Week of April 9: click here for updates

Who can protest and does not is an accomplice in the act _The Talmud


Where did this real estate come from? - Elizabeth Thunder Bird Haile Talks to Southampton Democrats

Adam Horowitz: "Let My People Go"


Jewish Peace News


As Tax Day Approaches: More US Weapons to Israel

Medical Aid for Palestine

Combatants for Peace - Israelis and Palestinians - ex fighters tour the US

Long Island Wins Blog: Immigrants, the Perfect Scapegoat

Peace and Justice Calendar

Suffolk Peace Vigils

Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

Gaza / Palestine Update: The Face of Misery in Gaza and more

Recommended Reading - click here:
America is in need of a moral bailout - Chris Hedges
Capitalism Hits the Fan - Richard Wolff

Kafka Era Double Standard: Edward Hermann on Gaza Coverage

Lucero Killing Follows Months of Anti-Immigrant Agitation

Economic Contributions of Immigrants to Long Island

Democracy Now!

The independent news hour with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez:
on Riverhead/Southampton/Southold/Shelter Island
Channel 20:

Note: Channels 20 (public access) and 22 (government meetings) now require a digital capable TV or converter box and have been removed from the basic cable service in violation of contracts with the east end towns. Call your Town Council members to find out what they are doing about this.

Starting April 1 - new schedule for Democracy Now!

Monday 6:30 am

Tuesday 6 PM

Wednesday 8 PM

Thursday 10 PM

Friday 6:30 am

Saturday - 10 PM

Also on WUSB 90.1 FM 5 PM Mon-Friday and East Hampton LTV Ch 20

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Where Did This Real Estate Come From? - Elizabeth Thunder Bird Haile Talks to Southampton Democrats

On April 4 Shinnecock Elder Elizabeth Thunder Bird Haile presented a talk "History You Should Know" at a meeting of the Southampton Democratic Club in Hampton Bays.

Elizabeth Thunder Bird Haile is a founder of the Shinnecock Cultural Center and Museum
and of the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge - helping those on the Reservation needing repair of housing and help with getting by.

Mrs. Haile was introduced by Methodist minister, Reverend Jack King of the Westhampton Methodist Church, formerly of the Southampton United Methodist Church.

The talk, recorded by WPKN 89.5 FM /WPKM 88.7 FM community radio can be heard here.

Here are some excerpts(*):

"Some think it all started in 1640... actually that is a good place to start.
Our best good year was 1639. We've gone from that point in love.

Nowedonah , my direct ancestor and our people welcomed the first little boat (of settlers) that landed at North Sea. They did not have anything to eat, no water. He saw to it they had a place to live.

Our Shinnecock people taught them to use the soil and how to build a house
that survives a hurricane. They built a wickiup ..an engineering marvel. You can come to the Shinnecock Cultural Center and Museum (**) to see one.

There was no time of warfare. Land changed hands in a spirit of sharing.

Federal Law forbid buying and selling of land with native people. It protected
the native people from theft. ... but it 1859 there was going to be a Long Island Rail Road from New York City to Montauk. They had to go through
the Shinnecock Hills. Twenty-one Shinnecock put their X on a petition to New York State that requested 'an interchange' of land. It was disputed by the Shinnecock Trustees and some whose names were on the document. ...but the railroad was built.

On the East End of Long Island we say the biggest business is real estate. I am asking where did this real estate come from?

The land and the water are forever... there are different conceptions about who owns it...

I believe that if you know the history as we see it ... that the policies will reflect a
sense of justice ...and you can see that we believe there has been injustice.

The Art Village (north of the present Shinnecock Reservation) - Samuel Parrish had to pay rent to Shinnecock (to live there) but in the last 10 years we had to go to court about Parrish Pond (where a development was built over a native burial ground.

There was a time when our people were not proud of their ways.
This is a dangerous thing. Some people changed their names to sound 'english'.

The Shinnecock Pow Wow was a way of our healing ... My father Chief Thunder Bird and my mother Edith told our people that "we are going to be proud of our ways". We are going to invite (the new england tribes) to come dance with us. It makes our kids proud and it makes Southampton proud. I have the privilage of opening it (with the Lord's Prayer dance) each year.

When does stolen land become un-stolen ... You will look at how these things
came to be. I think you will seek some kind of justice ... the Shinnecock people are waiting for justice ... and you should know that.

We are asking for people to have some feelings for a way to go forward as sisters and brothers on eastern LI.

We must save our waters ... stop throwing things into our bays....

Two more things to consider:

The Declaration of Indigenous Rights written at the UN. The US did not ratify it.

Gravesite protection laws to protect ancestral relics. All states except 4 including NY have such laws.

Present local law just requires the coroner to be called to detiremine if there was a
homicide.

A few years ago some of our ancestors remains came to the surface on
Shelter Island... A couple building a barn found the bones on their property .... they knew there was no law... in a voluntary way they contacted authorities ... i was called. These are our ancestors remains.

New York Sate is remiss. there needs to be a proper way to handle this..
I have care for what happens to human remains no matter whose.

The (proposed) ordinances are sitting on the desks of the Supervisors of the 5 east end towns... only Shelter Island has acted on it. We hope that the (Southampton) Town will act on it.

We believe in the seventh generation because we want life to go on.
We all care about the future of Southampton.

We say Tabutne - our Shinnecock way of saying thankyou.
_____________________________________________
* not a verbatim transcription

** The Shinnecock Cultural Center and Museum is at Montauk Highway and West Gate Road on the Shinnecock Reservation

Adam Horowitz: Let My People Go

posted at "Mondoweiss"

This year at Passover it is Palestinians who are demanding 'Let my people go!'

Yesterday Phil posted a piece I had published in the Philadelphia Daily News. Below is the full unedited version. As Passover begins tonight and the massacre of Deir Yassin is remembered tomorrow, let us all rededicate ourselves to working for liberation and freedom for all.

Through the ritual of the Seder, Passover tells the story of the Pharaoh's oppression of the Jews in ancient Egypt and their eventual emancipation from slavery. It is a time of reflection, and after the recent war in Gaza many Jews are asking - who are the slaves and who is the Pharaoh?

The war saw over 1,417 Palestinians killed, over 900 of whom were civilians. This is opposed to 13 Israelis. In addition, the Israeli attack laid waste to Gaza destroying schools, United Nations facilities and homes. The facts of the invasion are still coming to light including Israeli soldiers own stories of defiling Palestinians homes with racist graffiti and following orders to intentionally kill unarmed civilians. The war in Gaza is not only a devastating event for Palestinians but also the moral challenge of our time to the American Jewish community whose communal leadership supported the onslaught publicly and loudly. This year, Passover gives us a chance to reflect on this war, our history and our responsibility.

Gaza has led to a growing acknowledgment of Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians throughout its history. This year by coincidence the beginning of Passover also falls near an important anniversary - Deir Yassin Day. Deir Yassin was a Palestinian village destroyed by Zionist militias on April 9, 1948. During this massacre more than 100 men, women and children were killed. As word of the Deir Yassin massacre, and others like it, spread through Palestine many residents fled their homes out of fear, expecting they would be able to return after the fighting subsided. Within a year of the massacre, Deir Yassin, which had been emptied of Palestinians, was re-populated with Jewish immigrants and its name was erased from the map. During the war of 1948 that ended in the establishment of the state of Israel, over 530 Palestinian villages were similarly destroyed and all Palestinian refugees, whether their homes were destroyed or not, have been prevented from returning. For Palestinians this history is known as Al Nakba, Arabic for “The Catastrophe.”

Passover is a story of freedom that has resonated through the ages for many people as a story of redemption and liberation. It also helps form the core of the Jewish ethical tradition which exhorts us to stand for justice and in solidarity with the oppressed - "You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt" (Exodus 23:9). And yet, to tell the story of Passover in the same way after Deir Yassin and after Gaza is to be willfully blind. Jews are not only the slave - but also the Pharaoh. We need to be able to tell this story.

After Gaza it is irresponsible for us to only view ourselves through the lens of victimhood; we must also take responsibility and grapple with our reality as oppressors.

The Passover Seder is about learning and teaching - using the stories of the past to understand our place in the world today. The story of Egypt is told and remembered through ritual, questioning and story telling. This year a group of Jewish activists in Philadelphia are using the Seder ritual to wrestle with the Jewish history of being both slave and Pharaoh. On April 7 and 8 the organization Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace are holding “From Deir Yassin to Gaza: an 18 hour Passover Vigil” outside the Israeli Consulate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This event will combine a memorial to Deir Yassin, a Passover ritual remembering the past as well as a teach-in, and discussion. Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace is holding this event to understand the past and take responsibility for its legacies in the present.

This vigil will not elide the complexities of our history, but engage with them. Not stuck in the role of perpetual victim or heartless oppressor this event offers a model of the discussion the Jewish community needs to be having right now - what is our response when we are the ones being told “Let my people go?” Asking this question, and taking responsibility to act, are the first steps on the path of compassion, accountability and justice.

Posted by Adam Horowitz