TFC-TIU Radio 22-Feb-10 It's the Jews Stupid

[Ognir]

http://theinfounderground.com/archives/ ... 2-2010.mp3

[joeymaclover]

Another Great Show.
Ognir reports live from IRS Headquarters and is surprised by getting long lost tax refund.
Interviews Abe Foxman and Ron Paul
DBS attempts to learn how to use noise maker for Purim but keeps hitting his head, stupid goyim.
A must hear show!
     

[imsamhi]

so much bullshit in one show.
were is the sephardi strength this daryl is talking about?  we are eating shit day and night in israhell from before its establishment  to this moment 24/7.
now i'm sure dbs and this ognir are zio shills. beware.
all they are doing in this regard is hiding the truth from ppl, selling lies, and implementing the ashkenazi-zionist plan to unite the mizrahis together with the ashkenazis and enforce the zio brainwashing of mizrahis that "the whole world is against them" and that nothing is going to help them because the goyim want to kill all of them only because they are jews.
dbs and ognir never interviewed any mizrahi and are refusing to do so, but they do interview ashkenazis.
ppl beware.
may God help you.
how technically do i eliminate my account from this forum?

[maz]

**Posting with popcorn in hand**  

[mgt23]

me too......chomp chomp

[Ognir]

now i'm sure dbs and this ognir are zio shills. beware.

 :lol:  Damn and you wake up the next morning :lol:

Say what?

[imsamhi]

Ognir... 5 years of you guys in the research, and me with you and dbs is sufficient to form an opinion.
Here's a real hard hitting, eye opening, interview you could have done for one,
Ms. Shira Ohayon:
mailto:shiraoh2000@gmail.com">shiraoh2000@gmail.com
But I guess you enjoy better running after ashkenazi kazarian leaking butts and be humiliated in the process.
Please make me take my words back, and chew them up real good.
I have nothing more to say, really.
The ball is in your hands.

[Ognir]

Mind your manners and don't try put words in my mouth

I have no idea who Ms. Shira Ohayon is, maybe supply me more details and I'll look into this person, if she is worth doing a show with IMHO, I'll do it or maybe if she is as good as you say,  I'll get Daryl to do the interview

[mgt23]

imsamhi dont be so rude. if you make a claim to ignorance at least ref correctly an example.......


Bat Shalom to the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation

On the privatization of Education and the "Dovrat report", Ms. Shira Ohayon reports from The Keshet Ha-Demokratit HaMizrahit (a Mizrahi NGO): ...

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:0p ... =firefox-a

http://coalitionofwomen.org/home/englis ... ec2005.doc

This is the html version of the file http://coalitionofwomen.org/home/englis ... ec2005.doc.
Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.

The CWP – RLF Joint Project

Educating for Democracy and Peace
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Progress Report for

Third and fourth quarters of the year 2005  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Background

The Disengagement from Gaza

In summer 2005 the Israeli army started evacuating the remaining settlers from their twenty-one settlements in the Gaza Strip as part of the "disengagement" plan. Thousands of settlers defied army orders to leave their homes voluntarily or face forcible eviction, and violent clashes broke out between soldiers and settlers. Unfortunately, some settlers sought to disrupt Israel's withdrawal from Gaza by attacking Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and even in Israel, such as the incident in which a settler opened fire on a crowd near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh, killing three Palestinians and wounding more than two others. Another incident took place in the Palestinian town Shafa'amer in northern Israel, where an anti-disengagement soldier opened fired on a bus and killed four Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Despite all the above, the Israeli settlements, which together with their military infrastructure consumed over 30% of Palestinian prime land in the densely-populated Gaza Strip, were evacuated. Celebrations overtook the whole of the Gaza Strip. However, it is important to remember that this moment of "victory", is merely a small achievement when one considers the remaining occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. There are numerous settlements and many smaller outposts on those territories, with other equally illegal ones being built even today on Palestinian land. In addition, Israel is accelerating and solidifying its hold over a wide area in and around the city of Jerusalem, creating a broader city and destroying the practical tools that could lead to a viable two-state solution. In this context, the Heads of the EU Mission in Ramallah and Jerusalem noted in their Report issued in November 2005 that the latest political developments in Israel "are reducing the possibility of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem, and demonstrate a clear Israeli intention to turn the annexation of East Jerusalem into a concrete fact."

Yasser Arafat's Death

On November 11, 2005 the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, the leader who passionately sought a homeland for his people, died before achieving his goal of an independent Palestinian state. In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, civilians mourned; but in Israel, many politicians and ordinary people bade good riddance to the man who they perceived as an obstacle to the peace process. Despite the disagreements about the Arafat's nature - peace obstacle versus peacemaker, hero versus criminal – the world agreed that his death was a historic turning point for the Middle East.

Within the aforementioned reality the project partners of the CWP – RLF joint Project held the following activities:

Bat Shalom: The "Peace Tent" Working together to Overcome Racism (§ 4.1.1)

Every year during Sukkot, Bat Shalom sets up a Peace Tent (Sukkah) at the Megiddo Junction in Northern Israel. On 20-21 October 2005, Bat Shalom held a two-day-conference entitled "The Occupation That Does not End" in the Sukkah.

Bat Shalom's staff, the board and the political forum met several times in the fall to build the concept of the Peace Tent, to discuss and analyze the current political situation and its consequences, and to decide the conference's agenda. Bat Shalom's political committee is heterogeneous. Palestinian and Jewish women worked intensively throughout the preparatory meeting - in joint meetings and working groups – to shape a project that would shatter stereotypes and foster tolerance, by working jointly with each other. The Peace Tent Project serves a rural area in the periphery of Israel: the Jezreel and Beit Shean Valleys, the Menashe Hills, and the Megiddo and Nazareth districts.  Many villages, kibbutzim, and small towns are located here, as well as Arab towns and villages.    

(I) On the First Day, 20 October 2005, the program began with a protest vigil at the junction, visible to all traveling during the Sukkot holidays.  We then celebrated with our Muslim friends by eating together the break fast of Ramadan.

On the same day Bat Shalom held the first panel which was titled "The Occupation That Didn't End – Jerusalem as an Example". Ms. Zohara Chalida, from the Jerusalem Center for Women (which is a partner of Bat Shalom in the Jerusalem Link) participated in this panel.  She asserted:

          "The construction of the separation wall cuts off and isolates Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. The objective is to confiscate Palestinian lands as much as possible, and in this way to influence the 'demographic balance' of Jerusalem.  The construction of the separation wall negatively affects the economics of East Jerusalem as well as the social and educational aspects, since all activities of East Jerusalem are closely related with the West Bank, and this disconnection means the destruction of the city.  The Palestinians have not given up on Jerusalem as their capital nor on their territorial continuity between East Jerusalem, its neighborhoods, and the West Bank."

Meron Benvenisti, historian, Haaretz journalist, and former advisor to the Arab sector in Jerusalem for Mayor Teddy Kolek stated:  

          "The most salient fact that the occupation didn't end is that we are holding this kind of discussion on 'Jerusalem'.  This discourse is fictional and proves that the occupation is successfully imposed on us.  I contend that there is no such concept as 'Jerusalem'.  This is a territory in which everyone defines its borders in a different way.  The occupation forces us to talk about this territory; this is the victory of the occupation: one Jerusalem does not exist, but rather two cities; two societies. We could have this discussion in the context of all Palestinian/Jewish relationships, and then I could talk about the urban space from Ramallah to Mebo'ot Hebron and to Beit Shemesh, where equal urban relationships should take place among the communities living there, but no one is able to manage Jerusalem.  Indeed, no one is able to manage the city, and the place is turning into a third world region, where Palestinian citizens receive less, and all the professionals are leaving."

(II) On the second day, 21 October 2005, the program began with a panel entitled "Citizenship in the Shadow of Privatization" This panel was opened by Ms. Abir Bakir, Human Rights Lawyer at Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab minority rights in Israel. In her presentation Bakir referred to the fundamentals of citizenship:

          "The essence of citizenship is the entitlement of every person to have rights.  In the case of Israel, there is an overlap between citizenship and nationality, which is problematic.  The citizenship of an Israeli Jew is different than the citizenship of an Israeli Arab.  When we deal with the rights of groups in a state, for example women, you can't refer similarly to Jewish women and Arab women, since they have different needs and positions.  Therefore, you have to consider each group in the context of its specific conditions and needs.  This is true in the fields of education, transportation, working outside the home, etc. The significance of privatization in its most basic way is that the state gives up its commitment toward the citizens and instead gives its power to market forces to increase their activities.  As for the Arabs, privatization has existed for a long time, since the state had already given up on its responsibilities toward the Arab sector."

Mr. Ephraim Davidi, member of the Workers Union (Histadrut), focused on the subject, Implications of Globalization and Privatization.  He remarked:  

          "For the last twenty years, Eastern and Western governments have privatized the properties of their states.  In Israel, we are every day informed that this factory or that service that was once the property of the state is now becoming privatized.  What before ten years seemed like privatization of the economic sector because 'the country doesn't know how to manage business' has gradually become a privatization of public services as well.  Examples include the employment agency that became the Wisconsin Program, education, the Dovrat program, water and sewage, and even the national insurance.

          ...The government functions not only as the representative of a small group of the wealthy but as the representative of the international wealthy who search for the cheapest investments in the peripheral countries.  In order to overcome the privatization of Israel, there is a great need to establish a broad coalition of all citizens, workers, the unemployed, victims of privatization, Jews and Arabs, so that this coalition can confront and respond to the ambitions of the millionaires and the government.  This coalition has to manage the struggles on different fronts against privatization, in almost all sectors of life.  At the same time, this coalition, which will hopefully soon be established, needs to provide alternatives to the exploitative private ownership.  These alternatives should to be based on public ownership of the means of production and governmental services while ensuring joint supervision of workers, consumers, and elected officials."

The second panel: "Everyday Privatization" began with the presentation of Ms. Samia Nasser Hatib, active in Ma'an, a Palestinian development and training institution.  She discussed the Wisconsin Program, a private welfare-to-work program:

          "The 'Wisconsin Program' strikes all the sectors, but it harms Arab society more, and women even more because they are the weakest group. In the 1990s, 20% of Arab women went out to work, whereas today, only 17% do.  In the past, women were primarily employed in agriculture or textile in businesses located in their own villages.  In the last few years, these businesses have been closed and transferred to countries which pay workers a much lower salary (China, the far East), and the agricultural business have brought workers from those countries.  As unemployment increases, employers exploit this to pay workers less.  Arab women, for example, earn between 1,000-1,500 shekels. 60% of Arab families are poor because there is only one breadwinner.  The Wisconsin Program forces women to come to Nazareth or to Hadera, which becomes a barrier for women for various social and economic reasons.

          The aim of the Wisconsin Program to help people get employed is a bias since there are no available jobs.  In order to get a salary of 1,000-2,000 shekels, women have to go where they are told.  Women with children end up paying at least 1,000 shekels for childcare when they go out to work.  

          For the situation to change, the country should take responsibility, but instead, the country shirks this responsibility.  For people in their 40s and 50s with health problems, the Wisconsin Program says, 'you had enough time at the expense of the state – but not any more'!!  

          "In these days, the marketplace is controlled by contractors, and they decide who works and who doesn't.  If they don't succeed in taking factories out of Israel to cheaper countries, then they bring cheaper workers from cheaper countries and employ them in slavery conditions!"

On the privatization of Education and the "Dovrat report", Ms. Shira Ohayon reports from The Keshet Ha-Demokratit HaMizrahit (a Mizrahi NGO):  

          "The reforms in the education system are implemented only in the periphery.  The conversation surrounding the 'Dovrat report' and the 'Wisconsin Project' has elements of USA, high-tech, militarism, and men.  Who leads the reforms are military men and high-tech experts, but the teachers who have to implement the reforms are not included in the reform process.  When talking about the process of privatizing the educational system, the report ignores the Arab sector, therefore preventing them from pedagogical freedom.  

          Much of the declarations of the program have not been implemented.  For example, children whose parents don't have enough money to pay for their food at school sit and watch their friends eating.  Additionally, the method of individual management of each school has led to the principal having unlimited control, forcing him/her to run the school as a business and fundraise by him/herself.  In matters of dismissal or firing, teachers in the Arab sector have the highest probability of being negatively affected."

Finally, Ms. Tamar Keinen, from Friends of the Globe, discussed the issue of Privatization of Water.  She explained:

          "Management of water in Israel was established in the 1950s and 60s from a sociological vision, that essentially, every citizen of the country has the right to use water in their houses and businesses.  97% of the people of Israel were connected to the network of water and got to receive water that was of good quality and good price.  The state anchored this in legislation.  

          Since the 1980s, as part of the privatization plan, some changes occurred in the management of water, namely the state has to buy water from a private producer.  In this way, the control goes to international corporations.  The city councils are forced to privatize the management of the sewage and the water and to establish private companies, thus giving the control of water to private hands."

At the conclusion of the two days, we held another protest vigil where we distributed fake shekel notes detailing the economic and social costs of the security wall at the expense of economic and social services for the citizens of Israel.  

Noga : Infusing the Discourse with a Progressive Voice (§ 4.1.2)

In the third and fourth quarters of 2005, Noga held meetings and seminars that addressed a variety of subjects raised in issue n.43 of Noga.  The 84-page-issue, was devoted to the topic "women and sexuality", and touched many subjects which hardly were voiced before.  The above mentioned meetings enabled women to air existing problems and learn about the multiple ways through which women can express themselves.

Some of the meetings were devoted to discussions of expressions of sexuality and the different media devoted to it. The idea of raising issues about sexuality as a way to introduce feminist notions – and present feminist perspectives on sexuality – was a radical precedent in Israeli society.

A significant amount of time was devoted also to joint activities with other organizations members of the Coalition of Women for Peace in addition to the usual everyday activities, mainly supporting Israelis who refused to serve in the army, either for reasons of conscience or political reasons.  

Noga issue n.43 included the following articles:

Page 1:  Cover: "Call Me, You Maniac" by Hilla Lulu Lin

            Page 2:  Art by Fareed Abu Shakra. Credits and Acknowledgment.  
            Congratulations to Israeli basketball coach Orna Ostfeld for winning the prize for "the most influential woman in women's sports in Europe".

Page 3:  A poem by Miri Ben Simchon.

            Page 4 – 7:  Sex: Introduction to the articles in this issue. By Ktzia Alon and Dalya Markovich. Table of contents.

Page 8-10:  "I am Doing Politics" by Lyn Chalozin Dovrat (about Tali Fahima)

Page 11-12: Vicky Knafo: At last I got over my naiveté, by Neta Amar.

Page 12-13:  Suha (Arafat), by Moshe Kutner.

            Page 14-17: Foreign Report (feminist news from outside Israel), translated and edited by Hedva Isachar.

            Page 18: "International Women's Day", by Iris Mizrahi and "The 2005 National Budget from a Gendered Point of View", by Barbara Swirski.

Page 19: "(Female) Soldiers Breaking the Silence", An anonymous testimony.

            Page 20-25: "I Am Fighting My Last Round with a Cute Dyke: Calling For a New  
            Sexual Agenda", by Liad Kanterovich.

Page 26-29: "Deconstructing the Theories", by Michal Greenberg.

Page 30:  Art by Maayan Amir and Ruti Sela

            Page 31:  Archi-sex, a review of a new magazine on architecture called Archi-sex, by Dalya Markovich.

            Page 32-33:  "The Neighbor's Grass Is Also Stuck Within the (Conventional) Discourse: Why Fantasies about Male Homosexual Sex Will Not Bring About Female Freedom", by Yishai Mishori.

Page 34-35:  "Bracha Is Surfing", by Merav Halel (On female porno on the internet)

Page 36-39:  "Blogs from the Vagina", by Liron Azulay (On women's blogs on  
  sexual experiences)

            Page 40-42:  "Toys", by Beverly Damlin and art by Vera Korman (On sexual aides for women)

Page 42-43:  "Annie's (Sprinkle) Guide to Sex in the 90's or: How to cure your sex  
  life", Translated by Galia Yahav.

Page 44-46:  A few thoughts about "sex, feminism and men", by Ran Levy.

Page 46-48:  Hebrew is sex-maniac, by Ktzia Alon. Review of new pornographic  
  writing by female Israeli writers.

Page 49:  "A Fragment from a Novel" by Michal Zamir.

            Page 50-52:  "On Very Cheap Hebrew Literature", by Yonit Naaman (A book review) and art by Eden Ofrat.

Page 53:  Art. Annie Leibovitz.

            Page 54-56:  "Crime and Punishment", by Abigail Sperber (A feminist reading of a story from the Talmud) and Art by Rada Amar.

Page 57:  "On Manal Murcus' Works of Art", by Rola Lucia and art by Murcus.

            Page 58-59:  "Daughter of Israel, An Art Magazine", by Shiri Kalif Karlin, works of  
            art selected from the second issue of the magazine, December 1997

Page 60-61:  Forno: Publisher and editor: Lilach Madar, by Dalya Markovich. On  
  an art magazine devoted to sex and art by Lilach Madar.

Page 62-64:  "Electro-sex", by Michel Le Hysterique (on rock music and women,  
  especially in electronic music).

Page 64-66:  "Living in Movies", by Hadar Gonar (A film review)

Page 66-67:  "The First Zionist Bunny", by Dalya Markovich and Liora Lopian (on  
  the new Playboy channel in Israel)

Page 68-69:  Art, by Shula Keshet.

            Page 69-73:  "Sex as Reflected in the Israeli Criminal Law", by Yuval Livnat and art by N. Sunhere Sapne.

Page 73:  Notice on Andrea Dworkin's death and a quote from her book  
  Intercourse.

            Page 74-75:  "In Foreign Lands, Trafficking Women in Israel",  by Esther Eilam (a book review)

Page 76-77:  "What Consciousness Can Reverse", by Yonit Naaman (a book  
  review) and art by Shula Keshet.

Page 78 – 79:  Hidden light, by Shulamit Lir (film review)

Page 80:  Book, by Sharon Ben Ezer (A book review)

Page 81:  Movie, by Ariel Portuguese (A film review)

            Page 82: "You Bring Out the Mexican In Me", a poem by Sandra Cisneros,  
            translated by Ktzia Alon.

Page 83:  Art by Arik Miranda

Page 84:  Back cover - Sex

The radical nature of this issue is clearly obvious – drawing together perspectives from pornography, the Talmud, architecture, literature, and art to illuminate the broad agenda of life from a feminist perspective.  We are very proud of this issue.
 
 
 
 

TANDI: Empowering Young Women (§ 4.1.3)

Fourth Quarter*

TANDI held the following activities:

(1) The women's groups in Acre, Nazareth, Tamra, Teeran, Shafamere and Jaffa meet once a month and discuss different current issues.

(2) Within TANDI's empowerment workshops a course for Violence and Health Care was conducted for mothers and TANDI's child-minders in Reineh village. Ziad Awaiseh lectured the participants on October 5, 7, 12, 14, 19, 21, 26 and 28. The participants perceived the course as very useful because it taught them how to take care of their children. On December 9, TANDI held a one-day-workshop for parents in Reineh. The meeting focused on the following issues:  

a. Relation between mother, father and child.

b. Physical and verbal violence and its influence on children.

c. Violence between children and the ways to deal with this phenomenon.

It is worth noting that a workshop in the same format was held on December 12 for another women's group at its request.

(3) The girls and women who graduated TANDI's courses in 2004 and 2005 took responsibilities for leading varied meetings and activities, such as:

    * On October 20, they organized and conducted a big meeting in which they screened a documentary film about the Separation Wall in the Occupied Territories, and discussed the topic with the women participants. Furthermore, TANDI's facilitators introduced to the participants Bat Shalom's Peace Tent Project. The latter showed an interest in participating in the peace tent; therefore TANDI organized a group of women who attended the tent the following day.
    * Holding workshops for mothers and children of TANDI's kindergartens on October 3, November 2 (during Ramadan), October 3 and December 23. Many women and children attended these workshops.
    * The Kafr-kana's and Reineh's graduates organized a special meeting on November 4 for mothers and their children in order to help the former raise their children's awareness about issues connected to peace and justice. At the outset storytellers shared with the participants and their children stories about peace and justice, and then the children with the help of their mothers were asked to draw pictures which reflect what they learned from the stories they heard.

 

      (4) On November 25, TANDI held a meeting for the graduates of the courses of Kafer-kana, Reineh and Nazareth which focused on a key topic: Unemployment and the new State Budget Plan and its impact on women. Mr. Jehad Aquell, representative of the Trade Union, gave the lecture while focusing on the different mechanisms through which women can advocate for their rights especially at their workplaces.

      (5) In Haifa, a new course started for mothers whose children are in TANDI's kindergarten.  There workshops were held within this course: October 5, November 25 and December 7. The lecturers were: Ms.Samira Khoury, Ms. Renie  Machool  and  Ms. Manal  Shalaby.  

   (6) A general meeting for women was held in Haifa on August 25,. The issues          
      discussed:

          o The importance of work for women and the importance of sending their children to kindergartens;
          o Nutrition and the children's right to a good life;
          o Good relations between mother and father, and how to keep good relations for the children sake.

   

(7) A new 56-hour-course was held in Shafa'amer. The facilitator of the course was Fathiah Zagheer who trained the participants who are teachers from northern Israel.

( TANDI began a new course in Om-Elfahem. Two meetings were held one in November and the second in December.  However, for unexpected reasons relevant to the participants TANDI was urged to suspend the meetings until June 2006.

Conclusion and Targets for the Future:

TANDI successfully trained and empowered different groups of girls and women from nine regions. As evidence of its success the graduates are able to organize and train other women within TANDI's project which aims at empowering and training women about their rights, democracy, and peace. In connection with children's rights, TANDI is planning to conduct another project which aims at establishing a Consultancy Center in Nazareth and all the groups TANDI trained will participate and contribute in establishing such a center.  

 

Ahoti: Public Education Outreach (§4.1.4)

Third Quarter

A. The Mitzpe Ramon Woman Group

In the third quarter of 2005 the Mitzpe Ramon women group dealt with different aspects of Israeli social and political life. The group inspected marginalizing mechanisms that weaken communities through ethnic, national or class discrimination. It helped clarify that those mechanisms are operated from the higher level of political officials to the very personal level of operating upon rooted beliefs and stereotypes.

The first meeting on July 4 was facilitated by Yfat and dealt with the difficulties facing the Bedouin communities in Israel. In Israel 76,000 Bedouins live in non-recognized villages with no infrastructure nor basic services such as water access, electricity, health clinics and access roads. Yfat introduced to the group the issue of non-recognized villages and reflect on the fact that the state fights the inhabitants of these villages. The group watched a documentary film on the subject. The main character in the film was a father of four children who dedicates his life to the battles of his village. The film portrays the father's struggle for access roads to the village in order to enable a school bus to come and pick up the children's village and how he was urged to steal water from a town next to his village where the state withholds water access and similar basic services. Surprisingly the father's character evoked hostility rather than empathy with the group. The women participants perceived the father as a deceiver and manipulator. In their view, the father's fluency in Hebrew and his children's neat clothes appeared contradictory to the empty poor house he claims to be his. Furthermore, the participants refused to accept his allegation that the lands in his village belong to the villagers and not to the state (as the sate claims). The meeting exposed the deep mistrust, unfamiliarity and hostility between the two communities, namely the Mizrahim in Mitzpe Ramon and the Bedouin community; two groups that live near each other and yet share very rare encounters, mostly due to state policies.  

Yfat facilitated the second workshop in July 18, which dealt with a different topic –minimum wage. Although Israel prides itself on the law that mandates a minimum wage, de facto the law is not enforced and employers use different tactics to avoid it through employing immigrants in poor conditions, and exploiting the weakness of organized labor in Israel and the state's lack of interest in enforcing the law. The participants discussed the different advantages of raising the minimum wage for the employees and society in general. The participants shared their own experience which was very enlightening: one of the women has been employed for over 20 years as a school secretary and has yet never been paid more than minimum wage. The implications of such small income on pension were discussed as well.

The third workshop on August 1 dealt with the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip. In the first part of the meeting the participants read an article by Dr. Dahan-Kalev, which refers to the four main issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: (1) Refugees; (2) Jerusalem; (3) Secured Borders; and (4) Settlements. After presenting these issues, the group discussed the "Disengagement Plan". All participants were pro-disengagement, and used the rest of the meeting to justify their positions.

The fourth workshop on August 15 hosted Ms. Fatme Kasem – an (Israeli) Palestinian feminist activist and academic. Kasem asked the participants to share with her their thoughts and feelings when they knew that the lecturer will be a woman called "Fatme". The women's answers unveiled the mechanism of the social construction of an Arab woman: the name invoked anger, curiosity and a whole range of stereotypes. Then the women where asked to compare between the image they had of the lecturer before they met with her and the image they actually encountered. She shared with the group her own personal story as a woman who defied a set marriage, married her man of choice, has 5 children and lives in a Jewish neighborhood in Beer-Sheva. Fatme shared the day-to-day difficulties she and her family face, especially during the turbulent days of disengagement when most of her neighbors are pro-disengagement. Finally she shared with the participants the horrors of the 1948 war that uprooted her family.

This meeting was very important for the group.  Although Kasem criticized the state's discriminatory policies against the Bedouins in the same manner as the father in the documentary film (See meeting on 4.7.06), the participants got a different and better impression, and made a small step foreword in recognizing the iniquity that this community suffers from.

Ahoti conducted the fifth workshop on August 29, to discuss the complicated interrelation between peace and social justice. The group watched the film "Family Pizza", directed by Ronen Amar, a young Mizrahi director from Netivot – a small township in the south. The film is about the director's family, and the efforts his family makes to help his brother open a local pizzeria. The participants were asked to relate this film to the peace issues. The group conceptualized inner economic problems as bearing great importance to peace between people. They felt that the film portrays an authentic image of the battles of Mizrahim to survive in the periphery, especially in times of prolonged and deliberate depression which they suffer from as well. They concluded that the problem of unemployment should be as much on the peace agenda as the refugee and Jerusalem problems.  

The sixth meeting was held on September 12 in which Ahoti hosted Ms. Meirav Horev – an orthodox Mizrahi feminist, who was evacuated in August from her house in Gush-Katif as part of disengagement. She presented a conceptual breakdown of the terms "center" and "periphery":  Although Gush Katif by standard definitions should be considered periphery because it is in the occupied territories, southern, far from Tel-Aviv, semi-religious and not politically consensual, the quality of life and privileges in this settlement – as Horev revealed – is as good as in the center: high standard school, a well equipped and cultivated community center, well-kept public spaces and free public activities, etc. Horev said that when the state forced her to move, she felt like she had been pushed to the periphery – she and her community no longer enjoy the privileges they were entitled to in the settlement. She suggested that the state's large investments in Gush Katif should become a model copied in all of Israel because it manifests a true welfare state that all Israelis should be allowed to enjoy. From her presentation the participant concluded that Israeli investment in the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories allowed Mizrahi settlers to enjoy a quality of life far higher than their counterparts within the green line.  

The seventh meeting on September 19 was held in Beer-Sheva where the women participants watched an excellent documentary called Shvita – strike. The movie follows the battle of blue collar workers in a plant in Dimona, not far from Mitzpe Ramon. The workers fought for their freedom of association in a union. Some of the women in the group had themselves led a similar struggle in the textile factory in Mitzpe Ramon and could share their experiences with the audience, adding a gender perspective to the discussion about workers rights and labor unions. It should be noted that the Israeli government has worked for over a decade to break most kinds of labor unions and to implement a discriminatory policy that benefited the upper classes, leaving middle and lower classes with no protection from powerful conglomerates and corporations.  

Goals and Evaluation

During this period, the Mitzpe Ramon group made some important steps forward in the project of new conceptualization of "peace" through Mizrahi women's experiences. Periphery in Israel began to emerge as a deserted nomad's land where powerful barons can have their way, and profit at the expense of others. While some communities, like the Bedouin, experienced governmental cruelty based on their nationality, others, like the Mizrahim, faced governmental disregard to local expressions of the Thatcherite agenda. These two communities, oppressed seemingly on different grounds, are left to fight each other for the few resources left in the south, including the resource of empathy, which has become so rare. Future activities will continue to lift the veil on this forced competition between struggling communities, and see empathy and the demand for recognition of wrongs as basic to building solidarity.
 

B. Ahoti's Panel

In parallel to the aforementioned workshops, Ahoti held three meetings within its "Ahoti's Panel" which focused on different "peripheral" issues:

The first meeting: "Black is Beautiful" – July 12, 2005

Mrs. Aliza Frenkel gave a fascinating lecture on her thesis, which deals with mothers' attitudes to the skin color of their daughters. 21 women attended the meeting and discussed ethnicity, color and beauty as related to concepts in public discourse and as identities that signify and locate Mizrahi women in relative inferiority in society. The participants shared intimate feelings and thoughts about themselves as barriers of social categories. They read writings of Nawal Al Sa'adawi (Egyptian feminist) who described the oppression related to skin color, learning that there are many common issues between Mizrahi and Arab women.

The Second Meeting: Women in the Middle East - August 23, 2005

This meeting hosted Ms. Shira Ohayon, a Mizrahi feminist and a history researcher, who speaks and writes in Hebrew and Arabic about women in Saudi Arabia. In her lecture she broke out of old dichotomies of conservatism/modernism, and offered a new look at the Middle East, one that does not judge it as backward and primitive, but rather understands it within its economic, political and social contexts. 21 participants attended this meeting including RLF's representative – Ms. Silke Veth.
 
 

The Third Meeting: Half Jewish Half Palestinian - September 22, 2005

The lecturer was Ms. Nina Mizrachi who is a daughter to a Palestinian father and a Jewish Mizrahi mother. Through describing her identity conflicts, the participants touched on their own identity conflicts, and an interesting perspective was given to the disengagement from identity and community. Experiences of rootless-ness and lack of belonging were shared and discussed among the 20 women, Palestinians and Jews, who participated in what turned out to be a fascinating and moving evening.  

Fourth Quarter  

During the last quarter of 2005, Ahoti aimed at the following goals:

(1) To continue the activity with Ahoti's women in Mitzpe Ramon and the Tel-Aviv area, and raise awareness about their basic rights.

(2) To continue to involve Palestinian women in our activities.

(3) To focus on the upcoming elections that will take place in March 2006.  

   1. Mitzpe-Ramon Group

The first meeting on October 10 discussed the question: How terror begins?  The group watched a film, entitled, The Children of Orna.  The film represents the story of a Jewish female activist who established a theatre group for children in the Jenin Refugee Camp. The film follows a few children for more than a decade.  It documents how the situation in the Occupied territories can force a child, who was dreaming to become an actor, to become a suicide bomber. After watching the film, the discussion addressed the real issues of the film and the reasons that caused and bred terrorism.  In conclusion, the group realized that not only Jews are affected by terrorism, but also Palestinian children are greatly affected by the political situation.    

The second meeting on November 7 focused on the issue of children's rights in Israel.  Every participant expressed her own interpretation of the word children.  They also read and analyzed the song Children Is Happiness wrote by Yehoshua Sobol. Furthermore, they read and analyzed two articles by Tamar Gozansky and Anna Wagner, who criticized a Supreme Court judge for ruling that the children of Beitar-Elit will not receive a free lunch from the state, as long as their parents send them to learn in an Ultra-Orthodox school.  

The third meeting on November 21 hosted Ms. Claris Harbon, a lawyer from Tel Aviv University, who gives legal advice to disadvantaged women who are low-income and have been marginalized by the state. Harbon introduced to the participants her legal feminist Mizrachi perspective, that the relationship between a lawyer and client is not the relationship of a rescuer and victim, but more of collaborators. The client has to work alongside the lawyer with disregard to the client's social economic situation. Harbon's approach turns her clients from being weak and defensive to being strong and assertive.

The fourth meeting held on December 5 brought to a close international day of fighting violence against women.  The lecturer was Ms. Nina Mizrachi, who volunteered for fifteen years for the help-hotline of abused women.  During the workshop, participants discussed the terms love and violence and if there is a connection between these two terms. They also tried to define the characteristics of a violent relationship and how to be aware of such.  The women shared their opinions and their experiences about violent relationships with the group. The workshop revealed that abused women use their self-power to hide and deny their situation instead of using this power and energy to leave the abusive relationship.  

In the fifth meeting on November 22 the group met with Ms. Rauda Morkus, an Israeli Palestinian lesbian feminist, who established an organization for lesbian Palestinian women. Morkus told her personal story, which is similar to stories of many lesbian Palestinian women, who fight for their rights and live in a strict conservative society that values the traditional family.  These strict values, such as family, are the reason why Palestinian women are being hunted and murdered for their choice of lifestyle.  During the workshop, a discussion took place about sexuality, sexual identity, gender and oppression.
 
 
 

   2. Conference of Mitzpe Ramon and Ahoti Women

The conference took place on December 27 in Mitzpe Ramon. The participants were the members of Mitzpe Ramon's group, in addition to the members of Ahoti organization. The conference focused on the question:  How will Ahoti movement act in the upcoming elections?  Dr. Orly Benyamin briefly introduced basic terms in Israeli economics, with regard to the welfare state in the era of globalization.  Then she and Ms. Yifat Hillel led the discussion which focused on how the participants can set an alternative to the neo-liberal economic policy.  

One of the outcomes of this conference was to encourage the women to vote for the representative that would best serve their interests in the 2006 elections.  Therefore, a group of women's organizations established a coalition that tries to promote social and economic interests of the feminist movement.  It was decided that this coalition should formulate basic principles, organize a conference before the elections, and recruit representatives from different political parties to explain their "gender agenda". More of this will be addressed at a conference entitled Parliament of Women which Ahoti is planning for March 6, 2006.  

Goals and Evaluation

During this period Ahoti continued to explore ways of creating closeness and familiarity between "Arab-ness" and "Mizrahi-ness". The conceptual, intellectual and emotional bridges that these meeting entail are crucial to the project of making peace a relevant issue for Mizrahim, who comprise the majority of the Jewish population, yet are consistently referred to as irrelevant to the peace project. More steps were made towards understanding Arab feminism, looking for similar identity struggles between Palestinian and Mizrahi women, and realizing that there are mechanisms that force us to shed our Arab characteristics in order to fit in. It is important for Ahoti in the future to continue to build these bridges of consciousness.

[Christopher Marlowe]

Texas tea party candidate has Sept. 11 doubts
I thought this would be interesting in re: DBS' comment that someone talked to Medina and got her to backtrack on her 9/11 stance.  After reading this story, it seems that this "talking to" didn't happen in private:

February 11, 2010
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/ ... oubts.html
(# comments (47)
# comments closed)

From the Statesman, an instance where the tea party movement bleeds damagingly into the fringe:

   

Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, a Wharton businesswoman and activist whose insurgent campaign has been gaining steam for a month, may have hit a major speed bump today.

    Radio host Glenn Beck, saying he was responding to e-mails he got from listeners, asked Medina in a national interview this morning whether she believed the U.S. government was involved in the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

    "I don't have all of the evidence there Glenn so I'm not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that," Medina said. "I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard, there are some very good arguments and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that." ...

    After the interview, Beck, who holds sway with many Republican primary voters, said, "I think I can write her off the list."

Medina, active in the state's tea party movement, had been gathering steam in the conservative grass roots.

Right there on national television, famous c*nt Glenn Beck made it very clear that you will not get any support if you question the official fairy tale about 9/11.

[imsamhi]

Thank you mgt, I do appreciate your answer Ognir. Let's see what transpires.
They shut every venue for us to sound our opinions and then 'give' you a one minute chance to express yourself BUT in the "rosa luxamburg center" or through feministic venues and activity or something like that. We are suffering the same manipulations as every other human being on the planet. And one needs really a 2 years old brain to get it, and 5 minutes, not five years. If they cheated 160 million Russians to murder tens of millions of their brethren, and 300 million Americans and ~300 million Western Europeans to murder a million Iraqis, so to cheat and pit only 3 million Mizrahis, Arab Jews, against our Arab brethren, Muslims Christians and others in the ME, is not a level of satanic evil they cannot perform... This is not a brainer.
Now if you guys here think you are in danger of their criminal retaliation you better go to israhell and check out our situation closely and understand what danger really is, including me writing those words right now. I'm not going to start answer the million accusations here on that forum, why won't you just try and get some genuine activists on air and see what happens (my advice is to quickly go for phone/skype connection rather than volatile emails). And about these million accusations... it is really ridiculous most of the times, we have a fine record of living in the ME in peace for thousands of years till these creatures shoved themselves into our lives like a leach to a good reputation and real roots, we have families and friends and thousands of years of helping each other against evil and troubles, so really... all these reckless ramblings about the ashkenazi talmudism religion (which is true but they have always practiced it and practicing even without the talmud...) etc. that we in the ME have supposedly practiced sounds like someone has an ashkenazi agenda here (=the whole world is against all jews just because they are jews and always--the banksters mafia creed).

Here's another Mizrahi activist:
Ms. Dr. If'at Biton:
Article:  http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/old ... ed-discrim
Biton is co-founder of Tmura, The Israeli Anti-Discrimination Legal Center, which offers pro-bono legal assistance to victims of discrimination.
Could probably be contacted through the organization Tmura:
http://www.tmura.org.il/english.html#about
Contact Person:
   Adv. Claris Harbon (another possible very good interview, I had a video of her reading her poem "Dear king of Morocco please rescue us from the ashkenazis", something like that, i need to find it)
   Adv. Dr. Yifat Bitton
Address:
   65 Menahem Begin St.
   Beit Ashra Bldg., 4th FL.
   Tel-Aviv
Telephone:
   ++972-77-7949-777
Fax:
   ++972-77-7942-777
   http://lib.bioinfo.pl/auid:9988

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