by James Bowen, National Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/848045.html
In the late 19th century, changes in Ottoman law created a new class of large landholders, including the Sursuq family from Beirut, which acquired large tracts in northern Palestine. A similar situation had long existed in Ireland, where most land was controlled by absentee landlords, many of whom lived in Britain.
The 1880s, however, initiated dynamics that led the two lands in different directions. In 1882, the first Zionist immigrants arrived in Palestine, starting a process that subsequently led to the eviction of indigenous tenant farmers, when magnates like the Sursuqs pulled the land from under their feet, selling it to the Jewish National Fund.
In contrast, in 1880, Irish tenant farmers started a process that turned them into owner-occupiers. A former British army officer played a role in this drama, which introduced his name as a new word into many languages.
Western Ireland was again suffering near-famine conditions. The potato crop had failed for the third successive year. Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, agent for Lord Erne, the absentee landlord of an estate in County Mayo, refused the request of tenants for a rent reduction and, instead, in September 1880, obtained eviction notices against 11 of them for failure to pay their rent.
Thirty years earlier, evictions had expelled huge numbers of Irish to North America. But times were changing: A nationwide tenants’ rights movement, the Land League, had recently been formed, under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, a scion of the landlord class, whose pro-tenant sympathies were inherited from his American mother, a woman whose grandfather had been one of George Washington’s bodyguards. Speaking on September 19, 1880, Parnell outlined the strategy of the league:
“When a man takes a farm from which another has been evicted, you must shun him on the roadside when you meet him, you must shun him in the streets of the town, you must shun him at the shop-counter, you must shun him at the fair and at the market-place and even in the house of worship, by leaving him severely alone, by putting him into a sort of moral Coventry, by isolating him from the rest of his kind, as if he were a leper of old, you must show him your detestation.”
Three days later, court officials attempted to serve Boycott’s eviction notices on the tenants, and the Land League policy went into effect. Within two months, Boycott’s name had become a synonym for ostracism, he had left the estate, and both landlords and government had discovered the power of ordinary people. Within a year, legislation at Westminster provided government finance for tenants wishing to purchase their farms.
For too long, Israel has been taking land from which Palestinians have been evicted, and detestation is spreading around the world. In Ireland, photos of Israeli bulldozers are placed beside those of landlords’ battering rams. Even a former U.S. president has recognized hafrada (“separation” in Hebrew) as apartheid. Disgust has reached such a level that even highly conservative institutions that normally try to avoid politics are driven to express concern.
One such body is Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy of artists. Its annual general assembly on March 28 passed a resolution whose full text is: “Mindful of the August 4, 2006 call from Palestinian filmmakers, artists and cultural workers to end all cooperation with state-sponsored Israeli cultural events and institutions, Aosdana wishes to encourage Irish artists and cultural institutions to reflect deeply before engaging in any such cooperation, always bearing in mind the undeniable courage of those Israeli artists, writers and intellectuals who oppose their own government’s illegal policies towards the Palestinians.”
Although on the surface, this is a mild resolution, it is a boycott call in all but name. Its significance was not lost on Dr. Zion Evrony, the Israeli ambassador in Dublin. The very same day, he issued a press release that was replete with cliches that might have worked several decades ago, when Irish people were still unaware of the horrors that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinians.
Possibly, the alacrity of Dr. Evrony’s response was due to the fact that the strength of feeling among Irish artists had been rehearsed in the Irish press. Indeed, the proposer of the motion, playwright Margaretta D’Arcy, who is Jewish, had written in The Irish Times on February 16 that, “I was reluctant to advocate a cultural boycott of Israel until I visited the country for the first time last November … I became convinced that a cultural boycott was necessary, if only as an act of solidarity with those in Israel who seek to remove the inequality, discrimination and segregation of their society.”
Continuing, she quoted from “Land Grab,” by Yehezkel Lein, published by B’Tselem – the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: “The settlement enterprise in the occupied territories has created a system of legally sanctioned separation based on discrimination that has, perhaps, no parallel anywhere in the world since the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
Ms. D’arcy finished by saying: “My uncle went to live in the Holy Land in the 1920s to help set up the utopian dream of peace, justice and equality between Jew and Arab. It was only when I arrived there that I realized how mistaken he was. He would have done better to have stayed in the East End of London to struggle for peace, justice and equality in England.”
Parnell finished his call to action by saying that “there will be no man so full of avarice, so lost to shame, as to dare the public opinion of all right-thinking men.”
They were both right.
Prof. James Bowen is the national chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Hello all!
I’d like to start by thanking Catherine for her hard work and dedication to a healthy and free society. This site is definitely a much welcomed antidote to all the venemous financial reporting that is so easy to come across.
The reason I am posting is because I would like to discuss the focus on permanence that seems to posess people like Bill Jones and the Israieli govdernment, as well as many, many others.
I have been following the issues discussed here and on many other alternative news site across the net, and I have become concerned with my own personal situation amidst all this mess. Unfortunately, I lack the financial resources to prepare myself for permanent self-sustainability, so much of my focus has been on community and interpersonal well-being. This has turned out to be a blessing because instead of focusing on myself I have been exposed to all sorts of wonderful people and ideas which have helped to re-establish my faith in humanity.
But I’ve really noticed the focus on permanence. It’s everywhere. Permanent growth, permanent war, permanent wealth, permanent stature….it’s just so out of line with nature.
We all die. All material requirements of this lifetime will cease. But yet we conduct our society according to some mistaken idea of permanence. A proper society that understands and is at terms with it’s physical mortality respects children and does not misdirect or murder them.
I had better keep this short, as to keep myself from coming across as stupid. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t worry about it, Bill, we’ll all take care of you. Don’t worry about getting off the grid and being self-sustainable. Sleeping in a tipi next to a crackling fire is better than any king size downy 1,000 thread count slumber. Don’t be afraid, and don’t put up barriers. Think about romanticising the moment and enjoying others accomplishments.
David:
I could not agree more. And…THANK YOU!
Catherine
David,
lets see I didnt know that the Bombay terrorist were Jews since you were talking about mass murder of civilians, now Madoff is a Jew and he swindled a lot of Jewish charities, but I didnt know that Cris Dodd, Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines, Gregory Meeks, Maxine Waters were Jews and that Jews were responsible for our financial meltdown! I guess they caused 4 dollar gas/140 dollar oil (OPEC – mostly arabs) which caused the over leveraged house of cards that was the US mortgage and credit industry to finally collapse. Who knew that the Jews ran OPEC, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac! Of course the democrat congress is nothing but a jewish cabal writing blank checks to that anglo traitor Paulson who is still secretly working for… ah here it comes… Goldman Sachs! Now these jews are really stupid because all of this is collapsing the one country that is a reliable ally and has provided them with the military aide to defend themselves against hundreds of millions of hostile arab neighbors…there may be corruption in our government but it isnt a jewish conspiracy.
Abdullah’s daddy knew how to deal with the Palestinians so lets move all of them to Jordan and then we can have peace in Israel. The media will then go away as they never care about arab on arab or muslim on muslim violence and we can all head down to McDonalds and get a Big Mac to celebrate.
Catherine,
Yes of course I agree with you (and sincerely thank you for providing that road map; I study it everyday) – the psychopaths in charge would love nothing more than to drain away our positive energy and turn it into bitter poison.
However, as you yourself have experienced first hand, it’s not such much the positive actions you are willing to take, but preparing yourself for the negative consequences of those actions. And being placed on the defensive by their unwitting or willing foot-soldiers is the first tactic in their dirty tricks bag.
We have nothing to explain or justify to criminals.
Again, thank you for all your work.
David
David:
All these things are real. However, the question before us is “What’s the action?” Understanding what to believe or do requires a good map. So “mapping the real deal” is invaluable. With a good map in hand, how do we successfully navigate and thrive in a manner that contributes to a more positive direction for ourselves and our family and the whole?
Whether mapping or acting, the focus should be on what improves our and other positive energy — rather than just getting frustrated with the Tapeworm.
If we start down that road it is a full time job and the Tapeworm just gets more of our energy.
Catherine
So…mass murder of civilians, multi-billion dollar ponzi swindles and multi-trillion dollar systemic financial plundering are not real at all, just “antisemitic pshycobable”?
Thanks so much “Bill Jones” for clearing that up!
Interesting (psychopathic!) times we live in, indeed.
Catherine,
I do not have faith in the new government or its socialist agenda…Infrastructure spending did not help Japan but I am not opposed to using tax dollars to fix infrastructure… you are moving towards local community organization and decentralization…we are moving in a similar direction but I wish to become a hermit not a co-oper… I see self sufficiency as a way of increasing my wealth by reducing my cost in a tax free manner…where recycling achieves that goal I will participate ( I am not a green, I am a conservative with libertarian tendencies)…”organic” farming because I can reuse the seeds…I dont dislike corporate America, I am just tired of sending them my money for essential goods and services…as a small business owner I dont think the word profit is bad
…I dont find solar cost effective, yet, and look at Sterling as a means of generating electricity with any heat source…this would include wood, coal, NG or even thermal solar. WisperGen has a natural gas unit but I do not know the cost and do not want to be limited to one fuel source especially when I can come across lots of free wood for winter use and would see if thermal solar would work in the summer. My goal is to come off grid and have it pay for itself in 3-5 years.
As for the Sterling technology, no one has caused it to be shelved…it has some annoying characteristics that modern technology seems to now be addressing.. do 2 searches…one on Dean Kamen (segway inventor) and Sterling engines and another on Sandia National Labratories and thermal solar.
One thing that did intrigue me on a “community” level was the idea of bypassing the big banks and doing local banking…how about bypassing banks altogether and pooling investment money and loans but via some sort of standardized contract between the creditors and debtor. Have you 2 ladies loan directly to the third for a cut in profit for a set term. Micro loans for Americans and for larger amounts. And how does one build trust in such a system?
Lastly, what are the legal ramifications i.e. taxes of barter?
How much activity would get you noticed? And have you looked at the fair tax proposal?