*Annual New York Conference to mark the departure and exile of Jews from Arab Countries, 20 May 2024, Touro University, Brooklyn. With MK May Golan, Shimon Ohayon, Ben Dror Yemini, Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah, Haim Saadoun, Stanley Uruman, Sarina Roffé, etc
From Harif - Association of UK Jews from MENA - a London event:
*Why is the ethnic cleansing of MENA Jews more relevant than ever? Monday 20 May, 7:30 pm. Appeal for Yad Sarah. Lyn Julius will present her book UPROOTED. Donors get a free signed copy. Maida Vale Venue.
For complimentary tickets please email Michael Marks at michael@yadsarah.org.uk.
Jews from Arab lands are the missing piece of the Israeli-Palestinian discourse by American Syrian Jew Lisa Sayegh May 7, 2024
"...Over the past years, I have often been frustrated when I find people do not understand the trauma of the 700,000 Jews from all over the Middle East who were violently expelled from their countries in 1948 and how it resonates today. Pro-Palestinian activists who call out Israel as a “European settler colonial project” omit a critical part of the story that calls into question their claim. They ignore the Mizrahi majority in Israel who are descendants of Jews expelled from Arab lands when Israel was declared a state..."
Soon, Jews around the world will celebrate Passover, a story of resistance and return. From persecution and slavery under a tyrannical ruler to liberation and the beginning of our return to Eretz Israel, it is a story foundational to the Jewish experience. In the face of threats by tyrannical rulers today, we stand steadfast in our identity as Jews, as Jews whose diasporic experience heralds from the Middle East and North Africa, and as Jews who support the existence of Jewish life in our ancestral homeland. Just as before, we will triumph over those who wish to destroy us, and we will continue to advocate for peaceful coexistence for all peoples in the region, so we may live our lives free from persecution, antisemitism, and hate.
The People of Israel Live, today, tomorrow, and forever. Am Israel Chai.
Sarah Abrevaya Stein is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, as well as Professor of History and the Viterbi Family Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies at UCLA. She is the award-winning author or editor of ten books, including, most recently, Wartime North Africa: a Documentary History, 1934-1950 (Stanford University Press, co-authored with Aomar Boum). She lives and surfs in Santa Monica, CA.
MPORTANT: Please note that no registration is required but for security reasons, in the Zoom room only participants identified by name (ie not 'Ipad' or "Wonderwoman') will be admitted. The event will also be livestreamed to the Harif Facebook page.
Following is a thread of quotes from #TheGlobalJigsaw latest episode on the #IRGC, #Quds force, #Basij militias - and th ideological blueprint for #Iran so called Axis of Resistance. Whole episode here:
In the last few years we've seen the two leading #Gulf monarchies in the #UAE and #Saudi leading the march towards normalisation with #Israel and this is where #Iran comes in and this is where it kind of disrupts what's already a fragile environment because when it comes to the #Palestinian cause this is perhaps the one single unifying cause across the #MENA region itself.
The #UnitedStates federal government updated how it classifies people by #race & #ethnicity for the 1st time in over a quarter-century, aiming to better capture an increasingly #diverse country & give policymakers a fuller view of the #Americans their work impacts.
The #OMB will combine Qs about #race & #ethnicity on fed forms & encourage people to select multiple options if applicable. The govt also will add “#MiddleEastern or #NorthAfrican” (#MENA) a new category…which will include 7 choices.
“This is truly a momentous day” said Meeta Anand, snr dir for #census & data #equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil & #HumanRights, a natl coalition of >200 #CivilRights grps. The combined question, she added, is “one of the biggest changes we’ve ever seen.”
Marine 1 is about to land w President Biden at Andrews airbase as he returns to the White House to meet his NatSec team in regards to the #Iran related escalation #MENA#Israel
#Israel / Global Index: Israel falls out of the liberal democracy category for the first
time in over 50 years; substantive decline also include freedom from #torture
With the question of whether a “Jewish State” can even be a real democracy put aside, Israel is no longer even that. Strangely, Israel seems to to have finally assimilated in the Middle East, but in the worst possible way.
[…] The Middle East and North Africa (#MENA) remains the most autocratic region in the world, with 98% of its population residing in autocracies. A large share (45%) lives in closed autocracies such as #Iran, #Libya, and Saudi Arabia, but 53% live in electoral autocracies, such as #Türkiye and Iraq. 2% of the region's population reside in #Tunisia, which is in the “grey zone” electoral autocracy category. The remaining 2% live in Israel. Notably, Israel lost its long-time status as liberal democracy in 2023. It is now classified as an electoral democracy – for the first time in over 50 years. This is primarily due to substantial declines in the indicators measuring the transparency and predictability of the law, and government attacks on the judiciary.
[…] Among other things, Israel’s Knesset passed a bill in 2023 stripping the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable. Indicators that are in substantive decline also include freedom from torture.
ArtVeda is an NGO working for the promotion of cultural life in Tunisia and for a dialogue beyond borders. Part of “Artists at Risk (AR) – A European Network of Safe Havens (AR-ENSH)” which is supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, ArtVeda has hosted several residencies for artists at risk from the MENA region.
It seems like I've been server-blocked from at least half of the big #mastodon servers since October for speaking out about #Palestine. The modus operandi of the #fediverse appears to be to demand support for NATO's commercial military adventure in Ukraine (treating Ukrainian lives as collateral for #US interests), while punishing whoever protests a genocide of total extermination in Gaza, by far the most violent event of my 30+ years on this planet. #FOSS communities I was a part of for years until just a few months ago, including contributors who used to regularly chat in my comments, have largely blocked or soft-blocked me in the past few months.
What kind of world are you people creating? Really???
And you disguise this as... activism? Its honestly sick, and if you think you can sabotage our reputations and careers into silence while preaching "free software is as important as free speech", I have a very, very rude awakening for you, because the tides of popular opinion have shifted.
and please stop accusing anyone who criticizes the western war industry of "supporting Putin". Nobody on the left supports Putin except some morons living in their parents basement. And we don't watch Tucker Carlson either (a despicable CIA failson and right-wing opportunist who never held a principled position on this or any conflict), please be serious.
now that 150K Ukrainians have died in #Ukraine while having gained nothing, and with the Western military industrial complex hot on the trail of its latest greatest bloodlust rampage, nobody has any sympathy for these accusations anymore. its clear that they are used purely for intimidation and to make caricatures of legitimate criticism. all in order to treat the people you claim to support like cannon fodder.
the antiwar left urged peace negotiations as soon as they arrived at the table, already in March 2022. we were right, if they would have negotiated early, 100K+ Ukrainian lives would be saved and most of Ukraine would not have been reduced to rubble.
this isn't even beginning to consider the #blowback which is guaranteed to erupt in the coming years. like #Iraq -- which #MENA is still reeling from -- the consequences of treating #Ukrainians like valorized pawns will haunt the West for decades.
Last year, Artists at Risk (AR) initiated cooperation with Defend Defenders/African Defenders to support Osman Obaid, a prolific political cartoonist from #Sudan.
AR assisted Obaid on his path to becoming a fellow of Ubuntu Hub Cities in Kampala, Uganda. He was internally displaced due to the civil war in Sudan, where he had worked for many leading newspapers.
Happy Chag Habanot (AKA Rosh Chodesh L’banot)! Rosh Chodesh and Chanukah are both holidays related specifically to women, on which it is customary for women to refrain from certain types of work in celebration. In some North African Jewish traditions, there are additional celebrations when the two coincide, commemorating the many women heroes through Jewish history.
"Governments taking part in #COP28 must take concrete and bold steps to avert the worst harms of the #climate crisis, amid alarming #WaterScarcity exacerbated by #ClimateChange, including for states in the Middle East and North Africa (#MENA), said Amnesty International."
Huge announcement ! @calyxos is now available for the Motorola G32, G42 and G52 ! Why is this a big deal ? Because it helps us further our mission of making #PrivacyByDesign available to the maximum amount of people around the world as we can..
Google Pixel phones are the default and easiest phones to support while maintaining the #Android security model with a locked boot loader and full verified boot. But they are only sold in around a dozen countries around the world.. and are not cheap
So there is a lack of accessibility to folks in the #GlobalSouth in particular. These Motorolas cost around half of what the budget versions of Pixel phones cost and are sold in many countries in continents where Pixels are not, including in #SouthAmerica#Asia and #MENA
Thank you to #StartSmall and jack dorsey for believing in us, and for the funding that made this possible ! And a BIG thank you to our friends at @LineageOS for their work on platform support for the Motorola phones
Deep #caturday breath… Zhivko’s had a heavy week working a tough story for the latest episode of #TheGlobalJigsaw on the #Israel#Gaza war. Listen to find out why Jihadists loathe Hamas yet try to exploit the popular anger for their aims - plus other narratives reflecting the power tilts in the Middle East