Author: mopress

By Ralph Isenberg

During the Super Rally in Dallas of 2006 I was walking with my camera looking for a shot that would capture the spirit of the day. I looked down and saw a shinning American Flag. But the image was anything less than shinny. Instead the image magically revealed the state of affairs we find ourselves in.

Rather than a true reflection of our flag, the image revealed a yellow line that stated “Do Not Cross.” Yet, the entire flag is over the yellow line in acknowledgment that everything that is American came from over the border. The “red, white and blue” of our flag gave way to a flag that was red, black and blue as if there were death and pain in our current situation. One only has to think of the blood of those killed coming to American and the bruising that comes with not only coming to America but trying to stay here. Finally, the starkness of the pavement points out that us as a nation have nothing as long as there is a yellow line in place.

The words of Benjamin Franklin along with this image say it best; “Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch / Dissident Voice / The Western Confucian

Of course it had to be Palm Sunday. With the road from Bethany to Jerusalem closely guarded, Pharisees and Sadducees were dressed up in their finery, pontificating from Media Temples no pauper could get near. And having no Jesus to disturb them, of course, they had to go and pick on Jeremiah instead.

Why does Jeremiah have to go around talking like that, they asked? And what sorts of characters would dare to be moved by his words? Outside the gates at Bethany a mute refugee from Benjamin was pointing to a book that the guards had been trained not to read.

“Sound the alarm in Judah, broadcast the news in Jerusalem” said the book. “Shout out – a bullhorn bellow! Not a minute to lose! Don’t sit on your hands!”

Coming back from commercial break, the keepers of state doctrine examined up to three or four words a time, shaking their heads. They had no time to read the whole book, especially not on Palm Sunday.

“Jerusalem! Scrub the evil from your lives so you’ll be fit for salvation,” said Jeremiah.

“He’s calling us evil!” shot back the Pharisees. “How hateful is that!”

“Listen to this, you scatterbrains, airheads,” called a voice from within the studio. “With eyes that see, but don’t really look, and ears that hear, but don’t really listen. Why don’t you honor me? Why aren’t you in awe before me?”

“Who’s talking?” queried the moderator. He turned to the flag, standing in the corner of the room. “Is that the flag talking? But we do honor you! How dare you say we don’t.”

It looked like an interesting debate was shaping up, but it was time to sell a retirement plan, so the flag, or whoever it was, never got a chance to reply.

Back at Bethany Gate, the mute refugee was pointing to something, but it was never located at You Tube, therefore, this is the part that nobody heard:

“My people are infiltrated by wicked men, unscrupulous men on the hunt. They set traps for the unsuspecting. Their victims are innocent men and women. Their houses are stuffed with ill-gotten gain, like a hunter’s bag full of birds. Pretentious and powerful and rich, hugely obese, oily with rolls of fat. Worse, they have no conscience. . . .

“Unspeakable! Sickening! What’s happening in this country?”

By noontime the buffets had been well stocked and everyone broke for lunch. A luxury automobile sped past the mute refugee. As dust fell down on his pages, heavy, dark windows blocked his curiosity about what might be going on inside.

(Translations by Eugene H. Peterson.)

A Texas Civil Rights Review Sunday Sermon.

By Greg Moses

As I was thinking about Palm Sunday’s nonviolent protest, that will demonstrate the futility of attempting to retrace the steps of Jesus, who traveled several days in a row from Bethany to Jerusalem and back, it seemed like a good time to read from the Book of Mark.

One of my cousins gave me for Christmas a wonderful ‘reader’s Bible’ translated by Eugene H. Peterson. Of course, it has the story of people shouting ‘Hosanna!’ as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, unimpeded by any walls or security checkpoints. That was on Sunday. And Jesus returned to Bethany for the night.

On Monday morning, there is a puzzling story about a fig tree. Jesus is hungry. He walks up to a fig tree “expecting to find something for breakfast, but found nothing but fig leaves.” Notes Mark: “It wasn’t yet the season for figs.” So Jesus tells the tree, “No one is going to eat fruit from you again – ever!” The tree withers up and dies.

Then when they all got to Jerusalem, Jesus walked into the Temple and started “throwing out everyone who had set up shop there, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of the bankers and the stalls of the pigeon merchants.” He scolded the people for turning his “house of prayer” into a “house of thieves.” Then he went back to Bethany again for the night.

As Sunday was a day of celebration, Monday was a day of forthright judgment, ready or not.

Then came Tuesday. Jesus begins the day with a little sermon at the wasted fig tree. Throw your whole life into God, he said. Pray for everything, include everything, “and you’ll get God’s everything.” But especially pray to forgive others, he said. Then they went back to Jerusalem again, this time to teach in the Temple.

It’s a long day of teaching, too. Jesus appears to be in top form, very well prepared. Lots of interesting lessons. He does not promise good times, but there is one student he likes. In the evening, relaxing at the Mount of Olives, he teaches from the image of a fig tree again. The fig tree tells you when summer is coming. So, watch out for signs that God is coming.

One day of jubilation, one day of judgment, one day of forgiveness and teaching. Mark knows how to keep his story sharp. Two fig trees: the one that’s not ready in the morning, and the one that’s early in the evening. As you think about Jesus walking that road between Bethany and Jerusalem, you know which fig tree you don’t want to be, that is, if there’s anything at all you can do about it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Loui Awawda

11 March 2008

Palm Sunday Procession to the Bethany Gate

BETHANY – On Palm Sunday, 16 March 2008 the local community, joined by
international visitors will process from Lazarus’ Tomb to the separation
barrier, celebrating Palm Sunday and calling for freedom of worship and an end
to the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

Since 1991, Israeli authorities have prevented Palestinian Christians and
Muslims from entering Jerusalem, depriving them of the right to worship in the
Holy City.

With the near completion of the wall and the closure of the gate Jesus himself
would not be able to follow the path he took 2,000 years ago. Participants
will carry olive branches, flags, and banners.

Worshipers will gather at Lazarus’ Tomb at 11:00 am.

---

For Immediate Release

Nonviolent Anti-Wall Protest in Al-Khader- Bethlehem Aria

Bethlehem – Palestine / Friday March 14, 2008: The Popular Committee against
the Wall and Colonization in Al-Khader is organizing a nonviolent demonstration
to protest the construction of the Segregation Wall in the town of Al-Khader,
located west of Bethlehem.

The motto of this demo is: Down the Wall, Palestine holds All

The construction of the wall in this town will expropriate more than 20000
dunams (5000 acres) of the town’s land, which will make life intolerable for
this predominantly agricultural community.

People will congregation will start at 11:45 am by the southern entrance of
Al-Khader- Bethlehem area. The protest will start after the Friday pray, near
the bypass, route 60 where the construction site is.

Join us; Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals to draw the future together
For more information, please contact:
For English; Samer Jaber
For Arabic; Bassam Ghneim

George S. Rishmawi
Coordinator,
Siraj, Center For Holy Land Studies
Beit Sahour, Schoold Street
P.O.Box 48
Palestine
Email: george@sirajcenter.org
Website: http://www.sirajcenter.org

The UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante, conducted an official tour of the USA in April and May of 2007. A report on that visit was released to the Human Rights Council on March 7, 2008. Below are sample findings from the report and a directory to sections of the report as archived here at the Texas Civil Rights Review.–gm

118. Children should be removed from jail-like detention centres and placed in home-like facilities. Due care should be given to rights delineated for children in custody in the American Bar Association “Standards for the Custody, Placement, and Care; Legal Representation; and Adjudication of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the United States.”

121. Whenever possible, migrant women who are suffering the effects of persecution or abuse, or who are pregnant or nursing infants, should not be detained. If these vulnerable women cannot be released from ICE custody, the Department of Homeland Security should develop alternative programmes such as intense supervision or electronic monitoring, typically via ankle bracelets. These alternatives have proven effective during pilot programmes. They are not only more humane for migrants who are particularly vulnerable in the detention setting or who have family members who require their presence, but they also cost, on average, less than half the price of detention.

Sections of the Bustamante Report archived at the Texas Civil Rights Review

Summary: Banned from Hutto without Satisfactory Explanation.

I.A.: Rights to Fair Deportation Hearings Violated

I.B.: USA ‘Long Way Out of Step’ with Rights to Liberty

II.A. & II.B.: The Spriri of 1996 and Mandatory Deportations

II.C.: Forty Local and State Agencies Recruited for Immigration Enforcement

II.D. & II.E.: A System of Morning Raids and Mandatory Detentions

III.A. & III.B.: Rebuilding New Orleans upon Migrant Labor Abuses

IV. & V.: Punitive, Inconsiderate, and Expensive Policies Should be Reversed

We have also converted the report of UN Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante to pdf format. (Get it here: 250kb).