Apartheid Fail in Israel

 In "apartheid" Israel, Beduoin soliders are willing to fight and die for their nation.

During the holy month of Ramadan,  the Beduoin soldiers of the IDF's Desert Reconnaissance Battalion - 585th Regiment break their fast with an IDF-provided Iftar.

IDF Beduoin soldiers Iftar

IDF Beduoin soldiers Iftar

This is the real Israel where diversity is cherished and embraced, not the cartoonish villian portrayed by Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.

(Photos via Uri Gobey)

More Dispatches from the "Apartheid State". Arab Muslim on Israel's Supreme Court

The Judicial Selection Committee recently appointed four new justices to Israel's Supreme Court. The four are Judge Khaled Kabub, Judge Ruth Ronen, Judge Gila Kanfei-Steinitz and Yechiel Kasher, an  attorney in the private sector. Kabub is the first Arab Muslim appointed to the Supreme Court, although there have been Arab Christians on the high court in the past. 

There's a local angle, too.   (There's always a local angle) Justice Khaled Kabub is a graduate of UC Berkeley.

Justice Kabub is a graduate of the Tel Aviv‐Berkeley Executive Program which brings Israeli lawyers, judges and policymakers to study at UC Berkeley and complete their LL.M. (masters). The program is coordinated with Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Faculty of Law. There are two semesters taught in Israel with a third  is taught on the Berkeley campus. 

Lets remember this when Berkeley's Bears for Palestine and SJP accuse Israel of Apartheid later this month.

Arab Woman appointed Dean at Hebrew University

In another massive failure of Apartheid in Israel, a Christian Arab Prof. Mona Khoury-Kassabri has been appointed dean of the Hebrew University School of Social Work.

She is the first Arab woman to be appointed dean at the Hebrew University. Dr. Khoury-Kassabri 's research addresses "both the factors underlying youth violence, and the ways to prevent victimization and perpetration and promote the welfare and rights of children."

Congratulations to Lian Najami, Rhodes Scholar from University of Haifa

The 2018 Rhodes scholar from the University of Haifa Lian Najami is a perfect example of the diversity of Israeli society, and of intersectionality at its best.

Lian grew up in the  culturally mixed Haifa neighborhood of Ein Hayam. At the age of 12, Lian began volunteering at her  local community center and by her 15th birthday she founded her first start-up.  Fluent in five languages, Lian graduated with a BA in Political Science from the University of Haifa.  She was a foreign policy adviser to US Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI),and was a featured speaker at the Forbes Israel 30 Under 30 Summit in 2016. While at Oxford, Lian plans to research  initiatives designed to promote political inclusion within society emphasizing marginalized groups.

Lian joins 32 other students will begin their studies at Oxford in October 2018.  They were selected from a pool of 866 candidates nominated by their colleges and universities. 

Lian Najami was profiled in the Alumni Spotlight of the University of Haifa Magazine, writing

 I was first asked to speak to international delegations as a high schooler at Leo Baeck’s youth and co-existence projects.

Since then I have spoken at the University of Haifa’s 40th Board of Governors Meeting, and at functions organized by Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) and Israel Campus Roundtables at campuses across the Boston area, including Williams College, Tufts University, UMass Amherst, Suffolk University, Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern University, and Wellesley College.

These events enabled me to reach out to students who have no connection to Israeli or Palestinian issues, yet think they must take a side. I try to explain that the reality is very complex. As an Arab Israeli, I tell them that they can be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian.

 A large number of people are ignorant about the non-Jewish community living in Israel, which comprises 25% of the population.

I try to raise awareness about this demographic reality. The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement claims that it is helping Palestinians and Arab Israelis. I say ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ What BDS is actually doing is simultaneously damaging Israel and Palestine, and when you harm Israel, you are hurting all of its citizens. Israel has done nothing but help shape the strong person I am and provided me with the help I needed to fully succeed in the Middle East and in life.

Congratulations to Lain Najami. May she continue to grow from strength to strength.

Reuters Picture of the Year nominee dispels the notion of Israeli Apartheid

One of Reuters Pictures of the year was taken on the beach in Tel Aviv, by photographer Baz Ratner.

It provides yet another example of the abysmal failure of Israeli apartheid.

Apartheid fail: Israeli Druze to head Ziv Medical Center

From Israel's Medical Support to Victims of the Civil War in Syria, published in the Israel Medical Association Journal, February 2014, written by Col. Dr. Salman Zarka:

As expressed in the IDF-MC  oath, “To extend a helping hand to any who is injured or ill, be they lowly or venerable, friend or foe – to any fellow man,” the State of Israel, since its establishment in 1948, adopted a strategy to provide humanitarian aid to people in need all over the world. Indeed, s uch missions were previously launched by the IDF-MC in Armenia, Turkey, Macedonia, Haiti, Japan, the Philippines and others, following natural disasters  Now, for the first time, such large-scale humanitarian aid is delivered not thousands of miles away, but right on our borders to citizens of a hostile country....

Encountering the Syrian patients and hearing their personal stories touched us on several levels – as medical professionals, as Israelis, and first and foremost as fellow human beings. We were dismayed to learn that prior to this encounter many of our Syrian patients considered us “evil” or “devils,” but we were encouraged that after meeting us in person and witnessing our hands outstretched in benevolence and goodwill many reconsidered their judgment. We also learned that word of the humanitarian and medical aid extended on the Israeli side of the border had spread widely among locals. We were especially moved to hear the story of a young mother whose two children were admitted to our field hospital. She told us that when her home was shelled and her children injured, villagers insisted that she “take them west” – to the Israeli border. “In the west the Israelis have set up a hospital to save us,” they told her. “They will take care of your children, and once they have recovered, you will be able to return home.”

Today, it was announced that Col. Dr. Salman Zarka, head of the Israel Defense Forces’ health services, has been named director-general of Safed’s Ziv Medical Center.  He is the first Druze Israeli to head an Israeli hospital

Its yet another in a series of apartheid fails from Israel

From the Jerusalem Post:

Born in Peki’in in the Upper Galilee into a large Druse family, he is married and the father of three. He studied medicine at the Technion’s Rappoport Medical Faculty as part of the IDF’s academic program and then went directly into the Medical Corps, with special expertise in public health and medical administration.

He has also lectured in University of Haifa's Welfare and Health Faculty, and Hebrew University’s special military medicine program in Jerusalem. He is the author of many medical journal articles.

Zarka is a graduate of the National Security College, where he earned a master’s degree (summa cum laude) in political science and national security. He also received a master’s of public health degree from the Hebrew University’s Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

His last position in the IDF was as head of the medical services center and the department of health services. For the last 18 months, he has run the humanitarian hospital in the Golan Heights. He planned and established the field hospital on the Syrian border to provide medical services for Syrians who have been wounded in the civil war there.

Read it all here

Apartheid fail: Mais Ali-Saleh graduates first in her class at Israel's Technion

Apartheid fail. 

 Mais Ali-Saleh, an Israeli Arab has graduated first in her class at Israel's renowned Technion .

 From an article by Diane Bletter in the Huffington Post

Guess who graduated first in this year's medical school class at the Technion, Israel's version of M.I.T.? The answer will surprise you. It's a 27-year-old stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman named Mais Ali-Saleh who grew up in a small village outside of Nazareth, in Israel's Galilee.

Ali-Selah's academic excellence not only marks her own personal achievement but also proves that contrary to propaganda spouted by proponents of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement -- whose latest convert is Stephen Hawking -- an academic boycott of Israel is the wrong approach to solving the Israel-Arab conflict. Moreover, it ultimately hurts the very people it claims to help. Ali-Selah put it best when she said, "An academic boycott of Israel is a passive move, and it doesn't achieve any of its purported objectives."

It's a BDS fail, as well. Contrary to what international anti-Israel activists would have you believe, Palestinian civil society does not universally support a boycott of Israel.

On trips to Europe, Ali-Selah said that people she met were surprised to learn that Israeli Arabs studied engineering and medicine in Israel, and that they lived among Jews. This lack of awareness helps the BDS Movement win misguided supporters. Boycotters like Roger Waters repeat a falsehood -- that Israel is an apartheid state -- and deny a fundamental truth: Arabs, in particular Arab women, have more freedom, liberties and academic opportunities in Israel than in any Arab country. Yes, they do.

Rather than an academic boycott -- which targets researchers who want to disseminate knowledge rather than restrict it -- Ali-Selah suggests a more active stance: encouraging academic life within the Palestinian Authority and strengthening academic ties with Palestinian universities, planning joint research projects with Palestinian scientists, and admitting more Palestinian scholars to European and American universities for academic programs.

Ali-Selah said that because she did medical research, the boycott did not negatively impact her work, but sooner or later, she said that it will impinge upon academic researchers she knows, both Jews and Arabs. That's why Stephen Hawking and others interested in advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East should focus their energies on supporting more of Israel's success stories like Mais Ali-Selah's, and pressuring Arab countries to emulate Israel's academic freedoms and democracy.

Some might argue that Ali-Selah is an exception to the rule about the Arab minority in Israel. But we only have to look at President Barack Obama to remember how unusual -- and important -- exceptions are.

Read the whole article at the Huff Post

Apartheid fail: Muslim Arab Bedouins serve as Israel's gatekeepers

Lieutenant Colonel Magdi Mazarib is a Bedouin, a Muslim Arab who grew up in northern Israel. He is also the Israeli army’s highest-ranking tracker and commands a unit of Bedouin soldiers.  Currently, there are1,655 Bedouin in active service in the Israeli army.

 Read this fascinating article on the role of Bedouins in the Israel army, from Al Arabiya.

As part of a minority within the Arab Israeli community, itself a minority among the Jews of Israel, Mazarib is at ease protecting his country’s borders from other Arabs, fellow Muslims.

“This is our country,” he states simply in perfect Hebrew with a light Arabic accent. And its Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David or the theme of the national anthem, do not perturb Mazarib.

“The flag of England also has a cross on it, and the Jews there are fine with it,” he says during a tour of the Bedouin Heritage Centre which houses a memorial to the 182 Bedouin killed fighting for Israel.

The amiable and composed officer, who with a shaved head, Hermes cologne and long, delicate fingers could pass for a business executive, believes that his fellow Bedouin across the Middle East are even envious of the way those in Israel live.

“The state of Bedouin in Israel is better, as far as the respect we get, our progress, education,” he says. “It’s a different league.”

Bedouin are not the only native Arabic speakers in the Israeli military, with members of Israel’s Druze and Circassian minorities enlisting, but they dominate the small, elite tracker units guarding the country’s northern and southern borders....

 Although Mazarib is following in the footsteps of his father, his uncle and his brother who also served as military trackers, he doesn’t see the same future for his eldest son, who is currently in school.

Mazarib envisions that his son --the only Bedouin in his class -- will serve in one of the army’s top elite units before taking up a senior role in Israeli society.

To him, the Bedouin integration in Israel’s army and society could be evidence of the possibility of Jewish-Muslim coexistence, which “could serve as an example of how to solve the entire Jewish-Arab conflict,” he says.

Even more surprising are the comments, including this one from  Mustafa Najjar  

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Israel is a great country that gives it's citizens equal rights, then why not serve such a country? Why not work there? Why not be proud of carrying it's passport, and even nationality? The situation in Arab countries surrounding us is completely pathetic. No health insurance, no job security, no chance at affording higher education for you or for your kids, if you're not rich. In Israel, we're well equal, and we love it. Love lives the state of Israel and the Jewish people!

Alpha Szenszor, Technion to commercialize non-invasive Lung cancer test

Another miracle from the nation that specializes in them.
From Israel 21C:

Alpha Szenszor, a leading provider of carbon nanotube (CNT) based sensors, and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have announced a joint venture for the commercialization of advanced lung cancer diagnostics based on Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) detection from human breath. They hope their combined expertise will lead to commercializing an economically viable, non-invasive, digital tool for the early diagnosis of lung cancer....

At Technion, we are excited by this new venture with Alpha Szenszor. The combination of strengths and expertise of both parties will greatly enhance our ability to save human lives,” says lead researcher Prof. Hossam Haick, of the Technion Department of Chemical Engineering. “The Technion’s and Alpha Szenszor’s strong IP portfolio and experience will enable the fast and effective transition of this valuable technology from the lab to the medical world where it will be of real benefit in the fight against cancer

What Israel 21C doesn't mention is that Prof Hossam Haick is one of the most distinguished young scientists in Israel.  

From his faculty page at the Technion website:

Prof. Haick has received several awards for his research, including a Knight of the Order of Academic Palms (Chevalier dans l'Ordres des Palmes Académiques), the list of the world’s 35 leading young scientists for 2008 of the prestigious scientific journal MIT’s Technology Review, the Horev Chair for Leaders in Science and Technology, the "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" Prize in Chemical Engineering, the Discovery Program Award of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the OXYGEN Prize, the Norman and Barbara Seiden Prize, the Israel-France Award for Academic Excellence, the Herschel Rich Innovation Award (2008, 2011), the Minerva Short-Term Research Award, the Bergmann Award for Excellent Young Scientists, the CREATE Award, the Al-Qendil Prize, and the YMCA and Rotary Honorary Decorations.  In addition, Prof. Haick was selected for the lists of “Ten Most Promising Young Israeli Scientists” of Calcalist (2010), “Young Israelis of the Year” of the Jerusalem Post” (2010), “50 Leading Israelis for 2007” and “four saluted Israeli scientists” (2007) of Yedioth Aharonot.  Other honors and awards include the Fulbright fellowship, ‘Israel Ministry of Science and Technology' awards, Prof. Avrahami prize, and CNR-IMIP prize.

 

Besides his recent and past achievements in research, he had excellent achievements as a lecturer, expressed by a wide variety of prizes that he received for (constantly) excellence in teaching (top 4%). Prof. Haick is the recipient of the prestigious "Yanai Prize for Academic Excellence", which is given for exceptional and significant contribution in teaching and academic education. Prof. Haick had also worked as a supervisor for a broad range of talented graduate and undergraduate students worldwide. Prof. Haick serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, review editor of the Frontiers in Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs, and member of the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Nanoscience Letters, Hybrid Materials, Dataset Papers in Physical Chemistry, Frontiers in Respiratory Pharmacology, etc. Prof. Haick serves as an advisory consultant to the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) – the world's authority for chemical information - a senior scientific advisory member of several national and international companies and institutes, and as a scientific evaluator in the European Commission.

And incidentally, Prof. Haick is an Israeli Arab.