I can appreciate that the German government wants to display its ‘Solidarity for Israel’.

Germany will never be forgiven and the world will never forget the genocide the Hitler’s Nazi government committed against the Jewish people of Germany and Europe at large from 1933-1945.  

I am unsure what will be the impact of a ‘Solidarity for Israel’ rally while Israel’s brutal assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza continues.  A feel good moment? Perhaps.

While the talking and rallies go on, the killing continues,  The ceasefire reported today is only a lull before a new round violence, with Israel holding the heavy weaponry, begins again.

Deutsche Welle 5.20.2021

Politicians reiterated the country’s “special responsibility” at a Berlin demonstration, which aimed to show solidarity with Israel and reject antisemitism. For some onlookers, the government response was “one-sided.”

Thursday’s demonstration follows an increase in antisemitic attacks and demonstrations in Germany in recent days.

“Anyone who burns Israeli flags in front of synagogues, throws stones, calls for rockets against Tel Aviv, isn’t a so-called critic of Israel,” senior Green Party politician Cem Özdemir told demonstrators, adding: “They’re nothing more than a banal antisemite.” 

Some people, however, argue the space for legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s actions has become restricted due to the extreme actions of antisemites.

Just hours before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire on Thursday evening, around a thousand people filled the square — Platz des 18. März — behind Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. While some donned Israeli flags like capes, or attached tiny flags to FFP2 face masks, others carried placards with slogans like “Israel has the right to defend itself” and “Free Gaza from Hamas.”

“Solidarity with Israel — against all antisemitism” was the official motto of the demonstration. Organized by a group of Jewish and non-Jewish societies and associations, several prominent politicians also gave speeches — all of them reiterating Germany’s “special responsibility” to protect Israel due to Germany’s history.

Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said ensuring the safety of the Jewish state was among Germany’s national goals and ambitions.

“Nothing justifies the firing of thousands of rockets on the Israeli state by a terror organization whose stated goal is the killing of Jews and the annihilation of Israel,” the Social Democrat politician went on to say.

Hamas’ latest barage of rockets, which began 11 days ago, was in response to Israel’s crackdown on Palestinian protests against the threat of forced evictions in East Jerusalem. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be an official part of its territory, but the international community, including the EU and Germany, condemns Israeli settler expansion into the occupied Palestinian territories.

Yusef, a young Berliner, was cycling by Brandenburg Gate when he stopped to see what the demo was about. The tassels of his red, black, green and white scarf stand out against the largely blue and white emblazoned crowd at the demo.

“I wear it in solidarity with Palestinians,” he says. “It’s sad to look up and see just the Israeli and German flag up there on the stage. I have the feeling that nobody cares about all of the children being killed on the other side. And it’s difficult to voice legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.”

Another young man who asks to remain anonymous, looks on alone. Sporting a white sweater with a triangular Palestine logo, he says he wanted to see for himself what politicians had to say.

Towards the end of the demonstration, a Palestinian man wearing a keffiyeh walks through the crowd. Demonstrators are distracted only momentarily, as he strolls by, his arms raised in the air, his fingers making V-shapes. No one interacts with him except for the police officers in high-visibility vests, who tail him from a distance.

One member of the German-Israeli Society, Margreet Krikowski, however, said “now is not the time to be criticizing the politics of the Israeli government.”

“Israel is trying to protect itself,” she insisted.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-lawmakers-host-solidarity-with-israel-rally/a-57603521

An Olympic track and field record holder and early trend setter for Black empowerment in the sports world has passed away.

The Guardian 5.19.2021

Lee Evans, the record-setting sprinter who wore a black beret in a sign of protest at the 1968 Olympics, died Wednesday. He was 74.

USA Track and Field confirmed Evans’ death. The San Jose Mercury News reported that Evans’ family had started a fundraiser in hopes of bringing him back to the US from Nigeria, where he coached track, to receive medical care after he suffered a stroke last week.

Evans became the first man to crack 44 seconds in the 400m, winning the gold medal at the Mexico City Games in 43.86. His victory came shortly after his teammates, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were sent home from the Olympics for raising their fists on the medals stand.

In later interviews, Evans said an official warned him not do anything similar. He took a different approach, wearing a black beret to show support for the Black Panther Party and other civil rights organizations.

Like Smith and Carlos, Evans was a college star on the San Jose State ‘Speed City’ teams. He was also a high-profile member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which called attention to racial inequality and oppression and spearheaded the protests at the 1968 games.

“His legacy of contributions to sports and the struggle for social justice is indelible and enduring,” tweeted Harry Edwards, the architect of the movement.

After running the 43.86, Evans anchored the US 4x400m team to a world record of 2 minutes, 56.16 seconds. The 400m record stood for almost 20 years. The relay record stood for 24.

Evans won five US titles at 400 meters and is a member of both the USATF and US Olympic halls of fame.

After he stopped running competitively, Evans spent ample time in Africa, working for the United Nations, and also coaching national teams in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. The Mercury News said he was currently coaching high school track in Lagos.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/19/lee-evans-sprinter-black-power-activist-dies

It’s a good night for the progressive District Attorney movement in America.

Larry Krasner, one of the first of the new look DAs, has been pummeled by police groups and the conservative media machine during his four years in office.

Krasner and his progressive policies may infuriate the law and order crowd. But he is popular where it counts.  With the voters in Philadelphia.

It’s a good omen for other progressive DAs like Chesa Boudin, the subject of a recall in San Francisco. If the voters in Philadelphia can respond favorably to progressive polices in law enforcement, so will San Francisco.

Excerpted from The Intercept 5.18.2021

FOUR YEARS INTO his experiment with reforming Philadelphia’s criminal justice system, Larry Krasner overwhelmingly won his primary race for reelection to the office of district attorney on Tuesday.

“People want to see these prosecutors’ offices being focused on bringing down incarceration rates, and holding police accountable.”

https://theintercept.com/2021/05/18/larry-krasner-carlos-vega-philadelphia/

Excerpted from San Francisco Examiner 5.17.2021

Cat Brooks is a nationally-recognized Bay area artist and activist against police brutality.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is committed to bringing equality, fairness, and humanity to the criminal legal system. Boudin’s opponents are using the same tactics that conservative media harnessed to thwart the movement for Black lives: fear mongering, misinformation, and doomsday predictions.

No one who genuinely cares about Black lives can support the effort to remove Boudin. Without progressive prosecutors, we will return to a system where jail and prison are the only acceptable responses to all of society’s ills.

Last summer, the murder of George Floyd ignited unprecedented support for the movement for Black lives. Finally, after decades of screaming genocide into the ether – only to have it fall on deaf ears –the brutality of Floyd’s public execution seemed to mortify white Americans into action.

A national chorus of voices spoke up to stand with Black demands for more accountability for law enforcement and a change to the legal system.

Where is that solidarity now? The fight is far from over and yet, not even a year after thousands took to the streets, and as the police continue to gun down Black and Brown people, there are efforts to take down elected leaders who stand for more accountability and equality in our system.

The current effort to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is one of them. I supported Boudin’s candidacy for DA and I support him now. I support him because unlike most prosecutors, he’s taking real steps to move us away from the criminal industrial complex.

Chesa is actively addressing racial bias and disparities, dramatically shrinking the criminal legal system, and respecting the inherent value and potential of all those drawn into it. For the first time in San Francisco, an elected D.A. has held police accountable.

This recall effort endangers the safety of Black people in our community, with a looming threat of return to the status quo of mass incarceration, dead Black bodies, and singular pathway pursuits toward public safety.

Children with incarcerated parents have a substantially increased likelihood to become homeless, suffer from depression, anxiety, or behavioral problems, struggle with learning disabilities, or become involved in criminal activity.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/if-you-care-about-black-lives-you-cannot-support-the-effort-to-remove-chesa-boudin/

@STANDWITHCHESA

Top photo – Candidate Chesa Boudin at San Francisco Hall of Justice 4.30.2019

The American government’s refusal to condemn Israel for the carnage being inflicted  upon the citizens of Gaza is obscene.

Only with unwavering support of the Israel by the American administration can Bibi Netanyahu continue to unleash the destructive power of  US supplied armaments resulting in massive death and destruction.

World wide public opinion does not support the Israeli military actions. Right here in San Francisco (see photo above) and cities around the world thousands took to the streets to condemn the brutal Israeli actions against the Palestinian people.

Al Jazeera 5.17.2021

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deadly bombing of the Gaza Strip would continue despite an international outcry and efforts to broker a ceasefire.

In a televised address on Sunday, Netanyahu said the Israeli air raids were continuing at “full-force” and would “take time”, adding that his country “wants to levy a heavy price” from Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Israeli air raids on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 42 people early on Sunday, health authorities in Gaza said.

The violence marked the worst fighting since the devastating 2014 war in Gaza.

The air raids hit a busy downtown street of residential buildings and storefronts over the course of five minutes just after midnight, destroying two adjacent buildings and one about 50 metres down the road.

At one point, a rescuer shouted, “Can you hear me?” into a hole in the rubble. “Are you OK?” Minutes later, first responders pulled a survivor out and carried him off on an orange stretcher.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 16 women and 10 children were among those killed, with more than 50 people wounded, and rescue efforts were still under way.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it destroyed the home of Gaza’s top Hamas leader, Yahiyeh Sinwar, in a separate raid in the southern town of Khan Younis.

Israel appears to have stepped up air raids in recent days to inflict as much damage as possible on Hamas as international mediators work to end the fighting.

At least 192 people have been killed and 1,200 injured there so far, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Rockets fired at Israel by Palestinian groups in Gaza, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have killed 10 Israelis.

Netanyahu rejected a barrage of criticism of Israel’s bombing of a high-rise building housing foreign media offices, including Al Jazeera’s, in Gaza.

Speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation, the prime minister claimed the building hosted an “intelligence office for the Palestinian terrorist organisation [Hamas]” which “plots and organises the terror attacks against Israeli civilians”.

He did not present any evidence of his claim but said it was “a perfectly legitimate target”, nonetheless. Asked if he had provided any evidence of Hamas presence in the building in a call with US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu said, “We pass it through our intelligence people.”

“We are targeting a terrorist organisation that is targeting our civilians and hiding behind them, using them as human shields,” he added.

The al-Jalaa tower, which also housed offices of the US news agency Associated Press (AP) and other outlets, was destroyed by an Israeli air force attack on Saturday.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/16/netanyahu-says-gaza-bombing-to-continue-in-full-force

Lee Heidhues 5.17.2021 at The Great Walkway March and Rally

Senator Scott Wiener (D-SF) made an impassioned plea to designate both The Great Walkway and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park permanent pedestrian and cyclist thoroughfares. The Senator implored the crowd to stay strong and work until the goal is achieved.  In stark terms he said emphatically San Francisco cannot return to the pre Pandemic way of life where cars dictated public policy.

San Franciscans have been advocating for decades to have open space where the all encroaching automobile cannot enter. Thousands who have been pushing this goal to make San Francisco an acknowledged World leader in fighting climate change are close to victory.

The effort will continue until  entrenched political interests designate The Great Walkway a pedestrian and cyclist thoroughfare by the Pacific Ocean.

Sunday a large crowd of all ages rallied, cycled and walked down The Great Walkway to express their resolve and determination.

Photos – Lee Heidhues

Not only is the State of Israel killing men, women and children its military is also attempting to destroy the media as it attempts to cover this assault on the people of Palestine.

Al Jazeera 5.15.2021

An Israeli air raid flattened a building housing residential apartments and the offices of news organisations, including Al Jazeera and AP, in Gaza.

Youmna al-Sayed had less than an hour to get to safety.

But with just one elevator working in al-Jalaa tower, an 11-storey building in Gaza City housing some 60 residential apartments and a number of offices, including those of Al Jazeera Media Network and The Associated Press, al-Sayed made a dash for the stairs.

“We left the elevator for the elderly and for the children to evacuate,” the Palestinian freelance journalist said. “And we were all running down the stairs and whoever could help children took them down,” she added. “I myself helped two children of the residents there and I took them downstairs – everyone was just running quickly.”

Moments earlier, the Israeli army, which has been bombarding Gaza for six straight days, had given a telephone warning that residents had just an hour to evacuate the building before its fighter jets attacked it.

Al Jazeera’s Safwat al-Kahlout also had to move quickly. He and his colleagues “started to collect as much as they could, from the personal and equipment of the office – especially the cameras”, al-Kahlout said.

But more time was needed.

“Just give me 15 minutes,” an AP journalist pleaded over the phone with an Israeli intelligence officer. “We have a lot of equipment, including the cameras, other things,” he added from outside the building. “I can bring all of it out.”

 

“All I’m asking is to let four people … to go inside and get their cameras,” he told the officer. “We respect your wishes, we will not do it if you don’t allow it, but give us 10 minutes.”

“There will be no 10 minutes,” the officer replied. “No one is allowed to enter the building, we already gave you an hour to evacuate.”

When the request was rejected, Mahdi said: “You have destroyed our life’s work, memories, life. I will hang up, do what you want. There is a God.”

The Israeli army claimed there were “military interests of the Hamas intelligence” in the building, a standard line used after bombing buildings in Gaza, and it accused the group running the territory of using journalists as human shields. However, it provided no evidence to back up its claims.

“I have been working in this office for more than 10 years and I have never seen anything [suspicious],” al-Kahlout said.

“I even asked my colleagues if they’ve seen anything suspicious and they all confirmed to me that they have never seen any military aspects or the fighters even coming in and out,” he added.

“In our building, we have lots of families that we know for more than 10 years, we meet each other every day on our way in and out to the office.”

Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of AP, also told Al Jazeera: “I can tell you that we’ve been in that building for about 15 years for our bureau. We certainly had no sense that Hamas was there.”

AP journalist Fares Akram said he had been sleeping in the office after a long night of reporting when his colleagues began shouting, “Evacuation! Evacuation!” Akram grabbed what he could – a laptop, some electronics, and a few things from his desk – before running down the stairs and jumping into his car, he wrote in a written piece after the attack.

When he was far enough away, Akram stopped the car and got out to look back at the tower. He said he witnessed drone strikes hit the building, followed by three more powerful strikes from F-16s.

“At first, it looked like layers of something collapsing. I thought of a bowl of potato chips, and what might happen if you slammed a fist into them. Then the smoke and dust enveloped everything. The sky rumbled. And the building that was home to some people, an office to others and both to me disappeared in a shroud of dust,” Akram wrote.

Al-Sayed, who has been covering Israel’s bombardment for Al Jazeera and has worked for AP, said she could not understand what threat a building housing families and offices for lawyers, doctors and media workers could pose.

“Where is the alarm from this? Where are the Hamas or any military members that could be in this building?” the Gaza resident asked.

“The people here, the residents, all know each other. The first five floors are for offices that are [closed] during this time of escalation. So basically what is [still here] are the two media offices of Al Jazeera and AP and the residential apartments.”

Still, at 3:12pm (12:12 GMT), the first Israeli strike came. Five minutes later, al-Jalaa tower crashed to the ground after being hit by three missiles that sent a dark cloud of dust and debris into the air. There have been no immediate reports of casualties.

“Years of memories, years of work in this building, suddenly, everything is rubble,” said al-Kahlout, about the tower from whose roof he often broadcast from. “Just vanished.”

Islam az-Zaeem, a lawyer who worked in the building, was at home when his cousin – the owner of the Johara building that was flattened overnight on May 13 – knocked on his door and told him al-Jalaa was about to be destroyed.

“I ran to the building and saw the residents and other employees gathered outside,” az-Zaeem told Al Jazeera.

“I went inside and took the stairs since the electricity was out and the elevators weren’t working. I was hysterical, and fell down several times in the dark, shouting and crying.”

Az-Zaeem, who said nine legal associates and four interns worked on his floor, left the building five minutes before it was levelled.

“Even after the building fell, I kept shouting that I’d forgotten to lock the door to my office,” he said. “Imagine that.”

The building, built in the mid-1990s, was one of Gaza City’s oldest high-rises.

Fares al-Ghoul, the executive director for the Mayadeen Media Group, said his company was previously based in the Shorouq building, which was destroyed by Israeli missiles on May 13.

“The upper floors of Shorouq were targeted in the 2014 war,” he said. “In 2019, we moved the company to al-Jalaa building because we thought it would be safer, since it accommodated the offices of international media agencies.”

“Now both have been destroyed,” he said.

The bombing of al-Jalaa, widely condemned as an attempt to “silence” journalists covering Israel’s offensive, came just hours after an Israeli air raid at Shati refugee camp killed 10 members of the same family – eight children, two women – celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the religious festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

At least 145 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israeli air raids on the coastal Palestinian territory began on Monday. About 950 others have been wounded.

With additional reporting by @LinahAlsaafin.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/15/give-us-10-minutes-how-israel-bombed-gaza-media-tower

May 15, 2021

Every Picture Tells a Story – Gaza Destruction by State of Israel edition 

The photos in this post were found at the Site #PALESTINEUNDERATTACK

Liz Heidhues – Blog contributor-and Lee Heidhues 5.15.2021

To Shamann Walton – President San Francisco Board of Supervisors

What is your incentive for the lie that advocates of Car Free JFK practice the enforced separation of racial groups?

Concentrating on the systemic exclusion of blacks and people of color from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) staff and as exhibitors would be a most constructive use of your role as an elected official.

75% of San Francisco’s Fine Arts Museum’s staff is white. That’s in today’s accounting and not in the past’s.

The entire history of the De Young Museum not showing Black artists, its outrageous admission prices, its lack of people of color in its leadership positions, and its high priced 800 car parking garage must be held to account.

You allege that “JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park most definitely looks like the segregated South in the 1950s.”

To appropriate the pain and suffering of the civil rights movement as an argument to open up Car Free JFK to cars parks us on the slippery slope of ethics.

It is an argument that will lead San Francisco to major and ludicrous consequences.

The segment of JFK closed to cars serves the monied interests of the FAMSF. If the FAMSF is serious about the inclusion of people of color it would open its parking garage to all visitors for free.

The movement to allow runners, pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, roller skaters, skateboarders, dog-walkers, wheelchair users, meditators, and the underrepresented to use a part of JFK Drive as a car-free haven has been going on for decades.

• Have you ever been doored when riding a bike by someone getting out of a parked car on JFK Drive?
• Or had to weave in and out of cars in a traffic jam on JFK Drive and almost been hit by someone backing up?
• JFK Drive is open to cars from Transverse Drive down to Ocean Beach.
• You are way out of your league in opposing the tortuous baby steps of San Francisco in meeting its designation as a Transit First city!

I teach Citizenship to international students.

I need to convey to them abstract concepts embedded in the American civil rights movement. I use photos which we have attached.

Preserving a Park road for the freedom and joy of exercising and sociability instead of as a parking lot for cars fulfills the purpose of a “Park”.

When a decision-maker tries to deceive others by lying about the past, we can be led to bigger lies and increased rates of unethical behavior.

In the end, we are judged not by our behavior nor by what we intended to do, but by the impact of our behavior.

Top photo – Charles Moore (1931-2010) – Birmingham, Alabama. Notorious police chief Bull Connor’s cops turning fire hoses on black protestors.

As the Muslim holiday Ramadan comes to a close the World is witnessing yet another brutal assault on the Palestinian territory.

The American mainstream media is predictably taking the side of The State of Israel. America is paying lip service to the Palestinian grievances while ignoring the trauma and suffering the Palestinians are undergoing again as the State of Israel with its military might, funded by the American government, lays waste to the Gaza Strip.

Reading the mainstream American press is an extremely disconcerting experience when it comes to the State of Israel and its relationship to Palestine, the territory which was ceded to it following the Holocaust.

The native inhabitants of Palestine have been subject to 73 years of State displacement and terror by the occupiers of the State of Israel.  The American government has uniformly stood at the side of the State of Israel since its inception in May 1948. 

Nothing changes while the talk continues and the suffering continues in the State of Israel occupied Palestinian territories.

Excerpted from The Nation 5.13.2021 Yousef Munayyer

I have been trying to think of a moment since 1948 when so broad a range of Palestinians have been exposed to as great a level of Israeli violence as they have been these last few days—and I don’t think I can.

In towns throughout Israel, Palestinians have been beaten and terrorized by rampaging mobs; one man was dragged from his car and brutalized in what many are describing as a lynching. In the West Bank, Palestinians have been shot and killed in raids by the Israeli military.

In Jerusalem, Palestinian families, facing the ongoing threat of expulsion, have been harassed by settlers and military alike. And across Gaza, Israeli war planes have dropped bomb after bomb, destroying entire apartment buildings. Many have died, many more have been injured. If they manage to survive, they will witness their society shattered when the smoke clears.

To understand how we’ve arrived at this moment, it is essential to start with the story of Sheikh Jarrah. That small Jerusalem enclave, from which several Palestinian families have been under threat of expulsion, is perhaps, the most immediate proximate cause of this latest crisis. It is also just the latest targeted dispossession of Palestinians by Israel, which has been part of a more than 70–year process.

Since occupying the West Bank in 1967, the Israeli government has pursued various policies aimed at demographically engineering the city of Jerusalem—again, all with an eye toward ensuring its perpetual dominance over the city. Among such policies are the building of illegal settlements around the city to cut it off from the rest of the Palestinian population in the West Bank; the restriction of movement to deny Palestinians access to and within the municipality itself; the revocation of Palestinian residency status, which is tantamount to expulsion; and the demolition of Palestinian homes. The Israelis also expel Palestinians from their homes, as we are witnessing in Sheikh Jarrah, so that they can be handed to Israeli settlers.