[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [HumanRights] A Palestinian in Deutschland

Sun May 29 23:16:45 CDT 2011

>  they have also resisted the authoritarian
> nanny state erosion with would force them to proceed at a snail's pace on 
> the Autobahn.  I can't help wondering why.  

That's what their high powered expensive cars are for. 
I assume they do have speed limits for non-autobahn roads. 

I 'm from Connecticut. Why pick on this admittedly mildly liberal (despite Lieberman) little state?

It seems like you're a states rights guy. States have rules also—you can't escape them. Perhaps every city , county and village should have autonomy…?

On May 29, 2011, at 6:32 PM, E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森 wrote:

> All interesting observations.
> 
> I can't avoid noticing that the Germans not only developed the technology for
> high speed automobile transit but they have also resisted the authoritarian
> nanny state erosion with would force them to proceed at a snail's pace on 
> the Autobahn.  I can't help wondering why.  
> 
> Perhaps it is because Germany is a "small sovereign state" 
> and can decide it's own destiny rather than
> be beholden to the whims of its (distant) neighbors the way that folks
> in Connecticut seek to control how Arizonans live?
> 
> "Let a country be small and it's people few" - Lao Zi
> 
> 
> 
> I heard a certain Buckley (the un-hip Wm., not Lord...) say that the Germans possess some
> fundamental ethos which accounts for their tendency for development and prosperity.
> 
> I also heard a lady give a talk once in which she said that the fundamental reason
> for the negative aggressive character of the German people is that they consume
> blood sausages.
> 
> Actually it seems rather racist for Palestinians to act as they do
> despite their being the sole proprietors of truth.
> 
> Delusions of Judenstaat seem to be common.
> But one would as well try to resist Tolstoy.
> 
> Bring me my Chariot of fire...
> I will not cease from Mental Fight,
> Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand
> Till we have built Jerusalem
> Here on this empty gas can.
> 
> (apologies to Milton Berle)
> 
> 
> On 2011-5-30 5:26, Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>> 
>> A determined American-Palestinian. It's his American citizenship that keeps him relatively safe in the West Bank. His theme is emotional, constant and repetitive, but that is necessary. 
>> 
>> --mkb
>> 
>> Begin forwarded message:
>> 
>>> From: "Mazin Qumsiyeh" <mazin at qumsiyeh.org>
>>> Date: May 29, 2011 6:50:46 AM CDT
>>> To: Mort Brussel <brussel at illinois.edu>
>>> Cc: Human Rights Newsletter <humanrights at lists.qumsiyeh.org>
>>> Subject: [HumanRights] A Palestinian in Deutschland
>>> 
>>> A Palestinian in Deutschland
>>> 
>>> 
>>> <http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2011/05/palestinian-in-deutchland.ht
>>> ml>
>>> http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2011/05/palestinian-in-deutchland.htm
>>> l
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> At speeds that at one time reached 208 km/hour we drove the length of
>>> historic Palestine in about three hours on the Autobahn between Fulda and
>>> Munich.  Idyllic villages appeared occasionally between the endless green
>>> and fertile fields. I was with three men who had idealism and youth and
>>> energy. Six of us had slept last night on floors and couches in the student
>>> service center of The University of Applied Sciences in Fulda after a talk
>>> to some 50 students and faculty.  Then onto Munich, where I gave a talk to
>>> some 100 people.  Tomorrow I go to Berlin, then Stockholm, then Rome. It is
>>> strange to be in this land hearing the language that reminded me of my
>>> graduate career (I studied German reading as part of my needed skills for
>>> the research on mammals).  But it also reminded me that this is the language
>>> of all early Zionist leaders. The vision of a Jewish state freed from its
>>> original non-Jewish inhabitants was articulated so clearly in those early
>>> writings and protocols of the World Zionist Congress. "Der Judenstaat" by
>>> Theodor Herzl remains a classic.  Ironically, the fastest growing Jewish
>>> population in the world today is right here in Germany.  I wondered why
>>> among those prospering in Germany of all places cling to the lies of
>>> Zionism. But Germany is a land of contradictions.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> It is not only a contradiction between the modern reality of today and the
>>> horrors of WWII. Here is a modern democratic country where free speech and
>>> historical examination is open but it is forbidden and punishable to examine
>>> the historical record of the Jewish holocaust.  Here where the economy is
>>> booming and the country beautiful but the government seems content to obey
>>> whatever is dictated by the US State Department (itself obeying orders from
>>> Tel Aviv).  Here where the lessons of violations of human rights are learnt
>>> well but exceptions are made for the massive violations of human rights of
>>> millions of Palestinians.   In my answer to a Zionist at Fulda, I stated
>>> that he is engaged in Nakba denial and that this is just as bad as denial of
>>> the Jewish holocaust (a crime in Germany).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> In the last few years, I gave talks to tens of thousands of people in
>>> hundreds of cities around the world.  I had interactions with hundreds of
>>> Zionists, many who have worked hard to prevent my appearance but who then
>>> had to come and try to make their points.  Not one of those Zionists was
>>> honest; their talking points being the same tired ones intended to deflect
>>> attention from and not have to deal with facts of ethnic cleansing,
>>> colonization and land theft. How do you justify the largest post WWII
>>> refugee population and sleep at night?  The desperate attempts involve
>>> regurgitating easily dispelled myths.  In all cases, they try to use and
>>> abuse Jewish history in Europe to garner sympathy.  But even this lost its
>>> effectiveness as a fig-leaf to cover for war crimes and crimes against
>>> humanity directed at a people who had nothing to do with what happened in
>>> Europe. Even here in Germany and despite a guilt complex, facts seem to
>>> trump the Zionist perfidy.  It is not even possible anymore to hide the
>>> Nazi-Zionist collaboration of the 1930s and early 1940s let alone to hide
>>> what they did to 12 million Palestinian natives.  It is not possible to hide
>>> the fact that Zionists and Jew-haters share the same goal of attributing to
>>> Jews what Zionists and their racist apartheid state is doing.  Hence
>>> Zionists insist on using Jewish symbols on their racist state. 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> People around the world are now aware of how damaging Zionism is and was
>>> (including to Jews around the world). How do you justify the fact that a
>>> beautiful ancient land was raped and pillaged and cleansed of its natives to
>>> be transformed to that last apartheid system on earth? Most know that
>>> Zionism is to Judaism what Crusaderism was to Christianity and BinLadenism
>>> to Islam. What Zionists promised fellow Jews was safety and security but not
>>> morality or justice.  But even in this simple promise they lied.  Because,
>>> as an ex-Zionist once remarked: a Jew in Tel Aviv today is certainly less
>>> safe than a Jew in Berlin or anywhere else in the world.  So while Zionists
>>> try to justify themselves to non-Jews based on myths about the history of
>>> Palestine, they try to convince fellow-Jews by using the primal human
>>> emotion of fear (in this case of the goyim/gentiles).  But even that
>>> emotional tribalism is long outdated.  More and more Jews are seeing that
>>> safety and prosperity do not arise from oppressing others or from replacing
>>> the small ghettos in Europe with the large ghetto called the "Jewish state".
>>> Germans had learned the lesson that repression and oppression of others does
>>> not work long term. Other people have learned this lesson.  Zionists will
>>> invariably have to internalize this lesson just like many anti-Zionist Jews
>>> have internalized it.  Only then will these Jews rise "out of the ashes"
>>> (the title of a great book by Jewish Theologian Marc Ellis.)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> In the meantime, our tasks as Palestinians and all people of conscience is
>>> to assess our own roles and expand them to tell truth to power and to engage
>>> in resistance to tyranny for example by using boycotts, divestments, and
>>> sanctions. That is what the many people I talked to in Fulda, in Munich, and
>>> those I will talk to in the next few days in Berlin, Stockholm, and Rome are
>>> doing.  As the global intifada unfolds, we collectively shed apathy and
>>> reclaim our humanity.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I got interviewed over 8 times in the past week about supposed political
>>> developments (speeches and plans to go to the UN).  Questions about what
>>> Obama, Netanyahu, and Palestinian "leaders" had to say.  My answers are that
>>> what these folks say is very predictable and why would we want to waste time
>>> dealing with it.  Netanyahu is a colonialist racist and can only say what
>>> all colonialist racists have to say.  Obama is a politician beholden to the
>>> lobby and can only try to cajole the lobby as he tries desperately to hide
>>> the reality of US hypocrisy and war mongering.  And many prominent
>>> Palestinians have given up on the liberation struggle a long time ago and
>>> replaced it with the struggle to hold on to their seats.  None of them
>>> really take into account people power.    See the article by Ali Abunimah
>>> "What happened to Palestinian "reconciliation"?" and especially the three
>>> links within them that show how some key leaders of the Palestinian
>>> authority (Fatah) had engaged in what would be considered treasonous
>>> behavior in other circumstances
>>> 
>>> 
>>> <http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/what-happened-palestinian-r
>>> econciliation>
>>> http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/what-happened-palestinian-re
>>> conciliation
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Reviews of my book on Popular Resistance in Palestine:
>>> 
>>> By Theresa Wolfwood
>>> <http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16885>
>>> http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16885
>>> 
>>> By Asa Winstanley
>>> <http://electronicintifada.net/content/book-review-popular-resistance-popula
>>> r-history/9936>
>>> http://electronicintifada.net/content/book-review-popular-resistance-popular
>>> -history/9936
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Open letter to the people of Palestine from South African theologian Dr.
>>> Farid Esack
>>> 
>>> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1skU_nVaMl8>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1skU_nVaMl8
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Join us in Palestine July 8-16  <http://palestinejn.org/>
>>> http://palestinejn.org
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
>>> 
>>> <http://qumsiyeh.org/> http://qumsiyeh.org
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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