In Which Ryan Bellerose observes the local fauna

Via Emunah:

Ryan Bellerose is visiting Northern California.  A well-known member of Canada’s first nations, Ryan is active in promoting and strengthening indigenous solidarity , and defines Zionism as  the Jewish’s peoples'  indigenous solidarity movement   As part of an ongoing anthropological study of  anti-Israel asshats in their native environment, Ryan attended a protest in front of San Francisco’s venerable Westin St. Francis hotel.  The protest was promoted by assorted  local extremist groups including  International ANSWER, the Arab Resource Organizing Center and Jewish Voice for Peace. Inside the hotel, hundreds had gathered at an AIPAC dinner in support of friendship between the US and Israel.  That’s simply not allowed in San Francisco.

However, the protest was only peripherally about the AIPAC dinner, with the promotional posters proclaiming instead “Protest Israel”

Ryan’s observations about the event have been published at Israellycool

Monday nights protest featured the usual hateful elements we’ve come to expect from the local “progressive” community.   Activists expressed their support for the intifada- the violent uprising that has left hundreds dead and wounded.  Israel was blamed for everything from Ferguson  to the death of transsexuals in the Philippines.   Richard Becker’s ANSWER hit may have hit rock-bottom by commandeering a wheelchair to transport their sound system- tacky, even by ANSWER’s low standards. 

No, Dick. Using a wheelchair for your sound system does not entitle you to a disabled placard.

Vitriolic racist attacks were directed towards Ryan, both during and after the event

UC Berkeley graduate student and SJP organizer Kumars Salehi took to social media to insult the Metis activist. Yes, he called  Ryan a cracker 

There was more repulsive racism on Instagram courtesy of Kevyn Noodleman  using the account @leduviolet  

Ryan handled  it all with characteristic good humor

One hundred of them. A dozen of us on the street, with hundreds more inside the hotel celebrating the friendship between Israel and America.

It counts as a win

Native American Zionist Activist Ryan Bellerose will be in the SF Bay Area

For Immediate Release
Media Advisory / Interview Opportunity

Native American Zionist blogger Ryan Bellerose will be in the SF Bay Area
Available for events, meetings, interviews

Who: Ryan Bellerose, Native American Advocate for Israel

When: November-December 2015

Where: San Francisco Bay Area

Why: Ryan is an outspoken advocate for Israel, offering an indigenous perspective on the Jewish homeland and Jewish peoplehood. He confronts anti-semitism and anti-Israel bigotry with well-researched information. Ryan is working toward promoting Israel as the model for an indigenous people reclaiming their ancestral homeland and establishing a nation-state. Ryan is empowering both Jewish and North American indigenous peoples by explaining the commonality of indigenous struggles worldwide, and specifically Jewish struggles for self determination and how it applies to the global indigenous struggle.

Bio:

Ryan Bellerose is a Métis from Northern Alberta. His father, Mervin Bellerose, co-authored the Métis Settlements Act of 1989, which was passed by the Alberta legislature in 1990 and cemented his land rights. Ryan founded Canadians For Accountability, a Native rights advocacy group, and he is an indigenous rights activist. He has been active in the Human rights community in Canada for several years as well as working with youth both as a volunteer and in paid positions. Some of the advocacy work he has done involved assisting to remove corrupt tribal governments and he has been heavily involved in several groups advocating for indigenous rights around the world. Ryan has worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor at a recovery centre in northern Alberta, a youth counsellor in his hometown, building ice bridges in the far north of Canada, a substitute teacher for elementary, junior and senior high schools, a heavy machine operator, pipeline worker, a Security contractor, a wildfire firefighter, a GPS/GIS consultant, and as a business analyst and account rep at a major telecom. He is an avid athlete who plays semi pro tackle football during the summer for a team that has won 9 provincial and 3 national championships in 12 years. Ryan believes that effective advocacy is the key to making tangible changes and that maintaining culture is imperative for indigenous people even while getting more education. He is also a founding member in the Calgary United with Israel (CUWI) organization. Ryan is a self-proclaimed Zionist. Ryan has had several articles published in newspapers around the world on the subject of indigenous rights and their importance and has been blogging on a wide array of websites including Indian Country Today Media Network,Isreallycool.com, TimesofIsrael.com, Israel National News, CIJNews.com, and has appeared in Jerusalem Post, Toronto Sun, and many more.

Some of Ryan's publications:

History Matters: 5 Myths About Israel

Israel Palestine: Who’s Indigenous?

Indigenous Status Matters: Here’s Why

The Proud Tradition Of Antizionism

Ryan Bellerose in Israel

There is a reason the anti-Israel bigots at UCLA have focused their wrath on students who have taken educational trips to Israel.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

 Its why Birthright scares the haters. 10 days in Israel exposes their lies, their bias and their agenda. Israeli sunshine is, and always will be the best disinfectant to BDS hate.

And its for this reason, we all owe StandWithUs thanks for having the insight and the compassion to send First Nations advocate Ryan Bellerose to Israel. Ryan was an intellectual Zionist- his attachment to Israel was the result of careful study. But now his attachment is stronger and deeper.

Via Israellycool

It can hardly be said that Ryan didn't know Israel when he got here. Or at least, through his copious reading of a wide range of historical and religious sources, he thought he knew Israel. He's written a thesis on the Merkeva tank, but he'd never before met someone who fought in one. He's read the gospels but he'd never walked along the Via de la Rose. He's read of the decadence of Rome but he'd never stood in the amphitheatre of Caesarea. He's read about Jews being blocked from their Temple Mount but he'd never reached the front of the line and been refused entry himself. He's read about the Syrians shelling civilians but he'd never stood on a hill a mile away and watched shells fly.

He did all of those things and many more.

Read Ryan’s impressions of Israel, published at Israellycool. And if you can, send StandWithUs a donation, so they can continue to sponsor trips to Israel that open hearts and minds and broaden horizons for so many people

Idle No More Organizer speaks up for Israel

Ryan Bellerose, a member of the First Nations of Canada and an Idle No More Organizer speaks out against the Native American and Indigenous Studies call for the boycott of Israeli institutions.

Ryan, a founding member of Calgary United with Israel was asked if he had a "foot in both camps", as an aboriginal man  interested in Israel.  Ryan answers "I think of the struggle as the same camp. I see Israel as an indigenous project, basically indigenous people who have managed to return to their traditional lands and create a state. I happen to think its a really great example for our people"

Watch it here

Regarding the proposed NAISA boycott of Israeli goods and services, Ryan respond that the group is not an indigenous group- it is all "white people"

Via the  Israelllycool website: Ryan Bellerose's letter to the NAISA reprinted bellow
  
To the leadership of Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA)

“I was shown your website by a friend and colleague and to be quite honest I am extremely shocked that an organisation that states it is here as a group dedicated to studying Native American and Indigenous issues is openly supporting a racist, anti-indigenous group like BDS. As a Metis human rights activist who has studied the history of the Middle East, I feel it’s important for people like me to speak out because frankly you can only be supporting this boycott out of ignorance.

First off, as indigenous people it’s very important for us to support the struggles of our indigenous brethren. Contrary to popular belief and the false narrative being spread by pro-palestinians, Arabs are not indigenous to the Levant. The indigenous people are the Jews who trace their origins as a people and their culture to the levant. The Arabs who conquered the Middle East in the seventh century are in fact indigenous to the arabian peninsula. They do not get to claim indigenous status to the levant any more than white people can lay claim to being indigenous to North America. Israel is an indigenous rights project at its core; it is the return of an indigenous group that was disenfranchised by colonialists dating back to the Roman occupation and culminating in the Arab expansion in the seventh century. There is no statute of limitations on human rights, and indigenous rights are in fact human rights.

Second off, the boycott is inherently racist and prejudiced; even anti-Israel spokespeople like Norman Finklestein have openly stated that BDS is simply another attack against Jews. The hypocrite who started this Boycott is in fact a student at an Israeli university (Omar Barghouti who studies at Tel Aviv University). The idea that people should boycott an entire indigenous nation because of some ridiculous notion that colonisers have become indigenous is offensive as hell.

This entire ‘supporting the Palestinians out of some misguided “affinity” with them due to their underdog status’ is quite idiotic itself; in fact the entire Middle East minus one percent of the land mass, is under the control of Muslims who share the stated goal of the Palestinians’ leaders, which is “to remove the state of Israel and its people from the map”. So that means that in fact Israel is not just the underdog, but has overcome almost insurmountable odds. The Palestinians have been nothing more than a tool for the Arab nations to fight the Jews by proxy.

So you explain to me how a state that consists of one percent of the land mass and less than one percent of the total population is somehow an oppressor. The truth is that the Palestinians have been given several things that North American Indians have never been given: the opportunity to create their own state. They refused each time, believing that their Muslim brothers would destroy Israel for them – only they never have.

Boycotting academics is wrong, it’s immoral and disgusting. It is not borderline racism, it is abject racism. I urge you and your friends to reconsider this support of an illegitimate boycott. Please do some research into this.

A link for you: Norman Frankenstein speaking about BDS

We have struggled for equal rights in North America for decades; we have never stooped to terrorism, or propaganda. We rely on the fact that our cause is inherently just, so why we align ourselves with people who advocate for violence I have no idea. We have grassroots movements like Idle No More in which I have worked as both an organiser and participant in several events. We do NOT glorify murder nor do we advocate for violence. BDS is merely less open in its goals, which are the destruction of Israel and its people.

Regards,
Ryan Bellerose, Organiser and Participant of Idle No More.”