U.S + Nazis + Arab-Muslim leader Haj Amin al-Husseini

Declassified Papers Show U.S. Recruited Ex-Nazis

New York Times:

In chilling detail, the report also elaborates on the close working relationship between Nazi leaders and the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who later claimed that he sought refuge in wartime Germany only to avoid arrest by the British.

In fact, the report says, the Muslim leader was paid “an absolute fortune” of 50,000 marks a month (when a German field marshal was making 25,000 marks a year). It also said he energetically recruited Muslims for the SS, the Nazi Party’s elite military command, and was promised that he would be installed as the leader of Palestine after German troops drove out the British and exterminated more than 350,000 Jews there.

On Nov. 28, 1941, the authors say, Hitler told Mr. Husseini that the Afrika Corps and German troops deployed from the Caucasus region would liberate Arabs in the Middle East and that “Germany’s only objective there would be the destruction of the Jews.”

The report details how Mr. Husseini himself was allowed to flee after the war to Syria — he was in the custody of the French, who did not want to alienate Middle East regimes — and how high-ranking Nazis escaped from Germany to become advisers to anti-Israeli Arab leaders and “were able to carry on and transmit to others Nazi racial-ideological anti-Semitism.”

“You have an actual contract between officials of the Nazi Foreign Ministry with Arab leaders, including Husseini, extending after the war because they saw a cause they believed in,” Dr. Breitman said. “And after the war, you have real Nazi war criminals — Wilhelm Beisner, Franz Rademacher and Alois Brunner — who were quite influential in Arab countries.”

In October 1945, the report says, the British head of Palestine’s Criminal Investigation Division told the assistant American military attaché in Cairo that the mufti might be the only force able to unite the Palestine Arabs and “cool off the Zionists. Of course, we can’t do it, but it might not be such a damn bad idea at that.”

“We have more detailed scholarly accounts today of Husseini’s wartime activities, but Husseini’s C.I.A. file indicates that wartime Allied intelligence organizations gathered a healthy portion of this incriminating evidence,” the report says. “This evidence is significant in light of Husseini’s lenient postwar treatment.” He died in Beirut in 1974.

West-Eastern Divan: Arab + Israeli Youth Orchastra

Wiki says:

"Daniel Barenboim (born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born Israeli pianist and conductor. He is also known for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Sevilla-based orchestra of young Arab and Jewish musicians."

His official website: Daniel Barenboim

In the beginning there was sound - BBC Radio lectures by DB

Quote from WIKI:

The West-Eastern Divan is a youth orchestra based in Sevilla, Spain, consisting of musicians from countries in the Middle East, of Egyptian, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian background. The Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian-American academic Edward Said founded the orchestra in 1999, and named the ensemble after an anthology of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The first orchestra workshop was in Weimar, Germany in 1999,^[1] after the organisation had received over 200 applications from Arab music students.^[2] Daniel Barenboim has also expressed interest in musicians from Iran (a non-Arab country but in conflict with Israel) and three Iranian musicians are to play in the Orchestra each year.

The aim of the West-Eastern Divan is to promote understanding between Israelis and Palestinians and pave the way for a peaceful and fair solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Barenboim himself has spoken of the ensemble as follows.:

"The Divan is not a love story, and it is not a peace story. It has very flatteringly been described as a project for peace. It isn't. It's not going to bring peace, whether you play well or not so well. The Divan was conceived as a project against ignorance. A project against the fact that it is absolutely essential for people to get to know the other, to understand what the other thinks and feels, without necessarily agreeing with it. I'm not trying to convert the Arab members of the Divan to the Israeli point of view, and [I'm] not trying to convince the Israelis to the Arab point of view. But I want to - and unfortunately I am alone in this now that Edward died a few years ago - ...create a platform where the two sides can disagree and not resort to knives."^[3]

[read a bit more on Wiki]

Criticism of U.N.'s attitude towards middle east human rights situation

1. “Human Rights in the Middle East” by Robert L. Bernstein. U.N Watch.


2. video of one point of view of the middle east conflict

what do you say?

"Other Israel" Film Festival: "Coffee, between reality and imagination"

Last night I saw this series of 11 films by different young Arab and Jewish, Israeli, filmmakers from Tel Aviv University.
I will share my notes, impressions, questions and opinions soon.


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Film description by the Festival:

COFFEE: BETWEEN REALITY AND IMAGINATION
Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers embarked on a journey to create short films, fiction or documentary, inspired by Coffee, which takes part in Middle East cultural identity and social reality. Coffee creates a connection between different people, no matter who they are. Each film gives a personal and courageous point of view on the reality in which we live in.

Other Israel Film Festival: World Class Kids

Last night I saw the film 'World Class Kids'. I will write here about it, and would love to hear your comments and have a discussion!

Yael

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From the Festival's description:

WORLD CLASS KIDS
An Arab, a Jew, a Chinese, and a Philippine walk to school one morning…”—sounds like the beginning of an old joke, but that’s not the case. These are some of the second-grade pupils attending the Tel Nordau Elementary School, in the heart of Tel Aviv. The film follows the pupils’ interactions among themselves and with Meirav, their teacher. Meirav has to adapt the ill-suited educational materials, which are in contradiction with the needs of her classroom’s post-modern melting pot. The film follows the class throughout one school year, which becomes volatile as the Gaza War upsets the social dynamics in the classroom.

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There Must Be Another Way- Arab-Jewish, Israeli Duet

Duet of Arab-Israeli and Jewish Israeli women, singing together, representing Israel in the Eurovision song contest 2009.

NYC's JCC's film festival - "Other Israel" - will screen a US premier of the 70-min. film titled like the song, following this duo as they go to the contest after the military operation in Gaza, and despite criticism from left and right. There will be Q & A with singer Mira Awad.

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About the song, from Wikipedia:

"There Must Be Another Way" is a song by Israeli singers Noa and Mira Awad, and was Israel's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, finishing 16th with 53 points. The song competed in the first semifinal on 12 May, qualifying for the final round. The song was composed by Noa, Awad, and Gil Dor, and contains lyrics in English, Hebrew and Arabic.^[1][2]

Awad, an Arab-Israeli, and Noa, a Jewish-Israeli, performed it together as a song that emphasises hope and understanding through common humanity. The singers describe "There Must Be Another Way" not as a song of peace, but as a simple call to respect the humanity of others.^[3]

The song also has a Hebrew title, "Einaiych" (Hebrew script: עינייך; English translation: "Your Eyes").

There was some controversy about the duo performing together for Eurovision in left wing circles in Israeli and Palestinian circles. Some felt it was hypocritical to choose them following the Gaza siege of January 2009, and that this did not reflect on the reality of life within Israel between those Israeli citizens who are Jewish and those who are Arab.^[4] In an interview on National Public Radio, Awad acknowledged this criticism, and said, "We're not naïve enough to think that we're representing any existing situation. We are trying to show a possible situation that we believe is possible if we just make the necessary efforts."^[5]

It's not about conflict, but about people.

Copy pasted from the "Other Israel" Film festival website:
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OUR MISSION

Founded in 2007, The Other Israel Film Festival uses film to foster social awareness and cultural understanding. The Festival presents dramatic and documentary films, as well as engaging panels about history, culture, and identity on the topic of minority populations in Israel with a focus on Arab citizens of Israel/Palestinian Citizen's of Israel, who make up twenty percent of Israel's population. Our goal is to promote awareness and appreciation of the diversity of the state of Israel, provide a dynamic and inclusive forum for exploration of, and dialogue about populations in margins of Israeli society, and encourage cinematic expression and creativity dealing with these themes. Our programming is guided by our mission to showcase quality cinema that brings to the big screen the human stories and daily lives of Arab Citizens and other minorities groups in Israel, often overlooked by mainstream Israeli society and culture.

LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER

The Other Israel Film Festival was founded to be a vehicle for cultural change and social insights into the nature of Israel as a democracy and the complex condition of the lives of its minorities that are living in the Jewish Sate. Israel's largest minority within its midst is the 1.7 million Arabs. In its 60 years of existence Israel has fostered another group of people who have put down roots in Israel and have born their Hebrew speaking children in its boundaries - Israel's 300,000 foreign workers. It is not about the conflict - it is not about taking sides - this festival is about people.

Film can be a powerful tool, it can show new sides, change perceptions, and evoke emotions. Through the use of film we are provided with a human dimension that extends beyond the daily news bulletins. Film can explore the deeper meaning of everyday living. Through these films, the festival aims to present the lives, dreams and strengths of the Arab minority and to show their participation in Israeli life. Foreign workers present a unique condition in Israeli society and we aim to familiarize our audience with the faces of "foreign workers."

I care deeply about Israel and its future. Growing up in a democratic Jewish state has without any doubt shaped the cultural and national identity of all of its inhabitants and citizens - who know no other home. These films and artistic expressions are paving the way to co-existence and a new, more inclusive culture in the Middle East.

Sincerely,
Carole Zabar
Founder

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Criticism about the Israeli Arab and Jewish radical left de-Jewifying Israel

In its core, Israel has the conflict of being both a democratic state and a Jewish state. To make Israel equal to all its citizens, there is a suggestion that its Jewish and Zionist cultural elements could be removed from it so that it can have a more universal and inclusive character. That may sound quite nice, but it creates further complications.

I voted for the radical left wing in the last elections, and a friend of mine sent me this article to chew on. How would Israel look like if it wasn't predominantly Jewish? How would Israel 'speak' as a state if it could not refer to itself as 'The Jewish People" in the "Land of Israel", but rather as a state for different people, who are all "Israelis" but of different religions, ethnicities and sub-cultures? And to what extent will many Israeli-Arab leaders, representatives and citizens advocate towards a state of predominantly Arab characteristics? Rather than adopt a universalist point of view of multi-culturalism?

I am not suggesting an obvious answer, because I don't know any.

I invite you to read this thought-provoking article by Jewish, Israeli, left-winger and well-known Israeli political scientist, Shlomo Avineri.

Budrus- Israelis & Palestinans unite for a village cause

Going tonight to see the movie 'Budrus' at Quad Cinema.



From the film's official website:

It takes a village to unite the most divided people on earth.

Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. [...more].

"Seeds of Peace"- Empowering youths for coexistance

Organization's Mission:

Our mission is to help young people from regions of conflict develop the leadership skills necessary to advance reconciliation and coexistence.

Treaties are negotiated by governments; Peace is made by people.

Seeds of Peace is doing what no government can. It is sowing the seeds of peace among the next generation of leaders. It is educating them to develop empathy, respect and confidence. It is equipping them with communication and negotiation skills. It is enabling them to see the human face of their enemies. By empowering them to emerge as tomorrow’s leaders, Seeds of Peace is working to forge the personal relationships so critical to peacemaking and reconciliation.

Incredible Trailer:

Encounter Point & Burdus Trailers - Israeli-Palestinian 'Bridges'

Here's a continuation of my exploration of documentaries and online footage of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians communicating with each other in non-violent terms:






Encounter Point- Interview with producer







From the website of the The Parents Circle - Families Forum

The Parents Circle – Families Forum : Introduction

"Peace is possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable (…) the members of the Parents Circle have experienced this truth In the depths of their Suffering and loss. They have found that there Is more that unites us than Divides us, that we are All members of one family, the human family (…)" Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus
Letter to The Parents Circle – Families Forum, April 2004

It is, as far as we know, a world precedent that bereaved families, victims from both sides, embark on a joint reconciliation mission while the conflict is still active.
Consisting of several hundreds of bereaved families, half Palestinian and half Israeli, The Families Forum has played a crucial role since its inception in 1995, in spearheading a reconciliation process between Israelis and Palestinians. The Forum members have all lost immediate family members due to the violence in the region.

Voices of Tolerance in Israel

Beautiful!

"My So-Called Enemy"- Israeli-Palestinan attempts at bridging gaps

"My So-Called Enemy" is a kind-hearted exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through they eyes of 8 young Jewish & Arab women who are meeting in America in order to bridge the gap between them. I found it to show a lot of the realistic mosaic of Israeli culture, showing both the despair of being unable to bridge the gap and the hope that it is actually very possible, at least starting on the personal level.

I was very curious to see this wonderful film at the Woodstock Film Festival a few weeks ago, sitting next to filmaker Lisa Gossels. I think I was crying half of the film because I found the subject to be very emotional and personal. I would really like to share my thoughts and feelings about this film with you, but it will be a challenge. So if you're interested, check again as I will post it up later on.

For now:Movie Website- Watch Trailer & get more info.

I recommend this film for opening a discussion about the situation, and for those who wish to understand more aspects of this all-too-famous story.

Read About Seeking Common Ground and Building Bridges for Peace