Israelis fighting for democracy - the 21st week of protests

I've been in Israel since Friday, May 19th, and on Saturday night after Shabbat I went with friend to the pro-democracy rally in front of the President's house (בית הנשיא). I went again this past Saturday night. During that rally some people were carrying Palestinian flags, and after the rally was over, the police moved in and wrested them from their hands. It's not illegal to fly the Palestinian flag in Israel, but the police had clearly been ordered to take them. (One of the most right-wing cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is in charge of the national security ministry, and thus the Israel Police).

 Some photos from both rallies:

"There's no democracy with occupation"

The sign starts with "Before they took the Palestinian flags...."

"From the Jordan to the (Mediterranean) Sea, equality for all"

One of the distinctive features of these demonstrations is that the protestors carry Israeli flags.

From the demonstration on May 20: several people at the front of the march were wearing giant dinosaur costumes and carrying signs that read: "Save human rights from extinction"

Israel - a post-democratic state?

How should Diaspora Jews react to the new Israeli government? Some of the most important figures in the incoming government are indicted (Netanyahu) or convicted criminals (Deri, Ben Gvir). This coalition is the most right-wing in Israel's history, and there are still more hateful characters who will be in important ministries. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be prime minister, is on trial on a series of corruption charges. His wife, Sara Netanyahu, was "convicted in 2019 of misusing public funds and in 2016 for abusing public servants." Aryeh Deri, the head of the Sephardi Haredi party, Shas, was in prison for two years on bribery charges. Recently, "In a plea deal signed in January, 2022, he admitted to defrauding the state by reporting to tax authorities a falsely undervalued estimation of a Jerusalem property he sold to his brother." This makes him ineligible to be a minister in the government. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a convicted felon and Kahanist, leader of the Jewish Power party, will be the national security minister, in charge of the police, the fire service, and the Border Police.

From Noga Tarnopolsky in the Daily Beast, on the incoming Israeli government:

Netanyahu’s legal troubles have manacled him. Most leaders of Israeli political parties refuse to sit in government with an indicted criminal. The parties willing to help him form a majority coalition out of the Knesset’s 120 seats are those who believe they have no other avenue to power: the ultra-orthodox Jewish religious parties and an agglomeration of previously marginal extremist groups who have until now been rebuffed by Israel’s mainstream.

The deal offered by Netanyahu goes something like this: his partners will back a slate of “judicial reforms” that will effectively dismantle Israel’s judiciary, and Netanyahu, in turn, will reward them with real power.

This is the political jam which has brought Israel to the cusp of saluting Defense Minister Bezalel Smotrich, 42, a self-described “proud homophobe” and a segregationist who believes Jews and Arabs should not have to mingle, who aspires to impose the “the law of the Bible,” and who evaded his own military service.

Israel’s incoming justice minister has not yet been named, but neither Smotrich nor Ben Gvir are expected to be warmly received—or welcomed at all—by their cohorts among Israel’s closest allies.

Deri is rumored to covet the finance ministry, in which he'd impose upon fellow citizens the same taxes he was recently convicted of evading.

As things stand, he cannot legally be made any sort of minister. In a plea deal signed in January, 2022, he admitted to defrauding the state by reporting to tax authorities a falsely undervalued estimation of a Jerusalem property he sold to his brother. 

His appointment is certain to be challenged in court, where he is expected to lose. He has a simple answer: “The public knew everything there was to know about Netanyahu, me and the entire bloc, yet we received a large majority and the public expects us to govern,” he said on Israeli radio. So I hope they [the Supreme Court] will not interfere with this matter.”

But if it does, he warned, “it will be the government's first test of governance.”

Netanyahu, in fact, cannot form the barebones skeleton of his new government without overriding the supreme court. Without Deri or the extremists, he has no majority. With no majority, his trial proceeds ahead. The plan, according to numerous Israeli media outlets, is for the Likud, Netanyahu’s party, to install a new Knesset speaker by next week. Then they would rush legislation imposing an override act, followed by a new law permitting a minister to serve even if he is on probation from jail, as Deri is. Thanks to the override act, the supreme court would not be able to declare the new law illegal.

Israel could cease to have an independent judiciary in a matter of days– a transformation driven by indicted and convicted political criminals.

Trump's dinner with Nick Fuentes, Holocaust denier

 It's been confirmed by Axios that Trump had dinner with both Fuentes and Kanye this week.

Former President Trump dined and conversed with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: Trump's direct engagement with a man labeled a "white supremacist" by the Justice Department, one week after declaring his 2024 candidacy, is likely to draw renewed outrage over the former president's embrace of extremists.

• Fuentes, who frequently promotes racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, had been spotted with Ye at Mar-a-Lago, but reports erroneously suggested he did not have dinner with the former president.

What they're saying: "Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about," Trump said in a statement.

• A Trump spokesman did not provide comment on additional reporting about the dinner. Fuentes did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Behind the scenes: A source familiar with the dinner conversation told Axios that Trump "seemed very taken" with Fuentes, impressed that the 24-year-old was able to rattle off statistics and recall speeches dating back to his 2016 campaign.

• Paraphrasing the conversation, the source said Fuentes told the president he preferred him to be "authentic," and that Trump seemed scripted and unlike himself during his recent 2024 campaign announcement speech.
• Trump responded, “You like it better when I just speak off the cuff," the source said. Fuentes replied that he did, calling Trump an "amazing" president when he was unrestrained. "There was a lot of fawning back and forth," the source added.

Fuentes told Trump that he represented a side of Trump's base that was disappointed with his newly cautious approach, especially with what some far-right activists view as a lack of support for those charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

• Trump didn't disagree with Fuentes, but said he has advisers who want him to read off teleprompters and be more "presidential." Notably, Trump referred to himself as a politician, which he has been loathe to do in the past.
• Fuentes also told Trump that he would crush potential 2024 Republican rivals in a primary, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump asked for Fuentes' opinion on other candidates as well.

Trump at one point turned to Ye and said, "I really like this guy. He gets me," according to the source.

• "To be honest, I don't believe the president knew who the hell [Fuentes] was," the source added.

See also the New York Times article on the dinner: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/25/us/politics/trump-nick-fuentes-dinner.html

A strange configuration - Kanye West, Nick Fuentes, and Donald Trump and the rise of political antisemitism

Amid all the discussions now about rising antisemitism in the United States since Trump declared his candidacy in the summer of 2015, one element has not been sufficiently appreciated. We have focused on various manifestations of antisemitism that range from antisemitic graffiti and vandalism, the use of antisemitic tropes and images on social media, antisemitic attacks on Jews on social media (for example, the attacks on Jewish journalists on Twitter during the 2016 election campaign) to physical attacks on Jews (especially of Jews who stand out because of their dress), and all the way to the murders of Jews in Pittsburgh, Poway, and Jersey City.

I don't think enough focused attention and analysis has been done on the rise of political antisemitism in the US. I thought that after Trump's defeat in 2020 that it would start to fall again, but it's continued unabated in the political sphere. Trump keeps insisting that American Jews are disloyal to our true country, Israel - in contrast with the faithfulness of evangelical Christians. The nationalist populism that he ran on and continued to propagate in office opened the doors to public expression of many different kinds of bigotries, including antisemitism. Antisemitism is on its way to becoming respectable again in local and national politics. People and groups who would have been on the political fringe a dozen years ago, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, are being elected to Congress (despite the fact of the red wave that didn't come in the fall election). 

Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and anti-Black bigot, visited Mar-a-Lago this week with Kanye West. Some information about Fuentes and their visit with Trump:

TikTok took this down so let me just drop this here for anyone who doesn’t know Nick Fuentes, @kanyewest’s newest friend pic.twitter.com/9DEXTjKUsV

— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) November 24, 2022

Link to Sommer's thread: https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1595541821530185737

Kanye West on his visit with Fuentes and conversation with Trump:

#YE24 pic.twitter.com/DyIhMU5By6

— ye (@kanyewest) November 25, 2022

On Nick Fuentes and Trump, an article from Haaretz:

Trump Hosts Holocaust Revisionist Nick Fuentes and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago

Fuentes and West are the latest figures with known histories of extremism and explicit antisemitic remarks to meet with Trump since he announced his 2024 presidential candidacy earlier this month

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Kanye West at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida alongside Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust revisionist who has openly questioned the number of Jews killed by the Nazis.

The meeting, which has not been confirmed by Trump, would be among his most notable associations with extremists with histories of explicit antisemitic remarks, days after declaring his 2024 presidential candidacy.

West and Fuentes’ visit comes after the rapper – universally condemned over his screed of antisemitic remarks – said he was running for president in 2024 with the assistance of Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right provocateur who recently worked for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Several media outlets further reported Trump and West had dinner together without Fuentes present, though Fuentes shared a video of him alongside West at Miami’s airport.

Fuentes has been deemed a “white supremacist” by the Justice Department, and Republican members of Congress such as Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar came under significant criticism for addressing Fuentes’ America First Political Action Committee conference in February.

In May 2020, Trump retweeted a post by “America First clips,” an internet show founded by Nick Fuentes that replaced his YouTube channel, which was banned earlier in the year for hate speech.

Fuentes, who attended the 2017 white supremacist Charlottesville rally, has cultivated a following of white supremacists known as the “Groyper Army” who seek to preserve white, European-American identity. They make up a significant number of supporters for Trump’s conspiracies surrounding the 2020 election and many were present at the January 6 insurrection. He has used his multiple platforms to push explicitly antisemitic comments, smears and conspiracies, directed at both individual Jewish figures and widespread conspiracies about the Holocaust and Jewish influence on American society.

At his speech this year while hosting Greene and Gosar, Fuentes implored the crowd to support Russian President Vladimir Putin in the immediate aftermath of his decision to invade Ukraine and said “the U.S. government has become the ‘Great Satan’ that many have called it,” echoing terminology coined by Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Fuentes then mocked mainstream media for comparing Putin to Hitler, saying “they say that’s not a good thing” before laughing and adding “I shouldn’t have said that. What other way is there to say it, of course that’s a terrible comparison” to chuckles from the crowd.

The meeting comes one week after Trump addressed the RJC, where he repeated his allegations that American Jews do not sufficiently support him given his record as president on Israel — a charge that critics largely condemn as trafficking in antisemitic tropes.

The Republican Jewish Coalition strongly condemned Green and Gosar for sharing a platform with Fuentes, who “has actively spread antisemitic bile, mocked the Holocaust, and promoted dangerous anti-Israel conspiracy theories. This has absolutely no place in the Republican Party, and RJC will actively oppose anyone who associates with Nick Fuentes, AFPAC, and their ilk.” The RJC did not respond to comment requests on Trump’s association with Fuentes.

Racists and antisemites once banned by Twitter will be coming back

Elon Musk has decided that accounts once banned from Twitter because of their racism and antisemitism will once again be allowed on the site. A thread from Michael Edison Hayden, Senior Investigative Reporter and Spokesperson for the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) about people likely to reappear: David Duke, Mike Peinovich, and Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer. 

Link to start of the thread: Michael Edison Hayden on racists returning to Twitter 

 

J. K. Rowling once again reveals her hatred of trans people in her response to the Club Q murders

I loved the Harry Potter books. I've read all of them multiple time, and seen all the movies (made from the books). I identified with Harry Potter & Hermione. I found the books profound, touching, and consoling. 

And then J. K. Rowling decided to attack trans people. First she cloaked it in pseudo-rational arguments where she pretended to support trans people but was really worried that supporting trans people might injure women's rights. More recently, she's started allying herself with people on the anti-trans far right, like Matt Walsh. 

On Sunday, she "liked" a tweet condemning the massacre this weekend at Club Q in Colorado Springs. So maybe she's not such a transphobe? Don't jump to that conclusion. This is the tweet she liked, from a British group called LGB Alliance. They wrote, "We are horrified by the news of the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, and stand in solidarity with LGB people worldwide against this senseless hatred." Notice that they left out the T - for transgender. The absence of the T is intentional. They oppose trans rights. 

Two trans people were killed on Sunday - the bartender Daniel Davis Ashton, a trans man, and Kelly Loving, a trans woman. Just like the LGB Alliance, Rowling doesn't care about the lives or deaths of trans people.

Another vile transphobic account on Twitter that Rowling has "liked" is "Libs of TikTok," run by a woman named Chaya Raichik, who hates LGBT people, especially trans people. She has 1.5 million followers, and her incitement draws hateful mobs on those she attacks (for example, Drag Story telling hours at public libraries). She recently posted this screenshot.

Karen Attiah is an opinion editor at the Washington Post, and a friend of Jamal Khashoggi (who wrote for the Post); when Khashoggi was killed she campaigned against the Saudi government (which had him killed), seeking justice for him. Elon Musk, who is the new chaos agent owner of Twitter, has just allowed Kanye West back onto Twitter (he had been suspended for his antisemitic tweets). 

Attiah writes, "Elon Musk is jailbreaking another one of his white supremacist buddies" (she's quoting Kanye's first tweet after being unblocked). The photo on the right is of Kanye West. Chad Spencer responds "2022: Where we call a black man a white supremacist." Attiah then replies: "I said what I said."

What she said is correct. Kanye West and Candace Owens recently both appeared at a Paris fashion show wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "White Lives Matter" on the back. (See this Washington Post article on Owens and Kanye's turn to the racist and antisemitic far right: Candace Owens and Kanye West).

Why on earth did Rowling "like" the screenshot from Chaia Raichik? How did it even come to her notice? Because Raichik is an anti-trans inciter? Does Rowling support Kanye West's antisemitism and support of white supremacism? 

J. K. Rowling styles herself a liberal, a feminist, an antiracist, and an enemy of antisemitism. It's all a lie. She supports vicious transphobes like the LGB Alliance and Chaia Raichik, she turns a blind eye to antisemitism and racism. 

"Carrying the liberation movement like crowns"

On Twitter, I've been following an account that supports the Lions' Den (the new Palestinian terror group in the West Bank, mostly in Jenin and Nablus). I'm following them not because I agree with them (far from it!) but because I'm trying to understand them. Today there was a fight in Nablus between the IDF (Israeli army) and Lions' Den, and several Palestinian gunmen were killed by the IDF, including, it seems, the leader of the Lions' Den. (It's not entirely clear to me what's happened, because I've been following various Twitter accounts posting about the fight, and their information isn't complete yet).

The account I've been following just reposted this disturbing piece of propaganda (originally posted in late August):

I remember the first intifada, when I lived in Jerusalem from 1987-1989. When a Palestinian was killed by the IDF, the family would set up a mourning tent outside the house. I remember sometimes reading or hearing quotes by the mother of the person killed (often a young man who had been throwing stones or molotov cocktails at IDF soldiers), who would talk about how proud she was of her son for having fought against the IDF. I always wondered what she felt inside herself, when she wasn't making public statements. I think that one of the most horrible things that can happen to a parent is the death of their child, especially through violence. 

I was in Jerusalem in the summer of 2014, during the eruptions of violence in the West Bank and Jerusalem that led to war between Israel and Hamas. The final spark that began the war was the brutal murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir on July 2 by Jewish fanatics, Yosef Haim Ben-David and two minors whose names have not been released. The murderers were captured by the police several days later and have been convicted. The Israeli peace group Tag Meir organized a visit to the mourners' tent for Muhammad, and I went with a fairly large group of Israelis. My account of the visit is here: Visiting Mourning Tent for Muhammad Abu Khdeir. This is what I wrote:

I went yesterday with the group and it was very sad. There are two mourning tents, one where the men of the family are sitting, and the other, right next to the house, where the women, including Suha [mother of Muhammad], are sitting. I went into the men's tent and shook hands with a line of men of the family, and then went to the women's tent and sat while women went up to Suha to offer her comfort. She was distraught and crying as the row of women came up to her, one by one. 

I saw and heard only grief, no bombastic statements by propagandists about "women carrying the liberation movement like crowns." I hate this pseudo-pride that wipes away the profound grief that the mother and the rest of the family feels when their son is brutally murdered by the IDF. You can hear and read the same kind of bombastic nationalism, mixed with putting the grieving mothers on a pedestal, from the supporters of many wars.

Shireen Abu Akleh's funeral - "A Funeral Brutalized"

A Funeral Brutalized, by Oren Ziv, in 972.mag

I’ve documented my fair share of political funerals, but never have I witnessed what occurred as Shireen Abu Akleh’s body was laid to rest on Friday in Jerusalem. Despite the visible grief of Abu Akleh’s colleagues, who worked with her in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, and the other Palestinians in attendance who had regularly tuned in to her reporting over the years, the Israeli police’s behavior during the funeral procession was brutal, even by their very low standards.

Despite the documentation, which clearly shows the police attacking the pallbearers and mourners, the Israeli media, as well as a number of prominent international media outlets, continue to refer to what took place as “clashes.” Perhaps, then, it would be useful to set the record straight....

By now, the images of what happened next have spread far and wide, shocking the world. As the coffin was removed from the morgue, hundreds began marching toward the exit gate of the hospital, where dozens of riot police officers armed with batons were waiting for them. The police began brutally beating the mourners as they carried the coffin, almost causing it to fall. Contrary to police claims, no stones had been thrown. Only after the officers tried to disperse the crowd with batons and stun grenades were several objects, mostly bottles, thrown at them.

The attacks continued. Soldiers fired sponge-tipped bullets and threw stun grenades until, 15 minutes later, the body was whisked away in a vehicle. Even after that, the police did not allow Abu Akleh’s colleagues — who were not only there to report, but also to mourn — to leave the hospital yard, beating them once again with batons. As the vehicle made its way from the hospital yard, a police officer was seen removing the Palestinian flags that were draped on it. Only an hour later was everyone allowed to leave.

Read the rest of the article: A Funeral Brutalized, by Oren Ziv, in 972.mag

The funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh - comments by Daniel Seidemann

 Daniel Seidemann, on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DanielSeidemann/status/1525121381486186498)

1/

The dissonance among the press reports relating to the events surrounding today's funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh is stunning. The Arab language and international press, showing the footage express shock at the aggression of the Police.

2/

The Arab/int'l press place the violence on same occupation-continuum that led to the killing of Abu Akleh.
A small number of independent Israeli journalists concur & report accordingly.
A larger number of mainstream Israeli journalists are reporting it as a hasbara disaster.

3/

However, TV/Radio news report the funeral and the funeral procession as a large Israeli/Police success. "Minor incidents, it could have been much worse". Chapeau. By sinking deeper into occupation-denial, we are untethering from the rest of the world and how we're perceived.

4/ (https://twitter.com/DanielSeidemann/status/1525121381486186498)As usual, the superb reportage of @SuleimanMas1 who reports for Israeli State News, the heart of MLM, is a rare exception. There are a number of others.

https://twitter.com/SuleimanMas1/status/1525115982225842179

1/4 לא מצליח להבין את התנהלות משטרת ירושלים באירוע הזה. בהודעה רשמית של המשטרה נכתב שמשתתפי הלוויה זרקו אבנים וחפצים לעבר השוטרים בתחילת מסע הלוויה, ולכן השוטרים ״נאלצו להדוף אותם״. חזרתי לשידור החי מתחילת הלוויה ואני מצרף אותו כאן. רואים בבירור שהמשתתפים בלוויה מנסים לצאת מבית>>

1/4 fails to understand the conduct of the Jerusalem police in this incident. An official police statement said that the participants in the funeral had thrown stones and objects at the police at the beginning of the funeral procession, so the police "had to fend them off." I went back to the live broadcast from the beginning of the funeral and I attach it here. It is clear that the participants in the funeral are trying to leave the hospital > >

2/4 החולים כשהם נושאים את הארון של שירין אבו עאקלה. השוטרים נראים כשהם חוסמים את הלוויה, מכים את המשתתפים באלות, ואז רואים את זריקת הבקבוקים והחפצים. זה מתווסף להגעת השוטרים לבית משפחת אבו עאקלה ביום שהיא נהרגה והבקשה שלהם לפזר את ההמולה בתוך הבית ולהוריד את דגלי פלסטין>>

2/4 

carrying the coffin of Sheerin Abu Akala. The cops are seen blocking the funeral, beating the participants with batons, and then one sees the bottles and belongings being thrown. This is in addition to the arrival of the police at the home of the Abu Akala family on the day she was killed and their request to disperse the commotion inside the house and lower the Palestinian flags > >

3/4 ״בשל פגיעה בסדר הציבורי״.בשורה התחתונה, למשטרת ירושלים יש זכויות רבות בתקופה האחרונה: השקט בשער שכם ברמדאן, >>

בהודעה נכתב גם שנשמעו קריאות הסתה. הקריאות שאני שומע בוידאו הן: ״ברוח בדם נפדה את שירין. ברוח בדם נפדה את השהיד. אללה אכבר. תגבירו את קריאותכם, מי שקורא לא מת״.

3/4 "Due to violation of public order". The announcement also said that cries of incitement were heard. The cries I hear in the video are: 'With blood and spirit we will redeem Sheerin. With blood and spirit we will redeem the martyr. Allahu Akbar. Increase your cries, whoever cries out is not dead. ' Bottom line, the Jerusalem police have had many rights [I'm not sure this is the right translation] in recent times: the silence at the Nablus Gate during Ramadan, > >

4/4 הטיפול בהפרות הסדר במסגד אל אקצא, שבר האור שעברה בשקט יחסי. האירוע הזה מתנהל רע מתחילתו ועד סופו, וחבל.

4/4 The treatment of riots at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which broke the light relatively quietly. This incident is going badly from start to finish, which is a shame.

5/

One of the leitmotifs in the reporting is whether the Police was aggressive enough, or too tolerant, in their reaction to the flying of Palestinian flags during the procession. I heard no one state the simple truth: flying the Palestinian flag is legal under Israeli Law