Our Wednesday News Analysis | Why German state racism is now directed at the Palestinians

Source: Jews for Justice for Palestinians
https://jfjfp.com/why-german-state-racism-is-now-directed-at-the-palestinians/

Jonathan Cook writes in Middle East Eye
23 November 2022

The Holocaust serves, paradoxically, as an alibi for Europeans to assume they are morally superior to others, as the cancellation of an arts prize to Caryl Churchill shows

There are troubling insights to be gained into modern European racism from the German arts community’s decision to revoke a lifetime achievement award to the respected British playwright Caryl Churchill over her trenchant support for the Palestinians.

On 31 October, Churchill was stripped of the European Drama Prize she had been given in April in recognition of her life’s work. The decision was backed by Petra Olschowski, the arts minister of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, who said: “We as a country take a clear and non-negotiable stance against any form of antisemitism. This is all the more reason why a prize funded by the state cannot be awarded under the given circumstances.”

The jury – comprising eminent figures in German cultural life – said they had had their attention drawn, since making the award, to two problems. First, Churchill had backed BDS, a Palestinian grassroots movement calling for a boycott of Israeli institutions directly involved in Israel’s decades-long oppression of the Palestinians.

Criticism of Israel is not criticism of Jews. And those who claim it is are playing with fire

Back in 2019, an overwhelming majority of the German parliament designated support for BDS as “antisemitic”.

And second, the panel had been reminded of a short play called Seven Jewish Children, written 13 years ago in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s savage and extended bombardment of Gaza’s besieged Palestinian population in the winter of 2008-09. In a statement, the German jury said the play could “be regarded as being antisemitic”.

In Churchill’s now largely forgotten play, Jewish parents articulate their trauma generation by generation...

Read more: Why German state racism is now directed at the Palestinians

JERUSALEM’S LAST DECADE OF REVOLT

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/11/jerusalems-last-decade-of-revolt/

By FAYROUZ SHARQAWI
Published November 24, 2022

During the past ten years, Jerusalem has reemerged as the spark that sets off Palestinian revolt, culminating in the Unity Intifada of 2021.

"It was a decade of weaving, threading, and re-imagining.
It was a decade that rejuvenated our courage to dream of a free Palestine,
and to etch it into the spaces we inhabit."

Palestinians have led many uprisings in the history of the Zionist colonization of Palestine, from the 1936 Great Palestinian Revolt, to the First and Second intifadas, to the Unity Intifada of 2021. Yet these grand revolts are only significant in how they have encompassed all the other revolts that have preceded them.

For the past ten years, I made my home in a small apartment in Shu’fat, just north of Jerusalem’s Old City, after having lived in Jerusalem for more than two decades. Shu’fat is one of only 18 small and heavily policed areas afforded to Palestinians in Jerusalem.

I can see the Al-Sahel (the meadow) area west of my balcony. Most of it remains empty, untainted by construction. Yet it is also a strange scene for a community that suffers from discriminatory restrictions in housing opportunities.

The policies of displacement of the Israeli colonial authorities targeting the Palestinian presence in the city systematically prevents us from gaining building permits. If we build without them, our houses are demolished. In some cases, we are even forced to destroy our own homes.

Throughout my ten years in Shu’fat, hardly any Palestinian homes have been built in Al-Sahel. Yet year after year, just a few hundred meters further to the west, the buildings of the Ramat Shlomo colony grow a little taller and expand ever outward, slowly devouring Shu’fat’s lands.

Palestinian lands are confiscated and handed over by Israeli colonial authorities for the building of more colonies, more colonial roads, and more industrial zones.

Some lands are declared as national or municipal parks. These are intended by design to act as green barriers, meant to stunt the Palestinian community’s capacity for growth.

It’s almost ironic. This past decade has enforced a paradoxical and warped realization — where in Jerusalem, trees take on a new meaning, becoming an instrument of displacement rather than flourishing...

Read more: Jerusalem’s last decade of revolt

PALESTINE DAY 2022: WHY IS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN OBSERVED?

Source: Jagran Josh
https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/palestine-day-why-international-day-of-solidarity-observed-1669640256-1

Palestine Day 2022: International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People is observed by the United Nations on around 29 November each year. It aims to provide solidarity with Palestinian people.

The United Nations observes the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on or around November 29 each year. Palestinian Day is observed in accordance with the demands made by the General Assembly in resolutions 32/40 B from 2 December 1977, 34/65 D from 12 December 1979, and later resolutions approved under the agenda item "Question of Palestine."

Why is the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinians Observed?

The United Nations sponsors the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People as a day of global awareness. The United Nations offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi, as well as their main office in New York, host events for Palestinian Day. As Resolution 181's anniversary falls on November 29, this day is celebrated on that date. This plan was adopted in 1947 in an effort to divide the country into two states in order to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In resolution 60/37 from 1 December 2005, the Assembly asked the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division for Palestinian Rights to continue organizing an annual exhibition on Palestinian rights or a cultural event in collaboration with the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN as part of the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29 November.

Significance

The resolution on the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People also calls on Member States to keep supporting and publicizing the Day of Solidarity with as many people as possible.

The General Assembly's definition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination free from outside interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right to reunification with their country, are all highlighted by the International Day of Solidarity every year. These rights include the right to return to one's home and proper citizenship...

Read more: Palestine Day 2022: Why is International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Observed?