"My Own Private Medicine" by Owen Dempsey

Israel/Palestine – what can we learn from the 1929 riots

Owen Dempsey

January 20, 2020

The 1929 riots In Hebron, Safed and Jerusalem, Palestine, are often used as part of Zionist propaganda to ‘prove’ how dangerous and fanatical the Muslims are (or Arabs as the Zionists refer to Arab muslims). ‘The Mohammedan fanatic’ is a well worn trope used by the British in the early 1900s to promote Zionism and the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine (see British Pathé News bulletins on Palestine from the 1900s). It is true that in 1929 nearly 70 Jews were brutally murdered by Arabs in Hebron, but there is an illuminating back story that helps to explain, though not exonerate, these crimes.

“When zionists mention you (sic) the 1929 Riots and the tragic massacre of the Hebron Jews, post them the article and recall that with the 133 Jews murdered by Arabs, 116 Arabs were murdered by Jews. And that MOST of the 500 or so Jews of Hebron were saved, most of them by their Arab neighbors … Also of the 67 victims in Hebron, 12 were Sephardim (the Old Hebron families) 55 were Ashkenazim, mostly recent immigrants Europeans & Americans. So to say that Arabs “decimated” the Jewish community in Hebron is a blatant DISTORTION of the facts and Historically FALSE .. You’ll note that zionists never express any gratitude for the 430+ Jews saved in Hebron most of whom were saved by Arabs, nor do they mention the 116 Arabs killed during the 1929 Riots.. We also need to remember that it was sparked by the incitement of the Hagana and Betar (the Revisionist organization) taunting Arabs at the Al-Buraq Sanctuary of the Haram al-Sharif (Western Wall) … Same trick used by Ariel Sharon in 2000 to spark the Second Intifada … “
for reference see here (click on link)

This Hebron massacre of 1929 is also used to imply a claim for Jews to a right to be in Hebron even though today it is under illegal military occupation by Israel which is promoting illegal settler colonisation by Jewish zionist religious extremists (who are mostly from America or Europe).

My main source of reference here is “The ‘Western Wall’ riots of 1929: religious boundaries and communal violence”, Alex Winder, Journal of Palestinian Studies vol. XLII, No.1 (Autumn 2012) pp6-23.

In summary, prior to 1929, the British Administration, since 1917 at least, had been encouraging the immigration of European Jews to Palestine. Prior to this there had been a relatively peaceful co-existence of Arabic (Sephardic) Jews with Muslims in Safed, Jerusalem and Hebron. Although the Jews were relatively second class compared to the Muslims living in Jewish quarters and having limited access to religious sites such as the Western Wall/Al Burqa in Jerusalem and the Al Ibrahim mosque in Hebron.

This relatively peaceful co-existence was progressively disrupted by the immigration of European Jews who were purchasing Arab land, living in and expanding the Jewish quarters, and, for example, demonstrating at the Western Wall/Al Burqa for more access and restricted Muslim access. This led to tensions and ultimately increasing violence, Arabs were killed too, but larger numbers of mostly European (foreign) Jews were also killed in Safed and Hebron. British security forces quelled the riots and executed Arab perpetrators.

It is reasonable to argue that a significant factor in the Safed and Hebron killing was the British enablement of zionist extremist ambitions to colonise Palestine, which destabilised what had been a relatively stable and peaceful co-existence til then. It is not reasonable to claim, as the zionists and British claimed, that the killings were an eruption of long standing hatred of the Arab muslims for Jews, which is another racist myth bandied about today by both zionists and far right racist bigots across Europe.

Very few of the Jewish settlers in Hebron have any connection, genetic or otherwise, with the Sephardic Jews that lived in Hebron prior to 1929.

A common racist argument is that, for example: Muslim culture is incompatable with Western culture. The not so hidden subtext here being that the Muslims are corrupting the purity of our Western races and should be expelled from our shores. This argument is used to support Israeli oppression of the Arabs because the ‘fanatical Mohameddans’ are out to destroy Israel and all the Jews.

However, this raises two questions, first, what are the features of some cultures that other cultures find difficult? And, second, what cultures are currently oppressing other cultures? To suggest a generalised approach to answers to these questions:

First, there are dangerous features of so-called western culture exemplified by, say, greed and the profit motive, and white supremacy allied with destructiion of ‘others’ on, a global scale for power.

Second, it is a barbaric form of western culture in Israel that is committing crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinan territories.

These are the problems to be addressed, problems that are exacerbating racism globally.

We can learn from Winder’s analysis of the 1929 riots is that violence is often the result of a complex interplay of religious, political and nationalist factors interacting with each other. We can also learn that that the same British enabled (and USA enabled) zionist colonisation is still being promoted and is used to excuse the violent destruction of the ‘evidently’ fanatical Mohameddans, when in reality we are witnessing a barbaric Israeli political culture that is incompatible with humane civilised democratic societies.

Winder shows us that Jewish and Muslims can live side by side peacefully, but that there needs to be a relative balance of power and right to self-determination, something missing today. Cultures have different customs but they can reach arrangements for respecting the right of an other culture to self-determine its path.

Jews do not historically hate Muslims, but contemporary zionist political ambitions to expand the Jewish State are used to justify and promote violence against the Arabs in Palestine (Christian and Muslim), whilst Arab Sephardic Jews are now second class clitizens in a Jewish State run y and for Ashkenazi (European, Russian, white and North American) Jews

A tragic postscript is that today, in 2020, Palestine and Hebron is caught in a kind of lethal time-loop. Still, sites of religious significance, are sites of communal violence; the temple of Al Aqsa is still under Muslim control, but Zionists and the Israeli military still hold demonstrations and restrict access to Muslims leading to counter demonstrations; the ‘wall’ is under Jewish control. In Hebron, the Ibrahimi mosque was the site of a massacre in the later 1990s when a settler machine gunned over 20 Muslim worshippers in the mosque itself. This led, ironically, to a crack down on Muslim access to the mosque with: a) the closure of Shuhada street to Palestinians (a vibrant market, and route to the mosque for many Muslims in Hebron), creating a Palestinian free link between Hebron Jewish settlements and Kiryat Arba – a large settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, and a new contentious geographic/political/apartheid boundary for Hebron; b) the contruction of militarised checkpoints for Palestinians to pass through to get to the mosque; and c) the erection of a bullet proof barrier between the synagogue portion of the mosque and the Muslim section. Muslim access to the mosque is frequently disrupted by the military to allow for the ‘free’ movement of settlers.

Peacemaking Work in Hebron, Palestine

Owen Dempsey

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January 16, 2020

Here are some resources to use when talking about peacemaking work in Hebron Palestine.

Introduction.

Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank, Palestine (population about 250 000). The West Bank is the area of Greater Palestine that received large numbers of the refugees (approx 700 000) in 1948 that fled from Greater Palestine when it was invaded and when over 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed by Zionist terrorist militia (following years of European Jewish immigration since the Balfour Declaration (promising the Jews a ‘homeland’ in Palestine) in 1917).

The West Bank was the area of Greater Palestine that the Zionists (people who wanted to create a Jewish State or ‘homeland’, taking advantage of the British Balfour declaration, in 1917, that Jews could found a homeland in Palestine), did not invade in 1948 but decided to leave under Jordanian control, at least until 1967 when Israel invaded and began its military occupation and settler colonisation, and demolitions, land theft, annexation of the (fertile) Jordan valley, uprooting olive groves, destroying water wells, displacing Bedouin, and creating a segregated network of roads and facilities for Jewish settlers. All of which amounts to the forced displacement, or transfer, of the indigenous population, under a military occupation, a process illegal under international law and which amounts to ethnic cleansing or incremental genocide.

Hebron contains the mosque over what is thought to be Abraham’s tomb, an important religious site for Jews and Muslims. Hebron had been home to Jewish Arabs in the late 19th century, but following confrontations over access to the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, aggravations due to the influx of European Jews, and difficulties due to loss of land, there were riots in Jerusalem, Safed, and Hebron where about 67 Jews (out of about 500) were killed by Arabs, with the rest eventually evacuated by the British administration ‘for their safety). This massacre strengthened the influence of Jewish military units such as the Hagenah, instrumental in the subsequent brutal terrorist attacks and ethnic cleansing of the Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948. As a site of such religious significance it has been the prime target for settlement by the most extreme religious Jewish elements. This settler colonisation has led to the development of a settlement of about 7000, called Kiryat Arba, which is just outside Hebron, accessed by a main road from Israel, and which is now linked by militarily protected roads, with severe restrictions on Palestinian movement, and which provide continguous links and access to settlements within Hebron Old City itself, of about 500 settlers.

Within Hebron, under military control and law, the occupation makes life for Palestinians difficult, as it does through the occupied territories, with movement restrictions affecting: the economy, access to resources such as water and healthcare, schooling; as well as night raids, the illegal detention and torture of minors for e.g. throwing stones, and enforced demolitions of businesses and homes.

CPT, Christian Peacemaker Teams, have a team in Hebron, where they work in partnership with the Palestinians to transform violence and oppression through non violent direct actions. Key aims include, to:

Honor and reflect the presence of faith and spirituality
Strengthen grassroots initiatives
Transform structures of domination and oppression
Embody creative non-violence and liberating love

In Hebron the team has regular activities involving monitoring access of children to schools and Palestinian worshippers to religious sites such as the Ibrahimi mosque, as well as being on call for incidents, as they occur, involving, for example, aggression from the military or settlers, this may include being called to violent clashes, demonstrations, and night raids. Team members take turns to perform these activities as well as the other tasks for maintaining the team: shopping, cooking, washing , cleaning, social media and team briefings, reflections and co-ordination with partners and other agencies in Hebron.

Children are vulnerable to the aggression of the military occupation, and often detained on the pretext of stone throwing, and subject to torture.

A Recent report by independent experts commissioned by the UN, the committee on the rights of children has confirmed that Israel routinely tortures children as young as 5. Bearing in mind that under Israeli military law a child is under 12, and for international law is under 18.

From the UN

“[Palestinian children are] systematically subject to physical and verbal violence, humiliation, painful restraints, hooding of the head and face in a sack, threatened with death, physical violence, and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, restricted access to toilet, food and water.

“These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pretrial detention.”

What is the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols?

The CRC is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world. It contains a full range of human rights – civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. The four Guiding Principles of the CRC are:
• the right of all children to survival and development
• respect for the best interests of the child as a primary consideration in all decisions relating to children
• the right of all children to express their views freely on all matters affecting them
• the right of all children to enjoy all the rights of the CRC without discrimination of any kind.

1. A brief historical survey. 2 minute Film summarising events since 1900,

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2016/06/vanishing-palestine-making-israel-occupation-160605090749034.html

2. The occupation in Hebron : B’tselem video “Playing the security card”

https://www.btselem.org/video/20190925_playing_the_security_card

3. CPTs work CPT 3 minute video of child being detained

other useful resources:

Interactive map Hebron

https://www.hebronapartheid.org/index.php?page=map

Mapping the apartheid; Shuhada Street Hebron

https://www.hebronapartheid.org/index.php?map=4

The Mass Psychology of Fascism in the 21st Century – part 3

Owen Dempsey

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January 14, 2020

At some point I will write about the way our identities are culturally formed in terms of whether we are programmed to love the other or to simply not value the life of the other at all (to value some other bureaucratic and rule-based goal).

The way we are programmed is a psychoanalytic process that I won’t describe here.

Here, I just want to point to a paragraph in an excellent essay by David Graeber, titled: “The centre blows itself up – care and ‘Spite’ in the Brexit election”.

This is the paragraph:

Whereas the core value of the caring classes is, precisely, care, the core value of the professional-managerials might best be described as proceduralism. The rules and regulations, flow charts, quality reviews, audits and PowerPoints that form the main substance of their working life inevitably color their view of politics or even morality . These are people who tend to genuinely believe in the rules They may well be the only significant stratum of the population who do so. If it is possible to generalize about class sensibilities, one might say that members of this class see society less as a web of human relationships, of love, hate, or enthusiasm, than, precisely, as a set of rules and institutional procedures, just as they see democracy, and rule of law, as effectively the same thing. (This, for instance, accounts for Hillary Clinton’s supporters’ otherwise inexplicable inability to understand why other Americans didn’t accept the principle that if one makes bribery legal—by renaming it “campaign contributions” or half-million-dollar fees for private speeches—that makes it okay.)

The key point here is that ‘love’ – defined here as the desire to care for the individual other without doing them harm (no matter how hard that might be) – is no longer valued. Wilhelm Reich in his 1942 ‘The Mass Psychology of Fascism’ (TMPF) talks about the non-political ‘man’: the person from an authoriatrian patriarchal, perhaps religious family, which is implicitly anti-sexual, (or I would say as well, anti-love), who is encultured to identify with authority figures like Boris Johnson, as sovereign, no matter how random and arbitrary his ‘rule’ seems to be. The non-political person’s libidinal energies need to find release and cannot find it in love and so turns to bureaucratic rules that no longer care or love the individual but impose blanket ‘rules’ that must be obeyed by everyone. An example of this would be cancer screening in programmes that I have analysed from this perspective in my book: ‘Anticipation and Medicine – a critical analysis of the science, praxis and perversion of evidence based health care’.

The psyche of this so-called non-political man is an important ingredient in the development of fascist politics. Hitler, as Reich pointed out (p200, TMPF), succeeded in appealing to this sexualised frustration at the source of his or her ‘social irresponsibility’ as Reich put it, or if his or her incapacity to love the other (as I would put it).

The Mass Psychology of Fascism in the 21st Century – part 2

Owen Dempsey

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January 13, 2020

The subjugation of the psyche of the middle classes (by what Reich called mysticism, or by Lacan, fantasy) is illustrated by Richard Murphy’s comment in his blog written as a new year summary, shortly after the UK Labour Party suffered a resounding General Election defeat in 2019.

“Most (on the left) instead obsessed about identity issues of little consequence to most people and about which nothing could be achieved without power. At the same time they becoming increasingly fixated on concepts of socialism based on material constructs of well-being and notions of class that have long been dead and now appear patronising.”

Murphy appears to be saying something about notions of class being ‘dead’. But what are these notions?

Could they include the idea, and I think clear fact, that increases in material economic inequality are due to the continuing and worsening exploitation of the worse off (a lower socioeconomic class) by the better off (a higher socioeconomic class). This is shown by increases in in-work poverty, the need for food banks etc. I don’t see this as a dead notion but one that is very much alive.

His comment about people apparently feeling patronised by such material notions of class suggests to me two things. First, some do not realise they are being exploited by employers and the state partly because they are satisfied with their current status, let’s say for argument sake, lower middle class, in a simple semi on an estate, with some inherited wealth – enough to buy a few extras and handouts for the kids. Whilst ‘comfortable’ they are still less well off than many even though they feel their needs are met. That may also be petit bourgeoisie having rented out a flat and enjoyed the profits and proceeds of rent at the expense of others. Second, feeling ‘sufficiently comfortable’ blinds them to their exploitation, even makes them prone to being frightened by the prospects of losing their wealth at the hands of any kind of political move to the left that threatens to re-distribute wealth, and so they vote for the most right wing party they can find.

The relatively large numbers of sufficiently satisfied lower middle classes voting for right wing political parties are what sustains right wing and ultimately the kind of authoritarian governments that we now have in the UK today.

Being blinded to your exploitation and blind to the value of the lives that are exploited and sacrificed to sustain material inequalities is the way ideology works under nationalist and imperialist capitalist regimes to construct the enslaved psyche of the masses.

The psyche is subjugated by a right wing ideology that preaches: more security against the left and the poor (and the alien immigrant other) is always a good thing because they are the threat to your comfort that you must fear and cannot overestimate.

It is through fear (and other abstract concepts such as conservative patriotic values, honour etc.) that the psyche of the masses is controlled.

More can be said about this, but, briefly, such self-control, under the illusion of freedom, is generating ever more authoritarian and racist regimes. This is leading to greater instability globally and is bound to lead to the collapse of existing social structures. In the drive for individualised and selfish security man is creating insecurity for all.

The Mass Psychology of Fascism in the 21st century. Part 1

Owen Dempsey

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January 12, 2020

Fascism:

A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

An example:

Branding the Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement in the UK ‘extremist’.

Today, 11/01/2020, XR was declared, by the security forces in the UK, to be an ‘extremist’ organisation.

As Richard Smith posted on his blog here commenting on the criminalisation of XR:

“Seeking ‘system change’ is the crime … it is the defenders of the status quo who should, in many cases, be defined the extremists: it is their behaviour that is usually anti-social … The police say that XR might mislead vulnerable people. I suggest it is the police who are deliberately seeking to mislead.”

This extremist label sustains a situation that is signified as ‘normal’ by an elite who have vested interests in corporate control over innovative technologies and in the power of the nation-state.

This is the image produced by the state:

This criminalisation of non-violent civil disobedience is close in kind to the way Nazi Germany’s so called National Socialism under Hitler in the 1930s violently crushed political opposition.

To criminalise non-violent civil disobedience is to remove one of the final ways a society may resist the oppression of excessive nation-state power. And such excessive power here has fascist characteristics: the subjugation of the masses by a strong authoritatian state that uses propaganda to demand the criminalisation and sacrifice of protesters for the sake of the totalitarian and anti-democratic nation-state.

The Home Secretary Priti Patel defended the inclusion of XR in the report on extremist groups in the grounds of risks to public security. See Here

In the UK in 2020, After Johnson’s election, and his nationalist and elitist cabinet, we have a shift to the right and a shift towards increasingly dictatorial power that feels free to ignore and subvert so-called democratic norms.

Shuhada Street Hebron

Owen Dempsey

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January 11, 2020

Shuhada Street;

See, for dates and more info

https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-expand-colonization-hebron/29091

Shuhada Street is in Hebron, the largest city on the West Bank with about 230,000 inhabitants (Inverness has 64 000, and Forres about 12 000, and Huddersfield 160 000), The Old City under military control has about 30 000. Hebron is only 14 miles from Bethlehem. Hebron has a chequered history, under Egyptian and Ottomon control for many years in the 1800s. Jews lived in Hebron, but following a massacre of about 70 Jews in Hebron in 1929, the remaining Jews were evacuated by the British for their safety.

The military occupation of the West Bank after 1967 precludes the legality of settler colonisation and virtually none of the 500 or so settlers in the Old City have any family ties to the Jews that lived there in 1929.

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) was an international organisation established in 1997 as part of the Oslo Accords’ Hebron Protocol, which allowed the partial redeployment of Israeli military forces to the part of the city that remained under its control. It monitored the effects of military control on Palestinian civilian life, and published a damning report in 2017, after which Israel refused to extend its mandate effectively disbanding and deporting them.

TIPH reported, inter-alia, based, among other things, on over 40,000 “incident reports” compiled over the years by TIPH’s team:’

Israel is violating the right to non-discrimination as stated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Israel in 1991, according to the report. Palestinians living in the Israeli-controlled area of the city lack of freedom of movement and the right to worship, clear breaches of this right, the report says. In addition, TIPH says, Israel is constantly in breach of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention (IV), forbidding the deportation of protected persons (those living under occupation who are not citizens of the occupying country) from occupied territory.

A diplomat who has seen the report told Haaretz that it says “this basic human right is breached regularly and more and more severely for the Palestinians in Hebron – and particularly for those living in H2 – relating to lack of freedom of movement and the right to worship.”

“Normal life,” especially in Hebron’s Old City area in the Israeli-controlled area of H2, is nowhere to be found, the report says, referencing the TIPH mandate that states that the mission “assists in monitoring and reporting efforts to maintain normal life in the city of Hebron.” Furthermore, the old Palestinian vegetable market has become an Israeli military zone, often occupied by settlers and a playground for their children, according to the report.

The report also disputes land ownership claims in Hebron’s Old City made by settlers who say they represent previous Jewish owners who fled or were murdered during the 1929 Hebron massacre. Today’s settlers, the report says, have no family ties with previous owners of the property, and the question of ownership of land that had been inhabited or used by Jews prior to 1929 has still not been answered clearly. Regardless of these ownership claims, TIPH says the presence of any Israeli settlement in Hebron is considered a violation of international law.

The report also notes the exodus from H2 of those Palestinians who can afford to move to Palestinian Authority-controlled H1, where they face fewer restrictions. Those who can’t or don’t want to leave H2 have to confront “radical Israeli settlers” who are supported by the Israeli government and Jewish foundations abroad, the report claims.

The division of security responsibilities in H1 and H2 works in contradiction to the Hebron agreement and is hindering the movement of people, goods and vehicles within the city, the report warns. Obstacles and barriers between the two areas have developed into a military fortification consisting of numerous closures and checkpoints manned by Israeli security forces, especially controlling the city’s Palestinian inhabitants.

The report highlights Shuhada Street, which is probably Hebron’s most famous thoroughfare. Once a thriving Palestinian market, today it is devoid of Palestinians and its shops are shuttered. Palestinians are still not allowed to drive on the street and can’t access parts of it on foot, the report notes, adding that, over the past 20 years, TIPH has witnessed how these tight movement restrictions for Palestinians on Shuhada Street have spread to other parts of H2.

In contrast, Israeli drivers are granted access to all of H2’s roads. Gradually, the report says, settlers have been given the right to build and extend their settlement activities, including on Palestinian land. Infrastructure construction and maintenance for roads, water and access have also been prioritized for Israeli settlers, the report says.

TIPH also says it has seen land in the settlement of Tel Rumeida, rented by Palestinians for more than a generation, being closed by Israeli military orders and used for archaeological excavations, seeking to prove a Jewish presence there from the first century B.C.E.

Simultaneously, the TIPH report says, freedom of movement for the Palestinians living in Tel Rumeida has been seriously curtailed. Over the years, it has been enclosed and surrounded by several checkpoints – with dire consequences for its Palestinian inhabitants. They are not allowed to receive visitors who are not registered on a list held by the checkpoints guards. TIPH notes that Palestinians are often harassed at these checkpoints, and that the only way to bring food and other provisions to their homes is by foot. Studies, work and family relations are also very challenging for these residents, it writes.

TIPH also witnessed how paths and roads have been established on Palestinian farmland over the years, in order to create exclusive routes for Jewish worshippers heading from the settlement of Kiryat Arba to downtown Hebron. In addition, old Palestinian houses from the Ottoman era situated along this path were demolished in order to widen it.

The observatory mission also notes that Palestinians face numerous obstacles trying to access the Ibrahimi Mosque – which is an important religious site to both Muslims and Jews (the Tomb of the Patriarchs is also situated there). There are now only two access points to the Muslim holy site and worshippers have first to pass several Israeli-manned checkpoints. Worshippers are searched and sometimes required to lift up their clothes. The muezzin, TIPH notes, is not allowed to call worshippers for prayer on Friday evenings and Saturdays due to the Jewish Shabbat. The group adds that while some 1,600 Palestinian worshippers were counted attending the mosque on a given Friday in 2003, that number had been halved by 2017.

maps-palestine-today-744x966

From Elat in the south to the Golan heights is approximately the same distance as from Glasgow to John O’ Groats, Hebron to Elat about 130 miles, the same as Elgin to Glasgow.

Shuhada Street lies at the south western edge of the Old City, and forms part of a margin or back-border with existing Jewish settlements within the Old City of Hebron, settlements that have been illegally created over the years since 1967. It leads to the Ibrahimi mosque and has been closed to Palestinians and the shops welded shut since the massacre of 29 muslim worshippers in the mosque in February 1994. Its western entrance is guarded by the infamous checkpoint 56.

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201909_hebron_map_eng_0_Fotor

Maps showing the yellow and red roads controlled by the Israeli military for settler use , the red road to the left is Shuhada street – off limits to any Palestinians. The blue areas are Israeli settlements, all of these and the centre of the Old City of about 35000 inhabitants are in the grey area, H2, under Israeli military control and law. The small red circles with crosses in them are military checkpoints.

20120728_mam900_Fotor

Map more clearly illustrating the circulations between the settlements and the crucial role intended for Shuhada Street.

The position of Shuhada Street provides a transport, and resources conduit from Kiryat Arba to the settlements in the Old City itself and is the reason for its significance for the Zionist colonisers which lies in its function for enabling increased aggressive settler colonisation of the old city. by Zionist here I mean people who consider Y’Israel as far as the Jordan should be a Jewish State which excludes full rights for Palestinians.

So then, Shuhada Street is a crucial link between Kiryat Arba, a settlement of over 7000 inhabitants about 1 mile to the east of the old city, and the settlements in the city centre. Once Shuhada Street is settled – which is planned (see below) – then a ring of settlements linked together will surround Hebron enabling the settlers to exert even more pressure, and aggressive harrassment to drive out the legitimate indigenous inhabitants of the Old City. This amounts to the forcible transfer of the inhabitants of an occupied territory whihc is illegal under international law.

Shuhada Street is also important because it runs close to the mosque and Tomb of the Patriarchs, a holy site for both Muslims and Jews; and this is another reason why Shuhada Street is being appropriated by Jewish settlers. (see map above , B’tselem)

Zionist propaganda tells of the apparent Palestinian ‘myth’ of Shuhada Street as Palestinian propaganda that Shuhada Street was an important commercial site for Hebron. The Zionists point to the new city and claim Shuhada Street was just a minor road leading to a cemetey and of no importance. In fact Shuhada Street was a thriving market near a bus station that provided economic life to the Old City. It’s closure by the military in 1997 involved the welding shut of the market units and houses and the closure of 180 shops, and the displacement of several hundred Palestinians. ot closure has all but made the Old City economically bankrupt – forcing the displacement of Palestinians (a war crime) – and at the same time opened up settlement expansion opportunities for the Zionists.

As you can see from the maps above Shuhada Street was an important link between the south west of Hebron and the markets on the Old City.

The ‘new’ city of Hebron may look to be flourishing; but this does not show the restrictions of movement for Palestinians, or the continued efforts to displace Palestinians in the West Bank by restrictions of movement,and the theft and destruction of land, building and resources.

The expansion of colonisation acts like a pincer movement, slow and relentless, and closing Shuhada Street was a forceddisplacement, ironically, after Palestinians were massacred in the mosque by an ultra-extremist settler from the nearby settlement at Kiryat Arbat around 1995.

USA announcement that settlements are not illegal has intensified Zionist colonisation activity and even Shuhada Street is now earmarked for settler units.

As Amira Hass reported, in December 2019:

“Defense Minister Naftali Bennett (sent a letter to) the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. In the letter he instructed the Civil Administration to begin procedures for an urban renewal plan in the old Hebron market: in other words, to demolish the structure in which the Hebron municipality is a protected tenant, and to build in its place housing units for Jews.”

At the same time, the International Court of human rights is opening investigations into Israeli war crimes, but will meet fierce Israel/USA opposition.

See, by Ramzy Baroud

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191125-israels-next-move-is-the-real-danger-in-the-us-decision-to-normalise-illegal-jewish-settlements/?fbclid=IwAR0r1fH5VV9UVrafHepW8bGWQbFiM1v82U5h7yobHnl2mufiKCmkvmECpCY

Pompeo has said that God has sent Trump to ‘save’ Israel; by which he means saved Israel for the Christians not for the Jews who will, according to Christian Zionism, will have to convert to Christianity (or presumably go to Hell).

The Lady of the House of Love by Angela Carter

Owen Dempsey

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November 30, 2019

29 Nov 2019

The bloody chamber by Angela carter:

The bloody chamber is a book of short stories. Today our reading group met in Forres and we had a really stimulating discussion. The short stories are justly famous in the literary world for their take on feminism and for how they usurp the usual patriarchal fairytale genre.

Others have used psychoanalytic ideas to explore the meaning in the stories – including Kristeva’s use of Lacan’s notion of abjection Here, and the idea of symbolic castration Here.

And, the story has even inspired kitsch punk rock:

Here I also use Lacan’s ideas on the formation of a never fully self-aware human subjectivity, a process that takes place through symbolic castration. This is a complex idea.

The formation of human subjectivity through symbolic castration:

Briefly put: a human only becomes a subject, or is able to achieve a sense of self (that is always inadequate and only ever partial), by repressing his/her desire for the mother, and turning to the father’s authority, in the form of a social symbolic language that determines moral values for what is good or bad. This requires a subjection to the Law of the Father, which in order to maximise the sense of identity achieved, becomes not just a desire for the father’s authority but an affirmation of the father’s power over the subject by turning that desire for desire by the father into a felt demand for subservience to the Father, or in social terms, subservience to the (here, patriarchal) cultural laws of society. This is a process known as symbolic castration.

I focus on one story: The Lady of the House of Love. Using Lacan – I see here a story of the development of subjectivity in a patriarchal society, where the female vampire represents an aspect of the potential psyche-to-be, that is pre-subjective, and unruly, perverse, troubled, destitute and where the other aspect is the potential aspect of psyche required (with the potential) to provide the (always failing) solution – the aspect that will accept the offer of, or demand of sex, the demand to be effectively castrated and to hand over the reigns of power to the social – the Law of the Father, and will accept Lacan’s version of castration, to become a human subject – here, portrayed by the young man, ‘donning the armour’ of his identity as a soldier, that goes to war to fight and die for his country.

There is a collision here between two time dimensions: the eternal of the vampire (of perpetual dissatisfaction and jouissance – the painful pleasure of sex, consumption of a sex object, here blood, that requires sacrifice – pain, distress and more hunger; and the earthly time of man: the innocence of a child (the soldier), the vampire as the female (so, is this is a feminist take on The Law, where the power is possessed by the female?): at the same time she is one, (perhaps feminine?) aspect of human sexuality; the troubled, experiencing an insatiable hunger, and desiring the desire of the other at the same time. This pre-subjective ‘lawless’ state, is in a limbo between the union with her own mother, and castration by the father – a limbo which also contains the innocent virginal pre-subjective naive child (the soldier).

The story moves on, and, post- castration the eternal desire for the union with the (m)other has died, or is repressed – the presubjective is dissolved (dissolution after death through ‘wisdom’); and in its place, after ‘the kiss’, a sexual act, or castration, the (patriarchal) man is constructed, left now ‘wise’ – knowing, where before he was unknowing, but only knowing that which is being arranged for him in the earthly social world he lives in, his ordained role as soldier, and his death in war.

This is less a feminist tale, than a tale to illustrate the tragedy of patriarchy, where patriarchy requires the construction of a kind of manhood out of the (sexual) appropriation and destruction of the lawless feminine aspect of the psyche within.