Frayhayt! A new anti-Zionist blog with a difference.

I have been thinking about starting a new anti-Zionist blog for a while now with the help of Daniel (aka Daniel- Jewdas).

It took me a very long time just to think of a fitting name. Me and Daniel spent weeks throwing ideas at each other with no avail.

I was assured by my friend Sunny Hundal that this process takes time and finding the right title is important. Mr. Hundal is right, and finally I have found the perfect name.  FRAYHAYT!

Yes, soon it will be a fully up and running blog.

The presepctives and goals of this blog are as follows:

To generate a rational debate online about Israel. To provide a place online for anti-Zionist critiques of Israel and Zionism without being unfairly attacked on the pretence of anti-Semetism.

We will heavily monitor comments on the blog. Access to commenting on the blog will be judged on the content of each blog post/text individually. We reserve the right to delete any comments that we feel do not contribute to a healthy discussion. Opposing views will be kept but with limitations, there will be no diverging from the general tone of the blog post.

Frayhayt recognises that members of the anti-Zionist community and those on the fringes of the community would benefit from a having a dialogue with one another. We hope that Frayhayt can lubricate this.

I will keep you posted on the exact day of the launch. I’m going to be publicising it heavily so you have been warned.

Siobhan

Demolition protest 2010

The Demolition 2010 protest on Wednesday highlighted the elitism of our education system in more ways than one.

The polarised responses to the ‘violence’ shows clear divides between the students that have and those that have not.

To put it simply students that can afford to pay for their education or rather whose parents can afford to pay, will have responded to Wednesday as if it were simply a selfish outbreak by anarchic thugs.  The response to the demonstration from the leader of the NUS Aaron Porter certainly panders to those reactions.

For the students that see a necessity to fight the changes to the education system if they are to have access to it, Wednesday’s direct action will have been instinctive.

My favourite placard from Wednesday was one saying “a university student or a drug dealer, it is your decision” and one which I think illustrates my point.

That is not to say that I don’t think the person that threw the fire extinguisher from the roof of the Tory Head Quarters wasn’t behaving dangerously, if they did it on purpose that is.I believe this goes without saying.

But whether you believe that the Tory HQ building is more important than the future of the young people marching that day reflects a security in ones future that only the elite can posses.

This also expresses a kind of conservatism that always put property before equality.

There are of course exceptions to the rule. The letter in support of the demonstration from Goldsmiths UCU gives hope that not all prestigious institutions are a breeding ground for Cameron-esque Bullingdon boys.

But the divisions do become clearer the higher up the education ladder you travel. I overheard three Masters students from a prestigious journalism course saying…

“Well, it’s just so disgusting what thuggish, brutish people”.

“Yah, I really didn’t like the Tory scum chant”

“I know, some people in society just really spoil things for the rest of us, yah”

I was half expecting one of these girls to say “Gosh aren’t poor people just so disgusting, we should just kill them and eat them, yah.” Such was their obvious class hatred

The demonstration was not spoilt and it wasn’t a picnic in the park either. Demonstrations don’t exist because they’re fun, although that can be a great outcome. A protest is exists to make a specific political point. Having different voices within a political protest is crucial to building a mass movement.

Protesting is a valuable tool in our democratic armour. Without dissent most of the people marching on Wednesday wouldn’t be able to vote. Democracy has always had to be fought for. We should all be thinking about the serious effects the governments attacks will have on this country.

Tags: Demolition protest, smashed windows, student fees

The BBC strikes, article written for Liberal Conspiracy

Article for Liberal Conspiracy posted November 6, 2010 at 1:20 pm

Members of the NUJ started their 48 hr strike at the BBC at midnight on Thursday over changes to their pensions.

When I arrived at BBC White City studios yesterday I had expected a deflated and demoralised picket line. But it proved to be much more optimistic. Coffee and cake was circulating the picket line. Even the heavy downpour of rain didn’t harm the fighting spirit.

Paul Mason, economics editor for Newsnight and the Father of the Chapel, told me he expected them to win the strike, providing an agreement can be found with the management.

When addressing the picket line and the gathering press he said:

There’s the television centre, the building is falling apart inside the technology as you know barely works, only the people that work here keep this place together…The message they give us is they just don’t like the workforce.

This was certainly the implicit massage given by the Director General Mark Thompson when he sent out an email to all BBC staff saying

I also feel obliged to say that I cannot see what earthly good such action is going to achieve…Strikes aren’t going to reduce the pension deficit or make the need for radical pension reform go away.

I also feel obliged to say that I cannot see what earthly good such action is going to achieve…Strikes aren’t going to reduce the pension deficit or make the need for radical pension reform go away.

Thompson’s email suggests that he is not willing to budge on this.

One person on the picket line from the radio news team told me that she has been paying into her pension for 10 years under the final salary pension scheme and that she believes that they are effectively stealing tens in some cases hundreds of thousands of pounds from the staff under the proposed scheme.

The issue here is fairness. Mark Thompson’s salary is around £800,000, twice that of the BBC’s previous Director-General.

Why should all other BBC staff face cuts to their pensions and effectively salaries when the management haven’t even gone so far as to actually calculate the pension deficit before making the cuts?

The strike action has deep support. Although the pension deal was eventually accepted by the other unions Bectu and Unite, average turnout for the strike ballot at around 90% – of which around 90% voted for strike action.

The NUJ’s Jeremy Dear told me:

We have given suggestions to cap pensions at the highest level of the BBC, in order to protect the lowest paid people.

Public outrage over public sector salaries suggests the NUJ’s proposal should be considered if the management really are taking the deficit seriously.

Further strike action is planned by the NUJ for the 15th and 16th of November.

Tags: BBC strikes, NUJ, Pensions

Counter EDL protest.

On Sunday the English Defence League mobilised outside the Israeli embassy for a rally in support of Israel with the guest speaker being Rabbi Nachum Shifren of The Tea Party, USA.

When I found out about the rally, which I was told was organised by the small but particularly vocal Jewish division of the EDL, I was fuming.

I felt there had to be a counter demonstration. So a few friends and I organised one.

The EDL said of the event “we sympathise with what Israel are going through, it’s the only country in the west that is tackling the issues we highlight” They go on to say…“our fore-fathers fought a Nazi regime and won to protect our god given human rights, we cannot allow such fascist ideologies try to rule our streets once again using the same racist tactics”

The EDL dare to use the language of anti-Fascism to legitimise their political agenda. Speaking as a Jewish person, the idea that they would attack minorities and say they are doing it in part to protect and honor Jewish history is obscene.

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On Sunday the EDL did their usual: get drunk, stumble in to a fenced off area, shout incoherently, try and beat someone up, then go home routine. Although there approach was the same the message behind this rally was different from the others. Their message was clear “we share the same goals as Israel.”

There are a couple of things worth thinking about when discussing this particular EDL demonstration.

Firstly it’s that the racist language that has been (sometimes still is) used when speaking about Jews has now become a normalised way to talk about Muslims. It’s not uncommon to hear Islam being called evil.

Rabbi Nuchum Shifren in his speech yesterday said that “Arabs are dogs”. That sounds familiar…

Secondly it’s the relationship between the far-right racism towards Muslims and the propaganda used by Israel to justify the oppression of Palestinians. This is a relationship the EDL have been quick to capitalise on.

Whatever your position on the legitimacy of Israel, this is not something I will go into here, that is an altogether separate issue.

One 12 year old Muslim girl that had travelled all the way from east London to west London on her own to join our little protest asked me: “What do you think of Muslims?”
“What do you mean?“ I asked.
“Well Jews don’t like us Muslims do they?”
“To me we are all equal, no matter what religion or race, you’re my sister, you know?” I replied

The little girl seemed genuinely relieved. Now I’m not suggesting she was uninformed, this girl knew her history.

It’s not surprising she thought I would be hostile towards her, this young woman is no fool she’s knows what the relations between the state of Israel and Palestine are like. I explained to her that what Israel does is political not religious, why else were there Orthodox Jewish people at our protest.

It’s important to build an understanding between people from various walks of life that fascism is unacceptable. Our demo of 40 people did not match the EDL’s numbers, they had around 200 hundred people at their protest.

However where we lacked in numbers we made up for in the building of a genuine understanding of cultural diversity. By making ant-fascists demonstrations as inclusive as possible, people that may have otherwise felt hostility towards each other whether justifiably or not have no excuse but to link arms and fight.

Tags: Anti-fascism, Demonstration, EDL, English Defence League, Far right, Rabbi Nuchum Shifren

The EDL has invited the Surfing Rabbi Shifren to the U.K.

Rabbi Nachum Shifren, a Californian known as the surfing Rabbi is coming to the U.K on October the 24th, to speak outside the Israeli embassy, London. Rabbi Shifren has been invited to speak in London by the English Defence League (EDL). The Facebook page created by the EDL explaining why they are hosting the event says….

‘ in support of Israel… we sympathise with what Israel are going through, it’s the only country in the west that is tackling the issues we highlight’.

I had always suspected the ties between the EDL and wider Zionist forces were strong and that they were set to grow. The outspoken views of Pamela Geller, a new champion of the EDL is example enough.  The Guardian writes about her lunacy, scarily though she has quite a following. Geller combines shiny haired celebrity, with Far-right racism.

Tags: EDL, English Defence League, Fascism, Pamela Geller, Rabbi Shifren, Zionism

Israel’s new loyalty oath

The Israeli cabinet have approved a new loyalty oath by 22 votes to 8. The oath now contains a pledge of allegiance to a ‘Jewish and democratic state’. 
The addition of this new pledge signals an attempt by the Israeli government to use legislation to separate those who are Jewish and those who are not. Jews already get automatic citizenship under the Law of Return.

At such a period it will surely and rightly concern those who want peace between Arabs and Israelis.

The Minister of Welfare and Social services Isaac Herzog said the move “borders on Fascism” and that “Fascism was devouring the fringes of society”.

Clearly members of the Israeli parliament are worried about racism within the government, one wonders what will be done to truly challenge it.

Tags: Israel, loyalty oath

YouTube video that looks at how the U.S reports on Palestine

This is an interesting video, the beginning is bizarre, what with the triangle of power. I urge you to ignore the title of the YouTube video, it is YouTube after all. The last half is far more enlightening. It shows how the American media portrays the conflict in Palesstine. I especially agree with the lack of representation in regards to pro Palestinian Jewish groups. Which I believe to be always under represented.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18TRLG8Gwqs&feature=player_embedded

Tags: Media, Palestine