Two/one state solution is gone! What is left: Bantustan or Liberty

Haidar Eid has written an important article about the path forward for the Palestinian resistance. Eid also castigates the co-opted “NGO-ized” Palestinian intellectuals — the colonized minds — for their spineless adoption of false solutions and their craven acceptance of Israeli/American formulations.

The ongoing bloodletting in the Gaza Strip and the ability of the Palestinian people to creatively resist the might of the world’s fourth strongest army is being hotly debated by Palestinian political forces. The latest genocidal war which lasted 22 days, and in which apartheid Israel used F-16s, Apache helicopters, Merkava tanks and conventional and non-conventional weapons against the population, have raised many serious questions about the concept of resistance and whether the outcome of the war can, or cannot, be considered a victory for the Palestinian people. The same kind of questions were raised in 2006 when apartheid Israel launched its war against the Lebanese people and brutally killed more than 1,200 Lebanese.

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Taken in by the Hoopla?

The Israeli elections took place 24 days after a vicious Israeli attack on Gaza; it took place two days after the latest Israeli bombing of the Gaza-Egypt border. Yet, if one were watching the TV news coverage of the elections or the coverage of the mainstream press, one would not know that the dust has barely settled on Gaza. One would almost think that the elections were taking place in some far away country that wasn’t responsible for dropping the bombs and the war crimes. The reason for the exclusive “politics as a horse race” coverage is that it is part of the propaganda campaign surrounding the war. No sooner did the war end, the coverage switched to the inauguration of the US president; the economic crisis was equally competing for the headlines. And then the Israeli elections appeared full with flag-waving and blue-pom-pom shaking supporters, an image that reinforced the propaganda message of “Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East”. Never mind that several political parties representing the Palestinian citizens of Israel were banned by the right-wing’s mean-spirited ploys. Never mind the tilt towards fascism with a religious twist – that was not part of the message. Avigdor Lieberman is a more vicious fascist than Jorg Haider, yet while the election of the latter led to a boycott of the Austrian government, the “king-maker” role of Lieberman barely registers in the TV news.

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Irish Trade Unionists Launch Boycott

From the Belfast Telegraph:

Trade unionists are to launch a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a major campaign to secure a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, Stormont heard today.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) launched a report on Israel and Palestine compiled by senior members who visited the troubled region.

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Terrorism 101 – Opening Blind Eyes

Terrorism 101 is an excellent montage of recent audio and video footage from the Gaza massacre.

Academic Friends of Israel Prepare for Boycott

In an article in the Haaretz titled It’s ‘Boycott Israel’ Season Again in the UK, Ronnie Fraser reveals that Academic Friends of Israel are preparing to hamstring what he considers a popular boycott proposal through false legal claims of discrimination.  There’s nothing like doing things democratically — Academic Friends of Israel seem to believe that if you can’t win the debate you should stifle it.

UCU activists are up against it; challenged by the internal academic lobby and externally by the British Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), a rather slick PR and media lobbying organisation, that created a group Stop the Boycott which has been effective at dominating main stream media debate on the topic.

Next month will be critical for the fight against academic boycotts of Israel in the U.K., according to the founder of Academic Friends of Israel, Ronnie Fraser. March is the month boycott proposals will be submitted to the academic organizations, making time of the essence, says Fraser – whose organization played a part in the 2007 shelving of a planned academic boycott of Israel by the University and College Union.
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Iraq’s ‘Teflon Don’

‘The New Fallujah Up Close and Still in Ruins’. Our friend Dahr Jamail, who is presently back in Iraq, files this excellent report for the indispensable TomDispatch.

Fallujah, Iraq — Driving through Fallujah, once the most rebellious Sunni city in this country, I saw little evidence of any kind of reconstruction underway. At least 70% of that city’s structures were destroyed during massive U.S. military assaults in April, and again in November 2004, and more than four years later, in the “new Iraq,” the city continues to languish.

The shells of buildings pulverized by U.S. bombs, artillery, or mortar fire back then still line Fallujah’s main street, or rather, what’s left of it. As one of the few visible signs of reconstruction in the city, that street — largely destroyed during the November 2004 siege — is slowly being torn up in order to be repaved.

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An Issue Of Justice: Origins Of The Israel/Palestine Conflict

justice Finkelstein Israel PalestineThe Gaza massacre has re-ignited debate across the UK and elsewhere and prompted many people to want to learn more.  For those relatively new to the conflict, I usually point them towards Ilan Pappe’s The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Finkelstein’s An Introduction to the Israel-Palestine Conflict, Occupation 101 and this lecture, also by Norman Finkelstein, An Issue of Justice.  It is one of the best lectures I’ve heard and succinctly covers the main areas of the conflict in an hour.

As an aside, I don’t agree with Norman on the Israel lobby and the Iraq war or his position on the two state solution, however I do think his argument on the two state solution is useful for demonstrating that Israel and the US prevent peace in the region.

An Issue Of Justice: MP3

Panorama – Gaza: Out of the Ruins


[see the rest of the clips after the jump]

The BBC’s Panorama program is typically loaded with Israeli Government propaganda such as saying Hamas provoked Israel, rather than Israel provoking Hamas; it also fails to provide adequate context about who broke the ceasefire and the illegal military occupation and blockading of Gaza, hardly an ‘impartial’ way to frame events.
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Motion to boycott Israel passed at University of Manchester Student Union

Latest update from the University of Manchester student occupation:

On Wednesday 11th Feb the University of Manchester Students Union passed a motion in support of the banners showing from the window of the occupied space in manchester unipeople of Gaza, which includes a resolve to boycott Israel, in an emergency general meeting [1]. The meeting, which was attended by over 1000 students, was called in response to the crisis in Gaza. It follows a week long occupation of University of Manchester buildings by students [2]. The University of Manchester Students Union is the biggest in Western Europe, and is also the first western students union to pass a motion which includes an out and out boycott of Israel.

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Flying the Flag for Gaza

University College London yesterday
The Palestinian flag above the buildings of University College London yesterday

Students at University College London yesterday flew the Palestinian flag above the UCL building in solidarity with the Palestinian people (photo from Lenin’s Tomb).