Israel

April 21, 2012June 7, 2018

Israeli Orientalist Festival in Morocco Bellyflops

Moroccan BDS activists who say NO to normalisation with apartheid Israel have claimed victory with the cancellation of the second Mediterranean Delight International Belly Dance Festival which was to be held in Marrakech in May. The Festival has now relocated to Loutraki, Greece in June. It is produced by Israeli Simona Guzman, also involving owner of an Israeli belly dancing school, Asi Haskal, and Israeli belly dance teacher Anabel.

While the Festival site is available in English, Hebrew and other languages, there is no Arabic version, highlighting the exploitative orientalism of the Festival.

Guzman is crying foul:

“I cancelled it because I didn’t receive any authorization and I was afraid for the safety of my participants,” festival producer Simona Guzman told AFP.

Islamist members of parliament and pro-Palestinian associations had criticized the invitation to the Israelis for the May 10 festival.

Criticism over the Israeli presence was first heard last year when the festival was also held in Marrakesh, but the event went off without mishap.

On her Facebook page, Guzman falsely blames “fanatic Moroccan islamists movements” for her cancellation and exposes her racism and bigotry. According to Moroccan news source, Scoop, the Festival was cancelled due to the participation of Israelis. However, objections to the Festival came from across the Moroccan community, regardless of religious view. Guzman further admits on her Facebook:

While the pressure increased, we were asked by the Moroccan authorities to ask for an authorization to produce the festival in Moroccan Territory, a thing that was never asked before. We were suppose to receive an immediate confirmation, but the Moroccan bureaucracy has it’s own time, and time is running short.

The Festival was opposed by Moroccan BDS activists because it was organised by Israelis and aimed at whitewashing Israeli crimes.

Elsewhere, in Hespress, Guzman denies being Israeli and claims to be a Turkish citizen, while on Rue 20 she is said to have “family roots in Turkey and Morocco” and “responded she was surprised by reports in the Arabic media that the event had stirred controversy in Morocco because Israelis would be present”. Yet on her own site she is described as “among the leading belly dancers in Israel”, and offers bellydancing classes in Israel.

‘I teach belly dancing to women of all ages – ranging from high school students to pensioners.

The classes are offered privately, at “Studio C” at “Derech Haim House” and Beit Danny in Tel Aviv and in many other locations.’

The Festival website, bellydancefestival.net is registered to

simona guzman
moshe basula 1
tel aviv, israel, tel aviv 69869
Israel

At the present time, the Belly Dance Festival website shows the transition to the new venue and dates – the homepage and registration have been changed, still many of the associated Moroccan activities have not been altered.

The Festival is partly sponsored by Israeli business Sea of Spa, based in Arad, whose website is owned by Yuval Yarin Dead Sea Ltd. Sea of Spa claims to be “a family business that was founded in 1998, though its activities at the Dead Sea began at the end of the end of 1980s.” YYDS Ltd also owns seaofspa.biz.

Sea of Spa products are marketed, along with Ahava’s, on deadseaofspa.com “founded in 1999. Dead sea of spa.com is a web store dedicated for dead sea and other products related to Judaism and the state of Israel”. seaofspa.com and deadseadeal.com market Sea of Spa products too and have the same domain owner information which coincides with the contact information on the aforementioned storefronts. Ahava.co and seaofspa.us are also owned by the same organisation.

new dead sea
pob 507
arad, 80700
Israel

The visit of the ex-Israeli Consulate from New York, now Head of European Parliament Liaison Department – Mission of Israel to the EU, David Saranga, was also the target of Moroccan protest last week.

On Sunday, Israeli diplomat David Saranga was forced to cut short a working visit to Morocco after tens of thousands of people took part in a pro-Palestinian protest in front of the parliament in Rabat where he was attending meetings.

Saranga, Israel’s representative at a meeting of the Euro-Med organization that groups the 27 EU states with Israel, the Palestinian Authority and eight Arab countries in the region, was escorted out of the parliament at the end of the meeting and – instead of spending another night in the Moroccan capital – was taken directly to the airport and put on a flight to Paris.

Palestinians have called for boycott, divestment and sanction of Israel until they receive their just human rights guaranteed under international law.

Congratulations to BDS Maroc for successfully fighting normalisation with apartheid oppression. Morocco, which has been exploited by Israel as a playground for normalisation, is now at the forefront of the anti-normalisation campaign.

UPDATE 24/4/12

Moroccan belly dancer Nour withdrew from the festival after becoming aware of the BDS anti-normalisation campaign. Translation of scanned material below:

The people against normalization with Israel are getting ready to face off against the Belly Dance Festival. (written in yellow)

Khalid Alsoufiani. with the National Labor group for the support of Iraq and Palestine disputes Guzman’s claim that she is Moroccan, (she claims her mother is Turkish) Khalid said that if Guzman was speaking the truth then she needs to leave Israel and move to Morocco then.

Noor (dancer who cancelled): Don’t entangle me in this troublesome situation with this festival, I’m not going to participate in it.

Kuzman: I am from Moroccan origins and seek for peace
Anti-normalisation activists prepare to face the oriental belly dancing festival

Last year, a Zionist delegation of 17 dancers participated in the festival.. so how many dancer will they participate this year?

Last year, Al-Tajdeed (renewal) newpaper which was owned by the minister of telecommunications and the spokesperson of the new government, published an article on its front page about the the Zionist dancer who is gonna visit Marrakesh to teach the Moroccan girls how to shake their bellies in the capital of Yusuf Bin Tashqin. So what the newspaper is going to write this year which is a tool to Adala and Tanmiya (Justice and development) party?

The activists of Al-Misbah (Lamp) party protested last year in front of the hotel which organised the festival demanding to punish who allowed it to be organised, and kick the Zionist dancers out. Who is going to punish whom this year? who is going to kick the Zionists out? adding: “how come some business men allow themselves to let their classy hotels host Zionist dancers, and at the sametime they claim their support for the national issues and not promoting alcoholic drinks in their markets.” Summing up: The second version of the oriental dancing festival which was organised from the 6th-11th of May.

Related Links:

Youth and BDS groups corresponded with PM Benkirane to cancel the Festival because of its normalisation of zionist oppression against Palestinians.

BDS Maroc calls for cancellation of an Israeli company exhibition in the printing industry and associated sales activities, while Moroccan Palestinian solidarity organisations demand the Moroccan government criminalise normalisation with Israel.

A new report on the complicity of Hewlett-Packard with the policies of the occupation

April 15, 2012August 24, 2022

Welcome to Palestine, Unless You Criticise Apartheid Israel

Handala on Air Flotilla 2 One and a half thousand humanitarians are hoping to visit the West Bank to participate in a children’s education project. They are such a threat to the apartheid zionist entity that Israel is demanding airlines cancel tickets – so far Lufthansa, Jet2 and Air France have obliged, making them and other airlines who collaborate with Israel’s obscene demands legitimate boycott targets.

The activists have been invited by 25 Palestinian civil society organizations to spend next week in the Bethlehem area building an elementary school, planting trees, and repairing village wells that Palestinians say have been damaged by Israeli settlers.

Israel has a habit of barring those who critique its atrocious oppression and commit the sin of supporting Palestinian human rights, including Richard Falk, Noam Chomsky, Guenter Grass and Norman Finkelstein.

The bans on entering Israel are made on political grounds:

If you are a Likud supporter, flying into the Israeli airport should present no problem. But if you are a supporter of Palestinian rights, the Netanyahu government could stop you from going to Bethlehem on purely political grounds – even if you have never committed any crime and have no intention of ever committing one, even if you have never attended a Palestinian protest in the West Bank and have no intention of attending one. You could be barred by the Netanyahu government from going to Bethlehem simply for the thought crime of supporting Palestinian human rights.

…

Apparently, you can be deported by the Netanyahu government not because of what you do, but because of who you are. If you are an “activist”, then Palestinians welcome you to Bethlehem, but you may not be able to get there, because the Netanyahu government may deport you for being such an “activist”.

If Israel doesn’t want people to visit Palestine through the Tel Aviv airport, it should allow Palestinians to open their own and to administrate their own entries and departures – in other words, end the criminal Occupation enforced by Israel. After four and a half decades of brutal military Occupation by the apartheid zionist entity, the global community is stepping up boycotts, divestments and sanctions as punitive actions to end Israel’s criminal oppression and imprisonment of the Indigenous Palestinian population whose lands and resources Israel continues to thieve with impunity. Governments refuse or are unable to act responsibly to ensure Indigenous Palestinians have their full human rights and to enforce more than 30 UN Security Council resolutions of which Israel remains in breach.

UPDATE 15/4/12

How Israel orders your Airline around: The Letter which bars #Airflotilla2 activist from boarding (Update!)

Sami Kishawi marks the atrocious Israeli admonitions to humanitarians participating in the air flotilla and the hypocritical threat letter to airlines permitting them to fly.

News of detained WTP participants

Zionism is a *real* threat to 11 Israeli Jews now arrested at al-Lydd airport by the antisemitic #IOF for supporting #Fly2Palestine

Pro-Palestinian activists detained in Israel

Palestine / Israel Links

Israeli forces raid West Bank civil defense office
Israeli fascist goonsquad attacks Palestinians and internationals. “Eight Palestinians and four internationals were arrested and at least three people were injured by the blows they suffered at the hands of police. One Italian woman suffered an injury to her shoulder that required hospitalization.”
Ben White on cultural boycott: “Boycott is a strategy, not a principle. And as such, it’s a response to a call from Palestinian civil society, which is seeking to mobilise international civil society as a way of realising their basic rights. It is a familiar tactic, used to resist local and global injustices. Are Palestinians prohibited from resisting colonial occupation – and looking for allies as they do so?”
Palestinians frustrated over Quartet statement ?

“Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi took a much harder line, saying the Quartet statement, which made no reference to Israel’s ongoing occupation of the territories, demonstrated “a lack of will” to establish a Palestinian state.

“Unfortunately, the Quartet did not propose any specific policy measures or means of engagement required to create a breakthrough in the current crisis,” she said in a statement.

“The real issue is not ‘negotiations’ but rather ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land,” Ashrawi said.

“The glaring absence of any reference to this occupation portrays a lack of will to bring an end to it and to establish a viable Palestinian state.”‘

OPT: Protection of civilians – OCHA Weekly report (28 March-3 April 2012) (3 April 2012) – Multiple war crimes, collective punishment, murders, mayhem, oppression – the apartheid zionist entity never fails to appall.

Israel’s Killing Spree on Verdun Street

Israel assassinated key strong Palestinian leaders in 1973 to assist continuance of its oppression and land theft. “each of the three slain men had singular qualities that made the Israelis want to eliminate them, says Maan Bashour, who was a member of the PLO information committee at the time as a representative of the Arab Liberation Front. “[They struck] Kamal Adwan because of his activities inside Palestine, and because he was the youngest of the resistance leaders and a major inspiration for youth; Abu Yousef because he was one of the main planners of the operations of the Black September organization; and Kamal Nasser, the freedom fighter from Ramallah, as a cultural and media star with his popular and especially Christian credentials,” says Bashour.”

Debating Palestine: Representation, Resistance, and Liberation – Abdulhadi argues: “We need to restore this sense of the indivisibility of justice and combat tendencies that present Palestine as an exceptional case of suffering and liberation.”

PACBI-Serrat and Sabina: Refrain from Entertaining Apartheid Israel until Freedom, Justice and Equality :

‘You both struggled under the oppressive and fascist regime of Franco in Spain, and must know what it means to resist oppression, and not to entertain it on its terms. We ask you in this spirit to stand with the oppressed Palestinians who are appealing to you to reconsider your performance. ‘

Ron Paul confirms his ziophilia, sucks up to conservative christan zionists
Oh oh, the zionist cover is blown – Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor knows Iran hasn’t threatened to wipe out Israel.
Rightwing zionist fleeces a poor Californian community and sends the profits to finance illegal settlements in Occupied East Jerusalem
How you know the PA collaborates with Israel: it shuts down the Palestinian Human Rights Foundation “claiming the group’s activities were not consistent with the interests of the Palestinian people.”
Don’t let the rightwing fanatics censor truth – Don’t let the Religious Right silence Desmond Tutu
The zionist SWC proceeds to attempt to obliterate Muslim culture – even the graves of dead Muslims are not exempt from annihilation. “Since the plans to construct the Museum of Tolerance on Mamilla Cemetery began in 2004, nearly 60 other descendants of those buried at the cemetery and I have made repeated appeals to try and stop the disinterring and destruction of the remains of our ancestors.
Israel’s Lawless Settlement Project ~ Fact Checks

Why Does the Occupation Continue – Max Ajl reviews Shir Hever’s “The Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation”
We are privileged, say 2 Israeli refusers

April 9, 2012

The Hasbaroid Song

When your argument’s been lost, just give it one more toss
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.

If the ‘terrorists’ produce inconvenient facts and you’re feeling that familiar lack
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.

So your logic’s in a knot and lies are all you’ve got
reach into the hasbara stash for Khhhhammass, Khhhhammasss, Khhhhammas.

Nothing thrills like raw hate, you can never underrate
The benefits of the hasbara stash and Khhhhammmmass, Khhhhammasss, Khammmasss.

The problem is all theirs, so please remember in your prayers
The goddamn, nasty, convenient stash of Khhaammmmass, Khhhhammmass, Khhammmass.

by Jinjirrie 2011-12

April 4, 2012December 11, 2020

Music Cannot Cross Apartheid Walls : Boycott the Tel Aviv White City Festival

The Israeli side of the apartheid wall — A view (above) of the Israel side of the wall, notice the olive trees illegally annexed, and the attempt to "pretty" it up with a round-a-bout.

A new facebook page has been launched, “Don’t Play Tel Aviv White City – It’s Today’s Sun City.” The creators are rallying for support to ask a number of international artists to boycott the Tel Aviv White City music festival, which is sponsored by the Israeli government. Just a few of the artists who are being asked to boycott include Bobby McFerrin, Courtney Pine, Oi Va Voi, Regina Carter and the Indian group Rajasthan Josh.

The facebook page states:

“In respect of the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel, we ask musicians of conscience to boycott the Tel Aviv White City Music Festival.”

The cultural boycott is a very important aspect the BDS movement. The cultural boycott is evidenced as being so very important because of the vast amount of money Israel spends specifically to counteract that aspect of the boycott.

It appears artists are often told by their Israeli booking agents that music brings people together, and that BDS builds walls. Recently an artist wrote that he would not boycott his Israeli fans. The UK group Younger Brother insisted that their concert would help bring peace through music, and that their Israeli fans were all about peace.

International artists that participate in Israeli government supported festivals are participating in an insidious effort by the powerful oppressive state of Israel to “normalize” the settler-colonial policies. There is nothing normal about extreme racism, the crushing oppression of education and the illegal apartheid wall. It is so ironic, then, when artists who break the boycott say that BDS builds walls. These is no wall that stands out on the face of this planet that is used like the wall Israel has created. The wall illegally annexes Palestinian land, cuts off families, schools, and access to jobs. It erases views of the sunrise and sunset, and is strewn with trash, dotted with sniper towers, and dehumazing checkpoints. Even cattle are treated better than some Palestinians who wait for hours in the heat or cold only to be buzzed through a checkpoint with an automated program, controlled remotely.

Money is liberally invested in festivals that are designed to create the illusion for the Israeli population that their state is normal. They are created to convince the international community that Israel is not only normal but endowed with beautiful tourist sites and a vibrant artistic community. Vast amounts of money are poured into festivals and contests such as the Israeli International Oud Festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival, PIC.NIC music festival, the International Harp Contest in Israel, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, the “Israel Festival,”and more, like the upcoming Tel Aviv White City Music Festival.

The apartheid wall on the Palestinian side — A view of the wall as it comes right up near a home, and cuts a Palestinian village in half.

The Holon Woman’s Festival, billed as a showcase of women’s artistic achievements was to feature US Jazz artist Cassandra Wilson. Cassandra became aware of the cultural boycott and despite the media blackout on the truth about how Palestinians are treated in Israel, she became aware of their plight. This caused her to cancel her performances at the Holon Woman’s Festival. Cassandra joins a list of many artists who have chosen to side with justice. Among those are Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, over forty actors, directors and writers in the UK, Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, John Berger and 93 other artists, and many more.

For a full listing of artists who are booked to play White City, see http://www.tlv-music.com/en/Artists. One artist recently stated via twitter, “You’re right, I was unaware of any cultural boycott, although certainly aware of the situation.” (Rock musician Scott McCaughey on twitter on 1 April). If McCaughey had been aware of the boycott, he may have been much less willing to play in Israel. No artist of conscience should desire to be a part of the strategy by Israel to normalize what can never be sustained. Apartheid.

SOURCE

March 31, 2012December 11, 2020

On Land Day, Australians March in Solidarity with Palestinians

As part of the Global March to Jerusalem to support Palestinian Land Day, Australians turned out to protest in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for justice, rights and freedom, The protesters marched to BDS (boycott, divestments and sanctions) target, Max Brenner, in Sydney. Max Brenner is owned by the Israeli Strauss group which supports the apartheid Israeli regime, in particular the IDF Golani and Givati brigades which are responsible for numerous atrocities against oppressed, occupied indigenous Palestinians.

In Melbourne, hundreds of protesters marched for Palestinians, also to Max Brenner and its apartheid-sweetener coffee shop.

This year on Land Day, which commemorates Israel’s cold-blooded murder of six unarmed Palestinian Israelis in a 1976 demonstration and strikes held to protest against a massive outrageous land grab, Israel spilt yet more Palestinian blood on Palestinian soil, murdering 20 year old Mahmud Zakut near the border fence with the apartheid entity at Beit Hanoun. Hundreds of Palestinians protesting for their birthright on Land Day were injured by the criminal Occupier.

Deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme, Ann Harrison said:

“News that Israeli forces are firing live ammunition on Land Day demonstrators near the Erez Crossing in Gaza, and that scores have been injured in protests in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem is extremely worrying, particularly in the light of frequent and persistent use of excessive force against Palestinian protesters.

“We are also concerned at reports that Palestinian Authority security forces have tried to prevent protests in areas under their control, while Hamas security forces have beaten protesters in Gaza. All those involved in policing demonstrations should respect freedom of assembly and must adhere to international policing standards.”

‘the BDS protesters held leaves to symbolize Palestinian orchards and wore costumes made from painted cardboard boxes to represent houses. They then held a painted cardboard cut-out of a bulldozer and “bulldozed” the houses and trees to the ground.

“We have to bring what happens every day under the watch of the JNF … to the streets of Philadelphia,” said College freshman and PennBDS member Sahir Doshi with a megaphone. “They have not made the desert bloom, they have made the desert bleed.”’

Land and Blood: The Transformation of an Annual Commemoration into a Daily Experience
Informed commentators agree that Israel implements a system of apartheid

A recent report by the United Nations concluded that Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories ‘exhibit features of colonialism and apartheid’. B’Tasleem, Israel’s leading human rights organization, published in its report Land Grab that Israel ‘has created a system of legally sanctioned separation based on discrimination that has, perhaps, no parallel any where in the world since the apartheid regime of South Africa’. The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa also concluded in its legal study that Israel is guilty of apartheid crimes.

Other Links

Anonymous Hacks Neo-Nazis, Finds Ron Paul