Passing: Hedy Epstein

Hedy Epstein (1924-2016)

by Mazin Qumsiyeh - qumsiyeh.org

May 27, 2016

The Israeli minister of Environment joined the previous defense minister to quit the Zionist regime’s government because it is becoming more extreme. With the addition of bar bouncer colonial settler Avigdor Lieberman (has a house in an illegal colony here in Bethlehem), the fascist government is now in good shape to take Israel to the next inevitable stage along.

The same trend-line that Nazi Germany took step-wise in the 1930s.

It is no wonder that so many more people are now drawing parallels between the two regimes with similar exclusivist ideologies (Nazism and Zionism). Thousands of Israeli Jews from Israel Shahak to Israeli General and Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan have already made the comparison to the consternation of the Zionist leadership. Ken Livingstone's truthful statement, that Hitler supported Zionism early on, is well supported by facts (see my own writing on the subject with quotes here: http://qumsiyeh.org/chapter6/).

Pioneers to draw parallel of actions of Nazis and Zionists and speak out for justice for the native Palestinians were Holocaust survivors both inside “Israel” (like Shahak and Davis) and outside like Hajo Meyer and Hedy Epstein. Hedy just passed away, and I knew her for almost 20 years as one of the most principled dedicated and hardworking individuals.

I hesitated to ask her to join our wheels of justice bus tour in 2002 because of her age (then in her 80s) but she did not hesitate in accepting and she was just marvelous. She spoke out with authority and knowledge about the ethnic cleansing and the massacres committed in Palestine by Zionists. She also joined the boats trying to break the siege on Gaza.

When she was in her late 80s she was strip searched and poked by Israeli security forces at Lod (renamed “Ben Gurion”) Airport.

Please browse her website here to know more about this remarkable woman:
http://www.hedyepstein.com/

An obituary on Mondoweiss
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/holocaust-survivor-activist/

Leading Israeli human rights group says ‘no longer any point’ to filing complaints against soldiers (system is not possible to address such complaints)
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/israeli-complaints-soldiers

And in GOOD news: Dysfunctional Israeli leadership failing utterly in battle against BDS, state watchdog warns
http://www.timesofisrael.com/dysfunctional-israeli-leadership-failing-utterly-in-battle-against-bds-state-watchdog-warns/

Stay human

Mazin Qumsiyeh
Professor and (volunteer) Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org