Daphne Anson: Poetic Li[n]es

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday, 7 September 2012

Poetic Li[n]es

It's been quite a fortnight for lady poets intent on waxing devilishly lyrical about Israel.

Taking as her Muse that map of 1700 that never was (the map that I blogged about here and which is still being touted as the real McCoy on anti-Israel websites!) Palestinian poet Samah Sabawi, who was the keynote speaker at the BDS Conference in Byron Bay, has composed lines beginning:

"A word on a map

Offends

A reminder of

An original sin

Ethnic cleansing

People wiped off

Like letters

Written in the sand ...."

On Al Quds Day in London Yemeni poet Sanasino railed thus against "the Zionist entity":

In an article published on the Sunday following the outrageous harassment of patrons and disruptions to the Batsheva Dance Company's performance at Edinburgh's Playhouse Theatre (thuggishness so graphically depicted here), Scotland's National Poet and avowed "liberal" Liz Lochhead chose the medium of prose to reiterate her support of BDS:

"I have always been the kind of liberal who believes in total artistic and intellectual freedom and the self-evident value of free cultural exchange – even naïve enough to think art and politics don't, and shouldn't, mix.

Yet I was glad to join other Scottish artists and writers in signing a letter protesting the appearance of the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company at the Edinburgh International Festival this week. Why? Because I have been profoundly changed by what I witnessed and experienced first hand during a short trip with a few student friends and some other poets and singers to Palestine this June.

We started off staying for a few nights as guests in Aida Camp in Bethlehem. This meant-to-be-temporary refugee camp of about 4000 people, some 650or so families, is exactly as old as me (and I'm 64) – having been established under a terrified flurry of canvas tents in 1948 as the grandparents and parents of the present generation either fled for their lives or were, at best, forcibly displaced from their homes and villages as the State of Israel was created...

Israel denies human rights to Palestinians. Denies that they are human beings at all....

....We must use all means. Including protesting at a dance company. Including total cultural and academic boycott."

Among the rejoinders in the comments section of the newspaper website where the above appears are these:

[First]:"The Aida camp is completely within Area A, meaning that it is under the full administrative and security control of the Palestinian Authority. It is under full Arab rule. The PA, with the funds it receives from the West, could choose to improve the camp, or build an adjacent town to move the residents there.

But it refuses to do so.

And the reason is because this camp, as well as all the other camps in the West Bank and Gaza, are propaganda tools, for useful idiots like Liz Lochhead to visit on carefully supervised dog-and-pony shows so she can write articles like this one bashing Israel. But Israel couldn't fix the camp if it wanted to. It is not allowed to!

Not one camp under PA or Hamas control has been dismantled since Oslo."

[Second]: "You pretend to have gone on a visit with an open mind and without an agenda; who are you kidding? Have you visited Sderot? No, because the Isreali [sic] children of are non[e] of your concern. It is not your concern that these children of Sderot have started the school year while rockets from Gaza keep landing in south Israel every day, inspite of Hamas signing a truce, while Israel has not yet responded to these attacks; instead it spent tens of millions of dollars on shelters in Sderot to allow the children there to go to school. Your description of the overall conditions in Gaza is false. The conditions in Gaza may not match those you are used to in your native Scotland, but there are no shortages in Gaza and the local merchants there (by their own words) can get anything they want from Egypt, except that the prefer Israeli products because they are of better quality. Why don't you tell your readers that Palestinians get more foreign aid per capita than any other group in the world? Why don't you tell your readers that a survey just found that there are 600 milionair[e]s in Gaza?...."

[Third]: 'As Liz Lochhead proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with anti-Israel activists of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the nearest thing Edinburgh gets to Nazi-style Brown Shirts, she conveniently omits to tell us about their anti-Semitic members that they "keep under control" or their leader's prized Hezbullah flag....

"I saw someone in this crowd with a Hizbullah flag....I wish I had brought mine!"- Mick Napier....

It's time tae "send her homeward tae think again"!'

5 comments:

Ian G7 September 2012 at 10:16
Sabawi’s riddle - This is Jerusalem

I read the poem.
A riddle
Solved contrarily.

Eden.
Pesach
And Exodus.

Thence exile,
Purim and return.

Yet again diaspora, exile
And -

Death
Mechanical, bureaucratic, methodical.

On the high seas
There is no Cherub, only
Men - with guns.

We cry, we cry

This is a second Exodus.
This is not Eden.
This is Jerusalem; this is
The city of God.
The Hope of all Mankind
Comes here.

What's not to like?

© GIG 07092012
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Ian7 September 2012 at 20:45
In the line "(thuggishness so graphically depicted here)" there's no link at "here".

Also note the map is now referred to by AFP as a "pre-1948 globe-map", I guess even for them some lies are just to blatant to repeat. Of course it's still wrong.

This is good.
"Pro-Palestinians" don't seem to be "pro-anyone"
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1609/_pro_palestinians_don_t_seem_to_be_pro_anyone_
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Replies
Daphne Anson7 September 2012 at 21:55
Thanks, Ian. I must remember to test my links more assiduously. Have added the link, which is to Richard Millett's post.
Interesting about AFP.
Thanks for the Commentator link.
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Jewess9 September 2012 at 01:12
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Jerusalem is the capital of Isael
Despite the lies you spread with your friends in the EU
Eretz was given from G-d to his chosen, the Jews
Get over it, Ishmael
5,000 years is enough time, so move on and
Reclaim your home back in dusty Amman.

ReplyDelete
Replies
geoffff10 September 2012 at 00:41
Sabawi has changed the providence of that map with a single cut and paste

"On July 25th ... owner of Saffron restaurant who happens to be Palestinian posted this world map from the early 1700, showing the state of Palestine. His caption was “We need more world maps that are correct, such as this one!” ...'

Has become :

"When a young Palestinian-American restaurant owner posted a photo of what he believed to be a historic, pre-1948 globe-map of Palestine on his facebook page, he was attacked for posting an ‘offensive’ map that replaced Israel with Palestine."

Thanks for freezing this for the memory banks. It shows that the chief Palestinian activists are quite cynical are about what they do.You would hope a high school kid would pick up that map was twentieth century.
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The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
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