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UPCOMING From MER: Feisal Husseini - Was He Killed?

ISRAEL SHAHAK DIES AS CALAMITY HE FORESAW APPROACHES

"I feel strongly that we are on the edge of
an apocalypse and the eve of an eruption of
violence, and I call on the United States and
the European Union to immediately send a
force to oversee the cease-fire."
--Yossi Sarid - 7/03

MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/04:

What "cease-fire" is Sarid talking about? And if he really wants a serious outside
force, why is he not appealing to the U.N. under Chapter 7 and why are not the Arabs
included? True, the apocalypse approaches, but hypocrites like Sarid -- one of the
original promoters of the "Oslo agreement" which fairly quickly unveiled itself as a
duplicitous ploy that metasticized into neo-apartheid -- refuse to admit that it is
partially they themselves who laid the groundwork for what is now happening...even if
unwittingly. And even now they cry out in anguish for someone else to come save them from
what they themselves are about to do, continuing to fail to understand their complicitous
role, past and present, as well as their current responsibilities to truly atone for what
they have wrought in a major way.

Dr. Israel Shahak, who died yesterday on the verge of the coming calamity that he
foresaw long ago and dedicated his life to trying to prevent, was a deeply courageous man
of great conviction and strength -- the antithesis of a hypocrite. But one will not read
Israel Shahak's obituary in major newspapers around the world, nor see his picture flashed
on television. Few of his colleagues in Israel will even mourn his passing. But those
who knew Israel Shahak personally were much affected by his conscience and his dedication;
and clearly feel his lose. His death comes ironically precisely at the time his
predictions are coming true and when many more courageous souls like him are so desperately
needed more than ever.

First a tribute from American Jewish journalist Ellen Cantarow; then a prescient
article written by Israel Shahak six years ago:

DR. ISRAEL SHAHAK

Dr. Israel Shahak, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Hebrew
University, headed the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, was
a ferocious and tireless critic of his country's policies, and wrote
volumes of articles and other work including "Jewish History, Jewish
Religion" (Pluto Press, 1994). As a young child he survived Hitler's
death camp, Bergen-Belsen, with his mother, and arrived with her in
Palestine around age twelve. (His father died in the holocaust.) He
grew up in Israel; served in the army; became a chemist; went on to
the faculty of Hebrew University. He was a savage, unbending and
courageous critic of his country's policies, denouncing its
colonialist designs from earliest Zionism.

As head of The Israeli League for Civil and Human Rights he was
instrumental in 1977 in persuading editors at The London Sunday Times
to publish the first international exposure of Israel's torture of
Palestinian prisoners. I was one of a group of US intellectuals who
in the 1980s and early 90s received his invaluable monthly "Shahak
Papers"- ten to fifteen single-spaced pages of translations from the
Hebrew Press, headed by his commentaries.

I knew Dr. Shahak as a friend starting in 1979. He was a staggering
intellectual with an encyclopedic erudition in world religions; the
migrations of ancient peoples; archaeology; ancient and modern
history, and more. He once lectured to me about the horse and its
domestic use in early human history. In 1985, after I'd done a
reporting stint in the Sudan, he told me details about the work of a
heroic woman I'd met, prominent in the Sudanese Communist Party. He
adored opera; on US speaking tours he brought tapes of his favorites
and listened to them for relaxation. He was an ardent supporter of
women's rights; he abhorred the denunciations of feminism usual among
male intellectuals including his countrymen. When I became Senior
Editor of *The Women's Review of Books*, he subscribed, and wrote me
letters in which, predictably, his praise was leavened with criticism.

During my reporting trips to Israel and the West Bank in the 1980s he
opened his small home to me. When I visited he'd always start by
giving me his most recent Hebrew press "cuttings." His two-room
apartment was always in breathtaking disarray - "cuttings"
everywhere, piles of magazines and newspapers, no place to step,
apparent chaos! Yet he could always find whatever was needed for his
visitors. He lived a Spartan life with almost no furniture - a bed, a
table, a lamp, a couple chairs. To many he seemed cold, abrupt, and a
peculiar recluse. Once on his wrong side, you didn't easily regain
his friendship, and it was often hard to know where you'd erred.
Perhaps he saw me as a niece or little sister, for he showed me
another side, gentle and compassionate.

In his ferocious denunciations of the occupation he was a "loyal
patriot" not unlike his friend, the fiery Rabbi Yeshayahu Leibovitz.
He was warm in his appreciation of his country's positive aspects
(for example he treasured memories of his comradeship with ordinary
men during his Army service.) A true friend of Palestine, he
denounced not only his country's policies against it, but also PLO
corruption and injustices within the Palestinian community (for
example the "honor murders" of Palestinian women by male family
members.) In countries like Israel and South Africa, people of Dr.
Shahak's integrity, fearlessness and breadth of mind stand out
against the background of their states' injustices as humanity's most
shining gems. In any just world he should have received a Nobel
Prize. I had hoped to see him once again and I write this with tears
in my eyes and a very heavy heart.

Ellen Cantarow

American Jewish Journalist

(continued...)