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Neda Agha-Soltan (June 23, 1983 – June 20, 2009) was an Iranian philosophy student and a passionate advocate for freedom and human rights. Born and raised in Tehran, she was known for her intelligence, compassion, and curiosity about the world. Neda enjoyed spending time with friends, discussing literature and social issues, and dreaming of a more just society.
On June 20, 2009, during the post-election protests in Iran, Neda was shot in the chest by Basij militia forces while peacefully demonstrating for democracy and reform. Her death, captured on video and broadcast worldwide, instantly became a powerful symbol of courage and resistance against oppression. Neda’s murder shocked the global community and continues to inspire activists demanding justice and human rights in Iran and beyond. Her life and death remind the world of the personal cost of standing against unjust systems and the enduring power of ordinary citizens to make history.
I publish this series of characters to awaken consciences and reveal injustices committed by those in power against courageous individuals. Each story aims to remind the public, especially young people, that the people must be aware of their rights, that injustices must not be forgotten, and that remembering history can inspire acts of courage, solidarity, and resistance. These individuals paid with their lives for standing up to defend truth, freedom, and human rights.
Zabranjeni Ples
Запрещенный Танец
Finished piece, took me a while ;D...
Technique: colored pencils, markers and watercolors on 425gsm watercolor paper, 25 x 18 cm...
Dorothea Mackellar's patriotic poem, "My Country" (1908) was originally titled, "Core of my heart". In this photo even the little wooden farm house (centre left) was standing when Mackellar wrote her poem. I attach a link here to a handwritten copy of her first page: allpoetry.com/poem/8526595-My-Country-by-Dorothea-Mackellar
"Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze."
Patriotism. An old fashioned word, but still potent with meaning. It comes from the Latin of course (as so much of the English language does).
George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), is better known today for his novels, but in truth he was the best essayist in the English language of his era. His definition stands the test of time:
"By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."
Amen George, ever the truthteller!
"In the history of collective as in the history of the individual, everything depends on the development of consciousness. This gradually brings liberation from imprisonment in unconsciousness, and [the trickster] is therefore a bringer of light as well of healing.”
“The so-called civilised man has forgotten the trickster. He remembers him only figuratively and metaphorically, when, irritated by his own ineptitude, he speaks of fate playing tricks on him or of things being bewitched. He never suspects that his own hidden and apparently harmless shadow has qualities whose dangerousness exceeds his wildest dreams.”
“He is a forerunner of the saviour and, like him, God, man, and animal at once. He is both subhuman and superhuman, a bestial and divine being, whose chief and most alarming characteristic is his unconsciousness… He is so unconscious of himself that his body is not an unity, and his two hands fight each other.”
[Quotes by Carl Jung taken from his work "Archetypes and Collective Unconscious"]
________________________________________________________________
In praise of folly
Anima Mundi
Cosmic dancer
Zero is the number
The forerunner of the savior
Folly stands with
celestials in favor
As the wisdom of the world
is denied
closer to the truth
of the cosmos
O spiritual element!
Which gives earthly existence
charm and value
Salt of life,
yet you taste sweet
Bringing refreshment and
real treat!
Mediator to the center of the soul
Although the fool is always
too much or too less
Half god - half animal
Not un- but amoral
Mask of virtue
How much evil has been transformed
through wisdom?
(The owl of Minerva
comes too late again)
Beneath the consciousness
lies the archetype
When peasants aping the king:
Silliness an ancient
purifying rite
The fool clowning
between
Apollo and Bacchus’ sleight
Like the cunning Hermes
Flying through three worlds
Encrypted remains the
inner access
In Mercury the contradictions
Are connected
Healing begins with the
truth
So let the fool kiss the wound,
that only he can heal
No cure for the Fisher King
dying he lives despite this is fleed
the coffin
If the child is halfway into the
rational world
So the fool is on the right track
to escape
and laughs at those
who boast of their sageness
For divine folly is wiser
than compared to philosophy
and even its weakness
is stronger
Destroyed shall be
the wisdom of the wise
despoiler of most beautiful illusions
fantasised!
Why were we given by
Jupiter in a pound of passion
hardly mixed an ounce of reason?
Unwise deception brings delight
brings us love and the champion
Icy winds on mountain tops
The truth is to flattering mouth
no guest
Only the bread eater holds up
a mirror to the king
And the whim hides
the almost unspeakable
In crude jokes
of the most foolish kind
Why separating the paradise of the
fool from the misdeed?
The latter would never have arisen
had one learned to laugh
in dire need
So there are many classes of
fools
from the first screaming child
on every continent
in every literaral category
The fool can be found
in every human repertory
So let no one deceive
himself!
For whoever thinks to be wise
in this world
let him become a fool
so that he may become wise in the way
he was appointed to
[Translation of my poem "Preisung des Narrentums", 2023]
Kamera: Nikon FE2
Linse: Nikkor-O Auto 35mm f2 (1970)
Film: Kodak 5222 @ ISO 250
Kjemi: Rodinal (1:50 / 9 min. @ 20°C)
Wikipedia: Gaza Genocide
Janta Ka Reporter: Trump silent amidst global outrage on Jenin video; unthinkable step by UK govt. (Publ. 29 Nov. 2025)
- Today I’m going to present to you a true hidden gem.
But before I do that, I have to tell you that during the years 2007-2011 I myself had UN-affiliated assignments in the occupied West Bank. What I saw - and experienced - was for me very difficult to understand and comprehend and put into words at the time.
Incidentally, during approximately the exact same timeframe as I was there, a truly remarkable investigative journalist named Max Blumenthal (b. 1977) was doing ground work in Israel and Palestine for his book ‘Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel’ (publ. 2013).
What I was not able to describe, Blumenthal did.
Please do read his book.
But let us go on. I just recently discovered a truly remarkable collection of insightful interviews in relation to this subject. These are interviews with leading academics at the time (2010) and revealed to the public for the first time now in 2025. These are incredibly important and valuable talks to take into consideration for any concerning human being who wants to understand and educate themselves on today’s very pressing issues of judaism, zionism and the fascist, genocidal, religious extremist apartheid State of Israel.
Presented here are truly compelling long-form interviews with eminent distinguished leading scholars and academics such as linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky (b. 1928), political scientist and activist Norman Finkelstein (b. 1953), historian and author Norton Mezvinsky (1932-2022), historian and author Richard Lukas (b. 1937), linguist and political advocate Ian Hancock (b. 1942) and historian and author Albert Lindemann (b. 1938) - all presented by Ron Kelley in his recently established Youtube channel called ‘Is It Antisemitic to Tell the Truth?’.
And this seems to be just the beginning. More interviews are being published almost daily.
As it turns out, I have found that Kelley himself certainly is an accomplished photographer of note, as attested to in Sondra Hale’s article Out of Place: Israel in the Photography of Ron Kelley (2000 Al Jadid Magazine) as well as in his own article Israel’s Bedouin: The End of Poetry (1998 AMEU - The Link).
Here is Ron Kelley’s own introduction to his channel:
«The origin of this channel was when I had a year-long Fulbright Fellowship to Israel in 1992-1993. My project, as a visual ethnographer, was to document recent Ethiopian and Russian immigration to the Jewish state. Part of the project was also to document the indigenous Arab Muslim Bedouin. I lived in a desert kibbutz and it wasn't long before I began hearing disturbing stories about widespread state mistreatment of the Bedouin, legitimate citizens of the Jewish state. I then decided to tell their story by videotape, completely independently, as well as my other Fulbright tasks.
Returning to America with 100 hours of videotape material, I discovered only censorship, uninterest/avoidance of my documentary -- it had no platform and I gave up.
In 2010, in the U.S., I hoped to do a documentary about Jewish identity, the Holocaust, and Israel. I interviewed a few dozen scholars and others -- mostly Jewish -- and these interviews will be posted here at this site, for the first time seen.»
Ron Kelley’s first video presented is his own documentary Israel’s Destruction of Its Bedouin Citizens, filmed in 1992-1993. Kelley’s own introduction to his documentary is as follows:
«This documentary, an indictment of the "only democracy in the Middle East, " was recorded when I was a Fulbright Fellow -- for a year, as a visual ethnographer to investigate Ethiopian and Russian Jewish immigration to the Jewish state, as well as the indigenous Bedouin -- in Israel, 1992-93. It documents Israel’s destruction of its Bedouin (Arab Muslim) citizens. These people are formal CITIZENS of Israel, not outsiders of some kind.
The systemic Israeli mistreatment of the Bedouin was shocking, but it was equally shocking to discover that I could find no one to help me edit and finish the film when I returned to America. This movie cost me $25,000 out of my own pocket. No one, no grant organization, nor any other group, was willing to contribute a nickel to help complete the work from the 100 hours of material I had recorded.
I have no personal root to the Arab/Israeli conflict. My effort was purely a labor of moral conviction.
The most astounding shock, however, was when I returned to America after the year in Israel, created the movie, alone, as best I could, and discovered that there was no forum in America to show the movie. I went, physically, in person, to various Jewish organizations requesting them to view it. The only such person who was willing to give it a look was a rabbi at a Hillel group at a Midwest university. But he didn’t watch the whole film, only a little, and his sole response was that parts of it seemed “antisemitic.” No one, anywhere, wanted to see it. PBS and other TV venues had zero interest. The only forum this documentary ever had was through Americans for Middle East Understanding, a tiny, ignored organization critical of Israel. A few VHS copies that I created in my living room were sold through them. I even sent the documentary to an Arab film festival in Seattle. A guy from the festival eventually phoned me; he said they loved the film but were afraid to show it for fear that Jews would protest their festival. I am serious. I am not exaggerating. It was then that I realized that the walls of fear and censorship – including self-censorship in the Arab community – rendered my film project hopeless folly. No one dared to platform the ugly side of the Jewish state. I had no choice but to give up, years ago.
I present this movie now, recently digitalized from video -- still with help from no one -- with great sorrow that I failed to be able to aid those individuals within it who pleaded for help. But the injustices – to the Bedouin, and others – go on. The outrageous atrocities in Gaza, and the internet, however, have opened new opportunities for people to be afforded the truth about what Israel really is, beyond the Wall of Propaganda that has for decades enveloped us.
Welcome here, then, as is proclaimed, to the “only democracy” in the Middle East.»
The full interviews with the various scholars are the following (together with Kelley’s introductory notes below):
- Noam Chomsky: Antisemitism, Holocaust, Israel etc. (2010 Interview)
Interview with Noam Chomsky in his office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010 (This interview has never been publicly seen until now – November 2025)
«In an interview recorded in 2010 (but never publicly presented until now), Professor Chomsky, famed as he is, was extremely generous in affording me time for an interview. I had a long list of questions for him, but was caught off guard when I discovered he could – understandably – only give me about a half an hour. I rummaged through my questions and edited them down, fast.
Subjects discussed include Norman Finkelstein, including Chomsky’s respect for his work, Finkelstein’s courage at DePaul University leading to destruction of his career (“exposing the American intellectual class”) as a university professor, Finkelstein’s meticulous criticism of the popular Joan Peters (1936-2015) pro-Israel book and the campaign to silence Finkelstein by pro-Israel ideologue Alan Dershowitz (b. 1938). This subject segued to how the Holocaust has become exploited as a political tool by the State of Israel and how, more generally, Gypsy/Roma decimation under the Nazis is not given much attention because the Jewish “Holocaust” – by those who run (as Finkelstein calls it, the “Holocaust Industry”) -- is widely considered to be “unique.”
Commentary further includes Chomsky’s perspective that Israel Shahak (1933-2001) (a Holocaust survivor, later resident of Israel, and activist for human rights, including Palestinian) and Finkelstein had/have been vilified by intellectual elites in both America and Israel. Chomsky also discusses how both the Holocaust and the accusation of antisemitism are used as tools to silence free speech dissent, how mainstream Jewish/Zionist interest in the Holocaust – and increased accusations of antisemitism -- took on special meaning and attention beginning with Israel’s 1967 war, and how mainstream American Jewry didn’t actually want Holocaust survivors to come to America (!) until that time.
Other topics explored by Chomsky include the accusation of “Jewish self-hatred”, sometimes – in Jewish mainstream circles -- the Jewish parallel to being a non-Jewish antisemite. Discussion also includes free speech issues around the loose subject of “Holocaust denial,” especially with laws regarding this subject in Europe.
Further discussion includes Jewish American activism in the Civil Rights movement and how it began to falter (and why), the Haredim (religious ultra-Orthodox Jews) who are largely anti-Zionist, The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and its abandonment of dedicated civil rights issues to become a shill for Israel, and Chomsky’s critique of Mearsheimer and Walt’s book THE ISRAEL LOBBY.»
- Norman Finkelstein: Israel, Holocaust, Antisemitism, ADL, etc. (2010 Interview)
«This interview – never publicly available until now -- with Finkelstein was in 2010. He was doing a tour, giving speeches at colleges, and he generously afforded me time for an interview in the midst of his road travel.
Noteworthy, and affording him extra credence in his world view, Finkelstein’s Jewish parents were survivors of Nazi concentration camps.
Much maligned – and censored -- by supporters of Israel, Professor Finkelstein has reached special prominence on the internet recently because of his studied expertise about Gaza and the recent genocide there. Among his many limited-circulation -- but influential books -- is THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY (2000), a volume addressing the exploitation of Jewish suffering during World War II on behalf of modern Israel. Finkelstein has been a relentless critic of the Jewish state and its treatment of the Palestinians and, as such, has many ideological detractors.
Referenced at the beginning of this interview is the film AMERICAN RADICAL (released in 2009), which is a documentary about Mr. Finkelstein.
The interview here includes the subjects of:
The misinterpretation of an internet “viral” excerpt wherein Finkelstein passionately responds to a weeping woman about the Holocaust, the contradiction between how so many American Jews perceive social justice activism in America versus Israel, Jewish privilege and power in the United States, the “Jewish sense of superiority” (per secular achievement), the Holocaust’s “uniqueness doctrine” (wherein Jewish suffering is seen to transcend all others’ in World War II), the vendetta in academia against Finkelstein for his human rights activism (mainly regarding Palestinians), Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) and his “mystical” vision of the Holocaust, the weaponization of the accusation of antisemitism (including accusations of antisemitism against former President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024), Finkelstein’s disdain for “epithets” like “Zionism” or “anti-Zionism”, Jewish influence today (in the media, the publication world, and the arts), the use of Finkelstein’s work by antisemites, scholar John Murray Cuddihy (1922-2011) (wherein, in Finkelstein’s words – “You’re not allowed to find a rational explanation regarding Jewish conduct. That’s prohibited”), American Jewish claims to victim status despite being “an amazing success story,” mainstream reactions to Finkelstein’s books, Finkelstein’s rejecting of notions like “confronting Zionism,” etc.»
- Norton Mezvinsky: Israel, Jewish Supremacy, Judaism, Chabad Lubavitchers, Pt. 1 (Interview 2010)
- Norton Mezvinsky: Israel, Jewish Supremacy, Judaism, Chabad Lubavitchers, Pt. 2 (Interview 2010)
«Never seen before, I interviewed professor Mezvinsky in about 2010 at Central Connecticut State University where he was a teacher, eventually for over 40 years. He died in 2022. Ardent free speech activist, he was Jewish and, according to one Jewish journalist, was "an academic known for his anti-Israel views...who has been labeled as anti-Zionist [and who] holds strong views questioning the right of Jews to a homeland in Israel". In this regard, and because of his ardent criticism of traditional Jewish religious beliefs, he was typified by many in the mainstream Jewish world as a “self-hating Jew.”
Among his books was “Christian Zionism” and “Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel,” which he co-authored with Israel Shahak (1933-2001). (Shahak is famed as a Holocaust survivor, professor in Israel, prominent civil rights activist in Israel, and critic of Zionism and traditional Judaism, whose own book JEWISH HISTORY, JEWISH RELIGION (1994) was an exposé about troubling details of traditional Jewish religious faith). As one Jewish supporter of Israel, Asaf Romirowsky, noted, “Mezvinsky and Shahak are prime examples of Jewish academics who throughout their careers questioned their own religion and the legitimacy of the State of Israel.”
A local rabbi in Connecticut, Stephen Fuchs, once complained that Mezvinsky “has slanted the views of a whole generation of students about the Middle East. I am concerned that he has created a negative attitude towards Israel.” In later years, Mezvinsky was a co-founder and president of the International Council for Middle East Studies (ICMES).
In part 1 of the interview, professor Mezvinsky addresses:
Secular Jews versus Orthodox Jews in Israel, controversies about conversion to Judaism in Israel, Judaism is not a proselytizing faith, Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism aren’t considered legitimate by Orthodox rabbis, about a third of Soviet immigrants to Israel weren’t Jewish, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) and the Chabad Lubavitcher organization, Mezvinsky’s studies of Yiddish texts by Schneerson, the “complicated” variety of interpretation of religious texts by various Jewish strands, Mezvinsky’s discussion that he is a member of a Chabad congregation, Rabbi Schneerson’s assertion that Jews have a superior soul over non-Jews as willed by God (and the only people who can convert to Judaism have an innately Jewish soul), the general notion in broader, traditional Judaism of Jewish superiority over non-Jews -- including in traditional prayers, Chabad rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh’s “extremist” views, is Yitzchak Ginsburgh (b. 1944) in good standing in the Chabad group?, dangers of Jewish and other faith’s fundamentalism, does antisemitism hold the Jewish community together?, etc.
In part 2 of the interview, professor Mezvinsky addresses:
The threat of antisemitism as the major rationale for the existence of Israel; the Talmud; two versions of the Talmud; the Talmud explains the Bible; traditional Judaism built on Talmud commentary; Jewish dietary laws; Reform Judaism; the concept of “self-hating Jew” (“Apologists and propagandists” label Jews like Mezvinsky/Finkelstein/Chomsky “self-hating Jew”); Parallel types of criticism from those labeled “self-hating Jews” in America aren’t labelled “self-hating” in Israel; The book 'The Israel Lobby' by John Mearsheimer (b. 1947) and Stephen Walt (b. 1955); The Israel lobby is the major reason U.S. supports Israel (Mezvinsky disagrees here with Chomsky); Mezvinsky’s refusal to be silenced for his critical views of Israel and some aspects of traditional Judaism; Importance of personal advocacy; the widespread censorship/misrepresentation of Hebrew texts when translating to English; why so many American Jews support civil rights in the U.S. but are “blind” to similar issues in Israel; the “syndrome of the Holocaust”; the minority of Jews who are rising to criticize Israel – especially on college campuses; the Anti-Defamation League which has “become an organization whose major purpose is to silence criticism of Israel; religious reference to Amalek and Jacob and Esau; Gush Emunim group in the West Bank; Israel Shahak as a “human rights activist” against God; Biblical sanction of mass murder by Israelites; Israel is not a democracy for non-Jews; efforts to censor and intimidate Mezvinsky, etc.»
- Richard Lukas: The Forgotten Holocaust / Non-Jewish Polish Genocide Under the Nazis, Pt. 1 (Interview 2010)
- Richard Lukas: The Forgotten Holocaust / Non-Jewish Polish Genocide Under the Nazis, Pt. 2 (Interview 2010)
«Little known; Polish Catholics, as well as Jews and others, were slaughtered en masse by the Nazis, who considered Poles/Slavs as “Untermenschen” (subhumans).
This interview, seen for the first time here, was conducted in 2010 at Mr. Lukas’ home in Florida. Lukas has taught history at Tennessee Technological University, Wright University, and the University of South Florida. He began his career focused on military history. He has written a number of books, among them Did the Children Cry? Hitler’s War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945; Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation; and, the best known, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944.
He is also the author of an article entitled “Jedwabne and the Selling of the Holocaust”, a response to a book, Neighbors, by Jewish author Jan Gross (b. 1947), which -- in Lukas’ view -- misrepresents facts and exaggerates Polish antisemitism.
Defender of the Polish people against smears of endemic antisemitism, struggling to present the story of non-Jewish Polish suffering under the Nazis, and daring to conflate both Jewish and non-Jewish children's stories under Nazi rule in Poland, Lukas eventually received the Janusz Korczak (1878-1942) Literary Award by the Anti-Defamation League (evaluated by a committee of Jewish and non-Jewish judges) in 1996. It had been granted and then rescinded (!) before it was quietly granted again by the organization’s “political leadership.”
Professor Lukas fought long for the Polish story under the Nazis to be heard, and was sometimes defamed, insulted, and/or ignored by monitors of the mainstream "unique" Jewish Holocaust narrative, and here he addresses, among other issues:
When starting his research, “there was very little I could get about the Polish tragedy unless I got it through the lens of Jewish Holocaust writers” (which Lukas believes is largely biased); how “World War 2 is mostly viewed -- thanks to mass media and popular culture -- by many as a “Jewish thing”;
Conflicts between mainstream Jewish historiography and Polish perspectives about the Nazi occupation of Poland; the difficulties of attaining free speech against the “traditional [Judeocentric] truth of the Holocaust”; the granting of a literary award to him by Jewish and non-Jewish judges for the Anti-Defamation League and its rescinding of his award by the ADL’s “political leadership” because, he believes, he didn’t focus on alleged Polish antisemitism; the eventual granting of the award without public fanfare;
Lukas’ irritation with Jewish author Jan Gross’ book NEIGHBORS, largely about an alleged endemic Polish antisemitism; mainstream Jewish historians and commentators about the Holocaust neglect or minimize too much about Nazi genocides of non-Jewish victims; Lukas’ critique of mainstream Holocaust scholars; media and other biases against Poles and Poland; enormous amount of “personal and professional animosity” against those who don’t accept the Jewish-centered genocide narrative;
How the mass media and popular culture focus on Jewish Holocaust suffering during World War II (an “inundation” of material that typically frames Poles in a pejorative "antisemitic" light), etc.
In part 2 of the interview, professor Lukas addresses:
Reasons for anti-Jewish hostility in Poland; exaggeration/misrepresentation by mostly Jewish historians about Polish antisemitism; Jewish monopoly in Poland in some trades; case of British historian Norman Davies (b. 1939) who (at odds with some historians about Poland) had an offered chairmanship in history at Stanford University rescinded, ostensibly for poor scholarship (but he was offered soon after to edit the Oxford History of Europe); Polish aid to Jews during World War II; passivity of Jews in Poland until Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943;
Jewish Orthodox non-assimilation in Poland and difficulties in aiding them; rising Polish nationalism in Poland versus widespread Jewish nationalism (towards the communist Soviet Union or Zionism); Polish non-Jews’ tragedy under Nazism subsumed beneath the Jewish Holocaust; “inundation” of literature, movies, etc. about the Jewish Holocaust; “We have some real problems with the historiography of this [World War II] period,” hope for younger historians to be more objective about the Holocaust era; etc.»
- Ian Hancock: The Nazi Genocide Against the Roma (Gypsies), Part of the ‘Holocaust’, Pt. 1 (Interview 2010)
- Ian Hancock: The Nazi Genocide Against the Roma (Gypsies), Part of the ‘Holocaust’, Pt. 2 (Interview 2010)
«This interview, never publicly seen before, was conducted in 2010 at the University of Texas.
Professor Hancock is of Romani (traditionally known in popular culture as “Gypsies”) heritage and has been both a scholar on various linguistic subjects and an advocate for his people, writing over 300 books and articles about the Romani language and community. He was the first Roma to acquire a PhD in Great Britain and is one of the best-known activists for Roma rights and heritage. He has headed the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at the University of Texas, has represented the Romani people at the United Nations, and has been a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council under president Bill Clinton (b. 1946). (Often ignored or minimized, the Nazi genocide against the Romani [“Gypsy”] community during World War II is called the Porajmos).
Professor Hancock retired from active teaching in 2018. In this interview he addresses:
Stereotypes of the Romani culture; overview of Romanis; Jewish culture is “exclusive,” like Roma; some in the Jewish community see the Holocaust as an exclusive – and unique – event; a similar percentage of Roma were murdered by the Nazis as Jewish victims; both Jews and Roma were subject to a parallel Nazi “final solution”; racism against -- and disrespect of -- Roma at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council; William Duna’s and Hancock’s struggles at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council wherein “we have been called all kinds of horrible things – that we’re trespassing [on the Jewish Holocaust], that it’s an insult to the Holocaust [for the Roma] to be associated with it,” the injustice of the Holocaust victimhood “ranking system”; with the change of U.S. presidents Roma were inexplicably not represented on the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum council; no difference between Jewish and Roma fates under the Nazis; Norman Finkelstein’s work about the Holocaust; etc.
In part 2, professor Ian Hancock continues his comments, including Romani (Gypsy) difficulties in getting recognition for the genocide against them by the Nazis in World War II; Racism, ignorance, and bigotry against the Romani even by council members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Romani difficulties in penetrating the mainstream "exclusivity" of the mainstream Jewish Holocaust narrative, etc.
NOTE: William Duna, fellow Roma mentioned here by Professor Hancock and who served on the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum council before Hancock, was also interviewed and his comments about his experiences – including those on the Holocaust council --will be posted here soon.»
- Albert Lindemann: Do Jewish Beliefs and/or Actions Ever Cause Antisemitism?, Pt. 1 (Interview 2010)
- Albert Lindemann: Do Jewish Beliefs and/or Actions Ever Cause Antisemitism?, Pt. 2 (Interview 2010)
- Albert Lindemann: Do Jewish Beliefs and/or Actions Ever Cause Antisemitism?, Pt. 3 (Interview 2010)
«This interview was conducted in 2010 in professor Lindemann’s office at the University of California – Santa Barbara, a college where he eventually taught for nearly 50 years. (This interview has never been publicly seen until now). He is best known for his book ESAU’S TEARS: MODERN ANTISEMITISM AND THE RISE OF THE JEWS (Cambridge University Press). Among his other books, he was also the author of ANTI-SEMITISM BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST; THE JEW ACCUSED: THREE ANTI-SEMITIC AFFAIRS (DREYFUS, BEILIS, FRANK); and THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALISM.
Professor Lindemann is not Jewish. This is a relevant point, as few non-Jewish scholars have risked an objectively detailed study of the subject of antisemitism to – while not defending any justification for such hostility -- examine actual historical reasons for it.
His book ESAU’S TEARS (1997) attracted considerable animosity in some Jewish quarters. Responding to one such scholarly critic in Commentary magazine, Lindemann wrote “I make no apologies about writing a provocative book, one that questions many familiar interpretations and will raise hackles in some quarters—is this not what scholarship is supposed to be about?”
Among Lindemann’s defenders was Jewish scholar Richard Levy (1940-2021) who wrote that “Lindemann, in the company of Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), Jacob Katz (1904-1998), and many others, does not accept the comforting but fallacious notion that Jews have had nothing to do with the generation of anti-Semitism.”
In part 1 of this interview, professor Lindemann addresses:
The subject of antisemitism is extremely emotional for some; there are “sacred cows” in the examination of this field of academic study and research; “If you say certain things you will get people very angry with you”; antisemitism in the Arab world and radical Left; “being hated” as part of Jewish identity (younger Jews are less connected to that); there is more migration OUT of Israel to America than into it; “Jews are certainly very penetrating observers of non-Jewish society, but there aren’t many non-Jews who are penetrating observers of Jewish society”; most “scolding” of Lindemann by (mostly Jewish) critics comes from “far right neo-cons”; the subject of Norman Finkelstein (b. 1953); Lindemann was attacked constantly in the American Historical Review journal; Lindemann has seen a commentary called by some “the Lindemann Thesis” (that Jews are responsible for antisemitism) which Lindemann does not endorse;
Jewish rise in power and position is obvious, and sometimes part of anti-Jewish animosity; widespread belief – even in academia – that “you dare not blame the victim”; traditional Jewish beliefs, per Exodus/Genesis and Jewish holidays like Purim, Hannukah, etc. wherein Jews are brought up -- according to such texts -- that they are “unfairly hated”; “some Jewish texts take pride in the fact that they killed the Jewish dissident (Jesus)”; traditionally, “Jews celebrated the death of Christ” (“Modern Jews have pretty much suppressed that”); most non-Jews don’t know much about Judaism or the Arab-Israeli conflict (and in conversations with Jewish friends and such “most non-Jews become quiet – they are intimidated”);
Discussion of the issue of “race” (for some Jews, especially in Orthodox communities, this is a component of Jewish identity; complications of the question what is “the Jewish people?”; converts to Judaism are not recognized by many Jews as being authentically Jewish; discussion of Orthodox Chabad Lubavitchers and their famous rabbi Menachem Schneerson (1902-1994) (Lindemann believes that some of Schneerson’s teaching, per the Jewish soul, “is an expression of racism”); Jewish author Stephen Bloom’s book about Postville, Iowa, and the Chabad community and its “corrupt rabbis” that caused such problems in that town, etc.
In part 2, professor Lindemann addresses:
The word “antisemitism” as a “whistle blower blown way too much,” is it antisemitism when people don’t like Jews or want to live with Jews? -- those two things describe some Jews’ attitude towards Gentiles; Jews in the U.S. are among the most liberal-minded; limits of free speech; in places like Europe you can be put in jail for years for saying the Holocaust doesn’t exist;
“My responsibility is to say what I think is actually true and not play the game of ‘How will this go down?’”; people of many different perspectives have praised his book ESAU’S TEARS but “some respected scholars have reviewed the book and completely misrepresented it”; there is broad opinion in the Jewish community but there are some who “try to keep debate limited”;
“The defense of Israel has been cruder, the demonization of Arabs cruder …”, some things said in defense of Israel aren’t true; the influential book and movie EXODUS (1960) is “nonsense”; Lindemann’s book ESAU’S TEARS makes issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict more ambiguous; explanation of Lindemann’s title for his book ESAU’S TEARS (in traditional religious lore, Esau – the ‘archetypical Gentile’ – and Jacob – the “father of the Jews’ – are twins. Jacob and his mother trick Esau and the title “Esau’s Tears refers to the tears of indignation when he finds out he had been tricked”;
‘Self-hating Jew’ is a term used “by many Jews to describe someone they don’t like”; discussion of the necessity of generalizations in describing any people, culture, or country, Jewish “dual morality” (yes, but virtually any group has such a thing), etc.
In part 3, professor Lindemann addresses:
Jews in Eastern Europe included religious Ultra-Orthodox Jews, the Socialist Bund, and communists; many Jews, worldwide, had an admiration for Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), who was Jewish; at one point in time there was a death penalty in the Soviet Union for antisemitism; Jews were overrepresented in both the capitalist and communist worlds (Who spoke for the Jews?);
Karl Marx (1818-1883) (fulfilling the notion of the “self-hating Jew”) wrote an article denouncing Jews, saying that, in essence, “the selfish principle is the Jewish principle”; Jews have had the opportunity to tell their history of suffering wherein the history of illiterate peasants in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, etc.) wasn’t often told; Jews were relatively poor in Eastern Europe, but “for most of history Jews were better off than the people around them”;
Many Jews “are persuaded that there is something unique about their suffering” (ultimately a religious concept); increased attention to the Holocaust over the years; many “young people today are historically illiterate”; German and Hungarian Jews had a low opinion of Eastern European Jews; Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of Zionism, “did not like most Jews he came into contact with”; Christianity;
Jews themselves have recognized that some Biblical texts are dangerous; for some Jews, in a religious context, you can look at antisemitism as bad Gentiles -- God using them to punish Jews, etc.»
- End.
The Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, is now a patron for the Liverpool Pride festival.
The church leader is a strong proponent of LGBT rights, supporting equal marriage and backing a recent motion calling for a ban on gay ‘cure’ therapy.
I caught him candidly here among the crowds attending the 2017 Liverpool Pride event.
Good on this guy!
www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/07/13/church-of-england-bishop-be...
"Neither am I yours, nor are you mine"
In response to his mother's entreaties to return home
courtesy website www.gajanan-shegaon.com
the photograph which has been taken at my sister's house when the Idol was intalled there in her house before being relocated
A liverpool lady tells the truth about the British Establishment's shameful 25 year 'cover-up' (orchestrated from the very top by Margaret Thatcher), to some young visitors @ the 'Old Haymarket' Hillsborough Memorial.
The bronze drum shaped structure, which is 7ft tall, features the words ‘Hillsborough Disaster – we will remember them’, along with the names of all 96 Liverpool FC supporters who died in the worst tragedy British football has ever seen.
The Hillsborough Justice Campaign commissioned local artist/sculptor Tom Murphy to create the monument, which it is formally donating to the city.
jmu-journalism.org.uk/hillsborough-memorials-to-be-unveiled/
"Debt and animosity are linked with rebirth. Individuals recover their dues by taking birth in form of a son, wife or neighbors etc. Using the power of respective relations they recover their dues."
"A namaskar to those arriving (Birth).
A hundred namaskarams to those departing (Death).
A thousand namaskarams to those departing forever, for they will never come again (Moksha)"
--- By P. P. Shri Rang Avadhoot Maharaj - Nareshwar.
Abide as That in which there is nothing of the elements nor even an iota of their derivatives, no sense of “I” or “mine”, no fantasies of the mind, no blemish of attachment, no concept whatsoever - and be always happy, without the least trace of the thought.
Ribhu Gita
Though knowledgeable and Enlightened,
I make myself ignorant, for
I have become your guest;
Earlier, I had hatred for the world,
Now I have turned merciful.
"You have been asked to serve, not to calculate. "
Babaji Mahashaya was aware of the situation. He said angrily, "What are you doing? Serve well and serve full. Why are you so calculative? You have been asked to serve, not to calculate. Leave that to mahaprasada itself. Don't you know that mahaprasada is chinmaya and merciful? If you don't have faith in mahaprasada, what kind of a Vaishnava are you?" Jai Gopal began to serve accordingly. And what a surprise! Each one of the one hundred twenty persons took the prasad to his hearts content, yet what was left was more than enough for the fifteen persons living at Radharamana Kunj.
Awake, at least now ! Lead a life full of meditation. That can reveal you the true knowledge, the secret. Understand the real nature of Indian culture. Also impart this knowledge to others. Become donor of knowledge.
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. The What Makes a Great Investigative Journalist panel attended by (from Left) Moderator Emily Maitlis, Journalist and Broadcaster, Carl Bernstein, Journalist and Author and Bob Woodward, Journalist and Author during the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. Tina Brown CBE
Editor and Author and attends the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. The Iran's War on Journalists panel attended by Masih Alinejad – Journalist and Campaigner, Paul Caruana Galizia – Reporter, Tortoise Media. Moderator: Yalda Hakim – News Anchor and International Correspondent, BBC News during the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. The Truth to Power panel attended by Dean Baquet – Editor, Local Investigations Fellowship, and former Executive Editor, The New York Times
Nick Davies – Former Special Correspondent, The Guardian, James Harding – Co-founder and Editor, Tortoise Media, Roula Khalaf – Editor, The Financial Times. Moderator: Amol Rajan – Presenter, Today, University Challenge, and Amol Rajan Interviews, BBC at the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. The Drama's King panel attended by Jesse Armstrong, Writer and Producer, and creator of HBO's Succession, and Tina Brown, Editor and Author during the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
The entire philosophy of Buddhism rests in, first of all, being able to truly realize the responsibility of being a human being.
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. The Ukraine: Witnesses to War panel attended by Moderator: Clarissa Ward, Chief International Correspondent, CNN (L) Lynsey Addario, Photojournalist (R), and Andriy Dubchak, Reporter and Photographer joining remotely during the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. Tina Brown, Editor and Author (L) and Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive IAC and Expedia Group (R) attend the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. David Thomson, Thomson Reuters attends Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. The Bootstrapper's Lunch during the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media
Image ©Licensed to Parsons Media. 10/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Sir Harry Evans Global Summit 2023. RIBA. Farewell: Tina Brown, Editor and Author delivers her closing speech at the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism 2023 held at the Royal Institute of Architects in London. Picture by Andrew Parsons for Truth Tellers / Parsons Media