February 20, 2015

Mississippi then, State of Israel now

Listen to this song, Here's to the State of Mississipi, by the late Phil Ochs:


I was reminded of one its lines, "Here's to the people of Mississippi, who say the folks up north they just don't understand".  What it was the "folks up north" didn't understand was segregation and the appalling violence that maintained it.

Well The Guardian ran an article by a leading Israeli segregationist politician, Yair Lapid, with a similar message just yesterday.  It was Lapid's response, possibly the official State of Israel response, to the announcement in the letters page of The Guardian of a cultural boycott of Israel by hundreds of artists.

The headline of Lapid's article alone reminded me of the line from the Phil Ochs song and the article didn't disappoint being one long whinge about Israel's excuses for segregation, Jews only settlement, ethnic cleansing and relentless violence without mentioning any of those things.  Lapid only mentioned security, which he claimed was Israel's "only..demand".

Still he did give me the excuse to dig up Phil Ochs's song and prise it away from the annoying advert you see on Youtube when you access it.

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