APRIL 29, 2018: MS. PORTMAN AGAIN

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters. (photo credit: REUTERS)

Ms. Portman again 

In response to Seth J. Frantzman’s long comments regarding Natalie Portman and the Genesis Prize (“Power, politics and the Natalie Portman Rorschach test,” Analysis, April 23), I am surprised that Ms. Portman was offered this prestigious accolade. What has she achieved to warrant getting this? A few mediocre films?

I am also surprised that her naïve motives for rejecting this are taken so seriously.

In my opinion, the fact that she was born in Israel certainly does not excuse her inability to see the forest for the trees. She has spent most of her life as an American Jewess who most probably voted for Hillary Clinton – of course she would not like either the Likud or Benjamin Netanyahu! But to refuse an Israeli award by pretending she does not endorse Mr. Netanyahu is insulting and ungrateful.

I totally disagree with Mr. Frantzman. Ms. Portman does not deserve to be listened to. Although she discounts it, she has definitely fallen for the floriferous Hamas propaganda that is based on fallacies.

Stop giving her a platform.

EDNA ANZARUT-TURNER 
Montreal

Hen Mazzig (“Open letter to Natalie Portman from an Israeli progressive,” Comment & Features, April 23) correctly defines the reasons why the way her non-acceptance of this prestigious award has been interpreted and latched onto by others as outright criticism of Israel, and not just certain political policies and individuals.

I would, however, not appear to be chasing her to change her mind, as she has clearly made her decision. Now she and we must live with it. Perhaps it will be a learning curve, as “for every action, there is a reaction.” Such is life.

STEPHEN VISHNICK 
Tel Aviv

Kol hakavod to Hen Mazzig for his open letter to Natalie Portman. Very impressive! He said it all.

DENISE DUVAL 
Jerusalem

Kudos to Hen Mazzig for his important article. I would just like to add some more thoughts.

Natalie Portman should by now have realized that words have impact. They are like feathers: Once released, they cannot be returned.

Where are her words praising Israel’s medical care for wounded Syrian refugees or establishing successful field hospitals for disaster-torn countries or caring for ill family members of our enemies? These acts of Israeli humanity do not often reach the news outlets of America and the world.

ANN ROSMAN 
Jerusalem

I want to commend Hen Mazzig for his words.

I am an English teacher living and teaching in Gush Etzion, and although he and I might not see eye to eye on several topics, I am thankful to be living in a place that allows us to express our divergent opinions.

Natalie Portman missed that message and I applaud Mr. Mazzig for reminding her. I wish him health and continued success in expressing his views in our beautiful country.

KAREN GUTH 
Efrat

A more careful reading 

Rafael Medoff’s “The US Holocaust Museum vs. Elie Wiesel” (Comment & Features, April 22) quotes an interview I gave to the Times of Israel about my book Rescue Board, which was published on April 10 by Doubleday and is a comprehensive history of the US War Refugee Board.

In the interview, I said “I’m extremely cautious about saying that bombing the gas chambers would have saved a lot of lives” and that “if the [US] had carpet-bombed the camp, most of the camp would have died.” These statements are true and I stand by them. Careful historians do not presume to know the outcome of events that did not occur.

At the same time, logic dictates that any long-range, non-precision bombing of Auschwitz- Birkenau, where tens of thousands of prisoners were crammed together, would likely have resulted in many prisoner deaths. I did not comment on the possible effects of a targeted bombing raid, which has long been debated by historians.

Medoff misrepresents my words to claim that I think the US government was correct in its decision not to target the extermination facilities at Birkenau – which I do not believe and would not ever say. He and I agree that bombing Auschwitz never became a military priority for the United States even though the 15th US Air Force was flying bombing missions over the area in the summer of 1944. We also agree that if the US War Department conducted a study on the feasibility of targeted bombing of the gas chambers, crematoria or rail lines leading to Auschwitz, this study has never been found by historians.

Medoff then tries to pit me against the late Elie Wiesel, who remembered wishing for the American bombs to fall while he was imprisoned in Auschwitz, arguing that Wiesel and I have opposing views on the matter. Yet in his book Night, Wiesel, when describing an American attack on the Buna factories near Birkenau, wrote: “[I]f a bomb had fallen on the blocks, it alone would have claimed hundreds of victims on the spot.”

There is no conflict between my statements and those of Wiesel. Medoff needs to read my words, and those of Wiesel, more carefully.

REBECCA ERBELDING
Washington

Not ready for primetime
I am sure that I am not the only reader to be sickened by the publicity – more than half a page – that you gave to a club for self-declared perverts (“When this paper became a safe word,” Arts & Entertainment, April 22). Even more, you proudly allowed “Jerusalem Post” to be used as a “safe word” when the torture became unbearable.

How low have we sunk?

This is how Israel, striving to be “a light unto the nations,” wants to show itself to the world? Bondage, whipping, public sex? This is what is considered suitable for the Arts & Entertainment section?

DVORA WAYSMAN
Jerusalem

What on earth were you thinking when publishing this piece of garbage? This might be entertainment for adults, but do children really have to see the photos?

People who find pleasure in places like this know where to find them. Shame on you!

RUTH SCHUELER
Jerusalem

‘Jewish’ writer?
With regard to “Thousands attend Israeli-Palestinian ceremony” (April 20), Israeli author David Grossman, in his speech at the Alternative Memorial Day event, stated that “when Israeli snipers kill dozens of Palestinian protesters, most of them civilians, Israel is less of a home.”

A sniper, by definition, has perfect vision enabling pinpoint accuracy. It is therefore hard to believe that the Israeli army, made up of our own sons and daughters ,would willingly target and shoot civilians. It is more conceivable that these “civilians” are rather gun-toting Hamasniks presenting a dangerous threat.

When Grossman accuses Israeli soldiers of shooting unarmed civilians, is he not aware that he is aligning himself with the very worst of Jew-haters? In my opinion, he forfeited the right to be called a “Jewish writer.”

In the words of the late author Aharon Appelfeld, “There are no longer Jewish writers – only writers of Jewish descent. They no longer represent the tribe; they only represent themselves. They remain on the margin of society, observers, but they can never represent the tribe. They are outsiders.”

From being an Israeli icon, Grossman, by his own hand, has demoted himself to a writer of little credibility.

DAVID S. ADDLEMAN 
Mevaseret Zion

South Tel Aviv residents blast move to keep African migrants in Israel

Yehuda Shlezinger, Adi Hashmonai, Yori Yalon and Israel Hayom Staff

Days after government reverses plan to forcibly deport illegal African migrants from Israel, residents of south Tel Aviv, where most of the migrants reside, voice alarm • “How can anyone live like this?” wonders one local, who says crime has skyrocketed.

After the state notified the High Court of Justice on Tuesday that it has abandoned plans to forcibly deport African asylum seekers, residents of south Tel Aviv expressed indignation at the government’s policy reversal.

Next to the cash register at Efraim Yaakobi’s shoe store in the southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Neve Shaanan there is an unopened purple calendar. The cover says: “May all your dreams come true.”

“My dream is that it will go back to be the way it was around here,” Yaakobi says. “That Israelis will walk the streets, and that things will be good for the State of Israel.”

Yaakobi, 84, has owned his shoe shop in the Neve Shaanan promenade, near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, for over 50 years. The surrounding streets and neighborhoods have vastly transformed since the majority of the tens of thousands of illegal African migrants that have entered Israel settled in the south Tel Aviv neighborhoods.

The controversial issue of illegal immigration from Africa has divided the country, particularly since the state began issuing deportation notices to the migrants in January. Supporters of deportation policy say the migrants are not fleeing persecution in their home countries but rather seeking to improve their employment conditions. In addition, the residents of south Tel Aviv argue that their personal safety has been compromised since masses of African migrants settled in the area and that the quality of life in their neighborhoods has drastically deteriorated.

Opponents of the deportation policy argue that the migrants would face danger should they be forced to return to Africa, with some even comparing the deportation to the Holocaust.

Yaakobi, meanwhile, is disappointed with the latest government decision. “This is our country, and instead of them fearing us, we fear them,” he said. “Just this morning, several of them came into the jewelry store next door, pushed the clerk, ransacked the store and fled. By the time the police arrived they were gone. How can anyone live like this?”

Yaakobi, a father of five and grandfather of 11, has lived in the area for many years and knows it well. “Before there was a promenade, it was heaven,” he recalls. “Today everything is rented out to them [African migrants] and Israelis don’t come here. They are afraid, afraid that they will rob them or beat them, and they are right. They [African migrants] loiter around here in the morning drunk and high. You can’t pass through here.”

Yair Pur, who owns a luggage store, is also fed up. “Every day, there are assaults and attempted robberies. Someone needs to take responsibility for this place.”

Dejen Mengashe, one of the migrants who received a deportation notice, now voided, told Israel Hayom that “the government has been spreading many lies over the years. When I received my deportation notice and when there was talk about an agreement with other countries [to absorb the migrants], I knew that these were lies.”

However, the neighborhood activists have no intention of sitting idly by after the state’s announcement. Haim Goren, a leader of the anti-migrant movement in south Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood, told Israel Hayom that “we will shake up the country. We will stage demonstrations, protests, we will apply pressure. We will do whatever it takes to make sure decision-makers make the necessary decisions.”

Since the African migrant crisis erupted several months ago, several civilian initiatives were launched to provide a housing solution, aimed at decreasing the pressure on south Tel Aviv. To date, some 2,250 Israeli families have volunteered to temporarily host asylum seekers in their homes, with some even saying they would be willing to provide them with more permanent housing.

During the first quarter of 2018, according to Population and Immigration Authority statistics, 668 asylum seekers have left the country voluntarily.

Jordan to strip citizenship from Abbas, other Palestinian officials

Batya Jerenberg

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) with Jordanian King Abdullah. (Issam Rimawi/FLASH90

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is among those set to lose their Jordanian passports.

Some of the most senior and well-known leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) are set to lose their Jordanian citizenship, according to a Jerusalem Post report quoting the London-based Raialyoum newspaper on Wednesday.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and long-time PA negotiators Saeb Erekat and Abu Ala are three of the approximately 30 senior PA and Fatah officials and their families who are going to lose their citizenship rights, which they had requested – and received – many years ago.

The report added that those stripped of citizenship would also only be given temporary visitors’ visas when they entered Jordan again in the future. It gave no explanation as to why King Abdullah II decided to make this move now.

It has been known for years that these senior officials had Jordanian citizenship, although the fact did not sit well with many in Amman or the PA. It seemed especially egregious in 2011, when the Hashemite Kingdom decided to revoke the citizenship of tens of thousands of Palestinians in response to those same leaders who wanted them to stop giving out Jordanian citizenship so that the people would “consolidate their Palestinian identity,” as reported in the press at the time.

In an editorial, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi publication criticized those Palestinian leaders harshly.

“This is shameful for them because they and their families should be proud of their Palestinian citizenship,” the paper wrote. “If they don’t believe in their own citizenship and are not proud of it, this means that they are not loyal to the Palestinian Authority and don’t deserve to speak on its behalf.”

That same year, a Jordanian lawyer, Anis F. Kassim revealed in an interview with a pro-Palestinian website that according to the Jordanian citizenship law, “it is possible to revoke the citizenship of a Jordanian citizen who is in the civil service of a foreign authority or government.” However, there are several rounds of decision-making, and the citizen has the right of appeal, all of which, he said, were “completely ignored when the citizenship of a Jordanian of Palestinian origin is revoked.”

The most well-known revocation of Palestinian Arabs’ citizenship was in 1988, when King Hussein officially surrendered Jordan’s claim to sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. Jordan had illegally annexed the area in 1950 and granted citizenship to all its permanent Arab residents. Twenty-one years after losing the territory to Israel in 1967’s Six Day War, Hussein recognized the PLO’s claim to the region as part of a so-called “State of Palestine,” and in that move stripped over 100,00 Arab inhabitants of any claim to Jordanian nationality.

The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive – Campus in Jerusalem

   Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive – Line of Life with Golda Meir

Hebrew University of Jerusalem