Palestinian Folklore Dance Group Catches Fire with 'Jews'

A Palestinian dance group known as the Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe has been barred in Connecticut from performing at scheduled events because of complaints from obviously brainwashed kids of Zionists, or fake Jews if you will. The kids complained to their family that the dance was offensive to Jews and Israel, most likely suffering from some kind of glue sniffing or something involving falling on one's head. The kids and several parents have said that it is controversial, and it seems to them that the dances depict Israeli soldiers terrorizing Palestinians. I suppose these people are against all TRUTH when it involves something so OBVIOUSLY bad in Israel's history that still goes on today, yet in somewhat of a less extreme manner. One could wonder that if these people have such a close bond and allegiance to Israel, they should actually brush up on its actual history, or at least move there. They are certainly not Americans.

A reverend at a local church where they had performed before has stated that the performance is meant to be less political by all means, and more cultural. He also went on to say that during their performance of mostly traditional dances, a student in the audience got mad during a section of the dance that the reverend described "certainly expressed the frustration of detention by Israeli soldiers and dealt with curfews, checkpoints and the realities of detention." The kid began spouting his mouth off about how Palestinians did not want peace as the dance depicts (the gall!) and even shook his finger out at a female dancer afterwards which the reverend has to break up. So who are the racists, hmm? I am absolutely fed up with these kinds of things going on in my own country. These people have let it be known that they don't support the independence of the Palestinians, that they are and were not allowed to fight back against terrorist occupation of their land, and they'll do whatever they can to stop the truth from getting out to the American public. They are simply taught that way obviously. I am beginning to wonder if these Zionists posing as Jews really know much about their own history. This is also yet more proof of what muscle the Israel lobbies flaunt in this country that this performance would get canceled in such a short time. This story is one to remember the next time you hear someone called an anti-Semite or racist. In this case and time, the aggressors won. Kind of like in Palestine, actually.

Town resident Ginger Horton says she felt compelled to complain to school officials after her two grandchildren told her they were offended by the troupe's performance at the high school Monday.

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Horton says the grandchildren told her the high school performance depicted Israeli soldiers beating and torturing Palestinians.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio says he canceled further performances after learning several parents questioned whether it was appropriate for their children.

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The performance by Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe of Beit Sahour was meant to be cultural and not overtly political, said the Rev. David W. Good, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, where the troupe performed this past weekend.

But resident Ginger Horton said she felt compelled to complain to school officials after her two grandchildren told her they were offended by the troupe's performance at the high school Monday.

"[My] grandchildren came home very frightened," Horton said Thursday.

Good, who saw the performance at the school, disagreed.

"I saw nothing there that was anti-Jewish," Good said. "It was a cultural program ... Anything of this nature, given the realities of where they live, the political realities are a short distance away."

This past weekend, the troupe participated in the third annual Tree of Life Conference at Good's church. The conterence celebrates the work of peacemakers in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Horton, a retired Old Saybrook teacher, said her grandson, 15, and granddaughter, 14, told her the high school performance depicted Israeli soldiers beating and torturing Palestinians.

Good said many of the dances performed were simply traditional, but he acknowledged one was particularly upsetting to a male student in the audience. That more modern dance "certainly expressed the frustration of detention by Israeli soldiers" and dealt with curfews, checkpoints and the realities of detention, Good said.

The male student became angry and said Palestinians "do not want peace even though they talk about peace in their dances," Good said.

At the end of the performance, the student pursued the performers, he said.

"He was angrily shaking a finger in the face of a Palestinian girl," Good said. "I asked him to stop."

Horton said it was inappropriate for the public school system to host what she called a hateful, politically charged event.

"My concern was that it would be stopped, and we stopped it," said Horton, who also contacted the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio, who did not attend the high school performance, said a male Jewish student became "emotionally charged and upset" by the visitors' depiction of Jews.

"This was not framed as a political debate, it was framed as a cultural arts experience," said Onofrio, noting the school's social studies chairwoman previewed the performance last week at First Congregational Church of Old Lyme.

"What she [Carol Moakley] had seen appeared to be appropriate," Onofrio said.

Onofrio, after learning several parents questioned whether the performance was appropriate for their children, said he canceled the elementary and middle school appearances scheduled for Tuesday because the two school principals had not previewed the performance.

Good said the troupe performed before elementary school students in East Lyme on Wednesday, and at The Children's Storefront, an independent, tuition-free school, in Harlem for students in preschool through Grade 8, on Thursday.

Bob Fishman, executive director of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut, said Old Saybrook public schools should not host groups with a perceived political agenda. He lauded upset local students and family members who "stepped up."

"It was a very disturbing report [Horton] got from her grandchildren," Fishman said. "I advised her that it's not appropriate for a sponsor to say it's cultural when it's primarily political."

Fishman said his organization plans to discuss the performances with state legislators and top state education officials.

"These are public schools, taxpayer dollars," Fishman said.

"They were very careful" not to make a political statement, Good said of the troupe. "They were asked to share their dance, and share their story living in the occupied territory. They did so through music."

American Jew Says Israel Lobby Going After Haaretz

It really warms the soul when you hear from a pure and decent Jewish American voicing his analytical rights about Israel and its lobbies. Haaretz is a very popular Israel-based newspaper/online 'zine that focuses on all things Jews, Israel, and the Middle East. It is known by millions around the world for its somewhat unbiased views of those subjects compared to other Israel/Jewish-affiliated newspapers and mags. The author of the article attended a conference hosted by CAMERA, another textbook biased member group of the American-based Israel Lobby which looks to defame anyone with differing views. The leader of CAMERA, Andrea Levin, basically says "the audacity of a world-wide Israeli paper writing about the truth in the Middle East."

No other newspaper in Israel matters, Levin says, because Ha'aretz is an elite publication and it has such an amazing English-language website. It is read by millions around the world. "None of the other papers is having international impact." All true.

"We feel directly affected by Haaretz... we feel we should be directly interacting as much as possible... putting more resources into that, because of its direct effect on all of us." I believe that Levin said she had even appealed to government bodies in Israel, including the IDF, to do something about Haaretz stories. The speech ended with the call to arms, for CAMERA members to start pressuring Haaretz. "Write, phone, challenge, speak out... Haaretz is now affecting all of us."

The Israel Lobby has been under increasing scrutiny as of late, all of which is much warranted, and the same tactics being used by fading American neocons are being used by the Lobby, or the other way around you could say. This short article is a must-read that goes on to say Levin stated that Haaretz should follow suit of the American newspapers with their easily noticeable one-sided views, and also allow the Lobby members themselves to post their propaganda in op-ed pieces; and I hope Haaretz has the courage and willpower to stay the course for the sake of truth and fairness as they've shown many times in the past.

Renowned Minnesota University Bans Questioning of Isreali Terror

Winner of a Nobel Peace Prize and former Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond Tutu was apparently banned from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis because a handful of Jews in the area don't like what he has said, that for the most part has been directed at the Israeli government and their anti-American lobbies. The University's administration thought that his speaking the truth and questioning the wrongdoings of Israel was just too much.

St. Thomas is a Catholic university deep in their support for peace, and just about everyone affiliated with the school was pretty psyched about not just having someone like Tutu there, but hearing what he had to say. They had scheduled his appearance for this spring, but that now won't be happening. So why the hell would a Catholic university have a problem with it? Administration staff felt they had to make a few inquiries to local Jews to see what they thought about it, and not surprisingly the administration came away with the thought that merely Tutu's appearance there would offend them.

"We had heard some things he said that some people judged to be anti-Semitic and against Israeli policy," says Doug Hennes, St. Thomas's vice president for university and government relations. "We're not saying he's anti-Semitic. But he's compared the state of Israel to Hitler and our feeling was that making moral equivalencies like that are hurtful to some members of the Jewish community."

St. Thomas officials made this inference after Hennes talked to Julie Swiler, a spokeswoman for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

"I told him that I'd run across some statements that were of concern to me," says Swiler. "In a 2002 speech in Boston, he made some comments that were especially hurtful."

This has been happening all over America for a long time, as noted by St. Thomas professor Cris Toffolo:

"What happened at the University of St. Thomas is not an isolated event," says Toffolo. "Until we have an honest debate about U.S. policy related to Israel, and about Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories, the spiral of violence will continue."

Now say what you want about Desmond Tutu or of the bad things that have happened to South Africa since the fall of the apartheid, but the man has made very valid points in the past on Israel, its lobbies, its policies, and its human rights violations over the years. He has refuted claims of being antisemitic (who hasn't) many times in the past, and the points themselves are never really attacked. There are some Jews however that are outraged at the banning of Tutu, but these groups are few and far between as usual.

The truth is every real American should be outraged at this. Everything Israel does effects us because of our 100% cooperative government and horribly bad foreign policy, and not even being able to discuss these things is just unacceptable. So it hurts their feelings. I for one don't give a shit, not to mention that they're probably lying. The truth hurts. And they don't like it, so they try to shut us up any way possible. It's long past time to shut up the Israel lobbies in America.