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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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REMEMBER DEIR YASSIN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012 AT 12:49AM GILAD ATZMON
By Gilad Atzmon
Deir Yassin 2012
Yesterday, after an absence of five years, Deir Yassin was once again remembered.
Deir Yassin Remembered is an organisation which exists only to remember the massacre of Deir Yassin of April 9th 1948. I became familiar with DYR in the early 2000s. I performed at a few DYR commemorations and each and every time I was overwhelmed. It wasn’t only the emotional intensity of the commemorations but also only at DYR events could one see the true commitment and devotion of the Palestinian community.
It is no secret that the one people who are rarely seen at Palestinian solidarity gatherings are Palestinians. They are hardly ever involved with the PSC or any other organization, but Deir Yassin Remembered is different. A DYR commemoration is no mere solidarity event – it is about Palestinians and only about Palestinians - their past, their present and their enduring suffering.
Dr Hassassian inscribes in the Book of the Victims
Yesterday, as on previous occasions leading members of the UK Palestinian community gathered together to light candles for their parents, brothers and sisters, murdered by the Irgun and Stern Gang at Deir Yassin. Present, was the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Dr Manual Hassassian and the entire Palestinian Delegation. Dr. Hassassian is a remarkable speaker who, while welcoming those gathered, managed to draw meaningful historical interpretations from the massacre. The fact is that in the Holy Land nothing has changed – the racially driven plan to evict the true people of that land is still in place and practiced 24/7 by the Israeli government.
Abu Ashraf tells of the massacre
DYR, together with the Palestinian Delegation flew over from Palestine, Abu Ashraf, a survivor of Deir Yassin. Abu Ashraf was eight years old when he saw his family and friends slaughtered by my grandfather’s beloved Irgun. But strangely, although it was my grandfather who was the Irgun commander and therefore primarily implicated in the atrocity, as I listened to Abu Ashraf and his story, it was of my dad that I thought.
Abu Ashraf's son and nephew - Martyrs both
Abu Ashraf and my dad were born in the same year, on the same land and under the same sun. When he was eight years old, Abu Ashraf’s life – present and future – was cruelly shattered. His home was destroyed, his family and friends were murdered and since then, he has lived as a refugee. Forty years later his own son was also butchered by the IDF while the rest of his kids ended up in Israeli prisons.
My father, on the other hand, though living under the same blue sky and growing up on Abu Ashraf’s land, was a free man. He travelled the world, he studied, he saw his parents grow old and was able to care for them – and his son, yours’ truly, is alive and kicking. My father is a free man while Abu Ashraf is a prisoner.
Can Abu Ashraf and my dad ever be friends? I know they can. But can my people make friends with Palestine or Palestinians? Well, my people are not as friendly as I would like them to be, so of that I am not so sure.
For years Deir Yassin Remembered was silent. In 2005-6 the organisation was wounded by a massive AZZ (anti-Zionist Zionists) campaign. Some Jewish so-called ‘anti-Zionists’ were disturbed by DYR’s equation of Deir Yassin with Jewish suffering and the Shoa. But to me it all made perfect sense. After all, Yad Vashem, the Jewish Holocaust memorial, built on the confiscated land of Ein Kerem, lies just 1400 meters from, and is in clear sight of, the village of Deir Yassin.
So, for a time the UK Jewish anti–Zionist community managed to slow down DYR’s activity, but it seems this precious organisation has bounced right back – and, as is so often the case with adversity bravely faced, DYR has re-emerged stronger than before. We owe thanks to this organization and to the support of the Palestinian Delegation and its Cultural Attache Mouhamed Masharqa.
But sadly, there were some people missing last night. The PSC leadership, though invited, were not in the room and I learned that the PSC leadership attempted to boycott, and even destroy the commemoration by mounting pressure on the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) to withdraw its support to the event. Now, what with the UK BDS movement, more active against fellow Palestinians than ever it was againstIsrael, there does seem to be an awful lot of boycotting going on in the Palestine solidarity movement.
Of course, this is no big surprise to me. In recent years and under the leadership of Sarah Colborne, the PSC London head office transformed itself into a true Zionist outlet taking its orders from rabid Zionist and openly Islamophobic Harry’s Place and desperately looking for ever new ways to please the Jewish Chronicle. Completely subservient to the sectarian AZZ command, the PSC recently expelled from its ranks some of its leading long-standing activists because they didn’t comply with the Jewish political line and, for the same reasons, has even gone as far as expelling Palestinians.
The PSC is now irrelevant but with the rapidly growing popularity of deLiberation and the clear success of yesterday’s Deir Yassin commemoration, I believe it is only a matter of time, it may even be mere days, before a new solidarity voice will be heard in this Kingdom.
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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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