Marwan Bishara: “ISIL, Israel and cultural cleansing”

The last article from Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, touches on the cultural cleansing of colonised populations by colonisers, and shows that the strategy behind ISIL’s cleansing of pre-Islamic history responds to the same objectives behind Israel’s erasure of Palestinian culture.

 “How on earth one manages to mention Israel when discussing #ISIS destroying #Nimrud…smh, unbelievable! @marwanbishara.”

This was one of the reactions I got to my interview about the historic context of the bulldozing of archeological sites in Iraq’s Hatra, Nimrud, and the destruction of various statues in Mosul museum by militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

It’s a rather predictable response from a Zionist, but it also shows how so many are in denial over their past and cannot see why the horrors in Iraq and Syria – as ugly as they might be – are neither new nor the exception.

Click here to continue reading.

12 June: Celebrating (Israeli occupation) ‘Falafel Day’

The occupation of Palestine by Israel goes far beyond settlements, administrative detentions, home demolitions, laboratory planned economic stagnation and continuous attacks on civilians. It plays hard in each one of the scenarios of the Palestinian life. Also in the kitchen.

To Palestinians it is always shown hard, arrogant, aggressive, insulting, violent.

But sometimes it is shown with delicate subtility to the rest of the world. Israel, born 1948, portrays itself as a country with both deep historical roots and high-tech modernity. It is not ashamed to make up lies to justify the reason for its existence. It appropriates all what is Palestinian to erase the identity of the people it is trying to eliminate since long before its creation.

In a series of  ‘bringing the nice face of the Israel to the world’ media campaigns, Israel is showing its most fake ‘celebrating multiculturalism’ (while deporting African migrants and military occupying a whole country for 64 years) mask to the world. At the end of the day, food plays such a central role in the Palestinian life and identity that it could have never been left unattended.

Check the ‘Falafel Day‘ website and delight yourself with a series of manipulated pro-Israeli assertions.  Here you have some:

Debate

Debates over the origin of falafel have sometimes devolved into political discussions about the relationship between Arabs and Israelis. In modern times, falafel has been considered a national dish of Egypt and of Israel … Falafel plays an iconic role in Israeli cuisine and throughout other countries.

Our goal

Falafel is a delicious dish with a rich history. We want this day to bring together countries around the world, particularly Israel with its neighbors. People should put aside politics when eating this dish and enjoy, after all that’s what life is about.

So to all my Palestinian friends, I hope you got the message:

1. Your beloved falafel is not yours anymore. It has actually never been. You have been wrong all your life: it is an Israeli invention! (And do not dare to call by the same name whatever had some resemblance to it and was done before 1948!).
2. Stop complaining about the occupation and buy a traditionally Israeli falafel. Enjoy multiculturalism with every bite of it. Celebrate the occupation of your land by the only democracy of the Middle East. And smile, yallah!
3. Leave aside politics. Life has nothing to do with it: accept it. Since long before the 1948 you seem not to understand that life is about enjoying. How come? You probably do not eat enough Israeli-invented falafel.

And by the way, for those of you who think this is too exaggerated, please check the sibling ‘Hummus Day‘, which oh surprise surprise, it has been scheduled on May 15th, Nakba Day.