Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion
Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute
Korean television has video of a Palestinian girl confronting Israeli soldiers over their firing (rubber bullets?) at demonstrating Palestinian children and youth.
She is being identified by my facebook friends as Huwaida Arraf, a Detroiter married to Adam Shapiro, a University of Michigan Poli Sci graduate, and a founder of International Solidarity Movement, a nonviolent activist organization.
/End
posted by Juan Cole @ 1/06/2009 11:50:00 AM
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33 Comments:
You know this, but "rubber" bullets are misnamed. They are steel bullets covered with a layer of plastic. And quite Lethal when fired at close range.
Huwaida Arraf (born 1976 in Detroit, Michigan), co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)..... Arraf majored in Arabic and Judaic studies and political science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor....
What strikes me in this is how casual the soldiers are as the aim and prepare to fire. Clearly they are in no imminent danger -- as they are being confronted by the brave girl, they are not taking cover behind rocks or barriers. They are standing in the open, up straight, on top of a rock in one case, and carefully taking aim to fire at the demonstrators. Their body language is clear -- they are not afraid for their own well-being. And yet, absent this girl's intervention, they seem to have no reservation about casually firing into a crowd that poses no threat to them.
This is the thing that slays me. This casual attitude toward violence. I cannot fathom this. Thank providence for the accident of my birth in a part of the world where I don't have to face this daily. And bravo to this girl, and to the cameraman who captured this.
She's a brave girl - and cute too !!
Memories of the Tiananmen Tank guy.
are u sure this isn't in the west bank?
Wow. Non-violent bravery right there! You go, girl!
Beth in VA
That's Huwaida Arraf. A Palestinian American, and one of the co-founders of the International Solidarity Movement.
Dear Juan,
What a painful video to watch! I am shedding tears as I am writing these lines. To reduce a proud people to their present state where they are being deprived of their human rights, hungered and killed in their tens and hundreds every day without our elected representatives even as much as raising their voices (one may think of the deafening silence of President-elect Barak Obama), is a colossal stain on the pages of the human history.
I shed tears also for those two Israeli soldiers who in their own ways are victims of their demented leaders; how are they to cope with the pangs of conscience when later they will come to realise that they were mere tools in a wrong-headed policy of suppressing another people?
"If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die?" (The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Sec. 1.)
BF.
I went to law school with her (American, WCL). Very nice, very passionate about justice for palestine. I hope she remains safe....
This is to be watched:
Gazans flee homes and seek refuge in UN schools (AlJazeera English, 5 January 2009)
BF.
people Like Huwaida Arraf are bright lights in a dark world, she has been doing this for years, she was one the went to the Seige in the Church at Bethlehem and put her body on the line again and again, Also involved in the Ship Dignity bringing medical supplies to Gaza which was just rammed by the Israelis
plenty of space in that backpack for some explosives.
Huwaida Arraf Shapiro.
Maybe Tony Judt's idea of a single state solution is is not so crazy after all.
A girl with balls!
The following interview with Ms Phyllis Bennis of Institute for Policy Studies is very informative and lucid:
Historical amnesia and Gaza (YouTube, 8 minutes)
Real News, January 6, 2009
"Several days into Israel's military operation in Gaza, The Real News speaks to Phyllis Bennis about the conflict. After giving a brief background on the events that led to the invasion of the Gaza Strip, Phyllis explains the various ways in which the United States facilitates Israel's activities. According to Phyllis, it is the unquestioning military and political support from Washington that makes Israel's actions possible."
BF.
A heroic example for all.
-BlueEyes-
Dear Juan,
The following article by Professor Avi Shlaim* (of University of Oxford) is an essential reading for all. Perhaps you wish kindly to give it an especial place in your blog.
How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian disaster
The Guardian, Wednesday 7 January 2009
Professor Shlaim concludes his piece thus:
"This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so."
BF.
______
* Professor Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army in the mid 1960s. He has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
Watch Alan Dershowitz turn the entire invasion on its head, as he tells Riz Khan that it is Hamas's propaganda victory producing worldwide protests, "happy" to provoke Israel into killing Palestinians, as it seeks to kill any Israeli citizen. He uses Rovian tactics to accuse the other of what he himself advocates for.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2009/01/2009167251907256.html
Heroic.
If one of our national "leaders" (Harry Reid, for example, or Dick Cheney), or a Necon like Frum, Kristol, et al came upon her they would most likely wet themselves while cowering before her.
Ah, but they save the fighting (and dying) for others. For the time being, anyway...
If that's not Huwaida, then she has a double.
She is very brave. I wonder what it was that let her get that close to the Israeli soldiers, and face no repercussions for pushing down one of their guns.
Was it that she's female? Was it the camera? Was it the fact that she spoke English, and with an American accent? (As did, it seemed, the soldier she confronted...)
- caia
The problem is that the Palestinians think its OK to fire missles into Isreal. Then they complain when Isreal fights back. Such idiots and the same goes for those who support them.
this lady is at least one hundred thousand times more courageous than Barak Obama..........
What intrigues me most, is that the president of Syria Mr Bashar ul Asad seems quite right when he says that How come a whole nation comprising of billions of people can be tagged terrorist???? Hamas was after all elected right under the supervision of an ex-USA preseident..and UN. i am very confused about the political ethics of USA governemtn so far....somebody explain pls
Gee. Peace is such a fleeting goal, I agree.
How about we ask:
* “Who supports a TWO state solution?
* Does Hamas support one? no way...
* Do you support the original (first) resolution ever made by the UN, in 1948? It was for a two state solution….Forget 1967. Let’s take the ORIGINAL
1948 UN solution.
Check out an old post here:
http://markbnj.blogspot.com/2007/06/mideast-sick-to-my-stomach.html
and here...
http://markbnj.blogspot.com/2006/03/mideast-academy-awards-palestine-no.html
And start by saying, EVERY Single Arab country REJECTED it, but Israel Accepted it (then too!)
That needs to be the start to mid-east peace.
Accept a two state solution, on the proposed 1948 borders.
Oh yeah, let’s really go back to 1924, when Sir Winston (jackarse) totally messed up the Mideast for the first time when he was High Commissioner of Palestine, and he gave away HALF of the existing British Mandate to a “poker buddy” to create a new state called “Jordan”, which never existed before that!
If you take THAT as the full land of “PALESTINE”, then the ENTIRE “arab” (palestinian) area would be in Jordan, take a look at the UN Archives where I found that.
Go check out my blog for more info
Another amazing woman that has put her *** on the line in Palestine and elsewhere is Caoimhe Butterly, Irish, and I have been blogging about here here:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/90363#comment241410
She was aboard The Dignity that was recently attack in international water attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza
Yeah that is Huwaida, I went to law school with her in DC. She was always pretty kick ass and just showing it even more so.
Such courage.
Huwaida's not alone. At about 4 seconds before the end, another woman's head enters the frame briefly from the right.
Remember that this is a news clip, edited and framed. Don't make snap judgments based on incomplete information.
Her poses with her arms -- are those sports referee gestures, or do they have some other specific meaning that they communicate?
Over at the phillipweiss blog, a commenter has posted this,
"Cindy and Craig Corrie believe this was taken at Bi’lin in the West Bank, probably at one of the weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the Wall. And, yes this appears to be Huwaida Arraf."
Another person said,
"I am told this is the great Huwaida Arraf, an American, in the West Bank last January."
In any case, the footage is remarkable.
"The problem is that the Palestinians think its OK to fire missles into Isreal. Then they complain when Isreal fights back. Such idiots and the same goes for those who support them.
The problem is that you don't know what you are talking about. The facts, as documented, show that the exact opposite is the case the overwhelming majority of the time. the Israelis think it is OK to attack the Palestinians, not to mention steal their land, and then they whine when the Palestinians fight back. Such criminal idiots, and the same goes for those who support them.
Her 'poses with her arms' are her attempt to block the line of sight of the soldier's rifle.
When they do this in front of camera, what happens behind the scene!
can we stop referring to them as rubber bullets, and more accurately refer to them as rubber-tipped metal bullets?
If that's not Huwaida, then she has a double.
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