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Red Rag column: Gideon Spiro` book; Remembrance Day; the Trek to Poland
Gideon Spiro
By: Gideon Spiro
14 May 2016

Apology

The Red Rag column went on vacation for a while because I was busy with the
publication of my first book, “Letters to judges and men in power”,
which received a festive launch at the office of the Rosa Luxemburg
Foundation in Tel Aviv on 1 May of this year. The rules of modesty forbid a
person from attesting to the superior quality of his merchandise, so I will
settle for a quote from Attorney Tamar Peleg, a veteran of many struggles for
human rights, who concluded her words of welcome as follows: “This book
belongs in the home of every person of the Left.” It is a unique book that
challenges the justice system that has been corrupted by the Occupation, and
its price of 50 Shekels is entirely donated to human rights organizations:
Breaking the Silence, Yesh Gvul and Physicians for Human Rights. Those
interested can send a cheque to POB 16202, Tel Aviv along with their postal
address and the book will be sent to them.


Yizkor – Remember

One of the things that caught my attention during the Memorial Days for Fallen
Soldiers and Underground Fighters (including Irgun and Lehi terrorists who
threw bombs in markets and cafés) is a phenomenon that is recurs every year in
conversations with the families of the fallen. They say that what
characterized them was their love of humanity. And I ask myself how it came to
be that so many lovers of humanity are willing to kill other human beings. I
received at least a partial answer in texts of the Chief Rabbi of the IDF and
the Rabbi of the Western Wall on the eve of Memorial Day at the Western Wall
plaza: texts that called for revenge bordering on genocide. Then the People of
Israel will remember its sons and daughters who fell in superfluous wars and
needless military operations after they were drugged by governments, military
leaders and collaborationist media, especially radio and television, who make
out as if their deaths were not in vain.

I got the idea to draft an alternative memorial prayer along the following
lines:

May the People of Israel remember the parents who raised children and sent
them to the army with great pride as if all their all they wanted was to raise
cannon-fodder for wars, and the youths went to their deaths like lambs to the
slaughter in wars and military operations that were criminal initiatives by
the State. May the People of Israel remember the small minority of true
heroes, Occupation-refusers and war-resisters who refused to collaborate in
the work of killing, preserved their humanity and proudly accepted the prison
sentences that were imposed on them.

May the People of Israel remember with anger and scorn the settlers who with
help of governments of Israel plundered and robbed lands of the neighbouring
people and contributed to the perpetuation of the bloody cycle, which could
have been and still can be stopped with wise policy and peace-seeking.
Remember and do not forget that it another way was possible, that there was an
alternative and it has been squandered so far.


The trek to Poland

Again this year we witnessed the repulsive phenomenon of Israeli high-school
students wrapped in the Israeli flag, marching at the Auschwitz-Birkenau
extermination camp, a performance that cheapens the Holocaust desecrates the
flag. More than once in the past I have criticized the spectacle of enlisting
the Holocaust to increase motivation to join combat units in the army. The
nationalist Education Minister Bennett continues on that contemptible path.

And as if that were not enough, this year was added the absurdity of the
participation of the Justice Minister from the Jewish Home Party, who could
have played a similar role in the Third Reich – just as long as no racist Jews
were harmed.


This just in

A copy of a short letter from the depths of the earth has come into my
possession. It was sent to Ms Smotrich and her husband Bezalel Smotrich, [1] a
member of the Israeli Reichstag, and it reads:

Congratulations to my faithful disciples who are continuing my
struggle. See you soon, God willing.

Signed,

Eva and Adolf


Translator’s note

1. Bezalel Smotrich, a Member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home Party, called
for segregation of Arab and Jewish women in Israeli maternity wards, saying
among other things: “It is natural that my wife would not want to lay down
next to someone who just gave birth to a baby might [sic] want to murder her
baby in another 20 years.” http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Report-Various-
Israeli-hospitals-separate-pregnant-Jewish-Arab-on-request-450271


Translated from Hebrew for Occupation Magazine by George Malent
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