This
post is my response to the news that my dear friend Dr. Maikel Nabil Sanad is
announcing his trip to Israel and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and to some
of his other recent crazy notes. Here he
states the purpose of his visit. http://www.maikelnabil.com/2012/12/let-there-be-peace.html I am thrilled beyond words that Maikel is finally
visiting Israel, most of all that the Jews are finally allowing him as a leader
of the Egyptian peace movement to visit Israel.
Of course I admire him for his courage in standing up as an Egyptian
Arab man for the cause of peace and freedom.
I
am glad that he is declaring his protest against anti-Semitism by refusing to
engage in the common racist practice of having two passports, one that lists a
visit to Israel and one that does not admit public contact with Jews. I was very deeply offended when an Iraqi Arab
friend of mine asked me to follow this practice after I visited Israel. As an active participant in the Iraqi
democratic freedom movement, I would love to visit a post-Saddam, liberated
Iraq. However, I refuse to visit Iraq or
any other country which refuses to acknowledge the right of the Jewish nation to
exist.
My
only objection to Maikel’s itinerary is that he is refusing to visit all
religious sites. I totally respect his atheist
beliefs and strongly oppose all attempts to impose one’s religious convictions
upon others. However, I think that
Maikel cannot understand the religious significance of Yerushalayim for the
Jews without visiting the Kotel, the Western Wall. For this reason I urge him to visit the
Kotel. I find the thought of Israel
surrendering the Jewish capital of Yerushalayim to the Arab side as
incomprehensible as the suggestion that Mecca and Medina should be turned over
to non-Muslims. I wish he could also visit the Haram al
Sharif, the Nobel Sanctuary, and the Al Aksa Mosque, but as a non-Muslim he is
sadly barred from these sites. In
addition, for Christians Nazareth and Jerusalem are holy, and I think visiting
these Christian sites would help him understand the religious significance of
Israel for Christians.
From
this point forward, Maikel’s words are in Black, and my responses are in Blue.
>> 25 October 2012
After
my prison experience, I started asking myself if this person defended me or not
before defending him!!!
Labels:Crazy Notes -
En
>> 24 October 2012
My
personal life now is divided into 3 phases: Before prison - Inside Prison -
After Prison :(
It was my pleasure and honor to defend
and support him during his captivity and particularly during his hunger
strike. I only wish my fellow Jews had
joined me in supporting him at that time.
In this
day, 23 Oct 2011, I was transferred from El-Marg prison to Abbasya Psychiatric
by orders from military court. No justice until now :(
Maikel, I remember the
date when you were sent to psychiatric confinement as if it was yesterday. I was horrified but not at all surprised by this
alarming development. I was pleasantly
surprised that we were able to get you out of that hellhole so fast.
>> 23 October 2012
Just noticed
Israeli flag in a demonstration calling for my freedom in Berlin last year.
Happy to be a peace activist
Maikel, I’m happy with your peace
activism work although I disagree with you about giving the Palestinian Arabs a
state. I am very deeply appreciative to
you for your love and support of Israel and the Jews.
>> 22 October 2012
UN is a
racist organization which divide humans into Super-humans (citizens of
veto-holding countries) and Sub-humans (the rest of the world)
I don’t take the UN very seriously as it
is a bastion of genocidal dictators and anti-Semites and not a free expression
of global public opinion. But I think
Maikel makes a powerful point which I hadn’t considered. He is pointing out the
injustice of the difference in power, control, and status between the handful
of superpowers who hold veto positions, and the rest of the world which is in a
subordinate position at the UN.
Like this day,
22 Oct 2010, I was supposed to join the army. I refused and became
1st Conscientious Objector in Egypt
I think Maikel showed tremendous bravery in his
decision to refuse to join the army. He
started a movement based upon a concept of pacifism which Professor Bernard
Lewis said was completely new and inconceivable in the Arab world prior to
Maikel’s activism. Thanks to his
efforts, Egyptian intellectuals are beginning to discuss and debate the concept
of pacifism which remains deeply taboo for most Egyptians, especially poor,
religious, and less educated Egyptians. The
notion of pacifism is far outside the mainstream of Egyptian political thought,
but Maikel is sparking debate about it through his courageous actions.
>> 21 October 2012
I don't
know who is the idiot who invented the term "Arabic Spring".
Egyptians, Tunisians, and Libyans are Africans not Arabs
I remember feeling really astonished when
Maikel told me during one of our phone conversations that he identifies himself
as Egyptian and not Arab. He also added
that he thought the whole concept of Arab identity was nonsense because the
differences of linguistic dialect and cultural mind-set between the various regions
and countries of the Arab world were so vast.
I never conceived of the Arab world as a unitary phenomenon, and I definitely
recognize the tremendous diversity within the Arab world.
But his claim that he didn’t identify as
an Arab puzzled me. His statement reminds me of the Egyptian-American who
identified herself as an African-American.
This woman was a guest on Soledad O’Brien’s special “Black in America.” I think of Africa as referring to Sub-Saharan
Africa and of Arab North Africa as part of the Arab world. I know that Egypt
has a Nubian African minority.
The American University in Cairo
doesn't allow Israelis to study or work at the university. Thanks USA for
practicing Antisemitism.
I
am disappointed but not surprised that the American University in Cairo doesn’t
allow Israelis, i.e. Jews, to study or work at their institution. They are simply following the anti-Semitic
policies of the Nasser, Mubarak, and post-Mubarak military regimes. They are also kowtowing to radical Islam by
excluding Jews as well.
30,000 victims in Syria is not
enough for the world to interfere. Maybe The UN is waiting until the victims
become 300,000 or 3,000,000
Labels:Crazy Notes -
En
If you consider the Syrian
revolution just a civil war, why didn't you send peace-keeping forces to
protect civilians?
Once
again the UN has shown itself to be a bastion of genocidal tyranny by
supporting Assad’s attempted genocide against the oppressed Sunni majority in
Syria. The UN is irrelevant or harmful
to the global freedom struggle. The UN
would not care if the number of victims of attempted genocide in Syria reached
the levels of Liberia under the murderer Charles Taylor or the number of
murdered Bosnian Muslim victims of the Serb attempted genocide from 2002 to
2005. Obviously if G-d forbid 3 million
people were murdered in Syria, then it would be another full-scale genocide like
the Holocaust.
Until
now, Obama has hidden behind Putin and China as his excuse for doing nothing to
challenge the Assad regime. But now that
he sees the Assad regime beginning to totter inside Syria, he is making the
first step toward supporting the Syrian opposition by recognizing them as the
legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
Obama’s sole motivation for this decision is his fear that the Assad regime
may fall from power, not an expression of moral outrage against the Assad
regime’s ongoing attempted genocide. I
doubt that Obama will offer tangible military aid to the Syrian opposition
because he does not want to see the Islamist regime in Iran fall, and he knows
that helping the Syrian opposition would weaken the Iranian regime. I
continue to support the U.S. offering tangible military aid to the Free Syrian
Army and bombing Assad’s military and regime installations from the air as in
Libya. But I feel certain that Obama
will not take these steps.
>>
16 October 2012
Full respect to Natan Sharaansky, one
of the few supporters of democracy in Israel, who truly understand
dictatorships
I admire Sharansky’s courageous struggle against tyranny in Soviet
Russia, and Sharansky’s personal experience in this struggle sets him apart
from the vast majority of Israeli citizens and politicians who have no empathy
for the freedom struggles of Arabs and Muslims and who seem to fear the concept
of democracy in the Middle East.
1 comment:
Hello Rachel,
"It was my pleasure and honor to defend and support him during his captivity and particularly during his hunger strike. I only wish my fellow Jews had joined me in supporting him at that time."
As an argentinean jewish blogger, I did what I could: spread his views as early as April 2011
Stand for him when he was jailed (this one's in English).
Participating in the Blogging for #MaikelNabil day translating to English a traditional argentinean song against conscription called Botas Locas (Crazy boots). This one's in English too.
Finally, celebrate his release :)
Cheers!
H
Twitter: @Apuntes_Urbanos
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