Lebanese aid flotilla “Virgin Mary” sets sail for Gaza
June 20th, 2010 § 6 Comments
Turkey’s regional popularity soars
June 19th, 2010 § 1 Comment
AlJazeeraEnglish — 18 June 2010 — Turkey’s popularity in the Middle East has soared following its denunciation of Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last month. Turkish flags and posters of Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, have been prominent in demonstrations around the world protesting the Israeli attack. In the Gaza Strip, a growing number of newborn babies have been named after Erdogan. Meanwhile Turkey says it will not send its ambassador back to Israel unless it receives a formal apology for the attack, that left nine people, mostly Turks, dead.
Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin reports on Turkey’s rising popularity in the region.
Getting Out of Palestine?
June 19th, 2010 § 1 Comment
by M. Shahid Alam
When veteran journalist Helen Thomas was asked recently if she had any comments on Israel, she shot back, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.” She apologized for the remark, but, as the campaign against her escalated, she chose to retire from her position as White House correspondent.
Putting aside the edginess in her words, does Helen Thomas’s remark deserve serious consideration?
Over the years, it has been receiving just that from many tens of thousands of Israelis, who have been emigrating from Israel, applying for emigration, or staying in Israel but holding or applying for dual citizenship. According to Arnaud de Borchgrave, half a million Israelis hold dual citizenship.
Although the Israel lobby expressed particular outrage at Helen Thomas’ suggestion that Israelis go back to Germany and Poland, many Israelis have done precisely that. In his book, The Seventh Million, Tom Segev writes that many thousands of Israelis have “requested and received German passports.” According to the Jewish Virtual Library, there were 118,000 Jews living in Germany in 2006. Another 49,700 lived in Hungary and 3,200 in Poland.
Disconcerting as some Zionists may find this, Jews have not stayed away from countries where they faced near extermination under the Nazis. Does this mean that these countries are now safer for Jews than Israel?
The Lethal Dove and Cartographic Perfidy
June 19th, 2010 § 10 Comments
This cartoon by Jeff Darcy appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on June 3. This was clearly a breakthrough. The ADL and CAMERA immediately unleashed the Israel Lobby’s flak machine; they wouldn’t tolerate such favourable representation of what the American Jewish Committee calls ‘The Terror Flotilla‘. It did not take long for the editors to cave and issue a grovelling apology. It is now time for you to register your opinion.
In related news the Israel Lobby has successfully fought off the threat of East Jerusalem being portrayed on millions of iPhone weather applications as an Occupied Territory. Under pressure from the Israeli ambassador Michael Oren and the Israel lobby group American Israeli Action Coalition, Apple and Yahoo quickly restored all of Jerusalem cartographically to Israeli control.
Unrest in Pakistan
June 19th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Moving Beyond the U.S. National Interest
by Josh Brollier and Kathy Kelly
June 18, 2010
All Pakistan Clerks Association Protest at Parliament in Islamabad
“The military is the muscle that protects the ruling elite from the wrath of the people,” says Pakistani political analyst Dr. Mubashir Hassan. “Right now, people are out on the street; blocking roads, attacking railway stations, etc. If you read the papers, it seems as though a general uprising has started all over Pakistan.”
Dr. Hassan says that sporadic outbursts of anger in Pakistan won’t coalesce into a people’s revolution anytime soon. The demonstrators are too disorganized. But, the sheer volume of daily protests shows that many sectors of Pakistani society have pressing needs and priorities that do not include enlistment as foot soldiers in a proxy force for the United States’ War on Terror.
Dr. Hassan, a co-founder of the People’s Party of Pakistan, is a respected scholar and statesman. Last year, when we met with him, he had just returned from a visit, in the U.S., with Professors Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, his contemporaries in seeking to build just and fair social structures. Last month, in Lahore, he spoke with us about U.S. interference in the region and changing dynamics in Pakistan.
The housing apartheid in Palestine
June 19th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Amnesty International has called on the Israeli authorities to end house demolitions which leave thousands of Palestinians living in daily fear of eviction from their homes…
According to the UN, in 2009 more than 600 Palestinians – over half of them children – lost their homes after they were demolished on order from the Israeli authorities.
“Palestinians living under Israeli occupation face such tight restrictions on what they can build and where that their right to adequate housing is being violated,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“The Israeli authorities are putting Palestinians in an impossible situation. Whatever choice they make, they face homelessness.
“The majority of people are denied building permits by Israel, even after lengthy and expensive bureaucratic and legal processes, so they have little choice but to go ahead without official permission. But as they do so, they know that these buildings may soon be flattened by Israeli bulldozers.”
Demolitions are generally carried out with no warning of the date, giving no opportunity for Palestinians to salvage their possessions or find elsewhere to shelter. The UN has estimated that some 4,800 demolition orders are pending.
Under Israeli law, evicted families are not entitled to alternative housing or compensation, meaning many would face homelessness and destitution were it not for relatives, friends and charities.
While homes are often targeted, Israeli authorities have also issued demolition orders against Palestinian schools, clinics, roads, water cisterns, electricity pylons, sheds and animal shelters.
You can view and download the report here (PDF).
Sebastião Salgado: The Photographer as Activist
June 18th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
This is from a few years back. The great Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado in conversation with Ken Light and Fred Ritchin at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Also, don’t miss the ringing prose of Eduardo Galeano’s ‘Salgado, 17 Times‘, an essay inspired by Salgado’s work.
Nuclear Iran – Is There An Option?
June 18th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Not for the US but plenty for Iran, says Mosaic Intelligence Report. It says sanctions are futile and the United States only harms its own interests.
linktv — 17 June 2010 — (Mosaic Intelligence Report: June 17, 2010) The US imposes more sanctions on Iran. Iranian President Ahmedinejad remains defiant. Are sanctions enough to stop Iran’s nuclear program? And who will pay the price?
In Deep Water – Fault Lines
June 18th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
In the two months since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, millions of litres of oil have gushed out of BP’s well into the water each day, slowly encroaching on the coastline.
A menace to the fragile marshlands, the drilling disaster is also threatening a whole way of life for fishing communities in Louisiana – still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina five years ago.
But this is not all new: Big Oil has a long history in this part of the world.
hope versed
June 17th, 2010 § 3 Comments
by Jasmin Ramsey
when the fight is hard
and the night long
remember
tomorrow is waiting
when your fists ache
from the walls
that wouldn’t break
remember the cracks
they’re making
when your head hurts
your heart
and your heart fights
your head
remember the hearts
injustice stopped
from beating
when answers
become questions
and truth some
childhood memory
remember that certainty
was never leading
when complex roots
offer blood
as reason for return
remember the new road
that still needs paving
when the fight is hard
and the night long
remember tomorrow–
it’s waiting.
