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=> From MondoWeiss: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/facing-hecklers-gideon

From MondoWeiss: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/facing-hecklers-gideon
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http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/facing-hecklers-gideon

Facing down hecklers in NY, Gideon Levy calls for equal rights for all in one state
US Politics Philip Weiss on October 20, 2015 23 Comments

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Gideon Levy with Lillian Rosengarten (l) in Greenburgh, NY, Oct. 19, 2015
Gideon Levy with Lillian Rosengarten (l) in Greenburgh, NY, Oct. 19, 2015
    

Last night the Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy gave a thrilling speech describing the brutal tyranny of the occupation, the inevitability of the one-state solution, and the necessity of boycott and sanctions to cause Israel to change its conduct at the Greenburgh Town Hall in Westchester County, N.Y.. Levy was the guest of Jewish Voice for Peace and Wespac. Suhail Khalilieh of the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem also spoke on the settlements; I will get to his speech in the next day or so.

Levy’s speech was frequently disrupted by pro-Israel activists. The police refused to remove the hecklers on free-speech grounds, and the crowd was too leftwing to do much beyond singing We Shall Overcome and standing in front of the hecklers in an effort to maintain order. But the hecklers added value, I believe: Levy often used the hecklers against themselves. He addressed them at the very beginning of his speech, part 1 below– on my tape, you can briefly see Lauri Regan holding up a LEVY = HATE sign that Levy embraced — and many times after.

Below is part 2 of the speech, in which Levy states that the conflict is a simple one. “When someone steals your car… you have to get back your stolen car… The Palestinian car was stolen by Israel and it must be returned, without any conditions.”

“They have no legal political or historical rights!” hecklers shout.

Levy says that Jewish Israelis have been able to live happily with occupation because of three deeprooted beliefs/blindnesses: One, we are the chosen people, we can do anything we want, and international law doesn’t apply to us. Two, we the Jews are the biggest victim in history and the only victim in history. Golda Meir said after the Holocaust Jews have the right to do whatever we want. And third, that Palestinians are not exactly human beings. “Killing Palestinians is not really a violation of human rights.”

Now even Israeli Jewish society is threatened by “one lynch after another, day after day.” Scenes that he had never thought even imaginable are occurring.

He says emphatically that Israel is practicing apartheid in its occupied territories:

If two peoples share one piece of land and one people gets all the rights in the world, and the other people don’t get any rights, this is apartheid. No other way to call it. No other way to call it!

A lot of heckling after that, at 10:00.

And for all you believers in the Israel lobby– Levy says that Israel appears to dictate foreign policy to the United States, against the U.S. “national interest.”

“The two state solution is in my view dead. The settlers won.” And there is only one alternative: the one-state solution. It’s not easy. I have no illusions. “But it is the only game that is in town… Therefore the struggle the discourse must be from now on I think a very simple one. Equal rights. That’s all.”

A lot of heckling over that. Great response by Levy at 15:14. “They will kill us! Holocaust! Holocaust.”

Below is part three, which follows another disruption. Levy says that only an international intervention will save Israel’s “moral profile.”

Life in Israel is too good, Israel is too strong, and brainwashing is much too efficient to expect a change from within the Israeli society.

No country in the world remains powerful when it lives only on its sword….

The world must bring pressure on Israel so that it will consider whether it “is worth it” to continue the criminal occupation.

At 5:40 you can see Levy’s great answer to a heckler who asks why Israel shouldn’t be compared to Syria. He says, Because the U.S. finances Israel and Israel wants to be considered part of the liberal, western world. At 9:20, my favorite interchange: Levy reminds the audience that Jews used terrorism to fight the British occupation. He speaks of the destruction of the south wing of the King David Hotel in 1946. A heckler says that was a British headquarters! Levy promptly explains that 61 of the 91 victims were civilians.

And here is the optimistic ending of the speech:

The apartheid system, Soviet Russia and the Berlin wall all fell within months, Levy said, and anyone who had predicted those events would have been judged insane. “Many times in history things happen in the most unexpected way in the unexpected timing.” He then analogized Israel to a huge tree that mysteriously falls and is found to be “totally rotten on the inside.”
About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.

Other posts by Philip Weiss.

Posted In:
American Jewish Community
Israel Lobby
US Politics
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23 Responses

Kathleen October 20, 2015, 1:47 pm

What a remarkable and honorable human being Levy continues to be. “Equal rights. That’s all” folks.

He describes the potential for an avalanche of justice. Not in bits and pieces. An avalanche.
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truthurts October 20, 2015, 6:36 pm

hey weiss
how come you haven’t mentioned levy’s sunday appearance with roger waters up at the first congregational church at old lyme sponsored by the wonderful group “tree of life” which i unfortunately missed.
traffic stopped to a standstill on 87 about 15 miles west of the tappan zee and was stop and go to the bridge, opened up then backed up on the conn turnpike so i turned around at cos cob and went home.
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ckg October 20, 2015, 1:52 pm

[Levy] says emphatically that Israel is practicing apartheid in its occupied territories…A lot of heckling after that
Three days ago Ken Roth, executive director of HRW, linked to Levy’s latest Haaretz piece. Roth tweeted:

Haaretz on today’s Israel: “Democracy for..Jews; discrimination for..Israeli Arabs; & apartheid for..Palestinians”
link to bit.ly

Roth’s twitter post got a few “hecklers” too.
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atime forpeace October 20, 2015, 1:57 pm

Kudos to Gideon Levy, thanks Phil for going to these events and sharing them.
“The only occupation in history where the occupier presents itself as the victim”

This narrative has been enforced and controlled through the Jewish Zionist organizations influence over western nations political systems and their press. The network of think tanks and credentialed academics are used to give the lie of the narrative a body of misrepresented truths which they use to validate the fictional narrative which makes the occupier the victim.

Israel has sown the wind and is reaping the whirlwind.
Hosea chapter 8 verse 7
link to biblegateway.com
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ahadhaadam October 20, 2015, 4:54 pm

It is certainly not the only occupation in history where the occupier presents itself as victim if you view it through the prism of colonialism. In fact, in just about every colonial conflict the colonizers saw themselves as victims of natives’ aggression, whether they were French, English or Dutch – Israel is no different in that sense. And indeed, from the perspective of a French colon in Algeria, he is indeed a victim, but that is if we ignore the greater context in which one side is the colonizer and the other the colonized.

Israel’s achievement is its ability to propagate and control the narrative, way longer than any other group would have been able to, due to a confluence of reasons. But even that is bound to fall apart. After all, the world has experience with colonialism, which has been widely discredited, not to mention that all other colonial conflicts have long been resolved, so there is nothing for former colonies to lose by acknowledging their wrongdoings and no reason for them to support yet another colony in its war against the natives.
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niass2 October 20, 2015, 3:29 pm

Kudos to Gideon Levy, wish he was my Uncle,but in some ways he is.My cousin the rabbi Ariel P was having his day before marriage event and got a text that the Klu Klux Klan was meeting nearby in maryland and was going to burn a cross. being the person he is he said no fing way, texted his friends, and led a anti Klan procession while his freinds and family were having the pre marriage event at his new wife’s home. Now I don’t talk to him a lot about isreal since i don’t talk to him a lot, but I should as there are rabbis who still know right from wrong out there, its just he is a piece of sand in an Ocean of Morans like those people heckling Gideon Levy. Those are the kinds of people who never grew up beyond what they learned in a sandbox when they were three years old. Now they have sand where the sun don’t shine and as such its hard to not be nasty all the time and talk weird with their contorted hate filled faces. My Cousin would be shocked that I think about Isreal all the time, every day, and I dont do that cause i have any fond feelings for isreal. Its weird being able to just say duhhh equal rights for all, duhh its pretty simple and then we can all go do something else, like basket Weaving for example, or one could go see twenty one grateful dead shows in 62 days. I opt for the latter. Hope Mr. Levy gets an audience with the Obama, so he can explain to him where yemen is.
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Mooser October 20, 2015, 4:02 pm

Hello “niass2”! I like hearing from you.
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just October 20, 2015, 5:48 pm

niass2~ keep it coming!

I very much enjoy hearing from you, too.
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Mooser October 20, 2015, 6:54 pm

The no-paragraph-break style was a bit hard, at first, but once I dug in, I’m diggin’ it!
David Doppler October 20, 2015, 3:39 pm

Let justice come down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
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Roger of the desert October 20, 2015, 4:00 pm

It’s Israeli Jews like Levy and Jews like those who manage Mondoweiss that disprove the lie that criticism of Israel’s crimes & acts of injustice are anti-semitic. People who want to perpetuate that lie must blind themselves to the Jews who uphold the respected tradition of demanding justice for all. The Pro-Israel crowd has been reduced to angry screamers and wealthy fat-cats with no honest, thinking substance in between.
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Mooser October 20, 2015, 7:14 pm

Hmm, “Roger of the desert”. I might have guessed someplace wetter. Hello, and welcome.
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inbound39 October 20, 2015, 9:18 pm

Levy demands respect. He has had the courage to stand in the face of a hostile people and declare them wrong. He has been spat at,jostled,punched and kicked and has recieved death threats. I have come to respect him greatly.

In saying that, I do not always agree with his view. The Two State Solution is never dead when the UN can deem a Palestinian State a reality with a pen stroke. An International Force can monitor the borders. Settlers can become Palestinian Citizens subject to Palestinian Law or they can leave to Sovereign Israel. Too much pain and harm has happened for the two people to live in peace. It would lead to Civil War in no time flat. Zionists would make it so. The Two People need seperation as in Divorce. One State would also give Israel a lot of what it wanted in the first place. Israel should recieve no reward whatsoever for illegal actions. I doubt many world Governments would support One State for that precise reason.
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Mooser October 20, 2015, 4:07 pm

“They have no legal political or historical rights!” hecklers shout.

Ah, these must be Jews, Zionists, who refuse to assimilate into America. After all, they’ve done without any kind of legal or historical rights in America, why should the Palestinians get something these Zionists never needed?
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YoniFalic October 20, 2015, 4:20 pm

“Levy’s speech was frequently disrupted by pro-Israel activists. The police refused to remove the hecklers on free-speech grounds, and the crowd was too leftwing to do much beyond singing We Shall Overcome and standing in front of the hecklers in an effort to maintain order.”

I wonder whether the police would have likewise refused if pro-Palestinian demonstrators had heckled a right-wing racist Israeli journalist in the same venue.
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Mooser October 20, 2015, 4:36 pm

“He then analogized Israel to a huge tree that mysteriously falls and is found to be “totally rotten on the inside.”

Mondo and others have certainly been making the resistograph readings available. When that big Yew collapses and wipes out the master bedroom, the homeowner’s may not pay off.

Anyway, I’m sure those hecklers impressed very vividly on Mr. Levy just what he would be denied were he to be ejected from the community. Showed him!
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Kathleen October 20, 2015, 6:49 pm

Hey and what is with the police being unwilling to put a break on the hecklers based on “free speech” Have never heard of this anywhere before. Something about when there is a planned event that anyone determined by the organizers of the event to be out of line…they can be removed. What gives on them not being removed?
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Mooser October 20, 2015, 7:26 pm

“Hey and what is with the police being unwilling to put a break on the hecklers based on “free speech” “

If I am not mistaken (always, I admit, the first choice) that meeting took place in a town hall and was a public meeting. And everything that happened there is in the public domain, as far as news and reporting. That might be a good reason for putting up with a lot.
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truthurts October 20, 2015, 6:58 pm

there is NO peaceful solution to this. go check your history books out;
no country ever EVER just voluntarily gives up their power. NEVER!
its got to be taken away by force of arms and israel is absolutely no exception.
the repeated failure of america or the UN to reign in israel over the years has given them an air of invincability. look at the expression on satanyahu’s face at his last dictate at the UN; it was so arrogant i was just waiting to see him fold his arms and make that little head-bobbing motion ala mussolini
with russia now in the mix all the players needed for WWlll are present
all thats needed now is the striking of a match.
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just October 20, 2015, 7:01 pm

I have an enormous amount of respect for this great Israeli man.

He’s doing the hard work of educating the masses that politicians and the media should be doing, but haven’t and won’t.

He stands head and shoulders above most. This man is a true contender for a Nobel, imho.

You’re so lucky to have had the good luck to see/listen to him in this forum, Phil. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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JWalters October 20, 2015, 7:15 pm

My profound gratitude to Gideon Levy for saying these things out loud and in public.

“Jewish Israelis have been able to live happily with occupation because of three deeprooted beliefs/blindnesses:

“One, we are the chosen people, we can do anything we want, and international law doesn’t apply to us.

“Two, we the Jews are the biggest victim in history and the only victim in history.

“And third, that Palestinians are not exactly human beings. ‘Killing Palestinians is not really a violation of human rights.'”

And finally, the just solution to the problem is self-evident.

“When someone steals your car… you have to get back your stolen car… The Palestinian car was stolen by Israel and it must be returned, without any conditions.”

My profound thanks also to Jewish Voice for Peace for sponsoring his talk, and to Mondoweiss for reporting on it so thoroughly.

I would add that realistically there is NO WAY a relatively small group of religious fanatics can lead the world’s non-secular superpower around by the nose. This is only possible because of Very Big Money men behind the scenes. And there is evidence that their ulterior motive is weapons sales, described here:
link to mondoweiss.net
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Harry October 20, 2015, 9:16 pm

Regarding the one-state solution, which Levy says (in this posting) is inevitable since the colonial settlers have clearly had their way, it is striking that American values are really not transplanted to Israel, which claims to share important values with the United States.

Consider this nominally left-wing expression of American values, due to Woody Guthrie:

“This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters,
This land was made for you and me…”

Who in this one state, a fait accompli, is going to sing anything like that?

And this nominally right-wing expression of American values:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
And to the Republic for which it stands,
One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Who in this one state, a fait accompli, is going to make a pledge anything like that?

I’m American, and Jewish, grew up in and have lived in the Boston area for many years. I was singing this song and repeating this pledge in school more times than I can possibly remember. If there were American values that I was taught, these were leading examples.

I don’t pretend that the United States really is everything that the song and pledge evoke. But each of them is an expression of what, in principle, we are supposed to be doing.

What shared values? What shared principles?
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Taxi October 21, 2015, 12:44 am

The ‘One State Solution’ sure is picking up momentum – especially now that the Greater Israel project has come to a complete and unexpected halt.

Russia Destroys The Greater Israel Dream – link to platosguns.com



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