World Trade Center, the Syrians are engulfed in a civil war, the Lebanese are victims of Iranian-based terror and tyranny, and the Europeans are more hostile to Israel than ever. So the world will miss this practical idealist who knew where he stood and wouldn’t budge.Daniel Gordis offers similar thoughts at Tablet (h/t Yair Rosenberg):
For all the misgivings many now have about Shamir’s intransigence or his specific policies, part of his legacy is that Jews ought not to pretend not to know what, deep down, they know. Yitzhak Shamir knew what he had seen, both in Europe and then in the Arab world, and he knew what it meant. He was no less ambivalent about the Arabs than he was about the Poles and refused to vote for Begin’s peace treaty with Egypt. Presumably in deference to Begin, he abstained, but he made it clear that he thought Israel was paying far too high a price. Today, three and a half decades later, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Cairo and with Israel now missing the Sinai as a buffer, who was wiser? Was it the Nobel Prize-winning Begin who’d turned peacemaker, or Shamir, who had not? Will the sword devour forever? Yes, Shamir sadly believed, it will. Is it possible that he was right?Emanuele Ottolenghi gives a unique perspective on Shamir:
Shamir did. He withdrew, like his predecessor Menachem Begin, and did not dispense wisdom or settle scores from the column of a magazine or the chairmanship of a foundation for the years he was out of office. And heaven knows he might still have had much to say. But he understood that a defeated statesman must acknowledge his loss and graciously withdraw from sight. His silence, for 20 years, is a testimony to the respect he had for the democratic process and his profoundly humbling recognition that his time as leader had passed.
Elder of Ziyon
Elder of Ziyon
Elder of ZiyonThe General Authority of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem confirmed that the Wailing Wall is part and parcel of the Wall of Al Aqsa Mosque... It has nothing to do with the Jews, and it is the yard of the Islamic Buraq, with reference to the League of Nations in 1930, which acknowledged that the Wailing Wall is Islamic and the property of the Muslims.The anti-Israel Kairos USA recently issued a document that essentially ignores Judaism as a religion and claims that Jews have no rights to Israel. It was taken apart by Adam Gregorman and by Dexter Van Zile.
...It is known a priori that the yard of any house is a part of it. And that the repeated incursions of occupation will not give them any right to the Al Aqsa.
The Commission stressed that the lifting of the Israeli flag in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa is a blatant attack and affects the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and provokes the feelings of Muslims.
...The Commission concluded its statement by emphasizing that "Al Aqsa is for Muslims alone, whose claim is superior to any decisions by the courts, we cannot negotiate, nor abandon it, nor to give up a single grain dust from it."
Elder of ZiyonThree devices exploded in Zrarieh south Lebanon Monday that the Army said were spying apparatuses detonated wirelessly by Israel. One of the devices appeared to be a solar powered battery, and the other two communications devices, security sources said.Hezbollah's Al Manar has photos, although it is hard to figure out what exactly they are. Presumably this is one of the devices before the explosion...
The explosions occurred in the village of Zrarieh, three kilometers north of the Litani River, and outside the operations area of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon.
UNIFIL officials did not make any comment on the matter, since it was outside their jurisdiction.
Hezbollah issued a statement claiming the devices were wiretapping instruments that had tapped into the party’s communications network.
“As part of its continuing counter-espionage efforts against Israel, the Islamic Resistance managed to locate an Israeli eavesdropping device on the resistance’s wired communication network in Zrarieh. As a result, the enemy detonated the device from a distance,” the statement said.
The Lebanese Army is conducting an investigation into the explosions, according to a statement issued by the Army command.
Military intelligence personnel were at the scene of the blasts, which it said took place at 5:15 p.m.
Elder of ZiyonThe World Air Stewardess Association has announced the “2012 World’s 10 Most Beautiful Air Hostess Airline Company” list, with Israeli airline, El Al Airlines, grabbing first prize.This sounds a little fishy - who still uses the word "stewardesses?" - but it is a chance for some gratuitous photos, which I haven't done for a while.
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Fasten your seatbelts… unfasten your seatbelts… magazine? care for a pillow? check your coat? are you comfortable enough? El Al means ‘to the skies,’ sir… just push the button… just pull the knob… yes, sir… no, sir… coffee, tea, or milk? piece of gum? piece of fruit? yes, ma’am… yes, sir… NO, SIR! coffee, tea, or milk? I’ll do that… I’m not allowed… I’m 28, sir… we’re not allowed. Sir, the wings always do that… no, ma’am… yes, ma’am… feel better? just push the button… just pull the knob… another pillow? isn’t that nice? here’s your dinner… no, sir… PLEASE, SIR! more coffee? fasten your seatbelts…. Shalom… Shalom… Shalom. I feel like I’ve walked all the way from Tel Aviv. I did!
Elder of ZiyonThe Palestinian Circus School sent a letter to the General Management of Cirque du Soleil calling on it not perform in Israel, according to statement issued Monday. Cirque du Soleil is scheduled to perform in August.If they want a two-state solution, then why do they object to Israel treating them like a separate state by restricting how they can perform in Israel?
“We do not take lightly calling for Cirque du Soleil, or any circus for that matter, to not perform in Israel, especially since we ourselves are totally committed to the art of circus and are committed to bringing the circus everywhere we can,” said the letter.
“However, for circus to be faithful to its art form, we are also unrelentingly committed to human rights. Thus, we write to request that Cirque du Soleil reconsider its planned performance in Israel, a military occupying power and violator of international law and human rights, and join other artists from around the world who have called on you to support human rights and the right of all people to be free from military occupation,” said the letter.
“Your visit to Israel will be fully facilitated by the Israeli authorities, at the time when our movement as students and artists of the Palestinian Circus School is permanently crippled by military law that denies us entry to Jerusalem, Jaffa, Akka, Haifa or Nazareth, not to mention the completely closed Gaza Strip,” added the letter.