{"id":106969,"date":"2014-01-27T07:52:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T07:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=d89bced00434f1141919f99e591591c8"},"modified":"2014-01-27T07:52:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T07:52:00","slug":"remembering-shulamit-aloni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/remembering-shulamit-aloni\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Shulamit Aloni"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\"><b>Remembering Shulamit Aloni<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">On January 24, longtime Israeli MK, minister, human\/civil\/women&#8217;s rights champion, and outspoken critic of Israeli apartheid passed. She was 86.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Her roots were Polish. Her parents were rabbinical family descendants. She was born in Tel Aviv.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She was a prominent peace advocate. She opposed occupation harshness. She championed Palestinian rights.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">As a youth, she was a socialist Zionist Hashomer Hatzair (Youth Group) member. During the British Mandate period, she was a Palmach brigade member.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Its mandate was much more than military. It contributed significantly to Israeli culture, values, character and spirit.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">After Israel was established, she worked with child refugees. She helped establish a school for immigrant children. She studied law. She taught. She wrote. She spoke out forthrightly.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She held various government posts. She was a longtime MK and Israeli minister. Her portfolios included Education and Culture, Communications and Science and the Arts.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In 1973, she founded the Movement for Civil Rights and Peace (Ratz party). She established the Israel Consumers Council.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She led the Meretz party. She advocated Israeli secularism. She believed religion has no place in politics.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">During Israel&#8217;s 1982 Lebanon war, she established the International Center for Peace in the Middle East.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Ahead of 1984 elections, she aligned with Peace Now and the Left Camp of Israel. She advocated electoral reform.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She argued for establishing a constitution. Israel has none. Basic laws substitute. They fall way short of what&#8217;s needed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She opposed student tours to Nazi concentration camps. She said conducting them helps make Israel a warrior nation. It turns youths into aggressive, nationalistic xenophobes.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She was a Yesh Din board member. It defends Palestinian civil and human rights. It exposes Israeli abuses. It champions long denied accountability.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She believed anti-semitism is misused. It&#8217;s done to suppress legitimate Israeli criticism. She was outspoken to the end.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She made fundamental rights her core issue. She was true to her values. She challenged Israel&#8217;s establishment.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She stood up against government officials, generals and extremist rabbis against peace, equity and justice. She was fearless. She was unflinching.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In 1985, she received the Kreisky Prize for Human Rights. In 1996, the International Academy of Humanism awarded her a Decoration of Honor.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In 1998, she received a special lifetime Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award. In 2000, she was awarded the Israel Prize.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It&#8217;s Israel&#8217;s highest honor. Aloni won it for her lifetime achievements. It was for her contribution to Israeli society.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She received honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College, South Korea&#8217;s Kon-Kon University, Brussels&#8217; Free University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She taught courses at Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, Princeton University, and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliyyah.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She was often a voice in the wilderness. Israel is more ruthless today than ever.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In January 2007, she <a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2007\/01\/08\/yes-there-is-apartheid-in-israel\/\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc;\">headlined<\/span><\/a> &#8220;Yes, There is Apartheid in Israel,&#8221; saying:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what\u2019s right in front of our eyes.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Nevertheless, the state of Israel practices its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It &#8220;practices a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Its army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced-in, or blocked-in, detention camp.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It turned Occupied Palestine into an open-air prison. &#8220;Indeed Apartheid does exist here. And our army is not &#8216;the most moral (one) in the world&#8217; as we are told&#8230;&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Apartheid is &#8220;an international crime,&#8221; she said. Israel &#8220;rob(s) (Palestinians) of their freedom, land and water.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;We apply collective punishment to millions of people&#8221; and much more.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">After Operation Cast Lead (December 2008 &#8211; January 2009), she said the disgraced IDF is no longer Israel&#8217;s Defense Forces.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She keynoted &#8220;A Gathering to Protest and to Mourn&#8221; Association for Jaffa Arabs program. Standing room only heard her.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She pulled no punches calling the IDF a &#8220;brutal and hedonistic army of conquest.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She called Gaza &#8220;a giant detention camp&#8230;with no way in or out.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;The (Israeli) public unashamedly celebrates the killing and the destruction. They rejoice that we have a large, strong army, but meanwhile Israel has abandoned its values&#8230;&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">On her 81st birthday, she discussed the condition of the State of Israel. &#8220;What we do in (Gaza) and the West Bank is worse than all pogroms done to Jews,&#8221; she said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s hard for me to say a kind word about the state today. We are in great distress morally and socially, as well as in the realms of politics and law.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;The Right has two left hands. The Left doesn&#8217;t exist&#8230;Since 2000, with the launching of the Second Intifada, we have murdered thousands. We have blood on our hands.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She denounced extremist settler violence and vandalism. &#8220;We are a nefarious people,&#8221; she said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">At age 80, she published &#8220;Israel: Democracy or Ethnocracy?&#8221; She minced no words criticizing her homeland, saying:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;The state is returning to the ghetto, to Orthodox Judaism, and the rule of the fundamentalist rabbinate is becoming more profound.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In 1994, after Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Muslims at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, she forthrightly denounced settler violence.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She was a pioneer peace, equity and justice champion. On Friday, allies and opponents praised her. They called her &#8220;a moral compass,&#8221; &#8220;a special breed,&#8221; &#8220;an inspiration for all women.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Eighty-eight-year-old former right wing Israeli MK Guelah Cohen said:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;It was impossible not to admire such a combative woman who fought for what she believed in and was prepared to pay the price.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Former Ratz\/Meretz MK\/minister Yossi Sarid called her &#8220;a phenomenon.&#8221; She feared &#8220;absolutely nothing.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;She wanted to change the national and social agenda, and she did so on her own by virtue of her own capabilities, and attained great and unparalleled achievements.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Current Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On called her &#8220;trailblazing.&#8221; She inspires Israeli human rights activists.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;She transformed Israel into a better place to live and never stopped fighting for the values she believed in with which she will forever be associated: peace, absolute equality irrespective of religion, gender and race.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Labor party leader Issac Herzog said she set an example for others. She &#8220;instigated significant change in Israeli public discourse.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She &#8220;broke down walls that protected antiquated ways of thinking. (A)s a nation, we must respect her. She will be remembered as a courageous fighter for peace, coexistence and minority rights.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc; text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/opinion\/.premium-1.570522\">Haaretz<\/a><\/span> editors said &#8220;Farewell to one of Israel&#8217;s true fighters on the left.&#8221; With her death, &#8220;one can only hope (Meretz leader) Zahava Gal-On remains true to her opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s government.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She uncompromisingly supported right over wrong. &#8220;(S)he was an undaunted fighter for human and civil rights as well as equality for women, while opposing religious coercion, the occupation and the settlements.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She warned about Israel on a &#8220;slippery slope of religious fascism, war crimes, and the silencing of freedom of expression.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Her ideals are more important today than ever. Netanyahu and Knesset extremists &#8220;turn(ed) Israel into an isolated fortress, repressing its citizens and threatened by international boycotts.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Haaretz columnist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/opinion\/.premium-1.570523\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc;\">Gideon Levy<\/span><\/a> called her Israel&#8217;s &#8220;first lady.&#8221; She became a legend in her own time. &#8220;(N)o one disputed her honesty, determination or courage.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;She invented Israeli enlightenment.&#8221; She inspired others to follow her example. She was &#8220;a warrior for justice.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Most of her dreams did not come true. Israel became a worse place &#8211; racist, ultranationalistic, occupying, theocratic and bullying.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It&#8217;s polar opposite what she stood for. &#8220;Was she ahead of her time,&#8221; asked Levy? &#8220;Absolutely not. She came at exactly the right time.&#8221; She&#8217;s gone too soon. It&#8217;s when she&#8217;s most needed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She was humble. She was one of the least egoistical politicians of her time. She cared only about issues mattering most.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Peace Now mourned her passing. &#8220;The pillar of fire has been extinguished,&#8221; it said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She was &#8220;synonymous with the struggle for peace, security, equality and social justice.&#8221; She wrote books on civil, women&#8217;s and children&#8217;s rights.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She was &#8220;a teacher and leading legal and ethical expert on these issues. She was a leading feminist and a courageous liberal voice of progressive values.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She died peacefully at her Tel Aviv District Kfar Shmaryahu home. Family members were with her.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Cause of death wasn&#8217;t disclosed. One of her sons attributed it to old age. On Sunday she was laid to rest. An era passed with her.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Her friends called her Shula. She&#8217;s survived by three sons, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Her books include The Citizen and His Country; Children&#8217;s Rights in Israel; and Women as Human Beings among others.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">She remained a human rights champion to the end. She&#8217;s sorely missed. She leaves a huge void to fill. Hopefully others are up to the task.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">His new book is titled &#8220;Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div><b>Remembering Shulamit Aloni<\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On January 24, longtime Israeli MK, minister, human\/civil\/women&#8217;s rights champion, and outspoken critic of Israeli apartheid passed. She was 86.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Her roots were Polish. Her parents were rabbinical family descendants. She was born in Tel Aviv.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She was a prominent peace advocate. She opposed occupation harshness. She championed Palestinian rights.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As a youth, she was a socialist Zionist Hashomer Hatzair (Youth Group) member. During the British Mandate period, she was a Palmach brigade member.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Its mandate was much more than military. It contributed significantly to Israeli culture, values, character and spirit.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After Israel was established, she worked with child refugees. She helped establish a school for immigrant children. She studied law. She taught. She wrote. She spoke out forthrightly.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She held various government posts. She was a longtime MK and Israeli minister. Her portfolios included Education and Culture, Communications and Science and the Arts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 1973, she founded the Movement for Civil Rights and Peace (Ratz party). She established the Israel Consumers Council.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She led the Meretz party. She advocated Israeli secularism. She believed religion has no place in politics.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>During Israel&#8217;s 1982 Lebanon war, she established the International Center for Peace in the Middle East.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ahead of 1984 elections, she aligned with Peace Now and the Left Camp of Israel. She advocated electoral reform.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She argued for establishing a constitution. Israel has none. Basic laws substitute. They fall way short of what&#8217;s needed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She opposed student tours to Nazi concentration camps. She said conducting them helps make Israel a warrior nation. It turns youths into aggressive, nationalistic xenophobes.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She was a Yesh Din board member. It defends Palestinian civil and human rights. It exposes Israeli abuses. It champions long denied accountability.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She believed anti-semitism is misused. It&#8217;s done to suppress legitimate Israeli criticism. She was outspoken to the end.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She made fundamental rights her core issue. She was true to her values. She challenged Israel&#8217;s establishment.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She stood up against government officials, generals and extremist rabbis against peace, equity and justice. She was fearless. She was unflinching.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 1985, she received the Kreisky Prize for Human Rights. In 1996, the International Academy of Humanism awarded her a Decoration of Honor.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 1998, she received a special lifetime Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award. In 2000, she was awarded the Israel Prize.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It&#8217;s Israel&#8217;s highest honor. Aloni won it for her lifetime achievements. It was for her contribution to Israeli society.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She received honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College, South Korea&#8217;s Kon-Kon University, Brussels&#8217; Free University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She taught courses at Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, Princeton University, and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliyyah.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She was often a voice in the wilderness. Israel is more ruthless today than ever.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In January 2007, she <a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2007\/01\/08\/yes-there-is-apartheid-in-israel\/\"><span>headlined<\/span><\/a> &#8220;Yes, There is Apartheid in Israel,&#8221; saying:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what&rsquo;s right in front of our eyes.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It&#8217;s simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Nevertheless, the state of Israel practices its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It &#8220;practices a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Its army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced-in, or blocked-in, detention camp.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It turned Occupied Palestine into an open-air prison. &#8220;Indeed Apartheid does exist here. And our army is not &#8216;the most moral (one) in the world&#8217; as we are told&#8230;&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Apartheid is &#8220;an international crime,&#8221; she said. Israel &#8220;rob(s) (Palestinians) of their freedom, land and water.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We apply collective punishment to millions of people&#8221; and much more.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After Operation Cast Lead (December 2008 &#8211; January 2009), she said the disgraced IDF is no longer Israel&#8217;s Defense Forces.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She keynoted &#8220;A Gathering to Protest and to Mourn&#8221; Association for Jaffa Arabs program. Standing room only heard her.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She pulled no punches calling the IDF a &#8220;brutal and hedonistic army of conquest.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She called Gaza &#8220;a giant detention camp&#8230;with no way in or out.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The (Israeli) public unashamedly celebrates the killing and the destruction. They rejoice that we have a large, strong army, but meanwhile Israel has abandoned its values&#8230;&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On her 81st birthday, she discussed the condition of the State of Israel. &#8220;What we do in (Gaza) and the West Bank is worse than all pogroms done to Jews,&#8221; she said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard for me to say a kind word about the state today. We are in great distress morally and socially, as well as in the realms of politics and law.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The Right has two left hands. The Left doesn&#8217;t exist&#8230;Since 2000, with the launching of the Second Intifada, we have murdered thousands. We have blood on our hands.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She denounced extremist settler violence and vandalism. &#8220;We are a nefarious people,&#8221; she said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>At age 80, she published &#8220;Israel: Democracy or Ethnocracy?&#8221; She minced no words criticizing her homeland, saying:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The state is returning to the ghetto, to Orthodox Judaism, and the rule of the fundamentalist rabbinate is becoming more profound.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 1994, after Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Muslims at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, she forthrightly denounced settler violence.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She was a pioneer peace, equity and justice champion. On Friday, allies and opponents praised her. They called her &#8220;a moral compass,&#8221; &#8220;a special breed,&#8221; &#8220;an inspiration for all women.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Eighty-eight-year-old former right wing Israeli MK Guelah Cohen said:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It was impossible not to admire such a combative woman who fought for what she believed in and was prepared to pay the price.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Former Ratz\/Meretz MK\/minister Yossi Sarid called her &#8220;a phenomenon.&#8221; She feared &#8220;absolutely nothing.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;She wanted to change the national and social agenda, and she did so on her own by virtue of her own capabilities, and attained great and unparalleled achievements.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Current Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On called her &#8220;trailblazing.&#8221; She inspires Israeli human rights activists.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;She transformed Israel into a better place to live and never stopped fighting for the values she believed in with which she will forever be associated: peace, absolute equality irrespective of religion, gender and race.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Labor party leader Issac Herzog said she set an example for others. She &#8220;instigated significant change in Israeli public discourse.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She &#8220;broke down walls that protected antiquated ways of thinking. (A)s a nation, we must respect her. She will be remembered as a courageous fighter for peace, coexistence and minority rights.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/opinion\/.premium-1.570522\">Haaretz<\/a><\/span> editors said &#8220;Farewell to one of Israel&#8217;s true fighters on the left.&#8221; With her death, &#8220;one can only hope (Meretz leader) Zahava Gal-On remains true to her opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s government.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She uncompromisingly supported right over wrong. &#8220;(S)he was an undaunted fighter for human and civil rights as well as equality for women, while opposing religious coercion, the occupation and the settlements.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She warned about Israel on a &#8220;slippery slope of religious fascism, war crimes, and the silencing of freedom of expression.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Her ideals are more important today than ever. Netanyahu and Knesset extremists &#8220;turn(ed) Israel into an isolated fortress, repressing its citizens and threatened by international boycotts.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Haaretz columnist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/opinion\/.premium-1.570523\"><span>Gideon Levy<\/span><\/a> called her Israel&#8217;s &#8220;first lady.&#8221; She became a legend in her own time. &#8220;(N)o one disputed her honesty, determination or courage.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;She invented Israeli enlightenment.&#8221; She inspired others to follow her example. She was &#8220;a warrior for justice.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Most of her dreams did not come true. Israel became a worse place &#8211; racist, ultranationalistic, occupying, theocratic and bullying.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It&#8217;s polar opposite what she stood for. &#8220;Was she ahead of her time,&#8221; asked Levy? &#8220;Absolutely not. She came at exactly the right time.&#8221; She&#8217;s gone too soon. It&#8217;s when she&#8217;s most needed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She was humble. She was one of the least egoistical politicians of her time. She cared only about issues mattering most.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Peace Now mourned her passing. &#8220;The pillar of fire has been extinguished,&#8221; it said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She was &#8220;synonymous with the struggle for peace, security, equality and social justice.&#8221; She wrote books on civil, women&#8217;s and children&#8217;s rights.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She was &#8220;a teacher and leading legal and ethical expert on these issues. She was a leading feminist and a courageous liberal voice of progressive values.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She died peacefully at her Tel Aviv District Kfar Shmaryahu home. Family members were with her.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Cause of death wasn&#8217;t disclosed. One of her sons attributed it to old age. On Sunday she was laid to rest. An era passed with her.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Her friends called her Shula. She&#8217;s survived by three sons, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Her books include The Citizen and His Country; Children&#8217;s Rights in Israel; and Women as Human Beings among others.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She remained a human rights champion to the end. She&#8217;s sorely missed. She leaves a huge void to fill. Hopefully others are up to the task.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His new book is titled &#8220;Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}